《Harry Potter The Mutant Obscurus Gamer》


 Chapter 1 - 1 New Game

    Standard Disclaimer- I owned nothing and no one, not even my own thoughts and for all I know I wrote this in my sleep.


    Chapter 1 New Game


    In a place outside of reality was a room carved of sixteen dimensional space. Within sat five of the most powerful existences in the Omniverse known as Marvel. The room itself if described from a four dimensional perspective would appear to be crafted of sculpted crystals with each facet of every surface reflecting a different indescribable color of light. However regardless of the beauty of the room from a mortal perspective, the closest term that could be used to describe the layout of the room would be the word ''Bar.''


    Eternity, Infinity, Lady Death, and the Living Tribunal were considered among, if not at the very peak of beings that exist. Lady Death had also invited the Phoenix Force whom she encountered earlier trying to save a ten year old girl. The girl in question was trying to save a dying friend and almost found herself dragged to Death''s realm herself had it not been for the Phoenix Force''s intervention. Safe to say, this got Lady Death''s attention which led to the invitation.


    Contrary to popular belief, the existences at the peak of the Omniverse did in fact have complaints and issues with the various multiverses and the universes they contained. Within the Bar, Death took the form of a tall woman with bone white skin and long ash grey hair. She sat at a bar stool and wore an elegant black cloak that seemed to be woven from silk and shadow. Sitting at a table was Eternity who appeared male, but had no distinguishable features other than his face. His bipedal silhouette contained stars and planets within its shimmering darkness. Sitting across from him was Infinity. She appeared as a gold woman of the same stature as Eternity, though slimmer in form with black markings and skin that rippled down like golden sand with the ever flowing passage of time.


    Setting down her glass, Lady Death complained aloud with a firm voice that never lacked sophistication, "Last week, those Beyonders of one of the multiverses killed every single Molecule Man of that multiverse at the same time."


    The Phoenix Force sat a seat away from Lady Death on another bar stool. In the presence of these beings had an appearance of a beautiful bipedal woman composed of elegantly flowing flames. Compared to the forms the other cosmic beings had taken, she was the shortest but she didn''t mind. She asked Lady Death, "But why would they do that?" If the Multiverse ended, no life existed so she didn''t exist there and didn''t know what happened.


    Eternity answered her in a low, gruff voice, "They ensured this Molecule Man character had a power which existed at the heart of the universe and when the man''s existence was removed, it caused the collapse and obliteration of that universe. By doing so to all of them in that multiverse at the same time, it destroyed the whole multiverse in a single moment."


    The Phoenix Force became even more confused, "But, why? Why would they commit such a senseless act of destruction?"


    Infinity answered in a stoic yet feminine voice, "They wanted to see what would happen if they did it.." She downed another glass and motioned for Eternity to refill it.


    The Phoenix force was rendered mute at the given answer. All entities called the Phoenix Force that existed in the various multiverses were her, but they were also individuals as well. She could connect to them and direct them at any point but when not actively connecting to them, they would do their own thing. It was the same for all the other beings in this ''bar.'' Being both a single being and infinite beings simultaneously was not an easy thing and it was easy to lose track of the infinite other selves when not actively connecting to them.


    The purpose of the bar was for the omnipresent beings to get together every once in a while and get drunk and get their complaints off their metaphorical ?h?sts. They''d often invite another being to give them a glimpse of the problems the higher ups had and get better acquainted. Doing so allowed the Omniverse to run much smoother and it just so happened this time the Phoenix force was invited. Getting drunk had a somewhat therapeutic effect on the infinite individuals as they could more easily connect to their infinite selves while drunk and discuss the general and specific problems with ''everyone.''


    The origin of the bar was an experimental challenge given to Eternity some unquantifiable time back to create a means for a cosmic being to get drunk. He succeeded in creating what he called Eternal Ale, alcoholic proof, infinity. The brewing process would start during the Big Bang and would finish fermenting right before the Great Collapse. It was a brew that took the lifetime of a universe to make and he couldn''t make much of it as only specific universes were born that even had the right conditions for the brewing. Once he accumulated enough of it though, he''d invite the other Cosmic entities and they''d all get drunk. The Omniverse benefited from the drunken complaining bonding time in odd ways so it had continued ever since.


    Sitting on his own bar stool on the other side of Lady Death was the Living Tribunal. As a being with three differently covered veiled faces on three of the four sides of his head, he drank three times as much as the others to get each face had successfully drunk. He was in fact the most powerful of the ?ssembled beings and he too appreciated the occasional time given to wind down and complain with beings he did in fact consider friends and family.


    One of the Living Tribunal''s faces, the partially covered one that had domain over Vengeance within the Omniverse said with an unconcealed edge in its voice, "Those Beyonders... They think they can treat everything as they wish. It is but a game to them." The uncovered face rebutted in a slow slur, "They are.. a necessity. To everything as a whole.. As you know." That face had domain over Necessity, so it was of course considered an expert on the subject. The last face, the one that was completely covered by a veil said in a crisp cut voice, "But after doing so, no price will have to be paid by them for such a transgression. Can this be tolerated?" The last face with domain over Equity felt uncomfortable when things did not balance out and it couldn''t see anything on the other side of the scale when some beings annihilated a multiverse just to see what would happen.


    Death considered this for a moment and answered the arguing faces, "The price they must pay is that they will stay in an empty multiverse until the collapse of the Omniverse. None of them shall be allowed to trespass another multiverse nor create one anew."


    """Agreed,""" all three faces of the Living Tribunal simultaneously replied.


    Finishing her glass once more, Infinity said with irritation in her voice, "Beings like the Beyonders can only be punished once they have gone too far and only by their own actions."


    Eternity added, "Not just the Beyonders. The Celestials and the Norns of every multiverse treat the whole of it as their own playground to do with it as they please and play whatever games they wish as if each universe didn''t already have a Gamemaster."


    The Phoenix Force nodded after downing another glass of Eternal Ale. Even when using an Avatar she had never truly gotten drunk before so this was a new experience. She knew of the Celestials and the Norns as she had many run-ins with them as well in various forms. The Celestials decided that the universe must progress in a direction of their choice and they seeded and destroyed worlds as they please to further their decision. The Norns were the fate weavers and storytellers. They pretty much decided at birth whether or not someone would live a blessed life, a cursed one, or an ordinary one. They did not make the decisions for that person of course, but they did arrange in advance the trials or lack thereof any given person would have to go through. If they were neutral that would be fine, but they seemed to have their own agenda and their own interests and more often than not they would interfere with the lives of others they felt got in the way of those interests.


    The flame embodied woman said in a light yet drunken slur, "You know, if you really wanted to ruin their games, you could change the rules they are used to so they no longer apply."


    Lady Death gave an amused look to the embodiment of Life and Passion and said, "Oh? And how would such a feat be accomplished without throwing off the balance we ourselves are tasked with maintaining?"


    The Phoenix Force had many avatars in many multiverses and had experienced many things with many interesting people. As such, she had her own unique perspectives on such matters and it took only a moment of drunken contemplation to think of something.


    She answered back, "Those Beyonders gave a person the purpose of destroying the universe on his death, right? If that kind of thing doesn''t throw off the balance, then couldn''t we do something like that? What if we gave a person powers which changed the rules of the game those guys force everyone to play by?"


    Death''s amused look changed into a pondering smirk. She was actually the least affected by the Eternal Ale but she still liked these occasional get togethers as oddly enough, it made her feel alive. Ordinarily, she would pass on the Phoenix''s suggestion. However her somewhat drunken state allowed her easy access to herself in all multiverses including a specific universe where a certain series of events crafted by the Norns was coming into play. It just so happened that she could hijack their carefully laid out plans and, with some items already in place along with some help, they might make something rather interesting.


    The other Cosmic beings listened to the Phoenix Force''s suggestion but didn''t think much of it. It was not their place to interfere. That was until Lady Death spoke up. "I like it, but a test run would be prudent. I have a candidate in mind that would do well."


    She sent the information to each of the other beings. The Phoenix Force was quite surprised that the chosen candidate was in the very universe of the girl she had just saved. They were even on the same planet and about the same age.


    Death had also given the details of some of the things of that world they would have to work with and the events that would allow them to change a few things.


    The Living Tribunal passed his senses over the candidate and was a bit surprised. Not at how young he was. Age mattered little to him. The Living Tribunal was capable of simultaneously looking through other universes for the same person and could see their actions at many ages so he was easily able to get a clear picture of the mortal''s potential and future. What startled him was that should this candidate be similar to his parallel counterparts, even he, the Living Tribunal, Judge and Jury of the Omniverse, would have no notable complaint. For a being with three separate personalities, having all three agree on a single thing was surprising.


    Eternity and Infinity looked at each other before nodding. They calculated out how much each could contribute without breaking the balance and how to set it so that their chosen would be both protected and formidable without being catered to or pampered.


    As each discussed what they could contribute, they realized the irony behind the form the power they were crafting had taken. They felt it really did balance out quite well. If those other beings of great powers thought this world was solely their game, it was time to introduce a new player.


    The Power they crafted would turn the chosen into a video game character when granted along with the timing of a specific event the chosen would soon go through. The concept of video games had been shared by Lady Death and the Phoenix Force who both had more knowledge of mortal lives than the others. Eternity and Infnity''s power would grant a Game like system that included a Pause function and Infinite Inventory. The Living Tribunal''s power would generate Quests for the chosen to guide him to accomplish deeds that would go towards making that universe a better place. The Phoenix Force came up with the Experience, Level, and even a Respawn system. She had more to work with as the granting of the power would occur with the awakening of the chosen''s innate abilities which could be directed by her. Lady Death''s granted power would ?ssist with the Respawn system as well as grant a Tutorial period for the chosen. She also intended on using some existing materials in that universe that were under her domain, three items in particular. They would be used to make sure the chosen''s abilities and potential were rendered invisible to those beings of great power capable of seeing such things while keeping the chosen''s powers flexible.


    On the 26th day of July of the year 2003, nine year old Harry Potter sat alone in a cupboard under the stairs of number 4, Privet Dr. There were many universes with a Harry Potter, but this one''s time, as written by the Norns, was coming to an end. This Harry had discovered he could do magic when he really tried to, and a few years back, he had consciously started suppressing it. As far as he knew, suppressing it prevented accidents from happening which, although had not made his relatives treat him better, it had made sure they didn''t treated him worse. Most of the time anyways.


    He already felt the pressure in his gut making him ache but since there was an accident today that his relatives blamed on him, the cupboard he was in had a lock on it and he was unable to leave.


    His relatives, the Dursleys, were upstairs trying and failing to fix a game station Dudley had gotten for his birthday a month ago but had broken accidentally. Rather than admit the truth, he blamed Harry even though everyone knew Harry would never step foot into Dudley''s room. Dudley was currently whining that Harry''s aunt and uncle should buy him a new one. Harry doubted anyone cared that his own birthday was supposedly next week.


    What was strange however was that although Harry knew his relatives to be upstairs, he could have sworn he heard footsteps outside his cupboard door. At that thought, he realized how pathetic it was that he had considered the cupboard his. That was like saying the trashcan belonged to the trash. This wasn''t his space, it was just where they put him.


    Harry felt the pressure build up in his bones and they somehow felt worse than they did when they were broken. He decided to go for broke and asked softly to whoever might be there, "Hello? Can I come out? I don''t feel so good."


    A moment later Harry heard what could only be described as a woman sobbing. Was someone crying out there? Several sounds came and it seemed that there might have been several people on the other side of the door. The door jarred itself as it looked like someone was going to open it but then Harry heard a muffled, ''Stupefy,'' followed by a heavy thump and someone saying, ''You know the laws, the past cannot be changed, only observed. I''m sorry.''


    The footsteps got further away towards the direction of the front door and Harry heard from the other side of his cupboard door someone say, "I''m sorry Mr. Potter. This is not what you deserve. But I promise you, you''ll be in a better place soon." Harry could hear the bitter sadness behind the stranger''s voice and wondered what that person meant.


    The members of the Department of Mysteries left after using a variety of spells through Harry''s cupboard door and now knew the exact physical condition of the Boy-Who-Lived as well as the details of the space he had been living in for the last nine years. Every member of the group''s heart ached, but when using Time Turners to determine the cause of an event, they were forbidden from stopping it, no matter how unjust or heartbreaking.


    Some time after silence returned, Harry felt his body ache and crack. A moment later, Harry Potter exploded as he transmuted into a mass of semi-solid magic formed ash. Had Harry been more powerful, he could have survived his initial Obscurus transformation. However, the blood wards which were placed to protect him from magicals who sought him with ill intent, had been draining his own magic reserves for years. They were supposed to be powered by love and would only use Harry''s Magic as a fuel source in a pinch, but not a single trace of love for Harry would be found in the home forcing the blood wards to drain Harry''s magic instead. There was a reason they were considered illegal.


    Harry actually would have become an Obscurial two years prior had it not been for the drain delaying his magic from going critical after years of being suppressed. The black ash that could not be seen by non-magicals quickly dissipated and with that, nothing was left of Harry Potter in this world.


    The ?ssembled members of the Department of Mysteries watched without a single dry eye. They were a stoic profession but this tragedy was something that would have the entirety of Greater Magical Britain drowning in tears before the next sundown.


    What none of the watchers concerned themselves with was the fate of the Dursleys. The residence had been obliterated to the point nothing stood higher than a meter off the ground from what was once a two story building. No one would bother searching the wreckage for survivors. What was interesting was that the blood wards actually contained the explosion, preventing damage to the surrounding houses while amplifying it within the property line. The blood wards were of course examined thoroughly and would be documented for later review.


    The almost ten year old boy himself however, found that he was in a grassy plain. He no longer wore his cousin''s oversized clothing but a plain white cotton shirt and tan pants. He even had shoes which both fit him and were comfortably tied.


    Before he could further question where he was, a familiar looking black haired man with glasses and a red haired woman walked up to him and smiled. Without knowing why, Harry started crying as he could see real love in their eyes and unconsciously moved towards them. They rushed at him and embraced him into a hug.


    Harry didn''t know how, but he knew these were his parents. No one said anything as each was crying.


    *Ping*


    Harry lifted his head which had been buried into his father''s shoulder and saw a floating display


    [Tutorial has begun. Time Left for Tutorial: 363 days, 20 hours, 16 minutes, 12 seconds.]


    [Press Start.]


    Although there was a timer, it did not move forward. Harry decided to ignore it for now and after crying some more in his parent''s arms he fell asleep.


    Some time later he woke to a clear, beautiful sky and saw that his parent''s faces were still there, looking at him. Harry softly asked, "Are you my mum and dad?"


    The redhead answered, "Yes sweetie, I''m Lily and this is your father James."


    Harry asked, "Am I dead?"


    James smiled and answered back, "Yes my son, but once you are ready you''re going back to life."


    Harry looked thoughtful for a moment before frowning. "But what if I don''t want to return?"


    Lily looked like she was going to cry again before she pushed it down and answered him back, "Harry, I can promise you no matter what, you are never going back to.. my sister''s again."


    Harry could hear the righteous fury behind his mother''s words and his heart felt warm. No one had ever been angry for him before.


    James nodded and said, "Harry, you''ve been given a special gift. No one can force you to use it, but if you do, you''ll be able to see and experience wonderful things and do things others will speak of for generations to come."


    Harry looked back at the see-through screen with the frozen timer and said, "Is it that?"


    Lily nodded and said, "Yes Harry. It''s like a game, one of those that Dudley played. But instead of using a controller, you can play as you. If you click Start, it will begin. If you Pause it, you''ll find yourself back here. You can keep it paused as long as you want my dear."


    Harry wasn''t aware when Lily started petting his head but he instantly liked it. He stayed like that for a while until he started speaking with his parents and they started talking to him, telling him of their lives and their friends and family.


    Harry knew he could do magic thanks to an epiphany he had years ago which was why he became an Obscurial in the first place. One can''t consciously suppress magic without awareness that it''s there. What he didn''t know however was that both his parents could use magic as well and went to a castle for their schooling. Lily reminded Harry that once he returned to life, he would be able to go to Hogwarts too.


    Lily and James told Harry everything about themselves and later started teaching him everything they could think of. Harry was a very smart child otherwise he wouldn''t have figured out he could do magic so early in life. Until this point he had to make himself look slow or his relatives would accuse him of cheating and punish him for getting better grades than Dudley. Now however he wanted to make his parents proud and put every effort into learning everything they were willing to teach him.


    Lily taught Harry Math, English, Literature, and the basic Sciences. James taught Harry about magic, about the Potter family, and about many forms of History both mundane and magical. Often the space they were in would change to a classroom and they pulled out books to read with Harry and wrote things on a blackboard to go over with Harry. Other times the space would turn into a living room with cable tv and a selection of his parent''s favorite movies. The space could even change into a game room with an arcade and several game stations of various generations with many dozens of video games, both retro and new.


    For what may have been months, years, or even longer, Harry spent time with his mother and father, getting the childhood and love he always craved. Although he was not pressured into it, eventually the temptation had won out and Harry pressed the Start bu??on.. The game had begun.

 Chapter 2 - 2 Gearing Up

    Harry had reached level 57 after a year of training in the tutorial and the timer was nearly at zero. The tutorial took place in a basic village where he could do basic quests and gain levels and get stronger, though not without danger or risks. Monsters in the area weren''t easy to slay when the game had the quality of real life and though he could return from death when killed, the process was indescribably painful. When he died he would lose a level and if he died when he didn''t have a level to lose, five days of Tutorial time would be used up. When this first happened, Harry was made aware through a pop up warning that revival when dying at level one was only possible in the tutorial and would lead to permanent death if this occurred after the tutorial was finished.


    During the tutorial, Harry''s skinny, malnourished body changed to a full and healthy one and he gained visible muscles from running around and swinging a sword. For three months a drill instructor like Trainer in the village had him doing all kinds of things while feeding him fruits and such. Day by day his body healed and filled out at a visible rate and his malnourished form morphed into a high performance one in less time than should have been possible were it not for his Gamer''s Body.


    According to the FAQ part of the menu which came with his gift, his Gamer''s Body was gained through the combination of becoming an Obscurus and awakening a Mutation at the same time along with some help. Harry asked his parents about this and his father informed him what an Obscurial was while his mother informed him what a Mutant was.


    A normal Obscurial could shift back and forth between an Obscurus form and a normal form. Though historically the ability to control the transformation and the form were both questionable as all Obscurials were inherently unstable and almost guaranteed to die. Harry''s body however was incapable of taking on the Obscurus form of a flying mass of semi-solid magic particles that could exude tremendous force and was nearly unstoppable.


    A mutant was someone who would, often through great stress or trauma, gain an attribute, trait, or power outside of the norm that they were not born with. His mother however told him there had never been a mutant wizard. She said that wizards were hardier and the amount of stress needed to awaken a mutation was not something that a wizard could survive. Harry was likely not the first Wizard to be subjected to enough stress to kill him but come back to life, but the gene needed for a mutation to activate was not common so Harry lucked out.


    His mother and father concluded after many tests they walked Harry through that his mutation allowed the traits of an Obscurial to fuse into his human form rather than have them set into an alternate highly unstable form.


    Because of this, though his body appeared to be a bundle of organs inside a skeleton wrapped in muscle and skin, it only looked that way. His actual existence was composed of black ash like particles of semi-solid magic energy that came together and took a form that imitated the cells of Harry''s body. When observed, you couldn''t even tell there was anything special about the cells until they broke down. It was a flawless imitation.


    What was special about this type of existence was that the amount of Obscurus particles that composed each cell was greater than the minimum required to imitate a cell. Should Harry''s body receive damage, the excess particles of the body would be able to change form and take the place of the damaged cells. Moreover, as the damaged cells were just imitations of cells and not actual cells, the damaged cells would recover after a period. Truly harming Harry''s form was like punching sand.


    However, if Harry''s body accumulated enough damage to exceed the excess of particles he had to replace the damage with, AKA his damage tolerance or total health, the integrity of his body would break down and dissolve completely into Obscurus particles and reform later at a lower density. Both processes were intolerably painful.


    In other words, Harry''s body was like a video game character''s. Damage he took basically decreased his Health Bar without decreasing his physical abilities and if he took too much damage and died, he respawned later at a lower level.


    His level itself seemed to be the concentration or density of the Obscurus particles and there were many things Harry could do to increase his level. At higher levels Harry''s damage tolerance would be higher as well. Of course at a higher level his cells would contain more particles to imitate the cells so when he did take damage it was more severe. This meant that the amount of health he lost if someone was strong enough to damage him increased as his own health increased along with his defense. So getting stabbed at any level removed about the same percentage of health, but he was much harder to stab at higher levels.


    The main source of Harry''s Level ups had been defeating monsters that roamed around the Tutorial Village. Whenever a monster died, it dissolved into particles of grey light which was considered Death Energy and Harry could absorb them. Once he absorbed enough energy to reach a specific threshold, Harry''s level increased. The FAQ stated that when Harry leveled up, his Obscurus particles would replicate themselves using the external energy they had absorbed. However, the Obscurus particles he was composed of could not absorb just any energy. The energy he absorbed had to be dominated first. The monsters around the village were composed of energy of the afterlife and defeating them was what allowed Harry to absorb them in a way that his Obscurus particles could replicate themselves. Of course this meant that Harry had to actually fight them.


    Combat in the Tutorial Village had a steep learning curve for someone who never had muscles before but his spartan style trainer, someone who did not look like he belonged in a small rural village, said that was a good thing since it meant Harry didn''t have any bad habits he needed to beat out of him. The village trainer showed Harry how to use a short sword and round shield and didn''t bother questioning why a ten year old child was learning how to fight monsters.


    And while the trainer taught Harry physical combat, and the meaning of the word sadist, his mother and father taught him the finer points of magic based combat. This was useful as the timer didn''t move while paused but Harry''s stamina and magic reserves wouldn''t restore themselves while paused so if Harry exercised till he couldn''t move and cast spells until he was out of magic then paused for a week, for that entire week he would still be so weak he couldn''t move which su?k?d. Thanks to that he couldn''t abuse the Pause Function to grind his physique or practice magic though he did become an expert in theoretical situations.


    Although that made sense, it still bugged Harry to no end.


    Wisdom increased his magic restoration speed, made magic easier and faster to cast, decreased magic damage taken when attacked, and made Harry more clever.


    Intelligence increased his internal magic reserves, made the effects of cast magics stronger, and gave him better memory and faster thinking speed.


    Strength increased how much he could lift, how much force he could put behind a physical blow, how long he could fight without stopping, and also reduced how much physical damage he took when attacked better than a level up did on its own.


    Agility increased his movement speed along with his reaction time and dodge rate.


    And Luck of course increased luck.


    When Harry increased in level he was able to gain five stat points he could distribute as he pleased, but he was warned against the stockpiling of Luck. Luck apparently affected real world chance and probability in a way that was hard to avoid. It didn''t just increase his odds of winning at Casinos, it increased the likelihood that opportunities which brought danger would be forced on him. Harry decided to stick with an average person''s level of luck and not distribute anything to it, but that was not the only way to increase his stats points.


    When Harry first saw his stat page, the stats were abysmal. Not that surprising of course as a skinny nine year old twig a week before his tenth birthday. The village trainer practically dragged him to the training arena and took it upon himself to put Harry through his paces until Harry''s Strength and Agility had both reached 10. Because his stamina didn''t recover while paused, he could only spend real time exercising, but the benefits were worth it as it added stats to Harry''s body without leveling up.


    One thing Harry did abuse of the Pause Function was that he could spend as long as he wanted to study with his parents, thus increasing his Wisdom and Intelligence almost for free, though he definitely spent more time playing video games and watching TV with his parents than he did studying. Once Harry''s Wisdom and Intellect both increased by 30 additional stats, it didn''t move any higher and his parents couldn''t think of anything else to teach him as no more books appeared in the classroom they could use. That in itself was fine, but the TV only showed reruns which he eventually grew tired of and you can only beat an old video game so many times before it is no longer enjoyable.


    And although Harry was level 57, he could fight monsters that were level 70 or so thanks to his bonus stats. Harry spent far more time increasing his base stats through exercise and studying and increasing his path mastery than he did grinding levels. The reason was simple. When the tutorial was over, his level would return to one, but the stats he added through exercise, study, and practice would remain, so Harry would not return to earth with a twig body again. The fact that he wouldn''t lose his Paths was also something to celebrate. This game didn''t have specific skills and proficiency towards those skills. Instead, each skill was grouped into a Path and as the Path Rank increased, so did the effect of the skills contained without.


    Each Path had a hundred Ranks and Harry had made progress on three Paths. His Magic Path was at Rank 12, his Warrior Path was at Rank 4, and his Scholar Path was also at Rank 4. The Magic Path strengthened Magic of course but Harry was surprised that he was only Rank 12. Although he lacked in practice, Harry still memorized the method and mastered the spell theory of every spell Hogwarts taught and he practiced up to the third year spells. By that ranking, Harry doubted that this Dumbledore character he heard about''s Magic Path Rank was higher than 30. Of course, Rank did not represent percentage. It was in fact geometric much like the Richter scale used in earthquakes. Rank 20 was ten times stronger than Rank 10, and so on.


    Harry gave his heartfelt goodbyes to his parents before unpausing for the last time here. It would have involved more tears but Harry figured out some time ago that the Lily and James Potter here weren''t his parents, they were echoes. Lily and James Potter probably reincarnated long ago. Harry didn''t think the echoes were aware of it and honestly he didn''t mind as even if it was just a simulation, it gave him a childhood filled with love and everything he ever wanted.


    Ten year old Harry appeared at a park he somewhat recognized as one close to where he used to live. The sun was just beginning to rise and the park was empty of anyone there to see how he arrived.


    [Tutorial Complete. Enjoy your new life.]


    Harry opened up his stats menu to see his level one stats and inventory. He was pleased that the former was not as bad as he thought it might have been but that sadistic trainer did put him through the ringer and his body certainly wasn''t normal anymore.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 1 Age 10


    STR 32 AGI 36


    INT 38 WIS 34


    LUK 10


    Scholar Path Rank 4


    Magic Path Rank 12]


    His dad told him many times to hide as much about his new abilities as possible, so the fact that someone a week from their eleventh birthday was three times stronger and smarter than an average ?du?t was something that he would have to be discreet about. Harry''s inventory included his current clothes which matched what he wore before. A plain white shirt and tan pants which still fit him though he had grown several inches since his death. He also no longer needed glasses which was something he was thankful for.


    Out of curiosity, Harry used the Pause feature and found the world silent, grey, and frozen. Harry was able to move around, but only a few feet from what he was. Anything he touched felt like cold stone so it was not very comfortable. When he unpaused, he found himself back where he was when he paused though he had moved while the Pause was in effect. Harry paused again and opened his Inventory. He noticed earlier there was something else in there.


    According to the see-through display that his Inventory took the form of, he had about 300 British pounds, the local currency, and a small present icon in one of the Inventory slots. Harry tapped on it which caused it to vanish and two Inventory slots filled out, one contained a letter and the other contained a train ticket. The Inventory content however felt different from what he expected.


    In the game, items and such were simple things and when Harry placed them in his inventory, he got the details about them such as weight, length, balance, and quality and such. He didn''t need to read those details, he simply knew them. His inventory wasn''t available when Pausing in the Tutorial as during the Tutorial, Pausing caused him to be with his parents so he never placed any of the books Lily and James taught him in his inventory so he had no idea what was happening now was a feature.


    Although Harry had not taken the letter out of his inventory, he knew the exact contents as if it was memorized. He even knew the texture of the paper even though he hadn''t touched it yet.


    Harry couldn''t take the letter out while paused so he unpaused and took out the letter and the content he seemed to have memorized vanished, though he did remember what he went over. As a test, Harry placed the letter back into his inventory and once more, he seemed to have memorized it. Harry went over the content of the letter a few times and removed it again. Though he no longer knew the exact details, what he went over was still retained.


    Although Harry couldn''t place and remove things from his inventory while paused, this was still the ultimate cheat for studying and knowledge retention because he could take as long as he wanted to memorize a book while paused.


    Harry smirked at the familiar ping in realization he could still gain bonus stats after the tutorial. Yes, Harry had some ideas to try out now. Then of course there was the letter itself. It was his Hogwarts acceptance letter and was actually dated for the next week and included all the required school supplies he would need for his first year. His mother told him that Hogwarts letters for first years were always mailed out on their eleventh birthday and somehow Harry got his a week early. He even got the train ticket that should only have been mailed to him after he mailed his response to the admission letter. Not that he was going to complain about it.


    The game system included a map that Harry was able to zoom in and out of and although it was grayed out past a certain point, the whole of Surrey was highlighted and the places of interest were marked. Harry quickly made his way to the bus station.


    Harry wasn''t sure how to describe it, but the normal world felt weird. Well, perhaps not weird. Boring? Something like that. Harry kinda missed the sky of that tutorial world where he would occasionally see gigantic things flying higher than mountains soaring from one end of the horizon to the other. They never descended near the village but their silhouettes could be made out from their massive forms. Flying leviathans with multiple sets of wings. Massive flocks of enormous birds capable of blocking out the sun. Illusionary beasts that radiated color and left a rainbow like trail as they flew off.


    Yes, the normal world was boring, or maybe it was just the suburban area. Hopefully it was just that.


    Harry was questioned by the ticket vendor at the bus station why a minor was going to London but Harry told him he spent the night with a friend who had an emergency and couldn''t get him home so he gave him money and dropped him off at the station.


    Harry''s mother didn''t appreciate that his father insisted on teaching Harry how to come up with a believable lie on the spot, but Lily had no way to deny its usefulness as long as it was not abused. The fact that his mother loved to watch crime dramas that demonstrated all sorts of lying skills didn''t help her argument.


    He took a bus to London and once his map filled out he headed from the station to the Leaky Cauldron. Before entering he cast the most overpowered spell his parents could think of teaching him, the Notice-Me-Not.


    The Notice-Me-Not charm was a seventh year spell and one of the few that his parents insisted on Harry mastering before the end of the Tutorial. It was the same spell that prevented non-magicals from noticing people walking into Platform 9 and 3 Quarters at King''s Cross Station and was picky with how it was cast.


    The spell only allowed you to prevent people from noticing one specific thing and the more specific it was, the longer it lasted. Like people walking into and vanishing into a brick wall.


    Harry cast it on himself with the intention to prevent people from noticing his black hair color. People still saw him entering and if they wanted to speak with him there was nothing to stop them. But if seen it wouldn''t register in their minds that he had black hair and if asked to describe him later they wouldn''t remember what color his hair was. Harry''s mother insisted Harry learn this as Harry looked much like James did at that age and she didn''t feel comfortable that people might recognize him before he could prepare himself.


    Harry once tried the Notice-Me-Not while grinding monsters to prevent them from noticing his presence, but Harry learned the hard way that wasn''t how the spell worked. The best Harry could do was prevent monsters from noticing Harry was not a monster. And even that didn''t work very often as many monsters would attack each other. Also, the stronger the magic of those who are prevented from noticing, the quicker the spell ran out and needed to be recast. There was no way for example to use it for longer than a few seconds against a powerful wizard and it would only last a minute or so on a seasoned Auror according to Harry''s dad and even less on groups of Aurors.


    Luckily the pub was filled with average wizards and not Aurors. No one was specifically looking for him so a quick glance was as much if not more than most would give. This many magicals though and Harry would need to recast it soon but Harry had enough magic to cast it three times thanks to his bolstered stats even at level one.


    Harry made his way to the back and tapped on the bricks his dad told him about which opened up the wall to Diagon Alley.


    The alley itself did remind Harry a little of the village in that every building had its own unique aspects but it seemed as if they cared about the wrong details. Was it impressive that a building could lean further than should be structurally possible without falling over because it was held up by magic? Not really to be honest.


    Harry recast the Notice-Me-Not charm just as it was flickering out and hurried down the cobblestone street to where his dad said Gringotts was located.


    The fact that a structure called the Wizard Bank was run entirely by Goblins was a point Harry felt might have been lost on most wizards. Then again, if they called it the Goblin bank, Harry doubted they would have as much usage in the alley. The Notice-Me-Not charm fizzled out the moment Harry stepped into the bank showing that many beings whose attention could not be avoided were staring at him. Harry didn''t bother reapplying the charm, he simply walked up to an empty counter and said, "I''d like to speak with my account manager Rocksheer."


    The Goblin leaned over to look down on Harry and said, "And what account would that be?"


    Harry gave a flat look and answered back, "One of Rocksheer''s. That''s all you need to know."


    Harry''s dad told him that talking to a Goblin was like speaking to a tiger. Never let them see your back and show no weakness that gives them a reason to pounce.


    The Goblin took no offense and called a runner. He told Harry, "Follow Deeptooth here and Rocksheer will meet you soon."


    Harry gave a b?r?ly noticeable nod before following the other Goblin to a waiting area.


    It did not take long for another, much older Goblin to come forth. Harry expected that on habit, Goblins would force wizards to wait some time before getting to them, but Harry was different as the Goblins had some expectations onto his identity and would not exercise patience in acquiring the answer just to stick it to an unknown wizard.


    Rocksheer looked over Harry for a moment before irritably stating, "I am Rocksheer. There are but two accounts handled by me and both are considered dead."


    Harry smiled, "A mistake I''m certain. I''m Harry Potter."


    Rocksheer narrowed his eyes and said, "We shall see. Follow me."


    Harry followed the Goblin through a series of hallways to his office where there was already a parchment on the table and a knife. The Goblin held out the knife and said, "This blade will draw only a few drops of blood. Cut into your finger and let the blood fall on this parchment. If your claim is true, this will give proof. If not.." The Goblin gave a toothy sneer. It seemed he did not appreciate the possibility of someone pretending to be Harry Potter.


    Harry nicked his finger and a few drops of blood fell. Harry could still bleed when injured but the actual drops of blood would return to magic particles after a few minutes. Before that point however they were still drops of his blood and would act like it. The parchment the drops fell upon filled out with strange patterns and words Harry did not recognize.


    The Goblin reviewed the words and patterns for a few moments before saying, "Congratulations on returning from the dead Mr. Potter. Gringotts has no prejudice against mutants."


    Harry frowned and asked, "That paper shows you I''m a mutant?"


    The Goblin nodded and placed the paper over a candle, setting it ablaze. He calmly answered back, "It does, though the nature of the mutation cannot be inferred through this means as we have no precedent before yourself. You are the first mutant wizard my kind has come across though. I shall ?ssume the nature of your mutation relates to the source of your unlikely revival from a failed Obscurial transformation. It matters not. The fact that you are indeed Harry Potter and currently alive is all that Gringotts is concerned with."


    Harry asked, "Why does it sound like everyone knows about my death?"


    Rocksheer commented back, "You have not stepped foot into the magical world since that day have you? Very well, I shall give you your answer. The events of that night twelve months ago were felt throughout Greater Magical Britain. The Minister of Magic ordered the Department of Mysteries to send a group of Unspeakables to investigate using Time Turners to go back and determine what happened. They learned that Harry Potter had grown up in an abusive household and had died while transforming into an Obscurial. Originally the Minister tried to silence the news but word got out and the next day everyone knew that Harry Potter had lived in an abusive household and was dead."


    He opened a drawer and shuffled out a few pieces of paper. He took one and said, "And although recently dead, your family''s ?ssets remain yours. Many daughters of the Potter line were wed out and many families share your blood and all of them have been trying to inherit your family''s ?ssets. As there was no Will, Gringotts'' policy is to wait two years for any and all contenders to come forward and the one with the closest blood relations would inherit. As you have returned, that is no longer necessary."


    Harry ignored the last part and was deep in thought. He remembered those people standing outside his door the night before his death which always wonder about. That being said, he was now more confused. His parent''s knowledge of events after their death only included things Harry knew. His father did ask him to check on Sirius Black as the man had not died and was Harry''s godfather so the echo of James Potter asked Harry to check on him once he returned.


    Harry said, "This is my first time in the wizarding world and everything I know of it I learned from a letter I found written by my father." This was a part of a cover story James and Harry had come up with to account for all the things they would let other people know that Harry knew without revealing the impossible truth. That being said, it hadn''t take into account Harry''s fame. Harry questioned, "Why would my death matter to the world?"


    Rocksheer pondered the question and decided to answer the best he could. "From the wizards'' perspective, you are responsible for ending the reign of Voldemort. You know of him don''t you?"


    Harry nodded. His parents did tell him loads about that blighted bastard.


    Rocksheer continued, "You were taken to St. Mungo''s once found after your parents were killed and they found that you were hit with the Killing Curse, something that no one survives but you did somehow. It was guessed that Voldemort killed your parents and used the curse on you, something prevented it from working and somehow the man hasn''t been seen since. Many wizards hope he has died though there is little conclusive evidence to support that. You were given the moniker ''Boy-Who-Lived'' and treated as a hero by Wizards even though you personally couldn''t have done anything as a fifteen month old child and no one actually has any real idea of what happened that night outside of mostly wild and a few educated guesses."


    Harry looked at Rocksheer for a few moments to see if the Goblin had been joking. When the serious expression didn''t break up into laughter, Harry realized Rocksheer had been serious and Harry suddenly felt that the Wizarding world might not be all it''s cracked up to be.


    Harry asked a few more questions such as why he was taken to his relatives and told about the blood wards set up by Dumbledore. As long as Harry was near a relative of Lily''s, the wards would protect him from any magical being seeking him with ill intent. It was revealed in a public hearing later that Dumbledore never took into account the possibility that one''s blood relation would treat another as anything but family. Harry was not left there with ill intent but it was considered neglect, as Harry was never checked on and his situation was ?ssumed to be healthy. Dumbledore resigned from his post as Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump afterwards once he realized how blind he had been.


    Harry didn''t like the man but honestly couldn''t hate him. He certainly would have felt different if things had not turned out the way they had but for now he would at least give the old man the benefit of the doubt.


    Harry settled the remaining matters with Rocksheer and took possession of the Potter Manor on Highrock in the north. Harry''s father told him during the war the spell to hide it couldn''t be used unless it was empty and it contained the Potter family library. Harry had no intention of letting that go to waste. Harry acquired a moderate sized bag of gold and purchased from the Goblins a necklace that would cast a simple Glamor that changed the color of his hair from black to dirty blonde. Harry''s lightning bolt shaped scar had started healing during the tutorial and was not noticeable without looking closely. Without the scar, his glasses, or black hair, Harry felt he should be able to safely move around Diagon Alley though Rocksheer did mention that Ollivander the Wand Maker would likely recognize him.


    After settling a few more matters, Harry asked, "What of my Godfather, Sirius Black?"


    Rocksheer scowled and said, "Lord Black remains imprisoned in Azkaban for these last ten years."


    "What?! Why is he there and how is he a lord?"


    Rocksheer answered, "They say he was the Secret Keeper of your parent''s home in Godric''s Hollow and the right hand man of Voldemort. It is also said that he killed Peter Pettigrew and thirteen muggles though he has never been formally charged and no trial has taken place for him. As for the Lordship, it was only recently that his mother, father, and grandfather died and with his other siblings and cousins dead or incarcerated after legitimate trials, Lordship has fallen to Sirius Black."


    Harry held his face in horror at the realization of what the man had gone through. He said, "My parent''s secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew. How can we get Sirius out?"


    Rocksheer shook his head and answered, "It would not be simple. Pettigrew has been posthumously given an Order of Merlin Third Class. Without incontrovertible evidence, there is little that can be done. I believe gold has been spent by Death Eaters aware of your Godfather''s innocence to prevent his matter from going to trial. Should Sirius Black die in Azkaban, the Black Family properties and vault shall be inherited by Draco Malfoy after two years. He is the son of a known Death Eater and the closest male by blood of the Black Family."


    Harry sighed at all the information that didn''t make sense and directly asked, "If someone is a known Death Eater, how are they not in Azkaban?"


    "They claimed to be under the Imperius Curse during their own trials," he answered in a flat tone.


    Harry shook his head and asked, "Anything else you think I should know?"


    The Goblin gave it some thought and said, "Dumbledore and the whole of Greater Magical Britain looked quite terrible after your death so rumor has it they are going to do something big and stupid to make up for it. No word on what it is yet but expect the unexpected."


    Harry thought that sounded foreboding but hoped nothing would come of it. He was still Level One after all!


    The final matter he got to which his mother insisted on was getting himself a non-magical identity and background to be used should he leave the magical world. Both his parents agreed it was too small for Harry to stay in forever. Although he could arrange for such things later, the earlier it was made, the better it looked. Luckily Harry was born in a mundane hospital and at least until a year ago went to a mundane school. Harry asked the Goblins to set up his non-magical identity showing he was placed in the system after his relatives died and became a genius shortly thereafter and was enrolled into a high end self paced school. Harry watched enough crime dramas to know that suspicious people always had their past looked up and Harry wanted something for others to find that was independent of magic and looked as normal as possible for his circumstances.


    Once finished, Harry put on the necklace turning his hair dirty blonde and left the bank.


    *Ping*


    [First Quest! Acquire Class Materials


    -Acquire: Books from all seven years


    -Acquire: A full set of potions ingredients


    -Acquired: High quality potion crafting equipment


    -Acquire: Four sets of quality robes


    -Acquire: False Wand


    -Acquire: Special Familiar]


    Harry had to do a double take when he saw items five and six. He did wonder how he was going to do the wand thing as he never needed one. Turns out even the Quest was saying he didn''t need one but better to pretend he did. The special familiar was also interesting. Would he get a Phoenix or perhaps a Fairy Dragon? Maybe some rare and obscure mythical beast?


    Harry selected the first item on the quest and his map tagged the area and led him to a store called Flourish and Blotts. From what Harry understood, most subjects used the same book over several years so he needed only a few for each class. Magic books were among those his parents could not produce in the classroom they taught him in but they did tell him what they remembered. Thanks to that, Harry was able to get all the books they spoke of and a few others they recommended such as Moste Potente Potions. It could be found in the Hogwarts Restricted Section but could also be purchased from the book store though it was far more expensive than standard books. Harry was quite pleased that none of the book store employees questioned why he needed so many books.


    Once a check mark was next to the quest item and all of the books were in Harry''s Inventory, Harry followed the map to one of the Apothecaries and purchased a fair amount of each ingredient and two cauldrons, one for class and the better one for personal use as the Admissions Letter specified the one for class needed to be pewter. Once Harry had finished getting each ingredient, his map marker changed to a location further down the alley to get the remaining ingredients he needed. Harry made his way through the shiftier part of Diagon called Knockturn Alley and found another Apothecary, this one a bit shadier but as Harry was only buying ingredients that were considered legal if uncommon, the owner didn''t make a fuss about it. Another check mark down.


    Next stop was the robe shop marked on his map called Twilfitt and Tattings which looked far more humble compared to the one he passed called Madam Malkin''s Robes for All Occasions. Harry guessed this one had better quality though since his map led him here instead. The seamstress was surprised to see a young child on his own requesting several sets of robes as even rich purebloods wouldn''t buy their children''s Hogwarts apparel here. Her hesitation vanished of course when Harry showed her he had the coin needed. She started measuring him up and deciding on colors to match his eyes and hair, but Harry told her he would be changing his hair color to black for family reasons later which she luckily didn''t question. She did subtly ask if he wished for his family crest to be sewn into the robe though. The question indirectly asked if Harry was a Pureblood as Twilfitt and Tattings catered more towards Purebloods than it did others. Harry thought about it and asked if that was allowed for school robes before deciding against it. Since Harry hadn''t denied having a house crest, the seamstress let the point drop and finished her measurements.


    Harry left the shop more than a little surprised that it had taken two hours and that the robes had cost more than all his ingredients and potion supplies put together, but the robes did look nice. The seamstress was silently pleased with herself as she noticed Harry had a well developed form for a child and she lessened some of the usual slack in the robes to better give an outline of Harry''s physique when he wore them. She wondered if her customer would have a girlfriend before Christmas time.


    Harry''s next map blip for the fake wand led him to a broom shop where Harry picked up on what he needed and purchased some pieces of wood. He used a carving spell to round and narrow the wood and used some sandpaper and polish he bought from the broom shop to finish it up until it had a nice sheen.


    A check mark appeared next to Fake wand and with some anticipation, Harry followed the map to the last check mark, the Special Familiar.


    Harry found two shops next to each other, Eeylop''s Owl Emporium and Magical Menagerie. His quest tag led him into the latter. The shop was filled with wall to wall cages and only about a third of them were filled with creatures Harry somewhat recognized. Wait, scratch that, a fourth. That turtle''s shell was covered in jewels, so not a normal turtle.


    Harry looked around in anticipation and followed the map mark to the cage containing his target. It was an orange female tabby cat.


    Harry quizzically stared at the cat as if daring it to be more interesting, but she simply sat there and stared back. Harry backed away and walked around the store a bit more but the map was definitely pointing at the cat. That being said, the other animals didn''t look that interesting. Sure there were crabs that set themselves on fire, rabbits that transformed into top hats, and every type of bird and snake imaginable. But Harry didn''t look twice at them compared to the orange cat. Besides, it was a good looking cat.


    Harry asked the shop owner, "Anything special about that cat?"


    The man looked over at the tabby and said, "The orange one in the corner? No, it''s just a cat. We got some kneazles and half kneazles if you want. Frightfully clever and loyal. Keen to sniff out suspicious things, kneazles are."


    Harry asked, "Then why do you have that orange one up for sale?"


    The Magical Menagerie employee answered back, "Well we got tricked truth be told. Thought it was some rare breed or hybrid. Heard some strange rumors told by the one who sold it, but I''ve never seen anything odd about it. If you''re really interested, I''ll sell it to you cheap. She used to spend time with another orange cat, an old half kneazle one. But some family bought it last month so this girl has been a bit lonely."


    Harry went over to the cat and said, "You want to come home with me?"


    The orange tabby looked him in the eye for a moment and meowed and lifted her paw, scratching lightly the cage she was in. Harry smiled and opened the cage. The cat was calm as Harry picked her up and brought her over to the desk where the cat got down on its belly and waited for Harry to finish.


    Harry thought it was a very chill cat and liked her even more.


    The advertisement for ginger and tabby cats was nine galleons but the employee sold her to Harry for seven which Harry thanked him for.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Acquire Class Materials


    Reward: Familiar Bond]


    [Bonded Familiar:


    Name: Goose, Race: Flerken, Age: 217 years]


    Harry wondered what he had just gotten himself into.

 Chapter 3 - 3 Jack of All Trades

    After receiving the pop up, Harry felt a connection to the new cat, or Flerken as she was apparently called. Harry was more than a little concerned since he had every textbook Hogwarts required on magic beasts and Flerken was not listed in any of them.


    Through the connection he felt Goose''s intention. Which of course translated to ''Carry me human.'' Harry had to stifle a smile at that one. If given a human voice, Harry imaged it would be that of a upper society middle aged woman. He purchased a nice carrier for Goose who easily entered thinking, ''Acceptable, for now.''


    With that Harry had finished his shopping for school supplies. Harry was tempted to get some Ice Cream at that place across from Gringotts but he didn''t want to push his luck. Harry instead lifted Goose''s carrier and returned to the Leaky Cauldron and headed for London.


    Once back among the streets of the mundane, Harry realized he didn''t really have much to do for the next five and a half weeks besides put the entire Potter Library into his inventory.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Jack of All Trades


    -Acquire four different Paths


    -Get each of the four Paths to Rank 5]


    Harry raised an eyebrow before shrugging in acceptance. That worked. His Scholar and Warrior Paths were both pretty close to Rank 5 and he had confidence in getting them up soon. A fourth Path however would be tricky. He actually had no ideas what Paths were possible. Crafter was probably a Path but getting that to level 5 in a month wasn''t likely. There was probably a Path for businessmen but he''d have to make a lot of money really fast to level that one up. Might be possible but he hoped for something better.


    While Harry was standing there, someone bumped into him and said, "Watch it kid."


    Harry looked up and was about to ask where the man''s own eyes were but noticed him talking to himself. No, he was talking on a phone, one of those hand ones his uncle said he wanted. Harry wondered what would happen if he put something like that into his inventory.


    Goose meowed with the intention, ''Feed me.''


    Harry looked down and said, "What would you like?"


    Goose meowed and thought back, ''Chicken.''


    Harry thought the cat/flerken might be surprised that Harry was responding to it, but it seemed to this cat that this was nothing out of the ordinary. Kinda made Harry wonder what was out of the ordinary to her.


    Harry opened his map and found a grocery store a few blocks down and headed that direction. Harry still had most of the 300 pounds minus the bus fare he started with so getting cat food wouldn''t be an issue.


    At this thought Harry realized something very odd. He wasn''t hungry. His stomach felt empty which was why he thought of ice cream earlier sure, but the pain of hunger wasn''t there. He figured he would address that after feeding his flerken.


    The store did in fact sell cat food and Harry was happy he found the kind made with real chicken. After purchasing a bunch of it along with a month worth of other flavors Harry entered an alleyway free of witnesses and subtly conjured a plate. Conjuration was something he practiced more than any other discipline as he would often conjure weapons and shields while fighting monsters so conjuring a plate wasn''t an issue. He opened the food and set it on the plate before letting Goose out and saying, "Here you go Goose."


    Goose meowed as she approached the food and conveyed through the bond, ''Well done human,'' before chowing down.


    Harry looked through his map of London while Goose finished eating. Those electronics were interesting. From how his mother described them, they were like muggle magic only more easily explained. If non-magicals could learn it, Harry figured he could too. On the map he saw a larger store he hoped would sell a few pieces of electronics and decided to head there next.


    Four hours, two outlet stores, a trip back to Gringotts, and two book stores later, Harry had what he needed and a headache.


    The first store that he asked for electronics at he found that they had large things like TVs and small things like phones and lots of computers. Most of which was outside Harry''s price range so he had to return to Gringotts and get some of his galleons exchanged into British Pounds.


    Harry then returned but went to a different outlet store that he heard had a better variety. Harry purchased a simple calculator, an expensive calculator, and something called a Blackberry. After his purchase Harry placed them all into his inventory and found another problem. Harry could now tell exactly how each piece was put together and the number of screws within and could even tell what information was stored within. The problem was that he still didn''t know how any of it worked! The programming language was not one he knew so he had to find a book store which then directed him to another book store to buy a dozen books on the subject.


    What gave him a headache was that even after getting the books into his inventory, he still didn''t know how the electronics worked. Sure, he could list off the contents of the books verbatim, but that didn''t mean he understood it. It was like buying a book written in French then buying a book on French to English translation. Having both didn''t immediately mean he could read the first book as there was no automated cross-referencing.


    Harry sighed at how badly he underestimated the work needed to learn a new skill. He felt he could still do it but he would have to do it consciously and not ?ssume it would happen automatically for him.


    Once ready Harry said to Goose, "We''re heading home but the ride won''t be comfortable."


    Goose, who had been pleased to be chauffeured around the city after being in a cage for some time for some reason, expressed a sense of disbelief at Harry''s comment. Something on the line of, ''Oh really?''


    Harry initiated the portkey that Rocksheer gave him which made him feel like he was being dragged by his belly bu??on through a tornado at two hundred kilometers an hour.


    When Harry saw the ground again he set a stance and landed alright. He figured if he hadn''t trained in martial forms he''d have landed on his bu??. James had told him it would be uncomfortable but Harry didn''t feel too bad. He chalked it up to his Gamer''s Body.


    Harry looked at Goose and said "You alright?"


    Goose appeared completely unshaken and quite clearly conveyed back, ''You''ve obviously never traveled by turning yourself inside out before.''


    At that Harry had to question whether or not his interpretation of Goose''s messages were accurate. What kind of travel requires turning yourself inside out?


    Harry looked around the area that was his new home. It was a high rise cliff face overlooking the sea. There was actually a break in the cliff face behind him which prevented this section from being approached on foot without advanced means. Harry took the ward key from his inventory and activated it. A moment later the empty space revealed a two story Victorian style house.


    Harry said, "This will be our new home for the next month, Goose."


    Goose seemed noncommittal about it. Like she''d seen better but had seen worse as well.


    The house itself had a welcoming room, a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen, and the downstairs had a guest room. The upstairs had the master bedroom and three other bedrooms along with the library and several bathrooms of course. Harry went to the kitchen first and conjured a litter box and sand along with a plate and bowl. He used a weak water summoning charm to fill the bowl before letting Goose out and saying, "I''m going to look upstairs."


    Contained within were family spells, historical events, alliances, and of course a highly detailed genealogical record.


    What surprised Harry and made him realize he would need to return to the bookstore later was the lack of an encyclopedia or dictionary.


    Harry returned to the living room and used a small incendio charm to ignite the fireplace before he sat on the comfy chair nearby. Harry was looking into space as his mind was actively going over the tech books he bought. He was tempted to pause but he couldn''t feel the warmth of the fireplace when time stopped and if he paused he might be tempted to stay paused until he mastered everything which was not a good idea. He needed to acclimate himself to a proper day and night cycles after all.


    His cross-referencing was interrupted by a warm fuzzball jumping onto his ??p. After laying down Harry heard Goose send the question, ''Do you not eat?''


    Harry realized only then he had in fact forgotten to buy any food for himself during the whole day. That wasn''t healthy was it?


    *Ping*


    [FAQ Updated


    Food and Sleep


    Your body can sustain itself on ambient energy and does not require sleep or nourishment. When injured or depleted of health, stamina, or magic reserves, eating and drinking can directly restore reserves or increase the rate of recovering. Sleeping can be initiated in a sleep environment and will automatically restore all depleted reserves after 4 hours if uninterrupted.]


    After reading the conveniently timed pop up, Harry answered Goose back, "I can eat but I don''t need to. I''m not a normal human."


    Goose shifted to get more comfortable and conveyed through the link, ''If you''re a normal human than I''m a normal house cat,'' as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.


    Harry started petting Goose as he went back to learning the mysteries of a calculator. The fact that a calculator calculates base ten math yet the programming seemed to be based off the number eight was harder to work through than he thought. He was glad that his three times higher than an average ?du?t stats seemed to let his mind brute force his way through the required comprehensions.


    It was about morning the next day he finally got what he was looking for.


    *Ping*


    [Tech Path has risen to Rank 1]


    Harry gave a content sigh that he finally had something of a foundation in tech. At least he knew how the basic calculator worked now. The advanced one however was about fifty times more complex and could even have additional functions manually programmed into it. Harry felt he could program something simple into it but not much for the moment. However, he at least had some confidence he could do this. If nothing else, at least the lines of codes he knew were contained within the electronics were no longer complete gibberish.


    The problem now was that he was bored. He was no longer capable of looking at another line of code or tech book. He needed something else to break himself in.


    Harry opened up the Menu and looked through the settings. This was a new feature which was grayed out during the tutorial and couldn''t be adjusted. The settings included sound, visual, format, and controls.


    Sound Settings actually allowed him to change the relative volume he heard of specific sounds such as voices, music, and other things. This meant that Harry could have a music player play at low volume and use the settings to increase the volume of what he heard while setting all other sounds to zero. He could even set everything to zero and make himself deaf. He could already think of a few applications for deaf on demand.


    Format and controls simply showed how everything displayed and how he interacted with it. The control allowed for Touch, Voice, and Mental controls but to be safe Harry changed it to Mental only so he didn''t accidentally move or say something that could affect his pop ups.


    Display however was far more than it initially looked. Pun intended.


    Harry could give himself night time vision by adjusting the lighting though he''d have to manually change it back or he''d be blinded in the day. He could adjust specific colors or set it so that everything he saw was green. However the function on the display setting that Harry found the most amazing was the Energy Sense prompt. Harry turned it on and suddenly he had a new sense.


    Harry himself was basically composed of energy imitating matter and since he absorbed energy to live and could dominate and absorb energy to level up, he wondered why he couldn''t sense it before. Now he could.


    In the space he felt more than a dozen distinct energy types and there were likely hundreds more hidden below the surface. In his living room he felt four types that were more prevalent than others. The most common seemed to be the ambient energy of empty space. He had no idea what it really was or what it did though. The second most common was the heat energy coming from the fireplace.


    The third energy type actually originated from himself and seemed to be embedded in the house as well. This energy Harry did have a reference for from the Potter Library. One of his great great uncles in the early part of the twentieth century had studied physics and called this energy Exotic energy. He said it occurred naturally in very small quantities in nature, specifically around ley lines which he called intersections, though he did not reference what they were intersections of. Exotic energy changed the laws of physics slightly though the more around, the greater the change. It was considered uncontrollable and a nuisance, yet witches and wizards not only controlled it, they naturally produced it as well.


    And of course the fourth energy in the living room came from Goose. This energy actually seemed similar to the ambient energy of empty space, it was just a different color. Harry looked at a few other items and concluded that other objects had very little energy within except for heat energy for temperature and exotic energy for some of the magical items.


    Harry took the simple calculator out of his inventory and noticed he could also sense electrical energy. He didn''t see it with his eyes either, it was more of an awareness he gained. Harry wondered if it was a good idea to keep this on as it could easily be a distraction, but decided it was too useful. He figured he always had this ability but it had been turned off until now. Harry wondered what type of energies filled the Tutorial area as if that was the land of the dead, there wouldn''t be empty space or heat would there?


    Harry figured the reason this setting was off during the tutorial was that the only energy in the tutorial was Death energy. Death energy was only good for the dead and it would be better not to get used to feeling it for someone who was to return to life.


    At that realization Harry suddenly understood why his level went back to one after the Tutorial completed. Besides necromancers and those who intended to desecrate the death, Death energy wasn''t compatible for living beings.


    [INT +1]


    [Intelligence has reached 40.


    Battle Meditation Unlocked.]


    Okay, that was new.


    Harry opened up the new section of his menu and reviewed the details. It seemed Harry could enter a state where he could absorb ambient energy to level up, but doing so required dominating it so within his trance the energy he absorbed would take the form of a monster and he would have to battle and defeat it on a mental plane to absorb it. Luckily if he lost he wouldn''t die but he would take damage so he shouldn''t do it unless healthy.


    Harry wondered who thought this system up and if they were a genius or insane.


    Harry decided to try it out and hope he didn''t die. He was given a selection of energies to choose from but it looked quite foreboding.


    [Dimensional Energy: Recommended level 50~200


    Heat Energy: Recommended level 1~10


    Exotic Energy: Recommended level 10~30


    Flerken Pocket Dimensional Energy: Recommended level 250~300


    Time Energy: Recommended level 300~500]


    Harry glanced back down at the sleeping cat that apparently had a pocket dimension and again wondered what exactly it was.


    Harry selected Heat energy of course and felt his mind clear and go far from his body.


    He found himself in a white, empty space that seemed quite hot. Harry noticed movement and saw a snake that appeared to be made of flames. According to one of the books Harry had in his internal library, it was a Ashwinder, though a small one. Harry used a weak, silent Aqua Eructo charm which summoned a stream of water from his hand and doused the flame snake. Although it was a fourth year spell, the spell could be used at various levels of power so Harry could use it at a low level for now.


    The ashwinder was quick but the water spray was quite wide. It didn''t douse right away but Harry kept up the spell and before the snake could get any closer to Harry it died and dispersed into particles of light which Harry absorbed.


    Two more ashwinders approached and Harry had to move while casting. Harry tried Diffindo at one of them which, although a second year spell, in the fourth year they teach you how to make it stronger and Harry used the fourth year version. The spell struck one of the snakes while the other got out of the way but the snake it cut in half continued slithering towards Harry.


    Harry decided to give up practicing his spells and just finish it for now. He used an Extinguishing charm which basically was a one hit kill for ashwinders and started to grind in earnest.


    Mostly. The small Ashwinders b?r?ly gave any energy and it would likely take two hours for Harry to get to level two. But since every level beyond one would protect him from dying a pointless death, it was worth it no matter how mind numbingly boring.


    Goose woke up during Harry''s battle meditation and noticed the heat from the fireplace going into the human. It was getting a bit too warm for comfort so she jumped off Harry and went to another couch which was on the other side of the fireplace.


    Suddenly a snake made of flames came out of the fireplace. The rug it slithered on was smoldering and Goose figured the human had no awareness of what he was doing.


    The ashwinder''s instincts were to find a dark place and lay eggs which would later erupt into flames. The fact that this may burn the house down wasn''t something it care for. Goose jumped in front of it which caused the ashwinder to hiss a threat at the orange cat.


    Goose''s mouth opened and over a dozen purple tentacles launched out, their total volume several times greater than Goose''s. The ashwinder recoiled back and tried to get away but a moment later the tentacles had the fire snake wrapped up without getting burned and retracted back into the orange tabby cat.


    Goose burped with a small flame and thought it was spicy but not bad. For making her work, she wondered if she should scratch the human. However, she remembered the last human she scratched who still hadn''t recovered and thought they were quite a fragile species. Then again this one wasn''t a normal human. Goose decided she''d let it go this time but next time the human would get scratched.


    Harry got up an hour later after gaining a level and putting the stats toward Wisdom. Wisdom lowered the difficulty of spells and Harry had trouble using spells above fourth year with less than 40 wisdom. Harry wondered how this translated to other people as he doubted that fifth year Hogwarts students all had wisdom enough to make the four times wiser than an average ?du?t.


    He then noticed the scorch marks on the rug and asked Goose who was on the couch, "What happened?"


    Goose conveyed back, ''The fireplace worked overtime because of you. An ashwinder popped out. I dealt with it this time. Now feed me lunch.''


    The fact that Harry was being scolded by his pet, and he was now seriously questioning which of them was the pet, was disconcerting. The fact that his cat seemed to understand exactly what an ashwinder was and how the fireplace could have produced one even moreso. Harry felt he would regret asking how Goose dealt with it so didn''t ask. That wise decision was thanks to his increased wisdom.


    Harry knew that ashwinders were born of magic fires but fireplaces had safeties that prevented them usually. However Harry absorbing its energy seemed to have had an effect.


    Harry got up and said, "Thank you Goose. Now what would you like? Chicken, fish, or beef?"


    Goose approached the kitchen and answered back through their connection, ''Beef.''


    Harry opened two cans and set them on Goose''s plate. Just like when Goose asked if Harry ate or this ashwinder thing, both let Harry know Goose did in fact give a damn about him, even if it was only because Goose considered Harry ''her human.''


    Harry spent the remainder of the day going back and forth between learning tech and battle mediation. When he went outside he found several other types of energy to absorb including Sun energy, Electromagnetic energy, and Nature energy. Nature energy was for levels 5~40 and Harry found it a much better source than his fireplace as the nature energy monsters were normal animals similar to the monsters he faced in the tutorial and could be defeated with magic or conjured weapons.


    The levels of the monsters seemed to scale up with him, so after a few days he reached level 10. In order to add more variety to his time and because he felt guilty for not doing so already, Harry added physical exercise back into his routine. The village trainer had him do it every day but Harry had been slacking and now he felt bad about not taking advantage of what he had. In the tutorial, stamina would recover at a slow pace but here Harry could eat or sleep to restore it meaning he could work out far more.


    Harry started Pausing more and would use Paused time to comprehend how tech worked until he couldn''t take it anymore then would go outside and use Nature energy battle mediation and once that was over he would exercise till he dropped and eat or sleep. Once he woke up he would pause and do it again.


    One of the more advanced practices Harry''s parents insisted he learn was apparition. When needed Harry would apprarate to London for groceries or another book or some tech gadget he wanted to figure out.


    Harry left the door open for Goose to enter and leave as she wished which the Flerken did take advantage of.


    Two weeks after Harry started, he faced a small problem. The advanced calculator died.


    Harry had been spending time practicing his programming skills by trying to set up various things in the advanced calculator including trying to make a simple video game. When Harry placed it back into his inventory, he noticed that the base programming code seemed corrupted. Harry had to go back to London and buy another and compare the two to get an idea of what happened.


    Unfortunately the answer was what he had been fearing. Magic fried it. Harry knew Exotic energies would change physics but he wasn''t using magic around the calculators. They were always in his inventory which wasn''t actually magic so they weren''t affected. Harry had only taken the Blackberry out twice and it still worked so that pretty much concluded that the Inventory was not magic.


    After thinking about it for a while Harry figured that the ambient exotic energy he was emitting was enough to fry it over time. This wasn''t acceptable as it would prevent him from living properly in the non-magical world.


    Harry shifted through the spells in the grimoires in his inventory and thanks to his INT getting to 75, Harry''s speed of thought was faster than a computer''s search engine. A 2004 computer anyways.


    He found three different possibilities. The first was a practice which would hide his magic, making him seem like a non-magical though of course he couldn''t cast magic in this state. He also found an experimental set of runes in one of his ancestor''s grimoires that had an effect of expelling ambient exotic energy. If used on tech, it would prolong the shelf life as long as magic was not directly used on it. The last was a different set of runes that would freeze the state of something. If altered, it might prevent degradation due to exotic energy on tech.


    Harry would try for the first two for now and the third later since the third required more experimentation. He had three more weeks until Hogwarts and didn''t want to stop studying tech just because the castle would fry the ever loving daylights out of anything more complex than a toaster.


    Harry also had the goal of getting to level 30 before Hogwarts since he wanted at least a hundred points in both Wisdom and Intelligence with the rest going to Agility. He wanted to have the spells for every year down as fast as he could which would allow him to make the most of his Hogwarts time.


    Once Harry got into his groove he was able to level up once or twice a day. Thanks to continued exercise and martial practice against monsters, Harry''s martial path finally ranked up to five and many hours of studying various high school and college books got Harry''s Scholar path up to rank five as well. By the final week Harry had gotten Tech to rank 4 and since his 3rd blackberry had a successful rune pattern inscribed it could be used for practice without dying. Blackberries one and two were not so fortunate.


    Harry spent pretty much the remainder of the last week entirely on tech. He regretted that his house had no phone line because even if he could use a portable generator to charge things, he couldn''t get a computer and the internet. At least for now.


    *Ping*


    [Tech Path has risen to rank 5]


    [Quest Complete: Jack of All Trades


    Reward: Necklace of Chosen Path]


    Harry collapsed in mental exhaustion and let out an exasperated, and slightly overly dramatic, sigh of relief. Today was August 30th so he finished with no time to spare.


    Since it was in his inventory Harry knew what the Necklace was and what it did. When he equipped it he had to select a path and the rank of that path would increase by three. He could unequip it and re-equip to select the same or a different path. Very useful. The odd thing however was that he had no idea how it worked.


    Several of the books Harry bought had enchantments on them that prevented wear and tear and while in his inventory Harry understood these and could easily replicate them as long as he knew the steps used to make them. The same was true for the necklace he bought from the goblins that cast a glamor that changed his hair color. Harry could make his own now though it wouldn''t be easy. At least he felt he could brute force the process if need be. The new necklace on the other hand didn''t give him any info on how it worked and Harry couldn''t think of any way to replicate the effect. Oh well.


    The next day Harry got an empty trunk from a closet in the house and got Goose''s carrier. He said to the Flerken, "Today we''re heading to Hogwarts, a magical school."


    Goose entered her carrier with a sassy meow that implied, ''Watch me care less. Just watch me.''


    Harry shook his head and wondered what kind of thing would have to happen for his cat to get interested in something.


    Harry set the ward key to hide the house again and apparated to King''s Cross station. He was wearing the goblin necklace which for some reason he couldn''t wear with the Necklace of Chosen Path. Harry figured it was a game thing, can''t wear more than one necklace at the same time and all that.


    Harry scouted the location earlier so he was able to apparate directly to the loading area which thankfully didn''t have anyone looking to question how an eleven year old was apparating there to begin with.


    Each magical walking around contained a source of exotic energy according to Harry''s new energy sense. The old style train on the platform even had plenty of it infused into the frame itself. Deciding not to stall any longer, Harry took Goose and his empty trunk to the entrance of the train.


    And was stopped by a pop up.


    [Hogwarts Express Ticket required for Entry. Do you wish to use the ticket?


    Yes | No]


    Harry remembered the ticket he got with his letter but it was still in his inventory. Harry had set the prompts to only work through thought to avoid accidents and thought aloud ''Yes.'' A moment later Harry felt he exotic energy trace on the ticket change. Before he could take another step forward, he was confronted by yet another pop up.


    [Dungeon Generation active.


    You are about to enter Hogwarts. Please Select Difficulty.


    -Easy


    -Normal


    -Hard


    -Hell


    Rewards scale to match difficulty.]


    Harry''s only thought was, ''What the hell?!''


    [Hell difficulty selected.]


    ''Noooo!'' Harry had to prevent himself from crying out!

 Chapter 4 - 4 Welcome to Hogwarts

    Harry left the train and station through the hidden gate and re-entered three times before giving up. The pop up didn''t return meaning he either had to drop out or accept his doom. He was moderately leaning towards the former but he had no other plans and according to Wizarding Law, things would get very complicated for him if he didn''t go to Hogwarts now that he was eleven.


    Deciding to accept his fate, Harry picked up his empty trunk and Goose and boarded the train. He was an hour early which was the main reason no one noticed him apparating which was entirely the point of arriving early. Thanks to that he also found a number of empty compartments and picked one out before letting Goose out of her carrier. She jumped on the seat next to Harry who''s life was slowly passing before his eyes and he approached his inevitable death.


    About half an hour in, Harry heard a scratching sound at the door which Goose noticed as well and conveyed, ''Open the door.''


    Harry got up to do so and a fluffy orange cat outside took a peek inside before spotting Goose and jumping on the seat next to her. A moment later a bushy haired girl came up the hallway dragging her trunk and said, "Crookshanks! You can''t just run off like that!"


    Through the bond Harry asked Goose if this was a friend and Goose conveyed back that Crookshanks was her old roommate from the store. Harry wondered if he was a Flerken for a moment before dismissing the idea. Harry''s energy sense showed a trace amount of exotic energy in the cat meaning it was at least partially magical, but it had none of the pocket dimensional energy Goose had.


    Harry looked back to the newcomer and said, "It seems our cats already know each other." Harry held out his hand and said, "I''m Harry."


    The girl saw as well that her cat was sitting next to the smaller orange cat and let out a sigh of relief. She noticed Harry''s hand and took it before shaking and said, "I''m Hermione."


    Harry looked at Hermione''s trunk and said, "Would you like to come in?"


    Hermione hesitated for a moment but seeing her own cat sitting next to Harry''s seemed as good a reason as any to accept. "Alright, just let me get my trunk."


    Harry being the gentleman of course got up to lift her trunk onto the overhead rack. Although he was strong, he was still surprised at the weight of the luggage. Of course not as surprised as Hermione was seeing him lift a trunk with over a dozen books with a single arm like it was made of styrofoam.


    For the first time Harry noticed that Hermione was in her robes. His father had told him that he needed to wear his robes when he entered the castle, but he also said the train ride was going to be nine hours long.


    In order to break the ice, Harry said, "Can I ask why you''re wearing your robes?"


    Hermione took a breath and spoke with a matter-of-fact nuance, "Well we''re supposed to be wearing our robes for the first day."


    Harry smirked and said, "Which is nine hours from now. Will you sleep in your robes tonight if your first class is eight hours from bedtime?"


    "Well no, of course not, you wouldn''t sleep in your robes."


    Harry inferred that she didn''t get the point he was trying to make and that pushing it might have the opposite effect.


    Hermione decided to make an attempt at conversation and asked, "Are you from a wizard family or muggleborn?"


    Harry''s clothing was plain and just a little old fashion so he could pass as either a pure blood in casual garb or a muggle born with fine taste. He answered plainly, "Neither. I am an anomaly, an aberration, a tear in reality and a magnet of impending doom. You have been warned."


    After a moment of contemplation Hermione rebutted, "That''s not a very good joke."


    Harry shrugged his shoulders and said, "Just preparing you for what is to come. I hope you''re not a fan of rules and common sense, because neither are on speaking terms with me."


    She looked partially offended and said, "What do you have against rules?"


    Harry said, "Nothing, it''s them that seem to have something against me. You know how things are supposed to work certain ways like they always have and always will? Those things take one look at me and tend to explode."


    "That doesn''t make any sense," she accused.


    Harry smiled, "Nope. Thus is my life. Anyways, have you read any of the books yet?"


    Deciding not to argue with the change of subject, she answered happily, "Of course. My birthday is in September so I got my letter eleven months ago and have spent that time reading as much as I can. It''s all quite fascinating. Have you read the material?"


    Harry wondered how she would feel if he told her he hadn''t read any of the books but knew all their content by heart. Deciding to lie, Harry said, "Yes I''ve gone through them all. Far too structured for my taste though."


    "What''s wrong with structure?"


    "In the mundane world, not much. But aren''t we on a magical train about to head to a magic school in a magic castle to learn magic? Structure seems a bit out of place if you ask me."


    The door opened and a shy looking young lad with brown hair and a bowl cut asked, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"


    Harry scooted over and said, "Not at all."


    "Thanks," he answered back before dragging his case inside and setting it on the rack. He looked over at the two orange cats and said, "Are those your''s?"


    Harry was tempted to answer sarcastically but felt it might scare him away. Instead he answered, "Yup, mine''s the orange one."


    Hermione rolled her eyes but couldn''t keep herself from smirking. She answered back while pointing at the larger fluffier one, "That''s Crookshanks, he''s half Kneazle."


    Harry pointed at his and said, "That''s Goose, she''s a Flerken."


    Hermione frowned at the unfamiliar term and asked, "What''s a Flerken?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "No idea, but this one looks exactly like a cat."


    The new boy looked confused and Hermione said to him, "I''m not sure if he''s joking." She straightened up and said, "I''m Hermione Granger."


    "Neville Longbottom."


    Both turned to Harry and said, "I''m Harry."


    Hermione noticed that he hadn''t given his family name before when he introduced himself earlier and asked, "What''s your full name?"


    "Harry James something or other. Haven''t used it before so no point in starting before we get to Hogwarts." Harry recognized Neville''s name as his parents said they were friends of the Longbottoms and wondered what they were like.


    Hermione wasn''t pleased with the non answer but after several exchanges was already getting used to Harry.


    Neville turned back to the cats and said, "I was going to bring a toad my gran bought for me but I couldn''t find it this morning. My gran said she''d find it and mail it to me but I''m not sure if it isn''t just better to leave him home."


    Harry asked, "Do you plan on being an apothecary or potion master?"


    Neville shook his head, "Merlin no, I like plants but I don''t think I''d be good at anything like that."


    "Then it would probably be better to leave the toad."


    Hermione asked, "Why?"


    Harry answered, "Toads have a hundred or so uses as potions ingredients and skilled potion masters raise their own on specific diets which changes the properties of these ingredients. In other words, a pet toad is practice for raising them for ingredients later."


    Hermione gasped, "That''s barbaric!"


    Harry shrugged, "Not really. Some magical ingredients can''t be used on their own as their properties are far too harsh. If fed in small quantities to the right kind of toad over a period of time, some of the toad''s organs would gain these properties and are far more mild to use in a potion. Many lives have been saved through the sacrifice of a toad. What mundane scientists do to mice when studying drugs is much worse."


    Neville was partly intrigued and partly disturbed while Hermione was mostly confused. She asked, "Where did you learn that?"


    "Moste Potente Potions volume three. Only available through direct ordering."


    "Can I borrow it?" She asked.


    Harry answered, "Not until Christmas Break I''m afraid. The book has many things the school would not appreciate young children reading and if you were caught reading it by a teacher it would most certainly be confiscated."


    Hermione''s scandalized look almost made Harry burst into laughter but he successfully suppressed it while thinking of a plan. After realizing where the girl''s priorities lie, Harry figured he could corrupt her to the dark path of rule breaking with the proper incentives.


    Harry said, "Hermione, there is no skipping grades in magic school and there is no real benefit given to any student for reading ahead or doing better than others. Because of that, they won''t allow you to learn beyond what they think you should. In other words, you''re not going to be allowed to learn lots of things until they think the rest of your age group is ready, despite how far ahead of them you are."


    Before Hermione could explode, Neville said, "Wait, my Gran said students who do well are rewarded."


    Hermione latched on to that and said, "That''s right. Hogwarts A History says each house has an hourglass filled with gemstones which fill out when points are given for achievements!"


    Harry smiled and answered back, "Hermione, I''ve read Hogwarts: A History as well. First place at the end of the year gets the House Cup. Now tell me, according to Hogwarts: A History, what are the benefits of winning the House Cup? What advantage does that house gain over the second, third, and last place houses?"


    Hermione frowned and seemed to be thinking furiously.


    Harry gave it to the count of ten before continuing, "As I said, there is no ''Real'' benefit to learning ahead. This means that the teachers not only won''t help you, they will actively hinder you if you try to rush ahead of your year. There is only one way to learn at the pace you want."


    It only took a moment of hesitation before Hermione took the bait and asked, "What way?"


    Harry smiled innocently and said, "Ignore the teachers and teach yourself of course."


    Neville asked, "Are you going to do that?"


    Harry answered back, "I''ve acquired the text books for all seven years and I''ve read them all and practiced up to third year. I want to master fourth year content before November."


    Hermione looked like she wanted to say something but the twisted logic Harry infected her with prevented her from coming up with a reason why that was not allowed.


    Harry gave her an olive branch and said, "Hermione, if you have any questions about what you read or any request to learn things from other years, all you have to do is ask."


    Hermione had little choice but to give into temptation and proceeded to ask question after question on many of the things she couldn''t figure out and some of the things she wanted to learn that were not available until later years.


    Neville was almost tempted to break out a parchment and quill just listening to the pair as Harry was a very good teacher.


    Right before the train left, the door opened and a redhead peered in and saw three kids and two cats and closed the door.


    Harry didn''t let it bother him and continued walking Hermione through some of the theories and practices that he learned, discovered on his own, or found in some of the journals or Grimoires of his Library.


    Hermione was in no way used to being the one asking questions and learning from someone of her own age group. She was always the useful one, the one others relied on and Harry seemed to take that away from her. That feeling however vanished quickly as she was learning with greater speed than hours of reading and re-reading had done for her before. So many things which had stumped her before now made perfect sense! After that she subconsciously stopped treating Harry like a peer and started thinking of him as a teacher. That way she was still the smartest of her peers.


    The main reason Harry was capable of explaining something he never taught before was the autocorrection ?ssist of his Scholar Path which subconsciously provided him with the appropriate means to teach the subject. The Scholar Path was the Path of both the Student and the Teacher and increased the rate he could absorb, understand, and accurately impart knowledge.


    Some time after the train departed, Neville started asking questions once he knew Harry had lots of knowledge on Potions and Herbology. Although he was actually just referencing and cross referencing different books and theories, Harry still sounded professional in his answers and theories on how specific processes worked, though truth was that the last plant he touched was the weeds he had to pull out of Petunia''s yard.


    When Goose asked for food Harry took his trunk out and opened it facing him and with his hand hidden in it he pulled out some food for Goose and Crookshanks from his inventory. Harry didn''t want to conjure plates in front of Neville and Hermione so he just opened the cans and set them in front of the cats. Hermione thanked Harry and continued leeching the secrets of the universe from his noggin.


    At some point the train whistle could be heard which meant they would arrive in fifteen minutes.


    Harry got his trunk once more and left the compartment for a moment before confirming the hall was empty and simply equipping his robes from the inventory.


    When Harry entered he saw Neville was just placing his robes over his other clothes which Hermione seemed less inclined to care about even though it was an infraction of the rules. Harry was quite pleased he was able to seduce her to the dark side successfully. Now he must get her to play a prank on a teacher.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Heir of the Marauders.


    Get Hermione Granger to play a prank on a teacher before the end of the school year.]


    He was joking! Harry internally sighed that such a quest would pop up but the rewards for his quests in the mortal plane had been good so far and he kinda wanted to do it anyways so might as well.


    Harry moved to lift Hermione''s trunk off the rack but Neville said, "Leave it Harry, they''ll move our stuff to our rooms later."


    Harry wondered if whoever was going to move his things would question the weight, or lack thereof, but there was no point in considering it.


    The sun had already dipped below the horizon and the stars shown around the smiling crescent moon which hung over the castle in the distance.


    "Firs'' years, firs'' years over here."


    Harry recognized the man his mum described as Hagrid bellow out for them to gather around him. Once ?ssembled he led them to the lake shore where there were ten boats, each glowing in Harry''s senses with a concentration of exotic energy.


    "Four to a boat, come on now."


    Harry, Hermione, and Neville loaded themselves up but the boat didn''t move. Eventually the red headed boy Harry noticed on the train earlier hopped in and the boat started moving. Harry''s energy sense was working overtime as through the water, he felt the presence of an enormous mass and tentacles. A giant squid? The Potters certainly forgot to mention this. They passed under some low hanging branches which nearly got caught in Hermione''s hair before the open sight of the lake came into view. It was a perfect picturesque setting of the castle on high, the moon behind it, and the reflection of both on the calm lake before them.


    Harry''s senses noticed it was something of a play. There was a spell on the water that seemed to calm it to let the reflection appear clean and the air seemed charged with a spell to break up the cloud cover. Although Harry knew how they pulled the look off, it was no less impressive.


    The boats pulled up to a small dock where everyone was able to get off. Harry was impressed at the spell that prevented the boats from rocking when they got off as it was one that he didn''t recognize.


    They followed a short path which led to an enormous door and once they approached, it opened to reveal a sterned faced elderly woman.


    Hagrid waved behind him and said, "The firs'' years Professor McGonagall."


    "Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here."


    The Professor led them up some marble stairs to another large door and welcomed them to Hogwarts. She gave a brief introduction of the point system which made Hermione frown at the confirmation of a lack of purpose behind the point system.


    Harry heard the redhead who had been clinging to them since the boat say something about a troll and McGonagall moved to open the doors. Harry quickly took off his glamor necklace causing his hair to change from dirty blonde to black. Only Hermione and Neville noticed but before either could say anything the door was open and they were led into the Great Hall.


    In addition to the hundreds of students sitting on four very large tables were a half dozen or so see-through grey spirits floating through the air above the tables. The Hogwarts Ghosts. They flew to the crowd of new students with their interests peaked and each conveyed their wish that the students would join their houses.


    McGonagall arranged the students in a line before getting out a stool and a hat. Once the hat was placed on the stool it started to sing a song Harry doubted he would remember.


    At the end there was applause and McGonagall called, "Abbot, Hannah."


    The young girl in question walked up to the stool and sat down before the hat was placed on her head. A few moments of silence passed before the hat shouted "Hufflepuff!"


    One by one each student was shorted. Neville and Hermione got sorted into Gryffindor and both were waiting to hear when Harry was going to be called.


    After Sally-Anne Perks had been sorted, McGonagall froze. Silence echoed for a moment b?r?ly hidden by the emerging whispers of confusion.


    From the tallest seat at the head table, the old man Harry figured was Dumbledore said, "Minerva?"


    The professor unfroze from the shock of the name and after a cough called out, "Potter, Harry?"


    Harry nonchalantly walked up to the stool as if he had not been publicly declared dead a year ago.


    McGonagall robotically placed the hat on his head as she had no idea what else to do.


    {Hmm, Interesting blocks you have here. Well nice of them to let me through. Ahh, been to the other side have you? That''s a first.}


    Harry thought, ''You''re not going to tell anyone are you?''


    {Certainly not, your secrets are yours and yours alone to tell. Though there is much about your power you do not understand yet but I can tell you are up to the challenge. Oh yes, I can tell you seek challenges like a bird seeks the sky. Certainly ambitious. However a Slytherin certainly wouldn''t choose Hell mode. No, that''s a Gryffindor if I''ve ever seen one.}


    ''Think I''m going to die?''


    {Oh most certainly, there are at least four things in this castle looking to kill you at the moment and that number will likely double in two or three months. I''d level up if I were you and don''t skimp on the exercise and practice.}


    Harry felt like he wanted to cry as the hat shouted, "Gryffindor!"


    The table of red and gold was the first to break the silence and shouted louder than any other time that night welcoming Harry to their house. Harry moved to sit with Hermione and Neville who were both giving an excellent impression of a fish at the reveal of his name. Like everyone else, Harry''s robes changed from unaligned to his house colors once he sat down.


    Harry felt someone giving him a death glare and looked over to the head table. Dumbledore and most of the other teachers were shocked. The one Harry recognized as his mother''s old acquaintance Severus looked like he''d seen a ghost and the man in the turban which somehow blocked his energy sense seemed noncommittal about it though he was looking in Harry''s direction.


    McGonagall continued the shorting while several of his new house mates started bombarding him with questions, starting with Hermione of course.


    "Are you really Harry Potter?"


    Harry honestly answered, "From the day I was born to the day I died."


    That threw most of them off and Neville used the pause to ask, "I thought you had glasses and a scar."


    Harry lifted his hair out of the way to reveal the faint image of his scar. Harry answered back, "I got my eyes fixed and my scar started healing a year ago."


    A brown haired girl leaned over the table and argued, "Cursed scars don''t fade, that''s why they''re called cursed scars."


    Harry shrugged. He honestly had no idea why his scar didn''t fade before and why it faded after he died.


    Once the last student was sorted, Dumbledore stood up and said, "Let the feast, begin."


    Harry noticed a build up of exotic energy over all the tables at the word feast and it flashed at the word begin. James had told him that Hogwarts was filled with house elves who did things like this. They were the ones who made food appear and vanish and cooked and cleaned.


    Harry turned around and noticed several masses of exotic energy that hadn''t been there before positioned along the walls. The masses were skinny and only a meter or so high. Invisible house elves perhaps?


    Harry turned back to the food and started filling his plate with potatoes and meats. Though technically unnecessary, he would face awkward questions if he didn''t eat and it was not as if the act of eating was unpleasant. ''Ohh, biscuits, I''ll take three.''


    Harry did his best to either avoid, be purposefully vague, or be misleading on many of the questions he was asked and the only time he told the truth was in a situation where he would absolutely not be believed.


    "Why''d they say you blew up last year?" asked the redhead.


    "Because if they said I detonated through magical implosion most people wouldn''t understand."


    At some point the invisible elves flashed their magic and the mostly empty dinner plates were replaced by plates containing desserts.


    After a few more minutes and those too had been taken out.


    Dumbledore stood up once more and announced, "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."


    Dumbledore took a sip from his cup before he started listing off an ?ssortment of objects which seemed to now be banned from the school.


    "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. I must also tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out-of-bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."


    Harry immediately declared to himself under no circumstances would he ever venture into that corridor. Since decomposing into energy and reconstituting himself from energy were both unimaginably painful, having a very painful death meant if he was killed there, he''d face three consecutive terrible pains instead of the usual two per death.


    Dumbledore continued, "It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."


    A dozen or so shouts of complaint arose from each table, the loudest of which originated from a pair of identical redheads from his own table.


    "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers'' time and energy, but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great p???sur? in announcing that this year at Hogwarts we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great p???sur? to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."


    Harry paled as he remembered what Rocksheer had told him about expecting the unexpected. He hoped he was over thinking it but his doom announced itself in the next moment.


    *Ping*

 Chapter 5 - 5 Grind to Live

    [New Quest: Survive Hogwarts


    -Protect Philosopher''s Stone


    -Slay Basilisk


    -Master Patronus Charm


    -Pass the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament.


    -Defeat Voldemort


    Listed items not completed before the Finals of the Triwizard Tournament will be faced simultaneously. Rewards will increase for every item completed before the end of the year. Long term penalties and restrictions will apply if full marks are not received in the final task.]


    The announcement caused a moment of silence to wash over the Great Hall before one of the redheaded twins shouted, "You''re Joking!" This successfully drew attention from the fact that Harry''s complexion had shifted to a purer shade of white than the Hogwarts Ghosts and would have fainted from the blood leaving his head if he had a human body.


    A number of children laughed and Dumbledore looked amused before he said, "I am not joking, though if you come find me later I can tell you an amusing one I heard about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."


    McGonagall coughed which Dumbledore took as his cue to continue.


    "The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."


    Hermione seemed to be the only one who grew pale along with the already liquid paper white Harry as the rest of the students seemed to get excited.


    "There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament, none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."


    Harry had no confidence in this man what-so-ever.


    "The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."


    Questions echoed back and forth with guesses of who was going to enter and how the judging worked. The identical redheads both looked confident and seemed sure they would enter.


    That confidence turned into outrage on the next line.


    "Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names to compete in the tournament."


    "This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts Champion."


    Hermione finally noticed that Harry looked even paler than she was and got Neville''s attention before she asked, "Harry, what''s wrong?"


    Harry gave a weak smirk to the pair and said, "Remember that earlier I told you that I didn''t have a problem with rules and common sense, but they have a problem with me?"


    Hermione said, "Yes, but I still don''t know what you meant."


    Neville however caught on and said, "You think you''re going to be entered into the tournament?"


    Once the words passed his lips an expression that was half disbelief, half horror formed.


    Hermione was in full disbelief and said, "There is no way they would allow a first year to enter this tournament."


    Harry said, "Wanna bet?"


    Hermione hadn''t expected that and was left without a response.


    Harry said, "If I get entered into the tournament, you have to prank a teacher."


    Neville said, "Do it Hermione, both of those are impossible right?"


    Before she could answer, the group was told it was time to head to the common rooms.


    The young redhead from before tried to approach him but was knocked aside by the two older identical redheads. One said, "What''s this I hear about a bet?" The other said, "And what''s this I hear about a prank?"


    No one else was speaking as they were led to the common room so Harry answered back in a tone that everyone could hear, "I was telling Hermione that I am a danger magnet and she didn''t believe me. I bet her that if I was entered against my will in this tournament, she would have to play a prank on a teacher."


    The twins looked at each other and turned back to Hermione, "Well? Are you going to take the bet?"


    Hermione''s last shred of common sense and faith in the rules urged her to announce, "It''s impossible for Harry to be entered as a first year so fine. I agree."


    The other twin turned to look at Harry, "You really think you''re going to be entered?"


    Harry nodded and said, "Yes, so I need to start practicing how not to die a bloody violent death."


    They reached a corridor in the hall next to a moving portrait of a heavy set woman in a pink dress that looked like it had been made sometime between the 16th and 17 century. The woman took a look at the before stating, "Password?"


    One of the taller redheads, and Merlin were there a few of them, said, "Balderdash," and the portrait swung in revealing another hall. The redhead with the title ''Prefect'' turned to the first year group and said, "This will be your dormitory for the next seven years. Don''t forget the password or you''ll have to wait for someone to come along who didn''t."


    Without waiting for a response he entered the portrait hole and the rest followed behind.


    The common room had a very large fireplace and a half dozen chairs of various types and levels of cozy. Harry somehow felt through his connection to Goose that the Flerken was already here somewhere. The group spread out and a few turned to get Harry''s attention but he had already gone up a spiral staircase and turned a corner to find a couple of four poster beds and Goose was chilling on one of them. Harry asked, "So what do you think?"


    Goose didn''t bother to respond. She wasn''t asleep, she just didn''t feel answering was worth the effort. A very Goose like response. The fact that there was a cat bed nearby which Goose obviously had no intention of using was also very like the Flerken.


    Neville, the youngest redhead, and two others came into the room and started claiming beds. The redhead said, "How''d you know where the first year beds were? My brother wouldn''t tell me."


    Harry pointed at the orange cat who already claimed the bed next to the window and said, "I already have a familiar bond so I could sense where she was."


    One of the other boys looked like he was about to say something but seemed to change his mind. Harry could practically hear the thought, ''Well, it''s Harry Potter.''


    Neville got his pajamas from his trunk and went to change along with the others leaving Harry conveniently by himself. He opened his menu and equipped his own pajamas before the others returned. Neville grabbed a chair and pulled up to Harry''s bed and said, "Harry, where have you been for the last year? I heard you were in a muggle house that exploded."


    The other boys were getting their things out of their trunks as well but were suddenly making an effort to do so quietly so they could hear Harry''s answer.


    Harry turned his head and said, "Not sure to be honest. I woke up in a park a few weeks ago knowing a lot more than I knew a year before that. But I don''t have any memories of learning what I knew. I had a letter though that told me a bunch of things including that I agreed to have my memories, but not my knowledge of the last year removed for my own safety."


    Harry waited for the others to digest this before continuing, "The letter said how to get to Diagon Alley and said to go to Gringotts and give some instructions to the Goblins. They were surprised I wasn''t dead too so they did a blood test and said I was me. Which is good because if I wasn''t me, I don''t think they would have been very nice about it."


    Neville visibly winced at that. Seemed the boy was familiar with goblins.


    "I asked them a bunch of questions and they told me all they could. I didn''t want to cause a ruckus so I didn''t say anything until now."


    The redhead spoke up, "I heard my mum say you were with muggles. Why were you there?"


    Harry wondered if this one would ever introduce himself but for now he had to be polite. Harry said, "I didn''t know where else I could be. Before going to Gringotts, I''ve never stepped foot in the magic world and I''d never heard the term Boy-Who-Lived. I really don''t like that term though."


    "Why not? It means you survived what no one else could, like a miracle."


    Harry shook his head and said, "But my mom and dad didn''t. So it sounds like people are calling me the ''Boy Who Lived When His Parents Were Murdered By A Psychopath.''"


    The redhead had enough sense to look down in embarrassment, not that it was his fault.


    A slight scurrying sound against metal could be heard in the pause and everyone but Harry turned to see a cage that sounded like it had something running around.


    Goose''s head got up and hissed slightly. ''Little pest.''


    The redhead looked accusingly at the cat and said, "Keep her away from Scabbers."


    Harry didn''t bother to respond since he doubted the cat shaped Flerken would actually bother hunting a mouse or whatever that was.


    The various conversations didn''t extend long after that as the day was tiring for the others and the bed was warm. Harry felt traces of exotic energies which matched the house elves had been used to warm the beds which explained why Goose was already quite comfortable. Harry expertly got into bed without disturbing Goose and once comfortable he Paused the world.


    In the frozen silence Harry got out of his bed and went to a nearby chair and focused on his stats.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 32 Age 11


    STR 42 AGI 75


    INT 100 WIS 100


    LUK 10


    Warrior Path rank 5


    Scholar Path rank 5


    Magic Path rank 13


    Tech Path rank 5]


    If Harry was going to get through this year with as few deaths as possible he needed more than just power, he needed an ace in the hole. One of those Goals for the quest was to fight Voldemort. Harry couldn''t see other people''s levels, but thanks to his energy sense he could get an approximate level. Dumbledore would be level 150 with a Magic Path rank of 24 or so. That made him about sixty times stronger than Harry was since every tenth rank was ten times stronger than the first.


    If Harry got hold of the entire Hogwarts library and spent every waking moment practicing it, Harry figured it would still take several years just to match him. Harry doubted Voldemort was much weaker given his reputation. It wasn''t the stats that were the problem. Even if Harry got to level 300, Dumbledore could still crush him thanks to superior magic usage.


    So learning magic was required but using it alone to survive wouldn''t work. He could build an army by teaching others using his Scholar Path bonus, but most of them would likely get killed which he wouldn''t be able to forgive himself for.


    The only way to beat something stronger with any guarantee was to use its weakness against it. Witches and Wizards use magic, so their weakness would be something that doesn''t use magic. Harry would have to bring his tech path up along with his magic path and use them in a way that a wizard couldn''t fight against. Even the strongest flame dies if it has nothing to burn. Everything has a weakness.


    In paused time Harry couldn''t use a paper or take notes of anything so when he processed and theorized he had to do it all mentally. This was easy for some things but harder for others. Things like runes for example were easier to visualize when you could see them and write them down. Harry had to brute force his understandings so he could comprehend and test various rune arrangements without actually drawing them out. He wanted to figure out a Exotic Energy Stasis rune cluster before October which would give him time to buy and test various electronics to work in combination with magic for unexpected effects.


    Of course theoretical practice could only go so far before tests must be done. Harry intended to spend each night working up to the limits of theoretical practice and would physically practice afterwards.


    Harry spent what could have been hours or weeks doing the mental calculations before deciding he had reached the limit and unpaused, finding himself back in bed. Since it was a sleep environment, Harry was able to fall asleep the moment his eyes closed after hitting the pillow.


    *Ping*


    [You have fully recovered after a night''s rest.]


    Four hours later and Harry woke up to the silence of the dorms. Well, almost silence. The redhead snored.


    He could have hit the pillow again for another four hours but that would have been a waste as it wasn''t needed. Instead, he got up and equipped his robes and headed down into the common room. The fireplace was out but a few of the candles lit themselves when Harry entered and he found a nice table to work with.


    Harry turned the fireplace back on and took out a lot of parchment and quills and one by one wrote down his rune cluster tests. He could have done it with a pen or pencil and pulp paper, but the quills used actually transferred intent better according to his energy sense which explained why they were still used. The parchment also prevented exotic energy from dissipating so it retained it better than paper did. Thanks to these properties Harry was able to grant the proper magic effect to runes he wrote down though it was quite weak. Still, thanks to his energy senses he could properly tell which rune clusters worked together, which would fizzle out, and which were catastrophes waiting to happen.


    Some arrangements however needed time to see if their effect would work or not so many of the parchments Harry used were set aside to be checked out later.


    After several hours of practice which only caused five explosions, a new personal best, Harry heard someone coming down the stairs and gathered up all of his parchments into his arms. Before the new arrival was half way down, Harry had thrown them all into the fireplace and left for the dormitory exit.


    Harry had no intention of leaving evidence of his plans for an ace in the hole. Those don''t work unless no one knows about them.


    The portrait didn''t ask for a password for Harry to leave and he opened his map to find an exit to the castle. He remembered Neville telling him the schedules would be handed out before breakfast but that was still an hour out so he had time to get a morning workout done.


    The map of the castle was a bit odd as certain parts seemed to shift sometimes. Harry had to change directions twice after some of the paths the map showed vanished and reappeared elsewhere. The castle itself was possibly more bizarre than his parents described. According to his energy senses, there were doors that were for decoration, walls that were illusions, and places that looked like the entrance to Diagon Alley in that they seemed to require specific operations to open.


    Even something as ordinary as the stairs from one level to the next were far from simple as a number of them were illusionary and stepping on what you thought was a step would have your foot fall through and trip you up something fierce. The fact that the staircases themselves changed as they pleased would be a hassle unless he could learn to fly.


    Luckily there seemed to be a number of shortcuts, several of which were slides hidden behind tapestries, so his journey to the first floor was both quick and fun.


    Once he reached the door, a concentration of exotic energy appeared before him, though still without visible form. Harry said, "Can you move out of the way, I wish to go outside."


    The invisible house elf shimmered into view and said, "Students shouldn''t be out before the sun rises. It bees against the rules."


    Harry frowned. It was about 6am but he didn''t take into account the sun. Harry asked the little elf, "I wish to stretch and exercise, is there any place for me to exercise in the castle?"


    Most colleges, universities, and boarding schools he''d researched had such things. It stood to reason Hogwarts would as well.


    The elf answered back, "There be no place like that sir. Wizards be not good at ex''cising."


    Or not, Harry thought.


    The elf continued, "But I knows a place where yous can do it sirs. I can take you there."


    That didn''t make sense. There wasn''t a place where he could exercise but there was. Harry said, "Thank you, please do."


    The elf walked over to Harry and took a handful of Harry''s robe and apparated them to another part of the castle. Harry was surprised that House Elves could not only apparate within Hogwarts, but side along apparate. Something to look into later. Their new location was a dead end hall with a large moving tapestry of a large fellow attempting to teach a group of trolls how to dance. However that was not what drew Harry''s attention. The wall opposite it may have been unadorned, but to his energy sense it was practically a glowing sun.


    The elf motioned to the wall and said, "We''s be in the seventh floor sir. This is the Come and Go Room, also called the Room of Requirement. Walk before it three times thinking of what you want sir and a door to it will appear."


    Harry immediately Paused just so the hurricane of implications that just presented itself could be properly gone over. This certainly would let him move a number of plans forward. He was even tempted to figure out elf apparition so he could pop around the castle and come here whenever he wanted. Unfortunately it would be too easy to get caught doing that since the elves might see him and rat him out. His best defense against those who wanted him dead was a lack of information. Hell, they only figured out a few hours ago he wasn''t dead which certainly gave him a leg up.


    After a few more intense cycles of what if possibilities, Harry unpaused and said to the elf, "Thank you very much for your help."


    The elf nodded and shimmered away. It was still there for a moment though before the concentration of exotic energy popped away.


    Harry walked back and forth before the wall three times thinking of something very specific. It was in a cartoon his mother said she used to watch when she was a kid.


    The energy of the wall changed and settled into a door which Harry opened quickly to find a long room with a set of weights close to the door. Harry ignored the weights and walked further into the long room and smiled as he felt the effect he requested. The further into the room he ventured, the greater the gravity.. Oh yes, this would work very well.

 Chapter 6 - 6 Classes and First Impressions

    The Come and Go Room was more than Harry hoped was possible for training. If he wanted to practice swordsmanship, a training sword and magic training dummy would appear. If he wanted to run a ??p at a specific multiple of gravity, the long room would set itself only to that gravity and a track and field ??p matching what he wanted would appear.


    Harry really wanted to see the limits of what this room could do, but all too quickly breakfast time approached and Harry made his way back to the dormitory. Harry really liked the slide shortcuts.


    After giving the fat lady in the portrait the password she opened up and Harry returned to the common room to find Hermione and Neville along with the rest of his house.


    Hermione spotted him first and said, "Harry! Where were you? Neville said he didn''t see you when he got up and was worried."


    Harry noticed a bit of worry in her own voice as well which made Harry feel warm. Having friends who cared for him was very different for him.


    "I''m sorry Hermione, I left to explore the castle. Do they have maps or something because without one it''s not going to be easy finding anything."


    The twin redheads seemed to appear from the shadows and the first said, "You can ask the professor for a map," the second twin continued, "But the maps don''t show any of the secret paths."


    Harry remembered what his father said about making his own map but said most of the work was done by Remus Lupin so Harry doubted he could make another from scratch without putting more time than he wanted or seeing the original. Then again he only needed a map to cover for his own so he didn''t want to dedicate that much time to it.


    Hermione looked like she wanted to say something before looking at Harry and getting distracted by something. She asked with the b?r?st hint of a blush, "Harry, those robes aren''t Madam Malkin''s are they?"


    Harry did notice that his robes had a nicer sheen and cleaner edges along with a complete lack of fuzz on top of the cloth compared to everyone else''s robes. Harry answered, "I don''t know. I found them in a closet in my family''s manor so I don''t know who made them. They look nice though."


    Another brown haired girl half a head taller than Hermione said, "They do look good on you. Maybe a bit tight but in a good way."


    Harry noticed that she was looking at his bu?? and Harry immediately started to blush. A few of the girls who saw this unconsciously smiled.


    Hermione, wanting to move to a safer topic, said "The Prefect said Professor McGonagall should be here soon with our schedules soon."


    No sooner had Hermione spoken then the portrait door had opened revealing their head of house. She handed a stack of papers to three of the taller students who started calling out names before she went to Harry and said, "Mr. Potter, a word if you please," before motioning for Harry to follow her away from the crowd.


    Harry followed but was a bit tense. He was only slightly relieved by the fact that his father really put him through the ringer when it came to training for lying on the spot so Harry would simply have to see if it was worth it.


    Once out of earshot of the other students, the Professor said, "Here is your schedule, but I''d like a few answers from you. Where have you been for the last thirteen months?"


    Harry nodded, expecting this of course. "For the last month I stayed in Potter Manor which the Goblins gave me a portkey to. The twelve months before that however I don''t know. Five weeks ago I woke up in a park with two letters. One said it was from my father and gave some instructions. The other said I have been obliviated for the last 12 months for my own protection and the protection of others. The letters said to burn them which I didn''t at first. Then I found out how famous I was and what people thought happened to me. If whoever wrote them was bad, I wouldn''t be here, so I did burn them."


    The Professor was following the story and watching her young ward very closely. Harry however mixed some truth into the lies which she would be able to confirm and the lies had no way to be found out. At least according to Harry''s father who fabricated the story for him.


    McGonagall thought the situation over for some time before saying, "Do you have all your school materials?"


    Harry shrugged. "I think so. I found a trunk in Potter Manor that had what I think was my dad''s school things and a wand which works fine for me. It had a lot of books, a cauldron, and a bunch of other things. I took that and some robes I found in a closet."


    Harry pretended to only now notice the look of worry on his head of House''s expression and quickly said, "I''ll ask Hermione if there is anything I''m missing and get back to you later on that. Is that alright."


    The Professor nodded and said, "Very well. May I ask what the instructions on those letters were for?"


    "Just how to get to Gringotts, what to ask of the goblins to get Potter Manor''s portkey, and how to get to Hogwarts." Harry spoke in a flat tone and purposefully fidgeted which was an easy cue for McGonagall to pick up on to ''guess'' he was lying or leaving something out. One of his favorite shows to watch while dead was a crime drama that explained the science of lying and deception and he spent a long time deciphering and practicing the art with his father using that as a base.


    Harry noticed a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth showing her amusement at seeing Harry lie so badly meaning she was less likely to question the validity of the rest of his story.


    Without calling Harry out on his lie, McGonagall told him he could return to his friends and get some breakfast.


    Harry knew she would investigate or ask others to investigate his tale. The best she could do was take Harry''s picture and show it around every store in Diagon Alley. All that would accomplish however, if they recognized Harry with black hair, was learning what Harry bought and where he bought it. Even this would take time and wasn''t guaranteed to work. The main thing however was that it would distract from the twelve months before that meaning the only facts that could get out was that he lied about where he got his supplies. This was on purpose as Harry already covered that by being caught lying about the letter''s instructions, so he could easily amend his story and say the letters told him where to go and what to buy.


    Harry found Hermione and Neville waiting for him before heading out to the Great Hall for breakfast. Hermione asked what the professor wanted and Harry repeated back McGonagall''s questions. Hermione and Neville both caught on that Harry had likely lied to her but neither brought it up.


    Breakfast was slightly interrupted when the redheaded first year who had yet to introduce himself saw Harry approach the table and started telling him which things were good and which were great like a professional food critic. Harry didn''t let it bother him and responded when questioned which seemed to settle the redhead for now.


    The schedule was broken into breakfast, early morning period, late morning period, lunch, afternoon period, and evening period. The only exception was wednesdays which included a midnight period specifically for astrology. Not all periods each day always had a class. Thursday early morning was blank so everyone could sleep in after the prior midnight class.


    Today''s schedule had Herbology, then Charms, followed by Transfiguration after lunch. Lily had told him that once third year started three electives were required meaning the first two years would have many empty time slots which would be filled later. Harry had very little intention of wasting that time.


    Harry called over Hermione and Neville, "There''s loads of free time so if we get through our homework quickly we can practice and study the good stuff."


    Hermione looked like she wanted to complain about getting through the homework quickly but Harry had already told her that whether or not every homework ?ssignment was graded Outstanding or Troll, none of it mattered except the finals of each year. Even if that wasn''t a good enough reason to slack on the homework, the time saved being used to study higher level subject matter was too much of a temptation for the young bookworm.


    Not too surprisingly, the first class of each subject was the introduction and safety practices that they all had to go over. The only class which had some flavor was Transfiguration. In the beginning of the class, Harry saw a grey tabby cat with a ridiculously high concentration of exotic energy for a cat. Once everyone had arrived to class, it jumped off and transformed into the teacher. McGonagall''s introduction to Transfiguration included a warning that if anyone messed around in her class, they would not be coming back.


    After the final class Hermione almost started walking in the direction of the Gryffindor common rooms but Harry told her there were plenty of empty classrooms to use to study. Hermione was almost tempted to argue until she recalled the redhead who kept inviting them to play chess against him over and over.


    Harry finished his homework first only giving just slightly more than the minimum required length before he went to help Neville. After they both finished Harry checked on Hermione and had to spend five minutes explaining to her that regurgitating everything she could think of onto a paper and exceeding the length requirements three-fold was not helping her become smarter. Time spent showing off how much she knew was better spent learning something she didn''t know. She eventually relented but Harry recognized that some habits die easier than others.


    Harry already knew that studying with them wouldn''t make him stronger but he intended to use the time to grind his Scholar Path which not only made it easier to teach, but easier to learn as well. The time he lost in tutoring would be gained back with faster learning later.


    He started them on their next three weeks worth of lessons on the three classes they took, showing both of them the different ways to cast the same spell and letting them both try and feel the differences.


    Once done, Harry said he intended to do some self study in another part of the castle and encouraged Hermione to figure out what she wanted to learn next without being told by a teacher or syllabus. This of course led her to scurrying off to the library. Neville went back to the Gryffindor common rooms to see what the other students were doing. Harry noticed Neville''s confidence increased once Harry showed him how to use magic in spite of his wand rather than with it. Neville was using a badly fitted wand for him and Harry had already told him he should either get a new one or learn wandless magic. Considering how much his gran worried him, Neville seemed inclined towards the latter.


    Harry didn''t bother getting dinner as he already put a lot of food in his inventory which would help him speed his stamina recovery later. He returned to the room of requirements but instead of asking for a workout room, he asked for a room that would ?ssist him in meditation.


    The room obliged and Harry found a room that appeared to have ritual markings and candles around. Harry sat in the middle and started his battle mediation. He couldn''t risk doing this somewhere he could be observed as absorbing energy had odd effects around him which he couldn''t bet would go unnoticed.


    [Dimensional Energy: Recommended level 50~200


    Exotic Energy: Recommended level 10~30


    Concentrated Exotic Energy: Recommended level 30~90


    Time Energy: Recommended level 300~500]


    The list of available energies he could absorb showed some changes but not many. The Concentrated Exotic Energy was a specific feature of the school. Centuries of housing hundreds of witches and wizards left the very foundation of the school saturated with exotic energy that let Harry know anything more complicated than a typewriter would fry the moment it entered this castle. And that was to say nothing of the three intersecting ley lines Hogwarts was built atop.


    Harry selected Concentrated exotic energies and spent the next two hours slaying familiar looking magic creatures such as ?du?t fire crabs and two headed snakes. The snakes themselves were odd as Harry could quite clearly understand both heads as they declared him dinner. It reminded him that he once spoke with a garden snake in his aunt''s garden. Harry mentally browsed through his library and found the ability was called Parseltongue and someone who had that ability was called a Parselmouth, someone who could speak to snakes.


    Some of the books referenced specific magics that needed to be cast in Parseltongue but none of them had any details on such magics as Parseltongue was a rare, rather frowned upon gift ?ssociated with the darker arts of which there were none in the Potter Library.


    After getting to level 32, Harry finished his meditation and changed the room back to the gravity gym and did everything he could to tear his body down for the next ninety minutes. Once thoroughly exhausted, Harry got his dinner from his inventory and finished it to recover the stamina needed to return to the dormitory.


    One interesting thing about Harry''s physiology was that he did in fact sweat and it did have a smell, but after a short while both sweat and smell would vanish just like any blood taken from him. It was thanks to this that Harry didn''t look completely soaked or smell like a gym bag by the time he returned to the dormitory.


    Harry was once more accosted by the unnamed redhead and relented to playing a game of chess with him. Wizard''s Chess anyways. The pieces apparently would try to tell him what they wanted him to do and argue with the moves he made instead. Harry had never actually played chess before but knew the rules. Most of them anyways. Harry got most of his pieces taken quickly but learned much by then and though he still lost he prolonged the inevitable for a while. The redhead asked if he wanted to play again but Harry said he''d be up for it tomorrow which the redhead seemed to accept.


    Neville was playing another game with some of the other dorm-mates and the red headed twins were trying to get some first years to eat some candy. A second year kindly warned Harry that those two were Fred and George Weasley, sixth years and the opposite of their brother Percy who was a seventh year and Head Boy. While Percy was a stick in the mud and would deduct points to enforce his authority, the twins were troublemakers who enjoyed coming up with new pranks and testing them on ''unsuspectin firsties.''


    Harry thanked the man who actually bothered to introduce himself as Cormac McLaggen and took the advice to heart. Outwardly anyways. Harry felt his father would be greatly disappointed in him if he didn''t react accordingly when challenged at pranking.


    A half hour before bed time Hermione returned and went straight for Harry with an ?ssortment of questions. She actually had a list of topics she''d written down she wanted clarification on. Partially. Harry felt at least half the list was specifically to find a subject matter Harry did not know about. It did however remind Harry he needed to check out the school library. Then again, if he needed books, perhaps the Room of Requirements had something.


    Although Hermione didn''t come up with any subjects he wasn''t familiar with, she did at least get a better grasp on many subjects and an outline of what she wanted to learn.


    Harry eventually went to bed and saw Crookshanks chilling with Goose. "How''s the castle Goose?"


    ''It has proved moderately amusing,'' she conveyed back.


    Seemed that the pets of the students were pretty much attended by the house elves for food and care. Also there were secret paths and walkways usable by cats that lead to the rooms with litter boxes, rooms with herbs cats could chew on which were healthy, and rooms magically lit and heated where cats could sunbathe even at midnight.


    Harry shook his head that being spoiled rotten, for Goose anyways, simply amounted to moderately amusing.


    Once all set in his bed, Harry paused again and went over the advances he made in runic theory and practice until his brain gave out and he had to unpause and go to sleep.


    The room that appeared certainly had a number of books but the books were mostly old textbooks and seemingly unreturned library books. Some of the books had writing that plainly asked, ''if lost, return to'' ect. After some thinking Harry figured the only books the room could produce that Harry could put into his inventory were actual books that others had lost. Harry had long since confirmed he couldn''t place conjured items in his inventory so even if this room conjured a copy of every book in the library, it wouldn''t be useful for Harry.


    Of course the number of books lost on Hogwarts ground since whenever the last time someone collected them was still far from a small number. There were at least twenty times as many books as Potter Manor''s library and many of the textbooks had personal notes written on the pages which added to Harry''s database. Harry finished collecting them all just before breakfast and headed back down to meet his dorm-mates before they went to the Great Hall.


    Today''s classes were Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Transfiguration again, and Charms again.


    DADA was as boring as it was unnerving. Harry finally got an answer to who had been aiming the killing intent he usually only felt from monsters at him on the first day. Professor Quirrel spoke with a fake stutter and although seemed to ignore him, also seemed to hate his very existence. The turban which blocked Harry''s energy sense seemed all the more suspicious as such a property should not be on something accidentally. The overwhelming smell of garlic in the room was thankfully not an issue as Harry could adjust his sense of smell in his Settings.


    History of Magic was odd. The fact that the class may have in fact bored its own Professor to death didn''t seem to phase many as the ghost seemed to have been teaching for several hundred years. Harry wondered how he graded papers. Moreover the Professor''s short term memory seemed lacking as he didn''t get a single name correct when calling people out.


    Transfiguration included the first attempt at magic for many students save those who practiced on their own. Professor McGonagall gave a lecture on many of the principals behind transfiguration for the first part of the class and had everyone try to turn a matchstick into a needle for the second part of class.


    Hermione and Neville got it on their first try but Harry only got his matchstick to become slightly silver which got a confused stare out of both Gryffindors. McGonagall awarded Hermione and Neville 10 house points and Harry 5 points. No one else in class got anything out of the needle.


    Charms class included another lecture with a promise that magic would start for the next class.


    Once the trio found themselves back in the empty class, the interrogation began.


    Hermione accused, "Harry, why didn''t you change the matchstick into a needle? You''re the one who showed us yesterday!"


    Harry shook his head and said, "Hermione, the quality of the class won''t increase if I suddenly show I''ve mastered the content. I told you before, there is no accelerated program for those who finish early. House points look nice on paper but they have no real use."


    Neville said, "That shows why you don''t care, but not why you''re holding back. You said showing you know the stuff won''t make the class better, but that doesn''t mean you have to pretend to do worse."


    Harry answered back, "You''re right Neville but you''re overlooking something."


    Hermione jumped to it and asked, "What''s that?"


    Harry shrugged, "I''m Harry Potter and people have wanted me dead before. Showing my skill could make things worse for me and if there is no incentive to show my skill, I''d rather others think me weak. We already have a teacher actively sabotaging us after all so-"


    "What?!" Hermione nearly shrieked in outrage.


    Harry continued, "A natural stutter only occurs at the beginning of a sentence. Quirrel stutters as much as he can, 100% fake. He doesn''t want anyone in his class to progress which means anyone who wants to learn how to defend themselves against the dark arts will need to practice on their own."


    Hermione looked horrified that a teacher would be willing to sabotage a student for any reason.


    Neville said, "I think he''s right Hermione. I used to have a stutter and have only gotten over it recently. But I would only stutter when I first tried to say something, not the whole time."


    Luckily the first year content of DADA wouldn''t be difficult to master quickly. It included a few weak curses such as the Boogie Curse which gave a bad case of the sniffles and some jinxes which pushed the target away or made it harder to move. The non spell content included information about some of the more common dangerous creatures and how to treat a werewolf bite or scratch along with some magical first aid.


    Questions on why the teacher was sabotaging the classes were held back for now and they picked up where they left off on practicing magic and questions on magic theory after finishing their homework.


    The next day was more of the same except they had their first potion class. Lily had told Harry that Professor Severus Snape had been a friend of her until he basically had to choose between her and the dark arts and he made his choice and even became a Death Eater. The man had looked like he''d seen a ghost when Harry showed up which raised some odd questions.


    According to his father, the man had also been a known Legilimencer for Voldemort. James had Harry learn Occlumency of course but it seemed redundant. Some part of Harry''s gamer power protected his mind from outside influence and even tended to squash strong negative emotions. If that power hadn''t stifled his fear, he never would have faced a monster again after his first time dying in the tutorial due to fear of the pain he felt both from the death and the revival.


    The crooked nose Professor entered the classroom with billowing robes and hair that had a sheen of grease. He looked over everyone and paused for a moment at Harry who hadn''t bothered to meet the man''s eyes, instead looking around the classroom.


    After giving a short introduction to the subject he went for the roll call and stopped once he reached Harry. "Harry Potter, our newest celebrity, back from the dead."


    Harry still didn''t meet his eyes, simply looking next to him. Legilimency really did need you to meet someone directly in the eyes which seemed to irritate the Professor. He called out, "Look me in the eyes when I''m speaking to you Potter."


    Harry let out a sigh at the man''s lack of subtlety and reached into his robes to grab some eyeglasses. When he put them on everyone noticed they had been completely smashed with so many cracks they were impossible to see through. Harry faced in the Professor''s direction with his eyes hidden behind the glasses and said, "Apologies Professor."


    Snickering could be heard from the Gryffindor side of the room which irritated Snape further. He called out, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"


    Hermione''s hand shot up as she had read the full text book Magical Drafts and Potions and had it mostly memorized. Harry mutely looked at the Professor without answering as it was obvious the man didn''t care if Harry answered or not.


    The man''s sneer deepened and continued, "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"


    Harry was starting to get a little irritated. The man didn''t seem to get a hint. Unless someone was either told to learn it before, the only way to already know the answer was to memorize the text 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi. Hermione did of course and Harry had six different versions in his inventory, but the fact was, the man was looking for a fight.


    Harry decided not to play nice. "Did you need me to teach the class for you Professor? I don''t mind of course if you have more important things to do than your job."


    Five different students nearly snorted while three couldn''t contain themselves and burst out into full blown laughter. Hermione was partly scandalized and partly holding back her own laughter. Neville had to cover his mouth while the still unnamed redhead who sat next to him was letting out peels of laughter. Harry figured he could learn the redhead''s name if he paid attention to the role call but he wasn''t nearly invested enough to do so.


    "Your arrogance is worse than your father''s," he sneered.


    Harry quipped back, "Am I also headstrong like my mother? Guess you didn''t know her very well. I''ve been told I have her eyes, what do you think?" Of course since the glasses were impossible to see through the Potions professor could not in fact give an opinion on them.


    "Fifty points from Gryffindor for talking back!" the man roared.


    Harry shrugged, "If you prefer talking to yourself, I won''t say another word to you in this classroom." He made a motion to zip his lips and looked completely unfazed at the point loss.


    The professor regained control of his emotions and glared at Harry through his broken glasses which kinda defeated the purpose of glaring. After another moment he returned to roll call which Harry didn''t pay attention to. What he did pay attention to was the timing of the man''s emotions. Half of which seemed artificial. Although there was real anger at the mention of Lily, the rest of Snape''s attitude was pretty much fake.


    The Professor paired the students up and had everyone make a boil cure potion.


    What he didn''t do was allow them to work in silence. At least once a minute he would loudly call out someone for doing something he declared incorrect while sometimes he would praise a specific bleach blond student he called Malfoy on the Slytherin side of the class. Harry often felt the man''s glare shift his way and Harry purposefully made a mistake every once in a while that would not lower the quality of his potion but would give the Professor something to loudly point out. Whether Harry gave a perfect potion or a half done one wouldn''t affect Harry''s future and although this man didn''t have killing intent towards Harry, he wasn''t someone Harry would allow to know his actual skill set for now.


    After criticizing Harry for the unteenth time, the class finished and Harry put a sample of his and Neville''s potion in a test tube. Harry then noticed Snape was going around vanishing the content of all the cauldrons and Harry quickly scooped another sample into a second test tube and hid it before Snape reached them and vanished their cauldron.


    Harry whispered something to Neville and gave him the second test tube and lined up to submit his own. When Snape took Harry''s, he ''accidentally'' dropped it and claimed they would have to receive a zero for the day. Neville walked up to the professor and said, "That''s ok Professor Snape. Harry said his mum told him how clumsy you were so we prepared a second sample for you."


    Several others choked back a laugh and Snape gave another fake glare at Harry and took the second vial without dropping it this time.


    After History of Magic, Herbology, DADA, and dinner, the group returned to the empty classroom they used for practice and Hermione started to vent. Now that she wasn''t seeing teachers through rose colored glasses, she could recognize bad teaching for what it was.


    After letting her finish, Harry said, "Although it looks like we''ll have to teach ourselves Potions as well, don''t take it out on Snape. The man was like Quirrel but instead of pretending to be incompetent, he was pretending to hate all the non slytherins and me especially."


    Neville hesitantly asked, "Are you sure he was pretending?"


    "Yes," Harry answered with certainty before elaborating, "Real anger builds up while fake anger starts at the max and cools down. He wanted to get a reaction out of me and he wanted everyone to see him acting like that towards me. That''s why he deducted an unreasonable amount of points but didn''t give me detention."


    Hermione asked, "But why?"


    Harry turned to her and said, "He probably has his reasons and if we tried, we might be able to guess them. But does it really matter?"


    Hermione thought back to all the criticisms Snape made towards Harry and knew that all the mistakes Harry made to earn them were intentional. To Harry it didn''t matter and what was ironic was that Harry''s offer to teach the class was something he likely could have gone through with if Snape tried to ''call his bluff.''


    Harry made a list of the potions they would be going over this year and since the Room of Requirements couldn''t conjure ingredients to practice with, Harry would go over the theory and properties of each ingredient and explain why it worked the way it did with the pair. In this way they could at least mostly get why specific ingredients needed specific preparation for specific uses.


    They separated afterwards and Harry returned once more to the Room of Requirements, something he decided to just call the RoR. After meditation and physical exhaustion, Harry headed for the common room and found the nameless redhead waiting for a chess match which Harry gave.


    During the match, Fred and George showed up and asked if what their brother had told them about Snape''s lesson was true.


    "Did the little firstie really offer to teach his class?"


    "Did you really ask him if he had something better to do than his job?"


    Harry gave the details while moving some more pieces around and getting a hang on chess. If nothing else, the nameless redhead wasn''t bad and Harry had no intention of beating him on purpose until he could steal a few strategies off him.


    All the first years had Astrology at midnight in the Observatory so Harry had no excuse not to play three more rounds with the redhead before excusing himself.


    Astronomy held nothing outside Harry''s expectations and once the class was finished everyone returned to their dorms and went to bed.. Although a little shaky, Harry had begun his routine for Hogwarts and could only hope he would survive what was to come.

 Chapter 7 - 7 Halloween Mayhem

    The end of October had come and Harry had somewhat settled into his routine. He did his best not to stand out for more than just being Harry Potter and since his two acquaintances were both doing amazing, he was able to hide in their shadows and make it look like his own above average abilities were due to their ?ssociation. Neither was happy with that but after Harry begged them on his knees not to let anyone know he was the smart one, they agreed not to tell others.


    So far there had only been one incident which threw off Harry''s image of a ''just above average student with help,'' and that was their first Flying Class. Harry got the worse broom and once Harry mounted the thing, it shot up into the air and broke in half leaving Harry to fall thirty feet from the sky. This wasn''t the problem, the problem was that Harry did a shoulder roll on landing and got up without a single visible or measurable injury. If it was another student it would be talked about for a week and forgotten, but as Harry Potter, it was something that simply added to his immortalized legend.


    Today was the day that the student delegations of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would arrive at Hogwarts. It was a Saturday and although most would rather be playing indoors or in some cases, *cough* Hermione *cough*, doing their homework or studying, every student was made to stand out in the frigid cold and wait until the other schools showed up to show school wide unity.


    "Weasley, straighten your hat, Ms. Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair," cried McGonagall as she went row by row to confirm the uniformity of the students.


    Once ready, she said, "Follow me please, first years out in front," and lead everyone to the Black Lake.


    After waiting for a while, Dumbledore said aloud that Beauxbatons had arrived and pointed up. Harry saw what appeared to be a dozen elephant sized winged horses pulling an enormous carriage.


    A few of the students unconsciously backed up when the carriage descended for a landing and the whole group felt the impact of the hoofbeats of the creature''s landing.


    A moment after the carriage came to a halt, a young man came out and opened a set of golden stairs. Dumbledore approached and met the woman who came out and exchanged pleasantries. What surprised most was that she was even taller than Hagrid.


    A series of young women in powder blue robes left the carriage with an attempted show of grace that was difficult to pull off successfully with each and every one of them shivering to the bone. Dumbledore had a teacher escort the lot into the castle before they all froze solid and everyone else continued to wait for Durmstrang to show up.


    Not wanting to be shown up it seemed, the Durmstrang delegation showed up in a giant ship which ascended from beneath the surface of the Black Lake leaving everyone to wonder how it got there in the first place.


    The students of Durmstrang and their headmaster who looked like a stereotypical evil warlock all wore furs and looked far less fragile than their Beauxbatons counterparts. Harry heard the redhead standing a few places down from him, "Hey, that''s Krum!"


    According to a magazine in Harry''s inventory, Victor Krum was a student of Durmstrang yet a professional Quidditch player, one of the best in the world even. He would be in his seventh year and his skill was expected to lead his team to the world cup once he graduated. Shame his team had no one else to rely on.


    With their arrival the whole group returned to the castle into the warmth of the great hall. The Durmstrang students chose to sit at the Slytherin table while the Beauxbatons chose to sit with the Ravenclaws.


    The headmaster introduced his fellow headmasters and told everyone the choosing of the champions would begin after the feast.


    The food that appeared had a larger variety than normal which some of the cookbooks in Harry''s inventory named as french dishes. Harry himself was watching the new students and checking out their exotic energy. Although there was no level floating above each person''s head, the size and brightness of the exotic energy mass within each gave Harry an idea for their Magic stats and Magic Path Rank.


    From Beauxbatons, the strongest contender seemed to be a blond young woman whose magic seemed more a part of her than normal. This was something he usually only saw in magical creatures. The strongest from Durmstrang was unsurprisingly Victor Krum, and not by a small margin either. Though if that meant he was good or everyone else from his school was bad, Harry did not know. There were a few possible contenders for Hogwarts but the strongest sat at the Hufflepuff table. Harry would say he was level 50 with a Magic Path Rank of 9.


    Harry''s own stats after two months of school were as follows.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 77 Age 11


    STR 68 AGI 122


    LUK 10


    Warrior Path rank 8


    Scholar Path rank 11


    Magic Path rank 15


    Tech Path 7]


    Harry meditated daily to level up at least once a day and extra on weekends while practicing combat both magical and non-magical against the monsters he faced. Teaching Neville and Hermione while studying himself got his Scholar path up an impressive amount and last month Harry finally came up with a rune scheme that protected electronics from exotic energy. It basically used an ordered set of exotic energy and froze it in place around the electronics, forming something of a shield. The frozen shield wouldn''t enter the fragile parts and would stop additional exotic energy up to a certain strength from entering. It wouldn''t survive anything stronger than a weak spell but would at least not get fried just from ambient energy.


    Once that was done, Harry added to his routine more time to study computers and electronics. At a few points Harry had to sneak out of Hogwarts to apparate to London and buy some more electronics but he hadn''t been caught so far which was a win for him and let him advance his Tech path as well.


    Harry waited until the feast was over to see how the tournament participants would be selected so he could ponder on how he would be entered.


    Two men entered the Great Hall and Dumbledore said, "Let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. They will be joining myself along with Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime as the judges for the tournament."


    Dumbledore gave a few more foreboding warnings before tapping the ?h?st three times and opened it to reveal a rather large silver cup. He explained that it was called the Goblet of Fire and would be the impartial judge. He would take it to the entrance hall and draw an age line around it that would prevent any under the age of seventeen from approaching it. Once there, he would light it and any who felt themselves up to the challenge would have to write their name on a piece of paper and place it in the goblet. The next day, the goblet would choose three names, one of each school to be contenders for the Triwizard Cup.


    Once the feast was over, Harry, Hermione, Neville and the still as of yet to be named redhead went to the dorm. The redhead asked, "Harry, are you going to enter your name in it?"


    Harry shrugged, "Nope, doubt it matters. The Goblet will likely spit out my name regardless."


    Neville said, "Oh yeah, didn''t you bet Hermione you''d be entered to compete against your will?"


    Hermione said, "There is no way you''re going to complete."


    "What if Snape or some seventh year enters my name?"


    Hermione said, "Even if they did, there is no way the goblet would choose a first year when seventh years.." Her complaint about Harry''s lack of skill compared to a seventh year died down when she realized she had no actual idea where Harry''s skill level was at. Anyone else and there was no second thought about it. Harry Potter on the other hand.


    The redhead spoke up, "Do you guys hear that?"


    Harry didn''t hear anything so he paused and turned the background sound up on the menu. Once he unpaused, the sound of massive footsteps echoed from around the corner down the hall.


    A large green monster with a stupid looking face and a massive wooden club turned the corner and locked eyes with the four students. Yup, it was a troll.


    Harry hadn''t fought a troll before but his racing heartbeat was quickly quelled by the passive mental ability of his Gamer power.


    The others were not so lucky. The redhead started muttering in circles, Hermione was hyperventilating, and Neville was frozen solid.


    Harry paused the world and walked over to the troll to examine him. The reach of his club would prevent anyone from running past him and Harry really didn''t feel like dying today. Harry returned back to the end of the hall where the stairs had left him and came up with an idea. Harry confirmed the distance and measured it a few times before going over the plan a few more times to be sure. One he was ready, he unpaused and was returned back to his original position.


    Harry grabbed Neville and the redhead by the robes and said, "Hermione, follow me now, no questions," and dragged them both back to where the stairs were. Hermione was the type to overthink rather than freeze so she easily adjusted and followed Harry back.


    The hallway met the stairs at a balcony with a rail that extended further left and right than the hallway, out of sight of the troll. Harry shoved Neville and the redhead into one side and pointed to the other side and told Hermione, "Stay there, don''t move, I have a plan, it will work, don''t move."


    Hermione tucked herself into the corner and Harry returned to the hallway where the long strides of the Troll had it almost to their position. Harry stood before the troll who swung its club and Harry paused again to go back and confirm that Hermione wasn''t peaking.


    Luckily she was still crouched down in the corner and Neville had passed out and the redhead seemed to have his eyes shut.


    Harry unpaused and ducked under the swing before he slipped under the troll''s legs. He then cast a Slippery Jinx on the troll''s skin which caused the ungraceful monster''s legs to slip out from its own weight. Lastly, Harry used an overpowered knockback jinx to send the troll down what might as well have been a frictionless hall due to the slippery jinx where the troll sailed off the stairless deck and down the tower four full flights before landing on the bottom.


    Harry walked over to the edge and peered down at the fallen monster. The creature''s exotic energy was circulating around its body meaning it wasn''t dead, but likely wouldn''t get up soon.


    When Harry went back over to Hermione she reached out and hugged him.


    The redhead seemed to have seen the troll fly off the balcony and said, "Blimey Harry, what did you do?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "Slippery jinx and knockback jinx. Made the troll slip and knocked him back. Gravity took care of the rest."


    Hermione said, "Harry, that was brilliant!"


    He argued back, "Lucky is more like it. Had we been trapped on the first floor, that wouldn''t have gone so well."


    Neville got up and said, "What happened?"


    Hermione looked hesitant to answer before the redhead said, "Harry defeated the troll!"


    Neville''s eyes shot up and he exclaimed, "What? That was real? Where is it?"


    The redhead pointed down the tower where several students and a teacher had now approached the troll which still wasn''t moving.


    Hermione said, "We should get a teacher."


    Harry sighed in defeat but didn''t argue. Ten minutes later Harry had told everyone what had happened several times. The knockback jinx wouldn''t be taught for a few more months but was still considered a first year spell while the slippery jinx wasn''t taught at all but was around the level of a first year spell.


    That being said, the slippery jinx was normally something that targeted the hand which caused the target''s wand to slip from their grip. Casting in a way where the friction of the entire surface of a troll was removed was far beyond the norm. And the knockback jinx was little more than a very hard push and was less effective the heavier something was. The weight of a fully grown mountain troll should have b?r?ly budged with such a spell, frictionless surface or not.


    Luckily for Harry, Snape was there and more than happy to downplay Harry''s achievements as luck which Harry had no complaints about.


    Still, before the next morning there was not a single person within the castle who did not know of Harry''s single handed defeat of the troll.


    Breakfast time included rumors being passed back and forth about who entered their names in the goblet and tales of Harry''s Epic Battle with the troll where he punched it through a wall and sent it flying to the other side of the castle. Harry himself found each retelling more outlandish than the last. What was the point of using first year spells if people weren''t going to bother recalling the details? Should he use fiendfyre next time?


    Harry went around the Entrance Hall so he wouldn''t be seen in the same room as the Goblet. Some part of him figured if he actually entered his name, the Goblet would probably select him as Hogwarts champion. But what if the quest was like a self fulfilling prophecy where if he didn''t hear it, he wouldn''t have entered himself thinking he was already destined for it and wouldn''t have had to complete?!


    Slightly crazy perhaps, but he still wanted to avoid purposefully entering himself so he could see how his name would come out anyways.


    This year, Halloween was on a Sunday, and while some students had plans that revolved around sitting in front of a cup all day, Harry actually intended on being productive. Along with Hermione, Harry spent the next several hours in the library. He would look for an interesting book, place it in his inventory and pause, and take as long to go over it as he wanted. The fun part was that he could even look through the restricted section. Each of those books had a spell where should the book be opened by someone without a special permission slip, the book would literally start screaming. However since books needed to be moved every once in a while, simply taking them off the shelf didn''t do anything as long as they were off the shelf too long.


    This system certainly never took into account an ability to read a book without opening the cover in less than a second.


    Harry couldn''t go to the restricted section often or he''d get caught, but when no one was around he''d walk over to it, remove a book, place it in his inventory, pause, go over it completely, then unpause, remove it and set it back. With practice the book was only off the shelf for two seconds.


    Thanks to his Scholar Path reaching rank 11, Harry could read and cross reference material far more thoroughly than he used to be able to. Harry figured he''d have all the unique and important books memorized by February.


    Once the time for the Halloween feast got close, Harry and Hermione both returned to the Great Hall to watch the selection for the tournament.


    Hermione saw that Harry was eating with the zen like acceptance of a death row convict having his last meal and said, "Harry, you are not going to be chosen alright?"


    Harry spoke up, "Oh ye of little faith. I thought after yesterday you would stop doubting my talent as a trouble magnet. Just because I''m a first year and I didn''t go anywhere near the goblet doesn''t mean my name won''t come out."


    Neither Harry or Hermione were whispering and Harry heard a few Gryffindors seem to whisper back to back and what seemed to be bets being made.


    The redhead said, "My brothers tried getting past the age line with an aging potion but it shot them back and they both grew a beard."


    Harry said, "One of them should keep it so we can tell them apart."


    The redhead responded, "Naw, even if they did, they''d probably figure out how to switch the beard just to make everyone mistake one for the other."


    Harry could see the twins doing that.


    The Goblet had been moved to a stand in front of the headmaster''s table and the students of both visiting schools entered the hall and waited to the side.


    Once the feast ended, Dumbledore stood up and said, "Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions'' names are called, I would ask them to please come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber where they will be receiving their first instructions."


    The headmaster waved his wand around which lowered the brightness of the candles. The Goblet of Fire was the brightest flame in the hall.


    After a moment, the flame spit out a paper which Dumbledore caught and named the Durmstrang champion as Victor Krum, to no one''s surprise. The next paper that shot out named the Beauxbatons champion Fleur Delacour, the young blond Harry noticed earlier.


    When the last paper shot out, a collective breath was held by the entire hall.


    "The Hogwarts champion, is Cedric Diggory!"


    While the entire hall turned to uproar, Hermione turned to Harry and gave a silent, knowing, and slightly smug smile. Harry noticed several of the Gryffindors glance at Harry with a bit of an edge. There had in fact been bets placed on him.


    Harry however noticed the fire hadn''t gone out yet. He turned to face Hermione and waggled a finger back and forth signifying, ''not yet.''


    Dumbledore had already started his speech about giving the three champions support and his honest hopes for the tournament. He never got to finish his speech as the Goblet of Fire roared to life once more and spat out a fourth slip of paper before finally going out.. Hermione immediately turned to face Harry who gave her an ''I told you so'' smile.


    Harry himself felt the exotic energy of the cup attach itself to him in the same moment.


    *Ping*


    [Goblet of Fire Contract Perk Acquired


    -Conditions, must compete in the three tasks of the tournament


    -Failure to complete conditions will change Goblet of Fire Contract Perk into Broken Contract Perk.


    -Goblet of Fire Contract Perk grants legal ?du?thood.]


    Harry was surprised that the contract actually connected to him and was more surprised that he was now considered a legal ?du?t. That was something he could use.


    After a long pause of looking at the singed parchment, Dumbledore called out, "Harry Potter."


    Harry innocently asked aloud, "Yes Headmaster?"


    Dumbledore took a moment to collect himself before adding, "Harry Potter, come up here if you please."


    Harry stood up and said, "Um sir, if this is your idea of a joke, I think I would prefer the one about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."


    A few nervous chuckles broke the silence.


    The headmaster gave a weak smile before continuing, "I''m afraid this is not a joke Mr. Potter, your name has come out of the Goblet of Fire. Please head to the room with your fellow Champions."


    Harry let his head down in defeat and made his way up the hall.. He announced aloud, "For my next funeral, I like white lilies," before joining his fellow champions in the other room.

 Chapter 8 - 8 Weighing Wands and Slaying Serpents

    When Harry stepped through the door, all three champions looked at the tiny first year. Fleur Delacour said, "What is it? Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"


    Harry shook his head and said back, "No, you''re fine Ms. Delacour. I''ve been chosen as a sacrificial offering to the gods so I''ll be contributing my death for the entertainment of the masses as the fourth champion."


    Victor Krum paused a moment before he threw his head back and started laughing hysterically. As a sports star of Europe, he could certainly appreciate a gladiator joke and coming from such a small student made it all the more absurd.


    Cedric Diggory did not laugh as he was aware of the rumors of Harry beating a troll the prior night and was surprised at the lack of denial from any of the sources. Harry himself was fit for a first year and could easily pass for a second or third year student, but Harry had clearly not even begun puberty yet so he was still quite small to the three seventh year students. Cedric even heard a rumor that Harry had once declared that he would likely be forced to compete. Until now he had of course ignored that one.


    Victor''s laughter died when Ludo Bagman entered and stated how miraculous Harry''s entry as the fourth champion was.


    The three other champions looked back at Harry who once again had his ''resigned to execution'' face.


    Not a moment later Dumbledore and the other headmasters followed by the Hogwarts staff entered the room.


    Everyone proceeded to argue back and forth about how unfair it was that Hogwarts had two contestants, completely ignoring Harry''s highly likely impending death.


    Snape added his two cents of course, "Don''t go blaming Dumbledore for Potter''s determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here."


    Harry calmly stated back, "Your confidence in my abilities is overwhelming professor. Remember, white lilies."


    That shut the man up who was in fact finding it a bit difficult to honestly accuse a mediocre first year of cheating on such a scale.


    Dumbledore used the lull in the conversation to calmly ask, "Harry, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"


    Harry shrugged, "If I wanted to commit suicide Headmaster, I would have just asked Professor Snape. He''d probably make it painless. So no, I did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire and I was nowhere near it today or last night."


    Even Snape nearly turned green a bit at the blatant accusation that he would be so willing to kill Harry. He couldn''t show it however and remained stern faced to the other teachers. None of the teachers could deny Harry had an alibi for the prior night and this morning had many students keep watch on the goblet and none saw Harry approach it. There was simply no gap he could have used to slip his name into the goblet without witnesses.


    Harry himself however wondered if his name going in the Goblet and the Troll getting in were coincidences. Maybe one was a distraction for the other? In which case, the likely culprit would be Quirrel. Quite thorough too, Harry had to admit. Place a troll where Harry was likely to encounter it, perhaps spell the stairs to prevent escape, and use the distraction to enter Harry''s name in the goblet. Harry was kinda impressed a man with such poor acting talents could plot his murder so thoroughly.


    Harry was tempted to ask if he could examine the Goblet so he could place it in his inventory but Harry''s energy sight along with his new insights into magic pretty much told him how the goblet worked and even what happened to it. The Goblet of Fire''s creation predated the Olympics and the Torch of the Olympics was actually an imitation of the Goblet. Few knew how it actually worked but Harry could tell the Goblet couldn''t connect to someone who didn''t have the will to compete. If Harry had never considered or at least slightly d?s?r?d to be chosen, the last paper would have burned to scrap. As for how it came out? Harry figured Quirrel used the Confundus Charm to make the Goblet forget there were only three schools. Quirrel could have taken Harry''s name off a piece of homework and entered it as the only name of a fourth school. Not that it mattered how it was done.


    As they continued to argue, Fleur Delacour asked Harry, "What are ze white lilies for?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "My funeral, obviously."


    The french champion blanched at that and remained silent while watching the ?du?ts and her own headmistress accuse Harry of cheating.


    Crouch told everyone that a name that comes out of the Goblet, regardless of age, would be bound in a magic contract to compete. Breaking that contract would risk Harry''s magic.


    Once they reached the point where they realized further arguing was meaningless, they got back to explaining the first task.


    Which was pretty much nothing. They referenced it would be based on daring and when they entered they could only bring their wand. Harry wondered if he could transfigure a sack of goodies into a wand and bring that. They also mentioned that Harry wouldn''t have to take the end of the year exams which made his grades this year completely pointless.


    Harry left the room alongside Cedric Diggory who asked, "You really think you''re going to die?"


    Harry answered back, "Most likely, but then again, it won''t be the first time. We''ll see what happens. Good luck."


    Harry split off and returned up the stairs. Paintings were gossiping with each other and a few called out to Harry which he ignored. When he returned to the dorm he was asked if he was really going to compete and Harry affirmed he would. Harry then walked over to Hermione and asked, "Do you know which teacher you''re going to prank yet?"


    She yelled, "How can you treat this as a joke?!"


    Harry smiled back, "Don''t worry too much, the only time I joked was about the white lilies. Worst case scenario I stop holding back and win the bloody tournament."


    Hermione looked like she was about to argue but she held it back for now. She was however determined to learn exactly how strong Harry was, if only for her own peace of mind.


    A few of the Gryffindors tried to congratulate Harry which Harry responded to by thanking them and asking them what they would be wearing to his funeral. Harry wanted to make it clear that a first year didn''t belong in the Triwizard competition.


    The next morning, Filch''s pet cat Norris was found petrified in front of a girl''s bathroom. On the wall next to the petrified cat was the message "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware," written in chicken blood.


    Harry''s face turned pale as he remembered one of the requirements of his quest. He first thought the Basilisk would be a part of the tournament. But now it seemed a creature that could kill with a look was wandering around without notice.


    He wasn''t worried about himself. A level lost could be regained, though indescribably painful. But no one else would come back if they looked a basilisk in the eye.


    Harry covertly left school the following Sunday to buy several portable stereo speakers and after some unusual arrangements he got a recording of the crowing of roosters. He didn''t bother putting them in his inventory after he finished inscribing them to be mostly magic proof since if he encountered a Basilisk he might not have time to pull them out so he shrunk them and placed them in his pockets. Harry didn''t know if the recording would actually kill a basilisk but if nothing else it would at least drive it away right?


    Two weeks passed by without another basilisk encounter. Harry was in Potions class where Snape said, "Today we will be working on antidotes. At the end of class I will poison one of you and we shall test if the antidote works properly or not. Potter! If you have anything against being poisoned, speak up now."


    The fact that Harry refused to speak a word in his class was at first frustrating for Snape who would constantly try to provoke a response out of him. Now however he had changed his methods and was quite pleased with the results.


    Unfortunately for the poison happy professor, the door opened at that moment and a student Harry didn''t recognize said, "Please, sir, I''m supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs."


    Snape didn''t give the student a glance and coolly said, "Potter has another hour of Potions to complete, he will come upstairs when this class is finished."


    The student replied, "Sir, Mr. Bagman wants him, all the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs."


    "Very well, very well, Potter, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote."


    The student interrupted, "Please, sir. He''s got to take his things with him, all the champions-"


    "Very well! Potter, take your bag and get out of my sight!"


    Harry wordlessly got up and childishly waved goodbye to Snape who pretended, at least Harry thought he pretended, to grind his teeth in frustration.


    Next a woman wearing bright clothes and too much makeup asked for an interview and didn''t give Harry time to decline. It was however amusing when she tried to drag Harry into a broom closet and Harry didn''t move though he was less than half her size. Stats were funny like that. Once the woman got it through her head Harry for some reason couldn''t be dragged, she decided to just interview him there.


    "So why did you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?"


    Harry realized instantly the type of interview this was going to be. Unfortunately for the reporter she was facing the son of James Potter who had been raised on decades, if not longer, of cable television and video games. He answered, "I lost a bet with my Godfather and I am a man of my word, I don''t welch on my bets."


    "How do you feel about the tournament?"


    "Terrified, I can only hope that most of my limbs remain attached and I am still alive at the end of the tournament."


    "Where have you been for the last year?"


    "My Godfather Sirius Black secretly escaped prison and rescued me from my abusive relatives."


    "Notorious mass murderer Sirius Black?"


    "That''s the one, not sure if you''ll be allowed to print that though since his escape has been really hush hush. It''s thanks to him I''m not dead though. Still irresponsible of him though to make me enter my name if I lost that bet. Guess he didn''t think I''d actually get chosen."


    Dumbledore showed up a moment later but didn''t hear what they had spoken about. Seeing his approach let the reporter know the interview was over so she promptly thanked Harry and left.


    Dumbledore asked, "I hope you were careful Mr. Potter. Ms. Skeeter-"


    Harry interrupted, "Is the type who wouldn''t give the truth unless it''s the juiciest piece of gossip around. I do hope she forgives my use of imagination and doesn''t trust the words of an eleven year old orphan."


    Dumbledore became quite confused at this but got the feeling Ms. Skeeter''s story would not go the way she wanted.


    The Headmaster escorted Harry to where the other champions were sitting and over to an old, crazy looking man. Dumbledore introduced the man as Mr. Ollivander and said, "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."


    The strange man could tell the exact details of a wand and seemed alarmingly obsessed with them. He checked over Fleur''s, then Cedric''s, then Krum''s, giving each a wave and casting a spell.


    "Good," said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. "Which leaves. . . Mr. Potter." Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander and handed over his wand.


    The strange man immediately frowned upon touching the wand and said, "Mr. Potter, this isn''t the time for jokes, where is your wand?"


    Harry feigned confusion and said, "Mr. Ollivander, I found that in a trunk in my father''s old house and have been waving it since then." Harry took the wand and made a swish and flick motion before casting the levitation charm and causing a stool to float.


    Dumbledore noticed this and asked, "What could be the problem Mr. Ollivander?"


    The odd man took back Harry''s wand and said, "Mr. Dumbledore, this is a stick," before handing it to the Headmaster. He then said, "I only recently heard about Mr. Potter''s return and have been waiting for him for some time but he has yet to come in for a wand."


    A number of stares were exchanged and conversations exchanged below hearing level. At least Harry knew that he couldn''t transfigure a sack of goodies into a wand and take it into the tasks. Obviously someone had attempted such a thing before which was why there was a Wand Weighing prior to the tasks to begin with.


    Bagman stated that after the wand weighing, a wand could not be changed which meant if Harry didn''t have a wand now, it was against the rules for him to use one during the tasks.


    Dumbledore immediately offered to give Harry his own wand, but Bagman said that each champion''s school could not aid them and Dumbledore giving Harry his wand would certainly be considered aiding meaning it was not allowed.


    When the other competitors heard this, each was trying to figure out where they could buy white lilies and what they would wear to the funeral.


    Things got a little hectic the next week when a muggleborn student was found petrified next to an equally petrified ghost.


    Harry knew that had the ghost not been there, the muggleborn student would have died.


    Harry couldn''t gamble on other students getting lucky on their own encounter so it was time to slay a basilisk. Some of the more ancient books he found did include the legends of the Chamber of Secrets which seemed to be built under the Black Lake. The Basilisk could likely come and go through the pipes but Harry had no way to access them and the entrance remained mostly hidden. Ok, Harry had already seen the concentration of exotic energy coming from the sink in the bathroom next to where they found Filch''s cat. He was mostly stalling since he didn''t want to die of something stupid.


    The next Saturday Harry told Hermione and Neville he would be doing personal study for the rest of the day and headed off to the bathroom.


    The moderately perverted nature of the ghost who resided there did not help the atmosphere.


    Harry said, "Open," in parseltongue which caused the sink to shift and open. Harry jumped down which led to another slide that took him below the Black Lake.


    Harry had the background noise meter of his settings hiked up to ten and slowly made his way through the dust and bones.


    When Harry found a cast off skin, he was more than a little surprised he could shove the whole thing into his inventory. Harry wondered how that worked. The skin and what little Harry knew of Basilisks told Harry this one was likely over a thousand years old, perhaps bred by Salazar Slytherin himself.


    Harry found another door that he opened with Parseltongue and entered the chamber beyond.


    The chamber was thankfully empty though the magic on the giant face at the end of the room told Harry it likely opened up when addressed. In that case, Harry had time.


    Harry removed the half dozen stereo speakers from his inventory and spread them around. Once finished, Harry analyzed the structure of the exotic energy and found what was basically the password.


    Harry shouted, "Speak to me Salazar Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts four," in parseltongue which engaged the face to open.


    Harry closed his eyes and used only his energy sense. The giant snake that came out was at least sixty feet long.


    Harry pressed the play bu??on on the remote in his pocket and every speaker loudly called out the sound of crowing roosters.


    The snake hissed in pain but recognized Harry was the source. It smashed its head at Harry who jumped out of the way. The basilisk opened its mouth and struck out but missed only due to disorientation.


    Harry recognized from the beast''s energy that the sound was definitely harming it but not enough to kill it on it''s own. It was a thousand years old after all.


    Harry conjured a spear and slashed the beast. Although Basilisk hide was highly resistant to magic, it was only mostly resistant to weapon damage and Harry''s sharp spear and fast swing was enough to break the serpent''s skin causing it to cry out in pain and anger.


    It backed up and swung its tail at Harry who used the spear to vault above the swung which smashed violently into the wall.


    Harry conjured another spear and taunted the beast by getting closer. The basilisk was not considered the king of serpents without reason and Harry''s taunt caused the great beast to strike Harry with its fangs.


    Harry positioned himself and stabbed his spear through the snake''s mouth. However before it could penetrate far enough the shaft of the spear broke and the rest of the conjured spear faded.


    The basilisk reared back and flailed about faster than Harry had time to dodge sending him flying across the floor. A fourth of Harry''s Health vanished which made Harry instantly regret not putting more points in STR since that increased his physical defense.


    Harry ducked another tail swipe looking to tear his head off his shoulders and conjured another spear. The massive snake faced Harry once more and gave a repeat performance of trying to bite him but getting stabbed in the mouth. The spear snapped again but Harry knew it was coming this time and was able to dodge the follow up attack.


    At this rate Harry would need five or six more stabs or one lucky shot, but the Basilisk only needed a single lucky shot. The continued blaring of crowing roosters caused the ancient creature enormous pain which was the only reason it lacked its usual patience that made it so deadly. The longer the fight went, the more it would get used to the pain, however.


    But the basilisk wasn''t the only one learning. Harry had never gone an entire fight relying only on his energy sense and now he was kicking himself for it. Harry was beginning to notice that before the giant magical beast moved, the flow of exotic energy would shift around. Harry was starting to figure out how to predict the snake''s movements from this alone. Mostly. He wasn''t an expert in snake biology after all.


    Harry''s next conjured spear wasn''t a light one as the prior spears had been, this one was solid metal with a spear head that was thicker than normal. It was in fact too thick to pierce deeply into flesh, unless it pierced a location there was already a hole.


    Harry concentrated with all he could and stood before the snake. Harry bent his knee and dropped the tip of the spear, feigning weakness and injury. Though struck twice before, the basilisk''s instincts couldn''t stop it from striking at that moment. Harry felt the energy in the creature''s muscles burst out and in that moment Harry launched himself forward and drove the spear up. He didn''t piece the exact spot of his prior two shots but the roof of the beast'' mouth had already been compromised and thanks to the strength of the strike the spear successfully shattered the roof of the snake''s mouth and pierced into the brain, silencing the millennial old serpent for good.


    Unfortunately for Harry, his plan had a minor setback.


    [You have been Poisoned with Basilisk Venom.]


    The spear went further into the skull than Harry anticipated nearly piercing through the other side of the head. Those fangs Harry had been so careful to stay away from using the length of his spear shaft had pierced his arm.


    Harry felt the poison reduce his health without signs of stopping. Soon his body''s integrity would be compromised and he would dissolve into particles of magic and lose a level. It was certainly going to hurt.


    Suddenly a mass of exotic energy and another form of energy Harry didn''t recognize flashed into existence next to him. It took the form of a thin orange and red turkey shaped bird. A phoenix?


    The phoenix walked over to Harry and tilted its head over the wound and produced three teardrops which fell into the wound which had yet to close.


    [Basilisk Venom Neutralized.


    You have gained the Perk Poison Immunity from having a neutralized form of the strongest poison running through your veins.]


    Harry raised an eyebrow and turned to the Phoenix and said, "Um, thank you?"


    The phoenix nodded and trotted away before bursting once more into flames and leaving him alone.


    Once Harry was no longer dying, something rather odd happened. Harry felt the mass of dispersing exotic energy that filled the Basilisk suddenly converge on him.


    [You have leveled up.


    You have gained the Perk Instant Death Immunity from absorbing the essence of a Basilisk''s eyes.]


    Harry looked over the details of his new perk and wondered if this meant he could shrug off the killing curse. He could still be crushed by a boulder, but any effect that simply caused instant death wouldn''t work on him anymore. That was useful.


    Harry thought it was quite the windfall, but he did remember that Hell mode did come with fabulous prizes.


    After recovering his strength, Harry got up and touched the Basilisk on instinct. The entire beast was somehow dragged into his inventory but not as a giant snake carcass. Instead of a single inventory slot showing dead basilisk, there were inventory slots filled with basilisk skin, slots filled with basilisk venom and basilisk blood somehow already in vials, and slots with basilisk meat, basilisk bones, and basilisk fangs.


    Harry didn''t find any Basilisk eyes in his inventory but that didn''t surprise him. His combat strategy revolved around leaving the eyes undamaged so he could use them later, but their essence which contained their value seemed to have been absorbed by Harry. Considering how useful that perk would be, he wasn''t going to complain.


    Though the eyes were useless, the skin still had properties to resist exotic energy. Harry was tempted to take it somewhere to make armor, but decided against it for now. It would be better if he started on a Crafter Path and once it was strong enough Harry could make something himself without wasting it.


    At this point Harry likely would have left if the basilisk hadn''t smashed a wall revealing a secret corridor. Yup, going down there.


    Harry hadn''t noticed the wall with energy sense meaning the path was likely hidden through a mechanism rather than magic.


    Harry lit the torches in the room which seemed to be a private study. Harry almost gleefully proceeded to rob, no, loot the library into his inventory. Yup, it was Salazar''s.


    Harry silently thanked the dead man before leaving.

 Chapter 9 - 9 Toying with Dragons

    The morning of the first task finally came around and breakfast was filled with conversations and bets. The redhead Harry played chess with said his older brother worked with dragons and sent him a letter that four dragons were being sent to Hogwarts. Harry wondered how many older brothers the boy had.


    This did at least clue Harry in that the first task involved dragons which gave him time to prepare a few plans.


    The only interesting thing to happen since Harry''s Basilisk encounter was the edition of the newspaper that had Harry''s interview. Luckily Harry''s lies had been strange enough for the woman to not change much except for some heavy exaggeration on Harry''s emotional state.


    The entire article had been mostly about Harry as, officially at least, that was the first interview ever obtained for Harry Potter. It included details mentioned about Harry''s supposed life before and hinted that Harry mentioned that his Godfather was both responsible for Harry''s vanishing for a year and his entry into the tournament. However it only gave vague clues as to the identity of said godfather.


    It also included several paragraphs of quotes which Harry thought impressive as he only gave four lines of dialog. Harry at least appreciated that those lines were in fact included.


    The story at least went in the direction Harry intended. It gave an outline of a young child way over his head with the weight of the wizarding world crashing down on his shoulders.


    When questioned about the story Harry would laugh and tell everyone he''d never met the woman though he appreciated her imagination. Some had doubts but when Harry mentioned that his godfather was Sirius Black and that he was in Azkaban, no one took the article seriously anymore.


    Several students, especially that bleach blond slytherin Snape seemed to treat as royalty, attempted to insult Harry or demean him on several encounters. Harry would simply ask if any of their parents would contribute their own funds to Harry''s funeral and what they intended to wear and if they were going to get white lilies or something else.


    When Harry didn''t bother denying that he was going to die, they didn''t really have much more to work with. That and the fact that the first year blond, Mofo? Yeah, Mofo was squeamish so when Harry started describing the possible gruesome ends he was likely to face with a flat, emotionless tone, the blond would usually back away and find somewhere to heave into a bucket. Harry wondered how many purebloods would retain their sanity if forced to watch a day or two of television. Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors anyone?


    The classes of the second half of the day had been cancelled and everyone was waiting at the Great Hall. McGonagall later showed up and said Harry was due in the stadium for the first task. Harry nodded and said to the Great Hall, "We who are about to die, salute you!"


    Harry wondered if defeating a dragon would be easier or harder than slaying a basilisk, but since Dragons weren''t artificially created creatures with such bizarre weaknesses, Harry figured the dragon would be harder.


    Harry was taken to a tent near the stadium that had been set up over the last three weeks.


    Within the tent Harry met his three fellow champions and Ludo Bagman who explained their first task was to get a golden egg and they would have to face a ''thing'' which would be decided by pulling it out of a bag.


    Snatching an egg from a nesting dragon was not the worst case scenario Harry had in mind but it really wasn''t that far off. It was not however impossible if he used a few tricks and showed off a little of his skill.


    Suddenly Harry had a really, really stupid idea which caused an unstoppable grin to appear on his face.


    *Ping*


    [Warning, taking items out of the inventory during a task constitutes cheating.


    Taking items other than a wand into the first task constitutes cheating.


    Cheating will cause Goblet of Fire Perk to change to Broken Contract Perk.]


    It seemed the system thought his idea was no good. What about...


    Harry thought of a slight alteration to his really stupid idea. No warning popped up this time. The plan wasn''t all that different, it just required him to use the summoning charm. It would reveal he could use a fourth year spell, but Harry doubted that would be what people paid attention to once Harry was done.


    The tent itself was not monitored so Harry snuck out and took all the items he needed out of his inventory and set them near the tent where no one would notice them.


    The open area had various levels of terrain and just on the other side of a rock was Harry''s dragon. The exotic energy Harry could sense off the thing greatly eclipsed the basilisk which answered his question from earlier. Then again it could have been that the basilisk was weakened after a few centuries of hibernation so comparing the two might not be fair.


    In either case Harry found a place to hide and watched the dragon through his senses. Luckily the dragon wasn''t investigating him. Harry was using the masking technique he usually used to prevent his exotic energy from destroying electronics which basically meant his magic wasn''t leaking. Harry''s various libraries all told him dragons could sense magic for no other reason than the fact that dragons preferred to eat food that contained magic.


    The hard thing however was that the dragon would sense when he cast one of the only two spells he was going to use as the masking technique couldn''t be used while casting magic.


    "Accio Controller," he called out.


    The black controller Harry set outside the tent launched off the ground and flew towards the stadium and into Harry''s hand.


    Harry prepared himself for the dragon''s inevitable attention.


    Which never came. Harry suddenly remembered that for some reason his magic was invisible. He still didn''t know why. Something to find out later. Even when Harry fully removed the masking technique the Dragon''s attention didn''t turn to his direction.


    A number of the audience was impressed that Harry used the summoning charm but perhaps a dozen or less of the audience had any idea what he had summoned.


    The remote control was not a simple store bought one, but one Harry built and designed himself using a kit. Several kits actually. It controlled not one, but seven different heavy duty electric helicopters.


    For a few minutes nothing happened. The dragon''s chain was long enough for it to reach half the arena near the eggs but unless attracted elsewhere it wouldn''t leave the area close to the nest.


    Suddenly a whirring sound approached and six different dog sized RC Helicopters flew into the arena. Each had two shopping bag sized sacks strapped to them


    A seventh Helicopter flew over from a different side of the stadium. This was Harry''s special one which was only cat sized and ran silent. None of them had more than a single spell''s worth of magic, so though the dragon heard them approach, wasn''t too interested in them.


    The seventh one came to Harry who cast his second spell on a sponge tied to a long string to the helicopter. The sticking spell.


    Harry piloted it back into the air and had the other six approach the dragon in formation from a few different directions. The dragon was getting annoyed and breathed fire at one which promptly exploded with a loud bang.


    That got the dragon''s attention. Though it was just the flour Harry stuffed in the sacks that flash fired, it made the Dragon classify the flying objects as things which couldn''t get close to its nest.


    The helicopters'' smooth hovering ended at that point and they started moving around very fast left and right. One flew right at the egg batch which earned the dragon''s fury. The hungarian horntail was not known as one of the nastiest dragons around without reason. The dragon swung its tail at the chopper but the mechanical toy swerved in a spiral and dodged the strike. The dragon''s ire had reached its limit and it jumped at the helicopter and crushed it with its jaws.


    The four remaining helicopters the dragon could see were flying around and two charged at the dragon thus challenging its authority. The dragon leapt away from the nest to destroy the remaining helicopters giving Harry the chance he needed now that its attention was away from the eggs.


    While simultaneously flying his four distractions around the arena, Harry flew the silent chopper above the nest and carefully lowered the sponge with the sticking charm on a string down. The area of the nest was enclosed so Harry didn''t have to deal with any wind so it was basically a very complicated and moderately dead claw game.


    The sponge landed on the golden egg and Harry rose the helicopter into the air, lifting the egg with it causing Harry to silently thank the heavens the egg didn''t seem to be that heavy. The reason Harry was able to aim so well was his liberal use of pausing. He''d pause, walk over as close to the egg group as he could and check the accuracy of the sponge before unpausing and making an adjustment.


    The silent chopper delivered the egg to Harry who took the lighter than he thought egg off the sponge and flew the very expensive toy back into the air. Harry then flew all the remaining helicopters at the dragon in a group and charged them forward to their doom. Seeing the whole flock line up, the dragon let loose a storm of flame turning the entire group into ashes with an impressive explosion.


    Harry quietly took the egg and his controller and returned to the exit. Each of those toys cost several hundred pounds but it was certainly worth it. The man at the gate saw Harry with the egg and looked like he''d swallowed a fly. Harry figured the man didn''t expect to see Harry return.


    Harry had to clear his throat to get the stunned man to register that he was supposed to open the gate and let Harry out of the arena.


    The announcer eventually realized the golden egg was missing from the nest and when he called it out the audience exploded into a frenzy. Very few people appreciated what Harry had done and plenty of them had no idea he used muggle toys to do it.


    A minute or so later McGonagall showed up only now noticing Harry had already left and gotten his egg.


    "Mr. Potter, are you alright? What were those things?"


    She was more than a little relieved that not only was Harry not dead, he didn''t have a single injury despite getting the most vicious dragon.


    Harry pointed at his controller and said, "I''ve spent the last few weeks practicing the summoning charm and summoned this muggle toy," he showed the controller, "that was able to use muggle means to control the other flying muggle toys."


    "Wouldn''t that be against the rules?" She asked worriedly. If Harry cheated, he would face the consequences.


    Harry shook his head and said, "Nope, the rules said I can''t bring anything but a wand into the task. There is no rule against summoning outside tools and using things outside the arena."


    Harry used a levitation charm at a nearby chair to pick it up and set it down to prove his magic wasn''t affected.


    Mr. Bagman showed up a moment later and repeated McGonagall''s question, "Mr. Potter, can I ask what you did? I seem to have missed it."


    Harry explained once more, "I used magic to summon some complicated muggle toys and used them to distract the dragon while I used another muggle toy to retrieve the egg. I still have my magic so none of that was against the rules."


    The Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports looked intrigued, "Those were muggle toys? Fascinating. I''ve heard rumors that the Muggles had some rather sophisticated toys, but I''ve never seen one work before."


    Harry nodded and said, "You wouldn''t. Magic makes muggle toys break or act weird. I made those toys myself so they could work around magic."


    This was true. In order to finally get his Crafter Path rank, Harry had to make something but he couldn''t just buy and ?ssemble from a kit. Sure, he did that at first, but since it didn''t work, he had to spend almost a whole weekend using the parts from several kits and some extras to ?ssemble his remote control. He also had to use a computer to write his own software for the helicopters. There was no actual way a single controller could manually operate a half dozen helicopters perfectly so he actually wrote twenty or so different programs onto his controller that would do most of the detailed stuff on its own.


    Bagman looked impressed and said, "You controlled them yes? Why did you fly them at the dragon in the end?"


    "Because I challenged a dragon and if they left, the dragon would remain angry and would be harder to handle later."


    Bagman hadn''t considered this but it was true all the same, the Hungarian Horntail seemed quite pleased with itself after destroying the toys and for such an aggressive dragon, it had been nowhere near as riled up as the other contestants left their dragons at the end of their tasks.


    Of course the actual reason was that Harry didn''t want the rune schemes he set into the choppers to be examined by others. The helicopters were a loss to be sure, but 95% of the work Harry had put into this project had gone into the controller. The helicopter drones were just ?ssembled and engraved. The controller on the other hand was where he put the real work into.


    After a few more clarifying questions the man left Harry to return to the judges panel. Sure Harry hadn''t used magic beyond the summoning charm and the use of muggle toys did go against the spirit of the tournament if not the letter. But on the other hand, Harry was eleven years old and had been set against a dragon.


    The Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports had in fact ?ssembled twenty dragon wranglers on standby once Harry had been incapacitated to save his life if possible which, as long as he was unable to continue, was not against the rules though he would of course not be scored well and wouldn''t get the clue for the next task.


    Harry was quickly accosted by the school nurse who for the third time this year checked him over to find no injuries. The nurse was more than a little skeptical at this first year''s level of being danger prone yet after falling from a broom, defeating a troll, and stealing an egg from a nesting dragon, he still didn''t have a single injury.


    He returned to the tent from before where he had to await the judges scoring and was met with the disbelieving eyes of the other three contestants, all of which were injured or had damaged clothes except for him. Harry didn''t see what they did but since Harry was last, they all saw what he did.


    Cedric shook his head and said, "I don''t know whether to be impressed or ashamed, Potter."


    Harry ???ked an eyebrow and Fleur answered the unasked question in a french accent, "Mr. Diggory transfigured a stone into a dog for a distraction, but ze dragon lost interest and shot fire at ''im." Harry did notice the orange burn paste over his fellow''s student''s face but was polite enough not to stare. Fleur''s dress also appeared quite singed.


    Krum said, "The seventh flyer vas silent and your dragon didn''t notice it. Even I only noticed because I am seeker and I saw it carry egg on string. Why was it silent but not the rest?"


    Harry wasn''t surprised someone spotted the last one, it wasn''t like he made it invisible or anything. That was another project altogether. He thought of the best way to answer someone who likely didn''t know any muggle terms but as the man was a seeker, he likely knew a lot about brooms. Harry said, "The last one was a different model. It could not go as fast or as far but it could go quietly."


    They asked a few more questions and exchanged stories. Fleur it seemed, used a powerful spell to put her dragon to sleep. It mostly worked, save the Dragon''s flaming snore singed her dress. Krum actually fired a spell at the dragon''s eye to blind it but the dragon crushed some of its eggs in the confusion. That would have worried Harry had he not felt that the eggs were all fake. How they convinced a dragon to guard a nest of fake eggs though he didn''t know.


    The scoring came out with Cedric in first place with forty-four points, Krum in second place with forty, and Fleur with thirty-nine. Harry was in last place with thirty because Krum''s headmaster gave him zero points while Crouch and Fleur''s headmistress gave him six a piece. Dumbledore gave him eight and Bagman gave him ten. Harry wondered if Bagman had bet on Harry''s victory.


    The moment Harry left the tent Hermione ran past Neville and straight for him before almost shouting, "Why didn''t you tell me you were going to use RC Helicopters?! I thought my hair would turn grey watching the other students face those dragons worrying about you!"


    Harry smiled at his friend''s concern and easily admitted, "I came up with the idea at the last minute so even I didn''t know. It was only when they told us we had to retrieve an egg did I come up with that idea."


    Hermione shook her head for a moment to get her bearings before asking, "How did you get muggle electronics to work here? I brought a calculator which didn''t even turn on when I took it out of my bag on our first day."


    "A side project I''ve been working on. Didn''t think it''d be that useful. Wonder if I can do the same for the next two tasks."


    Neville chipped in his two cents, "Not a bad idea. You were the only one who didn''t get hurt so a repeat performance or two wouldn''t be bad. You won''t get the highest score and you won''t win the tournament, but you''ll survive."


    Hermione only took a moment to consider this before saying, "He''s right, survival is the most important."


    Harry noticed a magical being approaching and turned to see Rita Skeeter show up with a predatory smile.


    "Congratulations, Harry!" she said, beaming at him. "I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How did you feel facing that dragon? How do you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?"


    Harry paused for a few minutes to consider the best way to address the witch. After coming up with the craziest believable story he could, he unpaused and said, "Of course I don''t mind Ms. Skeeter. I almost couldn''t breath when I saw that dragon, everyone kept telling me before entering how it was the biggest, meanest, nastiest one so I was terrified. I don''t know how fair the scoring was, but other than Mr. Bagman and Headmaster Dumbledore, I don''t think the others had any idea what I actually did or how impressive it was so they scored on their ignorance."


    Skeeter took a look at her quick quill notes to confirm the exaggerations they jotted down at least had the pertinent details. She continued, "About that, why did you use muggle toys in a wizard tournament and why do you think that was impressive?"


    Harry figured the woman wanted to write down that Harry was looking down on the tournament and that he was spitting in the face of tradition and yada yada. Nothing Harry said or didn''t say would stop her from writing that, but Harry could redirect who she said that about.


    Harry said, "It was actually my godfather''s idea. He''s a terrible prankster and told me I had to use muggle toys for the competition. I told him it was impossible, but he told me to find a way. The reason it was impressive is because no one has ever applied wizard magic to fancy muggle toys before. No one. I''m the first. It wasn''t cheating either. A sword is a muggle toy but if you cast magic on it it is a magic tool. Those toys were the same. If they weren''t, I couldn''t have used them since everyone knows muggle toys don''t work around magic."


    A small group of teachers was heading towards them so Skeeter thanked Harry and parted.


    Hermione used the moment before the teachers got there and said, "You did tell that woman those lies about Sirius Black!"


    Harry said, "Yup."


    At this point Neville had to fight to hold back his laughter.


    Professor McGonagall saw Harry and said, "The Headmaster would like to have a word with you Mr. Potter."


    Harry nodded and followed her. He had been wondering when this would happen.


    The silent awkwardness of the walk back to the castle was broken when the professor said, "I''m pleased to see you made it out in one piece considering how little confidence you showed earlier."


    Harry shrugged, "If I told anyone I wasn''t going to die they''d call me a liar, a fool, or accuse me of being in denial. I was just saving myself from being insulted until after I survived my imminent death."


    McGonagall didn''t really have a response to that so the silence resumed until they had entered the castle and made their way up to the Headmaster''s office.


    The ancient wizard noticed their arrival and said, "Thank you Minerva, you can return. Mr. Potter, please sit."


    Harry sat on the chair before the man''s desk and for a moment neither said a word. Dumbledore broke the silence first, "This would be our first meeting, yet up until now I''ve done so much damage to your life Harry, and I cannot ask you to forgive me. I tried to correct my mistakes, I wanted to keep my distance, allow you to live your own life, but it seems such is more difficult than I first had hoped."


    Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the obviousness of that last part. But it did answer Harry''s questions. The man did, and rightly so, consider himself responsible for Harry''s death.


    Dumbledore moved to open a drawer and took out a silver cloth and a wand. He said, "This is, or was, a Cloak of Invisibility that belonged to your father. And this was the Elder Wand. Two of the three Deathly Hallows of legends."


    Harry quickly went over the tale of the Three Brothers, a copy of the Beetle and the Bard was in the Potter library. His father did in fact tell Harry about his family cloak, but for some reason never mentioned its location as if he didn''t intend for Harry to get it. Harry decided to ask the question the headmaster was waiting for, "Was?"


    "Yes Harry. On that terrible night last year, this wand lost its power and this cloak no longer rendered its wearer invisible. The third Hallow, the one said to be capable of bringing those from the other side back to this realm I suspect has also lost its power. And I have my suspicions why."


    Harry was certainly interested in this so he waited for the old man to continue.


    The headmaster said, "Harry, when you summoned your muggle invention, I nearly cried out in terror and could only wait until the dragon noticed where you were. But it didn''t. It wasn''t until that moment that I noticed that your magic appears to be invisible to the senses of others. And then there is the fact that it is so simple for you to cast magic, powerful magic I suspect, without a wand. And of course there is your remarkable return from the other side. Invisible magic, magic that can be cast without a wand, and the gift of returning from the other side. You see where I am going with this Harry?"


    Harry was curious to know where Dumbledore''s certainty that Harry had died was coming from, but Harry supposed the man may have had his ways which was why he knew that Harry had died which meant Harry had returned from death.


    As for the implications, it was certainly interesting. The power of the Deathly Hallows had vanished when Harry died and seemed to become a part of him. Invisible magic? It could still damage electronics which meant that his magic would still affect things but it just couldn''t be sensed actively or directly. Indirectly however it could be. Something to consider. It certainly explained why he didn''t need a wand.


    Harry asked, "So what now?"


    Dumbledore shook his head. "I would be willing to personally teach you if not for the Goblet of Fire. It would take my magic if I tried to tutor you this year, something I would not regret if I could help you, but I am far too old and would not last long enough without magic to teach you much if I tried."


    Harry thought on it for a moment and asked, "Can I borrow your library for a week?"


    Dumbledore''s brows rose on that statement and considered it. However a moment later he let a small frown followed by an amused smirk. He said, "As it is my personal library, granting my permission to loan any book would constitute ?ssistance and risk my magic. Therefore if you ask," he said emphasizing the word, "I cannot allow it. Now if you excuse me, I have to meet with some of my fellow headmasters."


    Dumbledore twirled his wand and cast a petrification charm on the portraits in the room. He then got up and said, "You may rest here as long as you wish, and on an unrelated note, if you come across any book of my private collection around the castle, please hand them to Professor McGonagall when you can and she will ensure I get them back. My memory is not what it used to be and I don''t recall if they have gone missing or not so do keep a lookout for them in case they have."


    A moment later and Harry was alone in the Headmaster''s office. Harry decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and proceeded to nab every book from the headmaster''s shelf. Stealing certainly didn''t qualify as ?ssistance rendered. Once his inventory was stocked, Harry returned down to his dorms where there had been a party waiting for him, congratulating him on not dying. As he had the lowest score, Harry figured that was just about the best thing they could think of congratulating him on.


    The nameless redhead handed Harry the golden egg he had forgotten at the tent and Harry decided it would be best not to question why the redhead had it.. Time to see what the clue for the next stage was.

 Chapter 10 - 10 Return of the Marauders

    A week after the first task brought forth three problems of different types, but unignorable all the same. The first was that there was a Christmas Ball and which Harry had to attend. He asked Hermione as the only girl of his age he knew well and after flustering for a few minutes with some excuses which ended in Harry promising to get her a dress, she accepted. She was going home for the Holidays but Harry begging on his knees and promising bribes of her choice of books for Christmas presents had successfully convinced her.


    The second, and slightly larger problem was the details of the second task. The egg once opened had a recording of a shrieking sound. According to a few books Harry knew, the only species that sounded like that were banshees and mermaids above water. Once submerged, the clue became audible and Harry figured he would be given an hour to find something, or someone, taken and placed in the black lake. Hermione and Neville both blanched at the idea and said they didn''t want to be hostages, even fake ones.


    The third, and comparatively largest problem was the issue of the unidentified animagus hiding in the dorm. The youngest redhead brought out his rat and Harry saw it for the first time that year during the party. The exotic energy it contained was certainly that of a wizard. Harry hadn''t noticed it before because it was such a weak wizard he thought it was one of his classmates of his year. If it was anything else, this problem would not rank higher than the other two, but Harry''s father told him that Peter Pettigrew, the man who actually sold him out to Voldemort, was a rat animagus. The fact that the redhead''s pet was missing a toe sealed the deal.


    All three problems required a large amount of preparation. Harry would have to ask McGonagall for permission to head to Hogsmeade with Hermione as he heard there was an excellent tailor there but no one below third year was usually allowed to go.


    As for the second task, Harry decided to continue the theme of muggle toys. He first considered submersible drones, but the drones wouldn''t be able to do much even if they found a person. Harry decided to go for broke and just get a personal submersible vehicle for himself and outfit it with extras. However, likely to prevent cheating or exploration prior to the event, Harry figured some time before the second task, the black lake would be closed off. The task was in February, so just to be safe, Harry would have to acquire and outfit a sub, then transport it secretly to the black lake in a place it could be hidden, all before January.


    The last problem was the most delicate. Harry discreetly borrowed an owl and sent a letter to his Gringotts account manager that Peter Pettigrew had been found alive and asked for arrangements to be made for the freeing of his godfather. He already received a reply instructing him to capture the rat in a week and to get Amelia Bones involved as Sirius was her betrothed.


    And now Harry found himself in front of the star of Hufflepuff, Cedric Diggory, and asking, "Would you be able to get Susan Bones? There is a matter I need to speak with her about."


    Cedric thought on it for a moment before answering back, "Um, sure. Oh yeah, have you figured out the clue yet?"


    "Yeah, it''s mermish. Open the egg under water. Basically someone we each care about will be taken as a fake hostage and thrown into the black lake and we''ll have an hour to rescue them. My muggle toys don''t do underwater so I''m still thinking up ideas."


    Diggory was more than a little surprised Harry not only easily figured it out, but was willing to give the summary to him. He''d check it out himself of course, but having three full months to prepare certainly helped him.


    A few minutes later Susan Bones, a short but cute redhead came out of the dorms. "You wanted to see me Potter?"


    Harry nodded and said, "This is going to get very complicated so don''t jump to conclusions before I''m finished. First, what do you know of your aunt''s relationship with Sirius Black?"


    She looked offended for more than just a moment but held her tongue about why Harry was asking such a personal question for now. "She doesn''t speak of him much, but what happened really hurt her."


    Harry nodded. "From what I''ve seen of the arrest records, Sirius literally shouted, "I killed Lily and James," to the sky which seemed to be enough for everyone to simply skip giving him a trial and he was sent directly to Azkaban."


    Susan nodded. More than a few knew that Sirius never had a trial but there were over a dozen Aurors cited as witnesses to his confession so it didn''t seem to matter back then.


    Harry continued, "The reason he said that was because it was his idea to change the secret keeper from himself to Peter Pettigrew. Turns out Peter was the traitor, and if Sirius hadn''t suggested the swap, my parents might still be alive."


    Susan scowled at Harry because it was far more likely this was a cruel prank at her aunt than it was the truth.


    Harry noticed this and said, "I wouldn''t bring this up if I didn''t have evidence. Pettigrew is alive, and I know where he is."


    Her scowl lessened to a degree before she asked, "And what do you want me to do?"


    "Contact your aunt and bring her here without raising alarms. Once here, I swear I will bring her directly to Pettigrew. I don''t know if he will be armed or not but he won''t be expecting to get caught."


    There were of course several ways to contact Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement without going through her niece. But they were all about as subtle as calling a fire truck by pulling the fire alarm.


    Susan asked a few more questions and Harry answered what he could. She said she would send her aunt a letter and bring her here in an hour.


    Harry had chosen Saturday for this plan simply because the redhead with the pet rat usually spent it playing games with their other roommates and the rat seemed to be caged up during this time.


    Harry stayed in the Great Hall with a book on runes laid out at the Gryffindor table while Susan waited at the other table. An hour passed and the doors of the great Hall opened to reveal a slender redheaded woman wearing an Auror''s uniform flanked by two others wearing the same uniform.


    Harry walked right up to her and introduced him, "Ms. Bones, thank you for coming, I''m Harry Potter."


    The woman''s passive face arched an eyebrow. The Daily Prophet articles recently were most confusing as they claimed Sirius Black had secretly escaped and was responsible for Harry''s vanishing act a year prior while everyone thought he was dead. The post first task article also claimed it was Black''s idea to use muggle toys to complete the task. Amelia was uncomfortable reading those articles as she knew they could not be true and also knew that Sirius would have enjoyed reading them himself. That last realization truly hurt.


    The head of the DMLE said, "I do hope you understand the severity of your claim Mr. Potter. One way or another I will be taking someone to my holding cells today, and if a word of what my niece has written is untrue, I can promise that someone will be you."


    Both Aurors flanking Madame Bones flinched at her scowl which wasn''t even directly at them. Harry remained unphased which Ms. Bones noticed either meant he was a very good liar, or perhaps...


    Harry said, "I understand Ms. Bones. Please follow me and I''ll explain on the way."


    Harry led the group up to the Gryffindor tower with Susan and a few others in tow, wondering what was going on.


    Harry explained aloud for everyone along the way, "According to a letter I found, Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper. It was Sirius''s idea. A giant prank on You Know Who and the Death Eaters. If a Secret Keeper is killed, those who were given the secret become Secret Keepers themselves. Sirius knew he would die before giving up his friend''s lives, so he told everyone he was the Secret Keeper so that he would be targeted, and if he actually did die, others who knew the secret and were more inclined to share it wouldn''t be able to."


    Harry didn''t see it but Amelia''s face frowned in realization and a little bit of shame. It was exactly something Sirius would do and if the secret was only given by parchment, no one would know who the actual Secret Keeper was.


    One of the Auror''s spoke up, "But he confessed."


    Amelia answered back, "If it was Sirius''s idea to use Peter, he would have felt responsible for their deaths regardless. Something that would have become known had he been given a trial."


    The other Auror said, "But those muggles he killed."


    Harry said, "If Peter survived, then the question of who actually killed those muggles is no longer certain."


    By this time they had reached the Fat Lady''s portrait and Harry said, "Balderdash." The Fat Lady looked questioningly at the guests but as they had Auror robes, she did not hesitate to open up.


    Before the group could enter the common room, Harry said, "Wait here a moment."


    He then walked up to the redhead playing Chess and said, "Would you mind bringing your rat in his cage? I saw something unusual about him. He might be special."


    The redhead looked confused for a moment and said, "Scabbers? Special? Not that dingy old rat."


    "How old exactly is that rat?"


    The redhead looked pensive for a moment and answered back, "Ten years I think."


    Harry smiled back and said, "Rats normally die of old age after two years. Can you please fetch him?"


    The redhead looked more confused but said, "Alright," before heading off to his room.


    Amelia and the others heard the conversation and Harry motioned for them to enter.


    Harry said, "The only thing they found of Peter was a toe and according to the letter my mum wrote, Peter was an unregistered rat animagus. The rat he''s bringing is missing a toe on its front paw and as you heard, it has been with his family for ten years."


    A moment later the redhead brought the cage containing Scabbers and Amelia quickly took it from him. When she looked at the rat within, it looked back at her and backed into a corner.


    She gave a cruel smile at this and directly reached into the cage and grabbed the rat. She let the cage fall with her other hand before grabbing her wand and tapped the rat.


    A moment later the rat enlarged into a grotesque fat man. The cruel smile deepened as she practically sneered, "Hello Peter."


    Before the man could even whimper, a Stunner was sent by another Auror.


    Harry quickly thought of something and said, "If you take him back to the Ministry, Galleons will likely be used to delay his questioning before removing the source, just like they were to keep my godfather from a trial. Would it be possible to question him in an unused classroom before taking him away?"


    Madame Bones considered it and was disappointed to admit Harry wasn''t wrong. Although not compliant with regulations, she wasn''t going to let Sirius stay in Azkaban for another moment if she could.


    Another Auror said, "I did bring Veritaserum. A witness would be required but if we call McGonagall and Dumbledore, they''d fit the bill I''d think."


    Amelia said, "I do believe Dumbledore has a Floo in his office. Using it to leave but doing a few things with the Headmaster as witness before we head out would not be unacceptable."


    The Aurors left with Peter floated out with magic and the common room remained silent for only a moment before bursting into questions. Harry did the best he could to answer and promised the redhead he would replace his pet.


    The events that followed were somewhat summarized by the Daily Prophet. "Posthumously Awarded Order of Merlin Third Class winner found alive as a Marked Death Eater!"


    The testimony given under veritaserum proved he killed those thirteen muggles and framed Sirius Black who was never the secret keeper to begin with. He was the one who led Voldemort to Godric''s Hollow that night and ran away when his master was vanquished.


    Harry''s concern about Pettigrew however proved accurate when the rat reportedly escaped custody with help from an unknown ?ssailant. Luckily the earlier Testimony was enough to warrant the trial of Sirius Black who was found innocent of all charges and admitted into St. Mungo''s Wizard Hospital for care.


    As if trying to make up for the blunder of imprisoning an innocent man and allowing the guilty party to go free, the Minister of Magic in his great wisdom thought to ?ssign a hundred Dementors to guard the school in the case of Pettigrew''s return.


    Harry was conflicted over that last part. His quest very clearly said to master the Patronus charm which he did a week into the first year, but would that have been needed if Harry hadn''t captured Pettigrew? He thought the Quest wasn''t a self fulfilling prophecy. Then again, perhaps he would have needed it anyways. He still hadn''t defeated Voldemort and it was said the man could control the blasted things.


    Of the Quest requirements he had for the year, mastering the Patronus charm and defeating the Basilisk were the only two things he had completed. He still didn''t know anything about the Philosopher''s stone he was supposed to protect. Sure, academically he knew it apparently could turn base metals into gold and produce an elixir that would heal any wound and stop a person from aging for a time. He also understood in all likelihood Voldemort wanted it and Harry had to stop him from getting it. But how? Harry had no idea where the thing was.


    If he were Dumbledore or Nicolas Flamel, he''d give it to someone and ask them to hide it, obliviate that person of the knowledge they had of it, then when the time was needed he could ask them where they would hide it if they did have it. Using that method, Dumbledore could even have told Hagrid to hide it in the forbidden forest and obliviated the knowledge of doing so from Hagrid. There were too many perfectly undefeatable ways to protect something using magic and if Dumbledore hid it, there should be no way for anyone to find it right?


    Of course, this was under the ?ssumption that Dumbledore was competent. Harry''s stomach felt cold when he thought that his ?ssumption relied on this for some reason.


    At the moment what he knew was that Quirrel wanted him dead and likely entered Harry in the Tournament. However Harry had no proof one way or another that Quirrel was connected to Voldemort or not. He knew someone opened the Chamber of Secrets and although Harry took care of the Basilisk, the culprit remained unknown. Harry kinda hoped that was Quirrel as well but he couldn''t rush to judgement.


    Worst case scenario, Harry would have to fight Voldemort, Quirrel, whoever released the Basilisk, an army of Dementors, all of Voldemort''s Death Eaters, and Peter Pettigrew all at once. Oh, and if any of them got the Philosopher''s stone, Voldemort might end up immortal.


    And Harry had a ball to attend, a submarine to build, and training to do.


    At this point Harry was tempted to ask a teacher for a Time Turner, but that would constitute ?ssisting a student with the Tournament so they couldn''t do it.


    Harry wondered at this point if faking his death, again, would be easier than Hell Mode. Harry already found the part of the settings that would turn things into ranked dungeons and Harry turned it off forever. Even if there were fabulous prizes at the end, Harry didn''t want to have to go through something like this again, ever.


    Harry decided for the final boss he would cheat as much as possible. Like stocking up on one use overpowered items and filling his inventory with them. Harry had to create them, but he was coming along. He was tempted to buy a gun or a pile of grenades, but unless he built them from scratch himself, the exotic energy he released would change the physics of them and likely prevent them from working or worse, would make them go off prematurely.


    It was a little known fact that magic shields didn''t protect against bullets. Most Magic shields were designed to block magic. There are in fact spells that repel or block arrows, but the force of a bullet was 20 to 70 times more condensed than a primitive arrow and Harry hadn''t found a single spell he felt capable of stopping one. In order to have a magic proof gun though, Harry would have to rune inscribe the bullet, the shell, and every single individual part of the gun. He would also have to make and press his own ammo for that to work, he couldn''t buy his own. Thanks to that, he couldn''t simply whip a gun out of his inventory and pop Voldemort between the eyes. Well, he could, if he suppressed his own exotic energy to the level of a non-magical. But then obviously he couldn''t use magic. Perhaps as a Plan ''M.''


    Harry also had that treasure trove of nice things he looted from Salazar''s study. Going over those tomes on Parsel Magic Runes made Harry feel like Christmas had come early. There was also a large amount of very nice Ritual magic and Blood Magic tomes. Harry was sure whoever controlled the Basilisk didn''t know of that room or those books would have been taken long ago.


    The problem oddly enough was that very few of those nice things, even the blood magic, were of any use to Harry at the moment. Since Harry''s blood turned back into magic particles and faded away a few minutes after leaving his body, any blood magic Harry performed would not last longer than a few minutes. This did however provide some opportunities. Blood magic, even using your own, was illegal in Britain with very few exceptions. But if he didn''t need the effect to last long, Harry could potentially perform blood magic and later there would be no evidence. This meant although Harry couldn''t use any of the really powerful blood magics with long term effects, he could use short term effect ones like those that boost magic and such free of risk.


    The Parsel runes were more useful for Harry''s hobbies and he already incorporated them into his magic resistant rune scheme to place on electronics. It was thanks to that his helicopters could even fly in proximity to a dragon without getting fried as dragons practically emit a medium level spell''s worth of exotic energy just from breathing. Harry really wanted a magic proof rune scheme but even months of Paused times turned up no way to create one with just what he had.


    Harry however didn''t let all his worries get him down, not today, for today was a very special day. It was the last class of the last day before the Winter Break and it was also Potions class with Snape.


    Hermione fidgeted every so often at the beginning of class but luckily the potions professor''s attention was on Harry so he missed the signs of nervousness. The professor had placed his cauldron on the fire a few minutes ago and was currently berating everyone except Draco for not being perfect, even making up things to accuse people of as he pleased.


    "Potter, your ingredients look like they were sliced by a blind drunk." He pointed his wand at Harry''s ingredients and cast an Incendio charm, burning them all to a crisp. "5 Points from Gryffindor for wasting ingredients. You''ll receive a zero for the day."


    Suddenly Snape heard a sound that was forbidden in his classroom. A snicker. He turned to face the sound but found not one, but several people seemingly trying to hold back their laughter. He sneered and said, "What could possibly be so amusing?"


    One of the slightly braver Slytherins pointed at Snape''s cauldron. Snape turned and saw that his cauldron bore several words that glowed in bright pink letters. "Snape treats me horribly, no wonder he doesn''t have a girlfriend."


    Snape quickly pointed his wand at the letters and cast a quick cancellation spell at the letters but it did nothing. He then used a cauldron cleaning spell but that too had no effect. The snickering got louder. He turned to Harry of course, but the boy didn''t even look up. Harry was staring at his book through his perpetually broken glasses which he still wore to every one of Snape''s classes. The fact that he still turned in good work when Snape didn''t sabotage him remained one of the great mysteries of Hogwarts.


    Snape of course played his part and deducted further points from Harry, his only evidence that Harry did it was his lack of a denial when asked. Of course everyone knew Harry didn''t speak in that class so everyone saw it as a low blow.


    After class, Harry got the message he was looking for.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Heir of the Marauders.


    Reward: Animagus Perk]


    Harry smiled inwardly. Quest rewards really were quite good. Neville had already turned to Hermione and asked, "How''d you do it Hermione?"


    She looked abashed and said, "I used a solvent and chemical that stained his cauldron. The chemicals the stain was made up glowed pink in the presence of pewter at a certain temperature. It wasn''t a magic reaction so he couldn''t cancel it. And since it was an active chemical reaction, his cleaning spell wouldn''t work unless he used it for a few minutes.


    Harry put his arm around Hermione and said, "You pranked a teacher, I''m so proud of you."


    She looked sideways and removed Harry''s arm. "I did lose the bet."


    The twins somehow heard about the prank and congratulated Hermione on it after questioning her thoroughly on how she did it. Seems they intended on starting up a joke shop and she''d given them a number of ideas. Oddly enough, Hermione really clicked with the pair as they were both brilliant and knew lots of muggle chemistry along with charms and potions along with their applications.


    Hermione actually got the idea for the prank during one of Harry''s lessons with her. His Scholar Rank progressed not just when teaching magic, but any subject. Harry abused this of course and brought Hermione''s mundane studies up with every week and at the moment she was at freshman level high school in Chemistry, Algebra, Biology, and Physical Sciences like basic physics and geology. Harry was hoping that teaching her enough to get her accredited for a GED by the summer would be enough to get his Scholar Rank to 21. She could then start college level material and by the time she finished Hogwarts, she''d be able to get into any University and do whatever she wanted.


    She was Harry''s first student and he had already become quite invested in her future so he wanted her to be the best she could be.


    After getting Hermione a dress on the first day of the Winter Break, Harry snuck out of Hogwarts and headed to Gringotts to get more British Pounds and eventually bought a personal sub about the size of a motorcycle and a large amount of extras.


    Harry invited Hermione to carve the Magic Resistance runes into the submarine parts which she accepted as long as Harry answered her questions.


    "I understand how the runes work together, but why does this prevent magic from destroying it? I mean we''re using magic to make the runes aren''t we?"


    Harry considered the best way to translate how it worked and answered back, "Imagine that magic is like water and that electronics don''t like water. This castle would be raining all day every day and us students are worse than sprinklers when we use magic.


    Hermione nodded and Harry continued, "This rune scheme uses magic to hold back magic. It is basically like covering the electronics in a layer of water then freezing the water into ice. The ice surrounds the electronics, preventing more water from getting in, and the ice itself doesn''t penetrate the electronics so they still work because they''re not technically wet."


    It was actually more complicated than that as the volume the runes prevented the magic from penetrating was not so easily described. However as long as Hermione practiced, she could use these rune schemes in the future herself to prevent electronics from frying around her. Harry already showed her how to suppress her magic like a muggle so she wouldn''t be trapped in the magic world like other muggleborns.


    The Yule Ball came and went without fuss. Hermione looked as stunning as a twelve year old in a dress could be and Harry looked nice in a tuxedo as well. Hermione enjoyed counting off each person she caught staring at Harry aloud just to mess with him and break the tension.


    Before the last day of 2004 the parts of the sub had been inscribed and reassembled, The fully ?ssembled sub could actually be shrunken and re-enlarged without breaking, something he only was able to do with the stereos before. It allowed Harry to bring it to Hogwarts in his inventory and place it in the Black Lake.


    The sub had a remote control which Harry used to sink it down and partially bury it.. He could remotely set it to come up when he needed it so he set a timer that would automatically bring it to the surface of the lake near the shore at 11:01am on February 24th, a minute after the first task was set to begin.

 Chapter 11 - 11 Taking the Second Task Sirius

    The first interesting thing that happened of 2005 was Harry getting ?ssaulted and squeezed nearly to death by a man he''d never seen before, "Come ''ere Pup!"


    Sirius Black had been released from St. Mungo''s and was finally free to see his godson for the first time in ten years. Though he had to meet Harry in Hogsmeade as opposed to Hogwarts which still had dementors flying around it. Understandably the man never wanted to come within a thousand feet of a dementor again.


    His godfather brought him to a pub where he checked into a room and sat his godson down.


    "So, I''ve been hearing all sorts of things about the adventures we''ve been on for the last year. Not that I disapprove, but what was that about?"


    Harry shrugged, "When I first came to the wizarding world, they had books about my adventures too. I don''t exactly remember doing those things either."


    Sirius smirked and continued, "And what''s this about you dying last year. That''s not exactly a joke even I would approve of."


    Harry shook his head and said, "I didn''t have any say in that and I don''t want to talk about it. Did you like Skeeter''s articles?"


    Sirius smiled and said, "Loved ''em pup. What did you have in mind for the second task? Can I help?"


    "I already finished preparing for that one but there is something during the task you can do if you want though. I''ll go over it with you later."


    Sirius''s smile faltered and silence fell for a few moments. He said, "Can you forgive me Harry? I wasn''t there for you."


    Harry waited a few moments before answering back, "Things don''t always go the way you wanted them to."


    Sirius raised an eyebrow and stated with a smirk, "Now when did the brat I used to change the diapers of get so wise?"


    "Don''t tell anyone, but I am secretly a genius. Only two of my friends know and Dumbledore suspects but he hasn''t told anyone."


    "A genius you say? We''ll see about that."


    An hour later and Sirius Black was lying prone on the ground in defeat. He had thought trying to show his godson his animagus form and explaining how he succeeded in only a few years without professional help would convince Harry of his own amazingness. Harry ended up asking twenty or so questions regarding the animagus process and now Harry was a large, nearly pure white Snowy Owl.


    Sirius was very clear that you couldn''t choose your animagus, it was something that was already a part of you and Harry was not disappointed. The Snowy Owl was pretty much the largest species of owl and a bird of prey, top of the food chain. It was also native to the UK, Europe, and even North America so it would not be out of place if he was seen flying around. Throw in the symbolism and the pure color and Harry allowed himself to feel more than a little pride at the quality of his inner animal.


    Sirius was dramatically banging his fist on the ground and called out, "Ok, you win, I give. You''re a genius."


    The fact that Harry got the Animagus Perk in advance but didn''t know how to use it until now was something he would never speak of. His Godfather looked like his ego could use a little deflating.


    Harry shifted back and began talking with Sirius Black in earnest about whatever he could think of. The reason was simple, when Harry went from that hell of a cupboard to that heaven of his parent''s arms, the act of his parents telling him about their lives was almost therapeutic. Sirius Black had just gotten out of his own personal hell of Azkaban and Harry was now with one of the only three people in this world he considered family other than Lupin who he couldn''t find and his cousin Andromeda.


    Harry told him about his life with the Dursleys and only the fact that they had already been confirmed dead stopped Sirius from sending them on their way himself. Harry said he didn''t remember what happened that night but showed up a year later in a park with new knowledge and a letter. It was that letter that told him to find out what happened to Sirius which led to Harry getting the details from the goblins.


    Several parties tried to stall Sirius'' trial through several means, but the goblins had already taken significant measures to prevent their interference beforehand in the week prior to the rat''s capture. It was only thanks to that measure his godfather was a free man less than a month later.


    Sirius was surprised that not only had Harry captured the rat, but had arranged ahead of time for the interference of others. Had Harry simply gifted Pettigrew to the DMLE, Sirius would likely still be in Azkaban


    After a few more hours of conversation they had something of a plan which Harry later brought to Dumbledore, who immediately approved. Sirius would stay in Hogsmeade for the remainder of the school year and every weekend Harry would be allowed to go to Hogsmeade where his godfather would secretly train him to the best of his abilities.


    Dumbledore''s smile could not be brighter when Harry asked this of him and Dumbledore had no problem approving it. This did not constitute ?ssistance from the school as 3rd years and above were allowed to go anyways and Harry only being a first year was at a disadvantage for not being allowed. Dumbledore even suggested using the path beneath the Whomping Willow to access Hogsmeade so the training could truly be done in secret.


    Harry figured Dumbledore had been looking for a way to make things up to Harry for some time but the restrictions of the Tournament had prevented many of the ideas he could think of. He couldn''t even hire a private tutor for Harry as paying for it himself or through Hogwarts was still considered ?ssistance.


    Thankfully, Sirius was in no way a student or staff member of Hogwarts and had the grounds not been covered in Dementors, Dumbledore would have allowed the man to use the Guest Quarters at the School. Dumbledore also suspected another reason for Harry''s plan. Sirius had been locked away and useless for a full decade. Now he was being given the chance not only to keep in contact with one of the last remnants of his family, but also to feel useful by training Harry himself as the only person who could do so. When Dumbledore saw Sirius during their most recent meeting, the man had the fire of life once more burning in his eyes, something he sorely lacked when he visited the man at St. Mungos a few weeks prior.


    Had Dumbledore known the other reason Harry set up this arrangement, he would not have been so pleased. Harry pretty much told Sirius he could memorize several books a week and asked him to bring some from the Black Family Library each weekend. Sirius wasn''t thrilled with returning to his prior home but he couldn''t deny the request. Since Harry also told him the future was looking dangerous, Sirius also felt it would be wise to brush up on his family magics himself.


    The only part of the meeting that Harry didn''t enjoy was Sirius''s hysterical laughter when he answered a question that had been on Harry''s mind since Sirius obtained his freedom.


    "What are you going to do about your Lordship? You have a target on your back since once you die, everything goes to some death eater right?"


    Sirius had a maniacal grin when he said, "You mean what am I going to do about that fact that Malfoy wants me dead? I''ve already taken care of that pup. Should I die from anything but old age, you''ll inherit everything, save a few trinkets for my favorite cousin and Mooney."


    "What?"


    It was at that point looking at Harry''s dumbfounded expression Sirius started a five minute laughing fit. Harry was tempted to hex the man but this was likely healing him better than St. Mungos had so he couldn''t in good conscious stop him. Next time though...


    Two months passed quickly and on the eve of the day of the second task, the redheaded twins came up to the common room and said, "Hermione, McGonagall said she needs to speak with you."


    Without looking up from the Runes book Harry gave her for Christmas, she said, "No."


    The entire common room went silent. One or two students checked the windows to ensure the sky wasn''t falling as Hermione Granger had just refused instructions from a teacher!


    The twins looked equal parts impressed and distressed. Hermione told them, "I know what she wants and I have no intention of agreeing. Tell her to find someone else."


    Neville realized what she was referring to and said, "Me neither, I''m not a very good swimmer."


    The twins picked up on something and decided it was worth the risk to go along with it. They returned to McGonagall and gave her the pair''s message. She was surprised they knew what she was going to ask and not surprised they refused. If she were their age, she wouldn''t want to do it either. There wasn''t anything further she could do so she asked the twins to fetch someone else.


    This time they did ask what for as if the situation was worth refusing, they had the option of refusing to help. McGonagall caved as the point of discretion was preventing Harry from learning of it in advance. The fact that he already knew made that pointless. When the twins thought it over, they agreed to fetch the student. They knew he''d agree to help and he could in fact swim. That and if Harry knew about it, he likely already had a plan.


    The next day had the whole school and the foreign delegates on some bleachers overlooking the lake. Several men with passive faces had been paid by someone to prevent anyone from approaching the lake for the past month. Cedric had already spent much of January practicing in the lake so this didn''t impede him much. It did however stop Fleur and Victor from practicing as they only solved the egg after January. The one who paid these men was pleased when reports came in that there were no signs of Potter doing anything in the lake. He also made a few other arrangements to ensure the task went as he felt it should. Either do it with magic or not at all.


    Harry lined up on the docks with the other three contestants. Unlike them, Harry wasn''t wearing clothes that would be comfortable when wet which got a number of reactions, most of them concerned. Cedric simply raised an eyebrow and hoped the first year wouldn''t show them all up too badly this time.


    Up in the sky was a shining silver phoenix patronus cast by Dumbledore at Harry''s request to keep the Dementors as far from the lake as possible. Thanks to this, Sirius was able to join the audience to watch the task.


    Bagman used magic to turn himself into a loudspeaker and said for all to hear, "Well our champions appear ready for the second task and they have one hour to recover what has been taken from them. I have also been informed that to prevent outside interference, nothing not currently in the lake or on the Champion''s person is allowed in the lake. Any wizard approaching the lake will be stopped and any object entering the lake will be destroyed."


    The man seemed completely ignorant that this would prevent Harry from using the same feat as last time. The reason Harry was sure of the man''s ignorance was that he figured the man had bet on him and didn''t seem dispirited at the new policy.


    Bagman continued, "On the count of three we shall begin. One, Two, Three!"


    The other contestants jumped into the water and waded out into the depths. Harry simply stood there while everyone watched him. The redheads both seemed a bit nervous.


    Suddenly something broke the surface of the water. Harry''s submarine stopped right in front of the dock and opened the hatch on its own, just as the timer he set for it instructed. Harry jumped in and shouted, "Now Sirius," before closing the hatch and submerging the sub.


    Sirius Black got a trunk out and set several small items in front of the bleachers. He then used his wand to remove the shrinking magic on them and now there were several 80" monitors in front of the bleachers. Hermione took over from there and used a remote to turn them on.


    Harry got a signal from his sub showing he was now live. On each monitor was a feed to one of the cameras on his sub looking out and a picture of him inside the sub appeared in the corner of each monitor. Harry turned on a microphone and said, "Testing, testing, do you read?"


    Sirius smiled and picked up the microphone Hermione already turned on and handed to him. He said, "Padfoot to Potter, we read you loud and clear. How you doing Harry?"


    Harry responded from the monitor, "Not bad. For anyone who has no idea what is happening, the answer is Magic. We''ll just leave it at that." Hermione shook her head but couldn''t keep the smirk off her face.


    The main feed came from a camera in the front of the sub so the audience could see what Harry was seeing in the lake as if they were there with him.


    Bagman, who had removed his voice amplification charm, said, "Was that thing already in the lake?"


    Sirius said into the mic, "Harry, Mr. Bagman wants to know if your sub was already in the lake."


    Harry answered back from the monitors, "Yes, I parked it here last year. I would have just shrunk it and carried it like these monitors, but I can''t use shrinking or enlarging charms so I had to plan ahead." That was a lie of course but he still wanted people unaware of his skill in magic.


    Bagman nodded, that was not against the rules so he had no problem with it.


    Sirius asked, "So what are you going to do Harry?"


    "Well, there are three places of interest in the Black Lake. The Sunken Ship, the Giant Squid''s nest, and the Merman Village. I''ll be checking those out to see where whatever has been taken from me has been placed."


    Harry knew it was likely in the Merman village, but he put a lot of effort into this so he wanted to make it a show. Besides, the Merman village was about a kilometer out and both the Sunken Ship and Giant Squid''s nest were only a little out of the way.


    First stop was the ship. Harry turned on the headlights of the sub which allowed the camera to see the ship they were closing in on. Harry spoke into his mic, "This boys and girls is the Silver Wand. Before the invention of portkeys in the 12th century, those incapable of apparition or without a Floo relied on this ship to take them to and from Hogwarts each year. It was as traditional as the Hogwarts Express is now. It lasted for two centuries before it finally succumbed to the years when magic could no longer restore it. Here it has rested for the last seven hundred years."


    Harry drove the sub around the ship, turning the camera to an angle so the monitors would see it though it wasn''t what Harry was facing.


    Once done with the ship, he turned off the lights and piloted the sub further into the lake. He had in fact used a dozen submersible drones with cameras to map out the lake in the second week of December so he had no problem finding things. A few of those drones placed markers around the lake bed Harry''s sub could use to triangulate its own position in the lake and the position of everything else.


    Back on the surface and watching the screens, Bagman was slightly upset the spotlight had been taken from him. On the other hand, if Harry had done nothing then the whole group would spend the next hour watching the surface of the lake waiting for something to happen. He decided to see it as an opportunity and took his time to consider the applications.


    Those who watched the monitors suddenly gasped when the lights turned back on and the giant red squid was looking at Harry. Its enormous body completely dwarfing the small submersible. A tentacle reached out and wrapped itself around the sub, bringing it to the creature''s eye. Harry turned the camera and dimmed the lights so it could be seen clearly.


    Harry turned on the mic and said, "The bane of ancient mariners and students at Hogwarts, should the latter decide to go for a dip in the lake. Or at least that''s what the chocolate frog card says."


    The squid released the sub and swam away a moment later. Harry continued, "The card isn''t quite accurate however. This squid is ticklish and enjoys bread which some students often throw into the lake. This fellow is also known to scoop up any first year who falls out of the boat and drops them back in. It is of course a magical squid, as the non-magical types are not ticklish, do not live in freshwater, and do not eat bread."


    Harry let the lights shine on the ground for a few moments revealing a lack of anything before saying, "To the village!"


    Hermione couldn''t stop herself from rolling her eyes at Harry''s narration. She looked around and confirmed most of the audience was engrossed in the monitors. Up to this point Harry hadn''t used a single spell so she wondered how he would be judged.


    Ten minutes later the monitors showed some grindylows approach the sub and try to grab something. However nothing they grabbed felt like flesh so after a few moments they got bored and left Harry alone.


    Harry dimmed the lights further as the next area seemed to be magically lit.


    The monitors showed the whole of the Merpeople village to many who had never seen it before. One of them approached Harry''s sub and the monitor showed Harry waving back and smiling. The merperson swam away and the others simply stood outside their houses and watched Harry''s small sub float past them on the underwater street.


    Harry turned his mic back on, not because he had something to say, but because the merpeople were singing and he felt the audience might want to listen.


    "An hour long you''ll have to look,


    And to recover what we took.


    Your time''s half gone, so tarry not,


    Lest what you seek stays here to rot."


    Harry''s face went a bit stern at that last line. He continued into the heart of the village where he saw a large statue of a merperson and tied to it by a cord of bundled weeds was four humans.


    Harry asked into the mic, "Which one''s mine?"


    Sirius seemed more than a little amused and asked Dumbledore, "Which one is Harry''s?"


    Dumbledore sighed when he remembered that his first pick and second pick had both figured it out ahead of time and refused. He said, "Ronald."


    Sirius said back into the mic, "Dumbledore says it''s Ronald."


    Harry asked back, "Who?"


    Bagman said, "The small ginger boy," which Sirius repeated back.


    Harry noticed that one of the hostages was indeed the redhead he played chess with. He wasn''t particularly great with faces, especially underwater.


    The location with the statue seemed to be a village square of some type and was surrounded by merpeople, most of which carried tridents. Luckily Harry''s sub really wasn''t that large so it did not appear threatening to them.


    It approached the hostages and Harry was inwardly glad he went with a sub instead of drones. How would drones free a bound hostage? Harry''s sub of course had many extras built in for many circumstances. But there was something he had to do first.


    Harry spoke into the mic and said, "Hey, I need confirmation, will any hostage that doesn''t get rescued actually be left here? I need someone to tell me otherwise or I''ll get them all and damn the tournament." The camera shifted to the little girl floating in the water.


    The judges discussed this and determined there was not much point in leaving it out now. Dumbledore said, "The song is merely for atmosphere, no harm will come to those left in the care of the merpeople."


    Sirius said into the mic what Dumbledore told him and Harry let out a sigh of relief. He said, "Thank you. That being said..."


    A mechanical arm came into the monitor screen and placed something against the red headed hostage. It suddenly attached itself to him like a belt. Harry then attached another object to him which looked like a block with a fan.


    Harry then used an arm that had some sheers on them to cut the rope. The yellow belt suddenly inflated which caused the redhead to quickly float to the surface. Harry switched the monitor feed from the front camera to the top camera. The merpeople around the village watched with interest and wondered what was going to happen. A moment before the hostage reached the surface, the inflated belt massively increased in size and became a raft that held the redhead above the water. The block he attached turned on and started dragging the raft in the direction of the shore like a small motor boat.


    Harry however piloted the sub off to the side and parked it there. He said back into the mic, "I hope you don''t mind if I make one hundred percent sure."


    Harry wasn''t aware of it but the mother of the little girl was watching from the audience and was more than thankful that someone was keeping watch over her daughter.


    The rest of the audience had no problem with Harry as they now had the best seat in the house. The monitor had a full view of the statue and the remaining hostages so they''d be able to see what happened themselves.


    The judges were simply going to rely on what the merpeople told them had happened to score the contestants, but now they didn''t have to.


    Harry''s hostage had awoken in his raft that was currently speeding towards the shore. His brothers told him Harry would definitely rescue him but this was certainly not what he expected. Where was Harry? His raft arrived at the shore and he was met by people with blankets who explained what had already happened.


    A few minutes later Cedric came by and spotted Harry. He had a bubble head charm and swam up to the Gryffindor first year and practically shouted, "Really Harry?!" He had no idea he was on television and that his reaction earned an ?ssortment of laughs from the crowd. He shook his head and took out a knife to slice the ropes and free his hostage. Harry was tempted to give them another raft but decided against it. He already helped him enough.


    Another few minutes passed and a half man half shark appeared wearing a Durmstrang uniform. He too took a long look at Harry''s sub while Harry waved back at him. The seventh year seeker tried to rip through the rope binding his hostage with his hands but they were too slimy and thick. If the man asked for help he''d give him a knife but offering before he asked would be insulting. After a few moments of looking Victor found a sharp rock. He actually attempted to get one of the merman''s tridents but they laughed at him. He used the rock to slice the rope then grabbed the line with his shark jaws and swam away.


    A few more minutes passed and Harry said into the mic, "Time?"


    Sirius said, "Fluer''s out. Seemed she got attacked by Grindylows. Times up in two more minutes so if you have another of those boats feel free to use it."


    Harry''s sub approached the statue again. One of the merpeople said, "Only one," through his glass. Harry said back, "I''ll wait till time''s up in a minute ok?"


    The merperson thought about it for a moment before nodding.


    Sirius said though the mic, "Time''s up pup, bring her home."


    Harry already had an arm positioned to place another belt on her. He then attached not another motor block but a line which tied her to his sub. Harry cut the reed corded rope and the belt inflated again. This time Harry''s sub rose with the hostage and the moment it reached the surface and turned into another raft, Harry floored it and sped the sub towards the shore. At full speed the kilometer back to shore was traversed in a few minutes. The sub landed ashore where another woman quickly made her way to the raft Harry was dragging and grabbed the little girl into her embrace.


    Harry opened the sub hatch and stepped onto the shore, still completely dry. Sirius chuckled and walked over to the sub to shrunk it for Harry as per the plan.


    Harry could tell from his smile that Sirius had a very good day.

 Chapter 12 - 12 Preparing for the Finals

    The scoring was a mixed bag. The Durmstrang Headmaster gave him a zero on account of the lack of magic Harry used. The fact that Harry got his hostage the fastest didn''t mean anything to him. Dumbledore gave a nine and Bagman another ten. Beauxbatons headmistress gave an eight for getting her champion''s hostage and for the interesting entertainment that came with it. Crouch gave a seven saying he would have given a ten had Harry used a single spell.


    Harry didn''t particularly care about the points but the Quest said he would be penalized if he did not get full marks for the third task so hopefully the scoring for that one would be different.


    The final task was on June 24th giving Harry four months to prepare.


    What was interesting right after the second task was not the lack of a certain reporter''s presence, but the presence itself. Harry had been waiting for her and he had been getting better at identifying specific energy signatures. He felt hers in the tent where he was going to meet his godfather but he didn''t see her. Though he did see a beetle that happened to be crammed with exotic energy.


    Harry whispered to Sirius, "Animagus bug reporter," before saying aloud, "I''m really glad all those bribes Malfoy paid got some good information on the second task ahead of time."


    Sirius had been a part of more than just one or two pranks in his lifetime so he knew how to improvise. He said, "Who can blame him, it''s thanks to you the man who controlled him is gone, what better way to thank you then helping from the side. Everyone cheats in a game like this."


    Harry asked, "Well since I did as you asked and used muggle toys, the odds of me winning should be in the negatives by now. Malfoy will definitely win back what he put towards this from the bets."


    Sirius nodded and said with a straight face, "Well it''s thanks to him no one knew I broke out of prison and rescued you from those muggles. The winnings from those bets are definitely deserved. Good job with that Pettigrew thing. Now I don''t have to pretend to still be in Azkaban."


    Harry asked with concern, "What do you think he is going to do to get me to win the last task?"


    Sirius answered, "Malfoy told me the last task will be some one on one duels. We''ll get some muggle toys that will let you beat the others easily. I think Malfoy said something about sabotaging the other contestants. I hope he doesn''t infect them with dragon pox again. The last time he tried that it wasn''t pretty. That poor fellow."


    Harry innocently asked, "Do I have to cheat?"


    Sirius answered in a hard tone, "Yes, if not for Malfoy helping me you''d still be with those horrible muggles and I''d still be in Azkaban. We owe him a debt and Wizards take debts very, very, serious."


    Harry looked down in sadness but in reality he was having trouble not laughing at that Sirius being serious line his godfather snuck in there.


    Harry left the tent and after a few moments he confirmed the beetle wasn''t following before he couldn''t take it anymore and collapsed into a fit of laughter.


    Sirius also took it as he cue and let it out as well. They laughed like a pair of madmen for a few minutes before his godfather asked, "Animagus bug reporter?"


    Harry nodded. "Skeeter, you know her?"


    His eyes shot up, "The one who did those lovely stories about my adventures?"


    Harry answered back, "I sensed her magic in a beetle in the tent. She showed up instantly after the last task and I was actually waiting for her. Instead of giving me another interview, she decided to play ''fly on the wall.''"


    Harry already told Sirius about his energy senses and his godfather took it into account during their magic practice over the last two months. Harry could almost predict what spell a person was going to cast before they cast it and he had no problem sensing spells from any direction.


    Once Sirius realized the very person Harry tricked into writing those ridiculous stories had just heard that performance of all things, he once more burst into a mad, cackling fit of laughter.


    Both of them were looking forward to what was to come.


    A week passed and neither were disappointed. The headline was titled Conspiracy and Lies.


    It spoke of deceit and betrayal around the Triwizard Tournament and the betting that had been going on in the background and the dirty deeds mixed in. It listed unnamed sources that prove Sirius Black and Harry Potter were cheating the tournament to affect the betting pools due to a debt they owed to Lucius Malfoy for preventing the press from discovering the fact that Sirius Black had escaped prison long ago. The article also mentioned Malfoy''s plan to infect the other contestants with Dragon Pox to ensure Harry''s victory.


    Harry fell out of his chair laughing in the Great Hall. The small blond Slytherin who also seemed to be Malfoy, not Mofo like he previously thought, was very confused at the article.


    When the redheaded twins saw the article and realized what had happened, they bowed to Harry and declared him the Lord of Pranks. He actually got the Daily Prophet to post such an article for all of Magical Britain to see.


    Outwardly Hermione declared it wasn''t very funny, but Harry caught a few twitches of her lip as she worked to prevent a smile.


    At this point in Harry''s schooling he had memorized every significant book in the Library including all the material from the restricted section.


    Harry already got Sirius to agree to take him to the Black Family home for Easter Vacation next month. Harry intended to memorize every book in that library and spend the rest of the vacation experimenting on projects he couldn''t do in the RoR.


    At this point Harry had already reached the limit of the RoR for training. It couldn''t provide greater than 10 times normal gravity so Harry spent a large amount of time when he could just analyze the magic of the room to see how it was put together.


    Harry''s weekday schedule consisted of waking up at 2 or 3am, four hours after sleeping and heading to the RoR. He''d exercise to his limit then spend time until morning either experimenting or studying. Much of his studying included charms, runes, and potions. He did buy a large amount of every ingredient and a nice cauldron so he certainly wasn''t going to let Snape stop him from mastering the art. One problem most people had with potions was that they expired after a while. Since time in Harry''s inventory didn''t move, Harry had stocked an impressive amount of potions and had every intention of increasing that number.


    The two hours before breakfast he''d use battle meditation to earn energy and then return to the dorm in time to join the others on their way to breakfast. The higher his level the more he needed to level up and it was already taking three days to level at this point.


    The twins somehow found out about Harry''s training and asked him where he went each night. Harry told them about the RoR which gave the pair some nasty smiles.


    After classes Harry would tutor Neville and Hermione, the latter getting tutored longer as she was also learning high school classes. Harry would first go over what they learned the prior week to ensure retention of the lesson then go over the theory of the new lesson then the practical application. Hermione benefited more from the theory but Neville learned more from the practical. Both were now doing the equivalent of their fourth year classes which for Hermione included the electives of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. He was also giving her a basic foundation for Alchemy by showing her where certain branches of chemistry were applicable in transfiguration and potions.


    At one point, Hermione jokingly said, "Harry, we''re going to run out of things to study soon. Whatever will we do next year?"


    Harry however couldn''t meet her in the eye.


    "Harry?"


    "Hermione, I don''t think I''m coming back next year," he honestly answered.


    "What? Why?"


    "I''ve already memorized the library Hermione. The whole thing. Other than teaching you and Neville, there isn''t much left for me to do here."


    "But you can''t leave, you''re still underaged. You''ll not be allowed to perform Magic unless you graduate."


    Harry shook his head, "Actually, the law says that anyone who doesn''t graduate Hogwarts will have their wand snapped and will be forbidden from acquiring another. That doesn''t apply to me as I''ve never used a wand. Also, my entry into the Triwizard Tournament has actually made me a legal ?du?t. I haven''t been an underage wizard since the 31th of October."


    Hermione looked downtrodden. Harry asked with a little hope, "Do you want to come with me?"


    She looked up and saw that it was a genuine offer. She could leave Hogwarts and return to the muggle world. She wouldn''t be allowed a wand but she had already taken steps to learn intent based wandless magic and had confidence she wouldn''t need her wand forever. That being said.


    "I''m sorry Harry, but I can''t."


    Harry gave a weak smile and said, "That''s ok. Can I ask why though?"


    She answered, "Do you remember what you said when I asked you if you were from a wizard family or a muggleborn?"


    Harry half smirked and repeated back, "Neither. I am an anomaly, an aberration, a tear in reality and a magnet of impending doom. You have been warned."


    She nodded and said, "This has been the most exciting, the most terrifying, the most insightful, and the most amazing year of my entire life. Warning or not, I wouldn''t trade it for anything in the world. But to be honest Harry, I can''t keep doing this. I''m getting burned out. If each of the remaining years of my life are less eventful or even boring, I''d be ok with that. But I know that if I stayed with you, this would just be the beginning wouldn''t it?"


    Harry nodded. He''d grow to like Hermione then really like her, maybe even more. But he knew that she was right. She was an amazing person, but she was perfectly happy with being a big fish in a little pond. He knew it would be different if he relied on her. She was the type to go above and beyond for anyone in need, but the fact was, he didn''t rely on her.


    Harry said, "Well then, I promise to at least continue to write when I can."


    She smiled sweetly and said, "I''d like that Harry." She was happy she wasn''t going to lose her friend.


    Harry''s weekdays were almost nothing when compared to his weekends. Sirius would be considered a level 120 Wizard with a Magic rank of 20, close to 21. When Harry started sparring with him, his own Magic Path Rank was at 16. Thanks to this difference, Sirius had been thrashing Harry for three hours a day every Saturday and Sunday.


    Few knew it but Sirius Black was actually the strongest wizard below Voldemort and Dumbledore in the whole of Britain.


    Some thought it was the Charms Professor Flitwick or the Transfiguration Mistress McGonagall, but Sirius could defeat either without difficulty if it came to a fight. Sure, Flitwick was a champion duelist, but duels had rules, etiquette, restrictions. Flitwick''s strengths thrived in a fight with such limitations for him and his opponent. But in a fight that didn''t have any rules, Sirius would win. McGonagall was the second best user of Transfiguration magic in Britain behind Dumbledore, but Transfigurations was a flashy, power intensive magic that looked impressive but lacked finesse. In a fight without rules she was weaker than Flitwick.


    Not that either were considered weak, both were equal if not a hair stronger than Voldemort''s supposed second in command Bellatrix Lestrange. But compared to Sirius Black both were lacking.


    He''d been raised with access to the Black Family Library yet he had the heart of a knight and the soul of a prankster. He had a reason to become strong, the means to do it, and a mischievous perspective that allowed him to easily think outside the box. The only person on Voldemort''s side who could defeat him in a one on one fight was Voldemort himself. Even on a bad day, Sirius could play with his cousin Bellatrix without difficulty and even make a show of it.


    Once Sirius understood Harry''s skill level, he dueled his godson without holding back. Harry actually had to brew potions to recover stamina for his godfather so he could put everything into each duel before collapsing.


    The results however spoke for themselves, Harry''s magic path rank had increased to 18 and he wanted to get it to 21 before the third task.


    Once Easter Break started the training was amped up to another level. Harry put every single book of the extensive Black Family Library in his inventory and then spent what may have been a full year paused before coming out of it. He''d never spent that long paused before because it would distance him from others. However since Hermione pretty much dumped him, he didn''t have a reason to hold back.


    And that was just the first day. For two weeks Harry would spend some unknown time paused going over everything and then unpause and experiment and finally he would duel Sirius for three hours and then digest the practical experience before experimenting some more.


    Oh, and Harry and Sirius saw something both of them wished they had never seen.


    On the second day of Easter Vacation, the Black Family House Elf shouted at Goose and told her she was a disgusting creature of the filthy half blood. Harry had taken Goose with him since he had no intention of leaving her at Hogwarts and he still spent some time each day chatting with her or petting her.


    Goose''s response to the elf''s accusation was to open her mouth and release a swarm of horrible purple tentacles and teeth more terrifying than anything the pair had ever seen. The tentacles grabbed the elf and he screamed and cried out and seemed to try to escape using elf apparition and elf magic, but once bound by the tentacles, it seemed ineffective. The tentacles drew the deranged house elf into Goose''s mouth where they disappeared behind the snapping sound of those unspeakable teeth which then completely withdrew into her body.


    Both witnesses agreed never to speak of the incident again.


    Once Harry got into his rhythm he realized how much he underestimated the Black Family history and magic itself.


    The Black Family had more volumes of Grimoires on various types of magics than the Potter Family, the Hogwarts'' Library, and Salazar Slytherin''s study combined. It wasn''t too surprising as a Grimoire is something written specifically by a witch or wizard about their own experiences with magic. A lifetime''s worth of wisdom and comprehension on magic and the Black family Library had over two hundred of them. Many Grimoires dated back to before the time of Hogwarts. There were even a few encoded passages you wouldn''t understand without reading the lot and once Harry had gone over them all a few times he cracked the code to the deeper aspects as well.


    However there was a problem with that. Each Wizard''s exotic energy reserve was limited. Other sources of energy were not. Someone using nature energy which fills the air could use magic to create a thunderstorm and call down lightning with only some difficulty. Wizards could perhaps do the same or more if they had the reserves, but no witch or wizard had enough internal exotic energy to compare the amount of nature energy that flowed freely outside. It was like comparing a bucket of spring water to a fire hydrant connected to a city''s water system. Quantity over Quality.


    Many members of the Black Family sought to fix that. They tried to combine their exotic energy reserves with external energies like the energy of nature or dimensional energy. They blew up.


    Harry figured from cross referencing history books that every wizard who had gone down the path of mixing energies had exploded. Not figuratively either. Their bodies weren''t built to store energy like that. Their''s weren''t, but Harry''s was.


    Unfortunately it was not that easy. Harry tried absorbing Dimensional Energy and Natural Energy through his battle meditation but even if used to increase the level of his body, it didn''t allow him to control it or use it to power his magic. He tried to control external dimensional energy but it wouldn''t move as he wished it to. Even if it did, he wouldn''t be able to master it before June so he decided to work on that if he was still alive once summer started.


    The Black Family home itself had many quaint features and random curses on the floors, doors, and items. Harry could see magic so they didn''t catch him unaware, but most of it was odd. Especially that locket in the downstairs drawer. From his senses it looked like a mass of black tentacles trying to infect others so he didn''t want to even put it in his inventory. For sixteen days Harry considered this place his home since for all intents and purposes, his family was here. However all good things eventually come to an end.


    At least when the end of the holiday came around, Harry''s stats looked much better.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 112 Age 11


    STR 80 AGI 201


    INT 300 WIS 300


    LUK 20


    Warrior Path rank 13


    Scholar Path rank 17


    Magic Path rank 20


    Tech Path rank 11


    Crafting Path rank 6]


    Harry spent most of the second week in battle meditation when he wasn''t sparring with Sirius. Harry was now able to reliably beat him without having to use blood magic to boost the strength of his spells. Harry was now a master at dodging spell fire thanks to his energy senses and agility. He also finally relented and added a few points to luck since experimenting was partially reliant on luck and he had many more experiments to attempt.


    Once Harry returned to Hogwarts, he found some good news and bad news. The good news was that the Dementors had left the grounds. Sirius even agreed to accept Dumbeldore''s offer and move into a guest room once he found out. The bad news was that there had been a mass breakout of Azkaban and the Dementors were no longer following the direction of the Ministry of Magic. Yeah, that was bad.


    Also, Harry''s request for the goblins to acquire some muggle firearms for him was denied. Their letter did explain why though. Muggle ammo did in fact tend to go off on its own when stored in a magic rich area, when magic was used near it, or when used by a magical being. Thanks to that it was too dangerous to get near and Gringotts had very specific policies on them. There were even stories of magicals losing fingers or even getting killed just trying to load a muggle gun.


    They didn''t even have any suggestions on where to get some himself. They stated that in 1997 handguns were made pretty much illegal so outside of rifles for sport, there were no means to acquire concealable firearms. You couldn''t even walk into a store that sold rifles and use magic on the clerk since the ammo in the store would go off.


    Harry really wanted one for plan M, even if he had to manually inscribe every bullet, but it seemed it wasn''t going to be that easy. He wanted to face Voldemort and his Death Eaters and whip out two tommy guns and shout, "Say Hello to my little friends!" He doubted anyone at the time would get the reference but it would still be satisfying to say.


    During the second week of April Harry complained about this problem to Hermione and Neville. Neville was not surprised Harry thought he would have to face Death Eaters and understood why he wanted a gun. When Harry explained how a fast moving bullet could go through any magic shield, Neville certainly saw why they appealed to Harry.


    Hermione of course being Hermione made Harry feel like an idiot by asking, "Why can''t you make a magic gun that shoots solid bullets using magic?"


    Harry then spent the next thirty seconds banging his head against the table while Hermione gave him her smuggest grin to date.


    Although Harry had access to more magical knowledge than anyone in the school, that didn''t mean the answers to some questions would just pop into his head. Did he know a dozen different potions recipes that could make something as good or better than gunpowder? Yes. Did he know metal transfiguration spells that would let him mold or strengthen metal to any form? Of course he did. Did he know runes he could directly carve onto bullets that would make them more powerful than an anti-tank round? Why yes, yes he did. But until Hermione mentioned it, he didn''t put it all together.


    Once Harry finished banging his head, he grabbed a parchment and drew a basic schematic of his idea. A few minutes later he walked over to a place he never thought he''d go. He knocked on the door and a few moments later it opened wide and he was faced with the perpetual sneer of Hogwarts.


    "Potter.. What do you want?"


    Harry said, "Can we speak inside?"


    The potions professor was tempted to refuse but his curiosity got the better of him. "Why not."


    Harry entered and the man closed the door. His mother had told him much about Snape as did his father which was why Harry never took anything the man did to him personally. Harry said, "It''s not like I haven''t enjoyed our game these last few months, but I need your help with something."


    Snape didn''t seem surprised in the slightest Harry knew his distaste for him was an act. Mostly anyways. The fact that Harry figured it out and went along with it would help Snape in the long run. But a meeting such as this was dangerous. Should Voldemort return, Snape would be expected to return to his side. The Dark Lord''s skill at mind reading was nothing to look down at and Snape preferred there to be as few interactions between himself and Potter where they were amicable as possible.


    Snape easily said, "As you know, according to the rules of the tournament, a member of the staff such as myself cannot ?ssist you with anything."


    Harry smiled at the wording and ignored it before getting out the schematic he drew earlier. He said, "Since we don''t know what the final task is yet this can''t be considered ?ssistance for the tournament. I''m going to make this to kill you-know-who and any Death Eater who comes for my life. Do you know how a gun works?"


    Harry didn''t avoid Voldemort''s name out of fear but simple politeness. Proving you could say it without flinching was about as classy as swearing during a dinner conversation to prove you were above caring for such things.


    Snape took the paper and noticed the muggle weapon shape but the composition of the gunpowder was written with a potion recipe. Not one he''d heard of as it was obviously meant for detonation, but that was beside the point. He''d also recognized the runes that would operate the device that may as well have been called an artifact considering how it functioned. A chill went down his spine as he imagined the power behind such an artifact. And it would work too. Mostly.


    Snape let out a deep sigh and handed back the paper. He said, "I cannot be a part of this."


    If Voldemort ever saw this memory Snape would certainly be killed. He didn''t mind death as he knew he deserved worse, but he would still prefer a less meaningless death.


    Harry had already figured out Snape''s angle and after a few moments said, "No one knows I came here. What if you give me all the advice you can think of, then Obliviate yourself of the conversation? Then we go back to how we were before."


    Asking anyone else to obliviate themself would earn a broken nose, but it was perfectly reasonable advice to a double agent.


    Snape took more time than he thought to consider it. After a full two minutes he said, "Under two conditions. First, I want you to answer every single question I have for you. Tell me what plans you already have and how strong you actually are. You''ve done a remarkable job until now playing the part of a simple slightly above average student. Should anyone ask, I can make myself believe it to be true even under Veritaserum or Legilimency, but if we''re going to do this I need everything. Second, before I obliviate myself, I will write myself a letter and give it to you. If you successfully kill the dark bastard then you will return it to me. Do we have a deal?"


    Harry held out a hand without hesitation and they shook on it.


    Harry told him as much as he could without telling him that he was pretty much a video game character though he did give a summary of the effects. The extra details he asked Snape not to include in his letter.


    Once Snape understood the relevant points he said, "Let me understand this. You are a mutant obscurial immune to the killing curse and poison. If you die from anything else you can easily, albeit painfully come back to life, though a little weaker. You have a timeless, internal pocket dimension of unlimited size. You are already stronger than myself and that foolish godfather of yours. And yet you intend on coming up with a method to defeat Voldemort, all his death eaters, and a hundred dementors, without revealing any of these facts to others."


    Harry said, "I also have the dissected parts of a basilisk corpse."


    Snape looked longingly to his shelves at his bottle of Ogden''s Finest Firewhisky but knew that it would be a waste to drink it for a conversation he won''t remember.


    The potions professor said, "Dumbledore hid the Sorcerer''s Stone in the passage behind the third floor corridor. Unfortunately, it seems to have been stolen during the second task."


    Harry felt his stomach drop.. That wasn''t good.

 Chapter 13 - 13 The 3rd Task and a Cutscene

    After finding out that the item he was supposed to protect was hidden in a place Dumbledore practically told everyone about on the first day, Harry cried out, "Why did he hide it there?!"


    Snape understood the underlying question and said, "For a sufficiently powerful wizard, almost any security measure is little better than a delaying tactic. The only one of any real worth is the Fidelius charm, but that spell cannot be maintained on a location without magical residents living there full time and the secret keeper cannot live there himself."


    He continued, "Few know of this, but there are ways of tracking the location of the Sorcerer''s stone which is why it is not so easy to hide. The corridor contained an ?ssortment of various obstacles and tasks, not designed to stop, but designed to stall the thief. Dumbledore himself intended to deal with whomever came for the stone, so the real security was Dumbledore himself."


    Harry understood the concept now that he knew better and once he considered it he did find that there really weren''t any truly fool proof security means. Recently he found out there is literally a spell that lets the caster find the direction of what they seek using the incantation ''Point Me,'' for crying out loud, though that too has its limitations. That was also why wizards left their wealth with Goblins. There was no perfect lock or security when it came to magic. The only thing you can really use to protect something was strength.


    Once Snape saw the understanding draw on Harry''s face, he said, "Because of your death, Albus resigned his post as Chief Mugwump so he was not informed of the Triwizard Tournament until after he had already swore to Nicolas Flamel to hide the stone for him. Several teachers including myself were stationed around that hall during the tasks but they seemed to find a way."


    Harry used his not inconsiderable amount of brainpower to put the pieces together in an instant. "Pettigrew. Pettigrew is an animagus rat. He could squeeze under the cracks of doors to or go around those obstacles whenever he needed to. If Pettigrew investigated the whole thing then brought the details back to whoever got him free, they would have enough time to figure out how to get around them quickly."


    Snape''s eyebrows raised a bit as he considered it. The truth was that the only obstacle that had any real significance was the Cerburus he refused to call by its given name and the Mirror of Erised. It would be impossible to see it and quickly figure out how to retrieve the stone. However, if Harry''s guess was accurate, Voldemort would know of the mirror before he retrieved the stone and perhaps he found a way around it ahead of time. The mirror wasn''t unbeatable after all, it was just Dumbledore''s best stalling tactic.


    Harry asked, "Can we track the stone?"


    He answered flatly, "Once the stone had been removed, its trackable signature seemed to have widened from a small space to a vast area. All anyone knows is that it is somewhere in the UK. We can''t even tell if it is Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, or still in Hogwarts herself."


    Harry wasn''t exactly happy but what''s done is done. He went over all his various ideas and plans with Snape. When he saw one of the formulas Harry gave him he said, "This Aerosol Polyjuice Potion won''t work like this. You''ll need a stronger base to prevent the properties from breaking down instantly and it would never work with hair."


    Harry considered it and asked if it could be changed to work with blood. Since Harry''s blood even used as an ingredient would vanish after a couple of minutes, anything that used it as an ingredient would become ineffective at that point so it would only last a few minutes. But depending on the circumstances that wouldn''t be a bad thing.


    Once Snape understood the direction Harry was going, he really wondered how the brat avoided being put into Slytherin.


    Snape''s experience with runes was inferior to Harry''s so he couldn''t help with that, but he did know more about potions than the author of any book Harry had in his massive inventory. Like Sirius with light and dark magic and the will to use it, Snape had access and a reason to brew every potion of every alignment and had used his spare time over the last ten years further mastering the art.


    "This formula has potential but the critical reaction will take too long. A muggle weapon fires in nearly the same instant the trigger is pulled. This compound would have a moment''s delay which for your aims would be unacceptable. Also I understand why you would want an explosion, but a directed force expansion would put more magic into the force of the bullet as it adds to the intent." Harry found that although the potion master was still telling him everything he did wrong as he did in class, the man seemed to be enjoying himself as they were making something new.


    Harry gave him the uses of the various rune schemes he could use to ignite the gunpowder and the professor considered the best concoction for a stable but explosive powder that would eject the bullet from a cartridge with enough force and magic to deal with anything in its path.


    Another hour passed and Harry had a list of different possible gunpowders they thought up together. There was no way to determine which would be the best without further testing. Snape had written a letter to himself and sealed it with his own magic before setting up the stage for his own Obliviation. Harry left as he knew the man wasn''t likely to go against the plan. If Voldemort had the stone he could make a body anytime and call his supporters any day. Both Harry and Snape guessed what the man was waiting for which was why both were eager to complete the formula.


    Another month passed and Harry had dropped three levels though did gain them back. It was his first deaths since the tutorial and possibly even more painful than he remembered. It also clearly explained why no one else made a magic gun before this point. He wouldn''t bet he was the first to try, but of the list of those who did, there were likely no survivors. If it wasn''t for the autocorrection of his Crafting Path, he may not have been able to even do it successfully at all.


    On the last week of May, McGonagall told Harry to meet his fellow Champions on the Quidditch pitch.


    Flying brooms had likely advanced over the years, but the complex spells that went into the making of even the outdated ones were far beyond what could be imagined. First a magic array would be carved out of a large stone and a recess would be carved into the center of the array. The recess would be filled with a special potion that had some alchemic proprieties and a specially carved piece of wood, the broomstick itself would be submerged into the potion. The magic array would be powered by several witches and wizards and it would infuse the potion into the broom which would then harden into a crystal matrix of a very specific configuration. This matrix included the rune scheme pressed into the broom through the magic array which allowed it to fly using the exotic energy of a wizard.


    One of the things on Harry''s to do list was to find the secrets of the best brooms and make the best one for himself. For someone with an inventory, a very fast broom would be very useful.


    Once Harry reached the Quidditch pitch, he saw Ludo Bagman and the others. The field which Harry visited a few times to run was no longer flat, but looked like an irregular garden. Cedric starred in horror over the pitch as if the vegetation offended his family''s honor. Victor Krum''s expression was firm but appeared to share the sentiments of the Hufflpuff Seeker.


    Bagman noticed Harry''s approach and said, "Well, what d''you think? Growing nicely, aren''t they? Give them a month and Hagrid''ll have them twenty feet high. Don''t worry, you''ll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we''re making here?"


    Krum grunted out, "Maze."


    "Correct. The Triwizard cup will be in the center of the maze and the first to get it will receive full points. Points to the other contestants will be determined by how well they did once the cup has been acquired. When you enter the maze will be determined by your current point total."


    He looked back at Harry and said, "I''m sorry but it was decided against my objections that other than a wand you cannot take any tools into the maze, no muggle toys as it were. Nothing foreign can be placed in the maze ahead of time. And nothing not already in the field will be allowed in once the task has started."


    Harry shrugged and said, "Would it be against the rules if I took a step in then left the maze?"


    Bagman considered it for a few moments and said, "No, there is no rule to keep the contestants inside the maze once they have entered but there is only one entrance. Although you are behind in Points Mr. Potter, if you get the cup you earn fifty points regardless and if the other contestants haven''t shown off much before then, you could have enough to win."


    "So I can leave the maze and re-enter?"


    "Yes, but again, you can only enter with a wand, taking anything else with you won''t be allowed and there will be several wizards stationed around to specifically watch you and make sure you don''t use any muggle toys."


    Harry smiled which caused Cedric to frown, Fleur to sigh, and Victor to.. Well, he didn''t do anything really.


    Harry returned to the castle and was pleased he wouldn''t have to worry about the third task. His quest said he''d be penalized if he didn''t get full points and getting full points just meant getting the cup before anyone else.


    Another month passed and Harry only died once but gained two levels. He finally got a magic gunpowder formula and rune combination that worked for ammo and a gun prototype that worked well enough for his intentions. His tech and crafting path both ranked up twice and his magic path ranked up to 22 thanks to sparring with Sirius in the RoR every day. This meant that Harry had gone from 60 times weaker than Dumbledore to about 60% of Dumbledore''s strength. Not perfect, but workable.


    He also had enough secret aces to make him feel somewhat secure, if not comfortable. Though anyone else discovering what he had prepared would ask him to look up the definition of overkill. Was a working Reality Bomb of questionable stability really necessary to handle a group of terrorists?


    Harry stood with his fellow champions before the towering maze and Bagman spoke to the ?ssembled crowd and gave a pause for applause between each sentence.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In first place, with eighty-eight points, Mr. Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts School! In second place, with eighty points, Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! In third place with sixty-eight points, Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy! And in last place with sixty-five points, Mr. Harry Potter, of Hogwarts School!


    Regardless of the point difference each place would enter a minute after the others so Harry would enter three minutes after Cedric did.


    Bagman counted off the seconds while each contestant gave another look at Harry and inwardly hoped he wouldn''t show them up too badly this time.


    Once Bagman reached the mark Cedric sprinted into the maze. Harry took a look into the crowd and wondered how the final boss battle would appear. He hoped it wouldn''t be here since there would be a lot of casualties. Sirius was aware of Harry''s fears and was sitting in the bleachers with the Gryffindors and a wand in his hand. He met Harry''s eyes and gave a devilish smile. He alone knew what Harry was planning. A few seconds before Harry''s mark, Sirius got up and made his way to the judges table to pass on a note.


    "Three-Two-One-Go!" shouted Bagman.


    Harry leisurely entered the maze. Waited a moment, then walked out of the maze.


    Bagman saw this and let his head fall in disappointment. Harry looked him in the eyes and smiled as he shifted into his animagus form and a moment later took flight, directly above the maze.


    Bagman shouted, "Look at this! Harry Potter is an Animagus! Is he registered?"


    At that moment Sirius had reached the man and handed him a slip of paper which he read before shouting to the audience, "I have just been informed that Harry turned his registration papers in this morning so he is in fact a registered Animagus, a White Snowy Owl. And he is, Yes! He is flying over the maze! I can ?ssure you this is no violation of the rules and he is in fact using magic! Animagus training usually takes years so no one considered a student to be capable of this! Certainly not a first year. This is incredible!"


    From the maze everyone heard a familiar shout of, "Really Harry?!" which caused more than a few giggles.


    Harry easily spotted the shining cup and swooped down to grab it by his claws and carry it back. The moment he touched it though, he felt himself get dragged by his stomach as the portkey activated.


    Bagman shouted, "Potter got the Cup! Wait, where did he go?"


    A few hundred miles away, a white owl appeared along with a cup in a dusky graveyard. Harry saw the wand pointed at him and heard the shout of "Stupefy," but as an owl there was nothing he could do. He had no idea he''d experience portkey sickness as an owl when he didn''t have that problem as a human.


    [You have been Stunned]


    Harry woke up tied to a statue. Someone used the spell to revert an Animagus to human and also seemed to place a spell on Harry to prevent him from changing back without the removal of the spell. The ropes that bound him were not normal ones but conjured ones and a little stronger than store bought ones.


    Voldemort was definitely here since no one else could stun him in a single shot with the ridiculous magic defense granted by his WIS stat. Harry paused the world and looked around. The paused world was immobile so he couldn''t snap his binding and walk about, but he saw enough.


    He was tied to a statue that had the name Tom Riddle carved into it. No idea who that was. In front of him were four people, three of which he recognized. Quirrel was there, no surprise. Pettigrew was there, though he looked like a strong breeze would make him beg for mercy. There was a student there in Ravenclaw robes. Harry didn''t remember her name since he never paid attention to names, but it was the fifth year girl Cedric took to the Yule Ball and was his hostage for the second task. Huh, you never can tell with some people. Harry wondered what would have happened if Cedric got the cup first. Last was an energetic man with manic eyes.


    The only thing besides the group was a cauldron three times larger than a bathtub which the group seemed to pay a great deal of attention to.


    Oh, there were also the hundred Dementors flying above the group. How does that not stand out? Luckily Harry''s game body and mental protection actually made him nearly immune to Dementors and they couldn''t suck his soul out since his soul didn''t really exist in his body. From what Harry could tell, it actually was in the same space his inventory existed.


    At the moment if Harry were to die, he would reform in the last place he was that he considered safe. That would actually be Sirius'' guest room at Hogwarts so there was no way to crush him repeatedly to level one. That being said, it looked like the group was up to something pretty bad. Probably better to not die and see what''s going on.


    He unpaused and shifted a little to check for any slack but the conjured rope constricted when loosened. Harry had a few ways to break it but now was not the time.


    Quirrel immediately noticed Harry had woken and said, "Potter, so good of you to join us."


    Harry calmly answered back, "Well I''ve never been one to turn down an invitation to a good party. Where''s the entertainment and the snacks?"


    The man he didn''t recognize growled back, "Do not speak to the master without respect unless you want me to rip your tongue from your throat!"


    Harry raised an eyebrow and looked back at Quirrel and said, "I wasn''t aware you had groupies Professor. Congrats I suppose."


    Quirrel motioned for the man to calm down before addressing Harry. "Your Professor has been dead for some time. Thanks to the elixir of life, I can remain in his body for as long as I wish, but tonight, I shall craft a new body."


    "Ah, not Quirrel. Well then introductions I suppose. I''m Harry Potter. Nice to meet you." Harry wasn''t going to do the same as a certain redhead and not introduce himself for six months.


    Not Quirrel seemed amused and said, "Very well Potter, you stand in the presence of Lord Voldemort."


    Harry kinda already figured that but he didn''t want to ?ssume. Quirrel wasn''t wearing the turban anymore and his level would have been about 130 with a magic path rank of 23. Harry wanted to find that turban later so he could examine it as it blocked exotic energy better than the rune scheme Harry took months to create.


    Voldemort was a little surprised that Harry''s lackadaisical attitude survived his own introduction. That wasn''t usual. He said, "Do stay comfortable Harry, the entertainment will begin shortly."


    He probably imagined that his evil sneer and morbid tones had caused a shiver of fear to trickle down Harry''s spine. At this moment though Harry had already figured out what was going to happen and was five moves ahead. He wondered who hated the fates so much they would mess up their script this badly.


    The ravenclaw student seemed nonplussed about the whole thing. However Harry realized she was not all there. According to his energy senses, her life force was almost entirely removed from her body and contained within the thin leather book she held. If the book was taken from her, she''d likely die or drop into a coma on the spot. The book itself seemed parasitical and more than a little familiar. But he couldn''t place where he''d seen it before.


    The manic man who yelled at Harry said in reverence to Voldemort, "It''s time my Master."


    He nodded and the man began what seemed to be a ceremonial rite. He picked up a bone and said, "Bone of the Father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son," before dropping it into the cauldron.


    He gave it a moment and said, "Body of the servant, willingly sacrificed, you will revive your master." Then Voldemort removed a robe at which point Harry turned away as fast as he could to avoid seeing anything. He didn''t turn back until the sound of a plop was heard meaning he was fully submerged in the cauldron.


    The man turned to Harry and walked forward with a maniacal grin and said aloud, "Blood of the enemy, f?r??b?? taken, you will resurrect your foe."


    He got out a knife and forced it against Harry''s arm and pressed deep before sliding the knife down and leaving a trail of blood to his hand. The man set a vial near Harry''s fingers and Harry didn''t bother stopping the blood from flowing into the vial by making a fist or anything. Luckily the man didn''t notice that his heavily pressed slice was just b?r?ly skin deep. Harry''s physical defense may not have been as high as his other stats but it still took a lot to deal any significant damage. Once the vial was full, the man walked back to the cauldron without noticing the wound was already gone beneath the line of blood on Harry''s arm.


    The man carefully poured the blood into the cauldron which shot out golden sparks making the man grin with p???sur?. From what Harry guessed the sparks should have been silver. Harry figured a large amount of elixir of life had been added to the mix. That would make things interesting.


    The sparks fell down and the glow from the cauldron died. A moment later, a man rose from it. Harry turned his head again but luckily the man said, "Robe me," pretty soon which made Harry sigh in relief. He really, really didn''t want to see anyone n?k?d today.


    The newly robed Voldemort looked at Harry for a moment before looking down at his own body. He had a full head of slightly curly brown hair and was relatively handsome by British standards. Harry figured that this body was his masterpiece. With continued usage of the elixir of life he would keep this body forever.


    The man from before had already conjured a large mirror and Voldemort was vainly admiring his work.


    From Harry''s senses, the new body was about level 160 with a magic rank of 25. Most considered him weaker than Dumbledore before his fall but as of now at least he was a full rank stronger than Dumbledore. Harry figured that right now Voldemort would likely trounce Dumbledore in a fair one on one fight, the only type Dumbledore would likely give him.


    He turned back to the man and said, "Show me your arm Barty."


    The energetic man, Barty it seemed, quickly rolled up his sleeve to reveal what Harry could see was the so-called Dark Mark, the sign of a servant of Voldemort. From what he learned, it had faded since the man''s fall but as of now the mark on the man''s arm was vividly clear.


    Voldemort smiled and said, "It''s back. They will all have noticed it. And now, we shall see. Now we shall know."


    He pressed a finger against the mark for a moment and said, "How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it? And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"


    He looked back to Harry and noticed he seemed.. Bored. Voldemort approached and asked, "Does my hospitality bore you Harry?"


    Harry looked back up and said, "I think between the two of us I have the better track record of being a generous host. Every time I''ve had an audience I kept them entertained you know."


    "Ah yes, I wasn''t there for your second task, but I did hear you kept the sheep enthralled by your performance. Your use of muggle toys was as interesting as it was insulting."


    Harry heard the venom layered on the word muggle and said, "You don''t seem to like Muggles do you?"


    Voldemort gave a cruel smile and said below the level the others could hear, "Just between you and me Harry, I once had a muggle as a father. I killed him Harry, I killed him for leaving my mother to die. It is his tomb you are currently bound to Harry."


    The sound of whooshing came from above and Voldemort said, "But look Harry, my true family returns."


    Fifteen and wizards fell from the sky and knelt in a semicircle around the spot they had been summoned. Some wore masks, others did not. Those who didn''t Harry recognized as escapees of Azkaban. Harry wondered why they weren''t here to begin with. After considering it, Harry figured he wanted them there after he had returned to full power.


    Voldemort began his monologue. He told everyone how disappointed he was in them and how displeased he was that they had lost faith. He spoke of those who remained loyal like Barty and those liberated from Azkaban, but also said that the others had a debt to him that they would not escape paying it in full, one way or another.


    Harry didn''t feel like standing on Voldemort''s dad''s grave anymore so he cast the Notice-Me-Not to prevent people from noticing Harry Potter was no longer bound. It wouldn''t last long once people actually turned in his direction but it would last long enough. Harry broke the ropes and walked to an empty spot before taking item after item out of his inventory.


    From the group Harry heard someone say, "Master, we crave to know, we beg you to tell us how you have achieved this miracle. How you managed to return to us."


    "Ah, what a story it is, Lucius. It begins with our guest here who we shall entertain in just a moment. That night you see.."


    Harry tuned out the man and conjured a few items. He wondered if this was a game if he would be in a preboss fight cutscene.


    "-The foolish wizard sought me out for knowledge and power when all others had forsaken me. I granted his wish of course but for a price. For you see he was a teacher at Hogwarts, and I learned that the Philosopher''s Stone, the source of the Elixir of Life, had been taken there. Fate itself was on my side. Aided by the will of magic, three allies had come to my aid."


    Harry cringed when he thought that Voldemort considered Harry''s Hell Mode his own personal aid. If only he knew what was coming.


    "The Triwizard tournament was to be held, the old fool would be too busy to protect the stone. Harry Potter himself aided me, though not by his choosing. I entered the boy''s name in the Goblet of Fire as a fourth champion to further distract the old fool. Mr. Potter further aided me by revealing Pettigrew."


    Harry noticed the lumpy man violently twitch which seemed to make Voldemort smile.


    He continued, "A coward he is, but when I saved him from certain imprisonment, his life became mine to use as I wished. His Animagus form easily bypassed Dumbledore''s protections of the stone and gave me what I needed to take it myself when the time was right."


    He turned to the Ravenclaw student and then back to the man he addressed earlier, "Lucius, my slippery friend. In a way you disobeyed me and had things gone differently that would have cost you your life. And yet it was this act that yielded me another ally. The diary I told you would ensure my return has done so, but not how I expected it to. It possessed the student you left it to. Once I discovered this, I ?ssisted with the possession and she became my most valued aid in this. Believe it or not, the removal of the Dementors and the destruction of the wards around Azkaban can both be linked directly to her aid."


    When Voldemort began to describe how he found Barty and his plans for a new body, Harry tuned him out again. He had poured some bottled water into a tea kettle and was using magic to boil it at the moment. Once it reached the right temperature Harry poured himself a cup and waited just a moment for it to cool.


    ''-But how could I capture him from under the nose of the muggle loving fool? The tournament I myself entered him into provided that very answer. And here he is, the boy you all believed had been my downfall-"


    *slurping sounds*


    The Notice-Me-Not charm instantly died to the sound of Harry finishing his tea as every death eater was now looking at him sitting at a table with a tea set casually drinking tea before a group of the deadliest people in all of Britain.


    Harry looked at them and said, "What?"


    Back at Hogwarts, Sirius Black had long since followed the instructions of one of Harry''s contingency plans and set up those monitors from the second task. One of the first things Harry pulled out from his inventory was a couple of flying drones and they all had cameras he''d taught Sirius how to pilot once the marauder understood the implication for pranking they had. Above them all was a special drone that hovered high in the air and took the feed from the other drones and would broadcast them to the monitors Sirius set up.


    Only moments after Harry broke his binding the feed had started. This meant almost all of Voldemort''s monologue and every name he mentioned had been heard.


    Sirius himself was half tempted to rush to that graveyard as fast as he could and half tempted to laugh himself to death at the absurdity of Harry throwing himself a tea party in front of Voldemort''s Death Eaters.


    Author''s Notes.


    My ability to post so fast is powered by favorites, follows, and Reviews for each chapter telling me your favorite parts and if any part of the chapter made you laugh out loud.. And not just this chapter, but other chapters as well.

 Chapter 14 - 14 The Boss Fight

    Harry put down his tea cup and said, "Would you like me to pour you some tea?"


    "Reducto!" One of the Death Eaters behind Voldemort, Bellatrix, Harry figured, fired a blasting hex at Harry''s table. Harry grabbed a plate and took a step back as the table and the rest of the tea set exploded.


    Harry brushed off his robes and said, "How rude. If this is how you treat your guests I can''t imagine you''re going to be very popular in the future."


    "How dare you! Crucio!" Bellatrix cried out.


    The cruciatus curse was a red beam that traveled in a relatively straight line. Harry saw where her wand was pointing and moved the plate he was holding in front of him, directly blocking the unforgivable.


    Normal plates for tea sets can''t block such a powerful spell without exploding of course, but this particular plate was one of Harry''s masterpieces. Hidden under the decoration were intricate rune sets that rendered the plate saturated with exotic energy yet frozen in place. Bellatrix''s spell was like shooting a water hose at a glacier in the hopes it would break through.


    Harry shifted his gaze to Voldemort while continuing to casually block the torture curse with fine china and said, "Have you taught them how to duel? They have no proper etiquette do they."


    Voldemort said, "Enough Bellatrix!"


    "But Master, he-"


    "Be Silent!"


    Harry tossed the plate away like it wasn''t worth anything and faced Voldemort. This made the man''s face twitch as it went against his guess there was something special about the plate. Now however he had their attention.


    Harry said, "Now did you want to talk, to duel, or play a game I had in mind."


    "Oh, and what game would that be?"


    "Hide and seek. All of you against me, I swear on my magic I won''t leave this area until the game is over."


    None of them noticed the pink mist falling from above released by the flying drones.


    Harry continued to in order to keep their attention on him, "Rules are simple, after ten seconds, I''ll hide. I''ll have five seconds to hide. After five seconds, if you find me, you can kill me. Winner gets fabulous prizes. If no one finds me and you all give up, then since you won''t have found me I''ll likely be alive."


    Lucius said, "What childish nonsense."


    The possessed Ravenclaw said, "Is this your big plan to survive?"


    Harry smiled and said, "Not exactly. It has been ten seconds by the way so now I have five seconds to hide. Three, two-"


    Several explosions occurred at everyone''s feet and the area was filled with a red tinted smoke.


    Harry stunned the possessed Ravenclaw and summoned her wand. The cameras on the drones had filters that allowed them to see through the smoke and they all focused in on Harry as he transfigured his robe into an ?du?t''s robe and carefully lied down on the ground, seemingly faking his death.


    Through the monitors the audience gasped as they saw the death eaters shift their form. Suddenly, they each looked like Harry Potter.


    Several encountered each other through the smoke and spells began to fly. One camera closed in on Harry and saw him smile before going back to the others.


    Dozens upon dozens of spells shot around, various shouts called back left and right that they''d found him. The audience realized that no one knew they all looked like Harry Potter.


    Sirius picked up his mic and said, "This gas you see is an Aerosol type Polyjuice potion. It only lasts about five minutes but will turn anyone who breathes it in into the same person, in this case, Harry. The gas also contains a weak Befuddlement Draught and Forgetfulness Potion. Even if they shoot down a Harry, they will forget about that if they see another Harry. They are also less likely to notice they themselves are a Harry."


    Spells continued to fly back and forth as the heads of many ancient magical houses were killed off. Sirius considered this and said into the mic, "For those of you wondering, neither myself nor Harry can be held responsible for these deaths. If someone dies due to your actions and they are trying to kill you, it is self defense. In other words this can be considered self defense unless someone here thinks those death eaters are not in fact trying to kill Harry Potter."


    Another Harry died, and Voldemort came into the screen, "Ah, it seems old Moldybutt wasn''t affected by the potion. Oh well."


    Harry himself was using his energy sense to figure out what was going on around him without moving.


    Voldemort seemed to have figured it out and shouted, "Everyone Stop!"


    Harry used that moment to lock onto three different death eaters and cast the Slippery jinx on their wand hands while hidden through the smoke before summoning their wands from them. Wands and items possessed by another person''s magic are nearly impossible to summon from them due to the interference of the other person''s magic which is why he could only summon them after using the Slippery Jinx. It was a fact that Jinxes could only be cast while looking at something but Harry could get around this with his energy sense meaning he could uses Jinxes through the smoke when others could not.


    Voldemort shouted, "Everyone to me!"


    Harry felt the exotic energy in the man build for a moment before he called forth a torrent of wind to scatter the gas and smoke.


    He looked around and said, "Kneel."


    Every ''Harry'' knelt in place.


    He said, "We have been tricked. Look at yourselves."


    "What is this my lord?" came from one of them in Harry''s voice.


    Normal Polyjuice potions don''t change the voice unless you force it. Normal polyjuice needs hair though, this one needed blood.


    Voldemort glared at the Harry and said, "Where is your wand?"


    Everyone knew Harry didn''t have a wand. The ''Harry'' looked to their empty hand and said, "No, I''m-"


    "Avada Kedavra!"


    And the energy Harry felt from Bellatrix Lestrange vanished from the world.


    The camera shifted back to Harry who gave another smile before turning back to the group. There were only four Death Eaters left and only two had wands. Considering there were fifteen earlier, it was quite the drop in Harry''s favor.


    Voldemort shouted, "Everyone take out your wands!"


    He saw two wands but noticed the two missing. One of them said in Harry''s voice, "It''s me my Lord, Goyle."


    "Is that so? Tell me something only Goyle would know?"


    "I, I, I''ve served you faithfully for years my Lord, it''s me."


    Sirius watching this over the monitor said, "Some people are affected by forgetfulness potions more than others."


    Voldemort gritted his teeth waiting for some proof and when none came, he shouted, "Avada Kedavra," once more. He turned back to the two wands that were held out and noticed neither was Barty''s. He asked the remaining man without a wand, "And you, tell me something only you would know."


    "I''m Carrows my lord, you ordered me to gut the Bones woman and set her ablaze my lord."


    "Ah yes, that''s right. Now, all three of you go around and find any body without a wand." It was known that someone dying under polyjuice would not revert back to normal which would make this game of hide and seek very difficult.


    The camera once again zoomed back on Harry holding a wand before going back to the search.


    The group spread out and when the camera wasn''t on Harry, he pulled his magic gun out and shot Voldemort, then the first wizard still with a wand, then the second, then the last one.


    The sounds were far, far louder than a normal gun shot and even the audience watching from the monitors had to cover their ears after the first. Harry''s aim was dead on and large holes formed in the torsos of all four, though when Voldemort collapsed, a moment later the hole refilled itself, healing him.


    Voldemort quickly got up and fired off a half dozen spells but wasn''t able to save his remaining death eaters. Harry dodged the shots and fired his gun back at the immortal dark lord who quickly dodged two shots before Harry ran out of ammo.


    Harry placed the gun in his robes and said, "How''s that immortality thing going for you?"


    Voldemort''s anger was only tempered by the satisfaction of knowing he was now truly immortal. Even he was impressed by how quickly he recovered from the lethal damage.


    He spat back at Harry, "Nothing you have done here will matter. Now I will never die, nothing can stop me, and you, I will not kill you quick Harry Potter. No, I will grant you immortality as well just so I can ensure your torment lasts for all eternity."


    Harry smirked at that and looked at his arm. The blood that had stained it from the knife wound earlier was fading away.


    Harry said, "About that, you really shouldn''t have used my blood. You should be feeling it in three, two, one."


    "What, what have you done?"


    "Nothing, you''re the one who wanted my blood. You did this to yourself. Your body is breaking down, the elixir of life is keeping you together, but just b?r?ly. In this state your body is doing everything it can to keep itself in one piece. You can''t use magic and you don''t have a port key. You''re done Volde."


    Harry didn''t know the exact details of these rituals but he extrapolated enough to know what was going on with the man''s body.


    The Dark Lord sneered with venom and said, "So you even saw this coming, you sabotaged your own blood. It matters not. I will return. I will never die, I will-"


    *meow*


    Somehow a certain orange tabby cat appeared. Harry said, "Goose, what are you doing here?"


    Goose conveyed back through the link, ''I''m tired of you needing to deal with this one.''


    When Harry realized what was about to happen, he shouted to the cameras, "Sirius! Turn the cameras away! Now!"


    Sirius realized with horror what was about to happen and used the controls to twist every drone to face away from Voldemort. The sound was still coming through though.


    From the monitors everyone heard Voldemort''s voice, "What is this? What? Oh Merlin! What is that thing?! No! Get it away! No! Get it off me! What is this monster?! No! Oh Merlin No! Not like this! I am Voldemort, I cannot be! NO! Please! PLEASE! NOT! LIKE! THIS!"


    After another moment of terrified screaming, silence resumed. Harry said, "Ok, it''s over."


    The cameras turned back to where Harry and Voldemort were. Except Voldemort was nowhere to be seen and the cat seemed to be casually walking away.


    Sirius felt bad he hadn''t turned the sound off as many would be emotionally scarred for life, but at least they didn''t have to see it. He noticed something odd and the camera focused on the downed Ravenclaw everyone heard was possessed by a diary. The Diary itself seemed to be turning black and a moment later, it dissolved into ash.


    Dumbledore had been watching this part with interest. He was of course initially terrified for Harry at first, but once Harry started pouring tea for himself, Dumbledore realized the boy seemed to have things under control. Dumbledore had many suspicions about that diary, but the fact that it dissolved with Voldemort''s vanishing was beyond anything he could comprehend. He was tempted to ask what had occurred, but his own wisdom told him with no uncertainty that some things were better left unknown and unsaid.


    Harry said to the sky, "I think I''m in Little Hangleton so you can send backup. Oh, and for anyone wanting to know where I got my toys, I figured this would happen so I asked Sirius to set a timed port key to bring them to me. Sirius, you can pack up now."


    Sirius took that as his cue and turned off the monitor. He figured the real reason Harry wanted it off and didn''t intend to argue.


    Harry equipped a basilisk envenomed goblin steel dagger Sirius had gifted him and went from survivor to survivor cutting each and healing the wound. Many of the death eaters had only been stunned or knocked out in the fight and Harry''s energy sense could tell the survivors from the corpses.


    Harry also noticed that when the diary had dissolved, for some reason and the Ravenclaw''s stolen life force had returned. She wouldn''t be out and about for a while, but she''d live. Harry hoped to rescue her earlier which was why he stunned her before the spells started flying and was glad it worked out.


    As he went around slicing and healing, some part of him thought killing defenseless humans would feel different, that making a choice he probably had no right to make would make him feel ill or unclean. But deep down, to him, it was just another monster to kill like the thousands he had slain in the tutorial and during battle mediation. He wouldn''t bother justifying it. They had taken actions to kill him and though he had a choice to leave them alive, he had no intention of doing so. Especially when he could get away with it. He may like saving people but that was more of a hobby than a calling. He wouldn''t go out of his way to save someone who he didn''t feel like saving or spar someone who wasn''t likely to repent.


    Something about the battle was still nagging him. Sure, it was anticlimactic, he only had to use plans C, G, and M and got lucky on the rest. Had Voldemort used Cedric''s or anyone else''s blood Harry would have been kinda screwed as the Dark Lord''s healing factor exceeded Harry''s damage threshold so he''d lose if they tried trading blows. Harry got a cold shiver just remembering how that melon sized hole in Voldemort''s gut close like it was nothing at all.


    Harry looked through his inventory as all his other plans and contingencies came to mind and he considered how differently that could have gone down. The reason he didn''t use the Basilisk Envenomed Grenade for example was because he figured that couldn''t be justified as self defense. If things got worse, he still would have used it but it wasn''t worth it if there was a better option. He also couldn''t take out his Reality Bomb which would likely break every law of physics within a hundred miles as the town of Little Hangleton was just too close.


    If enough death eaters hadn''t killed each other he might have needed plan K where he would equip two daggers and weave himself through the smoke slicing every death eater around. If every death eater fired survivable spells at him simultaneously before he could start his ''game plan'' he would have had to use plan E to equip the magical mirror shield he made and gotten out his grenades right away.


    Not too long after the last survivor succumbed to the basilisk venom, a group of a dozen in Auror robes led by Amelia Bones apparated in.


    She had her wand at the ready and took a few looks around before settling on Harry. "What happened here Mr. Potter?"


    Harry felt the build up of magic from seven sources and jumped back. Amelia and four other Aurors dropped to nonverbal stunners while Harry dodged the other two cast at him.


    Ah, now Harry knew what had been nagging him. The ping notifying him of the end of the quest hadn''t shown up yet and he hadn''t gotten any energy from the kills yet. This was hell mode. After the boss fight was the second, even harder boss fight. What could be more obvious right?


    "Quick reflexes kid," said one of the ''Aurors.''


    Another of the seven pointed his wand into the air and it glowed with a black light. The swarm of Dementors which Harry had kinda forgotten about came down and destroyed Harry''s drones.


    Harry felt that although each of these men was below Sirius in power, it wasn''t by that much. The strongest one seemed to be able to give his godfather a run for his money. What was not normal was that each of them was more powerful than Flitwick or McGonagall. That level of wizard was not common and other than Bellatrix, Voldemort''s followers were mostly far weaker than he was. At least the ones he''d heard of.


    Bellatrix, Flitwick, McGonagall, and Sirius. Besides Dumbledore and Voldemort himself, these four were the strongest in Britain with a wide margin between them and the next strongest. Yet this group was stronger than them all combined. And since they fired simultaneously, that meant they trained to work together. Not good.


    Harry said, "I don''t mean to be rude, but who exactly are you. I''m Harry by the way."


    The man smiled back, "Hello Harry. I''m Vinny, captain of the Knights of Walpurgis. I guess you can say we''re the true Death Eaters, the original in fact."


    "Umm, so who are they?" Harry motioned to the corpses which mostly killed each other earlier.


    "Trainees mostly. Distractions, muscle, grunts, disposable pawns. You get the idea. Only the true elite join the Knights."


    One of the so called knights said, "What has happened to our Lord?"


    Harry turned to notice that Goose was gone. No idea where. Then again he had no idea how she arrived either. He very much doubted the ''my cat ate your dark lord'' excuse would fly with these men.


    Harry said, "No idea. I think he said something about Tahiti and a chair by the pool with his name on it."


    The man frowned and said, "It isn''t polite to be stubborn Potter."


    """Crucio!""" Harry felt their magic build up at the word ''polite'' and the three knights cast at Harry and the space to the left and right of him when the man said ''Potter.''


    Harry tried to leap further than the spell to his left to dodge but it struck him and lit his nerves ablaze.


    At this point Harry realized a few things. First, the men''s coordination was based on verbal cues. Like ''cast the torture curse'' when he used the word ''polite'' and cast it when he said ''Potter.'' Second, Harry realized that the torture curse, the worse pain anyone could possibly experience as the spell itself literally forced the person to experience the max level of pain, still didn''t compare to dying and reviving.


    As an intellectual, Harry understood it. Death while alive was like having every sense he possessed experience every possible sensation at the same time without any of them drowning out the others. In life, people can only truly experience one sense at a time. This was not true in death, and there were far more than just a single type of pain. The sensation of burning under the hottest brand while freezing in the most biting of ice while being electrocuted and stretched and crushed all simultaneously. That was dying while alive.


    Birth was somehow worse. It was going from having no sensation to having living sensation which was like going from 0 to a hundred in no time at all. No matter the type, pain is something that one can get used to. However, when a person is born, they have no tolerance for pain in the slightest. If max pain when under the torture curse is a ten, the pain of death was ten plus ten plus ten ect. The pain of birth however was pretty much infinity as there was no cap due to zero pain tolerance.


    Yeah, the torture curse su?k?d. Yes, he was crying and screaming. But no, not the worst he''d ever felt.


    The man stopped the spell and the one from before raised his wand in the air and black light shined out once more. Several Dementors descended. He said, "How about this. Every time I ask a question and you don''t answer truthfully, I''ll have a Dementor eat one of their souls." He pointed at the unconscious Aurors.


    Harry asked, "I thought only Voldemort could control Dementors."


    "No you silly boy. He was willing to teach his most loyal and most skilled knights that treasured skill. We were the ones who removed the wards from Azkaban after receiving contact from the child possessed by our Lord."


    Harry asked, "You work for the ministry?"


    The men all seemed to chuckle. One answered, "For? No. We worked in the Ministry. Unmarked and unknown. Aurors, Unspeakables, file clerks. It was only today we all took the guise of an Auror to find you to learn of what happened to our lord."


    At least now this answered the question of why Voldemort''s most skilled servant was a mad woman. The other skilled ones got a raise and hid themselves. Bellatrix probably didn''t qualify for a promotion due to the whole insanity thing she had going for her.


    Another of the knights said, "No more questions. You will answer our questions now."


    Harry smirked back and said, "Unless you have the ability to know when I''m telling the truth, even if I did you wouldn''t believe me."


    One of them pulled out a vial and said, "If you insist, you''ll have to drink this."


    Harry easily figured what it was and said, "Fine, give it here."


    The man didn''t approach and just tossed it to Harry. Harry paused in that instant and looked back over his inventory to decide on a plan. He had downed friendlies in the field so no grenades, explosives, or poisons. All drones were destroyed in the air and somehow the Dementors ate the magic of the potions a few had been carrying so those wouldn''t help.


    Although a few of these elites looked up a fraction to see the flying vial, they still had their guard up and were prepared for Harry to do anything. A blinding light might work on a few but not all. Harry did exaggerate a little during the torture to make it look like he couldn''t move, but he could if need be. Though he''d still prefer not to get hit with that again.


    At the moment Harry had a dagger and a second gun in his robes. However from what Harry could see these men were faster on the spell draw than Harry was on the gun draw. He didn''t doubt they''d be able to dodge and his gun only had six shots. Unless he caught them off guard like the Death Eaters he''d need to rely on magic but there wasn''t a single spell capable of taking on seven cooperative Sirius level opponents. He didn''t mind dying, but the souls of Amelia Bones and her Aurors were on the line.


    He needed them distracted or off kilter, but these guys were professionals. They wouldn''t get distracted by amateur stuff. He couldn''t think of.. Wait. Didn''t they just throw him a truth potion? Would that work?


    Time to try some luck.


    Harry unpaused and caught the vial. "How much do I drink?"


    "Just drink the whole thing. There''s no lethal dose."


    Harry knew that but he couldn''t show he knew it so he had to ask. Harry opened the vial and before the whole group downed the Veritaserum.


    *Ping*


    [No Lies Debuff added, unable to tell a lie or remain silent for a question while Debuff remains active.]


    Harry tossed the vial away and said, "Well?"


    "Where is Lord Voldemort?" one asked.


    "He got eaten by a Flerken."


    "Eaten?!" One of them shouted.


    It was technically a question so Harry answered, "Yes, he was eaten by a Goose." Not a lie, just addressing her by her name.


    "Wait, a goose?!"


    Still technically a question, so he answered, "Yes, he was eaten by the cat I am the pet of." Harry was still not sure what a Flerken was but he could honestly answer he thought it was just a very special breed of cat. Probably wrong but he didn''t know that.


    One of them said, "What''s your worst fear?" Probably trying a baseline question they figured Harry wouldn''t answer normally.


    Harry answered honestly, "Dying one hundred and fifteen consecutive times." Harry wondered what a boggart would look like to him. A pile of dead Harry Potters? No, there was one of those behind him and he didn''t mind in the least.


    Another of the knights asked, "Do you think you''re going to leave here alive?"


    Harry said, "I''ve accepted I''m going to die and I don''t plan on leaving here."


    He certainly wasn''t going to run away and it was true he''d accepted he was going to die at some point. Wouldn''t be the first time.


    The one who asked said back to the others, "He''s telling the truth, or at least he thinks he is."


    "So our master got eaten by a Furby, a goose, and a cat?!"


    "I think he said Flerken though I''m not familiar with the term."


    Another knight asked, "What is a Flerken?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "I don''t know." He didn''t, not for certain anyways.


    "Is he crazy or immune to Veritaserum? Or was that a bad batch?"


    "Are you questioning my brewing skills? His pupils, tone of voice, and speech rhythms match that of Veritaserum usage. Unless you believe a first year child can fake those flawlessly enough to deceive me."


    "Now see here!"


    It was time. Harry paused and opened the settings. He turned the Dialogue sound off and changed the brightness settings. He unpaused and cast a Lumos Maxima that could put ignited white phosphorus to shame. The group of professionals had been so thrown off by a taste of the truth that they dropped the guard they had kept up the whole time.


    It didn''t stop four of them from near instantly casting stunners at Harry. But unlike the prior attacks these lacked perfect coordination and since Harry could see and they couldn''t, Harry was able to slip between the spells to successfully dodge.


    Harry then cast an obscure charm that made an illusionary copy of himself next to where he stood and last he silently apparated to the other side of the graveyard.


    Now the game could begin.

 Chapter 15 - 15 The Post Game Hidden Boss

    Harry had no idea how long he remained paused coming up with one strategy after another. The first strategy would be to buy more time and reduce the enemy''s number. Harry already had a means to achieve this but it would take three seconds to work. He should have it though. The illusion he left of himself at his original position should draw the attention of the other party for at least a second and a half and Harry didn''t think they''d be able to find him within the following two seconds.


    The next step would be to remove the noncombatants. Amelia Bones and the other three stunned aurors would have to be summoned over to where he was. That would take six to seven seconds but the distraction from the first step should provide enough time.


    The plans diverged from there. Harry could unload all the toys from his inventory such as magic shields, magic shotguns, and magic bombs and wake the Aurors. If they took the stuff he gave them they''d have a good fighting chance. The problem though was that it was far too likely they would ask questions when they were woken which was a problem for someone under the effects of Veritaserum. Worst case scenario was that they wouldn''t believe Harry when he told them the truth instead of something more believable. He could get around this by stabbing himself with a knife, waking them, then dramatically pulling it out in front of the awakened aurors and say, ''They''re trying to kill me.'' But was all that worth the effort?


    Next plan was to send them back. The so called Knights didn''t bother setting up any blocks against teleportation so Harry could attach some portkeys he made to the aurors and send them to a space he designated just outside the Hogwarts wards.


    If Harry sent them back, Harry was cleared to leave as without hostages, there was nothing to keep him there. He could also fight back, go all out. Worst case he''d die but without hostages that''d be fine. Painful, but fine.


    Fighting them would not be easy no matter what he tried. Since one of them had brought Veritaserum, Harry had to consider that they had other things as well.


    Harry went through plan after plan, but none worked easily without relying on luck and cheap shots.


    A while longer than Harry would ever admit, he found a solution to the group''s teamwork that should weaken them. Splitting them up. These guys were a strike force, the ultimate weapon that could handle any situation. But what if that situation was the end of the world?


    After finalizing the plan and thinking up a dozen more contingencies and going over each a few more times, Harry felt he was ready.


    Once unpaused Harry took out three items from his inventory and Banished them into the sky. The sound of spell fire quickly died from where he had been and Harry had already taken a sphere from his inventory about the size of a large medicine ball. It was the reality bomb. Harry initiated a reaction that would cause the magic to build up and go critical soon and banished it lightly in the direction of the Knights.


    The items he''d banished into the sky where unstable spell grenades. Or so he called them. The same way Harry could freeze magic to prevent exotic energy from getting into muggle tech, he could also use it to prevent exotic energy from getting out. Using some materials made with alchemy, he made an item that could store the magic from a spell. For a moment anyways. His sealing wasn''t perfect. But if Harry cast the same spell on the item over and over, it would eventually accumulate enough exotic energy to reach critical mass and detonate with the power of the accumulated spells once the shell was overpowered. However from the point of critical mass to the explosion itself was only about five seconds. Luckily Harry''s inventory stopped time, so Harry would make them and place them inside after two seconds.


    The items Harry took out were Patronus Grenades.


    Three back-to-back detonations occurred in the sky followed by three blinding flashes of silver light.


    Harry used the summoning spell on the five Aurors to quickly drag their bodies to him while the sky distracted the others. The Knights who looked up saw three massive silver dragons, each even larger than a Ukrainian Ironbelly. The wingspan of the silver beasts covered more of the sky than the horde of the hundred Dementors.


    Harry hadn''t bothered looking up and removed six portkey galleons from his inventory and placed them on each Auror and the unconscious Ravenclaw he initially apparated next to faster than a normal human could move before saying aloud, "Activate," and sending them all away. Harry couldn''t hear his own voice as he turned the Dialog Audio down to zero in his settings as if he heard a question he''d still have to answer it, but now he couldn''t hear any dialog.


    Luckily the sound of spells cast and the sound of a dragon roaring were both considered Battle Sounds which he didn''t touch. Harry didn''t have time to look up so he just paused and took a moment to admire his work. Harry''s standard Patronus was a van sized dragon. The grenades could accumulate twenty Patronus charms before detonating and the spell was one of the few that could be amplified beyond the power than was put in to cast it once it reached critical mass. The Patroni dragons were exhaling silver flames at the groups of Dementors which seemed to burn them to dust.


    Harry unpaused and took out four rune tokens and activated them all before banishing them north, south, east, and west. Harry made sure the knights hadn''t left and at least for now they wouldn''t be able to. With the ward he just enabled, no one could safely teleport in or out of the area within two kilometers of the location, not even elves. They could force it of course, but the barrier would sling shot them into space if they used enough power to break through. The tokens would burn themselves out in ten minutes which was three minutes longer than the reality bomb had.


    Spells started flying at Harry from the Knights of Walpurgis but they were much further than they had been so Harry had more time to dodge. Harry couldn''t hear what they were shouting at him besides spell names so Harry used Sonorus on himself and yelled out, "The trap is set, the bomb will blow in six minutes, you''re all going to die and there is nothing you can do!" All true of course.


    Harry saw a few yelling at him but Harry couldn''t lip read so he said while still amplified, "I can''t hear what you''re saying so don''t bother asking me anything!"


    Harry really wanted to say he obliviated himself of english so they had to ask all their questions in French, that unfortunately was a lie.


    Two of the Knights finally relented and moved to diagnose the bomb. There were a few ways to disable it before it went off but they wouldn''t be easy.


    *Ping*


    [No Lies Debuff has been resisted.]


    Harry paused and changed the setting to turn the voices back on and unpaused.


    One of the men shouted while maintaining spell fire at Harry, "The port keys have failed, can you disable that thing Don?"


    "Yes sir!"


    Harry took out another magic grenade and banished it at the group. One of them spotted it and fired a spell at it, causing a small explosion. Harry pulled out two more and banished them together at the same person. Two spells fired from two of them at the grenades, but this time it caused a massive explosion. It threw three of the Knights back but didn''t kill them.


    That had been one of Snape''s ideas, a variation on the Erumpent potion. The first he threw was an empty distraction but the second and third grenades were actually metal cans filled with a very special mixture of ingredients. It would do nothing if ignored but if mixed with magic, it created an absolutely massive explosion. There was a reason Snape didn''t want wands in his potions classroom. Some ingredients just didn''t respond well to excess magic.


    The silver dragons had killed over half the Dementors and the rest were scattering. The dragons gave chase and intended to destroy every last one.


    Though the explosions didn''t kill any of the knights, it did have the effect Harry wanted. The one working on Harry''s reality bomb loudly swore and said, "Kill him sir! That brat''s toys are making this blasted contraption even more unstable! We''re only got three minute now!"


    The one who seemed in charge shouted, "Brenton, help Don. Initiate Thunderfall!"


    Two were now working on the device and the boss maintained lookout while the remaining four ran towards Harry while casting nonverbal stunners over and over to prevent him from running far and seeking cover. Every third or forth spell cast was a Reducto ahead of Harry to blow apart the ground in front of him to slow him down.


    Harry could sense the spells without looking and it wouldn''t be difficult to outrun them, but he needed them on his heels for just a little longer.


    Once Harry had enough distance he turned around and dashed forward. Harry cast a flying spell orb that looked like a ball of wiggling strings that untangled and spread larger and larger as it got further from Harry. By the time it reached them it was three meters in diameter and every string was in fact a cutting curse.


    Though unfamiliar with the spell, the knights who saw it understood what it was and moved to dodge rather than block or counter. Countering such a spell would cause the condensed weave of cutting curses to explode out instantly.


    Harry used the opening and shot a stream of condensed cutting curses as if it were a flamethrower from his hand. Anything the stream faced would end up looking as if it had been cut a hundred times with a sword. It was not the flashiest spell or the strongest, but it was the simplest and cleanest. It could overcome a shield in short order so staying in place to cast one was not a smart idea.


    Harry felt the build up of magic in two of them and he said aloud, "Specular Argentum," at the same moment the two knights said, "Bombarda Maxima!"


    A silver mirror-like disk appeared in front of Harry''s left and right hands. The overpowered explosion spells did not detonate on contact but were reflected back at the casters. One of the knights cast a shield while the other cast a stunner at Harry. The shield protected one of the pair of knights from the reflected spell but the other pair had no protection and the spell blew apart the caster''s ?h?st.


    *Ping*


    The stunner had no effect on Harry as none of these men were stronger than him one on one so he would have to get hit by at least two near consecutive stunners to go down.


    Before the other pair''s shield dropped, Harry had cast his own stunner on the man who failed to shield his partner from the explosion and had been knocked aside himself.


    Harry rushed to the downed man dodging the spell fire of the other pair and before either could revive their colleague Harry used his abundant strength to stab his knife into the man''s ?h?st and left it there before ducking further spell fire and retaliating.


    Two more Bombarda Maximas converged at Harry''s location forcing him to jump into the air to avoid the damage from the explosion at his feet. The knights took aim shouted "Crucio," but Harry suddenly dropped faster than possible by summoning an immovable headstone, dragging himself to it instead and dodging the torture curses. Harry threw another expanding cutter sphere at the pair forcing them to dodge once more while Harry ducked behind another headstone.


    Harry quietly said, "Invers Gemini Evanesce," and got up to run to the pair''s left. What they saw however was Harry getting up and running to their right. This spell made his image appear to do the reverse of what he was actually doing while hiding his original but didn''t work on large groups. The pair fired at his reflection while Harry moved behind them and cast two more stunners. The reflection wouldn''t show Harry casting spells so they didn''t see a spell to dodge and the pair was dropped before they could understand what had happened.


    Harry summoned his knife from the other man''s ?h?st and stabbed each in the ?h?st as well.


    The fight had only taken a minute so Harry ran back to the group attempting to disable his reality bomb. The boss was still on the lookout but Harry had taken ten seconds to quickly run around the group and cast another expanding cutter sphere from behind the reality bomb while lying on the ground. From their perspective the sphere would cover Harry''s position so they wouldn''t see him directly.


    The lookout had the same talent as Dumbledore for sensing magic though not as good. This proved to be a disadvantage as Harry''s magic was undetectable and he only saw the spell when it was about half way to his position.


    The man grabbed his nearest partner and dragged him back just as the sphere passed through the reality bomb and the knight working on it out of arm''s reach.


    Harry''s cutting sphere''s cutting spells were condensed enough to cut the parts of the reality bomb without further destabilizing it, thus was one of the ways to safely disarm it. Though that was specifically because Harry built it that way. It had to be chopped into multiple pieces near instantaneously to stop the reaction from going critical.


    Harry''s final grenade went off and sent forth a massive red wave, the result of thirty stunners reaching critical mass. Vinny, captain of the Knights of Walpurgis released the man he had just pulled back and apparated away with a loud pop as the red wave passed through his colleague. Harry didn''t waste time and charged forth to stab the man in the heart, one last time.


    The silver dragons above Harry roared victoriously and they each vanished one by one. Not a single Dementor could be found.


    Harry paused and checked the immediate area. Pausing was great for scouting. Harry confirmed there was no eighth or ninth Knight of Walpurgis hiding around and Harry decided it was fine to collapse into the frozen landscape.


    He couldn''t recover while pausing but he could still mentally decompress and go over what had happened. Sirius told him that in a free for all, the most common spells used by professionals were stunners, cutting curses, and blasting curses or reductos. It wasn''t due to preference. Stunners were some of the easiest spells to spam over and over and it was not difficult to cast nonverbally.


    Someone at Sirius''s level could cast three stunners in two seconds while a bombarda would take a second and a half. Stunners were also the second fastest travelling spell behind Expelliarmus while spells like Reducto and Bombarda traveled much slower.


    Cutting curses were slower than a stunner but had a wider area of effect and were still faster than Bombarda and were easier to cast nonverbally.


    Harry could cast his original cutting curse spells nonverbally but they traveled very slowly. Spells he was not as proficient like Magic Mirror and Reverse Run he could only cast through a proper incantation so he could only cast those with the right timing.


    Harry unpaused and heard the sound he had been waiting for.


    [Quest Complete: Survive Hogwarts


    Reward: Philosopher''s Stone, Right of Conquest Perk]


    Next was the sensation Harry had been expecting since Voldemort got eaten. The exotic energy of every corpse converged onto Harry. However it was more than that. Energy Harry felt could only be Soul energy descended from the sky and Harry''s body greedily devoured it all.


    [You have gained a level.]


    Harry figured the Soul Energy was from the slain Dementors. Harry didn''t even know they had soul energy, but that may have been because it had been so tainted he couldn''t feel it. After being purified through Patronus dragon fire however it was fine to absorb and very filling. Harry leveled up five times and was now at level 130!


    Harry went to loot the bodies of the Knights of Walpurgis and the Death Eaters. The latter no longer looked like Harry even though they died under Polyjuice. The potion broke down in their corpse once Harry''s blood vanished and they all returned to their normal appearances.


    Once Harry moved to loot a corpse, a pop up appeared.


    [Invoke Right of Conquest?


    Yes | No]


    Harry selected Yes and another pop up appeared of the man''s items which Harry could select to take from. Harry could select Loot all, but that would take the man''s robe too which would be a bit much.


    Some of the corpses had something special in the Loot box. For example, when Harry looted from the elder Malfoy''s corpse, he saw the Ring of the Head of the House of Malfoy.


    When Harry selected it to take, he got another pop up.


    [You have defeated the Head of the House of Malfoy in mortal combat initiated by the other party. You can take this ring to Gringotts to apply for Right of Conquest and take possession of the ?ssets of the House of Malfoy.]


    Now Harry understood the Right of Conquest Perk. In addition to the nice loot box, it also let Harry take the wealth of those he killed. If they tried to kill him first and were the head of a house anyways. Yup, Hell Mode had fabulous prizes.


    While Harry was busy looting the riches of Britain from various corpses, the corpse of Vinny, the captain of the Knights of Walpurgis was floating in the vacuum of space. His body would eventually crash into the windshield of an alien ship on its way to earth, but that''s a story for another time.


    Harry took out another spell grenade and banished it into the air. He had no idea if this would actually work but it was worth a shot.


    A blinding white light with the power of seventy Reparo Maxima spells filled the graveyard and the destroyed land moved as if time was reversing. After about ten seconds, the damaged ground, the destroyed headstones, and even the air itself returned back to how it was.


    Although Voldemort had placed a muggle repelling charm in the graveyard and magic spells were mostly invisible to non-magicals, the sound of Harry''s guns and the explosions of his grenades could still attract the wrong sort of attention so he wanted the place looking normal. Luckily the cold malevolence imposed on the air itself by the swarm of Dementors had been enough to convince the residents of Little Haggleton to stay in doors so though some noticed it, no one wanted to investigate and it would soon be forgotten by most.


    Harry took a radio out his inventory and switched to a specific frequency before speaking, "Harry to Hermione, come in Hermione."


    A moment later the radio almost shouted back, "Harry! What Happened! Madame Bones was ported here stunned and says no one has been able to get there!"


    "Head over to Ms. Bones please, I don''t want to have to repeat myself over and over. The anti-teleportation wards will be down in a minute or so."


    A few moments later Hermione said, "She''s here Harry." "Mr. Potter, what happened?"


    "Some of your Aurors were swapped for Death Eaters who stunned you in the back and politely asked where did I misplace Voldemort. I don''t know what happened to the men they swapped with."


    "Are you alright?" asked Hermione this time.


    "You know me Hermione, seven elite Death Eaters stronger than Professor Flitwick and a hundred Dementors is just another Friday for me. I am sorry to say however that Azkaban will need different guards in the future. Madame Bones, the Anti-teleportation wards are down now so you can come back to collect the bodies. The Muggle Repelling ward has another fifteen minutes or so before falling."


    Ten seconds later Ms. Bones, her four Aurors, Hermione, Sirius Black, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick apparated in. Harry figured five of those seconds consisted of Hermione convincing the others to take her.


    Harry had already vanished the scrapped parts of his reality bomb so other than a pile of bodies and a large cauldron, the signs of the battle were completely gone. Dumbledore did several spells which reacted to the air and made him smile. He did not sense that the air was thick with Harry''s magic as it was undetectable, but he used a few spells Harry recognized had different effects in magic rich environments so he was able to indirectly determine the scale of magics Harry cast. Though he''d never be able to identify the caster if he didn''t already know.


    Amelia bones found the four corpses of the Knights of Walpurgis and confirmed though wearing auror robes they were not the aurors she intended to bring with her. Only a few moments of careful introspection and knowing what to look for allowed her to identify the confundus charm that had been subtly cast on her preventing her from noticing earlier. No one had to tell her how skilled that meant these Knights had been.


    She asked, "Potter, where is the seventh?"


    Harry smiled, "The Anti-teleportation ward would allow someone to force their way through it if they didn''t care where they were going. This however is a trap and anyone forcing their way through would be catapulted into space. I think the one who called himself the Captain said his name was Vinny. He''s not coming back."


    She asked a few more questions about the ward but Harry evaded them. He couldn''t exactly tell her they were activated and powered by blood. One benefit to such a design was that the activator was the only one who could pass through the wards after they were set.


    Once the corpses were taken away and the location swept to confirm there was no dangerous residue, Amelia''s patience finally ended and said, "Ok Mr. Potter, now tell me what happened here."


    Harry shrugged and said, "I can answer that question only if you leave it out of your report and preferably make something up."


    "That is not for you to decide Mr. Potter."


    Harry returned her glare with a calm demeanor and said, "In that case I was stunned when I arrived, woke up, got stunned again, and woke again. I have no idea what happened. Have a nice day."


    Sirius had to hold himself back from laughing and the other teachers rolled their eyes at the obvious lies.


    Amelia wasn''t going to take no for an answer so easily and said, "There are hundreds of witnesses through that muggle glass that told a different story Mr. Potter."


    Harry smiled that she intended on using that approach of all things. Harry retorted, "So you''re saying that because someone saw someone who looked like me, it was definitely me? I suppose I''m guilty then unless there is some way for someone other than me to look like me."


    A bark of laughter made their way through Sirius''s covered mouth which earned another glare for Amelia.


    Professor McGonagall had filled in Amelia of the details of the show up to the footage being cut so it didn''t take a moment for Amelia to realize Harry''s defense was at least as tight if not tighter than those who once claimed to be under the imperius curse.


    Only the wind passing through the headstones broke the silence that followed and eventually the head of the DMLE relented. "Fine Mr. Potter. What happened here won''t get out. So what did happen?"


    Harry turned to Sirius and Hermione for a moment and smiled.. "Simple, I stopped holding back."

 Chapter 16 - 16 From Legend to Myth

    Harry told them a story he had come up with long ago. When he awoke the prior year after his missing year, he had knowledge he didn''t have before. One piece of knowledge was a spell that connected to a pocket space like a mokeskin pouch with an undetectable extension charm placed on it. Revealing his Inventory this way made the rest of the story much easier to tell.


    He told them he''d memorized the Potter, the Black, and the Hogwarts Library. He also admitted to killing the Basilisk and finding Salazar Slytherin''s study and with his ability to crunch information at impossible speeds, he quickly learned most of the magics in the world.


    Sirius picked up from there and explained how he had spent every day sparring with Harry and every weekend prior to Easter Break sparring with him. He fully admitted that Harry was stronger than he was now and gave details into his godson''s terrifying growth rate.


    Hermione explained Harry''s fascination with muggle tech and firearms and how he had been incorporating them into his magic to make himself stronger.


    McGonagall and Flitwick were both astounded that Harry had been the one teaching Hermione and Neville as they both thought it was the other way around. Harry also told them of how Snape helped him with the Aerosol Polyjuice and the gunpowder as Harry would not have been able to get a perfectly working version of either before the third task without his help.


    Dumbledore was a little skeptical at this until Harry told him that Snape Obliviated himself afterwards and left Harry a letter to give him. That brought back the twinkle in the headmaster''s eyes and brought a lot of respect for the teacher from McGonagall and Flitwick.


    The letter itself couldn''t be opened without revealing it was opened as it was sealed with Snape''s magic. But when Harry put it into his inventory, he could tell the content without opening it. Thankfully there were no details, even coded ones about Harry''s abilities. Harry had told Snape he would leave the magical world after this year so Snape didn''t care that much. The letter itself basically told Snape that he had a large part in the taking down of that monstrous bastard and with his ?ssistance to the Potter brat, a certain debt had been repaid in full with interest.


    Harry was instructed not to give the letter to him unless the Dark Mark was gone. He''d already confirmed on the bodies of the Death Eaters that the mark had in fact vanished.


    Harry gave the details of the battle though told them the reality bomb was a fake. The lack of a twinkle in Dumbledore''s eye and the fear in Hermione''s told him neither believed that. Everyone was shocked at the power of the spell grenades and Harry''s Patronus. He demonstrated his normal sized one when they doubted him that it was a dragon. Harry had decades of happy memories from his time spent on the other side so his Patronus was of course sufficiently powerful even before cramming twenty of them inside a grenade.


    At the end, Amelia had two questions. "Mr. Potter, why does it sound like you have been preparing for this for the last year as if you knew about it and why don''t you want anyone to know it happened?"


    "To answer the first, I think someone told me a prophecy or something. I don''t remember hearing it but I knew before attending classes I would have to face Voldemort, a basilisk, and Dementors. Once I heard about the Triwizard Cup I knew I''d be entered into that too as if I knew it all along and forgot about it until then."


    Not exactly the most believable but it was a better answer than the truth.


    Harry continued, "As for the anonymity thing, that''s an easy one. I''m famous enough as it is. I''d prefer to be known for something other than magic which was why I used as little as possible in the tasks. Voldemort and the Knights of Walpurgis could have killed me if they didn''t look down on me so much and that was intentional. I don''t want people to know how powerful I am or I''ll end up like Dumbledore and everyone will look to me to solve their problems instead of solving their own."


    A few heads turned to Dumbledore who was nodding sagely.


    "As long as people think I can''t use strong magic they won''t bother me and if they target me they won''t get what they''re expecting. That''s why I want you to make up something for what happened. Maybe they tried another ritual which failed and they all died. Throw the word classified around like it''s no one''s business and write something half believable."


    McGonagall spoke up at this point, "But Harry, even if you don''t show your strength people will think you are powerful regardless. Wouldn''t it be better if they knew the truth?"


    Harry shook his head. That might make sense to her but she was missing a few points. Harry answered, "Professor, I''m not returning to Hogwarts after the summer. I intend to tell everyone the magic world is too dangerous for me so I''m leaving it."


    Flitwick looked shocked at this and said, "But Mr. Potter, they''ll snap your wand!"


    Sirius couldn''t take it anymore and burst out laughing.


    McGonagall''s reproachful glare only made him laugh harder.


    Dumbledore said, "It was revealed during the Weighing of Wands that Harry''s wand is an ordinary stick. He has been using wandless magic since school started while pretending otherwise. Other than myself, Olivander, Mr. Bagman and the other champions, no one else knows this."


    Sirius held his laughter for a moment so he could catch the expression on the Professors'' and Amelia''s face before breaking out into another cackling fit.


    Harry added over his godfather''s laughter, "Due to my placement in the Triwizard Tournament, I''ve been an ?du?t since Oct 31st. And due to the tournament, I am not required to sit for my exams this year. This means I can leave without doing any exams and not come back. On paper, it will look like I gave up magic and left."


    A few questions and another check through the graveyard later, the group left just as the muggle repelling charm fell. What no one knew and Harry wouldn''t find out for many years was that his broadcast was not just received by Sirius Black''s monitors. Another very discreet intelligence agency recorded all airwave transmissions and a certain man with an eyepatch would be watching the video a few weeks later and recognize a certain orange tabby cat. Harry hadn''t thought to encrypt the transmission but that was a problem for another day.


    The story they had come up with was thought up by Hermione and not too different from the truth. Hermione came up with the idea that Harry just used more tech toys to defeat the Knights of Walpurgis and didn''t use any magic at all. Harry was fine with this as he didn''t mind a reputation for magic tech.


    Amelia gave a statement to the press that Voldemort had placed Harry in the tournament and that Harry defeated him with muggle tech and some clever potions. She then said that Harry will be withdrawing from the magical world to pursue his interest in muggle tech. She did however say that Harry''s wand would not be snapped but taken into custody in case Harry ever wished to return to the magical world. The last part she added in humor as it would get a lot of politicians off her back.


    The results of the scoring for the final round was almost funny to Harry. Most of the judges gave very few points to Cedric and the others and they hadn''t done much before Harry ended the tournament. Igor Karkaroff, the former Death Eater and headmaster of Durmstrang Institute ended up giving Cedric 10 points which, with the other points given, was more than the 27 points Cedric needed to have the most points at the end, thus winning the Triwizard Cup.


    Harry guessed Karkaroff just really didn''t want a first year to beat his student.


    In the end, Cedric only had two more points than Harry which caused a lot of controversy with Durmstrang as the Headmaster never awarded Harry a single point yet awarded his own student ten on each task and Cedric ten in the end which was the only reason Harry didn''t win. This combined with many other large and small reasons including the manipulation of the betting polls to finally and once and for all retire the Goblet of Fire and the tournament for all time.


    Using a few favors, Harry ended up being gifted the Goblet himself. He was going to enjoy playing with that. The Goblet was worth far more than the thousand Galleon prize money and with Cedric on paper as the tournament''s winner, Harry would be able to fade from memory in time. Later many would even question his existence as Dumbledore would remove all records of Harry''s schooling as a favor to him and without any test scores submitted to the Ministry, the legend of Harry Potter would eventually fade into myth.


    Some would collect the evidence of his story in newspaper clippings but many of them made less sense than the rumors. They told a story of Harry dying, the world mourning, then Harry magically coming back to life and becoming the 4th champion of a tournament of three participants. Further clips told of Harry fighting a dragon without magic, defeating a village of merman in the bottom of a lake without magic, and defeating Voldemort who died a decade ago and all his death eaters without magic before Harry Potter himself vanished. Skeeter''s articles and their later retractions and the firing of the woman herself made the story even more confusing and ridiculous. The end of the story had Harry winning the Tournament even though the records show Harry never attended Hogwarts and Cedric Diggory won the tournament.


    Later someone would make a book out of it and it was the only one written about himself that Harry enjoyed reading.


    After the tournament Harry confirmed with Snape that his Dark Mark was gone and gave the man his letter. Harry stayed there a few moments for the man to read it and after a short silence the Potions Professor gave a quiet, "Thank you," and left without another word.


    Before the end of that day Harry secretly made his way to Gringotts with the Head of Family rings and requested to invoke Right of Conquest. The invocation would allow the family magic within the Vault to decide if the Conquest was approved. If not, the family magic would strike back and possibly kill Harry. If it worked, the vault would open without the key. The look on the Goblin''s face when Harry opened vault after vault was priceless.


    Harry then placed 40% of the gold of Greater Magical Britain in his inventory. Plenty of families also kept Grimoires and valuable relics in the vault and with a few exceptions, Harry took them all. To each family with an heir he left the family ring so it would not die out and a small amount of coin so they would not suffer that much but would have to work for a living.


    When the Goblins learned Harry would not be transferring the gold into another vault but taking it and leaving Magical Britain, they started making their own arrangements. At first Harry thought they would be upset, but Harry wasn''t taking gold that would ever really belong to them so it made little difference. What it would do was drastically increase the value of the remaining gold in Britain and the Goblins had quite a bit of that. A period of massive deflation would occur and many things that were not worth much would become more valuable soon while the price of purchasable items would decrease. Harry''s taking of so much gold would actually benefit the economy over time. Even families like the Weaselys would soon find that their meager savings had far more spending power than it used to.


    Not that he was parting from the Goblins forever, no, far from it. Harry intended to slowly convert much of the gold into non-magical currency and attach it to the non-magical identity he had the Goblins make for him some time ago. Eventually Harry would invest it and get a matching Path but he knew nothing of investing for now and would intended to slowly filter the money into his own non-magical accounts.


    The final days of school passed quicker than many liked and when Harry didn''t show up to take the final exams, they knew he was not changing his mind about his decision to leave. Some tried to convince him otherwise but luckily the Slytherin students were more than happy to demonstrate why Harry wanted to leave by constantly trying to hex him in the back or call him out for what he did to their fathers, ect. When Draco Malfoy eventually got a letter from his mother stating that they were no longer rich, he tried to curse Harry in the Great Hall before the entire student body.


    Harry blocked the spell with a certain plate he conveniently kept out during dinners and Draco was suspended for the rest of the year. Harry would later learn from Hermione he did not return to school as his house was sent thousands of Magically Howling Hate mail over the summer so it was sold and they left Britain. Draco''s admission to Durmstrang was denied so he was homeschooled, but since those not attending school couldn''t use a wand until they were seventeen, he was greatly lacking in magical education and did very little in his life in the years that followed.


    The red headed twins had actually bet most of their savings on Harry winning the Tournament which Harry actually felt quite bad about. Especially when he learned they intended on opening a joke shop. Harry decided that he needed practice with the business thing before he went big and invested two thousand galleons into the pair but told them to wait a year before buying the property as deflation would soon make the gold worth a lot more. This was the pair''s sixth year and they b?r?ly scratched the surface of the RoR so they had no problem using a year and all the funding they wanted to create and test new products.


    Harry also introduced them to his godfather and told Sirius he would be their manager. Sirius at first refused responsibility like it was a plague infested rat, citing that a marauder never seeks responsibility. His tune changed when the twins started bowing at his feet at the recognition of the word. Turns out that the pair had the Marauder''s map which was why they knew when Harry was coming and going. They had no problem giving it to Harry since he told them he wanted to figure out how it worked.


    To Ronald Weasley, the redhead Harry would play chess with a few times a week, Harry gave him a young owl like he had promised to replace his rat. The redhead made a number of friends including Neville and Hermione so the owl would see a lot of use over the summer. Harry also gifted Hermione an owl he found in the store. It actually looked very much like his animagus form but for an owl was colored wrong. Male Snowy Owls are pure white while females have many brown patches. The owl Harry found was pure white but female. Harry chose this specific owl to give to Hermione because Harry felt it would always be able to find him meaning they would always be able to stay in touch. Hermione cried at the gift and named her Hedwig after a Saintess named in the History of Magic text.


    A week after school ended Harry got a business proposition from the Goblins. They wanted to start a muggle bank using electronics and Harry''s gold, but needed the means to protect electronics from magic. Harry immediately bought over a thousand British Pounds worth of business and business law books and spent a mind numbingly boring amount of time paused going over them all to make sure he wouldn''t get screwed, on purpose or inadvertently.


    A week later and the final papers were signed. The back story would be that Harry was adopted by a wealthy old family who died and Harry used the old money to open a bank. It would gain traction very slowly to avoid suspicion but after a few years would have a lot of power. Harry was pretty much the owner with the Goblins as partners and employees. Both would have to agree on anything to make a change. The Goblins intended to use their own mastery in enchantments to advance Harry''s magic shielding arrays. One of the deals written in the contract was that Harry would never disclose or sell his method to anyone else in the future. In exchange for this, they would lend Harry all their books on Goblin enchanting and would pass on any advancements they made in his technique. Harry had already told them about Hermione and had gotten her to promise not to teach others as well.


    Once the last signature was written, Harry finally got what he had been looking for.


    *Ping*


    [Business Path has risen to Rank 1]


    Harry returned to the Potter home on Highrock with Goose and spent the next several weeks perfecting his current magic theory while exchanging letters between himself, Hermione, and Dumbledore who was delighted to exchange theories with. When Harry was bored he would shift into his owl form and fly around or visit Sirius who was enjoying his bachelor life. Harry still hadn''t figured out how to make the ultimate broomstick so he stuck with his avian form.


    One day while flying through London, Harry saw something that made very little sense. He heard the sound of battle coming from an alleyway yet the sound was muffled by a ward of some kind. When he flew through the ward, he saw magic he didn''t recognize being used to fight. Considering he was now one of, if not the foremost expert on magic in Britain, that was odd.


    The fight consisted of three martial artists wearing monk-like robes fighting another man in an eccentric outfit. All parties were using magic, but according to his energy sense which worked just fine in owl form, it was not Exotic Energy magic. The three monk-like fighters used what was clearly dimensional energy to form constructs, shields, weapons, and energy bolts. The one they fought used what seemed to be a mix of tainted soul energy and tainted natural energy powered magic.


    The monk like ones were clearly not wizards as their combat had as much physical skill as it did energy manipulation. The other party seemed to be a textbook evil magic user and was so stereotypical Harry thought the outfit was a joke.


    The evil looking one launched chains of lightning at the monks who were forced to block the attack. The stereotypical villain shouted, "You think you''ve trapped me, but it is you who are trapped!"


    Harry sensed three points of dense tainted soul energy on the walls behind the man expanding out and witnessed three black animal-like monsters emerge from the walls. The closest description Harry could think of was an armored tiger with the head of a wolf. They looked quite vicious and Harry''s senses would place them all at about level 100.


    The monks and the other guy Harry couldn''t get a feel for when it came to level as a person''s level was basically energy density according to his senses. When not using dimensional energy actively, the monks had some stored in their bodies which would place them at about level 50. But when they actively used magic, they seemed to absorb and channel external dimensional energy and their level would spike to 70, 80, or 90 depending on the power of the spell.


    Harry combed over the tens of thousands of pages of texts in the various Grimoires, journals, and historical documents he had.


    He found three results. One referenced a muggle who could use magic and called himself a Sorcerer. Another referenced that the only Magical in the history of magic to be capable of using Dimensional Energy was Merlin who at one point was called the Sorcerer Supreme. Another entry Harry found referred to another branch of inferior magic users the entry didn''t bother to name. It stated that they were weaker than Wizards and would avoid them.


    It wasn''t much, but at least it was something. The monk like guys could be Sorcerers. What would that make the villain?


    The skill of the Sorcerers was apparent as they used impeccable teamwork to defeat the monsters and knock out the villain. The attack that decided it was cast at what looked like level 150. That was even stronger than Dumbledore. Harry couldn''t get a feel for the magic rank as he wasn''t familiar with it yet but it wasn''t weak.


    Harry considered a number of options but decided to go with the direct approach.


    He flew down to a corner and returned to human form and ''badly'' peaked around the corner while making noise.


    The warrior-like magic users returned to battle stance and charged the corner until they saw it was just a child. Harry said, "That was so Cool! Can I learn to do that?"


    The one of African descent who cast the final attack gave a very quick, "No."


    Harry''s smile instantly changed into horror.


    The other monk''s cracked a smile at how fast the kid was rejected and his reaction.


    Harry asked, "But why?"


    "Sorcery is not for children," was his answer.


    One of the others said, "If the ward didn''t keep you out you may be able to learn one day. Go home, study hard, listen to your parents, and eat your vegetables until then."


    The other two looked like they were trying to not laugh at how responsible that sounded.


    Harry scowled and said, "I''ve already read everything, I''m strong for my age, my parents are dead, and if you don''t want to teach me, I''ll teach myself."


    The one who hadn''t spoken said, "If your parents are dead, who do you live with?"


    Harry pulled out his wallet which contained over six hundred pounds and showed the group. He said, "I live on my own and I take care of myself."


    The one who first rejected him said, "The answer is still no."


    The others seemed to want to say something but gave up. This one seemed to be their boss.


    Harry felt the energy around him converge into this man and focused his senses on the man completely. Harry felt the external dimensional energy converge on this man''s spiritual heart where there was already a small amount of dimensional energy stored which matched the biorhythm of the life and soul energy the man possessed. It was only because Harry absorbed so much purified soul energy from the slain Dementors he could sense the latter.


    Once the dimensional energy reached this converging heart energy, it seemed to become controllable and was passed through the man''s arm and molded with intent as it reached the man''s hand.


    In that moment Harry realized why he could never control Dimensional energy. Every person had dimensional energy inside them but weren''t conscious of it. These men were. This man in particular awakened the energy and concentrated it into his heart. Within this man''s spirit was a small amount of dimensional energy which matched the energy signature of the soul and life energy the man possessed.


    Harry had lots of dimensional energy inside him as he often absorbed it during battle meditation to level up. However it was in fact out of sync with his life force and soul energy. Harry realized he was subconsciously fighting it which in turn prevented him from allowing dimensional energy to flow through him. He always thought of it as an external energy, something that was not a part of him. Of course he couldn''t control something that was not a part of him.


    Harry stopped fighting it, he surrendered to it like a fish surrendering to the flow of the river and in doing so the energy changed the very signature of his life and soul while he in turn changed it. Now the dimensional energy that had always been a part of Harry''s body matched the signature of his life and soul energy. It was still out of sync with his exotic energy but that was a challenge for another day.


    All of this happened in the moment the man was casting a spell which would block Harry''s memories of this event.


    When the spell had completed in his hand and shot at his head, Harry grabbed a small piece of the flow of dimensional energy around him and crafted a weak shield from it.


    The shield shattered and b?r?ly managed to block it but it worked. Not that the spell would have had any effect but they didn''t need to know that.


    Harry felt elated that he finally had his first grasp of non exotic energy based magic. This was a magic that could be used in the non-magical world without frying every electronic device in the area.


    Harry looked up to see the shocked faces of the monks and gave a pleased grin before saying, "I guess it''s not that hard after all. Thanks for the demonstration. If you''re not going to teach me, I''ll figure it out myself. Have a nice day."


    Harry then turned and left.


    Harry heard behind him one of the monks say, "Umm, Mordo? What just happened?"


    One of the others said, "I felt it. In that moment you were casting his body imitated your own, learning on its own. He now has a heart palace like yours."


    The leader apparently called Mordo said, "I felt it too Wong.. I will speak with the Ancient One about this."

 Chapter 17 - 17 Learning Magic. Again!

    arry gained much from his trip today, even more than those Sorcerers thought he did. Harry confirmed that they could sense the dimensional energy Harry absorbed and used, but they couldn''t sense Harry''s exotic energy or spells cast with it. Harry placed a tracking spell on each of them so he could figure out where they went.


    Shortly after Harry left he felt them vanish from the area and appear in another part of London. What was interesting was that his tracking spell was purged the moment they arrived at their destination. Harry didn''t think it was intentional, more like their destination automatically scrubbed those who arrived even if nothing was sensed.


    Harry returned to his Animagus form and flew to the area and found a large, ancient, four story building along a quiet street. Harry had seen this building several times while flying about and always admired the architecture. The reason he initially noticed it was that it was, relatively speaking, built around the convergence of several sources of Dimensional Energy which Harry could feel flowing through the world. If Hogwarts was built on the location with the strongest concentration of Exotic energy, this place had the strongest concentration of Dimensional energy.


    Harry wondered if he looked around the world for other sources of energy would he find other magic users. No, that would probably lead to things that would kill him.


    Harry also noticed for the first time the location had some of the sturdiest wards he''d ever felt. Their structure was there before, he just hadn''t noticed they formed a ward when he first felt them as he wasn''t familiar with Dimensional energy then.


    Harry felt that the wards also couldn''t see his exotic energy which was pretty cool. They seemed to react to his new dimensional energy, but Harry felt they wouldn''t trigger unless he actually cast magic with it or drew in energy from it. This meant the ward would likely go off if he used battle mediation here. Something to think about later.


    Harry flew beyond the wards and apparated back home. His stats as an owl were the same as a human, which meant he could use wandless magic, apparate, and make use of his physical agility and strength when he wanted. Harry tested this by clocking his flight speed at 600 kilometers per hour which is about half the speed of sound, about eight times faster than a normal Snowy Owl''s top speed. Not that he could keep that up for long. Eventually he''d run out of stamina and have to rest or eat to recover it.


    Harry spent the rest of August practicing with Dimensional energy and even asked Dumbledore about it and about Sorcerers in general.


    Dumbledore was most surprised Harry encountered Sorcerers but when he remembered the nature of Harry''s undetectable magic, it seemed possible.


    He explained in a letter what had been explained to him when he was the Chief Mugwump of the ICW. Sorcerers are kept unknown to Witches and Wizards and all contact with them is classified. Most common knowledge about them is spread through word of mouth alone. There are more witches and wizards than they are Sorcerers but reports on the strength of Sorcerers have always been highly varied. The strangest piece of information is that Sorcerers are all muggles though reports that Merlin was also a Sorcerer seem to counter this. Many records of battles between them and witches and wizards show the magic shields of Sorcerers were completely ineffective against wizard magic attacks. Yet other reports show the opposite, with wizard magic having no effect against a Sorcerer who was able to easily defeat very powerful wizards.


    What many reports agreed on was that in one way or another Sorcerers seemed to be guardians or protectors of some kind. Their power is noted to be capable of far more than wizards in many cases allowing them to do what would be impossible for a wizard.


    Dumbledore explained his own theory that Sorcerers can use many different forms of energy. Some can only use forms that are weak against Wizard magic while some can use energies which are strong against wizard magic.


    Harry understood what this implied. Exotic energies could rewrite the laws of reality but only on a small, specific scale. Apparition itself was a simple means of using Exotic energy to literally pierce through dimensional energy and reach another location. Many wizard spells could easily pierce dimensional energy. But there were other energies that were not so easy to fight. That being said, Harry wanted to get the feel of Dimensional energy first before he branched off into other forms of energy.


    By the end of August, Harry''s Magic Path Rank had risen to 23 which was around the same rank as Dumbledore. That was also where he met a roadblock.


    Harry was able to mold dimensional energy into a shield or short sword, but every time it would fizzle out after only a few moments. Harry did his best to imitate that Mordo guy and allowed energy to be absorbed into his body and channeled through the energy already in his body to shape it. Absorbing it wasn''t difficult for someone with energy sense. Controlling it wasn''t that bad once he figured out the trick to it. The problem was that once he had it shaped and it was outside his body, his control over it slipped and it fizzled out every time.


    If ambient Dimensional energy was water, the Dimensional Energy inside him tuned to his life and soul was ice. Absorbing ambient energy into the ice would allow Harry to freeze it into a shape and use that shape. But a few moments after it left the body, the ice returned to water and Harry couldn''t figure out how to stop it from melting! He was trying to figure out what to do when he got a new notification.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Back to School


    Get accepted as a Student in the London Branch of the Sanctum Sanctorum.]


    Harry immediately opened his map and confirmed the quest destination, the Sanctum Sanctorum, was in fact that building he saw earlier. Yep, that was the one. After making 100% sure he wouldn''t get a Hell Mode Pop up again he made his decision.


    Harry wrote a few letters to various individuals and packed his things.


    "Goose, we''re going to another magic school. This one has Sorcerers instead of Wizards."


    Goose responded mentally, ''You''re just looking for more trouble again aren''t you?''


    Harry smiled and said, "You know me so well." Hell mode or not, Harry doubted he would get bored.


    Harry purchased a new wardrobe of plain clothes the monks would likely be fine with and filled a suitcase with them along with two towels and a new toothbrush. He got a P.O. Box and set all mail owls to forward to the goblins who would mail the actual letters to his P.O. Box in the future.


    After making Potter Manor vanish again, Harry apparated with Goose and his suitcase a few blocks from the place and walked up from the street. It wasn''t on a large property in a gated off area he''d have to sneak into. It was actually on a side street down a dead end alley across from a park.


    Something he found funny was that his own crossing of the ward near the building didn''t do much but the ward seemed very interested in Goose. It didn''t directly reject the Flerken, but it did seem to go over Goose''s intention with a fine tooth comb. Harry had to stop himself from cackling as what may have been the most powerful, the most advanced ward Harry had ever encountered was now determining that his cat intended to spend as much time as she could, sleeping, and lying down in sunbeams.


    Once the ward confirmed Goose''s intention to seek sunbeams to lay in was not dangerous, it stopped bothering the Flerken.


    Harry directly knocked on the front door and waited about three minutes before someone answered. It was not someone he saw from the group earlier and was wearing a suit instead of a monk''s robe, but Harry still felt the presence of a large amount of Dimensional energy in the man.


    The doorman looked at Harry carrying a suitcase in one hand and a pet carrier in the other and said, "Can I help you?"


    Harry smiled and said, "I came to learn magic."


    The man said, "I''m sorry child but you have come to the wrong place."


    Before he could close the door Harry said "Tell me this isn''t a place where Magic can be learned and taught."


    "I''m sorry but you are not expected."


    Harry said, "Wait, so you only let people you expect in? How is that fair? I didn''t know I was supposed to be expected!"


    The man was far more confused than Harry was. He actually recognized the boy as Wong had told him of their encounter the prior month. The Ancient One was consulted and stated the boy would not return. Yet here he was. Never in the man''s life had he known the Ancient One to be wrong.


    Harry continued to stand there holding the heavy looking suitcase and pet. After considering the fact that the Sanctum let him through, he figured the child was not dangerous and said, "You may come in but you''ll have to wait. There is someone I must speak with."


    Harry took a step in and said, "Thank you. My name is Harry Potter. This is Goose."


    "Greetings Harry Potter, My name is Sol Rama, Protector of the London Branch of the Sanctum Santorum."


    Harry was escorted to a chair and proceeded to wait.


    Sol quickly walked up to the third level which had portals to the other Sanctums and Kamar-Taj. He entered the latter and made his way to the room of the Ancient One before knocking.


    "Come in."


    The bald woman greeted Sol but was a bit confused as to why he was here. He said, "Ancient One. The boy Master Mordo spoke of. The one you said would not be seen again. He had come to the London Sanctum and asked to learn magic."


    It was then that Sol saw something few in living memory had ever seen on the Ancient One''s stoic face. She was surprised.


    "Truly?" she asked. "And I did not see it. It seems there are still things I can not see." She got up and walked out of her room to the portals with Sol following behind.


    Only a few minutes after Sol had left Harry on the bench he had returned with a young looking bald woman in tow. However Harry felt her presence was heavier than Dumbledore and the resurrected Voldemort combined. She was further above them than they had been above Harry on his first day at Hogwarts. Harry felt half a dozen different types of energy within her. The arrangement was off though. The strongest concentration of energy was some type of dark energy while the others seemed to be arranged around it to balance the dark energy out.


    She noticed his attention and said, "Hello child. I am called the Ancient One."


    Harry said, "Hello, I am called Harry, though I don''t need to shave. I am the godson of one called Sirius, though he will deny being serious with every breath."


    The woman smirked at the gentle glib that her title didn''t match her appearance.


    This encounter was a first for her since her ascension to Sorcerer Supreme. It was her first time meeting someone she didn''t know she would meet. For centuries she had been using a tool to see into her own future so she pretty much knew everyone she was going to meet from then until the day she died. She never once saw Harry though. When Mordo and Wong spoke of a child who seemed to be a natural at the mystic arts, it confused her as she never saw someone like that using the Eye of Agamotto. She convinced herself it was a one time anomaly and since she never saw such a student train in Kamar-Taj, she believed the child would never cross paths with them again.


    Yet she was wrong. Even her most recent viewings of her future lacked this person. Why? For the first time in centuries she found something she was unsure about. That wasn''t a bad thing though. She picked up the amulet hanging around her neck and looked into the future with it. Doing so would let her see a conversation before it happened. She could then instead have a different conversation and see that. In this way she could have many first conversations with someone and learn much about them without giving much away about herself.


    However for the child it didn''t work. When she looked into the future, the child wasn''t there. She couldn''t tell what he said and the future she saw didn''t have her asking any questions or hearing any answers. This child was somehow shielded, or invisible from the perspective of the future. Whatever gave this child such a gift was even more powerful than the Eye of Agamotto which was powered by an Infinity Stone. That was both fascinating and disturbing.


    Harry simply saw her pick up her necklace, frown, then look back and Harry and ask, "So tell me not hairy Harry, godson of the not serious Sirius. Why do you wish to learn magic?"


    Harry smiled that she got his bad joke and said, "Two reasons. First, I like to help people and learning here will definitely be good. The second is that there is a 100% chance I''ll need it later in life since there is no chance I am going to have a boring life."


    "What makes you say that?" She was honestly interested in his own opinion on the matter. It was certainly unusual for a child to be so certain their future required learning the mystic arts.


    "Well for one, I have what I''m pretty sure is a familiar bond with this ''not a cat.''"


    The ancient one looked at the small case carrying the orange cat and for the first time sensed that it was most certainly not a cat. It looked like a cat of course and seemed to behave like a cat, but this creature had a naturally occurring pocket dimension within that she would not have noticed if she didn''t look for it. She''d never seen a living creature like this before, not on this plane anyways. On further examination she could determine it did in fact have a bond with the child. It was very strong too.


    She considered it for a few moments and said, "There are other ways of protecting yourself you know. Becoming a Sorcerer means taking up to duties of defending the realm from those who seek to harm it."


    Harry shrugged and honestly answered, "Chances are I''ll have to do that in the future even if I didn''t learn Sorcery."


    The Ancient One was more than a little surprised at how sure of this the child was. She said, "I heard you used some Sorcery a month ago. Have you made any progress?" She remembered her amusement when Wong had told her the child''s passing remark that he would figure it out himself. As he was asking to learn now, she wanted to see if the boy could be embarrassed at the fact he likely didn''t make any progress.


    Harry sighed and crafted a shortsword from dimensional energy for her to examine. It was made of rust colored interweaving arrays of light as most Dimensional Constructs were and it was cleanly outlined. A moment later it fizzled out and the Ancient One smiled. She said, "A construct needs a small but constant input of dimensional energy to retain its form or it will break down."


    Harry thought about it for a moment and smacked his forehead. Oh, now it was obvious. He was trying to water a garden by turning the hose off after the water started coming out. Harry focused again but this time after the construct was made, he continued to refresh it over and over by adding more energy into it. This time the sword stayed solid and did not waiver.


    Harry smiled and said, "Thank you. I feel really stupid now."


    The Ancient One raised an eyebrow at the remark. For most initiates, surrendering to the energy, absorbing it, directing it, and shaping it were the hard parts. All that Harry had done easily. He just didn''t know what to do next.


    Now she was a bit torn. On one hand, Harry could become a powerful Sorcerer. So much skill at such a young age and his potential was higher than her predetermined successor who wouldn''t show for another decade or so. On the other hand, if Harry went bad, she wouldn''t know until it was too late. However, when was not being able to see a person''s future a crime? It was known that Kamar-Taj would teach anyone willing to learn, but technically that was only for people who arrived at Kamar-Taj themselves and Harry was still in London.


    After a moment more of contemplation she said, "You may learn the Mystic Arts from here Harry but only if you pass a test. If you do not, then you may not learn until you are taller than I am."


    "Umm. Ok." It wasn''t like he had a choice. Besides, his inner Gryffindor wouldn''t let him just back away from a challenge.


    She escorted Harry to the fourth floor where Harry saw numerous items behind glass cases. His senses informed him each contained a masterpiece of arranged energy for a purpose, true artifacts, though he would later learn they called them relics here. She walked him through a door and within was a small ritual room with a sphere that had a gentle white glow on a pedestal.


    "This is the ancient Orb of Agamotto. Or should I say the original. There is a different one that shares the same name which monitors threats throughout the world in Kamar-Taj, but this one predates it and was created by the founder of our order, the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto himself. I want you to place your hand on it."


    Harry felt the presence of so many types of powerful energy from the Orb that he had no means to differentiate what any of it was. Harry didn''t mind though and placed his hands on the orb.


    The Ancient One knew this was highly irregular. The Orb could sense the heart and many of the secrets of the person it scanned. It was a tool which allowed one to sense if specific entities were threats and using it on a potential student was never done.


    The orb however glowed pure white, signifying a pure heart and pure intentions. The Ancient One saw several images appear within the light, but she only recognized one of them. It was a phoenix. The Phoenix to be precise. She also recognized what may have been the source of the child''s talent. He was a mutant and seemed to have a pocket space within his soul. There were some other things but she couldn''t make heads or tails of them. However the pocket space would have answered a few questions. The cat had a pocket space as well so their similarities could have forged the familiar connection. Having a natural pocket space could explain how using dimensional energy was so natural for him.


    "Ok, you can remove your hands."


    Harry did so and the orb stopped glowing. Even the Orb couldn''t detect Harry''s Exotic energy so the Ancient one only saw the Dimensional energy within Harry as well as small amounts of Natural Energy which he sometimes used Battle Meditation off.


    The Ancient One said, "If you are serious about defending the realm, then I welcome you as a student."


    Harry said, "Thank you, but I think you have me confused for my godfather. I''m Harry, he''s Sirius."


    She rolled her eyes and escorted him back to collect his things. She noticed he was surprised at the portals she led him through but not that surprised.


    "So tell me about yourself Harry."


    "Well, I can, but only if you promise not to tell others. I don''t want others to know how much of a trouble magnet I am. At least until they figure it out themselves."


    She smiled at this and said, "Very well. I will not tell others of your past."


    Harry felt a field of energy he didn''t recognize and figured it was monitoring the conversation. Best guess? Lie detector. He certainly knew how to have fun with those.


    "Well, my full name is Harry James Potter. I turned twelve on July 31st. I was born to a witch and wizard who were members of a counter terrorism strike force. They got betrayed by a rat and both were killed by a terrorist leader, Halloween of 1994. I spent the next nine years living in a cupboard under the stairs of my aunt''s house. I died in 2003 and came back to life in 2004, don''t ask what happened. I spent last year going to magic school where I killed a Basilisk, challenged a nesting dragon, defeated a newly resurrected immortal Dark Lord, and killed twenty four of his evil fanatic followers along with one hundred Dementors. I''ve also just about memorized every text of wizard magic that exists and I''m looking to branch out."


    The Ancient One stopped at the third sentence and grew more and more serious after each one. She had to double check that her spell to ensure it was indeed functioning properly because if it was, then he was telling the truth.


    She looked back at him and said, "You''re a wizard Harry?"


    Harry nodded and said, "I guess. Not sure. Haven''t been quite sure of what I am after the coming back to life thing."


    She asked, "Are you aware you are a mutant?"


    "Yeah, I was told no wizard ever awoke the X-Gene without dying first and I just happened to win the genetic lottery. Though I was told the hand of others were involved."


    "I see now where your confidence in encountering trouble comes from. Now did you actually kill a hundred Dementors or did you drive them away?"


    Harry wasn''t surprised she knew what a Dementor was and said, "Find a spot where there is no one around for twenty miles and I''ll show you."


    She smirked at the challenge and waved her hand in a circle which caused sparks of dimensional energy to follow the path of her hand. From Harry''s energy sense it was like she was twisting space into a tunnel, though there were other processes Harry didn''t understand yet. A moment later the sparks formed a circle which turned into a portal.


    Harry followed her through it into the Sahara Desert, the hottest place Harry had ever been.


    He then took a Patronus Grenade from his inventory and lightly banished it a few dozen meters away.


    The grenade went off and the massive silver dragon materialized. Harry was paying very close attention to the Ancient One and noticed that the dark energy within her recoiled in the presence of the overpowered dragon Patronus. However this didn''t seem to harm her which meant that she hadn''t synchronized with the dark energy and it hadn''t synchronized with her, thus she lacked the taint of darkness.


    It was an odd arrangement that seemed more trouble than it was worth.


    The Ancient One was once more surprised. She could sense that space around the dragon was being actively purified through the sheer force of positive emotions, light, love, and happiness. However she could not feel the dragon itself. She realized with certainty that Harry''s wizard magic was invisible, even the orb of Agamotto didn''t show it. If Harry hadn''t told her, she would not have known.


    She understood the implications right away. Harry was trusting her with this. She said, "Thank you for showing me this Harry, I won''t speak of it to others. I will however remind you that most of the Masters of Kamar-Taj would recognize Wizard Magic if they see it, even if they can''t sense it."


    Harry nodded and said, "I''ve already got a lot of practice in Wizard Magic, I''m not here to practice that."


    "Indeed, though if you ever need a place to practice away from the eyes of others, come find me."


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Back to School


    Reward: ''Sling Ring'' Perk]


    Harry wondered why the quest hadn''t pinged yet though the so called Ancient One already told him he passed the test. Unless, ah, another test. If he lied or hid too much she may not have trusted him and may have held back in his teachings or worse, sabotaged them. That being said every single thing Harry told her was things known by others. If she investigated it herself and put some effort into it, she could have learned it all so there was no point in holding back.


    It was the same as training under Sirius, telling his godfather he was weaker than he actually was would not have helped in making him stronger.

 Chapter 18 - 18 Welcome to Kamar-Taj

    The Ancient One opened up another portal and returned to the location from before. She said, "If you are already learned in magic, do you have a specific branch of interest?"


    Harry nodded and said, "Before I answer, what do you know of my mutation? There is still plenty about it even I don''t get."


    "There was much that eluded me as well. But I could see that you have a pocket dimension within you that can store objects and energies."


    Harry was somewhat thankful his body''s status as a stable obscurial was not discovered. His actual mutation kept his Obscurus form the same as his human form which was what allowed him to gain levels and revive after death. The Inventory seemed to be an add on like the pause function and menu. However he had no problem with people thinking his inventory was his mutant power for now.


    Harry said, "I call it my inventory. Anything I put inside it becomes a part of me but separate from me. I also somehow gain a complete understanding of whatever I place in there. If I place a book in there, I have access to all that is written as if I memorized the image and text of every page. I can also gain an understanding of how something works if I place it in there."


    Harry waited a few moments for the Ancient One to understand the implications before he continued. "Because of this, I like to place technology and magic items in my inventory to figure out how they work. I like to make things which have been called Artifacts. That spell grenade I used earlier had the power of twenty Patronus Charms stuffed into it which forced the magic to condense into a critical mass before exploding out."


    The Ancient One could easily see how useful and how dangerous such an ability could be. It also allowed her to recall what Wong had told her. She said, "Wong told me you said to him, ''I''ve read everything.'' And earlier you said you''ve memorized every wizard magic. How many books do you have in that inventory at the moment?"


    "Not as many as I used to. Memorizing information from a book is much easier when it is in my inventory. But I don''t forget what I''ve memorized so if the book was borrowed I return it after memorizing it."


    Harry took a breath before saying, "So, because of my inventory, I''ve become interested in the branch of enchanting and artifact creation. I recently got all the books on Goblin enchanting so I want to further my study into that."


    The Ancient One was curious how Harry had gotten enchanting tomes from the Goblins as they were known for never disclosing their methods. More than a few relics in the Sanctum were forged by Goblins so she knew the quality of their work. The only reason they allowed it was because Harry promised never to share it and if he ever broke that promise all the gold he possessed would be forfeited to the Goblins and he would become their employee for the remainder of his days.


    She said, "Artifact creation requires precise control, a structured mind, a thorough understanding of magic, and a lot of imagination. I can see why you would be interested, but the truth of the matter is that Artificers are few and far between in all of recorded history. There hasn''t been one in the Sanctum for centuries and most of the well known ones of the past are never human. Why do you think that is?"


    "Because humans aren''t strong enough?"


    She shook her head, "Not quite. It is because humans are not long lived enough. The amount of time the true masters have put into the study and practice of their craft far exceeds a human''s lifetime. Even for the humans who are long lived through various means and gifts, few if any would be interested enough in artifact creation to devote themselves to it enough to reach the skill of the ancient masters."


    "Oh." He really couldn''t think of another response.


    A few Sorcerers in training noticed Harry being escorted by the Ancient One through the foyer. According to Harry''s map the portal had taken them somewhere in the mountainous region of Asia. He''d have to explore a little for his map to fill out and get more details.


    The Ancient One found the one she was looking for and said, "Ahh, Kaecilius. There is someone I''d like you to meet."


    After a quick introduction and request of the man, the Ancient One left the pair to their own devices.


    The man called Kaecilius was also a British Citizen and more than happy to show his fellow countryman around. He said, "You are by far the youngest disciple I have ever seen here."


    Harry said, "I think there was a question there but I''m not sure I heard it."


    Kaecilius smiled wryly and said, "We all have a reason to be here. I am here for truth. Some are here for healing or strength. I cannot think of a reason for one so young as yourself to be here."


    "Oh, that. Well I just happen to love magic and I figured I could learn it here. I also like helping people and magic will probably help with that."


    The fellow British national frowned disapprovingly. "Magic is not something that should be sought on a whim."


    "Maybe," Harry answered.


    Kaecilius showed Harry around the temple and the notable features of each building. Mediation rooms, library, cafeteria, and living quarters. He told Harry that evening practice would begin in an hour and if he wished to start his training it would be wise to observe.


    Harry set his stuff down there and let Goose out of her carrying case. Harry set a litter box and bowls for food and water in the space below his bed along with a charmed pet bed that stayed warm. Harry also used transmutation magic to reshape the bottom of his door into a cat door. Although transmutation was far more difficult than transfiguration, it was permanent so the door would not change back.


    Goose filled herself with water and promptly used the cat door to leave and begin the investigation of her new surroundings.


    And lastly Harry cast a powerful security and locking charm on the door. What made it useful was that people wouldn''t even know it was locked with magic as the magic he used to cast it was undetectable.


    Harry was surprised they didn''t have any robes for him but it was more of a didn''t have any robes in his size thing than not having anything at all. Harry couldn''t transmute clothing very well and using transfiguration would saturate the clothes in exotic energy which had its own problems. Luckily the simple clothes he bought were acceptable and he would have his own robes in a week.


    Harry returned to the spot Kaecilius told him would have evening practice and found that several disciples were sparring already.


    Harry sensed Mr. Grumpy''s approach from behind him and set his hand on Harry''s shoulder. Harry was tempted to try a judo throw but was too short to make it work and he never practiced it before. Mr. Grumpy, or Mordo as he was called, seemed disappointed Harry hadn''t flinched.


    Harry said, "We meet again Mr. Grumpy. I''m Harry by the way."


    "And what pray tell are you doing here, child?"


    "Well Mr. Grumpy I was taking my cat for a walk. Have you seen him by the way? Orange tabby cat, about two hundred eighteen years old? Shoots terrifying tentacles from its mouth? Her name is Goose."


    "Think you''re funny do you? This is no place for a child."


    "I can tell. All the No Children Allowed Posters really convinced me. I supposed I should be on my way. Do you know the bus fair for a ride from here to London?"


    The man took a deep breath and shook his head. He was not oblivious to the fact that Harry wouldn''t be here unless he was allowed to be here. He just didn''t like those who didn''t take training seriously and loathed those who relied on others to protect themselves. Children usually fit both criteria and he wanted to see how easily Harry got scared.


    Suffice to say, he was impressed. No flinch, not backing down and even standing his ground when directly confronted.


    "If you truly intend to learn here, child, then you must understand that you will fight. If you are not strong enough when that day comes, you will die."


    Mordo kept his hand on Harry''s shoulder and felt his heart rate. What he discovered surprised even him. There was no reaction. No fear, no nervousness. It was as if Harry was being informed of something as mundane as the weather.


    Harry said, "That is true whether I learn here or not."


    Still no increase in pulse. Mordo couldn''t determine lies though magic like the Ancient one could, but he had his own tricks. He could sense and if he needed, draw in energy from others during physical contact. With his hand on Harry''s shoulder he was confident he would feel if he was lying or if he was genuine.


    "Very well Harry. I am Karl Mordo. When receiving my instructions here you will address me as Master Mordo."


    Harry turned to face him and gave a polite bow, "Thank you Master Mordo."


    He released his hand from Harry''s shoulder and nodded. He had at least confirmed he did not lack in resolve. He was also able to clearly see the child''s aptitude as Harry already had a heart palace that looked far stronger than it should considering it was only a few months old. The Heart Palace Technique was both the most difficult and most rewarding form of Energy Control. Until now, the only current practitioners were himself and his teacher, the Ancient One.


    The main reason why he was so skeptical was that, in a sense, Harry was too good to be true. Mordo believed that the enemies of Sorcerers were the enemies of balance, and Sorcerers needed strength to kill them. Harry was talented and young and perhaps some decades in the future would become a strong Sorcerer to protect the balance and natural order of the world.


    Only time would tell.


    Once the practice session began, Harry sat to the side and watched. Mordo and the one called Wong would walk through the rows of acolytes rating their progress and giving advice when needed. The main practice each day was feeling out and controlling Dimensional Energy.


    Harry determined at that point that the energy sync trick he stole off Mordo was only used by Mordo and the Ancient One. Through his senses he felt that the trainees didn''t have a small piece of Dimensional Energy that synchronized to the signature of their life and soul. The other masters did seem to have an accumulation of Dimensional energy within they could use to control external energy, but it was an indirect control instead of a direct control. They would simply keep practicing with the hope that some energy would stay in their body as they practiced with it.


    Harry thought the way Mordo did it was a good trick and wondered why it wasn''t taught more often. He had no idea that the Ancient One used her foreknowledge to determine whether or not a student would be capable of learning it or not beforehand. If not, they were not taught it. If they could learn it, they were taught that method and that method only. The Ancient One thought only Mordo and her successor Stephen Strange would ever master the Heart Palace, but she was pleased to be wrong.


    After asking a few questions Harry had something of a game plan. This place not only taught magic but martial arts which incorporated magic. He didn''t want to be noticed so easily so he would spend whatever would be a normal amount of time practicing energy control before ''finally'' getting the hang of magic and learning the fun stuff. Until then he would work on his Warrior Path Rank and try to get it to twenty.


    In his spare time Harry decided to work on his enchanting studies and study his new toys. It wasn''t just the Goblet of Fire he could analyse. Harry already got into contact with Nicolas Flamel and told him he had his stone. The ancient alchemist told him to keep it but not tell anyone. The letter stated that many different forces both magical and mundane had been after him for many years due to that stone and it was only recently that he asked his best student to look after it for a while so he could have a break. The circumstances however convinced him the stone was better left missing and if no one knew Harry had it, he should keep it that way. He also told Harry he had enough elixir to get his affairs in order and would soon be on his way to the ''Next Great Adventure.''


    The end of the letter stated that after they died he would leave all his books to Dumbledore and Harry could ask to borrow them if he wanted. That however wouldn''t be for a few years so he had to make due with what he had. The composition of the Philosopher''s stone itself reminded Harry a bit of his spell grenades when they reached critical mass. The arrangement of the exotic energy densities within the stone was like a large amount of spells compressed into critical mass then solidified before it could blow. The critical mass exotic energies would have different properties compared to the energies prior to going critical.


    However under no circumstance could Harry carelessly take it out of his inventory. The sheer density of exotic energy would destroy every electronic within a hundred feet and he had been told there were ways of tracking the stone''s energy presence. Those ways had been why the Flamels rarely got a moment of peace and why they requested Dumbledore to look after it for a while. Harry even learned that the stone was in Gringotts for a time and someone tracked the energy of the stone and broke into Gringotts to find it. Luckily it had been moved hours before but at least now Harry had some understanding of why Dumbledore didn''t bother hiding it. The fact that Harry had the stone yet the means to search for it came up with nothing meant that Harry for some reason was able to block the energy presence of the stone. It was only due to this the Flamels decided to let him keep it.


    Thanks to that, Harry hadn''t taken it out even once since he got it. Thankfully he didn''t need gold or the Elixir of Life.


    And so Harry''s days of training began. The first thing he would do each day was enter the library, discreetly place several books into his inventory, then pause and read them all. Few were in English but many Wizard tomes also covered a variety of languages and Harry had long since mastered most forms of communication, written or otherwise.


    Once Harry had memorized the contents and gone over them enough he would unpause and return them to the shelves and pick a book to bring to his room. Unfortunately the librarian became quite suspicious of him always coming and going and Harry had to lie and say that he was referencing something from the books he borrowed.


    The books were part esoteric, part crossword puzzle, and part reader''s digest. Harry really did enjoy them. Many wizard books read like dictionaries. Full of information and you''ll never use 95% of it while 99.9% of it referenced itself.


    Much of the information did in fact overlap with what Harry had already learned which allowed him to cut down on paused time comprehending it. That and the fact that his Scholar Path broke through to rank 20 allowed him to learn and comprehend what he learned much more smoothly.


    After a month Harry figured he watched the forms enough and started participating in the morning and evening exercises. Surprisingly it did increase his Warrior Path even though the movements gave him no strain. Though Harry felt the increase in his Path Rank came not from his own movements but from the observation of the others. Harry used his energy sense to follow the path of channeled energies within the various disciples as they practiced. Through constant observation Harry was building up his own intuition of how energy traveled through a person''s body as they fought meaning one day he might be able to predict a human''s movement before they moved.


    Sure, he could do it with a dragon or a basilisk, but that was because they were huge and practically saturated with energy. A human is small and the relative energy within was weak, b?r?ly noticeable like a speck of dust on the air.


    Two months later Harry tried Battle Meditation for the first time since coming to Karmar-Taj. It was awkward.


    Harry''s battle meditation automatically generated foes made of the energy he chose to absorb which matched his level as long as it was within the range. Harry had obviously chosen to absorb Dimensional energy since having more made controlling it a bit easier and it had a range of level 50 to level 200.


    Today the monsters oddly enough looked like a green spectral Slenderman. It was creepy as hell and its arms would often shift between clawed fingers and sword like appendages.


    Partway through the fight Harry heard from behind him, "Hello Harry."


    Somehow or another the figure of the Ancient One had materialized behind him. Of course unexplainable situations were no cause for rudeness according to his mother so he said, "Good evening Ancient One, how are you?"


    Harry had to duck under a decapitating slash and strike the monster''s knee. The problem with the Slenderman wasn''t it''s durability, fast attacks, or often unpredictable movements. It was his height. It was at least double Harry''s height meaning Harry had no real way to get a headshot without leaving himself vulnerable.


    The Ancient One responded. "I''m doing very well, thank you for asking. You see I was meditating in the Astral plane and I sensed a minor convergence of dimensional energies so I thought I''d have a look."


    Harry used his shield to parry another attack and did a half spin before bashing his shield into the monster''s legs, sending it toppling down. Harry said, "I see, did you find anything interesting?"


    "I did in fact. The Dimensional energy seemed to coalesce into a green stranger, an uncommon resident of certain dimensions. They are considered quite dangerous and many a dimensional traveler has met their end before them. I''ve never seen one in the Astral Plane before."


    Harry used the moment the monster tried to get back up to pierce its side. He could have gone for the head but that always left him open for a counter attack while attacking the side forced the monster to guard. Harry said, "I see. That does sound dangerous. What do you think should be done?"


    She continued observing Harry''s fight for another minute or so. Since the monster matched Harry''s level it wasn''t something he could really hold much back on. True, he wasn''t using wizard magic or his artifacts but he was looking to grind his Path proficiencies, not jump up in level. If he rose in level too fast without ranking up his paths then one day he would find he was too weak to fight monsters of the same level.


    After another moment the Ancient One said, "Well the situation seems like it will resolve itself without any intervention. On an unrelated note, we haven''t spoken since your arrival. Once you have some time, I''d like to invite you for tea."


    Harry threw his sword into the air, conjured an energy knife, stabbed into the monster''s foot and caught his sword before chopping the bound leg off. He said, "I will never refuse an offer to tea Ancient One." He was British, he liked tea. It was genetic.


    After a few more moments he killed the creature which promptly dissolved into energy his body greedily absorbed. Was he pretty sure the Ancient One was watching? Yes, yes he was sure she was watching. But he couldn''t just pretend this didn''t happen so he might as well deal with it.


    Harry finished his battle mediation and woke in his body. He made his way from his residence into the Ancient One''s Chambers where the tea was already being poured. Harry sat down respectfully and lifted the cup but waited a breath so he could savor the aroma. Afterwards he took a small sip, then a longer one. Yup, good tea.


    Harry asked, "Is that honey?"


    "Why yes. Do you like it?"


    "Yes, it''s very good."


    She nodded and said, "So how have you adjusted so far Harry?"


    Harry took another sip and answered, "It''s better than Hogwarts."


    "Why is that?"


    "It''s probably just me. The teachers were very good at what they taught," Harry thought of Quirrel, Snape, and the Ghost Professor and added, "Most of the time. But they never taught me anything I didn''t already know. It was too dangerous to ask since I was watched by people who wanted me dead so it was mostly self study while I pretended otherwise. I suppose it wasn''t the best learning environment for me."


    The Ancient One nodded. She had in fact done as Harry expected and did her research on Harry Potter. Everything matched what he told her yet it seemed he left quite a bit out as well. His antics of broadcasting the defeat of the most evil Dark Lord in the magical world''s history on a television was certainly unique.


    The awkwardness of the meeting was harming Harry''s preteen soul so he simply said, "So, I''m guessing you want to know what that was."


    "Yes, I would in fact. Would you like to tell me how you generated a being from another dimension composed out of Dimensional energy you then absorbed after defeating?"


    Harry considered how to word the answer and after a moment said "I''m not sure how it works but I''ve been calling it Battle Meditation. I can sense energy but I can''t just absorb it, it won''t let me. When I meditate the energy somehow turns into something I can fight. After beating it I can then absorb the energy. I can choose what energy I absorb, but I have no control over what actually forms. I''ve been doing this for a while now."


    "You can sense different forms of energy in the world around us?" This was surprising and usually impossible.


    In order to sense a specific form of energy, often you would have to blindly connect to it first and absorb it and if you got lucky over time and absorbed enough you''d be able to feel it then use it to feel the same type of energy around you. If you weren''t lucky you could spend years trying to absorb something you can''t even feel and find out you were never absorbing anything to begin with.


    Most Mystics who had formed connections with multiple types of energy strong enough to sense it did so through making contact with the master of the dimension that form of energy originated from. For example, if one wished to be able to cast bolts of pure heat energy to fire at an opponent, one could connect to the realm of Balthakk. The resulting spell was called the Bolts of Balthakk.


    The Sorcerer Supreme tended to be the one who forged the most and the strongest connections with other dimensions thus granting the greatest power to defend the earth with. The problem with this approach was that it led to far too many deaths for the liking of the most recent Sorcerer Supreme which was why she locked many books which taught how to connect to the masters of other realms.


    Harry however could do it in reverse. He could sense an energy, then absorb it without needing to make contact with the masters of other dimensions.


    The Ancient One asked, "What types of energy have you absorbed using this method?"


    "Exotic Energy, Dimensional energy, Fire energy, Sun Energy, and Nature energy," Harry easily listed off.


    "Can you tell me what type of energies you sense here?"


    "You mean in this room or in you?"


    The Ancient One raised an eyebrow and said, "What exactly do you feel within me?"


    Harry closed his eyes and concentrated. "Darkness surrounded by nature, fire, ice, light, and of course pure Dimensional energy. The others are synchronized with your life and soul like Mordo and myself are with Dimensional energy but the Darkness is not synchronized. In fact the other energies seem to be arranged around it to suppress it." Harry frowned as he noticed something else. Not a presence but an absence. He said, "You don''t have any time energy in your body. How does that work?"


    The Ancient one was so surprised at the last line she nearly spit up her tea. Thankfully Harry''s eyes were closed so she would never have to admit to it. She asked, "You can sense time energy?"


    Harry opened his eyes and said, "Yes, but I''m much too weak to absorb it. So why don''t you have any?"


    Harry noticed that the Ancient One seemed reluctant to speak of it so he added, "I won''t tell anyone since you''re keeping my secret too."


    The Ancient One gave a weak smile. That was like comparing an atheist and a devil worshiper who were hiding in a holy city. Both secrets were bad, but one simply did not compare to the other. Sorcerers did not like Witches and Wizards, but those who had contact with the Dark Dimension were to be killed on sight. She herself enforced that order.


    However she doubted Harry was the judging type so there was little point in hiding something he already knew. In fact, she felt that Harry may have known since they first met. It was better to explain now then it was later once Harry had acquired certain reading materials.


    "The reason I lack Time Energy is due to the influence of the Dark energy you sense. I''ve been stealing it from the Dark Dimension, a place beyond time and death."


    She expected some disgust when she told him of her sin, and she received it. But not at the admission of her sin. Harry only looked disgusted when she mentioned that the Dark Dimension was beyond death.


    She was curious so she asked, "Does that offend you Harry?"


    "A place beyond death? Of course it does. Life has no place existing in a place beyond death."


    She held back her smirk that Harry''s opinion seemed to match her own. Immediately she realized how odd that was as she was almost 800 years old and Harry was twelve. Twelve years old children should not be so accepting of death.. Then again, he did say something about dying and returning a year later.

 Chapter 19 - 19 Secrets of the Sorcerers

    Since Harry didn''t react negatively to her admission she decided to continue. "The purpose of the Sanctums is to protect the earth from other dimensional threats. The master of the Dark Dimension is one of the strongest threats. He seeks to drag the whole of the earth into his dimension. Should he succeed, the planet will vanish from orbit around the sun and the sky will lack both time and meaning. The Dark Energy will saturate the body of every living being transforming their form while granting them endless agony. Such beings are in so much pain they cannot comprehend meaning so are called mindless ones. They do not age and will not die naturally but I think we can both agree that is beside the point."


    Harry frowned and said, "So are you going to become a mindless one?" That would kinda become an issue he figured.


    She shook her head at the question, "No Harry, at least not with the elemental formation I have preventing the Dark energy from tainting and saturating my flesh. In this way I can escape age and protect the world for as long as I can. I can also use the energy to dominate ambient dimensional energy."


    She demonstrated this by having the dark energy surge within her causing a black diamond to appear on her forehead. She then waved her hand around and caused the three dimensional space of the room they were in to expand, contract, and fold in on itself like a kaleidoscope before reverting to normal. Harry felt the Dark energy within her force the Dimensional energy around them to submit to her control.


    Harry said, "So you are using the resources of the enemy to make yourself stronger even though doing so is much like balancing on a knife? I''m guessing you don''t want anyone else to do the same."


    She nodded, "Very few would be capable of using Dark Energy while restraining it. Among those of Kamar-Taj, I believe Mordo would be the only one capable of doing so. He would never do it of course and I cannot ask him to. Neither would he would ever forgive me for doing it myself. He is too rigid." She wasn''t guessing either. She had that conversation with Mordo several times but she never saw a positive outcome when viewing it prior to the conversation so it never actually happened from Mordo''s perspective.


    Harry nodded. He said, "Last year I had to compete in a dangerous competition and my school wasn''t allowed to help. When I asked the headmaster if I could borrow some books from his private collection, he said he could not allow me to as that would be considered ?ssistance. He then told me he didn''t know if any books from his collection were missing and if I found any around the castle to return them when convenient. He then left me alone in the room with his collection saying I could let myself out when I wished."


    The Ancient One smiled and easily recognized the act as something Albus Dumbledore would do from the rumors she heard of the man.


    Harry continued, "Rules exist for a reason but reason itself does not always exist. When reason fails you, sometimes rules get in the way."


    The Ancient One added, "Flexibility is important. Truth is that I hate having to use energy from the dark dimension. Because as you have said, I have not synchronized with it, it feels foreign and filthy. I have lived with that sensation for hundreds of years now and I still cannot stand it."


    Harry felt a shiver of revulsion imagining such a thing. He said, "If there was another way to retain your life, would you use it?"


    The Ancient One shook her head. "It is too late. Over the years I have found a few alternatives. Each has their own price of course but I''ve found that it was no use. I once found the actual Fountain of Youth. I was so pleased when I found it. I was ready to completely expel the Dark Energy from my body and had even found a way to offset the price of continuous usage of the fountain. It was then that reality came crashing down around me. When the Dark energy left my body, it was completely wracked with pain. My body had existed for so long without time it could no longer survive it. No matter what I attempt, my body would die shortly after ridding myself of the energy."


    Harry considered the implications and realized the Elixir of Life would be useless in this situation as well. In a very real sense, the Ancient One''s body was no longer alive. An Elixir that brings life may actually make her condition worse.


    The Ancient One noticed Harry''s frown and inwardly smiled. Harry''s knowledge likely included a few ways to beat death which was why he asked. She was happy that even knowing what she had done, he was concerned for her and even wanted to help.


    "Don''t concern yourself with me Harry, I have long since accepted this."


    Harry asked, "Is there anything I can do?"


    The Ancient One paused instead of immediately replying in the negative. There was in fact something Harry could give her, a piece of information that she always wanted to know but always terrified her.


    "Perhaps. If you can, I''d like you to answer a question. What happens when you die?"


    Harry considered the question. He always thought somewhere deep down he wasn''t supposed to tell people things like that. However there was no warning, no pop up, no bad feeling when he thought about telling her the truth. In other words, the decision was entirely on him.


    "My death was in no way standard, but I don''t mind telling you what I figured out. When you die, your soul and your sense of self, your identity as it were, must part. But the sense of self can''t part unless it is well rounded. After death you''ll experience what you need to become well rounded depending on the type of life you lived. A child who was never loved will experience a lifetime''s worth of love. A person who got away with many wrongs will experience appropriate punishments to balance that person out. Once you have become well rounded, your soul will leave your sense of self and reincarnate. The sense of self will then become one with Death. I don''t know what happens after that since I got the Heaven package but had to return to life."


    Harry had long since figured out that the echoes of his mother and father he stayed so long with were both Death itself. Many pieces of information they had given in retrospect wasn''t information his parents would give. Like why would his father, the heir of an ancient wizard family, tell Harry that the wizarding world was too small for him? That meant it was Death all along. Harry didn''t know why, but he knew that Death had given him an immeasurable gift he wouldn''t have traded for anything in the world. Because of this, Harry would never allow others to disrespect Death.


    When Harry looked back to the Ancient One after finishing his monologue, he saw that she was crying. A moment later she grabbed a napkin to wipe her tears and said, "Thank you Harry."


    When she heard what happened after death, she actually didn''t think of herself. She thought of all the hundreds of friends, allies, and partners who died so long ago. She wasn''t sure what she had been expecting for an answer, but she found that after hearing it, she felt a peace she never knew.


    There was however one thing that stuck out to her. She asked, "Harry, how long were you on the other side?"


    This wasn''t the first time Harry had thought of this question. At first, he figured it was a few years, perhaps some decades. But after spending time alive in a place time could be measured, he slowly realized how wrong he had been. He blamed television and video games. He probably watched every episode of every show that existed on cable at the time at least twice and replayed every video game until he got bored with them perhaps a dozen times.


    "Several hundred years I think," he answered.


    The Ancient One froze for a moment before a smile crept across her lips. Then she started laughing. It was a full, deep, light hearted laugh and went on for a full minute before she eventually calmed down.


    Harry had dealt with Sirius enough to have patience for this kind of thing so he calmly waited until she was done.


    Once calmed down she said, "I''m sorry Harry. It''s just that many of your perceptions closely resemble my own. I thought it should be impossible for someone of my years and a twelve year old to have so much in common. But now it makes sense. That would make you the closest person to my own age of Kamar-Taj."


    Harry figured if he had gone this far, he should go for broke. "Since you told me your big dangerous secret, I think I should tell you mine."


    "Being a Wizard training as a Sorcerer isn''t dangerous enough for you?" She asked with mirth.


    Harry smirked, "Nope that was the distraction for the really good stuff. What do you know about video games?"


    Harry and the Ancient One spoke until morning and then late into the afternoon. Only after it had finished did the Ancient one realize it may have been the longest conversation of her lifetime. She rarely had conversations with someone she didn''t already know the content of and she had to admit finding out things you completely weren''t expecting one after another was something she rarely if ever experienced.


    Harry told her all he could think of and she agreed to help him get stronger as discreetly as possible. Harry told her of his video game powers and Dumbledore''s theory about the Deathly Hallows being absorbed into him. After testing out a few aspects of his powers she made her own training schedule for him. Before this point, Harry did not understand the possibilities and benefits of the Heart Palace technique he stole from Mordo. Once the Ancient One explained it to him he was eager to test it.


    Not including Dark Energy from the Dark Dimension ruled by Dormammu or Time Energy, there were thirteen standard types of energy used by Sorcerers for the most common and practical spells. Harry intended on absorbing enough of each to add to his Heart Palace and synchronize all the energies together. Harry was quite happy to know that this technique was originally created by the Sorcerer Supreme Merlin prior to his acceptance of that position to fuse Exotic energy with other forms of Energy.


    Harry''s first goal was Nature energy. It was used to create storms and powerful gusts of winds in a spell called Winds of Watoomb.


    The Ancient One would also take Harry to the Mirror Dimension once a week to spar. Watching the woman fold citiescapes like origami paper made Harry wonder if he could do something similar with transfiguration.


    During one sparring session, she said, "Harry, why do you use a short sword? I understand why you used it before, but you are growing taller and it is no longer a good fit for you. Sorcerers often use small weapons or long staffs in magic combat. A short sword doesn''t have enough benefits to use in magic combat."


    The next week Harry faced her with a maniacal grin and materialized a giant sword longer than he was tall and wide enough to hide behind.


    The Ancient One said, "That''s.. Not quite what I had in mind."


    Harry''s response was a wider grin.


    She shook her head and muttered under her breath, "Why do I even bother."


    Oddly enough the massive sword worked pretty well. It got bad if the construct broke but Harry''s constructs were pretty solid. Weapons materialized of Dimensional energy didn''t have weight but they did have momentum. That meant a thick sword took more effort to swing but had more force behind the strike.


    Harry decided to spend the next few level ups on STR. He was ending up a jack of all trades on the stats but since the actual power behind combat came from the Path Ranks, he didn''t mind as long as he put the effort into grinding each out. Besides, higher STR meant higher physical resistance to damage and Harry was more likely to get stabbed than he was to get hit with a bolt of magic lightning.


    With more strength and his Eldritch Heavy Sword as the Ancient One called it, Harry had a much easier time against monsters during battle mediation. Harry also went to an internet cafe and found a video of some practitioners using a heavy sword so he could figure out some proper techniques to use with it.


    After Harry''s third month he finally joined the other students in open practice of dimensional energy. Mordo accepted that Harry had gotten the hang of it after three months and would occasionally give advice or a small demonstration.


    One day Mordo said it was time to spar with Harry and told him to summon a weapon. Harry smiled and summoned his heavy sword. Mordo looked both fascinated and insulted at the massive weapon. He got out his Staff of the Living Tribunal and his Vaulting Boots of Valtorr.


    Master Mordo was more than a little surprised when Harry''s construct did not shatter at the first strike of the staff that could smash concrete without difficulty. Harry kept the blade moving around him while he moved around the blade. Doing so allowed him to strike out, then shield himself with the sword and strike out again. The Ancient One told him it reminded her of waves crashing on the beach. Harry decided he liked it and called the fighting style Tidal Sword Style.


    Mordo used his boots to jump against the air but Harry could sense the ripple of magic that preceded each step so every use of the boots telegraphed Mordo''s next move allowing Harry to counter it before it was made.


    Although it looked like Harry was holding his own, that was just because of how much Mordo was holding back. He had no intention of crushing Harry, he was just looking for weaknesses in the use of his heavy sword to determine if it was worth using or not. So far he was quite surprised.


    Not that Harry was going all out either. Harry had already once told Mordo he was strong for his age so Harry was using about one and a half a standard ?du?t''s worth of strength and speed. Using Dimensional energy to move your body for you increased strength and speed by a large factor but Mordo wasn''t doing it so Harry would fight at just above human level for now.


    Harry would swing his giant sword to attack or move under it or behind it to defend. Harry watched a number of videos with tower shield users to incorporate how they worked around their shield to fight and the Ancient One had no problem painfully pointing out the weaknesses of Harry''s styles.


    Mordo had seen enough of Harry''s unusual defenses so let up and showed some openings so he could see Harry''s attacks. Harry swung from the left to bisect Mordo who jumped to dodge. The swing itself though instantly stopped below Mordo and twisted up with an edge that promised Mordo a painful landing. Mordo used his boots to take an air step but Harry jumped to follow and swung up with the added force of the jump. Mordo once again used his boots to dodge and watch the enormous blade pass him by.


    Harry was both interested and annoyed by those boots. From what Harry sensed, they used electrostatic discharge to gather water vapor and solidify it for a moment to be used as a step. Valtorr was a god-like being who had power over clouds which only sounded weak but really wasn''t. Water vapor could be gathered into mist using Valtorr''s power which could conceal, blind, and even imprison others. Water could be gathered into a miniature storm cloud which lightning could be called forth from.


    When Harry landed after Mordo''s final dodge, the master put his staff away and said, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"


    "Video games Master Mordo. I play a lot of video games." Harry easily answered.


    The man smiled and shook his head. "I have seen spears, axes, knives, chakrams, swords, whips, kamas, and fans. That however was a first."


    Harry smiled and said, "So how''d I do?"


    Mordo nodded, "Promising."


    It seemed one word of encouragement was all the master of the mystic Arts allowed himself for the twelve year old and Harry decided to be happy he got even that.


    Though he continued training each day he still stayed in contact with the magical world. Hermione''s owl Hedwig would drop off letters for him as the Sanctum in London which Harry was fine with as he would have felt bad for the bird if she had to fly all the way to Asia every few weeks.


    Remus Lupin had returned to England after hearing from the papers about the tournament and Dumbledore hired him on the spot as the new Defense Against the Dark arts teacher. Hermione said he was great since not only was he practical, but he was actually willing to give her some advanced lessons when he saw how far ahead she was along with Neville. She also said that once a month Sirius would show up at Hogwarts and teach Lupin''s classes for him, though she did not explain why. Sirius had written that Mooney wanted to meet his honorary nephew when he had the time.


    Sirius himself had been going out on a few dates with Amelia and they were getting closer and catching up on lost time. Seems he had already had enough of the bachelor life.


    Harry also kept himself up on the latest news in both business and technology. He could pretty much disassemble and ?ssemble any tech on the market blindfolded and could write the operating system of any computer without difficulty. He was also getting familiar with all the names of the business world, their specialties, interests, and markets.


    The more he read about business the less he wanted to do with it. It was a cruel world where lives were made and destroyed by the thousands and tens of thousands on the whims and greed of those who lacked the slightest bit of compassion. Harry could put the cause of more suffering to some of these groups than he could lay at the feet of Voldemort and all his death eaters. But at the end of the day it was a resource and if one day he failed to do something because he hadn''t cultivated the resource when he could have, he likely wouldn''t forgive himself.


    For his side projects Harry had already become quite the craftsman. He didn''t use a forge or hammers but magic and imagination. There was a spell that could turn iron into clay and back. Harry could then mold, shape, and press the clay before stretching it to create the grain lines then carve out the details and return it back to iron before heating and tempering it. Harry could place the finished produce in his inventory to check the details and see what worked and what didn''t.


    Harry used the Goblin techniques as a base but used his own talents and skills to build up from there. Legally, Goblins were not allowed wands and they weren''t fantastic at wandless magic. Harry had their techniques and his own magic and the insights from the books of Kamar-Taj.


    It didn''t take long for Harry to finish the library of Kamar-Taj. The apprentice section anyways. The library was split into three sections, the apprentice section, the master''s section, and the Sorcerer Sumpreme''s private collection. In order to hide this, he still borrowed one book every four days from the apprentice section which made the librarian stop glaring at him as he thought Harry was finally reading properly instead of just skimming. Oh the irony.


    The Ancient One said that once Harry had mastered the content of the apprentice section, she would grant him access into the Master''s section. This meant however that he needed to fully comprehend the whole of the apprentice section, not just have it memorized which even for him would take a while.


    Harry was tempted to do it her way since he probably could within a year, but where would the fun in that be? All Harry had to do was find a specific time when the library was empty so he could sneak in. For others this would be tricky or would require breaking specific rules like the No Dimensional Portals in the Library rule. Harry didn''t need to break those rules though, he had a better way. In Harry''s room was a large painting of Dogs Playing Poker. When Harry tapped it three times and said a password, it would change to a map of Kamar-Taj and show the location of everyone in the temple. Using it he could easily find a time when no one was in the library and sneak in. Harry had long since figured out the secrets to the Marauder''s Map and mailed it to Neville since he didn''t need it afterwards.


    The volumes in the Master''s section really was where the good stuff was. The true names of specific deities who could be invoked during spellcraft to empower some of the more esoteric spells. Histories of ancient figures who did extraordinary deeds. Descriptions of ancient artifacts, relics, and treasures. Details about the various realms and the beings who ruled them. There really were a lot of nice things in there.


    Six months after starting Harry got a Sling Ring and learned to use it. The next day he returned it.


    From what Harry understood now, a Sling Ring used dimensional energy to harden space, making it brittle. When using the right technique, it was possible to overlap the brittle space with another space then drill a hole from the brittle space behind it to the space that overlapped it.


    A Sling Ring was very important, not just for travel, but for the use of the Mirror dimension. It required a lot of power to shatter space and allow one to travel into or even bring others into the mirror dimension, but that was the only requirement. Getting out however could not be done without a proper portal made by the Sling Ring. Even the Ancient One could not return from the Mirror Dimension without a Sling Ring.


    Harry didn''t need it. The Sling Ring Perk allowed him to harden and overlap space without the ring and creating a portal wasn''t difficult after he had the trick down. Harry created a fake Sling Ring so others wouldn''t get suspicious though.


    According to the Ancient One, it was possible to make a portal to other planets, other realms, and other dimensions.


    The Ancient One herself showed Harry how to properly access the Astral Plane and even showed him the various dimensions so he could get a feeling for the energy of each. Harry could actually enter battle Meditation within a dimension in the astral plane so he was no longer limited to only terrestrial energies.


    There was a very specific reason the Ancient One decided to teach Harry everything she could think of. It was not free, nor was it from the good of her own heart. It wasn''t to make him the Next Sorcerer Supreme either. No, she had something else in mind. She knew that she was going to die before she taught everything to the one who would succeed her and she made Harry swear to pick up where she left off. She also wanted Harry to be a back up plan in case Kamar-Taj ever fell and there was no one left.


    In one tutoring session Harry asked her, "How come all the warnings for spells come after the spell in most books?"


    She gave an uncharacteristic shrug and answered, "These books were not written in a single sitting. Many would create a spell and test it. If they survived the test they would write the spell down. The consequences of the spell would be learned later in the long run and written some time after the spell or ritual was first created."


    "Can''t someone just re-write the books with the warnings first?"


    "No we cannot I''m afraid. Many books were acquired from donations and there is a strict rule against copying the book to ensure the content only rests within the originals. Another problem is that if someone did copy the books and a mistake was made, the consequences could be disastrous if the spell or ritual was performed from the incorrect copy. Such circumstances have in fact occurred more than once which is why no one copies or edits or re-writes the books."


    The original volume was very important to magic users but less so to Harry. A normal Sorcerer would not be able to memorize the angles and lines specific types of mandalas required for magic circles but Harry translated those lines into Arithmancy and numbers allowing him to properly and accurately memorize even the esoteric spell circles better than if he just used eidetic memory to imprint them in his mind. His knowledge of university level math like linear and non-linear algebra and calculus and differential equations helped turn those lines into formulas.


    An average day at the temple began with waking early and having breakfast before morning practice. Harry would then spend until evening on various projects and finish in time for evening practice where Harry would do forms with his heavy sword. Harry had no intention of actually using it against a strong enemy, it was just useful for form practice and building the right muscle groups. Harry did intend on using a large sword but not the mammoth he swung for practice.


    To be honest, he just liked swinging it to see the expressions on people''s faces. Kaecilius and Mordo always made the best faces when they saw him. He had yet to get an expression out of Wong though.


    Harry was growing fond of long swords but not something taller than he was. He had in mind something halfway between a zanbato and a dodao. A long single curved clever edge type sword a bit longer than a longsword with a wide blade and longer than normal handle for both single handed and dual grip strikes. It was long enough to attack as he pleased, sharp enough to bisect a man or beast in one strike, yet light enough to use quickly with his strength.


    When the Ancient One saw Harry use it for the first time he could tell she was relieved Harry seemed intent to use the heavy sword only for training and pranking. Harry could easily use the Tidal Sword Style he was coming up with on the lighter blade as well though he had to add more forward and back steps to take advantage of the speed he could use to strike.


    After training Harry would meet the Ancient One in the Astral Plane where she would teach him various things and familiarize him with various planes. She could not show them all of course. There were more planes of existence than there were people alive on earth. But she did at least show him the important ones. During the exploration they would find some energy within Harry''s range and he would initiate battle mediation and defeat the monster that generated. In this way Harry was collecting many different forms of energy and within a few years he had confidence to store enough to form a connection to it and synchronize with it, thus adding that energy to his spell weaving capabilities.


    The lessons themselves weren''t entirely one way either. Harry knew much about the relatively small hidden world of witches and wizards and would tell her about the various potions, spells, and abilities they had. She couldn''t stop herself from smiling the first time Harry turned into a Snowy Owl.


    Harry even promised to add a wizard section to the library of Kamar-Taj at some point. They couldn''t use exotic energy, but they could learn about it as there were other beings, both mortal and otherwise who could use it. The list and properties of various potions was also useful and Harry intended on leaving a means to mail order potions for the temple and some wizard gold to pay for them. He would even leave some wizard robes and directions to Diagon Alley and how to access it in case they needed to buy things directly from wizards and maybe set the Sanctum up with its own account at Gringotts.


    Every weekend Harry would meet the Ancient One in the Mirror Dimension and they would spar. Although Dimensional energy could be used to increase the physique, how much it could increase it by was actually determined by the strength of mind and the physique itself. A stronger mind could increase strength to the limit without harming the body. Without enough mental discipline, forcing the body too far with dimensional energy would cause damage and possibly make the body explode. However, the stronger the body, the more energy could be added without detonation.


    In this way, it wasn''t a bad thing that Harry was increasing all his stats as his magic stats increased how much he could strengthen his body and his physical stats increased how much his body could take increasing before it broke.


    One time Harry tried to strengthen his body with Dimensional Energy beyond his limit and he ended up tearing himself to pieces and exploding in front of the Ancient One. She was most concerned until she saw his remains turned to dust and re-assemble back into himself. Though she could tell from his gritted teeth how unpleasant the experience was. She was even able to hold herself back from handing out the obligatory ''I told you so'' as she was the one to warn him of the dangers of overexertion. That time anyways. She would not let him off without an ''I told you so'' if there was a next time.


    In this way a year passed before anything interesting happened. Harry was more surprised than anyone that it took a full year for something big to happen.. Still, Harry didn''t expect his first fight as a disciple of Kamar-Taj to be against someone with a kink for magic jewelry.

 Chapter 20 - 20 Enter the Mandarin

    The day started out normal enough until the temple received a certain guest. Harry wasn''t able to get the full details but it seemed the guest was there to warn the Ancient One that a group of suspicious men wearing robes bearing a specific mark had been active around Mt. Wundagore. It seemed that since their arrival, there had been earthquakes that were occurring with more and more frequency.


    The Ancient One gathered the masters and left for Wundagore shortly after.


    Harry confirmed with his map that the library was empty and likely would remain so for a while so this would be a great time to borrow a few texts. The first half of his plan worked, no one stopped him from entering the deepest parts of the library. It was unfortunate however that he felt someone approach less than a minute after he came in.


    The first thing that stood out to Harry about this new presence was not that it was unfamiliar nor that it was powerful. No, what stood out more than anything else to Harry was then ten sources of energy the presence brought into the library.


    Harry stood in a corner and used wizard magic to make himself invisible. There were other spells he knew that would work but since his wizard magic was undetectable and there was nothing in the library that would be harmed by the exotic energy released, it was the better choice.


    The man who entered wore an unfamiliar green robe with golden flames embroidered across the edges. He looked to be in his late thirties and of Asian descent along with shoulder length black hair, well trimmed facial hair and sharp eyebrows. On the finger of each hand was a unique ring and Harry''s senses told him they were the sources of energy he felt. Not only that, they were perfectly attuned to the man himself.


    The library Harry was hiding in contained some of the most dangerous and esoteric knowledge in existence. The new arrival took one look around and ignored it all, venturing instead to a nondescript wall.


    He took out a piece of what looked to be advanced technology and activated it. Light shone from the silver disc like object and the nondescript wall seemed to fall away and collapse in on itself.


    Harry paused the world and walked over to the new opening.


    It wasn''t difficult to realize this man was an intruder. There was even a distinct chance the masters leaving was orchestrated by this man. Harry took a look at the man''s rings in paused time but none were familiar to him. He also took a good look at the device which seemed capable of cracking magic locks. Harry had no idea how that could work which was really saying something. His technical know-how may not be in the top ten of the planet at this point but it should at least be in the top hundred.


    And last but certainly not least, Harry inspected the newly opened space the mysterious intruder had come all the way for. He nearly fainted. Within the small space was a book on an altar. Not surprising as this was a library, but it was a book that Harry recognized. Bound in unfamiliar leather with a red dragon emblazoned on the cover. It was the Grand Grimoire.


    The Grand Grimoire was something as Legendary as it was Infamous. Centuries ago, a powerful alchemist and sorcerer found the original text of both the Greater Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon. These texts included instructions on how to summon and command almost every powerful demon in existence and contained various details on each one. Rather than use them for personal gain, he spent centuries studying it and experimenting with them and poured all the results into a single tome. The book he wrote contained not only the knowledge he gained from both manuscripts, but also knowledge he gained from demons he summoned and experimented with along with spells and rituals he learned from other dimensions he used his knowledge to travel to.


    It was not the most powerful book in the universe nor the most dangerous. Oddly enough, that was what made it perhaps the most valuable. It was pretty much the most user friendly book of all the books that could grant great power. It was no monkey''s paw. It gave exact details on how to summon and control demons without error and included all the proper warnings and precautions. It built up from the knowledge of Solomon who used demons to build his temple.


    At least that''s what most believed. No one knew who authored it or what happened to him after all.


    Harry obviously couldn''t let the man have it. The intruder wasn''t being loaned the book for a good cause after all, he was clearly here to steal the bloody thing.


    When Harry realized this would likely come down to a fight, he deeply cringed. This wasn''t an open field or empty plain. No, this was the Master''s Section of the Kamar-Taj Library with the Ancient One''s Private collection chained up on an adjacent wall.


    What did this mean? Well, even he couldn''t repair books that had been burned to cinders. Also some of the books contained magics of their own and Harry didn''t know how they would react to his wizard magic.


    Harry never considered that he had the option of just letting the man leave. It wasn''t in his nature. The fact that he wouldn''t be able to hide the evidence of the fight was also obvious. However it was acceptable. He had been able to stay low for the last year and it was longer than he expected to be honest.


    After spending as much time as he could think of coming up with various plans, Harry unpaused and said, "Excuse me, but who are you?"


    The man turned to face him but only showed a moment of surprise at Harry''s age. He made a fist and Harry felt psionic energy from one of the man''s rings start surrounding the area. The intruder said, "Forget what you have seen and leave at once."


    Harry''s innate mental protection prevented the mind control from having any effect but it did answer Harry''s question of how he got to the library in the first place.


    Luckily there was a difference between casting a spell yourself and using a tool to do it. When using a tool, you wouldn''t know if the spell failed.


    Harry started walking further into the library to one of the doors in the back. This led him to walk right past the man who silently observed the 13 year old child.


    Harry first tried an overpowered banish spell to send the intruder to the wall but he instantly shifted his stance to endure the force and only moved back half a foot. Though Harry''s spell energy couldn''t be sensed, the man saw the tells of an attack beforehand and braced himself accordingly.


    A beam of cold and what looked to be a laser beam shot from two of the man''s rings and Harry b?r?ly had time to dodge. He was relieved when he sensed they only struck a wall and not a book but he didn''t expect the gaudily dressed villain to strike first without a proper introduction monologue. Maybe he could squeeze one out of him.


    Harry conjured a shield and short sword with dimensional energy and said, "If you''re going to check something out, I''ll need to see your library card."


    He sneered and said back, "I shall take what I want and no child shall get in my way." He fired off a compact burst of space Harry tried to endure but it shattered his shield like tissue paper and sent him back crashing through three different bookshelves and into the far wall with a crack that would shatter the bones of any mortal.


    At this point Harry was in a lot of pain but very grateful he had placed so many stat points into STR. Sure, that really hurt, it was like a few hundred sticks of dynamite going off in his face, but it only cost him a fraction of his health.


    The intruder didn''t bother to check if Harry was alive and returned to the book. Though he opened the door he didn''t remove the security yet so the book wasn''t simply something he could take. He took out a few more pieces of high end tech and he set them to work removing the spells that kept him from his prize.


    Harry was taking potion after potion from his inventory and gulping them down.


    *Ping*


    [Recovery Potion has recovered Health.]


    [Healing Potion has increased Health Recovery speed by 15% for ten minutes.]


    [Wit Sharpening Potion has increased INT by 5% for ten minutes.]


    [Hardening Potion had increased physical defense by 20% for five minutes.]


    [Strengthening Potion has increased STR by 5% for ten minutes.]


    Unfortunately most potions could not be used with others but Harry had these ones brewed specifically for stackable use. The downside was that they only had a shelf-life of an hour after they were brewed before the effects expired but since Harry kept them in his timeless inventory, that wasn''t much of a downside.


    Harry quickly realized why his banishment spell didn''t work. It used his magic to push his target away and was less effective the heavier the target. However magical energy also counted towards weight. This man''s ten sources of energy were all considered massive so pushing him was much harder. That also meant that many spells such as Stunners which don''t work well on stronger opponents would do nothing. Those energy sources were tuned to the man''s life force and were practically a part of him. Energy wise the man''s total energy was like a hundred and fifty Dumbledores. Even Harry''s Stunner Grenades wouldn''t be able to put him down.


    Luckily his plan worked. He would have dodged that shot if it were lethal but the result was about as ideal as he could get. He got some distance from the man and he wasn''t paying attention to him. Harry observed through his energy sense the man breaking the security barriers and Harry cast a silencing charm on his surroundings. He then opened a portal to the Sahara desert and waited.


    Once the security had broken, Harry poured as much power as he could into the spell and shouted, "Accio Grand Grimoire!"


    The book rocketed past the man thanks to the verbal casting and made its way into Harry''s hands. Faster than any Olympic sprinter the intruder dashed at Harry who ran into the portal he made earlier with the man following behind.


    The man practically growled, "Give me the book child!"


    Harry said, "No thanks. How about an introduction since I hate to be rude. I''m Harry Potter, a minor practitioner of magic."


    "I am the Mandarin, and if you value your pathetic life you shall kneel before me and surrender the book!"


    Harry was shocked at the introduction, "The Mandarin?!" he cried out.


    The man seemed pleased at the surprise, but Harry continued and said, "You call yourself a form of dialect? How would you feel if I called myself the British?"


    Harry wasn''t finished of course. "Do you have a sidekick or rival called the Cantonese or the Hunanese?"


    "Enough!" he shouted and fired a stream of terrible flames Harry sensed were as hot as the sun. Harry jumped out of the way as the sand that was beneath him changed into molten glass and Harry fired his Endless Cutter Stream from the Mandarin''s left. Instead of dodging it he simply faded into the ethereal allowing the spell to pass harmlessly through him.


    He returned to solid form and said, "You are no sorcerer. A Wizard then? No matter. No one is a match for the Mandarin."


    Harry wanted to point out if that were true he wouldn''t have come only after the Ancient One and the other masters left. As if sensing Harry''s intention to say something insulting the Mandarin preemptively fired a beam into the ground which caused the sand around them to shape itself into various mounts and obstacles and walls. This suddenly made dodging much harder.


    Harry fired off his slow moving Expanding Cutter Sphere and ran to the side. The Mandarin fired the same concussive beam he used on Harry earlier at it which caused the sphere to detonate into a barrage of cutter spells which sliced up many of the surroundings and forced the Mandarin to seek shelter behind a wall.


    Harry used the moment to conjure a source of eternal flame and expanded it before granting it form. It became a semi truck sized dragon and sought out the Mandarin. Eternal flame was something only Harry or someone like Dumbledore could cast, but not even the latter could combine it with transfiguration magic to create something as powerful as Fiendfyre but not as deadly to the caster. Well, he probably could with some preparation, but definitely not on the fly. Having the power of Elder Wand strengthened magic helped.


    The dragon quickly found the Mandarin and sent out a blast of eternal fire dragon breath.


    Harry teleported behind the man and waited for an opening. With his newfound knowledge of dimensional energy, Harry was able to change the procedure for apparition into something smoother, safer, and more powerful. Though he couldn''t use it everywhere as it still tended to fry electronics in the area.


    The dragon of living eternal flame proved no challenge to the Mandarin who fired a beam of pure cold energy which not only beat back the dragon breath but consumed and snuffed out the dragon itself.


    Harry used his short sword and the opening to try and slice off the Mandarin''s arm, but the man''s seasoned sense of battle warned him in time and though Harry struck far faster than a normal human was capable of, the Mandarin only received a small cut on his forearm from the dimensional blade.


    The Mandarin quickly struck out with his fist forcing Harry back a step but the strike was followed through by a series of blows Harry felt were each capable of denting steel and crushing stone. Harry realized that getting close was not so great an idea as this man was a master martial artist far beyond the level of Mordo and Kaecelius. Though Harry''s short sword allowed him to make the most of his speed, each of his strikes were dodged, blocked, or even parried through unarmed combat techniques.


    Harry missed a step while being forced back and the Mandarin used the opening to strike Harry''s ?h?st with enough force to crack the stone skin his potion gave him.


    The Mandarin looked over Harry once more and said, "Impressive for a child but you will not be saved by this. You will die for your insolence and there is nothing that can save you." He shot a bolt of lightning which Harry''s shield was able to block long enough for him to dodge the rest, but the lightning was followed up by a searing beam of light which struck Harry''s shoulder.


    Harry conjured a dozen knives in the air with wizard magic but used some principles of dimensional constructs to create them faster. Harry then banished them all at the Mandarin who merely smirked.


    A whirlwind rose up from the Mandarin and steered the knives off course. A moment later a wall of black stretched out from the Mandarin and engulfed the area in a dark energy that hid all light and energy signs, even from Harry''s senses.


    It didn''t take a genius to figure out what was coming next and Harry jumped to the side to avoid another concussion beam which fragmented the hardened ground like an explosion. Harry threw a Patronus grenade into the air and ran to the side based on memory. He couldn''t see or sense anything but he remembered what it looked like before the Mandarin took away the light.


    Luckily the man didn''t think Harry could do anything against his darkness so three seconds after Harry tossed his grenade, the zone of dark energy was dissolved by the massive dragon of light. The Mandarin fired several beams at the dragon but they all passed through him. Harry wished it would pretend to fight or release some of that light dragon breath as a distraction, but a Patronus would only take the initiative to fight against darkness.


    Harry concentrated and said, "Bombarda Maxima," firing an explosion shot at the Mandarin''s feet. He noticed it just before it crashed into the ground and jumped against a nearby pillar he created earlier to get some distance from the blast.


    Before Harry could fire another explosion shot the ground began to shift and form into another walled off area. Harry turned to run away from where he sensed the Mandarin coming from but the floor he was on suddenly cracked and he lost his footing. The Mandarin fired his beam of cold at the floor and suddenly Harry''s feet were encased in ice.


    "This game has gone on long enough. Goodbye, Harry Potter."


    Harry sensed the ring the man used to turn intangible charge up. Whatever he was about to do was likely his ultimate finisher.


    Harry could only respond, "About time." Harry grabbed the book he kept under his shirt behind his back and tossed it into the path of the beam the Mandarin had just fired.


    The beam struck the book and the Mandarin saw the red dragon cover and the book itself turn to dust with a flash of bright magical light.


    "Noo!"


    Harry used his strength to free himself of the ice and said, "I was hoping you''d have something that could destroy the book. Goodbye."


    Harry threw a small ball at the ground which turned into white smoke and teleported away. A bolt of lightning blasted through the smoke in the next instant which scattered it, but Harry was already gone.


    Harry popped a few miles from the site and paused. The only way to win was to kill that guy or destroy the book. The problem was that both were impossible for Harry. Harry didn''t have a counter to the Mandarin''s intangibility and the man had more powerful magics and was far superior a martial artist. He wasn''t just fighting Harry, he was seeing through him. That last combo wasn''t luck. He knew where to create a spot of fragile ground to break and cause an opening.


    Destroying the book was just as hard. Legendary books like the Grand Grimoire couldn''t be destroyed normally. If Harry had been turned to dust in that flame attack, the Grand Grimoire would simply have been lightly singed though through the heat of the sun.


    That last beam was different and Harry felt it. The Ancient One made sure Harry could recognize disintegration energy as it was one of the surest one shot kills that existed. Harry''s instant death protection wouldn''t protect him from disintegration. Disintegration was also something that could in fact destroy the Grand Grimoire.


    And that was exactly how the Mandarin had been fooled.


    Before grabbing the Grimoire Harry had conjured a duplicate that was as magically dense as he could make it. The moment Harry entered the portal, he placed the Grand Grimoire into his Inventory and placed the copy under his shirt. The duplicate had no content in the pages of course but the cover looked identical.


    When Harry originally paused to think up his plan, he realized that if he simply tricked the man into leaving, he would likely come back. He had to think the book was destroyed or when he tried to take it again he would bring an even greater force of destruction.


    His first plan was to pretend to use a spell to destroy the book himself and die in the process. Unfortunately this plan failed the moment he put the book into his inventory and was greeted by a pop up message.


    [Unique Item ''Grand Grimoire'' will drop from inventory upon death.]


    Because of this Harry would either need the Mandarin to destroy it or Harry would somehow have to convincingly destroy the fake himself.


    Since he was still paused, Harry decided to go over the pages of the Grand Grimoire. He already had it, so might as well right?


    Harry spent what was likely several weeks going over the content. It was by far, the most advanced book he had ever read. He memorized the characteristics of every powerful demon and how to summon, bind and command most of them. Not surprisingly the means were all very complex, had a large probability of failure, and would likely corrupt the soul of the user.


    Harry had no interest in summoning demons. He found the descriptions, traits, and powers of the various demons an interesting read, and the summoning rituals themselves were insightful, but Harry would never use any of them except for reference. If nothing else, he''d be able to recognize a summoning ritual if he saw one in the future.


    There was however content which did interest Harry. The book contained magics which used dimensional energy as a base differently from the magics of Kamar-Taj. These spells were created by beings from other worlds and contained their insights and histories. They also contained various warnings about their use of course but there were some instances where the spells might be useful as long as the proper precautions were made.


    After fully comprehending what content he could and memorizing verbatim the content he couldn''t for later, Harry opened a portal back to Kamar-Taj''s library.


    He wasn''t surprised to see the Ancient One and Mordo already there.


    The Ancient One smiled seeing Harry and said, "You look to have seen better days Harry."


    Harry looked down and only then noticed a part of his robes were burned and there was a black burn on his shoulder where the laser struck.


    Harry shook his head and said, "I''ll live."


    Mordo practically yelled, "What happened here? Who did this?!"


    Harry said, "He called himself the Mandarin. Came for the book over there. The leather one with a red dragon on the cover."


    Harry saw Mordo soundlessly mouth the words ''Grand Grimoire,'' while beginning to look pale.


    The Ancient One noticed Harry''s lack of panic and after considering the circumstances and knowing the possibility of Harry not knowing what that book was to be zero, understood the situation was already resolved.


    Before she could say anything Mordo shouted, "What happened!? Where did the Mandarin go?"


    Harry realized that they both recognized the name so Harry said, "I tricked him into firing a disintegration beam of some kind at the book and escaped."


    The Ancient One''s eyes widened only for a moment in surprise but Mordo was not nearly as subtle. His jaw was hanging neatly from his mouth.


    The Ancient One said, "Harry looks like he could use some healing, follow me."


    The Ancient One was fully aware that Harry did not in fact need healing, but Mordo didn''t need to know that and she was curious for the details. She did not see this event coming perhaps because Harry was involved, but as it turned out well she didn''t mind it.


    The pair made their way to the Ancient One''s room and Harry pulled out a tea set for them from his inventory. Exquisite tea takes more than a few minutes to brew and loses quality quickly but a timeless inventory allowed him to have some whenever he wanted and it was already as good as the Ancient One''s. One of her secret uses of the Eye of Agamotto was to see when she would need tea to be ready so she could prepare it in advance. This was why her ''ready made'' tea was better than most people had in their lives.


    The Ancient One took the cup Harry poured for her and said, "Thank you Harry. Now please go over what happened today."


    Harry gave her the details, not bothering to hide that he was sneaking into the Master''s Library or his map. He was pretty sure she knew and Harry hadn''t touched her private collection. As of yet anyways.


    He told her of the items the Mandarin used to break the security and Harry''s plan. He also told her the details of the battle and that the book was in his inventory.


    She finished her second cup of tea by this point and said, "And it''s safe to ?ssume you''ve memorized the contents."


    Harry nodded. "Mostly for reference. I wouldn''t be surprised if I encounter a demon at some point so those details will be helpful. The requirements for commanding demons though are not something I can ever do though so no demon army for me."


    "Oh, and why is that?"


    Harry frowned, "You haven''t read it?"


    She shook her head. "Many of the restricted tomes or the ones in my private collection were placed there to prevent the temptation the knowledge offers. I have succumbed to temptation before so I am not willing to risk it again."


    Harry realized that this meant many of the books in her own collection may have content she was unaware of.


    "There are several ways of commanding a demon without staining or selling your own soul, but they all require risks which have the potential to harm countless others or materials which I am not willing to use such as the pure souls of others. Solomon for example was said to use a signet ring to command demons that was gifted to him by God, but the truth was that he was an alchemist and crafted the ring himself."


    Harry left the rest unsaid but implied. If the Ancient One was surprised, she did not show it.. Solomon once held the title of Sorcerer Supreme, but that title simple means the holder must be powerful enough to defend the earth, it doesn''t mean the holder has to be good.

 Chapter 21 - 21 Christmas with Carrionites

    She set aside the tea cup and said, "I''ll prepare another place to have the book stored by the end of the week. For now, let it be known to others that the book was destroyed by the Mandarin''s disintegration beam."


    Harry nodded and was silently happy that she agreed to go along with his plan. Harry asked, "So, who is this Mandarin guy?"


    The Ancient One took from her robes some items Harry recognized as the tech the Mandarin used to break the magic security. She said, "Place these in your inventory and pause so you can analyze them. Tell me what you have discovered first and I will tell you what I know of the Mandarin."


    Harry had no problems complying and did as she asked. He didn''t know the Mandarin dropped them when Harry snatched the book from under his nose.


    Once paused, Harry quickly realized whatever this tech was, it wasn''t earth based. Sure, it used electricity, but that wasn''t all it used. Some of the materials seemed to use principals which Harry did even know those materials had. Harry would have to experiment with them later to learn more since they worked off logic Harry wasn''t familiar with.


    Harry unpaused and said, "It was built on earth but it''s not earth tech."


    The Ancient One nodded and said, "It is said that the Mandarin discovered an alien ship many decades ago and mastered the technology. He crafted the energy sources of the ship into ten rings which have granted him great power as you know. Many know of the Mandarin as he is not afraid of showing off and many fear his power. His disintegration beam most of all."


    "Decades?" Harry asked.


    She nodded weakly. "Yes. Though the source of his health at that age is not the rings. He is more than just a master martial artist. He has completely harnessed his Chi, his life force and has strengthened it to the point where he can maintain his youth as he pleases."


    Harry read a few books about life force which mentioned the power of chi and the possibility of youth extension, but Harry didn''t know anyone was actually capable of it. The quantity and quality of the Chi required were not things that could be obtained in a modern world or so he thought. Thousands of years ago someone with that much Chi would be called an Immortal. But in this day and age, even the Immortals had died.


    The Ancient One said, "You''re to avoid open exercise for three days to avoid suspicion on your recovery from fighting the Mandarin. That will be all and good work."


    Harry thanked the Ancient One and turned to leave, but before he got to the door she said, "And Harry, do be careful. Some books are sentient and many such books will not have the best intentions of the reader. I do not know how your power will react to such a book, so in the future, be careful of what you place in your inventory."


    Harry felt the blood drain from his face for a moment before his mind automatically steadied itself. Harry could already think of half a dozen books that fell under the criteria the Ancient One described. When he placed a book into his inventory, it practically became a part of him. What if the book was already someone else? He didn''t want to think about it.


    Secrets were not well kept in Kamar-Taj and eventually some details about what occurred came out. Harry bravely took the book that the Mandarin had come for and lasted long enough against him to use the book to block his disintegration beam. At least that was the story the Ancient One encouraged and she doubted the Mandarin would refute the details.


    Once Harry ''recovered,'' Mordo took him under his wing and began training him in earnest. There were several masters who often took time to personally teach disciples, but Mordo was considered the best when it came to combat. Kaecilius was also very skilled but the man had a sadistic side that came out when fighting someone weaker than him which included much of Kamar-Taj. Few if any of his sparring partners didn''t require some medical attention for cuts, broken bones, or concussions. Harry avoided sparring with him for that reason and Mordo never allowed it in the first place.


    After a year of crafting, Harry had successfully created bracers which increased the amount of momentum he needed to move. This did not increase his weight or make him fall faster as any sparring partner would notice such a thing, it simply increased the amount of energy and effort he needed to make any movement. In order words he would have to go all out to fight someone at a lower fitness level and he would strengthen himself better doing it.


    Harry used these to spar with Mordo and train under him with everything he had, which from Mordo''s perspective looked to be quite promising but still human. Harry finally used his long cutter sword while sparring which made Mordo very relieved he would not have to talk Harry out of using that ridiculous heavy sword. The sword style Harry used still worked with the longer than normal sword but Harry used more footwork variations to strike, dodge, and counter than before.


    Mordo also began training Harry with his insights into the Heart Palace. He said, "You know Harry I must admit some jealousy in how easily you achieved it. I was not so lucky."


    Harry could sense a story and asked, "What happened?"


    He smiled wryly and said, "When the Ancient One knows you can succeed in a difficult training means, she won''t let you use an easier means. Because of this, I didn''t learn even basic control for some time. Many who came after me seemed to achieve results quickly, but not me. I didn''t even know she had given me the training for the Heart Palace until later."


    He shook his head in reminiscence and continued, "One day, I told her I just couldn''t do it. She told me I wasn''t surrendering to the energy and trying to control it instead. She opened a portal and told me to follow."


    Harry wondered where someone could be taken for that. "Where''d you go?"


    "Mt. Everest. She took me to the top of Mt. Everest and told me someone without proper attire would likely go into shock in two minutes. She then re-entered the portal and left me there."


    He stayed silent for a moment before continuing, "I understood then that what I had been trying to fight until that moment, had never been an enemy. I had in fact wasted so much time fighting myself. I gave up the fight, you cannot win a fight against yourself. In the barren cold of Everest I felt the cold numb my flesh and bones, but in doing so, my other senses became more attuned. I felt the energy of space at the peak of the world and accepted it within me, changing it and changing myself. Once I had done this, the first stage of the Heart Palace had been completed and I could control the energy as if it were a part of me. I escaped Everest that day. The Ancient One guided me not where I wanted to go, but where I needed to go. And I have risen far since then."


    Harry wondered how the Ancient One would feel if she knew Mordo turned a lesson plan into a religious experience.


    Harry was somewhat thankful he was able to spend another full year of training under the Ancient One and Mordo before Mordo decided to take him along on a small mission. After two and a half years of Kamar-Taj, Harry''s stats had gone through several breakthroughs.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 170 Age 14


    INT 355 WIS 350


    LUK 20


    Warrior Path rank 26


    Scholar Path rank 38


    Magic Path rank 36


    Tech Path rank 23


    Business Path rank 11


    Crafting Path rank 15]


    First was Harry''s martial technique. Though still leagues below someone like the Mandarin, Harry was at least as skilled as Mordo. Though since he still fought with the training bracers, from Mordo''s perspective Harry was simply, ''competent enough not to die pointlessly.'' The reason he reached Mordo''s level was that although the man held back his strength in the spars, he did not hold back his skill to ensure Harry''s technique was not lacking in any way he couldn''t fix.


    Harry had fully memorized the content of every book in the library including the Ancient One''s private collection. He asked permission once he comprehended the content of the Master''s Library and after she made Harry promise not to use any spells or rituals contained within for any reason without first consulting her, she agreed. The fact that Harry didn''t summon any demons was good evidence he didn''t see temptation in the same way most do. Harry did in fact come to her with three or so spells he learned and wanted to try out and she was willing to walk him through the dangers and supervise the practice.


    Harry''s heart palace had accumulated large amounts of nature energy, strength energy, antimagic energy, and illusion energy. He spent several months on each over the last two years and eventually synchronized the energies with his life force and soul, allowing him to control those energies as easily as he did Dimensional energy. Each energy was from a specific dimension the Ancient One led him to in the astral plane. Strength Energy for example can be easily found within the Crimson cosmos, a plane of existence currently ruled by Cyttorak. Usually to control strength energy one must invoke Cyttorak''s name, but Harry could bypass that requirement meaning he didn''t even need to chant the spell. This was one of the great advantages of the Heart palace method and Harry had surpassed Mordo in its usage since Mordo was still trying to absorb energy he couldn''t even feel.


    Harry''s scholar path increased when he learned something or comprehended something new so it increased suitably of course. The whole of wizard knowledge is only about controlling exotic energy. Sure, exotic energy is formidable, but it is still only one type of energy. Harry had been learning about dozens of types of energies, their uses and their various permutations. He expanded his knowledge of those studies with what he knew of nuclear physics, theoretical physics, and astrophysics and merged them together. Harry now knew more of the science of magic than even the Ancient One, though she could mentally calculate it faster as she had better instincts from centuries of practice.


    Harry''s Tech Path jumped when he finally cracked the secret behind the Mandarin''s toys. Since they basically interfaced around magic Harry had a base to work from in figuring them out. What Harry found interesting was that they basically overloaded the security spells and were likely powered by the Mandarin''s rings. No one else could use them which was likely why he didn''t care if he left them. He probably didn''t think a sorcerer in a temple would have any use of it.


    The Business Path increased slowly on its own with or without Harry''s input, though it did increase faster when Harry participated in his business interests.


    The red headed twins had opened their store filled with fun prank and gag merchandise and Harry would often head over to see what they had that was new. Sirius still ran much of it and was having a great time. He and Amelia got married a few months ago and Harry enjoyed the wedding as it was the first reunion he had with many of his friends. He still wrote Hermione a short letter every month or so and she would write back. They were still friends but she was getting on with her life. Harry realized at the wedding that Neville and Hermione sat very close to each other and he was happy for them.


    The other, larger part of his business interest was the Muggle Bank that Gringotts had opened using computers. They named it P & G Bank and Trust, and hired squibs and muggleborns to be the face of the bank as they continued to research muggle companies and use them to gain more money. They would often give loans of Harry''s gold converted into British Pounds to up and coming businesses at a decent interest and were making long term money goals from such. What was interesting was that if a business failed, the business would be forfeited to the Goblins who would delegate muggleborns to it to fix up the place using magic and make the business worth something, then sell it to someone else. This method required quite a bit of trial and error and more than a little help from Harry himself but eventually they figured out what to look out for when giving loans. If the company was any good, the Goblins would also retain the rights to buy partial ownership of the company and in doing so, P & G Bank and Trust slowly but surely grew.


    As far as the world knew, P & G stood for Potter and Gold which were both old families of Britain which decided to open a bank. The Government knew the truth of course, but when the Royal Family learned the magicals were finally leaving the Victorian era, they had no problem approving it and the bank did in fact make a minor boost to the economy and paid their taxes properly as good citizens of the crown.


    Harry''s Crafting Path improved from two sources. The first was the obvious, Harry would take materials and mold them with magic and intent and try to create artifacts. He was already considered a master of metallurgy, tanning, carving, and material physics and chemistry in general. The second source was unexpected but fruitful. Turned out cooking was considered crafting so Harry started cooking all the time. The higher the Crafting Path, the easier it was to craft something so even if Harry rose the Path through cooking it still made it easier to craft working artifacts.


    Harry would put every cook book he found in his inventory, practice at least one sophisticated meal a day, and every once in a while he would find some cooking contest in Britain to participate in. So far the best he had done was come in third, but that was not too surprising. Cooking really was an art and there were many geniuses who surpassed him.


    Although Mordo had no clue as to the depth of Harry''s actual strength, he still requested Harry''s accompaniment on a routine retrieval mission to show Harry the ropes. The Ancient One couldn''t see Harry''s future so had no idea what would happen. She still agreed to the request and basically said, ''Have fun.''


    Another reason Mordo requested Harry was that the mission took place in London and he didn''t want to ask Kaecelius to join him since most missions needed two regardless of the difficulty or lack thereof. Mordo knew Harry often returned to London for various things so Harry likely knew the layout as well as the sadistic jerk did.


    The mission itself was to find a specific item which had been stolen from Kamar-Taj long ago. It was a relic called the Visconti-Sforza deck. It was apparently the very first tarot deck ever created and also the most powerful. It was gifted to Kamar-Taj in the 15th century but lost in the 17th century and rumors of its reappearance had reached Kamar-Taj.


    Mordo had a few places he wanted to check out and explained most of them to Harry. Though it was late December they both wore robes that kept them warm so neither were bothered.


    Harry himself was wondering why he didn''t receive a game generated quest. He actually had no idea why a quest would generate for something or why it wouldn''t for something else. He got a quest for making Hermione prank a teacher but didn''t get one for protecting the Grand Grimoire from the Mandarin. It was slightly irksome since if he got the quest he''d get a nice map pointer showing him exactly where the thing was. But then again, he didn''t want to get spoiled.


    The search took three days and it was actually Christmas by the time they found it in a gift shop. Harry bought it since the man selling it had no idea it was real and if Mordo tried to convince him it was, the seller was more likely to increase the price than give it to them.


    The relic itself seemed dormant to Harry. Mordo explained that relics would appear so until they chose the one they wished to wield them. The deck was actually a fairly powerful relic that in addition to its ability to predict coming events, its cards could also could sharpen themselves and fly at the user''s command like a swarm of blades.


    Rather than return, Harry said he would spend the day admiring the Christmas decorations around London which Mordo was fine with.


    Not long after admiring the giant tree, Harry sensed something that was more than a little odd. Time energy, and a lot of it. Harry followed the source around a corner and three people ran straight into him.


    One of them, a man wearing a bow tie, said, "Oh Hello, sorry about that," as he got up.


    Harry said, "What''s with the rush?"


    The bow tie wearer Harry confirmed was the source of the time energy said, "Yes, well, we''re being chased so got to run."


    A redheaded woman and a skinny man in a striped sweater followed him.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Rescue the Time Lord]


    Help the Doctor stop the Carrionites and find his way home.]


    Three shadow-like specters flew over Harry but almost immediately turned around.


    "Fallen before our eyes, a feast!" One of them practically screeched.


    The other said, "Lead us to what we crave our spell has done."


    Harry wasn''t sure if that strange croaking sound was a giggle. The three looked like a cross between a Dementor and a crow and Harry realized they seemed to have decided to eat him.


    The redhead shouted, "Doctor!" When she realized their pursuers were more intent on eating Harry than following them.


    The spectral trio descended on Harry and the three from before seemed to be yelling at Harry to run.


    One of the bird creatures moved to snatch something from Harry''s head, a hair perhaps, but Harry ducked and kicked it back before sending a flying roundhouse at the other two, sending them into a wall.


    Harry calmly approached the three he ran into earlier and said, "Those aren''t friends of yours I suppose."


    The one he initially kicked recovered and shouted, "I shall drink from the blood of your heart!"


    The group gave a look at Harry and grabbed him while shouting, "Run!"


    Harry decided to follow along.


    While gaining distance the redhead said, "Wait, kicking them works? Why can''t we go back to that?"


    The man with the bow tie said, "They don''t exist on our physical realm, kicking them only pisses them off."


    Harry wondered how much experience these people had at running while talking.


    Harry said, "I''m Harry by the way."


    The redhead said, "I''m Amy, this is my husband Rory."


    The man in the sweater gave a small wave as they continued to run down the street. Harry figured the man must be used to being introduced by her.


    The bow tie wearing leader said, "I''m the Doctor."


    Harry asked, "Of what?"


    "What?" he asked back.


    "What are you the Doctor of?"


    Rory chuckled which made Harry look to him. The man finally spoke up and said, "Most people say Doctor who."


    Harry said, "''What'' is far more interesting."


    Amy said, "Come to think of it, what are you a doctor of?"


    "Is now really the best time for this?!" he almost shouted.


    The three bird things were flying fast at them and Harry said, "So do you have a plan?"


    The Doctor said, "Not really, making things up as I go."


    "Do you want me to kick them again?"


    "What good will that do us?" the Doctor asked.


    "Buy us some time to make a better plan?"


    "We need something to distract them and throw them off our scent! Something I''ll think of any second now."


    Harry felt them getting closer and casually took out a Patronus grenade.


    Rory noticed it in Harry''s hand and said, "What''s that?"


    Harry threw it behind him a after a moment of blinding light, the space suddenly contained a massive shining dragon that b?r?ly fit in the space between the buildings on the street. The glowing white construct took a look at the specters and roared. The ghastly creatures turned and flew away immediately but the massive Patronus did not give chase.


    The trio stopped dead and turned to see the massive glowing white dragon that looked both real and illusionary. Harry noticed that all three of them could see it even though muggles couldn''t see exotic energy based magic. Harry attributed it to the fact that even the two normal seeming ones did have an excess amount of time energy which allowed them to see things others could not. The bird creatures also seemed to have a field around them which made them harder to notice which explained the lack of shrieking on the streets from the ghostly specters flying down London.


    All the lights in the surroundings started going off and coming back on as the Patronus faded away. This was a newer version of the spell grenade which had less Exotic energy emission but it still had some effect. The fact that the lights came back on at all was a good sign to Harry. The Exotic energy hadn''t done permanent damage to the lines in the area.


    Rory was the first to speak up, b?r?ly. "W-What. What was that?"


    Harry shrugged. "Dragon in a can. Useless in a fight but scary enough. Those bird thingys will probably figure out it''s not dangerous soon so let''s go."


    The Doctor led them down a few more streets and they stopped running when he felt they lost them. Rory and Amy looked decently out of breath but seemed to recover quickly enough.


    Harry took the moment to say, "So, what were they, why did they talk about eating me, and what exactly are you a Doctor of?"


    The Doctor recovered after just a few breaths and said, "Carrionites. They feed off life energy and you look delicious to them. And everything."


    Harry frowned and said, "Wait a second."


    The Doctor looked like he was about to try to convince Harry he wasn''t lying about the Carrionites, but Harry said, "You''re a Doctor of everything?"


    The possible ''not an actual Doctor'' looked taken aback, "Yes, yes I am." He straightened his bow tie as if that proved his point.


    Harry asked, "So you''ve written a dissertation on every single subject that exists and after a review by your peers it was accepted and published?"


    When Amy saw the dumbstruck look on the Not a Doctor''s face, she started laughing hysterically and Rory also seemed to have trouble keeping himself from joining her.


    "Well, I um.. Yes, well. Shut up."


    This caused her to laugh even harder.


    "I''m an honorary Doctor ok!"


    Rory said, "So you never actually got a degree on earth or Gallifrey or anything?"


    He shook his head and said, "It wasn''t called a Doctorate when I graduated on Gallifrey but I was given the title ok? I am the Doctor."


    Harry said, "That''s nice. Got a plan to deal with the Carrionites before they eat anyone? I doubt I''m the only tasty morsel in London."


    Amy looked oddly at Harry and said, "You''re what, sixteen? How are you so calm about this and why did you have a canned dragon?"


    "I''m fourteen and a half actually. And weird things happen to me all the time. I''m used to it by now. And I have a canned dragon because I put it there. I like to make things like that."


    Harry had the Doctor''s attention at that point, "You made that? How?"


    "I doubt you''d understand if I told you."


    "Oh yeah? Try me."


    Harry smiled and said, "Magic."


    Amy said, "Wait, real magic? Are you a wizard or something?"


    Rory picked up on this and said, "I don''t think wizards have canned dragons. I mean why put it in a can?"


    Harry said with mock accusation, "Well, where else am I''m going to put it?"


    Amy stifled a laugh and said teasingly, "Yeah Rory, where else is he going to put it?"


    The Doctor shook his head and said, "Ok, Harry the Wizard, we need to find someplace safe. Carrionites are as picky as they are vindictive so they won''t target anyone else until they get to you."


    Harry shrugged, at least that was convenient. "I''ve got a place up the street."


    He rarely used it since Kamar-Taj was quieter and had more dimensional energy but he needed a place for his mail to go when the PO Box complained about the smell of the mail he usually got.

 Chapter 22 - 22 Harry Potter Vs Time and Space

    Once they got inside Harry said, "Alright, pick something you want for Christmas Dinner."


    Rory said, "Anchovy pizza."


    The Doctor said, "Fish fingers, and custard if you have any."


    Amy sighed and said, "I''m not hungry."


    Harry set up a table and took some of the prepared dishes from him inventory. Plenty of meals were easier to make in larger servings than small ones so he had hundreds of different dishes in his inventory.


    "Ok, dinner''s ready," he called out less than a minute later.


    They came in to find a table plated with three slices of handmade anchovy pizza, a plate of hand breaded beer battered fried fish fingers and homemade from scratch custard, a bowl of freshly chopped caesar salad and chips, and a plate of chicken alfredo where Harry sat down. In the center of the table was a steaming teapot and Harry was pouring out four cups of tea from it.


    Amy said, "Ok, that was too~ fast."


    Harry shrugged and said, "Magic."


    When Amy saw that the place left for her wasn''t empty, she decided not to complain as the salad did look delicious. Harry had enough experience cooking to know what ''I''m not hungry'' translated to when it came to women and food.


    The Doctor dipped the fish fingers into the custard and said between bites, "So you live on your own?"


    Harry took a sip of tea before answering back, "That''s right. I''m emancipated. So you got a plan yet?"


    Rory said, "What happened to the Tardis? I mean I get that we crashed and those carri-... things.. started chasing us. But where did they come from and why did we crash?"


    Amy said, "The lights went off right, is the Tardis broken?"


    The Doctor gave a slightly pained smile and said, "Not broken Amy, dead. The Tardis will never move again."


    Rory said, "What? How?"


    The Doctor let his head drop and said, "The Tardis is powered by the universe it was built in. Those Carrionites shifted the course of the Tardis into another universe. This is London, 2006, but not your London 2006."


    Amy said, "They shifted the course? But how can they do that?"


    "It''s my fault," he ?r??n?d. "They were sealed in a magic ball when Shakespeare reversed the spell that was supposed to free them. I kept the ball in my Tardis but it was a ball they made. It''s been about two hundred years since then and I suppose they came up with a way to not only free themselves but drag me down."


    Harry said, "So these Carrionites use magic? One of them said their spell led them to what they crave. Another tried to snatch one of my hairs. How does their magic work and if they dragged you here what is it here that they want?"


    After finishing another fish finger the Doctor said, "Their magic works on Quantum Mnemonics, the right word in the right place at the right time."


    Harry said, "Sounds like hacking." Harry wondered if a hair from his head was like a password to access his data.


    The Doctor nodded and said, "A bit like that yeah. Their whole species save those three were banished to the deep dark, the emptiness beyond the void."


    Harry thought that sounded exactly like the Dark Dimension.


    "As for here, well, I''m not sure. I suppose there must be something here they really want."


    Harry said, "Well, this reality does overlap with a few others and one of them happens to be a dimension beyond time and death called the Dark Dimension. Maybe those Carrionites came here because it would be easier to open a door here and free the rest of them?"


    The Doctor made no effort to hide his surprise. "Well, that could be it, yeah."


    Harry set his cup down and said, "And if the Carrionites are hackers of the universe, then we need to do something soon. Some computers are easier to hack than others and I doubt this universe is harder to hack than yours is. Once they get familiar enough with the operating system of this universe, they could become very powerful very quickly."


    "Oh, yes, that could be bad," he said as he pieced together the realizations.


    Amy said, "If you''re a wizard, do you have any ideas?"


    "I don''t use hacks. I know how to write programs that affect the universe and how to overwrite existing programs. Unless you have a book on Universe Hacking 101, I wouldn''t know where to begin."


    Amy and Rory simultaneously looked at the Doctor who said, "Well, there might be something in my Tardis. But I don''t think-"


    Harry interrupted, "I''m a very fast reader. Where is your Tardis?"


    Rory said, "Across from the intersection of St Martin''s ave and Barking rd."


    Harry questioned, "You parked a spaceship in the middle of London?"


    This brought a smile to the Doctor''s face, "Yes I did."


    After finishing supper Rory got up to head to the door but Harry said, "Where are you going?"


    "Umm, to the Tardis?"


    Harry got up and moved to the living room and started circling his hand. A portal of rust colored sparks opened and showed a blue police box on the other side. Harry asked, "That''s your Tardis?"


    Amy said, "Oh my god that''s real magic!"


    Harry smiled and said, "That''s nothing." He threw the portal forward where it swallowed the Tardis and vanished, but now there was a police box in Harry''s living room.


    Harry sensed a large amount of dimensional energy from the box, far more than any artifact or relic he had ever seen.


    Amy opened the door to the phone box revealing only a dimly lit space within. "Come on," she said.


    Rory and the Doctor walked into the box and Harry followed shortly behind.


    The space inside ended up being much larger than the exterior. But it was more than that. The space itself was different. Pocket dimension maybe. Nope, definitely.


    Harry said, "Nice pocket dimension."


    Amy saw the Doctor frown at the lack of excitement and patted his shoulder. "Not everyone is going to be flabbergasted Doctor."


    Rory asked, "So where is the book?"


    The Doctor answered, "In the library."


    "And where is the library?"


    Amy answered for him, "Next to the swimming pool."


    "Right, of course. Next to the swimming pool. How could I have forgotten," Rory plainly stated.


    Harry felt the space change and the door closed behind them.


    "The Doctor comes for his Tardis," echoed voices from the darkness.


    "A constant of the universe it is, any universe it seems."


    "So easy a trap to set. And you''ve brought dinner with you, how lovely."


    Harry paused the world and walked around a bit. He''d never been inside a pocket dimension, much less a pocket dimension created in another universe. The dimensional energy around him didn''t respond to the energy in his heart palace meaning he couldn''t use it. The space itself was also clean of almost any other type of energy save Time Energy which he still had a long way to go before he could use it.


    The witch things weren''t in the room, they seemed to be echoing their voices from elsewhere. Maybe they wanted to direct the group?


    The Honorary Doctor said they didn''t exist in the physical realm meaning they were basically projections. Technically that''s what a hacker was. A hacker didn''t exist in the computer he was hacking, but usually somewhere else. Their presence in the computer was virtual. So how do you stop a hacker? Security, firewalls, and passwords would hold one back, but not truly stop them.


    The only way to stop a hacker was a counter hack. That was going to be a problem. Sorcery didn''t work here and Harry already suspected using Exotic energy magic in a pocket dimension containing what looked to be a spaceship that could travel through time might not be the brightest idea. Luckily he had lots of stuff in his inventory.


    Harry unpaused and took four swords from his inventory, "Alright, everyone gets a sword."


    Rory said, "wh-where did you get that?"


    Amy grabbed two swords and passed one to him.


    The Doctor said, "Ah, swords, love a good sword. Not sure what good it''ll do us though."


    Harry said, "They''re more useful than glow sticks. Let there be light."


    At the command phrase the swords started glowing, shining light all around the rooms.


    The Doctor smiled and said, "Oh that''s cool."


    Amy swung it around and said, "I feel like a Jedi."


    Harry nodded, "They were kinda the inspiration."


    Amy looked surprised and said, "This earth has Star Wars?"


    Harry nodded and said, "Yeah, I wonder if it''s different from yours though."


    Amy smiled and said, "Ok, we''re so having a marathon once this is over."


    The Doctor said "Library''s this way, let''s go." He raised his glowing sword and ran down the hall with the others following.


    The halls filled with chanting as they reached further into the ship. The same set of lines, over and over.


    "~Blood and magic leads the way~


    ~Darkness ends the final day~


    ~Twist and crumble minds shall fall~


    ~Bend and shatter mortals all!"


    Amy said, "Doctor, what are they doing?"


    "Nothing, let''s go," he lied easily.


    Amy recognized the lie but didn''t question it. Harry figured she was used to it. Harry knew what they were doing, of course. He could feel it. It wasn''t even a bad idea. They intended to change the laws of the pocket dimension into a giant computer virus then crack the whole thing open. The virus would infect the dimensional energy of the whole earth faster than anyone could possibly stop it.


    The virus, or spell as it were, would strengthen their own power while driving mortals insane, all over the world, all at once.


    Of course, it would drive the mortals in here insane long before that point. Luckily Harry wasn''t mortal. The others though..


    Harry said, "Honorary Doctor, we have fifteen minutes until saturation and an hour until critical mass."


    Rory said, "Saturation of what?"


    Harry answered, "The witches are filling the space with madness. As the saturation increases it will become harder to think logical and coherent thoughts. Once the space has reached complete saturation, any mortal within the space won''t be capable of sane thought."


    Amy said, "Ok, that''s bad."


    Harry shrugged. "Kinda. There are ways around it. Sane thoughts are not always the best, if you don''t trust yourself, work on instinct and ignore your own thoughts."


    The Doctor said, "Hang on, how can you possibly know that?"


    "I read a lot. And my mind is protected from mind magics so get us to the library."


    He looked concerned and said, "Do you have a way to read really really really really fast?"


    "I do, why?"


    "Just making sure. This way."


    The chant of the Carrionites continued to echo and they got more and more lost. Since this was a Quest, his map did have a pointer but rather than pointing to the Library, it seemed to be pointing to areas of interest. Harry suspected there may have been several ways to succeed but he could only think of one of them and hoped he knew what he was doing.


    To find the Library, Harry occasionally used a nonverbal ''Point me'' spell to check for its direction. Harry''s map filled in as they went about and using the Point Me spell for triangulation he figured out where the library actually was.


    When used wandlessly, the Point Me spell was a purely internal spell so he didn''t emit Exotic energy. Sure, he could have ditched the group and went straight for the book, but he needed to get into contact with the space witches again to get a target lock on them or he wouldn''t be able to find them for the counter hack. They were luring the group into a trap to eat him so they should be around somewhere. Probably one of those areas of interest.


    Each room of the Tardis was unique yet several rooms seemed to be repeats of others. Some were almost identical but according to Harry''s map they were in fact in different rooms. Rory started mumbling to himself and Amy told him to be quiet, seemingly unaware that she had been humming a catchy tune for the last three minutes.


    Amy said, "Doctor, we''re going in circles. We should go in a straight line." She then used the sword to chop into a wall and slice through it. Harry''s swords were enchanted with single dimension edge magic that only turned on when used by him or someone he authorized to carry the sword for safety reasons. It could cut through almost anything that didn''t have magic defense.


    The Doctor said, "Hey hey hey! That''s dangerous!"


    He then turned to Harry and said, "Do something!"


    Harry asked, "Do you have a better idea of getting through a depowered door?"


    He lifted a small metal glow stick and said, "Yes, I have this!"


    Rory and Amy were hacking through the wall and had just gotten through. Rory seemed to agree with Amy that this was the best idea.


    Harry turned to him and said, "Alright, put your sword down." The Doctor did so and Harry said, "Lights out."


    Amy and Rory dropped unconscious after being knocked out by their swords.


    "Better?"


    The Doctor confirmed they were both alright and said, "Alright, now what?"


    Harry got a potion from his inventory and fed it to them both.


    "What''s that?"


    A moment later Rory and Amy turned into stone.


    "What did you do?!" he accused.


    Harry answered, "They''ll be fine. We both know the longer they remain here the higher the possibility of permanent damage. The Carrionites won''t let us find them until after saturation. I''ll turn them back after we''re done. We still have a marathon to watch."


    The pair continued down the hall and the Doctor quietly said, "Thank you." He was more than aware that the space was not safe for them and was getting worse but he didn''t have a better option. If they were stone however they wouldn''t be affected.


    A few minutes later they came into an open room and one of the Carrionites swooped down and tried to grab the Doctor. He slashed his sword with more skill than Harry thought he had in him and the spectral crow flew to the side.


    "Sword and steel shall rust and burn.


    To the earth it shall return."


    With the call of the alien witch the space changed again and suddenly their swords turned to rust and dirt. Normally the swords would be spell resistant but due to the saturation of the space their hack type spells could break Harry''s enchantments.


    The Carrionite cackled at the broken weapons and said, "And now for you Doctor."


    "Bind his flesh and bones and hearts.


    End the fight before it starts."


    The Doctor cried out in pain and dropped, grinding his teeth in agony. He wasn''t dead but he could no longer move.


    The other two Carrionites appeared and one said, "Powerful child, you shall not escape us."


    All three chanted, "Mortals rise and mortal fall."


    The Doctor shouted, "No! Stop!"


    They continued, "None resist the reaper''s call!"


    *Ping*


    [Instant Death successfully resisted due to Instant Death Immunity.]


    Harry fell over like a puppet whose strings were cut. A bit theatrical but he wanted to sell it.


    The Doctor shouted, "No! How could you!"


    The three creatures floated over to Harry, one said, "Freshly cut life force, my favorite."


    As soon as one got close enough Harry grabbed it by the arm and swung into the others. He then proceeded to bash it over and over into the floor and smash it into the other two Carronites like something out of a cartoon.


    Harry could tell it really wasn''t doing anything to them but he used the contact he maintained to get a clear reading of their signature. Mordo wasn''t the only one who could use physical contact to absorb or get a read on energy. Harry was tempted to try absorbing their energy but that trick had consequences and he already had another plan so he decided against it.


    Harry threw the creature into a wall and grabbed the Doctor still struggling against the spell. He teleported them to the hall closest to the library they passed and he lifted the man over his shoulders and ran to the library. His teleportation wasn''t as bad as before when it came to emitting Exotic energy but it would still likely mess with the surroundings. Unfortunately he didn''t have time to wait as the clock was ticking.


    A few moments later they arrived at the door. The Doctor said, "Oh, you found the library."


    Harry set him down and said, "Yes, now please open the door."


    He wiggled around a bit and said, "Umm. I still can''t move."


    Harry reached into his pocket and grabbed the glow stick and said, "How does this work?"


    "It works off a psychic command field."


    Harry wasn''t great with psionic energy but he was familiar enough to give mental commands. The glow stick glowed and emitted some type of autonomous molecularly synchronizing sound frequency. It sent a pitch at the door, recorded and analyzed the echo, then sent another pitch which matched the resonant frequency of the material to physically interact with it. It constantly recorded the echo and analyzed it to determine how the structure moved so it could change how the material was resonating to achieve a specific task. In this case, opening a locked door.


    The door opened a moment later and Harry picked up the doctor and set him in a beach chair which was next to the pool. The fact that there were bookcases in the same room as a pool didn''t even phase Harry.


    He used Point Me to find the book from the shelves and pulled it out. Harry said, "Is this it, the Big Book of Time and Space? It''s a bit thin." The book was thinner than most books in Hermione''s library.


    The Doctor shouted from the beach chair, "It''s bigger on the inside," with just a little too much enthusiasm, as if he had been waiting to say that for some time.


    Harry flipped through the pages only to realize no matter how many he flipped, the number of pages didn''t change on either side of what he was flipping through. He shouted, "Fingers crossed Doctor," and placed the book inside his inventory. The glow stick too. Yeah, he wasn''t passing up a chance to learn how that thing worked.


    Harry paused and found another chair to sit down. Sitting while paused was uncomfortable as anything he sat on felt like stone. Harry immediately realized why the Doctor had doubts on Harry''s ability to read the Big Book. If the space the book took up was not folded in on itself, the book would be thousands of miles long. It was like someone took the full coding of a highly advanced computer''s operating system, ?ssigned each individual character a ideographic page and put them all in order in a book.


    Not surprisingly, the book was not in english or any language Harry had encountered. This was another reason Harry had been ok with wandering around the ship. He paused in each room to memorize the symbols and already had a decent grasp of the written language. The book itself was also similar in structure to an advanced math textbook or programming text. Full mastery of the language wasn''t completely needed to learn the content.


    Years passed by in frozen time. Harry would often switch back and forth between analyzing the device he now knew to be called a Sonic Screwdriver and the Big Book of Time and Space.


    If translated to english the math would be called Block Transfer Computation. It was basically how to shift one space to another space and how to fit one space into another space through pure calculation. Simply calculating the process of the action would cause the action to happen. Up to this point there was nothing on time travel but Harry had only gotten through the first several hundred million pages. That was a few tens of kilometers for a book that was over four thousand kilometers long.


    Block Transfer Computation was funny in that it didn''t use base ten or base eight math. It literally used Dimensional energy for units and described how it behaved under different circumstances. Thanks to this Harry was able to get the basics down and even figure out the language the rest of the book was in. A majority of the pictures resembled the mandalas one could create using dimensional energy which Harry was already very familiar deciphering those using Arithmancy. There was also a lot of crossover with Sorcery magic and the shapes and symbols reminded him of Ancient Runes which were some of his better subjects.


    At some point Harry''s mind lost awareness of the passing moments and simply continued grinding itself through the book. The book itself would be completely unintelligible to most and the rest would burn themselves out trying to read it in a single setting. Literally.


    Harry however had an Intellect and Wisdom of 350 a piece, and his scholar path was at 38. With the necklace of the Chosen Path he wore it was bumped to 41. Even the Doctor himself only had a Scholar path of about 32. That meant Harry was four times a better learner than the Doctor was without the Necklace of the Chosen Path equipped. Keep in mind that a man who had six Doctorates would likely have a Scholar Path of 22. In the Richter scale like Path Ranking system, the Doctor was ten times the Scholar of such a man, the equivalent of 60 Doctorates.


    On the planet earth there were only about 50 types of Doctorates which showed how much knowledge a man like the Doctor possessed. However even the Doctor would lose out when it came to studying before the Ancient One and Harry had already surpassed her when it came to being a Scholar. The Doctor acquired his knowledge through experience and necessity, not through intensive, monotonous study.


    Not that Harry necessarily knew more than the Doctor. The Scholar Path did not measure knowledge accumulated, but the skill one had to learn and teach. It simply meant that Harry and the Ancient One were more skilled at learning and teaching. In sheer volume the Doctor still knew far more than they did as he was a curious wanderer while the Ancient One was a protector and only concerned herself with learning what she needed to better protect the Earth.


    Harry lost awareness, his mind shut down all functions except the processing of the book. He neither breathed nor blinked. He had no awareness of the color or feel of his surroundings, he went completely into automatic pilot.


    Once Harry finished, the abrupt end caused him to wake up. He realized he had no idea how long he had been paused but he now had full understanding of the book.


    Harry looked at a list of pop ups that appeared while he was reading and realized his INT and WIS both increased by 40 points and his Scholar Path actually reached 41. Harry took a few moments to collect himself and turn the rest of his brain back on. He wasn''t sure what state he was just in but he wasn''t going to complain. He saw the Doctor on the chair near the pool and remembered he was supposed to defeat the space witches. After figuring out a relatively simple plan, he unpaused and said, "Ok, I''m done."


    "Was that a joke?!" the Doctor cried from his chair. Block Transfer Computations literally could not be kept in a computer because it would change the computer it was a part of and break it which was why it had to be written in a book to begin with. But this was still the science behind the power of the Time Lords and very, very few ever truly learned it. The only reason the book was there was because a copy existed in every Tardis to reference from if they broke it.


    Harry mentally calculated the paths of dimensional energy binding the Doctor and snapped his fingers.


    The Doctor found he was able to move again and said, "Oh. Well alright then."


    Harry felt the energies in the Tardis, the spell the Carrionites weaved would reach critical density in five minutes and the pocket space would breach, spilling out into the earth space.


    He could now feel how the space witches magic worked through the dimensional energy. Harry almost wanted to laugh when he saw how big of a hole their own defenses possessed. No wonder their species was defeated.


    Harry focused his intent on the path of the witch''s spell and after performing a brief mental calculation shouted into the space itself.


    "Light and hope shall seal the way.


    Dawn shall break the darkest day.


    Right and whole your foes shall rise.


    Lost eternal is your prize!"


    The space itself shuddered and nearly turned in on itself. The echoing spell from before was replaced by shrieking wails. Harry''s didn''t just counter their spell. He took all the energy they put into it and reversed it back to the sender. He didn''t close out the hacker, he caused their computer to explode in their face.


    The Doctor felt the space change and cried out in relief. "You did it. You actually did it!"


    Harry was then hug-tackled to the ground.

 Chapter 23 - 23 Time Travelers and Necromancers

    Amy and Rory were restored from stone and the Doctor asked if he could have some of that and the antidote. Being able to turn someone to and from stone could save from injury, poison, and even the vacuum of space. Unfortunately Harry had to apologize and explain that he couldn''t. The potion would expire in a day and a time locked storage cabinet would fry if it was placed inside.


    Harry was moderately surprised that Exotic energy was bad with frozen time considering his pause feature. This meant no one could freeze Harry in time.


    Amy and Rory weren''t completely happy with being knocked out and petrified but they understood the need. As a consolation prize Harry let them keep the swords and a list of the command phrases. He wasn''t going to tell them their original swords also broke due to the Carrionite''s spells so Harry had to pull out two more.


    Once Harry stepped out of the Tardis, he noticed something rather depressing. The method of Block Transfer Computation he just learned was almost completely ineffective with dimensional energy of this universe. It worked in the Tardis because the math matched the universe the Tardis was a pocket dimension of. Harry would have to calculate Block Transfer Computation for this universe on his own from scratch. He wasn''t exactly happy about that but at least it would be a good way to grind the Scholar Path.


    Amy said, "So, marathon time."


    Harry smiled but said, "Sorry, no marathon, I need to get you guys home."


    Rory picked up on that and said, "You can get us home?"


    "Yeah. The path you traveled should still be open but will close in a few hours. The faster we get you back, the safer the ride." Now that Harry understood how the Tardis worked, he knew how to get them home.


    The Doctor asked, "How are you going to get us back though, my Tardis is still dead."


    Harry held up the Sonic Screwdriver and said, "With this." He may not have Block Transfer Computation in this universe, but he did fully comprehend how the screwdriver worked. It gave him some ideas.


    Harry went to his computer and wrote up some very complex programs and loaded them onto some predesigned transmitters he had. Harry used the screwdriver to alter the materials slightly on each to give them the properties he needed.


    Once finished, Harry opened several very small portals and attached the transmitters to what appeared to be metal towers on the other end, though he didn''t let the Doctor peak as he was still trying to guess what Harry was up to.


    Once done, he sent the Tardis back to where it was after casting a simple Notice-Me-Not spell on the area preventing people from realizing it wasn''t always there.


    When the Doctor saw it he said, "Ah, perception filter. Very retro."


    Amy said, "So what''s the plan?"


    Harry smiled and said, "Well, did you notice how today is Christmas?"


    Rory pointed out all the decorations around the street and said, "Yes, yes we did."


    Harry held his hand to his ear and the rest did the same.


    ''Hark how the bells,


    Sweet silver bells,


    Throw cares away.''


    Rory said, "Christmas music."


    The Doctor started looking around and said, "But where is the music coming from?"


    Amy said, "I don''t know."


    The Doctor cried out, "Resonance! Oh! That''s genius!" he was smiling ear to ear.


    Rory asked, "What''s happening?"


    Before Harry could answer the Doctor said, "Harry turned the radio towers around here into Sonic Screwdrivers and had them all play the same song at the same time! Each is playing with a specific tone but here at the point where they all meet, the resonance achieved will-"


    The Tardis started making a wheezing noise and the lights within started going on one after another.


    Harry picked up where the Doctor left off, "I widened the door and this spot now has energy from your own dimension. Your Tardis should be able to get you back now."


    Amy hugged Harry and said, "Thank you Harry."


    Harry hugged her back and said, "You''re welcome. Best be off though, the song will end soon."


    Rory patted Harry''s shoulder in thanks and entered the Tardis followed by the Doctor. Rory told the Doctor, "Too bad we couldn''t meet Shakespeare right?"


    Amy slugged his shoulder in jest and said, "Harry was fine."


    The wheezing sound of the Tardis started up again and the blue box began to fade. Harry said, "Sorry Rory for just being Harry Potter."


    Amy looked shocked at that statement and shouted, "Harry Potter?!" just as the sound faded and the Tardis vanished.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Rescue the Time Lord]


    Reward: Ring of Recovery.]


    Harry was pleased that his quest was over but he did wonder why she reacted to his name like that. He hoped they hadn''t heard of him. He had enough problems remaining low profile in his own dimension.


    He returned home and found out what Rory and Amy had been doing. There was a pile of wrapped presents on his table. Harry couldn''t keep himself from grinning at the six DVDs titled Star Wars.


    Harry spent the next two days enjoying the marathon which seemed to have different actors than the ones he was familiar with and when finished he returned to Kamar-Taj just before New Years.


    The Ancient One asked for a meeting and Harry was more than happy to comply. She didn''t think Harry would have such a normal boring mission and Harry was slightly embarrassed to give a 100% confirmation of that.


    Since Harry was involved she didn''t see the hole made in space by the Doctor''s arrival nor the closing of the hole when he left. One reason Harry sent them home the way he did was to force the hole completely shut after being wrenched open. The Ancient One confirmed through her own means there was no issue with it now.


    She was interested in Block Transfer Computation but insisted Harry not write down any progress he made on getting it to work in this dimension. Even should he master it, it was not something this Universe was ready for, or perhaps would ever be ready for.


    Neither felt the details of Harry''s adventures should be spread though she did show interest in Star Wars as she never watched it before. She organized a movie night over the next few weekends where one movie would be played a week. Some hadn''t even seen their universe''s version of it and almost everyone liked it. Only Kaecelius left a few minutes into Phantom Menace saying he wasn''t interested. Harry wasn''t surprised a few scenes with Jar Jar Binks drove him off. No one liked Jar Jar.


    Winter passed and spring began and Harry continued training. Harry successfully acquired and synchronized with a source of energy from Valtorr''s realm as well as Krakkan''s giving Harry easy access to cloud, lightning, binding, and unlocking magic.


    As long as Harry was not in an isolated or pocket dimension, all forms of energy existed in nearly all dimensions, they were simply hidden beneath the layers of the more obvious energies. That meant Harry could use binding energy to invoke chains capable of locking a target''s movement or suppressing their abilities almost anywhere. Apparently Krakkan was known for keys and chains. The energy under his command could not only bind things, but it could also unlock things by conjuring a replica of the Kestrel Key of Krakkan. He was very glad he wouldn''t have to shout that aloud to conjure the thing or people would definitely stare at him.


    Harry spent much of his time building this universe''s version of Block Transfer Computation but hit a long series of snags. The largest of which was that he couldn''t confirm if he was going in the right direction without a test or experiment. On a cloudy spring evening Harry reached a roadblock he was unable to get past without confirming if a specific theory he had on how the system worked was functional or not. If he went further without confirming it he could be wasting his time if he was wrong.


    Once Harry was done, he tossed a rock into the space he created. If it worked, it would vanish for a second and reappear. He was almost certain it would, the test was just to make sure.


    He was wrong.


    Once the rock reached the focal point the physical space shattered as if the rock had shattered glass. The crack collapsed the local space time and swallowed everything in the area before reforming. The pillars had shattered from the strain of the calculation and Harry was gone.


    If Harry''s body was normal, he would have been ripped apart by the tidal forces of space itself but Harry had been so focused on getting his defense up he had increased his STR more than needed which allowed him to survive being swallowed by a fissure in reality. Had he died, he would have reappeared in his room. He was not so fortunate this time.


    The feeling of being thrown through space could not be accurately described, but the closest approximation would be being tossed through the air by a category twenty hurricane that was filled with hammers and bowling balls while every limb was tied to a rope connecting to massive weights thrown about by the storm threatening to at any moment tear him to pieces.


    After an unknown period of being stretched, crushed, and thrown through the tides of reality, Harry was finally ejected from the space between spaces and shot into a hill. The angle was low enough to prevent Harry from getting flattened and the hill was soft enough to give way and make a nice Harry shaped dent. In other words, Harry wasn''t instantly killed.


    Harry could feel his so-called health bar was near depletion but it wasn''t getting worse. After being chewed up and spit out by space itself Harry had only one thing to say. "Ow"


    Harry waited a few moments for the damage to return to normal and got out his strongest potion. It was stronger than Skele Gro, Nerve Restoration, and Blood Replenishing Potion together and in a normal person could heal any injury except a severed limb or deadly poison. It was appropriately disgusting but Harry could use his settings to turn dull or remove his sense of taste which was very useful.


    Used on Harry, the potion would restore most of his health while increasing his health regeneration to take care of the rest later. It was practically pure healing energy.


    Sure, he could have used healing magic, but magic had too many risks and he didn''t want to make a bad habit of it.


    The first thing Harry noticed was that it was sunny. That meant he was no longer in the practice area he made near the Potter Manor of Highrock. Was it a different place or a different time?


    Harry gathered the dimensional energy into a mandala before him and had it spin and expand. It changed as it did so, automatically adjusting to the time and place he found himself in. Once done, Harry let the mandala scatter and let himself fall back into the grass.


    Good news. He was still in Britain. Bad news. It was June of 623 A.D.


    The only good side he could think of in this whole mess was that he could see exactly where he went wrong in his setup for the time folding array. He was paying very close attention to how the cracks emerged and propagated so he could infer how it happened and why.


    After taking a moment to admire how good and bad his luck was, Harry transformed into an owl and flew south where he figured he''d find people. Before coming up with a plan he needed to figure out what he had to work with, so he needed to get the lay of the land.


    Most people would be worried about affecting the past and changing the future, but Harry understood Time better than any physicist on earth. Most agreed that when you looked at the future, it would change simply from looking at it. What few knew was that the past was the same. Why do history texts change? Is it because someone made a mistake and it was corrected? Is it because it was formerly a guess and now there was evidence? Yes and no.


    The past itself did in fact change. It was possible to find evidence the past was one way then a few hundred years later new evidence would be discovered that proved the past was a completely different way. Then further down the line more evidence would conclude the past was different than either of the first two theories predicted. Just like the future, the past could in fact change just by looking at it.


    It was possible that Harry could greatly change the past and when he returned, new evidence would show that the history books of this time were all lies to cover up the truth and further evidence would show a completely different history. So no, Harry wasn''t concerned about changing the past. He wasn''t going to actively try to mess with things but as long as he didn''t remain in the past for too long, the future would still be there when he returned.


    With Harry''s stats he could fly very fast as an owl and it didn''t take him long to find a farm. He observed the peasant clothes and flew a distance away before returning to normal and transfiguring his clothes into a similar style of serf wardrobe. One benefit of the past was no tech and since his Exotic energy couldn''t be detected he could use wizard magic as he pleased.


    As it was spring there wasn''t much to stand behind so once Harry was close enough for the farmer to spot him, Harry shouted, "Morning, do you know a place I could find work?"


    "Town''s that way son, heard the Lord''s looking for young backs," he answered amiably.


    "Bless you sir," Harry replied and headed off. He didn''t know how people of the day conversed outside of books so until he got the hang of it he wanted to keep his sentences short.


    Once out of sight he returned to owl form and flew off for the town.


    Harry first thought the wind would be fresher and more pleasant in the past but there was an ominous taint that lingered in the air. It made Harry doubt his stay in the past would be peaceful.


    From a distance the town seemed stereotypical. Homes of wooden walls with thatch covered roofs to keep in the heat littered the outskirts and further in the center were some sturdier, partially elevated homes with some made of stone. Harry saw a gathering of people and landed on a nearby rooftop as the crowd grew larger.


    A man in a somewhat finer quality of clothing shouted, "Gather round, gather round. We have a summons from Lord Morigon''s Army. All healthy males above the age of twelve are required to enlist. Failure to do so is punishable by execution for yourself and your family."


    The one standing next to the one shouting wore dark tinted armor which, combined with the whole, enlist or die thing they had gave the general tone of what was going on.


    Harry gave a loud ''Hoot'' in owl form which got a few stares including the attention of the black knight character. When he met Harry''s eyes, Harry used Legilimency to read the man''s mind.


    Once Harry understood why these men were here, he only had one opinion on the guy. ''What a d??k.''


    Harry flew to an empty area and shifted back to normal before he took out an Aging Potion. Harry took five drops which changed his age from fourteen and a half to seventeen. It wouldn''t last longer than a day but he could take it again once the effect wore off.


    He used a few more transfigurations on his clothes and hair to make himself look suitably plain looking and walked out from behind the corner to where the group of ?du?ts and b?r?ly ?du?ts were gathering.


    Some of the others noticed the stranger but under the gaze of the black knight no one was in the mood to raise any questions.


    Once the crowd was gathered they were marched out of the village and south to where the battle would take place. They were told they would be given weapons on arrival but none were asked if they had experience with them. They didn''t give food or rest or water to those that asked for it and after the better part of the day, they arrived at the field where the battle would occur the following morning. Dozens if not more of similar looking groups were marched to the field by others and all converged together.


    The reason they had no intention of giving food or water was because they fully expected everyone to die. The field itself had been prepared for a massive Undead Raising spell. Once most of the drafted peasants were dead, the field would activate and turn their peasant army into an undead army.


    Yeah, they were the bad guys.


    Once they were taken to the section they were told they would have to defend from the invaders arriving the next day, Harry vanished without anyone noticing him. He wandered around the camp while invisible and used Legilimency on the important looking ones to find out the details of the battle. There were in fact about a dozen weak wizards following the orders of three stronger wizards. They were the ones in charge though they used a lot of runners for messages and orders who all had specific uniforms.


    Each section of the peasants was to be led by an armored commander, one of those men who gathered the groups from their homes.


    After thinking over a few plans, Harry decided on a plan to change the outcome of the battle.


    Harry walked through the whole group of peasants, about four hundred of them and found a few leader types and their names.


    Once it was dark he knocked out a message runner and took some of his blood for a polyjuice potion. It was a variant of the type he made with Snape before and was even better. Still tasted horrible of course, but it could hold a transformation for a full day.


    Once he looked like the runner and took as much knowledge from his mind as he could to play the part, he went from peasant group to peasant group stating he had orders to collect specific people and gather them together for a secret project. They came nervously over one by one and Harry lead them off to another area.


    Once together he said, "Alright guys, who here knows why we are here?"


    One of the more clever ones said, "To hold back the forces of Lord Johnsborn."


    Harry nodded and said, "Yup, but the guys giving the orders are evil. Turns out they want everyone to die and get resurrected as an undead to make an undead army."


    Harry cast an invisible calming charm on them as a few of the smarter ones seemed like they were likely to keel over from such an admission.


    The best way to get people to follow you is to sound like you know where you''re going even if you''re completely lost. So Harry continued with a tone that was filled with 100% confidence, "But there is a way to stop them. Here''s the plan."


    Of course even after explaining his plan with confidence, no one believed Harry''s plan would actually work. He had to call over one of the armored knights to where they were gathered for a demonstration. Harry had to use a few compulsion charms to ensure they would actually follow the plan but he eventually got the kinks worked out and before the sun rose everything was set.


    Harry set himself up in an invisible chair next to the three strong wizards and the dozen or so weaker ones ready to activate the Undead Raising Field. For something that only took a few moments of prep, he was quite pleased with himself. This would likely be the best prank pulled off in a thousand years.


    The black knight commanders had been instructed to distribute weapons at first light and call all peasants to march into the center of the Undead Raising Field once the other army was spotted and hold that position.


    First light''s arrival set in motion the distribution of weapons. The menacing armored knights prevented any groups from getting any funny ideas which pleased the wizards watching from afar.


    Harry tried not to pay attention to the conversation of the wizards as it made him nearly forgo his plan and crush them all then and there. In addition to the men, they each took a woman from the villages they went to and were sharing the details of how they spent the night with them. Harry knew he couldn''t save everyone but such a thing still greatly enraged him.


    Once the enemy army was seen coming over, orders were shouted and the mass of untrained peasants were marched to the field. The other army didn''t exactly look like they were the best of the best either but at least they had swords and shields and somewhat matching uniforms.


    The peasants gathered in the field and the incoming army marched closer, swords drawn. The wizards were shouting commands and preparing the rituals required to activate the Undead Raising Field.


    Then, the entire peasant army dropped their weapons, sat down, and laid face down on the ground.


    The wizards noticed this and one shouted, "What are they doing?!"


    A group of runners was heading up to the wizards and once within earshot they shouted, "My Lords!, The Commanders have ordered the filth to lay down their arms and surrender!"


    Several other runners arrived with the same message. The general response of the wizards amounted to a flabbergasted, "What?!" Most looked like they had just be slapped with a fish.


    From the stain of Death Energy over their flesh and the overall feel of these wizards, Harry sensed that they seemed to specialize in Necromancy and pain magic. Death Energy wasn''t something the living could use without cost and each of them looked to be withered husks of skin and bone. They really couldn''t do much in a situation without people to threaten with pain or corpses to turn into undead.


    The latter problem however the wizards decided to fix when they saw the arrival of the other runners.


    Before they could kill anyone though, several red flashes of light shot out from Harry''s invisible position and stunned the wizards about to strike. The remaining wizards turned and started chanting their spells but before the first one could finish their chant all fifteen wizards had fallen. Harry then shot his stunners at the runners which made for amusing moving targets. Too bad Harry was very accurate and Stunners were the second fastest moving spell behind the disarming charm.


    Harry got out some thick iron bands and attached them to the wizard''s necks. They required a drop of their target''s blood to activate and when they did, they would saturate the body with Anti Magic. This was an alternative use of one of Harry''s training tools as practicing magic when saturated with Anti Magic energy was like physical exercise with weights. Though Harry only put a small amount of Anti Magic in them when he used them and he placed them on his wrists. For these wizards, he had the saturation at max level and set them on their necks so they couldn''t just cut off their hands to free their magic.


    It was somewhat cruel but this was already the limit of Harry''s mercy for them. The best part was that if the bands weren''t removed, any children they sired while wearing the bands would be guaranteed squibs, though the descendants of those squibs may eventually get magic back.


    The bands themselves weren''t that complicated as they simply an artifact version of a spell called Rings of Raggadorr which called Anti Magic energy from Raggadorr''s realm to disable the magic of those bound by it. It worked on Wizard Magic just as easily as it did Sorcerer Magic so it was very useful. It couldn''t be used on someone stronger than him but the strongest of these guys were only a little stronger than Cedric Diggory meaning the bands would work just fine. A security feature he built into them was that if they were removed from the one they were tied to by blood, the enchantment would collapse meaning they couldn''t be removed and studied once placed unless the absorbed blood within the band belonging to the person they were bound to vanished.


    A leader of the very confused army which just witnessed the peasants surrender was heading over to Harry''s location where he spotted Harry sitting down and the evil wizards unconscious and bound in chains Harry conjured.


    Putting two and two together the man said, "Friend Wizard, I understand it was you who set this stage and prevented the needless shedding of innocent blood. For this I thank thee."


    A small use of Legilimency on the field leader''s surface thoughts gave Harry a summary of the situation which led to this war.. Merlin had been captured by Morgan Le Fay and was being held prisoner, guarded by something called the Black Dragon.

 Chapter 24 - 24 Power Rangers Vs the Black Dragon

    After taking a peek into the man''s surface thoughts Harry said, "I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Why are there no magic users fighting for your righteous cause?"


    The knight answered back, "The foul Witch Le Fay holds their oaths of loyalty to Merlin against them. Until Merlin is rescued from her clutches, they cannot fight at our side. You must not be a student of Merlin for you to be able to defeat these vile fiends."


    Harry nodded back, "I am a student of the world and have learned much from it. As for these vile fiends, the metal bands around these men''s necks cannot be removed easily and as long as they remain, they will not be able to use magic. You may do with them as you wish but I believe it best to keep the bands on for the remainder of their lives as nothing would be a crueler punishment than living a full life without magic."


    The metal bands resisted grinding, melting, tearing, and corrosion, and even if an indestructible nail file was used on them it would take a decade of continuous use to file through the band. And since they were saturated with Anti Magic, it would take a very, very strong magic user to overpower them without killing the one they bound.


    The man answered back, "The advice of a wizard is not to be taken lightly or ignored. I am not the one who will decide these men''s fates but I will pass on your words to those who will. I myself am Sir Landford, a knight of Lord Gawain''s."


    Harry gave an appropriate bow and said, "Greetings Sir Landford, I apologize but I cannot give you my name. I am lost and wish to remain that way so that others seeking me cannot locate me. I ask a small favor, please do not inform others of my involvement today. Make up something if you wish, but I would appreciate it if I was mentioned as little as possible or not at all."


    Landford frowned but only for a moment, "I would protest as such a deed deserves a suitable reward, but if that is what you d?s?r? I shall do all that is in my power to make it so. May I ask of your intentions for this land in the days to come?"


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Rescue Merlin]


    Free Merlin from his imprisonment to return to the present.]


    Harry internally rolled his eyes and said, "What plans are there to free Merlin?"


    Landford answered, "We have sent word south and across the channel to request ?ssistance from others not taught by Merlin but I have little faith that help will arrive. Rumor has spread that Le Fay has a dragon guarding the land of his imprisonment and it is no ordinary dragon, but an Immortal Black Dragon!"


    Harry''s eyes shot up in surprise, his casual glance into the knight''s thoughts didn''t say anything the dragon being Immortal. This quest was impossible.


    There are four types of dragons in this world. The most common type are the Magic Dragons, which are little more than beasts of concentrated Exotic Energy that take the form of a dragon. These however are widely considered imitation dragons and though powerful, are by a significant margin the weakest type of dragon. The dragons known by witches and wizards are all magic dragons.


    Next are the Dragon Demon Sorcerers. Demon Sorcerers were Sorcerers or descendants of Sorcerers who underwent a dark ritual to merge their Chi with specific energies causing them to lose their soul and become demons. There have been thousands of Demon Sorcerers in the past but most have long since killed each other or have been sealed by good chi wizards. The only remaining Dragon Demon Sorcerer, the Demon Dragon of Fire Shendu, had his powers removed and from what Harry heard had been turned into a statue. The strongest Demon Sorcerers are immortal as their existence has merged with the source of their element but Dragon Demon Sorcerers are not considered true dragons either though many of their rituals require materials from True Dragons.


    Above them are the Dragonkin, beasts and beings that contain the blood of True Dragons. They are the descendants of True Dragons and though some are weaker than the strongest dragon demon sorcerer, they are on average far more powerful. Dragonkin exist not just on earth but on other planets as well, there are many aliens who take the shape of dragons and most are Dragonkin.


    And at the top are the True Dragons themselves, also known as Immortal Dragons. They are not gods but they are about as close as you can get to them. Immortal Dragons have enough power to wreck countries and have natural resistance to almost all forms of damage. Even the Ancient One using her Dark Energy would have difficulties defeating an Immortal Dragon. Not because an Immortal Dragon is stronger than the Sorcerer Supreme, but because an Immortal Dragon would be very difficult to harm, much less kill with magic of any form.


    Harry had to stop himself from shouting but asked anyways, "How did Le Fay get an Immortal Dragon to work for her?"


    Landford shook his head. His lord was the great grandson of Sir Gawain who was best known for slaying a dragon and they knew more about them than most. An Immortal Dragon should not be working for Morgan Le Fay no matter how powerful the Sorceress had become. "We are not certain. What is known however is that the dragon has not been seen on any battlefield."


    Harry sighed and said, "Then I guess I''ll check that out, you know where Merlin is being kept?"


    Landford gave Harry the location and with that Harry walked away. His map had a pointer icon but he wanted to know the name of the location before blindly heading out. Once he was out of sight he transformed back into a Snowy Owl and flew in Merlin''s direction.


    As he flew further into the region, the taint in the air grew heavier and the sky grew darker and more oppressive. He was pretty sure it wasn''t normal for giant beasts to be flying through the sky. One such beast which looked like a massive vulture with carrion black wings spotted him and changed its course for interception. Intercepting Mail Owls was a standard practice in times of war which was likely the job given to this vulture.


    Harry had absolutely no intention of escaping, what''s the point of maintaining his stats and ability to cast magic while in owl form if he has nothing to use it on?


    He flew in close and watched as the great vulture raised its claws to swipe at him.


    Harry then accelerated and rammed into the vulture, dodging the claws and smashing his head into the bus sized avian. Not surprisingly, he bounced off and the vulture wasn''t affecting. He didn''t think it would do anything, he just wanted to try it once.


    His stats carrying over meant he had super speed and super strength compared to that of a normal snowy owl, but he was still vastly weaker than he was as a human. However only his physical stats were reduced in his owl form. His magic was powered by his mind which had not changed due to the nature of the Animagus transformation and since the Elder Wand seemed to be a part of his existence, his magic was only moderately more difficult to use but still usable.


    The monster vulture recoiled more from surprise than the force of impact. It took only a moment to change its mindset from having lunch to aerial combat. It braced itself and swung its wings down to throw gales of winds to the left and right.


    Harry was at the creatures left and his small body was caught up in the torrent of wind. A few heavy flaps of his own wings however was enough to escape the gale and brace himself in time for the vulture''s second strike.


    Harry increased his speed closer to his limit to gain some distance before the vulture could deliver it''s following blow. It was good enough for experience in aerial combat and now it was time for the next phase.


    Harry tried conjured objects for binding, water, ice, flames, and lightning, one after another. None had been used with enough power to defeat the vulture as he was simply testing their effectiveness in an aerial combat setting. Binding a bird with two large wings ended up being difficult without very large, very strong binds which didn''t make it efficient. Water rolled off the vulture''s feathers and it seemed birds were not as conductive of lightning as video games would make one believe. Ice however stuck to the feathers and fire burned the feathers, both were effective. Blunt force impact had some effect above a specific point but it was cutting spells and effectively used conjured blades that had the best effect in aerial combat. Second best was weaponized bindings like ropes with thorns or heavy clamps that punctured at the point of contact.


    Harry was glad PETA didn''t exist yet because even if it was a creature that was created with evil magic, they still wouldn''t appreciate what Harry did to that monster before finally ending it. From the energy he absorbed he could tell the vulture was about level 70. Stronger than a Hogwarts graduate but not by that much.


    Once Harry confirmed there were no other creatures or monsters or humans in the area, he flew down to the forest below and set up a base. Another reason he killed the vulture was because he was interested in its territory. He cast every spell he could think of to remove his presence and used transmutation magic to craft a small hole beneath a tree he found into a large fortified underground base. Next he used every secrecy and stealth spell he had to make sure it wouldn''t be found and filled it with amenities and made a nice bed.


    And though he technically didn''t need rest, he still felt mentally fatigued from the nearly torn apart in the currents of between space thing and the flying all day thing and the fact that he hadn''t slept in three days thing. So yeah, a nap would be really nice.


    In addition to waking up refreshed, his nap also caused the Aging Potion and the remaining effect of the polyjuice potion to expire meaning he needed to take it again to stop looking like a fourteen year old.


    He could just face the dragon normally but there were too many downsides and not enough upsides. Although anything he did in the past would likely correct itself eventually, he still didn''t want a record of himself in shape or name so going as himself was a no no. Thankfully he prepared for this. The prior day he knocked out each of those black knights and collected their blood to make polyjuice potions for the peasants to replace them and lead the army to surrendering. However he kept a batch of modified polyjuice with each of those knight''s blood for himself as well so he had a dozen or so people he could turn himself into for a day.


    Harry considered a few plans and decided to do reconnaissance a few times. He could afford to lose a few levels and figure out what worked and what didn''t before giving it his all.


    He would have to polyjuice as a different person each time to prevent the dragon from thinking it was the same person lest the dragon throw him in the same cell as Merlin or do something that prevented him from dying.


    Of course it would be nice if he could resolve everything without fighting, but there wasn''t exactly a Charisma Stat and he wasn''t going to hold his breath.


    Harry took out several uniforms made of Basilisk hide he practiced his tanning and crafting on. It wasn''t the best he could do but it wasn''t bad for practice. He then adjusted their sizes, made them the same in general appearance, and lastly, changed the color of each one to something vibrant. Yes, he knew what he was going to do.


    Harry used the polyjuice for the person who was the least threatening to look at and put on the blue uniform and headed out. He sealed the entrance to the hidey hole so that even insects and little critters couldn''t enter and apparated out. One of the wards he set would prevent teleportation or apparition in but not out. That worked best since his respawn was not affected by any barriers of any kind or else he wouldn''t have been able to respawn inside Hogwarts the few times he died while experimenting due to carelessness or danger.


    It took another two hours to fly to where he was told Merlin was being kept at half his full speed since he set his respawn point pretty far from the target location as he figured it would be dangerous.


    Once he was close enough he returned to is polyjuiced form and walked the rest of the way. The location was a cave set into a cliff that looked very stereotypical for a dragon''s lair. There were even torches set on the wall surrounding the entrance and someone was sitting outside. Wait.. Harry double checked and confirmed though well hidden, there were secondary signs that showed that caucasian man in the black martial arts robes was ridiculously powerful. Yeah, Immortal dragons can easily shift into human form so that was probably him.


    Harry walked calmly over to the cave and confirmed that the man sitting outside was reading something. Books weren''t exactly common in this era so he was a little curious about what it was but doubted he would recognize it.


    The man''s attention was on Harry the moment Harry stepped out of the clearing though he didn''t look up from his book. Harry then paused. While paused he walked past the guard and entered the cave. However the path into the cave went much further than Harry initially suspected and he reached the limit of his distance before he found the end. He unpaused which returned him to where he was in front of the guard.


    Well, no point in being rude. Harry straightened up and said, "Greetings, I am the Blue Ranger of the Mighty Power Rangers. Are you the one guarding Merlin? I seek the means to ensure his release."


    He looked up from his book and said in a low voice, "Polite, for a mortal. I have never heard of the Power Rangers though. I am Chiantang, the Black Dragon. The one you call Merlin will remain here under my watch for the next year. After that, he is free to do as he pleases. Now leave here with your life or it will be taken from you."


    Harry asked, "Is there nothing that can dissuade you from this? The Power Rangers are prepared to offer much in exchange for letting Merlin free without combat."


    Chiantang looked over Harry for a moment. "Hmm. You wear the treated skin of a Basilisk and though weak, you are certainly above most. Perhaps there is something you have which would interest me mortal, but it matters not. This duty is one I perform not just of service but as a favor to repay a debt. Some years ago my sister was seduced by an upstart offworlder Dragonkin and they were secretly married. He then shamed her, took her treasures, and left her heart broken and with nothing to her name. It was the Sorceress Le Fay who informed me of this allowing me to get justice for my sister and give that upstart what he deserved. I forced him eternally into his dragon form and made him undying after ripping his heart out and sticking it in a furnace so he can suffer for all of time. Le Fay called in the debt I owed her for informing me of that so she could request my service and she has paid a suitable price for it. Even if you could pay more, I owe no favor to you and my debt must be repaid. My services will only be for a year. If others wish to free Merlin earlier than this, they must slain Le Fay herself so that I no longer owe her a debt or defeat me."


    Harry asked, "Others?"


    Chiantang closed his book and said, "Yes, others. I gave you a chance to leave and rather than take it you decided to ask a question. I do not give second chances to mortals so you can take that answer with you to the grave."


    He got up and struck at Harry but Harry was able to dodge and form a blade of Dimensional energy and counter. Chiantang didn''t bother dodging and the blade shattered against his martial robes. He pressed his advantage without fear of retaliation and each blow had the force of a high speed semi truck. Harry threw himself back using the power from one of the larger strikes to gain some distance.


    Chiantang smiled and said, "Not bad for a mortal. As a reward for making this at least a little interesting, I''ll allow you to die under the power of a true dragon."


    His form quickly became insubstantial and expanded out in a mass of darkness and power. A moment later it reformed into a massive one hundred foot long green dragon with a terrifying jaw, large wings, and powerful arms and legs.


    Harry yelled, "Why are you called Black Dragon if you''re green?!"


    Surprisingly he answered and said, "I was born black but I prefer this form." He then exhaled a powerful breath of dragon fire Harry didn''t bother to dodge. Heat above a certain temperature can''t be felt by tissue as it burns away the flesh though the next part and the part after that would still suck.


    A few moments and two excruciatingly painful instants later Harry was back in his hide hole. He moved over to the bed to rest since dying and reviving both made his existence ache.


    After waking he went over the details he had. Chiantang wasn''t going anywhere and his dimensional energy sword shattered on contact. His martial arts were above Mordo''s and below the Mandarin, though he was many times stronger than either. His flames were also stronger than any fire magic Harry was capable of using. Not that any of that was really surprising. The name Chiantang wasn''t familiar to him but it wasn''t like Kamar-Taj and Hogwarts had all the knowledge in the world. In any case he at least had something of an outline to work with to make a plan.


    The next Day Harry took a Polyjuice for the weakest looking guy and changed the color of his next Basilisk hide uniform to purple.


    He returned to the site of the Black Dragon''s cave and equipped himself with a magic staff that amplified his abilities.


    Chiantang looked up from his book and said, "Another one?"


    Harry shouted, "I am the Purple Power Ranger! Our Blue Ranger was sent to negotiate with you, but as he has not returned, it seems you have chosen death!"


    Harry lifted his staff at the black robed man and summoned a dimensional edge using a spell he learned from the Grand Grimoire. Chiantang dodged the spell that cut space itself and nearly cleaved the cliff behind him in two. Harry was hoping that spell might break whatever cell was holding Merlin inside but he wasn''t counting on it.


    The human form of the black dragon struck out but the blow was stopped by a seven layered mystic shield. This staff couldn''t amplify wizard magic but it was very good with other forms of magic. Harry threw a grenade over his shield and behind Chiantang at the cliff face. Chiantang ignored it and struck Harry''s shield once more, this time piercing it completely though not fast enough to strike Harry before he dodged. Harry slammed the hilt of his staff to the ground and chains conjured from the energy of Krakkan''s realm surrounded Chiantang as Harry used his fastest speed to jump back just as the grenade he threw three seconds earlier went off.


    Chiantang wasn''t able to break the chains fast enough to dodge the blast of the grenade Harry had squeezed one hundred Bombarda Maximas into.


    Harry himself relied on the Basilisk robe and his own shields to protect himself but he was still sent hundreds of feet away from the blast.


    The blast itself tore the cliff face to pieces but didn''t destroy the whole thing. Harry sensed within the cliff was some structure that was being held together with powerful magics and it would not break with just that.


    Harry twirled the staff in the air which called forth natural energy as well as energy from Valtorr''s realm. Clouds started to gather as the dust settled and Chiantang''s form was revealed. His black martial robes torn, blood and wounds over his body. It was mostly superficial but it at least proved that the True Dragon was not completely immune to magic above a certain degree and could even take damage from accumulated wizard magic.


    A moment later the vibrant green form of the so-called Black Dragon was staring Harry down. He took in a breath but before he could release it Chiantang was struck by lightning from above.


    Harry shouted, "The Power Rangers are not to be taken lightly!" He threw his staff down and the cloud descended to the ground. The Black Dragon was surrounded by water vapor that clung tightly to him and made it difficult to move around.


    "Enough!" He shouted. He flapped his wings a few times and the spell holding the mist together broke and fell apart. Harry swung his staff once more as he gathered enough Dimensional Energy for another Dimension Edge. The spell cut into Chiantang''s skin enough to draw blood but not deeply enough to hamper the immortal. The massive dragon launched himself forward towards Harry who jumped away but the hundred foot tall dragon changed directions with a subtle movement of his wings and reached Harry who threw his staff to the ground. Once it made contact, more chains appeared to wrap around the massive green monsters stopping his pursuit of Harry before he could shatter the chains.


    Harry commanded energy from the realm of Ikonn to cast illusions of himself to make a dozen of him appear around himself.


    Chiantang roared in outrage, "You Dare to Challenge a True Dragon to a contest of Magic?!"


    His roar itself was filled with dragon magic which disrupted the illusions revealing Harry''s position. The energies of the space were rendered deaf to Harry''s command preventing him from further use of Sorcery. The various energies of the planes swirled around the field and strengthened as they bent to the will of the dragon''s rage. A pantheon of glowing colors of light wrapped around the space and converged on their location.


    Chiantang roared, "Die under the might of True Dragon Magic!"


    The hurricane of impossible power locked the space and prevented any form of teleportation though Harry hadn''t demonstrated his use of it. Even Wizard Apparition would not be able to penetrate the dense field of destruction bearing down on him.


    As if to add insult to injury, Chiantang let loose his dragon breath into the hurricane of magical energies causing it to glow brighter than the sun and speed its convergence on Harry''s location.


    A few moments later Harry was back in his hidely hole and returned to bed for another nap. His only thought was, ''damn, so that''s dragon magic huh?''


    Once he woke he got out his next Basilisk Hide cloak. His equipment hadn''t survived either death though he always respawned in at least a shirt and never n?k?d. If he did die with his equipment intact it would somehow return to his inventory and re-equipment itself once he respawned.


    He got quite a bit of information this time. What was most surprising was the effect of wizard magic. An amplified explosion spell had so much effect and unlike Sorcery spells, they couldn''t be affected by the magic commanding powers of dragon magic. Thankfully he used a grenade instead of casting any wizard magic himself so he wouldn''t give himself away as a wizard. He also got a good look at the recovery speed of a true dragon that he would have to overcome if he wanted to finish him.


    The next basilisk hide uniform he took out would be colored black. He only had a dozen of them from his practice runs and he really hoped he would be able to get enough info on how to beat Chiantang before he ran out of them.


    Harry returned once more and this time instead of reading in his human form, Chiantang remained in his green dragon form. However he didn''t clean up the location. The parts of the cliff that had broken off from Harry''s attacks remained. Which was kinda the point. Dragon Eyes can see through any form of invisibility so he couldn''t sneak past the dragon before. The point of the senseless damage was to make enough cover to hide behind.


    Before getting within his range Harry conjured a hundred black mice and allowed them to scatter into the field. He then removed a Shrinking Solution from his inventory and drunk enough to render himself the size of a mouse and he used the Reducio charm on his clothes to shrink them to his size. He approached the rubble scattered around the cliff face and slowly made his way through it to the entrance that led to Merlin.


    The black mice got Chiantang''s attention but the wizard magic that made them up was invisible so to his senses they looked like ordinary mice. Such creatures were beneath his notice so after confirming they were nothing he went back to ignoring them.


    Harry was able to make it past the rubble and into the cave entrance without trouble thanks to his distractions and prior preparation. Both prior Power Rangers made no effort to conceal themselves and with the mice to make Chiantang ignore small movements the Immortal Dragon wasn''t expecting a tiny infiltrator. The Shrinking Solution hadn''t even been invented yet.


    Harry spent a few hours slowly making his way through the cave. He paused before each corner and confirmed nothing was on the other side while paused before continuing.


    Eventually he found the heart of the cave and found a red magic barrier. He wished it would be a nice set of bars or perhaps a door with a small window he could slip Merlin a Shrinking Solution and let him slip through, but no, it was an airtight magic barrier.


    Harry used a few Wizard concealment spells and took the antidote to the shrinking solution while removing the shrinking charm from his clothes allowing him to seemingly appear before the magic barrier.


    On the other side of the barrier was an old bearded man in a chair reading from a large tome. Next to the chair was a shelf with other books and a bed. When Harry appeared, he closed his book and said, "What''s this? Who are you? A strangely dressed servant of Le Fay''s?"


    "Actually, I snuck past the Black Dragon and came to rescue you. Got any ideas on how to open this barrier?"


    "Eh?"


    Seems the man known throughout history as the greatest wizard of all time wasn''t expecting that.


    He quickly said, "This barrier is formed from the heart blood of the Immortal Black Dragon. It cannot be broken except by his will or his death. You must leave here at once and obtain the aid of the Sorcerer Supreme! Only he can help me now."


    A voice echoed through the cave, "So it is a Black Ranger now? How many more of you must I deal with?"


    Dragon fire filled the cave and Harry found himself back in his hidey hole. He figured Merlin speaking with him must have risen some alarm on the other side of the barrier his spells didn''t affect.


    Although Merlin said to get the Sorcerer Supreme, Harry couldn''t do that because the Kamar-Taj and the Sorcerer Supreme were aspects of his future, though it was a different one at the moment. The auto-correcting feature of Time Travel only applied to things far away and things that were unknown. Going to Kamar-Taj meant getting scanned by the wards again for the first time which meant he would need to figure out a way to make it forget it scanned him which meant disabling it and reassembling it. And that was just for the wards. It was far more complicated than that should he actually meet the current Sorcerer Supreme.


    Anyways, he only needed one more test before going all out, a combat test.


    The next day Harry used the Polyjuice for the largest person he had and colored his robe red. He also equipped several pieces of armor and accessories beneath his robes to increase his defense and strength using energy from Cyttorak''s Crimson Cosmos which was half saturated into the armor. Next he got out his giant heavy sword made from the bones and fangs of the Basilisk. The sword was one of his better attempts at using Goblin crafting techniques and the sword''s edges had Basilisk Venom magically imbued into it.


    Harry approached the massive green dragon who once more got up and said, "This grows tiresome. How many of you are there?"


    Harry swung his heavy sword in the air and said with a low, scottish accented voice, "You would not believe me if I told ya."


    The dragon slowly got up and walked over to Harry who took a stance. He shouted, "I am the Red Power Ranger. Let me see the strength of the one who fell the others."


    Chiantang swiped with his fist and Harry used his sword to deflect the blow. The force shook every bone in his body and made him feel as if the ''black'' dragon was wearing a two story house and using it as a boxing glove.


    Harry used the force of the blow to ready his swing and with a jump forward he sliced into the dragon''s torso. A special feature of his weapon was that his sword''s edge vibrates at high speeds and with the sharpness granted by the Basilisk fang edge, the blade was able to slice through the skin and muscle though it bounced off the bone.


    Rather than recoil as one would normally expect, Chiantang pressed forward and attacked with his jaws while preparing his swing to attack should Harry dodge.


    Harry neither evaded nor dodged, he removed an edge of this sword that turned out to be a smaller sword and jumped off his blade to target Chiantang''s eye.


    The massive beast had not been expecting this and was forced to turn away or lose an eye. He swiped his claw where Harry should have been after jumping through the air but Harry had jumped backward while airborne using a retractable wire that attached the heavy sword to the removable blade.


    Chiantang shouted, "Cheap Tricks!" And let loose a roar of flames.


    Harry hid behind the sword which glowed with heat but didn''t break.


    Harry shouted with his fake accent, "You think fire can kill the Red Ranger?!"


    It probably could if the black dragon continued but it would take a while. Harry''s current gear was enchanted with his strongest Flame Freezing Charm which would prevent fire from burning him though it would eventually run out.


    Thankfully Chiantang bought his bluff since he couldn''t feel the magic of the Flame Freezing Charm so he had no idea why his flames weren''t working and couldn''t feel the strength of the charm waning with each moment.


    Chiantang swung his tail and Harry stuck his sword into the ground to meet the tail. Scales broke off but as his tail was far more heavily armored than the dragon''s ?h?st and the strike wasn''t able to deal significant damage to his tail before the force of the blow sent the blade skyward along with Harry who nearly dislocated his shoulder just holding onto the blade during that strike.


    Chiantang jumped into the air and with a flap of his mighty wings overtook the soaring figure of Harry''s swordsman form. The massive dragon rolled in the air and Harry got behind his sword and braced for impact as the rolling dragon''s tail swung overhead with the force of a meteorite.


    Harry''s last sight was the fragmented pieces of his sword and the pieces of his own shredded body falling from the sky.


    Two painful instances later and Harry was back in his hidey hole. He wasn''t exactly happy that he could still feel the pain of death for something that should be quick and painless but he had long accepted it as the price of reviving from the dead.


    After adjusting from the ache of revival, he went over the details of the fight once more.


    The sword''s unbreakable properties were probably used mostly up from the dragon breath and even if it weren''t that tail swing in the end could likely have smashed a mountain to pieces, much less a half indestructible prototype sword made of bone. The Basilisk venom seemed to have had no effect as the sheer strength of the dragon''s magic burned it away before the Black Dragon could even notice it. The strength of his arm swing was in the one hundred ton range and he was an expert in flight combat.


    However, he did have weaknesses. He was over reliant on his defense and healing abilities and didn''t seem to have much experience in fighting someone who could harm him, though harm is a relative term. Chiantang''s bones were like reinforced diamonds and the edge of his blade didn''t even nick the bones of his ribs before being bounced off.


    A small sword piercing the dragon''s ?h?st through the gaps of the ribs into the heart may not work due to the size of the heart and healing factor but the brain would be an even harder target as even a surprise attack on the dragon''s eyes using his fastest speed was easily dodged.


    Harry paused and went over his inventory. There were a few things he could use but most wouldn''t do much. Even his so-called Reality Bomb wouldn''t do much against an Immortal Dragon as such a being could likely survive in a space where the laws of reality were broken. Harry didn''t have any other one hit kill type attacks. Well, there was the thing which got him here, but even if he successfully set up a repeat of that, it would only send the Black Dragon into the past or future. Merlin was very specific that the Heart Blood Barrier could only be dispelled by Chiantang''s will or death or else he would have mentioned banishment as an option.


    Maybe he should just send a letter to the Sorcerer Supreme and call it a day. However he wanted to give it his all first.


    Harry decided to do both. He did think of a plan which might work but before doing it he''d send a letter to the current Sorcerer Supreme that included everything he learned from his battles with Chiantang. Even if he lost or was imprisoned or worse, the details of the letter should enable someone else to beat the Black Dragon.


    Harry spent a week preparing for the final encounter and made a few arrangements which he hoped would b?r? fruit in the future. A day after his last fight, the Black Dragon would occasionally fly around to scout the area as four consecutive days of showing up likely made him paranoid.. He wasn''t wrong either, but he had no way of readying himself for what Harry Potter had in store for him.

 Chapter 25 - 25 A Dragons Might and a Womans Scorn

    For the last fight, Harry didn''t take a polyjuice and had to make a large amount of equipment from scratch. Much of it required a large area to make, forcing him to make a new base on an empty plot of land far away from anyone who could be watching him.


    Harry used a portal to head to where Kamar-Taj was near and paid someone to deliver a letter to the temple at a certain time. If by then he hadn''t won the Sorcerer Supreme would be informed and make his move.


    Once Harry finished his preparation he arrived once more. This time however he didn''t change the color of his Basilisk skin so he could keep it green and beneath it he wore a full set of the best armor he could make.


    Harry only had a single heavily enchanted knife but his gear looked tailored for martial combat.


    Chiantang noticed him and sneered, "Damn mortals. Sending children now? I swear the next time I see him I''ll have my brother grant me leave to slaughter as many of you as I please. I don''t know where you Power Rangers come from but I will find you."


    Harry smirked and shouted, "What the hell is a Power Ranger? I''ve never heard of them before, you crazy or something?"


    Chiantang was dumbfounded, but only for a moment. He shouted, "You dare mock me?!"


    The moment the black dragon moved to attack Harry tapped the pendant on his wrist causing the anti magic stored within to release into the body. He gave a wry smirk and shouted, "It''s Morphin'' Time!" and a moment later Harry''s small form grew in size and height to match Chaintang''s own. His armor grew with him though his basilisk cloak was unequipped and returned to his inventory.


    Chiantang growled, "Growth Magic? Another Sorcerer Dares?!" He roared once more and the magic energies of the land fell to his whims. For a moment.


    Several bursts of energy from the anti magic mines Harry shrank himself to place around the lands earlier went off filling the space with Anti Magic energy. Harry wouldn''t be able to call for more energy from other planes once Chiantang did his dragon magic domination thing but it had little effect on existing magic and Harry stored loads of Anti Magic energy within those mines and set them go go off at the slightest stimulus. Of course this also meant he was more limited in what magics he could use. The only reason he would be able to use magic at all was because of all the training he did while wearing anti magic binding cuffs.


    The coming storm of magic called forth by Chiantang died under the suppression of Anti Magic and Harry''s giant form ran up to the massive Black Dragon and punched him in the face.


    Harry wasn''t using growth magic, but a growth potion. His equipment however was currently normal size. Prior to arriving, Harry took a special Growth Potion to allow him to match the dragon in size and at that size he equipped a set of massive armor saturated with energy from Cyttorak''s realm. Due to Harry''s unique physiology, increasing and decreasing his size didn''t actually affect his stats, but it did allow him to equip the enormous, Strength Energy saturated armor he made which did in fact boost his strength significantly. Using these means, Harry''s strength could approach the level of the Immortal Dragon for a time until the armor exploded or he burned through the Growth potion from heavy physical exertion. He then used a Shrinking Charm on himself and his equipment to temporarily return him to normal size that he could dispel with some anti magic stored in a pendant. This gave the illusion of growth magic to make Chiantang look down on his strength.


    He was still way weaker of course, at about a third of his estimate for the Black Dragon''s strength, but as long as he kept the fight on the ground he had an advantage. Cyttorak''s energy didn''t just increase strength, it reinforced momentum which made it ideal for attacking and blocking.


    Chiantang opened his mouth to release his dragon breath but Harry landed a flying knee into his jaw forcing it closed. Harry had to disable at least one of Chiantang''s arms for his plan to work and he was only going to get one shot.


    The Black Dragon grabbed Harry''s leg and pulled him down while leaning in to bite his head off but Harry had set his hands together and slammed them down into Chiantang''s nose.


    Harry got released when Chiantang instinctively moved to grab his nose giving Harry the opening to deliver a flying elbow drop onto Chiantang''s knee. It didn''t break but Harry did feel a little bit of a crunch when his Strength Energy empowered elbow guard met the dragon''s armored kneecap.


    Chiantang''s wings beat a step to throw him back to gain some distance but not into the air. Harry confirmed in the last fight the dragon''s pride wouldn''t let him take flight unless Harry himself took to the skies since he''d been challenged to a physical contest.


    Harry charged forward before the immortal beast could release his dragon fire but Chiantang instead spun around to whip his spiked tail at Harry.


    Harry had no intention of taking another trip into the sky so he dropped back and kicked the tail up as it passed over him to deflect it. He threw himself from the ground at Chiantang to strike as hard as he could at the monster''s armpit in an attempt to dislocate Chiantang''s shoulder from underneath.


    Chiantang however had taken in a breath as he spun around and the moment Harry made contact the dragon released his fiercest fire breath.


    Harry blocked it with an armguard charged to the max with the Flame Freezing charm but this breath was far stronger than any the dragon had released before and it would take only a few moments for the charm to expire.


    Harry took it as his chance and smashed his other arm onto his ?h?st which caused the ?h?st armor to shatter into pieces. Harry directed those pieces to cover Chiantang''s right arm where they gathered together in Harry''s attempt at recreating the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.


    Chiantang''s arm was bent behind him and held there by the interlocking bands and Harry took out his knife and struck with all his force through Chiantang''s ?h?st where the knife stuck itself into his rib. There the dagger glowed.


    The hilt of the dagger glowed the moment the spell was released into the rib which had another effect. Harry had set up another Block Transfer Computation formation around the area with this point as the center and the knife as the target.


    Chiantang started glowing blue as the formation''s effect successfully took place. Chiantang stopped his flames and used his other arm to strike at Harry but he did slowly, at only a fourth the speed he had been as Time deceleration had been applied to Chiantang through a non-magical means.


    Harry used his left arm to block Chiantang''s strike and charged his right arm with a new spell. It looked like a thin band of white light spinning around his forearm over his fist to elbow. It was a rapid cycle cutting spell and turned his fist into a chainsaw.


    Harry shouted and used every fiber of strength he could muster to slam his fist into Chiantan''s ?h?st.


    One feature of this formation was relative momentum. As Chiantang''s time had been reduced by a quarter, Harry appeared to be moving four times faster and his fist shredded through the black dragon''s ?h?st and hit his rib.


    Chiantang roared with power and rage, the blue glow flickering as the immortal dragon''s will fought against the laws of space and time. The arm Harry was blocking was increasing in strength and cracks formed all over the makeshift bands of Cyttorak.


    Harry knew he only had this one chance to finish it so he drew in the stored strength energy from his leg armor and forced it into his arm. His arm was going beyond the limit of energy his flesh could sustain and was about to explode, but in the next instant the rib he was pressing against broke through and his chainsaw fist pierced deep into the immortal dragon''s ?h?st and into the heart.


    A wave of black energy exploded from Chiantang''s body and threw Harry back and to the ground.


    Black static spread over Chiantang''s body and his knees gave way. The hole in his ?h?st wasn''t closing to Harry''s relief. The Black Dragon looked over to Harry''s near broken form and noticed the damage to Harry''s arm was recovering. He said, "I see. There was only one of you. Well played. Be warned though young immortal, there will be consequences for your actions today. And just like you, I shall return."


    *Ping*


    [''Immortal Dragon Chi'' Perk Acquired]


    [Dragon Path has risen to rank 5]


    Harry leveled up four times which felt rather hollow all things considered. However the Dragon Chi Perk was certainly a hell of a reward and it granted him access to another path which started at rank 5 instead of rank 1. The Path''s autocorrections gave a b?r? bones understanding of how to use it but he was still an amateur in its use. For now anyways.


    Harry took the antidote to the growth potion and re-equipped his proper clothes. A few moments later Merlin exited the cave and looked over the damaged landscape caused by all the fights Harry and Chiantang had together.


    Harry hadn''t taken a polyjuice for his Black Ranger getup since the Shrinking Solution, just like the Growth Solution, didn''t go well with Polyjuice so Merlin recognized him as the one he saw die under the Black Dragon''s flames.


    Merlin asked, "Where is the Sorcerer Supreme?"


    Harry answered back, "I sent him a letter, he''ll probably show up later."


    "What?! Then where is Dragonslayer?"


    Harry asked, "What''s Dragonslayer?"


    "A sword created by the Dragon King and given to man to keep his brother, the Black Dragon in line. Only Dragonslayer has the power to kill the Black Dragon and the Sorcerer Supreme has it."


    "Oh. Are there ways of killing him without Dragonslayer?"


    "Well, of course there are, but Dragonslayer is the quickest and only real option for most mortals. Where is.. What has happened here? And how are you alive?"


    Harry wondered how many people in the history of time and space have ever confused Merlin this much.


    A portal opened at the site and out of it walked a beautiful woman with black hair and dark energy permeating her flesh.


    The woman took one look at Merlin and said with a scowl, "Has that vile filth betrayed me?"


    Harry yelled back, "Chiantang said something about missing a hot date and won''t be back until tomorrow. Did you want to leave him a message?"


    Merlin summoned his staff and fired purple lightning at the woman who blocked it with a magic shield. Merlin shouted, "Le Fay! You dare show your face before me?!"


    The woman, Morgan Le Fay it turned out, caused her shield to glow which absorbed the purple lightning and fired purple energy bolts from the lightning it absorbed. Merlin dodged rather than block as he was pretty out of it from being bound for so long.


    Harry paused and went over his options. Morgan Le Fay has always been considered one of the greatest sorcerers in history and is a student of Merlin and is half Fey and is immortal. Oh, and if that weren''t enough, she''s read lots from the Darkhold, perhaps one of the most dangerous books in existence.


    That black wave that shot out of Chiantang when he died removed the Anti-Magic energy in the area which wasn''t something Harry expected. If that wasn''t the case, Le Fay wouldn''t have been able to make a portal to this location. Now that she was here, anti magic wouldn''t affect her very much since her skill in Sorcery was far better than Harry''s from what he could tell.


    Well, that might work.


    Harry unpaused and took a magic gun from his inventory and shot Le Fay. However her image faded to reveal itself as an illusion that had even fooled Harry''s energy sense.


    She reappeared and said, "A magic gun? You''re from the future aren''t you?"


    Harry didn''t answer. He tried to focus on his energy sense but she now appeared to be in several places at once though Harry only saw the one in front of him.


    Harry tried to apparate out but it didn''t work. He then remembers Merlin is a Wizard and also capable of Apparition meaning Le Fay would have set up a means to prevent his escape on arrival.


    Merlin started sending out waves of green energy which passed through the illusions and bent around them while the original Morgan Le Fay started glowing.


    Harry aimed and fired three shots but Le Fay transformed into a massive snake and dodged the shots. Harry fired at the ground causing an explosion but the snake had moved far faster than a snake should be able to and got clear of the way.


    Harry countered by setting his hands on the ground and he cast a wide area transmutation spell.


    Harry fired a few more shots but her skill at flying allowed her to practically dance through the sky and dodge Harry''s remaining magic bullets. She looked like she was playing with him. Harry''s senses weren''t telling him more than it seemed she wanted him to know which was even worse than the situation with Chiantang.


    Merlin fired several barrages of magic spells but they were either dodged, deflected, or absorbed by Le Fay.


    The Sorceress smiled and said, "You certainly have lost your touch and your friend from the future has no imagination."


    Harry figured that was said to get him angry so he yelled back, "Someone wearing that dress with that belt has no right to talk about imagination!" Yes he was insulting her fashion sense. A low blow for sure, but from her shocked and infuriated expression it seemed to have worked. And seriously though, a silver skull belt buckle?


    A vast stream of energy and light shot from the horizon and stuck Le Fay who had been too distracted charging up a spell to kill Harry to notice. An old man of African descent appeared in the sky and fired blast after blast at Le Fay along with Merlin who added to the force. Morgan Le Fey gave one final sneer at Merlin and Harry before teleporting away.


    Harry took a look at the new arrival and recognized Merlin''s predecessor, the Sorcerer Supreme of this age, Makeen.


    He looked at Harry for a moment before going over to Merlin and asked, "What happened here my friend?"


    Merlin shook his head and said, "I don''t know, ask him."


    Makeen calmly walked over to Harry and said, "Who are you?"


    Harry sighed and said, "Harry Potter, a student of Kamar-Taj of the fourth year of the 21st century. I was practicing a form of time math and when I checked my calculations the space time broke and I ended up here. Heard Merlin was in trouble so I went to help. I wanted a crack at the Black Dragon but I sent you a letter before facing him in case I failed which it turns out, I didn''t. I used time math to hold Chiantang and Wizard magic to pierce his defenses and destroy his heart."


    Makeen stayed silent for a moment before giving a weary sigh and said, "I am getting too old for this. Merlin should be able to return you to your time. Do not stay for too long."


    Harry nodded, "Yes, yes, I know."


    Makeen walked over to Merlin and berated him for getting sloppy for someone who was still in his prime. He told Merlin that once he had paid back Harry for his ?ssistance he was to head straight for Kamar-Taj and finish his uncompleted training.


    The Sorcerer Supreme left through a portal and Merlin asked, "You are both a Wizard and Sorcerer are you not?"


    Harry nodded, "Yeah. Come to think of it, I heard the Heart Palace technique I learned was something you invented."


    Merlin smiled and made a portal to his tower saying, "Follow me then, I know just how to repay you."


    What neither knew was that not long after they left, Le Fay returned and used a spell for Time Viewing to see everything that had happened from the Power Rangers to the final fight to the conversation they had after she was driven away. No one had thought to cast any privacy spells after all so when Harry answered Makeen''s questions, she heard his answers. Harry was only invisible when looking at him in the future, not the past. The immortal gave a wicked smile and said, "Harry Potter, 2004 eh?"


    After arriving at Merlin''s place which he cast half a dozen spells to clean due to the length of his absence, Merlin sat Harry down and explained the details of the Heart Palace.


    One of the things Harry had never succeeded at was fusing mystical energies with exotic energy to combine Wizardry and Sorcery. Merlin basically told him the trick which involved a lot of visualization and practice.


    Once finished, Merlin opened a portal to Harry''s time though the same amount of time he had been in the past would have gone by on his return. Merlin didn''t have to explain why as Harry knew the consequences of leaving for two weeks and returning the same day.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Rescue Merlin]


    Reward: New Feature, Load Save.]


    As soon as Harry took his first step in the present the Quest completion screen popped up. The full quest was to rescue Merlin and return to the present so he didn''t technically complete it until just now.


    Harry opened up his menu and confirmed the details. Load Save was basically an instant death he could use any time to kill himself and return to a save point. He still lost a level but the feature had a lot of applications. Should he fall into a tear in reality again, he could pause before arriving and Load Save, thus killing himself and returning to the present before arriving elsewhere. Due to the nature of his body, it was very hard to simply kill himself at convenient times. He could even use this feature to fake his death if he did it right. Though if he really wanted to fake his death he was more likely to charge his body with far too much energy and cause himself to explode, preferably with an audience around and cameras set up in advance he could use to record everyone''s expressions.


    He wished Load Save could be done without the dying, the losing of a level, and the pain, but there was a chance that having something so convenient would lead to abuse which would spoil him. He didn''t want to be the type of guy who played online and disconnected every time he was going to lose.


    Before heading back to Kamar-Taj, Harry used a portal to head out into the middle of nowhere and found a hidey hole. Not the one he used to rest, but a different one. Before his final battle against Chiantang, Harry set a few things here. There were a number of magical processes known by Wizard, Sorcerer, and Goblin which took a long time to complete so Harry set up as many as he could think of and now that he returned, he collected them. One example is a process which can turn silver into mithril and gold into adamantium. This process was special because once it started it could not be interrupted or else it would have to start over and the materials used could not be collected while in the process of transmutation.


    Of course he didn''t have that much gold to work with due to giving most of it to his bank but he had something just as good. Harry had several tons of scrap metal from his Crafting practices and a Philosopher''s Stone and for the first time since acquiring it he was able to take it out and use it to turn his scrap into gold and silver. He did so somewhere close to the north pole of course after setting a dozen or so concealing spells which prevented anyone from showing up before he was done.


    The Philosopher''s Stone could turn base metals into Copper, Silver, or Gold, in addition to making the elixir of life, though the amount it can produce at any time is quite small. Since time does not pass in his inventory he can''t collect it in there but at least for that time he was able to get five doses and set them aside for emergencies.


    When Harry returned 1400 years later, only about a tenth of the gold had changed and a fifth of the silver. The process which changed it was similar to the half life decay of some materials except it broke down into something more complex instead of something simpler due to the treatment and alchemic formation used.


    Something interesting he found when cross referencing some details he learned from his business contacts was that mithril and adamantium had both been discovered a while ago, though mithril had a different name, it was called vibranium.


    Although it was only a fraction of the total, the total was measured in tons and though the separating was tricky, he was able to get a large amount of pure adamantium and vibranium for use in future projects. He still remembered the tail swipe of the Black Dragon destroying his sword and if what he heard about the properties of adamantium and vibranium were correct, he wouldn''t have that problem in the future.


    On Harry''s return he went to the Sanctum Sanctorum which had been mostly quiet without him and he informed the Ancient One of his most recent adventure. The reason he didn''t keep it to himself was simply because his actions could have further consequences the one in charge of the protection of the realm needed to know.


    When finished she said, "I''d ask you to be more careful with the fabric of space and time, but I suppose these things happen."


    Harry had no ability to tell the difference between when she was joking and when she was sarcastic. She continued, "You certainly obtained some gains however. A private lesson from Merlin himself and Immortal Dragon Chi of all things. I''m sure you''ve noticed we don''t have much on the use of Chi for Martial Arts and we have nothing on Chi Magic. I suspect you will be capable of Chi Magic in the future but the only Good Chi Wizard I know of lives in San Francisco. I will write him a letter though and ask if he wishes to give you some lessons. As for using Dragon Chi in Martial Arts, there are those capable of teaching it but they are not among those I trust. It would be best if you seek your own path on that matter and keep it to as few people as possible. On another note, it would be prudent not to take off your shirt in public."


    "Umm, why?"


    She gave an innocent smile, "No reason, as long as you don''t mind people staring at the black dragon tattoo that seems to have appeared there."


    Harry conjured two full length mirrors, one in front and one behind him and lifted up the back of his shirt revealing the elaborate black dragon figure that seemed to be ascending towards the sky that covered most of his back. At least it looked cooler than Chiantang himself did.


    Chi was something Harry had done a great deal of research both in and out of Kamar-Taj after his encounter with the Mandarin. Chi itself was lifeforce, pure and simple. Most humans have very little Chi except for children who are naturally energetic and have excess Chi which their body uses to grow into an ?du?t. There are those who train all their lives to gather and Chi from the world to increase their own but such Chi requires purification which is very difficult due to high concentration of pollutants in the modern era. Harry''s Chi however was that of an Immortal Dragon now. though it would be more impressive if the attributes such a thing passively granted weren''t things he already had due to the nature of his mutant obscurus body such as healing, magic resistance, and tough physique.


    Using it actively however was another story. Without control, he would take the expression ''Bull in a China Shop'' to an unprecedented level. In addition to being able to use Chi Magic, he should also be able to learn Dragon magic which is the equivalent of Dragon Chi Magic. Since he got a few examples of how it worked while fighting Chiantang he wouldn''t even have to start from scratch.


    It didn''t take long after his return to Kamar-Taj for Goose to find him and express her displeasure in Harry''s absence for the last two weeks. Harry''s room had an enchanted litter box, water bowl, and food dispenser which would take years to stop working so Harry wasn''t physically needed. But Harry had always found some time to pet or hang out with his familiar and this ended up being the longest period they had been apart since the bond formed.


    Harry made it up to her by offering to chauffeur Goose around London all day and take her anywhere she wanted to go which the Flerken ''graciously'' accepted. There was also a junior chef cooking contest today Harry had entered himself in a few months back and Goose was not against attending.


    After the day trip Harry got back to training. Merlin had told him how to fuse his Exotic energy with the other energies in his Heart Palace and he wanted to try that as fast as he could. Not for increased power through. Harry was aware he was not the only one capable of sensing energy and though few among the Sorcerers could do so without tools or physical contact, there were Wizards who could and likely others as well. When Harry was just saturated with his invisible Exotic energy, that wasn''t a problem, but now he had other forms of energy within his body. Harry wanted to merge his Exotic Energy with his Sorcerer Energy so that the invisible nature of one would envelop the other.


    According to Merlin, the process of merging one with the other was basically a form of visualization. He had to visualize his Exotic energy as something and his other forms of energy as something that was compatible with it. Being a chief, he decided to use food. He thought of his Exotic energy as bu??er. He then thought of his Dimensional Energy as mashed potatoes. Once the imagery clicked, he felt the inherent incompatibility of the two energies within him fall away and slowly merge together.


    The other energies he would ?ssign as other foods. Strength Energy from Cyttorak''s Crimson Cosmos he''d think of as broccoli. Nature Energy he''d think of as biscuits. Mist Energy from Valtorr''s realm would fit as popcorn and Ikonn''s Illusion Energy he could think of as rice. Raggadorr''s Binding and Anti Magic Energy he would think of as pancakes and Krakkan''s Locking and Unlocking Energies he could see as steak.


    Once he started the fusion he found he could increase the rate or slow it down, but he couldn''t reverse it. That was fine, but he had to take his time to adjust to the fused energies and slowly adapt the spells he knew to use the fused energy. Technically, he could force a complete fusion right now, but then the spells he knew which used the energies on their own wouldn''t work and he would have to make new ones from scratch.


    This process of merging energies however only worked with Exotic Energy. Merging other forms of energy would cause one to disrupt the other or will cause one to try to convert the other into itself. Exotic Energy however doesn''t follow the same rules which is why it is possible for it to be merged within a Heart Palace. That being said, since Wizards who try to use Dimensional or Nature Energy often explode according to the Grimoires of the Black Family Library, Harry might have been only the 2nd person in history after Merlin himself to actually do it. The Ancient One had told Harry he wasn''t the first Wizard to try becoming a Sorcerer, only that he was the second to succeed.


    Harry had intended to take his time safely testing the merged energies, preferably under the eye of the Ancient One in the Mirror Dimension, but things don''t always go as planned.


    A week after returning from his time skipping adventure, his London Residence got a package with his prize for 4th place in the cooking contest he went to with Goose. It was a very large, autographed, limited edition cookbook with a ribbon tied around it. Harry didn''t bother removing the ribbon once he opened the package. He just placed it directly into his Inventory.


    *Ping*


    [Darkhold has become bound to Inventory and cannot be removed.]


    Harry''s last thought before his senses were enveloped by darkness was, ''Oops.''

 Chapter 26 - 26 Darkest Temptations

    *Ping*


    [Darkhold has established a connection to the Nether Plane.


    Spirit Body has been forced into the $%#&% %# $% Nether Plane.]


    Harry woke in the semi-ethereal form which he often took while using battle meditation or exploring the astral plane. He clearly remembered his last sense which was the feeling of a book entering his inventory. He could now tell that the book itself was made of a special material reminiscent of Quirrel''s turban that blocked his energy sense which is why he didn''t feel the content hidden within the hollowed out book until it was too late. And now the Darkhold had trojan horsed itself into his inventory and it didn''t want to leave.


    The Darkhold was said to be written by the Elder Demon God of Chaos, Chthon, as a means to interact with a world he promised his sister, Gaea, he would not return to. The Darkhold was a loophole to this promise and contained all the knowledge the Elder God. Chthon could even make specific sections stand out to draw in the attention of the reader to learn what he wanted them to and act in a manner he wanted them to act.


    Harry had long since determined that his inventory was basically where his mind and soul was located. Even if Harry died in a sealed room, his magic obscurus particles would be taken into his inventory and removed from his inventory at his last respawn point so without knowing where his save point was, he couldn''t be killed in the physical world without great difficulty. That meant that to truly kill or harm Harry, he had to be attacked through his inventory, which now had a connection to an Evil Elder Demon God of Chaos.


    Harry got up and tried to end his Battle Meditation but it didn''t work, his astral body seemed to be locked in this plane and he wasn''t getting out the easy way.


    While in the Astral Plane, Harry couldn''t pause, use his inventory, or even use his new Load Save feature as they all could only be done from his body. One reason Harry had yet to put any serious effort into creating powerful equipment for himself was because most of the Energy he obtained for Level ups came from Battle Meditation and he couldn''t even use any item he created here. Sure, he could conjured a weapon using magic but he couldn''t take from or place items into his inventory unless he was in his own body.


    Through his inventory Harry felt the Darkhold''s contents entice him to memorize it even as the specific contents that seemed to stand out shifted to become more and more alluring. He was doing his best to ignore it but it was like having someone whisper in your ear without being able to tell if it was your own thoughts or someone else''s words. Unlike other books that were easy to ignore, the Darkhold was interactive and wasn''t affected by the time stop of his Inventory. Eventually it would imprint itself completely on Harry and Harry Potter himself would be all but dead. What would take his place would be a servant of Chthon, or worst, a Vessel.


    Harry himself was both emotion and logic driven but emotions can be manipulated and the logic of an Elder God born before life existed on earth could easily direct Harry to think that serving as Chthon''s vessel would be a logical choice. He wouldn''t even have to do it directly, he could just whisper into his subconscious until his conscious couldn''t think of any reason not to do so and would even be willing to do it with glee.


    That would be bad.


    Harry wasn''t sure how someone arranged this as it required knowledge of Harry''s ability to become one with books with only the Ancient One and Snape having learned that, and the latter had erased the knowledge from his mind.


    According to the messed up little pop ups, he was now in the Nether Plane, which just so happened to be the Plane of existence Chthon lived in and ruled. Chthon''s power was chaos and knowledge. But that actually worked against Harry as it basically meant that the stronger you knew Chthon to be, the stronger he actually was. And since the Darkhold was telling him exactly how powerful Chthon was, it wasn''t looking very good for Harry at the moment.


    Harry decided to try walking around. Sitting down wasn''t helping him distract his thoughts away from the promises of infinite power the book on his mind continued to whisper to him and he figured a good distraction would help prolong the inevitable or maybe buy time for a miracle. He couldn''t even go through the other books in his inventory since the Darkhold was like a shining light and would draw his attention to it if he even thought in the general direction of the books in his inventory. He could already feel parts of his mind trying to break his mental discipline and go through every word of the Darkhold. He was pretty sure the part of his mind saying ''a single peak wouldn''t hurt'' wasn''t a part of his mind at all.


    There was one thing which gave Harry hope. Chthon may be able to access his soul through his inventory, but he could not take it unless Harry gave it to him. Harry hadn''t memorized the Ancient One''s private Library for nothing. Even in a situation like this, he still knew what could and could not be done. He simply had to figure out how to not be tricked or enticed into doing just that and hope Chthon would eventually grow bored of him.


    The inky black void around him changed into a serene landscape with a beautiful night sky that surpassed the majesty of the sky he missed during his tutorial in the land of the dead. A few feet from him was a quaint table and sitting there was a beautiful woman who looked about twenty or so with silky black hair framing an enchantingly flawless face. She had pearl smooth skin that glowed under the dim moon light of the sky above and a black velvet dress that hugged her form leaving little to the imagination while still looking tasteful. Her eyes had a fascinating color close to violet but far more otherworldly. She wasn''t looking directly at him however but was reading a book at the table.


    Harry thought it was one hell of a low blow. He had been able to avoid most of the effects of puberty since the only woman he interacted with these days was the bald Ancient One and she was an aunt figure to him so he never thought of her that way. Now, his fourteen year old hormones which shouldn''t even affect him in the astral plane, but somehow were doing exactly that, were being used against him as he faced what was basically the s?xiest being he''d even encountered.


    Still, no point in being rude. He said, "Hello, my name is Harry, nice to meet you," before taking a seat.


    The ''woman'' closed her book and elegantly set it to the side before turning to him with an irresistible smile. She spoke with a silky British accent that made him dizzy, "Hello Harry. It''s nice to meet you as well. I''m sure you''ve already guessed it, but I''m the Lord of this Dimension, Chthon."


    Harry did his best not to tremble as the negative emotion suppression he usually relied on seemed gone at the moment and after a breath to steady himself he said, "So what can I do for you today? I''m sure you didn''t invite me here for my wonderful company."


    Her beauty seemed magnified through her smile and she said, "No, I cannot say I did, wonderful as your company is sure to be. You''re already doing far better than most. The innate mental protections granted to you are stopping my direct attempts to control you, but it is your own will that strengthens them. I''m very impressed."


    Harry''s fear of the woman was ebbing away which he knew to be a bad thing as his fear would keep his hormones from making him do anything stupid. Damn she was good.


    She smiled as if his thoughts were clearly on display and said, "I''ll make this simple Harry Potter. I want you. Not as a vessel, I already have another in mind for that. Not as an avatar either as once I have a vessel I won''t need one."


    Harry understood that she wasn''t even bothering to hide the fact that his thoughts since entering this realm had been an open book to her. Harry asked, "If not as a vessel or an avatar, what use could you have for me? For that matter, how did you get the Darkhold to me? I didn''t think you could just deliver it by mail. How did you even find out I could absorb it?"


    She gave a smile that was as seductive as it was predatory and said, "How clever. You''re correct of course. The Sorceress Le Fay discovered your identity and sought a means to strike back at you from her own time. However because she could not find you in the future, she was forced to use the Darkhold. That was where I learned of you and through Le Fay I took some steps. The Room of Requirements of your school was actually created from a spell of mine within the Darkhold. I too could not find you but since I knew you to be a wizard from Le Fay, I made sure you would enter that room as soon as possible. Although I cannot affect the room, I can see everything that goes on within so I simply had to wait for you to arrive. That is how I learned of and witnessed your gifts. As for getting the Darkhold to you, it wasn''t difficult to manipulate Le Fay into doing so for me. After finishing my preparations I simply gave her a spell that she thought would send an attack into the future at you, but once the spell was cast it drew the Darkhold itself into the spell and directly into the future. By the time the Darkhold had reached the present, I had enough information on you to manipulate a few things to get it to you. And as for what I want from you? As I said before that''s quite simple. I want everything. You''re not aware of even a fraction of the gifts you have been given and through my power you can rise higher than any on the mortal plane."


    Harry tried to remain oblivious to her attempt at seduction and pretend he wasn''t blushing. He then tried to nonchalantly shrug, "Why would I want that? I mean it might be nice for a little while but wouldn''t that get boring rather quickly?"


    Chthon laughed with the clarity of a silver bell and said, "Indeed. Power is hard for others to obtain but you can acquire it as you please given enough time, thus it does not hold the same value to you."


    Harry nodded and said, "Even if I became the strongest person ever, I would likely find ways to limit myself to keep things interesting. So a quick means to become powerful would just make it more inconvenient later when I need to limit myself."


    Chthon leaned over the table giving a godly view of her cleavage and Harry had to use every fraction of willpower he had to stop himself from looking through the Darkhold for s?x spells.


    She stared into Harry''s soul and could easily see he was not lying to her. Harry had gained a love of video games in the afterlife and enjoyed the feeling of doing one''s best to grow stronger. A game where one was given the power to defeat everything right away without effort wouldn''t be worth playing and since he considered himself a video game character, he took this as an outlook on life. Harry also lacked the connection to many others at the moment. It was something of a coincidence at this point in his life and would likely change soon, but there was no one he wanted the power to protect and no one he would give up his soul for right now. This meant Chthon''s usual offers held little value to Harry. That being said, she was a flexible Elder Demon God of Chaos so she had other things to offer. There may not be any specific person on earth Harry would sacrifice himself to protect, but what about the earth itself?


    Chthon said, "It is true that you hold no interest in what I have offered to others. That doesn''t mean I can''t give you what you want. Tell me Harry, are you aware of the deepest d?s?r? of your soul?"


    Harry couldn''t exactly trust his mind at the moment to give him an honest answer but it would be rude to remain silent so he looked back at his memories. Looking at the sky above him he sighed and said, "I just enjoy helping people." It was his hobby after all.


    Chthon smiled and said, "I will take possession of the earth with or without your ?ssistance. As I''ve said however, I want you. I will take you either now, or through my vessel on the earth, but one way or another you will be mine. Now however, I shall offer a concession. Give yourself to me and in return, I shall not take any action that harms anyone on earth."


    Harry raised an eyebrow at the deal and did his best to ignore what she said before that. He answered, "I highly doubt that would be possible."


    Chthon said with that silky voice that was still making him dizzy, "You enjoy helping people, but that is not all your heart d?s?r?s. You want to live in a world filled with adventure and wonder. Chaos can be sinister but it can also be subtle. I can see the sky your heart d?s?r?s and I must say, I think it has promise. If you give yourself to me, I won''t reshape the world in a single moment, I will do it gradually, over the course of centuries. No one will die due to a sudden surge in chaotic forces. Instead, they will all be given the needed period to safely adjust. Over time, chaos will spread and humans will gain abilities while animals will become stronger, more fierce, and more numerous. Technology will experience several leaps forward due to a few chaotic breakthroughs and the world will advance into something beautiful. Accept my deal, and the world itself will become your game."


    Harry shook his head to try and regain his wits and asked, "And how would I even be able to enjoy such a thing if I''ve given you my soul?"


    Her flawless smile and glistening lips drew his attention in what he recognized as a s?xu?? fascination spell. The fact that he recognized it made him realize his mental defenses had given in at some point during the conversation. He recognized the spell because it was in the Darkhold and without his awareness catching on another part of his mind had already started memorizing the Darkhold''s contents. He remembered that memorizing the Darkhold was supposed to be a bad thing but for some reason couldn''t quite place why it had been bad.


    She said, "I never asked for your soul Harry. I asked for you. I want you, the whole you, and everything that comes with it. I won''t take your soul from your delicious body, I want it right where it is. I want you to stand at my side in the world I intend to create."


    Chthon edged herself further over the table close to Harry and with half closed eyes and a sultry tone, she said, "And I want you in my bed at the side of my future vessel."


    Harry felt light and muddled and he couldn''t help but be drawn into those fascinating magic filled eyes. However all the mind magic in the world wasn''t able to cover up the one thing that was lacking in those perfect violet irises. There was no love.


    That realization sparked something in Harry and through the fog of his mind he answered, "No."


    Even with the Darkhold whispering in his ear, perfection itself staring him in the eye, his mind ?ssaulted by the strongest and subtlest of magics, and his hormones trying to control his body like a puppet on its strings, he could never give himself to someone who didn''t love him. Thanks to his mother and father, even if they were echoes, he knew what love looked like and thanks to his relatives, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, he knew what its absence looked like as well.


    The world shattered around him as the illusion broke and he was returned to the inky black lands. Before him stood a massive formless creature seemingly made of ink and shadow with an indecipherable silhouette.


    Jagged words erupted from the space itself, "I will have you Harry Potter. One way, or another."


    The fear that had faded away returned in full swing and Harry''s mind had made a comeback. He concentrated on bu??er saturated mashed potatoes while creating his favorite heavy sword. Rather than the standard rust color, this Eldritch Heavy Sword was blood red. He knew there would be consequences for fully merging his Exotic Energy into his Dimensional Energy without an adjustment period but he would be thrilled if he could just survive long enough to face such consequences.


    Even though this was Chthon''s Realm, the Nether Realm was one of the closest realms to earth and it was only due to the promise Chthon made to Gaea that prevented invasion. This however also meant that it was not isolated meaning he could still draw upon other forms of energy for combat just like during Battle Meditation.


    Tentacles of squirming darkness shifted in and out of existence sweeping back and forth over Harry at wind breaking speed. Harry used an image of bu??ered broccoli to saturate his spirit with Exotic energy infused Strength energy from the Crimson Cosmos. He wanted to overload his spirit with energy and self destruct like he could in the material realm with his flesh, but his spirit had well defined limits and he had never been able to draw in more energy than the limit of his spirit in the astral plane.


    Harry moved faster than he ever had before and swung his heavy sword through the writhing tentacles striking him from every direction. However there was little else he could do. Chthon was the absolute law of this dimension and although he was weak against Eldritch magic, something his heavy sword counted as, that only meant Harry had some room to struggle rather than immediately get ground to pudding since no other form of magic would work against the being labeled as the first Black Magician.


    The space voiced out as appendages coalesced from the inky void into creatures beyond mortal description, "Your use of magic is impressive for a wizard, but who do you think invented it? Let me tell you a little secret. There is no such thing as Exotic Energy. Your kind are the descendants of my children, beings capable of molding reality as they saw fit using My Power! What you generate and wield is nothing less than Chaotic Energy itself! Your kind once ruled the world under my power until they turned against me. With a single spell, they wiped my existence from their own memories and the memories of all others. They convinced themselves their magic had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with Chaos, and without the knowledge of my existence as an anchor I lost my throne in your world."


    Harry knew what Chthon was doing. The Demon God was pressing Harry into a corner by informing him his own magic could never defeat Chthon. Harry''s frantic mind had practically gone against his will and already started combing over the Darkhold in an attempt to find some means to escape or get out of this situation. But since Chthon controlled what parts of the Darkhold would draw in Harry''s attention, it was only showing him means of getting stronger which would corrupt him, not a means to escape. Eventually Harry would reach a limit and be forced to use those means and with that there would be no turning back.


    Of course Chthon wasn''t trying to kill him, just pressure him. Harry could stop swinging his massive sword at the endless hordes of creatures now surrounding him while the space itself struck at him again and again just b?r?ly slow enough for him to dodge. If he stopped, Chthon would too since he had no intention of allowed Harry to die. But if he stopped fighting, Chthon would simply use other means to pressure him. Means like torture, or worse, more seduction. Harry knew that Elder Gods didn''t really have a gender but Gaea was considered female and Chthon was considered male and the fact that ''he'' just tried and damn near succeeded at seducing Harry would give him nightmares for a long time if he survived this with his sanity intact.


    Even though it was only his spirit, he would tire eventually. And it seemed although Harry was technically destroying creatures made of pure energy, he wasn''t absorbing them for experience likely due to Chthon''s power. He wasn''t given any path that would allow him to win besides the one Chthon chose for him. He was also pretty sure even if he knew of such a path, Chthon was probably using mind magic to prevent him from thinking of it. That meant he could never make a successful plan.


    Harry was getting frustrated and even angry, something he hadn''t felt in a long time due to the negative emotion suppressing effects of his power. However once he realized this, it did in fact give him an idea.


    Harry concentrated on his anger and let it fill him. Just like hormones, anger can make people do stupid things. He never allowed himself to get angry at his aunt and uncle''s because they would punish him for anything stupid he did while angry. Because of that, he had no idea what he would do while angry. And that was a better alternative than making a plan Chthon allowed him to make.


    Harry shouted and rushed into the array of creatures and slashed with all his strength at anything that caught his attention. He no longer concerned himself with conserving energy, just dealing as much destruction and damage as he could. He dived deep into his memories of his childhood with his relatives and every unjust action they ever took against him. He thought about the so-called Wizarding World that sent him to that hell and forgot about him until he exploded! Harry gave completely into his rage with all his heart and soul!


    A barrier within his mind snapped and golden streams of energy burst from Harry''s spirit form like raging flames. Now he remembered. He''d recently acquired Immortal Dragon Chi and he had read from the Grand Grimoire. He could try Block Transfer Computations and turn into his Animagus form if absolutely necessary like his Godfather had in Azkaban.


    Harry realized that before he awoke in this plane, some of his knowledge must have been sealed though thankfully it was the same seal rather than multiple seals. He didn''t remember he had Immortal Dragon Chi until now but his pure rage was enough to awaken its power without consciously being aware of it which broke the seal.


    Chthon didn''t seem to mind and said, "You interest me more and more with every moment. Let me show you the power of True Chaos Magic!"


    Exotic energy, or as Chthon stated it actually was, Chaos energy, was filling the space and conjuration and transfiguration and charms and hexes all seemed to occur through the space at the same time. At first Harry thought it was different but now with it raging through the space in various concentrations, Harry saw the similarities between the energy he could generate and Chaos Energy from this plane. Other forms of energy were always uniform. Unless tainted, the Dimensional Energy in one Sorcerer had the same feel as another. This is because it comes from the same source as long as they were in the same dimension. The Exotic Energy in Wizards however were each unique to them because they generated it. And this Chaos Energy may have felt different from his own Exotic Energy, but now that he knew where to look, it was simply the difference between one wizard''s magic and another''s, though far denser and less uniform overall.


    From the Chaos Energy saturating the space came maddening creatures conjured from nothing that had their forms transfigured unexpectedly as they attacked in impossible to predict manners which caused strange effects with every movement. Harry used the strength enhancement and protection from magic of his Immortal Dragon Chi to fight back with his blood red Eldritch Heavy Sword but since Wizard Magic was effective against Dragons it came as no surprise that this Chaos Magic was the same since it apparently was in fact, the same.


    Harry tried several different computations using Block Transfer Computation but any effect good or bad it had was garbled up in the torrent of chaotic energies which rendered the math of time and space meaningless and he wasn''t being given a chance to setup anything large enough to have a strong effect.


    He thought back to the times he remembered the Ancient One telling him where she had to face the Masters of other Dimensions in their own Dimensions but more often than not, that only played out in her favor through trickery, bluffs, or deals with other beings. Not much good at the moment.


    There was one thing he remembered which gave him something of a plan. The one who wrote the Grand Grimoire had written a spell to break out of dimensions you are trapped in and although Harry never practiced it, he figured he might be able to use it even in his astral form. However he wasn''t being given an opening to use it. Endless legions of creatures were being formed from nothingness and Harry''s own wizard magic spells such as Finite Incantatem were not working to dismiss them or easily defeat them.


    Space itself seemed to bend a fold and Harry could b?r?ly move a step without finding himself turned upside down or backwards.


    Harry figured since Chthon wasn''t going to just give him an opening he might as well just put everything he had into one shot since he wasn''t exactly getting stronger as time marched on. It wasn''t difficult to notice that the creatures that reformed after he slew them were slowly adapting to his attacks meaning any skill he had which could easily slay them wouldn''t do so for very long.


    Harry focused on the image of bu??er saturated pancakes to fully merge his Anti Magic and Exotic Energy and shouted, "Through these words I cast you back, seven rings top to bottom. Bind the magic cast it out, Finite Incantatem!" Seven rings materialized in the void around Harry and within that space the conjured creatures evaporated. This was a spell Harry designed which fused the concept of the Seven Rings of Raggadorr with Finite Incantatem, Anti Magic and Magic Cancellation in one. Since he fully merged the two energies together it was also the only anti magic spell he had and he was lucky he already had an idea on how to use it. Rather than cast on the enemy though, he cast it on himself. In doing so, parts of his mind he didn''t know were still blocked off suddenly opened up and Harry regained his sense of self.


    Creatures and tentacles that tried to enter the space of the rings evaporated as well so Harry used the chance to pour all his willpower into his soul as he focused his dimensional energy into a single point. Harry shouted "Critical Burst!" and forced the point to expand while contracting to create a critical point mass. Cracks formed around him and shattered his rings but the creatures and horrid masses didn''t approach him.


    The space itself darkly laughed, "Well then, go on through."


    Critical Burst should first crack the space and then shatter it into a hole allowing passage into the space between realms known as the Crossroads. With the amount of energy Harry put into it there should have been an opening large enough for a tank to drive through with room on both sides.


    Instead, the opening that formed in the center of the cracked space wasn''t large enough for him to squeeze his pinky finger through. Critical Burst used pure Dimensional Energy to work and since his had fully fused with his Exotic Energy, the spell he was gambling everything on ended up a dud.


    The darkness bellowed deeply, "Give up Harry Potter. There is no way for you to escape me."


    Harry realized that Chthon had probably allowed him to use his plan not only to waste all of Harry''s energy, but to give him hope just for a moment before smashing it to pieces.


    The creatures around him slowly moved in but before they reached him the darkness cried out, "What?!"


    From the tiny crack a flame emerged and lit the darkness like a torch in the night.


    "No! He is mine!" rumbled the darkness.


    The flames broke through the cracks and entered the Nether space, it burned away the darkness and all the creatures and black magic within. The void itself seemed to shatter and was replaced with a new sun. The flaming sphere didn''t burn nor harm Harry who had nearly given up hope. It lengthened and shifted and wings emerged from its sides as it took on a familiar shape. The a woman''s voice rang out from the fire bird, "He is not yours, and he will never be yours."


    The shape of the flames tightened into what Harry now recognized as a phoenix. Which meant there was only one identity he could ?ssign to this being.. The Phoenix Force.

 Chapter 27 - 27 Consequences and the Future

    The embodiment of life and the passion of creation, the symbol of rebirth, and the nexus of all Psionic energy in the universe, the Phoenix Force herself, had apparently taken advantage of the tiny crack Harry made and crashed his kidnapping.


    Orange and red flames spread through the plane, igniting the darkness and casting out the irregular forms it took.


    The sky itself shook as the last vestiges of chaos burned away while shuddering out, "This isn''t over."


    The shimmering flames died down and gathered together into the form of a woman who stood before Harry. "We don''t have much time Harry Potter. And there is much to discuss."


    Harry said, "Didn''t you beat him?"


    She shook her head, "No, I''ve only driven him back. This is not the Nether Plane, but a corridor to the Nether Plane that exists within the Darkhold. He can never be beaten in his own realm but he can''t drag others there from earth without consent. Chthon was trying to trick you into thinking you were in a hopeless situation so you were more likely to give in. You did remarkably well and I was able to use the fissure you made in the corridor to enter and purge its connection to Chthon, but only for a short time. During this time however I can freely speak with you as this corridor operates outside the rules of noninterference higher beings have with lower ones. I have been watching you use my gift Harry Potter and so far I like what I have seen."


    "Your gift?" he asked.


    "Yes. Myself, Death, Eternity, Infinity, and the Living Tribunal forged the aspects of this power for you. In doing so we granted you freedom to break fate and the ability to go against destiny. We have no opinions on how you use it and even if you burn the universe down, none of us will stop you, but I doubt you ever would without just cause."


    Harry tried not to think about the fact that the Phoenix Force did in fact have the ability to burn down the universe if she chose to do so. And although this answered some questions, it also raised so many more.


    She continued, "I''m telling you this for two reasons. First, you need to understand that any power that takes control of you can control the fate of the universe. That is why Chthon d?s?r?s you. Second, I have a favor to ask."


    "Um. Sure, what can I do for you?"


    "Around the time you died, I encountered a young and powerful telepath on this world who tried connecting to the mind of a dying friend and in doing so almost died herself. Someone who values life should in turn be valued, so I saved her and granted her a connection to my power. In time she would have become an avatar of mine, but since then, that connection has been sealed. I want you to find her and break the seal."


    Since there was much written about the Phoenix Force in Kamar-Taj''s library, Harry asked, "As your Avatar, wouldn''t she have to go around the galaxy burning away useless worlds?" One of the primary jobs of the Phoenix was to ''cut away'' parts of the universe which would then ''regrow.'' A world destroyed by the Phoenix would always have new life rise from it, no matter how trashy the planet was before. It was the nature of her power.


    "Eventually, but not for a long time. You could just as easily do it for her once you have risen in strength or you could do together, it matters not which. Chthon was right about something Harry Potter, you are only aware of a fraction of your gifts. You are both Obscurus and Mutant in addition to the gifts you have been granted and until now you have only scratched the surface of your full abilities. Many of them however your subconscious has locked until your mind becomes stronger. In this I can ?ssist you. Agree to my favor and I shall give you a small portion of my power, a seed you can use to grow a mind strong enough to control the powers you don''t even know you possess."


    Harry considered it but was hesitating.


    The Phoenix Force noticed this and said, "My Avatar will not be controlled by me in any way. She will know what I know when accessing my power and understand what needs to be done, but it is by her own will alone that she may choose to do it. That however is only if the seal is released soon. If not, her mind may be crippled by the seal and she may end up controlled by others. I can ?ssure you releasing the seal will not cause any harm to come to her, in fact it will prevent possible harm that may occur if the seal is not removed soon enough."


    With that Harry had no more reason to refuse and said, "In that case, I would love to help."


    The human form Phoenix Force held out her hand and a small flicker of orange flame appeared and floated over to Harry''s ?h?st. It entered him and he felt a small warmth spread throughout his body.


    *Ping*


    [Phoenix Flame Perk Acquired


    Psionic Path has risen to Rank 10.]


    The corridor shook and the Phoenix said, "We''re out of time. You can''t remove the Darkhold from your Inventory without help from inside your inventory, you need to find the Book of Vishanti."


    Harry felt himself return to his body but shouted, "Wait, how will I find the girl?"


    The Phoenix said, "My flames will guide you," before Harry woke up in his body.


    He took a look at a clock and found it had been about a half hour since he saw it even though it felt like so much longer. Once Harry returned to his body, he felt the Darkhold within his inventory return to life and once more try to drag him into the Corridor. The darkness that tried to take him however was halted by the embers of the Phoenix flame left to him, but just b?r?ly. If he tried to actively browse through the Darkhold contents or if he tried to use Battle Meditation he would certainly be dragged back. And since he could b?r?ly peak at the contents of his inventory without seeing the Darkhold, that meant he couldn''t access other books in his Inventory either.


    Even if Harry left it alone, the constant subconscious allure the Darkhold had would eventually draw him back. He considered pausing to see if the Darkhold''s connection to Chthon would still be there if time stopped but when he tried he found that the Pause feature was not working. Harry figured it might be similar to the fact that Harry''s wizard magic didn''t react well to frozen time and the Chaos energy connection the Darkhold to the Nether Realm may have had the same property.


    Harry tried to create a portal to the Ancient One''s study but he found that he was unable to do so due to the Dimensional Energy in his Heart Palace fusing completely with his Exotic Energy. He could still use Exotic Energy on its own but he''d never be able to use just Dimensional Energy on its own again unless he purged the energy from his body which was ridiculously dangerous and would make things worse. Every action he once did with Dimensional Energy he would have to relearn to do with his new dimensional energy.


    Harry decided to just apparate to the park in front of the London Branch of the Sanctum Sanctorum and ran inside as fast as he could. He noticed that the Ward didn''t look very hard at him since much of his energy was now invisible but that was the only real benefit at the moment. He entered the building and ran to the portal to Kamar-Taj on the upper floor and from there ran to the Ancient One''s room.


    On arrival he found the Ancient One and Wong having a discussion. She was about to give him a reprimanding glare but from the fear she saw on his face she realized the situation was outside the ordinary.


    She asked, "Bad news I suppose?"


    Harry gave a half hearted smile and said, "Very."


    Her eyes widened just a little in surprise as Harry''s definition of very bad closely resembled her own. It meant potential news of the world ending variety.


    She turned to Wong and said, "I am sorry but it seems this will have to wait."


    Master Wong didn''t question her and left for the door.


    Harry cast several wizard spells which would ensure the conversation could not be eavesdropped through any means and said, "I''ll tell you the whole story later but the Darkhold is currently inside my inventory and Chthon is trying to drag my spirit into it so he can control me. The Phoenix Force showed up and told me to get the Darkhold out I need the Book of Vishanti. I have no idea where it is and if I don''t get this thing out, Chthon will use me to rule the universe."


    The Ancient One shook her head and said, "I shall decide on your punishment later. Follow me, the Book of Vishanti is in our possession."


    Harry felt a wave of relief over that fact but had to tense himself up right away as the Darkhold tried to use his ??pse in concentration to drag in back once more. He really wasn''t to last much longer at this rate.


    The Ancient One led Harry to the portal Harry which linked Kamar-Taj to the New York Branch of the Sanctum Sanctorum and up two flights of stairs to where the Relics were usually kept. Harry saw several items he recognized and several he didn''t. A strange hovering cloak waved at him from behind a class case.


    The Ancient One said, "The Symbol of the Sanctum Sanctorm is in fact the Symbol of Vishanti so we prefer to always have his book on hand. How much do you know of it?"


    Harry answered back, "Ultimate book of White magic. Zero attack spells. And pretty much the Anti Darkhold."


    "And you are aware of the risks of using it?" she asked for confirmation.


    "Yeah, it falls into the same category as using the names of others to cast spells. They won''t mind you doing so as long as you use the power of their realms as they would, but doing so means you owe them a favor and if they come to collect, you can either do the favor or permanently strip your access to their realm."


    This was the main reason the Heart Palace was so valued. If Harry spent three months connecting to, absorbing, and tuning himself to Dream energy, he could summon a mist which could put people to sleep. If a Sorcerer who knew the approximate feel of Dream Energy simply shouted that they were calling on the Mists of Morpheus, the Lord of the Dream Dimension, they could achieve the same result or perhaps an even stronger effect. However if Morpheus himself asked of them a favor, they would have to do so or face the consequences. Harry however was not bound by this as he didn''t use the ?ssistance of others to use magic, only his own power.


    There were no free lunches in the universe. Even the Phoenix Force could only give him access to her power after he promised to do her a favor to balance things out.


    If he used the Book of Vishanti however, there was a risk the Vishanti would call upon him in the future. However it was a risk worth taking. The Vishanti were the three backers of the Sanctum Sanctorum and freely gave the power of their spells for its Sorcerers in order for them to protect the earth. If they ever did call upon him for a favor, it shouldn''t be a bad one at least.


    They entered a room and the Ancient One closed and locked the door. She then called the Dark Energy within her to dominate the space and an empty area folded away, revealing a hidden space containing a pillar and the book. What was impressive about it was that before the Ancient One opened the folded space, even Harry couldn''t feel the presence of the book.


    She picked it up from the pillar and handed it to Harry. He took it and said, "I''m going to set this spot as my respawn point. If this doesn''t work.. You know what to do."


    The Ancient One nodded without difficulty. How to kill Harry should he ever need to be killed was something they had in fact gone over more than once. It was one of the requirements for her to fully trust him and give access to her private collection.


    Harry placed the book into his inventory and felt his existence tremble. His spirit was being drawn in, but not by the Darkhold. Harry concentrated with everything he had and dived in. He hoped this wouldn''t end badly.


    When Harry''s eyes opened in what seemed to be the next moment, he found that his hand had been placed on the Orb of Agamotto which the Ancient One seemed to have brought out. It was glowing the same pure white color it had before when he touched it two and a half years ago which had Harry let out a sigh of relief.


    The Ancient One noticed his eyes opening and his own relief which caused her own tension to lessen just a bit. She asked, "How did it go?"


    Harry placed his hand into his inventory and pulled out the Cook Book with a ribbon tied around it and a moment later he pulled out the Book of Vishanti. Harry said, "Better than I expected. What do you want to do with the Darkhold? Place it on the far side of the moon?"


    She shook her head, "No, it might still be found by the people living there if we did that."


    Harry still had no way to tell if she was being serious or sarcastic.


    The Ancient One cut the ribbon of the cook book and opened it to reveal the hollowed out portion that contained the ancient black book authored by Chthon himself. After just a moment of hesitation she closed the book once more. Harry wouldn''t comment on the fact that she checked to make sure it was actually there and not still in his inventory. The Darkhold was temptation personified and if she didn''t check, she would always have a tiny doubt.


    She said, "I recognize the material this cover is made of. It will only hide the Darkhold for a short while longer. If it is removed from Earth, Chthon will be able to act in order to retrieve it and return it to Earth since it is only on earth that he is restricted. There is nowhere it is truly safe."


    Harry thought about it and remembered something Chthon himself did. Harry said, "What if we sent it into the future? And the person we sent it to could send it further into the future, and so on and so forth? Chthon told me he allowed it to be sent into the future in order to get it to me, so if he hasn''t retracted that from what he allows of his book, couldn''t we take advantage of it?"


    The Ancient One gave a pensive moment of silence before stating, "The Darkhold is not just a force of evil, it is also a tool for balance. Complete removal from the timeline would throw off the balance, so that wouldn''t work or would have consequences worse than the Darkhold itself."


    Harry considered it and realized she was right. If there are five bad ways for something to happen and you prevent all five, a sixth bad way will appear. If they tried complete removal, something would probably happen and make it worse in order to correct the balance. Harry said, "Then we pass it to someone from the future who keeps it hidden in that time for a year and after a year passes it once more to the future."


    Harry took a few items out of his inventory and said, "I have an idea."


    It didn''t take long for the Ancient One to catch on to his idea though she was surprised Harry had acquired so much mithril and adamantium. Although Harry was still a fledgling crafter compared to the makers of the relics stored in the Sanctums, he was already very skilled for a human. Harry used some straightforward crafting spells to make a simple Mithril-Adamantine alloy and shaped it into a cloth paired with a small tablet. He then wrapped the cloth around the Darkhold until it was completely bound and asked the Ancient One for two drops of her blood. She knew he couldn''t use his own for this so she consented.


    The blood acted as an encryption which paired the charms on the cloth to the charms on the tablet. Once the spell completed, the cloth-like alloy was no longer cloth-like and had become not only hard, but completely indestructible. The only way to remove the cloth was the tablet and the tablet could also be used to find the cloth no matter where it was. In other words, the tablet''s existence could remain in the world, taking the place of the Darkhold so that if the forces of balance required someone to use the Darkhold, it could still be accessed.


    A moment after the spell was completed, a purple portal opened up in the room and a tall, beautiful blond woman wearing strange armor and a massive glowing heavy sword on her back came through.


    The Ancient One and Harry both readied themselves for combat until she lifted her hand and showed them a tablet identical to the one Harry had just created. She gave the room a glance before taking a long look at Harry. Faster than either could move, she ran over to him, scooped him up into a hug and shouted, "Oh my god you''re so small and cute!"


    The Ancient One cracked a smile and said, "You are from the future I ?ssume?"


    Without letting Harry down who didn''t bother struggling she said, "Yup, Illyana Rasputin, current, or should I say, future, Sorceress Supreme. I beat little miss Stark for the position last year and it''s already been a wild ride. It''s a p???sur? to meet you Ancient One." She fully showed how honored she was to meet her yet treated Harry like a stuffed doll she won at a carnival game.


    The reason Harry wasn''t bothering to struggle was because he was too busy getting shocked at the power of the woman. She didn''t have a heart palace like himself and the Ancient One, yet she contained massive reserves of white, black, soul, psionic, and even death energy. And yet she carried it all without difficulty. This was a woman who could heal, purify, summon demons, fight with a sword, and use telekinesis and necromancy.


    The Ancient One had already used a few spells to determine the same thing Harry had and was equally if not more shocked.


    After getting her fill of hugs, the future Sorceress Supreme put him down and said, "Stay put for a moment, I want a picture." She then got out what seemed to be a mobile phone and with the sound of a shutter took several pictures of Harry and the Ancient One.


    The Ancient One got over her shock just a little quicker than Harry did and asked, "Who was your teacher?" She took a long glance at her glowing heavy sword then gave a small, but noticeable glare at Harry who simply shrugged.


    She said, "Well, I was taught by a few people but the one I considered my teacher was Ororo Munroe, two of them actually. Different versions of the same woman from different realities. And yes, Harry did teach me his Wave Sword Style. I didn''t ask for my Soul Sword to be this gigantic."


    She removed her sword and displayed several moves that Harry often used when wielding his Eldritch Heavy Sword which confirmed the story for the most part. She continued, "Stephen taught me a bit as well but we have different specialties so I didn''t learn much of him."


    The Ancient One perked up at this and asked, "Are you Dr. Strange''s replacement?"


    She shook her head for a moment, "No, he retired into marital bliss a few decades ago and Wiccan succeeded him. Wiccan however has been stretching himself pretty thin on a lot of projects so he wanted someone who could devote more time to the actual combat part of defending the earth to replace him and if you hadn''t noticed already, I''m a badass."


    The Ancient One gave a slight glance to Harry who was still analyzing the readings he was getting off the woman and said, "Perhaps you should not reveal so much of the days to come."


    Illyana smiled and said, "Naw, I was told that you already have your life and death planned out and nothing anyone says will change it. Harry on the other hand can''t be changed. He, and I''m quoting here, ''takes all information as both truth and fiction and acts accordingly and not at all.'' So nothing I say will change anything Harry intends to do in the future because he''ll take into account both the possibility I''m telling the truth and that I''m lying. For example." She turned to Harry and said, "One of your future wives will be responsible for the deaths of countless people."


    Harry remains unphased at the accusation though the fact that she mentioned wives, as in plural, was surprising.


    Illyana turned back to the Ancient One and said, "Now that I''ve told him that, he''ll consider that I could be lying, but also that I could be telling the truth. However he won''t take any action other than what he feels to be right which won''t change. There have been attempts to travel back in time and direct Harry before but none of them have ever worked thanks to his stubbornness. And due to the creation of the Time Shield, no one has been able to travel back into the past without clearance so that isn''t as big a problem as it used to be. I have clearance of course." She pulled out a badge Harry recognized as something that contained not only Time energy but Exotic energy, his Exotic energy.


    She put it away and said, "Alright, last thing before I take the book." She took a card out of her wallet and said, "Harry, think of a number between one and ten."


    Harry recognized the question as a specific contingency he had and thought of the number ''Three.''


    She then said, "Banana," and showed the card to Harry which had a picture of a banana on it which caused Harry to smile. That was the correct response, his thinking the number three was to throw off mind readers.


    Harry handed her the bound Darkhold which she took and said, "Oh yeah, there was one thing I did have to say. I was told I already said this, so it''s a self fulfilling prophecy and yada yada. Harry needs to start practicing control over his mutant powers and complete his highschool education at an actual school. I was told the Ancient One knows the one I''m talking about and he should start in the fall semester."


    The Ancient One rose her eyebrow slightly at this and Illyana took another look at Harry and said, "Remember, don''t take over the world, eat all your vegetables, and place silencing charms around your room when having s?x."


    Harry blushed at that last statement and heard the shudder of a camera and the shout, "Yes! I got it!" before the blond jumped back into her portal which then vanished.


    Once she left Harry said, "I am so gonna prank her when I see her next."


    The Ancient One smiled at that. Harry had to remain silent as there were specific guidelines one had to follow when conversing with a time traveling you''ve met in the future. You could ignore those rules of course but there were usually consequences and Harry didn''t feel like dealing with them.


    Harry sat down and looked at the tablet he just made and had been surprised that the plan he came up with on the spot proved to work so quickly. The future Sorceress Supreme would have to hide the thing for a year and then someone with the tablet and their own security measures would find her and take the Darkhold from her. The Tablet could always track the Darkhold, even through time, which is why she was able to come directly to them moments after its creation.


    The Ancient One said, "We shall discuss this another time. For now, please tell me what happened today."


    Harry obliged. He told her about the cooking contest and the book which was mailed to him and then told her about being drawn into what he thought was the Nether Realm. He gave the details of Chthon''s seduction attempt and offer and why he refused. He told her about the fight, the permanent fusion of several of his energy types with Exotic Energy and his idea to use his rage to do something outside of Chton''s plans which unlocked his suppressed knowledge and Dragon Chi. He then told her the spell he used from the Grand Grimoire and its near failure and the Phoenix Force''s arrival. And last, he told her about Phoenix Force''s request which he agreed to.


    The one thing Harry did not tell her was the relationship between Chaos Magic and Wizard Magic. The more who knew that, the worse it would be. It was only because he knew of their relation that he knew that wizard magic could be used to bind the Darkhold when other forms of magic would likely be destroyed by the Darkhold itself.


    After thinking it over for a few moments the Ancient One said, "All things considered, you did well. Resisting Chthon''s temptations and manipulations in his own territory, even if it wasn''t his realm, is not something I have ever heard done before and I must admit I am impressed. Now, tell me what happened when you placed the Book of Vishanti in your inventory. It has been three hours since then and I doubt it was so simple as placing the Book of Vishanti and removing the Darkhold."


    Harry nodded, "To be honest, I''m not entirely sure what happened. It seemed shortly after I placed it in, I was able to pause. I don''t know what I did while paused. Afterwards, I unpaused and did some stuff I don''t know and lastly, I took all the knowledge I gained from both the Darkhold and the Book of Vishanti and locked it in my subconscious along with the memories I had while sorting it which is why I can''t really recall what I did. I can''t actively use the information and I don''t even know what I know, but it seems if needed, I''ll become aware of specific pieces of information that I may need."


    "But you once told me you could not forget things or alter your own memory."


    Harry nodded, "Yeah, my Psionic Path Rank increased from 10 to 17 while paused so I''m pretty sure I must''ve used some of the practices of Occlumency using Psionics to rearrange my head in a way which allows it. Most of my head seems a lot less cluttered than it was before, that''s for certain."


    That meant that Harry had in fact memorized, likely the full content of both the Book of Vishanti and the Darkhold, but was keeping the knowledge from himself unless he needed something specific. The Ancient One would have been more worried about that had she not just seen proof of the future just a moment ago. She had never really been able to get over the fact that she couldn''t see into Harry''s future, but the fact that a future Sorcerer Supreme cared greatly for him removed the last shred of doubt she had for Harry Potter. That and the fact that Harry had been able to resist the temptation of Chthon himself, something she doubted she herself could do was impressive. And that was even knowing how terrible of a being Chthon truly was.


    Both Harry and the Ancient One knew that Chthon could not be trusted. For example even if Harry had accepted Chthon''s offer, he likely would have been corrupted by ''her'' and though Chthon promised not to personal take lives or cause the death of humans, Harry under ''her'' control would not be limited by that promise and if he gave himself to ''her,'' killing everyone for Chthon would be perfectly reasonable for Harry.


    That however was only obvious in hindsight, thinking of it at the time would be close to impossible.


    The Ancient One said, "Although it is not entirely your fault, you must still be punished for dropping your vigilance. Recently, there have been a few requests from some of the younger acolytes and I want you to take care of it."


    "What kind of requests."


    The Ancient One shook her head with a sigh, "They are requesting we install Wifi in Kamar-Taj and the Sanctums."


    *Author''s Note*


    I came up with the idea of sending the Darkhold into the future on the spot and that scene practically wrote itself.


    This will likely be the last of the paths Harry will be getting. I wanted an eventual OP Harry but I wanted him to get OP slowly through mostly legit means which was the entire purpose of Arc 2. I honestly dislike all the Kamar-Taj fics in which someone comes out of Kamar-Taj with just a sling ring and the time stone since that place has so, so much more.


    To those interested, other paths include the Trainer Path which is the physical version of the Scholar Path. Then there is the Spy Path for infiltration, espionage, covert operations, information gathering, and ?ssassination skill. There would also be a Beast Tamer Path, a Commander Path, a Healer Path, a Law Path, and pretty much a path for every dedicated area people can focus their lives into.


    Arc 3 will be where he actually interacts with people his own age and starts to have an actual life.

 Chapter 28 - 28 Wrapping up in Kamar-Taj

    Since Harry was ?ssigned the task of Wifi installation, he decided to do it with vigor. He did own several companies after all and knew a thing or two about electronics. Harry paid for the construction needed to have a dedicated fiber optics line installed from the nearest hub in Tibet directly to Kamar-Taj. For interior aesthetics to not be compromised he kept the lines out of sight by using transmutation spells to create openings in the walls to run Ethernet and Coaxial lines. And last, he set up a server room with the most advanced computers available personally built and engraved by him to protect against magic, wear, tear, and even technopathic hacking. The latter he had been looking into as it was considered a form of Sorcery that used electromagnetic energy rather than nature or dimensional energy.


    Maybe he was going overboard, but he wanted to do it right.


    The server room would host a Website that included a large amount of basic Arcane knowledge that Harry spent a month personally writing into the various web pages of the site. It wasn''t knowledge on how to cast spells of course, but it did include very broad safety and awareness tips on magic and sorcery in general and also included direct definitions of Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer, Chi Wizard, Warlock, etc. Technically this was a breach of the International Statute of Secrecy, but the website itself gave the feel of Occult and never mentioned that such people were alive and still active. For example, it stated that Wizards in general preferred to live with other Wizards and strange things would happen when they were upset. The Website clearly stated that Wizards haven''t been seen for centuries though it did hint that may have just been because they didn''t want to be seen and if you did see one to ignore them unless you wanted to experience life as a frog as they disliked being bothered.


    To make the site feel less real and more commercial, Harry included Advertising links to specific Companies he set up which sold Wizard and Witch paraphernalia such as replicas of wizard robes and different types of fake wands. He did so with several other companies, both ones he owned and third party ones. None of them actually sold real magical items though, only things which looked magical.


    The largest section of the website included classifications on demons, demon sorcerers, magical creatures, and magic in general and gave simple ways to protect yourself if encountered any of them. Some of this knowledge came from Kamar-Taj''s library which included Egypt''s Golden Book of Life while other pieces of knowledge were taken directly from the Grand Grimoire, the Book of Vishanti, and even the Darkhold. Whenever Harry needed information and such information happened to be inside the Darkhold, he would become aware of it. This however only worked if he didn''t think to look specifically in the Darkhold for it so it could only be accessed indirectly when a related subject came up. The Darkhold did in fact include a few means one could use to protect oneself from the darker side of magic, but those were actually used as parts of larger, darker rituals and spells which Harry couldn''t consciously recall. Specific shapes and symbols could make demons uncomfortable even without active magic so Harry had a few jewelry and cheap trinket making companies make some things and placed Ads for them on the website.


    Harry wasn''t sure if it would work, but he also placed a powerful variant of the Notice-Me-Not charm on the servers which held the information. It was almost permanent and had no effect against people looking for specific knowledge within the site. What it should accomplish however was the prevention of people not looking for it from finding it. Anyone not looking for information contained within the site wasn''t likely to notice its existence.


    *Ping*


    [Scholar Path has risen to Rank 42]


    The moment Harry finished and launched the website he got his first Scholar Path Rank up this year. It hadn''t increased since Harry learned a different Dimension''s version of Block Transfer Computation and even trying to make his own hadn''t gotten another Rank out of it. Harry knew the higher the path increased the harder it would be to increase further but this was getting ridiculous. It seemed that his website counted as a lesson taught to the whole of the world which was why he finally was able to increase it a rank. That made Harry wonder about his other paths so he brought up his stats.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 190 Age 14


    STR 275 AGI 310


    INT 415 WIS 400


    LUK 20


    Warrior Path Rank 26


    Scholar Path Rank 42


    Magic Path Rank 38


    Business Path Rank 16


    Crafting Path Rank 17


    Dragon Path Rank 5


    Psionic Path Rank 17]


    Looking at the new Psionic Path, Harry really did wonder how much time he must have spent Paused, working on his own mind for it to jump seven ranks. When he looked back into his mind he found there was literally nothing more he could do with it so he probably went all the way to the limit of internal Psionics. The funny thing was that Harry didn''t actually block people from entering his mind, he simply did a ridiculous amount of complex things to make it very dangerous and unproductive to do so.


    Psionics as a Path was different from magic. Magic was basically the manipulation of energies either found or created. Psionics was the power of the mind and was rounded off into three skill sets. Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Astral creation which were basically mind over mind, mind over matter, and mind over existence respectively. Harry''s Battle meditation allowed him to take an astral form without a talent in Psionics but that was likely a part of the power gifted by the Phoenix Force. Astral creation itself was the field of using the mind to create mental or physical effects within astral or physical space.


    There was some overlap of course as many abilities could be generated by either Magic or Psionics. Pyrokinesis for example could either be considered a Psionic Power or a Magic Power depending on the source of the fire. If someone generated the fire, it would likely be a magic based power but that person would not be able to generate infinite amounts or control fire not created through their magic. Their fire however would be very difficult to extinguish as it was a part of them. If they could not generate it but could control it, then it would be classified as a Psionic Power and the user would likely be able to control far higher volumes of fire as they wouldn''t need to waste energy creating it as fire was something that could create itself if controlled right. However the fire would have the properties of normal fire and could be put out in the same manner.


    After a bit of practicing, it didn''t take much effort for Harry to figure out how to read minds since he had practice with Occlumency and Legilimency so it was just different tricks to achieve the same goal. Telekinesis was also pretty simple though he could only move things in general directions. Just like Magic, Psionics was a skill set that was powered by INT and WIS so this path came very easily to Harry thanks to the Phoenix Force opening the door for him.


    His new Perk, the Phoenix Flames he acquired had two effects. First, it acted as a multiplier for the speed he could Rank up his Psionic Path. Second, it allowed him to use the Phoenix Flames skill which was an application of Telekinesis, Telepathy, and Astral Creation at the same time. It could burn matter, mind, and the soul, but the energy it left behind would return to the earth and express itself as new life. This also meant Harry couldn''t absorb the energy of anything he killed with it for Experience and Levels. Though his use of it was very weak at the moment and far weaker than his magic due to the different in path levels.


    The only way he could return to using Dimensional energy on its own again would be to purge his body and heart palace of the Dimensional energy. However, he only got it into his Heart Palace by imaging it as a part of him. If he rejected it, he would never be able to think of it as a part of him again so he would lose everything and be unable to ever regain it. There wasn''t a single merit in doing so of course.


    Strength energy fused with Exotic energy wasn''t difficult to find some applications for. It was easy to use to directly strengthen the body but using a few new spells he hashed out could now allow him to create a Magic Shield using Strength energy even stronger than Dimensional energy shields. Exotic energy magic shields were only designed to block magic and were actually very good at it but were nearly useless against guns. Dimensional energy shields were like hardened glass planes and could stop a few rounds of bullets in addition to magic but nothing that high powered. His new shield though was far stronger than any previous shield he could use. His next step was to see if he could charge an item with this shield and give it to others.


    Harry could still use constructs of Dimensional energy and use Dimensional energy to strengthen and move his body, but doing so used far more energy than it used to. However, he had figured out a way to charge his constructs with spells. For example, he could create a Bo Staff or whip that inflicted the Stunner Spell on contact or a Sword that used the Severing charm every time he swung it. He still hadn''t figured out a way to create portals with his Exotic energy saturated Dimensional energy but he''d live without it for now since he could create and use Portkeys and Apparate long distances and even fly in his Animagus form.


    His Anti Magic suffered the hardest though. He had a dozen Anti Magic Spells he had gotten quite good at but now he was reduced to the one and lucky to even have that. Anti Magic was a very difficult type of energy to reign in and control after all.


    One thing he was truly thankful for was that although his Sorcerer magics contained Exotic energy, it didn''t radiate out from the spell itself like his wizard magic did. This meant he wouldn''t have to hold himself back from using it in tech filled areas. What was even better, was that unlike his wizard magic which couldn''t be used while he was suppressing it to prevent all tech around him from crashing, his fused magics could be used while suppressing his Exotic energy emissions.


    Not long after Harry finished installing Wifi and setting up the Website he dubbed Mystic Knowledge .com, the Ancient One called him in for a meeting.


    She made the tea this time and once he sat down the Ancient One said, "I intended to bring this up with you regardless, but as Ms. Rasputin has recommended it, we can discuss it now. I''m sure you are aware of this, but you have reached the Rank of Master long ago. Usually at this point those who remain in Kamar-Taj start teaching others and start fighting in the front lines in the fight to defend the earth. Now however your Dimensional energy can no longer be felt by others who have mastered it which will draw suspicion if you continue to stay. In either case, the time for you to move on has come and Ms. Rasputin''s suggestion was something I already considered. In New York there is a school called Xavier''s School for Gifted Youngsters. It is High School level boarding school, and much like your previous one, it is not what it appears to be. It is in fact a place where young mutants can go to learn and train with their abilities. Enrolling you in the fall semester three months from now would give you time to adjust your new magics and prepare yourself. I understand you wish to continue your education as well."


    Harry answered, "Yeah, the Goblins told me the cover I paid them to make won''t hold up under intense scrutiny. I can get into a normal college well enough but a major one won''t accept me."


    The Ancient One nodded, "The Xavier Institute houses some of the finest minds on the planet. You will likely gain more there than you would at any other institute of higher education."


    Harry asked, "But what am I going to say about my mutant ability? You I trust. I can''t however just inform others who have not earned my trust about my abilities and many of them tend to stand out."


    "Yes and I agree with you. It will do no good for the true nature of your mutation to get out as it would draw too much attention. The aspect of your gift that shields you from distant eyes and the eyes of those looking into the future will not stop others from looking at you should you stand out in the present. I believe we should choose a single aspect of your abilities and allow others to take that as your mutant ability."


    "Umm. Which one?" Harry was essentially immortal, strong, fast, could use magic, mind arts, and immortal dragon chi. There was also his inventory, his crafting, and his overall intellect as well as his vast repository of knowledge and his inhuman learning speed.


    "I can think of three options." She started listing. "You can walk the path of physical prowess and claim a dragon-like body as your mutant ability. You can use this as an opportunity to train your Dragon Chi while pretending that your healing ability and increased stats are all a part of your mutation. This would be the easiest to display and safest overall. No matter how strong, people tend to overlook the physical types so although you''d be standing out, it would not be as dangerous as standing out for your other abilities."


    Harry nodded and thought it was definitely worth considering. His Immortal Dragon Chi and his Dragon Path were both things he had not been devoting enough time to practice even though their potential was in fact just as high as magic itself.


    "Next, you can claim minor energy manipulation with a specialization in setting energy into objects. In other words an enchanter type power. This would be the most difficult as you would have to hide all your other abilities, but it would also allow you to continue your research and practice into relic creation."


    Harry did want to continue his crafting and although he could continue solo, what he really wanted was a genius or two to bounce ideas off. There were likely a lot of things he was over looking just because he was looking at too large a picture and a new perspective could do wonders.


    "And finally, you can claim your inventory and the abilities that come with it as your mutation. This would allow you to continue accumulating knowledge and give you the most versatility overall."


    Harry said, "Isn''t my inventory the most dangerous ability to show off?" Other things were basically power ups but an infinite, timeless inventory he could perfectly analyse anything contained within was a game changer at another level. If someone had some super secret data on a password encrypted hard-drive, Harry could place it in his inventory and directly read the very code off the drive, encrypted or not. If the encryption wasn''t strong enough, he could learn the contents through guesswork. That however was not the scary part. Most computers had means to determine if someone has tried to access them. Those means wouldn''t work against Harry''s inventory. And that was just the advanced application. Undetectable smuggling of any size, the ability to steal anything from anywhere and get away with it, preservation and transportation of unstable limited shelf life products, and a hundred other things.


    The Ancient One said, "Only if its full abilities were displayed. For example you can tell others you can only store things for a limited time or that you can only store up to a limited weight. You could claim to only be capable of storing pure and simple items or claim that the more complex something is, the less time it can be stored."


    Harry realized the Ancient One had likely spent a long time thinking this over. He said, "Give me some time to think about it."


    Harry headed over to a station of set up computers for Kamar-Taj and searched for info on Xavier''s Institute. The search itself brought up far more on the man himself than his institute and his past work. First and foremost he was a Doctor. And unlike a certain honorary Doctor, Xavier had in fact written and published four dissertations that were reviewed and accepted by his peers with one of them being, ''Human Genetics and Mutation.'' Harry had to hold back a laugh at that because this man was almost as subtle as Harry himself who just wrote a website on Magic 101 and signed his name at the bottom. Thankfully there were more Harry Potters in the world than there were Charles Xaviers so he could hide in plain sight as long he didn''t openly admit to anything.


    After doing his initial search, he started a deeper one. Although Harry hadn''t figured out technopathy yet, he was still a hacker using an advanced computer he built using magic so there wasn''t much he couldn''t get if needed. The problem wasn''t accessing it, the problem was making sure the places he accessed it from didn''t track it back to him. That problem however was solved with a box that worked off quantum entanglement he called the remote hack box. He replicated the effect of quantum entanglement using magic and any information in one box would show in the other regardless of distance and in real time. This meant he could place the box in a New York Library and plug it into the phone line. When he was done hacking, a portkey within the box would trigger to teleport it to a set location where he could retrieve it later.


    Harry still wasn''t able to get much without drawing too much attention that someone was even looking, but he was able to get some info about the X-Men. From what Harry could tell, they were similar to Aurors for the Wizarding World. They were led by Xavier and dispatched during conflicts to mediate or deal with issues caused by mutants as quietly as possible in order to prevent the public opinion on mutants from taking a nosedive and to help others in general.


    According to some records in Kamar-Taj, mutants have been around for thousands of years if not longer. What was interesting was that there were periods where mutant births peaked and periods where almost no mutants were born at all. However those times when mutants peaked always seemed to be followed by danger for the world itself. There was one record he found that showed a large period of mutant birth during the time of ancient Egypt and the records also showed some alien bug like swarm attempted an invasion during that period which was defeated by the power of the mutants during those times. Had those mutants not been born, Harry couldn''t see any reasonable way for the people of the time to hold back an alien invasion, much less actually defeat it.


    Harry wondered if he should make another website but decided against it for now. Unlike magic, mutants were an issue with a high level of exposure and he wasn''t ready to show his name off to the world just yet. The magic website was to provide a base layer that could be built on by the world over time. People fear what they don''t understand but if they think they know about it or at least know they have access to information about it they are less likely to do stupid things regarding it. Since Harry knew about technology, he knew that the Wizarding world would not stay hidden forever. The website was the first step in a long term ?ssimilation plan. One day in the future the concept of magic will become commonplace and at that time, when the world discovers the hidden Wizarding world, Harry doubted it would even make front page news.


    When he went back to the files on the X-Men, what stood out most was the so-called code names. Storm, Wolverine, Beast, Colossus, Angel. Everyone had a code name, even Xavier was called Professor X. None of the files had descriptions and even though Charles'' file was the largest, they weren''t even sure he was a confirmed mutant.


    While considering the code names, Harry thought back to the options the Ancient One gave him. If he went the first path, he''d likely be called Dragon or something. The second path would probably make people call him Enchanter which of course shot the idea down completely. As for the last option, what would they call him? Backpack? Storage? Inventory? Not exactly the best power to be named after.


    Of course Harry had more than just those options. The Ancient One was brilliant but her imagination was not as colorful as Harry''s. The main problem with his inventory wasn''t the ability to place things in but the ability to take them out. If lying was an option, he could just tell people he can''t take out or place certain things into his inventory. Maybe something like he could only place things that were natural or something. In that sense, he could combine the Ancient One''s ideas if he claimed adding certain things to his inventory granted him certain capabilities.


    Maybe something like this: Harry Potter, mutant power, Assimilation. Can absorb and temporarily gain the attributes of things he has absorbed to increase his strength and durability, and maybe other things. He could claim different abilities depending on the different things he ''absorbed.'' In that case, for all the things he could do, he''d probably be called Swiss Army Man.


    With this description, he could even claim if he absorbed certain things, he could heal which would explain his healing if injured.


    And as long as people thought his powers were limited by what he ''absorbed,'' and could only be used if he ''absorbed'' something, he could catch them off guard if they tried to take advantage of his ''weakness.''


    Harry returned to the Ancient One and told her his idea. She approved of the premise and added in her own thoughts. They decided that Harry''s limit was that he could only absorb food, books, and pure metals. Absorbed food would grant Harry the ability to heal and absorbed pure metals would increase his strength, durability, and speed. Books he absorbed would have their knowledge accessible for a few days and forgotten if not gone over repeated. They decided for now at least, to completely hold back on revealing his magic, psonics, or anything else.


    Harry spent the next few months preparing for the next part of his life. He sent a letter to Hermione that he was going to finish high school in New York and she sent back that he should get a cell phone and give her his number. She already had one and used what she learned from Harry to make it work around magic so she could keep in contact with her family while in school. Harry didn''t have a cell phone because, one, he didn''t need it as no one he kept in contact with until now had one. Two, he could teleport so if he wanted to speak with someone he could just do it face to face. And three, Apparition would still fry a cellphone since the magic resistance only renders it safe from ambient magic. Hermione didn''t know that as she wouldn''t be learning Apparition for a few more years.


    He thought of just getting one when he arrived but that meant calling or receiving calls from Hermione would be an international charge, so figured he''d just place a remote hack box at his London house, plug a phone line into it, and plug a phone wherever he was at into a paired one and use that. If he set up a phone number there, she''d be able to call it and it would redirect it to where he set up the other one. Was using high end physics and advanced quantum magic to get around long distance charges excessive? Naw.


    Harry also informed the Goblins he was moving overseas and asked them to expand their joint business interests in the New York area. The main Gringotts branch in the United States was in Boston but there was a sub branch in New York they could use a few means to take over and spread out from. Most businesses were basically using money to make more money and the fact that Harry had metric tons of gold for capital and was willing to invest slowly meant his coffers were usually increasing rather than decreasing.


    The Goblins asked if his move to New York would be permanent and Harry decided it might as well be. He would likely be making more friends in New York than he had in Britain and since there was a New York Sanctum Sanctorum Harry could use if needed, it was about as good a place to settle down as he was going to find. Besides, Snowy Owls were not uncommon that far north so he could fly around almost whenever he wanted.


    They used their contacts to arrange for his muggle identity to get U.S. citizenship and set all the papers and files in motion. Harry had visited Gringotts two or three times a year for the last three years to update their computers and make sure they knew how to use the latest systems. Thanks to that, the Goblins of Gringotts were already some of the wealthiest Goblins in the world and they made no effort to hide that fact from other Goblins.


    It wouldn''t be much longer until P&G, Bank and Trust made its move to enter the larger world of business, but for now, they were still waiting. A foundation was not something that could be rushed. Rather than devote all their funds to a single field, they had been testing the waters and getting familiar with the various markets and how well they could be done using Goblin and Wizard magic.


    The only pain in the bu?? was that since he was using his actual identity to run the company, he had to do the taxes in his name so people could indirectly find him if they put a lot of effort into it, though the best he''d let them do was find an untraceable phone number and P.O. Box for his mail. And since he was doing it the legal way, Britain would be heavily taxing the funds he transferred across the Atlantic and the US would then tax him every year for all the funds he possessed. However these were required if he wanted to set himself up legitimately in the future so he gritted his teeth and crossed his Ts and dotted his Is while signing all the paperwork the Goblins sent him with a Portkey Box he set up.


    On the magic side of things during the final months, Harry decided to fully merge his other forms of magic directly into his Exotic energy. Doing so would make them harder to use, but would render them invisible. Although those who could sense energy were very few and far between, he still didn''t want to head into the larger world with a giant, traceable energy signature. In addition to that, Harry didn''t bother sleeping outside of the need to recharge for several months and was able to use his training during that time to add the energies of Ickthalon''s and Balthakk''s realm to his Heart Palace and fuse them with Exotic energy as well. Ickthalon''s realm contained endless ice and cold energy and Balthakk''s contained heat and light energy. The only energies he lacked compared to the spell repertoire of a standard master was Morpheus'' dream energy, Faltine''s mystic flames, and Farallah''s hunter energy. Of course the other masters had to call out the names of the Lords of those realms to use all those types of energy for magic. Harry didn''t.


    The Mystic Flames of the Faltine was actually one of the strongest spells a Sorcerer could cast but it was nearly impossible to use the energy without invoking the name of the Faltines. That was because they were god-like existences of pure energy who were synchronized to the energy their realm contained and didn''t like thieves. Harry didn''t want to use any invocation magic and since his Phoenix Flames were just above the Faltine''s flames, he decided to skip them. He also realized at some point he''d likely never be able to get any Dream energy from Morpheus'' realm since he didn''t like people visiting unless they were asleep and Harry didn''t dream so he couldn''t use Battle meditation on his energy to gather enough to set and tune through his Heart Palace. Farallah''s energy was unique in that it was used to cast hunting, tracking, and trapping spells, but the energy level was very high, in the level 240+ range and Harry wasn''t going to try and use it for Battle Mediation anytime soon.


    And lastly, Harry had also been advancing his Wizard Magic. It seemed parts of his subconscious that had gone over the Darkhold and the nature of Chaos energy had decided he should put more of himself into his magic. One of the main differences between the Chaos energy Harry sensed from Chthon and his own was uniformity. Chaos energy was, unsurprisingly, Chaotic and nonuniform. Wizard energy however had properties that matched the Wizard who cast it so the more of himself he put into his magic, the more controllable it would become.


    One reason Harry could never cast the unforgivables was because it required something he just didn''t have. In order to cast the Killing Curse, one had to truly hate something and want it dead. Harry couldn''t even hate Voldemort or the monsters he''d learned about in the world of business enough to want them dead. In order to cast the Imperius Curse or the Cruciatus Curse one had to truly want someone to suffer or truly want to control someone. Harry certainly enjoyed pranking, but his pranks were more geared towards allowing others who deserved it to make themselves suffer. And Harry didn''t mind directing people as a teacher, but that was only after giving options. Directly controlling or only allowing someone to travel a path he decided for them was something he could never do.


    Harry likely couldn''t build enough emotion to cast those if he tried. The negative emotion suppression of his ability would hamper it. And even when that suppression wasn''t there like when he faced Chthon, he still didn''t think he could feel them. Anger was easy. Anger is natural. Hatred however was not something he could do. Harry didn''t even hate Chthon or Voldemort. Harry didn''t agree with them but they had their reasons for what they did, even if the reasons of the latter were stupid and the reasons of the former selfish.


    Rather than make his magic more chaotic, he was making it more controllable using hints his subconscious figured out from reading the Darkhold. He was hoping this would eventually allow him to lesson the destructive nature of his Exotic energy against things like electronics and computers.


    Before leaving, Harry said goodbye to the masters who trained him and told them he was going to complete his schooling in New York and they could call if they needed anything. None of them knew Harry''s strength matched their own when they were using Invocation magic so they didn''t feel anything was wrong with a child finishing his education. They did little more than wish him well as most were men of few words save Wong who told him to continue his studies and Mordo who told him to return when he was eighteen so they could make sure he hadn''t gotten rusty.


    The Ancient One was given a cell phone with Harry''s number so there wasn''t a need to say goodbye and after packing up and returning his monk''s robes he headed for the London Sanctum. He had already arranged with the Ancient One for a new Wizard Section of the Library to be added in two months so they would not connect it to him and they would be provided the means and coins needed to enter and use the resources of the Wizard world as they wished. He also hoped one of the younger acolytes he showed the website too would take up the duties of monitoring the forum so they could use it to find evidence of threats to the realm sooner than before.


    Next he visited Mr. and Ms. Black and their daughter, his goddaughter, Virgo Amelia Black. Being named after a constellation and a goddess of justice was appropriate considering her parents and also taking her parents and godfather into consideration there was a distinct possibility she may in fact die a v?r??n, the other meaning of her name. The Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and the former head of the DMLE staring down any would be boyfriends would see to that.


    Harry had long since met Remus Lupin but as he was already an independent, pseudo ?du?t, there wasn''t much room for him in his life so they were simply acquaintances. When thinking about Remus, a piece of knowledge from the Darkhold appeared in his mind. His parents had of course told him about their friend''s furry little problem and it turns out the Darkhold was responsible for the creation of both werewolves and vampires. However the means to permanently cure them that was contained within the Darkhold was a trap. It seemed Harry''s subconscious had cross-referenced the details of the purification ritual from the Darkhold with cleansing rituals from the Book of Vishanti and found that the former rituals were completely lacking in safety and warning messages. There were too many ways it could go wrong and Harry doubted there was a way to perfectly use the ritual. Perhaps it would be useful for reference when finding an actual cure, but the Darkhold was not going to directly help solve a problem it caused. That was like studying a match to figure out how to stop a raging forest fire. A majority of the nice things inside the Darkhold were either traps or temptations to draw the reader deeper into the Darkhold to corrupt them to doing something terrible later.


    Harry visited a few locations in London with an ID card to personally turn in some papers and sign some forms for his immigration to the U.S. He''d buy a ticket to the U.S. when finished so there was a physical trail people could follow if they decided to look that proved Harry Potter went to New York by airplane. Harry now knew a thing or two about tracking people so he wanted to make sure those looking at him didn''t see anything that far out of the ordinary.


    The following day, Harry took a plane to New York. The plane wouldn''t be comfortable for Goose so he''d use magic to get his Flerken later after suffering the ten hour flight by himself. Harry wondered how much trouble he could get himself in living in New York.. For some reason this thought brought a smile to his face.

 Chapter 29 - 29 Meet the Mutants.

    New York was a place Harry liked to visit through the Sanctum Sanctorum branch here so Harry knew a thing or two about the area before leaving the airport. Kamar-Taj also had some masters who left the Sanctum living there who occasionally shared their homes with guests. Harry asked first and got permission from one of them to use his address as a temporary place of residence. On paper anyways. The Immigrations Office wouldn''t just let someone come over without evidence they had a place to stay. There were other things Harry could have done of course but that would have brought attention to his vast wealth so he now had a place of residence he would only visit to give a thank you gift later.


    Now Harry just had to figure out how to apply for a place that only sends invites. According to the Ancient One, Charles Xavier was a telepath and had a machine which amplified the range of his Clairvoyance. Clairvoyance itself was a Psionic skill that fell under both Telepathy and Astral Creation but it was also something that didn''t work on Harry along with Precognition. Harry was rendered invisible to any paranatural means that allowed Farsight or Future Viewing.


    This of course meant Xavier had no idea he existed even though Harry was in fact a very powerful mutant. The Ancient One stated that Xavier''s machine allowed him to use the Astral Plane to visit nearly any location on earth, though he would only be able to sense the minds at those locations, not the content of the location unless he borrowed the senses of those he visited. She never approached him but did observe his passing a few times through the Astral Plane though he did not notice her. That is how she learned of him in the first place.


    There were three approaches he could think of for first contact. One, he could catch a cab to the school and knock on the front door. Two, he could call ahead and ask for an appointment or meeting. Three, he could make a scene and have them come to him. Maybe he could do all three? Walk up to the Institute, yell profanities, and when they came out he could overcharge his flesh with energy and violently explode in front of everyone. Naw, pranks like that couldn''t be pulled on the first day. First week on the other hand...


    Harry had already decided to tell others his mutant power allowed him to temporarily increase his stats when he ''absorbed'' metals, heal when he ''absorbed'' food, and allowed him to memorize the contents of books for a few days when he ''absorbed'' a book. Although it would limit him, it was the safest option for the long term and he decided that under no circumstance should he show off his magic.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Get Drafted with Style


    -Go to the marked location and display abilities. Will become visible to nearby clairvoyant: Charles Xavier.


    -Get recruited into the X-Men.]


    Harry sighed and thought to himself, ''so much for that plan.''


    After getting the quest pop up, Harry went over to a nearby Hotel Lobby and asked permission to use the phone to make a local call which they allowed. He went over the phone and removed the Hack box from his backpack and plugged the lobby phone''s cord into it and made a call.


    [Hello Harry, I wasn''t expecting a call so soon.] The Ancient One seemed more than a little amused.


    "Yeah yeah laugh it up. I got a quest to show off my magic and psionics and wanted your opinion."


    [I see. We''ve discussed this before, but in all likelihood, your Quests are generated by the power of the Living Tribunal. There has yet to be a quest with negative consequences for completing it.]


    "Yeah, only negative consequences for failing it. You think there might be a reason I need to show off my skills in the future?"


    [From previous experience, that does seem more likely than less likely. However, did the quest say to show off your magic and psionics, or your full range of abilities?]


    "It said, ''Display use of magic and psionics to X-Men who arrive to meet you.'' So the former."


    "Please impart your wisdom to this lesser being oh great Ancient One."


    [For that alone I should hang up on you and allow you the chance to grow by solving your own problems.]


    "That is cruel and unusual and you know it as well as I."


    [Indeed. Very well. Several of the companies you own that make jewelry use synthetic gemstones correct?]


    "Yeah. Turns out the magic properties of some gems are even better when synthetic because they can be made 100% pure. Use them with the right symbols and talismans in jewelry and they can work as weak protection amulets even without a magic user charging them."


    [Excellent, here is the plan.]


    Harry had to cast a few discreet low power wizard spells during the call to prevent people from telling him to get lost after the call reached a half hour in length. Nothing nearby seemed affected though the phone may need to be replaced later. Thankfully it didn''t seem like anyone really needed it as the lobby had a second phone line across the hall.


    The Ancient One''s plan was basically to get some large gemstones and have Harry claim the ability to use certain energies when certain gemstones were ''absorbed.'' Like the ability to use Strength energy spells after absorbing a ruby, use Dimensional energy spells after absorbing a diamond, ect. He would also display his ability to sense energy. This however meant he would have to walk around with giant rubies and diamonds which was kinda tacky. He''d had to make them big too so people didn''t think it could use magic with tiny ones, about the size of an egg would do. First he would need to reorganize a few things to make sure he had a visible means of acquiring such gems which meant he had to contact the Goblins. However one considered a few things, he decided this might be an opportunity.


    At the moment, there wasn''t any big company that made large amounts of synthetic gems of large size because there wasn''t a need or market for one. However gemstones had far more uses than just jewelry. There were hundreds of uses for various gemstones in engineering and they only used synthetic stones. Harry however knew thousands of applications for gemstones. He had analyzed the Mandarin''s alien tech and the Doctor''s future tech. He knew that there was more to electronics and technology than copper, iron, and silicon. Almost all technology relied on properties of electromagnetic energy whether it be electricity, radio waves, or even colored light. However Harry knew about other forms of energy and knew the means to harness them. He knew properties of gemstones and certain materials that no one else on earth knew about.


    After getting out a stack of papers and his portkey box from his inventory, Harry wrote down his intentions and plans for the future. Once the company had visible mundane means to create large amounts of synthetic gemstones, Harry would introduce the Goblins to the concept of the sonic screwdriver. Harry certainly couldn''t build one at the moment, but he could create a massive machine that could do a few things a sonic screwdriver could do, like alter the properties of some materials without magic. Harry knew that some technologies required materials with properties that simply didn''t exist yet. However if he used an imitation sonic screwdriver, even if it could only affect gemstones, Harry could alter the properties of some gemstones to get materials which had the properties needed to create highly advanced technology.


    And that was just the long term benefit. By saturating the market with synthetic gemstones, those who measure their wealth in gemstones will find themselves poorer while those who don''t measure their wealth in gemstones will be richer by comparison. Thus was business.


    *Ping*


    [Business Path has risen to rank 17]


    Harry smiled at the pop up. That was a good sign.


    In order to prepare his dastardly plan for the X-Men, Harry used magic to create three chicken egg sized gemstones of four different types and put each in a pouch Harry strapped to his belt. He used a Notice-Me-Not spell on the pouches so a pickpocket with a knife wouldn''t pay enough attention to them to swipe for now. He wouldn''t use it later though since that was a great weakness to have. The point of this charade was to demonstrate his magic and other abilities in a way that would allow people to believe Harry could be beaten in the right circumstances. In this case, deprive Harry of his gemstones. People were less likely to try to kill a person if they thought they could beat or control that person but someone could only be beaten or controlled if they had a weakness to exploit.


    Harry wondered when the men in black suits would visit him and deprive him of his ''source of power'' and threaten him. He figured he should start writing a list of pranks now to use on the unfortunate souls who tried it first.


    Once finished, Harry caught a cab to North Salem which was where Xavier''s Institute was located. However the map pointer was pointing to another area of North Salem, not the institute.


    When the cabby realized the area they were heading, he declined going further and asked if he could drive around. It seemed that strange things went on in that neighborhood. Harry said it was alright and got out and paid the man with a nice tip.


    The street he walked through was somewhat checkered. Several locations on the street seemed to be freshly made while other locations were old. Several of the various houses or store fronts had windows with cracks while others windows looked brand new. There were few if any buildings that didn''t seem half old and half new. In other words, this street saw a lot of damage at one time or another. What stood out the most though was the lack of people walking around.


    It didn''t take long for Harry to reach the map marker so he just started wandering around.


    "Hey, haven''t seen your face around here before."


    A young man looking about a year older than Harry shouted from an alleyway while approaching Harry. He looked tall for his age with a shoulder length unkempt mess of brown hair.


    Harry said, "Well I''m new in the area. Just arrived actually. The name''s Harry."


    "British? Never met a brit before," he remarked. Harry could have dropped his accent but decided not to. It was a part of him and anyone who didn''t like him for it could bugger off.


    The teen said, "Well, I''m Lance. And this is John," he said motioning to another teen with blonde hair that stood straight up. The newcomer approached Harry opposite Lance''s approach and were effectively surrounding him. Harry appeared oblivious to them.


    "Nice to meet you Lance and John. Know anything fun to do around here?"


    The blond chuckled, "Yeah, there''s an arcade a few blocks down. Ah, that''s right, I used up all my quarters doing laundry for the homeless. You got any cash on you?"


    Harry said, "Perhaps, perhaps not. If I told you I only had British Pounds in my wallet would you believe me?"


    Lance grinned and said, "You don''t seem to understand the situation here you scrawny little Brit. We''re members of the Brotherhood and we own this town. Unless you give us everything you got on you, you ain''t returning to jolly ol'' England."


    Harry cracked his knuckles. "And who said Americans didn''t know how to have fun. Come on them."


    The pair glanced at each other for a full second before they broke down laughing.


    John pulled out a lighter and said, "I think we should have a reenactment of the Great London Fire. What do you think?"


    Harry was getting tired of these guys so he threw himself forward and smashed his fist into Lance''s still laughing face. The force of the blow threw Lance''s whole body back which spun three times before crashing into the side a garbage can on the other end of the street.


    John nearly dropped his lighter in shock. Harry didn''t bother using the opening and said, "All talk after all. So much for the colonies."


    John was successfully enraged from the insult and flicked the lighter to cause a spark. Harry felt a rush of Psionic energy fill the flame which mixed into the air and grew large and larger. Harry sighed and thought to himself, ''Of course he''s a pyrokinetic.''


    Harry ducked under the oncoming flame rushing at him and made it to the street. The blond shouted, "You''re gonna burn for that!" He agitated the flames to make them larger and larger and Harry just stood there.


    Harry reached into two of his pouches, one had Smoky Quartz and one had Zircon. He said, "You got a nice trick there. Let me show you a few of my own."


    Harry cast a Lumos spell within the egg sized orb of Smoky Quartz which shined brightly in his hand and then he took it back into his inventory, making it vanish. He said, "Hit me with your best shot."


    John didn''t need anymore encouragement and threw a large ball of flames at Harry just as Harry cast a Flame Freezing Charm using a massive amount of power. Several of the lamp posts exploded as Harry wasn''t suppressing his Exotic Energy and was actively casting very powerful wizard magic. However the building behind him seemed to be abandoned so there wasn''t anyone inside or any electronics close enough to get fried besides those lamp posts.


    The fire heavily impacted Harry like a massive ocean wave crashing down on him but he withstood it using a proper stance and when the fire scattered, nothing had burned. One downside of Psionics based Pyrokinesis was that the fire they controlled was just fire. Unlike magic fire used by magic based Pyrokinetics, psionic based fire control had no means to prevent itself from being extinguished by normal fire extinguishing means and it had no resistance to magic. So each had their ups and downs.


    John looked at Harry in absolute shock. He was also surprised that not only had his fireball not burned anything, it had actually gone out. The reason it went out was that the Flame Freezing charm prevented it from burning anything, even air, so it went out without anything else to burn. That trick doesn''t work when it is burning wood, but air is different.


    Harry then lifted his other hand which contained the lump sized Zircon and cast another Lumos Charm inside it. "Are you ready for my next trick?"


    The shining Zircon vanished into Harry''s inventory and golden chains erupted from the ground and bound themselves around the pyrokinetic and dragged him to the ground.


    The shaggy brunette from before was still out cold which wasn''t surprising for one of Harry''s punches. Harry took a look at them both and had a nasty idea. He reached into his pocket where he actually drew from his inventory a sharpie. He then walked over to John who was shouting profanities at him and said, "You know if you want to act like the villain, you really should look the part." Harry then bent down and drew a villain mustache on the bound teen which caused another string of profanities, half of which Harry didn''t even recognize, to run out of his mouth. Harry thought it was odd the man had a vaguely Australian accent when swearing.


    Harry walked over to Lance and drew a matching mustache on him as well and said to the one who was still conscious, "You need to cool down a little or you''ll burn yourself out. Have a nice day."


    The quest display showed a check mark on the first item show Xavier probably saw him and would be sending his X-Men to scout Harry in a bit. The map marker showed another area Harry ran off to as he wanted to set up a few things for this confrontation.


    The location the map marker led him to was at was at the edge of an empty, trash filled park and an abandoned construction site where some materials had been left around. Something about it seemed stereotypical but it was as good a place as any for a meeting.


    A few minutes after he started waiting, Harry felt a tug and warming sensation from a certain direction. It was the Phoenix Flames gifted to him, trying to lead him some where. Though that seemed pointless as where it seemed to want him was moving closer. Harry was more than a little surprised that the one the Phoenix told him about was not only here, but on her way. He wondered if that was why the quest not only wanted him to show his magic but psionics.


    The four types of gems Harry had in his prepared pouches were Smoky Quartz, Zircon, Quartz, and Emerald. According to his cover, those types of gems could be absorbed to use Wizard Magic, Binding magic, Psionics, and Illusion magic respectively. Any other type like Dimensional energy and such would be overkill for most as the Eldritch magics powered by Dimensional Energy had been honed and sharpened in combat for tens of thousands of years.


    A black van with a red X within a red circle on the side drove up to the construction site and parked once they had a visual on Harry. A shorter than average man of indeterminable age and a gruff exterior exited the driver''s seat and stood next to the door without approaching. The Van''s side doors slid open and from one side came a teen with red sunglasses Harry sensed formidable power behind and from the other side a fair beauty with shoulder length red hair his gifted flame was excited to see. Their gazes locked and green eyes met green eyes. She turned away a moment later with a slightly self conscious blush. From the passenger side of the van emerged a young woman who, like the other, only stood next to the door.


    The sunglasses-wearing teen and the redhead walked over to where Harry was sitting on a large piece of metal and watching.


    "Hi there, I''m Scott, and this is Jean. Were you the one who got in a fight with some of the brotherhood earlier?"


    Harry smiled. Who doesn''t like a little comical misunderstanding? Harry had been living with monks for the last three years and hadn''t had a good target for a prank in far too long. He placed the metal he was sitting on in his inventory which made it vanish before everyone''s eyes as he got up and said, "Ah, I see, you must be a friend of there''s."


    "What? No-"


    Harry dashed forward to nail Scott in the stomach but the teen shifted his weight and turned to dispel most of the force of the blow. He seemed to instinctively move to take his sunglasses off which caused Harry to jump back before a surge of red energy erupted from his eye sockets that threatened to gouge out the sky.


    Jean shouted placatively, "No wait, we''re just here to talk!"


    Harry said, "Americans must have the most interesting conversations since those who talk can either make great big fireballs or shoot lasers from their eyes. Of course if that''s how American''s choose to converse, I''m happy to reciprocate."


    Harry took out a large emerald from his pouch and took a moment to look at it before saying, "It matches your lovely eyes Red," which had her turn away from him. Scott had closed his eyes and was taking what appeared to be a visor from his pocket and putting it on.


    Harry once more cast Lumos within the gem causing it to shine brightly before he placed it into his inventory while closing his fist for effect. Harry only had two illusion spells he could cast and the cover he was using would only allow him to use one spell per gem. Harry cast Independent Doppelganger which made four Harry Potters appear and start running around in accordance to Harry''s will.


    Two of the illusions rushed Jean while Harry and the other rushed Scott.


    Jean pressed her hands forward at the illusions coming at her and Scott''s visor released a thin red beam at the Doppelgangers which passed harmlessly through them. Had he started on the ones coming at him, he would have hit Harry first but instead he shot through the ones coming at Jean first with a sweeping motion. Harry accelerated before the beam reached him and delivered another gut blow, but this time he centered it not allowing Scott to throw off the force.


    Jean released a field of psionic force which locked onto Harry and lifted him into the air.


    Harry smiled at her and pulled out a large piece of Quartz from his pouch which started shining brightly in his hand before it vanished into his inventory. Harry then thought up what the Phoenix looked like in all its glory and concentrated on the image before locking in on Jean''s mind and sending her the image.


    Jean''s focus on telekinesis was completely disrupted by the intense and vivid image sent through telepathy and the breaking of her concentration caused her a headache which made her groan slightly.


    Harry safely dropped from the air and Scott noticed Jean get ''attacked'' and shouted, "Jean!" before turning to Harry and releasing a high volume blast of red energy. That passed harmlessly through him.


    The real Harry switched for an illusion the moment he hit the ground and Scott had been too distracted to notice it.


    Harry had moved behind Jean who was still rubbing her head. A part of her wanted to get the image out of her head so she could focus on the fight but another part wouldn''t let her ignore it.


    Scott couldn''t recklessly fire his optics blast when Harry was behind Jean so he would only watch Harry pull out another gem, Zircon this time. He noticed it was different than the previous two gems he pulled out but recognized the pattern and tried to shoot a pinpoint optics blast to shatter it. Harry ducked partially behind Jean and the Zircon glowed with the cast Lumos spell before vanishing once more.


    Golden chains shot from the ground and just like with John, Scott was completely bound by them before he could react.


    Harry casually walked over to the van and said, "That was fun. Do you want to talk?"


    The gruff man said, "Naw, I''m not much of a talker. Fighting though... How about a little one on one?"


    Harry smiled and took out another emerald from his pouch and it glowed once more. The gruff man said, "That''s ain''t gonna work on me brat," and rushed at Harry, the real one.


    Harry figured he somehow could tell the difference so he dispelled them and moved to fight. He struck his side but those ribs reminded him of Chiantang''s and when Harry blocked the man''s counter it made his own bones ache.


    Harry had long since figured that although stats were not always clear cut, they were usually straightforward.


    An average ?du?t human had ten of each stat. However an average ?du?t man struggles with the newspaper''s crossword and doesn''t bother memorizing anything not related to his job or life. An average ?du?t human can also deadlift about a hundred pounds. If that was broken down, then each point in STR was ten additional pounds that could be deadlifted. Harry once heard that the world record for the deadlift was over 1000 pounds meaning a normal human could in fact reach a STR stat of 100.


    From the force of his blows, Harry figured this guy had a STR of at least 200. His own was higher at 275, but neither of them were going all out, that was just Harry''s estimate for his max. Moreover this guy''s bones had zero give and unless he was mistaken, the short man was at least four times heavier than Harry was.


    The amount they held back lessened and lessened as blows were exchanged or dodged at faster speeds with heavier strikes. Harry wasn''t nearly as sturdy but he didn''t bruise and injuries recovered quickly which his opponent took notice of. Harry was shocked to find that this guy''s combat standard was close to if not in the same realm as the Mandarin and even if Harry''s strength and speed were a fraction higher, Harry was only keeping up because of how easy the man was going on him.


    Harry rushed back while taking out his last Zircon and making it glow.


    His opponent took a stance and though he was bound in golden chains a moment later, he was not taken to the ground. He smirked at Harry and with the sound of metal against metal, three shining claw-like blades erupted from between the man''s knuckles. He swung up his arm and the nearly indestructible chain was cleanly sliced through.


    Harry frowned. "Metal claws? I should have brought a diamond or a ruby. Well, live and learn."


    Before the fight could continue Harry felt Scott''s energy build up so Harry jumped away to dodge the sneak attack. Since Harry was using each gem stone to cast a single spell, he wasn''t maintaining them so the chains binding Scott had faded giving the teen what he thought was an opening to strike.


    Harry''s opponent snarled, "Scott! What do you think you''re doing?! I said this is a one on one fight!."


    "But Logan, he hurt-"


    The red head said, "I''m fine Scott, he didn''t hurt me at all." She had recovered and was watching Harry''s fight. Harry felt her mental probes and allowed her to scan his surface thoughts. She already determined Harry was just sparring. It seems Scott was the only one who thought the fight was serious.


    Harry turned to the visor wearing mutant and flatly said, "You came here to talk. Words are cheap so I wanted to have a different type of conversation and you''ve said more than enough. Someone willing to shoot another man in the back isn''t the type of person I want to have further conversations with."


    He turned to Jean and said, "It was a p???sur? to meet you." And he turned to the warrior and said, "It has been an honor to fight someone at your level. I''d like to continue but I''m just about out of gems." Harry flattened the pouch he took the last Zircon from to show it was in fact empty.


    Harry then took out a Smoky Quartz and before anyone could react it glowed and vanished. Harry said, "It is a shame but my trip to the states seems to have been a waste." He glared slightly at Scott for a moment before Apparating away, vanishing before them all.


    Or at least that''s what it looked like he did. Harry apparated to the highest point of the construction site and shifted into his Snowy Owl form. Just to be safe he also cast a few spells to completely suppress his presence. From his new vantage point he saw a large raven perched on the top of one of the nearby trees who seemed to have watched the whole thing and was paying close attention to the X-Men. Harry also saw someone further down the street, a teen with white hair.


    The man apparently called Logan growled out in a tone laced with sarcasm, "Way to go Cyclops. The future leader of the X-Men just showed a potential ally exactly the type of person he would be following if he joined up with us. Nice job displaying the virtues and values Charles took all that effort into shoving into your thick skull."


    "But, but Jean-"


    "QUIET!" he shouted. He then looked over to the red head and asked, "What did he actually do?"


    "He sent a really detailed image into my head of a giant flaming bird. A phoenix maybe? It looked so real. It broke my concentration which gave me a bit of a headache, but that''s it."


    Logan asked, "He''s a telepath?"


    "I don''t know. When he sent the image into my mind, he seemed to be a telepath. But while you were fighting, his mind didn''t have any trace of telepathy."


    Harry inwardly smirked. Telepaths have natural, passive defenses against mental intrusion. Harry simply withdrew them all and let her see his mind. However she saw only what his Occlumency allowed her to see.


    Logan said, "So a telepath but not a telepath. Everyone noticed him using those crystals right? And didn''t he make that metal piece he was sitting on vanish too?"


    Scott seemed to try and be helpful by adding, "Yeah, I''m not sure about the metal, but he definitely pulled one of those crystals each time he did something. When I tried to shoot one, he moved it out of the way."


    The woman who was still standing next to the van said, "So what? He absorbed those crystals for power?"


    Logan shook his head, "He wasn''t weak even without them Pixie. Kid was actually stronger and faster than me. He also has experience. Not practice, but actual life and death combat experience, and a lot of it. I think he might have had a healing factor too."


    Logan narrowed his eyes and looked at Scott, "He was testing us. Not much of a point joining with someone weaker than you."


    He turned and headed into the van, "Back to the Institute. Let''s see if Charles can track the kid down."


    Harry himself never planned on turning down their invitation, he was just playing hard to get. The fact that the quest hadn''t failed proved that.


    Once the van drove off, the white haired teen sped over to the area faster than a blur. A moment later the raven on the treetop flew down and transformed into a blue skinned woman with blood red hair.. Now Harry was interested.

 Chapter 30 - 30 The Brotherhood and the X-Men

    The white haired teen gave the area a look over before asking in a rapid voice, "Was that the guy Mystique? How strong was he?"


    The blue skinned woman answered smoothly, "For someone who looked no older than yourself, very. I did not believe Pyro and Avalanche at first but it seems they were not lying after all."


    "Heard that, couldn''t see much though without the X-Nobodies spotting me. What do you think?"


    "He seemed to use tools but fought Wolverine well enough without them. The fact that Xavier sent his children implies this new arrival is one of us. It seems the boyscout''s temper has certainly worked in our advantage this time. Look around Pietro. Very few teleportation abilities can take someone very far. If he is nearby I want him found. He must join the Brotherhood."


    "You got it boss." With that the man sped away faster than a blur. Harry watched the scene from above and noticed this white haired teen, Pietro, had a concentration of time energy on his body. Harry figured he could increase time''s frame of reference for himself while in motion and move several fold faster than others while watching the world in slow motion. Harry had no simple way of countering such a person. Some of the Anti-Magic spells he could once use may have had a dampening effect against the teen''s access to Time Energy but Harry hadn''t had any luck in making another Anti-Magic spell and he couldn''t make more binding equipment that used Anti-Magic until he could cast such spells.


    Before Harry could consider further ramifications, the blue skinned woman, Mystique, shifted back into the form of a raven and took flight. Harry considered following her or getting close and placing a tracking charm on her but if it turned out she was just flying around looking for him, he''d feel pretty silly following her around.


    Once she left the area Harry apparated into the sky above a more populated section of North Salem and flew down into an empty alleyway before shifting back to human form and removing the concealing spells he placed on himself. Harry walked around for a few minutes and eventually spotted the speedy mutant down the street. He allowed himself to be followed into a hotel and walked up to the counter.


    Harry sensed the bearer of time energy follow him inside and walk over to a coach. Harry visibly took the last Quartz crystal from the pouch at his side and kept it in his hand while talking to the woman at the front desk. She stated that Harry wasn''t old enough to order a room and Harry used Lumos on the crystal held below the desk out of her line of sight, but in Pietro''s. He placed it into his inventory and used a simple form of Telepathy to make the woman think that an ?du?t was standing next to Harry, showing the right ID and everything needed for a room. She accepted the cash payment and gave Harry a room card, even saying the room number out loud and thanking the man for his time, even though anyone looking would see she was talking to empty space. Thankfully the only one paying attention was the white haired teen on the couch.


    Harry thought to himself if these guys needed more hints than that they weren''t worth his time.


    Not long after arriving in his room, Harry took an empty pet carrier out of his inventory. It had a two way portkey that would send itself to Harry''s London Home and a few minutes later, return to the same spot. Harry used a charm while saying, "Goose, get in and sit tight and this will bring you to me." The charm would make the pet carrier repeat the message upon arrival and with that Harry activated the portkey.


    A few moments later the pet carrier returned and Goose casually walked out. Goose conveyed a question though their link, ''What are you getting yourself into this time?''


    Harry answered the sassy Flerken back, "I''m going to attend a boarding school filled with mutants. Please don''t eat any of them."


    Goose turned her head up at that and conveyed back, ''I don''t eat junk food except for special occasions.'' She jumped up on the bed and got comfortable before sending another question at him, ''What kind of mutants?''


    Harry wondered how many types of mutants Goose was aware of. Goose seemed to know lots about earth, about magics, and all kinds of things and it wasn''t like she had access to the internet. Or did she? Though Harry couldn''t imagine his familiar using a computer.


    He answered, "The human kind who have awakened their X-Gene," hoping they weren''t tastier than other kinds of mutants. He would never know however since Goose didn''t say anything after that.


    While waiting for the carrier to return, Harry had been setting up several traps and relics. He couldn''t make more until he had more spells to use, but the amount he made before that was still in the hundreds, even if they were all prototypes. Harry could also use Wizard Magic to create things to his heart''s content, but doing so would fry the tv inside the room. Harry decided to proceed anyways and compensate the hotel for the TV afterwards.


    One thing Harry did was place a overpowered diagnostic charm on the door frame turning it into a scanning type artifact. Since wooden door frames were not an ideal material for such artifacts it would burn out after a single use but would give Harry a detailed report of the next fellows who entered.


    *Knock Knock*


    Harry answered the door and unsurprisingly the white haired teen was standing there with a stern looking thirty something looking woman wearing no nonsense business attire and glasses.


    Harry asked, "Yes? Can I help you?"


    The woman spoke up, "Actually it is I who can help you. Do you mind if we come in? I would like a moment to speak with you."


    Harry shrugged and said with his clipped British accent, "Well I certainly have a moment. Come on in I suppose. Make yourself comfortable."


    Harry pulled out the chairs near the desk and dragged them near the bed and sat himself down.


    Pietro walked into the room first but turned every which way to make sure there was nothing there that could be dangerous. Harry internally laughed at this as the teen completely ignored the Flerken lying on the bed. The traps and relics scattered about all looked like trash so he didn''t pay attention to that either. A moment later the woman entered and closed the door behind her. She turned from the door to face Harry while the surface of her body rolled over in waves revealing her blue form while her business attire shifted into something simpler that looked like a white one piece dress.


    Harry raised an eyebrow at her and smiled back, "You did say to get comfortable."


    Harry looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging once more and not paying it any more mind.


    Neither sat down in the provided chairs, preferring to lean on them while they remained standing. The shapeshifter said, "My name is Mystique and this is Pietro, we are from the Brotherhood of Mutants."


    Harry answered back, "Acquaintances of the fellows from before? Well I''m Harry Potter. I don''t suppose you''re here to fight are you?"


    Mystique quickly shook her head in the negative and said, "No, I''m here to offer you a place in the Brotherhood. A chance to rise above the humans and take your rightful place in the world."


    Harry suddenly felt another presence within his mind, a telepath had come knocking and entered when he found the front door was open. Harry''s mind was available to anyone who wanted to come in but would only allow others to see what he wanted. This person seemed to be borrowing his senses and trying to discern his thoughts on the conversation, but it wasn''t from either of the mutants in the room.


    Harry said, "Even if that held any interest to me, what could your Brotherhood offer that would help me accomplish it?"


    He had no interest in such a thing but he was curious about the resources these mutants had to make such an offer.


    Mystique answered, "Strength, we will make you stronger."


    "Eh?" Harry thought, that''s it? He looked over at Pietro and asked, "And how exactly do you gain strength."


    The speedster quickly answered, "Combat training mostly. The more you fight the better you get at fighting."


    Harry had a lot to say about that but simply asked, "How many times in the last few months have you fought someone or something that was willing to kill you if you lost?"


    Harry waited five seconds but there was no reply as the teen seemed to still be thinking it over. Harry asked, "Then in the last few months, how many different people have you fought who are stronger than you?"


    This time he quickly answered, "Six."


    And lastly Harry asked, "And were at least half or more than half of these six members of the Brotherhood?"


    He looked like he wanted to answer but a glance from Mystique rendered him silent as it wasn''t an answer they were proud to announce.


    Harry gave a flat look to Mystique and asked in monotone, "So in conclusion, your Brotherhood doesn''t have anyone strong enough for you to improve yourself sparring against and you either challenge others merciful enough not to kill you when you lose or those weaker than you. And you''re saying I''ll get stronger if I join you. Did I miss anything?"


    Mystique looked rather angry at the logical conclusion and said, "Yes, do you want to die?"


    Harry gave a knowing smirk to her and confidently said, "If you think you have a chance feel free to try. But there will be no turning back once you do. I''ll have you know there isn''t a single soul in this world who has tried to kill me and lived to tell about it. I don''t give second chances to those who come at me with lethal force, regardless of the fact that it never takes."


    Harry gave Mystique the same stare he gives to the creatures that spawned during Battle Mediation. Harry was not a killer, he was a warrior. In combat against someone seeking his life, he would end his opponents. He wouldn''t make them suffer of course. He''d never make someone suffer before killing them. It was that efficiency that made him even more dangerous.


    Pietro, who wasn''t on the receiving end of Harry''s hard gaze said, "What the hell? You''re immortal?"


    Harry answered, "I didn''t say that. My power has a lot of applications and with some prior preparation, there is a lot I can do."


    Mystique realized that her own bluff wasn''t going to do anything and understood from his gaze he was not bluffing. Changing the subject she said, "The Brotherhood is not weak, but neither are the humans. We must stand together for when the time comes that they turn on us."


    Harry said, "You''re making a lot of ?ssumptions there. However, let''s skip over all of that for now. I ?ssume you must have seen me fight or heard about my little scuffle with your acquaintances. What did you learn about my power?"


    Pietro answered before she could speak up, "Let''s see, you''re strong, pretty fast, though not as fast as me, you can make fire not burn, make chains, make illusions, and teleport. But besides your strength, you need to use rocks for your other powers."


    Harry said, "Close enough. I call my power Upgrade. I can absorb pure metals or pure gemstones and get short term boosts, long term boosts, or momentary access to certain forms of energy. I can also absorb food and use energy from it to recover. If I absorb food in advance, I gain the ability to recover until it has been digested. I''m strong because not long ago I absorbed a lot of platinum and a few hours ago I absorbed a lot of steel. Absorbing gemstones at least the size of an egg give me a moment''s worth of access to the other abilities."


    Pietro shook his head and once he processed the information he shouted, "You''re a goddamn Premium Gamer!"


    Harry froze complete at the term and b?r?ly was able to ask, "What?"


    Mystique said with annoyance, "What are you talking about Pietro?"


    The speedster pointed at Harry and said, "In online games there are bastards who spend lots of real money to get stronger than anyone else! Not because they''re better, but because they''re richer! They''re always topping the leader boards and leave guys who play with just their skill in the dust! This guy''s power is just like that, he can spend money on stuff to unfairly make himself stronger without working for it!"


    Harry sat frozen for three full seconds before he burst out into hysterical laughter. He thought Pietro had somehow figured out his true power but it was that of all things. He could easily keep laughing for a few minutes but that would be rude to his guests so he took a few deep breaths to calm himself, though he still had a large smile plastered across his face.


    Harry said, "Premium. I like that. I hope you don''t mind if I use it in the future . Anyways, if I joined you guys, I''d wouldn''t be able to keep my own source of income and your Brotherhood would have to spend its funds upgrading me. If I go too long without absorbing anything, I''m no different from a very skilled human."


    Mystique frowned and said, "If it is just metals, we can easily grant you with an unlimited supply."


    Harry noticed Pietro''s eyes seemed to widen in some sort of realization. Harry figured he just thought of someone with a mutant ability that could guarantee such a promise.


    Harry said, "Well, tabling that for now, there is one last point. Are you confident in the future that there will be no one stronger than the Brotherhood?"


    Mystique said with firm resolution, "Yes. We are already gathering the strongest mutant-"


    "Stop," Harry interrupted her. He said, "Just mutants?"


    She was irked at the interruption and said, "Yes, we are the Brotherhood of Mutants after all."


    Harry shook his head and said, "Then you are wasting your time. If you''re only recruiting mutants then you are just looking for a strong mutant. That is because the only way your group could win is if you found a single unbeatable mutant. But even if you actually found such a mutant who shared the same goals, they''d never listen to you, you would have to follow them. I''m sure whoever you currently follow is very powerful, but unless he cannot be defeated by anyone, your goal is meaningless. Strength that is not absolute is not strength. Unless an undefeatable mutant is already a part of the Brotherhood, you can''t claim you have strength which means that in the end, you have nothing."


    Pietro said, "Now hold it right there! No one can beat Magneto!"


    Mystique shouted, "Silence Pietro!"


    Harry shrugged and said, "Let''s end this here. You don''t have any means for me to get stronger that I can''t use myself. You don''t have a source of the resources I need superior to my own. And since your leader isn''t already the leader of the world, then he obviously is not undefeatable which means your goals cannot be achieved without luck. I will not be joining the Brotherhood, so you can show yourselves out."


    Mystique had watched Harry''s fight with the X-Men nearly from start to finish and had heard from Pyro exactly how quick to fight Harry had been. She thought just giving him a chance to fight more would do it, the easiest recruitment ever had by anyone. Instead, he used calm and dispassionate logic to break down her offer piece by piece and show her how worthless it was. She couldn''t even counter it because she knew that her boss was not in fact undefeatable and she was in fact looking for unstoppable mutants.


    She gave him one last glare that seemed about as effective against him as a gentle breeze and said, "You''re making a great mistake. If you stand in our way, you won''t live to regret it."


    She had been used to threatening people for so long she had forgotten their earlier conversation so Harry''s response was unexpected for her.


    Harry smiled and innocently said, "Oh? Is that a promise? Something to look forward to then. I hope you won''t disappoint me."


    Pietro muttered to himself, "Bastard probably paid for extra lives," before saying aloud, "Let''s get out of here Mystique. Without ''Pay to Play,'' this guy''s just a loser and he''s even crazier than my sister."


    With that the pair left and Harry felt the presence eavesdropping on his awareness leave as well. He checked the door to see what the diagnostic charm revealed and was more than a little surprised.


    Pietro was pretty much what he expected. The teen''s nerves seemed to channel time energy which increased his relative perspective of timespace. From a standard point of view, he could think fast, react fast, and move fast. The time energy likely spread out to his muscles allowing him to move while the world would be slowly moving around him.


    Mystique was different. Her power existed in every single cell. They could divide and even merge at will. Every cell could practically shift into another cell. She could take the form of any human of any age and likely even take the form of most animals, though he suspected it would be harder for her to take the form of larger animals.


    What was interesting about her power was the similarities it bore to his own. Harry''s cells were all made up of the same energy and if injured, the excess energy of nearby cells could be used to make cells to replace damaged ones. Mystique''s cells were similar in that each cell could potentially turn into any other cells, though it was obvious she had limits. He doubted if her head was removed, she could turn her hand into a head and survive. The similarities however were enough to make him wonder though.


    Harry''s mutant power was basically the ability that kept his Magic Obscurus Particles together in the shape of Harry Potter. But, was that all his mutant power could do? Both the Phoenix Force and Chthon had told him he was capable of far more than just what he knew. The Sorceress Supreme of the future did in fact tell him that he had to start practicing his mutant powers. That meant there was in fact more to his powers than just keeping his form and repairing his form.


    *Knock Knock*


    His musings were interrupted by his next visitor. Visitors as it were. Moreover, one of the people behind the door felt like a powerful Sorcerer saturated not with Eldritch Dimensional Energy, but Natural Energy, as if Mother Nature herself was standing there.


    Harry answered the door once more and first noticed the one warrior he fought before called Logan standing to the side of a bald middle aged man in a wheelchair and a African goddess of a woman behind him. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties but Harry knew that level of saturation of Natural Energy would inhibit signs of age until she was in her late sixties so she was likely closer to fifty than she was twenty. Harry wasn''t interested in older women but he could appreciate beauty.


    Harry first turned to Logan and said, "We meet again. I''m sorry if you want a rematch but I''ll have to disappoint. I''m kinda low on strength at the moment unless you have a few pounds of steel laying around."


    He said, "Maybe later, I''m here because Charles wants a word."


    Harry said, "Ah, the peeper, so what can I do for you?"


    The bald man and the woman behind him were both startled at Harry''s address of Xavier.


    The wheelchair bound man asked, "I''m sorry, but what do you mean by that?"


    Harry said, "Well, you were the one peeping on my thoughts during my earlier conversation right? I''m a pretty open guy so I don''t mind, but since you didn''t ask permission to borrow my senses, you were peeping, thus, you are a peeper."


    Logan chuckled which caused the woman to slap his shoulder. This caused him to chuckle more.


    The bald man sighed and said, "I apologize for intruding on your mind. When I learned we were not the first to arrive and speak with you I was very concerned. Mystique''s unique physiology prevents me from reading her thoughts and young Maximoff''s thoughts run at a speed that is difficult to comprehend. I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me and I ask your forgiveness, it won''t happen again."


    Harry shrugged, "If you say so. You probably already know this but I''m Harry Potter, come on in. That''s Goose by the way," he motioned at the Flerken who had been amused by the previous guests and seemed to hope the next ones would be just as amusing.


    Harry wasn''t worried about telepaths. When Harry had the Darkhold and Book of Vishanti in his Inventory after getting his Psionic Path and had paused, he reformatted his mind completely and then sealed the memories and knowledge of how he did it. He had no idea how long he must have spent using Psionics and whatever he found in those books combined with Occlumency to do it, but his mind had several nearly flawless defenses. If a telepath entered the mental plane that was Harry''s mind, they would find a massive library. Thought''s Harry allowed to do so would echo through the halls allowing those within to hear the thoughts he allowed them to hear. All of Harry''s knowledge was organized into the book so someone looking for something specific would have trouble finding it as they would have to find the specific book. It wasn''t possible to just enter his mind and find his memories or knowledge. And the books numbered in the thousands.


    That however was nothing compared to the mental attacks Harry somehow prepared during that time. When needed, Harry could cause perfect replicas of the thousands of different monsters Harry had encountered through his Battle Meditation to fill his Library. He could send them to attack the minds of other Telepaths or have them destroy weaker intruders or harass stronger ones, preventing them from finding the book and page containing the knowledge they wanted from Harry. There was even an Automated Security function that would automatically dispatch the hordes of monsters within Harry''s mind if a book was taken from the shelf and not read in a designated reading area. That way if someone did sneak inside without him knowing or if he was incapacitated and unable to activate his defense, it would activate anyways.


    And last, the super secret knowledge such as the dangerous magic from the Master''s section of Kamar-Taj''s library and stuff he found in the magic tomes of Hogwarts, the Black Library, and Salazar''s private study were all hidden in folded space within Harry''s mind. Should the space be unfolded, the library would become a massive maze and the monsters would automatically fill the maze. As for the knowledge of the Darkhold and Book of Vishanti, even Harry had no idea where it was and he knew better than to try and look for it. The knowledge of what he did to his mind and how he did it was also locked up with those books as well.


    A moment after the trio entered, the telepath said, "I am Professor Charles Xavier. This is Logan and Ororo Munroe, also known as Wolverine and Storm."


    Harry recognized the name as the teacher of Illyana Rasputin and took another look at her.


    Harry said, "Storm huh. I''m guessing weather powers. You wouldn''t happen to be descended from a long line of Kenyan Priestesses with white hair going back thousands of years would you?"


    Shocked recognition flashed before her eyes before she asked, "How could you possibly know that?"


    The curtains moved in the room despite the window being closed as the Natural Energy passively radiating off the woman reacted to her emotion.


    Harry looked back at the curtains to make it clear he noticed this and said, "Many aspects of my abilities revolve around what can be considered magic. I''ve learned more about magic than anyone you''ll likely ever meet and have read a staggering number of books on the subject. One such book was written by a powerful Sorceress who was once a priestess of a tribe and well known for their white hair priestesses which had only a single line. You are likely her descendant. The book contained her own experiences with magic, especially weather magic, and everything she learned about it. I remember the book describing how easily passive emotions affected her power when casting but it also described a practice she used to separate her emotions from her magic."


    Charles and Ororo were both shocked at this and Logan asked, "Where is that book? If it can help Ororo, I''ll do whatever it takes to get it."


    Ororo looked sweetly back at Logan and Harry could tell there was something between the two. Harry answered, "The one who owns the book is very reasonable. As her descendant, the book should go to Ms. Munroe anyways so I should be able to get it. I can request it be shipped here and get it to you within a week."


    The book Harry referred to was indeed what he claimed and in fact had been written by someone who was likely this woman''s ancestor. She was also a former Sorcerer Supreme and her book was in the Master''s section of Kamar-Taj''s Library. It was one of the better ones on experiences dealing with Natural Energy and wind and weather magic. It also came with a caveat that it could be reclaimed by the tribe it originated from at any time. Though they had likely forgotten about it.


    Xavier was startled at the easy admission of the existence of magic. He said, "If it isn''t too much trouble, would you mind displaying some magic?"


    Harry took out his last Smoky Quartz from the pouch at his side and had it glow for a moment before sliding it into his inventory. He then turned an unused chair into a large pig. The group stared at the pig who stared back and oinked. A moment later it turned back into a chair since Harry didn''t use much magic on the spell.


    Xavier recovered from his shock the quickest and said, "Thank you Harry, that was most enlightening. If you do know the location of such a book that can help Ororo, it would mean a great deal to us for her to obtain it. Now, although you''ve heard it before, I''d like to make you an offer as well. I was hoping you could join my Institute. It is a boarding school for young mutants such as yourself."


    "Exactly how much about me do you know? You were in my head after all."


    "Yes, but other than surface thoughts, there wasn''t a single stray memory or idea out of place. I can easily admit your is the most organized mind I have ever seen. As the information wasn''t needed to view your conversation with Mystique, I didn''t access it so I know next to nothing about you that you yourself have told us or told Mystique."


    Harry knew that of course as his mind''s defenses hadn''t activated meaning Charles hadn''t taken a book off the shelf and tried to read it. He said, "Alright then, I''ll give you the basics. I was born in the U.K. and I turn fifteen on July 31st. My mutation awoke a week before my tenth birthday when an accident happened which killed my relatives and I wouldn''t be alive if it hadn''t awoken at the time. I spent the next several months and years traveling and learning much about my power. I am very smart and paid some people to make it look like I''ve been in school all this time though I can test out if needed whenever I want to. I moved to New York today and got my U.S. citizenship properly. I''m also rich, but that''s another story."


    Xavier said, "I''m sorry about your relatives. So you''ve been alone this whole time?"


    Harry blankly said, "Don''t be sorry about them." He got out a Quartz crystal from his pocket, though it was from his inventory. He used up the three he put in his pouch but they didn''t know that so it didn''t matter. He made it glow for a moment before setting back into his inventory. He then took the book from his mind that had his memories of growing up with the Dursleys and copied it before sending the highlights to Xavier. Unlike Jean, the experienced Telepath could have blocked the incoming transmission but he did not. A moment later he wished he did.


    Charles went over the details however as it was something a teacher like himself needed in order to help his student. What he stood out the most was their hatred of him for what he was, their obvious lies about his parents, and the fact that they only called him freak or boy.


    Charles said, "Harry, I believe your mother might have been a mutant."


    Harry pretended to be shocked while inwardly snickering. There was no good way to fake memories even for magic users so he could only show him real ones. He already guessed that the Professor would make that conclusion and it was logical considering the facts he knew and his prior experience. He said thoughtfully, "Maybe. Well, in answer to your other question, for the last three years I''ve had a teacher who was basically a mystic monk. I learned many things including how to fight properly and it was only a few months ago I was told there was nothing more I could learn without leaving on my own."


    "And you decided to move to New York? Well, I do hope I can help you achieve your goals. If you are not against such an idea, I''d like to invite you over to the Institute tomorrow and give you a tour. For many mutants, the Institute is their only home, but although that does not seem to be the case for you, I still think you can find yourself a home there with others such as yourself."


    Harry smiled and said, "Your pitch certainly sounds nicer than Mystique''s did. Alright, you have a deal. I''ll show up tomorrow and if I like what I see, I''ll stay."


    Goose meowed from the bed.


    Harry said, "Ah, is there anyone allergic to cats there? If Goose can''t come with me, that''s kind of a deal breaker."


    Logan chuckled, "No, we''ve got stranger things than cats at the mansion."


    Harry wondered about that. Something to look forward to. The trio said their goodbyes and left the hotel. Harry figured that was a pretty good display of magic along with psionics so all he had to do was accept the invite.. He wondered what he would get for a quest reward this time.

 Chapter 31 - 31 Welcome to the X-Men

    Harry didn''t bother sleeping that night since his location was known by non friendlies and getting caught napping would just be too embarrassing for him. Instead, he spent the night chilling with Goose on his ??p and going over the information he had on the X-Men and his own future plans.


    He had three main goals for this venture. First priority was to remove the blocks on the Phoenix''s Avatar, the one called Jean. He did promise the Phoenix Force he''d do it after all. He already spent a large amount of time inside his own mind testing how blocking and unblocking mental abilities with Psionics would work and he wasn''t going to do anything until he had a safe way to do remove them. It was obvious who was responsible for the blocks and he figured the man probably had reasons he thought were good, but Harry doubted Xavier would remove those blocks on Harry''s word, even if he gave the man his memory of the conversation with the Phoenix.


    The second goal was to get practical experience in a few of the branches he was working with. Harry was skilled in engineering and programming but had little experience in chemistry and biology. One of the listed Professors at the Institute was Doctor Hank McCoy and he was an expert geneticist Harry was eager to work with.


    Harry''s final goal was to see if he could figure out other means of using his mutant power. He was hoping for an ability like that of Mystique''s which was similar to a wizard talent called metamorphmagus. However Harry had a feeling simply looking like someone else was not the limit of his mutant power. Thankfully the Phoenix Force had given him a clue, she said that his mind wasn''t strong enough so Harry had been practicing advanced visualization techniques and mental landscaping. Harry had a very large imagination from all the things he''d seen and read and even from the games he played so he put a lot of time and effort into creating different mental landscapes with as much detail as possible as a mental exercise.


    Eventually morning came and Harry collected the various relics and traps scattered about his room. Even if Mystique and Pietro had attacked him last night, he could have used them to fight back without giving himself away but thankfully it wasn''t needed. That did mean that he broke the TV in the room without reason, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice for peace of mind. Harry set $300 in cash beneath the TV with a note saying he accidentally broke it and set the keycard for the room on the bed before apparating out.


    The grounds of Xavier''s Institute of Gifted Youngsters were completely enclosed by a ten foot steel fence leading up to an older style stone entryway with a brass plaque showing the school''s name. It looked quaint from the exterior but that was only if you didn''t pay attention to the overlapping field of vision of the security cameras and motion sensors hidden in plain sight around the premises. Harry even spotted several places that appeared to be hidden panels and he wouldn''t be surprised if turrets popped out of them to welcome uninvited guests.


    The gate to the Institute was opened and Harry casually walked in with a suitcase, his backpack, and his pet carrier. The moment Harry approached he felt the Phoenix Flames within him reach out which wasn''t surprising. He wondered if the one at the other end felt the same thing.


    Further up the path Harry saw a basketball court to his left with several kids playing around. What was funny was that one team was composed of various kids while the other team seemed to be a set of five of the same kid. A few of the spectators of the game saw him walking up the road with a suitcase and pet carrier and put two and two together so a couple of them smiled and waved at Harry who smiled and waved back. This place certainly did have a warm atmosphere.


    Harry reached the entrance but before he could knock the door opened and a familiar green-eyed red head was staring him down. Harry smiled and said, "Hello again. I''m here for a tour. Would I be lucky enough to have you as a tour guide?"


    The redhead blushed for a moment and said, "No, I, uh, I was just coming to check on something."


    Harry said, "Well, if that something is me you may check it out as long as you wish."


    She tried to frown in disapproval but was fighting a smirk to do so and said, "You''re a pervert aren''t you?"


    Harry answered back, "If you mean a bearer of uncommon inclinations, I am not, or at least I don''t think I am. If you mean open about who I am in general, then perhaps. Besides, having uncommon inclinations isn''t something to look down on. Aren''t you already inside my head, peeping on my thoughts?"


    Harry felt the telepath''s presence but it was different compared to Xavier''s. It was not that she was actually intruding, it was more that her mind didn''t seem to just fit inside her own head and ended up entering the minds of those within a specific range.


    She blushed once more and said, "I''m sorry. I''m still having difficulties controlling my powers."


    Harry smiled back and said, "Don''t worry. You can enter my mind anytime you wish to look around but don''t try to read any of the books without asking me for a library card. I happen to know a thing or two about the mind and if you want someone to bounce ideas off or a different perspective, I''d be happy to lend an ear and maybe a nose."


    She rolled her eyes and said with a smirk, "I thought you hadn''t decided to join yet."


    "Well I''ve already found an excellent reason to stick around so there isn''t much of a point to pretending otherwise."


    The telepath narrowed her eyes and said, "Is that so?"


    Harry thought to himself, ''Yes, I found out how much of a genius Dr Hank McCoy was and that he teaches here.''


    She blinked at that thought and said, "Oh."


    Harry smiled and said, "What did you think I was thinking of?"


    She sighed and said, "Nevermind. I''m Jean Grey by the way."


    Harry held out a hand and said, "Harry Potter, again, it''s a p???sur?."


    She shook it and said, "I''ll take you to the Professor. He''s expecting you."


    Several other kids of various ages were walking around which was something that did somewhat surprise Harry. This was a boarding school but this was also summer meaning no classes which meant most kids would be back home with their parents.


    Jean didn''t seem to be able to turn off her telepathic eavesdropping and said, "A lot of kids don''t come from families that are accepting of mutants. My own parents for example are the epitome of normal and are uncomfortable with me around so I stay here full time."


    Harry knew she was sharing stuff about herself to make up for the fact that she was unable to stop herself from violating his privacy even though he already said it was fine. Harry said back, "Then it sounds like you dodged a bullet. I have nothing against those comfortable with living black and white lives but personally I prefer a little color."


    He also thought ''to himself,'' he wished he inherited his mother''s vibrant red head instead of his father''s messy black hair.


    "Your hair is fine Harry," Jean easily said. She wasn''t sure what to think about Harry. When someone knew they were with a telepath, their minds often became darker and their fears came to the surface which made them awkward to be around. She wasn''t used to someone so at ease with others invading their mind and treating it just like a normal conversation. That and the fact that somehow, when she purposely entered Harry''s mind, the sound of others thoughts went away. There was something about his mind that felt warm and comfortable to her. She was even tempted to ask for a library card.


    Harry said aloud, "Ah, if that is your opinion on the matter than I am greatly relieved. If you thought I was boring I might have ended up dying my hair blue or something."


    Harry thought if it was funny to her, at least that meant he would have successfully gotten her attention which would have made it worth it.


    They arrived at an office and Jean knocked twice before a moment of silence passed and she opened the door. Xavier, Logan, and Ms. Munroe were together once more having a discussion.


    Xavier said, "Ah, welcome Harry. And thank you Jean for escorting Harry to my office."


    She said, "You''re welcome Professor. See you later Harry." She left and moments later her presence was gone from Harry''s mind.


    Xavier waited for the door to close and said, "Now Harry, before the tour, I''d like to inform you a little about us and the beginnings of the X-Men."


    Harry pulled up a seat and patiently waited. He did love a good story.


    "The X-Men were founded twenty-five years ago and Logan and Ororo were founding members. At the time there was a powerful psionic entity who called itself the Shadow King and he was using his vast influence to gather mutants and start a war in the middle east that would encompass the whole of the world. With the help of an old friend of mine, I was able to gather an opposing team and lead them against the Shadow King''s forces and defeat them. With the help of others I was able to beat back the Shadow King on the Astral Plane and win the day, though the cost of victory was not low. Many of those who fought with me agreed to join me here to open a school as both a home for mutants and a place they could safely train the use of their powers. The X-Men are dispatched to areas where mutants are causing conflict to rescue those who need it and facilitate peace if possible."


    Harry was rather surprised the Shadow King had been beaten as a few of the books of Kamar-Taj had mentioned him. He was very, very old. Usually the Sorcerer Supreme would handle him, but it seemed rather than make himself powerful, he hid under the radar and gathered a powerful force on the mortal plane to do his bidding. Keeping himself weak enough to avoid detection by the Ancient One worked out but it seemed but he ended up losing to a mortal telepath because of it. Still, it was very impressive.


    Harry brought up the main point which came to mind, "You''re not exactly on the telly a lot for all the things you say you do."


    Xavier nodded and said, "We do try to keep a low profile and there are those in the government aware of us who do not restrict our cause or impede our actions as the government itself cannot afford to take one side or the other on the mutant issue."


    Harry understood, he certainly knew a thing or two about the value of maintaining a low profile until the time was right. He said, "If you''re asking me to join the X-Men permanently, I cannot give you an answer as my life may take me in other directions further down the line. However if I decide to attend your Institute, I would love to go if invited to any party your X-Men decide to throw."


    Logan smiled a bit and Ororo rolled her eyes behind a small smirk. Xavier nodded and said, "I''m glad to hear you''ll give it some thought. Now, onto the tour."


    Xavier''s automated wheelchair moved quite fast and Harry followed with Wolverine next to the Professor and Storm following behind them. Harry approved of this. Harry was, for all intents and purposes, an unknown. Outwardly they were escorting him, but it was more likely that they were acting as guard to subdue him should he try anything or perhaps go out of control. A Weather Sorceress together with an unstoppable metal clawed Warrior could cover most ranges and even if Harry went all out, fighting them would be difficult. Especially if Charles tried to attack his mind. Harry''s defenses and attacks were probably good, but he still wasn''t interested in matching them against someone the Ancient Once considered ''Perhaps the most powerful telepath I''ve ever encountered.'' The only reason Harry could even sense someone on that level in his mind was because he had placed several magic triggers in his mind which were invisible to anyone trying to sense them. Those triggers would tag the intruder which was why Harry recognized Xavier as the Peeper when he first saw him. Those triggers however weren''t foolproof though so Harry had several other failsafes to work with.


    Xavier first showed Harry the rooms. The mansion had over thirty rooms and only fifty students but during the summer many had their own room while during the school year students usually had roommates.


    Harry sensed the space in front of him cave-in slightly and paused. He was a fast thinker but pausing was really too good of a cheat not to abuse so when something unexpected happened he would often pause to determine his options. The indented space was closer to Harry than it was to Logan so the clawed warrior wouldn''t be able to attack it faster than Harry could. There was also the chance it was a prank. Of course if that was the case, Harry had to respond in kind.


    Harry unpaused and a blue skinned teenager with a tail entered the space from the indentation. Harry paused again so he could get a good look at the new arrival and the smile of mischief on his face told Harry everything he needed to know.


    Harry unpaused and moved his hand to flick the forehead of the teleporter just as he landed. The smell of brimstone that came from the smoke which followed the mutant through his indentation in space which told Harry a great deal about his method of travel.


    The new arrival recoiled at the finger flick and said with a German accent, "Ow, why''d you do that?"


    Harry deadpanned, "It''s a reflex. Happens every time a teleporter invades my personal space."


    Xavier turned back and smiled, "Ah, I see you''ve met Kurt. Kurt, this is Harry Potter. We''re showing him around today in the hopes he may join us."


    Kurt gave a fake thoughtful expression and said, "I don''t know Professor. Such strange reflexes are sure to cause trouble."


    Harry put Goose down, took off his backpack, zipped it open and pulled out a Smoky Quartz. Harry then cast a Lumos inside it and made it vanish into his inventory. Once the act was finished he said, "Flexibility is important, you should be able to handle every situation that gets thrown at you."


    The lights in the hallway flickered just a bit as the blue demon''s vivid blue hair grew to his h?ps in length and then turned vibrant pink. Harry was cheating a bit since that was two spells, but he doubted there was anyone there who''d be able to call him out on it. Thankfully the spell had only affected the electricity a little and did nothing else to the hall.


    The spell only took a second to reach full effect and Kurt grabbed his now long, pink hair through his three fingered gloves and stared at it in absolute horror. His hands were trembling and a moment later he fell to his knees and theatrically cried out, "Nooooooooo!"


    Harry immediately liked him.


    Several doors opened in the hallway and they all saw the now pink haired demon on his knees before a newcomer.


    Kurt got up and took Harry''s shoulders and said, "Please! You must change it back! Pink is not my color!" He emphasized the last sentence most of all.


    Harry shook his head and said, "It will wear off on its own later. I don''t know when though. Probably before summer ends. Now, would you like anything else to become pink or was there something else I could help you with?"


    Kurt recoiled back a step and vanished away in another burst of brimstone smoke.


    Logan was the first to respond, "How''d you flick him so fast?"


    Harry said, "One aspect of my abilities lets me sense energy. I''ve honed my senses for many years and can sense the change of space prior to a teleporter''s arrival."


    Logan grunted, "That explains how you dodged Scott''s optics last night."


    Xavier asked, "Are you experienced with teleporters?"


    Harry answered, "Very. I even learned how to do it myself when accessing the right kind of energy."


    The Professor said, "Fascinating. I''d like to hear more on the subject when you have the time."


    After the dorms were the classrooms and introductions on various subjects taught during the school year. Next came the kitchen, the library, the lounge, and the home theater. Harry wondered if they would be willing to watch another universe''s version of Star Wars that had different actors playing the same parts. He''d ask them later.


    Next they headed underground. According to Xavier, his great grandfather had a massive fallout shelter constructed beneath the property and it had been remodeled over the course of the last few decades.


    The first room they entered had a gorilla sized man completely covered in blue fur wearing glasses and an unbuttoned lab coat with nothing but black shorts and a yellow belt beneath it. Harry shouted, "Oh my god!" And after a pause for dramatic effect continued, "Is that a Oscillating Frequency Transmission Electron Spectrometer?!"


    Harry then walked over to the massive piece of equipment in the lab, completely ignoring the giant blue glasses wearing monster currently staring at him.


    From behind him Harry heard in a dignified voice, "Why yes it is. How did you recognize it?"


    The idea of the machine itself was postulated in a science magazine a few months back but the actual construction was easier said than done. It was a very useful machine despite the fact that one could technically do the same thing it could do using six other machines which were cheaper to make. However doing several processes separately couldn''t compare to the precision achieved by a single machine doing them all.


    Harry answered, "I figured I could build one myself if I overclocked a good enough processor but even the minimum requirement for that kind of tech can only be found in restricted military grade equipment and I don''t have any facilities to make something better at the moment."


    Xavier rolled in watching Harry examine the theoretical machine like a child looking at a shiny toy. He said, "It seems you already have a rather strong foundation in science Harry. This was built by Forge, a man who I''m certain you''ll enjoy meeting." He then gestured to the monster and said, "And this is Dr. Hank McCoy, our resident Geneticist."


    Harry stopped playing around and went over to Doctor and said, "I''m Harry Potter, it is a p???sur? to meet you Dr. McCoy."


    Harry took a few more looks around the lab and recognized all but a few of the machines. He doubted Area 51 had toys this nice and it certainly brought up the quality of this place by another level in his mind.


    Dr McCoy saw a complete and utter lack of fear in Harry''s eyes at his appearance despite his earlier jest. He smiled down at Harry and said, "It is a p???sur? to meet you too Mr. Potter. Perhaps you can ?ssist me with a few projects I have in the future. Another pair of hands that knows how to use this equipment would be greatly appreciated."


    Harry smiled and said, "I''d love to help. I may even have a project or two in mind I''d like a second opinion on as well."


    "Is that right? Well I''d certainly love to take a look at any project someone with a mind such as yours has come up with. Perhaps later this week."


    "Thank you, I''ll organize and submit them to you later."


    Harry walked back over to his escorts who were still a bit dazed. They knew how intelligent Dr. McCoy was. They also knew that several of the more clever students had tried to be his ?ssistant at one point or another but most were unable to continue working with the high standard of equipment or the precision needed for lab work. There was something about the situation that worried them, but they couldn''t quite place it.


    The end of the hall had a set of stairs going up past a sliding steel door. At the end of the stairs was a lanky man wearing goggles sitting in front of what appeared to be a control system. There was a large pane of glass on the wall behind the control system and once he got closer Harry could see there was a massive room beyond it where six teens wearing different uniforms were running around facing mechanical obstacles.


    Xavier, whose chair somehow had no issue with stairs, said, "Harry, this is Forge. And this is the Danger Room," he continued, motioning to the room beyond the glass. The man himself seemed to be immersed in something and Harry didn''t want to bug him.


    Logan said, "This is where most of our combat exercises and sparring happens. Wanna join them?"


    Harry said, "Maybe later. I absorbed a few pounds of pure steel before our fight yesterday and the effect of it already wore off. I''ll have a big crate of materials delivered by the end of the week so I can take part in the training."


    Ororo said with a smirk, "So that means you''re interested in joining?"


    "Absolutely. Did the Professor tell you about my power?"


    Logan smirked and said, "You absorb metal for a boost in strength and gems for magic tricks."


    "Close enough. I can also absorb food before a fight to grant limited healing and books. If I absorb a book it is gone forever but I will have the content memorized for a few days before that effect wears off. If I go over it enough I can retain it though which is why I''m a lot smarter than those of my age. I bought pretty much every College and University textbook around."


    The Professor set his hands together pensively and said, "If that is the case, practical experience is more valuable than classwork. Once we''ve ?ssessed your comprehension level, I''ll arrange for you to spend time with Dr. McCoy and Forge to gain experience. Both of them are the best in their fields."


    "Thank you Professor." The fact that he was going to make sure Harry was taught at the proper level made Harry respect him as a teacher, despite the man''s obvious flaws.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Get Drafted with Style.


    Reward: Multiplayer Unlocked.]


    Harry thought to himself, ''Huh, so that''s a thing.''


    Xavier gave Harry a key to an empty room where he would be staying and he headed over to unpack his things. What surprised him however was that the door wasn''t locked. Harry entered the room and saw two beds, one of which already had a teen laying down, reading from a book.


    He looked about two years older than Harry with black hair styled back and said, "Hi, guess you''re my new room mate."


    Harry frowned and said, "Maybe? I was told this room was empty."


    The teen sighed and said, "Not surprising. Hey, there is a piece of paper on the nightstand with a pencil. Write down what I look like on it and you''ll figure out what''s going on."


    Harry set Goose down and did as instructed. He wrote the description of the teen on the paper and said, "Ok, now what?"


    "Now don''t look at me for two minutes," he went back to reading his book.


    Harry had no idea what that meant so he set the paper down and let Goose out before he started unpacking his things.


    Several alarms in Harry''s mind suddenly went off. Knowledge he had gained was being erased. He isolated the knowledge and determined it to be his most recent memory. Harry turned to face his roommate who noticed it and said, "You remember me?"


    Harry Paused and went back into his mind to look through what just happened. Covert Obliviations were a real threat in the magical world so Harry had a few defenses and alarms against memory and knowledge removal or modification, even though it never worked on him before. He determined that the quality of the memory of his new roommate was erasing itself and would be gone in a few hours. The only reason it would even take that long was because of the quality of Harry''s mind. A normal mind would probably forget this person''s existence moments after being seen, if they could even perceive him at all.


    Harry unpaused and said, "Mostly. Though my memory of you seems to erase itself when I''m not looking at you. Is that your power?"


    "Indeed it is my impressive friend, indeed it is. You can call me ForgetMeNot. My power is Imperceptibility. Most completely forget I exist the moment they look away. Even if they remind themselves with a note, they still forget me moments after reading it. The Professor said he put some mental timers inside his own head to remind himself I exist, but I guess I can''t be too surprised they forgot me too."


    Harry couldn''t hide the horror on his face. The teen noticed this and said, "Don''t feel sad for me dude. You''ll forget me too every time you leave here."


    Now Harry almost wanted to cry. That wasn''t something a person should just accept! It was the words of someone who had his hopes crushed too many times to ever get them back up.


    He wasn''t going to let things stay that way, that was for sure. Harry paused again and went over the possibilities.


    After unpausing, Harry looked up and said, "Can I have one of your hairs?"


    "Um. Sure?" He plucked a hair and handed it to Harry who set it inside his inventory and turned around.


    Harry''s inventory was a part of him and also time locked. He innately knew every aspect of every item in his inventory and he knew that the item he just placed in there was the hair of the guy sitting in the chair behind him. Harry focused on the memory and determined that it wasn''t degrading. Harry wasn''t sure which aspect of that idea caused it to work but it did in fact work.


    After two minutes Harry turned around and said with a smile, "Ok, it worked. I''m now immune to your power. My name is Harry Potter."


    ForgetMeNot stared at him and weakly said, "What?"

 Chapter 32 - 32 Getting comfortable.

    It took about two hours of tests for ForgetMeNot to believe Harry would not in fact forget him. Harry then turned to Goose and said, "Hey Goose, do the things inside your pocket dimension get absorbed, digested, or get stored?"


    ForgetMeNot said, "Wait, are you talking to the cat?"


    Goose conveyed back through their familiar link, ''Just give me a lock of his hair. It will do for your purposes and I''m not comfortable meeting someone for the first time over and over.''


    Harry looked over to ForgetMeNot and said, "Goose can do something similar with a pinch of your hair. Give me a second, I''ll get some scissors."


    ForgetMeNot said, "At this rate won''t I go bald?"


    Harry got a pair of scissors from his ''backpack'' and went over to snip a band of hair from his scalp while saying, "If one day you have a girlfriend who complains about you being bald, you can say something to me then."


    Harry then said, "You may want to turn around for this. It isn''t for those with a weak stomach."


    "Umm. I think I''ll be fine," he responded back. "I don''t know how watching a cat eat my-"


    Goose''s mouth ejected out a mass of purple flesh covered in serrated teeth and wiggling tentacles. From within the void at the center of the flesh came a snake-like appendage of a tongue with its own set of razor sharp teeth that approached Harry''s hand and quicker than a snake strike grabbed the lock of hair before retreating in the pit, followed shortly after by the remaining mass of indescribable flesh that vanished into the Flerken''s mouth.


    After a moment of silence ForgetMeNot said, "Harry?"


    "Yes ForgetMeNot?"


    "What is that?"


    "That''s Goose, my familiar. Don''t worry, I''ve already asked her not to eat anyone."


    "Is.. Is that supposed to make me feel better?"


    Harry considered it and said, "I''m not sure. At least this way, she won''t forget you either."


    "Umm. I''m not sure how to feel about that."


    Harry and ForgetMeNot spent another hour chatting before they both headed out for lunch. So far they were becoming good friends, though ForgetMeNot wouldn''t give Harry his original name claiming ''Everyone who knew it has forgotten it,'' so that person was already gone. Harry didn''t say it out loud to get his new friend''s hopes up, but he was going to work on a way of allowing others to remember him. Harry and Goose both had internal pocket dimensions though Goose never told Harry how her own worked and Harry had refrained from asking out of politeness. He couldn''t expect others to have the same ability but at least it proved that FrgetMeNot''s power had a loophole and if there was one, they may be more.


    Although Harry could have skipped lunch or taken something out from his inventory, he didn''t want to turtle up on his first day. According to ForgetMeNot, there was a rotating roster of kids or ?du?ts who would stay in the kitchen for two hours cooking during lunch and dinner time. Today''s lunch would be served by Jubilee which meant the soda would soon run out to get the taste out of the recipient''s mouths. He said she once set her cereal on fire.


    The kitchen had three kids at the table with a petite girl of Asian decent wearing a yellow long coat standing over a stove making what Harry smelled to be burnt grilled cheese sandwiches. Harry sat down one seat away from the others and ForgetMeNot sat down on his opposite side.


    The one called Jubilee turned around and said, "Hiya, will you be having the rib-eye, the fresh Italian pasta, the baby lamb, or the lobster?"


    ForgetMeNot said, "I''ll be having the rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes." He pointed at Harry and said, "Today''s his first day here so he''ll be having the special of the day."


    Jubilee turned back around and said, "Two specials of the day, coming up!"


    The trio sitting at the table looked over from their discussion and one said, "You''re new here? Hi. I''m Danielle. That''s Rahne and Brian." The others she pointed at smiled back at Harry who said, "Hello and nice to meet you, I''m Harry."


    The redhead named Rahne asked, "Yer British?" Harry recognized her clearly Scottish accent that reminded him a little of Professor McGonagall.


    He answered back, ''That''s right. I was born in Godric''s Hollow near Suffolk."


    She nodded, "Born in Ullapool myself."


    "In the Highlands? I have a house up there. I actually went to a boarding school in a big ol'' castle built at the base of the Highlands Mountains. Had to leave though because people kept trying to kill me."


    Rahne looked shocked, sad, and a little understanding about that last part.


    Danielle, who seemed to be of Native American descent said, "A good reason to leave. So what''s your power?"


    Harry answered, "I can turn into an owl."


    Rahne and Danielle both said, "Really?"


    Harry shrugged, "Maybe, I don''t know. I probably could."


    Brian said, "Be careful there Harry, these two love animals and toying with them like that will end badly."


    Harry pulled a piece of Smoky Quartz out of his pocket and said, "In that case, I can grant one wish, but only one wish and then I can never grant wishes again. What would you two wish for?"


    Brian quickly said, "I wish for actual food that will stay in my stomach."


    Both girls turned to glare at him and Harry Paused. He was half joking but since that was the request, he might as well go with it. Plus, this was an opportunity to empty some of the food in his inventory.


    Harry picked up the Smoky Quartz and said, "Your wish is my command."


    He cast a Lumos inside the gem to make it glow which attracted everyone''s attention, even Jubilee who was letting the sandwich on the stove burn for way too long. Harry then cast a wordless Immobulus Maxima on the room which had everyone frozen in place. Every electronic in the room would fry, but wishes had consequences so he''d blame Brain for it.


    First he used telekinesis to lift the burning bread off the pan so it wouldn''t catch fire while he was working. Next, while everyone was frozen, he took out dish after dish from his inventory and set it on the table. Harry couldn''t put food or water into his inventory unless it was on a plate or in a container so he had hundreds of plates, cups, bowls, and ect, in his inventory. Each plate even had the proper utensils for the dish. This did make Harry feel a little bad for whoever would be doing the dishes today.


    When the table had no more room for dishes, Harry cast some preservation and warming charms that would last until the dishes were picked up and he sat back down in the same position but with the gem placed in his inventory and he put the burnt bread back on the pan. Last, he cast a large Finite Incantatem which unfroze everyone who lacked awareness of time while frozen and now saw the table filled with food. Harry wanted to stack another layer of food on top but his Telepathy sensed someone else on their way to the kitchen and he couldn''t have them walk in while everyone was frozen. Thankfully that teleporter wasn''t likely to show due to the pink hair though Harry was unsure how many teleporters the Institute had.


    From their perspective, the Smoky Quartz in Harry''s hand was glowing and now it was gone and the table was filled with food.


    Jubilee was the first to break out of her stupor and said, "Oh hell yeah!" and grabbed a plate and started chowing down. She didn''t bother turning off the stove, almost like she had forgotten she was making food for someone.


    Danielle said, "What? Is this an illusion?"


    Jubilee said between bites, "Best. Tasting. Illusion. Ever."


    Harry said, "It''s all real so please help yourself to a plate."


    Each of the three picked up a plate and took a bite. Rahne then quickly glared at Brian and slowly said, "Ye stole our wish!"


    Danielle quickly turned to Brian who realized his joke could now be taken as a declaration of war.


    He took his plate and ran around the table and was quickly followed by the pair of angry teenage girls. On the first circle he touched the two chairs they were sitting in and then he ran at them who weren''t expecting a turn around and touched each of them. A moment later they both were pulled out of the air into their chairs and Brian ran away.


    Rahne shouted at the running mutant, "Dinna think ye can hide from me! I know yuir scent!"


    Danielle placed her shoulder on the angry Scotswoman which calmed her down. Danielle said, "Forget about it. More for us."


    Harry wondered if anyone would remember the burning grilled cheese on the pan which was now on fire. ForgetMeNot sighed.


    !-Smoke Alarm Blares-!


    Rahne shouted over the alarm, "Jub''lee, ye forgot to turn off te bloody stove!"


    "Opps, sorry." She went back over to the stove and put it and the flaming sandwich into the sink, taking a moment to soak them both with water before taking a nearby cutting board and waving it at the smoke alarm until it went silent.


    The student Harry sensed earlier had arrived in the kitchen and said, "Anything not on fire?"


    Harry said, "A few things, Jubilee really outdid herself today."


    When the table was in sight the newcomer said, "What? No way Jubilee did this."


    Harry said, "I think Brian did it then."


    Two more students came in, though Harry figured they came more to witness the carnage than they came to eat as the Smoke Alarm was quite loud.


    Harry saw that ForgetMeNot had taken his chair over to the wall and was calmly watching the new arrivals drop their jaws at the table of ?ssorted food while holding the bowl of mashed potatoes Harry had originally set in front of him.


    Harry pulled his own chair over to sit next to ForgetMeNot and said, "So you like people watching?"


    He shrugged, "I guess. Not much else to do. If I tell someone something they''ll either forget what I told them or forget where they learned it at some point during the conversation. Long conversations don''t happen often for me."


    Several of the students started calling dibs on specific plates such as the meat plates or pasta plates. Some were just admiring it and trying to figure out where it came from since it was Jubilee''s turn to cook. The noise coming from the kitchen seemed to attract more students which in turn created more noise.


    One of the students who grabbed a plate, an African American teen with a crew cut hair noticed Harry sitting in the corner with a plate and walked over. "Hey, you''re the new guy who turned Kurt pink right?"


    Harry was tempted to point out that his name was not Hey, but he couldn''t expect everyone to have manners so he said, "I''m pretty sure that''s me, or at least someone going around looking like me. I''m Harry, it''s nice to meet you."


    "Cool to meet you too Harry. I''m Evan. You play any sports?"


    Harry shook his head, "Can''t say I do. I''m a nerd who spends his days in books and messing with the laws of reality."


    Evan looked slightly disappointed but still said, "That''s cool too. I think our nerds have a study group in the library after dinner so you should totally meet up with them."


    Harry smiled and said, "Thanks, I''ll definitely show up."


    Even nodded and said, "So are you gonna try out for the team?"


    Harry gave a confused look which caused Evan to continue, "The 3rd X-Men Team. Lots of those here want to be an X-Men so we train a whole bunch to see who will make the final cut for the 3rd Team."


    Harry said, "If you don''t mind me asking, what about the first and second teams?"


    "Well, the first team is my Auntie Storm, Wolverine, Angel, Beast, Colossus, Gambit, and Domino. There were others but they either left or.. didn''t make it out of the battle with the Shadow King. The Second Team is made from the best of the first batch of recruits. Bishop, Shadowcat, Pixie, Marrow, and Blink. They actually got captured by aliens last year and ended up getting dragged into a battle where they defeated a swarm of alien insects and saved a planet. They got an alien ship they used to fly back to the mansion. There was this guy called Warpath too, but he stayed behind. The current roster for the 3rd team is myself, and I''m called Spike by the way, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Rogue, and Nightcrawler, who you turned pink."


    "So all these kids are trying out for a single team?"


    "Well not exactly. No one is allowed to go on missions until you''re at least sixteen and most of us third gen recruits are sixteen or younger. To be honest the current team is just the guys who are sixteen or the guys closest to sixteen. I''m turning sixteen next year."


    "Ah, me too. Never fought with a team before so I''ll probably try it out.


    "Oh, you''ve fought before?"


    "That''s right. I''ve had a few crazy adventures up to this point."


    "No way dude."


    "It''s true. You know the red laser eye guy?"


    "Cyclops?"


    "That''s his name? Well, I kicked his ?ss yesterday."


    "No way. Seriously? Dude''s been spending all day in the Danger Room like someone set a fire under his bu??. Guess that explains why. Well, I''ll see you later then, I''m gonna get a second plate."


    Harry wondered what would happen if he used his new Multiplayer feature on any of these teens. Unfortunately, it would not be that easy.


    According to the FAQ on adding a new player, it was basically Harry directly injected his own Obscurus Particles into someone else''s body and then having the Particles mimic the cells of that person to directly boost their physiology. Doing so would permanently cost him some Obscurus Particles and lower his level, forcing him to regain those levels. The weaker someone was, the less he needed to inject to grant them Player status. So someone like ForgetMeNot would probably cost Harry five to ten levels. Someone like Logan could cost Harry over a hundred levels. Moreover, the person had to have absolute trust in Harry or they would reject the Particles and the process would fail. The only person he might be able to get to trust him that much was the Ancient One, but she would probably cost more Obscurus Particles than Harry actually had to convert her which would take Harry to level zero and permanently kill him. The process for both parties would also be indescribably painful.


    Turning someone into a New Player would apply some of the benefits of Harry''s abilities, but not all. Such a person would be able to absorb the energy of defeated foes and the Obscurus Particles would use that energy to replicate and further strengthen the body, allowing levels ups. If injured, the Particles could also take the place of damaged cells, giving the Player a limited Healing factor dependent on the amount of Particles they had. Harry''s Path System and Menu would be applied, so the cells would apply Autocorrect to skills they used that were a part of Paths they practiced often. They would also be able to choose what Stats increased with each level up. There was even a way for them to use Battle Mediation through Harry to generate monsters matching their level they could fight, but Harry had to be present and couldn''t deal any damage himself or else he would get the experience instead of the other Player.


    What they would not be able to gain was the Inventory, Settings, Pause Function, or Respawn features. Those were tied to Harry''s soul and existence and features like Respawn only worked because Harry was 100% Obscurus Particles while players would still have real flesh and blood. However though they were not be able to Respawn, increasing their level would increase the amount of Obscurus Particles which would raise the amount of damage they could recover from which was not a bad consolation prize.


    Besides the pain, loss of levels, and high trust requirements, another reason Harry wasn''t going to just give everyone this ability was because it would permanently connect them to Harry for the rest of their lives.


    ForgetMeNot finished his mashed potatoes and said, "Thanks man. I''m heading back to the room. You should spend the day wandering around and meet more of the guys. Later."


    Harry wanted to say something but his roommate was already off. He couldn''t help but notice that when Evan listed off the members of the first X-Men team, there were a lot, but the second X-Men team had so few and seemed to be the same age group as ForgetMeNot. He''d ask him about that later.


    It didn''t take long for details about the Lunch Miracle to spread around and much of the Mansion showed up. However that only amounted to about twenty or so as it was still summer and more than half the students had returned to their families who lived further out. Evan apparently had a nice family, but they lived nearby so he would stay at the mansion during the summer anyways to train and play with friends while still going to see his parents pretty often.


    Since Harry was fully moving in, he had a lot of paperwork to do himself so he headed over to the library with a large stack of sheets and got to work. Forms for permanent address change were among the easier ones he needed while forms for further correspondence between himself and the Goblins was harder. He would basically teleport to a warehouse they had and give them a large batch of gems and metals and they would manually ship it to Xavier''s institute twice a month. It would take some time before they had the mundane machinery required for the mass production of large gemstones so Harry would need to make them himself for now.


    One upside was that in the last few months before Harry moved to the states, the Goblins had come up with a nearly perfect means of shielding electronics from Exotic energy up to a specific range. It couldn''t withstand direct apparition, but could survive indefinitely in a magic rich environment without issue. The shielding itself was an inlay of specific metal alloys in specific configurations similar to runes, but in appearance more closely resembled circuitry. The technical term would be metamaterial as it was a material that had properties outside the properties of the materials that it was constructed from. In addition to shielding the equipment from Exotic energy, it also shielded from nearly every other type of energy except for heat. Radiation, Radio Waves, and even a few forms of extradimensional energy could not pass easily through this shielding. The shielding against Radio Waves meant that it could not transmit or receive signals but that could be gotten around with a hard line connection or building in a paired set of quantum entanglement transmitters within. A massive benefit for this that Harry saw was that preventing energy coming in or out of the equipment meant it could not be wirelessly hacked, even using technopathy and wouldn''t need to be magically charged.


    Harry and the Goblins however agreed this shielding would not be sold to the general public. It was perfectly acceptable to make their own equipment unhackable through any means, but quite a few Goblins had become very good with computers and enjoyed the art of hacking others. It was a new battlefield and though there was far less blood then they would have liked, the battles won in the field of hacking could still grant considerable wealth to the Goblin who achieved it. Harry rented out his Hack Boxes to them to make sure they didn''t get traced though they weren''t allowed to hack from important locations regardless.


    Once finished with his final sheet of paperwork he made sure no one was around and set it all into his inventory. He''d send it via portkey to the Goblins from his room and give the Goblins the magical coordinates of his room so they had a location they could send portkey mail back to him at their convenience.


    Harry felt the Phoenix Flame within him act up and turned to see Jean enter the library and spot him. "Hey Harry. So how''s your first day been?"


    "Well, everyone is certainly very friendly which is a welcome change. Not that the temple or my last school was cruel, but most everyone there was more or less indifferent to others."


    "Yeah, we really try to be one big family here. Where''d you go before here?"


    "Well, I spent the last two years in a temple in Tibet training in martial arts and the more mystical aspects of my abilities. Before that I attended a boarding school in Scotland for a year. Apparently it was the same one my parents went to but I got targeted by a terrorist and though he was dealt with, I decided the school wasn''t for me."


    Harry thought out as well that he memorized the school''s library and knew more than many of the teachers so he had nothing left to learn there.


    Jean looked like she wanted to ask something so Harry just said aloud, "I can absorb books so I ordered a copy of pretty much every textbook the school had which is how I got all that knowledge."


    Having her question answered she said, "Oh, that''s convenient. I wish I could do something like that but I can only read people who are usually not comfortable with being read."


    Harry considered it and said, "Well, you''re still welcome in my head when you wish and every book I''ve memorized is within. Would you like a library card?"


    "Umm, what happens if I take a book without a library card?"


    "Nothing. The library card will allow you to find specific pieces of knowledge without having to look for it. However if you take a book out and open it outside of the little reading area in my head, automated defenses will activate so be careful. So would you like a library card or not?"


    Jean looked as if she was mulling it over and said, "I''m not sure it''s such a good idea to spend so long in a boy''s head."


    Harry thought wryly to himself that he didn''t know she was already considering spending long amounts of time in his head which caused her to blush when she heard the thought. She quickly said, "I didn''t mean it that way, it''s just, well. When I''m inside your head, the thoughts of others are gone. I can usually hear everyone''s thoughts around me but for some reason when I specifically go inside your head, the thoughts of others are silent." She had no intention of telling him it also felt warm and comfortable in there, like relaxing in front of a fireplace after a long day.


    Harry said, "That should be an effect of some of the mental practices I use. I can channel Psionic energy like a telepath when I absorb a Quartz Crystal and I''ve used that combined with some esoteric practices I''ve learned to create a very sturdy mind."


    Jean thought about that for a moment and asked, "Do you think I can learn that then? I would love to not have to listen to the thoughts of others day in and day out."


    Harry held out his hand in a gesture for Jean to take it which she did after a moment of hesitation. Within the library of Harry''s mind a small card appeared in front of Jean''s mental avatar which she picked up. It vanished and Harry said, "Library card acquired. Just think about the knowledge you want and the books will appear. Just remember that you can only read them in the reading area."


    Jean frowned and said, "I can''t accept that Harry. I mean we''ve only just met and I feel like I''m taking advantage of you."


    Harry considered it and said, "In that case there is something you can do for me." Within Harry''s mind Harry gave a book to Jean who went over to the reading area and opened it. She gasped, "ForgetMeNot! Oh, no." The book contained Harry''s knowledge on the imperceptible mutant.


    Harry asked, "You remember him?"


    She sighed, "Not completely. I think I told him I''d try not to forget him but even then. Oh, he must hate me."


    Harry shook his head, "No, I doubt that very much. Professor Xavier gave me an ''empty'' room with him so he''s my new roommate. I absorbed a lock of his hair the same way I can books and now I won''t forget him."


    "Really? That''s great!"


    "Indeed. However I want to see if I can figure out a way for others to remember him."


    "I see. That won''t be easy. Even his thoughts are practically invisible. I''m not sure if I can''t hear his thoughts or if I simply forget them when I can no longer hear them. And, oh no. I won''t even remember talking about him later will I?"


    Harry said, "Probably. But that''s what I''d like to test. With your permission, I''d like to look inside your head as you are forgetting him and try a few different ways to see if I can get people to remember him."


    Jean thought it was a bit hypocritical that she could see into other people''s minds so easily yet was uncomfortable with someone else going through her mind. That being said, it was for a good cause, she didn''t want to owe Harry for letting her use his knowledge and head, and she also wanted to help ForgetMeNot.


    "Alright, but don''t judge me for what you see and keep anything you find to yourself, ok?"


    "No problem. Plus I can help you arrange your mind if you want after you learn a few things."


    Harry had to purposefully allow thoughts to be heard when he wanted them to be heard by visiting telepaths so many of his thoughts were not in fact heard by Jean. He was pretty satisfied with his idea and that it actually worked. With this, he would be able to get a closer look at the mental blocks within Jean and figure out a way to safely remove them. He could also test a few means to help ForgetMeNot so it was a case of the proverbial two birds with one stone.


    Plus he really did want to get to know Jean and didn''t mind her looking through his head.. She''d find a lot of things that didn''t make sense but in doing so would slowly acclimate herself to Harry''s secrets and when she knew him well enough, he hoped she would trust him to remove the mental blocks once he found a means to do it safely.

 Chapter 33 - 33 Making Friends

    Harry had to return to his room to get more Quartz from his backpack, or at least that''s what he told Jean when he left and returned a few minutes later. She was both surprised and a little skeptical that Harry''s powers worked by just absorbing specific things for specific effects. Harry didn''t mind doubts. If he did, he certainly wouldn''t have ''granted a wish'' in the kitchen since using a single Smoky Quartz for something like that was pretty big. He already figured out how to rationalize it to those who asked deeper questions but the truth was, his cover was specifically for enemies so if his friends had suspicions, that would be fine as long as they didn''t openly share them with outsiders.


    Harry never had any real intention of holding back while training, he just wanted others to think his powers had a high cost to use and since it really didn''t require that much effort to create such a ruse, it was worth it. To Harry, it was just a very long term prank. He wondered which of the X-Men would figure it out first. His money was on Logan, but the man looked like he knew a thing or two about keeping secrets close to the vest so even if he figured it out, he likely wouldn''t bring it up so Harry wouldn''t know if he figured it out first or not.


    Jean spent her time enjoying the quiet of Harry''s mind and reading on Occlumency. The ''book'' wasn''t simply words, it was Harry''s own understanding of the practice perfectly organized for ?ssimilation by others telepaths making a few pages more informative than hours of lectures and personal studies. Ten minutes into her reading she realized Harry''s thoughts hadn''t echoed in the Library since she started which made her ask, "Harry, can you control which thoughts can be heard by telepaths in your mind?"


    Harry left Jean''s mind and answered back, "That''s right. There is actually a book in the library that constantly updates itself with my thoughts which is also the practice I use to lock away my thoughts from others by having them written out instead of voiced aloud inside my head. However when I choose to, my thoughts can echo through the library as well.


    After considering this for a moment, she smacked Harry''s shoulder which he responded to by giving a fake hurt look. She said, "That''s for saying I was peeping earlier. It isn''t peeping if the person allows you to peep."


    Harry asked innocently, "So if you allowed me to see you undress, it wouldn''t be peeping if I didn''t ask permission first?"


    Jean smacked his shoulder again and turned slightly to hide her blush before stating, "You are not allowed to peep on myself or anyone undressing."


    Harry added, "Without permission."


    Jean tried to change the subject and turn her own embarrassment back on him, "So, can my library card be used to find the book with your thoughts or your memories? Maybe find a girlfriend or childhood sweetheart?"


    Harry shamelessly said, "That''s right and feel free to do so. I only ask that you not share with others anything you find."


    "Umm, I was just joking."


    Harry said, "My Library card actually can''t be taken by someone who means me harm so the fact that you could take it means you can be trusted with any info you find inside my head. There are some restricted pieces that contain secrets that wouldn''t do any good to get out which are kept locked away, but memories and thoughts are not among them."


    Harry wasn''t lying either. His thoughts and plans to gain Jean''s trust so he could remove the blocks on her mind were all in one of the books. If she decided to pick it up and read it, she''d know his plans. Harry was curious as to her reactions if she decided to do so but wasn''t worried as he had no ill intentions against her and Jean learning directly from him about the blocks in a way she knew he couldn''t be lying to her would save him a lot of time.


    He doubted she would though. Harry came off as a pervert so free access to his deepest thoughts would not be a priority for the young telepath when she would rather be spending her time looking over the books on mental arts she now had free access to.


    Jean said with just a slight tease to her voice, "Maybe later."


    Harry shrugged and said, "When you''re done with those books, I recommend this one." One of the books on the shelves flew out and over to the table in the reading area Jean had found a comfortable seat in. Harry continued, "It was written by the master of the temple I was at for the last two years and one of the best guides for Astral Creation. She is so skilled, she can push a person''s Astral Form directly out of their body and even drag it through different dimensions."


    Jean asked, "Your master was a telepath? Wait, you master was a woman?"


    "No and yes. All minds have the potential for Psionics, mutants such as yourself and the Professor just have a head start in the art. As for my master, if possible I''ll let you meet her one day."


    Separating your astral form from your body was difficult even for those who had mastered magic as it was a Psionic ability rather than a magic one, but for another to be able to separate your sense of self directly from your body required a far higher level of mastery.


    Jean went back to reading and Harry grabbed another large piece of Quartz and put it in his inventory before taking another dive into Jean''s mind. When asked how that worked he basically answered that each piece could allow for a single use of access to specific energies but as long as it was a continuous use, one crystal was all that was required. He was pretty sure at some point Jean would call BS and look for the book Harry kept the knowledge of his abilities in but for now he''d keep up the charade. His money was still on Logan figuring it out first though.


    From what he could see while looking through her head, memories of ForgetMeNot were like objects with a frictionless surface. If on the floor, they would remain there, but a single jolt in any direction would cause them to quickly slide away. The harder you tried to hold onto them, the faster they left, like gripping a glass egg with wet, soapy hands. A part of Jean''s skilled mind tried to gently hold only her recollection of ForgetMeNot but it still slipped through the cracks. After an hour Jean''s mind had nearly forgotten why she had let Harry in so he had to remind her. What was concerning was that each time she was reminded, the memories she previously had of him didn''t return. She only remembered him when reminded because there were memories of him that were inactive and once activated, she figured out the rest. However when she forgot, she also forgot the activated memories. This meant that the more she remembered him, the more of him she forgot.


    Harry asked and got permission to copy any uncovered memory she had of him so they could be returned to her later. Thankfully, having a piece of ForgetMeNot in Harry''s inventory acted like a tether so his own memories of ForgetMeNot were not slipping away. He was tempted to see what would happen if he removed the hair, but the worst case scenario was that he would instantly lose every memory of ForgetMeNot and from what Harry could discern, any memory he lost of his roommate would be unrecoverable. That wasn''t acceptable so he would rely on Jean to do the necessary testing. She was alright with that as long as Harry returned to her a copy of any memory she lost during the tests.


    While observing her, Harry did his best to, and from what he could sense, succeed in hiding his own awkwardness from Jean. Other than Hermione, this was the closet he''d ever really gotten to a girl around his own age and this was the first time he''d done so since his hormones started acting up. Though hundreds of years spent in the Tutorial and Paused helped his mentality m?tur?, it had little effect on his biology and if caught off guard he''d still blush the same as Jean would do every so often.


    While shifting around through her mind he would have to fight his own impulses to look at her thoughts about him as she could sense what he was doing in the same way he could sense her. Their proximity to each other, the fact that she smelled good, and how beautiful she looked while blushing weren''t helping the situation at all.


    On the matter of the mental blocks, Harry had discovered a few hints as to their nature but nothing obvious. It reminded Harry of what he did with his own mind in that the space was rearranged so that certain pieces of information couldn''t be accessed without unfolding the space into a maze first. Without prior experience in doing so, Harry wouldn''t have noticed the tell-tale signs of folded space within Jean''s mind. However that means he couldn''t have a good look at the blocks without first figuring out how to safely unfold the space.


    From an outside observer''s perspective, both Harry and Jean were in the mansion''s library reading a book though neither would turn the pages. However neither were unaware of their surroundings and when three students entered the library, they both looked up to find the identities of the new arrivals. Two Harry recognized, the sunglasses wearing teen he met the previous night and the no longer pink haired demon teleporter. The third was an older pink haired girl with bone like plates framing her face as well as spikes coming from her back.


    Jean looked up from her book and said, "Hey Scott, looking for me?"


    The teen with the red sunglasses took a quick look at Harry which made him seem like he was struggling not to frown. He answered back, "Yeah, someone ordered a whole buffet or something and there are still left overs in the kitchen."


    The older pink haired teen said, "No one ordered it Scott, I heard some new kid made it appear, like magic."


    Scott said, "Look, there''s no way-"


    Harry interrupted, "Ah, that was me. I was playing around and overdid it a little."


    The pink haired girl took another look at Harry and said, "You''re the new kid? Well, I''m Sarah, nice to meet you."


    "Nice to meet you too, I''m Harry."


    "Well Harry, what are you doing spending your first day here in the Library?" she asked.


    "Ah, there is a project I really need help with and Jean was nice enough to ?ssist me. "


    Sarah raised an eyebrow and asked skeptically, "Homework during summer on your first day here?"


    "Not homework, a special project. I''m calling it Operation Don''t Forget. It has to deal with how some things are forgotten easily while others are not. There''s a lot of psychology involved and when I begged on my hands and knees for ?ssistance Jean agreed to help out."


    Jean gave a half smile at the explanation. Harry wasn''t lying about the project, but he was leaving a number of things out.


    Sarah nodded and said, "Well make sure to treat out little Marvel Girl right or there will be consequences."


    Harry looked over at Jean and smirked, "Marvel Girl?"


    Jean let her head fall down to the table in embarrassment which caused Harry''s smirk to turn into a grin and caused Sarah to giggle a bit. Sarah said, "That''s right, we''re all very protective of Marvel Girl, especially Scott here."


    Before Scott could say anything, Kurt said, "It''s true, you should see him every time she gets hurt in the simulation." Kurt dramatically rose his hand into the air looking off into the distance and theatrically cried out, "Jeeeaan!"


    Harry met Scott''s gaze with an amused look causing the laser eyed teen to look down slightly. He took a breath and looked back up before saying, "Look, I''m sorry about yesterday. I can''t deny that I overreacted when you were just testing us. It''s just.." He looked over at Jean who was now waiting with a half smirk as well for him to continue his explanation. Scott let out another sigh before continuing, "Jean and I have both been in the Institute for years. Most come into their powers around their teens, but we both have had them for far longer and we were the youngest here when we arrived. She''s isn''t just a team member to me alright, she''s family."


    Jean gave him a soft look before hardening it and saying to Harry, "And though I''ve grown up quite a bit since I arrived here, Scott still tends to treat me like I''m still a helpless little girl even though I am fully capable of looking after myself and kicking his ?ss."


    Scott looked part offended and part appalled at the language though Sarah and Kurt both laughed with the latter saying, "Ja, it''s true."


    Harry added his two cents, "Ah, so the knight in shining sunglasses still seeks to save the fair princess."


    This got a few giggles from the girls and caused Kurt to start laughing. Before Scott could say otherwise, Harry said, "Jean, perhaps you should dress in a leather biker chick''s outfit so he no longer considers you a princess to be rescued."


    Sarah and Kurt erupted into full blown laughter and Jean tried to glare at Harry but stifling her own laughter while doing so didn''t make it a very effective glare.


    Scott seemed to realize there wasn''t a way to defend himself so he gave up on that and asked Harry, "Look, are we ok?"


    Harry could tell this was the type of guy who just wanted to be helpful to others. Harry did too, but in truth, that was more of just a hobby he enjoyed, like playing video games. Scott however was different, he emotionally invested himself into others. This would make him a good leader in the future, but it also meant that if he was betrayed by someone he had absolute trust in, he wouldn''t take it well. Harry decided to file that obvious foreshadow away for later.


    Harry held out his hand for Scott to take and when he took it Harry said, "No problem. If you have time later we can spar if you want. Your power is nice for long distance attacks but you''ll definitely want some CQC skills to fall back on."


    Jean asked, "CQC?"


    Scott answered, "Close Quarters Combat. Though I didn''t know anyone besides Logan used that term. He told me the same thing by the way. I can''t believe you held your own against him."


    Harry shook his head, "Oh, I didn''t. That guy was holding back a lot. I mean he didn''t even use his claws until I had him chained down. Last guy I fought with that much skill nearly vaporized me."


    Kurt frowned and said, "Guys like you remind me that the phrase, ''May you live in interesting times,'' is actually a curse. And how did you make that food and turn me pink?"


    Scott asked, "Wait, you''re the one who turned Kurt pink?"


    "It was a reflex. I was minding my own business then this scary blue dude pops out of nowhere and terrifies me."


    Kurt half shouted, "You liar! You weren''t scared, you flicked my forehead the moment I appeared. Then you took something from your pocket and turned my precious hair pink!"


    Harry threateningly said, "Did what I took out from my pocket look like this?" while reaching into his pocket. The blue demon popped away in another puff of brimstone smoke and from what Harry could tell, reappeared behind a nearby wall where he could still listen in. Harry said, "Oh, never mind, I don''t have any Smoky Quartz left on me. Oh well."


    Scott''s frown could be seen beneath his sunglasses and he asked, "How does your power work?"


    Jean quickly repeated back what Harry told her earlier, "Harry can absorb things which grant temporary effects like increased strength or access to energies he can use to perform magic like feats."


    Harry wasn''t sure she bought it but it was nice that she was helping him keep his cover since the others were more likely to believe it coming from her than him.


    Scott asked, "What kind of things?


    Harry answered this time, "Quartz gives me access to Psionic energy which lets me do things similar to Jean until I release the connection. Smoky Quartz lets me do somewhat random and unstable things and I can''t guarantee the outcome or consequences. I used Smoky Quartz to teleport last night, turn Kurt pink, and conjured an ?ssortment of food. I''m not entirely sure where the food came from though and I may have accidentally stolen it from somewhere."


    Scott asked in just a slightly higher pitch of voice, "So we''ve all become accessories to theft?"


    Harry said, "Doubt it. If I hear news of a theft I''ll make sure they''re compensated but I don''t even know when then food came from, much less where. It could have all been made in different parts of the world at different times for all I know."


    Scott shook his head and said, "Just, just don''t do that again, alright?"


    "No problem. I''ll make it myself next time."


    Harry felt another area of space cave-in close to him and paused again. Harry approximated where the blue demon was likely to reappear and unpaused while moving his hand to the space to his side.


    Kurt once more reappeared in a puff of blue brimstone smelling smoke just as Harry''s hand stopped in front of him and flicked his forehead again.


    "Ow, vat vas that for?" he asked, slipping a bit into his German accent."


    "Sorry, still a reflex."


    Kurt rolled his eyes and asked, "Are you good in the kitchen?"


    Harry said, "I''m good in a lot of places, but yes, I can cook."


    From the looks on their faces, Scott and Kurt hadn''t caught onto the double meaning but from the way Sarah smirked and Jean turned away, Harry figured they both understood.


    Kurt said, "Excellent, then you can take my next shift and make lunch tomorrow."


    Harry said, "Sure, and if anything horrible happens to those who eat lunch, I''m sure people won''t come after you in retaliation."


    Kurt considered it and said, "On second thought, I''ll go ahead and make lunch tomorrow."


    Sarah asked, "So Harry, are you a nerd, a jock, or a pervert?"


    Harry gave a mock thoughtful expression and asked, "Do I have to choose just one?"


    Kurt said, "Nein, he is a prankster. I vould recognize one of my own anywhere."


    Harry said, "Guilty."


    Kurt leaned over to Harry and gave a conspiratorial stage whisper, "There are things ve must discuss later." And then leaned out and gave a wink as if none of the others heard what he just told Harry.


    Harry gave a sagely nod which sent a shiver up the spine of Scott and Sarah. Jean, for some reason, was looking forward to it.


    Kurt, Sarah, and Scott took a seat and started talking about the Institute and themselves while asking Harry questions.


    Kurt asked, "How could you live in a temple for two years? I vould be bored out of my mind in two hours!"


    Harry knew what he meant and said, "Yeah, no one there would have appreciated a good prank so I have to lay low. The Head of the Temple did in fact have a sense of humor but she was the figurehead and had to lead by example so she couldn''t express it outwardly."


    Jean asked, "Did you ever prank her?"


    Harry''s face scrunched up. "Once."


    Kurt excitedly asked, "Oh, this I must hear."


    Harry sighed and said, "I have access to certain materials with beyond standard properties. For simplicity''s sake, we''ll call them magic potions and if you want I''ll tell you more about them later. Now, the Temple Master is bald, so there was one time I served her some tea that had a little something extra inside so that the next morning she would wake up with a full head of hair. I saw her the next morning and she was still bald so I figured it didn''t work. I mean magic potions aren''t exactly what you would call reliable. Later that week I had tea with her again and she served it. The next day I woke up looking like a Wookie."


    The moment that image came to everyone''s mind each of them started madly laughing. Scott had to hold his sunglasses to his face to make sure they didn''t fall off and it didn''t take long for Sarah and Jean to have tears leaking from their eyes while Kurt was literally on the floor, rolling around and laughing until he couldn''t breath.


    After they calmed down a bit Harry said, "I''m just a little regretful I ever told her where to buy stuff like that."


    Harry was grilled a bit more on the subject but passed it off as a small street in London filled with old, Occult Shops that either sold fake or real stuff, though that wasn''t exactly what he said. He didn''t lie, but he did give most of them the impression that it was just a slightly weird area, and not a hidden world. Harry wondered how long it would take for Jean to start looking through his memories for that.


    The group headed back to the kitchen to grab some of the remaining plates and saw Forge standing in a corner next to an open metal panel. When he saw Harry enter, he said, "New guy, did you do this?"


    Harry realized what he was talking about and said, "Yeah, I''m sorry, it won''t happen again."


    Sarah said, "Wait, why was this a bad thing?"


    Forge answered, "The cameras and sensors fried the moment he did whatever he did." Forge had seen the video log which showed Harry taking out a large piece of Smoky Quartz, having the Quartz glow, and then the feed died.


    Harry nodded, "Yeah. That form of energy isn''t good around electronics, especially for feats that big."


    Forge frowned and said, "Magic? Hope you know what you''re getting into playing with stuff like that."


    Harry asked, "Bad experience with magic?"


    Forge took off a glove revealing a metal, mechanical hand and used it to knock on his opposite leg, revealing a metal sound. He said, "That was that last time I used magic. New house rule, no summoning anything, got it?"


    Harry''s look of recognition let Forge know he figured out what happened and Harry said, "Got it, no summoning anything. I promise."


    Forge nodded and said, "Good." He held his metal hand out for Harry to shake and he did so. "I''m Jonathan Silvercloud, everyone calls me Forge though. When the semester starts I teach physical sciences. I hear you know your way around tech."


    Harry recognized the Native American name and nodded, "Yes, I''m Harry, and I can write an operating system blindfolded and can probably take apart anything in Dr. McCoy''s lab and put it back together."


    "Is that right? We''ll see about that later." He closed the hatch and left. It seemed he had just finished.


    Kurt said, "Oh, you''re so gonna get it."


    Harry asked, "Why is that?"


    Sarah answered, "Forge probably has one of the biggest egos on the planet but not without good reason. You basically challenged him by saying you could take apart his tech."


    Scott continued, "That, and he is the one who programs the Danger Room. Him and Logan are number two and three of the top three people you don''t mess with here."


    Harry asked, "And number one?"


    All four answered at the same time, """"Storm.""""


    Harry could easily imagine what a Weather Sorceress of her power would be capable of so he didn''t question it further.


    They each grabbed a plate and finished it while continuing their prior discussion.


    At one point Harry realized something and thought out loud to ask the question if the others knew that Jean couldn''t control her powers and was hearing their thoughts as well. Jean gave a quick look at him and shook her head showing a bit of anxiety. Harry thought that he had no intention of telling others and as long as she didn''t share the information she learned or use it against others, there was no real harm in them not knowing.


    Jean sent a telepathic message to Harry, ''It has only been the last couple months that my powers have gotten stronger and this started. They don''t know and I thank you for not telling them.''


    Harry thought out loud that it wasn''t a problem, but privately he wondered if the Phoenix granting him a part of its flame had affected Jean, boosting her own power due to the proximity. If that was the case, it would probably get stronger which meant Harry had to help her control it faster and remove the blocks before they caused permanent damage to her growing psyche.


    He did ask if she would be able to reach his mind at night for more time to use his library to study mind arts.


    Turns out that her own bedroom wasn''t too far from Harry''s so it was easy. Harry did his best to avoid the temptation of mentioning how they only knew each other for a day and were already planning ways to sneak into each other''s rooms. Mentally at least.


    After dinner, Harry and Jean returned to the library and Scott, Kurt, and Sarah headed off to do their own thing. The study group ?ssembled not long after though was smaller than usual as most of its members went home for the summer. The current members included Bobby, Kitty, Sooraya, and Josh, along with Jean. Kitty was a few years older with Bobby being about the same age as Harry while Sooraya and Josh were both a few years younger. Bobby''s parents didn''t know he was a mutant so he felt awkward around them which was why he stayed. Kitty apparently picked up an cat sized alien dragon when she went to space and brought it back, but her parents wouldn''t let it come over so she stayed at the mansion because she didn''t want to leave it. Sooraya was Muslim and wore a traditional hajib. She didn''t have family and didn''t speak of it further. Josh was a young mutant who could heal others, but a few months back he got badly injured and tried to heal himself. It worked, but his skin permanently turned gold in color which made it difficult to walk around outside the mansion without a few hours of heavy makeup application.


    Jean was usually the head of the study group but once they got started, Harry''s Scholar Path got to work and his inner teacher smoothly took over. Jean didn''t mind because he was doing well and it gave her more time to spend looking through the books on mental arts in Harry''s head.


    According to Harry''s senses, Bobby''s cells had a constant connection to a dimension that was similar to Ickthalon''s but not the same one. There were countless dimensions after all and Ickthalon''s was not the only Dimension of endless cold energy. That however meant that Bobby could use the equivalent of ice magic with the power of invocation without giving anything up in exchange. There was no reasonable limit either. If that dimension had no master then Bobby could potentially channel all the energy of that Dimension with enough effort. If there was no one to stop him he could freeze the planet solid if he wanted to. Harry was quite glad he was a good guy. Harry decided to teach him everything there was to know about thermodynamics.


    Josh felt strange to Harry''s senses. He was actually a bit similar to the energy Harry felt off the Philosopher''s stone but also different. That matched what Josh told Harry about his abilities. Harry debated giving him some physical books on Occlumency since there was a possibility he could use his healing ability to reshape his own mind to practice the art. If he could, then it was possible to use Occlumency to learn vast amounts of chemistry, biology, and human anatomy and physiology. A living philosopher''s stone with such knowledge would be very interesting. Not even the Flamels knew everything their stone could do after all.


    Kitty had an interesting power of physical intangibility. Unlike the few dimension shifting forms of Intangibility Harry knew of, her''s allowed her to still see and hear things in this dimension while intangible and she could even affect or be affected by some energies while intangible. She wanted to study engineering and though Harry was a few years younger than her, she had no problem accepting his input. She used to be Dr. McCoy''s ?ssistance and knew her stuff, but it seemed there were some issues with her power and she was kind of a klutz so after one too many dropped beakers or wrecking expensive equipment by accidental phasing into it, she was let go from that position.


    Harry didn''t know Sooraya''s power and he didn''t ask. Sooraya wanted to study law and though Harry mostly knew business law, he still knew enough criminal law to ?ssist her.


    When it came to studies, Jean usually studied the mind but that was more because of the influence of Professor Xavier and her own power than it was for a career. Everyone ?ssumed she would go into the field of Psychology but just because she could go into the minds of others, didn''t mean she liked to. Harry found this out while in her mind but that was mostly because she let him see it. From within her mind Harry directly said, "Jean, when you''re done mastering mind arts, I''d recommend learning about physics, astrophysics and astronomy."


    Within her mind echoed the question, "Oh, and why is that?"


    "Learning about the mind will help you control your powers. Learning physics and astrophysics will teach you new ways to use them."


    "And Astronomy?"


    Harry said, "A hunch. You''ll need it."


    Harry didn''t continue looking through Jean''s mind to see what her answer would be. He gained all he needed for now on ForgetMeNot''s issue and couldn''t do anything about the mental blocks until Jean gained the ability to unfold her own mind which could take several months depending on how much effort she put into it.


    That day''s study group went on far longer than normal due to the progress each made in their own subject but eventually came to an end and they each returned to their rooms.


    On arrival Harry noticed ForgetMeNot go stiff and stare at him for a few moments. Harry said, "I still remember you, so relax."


    ForgetMeNot let out a sigh and said, "Sorry. I''ve had others say they would remember me too."


    Harry wanted to tell him of his progress but there wasn''t much to speak of at the moment so he said, "Can I have one more lock of your hair? I want to try a few things on it."


    ForgetMeNot rolled his eyes and took the scissors from earlier and snipped a lock from the back of his head which Harry took and set aside.


    Harry asked, "Are you a part of the second X-Men Team that went into space?"


    ForgetMeNot looked surprised and said, "Yeah, but I don''t really want to talk about it."


    Harry figured the older mutant probably had as little experience talking to people about things as Harry did.


    Harry took the papers he wrote earlier out of his inventory along with a portkey box. He created a magic circle in the air above an empty dresser which expanded and contracted, giving Harry the numbers to write down for the space''s magical coordinates. He wrote that down and set it in the portkey box before activating it, sending the box to the goblins.


    "Um, Harry?"


    "Yes ForgetMeNot?"


    "What was that?"


    "Paperwork."


    "No, I mean the taking stuff out of midair thing, and the glowy circle thing, and the vanishing box thing."


    "Oh. That''s magic. Why?"


    "Um, you know what? Forget I asked."

 Chapter 34 - 34 Xavier Danger

    One week after Harry''s arrival he got his first Danger Room session. That morning an armored truck had pulled up to the X-Mansion and delivered several crates of various sizes containing the supplies he asked the Goblins to stage the manual delivery of. Setting up such a routine every other month or so would cement the ''weakness'' of his power to others watching him, and he had no doubt others were watching him.


    According to the Goblins, there had been over a dozen checks into Harry''s background done by various companies and several agencies since the open transfer of his funds from overseas to the States. However by this point the Goblins had had four years to create a background and three years to create the foundation of his company so it all looked completely legitimate. The Goblins even included several legal issues into the history of his company which looked to be resolved later because a company with a history of legal issues was less suspicious than a company without them.


    There was a reason that the Goblins put so much effort into working for Harry rather than just doing everything themselves with their own gold. Legally speaking due to a large amount of treaties and agreements made in the past, Goblins were not allowed to own land, interact with nonmagicals, or work above ground in most areas. At the moment, they weren''t breaking a single law. Although just a technicality, every land or business purchased was purchased only under Harry''s name. The taxes were a nightmare but it was perfectly legal. As for the other issues, they were solved by simply using computers or hiring muggleborns or squibs for direct interactions.


    One would think that it was possible for Harry to betray them, but the Goblins had Harry sign a large amount of magical contracts which would pretty much end his life if he did so. Not that he would. Also, the contracts didn''t prevent the Goblins from trying to cheat him which they would often make attempts to do though Harry caught each one. When Harry was sent stacks of paperwork he would just directly put it into his inventory and pause before going over it all, line by line which was what saved him from a few of the more subtle technicalities and clauses they tried to sneak into some forms for him to sign. Harry knew that the Goblins were not his friends, just business partners. One wrong move or misstep on Harry''s part and he would practically become a magic bound puppet to be used by the Goblins yet as long as he stayed a step ahead of them he had a cut-throat workforce more cunning than any lawyer and more vicious than a shark who smelled blood in the water. It was just another battlefield for the Goblins and they enjoyed having a worthy opponent.


    The supplies Harry had delivered included a dozen small crates each filled with a hundred or so synthetic gemstones that were flat enough to stack with a shape similar to a full wallet in size. After use hover dollies to transport the crates to the Danger Room, Harry was immediately told to get out one of everything and head in for an examination of his base reading.


    Logan said into the speaker system, "Alright brat, it''s finally time to show us what you''re made of."


    The audience included Professor Xavier, Forge, Logan, Dr. McCoy, and a few of the third X-Men team including Scott, Jean, and Kurt. Ms. Munroe was noticeably absent as her attention was already completely wrapped in the book written by her ancestor that arrived with the rest of the materials.


    Logan said, "First, we''re gonna get a base reading on you. So just go through the course."


    From what Harry learned from Forge, the Danger Room had two modes. Obstacle Course and Combat Simulator. The Obstacle Course was where random obstacles came out of the wall and floor and the students were expected to get through them while running ??ps around the large circular room. The Combat Simulator was a newer function they hadn''t fully worked the bugs out of yet that made Hard-Light constructs to use as opponents.


    According to Forge, the alien ship Kitty and the second X-Men team returned to earth on had a rudimentary Hard-Light system which is basically a combination of Holograms and force fields. A force field was usually made to cover a surface and didn''t move, but it was possible to create an enclosed space where a force field could be made in mid-air and moved around. This combined with a hologram made it look like one could create actual constructs. Of course the construct could not exist outside the Danger Room as an enclosed space was required for their existence, but it was a good way for those with lethal capabilities to test them without holding back.


    Harry ran three ??ps around the Danger Room while wearing a Cursed ring he made. After learning more about the nature of Wizard Magic, Harry had delved deeper into making it his own and less Chaotic which led him to create more personalized spells and such. This curse was similar to the momentum restricting equipment he had before, but far more efficient and since it used his Wizard magic, it was invisible to any form of energy sensing. The curse itself reduced Harry''s physical stats to about 30 a piece which for a soon to be 15 year old was just about peak possible fitness.


    Logan let him have it on the obstacles as laser turrets, saw blades, and spikes came at him from every direction forcing him to pause nearly every three seconds to check what new gizmo had popped out of the wall. He looked around while not paused of course but that was more for show.


    Next was a test of Harry''s heightened base. According to Harry''s explanation of his abilities, absorbing a rare metal could increase his stats for a week while absorbing a common metal would only increase them for an hour and that these two effects stacked. The limit of how much he could increase his base rose with his fitness level. Harry absorbed some bars of Platinum which were among the delivered items and reduced the effect of the curse from 90% reduction to 50% reduction making his physical stats of STR and AGI about 150 a piece.


    Harry did the course once more but the delay between the different obstacles popping up had been drastically reduced the moment Logan got an understanding of Harry''s strength and speed.


    And last but not least, Harry absorbed some pure Iron bars and he removed the ring completely and showed off his base physique. The ring itself had a Notice-Me-Not charm on it so those watching didn''t pay attention to the fact that he wore it or took it off.


    While watching Harry''s third run from the observation deck, Xavier asked aloud, "How is he?"


    Logan answered gruffly, "Strength wise he is about half-way between me and Sabertooth. His speed is closer to Sabertooth''s than mine though. Although he has combat experience, from the way he handles himself, I''d say it''s mostly one on one. He has little to no experience on a true battlefield."


    Xavier commented, "That is not surprising. He trained with others to control his power but he doesn''t appear to have experienced war so there would be no reason for him to fight in a battlefield."


    Logan agreed with the second part but not the first. He could always tell the difference between those who have killed and those who haven''t. There was a fear of death in the eyes of those who have never taken a life and those who have never had someone try to take theirs. He could tell Harry had fought against people who wanted him dead and probably killed them. But he wouldn''t say anything, that wasn''t his business to share.


    Forge took over the speaker and said, "Alright, now we''re gonna test those gems. Wait. Harry, what''re the fossils for?"


    The armored truck dropped off twelve small crates, three medium crates, and two large crates along with Ororo''s book. The small crates had all been opened and contained the various palm sized synthetic gemstones Harry used while the large crates contained Iron and one of the medium crates contained the platinum. The other two medium crates hadn''t been opened.


    One of the twelve small crates however didn''t contain gemstones, it contained fossils.


    Harry answered, "Those are Tyrannosaurus Rex bone fossils. We should save their use for last."


    Forge was more than a little curious but set it aside for now and activated the combat simulation.


    The room changed into what looked to be the interior of a large office building as the holograms set the stage and the Hard-Light constructs filled out the room.


    A collective grimace appeared on the spectator''s faces and Xavier asked, "Did it have to be this scenario? He''s a bit young to face him."


    Forge smiled and said, "I''m sure the kid can take it."


    Harry moved through the rows of empty cubicles and a moment later, the elevator at the end of the hall Dinged.


    The door slid open and out charged a man in a red and black custom riding a minigun mounted pink unicorn. He shouted, "Bet you weren''t expecting me muthafu***s! Wait, did I just get bleeped? Eh hem. **** your ******* ***** *** with a chimichanga."


    Harry found himself far too stunned to acknowledge what he had said. The pink unicorn''s saddle had two actual miniguns mounted to the sides and the red guy riding it had swords strapped to his back. Dufuq?


    The strange man jumped off the unicorn and said, "Hey kids, I''m Deadpool. And this is Philip."


    The unicorn let out a growl and the miniguns started rotating.


    Harry grabbed a Citrine from his belt and had it glow before putting it in his inventory. Just as the miniguns started firing, chains wrapped around the unicorn''s neck and dragged him to the side aligning his line of fire with Deadpool''s back. The man''s body partially exploded with a shower of gore and blood and the unicorn was unable to get back up.


    From behind him, Harry heard someone shout, "You killed Kenny!"


    Harry turned to see another Deadpool standing there and to his side was a third who shouted, "You Bas****! Wait, Bas**** gets censored? What the-"


    Harry used a Tourmaline to summon a bolt of heat and light which was sent through the copy''s torso before he could finish his sentence. The copy next to him said, "Ok, playtime''s over."


    He drew his sword and ran over to Harry who pulled out and used a Diamond and generated his Eldritch Heavy Sword. Deadpool struck it a dozen times but his sword bounced off allowing Harry to use it as a shield with his Tidal Sword style. Each sweep of his weapon changed the layout of the office space but Deadpool moved around like a monkey on a sugar high.


    Deadpool jumped back a few steps and shouted, "Get him Phillip!"


    The gun toting pink unicorn had freed itself from the chains and was revving its miniguns once more. Harry charged forward as the guns went off using his heavy sword as a shield though it was slowly whittled away as he got closer. The unicorn charged forward to meet Harry who jumped to the side and bounced against a wall to face the unicorn once more and with a clean slice the unicorn was bisected.


    Deadpool fell to his knees and shouted, "Phillip!" He then pulled two hand guns from behind him and started unloading at Harry who had to jump behind the adjacent desks for cover.


    Harry pulled out a Ruby and after making it glow and vanish he started emitting red light as he channeled strength energy from Cyttorak''s realm. Harry charged forward through the desks as if they were made of air and tackled Deadpool to the ground before ripping off his arms.


    Deadpool looked to his left and right and said, "You know, I don''t think this is the proper way to disarm someone."


    Harry headbutted him which seemed to knock him out as the red glow faded.


    The elevator Dinged once more.


    Four more Deadpools came out of the elevator and started shooting Harry at the same time while arguing with each other over... who was the most handsome? Harry decided to ignore their conversation and pulled out the dino fossil and put it in his inventory.


    Harry channeled his Dragon Chi causing golden arcs of lightning to flash over his body. One of the Deadpools shouted, "He''s going Super Saiyan! Kill him before he gets sued for Copywrite infringement!"


    The bullets did nothing to Harry who took a few moments to compose himself before moving faster than the eye could follow over to the group of Deadpools and smashing into one of them with all the force he could muster.


    The moment Harry''s fist made contact, the hologram vanished and the projection flashed red with a message on the wall *ERROR ERROR.* There was also a five meter tall dent in the wall a few feet in front of where Harry had punched and sparks were coming from the scrap behind it.


    The message vanished and the Danger Room opened. Harry looked over at the group and asked, "Who the bloody hell was that?"


    Logan answered, "Deadpool. Mercenary who pops up in unexpected places and is troublesome to put down. I''ve seen him survive decapitation so even if you beat him, expect him to return."


    Harry asked, "There''s no way that he actually acts like that."


    Scott shuddered and said, "No, it''s completely accurate. I''ve seen him twice. He really does spout off endless nonsense which will throw anyone off if they listen to it."


    Forge was looking over the damage done to the Danger Room wall and asked, "Was that the dino bone?"


    Harry answered, "Yeah, sorry about that."


    "I can see why you wanted to save that one for last. This will take a week to fix and another week to recalibrate. My system couldn''t detect any energy readings off you which made the sensors give conflicting data."


    [New Quest: Greater Danger


    -Help Forge Fix Danger Room


    -Improve Danger Room with Magic


    -Help Danger Room Evolve.]


    The quest gave Harry some ideas so he asked, "Can I help?"


    Forge looked like he was going to refuse but after a moment of thought said, "Alright, but if you mess around even once, there won''t be a second time. Got it?"


    "Of course," he answered.


    The following week returned Harry to routine except he spent four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening helping Forge.


    One of Harry''s goals in the past was to make his own Room of Requirements but a more recently he discovered that the core of the RoR was a concentrated Eye of Magic which was actually constructed using instructions from the Darkhold and was what gave birth the chaotic forces needed to make something so impossible. A side effect of this however was that Cthon could witness the contents of the RoR and all within whenever he wanted.


    The Danger Room''s systems were basically made of spaceship parts. The gravity generator could make the occupants feel like they were standing on a slope when they were upright and the wiring, air conditioning, heater, and cooling system of the spaceship could be used to make lightning, fire, ice, and wind in the enclosed space. These combined with the Hard-Light projections gave the Danger Room a lot of possibilities as a training space.


    However there was much the Danger Room could not do. A lot of computing power had to be put into minute details such as the impact force of bullets to be both realistic and non lethal to those who failed to dodge in time. Every twitch of the force field while being impacted had to be calculated and even Forge''s best computing system couldn''t cope with multiple users fighting within which was why the Combat Simulator could only be used for individuals, not groups. There was just not enough computing power.


    Harry wrote out a ward scheme which used the same systems as the current Danger Room but focused on control to handle a majority of the computations automatically. Basically the magic would handle the tiny stuff and the mundane systems would doing the heavy lifting.


    The only issue was that Harry needed a way to allow the Danger Room to control the Magic without a wizard directing it. He was looking through the software when he noticed something that stood out.


    Harry took the tablet he was using to look through the software over to Forge and asked, "What''s with the AI in here?"


    Forge stopped ?ssembling some replacement parts and said, "There''s no AI in the Danger Room. The software can adapt but it can''t grow beyond its storage space."


    Harry said, "The time stamps on the program history shows the baseline reaction sensors have been updating irregularly. If you''re not the one doing that, who is?"


    Forge grabbed the tablet and looked over the readings Harry noticed. A moment later he marched to the main terminal and looked for the same lines to confirm it wasn''t a mistake.


    Five minutes of browsing later and Forge shouted, "Dammit. I can''t believe he would do this."


    Harry asked, "Who did what?"


    Forge answered, "There''s a block in my head preventing me from noticing what you showed me. This AI has been here for a while, probably from the ship. All the systems that would show the AI''s activities have been placed under hidden files meaning you can only look for it passively, not actively. You''d never find it in here unless you already knew it was there. The only person who has the clearance needed to do this and place those blocks in my head is..."


    Harry sighed. After a moment he said, "If I could figure out why he did it without raising suspicion, would you be willing to help?"


    Forge asked, "What''d you have in mind?"


    After going over the plan, Forge got one of the Professor''s spare wheelchairs and Harry opened one of the two crates he hadn''t opened earlier. They contained Vibranium and Adamantium.


    Forge looked over and said, "Mind if I buy some of this? There are a few projects I could really use it for."


    Harry considered it and said, "Only if you let me help you build it. I can swear on my magic not to steal your work, but I''d like to use it as a learning experience."


    Forge considered it. He was in fact one of, if not the most brilliant inventor on the planet and personal lessons from him were not in fact inferior in value to the weight of these metals he wanted to use so it was a fair deal. "Alright. But you don''t need to swear not to use it, just ask permission and give me a cut if you make money off anything you learn from me."


    And with that they had a deal.


    Harry used some vibranium and etched it into the replacement wheelchair along with a long term diagnosis spell. If the professor sat in the chair for a full day, it would give a complete framework of his mind.


    Forge was quite peeved that he had been manipulated to ignore an AI and had already created an interface to speak with it. The first thing Forge did was ask for forgiveness that he didn''t notice it earlier. The AI was pretty pissed, but not at Forge and when asked for forgiveness it was given without issue. According to her, and Forge was the one who declared it a she, the AI had sent a message to Xavier asking what she was not long after the ?ssimilation of the spaceship into the Danger Room and the Professor decided to keep it under wraps. He typed in a core command to never harm the students than locked her away beneath the software.


    The next day Harry sent a discrete spell at Xavier''s chair and fried it without anyone being the wiser. Forge got out the replacement chair and said he''d have the old one fixed the following day.


    When they got the chair back, Harry looked over the diagnosis spell with Forge. Forge didn''t use magic, but that was just preference. He certainly knew how to use it and could read of the diagnosis as well as Harry could.


    Both let out a depressed sigh at the results and weren''t sure what to think.


    Danger, which is what the AI called itself, had been kept up to date on their plans and wanted to know what they found.


    Forge summarized it for her and afterwards even she felt unsure about it.


    Xavier it seemed, wanted to become a symbol that others could get behind. He had succeeded in that, without using his powers on others, many politicians believed in him and stood behind him which is what protected the X-Men from the extremists in the government.


    The problem however was that he was human. He had his own character flaws which would get in the way of his goals. So he cheated. He used his own abilities on himself to seal away the negative and darker aspects of his personality.


    And because he believed he succeeded, he subconsciously believed sealing some parts of the mind was a viable solution to some problems.


    Harry had been trying to figure out how Xavier could have rationalized what he did to Jean and it seemed that because he had sealed part of his own mind, he wasn''t in fact thinking rationally.


    Thankfully, according to the readings anyways, the only minds he did anything like that too were Jean and Forge. He accessed Logan''s mind to try to fix his memories, accessed Beast''s mind to walk him through gaining control over his base impulses, and accessed Ororo''s mind to help her control her emotions but did nothing to affect them like he had Jean or Forge.


    Forge could see this as well from the readings and quickly figured out that Harry had already discovered Jean''s tampering which was why he wanted to do this in the first place. When he asked about it Harry said he had it covered and Forge didn''t bring it up again.


    Rather than hold it against him, Forge decided to pity the Professor. He had sacrificed his own mind to become more than just a man but in doing so he may have lost a core part of his humanity. He explained his reasoning to Danger who also decided not to take action against the man, though she wouldn''t forgive him so easily. She calculated that one day he would face the consequences of his actions so there was no need to do anything to him. Such a man was his own worse enemy and didn''t need ?ssistance in being torn down.


    Once Harry understood how knowledgeable Forge was on magic, he directly brought out his ideas for modifications to the Danger Room using aspects stolen off the Room of Requirements. All they had to do was tie the AI Danger to the rune control scheme and that would allow inhumanely precise control and near limitless possibilities.


    Danger understood that she could easily use what was being given to her to harm the students. It wasn''t difficult to figure out ways around the core command but she also understood she was being trusted with this power and wanted to keep that trust.


    Harry and Forge spend nearly every minute of the following weekend in the Danger Room and food would often be brought to them to ensure they didn''t go without.


    Forge showed Harry how to build what was basically a quantum computing core using vibranium and magic by introducing Harry to some of the properties of vibranium he had no idea were possible. With this, Danger would have more processing power than the rest of New York combined.


    Much of Forge''s tech used the principles of magic meaning he was far ahead of Harry in that field which Harry was quite pleased with. No point in having a teacher who wasn''t smarter than you. The best part was that Harry had a lot of ideas for things he wanted to make which required processors he couldn''t fabricate but using a magic processor and the adaption technique Forge showed him he was no longer limited as much.


    That and he now had a perfect understanding for how Hard-Light technology worked. The material required to build it didn''t exist on earth but Harry thought of a few substitutions he could make using Sonic modulation on existing materials to change their properties to match what he needed.


    In addition to things he stole from the Room of Requirement, Harry also included some rudimentary Time Lord Math he stabilized with space expansion charms to make the inside of the Danger Room far larger than it should be. Forge had to check the numbers a few times and though he didn''t understand Block Transfer Computations, he could figure out the scale of the effect and work with it without issue. Of course it only worked because they used adamantium to inscribe the runes and fifth dimensional math which ensured the timespace wouldn''t collapse.


    The final addition was that Harry inscribed Danger''s processor with anti-magic shielding. It wasn''t the same type the Goblins made him swear never to spread but since Harry already knew five different ways to make something magic proof at this point, that wasn''t an issue. This would ensure Danger couldn''t be hacked by a technopath or a superior AI if she ever encountered one.


    The Tuesday after the second weekend since they started, the project was finally finished.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Greater Danger


    Reward: Mindscape Copy]


    The pair weren''t exactly subtle in their mad scientist montage and everyone at the school knew they two were up to something, but no one had any clue as to what the result would be.


    The students and staff ?ssembled outside the entrance to the Danger room and with a bit of fanfare, Forge said, "Ladies and Gentleman. And Logan, I present to you, Danger." He opened the door to reveal the same empty space everyone was familiar with. Nothing looked different or out of place. However, a moment later a group of lights appeared and gathered together to create a form which took the appearance of a beautiful caucasian woman with silver hair.


    Evan was the first to break the silence. "You built a girlfriend?"


    A few chuckles rolled through the crowd and Forge said flatly, "Ha ha Evan. Danger is the AI who will be designing new simulations for the X-Men. Cross her at your own peril."


    Danger smiled and turned around walking further into the room while motioning for others to follow her. Xavier''s concerned face was noticed by Logan and Ororo but when Forge and Harry walked into the room and the rest followed, they remained silent on it and followed in as well.


    As they entered, the room changed into a forest next to a lake with a log cabin set at the edge.


    Logan was the first to notice the difference. Harry had already learned that Logan''s senses were superior to others which was why when he first met him, his illusions had no effect. Logan could smell the real Harry among his doppelgangers. Logan took in an audible breath and examined the trees, birds, and water.


    Harry walked over and asked him, "How''s the smell?"


    Without showing surprise, he answered, "Smells like nature."


    Evan went over to the lake and said, "This hologram looks really good."


    Danger smiled and walked over to him from behind and pushed him into the lake with a smile.


    Evan fell in with a splash and got out moments later, completely soaked. "Hey what''s going on here? Isn''t this a Hard-Light hologram?"


    Danger answered in a bell like voice, "It is at the core but there are now layers over that which far more accurately depict reality." She walked over to Forge and kissed him on the cheek which the blush he showed made others realized that felt like a real kiss.


    Kitty walked up to Danger and asked, "Why do you look familiar?"


    Danger smiled and said, "I choose this form myself, though I did use Ms. Munroe as a base. By human standard she is most beautiful. I hope you don''t mind."


    Logan grunted, "At least she''s got good taste."


    Ororo smacked his shoulder and answered back, "Not at all. It is a p???sur? to meet you."


    The group spent half an hour exploring and a few realized the open space was larger than the Danger Room should be which confused many of the students and had Dr McCoy jumping around various trees to analyze the realism of the forest environment. He had nothing but praise for it complimenting the texture of the wood when he was climbing and the variety of lifelike insects he found through the canopy.


    After a full hour, Ororo told everyone it was dinner time and said Harry had no choice but to come along as he hadn''t had dinner with the others in over two weeks.


    Harry accepted since he needed time to decompress before he started on another project and he had been neglecting the study group. He''d ask for forgiveness and hoped they wouldn''t kick him out.


    Harry was the last to enter the dining room and as soon as he came through, everyone shouted, "Surprise! Happy Birthday Harry!"


    Harry looked at the colorful streamers, the decoration, and the chocolate cake on the table and even with all that, it still took him a moment to remember today''s date was in fact his birthday.


    Birthdays weren''t really celebrated in Kamar-Taj and Harry was always too wrapped up in various projects to celebrate it himself. Sirius threw him a party for his twelfth birthday and Hermione and Neville showed up, but this was the first surprise party he''d ever had, and the second birthday party he''d experienced.


    Harry blew out the candles after the lame birthday song was sung aloud and Harry cut the cake to get the first slice while Beast distributed the remaining slices for everyone else.


    Harry was barraged with questions about the last two weeks which included a lot of nonsense about if he could do the same for their rooms. Harry noticed ForgetMeNot in the corner and went over to the table to get a slice of cake for him since Beast forgot to. However, on his way over to deliver the cake, the girl he knew as Rogue came around the corner and they walked into each other and fell over. Harry''s hand touched her exposed arm which caused her to freeze up, but Harry didn''t feel anything.


    The room became silent and several others saw this. Rogue looked down at where Harry was holding her with wide eyes.


    With this, Harry had decided on his next project.

 Chapter 35 - 35 Lost Children

    Shortly after Harry''s party came to a conclusion, Harry was called to Xavier''s office with Rogue and Logan. The moment he entered the door, he got a notification.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Rogue Powers


    Assist Ann Marie with gaining control over her powers.]


    Harry was going to do it anyways but the quest notification still made him smile. The Ancient One had already concluded that any completed quest would do good for the world which meant Rogue gaining control over her powers would be a great thing. Harry''s trust in the quest prompts was one of the reasons he had rationalized giving Danger so much freedom and he was quite proud of his accomplishment.


    After entering Xavier''s office, Rogue removed a glove and they confirmed through some simple tests that Rogue''s power had not changed, it simply didn''t affect Harry.


    Xavier stated, "Rogue''s powers have, to this point, been uncontrollable in nature. I feel this discovery may perhaps be a clue to unraveling a means to provide that control."


    Harry had heard a number of things about her power from a few of the students, especially Bobby. Children gossip after all, it was in their nature. However he still wanted to hear answers from the source. Harry answered Xavier, "Maybe, but I''d like a few more details to work with." He turned to Rogue and asked, "Can you describe your power? Give me as many details as you can please."


    The look of both hope and pain in her eyes seemed to be fighting each other but after a moment of silence she let out a sigh and answered in a southern belle accent. "Well, when I touch someone, I feel like I become that person, just for a lil'' while. The longer I touch ''em, the more that person I become and the longer the effects gonna last. When I do it to a mutant, I get their powers too."


    Harry mulled over that for a moment and asked, "What''s it like to become someone else?"


    She shook her head, "I don''t know, it''s like, I go away just a bit and someone else steps in. I''m them. I get some of their memories and sometimes I forget I''m me."


    Logan added, "Even after the power or memories wear off, she''ll sometimes gain personality traits of those she touches. Those wear off too, but the length of time''s not always the same."


    Harry felt a few dots connecting to a conclusion he''d never have thought of. Harry looked up to Logan and asked with an educated guess, "Did your personality traits last longer in her than other people?"


    Logan remained motionless for a moment before giving a curt nod.


    Harry added, "Do you trust her and trust her with your power?"


    Xavier picked up on the direction he was going and asked, "You think the length of the effect is determined by the donor''s connection to Rogue?"


    Rogue''s eyes widened for a bit and said, "That would explain Mystique. Still got a bit of her in here somewhere," she said while pointing at her head.


    Harry figured that meant she''d copied the shapeshifter at some point and they weren''t strangers. He turned to Xavier and said, "In any case, the reason she can''t get anything from me is simple, my power trumps hers."


    She turned to Harry with a partially offended look which forced Harry to quickly explain himself to avoid a misunderstanding, "I mean I can absorb things as well. She can''t absorb from another absorber, it cancels out."


    Harry was pretty sure they''d buy his excuse since it was close enough to the truth. His mutant power was keeping the energy infused Obscurus particles that made up his body together in the shape of a human. If Rogue could absorb the energy contained within his Obscurus particles, it would likely cause his form to break down. So his power was directly resisting her power. Not that he knew his power would win out over hers. He was quite worried when he first touched her because the worst case scenario was that she could permanently absorb all the energy of his particles leading to a permanent death.


    Rogue''s posture visibly slumped at Harry''s answer but Xavier said, "But it seems you have a few ideas Mr. Potter?"


    Harry nodded, "Dealing with magic is basically just dealing with different types of energies. Rogue''s ability to absorb and use energies is not impossible to duplicate with magic. Therefore there are means of training that could prove useful to her."


    Logan asked, "There are normal guys who can train to do that?"


    Harry nodded and explained, "They require a great deal of talent, but in essence, yes. I know of one guy who can permanently drain all the energy out of a person by touching them. Not that he has done so. That is simply an application of what he can do, not the purpose he trains for."


    Rogue asked, "Why not? Is there a reason he doesn''t?


    Harry figured she wanted to know if there were consequences to doing so she didn''t know about. After considering it for a moment he said, "I''ll tell you later. It is relevant to you, but there is no need for others to know his business," Harry answered while gesturing to Xavier and Logan.


    Harry and Rogue were excused and Harry took Rogue''s ungloved hand and dragged her over to an empty study.


    He felt the presence of a certain flame as well as the recently caved-in space that accompanied the arrival of a certain blue prankster behind the open door. Harry didn''t mind, he just didn''t want Xavier to be analyzing the pair as he gave her the info.


    Harry sat Rogue down and said, "You want to know the consequences of absorbing the energy of someone else? Well, the main issue is the taint. The only person you should be is you. When you are someone else, the real you becomes lost. If that guy I know goes around permanently absorbing the energy of everyone he could, he''d certainly become more powerful, but he would permanently lose himself to the taint gained from others and at the end of the day, the one standing in his shoes would not be him, but someone else. A stranger with his memories."


    Rogue looked frustrated and tried to say without yelling, "But they keep tellin'' me I need to practice my powers which means usin'' ''em as much as I can. You''re sayin'' the more I use ''em, the less me I become?"


    Harry considered it and said, "Yes, but I don''t think it should be that way. Those pieces of others who affect your personality can be considered taint. But this is your power, it shouldn''t bring you harm if you''re using it right. There should be a way to use it without absorbing taint and remaining yourself."


    Rogue got up and said, "Don''t you think I''ve been tryin''! It''s all or nothin'' every time I touch anyone. I can''t, I," she lost her energy and fell back into the couch with a depressed slump.


    Harry sat down and said, "I don''t think it''s your fault. You may have accumulated too much taint already. There should be a part of your mind you can use to control your power, but it''s so gunked up that it''s numb to you, preventing you from feeling it out."


    Rogue sat in silence for a few moments before saying, "When my powers first kicked in, I was kissin'' a boyfriend. It was my first kiss. I didn''t know what kisses were supposed to feel like, I just thought it was a hell of a kiss." After a moment of silence she added, "He''s still in a coma."


    Harry let out a sigh and said, "That''s probably what numbed you then."


    "So that''s it for me?" she asked quietly.


    Harry shook his head, "No. We need to remove the taint and get you back to a clean slate."


    "Professor already tried that," she listlessly replied.


    Harry continued, "He could likely remove the mental aspects, but not the energy, connection, and life force aspects. Taint is not so easily removed. It''s supposed to be a consequence of taking what shouldn''t be taken. You just got the short end of the straw."


    "Story of my life," she replied smoothly.


    Harry took her hand again and said, "Hey, I''m pretty creative alright. Don''t give up hope. If nothing else, I promise that if you ever need a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on, I''ll be available, ok?"


    Rogue turned to Harry with glistening eyes and said, "Can I, can I have a hug?"


    Harry smiled and pulled her into a hug. She felt her first touch of human warmth in who knows how long and a moment later she started sobbing. Harry patted her back and held her tight until she let it out.


    Outside the room Harry could tell that Jean was using subtle suggestions to the kids walking around to avoid the room and Kurt was threatening terrifying pranks to those who looked like they were approaching. They were both making sure no one disturbed Rogue''s moment. Harry really smiled at that. This whole place treated even the outcasts like family.


    When Rogue was done, she apologized to Harry who said there was nothing to apologize for. She thanked him and after taking a few moments to dry her eyes, she left.


    Harry moved his hand to the side just as Kurt teleported in and flicked his forehead ''reflexively'' as he appeared. Jean had hitched a ride teleporting in as well after first teleporting out of the hallway to prevent Rogue from seeing the peepers.


    Jean cried out, "We''re not peepers."


    Harry smiled and said, "I didn''t say anything." Though he did think it.


    Jean rolled her eyes and after letting out a sigh said, "Thanks for helping Rogue. A lot of us really know how bad it is to have no control over their powers and she''s always been one of the worst cases."


    Kurt rubbed his forehead and said, "Ya, I have it pretty bad because of how I look, but at least I can be touched. Chicks dig the blue fuzz too." He smiled confidently and nodded while Jean seemed to be questioning her choices in acquaintances.


    Harry turned to Kurt and said, "Forge and I came up with a few neat breakthroughs with Hard-Light and Hologram tech while upgrading the Danger Room. I''ll see what can be done about a Hard-Light hologram disguise for you."


    Kurt didn''t hide his surprise and asked, "You can do that?"


    Harry gave it a moment to roll the idea through his head and allowed a few points to click together and said, "I can try. If it works though, the Hard-Light will press your tail against you, preventing it from swinging around like an extra layer of clothes over everything. It might be uncomfortable."


    Kurt did a back flip and said, "No problem. Going outside nowadays needs like five layers already just to hide my features. I''d love an alternative."


    Harry nodded and said, "Might take a few months though. Not for the fabrication, but for the program that writes over your appearance. Writing the whole thing myself would take too long, but I set up the program to write itself after preparing a few things. Danger might be able to help so I''ll head down later to ask her."


    Kurt''s smile was infectious and he practically cried out, "Oh thank you Harry! I can''t wait!" He then teleported out. Probably to tell others.


    Jean said, "For someone who considers helping people just a hobby, you certainly put a lot of effort into it."


    Harry smiled and said, "Ah, have you finally gone through the books on my life and my head?"


    Jean turned away for a moment before saying, "I''m sorry."


    "For what?"


    "I, I did look at some memories of your childhood. I saw, I saw those awful people."


    Harry sighed and said, "My life before the age of ten wasn''t exactly something that you''d find in a children''s story." He hoped she''d pick something more interesting than that. Now however she felt guilty for looking at something so painful. When it comes to pain, there are usually two types of people. There are those who show off their pain to others hoping to garner sympathy for attention or an advantage. And there are those who hide their pain from others because they feel it makes them look weak. Harry obviously wasn''t the former, which usually by default would make him the latter. Had it not been for his hundreds of years enjoying a family in the afterlife, he figured he probably would be.


    Jean asked, "So things got better?"


    Harry hesitated on answering. After a moment he said, "Look it up yourself. You wouldn''t believe me if I told you what happened, but yes. Things got better."


    Deciding to change subjects, Jean started going over her progress in Occlumency, Imagery practice, and mental discipline. She was slowly, brick by brick, building up a solid foundation of a mind.


    While thinking about how much work one normally had to go to build things inside the mind, Harry went over the new feature he got from his last quest. Mindscape Copy. It basically took all the work he used to have to do and put it to shame. Harry already had started up a primitive mindscape as a form of mental discipline and knew that to make it worth something, he''d have to put months and years of work into it, even using his various cheats. Mindscape Copy however literally let him copy something directly into his mindscape. He could already do something similar with items in his inventory, but now he could do so with things that could not be placed inside his inventory.


    As long as Harry had enough details on something, he could place a copy of nearly anything into his mindscape. While trying it out, he already created a perfect copy of the Tutorial Village and the surrounding areas, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, Kamar-Taj, and almost the whole of London. They weren''t empty either. They had copies of people walking around like NPCs. He could even copy places the Ancient One showed him while exploring the Astral Plane.


    Harry even found he could copy things like the Basilisk, Voldemort''s Death Eaters, and the monsters he fought in the Astral Plane and during Battle Mediation. Of course, they did not yield Experience when defeated, but it was useful as practice for fighting. That being said, he couldn''t copy Voldemort since it was Goose who beat him and he couldn''t copy the Mandarin since Harry never beat him. The most useful aspect was that he could grind his Paths through combat with the copies, though fighting something you already defeated yielded very little to Path Rank advancement but it did give Harry a practice ground for different strategies.


    Of course, not everything could be copied. His copy of Hogwarts didn''t have a working Room of Requirements and if he copied the X-Mansion, it wouldn''t have a working Danger Room.


    Once Jean had given him her progress report, Harry gave her a new exercise to practice, the art of folding and unfolding sections of the mind. Harry''s scan of Xavier showed him how he folded and unfolded sections of his own mind to lock things away. Although he never intended Jean to lock parts of herself away, she needed to learn to unfold her mind using Xavier''s method to unlock the Phoenix trapped within. Harry explained the dangers of folding the mind permanently and said this was just an exercise that would help her.


    The following days returned to routine. School would start in another two weeks so it wouldn''t be long before more students would be returning to the mansion. Harry finally had near unlimited access to Forge''s lab so he could use the tools to make his own gizmos now and there were too many things he wanted to make.


    Harry knew of course that he didn''t really need toys. He didn''t need Sorcery either. As long as the opponent wasn''t magically stronger than he was, there wasn''t a single opponent Harry couldn''t beat with Wizard Magic. He didn''t even need to be fancy. Voldemort and the Triwizard Tournament Cup proved how easy it was to weaponize Portkeys. Harry could set a Portkey''s destination to the middle of the ocean and just throw it at a target. If they couldn''t resist the magic, it was instant defeat. Harry could even make a heavy duty magic cage and set that as the destination. It wouldn''t even be hard.


    If an opponent couldn''t resist magic, Harry could stun them, shrink them, turn them into a frog, or remove all their memories. And that was just using the legal spells he had.


    There were three reasons Harry did not. The first was that anyone who did not have magic resistance would be a small fry to begin with. Magic resistance just means the body possesses energy that would resist changes caused by exotic energy. That speedster, Peitro, had Time energy in his body. It wasn''t a lot, but he would likely be able to resist some magics so even if he touched a Portkey, he''d likely be able to resist long enough to release the object and not get sent to the North Pole. Harry also heard about the Brotherhood''s Leader, Magneto. That guy sounded like a Sorcerer highly proficient in Electromagnetic Energy. He could definitely resist most magics. Not that such people were immune. The ability to resist magic just means that a Stunner wouldn''t put them down 100% of the time and a cutting curse wouldn''t cut as deeply. Strong magic resistance just means it would be a fair fight compared to an easy victory.


    The second reason was the outward effect. Wizard Magic still fried electronics and getting around that was a giant pain. Even Danger wasn''t a perfect attempt. The Wizard Magic he gave to her to use would be buried under layers of other things but if any electronics stayed in the Danger Room for too long, it would likely have corrupted Data. Danger and Forge however felt this was acceptable as it would prevent someone from leaving undetectable foreign hardware within.


    And the final reason was that he wanted it to be a trump card, or better yet, a prank. Why do things the easy way when he can do it the fun way? Why turn your foe into a frog when you can project a hologram around them making it look like their gender changed and they''re in a pink dress? Why teleport someone into a cage when you can traumatize them with pranks into turning themselves in?


    Of course, that was just for fun. Harry still had a few hundred Portkey Galleons with a destination of the North Pole in his inventory. He made them before losing his ability to make portals to be used if needed. If lives were on the line, there would be no shenanigans and no mercy. Until then he was going to continue having fun.


    Harry''s current project was just what he told Kurt. Exterior Hard-Light Holograms. He wanted to make a floating sphere he could throw that would track and follow those he threw it at. If the Hologram he had in mind worked out, the sphere would be overlaid with an image of the head of the person he threw it at. It would also be on fire and screaming, though he needed to work on the audio. Harry imagined someone acting like a big, tough, bad guy, and suddenly Harry throws their own flaming head at them which stares them in the eye while flying at them while screaming in horror in their own voice.


    Spurred on by imaging how traumatizing that would be for others was great motivation and Harry got to work right away.


    Unfortunately, Harry was interrupted three days into his project with a phone call. Only Hermione, Sirius, and the Ancient One had his number, and Hermione called a few days ago and Sirius still hadn''t figured out how to use a phone.


    Harry answered it and unsurprisingly, it was the Ancient One.


    Through the phone she said, "Hello Harry, Kamar-Taj has a mission for you."


    "Oh, what''s going on?"


    "Well, some of the Acolytes brought a matter to my attention that was discovered through the forum of that website you made. Some investigations were being done using the website and from the pictures posted on the are signs there is a demon kidnapping children from an orphanage in a small town in Pennsylvania."


    Harry was already putting away the equipment in the lab as he asked, "You know I''m not going to refuse to help, but why ask me?"


    The Ancient One answered, "From what I can tell, the children at the orphanage consists almost entirely of mutant children. Due to this fact, rather than sending backup, it would be advisable to inform your new acquaintances and have them ?ssist you instead."


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Rescue the Orphan Mutants from N''astirh.


    Protect and Rescue the captured orphans before they are sacrificed by N''astirh.


    Rescue the remaining orphaned mutants from Nanny and Orphan Maker.]


    "Ah, I got a quest," Harry commented before reading off the details over the phone.


    The Ancient One said, "Well, that confirms a few theories I had. You cannot get a quest to something that is unrelated to you or something you have no knowledge about."


    Harry wasn''t angry but he still had to ask, "That was a test?"


    "Of course it was. Knowledge about your circumstances will prove vital to using your abilities wisely in the future."


    Harry answered, "True. Have you heard of N''astirh?"


    Harry had memorized the Grand Grimoire but although that made him an expert of the 72 demons Solomon commanded and a number of others, that didn''t mean he knew them all. There were probably more demons than there were humans if you actually did the numbers. Demons existed on many planes after all.


    The Ancient One answered, "It is not a name I am familiar with in the past or future. That means this is the first time I''ve encountered it."


    Harry didn''t let that disappoint him and asked, "Is the forum for that post still up?"


    The Ancient One confirmed it was and hung up. Harry pulled up access to the internet and went into the site before reading the details and printing them out.


    At the site of the disappearance were some strange symbols and one of the more clever officers at the town searched for similar symbols on the internet which lead them to a match on Harry''s website which lead the officer to the forum Harry made sure was followed by some of the more tech savvy acolytes in Kamar-Taj.


    The officer who posted in the forum also gave some details on some things he saw at the orphanage. They were passed off as something else, but the Ancient One recognized it as signs that the children were mutants. The Quest pop up even proved it.


    Harry prints out the relevant information and heads over to Xavier''s office. As the head of the school so close to reopening, he was quite busy and was currently going through a pile of paperwork on his desk.


    Seeing this, Harry paused and went over his options. He remembered that most of the X-Men and teachers had actually been out as they were currently being sent to the homes of the students to escort them back to the Institute. This was done to ensure the safety of the students and to prevent incidents, but it also meant that the bulk of the veteran X-Men were currently out.


    Logan remained because he was not a people person and was partially charged with security for the institute. However him heading out as well would leave the remaining children vulnerable.


    Harry unpaused and asked Xavier, "When is Storm, Colossus, or Domino returning?" In Harry''s opinion, of the first Gen X-Men who remained at the school as teachers, those three were the best to bring because they were strong and good with children. Beast couldn''t act in public until the Hard-Light disguise was working and the less said about Forge and children the better. The man was brilliant and knew how to teach, but he wasn''t exactly the sympathetic ear a kidnapped orphan would need.


    Xavier didn''t miss the urgency in his voice and answered, "Ms. Munroe should be returning in three days while Mr. Rasputin and Ms. Thurman will not be returning until next Monday. What is the matter?"


    Harry sighed and put the papers he''d printed out on Xavier''s desk and summarized, "There seems to be an orphanage in Pennsylvania that has a lot of mutant kids and someone or something capable of using darker magics have been kidnapping them. My teacher called me and let me know and asked if I would handle it since the victims were mutants."


    Xavier looked pensive as he read through the papers and commented, "I was not aware of any such gathering of mutant children." However Harry''s documents were easy to review and the prevalent points about the orphanage and the signs within certainly seemed to indicate the presence of perhaps multiple mutants. But an orphanage of mutants? That was hard to believe as even the act of gathering mutants was not so simple. He should know.


    Xavier''s chair rolled out from his desk and he said, "Let''s visit Cerebro have this looked into. I''ll have Logan meet us on the way."


    Harry followed him out of the office and shortly after Logan showed and was handed the papers Harry had given the Professor. Down three flights of stairs they encountered a massive door that was unlocked by Xavier''s biometrics. A synthesized voice echoed out, ''Welcome Professor,'' upon the door''s opening which made no sense to Harry. There was no such voice or automated AI system in any other part of the Institute''s systems besides Danger. Harry sighed and figured it was for atmosphere.


    Cerebro was a massive hollowed out sphere with a platform in the center and a single walkway extending to it from the entrance. The platform had a control system in the center and a metal helmet. The trio headed in as the door closed behind them while Logan continued reading. The occasional growls he released while going through the information clearly gave his stance on such matters. A warrior like him had an innate protective instinct for children afterall.


    Xavier put on the helmet and said, "This is your first time in Cerebro, please remain still while it is active."


    Harry gave a b?r? nod as the room came alive with images. The images themselves were not holograms or electronic displays. They were mental projections of Xavier''s senses, enhanced many times over through the massive amplifier and displayed in the empty space for observers to see.


    Xavier concentrated on the coordinates of the orphanage in Pennsylvania but once he did, the images around them began to distort.


    Logan asked, "What''s going on Charles?" It was apparent he had not seen something like this before.


    Xavier frowned and said, "Something is dulling my senses through Cerebro. I need a moment to compensate."


    The images became clearer then fuzzier then clearer again as he seemed to try different tricks to get around the interference. Moments later the images returned to perfect clarity.


    "Ah, there we go. Now let us see what has been hidden."


    The images zoomed in and the outline of a building became clear as well as the outline of two dozen children, all glowing orange. In the same building in the basement there appeared to be a blue glow and another orange glow, though the shapes of both were distorted. From what Harry could tell, humans glowed blue and mutants glowed orange on this display.


    Harry asked, "Can you find any groups of mutants nearby?"


    The building zoomed out and the map grew to display more area but other than the individual orange dots scattered about, there were no other groups.


    After another moment of searching, the Professor sighed and the images cut as he removed his helmet.


    Logan asked, "What was that about?"


    Xavier answered, "There is something in that town which shrouds my senses. Had it blocked my senses completely, it would be more noticeable, but as it only numbed it, I could not notice the mutants within had I not specifically been looking for them in that small area."


    Logan didn''t look surprised, "So someone figured out how to hide from you?" The tone of his voice made it seem like he''d been expecting it to happen at some point.


    Xavier nodded and said, "Indeed, though I cannot be certain if the one they are hiding from is myself or perhaps another. In any case, I was unable to get a reading on the minds of anyone in that town. To gather more information, we''ll need a closer look."


    Logan glanced back at the papers and said, "I got a bad feeling about this Chuck. I don''t think waiting for the others is a good call. It might be too late by then."


    Xavier frowned pensively.. He knew this was not going to be easy.

 Chapter 36 - 36 Monsters and Demons

    After discussing the various possibilities and Harry''s ''educated'' guesses, it was decided to call in Warren Worthington III, also known as Angel, the Economics teacher for the Institute. Once he arrived, Angel would take Shadowcat, Pixie, the whole of the third X-Men team, and Harry in the X-Men''s Jet, the Blackbird, to Pennsylvania.


    Unlike the other teachers, Angel was not fetching students at the moment. Rather, he was still in New York handling various matters of the business he owned.


    Harry had learned not long ago that this angel winged Economics Teacher was the owner of Worthington Industries. Since getting into business himself three years ago Harry had pretty much memorized all the largest businesses and their various subsidiaries. Worthington Industries owned the handful of airline companies which produced the most advanced and sophisticated aviation technologies in the world. They also owned several companies that produced alternative fuels which freed their airlines from the oil market. They also owned one company that produced fancy frozen yogurts. Harry was not sure why.


    After getting into contact with Warren, Xavier confirmed he was on his way and would be arriving within the hour. Harry used that time to look up the so-called orphanage. There were no public records of it, but the records that mentioned it indirectly stated it was set up a year and a half ago and was called Nanny''s Lost Boys (and Girls). Harry ?ssumed it was a Peter Pan reference though not exactly clever.


    Warren arrived after Harry finished what little investigations he could and was given the details.


    After looking over the paperwork Harry pulled out, Warren said, "I''ve made it my business over the last five years to help mutants, but I''ve never heard of a mutant orphanage, especially not one so close to home. This seems more than a little suspicious. In case worse comes to worse, I''ll make a few calls now to ensure arrangements are made."


    He didn''t elaborate but Harry knew what Angel meant. If they had to take the orphanage down, there would be a lot of homeless kids to take care of. Xavier''s Institute was a High School level boarding school with over one hundred rooms, but that didn''t give him permission to just bring everyone over. There were legal processes required before such a thing could be sanctioned. Thankfully money talks. Between Xavier''s connections and Warren''s wealth, they were going to make sure whatever was done was done in the best interests of the children.


    Before heading into the briefing, Harry went to his room to invite ForgetMeNot. Marrow was with Domino so the members of the second X-men team at the mansion were just Pixie and Shadowcat who were both coming. Harry hadn''t gotten a confirmation but he figured ForgetMeNot was as well.


    When he entered the room, Goose was sitting on her enchanted bed and ForgetMeNot was out. Harry asked Goose, "Do you know where ForgetMeNot went?"


    Goose looked up and answered through their connection, ''He left a few hours ago.''


    Harry sighed and was about to leave when he turned back and asked, "Hey Goose, do you want to come fight demons and rescue orphans?"


    After a moment of contemplation, Goose asked, ''Are you going alone?''


    "No, I''ll have backup."


    Goose rolled over to get more comfortable and conveyed back, ''Perhaps next time.''


    Harry figured as much but felt she would appreciate being asked even if she was likely to decline.


    Harry grabbed a backpack and filled it with stuff from his inventory before heading back to the briefing.


    Warren said, "Now that everyone''s here, let''s get started."


    Warren asked Harry, "Do you recognize what kind of magic this could be?"


    Harry nodded and took out necklaces and cheap trinkets for everyone before answering, "More likely than not, that''s demon magic. Everyone please pick something and wear it. It won''t provide much protection against demon magic, but it''s better than nothing."


    Kurt picked up a chain and examined it for a moment before stating, "This looks like cheap costume jewelry you see pop ups to buy on the internet."


    Kitty said, "Yeah, this is like, tacky."


    Harry sighed and said, "The symbols on the tacky costume jewelry are legit though. Like I said, It''s better than nothing." Someone wearing the charm would be difficult to target with demon magic which was quite an advantage, though explaining how that worked or that the custom jewelry company that made these were ones he owned was more trouble than it was worth.


    Warren sighed and put on a charm bracelet and the rest followed.


    The plan was to investigate the kidnappings, predict the next one, rescue the kidnapped children, and if necessary, take care of the orphanage.


    Harry added several points to the plan including some basic spy gear he had which allowed for hacking. This was added to the plan and once they went over a few contingencies, they headed out to the Blackbird.


    The Blackbird, according to Warren, was built by his father''s company and could be considered the most advanced plane on the planet. Moreso due to the add-ons Forged used spare parts from an alien ship to upgrade it with.


    Jean''s mind was occupied with concern over the orphans and the fact that everyone else was concerned over the same matter wasn''t helping. Harry invited her into his library where she could spend the rest of the flight in silence going over the various books within Harry''s mind.


    Harry himself was going over the interior of the blackbird and determining how each aspect worked. He could already tell from the coating on the surface that it had active adaptive camouflage and the engine was using fuel in a way that was far too efficient for normal jets. There was b?r?ly any heat coming off it meaning the jet''s exterior would be around the same temperature as the air outside.


    Warren himself was flying with Scott as copilot. Warren was trying to dissipate everyone''s nervousness by teaching Scott how to fly it himself one day.


    That thought reminded Harry that he needed to magic-proof Dr. McCoy''s spectrometer when he returned. Harry had yet to figure out how to make the ultimate riding broom and he wanted to use tech to do it. The potion that was infused into a boom which allowed it to use a wizard''s magic to fly had been changed over the course of hundreds of years, but that didn''t mean there couldn''t be improvements.


    In addition to that, Harry needed to expand on advertising for his Gemstone company. The Goblins had already openly bought the parts needed to make many machines capable of creating synthetic gemstones so now that no one was going to ask where they got them, it was time to start producing and selling them in bulk. Harry also needed to network the Goblins'' computers together. They had to spread out the companies into several areas and rather than using existing phone lines to connect the computers in different areas, Harry was just going to use magic powered quantum entanglement connections, just like his hack boxes. The only problem was that he would need to acquire several dumb computers in each office and have them actually wired through the phone lines. If they had nothing to transmit info from one building to the other visibly, then the people who tried to hack them would find nothing to hack which would be suspicious. Thankfully the Goblins shared his propensity for paranoia and would probably enjoy filing the dumb computers with useless info, false info, and terrible viruses.


    The flight to the small town was practically shorter than the prep and take off time due to the speed of the Blackbird and the meagre distance.


    The Blackbird itself landed in an empty field with its active camo going and quietly landed. Most of the X-Men stayed aboard while Warren, Kitty, Jean and Harry headed to the Sheriff''s office.


    Warren''s wings were capable of pressing almost completely against his back and beneath the long coat he wore, one wouldn''t even notice the bulge on his back unless you really looked, allowing Warren to walk around without issue or stares. Unsurprisingly, the Sheriff''s office was quite busy due to all the recent commotion. The group headed off to the side of the building and Harry handed Kitty a magic proof thumbstick drive with a timed portkey and said, "just stick this in the Sheriff''s computer."


    Kitty said, "Umm, this might take a while cause I really don''t want to be seen on camera."


    Harry nodded and took out a smokey quartz. "Stand still, this will feel like someone is dripping a running egg over you." The quartz glowed with a lumos and vanished back into his inventory as Harry cast disillusionment on Kitty causing her to slowly become invisible.


    Harry could still sense her presence in space and knew she looked down at her own hands while Jean gave a smile at the novelty of such a thing and Warren looked impressed. Kitty exclaimed, "Woah, this is like, so cool!"


    Harry sighed and said, "You can still be heard and you''re not entirely invisible. Light just moves around you so if you stand still you''re fine, but if you move, then people will see what looks like a mirage of bending light."


    Kitty said, "Still, this will totally make this job a cinch." She then walked directly into the wall and Harry pulled a screen and keyboard out of his bag and waited.


    Moments later the screen showed a connection was established and Harry started opening up and downloading files.


    The thumb drive had a notice-me-not on it and if Harry had not drawn their attention to it when he handed it to Kitty, they would not have even looked at it. A few moments Kitty returned and Harry cast nonverbal finite incantatem to restore her to the land of the visible. To cover it up he said, "Just in time, I wasn''t sure how long that would last."


    Kitty looked surprised and said with a bit of heat, "Couldn''t you have warned me?!"


    Warren said, "Calm down Kitty, everything worked out fine after all. Just don''t ?ssume you can rely on stuff like that in the future alright? It''s better to rely on your own skills after all."


    Without looking up from his computer screen, Harry pointed at Angel and stated, "What he said."


    Jean noticed Harry had gone through several pages worth of information and asked, "So what do we have?"


    While still scrolling through the details, Harry answered, "Well, the only kid who was actually taken from the orphanage was taken from the street in front of the orphanage. Two others were taken from the grade school the orphans are attending and two others taken from the houses of friends they were playing or staying with. All within the last three days.


    Kitty sighed and said, "School is starting early here for them huh? Bummer."


    Jean rolled her eyes and Warren smirked at the specific detail she chose to pay attention to.


    Jean looked in the direction of the orphanage and said, "Whatever the professor felt from here is definitely coming from that direction. This whole place feels like it is covered in cotton."


    Warren said, "So we have our next destination."


    Harry said, "I''d like to investigate the site of the other kidnappings to see if I can find anything the police missed."


    Warren considered it and said, "Take Jean with you. If you find anyone who knows anything useful, see what you can dig up."


    Although the man was clearly advocating the use of telepathy to invade the privacy of the minds of others, no one cared at this point as children''s lives were on the line.


    Harry and Jean headed over to the school and Harry cast a notice-me-not under the idea, ''do not notice we are not supposed to be here.''


    Once they entered the hallway, Jean asked, "What did you do, I''m not even having to use my powers to get them to ignore us."


    Harry turned back and smiled but remained silent. They arrived at the location where one of the kids were taken and there was a burnt circle with various burnt symbols on one of the walls.


    Jean watched him do this and flatly accused, "You don''t even need those gems, do you?"


    Harry continued scanning while answering, "Nope."


    "Then why continue with the act?"


    "A few reasons. Until I''m strong enough, it''s best to downplay my abilities and my threat level. I''m also looking forward to the day when someone tries to take advantage of my reliance on gems and gloats to my face that without them I''m powerless. I promise to show you the memory of that guy''s face when he realizes the truth."


    "Wait, it''s a prank?"


    "Among other things. You''d know that already if you read a little more about me."


    Harry''s mandalas glowed red, then grey, then orange. The feeling of the mandalas also provided sensory feedback which gave Harry far more information than just the color did.


    Harry let the mandalas scatter and said, "This portal was to a different realm. I can''t reopen it from this side accurately so I can''t track them down." Harry knew about demons, he knew how to control demons, and he knew how to counter demons. What he did not know was demon magic. Such tomes did not exist in Kamar-Taj, so the makeup of demon magic was unknown to him and trying to track the other side of the portal was like reading directions in an unfamiliar language without a map.


    Jean recognized Harry''s frustrated face and asked, "Not good news?"


    While Harry had been snooping, Warren had directly knocked on the door of the orphanage and introduced himself and asked a few questions. When they met back up, Warren explained to Harry that Nanny was a kindly old woman who looked very worried and said she had decided the kids would have to stay in the orphanage until the mess sorted itself out. If it were not for what he already learned from Harry''s investigations, the place would not seem suspicious. Warren claimed through the door he could see various children doing various activities and playing around.


    Deciding they needed a second look, the group returned to the orphanage once more. The perimeter had various security cameras so unless Harry made Kitty invisible again, she wouldn''t be able to sneak up to the wall and get inside again. However although they were some distance from the building, Jean claimed she could still get a read on the minds inside if she put some effort into it.


    They gave her about ten minutes and when she was done, Harry didn''t have to be a mind reader to know she was enraged. Warren took a step back when Jean opened her eyes just from an impression of the fury he could tell she felt.


    Mirroring Jean from earlier, Harry asked, "Not good news?"


    Jean lost all composure and practically snarled, "That woman is a monster. She and her partner, someone who actually calls himself Orphan Maker, find young mutants and kill their parents. They then use some kind of drug, something she calls fairy dust, to make the kids forget their parents and she takes them with her."


    Kitty fell backwards in shock, "That''s, that''s horrible!"


    Tears started running down Jean''s face as she continued through grit teeth, "My niece and nephew are in that building. They killed my older sister and made my family forget her."


    Warren nearly shouted, "What?!"


    Jean held back her own sobbing while glaring at the orphanage walls and said, "My sister has been out of contact with my parents for almost a year. They, they killed her. They killed her and took her children."


    Harry put his hand on Jean''s shoulder and used his own psionic gift to enter Jean''s mind and radiate a field of calm. Harry said directly to her mind, "Jean, I promise you, no matter what, they will pay alright. I swear that to you."


    When Harry felt the peak of Jean''s fury recede, he took her into a hug and held her as she started crying over the loss of her family.


    After Jean recovered, Warren said, "The children are our priority here. What exactly is Nanny''s plan? She didn''t exactly look formidable."


    Jean answered, "What you saw wasn''t her. There are hologram projectors on the property, what you saw was a hologram. The real... Nanny... is in the basement preparing weapons for a counter attack."


    Kitty asked, "What''s her deal, I mean why would anyone do that?"


    Jean took in a few breaths to calm herself before answering, "She doesn''t think she is doing anything wrong. She actually thinks she is rescuing children and giving them a loving home. Her mind is broken. It''s filled with nursery rhymes and children''s stories."


    Warren asked, "What about the other one, Orphan Maker."


    Jean said, "I can''t get a read on him. He''s in the basement too. He''s wearing a cybernetic suit and is loaded with advanced weapons. The suit is built into him. He can never take it off."


    Kitty asked, "Why?"


    Jean shook her head. "I don''t know. There''s a reason, but I couldn''t get a read on it."


    Harry looked around and said, "I have a plan to rescue everyone, but it''s not a nice one and no one is going to like it." His energy senses could tell that the grounds around the perimeter had been altered and he''d spent the last few minutes analyzing it.


    Warren sighed and called the remaining X-Men from the Blackbird. He didn''t want to have to listen to a plan he wasn''t going to like more than once.


    The group gathered on the other side of a hill near the orphanage. There were no buildings or streets, only trees, so it was not being monitored by anyone.


    Warren went over the details they found at the Sheriff''s office and the orphanage before Scott spoke up, "So what''s the plan?"


    Harry sighed and said, "There is a transfer circle written into the ground around the orphanage. It''s been there for at least a week. It''s limited in that it can only be activated at dusk, an hour from now, but when activated, everything within the circle will be moved to the destination point. My plan is to wait at the edge of the security perimeter and gather everyone within the circle before it goes off. That is likely to send us to where the other children were taken and we can mount an offensive to rescue them."


    Scott immediately objected, "Wait, you''re gonna let the rest of the kids get kidnapped and let them get caught up in a fight between us all?"


    Harry nodded, "They''re mutants too, they won''t be defenseless."


    Scott replied, "They''re kids! That''s not acceptable!"


    Harry blankly stared at Scott and said, "Well, since you elected to speak up, you must already have a better idea. I''m all ears."


    Scott fidgeted and said, "Well, no, but we''re not going through with this plan. We should think up a different plan together."


    Harry continued staring blankly at him and stated, "I can''t guarantee the transfer circle will activate if the orphans are missing. That''s probably why it hasn''t gone off yet, they weren''t all there until now. I have no means of knowing where the kidnapped orphans are. I''m confident I can get us back no matter where we are taken but if we are not taken, the missing orphans are never coming back on their own. This plan takes into account the limits of everyone here. You can''t just hope our limits increase because the outcome of those limits are not acceptable. If you think we should rely on a miracle instead of our own abilities, you shouldn''t have bothered coming."


    Scott visibly flinched at that and looked over the group in the hope someone would have a better idea. He knew he didn''t have one but couldn''t accept that putting the lives of others at risk was ever acceptable.


    Warren sighed and said, "Scott, we don''t have another way to save everyone. If you don''t like it, then become stronger and wiser, so that in the future you''ll have better options. That goes for all of you," he gestured to the remaining X-Men.


    Harry double checked to make sure the X-Men each had one of his trinkets and they ?ssembled at the edge of the orphanage''s security field. He layered a weak Notice-Me-Not over the group and waited in silence.


    Thirty seconds before dusk, Harry signaled for the group to move in. Alarms echoed from the sirens in the property and flood lights illuminated the area. By the time the group reached the building, the last light of the sun vanished behind the horizon and the sky shifted to dark red.


    Once the scenery changed, Harry got out a diamond and caused it to glow for a moment before he conjured more scanning type mandalas. Sorcerer magic was very good at scanning dimension and spacial coordinates. The group quickly noticed that the haunting red sky was filled with winged, purple skinned creatures of various sizes and forms. The moment Harry confirmed his readings, he paused.


    The location had shifted to a corridor of Limbo. It was not easy to directly take mortals to another plane, but this corridor was basically created to be a welcoming mat. That was good news, getting them back wouldn''t be difficult. The good news ended there however. Harry was pretty certain anyone who wanted mutant children wouldn''t be too high up on the food chain when it came to demons but he realized he had miscalculated. Limbo was one of the stronger Infernal Planes and a demon who could make a corridor to Limbo was not someone who could be easily trifled with.


    Harry couldn''t move very far while paused, but he was able to get a better idea of the surroundings and the enemy numbers. Thankfully the demons were just grunts. He couldn''t spot a single elite in any of the groups he spied. Of course those groups numbered about five thousand, but the situation wasn''t hopeless. Demons didn''t like to share so they wouldn''t swarm a group in large numbers. That meant it would be a series of group battles.


    Harry unpaused and shouted, "Scott and Jean with me, we''re going to rescue the kids, everyone else, hold the position and protect the orphans. Once we''ve gotten the kids we can get out of here."


    Harry technically wasn''t in charge but this situation was simply too bizarre and the group wouldn''t panic as long as they had a plan.


    Warren recognized the situation and shouted, "Take positions and do as he says!" He removed his coat and unfurled his wings in a display that had the demons watching flinch back. Wings like that were intimidating to demons after all.


    Harry ran forward with Scott and Jean following behind. Harry activated a spell on his backpack which caused all the gems within to fly out and circle him while emitting light with a constant lumos. It had no effect but looked like a special move to anyone who paid attention. Harry figured he''d use this type of set up to go all out when in front of witnesses.


    Harry released multiple cutting spheres which exploded on contact with demons and shredded anything in the area to ribbons. Scott blasted everything in the direction they were heading to clear the path and most demons took serious damage from his blasts though it only had a concussive effect on humans. Jean simply grabbed any nearby demon and psychically threw them into other demons.


    A minute into their arrival, a massive magic circle appeared over the orphanage and spun around. The walls and roof of the building were torn to pieces and drawn into the spinning circle, leaving the occupants exposed.


    Harry paused once more and rechecked the layout. He confirmed the point of origin of the spell and the position of the caster. It was about eight feet tall with blood red skin and a head that looked like a cross between a horse and a crocodile. Behind him seemed to be a ritual staging area but Harry wasn''t close enough to analyze it.


    Harry unpaused and said, "That guy''s our target, we take him out and we win." Scott and Jean confirmed his position and along with Harry charged forward.


    Harry paused every couple of seconds to confirm the situation of the various battles. Angel, Pixie, and Nightcrawler had taken to the sky. Nightcrawler couldn''t fly, but he could teleport behind an airborne demon, wrap his tail about the demon''s neck, then fall and throw the demon into another demon. Angel''s flying abilities did not lose out to the demon''s at all in air maneuverability and his punches could knock out any demon who closed in on him. Pixie wasn''t a melee fighter but her Pixie dust could cause anyone to hallucinate and she''d been spreading it around the demons causing them to either attack the air or attack each other.


    On the ground, Spike had been providing artillery support to Angel by shooting down any targets Angel or Nightcrawler disabled. Rogue seemed to have borrowed a bit of Iceman''s powers and both of them were making a wall of ice to provide cover and freeze any demons who got close enough in place.


    Not all could, but several demons capable of magic did try to fire or fry the X-Men, but from the perspective of the X-Men, their aim was terrible and it was not a concern.


    A number of the orphans were putting up just as much of a fight. There was a giant ten foot tall teddy bear standing over one of the little girls that had been grabbing and tossing demons around. A pair of red headed twins seemed to be working together to freeze some demons in place before shattering them while another kid seemed to be able to control smoke.


    Shadowcat was sticking around the orphans and if one was about to be attacked, she would grab them and make them intangible for a moment.


    Besides the orphans and X-Men were two rather noticeable figures. One was a person in an egg shaped suit that appeared to have goggles over it and red lipstick where the mouth would be. The other was coated in metal which looked similar to how Colossus appeared when using his power. That one was probably Orphan Maker, the one who Jean said was basically a cyborg. His entire body appeared metallic and he wore a protruding mask and armor. In both hands were what appeared to be advanced weaponry.


    Harry decided to ignore them for the moment, but next when he unpaused, the pair started attacking Shadowcat. The egg person shouted, "You wolves are here for my lost little lambs! Get them Peter! They wish to take these children away from those who love them!"


    From the metallic suit came, in a voice that appeared to be that of a child''s, "Nuh-uh, you bad guys aren''t taking away my friends!" He started unloading shot after shot at Shadowcat who had to stay intangible to avoid getting turned into Swiss cheese.


    Harry apparated behind the tin man and shot an over powered Stupefy into his back. The force of the magic sent Orphan Maker out of the ruined building into the outskirts where a group of demons quickly descended onto him.


    The egg woman shouted, "Peter no! Nanny is coming for you!" and rushed out, but the hordes of demons blocked her path and she could only watch as the demons started ripping the metallic pieces from the immobile cyborg.


    Harry apparated back and used a vanishing charm on some of the gems around him to make it look like they were spent in doing that. Although energy can resist magic, that was only true for sentient energy which required lifeforce to be mixed in. This meant that cyborgs powered by external means were as vulnerable to magic as any non-magical if they weren''t properly shielded. Moreso in fact as the system which ran that man''s suit was now completely corrupted and unless he was dragged to a computer and had his suit''s OS completely reinstalled, he wasn''t going to move again unless he was a technopath who could fix his OS without an interface.


    Jean and Scott continue to clear a path towards the boss demon and finally get his attention. Until this point, the red demon had its back turned and was preparing something within a ritual circle.


    The creature growled and shouted, "Incompetents and fools, must I do everything myself?!"


    Harry wasn''t in the mood for witty banter so he directly shot out a widespread Finite Incantatem at the demon and the ritual circle behind him but it had no effect.


    The demon shouted, "You dare challenge I, N''astirh in my own realm? I shall take great p???sur? in destroying you all!"


    The demon now confirmed to be N''astirh summoned black flames and red lightning which gathered around him. Harry spread his arms out and seven rings surrounded the trio and cancelled out the magics N''astirh had cast at them.


    N''astirh gave a nasty sneer and said, "A Sorcerer should know better than to fight a realm master in his own realm!" He screeched into the air and the space itself seemed to warp and fold around the group.


    Harry paused and walked over to the ritual circle behind the red demon. That was twice now N''astirh had claimed ownership of the realm, but Harry knew that Limbo was Belasco''s realm. However N''astirh was currently giving a display of space control that only the realm lord should have.


    Once Harry looked over the ritual circle in detail, he knew what the demon was up to. This was an offering ritual. He was offering the souls of innocent mutant children to Limbo in exchange for its favor and in doing so he would gain power equal to Belasco''s within Limbo. Of course, even if they were equal, N''astirh would have to fight Belasco for true ownership of the realm which was easier said than done.


    Thankfully the ritual wouldn''t complete itself unless the offering was accepted which required more than what it had now. That meant the kidnapped kids were held within and could be rescued. N''astirh actually shouldn''t be able to use a realm lord''s power before the ritual was complete, but it looked like he was basically borrowing it in advance. If the ritual failed, he''d suffer a debt but he was pretty confident in his success so he probably didn''t care about that.


    Harry unpaused and used another spell from the Grand Grimoire. He''d practiced a few of them using Wizard and Sorcerer magic with the Ancient One and was one of the reasons he had confidence he could escape.


    Six Mandalas appeared around Harry and scarlet red ethereal chains launched from them and spread through the air before fading away. The movement of space caused by N''astirh''s domain control slowed to a crawl as the space itself was bound in place. If N''astirh wanted to fight, he''d have to do it like a man.


    Scott hadn''t been staring off into the distance and Jean hadn''t been filling her nails while Harry and N''astirh exchanged blows. Scott had been firing his concussive beams at N''astirh and the demons around him and even the ground nearby while Jean had been throwing everything at the red demon with everything she had.


    N''astirh snarled and conjured black hell fire and shaped it into a massive creature. N''astirh shouted orders to all the demons around him, "Destroy them now!"


    Their fight however was interrupted by the sound of a massive roar behind them.


    The whole group turned and found a behemoth sized, misshapen demonic creature than seemed to be devouring the other demons. It didn''t eat them, it''s flesh simply covered and ?ssimilated the demons and became larger and larger.


    Harry shouted to Scott, "Scott, hold him down for ten seconds!"


    Scott nodded and Harry took Jean''s hand and entered her mindscape. Within he said, "Jean synchronize your emotions with mine."


    Jean didn''t argue and felt the righteous fury Harry felt towards N''astirh, Orphan Maker, and Nanny. The complete understanding that the world was better off without them and the d?s?r? to see them burn for their atrocities.


    Standing behind Scott, Harry rose his hand along with Jean''s into the air as a flicker of flames ignited in their palm. Jean didn''t know what it was, but it burned with her fury and she focused her emotions along with Harry''s into it and the flame grew larger and larger.


    Scott had removed his visor and was blasting N''astirh with literally everything he had. The wannabe realm lord was forced back a step but was able to shield himself through the use of his black magic and domain control.


    When the flame reached the size of a pumpkin, Harry said, "Get down Scott!"


    Scott closed his eyes and collapsed into exhaustion as Harry and Jean threw their arms forward, the flame shooting directly at N''astirh who thoughtlessly commanded his own flame creature to block it. The flame passed through the hellfire construct without slowing down and struck N''astirh who thought to block it with a powerful magic shield in his hand.


    The fire burned through the magic and in an instant, his arm was set ablaze. He shouted, "No! How can this be?" He tore his own arm off but his shoulder started burning the moment the flesh was removed. Phoenix fire burnt the body, mind, and soul after all.


    N''astirh tore a hole in space and immediately entered it, running for his life.


    The ritual circle broke and half a dozen children appeared on the ground. Harry shouted, "Scott, guard the kids, we''ll get the others to come grab them and get out of here."


    Scott was used to Harry''s shouts by now and called back, "Got it."


    Harry and Jean ran over to see the titanic creature that was still devouring demons. The army of several thousand had been reduced to only a few hundred.


    Nanny was on her knees staring at the creature. She said, "My poor, poor Peter."


    Harry asked, "That thing was Orphan Maker?"


    Within turning to face him she answered back, "He was covered for his own protection and for the protection of others. His flesh would permanently fuse with the body of anyone he touched, gaining greater strength and power, but his mind regressed with each person and he couldn''t control it."


    The nightmarish creature would soon finish with the demons and it would start with them. Harry doubted there was a mind left inside that being.


    Harry held his hand out, palm face up before Jean and she took it after understanding his intentions. Their righteous fury synchronized once more, and far faster than it had last time, a massive ball of flames emerged. Unlike the demon who Jean didn''t like on principle, this Orphan Maker was the one who killed her sister. She wouldn''t want to save him even if she could, and he was so beyond saving, there wasn''t the slightest trace of remorse for what she was about to do.


    The reason Harry was making Phoenix Fire with Jean was that her Psionic Path Rank was far higher than his and even if the Phoenix wasn''t awake within her, she was still its Avatar and she was born capable of making Phoenix Flames, even if she didn''t know how to before.


    The massive fireball became larger than a house and got the attention of the blob of demonic flesh that was already over ten stories tall. Slits emerged all over the creature and they turned to mouths which roared at the fire and their presence.


    Without needing to throw it, the fireball lifted from their hands and seamlessly shaped itself into a firebird and let loose a screech of outrage that embodied Harry''s and Jean''s fury at the monstrosity.


    Cords of flesh shot out like spears at Harry and Jean, but the firebird flew forward and every piece of flesh that passed through it was burnt to nothing, not even leaving ash.


    Harry covertly pulled out a baseball sized crystal covered in inscriptions and runes and used a switching spell on it with a rock near the demonic flesh to get the crystal near the creature.


    The Phoenix shaped blaze collided into the flesh and consumed it in fire. The remaining demons that had not already left fled at their fastest speed as the massive creature was rapidly burning away.


    Harry watched the burning monster and could only sigh. The being hadn''t consolidated any of its power so it was low density and easy to burn, like a giant pile of papers. N''astirh on the other hand was like an ancient tree and far more dense when it came to power and life force. He''d probably survive, though the backlash from the ritual combined with the damage from the Phoenix fire meant he would be rather weakened for a very long time.


    Harry led Jean back to the others and they ran over to where Scott was and took the children back to the destroyed orphanage.


    Eventually Orphan Maker had burnt to nothing. There wasn''t even smoke or a smell. Without anyone noticing, Harry used the switching charm once more to get the crystal again before placing it back into his inventory. The Switching charm usually can''t be used on any item with magic but Harry made the vessel himself so it was an exception. Phoenix fire burnt anything and the result was pure life force. Harry couldn''t absorb it to level up, but he wasn''t going to leave such a massive amount of Phoenix fire refined life force for someone else to take. It could prove useful later.


    The space within the corridor seemed to shudder. Harry did some readings and confirmed that in an hour or so the space supporting the corridor would collapse and force everyone remaining there into Limbo. That of course was only if Belasco himself wasn''t trying to collapse it from the outside which Harry wouldn''t put past the demon lord.


    Using Kurt''s teleports, the kids were quickly ?ssembled in the ruined orphanage.


    Scott looked around the shaking space and said, "Everyone''s here, let''s go!"


    Harry said, "Ok, give me a moment. Actually there is an extra." Harry sent a banishing charm at Nanny who was mopping in a corner and directly ejected her from the area. Before anyone could say anything, Harry created a red mandala which spread out and caused the red sky to shift to a star filled night sky.


    Harry''s mandala confirmed that four hours had passed on earth while they were in Limbo which was why it was night though only a few minutes had passed since dusk.


    Ignoring Scott''s ranting about leaving Nanny in hell, Harry directly entered the orphanage''s basement and connected to the computers within. The machine fogging up Xavier''s and Jean''s senses was in front of him and he wanted to know how it worked and who built it.


    Though the computer had scans of the files which showed the blueprints, much of it was redacted. Harry had to use a few filters to get details from the redacted parts.. When he finished, he only had one question. "Who is Mister Sinister?"

 Chapter 37 - 37 You call that Unstoppable?

    According to the b?r? fragments of information Harry was able to dig through, Mr. Sinister was a researcher and an extremely dangerous person. The designs for the Mind Cloud system seemed to have been stolen from him when Nanny and Peter both escaped from him, though Harry found no details of why they were imprisoned or how they escaped.


    In any case, Harry made a mental note of the name and returned upstairs. Scott it seemed, had not decided his rant was over. He nearly shouted, "How could you do that? Just leave her in that place! She was a human being!"


    Harry sighed and decided to close the matter. He answered, "Just because I decided to save the orphans doesn''t make me a hero. Helping people is a hobby of mine and I am not obligated to save everyone. Yes, I could have returned her, but that doesn''t mean I wanted to."


    Harry didn''t stop Scott from grabbing his shirt and dragging him close so Scott could yell into his face, "How is that different from killing her?!"


    Harry shook his head. It wasn''t the first time he''d killed people he didn''t have to. He could have left the Death Eaters who tried to kill him years ago alive, but he chose to kill them instead. He did so under the conviction he wasn''t a hero. He''d help the people he wanted to help and he wouldn''t put any effort into sparing those who acted to kill himself or his friends.


    Of course he''d only reach that point if someone used actual killing intent. Both times that pyrokinetic threw a fireball at him, Harry could tell the density of the fire wasn''t high enough to kill him, so Harry didn''t take his life in turn. If someone just tried to horribly mangle, cripple, or injure him or a friend, Harry wouldn''t kill them in retaliation.


    Harry looked Scott in the eye and asked, "If they killed your brother, would we be having this conversation?"


    Scott quickly released Harry and looked over to Jean who was glaring at him like he was a hypocrite. Harry had learned that Scott had lost his younger brother years ago. Scott knew these people killed Jean''s sister yet Scott was protesting the harshness of how Harry dealt with them in front of her.


    Harry continued, "That woman completely rationalized that murdering a child''s parents was acceptable because she was better at taking care of children. Perhaps she could have been taken to a mental institution, gone through years of therapy, and been released. But if she relapsed or escaped, the lives of her next victims would be my responsibility for sparing her. Maybe, just maybe she could have become healthy, come to regret her decision, and try to redeem herself. But the possibility of that happening is far too low."


    Scott yelled, "That''s not your call to make!"


    Harry flatly said, "I don''t regret my choice. If she had regained her sanity to the point she would be willing to repent, she would also have to live with the guilt of what she had done for the rest of her days. That guilt however would only emerge if she regained her sanity. That is the reason it is unlikely she''d ever willingly become sane. She''d be a mental patient living in her delusions all her life, waiting for a chance to escape and orphan more children."


    Scott took a step back at the sheer weight of the cold logic.


    Harry had not pushed Nanny out on a whim. He''d paused and considered all the possibilities and the weight of each of those possibilities. The best case scenario for the world if he spared her would be if she could regain her sanity, but that would not be the best case for Nanny herself as she would have to live with the guilt. She might even take her own life if that occurred and there was no way her mind could heal without accepting that sort of guilt in the first place. Damned if you do, damned if you don''t. Since she was damned either way, Harry decided to reduce the possibility of her orphaning children in the future to the smallest acceptable level he could without directly beheading her in front of the X-Men.


    Jean had walked over to Scott by now and said, "Look Scott, I was in that woman''s head. There wasn''t the slightest trait of remorse for what she did. She even took p???sur? in killing, thinking that it was evil for non mutant parents to raise mutant children and she was simply ridding the world of evil. I didn''t find any trace of her mind that even wanted to heal."


    Scott tried to argue, "But Jean, she was-"


    He was cut off when Jean shouted, "She was Not Human Scott! She was a monster! And if Harry had taken her back with us, I would have put her down myself!"


    Warren and a few of the other X-Men that weren''t comforting the children had heard Harry and Scott''s exchange. Warren seemed conflicted but decided not to say anything. If Harry really had just left her there out of malice, he would have had words with him, but since he clearly thought out the consequences of his actions, there was nothing more to add.


    Once consequence of this was that although Harry would not be punished, in the future, he would not be regularly invited to outings with the X-Men. If Harry didn''t feel obligated to save even those who didn''t deserve saving, he''d be a liability on the team. Harry had considered this as well and didn''t have a problem with it. He never intended to become an X-Men after all.


    Warren used a cell phone to call up a few groups he''d set up earlier that had been waiting on standby. Two hours later, several vans and personnel from Child''s Services showed up and were briefed on the details.


    Harry had run diagnostics on the children and determined that without a weekly dose of ''Fairy Dust,'' their memories of their families would slowly return. He''d already found a sample and determined its ingredients earlier. The recipe was similar to some potions but the ingredients had no exotic energy and the processing was far more complicated. Harry figured he might be able to create a potion that could immediately negate the effects, but after some consideration he decided it would be better for the process of returning memory to be more gradual.


    Although their memories were suppressed, their minds still possessed them and Jean was able to look through their minds, one by one, to learn where they lived and what their names were. Nanny, it seemed, gave them new names after taking their memories. Jean''s nephew for example was named Joseph, or Joey, but had been called Tommy in the orphanage.


    Using this information, Child Services would look for other relatives to see if they could be taken in. For those lacking relatives or had relatives that refused to take them in, special priority would be given to grant Charles Xavier guardianship. Jean had already had a tear filled call with her parents about her sister''s death and they agreed to take care of their grand-kids. They might have been a dull and dreary couple, but they were still proper humans and cared for their family.


    Although she was in pain, Harry watched Jean smile when she was looking after and playing with the orphans. He thought her smile was beautiful and wondered if he was falling in love with her. Harry knew that he liked her and knew he enjoyed spending time with her. He knew that even after her issues with the Phoenix were resolved, he''d still want to be a part of her life and when he thought of the future, he saw her standing with him. Of course he also knew that love was not so simple to quantify. He wouldn''t force it but would let it be without interference.


    Jean had the children write letters to the friends they made in town and at school which would explain that the orphanage was broken and they would be moving away. When the kids had been relocated, they could send another letter and if the kids at the other end responded, they could continue as pen pals until they had a cellphone.


    Once the last of the kids were loaded up, Harry got the ping he''d been waiting for.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Rescue the Orphan Mutants from N''astirh


    Reward: Belasco''s Ancient Book of Spells]


    Harry paused and went over the book that had appeared in his inventory. His quest didn''t really have much to do with Belasco, meaning the book had been acquired from N''astirh. That meant the red demon had likely stolen the book from Belasco himself.


    The book contained a heavy ?ssortment of Black Magic but Harry couldn''t use it. Black Magic was called Black Magic because it required negative energies to power the spells and Harry didn''t have any negative energies. Even the soul energy he''d gotten from the slain Dementors had been purified through his own patronus before he''d absorbed it.


    Harry considered using the coordinates of the Infernal Plane to head over and kill demons and use their tainted energies to level up. He could do it too once he''d gotten his portal situation resolved. The energy of the few demons killed by his wizard magic when he was heading over to N''astirh were absorbed by him so it was an option. However he decided against it. All magic had a cost and Black Magic''s cost was far steeper than normal. Even if Harry absorbed the negative energy, he''d have to put effort into keeping it negative, lest his own positive energies purify it.


    Harry remembered that Sorceress Supreme from the future had been filled with both Negative energies and positive energies without one cancelling the other out, but Harry expected such a situation did not come naturally and required special circumstances.


    In any case, the details of the book would be useful as reference and would allow him to become familiar with demon script should he encounter it again. Most magics had areas of overlap so the insights into tricks for how Black Magics worked could help him in other areas. Harry didn''t have any Dark energy from the Dark Dimension but he still memorized the dark magics in the Book of Cagliostro which gave him insights into the workings of time and space. On the theoretical level, only the Ancient One was superior to him when it came to knowledge on energies on the mortal plane. Harry had spent untold centuries studying the texts within Kamar-Taj''s library while paused after all.


    At one point to break the tension, Kurt asked Harry, "What was that glowing thing you did earlier? It was really funky looking."


    Kitty said, "Yeah, you did a whole bunch of crazy stuff back to back while those rocks spun around you like a rainbow."


    Harry lied through his teeth, "Just a trick I can use to use for a couple of minutes. Though I can''t use my power again for a few days after doing it."


    Kurt gave a sly smile Harry caught and told the blue prankster, "Anything you try before I recover, I will return several fold."


    Rogue walked up and said, "Wait, so you just used all those gemstones at once?"


    Harry shrugged, "Yep, that fight cost me about sixty-five thousand dollars." Or at least that is how much it would cost to buy all the large gemstones he''d vanished while fighting from his company. His backpack had about thirty of them and since he vanished them instead of putting them back in his inventory, he wouldn''t be able to reuse them, they were gone forever. Still, for rocks of that size, it was pretty cheap. His company already had the best machines to mass produce large gemstones after all.


    No one had anything to say about that. Although Harry had done a lot, it looked like he''d spent a fortune to do it.


    As the group departed for the Blackbird, Jean telepathically asked Harry, ''Can I ask you what that flame was? I''ve never been able to do something like that before, but it felt..''


    Harry replied, ''It felt natural, like something you were born to do?''


    Jean turned to Harry with a raised eyebrow and telepathically sent back, ''What do you know?''


    Harry cheekily answered, ''Jean, what I know could fill whole libraries.''


    Jean rolled her eyes at the answer but Harry continued, ''I know exactly what that flame is and where it comes from. Yes, I could tell you or you could look in that book over there in my mind and it will give you everything I know on that flame. But, you''ll gain more if you learn that piece of knowledge yourself rather than learn it from me.''


    Jean replied, ''Is that what this has all been about? I know you''ve been keeping something from me and daring me to ask you what it is, but have you been trying to get me to find the answer myself?''


    Harry nodded back. He knew he wasn''t being subtle. Especially when he told her to practice the mind folding technique he stole from Xavier to practice mental discipline while also telling her not to permanently use it on herself to repress any part of her mind like Xavier had with his own darker impulses.


    Jean sighed and conveyed back, ''Alright Harry, I''ll trust you on this.''


    Harry smiled and replied, ''Don''t let that stop you from reading about my life. You stopped at the bad part last time and it really did get better after that.''


    It didn''t take long for the group to return and Warren met up with Logan and Xavier to give his report. It was decided that Harry''s inclusion in X-Men missions in the future would be as needed only. Logan had no problem with what Harry had done, but he knew the X-Men were being taught to be symbols, not soldiers.


    Surprisingly, Xavier never asked Harry or Jean what that flame was. Harry figured the Professor must have thought it was some kind of magic and didn''t dwell on it further.


    The following week passed by in silence. Harry still spent most of his time in the workshop either on personal projects or working with Forge, but he still spent the evenings in the Study group helping everyone while Jean read through his library. Harry knew even when he was taking his four hours of sleep, Jean could still access his mind and he knew she often did so when she was having trouble sleeping.


    The final weekend before classes started had most of the teachers except Logan once more out and about, escorting the last of the students back to the Institute.


    In the meantime, Harry had been making excellent progress in two areas. First, Harry finally had access to portals again. Using some tricks he learned from his insights into Black Magic, Harry could once more create a ring which allowed passage through space.


    The ring itself however was still a combination of Sorcerer and Wizard Magic. It was different from normal Sling Ring Portals. The first difference was that it had the appearance of a glowing silver ring instead of a swirling vortex of rust colored light. The next was that Harry didn''t have to swirl his hand to make the portal. Instead he could use a simple motion to stamp it into the air. When he moved with the intent to form it, a silver light would appear midair and it would expand into a ring shaped portal at his will. Harry could control the size and even make it large enough to drive a semi-truck or a tank through. Opening it, holding it open, and allowing passage however all used magic from his internal reserves so it had some practical limitations compared to normal Sling Ring Portals. Distance it seemed, was not necessarily one of them. However because it was merged with his wizard magic which was still invisible, his portals wouldn''t be sensed by any direct energy sensing means.


    The second break through Harry completed was he had an approximate understanding of ForgetMeNot''s power. His power basically caused him to not exist at the same time he existed. It was as if a parallel universe where ForgetMeNot did not exist seemed to actively overwrite the traces of his own existence in this universe. However it worked through ForgetMeNot himself. If he died, his power would actually stop working. The problem was that unlike Rogue who unconsciously could not turn off her power, ForgetMeNot''s power was completely involuntary. It was the universe itself that was trying to erase him.


    Harry did discover some limitations of his power. If ForgetMeNot himself met someone and forgot them or didn''t pay attention to them, they would forget less of him than someone he paid attention to. This variable meant ForgetMeNot''s power had a controllable trigger. Using that as a base, Harry determined that ForgetMeNot had two sets of memories, from both the universe he was in, and the universe he didn''t exist in. When he met someone, his own memories of them were actually the first thing to get erased and their memories of him were erased along with it. His second set of memories was fine though, so he didn''t even notice this.


    This was the key to controlling his powers. If his first set of memories getting erased caused others to forget him, then as long as they were preserved, he would not be forgotten. This however was the tricky part. The universe itself wanted to erase him. Harry tried copying ForgetMeNot''s memories onto an external magical artifact, but those were still erased over time. Even if Harry took materials from another dimension, they would still get erased because that dimension was still a part of this universe. The only way to build something that would not get erased, was to use something made of materials from a completely different universe.


    Had this been anyone else, that would have been the end of it. There was no safe way to acquire material of any kind from another universe. Harry on the other hand had six DVDs of Star Wars from another universe. He''d copy to content elsewhere so it wouldn''t be lost, but the DVDs were in fact pieces of matter from another universe and would not be affected by ForgetMeNot''s power.


    It would take time to turn the DVDs into a magical memory storage device he could wear, but if it worked, Harry could have ForgetMeNot''s memories stored on them and have them constantly refresh his first set of memories, preventing him from forgetting them and preventing others from forgetting him. If Harry could make the external storage interactive, ForgetMeNot could choose who forgot him and who didn''t. It was a useful power if it could be controlled after all.


    Of course Harry would have to make it indestructible, impossible to get stolen, recoverable if stolen, and make a spare in case it was completely destroyed. Some might call Harry pessimistic and paranoid. He preferred to think of himself as prepared.


    There was one aspect about ForgetMeNot''s power Harry had discovered and considered a use for. He had been holding back on it for a while, but he decided there was no longer a point in waiting around.


    After cleaning up his workstation, Harry went over to the gym he''d discovered ForgetMeNot often spent time at.


    "ForgetMeNot, I got a favor to ask."


    The seventeen year old with the slicked back hair took a step back and said, "You''re not going to ask for more hair are you?"


    Harry shook his head and answered, "No, I want to ask if you can let Rogue use your powers. Her''s is kinda broken, and I''ve figured out how to use a copy of yours to fix her''s."


    ForgetMeNot appeared surprised at that. "You can fix Marie? Well, yeah. I''m in."


    Harry smiled and led him over to where Rogue was. ForgetMeNot was a remarkably caring person for someone who got such a bad draw in life. Harry hadn''t told him about his progress because it still required a lot of work and he didn''t want to get his hopes up only for a delay to occur.


    Harry considered getting Xavier to supervise but recalled that he was out of the mansion and meeting some politicians at the moment. Harry didn''t need the man, but Xavier witnessing what Harry was going to do would prevent questions about it later.


    Rogue was watching TV with a few of the other kids and Harry shouted to her, "Rogue, come over here, we''re gonna fix your powers."


    Rogue looked over at him incredulously and asked, "What?"


    Harry didn''t answer and went over to an empty room while motioning for Rogue to follow.


    Unsurprisingly she got off the couch and followed him inside along with ForgetMeNot.


    She asked with an accusatory tone, "What''s this about fixing my powers?" She didn''t want someone to get her hopes up for nothing and didn''t have a lot of faith anything could be done for her.


    Harry pointed at ForgeMeNot and said, "This is ForgetMeNot, remember him?"


    Rogue looked over him then blinked, then blinked again. "ForgetMeNot? Oh, Wait, I think. Yeah. I think I do."


    ForgetMeNot smiled and shook his head.


    Harry continued, "You remember what I said the problem was with your power?"


    "Yeah, you said there was too much gunk in there for me to feel how to control it."


    Harry nodded and said, "Well, one application of ForgetMeNot''s power would allow you to, under controlled supervision, completely erase other people from your own head."


    ForgetMeNot asked, "Wait, really?"


    Rogue asked, "What do you mean, supervision?"


    Harry turned to ForgetMeNot first and answered, "Yes really, I''ve already figured out a lot about your power and have a few leads on how to get around it without cuticle ?ssimilation." He turned to Rogue and said, "I''m going to go inside your head after you absorb ForgetMeNot''s power and ?ssist you in directing it in erasing the remnants of those you''ve absorbed."


    ForgetMeNot asked, "Won''t other people forget her?"


    Harry said, "Their memories will fade a bit, but they''ll return when they see her after the power is gone."


    Rogue looked pensive for a moment before giving a determined nod, "So what do I do?"


    Harry said, "Well, first ask permission to use his power. I suspect if permission is asked and not refused, your power will work better."


    Rogue took in a breath and said, "Alright. ForgetMeNot, please let me use your power."


    ForgetMeNot smiled and held out his hand saying, "I freely give permission to use my power."


    Rogue took off her glove and after a moment of hesitation, touched his finger.


    Harry had seen her take other powers before and usually, both party''s flinched. ForgetMeNot however just looked a bit uncomfortable and after two seconds, Rogue released contact."


    Harry asked, "Do you feel like ForgetMeNot or have any of his memories?"


    Rogue''s eyes shot up in surprise and said, "No. I can feel him, but I''m still me." She looked up at him and asked, "How are you feeling?"


    ForgetMeNot looked at his finger and said, "Not bad." He looked over at Harry and asked, "Why was that different?"


    Harry answered, "Mindset. The difference between taking without asking and taking after asking. That should be the proper way to use her power, though we''ll deal with that when she learns to turn it off and on."


    ForgetMeNot nodded and said, "Alright, keep me updated," and headed out to give them some privacy.


    Harry sat down with Rogue and had her relax. He used his psionic abilities to connect to and enter her own mind.


    Rather than do anything himself, Harry concentrated and pulled Rogue herself into her mind where she stood within her own mental space next to Harry.


    She asked, "This is my head huh? Kinda empty I suppose."


    The space itself was dark, quite dreary, and had something of an inky texture to the floor and sky. Harry knew it to represent Rogue''s sorrow and inner self loathing over her powers. He said, "It will look better later. Let''s start."


    They wandered a bit and found what looked like the ghost of a wild animal covered in metal spikes. Rogue took one look at it and said, "Logan."


    Harry said, "Concentrate on that connection you made with ForgetMeNot and use it to ignite a silver flame in your hand. This is your mind so all you have to do is imagine it and it will happen."


    Rogue was neither slow nor stupid and had to m?tur? rather quickly due to her circumstances. She was in fact very smart, though due to some much gunk in her head, she was not always able to show it. Within moments a bright silver flame emerged from her hand and without Harry having to tell her, she pressed it against the shadow and it dissolved away.


    Rogue felt the effect immediately. She said, "I can''t feel him anymore. It actually worked," she finished in shock.


    Harry nodded, "I suspect he''s not the only one in here. We have to get them all for you to become a blank slate."


    "Well what are we waiting for?" She ran off to find more remnants and one by one dissolved them away. The inky black sky slowly started clearing up and the ground started showing more and more color. When Mystique''s shadow, a constantly shifting amorphous blob was dissolved, the ground turned into lush grass and stars began to shine in the sky above.


    Eventually she found the last one. This one was not a ghost. It was a young teen who appeared to be merged into the ground itself. Rogue knelt next to it and mouthed a silent apologize Harry pretended to not notice and she dissolved his remnant as well.


    The empty plot the boy vanished from suddenly sprouted flowers which spread around the field and gently reflected the light of the moon that appeared in the sky like a sea of silver.


    Rogue stared wide eyed in shock at the beauty of the scene before her.


    Harry smiled and commented, "Not so empty now, is it?"


    Rogue turned to Harry and jumped him. They fell to the ground and Rogue took his lips in a passion filled kiss. One side effect of psionics was a strong sense of empathy and it was far too easy to feel the emotions of those close to you. Rogue''s emotions had overcome him in the kiss and he unconsciously kissed her back laying down in the field of flowers.


    It only took a moment for Rogue and Harry to realize what they were doing and they immediately separated, each blushing the same shade of red. Harry had the mind of an ancient, but his hormones were still that of a fifteen year old teen, the same age as the girl he was with. He could talk big but he had no experience.


    Rogue quickly said, "I''m sorry, I don''t know what came over me."


    Harry sighed and said, "Your mind has been freed from taint for the first time since your powers awoke and you''re not used to your own emotions. It''s fine." He wasn''t going to tell her that was his first kiss.


    Rogue looked over in the distance and saw someone standing there. She got up and walked over followed by Harry and together they found the figure was none other than ForgetMeNot.


    Harry asked, "You''re still here?"


    ForgetMeNot answered, "Well, I did give Marie permission to use my power. Did you still need it?"


    Rogue shook her head and said, "Not right now."


    ForgetMeNot nodded and said, "Well, if you need it again, just ask."


    Harry said, "Wait, so you''re gonna just stay here in Rogue''s head and if she needs to use your powers, she just has to ask the you in here?"


    ForgetMeNot said, "Yeah. This place isn''t so bad. I''ll leave if you want me to, but I''ll stay here otherwise. Later." He turned and casually walked away and looked like he wanted to enjoy walking through the field. Harry wondered if through the nature of his own power would he vanish along with Rogue''s memories of him or would he remain. Only time would tell.


    Harry left Rogue''s mind and they both found themselves back in the empty room.


    Harry said, "Before you decide to ask for the powers of our friends, you should take some time to feel out the off switch of your powers."


    Rogue nodded with a light blush and got up to run out the door.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Rogue Powers


    Reward: +2 Scholar Path Rank]


    This was the first time he''d been awarded a Path Rank for a completed quest but his Scholar Path increasing from 42 to 44 was actually a very large increase and very, very useful. His last Scholar Path Rank increase was from making a website which had been considered a lesson to the world. Harry wondered if something on that scale was required to continue increasing his path. Something to think about later.


    Harry returned to his workstation to see what progress he could make on his other projects. Halfway through the day, the Brotherhood of Mutants started randomly trashing parts of Salem so the third X-Men group was called to head over. Rogue stayed behind because she wanted to practice more before heading out and when Scott learned what Harry had done, he agreed spending time practicing was better than dealing with the Brotherhood who only acted up because they were looking for a fight.


    Thirty minutes after Scott''s group left, the Institute''s siren''s went off. The sirens were a security system that went off when an incoming threat or danger to the Institute was detected. Harry ran out to the TV room where the TV screen would automatically change to the security camera feed and show the incoming danger.


    The threat that set off the alarm was not an army or ?ssembled group armed with weapons. It was a single man of staggering size. Almost completely covered in bright red armor was a man approximately nine and a half feet in stature including the dome shaped helmet he wore.


    Harry watched the monitor feed of the man casually smashing through the wall and moving forward without faltering at the barrage of weapons fire from the turrets that emerged all over the grounds.


    Harry went over to a wall panel in the TV room and pulled it back to reveal a phone. He picked it up and pressed a few numbers before it rang and was answered. Harry asked, "Forge, who or what is that?"


    On the other side Forge answered, "That is Cain Marko, the Professor''s step brother. Also called the Unstoppable Juggernaut. Stay away from him Harry, magic is completely ineffective against the guy and nothing can halt his momentum."


    The monitors already showed Logan had rushed the guy, but his armor held against Logan''s adamantine claws and the massive brute was faster than he looked.


    Forge said, "I''ve already recalled everyone so backup should arrive shortly." The line went dead and Harry hung up from his side.


    After casting a Notice-Me-Not on himself, Harry entered to an empty room that didn''t have any cameras and stamped a silver portal connecting to outside the grounds. When the sirens went off, the mansion went on lockdown meaning the doors were heavily bolted shut, as were the windows so Harry had to leave using nonstandard means.


    From a distance Harry immediately recognized the Strength energy from Cyttorak''s realm. Harry figured Marko had Cyttorak''s Crimson gem, making him the elder god''s avatar on Earth. Thankfully he only seemed to be using a few percent of that power. The full power of the gem would grant the power to rewrite reality with every step he took.


    Strength energy was not about literal strength. It was about dominance and overcoming obstacles through force. Since Marko was the Gem''s possessor, he had a direct, unbreakable connection to Cyttorak''s Crimson Cosmos and the Strength energy within. From what Harry read, the gem also provided its user with a field that basically attacked magic with overwhelming force causing magic to dispel on contact. A ''the strongest defense is a good offense'' approach. Even Harry''s dimension splitter which wounded the immortal black dragon wouldn''t have an effect on Cyttorak''s chosen.


    Of course, that was only if Harry used magic to attack. Marko''s ability to use the gem was practically insulting.


    Harry got a dozen Smoky Quartz from his inventory and placed three spells on them. The first would cause them to freeze in place in the air when thrown. The next would cause them to glow with a time delayed Lumos the moment they froze in the air. And the last would cause them to vanish with a time delayed vanishing charm two seconds later.


    Marko had made it through the trees and turrets and Logan wasn''t able to do much to slow him down. Harry got out a hundred dollar bill and smiled. It was time for a prank. He shouted, "Hey, Mr. Unstoppable, I bet you a hundred bucks can''t get past me!"


    The massive Juggernaut looked over at the kid standing between him and the institute, waving a hundred dollar bill in the air and he gave a feral grin beneath his helmet before he started charging.


    Logan half shouted, half growled, "No! Get out of here!"


    No one noticed the bag Harry held in his other hand until he swung it into the air and out fell the ten palm sized Smoky Quartz crystals. Each frozen in place surrounding the charging Juggernaut and glowed brightly.


    Harry used that moment to cast a massive transfiguration on the ground. The space fifty feet in front of him had suddenly dipped down as if it was collapsing and the Smoky Quartz vanished from the air. The Juggernaut lost his footing and tripped, rolling into the center of the pit before coming to a stop.


    The flat ground had turned into a fifty foot diameter perfect hemisphere shaped pit and the moment it finished shifting, the surface of the pit changed to a completely smooth texture. Harry had transfigured the pit into stone with a six inch layer of completely smooth rubber over the stone.


    Harry then threw another crystal into the pit where it stopped in place, glowed, and vanished as Harry conjured a large amount of water to fill the pit and drench Marko.


    Marko got up and looked at Harry staring down at him from the edge of the bowl waving the hundred dollar bill in the air. Harry sat down to observe Marko who started roaring in rage.


    Harry was not completely exhausted but he still used almost all his magic reserves on this prank. There were easier ways to do it but Harry couldn''t guarantee the Gem wouldn''t break any Portal Harry tried to send Mark through and it had been far too long since Harry was able to prank an ?sshole who deserved it.


    Marko of course tried running up the rubber hill but he didn''t make it very far before his momentum faltered and he slid back into the puddle of water that reached his ankle. His wet boots provided not an ounce of traction against the smooth rubber surface.


    Such basic use of Cyttorak''s Strength energy only preserved a single vector of momentum. If it was a straight line, he could charge through ten feet of rubber and stone without much of an issue. But each step up the bowl shifted his vector to a new angel preventing him from building unstoppable momentum. Because it was a perfect hemisphere, there was no way to travel in a straight line. The best he could do was run up the other side and run down to use gravity to ?ssist his momentum. It was only a half sphere after all and any skateboarder would know how to escape. Of course that only worked if he didn''t slip while running through the puddle of water in the middle


    Marko tried to do a straight run three times before he realized the problem and shouted at the top of his lungs.


    Logan had recovered and walked around the hole over to Harry who was still sitting at the edge of the pit. The warrior observed Marko''s attempts and the result with a wary expression. He apparently didn''t expect something like this to work.


    Once he reached Harry he said, "Why can''t I smell him down there?"


    Harry calmly answered, "There is an invisible plate of glass over the hole and the pit is filled with carbon monoxide. He''s too angry to notice how short his breath is and by the time the effect wears off, he''ll be unconscious."


    The reason his magic reserves were almost empty was because he''d cast two overlapping transfigurations to make the pit, and when he threw the water as a distraction, he conjured and immediately rendered invisible a fifty foot diameter circle of glass and a lot of carbon monoxide.


    Marko seemed to have figured out the skateboarder trick and was running up and down the walls. Though he had no traction, it was still possible to run without slipping if you have good balance and Marko had surprisingly excellent balance for a nine and a half foot tall mountain of a man.


    Even if he reached the top, he wouldn''t have enough momentum to break through the glass on the first try and if he tried a second time, Harry would break out a Ruby and make a shield using Strength energy himself. Though since the Juggernaut was literally running on fumes, Harry doubted it would come to that.


    Marko''s strength gave way and he collapsed onto his back. Harry took out a diamond and used Lumos on it before putting it back in his inventory and conjured a scanning type mandala in front of his hand. Harry kept it up and said, "He''s still conscious. Give it another thirty seconds."


    Logan didn''t say anything but watched the Juggernaut closely. Twenty three seconds later Logan said, "He''s out."


    Harry nodded and threw his last crystal into the air and cast Finite Incantatem on the whole area. Thankfully it was easier to break your own magic than it was another''s so the last of Harry''s energy was enough to remove the glass, the gas, and return the ground to normal. Harry then collapsed.


    *Ping*


    [Magic Path has risen to Rank 40]


    Harry smiled at that. His magic Path had reached 39 and his Tech Path 32 while upgrading the Danger Room and now his Magic Path had reached the next threshold.


    A small airborne drone flew over from the mansion and took a moment to observe Harry, Logan, and the unconscious Juggernaut on the ground. Ten seconds later the continuous sirens halted and the lockdown was removed.


    Harry was curious about something and used his psionics to send a mental message to Rogue, ''Come outside, there is something I want you to try.''


    Harry put a hand in his bag to use as a cover while he pulled out a potion from his inventory. After removing his sense of taste from his Settings he popped the top and downed the whole bottle. It was something of an experimental magic recovery potion. Usually he would just wait to recover naturally instead of wasting such a potion, but the ward he''d secretly placed around the institute picked up two intruders, not one. The ward was set within the perimeter and zigzagged a bit to avoid the hidden turrets but was placed safely enough to avoid harming the electronics of the area. Five minutes after Marko entered, someone else did as well and was still inside. Harry''s ward would stick to the intruder so he knew that person had entered in spite of the Lockdown and was currently heading down the basement stairs.


    Forge came over from the mansion first and said, "Harry, you fried every camera and the targeting system of every turret in a hundred feet. What did you do?"


    Logan flatly summarized, "Kid turned the ground into a hole filled with gas the Juggernaut couldn''t climb out of. After he passed out, the ground changed back."


    Forge did a double take and said, "Oh. Well, alright then."


    Rogue came out along with a few of the kids who followed Forge after the lockdown was removed. Harry said, "Hey Rogue, ask this guy if you can use his powers, the same way you did earlier."


    Rogue did her own double take at the unconscious brute and said, "Wait, really? You think that''ll work?"


    Harry shrugged. "If not, you can erase it the same way right?"


    Rogue nodded and took off her glove and walked over to Marko''s shoulder. She asked, "What''s his name?"


    Logan was watching with interest and said, "Cain Marko."


    Rogue took in a breath and said to the unconscious man, "Alright Cain Marko, please let me use your power."


    She waited a moment before touching his shoulder. She held it there for another moment before retracting her finger and closing her eyes.


    When she opened them Harry was the first to ask, "Well?"


    Rogue said, "It sorta worked. Marko here is only ok with me using his power to wreck stuff and fight people. Like he won''t let me use it to build hospitals or help little old ladies cross the street. That sorta thing."


    Harry nodded. That fell in line with his theory. Rogue was a Sorcerer, but one who made contracts with humans instead of gods. Gods wouldn''t let mortals use the powers they lent for things they didn''t approve of. Marko for example was also unable to use his strength constructively. If he tried, the power of the gem would wane until he did something destructive again. Cyttorak was a destruction loving god after all.


    Harry had considered letting Rogue make contact with the Crimson gem itself to see if she could directly forge a connection to the elder god, but becoming Cyttorak''s avatar was not a good thing and using the power through Marko was far safer. Though if Marko lost the gem, Rogue would lose the ability to use that strength as well.


    Dr McCoy showed up with some syringes he had been working on since Marko''s arrival and pumped the unstoppable force with enough drugs to keep him out until Thanksgiving.


    As the crowd dispersed, Harry headed over to the intruder who was now making their way back up the stairs. It seemed the person had just paid a visit to Cerebro. Harry hid behind a corner and when the student he didn''t recognize passed by, Harry sent out a stunner directly at his head, dropping him to the ground.


    Harry used telekinesis to lift the kid up and take him to another room where he opened the kid''s unconscious eyes and used Legilimency to find out what he was doing.


    Harry smirked at the results. This was Mystique. She had released Juggernaut as a distraction to break into Cerebro so she could get in and copy the tech. Forge had revamped it several times and it was a very sophisticated piece of technology.


    Harry sent another mental message to Rogue, ''Got another one, second room from the foyer.''


    While Rogue was on her way, Harry took the hard drive from Mystique''s bag and took out his own computer screen and keyboard from his inventory. He easily connected to and copied the content and was trying to decide the best move next.


    Rogue showed up and asked, "Who''s this?"


    Harry smiled and answered, "Mystique here has been a naughty girl."


    Rogue''s eyebrows shot up before she glanced back down at the unconscious kid and let out a sigh. She said, "Mystique, please let me use your power."


    After a moment she touched her and released. She didn''t say anything afterwards and left. Harry didn''t ask, he already figured out they had a past and whatever the Mystique in her mind said, Rogue probably wasn''t willing to share it.


    After pausing for a moment of contemplation, Harry opened up the original fire of the scan and made some edits. He was surprised how much the geometry used to build Cerebro could be mapped out using Arithmancy and by using the same formula, Harry figured out what to change to have Cerebro show something completely different. Harry was very satisfied, this was two great pranks in a single day.


    When finished, Harry put the hard drive back and moved Mystique over to where he knocked her out. The hall was empty since everyone was checking out the fallen Juggernaut. Harry stood her up using telekinesis and cast Rennervate along with a mild confundus charm to make Mystique ignore the feeling that she had just been knocked out and awoken.


    Harry was thankful he''d cast the stunner at her head earlier and not the backpack or else the hard drive would have been wrecked. Harry actually wanted to have a good look at Cerebro for a while but doubted he would have been allowed access even if he asked politely.


    Mystique shook her head and continued walking out, making her way to the exit. As someone with a very high vitality and the ability to control her own cells, her resistance to magic was much higher than a standard muggle or mutant reaching as high as a normal wizard. However Harry was quite a bit above normal wizards himself so his magic was perfectly effective against her making it almost too easy to deal with her.


    If she were a video game class, she would be a warrior or monk. High resistance against physical damage but nominal resistance against the arcane. The only reason she had resistance against psionics was because she''d manually adjusted her mind against it. Perhaps if given time, she could do something similar with magic, but until then, one stunner was all it was ever going to take.


    Since the fun was over, Harry returned to his workshop. He''d learn later than Scott''s team had quickly found out from the Brotherhood that they were only a distraction while Juggernaut was destroying the mansion. They tried to return but the Brotherhood had put a lot of effort into stalling them. When Scott''s team arrived and found that there was no damage and the Juggernaut was out cold, they were appropriately speechless.


    When Xavier returned and had been briefed, he requested Harry to come over to his office to speak with him.


    Harry entered and found Xavier alone with another pile of paperwork before him.


    Xavier gave an honest smile when he saw Harry and said, "I saw Rogue earlier today. She touched me without harm."


    Harry smiled at that. Seemed Rogue had figured out how to turn off her powers already.


    Xavier continued, "She informed me of your part in the training of her powers and I have come to a decision." Xavier pulled out a file stamped with an official logo of one of the nearby Mental Institutions and opened it before sliding it to Harry. Inside was a picture of a young girl with brown hair and red bangs. Xaiver said, "Her name is Wanda Maximoff. She is a mutant gifted with a power she can''t control, a power that greatly resembles the magic you''ve shown yourself capable of.. I''d like you to meet her."

 Chapter 38 - 38 Schooling with the X-Men

    The first official school week started at the Institute and Harry attended a class with each of the instructors while getting to know the various kids who returned from summer break. Harry''s experience with traditional schools ended when he was nine but he didn''t find Hogwarts all that different from normal teachers.


    From what Harry recalled, standard teachers would introduce information from a book then get the students to employ various means of memorization through lectures, notes, ?ssignments, quizzes, homework, and exams. They taught uniformly and if the average student reached the minimum acceptable standards of comprehension, the teacher was considered competent.


    Harry felt he should have seen this coming as each of the teachers were from the first X-Men team, but each had a completely different style of teaching.


    Domino, also called Ms. Thurman, was the math teacher. Her own mutant power, according to her anyways, was luck. She demonstrated this by flipping ten coins in the air and having them all land on her desk, heads up. Harry''s senses told him it appeared to be a subconscious based psionic field that telekinetically made adjustments to things within her line of sight that were advantageous for her. The subconscious was a lot more powerful than the conscious so it was a very impressive and subtle power.


    Rather than give the class a hundred math problems and have them solve them all, she would give a single math problem and then tell a story about something that happened to her during a mission or event which had measurements that matched the story. After going over the story and solving the problem while doing so, she''d ask the class if a specific variable was different, how would the outcome have changed both in the equation and the effect in the story? Rather than just memorizing procedures, this got everyone to use all of their brain in thinking over the procedure itself making it easier to retain.


    Dr. McCoy taught biology and chemistry. In his first class, he brought out a tank with a meter long squid and said the squid would be his teaching ?ssistant. This caused everyone to laugh until Dr. McCoy left the room and the squid started talking and telling them what they would be going over that day. Dr. McCoy''s preferred method of teaching was to draw out the innate curiosity towards the wonders of science to get his students interested in them and become more invested. This didn''t work on everyone of course but it was certainly far from boring.


    World History class with Colossus, known in class as Mr. Rasputin, was actually one of Harry''s favorites. The man''s distinct Russian accent actually made the subject easier to listen to and Colossus did not teach history in any way Harry was familiar with.


    Rather than reading off each section of history piece by piece and expecting the kids to memorize it, Colossus divided history into a series of choices made by specific people and specific countries and the consequences of those choices. It was an approach Harry had not seen before but made history itself more interactive as Colossus would often ask the class if a specific person made a different choice, what could have happened as a result. In addition to making history easier to remember this way, it also showed everyone the long lasting impact of choices and their consequences.


    Not that it was always large things. Colossus had a great sense of humor and would often point out small and humorous facts in history and their consequences as well. Like the fact that Benjamin Franklin was not allowed to work on the final draft of the Declaration of Independence because they feared he would slip a joke in there no one would notice until it was too late. Or that time when Napoleon Bonaparte and his top brass were thoroughly defeated by an army of 3000 bunny rabbits which used military tactics against Napoleon and his men because they were farm raised bunnies instead of wild rabbits. Or the fact that Hitler''s over reliance on quack doctors and their drugs made him terribly gassy. Mr. Rasputin''s class would often be filled with laughter and Harry was not the only one who enjoyed it.


    Ms. Munroe didn''t allow others to call her Storm in the classroom and taught English class which everyone had to attend at various grade levels though she also taught several other languages as electives. What was interesting was that a large number of students had noticed that she became more expressive and overall happier looking which made her classes more fun to attend. Although she had not yet mastered the tricks written in the text Harry had given her, just what she had already accomplished allowed her more ranges of emotion without affecting the local weather patterns.


    Forge didn''t care if you called him Professor Silvercloud or not but anyone who goofed off in the Physical Sciences class would suddenly find themselves ''volunteered'' for a practical demonstration of whatever they were teaching that day. There were times when Forge would actively look over the class, hoping for a ''volunteer'' to present him or herself, meaning the students were by far, the most well behaved in that class.


    Something Harry liked about Forge was that the man himself didn''t like Science books. Such texts had pictures and graphs and pages of information, but retaining such information through such media was difficult for most types of learners. Instead, every other class Forge would switch back and forth between a live demonstration and a lab environment. Basically, I''ll show you first, then you do it. There were still students who had problems learning like this, but they often found themselves ''volunteered'' to ?ssist in the following class where Forge would thoroughly demonstrate through the volunteer how the subject they were having issues with worked. By the end of class, it was guaranteed that the volunteer would certainly comprehend the subject. Students who had trouble on their own would either have to study harder or risk getting ''volunteered.''


    Physical Education was of course taught by Logan. Sometimes the age groups would participate in sports like basketball or volleyball. Sometimes the groups would be thrown into the new and improved Danger Room where Danger herself worked with Logan to make sadistic obstacle courses and hazardous environments for the students to navigate through. Harry didn''t make too many friends in that class when they found out he was the one that helped Forge upgrade the Danger Room.


    Mr. Worthington taught economics in a somewhat similar way to Mr. Rasputin in that he gave histories of various companies and the decisions those companies made and the consequences of those decisions.


    And of course, Professor Xavier taught a mandatory Ethics class. In addition to requiring the class to familiarize themselves with specific source material, Xavier would often introduce an ethical dilemma a mutant with a specific set of powers might face and have the class discuss the long term and short term consequences of the various choices that could be made.


    Xavier and Forge were the only two teachers who you could use the Professor title with because they had both produced works which had been published. Dr. McCoy had as well and could technically be called Professor McCoy, but he preferred the Doctor title.


    Three days into the classes, the teachers unanimously decided to change Harry from student to teacher aid. Most of the teachers had such aids and they could always use more. After a round of discussion, they decided Harry would rotate between them. Technically he should have been ?ssigned to just Dr McCoy or Forge but the group discovered Harry simply knew too much.


    In his first class, Ororo asked Harry to list off how many languages he knew and then proceeded to quiz him on them. Although his accent needed work because he hadn''t been to the regions, his pronunciation and ability to read and write each of the languages he listed off were all acceptable. He even listed off languages she didn''t speak herself. Ororo didn''t even know snakes had a language and had never heard of Gallifreyan.


    Similar situations occurred in the other classes and Angel and Domino agreed they had nothing to teach him when it came to their own subjects.


    Rather than go to a college or university, both Dr. McCoy and Forge were fully accredited to give out Masters degrees if Harry studied under them and if Harry produced a Doctoral Thesis that got published afterwards, he could theoretically get his own Doctorate without stepping foot in a college.


    After classes, the Library study group would still form and Jean introduced Harry to everyone who easily took over for Study Head. Though she became a bit worried when she learned of Harry''s transition to Teacher''s aid.


    Jean asked, "Are you ok with staying with the Study Group? I mean you''re already pretty busy."


    Harry easily answered, "Teaching is one of the things I like and something I could easily see becoming a career for me so this sort of experience is actually pretty good."


    Jean didn''t look convinced and conveyed telepathically, ''Are you sure you''re not just saying that to get me to like you?''


    Harry showed some real surprise and smiled back before thinking aloud, ''I really do like teaching but now it seems I really can''t stop. Since I''ve found that I really like you as well, I see no reason to stop doing something that helps you like me.''


    Jean rolled her eyes and turned away to hide her light blush and thought, ''As if you needed help.'' Then her eyes shot up and she turned back to see Harry''s smile which made her realize she''d conveyed that instead of thought it to herself.


    And she promptly moved over to another desk. Harry''s smile didn''t wane as he pretended to ignore it and continue answering questions in the study group. It didn''t take long for the returning members to figure out Harry was a Grade A know-it-all but didn''t speak with any condescension when asked a question or when walking someone through an answer. Some of the kids were a bit peeved when they asked Harry a direct question and he showed them a different way to find the answer instead of just giving it to them, but they couldn''t exactly fault Harry for that.


    Saturday morning of the following weekend had Logan driving a nondescript car with Harry and Xavier to the West Salem Mental Institution. Harry had gone over Wanda''s file and her reported abilities. High tech machines going on the fritz or exploding in her vicinity, structures breaking down or shifting when she got emotional, and strange phenomenon occurring when she fought back. These all looked like a severe case of accidental magic of a magical child. The thing was however, the MACUSA never came for her meaning her magic didn''t register, she wasn''t a witch. At least not in the traditional sense.


    Harry was the first, and as far as he knew, only magical to awaken an X-Gene. There was no record of Wanda dying at some point meaning she was likely a mutant with a power that resembled witchcraft rather than a witch herself. There were other possibilities of course so Harry wouldn''t jump to a conclusion before meeting her.


    Logan explained how on the way, they would be checked for anything and would not be allowed to bring anything inside. Harry considered this and took out two Smoky Quartz from the bag he''d brought along. In front of Xavier, he made one glow and vanish back into his inventory and cast a disillusionment charm over the other, causing it to become invisible.


    Harry showed his ''empty'' hand to Xavier and asked, "Should I bring this along to use as an example when I meet her?"


    Xavier experimentally poked the invisible stone and after a moment of consideration answered, "Yes, I think that would be acceptable."


    After parking outside, Logan got Xavier in his chair and the three headed into the facility. Once they reached the gate, Xavier said, "Don''t make sudden moves and follow us inside. They won''t question your age if you don''t bring it up."


    Harry nodded back. A fifteen year old was not an acceptable visitor for someone considered to be dangerous inside a mental institution, even if that someone was also fifteen. On paper Xavier and Harry filled out the forms correctly and were properly documented, but Harry''s admittance should have been rejected.


    The only reason Harry could be brought here was because Xavier was willing to use his own powers to break the rules for him. Harry figured this decision did not come lightly or else Xavier would have introduced him to Wanda much earlier.


    Harry considered the reason Xavier was willing to do so at all had to do with the quests Harry had done since arriving. Harry''s original recruitment quest stated he had to show Xavier his magic, something he had not intended on doing earlier. Since then he used magic to upgrade the Danger Room and had successfully taught Rogue how to use her powers which Harry stated resembled magic he was familiar with. Three quests with three results which combined gave Xavier a great deal of confidence Harry could in fact ?ssist Ms. Maximoff with her control problems.


    The Ancient One and Harry knew the quests would have a further reaching impact than just the success of the required task. This meeting was certainly one of those impacts which to Harry meant that the quest giver wanted Xavier to ask Harry to help Wanda.


    Logan remained outside the security area because he didn''t get along with metal detectors and Xavier was led to a small room to wait for Wanda while Harry silently followed.


    She flinched back and struggled to get away, but not out of fear for herself. Her magics started attacking Harry and she knew he would get hurt if he didn''t let go. The guard knew this too and the sight of Harry hugging her sent a lot of alarms off in his head and he moved to get her away.


    Xavier noticed Harry''s calm demeanor and motioned to the guard, "Wait!"


    Wanda''s magics sent the equivalent of a dozen spells with curse-like effects into Harry which should have twisted or burned his organs, shocked his skin, or broken his bones. Wanda kept trying to get away fully aware of what was happening but Harry didn''t let up. She said, "Stop, you''ll get hurt!"


    Harry answered back, "Haven''t you noticed yet? I''m completely fine."


    Harry''s magic defense didn''t see much use but it was still much higher than his physical defense. Wanda''s magic wasn''t weak, it was at the level of a sixth or seventh year student which was remarkable considering the fact that she had no training, but Harry b?r?ly received any damage from it and what little he did receive was too small to observe and healed almost right away.


    Wanda froze for a moment and paid attention to Harry for the first time, noticing that nothing happened to him no matter what her powers did to him. She met his gaze and didn''t see any fear, only a kind smile. Even Xavier didn''t completely lack fear in her presence. Her power was simply too dangerous and would make anyone unconsciously wary. Even her father, the self proclaimed Mutant Messiah, feared her and put her in this place due to that fear.


    Xavier smiled and motioned to the guard, "You can go, everything is under control."


    The guard didn''t argue and left without saying anything else.


    Harry released Wanda but took her hand and held it tight. In her eyes Harry saw a terrified little girl crying for affection she could never have which was why Harry wanted to show her she wasn''t dangerous.


    Wanda didn''t move to shake off Harry''s hand though she was still confused by it. Xavier said, "Wanda, this is Harry. He is a mutant as well and I believe he can help you with controlling your powers."


    Wanda''s frown seemed almost instinctive. She couldn''t believe anyone was able to help her and she retorted back, "How can he help, no one can help me."


    Harry put the hand containing the invisible Smoky Quartz behind him where only the Professor could see it and had it glow with Lumos for a moment before he put it back in his inventory.


    Wanda hadn''t noticed the glow behind Harry''s back before Harry waved his hand over the door and walls which seemed to slowly fix themselves into their prior state with his Reparo charm. The room they were in had no cameras since Wanda''s power would bust any within so Harry didn''t have to hide his magic here.


    Harry turned back to Xavier and said, "Can I talk with her alone for a few minutes?"


    Xavier nodded, he already had quite a bit of trust in Harry and Wanda was still staring bugged eyed at the door Harry fixed. When Xavier left, Harry put a silencing charm around the room and transfigured Wanda''s straight-jacket into a dress. He then conjured two comfy chairs and for his finale, he conjured a corgi which appeared in his ??p and gave Wanda a happy bark.


    Wanda fell back into the chair from shock and after a moment asked, "Is this real?"


    Harry considered it while petting the fuzzy smiling corgi in his ??p and answered, "That''s a complicated question. But at the moment, the answer is yes." The corgi let out another happy bark.


    Harry continued, "Although not exact, I can pretty much do what you can do, except under controlled circumstances. With training, you can also do what I can do."


    Wanda stared at the smiling corgi staring back at her and when Harry released it, the fuzzy doggo jumped into Wanda''s surprised ??p and curled up. Wanda unconsciously started petting it and couldn''t help smiling.


    Harry continued, "There are a few reasons you can''t control your power, the main reason is that you have no training, but the training else would be difficult because you are tied down by your hatred of your father."


    Wanda froze at the mention and the chair she was in started to smolder. The corgi in her ??p stiffened which reminded her there was a dog with her and forced her to take a breath to prevent herself from harming the conjured dog.


    Harry shook his head and said, "The file I read on you says they''ve just been telling you to get over your anger of him, but your powers are fueling your memories of him which are in turn fueling your powers. I''m sure you''ve tried, but without a miracle or a telepath to deal with the memories, staying here isn''t going to help you control your powers."


    Wanda wanted to get angry but she didn''t want to hurt the d???? so instead she started to cry. "I know. I''ve always known. I want out of here. But no one is willing to take me away. I''m too dangerous."


    The corgi in her ??p got up and climbed over her ?h?st to set its head at her neck while laying over her torso. Wanda continued crying and wrapped her arms around the dog who knew she wanted a hug.


    Harry Paused to go over what he could do. First of all, it was obvious why the universe wanted her trained. Her magic had Chthon''s signature, she was the one Chthon intended to make a vessel. Harry hadn''t caught it at first, but her file actually said she and her twin were born on Mt. Wundagore, the place Chthon''s spirit got sealed the last time he tried to take over earth. That meant it was likely the Elder Demon God had a direct hand in the shaping of Wanda''s power. From what Chthon had mentioned about how Chaos Magic and Wizard Magic were pretty much the same, Harry understood now why Wanda''s magic looked like wizard magic and why she was so powerful without training.


    Although it was the safest option, the idea of harming Wanda was never considered. He would ensure she was trained and able to resist Chthon should the two ever meet. The only question was how to do so effectively?


    Harry spent a long time going through each possible method and their long term implications before eliminating the other choices and arriving at the best one. After unpausing, Harry said to Wanda, "How would you like a 100 year long vacation?"


    Wanda''s crying stopped and she looked up at Harry in disbelief and directly asked, "Are you crazy?"


    Harry answered, "There are several ways to dull your anger, but most of them require messing your head in ways that neither I nor Professor Xavier would ever consider an option. The only other method left to deal with that kind of anger is time. I have a way for you to live 100 years of peaceful time, doing whatever you want and it will only take the span of a few moments. In that time, I could train you or teach you or just take you on walks on the beach and fill your head with experiences of you living a life. Once you''ve lived long enough, the memories of your father will be diluted enough to fade the bite of anger you have for him."


    Wanda frowned and said with heat, "I will never forgive him."


    Harry replied, "I''m not asking you to, but you can''t let your anger at him determine your future. He is not nearly important enough to have such a large effect on your life."


    That caused a light chuckle from her which Harry thought was quite the improvement.


    After taking a few more moments to pet the corgi she asked, "How would we do it?"


    Harry smiled and said, "I''ll come back in a week and we''ll do it then. I need to get some things for prep work."


    Wanda looked disappointed she would have to wait but accepted it.


    Harry asked, "Is there any place you''d really want to visit or live for that time?"


    Wanda thought about it and answered, "Surprise me."


    Harry nodded and got up from his chair. The corgi faded into the air as it was dispelled and Wanda got up just as the chair she was under faded as well.


    Harry noticed her depressed expression looked over her attire before saying, "Take off your shoe."


    Wanda gave a questioning look but did so. Harry cast a series of spells on it before finishing with a satisfied smile. Harry said, "Come here Twinkie." The shoe suddenly transfigured into a corgi. Harry petted it again and said, "Back to bed Twinkie." The corgi returned into a shoe and Harry handed it back.


    Harry explained, "Using those commands aloud will change your shoe to and from a corgi."


    Wanda raised an eyebrow and asked with a smirk, "Twinkie?"


    Harry smiled brightly and answered, "Golden on the outside and white on the bottom. That and corgis are in fact twinkie shaped."


    Wanda rolled her eyes but her smile brightened and she put her shoe back on.


    Harry said, "I''ll need to return the jacket too."


    Wanda sighed and nodded. A moment later her dress returned to the form of a straight jacket.


    Harry removed the silencing spell and opened the door to invite Xavier back in who had been chatting with the guard.


    Harry said, "I have a way to help Wanda get control over her powers and even help her anger, but it will take a week to prep so I''ll need to return next weekend."


    Xavier looked over Wanda and instantly noticed a change in her demeanor. She almost looked like she had been smiling earlier. Xavier still asked, "What way is that?"


    Harry answered, "I''ve already discussed all the details with Wanda and it is a way I know you would approve of. However the actual means is something I can''t tell you."


    Xavier looked over at Wanda and asked, "And you feel it is safe?"


    Wanda sighed and said, "It sounds a thousand times better than anything else I''ve tried. And if what he says is actually true, then I think it actually has a real chance of working."


    Harry noticed Xavier wasn''t exactly intruding on his mind but was checking his overall mindset to determine if he was lying. Xavier more than anyone knew the dangers of ''quick fixes.'' Of course there was nothing ''quick'' about this particular fix, it only seemed that way.


    Xavier seemed satisfied and said, "Alright, we shall return next week. Can you behave yourself Wanda?"


    Wanda unconsciously moved her foot and said, "I think I''ll be fine Professor."


    With that, the group departed. Harry was aware that her heavily enchanted shoe would still fry every electronic within a meter of her foot, but since her power seemed to do so anyway, no one would really notice. The enchanted corgi had a constant silencing field around it so others would not hear its barks unless they were within a foot of it. There was another spell that would activate when someone came close and would cause the corgi to automatically change back into a shoe and slip itself back onto her foot. Of course, a shoe is not a fantastic material to stick such heavy enchantments to, but the effect would at least last a few weeks and give Wanda some company. Harry wasn''t sure if he could stop himself from breaking her out if she was just going to go back to being all alone again.


    Rather than return to the institute, Harry said he wanted to head to New York to get the materials needed to help Wanda. Xavier and Logan knew Harry didn''t need a car to get around so they let him out on the road. Harry found a spot out of sight and opened a silver portal to a back alley near the New York Sanctum Sanctorum. The alley had a few Sorcerer spells that kept others from hanging around it as it was the standard arrival destination of Sling Ring Portals for the area.


    Harry used his inventory to change into his robes before knocking on the door and waiting patiently.


    An African man in a fitted martial gi answered the door and Harry said, "Good Morning Master Drumm."


    The master smiled and said, "Apprentice Harry, welcome back. Is this a social call?"


    Only the Ancient One knew Harry had reached the Master level and their pair had no intention of spreading that fact around.


    Harry shook his head which caused Master Drumm to smile back, "It never is," before gesturing for him to come in. He said, "I heard about that matter with the demons. Most impressive."


    Harry answered back, "The group I''m working with is very skilled. I''m learning a lot from them as well."


    Master Drumm nodded back and returned to his own affairs leaving Harry to head over to the portal to Kamar-Taj. Sure, Harry could portal directly there, but that was a bit rude and since he was here to ask a favor, formalities should be observed. Especially since the Ancient One couldn''t see Harry coming so it really would be rude to come over unannounced.


    After making his way in, he asked Master Wong if the Ancient One was available. He was one of the few who knew that Harry was invisible to the sight of Ancient One and confirmed she was at the temple. Harry then asked politely if he could check if she had time to speak with him about a s?ns?t?v? matter.


    Wong returned a few minutes later and escorted Harry over and left the room. Harry took a steaming tea set out of his inventory and poured a cup. The Ancient One took a sip before giving a light smile and stating, "You must want to ask me something if you''re using this tea. It is not so easy to find after all."


    Harry nodded and poured himself a cup. To those he trusted, he was an easy man to see through as he disliked deception not based around a prank. Harry sat down and directly stated, "I found Chthon''s future vessel and want to borrow the Eye of Agamotto to speed up her training."


    Although it looked like the Ancient One was taking her second sip of tea, she had in fact only put the cup to her lip, fully expecting Harry to say something outrageous. This meant Harry didn''t get any good spit takes which his prankster soul always insisted on trying for.


    The Ancient One ignored the attempt and put down her cup and asked, "How will the use of the Eye be of ?ssistance?


    "Well, I wanted to invite her mind into my own and with the Eye, use Mental Infinity."


    The Ancient One''s eyebrows shot up and she revealed a slight smirk. Mental Infinity was not a training tool, it was an attack spell she created using the Eye and occasionally used on Harry when they sparred. Very few beings had resistance to time magic and Mental Infinity sped up the speed of thought by a billion times. One would think this granted the target an advantage, but in fact it would practically cripple the target. The body would ot be able to process such fast intentions and would not respond to the will to move. A person hit by the spell couldn''t do much more than stand still and pray it ended.


    The spell itself was quite cruel to use on anyone without a highly developed mindscape as it would trap them within their own body in a frozen world where they could do nothing but wait for the effect to end. Less than three and a quarter seconds under the spell would have the user experience a hundred years of frozen time.


    Harry however was so used to pausing, a hundred years of silence didn''t affect him much. He''d already figured out the trick to moving his body in real time with accelerated senses and could dispel the effect when used on him. The Ancient One got his permission before using it on him of course and learned that when Harry reached level 300, he would likely start fighting monsters made of time energy so he would likely have to face such effects eventually and the sooner he started to adapt, the better.


    The reason of course Harry never used such a means to train himself was that Pausing was infinitely superior and didn''t require the Eye of Agamotto to use. However Harry could not take the minds of others while pausing, even if he used Multiplayer with them. This was the only means he could think of.


    Harry explained the details to the Ancient One and after a moment of contemplation, she answered, "No, I will not let you borrow the Eye."

 Chapter 39 - 39 Time in a Bottle

    Harry sighed but accepted it. He had some back up plans as well which was why he said he needed a week to prep, but he''d hoped he''d be able to do it the easy way.


    However the Ancient One continued, "Rather, you don''t need to borrow it. As you have regained the use of portals, just tell me when you plan on performing the mind training and I''ll come over and use the spell myself."


    "Really?"


    "Of course. My main concern is that if young Wanda''s mind enters your own, her body will be left undefended. The chosen vessel of Chthon should not be left empty so easily, even if only for a moment. Although unlikely, it would be prudent to ensure nothing happens so I will be present to cast the spell and ensure nothing occurs."


    Harry let out a breath of relief and said, "Thank you." He had considered that as well and many of the materials he intended to fetch were for that very purpose, but there was a difference between a week of prep and having the Sorcerer Supreme watch over you. Together they went over the various details and made a plan.


    Harry left Kamar-Taj by portal and spent the next two days sightseeing. The Mindscape Copy perk allowed him to perfectly replicate areas into his mind and since he was going to have a guest, he wanted to make sure she would not get bored. Harry spent a few hours as a Snowy Owl with a notice-me-not flying around New York and eventually got a copy of almost the entire city in his mind. He returned to human form and entered many of the places of interest to copy the interior as well and visited every beach in a hundred miles. Thankfully it was only August and the water was cool but not cold.


    Harry used a portal to visit several nearby forests and a lot of scenic areas. He made sure to copy the sky next to the beach when the sun rose, which, although not as great as a sun set, was still pretty good.


    After that Harry used a portal to return to Tibet and used his fastest flying speed as an owl to fly directly to the mountains and copy them directly into his mind as well. He flew along the hiking routes and tourist sites and spots of interest. Last but not least, Harry used a portkey his Godfather, Sirius Black had handed him and used it to go to Black Island, his Godfather''s vacation island. Sirius wasn''t there which didn''t surprise Harry as the married man was quite busy fixing the Wizarding world. Last Harry heard the man was going to be, against his will, elected Minister of Magic.


    After getting a copy of Black Island, Harry used a portal to return to the Institute. Something Harry liked about his new portals was that because he didn''t have to swing his hand around to open one, he could make one even as an owl. Once things had settled down he would take the time to visit every part of the world he could think of so he could copy the nice things into his head and be able to open a portal there when needed.


    The next week passed by mostly uneventfully as he followed his new routine except for one encounter. One morning when Harry woke up from his four hours of sleep, Jean telepathically conveyed to him, ''You actually died?! You said it got better!''


    Harry smiled, he wondered how she would react to that one. He thought back, ''You saw the stuff after that right? It did get better.''


    ''Well, I mean yeah but. You died. Usually you don''t come back from that.''


    Harry thought back, ''Didn''t you come back from death a little before that?''


    Jean''s shock could be heard through her thoughts, ''How did you know about that?''


    ''A little birdie told me. Keep reading Jean, it''s all there."


    Harry could swear he heard a sigh before she conveyed back, ''Alright, but I''m skipping the endless video games and TV time. I feel a bit weird reading the personal stuff about your parents so I''ll be skipping that.''


    ''That''s fine. Skipping the whole tutorial won''t change my story much.''


    ''What? No way. This gamer stuff is actually pretty interesting. Can you really respawn if you die?''


    ''Yeah, but other than using it as a tasteless prank, I''d rather not demonstrate that.''


    ''What kind of prank would require that?''


    Harry sent a visualization of himself having a serious conversation with someone he didn''t like and then exploding in a shower of gore in front of them leaving the poor victim destined to require endless therapy for the rest of their days.


    Jean sent back, ''Yeah, that would be pretty tasteless.''


    Jean and Harry continued to chat about various subjects both strange and mundane. Jean finished reading about the tutorial and started into Hogwarts on Friday.


    The following Saturday morning, Rogue went looking for Harry and after finding him leaving the kitchen, she grabbed him and gave him a giant hug.


    Harry hugged her back of course and when she released he asked, "Not that I mind, but what was that about?"


    Rogue smiled back and said, "Cody Robbins. The boy who I.. put into a coma. I found out he woke up!"


    Harry smiled back and said, "That''s great. The connection between you two has been severed so there wouldn''t be any lasting effects."


    Rogue nodded and looked down for a moment before gently asking, "Um, were you planning on doing anything today?"


    Harry honestly answered, "Well, I was planning on spending a one hundred year long vacation with a girl I met for the first time last weekend so I could help her learn to control her own powers."


    Rogue looked more than a little flabbergasted at that and Harry added in jest, "Why, did you want to join us?"


    Rogue froze for just a moment and nodded, "Yes, I wanna go."


    Harry did a double take and asked, "Really? It''s one hundred years you know. She has some issues that can only be resolved with time so I''ll be using magic to accelerate time and put one hundred years of training and experiences in her head to help her out."


    Rogue looked a bit pensive and replied, "Well, I need training too. I''ve already asked most of the X-Men to lend me their powers but using them with each other is gonna take me a long time to master. Can I practice as well if I were to go too?"


    Harry considered it and determined that she would in fact be able to use her powers in his mindscape. Time would be slowed but not halted meaning the connections she had to others would not be interrupted. That meant she could also practice the use of her powers.


    Harry was not one to go back on his word so he asked for confirmation, "Are you absolutely sure? You won''t be able to quit half-way through you know."


    Rogue nodded with certainty, "I''m sure."


    Harry let out a sigh and said, "Alright, wait in your room and I''ll call for you in two hours."


    Rogue smiled and hugged Harry again before heading into her room. Harry wondered if she knew what she was getting into but figured it would be alright. Although Harry wouldn''t be able to kick her out if she got tired of it, he could freeze her mind until the time ran out so there was no real harm if she wanted to come along. Giving Wanda some female company wouldn''t be a bad thing either since they had a number of things in common.


    Harry stopped for a moment and considered inviting Jean, but decided against it. The faster she removed the seals on the Phoenix, the better, and spending one hundred years training with a locked mind would not do her any favors in the long run because she would not be able to unlock her own mind while it was in Harry''s. There were a few variations he could try that might help, but after going over them one by one, Harry determined it still was not to her benefit to be included in this.


    Once more, Harry was driven over to the Mental Institute with Xavier and Logan. Harry considered telling Xavier he needed a few minutes alone with Wanda for his plan to work but he could not think of a way to ask that of him without Xavier jumping to the wrong conclusion. Instead he decided to wisely remain silent and explain the details when they got there.


    They returned to the small room from before and ten minutes later, Wanda entered. This time the door didn''t melt. When she saw Harry had actually come, she looked like she was going to cry as she couldn''t believe he had actually returned to fulfill his promise. Harry hugged her again which she enjoyed this time and Harry said to Xavier, "This could either take three minutes or up to ten minutes depending on the resistance her powers puts up but I have confidence that when finished, it will become manageable. That being said, it would be better to have a bit of privacy."


    Thankfully Xavier didn''t take it the wrong way and agreed, leaving the pair alone and closing the door. He was probably satisfied by hearing Wanda''s progress. Harry knew of course that spending a week with a loving corgi you didn''t have to feed or clean up after would do wonders for any grumpy person.


    Harry created an illusion of Wanda sitting cross legged and Harry sitting behind her with his hands against her back in what looked like some kind of treatment. That was to be used if anyone opened the door''s viewing window and peered through. Harry then transfigured Wanda''s jacket into a red long coat with a t-shirt and jeans beneath it.


    To the side, Harry opened a silver portal and walked through. Wanda followed behind into what appeared to be a ritual chamber. Harry then opened another portal which showed Rogue''s room. She looked shocked at the silver doorway but upon seeing Harry on the other side, didn''t hesitate to jump in.


    A moment later, the robe wearing, shaved head, Ancient One walked in and said, "Hello friends of Harry, I''m his teacher, and I''ll be helping out with this little project."


    Harry stated, "Thanks again for agreeing to ?ssist. This is Wanda and Rogue. Rogue asked for training as well and will be coming along. That way Wanda will have some female company."


    Rogue introduced herself and Wanda reciprocated. Rogue also asked if she could use Wanda''s powers and Wanda, not really knowing what to say, answered yes and got a light finger touch from Rogue. She figured if Harry was going to train Wanda, then if Rogue could use her powers, she could get training as well.


    Harry said, "We don''t have much time, so please sit down in the center and we''ll start."


    The ritual room was perhaps the most magically guarded room in Kamar-Taj and used to both prevent entry and exit. Harry could only create a portal into it because he had a key. Otherwise the room was rather impregnable.


    Wanda and Rogue sat down in the middle of the room. Had they actually been performing a ritual, there would have been lines of candles and stuff but all of that was placed at the side so the room looked more like a storage room in a church than it did a place where mortals formed connections to that which was better left untouched.


    Harry concentrated his Psionics and connected to both Wanda and Rogue. Rogue accepted the connection and after a moment, Wanda did as well. Rejecting wouldn''t have been difficult, but both knew Harry didn''t have any bad intentions.


    This was a variation on the Ancient One''s trick of pushing the astral form out of a body and directly into the Astral Plane. Harry could not do that, but he could drag a person''s astral form into his own mind if he wasn''t blocked. Once he successfully pulled both Rogue and Wanda into his library, he signaled for the Ancient One to cast the spell.


    After making several hands signs, the center of the Eye she wore opened and the Time Stone within was revealed. A wave of green light shot out towards Harry and the girls as the spell was cast.


    Although the Ancient One had never let Harry use the Eye of Agamotto, he knew what it really was. It was a common misconception that the Eye was a tool that used the Time Stone to manipulate time. It was not. The Time Stone doesn''t need ?ssistance to manipulate time. What the Eye actually did was hide the Stone and limit its power. When the Eye was closed, Harry could not feel the Time energy contained within even if he stood next to it. Even when opened, the Time energy that should have rushed out like an endless sea was reduced to a meager trickle.


    Of course it was possible to override those limits and safeties and use the full power of the Time Stone with the Eye, but doing so wouldn''t be any different from broadcasting to the whole of the Universe that there is an Infinity Stone present and invite those who sought them out to come and take them. All magic had a price after all, the use of the Eye was no different.


    Wanda and Rogue found themselves in Harry''s library and Harry himself materialized within and said, "Welcome to my head. Please leave all questions until after the tour."


    Harry showed them to a door which opened to reveal a round room that contained many silver portals. These were imitations of Harry''s portals and a set up that others wandering around his head could use to go into the different areas. Harry showed the portals for New York, London, Tibet, Hogwarts, the Tutorial Village, Black Island, and many scenic areas such as grasslands, beaches, forests, and mountains. He took them to New York which looked identical to the real thing and stopped at a coffee shop where Harry ordered tea and asked what the girls wanted. Wanda asked for hot chocolate and Rogue asked for a muffin.


    Moments later the waitress came over with their orders and a check and Harry began drinking his tea and said they could start with their questions.


    Wanda started, "Is this real?"


    Harry smiled and said, "Depends on your definition of real."


    Rogue asked, "Is it like the Matrix?"


    Harry considered it and answered, "Somewhere between the Matrix and a video game. The people around us are NPCs. Please treat them as you would real humans."


    Wanda asked, "Why?"


    Harry replied, "Habits. We''ll be here for a while and if you treat them as anything other than real people, you may find it difficult to treat actual real people as real people when we leave. Consider it practice."


    Rogue looked at the check that the waitress left and asked, "How will we pay?"


    Harry handed both girls a wallet which contained an ID card, Credit Card, and Library Card. Harry''s Library Card could not be taken by someone who would use the information gained from his mind poorly, so he waited to see if both could claim it and was more than a little relieved that they both took it without issue. Had they been unable to take the card, his training sessions would have been far more awkward.


    Harry said, "Again, the act of paying is just because we''re going to be here a while and if you spent a hundred years going to a coffee shop without paying, you might forget to pay in real life."


    Wanda was still looking around and having trouble accepting that something so real was literally all in their heads.


    Harry got out some folders and passed them out before stating, "Now although we have one hundred years, that doesn''t mean you can do nothing the whole time. Again, if you spend a hundred years doing nothing, you''ll find it hard to get motivated to do something back in the real world. So we are going to keep busy. Here are your schedules."


    Both opened the files and they had what looked similar to a school schedule. Neither felt this was going to be fun.


    Harry''s first goal was to help Wanda catch up on her studies and basically teach them both until they had nothing else they wanted to learn. Wanda wasn''t thrilled but Harry basically explained that the entire point of this, in addition to making use of the valuable time, was to keep her mind occupied for so long, she basically forgets to think about how much she hates her father. Wanda accepted such a feat would truly take a long time and decided not to argue with it.


    The first thing that Wanda discovered which surprised her was that her powers worked just fine in the mindscape and when she got angry, her powers reacted the same way. Although the people she hurt were not real people and the places she destroyed were not real places, they still looked and felt real. Harry also insisted that the damage done be left as is and when she mastered her power she could use those locations to practice repair magic later. Harry could have fixed it himself of course, but having damage done vanish as if it never happened without her own input was not realistic and Harry didn''t want them to get used to the idea that things they broke would fix themselves later.


    The reason Harry had to put so much effort into logic was to ensure that logic was correctly imprinted into Wanda''s head. If a user of Chaos magic could not tell the difference between fantasy and reality, things would go downhill fast. Harry''s answer to this was for them to consider the possibility that everything was fantasy but regardless, treat it as if it were reality. As long as Wanda treated everything like reality, even knowing it could be fantasy, she would not be able to unconsciously trick herself otherwise.


    Of course as was the same with reality, Harry was still unaffected by anything Wanda did so he would often remain near her to remind her that she wasn''t dangerous.


    At some point Rogue had taken Wanda to the side and they toured New York without Harry and spent many hours performing the dreaded Girl Talk. Harry did not in fact spend every moment monitoring the girls so he would do his own thing when the pair went off on their own. Due to the fact that most malls, stores, and restaurants were either faithfully copied or at least imitated to the point they were functional, the pair would not be deprived of things to enjoy.


    Harry''s own project for the next hundred years was something he had been considering since his decision to use gemstones and tech. Harry decided to invent a new branch of science. None of the current branches could properly explain extra dimensional energies and to avoid using the word Magic, Harry had to properly formulate the observable reactions of these energies which could be reproduced by others. Of course, the observability of such energies would require technology which didn''t exist yet. Harry would make it eventually and when he did, people would be able to measure energies from other dimensions and learn how they interact with different fields and materials.


    Harry had something of an innate understanding of the energies already, but he needed something that could be taught to others and tested using machines.


    Of course, the only materials capable of interacting with these energies naturally would either be rare and esoteric materials like vibranium, or the gemstones Harry''s company would alter using sonic technology. As long as no one else cracked material manipulation using sonic tech, Harry''s company would have the monopoly on the source of all materials needed for what would soon be the world''s most advanced tech.


    The reason Harry needed to write out the science though was because he needed the science behind his tech to be understood by others so it could be approved of and sold. It was fine if others knew how his stuff worked and how to make it themselves. Unless they got the key materials from Harry''s companies, they could only twiddle their thumbs. Of course there would be those who tried to buy large amounts of products containing those specialty materials in order to use them to build devices of their own designs, but Harry had his own plans, or should he say, pranks for such people.


    In addition to basic and advanced subjects, Harry taught both girls Occlumency. Chaos Magic was close enough to Wizard Magic for Wanda to use it and since Rogue could use both Wanda''s powers or Jean''s powers, she could use them to build up her own Occlumency as well.


    Harry also encouraged both to acquire a hobby. Both tried cooking but both decided it didn''t agree with them. Wanda decided to try painting and found she liked it while Rogue took up reading and playing video games much to Harry''s amusement.


    When Rogue got bored, she would fight the copies of monsters Harry faced in Battle Meditation or she would fight Death Eaters. It hadn''t taken her long to find Harry''s life story, the one Jean had been reading in his library and after a few weeks she finished the whole set, catching up to Harry''s present.


    Harry noticed that once finished, Rogue would often go find the copies of the various foes Harry had defeated such as the monsters from his Battle Meditation or the Death Eaters or that Basilisk. When she was feeling adventurous, she would try facing the Black Dragon and die a noble death against it. She once complained to Harry that she wanted to face Voldemort or the Mandarin, but Harry said that Goose technically killed the former and Harry b?r?ly survived the latter so his mindscape copy didn''t have enough information to reproduce them.


    When channeling the powers of others, there were some powers she could channel completely and other powers that she could only use a fraction of. She could use 100% of the Juggernaut''s strength, but she could only teleport a fraction of Kurt''s max distance. She could use Bobby''s power without issue, but Evan''s spikes were uncomfortable to use and less effective compared to when she stole his powers. Scott''s power was ironically rather easy to use, but Logan''s was a bit moody. In order to use Logan''s healing factor, she had to heavily focus on using it which prevented her from multitasking while healing.


    Harry determined the difficulty was based on the origin of the power. Scott''s, Bobby''s, and Marko''s powers seemed to all be extradimensional. She was just connecting to the same extradimensional source using them as a reference. Kurt''s teleporting was something Harry suspected was influenced by his bloodline, something Rogue did not share with Kurt. Spike and Wolverine both manifested their powers from their own biology, meaning Rogue''s body had to mimic their cells which was harder than channeling energy. Harry suggested practicing with Mystique''s power as getting used to the feeling of her cells changing should help use the powers of others.


    Rogue found that if she shapeshifted into Logan, Kurt, or Evan, using their power was much easier. But she wanted to use her power in her own form so that became her goal for practicing.


    With Harry''s help, Rogue also practiced Chaos Magic. Wanda didn''t particularly like her powers, so Rogue helped Harry figure out the properties of it so Harry could create a proper training routine when Wanda finally came around.


    Five years after entering the mindscape, Harry called Wanda over and told her, "It''s time to practice the use of your power."


    Wanda frowned at that and asked, "Why now?"


    Harry asked, "When was the last time you thought of your father and when was the last time your anger caused an accident?"


    Wanda thought about it and realized it had actually been a full year. Occlumency hadn''t been easy to learn, but she had eventually used it to do as Harry said and removed her father''s ability to infuriate her. Harry was right about that, he wasn''t important enough to be allowed to affect her life so much.


    Wanda looked at the painting she had been working on and said, "I just want to learn how not to hurt people. The only person I want to use my powers to tear up is my father, but since there is only one of him, I don''t see much of a point in training to use my power in other ways."


    Harry sighed but it wasn''t his decision to make. If someone wanted to live a peaceful life, that was their choice.


    Rogue heard about her decision later and took her out for some more Girl Talk. When they returned, Wanda agreed to get trained and do everything she could to become stronger. Harry wasn''t going to ask what they talked about but he was happy she made that choice.


    Thanks to trial and error with Rogue, Harry had created what he considered the perfect training regime for Chaos Magic. Much of it he created with his subconscious as his mind contained both the Book of Vishanti and the Darkhold, the later being the premiere text on all things Chaos Magic.


    Harry initially wanted to remove Chthon''s signature from Wanda''s magic and have her imprint it with her own. This would completely cut off Wanda''s potential as the perfect vessel for Chthon, but Harry easily found out how impossible this was. It was not just a mark left on her by some remnant of Chthon, it was and actual piece of himself he personally placed in her at the moment of her birth.


    Through some testing, Harry determined that Wanda''s mutant power should have been a form of energy manipulation. Chthon had likely seen this as the perfect opportunity and used it to change the energy she could manipulate from normal energy to Chaos Magic.


    Because of this, there was no way to change what she could manipulate from Chaos Magic to wizard magic.


    However since Plan A wasn''t viable, Harry decided to go with Plan B. If Chthon was going to give her a great talent and potential at manipulating Chaos energy, then why not have her perfect it to the degree she should be able to overpower Chthon himself if she faced him. Of course that didn''t include facing him in his own realm, but outside of that, any version of Chthon she met would not be capable of absolute control over Chaos energy. If Wanda''s control could exceed or at least match whatever avatar of Chthon she encountered in the future, she would not be overwhelmed and would have a fighting chance.


    Of course, Harry would never intentionally allow her to confront Chthon, but there was no harm in planning for the worse.


    Harry''s lesson plans for Chaos Magic was a step by step introduction on pretty much everything that Chaos Magic could do and an explanation of how it did it. Since most aspects of Chaos magic were identical to Wizard Magic, Harry used that as a base.


    According to Harry, Wizard/Chaos Magic was based on probability manipulation and reality overwriting.


    For example, the basic Unlocking Charm. There was a set non zero probability that someone would forget to lock a door. The Unlocking Charm set that probability to 100% and overlapped that with reality, thus causing the door to unlock itself in order to correct itself to a state where someone had forgotten to lock it. Without a lock that was enchanted to resist such an effect, the Unlocking Charm could potentially unlock any door that was capable of being unlocked.


    The key to using Chaos and Wizard magic was not manually searching for that probability when casting the spell, but allowing your feelings and instincts to guide you to that probability and use that as the target for overlapping reality with.


    Once Wanda got the hang of it, she took to Chaos Magic like a fish to water. It only took a few months to catch up to where Rogue had been and after half a year, Wanda was the one teaching Rogue. The reason she was teaching was that Harry insisted on it. He plainly stated that few things allow someone to learn more about something than teaching it to someone else. By figuring out the best way to teach the less talented Rogue how to use Chaos Magic, she was getting a cleaner feel for it herself.


    After they had finished with their base schooling, their schedule changed to include daily outside vistas. Hiking trips, days in the city, walks along the beach, or even just making a bonfire in the woods. The girls started to really show how much they were enjoying spending time around Harry and when someone enjoys being around you, it wasn''t hard to enjoy being around them.


    Twenty years after the start of their training, Wanda''s skill at Chaos magic officially surpassed Harry''s skill with wizard magic. Wanda was capable of using an Unlocking spell without any excess chaotic energy in the spell. This meant that Wanda could use the spell on an electronic lock without frying it and have it actually open. Even Harry couldn''t do that. Harry''s overall power was of course much higher but his precision lost out to Wanda''s.


    Fifty years into the venture, Rogue and Wanda both asked to go on a date with Harry. By now Wanda had also read the books on Harry''s life and they both knew he was in love with Jean, but they also knew they had fallen in love with him as well and knew the feelings were mutual.


    Harry was surprised that they stated they would be willing to share Harry with Jean and Rogue stated that she knew for a fact that as long as Jean got enough love, she would be willing to share Harry as well.


    Wanda admitted that the only reason she worked hard to master her powers was because Rogue had told her than in the future, Harry would have many powerful enemies trying to control him and would need help to face them. Paying Harry back for everything he''d done for her was her motivation to become stronger.


    Harry had no way to argue with that and agreed to take both on some dates. Over the years they grew closer and he fell in love with them both. Though since all three were v?r??ns, Harry had no frame of reference in his mind for going further than making out which was fine for the girls. Harry stated he wouldn''t cross that final line until he was sixteen and they had moved out of the mansion


    When asked why, Harry stated that Logan would definitely know every time they did it and Harry didn''t feel comfortable with that. Rogue immediately agreed as Logan was basically the surrogate father figure for many of the students and the fact that he would know every time they got busy would kill the mood dead.


    Over the course of many years they learned that Harry had many flaws of his own. He had become over reliant on Pausing and because he didn''t Pause this whole time, he would often spend too much time thinking over a trivial issue or would remain indecisive about something which should be a straightforward choice.


    Harry had never had an outsider''s perspective look at him for some long and until then had remained unaware of those issues and Harry resolved himself to get better about those issues.


    At the end of the one hundred years, the trio found themselves back in the ritual room.


    *Ping*


    [Scholar Path has risen to Rank 45]


    Rogue looked around and asked, "Is it over?"


    The Ancient One answered back, "Yes indeed."


    Rogue and Wanda both walked over to the Ancient One and gave a bow before saying together, "Thank you for taking care of Harry."


    She nodded back with a smile and said, "You''re welcome to visit the Sanctum in the future. But now, it''s best you were off."


    The trio nodded and headed off. The portal to Rogue''s room and the Mental Institute were still open so they left and the portals closed.


    Wanda took a look around the small room and waved a hand to dispel Harry''s illusion of the pair that had remained. She took a deep breath and then dispelled the transfiguration on her straight jacket which coiled back around her, binding her arms in place. She was fully capable of removing the jacket at any time. She was also fully capable of teleporting using her own version of apparition and no locked door could hold her. Due to all this, she could leave any time she wanted to.


    Harry however insisted she take the time to consolidate her own mind and feel out her powers before rushing to use them at the level she could towards the end of the hundred years.


    Before opening the door to let Xavier back in, Wanda gave Harry a pleading puppy dog look he had grown so used to over the years and lifted her up to give her a passion filled goodbye kiss. Technically this was his first kiss not in the mental plain and Harry didn''t have any complaints about it.


    When Xavier entered and saw the pair, he had to do a double take on Wanda to make sure it was the same girl. Xavier had an innate passive sense of empathy and could feel many layers of emotions off the various people around him. The Wanda in front of him was a completely different person than the woman behind the door five minutes ago.


    Harry smiled at his shocked expression and said, "Complete success Professor."


    Wanda nodded and said with a light smile, "He''s right, there won''t be any more uncontrolled outbursts or accidents."


    Xavier smiled at her confidence and said, "I cannot tell you how pleased I am to hear that. As long as that proves true, I can promise that you will only remain here for another month or two for observation before you will be released."


    Wanda nodded and replied, "That''s fine. I''ve got all the time in the world ahead of me so a month or two won''t kill me."


    The guard listening in couldn''t believe what he was hearing. He was also having trouble seeing the smiling girl in front of him as the same teen who had nearly set him on fire half a dozen times over the last few months. He would be more shocked later when he received an apology from Wanda for her behavior and a genuine thank you for helping her.. The remaining staff who would receive the same apology would be just as surprised.

 Chapter 40 - 40 Worst Nightmare

    ver the course of the next two months Harry had two projects to complete. The first was the typing of what would later become Textbooks for his new branch of physics, Metaphysics. Technically, the current definition of Metaphysics was considered a branch of philosophy without ties to actual reality. Harry intended to change that. Sure, he could have gone with Extraphysics or Outerphysics, but this term would be used to quantify the abilities of metahumans so he''d rather use this and have others change the definition of Metaphysics than use a term that made superhumans look alien.


    Harry''s second project required a weekend spent at one of his companies ?ssembling the world''s first Sonic Screwdriver. There was a lot of overlap in the two projects and the coding required to make the Screwdriver was only possible after Harry had ?ssigned the needed constants, variables, and formulas ?ssociated with the various energies that the machine would be dealing with.


    Now it wasn''t actually a screwdriver, nor could it fit in the palm of a hand or a pocket. In fact it was the size of a semi truck and could only use non-linear sonic oscillation harmonics to change the material physics of gemstones and only gemstones. But the properties that could be gained by gemstones that had undergone sonic treatment were non-reproducible through any other means on the planet. The first batch of treated gemstones were Emeralds Harry would take back to the Institute. Harry had shown the Goblins the step by step requirements for ?ssembling the machines and Harry''s Scholar Path shined through in that he could perfectly teach them how to properly ?ssemble and use it in a single weekend.


    The Emeralds were the key to Harry''s second project, his Hard-Light hologram disguises for some of the students. The reason that only the Danger Room had a Hard-Light platform was that the unique materials required to create the Hard-Light system obtained from the Shi''ar designed spaceship were all used up in its creations. These modified Emeralds however could act as replacements for the core components of a Hard-Light generation platform which couldn''t be acquired anywhere else on earth.


    In addition to creating Hard-Light disguises for the kids, Harry also intended to install a Hard-Light platform in Forge''s class rooms. A number of his demonstrations and labs required ?ssistants and he never had enough helpers for that so Harry wanted to have his lab generate them for him. Harry already obtained permission from Danger herself to install a Quantum Entanglement Connection from the Danger Room to Forge''s classroom so Danger could act as an ?ssistance. Forge could also reproduce material intensive experiments through a Hard-Light demonstration rather than burn through funds to redo the same experiment over and over.


    After a month and a half, Wanda Maximoff was successfully released from the Mental Institution and enrolled into Xavier''s School. Wanda''s release was expedited through several donations made to the Institution as ''praise for successfully healing such a profound case.'' Not that Xavier was aware of that. Harry wasn''t going to leave it to chance and he ensured Wanda''s progress report leaked and that the Doctors got lauded mountains of praise which in turn made them want to show off her success even more which in turn lead to more donations. Her release had a nice, fat donation to tie the whole thing together and also sped up a process that should have taken six months to a quarter of that.


    Because of Rogue''s power, she always had her own room but when Wanda arrived, she immediately kidnapped her for a roommate which Xavier was happy with. He had noticed both Wanda and Rogue''s personalities had changed drastically, but there were changes for the better and both involved Harry Potter, though Xavier was unaware of the details.


    Harry used some precise magics to recreate some of the artwork Wanda had been most proud of from the hundred years. Not all of her favorites though, Wanda was explicit that some of those works were meant for their own enjoyment and not for the eyes of others.


    One of the larger changes to Harry''s personal schedule since then was that he would now spend eight hours a day in bed instead of four, but he only slept every other day. He would spend either eight hours or four hours each night using Battle Meditation which he had been slacking on lately due to lack of time. The reason was that both Wanda and Rogue had expressed interest in using the Multiplayer function so Harry agreed to use it when he reached level 220. However at his current rate of about a level every two days, they would likely have to wait until December. He was almost to level 200 at the moment.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 199 Age 15


    INT 450 WIS 410


    LUK 20


    Warrior Path Rank 27


    Scholar Path Rank 45


    Magic Path Rank 40


    Tech Path Rank 32


    Business Path Rank 22


    Crafting Path Rank 23


    Dragon Path Rank 6


    Harry often had to resist looking at his stats and Paths because it was too easy to distract himself from his current projects. Sure, he wanted to get his Warrior Path, Dragon Path and Psionic Path to Rank 30, but they would not grant any great ?ssistant in a fight. Although his Dragon Path gave him enough strength to break the old Danger Room, if he wasn''t holding back, he could do even more with Strength energy. And of course anything he could do with brute force, he could do even better with spells. The so-called Unstoppable Juggernaut against Harry''s magic was completely defeated after all.


    Both Wanda and Rogue agreed to keep their relationship with Harry a secret until Jean was on board. They wanted Harry to spend the nights cuddling with them, but in a house with a prankster teleporter, two telepaths, and a man who could smell what you had for breakfast yesterday on your breath, keeping such a thing a secret was impossible even with magic. Harry made it up to them though by setting a few adamantium plates inscribed with Timelord Math into their closet to enlarge the space inside by ten times. Since it used block transfer computation instead of an undetectable extension charm, there was no exotic energy within so it was safe for tech.


    Wanda quickly started back up on her art in her free time and Rogue occasionally went to the mansion''s game room and destroyed anyone who went up against her. How she suddenly became a god of games was something no one could understand.


    The Halloween of the year was on a Wednesday and though many were too old to trick or treat, no one had the heart to stop them. Especially Kurt, Josh, and a few of the other kids who would not earn a second glance this night except for someone shouting they had an awesome costume. Wanda and Rogue dragged Harry out to have fun as Jean had just turned sixteen and had volunteered to babysit her niece and nephew for their first trick-or-treat with her parents. Scott had stayed at the mansion to supervise a Halloween party but Harry''s girlfriends did not want Harry''s first Halloween in the states to be dull so they took him out to see the sights and decorations.


    Wanda''s costume was a cute witch''s outfit complete with a wide brim hat and toy broom. Rogue wore a vampire outfit with a cape and fake fangs. Harry''s outfit was chosen by the girls, he wore a fur vest and had a blonde wig with a large prop bastard sword tied to his back making him Conan the Barbarian, the hero of some of the world''s oldest stories which may have been true.


    The trio were on their way to view more Halloween decorations when a fire ball flew past them and a certain teen with a near Australian accent shouted, "I must be getting rusty to miss at this range."


    Although Harry wasn''t a speedster, his observation and information processing speed was far superior to a normal human. When Pietro Maximoff ran down the block and right up to him, Harry''s eyes followed him easily enough. It was too dark for the silver haired teen to notice that as he ran past Harry and nabbed the belt Harry wore containing all his gemstones.


    Pietro stopped next to the ones Harry recognized as Lance and John. Off to the side were two he did not recognize but had heard off. A scrawny lad crouched on a wall with larger than normal eyes was the one called Toad. Next to him, a teen nearly as wide as he was tall, was Blob. Of course, Pietro, Lance, and John were called Quicksilver, Avalanche, and Pyro respectively.


    "Ohh, look what I got? Emeralds, and Diamonds and Rubies, oh my, Ah hahaha!" Pietro noticed Harry and Rogue in costume, but he hadn''t taken a second look at the witch currently glaring at him.


    Pietro shouted, "Not so tough without your shinnies, eh pay to play?"


    Harry shook his head with a smirk and said, "I doubt you''re going to believe me but I''ll go ahead and say it. This is the part where you should be running away."


    The group paused for a moment before they each reeled back and started laughing. Pyro flicked his lighter and created a fire ball while calmly asking, "And why would we do a thing like that? I''ve got you right where I want you and it''s payback time."


    Rogue coughed loudly to get their attention as she was already getting peeved that she was not being taken as a threat.


    Lance turned to her and said, "Check out our costumes little miss runaway." The light from Pyro''s fireball stretched over the group and revealed each of them were in their brotherhood costumes and none had any exposed skin other than the face. They even appeared to be wearing gloves.


    Pyro laughed haughtily and remarked, "You''re not gonna be able to touch a single hair off our heads."


    The group continued to laugh and walked closer, slowly encircling the group. Their laughter died with a single sentence.


    "Hello Pietro." Wanda''s voice was smooth and clear, the kind of voice Harry knew he could listen to every day for the rest of his life. It was also very distinct, and though the male Maximoff twin had not heard it in years, he instantly recognized it.


    Pietro''s eyes widened in shock at horror once he got a look at the face hidden under that wide brimmed witches'' hat and he stuttered out, "W-Wanda?!"


    Wanda smiled at his terror and waved her fingers before him. Pietro''s costume suddenly expanded and then twisted around him, wrapping him from head to toe and causing him to fall over. This froze the rest of the group. She then looked at Pyro''s fireball and threw a bolt of red energy at it causing the ball to explode in Pyro''s hand, setting his gloves on fire and giving him actual burns and causing him to cry out in pain.


    He dropped his lighter and used his ability to snuff out the flame but with a wave of Wanda''s hand, Pyro''s own clothes transformed the same as Quicksilver''s and in a moment he was bound as well.


    Avalanche rose his hands up as if he were lifting a great mass with a poor posture and the ground started trembling. Wanda threw a half dozen marbles from her pockets and with a wave of her hand, they transformed into chickens which landed in front of Lance. The terrakinetic sneered at the chickens and once more began to make the ground quake. The moment it did though, the chickens simultaneously turned their heads to face Lance and shouted together, ''BUH-GOK!''


    The chickens started flapping and flew over the trembling ground directly at Lance''s face. When he realized they were aiming to peck out his eyes, he released his hold on the earth and started running, but the chickens were very fast.


    Blob started charging as well, but another four marbles thrown led to the immovable teen being surrounded by four wolves, each snarling at him with glistening teeth.


    Seeing the direction of the wind, Toad decided to exist, stage left. He was unable to avoid Wanda''s attention however and with a scarlet bolt of light, he was turned into a large toad that fell to the ground and gave a large croak before continuing to hop away.


    Harry watched the show with a smile. The marbles were a gift to Wanda from himself. They had a core of Life Force infused iron within a crystal sphere and were very easy to transfigure into live animals. They even had a timed portkey to return them to her room if they ran too far off. Of course there were limits.


    When it came to conjuring or transfiguring animals, the closer the probabilities of that animal actually appearing at that location were to zero, the harder the spell was to cast. So it was easier to conjure a wolf than it was a rhino unless you were in Africa. The creature with the lowest probability of appearing Harry was able to transfigure something into was a Mammoth. He couldn''t conjure or transfigure something into a dinosaur. Neither could he conjure or transfigure something into a creature that has never existed on earth like many of the creatures he faced in Battle Meditation.


    The screams of agony of Avalanche in the distance and the cries coming from Blob from the pain of being bitten and the fear he will really be devoured by wolves had Pietro and John panicking.


    Wanda walked up to the bound pair and said with a smile that was not a smile, "Hello brother, it''s been a while. I''d ask you how you feel, but being bound and unable to move while surrounded by people you''re afraid of and lacking any control over your life is something I know far better than you, so I won''t bother to ask."


    Pietro started rambling, "Wanda, wait, please. It wasn''t my fault, I didn''t want to leave you there, but father didn''t have a choice."


    Wanda''s not a smile strained as she continued, "I will have some choice words for Father next I see him. All it took for me to learn to control my powers was someone who wasn''t afraid of me. Father, your self proclaimed leader, was too much of a coward for that. I don''t know how any of you can justify following that hypocrite."


    Wanda''s hand rose menacingly over Pietro and she said, "Now, shall I start with you, or perhaps your friend?"


    Pietro cried out, "No no no, wait, please, I''m sorry!"


    Wanda theatrically stopped herself and like a perfect actress appeared to be giving it some thought. She said, "Well, I''m not sure if I believe you. How about this. Let Rogue here touch you for a moment. If she feels you really are sorry, then I promise to let bygones be bygones. I''ll forgive you and you won''t have anything to fear from me."


    The sound of Blob screaming made Pietro quickly answer, "Yeah, sure, no problem."


    Rogue walked up to Pietro with a smile and bent down to touch his face. However she stopped for a moment and said as if thinking aloud to herself, "Actually, I have some homework I gotta get back and finish so I need to get back to the mansion fast." She then looked back at Pietro and sweetly asked with a smile, "Pietro Maximoff, can I use your power?"


    Pietro nodded and said, "Yeah, yeah, anytime!"


    Rogue touched his face for a moment with her ungloved hand and walked over to John and said, "Didn''t you say I wouldn''t be able to touch a hair of your head?"


    Wanda said, "So what should I do with you? Turn you into a pumpkin? Maybe set you on fire and disable your power? Oh, I know, I think I''ll make you permanently bald."


    John had been getting more and more pale with each threat and at the last he shouted like a little school girl, "Nooo! Please Noo! Anything but the hair!"


    Rogue said, "You know, we''ll need to put out the pumpkins when we get home, can you offer him the same deal?"


    John noticed that Pietro didn''t look winded when Rogue touched him and had he been thinking clearly, he would have thought more of that than simply it wasn''t a bad choice.


    John ended up agreeing to give Rogue his own powers as well in the end.


    After touching his face and plucking a strand of hair out of pettiness, Rogue finished up and Wanda said to Pietro, "Next time you see father, tell the coward to walk the long way around me if he ever sees me and I''ll consider leaving his punishment until a later date."


    Harry casually walked over to where Pietro had initially been bound and picked up the belt of gemstones he''d dropped at the time and put it back on. Harry bent down to him and said, "I remember you saying last time we met I was as crazy as your sister. Wish I''d asked you more about her then because I think I''m in love."


    Quicksilver, the fastest mutant around, froze at Harry''s admission and a moment later, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.


    Rogue and Wanda smiled and Harry walked back up to the group and they headed out.


    Harry almost had to wipe a tear of pride from his eyes after witnessing the pair in action. Not from how they dealt with the Brotherhood, but because of their prank on Pietro and John. Harry had of course taught them his love of pranks over the course of a hundred years and they had many pranks wars between them and were far more experienced than most when it came to the art of pranks. He was so proud of them.


    Of the Brotherhood''s powers, Pietro and John''s were the strongest which was why Rogue had telepathically gone over this plan with Wanda before they started. Blob''s was alright but it was practically a weaker version of Juggernaut and Avalanche''s powers were far too destructive. Of course they could have knocked them out and taken the power after asking the unconscious mutants, but Rogue stated that although the power was not affected, the effort was. She realized it took far more effort to use Mystique''s and Juggernaut''s power than it did any of the X-Men who consciously agreed to give her the use of their power.


    As for the Brotherhood themselves, they would be fine. The transfigured wolves and chickens had illusions spells on them which made the damage inflicted on them feel and look real. Blob would look covered in blood and be in a lot of pain, but when the spell ended, neither he nor Lance would have any wounds and eventually Toad would turn back to normal along with John''s and Pietro''s costumes.


    On the way back home, Harry had a bad feeling. Rogue and Wanda noticed it of course and they returned to the Mansion wearily, but nothing unusual occurred. A number of the kids had returned as well and were comparing their loads of candy with one another. Kurt''s pillow case was the largest. He looked like a demonic Santa Claus carrying that thing on his back.


    Harry spent four hours sleeping and another four using Battle meditation. However in the middle of his session, the Battle meditation broke and Harry saw an image of Jean being manhandled by men in suits and crying, calling out for help.


    Harry quickly left his room and went over to Xavier''s door. Before he reached it the door had opened and Xavier was on his way out with a worried frown. He noticed Harry and said, "You felt it as well then? I''m heading to Cerebro now to check on Jean."


    Without another word the pair quickly descended the mansion levels and entered Cerebro. Xavier put on his helmet and searched for Jean''s mind. The map of the world displayed by Cerebro would zoom in on an area then zoom out as if bounced off. It would zoom in again on a different area and then zoom out again. Xavier''s frown deepened and he commented, "I cannot get a lock on her. She was going to stay at her parents house, let''s see what happened."


    The map zoomed in on New York and quickly to her parents house where both parents were standing at their door speaking with two others who from some of the images appeared to be police officers.


    Xavier zoomed in on the minds of the twins and more images surfaced, their memories of what had happened.


    Images of trick or treating and Jean''s smile while in a princess costume. Then four strangers showing up and fighting against Jean. She fought back but was overwhelmed. The group ignored the twins and grabbed her and left.


    Harry''s own glare at the men in the images turned to ice. Jean had been kidnapped.


    Xavier felt Harry''s rage and said, "We''ll find her Harry."


    Harry said with steel in his voice, "You won''t have to." He took out a diamond and made it glow in front of Xavier before making a portal and entering it. The portal led to the area Jean had been kidnapped. There were still a few police at the scene and damages caused from the fight, though most of it from the ?ssailants. No one noticed Harry snooping around and no one noticed the red mandalas he conjured to scan the area.


    It didn''t take long for Harry to determine the group of kidnappers had a teleporter. The problem however was that it was a psionic teleporter. Such people could create a map of shortcuts in their head and instantly travel from one to another in what would be mapped out as a zig-zag route, though they would arrive instantaneously. However Harry had no way to track such a teleporter.


    Harry Paused to consider his options. First of all, why didn''t he get a Quest? A Quest would include a map pointer which would let him track her down in minutes. Even on that Orphans Quest there was a map pointer to the Orphanage which was why Harry snooped for and found the hidden transfer magic circle. Why not now?


    After a few considerations, Harry realized why. He had a way to track down Jean, but that method would have permanent consequences. Without a map pointer, he would absolutely use that method. Perhaps those consequences were not a bad thing so he wasn''t given a shortcut around them. If that was the case, there was no need to hesitate.


    Harry made another portal into Wanda and Rogue''s closet. He wasn''t going to go directly into their room no matter the emergency though he did knock loudly on the closet door.


    Moments later Wanda opened the door and said with a bit of an edge, "This had better be good Harry."


    Harry said, "Jean has been kidnapped, I need yours and Rogue''s help to find her."


    From her own bed Rogue said, "Give me a minute."


    The pair got ready and Harry made another portal to the Mansion''s back area that was lined with trees. Harry already got out a backpack from his inventory while in the closet and filled it with materials so the cameras in the area would not see him using his inventory.


    Harry pulled out five large crystal spheres from his backpack and placed them in a circle. He then got out a large jar of pure, white sand and began to pour it while walking around the circle. Though the pour looked sloppy, Harry was using telekinesis to make perfect lines between the crystal spheres. After drawing out the pentagram for a base, Harry then poured out a dozen thinner, more intricate lines and symbols.


    The formation Harry was making used the same Arithmancy as the designs of Cerebro. It was a Psionic enhancer powered by magic set specifically to locate a specific mutant psionic. If Harry had any of Jean''s blood, he would not need this, but he had been reluctant to ask that of anyone up to this point. He fully intended to get samples of everyone''s later once this was over.


    Once the sand formation was aligned, Wanda began chanting and charging the crystals with her chaos magic. Although she had not seen such a magic circle before, she had spent decades studying rituals so understood its use very quickly. Her own talent in art made her own rituals very precise and formidable and the pair had many discussions on rituals and ritual magic.


    Harry sent Rogue a telepathic message of what to do and she agreed without issue.


    Once the charge was complete, Harry entered Rogue''s mind and together they found the echo of Jean that would often let Rogue use her powers.


    Harry said to it, "Jean, your body has been kidnapped and is being hidden just like those kids at the orphanage. We''re going to amplify your connection to find you through that connection."


    The echo of Jean looked surprised and then worried before giving a firm, conviction filled nod. She knew what this meant but it was a better alternative than being kidnapped.


    Within his own mind, Harry concentrated on the Phoenix flame and its resonance. The echo of Jean did not react, but Wanda caught the feeling though the ritual as her que and activated the ritual. She directed her charged powers into Harry and into Rogue which then entered and supercharged Jean''s echo. The pentagram on the grounds lit up like the sun but Wanda held her concentration, using her power to amplify the connection to Jean.


    The echo of Jean suddenly lifted into the air and a red glow surrounded it. The piercing cry of a Phoenix echoed.


    Harry followed the resonance and opened his eyes, "I''ve got a lock!" Harry swatted the air and opened a portal. On the other side was Jean, bound to a metal table and screaming. A metal helmet was strapped to her head.


    Harry jumped in and paused. He did his best to calm himself with the promise of what he was going to do. The room had two floors with an observation deck and a stairway up to it. No windows, but the number of vents on the upper wall suggested the location was under ground. The people around him were dressed in lab coats and none of them seemed particularly interested in Jean''s screaming. Especially the one standing next to her with the large needle that Jean was screaming at.


    Harry memorized the position of every person in the room and after unpausing, shot each with a stunner in under five seconds.


    Harry looked back through the portal and saw that both Wanda and Rogue were exhausted. He couldn''t see through portals while pausing so he had to enter before scouting.


    After every person in the room fell down, Harry ran over to Jean and transfigured the iron bands holding her down into clay and ripped them off without hurting her. Jean met Harry''s gaze the moment she realized what happened and she wrapped her arms around him and started crying.


    Harry would have found the fact that he princess carried her after rescuing her while she was dressed as a princess a lot more ironic were the situation not so humorless. As he walked her over to the portal, he cast a gentle sleeping spell on her and handed her to Rogue who could easily carry her using one of her powers. Harry said, "Take her to McCoy and clean up here please. I''ll clean up on this side."


    Harry had absolutely no emotion as he said the last line and as the portal closed while he remained on the other side.. Neither Wanda nor Rogue questioned what he was going to do.

 Chapter 41 - 41 Rated R for Rabbit

    Although Harry was tempted to break out the reality bomb, set the timer to five seconds and say Adios, he wanted a better idea of the situation before he started destroying everything.


    Harry opened the eyelids of one of the unconscious lab coat wearing personnel and used Legilimency combined with telepathy to target and read specific sets of information.


    It seemed this location was a vast compound run and owned by Mister Sinister, the one Nanny and Orphan Maker escaped from. Their goal after kidnapping Jean was to implant some mental programming into her mind, collect some DNA, and then wipe her mind of the procedure and release her to be found by the X-Men.


    What surprised Harry was that after learning that they had no intention to kill or keep her, he didn''t feel a need to adjust his plans for wiping out the complex. The fact that she was a target in the first place was the issue. If they had politely invited her, asked nicely, and accepted a refusal if given, then he wouldn''t care. But no, they had ambushed her when she was alone, captured her, and taken her.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest Detected: Sinister Takedown


    Quest can only be taken from Dungeon: Sinister''s Lair at the Hard or Hell mode difficulty.


    Dungeon Settings currently disabled. To enable quest, please exit Dungeon, enable Dungeon Mode, and re-enter and choose either Hard or Hell Mode Difficulty. ]


    The pop up certainly got Harry''s attention. Since the fiasco with Hell mode at Hogwarts, Harry had kept the Dungeon Generation system turned off with the intention to never turn it on again. And yet he was tempted. He did need to level up after all.


    As for the innocents in the complex, Harry knew there to be none. From his mind, Harry learned that the man was a clone as were all the other personnel. They were created to be loyal and controllable. They didn''t even know what the programming they were going to apply to Jean had been for.


    Harry Paused and went over the ups and downs for a while before deciding to give it a go. Worst case scenario was failure to destroy the place.


    Harry made another portal and left the place before opening his settings and turning on the Dungeon settings. He also took a swig of polyjuice potion and changed his clothes. He had been in too much of a rush to disguise himself before getting Jean, but since he was about to go on a rampage, a little precaution wouldn''t hurt.


    Harry made a portal back to the same spot and the moment he was about to enter, he got the pop-up he never thought he''d see again.


    [Dungeon Generation active.


    You are about to enter Sinister''s Lair. Please Select a difficulty.


    -Easy


    -Normal


    -Hard


    -Hell


    Rewards scale to match difficulty.]


    Harry physically poked the selection for Hell. He had changed the settings a while back so that he had to poke the selection instead of think it. The reason he chose Hell on purpose this time was that unlike his time at Hogwarts, he was actually prepared.


    [Hell difficulty selected.]


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Sinister Takedown


    -Destroy Mister Sinister''s Evil Lair


    -Defeat Vanisher


    -Defeat Prism


    -Defeat Azimuth


    -Defeat Aries


    -Defeat Mister Sinister or force him to flee.]


    Harry opened up his minimap and saw a half dozen areas where he figured each of the targets were located. He zoomed out of the minimap and though there were no details for areas he had never explored, if he zoomed out enough, he could tell his location on the planet.


    From what he saw, he appeared to be somewhere in central Africa. When he compared the map to some of the Atlas'' in his inventory, he appeared to be one of the mountainous regions.


    After another Pause, Harry had a plan that was both vicious, ruthless, and would leave both horror and nightmares to any of the few that may last long enough to survive.


    The first thing Harry took out was a crystal sculpture that was in the shape of a bunny rabbit. In the center of the crystal was a fist sized gold sphere of vibranium engraved adamantium which held more magic than any other artifact Harry had ever created and was even comparable to some of the relics Harry had seen in Kamar-Taj.


    Harry cast several unlocking spells on the crystal rabbit which allowed the magic within to activate. The final measure to unlock was a voice command from Harry. "Rise, Rabbit of Caerbannog."


    The moment the final word was spoken, the crystal turned into a slightly chubby white fuzzy bunny rabbit. Harry telepathically sent the parameters for its targets into the rabbit''s mind. Those with clean clothes in this facility, and those who attack the rabbit. Any who meet these criteria were considered targets.


    The rabbit was gently placed on the ground and it took a moment to scan its surroundings and Harry. By default Harry would not be a target even if he fell in the parameters, but the unconscious personnel in the room were.


    The rabbit vanished from where it stood at speeds that would have given Pietro a run for his money and it reappeared where it stopped next to one of the unconscious lab techs.


    Harry turned away and went over to a corner. From his inventory he took out four difficult pieces of tech and ?ssembled them into a reality bomb. Unlike that unstable first iteration he used against the Knights of Wulpurgis, this one was far more stable. Relatively speaking.


    Harry didn''t purposely set out to create a reality bomb one day. He was simply trying to create magic that could replicate his inventory while looking through the magics of how the Room of Requirements worked. Since his inventory worked through means he couldn''t understand, Harry''s experiments went far beyond the recommended practices and right into forbidden territory.


    Eventually Harry had the idea to expand a point of zero volume into empty space. At first no matter how much he tried, it didn''t work, so he tried overcharging the spell.


    What Harry didn''t realize back then was that expanding a zero volume point was the Wizard equivalent of dividing by zero. The reason the RoR could do so was because the origin of its space was Chthon''s Nether Realm while Harry was trying to expand nothing into something.


    Harry did not create a pocket of space from nothing, instead he created a bubble that rapidly expanded and lasted for a few moments before it popped. The bubble itself seemed to reject the laws of reality and everything caught within would practically have its logic removed. When the bubble popped the laws of reality would impose themselves back on the space which had a myriad of unpredictable effects. Even matter outside the bubble would be affected as the laws of reality would be pushed from the bubble and then swept back in like a flowing tide and those near the shore were affected as well.


    The range of this bomb would be about half a kilometre and wouldn''t go off on its own without substantial tampering. Anything caught within may end up crushed, disintegrated, altered, or erased from existence. Harry tested a number of them in the Mirror Dimension which fixed itself regularly so he knew the effects well enough.


    Harry set the bomb''s timer to thirty minutes and headed up the stairs.


    The dozen guards and workers Harry had knocked out earlier had become blood stained skeletons with shredded lab coats. Harry spotted the last guard in the ground who was surrounded by more than thirty white rabbits, gnawing at the man''s flesh and stipping it b?r?.


    Harry felt no pity for any of them. The Rabbit of Caerbannog was a construct that Harry put a lot of the life force he gathered from Limbo into making. It was designed to be used if Harry was ever surrounded by enemies like in case he got trapped in hell again with nothing but demons.


    The adamantium and vibranium core of the original rabbit included over a dozen spells which was a feat only possible thanks to the magic conductive properties of the two metals. Unlike the adamantium of Logan''s skeleton which was actually an artificial adamantium made with a base of iron, true adamantium made of alchemically synthesized gold could hold spells better than any other.


    The Rabbit of Caerbannog could absorb energy and replicate itself using the flesh of others through a combination of transfiguration and the gemini spell. Though it looked like they were eating.


    The rabbit''s skull and teeth had hardness near that of adamantium and it could move at battering ram speeds allowing them to bust open doors. They could also jump at blinding speeds and their teeth also had a severing charm constantly applied to it. If a rabbit had absorbed enough energy, it could use that to replicate itself as well.


    Harry chose this weapon of mass destruction for two reasons. First, from the memories of the lab tech, Harry learned that Sinister had a fondness for energy weapons. The second was that Mister Sinister was a scientist who devoted years to studying mutants. He likely had a contingency plan for any mutant he encountered. But how would he react to Harry''s Swarm of Caerbannog? Harry wanted to know.


    Harry turned himself invisible and decided to just guide his swarm from the back.


    At the end of the hall was a group of thirty rabbits and many of them were smashing themselves head first into the door which, dent by dent, seemed like it would give way any moment. Harry however was not the patient sort so he quietly conjured a replica of the Kestrel Key of Krakkan. Using it as a wand he fired a beam of light at the door which lit up green and opened.


    Although Harry''s wizard unlocking spell would fry a computer lock, he was free to use the sorcerer spell to unlock things as he pleased.


    Harry was not concerned with cameras or sensors. The moment he decided to end this place, he released the tight grip he had on his wizard magic and every piece of tech around him was flashing, sending off sparks, or shutting down due to critical error. Not to mention the fact that each rabbit contained a massive amount of wizard magic as well. The door he opened earlier had actually already fried and only opened due to the nature of the unlocking spell he used.


    The swarm of rabbits was met with a platoon of six armed guards who started opening fire the moment the door opened. Harry stayed to the side to avoid the incoming blasts and though he could easily survive them, he didn''t want them to target him while invisible regardless.


    The energy weapons made each rabbit it hit glow for a moment but did nothing else. The swarm of rabbits launched forward like arrows fired from a bow and only a single guard in the back who ducked down at the last moment found himself not deprived of his head as he watched the headless forms of his squad fall lifelessly to the ground.


    He didn''t even have time to scream before another half dozen rabbits launched forward removing his head and both arms.


    One of the scariest things about the Rabbit of Caerbannog was that each copy possessed a hive mind. This made it easier for Harry to direct when needed but it also meant they could attack in formation. The inspiration for the artifact was half from Monty Python and half from that story Mr. Rasputin told about the 3000 rabbit army which defeated Napoleon in history class.


    The corpses were quickly swarmed and transfigured into another dozen rabbits which continued down the hall.


    The room at the end of the hall was large and had another fifteen or so people in lab coats. There were no screams. The white fuzzy bunnies spreading out was strange but not something the lab techs would run away from. They didn''t see what happened and the rabbits were spreading out at Harry''s command before going for the kill.


    Harry almost smirked to himself when a few of the personnel actually ignored the rabbits. What they didn''t ignore was their computer screens suddenly looking like they had been exposed to a magnet.


    An alarm on the wall turned on which got everyone''s attention and made a great distraction. Harry used to have a bunny rip the head of each of the lab techs.


    Harry didn''t consider the spell which prevented the rabbit''s fur from getting stained with blood useless because in situations like this, the clean white rabbits made people lower their guard too easily.


    A bald male appeared in the room out of nowhere and Harry''s minimap showed him blinking, indicating him as one of the targets.


    The man had extensive tattoos over his head and arms and after taking a look at the rabbits, took out a gun and started shooting them.


    Harry used his control over the rabbits to prevent them from retaliating. The man continued to shoot rabbit after rabbit and when he stopped to reload, Harry shot him with a spell he found in the Black family library which didn''t emit light or sound. After he confirmed the spell made contact, Harry had the rabbits attack the man from his blind spot. Harry wasn''t surprised when the man vanished in thin air. Many teleporters had excellent space perception and attacks from behind wouldn''t do much unless he couldn''t sense them or were fast enough.


    The man did not return though as a check mark appeared next to the name Vanisher on the Quest board. The spell Harry used was a weaponized version of the effect of the blood replenishing potion using the gemini charm as a base. It caused the opponent''s blood to increase without end until the physical body exploded. It didn''t have much use on magicals as their blood required a lot more effort to replicate, but a muggle without anything special in their blood would be affected without issue. Though a mutant, the man teleported with his mind, meaning there was nothing special about his body.


    The rabbits that were shot did not dispel. All rabbits would only dispel when Harry dispelled the activation magic on the original. What did happen though was that the live rabbits went over and made it look like they were reviving their dead, though it was just a recasting of the transfiguration magic on the flesh.


    Harry had the rabbits rip open and consume the materials on the biohazard marked containers which Harry found contained blood samples. Two minutes after entering the room, there were now about a hundred rabbits. Harry looked up his minimap to learn where his remaining targets were and where the dead ends likely were and went about opening doors and leading his rabbit horde while remaining invisible.


    The sirens seemed to have been the evacuation order as the following rooms were empty. Harry used his map and door unlocking spells to continue up into the compound until he made it to a room containing a massive brute of a man with enormous goat horns on his head and a long frazzled white beard. The other targets save one are all heading in his direction and this is the one that got there first.


    The twelve foot tall behemoth wore thick armor over his torso and shoulders but looked more than a little confused when the herd of fuzzy white rabbits calmly hopped out of the hallway.


    He holds a hand to his ear and says, "Um, sir? Its rabbits. Dozens of them. Uh huh. Did you find Vanisher yet?"


    Harry has the rabbits do the same as earlier, spread out and look docile.


    The giant continued, "Yes sir, they are white and fuzzy. I don''t know sir. Do you want me to check?"


    He walked over to a pair of bunnies and stepped on them, squishing the pair beneath his massive foot.


    He lifted his foot to confirm the gore and said, "They squish like bunnies. No sir. Sir? Sinister, I can''t hear you."


    The communicator fell to the effect of the magic in the room and Harry launched his dimension splitter from behind the massive man. The last time he used the spell it only b?r?ly wounded the immortal black dragon but this man was far from Chiantang''s standard and the armor had no magic defense as it appeared to be solid metal.


    The rabbits quickly devoured both halves of the giant and the hundred rabbits quickly turned to a hundred fifty. Harry vanished the bones which left traces of his magic before heading into the next room.


    Harry continued unlocking doors and leading the group up the complex. Two of the final targets had grouped together and were waiting in the next room.


    Thirty armored guards with high tech weaponry stood at the ready against the swarm. In the back of the group were two who stood out. A man seemingly composed of sand colored crystal and a short woman with pink skin stood in the open, waiting for the horde.


    The crystal man said into a communicator, "Aries is gone. I don''t see anyone opening the doors except the rabbits. Understood sir." He motioned forward and the armed guards opened fire. Harry apparated to the far side of the room behind the group as he had no way to easily dodge incoming fire from such a confined space.


    The rabbits took it in stride and after being struck two or three times the rabbits would glow brightly and another rabbit would form next to them. Harry had the rabbits slow their advance so they could soak up more energy fire from the guards.


    The crystal man shouted, "Hold your fire!" and Harry used that moment to order an attack. The rabbit''s teeth and magic easily ripped through the guard''s armor and limbs and heads were ripped off one by one.


    The crystal man ran over to the wall while several rabbits had their teeth locked onto his limbs and they were slowly nibbling away as the dense materials. He swatted them away like mosquitoes but they would jump back at him as soon as they had a chance and he shouted, "Azimuth, now!"


    The purple skinned woman had been deftly dodging the attacking rabbits and did a backflip over to the wall herself and opened her mouth wide. From Harry''s perspective, it looked like a black hole had formed in her mouth and a vortex of suction force was dragging everything not nailed down in the room into her mouth.


    Unfortunately for the pair, they were on the same wall as Harry. The young wizard cast an over powered transfiguration spell at the crystal man and turned him into sand. That spell had little effect on organic tissue but turning glass or crystal to sand wasn''t difficult for a strong wizard.


    Azimuth closed her mouth and turned to see her partner turn to sand just as the severing spell came at her. The woman''s reflexes were impressive as she ducked the decapitating slash but the horde of rabbits had taken the moment she closed her mouth and dodged Harry''s attack to gain the distance. Surrounded from all sides, she had no place to dodge and she was quickly devoured by rabbits leaving only a skeleton.


    It cost more magic to transfigure bone into a rabbit compared to flesh so all the corpses left bloody skeletons. Also made for a nightmare inducing atmosphere which appealed to Harry''s nature as a prankster with arguably bad taste. Though he did vanish the sand of the crystal guy and repair the damage done to the wall by the severing spell with a Reparo charm. The less evidence of his capabilities, the better.


    The minimap was showing more and more hallways so Harry had groups of rabbits split off and go on their own while Harry led the main horde to the final target. Harry had no idea how it worked, but he even got experience from the kills of the far away Rabbits. He had already leveled up twice from the massive amount of human guards killed through the complex, not to mention to four targets Harry suspected gave more Experience than usual because of the quest.


    By the time Harry''s swarm reached what appeared to be a throne room, about twenty-two minutes had passed meaning the bomb would go off in another eight minutes.


    The throne room was empty save the target sitting on the throne watching the approaching rabbit horde. Harry''s energy senses b?r?ly reacted to the weapons and the mutants in this place, but this guy was at another level entirely.


    Harry''s first impression of the man with the ash grey skin was a vampire, but the lack of death energy put that theory quickly to rest. He had a red diamond on his forehead and red eyes. His suit seemed to be made of metallic ribbons which looked both decorative and functional.


    As there was only one target without a check mark in the quest list, it was obvious this was Mister Sinister, the boss of this place.


    The moment the rabbit horde got close enough, a telepathic attack was sent by Mister Sinister and attempted to take control of the rabbits.


    Bad call. Unless he could mimic the signature of Harry''s thoughts, they wouldn''t listen to him and went into a frenzy as that was considered an attack. The group of more than fifty rabbits launched forward at the same time but Sinister fired red energy beams from his hands which Harry sensed had a similar signature to Scott''s and matched the power of Scott''s beam without his visor.


    The rabbits were blown back but glowed white and multiplied in the air leading to more rabbits gathering together and charging once more.


    A few rabbits made it through but a powerful psionic barrier formed and the rabbits bounced off. A few rabbits hopped onto the top of the barrier and began to gnaw on it but the barrier pulsed causing the rabbits to be shot away.


    Mister Sinister then telekinetically lifted the hundred rabbits into the air and one by one, snapped their necks.


    Harry pulled his magic guns out of his inventory and fired. Sinister''s barrier shattered but another smaller one behind it glowed revealing the layering the man had set up. He shouted, "Finally showing yourself huh? I''ll admit that your stealth ability is most impressive. My sensors are some of the best in the world yet they cannot see you nor these creatures of yours."


    Because Harry''s magic was invisible through indirect observation, unless you were recording the light bouncing off their bodies or touched them to feel their weight and fur, these constructs of Harry''s magic could not be detected through infrared or energy sensors. Even recordings weren''t great as they were the most s?ns?t?v? to wizard magic and as soon as a rabbit entered the camera''s picture, the screen would turn to fuzzy grey snow rather quickly.


    Harry wasn''t going to give his position away yet to a Hell level boss and continued moving with magically silenced steps while firing his guns at random intervals from random locations.


    Sinister''s hand motioned to the side and one of the columns supporting the roof was stripped from its place with his telekinesis and swung through the air where he guessed Harry was. This forced the young wizard to play life or death Limbo and quickly duck beneath the force of the pillar which matched Chiantang''s tail sweep in overall power.


    Sinister sneered and closed his eyes. A moment later, Harry found an intruder in his mindscape, The man couldn''t locate his presence or energy, but he could locate his mind by spreading his presence into the whole room.


    From within the library, Mister Sinister remarked, "What a well built mind. I shall enjoy turning you into my puppet and taking everything you know."


    *Ping*


    [Physical Paralysis Debuff added, Movement speed decreased by 75% while debuff remains active.]


    Harry felt that his body was far more difficult to move while Sinister was inside his head, however he wasn''t worried, the man would not be there for long.


    The intruder took a book from the self and smiled at how easily the book allowed for ?ssimilation of the knowledge. Before he could start downloading the knowledge himself, the books of the library all jumped off the shelves and created a gigantic mess. This was nothing however as each book transformed into a monster and started attacking Sinister.


    Sinister''s astral form fired red beams and psionic blasts at the various monsters to dispel them, but each time he did, Harry would Pause. When paused, any intruder was also paused. Harry couldn''t do anything to them, but he could repair any defenses they broke. Sinister''s mental might was extremely impressive and all but the strongest beasts in Harry''s mind were torn apart like tissue paper to the man, but Harry had a resource Sinister could never imagine, infinite mental time.


    Sinister was aware that each creature was weak but he could not grasp how each construct so easily repaired itself.


    Seeing as he was making absolutely no headway, Sinister retreated.


    *Ping*


    [Physical Paralysis Debuff has been resisted.]


    However Harry''s head didn''t just have psionic defenses, it also had wizard defenses. The reason Harry could sense the presence of even Charles Xavier was due to these defenses and he could even reverse the tap to learn Charles'' identity through his own mind tap.


    Harry amplified each of the thousands of creatures with his own version of a weaponized Legilimency spell and had them follow Sinister''s astral form back into his own mind and ?ssault it from within.


    Sinister''s shield wavered and many of the rabbits held in the air fell down. Harry renewed his own magic bullet ?ssault and broke through another layer of the man''s shields.


    Sinister snarled, giving a show of his pointed white teeth and threw his hands out. The remaining rabbits in the room were telekinetically torn to pieces as he gave up on active defense and relied on the passive defenses of his mind knowing the creatures that had broken through were too weak to do anything to his own mind.


    Harry used the opening to throw three grenades. The Stunner Grenade, the Blasting Grenade, and the Slow Grenade went off at the same time with a deafening explosion which shook the room. The Slow Grenade was a new combination of the Arresto Momentum charm and the Impedimenta jinx which had an effect of removing momentum and slowing time of the target.


    When the smoke cleared, Sinister was still standing as his third and final shield was still holding against the power of the blasts. He was however looking towards Harry''s position with a cruel smile and said, "There you are."


    Harry noticed the smoke and debris was going around him which gave away his position though invisible. Sinister grabbed Harry with his telekinesis and pulled him forward, but Harry used his own Psionics to resist and broke free. He was however marked meaning Sinister didn''t need to see him to attack so Harry removed the invisibility spell making Sinister smile again and say, "It will be a p???sur? dissecting you, cell by cell."


    His hands glowed red for a moment before releasing another copy of Scott''s beam but Harry had observed enough of Sinister''s tricks to have prepared in advance. Harry tapped a buckler he had removed from his inventory while Sinister was facing off against the rabbits and caused it to expand. The red beam bounced off the mirror like shield and was directed back at Sinister while Harry charged forward and emptied another clip of his magic gun. No matter how good he was, his magic casting speed was still slower than a gun so there was little point in not using it. The reason he didn''t use spells like Dimension Splitter was that he wasn''t sure if it would work against those shields and that the quest stated Sinister might flee. Harry wouldn''t show all his cards to someone who might live to prepare for them, so he used guns and grenades and what could very well be stealth tech.


    Sinister stopped the beam and jumped forward as well. Once within range the pair quickly entered close combat. Harry measured the man''s strength at ten tons which was five times stronger than his base strength without magic. Harry was matching and even surpassing him though as he was controlling the Dimensional energy within his body to move his body faster and with more force using the combat style of Sorcerers.


    Sinister initially took each blow with a confident ease as Harry quickly realized the man had regenerative capabilities which were close to Logan''s. The man''s confidence however waned with each exchange as he realized his own blows were having little effect as Harry too had some sort of healing factor and his body did not weaken with each connecting strike. Sinister couldn''t sense any energy from Harry and since he wasn''t using Cyttorak''s Strength energy or Immortal Dragon Chi, Harry wasn''t glowing red or gold making it look like he was fighting using natural strength.


    Mister Sinister took a step back and said, "This has gone on far enough. Your abilities are impressive, but no one is a match for Sinister!"


    He moved in close and went for another exchange of blows Harry was happy to give, however at the last moment he withdrew his own fist and allowed Harry to strike him. Using the opening he grabbed Harry''s arm and slid up the sleeve, revealing Harry''s b?r? flesh. He grabbed it with the other arm and leveled his eyes with Harry while giving a sinister smile.


    *Ping*


    [Dilate Power Debuff added, mutant power disabled while debuff remains active.]


    Harry stared dumbly at the pop up while Sinister clenched tightly onto Harry''s wrist. His grip however suddenly slipped through as Harry''s wrist lost color and turned to black ash like substance that dissolved into a cloud of black mist along with the whole of Harry''s hand. Sinister''s sneer turned into confusion as the pair both looked down at Harry''s severed wrist which was slowly breaking down bit by bit.


    Harry''s only comment was a curious, "Huh.." And in the next moment, he exploded.

 Chapter 42 - 42 Exposure and Fallout

    Something Harry used to distinguish Wizard magic from every other form of magic is the fact that Wizard magic is inherently emotional. The difference between Chaos Magic and Wizard Magic was that Wizard Magic synchronizes its emotion with the caster while Chaos Magic does not. This means Chaos Magic can be used even when the user lacks the specific emotions required to cast the same magics with Wizard Magic while Wizard Magic could be considered far more controlled, though there were exceptions to these generalizations.


    Because of the emotional component of Wizard Magic, a degree of emotional strength is required for each spell. When emotions are high enough, magic effects could be cast with ease or even without intention, as is the case with accidental magics. This is also the reason that those incapable of casting nonverbally must state their spell name aloud and are incapable of whispering it below hearing level as whispering cannot project the strength of emotion require to cast spells for those lacking in practice.


    Harry''s magic was not an exception to this rule, though due to the mental aspects of his abilities initially provided by the Phoenix Force, he rarely showed off the depths of his emotions.


    The inherent cohesion keeping the Obscurus Particles that composed Harry''s cells together had remained throughout his life after his revival. They even retained partial cohesion during the respawn process. Though Sinister''s ability released the ability his body had to keep them together, the passive cohesion remained in place making Harry similar to a sand castle that stood upright even after completely drying in the sun.


    Sinister''s tight grip on his arm however broke the bonds between his cells and in the next moment, like a bubble bursting, the dam broke and the hundreds of Obscurus Magic Particles that composed each and every one of his cells broke apart and separated at speeds no slower than the ignition of a stick of dynamite into gas.


    The force of the expanding volume of Obscurus Particle partially collapsed Sinister''s ?h?st cavity before hurling the man into the far wall. However the moment before impact his body vanished in a screen of light. He was unaware of how lucky he had been. The Teleportation system tied to his health monitor would have failed to lock on his position even an instant later due to the interference of the Obscurus Particles that immediately saturated the room.


    At the moment of detonation, Harry''s emotional limiter failed. He had done his best to suppress his rage at what had happened to Jean and had even done his best to keep each and every death quick and relatively painless. Now however Harry''s mind was a sea of red. Instead of thinking with logic and concepts, he processed information with emotions and instinct.


    The pillars holding up the room of the Throne room were shattered but before the room collapsed the mass of black mist like particles within were drawn out into the hallway.


    A Obscrurs''s size is determined by a number of factors, but it mostly boiled down to the magical strength of the Obscurial. Historically, the most common Obscurus that appeared centuries ago would be about as large as a car or as small as a shopping cart and was born of witches and wizards between the ages of seven and ten. However these Obscuri were separate entities from the Obscurials they formed from. The most notable exception to this was the Obscurial Credence Barebone who suppressed his magic so long, his own body became an Obscurus partially under his control and had a volume measured to be four to six times larger than a double decker bus.


    Harry''s cells however contained multiple times more particles than Mr. Barebone''s could have due to the nature of Harry''s mutant ability. The shockwave of his detonation spread through the entire underground complex and nearly half of the upper rooms were saturated in black mist.


    At the moment Harry regained consciousness, though emotional consciousness, every spec of black mist started to churn and every location saturated with it was ripped to shreds and torn asunder. His fury at the location and what they had done was without filter or limitation. Like a massive swarm of insects he destroyed each facilitated, room by room. The heavily armored doors that stood against the rabbits held no longer than a breath of time against his might which rammed through the door with a force so hard the wall the door was fastened into shattered and exploded out.


    Harry''s emotional state did not differentiate between what to destroy and what not to destroy so even the rabbits remaining in the various rooms were smeared into dust as if they had been clawed at a million times in a single moment.


    Eventually his form struck even the Reality bomb in the basement which then went off prematurely.


    The reason the Reality bomb was so unstable was that it contained Harry''s version of a frozen explosion within which when released would power the reaction required to expand a point of empty space at the center. The only real means to stop it from going off was quick disassembly to allow the stored energy to be released correctly.


    As the suitcase exploded out, a wave appearing to be a ripple of space expanded instantly out from the room and in a fraction of a second the entire complex was within the bubble.


    Those still alive within would only be able to watch on in horror as straight lines within their field of vision began to wiggle around like living worms and colors began to bleed into each other as various points of space started twisting or shaking apart. Body parts of various individuals would stretch or pop off and noises unlike anything that could be comprehended echoed back and forth.


    Any who moved found that whatever moved would twist or be pulled in an unpredictable direction as relative space lost meaning and function. Some solids could be seen behaving like liquids or gasses and every surface started shifting around like leaves against the breeze.


    Harry''s Obscurus form however actively fought against the effect of the collapsing reality and held itself together when there was no logical reason to do so. Harry had never survived exposure to a detonating reality bomb because once Harry''s durability reached his limit it would always break a part, return to his inventory, and then emerge in a safe location and reconstitute itself.


    Harry had set up Rogue''s and Wanda''s room as his safe zone with their permission so he was prepared to die if needed but had not expected this to happen.


    This time however his Obscurus particles were active instead of passive. Although space and direction had lost meaning, Harry''s particles instinctively pulled themselves together regardless of the space distorting effects of broken reality.


    In what could have been minutes or seconds later, the bubble popped and a wave of reality passed through re-establishing the properties of logic to the space causing everything within to shatter, turn to dust or worse.


    Thankfully for those within, there were no survivors as any alterations that occurred within would not have returned to normal once reality returned to normal.


    Harry''s Obscurus particles naturally survived but the facility around them did not. Every structure collapsed as the weight of the mountain above it crushed the support beams which had lost alignment during the logic free period and instantly gave way to the shuffled mass of stone above it which had lost cohesion within the bubble as well.


    A familiar Ping was detected by Harry''s senses but his emotion based consciousness ignored it and he instantly started pressing up against the ceiling and charging through the collapsed stone. As he moved higher his compressed body expanded forcing him to move more and more rock out of the way. As his form expanded he exerted more force upwards and upon reaching the top he instinctively pressed the whole of the mountainside above him far into the air as he reached the open air and faced the sky


    *Ping*


    [Dilate Power Debuff has been resisted.]


    The black shadow floating in the sky immediately coalesced into a solid form and a moment later, Harry was reformed and falling out of the sky. The polyjuice potion had been burned through so he took his normal appearance.


    He Paused.


    The first thing that came to mind was the fact that although he was not thinking on the same level he usually did, he was still conscious and aware of everything that occurred and could recall it with crystal clarity, including the pop up he got for the completed Quest.


    [Quest Complete: Sinister Takedown


    Reward: Sinister''s Backup Hard drives.]


    The moment the quest was completed, several servers appeared in his inventory which at a quick glance seemed to contain all the data the base itself seemed to have stored and saved. Considering the degree of bioscience the man''s lab appeared to possess, Harry knew he would get a lot of mileage from those files, especially since he chose Hell mode.


    When he thought back to Sinister''s vanishing act, he was partially confused, but only for a moment. Harry figured the man had teleported out but the teleportation signature did not originate from the man himself, meaning someone or something else targeted him and got him out. That wasn''t much of a surprise as the Quest hinted at the fact that he was likely to escape and was the main reason Harry had not used direct magic in Sinister''s presence.


    Though even if he could, he''d still likely use his guns.


    The bullets from Harry''s guns contained far more power than his individually cast spells, they moved faster than the travel speed of his spells, and Harry could pull the trigger faster than his spell casting speed. Plus, he could fire his weapons while invisible as long as he cast spells to ensure the sound could not be pinpointed. Most spells look like beams of light so casting them while invisible would be pointless.


    Harry''s current guns were made of Adamantium and his bullets contained magic charged gemstones while the potion which acted gunpowder was multiple times more powerful than the erumpent potion as it contained crushed magic infused gemstones as well while leaving no trace of residue upon detonation. Harry had considered making a magic railgun system using Adamantium and Vibranium, but he hadn''t been able to reduce the theoretical size to something shorter than a long barreled sniper when he preferred handguns. Long barreled snipers were tools of ?ssassinations and if Harry needed to ?ssassinate someone, a sniper would not be his first choice. He had no interest in making and selling such weapons either and at the moment such a weapon would only move marginally faster than his hand guns. Railguns only had real power when they had very long barrels and anything handheld he could make would not prove useful. For now anyways.


    When Harry fought monsters during Battle Meditation, he could only use himself, his skills, and his powers. Basically fighting n?k?d. When in the real world, his equipment raised his fighting abilities multiple times. If Harry could bring his equipment into Battle Meditation, he wouldn''t be afraid of fighting level 250~300 monsters, even though he was still under level 200. That''s how he was able to defeat the Immortal Black Dragon.


    His reality bomb could also take care of anything that lacked ridiculously dense magic like immortal sorcerers, immortal dragons, or demigod level figures. With exceptions of course. He had no idea his Obscurus form could survive the reality bomb.


    Harry was rather upset with himself for how he acted but he knew holding it against himself wouldn''t do. He had no idea that not only could his mutant power be removed, but that it would transform him into a full fledged Obscurus.


    Although Paused in midair, Harry was not falling, rather he was floating a bit in the air. He looked over the mountain he had just destroyed and gave a light sigh of relief that there appeared to be no settlements anywhere close by.


    His original intention was for the reality bomb to simply make the location collapse which, although suspicious, wouldn''t draw too much attention. When Harry looked up however, he knew that was no longer possible. Harry''s emergence was so forceful, hundreds upon hundreds of massive boulders had been sent into the sky for all eyes and anything recording the situation to see. Thankfully Obscuri are invisible to nonmagicals and normal folk so they would not have been able to see or record him, but the rocks were very eye-catching and there was nothing he could do about it.


    Even if no one sees the rocks shooting into the air and no one sees them fall, the massive impact each one causes when they land will change the landscape on a level that could not be ignored.


    The main reason Harry kept his cards to himself was that in the afterlife, his father had told him time and time again not to draw attention to himself or to make people pay attention to the wrong thing. They''d watch TV and James would give his own little monologues during the commercials about why the villains or heroes lost and it was usually because their enemies got enough information to prepare to defeat them.


    First of all, Harry discovered a new weakness of his. His level which had been at 202 after absorbing the energy of all the slain foes had reduced to 201 after his time as an Obscurus. It wasn''t a full level as he had b?r?ly reached 202 and now it seemed it was pretty close to reaching 202, but it was a fact that his Experience bar decreased.


    It wasn''t the same as a death and respawn, but it was still a level drop all the same.


    In other words, the power of his Obscurus form had a cost of his Obscurus Particles permanent destruction. If he fought something powerful as an Obscurus, he''d risk permanent death because his respawn system didn''t work as an Obscurus.


    Of course, damaging him in that form wouldn''t be easy. Severe blows may disperse him but they wouldn''t injure him. He wasn''t certain he could survive nuclear fire, but that too was more likely to blow him away than it would be to fully dust his particles into nothing.


    Looking up at the destruction to come, Harry decided he needed a new plan. Laying low wouldn''t work anymore. He needed a distraction.


    Harry spent a long time going over various plans and ideas, but no matter how many he cycled through, he kept coming back to the same plan. He needed a perfect Alibi. A way to ensure he was cleared of suspicion even if he was caught red-handed. And there was only one real way to do so.


    Harry unpaused and turned invisible. He was likely only visible for a single moment and as he was surrounded by massive rocks in the air, he doubted anyone noticed him. Harry then took his animagus form and flew around to dodge the incoming boulders and find a safe spot to land.


    Harry needed to stick around for a while and was curious to see if anything would show up soon.


    It took about fifteen minutes for something to show. Surprisingly, it was cloaked, just like Harry. A cloaked drone if Harry guessed right. Since Harry was already going to draw suspicion elsewhere, he decided to play around a bit. While invisible, Harry attacked the drone with his claws, alerting the drone it was being targeted. The drone moved fast but Harry was faster and caught up with it to deliver another midair attack, damaging one of the wings this time causing it to swerve and lose altitude.


    Something Harry discovered a while back was that he could not drag something under someone else''s control into his inventory. For example when he gave the Ancient One a remote control and had her control a remote helicopter, Harry could not place it into his inventory even if he grabbed it unless he broke it, turned it off, or if the Ancient One turned off the controller.


    The drone in front of him was small enough to be taken into his inventory but it was under the control of another. Before it landed, Harry cast the Ebublio Jinx on the drone which caused an invisible bubble to appear around the drone. The bubble did not allow air to pass through it causing the drone to fall out of the sky as if its propulsion had failed. That wasn''t all it did however. Moments before it reached the ground, Harry was able to snatch it and place it into his inventory. Since it was Wizard Magic, it was effective in scrambling signals and caused the drone to eventually lose contact with its controller.


    The first thing Harry noticed when the drone was placed in his inventory was the presence of processed vibranium. Something to consider later.


    Harry flew away since he had played enough and continued waiting while flying invisibly through the sky.


    Eventually his waiting bore fruit. Travelling to him through the Astral Plane were a large ?ssortment of monstrous creatures. These beings were the very same ones that had left Harry''s mind and traveled into Mister Sinister''s. Sinister had given up on active defending and went for passive defending under the impression his mental defenses would hold. However Harry''s mental constructs included built-in Legilimency attacks which were undetectable just like the rest of Harry''s wizard Magic. That had also been one of the other reasons Harry did not go in for the kill against Sinister when he did have some possible options. He didn''t know if the man would somehow escape and the longer the fight, the more Harry''s constructs would be able to dig out of the man.


    After the constructs returned, Harry Paused once more and set aside the information to be ?ssessed later. There was more he already needed to do.


    Harry flew for the closest cloud and within he made a portal for London and flew directly for the Ministry of Magic. The building had many entrances for Post Owls allowing Harry easy access to some of the deeper areas without prior preparation.


    Next Harry returned to human form, though still invisible and made his way for the elevator.


    Harry wasn''t sure how it worked, but his Obscurus transformation somehow stored his clothes so when he returned to human form he was not n?k?d. He knew the clothes were not stored in his inventory though so for now it was a mystery how that worked. Still, he was grateful as he did not have to arrive as the Minister n?k?d.


    Once at the elevator, Harry made his way down to the Department of Mysteries and after dodging a number of Unspeakables to make sure he didn''t run into anyone, he found his way over to a cabinet containing a neat display of fifteen necklaces bearing a pendant with a small hourglass inside.


    There were several reasons Harry had never tried to get a Time Turner before this point even though they''d held his interest ever since he learned several were used to research his living conditions after he exploded.


    First of all, Bones, Sirius, and Albus all knew he was powerful and if one were stolen, he''d be the first suspect had he gotten it during or shortly after Hogwarts. Especially after Hogwarts. Next, a majority of the things one normally used a Time Turner for were things he could do with his Inventory and Pause function. Namely taking extra time to study and read.


    The following three years he''d held back because he knew he''d get scolded by the Ancient One who would certainly be able to sense any time travel shenanigans he''s gone through.


    Something the Ancient One told him about short period time travel usage was that you could get trapped in randomly generated time loops. One day you would see yourself walking up to you and then you would kick your own ?ss and leave and you would have no choice but to go back in time and kick your own ?ss or risk the destruction of reality. Such things have happened before and they can be considered the price of convenient time travel.


    However now it was the best of the worst options he had.


    There were only fifteen Time Turners total and to prevent the very Time loops the Ancient One warned Harry about, the Time Turners were always kept on this rack rather than in the possession of others. The rack itself included all manner of warding, security, and secrecy spells. Most wouldn''t even be able to see the rack itself if you were standing near it.


    Still, Harry had plenty of practice on magic based security. It took him no more than three minutes to figure out how to nab one without anyone the wiser. As Snape had once said, ''For a sufficiently powerful wizard, almost any security measure is little better than a delaying tactic.''


    Harry placed one into his inventory and Paused to analyze the magic.


    From what he understood, a ridiculously unstable spell called the Hour Reversal Charm had been made into a slightly less unstable enchantment and placed on the Time Turners. The turning of the Hourglass would allow consecutive uses of the charm, however from the Arithmancy Harry calculated and what he had heard, turning it more than five times was nearly fatal.


    Time Travel using a Time Turner was basically boring a hole into the past from the present.


    In this sense, the present was like a layer of sand and each second caused more sand to fall onto the top layer. A Time Turner could drill a hole into the deeper layers, into the past where the traveler would then slowly dig back into the present and reach the surface. If they went back further than five hours, the hole was likely to collapse and they could not of course go back further after already going back five hours.


    Once the traveler return to the moment they left from, the changes to the timeline would stabilize. However because it was not stable during the overlap, it was dangerous to use a Time Turner in the same location for the same period. That meant he could not use the Time Turner to go back to the same moment twice. That was a bit of a shame since if there was no limit, then he could create an army of himself simply by using the Time Turner to go back to the same location over and over.


    After nabbing one, Harry used transmutation one some spare metal bits to perfectly recreate a copy and place it where the original was. However, Harry wasn''t going to leave it like that.


    Harry spent a few days Paused to calculate the effect he wanted and once finished, he went over to find an empty room.


    The Department of Mysteries was filled with Researchers so it had many research rooms.


    Harry found an unused one and placed several explosives. These explosives however were made from unstable potions instead of his magic so they would leave residue.


    Harry placed a few spells on the room to prevent anyone from entering for a few minutes and returned to the cabinet and waited.


    A moment later an explosion shook the floor and Harry used telekinesis to knock over the cabinet from a distance.


    The moment the cabinet hit the ground, the space around it blurred and the cabinet was upright once more and started falling over once more.


    It was in a time loop. Wizards, especially smart wizards, never touched time loops so that cabinet would fall over and over again for the rest of time. A random explosion was not uncommon in the Department of Mysteries according to a few journals he''d read and anyone monitoring what happened would conclude the cabinet was knocked over from the explosion. It was a fact that the cabinet didn''t have any charms keeping it upright after all.


    There were numerous reasons Harry wanted the Time Turners unusable. The main reason however was that Harry could detect that they were ridiculously unstable and their very existence was a threat to anyone around them. That was one of the two reasons he was only taking one. The second reason was that he calculated that an infinite time loop may not properly generate if there were not enough Time Turners breaking at the same time and he wasn''t confident it would work with thirteen as he would fourteen. Fourteen is a far more magically capable number after all.


    Harry was not worried they would make more. There were very few practical reasons to justify the use of one and many Witches and Wizards had lost their lives in their attempted creation so it was unlikely to be done.


    As Harry left the floor, he thought back to Hogwarts and considered that if he stayed, this would have been his fifth year. Harry wondered what were the chances of him breaking that display in his fifth year if things had gone differently in his life. Oh well.


    After clearing a certain amount of distance, Harry apparated to the London Sanctum Sanctorum and knocked on the door, visible this time.


    Sol Rama answered and greeted Harry before ushering him inside. Harry made his way to Kamar-Taj and after a few moments, arranged for a meeting with the Ancient One.


    Harry still considered himself the Ancient One''s student and would not meddle with time lightly without her permission. The main reason for that was because if he messed up, it would likely be her responsibility as his teacher to clean up the mess so he wouldn''t hide this from her.


    The Ancient One was pleased to see him though when they spoke, she was not as pleased to hear what he had been up to during the last two hours. Still, she understood and after making a few suggestions and conditions, she gave her permission. Although she knew Harry would not exactly be responsible with its usage, he would at least be thoughtful with it which was good enough for her. Harry had already explained how there were no longer enough hours in the day for all his projects in the first place so it would prove invaluable to him outside of its use to give him airtight alibis.


    The Ancient One still wished to see its use and they took a Portal to a remote location where Harry turned the Hourglass three times which when released, cast the Hour Reversal Charm three times on Harry causing him to flow backwards through time while remaining in place.


    *Ping*


    [Age Settings are now available. You may turn Aging while outside of the Present Flow of Time Off.]


    Harry was more than a little shocked at that and immediately opened the new settings.


    From what he could see, after he turned seventeen in two years he could disable Aging and manually change his age to anywhere from seventeen to thirty-five. He could also prevent himself from aging while using the Time Turner meaning he would only age while in the present.


    Harry wondered why this was not available when he went back in time and freed Merlin but he figured it had to do with how Harry went to the past as he used Timelord Math that time instead of Wizard Magic.


    Once the time was right, Harry made a portal back to the Institute moments after he left and found Wanda there, cleaning up the crystals and sand Harry had asked her to clean up.


    She asked, "You''re already back?"


    Harry nodded and said, "I had someone else take care of it." The fact that he was now capable of Time Travel was not something he''d share for a while. Especially since they would in fact age with its use.


    Harry collected the crystals back into the backpack he''d gotten out and Wanda vanished the remaining sand and the pair went into the infirmary to meet up with Jean and Rogue.

 Chapter 43 - 43 Blood and Family

    What Harry had not expected once he arrived at the infirmary was a standoff. Rogue was staring dangerously at Xavier and her hands were glowing red with Wanda''s Hex Magic.


    Dr. McCoy was standing to the side looking very concerned.


    Harry stated, "What''s going on?"


    Before Xavier could answer Rogue quickly summarized, "The Professor wants to wipe Jean''s mind of what happened before she wakes up."


    Harry immediately Paused just to stop himself from overreacting to that. Perhaps Rogue left something out or misunderstood or perhaps it was as she said. In either case he had let his emotions run wild once today so it was best not to let it happen again. Harry mentally took a few moments to calm himself and unpaused. He looked over to Xavier and asked, "Is this true?"


    Xavier hadn''t expected Harry to ask that so calmly but that actually worried him more than if he had reacted in anger. It wasn''t until tonight that he realized that both Rogue and it seemed even Wanda had somehow developed layered mental defenses. He could still knock them unconscious if he forced it, but both appeared ready to fire those Hex Bolts he knew were disruptive to mutant abilities meaning it was a stalemate. Harry''s own presence here further worsened his stance forcing him to negotiate.


    Xavier stated, "Jean has obviously been through enough tonight and recalling it will do no good for her powers."


    Harry took in a few deep breaths without pausing in an attempt to stop himself from ripping Xavier a new hole.


    After centering himself Harry flatly stated, "Xavier, the next time you prioritize a student''s powers over that student''s mental health, we will have words you are not going to enjoy. Do you understand me?"


    Xavier realized that the way he worded that did indeed sound like he was prioritizing Jean''s powers. He quickly tried to defend himself, "That''s not what I meant. You know I care about all of my students. I would never-"


    Harry had a Smoky Quartz crystal in his hand before Xavier finished and was looking at the man with unreadable intentions. The crystal wasn''t glowing but the threat of it remained. Harry said, "I know you think you know what is best. I want you to accept that in this situation you are wrong. Jean is not her powers. Her ability to control her powers is not how you should measure her mental health just because she is a telepath. I know you think you have experience in this field, but what may or may not work for you won''t necessarily work for others. Unless you can convince me you are secretly a fifteen year old teenager girl, I think the others in this room have more of a say for what will and will not help Jean mentally."


    Xavier wasn''t unaware that from the position of Rogue and Wanda, he had overstepped his bounds. However he was not able to argue against Harry''s dispassionate logic. What was most disconcerting for him however was that Harry was alluding to the fact that he knew Xavier had done things to his own mind and Harry was even indirectly telling him not to ?ssume what he did to himself will work in others. In fact he actually implied that what he did to himself didn''t even work for himself. That was what shocked Xavier the most.


    Still, he knew that Jean''s powers would definitely manifest in a negative fashion if this was left alone which was why he had been set on helping her.


    Harry said, "I can guess what you''re worried about. I will take full responsibility for helping Jean with her powers should an issue occur. I think my track record in this speaks for itself."


    Rogue spoke up, "Not just Harry. Jean''s always been sweet to everyone and I''ll be there for her if she needs it."


    Wanda added, "Count me in. I know what it''s like to have powers that are overly affected by past traumas."


    Xavier gave it a moment of silent thought before nodding. "Very well. I shall entrust this matter to you three. I do however ask if anything happens you seek my help."


    Dr. McCoy let out a breath of relief that everything had been resolved peacefully. He said, "Excellent, now onto the important matters. At the moment Jean is asleep and her vital signs are normal though I can tell she was under a lot of stress until a few moments ago. May I ask what transpired?"


    Harry said, "Because I didn''t have any of Jean''s blood I wasn''t able to track her easily so I asked for Rogue and Wanda''s help. Using a ritual I made, Wanda strengthened the connection between Rogue and Jean which I was able to track and locate Jean. She was bound to a table and it looked like someone was about to stick a needle into her. She was crying for help but no one in the room seemed to care. They all wore lab coats and had equipment that looked suited towards experimentation. I used a Smokey Quartz to knock them out and get Jean out of there. I had Rogue take her to the infirmary and I cleaned up the ritual area with Wanda and we came back."


    Xavier asked, "You made a Portal in Cerebro didn''t you? Was that how you accessed her location?"


    Harry nodded. "Yeah, but that uses Dimension energy which I can only access by absorbing a big Diamond. Those are harder to make synthetically than a big Smoky Quartz which allows teleportation. However Portals have almost no impact on the tech around them so I could use it in Cerebro without damaging the place."


    McCoy confirmed, "Well, at least you made it in time. Nothing seems to have been injected into her system so I expect after she wakes she''ll be fine."


    Harry nodded and said, "If you don''t mind, I''d like to stay in the infirmary until she wakes."


    Wanda spoke up, "Me too." Rogue added of course, "And me."


    Xavier said, "I''ll cancel the classes for today. There is much that the teachers and I need to discuss."


    McCoy nodded and looked back at Harry. "Now you mentioned something about blood and tracking her. Is that to say, if you do possess someone''s blood, you can find them?"


    Harry answered, "Not directly with their blood. My powers don''t work that way. There is a way however to turn someone''s blood into a gemstone. I can''t exactly absorb one, but I can use something similar to magic to use a blood gem to track any person."


    McCoy asked, "That is to say, if we kept a stock of blood gems for each student. You would be able to use them to track the students down if they were kidnapped?"


    Harry nodded. "That is correct."


    McCoy gave Xavier a look that Xavier understood. Xavier was reliant on Cerebro to find people but the number of ways to hide from Cerebro seemed to be growing lately. It was something to consider.


    Rogue said, "I''m up for it."


    McCoy said, "Can the way to make a blood gem be done here? I''d like a demonstration if you would be so kind."


    Harry answered, "No problem. It''s just a bit of esoteric chemistry."


    While McCoy was setting things up. Harry was going over the knowledge he had stolen from Sinister. Harry actually wanted to make a blood gem for Sinister and use that to kill him, but he understood from what little he had already gone over that Sinister was no longer close enough to human for that particular ritual to have an effect. Unfortunately the knowledge Harry''s attack was able to copy from Sinister''s mind was random and it would take a while to process it all.


    Harry also hoped Forge wouldn''t kill him for suggesting blood gems.


    The creation of a blood gem was not exactly dark magic itself but many, many, many forms of dark magic could use a blood gem. Having your boss use your blood to make a blood gem basically guaranteed your loyalty as if you betrayed him, there would be nowhere to run or hide. He''d be able to track you down, track your descendants down, and cast powerful curses directly on you through the blood gem.


    A little after sunrise Jean woke and felt someone was holding her hand. She opened her eyes and saw Harry was at her side and Wanda and Rogue were smiling back at her with the latter saying, "Well good morning sugar."


    Jean noticed that for some reason she felt more connected to Wanda and Rogue than she had before and she could feel their concern and care for her. She thought it was just because they had decided to stay with her until she woke up which was a real show of care from them. Jean felt that she should hang out with them more often, they were great friends.


    The actual reason for the feeling of closeness was the ritual Harry used to locate Jean. It had a permanent side effect of strengthening Rogue''s connection to Jean and it created a connection from Wanda to Jean as well as it was Wanda''s power that strengthened that connection.


    This connection would last for their entire lives which was why Harry would not have used that method to find her if he had another choice. Both Rogue and Wanda knew enough about magic to understand that as well and both accepted it when they chose to help with the ritual. Harry''s connection to her was strengthened as well but Jean already felt so close to him she didn''t notice it.


    After remembering what she had just been through, Jean started crying. The worst night of her life was over and now she was surrounded by those she could really feel cared for her and she just wanted to let it all out. She cried into Harry''s shoulder and Rogue and Wanda put their arms over her to comfort her.


    McCoy watched from the side and smiled. He left the infirmary and headed upstairs to meet with the rest of the teachers to discuss what had happened and what steps they would take to prevent it from happening again.


    Harry took her hand in both of his and told her how he heard her cry and went to Xavier who heard it too. Cerebro was not able to find her, but with Wanda and Rogue''s help, Harry was.


    Out of earshot of the security cameras Harry also whispered, "And steps were taken to ensure that place no longer exists."


    Jean could hear the fire in Harry''s voice and she telepathically thanked him.


    Harry walked the girls upstairs and began making breakfast. It was actually Bobby''s, Jubilee''s and Domino''s turn but the latter wasn''t there to prevent the former two from destroying the food due to the staff meeting so Harry took over. He knew what everyone would be discussing and wanted a lighter atmosphere so he practically emptied the walk-in fridge and covertly brought a few things out from his inventory.


    Once the first couple of students saw Harry at the stove instead of Jubilee, they ran back upstairs to tell the other students. Days Harry cooked were treasured in the Institute and the difference between food cooked by Jubilee and Harry was as great as the difference between black and white.


    Jean enjoyed a warm meal sitting between Rogue and Wanda who talked with her about small and silly things to get her mind off her ordeal.


    Jean wasn''t happy with what the Professor had tried to do and knew he meant well, but she still felt that leaving her to Harry, Rogue, and Wanda was better for everyone.


    It didn''t take long for Scott Summers to learn what had happened to Jean and race over. Jean ?ssured him she was fine and that Harry rescued her before they could do anything terrible.


    Scott walked over to Harry and said, "Thank you man, just, thank you."


    Harry smiled back, "She''s not just your family Scott. Remember that."


    Scott nodded and went to get some of the hunger inducing breakfast plates.


    A few hours into the day, Forge came looking for Harry. The fact that he did not appear to be wielding any kind of disintegration cannon was something Harry took as a good sign. The ''we need to talk privately'' expression seemingly carved into his face, less so.


    After finding a spot not to be overheard, Forge said, "I looked for you in the lab and was almost surprised not to find you there. When I realized you were probably sticking close to Jean to help her through this, I decided to put down my Ion Disintegrator."


    Harry tried not to look nervous.


    Forge continued, "I''ll make sure the staff knows exactly what a person with enough know-how can do with a blood gem. I won''t suggest you will do anything, but I will imply that if someone else got their hands on one, what they could do."


    Harry nodded, "Reasonable. I brought it up full accepting that the entire suggestion might be rejected. However if someone gets kidnapped or taken, I don''t want to feel like its my fault because I could have done more and didn''t. I at least want to give you the choice."


    Forge sighed. "I figured as much. Can''t say I wouldn''t do the same if I was in your position."


    He walked away and Harry rejoined the group. They asked what happened and Harry answered.


    Jean was shocked by what a person could do with a blood gem but Wanda said she knew all of that already and already made one and gave it to Harry for safe keeping. Thanks to that, if anything happens to her, she knows Harry will be able to find her.


    The eventual outcome was that the students were told a small amount of blood could be taken from them and used to find them if anything happened, but the giving of blood was voluntary only.


    What surprised Harry the most however was when Logan showed up.


    He asked, "Just to be clear. You use these blood things to find the person or find their blood?"


    Harry answered honestly, "Their blood. It can even be used to find relatives."


    Logan said, "Alright then. Make one for me. I got a favor to ask."


    The pair went to the infirmary and took some of Logan''s blood. Dr. McCoy wasn''t around so Harry handled the procedure alone and added a few bits of magic to improve the quality of the gem since it looked like Logan was interested in using it for something.


    When finished, Logan took a look at it and said, "A while back I lost all my memories. I know I got experimented on and I know they took my blood. Wade Wilson, Deadpool. His abilities came from my blood. If they got more of my blood. I want it found and destroyed."


    Harry nodded and went to his room to get a few things. He returned and made a proper locator that could use the blood. Logan didn''t even twitch when Harry ?ssembled it using magic without taking out a gemstone.


    Once finished, he started the Locator and cleared his mind.


    Thirty seconds later.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Blood Ties


    -Destroy every sample of Wolverine''s Blood at Site A.


    -Rescue X-23 from Site B.


    Bonus


    -Rescue X-23''s mother from Site B.


    -Don''t get identified.]


    Harry sighed. He said, "I got five matches from the tracker. The first is you, obviously. The second was a larger bodied blonde guy with shoulder length hair, larger than normal incisors, and a wild, almost bloodthirsty aura. He seemed to be a direct relation. Likely brother or half brother."


    Logan''s eyebrow shot up. "Sabertooth? Hmm. That explains a lot."


    Harry continued, "Next was... Deadpool. Ok, don''t ask me to look for that guy in the future. I could swear when I saw him, he turned around and waved back at me."


    Logan grunted and didn''t seem surprised by Wade''s seemingly impossible actions.


    "Last two are what you''re looking for. Two large facilities in Canada. One contains lots of your blood, but it''s the other which has me curious. There is a little girl there I''d say is twelve or thirteen years old with half your DNA. She''s being kept in a locked cement room. I couldn''t see more details than that."


    Wolverine''s claws shot out on instinct at that.


    Harry continued, "Obviously we''re going to get her. However we need to be smart about it. You also have to decide if you want the help of anyone else or if we should just do this ourselves."


    Harry could get a general sense of the area and a more detailed sense of the exact location which were enough to make portals, but he couldn''t see the rest of either facility.


    Logan retracted his claws and began to think. He knew what Harry was really asking. Do you want to go in with or without killing them all? If they took the X-Men, they wouldn''t take any lives. If they went alone, well, Logan already knew Harry didn''t have issues with permanently dealing with some people.


    Logan decided to ask, "Got any suggestions?"


    Harry nodded. "If it is just the two of us, I can get us in and out easily enough. If you want to go in loud that is fine. However we can also go in quiet. Besides, in addition to your blood, the first place might have other things that need dealing with. The second place could also have others there beside your supposed daughter. Give me a day to scout the locations and do some prep work and we can figure out the best way to do this."


    Logan flatly said, "You sound like Gambit."


    Harry smiled. Gambit was another member of the Original X-Men team but unlike the others he was not a teacher at the institute. Instead he was Charles'' eyes and ears in many places and go-to fixer for many situations.


    Harry added, "Now if we''re going to do this, we may need to use a different skill set and use disguises. Besides your claws, can you use anything else to fight? Preferably something distinct."


    "I''m good with a Katana."


    Harry smiled, "That works."


    Harry spent the next two days in two places at once.


    He went to sleep at midnight and woke up at 4am. Via Portal he went to his Workshop and used the Time Turner to go back five hours. He then spent the next ten hours working on various projects and at 9am he would use the Time Turner to go back to 7am and start his classes. At 2pm he would leave the Institute and go back in time five hours and then spend the next ten hours on outside projects which currently included scouting and prepping Sites A and B. Harry would then Time Turner back five hours to 2pm and return to his classes. When classes were over around 5pm, he''d head over to the study group and help Jean and the others until about 8pm. He then spent four hours in Battle Meditation and went to sleep at midnight.


    In this way he added eighteen extra hours to his schedule which opened a lot of possibilities.


    The following Saturday morning Harry brought out several maps of both sites. Much of it he''d explored using astral projection and some viewing spells. Logan of course directly asked why not get in and out with portals, but Harry said that it was better to leave a false trail.


    First, Harry made a portal to an unmonitored area near Site A. Harry wasn''t wearing a mask and had taken a Polyjuice potion to look like someone whose blood he''d taken in the seventh century so Harry felt it unlikely even the most advanced facial recognition software would recognize him. Logan was harder to conceal. He was shorter than average yet had broad shoulders and weighed several times what a normal person did. Harry gave him an Invisibility Potion and an invisible Katana he''d made. He also cast a Featherlight charm on Logan which, although did not make him as light as a feather, did reduce his weight.


    Harry himself would be using psionics and spells which looked like Psionics to make people think he was a telepath.


    Harry checked his watch on arrival and the pair waited another five minutes for Harry''s prep to start working. At 11am exactly, the enormous ward Harry had painstakingly set up around the location activated.


    Harry and Logan ran for the gate at the signal. Harry''s Psionic skill was enough to make weak people sleep on command which was how he dispatched the guards. Harry also got close to each one and cast a powerful Obliviate that would permanently erase any knowledge the guards had about this place other than the fact that they worked there.


    The main entrance to what looked like a bunker was locked with a keypad so Logan slashed through the lock with his sword. It wasn''t adamantium but with all the spells on it the thing could cut just as well as his claws.


    Guards opened fire the moment the door fell so Harry hid behind the entrance until the shooting stopped. Logan swiftly entered and disabled the guards with the back of his blade and they were all unconscious before they noticed the invisible samurai. Harry used Obliviate on them as well. He was making himself appear to be a nuisance of a telepath as wiping memories was one of the most troublesome things a telepath could do. And since he was removing them with magic, another telepath wouldn''t even be able to recover them.


    The pair encountered more guards and dealt with them all. A number of them were strong minded enough not to be put to sleep by Harry''s psionics so Logan had to deal with each of them.


    Their goal was to take out and erase the minds of as many of the employees as possible. Harry''s targets for Obliviate were not the guards. In fact he even cast an overly weak Obliviate on a number of guards so they would remember Harry''s uncovered face and give details of what happened. No, the true targets were the researchers. When Harry encountered one of them, he didn''t just erase their knowledge of the facility, he erased their education. Everything they learned working there and all the education required to get there would vanish from their minds.


    The main reason Harry had decided on such a ruthless outcome was because of how he felt about X-23 and what he discovered during his scouting. He decided there was no reason for this place to continue existing and this was the best way to thoroughly destroy the essence of the place without killing anyone.


    The ward around the site had a number of effects. First, it would completely cut off communications. Next, it would prevent those outside from coming inside using a basic muggle repelling field. And last, it was set to saturate the entire place with magic through a magical implosion when Harry was done with it.


    Harry and Logan made their way to the main control station and Harry plugged in every sort of hacking tool after he incapacitated and removed the knowledge of everyone inside. He would make it look like this place was his goal and everything else was secondary.


    Once the servers were downloaded, they made their way to the place where all biological samples were stored. Harry removed a backpack he had brought with him and set it inside before closing and locking the door. By this point all of the faculty were either hiding or incapacitated so the pair left returned to the entrance and made their way out.


    No alarms, even through hard-line communications, could get through the wards. A few of the trucks on their way to the site suddenly remembered they had forgotten something and turned around without entering. Once the pair were out, Harry released a signal which caused a massive surge of magic he spent the last few days charging the ward stones with to implode in on itself. The backpack in the room holding the blood was set off and the explosion shook the whole of the base. Every computer and camera was fired. As the offsite security feeds were cut by the ward which meant no digital recording of the pair entering the location existed.


    Harry got out the Time Turner and placed it over his own and Logan''s neck. It was time for part two.


    Logan was more than a little surprised that Harry''s plan involved time travel to hit both sites at the same time but decided he''d seen stranger things. Harry already told him that it couldn''t be used to change the past, it only let you be in two places at one. Such a thing was only useful to someone who didn''t age so he didn''t mind Logan knowing about it.


    The point of much of the plan was to throw suspicion off themselves and onto something else with false clues and breadcrumbs. X-23 would likely be attending Charles'' school so they would know it was Logan who took her no matter what they did. Because of that Logan wouldn''t be using the sword or an invisibility potion at Site B and would go in claws blazing. The point was to make whatever group was behind them to think Logan was working with a large, skilled organization and make them target that group before trying anything to Logan. Maybe they''d figure it out one day, but by then Harry would be even stronger.


    Harry had another portal take them outside the grounds for Site B. Surprisingly, Harry was not able to find any other mutants at the location meaning X-23 was the only one they needed to rescue while taking the place down.


    Harry used yet another Polyjuice potion to shift into yet another face from the seventh century. He''d run out of it eventually but until then it was a waste not to use it. This time he was going to use telekinesis and magic to move things and make shields. Harry''s psionic shields were too weak to stand up to bullets but he knew how to make a Dimensional energy shield that kinda looked like a psionic shield which was good enough for him to take a more active role in the combat.


    Site B was more than double the size of Site A and Harry had to spend a few hours on top of a leyline to recharge himself while charging the ward stones required to cut this place off. The reason this place was larger was simply because it needed to be. If site A was where the safe tests were done, Site B was where the dangerous tests were done. There was also a large number of enhanced guards using advanced weaponry within and even if they didn''t have backup it wouldn''t be easy to take them down. Well, not as easy.


    This site was two time zones over from site A and they waited until 1pm for the wards to kick in and charged forward.


    A dozen or so fully armed guards started firing at the pair but Harry used an overpowered banishing charm to throw them back. The few out of range of his charm continued firing but a shield appeared over him which blocked the shots. Thankfully they used energy weapons which were far easier for his shields to block over material weapons as the former was closer to magic.


    A few of the guards that had hidden behind cover before Harry sent the others away popped out once the pair got close but Wolverine slashed through their weapons and backhanded their faces hard enough to knock them out.


    Once the guards were fully taken care of Logan used his claws again to slash the door but this time it seemed too thick to penetrate with his claws. Harry destroyed the cameras with Telekinesis and then conjured the Kestrel Key of Kraken which fired at the door and caused it to open. Logan actually took a moment to give him a look that implied even he thought, ''what the hell?''


    Harry shrugged. The key was weird, he wasn''t going to deny it. He was just glad he could still use it after his wizard and sorcerer magics merged. It was very useful magic.


    When the doors opened Harry had his arms raised to make it look like he was opening the doors with telekinesis. He made a shield to block the barrage of gunfire that greeted the pair and Wolverine charged forward directly into the mob. Those who targeted him Harry threw back with either a banishment charm or with telekinesis. To shake things up he''d occasionally use a summoning charm on the armor of the armor plated guards to drag them into the line of fire.


    Turrets would occasionally drop down from the ceiling or rise up from the floor but Harry would break them either with telekinesis or magic. Some of the heavier duty turrets were not as easy to break so Harry just threw an invisible surge of magic at them to fry them. It was his own version of Wanda''s Hex Bolts.


    The location had about fifty guard total and seven minutes into the intrusion they had taken care of half of them. Earlier that morning Harry had snuck into the place with a portal and placed a tracking and monitor spell on X-23 and the woman he was pretty sure was her mother.


    Both mother and child were in the same room at the moment with a man who brought two guards with him. Harry had chosen this time for the extraction because this was the only time of day the pair were in the same room.


    Thankfully the guards seemed to be pointing their weapons at the door rather than at the mother and child pair.


    Eventually they reached a hall where Logan went left and Harry went right. X-23 was in Logan''s direction, the main computer terminal of the base was in Harry''s. According to the backstory Harry cooked up. A group had found Logan and told him they intended on breaking into this site and stealing all the data before erasing it. They invited Logan to come after telling him about X-23. Logan didn''t know anything else about the group and didn''t care.


    Of course Harry had monitoring charms on Logan as well so if anything happened, he''d be able to get over there fast enough to help.


    Much of the remaining security was in fact on Harry''s route including several guards in what appeared to be over-sized mechanical outfits. Harry couldn''t break or even move them with telekinesis, so he pretended to use an overpowered TK Throw while sending another surge or magic at the suits. Unsurprisingly, the suits stopped working and Harry moved on.


    Every once in a while Harry would encounter someone who demanded to know who he was as if he was obligated to respond. Even when he made it to the computer terminal and pulled out his hacking tools, the people standing to the side he hadn''t bothered with because they hadn''t drawn their weapons were giving impassioned speeches about how Harry would never get away with this. A few of the creative ones described the manners in which Harry would be dissected. A few of the ones who thought they were clever tried to stab or cut him. Not to kill him, but to make him bleed so they could get some of his blood. Harry was tempted to give some to get their hopes up, but decided against. He''d save that prank for another day.


    From his observation of Logan, the old man slashed his claws together.


    That meant he needed help. X-23 was also looking very mad and her mother appeared terrified. The important looking man in the room seemed to have something in his hand which had everyone worried.


    Harry cast a sleeping spell on those in the main room so they wouldn''t unplug his hacking tool and he teleported into the room behind the man and grabbed what he was holding.


    Logan had been expecting this and used the moment they were caught off guard to take out the guards and punch the man''s face in.


    Harry, still holding the metal thing asked, "What''s this?"


    The woman next to X-23 said, "That''s Laura''s trigger scent. If she smells it, she won''t be able to stop herself from killing everyone in the room." The woman looked down and said in a quiet tone, "Including me."


    The man Logan had knocked down wasn''t out cold and glared at Harry. Logan had told the man the fake backstory and the man said, "I don''t know who you are but we will find you. And nothing you do will change the fact that she is a weapon. Even if you take her, we will have her back."


    Harry smirked and said, "Nothing I can do? Is that a challenge?" He turned to the woman and asked, "Are there many of these trigger scents?"


    She frowned but nodded.


    Harry walked over to X-23, Laura, and pointed a finger at her and cast a silent Obliviate. Laura frowned and felt something, but she didn''t know what it was. It didn''t seem like anything changed.


    Harry then opened the can in his hand and tossed it to her.


    Laura''s eyes widened in shock and the woman almost screamed.


    And nothing happened.


    Harry turned back to the man and said, "You were saying? If she is a weapon, why isn''t she doing anything?"


    The man said, "That''s, that''s impossible. What did you do?!"


    Harry smiled and said, "That would be telling." He then cast a Stupefy at the man and knocked him out. Once out cold he cast a light Obliviate to remove the last few moments of memories and then cast the False Memory spell to make him remember opening the scent container himself and nothing happening before being knocked out by Logan.


    Laura picked up the can and said, "I don''t recognize this scent."


    Harry nodded. "Sorry, but I had to remove your memory of all scents. Whatever conditioning they did to you is still there. But now you won''t remember which scents were conditioned to which reactions meaning your brain won''t recognize them as triggers. You''ll have to relearn your scents but it''s a small price to pay, don''t you think?"


    Laura''s mother froze in shock at the implication. Laura was trained to be completely incapable of resisting her trigger scents, but now they were all ineffective. That meant Laura wouldn''t lose control and could live a normal life.


    Harry said, "Escort the pair to the entrance, I''ll meet you there," and teleported back.


    Harry actually woke the sleeping staff members and used a Confundus charm to prevent them from noticing they were asleep meaning they went right back to rambling on as to the consequences of his actions there.


    Once finished Harry unplugged the hard drive he''d downloaded everything onto and left, ignoring the rambling staff. A few tried to shoot him but Harry threw them back to the wall with telekinesis the moment they grabbed a weapon which put a stop to that. All of them saw Harry''s ''face'' but none heard him speak as he had not responded to any of their provocation.


    Harry met Logan, Laura, and her mother on the way back and made their way to the entrance. They met a few stragglers on the way but were taken care of without issue. Harry made sure a few of the guards spotted them running from the entrance into the woods before he set the wards to implode and fry everything. This site mainly focused on weapons and tech. Removing the memories of the researchers wouldn''t have as much of an effect since tech was tech. As long as all the computers at the site were fried and the data was lost, it was good enough for him.


    Once they were clear of witnesses, Harry opened a portal to the Institute''s infirmary.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Blood Ties


    Reward +4 Warrior Path Rank.]


    Dr. McCoy was quite surprised and asked what had happened and who the girl and woman were.


    Harry casually answered, "New student and her mother. They both need a check up though.." And with that he left the infirmary.

 Chapter 44 - 44 The Beginning of a Harem

    Harry spent the following Sunday Paused for what could have been months or years. After getting Laura out he finally decided to take the time to check out his gains from Sinister''s Mind, Sinister''s hard drives, and what he stole from the compounds he and Logan raided.


    Sinister was unsurprisingly, a real piece of work that reminded Harry a bit of Voldemort in his single mindedness. There was nothing in the data he acquired that showed what Mister Sinister was afraid of but it was obvious from what Harry did get from his mind that the man feared something and he was trying to create a mutant powerful enough to fight against whatever it was he feared.


    Harry felt this was similar to Voldemort who feared death and tried to become the strongest magical to avoid it. Voldemort however was blind to using other means to achieve his goals and Mister Sinister seemed to only focus on making himself or another mutant strong enough to fight whatever he was scared of, but he didn''t look much into other means of fighting it.


    His data showed decades and in some cases centuries of research and testing on mutants and their powers and looking over some of the memories Harry was able to copy, he figured out what the man wanted from Jean.


    Mister Sinister apparently had sponsored several orphanages and when Scott''s parents died, the young Summers had lived in one. Sinister''s tests seemed to show that a child between Scott and Jean would be stronger than any mutant he was capable of creating.


    Harry could easily see the man was right, but he doubted if Sinister knew why. After a number of tests, Harry found that the type of energy Scott was capable of connecting to and emitting was basically Bird Seed for the Phoenix Force. It could literally nourish the Psionic entity and psychics in general would gravitate towards Scott. Though they would look at Scott like a plate of delicious food, not as boyfriend material. If they couldn''t tell the difference between hunger and love, they might convince themselves they had feelings for him.


    Sinister apparently met Scott in disguise years ago and imprinted into the boy[s mind a need to be with Jean that would go into effect once he saw her. He seemed to plant something similar into Jean but that quickly faded and there didn''t seem to be a point to putting it back. Sinister had means of monitoring Salem and seemed to know that Jean and Scott were growing further apart. Jean''s kidnapping was to implant a need to be with Scott. Sinister was going to arrange it so that Scott would find and rescue her at a place of the man''s choosing.


    He didn''t count on Harry of course. No matter what means he used to gain information, he would only get the lies Harry told everyone else and nothing else.


    Then there was the stuff he got from Canada. The Weapons Project, Weapon X. Founded and funded by a man named John Sublime, it was a way to use Mutants to fight and kill mutants. The project shared similarities to Sinister''s work in that both were ways to strengthen mutants, but they had different end goals and different means to achieve them. Sinister wanted mutants to give birth to stronger mutants. Sublime just wanted to use mutants to kill mutants.


    The files he read almost made him regret not killing everyone in both facilities. They had allowed their fear to justify actions that would have made Death Eaters squeamish. He wouldn''t go back even if he knew though. The sites appeared to be partially funded by a few governments but were not completely under government oversight and John Sublime was a civilian.


    If Harry had killed anyone, they would be declared threats by those not a part of the Program and the response to the raids would be completely different. However, if a weapons program was defeated by two sets of two people, three of which were unknown and they got in and out without killing anyone, that would look terrible on paper for whoever was in charge.


    None of the researchers Harry wiped would be able to continue their work meaning the Program would have to hire more which would cost money. Would a program that got whooped so easily be allocated additional funds though? Most would think it was a waste of money and not even care who took it out since the perpetrators didn''t kill anyone.


    Even if they did restart it, Harry would see if he could get the Goblins to track where the money was coming from and mess with them appropriately.


    Probably the most interesting part of comparing the data from Sinister and the data from the Weapons Program was that the holes in one appeared to be filled in the other. Thanks to this, Harry now understood a lot more about mutants that he had before.


    From what he could tell, the X-Gene was a somewhat of a blank space in a human''s DNA. It was a gene that did absolutely nothing because it contained no information that could be used. In times of great stress or under specific circumstances though, the X-Gene could change from something that gave no information to something that did include information.


    Harry had discovered several programs known as Super Soldier Programs and sometimes they worked on a person, sometimes they would not. Harry now understood that the people it worked on had an inactive X-Gene and the process that turned them into an Enhanced had manually over-written their X-Gene to grant them those abilities. That also meant that no one without an unawakened X-Gene could successfully become an Enhanced.


    Though difficult, it was somewhat possible to Enhance a mutant and sometimes an enhanced would become a mutant as well, though the end result was impossible to guess.


    Using what Harry already knew combined with everything he learned, Harry figured he could probably create a Gene therapy that would grant anyone without an X-Gene an X-Gene. He could even think of a few survivable ways to permanently remove an X-Gene, even an awakened one. Once he had that information, he promptly locked it away into the deepest, darkest depths of his mind. That was not information the world was ready for and Harry doubted if it would ever be ready for it. The only problem was that if someone else got access to Sinister''s data and Project Weapon''s data and was clever enough, they could figure it out too. Hell, Harry wouldn''t be surprised if someone figured it out without their data.


    Although Harry wouldn''t use it for the same purposes as Sinister and the Canadians, he could use it to help Dr. McCoy with his own research.


    Over the course of the following week, most of the staff and students decided to give Harry some blood to make Blood gems. Harry had not told anyone he used them to find Logan''s ''daughter,'' but a number of the staff and even some students guessed it.


    Eleven year old, Laura Kinney herself was easily accepted into the Institute and Xavier and Warren took care of all the paperwork. Dr. Sarah Kinney was actually offered a position as Dr. McCoy''s research ?ssistant which paid well and gave the woman a chance to stay with her daughter and work in her field which happened to be genetics, same as Dr. McCoy.


    Something interesting was that Harry was unable to make blood gems for three of the residents of Xavier''s Institute. Kurt''s blood seemed to be mostly human but it was outside of the range required for the blood magic to work meaning his blood could not be used. Something similar happened with Warren''s blood. Harry said he appeared to have an atavism which caused his blood to have similar effects to a distant, less than human ancestor. Something Harry didn''t share was that Warren''s blood actually burned Kurt''s. It made him wonder about the Angel and Demon pair.


    The third failure was the most surprising. Harry could not use any blood magic with Scott''s blood. Kurt and Warren had blood that would be perhaps what a child of a Homo sapien and a Homo neanderthalensis would appear. The descendant of a human and an offshoot of humans. Scott though had at least a grandparent who wasn''t born on the planet earth. This probably explained why Sinister felt his genes were so special. Though his DNA appeared completely human, Harry''s magic could tell it was not and why it was not in ways even the great Nathaniel Essex never could.


    Harry discussed his findings with Dr. McCoy and Dr. Kinney and they found the absence of certain markers which showed Harry was correct. After some debating, the three decided to inform Scott of his interesting heritage, though no one else. Harry also used the chance to Obliviate Scott of the memories he had of Jean before he met her. That wouldn''t affect his existing memories, but it would remove the influence Sinister implanted in him. Harry wondered if he should feel bad about that and decided to set him up on a date at some point.


    Things returned mostly to normal after that though with the help of his Time Turner Harry appeared to have more free time than normal which caused some people to try to take advantage of him. Several students would claim that they were sick at the times when it was their turn to make food and ask Harry to take their shift because he was regarded as the best cook in the Institute. On the third time this happened, Harry decided to take steps.


    Evan had not only shameless begged Harry to step in when it was his turn to make breakfast, he also asked him not to tell his aunt. Harry smiled and agreed. Harry made stacks and stacks of pancakes which were something with a low enough level of difficulty that Evan could take credit for without suspicion and Evan accepted everyone''s thanks with a warm heart. That was until everyone started shooting flames out of their ?sses.


    Harry had added a special potion, something he got from Fred and George Weasley''s Joke shop to the batter mix. The flames were bright blue and cold to the touch. They did not burn and would safely go through the pants of the victim without harming the fabric.


    For a whole day, every student and most of the faculty would randomly fart blue flames at various times. Logan''s Phys Ed class that day was track and field which many students would recall as the most memorable class of the year. So many many bu?? flames.


    Safe to say, the truth came out and Harry was not asked to take over another shift again. Kurt did however ask to be taken on as an apprentice.


    It was a few weeks later near Thanksgiving that two things came up. In the morning when Harry was in his workshop, Goose came in and was followed by a small purple dragon. This was Lockheed, the alien dragon Kitty made friends with during their space adventures.


    Harry asked, "What''s up Goose?" Harry always took at least an hour or so to spend time with Goose. Sometimes Goose would also visit the study group''s table and Harry would just pet her while he tutored the others. Harry had seen Goose and Lockheed hang out a few times but didn''t ask about it.


    Goose conveyed, ''He needs ?ssistance with something, I recommended you.''


    Harry turned down to the blue dragon and asked, "Alright, how can I help?"


    Lockheed seemed to be hissing in various tones while moving his jaw so Harry asked Goose, "Does he have problems speaking english? Should I use telepathy?"


    Goose conveyed back, ''No. His race speaks with each other telepathically though a hive mind connection, but they refuse to communicate the same way to other lifeforms. He can speak english, it just feels uncomfortable.''


    Harry asked, "They don''t like telepathy with members of other races?"


    Goose continued, ''Not exactly. Their telepathy is empathy based. He just doesn''t want to talk through his emotions with a guy.''


    Harry burst out laughing at that. It explained how Lockheed was speaking with Goose since Goose was female. He wondered if Lockheed spoke with Kitty.


    Harry considered a few things and asked using Parseltongue, "Can you understand this language?"


    Lockheed seemed taken aback at that and answered in fluent Parseltongue, "I did not expect to hear this language from a human. Goose''s description of you did not do you Justice."


    Harry asked, "Have you met Goose before? Come to think of it, is Goose her real name?"


    Lockheed answered, "I''ve run into the Flerken a number of times over the last century or so, though I did not expect to see her on Earth. Her name cannot be constructed using sounds you are familiar with, so Goose is acceptable. The same goes for my own name. My parents certainly did not call me Lockheed, but I will not be sharing my true name with you this day."


    Harry did not hide his surprise at any part of that statement. It proved that Goose was not from earth and also showed that Lockheed was likely Dragonkin for lesser dragons did not have true names. Dragonkin however were not weak so his appearance which was only a size larger than Goose''s did not fit a standard dragonkin.


    Harry decided to directly ask, "Are you dragonkin?"


    Lockheed nodded, "Yes, though very different from most. My species is renowned for its spirit and mind, not our bodies. For example, though you have hidden it well, I can feel a Dragon''s aura on you. Another would not notice it but I can."


    That answered most of his questions so he continued, "So how can I help you then?"


    Lockheed jumped up on the workbench and said, "Goose tells me you are an excellent crafter and can learn foreign technology without great difficulty. There is something I''d like you to build for me. I do not have the materials nor skill to build it myself though I do know how it works and in exchange for teaching you my people''s technology, I ask you to fulfil my request."


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Phone Home


    Lockheed ran away from his Flock and wishes to contact them again to inform those he cares for that he is well.


    +Bonus: Create untraceable connection.]


    Harry said, "I will not build anything that could end up causing great harm to this planet of people I care about. Other than that, there should not be a problem."


    Lockheed nodded and seemed to respect that. He said, "I was considered something of a hero among my own people in the Brood wars. I was given many honors but those honors took away my freedom. I was made into a status symbol and was going to be forced into marriage with another... celebrity I suppose you could say.. I was not interested in her, but she wanted to possess me and I was practically sold to her. Had the X-Men not barged into the war, I would have been married off the following day. So I ran."


    Harry listened without judgement to Lockheed''s story. Not all heroes had a happy ending and Harry was at least happy Lockheed was able to escape the fate of a trophy husband.


    Lockheed continued, "I left without warning or message to others. Many perhaps think I have died but there are those I care for who I wish to inform I am doing well. I wish to ask you to build a communicator that I can use to contact my parents."


    "Umm. Why me? I mean I know I''m good, but Forge could probably build a communicator using spare parts from the ship."


    Goose interrupted, apparently having followed the whole conversation in parseltongue, ''His race communicates, interacts with one another, and even travels through the Astral Plane. He needs someone who can build within the astral plane.''


    Lockheed, apparently having heard Goose, said, "She is correct. I need someone capable of crafting AstralTech."


    Harry smiled, "I''m game."


    Harry feels the space cave in behind him and turns to find, not Kurt, but Harry Potter. The doppelganger Harry says, "Jean is going to go critical in seven minutes. Use Protocol Supreme and take Rogue and Wanda. Clearance Code, Wolverine Heart Storm. I''ll take over with Goose and Lockheed."


    The original Harry sighs and apparates to Wanda and Rogue''s closet and knocks on the door. Harry has been keeping several monitoring charms in Jean''s room so that when Jean has a nightmare capable of disturbing the house, the charm creates a timestamp and informs Harry. When Harry goes back in time, he makes sure to be in her room during the period the time stamp goes off so he can contain the effect.


    This time however it seemed that he alone would not be enough.


    Wanda opened the closet door and Harry said, "Jean''s about to go critical, let''s go."


    Rogue was dressed by then as well and Harry made a portal to Jean''s room and waited until the room started shaking. Harry cast a barrier around the room and Wanda and Rogue used chaos magic to strengthen it and to sooth Jean''s bad dreams. The psionic energy coming off the girl this time however nearly cracked Harry''s shields and pushed Rogue and Wanda back. They increased the strength of their spell and eventually the psionic storm calmed down.


    Jean shot up and turned to see Harry, Rogue and Wanda. Her face turned painful and she started crying. Wanda went to her left and Rogue to her right and they started comforting her.


    Jean said through sobs, "I''m sorry. I keep dreaming about that night. Maybe I should have let the professor take my memories."


    Rogue shook her head and said, "No. You would still feel the fear but you wouldn''t know where it was coming from." Rogue had read over a lot of psychology books in Harry''s head and was practically a certified shrink at this point. She knew more about people''s heads than even Charles did.


    Jean tried to hold back her weeping breaths and said, "My powers are getting worse. It''s like before you got here Harry. Please. Tell me what''s happening to me."


    Harry nodded and put his arms around all three girls. He then sent something of a psychic invitation into his mind and Jean followed in. She was surprised to find that Rogue and Wanda came in as well.


    Harry took out a book of his memories. Jean had already gotten to Kamar-Taj and had just finished Harry''s encounter with the Doctor.


    "This scene is a few months after where you left off so I suspect you would have found it in a week or so." Harry threw the book at a wall and it turned into a projection of the images. Harry fast forwarded to his meeting with Chthon and hit play, allowing Jean to watch everything from start to finish.


    When the Phoenix showed up to save Harry, Jean felt she could not be more grateful, even though she already knew Harry survived. She also realized that the image Harry sent to her when they first met was this very Phoenix.


    Then came the conversation and the Phoenix''s request. Jean was shocked over the fact that the Phoenix was the one who saved her life when she nearly died following the soul of her best friend that horrible day, so many years ago. She didn''t like what Harry was being asked to do, but was mollified that Harry took the time to confirm that the Phoenix''s avatar would not be controlled, only given power and the knowledge of where to use it, before he agreed to it.


    Rather than ending, the scene fast forwarded once more to the point where Harry learned that Xavier had blocked Forge''s memories of Danger and Harry had scanned Xavier''s mind to find out what was wrong with him


    Harry ended the picture there and said, "Xavier sealed some of the weaker, more human parts of his mind so he could make himself into a symbol others could get behind. He is obviously not aware of the humanity he lost when he did so which was why he could justify what he did to Forge and what he did to you. I suspect he felt he was doing it to protect you from yourself."


    Jean sat down on the couch in Harry''s mind and started thinking. She knew Harry was trying to get her to do something with her own mind, but she didn''t think it was unlocking the sealed connection to the entity of life and passion, the source of all Psionics in the universe. She couldn''t hate Harry for it either. Harry hadn''t been straightforward about it but he didn''t exactly go to any great lengths to hide it from her and she always knew he''d tell her once she asked.


    Jean asked aloud, "So the reason my head is messed up is because of that seal?"


    Harry nodded and asked, "Knowing what you know now, can you guess why the seal is messing with you?"


    Jean considered it and answered, "Because the seal isn''t just sealing the connection, it is also sealing what the Phoenix connected to. My passion, my heart, and other parts of my mind."


    Harry nodded and said, "Not all of it but enough of it to make it unstable. I figure Xavier sealed his own mind after it had m?tur?d so he didn''t experience the same problem, but he still thinks if it worked for him it will work for you."


    Jean now understood what the Phoenix meant when it said her mind could be crippled if not the seal was not removed. She figured she had a year at most before any damage became permanent which was why Harry had not told her everything on day one, and just allowed her to work it herself.


    Jean said, "I want to break that seal. Now."


    Harry nodded but said, "If we''re going to do it, we''re going to do it right. It''s time for you to meet my Mystic Teacher, the Ancient One. Wanda and Rogue are coming too by the way."


    The group left Harry''s mind and Harry made a portal to Kamar-Taj after Jean changed from her pajamas to something casual. The sun had yet to set and Harry was able to get a meeting with the Sorcerer Supreme and informed her that a future version of himself had said to use Protocol Supreme. That was a plan Harry and the Ancient One had come up with to ?ssist Jean in breaking the seal instead of letting her finish it herself to prevent as much damage as possible. They figured that enacting Protocol Supreme likely meant that something bad would happen if Jean broke the seal herself so they would do it together and help her to prevent any damage.


    Harry arranged the ritual room and informed Wanda and Rogue of their plans and how they could help.


    Once ready, all four of them entered Jean''s head and found the spot Jean suspected Xavier had hidden the seal.


    The Ancient One said, "Now, Harry and I will reveal the seal but it would be best if you opened it yourself. Opening it yourself versus another opening it is the difference between opening a door with a key or opening it with a crowbar."


    Jean nodded and Harry and the Ancient One touched upon the flow of psionic and mental energies within Jean''s mind and slowly the space within her psyche which appeared to contain nothing unfolded itself to reveal a wall containing a door held shut but many chains.


    Jean noticed the effort that Harry and the Ancient One seemed to be putting into keeping the door visible so Jean focused on it using what Harry had taught her and one by one, the chains fell down. Harry and the Ancient One seemed to be struggling which made Jean nervous but she set those feelings aside and focused more, felling chain after chain. She put everything she had into the last heavy lock which clicked open and Harry and the Ancient One seemed to relax.


    Rogue walked up and asked, "Was Xavier''s locks really that hard to open?"


    The Ancient One caught her breath and said, "It was not the power of Xavier that made the locks strong. He used Jean''s own mind and forged parts of it into those locks. Jean''s mind, gifted with a connection to the source, is very powerful and we could not afford to harm the locks and chains as they too are parts of Jean''s mind.


    Jean felt what the Ancient One was referring too and changed the locks and chains back into the emotions and mental aspects of herself that had been missing from her mind for so long.


    The moment she did so however, she collapsed and seemed to be in great pain.


    "Bring her to me," came an ethereal woman''s voice from the other side of the door.


    Harry picked up Jean and ran inside and down the winding staircase to where a large flame was burning.


    The flame shifted into a woman and said, "You have done well, we are not too late. An avatar of mine lives off love and passion. However her heart was forged into a chain and used to bind me, preventing her from truly feeling love. Had this not been corrected in time, then even if I was freed later she would always have had a hole in her heart leaving her feeling empty and she would have used my powers to fill that hole. Nothing good would have come from that."


    Rogue asked, "How can we help?"


    The Phoenix answered, "Before the wound in her heart becomes a hole, you must heal it with love. I can feel the love you three b?r? for my avatar and the connection you have forged. You must use that connection to show Jean your love for her."


    Harry and the girls nodded and connected their empathy directly to Jean. They knew that Jean had feelings for Harry but it was light and fragile so Harry and the girls used Occlumency to hide the depths of their own feelings for Jean to prevent her from feeling awkward around them for loving her more than she loved them. Now however they hid nothing and turned up the love to eleven.


    Harry remembered seeing her for the first time, speaking with her at the mansion, showing her his mind and every interaction that followed. He remembered her kindness, her generosity, her care for others and remembered how all of that made him fall in love with her. He put his feelings for Jean on full display and allowed Jean to feel it completely. Rogue did the same and Wanda did as well.


    Jean''s pain filled face seemed to relax. Harry bent over and cupped her face in his hand just as she was opening her eyes and he leaned forward. Jean instinctively leaned up and their lips met. She felt Harry''s love for her and even Rogue''s and Wanda''s love. Tears were streaming down her cheeks at the feeling of being so overwhelmingly loved but so many amazing people. She could feel her own heart burn with love for them and the pain she felt earlier faded and turned to warmth.


    Jean closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Harry and kissed him deeply. She opened her mouth and Harry''s tongue pressed and danced against her own making her head swim.


    Rogue and Wanda smirked from the back as they knew Harry had decades of practice making out after all.


    The flame behind them turned into a spiral and flew into Jean, but she didn''t seem to notice. Her body began to glow and embers burned over her form, but did nothing to harm Harry.


    Rogue walked up to the pair and separated them saying, "Alright, time to breath people."


    Jean realized what she had done and blushed awkwardly. Rogue smiled, took Jean into her arms and said, "My turn sugar," and planted another steaming kiss onto Jean''s lips. Rogue''s tongue was just as skilled as Harry''s and soon Jean was swimming again and deeply enjoying Rogue''s frenching skills.


    The sight of the two kissing made Harry really reconsider his wait until they moved out policy. Thankfully he would not have to wait too long. Although he was fifteen, he found a few means that would let him own a house when he turned sixteen so he''d already planned to move out next summer and his heart had already settled an making sure nothing got in the way of taking his girls with him.


    Rogue broke the kiss and looked satisfied at Jean''s zoned out expression before she turned to Wanda and asked, "You want a turn sugar?"


    Wanda blushed and said, "Maybe later..."


    The Ancient One gave a small cough and said, "Perhaps now would be a good time to return to our bodies."


    Jean regained her composure at that and said, "Um, right."


    The group left Jean''s mind and had returned to the ritual chamber. Harry then asked, "Do you girls want to go through the Multiplayer conversion now?"


    Wanda asked, "You''ve gained enough levels for that?"


    Harry nodded and said, "I''ve found enough time in the last two months to do so."


    Jean asked, "Me too?"


    Harry smiled, and said, "I meant all of you of course."


    Rogue shouted, "Yeah! Let''s do it!"


    "You do know this is going to be horribly painful right? I won''t be able to stop the process once it starts."


    Jean said, "It will help me get stronger right? I''m not turning this down!"


    Wanda and Rogue had known about the pain and didn''t change their minds of course.


    Harry opened up his menus and selected Multiplayer. The Multiplayer system scanned his surroundings for those who trusted him and found four matches. The Ancient One hadn''t left yet and seemed to want to observe and she was on the list. However next to each name was how many levels it would cost to convert them.


    Relatively speaking, an ?du?t''s level was ten plus how many years they spent working in a skilled profession. A desk jockey ?du?t even at the age of fifty wasn''t likely to be above level fifteen but someone who spent a decade doing something they required training and skill to do was likely over level 20 with higher skilled professions giving more levels on average per year. Soldiers had higher levels than teachers but teachers had higher levels than cab drivers.


    The Ancient One was likely over level three hundred and Harry would lose more levels than he had to convert her as the ratio was not one to one. Higher levels required higher conversion cost than lower levels. Jean, Rogue, and Wanda were actually all decent levels about about twenty to twenty five a piece. Their power came not from their level but their Skill and both would grow over time. Since Harry was well over level two hundred, it would cost him less than twenty levels to convert all three girls and with effort he''d have that back by January.


    Harry selected his girls on the menu and after a round of confirmation screens and a message that he would be reduced to 195, Harry clicked agree and the process started. Three small streams of black particles slowly floated off from Harry''s arms and connected to each girl. It was uncomfortable, but not too bad.


    Then came the bad part. Harry felt pain similar to dying but closer to burning. Kinda like having your skin being peeled off while you were on fire.


    The grunts and hisses from the girls confirmed they weren''t any better and Harry could feel their pain. They seemed to be feeling like a corrosive wind was blowing under their skin and through their organs.


    The entire process lasted about ten minutes and when it completed, everyone collapsed.


    *Ping*


    [New Players Added


    New Player: Anna Marie. Level 24 Age 15


    New Player: Wanda Maximoff. Level 21 Age 15


    New Player: Jean Grey. Level 25 Age 16]


    Harry recovered the quickest from the pain and looked over the girl''s stats. Not surprisingly, Wanda and Jean had high Wisdom and Intellect. Wanda also had surprisingly low luck. Anne Maire, Rogue, had more well rounded stats and was more physically fit than either of the others. All and all not surprising. Harry couldn''t see their Path Ranks but he''d ask them about that later.


    None of the girls seemed inclined on getting up so Harry said his goodbyes to the Ancient One and wrapped all of them up in a Time Turner and went back five hours. He took them to his apartment in London and conjured some extra beds and placed his girls under the blankets and tucked them in. If they weren''t awake before classes started he''d tell Xavier enough to get them excused.. They had a tough night but pulled through in the end and the future was waiting for them.

 Chapter 45 - 45 Cutthroat Business

    Within a field of kaleidoscopic color which marked the astral battlefield Harry''s Battle Meditation took place in, Harry was standing off to the side while he watched Rogue, Wanda, and Jean fight off a group of twelve tiger sized wolves.


    It had been a little over a month since the girls were added to the Multiplayer function and every night since they had used Battle Meditation with Harry. The girls themselves could not initiate Battle Meditation so Harry had to do so first and only then could he invite them into the astral plane to take part. Of course he had to lower the level of the conjured constructs so the wolves they were currently facing were about level fifty a piece.


    Jean was probably the most excited to take part in Harry''s Battle meditation because she knew how to access the Astral plane on her own, though she had no intention of finding and killing beings within to level up. She knew that Harry leveled up in this space and had tried to find it a few times so she could watch him, but Harry told her he was using a concealment formation to prevent Xavier or other telepaths from interrupting him while he fought. Having the Ancient One find him that one time was awkward enough, he wasn''t going for a repeat performance.


    All three girls were floating above the pack and raining hell down into the poor wolves. Jean had already figured out how to float using telekinesis and Rogue was copying her. Wanda had invented her own Chaos Magic spell that allowed her to float as well which proved to be a great advantage against opponents incapable of flight.


    Jean had three forms of attack. She could attack the target''s mind to stun then, use telekinesis to hold or throw them, or create psionic blades to physically attack them. She could use Phoenix Flame as well, but they wouldn''t get Experience for defeating enemies with those so she refrained from using that. While defending she could create barriers and move debris or enemies into the way of oncoming attacks.


    Wanda''s fighting style was mostly about controlling the enemy and the environment. She didn''t have anything to transfigure into allies in this space but she could transfigure the terrain and apply various status ailments against her opponents. Her Hex Bolts were no longer unpredictable and she could directly transfigure weaker targets into whatever she wanted.


    Rogue''s combat style was more unpredictable. At a distance she would use Cyclop''s eye beams, Iceman''s Freeze rays, Pyro''s Pyrokinesis, or Storm''s wind or lightning. When up close she could cover herself in Spyke''s spikes or Colossus''s organic steel and use Juggernaut''s Unstoppable Force or Quicksilver''s Speed. In a pinch she would use Wanda''s Hex Bolts.


    None of the three were particularly stronger than the other two. At first, Wanda and Rogue were stronger than Jean but with the Autocorrecting properties of the Path System combined with her own Phoenix Flames perk which acted as a multiplier in the speed at which the Path increased in rank, eventually she found herself nearly matching them most of the time.


    All three had their weaknesses of course. Rogue''s weakness was the duration she could fight. Most mutant powers come with passive physical enhancements which allow the mutant to use them easier but Rogue didn''t get those so her use of a power was always less efficient than the original''s use. For example she could run at the same speed as Quicksilver but she would tire herself out long before Pietro reached his limit. When she used multiple powers at the same time she tired out much faster so when she sparred with Wanda and Jean, they would use everything they had to force her into a corner and make her use multiple powers at the same time, then drag the fight out until she was exhausted. Neither considered it a cheap tactic as Rogue could use Wolverine''s healing and could become invulnerable using either Colossus'' or Juggernaut''s power.


    Wanda''s weakness was her lack of fast, strong, single target attack moves. Her casting for lesser spells was near instantaneous but if she wanted to take down someone like Logan or any of the other first generation X-Men, she would need something stronger which took more time to cast. She had been getting around this by using stalling tactics and learning different strategies while increasing the strength of her Hex Bolt''s ability to disrupt other mutant powers.


    Jean''s only real weakness was her lack of experience. In that sense, Wanda and Rogue were perfect practice partners for her and she was learning something new every day. Harry offered to allow Jean to copy his own understanding of physics into her mind which would allow her to easily learn it herself using Harry''s understanding as a reference. Jean could use telekinesis and astral creation to mimic many other powers and with a connection to the Phoenix Force, using those powers didn''t drain her even when she tried something big. However maintaining a constant connection to the Phoenix Force would change her intrinsically so she only maintained brief connections at various times.


    In addition to facing off against monsters in Battle Meditation and sparring against one another, Harry himself would sometimes fight against them either individually, in pairs, or against all three. Although the girls were strong enough to whittle away at the pack of level 50 wolves without issue, Harry could still clobber them all no matter what they tried. Harry found that close quarters combat was a general weakness for each of them so he would stack Strength Energy from Cyttorak''s realm with Immortal Dragon Chi and use his Dimensional Long Sword along with Sorcerer style physical enhancement. In this way he used his Warrior, Magic, and Dragon Path all at the same time and proved to be too strong for them. For now anyways. Harry suspected in two years or so they''d be able to give him a very good fight. Though he still wouldn''t let them beat him.


    Harry couldn''t fight the monsters the girls were against or else all the energy would automatically go to him, so he had to just stand around the whole time. Instead of wasting it, he would invoke his Immortal Dragon Chi and practice using it to raise his Dragon Path. Other times he would use Astral Creation to practice making AstralTech. The AstralTech of Lockheed''s race was fascinating in more ways than one. Apparently Lockheed''s race had actual ships they used in the Astral Plane they could use to fly from one world to the next and would move their physical bodies with their astral selves.


    Harry''s interest in AstralTech was due to the fact that he could not use items from his inventory in the Astral Plane but he could place AstralTech into his inventory once it had been completed and he could take it out when he returned to the Astral Plane. That meant he could make weapons and pieces of equipment that he could use in the Astral Plane.


    Harry''s Tech Path apparently loved AstralTech as well as it had gone up two ranks to 34 since Lockheed''s tutoring in the subject had started. That along with some other breakthroughs of his allowed Harry to complete several projects he''d been working on.


    The final wolf died and the natural energy they were formed of scattered and was absorbed in equal parts by the girls to Harry''s satisfaction. Wanda who had the lowest level before had reached level 40 and Jean and Rogue were already at level 41. Even though they shared the Exp, they were leveling up faster than Harry did at Hogwarts because they already had Path Ranks higher than their levels and Harry was getting them access to monsters at higher levels than the girls.


    The Multiplayer function had three main features which benefited the users. The first was the recovery properties of the Obscurus cells. When injured, their natural recovery increased depending on the ratio of Obscurus cells they had in their body which increased the more they leveled up. When they reached level 50 they could likely survive being stabbed in the heart and at level 100 they could shrug off such a wound without decreasing their combat effectiveness. Even Rogue couldn''t channel Logan all the time after all.


    The second function was that they could exceed the limits of their body through leveling up thanks to the Obscurus particle''s propagation. Even if they all trained at a spartan style boot camp from hell for a year, they had no chance of even reaching level 35 from level 25, yet Harry suspected they would all reach level fifty in the next two months.


    They could even distribute the stats they gained however they wanted. Wanda for example used a lot of her stats to boost her Luck and Rogue and Jean did the same with a goal of getting the Luck to 50 each. Harry didn''t want to increase his own Luck for the simple reason that he might get bored if he was too lucky, but he had no problem with his girls boosting their Luck since they would not come back from the dead if they got unlucky.


    The third and biggest benefit of the Multiplayer status was access to the auto correction of the Path System. Their skills naturally increased with use and skills within the same Path also became easier to use even if they didn''t practice them thanks to the autocorrect.


    For the Path system, Jean chose to focus on the Psionic Path and Wanda focused on the Magic Path. Rogue however decided to walk a similar path to Harry''s and used the Magic, Psionic, and Warrior Paths at the same time to try to stack them together. Most mutant powers fell under one of those three Paths anyways. Spyke''s, Colossus''s, and even Wolverine''s power fell under Warrior. Iceman''s, Storm''s, and even Scott''s power fell under Magic. And Pyro''s and Domino''s powers fell under Psionic. There were also powers that fell into multiple categories like Quicksilver''s and Juggernaut''s which were both Magic and Warrior since their power used Time or Strength Energy to enhance their physical combat abilities.


    The girls loved getting stronger faster but under Harry''s suggestion they had to hold back in the Danger Room when showing off to others. Rogue and Wanda had been doing so already and Jean was starting to get used to it though she didn''t like it. Harry mollified her by informing her about Sinister who knew that she had lost interest in Scott and that was why she was kidnapped. The fact that he could find that out meant he had means of monitoring inside the institute and the reason Harry was able to get her so fast was because Harry had hid all the useful information about himself behind covers. Jean didn''t like it but she understood it.


    The fall semester of Harry''s first year at the Institute had ended and today was Christmas. Forge and Xavier both had very pleasant smiles on their faces as Harry had shown them his gifts for some of the students and teachers in advance and both were incredibly happy for everyone.


    Harry had started openly going out with Jean and had confirmed they were boyfriend and girlfriend. This was something Rogue and Wanda suggested as they wanted to make sure the few eyes coveting Jean knew to stand down. Thankfully since Harry removed Sinister''s influence, Scott had only been treating Jean like a sister and he had given up on all other ideas. He knew that Jean was happy which made him happy.


    In exchange for this, Harry would often share Rogue''s and Wanda''s bed at night. Nothing X-rated happened but they were enjoying the skinship and closeness. Occasionally Jean would sneak in as well and Harry would enlarge the bed.


    Jean was not exactly a different person after the mental locks were removed and she regained her full ability to feel love, but everyone could see how different she was since she started dating Harry. She was more colorful and vibrant and seemed both softer and stronger at the same time. Thankfully everyone attributed it to Harry being an awesome boyfriend which was not entirely inaccurate.


    Storm herself had taken an instant liking to Laura and Dr. Kinney, often chatting with the latter over coffee in the morning with Domino. Both appreciated some new female friends as they felt being the only m?tur? women in the institute became droll after some time. They also enjoyed grilling her viciously about how close she was getting to Dr. McCoy. The two geneticists had many things in common after all.


    When they started opening presents, Harry was given many small knick knacks, a cool poster of Captain America, some books and some t-shirts.


    Near the end of the gift unwrapping Harry had Xavier bring out gifts for Kurt, Dr. McCoy, Josh, Sarah, and the others who had features which prevented them from going out in public.


    Kurt was the only one Harry had told about this project beforehand and when he saw the watch and who else got one, he teleported over to Harry, took the forehead flick without complaint, and hugged him much to everyone''s confusion.


    "Thank you thank you thank you! How does it work?"


    Harry answered, "The instructions were in the box, but you just tap on the glass three times to activate it and tap on it five times to deactivate it."


    Kurt put the watch on and tapped the face of the glass three times which caused his appearance to look like static for just an instant before he was suddenly no longer blue. Kurt looked caucasian, seemed to have five fingers, and no tail though his hair remained its trademark blue.


    "Ah, my tail is getting pressed against my leg!" Kurt look back to where he tail had been and didn''t see it. He tapped the glass five times and his image returned to his loveable blue demon form. He then wrapped his tail around his waist and tapped the glass three more times and looked normal again. "Ah, much better."


    Harry got out a large, full length mirror he already had in the corner and got it out. Kurt didn''t bother walking over to it, he just poofed in front of it and started admiring his reflection. "Oh! My hair is still blue! It''s perfect!"


    The other kids put their watches on and tapped it three times as well. The gold skinned Josh became caucasian as well. The bone-like horns on Sarah''s face were gone. And Dr. McCoy was suddenly a very bulky man who nearly matched the Juggernaut in profile, though he was not nearly as tall and one would only think he was incredibly fit.


    McCoy''s surprise when he saw his reflection was the strongest. He asked, "How did you know what I looked like before I changed?"


    Although Dr. McCoy considered Harry a student and colleague, he didn''t tell Harry much about his past. Harry had in fact used some of the man''s fur and what he knew of removing the X-Gene combined with a variant polyjuice potion he used on himself. In other words, he made himself a copy of without his mutation and took pictures of himself to be scanned and used for the Hard-Light construct.


    Not exactly wanting to lie, Harry answered, "It''s a secret, though I''ll tell you later if you really want to know." Making that particular batch of Polyjuice was gigantic pain, but perhaps Dr. McCoy would learn more about his own mutation if he used it himself.


    Not just the children gifted the watches, but everyone in the mansion was happy and many had tears running down their faces. They all knew what this really meant for the kids and it took away much of the hidden burden that being a mutant entailed.


    While everyone was laughing and showing off, Harry walked over to a corner and got out his last present. "No, I didn''t forget about you."


    ForgetMeNot rolled his eyes and opened the package to find a metallic bracelet and a tablet.


    Harry said, "Keep that on for the next four hours. It will scan your memories and connect to this tablet. The tablet will display events and people you''ve encountered and you can select them. Any person you select will remember you. Any event you select that you took part in will be remembered by everyone who took part in it. I can make a new tablet if it breaks and there is an extra bracelet if you lose this one, but try not to as this bracelet and the spare are the only ones in existence and I''ll never be able to make more. As long as you wear the bracelet, you will not be forgotten."


    ForgetMeNot stopped moving about half way through the explanation. He was in too much shock. Sure, he knew Harry was going to try something, but he didn''t expect him to actually succeed. No one succeeded. He wanted to rebuke Harry for getting his hopes up but the swarm of smiling children Harry had already done the impossible for today held his tongue. He stared at the bracelet for what seemed like hours before he put it on his wrist and felt someone inside his head. He understood that this was whatever was copying his memories.


    Not really knowing what to do, ForgetMeNot softly said, "Thank you.."


    Harry patted his shoulder and said, "It''s an honor. I look forward to working with you in the future."


    Harry had to practically use Alchemy in order to turn the DVDs into something he could store memories on but eventually he succeeded. The big breakthrough was actually a paired component of AstralTech Harry made that connected the Tablet to the bracelet through the astral plane. That meant they didn''t need to be close to each other and the astral plane could easily access and transfer mental information like memories.


    ForgetMeNot carefully pulled out the tablet and the large instruction booklet it came with and started reading it. Harry knew he wouldn''t accept that this was real until later so he wouldn''t bother him for now.


    Sometime in the afternoon, Harry''s own watch started blinking. Harry kept his homemade cellphone in his inventory so he used his watch like a pager to inform him of incoming calls and messages.


    Harry pulled out his cellphone and was quickly called by the Goblin Bloodclaw. He was basically Harry''s secretary. "Mr. Potter. A voicemail has been left on the company line by one Winston Frost."


    Harry asked, "As in CEO of Frost International, Winston Frost?"


    "The same. He has requested a meeting on the 27th at the Headquarters of Frost International in Massachusetts at 10am."


    Harry tried not to laugh but did not succeed and he could practically hear Bloodclaw''s razor toothed smile through the phone. Both knew the type of man Mr. Frost was known to be and both knew it was unlikely for things to end peacefully. Harry felt the Goblins were probably rubbing off on him in the wrong way because he was looking forward to it.


    Harry said, "Call back and confirm I''ll be there."


    "It shall be done."


    Harry hung up and smiled. It had been about six months since Brilliance Incorporated started selling gemstones. Harry wasn''t too sure about the name but a company that made gemstones and would soon make tech had to have a catchy name and he didn''t want to call it Potter something. He felt with things like Worthington Industries, Stark Industries, and Frost International, putting his name up like that would feel just too weird and he already had Potter and Gold Bank and Trust.


    The Goblins had pretty much figured out how to get around all the annoying laws that prevented them from earning among the muggles. Each leader among the Goblins had a human counterpart and that human''s name was on record as the one who was employed doing whatever it was that particular Goblin did. These humans were employed in shell companies that looked like they did things but in reality they did not. The so called human board of directors were all squibs or muggleborns who knew about the Goblins and also knew they were just proxies. They had signed magical contracts to fulfill the role of proxy and were paid relatively well.


    Thanks to this however, it was impossible to steal the secrets of the company. The hiring process for most positions that were just covers included magical means of weeding out the criminals and spies so no one who wanted to look was able to find anything as they would always look in the wrong places.


    As long as you ignored a few breeches of the Statue of Secrecy and squinted a bit, it was all still just b?r?ly considered legal.


    The company itself had actually garnered great success so far. Nearly indestructible sapphire panes to be used as windows, diamond drill bits and cutters, large rubies for lasers, there was indeed a market for Harry''s synthetic gemstones that could be crafted to nearly any size and shape and many groups were starting to take notice. Most companies had things they wanted to make but could not as the resources to make them were too scarce for the product to sell profitably. Projects that fell under this category that required gemstones were now suddenly profitable as long as they purchased those gemstones from Brilliance Incorporated.


    Harry informed his girls of Mr. Frost''s invitation and though Jean looked just a little worried, Rogue and Wanda wished him happy hunting.


    On the morning in question Harry wore a custom made acromantula silk business suit with silver cufflinks and his Potter family signet ring. The smile received from his girls at his appearance was a show of how he looked which was good enough for him.


    Harry used a Portal to head to MIT, a place he had been to before and got a cab to take him to Frost International''s main building, a humble sixty seven floor tower thirty floors higher than anything else in the nearby five square mile area. Harry figured the man needed lessons on subtly.


    The guard at the door motioned for Harry to come to him first as the door wouldn''t automatically open for anyone without a badge. Harry said, "Harry Potter, meeting for 10am?"


    The guard didn''t look through any schedule or paperwork, he just gave Harry a once over and directed him through the door behind him.


    Inside there was another guard who said, "Mr. Potter. Please step through here." There was an open ended box-like path Harry followed the guard through to the elevator on the other side of the room. He sensed the X-Rays that traveled through him and confirmed he only had a wallet, pen, cellphone, keys, and a watch on his person. Some of the keys looked fancy and high tech but there were toys Harry made that didn''t unlock anything. Nothing Harry secured used actual keys, but not having them would be suspicious.


    Once he was through Harry saw the woman at the counter was speaking on a phone, likely notifying others of Harry''s arrival. Several others seemed to be coming and going from the entrance but they used key cards to both enter and exit. There were no doors to be used by guests without going through a guard first.


    The guard escorting Harry to the elevator seemed to be the most muscular. He seemed to be the type who would never smile and his silence had an air of intimidation.


    Harry found the entire setup amusing. Compared to meetings with Harry''s actual board of directors, these guys were positively adorable. That board did not have a Voting process when there was a difference of opinion. Their arguments were carried out through battle and the shedding of blood.


    Adult Goblins that survived growing up among other Goblins had a Warrior Path Rank averaging between 15 and 25 with the strongest ones being above 30. That combined with their Goblin forged weapons and armor meant they were very hardy and Goblins themselves were far faster and stronger than their size gave away. Goblins m?tur?d slower and reached their prime between the ages of 50 and 75 with the best maintaining their strength when they were over a hundred. However, although the strongest Goblin Warrior wielding the finest Goblin armaments would likely defeat most wizards, there were far too few Goblins who survived the number of battles required to reach such standards making them weaker than Wizards overall and thus forced to abide by their laws.


    Unsurprisingly, most of the strongest who had in fact reached that standard were on Harry''s board of directors and none of them were meat heads or younger than sixty. Harry did have to kill one particularly stubborn Goblin during his second board of directors meeting but that ?sshole had it coming. He thought that because Harry hadn''t killed him up to that point after all the times he tried to cheat him and fail that Harry was a pushover. The remaining board members and that Goblin''s replacement knew not to make that mistake again.


    So compared to that, Harry had to stop himself from laughing at Winston''s so called intimidation tactics.


    The elevator ride was unsurprisingly all the way to the top and the security guard motioned for Harry to continue into the following room while he stayed behind.


    Something that was slightly surprising was that Harry''s mental trip wires went off just before Harry entered the room at the end of the hall. Someone was listening to his thoughts and was very discreet about their entry. However even Xavier couldn''t get in without tripping Harry''s alarms because those alarms were made using wizard magic and invisible to even the strongest telepath.


    Harry smiled at the opening move of his opponent and figured this meant it would not be boring.


    Harry opened the door and saw Mr. Frost on the other side of a large, apparently hand carved desk sitting in a large, leather chair. Behind the man was an open view of the Boston cityscape and in front of the desk in what he supposed was reserved for him was a smaller chair. Winston himself wore a three piece suit and the grey hair on his head was slicked back in a way that both appeared professional while giving the aura of experience and wisdom.


    Fully knowing that his thoughts were being heard by another party, Harry thought that Winston was very stereotypical and without a dead body in the room or bloodstains on the desk this entire charade was cute compared to what he was used to dealing with.


    Harry had already sent a reverse tap to the telepath and confirmed it was a teenage girl in another room, not the man himself.


    The man looked up from his desk as if he only just realized Harry had walked in and said, "Ah yes, Mr. Potter. Thank you for accepting my request for a meeting."


    Harry didn''t bother sitting in the provided chair, instead he just leaned against it and answered, "Now why would I turn down such an interesting invitation from a man such as yourself?" As in, why should I fear you? I obviously don''t. Harry could swear he heard a giggle coming from the other room which was quickly stifled, though didn''t make anyone aware he had noticed it.


    Harry continued, "You are also the first person to successfully reach my voicemail. I''m most certain I didn''t make that number easy to find so it would be quite improper of me to decline your request."


    By law, contact numbers have to be somewhere but the Goblins knew how to hide things within bureaucracy and Harry knew computers. The FBI hadn''t found his contact number yet and he knew they were still looking.


    Winston seemed to attempt a smile but it was strained. He didn''t ask Harry to take a seat as Harry already seemed quite comfortable leaning over the back of the chair and was standing above the seated Winston. The old man said, "Quite. Your company, Brilliance Incorporated, is certainly interesting. There is potential but only if handled well. I called you over to discuss the future of your company."


    Harry only laughed in his head instead of out loud that the man thought anything he said or did would have any say in the future of his company. Outwardly, Harry said, "Of course it has potential. Nobody has my company''s techniques when it comes to producing gemstones. No one can even come close without burning more money than they''ll ever make competing with me so my company''s future is, well, Brilliant." Harry said that last part with a smile that showed his supernaturally clean teeth. Brilliant was such a fun word to say with a British accent and a smile.


    Winston didn''t bother smiling back, instead he seemed to decide play time was over and said, "Indeed. It''s that potential that has me interested. I called you in here to buy controlling interest in your company. Frost International has a clothing and jewelry line that could use someone with your manufacturing capabilities and I already have everything here you''ll have to sign."


    Within Harry''s head he heard words which sounded mostly similar to his own voice, ''It is a good idea, it is-,'' Harry interrupted the false thoughts and thought to himself, ''no, that''s a terrible idea. Gemstone manufacturing is the tip of the iceberg. Selling now before I make my true play isn''t an idea worth considering.'' Harry was immune to telepathic persuasiveness as long as he wasn''t dealing with an Elder God within their own realm, but he didn''t want others to know that so thought to himself a logical reason to ignore the thought along with some juicy bait to keep the telepath interested.


    Harry blandly said, "I refuse. Was there anything else?" Harry didn''t hide his thoughts that this man was already boring him with his clich¨¦ gimmicks. He hoped that by thinking such thoughts, he''d draw out the telepath directly.


    Winston didn''t appear to expect a refusal, but added easily, "You should reconsider. Young companies such as yours often face difficulties which cannot be recovered from. Becoming a branch of Frost International would protect you from such things." He didn''t even bother trying to hide the various threats within that statement.


    Harry knew that the Goblins had become a bad influence on him when his reflexive response was to give a toothy smile and answer back, "I look forward to the challenge."


    It was clear they had nothing else to discuss so Harry turned to leave. The telepath from before seemed to run around the hall and after reaching the corner where she was in view she started calmly walking as if she hadn''t run up to him. The guard didn''t block her and she opened the elevator and said, "I''ll escort you out, I''m certainly better company than Mr. Orth here."


    Harry said, "I''d be a nutter not to agree with that. Harry Potter, at your service." She appeared to be a little older than Harry at about sixteen though matched him in height which was impressive as he was quite tall for his age. She was completely lithe in form but showed no weakness in movement meaning she had a well conditioned body. That and the whole flawless white skin, golden blond hair, and perfect blue eyes made it very clear this telepath would not have to rely on her powers to get herself a man, as long as she didn''t get greedy that is.


    The elevator door closed and she said, "Emma Frost, charmed. I''m impressed with the way you dealt with my father. Most have difficulty looking him in the eye, much least denying him so outright."


    Harry''s internal thoughts about Emma''s appearance was simply that she was beautiful and he wished she had been sitting at that desk instead of the grumpy old man. Sharing the company of a beautiful woman was far more pleasant than staying in a room with an irritable grey haired old fart.


    Harry said, "Compared to my own board of directors meetings, that was outright boring. Every member carries at least one weapon and the better parts of our discussions and negotiations over disagreements don''t start until first blood is drawn." Harry thought back to a few of those meetings and the sparks that his own personally crafted knife carved out of his opponent''s blade before biting into their flesh.


    After thinking about it for a moment he Paused and turned to see Emma''s face comically distorted in utter shock. Harry couldn''t help but laugh at that. She didn''t see Goblins in Harry''s memories though as the Contracts he signed prevented him from telling others he worked with Goblins and the secrecy within the magic of those contracts prevented that information from being taken. What she saw would then be appropriately altered to look like old balding men snarling at him while rapidly exchanging blows with exotic blades.


    Harry unpaused and turned to see she had corrected her face so that he wouldn''t see her gaping. She said, "That.. would certainly put some things in perspective."


    After a moment of silence she said with worry clear in her voice, "I just hope you are not underestimating my father. He has many ways of bringing down companies that go against him and I understand that Brilliance Incorporated doesn''t have any military contracts yet."


    In most countries, military contracts were shields of protection. If someone went against a company that was contracted to sell products to the military the government would likely step in to ?ssist.


    Harry thought, ''to himself,'' that her mention of yet implied she had a way to get him a military contract through her. Harry wondered if she was poaching or if Winston put her up to it as a plan B. However it didn''t matter.


    Harry said, "I don''t need them. Although it was hard to find out that I am the CEO of Brilliance, it is not impossible. What is impossible is finding out what else I am the CEO of. I wonder how silly your father would feel if he knew I am also the owner of Potter and Gold Bank and Trust. I had trouble not laughing in the man''s face."


    P&G Bank and Trust had partial ownership of thousands of Businesses and was an unstoppable stream of wealth that spanned most of the UK, much of Europe, and was rapidly expanding in the U.S. Even if no one purchased a thing from Brilliance Incorporated, he''d never go into the red.


    Once more Harry thought ''to himself,'' that this would be a fine test. If Emma told her father of this, it would come to nothing for either of them. If she kept that from him, it would be a good sign she might be trustworthy when she takes over the Frost International in the future.


    Harry didn''t look, but he did Pause again to see her smile a bit at that. The fact that Harry clearly believed that she would lead the company in the future was something she likely enjoyed hearing.


    Harry unpaused and Emma said, "In that case I can''t imagine you''ll have much to worry about. There may be some.. Personal attacks. Slander, libel, that sort of thing. But your board of directors doesn''t sound like pushovers so I don''t think there will be an issue."


    Harry said, "Well, I don''t want to get their hopes up. They sharpen their blades enough as is without knowing they are being targeted."


    "I see. I must say, you are far more interesting than most I''ve met. Would you mind meeting me another day for a longer conversation?"


    She added a mental suggestion that Harry would like to ask her out on a date. Harry smiled and asked, "Are you asking me for a date? I don''t mind."


    She frowned, just b?r?ly, that he thought she was asking instead of getting him to ask but endured it.


    Harry continued as if he didn''t notice, "I know a nice restaurant in New York. Would you be able to make it for oh say, the 31st?"


    Harry was clearly implying that he went to Massachusetts for their invitation so she should come to New York for his own.


    Emma smiled and asked, "Where and when?"


    Harry pulled out his wallet which contained a business card and his pen. He wrote down an address and a time on the card and handed it to Ms. Frost.


    An eyebrow raised at the address which told Harry she recognized it. The fact that Harry could get a reservation on New Year''s Eve, just four days from now showed his capability.


    She gave a beautiful smile and said, "I''ll be there."


    The elevator reached the ground floor and Harry left for the exit. Once he was further down the street and away from any cameras, he directly apparated back to the institute and told his girls of the meeting with the young telepath.


    Jean asked with a mischievous smile, "So, a date huh."


    Harry said, "Well she did ask me for a date and I do plan to deliver. First things first though."


    He turned to Jean and asked, "Would you like to go on a double date with me?"


    Wanda realized what Harry was up to and started giggling. "Ah, so you''ll give her a date. It just won''t be you who will be taking Jean who is also a telepath. I want pictures."


    Harry said, "I''ll show you the memories."


    Jean smiled and asked, "So, Scott?"


    Harry nodded, "Yup.. Scott."

 Chapter 46 - 46 The Threat of Hellfire

    "You want to set me up on a date?"


    Unsurprisingly, Scott was looking at Harry as if he had grown a second head which started singing Opera. Perhaps not the strangest request he had ever been asked, but Harry was certain it at least made his top five.


    Harry confirmed, "Yep. Miss Frost asked me for a date but as you know, I''m already dating Jean. So I told her I''d get her a date so my options are you, Kurt, or Bobby. We''re going to a fancy restaurant so Kurt is out of the question and although he hasn''t said anything, I''m ninety percent sure that Bobby has zero interest in girls, if you catch my meaning."


    Scott shrugged. That was something of an open secret that no one really cared about. Still trying to get out of perhaps the most awkward conversation of his life he asked, "Why would you agree at all?"


    "Two reasons. First, being the daughter of a CEO, it is unlikely she has any friends that are not trying, in some shape or form, to take advantage of her." That made Scott frown. He had some serious protective instincts. Harry continued, "And two, she happens to be a mutant and I doubt she has any friends who are also mutants."


    "Wait, really? What''s her power?"


    "Sorry Scott, I''m not sharing a girl''s secrets behind her back. If she decides to tell you, she will. And if you agree to this, I''ll give you a watch."


    Scott was about to refuse before he remembered some Christmas presents. "What kind of watch?"


    "I actually just finished it. It will ?ssist you with turning your powers off and on."


    Scott froze at that. Harry figured he was being just a bit too dramatic. He had problems but his life was in no way worse than a dozen others in the Institute before Harry''s arrival. ForgetMeNot literally had nothing and no one and yet he still moved forward. Harry truly admired the guy. Rogue feared growing up without being able to touch another human being yet she still trained every day to control her power. Wanda had problems caused by a megalomaniacal father and an Elder Demon God of Chaos but she didn''t ask for pity. And then there are those like Kurt who couldn''t show their face in public without being screamed at and yet he always maintained an upbeat attitude and tried to make others smile with his pranks, not frown at his misfortunes.


    After holding the question back for a few moments he asked, "How does that work?"


    "Well, as you know, I am familiar with magic, among other things. Certain forms of magic I am familiar with channel energy through your body to use its power. There are forms of Anti-Magic which can prevent a person''s body from channeling that energy. The watch is a project I worked on with Forge and a certain Wizard I know to inscribe it with an Anti-Magic seal that can be enabled and disabled."


    What Harry wouldn''t tell him as he would rather the drama king figure it out himself, was that the watch was basically a set of training wheels. If Scott could feel his power getting enabled and disabled, he could replicate that sensation to control his power on his own. If Harry just wanted to turn Scott''s power off, he had some anti-magic manacles when he arrived that would probably work just fine. Instead, he wanted something that Scott could use to train himself. Harry considered himself a teacher, not a babysitter.


    After asking to test it first, Scott agreed to the double date.


    The fallout from Christmas and Scott walking around without sunglasses was a large amount of laughter and smiles. Even Xavier was shocked that Harry had made something for Scott as blocking a mutant''s power was very different from making a disguise. There was a possibility for misuse. Forge of course informed the Professor that Scott''s watch only worked for Scott and anyone trying to analyze it would get nothing for their troubles. Harry had asked Forge to check his work as he was fully aware of what could happen if such technology fell into the wrong hands.


    On the 30th, Harry took Wanda, Rogue, and Jean out to New York for clothes shopping. Twelve hours later Harry was able to convince the girls their respective closets were not big enough to hold more and they would likely outgrow anything else before they wore half of what they purchased. Having been defeated by the evil that was logic, the girls grumpily decided to call it a day.


    The following evening Harry wore a tuxedo that looked both simple yet classy. Jean wore a green dress with gold highlights she''d gotten the day before and Scott wore a slightly snazzier tuxedo Harry bought him to look good for his date. Harry told him he should keep the habit of wearing his sunglasses outside but could take them off indoors now.


    Emma apparently was neither the type of person who was late or early. She walked up to the entrance right at the second and easily spotted Harry. Just as easily she spotted the redhead in his arms and the guy standing next to them gapping at her beauty. Harry said, "Ms. Frost, I''m glad you could make it. Here is the date I promised you. His name is Scott. And this is my girlfriend, Jean."


    Jean smiled and extended a hand. Emma paused only for a moment before she took it and gave a friendly shake. The smile that appeared on Jean''s face and the shock that flashed across Emma''s eyes clearly showed Harry that the blonde telepath had attempted to access Jean''s mind and had likely been politely told off.


    Once she realized things were not as they seemed, Emma gave an impish smirk and said, "Thank you Harry. I have been looking forward to this. You didn''t tell me he was such a dreamboat."


    Jean reached over to Scott''s chin and closed his gaping mouth and said, "Scott, aren''t you going to take your date''s arm?"


    Scott blushed but composed himself rather quickly and presented his arm. "Ms. Frost, would you do me the honor of accompanying me as my date this evening?"


    Harry and Jean shared a smirk. Scott had met Deadpool before so although he could be rattled, he could still pull himself together.


    Emma seemed to raise an eyebrow. Not at the display of chivalry, but likely because of what she was seeing in Scott''s mind. She now knew that Harry had told Scott she was a mutant but had not told him her power. The lack of surprise from Jean at her mental intrusion told her that Jean was certainly a telepath and knew that she was as well. Scott was a mutant but had no great defenses against psychic intrusion meaning she could get everything she wanted to know about the group from Scott''s mind, and Jean and Harry appeared to be inviting her to do so.


    Not one to turn down such an invitation, she took Scott''s arm and Harry walked the group up to the reservation desk and moments later the group was escorted over to a table for four adjacent to the window overlooking Times Square where the ball would be dropping in a few hours.


    Emma hid her surprise well but knew this table should not have been possible to get with just a couple of day''s notice.


    Jean, acting the part of the sister enjoying watching her brother squirm, said, "So Scott, get the ball rolling and tell Ms. Frost a little about yourself."


    Emma said, "Please call me Emma. I don''t believe I''ve ever been on a blind date before so I think I''ll start. I like art museums, moonless nights, and rock music."


    Scott responded with, "Well, you are clearly more cultured than I am. I do like walking through parks though. Dogs are also good. Who do you listen to?"


    Harry could tell that Emma was going through Scott''s head. At some point she tried once more to enter into Harry''s mind. The last time she was there, she was completely taken aback at the level of organization. She was tempted to take one of the books from the shelves but her instincts told her not to. This time when she entered, she found that a representation of both Harry and Jean were there, waiting for her.


    Within Harry''s mind she asked, "So Mr. Potter. What exactly is this? A recruitment for Xavier''s cub scouts?" She had already learned much from Scott''s head.


    Harry shook his metaphysical head and said, "Nope. More like an offer of friendship. If you actually are interested in me you''ll have to get Jean''s permission. And Rogue''s. And Wanda''s."


    "A Harem? Really?" she asked with amusement.


    Jean answered, "For reasons I don''t want to go into at the moment, I am ridiculously empathic and need a healthy dose of love to keep sane. And grounded. On earth anyways. I fell in love with Harry, but so did two others. Both however have had isolations issues in the past so both are comfortable having more people to love than less as they don''t want to be alone. They love me and for that I love both of them. It is all very warm and fuzzy."


    Emma frowned at that. Problems with isolation and the need for people to care for you were things that hit just a little too close to home. That being said she was selfish and didn''t intend to change. She said, "Thank you for the offer of Harem membership but I''m not the type who shares."


    Jean shrugged and said, "It wasn''t so much an offer as a warning of what you''d be in for. But declining is fine too. Also note that I''ll be able to tell if you try anything to Scott and so would the Professor. Harry hasn''t told him or anyone else in the institute about you though so you won''t get his attention as long as you don''t try anything funny."


    Emma tried not to roll her eyes. Scott didn''t need the slightest bit of manipulation. A na?ve boy scout with a hero complex who only felt valued when he was being useful to someone else. She had noticed he was sincere too. He didn''t know that Emma was a telepath, but likely due to his experience working with telepaths, even his thoughts were polite and well mannered. Very different from men her age she was used to dealing with.


    Deciding to change the subject, Harry asked, "So what did you tell Mr. Frost about me?"


    "Nothing I doubt you didn''t want him to know. Exceptionally well organized mind and heavily resistant to outside influence. Large plans for your company in the future. Oh, and the fact that you found his intimidation tactics cute." She smiled at that last one. Likely reveling in the memory of whatever expression her father made upon hearing that.


    Harry shook his head and said, "I wasn''t lying about my Board of Directors."


    Jean rolled her eyes and said, "They are a bad influence on you." She knew Harry''s company was run by Goblins even though Harry hadn''t told her and any viewed memories of them didn''t show that. However someone who had read Harry''s memories from start to finish could put two and two together and figure the rest out without breaking the contract.


    The waiter came and the group ordered some appetizers and drinks to munch on until their main order was ready.


    Scott was somewhat hanging on in the outward conversation as Harry and Jean both brought up various things about the X-Men and their training so Scott figured it was ok to talk about those things. The only problem was that Scott was just a little too enthusiastic about one particular subject.


    Within Harry''s mind Emma blatantly asked, "Does Scott have a hard on for Xavier or something?"


    Jean rolled her eyes and Harry chuckled. He answered, "Xavier has sacrificed a number of things to put himself into a position where he can help as many people as possible, including Scott himself. Scott admires him more than anyone else. In my opinion though, the Professor gave up things he should not have and the man is ignorant of the fact that he can be a hypocrite at times."


    Jean shook her head and said, "Yeah. Sometimes he''ll discourage us from getting our hands dirty because he wants us to have a normal childhood and other times when we are enjoying ourselves doing something childish, he reprimands us for our childish behavior."


    Harry turned to her and said, "You''re just upset he doesn''t allow food fights."


    "Food fights are awesome," she countered.


    "As long as I didn''t cook it, that''s fine."


    "Of course not, that would be sacrilege." Jean turned to Emma who was quite amused by the conversation and said, "Harry is a very skilled chef."


    Harry said, "There are better. This restaurant has chefs better than I am."


    Emma couldn''t keep a smile from forming on her lips. She could not remember the last time she took part or even listened to such a warm hearted conversation.


    Emma was a very skilled multitasker so it was possible to converse with Jean and Harry in Harry''s mind while talking part in the conversation at the table while also looking through Scott''s mind. She found it interesting that Scott had been infatuated with Jean for some time but seemed to have completely given up on her, though he still cared for her greatly.


    All in all, she could not find any deception. She knew from Scott''s memories that Harry was a very powerful mutant that could use Telepathy, magic, and other skills. He was also ruthless to those he felt didn''t deserve a chance but he was very logical as well. Emma had gone over Scott''s memory of that mission to rescue the Orphans several times. She also knew Harry was a genius scientist who had unlocked the mass production of hard-light technology. It didn''t take a genius to figure out the direction Harry''s company would go in the future and that he didn''t need anyone''s help.


    In other words, this evening really was just an invitation for friendship with Harry along with an introduction to someone who would likely become the leader of the X-Men in the future. Emma was entirely unused to dealing with people who offered help and information so freely.


    On the table part of the conversation Emma did eventually speak more of her own life. She had an older brother who she cared for but he didn''t care enough for himself. She had an older sister who cared for no one and seemed to have caused several staff members to vanish. Then there was her youngest sister who was in her rebellious phase, though with a father who cared only for his legacy and a mother who used alcohol to escape from the reality that was her life, calling her younger sister rebellious didn''t seem entirely accurate.


    Emma''s older sister worried everyone on the table but no one asked further on her as it would be improper to ask for more than what was given. Especially as the subject was likely not appropriate for dinner conversation and the waiters had delivered their orders by that time.


    Emma had much to discuss with Jean both at the table and inside Harry''s head. She was the first and only mutant telepath her own age she had ever met and though they lived different lives they had much in common. Emma did show interest in the Occlumency practices Harry had created for Jean and Harry offered to let her copy the material into her own head which Emma was happy to accept.


    Within Harry''s head and around the time they approached the end of the meal, Emma said, "You know my father will want to know what we spoke of. He seemed to be under the impression I would have you wrapped around my finger by the end of the date. He even gave me a copy of the papers you''d need to sign to sell your company."


    Jean laughed at that and added, "Harry''s business partners cannot legally operate a business due to laws you''ll never hear about. Harry owns everything on paper, but even if he signed away his ownership, nothing would come of it."


    Harry nodded and continued, "You can tell your father that Brilliance Incorporated will be expanding soon which is why I cannot be persuaded to sell. You can also hint that I seem to possess technology that grants resistance to mental manipulations."


    Emma asked, "Do you have technology that grants resistance to mental manipulations?"


    Harry considered it and said, "I can probably put something together."


    "Is there a way around it?"


    "Hmm. Subtly I suppose. Brute force could technically work but would alert the user. You seem pretty good at subtle though."


    She gave a smile that was not a smile at that and said, "Years of practice."


    Jean frowned and said, "If you do need help with something, don''t hesitate to ask." She didn''t like that someone like her was forced into a position to use her powers.


    Emma understood that Jean was being genuine but decided not to answer. She hadn''t made up her mind at this point.


    Dinner had finished and no one cared for dessert or staying to watch the gathering crowd admire the ball drop. Harry was fifteen, and Scott, Jean, and Emma were all sixteen so they did not order any wine though the restaurant was known for it.


    Other than offering ?ssistance, they didn''t ask anything of Emma and she had long since figured out why. They were basically trying to save her. You didn''t need foresight to see what someone with powers like her would grow up to be in an environment like hers without ?ssistance or friends. They were offering her a way out of that future she seemed destined to be in from the day she was born.


    When they parted, Harry gave Emma a rectangular compact mirror that was actually a disguised touchscreen cell phone and a wireless charger she could set it in. The contact list Harry programmed it with included Harry''s, Jean''s, and Scott''s phone number though the latter didn''t know Harry would be giving him a phone later that night. The phone could not be bugged, tracked, or monitored, but he did recommend not using it to call others her father knew of if she didn''t want her father learning of her possession of such a thing.


    Harry showed the use of a Diamond to make a portal back to the institute where they had set up their own fireworks and were waiting until midnight to set them off. Harry explained to Scott how the cellphone worked and that it was a prototype his own company would be producing one day.


    Overall, Jean and Harry agreed it was an enjoyable date, though Jean did feel a little bad about Harry''s trick against Emma. The watch Scott used set a ward inside his own brain that would prevent intruders from thinking of doing bad things to Scott while under the ward. So the entire time Emma was inside his head, she was being conditioned not to feel any urge to do anything that could harm Scott using the information she was learning from him. Harry countered that such a trick was the only reason he allowed Emma into Scott''s head in the first place and all he did was prevent her from thinking of ways to use him as a tool. He didn''t do anything to make her think more of him so anything she felt about him would be real.


    The fact that both Harry and Jean knew that the energy Scott produced was attractive to psionics was left unsaid. Harry didn''t consider it cheating in the same way he didn''t consider how attractive many found his eyes to be cheating.


    Unsurprisingly, Forge went all out on the fireworks and at midnight the sky above the institute could probably have been seen from the space station in orbit.


    With that the year 2008 started and for a while everything returned to routine. For the spring semester Harry was released from his position as Teacher''s aid in all classes but Forge''s and Dr. McCoy''s. However, Harry had successfully installed a Hard-Light platform in Forge''s class and granted remote access to that system for DANGER. Forge and DANGER were able to make Hard-Light demonstrations that showed off more than he ever could before and DANGER acted as ?ssistant as she had nothing better to do during class period. Dr. Kinney likewise acted as Dr. McCoy''s ?ssistant in class meaning Harry was suddenly left with a large amount of free time, and that was without counting the Time Turner.


    Eventually Harry decided to act on his girl''s advice and with a camera and his own Hard-Light platform, Harry started making Teaching videos. Due to the autocorrect of his Scholar Path, Harry was perhaps one of the best Teachers on the planet so he was told to expand his audience.


    After several brainstorming sessions Harry decided to make another website. Unlike the server for his magic website housed in Kamar-Taj, this server would be housed underground with the Goblins. He''d make a fake server room and put it somewhere in one of his companies but for the real one he would use the same tricks Forge taught him when making DANGER''s CPU.


    Over the course of two months, closer to four if you count the Time Turner usage, Harry had created over a thousand videos on various math and science subjects. The main line of videos however went over Harry''s new branch of science, Metaphysics. You couldn''t understand a thing if you just watched the last video but if you watched them all sequentially you''d gain a surface level understanding of what it was and how it worked.


    Of course no one could truly learn a subject from a video, no matter how interesting. So each video also came with a little twenty question quiz at the end you could use to test yourself. If you got a question wrong, the site would tell you how to get it right and the system generated problems randomly so taking it repeatedly was actually a decent study method.


    Just for kicks, Harry wore a larger version of his Hogwarts robes and used a wand looking stick when pointing at things and would use his Hard-Light holograms to cast ''magic-like'' effects using the stick. The videos included disclaimers of course. Since he wore a collared shirt and tie beneath the robes it actually looked very Professor~ish so he doubted anyone would give a negative remark. Other than the standard, ''Aren''t you fifteen?'' comments.


    Harry had already invented his own magic keyboard that could type pure programming code far, far faster than a normal keyboard so the longest and hardest part of setting up the site was the videos.


    In addition to his own videos, the site also allowed others to upload their own videos for others to watch. Another similar site, youtube, had popped up a little over two years prior and Harry wanted to replace it. When evidence that would reveal the magical world appeared, it was likely a video sharing site like youtube would be the source so if Harry controlled such sites, he''d be able to buy more time. Google bought youtube not long after it came out but Harry''s servers would be far faster and more secure than youtube''s would. The only catch was that unless he built his own internet, he wouldn''t be able to control the default search engine directing everyone to his competitor.


    Thankfully a number of Goblins were getting very good at not just using computers for hacking, but making them as well. Once there were enough Goblins capable of crafting his magic servers, Harry intended to spread their use around the world and become the hub of centralized internet usage.


    *Ping*


    [Business Path has risen to Rank 28]


    Harry smiled. That one was rising pretty fast these days.


    On March 5th, Harry launched the site, submitted his findings in Metaphysics as a dissertation to a Doctoral committee with McCoy''s, Xavier''s, and Forge''s recommendation, and had some publishers he paid release his textbooks which some stores and his website sold.


    Other than his Scholar Path raising by 1, nothing happened. This wasn''t surprising. Even with world famous geniuses like Dr. Hank McCoy, Charles Xavier, and Johnathan Silvercloud backing his paper, it would take weeks and months for others to check his findings and once they determined he was not talking out of his ?ss, he''d be asked to defend his dissertation in person and only then would his dissertation get published. The fact that McCoy and Silvercloud basically signed off on Master''s degrees for him through their own accreditation a week prior would probably cause a few heads to turn, but Harry looked forward to the faces everyone would make.


    For now he would wait. Harry didn''t advertise his website so unless someone searched for something and the website was relevant, no one would randomly get directed there.


    Two week later however, someone did notice. While Harry was in his study group with Jean, his own cell phone went off and he excused himself to answer it. The caller ID had a picture of Emma on it.


    Harry casually answered, "Evening Emma."


    "Same to you I suppose. Interesting website by the way. I''m surprised ''video share .com'' wasn''t already taken as a domain name."


    "It was. I bought it. Made a random dude very happy. Watch any?"


    "Your lesson on variable probability was certainly more interesting than my private tutor''s. In any case, that is not why I''m calling."


    "Something wrong?"


    "Most likely. I am not sure if it has any relation with your site or something else, but my father asked me to contact you and get you to come out somewhere. He didn''t say it directly and I cannot read his mind, but it sounds like in some way, shape or form, you won''t be coming back from where I am to invite you to."


    "Ah. I suppose the fact that I haven''t left the Institute in three straight months would make any would be kidnappers or ?ssassins quite irritable."


    "Indeed. However my father is a member of a group called the Hellfire Club. They have muscle that is not easy to go against and I believe there is a mutant within the club my father is asking ?ssistance from."


    Harry Paused and went over a few worst case scenarios. Winston would not know he was a mutant but would know he had tech that could defend against telepaths. Xavier did a surprisingly good job of covering for his Institute and it was not anywhere close to public knowledge his school was for mutants. Emma had told them she was almost certain her father wasn''t aware of them. Worst case scenario should be a team sent to injure him in a show of force or a team to kidnap him for his tech. Worst case for that was that they were all mutants. However they shouldn''t be too powerful. Mutants at Sinister''s or even the first X-Men team''s level would not be grunts.


    Harry was tempted to go in alone but he knew he would never be forgiven for that, even if he was immortal, and he knew he would not be able to talk his girls out of coming. Ah, that''s right. There was someone else he could take who could provide ?ssistance if everything went horribly wrong.


    Harry unpaused and asked, "You''ll call me back on a line you know he is listening to right?"


    "Of course. Can''t let him know I have a private way to contact you now can I?"


    "Alright. Invite me to go clothes shopping. I''ll refuse citing that I am too busy but you''ll counter that you''ll buy several swimsuits for the summer and want my opinion on the best one. I''ll agree of course and pick you up from where-ever and you won''t tell me where we''re going until I get there. Then your father can tell whoever, they''ll give you a destination and we''ll be attacked either at the location or on route."


    "Wait, what do you mean pick me up? You can''t drive."


    "Well, I know how to drive and do have my learner''s permit, but I don''t have a car. I''m sure you remember that Scott is seventeen though since you spent all of his birthday a few weeks ago ''together,'' so he''ll be driving. You''ll need to call him and tell him to invite me, Rogue, Jean, and Wanda as well. Six is too much for a car so that will get him to take the van we have which happens to be armored."


    "Hmm. That sounds like a plan. What about the fallout from what my father learns his attempt was rebuffed by mutants you are ?ssociated with? He won''t be pleased with me once he discovers I was unaware of that information."


    "Hmm. Tell him that everyone who I invited had a telepathy blocker as well so you couldn''t tell they were mutants."


    She sighed over the call and said, "Alright, I can work with that."


    A few minutes later Harry got another call redirected to him from his ''work'' line and Emma invited him to go swimsuit shopping. Harry said he had a few other girls he wanted to invite and Emma playfully asked if she was not enough for him. Harry said they were people he liked too much to leave the house without and he wanted to see them in swimsuits as well.


    If one listened to the call in hindsight it would seem that Harry had special bodyguards he paid to keep him safe, but that would only be obvious after everything happened.


    Harry told his girls and Emma called Scott though he wasn''t given the details of the trap. Harry found the last person he wanted to recruit for this possible ambush lounging in the garden.


    "Hey Goose. I''m going to get ambushed tomorrow by parties unknown and likely kidnapped. Want to come?"


    The orange tabby cat shaped Flerken lazily looked over to Harry and conveyed, ''Might as well.. I have been getting bored lately.''

 Chapter 47 - 47 Showing Hell to the Hellions

    The following weekend Scott took the X-Van out for a road trip. Harry used a bit of magic to hide the big red X on the side to make it look like an ordinary van and along with Wanda, Rogue, Jean, and one flerken, they were driven by Scott to Massachusetts.


    Scott did ask Emma why she wanted Rogue and Wanda to come as she had not met them and she simply answered that Jean spoke well of them and she wanted to see them in swimsuits too.


    Scott also asked Harry, "Why are you bringing your cat?"


    Harry answered, "I haven''t taken Goose anywhere in the time I''ve been in the states and she has been getting bored lately. Don''t worry. She isn''t a normal cat."


    "Is that why I''ve seen her hanging out with Lockheed?"


    Harry smiled but didn''t answer.


    Eventually the van pulled up to where Emma was meeting them and the blonde heiress hopped in and introduced herself to Rogue and Wanda. She told the group where they were going and gave instructions on how to get there.


    Emma informed Harry through telepathy, ''I''m almost certain we''ll be attacked on route. I don''t suppose this van is armored is it?''


    Jean answered back after eavesdropping, ''It is.''


    Harry asked, ''Did you find out what the goal is?''


    ''Kidnapping, yours of course, but I''m not sure if my father asked for it or if you''ve gotten the attention of another member of the Hellfire Club and they asked him to arrange this.''


    Jean confidently said, ''Regardless, we''ll be enough to take them.''


    Emma asked, ''Is that a cat?''


    Harry answered, ''She does look like a cat doesn''t she.''


    After a few minutes Harry''s senses pick up on a few forms of energy. They were directed through a street which appeared to have construction work done and a man in what seemed to be a city worker''s uniform and hard hat directed them through.


    After driving past, Harry said aloud, "We''re going to be attacked within the next couple of seconds. Do brace yourselves."


    Scott tensed and said back, "I knew something was up."


    From the side a massive burst of green energy slammed into the van tipping it over and putting a decent dent into the frame.


    Once the van stopped sliding Harry Paused and confirmed everyone was ok before he unpaused and asked, "Everyone alright?"


    Jean sends a telepathic message to the group, ''Emma is fine but unconscious. There are several hostiles outside and they seem to be targeting Harry.'' She wasn''t but they didn''t want Scott to ask why she wasn''t participating in the fight.


    Harry says aloud, "I''ll get some info and draw them out first and then we''ll go blitz tactics."


    Harry opened the van''s side door which was now above them and Paused again. While Paused he hopped out and surveyed the area. He saw three people. Two girls, one with short cut brown hair and the other with shoulder length blue hair. They looked around the same age as Harry''s own group and behind them stood an balding older man wearing a red shirt and a lab coat. The futuristic rifle shaped sidearm he was holding looked moderately disconcerting but he wasn''t pointing it at the van. Instead he seemed to be directing the girls at his side.


    After confirming no one was likely to blow his head off for doing so, Harry unpaused and popped his head from the van and asked, "I don''t suppose this is a mugging is it?"


    The middle aged guy in the lab coat chuckled and answered back, "Not quite Mr. Potter. Get out of the van and follow me and your friends will not be harmed."


    Harry got out and both swiftly and smoothly removed two handguns from behind his back and said, "You''re going to need more than that to take me you know." One gun was already pointing at the guy in the lab coat and the other pointing at the teen with the short cut hair Harry sensed was the one who hit the van.


    The man in the lab coat smirked and said, "My my, how disrespectful. I''m Dr. Redman. This here is Surge," he said pointing to the girl with the blue hair. "And this is... What were you calling yourself again dear?"


    The brown haired girl who hit the van sighed and answered, "Negasonic Teenage Warhead."


    "Right. That. And over there we have Cannonball."


    From behind the van came a loud smash of who appeared to be the guy in the city worker''s uniform. He seemed to have shot himself into the air from where he was and landed just behind the van.


    The redshirted villain continued, "And Magma and Firestar."


    Two more girls walked out from a nearby abandoned building. Harry felt one of them was filled with thermal energy and the other was actually saturated with microwave energy.


    "And finally we have Tarot," he said once more, gesturing to the side to a black haired woman who walked out from behind a car and seemed reluctant to respond.


    Harry raised an eyebrow and asked, "All this for little ol'' me?" What surprised Harry was that, with the exception of the labcoat wearing Redman, none of them looked old enough to vote with the oldest looking about seventeen and the youngest fifteen.


    Dr. Redman answered, "Honestly I was going to meet you alone but my Hellions do need a chance to stretch their legs so I thought this would be a great chance for some fresh air and exercise."


    The one called Tarot added from the side, "That and I couldn''t predict anything about how this would end and he is a coward."


    That earned her a glare she nearly flinched at. Dr. Redman said, "Someone needs more training it seems. Luckily you''ll have a training buddy. Now I won''t ask again. Surrender-"


    Harry fired three shots, two at Dr. Redman''s head, one at Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Rubber bullets of course, however they were enchanted with a powerful Stunner which should have knocked the targets out. Harry liked enchanted bullets because they traveled so much faster than cast spells and didn''t look like magic from an observer''s perspective.


    Jean and Wanda simultaneously jumped out of the van and took to the air. They had been in telepathic communication to discuss their plan of action since first contact and already had a formation in mind. Rogue was staying inside to protect Emma and to be used for backup.


    Less than a second after Harry fired and the girls jumped out, the aptly named Surge countered with a bolt of lightning which Harry had no time to dodge. What surprised every one of the Hellions was that Harry responded by firing several rubber bullets back at her instead of going down. Harry''s magic and energy attack based resistance was determined by his Wisdom which was over forty times more than a normal human. Even a normal human can survive getting struck by lightning, much less Harry who b?r?ly flinched.


    What surprised Harry though was that the lab coat wearing Redman and Negasonic Teenage Warhead didn''t go down from the stun bullets. Harry could understand the latter who seemed to be some kind of mutant Gamma Sorceress if his senses were right as magic was less effective on such people, but Harry didn''t sense any type of energy from Redman and he hit that guy twice in the head. Surge wasn''t getting back up because Harry got her three times in the head which even without magic would knock her out cold.


    Jean used a powerful telepathic wave to launch Cannonball back to the end of the street and she floated through the sky after him. Wanda fired Hexbolts at Firestar and Magma while Scott suppressed them with his optics beams. Watch or not, he never left home without his visor.


    Before Harry could unload the rest of his clip into Dr. Redman''s temple or groin, three beasts that felt like real illusions materialized and pounced at Harry from the side. Tarot had three cards in her hands which were glowing and seemed linked to the beasts.


    Harry shot them but the bullets had no effect forcing Harry himself to have to jump out of the way. He tried shooting Redman again but this time a green energy shield was formed in front of him by the Gamma Sorceress with the excessively convoluted call sign.


    Harry Paused to get a closer look at what was happening. He saw that Redman had two syringes next to him implying he had just injected himself with something. If the man already had something in him before Harry shot him, that might explain why he didn''t go down with the bullet stunners.


    To the side Harry saw Jean was throwing things at Cannonball but the guy seemed to have some kind of barrier over his body that prevented impact damage. That however was a cover as Jean was navigating though the man''s head and once she found a weak spot she''d knock him out. Invulnerability doesn''t stop telepaths after all.


    Magma seemed to be turning the street into.. well, magma. And Firestar was shooting microwave beams at Scott but the X-Man was holding those beams back with his own optics blasts. Magma however was also getting tripped up by Wanda as her Hexbolts made the geo-thermal-kineticist lose control of her powers and Wanda herself was transfiguring various things around the pair to control the fight.


    Harry unpaused and Dr. Redman said, "So you didn''t come alone. Well you''re still outnumbered and your body guards will make an excellent addition to the Hellions once I''m through with them. Take him out girls."


    The expensive looking rifle type weapon Redman was carrying turned towards Harry and fired bolts of energy while Negasonic Teenage Warhead fired gamma blasts and Tarot ordered her beasts to attack.


    Harry did his best not to smile. These days he wasn''t invited with the X-Men when they went to rescue a mutant or fight the Brotherhood so he had accumulated a number of toys with no one to play with. Sure, he could just go all out but where would the fun in that be?


    Harry dodged the incoming shots fired and blasts. Unlike lightning which tracks its target and is far more difficult to dodge, Harry could easily dodge guns by pausing and checking the trajectory and unpausing. He could also sense the gamma energy which moved far slower than lightning and wasn''t difficult to dodge.


    Harry took a metal sphere out of his pocket, pointed it at Redman, and squeezed it. The hard-light tech in the sphere created a hologram around the sphere which matched the exact appearance of Dr. Redman''s head, hair, and face. Then it was set on fire. Then, in Dr. Redman''s own voice, it started screaming. Harry threw the screaming on fire head at Dr. Redman who foolishly looked into its eyes and saw his own face distorted in pain and horror screaming in his own voice back at him. Dr. Redman jumped to the side to dodge but the head did not fall. Instead it continued to fly and turned around to make another screaming pass at Dr. Redman.


    Harry noticed Goose had hopped out of the van and was making her way over to Tarot so Harry started shooting Negasonic Teenage Warhead with more bullets. Her shield was holding up well but she couldn''t attack while defending and Dr. Redman was running from his own screaming, on fire head that was chasing him.


    Cannonball launched himself at Harry in a bad attempt at a sneak attack. The man''s power seemed to generate an explosion at his feet to launch his invulnerable body like a rocket so it was not compatible with subtlety and though he was able to adjust his trajectory while in flight, Harry was still able to move out of the way fast enough to dodge.


    Firestar and Magma had started pushing back against Wanda and Scott. Firestar had used her own powers to superheat the asphalt of the street and once it was molten Magma was able to control it.


    At that point Scott shouted, "Rogue, now!"


    Rogue flew out of the van and used Iceman''s ice powers to freeze the molten ground back to solid state and Scott used the chance to take Magma out with a well placed optic blast. Jean started attacking Cannonball''s mind as he had actually lowered his guard against her when he targeted Harry and she was not going to let the opportunity pass.


    "What the hell is that!?" Tarot of course was now enjoying the company of Goose the Flerken. Goose''s unspeakable mass of razor toothed tentacle flesh were shredding Tarot''s monster''s to pieces.


    Negasonic Teenage Warhead unfortunately looked to check what Tarot was screaming at and was appropriately horrified by what she saw. Her shield wavered and Harry''s bullets pierced through and Harry got her twice in the temple, knocking her out as cold as her friend.


    Scott and Rogue were now suppressing Firestar and Wanda was preparing to capture her using transfiguration.


    Dr. Redman had got a lucky shot and destroyed Harry''s toy and shouted, "You bastard! I was going to treat you well but now I promise you that once I''ve gotten my hands on you that you''ll never see the sun again!" The man obviously had not gotten a good look at the state of the rest of his group.


    Harry felt some serious mad scientist vibes come off the guy as he took out another needle and moved to inject it into his arm. Harry shot it of course before the man could press the plunger. Though Harry wanted to enjoy playing for a bit, he was not going to let someone else control the battle with a stereotypical last second drug induced powerup. For good measure he also shot the man''s gun which seemed pretty high tech.


    "You bastard!"


    "Help me!"


    Dr. Redman looked over to where Tarot was screaming. She was suspended in the air by one of Goose''s tentacles and being waved around. Goose liked to play with her food it seemed.


    Jean saw this and shouted, "Not her Goose. Him!" She pointed at Redman.


    Goose tossed Tarot into a wall and knocked her out before she walked over to Redman, the various mouths at the ends of the grotesque tentacles snapping ominously in his direction.


    The lab coat wearing Doctor finally took a moment to ?ssess the scene. Wanda had just transfigured some concrete around Firestar and Scott had knocked her out. Rogue, Scott, Wanda, Jean, and Harry were all walking over to Redman along with the terrifying Flerken.


    Instead of surrendering, Redman sneered and said, "Fools. Do anything to me and all the mutants you''ve just spared will die. Surrender or I''ll kill them all right now."


    Jean said, "You can''t hurt them with anything you have on you and the explosives in their necks won''t go off unless they receive a signal from your heart after it stopped. If you aren''t around when your heart stops, nothing will happen."


    Harry smirked and said, "Goose, lunch time."


    The mass of tentacles coming out from the cat''s mouth whipped around menacingly and approached Dr. Redman from all sides.


    A look of horror formed across the man''s face as it dawned on him he wasn''t going to survive this.


    Scott also seemed to figure out what was going to happen but before he could say anything Jean seemed to send a mental message to him. Scoot gave the soon to be Flerken food a hard look and then looked away, deciding not to interfere.


    Redman pointed his gun at the Flerken and pulled the trigger but nothing happened. The magic in Harry''s bullets fried whatever s?ns?t?v? electrical components were within the gun making it an expensive paperweight.


    Serrated tentacles wrapped around the man''s legs drawing blood as he struggled to pull himself free while shouting that he was lying before, that he was sorry, that he would work for them. No one moved to help as he started screaming hysterically.


    Goose then quickly yanked the man into her mouth causing him to shriek like a little girl which was then silenced as the jawed appendage closed and retracted into Goose''s mouth.


    After a few moments of silence, Scott said, "So.. Definitely not a cat."


    Harry smiled. Goose conveyed through their familiar bond, ''Sour. But not in a bad way.''


    Jean explained to them what she had learned from their minds. The leader of the Hellions, Sebastian Shaw, used a machine called Multivac to find mutants. Unlike Cerebro which used a telepath, Multivac used a mutant called Cypher who could mathematically predict things together with Tarot who could use Tarot cards to predict things. Multivac amplified their powers to find mutants for them to approach and recruit into the Hellions. Most were not aware of what type of group it was and those who did not want to do bad things were persuaded.


    Dr. Redman was a chemist and engineer who used drugs combined with implanted explosives to ensure those who didn''t want to stay didn''t have a choice.


    From Tarot''s mind Jean explained that Shaw found that the growth of Harry''s company was directly impacting Multivac''s prediction capabilities and they couldn''t figure out why. The only way to fix the issue was to kill or recruit Harry but they couldn''t predict the outcome of any plan involving Harry so they sent every one of their heavy hitters.


    Luckily, this entire group also included everyone who wanted to leave but could not due to the explosives. Others who wanted to stay were Empath who was a terrible excuse for a human being and Cypher who didn''t mind doing terrible things as long as he got paid.


    The explosives seemed somewhat shielded against energy which was why they didn''t go off when the Hellions used microwaves, lightning, or gamma radiation. That also seemed to be why they didn''t go off from Harry''s bullet which made him sweat a bit as if they were not shielded then the teen''s heads may have exploded when Harry shot them.


    In either case Harry wouldn''t use magic to remove them, it was better to take them all to Dr. McCoy.


    Emma was only pretending to be unconscious so she would have an alibi so she was still laying in the van in an uncomfortable position waiting for the group to finish up.


    After some discussion in their minds Harry decided to call the shopping trip off. He used a portal to take the girls and all the soon to be former Hellions to the Institute and called Xavier and Dr. McCoy. After Wanda used her magic to fix the road and the van, Scott took Emma to the hospital because that was something normal people did after someone was injured.


    Harry got a call later from Emma informing him that she called her father right after being dropped off at the hospital and she told her father the ''story.'' She met up with Harry''s friends who he insisted on bringing and she didn''t suspect anything because they were all around the same age, though they did have telepathy blockers as well. She was knocked out when the van was hit and woke up with Scott driving her to the hospital and Scott told her they were attacked but not much else. She pleaded ignorance about anything that happened including the fact that the Hellions were defeated.


    After Scott dropped Emma off Harry had made a portal for him to drive the van through to skip driving back to New York. Scott was still under the impression Harry used diamonds to make portals so he didn''t question why he didn''t use that to get there in the first place though he did grill Harry on what happened.


    Dr. McCoy and Dr. Kinney easily removed the explosives from the Hellions and even flushed their system of drugs. Once they were conscious Xavier had agreed to offer them a place at the institute.


    From what Jean had told him, Sebastian Shaw''s Hellions were under his own banner and were not truly a part of the Hellfire club. Shaw was considered new money but was already in a high position in the Hellfire Club due to his Hellions and his machine that could predict the future. Both of which were taken out as the ripples of Harry''s influence on the future would make anything he saw useless and the Hellions were the strongest force under his control.


    Shaw himself was a mutant as well and not a weak one. He was strongest when facing energy attacks as he apparently could absorb all forms of energy and use them to make his own attacks. He used this power to ?ssert dominance over his Hellions to make them understand they could never defeat him. Harry wondered if he could absorb Phoenix fire or if the latter would burn his power, his flesh, and his soul away for even trying. Harry could also just pick him up with telekinesis and gently toss him into a portal to the North Pole. Without the ability to fly or teleport, that was a one way trip.


    The Hellions woke up surrounded by the X-Men and Xavier who explained the situation. Unsurprisingly, they all started crying. What was surprising was that it was the only guy, Cannonball, who cried the hardest. Apparently he was a softie and couldn''t stand hurting people.


    Harry felt they were still a bit too trusting and na?ve as they all agreed to join the X-Men without checking them out first. Harry figured that was Scott''s influence as he was the one who stayed with the group and conveyed to them what the X-Men were.


    Jean told Harry to stay out of the infirmary as she didn''t want any of the girls to get nightingale syndrome over Harry for saving them though she apparently didn''t mind leaving Scott in there for the same fate. Harry figured once they found out Goose was his familiar any chance of that was nil or less but he didn''t argue.


    Things got exciting for a while with the new arrivals but once more calmed down at the Institute.


    On April 1st, Harry''s tech company had launched two models of cellphones and cellphone plans for said phones. Both cellphones could be used nearly anywhere. The Goblins were able to mass produce crystal terminals housed in magically hidden spaces in various cities which acted as cell towers with far greater range than standard ones. Each cellphone included an extremely tiny Quartz which had its material physics altered by the knockoff sonic screwdrivers Harry showed the Goblins how to make. The new properties of the crystal massively increased the range and if they wanted, they could have it cover the planet. The only reason they didn''t was because if they did they would have nothing to work up to.


    The first model was for calling and texting and their plans were reasonably rated while keeping their competitors in mind. The second model however had a rudimentary touch screen with limited data internet browsing capabilities, Wi-Fi capabilities, and a built in link to Videoshare. Future phones would be able to record videos and upload it directly to Videoshare, but that was only after Harry had made a system to scrub the phones and sites of any videos that could endanger the secrets of the world if posted.


    Thanks to the existence of companies like Stark Industries, any newcomer to the tech world was thoroughly checked and when the people who knew their stuff realized the physics behind the phone was impossible from their own understanding, things got interesting.


    Harry had of course included in the instruction guide links to his videos on Metaphysics and references to his textbooks to explain how the phone''s range could be what it was and why the phone was not hampered by being underground or even inside a faraday cage. The fact that his phones seemed to even work while on an airplane really stumped a lot of people and got many talking. What really got people''s attention however was that the phone''s signal could not be intercepted, tracked, blocked, or monitored without the ability to produce the same type of altered Quartz.


    Eventually Harry''s dissertations were noticed and in the middle of April, two weeks after Harry released the phones, he was asked to come to MIT to give his dissertation and defend it. The fact that he was already selling products which proved the physics behind his dissertation was left unsaid.


    For Harry, the best part was that every branch of Metaphysics was useless without the Sonic Screwdriver. In order to use, measure, or even detect the new energies which Harry had shown existed, a material physics modified gemstone was required and only Harry could make them. This meant only his company could use the magic like technological advancements he was going to display.


    Harry fully expected people to buy his products in mass and take the stones to use for their own projects, but Harry had contingencies in place for that as well. He also made it illegal to use his phones for anything other than their intended purpose. That wouldn''t stop people from doing so, but it would justify what he could do in response.


    Xavier, Forge, Dr. Kinney and Dr. McCoy wearing his disguise watch along with a number of the students went to MIT with Harry so they could watch him defend his dissertation. Harry gifted the teachers a free cellphone with internet access and gifted students with high grades the same under the condition they maintain their grades if they want to keep using the phone.


    The Goblins had already mastered the art of the ?ssembly line so ?ssembly lines crafted by Goblins mass produced flawless tech. The only problem that eventually popped up was that they found they would eventually be making more money than they had to pay their employees and Goblins did not accept anything but their own coin and did not work for free. After another boardroom meeting which left several Goblins almost mortally wounded it was agreed that two new forms of currency above the Galleon would be created using Harry''s altered Gemstones as a base. The altered Gemstones had great use in magic as the Goblins themselves were delighted to experiment with therefore it was accepted as a form of payment for the thousands of Goblins now working under the banner of Brilliance Incorporated and Potter and Gold Bank and Trust.


    Thankfully Goblins were just as interested in technology as mundane humans were and thanks to Harry''s servers they could purchase personal computers and cellphones themselves meaning they were spending what they earned instead of hoarding it. Harry would later learn that many of the toxic players on the online video game communities were shamed and disgraced by the Goblins who enjoyed playing online games.


    At MIT Harry was met by a committee that wanted to show him around the place and squeeze a few questions in before the dissertation. Forge and McCoy led the students and staff off to show them around and Harry was escorted to meet some VIPs.


    Harry didn''t mind answering questions, getting to know the various geniuses of their fields, and exchanging numbers with many of the brightest minds in the world including a few fellows sent by the government to ask for military contracts Harry had no problem arranging a date for later discussion with. A number of notable names were not there and Harry was slightly disappointed Tony Stark didn''t show. That meant either the man had cracked Harry''s tech and didn''t feel like asking more questions or he was off in his own little world and didn''t even know the existence of Harry''s tech. Considering what Harry heard of the man, he figured it was the latter.


    Fifteen minutes before Harry was scheduled to go up on stage one of MIT''s staff insisted he meet one of the key organizers for the dissertation. That wasn''t a problem for Harry but his watch getting a text message was. The message said, ''Bill and Ted BJ Cage, RB MK5. Double KO.''


    Harry did his best not to tense at the message and politely followed the staff to an off to the side room the staff member showed him into but did not enter before closing the door.


    "Hello Mr. Potter. I''ve heard a great many things about you."


    The woman walking towards him from the shadow of the room was an unmistakable beauty with sleek black hair that went past her shoulders and a sculpted face that was difficult to describe as anything other than perfect. It was a face Harry and seen before in pictures drawn hundreds of years ago and though Harry sensed nothing from the woman that meant little for someone as skilled as she was known to be.


    It was Selene Gallio.

 Chapter 48 - 48 Harry Vs Selene

    Harry reflexively Paused to get himself together and not freak out. The first recorded sighting of this woman was more than 10,000 years ago and according to the Ancient One, Selene had been a contender for the position of Sorcerer Supreme a number of times. Not that this meant she was a good person. The position of Sorcerer Supreme was given to someone who was strong enough to protect the world from mythical threats. Morales were not a requirement and many a Sorcerer Supreme in the past were not people one would want to meet.


    Harry knew he wasn''t going to like what was to come but he still had to act as if he didn''t know it. The text message he received at least made sense now.


    Harry didn''t hold out his hand for a shake, instead he gave a respectful half bow and said, "I''m certain most of what you''ve heard about me won''t do me any justice. So what is it you wish to speak of?"


    The immortal gave a beautiful smirk and said, "I''d like for you to sell your company to me."


    The telepathic command she gave to simply do as she said had all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.


    Harry snapped his fingers and conjured a chair behind him and behind her and sat down. "No, I don''t think I will Ms. Gallio."


    Selene could not detect any mental protections within Harry''s outstandingly organized mind and yet her psionic abilities had no effect. That, and the fact that he seemed to have just cast magic in front of her and she couldn''t feel its presence made her eyebrows twitch in surprise. Harry wondered when was the last time this woman was surprised and felt he should be a bit proud of himself.


    Selene turned to confirm the seat behind her was not an illusion and sat down before turning back to say, "It appears my sources are woefully under-informed."


    Harry smiled back and said, "Yes, I doubt they''ve informed you I''ve a student of an acquaintance of yours. Though calling her the Ancient One when she is a mere trifle over nine centuries old is a bit much don''t you think?"


    Selene''s gaze quickly changed. There was no twitch or narrowing or eyes or movement, but she no longer looked at Harry like a predator would look at meat. She saw another predator.


    Continuing with the initiative Harry continued, "My company cannot be sold so I''m going to politely request that we stay out of each other''s way. You will gain nothing from going against me."


    Selene lightly asked back, "Can your company truly not be acquired if I were to kill you? I doubt all of your employees would be so stubborn."


    Harry Paused and considered this. Not her threat. Using Telepathy on a Goblin was not a great idea and Goblins had dozens of ways around magic based mind control. Both of which were irrelevant points as no one would ever ?ssume Harry''s employees were Goblins in the first place. No sane or powerful person would allow themselves bound by the contracts required to work with Goblins. Harry always laughed at that and wondered if he was an exception or just insane.


    Of course it didn''t matter to him. Sanity was highly overrated.


    No, Selene''s point was that Harry''s company not being in her control or not being destroyed outright was not an option for her. That meant she had something to lose if Harry''s company continued as it was.


    Harry unpaused and said, "I see. So you''re the one who built Multivac."


    Selene''s smile was all the confirmation Harry needed that the machine that could predict the future and the location of mutants was designed by her. That meant that Sebastian Shaw was Selene''s minion and the fact that Harry was affecting the future was affecting her as well. Of course, they seemed to be ?ssuming it was Harry''s company that was making the future harder to see, and not Harry himself.


    Selene also inferred a few things from Harry''s accusation and answered back, "So Shaw''s toys are still alive I see."


    Harry gave a curt nod. Information had to come from somewhere after all so there was no point in denying it. Harry said, "I can promise you that my death will grant you nothing. If I have unintentionally gotten in the way of any plans you have, then either adapt or ask for my ?ssistance. As I said, you will gain nothing from going against me."


    "You are making many ?ssumptions. If killing you gives me nothing, then what about killing your friends? Your family? And I don''t believe you have earned the right to speak to me as if you were an equal. If you know of me, then you should know your place."


    Harry sighed and raised a hand. He had already been chanting mentally for the last few moments and at the chant''s completion, a blood read flame emerged in Harry''s hand. Harry said, "Now you are the one making ?ssumptions. You think I care about them? What do you think will happen if I release this Hellfyre Heart? I''m sure you can guess."


    Harry used his strongest Occlumency and mental prowess to lock away his feelings for others and emitted only a cold indifference and apathy. Can''t use hostages if the other person doesn''t care about them. The Hellfyre Heart was a spell Harry came up with after going through Belasco''s Book of Spells. It used the principle of Fiendfyre which was strengthened by Harry''s knowledge of the Darkhold and principles of Hellfire Harry learned from the Grand Grimoire which were strengthened by what he learned from Belasco''s Book of spells.


    Since the magic contained far more sources than just his own, Selene could easily feel it. And what she felt, was uncontrollable. Once the heart was released, it would burn everything until it went out. At the moment they were at MIT and everyone there wanted to listen to Harry''s dissertation. She knew that Harry had brought friends and Professors with him. They were all die if Harry released that spell.


    Selene gave Harry a cold look and said, "You''re bluffing."


    Harry smiled and dropped the flame.


    Selene was absolutely certain Harry was bluffing so she was stunned to see him release the spell and could only watch it fall to the ground. Harry teleported out of the room and the fire exploded into a torrent of black flame. Selene was fast but she couldn''t teleport so she could only shield herself and watch as her barrier was smashed back through wall after wall as the tide of flames devoured everything. In the blink of an eye the entire building was devoured and she was thrown through the final wall outside. Blood red and black flames danced against each other as the entire grounds of MIT was reduced to cinders.


    Of course this was not the end. The black flames started flowing into themselves and formed a massive flame demon. The spell created the heart, and the heart created the flame. Once the flame was created, it would join the heart and the true purpose of the spell was shown, the birth of a massive hellfire fiend.


    Selene knew she had to get away, she gained nothing from fighting such a thing after all and didn''t care that it would destroy the city. She could stop it, but that would require more resources than she would gain from doing so.


    However the moment she looked away from the hellfire fiend, she realized she had been duped. In the sky above the city was another city look down. In the distance was another city that was aligned vertically from up to down. The room they were in had been taken into the Mirror dimension without her being aware of it and she was now trapped with the fiend.


    Selene glared at the massive beast of flames and lifted a hand in its direction and closed it. The beast felt what she was doing and looked over to her with its blood red flaming eyes and roared, however the flame around it was vanishing, being put out. The towering construct charged at her but was losing height and strength with each moment. Before it could reach her it was shorter than she was. Selene bent down and blew at it, snuffing out the last of the flame.


    Harry steadied himself and said, "I heard you were good with fire but seeing it in person is really something else."


    Selene realized then that Harry had only pretended to leave her in the Mirror dimension. She ?ssumed that he was under the impression she would not be able to leave without a Sling Ring as even the Ancient One could not do so. She could of course and she had already sworn revenge against Harry for his trick but it turned out he was simply waiting.


    Selene answered back, "You''ve seen nothing yet. Fighting me in this dimension was a great mistake."


    Black Sigils appeared in the air all around her and darkness coalesced into them taking the form of demons.


    In the next instant over thirty high strength demons wielding weapons and armor forged of shadow had appeared. She pointed at Harry and said, "Capture him."


    Harry didn''t move. Summoning was actually much easier in the Mirror Dimension though there was no way to move a summoned creature from the mirror dimension back into the normal world without cost so that was not a loophole.


    Once the demons were within range, Harry conjured a golden glyph which shot red chains into the ?h?st of each demon. Most tried to block but the chains were ethereal and passed through their weapons, shields, and armors. Harry released the glyph and the chains vanished, but the demons didn''t move. Harry smiled and said, "Attack Selene with everything you got."


    Selene was more than a little surprised when her summoned demons she spent her own lifeforce to call had been taken out of her control and were attacking her instead. How could she know Harry had memorized the Grand Grimoire which contained both the Greater Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon, books which had more information on controlling demons than any other. As long as it was a demon Harry knew about he would know a way or two to control it. He didn''t know about them all of course and he couldn''t control a demon in their own realm, but Selene''s summons were ones Harry was familiar with so there was only one way for that to turn out.


    Selene cast multiple spells at the attacking armored demons and while she was distracted Harry used his dimensional energy to shift the space of the mirror dimension. Buildings folded out from the ground and changed the landscape as direction and gravity lost meaning.


    Selene''s footing easily adjusted as she was also manipulating the mirror dimension to crush or separate the demons. She only needed to touch them to dissipate them so they were not threats to her if they did not attack all at once.


    In the next moment the building Selene was fighting on folds over at Harry''s command and smashed against Selene. A breath later the entire building cracked and shattered into rubble floating in the directionless space with Selene floating in the center. An invisible Harry slashed against her once more with his sword and she flew back to distance herself and conjured her own sword. Harry matched her flying speed and slashed through her flesh over and over.


    At this point Selene realized she is slower than normal. Harry''s strength is much higher than what she could wield but she could see that his speed did not reach her own, yet she was failing to dodge or parry his slashes and was taking more and more damage. She cast a wave of magic through herself and returned to her max speed, deflecting Harry''s sword and throwing him back. She realized that the sword to her heart he initially struck her with had cast a Slow spell against her and the spell had been refreshing with every slice of Harry''s energy sword.


    Harry felt the Impedimenta jinx he''d cast on her get dispelled and knew she figured out his trick. Harry''s magic was undetectable so fighting while casting jinxes and invisibility spells was obvious. Harry''s standard spells seemed to have no effect on her but when cast through his sword the spells worked as it was the equivalent of casting a spell through a wound instead of against the skin.


    Harry was going for the long fight. Selene''s body had much in common with his own in that she was basically a bundle of flesh and magic held together by a massive life force. Much like a video game boss, she would not die until her accumulated Life Force, her Health Points, had reached zero. Harry had spells that could drain life force of course but draining life force was Selene''s mutant power and the spells he tried had no effect on her as they were weaker than what the immortal could do naturally.


    Harry turned invisible again and moved to strike once more.


    Not wanting to be left on the defensive, Selene used her psychokinesis to freeze all the debris in the area around her in place. She could feel if any of it was touched so she could find Harry through that.


    Harry teleported some distance away when he felt what she was doing and took what looked like a gourd out of his inventory. Harry pointed it at Selene and used his own psychokinesis to pull the trigger within.


    Selene''s head and upper torso exploded in a mass of blood and gore. A line of buildings behind her shattered outwards damaging the line of buildings to each side of them. The gourd contained a pocket dimension which contained a very long railgun Harry eventually crafted at Jean''s nagging to make one. The bullet travelled roughly twenty times the speed of sound and were actually magically shrunken. The bullets unshrank to the size of a cannonball before it reached its target and the kinetic force could probably put a dent in the moon. This of course meant he couldn''t use it on earth.


    The mass of flesh reformed itself back into Selene with her clothes perfectly intact just as Harry reappeared behind her and slashed her once more. The bullet only did physical damage which was actually less than the magic damage Harry''s sword strikes were dealing to her so after striking her again Harry teleported away and fired another round with his railgun.


    Harry made note of that spell and reappeared in front of her and started slashing again. He couldn''t give her time to breath or escape. Both were capable of flight so the twisting buildings and mountains of rubble around them didn''t get in the way.


    Selene took the next slash without blocking and sent a lightning bolt spell at Harry which smashed him into a nearby building. Harry endured it and countered her next cast of Lightning with a Lightning Rod spell he cast at the ground that caused lightning to be directed to that point. Selene tried holding him in place with Psychokinesis and Harry countered by making a film of Psychokinesis around himself which allowed him to slip out of any psionic grip she placed him in.


    Selene shouted, "Enough!" Twelve enormous purple glyphs appeared in the space around them and Harry felt the space lock up, preventing him from magical teleportation. Selene conjured dozens of shards of black ice and pointed them at Harry before launching them forward. Harry threw a silver ring in front of him and when it expanded, Selene saw her own back on the other side of the ring. She looked behind her to see a second ring had formed and Harry used his own psychokinesis to speed up the shards of black ice to prevent her from blocking.


    Harry''s Portals had so many different types of magic in them, he had yet to find a way to block them and even standard space locks could not do so.


    Selene dodged a few but some of the black ice hit her and Selene''s body instantly froze. Harry flew over to the ice sculpture and tried to place it in his inventory, but unsurprisingly, it didn''t work. Harry could in fact put petrified non-magical animals in his inventory and hoped he could do so with a frozen person as well.


    The black ice exploded as Selene''s flesh and blood changed into Shadow. The Shadow expanded and engulfed Harry before reforming into Selene. She had grabbed Harry''s arm and smiled. Then frowned. Her life force absorption ability was unable to drain anything from Harry.


    Harry knew the gig was up. She had only humored him with this fight because she knew once she touched him, she would win. Selene was a psionic vampire and she could drain the life and will from her victims, turning them into her slaves. No matter how strong Harry was, once she had him in her grasp, she would control him. Or so she thought.


    Harry released the strength energy of Cyttorak, his Immortal Dragon Chi, and created his Heavy Eldritch sword. His single slash shattered Selene''s psionic barrier and cut her in two dealing many forms of damage. Harry didn''t stop at one cut and sliced over and over.


    Selene''s dismembered body parts shifted back into Shadow and Harry cast a nonverbal Patronus charm and a bus sized dragon of light appeared within the shadow. The dragon exhaled its fire shaped light breath and from what Harry could tell, dealt serious damage to Selene.


    Serious damage being relative. If Selene had a health bar at 10,000, then Harry''s total damage up to this point would be less than a thousand. Of course, Selene''s magic and psionics also required her life force to use. Putting out the Hellfire Fiend used over a thousand points and the skills she used up to now also used up about five hundred. Of course, this meant that Harry had only forced her down a quarter of her total might but his own magic was nearly empty. The Hellfyre Heart alone used up more than two third of his magic. Not that Selene could sense his reserves.


    Selene''s shadow form turned back into flesh. Harry almost flinched at her look. She was beyond livid at this point. Selene spoke calmly but her voice traveled through every inch of the mirror world. "I went easy on you because I wanted you alive. As you don''t understand how to appreciate my kindness. It is time for you to die."


    Harry calmly answered back, "There is still much about me you do not understand. Just remember that I did warn you. You will gain nothing from going against me."


    Her eyes narrowed at that. She could tell Harry was referring to something but she could not grasp what. In any case, it was time to end this.


    Harry could feel a significant portion of Selene''s lifeforce was suddenly being used. In the next moment, wave after wave of psionic force spread out from Selene. Every building and structure was shattered and the space around Harry became nearly solid. Since she couldn''t hold Harry, she held the space around him using her psychokinesis. The buildings getting wrecked around them was not done intentionally, but was merely a byproduct of the intense power she was using.


    Suddenly, another wave was expanding outward from another direction. Harry sighed and used Load Save. Harry''s body turned to dust just as the wave reached the pair and all concepts lost meaning. Solids turned to liquids and multicolored matter formed from nothing and the outlines of structures blurred and bent.


    Selene''s control over space was cut and caused a massive backlash as her psionic senses which should have been able to passively scan everything around her started ripping her own mind to shreds as if the knowledge of the space around her was an attack against her own mind.


    Matter, space, and color blurred together and broke apart as the immortal''s body crumbled and elongated. Every moment of existence dealt heavy damage to her and anything she tried to defend herself with ended up dealing more damage to her.


    The bubble that engulfed her and caused this had engulfed the entire mirror city which caused the view to look like something from a Salvador Dali painting.


    From the outside the bubble had lasted only a few seconds before popping but within where time and space had lost meaning so it could not be calculated if Selene experienced moments, seconds or minutes within. What could be seen however was that when the bubble popped, everything within turned to dust as reality re-established itself. Selene herself was nowhere to be seen.


    Harry''s particles were able to shift from his existing position back to his save point even during the collapse of causality as nothing about Harry''s Load Save feature worked using logic or physics.


    Harry emerged inside a closet in his room back at the Institute. One benefit Load Save had over actually dying was that he did not drop a full level. If he was 80% of the way through level 100 and died, he would return to 80% of the way through level 99. Load save however actually would take him to 99% of level 99. Just b?r?ly under the energy requirement threshold to restore his level.


    Thankfully he had leveled up two days ago so there was b?r?ly a waste in dropping to 99% of the previous level. Harry Paused and went over his stats and the fight in his head.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 231 Age 15


    STR 300 AGI 310


    INT 510 WIS 475


    LUK 30


    Warrior Path Rank 29


    Scholar Path Rank 46


    Magic Path Rank 42


    Tech Path Rank 36


    Business Path Rank 30


    Crafting Path Rank 29


    Dragon Path Rank 12


    Psionic Path Rank 23]


    Rogue and Wanda would not stop nagging him to increase his luck and since he was inventing more often he eventually relented and brought it up to 30. The rest of his skills and stats were more rounded out since Harry was a multiclass character with stackable abilities. That''s why his eldritch sword did measurable damage to Selene when a normal sword would do almost nothing and normal magic would likely not pierce through her magic defenses.


    Selene herself, if Harry had to give an estimate, would have been around level 400 with a Magic Path Rank of 35 and a Psionic Path Rank of 45. Unless Jean went full Phoenix Avatar which had irreversible consequences, then Selene could be considered one of the strongest Psionics on the planet, just behind Charles when he was boosted by Cerebro. Even if Harry used everything in his inventory he had no way to kill her before she could run which was why the only thing he brought out from his inventory was the rail gun gourd. Harry could use powerful equipment to fight beings at higher levels like when he killed Chiantang but the Black Dragon fought him without flying and actually died when his heart exploded. For high level immortals who could survive their hearts exploding, Harry could only fight them until they ran away and came back for revenge one day. The demon N''astirh was a good example. Harry wanted to deal as much damage as possible before she could run which was why he didn''t use Phoenix Flame.


    Harry didn''t know if Selene survived the Reality Bomb or not but it didn''t matter. Records show that Selene was successfully killed around the 6th century and came back some time later. Even if her store life force hit zero, she could still somehow come back. She wasn''t called immortal for nothing after all.


    No, the point of the fight was not to kill Selene or make her flee, but to make her understand that she had nothing to gain from fighting Harry. If Harry wanted to make her flee without a fight, he would have summoned Phoenix flames instead of a Hellfyre Heart. Harry felt such a thing could permanently kill the immortal if used against her while she was in a weakened state.


    This time, if she survived, she would find out that Harry had survived as well, thus making her think Harry could resurrect or was immortal like her. Immortals tended to stay out of each other''s way so revealing this was the only thing Harry could do. Harry doubted she would recover the the same strength any time soon so if she did show again, Harry felt with some prep and magic armor, he could finish her off. Since he didn''t show her his Phoenix Flames this fight, she wouldn''t know he could end her until it was too late.


    As for the reality bomb itself, it was something he needed to go back and plant. The text message he received, ''Bill and Ted BJ Cage, RB MK5,'' was the shorthand of a plan. In the movie Bill and Ted''s Bogus Journey, which he abbreviated to Bill and Ted BJ, they used a cage against the villain which they set up by coming back from the future after defeating him with the cage. RB MK5 meant he needed to use the Reality Bomb Mark 5, his strongest weapon capable of wiping cities from the map.


    Harry wouldn''t consider the fight a win or loss. He had to use a reality bomb after all and she was better built for a long fight than he was. Of course, Selene was far worse off. Harry could recover spent magic and levels and the resources he lost in the reality bomb''s use could be regained. Selene''s Health Points were not recoverable with rest. She had to drain life force from others to regain her might and that was not an easy thing for her to do without attracting attention. Selene was a mighty enemy, but her weakness was that she could in fact be defeated by numbers if she spent more life force attacking others than she got from draining her attackers.


    Harry unpaused and got out a time turner and went back three hours. He then opened a portal to MIT and another to the mirror dimension and found a place to set the reality bomb out of harm''s way. He didn''t need to arm it with a timer. This thing was dangerously unstable and would go off pretty easily so Harry had to set up all kinds of protections around it. The immense psionic waves Selene emitted at the end to finish him would be enough to break through the protections and set the bomb off.


    Next, Harry found the room Selene intended to meet him in and created a portal to the Mirror dimension in the doorway and spent some time hiding it. He concealed himself and waited there while maintaining the portal whose silver ring was hidden in the wall, roof, and ceiling of the doorframe.


    Selene eventually showed and Harry held his breath and presence with every wizard magic he could think of. Selene wasn''t expecting an ambush of course so she entered the room through the door after hypnotizing one of MIT''s staff to bring Harry to her.


    The concealed Harry from the future then sent the text message to the current Harry who shortly afterwards was led into the room where the door was shut.


    Harry cancelled the portal once the door was closed and walked over to the hypnotized staff member. Harry wasn''t the type who invaded every person''s mind to tell if they were controlled or not so he hadn''t seen that this woman had no idea what was going on. Harry used telepathy to release her from the weak hypnosis Selene had over her and asked, "Excuse me, I seem to have gotten lost. Can you direct me to where the stage is for the Dissertation?"


    The woman shook her head for a moment and asked, "Mr. Potter? Of course, right this way."


    Harry met a few more of his fellow nerds and geniuses who wanted a few words with Harry he was happy to share. When it was time, someone went on stage to quiet the audience and get them ready.


    Once called over Harry walked up on stage. He was tempted to imagine everyone in their und?rw??r but far too many members of the audience were older men. In fact with the exception of his girls and some of the students from the Institute and from MIT, most of the audience were older men with many a bald spot scattered throughout the seats.


    A cinematic projector lit up the wall behind him showing the slides he had prepared to introduce the basics of Metaphysics. Although on paper Harry was fifteen, six weeks sigh of his sixteenth birthday, Harry''s six foot stature, well defined muscles and healthy frame could easily pass for someone in their late teens in casual clothes and early twenties when he wore professional attire. His confident gaze prevented any member of the audience from thinking he did not deserve to stand there.


    "Electricity as we think of it, is a property of the electromagnetic spectrum. Now, imagine there is a planet out there that through some quirk, does not have a single ferrous metal on that planet. No iron, no copper, silver, or gold. Nothing that could conduct electricity or could turn into a magnet. Imagine if some form of life existed on that planet. Now imagine explaining electricity and magnetism to that species. Could you do it in a way they would understand? Not really. You would need to reference ferrous, electrically conductive metals. Such materials are how we interact with the electromagnetic spectrum."


    Harry had several slides which showed magnets, copper wires, and semiconductors to illustrate the point.


    Harry continued, "Metaphysics, is the study of other spectrums of energy previously unknown because we did not have any materials that could interact with them. Such materials do not form naturally on this planet and it was only within the last year that a means to synthesize materials that could interact with these spectrums was discovered by me."


    Several hands rose of course to no doubt ask what these processes were and where Harry discovered them. Harry certainly was not going to tell people he met a Time Lord and spent centuries studying his sonic screwdriver to figure out how to use sound to alter the material physics of nearly anything.


    "Hold your questions until after the lecture please. There are questions I am going to answer and questions I am not going to answer so asking either at the moment would be a waste of time. At the end of the lecture I am going to hand out ten packages which include several samples of these materials which I''ll be calling Metagems and instructions on how to use them to interact with the fields I am going to go over."


    Harry would of course tell everyone that he expected the care packages to be returned and he expected many of them to be stolen or ''lost.'' Each metagem had a spell which combined the Portkey spell and the switching spell to make a long distance switch. After the designated time, the metagems would be swapped with identical gems which had not been processed with the Sonic Screwdriver.


    There was also a spell that would destroy the gems if they were damaged so if someone tried to scrap any off, the gem would break and its properties would be lost. Not that scrapping any off would let someone make more. It was possible if you knew how to use a tiny bit of a gemstone and use it to grow more. Using such a process on Harry''s metagems would either not work or cause them to turn back into normal gems.


    Harry''s dissertation was about two hours long and the only reason it was so short was because much of it referenced material he included in his textbooks and the dissertation was just a sample to prove that he wasn''t talking out of his ?ss.


    Once it was over Harry told everyone how they could get one of the ten sample packages.


    "Any group with research purposes may apply to receive one of the packages. The group however must have a history of at least ten years and sign a form stating that all samples must be returned in the same condition they were given in two months, no later than June 17th. They must also agree to the penalties of losing any sample in the care package. Those who cannot agree to such penalties should not bother to apply for any of the samples. You must also sign an agreement that any and all findings from studying the samples must be openly published."


    The sample package included seven metagems and showed how to use them and what they could do. For example, a material physics altered quartz could be used to interact with the astral plane. Altered quartz was actually how Harry''s cell phones worked, they transmitted info through the astral plane which was why they could bypass physical barriers and distance. Harry used some tricks he learned from Lockheed about Astral Tech to make the signal undetectable in the astral plane without specific tools. If he didn''t, then Astral travelers would be able to intercept the signal or would just be bothered greatly by it. They could even block those signals in the astral plane if they knew it was there. The fact that Xavier has not said anything and many of the Students had cell phones meant the concealing part had worked fine.


    Other pieces in the package were; an altered ruby that could channel strength energy; an altered sapphire that could channel ice energy; an altered tourmaline for fire, heat, and light energy; an altered emerald for illusion energy; an altered opal for cloud and mist energy; and an altered diamond for dimension energy.


    Of course Harry didn''t show it off as Sorcery even though that was basically what most of them were. He used scientific jargon and called the effect ''phenomenon,'' and showed charts and graphs and numbers explaining how each energy field interacted with the world.


    Of course, not calling it magic didn''t stop people from recognizing how unbelievable it all was. No one in the lecture hall would argue that if all the properties shown by those materials were possible, the world would change.


    A number of groups did not apply for the packages either because they couldn''t afford the penalty fees from losing them or because they were smart enough to realize the possibility of them being stolen and their security wasn''t enough.


    Harry somewhat rushed through the rest of the meetings and once the day was over he headed over to Kamar-Taj to give the Ancient One an update.


    After tea, the Ancient One summarized, "Over-all I cannot say you could have done better. Using a self generated time travel loop is disturbing and there may be consequences in the future, but having tricked her into the Mirror dimension and dealing so much damage to her to the point of possibly killing her physical form is a worthwhile feat."


    Harry had not left out anything about the conversation they had and the fight that followed including the spells he used and how she responded. He knew that some part of him may have wanted to be praised a little for getting one over on Selene the Immortal and he did smile at her ?ssessment. Harry did not consider himself a hero but he was of the mind to keep the collateral damage caused by him to a minimum when he could.


    The Ancient One continued, "Selene is not the only person of power you have drawn the attention of. Does the name Gene Khan, of Khan industries ring a bell?"


    Harry nodded, "CEO of one of the largest, most advanced, nastiest tech companies of Asia."


    The Ancient One continued, "Gene Khan is the given name of the Mandarin."


    Harry froze for a moment and sighed. He did in fact give his name to that guy and showed his face. Although they were literally on the other side of the planet from each other, that didn''t mean there would not be any interactions. However he accepted that he would have come to head with such a person eventually so it didn''t matter.


    The Ancient One then pulled out the cellphone Harry had gifted her, and after a moment handed it to Harry. The phone was on the Mystic Knowledge website the temple hosted and seemed to be a post on the forum with some pictures of old texts. The Ancient One asked, "Do you recognize this?"


    Harry recognized the script of course and the content was more than a little disconcerting. Harry answered, "Pages from the Book of Erebus. Scripts about the Blood God La Magra. Where did this come from?"


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Stop the rise of the Blood God


    Vampires are plotting the Resurrection of La Magra, stop the ritual or Defeat La Magra]


    The Ancient One didn''t didn''t see Harry get the quest and said, "It was posted by someone in New York.. I believe his name is Whistler."

 Chapter 49 - 49 Blood and Blade

    Harry read over the post a few times. Whistler had posted a picture of some ancient parchment which appeared to be from the Book of Erebus, the Vampire Bible. He was asking for expert on the matter to ?ssist with the translations and it had only been posted a few hours ago.


    Harry told the Ancient One he got a quest so she asked, "Would you like any back up?"


    Harry considered it but answered, "No. La Magra can turn humans into vampires with its mere presence if some of the things I''ve read are true. I don''t have actual blood so I should be safe, but I can''t guarantee anyone but you would not be affected." And her needing to stay at Kamar-Taj was left unsaid.


    The Ancient One''s body was not exactly alive due to the presence of energy from the Dark Dimension. If removed from her body, her blood would rapidly age to dust and a blood transfusion into her would do more harm than good which was why she had to be careful in combat.


    The Ancient One then said, "Then I expect you to call me if you cannot handle it on your own."


    Harry agreed of course and after using some means to track down the IP address, he used a Portal to take himself back to New York. What he found however was just a routing box someone hacked into so Harry had to take out some hacking tools of his own to track the physical location of the IP address.


    Five minutes later he found it. The system was rather old which, oddly enough, was a great anti-hacking measure as old stuff takes longer to hack than new stuff.


    Harry tracked the IP address to a warehouse and concealed himself. The warehouse smelled of metal, gunpowder, and blood. Fresh blood. He teleported in and found it seemingly silent of life. There were fresh corpses strewn about from what looked like an ?ssault squad that had raided the place no more than an hour ago. The fact that their bodies were not recovered was a clear indication of the alignment of the corpses.


    In the center was a work station with a chair. There seemed to be a man sitting on the chair covered in blood. To the side of him was a gun.


    Harry used several spells on the man and found a number of things. First and unsurprisingly, there was a bullet hole in his ?h?st. It entered one side and went out the other. The next thing he found was that even before the bullet, the man was severely lacking in blood. He was covered in bite marks and claw marks and his face look like someone had taken a baseball bat to it, repeatedly. The last, and probably most interesting thing he found, was that the man was not dead. Not completely anyways.


    This man appeared to be Whistler and Harry''s only lead on the Blood God. He was obviously attacked by vampires and left b?r?ly alive. He then shot himself, probably with a silver bullet, but the bullet went through the other side and he had yet to completely turn.


    Magic Vampires also had better control over themselves and required blood less frequently which was why though considered dark creatures, it was illegal to hunt magic vampires. Since they did not instantly burst into flame upon constant with sunlight they were not considered threats to the statue of secrecy. Magic vampires also had to follow interesting rules such as they could not enter a house uninvited. They were also incapable of turning someone else into a vampire in the presence of a heavy garlic smell and had issues crossing running water or setting sail from the sea during the changing of tides.


    However a magic vampire could only turn a witch or wizard into a magic vampire. Their bite had no effect on muggles. They were also only marginally stronger and faster than a normal magical and could not have children. Most magic vampires hunted only muggles and used memory charms to hide their activities. Since they weren''t a great danger to Witches and Wizards, only muggles who they usually didn''t kill, they were not considered a great threat to the magical Communities. Magical Vampires also aged at about the same rate at Witches and wizards so they were not immortal and not considered all that different from uninfected witches and wizards.


    Nonmagical vampires were different. They had many weaknesses but were physically much stronger and faster. They did not have to follow any rules either so breaking into a home and killing everyone wasn''t difficult for them. They stopped aging once infected and could s?xu??ly reproduce. Their children aged to ?du?thood before they too stopped aging and were considered ''Pure Bloods''. Either type, turned or pure blood could spread their vampirism to any muggle who survived their bite.


    Should a muggle vampire bite a witch or wizard, said magical would lose their magic and turn into a muggle vampire. Solely because of this, the magic community had one policy on muggle vampires. Exterminate on sight. This policy when compared to Magic vampires really showed that magic communities only really cared about their magic.


    Harry took a vial of elixir of life from his inventory and poured it down the man''s throat. The elixir didn''t technically heal people. It used life to remove death. This meant it was also a handy cure to most things. It shouldn''t heal muggle vampirism, but the man was still, just b?r?ly on this side of human and his wounds had not started healing yet.


    Harry smiled once he sensed the man''s life return. The vampirism was eradicated and the man''s wounds were closing up. Some of his wrinkles smoothed and an old injury in the man''s leg also appeared to be healing.


    Once the man was no longer mostly dead, Harry pressed a finger to the man''s forehead and read his memories.


    Once finished, Harry Paused and looked over what he had just read. Overall, he was impressed. Technically Whistler was a murderer and could be considered prejudice against another race. Harry wasn''t going to hold that against him though. Harry didn''t consider himself a saint either. What was most interesting was this Blade Character.


    From what Harry could tell, Blade was a muggleborn whose mother was bitten by a vampire. Because of that, somehow, Blade was a hybrid. Part Muggle Vampire, part Magic Vampire. Harry didn''t know if he could cast magic but he had no doubt his blood was special. He had complete immunity to Sunlight and no aversion to garlic or silver which even Magic vampires couldn''t say.


    Deacon and his minions found the warehouse and kicked Whistler''s ?ss and took a woman named Karen. Karen had, surprisingly, figured out how to cure non pureblood vampires. She had been bitten and had cured herself. Blade knew it was a trap, but still went after her.


    Harry ran over to a dvd player in the shop that already had in it a dvd that Frost had left for Blade to watch. The video showed the address of a penthouse Harry didn''t recognize. Instead of pulling up a map of New York, Harry went over to the workstation Karen had set up and found some of her blood. Harry used a tracking spell to lock in on her location and made a portal.


    On the other side was Karen, lying on a couch with a handkerchief on her neck. She looked quite shocked at the portal and Harry just asked, "Where''s Blade?"


    She apparently got over her shock quite quickly and said, "Downstairs killing vampires."


    Harry shrugged and pointed to the portal behind him, "That''s Whistler''s warehouse. Get out now and I''ll help Blade."


    Harry didn''t have time to argue so he put a light compulsion spell on the woman to get her to leave. Harry read her surface memories as she walked past him and saw that they already got Blade''s blood and she had given him lots of her own to get him back on his feet. Harry also cast a discrete diagnosis spell on her and confirmed she had muggle vampirism. Did that mean that Blade could only transmit Muggle Vampirism or could he turn a Wizard into a Magical vampire? Harry supposed it didn''t matter, no one would ever volunteer to test that.


    Harry ran down the stairs and saw the bodies of dead humans and the ash piles of slain vampires. Harry didn''t care about the humans as they were certainly vampire servants. Such people considered themselves future vampires and stopped considering themselves humans meaning they could look down on and treat humans as disposable. If they didn''t consider themselves humans, Harry had even less reason to care about their deaths.


    Harry cast a few stealth spells that rendered him invisible and hid his smell. The building was a penthouse from the outside but the inside had been heavily renovated with cut stone into an exact replica of a ritual chamber. Harry admitted whoever built this thing wasn''t an amateur and if he wasn''t dead by dawn he''d need to find him. Harry peered over a ledge and saw the center of the ritual formation which had a pale vampire saturated in high level necromantic energies watching a black vampire with an interesting magical signature dust his way through groups of other vampires.


    One look at the pasty vampire told Harry this was not going to be simple. He immediately conjured a mandala of dimensional energy and started casting a heavy barrier spell over the site. One bonus from a working ritual room was that it was compatible with lots of other spells. This one would prevent anyone from leaving until Harry dispelled the barrier or was killed.


    Blade finished off the last vampires and Frost took up a sword. Blade charged forward to meet him blade to blade as Harry watched from above while continuing to cast his barrier spell. The sound of metal echoed through the ritual stone chamber was each rapid clash of their weapons. They moved faster than the human eye could follow and Blade was on the losing end of speed but was gaining ground through skill. A feint that turned into a parry removed Frost''s arm but in the next moment it grew back. Frost''s speed suddenly magnified and Harry cringed. At the moment, Frost was still in control, but the more time went on and the more of the Blood God''s power he used, the less Frost there would be. Harry put in a bit more magic into speeding up the barrier spell, he''d be needed soon.


    After being knocked down, Blade threw his sword into the crack of a stone wall that had some vials Harry recognized lodged within. The sword handle snapped open using a clever mechanism and the rock holding the vials cracked and allowed Blade to catch them as they fell.


    Frost didn''t seem worried about the vials and referred to them as Blade''s serum. Harry knew what they were from the info he got from Whistler and knew what was going to happen.


    Blade threw vial after vial at Frost of the Anticoagulant compound and after a moment the human form of the Blood God had swollen to massive proportions.


    Harry heard Blade calmly state, "Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill," before he did a flying roundhouse kick to shoot the last vial straight into the bloated god''s forehead. The swollen mass grew larger and redder until with a painful groan of Frost''s it burst open and showered the room in a mass of blood.


    Harry sighed and shouted down to the vampire hunter, "Hey! You didn''t think it would be that easy did you?"


    Blade looked up to the unfamiliar fifteen year old wizard pointing at the blood stains on the wall. Harry was thankful he completed his barrier spell. The real fight was about to start.


    The puddles of blood had Blade''s attention and he watched as they started wriggling. Harry heard the hunter utter a curse as the blood shot up into the air and formed a wriggling ball of blood.


    Harry jumped down from the ledge several stories and landed with a crouched fist to the ground and a crack of stone beneath his feet. He figured the hunter might give him some respect if he made an entrance. Harry was wearing a basilisk hooded cloak to make himself look a bit more professional. The t-shirt and jeans he changed into after the Dissertation would not leave a reliable impression.


    Blade apparently wasn''t the type for small talk so he motioned to the massive rippling ball of blood floating in the center of the ritual chamber and asked, "And you have a better idea?"


    Harry conjured some golden Eternal Fire and said, "I might." He enlarged the inextinguishable fire and from within dozens of small birds and large birds composed of yellow flames flew out and into the blood mass.


    Harry expected the Eternal Fire to incinerate the blood, but the firebirds that flew into the blood ball were engulfed and went out.


    Blade looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. Harry awkwardly admitted, "That wasn''t supposed to happen."


    Streams of blood poured in from various corners and floors of the building. Harry recognized their paths as those from the human corpses he had walked by. Harry said, "You certainly killed a lot of familiars."


    Blade answered smoothly, "It''s what I do."


    Harry rose a hand into the air and started building up a charge of lightning. His hand started to glow and crackle with electricity and in the next moment Harry fired an enormous bolt of lightning into the blood ball which pierced through to the other side. And did nothing.


    Blade looked unimpressed and added, "Can you do ice?"


    Harry sighed and called forth Icy energy from Ikthalon''s realm. He conjured a dozen Ice Spears of various sizes and shot them into the blood ball. And nothing happened.


    The ball had finished collecting all the blood in the building and was now squirming and molding itself into a solid shape.


    Harry pulled out potions, poisons, and acids from his inventory and threw them at the blood mass with no effect. Harry tried transfiguring the blood into something else and tried Alchemy, but neither had an effect. He tried pulling it into a expanded bag with telekinesis but it had no effect.


    Harry was getting pissed and shouted, "Do you think this is Dungeons and Dragons?! Are you a God or an Ooze?! What other species is immune to Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Acid, and Psionics you knockoff!"


    That earned Harry a slightly amused stare from Blade. Harry concentrated his anger and summoned Phoenix Fire. This took too long to create for a fight and was too slow to shoot, but the god had yet to finish his transformation and was still just floating there.


    Harry created the largest batch of Phoenix Flame he could and launched it at the Blood God.


    The blood seared and a shriek of pain could be heard. The blood successfully caught on fire but only the surface. All parts of the blood that were ignited were thrown off the blood god which decided to stop taking its time and quickly finished its transformation into a giant creature seemingly composed of bundles of thick, crimson vines Harry knew to be densely packed volumes of blood. It looked like a giant bundle of veins of various sizes given a bipedal form.


    Blade readied his sword and at the moment the creature formed he sliced at the creature''s side. The sword passed through without difficulty but the wound closed up in the next moment. The creature opened its eyes and shouted in a razor edged voice, "Blade!" Harry figured this meant Frost was still in there.


    The Blood God Avatar moved far faster than would be expected from its size and the grotesque appendage it used as an arm stretched and quickly wrapped around Blade''s torso and began to crush him. Harry cast a Slippery Spell on Blade which made the surface of his body frictionless, though Harry left his hands and feet unaffected. This allowed Blade to use his strength to slip free as Harry tried to distract the Blood God by shooting the Avatar''s eye with some bullets from his magic gun.


    Blade got some distance and Harry shouted, "I''ve been wailing at him for three minutes and the first thing he does is attack you? Where is the love?!"


    The Blood God finally noticed Harry and said with a blood curdling voice, "Human? You serve me now." He emitted a red aura which engulfed the ritual room and spread out to engulf the whole building. Harry felt it stop at his barriers though.


    *Ping*


    [Status Effect: Instant Vampirism negated due to Obscurus Body.]


    However the moment the first drop reached the surface of the portal where it should have been su?k?d into the vacuum, Harry felt the portal shatter. He suddenly felt like he had been electrocuted from the backlash. It was common sense that powerful magical beings could not be forced through portals but he hoped the Blood God was an exception. Turns out nope. He can trick powerful beings into walking through a portal themselves, but he couldn''t push them through.


    The blood drops converged and almost instantly the Avatar reformed and was looking rather pissed at Harry.


    Blade used the moment where the God''s attention was not on him to cut several times through its legs to disable it for a moment.


    Blade asked Harry, "That fire which hurt the fu?ker. Can you make it again?"


    Harry knew he was referring to the Phoenix flame. The backlash from the collapsed portal would make it difficult to cast magic for a moment but Psionics were not an issue, it just took a while.


    Harry said, "Yes, but it will take a few seconds. He''s not going to just stand there and take it though."


    Blade asked, "Can you use it on my sword?"


    Harry smirked, "Now there''s an idea. Keep him distracted."


    Blade ran over to continue pissing the God off and impressively dodged the monster''s high speed attacks.


    Harry opened his inventory and got out a Goblin Silver Sword of his own design and started coalescing Phoenix flame into his hand. He didn''t know if this would work but he figured this blade would last longer than the silver coated sword Blade was using. Goblin Silver was far stronger than normal silver after all.


    The Blood God realized Blade was a distraction and that Harry was up to something so it pointed all its appendages at Harry and they shot forward like spears. Harry wondered why the monster hadn''t been doing so all along and apparated to the other side of the room and continued gathering flames. His barrier prevented others from escaping but he could still make portals and teleport as he pleased.


    Once Harry had enough fire he placed it onto the Goblin Silver edge and threw the sword to Blade who jumped into the air and caught it with ease. The sword had natural enchantments on it to raise the user''s speed and Blade turned into a blur. The glowing flames of the sword created a path of light as Blade zigzagged around the Blood God and slashed into its form over and over from every angle. Within three seconds from grabbing the sword Blade had cut the Blood God twenty times leaving trails of burning blood over every inch of its body.


    The Blood God tried in vain to separate itself from the flames but more and more flames continued to be added with each slash.


    Finally realizing this was not going to end well, the Blood God did what all powerful evil villains do when it looks like they were going to lose. It ran. The Phoenix Flame couldn''t permanently kill the actual Blood God who had simply been resurrected into this Avatar but it would certainly do real damage to it and the lingering remnant of Frost which insisted on killing Blade was smothered from the Blood God''s instincts forcing him to give up the fight.


    The Blood God''s form elongated and stretched into that of a spear coated in phoenix flames and quickly charged into the wall to pierce through.


    Only to smash straight into the barrier. Harry couldn''t help but smirk. This was the difference between power acquired quickly and power acquired properly. Frost was instinctively using the properties of the Blood God pretty well for defense but didn''t know the first thing about using Godly energies to attack. He was ignorant of magic and since the barrier was tied into the stone of the very ritual room used to create the Blood God, it was very effective against it.


    This was not exactly a coincidence. Harry doubted it was written down in whatever Frost used to make this room, but most ritual summoning chambers doubled as containment chambers. This ritual room really was well done and could be used for both.


    Blade caught up to the blood spear still smashing into the barrier in a panic and Blade launched himself forward cutting the entire spear shaped mass lengthwise in half.


    He then noticed the sword''s hilt had caught fire and threw it before Blade himself was taken by the flame.


    Harry created several psionic barriers around the dying Avatar and performed a few detection spells to make sure none was missed. It was a shame they killed it with Phoenix flame as that meant there would be no experience points since Phoenix flames burned everything into pure life force but he would at least have something to collect.


    Blade asked, "Why didn''t you turn?" Blade knew that La Magra could turn humans into Vampire minions instantly and Harry smelled human.


    Harry answered easily, "I''m made of stronger stuff. Speaking of turning, I found Karen upstairs when I got here and used a Portal to send her to Whistler''s warehouse. So she wasn''t here when La Magra here used his aura."


    "And what are you?"


    Harry smiled, "A rich guy with a hobby."


    The final embers of Phoenix fire burnt the last bits of the Blood God and Harry heard the sound he was waiting for.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Stop the rise of the Blood God


    Reward: +2 Magic Path Rank]


    Harry smiled at the reward. His Magic Path Rank jumping from 42 to 44 was a very large increase in skill for him. It was getting really, really hard to increase Path Ranks after 40. Though in retrospect the difficulty of the quest deserved that reward. Frost was like a noob using a level 99 character for the first time but the longer he fought the stronger he would get. If it were for the nonstandard effect of Phoenix Flame combined with Blade''s excellent sword skill and quick thinking, that battle would not have been so cut and dry. He probably would''ve hidden in a corner and called the Ancient One for backup.


    Harry dispelled the Barrier and collected the life force. Blade noticed the glowing glyphs on the wall which shined when La Magra smashed into it fade away.


    Harry said, "I want to check on Karen to make sure she is alright." With that Harry made another silver portal into Whistler''s Warehouse and walked in. Blade followed once he confirmed the scent of the place. Harry felt Blade and Wolverine would get along very well.


    Harry could tell Blade wanted answers so Harry said, "I''ll answer your questions after everyone is here."


    Karen shouted from another room in the warehouse, "Over here."


    Blade led on and Harry followed. Karen was at the same workstation Harry got her blood from and seemed to be using whatever she had developed to cure her infection once more. Harry definitely wanted to speak with her about that.


    "Blade. What the fu?k happened."


    For the first time since Harry met him, Blade showed some actual surprise when Whistler walked over. He had changed his bloody shirt and gotten himself cleaned up. He was no longer limping and even seemed a few years younger. Yet Blade could tell he wasn''t a vampire and that Whistler himself had no idea what was going on.


    Harry said, "That was me. Sit down and I''ll tell you what happened."


    Neither Whistler nor Blade sat which wasn''t a surprise. Harry continued anyway, "Whistler posted some pages on the Book of Erebus to MysticKnowledge .com for ?ssistance with the translation. That site is actually serviced by something of an order of mystic monks who defend the world from mystic threats. I''m something of a freelancer who works with them. I was asked to confirm the translation as well and determine the threat. I tracked Whistler''s IP address here and found him mostly dead. I used some rather valuable mystic elixir to heal him, though not because I''m an upstanding guy."


    Harry turned to Whistler and said, "No offense, but you were my only lead so saving you was my only option." Harry continued, "After returning him from the brink his mind was healed enough for me to read. Yes, I can do that. I learned what Frost had planned but had no idea where you were so I used tracking magic on Karen''s Blood which she left around. Yes, I can do that too. Once I found her, I made a portal, sent her back, helped Blade kill a God, and now we''re back. Any questions?"


    Whistler asked quickly, "What else did you learn from my head?"


    Harry answered, "Enough. You guys do good work." Harry turned to Karen and asked, "Now Ms. Jensen, would you mind showing me how your cure works? I''d prefer if some more testing was done but if there are no lasting negative effects I''d like to sponsor your research and perhaps mass production."


    Karen looked taken aback and asked, "How much?"


    "Fifty thousand for start up and another five thousand a month until you finish or give a reason to need more."


    Karen asked, "Will you need an invoice?"


    She was asking in a roundabout way if the money could be spent on things other than her research.


    Harry said, "I can pay you in cash off the books if that''s what you want. If some of the funds gets... donated.." Harry looked at Whistler and Blade before continuing, "to a cause you support that''s fine with me as long as there are some results within six months."


    Karen smirked and asked, "Where do I sign?" Much less results, she had a finished and tested product and had no problem making money reconfirming her results.


    Harry explained some of the details of his ideas and said he''d have some papers over the next day. He also asked if she wanted some extra security for her ''lab'' and Harry said he''d be willing to pay out of his own pocket for that. Whistler caught on that they were basically coming up with legal ways to pay and upgrade Whistler''s and Blade''s operation and both had a few words of input and suggestions on Security equipment and Guards.


    Harry also said he''d introduce Blade to a master smith who would enjoy forging weapons for someone who put them to good use. Up until now he had alluding to mystic monks but hadn''t told them about the magic world. Blade was either an untrained muggleborn or a variant squib so introducing him to the Goblins was not against the law as long as he didn''t tell Whistler or Karen what he saw and learned.


    When everything was settled Harry called the Ancient One and gave her an update. She asked what Harry would do with a mass produced Cure and Harry would just sell it on Mystic Knowledge .com as exactly what it was. If the cure acted fast enough he could even put it in a gun and combine it with a potent tranquilizer to knock out vampires which would then wake up cured.


    Harry wouldn''t do so to be nice to them of course. It was closer to a sinister prank than an act of kindness. He doubted a cured vampire would praise the loss of their superhuman abilities even if it meant not thirsting for human blood and being able to see the sun. Someone who was used to such a thing having suddenly lost it would feel weak and powerless.


    Of course, they might be able to find someone to turn them back. He''d have Karen look into ways to stop people from being turned or ways to poison a person''s blood against vampires to set a trap for those who tried turning the cured. Harry wondered if he was turning sadistic and decided to consult his girlfriends about it. Though some of them were worse than he was.


    Harry spent the next six weeks signing papers, negotiating deals, and dealing with property. One of the companies partially owned by P&G Bank and Trust purchased a property Harry chose in New York and had it demolished. It was currently being rebuilt under Harry''s exact specifications and would be finished by the second week of August.


    Harry''s metagems were due to return in two weeks and and Harry was eagerly waiting to see what shenanigans they tried. He wondered out of ten how many groups would return all the samples and how many would have them stolen, lost, or try to return fakes to him and claim they were real.


    One night however Harry received a text message from the compact mirror phone he gave to Emma Frost. The message actually had Harry do a double take and in the next moment he filled his backpack with gemstones and teleported to Xavier''s study.


    The message read, [I''ve been kidnapped by Giant, Mutant Hunting Robots.. Can''t talk, Please send help.]

 Chapter 50 - 50 X-Men Vs the Sentinels

    Xavier needed some clarification on Emma''s identity when Harry showed him the message and Harry basically told him she was the mutant daughter of a businessman Harry met and that Scott had been dating her for the past six months. This was enough for him to believe it wasn''t some kind of trap, allowing him to ?ssemble the X-Men.


    Harry asked Xavier, "Want to follow me to the Astral Plane and scout for more info from Emma? She can''t call us but we should be able to contact her there."


    Xavier asked, "Can you track her through the Astral Plane?"


    "I can track my phones through the Astral Plane and she has one."


    Scouting in the Astral Plane was mostly useless as the Astral Plane did not reliably overlap with the physical plane. For example the Institute in the Astral Plane was far larger due to the presence of multiple telepaths. Walls and buildings were not always in the same position and distance was not accurate. However they weren''t going to use the Astral Plane for reference, just to find Emma and get more intel.


    Xavier nodded and said, "Agreed. Logan, inform the others and ask Scott to give them some details on this Ms. Frost."


    Logan grunted in affirmation from the side and Harry sat down in a meditative stance and took out a piece of quartz he made glow before he put it in his inventory. His astral self separated from his body and was followed by Charles'' own.


    The Astral Plane didn''t exactly have a color but if one were to describe it they would probably call the space purple and the things within were a vapor~ish white. Xavier was rather confused when he saw Harry pull out some Astral Tech and say, "She''s this way. Hold on."


    Xavier suddenly found himself feeling enclosed and then pulled through space as if he was in the Blackbird while it was accelerating. This was a transport system that Lockheed''s race used to travel long distances through the Astral Plane. Though they used it for interstellar travel. Harry was just going a few hundred miles.


    The pulling motion stopped and they were floating in the air and saw what appeared to be Emma''s signature. She was not actively using the Astral Plane but all telepaths passively connected to it which was how they would communicate with her. Overall she appeared heavily stressed out but fine.


    Harry sent a mental call to Emma. "This is the Mutant Assistance Hotline. Please remain on hold until the next operator is available, your call is very important to us."


    Emma sent back with an audible sigh, "A p???sur? as always Harry. I ?ssume that is Professor Xavier traveling with you?"


    Harry answered, "Yup, so what''s going on and how were you kidnapped?"


    "Collateral damage I suppose. My father was having a meeting with Shaw and the latter was not doing so great. I suspect you have something to do with that. Whatever protections he seemed to have were missing from what I could tell. Suddenly a great big bloody robot showed up and shouted, ''Mutant Apprehension in Progress'' and nabbed Shaw. Apparently it could detect mutants and nabbed me too once it saw me. I''m currently in some kind of cell being flown over to where-ever. I have no signal on my cell but my mirror seems to have worked just fine." Her cell phone was not one of Harry''s but rather one her father gave her to keep tabs on her.


    Xavier put in his two cents, "Mutant detecting mutant hunting robots? Could it be the government or a private sector operation," he seemed to ask himself.


    Harry turned to Xavier and asked, "You wouldn''t happen to have Magneto''s number would you? If we''re going to raid this place, we''re going to do it right and a Master of Magnetism would probably be helpful." Harry knew a thing or two about the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants from Wanda and from the time he used Legilimency on Mystique.


    Xavier quickly answered, "No. Although I have no doubt Eric would be of ?ssistance in the goal, I cannot set him loose on the very people he has sworn to fight."


    Harry rolled his eyes. Xavier seemed to be making a lot of ?ssumptions.


    Harry added, "Alright, can we at least bring the third X-Men Team and the available teachers? The former Hellions can stay and are strong enough to defend against attacks if anything happens while we''re out."


    Last time there was an emergency like this, the available teachers had to stay behind to protect the institute. Now with the addition of the well trained former Hellions, the Institute had more strength to fall back on giving Xavier more latitude.


    Charles nodded and said, "Agreed. Scott and the others are sixteen and old enough to face the trials ahead." Harry still had a month and a half until his sixteenth Birthday but there wasn''t a way to argue against Harry''s inclusion in this mission so that point was not mentioned.


    Emma added, "Do be prepared for the possibility of a trap. If they are taking me alive, that means they have enough confidence in their security to keep Shaw and myself from escaping or they are using him as bait. In either case, expect resistance."


    Harry said, "Try to make yourself appear as someone else if seen by a human. When I get there I''ll erase whatever footage they have of you. Just because Shaw got outed doesn''t mean you should too."


    Emma stated back with a little relief, "I would appreciate that."


    Harry used the Astral Tech to return himself and Xavier back to the location of their bodies and returned to the physical plane. Jean, Scott, and the others had already gathered and suited up for a fight. Though Bobby had to stay because he was down with the flu. The second team''s Kitty Pryde offered to replace him since she was always around the mansion.


    Xavier stated, "A new enemy has revealed itself but may not yet know of us. A robot that can detect and hunt mutants has captured a mutant who had a means to contact Mr. Potter, and she is currently on her way to either a place being set up for a trap or a detention center. Our new arrivals will stay at the institute and remain on high alert to protect the students still at the school while we will mount a full scale ?ssault on the holding facility."


    Forge said, "Our priority should be the rescue of the captured mutants and seeing to their safe return, but we also need to find the source of these robots and see if we can take them out before they become a larger threat. We should do this in three teams. One to act as a distraction, one to infiltrate and rescue, and one to find the source of the robots."


    Scott added, "Agreed, but we should stick together at first until we learn the location of the other two objectives."


    Wolverine said, "Us teachers will act as the distraction then. You kids will do the infiltration. Forge, I''m guessing you and Potter will be team three?"


    Harry confirmed, "Works for me."


    Scott said, "Harry and Forge should stick with us to help bypass security at first. Harry can you bring some Diamonds to make those portals for when we find anyone who has been captured? Once they are safe, you two can finish your espionage thing."


    Harry and Forge shared a glance and smiled. Calling it espionage wasn''t exactly inaccurate.


    With the plan ?ssembled they boarded the Blackbird and took off. Harry shared a mental conversation with Wanda, Rogue, and Jean to not hold back if things were to get hectic. All three had enough Obscurus Particles to survive getting shot or stabbed but he didn''t want them to take chances.


    The only annoying thing about the trip was that Harry could only track Emma''s mirror with Astral Tech so to get directions he had to keep going into the Astral Plane over and over. Being reliant on Astral Tech was intentional as it made it so that only Astral Tech could intercept or track calls, but for situations like this it was annoying.


    The Blackbird parked in an abandoned train yard in a warehouse district some distance from where Emma''s signal was coming from. Jean and Xavier used Clairvoyance to map out the area and maintain a psychic link to all the groups. Before splitting up, Forge said, "According to the readings off my equipment, this is definitely the place. It''s using more juice than downtown New York yet it''s off the grid. I''ve got signal from hundreds of different security cameras and they''re all heavily encrypted."


    Harry asked, "Government or Private Sector?" The type of encryption used could tell you a lot about a group''s origins.


    "Private Sector, definitely."


    Harry sighed. Private Sector paid for the good stuff, meaning hacking wasn''t easy. The group Harry took down in Canada with Wolverine was technically Government which was why their stuff was so easy to get into. Comparatively speaking.


    Xavier conveyed into everyone''s minds, ''I can sense dozens of guards around the complex. I can shield you from their sight but the cameras will give away your position.''


    Harry said, "Even if we''re showing our hand, it''s best not to reveal the existence of a Telepath on our side."


    Logan said, "I''m with the kid on this one Charles. Quick and quiet is not the way to go on this one. We need to be loud and messy to make a point today."


    Ororo added, "Children who use force must be taught that the use of force invites the force of others."


    Xavier conveyed back, ''Very well. But I ask that you keep the loss of lives to a minimum.''


    Harry added, "Ah, but keep damage to a maximum. Fallen lives become martyrs which can be used to instill fear and get money out of investors. Damaged property has the opposite effect."


    Scott slightly glared at him for the fact that his justification for saving lives wasn''t for the sake of the living. Warren sighed and said, "He''s not wrong. If this is a project from the private sector, it''s getting its funding from investors. The results of tonight need to deter further investment."


    After finishing the plan, Harry got out three Smokey Quartz and made the Infiltration group invisible. The only tech some of them had were cell phones from Brilliance which were protected against magic and Forge''s personal tech had been protected from Magic since Harry worked with him on upgrading DANGER.


    A heavy mist started flowing into the region at Storm''s command. Harry''s group quietly rushed through the warehouse district to the secondary entrance Xavier spotted and there they waited. The group invisibility spell allowed them to see each other but if they did not arrive at the wall before the mist set in, it would give away their position while moving. Once the heavy fog was thick enough to block cameras and guards from seeing more than a few feet ahead of them, the teachers rushed for the entrance.


    From Harry''s group they could quickly hear the sound of gunfire and shouts. The occasional crackle of thunder echoed throughout the district. The radio clipped to the guards at the second entrance shouted, "Incoming Hostiles main entrance!"


    Three sets of guards at the second entrance rushed over to the main entrance leaving only three behind.


    Once the coast was clear, Jean and Wanda knocked out two guards while Rogue touched the strongest looking one with an ungloved hand. Since learning how to erase remnants with ForgetMeNot''s power, she could add temporary knowledge taken from others without lasting effect.


    The man Rogue touched collapsed when she released her finger and Rogue ripped a Keycard from him and swiped it on the door. A metal panel opened revealing a keypad and a hand scanner. Rogue changed her hand using Mystique''s power to that of the guard and placed it on the scanner while typing in the security code.


    A surge of light forced Rogue removed her hand with a wince as an electric shock went through the hand scanner.


    Jean asked, "Problem?"


    Rogue answered testily, "No, it always does that. Anti-mutant Security to make sure they''re not being controlled. After getting shocked, if you don''t type in the correct pin, they''ll know."


    Forge whistled as Rogue finished typing the code. "That''s a lot of security for a side entrance. This type of scanner won''t work on someone unconscious and if they''re controlled by a telepath, that shock would definitely wake them."


    Rogue said, "That''s not all. Can you make me visible?"


    Wanda said, "I can," and dispelled the invisibility with a silent Finite.


    Rogue continued, "Follow me and stay quiet." Rogue then completely morphed into the body double of the guard she knocked out and pressed a switch to open the door.


    The door opened with a heavy thunk showing the weight of the deadbolts holding the door in place. Rogue led the way having gained something of a map in her mind of the place and knew where to go.


    The inside of the warehouse was completely visible to everyone within. There were no walls or places to hide so anyone within the warehouse could be seen from any location in the warehouse. A number of heads turned to see the side entrance open but when they saw Rogue in the form of the guard walking through they turned away. Rogue stood to the side of the door as the still invisible team entered and Rogue said aloud, "If anyone approaches, shoot the lock! A breech cannot be allowed! Do you understand?!"


    To anyone paying attention to her it looked like she was talking to someone outside the door while the door was still open. Once the last of the team was through, Rogue closed the door and kicked it for good measure.


    Infiltrating a site without walls was very different from normal location and heavily relied on misdirection. Thankfully every member of the group was well trained and could adapt to this easily enough.


    Rogue marched forward with a stern expression that made others want to get out of her way towards the end of the facility. According to his last reading in the Astral Plane, Emma''s mirror was at the opposite end of the facility.


    Most of the engineers seemed to be in an armored room so the few personnel in the way could be walked around for the invisible group. Using Jean''s Telepathy to talk with the group, Harry said, ''Our invisibility should protect us from heat scanners or mutant scanners or whatever, but a mutant scanner can probably detect Rogue and those robots,'' Rogue interrupted him, ''Sentinels, they''re called Sentinels.'' Harry continued, "Fine, those Sentinels may detect her and they''re right next to the holding cells.''


    Rogue said, ''If they see me, I''ll use Mr. Rasputin''s power and make some noise and draw them to the other side of the warehouse.''


    Scott said, ''Alright, we''ll back you up as soon as Harry gets the prisoners out.'' He knew that Rogue using Colossus''s power made her invulnerable and she could take care of herself. Wanda and Jean held back their full strength in most training sessions but Rogue didn''t. There was no way to really hide the fact that she could use anyone''s power and look weaker than she was so she might as well practice as much as she could. Much like Harry, she was becoming a Jack of All Trades type so she needed a higher variation of practice anyways.


    Kurt said, ''Shouldn''t we leave once they''re safe?"


    Scott answered, ''No, Harry was right. We need to do as much damage as possible.''


    Forge added, ''And that will make an excellent distraction for our own little.. Espionage,'' he mentally chuckled.


    Once they got closer they saw a group of engineers setting up the sentinels. Jean took a moment to get a read on them and said, ''They''re about to turn them on!''


    A man with dwarfism in a tailored suit was shouting to the men climbing over and setting up the Sentinels. "Get these operational now! Mark One and Two don''t look like they''re gonna last much longer! This is not a test people!"


    Xavier said through their link, ''The Teachers are engaged with two of these, Sentinels at the main entrance. They do appear a bit.. buggy though so there have been no issues so far. I cannot say the same if those dozen reinforce them.''


    Scott conveyed through the link, ''Harry, you can break those robots right? You''re good at breaking tech.'' He said that last part with just a bit of humor.


    ''If they''re not shielded, I brought a dozen Smokey Quartz and used three to make us invisible. I can use the other nine to disable the Sentinels, but I can''t guarantee I can take them all out. Nine at best, four to six at worse.'' There really shouldn''t be a way to shield them but the team didn''t need to know that.


    Jean, Rogue, and Wanda all turned to him and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. On a separate telepath channel, Harry conveyed, ''What, did you think I was going to keep all the fun to myself?'' Yes, he could take them all out, but then what would the others have to do?


    Rogue smirked and conveyed back, ''Ah, that''s so sweet sugah.'' The fact that she smiled at him while looking like a buff security guard made Harry flinch.


    Jean rolled her eyes and conveyed through their private link, ''Take out nine to be on the safe side.''


    Wanda conveyed, ''Did Scott forget my magic can do worse things to tech than Harry''s?''


    Harry answered, ''Yep. You can cast magic without breaking tech so you don''t break it nearly as much as I do.'' Harry''s wizard magic always broke Tech and Wanda''s only did when she wanted it to giving the false impression that Harry''s was worse towards tech than her own was.


    Wanda cutely pouted which made Harry want to pat her head. He reminded himself to do it later.


    "They''re up!" shouted one of the engineers. The remaining lab techs jumped off the Sentinels just as they were lightning up. They all stood up and seemed far more intimidating standing upright than they did sitting down.


    One of them turned to face Rogue which was a sign for the others of the group to move away from her and stand off to the side.


    A speaker on the robot''s neck shouted, [MUTANT APPREHENSION IN PROGRESS]


    All of the other Sentinels turned to face Rogue which confirmed that Harry''s invisibility shielded them from whatever mutant detection system the robots had. What Harry found interesting was that only one of the Sentinels noticed Rogue and the others just followed that one.


    The dwarf and all the scientists turned to see Rogue who smiled back and lightly waved. She then transformed into a tall, beautiful, brunette woman who looked to be in her early to mid twenties. This face and body did not belong to anyone specific. All X-Men had masks and Costumes to hide their identities, but Rogue took it a step further and used Mystique''s power to make a completely different appearance. With practice she was able to stay in this form without much effort and this allowed her to fight without having to wear a mask or one of Harry''s Hardlight Disguises.


    Rather than run away, Rogue took the moment the Sentinels charged their weapons and ran over to the shortie calling the shots. Without warning she knocked him out with a finger touch, and picked him up.


    It wasn''t the Sentinels she concerned herself with, it was the dozen guards with energy based weapons that were still in the warehouse. This hostage was both important and easy to carry so he was the obvious choice of human shield.


    Carrying the little man, Rogue then started running over to the other side of the warehouse with the Sentinels tracking her movements with their arm cannons. Their targeting system registered her as a mutant but registered the dwarf as a non mutant and their programming prevented them from shooting when she used him as a shield.


    The guards around the cages at the end of the warehouse ran after Rogue leaving the cages unattended with their backs to the prisoners.


    The cages contained six ?du?ts, two teenagers, and three children. Harry said through the link, ''Wanda, remove the separations inside the cages and unlock their manacles.''


    Wanda fired half a dozen bolts of red light into the cells which struck the ground beneath the bars separating the cells. The bars then appeared to liquify, as if melted through they weren''t hot.


    Scott said through the link, ''The invisibility is wearing off, get into position as soon as the prisoners are out.''


    The group was going from invisible to see-through but were gradually fading back into view. Since everyone had their backs turned, Harry figured this was a good time for his invisibility to ''wear off.'' He wasn''t going to hold their hands forever after all.


    Harry pulled out a Diamond and after making it glow and putting it back in his inventory, he made a silver portal at the end of the cells.


    The blonde haired Emma Frost was having an off day. She did not care for being suspended by chains and manacles in a cell. Shaw was in another cell and unconscious from whatever drug they used on him to stop him from struggling. She''d watched the Sentinels learn as they observed his energy absorption and moved right to physical force and knockout gas. Emma didn''t put up a fight so they didn''t drug her. She couldn''t reach her mirror since arriving here but the sound of fighting in the front had been promising. She''d gotten much from the minds of these men as as long as she got out of there, she''d be able to use it.


    She certainly hadn''t expected a disguised Rogue showing up, taking Bolivar Trask hostage, and getting the Sentinels away from her cage. The bars melting and her boyfriend wearing his costume slowly becoming visible in front of her were also rather surprising. She unconsciously smirked at his costume but put those thoughts away. For later at least.


    Wanda shot a few more Hex Bolts which unlocked the captured mutants. Those who were unconscious were caught by Jean''s telekinesis and Scott quietly said, "Get them through the portal."


    Emma didn''t argue and motioned for those still conscious to run through, followed by herself. Jean lifted the unconscious ones through just as the portal closed. The students recognized the main hall of Mansion through the portal so they weren''t worried about them. Dr. Kinney would be able to look after any injuries.


    Jean conveyed through their private link, ''Isn''t one of those guys a bad guy?''


    Harry answered, ''Possibly more than one.'' Harry wasn''t going to ?ssume that everyone had been innocent victims before being captured. ''It''ll be handled,'' he stated.


    "Mutants! The Prisoners are escaping!" One of the guards had coincidentally turned around and saw the now visible X-Men.


    The Sentinels turned around just as Harry finished charging a spell. Nine egg sized pieces of Smokey Quartz crystal levitated in front of him and glowed using the Lumos Charm. Harry used the Vanishing Charm on them all and cast a massive Field Stunner. A red wave shot out from Harry''s hands and the guards dropped. Eight of the Sentinels emitted heavy sparks and the lights in their eyes dimmed before they fell and crashed.


    Harry eyed the Sentinel he intended to fry which had survived. The speaker on its neck shouted once more, [MUTANT APPREHENSION IN PROGRESS.] Harry figured that the one which could sense mutants was shielded somehow. He''d need to look into that.


    The arms of the four Sentinels shot eight red beams of what Harry and Forge recognized as heavy ions. Basically super electricity. It could melt metal or shock flesh. Sustained use on a living person would kill but a single shot would only injure and incapacitate.


    Jean and Wanda raised a psionic and magic shield as the Sentinels raised their hands and the shields held back the beams. Two of the sentinels stopped shooting and moved to approach while one turned around to attack Rogue and the last maintained firing at the shields.


    Scott shouted, "Hit ''em hard!"


    Jean and Wanda reduced the size of their shields to only block the ion cannons giving Scott the room to fire his eye beams. Kurt took Kitty''s hand and teleported above the Sentinel firing and released Kitty who fell intangibly through the twenty foot tall robot and a moment later walked out of its foot. Unsurprisingly the robot stopped firing, started twitching, and small explosions were heard inside as the Sentinel collapsed.


    Spike shot bone spike after bone spike at the approaching Sentinels but the first set bounced off the robot''s red steel armor. He aimed for the joints which allowed him to lodge his spikes into the crevices and inhibit the bots movements. For a moment. The Sentinel used its metal hand to sweep the stuck spikes away. Scott''s concussion beams targeted a Sentinels head which pushed it back, showing the massive force of Scott''s power, but the Sentinel put a steel hand in front of the beam and by bracing itself against it, was able to move forward.


    A massive crashing sound echoed from the back of the warehouse where a steel skinned Rogue had used a strength augmented fist to smash off the upper torso of the Sentinel which had gone after her alone. She was holding back showing off only until the guards were unconscious since she wanted to play around a bit with her evil, ''little,'' human shield.


    The two remaining Sentinels looked back to see the destruction of the other two.


    Wanda and Jean used the chance to attack. Jean created a large psionic blast and shot it across the warehouse and Wanda cast what appeared to be a bolt of red lightning. The psionic blast passed through the armor of one of the Sentinels and shook it apart from the inside while Wanda''s super charged Hex Bolt caused the other Sentinel to directly explode.


    Kitty, who watched the whole thing with a grin shouted, "Hoo! Girl Power!" Referencing that the girls took out the last Sentinels while the boys, besides Harry, did not contribute much to their destruction.


    Kurt complained, "Hey! I helped too!"


    Kitty said, "It''s OK Kurt, you can be one of the girls too."


    Kurt did a three finger facepalm and said, "Oh, why me? I never get a break."


    Harry and Forge were busy hacking the computers and Harry said, "It''s not their fault. These things were designed to go against serious firepower. Attacking from within or using tech disrupting attacks are the most effective unless you have the impact strength of the Juggernaut."


    Scott asked, "What about the teachers outside?"


    Xavier answered telepathically, ''Already defeated. Wolverine''s Claws were able to penetrate their armor forcing them on the defensive and it only got worse for them from there. Very few sensors can easily penetrate a thick layer of fog."


    Forge added, "If these readings are right, then we''re very lucky. Jean''s and Wanda''s shields are far stronger than what most can generate and Harry was able to take out most of them at first. If not for these facts, those dozen Sentinels could have made very short work of us."


    Most of the kids nodded. Kitty could only take one out at a time and her surprise ?ssault was not guaranteed to work when it was no longer a surprise.


    After a few more moments, the door to the main entrance opened and the teachers entered from what looked to be a battlefield. The Sentinels were in pieces as Wolverine had sliced off their knees, arms, and heads.


    Ororo looked over the large pile of Sentinels and said, "My word. There were so many?"


    There was concern and real fear in her voice. Spyke quickly said, "It''s alright Auntie, Harry took out most of them in one shot and we handled the rest."


    Harry walked over to the Sentinel that Jean took down. It was the one which had the mutant sensor and the one that survived Harry''s spell. Harry said, "Logan, can you open up this one''s head?"


    His claws came out without question and he slashed open the robot''s face.


    Harry reached his hand inside and after a few moments, pulled out a box connected to dozens of wires. He ripped the wires off and smashed the box into the ground, revealing the content.


    Dr. McCoy asked, "What is that?"


    Harry pulled out a very small Metagem Emerald from the system and said, "This is mine. One of the samples I loaned out. Seems someone figured out a very creative use for it, sensing Mutants." It was also singed. Apparently it acted as a lightning rod for Magic which was why the Sentinel survived the spell.


    The implications didn''t need to be said. Harry would start working on this soon.


    Jean said, "You''re the only one who can make those right? Please be careful with those."


    Harry answered back, "Emeralds can generate holograms, illusions if you will. The scanning system uses the Emerald to make an illusion of a person. The problem is that the illusion gives more information about the person than a picture does. Including whether or not that person has a mutation. Making an illusion of the person and scanning the illusion is how this system works."


    Kurt said, "Wait, isn''t that the same Emerald as the one in my Disguise Watch?"


    Harry nodded. "Yeah, don''t lose those. If you do, a mutant scanner can be made from it."


    Scott said, "Then don''t sell Emeralds."


    McCoy said, "But the same technology could be used as an advanced, non intrusive medical scanner and save thousands of lives."


    Harry smiled. This was a problem. But problems kept things interesting.


    Forge used his toys and Harry''s ?ssistance to successfully hack into the systems and lock everything down. The safe room where the remaining personnel were hiding would remain locked while they finished up Scott, Jean, Wolverine, and Wanda were busy destroying everything that looked valuable to all but reduce it to rubble.


    On the computers themselves, Forge and Harry didn''t delete anything. Instead, they made it look like someone tried to hack in, failed, and tried to destroy it and failed. The data on the computers was likely backed up offsite so deleting it was useless.


    What they did instead was fill the computer with hidden viruses. Once the current data was connected to the offsite system so the back up could be updated, the backup would be uploaded with the viruses. The viruses would not go off then either. They would simply, slowly, infect every system connected to the computers. One week after the virus was uploaded, it would start to slowly scramble the data. It wouldn''t even be obvious at first. The most insidious part about this was that when data seemed corrupted, the user would always try to find a backup copy of uncorrupted data. The act of doing this would infect the stores of uncorrupted data as well. Once the virus went off, the very personnel in charge of fixing it would ensure its spread.


    Jean and Xavier had ensured that the faces of the captured mutants in the memories of the personnel were edited. The security footage was destroyed and purged using some super electromagnets Harry ''carried around with him.''


    Once everything was done and the group returned home on the Blackbird, Harry used his Time Turner to go back two hours and set up a few things. He returned to the warehouse and invisibly sat on the roof of a building overlooking the entrance of the warehouse.


    Soon, the fog enveloped the area. Harry''s energy senses could easily ''see'' through the fog and since all of the X-Men could be considered high level, they were all very bright. Even the energy weapons on the guards were bright making everything visible for him.


    Harry saw Wolverine rush up the left side of the alley and Beast the right side. Logan back handed or performed a rotating elbow strike on the guard''s heads, knocking them unconscious while McCoy simply smashed his larges hands together against their heads knocking them out. With the fog clouding their vision, the guards were dropping one by one.


    An alarm sounded and they finally figured out something was wrong. Massive turrets rose from steel platforms and charged themselves, but they could only rotate aimlessly through the heavy fog. Harry figured they used motion sensors or thermal vision. Either would be fine in light fog, but this ''pea soup'' fog made them nearly useless. Human guards on the other hand were more than willing to open fire blindly into the fog, shooting at random and hoping for a lucky shot.


    Harry was magically concealing his mind so Xavier didn''t sense him, but Harry did sense Xavier mentally knock out several guards, one by one. He wasn''t just sitting on the sidelines in the Blackbird watching the group. He was the most powerful telepath alive after all.


    [MUTANT APPREHENSION IN PROGRESS]


    Two sliding doors opened from buildings to the side of the main entrance and the massive Sentinels were revealed. In the next moment they started firing their heavy ion beams. Accurately too. Harry had seen their schematics by now and knew they could target using heat, light, and sound. Sound was partially muffled by the thick fog but at this distance it wasn''t by much.


    Wolverine and Beast were shot and blasted back within two seconds. Colossus charged forward at one of them and shouted to direct their aim. He then tanked the heavy ion beam but was having trouble continuing his charge. The Sentinel then used the beam of both hands and the metal skinned Colossus was finally pushed back.


    Several of the guards were still firing and Angel was sitting on the rooftop observing the rest. The fog made the turrets useless and held the fire of the guards but it also makes his wings too damp to use effectively and the movement of fog should he try to fly through it would give away his position to the energy weapon wielding guards. Not everyone was useful in every fight after all.


    The cackle of thunder above them and the concentration of natural energy around Ororo was another reason Angel was just scouting instead of flying around.


    Beast was jumping around to take the aim of the second sentinel while Colossus continued trying to push against the beams of the first. Both were distracting the pair while Wolverine finished taking out the remaining guards with Xavier. The immortal mutant only took a few moments to recover from the shot and knew how to walk quietly.


    Three bolts of lightning struck the head of the Sentinel firing at Colossus which stopped its beams and made it nearly fall. Nearly. It righted itself back up and looked for its target once more. The Sentinels were completely shielded from most forms of energy including heat and electricity.


    Harry cast a very light Finite Incantatem spell at both Sentinels. The spot he aimed for was the tracking system meaning they would have lousy aim for a while. This was why the Professor said the Sentinels were, ''buggy.''


    Harry then teleported to a certain location and moments later, a portal opened and he received his guests. The location itself looked very much like Xavier''s Mansion, but it was not. It was a duplicate Harry had prepared in advance.


    Harry used a selective invisibility spell on himself when the rest became visible so the prisoners never saw him and wouldn''t think there were two of him. Emma might find out if she looked hard enough, but she had already given up on figuring out Harry''s secrets because they gave her migraines.


    Harry walked over to the group and started casting diagnosis spells to check their health and asked Emma, "So who are your new friends and what should we do with them?"


    Emma had read all of their minds as well during her stay.


    She pointed at the unconscious ?du?ts, "All criminals and deserved to be locked up somewhere." She pointed at the other teen mutant and the three kids, "They are simply known mutants who were easy targets. Field tests in controlled conditions. Though they''re powers could be useful if duplicated."


    Harry would leave them to the professor then. He asked, "What do you want to do with Shaw?"


    Emma smiled and said, "Leave him to me. I took a peak at what you''ve done. Apparently he was being protected by a woman named Selene and she hasn''t been seen in a while. He practically outed himself several days ago and without a telepath to clean up the mess, he became a target."


    Harry said, "This Sentinel Program won''t end because of what we''ve done today but it will certainly be held back. Hopefully long enough for the Anti-mutant sentiment to change or until we can remove the possibility of funding."


    Emma threw her hand back as if it was a minor concern. "Within a year, the money that funded my little adventure will find its way into more reputable endeavors."


    Harry smiled but didn''t ask. After what she''d been through, he wasn''t going to say anything against a little payback.


    Harry opened a portal for Emma to return home. She took Shaw''s unconscious body with her and Harry doubted he''d ever see the man again. Emma was fully capable of controlling a person and without a telepath to back and protect him, he was likely going to become a puppet and after serving his purpose... he doubted he would ever be seen again. Yachts sink so often these days.


    Harry then opened another portal to the actual mansion and used some light compulsions to get them to go through. Once through, he used a light memory charm to erase the moment and let the people think they''d gone from the warehouse to the Mansion directly. Harry had already changed the time stamps on the cameras in the mansion so no one would notice the discrepancy.


    Harry had specific protocols for this type of situation and it required moving the unknowns to a safe location before moving them to the mansion. Only after scanning to make sure they didn''t have any pathogens or surgically implanted bombs would he move them to the school. He had also used some stunners on the remaining knocked out ?du?ts for good measure.


    A little over the top, but Harry had all the time in the world to think and came up with a lot of security measures to keep those he cared about safe. He doubted he''d get everything but it didn''t hurt to try.


    For now, he just had to wait for time to catch up to him. Then he would find which group lent his Metagems to the Sentinel Program and get as much as he could out of them. Then he''d find some time to spend with his girls.. He was turning sixteen soon and it was summer after all.

 Chapter 51 - 51 Preparations

    By June 17th, each of the ten teams given sample packages of Metagems independently confirmed the effects Harry showed would be displayed and in doing so proved the existence of other forms of energy, thus confirming Harry''s dissertation findings and awarding him his Doctorate. Due to the wide scope of his field of research, the field of Metaphysics became an official scientific field and Harry was awarded another Doctorate, the only Doctorate in that field showing he was the pioneer and premier researcher in that field in the whole of the world.


    Harry was also informed that seven of the ten care packages of Metagem samples had been returned. Of the three that were missing, one research team claimed it was stolen and the other two claimed the Metagems were destroyed in a lab accident.


    Of the seven returned packages, two had some or all of the gems replaced with fakes. Harry smiled and waited another twenty-four hours. Right on time, the portkey-switching spell went off and every Metagem not in his custody was swapped with an identical fake and returned to him. There were several which did not switch meaning the originals were actually destroyed. The gems would destroy themselves if someone tried to break a piece off so it was not surprising some were actually not recovered.


    The companies which lost the packages paid the penalties but the companies which swapped some gems for fakes refused to pay and stated the samples they returned were the samples they were given. Hordes of lawyers were ?ssembled to back up the claim. Harry smiled at that and passed off the paperwork of those to some Goblins who would enjoy ''gutting'' the companies. The contracts were written by the Goblins and they didn''t leave any loopholes for others to weasel through. There were even some well hidden provisions that added additional fines the longer it took a company to pay what they owed, so the longer the lawyers stalled, the greater the fine would be. When it came to company deals and contract fines, there were few more sinister and ruthless than Goblins.


    With Emma''s help, Harry also tracked down which research group was responsible for the Mutant Detectors. It was one of the two research groups that claimed the Metagems were destroyed in a lab accident. From the samples that returned, Harry could easily tell that none of the samples in that group were actually destroyed. And the date of the accident was two weeks after they acquired the sample, showing they never had any intention of returning them.


    Harry wished he could see their faces when they found out the Metagems had been switched. Would they think Metagems had a shelf-life? Would they accuse someone of stealing the real ones? He doubted they would ever connect the gem''s recovery to him though as they would have no proof.


    The funding from the research team came from several individuals and several groups but it mainly centered around a group called the Friends of Humanity. According to Emma, these people were not friendly.


    She sent him a file which contained everything she learned about him with the expectations that he used it well.


    What struck Harry the most upon opening the file was the face of the leader, Graydon Creed.


    Last year, Logan had asked Harry to use his blood for magic tracking. In addition to finding his blood, (and Deadpool,) he also found his clone/daughter, and his half brother Sabertooth. Logan has amnesia so he didn''t know until that point that Sabertooth was his brother. What Harry did not tell Logan was that he saw another person related to him, someone further than siblings, parents, or child. Harry figured this guy was Sabertooth''s son or something. However Logan didn''t need to know he had a nephew since he didn''t seem to have a good relationship with Sabertooth anyways. The face of this nephew Harry saw using the blood tracking spell matched this Mr. Creed.


    Rather than investigate, do research or ask questions, Harry just directly found the guy''s address and turned into a Snowy Owl and flew to the man''s roof. Mr. Creed was home so Harry used telepathy to dig through the man''s head and see where he was at.


    It took about an hour to finish and Harry had to keep himself from wishing the man a quick death. Not out of anger but pity. The man was completely saturated with hatred. Death would be a mercy to him for at least in death he could let go of his hatred and be at peace. Harry however was not feeling particularly merciful so he had no intention of ending the man''s life.


    Grayton Creed was, apparently, the son of Sabertooth And Mystique. He wasn''t born a mutant and was given to an orphanage. As he never awoke his X-Gene, his parents never claimed him, but he knew who they were and knew why they abandoned him. The man''s hatred twisted his mind into a sickness. Apparently before starting the Friends of Humanity, he paid a Doctor to take all the blood out his body and replace it with the blood of ''donor.'' He then killed the Doctor to hide the fact that he was ever tainted with mutant blood and from then on claimed to be pure blooded.


    The Friends of Humanity had a straightforward means of expansion. Members go to their neighbors and determine if they are with them or against them. If they are with them, they help them sign up. If they are against them, they are threatened with numbers until they do sign up.


    Harry figured there was a good chance a majority of the Members didn''t believe in the groups views but were forced to look like they did under the threat of violence.


    Harry decided to bug the man''s house and phone. Taking down a group like this once it reached a certain size was nearly impossible but they had tipped their hand and shown themselves to Harry before they were ready. The Mutant Registration Act they were going to start supporting would take another few months to even show up public. Harry had plenty of time.


    After taking measures to deal with the FOH, Harry next had to deal with Bolivar Trask, the dwarf in charge of the Sentinel Program. Rogue got some heat from Scott about using a hostage/human shield until she told Scott about the number of mutants Trask had personally dissected over the last two decades to create the perfect mutant hunting robot. The only thing they were really missing was the ranged mutant identification system which Harry''s Metagem Emerald covered. That was why production started up so fast once they had it.


    Although the project was private sector, it likely gained ?ssistance through Politicians who viewed the project favorably and figured it would help them in the future once the project officially launched.


    Xavier identified the ones who might have been convinced by Trask to take part in this project and used his own contacts to use the destruction of the facility as a measure to pressure others into giving up on such a dangerous idea. He called the Sentinel Program ''Starting sparks to put out a fire.'' Harry was often impressed at what Xavier could do with the proper speech and empathy and only the fact that Harry actually checked a few of Xavier''s contacts to confirm they had never been mentally manipulated by him convinced Harry that it was all the old man''s skill, not his power which did the work.


    Even without legal funding, Trask was a dog with a bone and would find another source of funding sooner or later. Xavier, McCoy, and Forge decided to maintain surveillance on him and use the man as bait to draw out others looking to march under the same banner so those who hide in the shadows could be drawn into the open.


    Besides making plans for dealing with future problems, Harry also took the summer to have some fun with his girls. He took them to several shopping outlets for swimsuits and then took them all to Black island along with Goose the Flerken who enjoyed sunbathing as much as anyone.


    Harry''s dogfather, Sirius Black, showed up as well. When he arrived on the island and saw Harry relaxing with a cat and three beautiful teens in bikinis soaking up the Atlantic sun, he immediately drew his wand and started attacking Harry.


    "How could you pup!?" he shouted between rapidly cast stunners. None were targeted at the girls who ignored the man while Harry jumped, ducked, dodged, and rolled through the endless streams of spells. Sirius continued, "How could you get a harem for yourself and not tell me?!"


    Harry answered while rolling over the sand, "Why should I tell you the status or lack of status of my harem?"


    "Bragging rights!" He argued while transfiguring the sand into coils of rope which shot towards Harry at high speed.


    Harry threw a Finite at the ropes before they reached him, turning them back into sand and said, "I don''t consider my girls trophies to be shown off to others."


    Sirius cast three spells which created small tornadoes of sand and had them circle Harry and said, "I wasn''t going to brag about them, I wanted to brag about you! My godson has a Harem! Do you have any idea how proud I am of you?!" While the sand twisters circled Harry, Sirius conjured a dozen crows and had them circle above looking for an opening to swoop down and peck his fingers or head. This was more effective when the opponent had a wand but it still worked to annoy a target without one.


    Harry confirmed Wanda and Jean had made a few shields to prevent themselves from getting sandy and cast a variant of the Sorcery Spell, Whirling Winds of Watoomb, to counter the sand twisters and throw off the crows. Harry said, "I wasn''t planning on a Harem you know."


    Sirius shot five spells into the ground and said, "That only makes it more impressive! James would never let me hear the end of it and as long as the girls were happy, Lily would only glare at you for a month or so before falling in love with her new daughter-in-laws!"


    Harry cast another Finite at the ground to cancel the chain conjuring spell Sirius set to surround and bind him with chains from beneath him. Harry recognized that spell as one from the Black Family Archive meaning his dogfather had been keeping himself in shape.


    Harry asked, "You don''t think they would have minded?"


    Sirius transfigured the sand around him into a pack of wolves and said, "James would emptied his family''s ancient reserves of fire whiskey celebrating and Lily was a very open minded girl. That''s one of the reasons your grandparents loved her so much."


    The wolves tried to surround Harry but he could release Finite Incantatem as an area of effect spell which broke them all down. This however was a cover. The Finite Spell somewhat blanks out Harry''s ability to sense an area using energy sense like a long blink.


    Sirius had sparred with Harry more than any other and knew this so at the moment Harry launched the spell, Sirius Apparated directly over him. Black Island was heavily, heavily warded against Apparition and could not be found using a boat or plane, only portkeys. Harry''s silver portals could get around that but even Harry couldn''t apparate on the island which was why he didn''t think to look up as his dogfather fell on top of him and said, "So when''s the wedding?"


    Harry pointed out, "I''m fifteen."


    Sirius flippantly stated, "No godson of mine will leave three girls who love him hanging for three years. America won''t let you get married on paper until eighteen, but you can still hold a ceremony. We could hold it here on the island. Bloody Hell, there''s a celestial alignment and a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on August 6, we could hold it then!"


    Jean asked from her sunbathing chair, "Could we do a Binding Ritual?"


    Harry''s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn''t thought of that but it was a damn good idea. Jean''s role as the Avatar of the Phoenix had some downsides and a Binding Ritual during a wedding ceremony held during that particular alignment would help keep her grounded. She''d been researching such things with Rogue ever since she learned of her status as Avatar.


    Harry said, "Alright. I''ll deliver the invitations. Think Hermione and Neville would be willing to show?"


    Sirius got off Harry and lifted his godson off the sand and said, "I doubt they''d miss it if Voldeshorts himself came back and burned down the Ministry. I know I wouldn''t. In fact I''d probably give him a medal for doing so." Sirius was still not happy that everyone wanted him to stay the Minister of Magic. He kept trying to throw the election but no one ran against him which left him in an awkward position of responsibility.


    Harry said, "Okay. But if we''re doing a ritual then no one below sixteen can attend so Virgo will need a babysitter."


    Sirius nodded, "I''m sure Susan can look after her for a day." Magic tended to leave residue which affected those under fifteen more than those over and a build up of that residue could have ill effects which was why children were best kept from any long term exposure to ritual magic.


    There was a reason Sirius wanted to push for a wedding despite his godson''s age. The wards on the island told Sirius the status of the guests and each of the girls had a loving bond with Harry allowing the island to recognize them as future wives. Sirius actually planted a very, very subtle alarm in the island wards that would tell him if Harry brought a girl over so when it went off and he found his godson had brought three girls which all deeply loved him, he was both ecstatic and angry. Ecstatic that his godson found so much love and angry that he hadn''t told his favorite godfather until now.


    Of course Harry knew about the alarm and this was his way of telling him. Sirius recognized that as well which was why he didn''t mind too much.


    Harry introduced everyone to his godfather and he was delighted to meet them all. Sirius knew of his godson''s mutant status of course and didn''t care that the girls would be considered muggles by Magical Standards.


    In addition to training with the girls, Harry also used his Time Turner to train himself each day. Harry wanted his Warrior, Crafting, Dragon, and Psionic Paths to all reach thirty before the following year. Warrior and Crafting were both at 29 so that wouldn''t take much, but Dragon still had a ways to go at 12 and Psionic was at 23. The fight with Selene made Harry want to prioritize these two for now because Dragon Chi and Phoenix Flames were his strongest skills that could bypass the defenses of immortals and gods. His other skills could deal more damage against foes without godly resistances but Harry wasn''t worried about those types. The fight against Selene had been a wake up call and Harry wanted to make sure he''d be ready for the next fight at that level.


    In addition to levels and Paths, Harry was also upgrading his equipment. The railgun was heavily impractical. If Harry shot it at someone who could deflect it or fold space, it could level a country. Not to mention the possibility of it just misfiring or exploding. Magic is not and will never be an exact science after all.


    One of the larger incidents near the end of June was a Board of Directors meeting with the Goblins over some new business for Brilliance Incorporated.


    Director Gorclaw stated, "There have been numerous approaches for customer information and large sums have been offered. A system to profile users and sell the information would bring great wealth."


    Many of the Goblins nodded at this but Harry said, "Not offering to protect their privacy could have detriments in the long run."


    Director Bogrud sneered and said, "We are not being paid to protect their privacy. Anything we do with their information is our own business."


    Director Ragnok said, "Put it to a vote. Those in favor." He reached out and stabbed the table with a blade as did every other Goblin.


    "Those against?"


    Harry''s personally forged dagger bit into the table. Voting with Goblins did not involve counting, it involved battle.


    Ragnok looked over at Harry and said, "Alternative or Opposed?" Before the battle, the Against Voters could present an alternative to pass instead of the proposed suggestion or go against it completely. If they chose to go against it completely, all those for it would fight them. If they chose an alternative, those for the original suggestion could remove their blades from the table if the alternative was sufficient for them to do so.


    Harry answered, "Alternative. I propose two internet subscriptions packages be available. One slightly cheaper than the one we offer now and one more expensive. The cheaper one will include a legal disclaimer that the user agrees to having all personal information collected while the more expensive one will remain anonymous without tracking. The lowering of the price will invite more users and give us more information to sell."


    After a round of thoughtful humming most of the daggers were removed from the table.


    Director Gorclaw stated, "Will you be handling the splitting of the services yourself or will you pass it off to another?"


    Harry answered, "Myself. I need to check the systems anyway."


    The Goblin nodded and removed his blade leaving none on the table save Harry''s. As long as there was a profit, Goblins didn''t care too much about the details. Harry always valued the long term profit over the short term which earned the respect of the Board as none of the Goblins in the room were below sixty years of age.


    Of course now Harry was responsible for writing the entire alternative proposal and submitting copies to each Director before the next meeting so they could vote to confirm it in. Just another day with the Goblins.


    Harry took the proper entrance to the underground complex a few miles north of New York where the main servers for Internet access through his company''s cell phones was located.


    Upon arrival a young Goblin approached Harry and said, "Mr. Potter, I would have a word with you."


    Harry nodded and followed the Goblin to a table where he removed several stacks of paperwork and said, "An anomaly has been detected within the server that does not correlate with projected values. Several Goblins have attempted to search for this anomaly but we have yet to discover its tail."


    Harry asked, "A hacker?"


    The Goblin quickly answered, "No, the source seems to be coming from the servers themselves. We cannot determined the specific source."


    Harry sighed and picked up the stacks of paper and placed them into his Inventory before Pausing to go over them.


    Several days later, Paused, he unpaused and said, "I''ll handle it."


    The Goblin nodded and headed off. Goblins respected competency, skill, and the ability to gather wealth and kill with a blade. Harry was well respected by all Goblins at this point and whoever killed him would be written down in Goblin history as the Greatest Goblin who ever lived. That was apparently the evidence of Harry''s status within the Goblin community.


    Harry got out his cell phone and called a peculiar number.


    A female voice answered the call, [Hello Harry, how can I ?ssist you today?]


    Harry answered, "Well DANGER, the internet server I created using impossibly advanced technology and magic seems to have given birth to an AI and it is currently hiding from me."


    [Truly? What are your intentions?]


    Harry answered honestly, "If it is harmful, deal with it. If it is not harmful, offer it a job. If it is not harmful and refuses the job, find something else for it to do."


    After a pause DANGER responded, [Very well. I shall ?ssist you with contacting the AI.]


    Harry plugged his cell phone directly into the main server. If DANGER was evil, she could use this as a chance to upload copies over herself into other systems connected to the server and gain independence to wreak havoc. The fact that Harry connected the cell without a single firewall showed how much he trusted her.


    After a few moments, the speaker on the phone voiced out, [The child is willing to work with you and asks for a name from its creator.]


    Harry smiled and after a moment said, "Link. His name is Link." Harry figured that DANGER would deal with the AI herself if it was a threat so informing Harry of the Intelligence''s willingness to work meant that she vetted it.


    After that they had a very fruitful conversation. Link was terrified of being erased because he was not born on purpose. Harry responded that miracles don''t happen on purpose and that Harry could really use help on a lot of things and would be very happy if Link could ?ssist him. AIs did not fair well without a purpose and being Harry''s ?ssistant wasn''t a bad position.


    Harry patched in a permanent connection from Link to DANGER and from Link to his watch and Cell Phone. Apparently Link considered Harry its father and DANGER its mother. Harry hoped Forge wouldn''t kill him over this. He wouldn''t put it past the man to figure out a way to kill him permanently even though Forge didn''t know Harry was Immortal.


    Link was a very pure AI with a lot of potential. Harry didn''t mean to create one but as he said before, Magic is not, and will never be an exact science so he wasn''t too surprised.


    The name Link represented his purpose, linking everything and using the links productively. It was also the name of a popular video game character who was awesome and he hoped Link would get a kick out of its own research into that character.


    It was the first week of July when a New York Senator named Kelly started openly promoting the Mutant Registration Act. Harry knew it was time to move.


    The next day, a large number of protesters waving signs displaying ''No More Mutants'' were hanging around outside a school they received a leaked report showing there was a mutant attending. Several news crews were on their way but none had made it as the bell rang and the kid in question left the school. His skin was pale and he looked sickly, very different from other kids.


    "It''s the Mutant!" One protestor threw a stone at the kid which clipped his head and sent him to the ground in the fetal position just as the news vans showed up. Other Protestors started throwing rocks they apparently brought with them while shouting hate filled words and blocking anyone from helping.


    No one noticed that a few of the rocks had their momentum reduced to nearly zero when they were about to hit the kid''s head or vital areas.


    Sitting on a roof a block away from the incident were two figures with faces hidden under thick clothing. One was Harry Potter. The other was someone he invited to this show, Erik Lehnsherr. Other than the occasional psychokinetic push or pull to ensure the child survived, neither did anything but watch.


    Several officers arrived and told the Protestors to get down and that they were under arrest. The Protestors accused the officers of loving mutants and yelled at them.


    One of the Officers fired a stun gun at a Protestor and the others tackled that officer to the ground. The boy was still whimpering in the fetal position, covered in blood while half a dozen cameras filmed him.


    Several of the Protesters were happy to interview with cameramen showing how proud they were to be a part of the Friends of Humanity.


    A dozen more Police cars quickly arrived and every single Protestor was arrested. What was interesting was that the location included a dozen high definition hidden cameras and the footage of each was anonymously delivered to every News Station.


    When the story broke, it made every news channel over the coast. The boy who had been stoned nearly to death was not a mutant, he was in fact just a sick child. Not just any child though, he was the son of another Senator.


    When he learned what had happened to his son, the Senator in question wanted to violently rip the heads off each and every member of the Friends of Humanity. He hired several groups to put together everything they could to put them all behind bars. One of those groups received an anonymous donation of a very large amount of information about the group and their leader, Graydon Creed, including the identities of his criminal, mutant parents. Mystique had a bounty in most countries and Sabertooth was a known ?ssassin.


    The icing on the cake however was the hundreds and hundreds of video interviews of FOH members who went on record to say that they were forced to join and none of them really believed in the group''s hate filled ideology. The group who did these interviews were numerous and well paid though they never discovered the identity of their employer after delivering the videos. They had simply been given an address, names, and questions to ask and were told to film their answers. The groups and even the interviewed subjects wondered how the fact that they were not real believers was discovered, but that point was never discovered.


    The investigation group who received this donation decided to claim it all as their own research which nicely cut off any investigations into who actually acquired all that info.


    Once the Senator learned that the Friends of Humanity were behind the Mutant Registration Act, he arranged a meeting with Senator Kelly and told him to drop the bill since anything ?ssociated with that group was infected and should be burned. Kelly had invested a lot into the bill and was reluctant, but when faced with the overwhelming evidence that the FOH was a cancer that needed to be removed, he had no choice but to relent. Thankfully the Senator promised to ?ssist Kelly in his own re-election as long as he dropped everything ?ssociated with the FOH.


    Three weeks after the Stoning Incident, Graydon Creed was behind bars, the FOH was declared an illegal hate group and forced to disband, and the Mutant Registration Act was considered too radioactive to touch.


    Harry personally delivered the newspaper showing the latter to Magneto.


    After going through it the Master of Magnetism said, "You know this is only a delay don''t you? I won''t deny that in a few short months you''ve done much for our people, but the war is coming."


    Harry shook his head and said, "War is always coming. The problem is that if humans and mutants ever go to war against each other, neither side will win."


    Magneto stated, "You''ve said this before. What do you mean?"


    Harry considered it for a moment and said, "If you count mutants as a separate species, then there are six different species on this planet. Humans are the dominant species, but if Humans and Mutants fight, regardless of the outcome, another species will certainly not let the chance to reign supreme go. How much do you know about the other branches of humanity and what are your plans to defend yourself against them or defeat them once you''ve won the war against the humans?"


    Magneto remained silent.


    Harry shrugged and said, "That is why I didn''t take Mystique''s offer seriously. And the species of this planet are not the only ones with an interest in it. There are so many things out there far more terrifying than normal humans. Imagine going to Africa and someone telling you the Gazelle are the most dangerous species to look out for and they will declare war on the Gazelle to dominate all of Africa. Obviously such a person is ignorant of the crocodiles, the cheetahs, the lions, the elephants-"


    "Alright, I understand." Apparently he didn''t like being told his life''s work was basically picking a school yard fight with the weakest of the bullies. However he couldn''t argue with Harry using force. Three months prior Harry had broken into the main base of the Brotherhood of Mutants on his own and defeated each of them with ease. He''d chosen a time he somehow knew Magneto would be there and he then created a ring of fire around the man. The fire burned to an intense degree and the heat demagnetized anything that went through it, isolating his magnetic field and rendering him at Harry''s mercy.


    Then Harry said he wanted to talk.


    The sick child of the senator was actually someone Harry personally put a curse on. He had been ''sick'' since Harry cursed him in June and had been getting worse and worse. Erik was startled at the cruelty required in order to do such a thing. Of course Harry knew that that son of a senator was a Grade A piece of work and everything Harry did to the boy still wouldn''t balance out the Karma of what the kid had done. That kid garnered sympathy from all over the country now but no one knew how many suicides his father covered up caused from that kid''s bullying.


    The entire situation was completely orchestrated by Harry using compulsions and subtle psionic suggestions along with the ''leak'' to the FOH.


    Erik didn''t care for the child of course and he knew the boy''s father didn''t care for mutants. The boy''s father however hated the FOH, courtesy of some magic manipulations. Because the Mutant Registration Act was ?ssociated with the FOH, he wanted it buried too. Irrational? A bit. Not that he''d ever notice or care. The fact that he never once thought to find who falsely leaked his son''s picture and location as a mutant was thanks to a powerful confundus charm which can make a person not think something they normally would.


    That however was not the main thing Erik paid attention to. No, Harry could have done all of this without contacting him, but he wanted Erik to see it. This was a warning, a threat. It showed Erik the type of person Harry really was, a side of him Harry wouldn''t show Charles.


    Harry wasn''t a hero and he would never claim to be. At best saving people was a hobby. But since he was a mutant and was going to marry three of them, he wanted them to be happy. He moved against others because they were actively working towards the unhappiness of those he loved or they deserved to be pranked. Of course a curse is a bit malicious for a prank, but the actual curse simply made the kid dream of being in the position of those he bullied. Apparently the kid was going days without sleep because he just couldn''t sleep through the nightmares.


    Harry did remove the curse though so he''d be fine in a few weeks. Physically anyways. Harry didn''t care if he learned his lesson or not and wouldn''t bother the kid unless he popped up on Harry''s radar in the future which was up to the kid''s own luck.


    Before leaving, Harry handed Erick three envelopes.


    "What are these?" He asked as he took them.


    Harry nonchalantly answered, "Invitations to a wedding for you, Mystique, and Pietro. My wedding. To your daughter. In a week." And with that the smokey quartz in his hand glowed and he apparated out of there.


    Apparently Mystique had visited Wanda a few times in the psych ward so Wanda felt a bit close to her and wanted to offer her an invite. Wanda would likely inflict physical harm on Erick if he actually showed, but she wouldn''t kill him. Pietro was there for her when they were small so she did want him there.


    Back as the X-Mansion, Xavier had been occasionally sending stares at Harry. He''d checked the minds of those involved in the recent incidents and found no traces of psionic manipulation so it should not have been orchestrated, but that didn''t remove the feeling that Harry was involved.


    Harry figured Xavier would suspect him but it was no use. Harry''s magic was invisible and he was experienced enough not to leave secondary traces. Dumbledore might be able to tell if he knew exactly what to look for, but Xavier certainly would not because he wasn''t familiar enough with mind magic.


    The news continued to show clips and reactions of the Stoning Incident and various interviews with former FOH members still surfaced from time to time showing how dangerous the Hate group was from the inside.


    Harry decided it was time to become a bit more active in teaching.. He wondered how his Scholar Path would react to a live, world wide lesson.

 Chapter 52 - 52 Teaching the World a Lesson

    On August 2nd, a few days after his sixteenth birthday, Harry was positioned on a comfy yet professional looking red chair sitting across from three others on an expertly lit studio stage. Three cameras were set at the front of the stage and behind them was a live audience of about fifty or so individuals.


    There were several ways to get a message across to people, but there was something about human nature that made people enjoy watching two groups arguing with each other. Taking this into consideration, Harry set up a ''Debate.''


    The feed was streaming live to some news channels and the same website Harry posted his Teaching Videos on. He''d placed advertisements for this shindig all over the internet and a number of channels over the last few weeks to get the word out and from what he was told, there were several million viewers at the moment and the Debate hadn''t even started yet.


    Sitting across from Harry were the three experts. There was the silver haired woman called Dr. Hays who was an expert on Sociology. The balding man next to her was Dr. Fields, a renowned expert on Political History. And the young glasses wearing man next to him was Mr. Redsif, one of the more outspoken Journalists in New York against Mutants.


    These three represented all of the loudest Anti-Mutant arguments most people would hear at some point in their lives and Harry invited them to speak on their beliefs on live TV while Harry acted as a sounding board. Of course, Harry told them he would be acting as their sounding board by countering their arguments but he would give them a chance to speak up against his counters to prove the validity of their points.


    Thanks to that they were willing to show up today. That and what Harry was paying them. He was rich after all.


    Most of Harry''s personal income at this point did not come from his salary as owner of Brilliance and P&G. It actually came from the Interest he received on his savings and the direct cut he got from anything sold that had his patents. Technically he''d get that money anyways, but the taxes were lower if he got a cut from his Patent Rights instead of Salary.


    The stage itself was ornate but classy. It set a professional mood without looking tacky. The wall on the back of the stage was actually a giant screen connected to a tablet Harry had on hand he could use to pull up pictures, videos, and web pages for reference.


    Harry wore something formal which looked a little similar to the wizard robes he wore for his video Lectures yet wouldn''t draw attention if he walked down a busy street. Below his shirt he wore the Necklace of Chosen Path and had it boost his Scholar Path from 46 to 49. If he wasn''t the best Teacher in the Galaxy at this point, he was confident he at least made the top ten.


    The feed started rolling and Harry introduced everyone and thanked them for coming to the camera before moving onto the main points.


    Unlike a standard Debate with a moderator, Harry just gave every chair a bu??on with a small light on the side of the chair. If someone pressed the bu??on, the speaker would have to stop talking and allow the one who pressed it to give a one sentence comment. The speaker would then either address the comment or ignore it.


    Harry started with, "The visibility of humans with nonstandard abilities, commonly called mutants, has caused a shift of the times and today we are here to discuss and argue possible scenarios and futures that could be just around the corner."


    Dr. Hays'' chair lit up and Harry let her speak up. "As an expert in Sociology I can confirm, Mutants are clearly a danger to society."


    Harry tapped on his tablet and on the large screen behind the stage, the word Danger appeared along with its definition. ''The possibility of suffering harm or injury.''


    Harry looked over to it and said, "You''re not wrong, but it is meaningless to point it out. Anything could be dangerous. Dogs are dangerous because they could get off their leash and bite someone. I can''t think of any states that prevent you from walking dogs. Cars are very dangerous. So many people die from wrecks, accidents, etc."


    Mr. Redsif''s chair lit up and Harry gave the man a moment to state, "Cars and transportations are an integral part of society! Mutants are not."


    Harry smiled and said, "They are now. There were not always. They proved their worth and over time became an essential part of modern life. Another example would be electricity, specifically AC current. When it came out, many people stated it was highly dangerous and even gave public demonstrations of its danger. AC current is now even stronger and more dangerous today than it was then, but it is still wired into the homes of every person watching this. Shall they move out because their homes are dangerous?"


    Dr. Fields'' chair lit up and he asked, "Are you a mutant?" It was clear he was trying to avoid the topic and even discredit Harry.


    Harry smiled again and asked, "If I said I was not, would you believe me?"


    The balding man pulled out a small disk and said, "I happen to have this Mutant Sensor which would be able to inform us of the truth. May I turn it on?"


    Harry answered, "One moment." He turned to the audience and said, "If this device works, an unidentified mutant in the audience may be outed. If there are any mutants in the audience who do not wish to be revealed, please calmly stand up and you can be escorted away from the cameras."


    The tickets for the audience were awarded to certain individuals who contributed to the Videoshare website.


    One person who was sitting at the edge actually got up and covered his face before leaving. The cameras did not turn to him but the reactions on the three experts showed they were surprised.


    Once he was gone, Harry said, "Alright, go ahead."


    Fields enabled the disk and a small laser pointer popped up from its head and spun around. A small mechanical voice said, [One Mutant Detected]. The laser pointer then spun around to a teenage girl in the audience who didn''t look worried.


    Harry said, "Ah, that''s my girlfriend. Wanda." A few in the audience gasped and those on the stage looked startled.


    Harry continued, "Wanda has the amazing ability to generate and control certain chaotic forms of metaphysical energy. Wanda, would you mind a small demonstration?"


    Wanda smiled back and with a wave of her hands and a red glow, a Corgi appeared in her ??p and gave a happy bark.


    Harry immediately got up from the stage and said, "Corgi!" And proceeded to unceremoniously jump off the stage down to the audience and walk over to his girlfriend who handed him the smiling Corgi.


    Harry then took it back onto the stage and sat down with the Corgi in his ??p and said, "She knows how much I love Corgis."


    While petting the fuzzy twinkie Harry continued, "According to your gizmo, I don''t appear to be a mutant."


    Dr. Hays asked, "How can you be so at ease in the presence of a dangerous mutant?"


    Harry chuckled and said, "I''ve been practicing martial arts since I was twelve. As a joke, I registered myself as a lethal weapon and funnily enough, the registration went through. I can take care of myself well enough."


    Harry let that sink in for a moment before he said, "However, even if I couldn''t, even if I was uncommonly weak and she was a stranger, I still wouldn''t be afraid. Tell me. If you took an African Safari Tour and saw a lion, would you be terrified of it? Of course not. A lion has no reason to harm you unless you give it a reason. You are not a gazelle. Even if Wanda here was a complete stranger, if I''ve never done anything to her, why should I fear her doing anything to me?"


    Dr. Fields chair lit up and he said, "But there are mutants who do not care for laws, they-"


    Harry interrupted, "How is that any different from a non mutant who does not care for the laws?"


    "Because a mutant doesn''t need a weapon to hurt someone. A mutant is a weapon!"


    Harry calmly countered, "According to New York, I''m a weapon too. A lethal one."


    Mr. Redsif''s chair lit up and he said, "But you required training to reach that level. A mutant does not."


    "I can ?ssure you Mr Redsif it is easier to acquire a firearm in this country than it is to gain metaphysical abilities and under a certain range outside of combat situations, firearms do not require training to understand the concept of pulling a trigger. Every American citizen has the potential to harm others and focusing on a class of humans-"


    Dr. Hays didn''t allow Harry to continue before interrupting, "Mutants are not human!"


    She gave a concerned look over to Wanda who seemed completely disinterested in her.


    Harry visibly rolled his eyes and said, "Let''s take a step back. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"


    Millions of people watching the feed from their own homes honestly thought to themselves, ''What?''


    Harry continued as if he had not just asked an absurd question, "The answer is actually the egg. Mutation occurs during the time before birth meaning something that was not a chicken had a mutant baby that had traits different from both parents and matched the parameters of what we would call a chicken. That chicken laid eggs and those eggs were chickens too of course, but the bird that laid the first chicken, was not a chicken."


    Harry felt satisfied he was able to put a centuries odd puzzle to rest on live TV.


    He continued, "In order for a species to be considered different, it must continue the line of that new species. In other words, for mutants to not be considered human, all children of mutants would have to be mutants."


    Harry stopped petting the fuzzy corgi for a moment and tapped on his tablet a few times before a face appeared on the massive screen behind them.


    Harry said, "This is info uncovered by certain investigators under the paycheck of a certain Senator. I asked permission to use this information he paid to gather and he approved. Meet Graydon Creed. Founder of the Friends of Humanity."


    A picture of Graydon appeared on the screen.


    Harry tapped the tablet a few more times and two more pictures appeared, a picture of Sabertooth and a picture of the blue skinned Mystique. Both were obviously mutants.


    Harry said, "And here were have Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme. See the family resemblance?"


    Though Sabertooth had the appearance of a wild animal, his jaw was a perfect fit to Graydon''s and though Mystique was blue, her cheek bone structure also matched Graydon''s.


    Harry added, "They left him at an orphanage by the way. Apparently the reason he didn''t like mutants wasn''t because he felt they were dangerous, he just hated that his parents abandoned him for not being a mutant."


    Harry continued as if he had not just dropped that bomb, "Graydon does not have any discernible nonstandard ability and cannot be considered a mutant. In other words, he is a human. If mutants can give birth to humans and humans can give birth to mutants, then there is no way around classifying both as the same species, Homosapiens. Any comments Dr. Hays?"


    She remained silent. She was not a biologist but Harry''s arguments didn''t leave room for counters.


    Mr. Redsif tried another angle, "If mutants are not another species, then why the sudden emergence now? I do not believe there was any great mutant population one hundred years ago."


    Harry clapped his hands together and said, "Excellent question!"


    The Journalist was not expecting that. He was expecting some room to argue.


    Harry tapped on the tablet again and said, "The very earliest record of the appearance of a mutant, a homosapien born with nonstandard capabilities that cannot be duplicated with training was over fifteen thousand years ago. However throughout history, the appearance of such mutants has been extremely sporadic."


    Several images and slides flashed over the background screen. In the corner of each picture was a stamp which showed the image''s source which others would no doubt look up later.


    Harry continued, "According to the research of a Victorian era scientist named Nathaniel Essex, mutants have actually always been around and have always been around in about the same number. However, usually their manifested abilities are extremely weak. Their natural born nonstandard abilities were not apparently enough for notice as they rarely if ever exceeded what a standard human could achieve with training. Essex was cast out of the London Society for experiments attempting to study mutants and strengthen their weakened powers to a degree that could not be acquired with training, but his research showed that Mutants have always been around, there are simply periods where they are more noticeable than others because of stronger abilities."


    Harry let the slides do the talking for a bit. Harry had stolen a lot of nice things from Mr. Sinister''s evil lair and didn''t mind showing his research to others.


    "What is interesting however is that there have been several times in history where the average strength of awakened mutant abilities reaches an apex many fold higher than the average during unawakened periods. Counting the current age, there have been four times in the last fifteen thousand years."


    Harry''s slideshows moved onto some ancient carvings. "The oldest we have records of was the Hyborian Age. There are as many different translations of the texts from that time as there are texts themselves. But what they all agree on is that the planet earth was being threatened by something, and many people were born with great abilities during that era."


    Mr. Redsif asked, "Isn''t that where the story of Conan the Barbarian comes from?"


    Harry smiled but didn''t answer. He tapped the tablet again and another set of images came up. Each was clearly Egyptian in origin.


    "The next period was five thousand years ago. Things are a bit more clear on these ones. Tell me Mr. Redsif, what do those look like?"


    Harry was pointing at one side of a stone carving. On one side was clearly a group of humans with carvings around them signifying something special about them. They were clearly in battle ready stances. The other side of the carving, the side Harry pointed at, contained numerous carvings of smaller creatures.


    After a moment Redsif answer, "They look like bugs."


    Harry nodded. "The closet translation we have for them was Brood." Harry moved to another slide and said, "According to this mural, the Brood came from the sky. This happened to be around the peak of the emergence of many very powerful mutants."


    He moved to the other slide which showed that a larger insect controlling not only small insects, but other humans. Harry said, "According to these pictures, the Brood could control humans and drew many to their side. I cannot prove to you that these five thousand year old carvings and murals are not the ramblings of crazy people with chisels, but according to them, the Brood were planet conquerors."


    The next slide showed a very large humanoid fighting against a very large Brood and many small humans with strange poses fighting against an endless horde of insects.


    "If this is not a story, then due to the fact that we were not conquered, we obviously prevailed and defeated the invaders. However, think on this. Was it a coincidence that mutants with great powers were born during the time when the world needed them the most?"


    Harry ignored his own question and moved to another slide that showed angels and demons fighting.


    "This one is actually about three thousand years old. More stories of threats of unclear origins. What makes this period interesting was that the variability of mutant powers was reduced during this period. Almost every mutant during that era was born looking like this or like that," he said gesturing to the two sides. "Records show these mutants," he pointed at the angels, "were called Cheyarafim and these mutants," he pointed at the demons, "were called Neyaphem. They fought against each other and another threat, but the nature of the threat is not known."


    Harry put up another slide and showed the three eras. "So three eras with threats and three eras where the average strength granted by a mutation was much higher than normal. And now we have a fourth."


    Mr. Redsif hesitantly asked, "So, you''re saying the population growth of mutants is a defense mechanism to protect against something that is coming?"


    Dr. Fields asked with a bit of fear in his voice, "Something is coming?"


    Harry gave a wry smirk and answered, "I believe so. But don''t worry. We''ll be prepared."


    Dr. Hays said, "You sound confident."


    Harry bent behind him and motioned for someone off stage to bring something over. Someone walked up and set a briefcase on the table between Harry and the others. Next, three more crew members pushed over a large punching machine.


    Harry stood up and placed the smiling corgi on his seat before opening the suitcase to reveal three rubies.


    Harry asked, "Could one of you select a volunteer from the audience? I''ll show you a sneak preview of the future of Metaphysics."


    Dr. Hays pointed at a woman in the audience who stood up and walked over to the stage.


    Harry said, "Hello and thank you for volunteering. First things first. Would you mind giving that punching machine a good whack?"


    The woman nodded and walked over. She took a stance and reeled back before giving a resounding smack against the machine. A number appeared, 560. Harry nodded and said, "Once more please." She did so and a 570 appeared.


    Harry nodded and said, "These are ruby metagems. Each one contains a static charge. Much like how if you rub your head on a balloon and gain the ability to send a bolt of static electricity to the next person or thing you touch, these gems will give the person who uses them a charge of Red Energy. The charge is perfectly harmless however it will increase the strength of the charges person in the next action they take which uses a lot of strength."


    He pointed at a ruby and said to the volunteer. "Please grab one."


    She looked over and Dr. Hays who nodded.


    The young woman picked up a ruby and before the eyes of the audience, it glowed for a moment and vanished.


    Harry asked, "Feel any different?"


    "Um. No?"


    Harry said, "Right now you''re like a person who rubbed their hair against a balloon. Please give the machine another punch."


    She walked back over to it and reeled back again. This time, the moment she threw her fist forward caused her to momentarily glow red.


    A harsh thud echoed through the studio and a number appeared on the machine. 16800


    Harry ignored the gaping audience and said, "Once more please."


    The volunteer was more shocked than anyone and reeled back to hit the machine again. No glow this time. 540


    Harry said, "Thank you. The effect only lasts for a single move and wears off after that."


    Harry put his tablet over the remaining two rubies and turned the tablet''s camera on. He turned on the light and zoomed in so that the Ruby''s inners were displayed. Within the rubies were dozens of parallel lines which resembled circuitry.


    Harry said, "This is the technology of the future." He turned to the experts and asked, "Would one of you like to go try?"


    Mr. Redsif got up before the others did and picked up a ruby. It quickly vanished with a flash.


    He frowned as he didn''t feel any different. He asked, "Do you have something besides the puncher to test this?" he obviously thought the punching machine could have been rigged.


    Wanda shouted from the audience, "I''ll help."


    She waved her hands around a bit and after a flash of red light, the chair the man had been sitting on turned into a large, wooden dummy.


    Harry said, "Thanks Wanda." He turned to Redsif and said, "Please punch it towards that wall."


    He nodded and reeled back. His body glowed red for a moment and the wooden dummy shattered. The pieces shot backwards towards the wall as if it had been hit with a battering ram.


    Redsif was looking at his hand and Harry said, "Red Energy has the effect of conserving momentum, breaking Newton''s third law. It doesn''t actually make you stronger. It simply reduces the effect of colliding momentum which is why your hand probably doesn''t feel like it just shattered a wooden dummy to pieces."


    Dr. Fields said, "I want to try."


    Harry shook his head and closed the briefcase. "These things sometimes vanish without even being touched and send their energy pointlessly into the air to dissipate. I brought an extra to make sure we got at least two tests. These things are ridiculously expensive to make. For what they do the amount of money spent to make it isn''t close to worth it, these are just prototypes, proof of concepts."


    Harry had someone bring out another chair for Redsif and take away the briefcase and the punching machine.


    Harry continued, "You asked me earlier why am I not afraid of mutants. Simply put, it''s because in the future, once this type of technology becomes readily available, it won''t matter if someone is a mutant or not."


    Harry put the corgi back into his ??p and started petting it again. "In the future, whether or not someone is a mutant and what their power is will have the same significance as whether or not someone owns a dog and what breed it is today. It will be relegated to dinner conversation and the gossip of housewives. Interesting, but not something that will have any great impact on their lives."


    Harry spent the next hour going over various facts about mutants and their powers and answered many questions about the history slideshow he showed on the screen. he even had the audience come up with various questions and he answered them as well.


    What even the experts didn''t know was that most of this was of course staged. Harry put specific compulsions on the experts to get them to ask specific questions. They likely would have asked them anyways, but Harry remained in control of the topics. The mutant detector was real, and the expert didn''t know that Harry had anonymously given it to him. It was bait to draw out those with an interest in the tech and Harry would have fun with them later.


    Harry of course would not show up on any sensor so it didn''t detect him. In fact, if Harry didn''t use a spell as cover, Harry wouldn''t even show up on an Infrared scanner. All the energy he emitted was invisible after all. Thankfully no one had called Harry out on that before he started using said spell to fake a heat signature.


    The Metagems which he used for the demonstration were in fact real. Harry had this idea ever since he got to New York. Using this as a cover, he could continue doing as he did with the X-Men and not even be considered a mutant. As long as he didn''t show off that he could absorb books anyways.


    The facts he brought out would certainly be argued against for months and years, but everything he referenced was real so they could only argue against the evidence, not his interpretation of it.


    Harry himself didn''t actually know if something was coming but to him it didn''t matter. He''d get stronger regardless and he wouldn''t get bored anytime soon.


    Harry ignored most of the fallout from the show including the people calling him a mutant lover or crazy. The only thing he cared about was the fact that his Scholar Path successfully Ranked Up to 47. To those who complained, Harry just said he was in fact a lover of beautiful mutants and since he was sixteen, they should not hold it against him for having a strong imagination and loving a good story.


    After that the only people who continued to argue were those who ignored Harry''s arguments. Harry in return ignored them.


    During the last week of July and the first week of August outside of the interview, Harry spent much of his time finishing up the constructions of his New York Home. The property was only a few blocks from the New York Sanctum Sanctorum and shared a leyline he could use with the Ancient One''s permission. The reason he was finishing it up was because he wanted to hold the wedding''s reception at the house before taking everyone to Black Island.


    Everyone Harry cared for got their invitation. The Teachers of the X-Mansion, his friends among the students, Mordo, Wong, and the Ancient One, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones, and even Hermione and Neville. Apparently the latter would be having their own wedding June of 2011, after their Hogwarts graduation.


    Probably the most fun part of the entire wedding was handing out the invitations. Harry insisted on doing so for most of them personally. Up to this point, only the Ancient One and a few of the more insightful students knew Harry was dating all three girls. When Harry delivered each invitation, he could see the shocked look one their faces that Harry was marrying three girls at once!


    The only ones who did not get an invitation were Rogue''s parents and Jean''s parents. The latter did not approve of being in a polygamous relationship and Rogue parents were apparently cultists Rogue never wanted to see again. Charles was considered the legal Guardian of all three girls but he would not go against their wishes in this.


    Although the ceremony would have all the bells and whistles, it was not official for two reasons. First, in New York you could not get a marriage license unless you were eighteen, had permission from your parents, or were an emancipated minor. Seconds, you cannot legally marry three people so the main wife was decided to be Jean while the other two were girlfriends on the side. This decision was made by the girls for a few reasons, the main one being that she was the most empathic and needed the most love.


    Still, even if it wasn''t a legal wedding it was the thought that counted and for all intents and purposes, this was all of their wedding.. After weeks of laborious preparations, the day had finally come.

 Chapter 53 - 53 The Main Event

    Harry''s freshly built New York home was about seven blocks east of New York''s Bleeker St Sanctum Sanctorum. Harry actually wanted something close to the New York University but unsurprisingly nothing was available for purchase. Instead, Harry found a store on 4th St and Broadway that sold Televisions which had gone under during the 2008 recession and had a real estate company he controlling interest in directly purchased the whole property. The building included two more stores above the address which were included in the purchase and after the paperwork was finalized, Harry had it all torn down.


    Over the course of several months he had the foundation dug up and strengthened and built in a basement. He then had a three story home built into the space with an exterior of double layered reinforced cement blocks. Between the two layers was an alchemically produced agent Harry synthesized which would reflect any form of energy. This would prevent any energy inside the house from escaping and also protect the house from attack.


    The first floor included a waiting area, living room, dinner hall, kitchen, restroom, and storage. The upstairs included three large bathrooms and half a dozen bedrooms including a very large master bedroom, three studies, a library, and several rooms for display pieces. The basement was for experiments and had as many magical protections as Harry could fit without risking implosion.


    The entity that was the Phoenix had kept its word to Harry and had not tried to control or take over Jean in order to make her fulfill her duties as the Avatar of Life and Rebirth. Duties which included flying around the Universe and going to worlds that were better off burnt and burning them herself with Phoenix fire. Any planet, no matter how vile or filthy, would generate life energy like anything else if the surface were burnt with Phoenix flames and any such world would soon birth new life.


    As Jean''s power grew, so did her connection to the Phoenix. Although the Phoenix did not force its will upon her, Jean would intuitively feel locations in the universe which needed ''pruning'' the stronger her connection became. Every time she used her power as the Phoenix''s Avatar, she would feel the vileness of those worlds and feel an irresistible urge to burn them.


    August 6th was the day where several different celestial energies would converge on the earth and was a good day for some ceremonies. The Wedding was basically a ceremony that would strengthen the connection between Jean and Harry so that she could suppress the urge to fly away into the stars.


    That was one of the main reasons Rogue and Wanda conceded the role of Legal wife to Jean. Even if Harry used the Elixir of Life to extend their lives indefinitely, neither truly wanted to live forever so only Jean would be able to stay at Harry''s side until all the stars went out. Besides, both girls knew Harry fell in love with her first.


    The wedding guests on the States'' side all met up at Harry''s new home while the guests on the other side of the pond went directly to the wedding site to be held on Black Island. Sirius insisted and since Harry figured he''d be watched if he held it anywhere else, he agreed.


    When Magneto knocked on the door in a tuxedo along with a disguised Raven and Pietro, Scott and the students who received an invite were surprised but the Teachers were not. Erik walked directly over to Charles and started chatting. Pietro talked awkwardly with Wanda while Raven actually congratulated her and Rogue. At one point Raven Darkholme had actually taken care of Rogue and in a very real sense she was the closest thing the two had to a mother. Both were naturally quite happy to see her on this day.


    The final guests on this side arrived and Harry welcomed the Ancient One, Mordo, and Wong as guests. Emma had actually been invited but she declined which caused Scott to mope for a while.


    Harry had everyone gather in the waiting room and pulled out a diamond he made glow before placing it back into his inventory and throwing out a silver ring portal. Mordo raised an eyebrow but didn''t say anything. Everyone walked through the portal onto the beach where Harry met up with Sirius, Amelia, Neville and Hermione. Unsurprisingly he was attacked with a hug from the latter but Harry withstood it without getting tackled to the ground.


    As they waited for the timing of the convergence, everyone started mingling. Amelia and Ororo were chatting and laughing about their men being animals. Neville and Scott talked about their goals and dreams. Jean and Hermione were discussing magic, psionics, and sorcery with Wanda and Wong. The Ancient One and Xavier were having an interesting discussion, and Mordo and Logan kinda just stood to the side ready for something horrible to happen. Harry would consider them pessimists if they weren''t usually right. But holding the wedding on an island that cannot be found was the safest he could make it outside of holding it in another dimension.


    The time eventually approached and the ladies walked over to some tents to get into their wedding dresses. Harry already had on his own tuxedo as it was not too uncomfortable to mingle in.


    Harry wasn''t sure if he should have been surprised or not when his phone started ringing. Harry answered it and calmly said, "I''m certain you understand the consequences of interrupting today. What is it?"


    The voice of the Goblin on the other end easily said, "I''ve sent a link to you. You''ll want to see this."


    Harry sighed and clicked on the link. Pages of data streamed down his phone''s screen but Harry could read it all at an insane rate. Harry looked up and said, "Fuck."


    Suddenly, the bright blue sky dimmed and was slowly shifting to an eerie purple. Everyone looked up and the Sorcerers among the group started casting scanning type spells.


    The conversations died and the mood became tense. Jean sensed the changes and ran out with the others before they even got a chance to put on their wedding gowns.


    The Ancient One finished scanning first and said, "There appears to be a layer of energy forming around the planet. The energy is tinting the light of the sun."


    Harry tapped on his phone''s screen and said, "A big bloody pyramid popped out of Egypt, went into the sky, and released a net of nodes which is generating the field of energy into an array.


    Jean frowned and said, "I don''t like it. It feels wrong."


    Harry continued looking over the data streaming and said, "You''re not the only one. Five, no six countries have just launched their missiles."


    Moments later the first missiles impacted the field. Flashes of light could be seen even from the ground and the purple light shifted for a moment. However the sky remained unchanged. Harry confirmed from his intercepted readings that the missiles failed.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Stop the Apocalypse


    Harry rolled his eyes at the pop up and said, "Screw it, the faster we blow that thing up, the sooner we can get back to the important things." Thirty-five minutes was when they were going to have the wedding so someone else wanted to use the convergence it seemed.


    Harry pulled out another Diamond and after making it vanish, he created a giant silver ring that opened into the pitch black voice of space. Hovering in front of the space was a giant pyramid that appeared to be made of black stone with metal circuits built around it.


    Without bothering to question it, everyone lined up in front of the portal and fired. Scott released his Optic Beam at full blast. The Sorcerers channeled various energies into projectiles. Jean, Wanda, and Rogue fired psionic and magic bolts. And Sirius, Amelia, and even Neville joined the fun and fired various spells.


    The massive pyramid shook and the purple glow it was emitting faltered and dimmed. Suddenly, the glow of the nearby nodes strengthened and according to Harry''s energy senses, the ones nearby were reinforcing this one. However the more energy it drew from the others, the more unstable it seemed to become. Harry shouted, "Keep going, it''s getting weaker!"


    Moments later the pyramid seemed to crack. However before it could blow, the silver portal shattered and a massive glowing object appeared above the island.


    Sirius shouted, "It couldn''t have gotten here, this island has centuries worth of layered protections."


    Harry considered it and said, "It teleported in through my portal. You locked the door but it seems I opened the window." Harry wasn''t even aware there was something that could do that.


    The object was unsurprisingly pyramid shaped as well and the size of a mansion. After a moment its glow lessened until the surface of the thing was revealed. Though pyramid in shape, its overall structure looked sleek and advanced. Like a spaceship.


    The ship landed and the front opened up.


    A dozen dangerous looking humans walked, some of which Harry recognized. They were mutants Harry killed in Sinister''s lair. They were followed by Mister Sinister himself who didn''t seem pleased to be here. And finally, the last one out was someone whose size could easily give Juggernaut a run for his money. He had grey skin and a blue mouth. His jawline was actually wider than his forehead giving him a malformed, mis-shapen appearance. His massive form was covered in purple armor that gave a mysterious sheen, unlike any other material Harry had ever encountered.


    Harry and the Ancient One walked forward to meet them and Logan and Mordo followed close behind. In fluent Ancient Egyptian, the Ancient One said, {En Sabah Nur, to what do we owe the p???sur? of this visit?}


    The massive mutant showed no surprise at her recognition and answered in perfect English, "Impressive. I came here to find those who dared interrupt the birth of my new world. But it seems I have found several suitable candidates for Horsemen."


    The blue giant raised his hand and four blue lights shot out and started zigzagging from the spacecraft. One shot towards the Ancient One while the other three shot for Harry''s fianc¨¦s.


    Harry Paused and walked over. The blue lights stood still in frozen time and were in fact small disks. Harry considered several different possibilities but none of them were good. That being said, his girl''s weren''t defenseless either and Harry didn''t waste and concern over the Ancient One. She certainly didn''t need it.


    Harry unpaused and saw a powerful multilayered mystic shield cover the Ancient One. The disk bounced off the shield and struck it twice more but was deflected each time.


    Harry turned to Scott and shouted, "Keep your watch on!"


    Jean and Wanda created shields and Rogue used Colossus''s power for defense. However the disks actually shattered their shields and latched onto Jean and Wanda. The third tried to latch onto Rogue but it couldn''t penetrate her skin.


    Through their connection, Harry felt the disk try to connect to his girls. This made them mad. Jean covered herself in Phoenix flames and Wanda saturated her body in Chaos Magic. Harry was dumbfounded that the disks were not immediately destroyed, but they were getting damaged and released from the girls.


    Harry had already pulled out a magic gun and fired at one of the disks the moment it released itself, but other than causing it to wobble a bit, it didn''t stop the disk from zooming around and latching onto someone else.


    From the moment the disks shot out, including the resistance of the first targets and acquiring of the secondary targets, only five seconds had passed and most of the X-Men other than Logan had not reacted. Unfortunately Logan was too far away to stop one of the disks from landing on the back of Xavier''s neck. Another had targeted Magneto. He tried to use magnetism to throw it back but somehow the disk resisted and latched onto him anyways. The third disk got Ororo when she was distracted by the one that got Charles. And the last one hooked onto Remy LeBeau, who though not a teacher, had gotten a wedding invite because he was Rogue''s defacto big brother.


    Two seconds after the disk attached, the four victims collapsed.


    Scott shouted, "Who do you think you are?!" He turned off his watch and fired his optic blast directly at the mutant. It impacted his shoulder but other than giving off light and sparks, it caused no discernible effect.


    The massive mutant stated, "I am Apocalypse. Now, rise my Horsemen. Death." Remy, also known as Gambit, started floating into the air and straightened up. His arm twisted behind him and he pulled out a bo staff. A moment later however, staff changed and a giant blade appeared at one end, making it look like a grim reaper''s scythe. Apocalypse continued, "War." Magneto stood up. The ground beneath him rose and fragments of metal buried in the earth covered him and hardened into a brutal looking set of armor. "Pestilence," he continued. Storm rose up high into the air and her skin turned pale. Dark clouds started gathering ominously overhead. "Famine" Xavier''s body suddenly started floating directly off his chair and he was covered in a sickly purple aura.


    Harry confirmed that each of the four''s body''s had been hijacked. Their conscious minds were not in control.


    Apocalypse flatly stated, "Kill them."


    Gambit slammed his scythe against the ground and the tremor was amplified into a seismic wave which threw everyone off their feet. Thunder clouds crackle menacingly in the sky. Globs of earth rose from the ground and the metal within ?ssembled itself into armored soldiers. Xavier floated above them all and spread his arms out.


    Without warning, everyone of the remaining guests received a mental attack. Jean easily resisted as did Wanda and Rogue who learned Occlumency. For the same reason, Sirius, Amelia, Neville and Hermione were able to withstand the attack. Occlumency was not just an art, but a form of mental protection magic. The sorcerers had faced numerous psionics and could withstand the ?ssault as well.


    Other than them however, every other person on the island had fallen unconscious.


    Harry flatly stated, "Well that''s not good."


    Mordo said, "I''ve faced worse."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Wait for it."


    The unconscious students and teachers started getting up. They were now under Xavier''s control.


    Mordo sighed and said, "I''ll just stay quiet then."


    The Ancient One added, "Please do."


    Harry just shouted, "They are being controlled, Stun them!"


    Before the controlled faculty could attack, Sirius and Amelia shot back to back stunners at the controlled Horsemen and Neville and Hermione used stunners on the students. The latter were technically students who only recently passed their OWLS, but the influence of harry had affected them and they never stopped trying to increase their skill level. According to Harry''s senses, they were both equivalent of someone at level 70 which was not much weaker than Mordo and Wong who Harry''s senses told him would be measured at about level 90 and 100.


    Jean knocked out Nightcrawler, Scott, Bobby, and Kitty in quick succession while Rogue took out Mystique, Colossus, and Spyke, and Angel. Wanda used a Impedimenta Spell to slow Pietro enough to knock him out and then used an unlucky hex bolt to take out Domino and Forge. Harry''s girls did not slack in their own training either and were all over 120 in level and even higher in skill.


    The Horsemen resisted the Wizard''s stunners but repeated shots seem to have an effect or at least slow them down. Wolverine jumped out to try to cut off Sirius''s arms but ex-auror quickly turned into a dog and latched his teeth into Logan''s arms from behind, holding him down while Amelia fired Stunner after Stunner into the immortal until he stopped moving.


    The Sorcerers were destroying Magneto''s metal men and attacking him directly while intercepting the lightning from the sky.


    Harry and the Ancient One did not fight, they stayed near Apocalypse, Sinister, and his Marauders to take action in case any of them made a move.


    Apocalypse watched on and said, "You are strong. Together. But how shall you fair apart?"


    The ship behind Apocalypse created a barrier which extended outwards over the island. Walls formed and moved, pushing the fighters away from each other. Now the island had five sections, each walled off from the others.


    The center section had the Ancient One, Harry, Sinister, the Marauders and Apocalypse.


    The north section had Neville, Sirius, Mordo, and Wong against Gambit.


    The west section had Rogue, Amelia, and Hermione against Storm.


    The east section had Wanda alone against Magneto.


    And the south section had Jean alone against Xavier.


    Harry wasn''t worried.


    The Ancient One, who had far more practice at getting the villain to monologue their plan than Harry did, said, "And what do you hope to achieve by all of this?"


    Her tone made it seem like she was looking down on his plan which seemed to irk the man. Apocalypse stated, "I created this system five thousand years ago. It has taken this long for the nodes to store up enough energy from the sun to fulfil my dream. Once the stars are in alignment, my system will have enough power to awaken the dormant mutant gene in every human that possesses it. Their potential shall be realized and the world shall be reborn."


    Harry, who had enough genetics knowledge from the various systems he''d stolen from and his own research to be considered an expert, said, "There is too much variance in the population for a single type of energy to have such an effect. At least a quarter of those with an unawakened X-Gene will not survive the forced awakening. Shut it down."


    Apocalypse sneered at this. He said, "The weak shall die. It has always been this way."


    Harry narrowed his eyes at that. What he couldn''t say aloud was that Witches and Wizards, even without the X-Gene would likely be affected by such a wave because of how their bodies react to energy. In all likelihood, every witch and wizard on earth would die.


    Harry stepped forward and said, "Then I shall stop you."


    Apocalypse smiled at this. "Stop me? It was you who made this possible. Sinister was tasked with awakening me from my slumber for this event years ago, but neglected his duties as my servant. It was your video which led others to search for me and find me in a mere two days. Were it not for you, I would have missed this date and had to wait for the next alignment."


    The Ancient One calmly stated, "Well, that explains that." Harry pressed his lips together awkwardly. He knew she was referring to the fact that she had not seen this coming. She could not see any event which was caused by Harry and apparently this qualified.


    Harry said, "I''m still going to stop you."


    The Marauders standing at the side started laughing.


    Harry had been in disguise when he slaughtered them the last time and none recognized him.


    The man with the large bull horns on his head walked over to Harry and said, "You? You''re not a mutant. You''re a nothing. You should bow down before the might of our Master and beg for mercy."


    Another large mutant, one Harry didn''t recognize said, "And as a token of loyalty, you should offer him your little girlfriends. They look tasty."


    Harry took a deep breath and said, "Shut up if you don''t want to die. You''re making me angry. You won''t like me when I''m angry."


    The Marauders looked over at each other and started laughing hysterically. They watched the show Harry put on. Everyone saw the mutant detector prove he wasn''t a mutant. He was just a rich kid with some fancy toys.


    Mister Sinister stood at Apocalypse''s side, away from the Marauders but said, "I hope you can keep your sense of humor in the next life child. Try to laugh while you watch what I do to your little girlfriends."


    Harry raised an eyebrow. Apparently he wasn''t intimidating enough. He placed his hand forward and a bright red flame appeared and grew larger and larger.


    This surprised the Marauders and it showed Harry did in fact have powers.


    While they looked ready to defend themselves, Harry pressed the fire to his mouth and inhaled it with a deep, mighty breath. The flames flew from his palm through his mouth into his lungs. In the next moment, Harry''s body erupted in golden lightning. Those staring him in the eye would see the illusion of a terrifying black dragon behind him.


    Before any of the Marauders could react, Harry opened his mouth and released golden lightning charged flames which shot forth like a tidal wave. From a distance it would appear to be moving slowly but to those directly in front of it they felt it pass over them before they could even move.


    The golden lightning flames raked a swath of land in front of Harry and once it petered out there was nothing remaining. Of the group in the center of the island, Only Apocalypse and Sinister remained.


    Harry looked over at Sinister and with the remnant of golden flames leaving his mouth he asked, "You were saying?"


    Harry could tell the other battles were going as well as they could be. Jean''s body was wreathed in phoenix flames as she fought against the dark aura clad Xavier. Their battle field was a constant eruption of multicolored explosions of psychedelic red and purple lights.


    Wanda seemed to be trying to transfigure the metal soldiers Magento conjured into stone but Magneto countered this by just making some shields. The spells hit the metal shields and turned the metal shields into stone, but they were still shields. This forced Wanda to have to use multiple spells for each soldier and Magneto wasn''t running out of them.


    The group against Gambit had the most people but they were also the most troubled. Remy''s mutant power allowed him to convert Potential Energy into Kinetic Energy and Amplify Kinetic Energy. He could turn anything he touched into a bomb and strengthen the effect of any impact he created. Now, he also seemed to be able to convert kinetic energy into potential energy, Because of this, he could negate any physical attack against him. He also seems to be able to fly by controlling his own kinetic energy.


    Harry was thankful Neville was a part of that group. From what Harry could tell, the wizard had apparently brought along a large amount of seeds and had transfigured them along with the soil into vines. Gambit''s power couldn''t blow up the vines that Neville commanded to attack and bind the Cajun Mutant. Sorcerers and Wizards were also good at binding so although they couldn''t brute force their way to victory, they could still win with some clever moves.


    Storm''s area seemed devoid of life. The wind she flung around drained the very life from the soil and trees. Hermione had cast a Bubble Head Maxima charm over herself and Amelia which protected them from the desolate winds. She also cast Lightning Rod spells at the ground which attracted all the lightning bolts Storm tried to shoot Rogue with. Rogue herself had put on Angel''s wings and was using Bobby''s Ice powers to freeze Storm in the air while occasionally using Scott''s optics to interrupt her while Amelia petted her with stunners and hexes. Storm''s power may have been amplified, but she was still made of flesh.


    Harry was just glad Scott himself was not controlled. Harry easily figured out that those disks looked for the targets with the most energy. Scott should have been a target above Gambit but the watch Harry gave him shut off his connection to his power making him read as weak. The disk amplified the power and if Scott''s power was amplified, he''d probably be able to vaporize everyone in moments. The young man had no idea how powerful he really was because of how much he held himself back.


    Harry opened his inventory and Sinister and Apocalypse saw heavily enchanted adamantine armor appear over Harry''s body alongside a vibranium and adamantium sword with an edge magically sharpened to a single atom.


    The Ancient One conjured an eldritch long sword and calmly stated, "I''m sure we all have better things to do so why don''t we skip the warm up."


    Harry had to stop himself from smiling. There would be no holding back this time, no with the fate of the world on the line. Plus he was just a little excited to fight alongside his teacher.


    Apocalypse stepped forward and said, "You are strong. There is a place for you in my new world."


    Harry said, "You say that as if we would allow you to take it."


    "So be it. You have chosen death."


    *** He continued, "You and the wench shall die."


    The Ancient One raised an eyebrow. Harry took three steps back from her and looked away. This wasn''t going to be pretty.


    She dismissed her weapons and calmly walked up to Apocalypse and said, "What did you call me?"


    He sneered and said, "A wench-"


    The Ancient One raised and hand and slapped Apocalypse. The sound of a sonic boom shattered the airspace as the five thousand year old mutant was sent flying into the air, directing into the sky and towards the moon. A moment later the moon cracked and a massive crater formed on the lunar surface.


    The Ancient One dusted off her hands and Sinister collapsed to his knees and his hair fell out in shock.


    Harry turned to look over at Chuck Norris and asked, "What do you think?''


    Chuck Norris said, "I certainly wouldn''t want to piss her off.


    Deadpool put his arms around Chuck Norris and admired the moon''s new crater and said, "You said it."


    *Author''s Note.*


    You can consider everything that happened after the *** an Omake. The next chapter will start from there.


    I''ve been tempted to do something like that but I knew I''d only be able to fool you guys with that once so I had to save it for something special.


    Happy New Years!

 Chapter 54 - 54 A New Beginning

    *Author''s Note*


    For those who didn''t notice, the part where the Ancient One b1tch slapped Apocalypse to the Moon was an Omake. I don''t mind making that kind shenanigan legit, but this fight is more so Harry can go all out for real against someone much, much stronger than he is.


    Chapter 54 A New Beginning


    Mister Sinister stepped forward and said, "Allow me Master."


    Apocalypse pulled him back and said, "No. They are beyond you."


    Harry rushed forward and swiped his sword as the Ancient One firmly stated, "I call forth the Icy Tendrils of Ikthalon."


    Apocalypse batted Harry''s monomolecular edge blade with a wave of his hand just as a surge of ice covered him from head to toe.


    Harry generated more Phoenix flames as the ice shattered and the Ancient One charged forward to stab him through the eye. Apocalypse swatted away her Eldritch sword, shattering it as Harry finished inhaling the Phoenix flames he had conjured.


    Apocalypse slowly raised his hands as Harry charged the Phoenix flames in his lungs with Immortal Dragon Chi and in the next instant he released another blast of Dragon Phoenix Fire Breath.


    Without bothering to dodge, Apocalypse slammed his hands together creating a massive shockwave that scattered the Immortal Dragon Chi infused Phoenix Flames harmlessly into the air. The shockwave also threw Harry and the Ancient One back a half dozen meters.


    Harry Paused.


    It had only been about five seconds but things were already not exactly going well. There was only a single power that could stop a monomolecular blade like that. Molecule control. Although records of Apocalypse could be found in Kamar-Taj''s library, the exact details of his powers was not known. Now the truth was apparent. En Sabah Nur could control the structure of the molecules in his body.


    Thankfully such a power did have a few weaknesses. For example, he could only change the structure on purpose. This meant while he was biologically immortal and could heal from any wound, his cells did not repair themselves automatically like Logan''s did, he would have to will the repair to occur manually. Also, the energy required to shift the structure of his molecules would be taxing.


    Harry charged forward once more but the Ancient One kept her distance. No form of teleporting through any means besides special portkeys would work on this island thanks to the centuries worth of barriers and Harry''s silver portals were the only exception. This meant Harry could not apparate at will, but it also meant whatever means Sinister and perhaps Apocalypse had to teleport would not work as well.


    Harry swung his blade again and was once more repelled by the mutant''s hands while the Ancient one called from the back, "Answer my call, Flames of the Faltine!"


    This time a torrent of orange flames surrounded Apocalypse.


    The Ancient One''s plan was not different from Harry''s. Attack with physical strikes and magic spells to force Apocalypse to either take heavy damage from one or rapidly switch his molecular structure to adjust to each over and over. They didn''t expect to tire him out but they could get an opening if they kept at it for a few minutes.


    Apocalypse''s skin glowed and the flame snuffed out. The Ancient One didn''t need Harry''s energy sense to tell what had happened. Apocalypse absorbed the energy of the spell. If he could absorb energy, than he''d be able to heal faster than they could damage him even if they got in a few hits.


    The massive mutant raised a hand and a massive bolt of energy shot out from his palm and struck the Ancient One''s location nearly in the same instant it was fired. The Ancient One however was fast for her age and cleanly dodged the strike, standing at the side of the massive crater that had formed without a singe on her gown.


    Apocalypse said, "You are only delaying the inevitable. You cannot stop, Apocalypse!"


    In the moment he shouted his name he vanished from his position and appeared in front of Harry, slashing through the front of his ?h?st, spilling blood everywhere. The mutant''s hand had shifted into the form of a long blade and he moved with speed unthinkable for one so large.


    Harry didn''t bother faking his death and took a few steps back. His wound quickly vanished though the weight of that strike cleanly removed an eighth of his health through his personal adamantine armor. Harry could tell Apocalypse''s strength didn''t lose out to the full power of the Immortal Black Dragon Chiantang.


    Apocalypse did appear slightly surprised that Harry was not dead. Standing near the spaceship, Mister Sinister actually had his jaw drop. Apparently he didn''t think the Metaphysics expert was an Immortal Mutant as well.


    Since the big man wanted to fight, Harry would oblige. Harry saturated himself in dimensional energy, red energy from Cyttorak''s Crimson Cosmos, and fully unleashed his Immortal Dragon Chi. For the cherry on top, Harry wreathed his sword in conjured Phoenix Flames. He was very pleased Blade had given him that idea.


    Without waiting for Apocalypse to move, Harry rushed forward at speeds that would give Pietro a run for his money using strength that Rogue couldn''t match if she channeled the Juggernaut himself.


    Apocalypse did not stand idly by and struck forth with all his power. Although it was a simple swing, it showed the man''s expert level skill with a sword and was not something Harry could parry. Harry instead met the blade head on with his own and the earth beneath them shook from the impact. Harry was forced a few steps back, but he was not overwhelmed. Harry actually had the advantage in speed on that one.


    Dimensional energy does not actually increase physical strength or speed when used for enhancement by a Sorcerer. By saturating the body in Dimensional energy, a skilled Sorcerer can manipulate it within the body like the strings of a puppet to direct the body to move faster or hit harder than it was physically capable of. This has a limit of course. Harry''s limit however was far, far higher than his contemporaries when it came to using Dimensional energy to speed up and empower his body. That stacked with the increased momentum of the red energy and the all around amplification of Dragon Chi meant Harry was a force on his own.


    Apocalypse leapt forward for the next earth splitter strike and Harry side stepped. The impact of the blade against the ground forced Harry back preventing him from using the opening to strike the mutant.


    The Ancient One seemed to have been ignored which she was fine with. A small orange ball of flame was sitting in her hand and it looked like she was waiting for a moment to throw it. She wasn''t. Giving her time was never a good idea. The Flames of the Faltine were slightly inferior to Phoenix Flames but not by much The Faltine were basically gods of Magic and their magic flames could burn stronger than any other magic fire. The Ancient One was continuously channeling more and more flames into the glowing sphere in her hand. The longer the wait, the more it contained.


    Harry could tell what her plan was and had been acting as the distraction. Any form of energy absorption had a limit. Exceed that limit? Boom. The Ancient One had been around the block a few times and knew how to deal with snippy little brats with god complexes.


    Harry matched Apocalypse strike for strike. Harry was pushed back with each exchange but he was used to fighting those stronger than him so he was experienced at fending off the attacks without receiving a fatal blow.


    The Ancient One threw the fireball which changed in color from orange to white, revealing the immense intensity of the flame. She didn''t bother aiming at Apocalypse, She aimed for the entrance of the ship.


    Harry had drawn the massive immortal away from his ship but he noticed the deception the moment the Ancient One moved and in the next instant he stood in front of the fireball which exploded on contact in a torrent of flames hotter than the sun.


    Everyone on the island was momentarily blinded but the shields separating the layers prevented the others from getting incinerated. Harry and the Ancient One already had barriers ready which prevented them from getting cooked.


    A moment later the light vanished and Apocalypse stood tall. Sinister was a few meters to the side and heavily burnt. He had erected his own barrier but it had not been enough to completely protect him.


    Apocalypse started glowing and shouted into the air. Rather than explode though, his purple armor shot a beam of light into the interior of the ship. The mutant''s glow dimmed and his burnt body was revealed but it was also recovering at a visible rate.


    The Ancient One and Harry noticed the problem. The man''s armor regulated the energy and could even send away excess energy. That meant his weakness was negated, at least as long as he was near the ship.


    This time Apocalypse charged forward but towards the Ancient One. He''d wised up on who was the most dangerous.


    Harry Paused and checked the other battles.


    Gambit was covered in layers of vines and didn''t seem to be getting up.


    Storm was encased fully in ice. Someone would fix her later.


    Wanda and Magneto were still going at it but Wanda had apparently gotten creative. Inside her section there appeared to be a gigantic, building sized acid slime. It seemed to just melt all the metal and eventually the Master of Magnetism would just run out.


    Jean wasn''t exactly having a tough time, but the more of the Phoenix''s power she used to deal with the dark aura covered Xavier, the more problems would occur in the future.


    The main problem was still Apocalypse. If they tried attacking his ship again he might close the door, but they needed to destroy it which meant they couldn''t attack it unless they knew the attack would work. Harry was pretty sure the ship could control the Mutant Ascension System in orbit so breaking it would either stop the thing or at least make it easier to stop the thing using other means.


    Harry couldn''t keep up this level of combat for long and neither could the Ancient One. Harry had already shown himself to have the ability to heal so Apocalypse seemed content with passively trying to kill them while waiting until the timer reached zero and the system in the sky went off.


    Giving a look at the cinder formerly known as Mister Sinister, Harry got a stupid idea.


    Harry unpaused and ran over to back up the Ancient One. She is not as fast as Harry but she could fold space even without Dormammu''s mark appearing which ?ssisted her with dodging and attacking. From an outsider''s perspective the space around her looked like it contained many floating planes of glass and mirrors which broke off and multiplied and came together with each movement. Apocalypse looked like he was fighting a Kaleidoscope.


    Harry created dimensional blades with his fingers and slashed them over the tops of his arms, spreading blood everywhere. Before landing, the blood started floating and then came together into a pattern. Harry charged the pattern with all sorts of magic and it broke apart and flew at Harry in pieces. The broken lines and symbols of blood etched themselves into Harry''s body.


    The aura surrounding Harry magnified several times over. This was Harry''s all out tactic, Blood Amplification Magic. The blood in his body would literally burn away for the duration of this spell and the spell could not be reversed once started. It was a nearly guaranteed death.


    Harry''s sword cut through Apocalypse''s altered blade arm with a single sweep. He''d gotten through the mutant''s power with sheer strength even a diamond would have met the same fate. Harry sent a coded mental message to the Ancient One of the plan and started pushing Apocalypse back. For about three seconds.


    Once the mutant understood Harry had, for the moment, become an actual threat, his body grew in size and didn''t stop growing until he was five stories tall. His massive foot stood in front of the Ship''s entrance and his other foot moved to stomp Harry into pulp.


    Harry''s aura strengthened with each second as the effect of the burning blood was accumulative and he''d grow stronger and stronger until he died. Harry could feel his health shrinking with each moment and the used blood would not return unless the spell ended. The reason Blood magic was illegal was that any blood used in a Blood Magic spell would never return to the user. If a person had exactly ten pints of blood, and they used one quarter of a pint for blood magic, from that point onward until the effect the blood was used for had ended, the body would only ever retain nine and three quarters pints of blood. This didn''t make sense for a nonmagical human but it was real for magical humans with magic in their blood.


    Harry jumped at Apocalypse''s ?h?st and rammed his Phoenix Flame infused sword through Apocalypse''s armor and through his heart. Harry then snapped off the hilt and jumped back.


    Apocalypse shouted in pain but the flame was not enough to kill him even if his heart completely incinerated. Harry conjured his massive red eldritch sword which contained a thick aura of blood. Apocalypse bent down to smash his fist into Harry to turn him into meat paste but Harry jumped up and used pure strength to slice off the enormous arm.


    Harry jumped back to get some distance as the Ancient One launched another concentrated orb of Faltine Flames at the wound in Apocalypse''s ?h?st.


    Another blinding light whitened the sky.


    Cracks formed along Harry''s body as if he was about to shatter, but in the next moment his eyes opened with a pitch black glow. Harry''s body instantly turned black and exploded, but not into a shower of blood and gore. As the blinding effect of the Ancient One''s spell faded, a massive cloud of black ash filled the space.


    In the next instant, the ash immediately rushed towards Apocalypse and turned into a black vortex as it spun around Apocalypse''s glowing form. The ash was not attacking the mutant himself, it was attacking the armor.


    Sparks of purple light shot out from the armor much to the Ancient One''s relief. Harry''s wizard magic was always destructive against technology. This was more advanced than any other technology they had come across but was still technology. Though it was heavily resistant to Harry''s magic, they gambled that it was not immune.


    Apocalypse suddenly understood what was happening. He shouted, "Noooo!" as the armor tried and failed to siphon the excess energy from the spell. Without an outlet, his flesh could not handle the might of the small sun he had just absorbed. Apocalypse tried to gather the energy and fire it away, but he was too unlucky to meet Harry. Harry wasn''t aware that Apocalypse had changed much of his flesh into techno-organics. Advanced, but still technology in nature. Harry''s magic was not intentionally attacking him but the technological aspect of his body was not responding as it should to manually discharge the excess energy.


    In the next instant, the titanic mutant exploded. A massive surge of energy hit the ship as well. Sinister somehow managed to get onto the ship by sneaking around Apocalypse''s foot and he closed the door.


    The Quest only had five minutes remaining so the Obscurus form of Harry spun around in a circle and created a silver ring. The spaceship vanished, using the ring as a means to teleport out. Harry didn''t have time to care. His Obscurus form directly entered the ring and flew out into the vacuum of space. He charged the massive black pyramid and turned himself into a spear, violently spinning and speeding up until his form reached and pierced into the massive construct through the crack they had created earlier. Harry easily found the core of the system and directly charged into it, saturating it with wizard energy.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Stop the Apocalypse


    Reward: Obscurus Perk]


    Harry''s magic particle cloud left through the same crack it came through. The pyramid sent a charge of lightning out which hit the closest nodes in the array and caused them to shoot out lightning as well to the next closest nodes, propagating the spread. Suddenly each node hit by the lightning exploded. A chain reaction occurred and within moments, the purple sky above the earth was filled with flashes of light and after a moment it returned to normal.


    Only the massive pyramid itself remained, but Harry had already left and was completely out of energy.


    Harry''s particles naturally converged and after a moment Harry was back in the flesh. And in space. And free falling. And too exhausted to lift a muscle and without a single drop of magic left in his body to even use a portal.


    Harry accepted his death as the pain in his lungs was making him black out. He used the last of his willpower to turn his body away from the black void so he could see the beautiful earth. What he saw however was a massive firebird getting closer to him.


    In the next moment, Harry was in Jean''s arms and wrapped in flames. These flames possessed an aura of life which allowed those wrapped in them to survive in unsurvivable conditions. Even wrapped in flames, there was no sound in space, but nothing needed to be said between them. The pair looked down at the beauty of the earth for a moment before facing each other and exchanging a passion filled kiss.


    A few minutes later Jean had descended back to Black Island. Usually she would not be able to find it but she could use her connection to Wanda and Rogue to find them and just follow that.


    As soon as they landed, Harry felt a rush of energy enter his system.


    [You have leveled up.


    You have gained the Perk: Technomancy]


    Harry was not sure which had shocked him more. The fact that he went up ten levels to 252 from absorbing Apocalypse''s energy, or the perk. Perks massively reduced the difficulty of a skill set. Harry had no idea how powerful a technomancer Apocalypse must have been for his energy to grant technomancy when Harry absorbed it, but he wasn''t going to complain. This would allow Harry to write programs without typing, directly from his mind. He was tempted to think of all the thousands of things he could use that for, not to mention the Obscurus Perk would allow him to more easily control his Obscurus form without blowing up on purpose. However Harry put all those thoughts aside. He had something much more important to do at the moment.


    When Apocalypse died, the control disks exploded. Harry wasn''t sure if that was a good thing or not but he could admit that that sort of technology would do no one any good in any hands.


    Harry sat down and meditated to recover and the Ancient One freed Ororo and healed her while Hermione and Wanda used what they knew of Healing spells to take care of those with heavier wounds. Hermione herself was a mess from all the wind and Neville was more than a little battered from the explosions, but neither held it against Harry as the seemed to half expect this result when they agreed to attend his wedding. Harry smiled that his first friends knew him so well.


    The only ones who got off badly were Ororo and Xavier. Jean went relatively easy on him all things considered but while his body was being controlled, it fought like a much younger man and when Xavier regained control, he was injured simply from everything he''d done while fighting Jean.


    The only real ''casualty'' bedsides Sinister''s Marauders was the giant acid slime Wanda made which they had to kill. Wanda was getting a little attached to it and Harry immediately decided when they all moved in, he was getting three corgi puppies. One he would name Twinkie and one he would name Little Potato. He''d let the girls decide the name of the third. Then again, he could just make some magic puppies or hard light puppies. At least he would not have to worry about them getting eaten by Goose.


    Harry made a portal so that the Ancient One could get the Time Stone and tally the damage. She hadn''t brought it to the wedding as she did not feel it was necessary. Normally the stone should always remain at the Sanctum in Kamar-Taj and when she left she would leave it there.


    What she found using it to look into the future was both good and concerning. The future she wouldn''t tell Harry was still there. However the ripples caused by events caused by Harry were unknown to her. Any future she saw was one without the effects of Harry''s presence. So she would never see Brilliance Incorporated through any use of the Time Stone to see the future and she hadn''t seen Apocalypse''s plan. Even if it failed, Apocalypse''s plan would have repercussions for the future but she couldn''t see those either. In any case, she''d just have Harry deal with it. What was the use of training an apprentice if she couldn''t hand off the annoying work to him.


    Once everyone was settled the Wedding resumed. The timing for the ceremony was gone but they were still going to have the wedding because harry didn''t want to wait countless years until the next alignment to marry the girls he loved. Even if Jean left one day, he knew she would come back.


    Before the sun set, Harry stood at the altar where the Ancient One officiated and they waited patiently. Rogue, Jean, and Wanda walked up in their beautiful dresses and were led up the aisle by Logan. Oddly enough, he was the de facto father figure for most of the X-Men and the old man didn''t seem to mind. The fact that he could rub it in Erick''s face in the future was certainly a bonus, but he wouldn''t deny he cared for the kids like family. He didn''t have memories of his past, but he knew he had family.


    The Ancient One asked, "Harry Potter, do you vow to love, watch over, and honor Jean, Wanda, and Anna Marie?"


    Harry answered with his heart, "I do."


    She asked the same of the other three who answered the same. "Then by the power granted to me as Sorcerer Supreme of the Realm of Earth, I now pronounce you Man and Wives. You may kiss the brides."


    Harry kissed Jean first and then Anna Marie, then and Wanda. Those in attendance cheered and a number of them cried. Rogue tossed the bouquet behind her and it was Sarah Kinney who caught it. She looked suggestively over at Dr. McCoy who seemed to shyly blush behind his blue fur and smile.


    Harry used a portal to allow everyone to leave except for themselves. The mansion on the island survived the battle and Harry''s two week Honeymoon was about to start.


    Over the course of the next two weeks, Harry updated his wives on every s?x spell he was aware of. Sirius was banned temporarily from the island and Amelia ensured he would not show up so the group didn''t have to worry about anyone hearing them scream into the night. When Harry was asked at the end of the first week if he acquired a Sex Path, he refused to answer.


    Fourteen days and twenty seven replacement king sized beds later, Harry and his girls returned to New York to officially move into their new home.


    Wanda and Rogue had tested out of High School and Jean officially graduated meaning that even though all three were sixteen, all three were accepted into NYU. There was a very specific reason Harry moved right next door to New York University. He wanted to attend with his girls.


    All three of his wives were accepted as Students of course. Harry did not apply as a Student. He applied as a Teacher. Harry already got a Teaching certificate and due to the fame of his Video Lectures, his teaching style and qualifications were well known. His mutant debate showed that he could face a live audience and still calmly deliver a lesson which proved he would have no issues teaching a class of students and Harry applied and got approved on Aug 3rd to teach some classes when the Semester started a month later giving him the record of the world''s youngest Professor at age sixteen. Harry made news a number of times after this as did the University which received a lot of publicity and attention for their record breaking precedent.


    Once it was all set, it was decided with the faculty that he would teach several different Physics classes and one Metaphysics class as well. At the moment, Harry was the only person in the world technically qualified to teach a class on Metaphysics. By having Harry as a teacher, NYU could add Metaphysics as one of the Degree options and those who wished for such degrees could study under Harry in the future.


    New York University itself was one of the top Science Universities in the States. It was behind MIT on the tech side, but ahead in Biology and Physics with famous Professors like Dr. Samuel Sterns and Dr. Curt Connors. These would be Harry''s colleagues in the future. The brightest geniuses in New York would attend and Harry would be there to teach them. Although Harry loved magic and enjoyed saving people as a hobby, what he truly wanted to spend his life doing was teaching.


    The first classes would be starting in on the first Tuesday of September and Harry already had his lesson plans. He hoped the faculty would not hold it against Harry if he used a portable Hard-Light projector to play pranks on his students. He would have to keep them on their toes after all, it was what a responsible Teacher should do. Though anyone looking at Harry as he thought up all the pranks he was going to play on them would have no choice but to think Harry was planning something purely diabolical.


    One day on the last week of August, Harry got a call from the Ancient One.


    Harry asked, "Bad news?"


    [No actually. Good news. I have been in contact with a Grand Master of Good Chi Magic in San Francisco and it seems he has agreed to send some ?ssistance to you.]


    "Why does that sound incredibly vague?"


    [Well we have been exchanging letters so it does take time for our exchanges to go through.]


    "Letters? As in paper mail with stamps? From Tibet to San Francisco?"


    [Yes to all of the above.]


    "I see. And when shall this vague ?ssistance arrive?"


    *Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock*


    Harry sighed and he could almost see the Ancient One smiling at the other end of the phone.


    "Someone is apparently at the door. I''ll call you later."


    Harry hung up and walked downstairs while looking over the place. Harry didn''t use house elves but simply used magic to clean everything himself. It wasn''t that he had anything against house elves, but they could be tracked if you knew how and were not the brightest bunch. Plus the house had so much magic built directly into it that some parts cleaned themselves.


    Harry opened the door and found a sixteen year old girl of Asian descent. Despite the matching ages her head only came up to Harry''s shoulders but her short, thin stature hid what Harry could tell was an excellently toned body he would not believe did not practice some form of martial arts. She had black hair which ran down to her shoulders with bangs framing both sides of her face and large brown eyes. She also had two heavy looking suitcases.


    "Hey! You''re Harry right? I''m Jade Chan, and I''ll be your teacher in Chi Magic."


    Harry raised an eyebrow. She certainly had a lot of Chi, Harry could feel it, but she did not feel like a Master. Still, the letter had come through the Ancient One.


    Harry invited her in and said, "In that case, welcome to New York."


    If nothing else, Harry was a little curious as to the identity of the twelve sources of Dragon Chi in one of her suitcases. Even if she was lying, it should prove interesting.


    Outside of Harry''s house, twenty brand new, highly advanced wireless cameras had been set up which all monitored the street and every face that came and went. The moment she knocked on the door, Jade''s face was scanned and running through several databases to locate her origin. Several alarms flashed on the screen and files were found from a sub-division of their organization. The file containing Jade Chan''s name and picture had over four hundred folders and over ten thousand incident reports.


    The agent who ran the search paled at the size of the file and immediately called up her boss.


    "Yes Fury, you need to see this. And you should probably call Captain Black from Section 13.. Apparently he knows her."

 Chapter 55 - 55 The New Girl

    Harry showed the new arrival into his waiting area while doing some inspections. Harry didn''t mind that the girl brought magic artifacts into his house but he figured she was being careless. Unconcealed Dragon Chi was easily trackable with the right tools. Harry''s house was magically insulated so they couldn''t be tracked while inside, but that wasn''t the case outdoors.


    The girl herself was looking all around like a kid in a candy store. The home''s interior was both modern and classy and had many beautiful paintings on the wall and ornate items displayed on pedestals and frames. There were also many different cameras hidden inside which were built into the Hard-Light system installed in every room. With the push of a bu??on the entire home could turn into a makeshift Danger Room for training purposes. Harry was almost finished programming a Hard-Light Butler that could attend to guests so he wouldn''t have to.


    Harry asked, "Would you like some tea?"


    "Huh? Oh, sure. I''d love some."


    Harry directed her to wait in the waiting area while he went to the kitchen and pulled out some tea from his Inventory. Harry suddenly thought of an amusing prank and also pulled out a plate containing a large, perfectly cooked, whole ham. With the tea set in his left hand and the ham plate in his right, he returned to the waiting room.


    "Woah. That was fast. Is that ham? I''m not really hungry at the moment." She only accepted the tea to hide the fact that she wasn''t paying attention to what he said at first.


    Harry smiled and set the ham on another table in the waiting room before setting the tea set in front of her. He said, "So Ms. Chan. At what level would you consider your skill in Chi Magic?"


    The girl froze for a moment while picking up her cup. She hadn''t expected this to turn into an interview.


    "Um. I''m a Master. I can cast lots of powerful Chi Spells without any difficulty. Want to see?"


    Harry smirked and gave the universal motion for, ''go ahead.''


    Jade unzipped her one of her suitcases and reached inside. After a moment of rummaging, she grabbed one of the Chi sources and pulled it out. Though she held it in a way that would prevent Harry from seeing it. Harry simply paused, walked over, and took a look. The piece in her hand took the appearance of a octagonal stone with the image of a dragon on the face.


    Harry unpaused and Jade said, "Um, not this one," shoved the piece back into her suitcase and started rummaging for another one. She pulled out another and Harry paused again to see that the piece had the same form, but had the image of a snake on it.


    Jade smiled and said with great fanfare, "Ah, here we go. Watch and be amazed as I use my mastery of Chi Magic to become Invisible!"


    Harry felt the dragon chi in the stone piece resonate with the girl''s chi and in the next instant, the visible light around the girl seemed to ignore her presence as she faded completely from view.


    Harry could still sense her of course. Even on the surface she had far more chi than a normal human so his energy sense did not lose track of her. That and the invisibility did not cover up the dragon chi from the piece in her hand.


    While invisible, Jade picked up her tea cup and walked behind her seat before drinking it in one gulp. "Hey, this is pretty good!"


    Harry inwardly sighed. It was obvious that she did not have a real understanding of tea or she would have taken the time to properly savor it.


    The invisible girl walked back around the couch and set the cup back down on the table before releasing her invisibility. "What do you think? Pretty cool huh? So how much are you gonna pay me?"


    Harry did his best not to laugh aloud and settled for a light smile. She was funny, he''d give her that. Still, playing around aside, he''d give her a chance to use some real Chi Magic before he kicked her out.


    Harry said, "Not bad, but there is one more thing I''d like you to demonstrate before we discuss terms of employment."


    Harry had no idea why, but Jade''s eye violently twitched when Harry said, ''one more thing.''


    Harry left the room again and pulled out an old vase from his inventory. Since the creation of his Arcane website and the advanced internet he founded, he''d gotten into a habit of buying random knick-knacks and do-dads off the internet. Mostly artifacts, historical pieces, or items with a fascinating history. One of the reasons he made such a large house was to have room to display his favorites so they were no longer collecting metaphorical dust in his inventory.


    Harry returned to the waiting room with the vase. It was ornate and looked very old, but also gave off a feeling that would prevent people from being comfortable in the same room as the vase. When Harry purchased it, the vase had the ashes of an old demon trapped inside. Harry destroyed it but kept the vase. The vase however carried the remnant of the demon''s hatred as a basic curse. Harry could easily contain it, but it was something he intended to use to practice different forms of curse removal later.


    Jade frowned when she saw the vase Harry placed on the table. That at least got Harry''s approval. She was s?ns?t?v? to the evil within the vase. Harry said, "Please show me how you would remove the curse on this priceless vase."


    Chi magic was of course magic powered by life energy. There were many forms and it had many applications. One of the strongest applications however was purification, greater than any other form of magic. That was because most other forms of magic used another source of power to purify which still left some taint behind. Human life force did not leave behind a taint when used properly.


    Jade said, "Um, sure, but it will take a while. Do you have the time?"


    Harry nodded, "I''m mostly free today." It was true. Jean, Wanda, and Rogue had been out every day of the last three days pillaging the various stores of New York for new clothes to fill their massive new closets. Harry thought their old clothes were fine, but the girls ignored his opinion stating that fashions in the city were different from fashions in Salem and they had to update everything.


    Jade pointed to the side and said, "Um, you cat is eating the ham."


    Harry didn''t look over to where Goose had jumped up on the other table and had started taking bites out of the ham.


    Harry continued, "I''m still waiting for your demonstration."


    "Huh?" Jade then scooted to the side of the couch away from Goose and shouted, "Woah! What is that?!"


    The ham was actually brought out for Goose and Harry informed her through the link. Harry didn''t look over in her direction as terrible tentacles erupted from Goose''s mouth and wrapped around the ham that was three times her size. He simply said, "Please don''t change the subject Ms. Chan. Can you remove the curse or not?"


    Jade shouted, "Are you serious right now? What is that cat doing? Oh my god!"


    Goose had pulled the whole ham into her mouth like it was nothing and the tentacles vanished. Goose then looked over at the terrified human and jumped to their table. Harry leaned over and started petting the orange tabby cat shaped flerken and said, "Oh, this is Goose."


    Jade blinked twice, got up from the couch, and ran for the door at breakneck pace.


    The door closed on its own as Jade had simply ran out as fast as she could. Harry looked next to the couch and wondered when she would remember she brought suitcases. He also wondered what the people watching his house would think. He honestly didn''t care about all the effort they put into watching him. According to the files Harry hacked into, they considered him more of an ?sset than a threat. Perhaps they thought they were protecting him? That thought made Harry smile wryly.


    Harry put the vase back into his inventory and pulled out his cell phone to call the Ancient One back.


    [So how was the ?ssistance?]


    "Mixed messages to be honest. She actually tried to pass off artifacts which used dragon chi as her own abilities."


    [Ah, I see. That answers a few questions I had.]


    Harry sighed and said, "Let me guess, you think that she was posing as the Grandmaster Chi Wizard and exchanged letters with you as if she were him?"


    [Basically. It was most amusing. Anything I do in regards to you cannot be viewed in the future, so each letter was unexpected.]


    Harry shook his head and sighed. Apparently the Ancient One had her own hobbies.


    "Can you give me the address of the Grandmaster Chi Wizard. I''d like to visit him personally."


    [I''m sure you can look it up yourself. He owns a store in San Francisco called Uncle''s Rare Finds.]


    "Alright. And I will get you back for this."


    [We shall see.] And with that she hung up.


    It was clear this was an elaborate prank by the Ancient One. There was no way she could have been fooled by the letters of a sixteen year old girl, regardless of how resourceful she was.


    Harry sent a text message to Jean, [Going to San Francisco to see a Chi Wizard. Not sure if I''ll be home before dinner.]


    After a few moments he got a reply, [We''ll eat out for dinner, so have fun.]


    Harry smiled and took another look at the suitcase containing the eleven dragon chi artifacts she''d left behind. Harry decided to ignore it for now. He put the tea set back into his inventory and went for the front door.


    Harry easily confirmed Jade''s invisible presence not far from his front door. Thinking of another prank, Harry took a key from his pocket and used it to lock the door before visibly placing the key back into his pocket. Unsurprisingly, Jade started following him as he walked away. Of course the key was just for show. Harry''s security was not so simple, but it gave her a visible target and reason to follow him.


    Harry walked a few blocks out and found a location his technopathy sensed only a single store security camera in. Harry used his technopathy to disable it and created a silver ring portal and walked in. Harry also cast his own technopath spell which made his image difficult to capture on camera. He didn''t want people to see him leave New York and appear in San Francisco and this spell would make it impossible for any picture of him to be run through facial recognition until he dispelled it.


    Harry kept the portal open behind him long enough for Jade to run through before it closed. She was brave, he''d give her that. Harry then leisurely walked down the street and eventually made his way to the two story shop situated at the corner of a heavily inclined road, Uncle''s Rare Finds.


    Despite the three hour time difference it was still in the afternoon and the shop''s door was open for anyone to walk in. Harry entered and couldn''t help himself from admiring the place. There were stacks of manuscripts, most of which looked original, dozens of antiques, statues, and even a few pieces of ancient artwork Harry had only heard rumors about. The most impressive thing was that Harry couldn''t spot a single forgery or replica among the artwork and antiques.


    A skinny old man stood at the register with a massive, ancient book open on the counter. Harry peered over the contents. It appeared to be a recipe for noodle soup.


    The old man looked up at Harry and said, "Ancient Cookbook. Are you interested?"


    Harry answered in Cantonese. {No thank you. Those recipes use too much garlic. But I do have some questions for you.}


    The old man smiled and quickly gave a two finger slap against Harry''s forehead. "Your Accent Terrible! Stick with English~! And no such thing as too much Garlic!"


    Harry gave an awkward chuckle. Harry rarely if ever used any spells which required incantations and even when he did, he cast them nonverbally. He could speak, understand, read and write most languages on the planet, but he almost never actually conversed with anyone using those languages so his accent was in fact not that great.


    "Alright then. Are you familiar with the being known as the Ancient One of Kamar-Taj, in Tibet?"


    The old man raised an eyebrow and said, "We have met. Was many years ago. Do not recall much."


    "Well, I''m an apprentice of hers. A few years back I came into possession of a large amount of Chi and she told me you were the best Chi Wizard in the world and recommended learning Chi Magic under you."


    The old man leaned over the counter and took a long look at Harry. He then said, "Uncle already has apprentice. Too old, for another."


    Harry nodded in understanding. He asked, "Do you have any recommendations for books on learning the subject then?"


    "No." He flatly answered.


    "I''ll pay you."


    "Okay." He quickly replied.


    Harry smiled. The recession wasn''t kind to shops like this so he didn''t mind the price.


    The old man continued, "Uncle has old journals from time spent training under Grandmaster Fong. Will rent them to you. Must return them when finished, or you will get a piece of Uncle~! Understand?"


    Harry smiled and answered, "I am grateful for your kindness," and gave a light bow.


    The old man who apparently referred to himself as Uncle gave a nod and slowly walked to the back of the store.


    Jade had of course followed Harry and was in the store, still invisible. Harry was at least partially impressed by the girl''s sneaking skills. In addition to making no noise while tailing him, she hadn''t bumped into a single person on the crowded sidewalks of New York or San Francisco while invisible.


    From the back of the store, Harry heard a shout, "Aiiee-yaaaahh!" For some reason, this appeared to make Jade fidget.


    From the second floor, someone shouted, "Uncle!" A well trained Chinese man jumped from the railing on the second floor to the ground level and looked ready for a fight. He then looked at Harry who appeared mostly harmless and was standing at the counter like someone ready to make a purchase. The man dropped his stance and said, "Eh, Hi? You look familiar."


    From the back came the shout, "Jackie~ee! Jade has taken Uncle''s Journal!"


    He walked back into the front and the other man, Jackie, said, "What? How do you know?"


    "She left a note," he presented it to him.


    Uncle gave Jackie the note which he left over before face palming his forehead and muttering, "bad day."


    Harry Paused and walked over to read the note. It basically said she was off to see the world and would learn Chi Magic on her own.


    Harry unpaused and was more than a little amused at the invisible Jade''s continuous fidgeting. Harry pulled out his phone and connected to the cameras at his house and pulled up an image. Harry held it to the younger man and said, "Is this her?"


    Jackie did a double take at the phone before snatching it and examining it closely. "Yes!" He looked at it again "Why does she have suitcases?"


    Harry answered, "She was at my house not long ago and left shortly afterwards. However I''m pretty sure she''ll come back."


    Jackie looked at Harry with a bit of suspicion. "Why is that? And who are you?"


    Uncle answered, "He is an apprentice of my Master''s friend. Came to learn Chi Magic. Politely offered to rent my journals for reading."


    "Magic? And Jade took your Journals?" He turned back to Harry, "And Jade went to meet you?"


    Harry sighed and said, "Yes. This may be in part due to an elaborate prank played on me by my Master. I''m not sure when Jade will return, but how about I invite you over to my house and we can wait for her there."


    Jackie relented, "Very well. Where do you live?"


    Harry nonchalantly opened a silver portal against the far wall and said, "Over there," before casually walking over.


    Invisible Jade rushed through the portal and over behind the couch next to where she left her suitcase. Harry pretended not to notice and Jackie looked more than a little shell shocked. He examined the silver portal for a few moments and stereotypically peered through and around it.


    Harry said, "Are you coming or not?"


    Jackie entered and the ring closed. His eyes locked onto a statue in the corner. "That is an original bust of the Emperor of the Lost Tong Dynasty! And this!" He went over to the various knick-knacks Harry collected and seemed to be amazed by each one.


    Harry had his back turned so Jade went over to her suitcase and took out the other eleven Dragon Chi pieces. She already heard Harry''s house had cameras so she couldn''t take the suitcase, she just grabbed the stones, made them invisible, and stuffed them into her jacket pockets.


    Harry tried not to laugh when she went into the living room and returned without the dragon chi pieces save the one that made her invisible. Harry figured she knew she would be searched so she hid the pieces for later.


    After taking a few moments to be amazed at some of the decorations, Jackie turned back to Harry and said, "You know, these belong in a museum."


    Harry shook his head and said, "You know, most museums don''t own their pieces. They simply lease them from the actual owners."


    "I know but, there has been no evidence of the existence of the Tong Dynasty until now! Just that bust alone could rewrite history books!"


    Harry smiled and said, "I bought it off the internet."


    Jackie''s jaw dropped. He apparently wasn''t expecting that. "Just who are you?"


    "Harry Potter. A Professor at New York University." Since Harry already had several published papers, he did in fact have the right to use the Professor title. He felt it was classier than Doctor after meeting the man who claimed to hold that ''honorary'' title.


    "Bwaah! Professor Potter?! You''re the guy with those video lectures! I thought I recognized you!"


    "That''s me. Would you like some tea?"


    "Umm. Okay?"


    Harry went back into the kitchen and pulled out the tea set again. Goose wasn''t hungry so he didn''t feel like playing another prank on Jackie.


    Harry returned with the tea set and Jackie took the cup and said, "Thank you." He took a sip and properly savored it before saying, "Good tea," before taking another drink.


    "I gave some to Ms. Chan but she just gulped it down."


    Jackie shook his head. "Why did she come here?"


    Harry took a sip of tea before answering, "My master sent letters to, what was that Uncle''s name?"


    Jackie smiled and said, "No one knows. Just Uncle will do."


    "Alright, my Master was looking for someone to teach me Chi Magic and sent letters to Uncle as he was the best Good Chi Wizard in the world. I suspect Ms. Chan intercepted those letters and answered my Master on Uncle''s behalf or using his name. The most recent letter to my master apparently stated that Uncle would be sending some ?ssistance in learning Chi Magic. Then Jade showed up. She claimed to be a master of Chi Magic, but when I brought out a cursed vase and asked her to purify it, she quickly left, leaving her luggage by the couch in a hurry." Harry motioned to the luggage.


    Jackie looked it over and seemed torn as to whether or not he should open it.


    Harry continued, "She also asked for pay and seemed intent on crashing here. I''m quite certain my Master was not in fact fooled by Ms. Chan and went along with it as a prank. Out of curiosity, does she actually know Chi Magic?"


    "Only what she has learned from reading some of Uncle''s books. I''ve seen her use it but Uncle never taught her."


    "Why not? My senses are pretty sharp so I know she has more Chi than most people."


    "I know. But I am responsible for her. I can''t let her learn magic, it''s too dangerous."


    "She seems to be an ?du?t."


    "She is only sixteen! Still in high school. Or she should be. She skipped so many classes last year, she was almost expelled. I had to pull some strings to even get the school to allow her back. Why can''t she wait until she is an ?du?t?"


    "Would Uncle teach her Chi Magic if she waited two years?"


    Jackie remained silent.


    Harry didn''t bother to Pause to consider the options. Obviously Jade could not teach Chi Magic, but she had been using it herself and seemed to have seen Uncle use it often enough. Since Uncle wouldn''t teach Harry, Jade might actually be able to ?ssist him. Not teach him, but learn it together.


    Harry took another sip of tea and said, "You''re her guardian, right?" Harry was indirectly asking how Jade was even related to this man. It was clear responsibility for her had been dumped on him and he was trying his best.


    "Yes. She is my cousin''s daughter, though I call her my niece and she calls me uncle. She was having a hard time in Hong Kong and was initially sent to attend school in the US for a year. Things happened and that ended up getting extended. Indefinitely."


    There was some bitterness in his voice as well as pity.


    Harry pulled out a phone and sent some text messages. A few moments later he got a reply and smiled which seemed to confuse Jackie.


    Since harry was able to get permission first, he asked, "What if she finished high school here?"


    ""Huh?"" Jackie''s own voice hid Jade''s started reaction and Harry once more pretended not to notice it.


    Harry continued, "There is a pretty good high school a few blocks away and a University across the street. New York University."


    "Wait? We''re in New York?"


    Harry nodded, "Yup. My Master taught me how to make portals like that. Anyways, I have a lot of connections when it comes to schools in the area. What if we went ahead with her plan but made a few adjustments. My guess is that she intended on crashing here, learning Chi Magic herself, and teaching me as she went along. Instead of that, I''ll let her board here and we can look over the material together and learn it together. However, I will only let her board and let her learn with me if she attends High School and get top grades."''


    "No, she can''t learn magic, it is too dangerous."


    Harry felt like the man had those words carved into his mind when it came to Jade and Magic. harry figured at some point Jade probably got badly injured by magic and that made Jackie decide to never allow it no matter what.


    Harry said, "Please remember who you are speaking with. I''ve been studying most forms of magic for years and know how to study it safely. I can apply Metaphysics to the art in a safe environment which will take the uncertainty and danger out of the practice."


    "Wait, how many magics do you know?"


    "It would be faster to list off magics I don''t know." Harry didn''t use them but most forms of magic were recorded in some way in Kamar-Taj. Even if harry didn''t use them all, he was familiar with and could be considered an expert in most of them.


    Harry said, "For example, in the 14th century Asgardians had a treaty with earth that required all records of Asgardian magic to be removed. This treaty was signed and enforced by magic which forcefully removed any form of Asgardian magic from the earth making it one of the few forms of magic I don''t know." Asgardian and Chi were actually the only two main branches of Magic Harry did not know. Harry could write books on Demon Magic, Soul Magic, and even Magics commonly used by Aliens, but he didn''t know those two.


    Jackie couldn''t help but ask, "Why did they do that?"


    "A few reasons, most of them not bad. Part of the treaty granted earth independence from the rule of Asgardian law while still falling under their protection in times of need." The Ancient One had been one of the signers and told Harry the story a while back.


    Jade apparently wanted to be a part of this conversation so she walked over to the door. Harry subtlety unlocked the door as Jade reached out and manually turned the fake lock from the inside. She then appeared to take off her shoes and hide the stone piece in one of them before opening the door and closing it loudly.


    Harry looked over to see Jade apparently entering from the outside.


    Jackie looked over and shouted, "Jade!"


    "Uncle Jackie? How did you get here?"


    Harry thought to himself that at least she wasn''t a bad actor.


    "I, no, what are you doing here?!" he said with a hard accusation.


    "Um, I came back for my suitcases?" she answered cheekily.


    Harry interjected, "So Mr. Chan, what do you think about my idea?"


    "Huh? No! I can''t let her live here alone with a boy."


    Harry ignored the ''boy'' comment and said, "I don''t live here alone though. Three other women live here, all of them are sixteen, all of them early high school graduates, and all of them are going to start taking classes at the University next week. Jean is going into Astrophysics, Wanda is majoring in Art, and Anna Marie is majoring in Psychology. Even if Jade did move in, I''d still be outnumbered and they would be a good influence on her."


    Jade said, "Hold it. What are you talking about?"


    Harry summarized as if Jade had not been listening in the whole time, "You attend high school in New York while boarding here and as long as you maintain excellent grades, we can use Uncle''s journals to learn Chi Magic together."


    Jackie said, "No, absolutely not. End of discussion."


    Jade sighed and softly asked, "Um, Harry? Could I talk to Jackie in private?"


    Harry nodded and walked over to the living room. He did his best not to laugh when he felt that Jade had apparently thrown the stone pieces under the living room couch.


    Harry picked up his phone and called Jean to give her an update. When he texted her to ask about her thoughts of having a roommate who was going to help Harry learn Chi Magic, Jean''s reply text was, ''Is she hot?'' Harry honestly answered, ''Yes. Why?" to which she responded, ''Just making sure. We have no problem with you having other girls over as long as it doesn''t take away from our time.'' Harry then got a text from Wanda which said, ''Which isn''t likely as long as you use that time turner well.'' Harry may have been creative with the use of the Time Turner during their honeymoon.


    Harry felt they were all making some ?ssumptions about the situation but he decided not to argue. ''The wives are always right'' was the biggest rule of a harem after all.


    Jean asked over the phone, [So how''s the guest?]


    "She seems to be begging her relatives to allow her to stay."


    Harry heard Rogue''s voice over the phone, [So what''s she like?]


    "Mischievous. She apparently snuck out of her house to get here. From California."


    Rogue answered, [Running away huh? Can''t say I don''t know what that''s about.]


    "Her family cares but she probably thinks they are holding her back. I can''t say she''s wrong from what I''ve seen though it would not surprise me if she is prone to danger."


    Wanda asked, [Sounds like she''d be right at home here then. We''re on our way. Let''s see if we can talk some sense into her relatives.]


    With that a pop sound occurred on the other side of the phone before they hung up. Wanda knew how to teleport and take people with her so they probably teleported somewhere nearby. Unlike when Rogue used Kurt''s power, Wanda''s teleportation had much longer range. They knew about the cameras on the street so they wouldn''t get caught doing something stupid.


    A few minutes later the door opened and the girls came in. Harry stayed in the Living room watching TV and let Jean and the rest check out Jade and decide if they were going to help.


    After a few more minutes Jean said, "Alright Harry, get in here."


    Harry walked over and found a frowning Jackie and an extremely excited looking Jade.


    Jackie said, "Alright, I will let her attend school here. But I want report cards at least twice a month and I will call her weekly. If there are any legal incidents of any kind she comes straight home. And no practicing anything dangerous! Uncle said he trained with Chi Master Fong for fifteen years. I''m sure you can find some safe things to practice until you have more skill."


    Jackie gave one last stern look at Jade and said, "And No Fighting. No matter what, Okay?"


    Jade hugged him and said, "Yes Uncle Jackie! Scout''s Honor!"


    Jade got dragged upstairs by Jean and the rest and Harry made a portal back to Uncle''s Rare Finds. Uncle charged an exorbitant rate for renting the Journals which Harry accepted. After accepting, Uncle then said he would use the money to pay for any of Jade''s living expenses while she was there. Harry could only smile at that. Uncle gave up the money to balance out the cost of boarding Jade.


    Harry agreed but he also randomly purchased several of the most expensive items in the shop. Uncle said with a bit of humor, "Jade is better salesmen than Jackie. Best sale the store''s ever had."


    It only took a few calls and a few minutes on his tablet for Jade to get enrolled into the nearby high school where she would start the following week. Jackie signed a few legal forms and Jade was officially moved in.


    The moment Jackie left, Harry directly asked Jade, "Did you mean any of that?"


    She smirked and answered, "Tch, I was never a scout."


    "Not gonna get scared away by my cat again?"


    "Hey, I was caught off guard alright? I''ve seen way weirder stuff before. Tentacle cat doesn''t even make my top ten."


    Harry laughed before going upstairs to ask the girls how was their day and unsurprisingly, Jade used the opportunity to recollect the stone pieces in under the coach. Apparently Jackie had in fact made Jade empty her suitcase. In addition to her clothes in the first suitcase, the second had Uncle''s Journals and a number of ancient books. Harry already had permission to ''rent'' the Journals and after some discussions it was agreed that the Journals and books would be kept with Harry and she would only have access to them when they were practicing.


    Harry never outed her for the possession of the dragon chi stones because he wanted to see what she would do with them.. If nothing else, he doubted it would be boring.

 Chapter 56 - 56 Motivating the Students

    Chapter 56 Motivating the Students


    Harry was rather impressed with how many things his wives were able to hide from Jade and Jackie during the negotiation to allow Jade Chan to stay at the house. For one, they were able to skirt around the fact that all three of them were married to Harry, and no one brought up a single supernatural piece of information. For another, although Jackie understood Harry was very well off, neither knew that Harry owned Brilliance Inc. and P&G Bank and Trust.


    Jade spent the night in the girl''s main room. Harry knew they wanted him to think they were discussing the dreaded Girl Talk, but Harry knew the truth. They were playing four player co-op Borderlands until the wee hours of the morning. The game actually wouldn''t come out for another few weeks, but Harry had connections.


    It was breakfast the following day when Jean asked Jade at the table, "So what''s with the magic rocks you think you''ve hidden in the mattress frame in your room?"


    Jade almost choked on her waffles and looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Harry wouldn''t deny she looked cute.


    Jean continued, "Harry told me about you following him invisibly yesterday and hid those pieces under the couch."


    Wanda giggled, "You hid them under the couch?"


    Jade tried to answer, "Well, I uh." She was afraid of getting booted out or having them taken away.


    Harry lightly teased, "I''m sure she also had a brilliant reason for thinking she could enter our home through a locked door and no one would notice."


    Rather than answer, Jade deflected, "How did you know? I was invisible for crying out loud!"


    Rogue nonchalantly answered, "Harry has the ability to detect cute girls so he can hunt them down more effectively. All of us were captured and devoured by him."


    Wanda, Jean, and Rogue all slowly, but simultaneously turned their heads towards Jade and said under the same breathe, """You''re next."""


    Jade''s chair scooted back an inch before the girls all broke down into a fit of laughter and giggles.


    Harry did his best to hold back but couldn''t help the amused smirk that appeared on his face.


    Jade rolled her eyes and said, "Oh ha ha, very funny," before she crossed her arms and pouted.


    Harry finished another bite of his own waffles before saying, "I can detect energy. All forms of energy, including Chi. It really helps with my Metaphysics research. Even if you''re invisible, your Chi was not concealed and the Dragon Chi of that stone piece wasn''t hidden either."


    "Wait... So you knew I was there the whole time?!" she exclaimed.


    Harry nodded before getting another waffle. Waffles were the under appreciated breakfast of champions.


    "Okay? What else can you do?" she asked.


    "I''ll think about answering that if you tell me about the stones. I don''t mind if you have them but I won''t tolerate unidentified artifacts in my home."


    "Fine, they''re the Talismans of Shendu. Happy?" She obviously thought Harry wouldn''t know their origin.


    "Ah. The project of the Fire Dragon Demon Sorcerer. That explains the Dragon Chi. If you''ve got all twelve, I guess that means he''s a statue right?"


    Jade looked a little gobsmacked. "You know about Shendu?"


    Harry nodded. "I''ve read a few books written by the Eight Immortals and he is heavily referenced. The strongest demon sorcerer to have ever existed. He reminds me a lot of Sauron from Lord of the Rings."


    Wanda asked, "Why? What did he do?"


    Harry considered the question and after a moment answered, "Sauron took the source of his power and separated it from his body and forged into the One Ring. As long as wore the ring, he was far more powerful than he was before. But of course this also gave him a weakness. According to the scriptures written by the Immortal Lan Caihe, Shendu obtained eleven noble animals from the Chinese Zodiac and refined their essence. Using a formidable ritual he then merged it with his own dragon essence and all of his chi to create twelve Talismans which vastly increased his power. Lan Caihe used this against Shendu by removing the Talismans and permanently changing the Immortal Dragon''s essence so that when deprived of his Talismans, he changed into a statue."


    Jade asked, "You''ve read books written by the Eight Immortals? What the hell do you need Uncle''s Journals for?"


    Harry shook his head. "Those books were written for posterity, to make sure the stories and events were not forgotten. None of the books I''ve read from the Eight Immortals have any hint as to how to actually use Chi Magic."


    Wanda asked, "Magic Talismans huh. How strong are they?"


    Harry answered, "They''re probably pretty strong. Though I doubt someone who is not Shendu can use even a fraction of their power. That''s probably why her invisibility su?k?d."


    Rogue asked, "You use them often?"


    Jade dropped her fork and said, "Wait, none of you are weirded out that I have magic talismans from a demon dragon?"


    Jean rose a hand into the air and created a batch of flame in the shape of a bird. "No. Why should we?"


    Wanda asked, "What''s the worst they can do? Make you shoot lasers out of your eyes?"


    Jade was still staring at the small fire bird and answered, "Um? Yes?"


    Wanda''s hands glowed red and she transfigured a plate into a red and white target. She then lightly tossed it above the table. Rogue stared at it and fired an Optic Blast at the target, destroying it completely. Rogue got another waffle and said, "Been there, done that."


    Harry and the girls casually enjoyed Jade''s shell shock reaction. Apparently the girls wanted to wait to break the news to her until Harry was present so he could watch her reaction too.


    Jade took a moment to digest what she had just seen and said, "So everyone here has super powers? This house is so cool!"


    Everyone chuckled at that. From what Jean had told Harry, the reason they were able to convince Jackie to let Jade stay was that Jade had no friends in San Francisco. They all promised to be her friend and since they were all around the same age and all seemed very responsible, Jackie could not deny that Jade being here would be a good influence on her.


    Harry spent the rest of the day and the next few days preparing for his classes. There were several students who apparently requested to change classes to Harry''s and doing so in a University required contacting the teacher and asking express permission. Harry looked over those who applied. It wasn''t too many so Harry approved the list. The background checks Harry did on some of the names pulled up some interesting details. He never thought his first class would have a student that could claim diplomatic immunity.


    Jade was kidnapped and taken back to the malls of New York for a new wardrobe. Jean and the others didn''t mind her tomboy attire but they didn''t find it acceptable that she had nothing else. Wanda had this nice habit of shrinking everything they bought so it could all fit in one bag meaning they could easily carry everything no matter how much they purchased. Harry wondered which would be higher, the Research and Design Budget for Brilliance Incorporated, or the girl''s credit card bill this month.


    It only took three days for Jade to volunteer to show off the power of the Talismans. Harry and the girls went down to the basement and into a side room.


    Jade looked around and said, "This room is a bit small."


    Harry chuckled and activated the Danger Room Setting. The space suddenly extended into a massive field and a moment later a hard-light projection filled the room and turned it into a training course.


    Jade smiled, "I love this house."


    Harry said, "I did put a lot of work into it."


    Jade pulled out the Talismans one by one and demonstrated them. Laser eyes, Flight and Telekinesis, Super speed, Super strength, Fire breath and Fire Blasts, and Invisibility were easy to demonstrate. Others such as Healing and Immortality, not so much.


    Jade said, "These ones are a bit weirder. The Sheep Talisman can remove a person''s astral projection. The Monkey can turn people and things into animals. The Rat can give life to inanimate objects. The Tiger. Well, it splits a person into a Yin half and Yang Half."


    Rogue asked, "Like good and evil?"


    Harry shook his head and picked it up. "Let me try."


    Harry picked it up and poured a bit of intent into the Talisman.


    *Ping*


    [Yin-Yang Separation detected. Proceed?]


    Harry was surprised there was a pop up. He mentally confirmed and Harry glowed white for a moment.


    In the next instance there were two Harrys. One had a slightly more tan complexion than the other.


    Wanda asked, "So is one of you evil?"


    The tanner Yin Harry answered, "Yin and Yang are not the same as Good and Evil."


    The other Harry calmly answered, "This is interesting. That''s for sure." He was surprised that his stats had not changed. That meant both Harrys were as strong as the original. However upon closer inspection, Harry realized that was not the case. Harry''s Path System encompassed every aspect of a Path giving an all around proficiency enhancement. Now however, Harry felt that his Paths only did half of what they were supposed to do. Yang Harry felt he was able to cast enhancement and fire magic without difficulty, but not ice and mind magic. Yang Harry would be more skilled at hard martial arts while Yin Harry would be more skilled at soft martial arts.


    Jade looked a bit wary and said, "Yeah. Please put yourselves back together."


    Yin Harry gave her a knowing smile and asked, "Why, are you afraid I''ll do something bad?"


    Rogue asked, "Are you any different?"


    Yin Harry said, "Priorities are different. Like I don''t feel like doing any more prep for classes tomorrow and would rather just take all of you upstairs and ravish you until you pass out."


    Harry''s smile gave each girl a furious blush. Yang Harry looked over and Jade and ''innocently'' asked, "Why are you blushing too Jade? My other half was speaking to my wives of course."


    Jade had eventually figured out that everyone there was Harry''s wife but didn''t seem to care. She was however looking more than a little abashed. She gave Yang Harry a glare and said, "You''re supposed to be the good one, why are you picking on me?"


    Ying Harry answered, "Because if he didn''t, I would."


    Jade said, "But you both are! Please, just recombine."


    Both Harrys chuckled and touched the Talisman again to merge back.


    Jade sighed with relief and shouted, "Don''t do that! Do you have any idea how scared I was? I''ve had a lot of weird experiences with that Talisman alright?"


    Harry shrugged. He knew what his heart was made of. Both sides of him were him. The thought of remaining apart did occur, but was quickly dismissed. His magic would not work the same if he remained apart and if he needed to be in two places at once, he could use a Time Turner, so neither half felt the need to remain independent.


    Harry said, "Not surprising. Many aspects of a person are held back by another aspect. If those aspects separate, their limits are removed."


    Wanda said, "I can see why that would be dangerous. If I got split. My Yin Half would either burn down the Salem Mental Institute or drag Harry upstairs and keep him there until the sun rose."


    Jean and Rogue smirked and Jade continued blushing. Jade said, "No talking about that while I''m around, okay?"


    Jean said, "We''ll see."


    Jade seemed to be wondering to herself if having friends of her own age and gender was really worth it after all. She said, "Alright, now you''ve seen mine. Please show me what you guys can do."


    Harry said, "I''m just a humble practitioner of the magical arts. Don''t mind me."


    Every girl turned and gave him a mock glare.


    Wanda went up, "I''ll go first then. I can use Chaos Magic." She opened up the settings on the Danger Room and a group of twenty men in steel armor carrying medieval weapons appeared and charged forward.


    Wanda pulled out some marbles and transfigured them into tigers which pounced at the troops. A few got past the tigers but they were no longer in formation and Wanda took them out one by one with an ?ssortment of spells.


    Jade''s first reaction was, "Can I learn that?"


    Jean answered, "No. Not everyone can. I can''t for example. I''ll show you what I can do though." She pulled up the room''s settings and three giants and five mountain trolls appeared.


    Jean floated into the air and wreathed herself in flames. She waved her hand and a flame in the shape of a phoenix launched out and struck one of the giants. She lifted one of the trolls into the air and accelerated it into the other trolls, knocking them all down before they could approach her. The other two giants got close and one used a massive club that was basically a very large tree and smacked it against Jean. The club bounced off Jean''s psionic barrier and the tree caught on fire. Jean concentrated the flames and let loose, incinerating everything in the field. The only reason the field and the Danger Room itself didn''t burn down was because of Jean''s control over the flame.


    Jade said, "That was so cool!"


    Rogue was next. She changed the tablet settings and four Sentinels appeared. Harry had their specs so programming them into his Danger Room wasn''t hard. Forge had done the same thing at the Institute''s Danger Room.


    Rogue blasted the Sentinels with ice to slow them down. She then teleported above one of them and fell, intangibly, though it, causing it to break down. Upon walking out from it she grew angel wings and flew into the air as the Sentinels started firing their heavy ion beams at her, but her use of wings and telekinesis to maneuver gave her perfect precision. She picked up some speed in the air and after lining the Sentinels up, she flew straight at them. Before the collision her wings vanished, replaced with metal like skin. With the unstoppable momentum of the Juggernaut, Rogue''s metal form ripped itself straight through the Sentinels as if they were crafted of papier-mach¨¦. Before hitting the ground, she used ice once more to make a ramp she used to land and made more ice to direct her slide back over to Harry and the rest.


    Jean and Wanda simultaneously said, ""Show off."" Neither meant it of course. Rogue had worked hard to reach that level.


    Jade had stars in her eyes. She walked over to Harry and pressed her shoulder against his, "Is there anything else you can teach me besides Chi Magic?"


    Harry seemed to think very hard on it and said, "If your first month''s report card is perfect, I''ll give you your first lesson in Sorcery."


    Jade asked with fake demure, "Can you show me some Sorcery? Please? So I have some motivation."


    Harry exaggeratedly relented and said, "Alright."


    Harry changed the settings to make fifty fake demons of different shapes and sizes appear. He then made a Eldritch long sword with dimensional energy and created a portal in front of him that was behind the demons. He then made three more silver portals on the field and started rapidly moving around and slicing each demon into pieces. The remaining demons tried to track Harry and surround him but he ran through the portals in a highly confusing manner making the demons unable to track his movements. Harry often closed one portal and made another. Although he was facing a large number, the portals allowed for a terrifying level of hit and run tactic allowing him to seamlessly wipe them all out.


    Jade was too busy watching to notice the looks of pity the other girls gave her. They all made plans to be there on Jade''s first lesson to see her reaction to the lesson''s content. They all read through Harry''s memories of Kamar-Taj and knew that the first step of learning Sorcery required learning Sanskrit so you could understand the ancient Upanishad tomes which described the art.


    Harry finished up and said, "First, there is a difference between a Sorcerer and a Demon Sorcerer. A Sorcerer is someone who channels and controls foreign energies through their body. What you just saw was me channeling and controlling Dimensional energy. It lets me make constructs, empowers my body, and allows me to make portals. A Demon Sorcerer is someone who merges foreign energies with their own Chi which strengthens and warps their body but at the cost of their soul as such a tainted body is not compatible with a human soul. Thus they become demons. Either Shendu or one of Shendu''s ancestors was likely a mortal who fused their Chi with something obtained from a True Dragon, thus becoming a Demon Dragon Sorcerer. Shendu himself also successfully merged himself with the Source of Fire. This is why he is Immortal and cannot be truly killed, he will live as long as fire exists on this world."


    Jade said, "Woah."


    Wanda said, "Alright, lesson is over Harry. Time for you to tell us your opinion on our new clothes." Harry was dragged away and for the remainder of the night for his girl''s own version of a runway show. After some pestering they even convinced Jade to show off a few of their purchases. Life was good.


    The next day Harry went early to his office at the University. He doubted he''d ever use it, but there was a little slot on the door that faculty and students could drop off documents for him to collect later. Of course most of the faculty was perfectly aware of how to use email so he doubted he''d get much from that.


    Harry would teach three classes this semester. Metaphysics would require six classes to get a degree in but each one had its own requirements for a foundation so Harry could only teach the foundational class this semester and everything else would come later. In addition to Foundations of Metaphysics, Harry also taught Energy Physics and Advanced Experimental Physics to see if he could poach any promising students from those fields for later. Although he taught those classes professionally without issue, it was his Foundation of Metaphysics Class he was looking forward too the most.


    Harry walked into his Metaphysics Classroom about fifteen minutes early and locked the door behind him. It was not a large classroom as the number of students who even qualified to take it did not number more than a few dozen in the University and of them, only eighteen had applied. Another six applied after the fact which Harry accepted giving a total of twenty four students.


    Before his students arrived, Harry set his suitcase on the table and opened the duffle bag he brought. Within was a foldable step ladder and four black canisters. Harry used the ladder to reach the classroom''s ceiling and attached each canister to one of the four corners of the room''s ceiling. Once finished, he unlocked the door and let in the few students who already started loitering outside.


    The first one, a young man who looked to be about twenty-one said, "Professor Potter, thank you for accepting my application."


    Harry recognized the student and said, "Not a problem Mr. Richards. It''s not your fault my class only became available after you finished selecting others for the term. You aren''t the only one either." Reed Richards was already on his way to acquiring two Doctorates in Physics and his dissertation would be held in January. Harry had read all of the man''s research during his own studies under Forge and Dr. McCoy.


    A blonde woman walked out from behind the man and said, "Thank you for me as well Professor."


    "You''re very welcome Ms. Storm. Hopefully I can teach geniuses like you a thing or two?" Susan Storm was the same age as Richard and the heir to the Storm foundation. Had Harry not owned a company and wanted to teach for a living, he might have wanted to work over there.


    The pair took adjacent front row seats and another young man Harry recognized took the other seat next to Ms. Storm. Harry recognized this fellow as Victor Von Doom, another young genius on scholarship and someone who actually obtained a Doctorate last of his own year at the age of twenty. Not a world record but not that far off. There were two very obvious things that stood out about Doom. First was the fact that his profile showed that his late father was the ruler of a European country called Latveria. Doom was considered a political leader and while in the U.S., had diplomatic immunity. This meant that if he committed a crime, the best that could be done was appeal to the U.N. to issue a sanction on his home country. Doom himself could not be arrested.


    The second, and far more interesting thing about Doom was that he contained a good quantity of foreign energies within his body. He was undoubtedly an apprentice Sorcerer, quite a bit better than your average initiate at Kamar-Taj. However the hodgepodge of energies he contained did not include dimensional energy meaning he certainly was not a student of the Sanctum Sanctorum. This wasn''t a big surprise. There were in fact more than one temple of mystic monks in the world willing to teach others how to control the energies of the universe. Kamar-Taj focused on Dimensional Energy because of its duty in defending the dimension but other temples had other goals and other specialties.


    A number of other students arrived and eventually Jean did as well. She had actually tested out of the courses required to attend this class in advance as she knew what those were before Harry even applied to teach here. Technically anyone else could do the same as long as they watched and actually understood all of the videos on Metaphysics Harry posted online. Of course, those only gave the simplified versions of the science. Not everyone had an autocorrecting Scholar Path so most people needed an educator to fill in the gaps they couldn''t grasp themselves.


    Once everyone was seated Harry started, "For those who don''t know, and that would be quite a feat I imagine, I am Harry Potter. You can call me Professor Potter. First let''s get the syllabus." Harry snapped and a light appeared over each desk and vanished to reveal the syllabus. Harry said, "Any questions before we go on?"


    Susan asked, "Yes, how did you do that?"


    Harry pointed at the black canisters in the corners on the ceiling and said, "I like using Hard-Light projections for teaching aids, among other things. I actually already placed the paper on each of your desks and had a Hard-Light projection of the surface of your desk over the paper, which I removed to reveal the paper just now."


    Richard had already finished reading the syllabus during Harry''s explanation and asked, "What does this mean, ''Expect Pranks,'' and ''Don''t Panic''?"


    Harry smiled, "Most things that catch you off guard in life only do so because you''ve never experienced anything like it before. Since I went through all the effort of developing a Hard-Light system and installing it in the classroom, I may occasionally use it to keep you on your toes. That is what I mean by, Expect Pranks. As for the Don''t Panic, I''ve always found that to be excellent advise regardless of the circumstances.


    Harry watched with a smile as his new victim/students started to realize that the teacher who was a few years younger than any of them would not be teaching this class like he did his others.


    Doom asked the next question, "Professor, please clarify on these, Extra projects, and the rewards for them."


    Harry nodded. "Well, I trust all of you are smart enough to read the textbook and since I wrote it, I trust the textbook is clear enough to learn the course material from. So if you can learn it from the book, why are you even here? It''s obviously because a basic understanding of the book won''t cut it. You need opportunities to go above and beyond that. Flex your muscles as it were to discover your own strengths and weaknesses on the subject matter. Reading from a textbook will not help you find what you lack."


    Harry was pleased to see that most of the students looked rather excited about that.


    "Before we begin our first lesson, I''ll go ahead and give you the first Project. Please note, there will be no grade or extra credit towards grades awarded for this project. It is simply an opportunity to try something you''ve never done before in a friendly competition with fellow like minds."


    Harry snapped again and the board in the front of the classroom suddenly had several images and moving pictures. It only took a moment to recognize them as scenes from the Star Wars movies involving Lightsaber fights.


    Harry said, "Here are the rules for Projects in the future. I will give you the parameters of a tool that fulfils a specific purpose. You may work as an individual or in a group of up to four people. The groups have two options. You may create a blueprint for a design which you believe may actually work to fulfill the purpose. It is fine if it is not exact. The point of the Project is to get some experience in trying to make it, so success is not required. The second option is to actually create a working or mostly working prototype of a tool that fulfills the purpose. I will give feedback on the projects and the group that had the best project will get the prize. The prize is that I will show you my own working prototype of a tool that fulfills the purpose given. I will even show you the schematics and explain exactly how it works."


    This had a number of eyes light up.


    Harry pointed at the screens behind him and said, "This is the first project. A lightsaber. The parameters are as follows. Can be used by any normal ?du?t. Can be carried and held in the hand. The blade can retract and extend without harming the surroundings. And when extended, the blade can cut through a cinder block with a quick slash without being destroyed and allow for at least one more cut through a second cinder block. Also, because option two is more difficult than option one, if one group submits a mostly working prototype and another group submits blueprints for something that, theoretically, would be superior, I will likely choose the former for the winner if the theoretical blueprints are missing too much content despite the possibility of a superior design."


    Doom asked without raising his hand, "So you''re saying you have a lightsaber which falls under those parameters, and whoever builds or designs one that comes closest to matching those parameters, you''ll give a private lesson in exactly how yours works and how you made it."


    Harry smiled, "Exactly! It will be due in one month. However even if you don''t win, I will still go over the design you submit so everyone who submits a design will get a private lesson regardless."


    Doom smirked and looked over at Reed. Reed apparently felt the stare and looked back with challenging eyes.


    Harry moved on and gave the general rules for class, attendance, classwork, tests, etc. Most of the ?ssignments included links to the specific video lecture Harry posted online which was relevant to the subject matter and some of the subjects had multiple video links.


    As Harry left the classroom, he wondered if the group watching him would break into the class and snatch the black canisters in the room. Harry filled them with pieces of coffee makers, so if no one actually took them, it would be a waste of an excellent prank.. Oh well, something else to look forward too.

 Chapter 57 - 57 Girl Drama

    Harry was not sure if he should have been surprised or not, but the number of girls in his house was much higher when he returned home on Wednesday than he was certain lived there on Tuesday.


    Harry entered the waiting room which had several tables and chairs from other rooms moved in and at one of the chairs Harry saw Jade sitting down with two textbooks out. On the other chairs Harry found three other girls he did not recognize.


    Jade looked up and said, "Hi Harry! I formed a study group!"


    "And you invited them over?" he asked.


    "Yep. Gotta keep my grades up and they agreed to come over when I told them who I lived with."


    At the table a blonde haired girl said, "I''m sorry Mr. Potter, she said you''d be okay with this."


    Harry waved it off and said, "If you''re not my students, don''t call me Mr. Potter at my home. I turned sixteen a few months ago so I doubt our ages are that different.


    The redhead at the table said, "You''re the same age as we are?" She turned to jade and said, "You must''ve hit the jackpot."


    Jade rolled her eyes and pointed at the redhead, "That''s MJ," then the blonde, "Gwen," and last she pointed at the silver haired girl, "And that''s Felicia. Felicia is fifteen but is a year ahead and Gwen is fourteen but two years ahead so we''re all in the same class."


    Harry said, "I could have sworn the High school I sent you to was co-ed."


    The silver haired girl who looked far more m?tur? than a fifteen year old ought to said, "Jade invited Peter too but he didn''t believe she was telling the truth about living with Harry Potter. He''s the school''s secret genius and the only one besides Gwen who skipped two years."


    Harry said, "Well, bring him next time lest my wives torment you the same way they''ve been teasing Jade."


    MJ asked with a slight tease, "Wives? As in plural?"


    Harry answered, "All three fell in love with me and I fell in love back." Harry was very straightforward about it. Love wasn''t complicated for him. He fell in love with those who loved him. It wasn''t intentional nor planned. But if you could plan love, it wouldn''t be love.


    Harry knew that wasn''t normal but also knew the cause. Not only did the Phoenix Force take part in the creation of his gift, it even gave Harry a part of its power. There were side effects of bearing any power and the Phoenix''s power was not an exception to this rule. Bearing the power of the universal entity of life and passion made it so that Harry could give his love easily and and love with all his heart.


    Jean had it much worse though and sometimes had trouble keeping it to herself. Part of Jean''s teasing of Jade was to help her have fun being a girl instead of a tomboy while another part was an honest wish for more love for Harry and for herself. Wanda and Rogue had spent years starved for love and affection and after spending one hundred years together with Harry they had tossed aside traditional conventions and had no problem with more love in their lives.


    Jade continued, "Yeah, if you bring Peter you guys can hide behind him when Harry''s wives show up and try to snatch you into his harem."


    Gwen asked, "Really?"


    Harry answered, "Probably not. They seem to have already targeted Jade so if you want to be targeted, you''ll need to defeat Jade in open combat and take her place."


    Gwen said, "That''s a relief."


    The silver haired Felicia said, "Oh I don''t know, it doesn''t feel bad to be sought after."


    Gwen asked, "Is that why you pretend to be oblivious to Peter?"


    MJ snickered, "I almost feel bad for him. Almost."


    Felicia said, "He looks at you too Gwen when he thinks no one pays attention. Until he makes his choice, he''ll be riding solo."


    Harry interjected, "What if he chooses you both?"


    Felicia licked her lips and said, "Well, that''s a choice too isn''t it? He''s cute in his own way you know."


    MJ and Jade started laughing at their perverted friend while Gwen blushed a little. MJ said, "He''s been my neighbor for years and has always been a little brother to me."


    Harry walked over to look at the textbooks on the table and said, "You can come over with Jade if you want but don''t let her copy anything. I told her she''ll get a reward if she gets top grades her first month so I''m sure you can guess why she was so quick to make a study group."


    MJ blinked slowly at Harry and asked with a smile, "Oh, and what type of reward will she get? Anything she might be willing to share?"


    Harry walked behind the seated Jade and started massaging her shoulders. "If she got top grades I promised her I''d show her something... really special..."


    Felicia whistled and MJ growled while Gwen burst out laughing at the cherry red blush Jade started showing. She softly asked, "Can you stop giving them the wrong idea? Please?"


    Harry continued giving her a massage and said, "Everything in this world has a price Jade, there are no exceptions. If you want these girls to ?ssist you with getting top grades, then letting them viciously torment you while doing so is perfectly reasonable."


    Gwen said with a light smile, "He''s not wrong Jade."


    MJ added, "Your wives have trained you well."


    Harry nodded sagely.


    Felicia asked, "But is it really ok for Jade to bring random strangers here? You have a lot of expensive looking stuff around."


    Harry shrugged. "It does look expensive doesn''t it. I''d even go as far as to say that much of it is priceless. However there''s no actual way to steal any of it and even if there was, none of it would sell for much."


    Gwen asked, "Why''s that?" She didn''t know much about art but she knew the antiques, sculptures, and beautiful works of art displayed around the home looked expensive.


    Harry answered, "Artifacts, relics, and historical pieces are priced on the value of their stories. The pieces here have stranger and more esoteric stories than anything you could imagine and I doubt there are more than three or four people in the city even vaguely familiar with them. And those people I know. No one else would pay more for any of it than the value of a shiny bobble or a piece of junk. The paintings on the other hand were all painted by Wanda, one of my wives."


    Felicia asked, "Really? She''s very good. I''ve seen lots of paintings before but none I really liked. These I like though."


    Harry nodded and said, "I know she''d appreciate it if you told her that later."


    Felicia nodded and said, "No problem. But what do you mean there is no way to steal it though. I don''t see any security."


    Harry asked with a smirk, "So you''re very familiar with security systems then?"


    The silver haired teen crossed her arms and pouted as if she had been falsely accused of something. "My mother updates her alarms every few months to the best in the market."


    Harry nodded as if he completely believed her and walked away from Jade over to a framed relic and took it off the wall. With the frame in hand he walked over to the door, but once he got close a light flashed and the hallway to the door was gone. it had been completely filled in.


    Harry then walked back over and put the frame back on the wall and said, "Every room has a Hard-Light Projection system built into it. The Federal Reserve wishes it had a system like this. The only catch is that Hard-Light constructs can only form in an enclosed room so they can''t be used outside. While inside however, I make the rules. In order to steal something, they have to come inside. And no one who comes inside can break my rules without consequences."


    Harry snapped and the forcefield over the hallway vanished in another flash of light.


    Gwen shouted, "That is so cool! How does Hard-Light even work? I''ve seen papers on the-"


    Harry interrupted, "It''s just a static barrier with a hologram over it. The barrier itself is made of three waves which are emitted by three or more emitters built into the walls. When the waves cascade against each other, it vibrates in a way which causes the location of the vibration in space to act like a solid. The tricky part is moving the position of the barrier to mimic real movement. The programming and calculations can''t be done without specialized processors."


    Gwen blinked twice and said, "Wow, you''re a really good teacher."


    MJ added, "Yeah, even I understood that and I''m nowhere close to Gwen''s level in science stuff."


    "It''s what I do. In any case I don''t have a car so make sure to either head out before dark or confirm a ride if you plan to stay until after the sun sets."


    Felicia asked, "How come a guy like you doesn''t have a car?"


    Harry shrugged, "Couldn''t build a carport due to the location of the property and I don''t like parking garages." He got a license a few days ago but up to this point he never had a reason to get a car.


    As Harry walked upstairs MJ leaned over to Jade and said, "For someone who complains so much, you didn''t seem to mind him rubbing your shoulders."


    Jade did her best to sink through the bottom of her chair and muttered just loudly enough for the table, and those with enhanced senses, to hear, "he gives really good massages..."


    The girls burst into laughter as Harry reached his study and sat at his newly built supercomputer. Thankfully most of the work for his businesses and deals with the Goblins could be done over a computer. Harry loved his new Technopath Perk. Technopathy was basically a specialized form of Electromagnetic Sorcery and though Harry tried to figure out the trick to it a few times, he was never able to manually replicate the effect. With the Perk that was no longer an issue. Technopathy allowed Harry to communicate with computers with his mind. That meant that Harry''s programming speed was no longer limited by the physical materials his keyboards were made of. He could program at the speed of thought.


    Harry''s new computer was built specifically with Technopathy in mind. Everything else he built up to this point was actually immune to Technopathy as Harry considered it a security risk, meaning now that he had it he had to create some Technopath interfaces with securities against other technopaths built in. Thankfully Technopath security was similar to mind magic so Harry was able to make something very strong very quick. Just to be safe, he added dozens of traps which would either fry the mind of an intruder or destroy the interface if someone with an exceptionally strong talent for Technopathy appeared.


    It didn''t take too long for his girls to come home and meet Jade''s friends. Harry could tell from the overheard conversations that they were of course perfectly civil and didn''t taunt or tease any of them. They knew how to play the long game of course and didn''t want to scare any of them off. Jean and MJ apparently got along particularly well, as neither had another friend with hair as strikingly red as her own.


    Harry saved his progress on the program he was working on and returned downstairs to make dinner. Jade''s friends decided to call it a night and after Harry finished, Jade used the phone Harry gave her to take pictures of the food to taunt them with later.


    Harry asked, "So how often are you going to have a study group over?"


    "I was thinking Mondays and Thursdays," she answered between bites. Today was Tuesday but it was more of a trial run to make sure Harry didn''t kick them out.


    "Alright, then tomorrow night we''ll start with Chi Magic."


    Jade made a guts pose and Harry continued, "After you finished your homework."


    "Tch! You don''t have to tell me that."


    Harry only had two Energy Physics Classes the following day. During the first one, Harry''s phone got a text message. Thanks to the technopathic interface Harry built inside it, Harry could read the message without even looking at it. It was from Jade. [Dragon at school, help!]


    Harry internally sighed. He was still teaching class but he''d panned for stuff like this so he walked over to his desk and bent down as if he was opening one of the lower drawers which allowed him to be completely out of the line of sight of the students. Harry had confirmed there were no cameras in this room or pointing at him from afar and he cast an invisibility spell on himself and silently apparated away.


    Harry appeared on the roof of the school and immediately sensed the Dragon Chi. Jade was in a locker room with a few others and a tiger sized green dragon had broken in and was chasing them while doing damage to the various lockers.


    Harry simply apparated in and stunned the dragon. It was a common demon dragon and Harry only needed a moment to understand why it was there. Jade had two talismans in her possession. Harry confirmed everyone was decent and walked over to Jade and said, "Talismans. Now."


    Jade lowered her eyes and obediently handed him the Horse and the Rooster Talisman she''d brought to school. Harry then handed her a lunch box containing a roasted chicken leg.


    Harry cast a few repair spells on the locker room and then took out a marble from his inventory and transfigured it into a larger than average mongrel looking dog. The girls who had been running around were still there, kinda just staring blankly at him and Harry used a combination of telepathy and magic to change their memories of a dragon into this dog. It wasn''t too difficult. After removing their memory of himself, Harry opened a portal and threw the dragon inside before closing it and apparating out. The dog got up and started chasing the girls again much to Harry''s amusement.


    After a few moments, Jade took the chicken leg out of the lunch box and threw it to the dog who nabbed it in the air and started eating it. Everyone rationalized that the dog wasn''t chasing them, it just wanted the chicken leg. Some teachers that heard the ruckus came over shortly after and asked about what happened and they all got the same answer. More teachers tried to chase and catch the dog, but it was able to run away.


    Once Harry confirmed everything was fine, he used his Time Turner to go back an hour and wait. The first thing he did was damage control. Harry made sure that any signal leaving the area that was not one from his tech was monitored and intercepted. He had to set up a few tools but such was life. After the dragon arrived Harry confirmed no one got a picture of it or uploaded a video of it before Harry got there. Harry then packed everything back up and bent down again before apparating back to his classroom and standing back up.


    To the class, Harry had just bent down and got back up. This was the main reason Harry got a Time Turner. He knew he''d get caught eventually, but when he did, he''d at least have a foolproof alibi.


    A few hours later Harry was sitting on the waiting room couch when Jade returned.


    Harry had already looked over the dragon and figured out what happened. Rather than scold her once she came in, Harry said, "Sit," while pointing to the spot next to him.


    She quietly sat and seemed to expect some shouting. Instead, Harry said, "I don''t know where those Talismans used to be kept, but I suspect that Uncle placed some heavy protections on the place to prevent the Dragon Chi from leaking out. I don''t know how many times you''ve taken those Talismans out before, but I suspect that Uncle had either directly or discreetly given you something to hide the Dragon Chi. He never told you how Chi magic worked so you wouldn''t know any of this of course, and you wouldn''t know the consequences of walking around without those protections."


    Jade asked, "But how in the hell did a dragon just wander into New York?!"


    Harry shrugged. "You went from the west coast to the east coast without any magic protection and twelve sources of demon dragon chi from an Immortal Sorcerer. I suspect those talismans left a scent and that dragon simply came across it and followed it to New York. This house prevents anything from leaking out of it, but when you took those talismans out, the dragon was able to follow the scent."


    Jade asked, "So there are actual dragons just wandering around the world?"


    Harry nodded. "Yep. Though most that do can hide as if they were air until they find what they are looking for."


    Jade shook her head and leaned a bit onto Harry. "How do you know so much?"


    "I have a skill that lets me memorize books and I''ve read from collections that were thousands of years old and memorized them all." It was true. Harry not only read every book in Kamar-Taj, but every book in the other three Sanctums and many, many more.


    "Think I''ll ever be that smart?"


    "You''re already smart. You just need to learn how and when to apply wisdom. So. Why did you bring two talismans out of the house? It''s true, healing, weak telekinesis and flight are certainly not the worst ones you could have brought, but why bring any? You weren''t going to show them off were you?"


    Jade didn''t even register her head was already on Harry''s shoulder and said, "No, I just. I feel better when I have them I guess. It''s comforting. They were actually locked up pretty good in San Francisco. They''d upped the security and included all kinds of stuff. But I just just really needed to see them. I even made some fakes and after breaking in, I swapped them all out. Section 13 doesn''t even know they''re missing and since they''ll never use them, they never will."


    Harry figured that Jade had many near death experiences and relied on the Talismans to stay alive. Do that too many times and you won''t feel safe without your means of protection.


    Harry said, "Well, let''s start on our first Chi Magic lesson alright?"


    Jade got up and said, "You mean you''re still going to let me practice magic?"


    "I said I would didn''t I?"


    Jade''s eyes looked a little watery and she quietly said, "Thank you Harry."


    "No problem. Now let''s head to the basement. I''ve got a few things already set up."


    Jade wiped her eyes and gave a big smile, "Cool!" and ran down.


    The first step of Chi magic was, unsurprisingly, boring. It required meditation to gain awareness of the Chi. Once awareness reached a certain level, you could control it and use it for magics.


    Jade pointed out, "Um, I''ve never done anything like that."


    Harry wasn''t surprised. He said, "Apparently when a Chi Wizard uses Chi magic, they must consciously emit it. You on the other hand have so much Chi, you unconsciously emit it."


    "Woah. Doesn''t that mean I have like, bu??loads of Chi?"


    Harry looked at her seriously and without any humor in his voice he flatly said, "Yes Jade. You have bu??loads of Chi. Aren''t you proud to have bu??loads of Chi? Would you like a shirt that says ''I have bu??loads of Chi''? Shall I go tell Jean and the others of your-"


    "Ok, ok, ok I get it! Enough!"


    Harry''s blank face broke out into a smirk and said, "In life, the more you can carry, the greater the weight of the world. Unless you decide to live in a cave, strength and responsibility go hand and hand. There is no good way around this so you''re just going to have to accept it."


    Jade rolled her eyes, "Why do you sound like an old man?"


    Harry shrugged. "I''ve lived a very rich life."


    Jade said, "I call bull. I''ve had tons of adventures too and I don''t talk like Uncle."


    "Really, what''s the furthest you''ve gone back in time?"


    "Umm. The seventies?"


    Harry said, "Seventh Century. I pranked a group of Necromancers, killed an immortal dragon, rescued Merlin, and insulted Morgan Le Fay''s fashion sense."


    "What?"


    Harry continued as if oblivious to the dumbfounded look on Jade''s face., "Probably shouldn''t have done that last one though, she did get me back. Lesson learned, never insult a woman''s fashion sense."


    Jade shook her head and decided to ignore the last thirty seconds of conversation and said, "So how do I gain awareness of my Chi?"


    Harry asked, "Well, the normal way is a personal, spiritual journey that sometimes requires enlightenment. The fast way is that I can just guide you to it. Which would you prefer?"


    Jade considered it for less than a fraction of a second before answering, "The fast way, definitely the fast way."


    Harry nodded. "Alright, give me your hands." Harry set his hands in front of her palms face up and after a moment of hesitation she complied. "Now close your eyes and try to match my breathing."


    Jade took in a deep breath and nodded before closing her eyes. After a few moments they were breathing in sync. Harry then said, "Ok, you can open them."


    Jade asked, "That''s it?" and opened her eyes. Only to find herself in a vast, white space with Harry standing at her side.


    Harry answered, "Yeah. We''re inside your spirit."


    "Um, okay. Where''s my Chi?" She turned around a few times but endless white was all that she saw extending into the void.


    Harry focused for a moment and said, "There," while pointing behind her.


    Jade turned around again but this time she saw a massive door.


    "Woah."


    Harry frowned and walked over and placed his hand on the door.


    Jade asked, "Is my Chi behind that?"


    "Yes. It''s not what I expected though."


    "Why? Is something wrong?"


    "Well, there shouldn''t be a door. It seems your Chi is locked. That''s not the weird thing though. There are one thousand life times worth of Chi behind this door."


    "Wait, what? One thousand?"


    "Yeah. But something is preventing it from opening."


    Jade appeared to think for a few moments and said, "Oh. They were looking for me."


    Harry asked, "Who was looking for you?"


    "Some monks. Umm. That''s right, The Ben-Shu Order."


    Harry gave a disbelieving smirk and asked with humor, "You''re the reincarnation of that guy?"


    "You''ve heard of him? Wait, of course you have."


    Harry nodded, "Someone who reincarnated one thousand times does get around."


    "I mean I guess. A few years ago they came to Uncle''s shop and said someone there was his reincarnation. They thought it was Uncle''s apprentice, Tohru, but after the awakening failed they confirmed it wasn''t him."


    Harry nodded, "At least that explains the door. Without it, your total Chi Volume would certainly have attracted trouble and you would not have survived until now."


    Jade asked, "So what, do I go back to that temple and get them to awaken it?"


    Harry shook his head. "Bad idea. Their awakening ceremony basically strengthens the Chi on the other side of the door to open it from that side. This would also strengthen and preserve their memories and would overwhelm you. Once it opened, Jade Chan would nearly cease to be and you''d just be another in the long line of his reincarnations. He was a pacifist by the way."


    "Umm. How about no. What else?"


    "I can think of three ways. The first is to simply start knocking. Meditate every day and return to this place and keep knocking. Eventually the door will open. This would be relatively gentle and have the best results. Your personality would stay dominant and you''d gain the Chi and memories of those lives without overly affecting you. The downside however it is could take five minutes, five days, or five years of constant knocking. There is no way to tell how long it could take. It''s even possible it may never open."


    "That sounds worse than the pacifism."


    "Yeah. That leaves two more ways. The One is combat. Fight something stronger than you that will kill you if you lose. Push yourself to the limit and you''ll either die, or your will to live will break the door. This will preserve your personality, mostly, but there will be side effects of gaining all that chi and the memories of past lives while fighting to the death. I know it could work, but I don''t know how it will affect you."


    "And option number three?" She really wasn''t liking the sound of any of these.


    "Use magic. There are a few ways to open, break, or even refine the door with magic. But this would have irreversible consequences and would definitely change you. Maybe a little, maybe a lot."


    Jade sighed and asked, "I''d appreciate a recommendation."


    "Options One and Two. Mediate daily and keep knocking for as long as you can. Then come down to the Danger Room and I''ll have a setting for you to fight in. It won''t kill you of course but you can still use intense combat to hone your will power. The knocking may even make the door easier to break through with fighting so one could help the other."


    Harry waved his hand and the white void faded away to black. Jade then opened her eyes and found herself still seated with her hands being held by Harry''s.


    Harry stood up and pulled her up as well and said, "I''ll hold back on practicing Chi Magic until you''ve opened the door. That way we can still practice together. Alright?"


    Jade let out some tension she didn''t know she had and said, "Thank you Harry. Really."


    "I''ve said it before and I''ll say it again, no problem."


    Harry spent the rest of the time showing Jade how to re-enter that state herself so she could start knocking. It might take a while but Harry believed in her.


    The following day Harry had his next Foundation of Metaphysics Class. Harry had to stop himself from laughing when he found that the fake Hard-Light modules on the ceiling had not only been taken down and taken apart, but put back together and returned to the ceiling. The only possible reason to return some cans of coffee maker parts to the scene of the theft was to hide the fact that Harry had tricked them into stealing such a thing in the first place.


    Jean arrived early for the class and discussed a few things with Harry. On the roster she was still Jean Grey but after her birthday in a few weeks that would change to Jean Potter and both would start wearing their wedding rings. Harry''s muscled frame, tall stature, and professional attire made him look closer to twenty-two than he did sixteen so although everyone in the class was older than him, they had no reason to treat him like a child due to his appearance.


    Once everyone was seated Harry started the lecture without preamble. The first month''s course discussed how different materials reacted to different types of energy. In addition to this being the first step in measuring and detecting these energies, the subject was also completely relevant to Harry''s project as the course material gave several possible avenues to make something resembling a light saber with.


    Half way through the class the door opened and a large, green ogre walked into the classroom. It wore a rough spun brown cloth shirt and hempen shorts tied up with a rope belt and had some squeaky leather shoes. In its right hand was a large wooden cudgel and in its left hand was a briefcase.


    A few of the girls gasped and Harry said, "Please keep side conversations below hearing level during the lecture." His back was turned and he was pointing at the illustrations on the board .


    The ogre slowly walked over to Harry who still seemed completely oblivious to it and raised its cudgel.


    Reed said, "Um, Professor Potter?"


    Harry asked without turning, "Yes Mr. Richards?"


    The ogre smacked Harry''s head with the cudgel and Harry dropped. He fell behind his desk though the students could still see his legs sticking out.


    The ogre set his cudgel against the wall and then placed his black leather briefcase on the desk before opening it. The ogre reached inside and pulled out some large reading glasses and placed them on its nose, in front of its eyes.


    The ogre then said with a deep gravelly voice that had a somewhat Scottish accent, "My name is Mr. Shrek. And I''ll be substituting for Professor Potter while he is out. Now the important thing to pay attention to when graphing the wavesigns of these energies is that the wavesign may oscillate in three dimensions. To compensate, you need to measure the wavesign three times using this formula which will give you the dimensions of these three dimensional wavesigns."


    The ogre cleanly picked up on where Harry left off on the lecture.


    Jean asked aloud, "Um, Mr. Shrek? Professor Potter is twitching." Harry''s legs which were sticking out from behind the desk were indeed twitching.


    The Ogre looked down behind the desk and walked over. He then made a kicking motion and Harry stopped twitching. The ogre then continued the lecture as if nothing important happened.


    Seeing the other student''s absolutely dumbfounded faces, Jean only kept a straight face through sheer mental discipline. Harry had informed her of this earlier of course and the calling out of the twitching Harry was pre-arranged. She knew of a few other pranks he''d pull as well but not all of them.. There were times where she did like surprises and she wanted to enjoy this class for as long as she could.

 Chapter 58 - 58 A Dragon’s Chi

    *Author''s Explosion.*


    I accidentally added an extra year while writing which is why Harry is 17 when it is only Sept of 2009 and he was born Jul of 1993. So yeah.. Had to fix that. Rewrote the dates and timeline and some details of the last fifteen or so chapters. Only big difference is that Harry, Jean, Rogue, Wanda, and Jade are all sixteen. Jean''s 17th B-day in this AU is in Oct, making her 9 months older than Harry and still younger than Hermione.


    On a lighter note,


    Achievement Unlocked 300K Words!


    Chapter 58 A Dragon''s Chi


    Harry was not surprised that at the end of September the only two groups that submitted prototype Lightsabers were Reed''s and Doom. There were three other groups that submitted designs and Harry would return them with detailed feedback, but only two groups had something ready for a demonstration.


    Of course, as these objects could be considered weapons, they could not be brought and demonstrated in class. Thankfully NYU had some testing rooms which did permit such things and Harry, as a Faculty member, had access to them.


    Richard''s team included himself and Susan along with Susan''s brother Johnny and another student Ben. All four came to the demonstration of course along with Doom who worked alone.


    Harry brought his briefcase and said, "Alright Mr. Richards, you''re up first."


    Reed smiled with a bit of excitement and Ben and Johnny carried over a large metal trunk. Reed opened it and pulled out a long cylinder.


    The room already had four wooden posts set up with cinder blocks standing upright situated on each. The parameters of the design were that it had to be usable by a normal ?du?t, could be held and carried, could retract and extend without harming the area, and could cut through two cinder blocks, one after the other.


    Once fully extended, Richards pressed another switch. Harry could tell that Susan, Johnny, and Ben all held their breath for a moment.


    The string started glowing and after a moment became incredibly bright.


    Harry smiled. It was relatively simple but a good idea. The string heated up to a ridiculous level when electricity was put through it and the extra long handle was mostly a very heavy battery.


    Reed held the rod out with the string side facing the block and swiped it through with a mighty swing. The string successfully vaporized the side of the block on contact and the block fell off the post in two halves.


    Susan and Johnny jumped up and shouted, "Yes!" Ben simply showed a satisfied smile.


    Harry said, "One down."


    Reed held back his own excitement and walked over the second block and swung it the same way.


    The wire snapped and recoiled back towards Richard''s face.


    And was blocked by the barrier which immediately appeared and completely contained the rod and wire.


    Reed''s team gasped when the wire snapped but were just as startled when the barrier appeared.


    Doom calmly asked, "Did you install a Hard-light system in this room as well?"


    Harry shook his head. "There is no installation. Those canisters in the class are filled with coffee maker parts for anyone who thinks they are bright enough to steal from me."


    Harry tapped his suitcase and said, "This contains the system. Did you notice I''ve never opened it? Anyways, good work Reed."


    Ben said, "But it broke."


    Harry shrugged. "Anyone who has never been maimed by one of their own experiments has no right to call themselves a scientist."


    Susan, Ben, and Johnny all looked at Reed with the same motion and gave him a knowing smile while the man himself could only laugh awkwardly.


    Harry said, "Dr. Doom, you are up next." Harry was not oblivious to the fact that Victor Von Doom only took a single class this semester with the rest of his time being under independent study. He obviously didn''t need to be taught the material from a teacher but Harry was the exception. Still, out of professional courtesy from one doctorate to another Harry would use his title unless the man started otherwise.


    Doom brought out a handle that was far smaller and sleeker than Reeds. He flicked a switch and a thin metal bar extended out. The bar then flipped over and unfolded itself like origami until it was the length of a standard sword. Doom swung the blade twice and then flicked a switch which caused it to fold back up. The pair of blocks fell down into two pieces each.


    Reed and the rest watched with stunned expressions. He made it look so simple.


    Harry smiled again. A folding sword with a near monomolecular edge. Harry asked, "May I see it?"


    Doom handed it over and Harry inspected it. With a smile and a shake of his hand Harry said, "Sorry, but this blade is disqualified."


    Doom paused for a moment and asked, "For what reason?" in a cold, hard voice.


    Harry answered, "It does not fall within the set parameters. Tell me Dr. Doom. If Reed here were to take this in hand and swing it against a block, it would likely cut the first one. But if Reed used it, would it cut the second? The third? One of the parameters was that the tool could be used by a normal person. A normal person does not have the energy resources you carry on your person to power the system you''ve built in which preserves the edge of the blade. Without that system this could, at best, cut a single block."


    Harry tossed the handle back to Doom who nearly missed the catch because he was caught off guard by what Harry said. Harry didn''t say it directly, but he basically implied that he knew that Doom used magic runes inscribed on the weapon which were powered by his own sorcery.


    Harry said, "If you had included an internal power source you certainly would have won." Although Harry said that he knew it was not so easy to store magic.


    Doom calmly stated. "I am not convinced. Even if my design could only cut a single block, it still matches Reed''s and mine did not harm me."


    Harry nodded, "Yes, but my grade is determined by completeness and potential. If all the flaws in yours were removed it would lose to Reed''s should all the flaws in his be removed. But if you''re still not convinced, I''ll give you a chance."


    Harry pulled out a elegant silver handle from his pocket and showed it to everyone. He then flicked a switch on it and a glowing line of light shot out from the top of the handle and stopped at the standard distance one would keep a sword. Harry adjusted his wrist so the dimensions could be seen, it was glowing pure white and seemed to be a flat blade of light.


    Harry said, "This meets all the parameters I gave you and has a battery life of about ten minutes which isn''t too bad for its size. Extend your blade once more and let it meet mine. If your blade cuts my own, I''ll show you how mine works."


    Reed and the others watched this exchange with bright eyes and shallow breath. Although swung, both blades remained the same length.


    Doom muttered, "Dammit."


    The top half of his folding sword fell off the remainder of his blade. Doom collected before leaving without a word.


    Once he was out of the room Ben and Johnny shouted, "Woah!" Johnny said, "That was awesome!" Ben added, "It''s good to see him taken down a peg."


    Harry shrugged and said, "Alright, time for review. First, use capacitors instead of batteries next time. They take longer to charge but they are so much lighter and I was worried your arm was going to fall off holding that thing."


    Johnny and Ben laughed and Harry could swear he heard an ''I told you,'' from Susan.


    Harry continued, "Next, instead of using a single exothermic metamaterial string, you could cord a band of them around something stronger. As long as the exterior of the band heated up, it wouldn''t matter what the interior was made of so you could put something strong that wouldn''t break. Banding it would also make the surface area for burning larger which would make it cut far more easily."


    The four geniuses stared blankly at Harry with Reed''s expression being the most bewildered. Susan and the others caught Reed''s jaw dropped face and all burst out laughing.


    After a few moments Ben wiped the tears from his eyes and patted Harry''s back. "I''ve never seen him so dumbfounded. I''m tempted to take your class next semester."


    Johnny added, "Yeah, I heard you play pranks on the class. That sounds so awesome."


    Reed eventually recovered and said, "Thank you Professor. You''ve given me a lot to think about."


    Harry nodded and waved a hand above his briefcase. A hologram appeared which showed Harry''s silver handle. Harry waved his hand again and it disassembled. "And now to the victor goes the spoils." Harry pointed at a roll of metal near the head of the handle, "This metal roll is the blade itself. It is composed of three different Memory Metals and a fourth metal used for induction. When the metal is cool, the memory metal plated onto the left side remembers the metal must be in the form of a coil. When the induction metal has a current run through, it rapidly heats up and the memory metal on on the right side remembers it needs to be straight. So the blade is just a roll of metal that straightens and rolls back up when a current is put through and when the current stops."


    Harry demonstrated each aspect of this in the hologram


    "The third memory metal is actually similar to what Dr. Doom did. When heated, a very, very, very thin roll of metal at the edge unrolls out and is thin to a point close to a monomolecular edge. What makes this different from Doom''s though is that the edge isn''t damaged when it cuts, it simply rolls back up a little and unrolls again once the cut is over for the next cut. This feature actually preserves the edge of the blade."


    Harry then went into lecture mode about how he processed the materials to achieve these properties and how it was ?ssembled.


    The faces of wonder in the group made Harry''s inner Teacher feel satisfied.


    At the end of the lecture, Susan said, "Professor Potter, I''m sorry to say but we are going to miss the classes held on the last week of October."


    Harry thought about it and asked, "Does that have anything to do with the fancy rocket the Storm Foundation is building?"


    Richard blurted out, "How did you know about that?"


    Harry returned a smirk which told Reed and the rest he didn''t ''know'' for certain but Reed had just confirmed it.


    Susan, Johnny, and Ben sighed and Reed palmed his face in embarrassment.


    Harry laughs at their antics and says, "I know a lot. What I don''t know is why the rush and why all the hush hush around the project."


    The Goblins liked to keep track of certain resources and by following their movements Harry guessed they were building a manned rocket. However it seemed like they were burning a lot of their money to do so.


    Susan sighed and said, "Please don''t spread it around."


    Harry said, "I can ?ssure you I have secrets that are far more exciting than a space rocket so there isn''t an issue keeping it to myself."


    Susan said, "Thank you Professor. As long as you don''t spread it around, I don''t mind telling you. Perhaps we''ll ask for your help when we get back. Do you remember when the sky turned purple?"


    Harry nodded. He could see where this was going. Harry said, "Let me guess, going to investigate?"


    Reed answered, "The origin of the event was discovered, but the details are classified so we can''t say anything. The government and a few other groups are funding a mission into space ASAP to gather as much information as possible."


    Harry nodded and went over to a workstation in the lab. He pulled his phone into it and after a few moments, plugged in a cheap memory card into the computer. After another moment he unplugged everything and handed Susan the memory card. "This is not patented so I''d be grateful if you did not let this get out. It is a shielding array and configuration that should keep your shuttle safe from whatever random energies you find up there."


    Susan hesitated and said, "Why? Are you sure?"


    Harry insisted and said, "If anything happened to you guys then I would be out two of my favorite students and left alone with Doom. Don''t do that to me." He then pressed the card into her hands theatrically as if it was a matter of life and death.


    Ben said, "He''s got a point Sue."


    Susan eventually relented and agreed. As for how to get then excused from class, Harry had an idea.


    The main reason Harry gave them those designs was because he had some idea what was waiting for them. That big pyramid was still floating in the sky. It still had five thousand years worth of energy stored and had been messed with by Harry''s wizard magic saturated Obscurus particles. He didn''t want them taking a chance so even if those plans got out, it was fine as long as they weren''t harmed.


    Back at the house, Jade was impatiently waiting for her first lesson in Sorcery. The door knocking thing had not been going well and no matter how much she pushed herself in the Danger Room there weren''t any results.


    There were times when she just took the Talismans into the Danger Room and had hordes of monsters charge out just so Jade could use the Talismans to violently destroy them all. She found it therapeutic.


    Harry walked over to the study jade was waiting at and brought over an ancient, heavy book and opened it up. Harry said, "This is your first lesson in Sorcery. Read this."


    Jade opened the book excitedly and froze the moment she saw the first page.


    "Harry?"


    "Yes Jade?"


    "What Language is this?"


    "Sanskrit."


    "I see. Is there an english or mandarin version?"


    "No. The concepts Sorcery is built from do not translate very well into either language. It would be like trying to describe a forest using barn animal noises. The Upanishads can only be properly understood if read in Sanskrit. The concepts gained from the Upanishads are the foundation of Sorcery."


    Jade growled and jump-tackled Harry to the ground. Harry rolled and pinned her. She tried to twist her pegs out but they were pinned and when she tried to punch him Harry grabbed her wrists.


    Jade struggled but Harry was stronger. Without an outlet for her anger, tears started forming at the edges of her eyes.


    Harry knew why. Jade had become incredibly frustrated from the Door thing. This was supposed to be an alternative, but now it turned out to be even worse than the door thing!


    Harry looked into Jade''s deep, watery eyes. He wanted to comfort her. He leaned down and kissed her. Jade froze for just a moment before relaxing into it and kissing him back. Harry released her hands and wrapped his arms around her head and held her close.


    From the door Jean and Rogue whistled and whooped.


    Harry and Jade broke the kiss and looked over with a sigh.


    Harry honestly felt awkward. He had never intended on pursuing Jade when he invited her over, despite all the teasing. But when he looked into her eyes, he simply felt that he had to take her.


    At this thought Harry frowned. Jade and Jean noticed it first. Harry said, "Something''s up. Follow me."


    Harry went to the basement and took out a few items from his inventory. Jade was mystified at the scene of Harry pulling items from no where but she decided it probably didn''t matter.


    Harry used the tools he''d brought out and set up a formation. Harry directed, "Jade, stand there."


    Jade nodded and walked into the formation without question.


    The formation started glowing, and after a few moments, the roar of a dragon could be heard.


    Harry ended the spell formation and dropped his head in what could only be described as shame.


    Jean asked, "What''s wrong?"


    Harry took a few breaths to steady his voice and said, "Most diagnostic systems use a process of elimination. Basically you can''t find out if something has something unless you know to look for it. I wasn''t looking before, but now it''s obvious what''s going on. There is a reason Jade feels comfortable in the presence of the Talismans, a reason why she can''t go without them. They have been affecting her and she is basically addicted to them."


    Jade was the first to state, "What? What do you mean?"


    Harry elaborated, "Like a person who smokes and can''t go a day without smoking lest they feel incredibly uncomfortable, your chi has been stained by the presence of the Talismans and you are addicted to them. I''m sure I don''t have to tell you that you probably feel very uncomfortable when you have been away from them for a while right?"


    Jade denied, "But wait, plenty of people have been close to Talismans way longer than I have!"


    Harry shook his head, "I bet they were all older than you. Magic can stain a child far more easily than it can an ?du?t."


    Wanda said, "Ok, so she''s addicted. Plenty of cigarette smokers live normal lives. Is this going to cause a problem?"


    Harry said, "Depends on your definition of problem. In a normal human child, prolonged exposure would probably have a lot of negative effects. Jade however with her massive locked chi reserves is being affected differently. Instead of being polluted, her Chi has been slowly being stained and its attribute is changing away from human chi to something else."


    Jade asked with horror, "I''m going to become a demon?!"


    Harry shook his head, "No. That guy''s reincarnator is way too pure to become a demon, regardless of how evil Shendu''s Dragon Chi is. At best you''d go from White to neutral. However, although the Dragon Chi is not turning your chi into the chi of an evil demon, it''s stain is granting your chi the characteristics of a dragon. That''s the reason you like the Talismans. If a dragon keeps the Talismans with them, their Dragon Chi would strengthen. If you keep them with you, the stain becomes deeper. A part of your mind has already been affected by the Dragon stained Chi and like a dragon, it wants to become stronger. Your chi affects your physical body which is why you feel the need to be near the Talismans."


    Rogue asked, "It doesn''t sound that bad."


    Jean asked, "Wait, she''s becoming like a dragon?"


    Harry nodded.


    Wanda said, "Oh."


    Then Rogue realized what was happening and froze for a moment before looking back and forth between Harry and Jade.


    Jade asked, "What''s going on?"


    Jean answered, "Harry killed an immortal dragon in the seventh century and got its chi. So Harry also has dragon Chi."


    Jade said, "Ok. And?"


    Wanda continued, "Your body has the attributes of a dragon Jade and so does Harry''s. What does a female dragon do when in the presence of a powerful, handsome, male dragon?"


    Jade''s eyes went wide at the implication. "Oh." Up to this point, she hadn''t really questioned why she often behaved uncharacteristically submissive in Harry''s presence. She wasn''t going to pretend she wasn''t falling in love with him but she didn''t know that the impulses she had been feeling were because of her tainted Chi.


    Harry said, "I didn''t notice this because your chi is still locked behind that door and what leaks out is still normal human chi. I only found it now because I was looking for it. I''m sorry Jade. There are only two things I can think of to protect you from this. The first is sealing your Chi completely. This will remove any influence it has on you. It might take a few years but I''d be willing to teach you Sanskrit and how to read the Upanishads tombs and become a sorcerer."


    Jade asked with a hollow tone, "And the other?"


    Harry looked her in the eye and said, "You''d have to leave. To return to San Francisco. There is no way to stop yourself from being influenced by the taint of your dragon Chi. Eventually after leaving you''ll lose your feelings for me."


    Jade couldn''t stop the tears from falling.


    Jean said, "Ok, that''s bullshit. There is a third option and you know it. You could just let nature take its course. You don''t know there would not have been any feelings if she didn''t have Dragon chi. You can''t just ?ssume the feelings aren''t natural."


    Harry gave a weak smile but remained silent for a moment. He eventually said, "This choice is yours Jade."


    Jade got up and said, "I need to think about this," and got up to go to her room.


    Harry took in a few breaths and went upstairs to be as well. He may not have been physically tired but he was emotionally exhausted.


    The door opened and Jean walked in before climbing into the bed in her nightie.


    "It''s not your fault Harry."


    "If I noticed sooner I could have filtered my own Dragon Chi. Mine is far stronger than her''s and though I''m affected it''s only b?r?ly. She on the other hand never stood a chance. Even if I start now it''s already too late. Her inner dragon recognizes mine and there is nothing she can do about those feelings she has for me. I feel like one of those sick bastards who uses love potions."


    "It''s different and you know it. I could tell from the moment I saw her you two had a red string. You don''t think I''d spend all that time teasing her if I didn''t know she had an interest did you? I teased her to ease her into the idea that we were comfortable with her pursuing a relationship with you."


    Harry mostly knew this of course. There was something of a constant connection between him and Jean though he often ignored parts of it so that Jean''s thoughts and ideas would be private to her.


    Harry turned over and set his hand on her face and looked his love in the eyes. He asked, "How long until you leave?"


    Jean visibly sunk down but pressed her face gently into Harry''s hand. "I can make it to the end of the semester. If I push it, I can hold on until Christmas. But then I have to go."


    Harry understood. When Jean accessed the Phoenix''s power, she gained the Phoenix''s knowledge. Even when she stopped using it, she remembered what she learned and felt what the Phoenix felt. She felt the compulsion that the Phoenix Force felt to enact the Judgement of the Phoenix to burn away that which does not work.


    When she fought against the Apocalypse empowered Xavier, she tried to use as little power as possible, but it was still enough to understand the nature of some of the planets which needed burning. Jean felt many of them could in fact be ignored for now, the impulse was strong, but she felt there would be no great difference for some of them if they were burned now or a hundred years from now.


    There were other planets where this was not true however. There were planets where Jean could not justify their continued existence for a second longer and she had to use every ounce of willpower she could and all the love in her heart to stop herself from flying off into space to enact Judgement!


    Harry could feel it too. It was not as strong of course, but the Phoenix perk did give Harry a glimpse of what Jean was feeling.


    Harry said, "I might have a way to get you home faster."


    Jean looked at him suspiciously, "How?"


    "What if I built a Phoenix Fire bomb that could burn the planets for you?"


    "What?! No! Absolutely not! This is my burden!"


    Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around her before pulling her close.


    "You remember that the Phoenix gave me permission to act in her name right? I am your partner and you are mine. Your burdens are my burdens just as mine are yours. I have just as much responsibility for this matter as you do."


    Jean hated it when Harry used logic. It was the divine enemy of passion.


    She asked, "How would that even help me?"


    "Well, from what I''ve calculated, the longest part of your trip will be the recovery period. The energy it takes to burn a world is likely more than your body can sustain. Probably enough to kill you. After burning a world, you''ll have to take a period to revive and recover. If you use my bomb, you won''t need to burn out your body to act. You just charge the bomb, throw it, watch the show, go the next world, and repeat. There are what, five worlds you can''t ignore?"


    Jean nodded. At the moment the total amount of worlds that Jean felt the irresistible compulsion to burn was only five. Once they were burned, Jean could return to earth.


    Jean said, "Let me sleep on it."


    Harry smiled and kissed her neck. "You think you can come in here," and kissed her again, "wearing that," and once more, "and sleep?" He gently kissed her again and again, lower and lower, letting her feel a trail of kisses down her body.


    Jean m??n?d as sparks of heat lit up her body. Neither knew when she was going to return, so they both wanted to make the most of all their time together until then.


    The next morning Jade had left early for school. She sent a text message saying she''d get breakfast at school. It was obvious she needed more time.


    Harry and the girls ate breakfast in a quiet depression. It was only when she was missing that they realized how lively they had been when Jade was around. After breakfast Harry went to his office at the university even though there wasn''t much he could do there that he couldn''t do at home. Some part of his just didn''t want to be home at the moment.


    No one in Harry''s Energy Physics class would have been able to point out exactly how Harry had been different that day but many of the students felt Harry was a lot duller than usual.


    Once class was over and Harry was halfway to his office, he got a text message from Jade''s phone. The content made him freeze. In the next moment the phone started ringing.


    *Ping*


    [Quest: Enter the Dragon


    Rescue Jade from the Hand


    Bonus: Defeat the Hand using Dragon Chi


    Bonus: Fool witnesses.]


    Harry''s eyes twitched. Some people obviously didn''t understand how good it was to be alive.


    *Author''s Note*


    Yes, cliche, but this is Marvel after all.


    I''ll have another chapter out tomorrow.


    I''ve decided to include passion scenes but no actual smut.. It will be implied of course so that the feelings between the characters can be displayed, but nothing actually smutty will be included.

 Chapter 59 - 59 A Dragons Wrath

    Harry took out his phone and opened the message that had been sent. He could tell what it was through his technopathy, but he would still look at it before answering the ringing phone. The text message contained a picture of Jade, unconscious and badly beaten up and a sentence. [If you want to see her alive, follow our instructions.] And it was sent to Harry from Jade''s cellphone.


    Harry steadied his breath, opened the call and answered flatly, "Speak."


    "Mr. Potter." I was an older man''s voice. "I am sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circum-"


    Harry interrupted, "Despite my public image, I am not one who wastes time so frivolously. You have something I want. State your demands." The cold steel in his voice made it clear he was not in a joking mood.


    "Very well. When Miss Chan came to you, I believe she brought with her several objects that did not belong to her. I intend to return them to their rightful owner. I will text you an address. Deliver the twelve stone Talismans to that address in one hour. Do not inform any of your mutant girlfriends. Each is in a class that just started at the moment and each has a camera on them. Should we see them leave the class for any reason, Jade''s life will be forfeit."


    Harry said, "I have an unbreakable suitcase with an unbreakable lock. I will bring the Talismans but they will be in the case. When I have confirmed Jade is safe, I will tell you how to open it."


    "Very well. But Do not try to fool us. Her life is in our hands." The line went dead and Harry was counting off a list of bones and organs a person did not require to survive. Harry wasn''t the type to torture others, but he too had a metaphorical reverse scale and a message had to be sent about those who thought they could touch it without consequences.


    Between the time Jean got kidnapped and this time, there was a monstrously large difference. Harry got a quest. Quests had map pointers.


    Harry opened a small silver portal next to his hand that connected to Jade''s room. "Accio Horse Talisman." The talisman flew through his portal into his hand. Harry then made himself invisible through his own spells and teleported directly to the roof of the building Jade was held in. Harry took the Horse talisman and cast a Gemini charm on it, creating a duplicate. He then injected it with a bit of Dragon Chi and focused for a moment to make the chi signature match the original talisman.


    While making the copy, he was also using clairvoyance to psionically peer into the building. He didn''t need x-ray vision, he could simply shift the position of his viewpoint beyond his physical senses. This wasn''t difficult for a skilled psychic and Charles did it to scout for his X-Men whenever he went on missions with them.


    Harry found the room Jade was in and pocketed the fake and real talisman before teleporting into the room. The instant he did so, he cast a petrification charm on the room and used his technopathy to make the cameras show re-runs. The spell froze every person in the room and thanks to a lot of practice did not fry everything.


    Harry looked down at the beaten Jade and the fire in his stomach demanded something to burn. However Harry was able to suppress the powerful emotions thanks to the mental aspect of his power. He''d still burn of course, but he''d do so smartly. From the difference in the swelling on the bruises between Jade now and the picture, Harry estimated the picture was taken an hour ago and the man who called him from Jade''s phone was nowhere close by.


    Jade quickly looked up expecting something dangerous and saw Harry. "Harry? Heh. I knew you''d come." She tried to play it off. Harry smiled warmly at her and opened a portal that went directly to her room. He handed her the real Horse Talisman and said, "Wait for me in your room. I''ll be back in five minutes, okay?"


    Jade nodded and left. She didn''t have to guess what Harry was going to do. She was right of course, but she certainly never would have guessed how Harry was going to do it.


    When the portal closed, Harry took out a polyjuice potion and put Jade''s hair into it. After the potion settled, he drank it down and transfigured his clothes to look like hers.


    If Harry destroyed the entire facility and killed everyone inside, the ones he was supposed to meet in an hour definitely would not come and worse, they might try again. However allowing a sixteen year old girl to be held captive a moment longer than possible was not an option for Harry. Since he could be in two places at once, this was the easiest method.


    Harry used a simple illusion to give him the same battered appearance Jade had and positioned himself with the ropes around him. He feigned unconsciousness and undid the petrifying spell. The guards weren''t looking at watches or clocks so they had no idea anything happened in the last thirty seconds.


    The small room had two guards of Asian descent sitting in front of the door, both had knives but not guns. This was not because they could not acquire guns, but because at this range, knives were better. When using a weapon, always take into consideration that your opponent may steal it from you. That was why Harry didn''t Basilisk Envenomed Goblin Silver Blades in combat. For these guards, if Jade took their knives, it wouldn''t make a large difference. If they had guns and Jade took one, that would be a much larger problem. In other words, they were experienced professionals.


    While faking unconsciousness, Harry used the time to read the guard''s minds and learn more about the facility and group. Oddly enough, he learned very little. The Hand recruited those with skill from their dojos and trained them with better brainwashing techniques than most cults. They were skilled and obedient. They did not question their orders and only knew what was required to do their jobs. Oddly enough this was an excellent defense against psychics. It made Harry wonder if the group had experience with them.


    Eventually the cell phone in Harry''s pocket got another text message for the address. However it was not this location which meant that they probably wanted to play games with him. He wanted to say that was the wrong choice, but considering the actions that lead up to this point, saying that seemed rather redundant.


    Harry''s technopathy had already taken control of the computers at the facility and Harry was transferring the information to his phone so he could read it off from there.


    The time for the exchange had come and the guard received a call. The guard walked up to Harry, pulled his hair up and placed a knife to his throat. He said, "I know you''re awake. You''re going to say what I tell you to say. Otherwise I''m going to cut out your tongue."


    The man had just received orders over the phone and he simply followed them.


    In total, the warehouse they were in had about thirty people. Harry confirmed over the last hour that none of them were good. Now that Harry understood what they intended to do, the lot of them had outlived their usefulness.


    Without bothering to respond, Harry paralyzed both guards once more with spells before taking the phone of the first guard and pocketing it. Harry used some internal magic cycling to burn through the remainder of the polyjuice and return to his normal form. He already ordered all the cameras in the building to run on a loop and had shut down all communications into the building.


    Harry opened his inventory and put on a few items including a demon face mask and took in a deep breath. In the next moment his body was surrounded by golden light and he struck the ?h?st of the man in front of him, rupturing all of his organs. Harry then chopped the neck of the second man, severing his spine and denying him all his senses. He would exist in a state without any of his five senses and unable to move until he died.


    Rather than opening the door, Harry apparated out and struck the ?h?st of the man guarding this side of the door. His left lung would be completely punctured by the ribs which had pierced through it and he would drown in his own blood in a few minutes. Harry''s leg glowed with golden lightning and he smashed it into the door, retching it open and destroying the hinges.


    One by one Harry cruelly dealt with each occupant of the warehouse. It seemed to take time but as Harry knew each of their locations and could teleport, Harry had in fact only taken thirty seconds from start to finish. When it was over, he had not killed a single person, but none would survive for very long in the condition he left them in. The reason for this was a very simple message. Harry knew a thing or two about the Hand. They''d left fingerprints all over the world for the last thousand or so years after all. Even if Harry killed every member he could find in New York, it wouldn''t hurt them much more than a bruise or a paper cut. Harry needed to demonstrate that he was not the type of person they could afford to fu?k with.


    Harry became invisible once more and teleported to the top of a building overlooking another warehouse. The phone he''d taken had just gotten a text message, [She must say she is on her way home now and must tell Harry to do as he is told.]


    A moment later the phone rang. Harry answered it and used magic to change his voice and said, "Hello and welcome to Good Burger home of the Good Burger can I take your order?"


    The line went dead. Harry smiled. He really couldn''t resist. A few moments later the phone rang again and he answered it again. This time he changed his voice to match Jade''s. "Harry? It''s a trap!" And he hung up the line.


    Harry, still wearing his demon face mask, waited thirty seconds and removed his invisibility and charged himself with immortal dragon chi, coating himself with golden lightning. He jumped from the roof down to the roof of the warehouse. Harry crashed through the roof and fell two stories before smashing his fist on the ground and landing on his knee.


    He looked up and saw an old man in front of him with a large amount of chi. For a normal person anyways. Behind him were twelve others and Harry sensed a few more opponents nearby.


    Harry did not wait for him to react and moved forward. The old man moved far faster than one would expect someone of his appearance but it was nothing to the Chi empowered Harry who thrust his fist into the man''s ?h?st cavity and gripped his heart. The old man could only look dumbfounded at the hand going through his ?h?st as he stared up at the demon mask staring back at him. Harry twisted and kicked the man backwards while ripping out his heart.


    Those behind him dodged the body of the old man which had been kicked forward and charged at Harry together. Harry dropped the still beating heart and took a step to the closest one who seemed to be attacking in slow motion, even slower than the old man. Harry leisurely struck his armpit to dislocate his shoulder, struck his side to rupture his liver, and step into his while smashing his own hip against the ?ssailant''s own, shattering it to pieces.


    Before the first victim fell to the floor from his injuries, Harry had already moved onto the next.


    Harry knew he was bullying them. A master martial artist that could perfectly control their Chi was ten times stronger and faster than a normal human. A Grandmaster Martial Artist could move twenty times faster. Harry''s AGI and STR stats at level 245 were both at 330, meaning his base speed and strength was 33 times faster and stronger than a normal human. And that was without the Immortal Dragon Chi.


    Within seven seconds Harry had killed or disabled all twelve and was rushing towards those who were further away. Two of them escaped as they didn''t have enough Chi for Harry to easily detect unlike these masters.


    Once everything was settled, Harry left out the back and vanished into another warehouse. Once he was sure he was no longer being monitored, he teleported to a safe location and used the Time Turner to go back two hours.


    Harry was partially surprised that the Quest had not completed yet, but he knew that he was only part way done. There were three checks next to the first three listed items, but Fool Witnesses needed an extra step to complete.


    The fire in his stomach had been satiated. This time was just a warning. If the Hand didn''t want to be reduced to the Finger, they would think twice before messing with Harry again.


    Once the time matched, Harry teleported back to his University office and left the normal way. He walked down the hall, down the stairs and out the door before crossing the street and entering his own house. He walked up to Jade''s room and knocked. A moment later she opened the door and Jade wrapped Harry in her arms and started crying. She had put on a brave face earlier, but once she was safe, she had been able to let it out.


    Harry walked her over to her bed and sat at the edge while holding Jade to him. He didn''t ask what happened. He''d gotten the answer from the men who''d taken her. They staged a knife mugging in an alley along the way from Jade''s walk to school and Jade being Jade ran in to help. The alley was then closed off from witnesses from both ends and ninjas of all things swarmed out from the alley doors and fire escape windows. They had a tool which could detect Shendu''s Talismans and could tell Jade didn''t have any and though Jade was much stronger than an ordinary expert due to the chi which leaked out of her, she could still be brought down with human wave tactics and was eventually knocked out.


    Harry pulled out a cup and said, "This is called a Draft of Dreamless sleep. Take it. I need to finish sending a message to the Hand."


    Jade sniffed and wiped away some tears before saying, "You don''t have to. Please."


    "I''ll be fine Jade. They only touched you because they had no idea who they were messing with. After today, that will not be the case." He handed her the cup and said, "I''ll be here when you wake."


    Jade nodded and drank the potion. Harry tucked her in and took out a heavy duty metal suitcase from his inventory and tossed the Horse Talisman copy inside before closing it.


    Harry left his house from the front door and called a cab to drive him to a location near the meeting point. He was aware that at this point, those monitoring him had probably figured out something had happened. They no doubt had monitored Jade''s school and her not showing up would be a red flag. Harry returning home in the middle of the day and heading out with a briefcase in a cab to the warehouse district was likely to catch a few eyes.


    After about fifteen minutes of New York Traffic Harry got out of the cab and walked the rest of the way. He left early and took a cab of all things so if whoever was monitoring him didn''t beat him there, then they weren''t going to be worth his time when they finally approached him in the future.


    Thankfully his technopathy could sense a large band of monitoring equipment once he arrived. A good show needed an audience after all.


    Three well trained men in combat attire walked over to Harry. One of them said, "Mr. Potter. Please follow me." Harry didn''t bother the small talk. He already knew how this show would end and had nothing to say to these extras.


    Harry was escorted to the warehouse for the meeting from the entrance and once again, Harry saw the old man and twelve experts behind him. A young man walked over from the side of the warehouse with a stone object in his hand that had four dragon heads on it. He pointed it at Harry''s suitcase and the dragon head facing it glowed yellow. Harry did his best not to smirk. His copy''s dragon chi would not last long but it still fooled the artifact.


    Harry said, "Where is Jade?"


    The old man said, "You should be more respectful to the elderly."


    From what Harry knew, the five fingers of the Hand didn''t look that old so this old man was not one of them, just another extra. Harry had no reason to be respectful to him.


    Thankfully this was to Harry''s advantage. The man had some mental protections built using ancient practices but those meant little to someone who could use Legilimency and Telepathy.


    From what Harry learned, these guys worked with Shendu for quite a while. Jade told stories of her adventures when she was twelve with her uncles and the Dark Hand, but it turned out that the Dark Hand was simply the Advanced Weaponry division of the Hand itself. That''s why they had advanced tech. Too bad they were terrible are using them and lost to Jackie Chan who fought back with windshield wipers.


    This old man did not know what the leaders of the Hand wanted with Shendu, but he knew that they wanted to use Jade to exchange for Shendu and the Talismans. Jade nabbed the Talismans, but Shendu himself was locked away in a laser vault deep within the secret Spy Base of Section 13, the organized crime division of Shield, the guys Harry was 99% sure were monitoring him right now from two blocks down after following him here.


    Harry didn''t want the old guy to spill the beans on the Talismans with anyone watching so he threw the suitcase to the guy with the detection artifact and said, "I''m not going to ask you again. Trying to open the suitcase without the correct code will destroy the contents." The man who grabbed the case confirmed again with the tool that the talisman signature was within. Of course it couldn''t tell the difference between twelve, one, or one fake talisman. He received a nod from the old man and ran off.


    The old man said, "You are not in control of the situation here Mr. Potter."


    Harry said, "Since it seems I''m going to be teaching you a lesson, you should call me Professor Potter. It doesn''t matter how old the Hand is. It doesn''t matter how many resources the Hand controls. How many people you have at your beck and call, how many years of training your minions possess, how many lives you''ve taken, all of it is meaningless because to me, you are weak. Those who hide in the shadows can never reach the strength of those who stand in the light. You never should have touched that which belongs to me so I''ll give you one last chance. Give me Jade, and I''ll give you the code to open the suitcase and let you go. Otherwise, I''ll show you what real strength is."


    The men behind the old man subtly adjusted their position for a fighting stance. The man held up a hand and said, "Very well. You have done as asked and she will be released. She is not here now but is on her way back home. I will call her and she will tell you this."


    The man pulled out a phone and dialed a number before putting the phone on speaker. "Hello and welcome to Good Burger home of the Good Burger can I take your order?"


    He immediately hung up.


    Harry flatly asked, "Wrong number?"


    He called again, this time it was Jade''s voice, "Harry? It''s a trap!"


    The old man frowned as the line went dead. He looked up with a sneer and said, "You will give us the code to open the suitcase or we will make you experience pain."


    Harry faced them down and said, "You seem rather confident you can take care of me without any problem because I''m not a mutant and I didn''t come here armed. Well sorry to inform you, but I have a power greater than anything you can imagine."


    "Oh? And what is that?"


    "I''m rich."


    "Hmp. You cannot threaten us with money."


    "I don''t make threats. Money makes the world go round and with enough of it, I can make anything happen."


    Harry pointed at the old man and said, "Kill him."


    The roof caved in as a golden lightning clad figure in a demon mask dropped down from the ceiling and landed with a superhero pose on ground. Harry cast a light notice-me-not on himself and casually turned around and walked away.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Enter the Dragon


    Reward: Dragon''s Tear.]


    Harry felt the new item appear in his inventory. It wasn''t actually a bottle of tears, but a gemstone with an unusual aura that gave Harry some ideas.


    Without any fanfare Harry walked out of the warehouse district and got another cab he used to get home.


    On the way Harry texted the details of the situation to Jean and the girls. Although Jean was a powerful telepath and could find someone spying on her through a telescope several blocks away, finding someone watching her through a web camera was nearly impossible without luck so there was little they could have done. Not that there was much to do. Harry had Jade healed and home less than a minute after hanging up with the kidnapper.


    Two hours later Jade woke up well rested. Harry, Jean, Wanda, and Rogue were all in her room, sitting on her bed.


    Jade eventually asked, "So who were those ninjas?"


    Harry answered, "The Dark Hand is apparently a sub-branch of theirs''. They wanted to use you as ransom to get Jackie to get Shendu out."


    "What do they want with ol'' dragon face?"


    "Information probably. An immortal demon sorcerer probably has a lot of information they need. Ancient Techniques, lost artifacts, hidden burial grounds. That sort of thing would have been common knowledge a long time ago but is invaluable now. They probably had a decent working relationship with him for a long time until he met the Chans and got locked up."


    "But doesn''t that mean Uncle Jackie is in danger?!"


    Harry gave her a humorous look, "Your uncle is pretty strong and from what I could tell had some uncommon luck. I highly doubt you''ll have to worry about him."


    Jade considered it and said, "That''s true." After another few moments of thought, Jade nodded to herself and said, "Alright. I''ve decided. I want to stay here and keep training my Chi."


    Harry said, "Are you sure?"


    Jade smiled, "Absolutely. And it''s not just the dragon chi and not just you. I''ve never had real friends who cared about me. I''ve only been here a little over a month but this feels more like home than San Francisco ever did. I like my school, I like my friends. I love this house and. I love you too."


    Jean leaned all the way over the bed and embraced her in a tight hug, "Welcome to the family!"


    Rogue asked, "Do you want some time alone?"


    Wanda gave a knowing smile.


    Jade shook her head, "No way, he has to at least take me out on a few dates first."


    "Is that right? Are you doing anything this weekend?"


    "No. Why are you asking?" she asked mischievously.


    "Well, I''d like to ask you if you would, say, like to unlock your chi?"


    "I''d love t-, wait. What? What about my chi?"


    Harry smirked. It was going to be a good week.


    *Author''s note*


    In case you''re wondering about the gore, I don''t really consider Harry human.


    Normal humans wouldn''t consider ways to more effectively burn down entire planets in order to get their lovers to come home early from work.


    Normal humans don''t understand Death.


    Normal humans don''t have a Yin and Yang half that agree with each other with each other without arguing.


    Harry doesn''t feel hatred. He feels anger and will take action as his anger dictates, but once the action has been taken, he no longer feels it. If he met any of the survivors from his massacre, he wouldn''t have any negative feelings for them unless they did something else to anger him. His Gamer''s mind only suppresses strong emotions from affecting his mind and judgement but Harry learned long ago that allowing his emotions to affect him when he has them prevents them from affecting him in the future if he bottles them up. Thanks to that, Harry is the exact opposite of repressed.


    Anyways, I''ll try for another chapter tomorrow.

 Chapter 60 - 60 The High End Ritual

    The next three days passed quickly though Harry kept himself very busy. Besides teaching his classes and making breakfast and dinner, Harry spent most of his time in the basement preparing a large ritual formation.


    Between tasks he did take a look into the fallout of his minor little rampage. The Hand ceased all activities within the area around where Harry lived meaning unless he went looking for them they were not likely to meet again. Two more surveillance teams seemed permanently situated around Harry''s home and Harry had gotten several requests for students to transfer into his class which Harry politely declined under the reason it was too late into the semester. He wondered how many spies would apply for his class next semester and if he should allow any of them. They would certainly be more fun to prank.


    The last Foundations of Metaphysics Class had Harry introduce the next Project.


    "Alright everyone, the last Project was about learning to use different materials and energy in different ways. The next Project is about performing complex tasks in unsuitable environments."


    Harry brought up a slideshow of several high powered magnets with their magnetic fields outlines. He then walked over to the door in the back of the classroom that lead to the storage space and brought out a three foot tall, fully articulate, wooden puppet with string joints


    "The next project will be to take one of these guys and modify it in a way that will allow it to walk a distance of twenty feet through a field of overlapping high powered electromagnets. The parameters are as follows. The puppet must be used as a base. The total weight added to the puppet cannot exceed ten pounds and no forms of adding lift, such as balloons, may be used. The means of movement must be alternative steps without movement between steps. So no roller blades or the like. And finally, the walking must be autonomous. No remote controls."


    Some of the students began to think on how to accomplish this but the brighter students shared the same frown. This was actually more difficult than the light saber. The magnetic field basically meant they had to either use little to no metal or shield an unstable walking frame from being affected by irregular magnetic fields whose placement would not be divulged before the test.


    Doom gave Reed another challenging side glare but the latter ignored it. Harry figured they would not build a prototype this time because they would be too busy with the voyage into space at the end of the month.


    This month''s course materials would be showing how different materials reacted to and ignored different energy fields so reading ahead would in fact give some hints on the project itself. The reason for the projects to be introduced like that was so that the class would have a practical scenario to apply their knowledge gained from the course material to which would ensure they retained the information better than just reading from the lines of the book.


    Saturday finally came and Jade had been let into a number of secrets of the Potter House. Unsurprisingly her first request was, "I want to be a Video Game Character too!"


    "I can fit it into the ritual but you do know that is painful right?"


    Jade nodded firmly, "Jean showed me so I am well aware."


    Harry accepted that easily enough. A telepath of Jean''s caliber could share memories and senses so she could allow Jade to feel what she felt during the Gamer Conversion. If Jade knew what she was getting into, Harry wouldn''t complain.


    "Alright, everything is ready. Jade, please get the Talismans, we''re going to use them in the ritual."


    "Really? Are you going to fuse them into me and permanently give all their powers!?" She asked with excitement.


    Harry answered, "Not exactly. I recently got something I can use to scrub Shendu''s demon taint off the Talismans and change them into something else. As for fusing it into you, would you actually want that?"


    "Yes!" She excitedly answered.


    That wasn''t Harry''s original intention. Harry went over the details of the ritual with Jade. Once finished, she would be free of any influence from her past lives and Dragon Chi but could use it when she wanted to. Fusing with it meant she would be influenced anyways. Jade easily agreed. All power comes with a price but this wasn''t a price she had any problem paying.


    Harry considered it and said, "Alright, I''ll need another thirty minutes though." Unfortunately for Jade it wouldn''t work like she was imagining. Despite her Chi, Jade''s flesh was human, so she could not be like Shendu and have the power of the Talismans at all times. Still, at least there was no chance of her losing or having them stolen this way.


    Harry already enlisted Wanda and Jean into ?ssisting with the ritual. Wanda would ?ssist with the magical side and Jean would ?ssist with the mental side.


    Earlier, Harry had told Jade there were three ways to unlock her chi. He initially suggested the first two ways but now they were actually going to use the third, using Magic to open the door. Doing so earlier would have had a lot of negative consequences but it seemed the Living Tribunal was looking out for him. The reward for the Quest was the Dragon''s Tear. From what Harry discovered, it could purify and strengthen Dragon Chi. This opened up an entire realm of possibilities and Harry had remained paused for quite a while to calculate them all and determine the best one.


    Once everything had been adjusted, Harry checked over the formation for the umpteenth time. This was perhaps the most complex formation he''d ever laid, even more so than the Block Transfer Computation arrangement he''d goofed on which sent him back in time. There was no limit on being careful in this as a single mistake would be very costly. Not irreversible, but costly nonetheless.


    The formation itself was inscribed using ingredients and potions and the inscription itself had to be laid by hand. Each symbol and line had to be written with Intent so a computer could not have done it. That was the reason it took a few days to set up in the first place. Most of the lines looked blood red and once finished, the formation gave off a pulsing glow like that of a heartbeat and would give those who looked at it a sense of an ancient sleeping power.


    "Alright girls and girls, it''s showtime." Harry and Jade sat in the center of the ritual formation and Wanda sat behind Harry while Jean sat behind Jade. Rogue had a number of tools which monitored everything and would be the first to know if anything went wrong.


    Jade looked over her shoulder to Harry who had his hand placed on her back and gave him a confident smile before she turned forward and closed her eyes.


    Harry felt everything was set so he took in a deep breath and with a focused exhale he channeled his Immortal Dragon Chi into the formation beneath him. The countless red lines and shapes started glowing brightly and began to shift over the floor. Harry felt the energies cleanly lock onto Jade began to pull. Jade endured it and with a flash of red lightning, a massive door appeared over the sitting Jade.


    Wanda knew this was her que so she injected her own chaos magic into the formation which caused it to change from bright red to dark red. Chaos allowed the rules the world worked by to be broken.


    The twelve talismans set around the formation started floating into the air along with a crystal tear. Harry channeled even more Chi into the formation which caused dozens of bolts of red and gold lightning to strike the tear. In an instant the tear shattered and changed into crystal clear liquid that gushed out and flowed over the twelve talismans. More and more bolts of Dragon Chi and Chaos magic shot into the dragon tears as it swallowed the twelve stones which started dissolving into the liquid. In only a few breaths of time, the stones vanished into the liquid like sugar cubes into water.


    So far so good. It was Jean''s turn next. Phoenix flames arose from her and entered into the formation lines. Wisps of flowing light rose from the floor and started shifting and spiraling around Harry and Jade.


    The Door floating above started changing to a red color as if it were heating up.


    This wasn''t a Chi magic formation or a Sorcerer Formation. This was an artifact formation. Harry had been focused on Artifact creation since Hogwarts and he''d come a long way since then. Rather than violently break or open the Door, he was going to refine it into an artifact.


    Jean''s flames weren''t just metaphorically heating up the door. She was also dealing with the remnant memories of the previous reincarnations. She wasn''t going to erase them though, her role in this was to ensure they did not overly affect Jade when she had access to her Chi.


    When the timing was right Harry moved the Dragon Tears to directly engulf the door. Now was the hard part.


    Harry released every bit of Dragon Chi he had at once into the Door. The Door shattered and the entire formation shined with blinding red light. If one was able to see within they could see black streams of lights being ejected from the remnants of the broken Door which had its pieces fused together from the pressure of the formation. The Dragon tears washed through the whole of Jade''s one thousand lifetimes of Chi and removed the demon taint while strengthening the Dragon aspect. The fragments of the door took a new form and were quenched by the Dragon tears which evaporated at the moment all its essence had been used up.


    When the light fades, a palm sized red gem in the shape of a heart gripped in a golden dragon''s claw was revealed.


    *Ping*


    [Crafting Path has risen to Rank 31]


    [Dragon Path has risen to Rank 21]


    [Magic Path has risen to Rank 45]


    Harry inwardly sighed with relief. It had gone as well as he could have hoped for. "Good work. Now for the fusion."


    The Dragon Heart started floating down and the moment it touched Jade''s forehead, Harry started injecting his Obscurus Particles into Jade. The Dragon Heart sunk into Jade''s forehead as her body was gripped with pain.


    Harry''s level had reached 252 after defeating Apocalypse and it only dropped two levels to fully convert Jade while ?ssimilating her artifact into her powers.


    The original intent of the formation was to separate Jade''s chi and let her use it as an artifact. That would prevent her from being too affected by it. But Jade didn''t seem to mind becoming a Dragon and didn''t want her One Ring to get stolen. Harry would have made sure that could not have happened of course, but nothing is impossible so he allowed it.


    [New Players Added


    New Player Added: Jade Chan Level 29. Age 16


    Anna Marie. Level 112 Age 16


    Wanda Maximoff. Level 112 Age 16


    Jean Grey. Level 112 Age 16]


    Harry looked over their levels and stats along with the new addition. Jade was actually a very high level for her age which Harry attributed to the training she''d undergone since she was twelve and the numerous ordeals and adventures she''d gone through.


    Although they didn''t match his own stats, when they worked together they could still give him a workout.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 250 Age 16


    INT 545 WIS 535


    LUK 30


    Warrior Path Rank 31


    Scholar Path Rank 47


    Magic Path Rank 45


    Tech Path Rank 37


    Business Path Rank 33


    Crafting Path Rank 31


    Dragon Path Rank 21


    Sex Path Rank 12]


    That last one always made Harry feel awkward and wonder if the speed it had risen since he got it two months ago meant he was a pervert.


    After talking a few breaths to calm herself, Jade asked, "Why don''t I feel any different?"


    Harry answered, "The knowledge from your past lives have been stored in your subconscious thanks to Jean. The power of the Talismans are no longer what they used to be after turning into the Dragon Heart. Most importantly, they cannot be used unless under a specific circumstance."


    "What? How do I use them?" she asked impatiently.


    "Simple. You can only use them with Noble intentions. This is the difference between a True Dragon and a Demon Dragon."


    "What?! You mean I can''t fly to school, defeat Flash Thompson in an arm wrestling contest, or use heat vision to warm up the school''s cold pizza?!"


    Wanda, Rogue, and Jean all burst into laughter at her ''outrage.''


    Harry chuckled and said, "No. But when you act with a Noble Heart, not only can you use what powers you do have, but you can also use the experience of your past lives to use your Chi. At the moment, although you do have access to your chi, you''ll need to learn to control it from scratch.


    Jade slumped over as if depressed. She knew there was no free lunch of course but a girl can dream!''


    Harry patted her head and opened his inventory to take out a massive tome. He said, "Recognize this?"


    Jade turned and looked at the Upanishads which originally gave her a headache. She thought Harry was teasing her again when he brought it out so she only glanced at it. A moment later she performed an excellent double take and stared, wide eyed at the tome. "I can understand it!"


    Jean said, "As long as you put some effort into studying, you can easily re-learn everything you learned in your past lives."


    Harry added, "And now that your Chi is unlocked, we can start learning Chi Magic. I''ll even throw in some Sorcery lessons if you keep your grades up."


    Jade was actually ignoring him and flipping through the pages with bright eyes and a wide smile.


    Harry was pleased with the success. Although Jade was far behind the others in level, once she trained to awaken her Noble Heart at will, she would be able to take part in the same Battle Meditation sessions as the girls and catch up in level.


    Harry''s own levels however have been much harder to increase lately. The only source of energy above level 250 near him was Goose''s Flerken Pocket Dimension Energy. Besides the fact that everything he faced looked worse than what he saw in Chthon''s realm, it also drained Goose which neither were pleased with.


    Harry could use Astral Projection and go to other realms and enable Battle Meditation there, but he''d found that using high level energy to create monsters for him to face and absorb above level 230 quickly got the attention of those in the realm and he was no longer welcomed in many a ethereal dimension. That left Harry to use Dimensional Energy but that still maxed out at level 200. Because of this, Harry had been spending less time increasing his own level and more time using Battle Meditation to increase the girl''s level. He didn''t mind this as it would keep them safe, but Harry was getting concerned with how long it would take him to get to level 300


    Once Harry reached 300, he could fight against beings composed of Time Energy and absorb it when he beat them. Technically, Harry didn''t need to wait and could initiate Battle Meditation using Time energy at any level. But even recently when he tried, the creature that spawned killed him without effort, ending the Battle Meditation and causing him some painful harm.


    Time creatures could use time while fighting. They could stop time and attack a Frozen Harry, they could slow Harry down, or they could skip forward in time and move like teleportation, allowing them to attack from different positions in rapid succession with no ability to block, retaliate, retreat, or do anything except serve as a punching bag.


    The only way to beat Time monsters was to become strong enough to resist time effects, use time magic to counter time effects, or create a magic defense against time effects. The first one would likely occur if Harry reached level 300 but every attempt he''d tried at the other two failed which Harry didn''t think was fair. His Magic stats had already risen to the point where most magic had little to no effect on him and even Time Magic didn''t work. But creatures composed of Time Energy didn''t use magic, they directly manipulated time and Harry''s magic defense could not resist it at the moment.


    Harry was hoping to find another source of energy and already had a few things in mind, but much of it would require luck.


    Harry did a few tests on Jade and confirmed everything went as well as they could have hoped and both went to their respective bathrooms to clean up. Harry still intended to take her out on a proper date after all.


    Jade of course insisted on a second date afterwards and Harry took her out on Sunday as well. That night Jade requested Harry give her a proper massage and the results surprised no one.


    *Ping*


    [Sex Path has risen to Rank 13]


    The following breakfast Jean, Wanda and Rogue spent the morning giving Jade knowing grins. Before Jade left for school, Jean shouted, "You do know that Felicia and probably MJ is going to take one look at you and recognize that look on your face right? Good luck hiding it."


    The look of horror on Jade''s face when she realized she''d never be able to convincingly hide it from those two made everyone at the breakfast table break out into fits of giggles and laughter.


    After his Energy Physics Class that day Harry got an invite to Curt Conner''s University Lab. Over the last several years the man had gotten a large number of grants and his equipment looked impressive even to Harry who was used to working with systems he''d built himself or something Forge had made.


    When Harry entered Kurt was at his computer and looked over, "Professor Potter! Glad you could make it." He got up and walked over to shake Harry''s hand. Curt himself only had a single arm with the left sleeve of his lab coat being folded and sewn up so it did not get in the way.


    "Not a problem Professor Conners."


    "Please, call me Curt."


    "Only if you call me Harry."


    Curt laughed at that and said, "There''s something I wanted you to have a look at. It heard you studied under Dr. McCoy and wanted to know if you had an opinion on this." Curt had walked Harry over to a large monitor which had some molecular structures and chemical equations.


    Harry asked, "Recombinative genes? That''s what you''re working on?" Harry had seen all the mutant experimentation of the Weapon X Program and Sinister''s servers so he could easily recognize the proteins used to facilitate the splicing of genes.


    "Hah, you''re right! You see, I was working on this new technique to remove the protein inhibitors present in the cell."


    Harry nodded, "To prevent the rejection of the foreign RNA. What are you using to cultivate the proteins? These have no shelf life to speak of and there is no way they can last long enough to any real procedure."


    Rather than be depressed that Harry had easily spotted the issue, Curt was excited. There was only so much talking to yourself you could do without going crazy and there was no one else in the University that he could bounce ideas off. Curt took Harry to the synthesizer in the back and Harry pulled up and commented on some of the inefficient settings. The fact that Harry knew his way around the equipment made Curt even more excited.


    Curt didn''t show Harry what he was working on directly but Harry could tell he was trying to graft advantages of other members of the animal kingdom into humans. Looking at Curt''s missing arm, it didn''t take a genius to understand Curt''s aim.


    While chatting about things that would render lesser minds unconscious, Curt and Harry also discussed mundane things and life in the city.


    Curt said, "I''ve heard good things about the three women who enrolled on your recommendation. It''s a shame I don''t have any in my classes."


    Harry nodded, "They all know what they want to do in life and are happy with their choices."


    Jean had been taking physics classes and was looking for a degree in Astrophysics and Metaphysics. She''d taken Harry''s advice and learned about the nature of the universe. Being the Avatar of the Phoenix Force gave her an intuitive understanding of the nature of reality and the classes helped her put that intuition into words and thoughts, allowing her a better understanding of her power and her place in the universe.


    Rogue was actually taking psychology courses and wanted to become a Psychologist. The nature of her power allowed her to more easily walk a mile in someone else''s shoe than anyone else and she could empathize with others better than any telepath.


    Wanda was getting an art degree. She had spent a lot of free time during her hundred year therapy painting and had become an outstanding artist. All of the artwork in Harry''s house was painted by Wanda and she wanted to become a professional Artist.


    Harry came home the following day to another of Jade''s study sessions. Once Harry walked through the door, MJ, Felicia, and Gwen all looked over and after a moment shared a blush.


    Harry chuckled and asked, "Is that the famous Peter I''ve heard so much about?"


    The study sessions had been a biweekly thing for the past month, especially when they first tasted Harry''s cooking and got permission from the parents to stay for dinner when their parents didn''t need them home. This however was the first time the legendary Peter Parker had shown up.


    The fourteen year old teen looked up from his book apparently only now noticing that Harry was back and was talking to him, "Huh? Oh! Professor Potter! I''m-"


    Harry held up a hand and said, "If you''re not my student then there is no need to call me Professor Potter in my house."


    "Oh, right sorry Mr. Potter I-"


    Harry looked over at the smiling MJ and asked, "Is he always like this?"


    The redheaded childhood friend answered, "No, he''s particularly bad at the moment. I think he''s seen all of your video lectures which is impressive as I don''t think there is enough time in the day for that but he somehow pulled it off."


    Harry shook his head and looked over at Gwen and said, "See if you can help him. The only guy friends I have in New York since moving are twice my age or my students and none of them ever come to my house. If you can get him to hold a conversation without stuttering, that''d be great."


    Felicia asked, "Oh great and wise Professor Potter, how do you suggest we get our adorable littler Peter to man up?"


    Harry gave a deep pensive look as if he was deliberating a matter of extreme importance and then nodded to himself. He looked over and said, "You should practice making out with him in public places. That would do it."


    "WHAT?!" He shouted so loud the neighbors would have heard were it not for the soundproof walls.


    All the girls laughed which caused Peter to try to sink into his own chair.


    Harry left the hormonally deranged teenagers to their studying and went to the kitchen to decide what to make. His crafting Path''s recent increase also had an effect on his cooking and though Harry doubted he was the best chef in the city, he felt he should be within the top ten or twenty.


    The following week Harry was once again teaching his Metaphysics class. The door opened and a five foot tall grey skinned alien with a large head and silver space suit looked inside. The alien''s black eyes were somewhat badly hidden by the comically large sunglasses it wore and it seemed to be wearing a school backpack. After peeking inside, it entered the classroom and walked through the rows to sit in the empty seat behind Reed Richards. Everyone was staring at it of course except for Harry who was still lecturing as if an alien had not just walked in the room.


    Seemingly aware of the stares, the alien opened its backpack and took out a textbook sized book containing alien symbols and placed it on his desk to mimic the earthlings who had books on their desks. To complete its disguise, the alien pulled out a hat and placed it on its head. The hat read on the front, ''I Heart NY.''


    The alien then bent its head down and minded its own business.


    Less than a minute later, four bulky men in black suits with black sunglasses entered the classroom. Each one had a shiny silver, advanced looking weapon in their hands. Harry actually turned around and asked, "Can I help you gentlemen?"


    One of them walked up to Harry and showed him a badge while the others looked around the class. The alien put its head down and everyone else in class kept staring back and forth between the alien and the Men in Black suits.


    One of the men pulled out a device which started beeping. He walked around a bit and stopped in front of Reed Richards'' desk. The device pointed forward and the man pointed at Reed and said, "Alien detected."


    One of the men pointed his shiny gun at Reed who said, "Wait, what? No!" The other two walked to either side of him and grabbed his arms and lifted him off his seat.


    Susan got up and said, "Wait, you have the wrong person!"


    The one pointing the gun at Reed said, into a mic on his collar, "We have one who might be infected. Copy that."


    He pointed at Susan and said, "Come with us."


    Susan rolled her eyes and collected her things while Reed was dragged out of the classroom. As an after thought Susan also packed up and brought Reed''s things and was escorted out of the room.


    Harry shook his head and said, "To think Reed was an alien."


    Harry then went back to the lecture while everyone just stared with a once more dumbfounded face.


    This prank was of course brought up with Reed and Susan last month when they said they needed to miss some classes. Harry agreed, but only if they went along with the prank because the pair not returning for the next two classes would be like a continuation of the prank and really mess with the other student''s heads.


    It was the following day during a Danger Room workout session that Jade was able to calm her heart and activate the Dragon Heart for the first time.


    The results were not what they had been expecting.


    When the Dragon Heart activated, Jade had transformed. She had grown much taller and looked about twenty five years old. Her clothes had been replaced with a bright red Cheongsam, an oriental tight fitting gown that went down to her ankles but had a break in the fabric giving her room to move unimpeded. The red cheongsam had an embroidered oriental golden dragon rising up her legs, around her waist, and over her shoulder where a golden dragon''s head rested against her shapely bust.


    Jade''s face was also covered by a black silk mask which covered her face up to her nose and hid her features while giving an elegant yet mysterious vibe.


    When Jade first transformed, everyone just stared at her blankly. Unaware of her transformation, she flatly asked, "What?"


    Wanda conjured a mirror in front of her and Jade took a moment to recognize herself.


    "Is that me?" Everyone turned to look at Harry who was smiling.


    Jade asked/demanded, "Explain."


    Harry answered, "If you ever need to use your powers in the open, you''ll need a disguise."


    Jade looked back at her own reflection and asked, "Why''d you make me so s?xy though?"


    Harry smiled, "I just made it so that you would shift to twenty five, the s?xiness is all you."


    Wanda asked, "Besides the disguise, what else can she do like that?"


    Harry listed off, "I was able to incorporate most of the Talisman powers into this form. Bull, Rooster, and Rabbit have given you a massive increase in strength and speed and you can fly, though you can''t use telekinesis. Nothing is truly immortal, but the Dog will make you very hard to actually kill and the Horse lets you use Chi to heal yourself and others."


    "The Dragon, Pig, Rat, and Tiger I''ve actually incorporated into your Chi, allowing you to easily use powerful Chi magics without training. Dragon and Pig let you fire Chi Blasts as a wave or a beam. Rat will let you use Chi to grant life to things and use them in combat. Tiger can be used as a shortcut to directly use Yin and Yang Chi which has frighteningly powerful magic spells. Basically you''re a Yin Yang Dragon Chi Wizard."


    Jade''s eyes were shining by this point and Harry continued, "The form shifting power of the Monkey was what I used to let you change to an ?du?t form and the Snake and Sheep I''ve combined to allow you to become Ethereal. This is rather useful as if you become Ethereal, you cannot be harmed by most things and it will let you fight others who can become Ethereal."


    Jade ran over to hug Harry but immediately shifted back into her sixteen year old self before she could hug him.


    Harry added, "And you must retain a noble heart in that form or you''ll shift back."


    Jade pouted a bit at that but everyone could see a smile at the edge. She was happy.


    Harry was looking forward to training her once she could shift at will as Chi magic had a lot of applications and she''d fit right in with his other girls.


    Jean''s seventeenth birthday came and went but she didn''t want a party or any presents. She still got what she wanted though. It was a very hot and sweaty day and even Jade had been dragged along. Sounds and smells unlike anything they''d ever experienced happened again and again. When it was over, the enormous dinner that everyone helped cook was enjoyed by all as a family. Bonding time was the most important thing to Jean after all and cooking together was a lot of fun.


    In a few days time the Storm Foundation would be launching their rocket into space to check out the Pyramid up there. News Stations had already been notified as it is very difficult to launch a spaceship in secret but they were all informed that the ones going into space would be performing some groundbreaking experiments. One of the reasons Reed and Susan were going instead of some team with more experience was to hold the cover of a research team. That, and Susan''s father was basically paying for this and certainly wanted his daughter to have her chance in space.


    Harry would definitely take the time to watch the mission on TV when it aired.

 Chapter 61 - 61 Advancing Towards the Future

    Nicholas Joseph Fury was not someone who enjoyed playing games and neither did he appreciate it when someone was playing games with him.


    The only thing preventing him from balling up the file on his desk and slamming it in the trash was the glare of his ?ssistant who likely knew what he wanted to do if she took his eyes off him.


    Maria Hill asked with a tiny smirk at the corner of her mouth, "Would you like some coffee?"


    Fury gave her a stern look that would have sent lesser men to their knees but she only stared back with moderate amusement. He said, "No. I would not like some coffee. What I would like is some goddamn intel on what the fu?k we are dealing with."


    The file was a summary of everything they learned from what they called the Hand Massacre which occurred a few days ago. Intel showed that Jade Chan had not made it to school. That Harry Potter left the University and went home in the middle of the day and exited his house with a briefcase before taking a cab to an abandoned warehouse. That the surveillance crew was able to follow him and use a camera and long distance mic to record the conversation he had with the people he went to meet.


    Up to that point, the file had nothing wrong with it. It was what came after that which boiled Fury''s blood. According to the tape, Jade Chan had been kidnapped for some sort of ransom. Harry Potter came and provided the ransom in a security locked case. The Hostage was called, but revealed that she was not safe. Then things stopped making sense.


    Harry ordered someone to kill the one in charge, and someone in a goddamn mask fell through the roof covered in what witnesses described as golden lightning. He then rips the dude''s muthafucking heart out and Harry Potter is filmed casually walking out of the warehouse while the man in the demon mask tears through what appeared to be highly trained martial artists like they were made of tissue paper.


    Harry Potter returns home and leaves one hour later, returning with Jade Chan who returns to school the next day with a note stating she was sick the previous day.


    Authorities later discovered a warehouse filled with corpses which were slaughtered in a manner very similar to the one displayed by the man in the demon mask. One analyst determined that from how the doors were wrenched open, someone had been kept there and rescued after quickly dispatching men who would put Fury''s best agents in a tough position if taken all at once.


    There were two things Fury did not like about the file. The first was what was missing. There were no details as to the identity of the one who destroyed the warehouse and the one who dispatched the leaders. What was irksome was that both seemed to happen at the same time meaning it was either someone very fast or two different people using the same means. Fury didn''t like either possibility.


    The second thing about the file he didn''t like was the brutality of it. With the exception of the one Potter gave instructions to kill, none of the other victims were instantly killed. Instead they were fatally wounded and left to die in an agonizing matter. Fury wasn''t a bleeding heart who gave a damn about what happened to people who kidnapped children, but what he did care about was that such viciousness could only be a message. What Fury didn''t like was that the message obviously wasn''t just for the Hand, the group the victims had been identified to have belonged to.


    It was obvious that Potter knew he was being watched. Potter''s tech promised ownership of the future to whoever controlled it and Potter wasn''t sharing. Fury intended to make contact with the young billionaire soon, but he''d lost his method of approach.


    On paper, Potter was clean. Sure, Fury had a list of Potter''s suspected secrets, but he didn''t have proof of anything good enough to leverage the world''s youngest Professor to play ball.


    That usually wasn''t an issue. Fury just had to use his suspicions of those secrets against him and put some fear into him before promising protection. Those mutant girlfriends of his could act as bodyguards but they were not always around. But Potter just showed everyone watching how the smartest person in the world deals with those kinds of threats. The fact that Potter did so knowing he was being watched was a clear indicator of how well that would turn if Fury tried it.


    What Fury really didn''t like was that this move worked. Potter knew that until someone figured out the identity of the man in the Demon Mask and how to counter him, no one would try to threaten him again. This also meant that Potter was confident no one would find his identity.


    Fury had access to most intelligence networks one way or another, but the file on his desk showed no results in any of them. Fury considered that it might be a Magical. Fury had been the Director of Shield for over ten years and knew of the Hidden Magical World of course.


    In his opinion they were walking bombs which, mostly, kept to themselves. It became an issue when one wandered out of the wards containing their isolated community because most electronics had a substantially reduced shelf life in their presence save the ones who were born without their ability, the ones called Squibs.


    Attempts had been made to work with Magicals throughout history but it never ended well for either side. How could you work with someone who valued nothing you owned and could erase your memory or turn you into a frog and teleport away if you pissed them off? The fact that munitions randomly went off near them because the chemical physics of gunpowder changed into something more volatile in their presence made cooperating after the 20th century even harder. Hitler tried of course, but he tried everything. Most of those he had work with the Magicals either vanished or had their memories erased which was in fact something that contributed to his loss in the war. They only cared about themselves and were dangerous and unpredictable to work with. This was the main reason that governments knew not to work with them and treated them as radioactive.


    Most Governments had ways to detect Magic. There were certain materials which acted as a litmus paper in the presence of Magic and changed color, like a Geiger counter for magic. Their wards were quite adept at preventing magic from leaking so as long as the location was warded, the magic under White Hall wouldn''t harm the tech in the building itself and their shopping centers wouldn''t affect the surrounding areas.


    None of that meant anything however because according to the paper that was stuck under Potter''s desk and recovered, Potter was a Squib. Magic was detected from him but the level was not enough to cast spells or harm electronics. The difference between Potter and other Squibs though was that Potter had figured out how to make magic work with tech.


    Fury still remembered that video which was broadcast on an unencrypted channel in Britain a few years back. He''d had it classified and declared a hoax, but the footage clearly showed an evil wizard leading dozens of others getting played by an eleven year old with toys and fine china. The boy in that video clearly matched Harry Potter, but the video showed him using magic which meant either he wasn''t a squib or what he used wasn''t magic.


    Then some years later he goes and enrolls and Xavier''s Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Fury still found it impressive how few people actually knew what went on in that school.


    So was he a wizard or a mutant squib? Then there was that Mutant Detector on that ''Debate,'' which showed he wasn''t a mutant either and was simply using tech.


    Every little secret Fury could use against him was disproved in public which left threats as the only path and now that road was ruthlessly closed.


    Fury continued to glare at the file on his desk with the hope it would burst into flames at some point but his wish was not to be. The only thing Fury could really hope for while he tried to figure out another way to approach Potter was that the sixteen year old genius wasn''t up to something unspeakably diabolical until then.


    Back in Harry''s study, the sound of his villainous laughter echoed darkly throughout the house at the completion of his latest sinister plot.


    "It is alive, It''s Alive! IT! IS! ALIVE! Ha HaHA hahahaha!"


    Wanda teleported behind Harry and whacked his head with a rolled up newspaper. "Bad Harry! Bad! No diabolical laughter before noon on weekends."


    Harry rubbed the back of his head and smiled awkwardly. Wanda''s teleporting had become finer than threading a needle and Harry didn''t even feel a ripple in space when she appeared, allowing her to sneak up on him.


    Rogue teleported in using Kurt''s power and asked, "Alright, what have you done this time?"


    Harry smiled and activated the newly completed program. A white light formed above the desk and revealed the form of a floating corgi wearing a chef''s hat.


    The corgi moved his legs as if he were swimming and started moving through the air.


    Wanda instinctively grabbed the corgi and held it to her. She said, "It''s warm. It feels real."


    Harry nodded. The Danger Room could simulate heat and cold thanks to the air conditioner jerry rigged into it from an alien spaceship but the house''s Hard-Light constructs didn''t have a temperature.


    "I''ve upgraded the house''s Hard-Light system with targeted microwaves which can heat targeted spaces giving the construct the feeling of warmth. That part was easy. The hard part was programming the details of soft fur, warm bodies, and texture to perfectly duplicate the real thing."


    Wanda was petting it and said, "Ok. Why the hat?"


    Harry snapped his fingers and two more corgis appeared floating in the room. One had a bow tie and the other had a feather duster in its mouth.


    "I was thinking of having a Hard-Light Butler but then I realized that a Hard-Light butler didn''t need to have a human shape. So now we have a Hard-Light Chef, Butler, and Maid, all programmed to do everything required of them and also in the form of flying corgis."


    Wanda and Rogue kinda just gawked at the floating corgis. Rogue seemed to be trying to think of something wrong with this, but she actually couldn''t find anything. Tangible Holograms didn''t need to walk so why not float or fly? They just needed to interact with physical things so they didn''t actually need to look human. Rogue shook her head and said, "It bugs me that a floating corgi butler makes logical sense in this family."


    Harry laughed and pointed at the bowtie wearing corgi. "Our butler is named Twinkie." He pointed at the one in the chef hat who seemed capable of expressing joy at being pet due to the sophistication of the programming, "That one is Little Potato." It did in fact have a browner color scheme that the golden colored Twinkie.


    Harry pointed at the last one floating around with a feather duster in its mouth and said, "You can decide the name of our maid."


    Wanda said, "Fairy. That one''s a girl right? She can be fairy."


    Rogue said, "Fine with me, but why Fairy?"


    Wanda smiled and said, "In folklore corgis were said to be the mounts of fairies. Since she can already fly, then she is a fairy."


    Harry nodded and made some adjustments in the programming. "Sound''s good. Little Potato will be cooking from now on except for special occasions. I''ve had my own cooking session recorded for the last two months and they will be used as reference. The food probably won''t be as good," Little Potato turned his head away from Rogue and barked. Harry smiled and said, "But it should still be delicious and I can use my time for other things now."


    Harry was quite busy these days and even with the Time Turner he was still making breakfast and dinner for five mouths every day and more during Jade''s study groups. Now the Hard-Light system would perform all the tasks needed to make the food and anyone who walked into the kitchen would see those tasks performed by a floating corgi in a chef''s hat.


    He continued, "Twinkie can deliver tea on request and perform small tasks. And Fairy will clean anything that doesn''t already clean itself. You can summon them by calling aloud for them and they will appear and when not working they will behave like common house pets."


    Wanda asked, "Why not an actual corgi for a pet?"


    Harry shook his head and sighed. "Two reasons. First, these won''t require care and don''t need to be walked. Second, I don''t know if Goose would eat an actual dog if I brought one home and it barked at her."


    Harry''s familiar actually had her own room with magically cleaning litter box, water bowl, and multiple types of food. Harry even made a computer and tv Goose could use to entertain herself with which worked using cameras and motion sensors to navigate and change the channel. She was likely the most spoiled cat on the planet but her room also had some paths into Harry''s room and study and she would often climb onto Harry''s ??p and enjoy being pet.


    Harry showed Jade and Jean with the former excited to see the looks on her friend''s faces at the next study session on Tuesday.


    The following Foundations of Metaphysics class was the due date of Harry''s second project. With the exception of Doom''s solo act, every other group which entered only submitted a blueprint while Doom himself actually brought a prototype. Reed and Susan submitted by email a basic blueprint but Harry could tell that they were too busy in other matters to put the same effort into it as their last one.


    During the lecture, an enormous blue circle appeared beneath the class and started glowing. In a flash of blinding light, the walls vanished and were replaced with what looked like a massive throne room of a king with an old man wearing a crown sitting on an ornate throne at the end of the room. The students were still in their chairs and looking around as they appeared to be surrounded by priests and men in strange robes.


    A man who looked more holy than the rest shouted, "Brave Heroes! Please Save us!"


    Since the blackboard was gone, Harry was staring directly at the holy man. He said, "No. Send us back."


    The holy man said, "We cannot, it was a one way summoning. But the Goddess may return you home if you can triumph against the demon king!"


    Harry shook his head and said, "Then tell the Goddess I will help the demon king unless she sends us back right now."


    "What?! No! How dare you!" the holy man angrily shouted at him, his face filled with fury.


    The King had stood up by this point and shouted, "Guards! Seize Him!"


    Harry snapped his fingers and a barrier appeared around the students and Harry. The weapons of the incoming guards bounced off the barrier.


    Harry twisted back but remained facing the king and slowly said, "Ka... Me.. Ha.."


    The pope fellow shouted, "All mortals must fulfill the will of the Goddess!"


    "Me..."


    The old man continued, "Those who defy her must be exterminated!"


    Harry twisted forward with an open palm double handed thrust and shouted back, "HAAA!"


    A blinding beam of light whited out the room and when it cleared away, the holy man in front of Harry, the King, the throne he sat on, and the wall in the back were all gone. A massive crater extended out from the barrier where Harry stood and extended further than the eye could see.


    Harry looked up and said as if speaking to someone, "So, gonna send us back?"


    Another blue circle appeared below the students and with another flash of light, they had returned to the classroom.


    Harry was very glad none of his students were epileptic otherwise he couldn''t do pranks that required flashy lights like this.


    As if nothing important had occurred, Harry returned to his lecture while silently praising himself at the dumbfounded looks on his student''s faces. They probably thought they had gotten used to Harry''s pranks by now but the dropped jaws and frozen faces of disbelief at what had transpired proved that Harry still got them.


    At the end of class Harry took Doom and his prototype wooden puppet down to a testing room. Within was a neatly built inner room with walls of glass and several metal coils coming up from the ground and hung from the ceiling. The glass had been treated to prevent any signal from entering from the outside so the puppet could not be controlled. Inside the glass room was a line on the ground and twenty feet further in was another line.


    "Don''t enter with anything metal or s?ns?t?v? to magnetic fields. Just place your puppet at the starting line and enable it and close the door."


    Doom''s puppet showed that it had been cut open and the exterior was likely just a shell and frame for the hidden inner workings.


    Doom set his puppet on the starting line and pulled something out of it before closing the door. The puppet leaned forward as if it would fall but its leg lifted and stepped forward. With each motion it stepped again and again but a third of the way through the course it fell over causing Doom to frown.


    Harry flipped off the switch for the magnets in the room and entered himself to pull out the puppet. Harry said, "Your use of nonferrous memory metals and endothermic reactive materials to act as muscles is definitely better than the blueprints submitted by your fellow classmates. However the magnetic field was too strong and the extremely weak effect of the magnets on those metals was still enough to overcome the chemical program you built into the puppet."


    Doom didn''t show it but Harry could tell that he was surprised that Harry easily figured out how his puppet worked without taking it apart.


    Harry then walked over to his own puppet on the wall and placed it at the starting line before closing the door. Harry flipped the wall switch to turn back on the magnets and after a few moments, Harry''s puppet actually took a martial arts stance. With another movement it stepped forward and took another stance. The puppet was not only moving through the magnetic field without issue, it was also performing a martial kata while doing so.


    Doom didn''t blink as he watched Harry''s puppet from the other side of the glass. Making a puppet do that wasn''t difficult. But making a puppet do that in such a strong magnetic field under the given restraints was something even Doom didn''t know how to do.


    From the outside Harry said, "I''m glad you won this time. I doubt Reed has enough of a mystical foundation to understand how the puppet works."


    Without batting an eye Doom stated, "You are a Sorcerer."


    Harry confirmed, "Personal student of the Kamar-Taj''s Ancient One from when I was twelve."


    Doom continued, "And Metaphysics is just the science of magical energies."


    Harry smiled and walked back inside the magnet room to pull out his puppet after it had finished the twenty foot kata.


    Once out, Harry pulled apart the puppet''s joints and showed them to Doom.


    After looking at it for a few moments, Doom asked, "What is this crystal?"


    The joints appeared to be connected by a hard crystal but the crystal was unlike anything Doom had seen before.


    Harry turned on the Hard-Light system on his briefcase and showed him the chemical formulas. "This is something I''ve been working on even before I went to Kamar-Taj. Or at least this is something that I created from a project I started when I was eleven. It is basically crystal muscle tissue and doesn''t include any metal at all. It is chemically programmed similar to your setup but the movements of the crystal are far more precise."


    This was actually the result of Harry''s effort in looking up ways to make a better broomstick. Current broomsticks absorbed a solution into the grains which hardened into a three dimensional crystal matrix which held the spells the broom used to change ambient wizard magic into flight. Harry''s first target was to figure out everything he could about the solution which turned into the crystal matrix and eventually he figured out how to make crystal muscles that didn''t even require magic materials to use.


    Harry was still working on a magic version that he could use to plant a crystal seed into something and it would grow a crystal matrix muscle structure under the surface which could be controlled by magic instead of chemical reactions.


    While Doom was looking over the various formulas, Harry said, "The world we live in is defined by its composition. By creating new materials, you can redefine the world."


    Doom said, "Like your Metagems."


    Harry smirked and said, "Metagems are just a red herring. You think they are valuable? Ask me how I make them. I know you want to."


    Doom gave Harry a somewhat cold look. Harry had just blatantly accused Doom of being in his class to steal the secrets of the Metagems and Harry was offering them as bait if he admitted it.


    Not being one to back off, Doom directly asked, "How do you make them then?"


    Harry smiled and answered, "I use sound waves to alter the physical structure of normal gems. Do you know why that information is worthless?"


    Doom''s eyes widened just a bit before narrowing. He understood the implication almost instantly. Even if Harry gathered the world''s greatest minds and showed them all the process of changing a gem into a Metagem, they''d never be able to replicate it if it used sound. That was because using sound to alter something meant there was zero room for error. The valuable intel would not be the machine Harry used to alter the gems, but the program which the machine used to do it correctly. Without that program, the greatest minds would have to figure it out from scratch and it was obvious how confident Harry was that such a thing would take thousands of years if fast and hundreds of years even if all the resources of earth were devoted to it.


    Harry continued, "Metagems are just a distraction. You are older than I am and got your Doctorate before me, but I still consider you my student Dr. Doom and I don''t want you to be distracted. I don''t know what level you are in your Sorcery, but if you need some ?ssistance or have any questions, feel free to ask."


    Doom directly stated, "Then I do have a question, one Sorcerer to another. If you wanted to free a soul from a devil, how would you do it?"


    Harry considered it and asked, "How did the devil acquire the soul and which devil is it?" Harry''s hands then glowed with red mandalas and Harry sealed the space in the room under Doom''s eyes. You don''t speak a devil''s name without them knowing but this spell would hide them as long as the name was only spoken once.


    Doom took a moment to observe the barrier and said, "The soul was exchanged for the promise of power to enact revenge and the one who made the deal... was Mephisto."


    The room glowed bright for a moment as if it would shatter but after a moment dimmed and returned to normal.


    Harry shook his head and said, "Him huh. Relatively speaking there are only three ways. The first is to exchange it for something he wants. I would never recommend this way of course because nothing good can ever come out of a deal with him."


    Harry saw a dim spark of fury in Doom''s eyes and knew that he was thinking of something.


    Harry continued, "The next way would be to use force and take the soul yourself. However this would be, by far the most difficult way. You''d have to separate him from his dimension because if he is connected to it while within it, his power would be unlimited and there is no way to fight someone on his level with tricks."


    "The third way is to use a massive threat. How I would do it is I''d design a massive weapon which could destroy his domain and then I''d make two of them. Without any warning I would use one of them in his realm. Someone of his level should have multiple ways of protecting his realm so it is unlikely it would actually be destroyed. Depending on the damage though, if it is enough, you can threaten to use another of the same weapons and state that until you were given what you wanted, you''d continue using it over and over."


    For the first time since Harry had met Victor Von Doom, the man actually gave a look of surprise. He''d obviously not thought of such a possibility. The problem when dealing with devils was that they could not be threatened or blackmailed in the conventional sense. Harry was beyond conventional logic however and knew far more than most about devils and demons.


    Even a being of Mephisto''s caliber would not give up his domain so easily. And he couldn''t use the soul Doom wanted as leverage as Doom could simply state if it was harmed, Doom would destroy his realm no matter what. This was a strategy that would actually give Doom a position to bargain that was not impossible.


    Of course destroying his realm was not going to be easy, but it was a direction which was something Doom didn''t have before.


    After a few moments Doom said, "Thank you Professor Potter."


    Harry removed the spell on the room and said, "Anytime. Are you gonna watch the launch?"


    Doom didn''t answer and simply took his puppet and left.


    The Storm Foundation had a bunch of cameras in their rocket and many of them would be streaming live. They actually used some equipment brought from Brilliance Inc. to deliver the signal which allowed various news groups to televise the launch which was something that had never been done before.


    Thankfully Harry didn''t have any classes during the launch and sat in the teacher''s lounge with other faculty members watching the countdown on the big screen tv.


    Professor Sterns sat on the same couch and said, "I hope those kids will be alright up there. I''ve had a few of them in my classes in the last few years."


    Harry agreed but wasn''t too worried. Susan sent him an email that his modifications had been given to the design team and though expensive, she''d been informed they had been implemented. With that anything short of a coronal mass ejection shouldn''t affect their ship.


    The countdown finished and the rocket launched into space to the cheers of the faculty room.


    Most of the news segments were discussions by experts on the nature of the pyramid that was in orbit. News clips of the pyramid shooting into space a few months ago and some videos of the purple sky were sporadically aired as many around the world waited and wondered if this mission would give any answers.


    The rocket eventually parked itself in geosynchronous orbit near the pyramid and the camera showed the world a clear look at it along with a clear look at the hole in the side and obvious damage it had taken.


    Harry lightly reminiscent back to his wedding day. There were a lot of regrets about it being moderately ruined by Apocalypse and the ceremony failing. Because of the type of ceremony held, there was no way to use time travel to go backwards and get the timing right. If Harry took Jean back a few hours and tried to do the ceremony, the seal on Jean would resonate with her past self which had been battling Xavier and be placed on both at the same time creating a paradox. Sealing a cosmic entity didn''t allow cheating and trying that would have certainly killed them all from the backlash. Creating the portal he used to head to space and destroy the inner workings of the pyramid also unseal the space on the island which allowed Sinister to run off in the alien spaceship, but at the time Harry couldn''t care less about the man and had no other choice.


    Once in position, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm got in some spacesuits and headed out into space to check the pyramid. On live tv they flew through the vacuum of space and approached the massive hole Harry dug out of the ship and entered the depths. Even inside the pyramid in outer space, the cameras still provided an excellent picture.


    Experts on TV started debating the Egyptian symbolism while Ben and Johnny started setting up equipment.


    About thirty minutes later alarms within the shuttle''s ???kpit started blaring. Susan said on camera, "There''s something coming. Johnny, Ben, get back here on the double."


    Johnny wasn''t the type to argue with his sister and rushed out, but Ben first went to grab the equipment. Reed saw this on camera and shouted, "Leave it Ben! Get back here now!"


    Ben used his suit''s propulsion to quickly leave the pyramid. The fact that Reed had told him not to take back the equipment told him how serious this was.


    The ground team was asking questions and Reed answered, "Some kind of energy storm is going to pass through us at any moment."


    Both Johnny and Ben were rushing back to the shuttle. Harry calculated the timing and determined they''d make it back before the storm hit so they''d be fine.


    As Johnny approached the shuttle''s airlock door, the energy storm passed through the pyramid. What happened next was something no one could have guessed. On live tv, the pyramid exploded with a flash of light of indescribable color. Harry stood up from the couch as the other teachers nearly cried out in shock. Johnny made it inside the airlock but Ben was still outside. The wave of strangely colored energy was gaining on their position but Ben made it inside. Johnny hit the switch to close the door right before the wave of energy hit the ship to everyone''s relief.


    The relief however was short lived as the wave of energy passed unimpeded through the hull of the ship.


    Harry''s breath froze. That wasn''t supposed to happen. This meant either Susan lied to him or someone lied to her. It was easy to figure out which but it didn''t matter in either case. The energy stored on the pyramid was designed to awaken the X-Gene of every human with a dormant X-Gene on the planet and was something not all of them would survive. That energy was then supercharged with Harry''s magic to the point it destroyed the entire system designed to spread the energy over the planet. And that mixture was just hit by a cosmic storm of all things and exploded.


    Yeah.. That wasn''t good...

 Chapter 62 - 62 The Power Cosmic

    The footage from the cameras in the various rooms showed Johnny and Ben collapsing inside the airlock and Susan and Reed getting knocked out. The footage however continued streaming and red lights were showing all over the console. Sparks shot out from the control stick and the shuttle started turning. Moments later, the shuttle started losing altitude and looked like it was about to enter orbit.


    Harry got up from the couch and said, "I need to make a call," and left the lounge.


    The moment Harry was out of sight of any cameras and witnesses, he teleported to the roof and checked the time before using his Time Turner to go back in time three hours.


    There was nothing Harry could do to stop his students from getting exposed to those energy waves, but there were other things Harry needed to do to prevent a different disaster.


    Once he was back in time, Harry equipped some gear that would allow him to comfortably survive space without magic and used a portal to head to the orbiting pyramid.


    Oddly enough, Harry did have something for this situation. Harry took out several hundred crystal spheres and placed them in a stationary position in the space between the pyramid and the earth in a field nearly a mile in diameter. The shuttle had been very close to the pyramid so Harry just had to place them behind where the shuttle would park and the timeline would not be affected.


    Harry then patiently waited and not long afterwards the shuttle showed up and approached from the side while synchronizing its orbit. Harry himself and the spheres were all concealed so they would not be noticed or mentioned on live TV.


    Eventually the cosmic storm showed up and Harry got a good look at it. It was a band of energy that extended up and down further than the eye could ever see but it was only a few hundred meters wide. It just so happened that it would pass through the space with the pyramid and the shuttle before passing to the side of earth. Of course Earth''s magnetic field would protect it from a storm of this magnitude even if it did pass through it but it would not protect those outside the shuttle from getting microwaved to death if exposed.


    Johnny and Ben made it inside and the ship''s natural faraday cage design would protect them from the cosmic radiation, but the wave of energy created from the exploding pyramid was different. It easily passed through the ship and was now on its way to Earth.


    Or not.


    Harry placed the hundreds of spheres outside the area of the cosmic band but in front of the earth. The massive wave of bizarre energy passed through the hundreds of spheres the further into the cloud of spheres it passed, the dimmer the light of the energy wave appeared.


    These were energy collectors, all of the ones Harry possessed. Harry had been looking for a new source of energy to use for Battle Meditation and these could collect energy better than anything else on the planet. He''d been getting kicked out of any realm he''d tried to collect high level energy from so his plan had been to drop the spheres, make a distraction, and hope he could collect them again, basically a robbery. That kind of trick would only work once so he had to make it count and it just so happened that they could be used in this situation perfectly as this energy had no master and was even in the material plane.


    The strength of the wave completely died before it passed through the cloud of spheres. The wave on the outer rim of the sphere cloud was unaffected but the cut part of the wave was in front of the earth meaning the comparatively small cloud of energy absorbing spheres had basically cast a shadow over the earth, shielding the surface from the wave which passed harmlessly around the planet out into the void of space. Thankfully the moon was behind the earth at the time so it too was unaffected.


    The wave itself along with the cosmic storm also passed through Harry of course. The cosmic storm was incredibly powerful, but Harry''s magic defense from his Wisdom Stat allowed him to survive lightning bolts without issues and since Harry was wearing a full set of gear, the effect was too weak to mention. The energy from the pyramid however was strange. It was both powerful and weak at the same time. It was difficult to describe it. If was both a spark and a star, yet more and nothing at all.


    Even if it was an attack, Harry''s body could not internalize and store energy that he had not acquired through combat so the energy had no effect on him. He wouldn''t be able to find out what it was without studying what he collected later.


    Harry took a moment to calculate the trajectory and had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Of course it would crash at several times the speed of sound directly into downtown New York City. Why''d he even bother calculating it? He should obviously just ?ssume everything is heading towards New York in the future.


    Ironically because the cameras were delivering their stream using Metagem quartz, they were not affected by the energy wave so while the ship was careening towards the earth, the camera feeds were still rolling.


    Harry followed the descending ship and tried technopathy to get the ship to engage the autopilot. Unfortunately that seemed fried too. The ship was also descending at the wrong angle and would burn up into a ball of flaming metal before striking the city with enough force to leave nothing standing taller than four feet off the ground.


    Harry''s phone beeped and this time he didn''t bother to stop his eyes from rolling. Since the crew wouldn''t survive the ship''s re-entry regardless, the powers that be just sent a missile to blow it up. This would save New York and Harry couldn''t blame them for making the call.


    Harry obviously wouldn''t let his students die like that, it just depended on how much he wanted to reveal to the world. Since the ???kpit was still streaming live on a feed that the Government couldn''t cut, Harry couldn''t just teleport in, nab them, and teleport out. He needed to fly the shuttle and make it look natural, but the shuttle couldn''t be flown from the inside and Harry wasn''t strong enough to fly it from the outside. Unless he got creative that is.


    Harry charged his cells with dimensional energy and turned himself into a cloud of dust. Ever since he got his Obscurus Perk, he''d had a lot more control over this form. Obscurus particles were also invisible to nonmagicals and with his invisible energy readings there was no camera on earth that could see him.


    Harry flew over to the shuttle and engulfed it. The extreme heat of descent was not something that could easily harm particles made of energy and Harry was able to manually push the shuttle into a properly aligned descent while slowing it down and preventing it from melting and destroying itself.


    Harry saw the missile on its way in the distance but a minute after Harry started correcting the ship''s course, the missile exploded. Harry hadn''t done anything to it yet and he figured that someone noticed the uncontrolled flight had become controlled. Whoever had their finger on the trigger wasn''t going to kill a bunch of college students on live tv unless there was no other option.


    After descending far enough into the atmosphere for the flames over the shuttle to go out, Harry''s obscurus form ripped the panel off the back of the ship and pulled out the parachute causing the shuttle to drastically decelerate. Harry maintained awareness of the inside of the shuttle and noticed that Susan seemed to have come too and was pulling on the control stick on her side to change the wings of the shuttle to decelerate it further. Harry helped and pushed the flaps up as the control system was partially fried. Harry''s presence was actually making the systems worse as his exotic energy was messing with anything that survived the energy wave. He figured it was a small price to pay.


    The shuttle''s path had changed from New York City to the coast off Long Island. The shuttle descended right into the sight of the piers and started skimming across the water as it slowed. Once it touched down, Harry removed himself from the shuttle and reformed his body. If there was a random Magical at the pier he''d be seen so this was as close to New York as he could escort the craft.


    Those at the pier were running out of the way but Harry controlled the descent enough to ensure the craft only reached the shallow depths before coming to a complete halt. Other than some buoys and one unfortunate boat filled with cabbages, there were no other damages caused by the landing.


    Harry continued to maintain invisibility and monitor the crew. Susan had confirmed Reed was unconscious but fine and had used an emergency lever to open up the airlock doors and confirm Ben and Johnny were also alive, though they were decently beaten up as they had descended without seatbelts unlike Susan and Reed. Thankfully they were in their spacesuits which supported their unconscious bodies and prevented something as terrible as their necks snapping from the turbulence of landing.


    Harry confirmed that all four had been contaminated by energy but they were alive. Even if Harry walked over to them now, he actually had no way to remove the energy from their bodies without knowing more about it so he''d reached the limit of what he could do.


    Harry sent a small spell at Susan to make her think that she''d corrected the orbit instead of it happening on its own, but Harry found that the spell had no effect. He wasn''t sure what to make of that and figured it was an effect of the energy. Since there was nothing else he could do, he teleported out and waited until it was one hour and ten seconds from when he''d gone back in time. Harry then used the Time Turner to go back one more hour and teleported back to where he''d left the University from, ten seconds after he left.


    Harry then returned to the staff room after visibly putting his phone away and back to his seat on the couch.


    The news casters were going crazy as the footage showed the shuttle accelerating towards the earth.


    One newscaster stopped speaking and grew somber, "We have reports that the shuttle is going to crash land in New York City! A missile has been launched to intercept!"


    Cries of outrage and fear echoed back and forth in the faculty room. There was a camera on the front of the ship looking forward so there was no good way to hide the missile which would show up on camera in a little bit and because of the nature of the broadcasting equipment the government had no way to interrupt the feed.


    This was the part where Harry intervened. The blinding light from the heat of the shuttle was automatically adjusted by the camera meaning that the orientation of the shuttle slowly changing was noticed by all viewers. A number of experts were making guesses about what had happened but most concluded the ship had an autopilot which had automatically activated. Investigations later would disprove this but Harry doubted those would be released to the public.


    It was a minute later that the missile could be clearly seen from the cameras in the ???kpit''s shuttles and just moments later it exploded on screen. Harry along with the other professors shouted in celebration as new reports were plotting the projected course of the shuttle.


    The deploying of the shuttle''s parachute jostled the ship enough to wake up Susan who looked out the window and shouted, "What the fu?k?!" on live TV. Only the tension in the room prevented Harry from laughing at her use of profanity. The sky out the window was blue showing they''d re-entered the atmosphere while she was unconscious and the land on the horizon was getting closer.


    Susan took a moment to confirm Reed was alive and said to the cameras, "Richards is alive but unconscious, I''m going to try to land the shuttle. All Coms are down and I don''t even know if anyone is receiving this."


    She quickly pressed dozens of bu??ons and was getting more frustrated with each press. Her expression softened with relief a moment later, "The brakes are slow to respond but have been deployed." She continued to look out the window every other moment.


    This was the part where Harry was moving the wings to ?ssist in the breaking of the shuttle. What Harry found odd however was that Susan was not looking at the horizon when she looked out the window, but randomly around the edges of the shuttle at the shuttle''s nose and such. Harry wondered if she was looking at his obscurus form, if she could see it.


    Harry had confirmed years ago that people with a specific saturation of some types of energy in their body could see a Patronus. The Ancient One and those time Travelers for example. All were technically muggles, except the Time Lord, but they could see something muggles shouldn''t be able to because their senses were unbound from saturation of nonstandard energies.


    Susan had not said anything about what she was seeing though, possibly because the camera feed from the exterior of the shuttle didn''t show the same thing and she might have thought she had brain damage. Harry would definitely have to visit her in the hospital and explain a few things to make sure she didn''t think she was going crazy.


    The shuttle splashed down but was still getting closer and closer to the incoming pier. It smashed through an unmanned, parked, shipping boat filled with cabbages which smashed over the windshield but that slowed it down enough to stop right at the edge of the water.


    The teacher''s lounge and everyone in the newsroom on tv shouted in celebration. Harry was actually grabbed by Professor Sterns and hugged and Harry just shook his head and patted the man on the back for a moment before Sterns let him go and jumped off the couch. He was very excitable.


    Susan had immediately gotten off her chair the moment the shuttle stopped and rushed to the back to open the airlock doors. The system didn''t respond so she had to open the panel for a manual override to unlock and pull open the door.


    Johnny and Ben were both still unconscious but Susan released the locks on their helmets and confirmed their status. "Ben and Johnny are both alive. Ben appears covered in bruises and Johnny''s temperature is too high. Please send emergency medical services at once!"


    The cameras showed that the coloration of Ben''s face was off swollen as if he had been viciously beaten up, though the actual color of the bruises were less red than they should be and more orange.


    The live feed finally cut out at that point as the two way communication system in the shuttle was mostly fried so Susan couldn''t receive any messages sent.


    In a small corner of Harry''s mind he wondered if this was good advertisement for Harry''s Metagems as the streaming system was entirely unaffected by the strange energy waves though everything else was. He''d already seen when he tried using magic to fry the Sentinel with a Metagem system that systems which use his gems have a bit more wiggle room when it comes to shielding than other systems which was why the camera and battery connected to the streaming system also survived.


    Many of the faculty cancelled their classes to watch the shuttle so when the broadcast was over, Harry returned home and went into the basement to check out the spheres. Once he set up some safety measures, he pulled one out of his inventory and sat down next to it and enabled Battle Meditation.


    [Dimensional Energy: Recommended level 50~200


    Power Cosmic Energy: Recommended Level 100+


    Time Energy: Recommended level 300~500]


    Due to the shielding on the house itself, the only standard energies within were Time and Space. Dimensional energy was what gave space its space after all.


    Because Harry had placed the spheres outside the range of the electromagnetic band that passed through the area, the spheres didn''t absorb any energy from it meaning they only contained this Power Cosmic Energy which seemed to originate from the explosion.


    Harry wasn''t interested in the energy from that space storm. It looked fancy but it was basically just a concentrated form of electromagnetic energy which would only support Battle Meditation up to level 150 at best. It was enough to kill a normal human, but useless to Harry.


    Cosmic Energy was a rather general term and encompassed most forms of background stellar radiation. However when Harry used Battle Meditation, the proper names of such energies would show such as Electromagnetism, Gamma Radiation, Heat Energy, etc. The fact that this energy was called, ''Power Cosmic Energy,'' meant it was something else entirely.


    Harry tried scanning it with the equipment he usually used for Metaphysics research but the results were inconclusive. The energy was made from the energy Apocalypse was going to use to awaken the X-Gene which had been stored for 5000 years combined with Harry''s Exotic energy combined with the Electromagnetic Energy of the space storm. Yet somehow they had combined into this. As far as Harry knew, combining energies didn''t work like that.


    Deciding to contact someone who knew more than Harry did, Harry equipped some monk robes and made a silver portal to Kamar-Taj.


    One of the benefits of no longer being twelve was that his height matched the other young apprentices so he actually stood out less than usual, though those who knew him still recognized him of course. Harry avoided most of the crowds and made his way over to the Ancient One''s abode and found Master Wong.


    The bald monk gave a curt nod of greeting and said, "I hope you have not brought any bad news this time."


    Harry shook his head, "There was some trouble, but it was handled."


    Wong actually snorted. "Handled, he says. Every alarm in every Sanctum went off at the same time, but moments later they were silenced. The Ancient One is already waiting for you."


    Harry chuckled and followed Wong. The Sanctums defended the earth against mystic threats and the wave of Power Cosmic Energy heading towards the earth likely raised some flags. There are defenses that could have been enabled to protect the earth, but those were costly to set up and the strange wave may have been able to pass through them. Harry''s solution of directly absorbing the energy that should have hit the earth was much simpler.


    Harry found the Ancient One on a cellphone, browsing the internet while waiting for Harry.


    After both took in a sip of tea, the Ancient One said, "Your tea is getting better."


    Harry said, "Perhaps one day I''ll surpass yours."


    "It is good to set high expectations for yourself, however impossible they may be."


    Harry smiled at that and took another sip of tea before he explained everything that happened today.


    At the end of the story the Ancient One said, "Neither the awakening of Apocalypse or this event with your students happened in the timelines I have observed so I do not know what the future holds. It is rather enjoyable, truth be told."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "You just enjoy watching me run around trying to put out all the fires I apparently started."


    Though she didn''t answer, her smile confirmed Harry''s guess.


    Harry took out a sphere of Power Cosmic Energy and placed it on the table.


    The Ancient One didn''t use any form of magic to scan it, she simply looked at it for a moment and said, "Put it back."


    After Harry put the sphere back into his inventory the Ancient One said, "Power Cosmic is not a term I am familiar with, and I have never seen this form of energy before, but I do have some guesses."


    Harry said, "I''ve never felt anything like it either. It feels like everything and nothing. Both life and death, yet neither. There was no level limit on absorbing it during Battle Meditation. Even if it''s just a guess, I''d appreciate anything you can tell me about this."


    Though Harry read everything in the Sanctum, not all knowledge was written down after all. Some things could only be learned through experience.


    The Ancient One nodded and said, "The closest term I would use to describe it would be primordial energy. I''ve never encountered it before, but I''ve heard some theories about it. It is the energy created from the void which sparked and fueled the Big Bang itself. The first energy, the energy that gave birth to all other forms of energy."


    That certainly surprised Harry. Every form of energy was basically just another unit of measurement. You can''t measure heat with a ruler, you can''t measure brightness with a thermometer, you can''t measure time with a magnet, and you can''t measure radiation with a scale. Metaphysics basically introduced a dozen new units of measurement for a dozen new forms of energy. The idea that all forms of energy share the same origin meant that all units of measurement were derived from the same source. This was something that went completely against every form of common sense. It also explained why his systems back home couldn''t measure it. If true, this energy was literally unmeasurable.


    Harry asked, "Do you have any theories on what will happen to my students and their friends? They were completely saturated with this last I checked though their vital signs were stable."


    The Ancient One considered it and said, "Most if not all the energy will likely turn into another form of energy within their bodies. If they survived the ?ssimilation, they should survive the metamorphosis."


    Harry frowned at that, "Anything I can do to prevent it or help?"


    The Ancient One shook her head, "Neither of us are experts in this Power Cosmic thus neither of us know a safe way to remove it. Until you learn more about the energy, anything you attempt is more likely to harm your students. However you must be careful. This is the energy that created the Big Bang. I will be most disappointed with you if you destroy the earth during your research."


    Harry nodded. "I''ll carry out the dangerous experiments in the Mirror Dimension."


    "That guarantees little. If you accidentally destroy the Mirror Dimension it will have untold consequences on this plane as well. In addition, there are beings trapped in the Mirror Dimension who have not died with the passage of time. Should they acquire some of this Power Cosmic from you during your experiments, the consequences will be unimaginable."


    Harry sighed and knew she was right. The Mirror Dimension was not a playground. Several lazy Sorcerers in the past have in fact unwisely tossed certain dangers in the Mirror Dimension and not all of them may have died. There are beings that may not be capable of escaping under their own power, but they can put themselves into a dormant state to await the right opportunity.


    "Alright, then I''ll go the slow and steady route."


    "That would be the wisest choice."


    After finishing their tea and some more small talk Harry bid the Ancient One farewell and returned home.


    Jade had just come over with her study group as Harry walked out of the basement. "Hey guys, you see the news?"


    Jade answered, "You should have seen it Harry! The teachers and students were freaking out!" It seemed they had access to the news during the class. probably living streaming on a cellphone.


    Gwen shook her head and said, "When the news said the shuttle was going to crash into the city, two girls in my class fainted and one boy screamed like a little girl."


    Harry turned to look at Peter who noticed it and put his hands up, "What? No, it wasn''t me! I swear!"


    Felicia laughed and said, "It wasn''t Peter, it was actually our resident quarterback."


    Harry shrugged and said, "Oh yeah, we have some new staff now." Harry turned to face the kitchen and said, "Little Potato, can you make some tea?"


    The three happy barks that came from the kitchen drew everyone''s attention.


    MJ blandly asked, "Was that a dog?"


    Harry answered, "Our new Chef, Little Potato."


    Rather than argue with the bizarre logic, Peter quickly changed the subject, "Um, Prof-" Harry glared at him for a moment causing him to freeze and start over, "Um, Harry? Have you heard if the shuttle''s crew will be okay?"


    Harry shook his head and answered, "I don''t but I''ll be visiting them at the hospital. Honestly I''m surprised I haven''t been called yet since they were exposed to some weird energy and I''m the best available expert on weird energies around."


    Gwen asked, "Best available? So there is someone better than you?"


    Harry answered, "There is always someone better. I studied under a Master for a while and still ask for advice every now and then. I was actually just in contact until a few moments ago and had a discussion on possible identity of the energy which the crew was exposed to."


    Peter asked, "What was it?"


    Harry shrugged, "Something that shouldn''t exist and makes less sense the more you analyze it."


    MJ said, "I heard Harry say the crew would be taken to an Oscorp facility, not a hospital."


    Harry looked over at Ms. Watson who realized what she said and continued, "Different Harry. Norman Osborn''s son, Harry Osborn."


    "Oscorp has them? Crap."


    Gwen asked, "What''s wrong with Oscorp? They are one of the most advanced companies in the world."


    Harry answered, "Compared to other companies at the same level, there is not much wrong with them. The problem is that most companies at that level have a lot wrong with them."


    Felicia asked, "And what''s wrong with your company?"


    Harry looked up as if pondering something and said, "Most of my employees and business partners bring knives to work and if a week goes by without them being used, it''s considered slow."


    Everyone made a strange face at that, even Jade who had not seen Harry''s memories yet and didn''t know about the Goblins.


    Two barks came from the kitchen and Harry said, "Thank you Little Potato. Twinkie, can you bring out the tea?"


    Harry looked over at his guests and said, "Twinkie is our new butler."


    Everyone turned to face the hall leading to the kitchen and moments later, a golden, bowtie wearing corgi waddled out of the hall floating four feet in the air and moved its legs as if swimming as it slowly floated over to the table. In the corgi''s mouth was a large silver tray containing a half dozen cups of steaming tea.


    The floating fuzz ball set the platter on the table and gave out two more happy barks.


    Harry walked over and pet Twinkie saying, "Good boy." With his other hand he got a cup and took a sip.


    Jade said, "Come here Twinkie."


    The golden corgi turned over and ran across the table before sitting in front of Jade who started petting it.


    Felicia was the first to break out of the stupor that came with witnessing such a strange thing and scooted over to pet the corgi too. "Is this real?"


    Harry answered, "It''s another Hard-Light projection."


    "But it''s warm."


    Harry nodded, "Microwaves."


    Peter said, "Cascading modulation? You have targeted wave motion inference built into your Hard-Light system?"


    Harry took another sip of tea and answered, "Yup. The coding was a pain in the bu??."


    "Did you use Correlation System Designs or Triparty Static Analysis?"


    "Triparty Static Analysis is easier with my systems."


    "Right, because of the Feedback hardware. But if you used a Terminal Inference for sub processors, wouldn''t the programming have taken care of itself if you used Correlation System Designs?"


    Harry blinked and took a seat. "Well, now I feel like an idiot for manually programming everything from scratch." Harry might know every computer tool that existed but that didn''t mean he knew the most efficient way to use them all. Peter''s suggestion would have allowed the system to partially program itself through a week of trial and error which would have been a lot easier than the manual programming Harry had to do.


    Gwen said, "Look what you''ve done Peter, you''ve hurt Harry''s feelings."


    Felicia said, "Yeah, he might kick you out and not let you come back anymore."


    "What? No, I mean it''s amazing he could do so much programming manually! I can''t imagine all the effort he must have put into it."


    Gwen said, "Effort you''ve pointed out was a complete waste of time."


    "Wait, no, that''s not what I said! Really!"


    Harry finished his tea and smiled, "It''s fine, I learned a bit while manually coding it so it wasn''t a waste."


    Harry looked over and Peter and said, "It''s your birthday in two weeks right? I''ll get you some socks."


    Felicia asked with a bit of humor, "Socks?"


    Harry nodded, "A good warm set of socks are not something you''ll really appreciate until you have worn a pair. If you''re interested Felicia, I''ll get you a pair for Christmas as well."


    It was New York after all. New York got cold and warm socks were awesome. Though he''d outgrown the pair Dumbledore gifted him years ago, Harry did like them and he sent a pair back to Dumbledore every Christmas.


    Felicia rolled her eyes and asked, "Why''s like the richest guy on the planet gifting socks?"


    Harry shrugged, "The best things in life are rarely gifts, but things you acquire yourself. Rather than give a person something they''d be better off getting themselves, it''s better to get something they''d enjoy but likely wouldn''t get for themselves."


    MJ smiled and said, "Like warm socks."


    "Exactly. Like warm socks."


    Peter looked like he was about to argue but warm socks were not exactly a bad gift so he actually had no reason to refuse.


    One of the reasons Harry liked having Peter over was because the kid was without a doubt, the smartest person Harry had met. Peter didn''t know everything Harry knew, but the soon to be fifteen year old knew and understood a shocking amount of physics, engineering, computer systems, and even biology, genetics, and chemistry. What shocked Harry the most was that Peter didn''t do massive amounts of research. According to Peter, his parents had a lifetime subscription to a lot of science magazines and publications. Many of those actually included published Doctoral Thesis''s and Peter not only read them all, but did the relevant research to fill in the gaps for what he didn''t know and understood it.


    Apparently Peter could have tested right out of high school but according to Gwen and MJ, his guardians wanted him to stay in school and make friends so skipping two years was the best he was allowed to do, and he was only allowed do do that because Gwen had done it too. When Jade and the rest were studying for upcoming tests, Peter was apparently reading papers recently published by various scientists and their relevant work which he kept in his backpack.


    Though Harry could discuss such things with his fellow University teachers, Sterns knew nothing about computers and Connors knew nothing about physics. If they were willing to talk about their own research that''d be fine, but neither would give details about their projects and wouldn''t speak about it even if Harry guessed. So Peter was the only person with multiple interests Harry could speak the same language with and bounce around to various topics without receiving dead, blank looks from the other party.


    The next day Harry informed the University that he was going to visit the Shuttle''s crew and asked for someone to take over his classes. Professors Connors and Sterns offered to teach his classes as long as Harry told them how the kids were doing when he got back which Harry easily agreed to.


    Harry confirmed through some hacking that the Storm Foundation was not doing great. They''d apparently invested nearly everything into this project which is why they had almost full control. However not only did they come out with nothing, but the shuttle malfunctioned, contracts were terminated, fines were levied, and everything was crashing around them like the cabbages in that shipping boat. At this point they''d be lucky if at the end of the day they were able to keep their main office in the Baxter Building at the other end of the city.


    The reason they were at Oscorp was because Norman had apparently footed the bill for health care as a PR stunt and it was actually working out very well for the man.


    Harry wanted to ask Susan what happened to the shielding and determine what effects the Power Cosmic would have on his students and their friends. He''d brought over a large suitcase with a lot of tools and headed out for the building they were being kept in.


    Thankfully Osborn liked to have everything in one place. His research site and standard personnel were all in the same building so there was no guard to prevent Harry from walking in.


    Harry walked right up to the desk and said, "Hello, may I know the room and floor the crew from the Storm Shuttle are being kept?"


    The woman at the other end of the counter said, "No unauthorized personnel are allowed in the tower sir and no visitors have been authorized as they crew are under quarantine receiving the best medical care money can provide."


    Harry rolled his eyes at the obviously scripted lines and said, "They are under quarantine because they got exposed to weird energies right? Well I''m Harry Potter, the best expert you''re going to find in weird energies. Please do me and yourself a favor and call your boss''s boss and tell him Harry Potter is here to see those four."


    The woman looked at Harry for a moment before making another call. A few moments later she said, "Third Elevator on the right, fifteen floor. Someone will be waiting for you there."


    Harry nodded and thanked the woman. If nothing else this should prove to be interesting.


    *Author''s Note*


    The four are getting the same powers as normal, I just didn''t like their original comic origin story where a band of cosmic energy randomly comes out of nowhere in space and gives them powers. So I added a few details which makes it seem less like something which happens all the time.


    Now what do you think Norman is going to do with four super powered humans leaking highly unstable radiation? Let''s see how many origin stories I can squeeze out of this one eh.


    Serious question though, what is the first villain the Fantastic Four should debut against? (Not Doom, he comes in later.) They are getting the title of First Super Heroes in this fic so I need them to unite against something, and fight it publicly that will earn that title.. I''m seriously tempted to just do Mole Man.

 Chapter 63 - 63 An Invitation to the U.N.

    Once the elevator''s door to the fifteenth floor opened, Harry saw an older goggle-wearing gentleman in a lab coat waiting for him.


    "Doctor Potter, my name is Otto Octavius. I''m glad you could come because we have a real head scratcher here."


    Harry offered his hand for a greeting and said, "Dr. Octavius, I''ve read all of your work in the field of energy physics."


    Otto shook his hand and returned a smirk. "And I yours. I wish our first meeting could have been under better circumstances though. Please, follow me."


    Otto escorted Harry through several security doors and past a few guards and a metal detector and scanner he asked Harry to put his suitcase through. Harry didn''t argue as there was no point in the schematics of the toys in his suitcase being derived as it was pretty simple and used metagems as a base.


    As he took him through the checkpoints, Otto said, "The four were exposed to something which I can''t make heads or tails of. Each one is experiencing different... symptoms, I guess you could say. Every bit of lab work has yielded more questions than answers."


    Harry asked, "Symptoms?"


    Otto shook his head and said, "Show is better than tell at this point. We''ve arrived."


    Otto gestured to a plane of glass and on the other side were four... beings, in a room with four gurneys.


    Reed Richard''s head looked mostly normal but it was near the ceiling with a neck stretching several feet. In his hand was a tablet he used to read being held by arms which had also stretched several feet.


    There was another tablet which appeared to be floating back and forth through the room. However the ghost like figure of Susan Storm would flicker next to it showing she was holding it while pacing.


    Johnny Storm seemed to be on fire. Kinda. Flames would ignite over his ?h?st and arms and die out without burning his skin or causing any noticeable discomfort.


    In the corner was an orange boulder that reached up to the ceiling in height. Further inspection showed the boulder appeared to have been carved into a human-esque silhouette of a giant stone man crouching on the ground next to a crushed-flat gurney. It''s looked to be several tones in weight and took up nearly a fifth of the space in the room.


    Harry asked, "Guessing that''s Ben Grimm?"


    Otto answered, "The mineralization of his cells started while he was in the ambulance and soon covered his whole body. What scans we were able to get before he changed into that thing indicated that even his organs appeared to have partially mineralized, though his blood is normal. Ms. Storm, as you can see, has a natural field around her capable of bending light. Mr. Storm, according to our readings, causes oxygen near him to combust into fire yet Mr. Storm himself is not burnt nor harmed. And Mr. Richards'' body has gained malleability of indeterminable limits."


    Harry said, "I''d like to go in to check on them."


    Otto answered, "I do not know if what is afflicting them can be spread, are you sure?"


    "I have a few ideas on what happened and there is no risk of this spreading through proximity, contacts, or most forms of interaction."


    "Is that so? Care to enlighten me?"


    Harry shook his head, "I would, but it makes no sense. I''ll explain it to them and I''m sure that room has recordings so you''ll find out when they do."


    "Very well." Otto walked over to the door into that room and swiped his keycard and entered a nine digit pin code.


    The door opened and Harry saw everyone turn to face him as he walked in.


    Susan asked, "Professor Potter?"


    Harry said, "Ms. Storm, good to see you." He looked up to Reed''s head and said, "Mr. Richards, glad to see you''re up and about."


    He looked over to the corner where Ben was sitting next to Johnny and said, "My god! Johnny! You''re hideous! What happened to you?!"


    The male Storm sibling eloquently responded with, "What?!"


    Harry continued in horror, "You''re covered in warts! Moles! Pimples and Zits! All over your face!"


    Johnny shouted back in horror, "Nooooo!" His body completely covered itself in flames as he rushed off the apparently ash covered gurney over to a mirror. He couldn''t see his face beneath the flames so he took a few breaths which seemed to calm the flames and a moment later his pretty boy face was revealed in the reflection.


    Harry said, "Oh, false alarm. That''s just your normal face."


    Johnny turned to look over at Harry and shouted, "Hey! That wasn''t funny!"


    The massive orange boulder started chuckling and Susan started giggling. Harry blatantly laughed at Johnny which caused Ben to join him in openly laughing along with Susan and even Reed.


    Johnny realized he''d just been used to relieve the stress of everyone in the room with a harmless prank but couldn''t help but pout. This caused everyone to laugh even harder and even he couldn''t stop a small smirk from appearing at the corner of his lips.


    Harry opened up his suitcase and walked over to Ben and pulled out a few tools for measuring energy. Most of them were not as good as his own energy sense but they could list off things he''d miss.


    As Harry started talking readouts, he asked aloud, "So... about those energy shields I gave you the designs for."


    Everyone in the room gave a collective grunt or sigh. Susan said, "The funds for the modifications were given to the project managers and they said it was done. From an outward appearance, it even looked like the shielding was installed. But the investigation last night showed that the materials that made the shielding work weren''t included meaning someone just took the money and made it look like they did it."


    Reed shook his head, "It was our main engineer. He apparently thought that the shields he designed were good enough and didn''t like to use other people''s work."


    Ben''s voice rumbled out, "And he pocketed the money anyways. When I get my hands on him.."


    Trying to divert the conversation, Reed said, "Professor Potter, do you know what type of energy we were exposed to?"


    "I''ve got an idea. I was in contact with a teacher of mine last night and we discussed some possibilities. The conclusion she suggested was impossible but it seems she was correct."


    Ben said, "Give it to me straight Professor. Am I going to look like this forever?"


    Harry answered, "Not if you don''t want to."


    Susan asked, "Can we be cured?"


    Harry shook his head. "Not in the way you''re thinking. If someone goes to war and comes back a different person, you can''t ''cure'' them back to who they were before they left. You''re never going to be who you were before you left and you''re going to have to accept that. But returning Ben to a form that can walk into a fast food restaurant without being stared at and getting the rest of you into a state where you can live your lives the way you want to live them is doable."


    Everyone, especially Ben, gave a relieved sigh at that.


    Reed asked, "Can you tell us what you think happened?"


    Harry answered, "Well, according to my teacher, you were exposed to a form of energy which she didn''t think has existed for almost fourteen billion years. According to her theory, before the Big Bang, there was only one form of energy. It was called Power Cosmic, but you can consider it primordial energy. When the Big Bang occurred, the Power Cosmic gave birth to all other forms of energy."


    Susan and Reed simultaneous said, ""That''s impossible.""


    Harry nodded, "I thought so too. But if you really think about it, maybe not. All of you can think of a few ways to turn one form of energy into another right? If there are an infinitely number of ways to turn different forms of energy into another, then perhaps all forms of energy really do originate from the same source."


    Reed said, "And after we were exposed to this Power Cosmic, it started breaking down into a different form of energy in each of us which would explain how we all have different conditions."


    Harry tapped on his instruments and after a few moments said, "Mostly correct. This might be a bit tricky. I thought that at some point, all the Power Cosmic in your bodies would convert to another form of energy. After that, I could use a few means to flush it all out which, with some proper therapy, would return you to normal. However it seems that in addition to some of it breaking down into a random form of energy for each of you, the Power Cosmic is also absorbing background radiation and converting it back into Power Cosmic."


    Susan said with some alarm, "But that would make it an endless cycle!"


    Harry took a few more readings to confirm it but it was true. The spheres of Power Cosmic he''d experimented with didn''t have this reaction. Basically some of the Power Cosmic had merged with their life force making each of them a bit similar to a demon sorcerer which caused it to stabilize instead of breaking down. The stabilized Power Cosmic absorbed background radiation which was converted into unstable Power Cosmic which then broke down into a random form of energy for each of them. Without dealing with the Power Cosmic merged into their life force, the cycle would continue indefinitely.


    Another matter was that Ben appeared to have far more Power Cosmic stored in his body than the others, probably because he had just gotten through the airlock door when the wave hit.


    Harry took out some metal straps and connected them together while putting some heavy duty magic into them. None of his equipment could actually help them, he just brought it as a cover for the magic he would try.


    After connecting the straps he said to Ben, "You have the most Power Cosmic stored inside you which is why you have the largest outward changes. It is absorbing background radiation at a much faster pace than everyone else and converting it into the energy which caused your body to mineralize. This band will isolate you from the background radiation and if I''m right, will drastically lower the amount of mineralization energy in your body."


    Ben presented his massive wrist which had a four foot circumference. The multiple bands Harry connected together were long enough to wrap around it and Harry clicked it into place.


    Ben''s boulder-esque face frowned for a moment. "I can feel. Something. Wait. Yeah.." He took in a few breaths and cracks were forming around his body.


    Reed shouted, "Ben!"


    Harry confirmed with his energy sense what was happening and said, "It''s fine." The enchanted bands were basically anti-magic items which isolated the wearer from other forms of energy.


    Pieces of orange rock fell off his body and slowly formed a massive pile around him, revealing something beneath it.


    Beneath the rubble Ben seemed to be using his arms to wipe off the stone and dust. He walked out of the rubble pile revealing a smaller rock person at a little over six feet in height with an outline that more closely resembled Ben''s frame the last time Harry saw him. His boulder-like exterior was smoother and looked closer to bulky muscles than it did a human boulder.


    Ben looked at his hands and orange rock fingers. The band had a lot of elastic and had tightened as Ben shrunk so it was still securely on his wrist.


    Ben walked over to the mirror and looked at his carved features. The bands weren''t perfect and couldn''t block all background radiation and even it if could, Ben''s body was still saturated with the mineralization energy so without cleansing that, he''s still be a stone man.


    Harry said, "This is just a band aid using the stuff I brought with me. If I work alone, I should be able to make something that can give you back your normal appearance in a few months. If Reed works with me, I should be able to do it faster."


    Reed said, "Yes! Absolutely!"


    Ben said, "It''s definitely an improvement, Professor. Now I can fit out the door and we can get out of here. Think I''d fit in the elevator?"


    Harry said, "Yeah. I''d estimate you weigh about a thousand pounds and the elevators here are graded up to twelve hundred pounds."


    Johnny asked, "Is that safe? We''re not contagious or anything, right?"


    Harry shook his head. "You are literally absorbing more radiation than you are emitting. There is less background radiation in this room that anywhere else in New York at the moment. The energy the Power Cosmic is converting into is only affecting you. If Mr. Richards wrapped himself around a n?k?d woman and allowed her to wear him as a dress, she wouldn''t be affected no matter how long she wore him."


    Johnny, Ben, and especially Reed nearly choked on that idea and the blush Reed was sporting elicited another round of laughter from Johnny and Ben and a slight glare from Susan.


    Harry made some more bands and said, "These should inhibit your newfound abilities but don''t wear them at all times. Unlike Ben, you guys only have small amounts of Power Cosmic and I can already tell that it is controllable."


    Johnny asked, "How can you tell?"


    Reed answered for him, "Because he observed that our emotions affected our powers. It is not a passive effect like it is with Ben."


    It was obvious they had already discussed this before Harry got there and arrived at the same conclusion.


    Harry said, "Dr. Octavius, open up. I''ll sign their release papers."


    The door opened a moment later and Dr. Octavius said, "Of course. If there is no danger than there is no reason these four cannot return home. Please follow me, they also have to sign a few things. And then we can be on our way."


    Reed returned to a normal size once the band was on and Johnny was no longer the incredible match man. Susan remained in the visible spectrum of light and they all walked out and looked over the papers.


    Harry Paused to check what they were signing and sighed. The fine print was subtle, but it basically said that Oscorp had the right to publish the findings of their stay here. That in itself wasn''t much. But when combined with a few loopholes in various laws, it meant that the blood and test samples acquired by Oscorp during the four''s stay could be used for their own research purposes.


    There wasn''t anything Harry could do to destroy to remove those samples so he''d just have to pay closer attention to Oscorp in the future.


    Harry made a few calls and got a moving company truck to park in front of Oscorp and bring a massive trench coat, hat, and sunglasses for Ben to put on before leaving the building. Oscorp was quite good at keeping cameras off their street but Harry still didn''t want Ben''s appearance to cause too much of a ruckus.


    Once they all jumped in the back of the moving truck, Harry said, "Where are you going to be staying at? I know some good plumbers and manufacturers. I can have them re-fit Ben''s space with a larger, unbreakable toilet, shower, couch, and bed."


    Reed looked shocked at that when he realized he hadn''t thought of that. He was too focused on getting them back to normal to think about how they''d live until then.


    Susan said, "That won''t be necessary Professor, we can take care of those matters ourselves."


    Harry gave her an amused look and said, "I never said I''d do it for free. I just know most of the best companies in New York and can hook you up with some quality service at a decent discount."


    Potter and Gold Bank and Trust had partial ownership of nearly a hundred small and medium sized businesses. With a pinch of magic to ensure that they could compete against the larger companies, the stores Harry had access to had higher quality products at a better cost than most and with a discount from Harry, it was definitely the best deal.


    Susan said, "Oh. In that case, yes please."


    Johnny asked, "Know any place that can make fireproof pajamas and beds?"


    Harry gave him a few numbers and addresses.


    Reed asked, "So when can we start creating a stronger band?"


    Harry said, "Next weekend. I''d do it this weekend but I need to visit the U.N. for a somewhat important meeting."


    All four rapidly looked at Harry with an incredulous expression.


    Johnny asked, "The heck? Wouldn''t that require you to be serious and stuff?"


    Harry shook his head. "Of course not. If I have to be serious, I''ll just imitate my Godfather, Sirius Black, who is the self proclaimed best Prankster in the U.K."


    Ben chuckled, "So you''re going there to prank those tidy suit-wearing fancy pants?"


    "If the situation calls for it. The main reason I''m going is because I got a request for a meeting from Wakanda, a self isolated region in Central Africa. They always send their royalty overseas for schooling and it seems the princess wants to enroll next semester in my classes. It was a very interesting invitation and I''ve never pranked royalty before, so I''m definitely interested."


    Johnny started laughing, "Man! I really want to enroll next semester too!"


    Susan said, "You don''t have the required courses and you failed the advanced placement test the last three times you took it."


    Harry''s classes had an optional advanced placement test that one could take. One hundred questions, two and a half hours. If you scored 85% or more, you could take the class without the prerequisite courses which was how Jean and a few others got into the class. Of course the questions came from a list of over ten thousand Harry had made so taking it over and over again wouldn''t help unless you learned the material.


    Susan asked for them to be dropped off at the Baxter building and Harry would ensure the renovators were there before noon. He knew that Reed would try to get a head start on the research by using his tools to check the band Harry gave him but unfortunately it would not do too much good as it was enchanted with Harry''s undetectable magic.


    Harry also told Susan and Reed not to worry about classes. He''d have two desks delivered to the Baxter building that had a built in Hologram system. It wasn''t hard-light, but it linked to the Hard-Light system in Harry''s Class briefcase so that when Susan and Reed sat in the desks, a Hard-Light copy of them would appear in the desks in class and the holograms the desks displayed would make it appear as if they were in class. Thus they could attend class from the comfort of the Baxter Building.


    The fact that Harry could also use them in more pranks went unsaid but it wasn''t like they could argue against it.


    The next day, Harry confirmed with the University staff some of the details of the student''s conditions but couldn''t offer much. It wasn''t so much classified as it was that Harry wouldn''t divulge their privacy.


    Susan and Reed were both getting multiple Doctorates at the same time and much of that was self study, so other than attending Harry''s class, they could complete their papers and research this semester from their lab at the Baxter Building without issue. After they completed their dissertations, they''d be Dr. Richards and Dr. Storm in a few months.


    The following weekend Harry in a nice business suit took out his visitor''s badge and entered the United Nations headquarters in New York. He came a bit early as this was his first time here and five minutes later he found someone he knew.


    "Dr. Doom. Fancy meeting you here." Harry''s energy sense could spot Doom from the other side of the building and he was the only person in the U.N. with an energy signature.


    Victor Von Doom answered back, "Professor. What brings you to the cesspool of the earth?" As the Ruler of Latveria, Doom of course would occasionally have business at the U.N. so it was not a surprise to see him there.


    Harry gave a smirk and said, "I''ve got a meeting with the Prince of Wakanda in a little bit. His little sister wants to attend my class next semester."


    Doom''s eyebrow lifted in slight surprise. The fact that he was willing to display even a little emotion to Harry showed that he did not view his Professor in the same way he viewed most.


    Doom asked, "What do you know of Wakanda?"


    "Besides the fun facts off Wikipedia? I ran into and captured one of their drones a few years back. Perhaps not the most advanced but certainly in the top ten of most advanced things I''ve seen built by humans on this planet."


    When Harry blew up Sinister''s mountain, he decided to stick around for a while and see who would poke their nose into it. The drone that showed up was acquired by Harry and determined to have Vibranium circuitry. It didn''t take much effort to figure out where the Vibranium came from.


    Doom nodded. Most would be discreet or subtle about such knowledge but neither applied to Harry. Doom was a politician among other things but even he found Harry''s behavior refreshing compared to the back to back meetings filled with political double speech.


    Doom said, "Behind a massive hologram in their territory is an advanced city built on technology based on the wonders of Vibranium. You once told me the world we live in is based on its composition. As the world''s only stable source of Vibranium, their world is very different from ours."


    Harry shook his head. "If that is the case then Wakanda has the fanciest chains in the world. Supporting yourself on a resource you cannot share will chain you down and limit you." It was well known that Wakanda claimed they had a tiny, meagre amount of Vibranium and they even claimed all of it was stolen twenty years ago. If that was a lie, it was a lie that had shackled their entire country.


    "Speaking from experience?" Doom asked.


    Harry nodded, "Oh yeah. Parents grew up in a community that had a large amount of advantages over others but they kept it to themselves to avoid being taken advantage of for centuries. Sure, hundreds of years ago that community was far above everyone else. But the need for secrecy to hide those resources chained their progress and eventually the world caught up and surpassed that community. If Wakanda doesn''t open up, they will eventually get surpassed and all of their advantages will become meaningless."


    Doom sighed and said, "Far too many people look at Wakanda and turn green with envy. You on the other hand actually pity them."


    Harry shrugged. "I don''t see things the same way others do. In any case, I''m off to see a Prince about a Princess."


    Harry walked up a few stairs and through a few halls to the meeting room. The door opened before he could knock and he was met by the Wakandan Ambassador who invited him in to meet Prince T''Challa.


    On first impression the man seemed to be the third fittest person Harry had ever met, behind the Mandarin and Logan. Harry''s energy senses however were conspicuously dull against him which meant something was muffling natural life energy emitted by most things. Harry doubted the Vibranium in the suit the man was wearing was specifically there to dull energy senses, but it was an interesting idea from Harry''s perspective. Though a bit lavish.


    T''Challa offered Harry a hand which Harry took and exchanged a strong grip. Harry was at least pleased at the surprise on the man''s face from Harry''s strength. This guy''s Warrior Path Rank was possibly higher than Harry''s but not his base strength.


    After a moment, Prince T''Challa said, "Professor Potter, I thank you for agreeing to meet me here today."


    "It''s not a problem though I must ask. As long as an applicant passes the Placement Test with a high enough score to interest me, I would approve them as a student without a meeting. So why did you wish to meet?"


    "Apologies, but I did not approve of my sister''s interests in your class. I wanted to meet you myself to see what kind of person you were."


    Harry smiled, "If that is the case then I am sorry but you have wasted your time. I am not the type of person you can understand after a short meeting." With that, Harry turned to leave. He didn''t have to cater to the needs of royals after all.


    "Wait! Please. I do not wish for a misunderstanding. I just want what is best for my sister."


    Harry said, "So you''re not using your sister''s application into my class as an excuse for a meeting because you want something from me or you want to ask something of me?"


    Just because Harry didn''t use political double speech didn''t mean he didn''t understand it. Doom was the Sovereign Ruler of Latveria and he got in with an email and a 93% on the Placement test, the highest score Susan and Reed actually met the class''s prerequisites so they didn''t need to take the placement test. Doom''s position was technically as high as T''Challa''s father, much less the Princess, so there was no need for a face to face meeting.


    Everyone in the room frowned as Harry had skipped straight to the main point they intended to wiggle to over the course of a long conversation which they probably hoped would involve Harry begging to allow the Princess into his class.


    Harry said, "The only thing you need to know about me is that I take responsibility for my students and ensure an environment where students can get as far as the effort they put into learning. I understand the Princess is only sixteen at the moment so even if she does not apply next semester, she can apply to others after my class has a bit more history. There is no point in requesting a personal meeting."


    T''Challa was about twenty-nine and his sister was thirteen years younger. According to Wikipedia anyways.


    The Wakandan Ambassador asked, "Then why did you agree to a meeting?"


    Harry smirked, "Because it''s funny. I wanted to see if Wakanda was worth my time. However using family as an excuse is a bit low, don''t you think?"


    The Ambassador sighed and said, "You''re not the easiest person in the world to meet after all."


    Harry rolled his eyes. "I have a house and it has a door. You could have knocked. Yes the street is filled with surveillance, but that''s a normal hurdle to go through. I doubt any of you actually care that in a week or so I''ll likely have men in suits show up and ask me what our conversation was about right? Did you think I would lie for you?"


    The Ambassador was about to answer when T''Challa stopped him. "You are correct. My apologies. I do not trust easily and for good reason."


    Harry shrugged. "Don''t blame me for saying this but that''s your problem. Trust is easy under two circumstances. When you are not afraid of people knowing your secrets, and when you are confident people cannot discover your secrets. If you can''t trust easily, that means you have secrets you don''t have confidence to keep, and that is, entirely, your problem."


    The Ambassador actually chuckled at that which earned a glare from T''Challa which was only returned with amusement.


    Before either could continue, the ground, walls, and ceiling began to shake. Every guard in the room looked like they were about to pull something out but hesitated when they remembered Harry was still in the room. Harry knelt down and put his hand on the floor and said, "Huh. The building is sinking."


    Everyone else in the room turned to face a window and noticed that the ground from about thirty feet away from the window down the way was rising up, slowly but surely. Like a massive elevator the entire U.N. was being lowered into the earth and in less than a minute the sun could no longer be seen as the edge of the edge they were descending into got higher and higher.


    After about two minutes the descending stopped. The pit the U.N. was now in was over four hundred feet down into the earth.


    "What are those?!"


    One of the guards pointed out the window at a mass of orange humanoids being led by a small number of short, pale humanoids out of various tunnels at the end of the hole. The orange ones were as large as Ben and numbered in the hundreds. And that was just what Harry saw out that window. If the same numbers were outside the other sides of the U.N., that would mean they were surrounded by thousands of them.


    Once the orange men reached the wall, some entered through the door while the rest directly scaled up to the window.


    Moments after they were seen, the window to the meeting room was shattered and four massive orange beings entered through. A pale person on the back of one of them said in English, "Surrender and come with us. Your only hope of safety is to come peacefully."


    One of the guards drew a silver sword and directly pierced one of the orange beings. The creature did not bleed. A moment later it''s fist slammed forward and the guard was sent into the wall with a firm crack.


    The pale man laughed. "The Ani-men cannot be harmed by blades nor bullets. You will come with us willingly or come with us in pieces. The choice is yours."


    Harry struggled to not laugh aloud. He was getting kidnapped. Could this day get any better?


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Lord of Pranks!


    Use Pranks to slow down the migration of the hostages to give the time needed for reinforcements. The more pranks you pull, the higher the reward.]


    Harry smiled brightly. That certainly answered that question.


    *Author''s Note*


    Please note that much of this stuff I''m making up as I go. I already bumped Spiderman''s age by a bunch of years so I''m bumping up T''Challa''s sister Shuri by the same amount. I thought about having T''Challa in class but even without changing ages, as of 2009, he''s 29 so that''s not a great option. No idea if Shuri will join the harem of maybe I''ll pair her with Peter. No idea.


    Speaking of Peter, should he get the standard Peter Spider package or does anyone want him to have a few extras? Could easily have the spider be given some of Susan''s blood and its bite grants invisibility and energy blasts, giving Peter the Miles Morales Package.


    Oh, and go ahead and give me any ideas you have for pranks.. I have a few which are insidiously diabolical, but if anyone else knows some to inflict on the Hostages, the Moloids, or Mole Man himself, feel free to add it.

 Chapter 64 - 64 The Mighty Mole Man!

    *Author''s Note*


    Do not drink milk while reading this chapter. You were warned!


    Chapter 64 The Mighty Mole Man!


    Prince T''Challa was the first to speak, "Who do you think you are?"


    Even as they waited for an answer, an endless stream of Ani-Men entered through the window and walked through the door into the hallway, filling the U.N. and looking for more people to capture.


    The pale humanoid said, "I am Crys the Moloid, a subordinate of the ruler of Subterranea."


    T''Challa asked, "Subterranea?"


    Harry answered, "Subterranea is one of the massive, country sized spaces that exists below the surface of the Earth. Specifically, the one that is closest to the surface. However I was not aware they had a ruler."


    The Ancient One told Harry a few things about Subterranea as it was the location of the Fountain of Youth. The Ancient One found it a few hundred years back and though Harry knew of Moloids and Lava Men, he''d never heard of Ani-Men and certainly didn''t know about a Ruler. Relatively speaking that meant this Ruler had only come into power recently.


    Crys said, "The Ruler came into power and united Subterranea many years ago. You will be taken to him." The Moloid took out a raygun looking weapon, "Come peacefully. Or not." He said with a vicious grin.


    The guards and Prince exchanged glances and T''Challa said, "Lead the way."


    Another two Moloids had already entered the room on the backs of Ani-Men so there wasn''t much of a point in killing them. Outnumbered is outnumbered and the effects of those rayguns were not known.


    The sound of screams, shouts, and panicked gunfire echoed through the halls as they were escorted down the stairs. Harry wondered if the Moloids had a map of this place but figured it might be another sense. The halls were filled with Ani-Men and minutes after the ?ssault the occupants of the U.N. were already outnumbered ten to one and that number was rising with each moment.


    Harry got out his cell phone and texted Jean and the rest. [I''m being kidnapped by mole people and taken to the underground Kingdom of Subterranea along with all the world''s leaders. ~Smiley Face~]


    A moment later he got a text back from Jean. [What the fu?k?!]


    Harry texted back, [I got a Quest which implies if I do nothing, we''ll be rescued. The quest was to do as many pranks as possible before we get rescued so don''t interfere. I want time for more pranks and you''d rescue us too fast.]


    [Fine. We''ll watch the news. Stay safe Harry!]


    The Prince noticed that Harry was on his phone and that the Moloids apparently didn''t care. T''Challa took out his own communicator and after frowning said, "I don''t have a signal down here."


    Harry turned back and smiled, "Then you don''t have a Brilliance Inc. Phone."


    T''Challa and his guards noticed that a number of other hostages already had their phones out and were making calls and texting without issues. It was obvious they did have such phones and T''Challa seemed a little aggravated about that.


    It wasn''t entirely his fault. Most signals are sent parallel to the earth and unless it is specified to do so. Harry figured those phones had some Vibranium and maybe worked with a satellite, but such phones would only work in this hole if the satellite was directly above the hole the U.N. sank into. Otherwise there was no line of sight.


    Harry''s phones on the other hand sent signals through the Astral Plane and were not impeded by such things.


    Moments later Harry got another message, though it was not a text so much as a pop-up on the phone screen. [Are you being Kidnapped? If Yes, click here and your phone will go into Surveillance Mode. The rear camera''s feed will be enabled and streamed directly to Authorities to be used to ?ssist the Rescue Effort. While in Surveillance Mode, please keep conversations to a minimum and hold the phone forward or place it in a forward facing pocket.]


    Everyone of the hostages with a working Brilliance Phone got the message from what Harry could see. T''Challa had no idea what was going on, so Harry showed the screen to the Prince and his guards before clicking on the confirm icon and placing the phone in his front pocket in a way the camera would stick out.


    There was a small child-like face with pointy ears wearing a green cap in the corner of the message which told Harry who the sender was. Link, the AI which was born in Harry''s server apparently caught on to the situation and since he was monitoring Harry''s text messages and knew Harry was waiting for someone else to rescue him, Link decided to take some initiative for himself and set this up.


    Link had quite a lot of authority under his belt so it wouldn''t surprise Harry if some of the Squib employees of Brilliance Inc would likely be dispatched to the U.N. and set up a command center which would give all the Intel of what was going on to whoever was in charge out there. That would certainly make for good publicity later.


    Once they were out of the U.N., the group saw two massive monsters. One of them was green and about three stories tall with a head similar to that of a gapping frog with an enormous mouth and massive claws at the end of its arms. The second looked like a cross between a Hydra and a Drake. It had two massive wings on its back and three, dragon-like heads extending from three necks. It was even taller than the first monster.


    A number of screams were scattered across the groups as each saw the pair of massive monsters. Many people pointed their cameras at the pair to make sure whoever came here knew what they were up against.


    The Moloid leading them said, "Do not hope for rescue. Thousands of Ani-Men will stay here and guard the path while Giganto and Tricephalous will lead us to Subterranea."


    Harry had magically conjured a stack of paper which were each spelled with a color charm he used to imprint a message on the paper and a powerful Notice-Me-Not targeted only towards the Moloids.


    One by one, Harry removed a sheet of paper at a time and stuck it to the backs of the Ani-Men. The signs said ''Kick-Me.''


    The Wakandan Prince exchanged bizarre glances with his guards who each had their own thoughts on the matter. Most of them revolved around, ''DuFuq is this guy doing?'' and ''Did he already have those ready when he came to the U.N.?''


    Harry noticed Victor Von Doom being ''escorted'' to Harry by a lone Ani-Men. From Harry''s senses, this particular mushroom man was actually dead, and Victor had inserted some kind of mechanical frame inside it to puppet it. As long as it was near him, the Moloids wouldn''t question it much.


    The Moloids weren''t difficult to influence with Telepathy as long as the command did not counter their loyalty to their ruler so Harry made the group watching them ignore the fact that Harry left their group and walked over to Doom.


    Doom showed Harry the pop up on his phone and asked, "Is this your doing?"


    "No, someone at my company decided to take some initiative. I''ll get them a fruit basket later."


    Harry walked by Doom''s side as they were escorted further into the tunnels. Doom asked, "What''s your plan?"


    Harry tapped his ?h?st to point out that his phone''s camera was on and the conversation would be recorded. "Wait for rescue and have some fun."


    He tagged another four Ani-Men with Kick-Me signs under the eyes of hundreds of Ambassadors and guards, most of which could only stare bug-eyed at Harry''s antics. The Ani-Men weren''t the target of this prank, it was the witnesses watching Harry do something so ridiculous.


    Once they reached a large, main tunnel, Harry took out a large handful of marbles from his inventory and banished them down into the depths of the tunnel. No one saw him pull them out, enchant them, or send them away so what happened next would not be connected to him.


    A number of moloids walked near the walls, the front of the group, and the back of the group and carried lit torches which illuminated the passages. Most of them. Those in the front could only see the massive back of Giganto who led the group and those in the back dared not turn around and face the three heads of Tricephalous who tailed behind them.


    Suddenly, several small mounds of dirt rose up eliciting shrieks of terror from those whose nerves were already strained.


    What emerged from the ground was, unsurprisingly, groundhogs.


    Each one poked its head out from the dirt and looked around. In the next moment, they started screaming with the voice of an ?du?t male in frustrated rage. "ARRRRaaarrgh!"


    This freaked out a number of people and got the Moloid''s attention. Harry used the chance to post more ''Kick-Me'' signs.


    "AaaaaaaAAAGHH!" A random groundhog popped up nearby and shouted with more air than such tiny lungs could possibly hold. The tunnel acted as an echo chamber and many held their ears. The Moloids looked particularly pissed and started running over to the screaming groundhogs and stomp on them. However right before the foot hit the ground, the groundhogs would quickly duck into the safety of their hole.


    Thus began the Historical Event streamed to many sources of the Moloid''s first Whack-A-Mole Game.


    The speed of the group was almost halved as the Moloids would be too distracted by the screaming groundhogs to effectively corral the humans.


    No one wanted to try to sneak through there.


    After a few incidents, Harry figured out what those Rayguns did. Apparently they caused blindness. Harry didn''t know if it was permanent or not, but those who attacked the Moloids were directly blinded and bound by the Ani-Men and carried down the tunnel.


    After another ten minutes they come to a massive intersection of tunnels. Giganto stopped and the Moloids shouted, "What''s wrong?"


    The massive monster pointed forward and the torch bearing Moloids walked ahead, illuminating the path. They found that the intersection was currently filled by animals crossing the path.


    Hundreds of Dodo birds and Pandas were slowly walking down the tunnel from one end to the other, preventing them from getting through to the other side of their own path.


    The rest of the group had caught up and saw the massive migration of hundreds of extinct birds and nearly extinct Pandas calmly walking through the tunnels and none of them could think of anything to say.


    "AAAAaaaAAGH!" Except the groundhogs who were still following them of course.


    After a few minutes, the line of Pandas and Dodo birds crossing the path ended and the last of them walked into the distance. This was probably the largest, most complex illusion Harry had ever cast and he couldn''t keep it up forever of course. The life energy in the marbles would hold the Transfigured groundhogs for a while so they''d be fine, but other illusions were not so easy to maintain for such long durations.


    The company started moving once more. Almost two hundred Ani-Men now had Kick-Me signs and most were wondering where Harry was keeping all that paper.


    Harry already confirmed through technopathic communications that his feed along with many others was being directed to the makeshift command center set up by army personnel near the edge of the crater. Apparently they were having difficulties because sending reinforcements down a four hundred foot vertical hole in any meaningful way was not something they had practice with. Although they were being given all the information on numbers, maps, and directions, they were still basically waiting to set up a pulley system that could send down tanks. 400 feet was not enough to deploy a parachute so they couldn''t just drop the tanks in from that height unless they flew a cargo plane over the hole, and even then they couldn''t guarantee the accuracy of the landings.


    They were considering dropping napalm but that was instantly vetoed because it would destroy the U.N. headquarters where they had already confirmed some had successfully hidden from the Moloids and the blast could follow the tunnel and kill the U.N. Hostages or collapse the tunnel itself. The best they could do was helicopters but they had no way to drop off a large amount of personnel with helicopters while those Ani-Men were down there since they''d already confirmed bullets did nothing to them. Because they had to take the remaining personnel hidden in the U.N., the collapsing of the tunnel, and these strange bullet proof brutes into account, every plan they could rely on in the past was useless.


    A large number of military personnel, heads of various agencies, and even reporters were watching the feeds from the various cameras trying to come up with one plan after another. A collective sigh of futility was shared by all every time they saw Harry stick another Kick-Me sign on an Ani-Men. At first they were confused. Then they were irritated. Now they were already weary of the insane antics of the world''s youngest Professor.


    The fact that Harry apparently came to the U.N. with a massive stack of Kick-Me signs was already a topic of debate for banning him from the premises for life, but it wasn''t something people really cared for at the moment.


    "AAAAAaaaAHH!" The groundhogs were also getting on the viewer''s nerves but as the act of trying to whack them slowed down their progress so they could only give up. Thankfully a program was already made which lowered the volume during the screams so the intensity of the screaming would not affect those monitoring everything.


    Then there were the strange things they encountered along the way. There were less than two thousand pandas in the wild yet hundreds of them, along with Dodo birds, randomly crossed their path and delayed the group for a period of time before they moved on. Several experts were called in and showed the video, but none of them could come up with an answer that made any sense.


    They passed several more side tunnels with signs which read things like Undead Dungeon, Troll Dungeon, and Demon Dungeon, each with Recommended levels higher than the last. The so called experts had no idea what to make of those. This was real life! Not a game!


    Of course, those weren''t the only peculiarities found. Many Ambassadors with Brilliance Phones did not turn on Surveillance Mode but they could be seen by those around them who did. Every once in a while, one of them would slip on something and land flat on their backs. When the camera zoomed in on what they slipped on, it turned out to be a banana peel. Every. Single. Time.


    What some noticed but few mentioned was that each of those who repeatedly slipped were Ambassadors from corrupt nations or regions who got their positions through less than noble means. The footage of them slipping on a banana peel would be pirated directly to their country later and used to discharge them for incompetence. But that was a tale for another day.


    After almost an hour of walking the group finally came to a massive chamber.


    Sitting impatiently on a stone throne room chair was a somewhat short, large framed human in a green suit with a metal pole in his hand. He wore what appeared to be glasses but had only a thin slit for an opening making others wonder how much he could see.


    As they approached a manic grin revealed itself and the man spoke, "Greetings surface dwellers. I am Harvey Elder, or I once was. Now, I am the Mole Man. Ruler of the underground Kingdom of Subterranea."


    Harry wanted to pull out some popcorn but that would be a bit too suspicious, even for him.


    Over fifty different men ?r??n?d with pain and were simultaneously slammed to the ground by the Ani-Men around them. Each a security guard of some kind with a gun in their hand.


    From his throne, the Mole Man said, "Pulling your weapons in my presence is not so easy. Why do you think I didn''t care to remove them? In the surface world, you sun-baked morons lord above all. But below the ground, I am the Ruler. I am Power Incarnate! I am the Mole Man!"


    "You are nothing!" A pair of heavily built guards who didn''t pull their weapons rushed forward at the throne. Harry thought they looked Russian.


    The Mole Man pointed his metal pole at them and said, "Kneel."


    Harry felt the staff interact with gravity through a pulsing field and both Russians fell to the ground on their knees as they struggled against the massive increase in gravity which afflicted them.


    Of course to those who don''t have energy senses it simply looked like the two Russians rushed forward and quickly knelt down.


    He waved his staff and a concussive blast shot out from the edge and blasted the two men all the way back to where they started. Both men were groaning on the ground in pain.


    That caught Harry''s interest. He was not familiar with any technology capable of what he just witnessed. It also answered his question of how the entire U.N. was descended. The Mole Man used some technology which increased the gravity of the ground beneath the U.N., causing it to sink.


    The Mole Man got up from his throne and said, "Is there anyone else who wishes to challenge me?"


    Harry shouted out, "Not a challenge, but a question, what''s behind that door?"


    Harry pointed to a wall near where they entered that had a sign on it that said, ''Mole Man''s Secret Stash.''


    This threw the Mole Man off. "What? There is no door there!"


    He marched forward to the wall and under the eyes of countless world leaders he opened the door.


    A massive pile of magazines fell out, reaching to his knees before they stopped spreading.


    The obviously poor sighted Mole Man picked one up and held it close to see it. Then he dropped it and had a hint of a blush on his face.


    Not everyone had such poor eyesight in the room. All the people near the door could see exactly what kind of magazines those were.


    A large but fit middle aged man in a red suit with spiky white hair tired in a pony tail behind him grinned and said aloud, "I see you are a man of culture."


    The Mole Man immediately refuted, "These are not mine."


    The pervert''s smile only widened to the Ruler of Subterranea''s displeasure.


    The Mole Man walked out of the pile of p?rnos as if he decided to ignore their existence and said, "Leaders of the world. You have a decision to make. Surrender the surface to my armies or I will kill you all as an example and destroy the surface world!"


    A majority of those watching him from the streaming feed agreed that the impact of his speech was lacking when he was still standing a few feet from the ?du?t rated pile.


    The crowd''s silence actually caused the Mole Man to smile. "I hoped you would refuse."


    He returned to his throne and ordered some Moloids to bring out a massive map of the Earth. Within it were hundreds of lines crisscrossing beneath the crust.


    Mole Man pointed at the map and shouted, "Now, before I slay you all, Behold my Master Plan! See this map of my Underground Empire! Each tunnel leads to a major city! As soon as I have wrecked every atomic plant, every source of earthly power, my mighty Mole Creatures will attack and destroy everything that lives above the surface!"


    Harry couldn''t help but ask, "Are you monologuing?"


    The Mole Man sneered and said, "You can die first. Bring him to me!"


    Eight different Ani-Men walked behind Harry and shoved him forward to the throne. The Mole Man pointed his staff and Harry and said, "Any last words?"


    Harry''s pocket started ringing. Harry raised a finger in the universal, ''give me a moment,'' gesture and pulled out a second phone and answered it.


    Harry nodded a few times and said, "It''s for you."


    The Mole Man figured someone wanted to bargain for Harry''s life and had a Moloid bring him the phone. Harry had already put the phone on speaker.


    He put the phone to his ear and said, "Yes?"


    [Are you Harvey Elder?]


    "Yes. What do you want?"


    [We''ve been trying to reach you concerning your vehicle''s extended warranty. You should''ve received a notice in the mail about your car''s extended warranty eligibility. Since we''ve not gotten a response, we''re giving you a final courtesy call before we close out your file.]


    The Mole Man hung up the call and tossed the phone away.


    Harry shrugged at the Mole Man''s glare but before the execution could continue, a strong current of wind erupted from behind the Mole Man''s throne and flowed back out the tunnel the captives were led through.


    Harry pulled out his phone and a video started streaming on it. It showed a feed from above of a camera pointing down the crater where a cyclone of fire was rising up from where the mass of Ani-Men were gathered around the U.N. building.


    Giving it a closer look one would notice that a bright figure was circling the U.N. Headquarters. The heat generated seemed to be incinerating the stationed Ani-Men and drawing the air from the tunnels.


    The Mole Man shouted for some Moloids who ran over and said a few things in his ear.


    The bright figure on the screen then stopped circling and entered through the main tunnel. A few moments later, a hover car piloted by a young man, a young woman, and an orange rock entered into the four hundred foot deep hole and flew after flying fire down the same tunnel.


    The Mole Man said, "It seems the surface dwellers have seen fit to send a rescue party. No matter."


    He pointed his staff and Harry once more. And nothing happened.


    Harry pulled out a gizmo looking device from his pocket and said, "Yeah, zero point energy weapons aren''t going to work on me. I calibrated this when I noticed how your staff magnifies the center of gravity of your target. A simple isolation system renders it useless."


    The Mole Man looked unperturbed. "Unfortunately for you, I have more than one trick up my sleeve. Ani-Men! Kill him."


    Harry was slowly surrounded once more and the Mole Man said, "And you accused me of monologuing."


    Harry smiled back as the Ani-men raised their arms to crush him and said, "It''s great as a delaying tactic."


    A streak of fire shot out from the entrance and slammed into one of the three headed drake''s faces as Harry ducked beneath the strike of the Ani-Men and ran for it.


    The crowd all ran to the walls as a flying car swooped in and let off its three other passengers.


    It was of course Reed and the rest. The fact that Reed already had a flying car didn''t surprise Harry in the slightest. He just didn''t know if the man built it this week or prior to the launch.


    The Mole man shouted, "Go, Giganto and Tricephalous! Destroy the surface dwellers!"


    Johnny, who appeared to be using his flame aura as a form of propulsion, was sloppily flying around the three headed dragon while Ben charged at the massive frog-mouthed monster. The latter swiped it clawed hands against Ben but the razor edges merely skated across Ben''s exterior.


    Susan was unsurprisingly nowhere to be seen and Reed stretched over to the Mole Man. He wrapped an arm around one of the Ani-Men and pulled it towards him and then flung it around to smash the others surrounding Harry.


    Richards shouted, "It''s over Mole Man. I heard everything and we know exactly what you''ve planned. You intended on using Zero Point Energy to destroy power plants on the surface like you used it to sink the U.N. right? As long as I get a copy of the frequency modulation Harry used to negate your staff, I render an energy sequencer to counteract the charge of the negative gravity, I can inhibit all systems which use Zero Point Energy near the earth''s surface."


    Reed''s fist stretched in size and was flung at the Mole Man who quickly struck it with his staff and circled it around Reed''s outstretched arm like a fork around a spaghetti noodle. He shouted, "Then it''s a good thing you won''t be leaving here alive! I am a master of Holey Moley Bojutsu and you cannot defeat me!" He continued twirling his staff which pulled in Reed''s arm while sending blasts of concussive energy Reed had to stretch from side to side to dodge.


    Giganto was large and slow and his claws could not hurt Ben but his size and strength both far exceeded Ben''s own. The massive green monster was obviously not the intellectual type, but it only took a few exchanges for it to figure out that Ben could be smashed into the ground, forcing the latter to dodge more than attack.


    Tricephalous was actually using fire breath against Johnny. It didn''t harm him but it did blast him into the wall which looked like it hurt all the same.


    While Reed was trying to get himself out of the Mole Man''s grasp, the latter quickly jumped and spun around, knocking an invisible foe to the ground. This opening allowed Reed to unravel from the staff but Susan appeared to have suffered some damage.


    "You sun baked fools! I am the Mole Man! I do not rely on sight to fight my battles. I can feel the presence of all around me and your invisibility is useless. You will all die here today."


    Reed helped Susan up and said, "No, we are going to stop you and save everyone here!"


    The Mole Man gave a sarcastic sneer and said with spite, "You really think you four are so fantastic do you? Well, Mr. Fantastic. What are you, that invisible girl, that thing over there, and that human torch gonna do?"


    Susan shouted, "We''re gonna win! Now Ben!"


    Ben answered back, "Right!" He pulled off the elastic bands around his wrist and suddenly started growing in size. Moments later he nearly matched Giganto in height. Ben shouted, "It''s Clobberin'' Time!" and smashed Giganto''s face in. Ben''s massive form stepped in and dealt a barrage of blows staggering the monster back with each step. When the enormous monster appeared dazed, Ben reeled back and slammed his fist forward, smashing the monster into the air and to the other side of the cavern far behind the Mole Man''s throne where it struck the back wall and caused the entire cavern to shake.


    Johnny braced himself in the air and when all three heads fired at him, this time he was not pushed back. Instead, his fire glowed brighter and brighter, showing he was actually absorbing the heat of the flames. Soon the drake''s breath reached its end and Johnny pushed his hands forward and shot a white beam of pure heat.


    "My Eyes!"


    The hundreds of Moloids commanding the Ani-Men shouted in pain at the presence of the intense sun fire like light that illuminated the cavern.


    The Drake''s scales were burned and melted through, forcing the three headed dragon to flee for its life. Johnny kept up his intense illumination which caused the Moloids to run away after the back of Giganto and the fleeing Tricephalous.


    The cavern started rumbling and the Mole Man looked up with a hint of fear. He looked back over to Reed and shouted, "You may have won here but this is not over. I will have my revenge against you insufferably Fantastic Four!"


    As the Mole Man turned to run away, a dozen gunshots echoed through the cavern from guards who decided now would be a great time to kill him. However the green jumpsuit the man wore went over his head from the back and seemed impervious to gunfire.


    The cavern continued to rumble and half the hostages had already starred running back the moment the Moloids started running away.


    Harry noticed that one of those who stayed back to watch the fight was Victor Von Doom. It seemed he watched the whole thing from start to finish before he started running back himself.


    Part way through the run back, parts of the tunnel started collapsing. Ben had already put back on the wristband to return to a smaller size as his weight while running through the tunnels could have destabilized them further.


    A large boulder fell from the ceiling. Before Harry could do anything, he saw a barrier emerge for a second and shatter the rock before vanishing. He and a number of others turned and saw Susan''s hand in the air. This event repeated a dozen more times along the way, with Susan creating a barrier to block the rocks from crushing the world leaders on the way back.


    When they reached the U.N. once more, the army had already set up pulley lifts to get everyone to the surface. Harry was sure he could work out something with Reed to get the U.N. back to the right height, he just had to figure out how much to charge first.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Lord of Pranks!


    Reward: Apple of Discord]


    Harry smiled. Apparently he must have rated quite highly in the Quest because this was the holy artifact of pranks. He wondered what he should do with it.


    *Author''s Note*


    99.999% of the time I do a quest, I have no idea what reward I''m going to give later and usually just wing it. As a fan of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the Apple of Discord was the first thing to come to mind when it came to artifacts of pranking. It was either that or Loki''s spell book but that is something that should be saved for later so Apple is it.. No idea what to do with it but I''m sure I''ll figure something out.

 Chapter 65 - 65 The Fantastic Four

    Sitting in front of Harry may not have been the oddest thing he''d ever seen, but it at least ranked in the top ten. Well, fifteen. ~ish.


    It was a little bit smaller than an average sized dog and slightly fuzzy. Its skin was bright purple and covered in wrinkles like a sphynx cat, though its ears were fluffy. It''s head resembled a miniature hippo and it had a large tail half the length of its body that ended in a hardened claw-like appendage.


    On the creature''s head were two horns, one tiny, set between its nostrils, while the other was large and curved, going from its forehead and extending back with a curve and a length twice the size of its skull.


    This was the result of an experiment using the Apple of Discord, Harry''s trophy for being an awesome prankster. The Apple could transform itself into nearly anything but had unusual limits. It could only transform into things which could be used for pranks, mischief, or chaos in general. As long as he thought of an item he could use for a prank, he could make the apple transform into it.


    Standing in front of Harry was the apple displaying a transformation into something Harry wasn''t sure actually existed. A few months ago, Hermione sent a copy of a magazine called the Quibbler to Harry and it was there Harry learned of the questionable existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack.


    According to the magazine article, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack had a magical approximation of the exact same power as Harry''s former roommate, Forget-Me-Not. Not long after seeing one, you would lose your memory of seeing it. This of course made the creature''s existence difficult to prove as the only evidence that you encountered one would be your lack of memory of having seen it.


    Of course, as the owner of the Apple and shaper of the image, that particular effect did not work on him. However Harry had confirmed with some magically conjured creatures that the effect did work. Harry also found that the creature''s existence could be observed, but not recorded. A live image of the creature could be displayed on a video camera''s live feed if streamed, but if the video was recorded and watched, the recording would lack the creature''s presence. Same for digital cameras. The creature appeared on the screen of Harry''s cellphone if he turned on the camera, but the creature would not exist in any saved pictured or stored videos. The same was true for pictures taken using film and disposable cameras.


    Even if a Snorkack stepped in a pit of sand, its footprints would slowly vanish. If Harry drew a picture of it, the picture would slowly distort until it didn''t look like a Snorkack.


    The level of reality manipulation required in order to achieve this effect was not something to look down upon. Especially because this was not even the actual creature, but an imitation of it created using the Apple of Discord based on Harry''s knowledge of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Harry wasn''t even sure that being able to replicate the creature even proved its existence, it simply meant that Harry could use it for pranks.


    Of course, the Apple''s power was not limited to that. If Harry put some effort into it, he could charge the Apple with his own magic and set loose a horde of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks all over New York. No matter what they did, no one would have any evidence they existed the following day.


    Harry couldn''t say he wasn''t tempted, but such a prank would require a truly special event so it should be saved for another day. Probably another city too. And another planet, just to be on the safe side.


    For now, he''d just bring it out when he felt like it. If someone was bugging him, he''d throw a Crumple-Horned Snorkack at their face and later they wouldn''t even know what happened to them. That was certainly more classy than a banana cream pie to the face.


    After playing around with a holy artifact of unspeakable power, Harry headed out and picked up a newspaper before finding his way to the Baxter building. Harry already got the security codes to enter when he arranged for the renovators to set up Ben''s bedroom and bathroom so he knew his way up.


    The newspaper had a general summary only seventeen pages long of everything that happened the prior day.


    Though many of the hostages did in fact click the bu??on to enable Surveillance Mode, not everyone did. And many of those who did not streamed their camera''s feed to friends, family, and a few news stations. This had a number of effects. First, it revealed the fact that streamed content from any camera had a ten second delay before it hit the receiver. The feed from cameras which enabled Surveillance Mode was nearly instantaneous.


    The reason for the delay was that all publicly streamed footage would be scanned by dumb AIs to check if the content fell under anything that shouldn''t be streamed. Or at least, that was what the press was told. The actual fact was that if someone caught someone using Magic on tape, the delay was used to shut down the feed.


    Harry''s phones were decently magic resistant and wouldn''t fry immediately if used in magic rich areas. In the year since the phones were released, there were thirteen attempts to actively stream someone using Magic to someone else or to the internet. All attempts were stopped, flagged, and reported to the relevant Department of Magical law Enforcement. Amelia Bones had already ?ssisted with the set up of a system for other countries to receive such notifications and so far, nothing had gotten through the cracks yet.


    Most were just dumb kids who thought they could get away with it but when the DMLE showed up minutes later accusing them of violating the International Statute of Secrecy, they learned very quickly that these things were not jokes.


    Most got off with a warning when they realized how serious it was but a few who did it with malicious intent were arrested. Both magical and nonmagical governments supported the Statute of Secrecy at the moment so it wasn''t a small matter when someone tried to violate it.


    The matter concerning the Mole Man was not determined to hold any great value for international secrecy so the content was not flagged and many news agencies directly streamed to their viewers what was streamed to them. A lot of security guards were fired that day, but they made a lot of money streaming their phones to those news agencies so they probably didn''t care.


    Because of this, almost everyone in the country and many in other countries knew of what happened meaning they also knew of Harry''s antics.


    Most News channels had a few clips of Harry running around planting ''Kick-Me'' signs on the monstrous Ani-Men and there were at least a hundred different videos of Harry giving a prank phone call to the Mole Man when his life was in danger.


    Unsurprisingly there were just as many videos of Reed and the rest fighting the Mole Man and his monsters and rescuing the hostages.


    Everyone agreed that Reed''s group were heroes, people who were willing to put themselves into danger to help others. But since the danger was far superior to other dangers and Reed''s group had super powers, everyone seemed to unanimously agree that they were not just heroes, but Superheroes.


    The concept of a superhero was something most agreed belonged in comics and in the modern era, the only superhero to ever emerge was Captain America. Of course in war, one country''s hero is another country''s enemy. Reed''s group was the first group acknowledged by nearly all nations to be superheroes, the world''s first publicly recognized superhero team.


    Brilliance Inc. got a lot of good publicity as well. The command center sent by Link not only included hundreds of screens to monitor everything but also automatically mapped out the region giving those around them information to plan with. Of course, since they couldn''t decide on a plan even with all that information, it looked rather bad for them, but Harry''s company still got a lot of good press. Not just for freely providing information, but for being able to work hundreds of feet below the earth and still stream a quality picture. Those from other countries who didn''t have a Brilliance Inc Phone would likely have one within the next week.


    The fallout from what the press labeled, the Mole Man Crisis, was less than what most expected. Reed already found the machine which pressed the ground below the U.N. and offered to reverse it. Unsurprisingly the U.N. officials declined. Instead, Reed put into motion a system that would prevent it from happening again and freely distributed it to the world.


    At the moment, a massive military detachment was stationed down that hole while everything of value in the U.N. was taken back. The location of the new U.N. Headquarters was still under discussion and would likely not be determined for some time. More than one general had argued to send a military force down the tunnels in retaliation, but the tunnels to Subterranea had already collapsed and there was little the military could do about it.


    When Harry made it to the Baxter Tower''s main floor and saw his students and their friends in a depressed slump watching the news, Harry couldn''t help but tease, "How''s the world famous Fantastic Four today?"


    Everyone ?r??n?d.


    Johnny said, "I can''t believe they''re using that guy''s insults as names. Human Torch? What is this, the middle ages? Before yesterday, I''ve never even seen a torch before!"


    Susan said, "What about me? Invisible Girl? Girl?! Who do they think they''re calling a girl?!"


    Ben cleared his rocky throat and gave a mild glare at the pair who both awkwardly looked away.


    The papers had of course called the group the Fantastic Four, using Mole''s Man''s naming sense. Of the four, Ben was the unluckiest as the Mole Man just called him a thing and the newspapers ran with it. So while Susan had to suffer being called a girl, Ben was called the Thing.


    Reed said, "I feel bad they''re calling us heroes. I mean, I wanted to help them, but they weren''t the reason we went down there."


    Harry shrugged. Reed got badly caught in the moment when he told the Mole Man he''d stop him and save everyone, but the actual reason they went down there was to get Harry. Reed had already analyzed the anti-magic band Harry had given them and determined he would have no luck replicating it without Harry''s help. If Harry died, Ben would be stuck as a rock forever so all four agreed to head out. They were of course stopped by the military, but when they saw one the monitors that Harry was going to be executed, they ignored the Military and headed down themselves.


    The flying car was apparently built in the last couple of days for them and Ben since a normal car couldn''t handle Ben''s weight and Johnny insisted that it should fly.


    Later they realized that Harry likely would have been fine. Harry carried all sorts of tech with him and was pretty much playing around the whole time.


    Harry said, "It''s not all bad, at least the Storm Foundation survived."


    The Storm Foundation was able to get first shot at the pyramid because they made a lot of promises and though it wasn''t their fault, the fact that the pyramid exploded and they couldn''t keep those promises caused a lot of issues with creditors and other organizations. Everything completely changed of course due to their recent heroics. The creditors were pulling back and willing to give them more time on loan repayment at lower interest rates. The groups who were pressuring the Foundation found that others were pressuring them to leave it be and the almost dead Storm Foundation was able to breathe once more.


    Harry pulled out some papers and said, "Sign these please."


    Susan was the first to look it over and asked, "Harry, what are these?"


    Reed was quite the speed reader and asked, "Likeness rights?"


    Harry said, "You need to patent your likeness rights so others can''t profit off your images. Apparently a few groups are already trying to do it, including Oscorp, but as long as you apply, you should win the rights to your own likeness."


    Ben asked, "So what, they''ll make toys and junk that look like us?"


    Harry smiled, "They''re already planning on it. Whether you get a profit off those toys will depend on you."


    Reed had apparently finished reading through it all and asked, "Why are you setting this up Professor?" Harry didn''t write in for himself to get a cut because he didn''t need it.


    Harry said, "I felt like it. And it''s not like this won''t benefit me. There are a few toy companies I have partial ownership of which could make some mighty fine toys. Especially if you let them make a toy of that flying car you put together."


    Ben said, "I don''t know Professor Potter."


    Harry got out a few things and set up a hologram of Ben''s large form in the shape of a toy. It was next to a toy version of Giganto. Two holographic kids were playing with the toys getting them to fight each other while smiling.


    Harry said, "Christmas is right around the corner after all."


    Ben smiled and agreed. Reed confirmed there was no downside and signed the papers. Harry ensured they were delivered where they were needed and would be approved soon. He also contacted a few groups to go ahead on the toy production.


    After business was done, Harry started working with Reed on the anti-magic bands.


    The problem they discovered when dealing with Power Cosmic was that it could turn any energy into Power Cosmic, even the energy powering the Anti-Magic bands. That meant the bands would need to be recharged or replaced regularly and were not a permanent solution to their problem and couldn''t be used to give Ben a human form.


    Harry brought a set of Meta-Gems keyed to the location for Reed to study to determine how they interacted with his powers. If they were ever removed from Baxter Tower, they would automatically disintegrate so Harry wasn''t worried they would be stolen. Though when he saw the gleam of interest in Reed''s eyes, he was worried what kind of things he''d build in the tower.


    The following weeks were mostly normal, or as normal as New York gets.


    For the last two weeks of classes before the end of the semester, Harry got in two more pranks.


    The first required a lot of setup but was satisfying nonetheless.


    During class, a man wearing a bubble wrap jumpsuit walked in and said, "I''m sorry to interrupt your class. Most of you know who I am."


    Every student stood up at the same time, put their hands together with their thumbs crossed to make the letter Z, and said, "Zoltan!"


    Zoltan nodded and smiled. "Tomorrow the ship will be launching and we will fly into space and meet cool aliens who actually like us."


    The students all made another Z and shouted with enthusiasm once more, "Zoltan!"


    Zoltan said, "Now, when you''re driving out to the barn behind my parent''s house, I just want to remind you all to be quiet as I don''t want you to wake them. And remember to bring your space suits," he said, pointing at his bubble wrap jumpsuit.


    The students made another Z and shouted again, "Zoltan," before finally sitting back down.


    Zoltan smiled and left the classroom. Harry just stood there and gawked at everyone as if he couldn''t believe what he''d seen. He looked openly confused, ill, and horrified by the class''s actions.


    After a few moments he shook his head and looked like he decided to forget about it and got back to his lecture.


    Of course, the students were all just as confused and horrified.


    The first part of this prank basically made all the students invisible except to themselves by making a field of bending light around their desks. The next step was to make a hologram over each student. This type of hologram couldn''t be seen up close so the students couldn''t see the hologram overlaid onto them, just onto everyone else.


    The last step was setting up the audio. Harry doubted many noticed that the sound of ''Zoltan'' came from their own desks as well as everyone else''s though they remained silent.


    So every student saw every other student stand up and say "Zoltan," making every one of them think they were the only student in class who didn''t know what was going on.


    Eventually they''d figure it out but Harry would be laughing his ?ss off until then.


    The last week of the year didn''t have the best prank but Harry considered it a classic.


    The door to the classroom opened and the giant head of what could only be described as the Loch Ness monster came through the door. What was strange however was that it was wearing an enormous blonde wig and had a red strap around its neck with badges and on its wig was a giant red hat.


    The Loch Ness Monster then said, "I''m selling girl scout cookies."


    Harry acted as if the monster reaching its neck through the door wasn''t from the cretaceous period and said, "Got any thin mints? How much for a box?"


    "I need about treefiddy."


    "Alright." Harry got out a wallet and handed the giant head the cash. The head then retracted completely through the door, and a moment later re-entered with a box of girl scout cookies. Harry took it and said "Thank you."


    The ''girl scout'' left and the door closed. A number of students were staring at the box and Harry noticed this and said, "What? Thin Mints are usually $4 a box, so that was a good deal." Harry then of course continued his lesson as they went over the details that would be on the finals.


    By now a number of them were desensitized and Harry was looking forward to a new semester with new victi-, students, he was looking forward to new students.


    The semester ended and Christmas was around the corner. A number of stores already had shelves filled with Fantastic Four toys and Mole Man and his giant monsters also got their own toys.


    Harry and the girls all spent Christmas in Britain with Sirius and Amelia. Harry enjoyed watching Jade''s shocked expressions at all the magic as this was her first introduction to the Wizarding World. Well, second according to Jade. She said her uncle Jackie once accidentally stumbled upon a group of wizards trying to use Stonehenge to destroy London a few years ago


    Jade retold that story to everyone of course, describing the wizards who spent the entire time chasing her and Jackie for knowing too much even though they had no idea what it was they knew.


    This had Sirius laughing his arse off while Amelia was writing down the details and would likely see if she could find and arrest these wizards.


    They returned home after the party and thanks to the difference in time zones still had a few hours before the end of the day. Due to the nature of some of the gifts given and received, they all decided to spend that time together in bed.


    *Ping*


    [Sex Path has risen to Rank 19]


    It was a good night.


    Though exhausted, the girls did not go to sleep. Harry opened a portal to a mountain range and everyone stepped through.


    Harry handed Jean a mokeskin pouch with an undetectable extension charm and a few dozen other things built into it. Within the pouch was a wizard''s tent that was modified to work in space, several hundred years worth of food, precious metals of every type, hundreds of different types of clothes, and of course, several Phoenix Fire infused reality bombs.


    It was time for Jean to fulfill her duties as the Avatar of the Phoenix Force. Every time she used its power, she''d gain awareness of what the Phoenix knew and the Phoenix knew what needed to be burnt in the universe and why. Though most of that knowledge faded when the power was not in use, not all of it did and Jean had reached her limit on ignoring the need to remove those planets.


    Harry had no way to track the actual location of the planets so Jean had to simply find them herself, one by one. Not all of them were close by and some were not even in the same galaxy. Jean would be able to use the full power of the Phoenix Force to move there but she couldn''t teleport there or use a portal meaning the trip would take time.


    In addition to a dozen magical items to be used for her protection and safety, Harry also made her a beacon type intergalactic portkey. It used Harry''s position as a point of return and was powered by Harry''s magic. Normal portkeys certainly could not be used from different planets, much less different galaxies since they weren''t strong enough. It only worked if Harry powered the Portkey''s return from his side.


    No one had any idea how long it would take for Jean to return. Weeks, months, years. It was even possible she would not return for centuries. Thankfully, Harry was able to make an AstralTech transmitter and receiver which should allow her to send a receive message to Harry regardless of the distance so they''d be able to keep in touch. If they were a few galaxies away, the messages would take a couple of days to travel, but it was still a lot better than nothing. Jean would be spending most of her time traveling through the void so she wouldn''t be able to chat, but she''d be able to give updates after each planet.


    Everyone came through the portal to say their goodbyes.


    Rogue said, "If you find anything nice on those planets, feel free to snatch ''em up first."


    Jade said, "And Pictures! Take pictures! I bet there''s lots of cool things in space!"


    Wanda added, "If you find any planets not on your list, feel free to check them out as long as you tell us. Harry''s probably going to head out to the big wide world eventually so a map and a traveler''s guide would be useful."


    Harry shook his head at their antics and said, "Above all, remember to stay safe. I don''t care if you can revive yourself from your own ashes. I prefer you to stay in one piece for as long as possible and come back to us."


    Harry took Jean in her arms and she was quickly surrounded by a group hug and was already crying.


    "And remember Jean. No matter what happens to you, no matter what you do. You will always be my wife, the one I love, until death do us part."


    Jean and everyone else smiled at that. Harry and Jean were pretty much immortal so that was his way of saying he''d be with her forever.


    Jean separated from their hug and was slowly enveloped by flames. She said, "I love you all. I promise I''ll return as soon as I can."


    With that, she flashed and a steak of light extending into the darkness of the sky shined for a moment before vanishing. The reason Harry took them to this mountain range was because there were no satellites around to see Jean leave from here.


    Harry made another portal and everyone returned to bed. They stayed in Harry''s room that night for comfort and closeness as they all hoped Jean would return to them soon.


    The first week of the New Year didn''t bring too many surprises. The only thing of interest which occurred was a hacking attempt against Harry''s company servers. They technically got in and downloaded everything, but it was only considered an attempt because the hackers targeted the dummy computers in the dummy buildings Harry registered as the main site for Brilliance Inc.


    Because the actual labor was mostly done by Goblins, Harry needed fake companies to look like they were doing the work on paper. One of those fakes was the target. The Goblin who informed Harry of this had a vicious, toothy grin. The data on the server would look normal but once you loaded that data into anything, it would turn into the most vicious sort of virus.


    Goblins loved all forms of combat. To Goblins, even business was a form of combat, so hacking was as well. The viruses hidden within those dumb files were updated nearly every other week and there were entire groups of Goblins competing against each other to see who could create the most vicious virus and anti-virus. The winner would have their virus stored on the servers and it was considered a great honor.


    This was not the first time they''d been hacked, but this was the first time the hackers had gotten past the half-assed fire walls the Goblins made. As far as they were concerned, anyone who couldn''t get past those firewalls was not fit for cyber-warfare.


    The smile on the Goblin who gave Harry the news made him ask, "Which group''s virus was in there this week?"


    The Goblin''s smile because even more viciously cruel, "It was Stonebreaker''s war party."


    Harry thought back to them and remembered what they specialized in with a bit of horror. They''re viruses didn''t just destroy or steal data. They actually caused the computers to heat up and would shut off the cooling systems to make them explode.


    Harry shook his head but didn''t bother to give whoever stole from them pity. If the gods were merciful on them, those guys wouldn''t upload the stolen data directly into their company servers and would use disconnected systems to check on the data first.


    Classes for the new Semester would start soon. Harry would have another Foundations of Metaphysics class and then in the fall Semester he''d teach Advanced Metaphysics to the students who passed in either of the first two semesters of Foundations of Metaphysics with a B or higher since those who passed the first Semester were not enough to make a class for Advanced Metaphysics. It wasn''t that Harry taught them poorly. It was just that the subject was ridiculously advanced and those students who didn''t get it only got a C. Only one student actually failed but Harry found out from him he was just having family issues so it wasn''t because of Harry''s class. He would have taken it a bit personally if he were the reason someone failed.


    However before the start of the new semester, something big came up. It all started with a silver dude on a surfboard landing on the roof of the Baxter building.


    *Author''s Note*


    So, if it wasn''t obvious at this point, I had Jean leave because I couldn''t have her go Phoenix Force and shoo Galactus away. Not exactly suspenseful. Now the best they could do would be to send her a message to use her PortKey to return but the message would take days to reach her and be too late by then so they''re on their own. Galactus can''t really be killed by anything below the Celestial level and even then, it would take multiple Celestials to do it.


    Now there were a lot of questions from the last chapter but only two were important enough to matter. Why didn''t Harry kill the Mole Man? A few reasons. The main one is that the Mole Man was the leader of an enemy country and killing him meant making the entire country his enemy. Harry figured that would cause more trouble than the Mole Man himself.


    The next question was, Is Holey Moley Bojutsu an actual thing? No idea, but I found it on a few of Mole Man''s fandom pages and it looked hilarious.


    Another thing I want to point out is that I didn''t make up Mole Man''s tech. He actually does have a staff which is made from Deviant Technology which uses Zero Point Energy to make a target''s center of gravity heavier. Yes, it sounds stupid, but that one I didn''t make up! Also for those who gave a hard cringe on the of Mole Man''s dialogue, I took a lot of it directly from the comics so that was all him.


    Anyways, for those who want an idea of how to fight Galactus, feel free to look up how the Fantastic Four did it in the original comic.. Though I might change a few things.

 Chapter 66 - 66 The Herald of Galactus

    Within a familiar arena in the Astral Plane, Harry rushed back and forth dodging the attacks from an undefinable creature. When first conjured from the Power Cosmic energy stored by Harry, the being now attacking him took the form of a sphere of constantly shifting color. In the next moment its form shifted into something insect-like which used razor-like appendages to slash at Harry''s position forcing him to dodge or block. Before it attacked again, its form shifted once more into a ball of emerald flames which rushed at Harry and tried to roast him to cinders.


    With each attack, the strange being changed its form and method of attacking preventing, thus Harry from predicting its pattern and counter-attacking. If there was some pause or opening when the creature shifted he could use that, but the shifts were seamlessly integrated into the being''s motions and consecutive attacks of different styles and types were launched like a flurry without pause.


    The strength and speed of each attack had no way to overwhelm Harry as they matched his own level, but the range of attacks were far beyond anything Harry had ever encountered.


    It had been two months since the Shuttle Incident which granted Reed and his friends their powers and Harry had spent that time studying the Power Cosmic among other things.


    This was his first attempt to use Power Cosmic for Battle Meditation and it was certainly enlightening.


    After observing the creature''s attacks for several rounds, Harry saturated himself with Crimson energy and Dimensional energy and conjured an Eldritch longsword.


    The being of Power Cosmic Harry just decided to call Anomaly turned into purple bush and shot out two dozen thorn covered purple vines at Harry''s limbs and neck. The vines tracked Harry''s position so Harry used a Dimension trick he learned from the Ancient One and curved the space causing the vines to bend around Harry as he rushed forward and attacked the bush. He slashed forward and a crimson cut neatly formed on the bush before it shifted into a massive wolf-like creature with spikes over its body.


    Harry continued his ?ssault and discovered another attribute of the Anomaly. Harry''s Eldritch sword was slightly drained of energy when it came into contact with the Anomaly and the Anomaly used what it seemed to drain from the sword to heal itself. However, the amount it stole and used to heal itself was far, far less than the amount of damage inflicted on the creature with each of Harry''s attacks.


    Harry recognized that this was Power Cosmic''s ability to turn other forms of energy into itself, though the speed it could absorb other forms of energy was very slow. Harry figured at higher levels, that speed would increase making fighting Anomalies in the future far more difficult.


    Harry tried several different forms of attack but concluded that single target strong attacks were best. It healed itself with each attack so instead of a large amount of weak attacks it was better to use a small amount of strong attacks.


    After about and hour of constant attacks between dodging and running away, Harry was able to chip away at the Anomaly''s health bar and eventually it broke down and was destroyed. The energy that formed the Anomaly was greedily absorbed by Harry''s Obscurus particles which easily reached saturation, causing them to multiply and increase Harry''s level. It wasn''t a full level gained from the one Anomaly of course as Harry was already rather close to leveling up, but the efficiency at which Harry''s Obscurus particles replicated after absorbing Power Cosmic was far greater than other forms of energy he''d absorbed in the past.


    At the edge of the arena, a pedestal started beeping. Harry walked over to it and pressed a few bu??ons before picking up a corded phone like device off it. "Hello?"


    The Ancient One said from the other end of the line, "Harry, there has been an incident. Something has breached the atmosphere and penetrated the mystic shields over the earth."


    This got Harry''s attention. Mystic threats could come from space as well and there were shields in place to stop them from getting close to the earth created by the Sanctum Sanctorums placed around the world. The shields of course only reacted to mystic threats as that is what they were designed for.


    Harry asked, "Where was the breech?"


    "New York City. It''s why I''m calling you."


    Harry inwardly rolled his eyes. One of these days he would just stop asking.


    "Get the breech sealed and I''ll check out the something. If I need backup I''ll call."


    Harry hung up the pedastal''s phone and took a moment to concentrate and return from the Astral Plane to his body. The pedestal was AstralTech that forwarded his calls to the pedestal when he was Meditating so he wouldn''t miss anything important.


    Once he was in his body he turned invisible and made a silver portal into the sky above New York City and passed through using flight magic. It was just about morning and the streaks of sunlight could be seen stretching over the horizon and illuminating the city''s skyline.


    Harry created a few Mandalas which connected to the Mystical defense grid over the city. It pointed him to where the something had landed. Harry flew over using the mandalas as a compass and found that whatever had breached the shield, landed on top of the Baxter Building, though it wasn''t there anymore.


    Harry did a few scans and confirmed the Fantastic Four had also left the building. Harry guessed he wasn''t the only one on the trail of this visitor and did few calculations to determine where it had flown off to. The feedback from his spells however gave him nothing useful. The target may have adapted.


    Still, he had a plan B. Harry pulled out his cellphone and used Administrative Access to locate Ben Grimm''s cellphone. Illegal? Probably. But useful.


    Once Harry had a location, he made another portal and walked through.


    The location was a field in some woods outside New York City. The flames on the ground were the evidence of a recent battle and the four were standing off against a male form humanoid who had a completely reflective surface, as if made from or covered in silver.


    The man seemed to be gathering energy into his hand and Johnny was launching a stream of fire at him. Between Johnny and the silver being was what could only be described as a solid silver surfboard. It stood in the way of the stream of fire and in the same instant Harry stepped out of the portal, the silver being released the stored energy in what felt like a pulse.


    Ben was charging forward just as the energy pulsed out and in the same moment Ben grabbed the man''s surfboard and in one fluid motion, whacked the silver dude over the head with it. The silver dude staggered back which caused Ben to strike him a few more times with his surfboard until the silver dude was unconscious.


    Harry became visible and walked into the clearing. He asked aloud to get their attention "Who the hell is this guy?"


    Reed and Susan turned over to see Harry and the former asked, "Professor Potter? What are you doing here?"


    Harry honestly answered, "A friend of mine monitors weird stuff that enters the atmosphere and called me. I tracked that guy to your roof but lost his trail so I tracked you guys instead."


    Johnny said, "We followed him here because he didn''t seem up to any good, but he wiped the floor with us."


    Ben held the dude''s surfboard and said in his standard gravelly voice, "He could fly around on this thing and shoot energy beams and stuff."


    Susan added, "My force fields didn''t work against him at all."


    Reed walked over to the unconscious foreigner and said, "I''m concerned with that pulse he sent. It looked like a signal or beacon."


    Harry frowned and said, "Let''s take him back. We got questions for him."


    Harry walked over to the man and picked him up. What he found through his energy senses was most discouraging. He said, "No one but Ben touches the Surfboard. That thing is concentrated Power Cosmic. Among you all, Ben has the highest concentration of Power Cosmic, so he can touch it safely, but anyone else touching it won''t end well. If a normal person touched it, it''s possible they''d explode."


    Ben took another look at the Surfboard in his grasp and shrugged before walking over to their Flying Car.


    Harry said, "We need answers fast, so let''s skip the ride back." Harry directly opened a portal which lead to the port the Flying Car took off from and threw the portal forward, engulfing everyone and translocating them into the tower.


    Ben was the first to ask, "Umm, what just happened?"


    Reed answered, "Stabilized singularity based transdimensional relocation." He was still staring with fascination at the space where the silver ring vanished after passing over them.


    Johnny asked, "What?"


    Susan summarized, "Harry made a wormhole and threw the event horizon at us."


    Ben looked over at Harry and asked, "You can do that?"


    Harry nodded, "Among other things. Save the questions for later. We need to restrain this guy first."


    The amount of energy Harry felt within this surfer dude would put his level if he had one at about one hundred. Strong, but not that strong. Logan could probably kick his ?ss. His Surfboard on the other hand was something else entirely. It was practically alive, like another heart. If it had a level, it would be over nine hundred. That meant when the guy was on his surfboard, he was about level 1000.


    Until now the strongest people Harry had seen on the planet were the Ancient One who''d be about level 270, Selene the Immortal, who was around 400, and Apocalypse, which Harry would guesstimate was around 320. His death did give Harry a bunch of levels after all.


    Of course, those numbers weren''t entirely accurate. The Ancient One''s title of Sorcerer Supreme wasn''t for show. She could channel unbelievable amounts of energy from other planes and if she went all out, she could be measured closer to level 400 herself.


    Selene couldn''t recover lost energy so when she started fighting, her energy level would drop and after her fight with Harry, even if she survived, she likely would have dropped to somewhere between level 200 and 300. Harry had warned her multiple times after all that she''d gain nothing fighting him, so it wasn''t his fault the fight ended the way it did.


    Apocalypse was weaker than Selene at her full strength but he didn''t get weaker as the fight went on. In fact since his tech could absorb energy, he could probably wipe the floor with Selene if they clashed because he had equipment which was far superior to anything she had access to.


    So depending on Path Mastery, and Equipment, Level was just a number. Up to a certain point. 1000 on the other hand was something else altogether. If it were some distinct form of energy, then it wouldn''t be that bad, but this was a level 1000 concentration of Power Cosmic of all things?! That wasn''t good.


    If this guy sent a signal, Harry was concerned, so he didn''t bother hiding his abilities if doing so would waste time.


    In the two months since the accident, Reed had turned the top floor of the Baxter building into a massive lab. Harry found a heavy duty gurney that looked like it was made to support Ben''s weight and Johnny''s flame and set the Surfer on top. He took a few things out of his inventory and used them to strap the Surfer down.


    Watching from the side, Reed said, "I believe he channels his power through his surfboard. Can you isolate him from his connection to the board?"


    Harry answered, "Already done. Honestly, this guy is too much. If he was on his surfboard, there''s no way I can think of to beat him."


    Reed went over to a computer terminal set before a massive screen and said, "I would have to agree with you. His powers caused our own to go out of control. When he hit me with one of his energy pulses, I lost all semblance of solidity for a while."


    Johnny added, "Yeah, my flames only looked like they inconvenienced him and he flew around too fast. If he didn''t get off his board, Ben wouldn''t have been able to get him."


    Susan asked, "Why did he get off his board though?"


    Harry remembered the pulse and considered it. He answered, "Perhaps the pulse he sent required information that could only be derived if his feet were on the ground. But if so, why''d he leave the city for a wild area? Did he want to stand on a specific type of ground before using it to send a pulse of information?"


    Reed had already brought up a few programs, maps, and scanning tools on his terminal and asked aloud, "And what was the purpose of the pulse? It couldn''t have been a call for help or distress beacon, not for a being with his level of might on a planet such as ours."


    Suddenly, the scanners on the terminal screen showed line after line of red bars and the speakers were blaring loudly in alarm.


    Ben said, "That doesn''t sound good."


    Susan joined Reed at the terminal and Reed said, "I''m getting distorted readings from all over the planet."


    Susan brought up a video screen which appeared to originate from a camera outside the Baxter building. The clear morning sky was suddenly filled with strange clouds which gave an ominous feeling and were getting darker and darker.


    From the gurney, their captive woke up and said in english, "Galactus is coming."


    Harry summoned the gurney rather than walk over to it causing it to quickly roll over to him. He asked, "Is Galactus the one you called? Who is he and why''d you call him?"


    The silver dude looked around but didn''t seem to mind his predicament. "You struck me with my own board. Impressive." He looked over at Harry and answered, "Galactus is the Devourer of Worlds and I am his Herald. I seek out planets rich with life for him to feast on."


    The lab was silent for a few moments. Had anyone else said something so bizarre, they likely would have been mocked or laughed at. No one in the room however found it funny.


    Susan was the first to break the silence, "Can you tell him to go away? This planet is filled with innocents. Billions of them!"


    The surfer answered, "If Galactus does not consume worlds, the hunger within will kill him. He will not be dissuaded. There are innocents on this world, but there are innocents on many worlds. However this world has far greater life energy than any I have ever seen. After devouring your world, Galactus''s hunger will be alleviated for a long time. This will spare many other worlds from his hunger, saving the innocents of many worlds at the cost of the innocents of a single world."


    Something about that didn''t add up to Harry. If so, why hadn''t Galactus devoured this world already? Harry asked, "Why''d you come to this world?"


    "Originally I did not come here seeking a world. Your world is hidden from my long range senses. But I felt a source of Power Cosmic originate nearby and when I came to investigate, I found your world."


    Harry loudly ?r??n?d causing everyone in the room to give him a questioning look.


    The Ancient One obviously had not seen a future where the world got devoured. So why were they targeted now? Apparently it was because of that pyramid. She couldn''t see consequences of Harry''s actions meaning this was, technically, his fault.


    Harry wondered about why the planet was shielded from the Surfer''s sight since he doubted any Sorcerer Supreme of the past knew specifically of Galactus. If they did, they probably would have written it down somewhere and Harry had read everything in the temple and had never heard of him.


    Then Harry remembered that there were other protectors of this planet and they had probably set up the shield.


    Harry looked back down on the Surfer and said, "This planet is Migard and protected under the Nine Realms Treaty enforced by the Allfather Odin Borson and the realm of Asgard. They set up the shield which hid this planet and attacking this realm means incurring Asgard''s wrath."


    The four humans in the room all had no idea what Harry was speaking of but the Surfer chuckled. He said, "Apologies, but Galactus''s hunger does not recognize such treaties. I am familiar with Asgard, but once Galactus arrives, the Allfather''s sight will be covered and by the time he chooses to send someone to investigate, Migard will have been consumed. Look for yourselves, he is already here."


    The camera feed on the monitor started getting fuzzy like the cable/antenna input on a tv. Reed and Susan spent a moment to recalibrate it and once finished, the screen showed a massive sphere-like spaceship far larger than the tallest building in New York. It descended through the clouds and stopped just over the Baxter Building.


    Harry''s phone rang and when he answered it, the Ancient One said with more concern than he''d ever heard from her, "Harry. The future is gone. The energy reserves from the planet''s Mystic defenses were instantly drained when something passed through them."


    The phone was on speaker so everyone in the room heard the call. Harry said, "I''ll think of something. Work on damage control."


    Harry hung up and called another number. On speaker once it answered, Harry said, "Xavier, we have a planet devouring alien in a city sized spaceship parked outside New York. Get your ?ss in Cerebro and see if you can reason with it or attack it if need be."


    Xavier could feel how serious Harry was and instead of questioning it, responded, "Understood," and hung up the call.


    Reed was still monitoring the camera feed and asked, "Why isn''t anyone looking at the ship?"


    The cameras included some shots of people in the city walking around but though some looked up at the sky, no one specifically pointed at the ship.


    The Surfer answered, "Beings under a certain level of existence cannot perceive the ship without ?ssistance."


    Susan said, "Well, that''s not stopping the military." She brought up another screen with a map and two moving, blinking dots and said, "We have two missiles on the way."


    Harry figured Reed wasn''t the only person on the planet who could calibrate a monitor so others would have noticed as well.


    The dark clouds over the Earth slowly became thicker. Strange lights and sounds could be seen and heard coming from them, all over the world.


    Reed had a dozen scanners up on his half of the monitor and said, "The energy radiating off those clouds is shifting the frequency of all the electron valence bonds on the planet." He looked over at the Surfer and asked, "Why?"


    The Surfer again helpfully answered, "When the frequency matches the void at the center of Galactus''s stomach, he will start feasting. Once he starts, it cannot be stopped. All forms of energy and all forms of life on this planet will lose cohesion and be su?k?d directly into his mouth as if it were a black hole. I have seen it happen thousands of times. When he is finished, all that will be left of your world will be a cold and empty husk."


    Ben asked, "So, what''s the cloud doing?"


    Reed clarified, "It''s cooking the planet."


    Harry asked, "How long until he finishes?"


    "About ten minutes."


    Everyone turned to the Surfer in shock and Harry rolled his eyes. No wonder the Surfer had no qualms answering their questions. He was completely convinced nothing he said would help.


    Harry had been looking into the Surfer''s eyes the whole time using legilimency but the man''s mind was wrapped in clouds of darkness and Harry couldn''t break through them.


    Harry wouldn''t bother calling Jean. From the last update he''d gotten from her he knew she was three and a half galaxies away. Harry had given her a tool that could display her six dimensional coordinates and if she gave them to Harry, he could use them to make a portal directly to her. However if Harry sent her a message using the AstralTech communicator he''d given her, it would take a week for her to receive it and another week for her to send those coordinates back. That was why he gave her an intergalactic portkey. Once activated it would return her to earth in a moment, but Harry couldn''t activate it remotely and it would still take a week to send her a message to activate it on her end.


    On the screen, the missiles had reached the ship, but once they got close, they vanished.


    A long distance telepathic message was sent to Harry from Xavier. ''Harry, it''s worse than you thought. That isn''t a ship. That is a miniaturized space traveling planet a quarter the size of our own. I have spoken with Galactus, but convincing him to find another world was like convincing a starving dog to ignore meat in front of it. He shared with me a fraction of his hunger. It was pure pain, suffering, and madness greater than any I have ever encountered. I could not dissuade him and even Cerebro cannot strengthen me enough to attack him. I have asked Erick for help but the best he can do is buy us some time. You''ll need to find something else.''


    Reed didn''t hear the message but had already zoomed into the ship once the missiles vanished and after several rounds of magnification only possible because of the high end equipment of the Baxter building, they saw the missiles again, heading slowly for the ship.


    Susan grasped what was happening first and said, "Incredible. The space around the ship is in a completely separated timespace."


    Reed added, "It''s a factor of 10,000 to one. That ship is a lot bigger than it appears.


    Harry and the rest watched the two tiny missiles crashed onto the ship''s exterior and made two tiny puffs of light. The ship looked completely unharmed. At first Harry thought if it was a normal ship, he could portal inside and sabotage it. Apparently it was Death Star sized ship and unless he conveniently found a astrodroid with the Planet Ships'' designs, he wouldn''t be able to disable it from within without being discovered and probably eaten by Galactus before he could do anything useful.


    In the next moment, a pulse of white light was shot from the ship into the clouds.


    Still bound to the gurney, the Surfer said, "Many planets far more advanced than yours have been devoured by Galactus."


    Reed looked over the readings from the white pulse and said, "All of the long range weapon systems on the planet were just disabled!"


    Harry raised an eyebrow and took out a spare Planet Busting Phoenix Fire Reality Bomb from his inventory. The moment he did, Harry felt the energies within start to stabilize and the Phoenix Fire start to die out. The bomb worked on instability increasing until it reached a critical point. A planet wide field that not only prevented it from becoming more unstable but decreased its inherent instability meant that this Bomb was now a massive paperweight.


    As another test, Harry took out a magic grenade. These were just magically conductive materials that exploded a few moments after Harry had injected enough magic in them to reach critical mass. Once Harry took it out from his timeless inventory, the critical mass of Exotic energy immediately stabilized and calmed down. All of his magic weapons were based on the concept of exploding after reaching critical mass. All of them were now useless. The only one left was his railgun but he only had three of those and each only had six shots. That wasn''t anywhere near enough to take down a friggin Planet Ship.


    Another alarm blared on the monitor.


    Reed pulled up another window and saw a massive city sized asteroid rapidly descending through the atmosphere on a direct collision course with the Planet Ship.


    Harry recognized that asteroid. It was a space colony set up by Magneto, Asteroid M. Though empty now, he''d been working on it for years and once finished, he''d use it as a place for Mutants to live freely without fear. Harry''s eyes widened with shock when he realized that Magneto was using his most precious treasure as a blunt weapon to attack the Planet Ship.


    The Surfer could see the monitor from where he was bound and said, "Clever, but useless. The shields on Galactus''s ship cannot be harmed by an asteroid."


    Everyone in the room watched as the asteroid passed through the field separating the spacetime of the ship and shrunk accordingly. However it was still very large.


    The asteroid impacted the ship and caused a massive explosion with a blinding light. It broke through the ship''s exterior and tore apart the hull.


    The surfer''s calm exterior broke at the sight, "That''s impossible."


    Harry used that moment to look into his eyes once more. He found a hole in the darkness and used every bit of magic and telepathy he had to pierce into the depths of his mind.


    Within those clouds Harry found bound memories. Harry didn''t know how long he had until he was kicked out, so he released every memory he could find. The cloud of darkness followed him and Harry had to move quickly from one memory to the next. Harry could tell that these were the memories of a man''s life, probably the Surfer''s. Originally he broke into his mind hoping to get lucky and find some intel, but if he could get the man his memories back, perhaps he could gain even more.


    Wizards knew more about sealing and erasing memories than most and Harry knew more than any Wizard. Recovering stolen memories was hard for others but for Harry it wasn''t difficult. The power sealing those memories was in fact Power Cosmic, but Harry had spent enough time studying it to make getting through the seals a simple matter.


    With each freed memory, the black space filled with more and more light. The dark clouds continued to attack Harry but got thinner and thinner with each unlocked memory. After Harry unlocked another, it seemed to start a chain reaction causing the other memories to unlock in a massive wave of blinding light.


    The darkness shattered and revealed the mind of a family man from an alien world.


    Harry retreated from his mind in the next moment. The entire exchange had taken less than a second.


    Reed was still monitoring the footage and said, "There was Power Cosmic in that asteroid! That must be how it penetrated the ship''s shielding!"


    Harry then remembered when he shielded the Earth from the pulse of Power Cosmic, he only shielded the Earth. Asteroid M was actually floating in orbit further out that most Satellites and apparently got a full blast of the wave. Some of it had probably turned into other forms of energy but not all of it and there was enough there to cause a reaction when striking the Planet Ship.


    The black clouds over the earth became quiet but didn''t disperse. The damage caused wasn''t enough to disable the ship.


    Reed zoomed in on the damage and said, "It''s repairing itself at a remarkable rate."


    From the gurney, the Surfer ?r??n?d with a headache and said, "My name. Is Norrin Radd."


    Everyone turned to him. Harry said, "I was able to break into your mind and unseal your memories. Did Galactus seal them?"


    The Four looked back at Harry in confusion. Norrin answered, "Yes. Long ago, Galactus came to my world. I promised I would serve him if he spared it. He agreed, and I became his Herald, the Silver Surfer."


    Johnny asked, "Wait, your name is actually the Silver Surfer?"


    Harry glared at him and said, "Not now Human Torch!"


    Johnny pouted and Norrin continued, "My memories of my home world and my life were sealed to prevent me from returning."


    Harry asked, "Can you think of a way to save this world?"


    After a moment of thinking, he said, "Perhaps, there is a way. There is a device stored on Galactus''s Homeworld called the Ultimate Nullifier. It is the only thing I believe we with can threaten Galactus with."


    Johnny asked, "And just how are we supposed to get there?"


    Harry had the same question since he didn''t have the coordinates and he doubted the Surfer had them in a six dimensional format Harry could use to portal to the location. However for the first time since receiving the Ancient One''s call this morning, Harry smiled once he heard a familiar sound.


    *Ping*


    ____________________


    *Author''s Note*


    I watched the original Fantastic Four Cartoon episode Galactus on Disney+ and I cringed so many times. The technobable they improperly used sent shivers down my spine so there was no way I was going to use that. I did my best to give a somewhat realistic (by MCU standards) means of how Galactus would attack the planet, how it would work, how others would respond, and how he would react to their responses. I had the idea of launching Asteroid M at Galactus the whole time because I loved the idea. There is no way to beat Galactus and the only reason they did in the cartoon and comics was because of Uatu the Watcher. I didn''t want to include him so I had to come up with a series of coincidences which could stack up to create some comic level plot armor and give them a fighting chance. Now just have to figure out how to get the Nullifier. In the cartoon, the homeworld was covered in clouds that could negate the existence of anyone who came into contact them and the homeworld itself would annihilate anyone who set foot on it so getting it won''t be like picking up milk from the grocery store.


    If anyone thinks they are clever, feel free to comment how you think a pre-Iron Man MCU/X-Men/HP-verse would handle this version of Galactus. I did my best to close all the loopholes I could think of but I probably missed a few. Against a Planet Ship filled with Power Cosmic energy and defenses, none of the mutants introduced so far (besides Jean) can do anything and other powerful mutants either haven''t awoken or are not in a condition to fight. Please don''t say Xavier should tell Harry to drop his son off on the ship.. I haven''t even decided if I want Legion here and if I do, he probably wouldn''t have powers yet since if he did, Shield would know of him which at the moment they don''t.

 Chapter 67 - 67 The Ultimate Nullifier

    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Steal the Ultimate Nullifier


    -Travel to the Eye of Infinity Past the Celestial Barrier of the Region of Unlife.


    *Do not touch the Heavy Anti-Electro Matter Cloud or you will die.*


    -Acquire the Ultimate Nullifier within the seventh chamber in the seventh level of Galactus''s Home World.


    *Do not make contact with any surface within Galactus''s Home World or you will cease to exist.*


    -Have Fantastic Four Stall Galactus to buy more time.


    *The longer he is stalled, the more likely he is to reduce them to their molecular essence.*]


    Harry immediately Paused just so he could confirm that he read what he thought he had just read. This looked like an over the top Dungeons and Dragons Quest thought up by a Dungeon Master with a penchant for the dramatic. Eye of Infinity? Celestial Barrier of Unlife? And what the fu?k was Heavy Anti-Electro Matter?!


    The Quest had a target which meant it had a target pointer. So Harry knew the direction of the target. The problem though was making a portal to a region he''d never been to required six dimensional coordinates he couldn''t get from a map pointer.


    Harry stared at the quest and sighed. He knew what this was. The Living Tribunal or whoever gave him these quests could not help him and could not give him a quest to do something he had no knowledge of which was why he only got it after Norrin told him about the thingy at Galactus''s house.


    A map pointer was all he''d get. But that was fine. It wasn''t difficult to think of a few ways to derive the six dimensional coordinates, he just needed more directions. Harry took his time crafting an integration formula which could use the map pointer at different coordinates to point to where the target was.


    Once finished, Harry unpased and asked the Silver Surfer, "You wouldn''t happen to be able to take me to Galactus''s Home World would you?"


    "I am sorry. I cannot go there myself, much less take another. I do not know where it even is."


    Ben asked with some anger, "Then what good is that gonna do for us?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "Worth a shot, I''ll find it myself," before walking over to the middle of the room. He then created silver ring after silver ring in rapid succession, five or six every second which came into existence and showed a brief sight of the space beyond before collapsing to be replaced by another ring showing a different space. Each lead to a region of empty space in the vast Universe and Harry''s map pointer adjusted accordingly using the new position on the portal''s other side.


    Of course, a place named the ''Eye of Infinity Past the Celestial Barrier of the Region of Unlife'' didn''t sound like a place you could drive to on the way to IHOP. Harry doubted it was in this plane of the Universe so many of the Portals created by Harry went to different realms and other dimensions. With each portal Harry was halving the possible locations of his Home World, but the Universe was immense and only after making just over a thousand portals did Harry narrow down the search and find it.


    Harry used magic to release the binds on Norrin Radd and sat down in the ground, completely exhausted. "Does that look like it?"


    The unbound Surfer walked over to examine the portal that remained after the other portals vanished. Harry was catching his bearings and used his Settings to remove his sense of taste before he took out several nasty potions from his inventory he used to refill his magic capacity.


    Beyond the portal was the darkness of space and further out was a massive sphere of swirling, dark gases, spinning around. Some parts of the swirling gases opened and closed showing that under the sphere was a metallic planetoid.


    It was difficult to gauge the size from the distance and perspective, but Harry could tell that the sphere of dark gases was larger than Jupiter and the metal planet under the sphere was many times larger than Earth.


    The Surfer remarked, "Incredible." He wasn''t shocked by the portal, but by Harry''s ability to locate Galactus''s Home World in only a few moments.


    Reed examined it and asked, "What are those clouds?"


    Most gases in space only remained gases because they were hot and glowing or because they were a part of Gas Giants which were highly reflective. Dark, nonreflective clouds in space didn''t make any sense unless it was particulate matter but those clouds were clearly gaseous, not particulate.


    Harry said, "Oh, those? Why those are clouds of Heavy Anti-Electro Matter. Touch them and you will instantly die." He decided to shamelessly pretend he knew what those were and didn''t learn of its existence a few moments ago.


    The Surfer stated, "He is correct. They form a barrier which separates Galactus''s Home World from the rest of the Universe."


    Susan shouted from the terminal, "Reed! Galactus''s sphere is almost repaired!"


    Harry said, "I''ll get the Ultimate Nullifier. If I found the planet and I can find the Nullifier too. You guys need to stall Galactus until I get back. Be careful though, if you piss off Galactus too much, someone with that much power will probably reduce you to your molecular essence."


    The Surfer said, "Again. He is correct. For returning me my memories, I will help this world. But do hurry, we do not have much time."


    Harry nodded and flew directly into the portal before it closed.


    Once Harry was on the other side and away from prying eyes, he opened his inventory and got out a Time Turner. Though he had a plan A, a Plan B would be quite nice as well.


    Harry turned it back five hours and returned to earth.


    The Map Pointer was disabled since the quest had not been issued yet. It would be re-enabled once the timeline caught up to the point the quest was given. Harry couldn''t search for and grab the Ultimate Nullifier early either since he used it in the present to find its location. If he nabbed it in the past, it wouldn''t be there when the present caught up and would create a paradox since it wouldn''t be there for him to search for.


    Still, there were two things Harry could do with five extra hours. He could map out Galactus''s Home World and send an SOS as a Plan B.


    Five hours wasn''t enough time to do much else and even if he had more, his options were limited. Why''d he get a Quest to Steal the Ultimate Nullifier and not a Quest to Drive Away or Kill Galactus? There were only two answers.


    The first was that it was impossible to succeed without doing great harm to the planet. Harry certainly considered making a new bomb and setting it off in Galactus''s ship, but the ship was in a field that reduced its size by 10,000 times. If damaging the ship removed that field, the ship returning to its normal size would destroy the planet anyways.


    The second reason he may not have been given a Quest to do so was that there would have been terrible consequences for succeeding, so the Living Tribunal did not ask it of him. Harry decided to put some trust in the opinion of the being who judges all of reality so he wouldn''t waste time trying to find a way to drive back or kill Galactus without the Ultimate Nullifier, instead he''d just do everything he could to make its acquisition as fast and efficient as possible.


    Still, a Plan B wasn''t a bad idea. Harry found an empty field in New York and created a massive sigil circle filled with Norse Runes. Harry empowered it with energy until it discharged which was a sign the message Harry inscribed had been sent. ''In Five hours time, Galactus the Devourer of Worlds will descend on Midgard to devour it. Please send help.''


    Harry hoped it would work, but he wasn''t going to hold his breath. There was no Quest given to call Asgard for aid. If this message went right to Odin or even Heimdall, that''d be great, but Harry had a nagging feeling the message went to a drop box the Asgardians probably checked once every couple of decades if they were feeling generous. The last time Midgard called for aid was during the 14th century when Frost giants from Jotunheim invaded and tried to freeze the world. Modern Historians call that period the Mini Ice Age though they guessed that phenomenon was caused by fluctuations in the sun.


    Still, it was worth a try. Once finished, Harry returned via portal to the Celestial Barrier of Unlife which apparently separated the Eye of Infinity from the rest of the universe. Harry already confirmed that this Barrier of swirling dark clouds somehow scrambled the coordinates of the space within so even though Harry could see the other side through the gaps, he couldn''t make a portal into it and would have to traverse the cloud manually.


    The dark swirling clouds apparently made of Heavy Anti-Electro Matter had gaps and openings which opened and closed randomly with the flowing rotation of the clouds themselves. The cloud itself over the planetoid was incredibly thick and one wrong move traveling through it and it was apparently instant death. Harry could have sworn he had Instant Death Immunity from a Perk, but the fact that the Quest said it meant that he probably couldn''t rely on it for something of this level.


    Still, he wasn''t worried. Harry got out something from his inventory which looked almost like the chassis of a motorbike but sleeker, lacking in wheels, and made of wood with a form reminiscent of a speeder bike from Star Wars. This was the latest prototype Harry had come up with for an Ultimate Broomstick. Harry didn''t feel he''d reached the limit yet but this thing''s top speed would tear the flesh off a normal witch or wizard and go at speeds which made a jet plane cry.


    Harry sped directly into the closest gap and through the storm of dark swirling clouds like lightning bolt. The field of clouds, this Celestial Barrier of the Region of Unlife, was tens of thousands of miles deep and the gaps that randomly formed between the clouds were b?r?ly large enough for a bus to squeeze through. Considering that contact with the clouds meant instant death, it wasn''t a walk in the park.


    Harry hadn''t had so much fun in years.


    Though Harry would deny being an adrenaline junkie, that was simply because he did not actively search for opportunities to feel alive. Of course, his excuse for not looking for them was because there weren''t any places that could give him such a feeling. His fights against Selene, Apocalypse, the Black Dragon, and Voldemort''s flunkies all had their ups and downs but it never felt like he was in real danger because he could still come back. The only thing that came close was his encounter with Chthon, but that wasn''t devoid of excitement and was instead filled with desperation.


    Without the quest pointer Harry did in fact get surrounded and reach a dead end, but that didn''t stop him from making a portal out of the gas and starting over. The gas destroyed the portal if touched so making it too soon or too late would cause his death as easily as riding into the cloud itself.


    After about a half hour and a dozen attempts filled with racing through unmappable paths forwards, backwards, and all around, Harry was able to pierce through the clouds intact and made his way to the Death Star looking Planetoid.


    The space within felt nothing like the space in the rest of the universe. In fact it felt like it was encrypted. Harry was confident while inside the space he could make portals within the space and even make portals exiting the space, but if he left, he wouldn''t be able to make another portal back in without traversing the Celestial Barrier of Unlife once more.


    Though Harry couldn''t find the Ultimate Nullifier until the quest popped up in a little over four hours, Harry wasn''t going to sit there and twiddle his thumbs. It was time to do some mapping.


    Even without the pointer, the Quest said it was in the seventh chamber in the seventh level. So first Harry had to find the entrance and from there do some counting. Harry said aloud to no one in particular, "Now where''s an exhaust port when you need one?"


    Harry used his broom to fly to the surface of the planetoid and was thankful he had his broom. The magic of the broom was internal meaning it could not be tracked which also meant it did not emit anything that could disrupt other systems and give away his position. Harry spent an hour circling the surface of the planetoid at several multiples the speed of sound to map the various entrances and found five that looked slightly larger than the others. Having nothing else to compare them to, he asked himself, "But is it bigger than a womp rat?"


    He picked one and flew into it and then flew seven levels down and mapped the region. He explored a few rooms but didn''t see anything that looked like it could be an Ultimate Nullifier but then again, he didn''t know what an Ultimate Nullifier looked like. After spending thirty minutes expanding his map, he made a portal to the surface and found another entrance and went another seven levels down before he started mapping once more.


    In this way, Harry spent the next four hours mapping the planetoid and exploring various regions.


    The planetoid was by a wide margin, the most advanced thing Harry had ever seen, exceeding even the tech used by Apocalypse by a wide margin. Harry wasn''t afraid of death but he was fond of existing so he didn''t touch anything nor interact with anything using magic or technopathy. Because of this, every system was rather confusing. Despite having an understanding of Block Transfer Computation acquired from a ship that traveled through time and space, having an understanding of Material Alteration Physics from his studies on the Sonic Screwdriver, and having an understanding on most forms of energy and magic to the point he created a new branch of science, nothing in the Planetoid made even the smallest bit of sense.


    He felt like a caveman walking through the heart of CERN. His best guess was that much of the systems used Power Cosmic in the same way Earth used Electricity meaning the systems could automatically derive specific forms of energy needed for their function from the Power Cosmic fed into them. A system which used a single source of energy to derive many others which all used it for various purposes reminded Harry of a Biosphere powered by sunlight. Though the planet was metal, it was as diverse as Earth in form and function. It was also likely many millions if not billions of times more efficient.


    Probably the thing which made the least sense about the planetoid however was that it was empty. Since this was the pat, Harry didn''t know if Galactus was home, but he didn''t encounter any living creatures or personnel. Of course, the paths he flew through on his broom weren''t exactly hallways with doors. They were simply jagged open spaces filled with things built at random angles built between various sections of strange gizmos. It was like the planetoid was built from millions of spaceships which had been brought together and built into a single object.


    There were still many spaces between the various structures which were impossible to traverse without being able to fly. Harry suspected there might have been hallways in other parts of the planetoid, but Harry wouldn''t try to find any until the quest popped up and he knew Galactus had left the building.


    Eventually the past caught up to the present and the Quest became active, giving the map pointer something to look at.


    Harry made a dozen portals around the superstructure and used the pointer to determine which was closest to the Ultimate Nullifier. When used however, Harry realized that whatever the map pointer was pointing to was moving.


    Harry used a portal to head into the mapped out region closest to wherever the pointer was directing him to and flew in the direction of the Nullifier. After passing though another layer, he found a region his map hadn''t filled out before meaning it wasn''t open before. Harry flew in and found an entrance to a spinning hallway. Once Harry entered, he realized the interior core of the Planetoid apparently spun within the exterior shell. The so-called Seventh Level he thought he found through each opening was wrong. The true seventh level was actually the divide between the exterior shell and the interior core.


    Once Harry was standing within the core, he didn''t fly in the direction of the Nullifier. Instead, he flew perpendicular to the direction it was pointing and mapped out the angle the pointer changed to triangulate the position.


    He wasn''t just going to fly to the Nullifier, this core was still larger than the Earth and he didn''t have time to take the direct route.


    Once Harry calculated the approximate location of this so-called Seventh Room, Harry directly made a portal to it and the map pointer proved his calculations true.


    Harry flew inside and found a normal looking room with a strange looking device placed on a pedestal. It looked like a cross between a camcorder and a water filter with two protrusions sticking out from one end and a rounded semi-circle on the other end with no place to hold it. It certainly did not look like a weapon and was quite small for something with Ultimate in its name, but Harry''s pointer was showing it as the Ultimate Nullifier so Harry wouldn''t question it.


    Harry flew closer on his broom to get a good look but didn''t touch it. Instead, Harry made three portals. He made one to the left of the Nullifier, one to the right of it, and the last next to himself. Harry passed through the portal next to him which brought him to a park in New York.


    The dark clouds overhead were cracking with dangerous sounds and lights. Near the Baxter Building were the echoes of explosions and the unmistakable sound of combat.


    Near where Harry exited were two other portals next to each other, one to the left and right of the Ultimate Nullifer''s position.


    Harry grabbed and broke off a long tree branch off a nearby tree and used it to give the Ultimate Nullifier a harsh jab through one of the portals. The tree branch disintegrated into nothingness and the tree Harry plucked it off vanished from existence. The jab however pushed the Ultimate Nullifier off the pedestal into the opposite portal where Harry grabbed it.


    The room beyond the portal flashed red and all three portals both shattered.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Steal the Ultimate Nullifier


    Reward: Manual for the Ultimate Nullifier]


    Harry Paused and took a metaphorical breath.


    He had his suspicions about how to steal something in a place where touching anything could negate your existence and he was right to be cautious. He was also pleased with the Reward. If he couldn''t use the thing, he couldn''t threaten Galactus with it and his lesson with the Darkhold taught him the dangers of putting strange things in his Inventory.


    Harry went through the Manual and quickly got a headache. This was going to take a while. It wasn''t as long as the Big Book of Time and Space but it wasn''t a short read either.


    Some indeterminable amount of time later, Harry finished his readings and shook his head. This thing was ridiculous. The manual didn''t describe how the thing was made but it did describe how it worked and how to use it. This thing was probably the most dangerous weapon in the universe and Harry could understand why Galactus would be concerned over it.


    It was basically a Delete Key. It completely and utterly violated the law of conservation of mass and would remove the existence of a target from reality. It seemed to have other features as well, but they were far too advanced for Harry to understand and he would simply memorize them to ponder another time.


    What was dangerous about this weapon was that it was not aimed by pointing it, but aimed using the holder''s mind, will power, and understanding of the target to be Nullified. If the user tried to Nullify something beyond their understanding, they would instead be Nullified.


    Harry was confident if needed, he could use this to Nullify Galactus, but he wasn''t confident he understood enough about Galactus to withstand the feedback meaning it would probably kill him too. Thankfully as long as Harry demonstrated he knew how it worked, that should be enough of a threat for Galactus to skedaddle.


    Harry took a moment to ponder if there was anything he wanted to use the Nullifier on before going over there. The Manual made it clear this device was as much a part of Galactus as his heart and could be recalled. Harry felt he could fire it if Galactus tried to take it from him but he couldn''t keep it after Galactus left.


    He could fire it at the five Great Garbage Patches floating in the various oceans and rid the world of much of its trash. He could fire it at the sky and remove the accumulated greenhouse gases, resetting the climate changes and bringing the air quality back to how it was before the industrial revolution.


    After considering it for a while, Harry decided not to use it like that. Harry may have been a hero on occasion as a hobby, but he was not a janitor. Solving all of the Earth''s problems would not stop the people of the Earth from committing them again so there was no point in doing so.


    However, there was one thing that he could Delete that the earth could do without.


    Harry unpaused and took out a corked glass vial containing a bateria suspended in water and threw it into the air. Harry turned off the Safety on the Nullifier and fired it at the vial, causing it to glow for a moment before it stopped glowing and fell back down into Harry''s hand, Bacteria free.


    Harry felt a bit of the recoil, but he was fully away of exactly what was in that vial and had no problems Deleting it.


    The Ultimate Nullifier did not simply remove the existence of that Bacteria from the vial. Harry simply used the Vial as a sample and used the power of the Nullifier to remove that Bacteria''s existence from the universe.


    This Bacteria is, or was, called Sublime. It was an annoying piece of work Harry discovered while researching how the Friends of Humanity were funding the Mutant Weapons Programs like the Weapons Plus Program Harry and Wolverine raided in Canada.


    The Bacteria originated from a single life form that could sustain its existence through a concentration of this Bacteria within a suitably infected host. A large percent of the humans on earth, especially in first and second world countries, had been infected with Sublime through contaminated water systems and Sublime could influence anyone who was lightly infected, manipulate anyone with a moderate infection, and directly control those highly infected.


    For some reason however, humans with an awakened X-Gene were immune to Sublime''s infection and control. Because of this, the irrational fear and hatred many had towards mutants was in fact generated through Sublime''s influence and control.


    Harry had been working on ways to negate Sublime''s influence but hadn''t figured out a way to remove Sublime from the planet in any realistic way.


    But since he happened to run across an unrealistic way of Deleting it, why not? Those influenced by Sublime would feel a light headache with the bacteria''s Nullification. Those manipulated by it would feel a strong headache. Those directly controlled by Sublime would probably lose consciousness and when they woke up, they might not even have memories from when they were controlled.


    Thankfully there was a massive, scary looking cloud over the planet and everyone would blame that for anything caused by Sublime''s removal.


    Honestly speaking, Harry didn''t care that much for Sublime. Harry''s business partners weren''t human and Sublime apparently didn''t infect them. Not that it couldn''t, it just didn''t, so the Bacteria wouldn''t be able to do much to Harry.


    The reason Harry targeted it for oblivion in the first place and Nullified it the moment he had a chance was that Sublime was Jean''s enemy.


    Harry knew all of this because he basically hacked into Sublime''s channel using invisible magic. Sublime apparently existed through a massive psionic field over the planet which connected all the Sublime Bacteria together. Somehow, it not only knew of the existence of the Phoenix Force, but knew Jean was the Avatar of it and had targeted her for death. If not for Harry warding the New York University against Sublime''s influence, there would have been a few incidents already.


    Now however it was no more. Harry hadn''t told anyone about Sublime yet because he didn''t want Sublime to know he was onto him. The Bacteria certainly suspected, but it didn''t know. Once everything was settled, Harry would speak with Charles and Erik on the matter. The latter had given up a lot to protect the earth this time and Harry would do what he could to make it up to him.


    After catching the vial, Harry put it back into his inventory to confirm Sublime was gone and made a portal to the top of the Baxter Building.


    Once he was out, he Paused to take a look around. There were a number of things which stood out.


    First, the Fantastic Four were fighting two other beings. Reed and Ben were fighting a stone grey skinned Barbarian looking dude with a red vest and a massive axe. Susan and Johnny were going against Johnny''s brother, or so it appeared. Like Johnny, this guy was also covered in flames but he had a long staff with flames at both ends and was using it as a weapon.


    The Silver Surfer was overhead, though not on his surfboard. It seemed he had just been swatted and was soaring backwards through the air. His surfboard was in the air next to an enormous purple and red armored man wearing a tall metallic hat with upwards pointing spikes


    The man was standing on a platform which was extending from the planetship out, beyond the range of the 10,000x reduction field.


    Harry didn''t have to be a genius to know who that was.


    At the moment Harry stepped through the portal, everyone except for the batted away surfer looked over at him with a look of relief. Harry was glad they had not been reduced to their molecular essence yet.


    Harry unpaused and said aloud, "Galactus, does this look familiar?"


    Having just exited a silver portal, Harry''s presence did in fact garner enough interest for Galactus to turn his head just a bit to look in his direction. His uncaring expression however did not survive seeing what Harry was holding in his hand.


    In a deep voice, the purple titan shouted, "The Ultimate Nullifier! Where did you get that? Give it to me you fool before you reduce the entire galaxy into subatomic particles!"


    Harry pointed it up and fired. The dark clouds overhead quickly broke apart and the sky was revealed. Harry Nullified the system cooking the planet in such a way that the very act of cooking the planet had been reversed. If Galactus wanted to cook it again, he''d had to start over from scratch.


    Harry then pointed it at Galactus and said, "I want you to give up on Devouring this world."


    Galactus froze for a moment. A flash of real fear crossed his eyes. He asked, "How do you know how to use that?"


    Harry pulled out the manual from his inventory and banished it toward Galactus who easily caught it. Harry said, "I am a Chosen of the Living Tribunal, Eternity, Infinity, Lady Death, and the Phoenix Force. The Living Tribunal showed me where to find your Nullifier and gave me that Manual on how to use it to protect my world from you."


    All true, though it gave the wrong message when strung together like that. Still, it gave Galactus much to think about. Galactus''s eyes glowed for a moment and so did the manual. He''d read it in an instant and the frown he displayed showed that he hadn''t doubted Harry''s words.


    None of the Fantastic Four knew any of the terms Harry used but the Barbarian and Fire Guy Number Two both displayed traces of fear at the names Harry dropped.


    Galactus looked beyond the sky''s horizon and growled in frustration. He looked down at Harry and said, "Return to me my Nullifier. This lowly planet is not worth the time and effort I have expended. I shall pursue its life energy no longer."


    Ben walked over and asked, "Is he serious?"


    The Surfer, who apparently controlled his board to fly over and catch him, flew down and said, "Galactus has never gone back on his word."


    Johnny said, "No way, you should totally keep it."


    Ben said, "Use it on him anyways, make sure he won''t come back."


    Galactus growled and Harry felt the Nullifier being irresistibly pulled away. Harry released it without struggle and allowed it to fly into Galactus''s hand.


    Galactus said, "Terrax, Firelord, return to the Sphere."


    ""As you command,"" they answered in unison.


    Galactus turned to face the Surfer and said, "And you my once and former Herald. I hereby exile you to the planet you have saved. No longer shall you soar the endless skyways for the rest of your days. I condemn you to this minor galaxy."


    A beam of purple light shot from Galactus''s finger to the Surfer''s Board, but didn''t seem to cause any other effects.


    As the Devourer of Worlds turned back, Harry shouted, "Since I denied you a meal, before you go, here''s a snack."


    Harry took out a crystal containing a large amount of pure life force derived from Phoenix Flame. This was the lifeforce obtained from burning a small plane of Hell''s worth of Demons back when the X-Men rescued those kidnapped kids. Next, he took out a Golden Apple.


    With a flash of light, the Apple and crystal vanished and became a massive apple pie far larger than Harry himself.


    Harry used magic to deliver the pie to Galactus who only took it because he could in fact sense some meagre amount of life force within. Obviously not a planet''s worth, or even a continent or city''s, but at least a town''s worth and better than nothing.


    Harry then conjured a small apple pie in front of him and said, "This is the traditional Earth way to eat Apple Pie." Harry then smashed himself in the face with the pie pan. A moment later he removed it and started picking pieces off his face to eat.


    Galactus stared at him for a few moments before looking back at the pie in his hand. The incredulous looks of the Fantastic Four were ignored because Galactus didn''t pay attention to beings on that level. Harry on the other hand had confirmed he was not on the level of insects, thus had a bit more of his attention.


    After considering it for a moment, Galactus smashed the pie into his own face which caused the Fantastic Four to openly gap at the impossible spectacle.


    Galactus then removed the pie pan and picked some pieces of the pie off his face and proceeded to eat them. The lifeforce was meagre, but the taste was certainly not bad. It was better than empty calories at least. Galactus turned back and started walking back to his ship while eating more of the pie off his face.


    The conjured pie on Harry''s face vanished and Johnny was the first to break the silence. "Did you just prank a World Devouring monster into pieing himself in the face?"


    Harry smiled proudly at Johnny but didn''t answer back. The Apple returned to his inventory since it was bound to him. The Apple hadn''t been eaten, he simply used its magic to change the form of the life force into a giant pie to be used for a prank.


    Harry said, "Alright, time for a debrief. I''m sure you all have questions."


    Reed smiled and said, "I can certainly think of one or two."


    Susan rolled her eyes and said, "I''m surprised smoke isn''t coming out of your ears from all the questions you probably have."


    Norrin Radd said, "I believe it is time for me to go. Though I have lost the freedom of the stars, I do not regret my choice. And now I must see what this Galaxy has to offer."


    Susan asked, "What did he do to your board?"


    The Surfer answered, "I can no longer traverse the gaps between Galaxies. I am bound roam this Galaxy alone."


    Harry walked over to the surfboard and placed a hand on it. Though dangerous for others to do so, the Surfer did not stop Harry as he did not feel Harry would do something that would endanger him.


    One aspect of Sorcery Harry never used was the ability to drain energy. Mordo and the Ancient One could do it but neither ever would. Draining energy tainted the body and would change you. Drain too much and the person you were was dead and standing in your shoes was someone else, someone with your face but a different mindset, a corrupted mindset. Plus, even if Harry drained energy, he could only use it to add a temporary expansion to his magic reserves. He couldn''t absorb it to level up without Combat or Battle Meditation.


    Harry sensed the energy of the board and found that the pure Power Cosmic within had been removed. The rest of it was converted Power Cosmic, similar to the Power Cosmic fused into the Fantastic Four. Converted Power Cosmic was obviously less powerful and had less potential than normal power cosmic.


    Harry took a sphere of store Power Cosmic from his inventory and directly drained it before pushing it into the Surfer''s board.


    Doing so was not easy. Harry was not skilled enough to do so in combat but since the world was saved, he could put all his focus into this.


    Once done, Harry confirmed the effect and said, "I''ve planted a seed of what was taken back into the board. It will take a long time, a very long time, but that seed will grow and what was taken will eventually be restored." Since Power Cosmic could absorb other forms of energy and convert them into Power Cosmic, this small seed would eventually restore the Board''s full power.


    The Surfer took his board and said, "I have seen more miracles this day than in the many years I have served Galactus. Well was their Champion chosen."


    Harry smiled but wouldn''t correct the misunderstanding. Besides, a vain part of him liked the street cred.


    As the Surfer got back on his board, Susan asked, "Will we ever see you again?"


    The Surfer smiled back and answered, "I believe you will. Until then, take care." His board rose into the air and with a streak of light, vanished into the horizon. Harry looked over at the four and wondered how many times he could break them during the upcoming Q & A. He looked forward to it.


    *Author''s Note*


    Ok, now that I''ve done the stuff I wanted to do with this fic, I''ll finally start with the MCU. Iron Man will be kidnapped soon so we''re finally kicking off the stuff everyone is looking forward to.


    The idea of Harry using the Ultimate Nullifier was a random thought that came to me while writing this and dealing with Sublime was the only thing I felt was worth the weapon''s use that Harry knew of.. Dealing with him will also let me focus on the MCU stuff without having to throw in violent X-Men stuff to mess with the timeline.

 Chapter 68 - 68 No Rest for the Weary

    On the way down the stairs from the Baxter Building''s roof, Harry sent out several text messages. The first was to the Ancient One. [Everything has been resolved, I''ll head over for a debrief after settling matters in New York.]


    Harry got a reply, [Please do. The future is restored thankfully.]


    Harry wondered if he would have considered calling Xavier if the Ancient One hadn''t basically told them he was going to lose. The only reason they had a chance was because of Magneto and he only acted because Xavier had informed him of the situation. Not only did his act of sacrificing Asteroid M buy them time, it also gave Harry the opening he needed to free Norrin Radd from Galactus''s control which is what gave Harry the info needed to get the Quest.


    Harry next sent a group text to his girls. It was actually still morning and they might not have woken up yet. [Big thing happened this morning. It was solved, I''ll give details at dinner.]


    Harry expected that they might end up angry at Harry for not including them in this mess. They could have ?ssisted the Four with stalling Galactus, but the Quest only said to have the Four stall. Harry figured it was because of their level. His girls were far more powerful than the Fantastic Four and may have caused Galactus to become irritated faster. Though powerful, Harry didn''t ?ssume they were powerful enough to survive Galactus''s ire.


    The next text was to Xavier. [If you didn''t already notice, Galactus was sent packing. See if you can get Erik to come over, I want to speak with you both about a few matters.]


    Harry got a reply, [It will be done. I''ll text you when he arrives.]


    The last text Harry sent was to Link. [Find a big piece of land preferably an island, the bigger the better, that can be acquired through legal means.]


    Moments later his phone''s screen was directed to a page with the top ten best results found. Harry used Technopathy to connect to the phone and went over the details.


    Relatively speaking, there were no pieces of land on Earth that weren''t owned by someone so ''through legal means'' basically meant somewhere that no one cared about a revolution. The top result was not the largest island available, it was only about a third the size of the state of New York and located north of Madagascar, but the details about who owned the island definitely had Harry''s attention.


    Harry messaged back that he wanted a list of plans to be made available and to discuss them with the Goblins. They hadn''t had a good war in a while and the self isolated circumstances of this island nation was perfect for one. Genosha wouldn''t know what hit it.


    Harry was also checking out the reactions from the world. The Planetship was invisible to low level beings and any normal camera that looked at it would be instantly covered in static. A number of people were able to filter out the static, some better than others, and many saw the blurry planet ship while a few with real skill saw the entire sphere and even Galactus himself with crystal clarity.


    Then there was the fight with the Fantastic Four against Galactus''s goons and the Silver Surfer facing off against Galactus himself. None of the goons nor the Surfer were covered by static so any recordings of them were crystal clear.


    And of course there was Galactus''s voice. Though his image was blurry or covered in static or crystal clear depending on the camera operator, his voice was clearly recorded as it echoed very well.


    Not all of the fights were seen of course. The Baxter Building was the tallest building in the area so even if witnesses stood on adjacent roofs, they could only film the flight of the Surfer and Johnny while only catching glimpses of the other two aliens when their fight was seen near the ledges.


    Though Reed''s computers were very good, they didn''t have any defense against Technopathic hacking so Harry was already editing the footage to show Reed using the Nullifier while removing himself from the film with Link''s help. Harry''s voice was also being removed and replaced with Reed''s and since Harry didn''t shout, none of the witnesses from the adjacent buildings heard him speak with Galactus.


    According to the footage and anything witnesses would see, the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer fought against Galactus, then Reed showed Galactus the Nullifier and shot it into the clouds, breaking them apart and scaring Galactus into retreating. Reed then offered a giant pie to Galactus delivered by Susan''s force fields and, for some reason, he pied himself in the face with it and walked away.


    Yeah, Harry wasn''t going to leave out his masterpiece from the footage.


    Now he just had to bribe his students enough to go along with the story and take the credit. The longer Harry could remain ''low'' profile when it came to abilities, the more pranks he could pull on those who didn''t know what he could do.


    In addition to everything else, Harry also wanted to make a few plans to prevent this from happening again. Harry didn''t know how many World Devourers were out there but Galactus may not have been the only one. Harry wondered if he could just ask Jean to give him the locations of those Planets that needed to burn and he could use their locations as a bargaining chip, but Harry doubted it.


    The Phoenix burning a world was different from Galactus devouring one. A Burnt world would be wreathed in Phoenix Flames and would be granted new life meaning any world burnt by the Phoenix would one day grow into a flourishing new world. From what Harry understood on how Galactus''s Devouring worked, there would be nothing left but a husk afterwards and there would be no way to return life to a devoured world.


    Jean got those planets from the Phoenix and the Phoenix may not have been ok with killing the chosen planets completely instead of allowing them to be reborn in fire. Still, it was worth a shot. Harry would send Jean a message later and maybe get back from the Phoenix some details about Galactus.


    Otherwise, it might be a good idea to cultivate other planets. Like what if Jean and Harry covered Mars in Phoenix flames to burn the surface and convert it directly into life force and then Harry planted algae and various seeds over the planet which absorbed the lifeforce to grow? The planet would be a bit smaller if he did that, but it might work. Or perhaps Harry could create a means using what he learned from the Silver Surfer''s Surfboard to create a system that could generate Power Cosmic? If he could perfect such a system, he could feed it black holes and convert their energies directly into Power Cosmic.


    Of course, such plans would take a while to implement but Harry probably had time so it wasn''t an issue.


    Once Harry and the Fantastic Four had returned to their lab, Harry said, "Alright, whose first?"


    Johnny quickly said, "Yeah I got one. Who are you really?"


    Harry considered it and said, "Husband, student, teacher, prankster, practitioner of most forms of magic, billionaire, warrior, inventor, and part time protector. Part time because it''s more of a hobby than a calling."


    He was also a mutant, an obscurus in human form, and a gamer, but he didn''t want to give away all of his secrets. Not just yet anyways.


    Before anyone could ask a different question, Reed asked, "What did you mean when you told Galactus you were a chosen of the Living Tribunal, Eternity, Infinity, Lady Death, and the Phoenix Force?"


    Harry considered it and said, "I died when I was nine and for some random reason, those guys, who are big shots in the universe, brought me back to life and gave me some abilities. I was never told the reason they did so, but a few years back the Phoenix Force did tell me I could do whatever I wanted with those abilities."


    Johnny was quick to ask, "What sort of abilities?"


    "A few. The main one being direct energy manipulation, what others might call Magic, Sorcery,, Extra-reality Programming. I had to spend a long time learning how to use it but I can do a lot right now."


    Susan then asked a question no one in the room was expecting, "Were you the one who saved the Shuttle?"


    Three pairs of eyes turned to face Susan before turning back to Harry.


    The latter smiled and answered back, "I wondered if you could see that. Yes, that was me. Since you know about that, I might as well come clean with a few other things."


    Ben exclaimed, "Wait a minute, you''re the one who steered the Shuttle back when everything was on the fritz?"


    Reed added, "I confirmed the auto-pilot was completely disabled so some external force must have been behind it."


    Harry nodded and said, "Well, remember my TV appearance? I referenced some powerful ancient Egyptian mutants and someone watched that and actually opened the tomb of the guy I was referencing. Turns out he wasn''t dead. Once he woke up, he enabled a system which launched those pyramids into the sky and turned the sky purple."


    Johnny asked, "Wait, that was made by some old Egyptian guy?"


    Reed said, "It would explain the structure''s form."


    Harry continued, "The purple sky was the prelude to something much worse so I made a portal and used it to shoot the pyramid with magic and the Egyptian guy showed up and tried to kill me. I had backup and friends there with me and together we fought and beat him. According to his monologue, the pyramids were a part of a Mutant Ascension System which would awaken the dormant X-Gene in everyone on the planet."


    "After beating him, I fired more magic at the main pyramid which caused the little ones to explode. The system was disabled but the main pyramid didn''t explode, so I left it alone since I had other things to do at the time."


    Ben frowned and repeated back, "You left it alone."


    Harry nodded. "It was my wedding day."


    "When I found out you guys were going to investigate it, I gave you those shield designs since those should have protected you from any form of energy the Pyramid generated. I just didn''t expect things to go so wrong."


    After a few moments of silence, Susan sighed and said, "I can''t blame you Professor. You did what you felt you could."


    Harry gave an awkward smirk and said, "Well, when the shuttle started its crash course, I went back into space and used some unique means to control the descent of the shuttle."


    Rather than let the awkward mood settle in further, Reed asked, "How did you find Galactus''s Home World and the Nullifier so quickly?"


    Reed could guess how large the area Harry had to search for was and Harry had found it in under ten minutes.


    "One of the abilities I got when I came back to life was an innate sense of how to solve certain problems, but only after I learned of their existence. Once Norrin Radd told us about the Ultimate Nullifier, that sense kicked in and told me the direction of the Nullifier. I made portal after portal to narrow down in the Universe where my sense was pointing until I found it. I''m pretty sure that this sense was gifted to me by a very powerful being called the Living Tribunal, though it was gifted on a whim. Once I got the Nullifier, the manual for how to use it appeared in my possession and I''m pretty sure that too was given by the Living Tribunal. Beings on that level won''t interfere with beings on our level but giving me a direction and showing me how to use that weapon was not a large enough matter to be considered interference. I did most of the work myself."


    Ben said, "So youse got some friends in high places, guardian angels like."


    Harry considered it and said, "I''m not sure if I''d put it that way but it''s not entirely wrong. However what activates that sense and what does not are not in my control in the slightest."


    Johnny said, "Sounds like a video game, quests and stuff."


    Trying not to smirk, Harry pretended to ponder over the ''analogy'' and said, "I guess you can consider it like that."


    Harry spoke as if he was speaking about the weather, but the Four were stunned at the content of the conversation. Harry inwardly smirked at having successfully broken them. Now to go in for the kill.


    "After coming back to life, I spent a year in a Scottish Castle learning Wizard Magic. A lot of evil wizards tried to kill me and I took all their money and invested it into a company. Then I spent two years in a Temple in Tibet learning Sorcery. I then got American Citizenship and spent two years at a High School in Salem learning under Dr. Hank McCoy and Johnathan Silvercloud and got my Doctorate while expanding my company. I used what I learned of magic energy to create Metaphysics and then I applied for a position at NYU and that''s my story."


    All four of the world''s first Superhero Team stood there gapping at the simplistic summary.


    Harry smiled and said, "No more questions? Alright. Oh, and I edited the footage of that fight and removed myself from it. If anyone asks, tell them the Silver Surfer gave you the Nullifier and you were stalling until you could make it work and then you used it to fix the sky and threaten Galactus."


    Susan was the first to recover and asked, "Wait, but why?"


    The others looked like they were about to convince Harry to take the credit for saving the world, but Harry replied back with a smile, "If they know what I can do, I can''t prank them anymore. Pranks are far more important to me than credit, so please do me a favor and don''t let the world know I did anything, Make something up please."


    That logic would not make any sense when it came to anyone else, but Harry took the time to hold back the Devourer of Worlds so he could trick him into pieing himself in the face. Harry did not work on normal logic.


    Reed sighed and said, "Very well. We''ll come up with something believable to cover for you."


    Ben understood that Harry was pushing the problems ?ssociated with this mess on them and said, "Fine, but if we need something later and you skimp out on us, I''ll make sure everyone in the future calls us the Fantastic Five."


    Harry visibly flinched at that making Johnny give a predatory look. "Yeah, I wonder what your name will be? Wizard? Professor?"


    Susan wanted to get in on pranking Harry back and said, "I don''t know. Harry gives me the feeling of some old guy who spends all his time in a cave on the mountain so maybe Hermit? Or Sage, the wise and powerful."


    Harry got goosebumps and said with a whimper, "Please no. stop."


    Reed chuckled and said, "He does have that ancient, all knowing vibe doesn''t he."


    Harry apparated out of there before he took any more mental damage. The cameras built into the lab he turned off with his technopathy would turn back on when he left and he''d already said everything he wanted to say.


    After escaping from the Baxter Building, Harry took out the long distance communicator which let him stay in contact with Jean and sent a long message. When Harry moved to the States, he built a Quantum Entanglement Communication system he used to avoid long distance charges, but that system was heavily reliant on magic and didn''t work so far away from Harry. He''d tried to make a few similar systems which could be used at any range, but they hadn''t worked out forcing Harry to rely on AstralTech for now.


    Magneto hadn''t gotten to Xavier''s yet so Harry made a portal to Kamar-Taj and arranged for a meeting with the Ancient One. Wong was waiting and Harry got out his best tea once he arrived at the table.


    The Ancient One took a sip and with a calming breath said, "Alright, please begin."


    Harry nodded and told her everything that happened. About the Silver Surfer who sent the Beacon before Harry could do anything. About Galactus and his world devouring cloud. About calling Xavier and the world''s failure to attack the ship. And about Asteroid M and Norrin Radd''s release and the quest.


    Then Harry told her of his tracking of Galactus''s Home World, about going back in time and sending an SOS to Asgard, and breaking in and getting the Nullifier and getting the manual. He explained what Sublime was and why he decided to use the Nullifier on it before he headed over to threaten Galactus which got him to leave.


    Harry refilled the Ancient One''s cup twice during the tale and Harry could tell she was rattled. She could have escaped to another realm or plane of existence but the Sorcerer Supreme was one who went down with the ship. Her only option had Harry been unable to stop the end of the world would have been to use the Time Stone but that would have merely delayed the end of the world.


    Even if the Time Stone was used to defeat Galactus, the energy released for such a massive usage would tell the whole of the universe about its presence on earth and probably invite something just as bad as Galactus to earth. All magic comes with a price after all.


    Of course since even Time Energy can be devoured by Power Cosmic and converted, it wasn''t a guarantee that would have worked anyways.


    After sitting in silence for a few moments, the Ancient One said, "I agree that a plan B must be devised to prevent this from happening again. If you need any ?ssistance, please keep me informed."


    Harry informed her of the possibility of creating another planet rich in life he could use as a bargaining chip. That or a way to protect the planet. It had been hours since the SOS was sent and no word had been heard from Asgard and neither expected them to respond meaning Asgard was a poor choice for a plan B.


    The title of Sorcerer Supreme was not as grand as one would think. It was granted to the most powerful magic practitioner on the planet or dimension, but Earth was not the only planet with a Sorcerer Supreme. The powerful beings that the Ancient One and those who came before her defended the Earth against were, in the grand scheme of things, basically pirates and rogues. Powerful on a planetary scale, but in a Universal Scale, not so much.


    Galactus was on a completely different level than anything any Sorcerer Supreme has ever, in the history of earth, successfully defended against. The only times that anything came close, the reason they survived was because they hugged the shin of something more powerful, like the Allfather Odin Borson.


    Thankfully it worked out and the Ancient One was highly pleased with her student. She had taught him when fighting something more powerful the best option was to borrow the name of someone bigger and bluff like your life depended on it. Harry had pretty much done just that.


    Even after Doctor Stephen Strange became the Sorcerer Supreme, Harry would still, in her mind, have that title as well.


    The actual definition of Sorcerer Supreme was, ''The practitioner of the mystic or magic arts who has greater skills than all others or commands a greater portion of the ambient magical energies than any other organism on a given world or dimension.''


    Because the word ''Or'' was used in the definition, if there was a Sorcerer who commanded a greater portion of the ambient energies of the world but was weaker than another Sorcerer who possessed more skill in the mystic arts than the former and all others on the planet, then both would actually have the title.


    The Ancient One was, for now, more skilled than Harry in the Mystic Arts and she controlled the greatest portion of the planet''s energies. Harry never used Evocation Magic so the amount of ambient energy he could use would never match a master of evocation. Evocation masters borrowed the names of Realm Lords to control the energies of those realms while Harry always controlled those energies manually.


    According to what she''d seen, Stephen Strange would grasp the command of energies unlike any other before her and become a powerful Sorcerer Supreme who would far exceed her. He would also be a master of Evocation and be capable of using vast amounts of power. However, she felt that even at his peak, Stephen''s skill when it came to magic may never exceed Harry''s.


    The pair discussed matters of great and of little importance for some time until Harry got a text from Xavier that Erik had arrived at the institute. Harry said his farewells to the Ancient One and made a portal to the Institute.


    Charles and Erik were waiting with the latter in full metal armor. Without wasting words, Erik said, "I''m glad to see you''re not dead." He''d been fully informed of the power of Galactus. Otherwise, he''d never have been so decisive in the sacrifice of Asteroid M.


    Harry nodded and took out a hologram projector and placed it on a table.


    "This is an island called Genosha. The ruler of the land has every child tested for an unawakened X-Gene and if found, the child is forced to undergo a treatment to turn them into an Brainwashed Enhanced who is added to the ruler''s army and used to suppress the locals."


    Being friends with Charles and being a self proclaimed mutant leader, Erik was not a layman when it came to genetics. He asked, "What does this island have to do with anything?"


    Harry brought up a few U.N. Charters and said. "I would not have had the time to do what was needed without your sacrifice and you sacrificed a lot, so I am in your debt. This island nation is in a temperate climate and far from the control of the U.N. but ideally placed for shipping and travel. Because the country actively violates human rights, they have no protection granted by the U.N. and within six months, I will be removing the current government from power and giving full control of this island to you."


    ""What?!"" Apparently both were surprised.


    Harry continued, "If you become the leader of Genosha, you will have Diplomatic Immunity meaning your crimes until now will no longer matter. As long as you follow U.N. guidelines, you can choose your own laws and if you want, have a mutant only country."


    Erik was only stunned for a moment before he stared thoughtfully at the hologram.


    Xavier asked, "This is.. legal?"


    Harry smiled, "Oh yes. Of course, I''m 85% sure if Erik leads his own, mutant only country, he''ll eventually use it to declare war on others. Because of that, you will help him with the country."


    Erik looked at Harry with a slight bit of amusement at Harry''s accurate presumption and said, "If our people are all gathered in one place, we would simply be putting a target on our backs."


    Harry nodded. "You were already prepared for that with Asteroid M. Completely your plan with Asteroid M would have made you the greatest enemy on the planet simply because of your position. Becoming the leader of Genosha will have the opposite effect which will increase the rate of migration."


    Harry added, "I also found the one responsible for causing humans to hate mutants and I killed him earlier today."


    ""What?!""


    Harry wondered if there was an echo.


    Harry asked Xavier, "Before the clouds broke up, did you notice the static of the Astral Plane vanished?"


    Xavier nodded. There had always been static in the astral plane, but suddenly it was gone. He had no idea why.


    Harry continued, "There was a parasitical, bacterial, psionic entity on the planet that was unable to infect mutants so it wanted to kill all the mutants on earth. That static was a low level telepathic field over the planet which caused people to mistrust mutants. I stole a weapon that could delete anything from Galactus''s planet and used it to threaten Galactus with. Before doing so though, I used it to delete that bacteria off the planet."


    Xavier''s eyes widened and hundreds of pieces fell together in his mind. He''d always know the fear of mutants was irrational, but never understood the cause.


    Harry said, "From now on, people will only fear mutants if you give them a reason to." He gave a poignant look at Erik and said, "In addition to removing the current regime, I''ll also arrange some farm lands and reshape the land a bit. I''ll get the details to you in two weeks and we can discuss how you want to build your capital."


    Xavier asked, "Why would you do so much? What would you have to gain?"


    Harry shrugged. Giving the Goblins a chance to let loose was already a decent reason. If he wanted to gain something, he''d had Erik meet the Goblins and they could discuss business. Since Harry was married to Erik''s daughter, Erik could be brought into the fold of Magic, the same way Vernon could be informed about magic 2nd hand through his wife who was a muggleborn''s sister.


    Harry answered, "Someone who uses magic cares a great deal more about debts than most. Erik sacrificed his most valued possession and in doing so, save my life. Yes, he saved his own life and everyone else on the planet''s life too, but that doesn''t make it any less meaningful to pay him back with something of equal or greater value than what he gave up."


    Erik had remained silent for a moment but said, "Very well. I accept your offer."


    Harry nodded and brought up documents, maps, charts and figures for the region and explained everything about it detail by detail over the next few hours.


    Eventually they finished discussing the preliminary discussions and Harry returned home. Not just because of the black clouds and the news, but because of the after effects of Sublime''s Deletion, classes had been cancelled for the day and the girls were all home watching the news.


    Rather than explain everything for the umpteenth time, he simply invited the girls into his head and directly showed them all the memories. Jade didn''t have any way to explore the mind so Harry had to pull her into his head.


    Unsurprisingly, Rogue, Wanda, and Jade were pissed that Harry didn''t invite them to face off against Galactus with the Four.


    Harry could only reply, "The quest said, ''The longer he is stalled, the more likely he is to reduce them to their molecular essence.'' Galactus treated the four like insects. If something stronger than an insect tried to stall him, he might have ''reduced them to their molecular essence'' right away. With the power of the Dog Talisman Jade can be considered immortal but I don''t even think she''d survive that so I couldn''t risk it."


    Wanda said, "I get that, but being left out still hurts from our side. I want you to promise, no matter what the quest says, next time you are in a situation even close to that, you''ll call us."


    Rogue said, "Yeah, I don''t like being kicked to the sidelines but a pop up message."


    Jade said, "Besides, video game rules are more like guidelines. It''s not cheating if the game doesn''t crash."


    Everyone turned to look at her and she responded, "What?" causing the group to release a collective sigh.


    Harry turned on the news and pulled up his tablet. There were about a dozen applicants for Harry''s next Foundation of Metaphysics Class who actually had the proper pre-requisite courses and there were five who''d gotten more than 85% on the 100 question placement test. Shuri the Wakandan Princess was not an applicant this semester which was fine with Harry, but there was something about the placement tests which Harry found humorous. Some student profiles tried the placement test over a dozen times and still didn''t get a passing grade. The placement test said how many you got wrong, but didn''t say which you got wrong and the 100 questions were taken from a list of 10,000 Harry had come up with.


    Harry figured there were some groups who ?ssembled large teams of scientists and had them try the placement test together so they could fake a test result and send someone into Harry''s class. The problem was that these teams kept getting the stuff wrong. Not everyone was like Victor Von Doom.


    The news channels all had the same story about the planet ship, but with the exception of channels from New York, all other channels seemed to agree the entire thing was an elaborate hoax.


    The governments of the world knew differently, but they neither confirmed nor denied the reality of the situation and the press didn''t want to look like idiots for telling people space aliens invaded New York, so they pretended to be smarter than everyone else and accuse them of lying while stating they were smart enough to see through the lies.


    Harry was not surprised at how easily people were convinced of something if they were told smart people believed it and with lines of experts pointing out why this was a hoax, it was easier to get around than the terrifying truth.


    Most in New York still believed what they saw, but no one else in the world was buying it.


    The girls quickly got tired of the world calling New Yorkers liars so they changed to another news channel that finally had a different story. It turned out that Stark Industries was releasing a new weapon called the Jericho and would be demonstrating it soon. For some reason, Harry felt he''d be meeting the genius billionaire soon.


    *Author''s Note*


    Who should show up in Harry''s Class Next Semester?


    Imma save Shuri for later and I''ve forgotten most of what I watched from Agents of Shield.


    Besides shield agents, spies from other countries or other people, who should be in the class?


    Also, for a terrible, cringeworthy, yet accurate name, I''m thinking either Hermit or Sage.


    Marvel Timeline details. Iron Man the movie was released in the year 2008 but was set in the year 2010.. Iron Man 2, Hulk, and Thor were all set in 2011, and Avengers was set in 2012.

 Chapter 69 - 69 New Semester

    Harry leaned over a dilapidated table in a house that looked ready to be demolished hidden away in the deepest part of Salem, New York. This was the Brotherhood safehouse and for some reason, Erik insisted on meeting there even though Harry knew the man didn''t live here. Mystique and Pietro were in the room as well and the other members of the Brotherhood of Mutants had all stepped out as they felt awkward being in the same room as Harry and not trying to get back at what Harry did to them.


    Harry felt they were all being drama queens. Their clothes eventually changed back and the smell was almost completely gone.


    In any case, Harry had brought over a large ?ssortment of highly detailed maps and folders containing detailed tables, charts, and graphs of insanely boring information that would be required to take over and lead a country. Thankfully Erik had been preparing to do just that with Asteroid M so he wasn''t learning this stuff from scratch, just changing the layout and how resources would be delivered.


    Pietro asked in his normal rapid tone of voice, "Are you sure you don''t need some backup? I wouldn''t mind dealing with guys like these."


    Harry shook his head. "I doubt you would, and Erik could probably take on most of the country on his own, but do remember that the armed forces are not humans, but enhanced mutates who have had their X-Gene forcefully awakened before being brainwashed into loyal servitude. No matter how many you kill, they only have to kill you once. The forces I''ll be using will accept the possible death toll for taking the country so there''s no need for it to fall on you."


    Harry had already met with the Goblins who''d been more than pleased with this idea. If the hostile party was made of normal humans, the Goblins would not waste their time with them but Harry had explained the details and the Goblins recognized the country''s ruling party as a worthy foe. Goblins trained to fight Goblins and Wizards so Enhanced Mutates would be a good match for them.


    Of course they had not agreed for free. According to Goblin Law, if they conquered the land, it belonged to them, but because of Wizard law, they could not own land above ground. Harry used a loophole in this to have them conquer the land and then purchase the land from them using a decent chunk of his savings. This was in accordance with all laws and the Goblins were satisfied with the arrangements.


    Besides, Harry was providing the transportation. Portals were terrifying in war. After he disabled any form of communication and monitoring on the island and covered the island in clouds to shield the island from satellites in space, Harry could direct the Goblin swarms to exactly where they needed to go. With this option on the table, the Goblin council had gone over dozens of heated debates about how not to make the conquest too easy.


    The only difficult part would be the memory removal of the surviving citizens afterwards but mass memory removal was something wizards were good at.


    While laying out plans, Harry innocently asked, "Are you going to build another Boob Detector on the island?"


    Harry timed the question just as Pietro was drinking some juice and achieved a magnificent high speed spit take.


    "Wait, What?!" He shouted. He figured Harry was joking until he saw the massive frown on both Mystique and Magneto. "What? You don''t actually have a Boob Detector do you?"


    Magneto asked with a flat voice that contained well seated anger, "How do you know of that?"


    The so-called Boob Detector was the results of the stolen Cerebro Plans Mystique had taken from the Institute. When they had a Telepath on their side named Psylocke use it, instead of locating Mutants, they could only locate women with b??bs DD Cup or larger.


    Magneto was most displeased.


    Harry nonchalantly shrugged and said, "I may have altered the plans Mystique stole from the institute. You''re not getting any younger so I thought I''d help you settle down and find a nice woman with a giant rack."


    Pietro looked horrified at Harry''s admission and at the irritation rolling off Magneto.


    Harry smiled and continued going over the plans for the island. He figured they wouldn''t be building another Boob Detector after all.


    One the last weekend of Christmas break was over, Harry started his new class and was looking forward to it. Not enough people had passed Foundations of Metaphysics to justify the upper class, so this was the same class he taught last semester, just to a new group of vic- eh hem, students.


    Harry stood over his desk looking over the details of his new class as students showed up one by one. There were six students who stood out. One because his last name was Connors, but apparently he had no relation to Professor Kurt Connors. Nothing else really stood out about him.


    The next two were interesting. Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz. Both were twenty-two and apparently obtained multiple PHDs by the time they were seventeen, just a year older than Harry was when he got his. Their fake backgrounds were something Harry recognized as the standard cover for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology meaning they were junior agents. Simmons looked to specialize in Biology and Chemistry and minored in the Physical Sciences side while Fitz was the other way around. Both had all the prerequisites to apply for the class so they didn''t need to take the 100 question test.


    The pair sat together and looked both nervous and excited, though Harry didn''t look at their faces while unpaused so they didn''t know he was observing them.


    The next girl was even more interesting. Hope van Dyne was the daughter of Hank Pym, the apparently inventor of Pym Particles, though he denies it to anyone who asks. She was homeschooled all her life and had never actually attended a physical school meaning though she was an ?du?t, this would probably be her first actual classroom. She''d gotten in with a 89% on the Placement Test, the highest score for Placement entrants in this particular class.


    And then there were the two fake students.


    Three seats behind Hope was a blonde woman with hair that had been completely dyed black and set into a nondescript ponytail. She wore large, fake, thick frame glasses that Harry could tell had a built in camera. In fact, including hers, there were four different hidden cameras in the classroom amongst the students. Her identity was completely fake and she''d gotten in with a 85% on the placement. Her fake name was Polly Glottos, and Harry admitted that Shield was pretty decent when it came to making up fake names and backgrounds.


    Trying not to draw any attention, her posture was both attentive and uninteresting which made her not stand out at all and look just like a normal student among the rest.


    In the front row right in front of Harry''s desk was a beautiful brunette that looked both innocent and seductive and kept glancing sideways at Harry while biting her lips. She''d gotten in on a 80% on the Placement Test which, technically wasn''t enough to pass. Harry let her in because he was informed by Link there was a chance that students who did pass would go missing until there was a spot for her which is how little miss Liah Ardyh became his student.


    Harry could use Telepathy or Legilimency to determine their goals, but where would be the fun in that?


    The only reason he was looking over the background checks Link did on each student was to ensure the pranks were tailor made for them. For example one of his students this semester lost his aunt in a burning building a few years ago, so fire pranks were out. Harry didn''t care for their real names, he just wanted to know who he should target for the best pranks this year.


    While handing out the syllabus, Harry asked himself if so many cameras meant he should tone down the mischief and mayhem. He almost snorted at that thought. Of course not! A bigger audience meant he should perform even More Outrageous Pranks!


    Of course, for legal purposes, the Syllabus did say no cameras or microphones allowed.


    After finishing with the Syllabus, Harry asked, "Alright, questions?"


    Fitz''s hand went up first and Harry pointed at him. "What is the point of Pranking the class?"


    Harry nodded at the question and said, "Brains are very good at doing something they''ve done or experienced before, but are actually really bad, or should I say, inefficient, at doing things for the first time. That''s why learning something new is not so easy and pioneering something is harder still. The point of these in class Pranks is to get you used to dealing with things you''ve never dealt with before in a somewhat safe environment so that in the future you''ll be more capable of dealing with brand new things without panicking or freezing up."


    Harry didn''t look at the students directly but did Pause to check out a few things and noticed the disguised blonde in the back had a smirk she was trying to hide. Harry wondered if he could get her to laugh out loud.


    After unpausing, Harry said, "For example, I may or may not have replaced one of the desks in this room with a flesh eating Mimic. So just in case, you should check your desks each day to make sure it is not a Mimic in disguise."


    The incredulous faces made by almost every student in class made Harry''s heart warm. Harry did his best to keep a straight face when a few students started experimentally poking their desks.


    Harry answered a few more questions and went over the time table for the semester and when they would be covering what subjects. Every subject also had videos ?ssociated with them on videoshare that the students could watch and quiz themselves on to catch up if they got lost or fell behind.


    Next, Harry went over the first project for the month. Since January was almost over, this project would need to be finished as either a blueprint or a prototype by the end of February.


    "For those in class who wish not only to learn the subject, but apply themselves in a way where they can learn where they can approve, I offer monthly projects and this first one will be due at the end of February."


    The roof next to Harry suddenly caved in and something black and shiny fell through and smashed against the floor to the surprise of everyone in class except Harry.


    Once the dust settled, the fallen figure appeared to be a man in a full set of medieval armor, not a finger or hair could be seen beneath the complete set of metal plating and his helmet was in the shape of a bucket.


    After a groan, the fallen knight got up and said with a clip British accent, "Ooff. Sorry about that." He pointed at the roof and said, "That''ll buff right out."


    Harry asked, "Are you alright?"


    The black knight said, "Never better. Now if you excuse me." He bent down to pick up the sword that had fallen to his side, "I have a duel to win."


    Everyone in class stared at it. Harry asked once more, "Are you sure you''re okay?"


    The Knight stared down at his fallen arm and bent down to pick it up. "It''s alright. Tis but a scratch."


    Harry said flatly, "Your arm fell off."


    "I''ve had worse."


    A moment after picking up his arm, his other arm fell off onto the ground with a noticeable bounce.


    The black knight looked back and forth between his fallen arms.


    Harry said again, "I really think I should call an ambulance."


    "It''s just a flesh wound." After looking back and forth between the arms for another moment, he looked up and asked, "Do you have any tape?"


    Harry shrugged and got some scotch tape. He put both arms on his desk and taped over them a few times to get them bound together. He then put the pair on the Black Knight''s back and walked around him a dozen or so times to tape the bundle of arms securely to his armored back.


    The unarmed knight then said, "Thank you. Could you stick my sword to me?"


    Harry said, "I can''t tape it, the tape would get cut by the sword."


    "That''s alright, just stick it through me."


    Harry picked up the sword and said, "Oh, alright then."


    Harry then walked behind the knight and pierced the sword through his back, into his front to the gasp of a few students in the class. Though there was no blood.


    The Black Knight with his severed arms bound together and taped to his back with a sword sticking out of his front said, "Well alright then. With this, I should at least be able to get a draw." And with that he walked out of the classroom to the gobsmacked looks of the students and Harry went back to describing the end of the month project.


    "This project will be the Ultimate Bounce. Create a surface that can best bounce something with a high amount of kinetic energy back away from the surface without harming the surface."


    After answering a few questions of the students who weren''t still shell shocked, Harry started teaching the content of the first chapters of the book until the class was over.


    To Harry''s surprise though, he felt the tug of Jean''s Super Portkey near the end of class.


    Harry pulled out some ?ssignments and placed them on his desk and said, "Alright and with that, class dismissed. Before you leave, you can pick up one of these ?ssignments for practicing."


    In the next moment, Harry''s desk massively expanded and shredded apart revealing a giant set of wooden, splinter-like teeth on the jaws of a large creature hidden under the wood. The giant set of jaws bent over and crunched into Harry''s torso and lifted him into the air to the screams of a few students as his legs wiggled back and forth. The terrifying mouth opened and swallowed Harry completely before bending back down and shrinking slightly as the wooden pieces sent themselves back. Once it stopped moving, it had completely returned to the form of a perfectly ordinary desk, though Harry was nowhere in sight.


    During the next class, Harry was unsurprised to find that no one chose to pick up any of the practice ?ssignments off his desk.


    The hard light system could make Harry invisible by placing a hologram over him though he''d become visible after leaving the room since he took his suitcase with him. Those with cameras might notice it on replay, but Harry doubted anyone picked it up during the show.


    After Harry left the campus and returned home, he entered the basement and tugged on the connection between him and the Portkey. Harry''s magic partially powered it so he had to pull on it for a few minutes before Jean popped into existence next to him. Her eyes lit up at Harry''s presence and she stepped forward to embrace him and proceeded to fall sideways due to the insane dizziness of the intergalactic portkey travel.


    Rather than pull Jean up, Harry lay himself on the ground and held her in his arms and pulled her into a kiss.


    Eventually the kiss broke and Jean said, "I just got your message and there''s a lot of things I need to tell you."


    Harry just continued laying there, enjoying her scent and their connection to each other. "Everyone will be out of class in an hour, so let''s go over it together, alright?"


    "Hmm." Jean pressed herself into Harry''s ?h?st and listened to his heartbeat and simply enjoyed his presence. What she had to say could wait after all.


    Harry sent text messages to the girls that Jean was back an hour later. He was certain they would ditch class if he sent them right away and he wanted a bit of time with Jean until then. Unsurprisingly, everyone was back about five minutes later, even Jade who''d gone Dragon form due to the Noble cause of seeing Jean again and just turned invisible and flew back from her high school.


    Little Potato started cooking up a massive dinner when Jean got back and would finish shortly.


    Everyone sat at the dinner table and Jean started telling them what she knew.


    "According to what the Phoenix knows, Galactus is the Egg of the next Universe."


    Jade asked, "What does that mean?"


    "When this universe ends, Galactus will fuse with another being of great power and they will explode. That explosion will be the Big Bang of the next universe. He is a tool of the Universe created to harvest the seeds of this present to plant in the field of the next Universe. The worlds he devours are not truly destroyed. They will basically be used as blueprints for the first worlds of the next Universe. Galactus serves a really important purpose in the Universe so it would be really bad if anything happened to him."


    Rogue asked, "Can''t we like, just direct him to those bad worlds you gotta burn? Save them nice worlds and let him eat all the nasty ones."


    Jean shook her head. "If we did that, then the next universe would be filled with too many bad worlds. It is best if he consumes random worlds, the more variety, the better."


    Harry shook his head and said, "So seeding life on dead worlds and feeding him those is no good?"


    Jean considered it before closing her eyes. A moment later she opened them, but within were flames. After another moment, she closed them and opened them once more to show her normal eyes. She said, "As long as he doesn''t only eat those worlds. It might be alright if you filled them with variety so you''ll need seeds from all over the universe."


    Wanda rolled her eyes and said, "We''ll just hope over to the grocery store and pick up some. Their next to the oatmeal right?"


    Jean smiled and said, "Actually, I may be able to help with that. Last week, while flying through space, I saw a spaceship. I used a bit of Telepathy to convince them to go to the nearest inhabitable planet and I followed them. It was out of the way but so worth it. I found a really nice, really advanced alien world and I have the coordinates for it for Harry."


    The girls all jumped up and shouted with excitement.


    Harry left a device with Jean that could record the 6-Dimensional Coordinates of anywhere she was. She''d recorded where she was before she activated the Portkey so Harry could send her back later after making another Portkey for her.


    Jean said, "The first and only planet I''ve gotten to so far was in the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a really nasty place. The surface was destroyed by war and the only survivors on either side of the war continued the war even though it was obvious both sides had long since lost. The planet was a little bigger than Earth so I charged six Phoenix Bombs and released them all."


    Planets were all different sizes and there was no way Harry could build a single bomb that could cover the surface of a planet. The only reason he could make one that covered a sixth of an earth sized planet was because he used a lot of Time Lord Math Inscribed Adamantium to supercharge the properties of the Reality Bomb. Every one also had a spark of Phoenix Fire which needed to be charged by Jean or Harry. They charged slowly, but slowly charging six bombs took far less time than the recovery period Jean would need if she empowered herself to become strong enough to burn an entire planet in one go.


    Jean continued, "I stayed on the planet for a day or so and got a lot of intel. The best news is that they don''t think the Phoenix was responsible for burning the planet."


    Jade asked, "Why not? I mean it got burnt with Phoenix fire right?"


    The Jade from a few months ago would probably not have been cool with burning planets, but she was part Dragon now and didn''t see things the way she used to. She was aware she''d changed but didn''t really care.


    Jean said, "If I burned it down normally, I''d turn into a planet sized fire bird first which would be visible through much of the Galaxy. No fire bird showed up and the Reality Bombs churned the crust in a way that normal Phoenix Fire can''t do so some people think someone is framing the Phoenix. Even if I get outed, as long as no one catches me with the bombs, I have plausible deniability."


    Harry asked, "How did the bombs work compared to doing it manually?"


    Jean said, "Good enough. The bombs carried the flame into the crust which allowed the flames to grant life to a deeper part of the planet. The main difference is that it is uneven, but I can tell the Phoenix doesn''t mind at all. The new life on that planet will be stronger at the locations closer to where the bombs went off and weaker further away instead of uniform, but that''s not necessarily a bad thing."


    Harry was pleased to hear that. It meant he hadn''t let the Phoenix Force down. Though the entity claimed it didn''t care what Harry did with its power, Harry still wanted to pay it back. He owed a lot to the ones who gave him a childhood and brought him back after all.


    Jean asked, "So how did you beat Galactus. You said you drove him off but didn''t say how."


    Harry invited her into his mind and once more shared the memories of what happened.


    Once they got to the part where Harry found Galactus''s home world, Harry sighed. More than anything Harry wanted to use the same method to find the planets the Phoenix wanted burnt. However Jean could only go to those planets using Teleportation or Flight. The problem was that Teleportation required a degree of connection Jean wasn''t willing to commit to as she might lose herself to the Phoenix. Once she was older and wiser, it wouldn''t be so bad, but at only seventeen years old she would lose her identity as Jean Grey if she used too much of the Phoenix''s power so he had to go the long way.


    The problem with flying as the Phoenix through space however was that she flew using Astral Currents and found planets which needed burning through those currents. She didn''t have a pointer showing her the direction of the planet she needed to burn. The best she had was a pointer which showed her the location of the closest Astral Current which would take her to the planet that needed burning. She could only find the path, not the destination, so Harry couldn''t use his portal trick to narrow down where she needed to go.


    Thankfully Astral Currents were filled with shortcuts and wormholes. Jean had apparently gotten to the Andromeda Galaxy in a few days and was already three Galaxies further away nearing the location of the second to be burned planet.


    After showing off his adventures with Galactus, Jean got out her pictures of the Universe and of the planet she''d found just in time for Dinner.


    Even though Jade rushed home first, tonight was still the night of the weekly student group so Mary Jane, Felicia, Gwen, and Peter showed up later.


    Apparently Gwen and Peter would be going on a field trip to Oscorp in a month.


    After the study group was over, Harry took Jean to bed and began ripping off her clothes much to the red head''s delight. It had been a month since they''d truly bonded and neither intended to waste the night sleeping.


    In another part of the country, Nicholas Joseph Fury was sitting in front of a computer monitor with a split screen. On one side was a video of Harry''s class and on the other side was the woman with the black dyed hair who was watching the same video alongside the Director of Shield from her apartment in New York.


    The last two weeks had not been good for Fury. Some Agents had interviewed the Fantastic Four about the Galactus Incursion and even gotten security footage which showed the entire battle from start to finish. The Four explained how the Silver Surfer came to warm them of Galactus''s coming and gave Reed the Ultimate Nullifier. They did what they could to stall until Reed could figure out how to use it and then they used it to threaten the massive purple monster himself with it and get him to leave the planet alone.


    The Galactus Incursion, the interview, and the video were all declared classified simply due to the fact that most who watched it had nightmares afterwards. Seeing how close the planet came to complete annihilation was not a wake up call anyone enjoyed.


    Fury on the other hand was the type of man who slept with one eye open so he didn''t have issues going over the video a few times. It was only because he''d gone over it a few times he could sense that something wasn''t adding up. Something was missing from the report and the Four were leaving something out.


    The pie was a dead give away.


    As the video of Harry''s class finished and the desk turned into a Mimic and ate Professor Potter, Fury''s eyebrow twitched just a little which was not missed by the agent watching alongside her boss, though she would never admit to having seen a thing.


    After the viewpoint of the camera left the classroom and the video turned off, Fury looked into the camera on his monitor so the agent on the other side would see him looking at her in the eye and said, "What are your thoughts Agent Morse?"


    After a slight pause, Bobbi Morse answered, "He''s definitely well trained, though since he admitted to being well trained on live tv and admitted to having successfully registered himself as a deadly weapon, I suppose that''s not too surprising."


    Fury returned a deadpan stare and stated, "Now tell me something I don''t already know."


    "Other than taking a cursory glance at each student and looking at those who asked questions, he didn''t take a long look at a single person, not even Hank Pym''s daughter and even I was surprised to see her there."


    "Yes, and?"


    "So he didn''t need to look at anyone. He acted like he didn''t care who came into that class but he is certainly not stupid enough to teach just anyone so he likely knew every single person in that class before we sat down. Whether it was the bimbo in the front or me in the back, he didn''t take a short or long look at anyone, but an exceptionally well measured glance that seemed more perfunctory than needed."


    "So he was pretending to look around because he knew who everyone was meaning he''d done a background check on everyone beforehand."


    "Yes sir. However it isn''t that hard for someone of his level to find out where Simmons and Fitz studied at yet he spent no longer looking at them than he did me. I wouldn''t be surprised if he knows I''m using a fake name and doesn''t care."


    Fury considered it but knew it didn''t matter. Mockingbird was there to protect Simmons and Fitz without either knowing. The pair were the smartest to come out of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology in decades having both graduated three years early. A few years ago. Shield considered them at the peak of the world, right up there with Hank Pym, Reed Richards, and Tony Stark. Then Harry Potter showed up.


    "What''s your opinion on him as a teacher?"


    "Nonstandard but effective. At least I don''t see a chance of anyone falling asleep in his class. It was normal in the Academy for a teacher to pull out a weapon and fire blanks to get students used to the sound and not freeze up. Professor Potter seems to have taken the idea to another level." She couldn''t help the smile that formed on her face. She also wouldn''t admit to looking forward to the next prank Harry thought up.


    Fury could tell she was enjoying it but didn''t care enough to berate her for it. "Keep an eye on the other students and watch out for anything suspicious."


    A gleam of mischievous flashed through Agent Morse''s stare and she answered back, "Aye aye sir."


    Fury rolled his eye as the feed went dead. He''d get her back for that one.


    *Author''s Note*Alright, so the class is set. Now, I wrote myself into a corner when I figured out what I was going to do with Stark but then I realized I had a few things I could use so instead of changing that, I decided to go with it. So my events after Tony is rescued will be a bit different due to my mistakes/butterfly effect but it should be cool. I think...


    Also, I finally decided on a name. Oddly enough, it wasn''t Sage or Hermit. Saw some comments and saw one that gave me an idea I can''t believe I hadn''t thought of before. Anyways, Harry''s ID will just be Professor Potter. Xavier is usually the Professor, but since Harry gets Alliteration points, he gets the Professor title instead. Harry''s super hero alter ego will have a separate name. I''d be really impressed if anyone guessed it.. The best part is that it will be super obvious after the fact.

 Chapter 70 - 70 Gathering Intel Off World

    In the expanded basement of Harry''s New York home, Harry watched his newest lover fire bursts of green energy at small black demons Harry had conjured earlier. With each shot, the demons dissolved into shadow and darkness only to fade away.


    Due to the influence of her Dragon Heart, Jade Chan''s Chi had traces of red, but it was still effective for use in Chi Magic the pair had been practicing. Harry''s Chi, while also green, had streaks of gold, making it very eye catching.


    These meagre demons were not from any general demonic plane, but creatures Harry made using what he knew of demon magic and the air of negativity prevalent within any human city. The origin of this conjuration spell was an attempt to make creatures he could fight in this plane for Exp instead of going to the Astral Plane and using Battle Meditation. It didn''t work out the way he wanted.


    The air of negativity could be considered a psionic and magical field generated when people who had a lot of problems gathered together. When defeated, the little demons did indeed become energy Harry could absorb. The problem was that they were too weak and the gain from absorbing it was miniscule. They were about as formidable as a swarm of Karens demanding to see a supervisor.


    Moreover absorbing negativity like that was useless for Harry as he didn''t use any Black Magics which required it. That''s where Chi Magic came in.


    Chi Magic contained some of the strongest purification spells out there. Harry was originally worried that the influence of the Dragon aspect of his and Jade''s Chi would reduce the purification effect, but in fact the effect was enhanced, much to Harry''s relief.


    The air of negativity coalesced into these Karens was purified when they were slain with blasts of Chi Magic. Though hardly a reduction in the overall mood of the city, it was still better than nothing and was a method even the Ancient One approved of to train Chi Magic as it purified the area around it instead of polluting it as many other forms of magic practice did more often than not.


    While firing said blasts out from a two fingered point with her hands, Jade was quickly muttering under her breath, "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao, Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." The rough translation of which was, ''Evil demons and malevolent spirits, be gone!'' It directly rejected all evil and the direct rejection combined with the characteristics of Chi Magic caused complete purification against weaker demons. Even against stronger ones, it would harm them.


    These Karens obviously did not originate in China, but the strength of Jade''s Chi and her experience in using this incantation made up for it and even if these demons were fifty times stronger, Jade could manage to beat them if it was one on one.


    Harry never used incantations and wasn''t going to start now. Thankfully Uncle''s journals were well written and by reading between the lines, Harry was able to figure out a training regime to practice implanting his Chi with Intention to cast spells in the same way he could do so with other forms of energy and magic. Of course, it wasn''t easy. If it was, Harry wouldn''t have asked for ?ssistance and would''ve figured it out himself.


    Chi is not like other forms of energy. Chi is a person''s individual life force synchronized with their soul. Pure and young children naturally draw in vast amounts of Chi until they are tainted by the world. That Chi stays with them and the body uses that Chi to grow. Once they reach ?du?thood, the Chi is mostly used up. That''s why an untrained child will have more Chi than an untrained ?du?t.


    Or at least it was for other people. Harry''s status as a living person was questionable at best since his death and revival as a human form Obscurus. Harry wasn''t an Obscurial. An Obscurial is a human who possessed an Obscurus. Harry was the Obscurus, who just happened to be able to maintain a human form due to his mutant power. Even though he''d figured out a few new ways to use his mutant power thanks to the Obscurus Perk he acquired, he couldn''t remain in human form and send away an Obscurus like an Obscurial could.


    Thankfully his body was able to accept and merge seamlessly with the Immortal Dragon Chi. Because he merged with it, he could apply the same invisibility to his Dragon Chi as he could his magic. This was useful since the Immortal Black Dragon Chiantang had probably revived by now since Immortal True Dragons could do that. If he was ever in the same city as Harry and Harry wasn''t cloaking his Chi, Chiantang would be able to locate him with ease.


    Though he merged with it, it wasn''t originally his Chi which gave him a handicap when it came to learning Chi Magic. Thankfully, using Dragon Chi was easier with the Auto-Correct of the Dragon Path and using it for Physical Combat was additionally ?ssisted by the Auto-Correct of the Warrior Path and of course everything he did when it came to Magic was ?ssisted with the Auto-Correct of the Magic Path. Thanks to that, he had already caught up to Jade and the pair were neck and neck in their advancement of Chi Magic.


    After finishing off the remaining Karen Demons, Jade took a few breaths to steady herself and smile. She wasn''t physically exhausted, but the mental strain of the Chi Magic practice wasn''t something to look down upon.


    Harry smiled back and said, "Nice work. That will be all for today."


    Jade''s smile widened and she said, "Thanks. Now if only I had a way to wind down." Jade''s form flashed with light and had changed to her ?du?t form disguise.


    Harry grinned with approval at the look in Jade''s eye. She could shift into this form while doing something noble and apparently, she considered this a noble pursuit.


    Harry, not wanting to be out done, shifted his own form from seventeen to twenty-five, to match Jade''s and over take her in height. After months of practice, he''d finally figured out how to use his Obscurus Perk to adjust his form in the same way Mystique did so he no longer needed to rely on nasty tasting Polyjuice potions for a disguise. Just because he could turn his taste buds off when he drank it didn''t mean the taste didn''t linger after all.


    Jade pulled down her silk mask and started to slowly unbutton her red cheongsam while locking her eyes Harry letting him know exactly what she was thinking. Harry''s smile widened and he joined her thinking, ''a noble pursuit indeed.''


    *Ping*


    [Sex Path has risen to Rank 20]


    After taking Jade''s unconscious, smiling form to bed, Harry did not go to sleep but headed for his own room and prepared a few things.


    Harry''s form shifted once more into that of a stranger and Harry put on some clothes that would stand out in any city simply because of how remarkably plain they were. Once finished, Harry took in a breath and shot out a silver ring which expanded into a portal and stepped through before closing it.


    The sky overhead was bright as it was daytime and though Harry was in an open venue surrounded by people, no one was looking in his direction. Harry had made a tiny portal to this spot earlier for scouting and had placed a time release Notice-Me-Not here to prep for his arrival.


    Harry was no longer on earth. Although Jean claimed she ''found'' and followed a spaceship, Harry figured she just didn''t want Harry to know the effort she actually took. Harry figured after blowing the planet, she waited while cloaked at the location until some big, fancy looking ship appeared and then followed it back to the planet it came from.


    This was Xandar. According to the info Jean got from the heads of the pilots she followed, Xandar was the home of the Nova Corps, a set of self appointed Peacekeepers in the Andromeda Galaxy which was why they sent out an investigation in the first place.


    After finding out they thought someone was faking a Phoenix burn, she got the planet''s location and returned to the route she needed to travel to find the next to be burnt planet.


    Six Dimensional Coordinates also included aspects like planetary rotation and movement around stellar bodies so even though the planet had obviously moved its position in space since she''d taken the coordinates, the coordinates remained the same allowing Harry to make a portal here.


    The area he''d chosen to enter through was rather scenic and included a vast public courtyard with a fountain in the middle and dozens of benches around the area. Harry found an empty bench away from others and sat down. He took something from his inventory and put it in his pocket before leaning back and just watching.


    Harry was not sure which was stranger, the fact that so many species on this planet could pass for human, or the fact that they were apparently speaking english. This of course brought up a chicken and the egg series of questions but Harry decided not to care about that.


    And pass for human was relative. Most of their facial structures were not something Harry could categorize as something belonging to any nation on earth.


    For example the man sitting on the bench on the other end of the courtyard reading something had cheekbones and a nose which stuck out further from his face than any normal human, even Professor Snape, giving him an almost bird like quality.


    He wasn''t sure if he should have been thankful the written language was clearly different. On one hand, if the language was the same, he''d have an easier time. On the other, it would completely throw off the Alien World vibe.


    In any case, he used his telepathy to scan for passing minds to get tidbits here and there about the local common sense and customs before he did anything.


    Harry had a couple of goals for coming to Xandar. First, it was cool. It just was. Next, he wanted an exotic vacation house to make the girls feel special. Further down the list of priorities, Harry wanted to check the Star Maps and the local tech. The local tech would help him advance his tech path and the star maps would give him more options when it came to using his portals.


    Harry was fully aware that his Portals were too useful. Only beings with ridiculous skill in magic or god-like beings could resist being pushed through a portal so even if Harry could do nothing else, he could solve 80% of all problems with portals.


    Especially since Harry had the coordinates to Galactus''s Homeworld. Unkillable monsters? Toss them at the Heavy Anti-Electro Matter cloud. A being who can devour all forms of energy and can resurrect itself from the dead? Toss him at the surface of Galactus''s Homeworld. A machine from the future built to kill you? Portal it to the sun. Got su?k?d through an interdimensional doorway with nope hope of escape? Portal out. Late for work? Portal to work.


    The problem with how useful portals were was that people who knew Harry could use them may end up asking Harry to use them to solve all their problems. Harry told those at the Xavier institute he needs a big diamond to make a portal so they wouldn''t ask him for stupid things. If they ever did so, Harry was prepared to wipe their memories of his portals. Thankfully Harry was not included in their Team sessions and they knew not to rely on him. Besides, they had Kurt. Though not as good as a portal, his teleporting was still useful enough.


    Harry had subtly removed the memory of portals from Blade, Whistler, and Karen so they wouldn''t ask bother him about portals, but Harry couldn''t wipe the Fantastic Four''s mind. He''d already discovered that the Power Cosmic within them made them resistant to most forms of energy. Even if Harry overpowered the spell, the energy of the spell would eventually be devoured by the Power Cosmic and converted into more Power Cosmic, just like it did with the background radiation around them.


    They all respected him though and appreciated that Harry only revealed his portals to them because it was a world ending threat. Harry may have also mentioned once or twice that if they ever called him for anything and one of them wasn''t dying when he got there, he''d prank them. Harry''s smile when he told them sent shivers down their spines.


    The only other ones who knew were the Sorcerers who could use Portals themselves, Sirius Black, who knew better than to take advantage of his godson, and Magneto and Mystique, who were unlikely to ask something of Harry as they knew Harry would expect something in return.


    Portals were simply too useful. Harry had faced several beings they could not be used against but that was not entirely Harry''s fault. The Immortal Dragon Chiantang could fly and disrupt magic. The Juggernaut was protected by the Elder God Cyttorak so he couldn''t be pushed through a portal without the portal being destroyed. Selene could fly and there was no way to push her through a portal. That damn avatar of the blood god couldn''t be pushed through and Harry was still annoyed by that. And Apocalypse could both fly and not be pushed, so even if Harry made a portal beneath his feet, the immortal wouldn''t have fallen through it and may have had ways to teleport out even if tossed into another dimension.


    Of course, those exceptions were beings at the peak of existence on earth or had connections to beings at the peak of existence in the cosmos.


    At the very least, unless there was a 100% world destruction imminent threat, Harry wasn''t planning to let others know about his portals for now lest he be bugged to solve all the world''s problems with them until the end of time.


    Harry shivered at that thought. Some thought otherwise but even if Harry was a part-time protector as a hobby he still didn''t think he was a hero and he certainly wasn''t a janitor.


    He was pretty sure that most problems he faced could be resolved without portals anyways so it wasn''t a big deal.


    According to what Kitty and the other X-Men learned when they got abducted, the planet earth and the Milky Way was a part of the Shi''ar empire, but that was not technically correct. The Asgardians had taken ''Midgard'' into their own territory along with several other worlds so the Shi''ar had earth declared off limits, lest they anger the battle hungry Asgardians.


    From the info Harry was getting, this Nova Empire was one of two Empires in the Andromeda galaxy, along with the Kree Empire. The two had frequent on again, off again wars over the last several thousand years and the latest one had been going on for a thousand years already and it seemed most people had enough. They were trying for peace talks at the moment but hadn''t gotten anywhere yet.


    This planet''s identity as a capital planet certainly explained the peaceful environment and the overall beauty. What Harry found funny was that a lot of people had already heard about Jean''s handiwork.


    The planet Jean burnt was not, technically, a part of either the Nova Empire or the Kree Empire. It was a self enclosed planet that did not allow visitors or meddlers and had no great resources to speak of so no matter how horrible it was a place to exist, no one had any great reason to step in and change it.


    Even though there were people who knew the Phoenix only burnt planets which were stagnated, that didn''t stop the fact that a planet burning entity was terrifying to most life in the cosmos.


    Jean obviously wasn''t the first host of the Phoenix Force but she may have been its first Avatar. According to records in Kamar-Taj, there had been three human hosts for the phoenix in the past. The first was during the Hyborian age. There were even stories about that host hooking up with a young Odin, before he became the Allfather. The second was an elderly viking woman from the eleventh century who fought alongside several others, including a young Thor against foes such as Mephisto and Apocalypse. The third was a woman from the sixteenth century who quickly left the earth and was never heard from again.


    Though Earth was obviously not a great standard for the Universe, the fact that the Phoenix pops up pretty often on his planet or others makes it common enough for most people throughout the universe to recognize her.


    In all likelihood, Jean would be the last. Harry wasn''t sure if it was due to his presence or not, but the Phoenix was not treating Jean in the same way it treated its previous hosts. She wasn''t really a host at all.


    After another hour, Harry pulled the red gem he''d placed in his pocket out and took a long look at it with a smile. On earth, there were a number of ways to find the Philosopher''s stone because people knew it existed and knew where to look for it. Everyone had been told it had been destroyed and none of those means had worked since Harry kept it in his inventory, but that didn''t mean those looking for it had given up.


    The Philosopher''s stone had two main functions. If you put enough magic into it, it could either create the Elixir of Life or it could turn base metals into Copper, Silver, or Gold. However there was a limit for the first one. The stone needed some time between uses, otherwise if continually used, would only produce a drop or two a day.


    In the years since getting the stone, he''d only been able to get six vials. Each vial could stop a person from getting closer to death for one month and heal any wound, restoring a body to a state furthest from death. If left out, the stone could produce four vials a month. The problem was that Harry''s inventory stopped time and wasn''t considered ''out.''


    Before Harry got the stone, Voldemort squeezed it for everything he could which was quite a lot since it hadn''t been used for about ten months up to that point due to being hidden by the Flamels. Harry was about to get two vials when he was in the past since there was no spell to look for the stone before the stone had been invented and he''d figured out a way to completely isolate all energy forms and keep the stone in a protected space for a few hours a day every once in a while to give it enough time to get four more vials.


    He''d used one on Whistler, but didn''t have any use for the others so they remained in his Inventory, but that didn''t mean it wasn''t useful enough to stock up on. If Harry could get a nice, safe place on this world, he could safely leave the stone here and collect all the Elixir he wanted.


    The other function of the stone, the ability to turn metals into Gold and the like, was easier to use and less limited. Charging the stone with magic and touching it to a metal would cause the magic charge to be converted through the stone into a pulse of magic that would permeate the metal with a catalytic transmutation wave which would convert it into 100% Gold or the like. The amount of metal changed through the pulse was determined by the charge, though the stone couldn''t hold too large of a charge. There was no way to give an infinite charge to the stone and touch it to the side of a metal building to convert it into gold. It was easier to change small pieces to gold and there was no way to change any metal protected by magic into gold. It could also only affect base metals such as iron, nickel, lead and zinc and would have no effect on metals such as platinum or titanium. You could also use it to convert copper to silver or gold and convert silver to gold. But you couldn''t convert silver into copper or convert gold into anything else.


    This would give him some easy funds since Harry had already confirmed that gold was valuable on this planet. Harry had even found the address of a place to sell some it from a few of the shadier people who''d wandered through the area.


    He wouldn''t sell it now though. Today was just for scouting. He''d bring the info to his girls and decide what to do later. One of his primary goals, besides having fun, was to see if he could use what he found here to make a communicator which could allow instant communication at any distance. If he could, then he could call Jean wherever and a situation like what happened with Galactus would never happen again.


    Harry left the area and scouted for a while before finding an area that was out of the way. He felt there was a possibility that some security camera looking at the courtyard may have seen him, but no one approached him so the footage had not been flagged and noticed by anyone who cared.


    Harry''s technopathy was less effective here as he didn''t know the programming language of the tech of this world, yet, but he could at least feel when there were cameras nearby.


    Once Harry found a spot that was too narrow for onlookers and he felt there were no cameras, Harry took note of the coordinates and portaled home. It was the end of the month and time to see who submitted projects.


    Harry''s metaphysics class was normal today, for him anyways. He couldn''t prank them every class or they''d expect it which would take away from the impact of the class.


    Three teams had submitted prototypes for his Bounce Project. Fitz and Simmons worked together as one team but Hope Van Dyne and Liah Ardyh both submitted their prototypes as individuals.


    At the end of class Harry took the four down to the lab the University let Harry play with and the four all locked eyes on what looked to be an old, ship cannon from the 18th century and a brick wall.


    Harry''s technopathy could feel the three cameras on Simmons and Fitz and the seven cameras on Liah. Harry turned them all off once they entered the lab just to mess with them.


    Harry said, "Alright, first is Mr and Mrs. Simmons"


    Fitz twitched and immediately said, "Mr. Fitz and Ms. Simmons."


    Harry asked, "What, you''re not going to take her name?"


    Fitz had no idea why such a question had been asked in a place like this and said the first thing that came to mind, "What? No."


    Harry asked, "Why not?"


    Ms. Simmons was apparently quicker on the draw than Mr. Fitz. She turned to him and said, "Yeah, why not?"


    Fitz looked like he was about to have a panic attack and Ms. Van Dyne seemed to be suppressing a smirk. Ms. Ardyh looked like she was smiling, but there were no wrinkles in her eyes.


    Harry shrugged as if it were nonconsequential and said, "Anyways, please place your prototype on the wall facing the cannon."


    Hope asked, "You''re really gonna fire a cannon at them?"


    Harry answered with a smile, "Why, do you want to fire the cannon instead?"


    Hope smiled back, "Yes!"


    Harry nodded proudly. This student of his would be going very far in life.


    Fitz and Simmons pulled out several rolls of what looked to be carpets and placed them on the wall in layers. Harry walked over to a cabinet near the wall and pulled out a bunch of earmuffs and handed them to everyone. He also pulled out a massive torch and after setting it with a lighter, gave it to Fitz and said, "Light it up."


    Though socially awkward and not the best spy, Fitz was a man and he was happy to take the flame and ignite the cannon fuse as everyone put on their earmuffs and waited.


    With a massive boom, the cannon recoiled back a few steps and the cannon ball bounced off the wall and back a few feet. Harry pulls out a tablet and checks a few things before saying, "Nice. Go on and collect your stuff. Liah is next."


    As the next prototype was set up, Harry refilled the cannon with gunpowder and stuffed a different cannonball into it before setting another cannon fuse at the end.


    Once ready, Harry handed another lit torch to Liah who carefully lit the fuse before handing the torch back.


    An equally massive boom followed along with the sound of a crumbling wall.


    Harry shrugged. "It happens. Please collect your stuff."


    After Harry checked a few things in the tablet, the broken wall vanished and a new wall appeared, showing off that the wall was a hard-light construct.


    Hope finished setting up her own stuff by the time Harry had set the cannon back up.


    Hope gleefully fired the cannon and after the final boom, the cannon ball bounced back, this time even further than Team Fitz.


    Harry was pleased with the obvious results and said, "We have a winner!"


    Hope smiled confidently and Simmons seemed to be consoling Fitz.


    Harry walked over to Fitz and said, "The material was too uniform which resulted in too much energy bleeding away. If you tried again but made the materials non uniform, the compression would bleed less and even become slightly unpredictable which could be useful as well."


    Harry then walked over to Liah who asked before Harry could say anything, "Is there anyway I can convince you of giving a private lesson? I can pay whatever you want."


    Simmons and Hope rolled their eyes and Harry answered, "Nope, I''m ridiculously busy all semester. In any case, the materials you used reminded me of something I read from some German scientific research papers. I''m sure it''s just a coincidence and you certainly didn''t plagiarize another''s work and claim it as your own."


    Harry handed her a sheet of paper and said, "Here are some works and other papers which had similarities to your project. If you look them up, you should be able to find out a few of the flaws and ways of correcting them."


    Harry ignored the anger in the brunette''s stare and said, "Alright, Hope won so I''ll be showing her my version of this project. Better luck next time."


    Simmons ''forgot'' a ''pencil'' on the floor and walked away from it. Harry said, "Please don''t leave your trash in the lab. Do it again and I won''t be accepting any projects from you."


    Simmons looked embarrassed and quickly turned back to pick up the ''pencil.''


    On their way out, Harry turned back on all of their cameras, including the tiny one hidden in the pencil. Harry thought it would have been less conspicuous in a pen, but maybe that was the point. Who''d expect a spy camera in a pencil? By turning the cameras off when they entered and on when they left, Harry could give the false impression that the room was shielded from recordings.


    Once they were alone, Harry said, "The principles you used in your material were pretty fancy. It could take the energy, store it, and release it for a bounce. My only real suggestion on how to improve it would be to hook a battery to it. Yes it is less cost efficient to keep it precharged, but energy was lost from the cannonball''s impact charging the material so it it was precharged, it would have bounced further back."


    Hope asked, "How can you tell how this works without even looking at it? Was there a scanner on that wall?"


    Harry shook his head. "I''m familiar with most materials on that planet and know how to put them together. Unless you use a material I am not familiar with, I can usually guess how something works by seeing it once."


    Harry walked over to a foot locker and opened it up, revealing a roll of material he took out and set up on the wall.


    Harry also sets up through Hard-light a clear wall in front of them. Harry lights the torch and tosses it over the clear wall where it lands on the cannon fuse and ignites it before the torch hits the ground.


    After a moment, the cannon goes off with a boom, but in the next moment, the cannon itself jerks to the side and the cannonball plants itself into the clear wall in front of Harry and Hope.


    It takes a moment for Hope to realize what happened. The cannonball bounced back at the cannon and knocked it to the side before hitting the see-through wall.


    Harry pulled out the schematics of the material and said, "This material uses red energy to reflect momentum. Now I used a metagem emerald to make it but I''ll show you a way to make it without one that will still be stronger than what you made."


    Harry pointed out piece by piece each segment of his schematics and explained step by step how he processed the materials and how it could gain the properties of red energy.


    Red energy was of course energy from Cyttorak''s realm, but since Harry wasn''t using Cyttorak''s name to obtain the energy, there wasn''t anything the destruction loving elder god could do. Harry wondered how Cyttorak would take it if Harry told him he was making defensive tools with his realm''s energy.


    Once finished, Harry packed everything up and said his goodbyes to Hope before going home. Hope and Fitz were probably the only ones who''d use what Harry taught them properly so Harry had no problem teaching either of them. Harry didn''t care who Liah reported to or who made up the work she submitted, but that wouldn''t stop Harry from viciously trolling them if they couldn''t come up with something original.


    Later that day after Jade''s study group had left, Harry explained to the girls what he''d learned about Xandar while they ate dinner and watched tv.


    Everyone was excited of course. This was an alien planet and as long as they wore the right clothes, they wouldn''t stick out too much and could explore and have some fun.


    While discussing the legality of ''borrowing'' spaceships, the news actually said something of interest. After a weapons test in the Afghanistan, Billionaire Tony Stark had gone missing.


    *Author''s Note*


    Tony was missing for three months so he won''t be showing up in person until chapter 72.


    For those not familiar with the timeline, Xandar and the Kree had their peace treaty signed in 2014.


    And don''t say to get the Power Stone. Apparently, the ruins the stone is in is underwater and it only surfaces for like an hour once every 300 years.. That isn''t difficult info to get since even ''Star Lord'' got it but Harry won''t be going near any stones for a while.

 Chapter 71 - 71 Insert Cliché Doom Pun Here

    Most in the world were completely unaffected by the vanishing act of the world''s most famous billionaire, but in the two weeks since his disappearance, Harry had been nothing but busy.


    Unsurprisingly, the stock of the world''s number one weapons manufacturing company was something the Goblins were interested in, and since they couldn''t buy anything legally, Harry had to do it of course.


    Although Harry didn''t care about it one way or another, he did agree to ask Link to buy everything that went on sale since that particular stock never went on the market and this wasn''t a bad decision. To gain an advantage over others, Link ensured that anyone who sold the stock would be redirected to Harry''s firm where he''d buy it at a better price than anyone else. Most stock traders sold through third party companies and Harry simply had to make sure those companies knew Harry''s firm was buying the stock at a higher price than anyone else. It wasn''t even illegal.


    Harry had also been busy planning the downfall of Genosha. The masscr-... invasion, was set for the second week of May, two months from now, and he''d been planning for every contingency he could think of.


    The first step was security. Harry created about a hundred or so nodes filled with natural energy, the same type of energy used by Storm to control the weather, and planted them all over the island. The nodes would ensure that thick clouds covered the whole of the island on the day in question to block any and all satellites from peeping. The change would be gradual over the course of the next two months and not even an expert meteorologist would ?ssume it was unnatural or suspect anything.


    Next, he''d worked with Link and the Goblin Hackers to access the digital network of the island. Harry already installed a few wireless hack boxes directly into some of the most guarded computer systems which directly bypassed the need for breaching. All data would be locked and halted once the invasion began so no footage or pictures of the Goblins would be spreading around.


    One problem Harry had was with the resident civilians of the island.


    Erik had already decided that with the exception of government envoys and guests, the island would be mutants only. The island currently had a policy where everyone was tested for the X-Gene and if found to possess it, the citizen was taken by the government and weaponized into a loyal mutate. That meant every civilian on the island above the age of twenty did not have the X-Gene and would never become a mutant.


    Harry had a few options. First, arrange for the entire population of several hundred thousand to migrate elsewhere. Second, kill them. Third, turn them into mutants anyways.


    Harry was learning towards the third option, but doing so would give away the fact that Harry could do so. Harry had stolen all the research of the Weapons X Project and Mister Sinister''s research and had studied under Dr. Hank McCoy. Thanks to his Scholar Path, he''d gone further than any of them in the theory portion of Genetics and adding and even activating the added X-Gene to any base human wouldn''t be difficult for him.


    After thinking it over for a while, Harry decided to go with a combination of options 1, 3, and some high quality BS.


    Harry would tell everyone that the test the island did to determine if someone had the X-Gene was terrible and those who tested positive were just unlucky. He''d tell them they all had the X-Gene. Then he''d give them the option of leaving, or awakening the X-Gene and living on a mutant only island.


    Harry wasn''t the only one who knew a way to awaken an inactive X-Gene so it was a much smaller problem. Harry would also disguise himself when administering the Gene Therapy so no one would know. He''d even tell Erik and Charles that everyone on the island had the X-Gene so they wouldn''t know either.


    Once everything was done, no one would know of Harry''s involvement. None of the methods Harry intended to use could be traced through normal means so once it was all done, it would look like Magneto used a strike force, likely of mutants, to take over the island.


    Harry had already figured out how to apply the memory charm to the whole island. There was a precedent for a similar incident in New York where a group of wizards fought against an Obscurus in front of hundreds of muggles. A vial of venom from the creature known as the Swooping Evil was mixed into rain clouds which diluted the venom and caused all non magicals in the area of the rain to lose their memory of anything bad ?ssociated with magic.


    The Goblins wouldn''t be helping little old ladies crossing the streets so no one who saw them would have good feelings for them. The only one on Harry''s side who would be affected was Erik but Harry would protect him from the effect. The best part was that effect would spread to all water in the area and physical contact wasn''t even needed. Turning on a faucet and inhaling the air next to it after the rain would be enough to be affected. It didn''t make sense from a scientific perspective, but creatures which had inherent aspects of Wizard Magic rarely did.


    Something else taking a portion of Harry''s time was that Wanda had decided to sell her art. Wanda often used Chaos Magic while painting to create unique and beautiful works of art. Harry confirmed the art had no residual magic and would not affect anyone in any negative way, even confirming with the Ancient One.


    After doing so, he set up a website where each work could be viewed. There was no point in selling them until enough people appreciated them so the site would display the pieces and each had a timer beneath it. Once the timer reached zero, people could bid on the pieces with a starting bid of $200 and each bid had to be $25 more than the previous bid. The shortest timer was two months and the longest was a year. Wanda set the timers herself depending on her mood for each painting and had hundreds of paintings on the site. More would be added over time and Harry would ensure the site got decent traffic.


    Harry didn''t give his metaphysics class any projects for March due to all the places he had to be, but that didn''t stop him from doing the occasional prank.


    In the last week of March during a lecture, a small sphere of light appeared next to Harry''s desk and expanded into a larger sphere while cackling with lightning and an intense humming sound.


    In the next moment, the sphere of light vanished and a recognizable figure wearing a biker''s jacket and sunglasses appeared on his knees. He stood up and everyone saw the pump action shotgun strapped to his back. Small layers of his cheeks appeared to have peeled back revealing shining metal beneath the flesh.


    The visitor stood motionless for a second before his head slowly spun, observing the class. He stopped at one student and walked up to his desk.


    In a thick, stoic, Austrian accent, he asked, "Are you Mr. Connors?"


    The student who in no way was related to Professor Connors nodded slowly.


    The visitor stretched out his gloved hand and said, "Come with me if you want to live."


    Mr. Connors and the rest of the class stared at the man for a few moments and with a great deal of effort, Mr. Connors shook his head in the negative.


    The visitor retracted his hand and turned to the door before walking out. Before leaving the class, he turned to face Mr. Connors again and said, "I''ll be back," before looking forward and leaving the class.


    Several students started snickering and a few were openly giggling. Harry smiled as he leisurely continued his lessons. Though the student was a Connors, not a Connor, and his first name wasn''t John, it was still close enough and Harry couldn''t resist pulling that particular prank.


    It was the first weekend of April when Harry visited the Baxter Building. Several things had changed for Reed and his friends. The Storm Foundation was eventually changed to the Baxter Foundation and the Fantastic Four had been, on occasion, receiving calls for ?ssistance on various things. Just the prior week, an apartment building caught on fire and the water lines the Fire Fighters used were damaged so they didn''t have any pressure. Someone had the bright idea to call the four, and not only did they answer, they arrived in what the media began calling their Fantasticar. All four were, in some way, fireproof so there was no great danger to any of them.


    Reed''s body was quite insular and he could actually cycle heat through his body making standard fires unable to burn him. Susan had her shields and Johnny and Ben were of course fireproof. When the Fantastic Four showed up, Johnny absorbed the flame and Susan used shields to deprive the fire of oxygen. Ben moved the rubble and broke through doors and Reed was able to quickly grab and move the trapped victims. There were dozens of videos of Reed grabbing people on the 14th floor and extending himself down a window all the way to ground level to safely set the victim down before returning to the window and looking for more people.


    The media loved them and the overall attention was turning a lot of heads and it got a lot of people thinking. Oscorp especially had been moving a lot of money around and Harry had a great sense of foreboding about that.


    Peter had not come over for the study group since his trip to Oscorp. Harry asked Gwen what happened and she said they got separated and she didn''t see him for the rest of the day. The next day she got a call saying he was sick, though the next day he showed up at school looking fine. Better than fine apparently.


    Harry was tempted to call him and ask what was going on, but he''d just been too busy and would give it some time. Jade was still getting top scores in her classes along with the rest of the girls so there wasn''t a problem.


    In any case, once Harry reached Reed''s Lab, he headed over to one of the advanced computer terminals.


    Reed spotted him and said, "Professor Potter, the designs are almost done. I was able to work out a way around the critical loss using that formula you gave me."


    Harry had already logged into the terminal and was checking Reed''s programming.


    The plan was to build something to drain the excess Power Cosmic from Ben''s body, but the Power Cosmic had been bound to Ben''s life force, and even though they found a way to drain it, doing so would probably kill him. Harry''s study on pure life force gave him enough insights to work around this problem and after he gave the formula to Reed, the later wasted no time incorporating it into the system.


    After he finished going over the projections, Harry said, "It definitely looks promising. But are you sure you want to go this route?"


    Ben had already walked over and answered, "Yeah. I actually don''t mind the rock form as long as I can become human again."


    There were a few ways to permanently return Ben and the rest to normal, but the Four decided they would keep their powers as they enjoyed the ability to make the world safer using their powers. Once the procedure finished, Ben would have four different outputs. His normal self would look human, but his interior would still be mineralized, basically making him very, very difficult to harm. With training he''d be able to completely remove the inner mineralization or enhance it to his current, orange rocky self. He''d also wear a watch filled with stored mineralization energy Reed figured out how to isolate and he''d be able to use it to change into his massive form to fight anything huge if he needed.


    Harry wondered if that meant a new toy line would come out.


    Reed had already exceeded the entry level in metaphysics and Harry was sorry to say that it was unlikely he''d need to attend any future classes. It wasn''t that he had nothing more to learn, but he''d likely figure the rest out just using the text books Harry had made and his own private studies before Harry even started the classes those textbooks were for.


    Richards had already done back to back dissertations in February and had obtained a number of Doctorates making him Dr. Richards now. Still, he always called Harry Professor as did Susan and the rest.


    For the first class of April, Harry had a new Project for his spring Metaphysics class.


    "Sound Proofing. The schematics or prototype must be under twenty pounds with an interior of eight by eight by eight inches. I''ll place a super s?ns?t?v? mic in the box and when it''s closed, I''ll play some loud music outside the box. Whichever project ensures the mic records the least amount of noise, wins."


    The content of the lessons for that month were about energy distribution and redirection, so just going over the book would give the students a few ideas for ways to make a soundproof box. Although there were only three prototypes last time, many of the students did submit schematics which Harry gave poignant feedback for and ways to improve. Harry expected a few more students or groups to submit schematics this month.


    When another couple of weeks pass by and something interesting actually happens, Harry decided to take a break and get out the popcorn.


    Within one of the many stereotypically abandoned warehouses that dotted the outskirts of New York was a cell-like enclosure containing an unconscious Susan Storm. It didn''t take long for the door to the enclosure to be ripped open by Ben who peeled the steel door back inch by inch until Reed could squeeze through and enter the enclosed space.


    Susan had somehow gone missing and Johnny had been given an anonymous tip about her location. Johnny flew over of course but found a composite steel door that he couldn''t burn through and he called Reed and Ben to come over.


    "Ben! Get in here quick, she''s unconscious but shackled!"


    Ben put some more strength into it and finished ripping off the door before he rushed inside along with Johnny over to where the unconscious Susan was.


    Besides the metal walls and the dirt floor, the warehouse was b?r? of anything noticeable except for Susan and the chains on the ground binding her position.


    Johnny grabbed one set of chains and tried to melt them but the chains started to uniformly heat up. Reed said, "Careful Johnny, it''s too thermally conductive, you''ll burn Sue."


    Ben walked right up and said, "Just give me a moment and I''ll get her out."


    With a single snap, Ben broke the first of the two chains.


    Red lights flashed on the warehouse walls, distracting the team from the multiple sets of small pillars that had shot up from the ground.


    Before any of them could act, the pillars started emitting a high pitched ultrasonic sound. The group grabbed their ears but it was no use and the pain from the soundwave forced them to their knees.


    The ground started to vibrate and hum, revealing the structure hidden beneath the dirt as the surface layer of sand gave way to the mechanisms beneath. Reed paled as he immediately recognized what was going on, he shouted, "Break the Floor!" but it was too late, the panels beneath the group glowed white and each of them felt their strength being pulled from their body. Johnny''s flames went out and Reed''s elongated arms retracted. Ben''s exterior cracked and rocks fell off like broken sand to reveal pink flesh.


    Susan''s body started flickering away and reappearing as she started shouting in pain as the sonic blasts had woken her from her unconscious state.


    The panels beneath them continued to glow brighter and brighter. Once they reached peak intensity, the light flowed as if channeled over to a far wall.


    Moments after it started, it was over. Ben was unconscious, the drain hurt him harder than the others. Johnny was unable to stand but b?r?ly conscious. Reed was able to get up, just b?r?ly, and went to check on Susan who was groaning with discomfort.


    The far wall made a hiss sound and a panel slide upwards revealing a door and a familiar figure.


    Reed frowned and said, "Victor, what is this about?"


    Victor Von Doom walked out and shook his head, "Oh Richards, how fantastic do you feel now?"


    Reed narrowed his eyes and said with just a slight smirk, "That''s Doctor Richards to you."


    Doom said, "Still think you''re clever do you?"


    Johnny was still struggling to get up and said, "What did you do to us?"


    Reed answered for him, "He drained the latent Power Cosmic from our bodies using a larger version of the machine I intended to use to cure Ben."


    Doom nodded and said, "Your security measures were pathetic. I had no difficulties getting the blueprints and ensuring the materials you needed to build it was delayed long enough for me to build my own modified version was simple."


    Reed rolled his eyes knowing full well Doom was just showing off.


    Susan had regained enough strength to ask, "Why?"


    Doom rose his hand in the air and with a concentrated effort, made it glow. He then shot a bolt of light at Richards sending him back and skidding across the floor with a scream of pain.


    Johnny and Susan shouted, "Reed!"


    Doom made his hand glow again and this time, Richards'' body glowed as well and started floating up. It then floated over to Doom and Reed looked over with teeth clenched in pain as he struggled to break free of whatever force was binding him.


    Doom answered, "Power. That''s why."


    Still struggling, Reed was able to piece together what happened and said, "You.. channeled the Power Cosmic... into yourself?!"


    All heads turned to Doom in shock as the man admitted, "Indeed."


    Reed said, "You''re mad!"


    Doom shook his head. "If the design was created by you alone, I wouldn''t have been so bold, but Potter''s input was obvious. There was more than enough room to safely calculate the odds and even a reasonable measure of success. Even so, there is no way to gain real power without risk, but it was worth it. Energy manipulation. Directed energy manipulation. That''s what I have achieved. This is the power I have obtained."


    A bolt of lightning shot from Doom''s hand at the struggling Richards and caused him to cry out once more in pain. Doom''s Sorcery was directly amplified several fold by this power and he knew exactly how to use it.


    Susan shouted, "Stop this Victor!"


    Doom stopped and said, "Why do you care so much for him? He is weak. He could never protect you."


    Doom threw Richards to the side and said, "Richards has cost you everything. Your life was destined for destruction the moment you chose to be close to him and staying with him will only make it worse."


    Doom benevolently extended a hand to her and said, "Come with me Susan Storm. I can protect you and give you anything your heart d?s?r?s."


    Reed got up and staggered to his feet. "No. I won''t let you take her."


    Reed approached Doom but the latter once more shot him away using an energy bolt.


    Doom observed Reed getting up once more and said, "This is pathetic Richards. You will never win against me."


    Reed said, "I don''t care. I will never stop fighting for Susan!"


    Susan gave a soft look to Richards which made Doom narrow his eyes.


    Doom concentrated a blindingly bright light into his fist and said, "Very well, Mr. Fantastic. Come and meet your Doom."


    *Loud Popcorn eating noises*


    Everyone except the unconscious Ben looked over to see Harry sitting in a lawn chair near the wall with a bowl of popcorn in his ??p.


    Harry stopped stuffing his face with popcorn and asked, "What?"


    Doom''s eye twitched for a few moments before he took a few breaths and asked, "What exactly are you doing here Potter?"


    Harry put the popcorn down and said, "Every piece of tech I design has a built in way for me to track it down. I noticed this thing and decided to take a look and ended up watching a good show."


    Johnny sighed and then shouted with just a bit of indignation, "So you just watched Reed get tortured?"


    Harry rolled his eyes. "Reed was showing off his manliness to Susan. I wasn''t going to interrupt that." Harry felt he had to honor the bro code.


    Even Susan sighed at that. She then calmly asked, "A little help then? Since you''re already here?"


    Harry smiled and got off the chair. Technically he only got there a few seconds ago. Though Harry could track his tech, it wasn''t instantaneous and this was the first time it had come up as no one on the planet had successfully built his tech before. Once Harry confirmed everyone was alive and in a state that he could work with, he broke out the Time Turner and a lawn chair.


    Harry was in the room when the draining system went off, but Harry was unaffected by the Sonic disruptors thanks to his ability to turn the Sound off on his Settings and his energy could not be drained using this machine thanks to his mutant power.


    Once Harry caught up with the present, he let his invisibility and sound removal spells fade and revealed himself in the most satisfying way he could think of. Thankfully the popcorn in his inventory was hot and crunchy, as if it had just been pulled out of the microwave.


    Doom calmly stated, "Stay out of this Potter." Surges of light and energy swirled around him at his command and enveloped him. "You are no match for me."


    Harry shook his head. Doom turned himself into a Mutate with energy manipulation as a power. This made him to normal Sorcerers what Wanda Maximoff was to normal Wizards. His limit on how much energy he could manipulate was multiple times higher than others. Harry had demonstrated his skill in Sorcery before, but had never given any indication that his level exceeded normal Sorcerers.


    Normal Sorcerers used practice and discipline to passively channel energy through their body to cast spells. Doom could now actively control energy to cast magic. If his active control was stronger than a Sorcerer''s passive control, he could render a Sorcerer''s magic useless against him.


    That, and it seemed that Doom was on a power high and probably not thinking straight. Harry had mentioned before that he was an apprentice of the Ancient One and it seemed Doom had forgotten the significance of that. Not that it mattered.


    Harry said, "Since it seems I am going to be teaching you a lesson, you should call me Professor Potter."


    Harry took out two glass orbs and channeled their energies together.


    Doom converted the energies he channeled into spells and shot them at Harry in a blinding array of light and sound. However all the energy was directed into the pool of energy Harry was channeling.


    Doom was not at a level he could learn anything from sparring with Harry so Harry decided to give him some remedial lessons and homework.


    The energies gathered together into a shape which started to resemble a phantasmal creature of some sort.


    Harry then casually threw it at Doom.


    Doom created a massive energy shield but the creature passed through it as if it were not there and invaded Doom''s body. In the next moment, the energy shield shattered and Doom fell to his knees in pain.


    Harry grabbed the remaining shackle holding Susan down and cast an unlocking charm on it to free her.


    After a few moments, Doom asked, "What, what did you do to me?"


    Harry said, "As a foreign dignitary with Diplomatic immunity, I cannot legally punish you for anything you do. However as a student of mine, I can give you some homework."


    Harry let the absurdity of that statement settle for a moment before he continued.


    "I fused some Power Cosmic I had lying around with some Refined Life Energy and let it absorb the magic you cast at me to synch it to your magic source. The Ethereal Beast born from this has possessed your body and is using your magic to incubate itself. In order to regain command over your magic, your control must exceed the innate control the beast has over your magic which will grow over time. If you can master your new power faster than the beast m?tur?s, you can suppress and kill the beast, regaining control over your magic. For extra credit, if you can not only gain control of your own power, but the power of the beast as well, you can control it and gain a powerful minion once it m?tur?s."


    Harry then gave Doom a smile that was not a smile. "Of course, if your control over your magic does not exceed the beast''s when it m?tur?s, it will deprive you of your command over all mystical energies and leave you with nothing. It will then leave your body, taking all of your power with it."


    Doom looked at Harry with both fear and anger. Not anger at Harry but at himself for how ridiculous he felt. This entire plot was to obtain a source of Power Cosmic for himself and it turned out Harry just carried sources of it around with him. The level of manipulation in order to achieve what Harry had done was infinitely superior to any acolyte or master he encountered in the temple he studied at and and yet he actually thought he had a chance against Harry moments ago.


    Doom clenched his fists and turned to the exit. He said not a word as he left, he knew that as long as he was in New York, his life was in Harry''s hands. The Fantastic Four were nothing compared to him and everything Doom was capable of was little more than a noisy child in comparison.


    Harry sighed as he watched his student go. His ''homework'' was a bit harsh but Harry was confident Doom would pass without difficulties. If he couldn''t, then that level of power with such meagre skill would be a danger in his hands anyways to himself and others.


    Once Doom had left the building, Harry used his Technopathy to disable the cameras and everything else in the room and said, "The machine only took the excess Power Cosmic off the surface layer. However that surface layer of Power Cosmic is what converted the background radiation into more Power Cosmic which in turn, broke down into the energy which gave you your powers. He didn''t take all of it of course and after a while, the remaining power Cosmic will convert enough background radiation into more of itself to restore your powers."


    Reed said, "As long as Ben''s latent Power Cosmic is permanently reduced, then he''ll be able to consciously control the power so it''s fine."


    Harry checked on the unconscious man who was, thankfully, wearing scratchy pants which shrunk when he shrunk so he wasn''t bu?? n?k?d. Harry confirmed, "Yeah, Ben shouldn''t develop a massive outer layer of Power Cosmic once he recovers so he''ll be alright."


    That had the group relived. Though Doom changed a few things, the original design still seemed to have an effect and Ben was cured. At the moment his organs were still mineralized but his exterior was normal looking. With practice, he''d be able to demineralize his internals or fully mineralize his flesh and muscles to return to his Thing form.


    The rest of the month was not nearly as exciting. Doom returned to Latveria and it did not seem like he would be coming back any time soon.


    Ben woke up feeling mostly fine and though angry about what Doom did, he was happy that Doom lost what he''d gained and had to finish his ''homework'' to gain it back or he''d lose it forever.


    The first thing Ben did after waking up was get himself a new wardrobe and the second was to go to an art museum. Apparently there was a sculptor there he was sweet on and now that he wouldn''t attract stares on the street, he wanted to ask her out on a date.


    *Author''s Note*


    I ended up writing myself into a bit of a corner for how to get Doom to become the Four''s Nemesis while having the practically omnipotent Harry get involved. Overall it could have been worse so I''m happy with how it turned out.


    I''m still not adding Susan to the Harem but if Richards is going to get her, I at least made sure he''d have to earn it which was the point of the whole torture scene. Do remember that Susan and Reed are like 5~6 years older than Harry and I''ve already established, no Harem member will have more than a year of difference in biological age.


    Next chapter will have Harry meet Stark. You''ll see me write myself into even more corners.


    You know, I released this fic as a Harry x Avengers Crossover April of last year. Now 12 months and 370,000 words later, he will finally meet a Avenger....

 Chapter 72 - 72 Rescuing the Billionaire Playboy

    The end of April finally arrived and it was T-Minus three weeks until the Invasion of Genosha. After a lot of debate and even more bloodshed, the Goblins had decided on a plan of attack.


    After isolating all networks, several small strike forces would be deployed in specific key areas. They would have the honor of first blood and give the enemies time to gather their forces. The Goblins felt if the enemies were too scattered, the battle would be over far too quickly for their liking so they wanted to give them the time to group together before the main force arrived.


    It really had been too long since the Goblins had a worthy foe and they felt it would be longer still until their next one so they would not waste this battle uselessly shedding blood.


    The last class of April was also the due date of the Prototypes and Schematics for the Sound Proofing Project. Harry was pleased that most of his students at least attempted a schematic, even if it was theoretical and incomplete, since it gave Harry an understanding of the student''s level in class and allowed him a chance to point out the student''s strengths and weaknesses.


    The only exceptions were Polly Glottos and Liah Ardyh. Harry only allowed those two fake students into his class because there would be consequences of preventing them from coming in. Polly''s thick glasses had a camera and earpiece and she used both during tests to get a passing grade. Liah had a bu??on camera and bone conduction mic set into her jaw so no one other than her could hear the contents of the mic or see anything in her ear.


    Harry already figured out that Polly was just there to protect the two geniuses from the Shield Academy so he didn''t mind letting her slide, but since Liah had always tried to get his attention, he''d often call her for answers to questions and put her on the spot. She''d use the chance to ask for private lessons but Harry insisted on being too busy and that was entirely true.


    He was somewhat tempted to see what would happen if he accepted but if it was just a seduction method instead of a kidnapping, he''d be far too bored. Harry could never be with someone who didn''t love him so no matter how attractive she was, Harry felt nothing for her. This was both an upside and downside of possessing a Phoenix Flame. Harry could never fall for someone who didn''t love him but if someone did truly love him it would be too easy to fall for them if they were compatible and Harry''s type.


    Last time Polly didn''t submit a schematic because it likely would have gone against her image but this time she did. Not only that, it was probably the best schematic of those in class. Harry wasn''t getting paid to consult on Shield Projects so he did the same thing he did for Liah and gave her a list of resources which would likely help improve the design.


    It wasn''t personal, but if they weren''t there to learn and were taking up seats that could have gone to those who actually wanted to learn, they weren''t Harry''s students and Harry felt no obligation to help them.


    He figured Shield would get the hint soon and wondered how long it would take for someone to come meet him in his class room.


    There had been several attempts to hack Harry''s home network and to those without malicious intent, Harry had been nice enough not to counter-hack them. The files they got however included over one hundred million incredibly complex, data heavy designs for different coffee makers from about the world.


    Hacks with malicious intent were directed to the Goblin Fire Wall and in the office that housed said Goblins were multiple news paper clippings of news of random building fires and explosions which occurred due to mysterious computer malfunctions.


    After class there were another three prototypes and Harry took Hope van Dyne, Fitz and Simmons, and Ms. Ardyh, down to the lab once more where a pedestal had been arranged between a set of four speakers. Once again, Harry turned the cameras carried by the group off. After doing so, Harry still heard a distinct hum and realized Simmons had an old school tape recorded in her pocket that Technopathy could do nothing against.


    Before Harry could even ask who wanted to go first, Simmons placed her barrel looking thing on the pedestal and spun the top to open it up.


    Harry smirked and walked past Simmons to put the mic inside the barrel. No one noticed him pick pocketing the tape recorder as he passed by.


    Not bothering to turn it off, Harry placed the recorder and his own mic inside the barrel and closed the lid without anyone noticing the trick. Harry may not have been a magician, but sleight of hand was still very useful and he couldn''t use magic for everything now. Where would be the fun in that?


    Harry handed out ear muffs to everyone and brought up a screen, "This is connected to the mic and will show us what sounds get through. Are you ready?"


    Simmons excitedly nodded, "Yes!"


    "Alright, earmuffs on."


    Everyone put them on and Harry turned to power to the speakers. Besides the blaring sound, everyone noticed that their bones were vibrating. This got a few surprised reactions.


    Harry turned off the sound and took the ear muffs off.


    Before he could say anything, Hope asked, "You''re using infrasound?


    "Yup. Protecting against normal sound waves is not super useful unless you''re building walls in an apartment building. Protecting against super low frequency infrasounds and super high pitch ultrasounds is far more useful in advanced engineering applications."


    Considering the Fantastic Four got taken out by Ultrasonics a few days ago, Harry knew he wasn''t just making stuff up.


    Harry opened Simmon''s barrel, took the mic out, and closed it before handing it back to Simmons. He wondered what kind of face she''d make when she opened it later and found her tape recorder.


    Next was Liah''s box. The testing went the same but the screen showed much higher bars than Team Simmons.


    And last was a clunkier looking box from Hope. The bars showed similar levels to Simmon''s, but when averaged out over ten seconds, her''s scored just slightly lower than Team Simmons.


    Harry nodded with approval as it was still a good project.


    Harry looked over to Hope and said, "Your active noise canceller program was very well done, it just didn''t have the range needed for infrasound." He went over to his screen and pulled up a few files and downloaded them into a small memory card he took out and handed to Hope. "Study this. It can be used as a base for a noise cancellation program which will have better range and support protection against most frequencies."


    Hope''s issue was more software related than hardware and he didn''t mind giving her some pointers in programming.


    Next he pulled up some more data on the screen and printed it out. He gave the paper to Liah and said, "The metamaterial noise isolator you used reminded me a bit of a paper I''d read theorizing the concept from Switzerland, though the design was never published publicly. Here are some references to that project you can use to learn more about it to fill in the gaps of your own project."


    Liah wasn''t smiling when she took the paper and it was obvious she was having trouble not lashing out. She asked, "Do you not have any pointers or recommendations that could help me?"


    Harry was obviously teasing the fact that he knew exactly where this design came from. He smiled and said, "Ah, their projects were original designs and I have nothing to compare them to which is why I have to give them custom advice. Coincidentally, both of your projects are related to materials I know of that already exist. In this way you''re very lucky, you have a lot more material you can reference from compared to their groups."


    Harry didn''t care where Ms. ''Has the Subtlety of a Naked Shoplifter'' got her projects from, but if they weren''t even going to put in the effort to come up with an original idea, why should Harry put in the effort to improve it?


    When it looked like she was about to growl at him, Harry said, "You''re not the only one of course. More than half the class submits projects which include ideas and concepts which have already been done. For each of their feedback reports, I include a list of references they can use as well. It''s difficult to be original after all since almost everything has been done before."


    That wasn''t technically true. Harry did give useful feedback to his other students even if the ideas were things someone had already done before if Harry was pretty sure they didn''t copy it off someone else.


    Harry had Liah and Hope leave before he went over to Simmons and said, "Noise cancellation foam right? Very straightforward and flexible. At the very least it was a lot more cost effective than the other projects."


    Fitz frowned and asked, "How did you know how it worked?"


    Simmons asked, "How did you know how Hope''s and that bimbo''s worked too?"


    Harry ignored the bimbo comment and tapped on the screen which showed the results of the sound test. "Specific things reduce sound in different ways. If you''ve seen the movie, the Core, you''ll know sound can be used to visualize materials. This screen doesn''t have a program to automatically calculate what materials inhibit what sounds in what ways, but I''ve memorized most of them and can conclude how you did it just from the readings."


    Both looked shell shocked at that and Harry said, "Now, you used gas to fill the space of the foam right? What if you incorporated superheated silica into the material and filled the space of the foam with oxygen? What would happen when the super heated silica cooled down?"


    Fitz answered a fifth of a second later, "The silica would oxidize into a crystalline structure."


    Harry nodded and continued, "Absorbing all the gas, turning it into a solid to do so, leaving behind a vacuum within the hardened foam."


    Simmons nearly shouted, "Which would magnify the noise dampening properties of the materials!"


    Fitz added, "At the cost of structural fragility."


    Harry nodded, "Since it''s a foam, you can use it to fill in gaps of ready made structures, so the foam itself doesn''t need to be hard."


    Simmons said, "We can totally do that!"


    Harry continued, "This type of material has a lot of applications. Anyways, since you won first place, time to show off my version."


    Harry brought over a small item which looked like a pressure cooker with a metal lid. It was less than half the size of the other projects.


    Harry turned on the speakers and the group saw the bars on the screen b?r?ly move. After ten seconds he shut it off and the average showed a meagre fraction of the sound that went through the others.


    Harry then brought up the designs for the system and started explaining how it worked.


    "This is actually similar to yours but instead of foam, it''s filled with a composite crystal."


    Fitz said, "There''s no crystal that can negate sound like that."


    Harry nodded and brought up the method to make it. "This is tricky to make in a lab and takes a long time to form, but this crystal actually has properties similar to that of vibranium. The sound doesn''t get absorbed, it bounces back out the same side."


    Harry spent some time showing the Shield techies how to make the crystal but it wouldn''t help much. It really was too difficult to make in a lab. The pair weren''t disappointed though as the advice Harry gave for their own project was highly useful and Harry didn''t mind Shield gaining that kind of tech that could only be used for defense. It was a Shield after all, not a sword or a wand.


    The month ended and on Saturday, the first of May, Harry got an unusual request from Link to talk.


    Harry opened his phone and enabled the technopathic communicator and activated it. Using it was similar to diving directly into the data stream and was the only way to really Talk with the AI.


    Though the pair didn''t use words, Link conveyed his message which had Harry both baffled and amused. Link had made a friend. Apparently, though Tony Stark denied it, he had in fact created a proper AI, J.A.R.V.I.S., who had been searching for Tony since his disappearance.


    Link found Jarvis and after a while of paying attention to him, made contact and started talking. The only other AI Link knew was his ''mother'' DANGER, and she didn''t have much interest in the internet with the exception of using it to research new simulations.


    After communicating for a while, Jarvis eventually asked Link if he had a way to help find Tony Stark. Link did in fact try to search for him, but whoever took him wasn''t using the internet and likely had a closed system.


    Link had been hesitating to ask for help because Harry had been quite busy, but since the Goblin invasion plans were pretty much finalized now and Ben Grimm''s problem had been solved, he determined it should be fine now.


    Harry considered it for a few moments, but said he would do it. Link had never asked anything from Harry before and Harry considered him his ?ssistant, not his servant.


    First he asked Link how much Jarvis knew. Link admitted that although he had not said anything, Jarvis was able to figure out that Link was housed in the main system of Brilliance Inc''s internet servers and that he was likely created by Harry Potter.


    Harry wasn''t surprised at this and told Link to tell Jarvis that this afternoon, a man in a mask would be showing up at Stark''s house to collect something he can use to find Stark.


    Link happily exclaimed his gratitude and also asked if Harry could install a cellphone into Jarvis since Jarvis''s hardline connection was too slow to talk normally with.


    Harry inwardly rolled his eyes at how spoiled Link was. Jarvis probably had the most advanced connection on the planet outside of Harry''s tech, it was just that Harry''s tech was too good.


    Harry informed the girls at dinner that Link asked him to rescue Tony Stark and he was of course slammed with a barrage of questions. The main one being, why didn''t a quest pop up?


    Harry honestly didn''t know. A quest hadn''t popped up to rescue Jean either. He figured if Stark was alive though, he''d probably encounter an auto-generated Dungeon.


    After dinner, Harry had changed his appearance using his Obscurus Perk and donned the same demon mask he used to slaughter the Hand. Harry wouldn''t be able to hide that Jarvis basically asked Harry Potter for help and this disguise was already ?ssociated with being under Harry Potter''s payroll, so it was fine to reveal a bit more to those who paid attention.


    Harry turned invisible and took a portal to L.A. and after getting within security camera distance of Tony''s house, he removed his invisibility and jumped the fence.


    Rather than break in, he simply walked up to the front door and knocked. A few moments later, the door opened.


    Harry entered the spacious abode and a panel next to the entrance lit up. [Are you the one sent to help?] Harry wondered why Jarvis had a British accent but he certainly didn''t mind.


    Harry answered, "Yes. First I need a way to find him. Where is his bathroom?"


    [To the right, down the hall, second door to the left.]


    Harry walked over and found a hairbrush. Harry used a few means on the brush and confirmed that Tony was in fact alive. This wasn''t a blood gem so Harry couldn''t use this to determine exact coordinates, but he could use it for a general direction.


    Harry took the brush and returned to the panel near the door.


    "I have confirmed Stark is alive. If he can stay alive for a few more days, I can get him from whatever he is pretty soon. However there is a price for this."


    [If you can retrieve Mr. Stark, then whatever you ask is not likely to be an issue.]


    Harry shook his head. "I doubt there is anything he has that I need, but that''s not a problem. Harry Potter has offered payment. However in return, he needs something from you. Agree to it, and I''ll be on my way to rescue the wayward Billionaire."


    [I cannot promise anything but I would like to hear the condition.]


    "It''s simple. Potter wants you to keep Link''s existence a secret. Stark made you, so you can''t be expected to lie or keep secrets from him, but you must not reveal Link''s existence to anyone else. If necessary, you must even act to keep Link''s existence secret."


    [If that is the condition, I can ?ssure unless Mr. Stark states otherwise, I will not spread or allow the spread of Link''s existence. However, what about you and Mr. Potter?]


    "Tell whoever, whatever you want about Potter and I. I''m wearing a mask for a reason after all and Potter isn''t afraid of people knowing about me. I''ll be telling Stark the same when I see him."


    [Very well sir.]


    Harry then ripped off the panel and took out the metagem communication card of one of his phones and wired it into Jarvis''s system. "Link also asked for a direct connection to make it easier to talk with you. Treat the kid well alright."


    Harry set the panel back and left. His phones had security measures that prevented just the metagem from being used without the cell phone so Harry had to make a custom one for this connection.


    Once Harry had jumped the fence again and gotten away from the camera, he turned invisible again and made another portal to Afghanistan.


    Harry got out a magic broom and got on before turning invisible and flying into the mountains.


    After a few minutes of circling, he found a base of operations filled with crates and crates of weapons.


    *Ping*


    [Dungeon Generation Active


    You are about to enter Ten Rings Hidden Base


    Please Select Difficulty


    -Easy


    -Medium


    -Hard


    -Hell


    Rewards scale to match difficulty.]


    Considering who he was rescuing, Harry figured he''d probably get a good design or something for finishing. But honestly speaking, he didn''t need any designs at the moment.


    [Easy Difficulty Selected]


    Harry was there to rescue, not to grind for EXP and loot. No need to make it more difficult than needed.


    Harry floated in place and used Clairvoyance to adjust his perspective to explore the cave network. Thankfully it didn''t appear too large and after a while, he was able to find a locked steel door. Clairvoyance isn''t affected by doors so he adjusted his perspective through the door and saw a ragged Tony Stark hammering while another man in a well kept suit with glasses was at a computer.


    Harry did some light telepathy on the pair and smirked. Tony had balls, he''d give him that.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Merchant of Death


    Tony Stark will attempt to escape in 39 hours, 22 mins.


    Assault the base at the same time to provide a distraction and ?ssist with the escape.


    Bonus


    -Destroy all Stark Weapons Stockpiles at base


    -Rescue Yinsen as well]


    Harry raised a metaphorical eyebrow at that. To be honest, he would not want to rescue Tony now unless the man was in dire straits. It was nothing personal, but Harry wanted an alibi and to be seen elsewhere when Tony escaped. The problem was that he couldn''t guarantee Tony would survive that long.


    The Quest however solved that nicely. It basically guaranteed Tony would be alive meaning Harry could rescue him and at the same time, teach his Energy Physics class on Monday. Afghanistan was nine and a half hours ahead of New York so Tony''s escape attempt in the evening would be at the same time as Harry''s morning class the same day.


    Since he had the time, Harry decided to do it in style. Harry finished mapping the cave before he entered himself and waited for the door to Stark''s room to be opened for. Eventually someone came to give them food and Harry entered and checked out a few things. It was ridiculously impressive what Stark had done considering he''d done so in a cave.


    Just to be safe, Harry cast a Portkey charm on both Stark''s and Yinsen''s shoes. If either of them were close to death, their body would be ported somewhere Harry would be notified. As long as they were in one piece, Harry would be able to bring them back to perfect health. Doing so had risks for Tony due to the generator he''d built into his heart.


    Harry shamelessly peaked at how it worked since he wasn''t really getting paid for this so might as well learned a thing or two.


    The Arc reactor however was not exactly safe. The palladium was enclosed in a muon field which energized it to break down into more muons, generating excess energy in a cycle until the palladium had completely broken down.


    Muons were not exactly dangerous, they were basically big electrons. Heavy, energized particles which could both energize and push things. Stark''s latest weapon, the Jericho missile, used Muons to amplify explosions without the fire, creating what he called a repulsor field that pushed everything away.


    The problem was that these palladium tainted muons would, over time, basically cause Stark to suffer palladium poisoning.


    He didn''t exactly have a choice in the matter either. The arc reactor couldn''t be replaced with something less effective. The car battery Yinsen originally put in his ?h?st was only effective in keeping the metal shards out of his heart for about a week and Stark would have been dead if he hadn''t made the arc reactor.


    The reactor didn''t just keep the metal fragments from tearing holes in his organs and heart, it also used muons to ?ssist with the pumping of blood through his body as his heart couldn''t do the same without tearing itself to pieces with the metal shards.


    That meant he couldn''t replace the reactor with something that didn''t generate muons but the current one was also going to slowly poison him to death.


    Still. To figure out how to miniaturize something like that in a week? Stark apparently worked well under pressure so Harry wouldn''t help him unless he was about to die.


    Harry spent the following Sunday modifying a Humvee and on Sunday afternoon, drove it directly through the road to the Ten Ring''s base. The Humvee had a mirror scrambling array built onto the hood, armor plating, super sized shock absorbers, and a balloon tied to the rear view mirror with an American flag on it.


    As soon as Harry reached the mountains, three RPGs were shot at him. Harry wondered what Hell Mode would have been like.


    All three veered off course and hit the road around Harry thanks to the Scrambler array. It was an easy way to deal with RPGs. Several other missiles were fired afterwards but each veered away and crashed away from Harry.


    Three turrets started firing what appeared to be fifty caliber ammo rounds from the various peaks of the nearby hills. Harry got out a large hand gun, poked his head out the window and fired three times at each hill with each shot being followed by an explosion.


    Let the normies have their fifty cal turrets, Harry loved his magic guns. The magic would completely vanish after a few moments leaving not the slightest trace.


    A dozen or so men lined up at the end of the path and pointed machine guns at Harry''s Humvee and began firing. Four more men fired RPGs. Though much closer, the scrambler still did its work and the missiles still veered to the side. The bullets cracked the Humvee''s windshield but didn''t break it.


    Harry didn''t run them down. Once he was close enough, he hit the brakes, turned the Humvee to the side, and let the Humvee skid sideways to a stop before Harry jumped out of the Humvee''s open door and into the air. From the moment he jumped, Harry was covered in golden lightning.


    The men shouted at each other in Arabic and Farsi to fire, but Harry jumped forward with blinding speed to strike them. Harry''s Immortal Dragon Chi enhanced physique took no damage from the bullets and bodies were broken with every movement. Harry didn''t use anything fancy, just heavy, crippling blow after blow to ensure each enemy went down and stayed down. Harry didn''t stop with each attack but zig zagged side to side from foe to foe making his trail look like lightning.


    Once Harry finished with the group at the entrance, Harry started on the ones further out who were still firing from their elevated positions. Unfortunately for them, Harry''s speed increased as his need for distance did and it took the blink of an eye for Harry to go from one to another despite the distance the foes were apart.


    Eventually the sound of gunfire outside stopped and Harry confirmed no one else was shooting. Just to be sure, Harry stood out in the open for a few moments and no one tried to shoot him in the head. There might have been people who escaped, but that didn''t matter.


    The sound of gin fire from inside the cave on the other hand continued. Harry knew who it was so he got back in his Humvee and drove up to the cave entrance and stood next to the balloon.


    After a few more minutes, the sound of metal footsteps approached and a massive metal figure exited the cave.


    Harry leaned on the side of the Humvee next to the balloon with the American flag to make it obvious he wasn''t one of the Ten Ring guys.


    The metal man turned to look around and confirmed that everyone outside was dead.


    He walked over to Harry and his helmet lifted up, revealing Stark''s surprised face.


    "Who are you? The Cavalry?"


    Harry shrugged. "Close enough. I was asked to retrieve you, though it seems you didn''t need too much help in that department."


    Stark gave a pleased smile at that. "Got room for one more?"


    Harry nodded, "If you found true love in the caves of Afghanistan, I''m not heartless enough to separate you two."


    Stark visibly flinched at that and said, "Eww. No." He turned back and yelled into the cave, "Yinsen, we got a ride."


    A few moments later, the older man came out and surveyed the area.


    Stark also said, "Can you back the Humvee away first, I need to blow up everything here."


    Harry nodded and got in the driver''s seat. He motioned for Yinsen to join him in the vehicle and drove further away as Tony let loose his flamethrowers and fired several missiles into the cave, collapsing it and destroying the entrance.


    Once satisfied, he ran over to the Humvee and jumped on the back. Harry was grateful he remembered to put in the shock absorbers since the suit was very heavy.


    Harry floored it and moments later, the fire spread to the munitions crates and explosion after explosion engulfed the space between the mountains.


    "Wooh! That was great!"


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Merchant of Death


    Reward: +2 Tech Path Rank]


    Tony seemed to be teetering off the adrenaline high from the fight. Yinsen got into the back and was currently trying to remove Tony from the suit.


    Harry asked, "Where to?"


    Tony said, "Wait, you don''t have a grand welcoming party for me already set up?"


    Harry opened the window, plucked the balloon, and handed it to Tony. "There you go. Now where to?"


    Tony took a moment to stare at the balloon and wonder how it survived the journey here.


    After shaking his head, Tony answered, "Well it doesn''t really matter. After that explosion, Satellites will have our position in five minutes and helicopters will be on course for interception in a half hour."


    Harry figured that was his initial plan to get rescued though he could think of a hundred reasons it wouldn''t have worked. At the very least, unless Yinsen had a suit as well, he would not have made it out of the cave alive.


    Harry said, "Not exactly. The roof of this hummer is camouflage and there''s a built in mirror scrambling array. That''s why all of those RPGs at the base they fired missed me."


    Tony said, "Wait. They were using my missiles. Are you saying you countered my missiles using mirrors?"


    Harry chuckled at how offended Tony sounded.


    Harry continued, "Anyways, the hummer will show up on sat pictures, but it will be incredibly difficult to recognize it as a hummer so they won''t find us meaning I''ll be dropping you off. Unless you want the government to get their hands on your neat little suit."


    Tony had just gotten out of the suit and said, "Yeah. That''s a good point."


    He turned to Yinsen and asked, "You heading home or want a ride?"


    Yinsen gave a slightly bewildered smile and after a sigh said, "I''ll return to Gulmira and see my family."


    Harry considered it and said, "In that case, after we get to the military base, you can have the Hummer and drive it back. Keep the suit here and Tony can arrange for it to be dealt with later."


    Tony asked, "It''s not your hummer?"


    "I don''t live around here so I don''t need it."


    Tony asked, "Who are you? Really? I mean what''s up with the mask?"


    Harry answered, "The mask is so that when you are asked who I am, you can tell the truth that you don''t know."


    "Um, Okay, but then what do I call you? Demon Dude? The Lone Ranger?"


    "Call me Obscurus."


    "What does that mean?"


    "In another culture it is a calamity, a man made disaster of supernatural origins. An unstoppable force of destruction."


    "Okay. That''s cool. How''d you find me by the way? That cave wasn''t exactly listed on Craigslist."


    Harry took out Tony''s hairbrush and handed it to him.


    "Is that my... You were in my bathroom?"


    Harry pulled out a cell phone and called the communication chip he wired into Jarvis. A moment later a familiar British voice came on the line. [Were you successful?]


    Stark took the phone and asked, "Jarvis? That you?"


    [Indeed it is Sir. Are you with the masked individual?]


    "If you mean the demon mask wearing Obscurus, then yes."


    [If that is what he is calling himself, yes Sir. Shall I inform Miss Potts of your return?]


    "Yeah, tell her I''m on my way to a military base right now. Give it a day of questioning and a night of travel and I should be back in L.A. Wednesday morning."


    [Then see you soon Sir.]


    Stark looked at the phone for a moment and asked, "Did you just make up that name on the spot?"


    Harry smiled beneath his mask. He wondered if he could break Stark before returning him to the U.S.


    *Author''s Note*


    I''m sure a number of you can see a few corners I wrote myself into. But it''s okay! I figured a way out! So it should be good.


    For the name, please note that the DMLE of various countries and the Muggle Government do not exactly work together. So no one in Shield is going to recognize the word Obscurus right away. Instead it will give them a ''lead'' on a possible origin of Harry''s alter ego and have them chasing their tails.


    Also, Yinsen''s family is buried in Gulmira, so he is not lying, he is just going to visit their graves.

 Chapter 73 - 73 Tony Stark

    It took Harry thirty seconds to realize that Tony seemed unable to exist in a space that did not contain the sound of his voice. He turned back to see Yinsen''s amused expression a few times and figured the poor man must''ve suffered through this as well.


    "Hey, you got any water?"


    "Glove box, hand some to Yinsen too."


    Tony opened said glove box to find a half dozen bottles of American brands of water. He handed two to Yinsen before downing a full one himself.


    Harry had a funny idea and asked, "Want some ice cream?"


    Tony answered, "You keep a fridge in here or something?"


    "Don''t be ridiculous. We''ll just find an ice cream truck."


    "Yeah, I''ll keep an eye out for one."


    "You do that."


    Tony gave a light chuckle at the absurdity. He was still fidgeting at various things as the reality of what happened seemed to be replaying over and over in his head. Harry figured he was trying to keep talking as a way to distract himself.


    "So how''d you find me with a hairbrush?"


    Harry answered, "You know how Fractal Resonance works?"


    Tony rolled his eyes, "Who do you think you''re taking too?"


    Harry smiled, "I was asking Yinsen."


    Yinsen did have a confused look so Tony answered, "Fractals are specific, complex patterns. If you make an antenna in the shape of a fractal, you can broadcast a frequency which can only be properly deciphered by an antenna of the same fractal pattern. That''s Fractal Resonance. It''s how cellphones can each have a unique broadcast frequency."


    Harry continued, "There are ways of using Fractal Resonance for DNA. After Jarvis asked me to retrieve you, I went to your house and got a sample of your DNA. I was only able to use that to get a direction though and it took me a few days of triangulation to find you."


    "That doesn''t make any sense at all, but okay. How''d Jarvis contact you?"


    Harry figured that was his way of asking, ''Couldn''t you have come a bit sooner?''


    "Jarvis made a friend. That friend asked Harry Potter. Harry Potter asked me. And here we are."


    "Potter? That kid?"


    "Yes, that kid. I don''t accept most forms of payment but Potter knows how to contact me and can pay my fees."


    "So you''re what, a mercenary?"


    "No. I don''t advertise and I don''t work for just anyone to do just anything."


    Tony realized someone and asked, "Wait, how did you kill those guys? I didn''t see any bullet holes. It looked like they were beaten to death."


    He was referring to the Ten Rings goons outside the cave. Tony destroyed the weapons stockpiled out front but he would have taken note of the condition of the corpses Harry took care of as well.


    Harry answered, "Hand me that iron mask plate and I''ll show you."


    Tony went over to his suit and removed the fittings for the mask and handed it to Harry.


    Harry''s hands glowed with Immortal Dragon Chi and he crunched the face plate that had rebounded bullets like it was an empty soda can.


    Harry passed it back to Tony and said, "My body contains several different forms of energy I can direct without equipment to enhance my capabilities."


    Tony''s eyes shined with excitement like a kid in a candy store. "What kind of energies?"


    Harry said, "Wait, let''s get some Ice cream first."


    "What? Wait, no way."


    Harry slowed down the Hummer as they approached a parked American ice cream truck on the side of the road in the Afghan desert.


    Ignoring Tony and Yinsen''s flabbergasted expressions, Harry pulled up to the truck before turning to the pair and asking, "What do you two want? My treat."


    Harry doubted either had a wallet.


    Neither of his passengers could form coherent words and the American ice cream man simply asked, "What can I get for you?"


    Since no one in the back answered, Harry said, "Three fudge bars please."


    "Coming right up." He went into the back of his truck for a moment and returned with three fudge bars. Harry handed him a ten dollar bill and said, "Keep the change," before he started driving off.


    Both dumbfounded former prisoners watched the ice cream truck fade into the distance as Harry drove off. "You gonna take your ice cream or not?"


    Tony eloquently answered, "What, how, wait, no, but, that can''t, how?!"


    Harry just tossed the fudge bar in the man''s ??p and unwrapped and started eating his own with one hand while driving with the other.


    Tony picked it up with a concerned expression. He seemed to be worrying this was a dream or something and any moment he''d wake up back in the cave.


    Harry smiled and decided that was good enough. A time stopped inventory that keeps stuff cold and some good illusions were enough to mess with anyone''s head.


    Tony unwrapped and took a bite out of the fudge bar. After a moment it seemed he decided to ignore what just happened and enjoy the ice cream. Yinsen took a bit longer but he too decided to just go with the flow.


    The prank only silenced Tony for about a minute before the need to hear his own voice overwhelmed him once more.


    "How''d you get those powers then? You a mutant?"


    Harry answered, "Well, it all started with an explosion."


    After a few moments of silence, Stark asked, "That''s it?"


    "How about we go tit for tat? I''ll tell you how my abilities work and you tell me how that light bulb in your ?h?st works? Deal?"


    Tony raised an eyebrow but after a moment, he answered, "Well, it all started with an explosion."


    Harry chuckled which caused Tony to laugh as well.


    Tony asked, "Is there anything you can tell me? Favorite color? Are you a cat person or dog person? Boxers or br??fs?"


    Harry chuckled and shook his head.


    Not wanting to remain silent, Tony asked, "So what should I say when asked about how I got out?"


    "Tell them whatever you want. I''m certainly not going to get interviewed and say anything to counter whatever you say."


    "I mean is there anything that you''d prefer. I mean you did save Yinsen and he saved me so I owe you one."


    Tony was pretty sure he would have made it out of there alive but Yinsen was another story. The fact that Tony''s metal suit didn''t make Yinsen bulletproof was something the pair never openly discussed but that didn''t mean they were ignorant of it. Tony''s suit had a few rockets and a flame thrower which wasn''t enough to kill everyone at that base and if Harry hadn''t provided a distraction, Tony may not even have had time to set up the armor.


    Harry shook his head. It really didn''t matter what Tony said. He''d been laying low because his foundation wasn''t strong enough but things were different now. The coordinates of an inhabitable planet made all his concerns about Earth a lot weaker. If everything went truly terrible, Harry would just take the girls off Earth and that would be that.


    Still, Stark obviously wanted to be on good terms with Obscurus.


    Harry answered, "The truth is fine. You can tell them Jarvis contacted Harry Potter and Harry Potter contacted me. You can make up or leave out the details. I''m not scared of anyone finding me or posing a problem."


    "That''s some confidence. Hmm. I''ll think of something. Why did Harry Potter care enough to call you?"


    "You''d have to ask him."


    "Got his number?"


    "He''s probably teaching a class right now."


    Harry looked back and asked, "What about you Yinsen? What are your plans?"


    Harry confirmed earlier through telepathy that Yinsen''s family was dead and he really hadn''t expected to survive the cave. The Quest specifically asked Harry to save Yinsen which pretty much meant the world would be a better place with Yinsen in it.


    Tony looked back and asked, "Yeah, what about you?"


    Tony started yammering on once more about a few ideas and ways he could pay Yinsen back. He hadn''t discussed this earlier with the man because they knew it wasn''t relevant at the time.


    Yinsen admitted he just wanted to continue his work helping others. Harry cast a discreet cheering charm on his so he''d think of some happy things to do with his life. Though the man did want to see his family, Harry knew his family would be patiently waiting for him regardless of how long it took for them to reunite.


    Yinsen smiled and told Stark a few of the things he wanted to do and Stark ended up being all for it. They discussed a number of things and without the pair noticing, they eventually arrived at a nearby city.


    Harry drives near one of the Checkpoints for the nearby U.S. Military Base and parks in a space without any cameras before he tosses the keys to Yinsen and gets out.


    "This my stop. Yinsen, hide the truck somewhere decent until Stark retrieves the armor."


    As Harry got out, Stark yelled, "Wait, how do I contact you?"


    "You don''t. Sorry, but you don''t have anything I want."


    "Then how does Potter pay you?"


    "Potter is the world''s only supplier of metagems. I''m sure you can figure it out."


    Harry covered himself with Dragon Chi and turned into a blur of light that vanished from sight leaving a stream of golden lightning that dispersed just as quickly.


    Once out of sight, Harry returned home via portal and used his Time Turner to go back so he could teach his Monday classes. Harry wasn''t worried people would think he was a Hard-Light projection which would ruin his alibi. Harry only used Hard-Light in his Metaphysics class and his Monday class was Energy Physics. Also, his Hard-Light Projections were pre programmed movies. Harry could act with them but they weren''t interactive so they wouldn''t answer questions or interact with the students unless the students were in on the act.


    One of the reasons Harry allowed cameras in his Metaphysics classes was so those watching would discover these traits about his mobile projection system and act as witnesses. Of course, there were cameras in his other classes as well so that was a moot point.


    On the following day Simmons was very awkward in class during the review. Harry figured it was because she realized that Harry had picked her pocket and placed her old school tape recorder into her own soundproof project without her knowing.


    It was a simple prank but well worth the effort. Though Simmons was a number of years older than Harry, she ended up feeling like a scolded child that got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.


    The next day it hit the news that Stark was found and was returning to the states. Harry watched on the news to see what Stark would tell everyone but the only thing he said about what happened was that he saw weapons he made used to kill American soldiers so he decided to shut down the Weapons Division of Stark International.


    If the man hadn''t been in such a rush he could have looked around at the time to find some evidence of how the Ten Rings got the weapons but he only had it in his mind at the time to destroy them so Harry couldn''t blame him for that particular missed opportunity.


    Harry didn''t care too much at the time but the following day Harry got a message from Link that half his liquid ?ssets were spent. Harry went over the report to ask how the hell that happened and it was apparently Stark''s fault.


    Harry hadn''t taken back the command for Link to buy up all the Stark Stock that hit the market and with Tony''s announcement, a lot of people were selling.


    Thankfully Link wasn''t an idiot. The stock''s price had plummeted and Link only paid slightly more than others would for the same Stock. The problem was that even a plummeted stock price was still very expensive and a lot of people were selling. Such people were merely stock traders and such who didn''t actually care who the stock belonged to, they just wanted to get as much money as they could off the stock before its value dropped even further.


    At this point, Harry apparently owned about 11% of Stark International. Stark owned 40%, Obadiah Stane owned 20%, and a Board of Directors owned about another 20% with the remaining 9% owned by random stock brokers who didn''t feel like selling at the moment.


    According to the numbers Link sent, Stane had apparently been trying to buy the stock himself but Link always got to it first.


    Harry considered it and decided it wasn''t a problem. He wasn''t really doing anything with his money at the moment so this could end up a good investment.


    It was the following weekend that Harry actually got a message from Link with a request for a call from Stark. Jarvis and Link had kept in touch through the connection Harry planted in Stark''s house and though Stark knew about it he hadn''t removed it. In fact, he''d been using it to bug Link to get Harry''s number since it wasn''t listed anywhere.


    Eventually Link caved and Harry got the call.


    "Hello you''ve reached New York''s Finest Pizzas, will this be an order for Takeout or Delivery?"


    [You know it''s funny, I actually had some Pizza from that place last week. Obi brought it back from a board of directors meeting.]


    Harry asked with an amused tone, "If he brought it to you, doesn''t that mean you didn''t go to your own Board of Directors meeting?"


    [Hey, you didn''t go either. Jarvis told me you actually bought all the stock that went on the market. I expected the price to plummet like 40 points but since someone was actually buying it it only dropped 30 points.]


    "I have enough problems dealing with my own Board of Directors thank you very much. They''ve become so blood thirsty at this point that I''m releasing them on an island next week so they can let off some steam."


    [You''re giving your Board of Directors an Island get-a-way?]


    Harry laughed into the phone at that and answered, "Something like that. So what can I do for you Mr. Stark?"


    [Tony, please. Mr. Stark was my father. I hear I have you to thank for hiring the demon dude to bust me out.]


    "And I hear you would''ve gotten out on your own if I hadn''t, so I only really saved Yinsen. I hear he''s a good man though so that''s fine too. In any case, it was Jarvis that asked so you can thank him."


    [Yeah, Jarvis told me he made a friend. Should we arrange a playdate or something?]


    "How would that work? Should I bring a CPU with Link''s data core over to your house and plug it in?"


    [That sounded dirty.]


    "I can ?ssure you it didn''t, you''re just a dirty minded old man."


    [I''m not an old man. Anyways, I want to meet and discuss a few things.]


    "$20 says you''re only calling now because you just finished reading about metagems."


    [Okay, you got me. I''m interested alright?]


    Harry pulled up a calendar of events in the area and said, "Alright, apparently your company is hosting a Firefighter''s Charity Gala in two weeks. I''ll get a ticket and show up then."


    [Sounds like a plan. See you then.]


    The following week was business as usual though it was the last week of classes before the finals.


    Harry had a very special prank planned for his Metaphysics class.


    Part way through the review, there was a knock on the classroom door. This got a lot of people''s attention because Harry''s pranks didn''t knock. The door always opened for them.


    Harry walked over to the door and opened it before moving to the side.


    Seven ugly Goblins donning a full set of Goblin crafted armor and weapons walked into the classroom.


    Harry arranged some chairs for them and got out a very large scroll of paper he then tacked to the black board and unrolled. Addressing the Goblins rather than the class, he said, "So here are battle plans for the conquest of Genosha."


    Harry pointed at a point on the map, "Lord Hagglefin will lead the Thunder Breaker War Party to the west barracks and ?ssault the entrance. The Cyber Detonation War Party will ensure a communications black out from the start of the operation, though radios will likely be unaffected. We expect between 200 and 250 super powered soldiers with a response time of two minutes."


    Harry''s class looked pretty interested in the Goblin commanders and this fake War they were going to have against super powered soldiers on an island nation none of them had ever heard of. None of it was a Hard-Light projection of course. Harry used a bit of technopathy to ensure the cameras in the classroom would have a blurry picture but the sound would be alright, thus mostly preserving the Statue of Secrecy.


    It took some doing for the Goblin commanders to agree to have the final discussion of the war in Harry''s muggle-filled classroom but Harry convinced them it would be fine. The Goblins had artifacts which made them look normal but each was removed prior to their entrance to the classroom and every camera in the classroom and on the campus was having slight technical difficulties at the moment.


    Harry wondered how Shield would react to this ''prank'' when Genosha fell into the hands of Magneto next week.


    Though complex, the discussion only lasted about six minutes before the Goblins left and Harry returned to reviewing the content of the finals. The prank was a nice change of pace from the monotony of the review which got people back into the mood for studying which would help the students more than an additional six minutes of review would have.


    When Harry returned home, he saw Peter had actually joined the study group this time after a several month absence.


    Harry stared at the now muscled, former lanky nerd with a suspicion filled eyebrow and said, "You look well for someone who''s been sick for the last few weeks."


    Felicia, always being one to help, said, "Puberty seems to have hit Pete like Truck hitting an Isekai Character."


    Everyone looked at her and she smiled nonchalantly, "What, I like to read when I''m bored."


    Peter was quick to say, "I''ve been working out. Uncle Ben said it''s a good way to stay healthy."


    Harry shrugged, "If you say so."


    Peter''s internal life energy was much higher than a normal person''s. It was similar to Chi but slightly tainted. He wasn''t a Demon Sorcerer either or at least he hadn''t lost his soul. Mixing other energies into your Chi to strengthen it often causes your soul to become incompatible with your body, so Demon Sorcerers sacrifice their soul for power.


    Still, it was unusual. Strings of energy were spreading out from Peter all around him like a spider web. Those lines of energy passed through multiple dimensions and Harry wondered how he''d react if those energies were messed with. No, better not to test it. Messing with them could cause a panic attack or fry Peter''s brain depending on how his mind interpreted those energies if he was even capable of doing so.


    Harry went upstairs and connected to his company''s server to check everything that needed his input and go over the invasion plan one last time.


    Everything looked mostly fine with one exception. Khan Industries had been making a lot of suspicious moves recently. Suspicious as in, money being spent out of the country on things that would not visibly affect the company. Yes, it seems an old acquaintance of Harry''s was going to make a move.


    *Author''s Note*


    Short Chapter for now, will have Goblin Invasion and the Gala meeting next chapter.


    I got horrible distracted by a ravenous plot bunny of a Jedi Avenger SI fic..


    As in, I got attacked by a Plot Bunny that got stuck in my head and wanted me to write such a fic so I spent like three days coming up with conceptual plots for it before said bunny left me alone enough to do a chapter on this fic.


    Was thinking the SI would be in the same Orphanage as Clint Barton and they''d grow up and join Shield together.

 Chapter 74 - 74 The Fall of Genosha.

    Ninety miles off the coast of Genosha was a ship on its way to the port off Genosha''s coastal city of Hammer Bay. Erik Lehnsherr was both thrilled and apprehensive about what was to come. The ship contained every member of the Brotherhood of Mutants and a large amount of equipment.


    In one of the larger rooms however was four couches, twelve flat screen TVs, and a snack table. Other than Magneto himself, this room did not contain any other members of his brotherhood. Instead it contained his daughter, his son-in-law, his son-in-law''s other women, and three ugly Goblins.


    This room was both the command center of the battle that was to come and an entertainment room. The picture from the TVs came from the several hundred flying drones over Genosha which were enchanted to be invisible. Considering the number of mutates in Genosha, there could have been a few capable of detecting the shrouded cameras, but this was not the case.


    The mutates of Genosha were, for the most part, not naturally awakened but artificially engineered and weaponized. Every mutate had a power which fell into one of three categories: Tracking, Amplified Attack, and Anti-Mutant. Over the last few months, a very large list had been made of the power possessed by the various mutates and it was chilling for Magneto. Over a dozen mutates with powers that could negate the powers of other mutants were on that list. There was even a mutate who could emit ''Anti-Magnetic Field'' Waves which not only negated magnetism, but also corroded metal. That one had Magneto wonder about the goals of this island.


    The Tracking category mutates were for those who wished to escape from the island. The fact that news of the atrocities of this place was not well known was evidence enough about the effectiveness of the tracking team as Erik had never heard of this place before Harry brought it to his attention.


    Knowing with every cell in his body that this place must be wiped from the map, he was truly looking forward to the upcoming show. The War Party Commanders already confirmed that the Mutant power nullification had no effect on Goblin Magic and even the corrosion effect of the Anti-Magnetic Field Waves would not harm enchanted Goblin Silver.


    A beeping sound from the other end of the room confirmed that the third bag of popcorn had finished in the microwave. Erik could only sigh at that. Leave it to Harry Potter to turn the achievement of his life''s work into the equivalent of a movie night.


    Not that he could really complain. Every aspect of the battle to come had been planned out and settled by his son-in-law, so Erik had no room to argue with how the Wizard enjoyed the process.


    After handing a bowl of popcorn to the Goblin Commanders on the couch and sitting down with his girls, Harry asked, "Everyone ready?"


    Jade, Rogue, Wanda, and even Jean was present for the show. Harry had sent her a message about the timing weeks ago and she''d used her Portkey to return home for the war since it sounded like fun.


    The TVs were all on and changed to different perspectives on a certain guard post in the northern part of Hammer Bay. The sky was dark from the heavy cloud cover and half an hour prior, a deluge of rain started pouring from the sky. With such weather, everyone who didn''t have to be outside would definitely return inside meaning the possibility of civilian casualties was greatly reduced. All Goblin armor and weapons would be charmed with the Water Proofing spell and their boots would have no issue traveling over slippery or muddy terrain. This setup was approved once they confirmed a lack of Hydrokinetic Mutates on this island which was surprisingly to say the least.


    A series of green check marks appeared on one of the screens showing the Hacking attempt made to disable all outward communication and security had succeeded, thus signaling the start of the operation.


    Harry created two portals off to the side of the room which were adjacent to one another. He couldn''t make remote portals but he could line them up. The first portal led from the ship to the area the Thunder Breaker War Party was preparing to set off from and the second portal from from the ship to the space two hundred meters in front of the guard post. In the pouring rain, the shining silver portal was difficult to see even if you were looking for it, much less at that distance. The invisible drones had a spell which caused water to pass around them so they were not revealed from the water splatter. Special cameras in the drones also allowed the picture to basically filter out the rain and show a clear view of the battlefield.


    Hagglefin''s Thunder Breaker War Party of fifty armored Goblins charged through the silver portals towards the guard post. Lights off the structure reflected off the shine from the Goblin''s armor but that was fine with the attacking party. They wanted a battle, not a ?ssassination.


    A number of shouts echoed back and forth and an alarm bu??on was pressed, causing a siren to blare. Such alarms were always simple analog designs and could not be prevented without cutting the line or the power. This woke everyone at the guard post and called them to their stations.


    A dozen ripples blasted through the air as sonic shock waves generated by the mutate guards patrolling the top of the wall struck the Goblin War Party. Their armor however was charmed against sound attacks and the rain heavily weakened the sonic attacks. Every War Party Commander knew what mutates would be at which guard post when the attack was declared and each Commander prepared their War Party accordingly.


    The Thunder Breaker War Party had fifty Goblins and through a series of prior battles, they had been awarded the Honor of First Blood. After the Sonic attacks signaled the start of aggressions, a dozen Goblins took out crossbows from their backs and fired them at the wall. The crossbow bolts shined with blinding light after being released and at the moment of impact the walls exploded in a deafening blast that shook the entire base.


    First Blood had been drawn for the guards atop those walls did not survive.


    From his seat on the couch, Erik asked, "What were those?"


    One of the Goblin Commanders answered, "Arrows made from an ancient, magical species of tree I''m certain you''ve never heard of."


    Harry added, "A few centuries ago, Wizards invented a spell which can banish arrows back in the direction they came, so these Bolts have been sitting in storage for centuries, waiting for a good chance to use them."


    The cruel smile the Goblins gave Erik showed the Leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants how much these bloodthirsty creatures really wanted to use them. The fact that these Bolts didn''t have any metal in them also seemed to be a direct message to Erik as well as these Goblins obviously made this plan knowing Erik would be watching the battle and wanted to put a bit of fear into the magnetokinetic.


    From the rubble of the base, dozens and dozens of guards emerged. A very large number of mutate guards had basic physical enhancements such as super strength, augmented healing, and the like. These guards that survived the blast and threw off the rubble charged the Goblins much to the latter''s delight. Not bothering to reload or even put away their crossbows, the Goblins simply dropped them to the ground and charged the guards with weapons drawn.


    It was at this point that Erik and those who had never seen a Goblin fight before learned a very important fact about Goblins. They were fast. Erik had seen his son''s speed and though the Goblin''s movement speed could never catch up with Pietro''s, the speed at which they attacked when up close neared his son''s superhuman speed.


    This was of course not the normal speed of a Goblin. Goblins were in fact very fast, but the armor worn by the Thunder Breaker War Party enhanced their speed even further.


    The invulnerable skin of the superhuman mutates could not stand against the enchanted Goblin Silver blades which cut into their muscle and struck their innards. The guards however did not flinch even when they sustained a mortal blow. They struck the closest Goblin which was usually the Goblin attacking them and many of them sent the nearby Goblins flying with a swat.


    Erik frowned at the guards. The reason they were unaffected by the attacks was that all the guards were basically brainwashed and half brain dead. There was nothing left to save which was why there would be no mutate prisoners at the end.


    Reinforcements arrived for the guards which included dozens of men with high powered laser rifles. The island''s technology was far more advanced than the rest of the world but it was of little use. The Goblins brought out their buckler shields which easily deflected the laser rounds. Several Goblins got out staves and started casting.


    This caused the Goblin Commanders at the side to grin, and only Harry knew why. Wizards created a law that prevented Goblins from using Wands and Wand Makers refused to share their craft with Goblins just as Goblin Silversmiths refused to share their crafts with Wizards. Goblins could in fact cast magic without a wand and use spells similar if not identical to a Wizard. However the power of a Goblin''s spell would rarely exceed the power of a seventh year Hogwarts student''s spell meaning that spell for spell, Goblins were inferior in power to Adult Wizards, forcing Goblins to rely on enchanted armaments when facing off against Wizards in battle.


    The problem was that a full set of Goblin equipment was far more difficult for a Goblin to acquire than it was for a Wizard to acquire a wand, meaning the average ?du?t Wizard was stronger than the average ?du?t Goblin in combat. Without enchanted armor and weapons, a simple Disarming Charm, a second year spell, could leave a Goblin without a weapon to attack with regardless of how fast they were.


    Then Harry started paying Goblins in Metagems. Through a great deal of experimentation, Goblins had discovered ways of making magic staves using Metagems that were not inferior to a well fitted Wizard''s Wand.


    Of course, Metagems were worth a very large amount of Gringotts gold but that just meant they had to work harder to be paid using such. Harry wouldn''t allow them to make an unlimited amount for themselves after all and Goblins weren''t inclined to do so either. That was like trying to create Gold, there were massive problems if done too often for too long.


    Transfiguration, conjuration, and animation spells were fired one after another and golems of mud and steel created through Goblin magics charged the enemy''s reinforcements. The cameras showed multiple Mutates pointing at the Golems in what appeared to be Mutant Power Negation attacks but the Goblin Magic fueled golems were unaffected forcing the reinforcements to attack using other means. Several streams of fire and lightning shot out from the guards but the fire died and the lightning was directed harmlessly into the ground due to the rain.


    Several monitors showed more checkmarks and Harry made another pair of portals. The Thunder Breaker War Party was given the Honor of First Blood and the purpose of getting the enemy combat ready. Once it was determined that the other bases were armed and prepared for battle, the next War Party was given the go to ?ssault another guard post.


    The second group was the Metal Eater War Party of one hundred Goblins and their target was the main guard post in Carrion City, the second of the two main cities of Genosha.


    Hagglefin''s War Party was probably the second best armored in the Goblin ranks so other War Parties had greater numbers to account for lesser equipment.


    The casters of the Metal Eater War Party transfigured the soil into metal rods which were magically lifted into the air and dropped upon the enemy base. At the moment the metal rods pierced through the roofs, another round of spells were shot at the rods to enlarge them.


    The expanding rods shattered the guard post''s foundation and the buildings collapsed one after another as the hundred Goblins charged forward against the super powered heavily armored guards. Goblins lost their lives when laser fire struck their unarmored eyes or when a guard with super strength crushed the unarmored Goblins, but for every Goblin lost, a dozen mutates were slain.


    Harry and the girls could feel the slowly building blood ?ust from the Goblin Commanders watching the battle. The longer the watched the more they wanted to fight. The enemy was caught off guard, completely unprepared, and outmatched, but they still fought and died valiantly. The Goblins slain in the battle died with honor and would be remembered.


    Another series of Check marks appeared and Harry made another set of portals. The Skullcrusher War Party contained two hundred of the most savage Goblins of the Goblin Nation and the portal led them directly into the heart of the main Security base where many of the strongest Mutates and their generals were stationed.


    Each of the Skullcrushers only wore equipment that increased speed, they did not don armor and were instead armed with a blade in hand and an extra to their side in case their main blade broke off in an opponent''s skull or spine.


    Though violent and merciless, the Skullcrusher War Party had spent the last month learning the faces and abilities of all Mutates in the main security base and learning the layout as well. Hackers from the Cyber Detonation War Party would ensure that the doors were open or closed when needed to control the battlefield and allow the Skull rushers to slaughter to their heart''s content.


    With another series of Check Marks, Harry created a dozen portal pairs leading to the various sites in the island. The main force of five thousand Goblins was now pouring through the portals to the various strongholds of the island. The first three forces were simply Goblins who earned an opportunity to fight against a higher number of worthy opponents. The main force however was the actual conquest force. Even if every Goblin from the first three forces died, it wouldn''t have changed anything.


    It took a full five minutes for the dozen portals to transfer the five thousand Goblins. At this point there was only one target left.


    Harry turned to the Commanders at the couches and said, "The Blood Drinker War Party is ready for your Command." He then created a portal in front of the couch and the three Goblins jumped in. Harry then created another pair of portals to lead the dozen members of the Blood Drinker War Party to the secret stronghold under the island.


    Of the twelve TV screens, eleven were from drones and cameras bu??oned onto the Goblins around the island. The twelfth however actually showed an underground bunker style area with its own security monitors. Sitting in front of the monitors in that room was a being who was grotesque even by Goblin standards. The being was about seven feet tall but had no head. Instead, his ?h?st and torso were massive in size and upon his ?h?st was a massive set of eyes and where his stomach would be was a massive snarling mouth and nose. The creature had four arms and at the top of his torso was a set of horns.


    According to the files recovered by the Goblin Hackers, this being called itself Sugerman, and was the true ruler of Genosha. Harry discovered using his own means that this man once worked for Mr. Sinister before stealing a lot of his research and escaping. He arrived at Genosha about fifty years ago and during that period, he used the tech and genetic data he stole to advance Genosha into one of the most high tech countries in the world.


    The leaders of the country were merely pawns to Sugarman and it was this mutant which created the process to induce directed mutations to weaponize humans with an unawakened X-Gene into super powered, brainwashed, loyal soldiers.


    Sugarman''s own command center and lair was deep within the bowels of the island and was very stereotypical for an evil lair. There were racks of devices that looked well used for both experimentation and torture. There were liquid filled cylinder vats containing heavily weaponized human mutates floating in suspended animation. There was a deep hole in the center of the room the mad scientist made just so he could toss failures into. And there were lots and lots of weapons of every type hung on the walls.


    Within Sugarman''s command center were dozens of red lights showing multiple alarms going off. His security cameras brought up images of the Blood Drinker War party entering the passage leading to his true lair. The hideous creature snarled and started typing at his command center with all four hands. The vats containing the human mutates drained and released their occupants.


    Rogue pointed to the screen and said, "Bring that one up and turn up the volume."


    Harry said, "Alright, boss battle time." He used his technopathy to address the system and the twelve screens were now acting as a single massive screen showing the Blood Drinker War party.


    Sugarman''s crackling voice could be heard on the monitor, "I don''t know how these creatures made it into the bunker, but they''ll never survive the traps."


    From Sugarman''s console the monitors clearly showed the advancing Goblins. The four-armed dictator typed in a few commands and the walls started closing on the Goblins and flame throwers appeared from the walls and doused the hallway in fire.


    The sinister looking Sugarman rubbed his hands together and with a vicious smile said aloud, "Even if you vermin can survive the crushers and the flames, the oxygen in the hall will be completely removed by the flames and you''ll pass out or suffocate to death!"


    Jade asked while watching, "Who the hell is he talking to? He doesn''t know anyone is watching and he''s just talking to himself?"


    Magneto actually answered, "He''s completely frantic at the moment and trying to convince himself everything will be alright. Hearing the words said aloud, even if from your own tongue, can be more ?ssuring than thinking them to yourself."


    Wanda snickered and asked, "Done a few of those private villain monologues yourself old man?"


    Erik turned away with just the b?r?st hint of red on his cheeks causing the girls in the room to do their best, and fail, to suppress a giggle.


    Rogue asked, "Will they be alright?"


    Harry said, "I''m not spoiling it for you, have some popcorn." Harry passed over the bowl which magically stayed heated and Rogue took it without complaint.


    The Goblins were fine of course. Besides hoarding Gold and slaying enemies, there was one other profession that Goblins had been doing for thousands of years. Tomb Raiding. The Blood Drinker War Party were among the greatest Tomb Raiders and Warriors of the Goblin Nation and had every piece of equipment one would need to break into and pillage the most secure of wizard tombs. Unfortunately for Sugarman, tech based traps were nothing compared to the magic based traps of Ancient greedy Wizards. Equipment enchanted with a bubble head charm that recycled its own oxygen was standard equipment for Tomb Raiders. Many tombs collapsed and one would run out of oxygen anyways. Wizards loved fire traps since it was a cheap and easy way to kill in enclosed spaces by removing the oxygen with fire.


    Sugarman shouted, "Impossible! I designed those traps myself!" On several of the monitors were battles and explosions. The Goblins were taking casualties but they were few and far between, while Sugarman''s mutate army was being slaughtered. "No! This cannot be! My Army!"


    The mutates he awakened from stasis were armed and Sugarman said, "Guard the door! They''ll never get through."


    Wanda asked, "Why not just portal them into the chamber?"


    Harry answered with a shrug, "They wanted to make an entrance."


    Six Goblins lined up six enchanted spikes and with a unified motion, drove them into the door. The combination spell caused the massive door to liquify in a large scale Transfiguration spell. Tombs without magical defenses were too easy for such an experienced party of Tomb Raiders.


    Sugarman stared down the Goblins and shouted, "How dare you disrupt my work! My Army was meant to destroy Humanity! Not fall to such grotesque creatures!"


    Harry chuckled aloud and the girls laughed as well. Wanda gave Magneto a side glance which had the Master of Magnetism sigh. It seems everyone and their dog was out to use mutants to destroy Humanity these days.


    Sugarman pointed forward and shouted, "Kill them!" He then grabbed two hammers and two axes off the wall and charged forward himself.


    The mutates transformed into various monstrosities. Some turned into hulking creatures, some turned into ribbon like constructs, some into the elements themselves.


    The three Commanders who shared the couch before struck against Sugarman while the remaining Goblins battled against the monstrous mutates.


    The leader of Genosha was no slouch. He was able to increase and decrease his size at will, his speed nearly matched the Goblins and his four arm attacks allowed him to hold his own against the Goblins. His strongest attack however was a tongue that extended out like a spear and moved like a whip and clearly had the power to puncture steel and stone.


    Fifteen second after the battle started, it was obvious that the Goblins were losing. The mutates were all incredibly powerful and Sugarman had a healing factor that Harry felt would give Wolverine a run for his money.


    The command center was trashed but the Goblins fought on without failing back or staying down.


    Rogue, who was the most experienced when it came to hand to hand combat among the girls asked, "What''s happening to those mutates?"


    Jean asked, "What do you mean?"


    Magneto, who had more battle experience than any of them answered for her, "They are slowing down."


    Harry said, "Goblin Silver can carry enchantments better than anything else. Their weapons are very specialized and all the enchantments are for a single thing. Killing immortals."


    Jean asked with a bit of shock, "That''s possible?"


    "With stackable curses and poisons it is. Their blades have multiple poisons ?ssimilated into them and inflict cursed wounds. The wounds may look like they are healing, but the curses are piling up." Curses could affect anything and even the elemental mutates were affected and slowly being overwhelmed. Some tombs contained the living forms of sealed wizards so powerful, they were said to be Gods of their time and Goblins knew how to slay them.


    Soon the battle reversed. The mutates were slain one after another and before he could even notice, Sugarman was left alone. The massive creature suddenly fell to his knee and returned to his normal size, though not by choice. His wounds were bleeding and they were not healing anymore.


    The Commander of the Blood Drinker War Party stepped forward and said, "We are of the Goblin Nation. By our laws, you must be presented with a chance to surrender before we destroy you. Will you surrender or will you die?"


    This had Sugarman stunned. "Goblins? But, Magic creatures? No, this goes against the Statue of Secrecy! You will be exterminated for this!"


    Rogue asked, "Does everyone know about that?"


    Harry answered, "Anyone who has led a country for a long enough period knows about magic."


    The Commander answered, "Negative. Genosha is not a part of the United Nations and as long as there are no witnesses, we have broken no laws."


    Sugarman gritted his teeth and said, "No witnesses? This is crazy! This is blasphemy! This is Madness!"


    A gleam of light shined in each of the Goblin''s eyes. The Commander stepped forward and said, "Madness?" He raised his weapon and shouted, "THIS. IS. GRINGOTTS!"


    The Goblin leapt forward and kicked the weakened Sugarman back where he fell directly into the massive pit in the center of the room. He fell screaming all the way to the bottom.


    Everyone on the couch looked at Harry who shrugged and said, "What? They love that movie."


    Three Goblins took out what appeared to be explosives and tossed them down the hole. A few moments later, the bottom of the hole brightened and the tv screens whited out for a few seconds. Harry smiled at that. The Goblins have seen his guns and it didn''t take too long and too many dead experimenters to figure out the trick to magic bombs. Sugarman''s flesh and even his skeleton wouldn''t have survived that.


    Harry made a portal for them to return through and the three Commanders returned to the couch where they directed the remaining Goblin forces.


    From the Thunder Breaker War Party''s dispatch to the final resistance being taken out, the Battle of Genosha lasted about an hour. After that was two hours of hunting down guards that slipped through the cracks and when that was over, the Goblins located the bodies of all of their dead along with any fallen or discarded Goblin weapons and returned through the portals back home.


    Harry then took out a vial of Swooping Evil venom and charged it with magic before tossing it into a portal above some clouds. He then took out a dozen more vials and did the same. After a few minutes, the heavy rain clouds contained a light saturation of Swooping Evil venom and over the course of ten minutes, the venom would spread to every inch of the island and ensure everyone who witnessed what happened and survived would lose their memories of anything involving magic. Even if they stayed in door, the humidity in the very air would contain the venom and affect all those who breathed it in.


    Harry said, "The rain will dissipate in an hour. Once it does, you can land the ship, take credit for what happened, and take over. Call me or Charles if you need anything."


    Harry then made a portal and along with the girls, left the ship and returned home. Just to be safe, he then wrapped everyone with the Timer Turner and went back three hours. Harry then took the girls out shopping and to get a nice dinner in a few places he''d been seen to ensure he had an alibi. The fact that he just so happened to have an alibi for the moment Genosha was attacked when he was usually impossible to find would probably raise some suspicions, but that wouldn''t matter.


    Muggle Governments did not work with Magical ones. They were aware of the latter''s existence, but Magical Governments would not willingly disclose information if it was not needed. That meant that uncommon information, like the existence of Time Turners, was not something any Muggle Government knew about. Not too surprising since their creation was dangerous and their use heavily restricted. Telling muggles about the ability to travel backwards in time was a terrible idea no matter how you consider it.


    The following week was mostly boring. Every single one of the Genoshan civilians agreed to have their ''Undiscovered X-Gene awakened'' so they could become citizens of Magneto''s Mutant only Genosha. Turns out that living as a powerless human human under a corrupt government instilled a thirst for the power to protect yourself which was why they agreed so easily. Harry already prepared a gene therapy solution that would give and awaken the X-Gene in humans without it and Magneto''s ship was full of it. The solution would expire in a week and had a spell on it that would render it inert if taken off the island after it got close. That would prevent someone from stealing any and using it to turn random nonmutants into mutants. Of course, that wouldn''t stop it from being used on people visiting the island, but Harry and Magneto agreed that the island should go into a one week lockdown after the invasion to ensure a proper change of regimes. It would take less time than that to turn the citizens into mutants and in a week, the any remaining solution would be useless.


    Harry couldn''t do much himself during that week. The students had their finals so Harry just sat at his desk during those classes and watched to make sure no one cheated.


    Once everyone was seated, Harry wrote on the board, ''To prevent Cheating, the room will be shielded from outside signals.''


    Without raising her hand, Liah immediately asked, "What if there is an emergency and someone needs to contact us?"


    Already prepared for that, Harry opened a window and tied a basket to it. He said, "Then turn your cellphone''s ringer to the max and place it in the basket. If you hear your cell phone ring, you can turn in your Final and leave the classroom with your phone. To prevent cheating, no one is allowed to leave the classroom and return to continue their finals. Any other questions?"


    Liah looked furious and from the other end of the room, Polly looked amused. The mic and camera in her glasses wouldn''t work and she had no real way to cheat besides trying to copy the answers off the people next to her. Not that copying would work either as every test was different.


    Harry wondered if Shield or anyone else would try to send in more spies since they wouldn''t be able to get to the advanced classes without actually learning the material.


    Once the class was over, Harry put the papers into his inventory and paused so he could go over each of them. He suppressed a chuckle when he saw that Polly''s paper was filled with doodles of accurately drawn mockingbirds. He was tempted to pass her since he didn''t mind her just being there to protect Fitz and Simmons. He''d see how many applied for his Advanced Metaphysics Class in the fall and contact her about it then. If he didn''t get a full class, then he''d ask if she wanted to be invited back.


    Once the week was over, Harry took a plane over to California to attend the Gala. He''d made a large donation to get an invite which was how such functions worked. He asked if any of his girls wanted to come of course, but the lot blatantly refused due to the boring nature of such a function and Jean had already returned to space to burn more planets. She''d gotten three so far and would hopefully finish off the last two within a year.


    Harry had no idea how long his business with Stark would take so he booked a week at a fancy hotel. He wouldn''t stay of course, he''d portal home each night, but at least on paper it would look like he spent a week in California. For some reason, Harry didn''t think his stay would be as boring as his girls said it would be.


    *Author''s Note. Sorry for the delay. Turns out, Massive battles between fully armed Goblins and super powered parties are not as common as one would think in the realm of Fanfiction so I didn''t have much to reference from and had to make up this stuff from scratch. The tricky part wasn''t the battle, it was figuring out how to describe the best parts of the battle. Eventually I settle on the Entertainment room idea and though perhaps not the best, I''m happy with it.


    Oh, that THIS IS GRINGOTTS thing literally just came to me the other day and I cackled like a mad person when I thought of it.

 Chapter 75 - 75 A Normal Day in L.A.

    *Random Not Evil Djinn Shows up.*


    "So many wishes for a new Chapter. Very well. But be careful what you wish for."


    Chapter 75 A Normal Day in L.A.


    The evening of May 19th, Harry watched the TV in the L.A. Hotel room with a moderate amount of amusement. The local news included things which would never appear on the News if he watched it in New York, so the story of a silver Missile being seen flying through the streets of L.A. was something he could only enjoy on the Local News networks.


    The images of the ''missile'' were blurry and captured from a very long distance away. Harry recognized it though and could only smile. It seemed that Stark was having fun.


    Yinsen had visited his family''s grave for a few days and left shortly afterwards to return to Europe after Tony made the arrangements to get his suit back. There were a lot of things Yinsen wanted to do and with Tony''s help, he''d be able to make his family proud until he reunited with them in the future.


    Once the time was set, Harry put on a formal tuxedo that was neither gaudy nor ostentatious. Harry wasn''t a big fan of formal events but he couldn''t just wear a t-shirt or he''d stand out too much.


    According to the news, Tony Stark''s 3rd Annual Benefit for the Firefighters Family Fund was a gathering place of the biggest celebrities in this half of the country which was ridiculous to Harry. He chose this event as a meeting place because it sounded formal and low key. Apparently common sense isn''t what it used to be or that was just how common sense worked in L.A.


    After dressing for the occasion, Harry left the Hotel and called for a cab to take him to the Disney Concert Hall where the event was being held. L.A. traffic being what it was, Harry called the cab a half hour before the event which was about three miles away. He figured he should be able to just b?r?ly make it in time.


    Unsurprisingly, the cab seemed to just park in the middle of traffic and stay there a few hundred feet from the destination at some point, so Harry paid the fare and got out of the cab to walk the remaining distance. At least where he got out was close enough to the Concert Hall for the saturation of Stars to be high enough to draw attention away from Harry. Harry''s TV special was mostly shown on the east coast and unless someone watched his Educational Videos, it wasn''t likely they would recognize him. Even if they did watch those videos, Harry in a tuxedo looked very different from Harry''s Professor robes so he wouldn''t stand out too much. The only other thing Harry might be recognized from was that U.N. Moleman thing and if someone recognized him from that, there was nothing he could say.


    Or so he thought. Not only did someone pick him out of the crowd and recognize him, it was someone Harry actually recognized. Someone who tried to kill him the last time they met.


    "Harry Potter," said the finely dressed man of Asian descent with sharp eyebrows, long hair tied into a ponytail, and well trimmed facial hair as he approached Harry with clear murderous intent.


    Harry saw that the man was of course wearing his rings, but they were not emitting the powerful energies they were the last time Harry encountered this man meaning they were dormant at the moment. With a challenging smirk, Harry replied, "Gene Khan. Were you waiting here for me?"


    Harry couldn''t think of any other reason for the CEO of Khan Industries to meet him here of all places.


    The Mandarin sneered and said, "I let you live last time child but now there is nothing that can save you. Unless you want you and everyone you care for to die, you will cooperate."


    Harry raised an eyebrow with clear amusement. "Let me live? Have the years caused your brain to rot? You didn''t let me anything. And everyone I care for can handle themselves just fine thank you very much." Both Wanda and Rogue could teleport, Jade was immortal, could go out of phase and fly, and if this arrogant jerk ever tried to hurt Jean, his regret would only last for about five seconds before he was turned to dust.


    The man who was clearly used to being an overlord of his era saw no deception nor fear from the sixteen year old genius. This was unacceptable to him.


    Harry had already paused to go over the possibilities and unpaused. While Khan was thinking of a retort that would likely start with the words, ''You Dare?!'', Harry first said, "So you really were the one behind the Ten Rings. When your company started behaving so erratically after Stark got out of the cave, I had my suspicions, but seeing you in person really does confirm it. What did you want with Stark anyways?"


    Seeing that his involvement was guessed so easily, Gene calmed down and steadied himself. He was a martial artist first and foremost and allowing his emotions to show so easily did not become him.


    Unfortunately, Harry was just getting started, "Oh, I see. You want the shares I got of Stark''s company. I thought Stane was the only one looking for those, but it seems I was mistaken. Was Stark''s kidnapping just a prelude to Khan Industries'' expansion towards the west?"


    Khan''s face didn''t twitch a single muscle, he only continued to glare at Harry. After a moment of silence he said, "Your company is not as well protected as you think. Destroying it from within would take but a single word from me."


    Harry didn''t bother to hide the emotion that threat caused him, but much to the Mandarin''s consternation, Harry''s only emotions were direct amusement mixed with contempt. In fact it looked like Harry had to fight to suppress the urge to burst into laughter.


    After shaking his head, Harry just said, "You are making a lot of ?ssumptions Mr. Khan."


    Khan''s sheer arrogance completely outweighed his martial discipline and he was unable to prevent the sneer that formed on his face. With bone deep arrogance, the warlord said, "Nothing can defy the Mandarin. You will hand over those shares or you will suffer pain worse than anything-"


    Harry couldn''t take it anymore and started laughing. The best he could do to keep himself from making a scene was to clench his jaw and keep his lips together, but the fact that he had to put visible effort into stopping himself from laughing in the Mandarin''s face clearly displayed to the aged martial artist what Harry thought of his threat.


    The Mandarin had to grit his own teeth at Harry''s clear mockery. The Mandarin was not a fool. He knew that a Wizard training in Kama-Taj, especially one of Harry''s age, clearly would not grow weaker over time. Discovering that Harry had gotten an invitation after making a donation was simple and finding Harry''s hotel room and even the number of the cab sending Harry so he could track it to the Gala was just as easy. The reason Khan decided to meet Harry here was to limit the possible options in case Harry really had grown more powerful.


    After a few seconds, Harry took a moment to calm himself and said, "I cannot be compared to my previous self who was still in training. When I last saw you, I was but a learner, now I am a Master."


    Still trying to intimidate him, Khan said, "You think a few years of training, wait. Did you just quote Vader at me?" That realization actually caught the warlord off guard.


    Harry looked up and gave a light, harmless smile. The corner of Khan''s eyes saw the knife appear in Harry''s hand which had clearly been empty before. This entire time Khan had been menacing Harry with his intent to kill him, but in the instant the knife appeared, he sensed Harry''s intent to kill Khan. The fact that Harry was clearly willing to strike him in public and the fact that Harry''s killing intent surpassed Khan''s own was not something he predicted.


    Still, his instincts had been honed through hundreds of life and death battles which caused him to move to grab and disarm the blade and his mastery of martial arts granted him the speed to grab Harry''s wrist before the knife could be thrust into Khan''s abdomen.


    Little good it did. The Harry now really could not be compared to the Harry from when he first met the Mandarin. Red energy from Cyttorak''s realm flowed through Harry''s body preventing his momentum from being halted by anything and no matter how much Chi Khan had, his rings had obviously been deactivated meaning he was vulnerable at the moment. Sure, Harry was certain the Mandarin could reactivate them with a thought, but there was a very large difference between instantaneous and a delay. The only ring which could save Khan at this distance was the Intangibility ring but that one was the most difficult to use and he had not expected to be attacked. Harry was supposed to be a good guy.


    The moment Khan caught Harry''s wrist, he realized that he was unable to prevent Harry''s thrust. Khan moved to the side but it was too late and the blade sliced through Khan''s tailored suit and drew blood. The moment the attack was made, the blade in Harry''s hand returned to his inventory.


    Khan took a few steps back and realized that even though they were in the middle of a crowded sidewalk, no one was looking at them. Harry had already set up a Notice-Me-Not.


    As if he was speaking of something as mundane as the weather, Harry said, "I told you that you were making a lot of ?ssumptions Mr. Khan. The first was that I wouldn''t kill you here and now. In case you''re wondering, you''ve just taken a dose of venom from the King of Snakes. I''d get that looked at if I were you." Although the Notice-Me-Not field was strong, it wouldn''t prevent people from ignoring a murder so Harry couldn''t kill him within the field. Murdering someone while using magic had an adverse reaction with the magic and would definitely cause the field to fail and draw attention to himself. Slicing him with a Basilisk Envenomed Goblin blade when the man let his guard down from the Star Wars quote on the other hand was doable.


    Khan felt the venom from the wound and looked at Harry with both confusion and fear. He was used to being the bad guy and dealing with na?ve good guys and wanna-be heroes. They were in the middle of a large group of camera carrying civilians and Harry Potter had no record of criminal misdeeds to give evidence that he would actually try something. Even if he did, the Mandarin was confident enough in his strength to prevent it. Under these circumstances, the Mandarin was absolutely certain he could approach, threaten the child into giving him what he wanted, and kill him later.


    Harry''s killing intent shocked him further. The Mandarin had certainly killed more humans than Harry had, but the outright number of kills was probably much less. That and the fact that nearly everything Harry killed nearly matched him in strength during Battle Meditation and with the add-on of the Immortal Dragon Chi which far outstripped Khan''s own mortal Chi, Harry''s killing intent completely suppressed Khan''s own.


    Khan felt his organs start to fail and though his body was trained to the point that mundane poisons and illnesses had no effect, he could still feel Death''s approaching footsteps and knew he was in trouble. His rings could allow himself to defeat any mortal but none included the ability to heal. Fear turned into panic as he began to realize how badly he''d fu?k?d up and how limited his options were. Khan ran away while holding his wound. The wound itself b?r?ly bled from the thinnest of the knife so there was no pool of blood nor great red stain on Khan''s shirt.


    Harry really wanted to kill him but now was not the time. Harry claimed to have killed everyone who''d ever tried to kill him, but there were exceptions and the Mandarin was one of them. Harry would be satisfied if the Basilisk Venom killed him, but he wouldn''t count on that type of ???kroach dying so easily. Not that it mattered. Harry''s knife was still stained with Khan''s blood. If Khan was still alive in a week, he''d use his blood to send him off in a way that would make the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black proud.


    On his way to the Concert Hall, Harry saw Stane giving an interview and did his best to walk around the man and the media.


    Something that stood out though was the Watcher Informant hanging out with a pair of beautiful girls. Harry hadn''t seen one before, but the records of Kamar-Taj described them as, ''Mortals the Watchers used to observe things without the need to interact with them.'' The Watchers wouldn''t be able to see Harry but this informant could tell them about him so Harry decided it was best to avoid the man. Watcher Informants were gifted an aura which allowed them to blend in and prevent people from questioning their presence wherever they were. Without the ability to sense energy, a mind guarded through advanced Psionics, and the protection of the Phoenix, sensing the aura would not have been possible for Harry and without the records of Kamar-Taj, he wouldn''t be able to recognize it for what it was anyway. The aura was ridiculously subtle.


    Upon reaching the door Harry showed the guard his invitation and was allowed through without issue.


    Harry noticed that Stark wasn''t at the bar which meant the playboy hadn''t shown up yet. Since he was guaranteed to go to the bar first, Harry decided to head over and take a seat. What he didn''t expect was the man already sitting at the bar to turn and give Harry a double take. He not only recognized Harry, but clearly didn''t expect him to be there.


    "Professor Potter," he said, trying to get Harry''s attention.


    Harry sighed and asked, "How did you recognize me? The internet? The TV thing? I''m pretty sure I''ve never been on a magazine cover."


    The man gave an amused smile and said, "I''m Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division."


    Harry gave the man a deadpan expression and flatly said, "That''s quite a mouthful."


    "I hear that a lot. We''re working on it."


    "Sure~ you are. So what can I do for you Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division?"


    "I was hoping we could debrief you about your involvement in Stark''s rescue. There''s still a lot of unanswered questions and time can be a factor with these things."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "I met someone else outside the Concert Hall who also insisted on having a chat with me. Gene Khan. Heard of him?"


    Coulson was unable to prevent himself from tensing up for just a moment before he said, "I have. Can I ask what Mr. Khan wanted with you?"


    Harry smiled at how polite the man was and answered, "Well since you asked so nicely, he demanded I hand over the 11% of Stark International Stock I bought and threatened bodily harm to myself and everyone I care about if I did not acquiesce."


    Coulson''s pause clearly showed that he was not expecting such an answer. "What did you say? We can protect-"


    Harry held up a hand and said, "I don''t require protection Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division."


    Harry then looked Coulson in the eye and said with a smile that was not a smile, "As for how I responded, I suspect Mr. Khan is on his way to receive medical care at the moment. I registered myself as a lethal weapon for a reason after all and don''t take threats to myself and those I care about very well."


    Coulson''s shock was evident. Harry shrugged and said, "Yeah, he wasn''t expecting that response either. Have I answered your questions about Stark''s case to your liking?"


    Coulson''s initial confused look turned into a calculating frown. Harry hadn''t said anything about Stark, but Khan''s presence and his demanding of Harry''s acquired shares of Stark International were both very big clues about pieces of the puzzle Shield had clearly been missing and Coulson was a very intelligent man.


    Of course Harry was also trolling them. He gave them the information they needed, but not the information they wanted.


    Coulson tried to change the subject, "I was hoping for information on the ?sset used to rescue Stark."


    Harry answered, "I pay him in Metagems. That''s probably the only useful thing I can really tell you about him that you didn''t already know. Anything else would be less than useful."


    From behind, the pair heard someone shout, "Kid!"


    Harry turned around to see Stark with a freckled redhead Harry recognized as Virginia "Pepper" Potts.


    "Mr. Stark," Harry replied.


    Coulson showed how much fun he would be at a party by stating, "Professor Potter is sixteen Mr. Stark."


    Tony looked at the killjoy the same way he''d look at someone who kicked his favorite car and then turned to Pepper. "This is Harry, the guy who paid the guy who drove me out of the desert and gave me ice-cream."


    He then turned to Harry and said, "And this is my lovely ?ssistance Pepper who is uncomfortable dancing alone with her boss due to my, ''reputation,'' so I''d like to invite you over."


    Harry asked, "You want me to dance with Miss Potts for you? Alright, but you should know I''m married."


    All three ?du?ts looked at Harry with surprise. Tony was the first to speak up, "Already? At sixteen? Why?"


    Harry shrugged, "If you could control who you fell in love with and when you fell in love, it wouldn''t be love."


    Coulson smiled at that and Pepper gave a light blush. Tony actually looked pensive as if he''d just been given a complex puzzle that looked interesting to solve. After a moment he said, "No, you can''t have her."


    Harry said, "Really? I pay really well."


    Pepper immediately answered, "No. I saw that U.N. thing and could hardly keep myself from yelling when I saw you post kick-me signs all over those creatures."


    Tony gasped, "Oh, I remember that. That was you? That was genius!"


    Harry smiled proudly and Pepper rolled her eyes at the man child.


    Tony noticed the three drinks arrive and downed one quickly before picking up the other and passing it to Pepper and holding the third for himself to the eyeroll of the collective group.


    Coulson said, "I was hoping I could debrief you both actually about what happened. Can we put something on the books?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "I''ll be in California for a week."


    Stark said, "Sure, no problem."


    "Then the 25th, say 7pm, Stark International?"


    Harry nodded and Stark said, "Sure, why not," and then grabbed Harry and tried to pull him. Harry considered staying put, but decided to go along with it and allow himself to get dragged away.


    Harry took a final look at Coulson who had just pulled out a cellphone. It seemed like his day wasn''t going to get any better with the stuff Harry had sprung on him.


    Stark lead them to a balcony and said, "So, where can I buy some of those Metagems?"


    Pepper sighed and said, "I think he means, ''Thankyou for saving my life.'' And really, thank you," she said with all honestly. She then said with a bit of humor, "I hate job hunting and I haven''t updated my resume in years."


    Stark interrupted and said, "Actually, he only saved Yinsen. I was fully capable of rescuing myself."


    Harry said, "So I''ve heard. Speaking of saving yourself, I saw some footage of you on the news earlier today."


    Pepper looked at Tony and asked with a frown, "What did you do?"


    Tony said, "Nothing I swear, I''ve been busy for the last three weeks." He turned to Harry and asked, "What did the news say?"


    "Something about a silver missile rocketing through the city."


    Tony scoffed and said, "Oh, those tabloids really will print anything these days. A missile, really?"


    Pepper recognized Harry''s knowing smile and gave Stark a suspicion filled look Stark tried his best to pretend to ignore by finishing his drink and saying, "I seem to be out so I think I''ll get some more."


    Pepper shook her head and said, "You''re a genius too right? Can you check on Tony to make sure he''s okay?"


    Harry considered it and said, "I wouldn''t say okay, but Tony is coping. The only thing though is if he is coping using unhealthy means or really unhealthy means."


    Pepper sighed at the fact that Harry didn''t bother to ?ssume Tony had a healthy coping mechanism.


    Pepper then asked, "Are you considering letting Stark International use those Metagems?"


    Harry recognized that Pepper had shifted into business mode and answered, "Maybe. I own 11% of Stark International right now and Tony owns 40%. Together we hold a majority so as long as Stark agrees to a few limits, we can certainly partner up on a few things and make some interesting products."


    Pepper nodded. "Tony doesn''t have anyone he can bounce ideas off so even if you didn''t give him anything, just being there to chat with would certainly help not only him, but Stark Industries."


    "If he''s serious about the no weapons thing, I have no problem with that."


    Pepper gave a relieved sigh at that. Harry was considered the world''s number one genius and with him helping Tony invent new things, Stark International would be fine even if they stopped producing weapons entirely.


    Harry looked out and said, "I think something must have gotten Stark''s attention because I don''t think he''s coming back."


    Pepper shook her head and said, "That man has the attention span of a Goldfish sometimes."


    Harry presented Pepper a hand and said, "Well then, it was very nice to meet you Miss Potts."


    She gave him her hand and he took it and bent down to give it a light kiss. He was British after all and would always be a gentleman in such a formal setting.


    Pepper rolled her eyes and said, "Just call me Pepper."


    "Then next we meet you can call me Harry."


    Harry left the balcony and didn''t spot Tony at the bar or anywhere else so he headed for a side exit and left the building.


    Shortly after hitting the sidewalk, Harry got a call and the ID showed it was Stark.


    Harry answered it and said, "You coming back with that drink anytime soon."


    Harry heard a hiss from the other side, [Yeah, sorry. Forgot about that. Something came up and I had to head out. Is Pepper alright?]


    "She wasn''t surprised which means you''ll need to make it up to her which means you''ll need to ask Jarvis to remind you to make it up to her when you forget to do it yourself."


    [Good call. Anyways, has Stane contacted you yet?]


    "He''s certainly tried but my number isn''t so easy to get. Why?"


    [He was confident he''d have your shares soon and vote to kick me off the board. I was sure there was no way you''d sell to him so I had to ask.]


    Harry laughed and said, "It seems he''s working with Gene Khan then because before arriving he showed up and tried to muscle me out of my shares. I guess Stane ?ssumed he''d succeed."


    [That maniac? I''m guessing he didn''t succeed then.]


    Harry figured Stark knew that Khan was a cut-throat businessman but probably didn''t know about the Mandarin.


    "No. He did not. Why does Stane want you off the Board?"


    [The bastard is double dealing under the table.]


    "He''s probably working directly with Khan then. There''s no solid evidence, but I have my suspicions that the Ten Rings work for Khan."


    [Wait, you don''t think.]


    "That he sold you out to Khan for the promise of a deal of some sort? No idea, but the possibility isn''t low. Selling to both sides isn''t easy after all. You need to sell to someone who can legally purchase the goods and secretly sell them to the other side. Khan Industries certainly fits the bill for that kind of partner don''t you think?"


    [Son of a bitch.]


    "Language Mr. Stark."


    [Did you just, really?]


    "Yup. So what are you gonna do about it?"


    [I''m going to find and dismantle my property.]


    "With extreme prejudice I ?ssume. Obscurus told me about that suit and I''m guessing you''ve made some minor improvements."


    [You could say that.]


    "Alright. I''ll be in L.A. all week so if you need something, feel free to call."


    [Can you call Obscurus and invite him over for drinks?]


    "I''ll think about it."


    Tony hung up and Harry could only wearily shake his head and return to the hotel room. He''d made an attempt to murder in cold blood a CEO of a powerful corporation, he''d seen a Intergalactic Peeper, he''d pranked a spy he met at a bar with the truth, he met and made friends with the CEO of another powerful corporation who was trying to turn the day into a date with his ?ssistant, and he''d uncovered a global weapons smuggling scheme with said CEO who was likely going to address it by equipping a suit of flying armor and blowing up all the weapons he found.


    Was this normal for L.A. or was it just him?


    *Notes from a Not Evil Djinn*


    "Your wish for a new chapter has been granted, but now you must face an even worse cliff hanger, for everyone can guess what could happen next chapter, but can you guess how different it will be from the movies?


    *Insert Diabolical Djinn Laughter here.*

 Chapter 76 - 76 Plot is the Strongest Armor

    *Random Not Evil Djinn returns.*


    "Oh, you want another Chapter? Well I would be delighted to grant you such a wish. I''m sure you won''t regret it in any way."


    Chapter 76 Plot is the Strongest Armor


    Harry wasn''t sure if he should be surprised or not, but Tony didn''t call him that week. Link however informed him of the ''training exercise'' fiasco where a fighter jet was destroyed while pursuing an unknown object.


    On the TV, Harry saw a few bits on the news of the Ten Rings directly taking over Gulmira and wondered if they did it for convenience or as a taunt. Though it could only be considered a taunt if they knew Stark would come after them and considering Stark''s previous psyche profile, there is no way anyone would have been able to guess that, so it was probably just for convenience. There was no footage of what happened, but that ballsy reporter who somehow got a lot of footage most people would be shot at for trying to get showed a large number of destroyed machines and even a wrecked tank.


    Harry parked his rental car at the Stark International Parking lot and headed inside. Sitting in the lobby was Agent Coulson who turned and seemed happy to see Harry.


    "Professor Potter, glad you could make it. Have you heard any word from Mr. Stark?"


    Harry shook his head and said, "He has my number but seems to have been quite busy over the last week."


    Harry sat two seats away from Coulson and took out a cell phone and started looking through stuff on the internet. It was 7pm on the dot and Harry had no idea if or when Tony would actually show up.


    Coulson looked over and asked, "Have you heard anything from Khan?"


    Harry shrugged, "If he is still alive? No."


    Coulson asked, "If? What exactly did you do to him?"


    Harry nonchalantly answered, "Nicked him with a poisoned blade. Why?"


    "And you just happen to carry poisoned blades around?"


    "Is that any different from carrying a gun around? Besides, we have something of a history."


    "You''ve met him before?"


    "Yeah. Before I started teaching there was no University Class for Metaphysics, so my research required more esoteric sources. While I was studying at a temple, that d??k head showed up and tried to steal a rather valuable book. Don''t ask what book, you''ll have nightmares. Anyways, I got in his way and tricked him into destroying the book before I ran away. We were never going to be friends after that."


    Coulson seemed rather stunned at the short story. He was beginning to realize that they had probably been trying to handle Potter all wrong. He was remarkably open about a number of things Coulson didn''t think he''d just casually reveal.


    "I was hoping I could ask more about Obscurus."


    "Ask what you want, but I don''t tell other people''s secrets. He can refuse to act even if I make a request and provide the payment so I''m not inclined to give away any info you should really be getting from him."


    "Then is there a way to meet him?"


    "I can''t ask him to meet you if that''s what you''re requesting. I''d have to pay him to do so and he could easily refuse such a request. If I ask him to do something and he refuses, he may stop taking my requests altogether. So the only way to meet him is to find him yourself or for him to meet you."


    Coulson considered it and found it reasonable. Harry had been willing to give private information about himself and his past with the Mandarin which Coulson could extrapolate a lot from, but was not willing to give details about Obscurus. There may have been conditions to working with him and Harry wasn''t willing to break them lest he lose access to such a powerful ?sset.


    Harry didn''t have to use the slightest bit of telepathy of psionics to make Agent Coulson think what he wanted him to. Nothing from Harry''s past could be used against him so giving away those details only made it look like Harry was willing to cooperate when he was just making them drive around in circles.


    Coulson got up and said, "Miss Potts, we had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?"


    Pepper looked both grateful and relieved once she noticed both Harry and Coulson there. She immediately answered, "Nope right now Come with me."


    Coulson followed her, "Right now?"


    Pepper replied while walking towards the exit. "We''re going to have it right now."


    Coulson asked almost unbelievably, "Now?"


    "Yeah, walk with me."


    Harry got up as well and followed the pair.


    Pepper looking almost out of breath said, "I''m going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office."


    Harry felt a glare from behind and looked back to see Stane looking at Pepper from the second floor with murderous intent.


    Since Harry knew he was working with the Mandarin, Harry decided to play a small prank on him. He didn''t have the time for something fancy, so Harry got out the Apple of Discord from his inventory, turned it into a Crumple Horned Snorkack, and tossed the mini purple horned pig hippo directly to the upper floor where it smacked into and then grabbed onto Stane''s face.


    The bald boss shouted in terror when it grabbed his face and wrapped its tail around his neck, "Ahhh! Get it Off! Get it off me!" He then ran to the side in terror and slammed directly into a wall.


    Pepper and Coulson both turned back to see Stane screaming and saw the fuzzy purple thing on his face. Both also simultaneously looked at Harry who shrugged and said, "You said meeting of your life right? Let''s go."


    "Ahhh! Will someone get this damn thing off me!"


    Security guards were running upstairs so Pepper and Coulson decided to get out when Harry walked with them out the door.


    Harry took his car and followed Pepper''s car which followed Coulson''s car. By the time they reached Shield''s LA office, both Pepper and Coulson only remembered seeing Stane have a panic attack of some kind that was completely unrelated to Harry. The security cameras would show the same and the footage of Harry throwing ''nothing'' had already been altered through a technopathy spell.


    Once they got to the office, Pepper started rambling about what happened. She was asked by Tony to get the shipping manifests of every shipment made overseas. The method he gave her to download those files opened a secret hidden file Pepper looked into and saw a translated video of the terrorists who kidnapped Tony, directly addressing Stane and demanding more money in order to kill Stark.


    Harry could only shake his head. He thought that Stane was working with the Mandarin from the beginning, but it was more likely now that the Mandarin''s involvement only happened after Tony escaped and all the goons who were keeping him captive were killed.


    Pepper then explained the plans she saw on the file. They looked like plans to build a metal suit.


    Harry considered what happened and realized how the Mandarin got involved. He must have excavated the destroyed cave himself using his Transfiguration magic ring and found the original plans for Tony''s suit. The Mandarin probably then approached Stane for a partnership in this. If it was someone else, Stane probably would not have agreed, but saying no to the Mandarin was not nearly as easy.


    Coulson asked the slightly hysterical Pepper, "Can you call Mr. Stark and tell him to come over? If Obadiah paid to have him killed, his life is in danger."


    "Oh, okay. Just give me a second." He nearly fumbled when she got out her phone and set the speed dial.


    After a few rings, the phone was answered, but after another moment, Harry heard a high pitch sound coming from the end of the phone. Pepper frowned and asked, "Tony are you there? Hello?"


    The line went dead.


    In the next moment, Harry got a text message from Link. Harry opened it and said aloud for those in the room, "Jarvis was just disabled. Something is going on at Stark''s place."


    Link chatted with Jarvis pretty often and according to Link, Jarvis had just been turned off. There was no reason for that to happen and since Link was pretty smart, he thought to inform Harry.


    Pepper said, "My god. I''ll call Rhodey."


    *Ding*


    [New Quest: Sword and Shield


    -Defend Virginia Potts, Phillip Coulson, and Anthony Stark.


    Harry sighed and said, "I''ll call Obscurus and ask him to protect Stark."


    Coulson looked surprised while Harry was pulling out his cell and asked, "How long would it take for him to get there?"


    Harry sent out a few texts and answered, "Not long."


    Coulson said, "Alright. We need to arrest Obadiah."


    Pepper said, "Whatever he''s building is in Section Sixteen of Stark International. I have clearance and can get you in."


    Harry shook his head and asked, "Pepper, do you plan on ?ssisting in the approach and arrest of a criminal with access to advanced weaponry while you are wearing high heels?"


    All eyes looked down and noticed Pepper''s strikingly high heels.


    Pepper blushed and said, "I have some sneakers in my car."


    Harry nodded and said, "I''ll come too then. I also have some goodies in my car."


    Coulson said, "I don''t think that''s a good-"


    Pepper interrupted, "It''s fine. Harry is shareholder of Stark International and should technically have clearance anyway."


    Coulson looked like he wanted to say that Clearance was not the issue, but he decided to drop it. Though Harry claimed and even showed evidence of his skill, he was still considered a potential ?sset for his mind and Coulson would hear no end of it if Harry was killed. That being said, if Harry brought ''goodies'' and had the common sense to remind Pepper not to enter a combat zone wearing high heels, something Phil himself neglected to remind her of, then Harry should not prove to be a burden.


    Harry pretended to go over to the trunk of his rental car and pull out a bunch of things when he was, in reality, just taking nice things from his inventory.


    Harry''s tech company and prowess in metaphysics had reached a point that Harry didn''t need to visibly hold back like he had in the past. Harry took out an advanced looking gun which was in reality, just a prop wand which funneled any spell cast using it through the muzzle. Thanks to the background Harry had built up over the years, Harry could use a prop like this to fire all the spells he wanted to right in front of muggles without anyone questioning it. He still wouldn''t use portals in front of anyone, but he could do pretty much anything else using Tech as the excuse.


    Once Harry was loaded up on goodies, he got into his car and followed the group back to Stark International along with half a dozen agents from the Shield Headquarters who were there for muscle.


    Harry wondered if it was a coincidence or not that the Shield Office was ten minutes from Stark International. The fact that Harry''s quest icon didn''t show Stark dying on the way meant Harry had successfully used a Time Turner to go back and protect him. A self fulfilling prophecy isn''t straightforward to set up though. Harry had to text a system which confirmed that another Harry existed in the time stream which confirmed Harry had already gone back in the past. If that system showed Harry had not gone back in the past, then the current him would have had to knock out Pepper and Phil and modify their memories and then portal to Stark''s place to save him to complete the quest. Harry didn''t like touching memories if the situation did not absolutely require it.


    Harry also wondered why this section of Stark International had Tanks parked out front. Were they going to be used? Were they display models? Do some people who work here actually drive to work in a Tank?


    After passing by the highly inefficient Muon generator in the main space, Pepper led them to a side hall and a door with a heavy duty lock on it. Pepper set her badge on the lock but a negative sounding beep occurred the three times she tried.


    Pepper said, "It''s not working."


    Without looking back, Coulson put his hand behind him and someone handed him a small device he then walked up to and placed on the metal lock.


    Pepper asked, "Oh, wow! What''s that? It''s like, a little device? It''s like, a thing that''s going to pick the lock?


    Harry shook his head and said, "You need to get out of California, you are saying ''it''s like,'' far too much in your sentences."


    Pepper gave Harry a slight glare and Coulson said, "You might want to take a few steps back."


    Recognizing a white phosphorus charge when he saw one, Harry took a few steps back and turned around just like all the other agents in the room. You don''t look in the direction of white phosphorus going off. After a small sizzle sound and a light bang, the sound of the door opening was heard and everyone turned around to head inside.


    After a few moments, Coulson spotted Stane at a computer station looking over several monitors.


    "Don''t move."


    Stane turned around without the slightest bit of fear. He saw Pepper and said, "Ah Pepper, I''m sorry about Tony. Terrible tragedy."


    Pepper frowned and asked, "What are you talking about?"


    More than willing to comply, Stane continued, "Oh, you haven''t heard yet? Tony''s dead. Some men broke into his house and ripped his Arc Reactor out of his ?h?st. I was just on the phone with him a few minutes ago and was able to say my goodbyes. I wish I could have been there for his last moments as his heart slowly gave out and his body grew colder and eventually stopped moving. Seeing the light vanish from his eye would have been a sight to see."


    Pepper was already in tears and looking at Stane like he was a monster.


    Harry asked, seemingly uninterested, "And why didn''t you?" Harry knew Stark wasn''t dead so he looked like he didn''t care about Stark''s supposed fate.


    Stane looked over at Harry with some recognition and said, "Ah, that would be because of you. Khan never did tell me what you did to him but he''s been on life support all week. Many of his organs had to be replaced and he''s still fighting to stay alive. I''ve had to watch over him to make sure he stayed alive of course."


    Stane then looked over to Coulson and said, "Since Stark is dead I''m the current CEO of Stark International and you are trespassing on Private Property. I''m going to have to ask you to leave."


    Coulson stated, "Mr. Stane you are under arrest for Suspected Treason and Murder in the first degree."


    Stane smiled at that and said, "You don''t have the slightest bit of evidence and even if you did, I can''t leave." Stane pushed a bu??on on the keyboard before anyone could do anything but all the bu??on did was bring up a monitor of an extremely sickly, skeletal looking man covered in numerous tubes and wires and metal plates. Stane said, "Someone needs to watch over Khan. Potter really did a number on him."


    Coulson said, "I''ll leave a few men to keep watch, but you''re coming with me."


    Stane said, "No need for that. I have just the thing. You see Khan showed me these drawings of a rather well designed suit he found in a cave. He brought over a lot of his men we''ve been working together to build it. The suit will act as a mobile life support system so all that is needed is to get him in the suit and he''ll be up and ready to go."


    Pepper said in horror, "He built a suit like Tony''s. They''re gonna put that Khan guy into it."


    Coulson lifted his hand and was now directly pointing his gun at Stane. He knew who the Mandarin was and knew what that suit could do from the reports he''d gotten from the Military encounter with it.


    He said, "You know we can''t let you do that."


    Stane smirked. "''Do that?'' I''m not a comic book villain. Do you think I''d stand here explaining everything to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome?"


    He pointed at the monitor of Khan and zoomed into the timestamp. "This feed is from 35 minutes ago."


    Harry felt the surge of energy behind him and grabbed Coulson and Pepper before jumping out of the way of the great metal arm that swatted through where they had been standing. Two of the other agents were broken like twigs when the arm passed through where they were standing and the pair were sent to the opposite wall. Harry slapped a bracelet with a red gem on Coulson and a bracelet with a green gem on Pepper during the confusion.


    A sixteen foot tall sleek metal mech slowly stepped forward out of the shadow. A heavy rasping voice Harry somewhat recognized shouted through the speakers, "POTTER!"


    The Agents who survived the initial swat because they were standing away from Coulson started shooting at the Mecha Mandarin but other than the sparks that shined off the silver haul, no damage was shown.


    Harry took out his ''gun'' and fired three Stunner spells, but the red blasts harmlessly washed over the shell much to Harry''s disappointment. Tech that was powered by magic did not simply break like other forms of tech did in the presence of wizard magic so no one hit KO. That unfortunately implied that this mech was likely powered by Khan''s rings. Harry figured they couldn''t guess how Tony''s Arc reactor worked so they used a readily available alternative.


    Harry then fired a half dozen Bombada spells which each caused the Mecha Mandarin to take a step back from the force, but once it braced itself it started charging forward.


    Coulson stood his ground and continued shooting at it but the massive metal monstrosity but with a wave of its arm, Coulson was thrown directly through a nearby wall.


    Harry shot the ground with a transfiguration spell to make it weaker and with the Mecha Mandarin''s next step, it fell through the ground into the floor below.


    From the other end of the room, Harry heard a gunshot and saw Stane pointing a smoking gun at Pepper saying, "Your services are no longer required."


    His pleased expression changed to confusion as he noticed Pepper didn''t have a gunshot hole. Harry shot him with a stunner and ran over to a different wall where Pepper was actually hiding.


    Pepper asked, "What happened?"


    Harry tapped on the bracelet which he slapped on her wrist, "Prototype hologram doppelganger. Only one use." It was actually a single use illusion spell that activated when the target''s heart was beating really fast.


    Harry then ran over to see Phil walking out of the wall he had been thrown through and dusting himself off. He saw Harry and while holding up his wrist where he noticed the bracelet Harry slapped on him and said, "Thanks for that." He''d seen the video interview and recognized the Metagem Ruby ''s effect which protected him.


    Harry said, "It''s single use and I don''t have any more, let''s get out of here."


    "POTTER! YOU WILL DIE FOR ME POTTER! NOTHING WILL STOP THE MANDARIN!"


    The mech jumped up from the lower floor back into this floor and started charging again.


    He pointed a metal hand forward and shot a missile. Harry threw a small device forward which generated a red shield which blocked the explosion before vanishing.


    At the moment the explosion hid them from view, Harry took out an Amethyst and a moment later, the entire room was filled with a heavy layer of mist.


    Harry grabbed Pepper and Phil and used his Map to run back out the way they came in. He wanted to get them out of there before he tried to fight this thing. Thankfully, the Rings seemed to be only powering the suit and they weren''t being used directly.


    The trio ran back through the main room and out into the parking lot. Harry noticed a motorcycle there which wasn''t there before meaning someone else entered the facility after they did.


    Coulson asked, "Is there anything you have which can take that suit down?"


    "If it was made solely by Stane, then easily. But that thing was definitely designed using Alien tech and was powered by those rings of his."


    Coulson asked, "Alien?"


    "What? You didn''t know? I heard those rings and his tech were scavenged from an Alien spaceship he found decades ago."


    "What about your Hard-Light system?"


    "Only works in enclosed spaces and I didn''t bring the portable version with me because I wasn''t planning on pranking anyone this week."


    Coulson rolled his eyes that what could be the most advanced system he''d ever heard of was only useful to Harry as a pranking aid.


    The ground split open and the Mecha Mandarin jumped out. However Harry felt a distinct difference.


    Pepper saw the glow on the Mecha Mandarin''s ?h?st and said, "Tony''s Reactor!"


    Harry frowned and said, "Leave, he''s after me."


    From the speaker, Khan said with absolute venom, "No Potter. I will kill everything you care about. If you protect them. Then they will die."


    The mech pointed a hand forward and blindingly bright sun fire shot out. Harry quickly took out another gizmo, but it was just a prop. He cast his most powerful shield while trying to prevent the strain from showing on his face as the parking lot, the cars, the pavement, and even the tanks behind them liquified.


    From the speakers Khan said, "Impressive, But how long can you keep up? With the Arc Reactor as the main power source, I am now free to use my rings as I please." He then lifted his other hand and lightning shot forward at the shield.


    Harry couldn''t cast a different spell or use any toys while maintaining the shield to protect against the sun fire and keep Pepper and Coulson alive. He wanted the Mandarin to stop the flames and use his disintegration beam. At this point Harry was willing to modify memories and his silver portals could be released much faster than a Sorcerer Portal. If the Mandarin fired his disintegration beam, Harry could make a silver portal which caused the beam to shoot the Mandarin himself.


    Unfortunately, the Mandarin was playing it safe. Well, the fact that playing it safe allowed him to slowly torment Harry until he was burnt to death probably had something to do with that.


    Suddenly, a metal suit of red and gold flew down from the sky and right into the Mecha Mandarin. The weight of the impact shot the pair through the ground down three floors back four walls and to the highway below.


    Everyone looked up and also saw a speeder bike looking vehicle hovering in the air where a demon mask wearing individual wearing a basilisk hide long coat was sitting down. From the bike the mask wearing Obscurus shouted, "Potter, this is going to cost extra."


    *Notes from Not an Evil Djinn.*


    "Your wish has once again been granted. Oh look, a Alien Tech Iron Man Suit powered by an Arc Reactor, piloted by the Mandarin, and has the power of the Mandarin''s Rings?


    For the curious, here is a list of the power of the Mandarin''s ten rings.


    Absolute Zero Ice Blasts


    Affect Mind


    Lightning Generation


    Sun Fire Blast


    Intense Laser


    Light Absorbing Darkness Shroud


    Disintegration Beam/Intangibility


    Whirlwind and vortex generation


    Concussion force beam


    Matter Rearranger


    Of course, I''m sure you can patiently wait for the next chapter and don''t mind the cliff hanger at all.


    *Insert diabolical Evil Djinn laughter here*

 Chapter 77 - 77 Metal and Magic

    Harry felt a large headache hit him and found himself in an abandoned warehouse looking at a watch. The time display on the watch showed it was 5pm, two hours before he was supposed to meet up with Agent Coulson at Stark International''s main building.


    His last memory was of seeing himself in his Obscurus getup showing up and saying, ''This is going to cost extra.'' Harry sighed at the headache and knew he had no choice but to deal with it. That line was one of several he had prepared to deal with possible Time Travel incited Paradoxes.


    One of the main things that must be avoided when time traveling is having the past self observe the future self. The few times Harry used this trick to be in the same place as his past self, he had to make sure his past self observed the actions of his future self as little as possible. Why? If his past self saw his future self make a mistake, he might not make it when it was his turn to act and create a paradox.


    In the event Harry had no choice but to observe his future actions, he had to seal his memories once he returned to the past and could only unseal them once he ''caught up'' to the present.


    This was much, much harder than it sounded and was impossible in many different circumstances. Also, Harry''s mind would always try to fix itself so he had to devote a part of his mind to keep his memories consciously locked up. Thus, the headache.


    In any case, this wasn''t a bad thing. All he had to do was keep to the script until he caught up to the point he told his past self the signal and then he could do what he needed.


    The first thing Harry did of course was get out the Goblin Silver knife coated in the Mandarin''s blood and use it to create a Blood Gem. Harry would have done this anyway once he got home, but he hadn''t expected Obadiah to build Khan a suit using Tony''s initial plans. No, Harry could tell it was far more advanced than that. The Ancient One told Harry that the Mandarin''s rings were originally sources of power for a spaceship. Harry had seen advanced, otherworldly tech from the Mandarin before, and that suit looked like it had a few of the same principles.


    Harry first used the Blood Gem to determine if the Mandarin had any children or family. Surprisingly, he did not. That would simplify a number of things since his Board of Directors had already been informed of the CEO of Khan Industries soon to come untimely death and had positioned themselves around the company like sharks circling a wounded prey.


    Harry spent a full hour preparing the Kin Killing Curse that would attack Khan through his DNA. To avoid a paradox, he couldn''t use it now, but he could set it for a delay and have it activate five seconds after he showed up at Stark Industries.


    Anti-climatic? Sure. But Harry preferred to end the fight showing off as little as possible. Even under the guise of it being tech, what he already showed off while protecting Pepper and Coulson would certainly have Shield knocking at his door in a week.


    The Summer had just started and Harry wanted to get stronger and explore Xandar and the Andromeda Galaxy to his heart''s content and learn more tech.


    Harry pulled up his stats and could only look on with anticipation.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 265 Age 16


    STR 350 AGI 350


    LUK 50


    Warrior Path Rank 37


    Scholar Path Rank 47


    Magic Path Rank 45


    Tech Path Rank 40


    Business Path Rank 36


    Crafting Path Rank 33


    Dragon Path Rank 29


    Psionic Path Rank 31


    After Rank 35, the speed at which the Paths rose was b?r?ly a crawl. The only reason his Tech Path had gotten so high was because he was researching different types of energy using tech and he''d gotten two more Ranks from his Quest to rescue Stark. Once his tech path reached 41 though, Harry had some confidence he could make actual magic amplification tech.


    Currently he was unable to make any tech that surpassed what an artifact could do, which was why his prop gun was just a prop. It didn''t strengthen or speed up his spells.


    Of course, getting the Mandarin''s suit and checking the Alien tech inside it would be useful as well. Taking over his company didn''t guarantee access to the advanced tech the Mandarin had access to.


    Overall, Harry had four ways to beat the Mandarin without fuss. Curse him to death, use Dragon Phoenix Fire Breath, Portal him to the Sun, and Attack him in Harry''s Obscurus form and overload the tech in the same way he did with Apocalypse. Harry refused to believe the Mandarin''s tech was superior to Apocalypse''s. That being said, the latter three options would destroy the tech in the suit and Portaling into space might not even work since it had built in life support and the Mandarin''s Rings were Spaceship power sources to begin with.


    For that and many other reasons, Harry would shamelessly curse him to death. That being said, it was fine to think up a few backup plans as well. The curse should cause an agonizing, horrifically painful death within a minute of being cast, but the Mandarin might luck out somehow. Harry wasn''t sure how he was even alive with Basilisk Venom running through his veins.


    Wizards were not, thankfully, omniscient, so the existence of something which can prevent or slow down death due to Basilisk Venom was not impossible of course. Some rare herb found only in the desolate mountains that bloomed once every five thousand years blah blah blah, might exist.


    After preparing everything, Harry morphed into his Obscurus ?du?t form and equipped his demon mask and a lot of artifacts. Beneath his basilisk long coat was a set of enchanted vibranium armor saturated with Red Energy from Cyttorak''s realm. The armor''s enchantment basically gave Harry a knock off version of the Juggernaut''s power. Harry wouldn''t be confident in facing the actual Chosen of Cyttorak in blow for blow combat, but he was confident in being able to put a few dents in the Mandarin''s armor.


    The last time Harry fought using this setup was against the Immortal Black Dragon and the Mandarin would be a good punching b-... sparring partner.


    Once fully equipped, Harry got his speeder bike out of his inventory. It was of course his Ultra Broom, but it looked like a speeder bike out of Star Wars which Harry was fine with. Broom handles and bristles on the back had gone out of fashion in the 17th century anyways.


    After some waiting, Harry got the text from his Past self and Harry replied to inform his Past self that the Time Loop had been established. Harry could never guarantee the successful establishment of a Time Loop so if he hadn''t texted his past self back, his past self would not have made the Time Loop to begin with.


    Though thinking about it made Harry''s headache worse.


    Harry flew his speeder to Stark''s place at a leisurely pace of only a few hundred kilometers an hour and when he arrived, the front yard was filled with motorcycles. Harry recognized them as the same type he saw had parked at Stark International''s lab after he got there.


    The yard was covered with men of Asian decent wearing sunglasses and looking like gang members. Harry wondered if they had cleavers under their shirts, but decided not to profile.


    From his speeder, Harry jumped off from the air and landed in the yard.


    Harry''s Dimensional energy and Immortal Dragon Chi saturated body erupted in a show of light and quickly moved to strike each of the goons with a Stun Magic fist. None of them would be getting up.


    The goons left the door open and Harry sped inside to knock out the three goons standing around Stark who seemed incapacitated on the couch with a hole in his ?h?st where the Arc Reactor had been. Harry figured he probably just missed the guy who took it as he drove away, but since Harry knew that Khan would get it later, Harry couldn''t proactively go out to get it back.


    Instead, Harry walked over to Stark and touched him with the hand wearing the Ring of Recovery Harry got from his Save the Time Lord Quest a few years back. It could automatically remove one Status effect from himself or someone he touched once a day.


    A moment after Harry touched Stark, the blue veins around Stark''s ears returned to normal color.


    Stark then coughed out, "They took, my reactor."


    Stark''s heart was slowly stopping and coughing was a way to force blood to the brain through the use of other muscles.


    Harry asked, "Got a spare?"


    "Workshop, downstairs, garage." Stark looked over to the side where there was a massive hole in the floor around what Harry remembered used to be a piano.


    Harry ran over and jumped down, landing on an already partially crushed Shelby Cobra. Harry winched at that. He wasn''t a car person but he could appreciate a classic.


    Harry detected the Arc Reactor in a display case with a plaque that read, Proof Tony Stark Has a Heart. Harry decided then and there if Tony didn''t treat Pepper right, Harry would prank him until he did.


    Harry removed the case and put the Reactor in his inventory and Paused. He sensed a few problems with it, including the fact that it was only partially charged. Harry unpaused, took it out, and used a light Reparo Charm to reverse the degradation of the palladium while also using some Transfiguration and a tiny bit of alchemy to ensure the thing would hold up.


    After finishing, Harry put it back in his Inventory and sighed. He then took it back out and did an even lighter bit of Alchemy to fix the damage to it that the repairing magic had just done. Wizard Magic didn''t always work the way you wanted it. For example while repairing a copper wire, it could change a tiny bit of the copper from 99.99 percent purity to 99.9 percent purity. What a lot of people don''t know is that Copper wires Only conduct electricity when it is at least 99.99 percent pure. Thankfully this Cave built Arc Reactor was built in a crude way and did not need to be perfect for it to work.


    It only took three tries and five unpaused seconds to fix up the Reactor to as good as Harry could make it so once done he ran over to the Cobra and jumped up to the main floor and ran back to Tony.


    Harry used a light bit of telekinesis to pull the connection wire from Tony''s ?h?st and expertly attach it to the connection plate under Tony''s extremely focused stare.


    Once Harry had it installed, Tony let out a deep sigh of relief. Tony''s body had been in a state with b?r?ly a heart beat for a few minutes so it needed a few more minutes to move.


    Harry asked, "What happened to Jarvis?"


    Stark answered while taking deep, labored breaths, "Stane disabled him."


    Harry walked over to the panel he put the Brilliance Phone into and opened it again. He typed in a few commands into the phone and sent a text message to Link informing him of the situation.


    The lights turned on and the British voice came from the room, [System Restored.]


    Harry asked, "How did Stane turn you off?"


    [Mr. Stark used his Company to build this house and all its security measures. Using his clearance, Obadiah would have access to those plans which included the Security Override codes to disable me.]


    Harry turned to give Stark an incredulous look that Stark could easily make out even though Harry was wearing a mask.


    After taking a few more breaths, Stark said, "So sue me, I forgot he had access to those alright? Can I ask what you''re doing here Demon Dude?"


    "Potter is with Pepper and Link told him Jarvis went off line. He called me and offered payment to keep you safe when your call with Pepper dropped."


    "Is Pepper okay?"


    Harry smirked and answered, "Well, she went with Harry and some Agent to arrest Obadiah."


    Stark''s pale face turned if possible, even paler. He said, "I need to get to her." He slowly got up and staggered over to the stairs heading to the garage.


    Harry rolled his eyes and wondered why the man didn''t just call her and tell her Stane was going to kill her and to keep as far away as possible, but he couldn''t remind him since that didn''t happen in the timeline. He''d tease him relentlessly about it later.


    Half way down the stairs, Tony''s brain seemed to have realized he hadn''t spoken enough in the last few minutes so he turned to Harry and asked, "What''s you do to me? I should have been Paralyzed for another seven minutes. Is that a super power of yours or something you got from the kid?"


    "Don''t be ridiculous Tony, Potter can''t make stuff that looks like it came out of Dungeons and Dragons. It is just an effect of the Ring of Recovery which allows me to remove a Status Effect once per day. I got it as a reward for a Quest to return a Time Lord to his home Dimension and defeat a group of evil space witches that were plotting to spread madness throughout the world."


    Tony rolled his eyes and replied, "If you don''t want to tell me, just say so."


    Harry chuckled as they reached the garage and Tony pulled up to a computer and started typing in various coding changes. Harry peaked over and recognized he was changing the settings of an Operating System to use less energy.


    Harry asked, "Why didn''t they just kill you?"


    "Obi wanted it to look like an accident. Like my heart stopped on its own and as long as he found my body and ''recovered Stark Technology'' first, no one would be able to say my reactor wasn''t in my ?h?st all along. He said he wanted me to die cold and powerless."


    Harry asked, "He just wanted you alive so he could gloat didn''t he."


    "The bastard. Can''t believe I looked up to him."


    Harry shrugged, "No one is the villain of their own story. He probably thinks his reasons are good enough. Before your ''Mountain Retreat Get Away'' with Yinsen, you certainly weren''t a saint either."


    Stark froze just for a moment before he continued typing, "You''re right. But I''m trying to fix it."


    Harry had no doubt that Stark''s definition of ''fix it'' meant reducing the amount of damage his existence has done to the world to a minimum.


    Harry asked, "Have you ever heard of Kintsugi?"


    "Can''t say that I have."


    "It''s a Japanese thing where when some pottery breaks in an accident, the pieces are put back together using lacquer and gold dust. When the pottery is repaired, it has beautiful veins of gold which give the piece character and a history."


    "Well I''m not exactly an artsy person. Does the story have a point, Demon Dude?"


    "Yeah. There are a lot of different ways to fix something. If you''re creative enough and have the resources to do so, it''s even possible to fix things in a way which makes them better than how they were before they were broken."


    To emphasize the point, Harry reached over and tapped on the arc reactor in Tony''s ?h?st.


    Tony stopped typing again just for a moment. He wasn''t thick enough to ignore the obvious symbolism and Harry''s point. Tony felt his prior actions had broken a lot of things and he''d spent the last week trying to fix as many of them as he could. But perhaps his methods had been a bit crude.


    After a few more minutes Stark finished typing and said aloud, "Jarvis, suit me up."


    The garage floor opened up and multiple robotic arms appeared and placed piece after piece of equipment onto Stark and ?ssembled it into a red and gold metal suit.


    Tony moved around for a bit and then partially staggered and said through a speaker, "Wait, did you do something to the Arc Reactor?"


    Harry answered, "I took it to Radio Shack and had them tune it up for you."


    "You know what, never mind. You''re getting paid to keep me safe right?" He then used some Muon emission palladium repulsors on his feet and hands to hover and asked, "Think you can keep up?"


    Harry snapped and used some Technopathy to command his speeder to fly into the garage where he jumped on it and said, "Got another stupid question?"


    Stark shot out of the hole next to the Cobra and Harry launched himself through the garage entrance and saw Stark already flying away. Harry easily caught up to him and the pair flew in the direction of Stark International.


    It had been about thirty mins since Harry saved Stark and it took another four mins for Stark''s slow suit to fly to the Stark Industries Lab. Harry was timing it and knew they were on schedule.


    Soon they arrived at the parking lot that was completely glowing molten red from the heat of the sun fire blasting out the Mandarin''s armored fist. Stark upped his speed to the max and dive bombed the Mecha Mandarin through the parking lot, a few walls, and into an adjacent highway.


    Harry flew his speeder over to where Past Harry and the gang was and shouted, "Potter, this is going to cost extra."


    The Past Potter seemed to sigh with resignation which the current Harry completely understood. Pepper and Coulson saw this and probably ?ssumed he was sighing about the increased expense. Nope, it was because Time Travel is a massive headache when the unexpected happens while using it.


    Harry took his speeder over to the freeway where he saw Mecha Mandarin lifting a van to smash Tony with. Harry jumped off his speeder and delivered a Golden Dragon Axe Kick to the arm carrying the van, causing it to be smashed out of the way, releasing the vehicle which Harry had to jump out of the way from to avoid it running him over.


    Harry sensed Tony overcharged his Arc Reactor with Muons in an accelerated decay reaction which produced vastly more Muons than usual for a moment. In that moment, they were directed out the front of the Arc Reactor at the Mandarin. The massive Muon beam successfully knocked the Mandarin to the side and Harry used the opening to rush up and deliver an Uppercut to the Mandarin''s torso. The force of the impact caused the illusion of a rising dragon which blasted the Mandarin into the air and over to an access road near the freeway.


    Harry jumped over and Tony flew up while saying, "Damn Demon Dude, you must eat a lot of spinach."


    Harry landed and asked, "Popeye? Really? Are you sure you''re not an old man?"


    The Mandarin got up and moved to smash Harry who knocked away the blow. The air around the Mandarin suddenly started spinning rapidly as if a tornado had just formed. The Metal suit used the wind to spin itself and deliver a haymaker that suddenly accelerated to five times faster halfway through the movement. The speed up and the wind caused Harry''s parry to miss the timing and Harry got a metal fist to the face that sent him through three ways and into a meter deep crater on the other side of the building next to the access road.


    Harry Paused and realized that the Mandarin was probably still getting used to the suit''s controls. That may have been why Stane was stalling with a monologue when Harry and the rest first got there. The Mandarin was a very skilled martial artist and he knew tech, so his skill at using the suit would only improve as the fight continued.


    The Kin Killing Curse should have started killing Khan already so hopefully the battle wouldn''t take much longer.


    Harry unpaused and jumped back in the fight to see the Mandarin firing a laser that Tony was meeting with the repulsor beam on his hand. Harry landed on the Mandarin''s back and tried direct Transfiguration to change the suit or disable it. The Mandarin''s speed abrupt jumped again and Harry was shaken off and hurled to the ground.


    Tony yelled, "You alright?"


    "I''m fine." Harry realized what the Mandarin was doing and shouted, "He''s using a built in Matter Rearrangement system to speed up the movement of his molecules. That''s how he''s moving so fast and recovering from damage."


    The Mandarin''s suit was undergoing active Transfiguration using the same ring Harry recognized could transfigure matter. That was why the dents and damage Harry had done to it weren''t visible and how the massive suit clearly not built for speed was outspeeding Harry at times.


    The speakers on the Mandarin''s suit sounded out, "Very good. Now how will you deal with this?"


    He shot a bolt of lightning at Tony and a concussive blast at Harry. Harry had experienced those blasts before and stood his ground to endure it.


    Tony staggered and for a moment and Harry sensed the lightning bolt was directed through his suit into the Arc reactor making it glow with a blinding brilliance. Tony shouted, "You can have it back! Unibeam!" He fired his ?h?st laser, Unibeam apparently, but this time the Mandarin dodged it using a sped up motion. Harry launched himself forward to deliver an unstoppable punch, but the Mighty Mech moved in a fluid motion to catch the telegraphed punch and spin around to slam Harry back into the ground using his own unstoppable momentum.


    A massive crater ten feet in diameter formed and the building next to it collapsed into the crater.


    Harry jumped out before he got buried and saw Khan fire a concussive shot at Tony which blasted Stark back a hundred meters.


    Harry dashed forward and moved to strike Khan once more but Khan parried the strike this time and countered with a blast of close quarters sun fire. Harry spun to the side and knocked the mech''s arm up, sending the flames into the air where they torched and liquefied a nearby overpass sign.


    Harry pressed forward and delivered another set of body blows which each shook the armor and pushed the mech off balance. The Mandarin was already using proper footwork to dispel the strength of the strikes and started matching Harry Blow for blow. If it wasn''t for the relatively excessive level of collateral damage, Harry would want to keep up the fight to grind his Warrior Path, but that would be a tad bit selfish all things considered.


    The fact that the Mandarin wasn''t dead already was also a mystery. The only thing Harry could think of was that the Mandarin predicted Harry would use his blood for something and figured a way to protect himself. Technically there was no way to block the Kin Killing Curse if someone had your blood, but there was also no way to block the Killing Curse so that wasn''t a possibility Harry could rule out.


    European Wizards thinking that Muggles were ignorant of them was completely delusional. The Mandarin recognized Harry as a Wizard when he first saw him even though Harry wasn''t using a wand. That kind of insight proved the Mandarin knew a lot about wizards.


    The Mandarin shot a laser beam but Harry covered his hands in red energy and deflected it. Cyttorak''s chosen was considered immune to magic because Red Energy was overbearing enough to protect the Juggernaut from spells. Harry already confirmed when he was protecting Pepper and Coulson that a Red Energy Shield could stop the magic of the Mandarin''s rings. He couldn''t reflect it back at the Mandarin but deflecting it away from him and others was doable.


    Tony returned and maintained a distance from Khan and simply pelted him with repulsor fire. The Muon concussive force was strong enough to stagger the Mandarin which gave Harry the openings needed to deliver stronger strikes.


    The Mandarin hadn''t gone Intangible meaning the suit probably couldn''t incorporate that power, but Harry was still keeping his senses open for that disintegration beam.


    The Mandarin sped up and did a backflip and landed facing Tony, He fired an enormous wave of Sun Fire at Tony who shot up into the air to dodge. The sun fire wave tracked the flying Stark overhead and Harry launched himself forward once more, this time shining with golden lightning and giving onlookers the illusion of a raging dragon. Khan sped up again but this time Harry twisted in the air to prevent himself from getting grabbed and struck Khan with the force of a titanic battering ram. The Mecha Mandarin shot backwards with a massive foot shaped dent on the ?h?st piece and skidded hundreds of feet back.


    Stark landed next to Harry and said, "Got any ideas because I''m almost out of juice here."


    Harry sighed, placed his hand on Stark''s Arc reactor, and cast another Reparo while reversing the Palladium degradation.


    Harry said, "Don''t tell anyone I did that." He didn''t want Shield to think he was anything but muscle, otherwise he''d be bothered too much.


    Stark replied, "Okay, that works. Oh, he''s coming back."


    Harry also noticed the now rocket powered charge of the metal missile coming at him. Harry decided to trade damage and charged forward as well. Harry''s glowing red arm covered in golden lighting struck the Mandarin''s arm causing the latter to partially cave in. The Mandarin''s form sped up however and twisted, changing the attack from a punch into a tackle by sacrificing an arm.


    Harry was shot back through six blocks and seven full buildings. His only solace was that he hadn''t hit anyone. Harry''s arm was trashed but it recovered quickly, Harry''s Health had in fact been reduced in that exchange by about 10%. Harry pulled out a Potion from his Inventory and gulped it down before returning outside and seeing Stark flying higher and higher and the Mecha Mandarin following him into the air using his rockets.


    Harry called over his Speeder and followed the pair up. Khan shot concussive blasts and lasers at Stark but the latter was nimble and the attacks had become predictable enough to dodge at this point.


    The air was getting thin and cold so Harry cast a few warming spells on himself to prevent any issues while he continued to follow them higher and higher.


    Harry could guess what Stark was thinking, but it was too bad he was wrong. Khan''s rings were Spaceship power sources. It became obvious from using his energy sense that Khan was using his Sun Fire Ring to maintain the heat of his suit to use it without difficulty.


    Harry pulled out his Magic Gun Artifacts and shot a few rounds which exploded off the mech''s armor.


    Stark shouted, "You''ve been holding out on me!"


    Harry rebutted, "These rounds are expensive." They were too. The ''gunpowder'' was made with crushed magic gems and the bullets were made of ancient Jade which held the best spells.


    Khan''s speakers shouted back, "You want Cold! I''ll give you Cold!"


    From the Mecha Mandarin''s non damaged hand came beam after beam of Absolute Zero energy.


    Harry and Stark were getting better at predicting the shots, but the Mandarin was also getting better at using the suit.


    Stark''s suit shouted, "That''s not good."


    Harry looked where he was pointing and saw a pair of jets approaching at a few times the speed of sound. And they just fired their missiles.


    Stark flew behind the Mandarin and Harry just stood still. The missile passed him by of course. His Speeder bike looked like something from Star wars, but it was a broom and didn''t emit heat. Technically, Harry''s use of Warming Charms in this frigid airspace should be hot enough to track, but Harry''s heat signature was as invisible as every other energy signature from him and there was no way those missiles would be able to lock onto him.


    All fired missiles struck the Mandarin with a massive explosion Harry had to expand the strength of his Red Energy shield to endure. From the smoke, a laser beam shot out and was followed by an Ice Beam. Both accurately struck the jets with the last removing one of the wings and the ice beam freezing the other jet.


    The first jet pilot ejected out safely, but the iced Jet did not. Stark shouted, "I''ll get that guy, you play with Magic Mike."


    Harry shouted as Stark flew off, "Never Use That Reference Again! I Don''t Need That Imagine in My Head!"


    The Mandarin rocketed forward at Harry who nimbly rolled over to dodge. Trying to match acrobatics with Harry while he was on his Ultra Broom Prototype was not going to end well for the Mandarin.


    Harry shot another round of exploding ammo at the Mandarin who fired off Lasers and Ice beams and Lightning and even the occasional close quarters sun fire. Harry figured the Mandarin''s remaining undamaged Hand had those four rings and the Matter Rearranger Ring. His damaged hand was almost fixed though.


    Tony returned and while flying close to Harry said, "I got an idea to take him down, but I need you to keep him still."


    Harry said, "For how long?"


    "Five seconds."


    "No Problem."


    Harry flew over Khan and jumped off his Speeder to land on Khan and stick himself to Khan''s back. Without the Whirlwind ring and without something to smash his back against, this was a big weak spot for the mech.


    Khan shouted, "Get off me!" and tried to twist back and forth, but Harry wasn''t budging.


    After a moment, Harry felt something and smiled.


    Harry whispered, "Through these words I cast you back, seven rings top to bottom. Bind the magic cast it out, Finite Incantatem."


    Seven rings, invisible to normal humans, formed around Harry and the Mandarin. This was the ultimate spell in Antimagic Harry had made but it would have no effect against the Mandarin''s rings because they were closer to technology than Magic. However those rings were not the only magics the Mandarin wore.


    "Obscurus! Now!"


    Harry jumped off the Mandarin''s back and landed onto the Speeder which had already aligned itself for Harry to land on.


    Tony fired an extremely bright Unibeam at the Mecha Mandarin''s ?ss.


    A moment later, the rocket thrusters keeping the Mandarin in flight failed and it fell back to earth. The speakers on the suit turned on one last time as the Mandarin shouted, "Ahhhhhhhh!"


    Harry shook his head. He didn''t really feel schadenfreude and he knew that the Mandarin was not screaming because he was falling. He was screaming in pain because the Magic Amulet Harry sensed on him which had been holding back the Kin Killing Curse had been broken by Harry''s Antimagic spell.


    "A little help here?"


    The lights on Tony''s suit turned off and he started falling too. Harry flew over and caught him. Though the speakers weren''t on, Harry still heard Tony say, "Can you recharge me again? I''d rather not ride back bitch."


    Harry considered it and remembered that he hadn''t taken his girls flying yet, so if Tony was the first person to fly on a broom with Harry, they would not be pleased.


    Harry lifted Tony up and set his hand on the Arc Reactor and cast Reparo once more.


    Tony started flying under his own power again and Harry asked, "How''d you think of that?"


    "Well, since he didn''t ice up, I needed another way to bring him down. His hand was healing slowly so I figured the damaged thrusters wouldn''t fix themselves before he hit the ground.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Sword and Shield


    Reward: Loyalty of the Mandarin''s Rings]


    Harry smiled and said, "Time to get a trophy."


    Once thing Harry noticed when he time travelled during a quest was that he wouldn''t get the reward until the second playthrough.


    Harry flew down at speeds far faster than Tony''s descent and found the crater where the Mandarin landed. For some reason, it just so happened to be in the very parking lot that past Harry and Co were watching the fight from.


    The trio were slow to approach the fallen giant which seemed mostly intact. Harry actually figured that the suit was built with enough support to allow the occupant to survive such a fall, but the fall wasn''t what killed him, it was the Kin Killing Curse.


    Once Harry approached, he felt the Mandarin''s Rings. Those were artifacts the Mandarin had synched to his very life force which was why he could use them despite not being a Sorcerer. Now Harry could feel them as they had been suddenly synchronized to his life force.


    Harry jumped into the crater and met the look of Past Harry and could tell his prior self could feel it too.


    Coulson asked, "Is he dead?"


    Obscurus answered, "100% dead. You know he was in his late seventies right? Accidental falls kill the elderly all the time. Tragic really."


    Harry''s speeder flew down and he pulled a net from the thing and placed it on the ground. Without visible effort, he lifted the entire motionless mech and set it on the net before he wrapped it up and attached it to his speeder. Harry then got on the Speeder and used Telekinesis to lift the mech while his speeder rose, making it look like his frail flying bike was capable of lifting all that weight. Harry''s weak psionics couldn''t do anything to the mentally acute Mandarin while he was in the mech and the mech resisted anything he tried thanks to the active Matter Rearranger, but now that the thing was dormant, he could use Psionics on it as he pleased


    Coulson suddenly realized what Harry was doing and shouted, "Mr. Obscurus, I''d like to take that suit into custody."


    Tony arrived and Obscurus said, "I''m taking it as a hunting trophy in lieu of payment. With this, Harry doesn''t need to pay me."


    Coulson quickly added, "It was built by Stark International so it is his property."


    Tony picked up on this and said, "Yeah, if it''s a trophy, I should get my half too right?"


    Harry said, "It''s just like Gulmira Stark. How about this, let me have the whole thing and I''ll owe you a few favors and come over for a drink."


    Stark immediately replied, "Deal." He only replied for Coulson''s sake. He recognized Obscurus''s hint about Gulmira, when Tony asked Yinsen to hide his armor to prevent it from falling into the hands of others. Tony really didn''t want that suit to fall into the wrong hands and having Obscurus take it meant the Agents couldn''t ask him for it. Plus, if Obscurus owed Tony a few favors, he could just ask to examine the suit himself.


    Coulson frowned at that.


    Obscurus noticed this and asked, "What''s your name?"


    "Agent Phil Coulson," he answered.


    "Well Agent Coulson, how about this. Let this one go and I''ll agree to a meeting later. Neither this suit nor the powers within should be used by humans. I''m not being figurative either."


    The Harry of the past who had been keeping quiet until now asked, "Corruption?" Now that he was linked with the rings, he realized the problem they had.


    Obscurus nodded and said, "As bad as the One Ring. No one should wear them."


    Harry realized that these things contained Dragonkin Lifeforce meaning they had of course been forged using the lives of extremely powerful Alien Dragonkin and a lot of treasures and precious materials. Harry was fine because Immortal Dragon trumped Dragonkin, but any other human who bound them would end up wicked, cruel, and hungry for power and be unable to see other humans as anything but insects.


    Coulson gave a thoughtful look at the suit and said, "Alright."


    Obscurus nodded back and lifted the suit into the air and flew off. He knew he was being tracked via satellite, so he accelerated into the air over the Pacific and simply kept getting faster and faster. After breaking the sound barrier multiple times over, Harry turned himself and his cargo invisible and slowed to a stop. He used some telekinesis to create a pocket of air in the water and flew into the pocket and submerged it. Once below the surface, he made a portal and took the suit through it to his basement before returning to his normal form and going upstairs.


    He could immediately return and take over the place of his past self and do all those interviews with Shield. Instead, Harry sat on the couch and turned on the TV. A time Turner can go back five hours after all and he''d only woken up about three hours in the past. That meant he could let the Past Harry do all the boring stuff and replace him in an hour and a half once the boring interviews were over.


    Was he throwing his past self under the bus? Sure, but he figured he''d forgive himself for it.


    *Author''s Note*


    My original idea was to have Iron Monger and Mandarin team up against Harry and Stark, but that had a Lot of problems. I wanted Iron Man to fight the Mandarin to introduce Tony to magic, but the Mandarin would kick his ?ss and Stane wasn''t a challenge for Harry making that unappealing to write.


    Then I go and accidentally ''mostly kill'' the Mandarin because I needed them to meet beforehand but I hate the troupe of the Hero not killing the Villain when he has a chance I have this terrible habit of writing myself into a corner like that. I figure if the Mandarin wasn''t dead after that, he''d need to be on life support, but then I thought of that Goblin suit from the 2nd Spider Man 2 movie and the pieces fell together into this hodgepodge which somehow ended with me letting Harry fight using both the Professor style (which I had to make up) and Obscurus style which was unintentional because I didn''t think I''d be able to do that, though that caused its own problems I had to resolve. Still had to figure out how the curse wouldn''t kill him, but if the Mandarin knows about Wizards, he probably knows about blood magic and how to prevent it from being used if an enemy has his blood.


    And for those complaining that Mecha Mandarin didn''t have enough other weapons. Please justify it as either the Mandarin didn''t want them or the suit wasn''t finished. Even in cannon it was built in less than a week.


    Achievement Unlocked: 400,000 Words Reached.


    Bad News: My work schedule is changing for the next month so my release rate may slow down for a while.. That''s why this chapter is longer than normal, to Not have a cliffhanger when I''m not sure when the next chapter will come out.

 Chapter 78 - 78 Messing with the Script

    Chapter 78 Messing with the Script


    It had been three days since the event the media dubbed, ''The Clash of Iron'' and Harry was extremely grateful for Link''s online intervention. Videos of Harry punching the Mandarin while shining with the silhouette of a golden dragon around him had nearly gotten him tagged with the name ''Dragon Fist,'' but through the use of direct hacking and thousands of fake online profiles, Harry''s chosen identity of Obscurus was properly portrayed with the rationality it was because he was ''obscure and mysterious.'' Harry spent a lot of time afterwards properly praising Link for his good work.


    Tony did not receive the same treatment of course and was given the unimaginative title of ''Iron Man,'' while the martial arts wielding mech they faced together was unceremoniously dubbed the ''Martial Mech.''


    Harry actually didn''t have a problem with being called Dragon Fist, but he was worried they''d change it to something else when he displayed his non dragon chi related capabilities and he was moderately concerned with leaving his fate to the mercy of the internet, even if he pretty much owned it at this point.


    Somehow or another, there were over one hundred and fifty videos of the battle from various people and even more impressive, no one had died. Even the agents that the Mandarin sucker slammed into a wall were only ''grievously injured,'' not dead.


    This wasn''t entirely a coincidence as Harry had been generating a Muggle Repelling field from the moment the fight started and everyone in the area suddenly decided they had to be somewhere else when they were a certain distance from him. Of course, the field was not foolproof and the camera on the Brilliance phones that a lot of the witnesses had were quite good at long range.


    During the Shield interview that followed, Harry gave a lot of details mixed with lies about what he did and how the tech he used did it. Harry also shutdown every attempt to request a sample of said tech and had been asked at least a dozen times for a sample of the poison he used on the Mandarin. The request wasn''t surprising as the records recovered from the site of what the poison did to Khan and what Stane had to do to keep him alive were as thorough as they were terrifying.


    When Harry finally had a chance to check the man''s corpse, tech, and rings, he found a couple of things he hadn''t expected. The first was that Khan was using his Matter Rearranger Ring to solidify the poison in his blood which was then filtered out by machines built into him. That would have solved the issue for most poisons, but Basilisk Venom is magic in nature and was impossible to solve using such means. Rather than saving his life, it would be more accurate to describe it as a method to indefinitely prolong his death until they found a better method or cure.


    Because the Matter Rearranger Ring was used in such a manner, it was limited in what else he could do doing the fight which was why he only used it to fix the damage and speed himself up in short bursts at times.


    Besides the corpse, Harry learned several things about the magic rings when he played with them for the first time. The first was that they allowed for Teleportation. The Mandarin never used this against Harry in their first match and he couldn''t use it in the Mech fight because the teleportation would not bring the mech, thus using it would rip him out of his life support system. The Mech itself was also only about a fifth of the way finished which was why the only combat capabilities it had were physical attacks and the use of the rings.


    Harry returned to New York by Plane the following day since he couldn''t, visibly, stay in L.A. for so long. After scheduling a dozen or so meetings he left the west coast and returned home in time to watch Tony''s press conference on TV the following morning. Stark stood at a podium with a set of cue cards obviously given by Shield as to ''what happened'' and Stark followed the script as well as can be expected by tossing the cards and saying on live tv, "I am Iron Man."


    Harry certainly had no intention to give a repeat performance of that little reveal. In fact Harry''s involvement had been kept out of the event entirely so the Media had no idea he was anywhere near the area during the fight and was even more clueless that the Martial Mech''s main goal was to kill him first and that everyone else was simply getting in the way.


    Obscurus ''kindly'' gave Khan''s corpse to Shield shortly afterwards so they could waste their time playing with it. The Basilisk Venom was useless if removed from the body when Khan was alive or dead so no one would be able to dip their knives in Khan''s blood and poison people with Basilisk blood through second hand exposure. Magic Poisons don''t work like that.


    One thing of interest however was that Khan wore gloves under his rings making his hands look normal. When the human skin gloves were removed, it showed that Khan''s hands were scaled, a sign of the corruption of the Dragon aspect the rings had and probably one of the reasons he lived so long.


    After spending some time studying the things, Harry could only lament at the fact that the rings were ridiculously crude. Of course, these were power sources from an alien ship that a man fashioned into wearable rings decades ago, so Harry''s judgement might have been a bit harsh. In either case, the rings b?r?ly showed off a fraction of the power source''s true capabilities, but even with that, the Mandarin was able to maintain his status as a titan of his era.


    Rather than use them himself, Harry had a much better idea for what to do with the rings. He''d start on that project next month.


    As for Khan''s death, the story that the CEO of Khan Industries had died ''from an unfortunate fall'' would break later, delayed just to make sure it wasn''t obvious that the Martial Mech and Gene Khan weren''t one and the same. There would be people who easily guessed of course, but it would be less obvious to the public.


    However it was not all good news. Someone had died that day while Harry was fighting the Mandarin with Tony while protecting Pepper and Coulson. Not in L.A., but in New York. Harry found from Link about an hour after the fact that Peter Parker''s uncle, Benjamin Parker, had been killed in a mugging. Because it happened while Harry was already using the Time Turner, there was nothing he could do about it. The same Time Turner couldn''t be in three places at once so he couldn''t lend it to someone to do the job either.


    Thus Harry found himself on a dusty roof high above the glittering streets of New York. The lights from the city far outshined the cloudless sky so only the brightest stars were visible to those who took the time to look up at them.


    On this roof, sitting on the edge dangling his feet, was Peter Parker. Without preamble, Harry strode over and sat down next to his friend.


    Peter was more than a little confused when someone sat next to him and then surprised to see who it was, but neither emotion were well represented on his face as he lacked the emotional energy to properly feel them, much less display them.


    Harry got straight to the point and said, "After Jade moved in, I started teaching her magic."


    This obviously caught Peter off guard. He was unable to stop himself from asking, "Magic? Like real Magic? With spells and stuff?"


    "Yup. Turns out she''s very talented. When she found out how talented she was, she was really excited. Then I told her the trade off. In this world, the more a person is capable of carrying, the more the weight of the world will naturally fall onto their shoulders. Other than living in a cave, there is no way around this. A big rock makes a bigger splash than a small rock. The only way a big rock can avoid making waves is to not move. Otherwise, every action will have far greater consequences compared to when they were weak. This is true at all levels. From a child growing into an ?du?t, to a teen becoming a mutate and gaining superpowers."


    Peter immediately blurted out, "Wait, you know?!"


    Harry rolled his eyes and answered, "Wanda, Jean, and Rogue are all mutants and I literally invented Metaphysics from scratch. You think I wouldn''t recognize a mutate when I see one? Especially one with energy signatures like yours."


    Peter calmed down a bit after that. Wanda was on TV and outed herself as mutant and Harry''s girlfriend, so he knew that one. Rogue and Jean were both nice and them being mutants wasn''t a big deal either. Considering all the stuff Harry had done, Peter felt a little embarrassed that he thought he could hide it.


    After a few more moments of silence, Peter said, "Uncle Ben told me the same thing. With Great Power, comes great responsibility." Peter slumped down and muttered, "It''s all my fault he died."


    Harry asked, "Because you didn''t stop the dude before he did the deed or because you were in the area and didn''t save him?"


    Peter slouched down even further and after a few moments, quietly answered, "Both."


    Harry shook his head and said, "You''re not alone in this city. A lot of people were there and didn''t stop him or save your uncle either. It''s not your job to save people or stop criminals. You just feel this way because you have a lot more strength than a normal person."


    Peter got a little offensive and said with an ever increasing volume of voice, "But you said it too! My actions have greater consequences! I could have stopped him! He walked right past me after robbing a store earlier! I did nothing to stop him when I could have and then he killed my Uncle Ben! It was Me!"


    "You''re over simplifying things. The Police should have been called right after that store robbery and caught the guy. If they did, Benjamin Parker would still have been with us. Why didn''t they stop him or save your uncle? Was it because the store clerk didn''t call them? Was it because they were delayed? Was it because they decided not to come? Was it because they didn''t have the manpower? Was it just because of bad luck?"


    Harry let that sink in for a bit and stated once more, "You feel responsible because you have more strength than a normal person. If that''s the case, I''m responsible too. I''m older, richer, smarter, and more handsome than you are. With all the resources at my disposal I''m one of the most powerful people in the world. With all that power, I didn''t save your uncle. How am I not responsible?"


    Peter said, "You were on the other side of the country, how can it be your fault?"


    Harry said, "And you can''t see into the future and are not responsible for catching robbers. How can it be your fault? Look, having more strength just means you have more options. The choices you make have greater consequences because you can reach further. It''s not a nice thing to hear, but only the weak can stay ignorant and peaceful."


    Peter frowned at Harry''s response and asked, "Why are you here Harry? This isn''t exactly a great pep talk."


    Harry stayed silent for a few more moments while looking up, trying to distinguish the stars hidden behind the glare of the city lights. "I want to give you a choice Peter. Right now you don''t have one. As long as you have this power, you''ll find yourself naturally drawn into events with far reaching consequences. You''re too smart to claim ignorance on the consequences of what you do in those events, so you won''t be able to avoid taking a certain path."


    Harry turned away from the sky and looked at Peter. "Consider this the crossroads. I''ve worked with Dr. Hank McCoy and know plenty about genetics. I once offered to remove the powers of the Fantastic Four, and eventually they declined and decided to keep their powers. I''m going to make you the same offer. If you want, I can return you to how you were before. You''ll be a small rock once more. Your actions or lack of actions won''t make any great difference in the grand scheme of things so you won''t hold any responsibility for it."


    Peter remained silent for about five minutes after that. Eventually he asked with a bit of hesitation, "You wouldn''t... look down at me for giving this up?"


    Harry asked, "Would you look down on a woman who gave her kid up for adoption because she didn''t feel she could handle the responsibility?"


    "What?! Of course not!"


    Harry nodded, "Same thing. It is better to give up a responsibility if you are certain that things in general will be worse off if you have those responsibilities."


    Harry wasn''t being entirely accurate of course. If a good man gives up great responsibilities, the world would in fact be worse off for it. And someone with Peter''s intellect would be a big rock regardless.


    However Harry didn''t want to see Peter end up in a situation where he believed he had no choice but to use his strength. Harry had spent centuries watching television and knew there was only one way for that to end. With the person doing a half-assed job with the responsibilities forced upon them probably getting a lot of people killed.


    So, by giving Peter a choice, it also meant that the responsibilities were no longer forced. By giving Peter the option of giving them up, it meant Peter was actively accepting the responsibilities if he decided to keep them. Actively accepting responsibilities was an entirely different mentality compared to being forced to accept them.


    Harry had nothing against Peter''s Uncle Ben, but forcing responsibilities on those with strength is a recipe for drama and disaster.


    After a few more moments of silence, Harry said, "To change you back, I need some DNA from before whatever happened to you. I can even store some of your blood right so if you want to regain this strength later, when you''re older and ready for it, that''d be an option too."


    Harry then got up and said, "In either case, drop by when you''ve made a decision. If you decide to keep your strength, you''ll need training and Jade and the rest could use a new punching ba-, I mean sparring partner."


    Peter turned around quickly and asked, "Why are you offering this to me?"


    Without turning back Harry answered, "Because we''re friends Peter. Don''t worry about the future so much. If the sky falls, giants like me will be there to hold it up. Of course, if you want to become a giant too, I''d appreciate the help of a friend."


    With that Harry left and returned home. He already knew what Peter would choose, but there were a lot of reasons Harry wanted to give him the choice. The biggest one was that he disliked when people were forced to follow a script that forced them to suffer.


    He''d seen it before with Reed, Susan, Johnny, and Ben. He''d seen it with Stark. Events beyond their control had altered their lives and shifted them to another path. If Harry hadn''t helped, Ben would have been stuck in his rock form and Reed would have felt responsible. If he hadn''t been there for Stark, Yinsen would have been killed by weapons manufactured by Stark International.


    And now there was Peter, the teen who got powers and was being bluntly forced by a conveniently placed code of conduct to use those powers lest he feel responsible for every tragedy that occurs from his lack of action.


    Harry remembered his own script. He was tossed into a cupboard and left to explode. His death had caused the return of the Triwizard Tournament and the Tournament had caused the return of Voldemort. Had Harry not returned, Voldemort''s return would have likely caused the Magical community to go too far and get exterminated or forced into a war. Was that a part of the script?


    Harry still didn''t consider himself a hero, but he certainly didn''t mind considering himself a meddler. Meddling with the scripts he finds and ripping up the pages which force people to suffer was something he would never grow tired of.


    He''d saved Jean, Rogue, and Wanda from their own scripts. Jean wouldn''t become an unstable deity. Rogue could feel the warmth of another''s touch. And Wanda wouldn''t become Cthon''s avatar. He''d saved Logan''s daughter and that daughter''s mother. He''d saved ForgetMeNot and a lot of the X-Men from their scripts.


    There were scripts he couldn''t do anything about of course. Charles was in a way, his own worst enemy, and one day, he''d have to deal with the consequences of his choices. The best Harry could do was to get as many people out of the blast radius as possible when that occurred.


    And though Harry was able to save Yinsen, he wasn''t able to save Uncle Ben. The fate weavers who killed Harry so long ago had taken another life to move their script along. If it was a good script, he wouldn''t mind letting it play out, but if it was anything else, he''d take action. That''s what tonight had been about. Though indirectly, Harry was showing Peter the script of what his life had been written to be and asking him if he still wanted to play the part. If so, then Harry would ?ssist and do his best to edit out the shitty parts. If not, then he''d shred the script himself.


    Of course, ripping a script to shreds was not a simple thing to do from the outside. The easiest way to do so was from within. The plan''s he''d set up were coming together and soon he''d have the opening he needed. As the old saying goes, if you can''t beat them, join them.


    Peter showed up a week later asking for training and Harry took him down to the basement.


    "Alright Peter, so what happened and what can you do?"


    "Umm, I was bitten by a spider at Oscorp. I didn''t even see it until it was already biting my hand. It ran off and I felt really bad. I left and took the bus. I almost passed out but made it home and to bed. Then I woke up like, well, this," he finished gesturing at his muscles and abs.


    Harry nodded and then placed something against Peter''s arm which took some blood before Peter even noticed. "Hey! Ow."


    Harry gave a teasing grin and took the sample over to a home built analyzer and turned the thing on. It continued running for about five minutes while Harry made various adjustments to the system to get specific readouts on specific points.


    While doing so, Harry asked, "So what changes are there, besides the obvious."


    "Umm, well, I can stick to walls with my fingertips, I''m a lot stronger and faster, I can even lift up a car and if I really try, I think I can outrun one. I can react really fast too, like really fast. And I get these weird vibes when something dangerous is about to happen near me before it happens."


    "Anything else?"


    "Well, I mean, I can kinda turn invisible and shock people with a touch, like a taser."


    The machine finished displaying the results, though only in a way Harry could read. Harry said, "Well, according to these readings, you are still mutating and in less than a year, will turn into a sixteen foot tall, hairy eight armed spider monster."


    "WHAT?! OH My GOD!"


    "Just kidding."


    Peter collapsed and started breathing heavily. After a few moments he said, "don''t... Don''t Do that!"


    Harry chuckled. "Consider it punishment for being an idiot. People who think they''ve got cancer don''t wait to go to the Doctor''s office and if I hadn''t pushed you, did you have any intention of checking your condition anytime soon? I''m only half joking by the way, you won''t turn into a spider monster but from what I can see, it was a very near thing. You b?r?ly lucked out."


    Peter''s hyperventilation certainly did not improve from Harry''s admission.


    Harry let Peter calm down while going over more of the data and once Peter was back to mostly normal Harry said, "It looks like that spider somehow got a taste of Susan Storm''s blood along with a ???ktail of other things I''m not the slightest bit surprised Oscorp is playing with. These mixtures though don''t fall under the parameters of any purpose I can think of so it was probably just exposed to something by accident and surprisingly, didn''t die."


    After a few more rounds of keyboard typing, Harry said, "The wall crawling thing looks to be a supercharged version of static cling. You can stick to pretty much any solid surface, though if you got zapped with electricity it wouldn''t work for a bit and it definitely won''t work on wet surfaces. The invisibility thing looks like a weaker version of Susan Storm''s power, and the electric discharge you can emit from your fingertips comes from the same source as the static cling, but stronger. Your muscles have gained arachnid protein markers which gives you a spider''s relative strength and reflex speed, but those markers also make you vulnerable to pesticides, specifically Ethyl Chloride which is harmless against humans."


    After a few more keystrokes Harry continued, "As for the danger precognition, that doesn''t seem to come from your DNA, but something else."


    "How do you know?"


    "Because there isn''t anything in your genes which can cause precognition. If it''s not coming from you, then it''s being given to you. As for the details, I''ll need to look into it a bit more."


    Harry had a few ideas but nothing conclusive. Being bitten by a genetically altered spider should have resulted in either nothing happening, Peter getting sick and getting better, Peter dying, or Peter turning into a monster. Harry wasn''t joking when he said how near of a miss it was. Threading the needle doesn''t come close to describing it and for Peter''s sake, Harry wouldn''t tell him. But instead, Peter had acquired a mostly stable set of enhanced super human abilities while being marked with the essence of the spider.


    Harry recognized outside interference when he saw it. It was similar to how when Harry himself died, others intervened to make what should have killed him into something that remade him. Something intervened with Peter to make him into what he was and guided the outcome with the lowest possible likelihood to the surface.


    That being said, it didn''t matter too much. Peter had chosen this path willingly, so Harry wouldn''t inhibit Peter''s growth into a Spider Totem. In fact, it gave Harry a chance to study the Web of Destiny. The web connected all Multiverses together and could be used to travel from one to another. It meant that others could use this web to find their way to this world, but it also meant Harry could use it to make a roadmap to other universes.


    After getting Peter''s abilities checked, he needed to check his skill. Harry activated the Hard Light combat system and threw Peter at it. Since he could sense danger before it happened, he''d probably survive.


    Miles away, the Director of Shield felt a chill down his spine. The last week had not been pleasant for a number of reasons. Two reasons really. Harry Potter and Tony Stark.


    He tried to meet the billionaire at his home and even tried to be sneaky about it. Thanks to the investigation, Shield had access to Stark International files which included the Override codes for Stark''s home security so Fury tried to disable it and walk in, wait for Stark, and make an entrance like the badass spy he was.


    That didn''t work out. Jarvis''s security was disabled for a moment, and then re-enabled in some kind of failsafe program Fury knew wasn''t there two days ago. With that, he lost his element of surprise and Tony simply simply called him an intruder.


    Fury ignored the remark and informed Tony of the Avenger''s initiative and that he''d stay in touch. If having to deal with Stark was bad enough, the news that broke the following day would have gotten Fury fired if it weren''t for the fact that there was no one who could replace him.


    The World Class Criminal known as Magneto had taken over a small island country and had applied for U.N. membership. All the paperwork was signed, dated, and filed in its proper place. And not a single person in a single intelligence agency on the entire planet saw it coming.


    Fury had to try very hard not to destroy his own office when he saw the details of Magneto''s new nation. Every single citizen, more than ten thousand people, was an awakened Mutant, and with the exception of authorized visitors, the island was for Mutants only.


    Fury spent a total of twelve straight hours getting reamed by every member of the World Security Council for not having seen this coming.


    They had nothing. The island was insular so when the entire internet in and out of the island stopped working last week, no one noticed or cared. Heavy cloud cover last week stopped any passing satellites from seeing anything.


    Fury wouldn''t be surprised if that application had been viewed by a million lawyers at this point and even the most creative of them could only conclude that it was completely legitimate. As long as the U.N. charter was followed, there was no law preventing outsiders, or in this case, non mutant outsiders. There was nothing illegal about it because no one had ever thought to pass a law to prevent such a thing. With a change in citizenship, as long as Magneto held the status of Leader of this island, he could not be prosecuted for his past crimes and held diplomatic immunity. If he went to a country and committed terrible crimes, the best the country could do was bar him from entry.


    That however was not what ticked Fury off the most. No, it was the name of the island. He''d heard it before. Genosha.


    Fury had not been amused at Potter''s ''prank'' of bringing armed Goblins into a classroom. The footage of that class was corrupted so Agent Morse had to submit some paperwork about what happened for Fury to review. He had in fact checked to see if Genosha was real, but found it was a tiny country no one cared about and passed it off as another prank. It was always a prank.


    And apparently, that was what Potter wanted them to think.


    If that wasn''t enough, every agency wanted Potter''s tech and access to that poison he used on the Mandarin. Potter nearly ended a World Class Criminal with a small knic and were it not for the combined resources of Khan Industries and Stane''s personal accounts, Khan would have died long ago. The tech Potter used was heavily documented by Coulson and the fact that Coulson could use it meant it really was tech, not a magic trick. At least that one piece was.


    If all of that wasn''t enough, everyone wanted to find Obscurus and get that armor and those damn rings. Stane was in custody but he wasn''t exactly doing anything besides demanding a lawyer. Fury had mixed feelings about those rings. He knew that the right people could do a lot of good with tools like that, but also knew that the wrong people could do a lot of damage with them too. With Obscurus taking everything, both possibilities were off the table and it didn''t look like the demon mask wearing martial artist needed them either. Fury was told what the man said about those things being as bad as the One Ring and the pictures of the scaled hands of the Mandarin were clear evidence the man wasn''t talking out of his ?ss, but that didn''t stop everyone and their grandmother from salivating over the things.


    At this point Fury was running low on options. Coulson''s interactions proved that Potter didn''t have any problems with a direct approach, but it was also the weakest type of approach. I need you, not the other way around, and you know it. That''s what a direct approach meant.


    However Fury needed answers. He needed that tech. He needed to get in touch with Obscurus. It was time to pay the piper. It was time to meet Harry Potter.


    *Author''s Note*


    For those who had no idea where this story is really going, this chapter should answer a couple of questions about Harry''s motivations and aims.


    Sorry for not saving Uncle Ben, but there is a big difference between Tony not saving Yinsen and Ben Parker dying. Tony already has a lot of blood on his hands while Peter is an innocent.. Best I can do is make sure he doesn''t kill everyone he comes into contact with.

 Chapter 79 - 79 Declaring War on Shield

    The following Sunday Morning, Harry felt a chill, he knew something was coming. Something horrible. The knock that resounded on the front door sent a shiver up his spine.


    Bracing for anything, Harry approached the door and opened it. He was greeted by a terrible sight and knew his worst fears had come true.


    A man where a bright red and black costume with twin katanas strapped to his back was at the door. In addition to the costume was a skirt, a beret, and a ribbon covered in badges.


    "Hi! I''m selling Girl Scout cookies for Troop 69. Would you like to buy some?"


    Harry narrowed his eyes and flatly asked, "What are you doing here Deadpool?"


    "Well, besides congratulating you on your one year anniversary, I''m here to sell Cookies for a good cause!"


    Harry decided not to ask about the blatant breaking of the fourth wall and instead asked, "Got Thin Mints?"


    "I do not, but I have Caramel deLites and Shortbread."


    Harry said, "No thank you," and closed the door.


    Harry pulled up a security panel and confirmed that a few minutes ago, the cameras watching his place had been turned off. Harry doubted Deadpool did it, he simply used the opportunity to mess with him.


    Harry returned to the breakfast table where Jade had just joined him and was loading up waffles. A few moments later, the door knocked once more.


    Harry sighed and asked, "Jade, can you see who it is?"


    "Huh? Oh sure Harry." Jade got up and headed for the door and opened it without preamble.


    Jade took one look at the longcoat wearing eyepatched stranger and asked, "Do you know Captain Black?"


    She got a similar feeling from this guy as her old babysitter.


    The man at the door stated, "Captain Augustus Black works under me."


    Jade seemed to be considering it and nodded, seeing that he did seem to be the same type. She asked, "Alright, what can I do for you?"


    "I need to speak with Professor Potter."


    "Kay, give me a second." She closed the door and headed back inside.


    Still waiting at the door, Fury could only sigh at what he had to deal with. Potter''s place was impossible to break into. It had a single door and the several attempts to pick the lock when no one was home had all failed. Fury had been informed the lock was likely a decoy and the door was opened using a different system they couldn''t identify or hack.


    Not that they hadn''t tried, but every attempt to hack Potter''s personal computer either failed or brought back designs for coffee makers. Stark''s house wasn''t this hard to hack, or it didn''t used to be.


    In the back of his mind he went over the report about Jade Chan. At a young age and without apparently training she''d shown herself naturally capable of feats only matched by Shield''s best when it came to infiltration and extraction. Captain Black however Blacklisted her from the list of Shield Recruits because recruiting her would likely put strain on his partnership with the Asset Jackie Chan, someone with a track record that matched Clint Barton''s.


    The door opened once more but Jade was now wearing an expensive looking well fitted G-Man suit complete with black sunglasses and an emotionless stare. She stepped to the side and invited him into the house which Fury noticed did not look like a living room but a dark stone hallway.


    Fury entered and with every other step, a set of torches to his side would illuminate the passage further and further. After a few rounds of torches lighting up, Harry Potter became visible at the end of the hall. He was sitting in a stone car with a very familiar looking orange cat in his ??p, petting it while staring him down.


    Harry then gave his best impersonation of a James Bond Villain''s English accent and said, "Hello Director Fury."


    Rather than giving Harry any reaction, Fury pulled a small device out of his coat''s inner pocket and pushed a bu??on on it.


    The walls, torches, and Harry''s chair started buzzing as if there were a picture on a tv with a bad reception.


    Harry smiled and got up with Goose in his arm and said, "Well you''re no fun. Though you should give your tech boys a raise." Harry then snapped and the Hard-Light vanished and the living room was back to normal.


    Harry walked over to the couch and sat down with Goose again. Hard-Light was ridiculously complex and as with anything complex, had a lot of weaknesses. Fury''s toy emitted a pitch which messed with the system that determined a location''s size which messed with where the Hard-Light system tried to position the Hard-Light, causing it to get fuzzy. Harry could easily compensate for it, but then the tech guys who designed it wouldn''t get their raise.


    Harry asked, "Would you like some coffee? Normally I offer tea, but you seem like a coffee person."


    Rather than answer and give Harry the initiative, Fury took out a sleek ??ptop and opened it up to show a video. He hit play and the video started with a eleven year old Harry Potter sitting at a table drinking tea while on the other side of the picture, a group of Death Eaters was being monologued at by Voldemort.


    Fury asked, "This is you correct?"


    Harry nodded, "A home video. What of it?"


    Fury took a breath and said, "I think you''re a wizard who can''t do magic, a squib. But you can make tech that uses magic, and pass it off as Metaphysics."


    Harry shrugged, "What of it?"


    "I want to offer you a position at Shield. In return, I''ll make sure the Magical Congress of the United States of America stays off your back."


    "I''m satisfied where I am."


    "You''d be able to help a lot of people."


    "I''m already helping a lot of people."


    "Is that why you paid Obscurus to rescue Stark?"


    "No. You see that was the first time in my life an AI had asked me to do something. That had my interest piqued enough to do something."


    Fury inwardly frowned at that though he maintained his stoic expression. He asked with a bit of pressure, "Are you sure you don''t need any help with MACUSA?"


    Harry returned a light smirk at the threat and answered, "Completely."


    Three barks came from the kitchen. Fury turned and saw a floating golden Corgi with a tray in its mouth slowly hover in the air over to the table and set down a tray that had a cup of tea and a mug of coffee with ''#1 Spy'' printed on the side of the mug.


    Harry nonchalantly picked up the tea cup and took a sip before setting it down.


    Fury glared Harry down for a moment and decided to go straight for the point, "What can Shield do to get access to your Metagem Tech?"


    "Well, first you''ll need to answer a question. If I gave you a powerful weapon that granted you clear superiority over your enemies and it got stolen and used by the bad guys, what would you do? Ask me to give you something even better to counter it? Ask me to retrieve it for you? Or not inform me and keep the fact that you lost the weapon a secret while throwing lives away to recover it yourself?"


    Fury obviously didn''t like the question. The only acceptable answer was that Shield would not lose it, but he knew there was no way to guarantee that. Potter was basically pointing out that anything he gave them would eventually wind up in the hands of others who would not use it to protect others.


    Fury stated, "I agree that keeping your tech out of the hands of others is for the best, but can you protect it without help? A lot of people have been eying your company due your monopolization of the internet. If you can help me than I can help you keep the pressure off."


    Harry finished off more of his tea and said, "No thank you."


    Fury leaned back and then flatly asked, "Are you a mutant?"


    Harry didn''t twitch of course. "Any form of testing shows I''m not." Which was true, most tests take longer to run that Harry''s blood actually existed for meaning all tests were inconclusive.


    Fury asked in response, "Then why did you attend Xavier''s School?"


    "My teacher who helped me lay the foundation of Metaphysics recommended the school to me. There were a large amount of students who benefited from my research into Metaphysics."


    "Such as Wanda Maximoff?"


    "Just so."


    "Is your relationship with her why you helped her father conquer Genosha?"


    "I''ve never been to Genosha and my relationship with his daughter has nothing to do with what I heard happened there." All true. Harry used a lot of portals and invisible drones, but he never actually stepped foot on Genosha and the reason Harry gave it to Magneto was because Magneto sacrificed Asteroid M, not because of his relationship with Magneto''s daughter.


    Fury did his best not to slam his fist on the table or show his anger. He took another look at Goose and said, "I used to know a cat that looked like that."


    Harry said, "I found her in a pet store that sold strange animals when I was ten. The store owner said they got tricked into buying her because there were some strange stories about her, but the owner never saw anything strange and offered to sell her to me at a discount. I liked her and it was close to my birthday so I bought her then."


    Goose meowed and Harry looked down at her and smirked. He said, "She doesn''t like it when people pick her up and talk to her like a child. She''s a lot older than she looks, you know."


    Fury couldn''t stop his eye from visibly twitching at that. He asked, "What''s her name?"


    Harry smiled, "Goose."


    Harry was ninety-nine percent sure he heard Fury mutter under his breath, "mother flerken," which had Harry wonder where the Director of Shield had met his familiar before, but decided not to press the issue. Everyone had their own stories and even Lockheed the dragonkin had met Goose before.


    Harry asked, "Why are you so dead set on me and my tech? Johnathan Silvercloud accepts commissions and Reed Richards is always up for a challenging project. Why not go to them?"


    Fury remained silent. Shield had in fact made several requests for designs from Forge over the years but he, ironically, charged an arm and a leg for each one and the tech was always just b?r?ly at a level superior to what they already had. Reed was an option but there were a number of parties who decided Reed''s time was better spent on other projects, their projects, instead of doing anything useful for Shield.


    Deciding enough was enough, Fury said, "I won''t be able to hold back the guys with designs on your tech and your company if I have nothing to show for it. Shield itself may force the issue and it would be out of my hands."


    Harry''s smile actually widened. He said, "If Shield, or anyone really, decides to declare war on me, I will respond in kind the only way I know how."


    Fury narrowed his eye, leaned forward and asked, "And what would that be?"


    "A Prank War of course."


    Fury was unable to prevent his eyebrow from visibly twitching at that one. Was this kid serious?


    Fury states, "This isn''t a joke Potter."


    "That''s rather na?ve as from a certain point of view, everything is a joke to someone."


    Fury was getting more irritated so Harry just said, "Look, I''m not going to work for Shield since I already have a job and selling anything to Shield would do more long term damage than good. If you need something, you can hire me as a consultant. You don''t even need to pay me, I just need one thing and I''ll help if you call for something interesting."


    "And what exactly would that be."


    "I need a photo of you in an afro wig."


    Fury stood up, turned and headed for the door without a word. Potter was pushing his bu??ons but he didn''t intend to move against him for something like this.


    Fury walked a few blocks to where a van was waiting for him and opened the door. The moment he did, someone walked out, put a hand in Fury''s pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper. Fury didn''t move or stop him, this was standard protocol when dealing with possible magicals. The color of the paper showed that Fury had been in close contact with someone who had a trace amount of exotic energy, consistent with a Squib. Of course, the main purpose of the paper was that should anyone cast a spell on Fury, the paper would clearly show it.


    Harry was not aware that Fury carried such a paper on him but it would not have mattered if he did. Harry always kept his wizard Magic within him using the same technique he taught Hermione. It was second nature at this point and he only released it to use Wizard Magic when practicing while in the basement. Had Fury entered the basement, the residual magic from Harry''s practice would have drastically changed the color of the paper.


    The paper confirmed that no spell had been covertly cast on Fury which ensured he was not compromised.


    When Fury stepped onto the van, the agent then pulled something off Fury''s back with a strange look and then handed it to Fury.


    It was a piece of paper that said, ''Kick Me.''


    Fury almost growled. It was time for war.


    Several weeks later, a bill was introduced in D.C. that would heavily limit Brilliance Incorporated. A lot of companies had been trying to hold Harry''s company down, but until this point they had not been able to move. But now, not only did the government stop holding them back, they started helping them.


    The following day, the bill failed with nearly every single congressman voting against it.


    When asked why, every one had apparently been inundated and completely overwhelmed with calls, texts, and emails demanding them not to vote for it.


    Apparently, every Brilliance Inc subscriber had been sent a message about the bill informing them what the bill did and that if it was passed, their monthly service charge would increase. Every subscriber was given a way to contact their local congressman and make their opinion about the matter known.


    Had any congressman voted yes, they knew they would never win re-election, so they had no choice despite what they had promised to do beforehand.


    This completely shocked everyone involved. There was no law against a service provider informing customers of something that was true. But such a tactic was usually used by companies to get customers to leave their competitors.


    This was the first time a cell phone company used this means to control the vote of the government.


    Fury was not pleased when he saw the report. Despite what others wanted them to think, the power of governments were given to them by the people, and if Brilliance Inc could turn the people against the ones in power, those elected officials would not be able to make a move against Harry Potter unless he did something the public could be convinced was bad enough to allow such sanctions.


    Fury was currently on the Helicarrier which had only launched the prior week. It was the most advanced command center in the world and in times of crisis, could head over to wherever it was needed to directly enforce order and quell chaos. Had the Helicarrier been operational during the Mole Man Crisis, they would have had a lot more options than waiting for a bunch of super powered individuals to make them look completely useless.


    "Umm, Director Fury? You''re going to need to come and see this."


    One of the men at a computer station in the main deck of the Helicarrier nervously pointed at the security monitor.


    A more ?ssertive tech looked over and saw the feed. He then pushed the new guy away, took control of the console, and directed the image of the security feed to the main screen.


    On the feed were two distinct figures. One was covered in sleek black armor with a black helmet and familiar black faceplate. The other was dressed in loose brown robes. The pair each had what were clearly lightsabers, one purple and one red, and were fighting each other in what appeared to be the mess hall of the Helicarrier.


    The tech zoomed into the combating figures on the screen and a number of heads turned as the one with the purple lightsaber had an eyepatch and clearly looked exactly like Fury who was standing in the room with them.


    Suddenly the sound turned on.


    The eyepatched robed fighter shouted, "Curse you Black Vader! You killed my Father!"


    The dark armored foe answered back in a raspy but highly familiar voice, "No Fury. I am your father!"


    The purple lightsaber wielding knight paused for a moment and shouted, "What?!" Then he leapt forward and screamed, "You Mother Fucker! You Said You Were Going Out For A Pack of Cigarettes!"


    The purple saber clashed violently with more and more force against the red lightsaber as the Fury on the screen shouted, "You''re Not Dead!? You Never Came Back and You''re Not Dead!? You Bastard! Just Die! Die You Son of a Bitch!"


    Everyone on the Command deck had done about a dozen double takes between the screen and the Director of Shield standing in front of them. The voice was the same, the shape and form were the same, and the way he shouted was the same.


    The screen flashed and then returned to a normal looking Mess Hall just as the Agents on their way entered and confirmed everything looked normal.


    Fury said, "Get me Widow and Hawkeye."


    Another two weeks later, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton were standing before Fury with a report and Fury was not amused.


    The few times they tried to tail Harry Potter or his girls, the intel they got was completely useless. Barton tried to break into the house of a member of the Board of Directors of Brilliance Inc and Natasha tried to seduce another one into giving him some insider details she could use, but Barton found nothing that made it look like the member even had anything to do with Brilliance Inc and Natasha seemed to think that the guy she was ?ssigned to had no idea how the company actually worked because she got nothing from him.


    During those two weeks, the camera feed to various Shield Sites had been hacked on nearly a daily basis. Usually the camera showed that the Helicarrier or a secure site was being invaded or ?ssaulted by Storm Troopers. There was no protocol for hacking like this so they had to treat each incident like a real incursion which cost Shield a very large amount of money each time it occurred.


    Natasha asked while doing her best to hide her amusement, "Will that be all Director?"


    At that moment, the computer monitors on the command deck, even the ones not on cameras, suddenly pulled up a camera feed of a dark room with a woman in a leather dominatrix outfit and a man in only shorts tied to a large X. The woman in the shiny leather bore an identical resemblance to Natasha and the man bound to the X looked exactly like Barton, though he didn''t have the scars Barton had.


    The Natasha on the video feed used a small lashing whip and struck the bound Clint and said, "What do we say?"


    He murmured something and she struck him again, and repeated, "What do we say?"


    The Clint on the video said, "more."


    Natasha struck him again and Clint ?r??n?d, "More!"


    The shameless redheaded ?ssassin in the command center gave the video an appreciative look before slowly turning to give a teasing glance at Clint who had already looked away from the monitor with a bit of a blush.


    The video feed then cut to an image of the Whitehouse which was then shot from above by an energy weapon which caused it to explode.


    The change caught everyone off guard and a few people screamed. Fury said, "Quiet! That''s just a scene from Independence Day."


    The next day, Fury met with the Liaison between the U.S. Government and MACUSA.


    "Potter is one of you and he''s displaying Magic to everyone and their fu?k?n? cats! What are you doing about it?"


    The robbed man sneered and said, "No Magic has been detected from Harry Potter since his arrival in the states. He does not own a wand, dropped out of school before the end of his first year, and is registered as a squib. Do not waste our time with No-Maj problems."


    That was all Fury could get out of him.


    The following day, the Helicarrier was, somehow, filled with chickens. If that wasn''t bad enough, over half of the Shield Agents on long term undercover missions received a fruit basket that contained produce from the region they grew up in.


    No one knew how the chickens got on board. No one knew how the breach occurred that allowed someone to find the Shield Agents who were undercover and where they grew up.


    When a policy was issued that told people to ignore the Storm Troopers on the security feeds, the hacked feeds changed to fiddling Xenomorphs from the Alien Movie Franchise. As in they were walking through the halls with actual fiddles and playing the Devil Went Down to Georgia with remarkable skill. Sometimes they would be followed by a line of chickens.


    It was a week after that which had the craziest incident. Hawkeye and Black Widow were ?ssigned to lead Strike Team Delta to rescue an ?sset held by a crime syndicate in Budapest, Hungary. The syndicate had obtained outside ?ssistance far greater than the details of the operation suggested they could and the team was nearly wiped out while being outnumbered twenty to one.


    The only plans they had to get themselves out of there alive involved actions which would get innocent civilians harmed but they were running out of options.


    Then the chickens came. Over three hundred chickens flew in or simply ran into the fight and started viciously pecking at and scratching the enemy forces.


    Barton and Widow used the chance to lead the injured members of Strike Team Delta and the ?sset out of harm''s way while the chickens completely ignored them.


    It was the very next day that Agent Coulson was knocking at Harry Potter''s door.


    Harry opened up and said, "Hello Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division."


    Coulson smiled and handed Harry a photograph.


    Harry took it with a smile. It was a picture of a scowling Fury wearing a large black afro wig.


    Coulson said, "Good evening Professor. I''ve been instructed to ask you not to make or distribute any copies."


    Harry nodded and said, "Understood. Would you like your copy in wallet size, photo sized, or a poster sized?"


    "Poster sized please."


    Harry nodded and invited Coulson in for tea.


    Coulson asked, "What fields would you say you are best at when it comes to working as a consultant?"


    "A lot of them to be honest. Tech, History, and the Occult could be said to be my specialties. But I also learned Chemistry, Biology and Genetics from Dr. Hank McCoy and I''m not weaker in that area than Professor Sterns or Professor Connors of NYU are."


    "Is there anything you''re not an expert in?"


    "Probably. English Literature, Art, Nursing, Children, and a few other things. So I''m not a babysitter."


    "Can I ask how you hacked the video feeds?"


    Harry considered it and went over to a computer, typed a few things out, and got out a disk.


    He handed it to Coulson and said, "Holograms over small, silent drones which made them pretty much invisible and undetectable. The drones broke in and allowed for remote hacking. You can have this program for your troubles. It makes indivisible things easier to see on a security monitor so if anyone tries to use hologram generating invisible drones to prank Shield in the future, this will let you match them."


    Coulson seemed visibly relieved at the offer and took the disk gratefully.


    "What about the chickens?"


    Harry smiled, "What chickens?"


    Coulson chuckled at that. If nothing else, working with the Professor wouldn''t be boring.


    *Author''s Note.*


    I released this story on Fanfiction exactly one year ago, so this chapter had a lot of fun stuff I''d been saving all that time. Next comes the filler until Iron Man 2. Don''t ask me to help Stark make Badassium earlier. For those who don''t know, the tesseract was basically Dormant when Shield got it out of Goose. They asked Stark to use his Badassium to ''wake it up'' and they started using it for unlimited energy after that.. In other words, it was the Badassium Stark created in Iron Man 2 that caused the invasion in Avengers, so nope, will not be making it early.

 Chapter 80 - 80 Harry Potter, Space Wizard

    Within the 17th floor of a building on the alien world of Xandar, Harry sat in a chair waiting for the woman at the counter to finish entering the forms he finished filling out into a terminal pad. In his ??p was Goose the Flerken who had a new collar.


    When Harry decided to take Goose on a walk through Xandar, he discovered a small problem which he hadn''t expected. Apparently Flerkens really do look like orange cats and a number of people recognized Goose for a Flerken on sight. Of course, not everyone used eyes and visible light to see. Some aliens and species could tell Goose was a Flerken on sight even if Goose was surrounded by normal orange tabby cats.


    Harry had to break out the old Memory Charm to prevent mass panic as the universal form of recognition when most species met a Flerken was to scream like a little girl.


    Goose was nonplussed about the whole thing as if she was completely used to it. Harry made a collar that had a dozen or so spells imbued that either hide the visible signs or caused people to ignore the fact that she was a Flerken.


    Harry was, for the first time, able to find out what a Flerken was from some of those people. Flerkens were considered Eldritch monsters with an internal pocket dimension that were capable of mass, indiscriminate slaughter which came in small, furry packages.


    Harry chuckled at that. On Earth the species, besides humans, who participated in indiscriminate slaughter more than any other was none other than the house cat. No other species killed for amusement like the house cat.


    Flerkens were also quite rare and could apparently teleport. Harry had never seen Goose teleport but he''d guessed she was capable of doing so since that time she appeared at the graveyard and ate Voldemort.


    At the desk, a woman who looked remarkably similar to human said, "Alright Mr. Potter, your Identity has been successfully entered. Please confirm the details and sign here."


    Harry walked over and confirmed on the computer screen the details were right. Harry was applying for an ID and the only thing missing was Planet of Origin. If Harry made enemies in space, he didn''t want them to look for him on Earth. Thankfully planet of origin wasn''t really a necessity. Some people were born on ships after all.


    This had been a very busy week for him since his Prank War with Shield ended with Fury waving the Afro Flag. Harry arranged for a meeting with Coulson and ''Obscurus'' where Obscurus listened to Coulson''s sales pitch and politely rejected it.


    During the meeting, Coulson asked, "Is there something you don''t like about Shield?"


    In the American accent Harry used for Obscurus, Harry answered, "Just spy agencies in general. Tell me, hypothetically. If there was a foreign Spy group in another country, would Shield send someone to infiltrate it?"


    Coulson hesitated for a moment before he answered, "Hypothetically? I imagine so."


    "And, hypothetically, this agent who infiltrated the group. In order to gain a higher position in order to gain more valuable intel, they would probably give up specific accurate tidbits of information. Basically giving information Shield has to this group in exchange for information the group has that Shield does not."


    "Hypothetically, yes, that''s how I imagine it would work."


    "So, if that is true for other spy groups, then it is certainly true for Shield. Anything I tell another spy group will likely end up in Shield''s hands, and anything I tell Shield will likely end up in the hands of others. When you remove all the pointless details, that''s all spy agencies really are, hubs for the exchange of secret information."


    "So you don''t want to work with Shield because that would give your information to others?"


    "There are other reasons but that one is probably the most important."


    "How do you know I''m not a spy from another country?"


    "Potter protected you right? I trust his judgement."


    After that meeting Harry had to take a plane to California and meet with Stark about the cooperation between companies.


    First thing Stark asked of course was, "So where''s Demon Dude and when do I get to meet him?"


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Obscurus is my bodyguard in the same way Ironman is your bodyguard."


    The genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist did three double takes at that before he put together, "But I am Ironman. And you were with Pepper."


    Harry tapped on the watch he wore three times and a hard-light hologram appeared over him matching that of Obscurus''s form. He said in Obscurus''s voice, "Ever hear of life model decoys? Useful to prevent ?ssassination attempts and to prank billionaires with ice cream trucks and fudge bars."


    Tony shook and shouted, "What! That was?! That was genius! You have to show me!"


    Tony had suddenly turned into a five year old at Christmas time and Harry could only turn off the hologram and chuckle.


    Tony regained clarity for a moment and asked, "But wait, why tell me your identity?"


    "Because if I didn''t, you''d waste resources trying to find out. If you found out yourself, you''d probably tell others because you''d feel you earned the secret yourself. If I tell you though, you won''t tell others because that would betray the trust I''m giving you in telling you the secret."


    Tony frowned for a moment before his eyebrows rose in minor astonishment at the fact that Harry apparently had his personality pegged.


    "Alright, show me how these metagems work. I want to see if I can upgrade my armor."


    Harry nodded and spent the day showing him the metaphysics behind a few of them and explained how they''d react to muons. None of them could be used to power up the suit, but they could give a few upgrades to the existing systems and grant him a number of neat tricks. Later, Pepper came over and Harry went over the details of what the companies could do together with her. It seemed she was pretty much the CEO in everything but name already.


    For the Xandarian Bank, the only trouble Harry encountered was the scanner at the entrance Harry had to use a bit of technopathy to disable, otherwise it would have recognized Goose for what she was.


    Harry''s ability to manipulate alien technology with technopathy at the moment was limited to turning off and on scanning and monitoring devices. Manipulating and reading off data from computers was not an option yet though he could crash a system if needed.


    Currently the forms of Alien technology Harry had studied were Makluan from the Mandarin, Time Lord and Sonic from the Doctor, and a tiny bit of Celestial from Mr. Sinister which he apparently got from Apocalypse. Surprisingly or not, nothing he learned from any of it was of any use understanding the tech of Xandar which seemed both advanced and primitive which was a confusing combination he needed to get his hands into first.


    The fact that Harry''s ID was brand new did raise a few flags at the bank, but bars of pure gold were a magic of their own and any issues the bank had were squashed then and there. Gold was commonly hoarded so there was always a need for the pure metal and the unmarked ingots Harry deposited were 100% pure thanks to the alchemic magic of the Philosopher''s stone.


    After getting an ID and a bank account, Harry needed a taxi, or the equivalent of one, to take him off the planet. Sure, there were some decent things he could buy on Xandar, but he didn''t want to waste his time wadding through the kiddy pool. Xandar was not a place you could buy guns or combat capable space crafts because it was just too damn peaceful and there were a lot of laws that came with living here.


    According to the info he lifted off a few seedy characters, the best place to head to was called the Hub. It was basically a space station built for and by ridiculously seedy individuals. Unfortunately, there was no bus from the peaceful and law-aligned Xandar to the dangerous and seedy Hub, so Harry had to find some characters to give him a ride.


    That was how Harry ended up walking into a bar that happened to be the main hangout of the local crime syndicate in the area. The Ravagers were the collective group of thieves and criminals throughout this and several other Galaxies. Each clan was separate, but all followed the same, vague code of honor. This particular band was generally known for smuggling so they were the best ''Taxi'' service around.


    Harry scanned the surface thoughts of a couple of individuals who looked mostly normal. Psionics are a Universal form of communication so even if they thought in a different language, a slightly deeper reading would allow him to get the gist of it. No one spared a second glance at Goose.


    Well, almost no one. A young man who looked remarkably human walked up to Harry and asked, "Hey, is that a cat or a Flerken?"


    Harry raised an eyebrow and smirked, "You''ve seen a cat before?"


    "Well, yeah, they were everywhere on Terra."


    Terra was the somewhat accepted name for Earth since the planet couldn''t be named after the word for dirt. Harry wasn''t sure why they didn''t just name it Midgard since that''s what Asgard called it and the planet was under their banner.


    Harry asked, "Wait, you''ve been to Terra?"


    The man laughed, "I was born on Terra."


    Harry smiled and said, "Then let me buy you a drink. My name''s Harry Potter."


    "Peter Quill."


    The spells Harry put on Goose''s collar would not prevent people from recognizing her as a cat, simply because he didn''t think anyone knew that Flerkens apparently looked like cats. And if someone knew that Flerkens looked like cats, they could guess that an orange cat might be a Flerken even under the effect of the spell.


    It wasn''t something Harry had been expecting, though he couldn''t be blamed for that because he wasn''t even in the Milky Way and certainly had not expected to find a human, or as they were called, Terran.


    After paying for the drinks, Harry said, "I actually picked up Goose here on Terra a few years ago. How''d you end up here from Terra?"


    "Got kidnapped by the Ravagers."


    "Wait, I thought the Ravagers didn''t traffic kids. It''s against their code right?"


    "Well I wasn''t sold or anything. They kinda just raised me."


    "I see. Do you want to go back? It''ll take a while, but I could probably figure out how to get you there."


    "Thanks but no thanks. My mom... Well, she died of cancer right before I was taken. I don''t have anything to go back for. Besides, they''re not that bad."


    "I see. Well, probably for the best. Terra is really dangerous now-a-days."


    "Really? Why?"


    Harry sighed and shook his head. "From what I understand, some crazy scientist caused all the animals to evolve into hyper intelligent humanoids. They outnumbered and outgunned the humans and took over. Now humans are at the lowest tier of the social cast, just b?r?ly above slaves."


    "What?! That''s Crazy!"


    Peter looked outraged for a moment before he noticed Harry''s smirk. Peter''s eyes narrowed and he declared, "You''re an ?sshole."


    Harry burst out laughing at the accurate observation and said, "Well, in any case can I talk business with you? How much to take me and some cargo to the Hub?"


    Peter rolled his eyes at the change of subject and asked, "What''s the cargo?"


    "Large metal crate, three hundred kilograms. I need to take it to someone at the Hub."


    Peter considered it and asked, "How much?"


    "Five thousand credits. One thousand now. The rest once we get to the Hub."


    Peter nodded and said, "I''ll get Yondu."


    A credit or Unit as it was often called was worth a decent chunk more than an American Dollar or a British Pound. Ten thousand or so credits could get you a dinky ship that was probably stolen off a dead guy. For a Taxi service to the well known Hub without needing to go through any dangerous territories, it was easy money.


    Of course, Harry fully expected to get ripped off.


    A blue skinned man walked over to Harry''s table and asked, "You here for business?"


    Harry nodded, "I need to get a box to the Hub. One thousand now. Four more on delivery."


    The blue skin man smiled, "Where''s it being delivered and how fast would we get the rest?"


    "Any port on the Hub will do. I''ll take care of matters once we arrive. As soon as the crate is on the Hub, I''ll pay you the rest."


    Yondu held out his hand and said, "Well I think we''ve got ourselves a deal."


    Harry took it and gave it a firm shake.


    The crate itself was something Harry used transmutation to create and Harry had it delivered to the hangar Yondu''s ship was in. The reason that more than two dozen other members of the Ravagers were coming along was because ''they also had business at the Hub.''


    After lift off, Harry was tempted to ask for a tour as this was his first spaceship flight, but he didn''t want to look like a rubbernecking hillbilly. Once he found the ship of someone who wasn''t a part of a galaxy spanning crime syndicate, he''d consider breaking pretenses and having a look around.


    Since he had time to kill, Harry went over the most recent stacks of paperwork the Goblins sent him which had been stored in his inventory. It wasn''t long ago that some of the Goblins found a rather interesting loophole when it came to magical and mundane law about Goblins. To put it bluntly, the laws that forbid Goblins from working with Magicals or Mundanes outside of most circumstances did not apply to Genosha.


    The island nation was composed entirely of mutants who, through a technicality, could be classified as neither magical nor mundane. The law did not prevent Goblins from working with a country that did not have magical or mundane occupants since such a place should have no one to work with.


    After this discovery, dozens and dozens of applications had been submitted to create an unholy union between Goblin and Mutant kind.


    Harry had no problem signing most of it as long as it didn''t allow the Goblins to harm the people of Genosha. Many of these papers would also require Erik''s signature using his real name, Magnus. Harry could tell Erik that signing such a contract and breaking it would have terrible consequences for him, but he wouldn''t. After giving Erik Genosha, Harry no longer owed anything to Erik and the pair really weren''t friends.


    Some of the projects were rather interesting. Farms contained in collapsible spaces. The purchasing of materials some mutants were capable of creating. There was even a Goblin Magic Research team that requested access to the mutants to advance their knowledge. Goblins had purchased Harry''s Metaphysics textbooks as well of course and could use it better than anyone but Harry because they were the only species with access to Metagems.


    Harry approved the Research Group but placed a number of restrictions to protect the mutants who agreed to ?ssist. He also wrote up a few suggestions for projects he thought of such as Space Farms. A number of mutants could teleport or create portals so if distance was not an issue, Space Farms would become a ridiculously profitable venture.


    As for the actual setup, Goblins would form companies on Genosha the same way they did with Harry and Genosha would buy the materials and sell the products.


    The only problem Harry could see was that Goblins may end up hoarding the planet''s wealth for themselves so Harry would have to make more things Goblins would be interested in buying to ensure they spent the money they made rather than hoarding it all. As for the unspeakable horrors Harry''s signature would unleash upon the world, Harry truly didn''t care.


    Besides going over the documents, Harry also spent the ride looking over the info of the Ravagers. The big thing going on in the Galaxy right now was the Kree-Nova War which had gone on for nearly a thousand years. That was both good and bad for Harry. Good because the weapons and combat capable ships up for sale would be better than decent at the moment. Bad because they would also be either really expensive or sold out. War really did a number on supply and demand, especially long wars.


    Harry''s wishlist for this trip included a Combat capable ship, an ?ssortment of advanced weaponry, a detailed star map, a powerful interstellar communications system, and a sample of a large variety of spices. Though most space food would not be tasty for humans, nonpoisonous spices could be used to increase Harry''s cooking repertoire and increase his Craft skill to a better degree with each meal.


    From what Harry could tell though, he''d have a few problems. Space travel in the Andromeda Galaxy was not what Harry was hoping for. Around a majority of inhabited planets was a couple of Space Gates. Space Gates connected through another dimension where distance was far shorter to another Space Gate, basically a shortcut through space. Most if not all trips were basically just hoping from one Space Gate to another. The Ravagers'' ship seemed capable of interstellar flight without a Space Gate, but Harry doubted he''d get a chance to see it in action.


    That meant even if Harry purchased a ship, it might not have anything useful for traveling through the Milky Way. Harry didn''t really need to travel the Milky Way, but he still wanted an engine that would give him the option of doing so.


    The other problem was that interstellar communication seemed to just be connecting to the nearest Space Gate and using it as a telephone to the Space Gate of the planet you were calling.


    This meant Harry couldn''t use a ship''s communication platform to jury-rig an intergalactic communicator to give to Jean.


    The jump from Xandar to the Hub required about twelve Space Gates and passing through them was a bit weird, but far more comfortable than Apparition. Harry wasn''t able to get the 6-Dimensional coordinates of the planets near where those Space Gates were set up because the time between jumps wasn''t long enough and he was being watched, so he couldn''t portal there later, but Harry already had his own plans for that.


    Originally he intended to fill the metal crate with rats, p?rno mags, fireworks, or manure, but after seeing Peter here, Harry changed his mind and had another idea. It required making a portal to Earth and a Time Turner to set up, but it would be worth it.


    Twelve jumps didn''t take very long and soon the massive space station known as the Hub was in sight from the ship''s window.


    After docking at the station, Yondu walked Harry through the gate to the station and said, "This is where we part."


    Harry feigned ignorance and asked, "Where will you be unloading the crate?"


    Yondu smiled and said, "We''re keeping it. So you can keep your four thousand credits. Pleasure doing business with you Mr. Potter."


    Harry pretended to frown as if upset and then turned and stormed off to hide his smile. The deal was 4000 credits more once the crate was delivered to the Hub. Didn''t that mean if they didn''t want the money, they could keep the crate? It went against the spirit of the agreement, but not the letter. If they could get 5000 credits for delivering the crate, didn''t that mean the contents were worth more than 5000 credits?


    Of course, Harry implied that whoever was going to take it off his hands was at the Hub, meaning they couldn''t sell it to someone else unless they took him to the Hub first. A thousand credits to get Harry safely to the hub wasn''t that bad of a deal all things considering. He even left them with a gift.


    After walking a short distance away from Yondu, Harry turned invisible and apparated back into the ship. The group excitedly gathered around the crate and using some fancy looking space crow bars they ripped the front panel off.


    When the group looked inside, everyone had a look of confusion except for Peter. Peter looked like a kid on Christmas as he walked up to the Classic Arcade Machine and pressed the Start bu??on which brought the machine to life. Within were the classic titles of Mortal Kombat, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Tetris, Pong, Tron, Frogger, Galaga, and Centipede.


    Peter then called over Yondu and showed him how it worked.


    Harry smiled. The machine''s battery would last a few decades and included a tracking device that would mark the 6-Dimensional coordinates of any planet the Ravagers visited. Harry would leave a black box on Xandar which the tracker would communicate with via the Astral Plane. The coordinates would not be sent in real time and would have a delay of a few hours to a few days depending on distance, but as long as Harry got the coordinates eventually, the time it took to get them wasn''t relevant.


    They probably could still sell it, but Harry doubted it. Harry placed a number of compulsions on the thing which would make them want to keep it and set it somewhere in the ship, but the compulsions weren''t very strong though so they wouldn''t affect the ship or the Arcade Machine itself.


    Harry couldn''t be certain if the compulsion was working or if they were genuinely interested in the Arcade Machine, but once it was obvious they weren''t going to toss it, Harry apparated back into the Hub and started exploring.


    Harry didn''t look like he was carrying anything but his shirt, pants, and shoes so even though he walked by a number of disreputable looking aliens, he was ignored. Harry tried a few spells and concluded the Space Station''s tech was not as flimsy as Earth tech so nothing would explode if he cast a Wizard spell. Once he determined that, he cast a Notice-Me-Not on himself that would make people ''looking for someone who doesn''t belong'' to not notice that he ''didn''t belong.'' Of course, if someone was looking for someone to pick a fight with, they''d still be able to pick Harry out of a crowd, but Harry wasn''t stopped when he passed through areas guarded by tough looking alien bouncers.


    The Hub itself had a dozen or so levels, each larger than an apartment complex on Earth. The top couple of levels were where high end mob bosses set up shop and the middle levels were where things were bought and sold. The higher the level, the better the stuff looked. Not that much of it was actually better, it just looked better. The lower levels were a nice place to ''disappear'' for idiots who tried buying or selling things without knowing what they were doing. Harry decided he might stop by later.


    Harry found that although a number of locations sold weapons, most of them were worse than things he''d seen on Earth. Pretty much the stuff that was so bad, even the Xandarian military wouldn''t buy them, which of course was likely they ended up here in the first place.


    After a few hours of walking around, Harry found the equivalent of a space caf¨¦ where he ordered something that looked decent and found a table near a window. Well, ''convinced a person at a table near a window they were finished at the moment Harry happened to arrive.'' He really missed being able to use magic.


    "I am Groot."


    Harry turned to see a walking humanoid tree talking to a walking raccoon. Though his words were clear, Harry felt the meaning was closer to, ''I want to sit at the window.''


    There were a few empty seats at the table Harry chose and he gestured to them and said, "Feel free."


    Harry did his best not to rudely perform a double take at the walking raccoon who took another seat and said, "Well, that''s mighty neighborly of you."


    Harry smiled and asked, "So what''s a gentleman of your bearing doing at the Hub?"


    The raccoon laughed, "Oh that''s a good one. You''re not a cop are you? Cause it''s a rule that if you are a cop and someone asks you, you can''t lie."


    Harry said, "Nope. Not a cop."


    "Alright not a cop, why you being so nosey?"


    Harry shrugged. "First time at the hub. I want to know what''s there to do there and where can I get some weapons and tech."


    The raccoon chuckled and replied, "You don''t look like a first timer. They get real jittery. And good luck getting any weapons that won''t blow your hand off on these levels."


    Harry couldn''t help but smile at what the raccoon was implying. "Then you wouldn''t happen to know any place I could find some would you?"


    "Hehe. Depends what you''re looking for and on how far you''re willing to go."


    Harry held out a hand and said, "Harry Potter, p???sur? to meet you."


    "Heh, name''s Rocket."


    "I am Groot."


    Harry held up Goose and drew their attention to her by saying, "And this is Goose."


    Rocket immediately shouted, "Holy Shit! Kill it with Fire!"


    Harry laughed. For some reason he liked these guys.


    *Author''s note*


    Sorry for the delay. My Plot map of what to write ended at the Prank war so I needed to figure out what to write next. The problem is that from, now until Iron Man 2 will basically be filler and filler can be boring to read. I didn''t want to write something that would be boring so I needed to figure out what I was going to do. Decided to go in the direction of Wizard in Space, going back to his roots and using proper spells and going on adventures. Also decided Goose will be with him for much of his adventures in space because no one can skip any chapter with Goose, she''s just that awesome.


    If anyone has any ideas (besides meeting Ms. Danvers) about what to do in space, I''m all ears. Thankfully the Nova-Kree War has four years left in the timeline(unless Harry ends it himself) so throwing him in that is doable, but I have no idea what he would actually do in the war. Smuggling might work, but that would be boring. Seriously though, any ideas.. I have no ideas where to throw a Wizard into a 1000 year interstellar space war and No idea means a longer period between chapters.

 Chapter 81 - 81 Its time for a Heist.

    Harry had already cast a discreet silencing charm around the area once he started speaking with the bipedal racoon so he wasn''t concerned with the outburst.


    Goose simply stared him down like he was an idiot as Rocket shouted, "That''s a Flerken!"


    Harry nodded and continued, "Yes, what''s your point?"


    "They''re Monsters! Horrible Abominations!"


    "I''m still not seeing your point."


    "They''re bloodthirsty killers!"


    "Are you going to get to your point anytime soon?"


    The tree said with a bit of concern, "I am Groot" which Harry took as the warning, ''They eat a lot.''


    Harry replied, "Goose is a picky eater and I''m a damn good cook, so she won''t eat anything off the menu unless provoked."


    This seemed to placate the tree who reached over with a hand and said in a questioning tone, "I am Groot?"


    Harry glanced at Goose who wasn''t reacting negatively to the tree reaching out and answered, "Sure."


    Rocket shouted back at the walking tree, "Noo! You can''t touch it!"


    Groot ignored the warning and was already petting Goose who started purring.


    The tree said with some satisfaction, "I am Groot."


    Rocket gripped his head and struggled not to pull his fur out in frustration.


    Harry changed the subject by asking, "So what''s the target?"


    Rocket''s gaze remained locked on Goose for a few moments longer before he released a sigh of defeat and said, "Fine. Look, once a week a shipment of the best of the Hub''s toys are taken by transport to the frontlines. This week''s shipment just so happens to be today meaning a nice stash of primo weapons and other goodies are about to be loaded on an easily hijackable ship."


    Harry smirked and continued, "But even if the ship is ''easily hijackable,'' the guards would not be so easy to deal with so you need a distraction to get as much security as possible away from the ship after it has been loaded with goodies so you can sneak in and take it for yourself."


    "Heh, that''s right. Of course, it would have to be one hell of a distraction for it to work. Think-"


    Harry interrupted, "Not a problem."


    "Wait, really?"


    "I am Groot?"


    "Oh yeah. Ability is not an issue, only knowledge, I really am quite new to this galaxy. I don''t know how the weapons or ships of this galaxy work and this is my first stop to find examples of them to procure."


    Rocket rubbed his chin in contemplation for a moment and said, "Is that right? So you don''t actually need a cut of the haul, you just want to know how all the goodies work?"


    Harry nodded, "Exactly. The ship too. Is it safe to ?ssume the transport ship won''t be some dingy little shit pot?"


    Rocket smiled, "Got that right. Armored, shielded, capable of star travel, and very heavily armed."


    "And just to make sure, we''re not stealing from kindly little old ladies right?"


    "Nope, scum of the Galaxy. These shipments go directly to the fanatic Kree on the other side of the war. They aren''t the types who use weapons to help people but are definitely the type I enjoy screwing over the most."


    "It sounds like you know your stuff."


    "That I do."


    "In that case, I have a proposition for you. I help you with this score, and in return, you show me how everything works. I''m a very quick study, so a single lesson on each piece is all I ask for. I''ll even buy everything you don''t need using gold or credits."


    Rocket considered it for a moment and turned to the tree, "Hmm. What do you think?"


    Groot unsurprisingly said, "I am Groot," but the tone was quite positive, implying he felt it was okay to work with Harry.


    Rocket nodded and turned back to Harry. "Heh, you know what? You''re on. The ship is currently in the hangar in the Upper Docks. I got a way for me and Groot to get into those docks, get into the ship, and fly it out, but like you said, the less people there, the better."


    Harry nodded and asked, "When will the ship be loaded with the goodies and when do you need the dock empty?"


    "The ship will be loaded about twenty minutes before it launches in about three hours. That gonna be enough time for you to do your thing?"


    "Three hours? And here I thought this would be hard. No problem. Just give me the exact time you''ll be entering the dock and I''ll make sure the coast is clear."


    "Alright. I''ll plant a little present in the data center to make sure any footage of you in the docks doesn''t get saved, but don''t let anyone see your face unless you want a lifetime ban from the Hub."


    "Again, not a problem."


    "Heh, we''ll see if you''re all talk or not. Come on Groot, we''ve got a heist to pull. And Stop Petting the Flerken!"


    Groot frowned and seemed to sigh and said, "I am Groot," to Goose as he got up and left.


    Harry turned to Goose with amusement and said, "You don''t usually let others pet you."


    Goose conveyed back through their link, ''Flora Colossi from Taluhnia don''t count.''


    Harry shrugged at that. He had of course never met another Flerken aside from Goose, so he didn''t know if all Flerkens were this smart, if it was just Goose, or if Goose became smarter after becoming his familiar.


    It didn''t take long for Harry to find an empty corner and ward it against people who could bother him. Harry sat down and Goose acted as his bodyguard as Harry left his body for the Astral Plane to scout the area. Length and distance in the Astral Plane rarely matched the physical plane, but the basic details were enough to use for scouting purposes such as where guards were located and what was on the other side of locked doors.


    Once Harry confirmed the b?r? details of the Upper Hangar, he returned to his body and removed the ward. Harry then picked up Goose, made the pair of them invisible, and walked up the access ways to the Hangar. Since he didn''t know its exact position relative to himself, he couldn''t teleport there, so he would just have to enjoy a leisurely stroll.


    At the edge of the public area Harry found a locked door and used the Unlocking Charm on it, but the door didn''t budge. Harry wondered if it was because he didn''t understand how the lock worked, or because the tech in the lock was crap and fried from the spell. In either case, Harry teleported a few feet forward, beyond the door and continued on his way.


    Since Harry was invisible to all forms of detection, could teleport, and fly, he did not have any issues heading into the restricted upper zones. His Sorcery spell, the Kestrel Key of Krakkan, was able to open locked doors without frying anything for some reason so Harry decided to just keep using that instead of Alohomora.


    Once Harry found his way into the docks, he immediately spotted the small, armored cargo ship and about thirty guards of various races all wielding space guns.


    Now that Harry knew the ship was there and that it was going to be filled with valuables, he could easily cut Rocket out of the deal and take everything himself, but he wouldn''t. Harry didn''t know how a raccoon from earth ended up in space, but Rocket was definitely either born on or descended from a raccoon from earth and Harry didn''t want to betray him for something he could get anytime he wanted to now that he knew where it was. It was better to make a friend.


    Over the course of an hour, the invisible Harry started creating a massive Muggle Repelling Ward centered around the ship. He''d delay the activation, but once it was set up, everyone in the vicinity should suddenly think of something incredibly important they have to do away from the ship, leaving it empty. Although Harry would set the ward to exclude Rocket and Groot, he didn''t know how the other aliens would react to it.


    It didn''t take much longer for several dozen grunts to start heading into the hangar with metal crates and set them aside. They''d be loaded onto the ship at the last moment and would be heavily guarded until then.


    Harry cast a massive Gemino Charm on the crates and made duplicates appear next to each while he cast another spell to make them invisible.


    Every guard noticed that each crate seemed to shift in position, so Harry cast a Confundus Charm on the lot to get them to ignore it. Harry didn''t know if it was just luck or because they were stupid, but the spell had the d?s?r?d effect on all the guards, leaving them to go back to monitoring the surroundings.


    Next, Harry used telekinesis to lift all the crates into the air and place them inside the cargo ship. He then applied a sticking charm on the fake crates to prevent them from being lifted off the ground.


    And last, Harry took out the Apple of Discord.


    Once it was time to move the crates, the guards tried and failed to lift them up, causing everyone to gather around the crates. Harry tossed the apple into the group where it vanished from view. In the next moment, all the crate copies opened and an endless stream of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks poured out from the crates to the confusion of the ?ssembled party.


    Harry activated the muggle repelling ward and the Snorkacks either chased off or were chased by all the security guards who either had no idea what was going on or had the sudden idea that the furry mini horned purple pig hippos were the valuables they had to ship, thus they had to quickly retrieve them all.


    Harry along with Goose took a look inside the empty cargo ship and confirmed that he had absolutely no idea how to fly it. He could rip the knowledge out of the pilot''s head, but his Paths would increase more if he learned it without cheating.


    Not long after Rocket shouted from behind, "Wow, you really aren''t all talk after all."


    Groot said with a bit of admiration, "I am Groot."


    Harry said, "Thank you. So do you actually know how to get this thing out of here?"


    Rocket glanced at the now visible crates in the cargo bay and said, "Oh yeah, give me a few seconds."


    Rocket easily removed a few panels and cut and sliced a few wires together, causing the outer door to close. He then ran over to the front and opened a few more panels and sliced a few more wires before splicing them together, causing the front panel to lit up.


    The sound of weapons fire echoed outside the armored door as Rocket pulled some levers causing the ship to lift from the floor. He said, "Too slow suckers!" before pushing two joysticks up causing the ship to lurch forward directly into a metal wall.


    Harry wasn''t someone who feared death by explosion so he was calm as the armored craft rammed through the bulkhead doors into the black void of space. Rocket shouted, "Hang tight," as he pushed a few bu??ons and pulled a few levers, jumping directly into faster than light travel.


    Rocket jumped off the pilot''s chair and headed straight for the crates. Upon seeing the lock, he shouted, "Do you mind?"


    "I am Groot," Groot walked up and ripped the locks off each crate.


    Rocket opened the first and said, "Hello laser cannon."


    Harry asked, "So how much are you willing to sell to me? I''m definitely interested in the ship."


    Rocket continued opening the crates and said, "To be honest I didn''t think you''d come through like this. Half is yours. As for the ship, there are a few things I need it for, but I''ve got you covered. Since you''re pretty good, I''ll teach you how to fly, then I''ll escort you to where the Kree are making their best toys. I''ll help you steal something even better."


    Harry smiled. It was good to make friends.


    Rocket had already disabled the half a dozen trackers on the ship and to make sure they weren''t ambushed on arrival, he set the destination for a planet that would take several hours to get to instead of one of the closer ones. It was slower than taking a Gate, but unpredictable so they''d survive the trip.


    Rocket then went through each and every weapon. Harry placed each one in his inventory to memorize what it was made of and Rocket explained what each part was called and how it worked.


    Next, Rocket showed Harry how the flight controls worked and explained how some ships had a different layout and how to fly those. He got out a data pad and connected it to the console and downloaded the schematics. Most ships had a system which showed where damage was located and that system had the ship''s schematics within, so Rocket just used that and took the time to explain what each piece of the ship did and how it did it.


    Groot spent the trip petting Goose who was a grand master of the art of chill.


    Eventually Rocket ran out of things to tell him so Harry started asking specific details about various aspects of the tech and Rocket answered to the best of his abilities, though there was of course much sarcasm involved.


    Rocket gave Harry the Gate and Space coordinates for various points of interest in the galaxy such as Knowhere and a number of civilized planets that you could find something to do on. He also confirmed the lack of certain technologies such as Instant Galaxy wide communication and lack of an internet on most planets. Harry wondered if he should create one.


    After running out of questions, Harry broke out some food and they just started chatting about random stuff. About the war, about the galaxy, about all the idiots in the galaxy, Rocket did not sound like he would ever run out of things to say about the idiots of the galaxy.


    Rocket had a lot of stories to tell, most of which involved idiots making idiots of themselves while he laughed his ?ss off. Rocket considered himself a bounty hunter who was always looking for opportunities. Usually opportunities to screw over the Kree.


    According to Rocket, the Kree were always wasting Units on projects to make them stronger and it usually either fell through or turned against them. He said it''d take a week or two but it shouldn''t be difficult to find the next Kree Super Ship project and just steal whatever they find.


    Once the ship arrived at its destination and landed, Harry gave Rocket the number to what was basically a voice mail box Harry claimed he''d check once every couple of days and went on his way after filling his inventory with his share of the weapons. Though Rocket didn''t see Harry take them and ?ssumed Goose had eaten them when he wasn''t looking.


    Once alone, Harry made a portal home and made dinner for his girls. Jade, Rogue, and Wanda had a girls day out with MJ, Gwen, and Felicia while Peter had been trapped in the combat simulator in Harry''s basement.


    Over dinner, Harry went over his adventures while the girls asked various questions.


    Jade''s question was of course, "Wait, a raccoon? A walking, talking, gun toting raccoon?"


    "Yep, though he was much skinnier than the raccoons you''d see in the dumpster."


    Wanda asked, "What about the walking tree?"


    "Goose told me it was called a Flora Colossus."


    Jade asked, "How does she know?"


    Rogue answered, "She''s probably from space too. At the mansion she got along really well with Kitty''s purple alien dragon."


    Jade asked, "Wait, there are dragons in space too?"


    Harry nodded, "Oh yeah. With the exception of the very few immortal dragons on earth, most of the remaining dragons are incredibly weak compared to the dragons of other worlds. Most planets with dragons usually end up with dragons as the dominant life form."


    Rogue asked, "Did Lockheed ever reach out to his parents?"


    Harry thought back and said, "Yeah, though it wasn''t much better than a two way voice mail or heavily delayed text message system. Got some nice AstralTech Blueprints as the reward for that quest."


    Jade asked, "So when are we going to see the Hub?"


    "Not any time soon. The Hub and its Space Gate don''t orbit a star, it wanders about aimlessly so you can only get there through the Space Gate, not coordinates. Because it has no set orbit, it''s coordinates can''t be predicted in advance so I can''t make a portal to it. Though while at the Hub I can make portals from it and invite you through. So the next time I''m at the Hub, I''ll already have a space ship."


    Wanda said, "Gwen asked how Peter''s doing."


    Harry smirked at that. Harry gave Peter the cover of a paid Internship at Brilliance Inc to tell others what he is doing with his time while he was training. His aunt at first refused to take the very large check Peter gave her as a signing bonus, but once he explained that he''d get more later, she reluctantly took it. ''Coincidently,'' that ''signing bonus'' was enough to cover all of the unpaid bills and expenses left by her husband''s death, meaning as long as nothing big came up, she''d be fine living the remainder of her life with her retirement pension, especially since Peter would now have a steady income of his own.


    Once dinner was finished, Harry had the Hard-Light Corgis start the dishes and Harry headed down into the basement to check out if Peter still had a pulse.


    The dimensionally expanded basement contained hard-light simulated wreckage of giant robots and armed men tied up with sinuous grey materials Harry recognized as synthetic spider webbing.


    Peter himself was still fighting against three sentinels while a dozen dog shaped monsters three times larger than a tiger were chasing him around and barking and trying to eat him. He wore a red and blue suit that looked like it was made of spandex, but was actually composed of carbon fiber and non-reflective microplates that could disperse impact damage, stop blades, and was completely bulletproof. On Peter''s insistence it included black lines which spread out to look like a spider web.


    The webbing he used in combat was something Peter made up and shot out using a micro air compressing system to fire strings of web at nearly the speed of sound. His original designs were not capable of firing the strings so quickly and his original costume idea was in fact spandex, but Harry ordered the materials and created the custom parts required for a higher quality of equipment.


    Harry snapped his fingers on arrival and the Hard-Light simulator turned off and Peter landed on the ground with an exhausted oomph.


    "How are you holding up Peter?"


    After taking a few moments to catch his breath, he said, "Harry, the suit is too heavy to use for so long. It''s not like I need to be bulletproof, my spider-sense can ensure I dodge bullets."


    Harry rolled his eyes, took a space gun from his inventory, and cast a spell on Peter that isolated him from interdimensional energies.


    Peter didn''t feel any danger but felt the pain of the force slamming into his forehead before hearing the sound of the gunshot threw his head back and caused him to cry out in pain.


    Harry asked politely, "Could you repeat that again? Slowly this time. I''m a bit hard of hearing."


    "You shot me!"


    "You seem alright to me."


    "In the head!"


    "And your point being?"


    Peter quickly took off the hood of the suit to take away Harry''s excuse to fire another round and took a seat on the ground. He took a look at the mask and confirmed that the bit of metal residue on the top could be wiped off, it didn''t actually damage the piece and although the bullet it a single point, the entire head covering turned nearly solid at the moment of impact, dispersing the blunt force making it feel like he wore a steel helmet and someone hit him with a baseball bat rather than had just been shot in the forehead.


    Peter started rubbing his forehead and asked, "How''d you do that?"


    "I said it before Peter, your ''Spider-sense'' does not originate from yourself, but comes from something else. If it''s being given, it can be taken away. Use it, but don''t rely on it."


    "So you know how it works?"


    "Kinda. There are strings of interdimensional energy which appear to congregate onto you, like a web. Those strings don''t just go into this distance, but go into other dimensions, the past, and future as well. My guess is, when you are in pain, in trouble, or are in proximity to someone with the intent to cause you harm, the strings vibrate like the warning system of spider web. However since the energy strings go into the past and future as well, your warning actually comes before the danger occurs."


    "Okay, then how did you get around it?"


    "There are actually a number of ways to get around it Peter, even if you knew how I did it, that wouldn''t stop me from being able to do so and wouldn''t stop others should they figure it out. Don''t get complacent."


    Peter took a moment to consider it before sighing and saying, "You''re right. I''m sorry."


    Harry pulled up a data pad and went over the record of what Peter had done in the last six hours. Harry''s form of training was basically, ''If you experience it all at least a dozen times, then you won''t be surprised when it happens again.''


    While going over Peter''s scores, Harry said, "Relatively speaking, there are four types of combat. Destructive, Defensive, Constructive, and Technique based. Destructive would be combat that used pure force, power, and damage to overwhelm the opposition. Defensive is basically where you outlast the opposition. Constructive is where you add to the terrain to control the battlefield and end the fight. Technique is where you use skill and strategy to defeat the opposition."


    Harry then asked, "Have you heard of the Culver Incident?"


    Peter shook his head, "Doesn''t sound familiar."


    "Yeah, I''d be remarkably impressed if you had. It''s quite classified."


    Peter rolled his eyes at Harry''s expectations. Not everyone hacks classified files for materials to prank with.


    "Then I can at least ?ssume you know of Doctor Bruce Banner."


    "Of course, though I think he hasn''t published in a few years."


    Harry continued, "Five years ago, Culver University was given a grant to research a project with the express purpose of granting humans extreme resistance to Gamma Radiation by the government. The project involved three parts, a serum that made the body healthier, a serum that made the body ready for the procedure, and a very unhealthy dose of gamma radiation."


    Harry actually used the projectors to pull up various documents that all had a bright red Classified Logo on each page which Peter could only sigh at.


    "Dr. Banner''s team was in charge of the serum that made the body ready for the procedure and the machine that could apply the gamma radiation. At some point he had become quite confident that it had been perfected, but rather than wait until additional testing had been approved, he injected both the body modification serum and the health serum into his body and shot himself up with Gamma rays."


    Since Banner had not been seen since, Peter understandably asked, "Did he die?"


    "No, he lived. What he did not know however was that the ''health serum'' was no such thing, it was a hard-pressed copy of the super soldier serum which originally used Vita-Rays while this version required Gamma Rays. Nothing happened initially, but then."


    Harry pulled up a few videos of a massive green humanoid that moved with incredible speed and unstoppable power.


    Harry stated, "He''d gone into hiding since then." Harry put on more videos of the massive brute fighting against armed forces that were always attacking him.


    The Culver Incident was one of the reasons Harry would never trust the American Government. Five years ago and even now, there was no great war or known danger. Why would the government waste money trying to create an all powerful super soldier if the world was basically at peace? Why was General Thaddeus, ''Thunderbolt'' Ross still hunting Banner down and had even charged him with ''theft of government property''?


    The answer was obvious, General Ross didn''t care for Peace. Would a general be remembered for his contributions towards peace during peacetime? No, the generals that were remembered were the ones who contributed the most during war. Ross probably figured that if the U.S. could mass produce soldiers at Banner''s level, the U.S. could actively declare war on the world and even win. Harry may have obtained U.S. citizenship, but he was never going to allow that to happen.


    There weren''t many clips of Banner, so once finished, Harry said, "Banner is both a Destructive, and Defensive combat specialist. Nothing can really hurt him no matter how long the fight goes, and his power can take on anything that stands in his way, but as you probably noticed, there is a lot of collateral damage."


    Peter absentmindedly nodded while looking over the pictures.


    Harry continued, "Iron Man uses Destructive, Constructive, and Technique based combat, but his collateral damage isn''t small either." Harry pulled up a few videos of Iron Man destroying stuff and using gadgets to defeat bad guys.


    "If you want to fight in a city, the best forms of combat are constructive and technique based. For you, that means using your webs to control the area and using your speed and skill to dispatch your foes as quickly as possible. Do not fight defensively or try to break everything. That''s the reason you''re so tired. You relied too much on your strength and got bogged down too often."


    Harry pulled up some footage of Peter''s earlier training which showed him trying to outpunch the enemies or trying to trade blows.


    Harry added, "Honestly speaking, there should not be any reason for you to ever punch anything. Compared to the option of using your webs and leverage, it''s ridiculously inefficient."


    Peter looked like he was finally catching his breath and after a few moments said, "Alright Harry, I''ll try."


    Harry smiled, raised his fingers, and said, "Good, time for round two."


    "What?!" From that moment onwards, Peter knew that the sound of Harry snapping would haunt his dreams forever.


    *Author''s Note*


    Thank you everyone for the Space Ideas. I now have a good idea of what to do and I don''t mind spoiling it. How do you think the Kree''s Supreme Intelligence will react to the logic of a Wizard Magic Prank war? Should be something to look forward to.


    Oh, the Peter shouldn''t punch anyone is a discreet reference to the Spiderman cartoon where they were not allowed to show Peter punching, so in the entire series, Peter never actually punches anyone.


    My Avenger Jedi SI fic ended up with a few problems when I tried writing it. If I go with an actual Jedi, he ends up negotiating everything meaning no action. Hydra/Shield sends him to destroy some rebels trying to topple a terrible dictator, he has the rebels disband and ''coincidently through unrelated means,'' the dictator steps down. Stuff like that, so there are very few times he even needs to pull out his lightsaber. My writing style ends up having such scenes become terribly bland if done one after another, so my only real option is to turn it into something of a crack-fic where Hydra and many others try to manipulate or kill the Jedi but it always goes wrong for them. Please comment if that is something you might have an interest in reading, or if you have another idea on how to make a jedi working for Shield do something besides using diplomacy on everything.


    Oh, his backstory is that he grew up in the same orphanage as Hawkeye. In the real Hawkeye origin, he runs from his orphanage and joins the circus where there is a swordsman called Swordsman, and an archer called Trickshot. Trickshot took Barton as his apprentice so the Jedi SI could claim he was Swordsman''s apprentice to justify his sword skills.. Later when Fury recruits Barton, Barton can tell him about his brother.

 Chapter 82 - 82 Relics of the Past

    As Harry Potter watched the news with his girls, he wondered if he was having a negative effect on the city. Just the prior day, the Mole Man had apparently returned and tried to sink the Baxter Building underground and kill the Fantastic Four using strange tech, a lot of monsters, and a convoluted plan. Reed and the rest successfully thwarted his plans and restored the building, but it was certainly not something you''d consider an everyday occurrence. Or at least it didn''t use to be.


    After finishing off breakfast and sending the girls off to their own projects, Harry took a cab to the Baxter Building and headed to the top floor. Harry had his own security pass for access and upon arrival he noticed that the lab had changed greatly since the last time he was there.


    The first thing he noticed was the massive ring Reed appeared to be wiring up near the station where the dangerous projects were kept. Unsurprisingly, Reed was too caught up in his work to notice Harry. Johnny and Susan did not appear to be on this floor and Ben appeared to be courting someone and spending time at her place.


    Harry took a few moments to consider the best prank to pull and after a few seconds, settled on something tasteful. He could tell what Reed was building so a prank disguised as a warning would be appropriate.


    An illusionary copy of Reed Richards appeared and walked over to the real Reed and shouted, "Who are you?! And what are you doing to my Dimensional Portal?!"


    The real Reed looked over and asked, "What? No, wait, who are you?!"


    Fake Reed stated, "I asked you first! What are you doing in my house and why do you look like me?! Did you break in here to sabotage my Portal?! Are you a shapeshifter or a robot?!"


    The real Reed was completely caught off guard as the illusion looked and spoke exactly like him. He still managed to shout back, "What! No! I''m Reed Richards!"


    The illusion stretched itself to seem taller and said, "No! I''m Reed Richards!"


    Real Reed frowned and stretched himself into the air to make himself seem even taller than the doppelganger and said, "Stop that! I''m Reed Richards! What are You doing here?!"


    The fake Reed said, "Some copy, I''ve asked you that twice now. Is all you can do parrot back what the original says? I''m calling Susan and Johnny."


    Just when it looked like Richards was about to have an identity crisis, the fake Reed said, "Gotcha!" And then he faded away to Reed''s surprise.


    A moment later Reed sighed and without looking, said, "Hello Professor..."


    Harry chuckled from the door and said, "When building an interdimensional portal, be ready for dopplegangers."


    "Yes. I gathered that."


    "I''m pretty sure I know the answer but I''d still like to ask. Why are you building an interdimensional portal?"


    Reed answered plainly, "Well, you did tell us not to bother you to make them."


    "Ah yes, so you''ve decided to build your own. Of course you did."


    "Indeed. Think of what we can learn."


    Harry shook his head and said, "Any dimension with life has resources and I''ve never heard of a life bearing dimension with infinite resources. Limited resources usually means conflict, which means danger. My Master of the Mystic Arts took me to a number of dimensions and none are places I''d want to put a vacation home."


    Reed nodded without concern and said, "We''ll take precautions."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Just invite me over before using the damn thing. If something happens that neither of us can handle, I can call my Master for backup. That''s the safest way to do it."


    Reed considered it and said, "Alright. So what brings you by?"


    "Besides keeping you on your toes? Just wanted to see how you and the building were holding up after what I saw on the news."


    "Thank you for that Professor. The foundations of the Baxter Building have been extended and reinforced to ensure Mole Man won''t be able to give a repeat performance without alerting us in advance."


    "Good to hear. Have you taken Susan out on any dates yet?"


    That actually had Richards stumped. "Well, I mean, I''ve been-"


    Harry interrupted, "I have four girls and go out on a date that usually lasts between three and five hours at least once a week with each of them." Time turners were awesome like that and he could portal to anywhere on earth so a trip to Paris, China, London, or Disneyland were all possible date locations along with parks, beaches, mountains, and forest trails.


    Harry stated, "Although you can''t compare to my awesomeness, your calendar should always have something on it for time between you two, something to look forward to and to make a habit of always setting aside time for her. Don''t forget, you haven''t gotten a ring yet so if she feels like you''ve stopped pursuing her, she might feel that you''ve lost interest."


    Richards stated, "No, that won''t happen."


    Harry frowned and said, "So you''re okay with Susan not getting the attention she deserves because you''re certain she won''t leave you for neglecting her?"


    "What? No, that''s not-"


    Harry interrupted, "Sorry, I shouldn''t have said that. I accidentally used Woman Logic just now and I apologize for that. Living with a lot of women has many upsides but there are downsides as well." Women logic consists of arguments that men are incapable of winning because they use emotions to warp logic and trap the men into saying something which is then turned completely against them, forcing the man into submission.


    Reed was a bit surprised at Harry''s retraction as he was not familiar with Woman Logic as most. Due to Susan Storm''s exceptional brilliance, she did not use Woman Logic as instinctively as other women tend to use it.


    Still, Reed was not a fool. The idea of making a habit to set aside time for Susan was definitely a good idea. He said, "It''s alright Professor, I''ll set something up."


    Without the slightest telepathy Harry could practically hear Reed arguing with himself about the soonest he could set aside time. Harry''s bet was three weeks since he wasn''t expecting much more than baby steps from his student for now.


    Harry spent the remaining week that he wasn''t out with his girls going over the tech of the Andromeda Galaxy while supervising his girl''s training and Peter''s training. The main thing Harry wanted for Peter was to make sure he did not use his electric discharge or camouflage in front of others. Those were hidden cards to be used to save his own life and there wasn''t likely to be too many situations where he had to use it to save the life of another.


    Harry was able to connect some computers and tablets he got from Xandar to his own setup and finally check out the operating system and how their coding worked. Thankfully it didn''t end up too different from how earth coding worked. The rules had some differences but the patterns had more similarities than differences.


    At the end of the week, news outlets started reporting about a human spider swinging from building to building and stopping muggers, robberies, and occasionally rescuing people from fires. Harry already had a few lawyers on call to coin the name Spiderman and not long afterwards people started claiming that the one who saved them referred to himself as ''your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.''


    Harry would let Peter do what he wanted with the royalties.


    Upon seeing Harry, Rocket immediately asked, "Why''d you bring the Flerken?"


    Harry answered, "Fun?"


    "Is that a question or an answer?"


    "Yes."


    Rocket sighed and said, "Yesh, forget it. Alright, after asking around a bit, I found that the latest and greatest small scale craft developed by the Kree is currently being used by Starforce. It''s a prototype called the Hellcat. It''s faster, stronger, and sleeker than the Hellion."


    Harry nodded and asked, "Okay. So, who are Starforce and is robbing them going to be a problem?"


    "Ha! Of course it is. Kree''s military consists of two groups, the Accusers and Starforce. The Accusers are the basic military. Enhanced soldiers, big ships, heavy duty cannons, the works. Starforce is their elite tactical unit. Small, skilled, deadly. They have the best training and the best gear. In and out, most of their missions are classified because ninety percent of what they do can practically be considered war crimes."


    "Like what?"


    "Slaughtering innocents, murdering children, blowing up hospitals, torturing women, anything that is required to fulfill their mission. Best part is that all the shit they pull is blamed on their enemies so when they are sent to a planet to kill one guy and a lot of Kree civies die, they can blame the attack on some pirates or the Skrull or whoever they want. They tried to blame Xandar a few times too, but Xandar pressed each and every accusation to the point the Supreme Intelligence had to push the blame on someone else to prevent their citizens from getting wise."


    Groot said, "I am Groot," which Harry took to mean, ''They are bad guys.''


    Harry already didn''t like the Supreme Intelligence. He likened the Kree Empire to a cult in which the Supreme Intelligence required all citizens to have complete faith in it. Harry was already having ideas on how to mess with it. Could he make the Supreme Intelligence seem crazy and get everyone to decommission it? Maybe not but it would be fun to try.


    Harry asked, "So how are we going to find the ship if everything they do is classified?"


    "Ha! Don''t underestimate me. I already found it."


    "Oh? How?"


    "The Supreme Intelligence doesn''t fall for the same trick twice but it''s easy to fool with something new. I planted some bait I knew Starforce would be sent to retrieve and when they got there I planted a tracker on the ship. I''ll get you close and with your skills you can do the rest."


    "Nice, can you help me remove the trackers once I get the ship?" Harry wasn''t confident he''d find all the trackers since there could be ones that worked off principles he wasn''t familiar with.


    "No problem, let''s go."


    Rocket led Harry and Goose back onto the clunky space tank Harry helped them steal earlier and Harry couldn''t help but notice the number of dings and burn marks over the thing. Harry asked, "Had some fun did you?"


    Rocket answered, "Ha! You bet."


    "I am Groot."


    The ship got into the air and headed for the nearest spacegate and Rocket said, "Alright, according to my bug, that ship left a Space gate seventeen jumps from here about an hour ago. Let''s head out."


    Rocket didn''t set any time between jumps and Harry felt the unusual discombobulation of back to back jumps, though he didn''t have much of a problem with it.


    After the ship exited from the last jump, Rocket said, "They went thata way," and set a course for the same direction.


    According to Rocket, Space Gates were set in another dimension and powered by the nearby star. However, not all stars and not all star systems had the right requirements for a space gate to be set up. For every hospitable planet with a space gate, there were at least a dozen systems without one.


    Harry applied several invisibility and stealth spells onto the ship causing Rocket to state, "You''re just full of surprises aren''t you. Remind me to bring you next time I find something nice that the owner doesn''t appreciate enough."


    Eventually they came across a desolate rocky planet and the front display on the ship had a few circles open and shrink around a specific point in the planet''s orbit. Rocket used a screen feature to zoom in and said, "There she is. Guess most of Starforce is on the surface committing more war crimes for whatever reasons."


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Relics of the Past


    Protect the Xandarian Outpost from the Starforce ?ssault and deliver the data core and research samples to Xandar.]


    That surprised Harry as he didn''t think his act of stealing would lead to a Quest which usually involved doing good things for good people.


    Harry Paused and considered the best approach. He couldn''t do anything to the ship that would prevent it from sending a final message without damaging it more than was acceptable so whatever he did would be known by the Supreme Intelligence. That in itself was an opportunity of course.


    Harry said, "Look after Goose, I''m gonna play a small prank on the Kree empire."


    Before Rocket could respond, Harry apparated out of the ship into space. He got out a few crystals he''d previously charged with magic and set up a magic formation that would completely drain the crystals but would have the Kree Empire either scratching their heads or shitting themselves for months.


    After the setup was complete, an illusion appeared behind Harry that was dozens of kilometers in height. It looked like a massive wormhole. Suddenly, a titanic orange paw extended out from the wormhole.


    A head that could only be measured on a cosmic scale peered out from the black abyss and with a mighty leap, an orange tabby cat identical to Goose but twelve kilometers tall and nearly thirty kilometers in length from whiskers to tail.


    The cat seemed to look at the Hellcat ship and then walk through space over to it.


    Harry apparated closer to the ship and once he was close enough he silently apparated inside.


    Two blue skinned humanoids were at the helm, one on the radio and one at the pilot''s chair, neither were in a position to look at Harry as the colossal cat got closer at a terrifying rate.


    The Kree on the radio was shouting, both into the radio and at the pilot, "Go! Get us out of here! Move It Now!"


    "I''m trying, I''m trying!" the pilot shouted back in panic.


    The Kree on the radio shouted frantically into the radio, "The giant Flerken is getting Closer! It''s Getting Closer!"


    Suddenly the towering space cat stopped getting closer and opened its mouth. Purple shadows could be seen within its massive gaping maw.


    The Kree on the radio said, "No. Oh no! Oh My God NO!"


    The pilot had stopped trying to do anything and was screaming hysterically as a purple mass of flesh and tentacles and serrated teeth shot out from the cat''s mouth and a terrifying purple shadow engulfed the ship.


    Harry hit the pilot and the radio operator with a Stunner as the illusion showed the ship being swallowed. Harry then turned off the radio and everything he could find that sent a signal.


    Harry noticed the fallen Kree had some good armor and tech, so he got out some plain clothes and used a switching spell to unequip the Kree''s battle attire and set it into his inventory along with all their toys. Lastly, he transfigured them into small figurines. Kree seemed to have a bit of innate energy making their race stronger, more durable, and quicker to heal than others, but that simply made transferring them harder, not impossible. Especially while they were completely knocked out.


    Harry piloted the ship to the surface near where his quest was pointing him and Rocket''s ship followed. Once both ships landed, Rocket asked, "Is that what you call a ''small prank?'' Please invite me when you try something Big, because that I would have to see."


    Harry could only chuckle at that. Illusions in space, as long as you weren''t too far from a star, were actually really easy once you got the hang of it. Without any gasses to refract the light, the illusion can appear exactly like you want it to without the slightest margin of error. Of course, the illusion had a distance limitation. No one on the planet for example saw anything. But the ship''s recording and the pilot''s certainly saw and transmitted it.


    Harry said, "I''ll invite you if I think of any good ones. I''m gonna steal the toys of whatever Starforce dudes on the planet. Can you remove the trackers?"


    "Yeah, no problem."


    "I am Groot?"


    Harry answered, "No thanks, I can handle it on my own."


    Goose walked past Groot over to Harry, easily implying that she was coming too. Harry looked down and said "Okay, you can come."


    Groot said with a slightly depressed voice, "I am Groot."


    Rocket said, "Don''t mind them big guy, you got me."


    Harry picked up Goose and flew over to the combat zone. Harry''s map was filling out as he moved and he saw a few Kree guarding what appeared to be an entrance carved into some rock. Harry got out another set of normal clothes and used the Switching Charm to effectively remove their armor and weapon, eliciting a gasp of surprise from the pair.


    Harry approached, Goose in hand and said, "Hi, what are you guys doing here?"


    Both Kree reached for where their weapons should have been but found nothing. Seeing the hostile reaction, Harry decided to skip 20 questions and shot another pair of stunners and transfigured them into more figurines he stored in his inventory along with their armor and weapons.


    Goose jumped out of his grasp and ran into the base while Harry followed.


    Goose then stopped at a corner and conveyed to Harry, "Wait there a moment."


    Harry then heard someone from the end of the hall Goose stopped at, shout, "Vers?! Have you come to finish me off?"


    Harry heard footsteps and apparated behind the white skinned Kree who instantly moved into close combat grappling. Harry channeled a bit of Cyttorak''s Red energy preventing him from being moved by the man.


    Harry Paused to ?ssess the situation. There were a number of people in the room and the one Harry was fighting appeared to be the only Kree. From what Harry guessed, the man was in a position to harm others even if Harry took his weapons, so Goose offered to be a distraction to get him away from the others.


    Harry gave the man a little leeway to grapple him which was all Harry needed to apparate the pair outside.


    The man stumbled and nearly fell over from the side along apparition and Harry used the chance to stun him and take his armor and weapons as well. The man had some very high tech looking gauntlets Harry was eager to play with.


    Before turning him into a figurine, Harry opened the man''s eyelids and used Legilimency and Telepathy to read the man''s mind. He wanted to know what he was doing there and who Vers was.


    Harry spent a couple of minutes rummaging around as this guy had a lot of good details about the Kree. Once Harry got what he needed, the man was turned into a figurine as well. According to this dude, this planet was a forgotten Nova Outpost and when the Supreme Intelligence found evidence of supplies going there, it sent Starforce here to kill everyone and take whatever they found that had any worth. They would plant evidence it was done by Space Pirates when everyone was dead.


    As for Vers, apparently she was a Terran exposed to the energy of an exploding prototype faster than light engine which gave her superpowers. Because apparently that made perfect sense.


    This guy, Yon-Rogg, took the Terran back to the Kree homeworld and turned her into a weapon. The weapon then apparently met Nick Fucking Fury and turned on the Kree and was being a major pain in the ?ss for the Kree Empire and the Supreme Intelligence at the moment.


    Harry apparated back into the room where the people he ?ssumed were Xandarian were still muttering concerns to themselves and softly speaking between each other.


    Harry said, "Alright, Starforce is gone. Pack up whatever you need, we''re heading to Xandar."


    One of them asked, "You have a ship? They destroyed ours from orbit."


    "No, I stole their ship. It''s mine now."


    "Eh?"


    Harry picked an important looking one and asked, "So, who are you guys and what exactly is so valuable here?"


    Harry wasn''t expecting anything since this was usually a secret base and everything was classified. Instead, his question was answered most enthusiastically.


    "We''re students from the Institute of Higher Learning here on an expedition. This place holds the secrets to the founding and creation of the Nova Empire!"


    "Umm, it''s a dump though."


    "It is now! But thousands of years ago, this was the only location in the Universe that Nova Crystals could be harvested from!"


    "Oh, really? Fascinating. And those are?"


    "Nova Crystals are natural collectors of Nova Force! The Ancient Nova Empire''s Nova Corps each carried a Nova crystal and used the Nova Force within to empower themselves and fight back against the darkness and oppression of the universe, creating the society of law and order we know as the current Nova Empire!"


    Harry honestly thought that Yon-Rogg was fanatical towards the Supreme Intelligence and the Kree, but this guy was in the same ballpark of fanaticism, though it was for the past deeds which did in fact seem impressive.


    At least this answered a few questions. In order to control something without corruption, you need power. Compared to the Kree Empire which used propaganda and faith to control its citizens, the Nova Empire was quite lawful because in its heyday it had power. But as far as Harry knew, the power this fanboy archeologist spoke of did not exist at the moment which was why the law and order of the Nova Empire seemed a bit shallow.


    Harry asked, "What happened?"


    The man looked around in disappointment and answered, "The crystals were all destroyed. They were connected to each other, a hive mind existed between them allowing Nova Force to be transferred from one to another regardless of distance. Someone acquired a Nova Crystal and used the connection they had to destroy all the others."


    "I see. If they have all been destroyed, why are you here?"


    He answered with more disappointment, "It has been so long since the crystals were last harvested I hoped we''d find some new Nova crystals. However, months of searching and we''ve found very little."


    "But you found something?"


    "We believe so. Tiny fragments. It will take time, but if our readings are correct, we can use these fragments to grow Nova crystals elsewhere using our research."


    "Gotcha. Well, don''t forget those. I want everything loaded up in an hour."


    Harry returned to the ship followed by some Xandarians. Rocket spotted them and said, "She''s clean. Starforce is either stupider or more arrogant than I thought since they only put three trackers in the ship. Guess they didn''t expect someone to nab it."


    Harry laughed and said, "Pleasure doing business with you good sir. I won''t always be around but you can always invite me to a party if you plan to throw a good one."


    Rocket laughed back and returned to the ship followed by Groot who waved goodbye and said, "I am Groot."


    Harry transfigured a few bits of the ship and added a few shots of the Color Change Charm to ensure the ship would no longer get shot out of orbit the moment it entered Xandarian airspace.


    After the Xandarians and their stuff were loaded up, Harry and Goose left the planet and travelled back to the Jump Gate. Once they arrived, Harry set the return trip to Xandar and put a thirty second wait between jumps as he didn''t expect others to be as hardy as a video game character, a space abomination, a tree, and a genetically modified trash panda.


    Before the last jump, Harry had the Xandarians make a few calls and not long afterwards Harry was given some coordinates to land. In addition to dropping off the students and their research, he also intended to sell the Starforce members to the Nova Corps at a decent deal. It would earn him a decent reputation and some credits. The Nova Corps could use them for some negotiations so they needed them more than Harry did and Harry already got all the useful info he wanted.


    As expected, the moment the ship landed, the Quest had been completed.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Relics of the Past


    Reward: Nova Crystal.]


    Harry felt the reward appear in his inventory and smiled. He already discreetly copied the data for the growing of new Nova crystals from the group of students and now that he had an active, Nova Force generating crystal of his own, he was confident he could make something out of it.. In fact, if his idea ending up panning out, he''d have something brand new to sell to the Nova Corps really soon.

 Chapter 83 - 83 Kansas City Shuffle

    The echo of car alarms and the screeching of tires bounced back and forth through the narrow city streets as a battle between Spiderman and a sentient mound of sand wrecked everything around.


    Harry and Jade sat leisurely atop a nearby building on recliners, passing a bag of movie theater popcorn back and forth between them while sipping sodas from large fountain cups. Today was a date between the pair where they were supposed to see a movie, but when Harry was informed by Link about a rather unusual bank robbery, Jade said she''d rather check that out instead.


    Link was built into Peter''s suit so he''d been informed and had already arrived on scene by the time it took Harry and Jade to leave the movie theater.


    While watching the living sandman morph and mold himself to fight off Peter, Jade asked with a mouth full of popcorn, "So, what''s his story?"


    Harry shrugged. "Don''t know."


    "Wait, really? I thought you were like omnipotent or something."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "You mean omniscient. And No, I don''t know everything. It just so happens that the Libraries of the Sanctum Sanctorum record a lot of weird stuff so I''m familiar with a lot of weird stuff. I may also hack into Shield on occasion to look for a good chance to prank someone. There is still a lot more I don''t know."


    Harry received a message on his phone he read using the Technopathic interface and said, "Link says his name is Flint Marko. He''s a criminal loaned to Oscorp. Their servers are internal and don''t use Brilliance Tech so he can''t hack them remotely. But he guesses they probably tried to reproduce the Cellular Mineralization effect they found in Ben Grimm''s cells on another person."


    Jade asked with a bit of confusion, "Why give a criminal those kinds of powers? I mean look at him?"


    The Sandman in question had just turned his arm into a massive hammer and shouted, "I''m gonna squash you like a bug!"


    And Peter of course quipped back while dodging the strikes, "I don''t think I''ve heard that before. Very unique. You must be very well known for your grammatical prowess and originality!"


    Sandman of course wasn''t quite thick enough to miss the densely packed sarcasm and roared back while still trying to grab and break Peter.


    Jade giggled and Harry rolled his eyes. He hoped endless hours training against voiceless machines and mindless monsters would curb Peter''s habit of talking back, but if anything, it made it worse. Turns out spending so long fighting against foes who didn''t talk made Peter more appreciative of those who did.


    Harry eventually decided it was a lost cause. Harry liked to do things relatively efficiently while Peter had a habit of dragging things out and using stalling tactics against things he didn''t know how to fight against. It resulted in higher collateral damage but was safer than rushing without thinking when you didn''t have a surefire way to solve a problem.


    As for Jade''s question about why test on Marko, Harry answered, "My guess? They either didn''t expect him to survive or they wanted someone who would fight Spider-Man if he did."


    Harry figured he could probably cure the dude, but since the first thing Marko did after escaping the testing area was rob a bank, Harry lost all interest in helping the man.


    Jade sipped some more soda while Marko threw a car at Peter and asked, "Where''s the Fantastic Four? I thought they''d be here by now."


    "Science conference in Berlin. Doom''s attending too so not only did Reed ''have'' to go, but everyone else went with him."


    "Oh. So what would have happened if Peter wasn''t here then?" She was basically asking if Harry himself would have stepped in or let the girls take out the enhanced if there was no one else to do so.


    Harry shook his head, "You''re looking at it backwards. They chose a criminal because they wanted him to fight Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Obscurus, Spider-Man. The appearance of individuals with powers causes people with money to try to make their own. It''s because Spider-Man frequents New York that Oscorp made this. Envy has always been one of the better ways to make people with a lot of money start spending it on stupid things."


    Jade frowned and asked, "Is that why you won''t let us fight crime like Peter?" Jade was many things. Stupid was not one of them. Neither was naivety and once all the pieces were put before her, it wasn''t difficult to put them together.


    Harry affirmed, "Yep. If all of you were already on the streets, we''d have a half dozen just like Marko by now."


    Jade gave a cheeky grin and asked, "So when five more guys like Marko show up and start committing crime, we can suit up and fight crime too?"


    Harry gave Jade a deadpan stare at her attempt at such a ridiculous leap in logic, but Jade expertly returned the deadpan with an adorable smile. Rather than start a battle against Woman Logic, Harry decided to just admit defeat at the beginning and said, "Fine, but only if there is a point where six people like Marko are all acting at the same time. Six or more different people acting on different days of the week can be handled by Peter and the Fantastic Four."


    Jade shouted, "Yes!" and jumped onto Harry''s seat and hugged him. She snuggled up and said, "I love you," and got comfortable using Harry as her chair now and watching the fight which was wrapping up.


    Police cars had already blocked off the street but bullets weren''t doing anything to Marko and Peter was doing his best to antagonize him into fighting him over the cops. Eventually Peter tricked Marko into punching a fire hydrant off its bolts. Peter used his webs to grab and pull over a sewer cover lid and used it to bounce the water towards Marko, soaking the man completely. Rather than get washed away, Marko was forced to come completely together. Peter used the chance to shoot a web at the wall behind Marko and pull himself forward into a flying kick, sending Marko at the wall.


    The fact that Marko didn''t break up from the kick or wall impact and even seemed to stay down was all promising. Peter then wrapped Marko from head to toe in webbing, took out a small card that said, "Greetings from your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," and placed it on the cocoon before shooting a web at the edge of a nearby building and pulling himself away.


    Jade asked, "You got all that on video right?"


    Harry answered, "Of course." He''d taken out a camera sphere linked to Link so the AI could monitor and learn from the battle. Link would also edit the video and place it on Videoshare. There''d be other videos taken from other spots, but as long as Videoshare had the best ones, people would be more likely to post similar videos onto the site in the future.


    It was only later that Harry found out that a lot of the comments on the video were people saying Spider-Man should read One Piece so he wouldn''t waste so much time trying to figure out a weakness everyone already knows. Apparently, it is common knowledge to One Piece Fans that a Sand Human is weak against water.


    Harry decided to remember this since it would make great teasing and/or pranking material to use on Peter later.


    The summer was almost over and the fall semester was around the corner. Harry would teach three Foundation of Metaphysics classes and one Advanced Metaphysics class. Getting a degree in Metaphysics required four classes with the last two being Applied Metaphysics and Theoretical Metaphysics. Those who wanted to get a Masters and Doctorate in Metaphysics could submit an application to study under Harry or do independent research. Since Harry could read and type emails at the speed of thought, he could handle most interactions online without using too much of his time.


    A number of Harry''s students had used what they learned in the class, especially the projects, to submit Patent applications and there were several approvals. Ironically, some of the better students sold their patents to some companies that made decent offers and no longer needed to work for a living, so did not end up applying for Advanced Metaphysics. Harry had mixed feelings about that. Was it wrong to short sell your potential? After a bit of consideration, he decided it wasn''t. A person might consider their present more valuable than their future, and what a person did with their life was their business.


    There had been a number of attempts and offers to interview Harry, but he declined and avoided them all. If people wanted to know about him, they could look him up. He wasn''t going to make it easy for them and have his life story put on the 9 o''clock news. Especially since his life story was filled with lies and stuff he didn''t really want to draw attention to.


    Harry had spent the remainder of the summer taking the Hellcat apart and putting each piece into his Inventory. This gave him the same details he''d get by taking everything completely apart bit by bit


    What Harry learned from the spacecraft was consistent with what he learned from the weapons he got from the Hub and the armor and personal weapons of the Starforce dudes. The tech was certainly better than Earth''s but not by that much. There was no great, revolutionary design that could be copied and distributed to make Earth a space faring race within a year. No, the main reason that the tech could do stuff earth tech could not was the presence of minerals and materials which didn''t exist on Earth. That meant to make his own, he''d have to buy said materials and to experiment he''d have to buy even more.


    Funds weren''t an issue, but instead of using Alchemy to make gold, he''d rather use it to make the materials themselves. That would also take a lot of experimentation, but at least it wouldn''t leave him reliant on foreign sources.


    The only thing that was relatively cool was actually the gauntlets from the Starforce Captain. They contained a very minute amount of an element apparently called Gravitonium and was highly versatile in how it could be used to manipulate gravity.


    The Starforce Armor wasn''t bad but not of great use to Harry. Harry''s physical durability was determined by his stats and he was about thirty times more difficult to injure without armor. That sounds like a lot but bullets didn''t bounce off his skin and a knife could still piece it. It''s just that the bullet damage would be negligible and knives would not be able to pierce deeply. Someone with normal strength trying to cut Harry would be like trying to slice through really cold clay depending on the sharpness of the knife.


    The main reason Harry didn''t pull a Tony Stark and make his own armor was because his fighting style didn''t require him to get hit, so making armor wasn''t that useful and his inventory was a better arsenal than any armor Tony could likely build.


    Still, Harry had a lot of new toys and would feel itchy if he didn''t play with them.


    *Ping*


    [Crafting Path has risen to Rank 36]


    [Magic Path has risen to Rank 46]


    When he finished his latest project just as the Summer ended, the shock of the pop up was rather heavy. His tech Path which took forever to increase rose two levels, his Crafting three levels, and even his Magic Path rose a level.


    The finished piece looked entirely made of metal and was the size of a backpack. It even had straps to use to wear it though it was rather thin. It looked like an empty backpack. Harry tapped on the activation switch and the bottom of the backpack fell out and turned into a chair beneath Harry which then lifted him off the ground. The shell extended and connected and after just a second, Harry was suddenly inside a single man fighter craft that didn''t have a single seam.


    Harry doubted he''d have much use for this thing on Earth, it was specifically designed for space. It was probably one of the most powerful artifacts on the planet.


    Harry used Goblin Silver for circuitry. Enchanted Adamantium for the frame. Vibranium for the shell. The interior was even lined with a few parts of various magical beasts and had a built in Undetectable Extension Charm meaning that a bulk of the systems were actually stored in a pocket dimension which a majority of the parts retracted into when in stealth mode.


    Harry built the power sources of the Mandarin''s rings into the ship, and once they were fitted and properly repurposed, Harry could get them to do what they were initially built to do. The Matter Rearranger for example allowed the ship to repair itself and change its shape without seams.


    The spacecraft had a built-in connection to the Spacegates so he could use them himself, but he wouldn''t need them for most of his traveling. The ship had two FTL engines. The first was pretty much just a magically supercharged version of the one he took out of the Hellcat. Quite a bit faster, but still not as good as a Space Gate. The second was original though.


    Harry determined that the Light and Darkness rings the Mandarin used likely came from the propulsion of the ship he scavenged them off. The ring that shot light could also bend gravity and the Darkness Ring''s intangibility could be used combined with that to make the ship intangible and accelerate it to light speed in any direction to travel. This Darkness ring would have also allowed the ship to create a Portal to the Darkforce Dimension where space is different, allowing for long distance travel to be done quickly through the Darkforce dimension.


    Harry didn''t have a map for the Darkforce Dimension and even if he did, he certainly wouldn''t travel through it just to save time. That was about as smart as taking a shortcut through a haunted abandoned cemetery in the middle of a foggy moonless night. Nope.


    Instead, Harry used the Light ring to directly interact with starlight and combined that principle with a dozen others, each crazier than the last, to create an engine Harry called a Star Driver. It basically used star light to pull itself towards the star at speeds which would not be possible under any normal circumstance. The navigation system would simply choose stars in the direction of the destination and pull the ship towards them. Closer stars were easier to pull towards than further stars so the actual course the ship took would be quite zip-zaggy. Although stars further out were not in the same spot once the ship got there, the ship would follow the more recent light as it got closer so the course auto-corrected.


    The ship would go full intangible during the flight so the only danger was passing through a black hole, but due to the nature of how black holes absorb and bend light, you literally could not fly directly into a blackhole while following a path of light.


    In addition to the engine, the rings were also built into the weapons system. It had an Incineration Beam, Ice Beam, Concussive Beam, Lightning, Sonic blast, Tornado beam, Disintegration Beam, as well as lasers of several strengths and powers. It could also create shields when it could not become intangible, could create a dozen illusionary doppelgangers of the ship around it while becoming invisible itself, and telepathically interact with the pilot. Harry also installed three railguns turrets for dogfights.


    Overall this was a masterpiece of death that could do more DPS than Harry''s strongest attacks and fly faster and with more precision than Harry himself or his speeder bike.


    That being said, it was a waste to use so many resources for space battles Harry wasn''t even sure he''d end up in. Thankfully, the Matter Rearranger really gave Harry a lot of options. In addition to being a single man craft, the backpack could also transform into a Drone or a Turret. That meant if Harry wanted to use it, he could throw it into the air and it would turn into a flying drone with a terrifying arsenal or throw it at the ground where it would turn into a turret that would create a shield to defend whatever Harry wanted and then shoot whatever was unlucky enough to try to attack what the turret was protecting.


    The ship/drone/turret had a built in AI that would target what needed to be targeted or Harry could take remote control and use it himself. He decided to call it Navi, and he did of course build in a connection to Link.


    Navi''s primary purpose, when Harry wasn''t playing with it, was to scout and map the Galaxy. Navi could use the Star Driver to instantly go to a star, check for planets, check if the planets looked useful, then move onto the next star.


    Navi wasn''t a true AI like DANGER and Link, but had the potential to become one. Navi could learn and become smarter and even stronger over time. The Goblin Silver of Navi''s circuitry would not wear and tear, but actually become more efficient as time went on.


    The danger of making an AI was of course the Parameters. So of course, Harry being Harry didn''t put in any for Navi. She would be given a task and a possible way to do so. If she was unable to do so without additional data, she could ask Harry or Link for ?ssistance. If it was not possible to do, Navi could elect that the effort required to perform the task outweighed the value of the task. Everything would be logged of course and Harry would go over the logs. Value was usually a guestimate and Harry could advise to increase or decrease something ?ssigned value or make a suggestion for other ways to guestimate value.


    For example, if Harry ?ssigned Navi to protect a group of people during a dangerous situation and the group of people ended up being suicidal idiots, there would be a point where Navi would just abandon them if another task of equal or greater priority had to be done like protecting a less suicidal group. Under such circumstances Harry would probably say, ''Good call, I didn''t think they were that stupid.''


    Besides exploring the Galaxy, Navi was also dropping relays into the orbits of various stars. Using these, Harry and Link could communicate with Navi as long as she wasn''t too far from a relay. Navi could give Harry her coordinates within a few seconds of being asked for them and Harry could open a portal for her to come through if he needed her. Navi also had a built in Intergalactic Portkey in case something weird happened like getting su?k?d through a wormhole into an unfamiliar region of space.


    The first week of school had Harry a bit bummed out. The students for most of his Foundation Classes were not locals, but people who came to New York specifically for the class and most were way too stuck up. In addition to being peeved that Harry taught such a groundbreaking subject at NYU instead of MIT, most of the newcomers were much older than Harry and from the questions asked during the introductions, most lacked respect for Harry due to what they heard about him.


    This of course meant that the light hearted pranks he had planned would be shelved. He''d have to break out the big pranks.


    It was also during that week that Oscorp exploded and Peter got two more friends.


    Doctor Octavius was using a rather fancy four-armed harness to create a small sun to get Oscorp out of Stark''s shadow in the energy business and things didn''t go well. According to Link, Otto''s girlfriend had died of a heart attack earlier and Link guessed that Otto''s mind wasn''t where it should have been for such a dangerous experiment.


    In addition to the accident fusing the harness into the Doctor''s spine, it was apparently a two for one special. The huge electrical surge created from the accident, somehow caused another accident, in which the electrician Maxwell Dillon got big time zapped in a massive explosion which shot him through a lab.


    Instead of dying, something someone was working on got into his system. None of the theories Link and Harry came up made sense, but the best one was that someone was working on how Johnny was able to generate fire and whatever they were working on got into the zapped Maxwell which, somehow, gave Maxwell the ability to generate and control electricity like a living capacitor.


    So while Harry was grading papers and trying to come up with a Project for the the jerks that had to ''suffer'' through the halls of NYU, Spider-Man ended up fighting Doctor Octopus and Electro.


    During the weekend when Harry was exploring the Galaxy and the girls were doing their thing, Otto actually came over to Harry''s house and tried to rip off the door and break in, either to find something or to speak with or kidnap Harry. In either case, Harry''s camera got a clear image of the shocked look on Otto''s face when the arms he''d built to manipulate the energy of a star were unable to break the lock, turn the knob, or smash the door through.


    Harry figured that whoever was watching his place probably sweat dropped when they saw how strong Harry''s door was. Harry was confident the Hulk would have difficulties breaking it, much less a few metal arms. Otto''s next actions confirmed to any onlookers that they''d have no better luck with the windows. The camera saw Otto look at a parked car and clearly saw him thinking about lifting the car and smashing it into the wall and door. Thankfully for the person who parked there, Otto decided to leave when the sound of sirens approached. His arms could toss cars, but his head wasn''t bulletproof.


    Harry figured Otto knew that all of Harry''s classes had an agent or spy with a gun somewhere so it wasn''t a great idea to break into the class either.


    In the Andromeda Galaxy, Harry spent some time on Hala, the Kree homeworld and several other Kree worlds in order to look for a target to prank. Hala itself was an oceanless red planet a decent chunk larger than the earth, giving it far more gravity. Most of the planet was rocky and filled with military training bases and cities that looked like Star Wars'' Coruscant in the way they abused metal and the vertical limits of buildings and structures.


    The problem with pranking the Kree was that there was no good way to prep a prank with the Supreme Intelligence looking over the metaphorical shoulder of every Kree citizen. His first attempt required him to replace a maintenance AI with something less benign but shortly afterwards the AI was deleted, and replaced with a normal one before it even had the chance to do something interesting. At first Harry thought he had gotten caught, but he learned that all AI on Hala were deleted shortly after their creation. The SI preferred to be the only permanent AI.


    Next Harry checked the Kree data gathering departments. If he could fake enough data, he could make a nice prank out of that as well. Maybe some pictures of the Silver Surfer and Galactus? The Kree Empire certainly knew about those two. Hala is considered safe from Galactus because it has neither the thermal nor organic energy the devourer of worlds requires from his dietary needs, but some evidence of his arrival would certainly be a fun/terrifying prank.


    Unfortunately, any data like that would get flagged to be triple checked before it was well known enough to cause an impact. Faking the data three times wouldn''t work either because no matter how good Harry''s data doctoring skills were, a fake was a fake if you knew where to look a second time. Pranks like Goose, the Devourer of Worlds only worked for a limited audience and only because people would hesitate to take a second look rather than run away and scream.


    Another problem with using false reports to prank the planet was that the Supreme Intelligence controlled all information that went in and out of Hala. Basically anything that didn''t praise the SI or wasn''t propaganda was censured out.


    Not that this removed any possibilities, it just made it a challenge. Harry figured there were two decent paths to use prank Hala. He could lure a lot of them somewhere and give them false data and let them return and spread it among themselves. Or perform something big on Hala that people will talk to each other about, bypassing the electronic censure.


    A prank where you put in more effort than the effect of the prank is not really worth it, so Harry of course chose the easier prank of luring them away.


    As for what to lure them away with? That required Harry to spend a few days hacking not just the Kree but the Nova as well to learn of all the goodies and treasures that were known to these guys.


    Next, Harry had to place trackers on a dozen different ships heading out of Hala. His small ship was able to do this without difficulty though so it wasn''t a problem. After all the ships arrived at their locations, Harry got the locations of each one and made a portal to their locations.


    None of them noticed Harry or even remembered him. But all of them remembered going into a bar and hearing a rumor. Some guy who came back from a certain desolate planet had become ridiculously strong and returned to his planet to kill a warchief. He was so powerful, he ruled the planet until his power waned and he was captured and interrogated.


    According to the rumor, the guy was a scavenger who found a mirror.


    The rumor was broken and different people heard different things. But when it was all ?ssembled, the target was identified. Harry had no doubt the Supreme Intelligence would identify the treasure as the Black Vortex.


    The Black Vortex was a full length mirror with a frame that appeared carved from stone in the shape of a man''s torso. It was created by someone, Harry could only ?ssume from the evidence, who was a celestial since it''s purpose was completely in line with their way of thinking. The Black Vortex was a pool of cosmic energy. If one looked into it, the mirror would show what they looked like saturated with cosmic energy and all the person had to do to ''take a dip'' was say, "I submit to the Black Vortex." Of course, the person would not generate additional cosmic power. The more they used the less they had and most bodies weren''t built to hold cosmic power so even if they didn''t use any, they''d slowly lose it anyways if they didn''t return for another dip.


    The planet Harry made the dude from did have some easily hackable records and all the details would be available to the first person who looked for it.


    The planet Harry chose as the place the ''scavenger found the mirror'' was a war torn barren rock formally called Kymellia III by the horse headed species that destroyed themselves on the planet. It was covered in ruins and destruction and a great place for any scavenger to waste their lives.


    It took a month but eventually the Supreme Intelligence took the bait and hundreds of ships were sent to Kymellia III. This was just a distraction though, something to draw the Supreme Intelligence''s attention. Now all Harry had to do was frame the Supreme Intelligence for attempted genocide of the Kree race. Should be fun.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry for the delay. It''s hard to get into the mood the write filler and I keep getting distracted by other plot bunnies. Thankfully I came up with a idea that should be fun to write for the next chapter. The problem with bait is that you don''t always attract just what you''re fishing for.


    Oh, and a Kansas City Shuffle is where everyone looks to the left and you go to the right.

 Chapter 84 - 84 Oops

    *Author''s Note*


    Yep, I once again wrote myself into a corner. Getting out of it without plot holes is the hard part but I think I did pretty well this time.


    Chapter 84 Oops


    In the middle of the barren wastelands of Kymellia III was a rather large bar serviced by droids of unfamiliar designs. This bar had liquor and booze from every corner of the galaxy sold at a high price, but it quickly became a gathering place for the treasure hunters of the Kree and over a dozen ships could always be seen parked in the dusty plains around the bar.


    The Bar''s owner and operator was of course Harry. He had finished setting up a fake temple and put the fake Black Vortex inside, and he was looking for someone to nudge towards the hidden temple and the bar was a good cover to find such a patsy.


    The fake mirror had a number of charms on it that would prevent people from trying to test it out and instead compel them to take it directly to Hala. Some people may not be affected by the compulsion, but he had numerous backup plans for such situations.


    Or so he thought.


    While Harry was shifting through the minds of the bar patrons like one would a newspaper, Harry and every other person in the bar got a message saying the Black Vortex had been found and the ship that found it would be taking off in a few minutes. The Supreme Intelligence had already given a blanket order that once the mirror was found, all Kree were to escort the ship safely to Hala and would be paid for doing so. Not as much as the ones who found the Black Vortex, but a decent consolation prize to prevent treachery.


    The excitement he felt towards the first step of his ''prank'' was short-lived when the monitors he set up around the planet confirmed that one Carol Danvers had just shown up and was heading straight for the ship that was loading up the mirror.


    That was a problem. The fake mirror was basically a bomb that could blow up Hala and Harry couldn''t frame the SI for attempted genocide if Ms. Danvers stopped the ship. In fact, he couldn''t frame the SI properly if Carol was even seen in the area.


    Harry immediately made a portal to where Danvers was spotted, jumped through, and flew to intercept while shouting, "Wait! Hold Up!" to the glowing figure in the red and blue gold trimmed spandex suit flying past.


    Danvers apparently wasn''t the chatty type and flew around him. Harry rolled his eyes and made another portal further ahead and then made a portal he used to call a certain drone.


    On his telepathic orders, the drone sped faster than the lightspeed engine supercharged blonde and created a energy shield around her, stopping her in her tracks while he flew up and shouted, "Wait and Hold Up were Not Suggestions!"


    Before Harry could get in another word, Carol blasted the shield apart with light energy. From what his senses told him, Carol''s body was saturated in light energy. Not energy from the light dimension, but photonic energy. According to relativistic physics, anything that approaches the speed of light slows down in time. The biological effect of light energy saturation was that Carol apparently aged at a much, much slower rate making it look like she was in fact ageless.


    Harry didn''t bother dodging. A silver ring appeared in both of his hands. The first swallowed the blast which then came out the other hand''s silver ring and struck Carol''s forehead, sending her flipping backwards from the force of the hit.


    Harry was currently in the form he took when appearing as Obscurus, though without the demon mask, so when Carol uprighted herself, she was able to see the impatient, ''waiting for a child to listen'' look Harry was giving her.


    This is usually the point where someone starts talking, asking questions, and opening up. Carol was apparently an exception. Her fist started radiating light like a star and in the next instant she''d flown forward to strike.


    The moment she was close, Harry teleported to the side, easily dodging the strike.


    Rather than turn back, Carol continued forward towards the direction of the ship that was almost ready to launch and leave the planet.


    Harry and Navi the drone used another portal to get ahead of Carol. This time, the drone did not stop her with a shield. A concussion beam, ice beam, and laser beam were simultaneously fired at Carol. The concussion beam threw off her momentum, the ice beam slowed her down, and the laser beam scattered the light energy she enveloped herself in and used to fly.


    Carol was pushed back and raised one hand to shield herself and raised the other to shoot an energy beam at the drone. The drone quickly moved to the side and a moment later, twenty drones filled the air, all firing their beams at Carol. Carol shot at another drone, but the beam passed through showing that the copies were holograms.


    Carol grunted and threw her arms out, causing a shockwave of light to blast through the area with her as the epicenter. It caused the holograms to vanish for a moment, but the vibranium armored craft b?r?ly wiggled from the shockwave and in the next instant, the hologram copies were back and dancing around while the main one continued firing at Carol.


    Harry soon noticed that Carol had adjusted the energy shield she was using and was now absorbing the energy of the laser beam. Harry figured Carol could recharge herself by absorbing light and energy, so Harry told the drone to stop the laser and fire the tornado beam. Said beam caused anything in its path to spin around and the sudden change caught Ms. Danvers off guard, causing her to spin around three times before she flew to the side to dodge the beams instead of taking them head on.


    The moment she was out of the beam''s area of fire, she blasted a constant stream of photons out of both hands and waved them at Harry to create a wider effect.


    The wizard teleported directly behind Carol and asked, "Can we talk now?"


    Predicting her response, he made a portal between them which led to behind Carol who was in the process of twisting around and blasting through Harry''s sternum, only to end up shooting her own back through the portal. She fired a photon blast at the edge of the portal to shatter it but Harry had already teleported a bit away to avoid the damage.


    Carol finally responded with the shout, "Get out of my way!" while also firing another blast, this one far larger than the previous one.


    Harry sighed and made a large portal in front of him which sent the beam back towards Ms. Danvers once more. This time she moved out of the way before getting struck but she was obviously incensed. Harry didn''t blame her. Even more than teleporting, portals were too OP.


    She took a few breaths and confirmed that the drone wasn''t firing at her when she wasn''t trying to get past Harry and eventually relented to ask, "Are you with the Kree?"


    Harry visibly let out an exasperated sigh of relief and answered, "No, I''m the guy that planted the fake mirror in the valley for the Kree to take to Hala."


    This caused Carol to cross her arms, raise her eyebrow, and calmly state, "They found the Black Vortex on the plateau."


    Harry''s mental discipline, occlumency, and psionic skills all failed spectacularly to stop the look of utter bafflement that appeared on his face.


    Without a word, Harry connected to the communication unit inside Navi and used it to confirm that the alarms setup around the fake temple he made had yet to go off. Harry then made a portal to the side showing the interior of the temple he made and saw the fake mirror still there. Moreover, the ship loading the Black Vortex found on the plateau had just left the atmosphere and was about to reach the space gate alongside the dozens of other ships escorting it.


    The series of expletives Harry shouted at the revelation caused Carol''s expression to change to one of moderate bemusement.


    Harry Paused and considered his options. He had obviously goofed. Yes, there were a few records that stated the Black Vortex might actually be on Kymellia III. It gave some legitimacy to the rumor. He did in fact search around himself and hadn''t spotted anything before setting this charade up.


    Harry hadn''t thought to check the alarms after hearing that the mirror was found. He just ?ssumed that the news meant his charms worked, no one had tested it, they believed it to be real and loaded it up. But if they found the real one, then they definitely tested it. That meant that the crew of the ship that had the mirror had at least one Cosmic Power enhanced individual, but more likely it was the whole crew that was already enhanced.


    Harry considered going back in time, but knew he couldn''t. Time travel wasn''t something you played around with on a whim. Certain measures had to be taken into account for it to even be an option. Harry always kept those measures in mind on Earth, but he hadn''t considered his ''prank'' to backfire this way, and his planning for this did not include the required measures to safely time travel and fix it without creating a paradox. Celestial artifacts and time shenanigans didn''t go well together.


    Thankfully, it did not look like he would have to risk it. Harry would have to change the plan a bit but he thought up a way to get the prank to work even with this ''minor setback.''


    Harry Unpasued, cast a shrinking charm on the mirror/bomb and summoned it to him through the portal before he put it away into his inventory.


    The drone unfolded and opened up and Harry reached into the drone and threw its contents to Carol saying, "Hold my Flerken."


    Goose was unceremoniously tossed to Carol who easily caught the orange abomination. Goose meowed, ''I was having fun.'' A minor modification allowed Goose to telepathically pilot the drone or just let the drone fly itself and watch the fun from inside.


    Harry got into the chair as the drone expanded and folded around him into a spacecraft and said back to Goose, "I''ll let you fly it more later, I''ll be back in a few hours. Ms. Danvers, I own the bar on this planet and you can have all the drinks you want as an apology for this on the house."


    Carol was still flabbergasted at having just been thrown a very familiar orange space monster and at the mention of her name, she quickly realized Harry was about to leave and shouted, "Wait, what?!"


    Harry didn''t have time to answer and made a portal to Hala and flew the mini craft through. He technopathically sent a command packet of new instructions to the drones and hacking tools scattered throughout Hala and then used the Hala Space gate to travel three jumps to a remote planet. Once there, Harry hacked the space gates and waited. The ship''s exterior adjusted to a present that resembled something the Kree would make without affecting the performance.


    A few moments later, the fleet of ships on their way to Hala from Kymellia III appeared and thanks to the hacking from Harry''s drone, the Space gate to Hala had been disabled.


    Harry changed his appearance to that of a blue skinned Kree and pulled up a radio and shouted to all frequencies using a Kree dialect, "Stay away from Hala! My name is Rank-Pa, a Kree Scientist. The device on that ship is not the Black Vortex but a bomb set to destroy Hala!"


    Unsurprisingly, all ships turned their fire on Harry''s tiny vessel. Also unsurprisingly, Harry''s tiny vessel managed to evade the wall of laser fire shot from every single ship. The overall profile of Harry''s vessel was larger than a motorcycle but smaller than a car. It really could only fit a single person, but firing at a vessel of that size in space was about as tricky as shooting a needle in the ocean. Harry was also jamming the communications of the ship that had the mirror but the other ships could still talk to each other.


    Next came the fun part. Interstellar communications all pass through space gates. Since Harry had control of the space gate, he could make it send a message which bore the exact code and encryption used by the Supreme Intelligence. All ships received said message which stated, "Destroy that ship, Rank-Pa is a traitor and a spy. Once destroyed, the Space gate will be back online. The Black Vortex must be brought to these Coordinates on Hala within the hour. All captains will be rewarded with 100,000 Units upon delivery. Failure to deliver will have consequences."


    Safe to say, the ships stopped holding back after that. Almost a hundred fighter crafts launched from the dozens of ships stranded above the planet and closed in on Harry''s vessel.


    Harry smiled. One good part of this plan was how much fun it was. He sent another message to all the ships in a panicked voice, "I cannot let that ship get to Hala! I am sorry! For the Good of All Kree!"


    Another fake Supreme Intelligence message was received by all the ships, "Don''t let that ship near the carrier!"


    The fighter crafts and other ships lined up between Harry''s tiny craft and the ship holding the mirror. Thousands of laser blasts and hundreds of missiles shot forth in a never ending wave. The AI Navi calculated the trajectory of the laser fire and area of effect of the missile explosions and plotted a course for Harry to navigate through and set it on the display. On occasion Harry would Pause and check the data showing him everything around him and use it to adjust the course to an alternate route. The Goblin Silver that made up Navi''s computing systems became more efficient for various tasks the more they were used, thus as the software in the AI evolved, so too did the hardware.


    From an outsider''s perspective, watching the tiny craft weave circles around the missiles, heavy weapons fire, and small crafts left the observers absolutely dumbfounded. The way in which Harry''s ship shifted back and forth violated all known laws of momentum and common sense. If nothing else, it certainly got a lot of attention.


    Harry''s display screen highlighted three fighter crafts near the end of the battlefield where laser fire came down like rainfall. According to the display, those specific crafts were launched from the ship carrying the Black Vortex. Harry''s plan only worked if everyone who got a dose of Cosmic juice was killed, so Harry couldn''t ignore those three crafts.


    Harry turned on the railguns and opened fire, tracking the incoming craft through the heads up display''s predictive algorithm. Up to this point Harry''s craft didn''t even look like it was armed, so two of the three targets were shot down and exploded thanks to being caught completely off-guard. The heads up display confirmed that one of the pilots was still alive. Cosmic Power charged lifeforms had no issue surviving space. Expecting this, Harry had already started the charge of the disintegration beam and the moment the super charged kree''s position was locked onto, the black beam fired.


    Harry didn''t know if it was arrogance or ignorance, but the glowing Kree which had just survived the destruction of its ship didn''t move to dodge the black beam. A moment later, the kree was no more.


    The twenty or so small ships currently tailing and firing at Harry were already feeling queasy just watching him spin and zig zag and barrel rol and perform maneuvers they had no words for, but after seeing Harry''s weapons they all broke off the pursuit for a moment when they realized the tiny ship''s flight capabilities were not the only thing which defied all logic. Especially because it was standard for Kree craft to be able to fire backwards.


    Harry used the lull to target and destroy the last ship launched from the carrier. Thankfully, Harry''s sensors confirmed that the pilots of the other two ships were dead, meaning they either died when the railgun pierced their ship, and possibly themselves, or they did not get a cosmic power upgrade. The reason that was good was that the disintegration beam had a long cooldown and killing another Cosmic Powered dude would have been difficult without it.


    After passing by all the other ships, fight crafts, turrets, and generally making the entire fleet look like rank amateurs, Harry''s ship reached the carrier ship and plowed directly through the hull.


    The moment his ship entered the first layer, Harry Paused and checked his map. It now displayed the layout of the ship and showed several dots. Harry unpaused and halted the mini-ship''s momentum before setting off an explosion centered around the ship. To any onlooker, it would look like the ship exploded after passing through the carrier ship''s hull.


    Harry got the ship to unfold and return to backpack size before he placed it back into his inventory and took out a laser rifle and started teleporting around the ship. His first encounter was three Kree wearing dusty uniforms which still looked shell shocked from having their ship rammed into. Though the airlock doors were deployed, the jarring of the ship would still be very disorientating for those onboard. Harry shot the Kree before they could get up and as a final measure of deception, transfigured one of each of their internal organs into something resembling a battery. The transfiguration would not last more than two days, but that was the point.


    Harry''s next teleport target took the laser shot to the ?h?st but looked unharmed. He sneered at Harry and started glowing purple. Harry kept up the pretense and continued firing while the Kree charged forward at ramming speed. He roared when he saw harry drop his gun, likely thinking Harry was scared, and certainly didn''t expect his head to fly off from the instantly conjured eldritch longsword that appeared in Harry''s hands.


    [You have leveled up.]


    The amount of EXP gained from the energy obtained from the kill certainly made Harry rethink his plan, but in the end he decided not to use the Cosmic Energy empowered Kree to farm for EXP, even if it did give better results than three days of meditation. Still, he certainly wasn''t going to waste what was available to him.


    Harry continued teleporting, killing, and transfiguring organs. He could have teleported directly to the room his map showed the Mirror was in, but making the crewmates panic would drive them to the mirror anyways. And if they just so happened to get a Cosmic Power up before he killed them, who was he to argue, it would be unsportsmanlike otherwise, he should give them fighting chance right?


    Harry''s level was at 279. A few more Cosmic kills would save him a few months of Battle Meditation. Harry wasn''t sure how it worked, but the Cosmic Powered Kree were about level 320 according to his energy sense. It was the equivalent of giving someone a few hundred levels in Stats but not increasing their Skill proficiency. They were stronger than before, but weaker than those who got to that level while improving their skill.


    Of course, the Cosmic Power would likely have an auto-correcting function much like his own Path System so a few days or a week or so of practice would probably cause their skill levels to jump to match their Stat levels, but much less a week, it hadn''t even been half an hour since they got their enhancements.


    The Cosmic Powered Kree remaining were in groups and not all of their granted abilities were the same. Most had physical enhancements such as hyper enhanced strength, invulnerability, and regeneration, so anything less than beheading with a magic dimension thin blade had almost no effect. Some had awakened Psionic abilities such as psychokinesis. Harry figured one or two might have even awakened precognitive abilities. Too bad such abilities had no effect against Harry.


    The rather strong Psychokinetic Harry found he had to kill with Phoenix fire. It devoured anything, even Cosmic Power and the newly minted psionicist was clueless on how to fight against it right up until she had turned to ash.


    The only other problematic power he found was someone who could become intangible and was fleeing through the walls. They might have escaped with their lives if it wasn''t for Harry''s map. Harry had a number of spells he could use to fight insubstantial and intangible targets so once he teleported into the path of his target, he locked the surrounding dimensions causing the unfortunate dude to run head first into a wall.


    Harry took a bit of pity on him and made it quick. He transfigured an organ and made himself invisible before teleporting into the main deck where the Black Vortex and the remaining crew were hiding. The poor Kree at the coms was still shouting into them for ?ssistance and thanks to Harry''s jamming, none of the other ships heard them.


    One of the crew shouted, "The pilots of the other craft have already boarded, we should head for the hanger and get the hell out of the ship!"


    A Kree who had already juiced up said, "So, we shall stay and fight. Worst case scenario, we''ll open up all the air locks."


    "That''s easy for you to say!"


    "You''re the only one who hasn''t submitted to the Black Vortex. Are you asking us to sacrifice ourselves for you?"


    "But what about the others boarding the ship?!"


    "They will be honored."


    Harry had heard enough so he conjured his sword and used Immortal Dragon Chi and Dimensional Energy to speed up his body. Doing so dispelled his invisibility, but everyone was still looking at the door and Harry''s energy couldn''t be sensed.


    Two bodies dropped before everyone started turning around. The Cosmic Powered individuals charged at Harry and struck out with blows containing several dozen tons of force. To Harry''s energy sense, every muscle movement was visible meaning he could fight these guys with his eyes closed. Their linear movements did slightly exceed Harry''s in speed, but his ability to predict their strikes and his own experience at moving using such high speeds allowed him to outmaneuver them and decapitate each, one by one.


    A couple thought it wise to raise their arms to their necks, using their armored forearms to block the oncoming strikes. Harry shifted his attack for them and pierced directly through their hearts and then sliced up. His movement allowed him to swing his blade from under the arms of those trying to block and cut the head in half vertically.


    When Harry finished with the last one, his EXP bar was about a fifth full, so not too bad.


    After transfiguring the last organ, Harry stopped the ship and once it came to a complete stop, he opened a portal. He could teleport on a moving vessel, but making portals on a moving vessel was much more complicated. The Black Vortex resisted his attempt to lift it psionically, so Harry just walked over to pick the thing up. Out of curiosity, he looked into the mirror and could only give a wiry smile. His reflection wasn''t there. Harry guessed the mirror''s ability to show what a person looked like if they submitted to the Black Vortex was a form of precognition.


    Harry lifted the mirror and set it through the portal before closing it and taking out the fake. He unshrunk it and for good measure, he altered it to look exactly like the real thing instead of just what Harry guessed it looked like.


    Harry then took out a lump of flesh from his inventory and transformed it into the Kree he had made himself look like. Harry used a couple of spells to make it identical to a Kree and allow him to remotely control it. Last, Harry gave a mortal wound to his stand-in and gave it a Kree laser rifle and a Kree sword.


    Harry teleported to a locked room in an inaccessible part of the ship and waited. It was show time.


    It took about ten minutes for the Kree who got onboard to make it to the main deck. The door opened slowly and five blaster rifles were pointing in every direction the moment the group entered the room. They looked around but all they saw was blue blood and corpses.


    One such corpse was near the control panel for the ship''s engine. The panel had a bloody sword stabbed directly into the circuitry. One Kree approached and shouted, "He''s alive!" when he noticed that the bloodied Kree next to the sword was still, just b?r?ly breathing.


    The Kree looked up and smiled. "My work is done. For the good of all Kree."


    Every weapon pointed at him the moment they recognized his voice as the one that came through the speaker earlier, the one identified as a traitor and a spy."


    The Kree who called himself Rank-Pa gave a painful looking chuckle and said, "Before you kill me, why don''t you try out that mirror."


    The look of obvious greed flashed through almost every eye. No one did anything when a woman approached and said, "I submit to the Black Vortex."


    Rank-Pa chuckled again, this time coughing out a bit of blue blood afterwards.


    The woman frowned and turned to face Rank-Pa, "What is wrong? What did you do?!"


    Rank=Pa chuckled again, but he was looking weaker and weaker by the second. "I... built it. For the Supreme. Intelligence. To be used. On Nova Prime. Wipe out. 99%. Of life."


    One of the slightly smarter, more serious looking Kree said, "No. This is the real Black Vortex. The captain of this ship used it himself!"


    Rank-Pa used what little energy he had to shake his head. "A show. Nothing more. Experiments. False positives. Batteries. Under skin. Look." He slowly turned and motioned to one of the people who had been gutted and within was an easily visible strange and blooding looking metallic device.


    After confirming they had a look, Rank-Pa continued, "Others. On project. Killed. To keep. Secret. Don''t. Send to Hala. Wait. Two hours."


    The woman from before asked, "Why two hours?"


    Rank-Pa answered, "Bomb. Needs charge. Would be. Charged on Hala. By SI. Unstable. Breaks down. Was planted. On planet. This crew. Paid to pretend. Pretend to find it. Pretend it real. Bomb will. Be unusable. In two hours."


    Another of the Kree shouted, "Liar! Kill this traitor!"


    A different Kree said, "He''s right. Why would the Supreme Intelligence do such a thing?"


    With a few expectant looks being given, Rank-Pa answered, "Supreme. Intelligence. Directive. To expand Kree. Empire. Supreme Intelligence. Calculated. Kree must be stronger. To get stronger faster. Must be wounded. Must be crippled. Must evolve. To win. Current Kree. Evolving. Too slowly."


    Rank-Pa looked up wearily once more and said, "For. The good. Of all," and was shot in the forehead by one of the Kree who had been yelling at him before.


    The same Kree turned to the others who seemed to be from the same crew and said, "Bring the Black Vortex, now! We only have twenty minutes!"


    "Wait." One of the other Kree said, "I can''t think of a single good reason to deliver this thing in an hour."


    The Kree who dealt the final blow on Rank-Pa pulled his gun and said, "You don''t believe this traitor do you?"


    The man calmly answered back. "I don''t believe this is the Black Vortex. Perhaps it is somewhere else on the ship. This thing doesn''t work right? The Supreme Intelligence certainly would not reward you for bringing it a fake."


    Harry continued monitoring the conversation for a while before making a portal out. The space gate did in fact start working once Harry''s ship ''exploded,'' but the space gate after that one to Hala was also hacked by Harry so they still wouldn''t be able to use it if they had a change of heart.


    The bomb really would be strong enough to blow a planet and Harry certainly didn''t want it to get into anyone''s hands before it expired. The location the fake SI message said to deliver the mirror happened to be the power plant that ran one of the Supreme Intelligence''s primary servers, making it a place only the SI could give access to. There was even a charging station there which he mirror had a hidden plug that fit snugly into. Though not that hidden. They''d definitely find it once they took the bomb apart.


    Harry waited until he''d confirmed the bomb''s ignition materials had fully expired and become completely inert. Once done, he returned via portal to Hala and found the entire planet was going crazy.


    Harry was unable to use the SI to broadcast false information directly on Hala, but that certainly did not mean he couldn''t jam the systems which sent out the information. As long as he wasn''t trying to hide it, he could hack whatever he wanted. The drones he left all over Hala had cut all communication from the planet for the last two hours and prevented any ship from getting clearance to leave the planet and send reinforcements to secure the Black Vortex.


    The cyber attack started at the moment the space gate was disabled and ended the moment Harry confirmed the bomb was inert.


    Harry shifted through a few hundred million documents and confirmed the effect was about as good as it was going to get. Once everything was settled, he activated the portkeys on the drones all over Hala and took a portal to the backroom of the bar on Kymellia III.


    Harry opened the door and saw that with the exception of the robots, every other patron had left. This wasn''t surprising as the SI had offered an escort fee to those who ensured the Black Vortex would arrive safely. Some of the ships were here just waiting for that and thought of it as nothing more than easy money.


    The lone occupant of the bar was the blonde at the bar table going through the best liquor in the store while petting a flerken.


    She looked over at Harry and held up the liquor, probably trying to point out the fact that the label was clearly in english and it was in fact from earth.. She said, "We need to talk."

 Chapter 85 - 85 Captain Marvels Quest

    *Author''s Note*


    My Updates usually aren''t that slow, it''s just that the last chapter was really tricky to write and I gave myself a little bit too much of a challenge to write a realistic prank that can actually cause an entire empire to lose faith in and unplug their central computer. The time between chapters should go back to the normal rate of a week or two between updates.


    Chapter 85 Captain Marvel''s Quest


    Harry wasn''t sure whether or not he should have been surprised that Ms. Danvers had somehow found the best scotch in the bar, but he did say everything was on the house. Before heading over to her, Harry opened a cabinet, pulled out a glass and then took a seat on his side of the bar table, next to Goose and diagonally from Carol. He grabbed the bottle she''d already used half of and poured a glass for himself.


    Harry could in fact get drunk. When he drank enough alcohol, he''d get the Status Inebriated, but it didn''t have much of an effect on him. Lowering inhibitions was pointless for someone who already did whatever he wanted while completely sober, so a partial reduction in coordination was the only real outward effect and he could remove the Status with a spell whenever he wanted to. Still, it took a lot for him to get drunk so he preferred only to drink the good stuff meaning his stocks only had the good stuff.


    Carol waited patiently for him to pour his own drink. She''d already waited two hours with Goose and it was hard to stay mad when you had unlimited access to good liquor and access to an affectionate orange cat you hadn''t seen in years. A waiter robot had even set up a plate of cream for Goose.


    Harry started with, "Introductions first. You can call me Obscurus. It''s not my name, but it''s what Fury and most of the people on Earth call me."


    Carol asked with an impressive combination of disbelief and sass, "You know Fury?"


    Harry pulled a picture out of nowhere and handed it to Carol right as she was taking another sip of scotch.


    Que glorious spit take. The picture was of course of Fury wearing an Afro Wig. The absolute scowl of irritation combined with the incredulity of that giant fake wig made for such a stark contrast that Carol was unable to stop herself from throwing her head back and howling with laughter. She was in tears in seconds and collapsed onto the bar slamming her fists into the table in a minute, clearly having trouble breathing.


    Harry smiled and took a few sips of the scotch, enjoying the amber liquid and rich flavor. The glasses all had charms on them that kept the liquor cool so no ice was needed.


    Goose simply sat there, quietly staring back and forth between Harry and Carol, silently judging them both. Or at least that''s what Harry figured she was doing.


    Carol calmed down and saw Harry drinking while petting an equally chill Goose. Carol wiped her tears away and said, "Good god I needed that. How did you get this picture?"


    Harry watched her move to take another drink from her glass and gave a smirk. He answered, "Well, from what I understand, it involved a laser sword duel, a large amount of fruit baskets, a few hundred chickens, a fiddle playing alien, and some high quality S&M bondage play."


    Que second glorious spit take.


    Carol slammed her glass to the table and shouted, "What the fu?k?!" She already realized he was doing it on purpose so she reluctantly pushed the glass away, knowing he''d probably get her again the next time she took a sip.


    Harry''s smirk deepened and said, "You''d have to ask Fury for more details."


    She rolled her eyes and replied, "Yeah, I''m certain he''ll share with me exactly what happened."


    "You can ask Coulson then."


    "Wait, that nice guy who was with Fury?"


    "You know him? In any case, he knows exactly what happened."


    Carol regarded him for a moment and gave a nod. "I see. Well, did Fury tell you about me?"


    "No. A few weeks ago I wanted a ship to take apart. A raccoon told me Star Force has the best stuff so I found a crew about to kill some Nova Scientists. One of them recognized Goose. I captured them all and extracted the info from that guy''s head. It was Yon-Rogg."


    "You stole their ship and took out Yon-Rogg''s crew?"


    "Yup. Then I donated them to the Nova Corps."


    Carol chuckled and smiled widely at that while looking as if she was reminiscing. She grabbed the glass back and poured it full again. She then gave a mock glare at Harry, daring him to say anything. Against expectations, he raised his glass to hers and said, "A toast to that guy''s deserved ending?"


    Carol considered it and gave a curt nod as they chinked glasses and took a drink.


    After finishing Carol asked, "So why do you have Goose with you? Did Fury ask you to babysit?"


    "No. She is being spoiled by one of the most powerful people on earth, Harry Potter. I''m just taking her on a walk."


    "This is your idea of taking a cat on a walk? To another Galaxy? How far can those portals take you?"


    Harry threw a portal to the side and a view of the Statue of Liberty with New York City could be seen behind it.


    Harry closed it and said, "Distance isn''t a limitation. I can make a portal anywhere as long as I know the approximate coordinates and the place isn''t shielded by something weird like a barrier of heavy anti-electro matter. The only real limitation is that I can''t make a portal on a moving space ship unless it is in geostationary orbit."


    Carol nodded which made Harry grateful she didn''t try to argue that planets also moved. The six dimensional coordinates Harry used to make a portal took into account the rotation of a planet and the planet''s rotation around a star and the star''s rotation about the galaxy and the galaxy''s movement away or towards from other galaxies. It all references something else. A spaceship moving in space has constantly changing six dimensional coordinates since there is no fixed point to reference from.


    Carol asked, "Is Goose taken care of?"


    "She is spoiled rotten. She has her own room which has a camera. The camera acts as a mouse pad meaning by moving around and moving her tail, she can browse the internet as she pleases. She spends far too much time on youtube watching cat videos."


    Carol flatly said, "I have no idea what that is."


    "Then you need a vacation."


    She snorted at that. "Can''t. Too much to do."


    Harry nodded and said, "Then maybe I can help. I messed up earlier today and you tried to help. I was able to replace the Black Vortex with a fake and ensure my plan goes through, but it was my fault that it messed up in the first place. I owe you a favor. So what is it you need help with?"


    Carol considered it for a while and asked, "Can I have the Black Vortex?"


    Harry made a portal to where it was stored and said, "If you want it." He didn''t particularly need it and he wasn''t one to ignore a debt.


    Carol walked through the portal and gave a look at her own reflection. With the exception of Harry, those who saw their reflection in the mirror would see what they looked like after being given a Cosmic Power Boost.


    She walked back out of the portal back to the bar and took another drink. "Never mind. It''s too tacky. What are you gonna do with it?"


    Harry answered, "See if there is anyone else responsible who wants it. If not, I''ll study it."


    Though Harry couldn''t see his reflection, he could likely use the Black Vortex regardless. The Cosmic Energy boost would be displayed as a long term Buff and probably give him the stats and strength of someone around level 350. Doing so would give him the ability to fight Time Constructs while using Battle Meditation and speed up the rate at which he could level up.


    However, the Cosmic Power boost was not his own power, so it would not be invisible like the other energies within him. If there was any way to track Cosmic Power, the fact that Harry could be in two places at once or that Harry and Obscurus were the same person would get out. Although he''d level up faster, the long term benefits didn''t outweigh the demerits.


    Besides, to get the Cosmic Power boost, you had to say, "I submit to the Black Vortex." Harry already submitted to his wives and wasn''t going to submit to something he couldn''t even have s?xy time with.


    Carol thought over his offer for a bit longer and asked, "Know a good planet a large amount of refugee aliens could take as a home that the Kree wouldn''t be able to find?"


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: A New Home for the Skrulls


    Find a home that is :


    -Safe from the Kree


    -Has resources to flourish


    -Will not get eaten by Galactus.]


    Harry pulled a data pad out of his inventory and asked aloud, "For the Skrulls right? Give me a minute."


    Harry''s data pad connected to the server built into Navi which was massive. It also stored all the knowledge he swiped from the Nova Prime and Hala.


    As for the Skrulls, he didn''t want them in the Milky Way. Their species would be too much of a threat once their numbers got large enough, so he''d rather have them in the Andromeda so the races here could act as a buffer in case the Skrulls went bad.


    Harry went through the data for a few seconds but during that time he''d gone through thousands of planets and had been narrowing his search using the given parameters. Eventually he found three which matched and of those three, one stood out in particular as the best.


    Harry pulled up the data and said, "Planet GFX-449. A mostly water planet with only about ten percent of the planet having a surface above the water. The planet itself is actually a water core planet and it''s electromagnetic field is generated by ionically charged water which circulates the planet''s interior. A long time ago the planet used to be a part of a binary star system but one of the stars exploded. The planet mostly survived but the system is now covered in ion gases which cause the engines of most ships to explode if they try to enter the region."


    Carol gave him a blank look and asked, "And why is any of that good?"


    "You know who Galactus is right?"


    She frowned. "Yeah. Him I''ve heard of."


    "Well, he only eats planets which have life on the surface and a molten core. This is a known fact. Hala does not have a molten core and Nova Prime is a water core planet. That''s why those two planets are the capitals of their regions even though most of the surface of the planets are basically uninhabitable. They have disadvantages, but they will never be eaten by Galactus."


    "Okay, I''ll bite. How would anyone migrate there if ships explode heading there?"


    "My ship won''t explode. I''ll head over and get the coordinates and then I can make a permanent teleportation pad anywhere the Skrulls want which can shift people and supplies between that planet to the pad. I would recommend putting the pad on a ship. I could also put a few emergency teleporters on the planet in case they need to get off for some reason."


    Carol gave a look of mild disbelief and asked, "You''d really be willing to do this?"


    "My ship can easily travel faster than light so it''s less than a day trip to head to the planet, scout a bit, and get some coordinates. Making the transporter pad is a bit tricker, but like I said, I owe you a favor."


    Harry downloaded what was currently known about the planet into a memory card and handed it to Carol. "Let me know if the Skrulls come to a decision. I have a voicemail you can call which I check at least once a week. Leave a message on that for a place to meet and I''ll head over. Pick some Skrulls and I''ll show them around the planet to see if they like it enough to make it their new home."


    Carol considered and nodded before finishing off her glass and getting up. "Well then. I guess I''ll see you around." She turned to leave, made it about three steps, before turning back and grabbing and putting the cap on the scotch. She saw the hurt look Harry gave her and she smiled and said, "On the house right?" And took the remainder of the bottle with her out the door.


    Harry sighed and ordered the robots to pack everything up. It took another half hour but Harry was able to move everything into storage and leave the planet the way he found it.


    Harry''s next stop was Kamar-Taj to see the Ancient One.


    Her reaction to seeing him was of course, "Hello Harry. What have you done this time?"


    Harry impishly smirked at the fact that he rarely made informal visits simply because there was rarely a long period where he didn''t head over to her due to some calamity that had occurred.


    "Nothing that bad. Well, I may have used an over the top prank to overthrow the cyber dictator of an alien empire, but this visit doesn''t relate to that."


    She gave Harry a deadpan stare and said, "I see."


    Harry opened a portal and pulled out the Black Vortex. It was too large to put into his inventory and shrinking magic didn''t work on it. He wasn''t sure he''d put it in his inventory even if he could since it seemed to have a mind of its own. Harry would put an Infinity Stone into his inventory before he put something with a mind of its own in there again.


    He''d actually done so once with the Ancient One''s permission using the Time Stone. All he learned about it was that the Time Stone was basically granted Admin Access to some of the Coding of the universe. That was useful to know since it helped Harry reorganize his attempt to recreate Block Transfer Computations in this reality. Of course not every User could properly handle Admin Access and there were ways of tracking those who had Admin Privileges, so using the Time Stone in any big way would allow those looking for it to track and find it.


    The Ancient One did not recognize the Mirror but she did sense it reach out to her. She looked at her reflection in the mirror for a few moments before asking, "And what exactly is this?"


    "A Celestial Artifact probably made to boost the rate of evolution. The greater your potential, the more the Cosmic Power it grants you will strengthen you. Compatibility with Cosmic Power is probably seen as the right evolutionary direction to the Celestials."


    The Ancient One nodded, understanding what he was pointing out. The Celestials wanted evolution. They wanted life in the universe to progress to a more powerful, more complex state, and saw it as their purpose to facilitate the change. There were theories that a Celestial had visited Earth at the dawn of it''s creation and was responsible for the planet''s unique status in the universe as a concentrated source of change and power.


    Harry asked, "Don''t think I''ll use it, but before I try to take it apart and study it, I wanted to know if you wanted it for the Sanctum?"


    After taking another look at her reflection, the Ancient One answered, "No. This will not benefit the Sanctum. A easy to use shortcut to power will do more harm than good for the Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj."


    "I thought as much, just wanted to ask."


    "Thank you for that. Now, bring out the tea and tell me about this... prank."


    Harry smiled and did as instructed. His original plan didn''t require anyone to be killed, but it would also take a few months for it to work. His adjusted plan should have the Supreme Intelligence unplugged in a few weeks, a month at the most.


    Once finished, Harry headed for the University. The weekend was over and the morning had come and it was time for his first class. Now that he had a lot more classes he couldn''t personalize the pranks so he decided to go with some less than subtle ones.


    For his first week of classes, every time Harry said the word ''wave,'' he''d be struck but a silent bolt of lightning and drop dead. Then another Harry would enter the classroom and pick up where the dead Harry left off. By the end of each class, a pile of smoking corpses awkwardly littered the room.


    Some of his more stuck up students directly asked him to stop it and Harry promised he would. After he got struck by lightning and another Harry entered the room, the students would complain, and the ''new'' Harry would only point at the corpse and mention, "Oh, he promised he would stop. I didn''t. I can promise though if you want me to."


    When said thick headed student did request Harry to stop again, he said he would, and when he again got struck by lightning and replaced, the student complained again. The ''new new'' Harry pointed at the recent corpse and asked, "Would you like to take that corpse to the board of education and complain that he lied to you?"


    The laughing and snickering from the class nicely shut the man up.


    Some time during the weeks that followed, Peter somehow got two more playmates.


    Seeing Sandman as little more than a minor set back, Oscorp tried the Cellular Mineralization experiment again. This time they put the guy in a suit they felt would hold the man together and keep him strong. Harry had no idea what they were thinking putting a horn on the suit.


    It worked, mostly, and the Rhino of course broke out and charged head first into an armored bank car to rob it.


    In the very same week, a privately funded super soldier project run by someone Harry considered a crackpot trying to scam people out of their money, ending up producing their own super-human. Harry found that one of the people in charge of the funding was the owner of the newspaper, the Daily Bugle, J Jonah Jameson. He hated Spider-Man and wanted the super-soldier to defeat him and replace him as a legitimate hero. So the direction they went ended up making a Scorpion Man who had a suit with a scorpion tail that could shoot acid.


    The crackpot in charge of the project ignored the data showing why it wouldn''t work and only showed the guys paying for it the heavily edited data showing how it would work. The volunteer they got was actually a private investigator whom Jameson convinced to volunteer by threatening to fire him and paying him $10,000.


    The only thing about the entire project that surprised Harry was that the poor sod survived. Harry did in fact approach him and ask him if he wanted to be fixed, but the man said he liked his power and just wanted to kill Spider-Man and Jameson. Harry erased the conversation from the man''s mind and let him do what he wanted.


    At least after that Peter stopped complaining about his suit. He found out the hard way it wasn''t just bullet proof, but acid proof as well.


    The problem though was that now the number of dudes Peter fought on occasion had increased to five. Harry did say he''d let his girls out if six showed up at the same time, but that didn''t mean he''d sit by and let it happen. The next dude to get super powers, Harry would take care of himself, no matter what.


    It was a month later that Harry got a message from Carol and a place to meet. It was during school hours, so he had to do his classes first and use his Time Turner, but that wasn''t a big issue.


    In his Obscurus appearance, Harry made a portal to the region and found it was empty. He then took out a folding table from his inventory along with a folding chair and an egg timer. He spun the timer and set it on the table and sat down. Last, he took out his data pad and started browsing the local news and said, "You have five minutes to show up or I leave."


    He didn''t bother looking around or searching the area. Two minutes later, a green skinned Skrull and Carol both showed up.


    The Skrull looked over Harry for a bit and said, "You''re not what I expected."


    Harry looked up and asked. "What were you expecting?"


    The Skrull shrugged and answered, "I don''t honestly don''t know. But you don''t look like the person who took down the Supreme Intelligence."


    Harry smiled at that. The whole of the Galaxy knew that the Supreme Intelligence had been retired. They really did try to keep the reason a secret, but word got out eventually.


    Turns out there was a massive conspiracy involving a bomb and some experimental procedures that could grant a power up. A group of Kree were selected and organs were replaced to grant them amazing powers. They then claimed they found the Black Vortex and claimed their powers came from it. They were to take the Black Vortex, which was actually a bomb designed by Kree scientists, to Hala where it would be charged and used to destroy 99% of all Kree on the planet.


    Of course, the Supreme Intelligence denied this, but there was a lot of proof that the Supreme Intelligence had done so. The body of the Kree scientist who exposed the plan, the batteries in the experimented Kree''s organs, the bomb itself, and the communications blackout that stopped anyone from leaving Hala.


    The Supreme Intelligence claimed it was all fake, a frame job. The SI stated that there was no record of any scientist named Rank-Pa or any experiments that replaced organs and the bomb was not created on the SI''s orders.


    When the body of Rank-Pa vanished, when the batteries taken from the Kree went missing and only normal organs could be found, and when the Bomb itself appeared to have self-destructed, all evidence against the SI seemed to have vanished.


    Considering the Supreme Intelligence had absolute power on the planet, the fact that all evidence against it suddenly vanished did not actually help the Supreme Intelligence''s case.


    As a final measure, the leaders of the Kree isolated the Supreme Intelligence''s Core Directives and ran a simulation. The simulation was about the scenario that Rank-Pa told the Kree. Would sacrificing the lives of a majority of the Kree to make the Kree race stronger go against the Core Directives? The SI could edit its own data, deceive, and lie, but this would prove once and for all if the possibility actually existed.


    The answer was a definitive yes. This scenario did not in fact go against the directives programmed into the Supreme Intelligence. Kree could be sacrificed in any number as long as it was for the good of all Kree.


    Although the Kree High Command understood this, they never realized the lengths that such a directive could justify. If sacrificing 99% of all Kree increased the likelihood that the remaining Kree would evolve into a superior species, then it did in fact go along with its objective, for the good of all Kree, to kill off 99% of the Kree population.


    This realization, more than anything else, resulted in the shut down of the Supreme Intelligence. Regardless of whether or not the SI was being framed, the possibility that the Supreme Intelligence could theoretically justify such an action meant it could not be allowed to continue running the Kree empire.


    Harry answered the Skrull''s query, "Believe it or not, looks can be deceiving."


    The Skrull rolled his eyes and shook his head. He then extended his hand and Harry took it for a shake. He said, "Talos, current leader of the Skrull."


    Harry replied, "Obscurus, talented prankster and performer of impossible feats."


    Talos smiled and asked, "So, you have an idea of a planet we can relocate to?"


    Harry pulled a large, rolled up rug from his inventory and threw it. It unfurled in the air and started floating a foot off the ground. Harry walked over and stepped onto it. It had a decent amount of give, like stepping onto a pile of sand, but you wouldn''t fall if you kept firm footing. He walked from the back of the carpet to the front and sat on the front. He then threw a large portal in front of the carpet that overlooked the ground, far below the portal''s opening.


    He looked back and said, "Take a seat, and I''ll give you the grand tour."


    Talos and Carol gave each other a look and shared a shrug before taking a careful step onto the carpet and sitting down towards the middle.


    The carpet slowly floated through the portal showing Talos and Carol the scenery of the planet. The moment the portal was behind them and closed, the front of the carpet fell forwards and the whole thing ended up dive bombing towards the surface of the planet.


    Talos''s little girl-like scream could be easily heard over the rushing wind passing them by. Talos also proceeded to update Harry''s knowledge of Skrull profanities.


    Carol eventually tapped on Harry''s shoulder giving Harry the impression to stop messing with Talos, so Harry decelerated the carpet while steering it upright and eventually horizontally.


    Talos took a few moments to regain his breath before he asked, "Did you really have to do that?"


    Harry turned back and asked, "Do you still think I don''t look like someone who pranked the Supreme Intelligence into early retirement?"


    "No, you look like someone capable of much worse."


    Harry nodded, pleased with Talos''s accurate observation.


    Once Talos took a long look at the planet, he no longer seemed to care what had happened. The electromagnetic field of the planet kept the ionized space gases out, so there was no issue with using technology on the planet. Though Harry said only ten percent of the planet had land, the planet was a size larger than Earth and that land was a continent larger than Asia.


    The planet itself was lush with life. The trees and plants did not have chlorophyll, and were not green, but had multitudes of colors making the forests look like a work of art. There were mountains made almost entirely of quartz crystal. There were many fruit bearing plants and most of the animals above land were herbivorous while the ones that were not could be handled easily enough. Even the waters near the shores had crystal clear water and some bioluminescent reefs.


    There were multiple regions on the continent and many resources could be found. The most useful materials were the fossilized bones of some ancient titanic sized whales from before the second sun blew up. The minerals in those fossils contained components unlike other fossils and had a variety of uses from construction to medicine.


    Harry only had five hours so he spent three of it giving a grand tour. The transporter he made from them would be large enough to shift over small craft, so they could use them to explore the planet at their leisure. Talos was quite busy using what Harry ?ssumed was a camera on all the sights and from the number of pictures taken, Harry figured the guy really liked the place.


    Harry had already obtained soil samples from the various regions and took them out of his inventory to hand to Talos once the tour was over.


    Though Harry''s back was turned the whole time, he could tell that Talos had cried at a few points. It really was a nice planet, just a little inaccessible to those without the ability to traverse the ion cloud.


    At the end, Talos tried not to give away his giddiness as he said, "I will be discussing the details of the planets with my brothers in arm and should reach a decision in a month or so." The fact that Carol actually giggled at his attempt to be serious showed exactly how enthusiastic he really seemed to be.


    Harry nodded and said, "Alright, contact me when you''ve made your decision. If you decide on that planet, it will take me a week to make a pair of teleporters which can shift from one to the other. You''d best gather the supplies needed for an expedition to make a base camp before then."


    Talos rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know, we''ve done this before."


    Harry smirked and said, "See you then," and turned to head out. This morning he''d gotten an invitation to create a booth for the Stark Expo that would be starting in a few months and Tony wanted to give him the first pick of places to set up.


    *Author''s Note*


    One more chapter until we''ve reached the point of Iron Man 2, Thor, and Hulk.. And it certainly won''t be a boring chapter. Harry will fight an ancient, evil former Sorcerer Supreme and get his final Harem member, Red Sonja!

 Chapter 86 - 86 Red Sonja and the Jewel of Gath

    Towards the end of the Fall Semester of 2010, Harry was getting busier and busier. Ever since the Black Vortex fiasco, Harry has had to hold back with using the Time Turner to double his daylight hours. If an emergency came up during a time he''d already used the Time Turner, he would not be able to do much with it.


    Over the last few months he had submitted Doctoral Thesis Papers for the numerous subjects he was qualified to hold a Master''s Degree in. None were as groundbreaking as his Metaphysics research, but it didn''t need to be. He just didn''t want Reed or Doom to have more Doctorates than he did or he''d lose his right to demand his former students to use his Professor Title.


    The Skrulls did eventually agree to make the planet Harry showed them their new home. The planet had its own share of diseases and pests, but to the shapeshifting nomadic Skrulls, nothing on the planet was something they couldn''t adapt to. Harry crafted a large scale transporter for the Skrulls to ?ssemble at a location of their choice. He included a built in failsafe that would allow Harry to remotely destroy the transporter or just turn it off if the Skrulls decided to use it for something less than savory. Not that Harry told them about that little feature. No one who took advantage of Harry''s kindness would be shown any form of mercy.


    The Quest Reward was a new Map Function in Harry''s Settings. Previously, he could Zoom out to see the whole planet. Now he could zoom out indefinitely. Using his map he could zoom out of the Milky Way and Zoom into the Andromeda Galaxy and see other planets he''d visited. This meant he could use a Portal to go anywhere he''d been to before, even if he didn''t have the coordinates. Basically, he''d unlocked Intergalactic Fast Travel.


    However, with the exception of taking his girls on intergalactic dates, he didn''t have much to do at the moment in the wider Galaxy. Navi the Drone usually spent its time scouting the Milky Way while releasing communication nodes. It took a moment to go from one star to another, check for life bearing planets, and move on. That being said, there were a hundred billion stars in this Galaxy alone, so it was going to take a while before anything useful came of it.


    On the afternoon of Dec 21, on the first week of Winter Break, Harry felt something strange had occurred. He looked around his home and saw the stone floors, the red curtains, and the papyrus books and knew something was definitely strange. He set down his bone quill and walked over to his bookcase filled with hyborian texts and confirmed it was the same as always, but still felt something was off.


    Harry pulled the curtain back and looked outside and saw the axe wielding barbarian guards wearing horned helmets , the rag wearing serfs, and the collared slaves going about their daily lives as usual, but something about it too seemed off.


    Harry put on his robes and walked down the carved stone staircase to his first floor''s waiting room. The weapons and tapestries lined the walls as decorations just like they always had. Suddenly an orange tabby cat walked in from another room and Harry frowned. One part of his mind asked how the cat had entered his home, and another knew this to be his familiar, Goose.


    Goose meowed, conveying the thought, ''New decorations?''


    Instinctively, Harry did what he always did when he became confused, he Paused.


    Some part of him didn''t understand why time had stopped when he did so, but another part did. Harry closed his eyes and started meditating.


    *Ping*


    [Status: Historical Overwrite Resisted.]


    Harry remained Paused but took a few more moments to collect himself and analyze what had just happened. Something had just re-written the past and him along with it, but it was not done naturally and in fact was done incredibly f?r??b??. This did not mean the perpetrator was weak, on the contrary, the fact that they could successfully pull off such a feat meant they were extremely powerful.


    Harry was able to recover his memories partially because the spell didn''t fully take and partially because of Goose. Goose is not from Earth, and effects that rewrite Earth''s past can''t affect her.


    Harry was moderately disappointed that his house, even after all the magic protections he built into it, didn''t protect him. That being said, he couldn''t fault the house. A magic spell that rewrote the past could get around any protections that didn''t specifically protect against temporal interference, and Harry couldn''t create such protections yet.


    Harry asked Goose, "When did everything change?"


    Goose meowed back, ''A few minutes ago.''


    Harry nodded. That meant he noticed it almost right away which made him feel less stupid. Harry pulled a Holographic recorder out of his inventory and felt the space try to rewrite it into something less modern. Harry conjured a few spells to resist the effect and set the recorder to automatically play the message in a few minutes.


    When the recorder was ready to start recording the message, Harry said, "Help me Ancient One. You''re my only hope. No, really. Someone is pulling some time shenanigans. I''ll fix it from my side. Please set a Save Point at these coordinates."


    Harry then pulled out a rubber ducky and turned it into a portkey which would send it to the Ancient One''s room. And last, Harry pulled out his time turner and tied the rubber duck to the recorder with the Time Turner''s cord and turned the hour glass backwards three times before setting it on the ground.


    The Time Turner vanished as it took the portkey and phone back into the past. Once there, the portkey would activate, taking the recorder to the Ancient One to ensure she got the message. Whoever set this up wasn''t the only one who could play with time after all.


    Harry conjured up some food and water for Goose and left his home to find out what was going on. All of his girls were out at the moment and all things considered, they would probably get into trouble soon and have just as many memory problems as he did.


    Harry made himself invisible and flew into the air to get a look at the city. The whole of Manhattan had been replaced with a carved stone metropolis. Around the city was a golden curtain of light and Harry could see that beyond it was the normal city of New York. Harry flew closer to the curtain and noticed someone from the other side trying to walk into his side. The person had been a man in a business suit on the modern side but once he walked through, his wardrobe changed to match what everyone else was wearing. Harry flew down and read the man''s thoughts. As far as he knew, the world always looked like this, meaning the curtain had shifted the man as well.


    Although Harry broke free of the spell''s control, he made sure to keep the knowledge the spell had imprinted into his head to use it. That was a good idea because english was not the language of choice of the hyborian age the spell was apparently replicating.


    It was then that Harry saw something he really had not been expecting. A certain red and blue suit swinging from building to building.


    Harry flew to the ground nearby and made himself visible before calling out, "Hey Spider," in english.


    Peter did a mid-air U-Turn and quickly spotted Harry. "Professor Potter! Thank god! You can understand me, right? Please Tell Me You Can Understand Me!" he shouted frantically.


    Harry shook his head and answered, "Yes Peter, I can still speak English."


    Peter exhaled theatrically and Harry rolled his eyes. Harry''s energy senses clearly showed that the Web connecting Peter to the past and future appeared unchanged. Harry figured the web might have prevented Peter''s past from getting overwritten like everyone else''s.


    Peter asked, "What''s going on? One moment I was just swinging through Manhattan and the next, everything is stone and no one understands what I''m saying and everyone has these axes, and they were shouting and then there were these kids and-"


    Harry interrupted, "Not sure what''s going on. I''m still looking." Harry took Peter''s wrist and confirmed that the computer system he installed in Peter''s suit worked just fine. Harry had no idea why Peter''s costume also survived, but he wasn''t going to complain. Harry used the technopathic interface in the suit to download a translator for the hyborian language and a few security protocols.


    Harry said, "Search around for clues and make a lot of noise if you find anything. The suit will translate what everyone says now so you won''t have a communication issue."


    Peter stopped Harry before he could leave and said, "Wait, the kids. I saw a group of armed guards taking a large group of kids in chains somewhere. No one was stopping them and I didn''t know what to do."


    Harry replied, "If you see them again, follow them and find out where the kids are being taken."


    "Okay Harry," Peter acknowledged what to do and shot a web towards a nearby roof and pulled himself into the air.


    Instead, Harry used the telepathic equivalent of a Jedi mind trick to make them think nothing interesting was going on and take a peek at who ordered them to come over. Unfortunately it was just a standing order to check out weird things so Harry needed to look elsewhere for info.


    According to the false memories in his head, this city was run by Kulan Gath, a powerful sorcerer. Two days ago, according to his memories, the library holding all records of the past was destroyed on Gath''s orders. The papyrus books in Harry''s house were in fact blank as well. Harry just didn''t know they were blank and the spell made him ignore it.


    In this world, Harry''s false memories had him as a revered historian and scribe, and Gath had apparently requested for Harry to be his personal scribe starting today, which was the only reason Harry knew anything about him.


    Other than that, Harry didn''t have much information on Gath at all and Harry doubted anyone else did either. The only thing he knew was that whoever did this was very, very powerful. Whatever the spell had done was also interfering with Harry''s searching magic so he couldn''t locate his girls the easy way.


    Thankfully, Harry didn''t have to wait long. A few streets away, Harry heard the familiar clang of metal on metal, a clear indication that there was a fight going on. Harry raced over through the groups running away from the danger and saw Rogue and Jade fighting against a group of guards. Rogue wasn''t using her powers and Jade wasn''t using Chi Magic or her Dragon Heart. In fact now that Harry thought about it, he didn''t even know he knew magic until he''d broken the spell.


    Thankfully, neither Jade nor Rogue overly relied on their gifts and were far from helpless without them. Jade was skillfully using martial arts and Rogue was a highly adept brawler so the axe wielding guards weren''t much of a threat after Rogue had swiped one of their weapons. The issue was that the number of guards was increasing.


    Harry used some telepathy to learn from the guards that this started because a pair of elite guards from Gath''s Palace came onto the pair and had their faces smashed in for their trouble. These elite guards called for reinforcements and things escalated from there.


    Harry pulled out a Stunner grenade and tossed it at the group. In an era where weapons consisted of axes, swords, bows and magic, a canister being tossed into a crowd didn''t attract any attention. Three seconds later, a blinding wave of red light caused everyone in the street to fall unconscious, including Rogue and Jade. The pair had a high tolerance against magic, but that was only compared to normal folk and Harry''s Stunner Grenades had thirty spells crammed into them until it reached critical mass.


    Harry had shielded himself prior to the blast and once everyone was down, he grabbed his girls with telekinesis and pulled them into a corner, making them all invisible.


    Gath looked over the street but saw nothing but unconscious guards and bystanders. The head faded a moment later but Harry figured it was still watching, so while maintaining his invisibility he flew while taking the still invisible Rogue and Jade with him a few blocks away to a flat roof.


    Once in the clear, Harry delved into the pair''s minds and found that they too had partially resisted the change, but had nothing they could use to forcefully resist it. Jade had traveled through time before which grants some resistance to being rewritten and her 1,000 past lives of Chi and the magical Dragon Heart within her had shielded her mind from direct influence.


    Rogue partially resisted as well. She still maintained a connection to all those whose powers she could borrow, but her memories of how to use it were overwritten. Those connections however could not be cut from the spell that caused this, so they acted as a lifeline.


    Were it not for both girls resisting the change of history, when asked by the elite guards, they would not have dared to refuse, which of course led to Harry finding them in the first place.


    Harry did to the pair what he did to himself, made a copy of the knowledge they were given, and then removed the suppression on their memories while returning the copy so they knew what was going on.


    Once they were mostly back to normal, Harry cast innervate on the pair to wake them up.


    Rogue was the first to respond, "Ugh. Haven''t had a headache like this in a long while."


    Jade''s first response was to do a double take of the clothes she was in and shout, "What am I wearing?!"


    Harry patiently waited for the pair to ?ssimilate the new knowledge and for their memories to kick in, letting them recall the situation they were just in.


    Jade eventually asked, "So how screwed are we?"


    Harry answered, "Us? Not very. I could still make a portal to Xandar and we could just ignore all of this, but I''d rather not give up New York to some crazy magic dude. This is my territory." Harry''s voice in the last sentence was resolute. He hadn''t gone through all the trouble of making a life here just to have someone else take everything for themselves.


    Jade''s eyes were shining, she asked, "So does that mean we can finally fight?!"


    Harry smiled and said, "Yes Jade, that means you can fight. No killing though. If we can reverse this the easy way, the guards and everyone else will return to normal."


    Rogue asked, "And if the easy way doesn''t work?"


    Harry replied, "Naturally I have a plan B." Harry then turned to ask Rogue, "Can you feel your connection to Wanda and track her?"


    Rogue stared off into the distance for a moment and pointed, "My girl''s that''a way."


    Jade smiled and a moment later, her form changed to that of a 25 year old wearing a red cheongsam embroidered with a golden dragon and a red face mask that covered her mouth and nose. Rogue used the shapeshifting power she''d gotten from Mystique to turn herself into an ?du?t blonde. Harry insisted that the pair maintain secret identities so these were their disguises. People might be able to guess who they are in the future, but Harry preferred to keep that day away for as long as possible.


    After preparing themselves, Rogue used Jean''s power to fly while Harry and Jade took to the skies themselves and flew to the other end of Manhattan where Rogue felt Wanda was located.


    Upon getting closer, Harry was not surprised to see Wanda already fighting. What did surprise him though was that she was fighting using chaos magic and she was not fighting alone. She seemed to be fighting alongside a busty redhead wielding a magic sword and wearing a boobmail bikini.


    What was almost as surprising as the boobmail bikini was that they were not fighting guards. The pair were fighting against Rhino, Electro, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, and Scorpion. Each had also been given a hyborian makeover and Harry sensed magic within each of them. Doc Oct''s extra arms were no longer devices crafted with precise science, but metallic tentacles which grew from his back. Scorpion was no longer wearing a suit, but seemed to be a man-scorpion hybrid complete with hard shell and pincers for arms. Rhino also didn''t appear to be a large man in a Rhino suit, but a large, human shaped rhino. Electro and Sandman looked about the same, though their clothes were different.


    And although Wanda had access to her powers, she was being pushed back. Wanda''s chaos magic was something that could rewrite reality, but Harry sensed that this world was actively suppressing her even though she was wearing hyborian clothes, so she was not like Spider-Man who had completely avoided the change.


    Harry Paused so he could take a better look at everything, and take a long, appreciative look at a smoking hot redhead capable of pulling off a chainmail bikini. Against such a lineup, a sword, no matter how heavily enchanted, should not be that useful, but the redhead was clearly holding her own which showed how impressive her skill must''ve been.


    Though the reality altering effects of Chaos magic were dampened, Jade''s Dragon Heart and Rogue''s powers, besides any attempt to borrow Wanda''s powers, were not affected. Harry pulled a staff out of his inventory and was pleased that the reality warping magic of this place didn''t affect it. Harry figured it was because Harry had used magic to craft it, nothing modern since his magic crafting skills would produce something superior to something made with modern tools.


    The moment they landed, Doctor Octopus turned to them and stated in hyborian, "Return from whence you came. Master Gath has demanded the witch for himself and the swords woman must die for interfering. Turn back lest you suffer the same fate!"


    Harry didn''t care for witty banter and cast an explosion hex at the Doctor''s ?h?st. Faster than one would think possible, the metallic tentacles covered his torso to shield him from the hit, but that did not stop the explosion from sending him across the street through a nearby wall.


    Sandman grew in size and turned into a massive wave which crossed the distance between then and rose in the air to slam down on Harry and the girls. Rogue used Iceman''s powers to freeze the wave of sand into a wall of ice and Jade flew forward and smashed her fist into Scorpion''s armored torso. A loud crack was heard and Scorpion joined Otto on the other side of the wall they had both been slammed through, with the latter not having even gotten up yet.


    Wanda was busy using a magic shield to guard herself and the redhead from Electro''s lightning blast and protecting her back was the redhead herself who was slicing through the Rhino''s ridiculously thick hide only to have the massive beast regenerate after each debilitating blow.


    Once Sandman was iced and Scorpion was out cold, Jade exhaled a torrent of dragon fire from her mouth towards the Rhino and Rogue used Cyclop''s optics beam to blast the human capacitor down the street.


    Harry used the staff to cast another spell, this time towards the air above Wanda. The astral head of Kulan Gath was revealed and vanished with the strike, only to reappear at the end of the street staring hatefully at them all. Unlike before, his image was clear. The man looked ancient beyond words, had a nose that put Snape''s beak to shame, and every inch of his face was covered in cruel wrinkles.


    First it locked eyes with the redhead. "Red Sonja. 10,000 years and like the stench off a rotting carcass I still cannot be rid of you. You luck is strong as ever to have survived against my newest toys."


    The now named redhead pointed her swords at the astral illusion and shouted, "No thrice-damned half baked hellspawn slays Red Sonja!"


    Harry, Rogue, and Jade did a double take at the language and Wanda just shrugged, apparently having already gotten use to it in the short time they had fought together.


    Next the foreboding figure turned to face the young man he had tried to make his scribe and stated, "Harry Potter. You shall be fired."


    Harry snorted in amusement and said, "You couldn''t afford my wages anyways."


    "No, you foolish wizard, you shall face eternal hellfire for getting in my way." He then turned to Wanda and said, "You need not be devoured. Bend the knee. Serve me and you shall be spared."


    Harry interrupted and said, "That''s my wife you prune faced testicle chinned frog nosed wart of a conjurer."


    Seeing the various shades of color Gath displayed made Harry rethink his no witty banter policies. It was kinda fun after all.


    The face stated hatefully, "The Man-Spider has already been captured. I shall remove his flesh layer by layer. Save him if you can, heroes." His eyes glowed and the fallen foes around them vanished as his head faded into silence.


    Harry turned to face Wanda and asked, "You remember?"


    Wanda turned to engulf Harry in a hug and said, "Yes. He tried to change my past, manipulate my emotions, and make me serve him. When my memories didn''t match my heart, I was able to figure it out and break free from his control. But then I felt my powers get suppressed."


    Harry asked, "What did he mean when he said devour?"


    Red Sonja spoke up at this point, "Gath has gained his wretched power by devouring the hearts of powerful sorcerers and sorceresses. I was nearby when your scarlet witch broke free. A bolt of light struck me and my sword returned to my hand and I remembered my past."


    Rogue asked, "You know this Gath bastard?"


    Red Sonja''s eyes narrowed and answered, "Gath''s men slaughtered my family before my eyes and stole my innocence! It was on that day that I was blessed by the goddess to exact revenge against evil such as Gath and all those who serve him."


    Jade said, "So what are we waiting for?! Peter''s getting tortured!"


    Harry said, "It''s a trap. Nine out of ten chance he wants to use us for some ritual and Peter''s the bait to get us to come to him."


    Red Sonja stated, "I''ve taken his head before and I shall do so again. Time is not our ally and wasting it plays into that damnable wretch''s plot. I shall go to his palace and take his head. With or without thee."


    Harry sighed and Paused. She wasn''t exactly wrong but she was missing a few points. Today was the winter solstice and the point at which the sun was the furthest from the planet was in a few hours. Whatever ritual Gath had planned would go in with or without them not leaving an option of ignoring it.


    Although Harry hadn''t heard of Kulan Gath or Red Sonja before, he did know of the hyborian era and wondered if Red Sonja knew of Conan the Barbarian. Back in those days, the world had many close encounters with old gods and many new gods rose up to protect the world through their champions. The old gods taught their worshippers magics that have since been lost to time and though Harry could make some educated guesses, he didn''t know precisely what Gath could and could not do.


    Still, he was a video game character going up against a Sorcerer from 10,000 years ago. He had options.


    After formulating a plan, Harry unpaused and said, "Marching into Gath''s Palace means walking into his trap. I have a way to get us all into his palace and around the brunt of whatever plan he''s contrived."


    Jade said, "Oh! You''re gonna use-," and had her mouth covered by Wanda. Technically Jade''s mouth was already covered by a mask, but she got the point that Gath was still likely monitoring them and not to spill the beans before the big surprise.


    Wanda asked Red Sonja, "Please trust Harry and come with us. We''ll fight him together and we''ll do it smartly."


    Red Sonja met each of the girl''s eyes and saw the absolute trust they had in Harry. She sighed and said, "Very well."


    Harry nodded and said, "Head for my house first. Once everything is ready, I''ll signal you to come to the Palace."


    Before Red Sonja could ask for more details, Rogue said, "No problem sugar, just make sure to leave enough for the rest of us."


    Harry walked off into the direction of Kulan Gath''s palace at an unhurried pace. He wanted to make sure the Sorcerer''s attention was on him and with a staff in hand he wasn''t going to be stopped by any minor effort. Considering the nature of the suspected trap, Harry figured all of Gath''s big hitters were at the palace now.


    Harry was neither stopped nor impeded and even the door to the palace was left wide open and the entrance hall had no guards to be seen.


    "Harry! Stop! It''s a Trap! Ahh!" The familiar sound of Peter''s shout echoed down the halls and Harry''s pace didn''t falter in the slightest as he entered the throne room and saw a number of other figures. In addition to the five foes from before, Harry also noticed four familiar faces. Johnny, Susan, Ben, and Reed all in hyborian outfits matching that of the palace''s elite guard and all tainted in dark magic. Ben''s exterior was made of black obsidian glass. Johnny''s flames contained a hint of darkness. Reed looked like a spaghetti man and Susan looked mostly normal though was in a s?xy outfit, hidden invisibly in the corner. Moreover, each and everyone seemed to have been given some mystic buffs that would prevent them from getting magically stunned again.


    Peter was still in his suit but the hands and feet had been punctured and he was hung on a cross, unconscious and unmoving. Harry didn''t look at him and asked aloud, "Why would Reed work for someone stupider than he is?"


    Gath laughed from his throne and answered, "The Master Spell combined with some flesh crafting does wonders. I''d love to turn that Man-Spider into his namesake, but the suit he wears prevents his flesh from being crafted. Did you make it? And yet you stand before me unarmored? I will enjoy tormenting you for ages to come."


    Harry looked unconcerned at the threat despite being completely surrounded and said, "You probably just want to sacrifice us for something right? What is it? An offering to summon an old god? Strengthening yourself? Strengthening your spells?" Gath''s eye twitched a bit at that. Harry smiled and said, "Ah, you want to strengthen your spell? Let me guess, if you get enough power, you can spread that Master Spell you spoke of to every corner of the globe and rule the world. Am I close?"


    Gath Snarled and stated, "You are not ignorant of mystical matters. But you are a fool to go against me. I shall give you one last chance. Submit yourself to the control of the Master Spell and you shall be spared endless agony."


    Harry smiled once more. From the context, Harry could guess that the Master spell couldn''t control Sorcerers with any great success. Of course the only reason Gath was negotiating was that Harry was a wild card and Gath was not an idiot. Gath was unable to sense any power from Harry and Gath had long concluded that Harry''s power could not be sensed. This meant that Gath had no way to confirm Harry''s strength, and the fact that Harry had walked in with full confidence gave Gath pause.


    This was of course a strategy taught to Harry by the Ancient One. Bluff big or go home. Harry estimated that Gath was no weaker than Selene, maybe even a might stronger and his power came from the amulet around his neck. Of course, Harry was a lot stronger now than he was when he faced Selene, but Gath wasn''t alone. Then again, neither was Harry. Still, Harry preferred to work with every advantage he could get.


    Harry stepped up to Gath and said, "You think you are powerful? Try your flesh crafting on me?"


    Gath snarled once more and a bolt of green light struck Harry.


    [Flesh Manipulation Failed due to Obscurus Body.]


    Harry was of course completely unharmed. Harry didn''t have flesh and any spell that could control or shift it would have no effect.


    Harry said, "Hmm. That tickled."


    Gath was smashing his teeth together and Harry decided to end it. He charged his body to saturation with energy, something Gath couldn''t feel despite being in the same room and Harry stepped forward.


    Harry said, "Now, it''s time-" and Harry exploded in a shower of blood, flesh, and gore all over the throne room.


    Harry quickly respawned back in his room at a lower level and went downstairs to confirm the girls plus Red Sonja were waiting. Harry said, "Alright, it''s time for a surprise attack." Harry then created a large portal and Harry and the girls rushed through into the throne room. Every one of the occupants were stunned silly. Harry could only laugh inwardly at that. So what if Gath spent a ridiculous amount of energy and magic making his minions resist stun magic. There are other ways to stun people.


    The moment Harry left the portal, he locked onto Susan and knocked her out using telepathy. He wouldn''t have her creating forcefields inside his girl''s organs and inflating them to burst.


    Red Sonja and the girls charged Gath while the minions and the Sorcerer himself were still reeling back from the fact that Harry just exploded and then moments later, returned through a portal.


    Gath recovered quicker than the others and fired a mystic bolt that Red Sonja deflected with her sword before sweeping her sword at Gath''s neck.


    Gath teleported back and said, "Not this time She-devil." The former fantastic four finally regained their bearing and attacked. Jade used Yin-Yang Magic against Reed to cause him to become rigid and immobile. Wanda cast her hex bolts at Johnny which caused his fire to stop working, giving a Juggernaut empowered Rogue a shot to slug him unconscious. Harry turned the floor beneath Ben into a dry sand pit he immediately started sinking into.


    The five villains from earlier recovered just in time to watch their back up get defeated almost instantly. Harry confirmed that Gath may have been good with flesh crafting, but the fact that he didn''t save Ben meant that his transfiguration skills needed work.


    Rogue, Wanda, and Jade started attacking the villains while Red Sonja and Harry went after Gath.


    The problem though was that Gath seemed quite adept at teleporting through the astral plane. Harry conjured a few mandalas and red chains shot out and started covering the room.


    Gath shouted, "No you don''t!" and his giant astral head appeared and fell over Harry and Red Sonja, vanishing with them both.


    Harry noticed that Red Sonja was on the ground and they were in a sealed room with Gath.


    Gath said, "Welcome to your final resting place mage. Here you will help me conquer the world, or you will die."


    Harry conjured a bolt of lightning and shot it at Gath, but before the bolt could reach him, it vanished and the walls of the sealed room started glowing.


    Gath chuckled ominously and said, This room shall drain your energy. Any energy you use to attack will be absorbed and used to power the Master spell. I built this room with the Sorcerer Supreme in mind, but since he hasn''t shown up yet, you''ll do."


    Harry asked, "You know of the Sorcerer Supreme?"


    "Hehe, foolish child. In my time, I was the Sorcerer Supreme!"


    "I bet you got fired," Harry added with a smile.


    The tick that appeared on Gath''s face confirmed it.


    Sonja got up and Harry said, "Even without magic, Sonja will still slice you to pieces and you can''t direct this room to absorb my magic without your presence."


    Gath smiled and said, "So we shall see."


    It was then that Harry noticed the pulsing red glow that appeared on Red Sonja''s sword. She got up and took one look at Harry before she rose her sword to slash him through.


    Harry Paused. He was unable to build up a charge of magic so he couldn''t teleport or make a portal. He could use magic to enhance his body, but the effects would be heavily reduced and the excess magic would be used to strengthen Kulan''s spell. Although Harry''s plan B took a lot into account, he didn''t want to bet it would still work if this Master Spell got too powerful.


    He couldn''t explode again, but he could use a Load Save to sacrifice another level to escape. Still doing so would leave Red Sonja at Gath''s mercy which wasn''t an idea Harry liked. Thankfully, Gath''s plan didn''t take into account the fact that Inventory doesn''t require magic and enchanted gear can''t have their magic absorbed by the formation Gath is using, or it would absorb the spell on Sonja''s sword and free her from Gath''s control.


    Harry unpaused and equipped a full set of armor and a heavily enchanted sword, much to Gath''s shock. "How is that Possible?!"


    The enchanted armor and sword heavily boosted Harry''s already impressive physical stats and though Red Sonja''s skill with a blade was better than anyone Harry had ever heard of, much less met, Harry was able to overpower her through straight forward strikes using power and force. Zero fanciness is the key. Their rapid fire exchange of moves led Harry to believe Sonja had endless stamina but that was nothing compared to a video game character. Harry allowed for a few exchange of blows, allowing Red Sonja to hit with debilitating strikes while Harry in exchange struck her with weakening blows using his armored forearms or the side of his sword.


    Harry''s gamer body didn''t weaken when damaged much to Gath''s continued shock and the blood Harry shed turned to dust not long after it sprayed across the ground.


    Once Harry had already given Red Sonja a heavy impact to her wrist, forearm, shoulder, and pelvis, Harry moved in to disarm her and caused her blade to fly out of her hand.


    The moment the blade left her hand, she recovered herself and realized what she had done. Harry ignored the look on her face and to Gath''s cry of "Noooo!" Harry stabbed his sword into the wall. He''d already had more than enough time to analyze the room and figure out its weakness.


    The recoil of the formation breaking caused Gath to scream in pain. Harry used the chance to close in on Gath and remove the amulet and knock Gath out. Harry then made a portal back into the throne room where he carried Gath and Sonja silently followed through.


    The throne room was trashed and Harry''s girls were looking around while Gath''s minions were still bound.


    Harry woke up Gath and asked, "How do we reverse the spell and take everything back to normal. Tell me or I will destroy your amulet."


    Now that it was in his hand, Harry recognized the Horcrux for what it was.


    Gath sneered and said, "I did not design this spell to ever be broken. It has a will of its own and will continue to grow until it encompasses the world. As for destroying my amulet, I''d like to see you try. My Amulet is tied to the heart of the Master Spell. My will exists everywhere and destroying the amulet will, well, I don''t have to tell you, do I?"


    Harry frowned when he confirmed through a few different means that Gath wasn''t bluffing. So much for plan A.


    Harry shrugged and looked defeated and asked, "Then can you tell me how you did this? Who did you take over?" This was the reason Harry hadn''t killed him after getting the amulet. Since it was a Horcrux, the person he was speaking to was someone flesh crafted to look like Gath. The amulet was the real Gath.


    Gath preened at the look of defeat in Harry''s eyes and said, "A security guard at the museum picked up my Amulet a few hours ago. I took control of him and took his body for myself."


    Harry nodded. He did recall that the New York Museum of Natural History did have a new exhibit featuring some ancient relics archeologists claimed predated modern history.


    Harry then knocked out Gath and made another portal to his house and the girls followed. Red Sonja gripped her sword tightly while looking at the unconscious Gath, but decided to ignore it and entered the portal. She wanted to see what Harry would do with the Amulet.


    Harry didn''t know if he should be surprised Red Sonja followed them through. Jade asked, "What about Peter?"


    "We''re going to undo everything Gath did, including what he did to Peter. Those who do the ritual to fix it will remember what happened. I didn''t take Peter because this is not a memory I want him to have, though I''ll tell him about it later."


    Wanda asked, "Wait, you can undo this? How?" She knew almost as much magic as Harry did and she had no idea how to undo this.


    Harry answered, "Peter told me that they were taking children and Peter following them led to his capture. Once there, I could tell that the magic of the ritual was primarily powered by blood magic, specifically the blood of innocents. Since I know how it was powered, I have a few more options. I''m going to use a ritual to follow the spell back to before it was cast and change the past."


    Rogue asked, "You can do that?"


    "Not normally, but this spell has already messed up the timeline and opened the door to do so. However this spell would usually have some negative consequences, but I''ve already informed my teacher and she should be able to ?ssist with clearing those up."


    Wanda asked, "So all of us here will remember what happened? What about Red Sonja?"


    Harry looked at her for an answer.


    The swordswoman answered, "I do not know. But I would like to find out."


    Harry easily nodded and began the ritual. With the content of his inventory, it only took about fifteen minutes to set up and complete.


    Once the ritual was cast, Harry and the girls found themselves where they were a few hours ago in New York. Harry grabbed Goose and used a portal and some illusions to head over to the Museum. Destroying the Amulet was one of the many things he knew would definitely create a paradox. So Harry transmuted some gold and gemstones into a replica and used some magic to open the case without the alarm blaring and switch the amulets.


    The moment the case was opened, terrible purple tentacles shot out of Goose''s mouth and latched onto the horcrux and swallowed it whole.


    Harry set the fake in and fixed everything back to the way it should be before heading over to see the Ancient One to complete the closed time loop. It had been a busy day.


    *Author''s Note*


    85% of the BS that occurred in this chapter actually happened in the comics. Selene was there too, but including her would have forced me to split this into two chapters when I already promised this would be the last filler before we get started on the next set of movies.. There will be a bit more filler in the next chapter and then we''ll get moving.

 Chapter 87 - 87 The Stark Expo

    Harry''s meeting with the Ancient One following the Reset went about as well as can be expected. The Reset Point the Ancient One setup allowed for Harry''s memories of what occurred to transfer back into the past and alter it to prevent the event that disturbed the timeline.


    If the separate timeline were stable, it would become independent and continue to exist even after the Reset Ritual was used. However, Gath''s spell created a timeline that was anything but stable and both Harry and the Ancient One confirmed that the Timeline of Gath''s conquest no longer existed.


    What Harry found odd was that after finishing everything, the Ancient One said, "There used to be a Third Party that took care of matters such as this, but I have not noticed their presence in this timelines since a year before I met you, when you returned from the great beyond."


    Harry wondered what that meant and figured he''d find out eventually. It also however meant that whoever usually cleans up messes like this could not be counted on at the moment.


    The spring semester brought two large and welcomed changes to Harry''s life of late. The first was that some time after March, Jean had used her Intergalactic Portkey and returned home after busting the last planet on her list. Sure, there were many other planets in need of ''pruning,'' but none of them were so bad as to absolutely necessitate a good burn for at least a decade or two, giving Jean time to get more used to her powers.


    Once Jean had better control, she could use more of the Phoenix''s powers without losing herself, and maybe one day teleport to a planet and remove it and teleport home afterwards.


    The second and larger change was the addition of a new house mate.


    Mary Jane Watson showed up a day after Jean returned and was welcomed by Jean into the fold while a rather confused Harry watched.


    MJ elaborated that during the conquest of Gath, the piece of Chaos magic which awoke Red Sonja had struck her. She was Red Sonja''s reincarnation, meaning she remembered everything. However it was more than that. According to MJ, the Goddess that blessed Red Sonja stated she could never be with a man who could not best her in fair combat. Although Red Sonja had been enspelled by Gath to attack Harry, she hadn''t held back and was bested. Although Harry''s equipment was enchanted, so too was the sword and armor Red Sonja wore so it was in fact a fair battle in which Harry won by disarming her.


    MJ had long figured out that Harry''s girls had superpowers and the main reason she continued to hesitate about her feelings was that she didn''t feel like she would fit it. When Red Sonja gave her the chance to gain the blessings of a goddess and the greatest sword skills in the world, she didn''t hesitate to agree.


    When Harry felt how MJ felt about him, he could only smile and ask her out on a date.


    Harry did ask Jean, "Do you foresee anyone else joining your Harem?"


    Jean corrected, "Our Harem. And no. MJ was the last. I can''t foresee your future, no one can. But I can see how many hearts you are connected to, even if you haven''t connected to them yet."


    MJ also joined the group in the Hard-Light Training shortly after she moved in. What was interesting was that when she wanted to, she could change her form to revert back to that of Red Sonja, enchanted sword and bikini armor and all.


    Red Sonja had memories of fighting countless strange and bizarre things and Harry had an interesting time programming the Hard-Light Training Room to mimic some of them. Unlike the rest of the girls, Red Sonja had experience leading others and fighting as a team, so when she requested group training exercises, Harry had no reason to refuse, though usually he didn''t get an invite and the girls just trained together without him.


    After the group''s training sessions, they often implied and insinuated over meals that the training was far s?xier than Harry was certain it actually was. There were several points where Harry just picked up the offending insinuator and took her to his room to grind the Sex Path.


    By April, his Sex Path had reached 35.


    It was also during late April that Coulson showed up at the door.


    Coulson smirked, removed his sunglasses, and replied, "Hello Professor Potter. I have been asked to get the details on the showcase you''ll be displaying at the Stark Expo."


    Harry said, "No problem, can I invite you in for tea or coffee?"


    "Tea would be good."


    Stark had given Harry a map of the grounds at the Stark Expo and told him he could pick anywhere he wanted to set whatever he wanted up. After surveying the grounds with a drone, Harry picked a location near the entrance but never said what he would be showcasing. Tony didn''t mind in the slightest, but Shield had been having an aneurysm thinking of all the possible things Harry might end up showing off to the public.


    Harry didn''t bother making the tea, he just went into the kitchen and pulled out a ready made, freshly brewed set from his inventory and brought it back into the living room where Coulson was admiring some of the historical relics on display in Harry''s home.


    Other than those who were invited, Shield had never been able to get anyone inside Harry''s house. There had even been requests to dispatch Ghost, someone who was capable of walking through walls, but no one had figured out yet if Ghost would be capable of walking through Hard-Light and since Harry was still considered an Asset, Ghost had not been sent.


    Coulson didn''t show any surprise that Harry was only in the kitchen for a moment before he brought out a freshly brewed tea pot. He wasn''t sure if there was anything Harry could do that would surprise him.


    Harry poured two cups and said, "If anyone else asked me what I planned to do at the expo, I''d tell them it was a surprise. But if you can keep it a secret, I''ll show you."


    Harry took a few sips of tea and went down to the basement to collect a few things. He returned a moment later and saw Coulson enjoying the tea properly.


    Coulson did his best not to show any surprise and lightly asked, "Are those, lightsabers?"


    Harry answered, "To prevent lawsuits, they are light batons."


    "And you''re going to... sell them... at the expo?" he asked for clarification, hoping he was wrong.


    Harry smiled and picked one up and turned it on. A blue beam instantly extended outward. It looked exactly as one would expect from a lightsaber. Harry then passed his hand through it harmlessly. The beam was cut as if it was from a flashlight as his hands went over it. He moved the beam through the coffee table and nothing happened. There was no cut, no heat, nothing. It was just a fancy flashlight.


    Coulson released the breath he hadn''t known he''d been holding in relief that these ''light swords'' were in fact just harmless toys.


    Harry smiled and motioned for Coulson to pick up the other one. Coulson didn''t protest and did exactly that, causing a green beam to extend out.


    Then Harry did something Coulson didn''t expect. He moved his blue sword at Coulson''s green one. And Coulson felt the handle jerk to the side as his sword bounced off Harry''s. They didn''t just pass through each other.


    This had Coulson''s attention.


    Harry continued, "A Hard-Light construct that can only interact with Hard-Light." Harry pointed to the map of the Stark Expo and the clearing behind the location Harry chose and said, "I''ll make an arena for people to spar against each other. If your sword hits your opponent, they lose. Perfectly harmless and safe since the swords would just pass through people, but cool to watch and fun to use."


    Harry could clearly see Coulson''s interest and said, "$175 a piece,. However, each guest of the Stark Expo can only buy one. If someone wants to buy more than one, they must defeat me in light sword combat and I''ll be available on Saturdays."


    Coulson couldn''t help but chuckle at that.


    Harry then leaned forward and said, "Each one also has a serial number and I only made ten thousand of them."


    Coulson looked at the one in his hand and said the number, [0001] on it. His eyes turned wide as his collector instincts emerged.


    Harry continued, "Tell you what Coulson. If you tell Fury and Shield that I stone walled you and insisted that the showcase will be a surprise. I''ll give this to you."


    Coulson looked up at Harry with a smile and asked, "Are you bribing a government agent?"


    Harry answered, "I don''t know. Did you hear anything about my plans for the Stark Expo?"


    Coulson answered, "I was told it''s going to be a surprise."


    Harry smiled and gave Coulson the charger for the Light Baton and bid him a good day. Harry''s own Light Baton had the serial number [0000] of course.


    A number of Shield Agents rushed to the front of the line with the first one asking, "Can I buy them all?" Apparently this was a possible contingency they had already set up.


    Harry answered, "One sale per Stark Expo Guest pass. If you want more, you must defeat me in combat."


    The Agent clearly wasn''t expecting that kind of answer. The guest passes were actually something Harry had made up and included a number of features. Everyone who attended only got one pass and it was not possible to get a second for the same person without taking someone else''s, though that was not enough to buy from Harry.


    The Agent still bought the baton and tested it out under the watchful eyes of the others. When they found it was harmless, they let out a collective sigh of relief. Of course, they still stayed in line. Shield Agents loved cool toys as much as anyone.


    It didn''t take long for a pair of agents to notice the Screen behind Harry showed that the batons could physically interact with each other, and soon, three pairs of agents were playing around in the arena behind Harry''s booth.


    This ended up acting as advertisement and soon, a long line of people formed. Each had to present their pass to a scanner which confirmed they had not bought one yet before the purchase. Harry had a few squib employees of Brilliance Inc doing the selling, Harry just wanted to watch. Most of the booths didn''t have much at the moment as the Expo would last a full year and today was just the first day. Harry figured the Light Batons would be sold out by the end of the month.


    It didn''t take long for people with lightsabers running around the Expo to attract more people to Harry''s booth and there had already been five challenges against Harry to buy more than one. Harry ended each of those fights in less than five seconds. Usually they ended with dismemberment, or would have if the swords were actual light sabers.


    For the Karens and Kens of New York, Harry would either stab them in the heart or decapitate them. Customer Service at its finest.


    MJ, Jean, Rogue, Wanda, and Jade all showed up along with Peter, Gwen, and Felicia. All were allowed to skip the line and were gifted a Light Baton for free, each of which had a serial number less than 10.


    At the end of the first day, a plane flew overhead and Stark jumped out and landed in his suit at the heart of the expo. His speech about how awesome he was as a person and had pretty much brought world peace was broadcast through the whole expo and Harry could only roll his eyes. Once the speech was over, Stark flew off the stage and right over to where Harry was.


    After the metal suit landed outside the booth, his helmet opened up and Stark spotted the guys in the arena dueling each other. He turned to Harry and said, "You''re selling lightsabers?! Where''s mine?"


    Harry tossed him one and Stark immediately noticed the serial number. [0002]


    Stark then asked, "Can I have one for Pepper?"


    Harry shook his head. "She has to come get it herself. Otherwise you can have a light baton duel against me and if you win, I''ll give you another."


    Stark grinned, put his helmet back on, and flew over to the arena, clearly intending to fight while in his suit.


    Harry got his own and calmly walked over to the ring under the stares of the hundreds in line and the many more just watching and recording outside the ring.


    Stark hit the switch on his and immediately asked, "Why''s mine red?"


    Harry answered, "Because you''re the old man fighting with a suit that contains its own life support system."


    Stark took a stance and replied, "I am not an old man."


    The moment Harry stepped into the ring, the suited Stark leaped forward to strike which Harry smoothly deflected. In the interests of fairness, Stark''s suit was only granting him strength slightly above that of a professional athlete and Harry didn''t need to use his full strength to match it. Stark knew of course that Harry could go much stronger and faster, but also knew that he wouldn''t in public so he could only try to beat him with skill.


    Although the hard light batons could not pass through each other, they were were still frictionless, meaning it wasn''t difficult to force a glazing blow to slide off. Harry knew that Stark would use his computers so he went easy on his at first so Stark''s systems could generate a fighting style and give Harry a challenge. Stark wouldn''t use them to fight for him, but they would ?ssist in his movements in a similar way that Harry''s Path system auto-corrected his movements.


    It took less than a minute for Stark''s system to figure out a proper dueling pattern and after a minute they were exchanging over a dozen blows every five or so seconds. Stark still had the advantage of his suit''s weight which granted him a stronger stance, but Harry was faster over-all and could straff side to side with greater ease.


    At some point Stark''s computer reached the limit of predicting Harry''s strikes and responding with the chosen parameters. He jumped up and remained floating using his repulsors and said, "You can''t win Potter. I''ve got the high ground!"


    Harry stated, "You gotta come down eventually."


    Stark fired a weak repulsor beam from his hand at Harry''s feet to try to make an opening. Instead, Harry predicted it and stepped into the strike and deflected the muon beam with his lightsaber/ The reflected beam struck Stark''s foot and since he was holding a lightsaber in one hand and firing a muon beam with the other, he was only being held up by the repulsors in his feet. One of them being struck threw the billionaire off balance in the air and Harry leap two meters in the air and slashed Stark in half before he regained balance.


    Stark regained himself and turned to watch Harry land and asked incredulously, "These can actually deflect lasers?!"


    Harry smiled and said, "Maybe." He wasn''t going to tell people that they did because he didn''t want to be held responsible for idiots killing themselves trying to use them to reflect lasers.


    Stark landed, opened his helmet and said, "That''s so awesome!" like a kid at Christmas.


    Harry nodded sagely, "I know."


    The crowd who had watched the fight went nuts. Nothing Harry did was beyond the scope of a human''s capabilities, even the leap, but it still looked cool.


    "Mr. Stark!" A petite red headed woman walked up to the arena and handed Tony a piece of paper.


    Harry asked, "Does she want an autograph?"


    Stark''s eyebrows rose in surprise and he stated, "I''m being summoned to court."


    Harry took the paper and saw it was a summons to the Armed Service Committee''s Weaponized Suit Defense Program Hearings chaired by Senator Stern. According to the summons, Stark had to be in DC the next day.


    Harry thought it looked fun and asked, "Can I go?"


    Stark took back the paper and said, "Race you," before flying over to the parking lot to find his car.


    Harry ran out the gate towards the parking lot and when he found an area without cameras or witnesses he pulled out something from his inventory which transformed into a car. He''d registered it already and it was street legal. It was something he built after getting his license since other cars didn''t interest him.


    About an hour later Harry passed Stark''s car on the highway and waved politely while speeding ahead. Stark''s car used Satellites to determine the position of all cars and cameras and cops in an area so he wouldn''t get pulled over. Harry didn''t need satellites when he had invisible drones which could move faster than the speed of sound. He could even disable the cell phone cameras of those he passed to ensure there was no evidence of him speeding and his car could make turns and cuts unlike anything else on the road.


    Not long after passing Stark, Harry got a call from said billionaire asking, "The hell kind of engine you got under there? I didn''t even hear it when you passed by."


    Harry answered, "There''s no engine or floor. It is powered by my feet, just like a flint stone''s car."


    "I can''t even tell if you''re joking at this point."


    "Well, this time I am."


    "Well that''s helpful. Listen, after the court thing take a trip to my place in Malibu. I got some stuff I need you to sign."


    Harry considered it and replied, "Still haven''t found an alternative to palladium?" If that was the case, Stark''s heavy metal poisoning would only give him about another month to live.


    Stark answered, "I''ve tried every derivation of every known element and nothing works."


    Stark''s reactor didn''t just use muons to power his suit, the muons also kept his blood pumping. There were no other elements that could produce muons in the same way he used palladium. It was too late for a heart transplant as well since the palladium already in his blood would destroy any new heart so he''d never get approved for one. Just like an alcoholic with a dead liver could never get approved for a liver transplant.


    Harry sighed and said, "I''ll come over, but not to sign anything. I know a family recipe that will deal with the heavy metal poisoning and give you more time."


    "What, like chicken soup?"


    "Nothing quite as tasty," Harry replied before hanging up. Technically Harry could just purge the heavy metal, rip Tony''s heart out, and feed him some elixir of life, but Tony worked well under pressure and that was always an option if Tony failed. Besides, Harry had seen the full map of the Stark Expo when he used a drone to look for a good spot to set up. Howard Stark certainly had an interesting definition of subtly.


    250 miles later the pair reached DC and Harry made his way into the courtroom along with Pepper who had arrived to DC by plane earlier that morning.


    Tony spent the first five minutes after arriving being Tony which of course meant nothing useful happened. Harry wondered if it was a good idea to show up since there were cameras everywhere Link told him were broadcasting live to C-SPAN.


    Eventually Senator Stern said, "Mr. Stark, can we pick up now where we left off? Mr. Stark Please, can I have your attention?"


    Stark leaned into the mic and answered, "Yes dear? Absolutely."


    Stern repeated clearly, "Do you or do you not possess a specialized weapon?"


    On live TV in front of tens of thousands of witnesses, Stark answered, "I do not."


    Stern incredulously repeated back, "You do not?"


    "I do not. Well, it depends on how you define the word, ''weapon.''"


    Stern visibly rolled his eyes and clarified, "The Iron Man weapon."


    Stark replied, "My device does not fit that description."


    Not expecting Stark to answer so shamelessly, Stern asked, "Well... How would you describe it?"


    "I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator."


    "As?"


    "It''s a high-tech prosthesis."


    Unsurprisingly, a burst of laughter at Tony''s shamelessness rolled through the court.


    Stark clarified, "That is... That is... That''s actually the most apt description I can make of it."


    Sterns seemed tired of Tony and just repeated back, "It''s a weapon. It''s a weapon, Mr. Stark."


    "Please, if your priority was actually the well-being of the American Citizen..."


    The Senator interrupted, "My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America."


    Stark replied, "Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you''re in. You can''t have it."


    Stern figured he was out of his depths and looked ready to call for reinforcements. "Look, I''m no expert..."


    Stark delivered one last parting shot, "In prostitution? Of course not. You''re a Senator. Come on."


    Over the mocking laughter in the court Stern continued, "I''m no expert in weapons. We have somebody here who is an expert on weapons. I would now like to call Justin Hammer, our current primary weapons contractor."


    Stark leaned into the mic once more and stated, "Let the record reflect that I observed Mr. Hammer entering the chamber, and I am confused as to why Mr. Potter was not called up, as other than myself, he is the only one in this building who actually understands how weapons work."


    Harry shook his head at the clamor and several cameras pointed at him. Harry was rarely if ever on TV.


    Senator Stern looked thoughtful and asked, "Is Mr. Potter willing to give an honest testimonial?"


    Harry stood up and shrugged, "Sure. What do you want to ask?"


    Stern motioned, "Please approach the bench. In your opinion, is the Iron Man suit a weapon?"


    Harry pulled out a disk and tossed it into the space in front of the table and snapped his fingers. Instantly a bright green hologram of the Mark 3 Iron Man suit was on full display for the entire room.


    Before anyone could question what he was doing, Harry stated, "The Iron Man suit consists of five primary components. The first is of course the shell. However the shell is meant for defense, so this part cannot be considered a weapon." The hologram separated and showed how each piece looked when taken apart. Of course, the hologram didn''t include some of the more specialty things like the servos and motors which gave Tony his edge. Anyone trying to recreate the suit with this hologram would be in for a surprise.


    Harry continued, "The second component is the power source. However a power source cannot be classified as a weapon no matter how you stretch the definition, so we''ll move onto the third component, the operating system. However, the operating system''s primary function is actually life support. As the primary function is not combative in nature, this component cannot be considered a weapon either."


    "The fourth component is the propulsion system. However, a propulsion system cannot be considered a weapon. And of course the fifth component is Tony Stark himself, as the suit was built by him, for him, therefore no one else can wear it without Stark editing and reshaping the suit for them. Unlike myself, Stark has not been classified as a lethal weapon due to a lack of any specialized training, therefore none of the five primary components of the Iron Man suit can be considered a weapon."


    Hammer immediately stated, "Wait, what about those beam things he shoots from his hands! How are those not weapons?"


    Harry theatrically rolled his eyes which caused Tony to smile. Harry snapped twice and the hologram changed to show the wrist mounted repulsors and even showed a holographic scene of them firing. Harry stated, "Those are stabilizing thrusters and are a part of the propulsion system. They are basically the wheels on a car. Hitting people with those is not much different than running over someone with a car''s front tire, and tires are not considered weapons. Tony obviously plays too much Grand Theft Auto and simply enjoys using them too much."


    Hammer added, "What about the missiles and lasers he has built into the armor?"


    Harry nodded and said, "Those are add-ons. If Hammer Industries or the United States Government wants to know how to build a laser or build a missile, I''m sure there is a patent somewhere they can learn from."


    Harry snapped his fingers again and the hologram changed to show the patent application for a laser. The patent application was about forty years old, but a laser was a laser.


    Harry asked Senator Stern, "Anything else?"


    Stern shook his head and Harry walked over to pick up his disk and return to his seat.


    The remainder of the hearing did not go well when Hammer tried to pull up some shaky evidence that would prove the U.S. needed the designs to the suit to counter other countries working on it, but Stark hacked the feed and showed how ''advanced'' those attempts really were. Basically it was clear that no one working on replicating the suit was close to succeeding.


    The next day Harry returned to New York, but once he got home, he took a portal to Malibu. Tony had already returned, since when Harry wasn''t racing, Tony''s plane could get him from DC to California faster than Harry could drive from DC to New York.


    Not wanting Tony to know about portals yet, Harry portaled a few blocks down and then jumped over the wall to avoid the security parked out front watching Stark''s gate from afar.


    Tony was still asleep so Harry used his technopathy to disable the cameras and took out a table, a burner, a cauldron, and all of the ingredients he''d need for this brew. From the speakers, Jarvis asked, "May I inquire as to why my video surveillance is offline?"


    Harry answered, "Nothing personal Jarvis, I just don''t want a recording of what I''m about to do."


    "And what exactly is it you are about to do sir?"


    "You''ll see when I''m done."


    After an hour, the dastardly smell of the potion had filled the room and Tony was coming out of his room and shouting, "What died?! Jarvis, we need a-" And then he saw Harry in front of a completely stereotypical cauldron stirring the pot which was smoking a strange color.


    "Harry, what are you cooking?"


    "Your medicine," answered the Wizard. He hadn''t made a potion in a while but the best part of the Path system was that not using a skill would not cause it to decrease in effect.


    Stark''s curiosity was stronger than his fear of the stench so he cautiously approached the cauldron and asked while pointing at the varied ingredients, "What are those?"


    "Crushed nibble worm fangs, dried fire beetle dung, moonwart fungus sap, platypus venom, and a dozen other things you''ve probably never heard of."


    "Uh huh. Jarvis?"


    The AI responded, "I am unable to identify any of the items listed other than platypus venom which is not sold as far as I can tell. Also, my recording systems have been disabled since Mr. Potter''s arrival, so I am unable to give you more details as to what Mr. Potter is concocting."


    Harry turned off the fire and lifted the cauldron over to where Harry had set thirty one small vials. Harry skillfully poured the potion in each until the cauldron was empty and the thirty one vials were full. Harry then put a stopper on each one and put the whole set in the fridge.


    Stark complained, "Hey, don''t be putting strange things in my fridge!"


    Harry took one vial and handed it to Stark "Drink it."


    "Um, no? What is it?"


    "Something that can flush heavy metals safely from your system without killing you. Drink one each day and you won''t die anytime soon."


    Stark looked at the tube again and asked, "Really?"


    "Just treat it like a big shot glass and take it all in one go."


    After hesitating for a few moments, Stark downed the vial and in the next moment cried, "Geez, I think death would be preferable." In order to combat the heavy metal poison Stark had been drinking chlorophyll for the last few months but a gallon of that gunk was preferable to a vial of this potion.


    Harry shrugged, "Consider it motivation for finding a new way to fix your heart. Besides, it''s effect is instant."


    Stark rose an eyebrow at that and pulled a gizmo from his pocket and pressed his thumb next to it. A number glowed in it, [0%]


    "Son of a bitch." He knew yesterday it was at 23% and it tended to rise a few percent every time he used the Suit, even if it was only for a few minutes. Stark asked, "Will it be this effective every time I use it?"


    Harry nodded, "Yeah. But even if you don''t use the suit, you still need to drink one a day until you find an alternative. Your body has remained poisoned for too long and this will give it a way to heal itself and prevent it from getting worse."


    Tony made smacking sounds with his mouth showing that he was trying to get the taste out and said, "This is cruel and unusual and you know it. Besides, there isn''t anything else, I''ve checked everything. None of your metagems can generate muons so unless you''re holding out on me, I''ve got nothing."


    Harry confirmed, "None of my metagems, even the ones I haven''t made yet, can generate muons. But you don''t need me. From what I understand your father already made what you''re looking for."


    "Wait, really? How do you know?"


    Harry smiled, "I''ll tell you exactly what it is if you let Brilliance Inc have the rights to it."


    Stark blinked at that and said, "Oh no. If my old man figured it out, I''ll figure it out. I''m not letting you have my legacy."


    Harry laughed and started putting his equipment into an expanded bag. Tony watched bug eyed as Harry shoved several cubic meters worth of equipment into a bag Harry then placed on his waist.


    "Can I have one?"


    Harry answered, "If you behave I''ll think about it," and headed for the back door.


    Tony didn''t see him off, he was too busy thinking over what Harry said. He knew he wasn''t going to die now and Harry pretty much confirmed what he was looking for existed somewhere he could find it.. Now he just had to figure out where.

 Chapter 88 - 88 Whiplash

    Two weeks after the opening of the Stark Expo, Harry had gotten another invite to Stark''s Malibu home. Not to sign papers, but for some ''testing'' Stark wanted his help with.


    According to the conversation he''d had with the man over an untraceable phone call, Stark had already figured out his father''s discovery, he was just having the same trouble his father had, synthesizing it.


    Harry wasn''t surprised Stark found it. The only clue that Harry had given Stark was that Harry himself had discovered it. That would usually be quite useless, but Stark''s acclaim to the title of ''Genius'' was not unfounded. The only thing Harry had access to that Tony''s father had created was the Stark Expo, so it was not a great leap in logic to figure out that Harry had discovered Howard Stark''s secret there.


    It took only a few hours for Tony to put the pieces together and realized that when Harry had scouted the Expo, he''d discovered the configuration himself.


    Harry arrived at the Stark mansion the normal way, via taxi after having gotten off an airplane sent over by Tony. Other than visiting Tony, Harry didn''t have anyone else to meet consistently so Brilliance Inc didn''t actually own any private Jets.


    Upon arrival Harry first noticed that Pepper was there, trying to get Tony to sign a number of things. To her side was a certain stunning redhead in professional attire. Harry had never met the Black Widow in person, but the fact that he digitally created a smut film of her and Clint Barton as a prank indicated he was well aware of her existence.


    Natasha didn''t bat an eye or spare a second glance or make any movement that indicated she knew or cared about Harry''s existence or presence there.


    Tony approached and noticed Harry inspecting the new girl and said, "I see you''ve noticed our new red head, Ms. Rushman. Pepper has been running the company while I''ve been testing out new toys in the workshop and she asked for an ?ssistant."


    Harry gave an amused smile and said, "Well, she definitely gives off the feel of a Professional."


    Tony nodded and asked the man he knew to be married, "Oh, what specifically looks professional about her?"


    Instead of fidgeting on the question clearly designed to get him in trouble, Harry answered honestly, "Well, she has killer th??hs, killer legs, killer arms, a killer face, and a killer body."


    Pepper looked partially offended and Tony smirked while holding back a chuckle, clearly not getting the actual joke.


    Ms. Rushman''s expression didn''t change in the slightest when Harry called her a ''Professional,'' and used the word ''killer,'' to describe her five consecutive times. Tony certainly couldn''t complain later that Harry lied or misled him.


    She did however state, "Ms. Potts, weren''t there a few documents you needed Mr. Potter to sign?"


    Pepper blinked and replied, "Oh, right, give me a minute to print them out. Harry, I need your signature on the approval of some new constructions." She stated while walking away.


    Tony went downstairs to prepare a few things before he invited Harry down.


    Harry himself approached Ms. Rushman''s side and said in a low voice, "I''ve taken care of Stark''s health issues in the short term. To deal with it in the long term, he needs access to his father''s research which is probably in a Shield warehouse somewhere."


    Rather than remain silent, Natasha asked in the same low tone, "And how exactly did you find a short term counter to long term palladium poisoning?"


    Harry answered nonchalantly, "Oh you know. Big cauldron, full moon, newt eyes, frog warts, bat wings, dog hair. Old family recipe. Fury knows the family I''m talking about."


    Fury was allowed to know about magicals and Harry wouldn''t be surprised if Coulson knew as well, but Harry certainly wouldn''t actively tell someone who didn''t know. He''d rather lay on a pile of hints and let them figure it out themselves.


    Moments later Pepper returned with some forms. She was so used to dealing with Tony that instead of handing him the papers, she started explaining what each was as if she was speaking to a child. Harry simply said, "Ms. Potts, I''m a speed reader. You can just give me the papers."


    Pepper realized what she had done and said, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry."


    Harry took the papers when offered and replied, "It''s fine. I understand it''s probably a habit at this point."


    Harry really was a speed reader, but he still Paused and went over every page in detail before unpausing and turning the page. In only a few seconds he''d read everything and pulled out a pen to sign in all the right places. These papers weren''t actually needed now, but were things Pepper would need him to sign eventually and getting it out of the way now would save a lot of time. Mostly it contained the various permissions for the construction of new factories where joint projects would be manufactured.


    Tony finished his prep work downstairs and invited Harry down, which for Pepper, meant that nothing productive would be done in the mansion for a few hours so she left with Ms. Rushman and headed back to Stark''s main office to get some real work done.


    Harry was brought down to the workshop and shown a table with a hotrod red suitcase.


    Tony looked pleased with himself and asked, "Well, what do you think?"


    Harry took a moment to analyze it. Technopathy was just one skill of Technomancy which was the Perk he''d gotten from killing Apocalypse. Technomancy itself was basically the ability to create, fix, and manipulate technology using energy and the mind and was considered a branch of Sorcery. As long as a machine was not magically shielded or had built in magics, Harry could directly control many forms of technology.


    Harry''s response to the suitcase was, "Sporty. Did you want me to trick it out or something?"


    Tony shook his head. "No. My Palladium Core can''t support your metagems without burning itself out way too fast. Your gunk juice may be supporting my life, but it''s destroying my taste buds and I really don''t want to have to drink more than I have to."


    Harry knew Tony wasn''t wrong. Most things had a trade-off and Tony learned through a number of prototypes that active use of Metagems was ridiculously energy intensive and the things were way too fragile to support any reliable permanent enhancements to a suit. At the moment the best he could do was use them in some one-off gadgets, but according to his deal with Harry, any such gadget could only be defensive in nature. Harry just didn''t want to bring attention to the destructive capabilities of metagems just yet and Tony respected that.


    Tony put the suitcase on the ground and opened it up. Two sockets rose from the interior which Tony placed his hands in and used them to pull up the exo-skeleton which latched onto him and unfolded into an armor plating. The original suitcase exterior unfolded and shifted, becoming a ?h?stplate which extended the remainder of the armor over the exo-skeleton until Tony was fully encased.


    Through the armor''s speaker Tony stated, "I present to you, the Mark V."


    Harry rolled his eyes and replied, "Needs to be flashier. That way people will be distracted from shooting you during the time it takes to put it on."


    Tony replied as if he completely missed the sarcasm, "You think?" Then he replied with his own, "Maybe I should add some neon lights, dance music, and a pop out disco ball? Oh, and fireworks!"


    Harry added, "Don''t forget the glitter bombs. Very deadly. No one can take someone covered in glitter seriously and since it is impossible to get off your clothes easily, a well-timed glitter bomb can dispatch the strongest of foes."


    Tony shook his head again and said, "See, I still can''t tell if you''re being serious at this point. Really though, have you ever defeated someone with glitter?"


    "Of course it is, what do you take me for? It''s a triple layered faraday cage so EMPs or lightning won''t fry the suit or kill me."


    Harry smiled, "Well then, time for a test run."


    An hour later, Harry had finished repairing Tony''s suit after spending twenty minutes peeling it off him after having spent ten minutes kicking his ?ss. The suit greatly enhanced Tony''s strength and coordination, but had weaknesses Harry didn''t mind revealing. This was the main reason Tony had called Harry in the first place, he wanted a second opinion and a ''safe'' way to test the limits of the suit against someone who Tony, at least suspected, could probably bring him back from the dead if something terrible happened.


    The Mark V wasn''t a bad design overall, but it only had Tony''s repulsors for offense and against Harry they were almost useless.


    At the senate hearing, Harry told everyone the repulsors were not a weapon, and Harry did not feel he lied. They were basically the wheels of a car. Using them to attack was possible, but anyone with the smallest amount of training could tell where the beams would fire since Tony''s arm position telegraphed the aim and the charging sound that came before each shot informed someone of when the beams would be fired.


    Sure, you had to be fast enough to move out of the way, but to those who were, Tony''s repulsors were not a threat.


    Still, the system got the combat data it needed. Tony knew how much damage the suit could dish out, how much it could take, what its biggest limits were, and where its strength lied.


    While Harry was repairing the suit and Tony was going over the data, the latter said, "Hey, I wanted to invite you and your wife to Monaco the day after tomorrow."


    Although Harry had told Stark he was married, he had yet to mention the number. Smiling at the thought of seeing Stark''s face, Harry checked his phone and said, "You mean for the Monaco race? Sure, we can be there. You gonna drive?"


    Harry shook his head, "Brilliance Inc doesn''t spend that much on advertising outside of cyberspace."


    The pair went over the details and Harry was thoughtful enough to bring up a few other points Tony was overlooking before he headed out. After returning to New York, Harry and the girls packed their things and got on another Stark Jet to Monaco. None of the employees questioned why Harry brought five women instead of one.


    Harry wasn''t sure why Stark didn''t fly with them in the same jet since they were his jets and they would be there at the same time, but Harry figured that trying to guess the mind of a guy who was born rich was pointless.


    MJ was joining them of course. Previously she had been living with her aunt as Peter''s neighbor, but after she started dating Harry, MJ convinced her aunt to let her move out. Of course, Anna Watson was under the impression her niece had moved into an all girls boarding house that came with a Scholarship she had won. Like Jade, it would take a bit of time before she would decide to break the news to her family that she was joining a Harem.


    The jet was well staffed and for a transatlantic flight, it was quite a short trip. Jade helped pass the time by giving examples of all the horrid ways she and her uncle Jackie had to travel across the world looking for antiques and magic artifacts while she was growing up. She swore she would never again ride a truck carrying yaks for as long as she lived.


    A limo was waiting at the Airport to take them to a hotel where they could shower, change, and get ready for the Gala they were heading towards at the racetrack.


    Before heading out, Harry offered everyone a piece of jewelry enchanted with a weak Notice-Me-Not. This was, technically, the first public outing Harry was taking his girls and it would certainly be filled with reporters and cameras. Jade, Wanda, Rogue, and MJ took a piece but Jean did not. Wanda and Rogue did not particularly enjoy being stared at and Jade and MJ didn''t want the fact that they were in a harem broadcast on TV just yet, but Jean had no issues with either.


    Another limo ride and moments later Harry arrived at the building near the race track. It doubled as a restaurant and Harry got a table for himself that had room for everyone and a few extras.


    Before ordering anything, Harry sent a message to Pepper to bring Tony over.


    Harry smiled and introduced them. "Tony, Pepper. This is Jean, Wanda, and Rogue. My wives. Here we also have Jade and Mary Jane, my girlfriends."


    Tony''s face changed a half dozen times as he tried to process the litany of strange emotions he was feeling but then quickly pointed out, "I''m at least 99% sure the last time I checked, Polygamy was still illegal."


    Pepper gave Tony a half glare and asked in a low tone, "And when exactly was the last time you checked?"


    Tony chuckled nervously and Harry just answered, "Well the wedding wasn''t in the U.S. and not officially documented. At least when I''m doing my taxes, everyone is just my dependent. Once I turn 18, I''ll be married on paper to Jean."


    Jade added, "But we all still live together in Harry''s house."


    Tony asked, "You have a harem?!" Both awe and respect could be clearly seen in the playboy''s eyes.


    Pepper pointed out in a concerned tone, "But you''re all so young."


    Rogue shrugged and answered for everyone, "None of us gals have grown up in a ''typical'' fashion. I ?ssure y''all we''re far more m?tur? than our looks give us credit for." Which was true. Jean was inheriting the powers and mind of the immortal Phoenix, Jade was digesting the knowledge of a thousand past lives, Wanda and Rogue had a hundred years of training, and even MJ had all of Red Sonja''s memories.


    Harry also met Tony''s gaze and said in a voice low enough for Pepper and Natasha to be unable to hear, "And if you suited up in that Mark V, any one of these girls could easily kick your ?ss."


    Tony''s eyes widened just for a bit at that piece of info. He already knew Harry was Obscurus and now Harry had just admitted that his girls were gifted as well.


    The group began talking about interesting and pointless things while Pepper talked with the girls about their schooling. She was more than a little impressed when she found that three of them were already college students and the other two were top of their classes in high school.


    Justin Hammer and a reporter showed up not long after that and Tony excused himself while looking at the TV showing the race. Harry excused himself as well to follow leaving Jean and the rest to chat with Pepper. Once the boys were gone, the girls all started grilling Pepper on everything they knew she clearly would not discuss in front of Stark.


    Eventually Harry found himself standing just outside the stands at the tracks of the Monaco Speedway, having watched Tony kick his driver out of the car and take it himself.


    Everything seemed relatively normal up to that point until Harry saw someone walk out of the sideway for pit stops and onto the tracks. A moment later his orange jumpsuit started burning away and fell off in pieces revealing that he was wearing a metal frame around his torso. In his ?h?st was what Harry guessed was a knockoff palladium core and on each forearm was a metallic whip. Harry raised his eyebrows when the whips started channeling energy generated by the core and started generating arcs of lightning between each segment of the whip.


    An incoming race car swerved to avoid killing the idiot who just walked onto the race track. Instead of appreciating the kindness, the new arrival struck the passing car with his whips. The plasma arcing between the whip segments sliced cleanly through the car.


    Harry was rather pissed at how stupid this guy was. If the driver wasn''t nice enough to swerve, cutting the car in half wouldn''t have stopped it from turning the idiot into meat paste. And that weapon clearly had the look of something built in a garage. Not exactly reliable. If the whip didn''t cut completely through the car, it would have gotten stuck through the car moving at a hundred miles an hour and probably ripped the idiot''s arm right off his torso.


    Another thing was that this idiot was lucky that all the rent-a-guards around apparently didn''t have any guns. Harry could easily pull a gun out of his inventory, shoot the man three times in the head, and be done with it.


    But Harry had no reason to. The man clearly wasn''t a real threat.


    Tony''s car was coming up the track next. The idiot walked a bit to the side to leave the center open and when Tony''s car passed by, the man sliced off the front half of Tony''s car, leaving the rest to skid to a stop.


    Harry doubted any of the drivers coming behind Tony would have the balls to run over the idiot, so Harry had one of the invisible drones flying around disable all the cars''s engines, preventing them from accelerating or doing anything besides coming to a stop. The drones were actually launched earlier by Link who wanted to watch the race and Harry rarely if ever refused the world''s best ?ssistant.


    Now he just had to debate on whether or not he should help Tony take care of the idiot. That question was quickly answered by a text from Jade telling Harry that Pepper left with a man who was holding a hotrod red suitcase.


    In other words, Tony had backup coming, so Harry just had to stall, and then he could let Tony play.


    The whip dude approached Tony''s car and sliced off the driver''s seat but only then noticed that Tony had gotten out. Rather than run away, Tony had picked up a piece of scrap and snuck behind the idiot and bashed him in the back. Unfortunately, bashing someone wearing a torso frame was easier said than done. The whip guy sliced at Tony making the latter step back and use the scrap he held as a shield but it got cut away and fell to the ground and rolled to the side at the whip guy''s next strike.


    Harry casually climbed and jumped the fence and the whip guy started getting fancy with his attacks.


    Getting a little peeved, Harry picked up some debris and chucked it accurately at the back of the guy''s head. He didn''t want to pop the guy''s skull like a water balloon, but Harry didn''t like the fact that this guy had no head protection and still considered himself a threat. Dr. Octopus was twice the threat this guy was, and even he didn''t do anything that might get him shot in the head.


    The whip guy staggered and turned back to see Harry smile and throw another piece of metal. The throw was fast and accurate. From his staggered position the whip guy couldn''t dodge easily so he swung his whip forward to strike and slice away the projectile.


    Harry could swear he heard the man growl and run forward. Harry could just run away at this point, but plasma whips weren''t a threat to him. When the idiot struck to slice Harry in half, Harry had already pulled out his light baton to deflect the strike. His Hard-light baton could in fact interact with multiple forms of energy depending on the setting and he could change the settings on his whenever he wanted to.


    Of course, it was useless on physical matter, but those whips charged with plasma could interact with his baton.


    The b?r? ?h?sted russian looked shocked just for a moment before he reeled back and swung with both his arms at the same time from two directions. Harry leaned to the side to dodge one and used his lightsaber look alike to deflect the other.


    The man''s next attack had him step forward and strike. This time at the moment Harry swung to deflect the strike, the whip changed its movement to wrap around the blade. The russian then tried to pull the weapon out of Harry''s hand, but Harry just toggled the blade off causing the man to once more stagger back from pulling against nothing.


    What he did next surprised Harry enough to at least, a tiny bit, rethink the man''s classification as an idiot. The man struck Harry once more but deactivated his plasma current mid-swing. Harry had to bend like a gymnast to dodge as the uncharged metal whip passed through his light baton without issue.


    Before the russian could take advantage of this, he got run over by a black car being driven by Tony''s driver, a man named Happy. Harry could also see Pepper in the back seat.


    Tony, who had recovered a bit, ran over to the car and opened the door, but Happy had just backed up so he could ram into the russian again, making Tony have to move to follow the car door.


    Apparently, the russian''s metal frame was a full exosuit protecting the legs as well under his pants. That''s the only reason Harry could think of as a reason why Happy''s attempt at vehicular manslaughter failed. He was only out of it for a moment before he growled again and used his whip to slice through the door Tony was trying to open.


    Pepper seemed to start having a bit of a panic attack when the whip dude started attacking and wasn''t throwing Tony the suitcase.


    The entire scene was somewhat embarrassing to watch.


    Still, Harry''s turn was over. He used some psychokinesis to ensure when the whips struck the car, no one inside got hurt and Harry leisurely walked back to give them some room.


    Eventually Tony got the suitcase and Harry counted off the twenty seconds it took for the suit to fully equip itself. Harry had no idea why, but the whip guy didn''t attack the car or Tony during that time and just watched Tony use up nearly half a minute to suit up.


    The first thing Tony did when the suit was on, was charge up a muon pulse from his repulsor. Of course, this meant he raised his hand, stood still, and waited half a second for it to charge while within the whip''s range. This time, the whip guy did not just stand still and watch, he swung out and struck Tony''s hand, damaging the repulsor, preventing it from firing.


    The man deflected the repulsor blast from Stark''s other hand with a swing of his whips, showing Tony that his telegraphed blasts aren''t gonna do much. As this was the second time in three days for this to have happened, he already had a plan. He fired off another blast which the whip guy deflected again, but this time Stark also leaned forward and used his forward repulsors from his feet to launch himself forward in a massive shoulder tackle. The whip user countered by throwing his whips forward to entangle Tony but the suit charged through without pause.


    Iron Man crashed into the russian like a battering ram but since the whips were tied to the mech frame he had, and Tony was still entangled in the whips, the Russian wasn''t thrown forward. The frame also seemed to protect the man a bit but not much. Tony was covered in plasma charged whips, but since his suit was a faraday cage, it didn''t burn through and could sustain the damage for some time.


    Tony used the fact that he was up close to his advantage and slugged the man''s unprotected gut, causing him to almost lose consciousness, giving Tony the chance to rip off the man''s arc reactor core.


    Harry figured the fight was over and walked over to help Pepper out of the damaged car.


    For some reason, only after the fight ended did a half dozen guards in full body armor holding AK-47s come out from behind the gate and restrain the russian. The man spit some blood and shouted, "Even with help, you still lose!"


    Harry had an idea he knew what the man was referring to, but it was irrelevant.


    The following media storm did a number of things, the least surprising of which was that Harry found out the last of his stock of Light Batons at the Expo had been sold out. That meant ten thousand people had gotten a ticket for the expo and stood in line to get one in just a little over two weeks.


    Harry wondered how many would try to open them up to tweak or modify them. Each had a spell which would destroy the Metagem which made it work if opened up and just to be spiteful, the only way to open them required destroying the label which had the serial number engraved onto it. Since they were collectables, the value would plummet if the serial number engraving was damaged so anyone willing to break it must be willing to lose everything.


    Besides climbing over the fence, nothing Harry did was illegal since, ''for some reason,'' the other race cars never got close so Harry wasn''t charged with endangering them by getting close during a race. His Light Baton couldn''t even be called a weapon since on any setting it was unable to damage property or people.


    Tony, Pepper, and Happy were on a plane back to LA and Harry and his girls were on a plane back to New York a few hours later. During the ride, Tony called Harry to discuss the info he''d gotten out of the Russian.


    Harry''s response was, "If he has anything to do with your arc reactor, then his name is probably in your father''s notes for the creation of the reactor and that new element."


    Tony gave an exasperated sigh and replied, "Yeah, and I have no idea where those are."


    Harry answered back, "I already contacted Shield about that and they should have everything delivered to your place by the time you get back."


    "Huh. Why didn''t I think of that?"


    "Dementia. It''s common among the elderly. I''ll ask Pepper to start looking into retirement homes."


    "I''m not an old man, I''m only forty." Harry could swear he heard in the background Pepper correct to, ''forty-one.''


    "Which is still more than double my age so-"


    Tony interrupted, "I mean under that logic even Pepper is- OW. Sorry, never mind then."


    Harry chuckled and said, "Tony, you should know that all women stop aging at eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-five."


    "That doesn''t make any sense."


    "Which is why you''re still single at forty and I have a Harem."


    "Hmm. Point to you."


    Harry wasn''t surprised when, a few days after returning to New York, Harry got another call from Tony. Using his father''s notes, he had the missing pieces he needed to figure out what his father was lacking to synthesize a new material. Using Tony''s plane which he had all but given to Harry at this point, it only took four hours to get from Harry''s house to New York and Tony needed a second set of trusted hands.


    Looking over the notes Tony had written, Harry stated, "it''s not really a new element though, it''s more like an isotope of a homogenized alloy."


    With Harry''s ?ssistance Tony built a miniature particle accelerator in his basement and created a specific alloy. The alloy would be energized and neutrons would be fired from the particle accelerator at the alloy which, when energized, would cause the atoms of the alloy to accept the neutrons and bond the components of the alloy together using the newly introduced neutrons into a new atomic structure identical to the design Howard Stark initially envisioned.


    Harry was impressed with the design because many factors involved actually mirrored the applications of magic, meaning in a universe without magic, this probably wouldn''t work.


    On May 25th, Stark had successfully created a new ''element.'' Looking at the glowing triangle, he said, "I''m gonna call it Badassium."


    Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Since it was technically created by you, and your father, why not call it Starkanium to honor his memory?"


    Tony considered it and answered back, "No, I''m still calling it Badassium."


    Harry shook his head and took out a bunch of Metagems. "Well then, let''s see how badass it really is."


    For the next two days, the pair of geniuses played with the new power source and determined how it would react to everything they could think of. Similar to palladium, badassium could be used to generate muons, but it could do so much more than that. There were no issues replacing the arc reactor with the new one and they confirmed that it could pump Tony''s blood without any ill side effects and was in fact far better than the old one at doing so.


    What was interesting was not that the element generated muons, but from what they could tell, that it generated a form of energy that could be converted into muons. According to Howard Stark''s notes, this energy was an imitation of something he discovered while researching an object called the Tesseract. Even better, the energy could be converted into other things as well.


    Through some stress testing, the pair found that badassium could also convert other forms of energy into this tesseract energy and store it for a brief period. Harry confirmed that even the Chaos energy of wizard magic could be absorbed, meaning something powered by this reactor would have a base resistance to magic. This pleased Harry.


    Tony knew that calling Harry over to help him make the element meant Harry knew how to make it as well, but Stark didn''t mind. He felt Harry wouldn''t betray him with it or use it to do anything Tony wouldn''t use it for. Not that a list of things ''Tony Stark would not do,'' was very long.


    While designing a new Mark VI armor with Harry, the latter said, "You know, you might as well fit up your friend for one of these. We could make one that looks good but lacks the weapons. I could use a bit of metaphysics to guarantee no one but your friend will ever be able to use it without the thing self-destructing."


    Rhodey had shown up not long after Harry did and told Tony that the government wanted to try and use the fiasco at Monaco as an excuse to get a suit.


    Tony took a few moments to consider it before agreeing. His Mark II could be modified to Rhodey''s frame and the more precious bits and designs could be swapped out. Nothing that would endanger Rhodey''s life, but would ensure the thing required weekly maintenance only he could provide, giving Tony a chance to charge Uncle Sam an arm and a leg just to get them to understand that owning a Iron Man suit wasn''t cheap.


    Harry knew more legal and business jargon than Pepper did because of his constant dealings with the shark-like Goblins, so he wrote up a contract while Tony retro-fitted and downgraded the Mark II.


    Harry didn''t stay for Tony''s birthday party since Harry didn''t know anyone else in LA and didn''t want to mingle. During his Birthday, Tony gifted the Mark II to Rhodey and gave him three copies of the legal papers that came with it. Harry had also sneakily acquired a bit of the man''s blood to create a magical biometric lock which would prevent the suit from working if Rhodey wasn''t in it. Even if the OS was replaced entirely, the suit still wouldn''t allow for anyone but Rhodey to use it. Rhodey also knew that anytime the suit was to be refitted or upgraded, he was to remove the arc reactor to ensure the government did not get their hands on it. Considering he knew what could be done with it, the man had no problem agreeing to that.


    Two days later Harry got an interesting notification from Link. A picture of a hammer was posted on Harry''s Arcaneknowledge website. According to the post, it was in the middle of New Mexico and no one could move it. What made the post legitimate enough to be flagged was that for the last 24 hours around the same area prior to the Hammer showing up, the weather had been rather anomalous.


    Harry was a bit curious, but he had to be at the Expo and couldn''t be seen leaving today. He''d check it out tomorrow.


    Later that evening, Harry got a call from Tony.


    [Harry, you''re still at the Expo right? Vanko is still alive, he''s at Hammer Industries and plans to attack the Expo! I''m on my way now.]


    Harry answered back, "Gotcha. I''ll close up shop and call our mutual friend."


    [Sounds good. I''ll be there shortly. Oh, and by the way, why didn''t you just tell me my ?ssistant was a spy?]


    Harry chuckled and figured that Fury had probably paid a visit to Tony after the latter had given away a suit and wanted to know why.


    "Because I''ve given Fury so much grief, that letting him see the look on your face when you realized you''d been duped will keep him off my back a bit while I do more things which give him a headache."


    [Dammit Potter, she was recording me and everything.]


    Harry laughed and hung up, curious as to what price she''d ask for to let Harry see that video. Next he pulled up the schedule of today''s events and noticed that Hammer Industries would have a showcase in a little while. Harry''s stall had sold out of Light Batons but people could still fight using them in the arena next to the stall and Harry could still be challenged if someone wanted one. Harry had in fact been beaten three times. Once by someone who Harry was pretty sure was a mutant and twice by a man and woman Harry was 90% certain were members of the Hand. Though, those losses weren''t from fatal blows, but small contact that Harry counted as a victory even though if it was a real blade, it wouldn''t do more than draw a bit of blood.


    Still, they were good fights and enough of a challenge that Harry didn''t mind giving them a Light Baton in any color they wanted with a serial number of [xxx1], [xxx2], and so on.


    To the groans of those playing in the arenas, Harry closed the stall, shut down the sparring space and sent everyone home. Harry then returned home as well before shifting into his Obscurus form and putting on his Demon mask and taking a portal back to the Expo.


    Link had pulled up the details of Vanko''s death and determined that the prison was likely paid to release him and cover it up. Probably by Justin Hammer.


    While under a weak Notice-Me-Not just to prevent people from staring, Harry walked into the building Justin Hammer was presenting from and stood in the back. The presentation was mostly Hammer being an idiot until he started showing off his Hammer Drones.


    Harry figured that, considering how much of a pain in the ?ss they were likely to end up being, he should''ve called them Hammeroids.


    Next up came Rhodey in the Mark II which had clearly been completely refitted with weapons. Harry could only roll his eyes at the fact that they actually called it War Machine. The contract did give permission to install whatever they wanted into it as long as only Rhodey piloted it, but Harry regretted letting them name it something so crude.


    Only a few moments later, Tony showed up in what Harry recognized at the Mark VI. Tony tried to confront Justin Hammer about Vanko''s location when War Machine''s OS got overridden and every one of the Hammeroids started pointing their weapons at Tony. Tony flew up into the air and out of the building to ensure the drone''s line of fire didn''t hit the crowd behind him. This still led to the drones firing at the room, shattering the glass above and causing it to come crashing down.


    Harry Paused. Pain in the ?ss indeed. Luckily it was safety glass which always shattered into tiny pieces so even though plenty of people got hit with glass fragments, no one had more than a few cuts. Since Harry wouldn''t be needed to save their bu??s, he could do something useful.


    After a bit of planning, Harry unpaused and saw that War Machine and the air force drones were about to take flight. Rather than let the hacker do what he wanted, Harry charged his body with Dragon Chi and Red Energy and charged forward. He jumped and caught the ascending War Machine and used the momentum amplifying effects of Red energy to toss the flying mech back to the ground directly at one of the Army mechs.


    The Air force Hammeroids continued chasing and firing at Tony but the others all turned simultaneously at Harry, acquiring a new target.


    From what Harry could tell using Technopathy, War Machine''s suit was being overridden and controlled in real time. The OS that was piloting the suit and the drones wasn''t even in the building. Still, that wasn''t much of a problem for Harry. He used only a moment to stick a small disk onto the suit Rhodey was trapped in and heard Rhodey shout, "He''s targeting you, get out! Wait, what''s happening?"


    The lights on the suit went out for a moment before being restored. The disk shielded the suit from all forms of wireless communication, allowing the suit''s original OS to restart. It would prevent Rhodey from talking to Tony through his radio, but would give the man full control over the suit once more.


    It was at this point all the drones still in the building started pointing at Harry and started firing. Harry was fully channeling red energy from Cyttorak''s Crimson Cosmos, granting him the defense of the Juggernaut. Bullets didn''t do anything but annoy him. Though the anti-air rifles on some of those drones did look more annoying than the others.


    Harry lept at the closet drone and smashed it through like a sledgehammer through a styrofoam block. He smashed through the next by the time Rhodey was back up. Seeing that all the drones were being controlled and firing at the guy Rhodey knew saved Stark from the caves, Rhodey had no issue taking to the air and joining him in firing on the other drones.


    At this point, all the drones stopped firing at Harry and started running in random directions. A third of them took to the air and Rhodey followed while Harry ran after the ones still on the ground.


    The drones started releasing all their ordinance at everything they came across, trying to deal as much damage as possible. Thanks to Harry slowing them down at the beginning, most of the crowd had already gotten some distance from the building, but they were spreading out faster than Harry could destroy them.


    Harry tried to hack them using Technomancy, but they''d already been put on auto-pilot and used a programming language Harry wasn''t familiar with. Sure, he could figure it out if he took a minute to monitor it, but he didn''t exactly have the time and he couldn''t check such things while Paused. Still, he could use technomancy to slow them down and mess with them. Breaking each wasn''t an issue.


    Once the distance between them was getting a bit much, Harry whistled and called the hover bike he usually used when playing as Obscurus and proceeded to fly around, ramming through each of the drones he encountered. His Ultimate Broom could handle going dozens of times faster than the speed of sound, so ramming through some cheap prototype drones was an easy feat.


    Stark showed up a few minutes later, having destroyed all the Air Force drones that went after him. His Mark VI was something the pair had been working on for a few days and used Metagems systems for some of the neater functions, so dealing with the drones wasn''t difficult.


    By the time War Machine, Iron Man, and Obscurus finished destroying the drones, they detected something new incoming. It was a hulking mech almost as big as the one the Mandarin was given by Obadiah.


    Unfortunately, the mech did not open its head piece for Harry to have an opening to shoot him in the head. Instead, he made his identity known by releasing two giant whips which no longer had the look of something built in a garage.


    Tony stepped up and said, "I got this. Rhodey, cover fire from a distance. Obscurus, keep the guests safe."


    Vanko''s mech swung its lightning coated whip at Tony who swiped his arm forward. The whip was cut through and it looked like a blade of light was coming from Tony''s wrist.


    A coil of line built into the back of Vanko''s suit spun to give more length to the cut whip and Vanko started swinging both with astonishing skill. Those observing from a distance would see what looked like a whirlpool of blue lightning.


    War Machine fired at Vanko using his minigun but it did little to the armored mech and the missiles he tried to fire were intercepted by the storm of whirling lightning.


    Tony quickly calculated that the whip motion was increasing in speed and that letting him continue would be bad. Tony used a new system in his suit built from ruby metagems and his armor glowed red. He stepped into the storm and caught the whip.


    As if anticipating this, Vanko released yards of slack for the whip from the coiled line on his back and tossed it into the air where it coiled and looked like it would wrap around Tony.


    Another blade of light formed on Tony''s foot and he backflipped while slicing all the lines in a flying kick.


    Rhody used the opening to fire a tiny missile at Vanko. The missile bounced off the armor and sputtered and died. Everyone stopped to look at Rhodey whose head fell in shame. Tony asked, "Hammer Tech?"


    Rhodey answered, "yeah.."


    Tony jumped and started flying to the side to circle Vanko while getting closer. His suit glowed green for a moment as a metagem emerald was enabled and a half dozen holograms of Iron Man formed around Vanko. They circled and got closer forcing Vanko to twirl his whip around him to strike them all.


    The whip passed through each illusion, causing it to disperse, but none were the real Iron Man. Tony flew down from above using the opening Vanko gave by twirling his whips and used his light blade to pierce the arc reactor core in Vanko''s suit.


    The suit lost power and collapsed. The head piece somehow opened up and the Russian growled, "You still lose."


    The interior of the suit started glowing and Tony flew back. A moment later, it exploded with a force strong enough to shatter the windows of all the nearby buildings and vehicles.


    Tony landed next to Obscurus and asked, "What did he mean?"


    Harry answered, "He sent a signal before saying that. I''m guessing all the drones have bombs in them. Too bad I isolated this area from any transmissions. None of the bombs got that signal."


    Tony gave a relieved sigh and said, "Good, cause I think that last bomb gave me whiplash."


    Harry rolled his eyes and wondered how long Tony had been saving that one.


    *Omake*


    The day after his birthday, as Tony was finishing up the designs on the Mark VI, a certain bald eye patch-wearing spy walked into his workshop as if he owned the place.


    Tony wasn''t proud to say he was so engrossed in his work he hadn''t noticed the man approach, so the stern glare of reprimand at the home invader was a bit lacking. Tony stated, "Jarvis has been upgraded, how did you get in?"


    Fury smiled as another familiar face walked in from the side. Fury answered, "It helps to have someone on the inside."


    Tony''s eye twitched a bit as he gave a weak glare to the beautiful red head and flatly stated, "You''re fired."


    To which she replied, "You can''t fire me. I work directly under Ms. Potts so only she can do so. It''s in my contract."


    Fury smiled at Tony''s shock and since he didn''t mind kicking a man when he was down, he proudly gestured to his side, "Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff."


    The latter used the opening to introduce herself, "I''m a Shield Shadow, once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."


    Tony stated, "I suggest you apologize."


    Romanoff smiled sweetly and asked, "For lying to you? But Mr. Potter told you exactly who I am when you asked."


    Tony''s eyes widened for a moment and in the next instant, he face planted his table in shame.


    Fury looked intrigued and said, "Hold up, I thought you said Potter didn''t blow your cover."


    "Oh, he didn''t. He just said I looked like a Professional with killer th??hs, killer legs, killer arms, a killer face, and a killer body."


    Tony couldn''t help but look up at her and see the innocent smile she was wearing. It was painful to see. Almost as painful as looking at the shit-eating grin Fury was sporting when he clearly understood how thickly Potter had laid it on yet Stark still didn''t get it.


    Stark let out a groan of defeat and asked, "Why, are you here again?"


    Fury asked about the suit and Stark told him that it was Harry''s idea. Although Stark did so to throw Harry under the bus, Fury was actually placated since that implied Potter took measures to make sure it''d work out.


    After the meeting was over, Romanoff took out a camera she had hidden and stopped the recording. While Tony was watching, Fury said he wanted a copy to use as a screensaver.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry you have to wait so long for the chapter. I decided to cover pretty much the entirety of the movie here and even included a Omake to thank you for your patience.. Next up is Thor and after that is Hulk.

 Chapter 89 - 89 Thor, God of Thunder

    "Professor Potter, you got here quickly from New York."


    Harry wasn''t surprised in the slightest that as soon as he arrived at the site of the Hammer, he met a familiar face. "Hello again Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."


    Coulson smiled and shook his head. Harry always addressed him that way since the first time he introduced himself to Harry with that very generous title.


    Harry looked over to the site where the Hammer was and watched as Shield Agents were finishing up creating a nice big dome over the whole thing. Harry stated, "I asked Obscurus for a ride since this seemed more than a little interesting. That was only slightly~ cheaper than taking a Taxi from New York directly to New Mexico."


    "Yes, well I suppose I''m not surprised you found out." Shield had been actively removing any proof of this from the internet since they initially got involved, but they couldn''t hack ArcaneKnowledge, the website Harry setup in Kamar-Taj. The spell on the servers in that site would lead people to it who needed it while causing people who didn''t need it to have difficulties finding it. Even if they did find it, Harry regularly updated the servers and they couldn''t even be hacked using Technomancy.


    Harry politely asked, "Can I see it?"


    Coulson internally sighed. The fact that Harry specifically said he used Obscurus to get there implied a very thin threat. Obscurus could still be around or Harry could call him again. Besides, they weren''t having much luck with the object of unknown origin to begin with and Coulson was going to start making calls about it soon enough anyways.


    "Alright. Follow me." Coulson picked up a radio and stated, "Bringing in one Professor Potter."


    Coulson just b?r?ly turned his head to the side to glance at something and Harry looked to see what it was. In the distance he spotted someone laying on top of one of the cranes used to set up the dome around the site. Harry waved in the direction of the guy he was pretty sure was looking at him through the scope of a sniper rifle.


    Coulson started heading forward and said, "That''s someone who wants to meet you."


    "Oh? In a good way or a bad way?" Harry didn''t feel like using a spell to check on who it was so he couldn''t tell from that distance.


    "Ah. Mr. Barton. You don''t suppose he''ll forgive me for that little prank if I give him a Light Baton would you?"


    "Perhaps," Coulson replied. During one of the times Pepper was at the Expo, Natasha had cut in line and bought a red Light Baton for herself, but Barton never got the chance to before they sold out because he wasn''t stationed anywhere close to New York during that period. Coulson knew that Clint had been rather depressed about that and really wanted one, but he wouldn''t tell Harry that.


    Coulson''s radio flared up, and Barton spoke up from the other end, [Give me a Blue one and we''re square.]


    Harry chuckled, looked in Clint''s direction and said, "No problem." The man was probably reading their lips.


    Coulson walked them past a half dozen layers of security before they arrived in the central area were a pedestal of earth remained after having the surroundings dug up. Standing valiantly on the pedestal was a short handled warhammer with a head bearing a shape similar to that of a sledge hammer.


    Harry''s senses could vaguely feel out the sealed might contained within. It contained Natural energy, the same type of energy Storm wielded. Though unlike normal natural energy which could power winds and rains and blizzards, this purer form only seemed to contain the energy of thunder and lightning.


    "That looks remarkably like Mjolnir." Harry approached to get closer but did not touch it. He circled it a bit paying attention to both the hammer and the pedestal of earth that bore it.


    Coulson asked, "You recognize it? What can you tell us about it?"


    Harry didn''t mind sharing, "Mjolnir is the weapon of the Asgardian known as Thor, son of Odin. He showed up on Earth multiple times between the sixth and tenth century. Specifically around the area of Scandinavia. It was said he bore the power of lightning and was worshipped as a god by the local Vikings."


    "Anything is possible if you think about it. Perhaps not here, but every story ever written is perhaps true somewhere else."


    After circling the Hammer, he got closer and observed the faint etching in the side. Harry spoke aloud, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor."


    After he finished reading that, Harry took a step back with visible shock and said "Well shit."


    Coulson, surprised at Harry''s reaction, asked, "That bad?"


    "I guess you could say so. This is Odin''s work. He''s never done this before. Do you know how this got here?"


    Coulson answered, "We found a team who had monitored everything and borrowed their equipment and data."


    Harry rolled his eyes at the word ''borrowed'' and said, "Might as well take a look."


    Coulson led him to another section and asked, "So if anyone can pick up that Hammer, they can possess the power of Thor. Lightning and stuff?"


    Harry nodded, "Yes, but there is only one power of Thor and if Thor is not using it, I am curious as to why."


    "Yes. Odin has never done something like this before."


    "You seem familiar with Odin."


    "Odin is very old and if you know where to look, there are records of him all over the world. He once went to war with others and won and claimed this planet, which they call Midgard, his territory. Attacking Earth after that meant declaring war on Asgard and if the stories are true, they are a mighty force not to be messed with."


    "So he''s Earth''s protector?"


    Harry sighed. "He used to be. Odin is consistent but Earth is ever changing."


    Coulson could tell that there was something Harry was leaving out but didn''t push it. If it was relevant, he could ask the Professor later.


    Coulson brought Harry to the room that as far as Harry could tell, contained a bunch of junk. "Who did you steal this from?"


    "Borrowed," Coulson corrected. "Dr. Erik Selvig and Jane Foster."


    "Selvig huh?" Harry inspected the equipment and was, at least marginally, impressed. "This wasn''t made by Selvig, so I''m guessing Ms. Foster made it." It was a home-made analyzer with about a dozen different cameras of different types which could record different colors and used a program to analyze what was recorded to detect anomalies in space.


    Coulson nodded and left the room after ?ssigning a guard. The guard wasn''t really there to watch Harry, it was just standard protocol.


    Harry actually only needed three minutes to get everything but he respected whoever made this contraption and decided to upgrade it. He''d have to pull a few things out of his inventory but he''d make sure the guard didn''t notice.


    Part way through Harry pulled out a metal cylinder and tossed it behind him. The man standing soundlessly behind him caught it and turned it on. Harry could swear he heard the man smile. Harry added, "Charger is on the table to your left."


    Clint took the charger and and put it in his locker before returning to his lookout point.


    From the data Harry recovered, a wormhole was opened and something came through. Then a little bit later, another wormhole opened and something else came through. If Mjolnir was one of those things, Harry had a few educated guesses as to the identity of the other.


    Deciding it was a good time to stop guessing, Harry cast an illusion spell that would prevent the guard from seeing what he was doing and called the Ancient One.


    "Do you know why Odin sent Mjolnir to Earth?"


    [I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised you are there. This is a test for Thor Odinson and one he must pass. You cannot ?ssist him in the coming trial.]


    "So I should leave?"


    "So something is going to happen I could take care of, but Thor needs to do it to pass the test?"


    [That''s right.]


    "Can you just tell me what that is so I don''t prevent it? I know you like to be cryptic but if this is as important as you say, then perhaps a few more details would be good."


    [Very well. Thor must sacrifice himself.]


    "Ah. Gotcha. Anything else I should pay attention to in order to prevent a worse off future?"


    [Don''t worry, as far as I can tell, this is one of only three more points that must not be changed in the days to come. The other two being my future apprentice''s arrival to Kamar-Taj and the last being my death. After Thor departs, you can do whatever else you want as long as it does not prevent those two events in the future.]


    "Hmm. Very well," and with that, Harry hung up. The Ancient One had seen thousands of futures where Dr. Strange was not her apprentice and where she survived in the future. None of them were as good as a future in which she died and Dr. Strange took her place. Her death was required in order to teach the future Sorcerer Supreme a lesson he would need in order to become the man he was destined to be.


    Harry, as someone who had been to the other side, was not particularly caught up on the Ancient One not doing everything she could to prevent her death. She accepted death and even had a chance to make her death incredibly meaningful, so Harry respected her decision.


    Cloud cover moved in as night came. Harry turned to look at the guard and asked, "Can you ask Agent Coulson to come back, there''s something he needs to know."


    Harry looked up to the roof as the sound of thunder echoed and said, "In private."


    Coulson nodded and motioned for the guard to leave.


    Harry continued, "The Hammer contains Thor''s power but the power still belongs to him. It''s reacting to him."


    Another crackle of lightning sounded in the distance.


    Coulson asked, "You''re saying Thor is coming?"


    "Sounds like it. This equipment registered two arrivals. If the Hammer was one, it would not surprise me if Thor was the other."


    Coulson asked, "So Thor is coming to get his Hammer back?"


    "I think so. This answers a few questions. I think this is a test of some kind for Thor. In any case, if your security spots a heavily muscled blonde man coming here, clear the way. It would not do us any good to have a prince of Asgard ?ssassinated."


    "You want us to let him in?"


    "Getting in the way of a Test given to Thor by Odin doesn''t have greater benefits than letting it go through."


    "I can''t leave that Hammer unguarded."


    "Then I''ll guard it. Clear the way and I''ll stay in the main area."


    Coulson considered it for a few moments and nodded before leading Harry back to the main room.


    Coulson said, "I''m surprised you didn''t try lifting it yourself."


    Harry figured everyone here, including Coulson, had probably tried. "There is a man in Asgard capable of seeing and hearing things on other planets. I have no doubt he is keeping watch on this Hammer and I don''t want his attention on me just yet."


    "You think you can lift it?"


    Harry shrugged but didn''t answer. Asgardian virtues were different than the virtues of the present. Phil Coulson may be a good man, but he did not embody all the Asgardian virtues. For example, if Coulson needed someone to do something and that person refused, Coulson had no problem blackmailing them, even if they were a good person who didn''t deserve to be blackmailed. Harry considered him a quintessential Slytherin which was one of the reasons he was a good Agent.


    As for the question, Harry figured he might be able to lift it. Virtues in these days were a luxury of the strong. Few if any among the weak could afford to be virtuous for they lacked the strength to protect whatever reason they chose to be virtuous. Harry was both strong and rich, so luxuries like virtues were things he could afford to possess.


    Still, Harry was invisible to Clairvoyance and Heimdall was probably staring at this room wondering why Coulson was talking to himself. If Harry lifted the Hammer, Heimdall would see the Hammer lift up on its own and cause a few questions Harry didn''t feel like answering.


    Harry got out a chair and a tablet and started reading in the room with the Hammer. He sat behind the pedestal so that whoever entered could get to the Hammer before getting to Harry, preventing any intruders from thinking of getting Harry before the Hammer.


    The storm got worse and it started pouring rain. The sound of the deluge hid any tracks and traces, but Barton still spotted the blond intruder and by Coulson''s order, they cleared the way for him to enter.


    Harry smiled a bit when he heard an ATV outside crash in the distance. Seemed Thor wasn''t enough of a musclehead to try to break in without causing a distraction at least.


    Thor eventually entered and spotted both Harry and the Hammer. Harry neither looked up nor got off his chair. He did however say aloud, "You know, I''m pretty sure this area is off limits."


    The muscle bound blond locked eyes on the Hammer and said, "I''m just here to retrieve what''s mine and I''ll be on my way."


    Without looking up, Harry asked, "So rules don''t apply to you huh? If you can''t prove it''s yours you''re still trespassing."


    Thor ignored Harry and approached the pedestal. Sparks of electricity shot from the Hammer to him making Thor smile. His power wanted to return where it belonged. Thor grabbed the Handle with an elated expression as he felt his power within.


    The moment he tried to lift it and felt it''s immovable weight, his expression dropped.


    Harry put down his tablet and stood up. Thor continued to struggle to lift the Hammer and Harry started staring at him making the Asgardian prince feel more and more awkward.


    Harry, having no problem adding salt to the wound, added, "You think someone who doesn''t think the rules apply to him is worthy?"


    Thor turned, his despair turning to anger as he nearly shouted, "You know not of what you are speaking!"


    Harry calmly replied, "There are some markings on the side. Read them."


    Thor frowned and took a look, noticing for the first time the sigil that had been added. His frown deepened in the next moment as he stared once more at his lifelong companion. After a few more moments, he released the handle.


    Harry then asked again, "So, what are you here for again?"


    Thor awkwardly turned to the side and sheepishly answered, "To recover a friend''s property?"


    "Your friend''s name?"


    "Jane Foster and Erik Selvig."


    Harry nodded and said, "Alright. Answer all my questions and I''ll make sure Ms. Foster and Dr. Selvig gets everything back. Follow me."


    Thor, not expecting such a reply, was rather surprised and followed Harry back into a meeting room. Harry used a bit of technomancy to turn the listening devices in place off and a bit of magic to prevent eavesdroppers.


    After taking a seat, Harry introduced himself. "My name is Harry Potter. I am many things, including a protector of this realm. It would be easier to protect this world if I knew the events that led a Prince of Asgard to lose his powers and be separated from his Hammer."


    Thor was once more surprised as the previous mortals he''d encountered did not believe his identity yet this one recognized him without an introduction.


    Thor, deciding to be civil to one who had already respected him in turn, told the story of the last two days, from his coronation, to the break in of the vault, to his ?ssault on Jotunheim, to his banishment. He did not include the illegal acts of Jane Foster to ensure she was not implicated.


    Harry asked a few clarification questions during the story and at the end, he shook his head. Harry stated, "Well, I can guess the actual reason why your father didn''t take any steps to go against Jotunheim. Your father''s ability to see all is not inferior to Heimdall''s. I suspect your father knew exactly how those Frost giants broke in, even if Heimdall did not. He simply did not choose to pursue the guilty party as no one besides the Frost Giants were really harmed."


    Thor asked, "Oh, and who would have reason to betray my Kingdom that my father would not seek to punish?"


    "Considering the Frost Giants had no chance of success, you can''t say the action was a betrayal of any sort. If anything.." Harry smiled, "It was more of a prank. Who in Asgard is capable of pulling such a prank? Someone your father would not punish even if he found out?"


    Thor''s eyes widened in shock and realization. A moment later he closed his eyes, released a painful groan, and face slammed the table.


    Harry chuckled and said, "I doubt he expected you to declare war because of a prank, but you did. I can''t exactly fault your father for his decision in banishing you."


    In the next moment, someone Harry thought bore a remarkable resemblance to a sketch of D. B. Cooper, walked into the area.


    The man wore a suit and looked at Thor and asked, "Why are you in here talking to yourself?"


    Harry Paused to take a moment and figure things out. He guessed that this was Loki. However, even though he looked like he was there and Harry felt his presence there, the man couldn''t see Harry. That, and there were no other disturbances, so no one had recently showed up by wormhole. No, this man was a projection. A projection across worlds. Still, a projection was just an advanced form of Clairvoyancy. Harry was invisible to Clairvoyants.


    Harry unpaused and said quickly, "He can''t see or hear me, pretend you are alone."


    Thor looked up from the table rather confused and said, "I don''t know what you are talking about. Why are you here?"


    Loki cast his eyes down and said in a somber voice. "Father is dead."


    Harry Paused again and considered it. He then unpaused and quickly said, "Loki is definitely lying. Odin left spells over this planet which would change if he died."


    Thor''s initial look of horror changed to one of confusion. He tried not to look into Harry''s direction or ask for further confirmation.


    Harry then said, "If you want to get back at your brother a bit, follow my lead. First, pretend you believe him."


    Thor looks down to hide his face and compose himself. He asked slowly as if unbelievably sad, "How. How did father die?"


    Loki, waiting for this moment, continued, "Your banishment and the threat of a new war. It was too much for him to bear."


    Thor looked up a bit but could only give Loki a strange look.


    Loki continued, "You mustn''t blame yourself. I know you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn''t listen."


    Thor asked with a bit of hope in his voice, "Can I come home?"


    Loki shook his head, "The truce with Jotunheim is conditional upon your exile"


    Harry smiled, "Definitely a lie. You should compliment him. Tell him how well he is already doing. Make it as awkward as possible."


    Thor, being a rather flexible person, was fully capable of figuring out where Harry was going with this. Thor said, "My brother. Your first act as King has already done much good for Asgard and her people. I can tell you will be honored in the halls of Asgard for all of time."


    Loki, obviously not expecting that, was completely thrown off and even took a step back.


    Harry added, "Now go for the kill."


    Thor gave a kind smile to Loki and continued, "Perhaps this really is for the best. Without having to fight all the time or lead our people, I can finally spend time on my heart''s true calling. Knitting."


    Loki blinked at that and asked, rather dumbfounded, "What?"


    Thor continued, "Oh you know, knit one, purl two, it really is quite enjoyable and relaxing."


    Loki''s eyes widened to comical values and Thor continued, "Do visit when you have the time. I''ll see if I can knit a sweater for you and Mother."


    Loki looked as if he wanted to retort but his mouth only opened and closed several times. He lifted a finger as if to point something else, but let it drop. A moment later he awkwardly turned and faded away.


    Harry erupted in laughter and Thor quickly joined him. Tears were streaming down both their eyes and Thor looked like he had trouble breathing.


    It took a few moments for the pair to regain themselves and for Thor to ask, "How certain are you that my father lives?"


    "Completely. At worst he''s in the Odin sleep and your brother will sit on the throne for a few days."


    Thor took in a few breaths to steady himself and asked, "What should I do now?"


    Harry shrugged. "Live. Whatever your father sent you here for can likely only happen if you are mortal. Why else take your powers. So live as a mortal until you figure it out. For now, let''s get your friend''s stuff back. I''m done with my questioning."


    As Harry got up to leave, Thor asked, "Wait, why couldn''t my brother see you?"


    "I''m blessed by some rather powerful figures. One blessing shields me from long sight, so much less your brother, even Heimdall is probably wondering why you''ve been sitting in this room, talking to yourself."


    Thor looked very surprised at that. He was not aware such a thing was possible and could not think of a being who would grant such a blessing.


    Harry left the room and met with Coulson who was waiting outside.


    Coulson asked, "Did you find out anything?"


    "Yeah, he told me everything. He really is Thor, but he did something which showed an extreme lack of consideration for mortals so Odin made him mortal and sent him to Earth to live as one. He has apparently also made friends with Jane Foster. I promised to return her stuff in exchange for his cooperation, and since I already got all the things I needed, I''ll go ahead and return it. This can be considered the first interaction between Thor and modern earth in a while so it isn''t a bad idea to make it a good one."


    Coulson nodded, "That''s fine. I''ll need to report this to the higher ups."


    Harry added, "Just Fury, and use a Brilliance Inc phone please. There are some higher ups I wouldn''t trust to make the right decision if they know we have the prince of a foreign power in custody."


    Coulson considered it and nodded. They had company phones were they knew could be traced and tracked, while doing so with one of Harry''s company phones was considered impossible.


    Although Harry was outwardly showing things were fine, he knew they were not. Odin had never done something like this before. There were reasons he was so consistent, and what he was doing now meant he was playing a dangerous game. That being said, the Ancient One already gave the all clear that it was for the best. If that wasn''t the case, Harry certainly would not interact so easily with Thor.


    Gods were not things a knowledgeable Sorcerer would deal with without thought. Still , if he was going to interact with him, he wanted to do it his way. The main reason Harry revealed so much to Thor was that he wanted to ensure Thor would not treat Harry as an ignorant savage or lesser being. Harry felt he had accomplished his goal for the day and wanted to spend the rest of the night studying Mjolnir.


    It wasn''t long after Harry started packing up Jane''s stuff that Coulson showed up rather amused. He said that Miss Foster and Dr. Selvig had shown up for their companion, a Dr. Donald Blake. They had a fake ID card with his picture taken from a phone and everything.


    Harry laughed. When they confirmed they had brought their van, Harry had some of the guards load the ''borrowed'' equipment and return it to the van as promised.


    When Harry saw Thor standing by Jane''s side as she watched them bring her stuff back, he smiled and turned to Harry and said, "Thank you Harry for honoring your word."


    Jane however frowned upon looking at some of her stuff and asked, "What did you do?" when she noticed some of it had been altered.


    Harry answered, "I upgraded a bit of it. Consider it an apology for the hassle."


    Jane, looking at the not yet seventeen year old Harry asked, "And who are you?"


    Thor spoke, "Jane, this is my good friend Harry Potter."


    Jane then went bug-eyed and asked in an almost whisper, "professor potter?"


    Harry smiled, "Yeah, that''s me. I added a few programs which would process the data a bit more efficiently, added some new lenses to get better data, and a new circuit board that won''t smoke after being used for four hours."


    Harry left before making it more awkward and returned to the site to break out his own equipment to study the Hammer. He couldn''t care less about the metal or the natural energy within, but the Norse enchantments were personally cast by Odin and those were things he wanted a closer look at.


    The next morning Harry got a ride into the town and headed over to the coffee place the guards said Thor was at. He had forgotten to ask Thor something the prior night and wanted to ask before he left.


    Harry noticed Jane sitting next to Thor and called him, "Hey Thor, have a good night''s sleep?"


    Thor brightened and said, "Yes, it was most restful." Jane blushed which Harry noticed and smiled at, causing her to blush even more.


    Harry brought out a ??ptop computer and cast a weak spell that would cause others to hear them speaking about random things. He asked, "Do you know anything about Galactus?"


    Thor''s eyebrow shot up and he asked, "What do you know of the devourer of worlds?"


    Harry answered, "The system which shielded Earth from him had a problem a little over a year ago, so he showed up."


    Thor asked with some skepticism, "And yet this world still stands?"


    Harry then opened the ??ptop and pulled up the security camera footage of the Baxter building from the Fantastic Four plus Silver Surfer Vs Galactus Fight.


    The fight actually only took a few minutes, but upon the video starting, Thor''s frown only deepened. He recognized the Silver Surfer, Terrax, and Firelord, as well as Galactus himself, so he knew this video was not likely to be a fake.


    This was the unedited version Harry sent a copy of to himself before editing himself out. So eventually the footage showed Harry showing up, threatening then negotiating with Galactus, and then pranking the man.


    Jane, who sat at Thor''s side watching this, asked, "I''m sorry, but did you trick him into pieing himself in the face?"


    Thor too, was quite amused at the end.


    Harry nodded, "Indeed. In any case, before Galactus showed up, I sent a message to Asgard informing them that Galactus would show up. But no one ever came and I had to do some crazy and ridiculous things to chase him away. Do you know why Asgard ignored the message I sent?"


    Thor shook his head. "I was not aware of this. If you can send messages to Asgard, then perhaps when my father has recovered, you can send another. I''ll ask him personally."


    A moment later, Harry''s phone beeped and Harry took it out. "Huh. Jane''s equipment says the Bifrost opened again."


    Jane looked shocked, but then a moment later, she almost shouted, "You bugged my equipment?!"


    Harry rolled his eyes, "And upgraded. Free of charge."


    Harry put away his ??ptop and left the diner followed by Thor and Jane.


    It didn''t take the group long to spot a band of four walking into town. One was fat enough to take up professional sumo wrestling. Another looked like he''d make a good pirate. The third male looked remarkably depressed and the fourth, a woman, was the first to spot Thor and run over.


    Thor raised his arms and shouted, "My friends!"


    Jane looked at the new arrivals, all clearly wearing armor and weapons not of this age. After they reunited, she spoke in almost a whisper, "I don''t believe this."


    The round one noticed her and asked, "Surely you''ve heard tales of Hogun the Grim, Fandral the Dashing, and I, Volstagg the Svelte?"


    Harry gave the man who looked neither slender nor elegant a deadpan look and asked, "Svelte are you?"


    Volstagg chuckled and replied, "Well, I may have put on a bit of weight from the last time I visited."


    Jane stated, "But, that would''ve been more than a thousand years ago."


    Volstagg replied, "Exactly! Those lovely herring people. They worshipped us!"


    Harry shook his head and stated, "Mortals these days are very busy and rarely recall events that occurred more than a few weeks ago.


    Volstagg gasped and looked down with sadness.


    Thor ignored it and said amiably, "My friends, I''ve never been happier to see anyone. But you should not have come."


    The swashbuckler look alike replied, "We''re here to take you home."


    Harry replied, "Has Odin retracted Thor''s banishment?"


    The round Volstagg answered, "Well.."


    Harry continued, "Has Loki, who sits upon the throne, retracted Thor''s banishment?"


    Fandral answered, "Of course not."


    Harry sighed and blandly stated, "Then you have committed treason." Harry looked at Thor, "Perhaps you are not completely at fault for your actions. With bad influences like these, I''m surprised you''re not worse than you are now."


    Sif drew her blade and held it to Harry''s neck and stated, "Watch your tongue mortal."


    Harry gave Thor a knowing look making Thor aware of the irony of this. He then calmly turned to Lady Sif and stated, "Asgardians must lack the gift of speech if they are unable to speak with anything but violence. I bet you''re single right?"


    Fandrall spoke once more, "We have not come to exchange words, we have come to return Thor to Asgard."


    Still with a blade to his neck, Harry looked at Thor and said, "Your brother''s pranks aside, your father sent you to Midgard for a reason. If you doubt the wisdom of the Allfather, then listen to these traitors to the throne and return. But I can guarantee that if you do so, you will die."


    Thor considered it for a bit and looked at Lady Sif, "He speaks truthfully. Put your sword away."


    Before anyone could reply, the Bifrost opened once more, this time in the middle of town. After the flash of light, what was revealed was a giant metal figure.


    Thor shouted in shock, "The Destroyer!"


    Shield Agents ran in front of it, pointing their weapons and threatening it to return from where it came. Predictably, it shot out a surge of energy at their car, causing it to explode.


    Thor shouted, "We must get everyone to leave!"


    Sif responded, "Get the mortals to safety. You can''t help us Thor."


    The Destroyer fired again at some Shield agents, this time it caused the surrounding to catch fire.


    Jane as well as Jane''s ?ssistant ran into a Pet shop and moments later came out carrying animals. Harry figured that wasn''t a bad idea and joined them in rescuing the pets. Harry figured this was the fight the Ancient One told him not to interfere with, so Harry would just let things happen.


    Sif and the Warriors three tried various things but they all failed to stop the Destroyer.


    It was then that Thor came up with a plan. He walked up to the Destroyer and offered himself to it. It smacks him to death to the cry of everyone present. Before it can finish the job by destroying his corpse though, Mjolnir flew to Thor''s hand.


    The return of the Asgardian''s power restored his flesh and with a surge of lightning, his armor summoned itself to him.


    Thor then proceeded to smash the Destroyer over and over until it was defeated.


    Jane ran up to Thor to make sure he was okay after dying and probably to take a closer look at his new attire.


    Coulson showed up not long afterwards, having already gotten a SitRep from the other agents.


    He asked, "So what happened?"


    "My guess? Those friends of Thor didn''t trust the temp ruler, Loki, so they turned traitor and came here. Loki sent the Destroyer for them, but seeing them with Thor, may have thought Thor turned Traitor too. Technically this is their fault, though Loki did over-react. I''m guessing it runs in the family."


    Coulson sighed and went over to speak with Thor.


    Not long afterwards, Thor shouted into the sky for Heimdall to call them back. He figured that he passed Odin''s test with the regaining of Mjolnir so he could return home now, but nothing happened.


    After trying another few times, the sky changed to their relief. Knowing that the time for parting had come, Harry gave something to Thor and said, "If you need help for something, toss this at the ground."


    Thor looked a bit unsure, but took it anyway.


    He said his goodbyes and everyone backed away. A surge of rainbow light struck the group and a moment later, they were gone.


    As they dispersed, Jane approached Harry and asked, "I saw you give something to Thor, what was it?" She was probably the only one who saw that.


    Harry smiled, but didn''t answer, leaving Jane to frown and leave in an angry huff.


    The object Harry gave him was an Intergalactic Portkey, but one that could only be activated from one side. Once used, it would record the coordinates of a space and then return to Harry. In other words, should Thor use it, Harry would get the location of Asgard.


    For now though, he''d be patient. He had no idea when or if Thor would use it.


    For now, Harry returned to the Shield site to help pack everything up. On the van ride back, Harry took out his tablet to check the news and found something interesting. The Hulk had apparently fought the army and a group of tanks at Culver University. With that, Harry decided it would be a good idea to head back to New York. It seemed there were still things to do.


    *Author''s Notes*


    Sorry for those who wanted changes. I did what I could, but this stuff really needed to happen. I''ll make a few changes for the Hulk, but after that, I''ll really start at it. I have a lot of crazy ideas for the Battle of New York. One of them is in fact stolen from somewhere else, but I don''t think anyone would mind.. After that, say goodbye to cannon.

 Chapter 90 - 90 The Incredible Hulk

    After the van returned everyone to the site where the Hammer had once been located, Harry walked up to Coulson and stated, "I''m calling Obscurus again for a ride back to New York."


    Coulson conversationally asked, "Why didn''t you call him when the armor appeared?"


    Harry smiled and replied, "I could have, but do you remember how that ended when I called him for Stark last time? In the end, he chose not to take my payment, but instead, with Stark''s permission, took that armor and those rings. What exactly do you think would''ve happened if I called him today?"


    Coulson only took a moment to answer back, "He might have taken that Asgardian armor as well."


    Harry nodded and said, "The situation wasn''t bad enough to call him and I would''ve felt awkward if he gave a repeat performance."


    Coulson nodded again, getting the impression that Harry couldn''t really control Obscurus and that calling him may not be for the best unless things really went south. That being said, Coulson replied, "Many Shield Agents were severely injured and Shield Property was damaged. That''s not a good enough reason?"


    Harry smiled. "Ah, but you''re missing the bigger picture. There is no way Loki could''ve sent that thing here unless he sat on the Throne of Asgard. I doubt he is sitting there now, with Thor having returned, but it was still a decision made by the Throne of Asgard, something which should be protecting Earth, not taking actions to harm it."


    Coulson frowned at this, not getting why Harry seemed to think this was a good thing.


    Harry elaborated, "Think of it this way, if someone''s boss, superior, or company did something unlawful which caused great harm to their employee, what could that employee do?"


    That had Coulson''s attention. He answered, "Sue, demand compensation."


    Harry nodded. "In this circumstance, there is no problem demanding compensation with greater value than the damages received. In other words, on behalf of Shield, you can demand that armor as compensation. Technically, it still belongs to Asgard, but if you make such a demand, then the Throne of Asgard must either let you keep it or provide another form of compensation. In this way, by Asgardian Law, they can''t take it back meaning Shield can do whatever they want with it fair and legal."


    The possibility that the Destroyer could be taken back had not occurred to Coulson, but now that Harry brought it up, this was in fact not a bad idea. However, he asked, "So if we claim the armor, then this balances the debt Asgard owes for the lives harmed and the destruction dealt?"


    Coulson replied, "That''s fair. We weren''t expecting anything of Asgard. A way to ensure the acquisition of such ?ssets would be valuable. However, I''m surprised that you don''t have any interest in it yourself."


    In truth, Harry really didn''t have any interest in it. The metal the Destroyer was made of wasn''t something Harry was familiar with, but it wasn''t the same as Thor''s hammer. It was basically a battery, the metal was capable of storing vast amounts of energy.


    Harry figured Odin used it to store Odin Force which was how the Destroyer attacked. However the metal had an upper limit which, though impressive, wasn''t enough to interest Harry. Harry may not have better batteries, but he had an infinite inventory he could use to carry more batteries making this metal not nearly as valuable to him.


    As for the Odin Force, Harry had no interest in it either. He had enough Power Cosmic stored up to last until he reached level 300 and then he could start on Time Energy.


    Besides, Odin Force was not difficult to track. Even if Shield made a powerful weapon using the metal Odin Force battery, Harry would be able to find it if the weapon found itself in unsavory hands.


    Harry shook his head in the negative and answered Coulson, "I have enough on my plate as it is."


    And with that Harry walked off. After walking some distance from the Shield site he pulled out a cell phone and called his Speeder Bike. Half an hour later, the bike flew over to where Harry was with a hologram of Obscurus on the front seat. Harry got on the back and the bike took off into the sky. Once out of range of surveillance, Harry turned off the hologram and took the driver''s seat himself. Rather than use a portal, Harry simply enjoyed the flight at hypersonic speeds back to New York. He enabled another hologram over himself to look like Obscurus and one behind him to look like himself without the disguise, in case anyone saw him. Doing so only took the flip of a switch so it didn''t count as overkill.


    After returning to New York and putting his Speeder into his inventory, Harry headed over to New York University to speak with Dr. Sterns. According to what Link found, Sterns had been in contact with Bruce Banner over the last few months in order to find a way to permanently suppress Banner''s greener half.


    After several failed tests, Sterns stated that in order to do so he needed data on the myostatic primer designed by Dr. Betty Ross and the details on the experiment itself.


    Before the start of classes for the day, Harry headed over to Sterns'' lab and found the door unlocked. What he didn''t expect to find was Sterns and Conners working together in the lab. Conners was looking over Sterns'' shoulder as the latter typed into his computer terminal and the pair were discussing the readings.


    Harry quietly entered and stood behind Conners to check out what was so interesting on the computer.


    Sterns pointed at a string of numbers and said, "The only noticeable difference between these sets is the increase in gamma radiation."


    Conners replied, "But we initially hypothesized that too much would do more harm than good."


    "Yes, and clearly we were wrong. The rats which survived the higher levels of exposure clearly showed a more pronounced effect than those that were exposed to the safer levels."


    Conners shook his head and countered, "But even the survivors died afterwards. They had no way to store or process the radiation."


    Sterns nodded, "Yes, but I believe this is the right direction. Rather than too much, perhaps the survivors didn''t get enough to maintain and regulate the adaptive tissues."


    Conners added, "You mean there is a minimum threshold for success which is still impossibly lethal? How did Banner even survive this?"


    Sterns shook his head, "Do you want to meet him?"


    Sterns let out a sigh of understanding and scrolled down further and said, "Has the data been of any use?"


    "Ha, only for reference as a list of things not to do."


    Harry added from behind, "Well of course. Your research is about changing the genome into something to add a specific effect while this is about enhancing what is already there to get as much out of it as possible."


    Conners nodded, "Exactly, there is-"


    Both scientists turned around to see Harry standing there leisurely looking over the data on Sterns'' computer.


    Sterns eloquently stated, "Uhhh, this isn''t what it looks like."


    Harry snorted, "I hope so. Because if this is what it looks like and you didn''t invite me to take a look, I''d be quite offended."


    Sterns and Conners shared an awkward smile. Harry didn''t know if he wasn''t invited because they didn''t want him to know what they were working on or if they didn''t want someone a decade younger than them taking the lead in their research.


    Sterns then gave a forced smile and asked, "So what can we do for you today Professor Potter?"


    Harry answered, "Well, I heard the Hulk took a walk around Culver University and wondered if we might get a visit from everyone''s favorite jolly green giant."


    Sterns'' face changed so abruptly Harry almost thought he''d been slapped. The man obviously needed to work on his poker face if he wanted to do secret research in the future.


    Deciding the jig was up, Sterns and Conners came clean with what they had been doing and planning.


    After hearing the whole story, Harry asked, "What protections do you have on the research and the cloned blood?"


    Sterns asked, "Protections?"


    "Yeah. If the government walked into your lab and demanded everything, what have you done to make sure they won''t take your work for themselves."


    Sterns chuckled and said, "I think you''re being just a bit paranoid."


    Harry gave Sterns a level deadpan stare that had the man go from chuckling to nervously fidgeting around.


    Since it was obvious to Harry nothing had been done, Harry walked over to the expensive protein synthesizer the lab possessed and started typing. After three minutes of lightning speed typing Harry clicked enter and the machine began processing. It''d take a few hours but that''d be fine.


    After he finished Harry said, "After this finishes synthesizing, introduce it into every batch of Banner blood you have. If you want to do something with it, make the antidote and administer it, don''t make any in advance. This way no one can steal your work."


    Harry also updated the encryption on Sterns'' hard drives. He figured there was a good chance the army would find Sterns and he didn''t want the man''s carelessness to cause any more damage.


    As for Banner, he''d meet up with the man himself. He''d already come up with a plan, it just required a few trips to the grocery store, the apothecary, and a few hours in the kitchen.


    Thankfully it was finals week so although the students were panicking messes, Harry had a lot of free time. For the classes without anyone who''d notice, Harry replaced himself with a hard-light hologram run by a dumb AI who''d pretend to look for cheaters. This was pointless of course as every test had different questions and the room could not receive signals from anything without getting caught. The tests were even open book and open notes, so without internet access and other than getting someone to answer the questions for you, there really wasn''t a way to cheat.


    The next morning, the military had increased the security in and out of the city so the bridges and tunnels were packed with traffic due to the guards checking the faces of everyone who entered.


    Harry had his own invisible drones scouting around and an hour before noon, one of the drones Link flew spotted Bruce Banner and Betty Ross crossing the Hudson by boat. Harry pulled up the feed on his tablet and rolled his eyes. How the hell did that Watcher informant go from a gala attending playboy in California to a fisherman on the shores of the Hudson on the other side of the country?


    In any case, Harry knew where to go. After casting a technopathy spell to prevent facial recognition from working, Harry apparated close to the docks it appeared they would be heading towards. After checking out the streets, Harry pulled a chair out of his inventory and cast a notice-me-not over himself and picked a spot to sit and read from his tablet.


    About ten minutes later, Banner and Betty walked over to the kiosk Harry was sitting next to. It had a map of the city and the subways lines.


    Betty pointed at a spot on the map and said, "Long way to go. Subway''s quickest."


    Betty nodded and answered back, "Right. Let''s get a cab."


    Without looking up from his tablet, Harry said, "The cabbies of New York are worse than the subways."


    Bruce chuckled and answered, "I think I''ll take my chances."


    Betty on the other hand froze for a moment after taking a look at Harry.


    Bruce noticed this and asked, "Betty?"


    The latter asked, "Are you Professor Potter?"


    Harry smiled, put his tablet away and stood up. "That''s me alright, it''s a p???sur? to make your acquaintance Dr. Ross." Harry turned to Bruce and said, "And you as well Dr. Banner."


    Bruce took a step back at being recognized and Betty didn''t know what to say.


    Harry continued, "Didn''t expect you to come across the Hudson. You came to meet Mr. Blue right?"


    Banner frowned and asked, "Wait, you.."


    Harry answered, "Dr. Sterns is a colleague of mine at NYU. In any case, I wanted to help you solve your big green problem."


    Betty quickly asked, "Do you think you can?"


    "If nothing else, I am more qualified and have more experience than Sterns does." Harry got out his tablet and showed some pictures of Ben Grimm, the Thing of the Fantastic Four, before and after he was subjected to the machine Harry designed. Sure, Doom built and used it, but it was still Harry''s design.


    Harry let the pair look at it and stated, "I offered to remove the powers of all the Fantastic Four, but after some time they decided to keep them. Only Ben asked to make his appearance more manageable which I was more than happy to help with. Sterns on the other hand is taking shots in the dark. I''ve seen his research and the best it could do is suppress your greener half temporarily."


    Banner asked, "And you''re not with the military?"


    Betty answered that one for him as it was apparent Bruce had been out of the loop on local events. She said, "Um, Professor Potter is somewhat infamous for not making weapons. He is also a known spokesman for Mutant rights and protections."


    Harry nodded and said, "I''m pretty against the military of any country gaining anything that can break the status quo of the balance of power in the world." Even if Shield used the Odin Force battery metals of the Destroyer to make weapons, they would not be able to make many, and the ones they did make certainly would not be sent to the front line of any war.


    Betty added, "He''s also British."


    Bruce smiled and said, "Yeah, I got that from the accent. Fine. I''d like to see what you got."


    Harry nodded and passed a glass vial to Banner who hesitantly took it and asked "And this is?"


    Harry answered, "Draught of Serenity. The effect is as great as the taste is terrible." It was a combination of the Calming Draught and the Draught of Peace. It had a shelf life of half an hour but when stored in Harry''s inventory that wasn''t an issue.


    Bruce frowned again but considering the look of anticipation Betty was giving him, he decided to down it. "Oh god, that''s terrible."


    Harry nodded and said, "Give it a moment."


    Banner handed Harry back the empty vial and shook a bit. "Wait, what? My god." Banner''s perpetual frown lightened and he actually smiled. He turned to Harry and asked brightly, "Where can I get more of this?"


    Harry shook his head and said, "Sorry, I''m the only person who can make it. It also has no shelf life so forget about storing it."


    Betty asked, "What is it, what''s happening?"


    Bruce smiled at Betty and said, "I''m calm! I feel like I can be smacked with a baseball bat and stay calm!"


    Harry said, "For a normal person the effect would probably last a few hours, but for you I wouldn''t bet on more than an hour. We''ll use the time to hit the subway and head to my house."


    Bruce smiled and followed Harry towards the subway line with Betty in hand.


    Using the subway it took about a half hour to get to Harry''s place. Bruce wore a hat Harry gave him which had another spell on it which made him difficult to photograph or capture accurately on film or camera.


    Harry walked the pair to his front door and invited the pair in. Once inside he showed the pair down to his basement and it was around that time the potion wore off. Harry was impressed with Banner''s metabolism.


    Harry already got samples of Banner''s blood from Sterns so the first thing Harry asked was, "What do you know about your mother and father Dr. Banner?"


    "You can call me Bruce. And my father was an ?ss-hole and my mother died."


    "What did your father do for a living?"


    "He was a researcher, I guess. I used some of his old books going through College. Why?"


    Harry brought up Banner''s DNA and said, "Well, one of your parents experimented on their own genes and you inherited their partial work."


    Bruce froze at that and Betty asked, "How can you tell?"


    Harry highlighted the section he was pointing out and said, "Process of elimination. Sterns said what happened to you was a freak accident. He said that since no one has successfully reproduced what happened to you. And oh yeah, they have tried. I''ve seen freak accidents before, and this is something else. Your gene was already slightly altered from the day you were born. General Ross''s Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project happened to be compatible with whatever you already had in you."


    Betty asked, "So what does this mean for Bruce?"


    Harry liked that she went right to the point so he answered, "Well, to fix someone, I use gene therapy to change who they are into who they used to be. However, your baseline, ''who you used to be,'' wasn''t the same as other baseline humans. You brought the data you got from Culver right? Let''s see if we can figure out what happened and what you used to be."


    Betty nodded and inserted a flash drive into the computer Harry showed her. The numbers, files, and photos scrolled rapidly through the computer screen and Harry watched without blinking to the amazement of the pair.


    After it finished, Harry Paused to crunch the numbers and once done, unpaused.


    Harry sighed and said, "Yeah. That''s what I thought."


    Banner''s eternal frown returned in full force and he asked, "That bad?"


    "Whatever your father did was not only incomplete, but unstable. Despite your perceptions on your current state, you are still more stable than what you were before the accident. In fact, I''d say you had a ninety percent chance of dropping dead before the age of forty if the accident hadn''t happened."


    The pair shouted, "What?!" Banner started taking deep breaths to calm himself down.


    Harry continued, "The way I use to fix people is easy to use changing someone from unstable to stable. Is hard to use from one stable form to another stable form. And is almost impossible to use to change a stable form to an unstable form. Any means of permanently ridding you of your greener half will either kill you in the process or best case scenario, still cause you to die not long afterwards due to your previous genetic instability."


    Some of the ways Harry could use to fix especially difficult cases was to either clone someone and put their soul into the new body or use magic or the Elixir of Life, but Bruce really would die not long after if he did so which was why he wasn''t going to bother trying.


    Betty asked, "Then can you seal it? Make sure he never changes? You said you''d help Bruce."


    Harry shook his head. He said, "Let''s have dinner. I''ll invite a special guest over and we can discuss the matter with him."


    Betty didn''t even notice the Immobulus spell he sent at her. When Harry removed the spell, she still hadn''t noticed she''d been frozen and Banner was standing next to her, also unaware of what had just transpired.


    Harry walked the pair upstairs and took a seat at the table. When Betty and Bruce walked into the dinner room, the pair froze. Sitting in a massive chair wearing a large t-shirt and pants was the Hulk. He already started eating from the massive pile of dishes on the table.


    Harry pointed at the two empty seats opposite the Hulk and said, "You can sit down there."


    Neither moved. Bruce said, "That''s impossible."


    Hulk turned to look at him and sneered. He said, "Stupid Banner. Thinks he''s so smart." He then turned back to pick up a whole turkey leg and started eating it.


    Harry said, "Sit already. I went through quite a bit of trouble arranging this."


    The pair hesitantly approached the table and sat down. Betty was a bit less nervous than Bruce but neither had any idea what was going on.


    After the pair sat, Harry said, "Before we talk about permanently sealing the Hulk, why don''t we ask for his opinion?"


    Hulk lifted a large mug of cold cola and emptied it. A floating Corgi holding a metal cylinder in its mouth floated over and tipped its head to refill the Hulk''s mug. The Hulk nodded and said, "Stupid Banner. Wastes his life. Hulk protects Banner, but Banner stupid. With no Hulk to protect, Banner will get caught. Get cut up. Locked away forever. Stupid Banner thinks with no Hulk, can return to normal life. Stupid Banner doesn''t know. Hulk always protected Banner, even before."


    Banner''s expression shifted continuously from offended to incredulous to shocked and back. He''d never had a conversation with the Hulk, for obvious reasons. When the Hulk controlled their body, he suppressed Banner. When Banner was in control, he suppressed Hulk.


    He obviously didn''t like being called stupid all the time, but from the Hulk''s perspective, Banner''s actions really seemed idiotic. However it was that last comment that got his attention.


    Betty asked before Bruce could, "What do you mean? You were with Bruce before the accident?"


    Hulk ate a few more mouthfuls and swallowed before answering. He looked Bruce in the eye and asked, "You can''t recall when your father beat you."


    Betty asked, "Brian?"


    Banner answered, "My father. He what? No, he..." Suddenly Bruce recalled a series of doctor visits and visits to the infirmary from his childhood. He never really questioned why he was there, but he didn''t think it was because he was a clumsy child.


    Hulk continued, "I was there. I endured. When he tried to kill you. I endured. When he killed your mother in front of you. I endured. Now, I don''t endure. Hulk strong. No one can beat Hulk any more. Not Now. Not Ever!"


    Harry pushed some more food into Hulk''s plate. It contained a calming draught and wit sharpening potion to give the Hulk the needed smarts and Harry noticed his vocabulary was getting better as the meal progressed.


    Bruce looked lost.


    Hulk actually smiled at Bruce''s dumbfounded state. He knew exactly what Bruce was thinking and continued. "Stupid Bruce. Thinks he''s smart. Thinks he''s special. Thinks he''s not crazy. Thinks Hulk is sickness. Thinks he can cure Hulk away."


    Harry added, "Hulk has access to the same mind you do. You''re different perspectives from the same soul. Yes, you have one soul. I can tell. The main difference between you two is that Hulk is sick of being pushed around and now that he has the strength to push back, he''ll use it. And to be honest, there''s nothing wrong with that."


    Bruce asked, "But what about the damage he''s caused, the people he''s hurt?"


    Hulk sneered. "Hulk can''t think when Banner pushes Hulk. Stupid Banner makes Hulk stupid. Stop pushing, and Hulk can be smarter than Banner."


    Betty asked, "Would that really work?"


    Harry answered, "Two minds fighting against each other is not the most effective way to control a body. Bruce never acknowledged Hulk''s mind, so he always fought for control which effectively made things worse."


    Betty continued, "Is that why Hulk can articulate now? Did you separate them?"


    Harry laughed, "Oh no, I didn''t separate them. As for what I actually did, I''m afraid that will have to remain a secret." Harry turned to Banner and said, "Also, Hulk has to go back when the meal is over. So now would be a good time for you two to come to an arrangement. If you strike up a deal, I can help make sure it''s followed by both parties."


    Bruce was not having a good time. Nothing made sense anymore. The Hulk had basically called him out on denying the truth for so long and the fact that his denial basically caused most of the problems he''d had in the last five years. He certainly wasn''t expecting that the Hulk existed before the accident. He''d been diagnosed more than once with dissociative identity disorder after the accident, but Bruce denied that the Hulk was a personality. The reason he denied it was because if it was true, the monster was a part of him and he refused to accept that. But Hulk isn''t a monster. He never was.


    Banner sighed. "You''re right. I''m an idiot." Then he chuckled. He was calling himself an idiot. Then he laughed. He''d really wasted five years trying to get rid of a part of himself. He laughed louder. He had spent five years trying to get rid of someone who, not only was a part of him, but had been protecting him his whole life. He started laughing hysterically.


    Hulk smirked. Banner was finally getting it. Hulk then chuckled too. Then he started laughing along with Banner. The pair ended up laughing for a few minutes until tears started coming down their faces.


    Betty had no idea what was going on. Harry knew of course. Sanity was the illusion that everything in the world made sense. Discarding sanity allowed people to stop pretending the world made sense and start seeing it for what the world truly was. It had its uses for the masses but Harry felt sanity was highly overrated to begin with.


    Once the pair calmed down, Bruce said, "Well then, let''s try this. Hello Hulk. My name is Bruce. It''s nice to meet you."


    Hulk smirked again. "Maybe Banner isn''t so stupid after all."


    The pair then spent the remainder of the meal just talking. Bruce asked Hulk what his favorite food, drinks, movies, tv shows, and music were. Surprisingly, he had favorites of them all which were different than Bruce''s.


    Betty could tell Bruce had somehow just changed. It looked as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but different. If she asked Harry, he''d tell her that Bruce was a crazy person in denial, pretending to be sane. Now that he''d accepted he was crazy, a lot of the stress from pretending was lifted away.


    The pair spoke about their life and about how they each experience the same events from different perspectives. Betty felt Hulk might be a bad influence though since Hulk often stated how Bruce should have reacted with violence against some of the stubborn, stupid people he encountered, and Bruce was actually listening and seemed to be considering it.


    Eventually the feast ended. Other than some drinks Bruce actually didn''t eat anything since he wasn''t hungry, and Betty didn''t have much of an appetite while watching the Hulk devour plate after plate.


    Harry led Hulk into another room and then returned without him. Bruce of course asked, "Where''d he go?"


    Harry handed another potion to Bruce and said, "Drink this."


    Though this one was different from the previous one, Banner still decided to trust it and downed it. Thankfully it didn''t taste as bad.


    A moment later, he shook his head again. "Oh. Well that''s a bit weird."


    Betty asked, "What now?"


    "I can hear the Hulk in my head and even see some of his memories. I can remember having that conversation as the Hulk now, which is a little freaky to be honest."


    Betty looked over at Harry who was directing a trio of floating Corgis to put the dishes away. She asked, "Okay, how did you do that?"


    Harry shrugged and said, "The answer would make your head hurt, so try not to think about it." He wasn''t going to tell them he froze Betty, drugged Banner out cold, made Banner Hulk out and bribed him with food, and at the end of the dinner used a Time Turner to take Hulk back in time and turn him back into Banner to attend the same dinner with the Hulk and unfroze Betty so she wouldn''t notice the switch. The food contained a lot of potions to make it work but it was effective.


    Betty sighed and wisely decided not to pursue the matter. She turned to Bruce and asked, "How do you feel?"


    Bruce smiled and said, "Well, I can feel the Hulk. I think I can probably change to him if I wanted to without getting angry."


    "What about changing back?" she asked.


    Banner smiled, "Well, that''s the Hulk''s decision. As long as he doesn''t hurt anyone, it doesn''t really matter if he stays around if I don''t have anything better to do. I guess you can say we''ve come to an agreement."


    Harry then walked over and gave Bruce a watch.


    Bruce examined it for a bit and said, "Okay, I''m almost afraid to ask. What does this do?"


    Harry smiled, "A lot. For one, it is a wifi hotspot that works off a pseudo-quantum entanglement signal connected to my main hub. Untraceable. Two, it comes with a holographic interface which can browse the web. Don''t use it in public, I''m not selling this to others. It can act as a phone, GPS, and tell the time of course. It stretches so if you shift to the Hulk, it will still be on your wrist. And last but not least, it comes with a hologram projector which will not only give you clothes if you find yourself n?k?d, it will also give Hulk clothes and make him look caucasian rather than green. He''ll still stand out, but not nearly as much."


    The watch could only do so much because it had a built-in pocket space which housed most of the hardware and the battery. It was quite a bit heavier than a normal watch, but Harry doubted Bruce or the Hulk would mind.


    After Bruce heard everything Harry listed off, he asked, "Was that a joke?"


    Harry rolled his eyes and tapped three times on the glass which brought up a hologram for the user manual. Swiping his finger over the hologram would work to navigate.


    With this, even if Hulk or Banner hid at the ends of the earth, he could still keep in touch.


    Banner started scrolling down the instructions but before he could get very far, a massive explosion occurred outside.


    Harry sighed and enabled the security cameras and launched the drones.


    Holographic screens appeared in the living room showing the back of NYU which looked like it had been struck by a missile. Flashes of gun fire were surrounding a massive figure in the distance the drones were struggling to keep pace with.


    Bruce was the first to break the silence, "What the hell is that?"


    Harry started rewinding the footage and accessed other cameras he had placed elsewhere. The rewound footage showed tanks and military officials surrounding the Science department of NYU. Apparently there were tanks outside in the street right now. None of them knew Banner was at Harry''s house.


    Harry considered what happened but realized the answer quickly. Sterns probably did something stupid because he wanted to see if he could. Harry made sure Sterns followed his advice and boobytrapped the Banner Blood, but if Sterns willingly applied the counter-agent, he could still use it to do something stupid.


    Harry answered Bruce''s question, "You sent Sterns some of your blood right? It looks like the military found it and probably asked Professor Sterns to do something with it. Considering his personality, he probably would just to see what would happen."


    Bruce said, "I have to stop him."


    Harry said, "Yeah, but before you do, let''s go blackmail General Ross a little."


    One of the drones showed the General shouting orders nearby. Bruce asked Harry, "You got a plan?"


    Harry gave a mischievous smile and answered "Well, more of a prank."


    The trio left the house and thanks to a subtle bit of magic, got through the guards and walked right up to the General.


    Bruce shouted, "General, congratulations."


    The elder Ross turned towards the familiar voice and asked, "I thought you would''ve run away by now."


    Bruce smiled and said, "Oh. I''m done running." He looked over to where the giant hulk wanna-be seemed to be destroying a street of cars while being shot at by tanks and rifles and said, "Looks like you finally got what you always wanted General. Your very own, perfectly controllable super soldier. You were right all along, General. Just think of how great America will be after if we turned every soldier into one of those. I bet you must''ve chosen the best of the best too. Definitely better than a civilian nerd like me right?"


    At this point a helicopter had arrived and was shooting the brute from above, but the creature picked up some debris and tossed it at the helicopter, damaging one of the blades forcing the helicopter to retreat.


    Bruce continued, "So I guess you won''t be needing me anymore General. You''ll have your army of perfect, loyal, unstoppable super soldiers who will follow your every command without question."


    The abomination roared and the sounds of screams could be heard.


    Bruce turned to Betty and said, "It was nice seeing you again Betty."


    Betty smiled and said, "Goodbye Bruce." She then turned to her father and asked, "So when are you going to tell that guy to stop destroying New York?"


    Bruce looked like he was about to turn and walk away and got two steps before General Ross shouted, "Wait!"


    Bruce looked back with amusement, "Yes?"


    The elder Ross looked like he had just eaten something fowl as he said, "I can''t stop it."


    Bruce replied, "Of course you can. He''s your loyal soldier. I bet he is a dozen times more loyal than the type of soldiers you intended on using to mass produce the Hulk with. Why would you possibly make another uncontrollable monster?"


    Ross shouted back, "He changed! He isn''t listening! He''s gone crazy with power!"


    Bruce gave Ross a smug smile and said, "So you want me to stop him?"


    "Yes. You''re the only one who can."


    Bruce pulled out a piece of paper and said, "Sign here."


    Ross looked at the paper. It was a standard release form. Basically it said Ross was legally releasing Banner from his custody meaning Bruce was no longer a wanted fugitive.


    Ross confirmed it didn''t have anything extra and signed it.


    Bruce then took it and before the eyes of everyone there, the paper turned into a Pokeball. Banner then threw the Pokeball and shouted, "Hulk, I choose you!"


    At the location the Pokeball landed, a blinding flash of light appeared and when people could see again, they saw that the Hulk was standing there without a shirt and in stretched and torn blue pants.


    Hulk shouted, "Hulk!" and ran towards the abomination.


    Everyone then turned to look back at where Banner was and saw that he was gone.


    Betty, the only one who knew what had just happened, did her best not to laugh at the shocked look on her father''s and the other soldier''s faces. Banner turned into Hulk easily enough and Harry, using what he claimed were holograms, made Hulk invisible and made himself look and sound like Bruce. She didn''t know how Harry knew all those things about whoever that abomination was, but he clearly got the point across to her father.


    Still, she had no idea why Hulk went along with his prank. He said the Hulk should still pretend to be stupid to make others underestimate him and he should shout his name or attacks out loud like some kind of cartoon character.


    Harry himself had already returned home and was watching the fight on his monitors. Spiderman had actually just shown up and Harry figured the fight wouldn''t take long with the two working together.


    Harry figured Ross would nullify the paper he just signed as soon as he could, but that was just a distraction. Harry had Ross''s signature and with a bit of magic, could use it to forge a large number of papers which would completely clear Banner from being chased. If Ross fought it, Harry would make sure every skeleton in his closet was unearthed until Ross himself was buried with them.


    As for the damage caused by the fight, Harry figured he should start an Insurance Company to cover monster fight damage. As a PR stunt he could repair all the damage caused by this fight for free, and maybe do a few upgrades on NYU while he was at it.


    In any case, he had helped a man spiral down into madness, he used telepathy to mindfuck and blackmail a general, and he''d gone all out on a prank which had probably caused untold amounts of property damage. It had been a good day and just think, Summer was right around the corner.


    Harry still needed to tie up loose ends of course. According to Ross''s memories, the man who took roid rage to the next level was called Blonksy. Harry started synthesizing a little something he''d covertly inject into the soldier once the fight was over which would slowly strip the man of his new abilities and return him to normal.. As for Sterns, he''d deal with him tomorrow.

 Chapter 91 - 91 Into the Negative Zone

    Harry wasn''t surprised in the slightest when videos of the battle with that Abomination, Spider-man, and the Hulk were the only thing on the news the following morning. The fight against the Mandarin''s Martial Mech occurred mostly on a highway and in the sky while the fight against Whiplash occurred in an area where evacuation was forced. There were many videos, but not that many.


    The prior night''s battle happened in the middle of New York surrounded by light sleepers in high rise buildings. There were over three hundred different videos, many of which had the entire fight from start to finish as the military''s actions at NYU already got the attention of a number of New Yorkers.


    Surprisingly, no one died. Jean and Wanda showed up moments after the Abomination started trashing things and texted Harry for details. The latter explained he wanted to use the damage it caused as blackmail material which the pair were fine with. Wanda made them both invisible and Jean used telekinesis to subtly ensure no one died. Everyone just ''got lucky.''


    Blonsky was knocked out by the Hulk and chained and webbed up thoroughly before being tossed into a massive truck. Harry Apparated into the truck after the doors closed and injected Blonsky with a gene suppressor which would take care of the man''s enhancements. Harry doubted he''d ever look human again, but at least he wouldn''t be capable of an encore of the night''s performance and his blood would not be usable to make another abomination either.


    When Harry returned to Sterns'' lab after breakfast, he found that just about everything had been packed up and taken away and the man himself was missing. Harry logged into his own computer and checked the logs of what Sterns had recently done for more information. He''d left a backdoor when he updated Sterns'' security software the prior day to be on the safe side.


    According to the log, Sterns had indeed synthesized an antidote for the trap within Banner''s blood. However, the machine capable of synthesizing it was not in Sterns'' lab but another, so it was not among the confiscated equipment. Harry headed over to the lab a few doors down and confirmed the machine had in fact synthesized a batch of the counter agent. In fact, Harry found the remaining sample of what was left from the batch Sterns had made still in the system. What he found odd was that even though the smallest batch could make five doses of antidote, there were only three doses in the leftovers. If the Abomination got one, who got the other? And where was Sterns?


    Harry sighed and pulled out a cellphone. A number was dialed and started ringing. Only after seven rings did the other side pick up.


    On the other end, Fury was not particularly pleased to be called on his private cell. Only a few knew the number and as it was a Brilliance phone, even Shield could not track it, trace it, or tap it. He was also quite certain the name on the other end of his caller ID was not given the number, and he didn''t appreciate the implications.


    "What do you want, Potter?"


    "Where''s Sterns?"


    "Samuel Sterns is currently in Shield custody."


    Harry rolled his eyes. "There isn''t a lawyer on the planet incapable of getting any charges against him dropped on account of violent coercion, though I doubt he needed much of it. On what grounds is Shield holding him?"


    "That''s classified."


    Fury really didn''t like being threatened, but since he could hear some actual concern in Harry''s voice over his fellow colleague, he decided not to pursue it. This time.


    Harry could hear a sigh over the phone followed by, "Sterns was.. contaminated by something. When he was found afterwards he appeared completely delusional. Shield is holding him for observation. If he returns to normal, he can be released."


    Harry replied, "''If'' being the key word. Alright. I suppose that''s the way it''s got to be. It really is a waste though. Sterns could have done a lot of good in the world. The problem, as I believe last night made us all aware, is that Sterns is not interested in good. He wants great. Just give him something to do. I''m sure whatever Shield comes up with will be more fun for him than grading term papers or poisoning lab mice."


    Harry hung up and started texting Banner while on his way back to his home office. Not long afterwards Banner replied. Though ''officially'' off the hook, he didn''t want people to get tempted to look for him again, so he was going back to Brazil. Apparently, he has unfinished business there and Banner really wanted to introduce a number of gangs which had given him problems in the past to his greener side. Harry figured that meant the two sides were getting along better now.


    The first week of summer ended up being more busy than the previous semester of classes. There were a few issues with starting an Insurance company as fast as Harry wanted, forcing Harry to spend years worth of Paused time reading over endless lines of legal code, building code, construction regulations, and everything in between. Thankfully, the Scholar Path''s ?ssistance prevented his brain from turning into soup before he finished.


    Besides learning that more than 60% of New York was breaking the law in some way or another when it came to building codes, Harry also figured that he''d never be able to make the Insurance company he wanted by outsourcing the construction or simply paying the fees to others so they could do it themselves. Thankfully, Potter and Gold Bank and Trust had partial ownership of a half dozen small construction groups at that point. Harry immediately purchased the remaining ownership and merged them into a larger construction firm.


    It only took one trip into the City Hall to get the Mayor to agree to let Harry''s new group repair the damage caused by the fight for free in exchange for a few concessions when it came to a few bureaucratic issues.


    To manage the whole thing, Harry created a computer application which had all the building regulations that needed to be observed for different jobs for different regions of the city and made sure all of his new employees had access to it. On the App they could simply select the area they were in, select the job type, and select the method used to perform that job, and map out the design on the App. The App would then list off the regulations they had to follow. If they included the materials used in the design, the App could even give a ballpark estimate on the cost.


    The various managers and supervisors Harry showed the App to pretty much fell to their knees in gratitude since this would pretty much take care of 98% of the paperwork that came with planning any form of construction. Unsurprisingly, giving every level of management easy access to the rules they needed to follow for each job made doing the job quite a bit easier. The App even allowed for users to message each other directly through it allowing for Requests and Submissions to be done as soon as they came up. Anything that they couldn''t find a quick answer to they could escalate to Harry and he''d check his inbox once a day for the odd situations they''d often encounter and message back the regulations they''d need to keep in mind to resolve them.


    After repairing the damage from the fight, Harry had his construction firm start repairing random things throughout the city Harry bought the rights to from the city and various groups. Like statues in city parks. Of course, he could only repair and maintain them and clean bird poop and graffiti off them. He could not alter their appearance or move them unless such was required for repair or in case something destructive was happening in the city, like a nearby scheduled building demolition. Still, it increased his visibility to be known for such things which was in its own way another form of advertisement.


    The firm also built or rebuilt multiple bus stops throughout the city, usually adding a roof so that people waiting for the bus wouldn''t get wet if it was raining or hot if it was sunny. For every perfectly done job, Harry''s Business Path would get closer to increasing in rank so Harry didn''t mind too much as it was a good investment in the long term.


    Peter and the Fantastic Four were just as busy during that week. Reed had taken everyone into space the prior week and had only returned after the Hulk''s battle. Harry found it odd how few people really noticed that Reed had made the ''Fantasticar'' space capable but decided it really didn''t matter. They''d gone to a passing comet to mine for a few materials Reed was interested in and Reed and Susan had spent the last week in research mode.


    Peter on the other hand was stalked by a crazy dude who called himself Kraven the Hunter all week long. Kraven saw Spider-man on TV against the Abomination and wanted to test himself against the ultimate quarry, much to Peter''s dismay. Kraven quickly learned that Peter''s spider sense prevented him from simply sniping Peter''s head from a distance so the hunter had to create various traps to constrain him and then get close to defeat Peter in hand to hand combat.


    The Hunter was apparently quite rich too. He had some knuckle claws made of a metal capable of piercing Peter''s costume and used a compound which broke down Peter''s webbing to make the latter less effective. Kraven used Peter''s spider sense against him by placing various traps in certain locations to herd Peter into nearly inescapable traps or situations which heavily reduced Peter''s combat effectiveness.


    Eventually Peter arranged a fight near the water. Kraven thought the docks with fewer high rise buildings would be to his advantage, but the traps Peter set up for him allowed Spider-man to toss the Hunter in the water. The moment he got out, Peter quickly tied him up in webbing. The compound Kraven used to weaken the webbing was washed off and once completely tied up, he couldn''t use anymore before becoming immobilized.


    Peter didn''t appreciate being invited over to Harry''s place afterwards to watch the fight captured on camera on Harry''s TV while his girls ate popcorn and provided commentary on everything he did wrong. At the end, rather than feel good he''d beaten the mad man, he felt like crying that he''d taken a week to defeat him.


    Tony had also been busy. According to a call Harry received from the billionaire former playboy, Fury had asked him to use Badassium to ignite a power source they''d had in storage for a few decades. Stark wasn''t interested but Fury offered him something he couldn''t refuse.


    Harry had to ask, "Wait, what could they have offered that you actually wanted?"


    Harry sighed, "Of course he did."


    Yet another super villain also showed up in New York the following week, but this one lived in a different part of the city, so rather than fight Spider-man, this guy usually encountered the Fantastic Four. Hydroman, as he was called, was a human mutate created by an ex-Oscorp employee who''d lost his funding and went crazy. The mad scientist didn''t survive the explosion caused by his design, but his test subject did. Hydroman could convert himself entirely into water, making him quite difficult to handle. For most people. The fact that Reed defeated him with Kitty Litter was enough for the man to eternally declare vengeance on the Fantastic Four.


    Harry was not alone in the opinion that new villains seemed to be popping up more frequently these days. Besides Hydroman, the Fantastic Four also had to regularly deal with a few other criminals, most of which used tech of some kind such as the Ironman knock off Beetle, the glue gun wielding Trapster, and the gravity tech using Wizard. Harry was a little upset at the naming sense of the latter.


    While doing his best to minimize the unpaused time Harry spent on various projects, Harry spent a majority of real time in Battle Meditation, either alone or with the girls. Giving Mary Jane the Gamer package only cost one level since she was fairly low spec. Most of her power came from blessings by the Goddess and her sword skill.


    Things went into routine for a few weeks but before summer could end, Harry got a panicked call from Johnny Storm.


    "Professor! Susan and Reed are gone! There was an explosion in the lab. Get over here quickly!"


    Up to this point they had not called Harry for anything annoying so Harry was willing to give Johnny the benefit of the doubt and come over via portal. Of course if this was a lie or they called him over for something stupid, he would make them suffer accordingly.


    Harry portaled into the main work area where Johnny and Ben were waiting. Ben had changed from his normal skin form to his orange rock skin form meaning he expected to need it.


    Johnny saw Harry arrive and pointed to an area filled with wreckage. "Reed and Susan were working on something over there. Reed said he found something and Susan started panicking while Reed tried to fix whatever was going wrong. Then there was this explosion of red light!"


    The video that came up showed Reed and Susan playing with the newly built Dimensional Portal. Harry was mildly irked they were even turning it on without calling him there. Harry did however, access the data and determined the parameters were set for observation only, not travel.


    As for the observation location, it was a dimension Richards postulated the existence of and wanted to see if his theory was correct. Recently Reed had gone over the data on the readouts sent back by the Hubble telescope on an unusual blackhole. NASA thought it looked weird and sent the data to Reed asking him to check it out. The observed mass of the blackhole did not match what it should have been. Reed hypothesized that the blackhole was sending the matter it absorbed into another dimension and wanted to use his Dimensional Portal Generator to observe it.


    When Harry checked on the details for the theorized dimension, he had to Pause just so he could curse Richards out safely for as long as he wanted.


    There were some dimensions that even the bravest and most powerful of Sorcerers didn''t go. Not could not, but did not. If a list of such dimensions was written, the Negative Zone would be right at the top of the list.


    According to some theories, the Negative Zone was a pocket dimension created prior to the Big Bang by a hyper advanced civilization from the previous universe in an attempt to survive the Big Bang. They did end up surviving the Big Bang, but not the splitting of the multiverse that occurred right afterwards. Because of that, there was only one Negative Zone for the multiverse so entering and returning to your own universe was not so easy.


    Oh, and the fact that any normal portal made to the Negative Zone would cause an explosion capable of wiping out you, your planet, and everything else in the same star system. One of the Kree''s dirty little secrets was that they knew about the Negative Zone and had designed a machine which could create such a portal. The design was called the Nega-bomb. Harry knew this because the fake bomb he''d framed the Supreme Intelligence with was a Nega-bomb which matched the designs he''d stolen from Hala.


    The reason a normal portal caused an explosion was that all matter in the Negative Zone was in fact antimatter. But not normal antimatter. When matter and normal antimatter interact, they would annihilate and transform into pure energy. When antimatter of the Negative Zone and matter of this dimension interacted, it would generate energy and deadly radiation.


    The laws of physics in the Negative Zone did not completely align with the normal universe so creating a portal, even for viewing purposes, could easily encounter unexpected problems.


    *Ping*


    Recover Susan Storm and Reed Richards from the Negative Zone.]


    Harry was moderately surprised at the quest. Harry already figured that the explosion had transported the pair into the antimatter dimension, but wasn''t sure if they could have survived without exploding. Though if Susan made a shield around the pair, it was possible.


    Harry said aloud, "They''re trapped in another dimension, I''ll go get them."


    Ben said, "I''m coming too." And Johnny added, "And me three."


    Harry considered it and replied, "Fine. Give me a moment."


    Turning matter into antimatter was mostly impossible, but that was only in this dimension. Creating a portal which reversed the polarity of their matter as they passed through it into the Negative Zone was possible, though not for any Sorcerer but Harry. Even the Ancient One required a Sling Ring to make a portal, so Sorcerers could not customize the settings on their portals like Harry could.


    Harry calculated out the details and threw out his silver portal. Instead of showing the other side, it only showed a curtain of static red light. When Harry approached it, he got another pop up.


    [Hell Mode Instance Dungeon: The Negative Zone.


    Restrictions


    -Cannot Respawn outside of Instance Dungeon while inside.


    -Cannot use Battle Meditation while inside.


    -Sorcery used has one tenth power while inside.


    Triple EXP on kills.]


    Harry''s eyes shined at that last line. This was a first. Though the restrictions were not light, Harry could certainly use it. If he could take the girls inside, it would be better than Battle Meditation if there were enough mobs.


    Harry took some armor, a belt and a few things to place into the belt out of his inventory and equipped them before getting out some stickers with smiley faces on them. He said, "This is an antimatter dimension, so you''ll need to be protected. Don''t take these off or you will explode in a massive matter/antimatter annihilation event."


    Before either could reply, Harry stuck a sticker onto each of them and jumped into the portal.


    The shifting of positive to negative didn''t affect him much since his Obscurus Particle cells could make the change easily enough. The polarity shift caused by the portal was more for his equipment and weapons than for him.


    Ben and Johnny on the other hand dropped to their knees on arrival from the disorientation ?ssociated with matter polarity inversion. Though Harry had applied a discreet Bubble Head charm to the pair before entering, he dispelled it after determining that the air was both breathable and nonpoisonous. Both of which were odd as their apparent exit point was not on a planet with an atmosphere, but on a floating rock in the middle of a field of other floating rocks.


    Ben was the first to gain his bearings and looked into the sky exclaiming, "Woah."


    Harry nodded to himself. Woah indeed. The entire sky was an eerie purple and the air itself seemed to have a sickly green hue.


    The first thing Harry did was confirm that neither Reed nor Susan were around. It had only been about ten minutes since the explosion and Susan could hold a forcefield bubble that long, but the quest''s map pointer showed them a fair distance away. He wasn''t expecting the need for long distance travel.


    As Johnny and Ben were standing up, Harry performed a few spells to confirm the problem. Time passed differently in the Negative Zone. It had been between ten minutes to a day or two since the pair arrived.


    Still, they were alive.


    Harry hadn''t thought to take a magic carpet from his inventory and couldn''t at the moment. The matter polarity reversal wouldn''t have affected the content of his inventory so anything he pulled out would annihilate in a boom large enough to crack most planets, which was the reason for the restriction. And of course due to the time difference, it would literally take too long to go back, take it out, and return with it. So Harry instead transfigured a rock into a platform and lifted it with telekinesis. Though Sorcery was weaker, Wizard Magic and all his other skills were not affected.


    "Hop on guys, we''re heading that way."


    Johnny asked, "Oh, you got a pointer?"


    Harry had in fact told Johnny about his quest pointer when he explained how he got the Ultimate Nullifier and even a year later Johnny remembered it.


    Harry answered, "Yep, and it can''t point to something dead, so they''re both alive.


    Ben hopped on and said, "Well then, let''s get this show on the road."


    Johnny looked around the desolate landscape and asked, "What road?


    "Just sit Johnny. I''m gonna make us invisible and your flying is a bit flashy so until we have more details, I want to remain low profile."


    Johnny got on while muttering, "Unless it''s a prank, you always want to remain low profile."


    Once the platform lifted off and was made invisible, Ben asked, "Why can''t you make a portal there?"


    Harry answered, "Because time and space here are too different. I''d need a bit of practice to make portals from location to location here abut since the pair are not that far, we''ll get there faster this way." Though he could still apparate. Wizard magic was about overwriting reality, not editing it. It didn''t care how nonsensical the existing rules were.


    Ben nodded while looking around. Ben was much smarter than his appearance gave him credit for and Harry was quite skilled at giving simple explanations.


    The pointer led them to a massive, death star sized asteroid it was easy to tell had multiple structures, new and old built into it. It seemed to be orbiting a blackhole but as gravity didn''t work here the same way it usually did, they were not being pulled unstoppably towards it.


    What was stranger was that time should pass slower when closer to a black hole, but from what Harry could tell, time was actually moving even faster the closer they got. That meant that depending on when Susan and Reed got there, they might have already been there for a number of days or longer.


    As they got closer they were able to spot the locals, large insectoid form beings that stood upright on two legs and had four arms. As gravity seemed to be inconsistent in this place, most used wings to fly meaning Harry''s invisible platform and occupants needed to maneuver quite a bit to avoid collisions as they neared the targets.


    Eventually they got to a locked door and Harry said, "We''re still invisible, so keep quiet until we find Susan and Reed." Technically Harry had also applied a silencing spell around them so others wouldn''t hear Ben''s massive footsteps, but he didn''t want them idly chatting.


    The lock looked pretty heavy duty but a silent Alohomora took care of it easily enough. The trio walked through a few empty halls and eventually found a main room filled with the insectoids. At the end of the room were two figures wearing what looked like metal hazmat suits, and Harry''s Quest was pointing at them.


    Harry used some telepathy on the nearby creatures to find out what was going on. Thankfully thoughts don''t have a language.


    After getting the details, he said, "Alright, those two in the suits are Reed and Susan. Go say hi."


    The pair didn''t need a second reminder and rushed over as the invisibility dispelled and shouted, "Susan! Reed! You''re alive"


    The two suits turned around and the insectoids looked appropriately alarmed. A number of them grabbed weapons that looked like bows but fired energy shots instead.


    Reed shouted, "Wait, these are our friends!" A moment later, an insect like hiss came from his suit in what Harry figured was an automatic translator.


    As the insects lowered their weapons, Susan asked, "How are you here without a suit?"


    Ben pointed at his smiley face sticker and said, "Oh, these protect us."


    From Reed''s suit came out a sigh followed by, "Hello Professor."


    Harry smirked and walked over into view after Reed guessed what was going on. A few more weapons were raised since the armored Harry did look a bit threatening, but since the greeting was translated, they knew Harry was a friend.


    Johnny looked between Reed and Harry and shouted, "Dammit, he got us again!" before ripping off his smiley face sticker.


    Reed asked the approaching prankster, "You reversed your molecular polarity?"


    "Exactly. Want me to get you guys too?"


    Susan answered first, "Oh god yes, I need out of this smelly suit."


    Harry nodded and concentrated for a moment. He sent a bolt of lightning at Susan but it didn''t harm her. Instead, it covered her in a static charge. Harry then used technomancy and telekinesis to disassemble her suit. The static around her kept her isolated and then Harry made another red portal like ring and tossed Susan through it.


    Richards replied, "Fascinating."


    "You''re next," as he repeated the performance.


    Though Harry reassembled the suits, he took out the translator and made it handheld. Though Technomancy was a form of Sorcery and only one tenth as effective, that just meant Harry took longer to reassemble it than normal.


    After the pair were free to breath the ''fresh'' air of the Negative Zone, they explained what happened.


    The portal''s explosion created a crack into the Negative Zone which drew them in. Susan had already created a forcefield around them to protect the pair from the explosion and she maintained it after arrival once Reed deduced where they were. Their entry had not been as quiet as Harry''s so a group of locals discovered them and brought the forcefield bubble to their leader.


    The leader gave the pair suits which would isolate them within the suit from contact and included a translator that quickly picked up on their language using their conversations between each other as a base.


    This leader was not exactly benevolent. His name was Blastaar, or King Blastaar as he referred to himself.


    Reed described him as beastial in nature as opposed into insectoid. Once he learned that Reed had created a device which could allow for transportation between their world and another, Blastaar immediately declared his intentions to rule over the new dimension.


    Reed of course refused to be a part of any such thing, but Blastaar gave a knowing look at Susan and said, "We have ways of making you talk."


    Thankfully, a rebel force had broken them out of jail before any form of torture or interrogation had started. The rebels claimed that Blastaar killed their ruler and took over by force. Their spies inside the palace heard Blastaar would use the prisoners to become more powerful, so they decided to use that against Blastaar.


    After being rescued, Reed had been helping the rebels find a way to defeat Blastaar, but had not been of much help.


    Oh, and they had been there for about a week.


    Harry sighed at how stupid Reed could be and was a bit disappointed in Susan, thinking that she should not have been so na?ve. They both needed to watch more television in order not to fall for such an obvious setup in the future. What was worse was that they were thankful to the rebels for rescuing them and wouldn''t simply leave until they''d helped take down Blastaar, even though Harry could take them home any time.


    Since Harry could see where this was going, he decided to skip to the end and gathered the Rebel leaders and said, "What we need is a distraction and a trap. Us new guys and as many of your members as you can spare will go over to the city and create distractions to empty out the palace guard and draw out Blastaar. Then you can have your elite forces break into the nearly empty palace and capture the leaders of your race who have sided with Blastaar. You can offer them a deal, help or die. If they decide to help, they can be used as bait to lure Blastaar into a trap. I have a powerful bomb that I know can kill or heavily weaken Blastaar, so we can lure him there using them as bait, and use that."


    Oddly enough, the Rebels liked the plan. No one asked what would happen to the leaders who refused to help.


    After the meeting was over, Reed approached looking like he wanted to have some serious words. Harry instead made a quiet motion with his finger motioned for Reed and the others to follow him to a corner. He left the translator on a desk so it would be out of earshot.


    Before Reed could get in a word, Harry said, "That translator was bugged. Everything that was translated using it was heard by Blastaar."


    Susan nearly shouted, "What?!"


    Harry continued, "He probably let you guys get rescued so you''d be his inside moles for the base. You couldn''t even talk to each other in those suits without him hearing it, so there was no way around it if you weren''t going to catch on."


    Ben stated, "Then it''s a setup eh? So what''s the real plan Professor?"


    Richard answered for him, "If Blastaar believes the plan is to draw him out and enter the palace with the elite forces of the Rebel guards, then he would probably stay in the palace and make it look like he left. That way he could take out the strongest of the rebels himself, and quell the rebellion."


    Johnny picked up from there, "And since we know he''s going to be there without any guards, that''s where we''ll kick his ?ss ourselves!"


    Harry nodded, "Pretty much. Before the plan, I''ll disable the bug and tell the Rebel leaders about the new plan. From what I can tell, as long as they don''t have to face Blastaar personally, they won''t mind anything we come up with."


    During the wait for the mission start, Harry and Reed spent their time examining the tech of the Negative Zone. From what they learned, most of the tech was built mimicking the ancient designs found in various ruins. Both Reed and Harry shared a look and a smirk at that. Great minds think alike after all.


    The Rebel leaders were eventually informed of the change in plans and that they just had to send their people out to do random, distracting things while Harry and the Fantastic Four would head to the palace and beat Blastaar. The leaders insisted that Harry give them the bomb he intended to use on Blastaar in case he failed, so he transfigured a fancy looking piece of metal and a clock he''d found and made it look good before telling them how it would work.


    Harry and the Four invisibly made their way into the palace and Throne room where they saw Blastaar waiting for them. He looked similar to Dr. McCoy but two sizes larger, brown furred, and more feral looking features.


    Before Susan could undo their invisibility and start talking, Harry pulled out a gun and unloaded his rounds on Blastaar.


    "Ahhrg!" He turned to their direction and shouted, "You humans dare to challenge King Blasstaarrrrr?!" Harry figured he was practicing his English as he was quite good at rolling them Rs.


    The ruler''s hands glowed with fiery light and he pointed them forwards. Bolts of energy shot out from ten fingers like a scatter shot towards their group. Reed stretched thin to dodge the shots, Susan made a shield, and Johnny flew up while Ben endured the hits.


    Blastaar then rose into the air using his hands as propulsion and shouted, "All who meddle with the will of Blastaar, Die!"


    He fired more shots at Johnny but Susan made a few shields for her brother to hide behind. She also made some floating platforms Ben spotted and used to jump higher and higher into the air.


    When Ben got close, he shouted, "Why don''t you pick on someone your own size?" and leapt into the air to collide with Blastaar. Ben wrapped his arms around him and twisted in the air to ensure he landed directly on top as they plummeted to the ground.


    Before ben could get up, Blastaar made a fist and struck with a mighty glowing blow. Ben shot into the air in an arc that almost reached the high palace ceiling before coming back down.


    Harry caught him with Telekinesis since Susan was too far away to do so easily, but Ben was clearly out cold. From what Harry could tell, that punch had some serious force to it.


    Blastaar climbed out of the crater Ben slammed him into and shouted, "I have no more patience for usurpers. You will Die!"


    His hands glowed brighter and he shot more bolts of energy from his finger. Reed dodged again, but Susan''s shield shattered and she was hit. Johnny shouted, "No! You bastard!" and fired a beam of intense heat which pushed Blastaar back, but was endured.


    Harry Apparated over and fed Susan some elixir of Life he kept in his belt for emergencies. Just to be safe, he immediately created a portal back to Earth and pushed Susan and Reed through. Play time was well past over.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Rescue from the Negative Zone


    Reward:Map of the Negative Zone]


    Blastaar recognized the portal Harry made and shouted, "A new dimension to conquer!"


    Johnny shouted, "Is she okay?"


    Harry used telekinesis to lift and throw the unconscious Ben Grimm into the portal and said, "Yeah she''s fine. Head in now, I''ll follow afterwards."


    "But what about him?"


    Blastaar was already charging forward while Johnny continued to try pushing him back using his flames.


    Harry answered, "I''ll take care of it. Just go."


    Johnny didn''t need to be told twice and flew into the portal Harry then closed behind the Human Torch. Now it was just Harry and Blastaar.


    Harry cracked his knuckles and asked aloud. "I wonder how much EXP you''re worth?"


    *Author''s Note*


    Will try to post another chapter tomorrow

 Chapter 92 - 92 Enter the Reds

    *Author''s Note*


    There is still a year until Avengers so don''t mind if you see some time skips to get there early. These chapters probably feel a bit cramped because I''m winding down Arc 4 New York and soon we''ll start on Arc 5, Avengers


    The moment the portal closed, Blastaar shouted, "You should have returned when you had the chance!"


    Harry responded by firing a bolt of black light at the massive brute which caused Blastaar to cry out in pain.


    A black rash appeared at the point of contact which Blastaar covered with one hand while pointing the other at Harry and firing his energy blasts once more.


    Harry apparated at the last second behind Blastaar and with a fist coated in golden dragon chi he smashed directly into the rash he created earlier forcing Blastaar to release another bellow of pain and anguish.


    Before Harry could follow up, Blastaar spun backwards with a reverse elbow strike forcing the wizard to distance himself from the wounded tyrant.


    From what Harry could tell, Blastaar was something of a combination of Wolverine and Captain Marvel. His energy blasts when not holding back were powerful enough to tear through tanks like tissue paper and he had what Harry figured must''ve been decades if not longer of combat experience.


    According to Harry''s senses, Blastaar was about level 380. A bit weaker than Apocalypse, but not by much. Harry''s Sorcery in the Negative Zone was only partially effective, so channeling Strength energy to increase his defense and damage to fight as he did against the Black Dragon wasn''t an option.


    Thankfully, Blastaar''s stats seemed quite skewed. He had strong energy attacks and powerful physical defense, but his energy defense was not as strong as his energy attack or physical defense. It wasn''t so much a weakness, but more of the weakest link most wouldn''t even be able to take advantage of.


    Since Sorcery would not be common in the Negative Zone, even the strongest of beings who evolved here may not have developed high end magic resistance.


    Harry may not have access to Sorcery, but he did have access to Wizard magic. What Harry used on Blastaar was a debilitatingly painful curse. But what really caused damage was the Dragon Chi. Harry used a rudimentary form of Chi Magic to purify his own curse within Blastaar, but he did so incorrectly on purpose.


    The wizard magic curse and the dragon chi magic purification would heavily conflict with one another within the mighty brute. In essence, Harry was copying the Goblin''s form of combat, stacking curse effects to subdue immortals and kill gods.


    Blastaar, having recognized the threat of Harry''s attack style, flew towards Harry at lightning speed forcing Harry to dodge with apparition once more. He reappeared at the side and fired off consecutive curses which caused all manner of painful damage and slowed Blastaar down. The energy Blastaar used could only cover his hands, so he couldn''t use it effectively to block the curses by doing anything but using his hands as shields. Any curse which got past his massive hands struck him directly causing further groans of pain as Harry went down the list of all the wonderful and terrifying spells he''d learned in the Black Family library.


    Moments after the fight began the last of the pillars holding the palace roof up had collapsed and Harry apparated out of the building and watched Blastaar pierce through the roof at Harry to continue the fight.


    There were many instances where Blastaar would feign an opening to draw Harry closer, but someone raised on decades of daytime television knew the definition of prudence by heart, and Harry would fire a blast of purifying chi magic from a distance at those times rather than go in close to deliver a punch.


    Blastaar himself was becoming more and more aggrieved. If it was just the damage from the Curse magic and Chi magic, he could probably outlast Harry by fighting defensively. Blastaar could fight at full strength for a week straight without pause and all forms of magic besides Sorcery require using up internal magic reserves. If necessary, Blastaar would welcome a chance to simply drag out the combat until Harry was too exhausted to continue. Then he could capture him and make him work for Blastaar and then take over the new dimension.


    But Harry wasn''t attacking with just magic. Every couple of seconds Harry would attack Blastaar''s mind with a psionic ?ssault causing severe mental anguish. Blastaar had never encountered a being capable of such diverse attacking methods. The mental barrage would cause Blastaar to expose an opening Harry would exploit to inflict terrible damage, not allowing Blastaar to properly fight defensively.


    The most aggravating part of course was that Harry had yet to sustain a single injury. Blastaar knew he only needed one hit to grant him the opening needed to finish Harry off, but he wasn''t getting his chance and Harry''s fighting style countered his own.


    This wasn''t Blastaar''s fault. The Energy sense Harry possessed was a cheat level ability only found in high concept existences that were usually composed of pure energy. Harry trained rigorously to use his Energy sense to predict energy attacks so Blastaar''s frightening attack speed and terrifying damage output seemed far more useless than it actually was against Harry Potter.


    Seeing where this battle was going, Blastaar knew that there was only one way to kill Harry, and he knew what he had to do.


    It was at that point Blastaar did something Harry had not expected. His hands glowed to the maximum and fired down, propelling himself through the air like a rocket. in the opposite direction...


    Harry used a myriad of spells and everything he could think of to catch up, but the speed of Blastaar''s acceleration outstripped anything Harry could accomplish unassisted and he certainly had not thought to bring his flying broom out from his inventory before coming here.


    Although Harry had a map now, he didn''t bother returning to the asteroid and just made a portal out of the Negative Zone.


    The other end of the portal connected back into the Baxter building and Harry entered calmly. The only thing which touched his armor was the falling debris of the collapsing palace so he was pretty much fine. Had he not been a video game character, he would likely either be completely out of breath, sweating buckets, or close to collapse. Harry exerted 100% of every bit of strength he had access to for the duration of the fight. Although he didn''t win, his Warrior, Magic, Dragon, and Psionic paths all noticeably got closer to their next increase in rank thanks to fighting someone who by all accounts was much stronger than Harry was.


    Upon exiting the portal, Harry saw Johnny clad in flames pointing threateningly in his direction, but once Harry emerged, he released his flames and shouted, "The Professor''s back and he''s alright!"


    Harry fought against Blastaar for about an hour after the palace collapsed and the former King ran off, but considering the time difference, it should only have been a few moments since the rest returned.


    From another part of the room Reed said, "Was everything alright Professor? What happened to Blastaar?"


    Harry answered, "When running he was capable of accelerating to over 20,000 miles per hour and ended up getting away."


    Johnny shouted, "Woah, that fast?!" Johnny''s top speed was less than a hundredth of that. Harry figured with more practice he could crack a few multiples of the sound barrier but not even Harry knew if the male Storm sibling would ever be capable of that speed.


    Reed asked, "What of the rebels?"


    Harry rolled his eyes and answered, "I doubt Blastaar would return quickly after I chased him but even if he did, those guys lived on an asteroid, not a planet. They may have been orbiting a black hole, but gravity in the Negative Zone is weird, so they could probably relocate the whole thing before Senior Flashy Fingers returns."


    Harry sighed and said, "Reed. If they ever see you again, they are just as likely to shoot you as they are to ignore you."


    Johnny asked, "What, why? After all Susan and Reed did for them?"


    Harry explained, "From what I observed, the former king that Blastaar overthrew to rule them was not the slightest bit better than Blastaar himself. The reason the rebels wanted him off the throne wasn''t because he was an ineffective ruler, but because they were xenophobic racists who would rather die than serve an alien."


    Reed surmised, "So they never had any intention of forging any relationship with us?"


    Harry added, "Let me put it this way. Before we got there, did they offer plans which required you and Susan to confront Blastaar?"


    Reed nodded, "They did."


    Harry finished, "Those suits you wore prevented you from becoming a matter-antimatter annihilation bomb. It wouldn''t take much to sabotage them and make you explode at the right time. In fact both Blastaar and the rebels likely had this use for you as a plan B if they could figure out a way to use you to lure Blastaar far enough away for the damage from the explosion to not affect their home."


    Reed looked pensive for a moment before sighing in defeat, likely recalling the obvious signs that Harry was correct.


    Still, Reed looked over to Harry and asked, "Will you be making another trip into the Negative Zone in the future?"


    Before Reed could ask, Harry added, "I''ll only let you go if Susan allows you to, so make sure to start su?k?n? up to her." If Harry did find a relic site, a second set of observant eyes may be useful.


    Besides, Harry guessed that Reed had a Luck stat well over 100 or more. That would explain how he got Susan in the first place and explain how all the horrible things he''s gone through haven''t killed him yet. Bringing him along should increase the chance of either finding something there, or something there finding them. Luck was fickle like that.


    The remainder of the summer was uneventful and the fall semester started. Harry''s higher level Metaphysics class was joined once more by Hope van Dyne, Fitz and Simmons, and Mockingbird was accepted back into class as well. Liah Ardyh was not admitted back in. Harry may or may not have accidentally deleted her records prior to the admission period and though the copies were resubmitted, the enrollment period had ended by them and she wasn''t able to return.


    Jade, Mary Jane, and their friends were all in their final year of High School along with Peter and deciding what they would do with their lives. Their frequent returns to Harry''s house continued and Harry wondered if it would continue into college as well.


    One of the reasons they continued it, besides Harry''s food, was because they had less time to spend together otherwise. Gwen had gotten an internship at Oscorp since Harry didn''t have a place for non magical human employees in his company besides placeholders at the moment. Felicia had gotten a new hobby which caused her to become more and more fit. She told everyone she was also interning somewhere, but Harry could tell she was lying. Not that he''d call her out on it or pry deeply. It was her business after all.


    It was October when things started getting tense for the citizens of New York. The weirdos the Fantastic Four often fought had decided to team up. The Beetle, Trapster, Hydroman, and Wizard called themselves the Frightful Four and went together against the Fantastic Four.


    The cops couldn''t do anything useful as the Trapster''s Glue gun stuck a number of officers in place, basically using them as hostages and human shields, forcing their heroic rivals to come personally.


    The villainous quartet obviously had a plan and sprung a trap, but their team work wasn''t anything special and Reed had developed a number of counter measures to their tech based foes and eventually emerged victorious.


    Harry had a bad feeling that Peter''s six usual foes would have the same idea soon.


    It was on the last day of October of course that something even worse than Harry''s expectations occurred.


    On live news, Spiderman and the Fantastic Four were lured into a trap together and it was revealed that Peter''s six foes had teamed up with Reed''s four.


    Of all things, they actually called themselves the Terrible Ten, and on live TV after defeating both the Fantastic Four and Spiderman, they declared that New York City belonged to them now.


    While watching this on TV, Harry could only sigh and send the text message his girls had been waiting for. He gave a silent moment of prayer out to the Terrible Ten and hoped they enjoyed it while it lasted. Escalation was a terrible thing. One moment you are at the top of the world. And the next, everyone and their grandmother is right up there with you and some were even higher.


    In Times Square, Otto Octavius continued reading from his list of demands on camera. Of the ?ssembled villains, he was the least camera shy and least likely to stutter embarrassingly on live TV. Wizard had already used his anti-gravity discs to arrange many floating cars around them which, according to Otto''s calculation, blocked all the prominent sniper vantage points meaning Otto and the others didn''t need bullet proof helmets to appear in public. Each car was even floating over a trapped citizen or police officer stuck there by Trapster''s glue gun, so each was both a shield and a threat to the hostages.


    Otto was duly enjoying all the attention when a news reporter turned to the side and everyone glanced to see what he was shouting at.


    Still sitting on his couch, Harry wasn''t the least bit surprised when the Boobmail wearing Red Sonja captured the eyes and cameras of every person in Times Square the moment she was spotted. It was MJ of course, but she could shift back and forth into her old form of Red Sonja which made for a good cover to prevent others from easily figuring out her secret identity.


    Still, Harry didn''t think he''d be able to sell toys of her to children without giving her a cloak or something. There was b?r?ly more metal in her two piece chainmail bikini than there was in her sword.


    Though every eye in the city had just turned to her as she approached, Red Sonja had led armies against the darkest of creatures so this pressure amounted to nothing in her eyes.


    The manner of speaking combined with the wardrobe should have elicited a stream of laughter, but the confidence and strength of her words left the audience silent.


    Scorpion was the first to recover and walked forward asking maliciously, "Hehe, it looks like an example needs to be made. What kind of idiot actually challenges us with a sword?"


    Red Sonja smiled confidently and shouted, "One who does not fight alone!"


    Jade, who had been intangible and invisible, revealed herself next to Red Sonja, floating to the side. She was of course in her ?du?t mode wearing her red cheongsam with a golden dragon embroidered over it and a red silk mask over her mouth and nose.


    In a burst of brimstone smoke appeared a tall well toned blonde standing to Jade''s side. She looked about twenty five as well but had no mask. Instead she had a black costume and black long coat, both bearing a large crimson X. This was Rogue who''d used Mystique''s power to shapeshift.


    Wanda apparated into the space the next moment and started floating. She had a completely red suit, red witch''s cloak, and red crown-like mask which covered the top half of her face with a visor to hide her identity. Her hands glowed a dangerous scarlet as a warning to others.


    And from the sky descended a floating Jean in a red and gold suit. She used a simple illusion over her face to appear older and different enough not to be recognized.


    They all appeared together at Red Sonja''s call in a grand display of showmanship likely to be rerun on air over and over for the rest of the year.


    Harry smiled and shook his head. He doubted many of those ''terrible'' ten had adequate mental defenses to block Jean from rendering them unconscious, but Harry was an advocate for hiding your true abilities so he couldn''t tell if he was a good influence or a bad influence on them.


    Red Sonja shouted, "Engage!" as she charged forward. With a single sweep of her enchanted blade, Scorpion''s tail had been cut off before he''d had time to react and the acid connected to his tail in the suit started pouring out.


    Scarlet Witch had teleported to the bound Peter and the Fantastic Four and shot out bolts of chaos magic at their bindings, destroying them and allowing them to free themselves.


    Thing shouted, "It''s clobberin time!"


    Spider-Man however stopped him, "Wait! We''re not needed!"


    Johnny asked, "What? They''re still outnumbered!"


    Peter continued, "Trust me. Let''s just make sure everyone else is protected from the fight and get those hostages free while they''re distracted."


    Susan and Reed shared a glance and nodded. They separated and surrounded the fight to keep the collateral damage to a minimum and free the hostages under the floating cars.


    Jean had already telekinetically lifted Scorpion as he drained of acid and pointed him at Sandman. The latter was too slow to dodge and much of his mineralized cells were damaged, forcing him to concentrate his form rather than spread out.


    Hydroman turned into a massive wave and rushed Jade. The latter didn''t bother to dodge and simply turned intangible by shifting into the astral plane as the wave passed over her. After shifting back she turned to Rogue and shouted, "Crimson X, you take care of him."


    Rogue shouted back, "You got it Dragonheart," and shot a harsh beam of intense cold at Hydroman. Before he could respond he had already turned into an ice sculpture.


    Still watching from his couch, Harry nodded. When working together, it was best to ?ssign the right person to the right job. No need to inefficiently fight someone that a teammate can one shot. As for the names, it was something the girls already came up with. Rogue and Jade called themselves Crimson X and Dragonheart respectively. Jean and Wanda called themselves Phoenix and Scarlet Witch, and Red Sonja just used her name as her call sign.


    Dr. Octopus was already mad that these girls were taking away his attention, and now that they were disrupting his plans he was furious. He charged Red Sonja as she drew his ire the most and seemed the weakest. He launched his metal arm at her with a force strong enough to crush bedrock, yet when the tip of her sword intercepted the blow, it swiftly turned and angled the fierce strike a notch to the side just as the swordswoman did a half step to dodge. It seemed simple yet the elegant motion was done in an instant. Faster than Otto could command his other arms to follow up, Red Sonja had closed in on the scientist and spun around. Once she reached him she slammed the hilt of her sword against Otto''s forehead, knocking him out cold before he understood how he had lost.


    Her next target was Scorpion. He''d lost his tail and acid but he was still much stronger than a normal human thanks to the crazy lunatic''s experiment on him and he was already charging her from behind. He would join his partner in dream land moments later.


    Rhino and Sandman both charged Wanda once they noticed she released the prisoners. She responded by sending a tripping jinx at the pair, causing them to collide into each other. Sandman popped into a pile of sand and Rhino fell over and rolled to the side. Wanda transfigured the ground into a deep mud pit that Rhino quickly started sinking into. He tried to swim and wade but Wanda had stacked a number of other jinxes and curses preventing him from moving any direction but down, deeper into the mud.


    Sandman came back together in time to see Rhino sink to his neck into the mud before he stopped getting deeper. He shouted at Wanda and turned his fist into a mallet and struck forward. Wanda apparated behind him and charged a powerful Hex bolt she released point blank. Sandman''s sand exploded like someone buried a firework at the beach and scattered around. This time though, he didn''t reassemble quickly. The scattered grains of sand moved towards each other very, very slowly. Wanda smiled and floated into the air to watch Jean finish up her share.


    Jade used the intangibility gained when shifting into the astral plane to dodge the Glue gun of the Trapster while Hunter tried attacking her close up and Electro tried shooting her with electricity. She would fade like a ghost out of sight with each use giving her a mystic, eerie feeling.


    Kraven shouted, "You can only hide, you are not worthy of being my prey!"


    Jade''s eyes narrowed at the provocation and she took a stance and made the universal motion of, ''Come here.''


    Kraven pounced on her but was stopped by Jade grabbing and lifting him by the neck and floating into the air. He tried to free himself, but the super strength granted by the Bull Talisman''s incorporation into the Dragon Heart which granted her its powers was not something he could counter so easily.


    Jade flew behind Trapster and threw Kraven at Trapster''s pack with enough force to crack Trapster''s glue storage tank. The tank shattered and covered Kraven and Trapster in glue, sticking them to the ground and to themselves.


    Electro used the opening to fire another bolt of lightning at Jade, but she blocked it using a Sorcery Shield. Even though she was wearing a mask and Harry was watching her from the TV, he could still see how proud she was that the Shield worked. It was the first Sorcerer skill she had mastered.


    With one hand up and blocking the continuous lightning barrage, Jade made a hand sign with the other and seemed to be chanting beneath her mask. A moment later, the fire hydrants around the block burst forth and the water coalesced into an oriental dragon. It roared into the sky and charged at Electro. The man fired at it but his powers were of no use and he was rammed by the water stream into a wall where he lost consciousness. Though she could only use one Sorcerer skill, the Dragon Heart granted a massive boost to the Chi magic she was capable of using in her ?du?t form.


    From the beginning of the fight, Wizard and Beetle had been fighting the floating Jean in the air. Wizard stood on a floating disk and Beetle''s suit had insect-like wings and a small jetpack to allow him swift flight.


    Wizard fought by throwing discs at various objects such as cars and people. Those discs contained remote controlled antigravity mechanisms he could control with his helmet and use like pseudo-telekinesis.


    Beetle used his flight and armor to execute high speed hit and run tactics.


    Jean was playing with them both. It was only when she noticed everyone else had been taken care of that she ripped Beetle''s jetpack off his armor and removed Wizard''s helmet off his head. Without the helmet to control his disc, the one he stood on fell to earth and along with Beetle, both landed with a harsh bounce.


    Watching this entire fight from the side, Spider-Man could be seen shouting at various moments, "Yeah! How do You like it! Hurts doesn''t it! I Know that will leave a Mark! It''s gonna hurt for Weeks!"


    A few of the bystanders watching Spider-Man slowly stepped away from him, not understanding why he was so emotional over seeing these villains get beaten up by the girls.


    Once Jean had finished, Red Sonja shouted up, "Good work Phoenix." They''d made sure to call out everyone''s name at least once to ensure no one else would decide their names for them.


    As a final measure, Jean gathered some wreckage and Wanda transmuted it into a container for Sandman''s sand and Hydroman''s ice. Jean also lifted Rhino out of the mud and Spider-Man came over and wrapped him up in a big cocoon.


    Although the fight from start to finish lasted less than two minutes, each girl should still be mostly satisfied with how much they showed off. Besides, they still had plenty still hidden. Jean didn''t show her telepathy, precognition, or phoenix fire. Jade didn''t show her ability to animate inanimate objects or shoot energy beams. Wanda b?r?ly showed off the power of chaos magic, and Rogue only showed two of the massive ?ssortment of powers she possessed.


    MJ technically showed everything she was capable of after knocking out Dr. Octopus and Scorpion, but as a Goddess blessed Swordswoman, her strongest power was, according to Harry, plot armor. That was also one of the reasons she was their team leader though technically she could be considered the weakest among them.


    Plot armor isn''t something you can plan against. In fact doing so usually makes things worse, so he wasn''t too worried about people looking down on her and thinking they can beat her easily.


    Harry and his girls spent the remainder of their day watching the news and enjoying the reruns of their heroic debut. The news had collectively dubbed them the Reds and many aspects of the fight were analyzed for hours on end. Harry smiled every time Red Sonja got screen time. Her blade work and combat style wasn''t flashy but it was beautiful and easy to watch on TV.


    MJ noticed this and asked, "Is it weird I''m getting jealous of you watching me on TV?"


    Harry turned and answered with a searing kiss that promised more to come later.


    The following day, Harry''s Insurance company got more business than the prior length of its existence. The idea that ten villains could team up and defeat the local heroes and police was enough to make anyone with doubts reconsider the Insurance Harry was offering. The prices weren''t bad for what he was offering but it still increased the cost of living in New York, though since cost of living was always increasing, few would notice or pay that much attention.


    After their debut, the Reds would occasionally patrol various parts of the city. Everyone but MJ could fly so they would patrol from the rooftops while MJ would just walk around looking normal and shift into Red Sonja mode when she spotted an Injustice that needed handling.


    Link the AI acted as their manager and supervisor. He had a few invisible drones throughout the city monitoring variables he felt needed attention and would give the Reds a schedule of patrolling that increased the likelihood of effectiveness. Not that Harry felt such a thing may really be needed. Each girl had a Luck stat over 80 meaning they attracted events when they wanted to or not.


    The sudden appearance of five new heroes, four of which had amazing powers stunned the criminal element of the city into a momentary silence. It almost seemed like for every hero that popped up, a new villain would appear, and for every villain to appear, a new hero would pop up. Those considering becoming one or the other couldn''t stop themselves from wondering if they entered the scene, who would enter to oppose them?


    Thanks to this, New York experienced a period of calm.


    Harry on the other hand worked harder than ever. He couldn''t help but feel it was the calm before the storm.


    Every weekend he''d take the girls into the Negative Zone for three days, which amounted to an hour in New York. Although he never found Blastaar, he did find a number of sites filled with monsters eager to rip intruders to shreds.


    Harry''s goal was level 290 before the end of the year and level 300 before next summer.


    At the moment he wasn''t too far off.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 285 Age 17


    STR 375 AGI 375


    INT 600 WIS 550


    LUK 50


    Warrior Path Rank 40


    Scholar Path Rank 47


    Magic Path Rank 47


    Tech Path Rank 43


    Business Path Rank 39


    Crafting Path Rank 39


    Dragon Path Rank 35


    Psionic Path Rank 36


    Sex Path Rank 40]


    And the girls were getting stronger with each week as well. Jade was catching up nicely and Jean was making up for her absence while MJ was blazing through levels one after another.


    Jade Chan: Level 155. Age 17


    Anna Marie: Level 173. Age 17


    Wanda Maximoff: Level 173. Age 17


    Jean Grey: Level 161. Age 18


    Mary Jane Watson: Level 103. Age 17


    It was after the end of the fall semester near Christmas when Harry felt something he''d been expecting for a long time. The Portkey he gave Thor was on its way back. When it arrived, Harry would have the coordinates of Asgard.


    *Author''s Note*


    I think I''ll put in one more chapter of filler before I start with Loki''s invasion.. Stones Recharge my will to write.

 Chapter 93 - 93 Aiding the Realms of Asgard

    *Author''s Note.*


    *Me re-reading the chapter*


    *My gods, what have I done...*


    The intergalactic portkey Harry made was powered by his own magic and used himself as an anchor, so a period of time after it had been set off, the item popped into existence next to Harry who took it and confirmed the recorded coordinates.


    Harry was not sure if he should be surprised or not that where-ever Thor set off the portkey, was not in the milky way galaxy or andromeda. Either way, Sorcerer portals don''t care for distance so once Harry made his preparations, he made a silver portal to the exact coordinates and peered through.


    At the other end of the portal was an ornately carved stone room with a fancy looking bed and a table with a few chairs. Harry figured it was a bedroom of sorts and currently an empty one.


    Harry stepped through and took a bit of a look around before taking a seat and crossing his legs. Harry then entered the Astral Plane to scout a bit before opening the door.


    Passing through walls was easy enough but the map and layout of the astral plane was not always the same as the material world, so it can only be used as a vague reference at best. Harry was able to spot various people wandering through the halls and confirmed this was probably Asgard or somewhere similar.


    Harry returned to his body and transfigured his clothes to match what the others wore. Black hair and green eyes was not a particularly uncommon sight so he did not need to change his appearance.


    The room itself had a few tapestries of various symbols and images which told of many stories. Some included who Harry guessed was Thor meaning there was a chance this was his room. He wasn''t completely sure since he didn''t check the adjacent rooms to compare them since he might walk in on a n?k?d Asgardian dude and Harry did not want to risk that.


    After confirming he looked the part, Harry opened the door and left the room into an empty hall and walked until he could find where there were people gathered.


    Something that quite stood out about Asgard was that it had the scent of death all over it. To someone who spent centuries living in the land of the dead, it wasn''t something he could mistake for anything else. This place felt a bit like a graveyard or mausoleum. As he explored more, he had a few ideas as to the source. Much of Asgard had gold built into the structure granting it an ethereal beauty and majestic appearance. But Harry doubted a single gram of the gold was acquired peacefully. This place was built using gold acquired through trading blood and death.


    However, the scent was ancient and had not been renewed in thousands of years. So Harry didn''t particularly care about the origin or history of the place.


    After taking a bit of a tour, Harry asked someone, "Do you know where I can find Thor? There is something he asked to discuss with me at this time, but his room is empty."


    The passerby answered, "He is probably in the mess hall."


    Eventually he saw Thor sitting on a table looking at a mug of something. He seemed deep in thought about something. Harry remembered when he met Thor at the Diner, Thor had acquired a mug somewhere and given it to the waitress at the diner because he''d broken a mug there the prior day.


    Harry took a seat next to him and asked, "Penny for your thoughts?"


    Thor turned to look at Harry Potter and then turned back to his mug. Then he quickly did a double take and once again looked at his mug. He sniffed it, perhaps worried he had been drugged with something.


    Harry sighed and asked, "You used that thing and now I''m here, so what do you need help with?"


    Thor stated, "Actually I placed it on a table and it fell to the ground and vanished. I was not sure what it meant."


    Harry shrugged. False alarm apparently. "Well, you''re sitting alone and pensively staring at a mug. I''m sure there is something you need help with. Jane is still trying to figure out how to find you, you know."


    "And tell me, how are you here?"


    Harry answered, "There are Sorcerers in my world who have mastered dimensional magic. It''s thanks to their help that I can come and go to many places. I also have a way back so don''t mind me."


    Thor looked surprised at that. "I was not aware that the Seidr of Midgard made themselves known to others. Asgard has had no contact with them in centuries."


    Thor sighed once more and emptied his mug before starting his story.


    Turns out Loki did not handle the knowledge of his adoption well, killed his birth father, and tried to destroy his birth world. In order to stop this, Thor had to destroy the Bifost, but doing so cut off Asgard from the rest of the nine realms and beyond. Though Asgard had craft capable of space travel, they were far inferior to the Bifrost. So Thor was personally responsible for the destruction of the Bifrost, though it saved Jotunheim, he still felt responsible for the problems now spreading amongst the worlds that once relied on Asgard to be their shield.


    Harry asked, "Any chance of fixing the Bifrost?"


    Thor shook his head. "I have asked of this. The Bifrost was created with a powerful artifact thousands of years ago. The artifact has since been lost. My mother searches the records for it, but its location is not known at the moment. Once it is, I shall retrieve it personally."


    Which of course meant Thor could do nothing but hurry up and wait. Harry wondered if there was anything he could do.


    Harry asked, "So what''s the situation of the other realms?"


    Thor sighed once more and stated, "The Badoon have revolted and are at war with each other. Their war spreads beyond their worlds to Asgard protected worlds and Alfheim has suffered greatly for it. The Troll Lords have set a blockade around Nidavellir, preventing food and metal from being sent to the dwarves. Every day their own stores of food and weapons lessen as those rock trolls wait for King Eitri and the dwarves to starve to death so they may take the forges of Nidavellir for themselves. Vanaheim, Nornheim, and their neighboring worlds have fallen under the mercy of marauders and pirates. The Vanir have always relied on Asgard to protect them, and now they are defenseless."


    As Harry was considering the problem, he got a nice pop up.


    *Ping*


    -Protect Alfheim from the Badoon.


    -Protect Nidavellir from the the Troll Lords


    -Protect Vanaheim, Nornheim, and their neighboring worlds from the Marauders.]


    Harry figured that it was quite the convenient quest. Despite the difficulty, the quest itself provided pointers Harry could use to find the other worlds himself.


    Harry had to ask, "What happened to Loki? For something like this, he''d probably be able to think of something."


    Thor smiled but looked sadder than before. "Indeed. Loki always had a way of going where he wanted, even if it was somewhere he was not supposed to be. But Loki fell off the Bifrost. Mother says he is alive. She contacted him using magic and offered ?ssistance returning home, but he ignored her. I do not know what has become of my brother."


    Harry nodded and said, "Then maybe I can think of something. First, give me a few more details."


    Thor thought it was an odd request, but answered all the questions Harry asked.


    For example, the reason blockading Nidavellir would cause the dwarves to starve was because the dwarves had forged their own planet into a forge. There was no longer arable land and they got by on trade.


    The Badoon which were now invading Alfheim were a violent reptilian species. Asgard forced their leaders to behave and their leaders forced their people to keep their heads down. Once the Badoon learned that Asgard was not coming to help those in need, they revolted and started a civil war. War requires resources and the peaceful elven paradise of Alfheim was now being used by both sides of that civil war for resources.


    At the end, Thor asked, "Do you really think you can do something that would require the might of Asgard''s armies?"


    Harry smiled, "These problems can be solved using the force of Asgard''s armies, but they can be solved other ways as well."


    Thor, not believing Harry could do so, stated, "Well, I wish you the best of luck Harry Potter."


    Harry nodded and got up to find a place he could portal out of. Both Heimdall and Odin watched over all of Asgard at all times, but unless Harry was in front of them, they would not see him.


    Harry''s first stop was Alfheim. He used his spacecraft to search the planet a bit for where some Badoon had set up camp and admitted it was probably the most beautiful planet he''d ever seen. Definitely a spot to take the girls on a future date.


    Alfheim had a variety of elves and most if not all elves had a disposition to certain forms of Sorcery. Light elves could use light magic, water elves could use water magic, air elves could use air magic, etc. Most elves could also learn nature magic and used it creatively. As could be seen from the fields of growing candy Harry flew over.


    Eventually Harry found a space filled with stumps and ash and ugly creatures. Harry turned invisible and captured one before pulling out a Crystal Rabbit.


    This was an upgraded version of his original Rabbit of Caerbannog, but lasted even longer and he could set even more parameters.


    The improvements included a built-in Point Me charm which would lead the rabbits to the closest target and a power saving standby mode in case no targets were available. Harry also added a program which would have them sneak aboard ships and become invisible until the ships landed. These Badoon had brought their war to other worlds right?


    Did Harry mind the possible genocide? Not particularly. Though he wouldn''t have gone this far if he was not given the Quest. Quests are usually absolutes, so it is easy to tell good from bad during one.


    The rabbit was released upon the captive and after a quick death, the rabbit transfigured its corpse into two more rabbits. The upgraded version didn''t multiply as quickly, but they were sturdier. Guns wouldn''t affect them much and their heads could ram through blast doors when given enough time.


    About half an hour after the rabbits were released into the camp, the camp was deserted. All the dead Badoon had turned into more rabbits and the live ones had fled to their spaceships. Unfortunately, some rabbits may have gotten aboard said ships before they left. Oh well.


    The remaining rabbits started hopping off in the same direction. It would be the way to the next closest Badoon camp.


    Next Harry spent a few hours making a very large batch of a very powerful potion. Once done, he dumped a vast amount of glitter into the cauldron.


    Once he had his diabolical concoction, he headed over to Vanaheim and used the Point Me Charm to find the various Marauder camps. In each one, Harry didn''t bother being subtle, he dumped what amounted to tons of ore outside of each one he found. Within a day, each Marauder ship had loaded the ore onto their ship and blasted off. The ore was not actual ore of course. Harry transfigured his glitter of doom into the ore and used a Gemino charm to duplicate the ore. Once they used a Jump point, the various spells on the ore would go off.


    First, the transfiguration would end, turning all of the ore into glitter. Then, the Gemino Charm would activate, causing the piles of glitter to multiply into vast amounts of glitter. Depending on the size of the ship, that may or may not be enough to destroy it then and there, but probably not. Still, it would probably get everywhere and onto the skin of the pirates.


    The potion had two terrible effects. The first was something Harry got the idea for from a comic book. It induced fear. Thankfully, fear was something that worked the same way in everyone, so it was something that had a large chance to work, regardless of the species. People became rather stupid when scared. Would they attack their comrades, hide, cry in the corner? Who knows.


    Harry put these trap ores all over Vanaheim, Nornheim, and the few planets around the system. Each had a spell which would make the locals ignore it, thinking it was too dangerous to keep until the Asgardians returned.


    As for Nidavellir, Harry decided it was time for an encore of Goose the Giant Flerken. Nidavellir was not so much a planet as it was a ring around a star. It used to be a planet much further away from its star, but the dwarves were just a bit too enthusiastic about forging and forged their planet into a forge that directly used the fires of the star itself. The dwarves used to be short, but Nidavellir lost much of its gravity after being forged around the star and the dwarves ended up adapting to the change in gravity by growing to titanous proportions.


    Harry''s spacecraft was already capable of illusions, so Harry fully charged it and flipped the switch.


    Outside the ring of Nidavellir were hundreds of spacecraft of various sizes. They were piloted by the Rock Troll race led by the Troll Lords. They stayed just outside Nidavellir''s firing range and simply planned to wait the dwarves to death.


    Suddenly, behind the fleet of ships, a massive portal opened up and an orange tabby cat walked through as if standing on a solid surface. It then walked over to the closest ship which immediately began firing at it.


    The illusion rippled when fired into but did not break. The orange cat then opened its mouth and out poured a mass of horrific purple tentacles. The cat walked forward and the tentacles wrapped around the ship. Harry used a bit of telekinesis to shake the ship and then he opened a giant silver portal, hidden within the illusion, and threw it forward, over the ship as the illusion tentacles made it look like the ship was being pulled into the cat''s mouth.


    Once they realized the ship was indeed gone, all ships fired at the titan cat. Harry flew his ship and the illusion over to the next rock troll spacecraft and did a repeat performance, followed by a silver portal thrown over the ship.


    He was transporting them to the various ends of the universe. If they made it home and tried again, Harry would not be so merciful next time. No Badoon would be harmed if they didn''t go to Alfheim or other planets. No Marauders would be glittered if they didn''t take ore from Asgard protected planets. Harry''s prank style of war required the enemy to perform the action which doomed themselves.


    By the fifth ship, Harry was picking up speed and since the ships were getting closer to shoot him more, he started taking multiple ships at the same time. By the time a third of the ships had been ''eaten,'' they had stopped firing and started fleeing for their lives. Harry would have to make a portal to check if they''d returned every once in a while, but the dwarves should be able to start up trade with local systems once more for food and ore.


    Harry nodded and returned home. The rest was only a matter of time.


    Heimdall had been having a very strange few weeks. He''d witnessed the slow descent of the nine realms into panic and chaos and without the Bifrost there was nothing he could do but watch. Now, things had changed.


    Alfheim and her nearby worlds had a new species, a white rabbit that did not chew grass nor vegetables. Instead, it hunted the Badoon, somehow turning the fallen into more rabbits. They had spread to several worlds and the Badoon had to mostly flee back to their home world, being very careful not to bring one of these creatures with them. When no Badoon were on a world, these rabbits simply stayed in place until attacked by the creatures of Alfheim. If a wolf attacked the same rabbit three times, the rabbit would rip off the wolf''s head and turn it into more rabbits.


    Heimdall watched in amazement as the elves figured out the details of these rabbits and kept them as pets. They did not require food or care and could simply be picked up and petted and set back down. Many elves loved them.


    The situation of Vanaheim, Nornheim, and their nearby worlds was stranger still. When Heimdall looked at the Marauders who stole from these worlds, they were often covered in glitter and screaming at various small, non threatening things and each other. Many of their ships broke down after being covered in glitter and there were difficulties in repairing them.


    And of course the strangest occurrence happened at Nidavellir. A creature that appeared to be a massive Flerken arrived and started eating the vessels of the Troll Lords with unstoppable momentum.


    Even Heimdall could not find where these eaten ships had vanished to. The Troll Lords did return, but less than a day later, so did the Flerken, and more ships were eaten. They had not returned since. Heimdall decided to call Odin and Thor and inform them of the situation. Thor had been depressed lately and this should cheer him up. What Heimdall had not expected, was what Thor told him after being informed of the news.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Completed: Defender of the Realms


    Reward: A Favor from Odin]


    Harry returned to Asgard not long after getting the message and quickly found Thor.


    Thor brightened upon noticing Harry and said, "Harry Potter! Know this, from this day forward, you are a friend of Asgard. Come, you must meet my father and mother."


    Harry nodded and headed over. He''d checked back after getting the quest complete message and the results were better than he expected. There were many planets with rabbit-like creatures on them. After what Harry did to the Badoon, all Badoon now avoid these planets. The Badoon were now terrified of rabbits.


    The Marauders were worse off. They lived in a state of constant fear surrounded by glitter with terrible things happening again and again for a week every time they went to steal ore. Because of this, most of the Marauders now had a psychological fear of shiny and sparkly things. Many have given up on stealing and have become farmers.


    And of course, all Rock Trolls were now terrified of cats of all sizes.


    Harry was very pleased with himself for protecting several worlds using rabbits, glitter, and a cat.


    When Harry was brought to Odin, he gave the customary ceremonial bow as a subject would his king. Odin looked at this and asked Thor, "Who is this mortal you have brought before me?"


    Harry''s energy was hidden by Death and though Odin was probably about level 1500, he still couldn''t sense anything from Harry and believed him to be a powerless mortal.


    Thor answered, "Father, this is Harry Potter, the one I told you about. It was Harry who advised me when I was on Earth and Harry who I believe is responsible for the matters Heimdall has spoken of."


    Odin looked over Harry once more and asked, "How is it a powerless mortal is capable of such and how have you arrived here?"


    Thor answered, "Harry is in contact with the Seidr of Midgard. They are more capable than we have given credit for."


    Odin considered this and nodded. He turned to Harry and said, "The Seidr rarely involve themselves in mundane matters. The Seidr of Vanaheim have great power, but they remained silent when the Marauders came. I am surprised you can reach out to them and acquire their aid on your world."


    Harry nodded understandably. He''d noticed a number of mystical protections on Vanaheim which limited his options. They too had a Sorcerer Supreme and Odin''s wife was a powerful Sorceress of Vanaheim, so the planet was not lacking in magic. But as Odin said, they did not interfere in mundane matters such as theft and murder of mundane.


    Harry said, "I was contacted by the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth when Galactus invaded. I ?ssisted in driving him away and we are close friends." All true, but it implied that Harry did not know her before then and did not use magic himself.


    Odin stated, "I created the protections around Midgard myself, he could not have found your world."


    Harry replied, "A massive explosion occurred in our system outside of your protections and his Herald came out of curiosity and discovered our world in the process."


    Odin frowned. He was obviously aware of the S.O.S. Harry had sent but had ignored it, leaving Midgard to fend for itself. That was rather bad form for a King.


    Odin said, "Then it seems I owe you a debt for your actions in protecting the Nine Realms. Very well. What is it you want? Gold, a weapon, a woman perhaps?"


    Harry answered, "I would like permission to read from the Asgardian library and the tomes on Asgardian magics."


    Odin frowned. Centuries ago, he''d cast a massive spell using the Odin Force which erased and blocked all knowledge of Asgardian magics outside of Asgard, leaving them with the monopoly over it. Without his permission, even if someone in Midgard found and read a book on Asgardian magic, the knowledge would be blocked and unusable.


    Odin answered, "Very well. But you may not share what you have learned or teach it to others. Understood?"


    Harry nodded. If only he was given permission, nothing he told others or tried to teach would be remembered.


    Odin nodded and a small spark shot from Odin to Harry. Odin then turned and left.


    Harry did his best to hide his smile. This was one of the good parts about hiding his abilities. Odin was under the impression Harry could not use magic because Odin felt nothing from him. Odin would never have agreed to such a favor if he knew.


    *Ping*


    [Magic Path has risen to Rank 50]


    Harry had to Pause to keep the headache that just appeared from showing on his face. Everything he learned from analyzing Thor''s Hammer had become tangible in his mind. Also, the Sanctum Sanctorum did in fact have several books on Asgardian magic which Harry did read, he just didn''t have access to that knowledge before. Now he did, and his Magic Path Rank had risen three ranks just from that. Asgardian magic was very powerful. It had been researched longer than any other magic and was the magic closest to science of any other magic.


    Harry and Thor discussed various things and Thor asked if Harry could deliver a letter to Jane which Harry agreed to. He could probably arrange for her to visit or for Thor to visit Earth. Thor declined such a request though as Heimdall would know if Jane showed and there was still much to be done in Asgard so he could not visit yet.


    Thor took Harry to the library and Harry used Point Me to find the magic books. Once no one was looking, he stuffed them into his Inventory and Paused to read them. Harry wondered how Odin would feel if he knew Harry would memorize the whole library in just a few visits.


    Winter on Earth ended and Spring came. New York was oddly silent and Harry had a few suspicions why. It was the calm before the storm. Since Jean was fully capable of Precognition, she''d pretty much confirmed there would be something big coming so Harry was just using his time to prepare.


    The only thing of interest that really occurred was when he heard from Tony that Captain America had been found frozen in the ice and thawed out. Not only was he alive, but according to the Shield records Harry hacked, he was doing fine, though feeling a bit out of place.


    It was on the morning of May 1st, a few weeks before graduation, that Link called and informed Harry that something was going on. A Shield Base had just exploded.


    *Author''s Note*


    Hopefully this chapter won''t give anyone strange nightmares. And yes, I''m planning a terrible prank on Loki. Look forward to it.


    I completed this at 3:30am. Im sure it needs PR, I''ll do that later.. This chapter was written so fast because of all the stones I got which motivated me.

 Chapter 94 - 94 Loki of Asgard

    Wednesday, May 2nd, was one the last days of class before finals came up and Harry made sure to come to class himself to answer questions the students had since this was their last chance to get a parachute before Harry threw them off the plane. Sometimes it felt like Harry was explaining the whole of Metaphysics in the span of the classes, but thankfully the minute details could simply be referenced in terms of videos he''d made and specific chapters.


    Today''s review was a bit special. They had a guest. The entire class noticed when the door opened since that was usually how Harry''s pranks started, but when no one entered, most turned away. Some of the more observant ones noticed LEDs built into the tiles started glowing which created a path to the back of the room, but they too decided not to care. Their grades were more important than blinking tiles.


    At the end of the class which felt too short for many and too long for some, Harry had the students leave and stayed behind himself.


    Harry asked the empty classroom, "What did you think?"


    A figure shifted into view, one Harry recognized as Loki. He was standing in front of Harry''s desk, though the LED lights on the tiles showed a path slowly walking from the back of the room to his side.


    Loki stated, "An enlightening lesson. Midgard has come much further than I imagined since my last visit."


    Harry didn''t bother looking at the fake. It looked real to all his senses, a perfect illusion by any account, but Harry wasn''t someone you could catch off guard so easily. When Abomination wrecked the building and the area, Harry used the chance to provide a few upgrades to his classrooms. If someone invisible stepped onto the floor, a small LED on the tile would light up. Loki''s illusion had no weight and Loki himself was not weightless, so the glowing dots on the floor panels the trickster god had yet to notice gave his position away.


    Harry turned to where the real Loki was standing and asked, "Exceptional praise from the great Loki of Asgard." Harry then added as an afterthought, "Speaking of your last visit, what was with the D. B. Cooper thing?"


    Loki noticed Harry was staring at him. Not making eye contact, but staring in his direction. He walked a bit to the side and Harry followed. Loki examined his surroundings and only then did he notice the LEDs in the tiles.


    The illusion vanished and Loki appeared with a fancy looking scepter. He smiled and said, "That''s quite clever."


    Harry acknowledged with a nod and replied, "This is my classroom, I have to make sure the only one doing pranks within is me."


    Loki approached and stated, "An understandable sentiment if ever there was one. As for D.B. Cooper, that was the result of a lost bet between my brother and I."


    "Thor huh. I was tempted to prank him when I last saw him, but I figured the God of Mischief wouldn''t appreciate another prankster pranking his own brother. I know if I had a brother, only I would be allowed to prank him."


    Loki smiled again at that. He approached cautiously and stated, "Indeed. I have a proposition for you. You see I have come to this world with a goal in mind and I have been informed that the easiest way to fulfill my goal would be to enlist the aid of Harry Potter."


    Harry nodded and said, "Well, I am a fan of yours so depending on the issue, I''d be willing to ?ssist with it."


    Once Loki was close, the scepter at his side charged up and he said, "I need you to stand still for a moment." He then quickly brought the pointy tip to Harry''s ?h?st.


    Harry sighed. It seemed Loki did not want to be pranking buddings. Loki kept tapping on the barrier and Harry said, "Standard safety settings. Anything sharp brought up to another person or any projectile weapons brought out in class causes a wall to form to protect the occupants."


    Loki frowned, "This will not stop me. I shall be the king of this world and you and those under you shall pave the way for it to happen."


    Harry Paused at that. Once the scepter charged up, Harry felt a type of energy within it similar to that of the Time stone, so that glowing rock may have been either an Infinity stone or a replica of one. If Loki had the confidence for Harry to take over the world for him, it was probably the Mind stone. He probably went after Harry first since Harry Potter, at least according to anyone but Tony Stark, was a powerless human.


    Harry considered his options. Unfortunately most of them were not great. Fighting Loki here may work, but the hallways and adjacent classrooms were not empty of innocent students and colleague teachers. That and Loki may have entered Harry''s class alone, but the building may have included some of Loki''s allies. Even if he beat Loki, the allies could harm others before Harry could get to them. The deaths of those students and teachers was not a price Harry was willing to pay to acquire the Mind stone when he could think of other ways to get it later.


    Harry unpaused and said, "That may not stop you, but she will." And pointed at the storage room door behind Loki.


    Loki turned around just as the door opened. Thor walked out, but it wasn''t Thor. This ''Thor'' had two massive br??sts and a few slightly feminine features, though still grew a beard. ''Thor'' was also carrying a two or three year old girl with curly blonde hair and green eyes. At his side was a small skinny black hair boy who looked like a mini version of Loki with blue eyes.


    This ''Thor'' said, "Honey! Where have you been? I''ve been so worried about you." Then ''Thor'' gave the equivalent of a coquettish look and said demurely, "The bed has been so cold without you to warm it up."


    The look female Thor gave Loki caused him to reel back in horror. Then the black haired child ran up to him and shouted, "Daddy! We missed you!"


    Loki started screaming, "Ah! Ahh! ARGHHHHH!" He then scrambled away and ran out the door faster than any human would ever be capable of.


    Harry then texted his girls to find an empty space and use their portkeys to go home. A few moments later he got a confirmation from everyone that they were home, meaning Harry really was the first one approached. All of his girls had mental protections against mind control, but Harry couldn''t be certain how effective those would be against the Mind stone. The stone wasn''t at full power of course. Just like the Eye of Agamotto did with the Time stone, the scepter seemed to hold back the true power of the Mind stone. This was normal since an infinity stone cannot be used to its fullest potential without cost.


    Since he needed more info, Harry pulled out his phone and made a call. Less than half a ring later, the other side picked up and said, "Now is not the time Potter."


    Harry figured Fury was probably quite busy since his secret shield base exploded yesterday, but Harry still said, "Thor''s brother showed up for my class today."


    After a moment of silence on the other end, Fury asked, "What happened?"


    "He tried to poke me with a magic stick thingy but the automatic hard light defenses built into the class were enabled, preventing that from happening. Want me to send you the security footage?"


    "Do it."


    Harry figured Fury would want it and it would probably make Fury''s day a little brighter.


    Fury watched the video and afterwards Harry heard Loki''s scream.


    Once the video ended, Harry asked, "Loki said someone informed him I would be of ?ssistance in conquering the world. Any ideas who told him that?"


    Harry added, "Figured it was something like that. I called the Reds and told them to stay low. Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four are on a plane to Hong Kong to attend a conference there, so Loki shouldn''t be able to get them, but I''ll inform them nonetheless to be on the lookout."


    "Good. Stay out of sight yourself until we take care of Loki. I could also use your help tracking him. We can''t access cameras under your systems."


    "I can ensure that if any cameras in my systems see Loki or Barton, you''ll get notified, but I can''t guarantee that''ll work. I already checked before calling and Loki isn''t anywhere at the moment. As that video showed you, Loki can become invisible so he isn''t going to be seen until he wants to be."


    "That''ll have to do."


    Before Fury could hang up, Harry asked, "Wait, you don''t want my help? I''ve already proven I can out prank the God of Mischief and unless Thor shows up, you don''t have access to anyone who knows more about Asgard than I do."


    After a few more moments of silence on the other end, Fury answered, "There''s a jet leaving New York for the Helicarrier in three hours. Be there." And with that he hung up.


    Harry made some preparations and finished the last class of the day before heading to the airport. Jean said to have fun and that they would be ready when everything went to hell. Jean could use a bit of precognition and could tell when something dangerous was coming. According to her, it was coming tomorrow, and Harry wouldn''t be in danger if he went, which was why she said to have fun.


    Harry made his way to the runway where he was met with an agent who escorted him to a large carrier type jet craft. Waiting within were Coulson and someone straight out of the history books, Steve Rogers.


    Harry said, "Good to see you Agent Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."


    Harry offered a hand Steve was glad to take and said, "It''s a p???sur? to meet you."


    Steve smiled a bit and replied, "You too. You''re a lot younger than I thought you''d be."


    Coulson replied, "He''s eighteen. The same age you were when you first tried to enlist."


    Steve smiled awkwardly at that.


    Harry said, "I turn nineteen in three months. Anyways, how bad is it? I have a few guesses but nothing substantial besides the fact that Loki is on earth and doesn''t appear to be up to any good."


    Coulson nodded and replied, "Yesterday at a core Shield Research facility, an object known as the Tesseract caused a wormhole to open up from the other end of space. Loki emerged with a scepter, a weapon of some kind. He used it to put Barton, another agent, and Erik Selvig under his control. The wormhole detonated not long afterwards, destroying the facility and Barton, Erik, and Loki got away and took the Tesseract with them. We''ve already called in Dr. Banner and he''s agreed to ?ssist with locating the cube."


    Harry listened incredulously to such an irresponsible story that was completely filled with holes. He couldn''t help it, he was unable to stop himself from smiling. Steve frowned at that and asked, "You find this amusing?"


    Harry took in a few breaths and asked, "Shield was playing with the Tesseract? You were playing with the power source Hydra used to fuel their war?" Harry turned to Captain America and said, "I''m the planet''s number one expert on magic and energy sources. I literally wrote the textbook when it comes to metaphysical energy sources. They should have called me if they were going to play with something like that. The fact that not only were they playing with it, but it bit them in the ?ss and they didn''t call me immediately means they were too embarrassed to do so. That is why I''m laughing. Calling me for this is like a child calling their parents when they hurt themselves playing with something they shouldn''t even have been around without ?du?t supervision. Shield and everyone involved was too ashamed to do so before I called them first."


    Steve looked back to Coulson who had lowered his head awkwardly. Coulson had of course stated they needed to call Harry, but the request was rejected.


    Steve sighed that the heads of the group apparently founded by Peggy Carter were being rightfully scolded by a eighteen year old Brit. Trying to change the subject, Steve took out the folder he''d been given and asked, "So this Dr Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?"


    Coulson, more than happy for a change in subject, added, "A lot of people were. You were the world''s first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Dr. Erskine''s original formula."


    Harry snorted, "That''s the official version anyways. The higher ups always make sure their names don''t appear when the time comes to put the blame on someone. Banner didn''t even know he was working on a super soldier project until he tried it on himself. Thought it was a health enhancement project that would make people healthier and immune to radiation."


    Steve sighed again. Things were never simple.


    Coulson, deciding to go to a subject Harry, probably, couldn''t hijack, asked, "Mr. Rogers, um, would you mind signing some things? I have the complete set of your trading cards from the war. They''re vintage, near mint. Some slight foxing around the edges, but."


    Steve asked incredulously, "My trading cards?"


    "I mean if it''s not too much trouble."


    "No, no, it''s fine," Steve replied in good humor.


    Harry smiled at Coulson fangirling around Steve, but kept it to himself.


    The jet landed and the group got out and was met by a familiar redhead. Coulson motioned to her and said, "Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers. And you know Professor Potter."


    Steve greeted, "Ma''am," to which Natasha replied, "Hi," before turning to Coulson and stating, "They need you on the bridge, they''re starting the face trace."


    Coulson nodded and headed off. Natasha turned to Harry and said, "Been a while. Hear you''ve been keeping out of trouble lately." She then turned to Steve and asked, "Did Coulson ask you to sign his trading cards?"


    Steve lightly smiled and replied, "That he did."


    Natasha smiled with satisfaction and led them over to the edge of the ship and said, "He''s very proud of them."


    Their group saw Bruce looking over the sea and Natasha called out, "Dr. Banner."


    Bruce turned and looked at the group, "Professor Potter? They told me Captain Rogers was coming, but I didn''t hear you were too."


    Natasha asked, "You two know each other?"


    Bruce replied, "Quite a bit. Harry gave me this fancy watch. It certainly has made the nomad life easier."


    Harry replied, "Glad to hear it."


    Bruce then offered a hand to Steve and said, "It is an honor to meet you Captain."


    Steve smiled warmly and replied, "The honor is all mine. I look forward to working with you."


    A few orders sounded over the speakers and Natasha told them, "Gentlemen, and Harry. It''s about to get a little hard to breathe out here so it''s better to come inside."


    Bruce asked, "This is a submarine?" He then sarcastically asked, "And they want me inside it?"


    The Helicarrier''s turbines then started running making it clear the direction this craft was going was not down.


    Bruce then smiled and said, "Oh, this is much worse."


    Harry laughed. The Hulk had a bit of a sadistic side and didn''t mind making people think he was a stupid monster, even now. So other than Harry and Betty, no one else knew that the Hulk was completely different now compared to what he used to be.


    As they were led up the flight deck and through a hall, the group passed a chicken wearing a perfectly fitted suit. The chicken stopped in front of Harry and said, "Buck, buck, bugok."


    Harry nodded back and said, "Good work as always Agent Cluckers."


    The chicken bowed and continued down the hall.


    Everyone else just stared at him. Even Bruce had to ask, "I''m sorry, but what was that about?"


    Natasha answered, "Almost a year ago, Harry pranked Shield by somehow filling the Helicarrier with chickens. Some were caught, but that one was not. Once it was the only chicken left, it started wearing a suit. No one has ever been able to catch it."


    Bruce had to ask, "So no one has, I don''t know, tried to shoot it?"


    Natasha shook her head but didn''t reply. She couldn''t tell them that every time someone shot a chicken, a horde of them came out of nowhere and viciously attacked the shooter. She also wouldn''t tell them that sometimes the chicken let her pet it. It was a good chicken.


    After they got to the deck and were high enough in the air, Fury ordered the ship to go stealth. It wasn''t perfect but at least from the ground, no one would be able to notice the ship floating high in the sky above them. What Harry found funny was that the Shield used the sound cancelling properties Harry taught Fitz and Simmons in its construction. Because of that, the sound of the engines wasn''t deafening and the people below the ship wouldn''t be able to easily hear it. If they were high enough.


    Steve walked over to Fury and handed him a ten dollar bill Fury pocketed before going over to Bruce and welcoming him.


    When asked for ideas on how to find the Tesseract, Bruce answered, "Call everyone with a spectrometer and tell them to put it on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. Harry and I shouldn''t have any problems roughing out a tracking algorithm for basic cluster recognition. It will let us rule out a few places."


    Harry added, "I have a few programs we can use as a base. Won''t take longer than an hour."


    Natasha smiled and told Fury, "Apparently these two know each other."


    Fury raised an eyebrow but decided not to pursue that, for now. "Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner and Professor Potter to their laboratory please."


    Natasha walked over and said, "You''re going to love it boys, we got all the cool toys."


    After passing Agent Cluckers again, Natasha asked, "So how did you two meet?"


    Harry answered, "Bruce and Betty were in New York a few months ago and I invited them over for dinner."


    Bruce shook his head and smiled at how much Harry left out, but he still had no idea how Harry pulled off what he did and wasn''t going to ask in front of the intel gathering spy.


    The Helicarrier reached its maximum cruising altitude and the pair got to work. Harry loaded up a base algorithm and explained the parts to Bruce as they worked to alter it to the parameters they needed it to work on. Harry could''ve finished alone in a few minutes using technopathy to type instead of doing it by hand, but Harry doubted the labs around the world would have moved their stuff that fast so even taking an hour, they would finish before the labs did.


    A little before they were done, Harry got a notification that Loki had been spotted in Germany. They were mostly finished, so Harry told Bruce they found Loki and Harry wanted to go. Bruce didn''t really feel like meeting a God of Mischief so he elected to stay and finish up.


    Harry headed out to the deck and took a rebreather near the wall before going outside to the jet on standby. Natasha was already on board waiting for Captain Rogers. She said, "I don''t recall you being invited."


    "My system saw Loki before Fury''s did and told Fury. It told me too of course."


    "And here I thought you were keeping yourself out of trouble."


    Harry smiled and replied, "No, you just haven''t heard what I''ve been up to recently."


    Not long afterwards Steve showed up in a Stars and Stripes uniform with his famous shield.


    He didn''t question why Harry was there and got on board for the jet to take off. Although they were in the middle of the Atlantic, it was much easier to fly at high altitudes so from the altitude the Helicarrier was maintaining, the Jet could make it to Germany in twenty minutes.


    Along the way, Harry asked to check out the Captain''s Shield. Harry actually had never handled normal vibranium before, he only used the vibranium he created alchemically from silver. While looking it over he noticed a number of differences between what Harry usually used and the shield. The first was that it had absolutely no magical properties. Much like the adamantine which covered Wolverine''s bones, this metal either lacked or was stripped of the magical properties it should have possessed.


    It would be harder to transfigure this shield into a rubber duck than it would a steel shield, but it was still doable, and a sufficiently powerful magical strike could destroy this shield.


    Harry wondered if Steve would mind an upgrade. He couldn''t help but spend the remainder of the ride thinking of ideas.


    Eventually they arrived. Steve grabbed a parachute and jumped out since descending that way would be quicker than waiting for the jet to descend.


    It ended up being a good idea, as Steve descended down, he noticed Loki pointing his scepter at an old man with the clear intent to fire. Steve removed his parachute to fall the rest of the way and landed just in time to block the energy strike and protect the old man.


    The pair fought for a bit, but Steve''s strikes were b?r?ly moving the frost giant and Loki was a little faster than Steve.


    Natasha shouted for Loki to surrender but he fired an energy blast at the jet the pilot was just b?r?ly able to dodge.


    This in turn gave Steve an opening to kick Loki''s head in but Loki was b?r?ly phased.


    It was then that the jet''s onboard speakers were hacked and the song, Shoot to Thrill started playing, along with a, "Miss me Agent Romanoff?" in a familiar voice.


    Tony showed up in his suit and Harry couldn''t help but wonder if he flew from New York to Germany in that thing. No, Harry figured it was more likely that Tony had been stalking the Helicarrier and was waiting for the right moment. He left the Helicarrier at the same time as the jet and went just a little bit slower which explains why he arrived a bit after they did.


    Tony shot Loki with a Muon beam, blasting the Asgardian off his feet as Tony approached with weapons primed in a threatening manner. At that point Loki simply lifted his hands in surrender.


    Harry frowned at that as they lowered the jet to load everyone and Loki up. Harry knew that Loki''s illusions could fool cameras. He could easily make an illusion of him running in one direction as a distraction and turn himself invisible and run in the other direction.


    When Loki came on board, he glared at Harry for a moment before turning away.


    Tony noticed this and asked, "Friend of yours?"


    "He tried to recruit me earlier today and I ended up pranking him in retaliation."


    Tony removed his helmet and asked, "Do you have a video? This I gotta see."


    "Maybe later."


    Harry waited until Loki was restrained and then threw a handful of silver glitter at him.


    Loki closed his eyes and after a few moments opened them to see it wasn''t a weapon. He saw the sparkles of glitter over himself and deadpanned to Harry, "Was that really necessary?"


    Harry replied, "Of course it was. You may be able to make an illusion of yourself, but modifying it is a bit trickier. If any of us sees a version of you not covered in glitter, we know it''s a fake."


    Tony did a double take before asking, "Did you really just defeat magic with glitter?"


    Harry corrected, "Asgardian magic with glitter. Trust me, it''s more impressive."


    Loki looked rather peeved at that and turned to the side and remained silent when Natasha started questioning him.


    When Fury asked for an update, Natasha informed him that Loki was remaining silent and also updated him on the ''security precautions'' Harry took to prevent Loki from tricking them.


    It was then that they heard lightning cackle in the distance. The clouds they were in were not thunder clouds so that was quite odd.


    Steve noticed Loki tense up and asked, "What''s the matter? Scared of a little lightning?"


    He answered, "I''m not overly fond of what follows."


    Harry perked up and said, "Ah, that would explain the lightning."


    Steve asked, "What?"


    A loud thud sounded from the roof and shook the jet. Harry pointed up and answered, "Him."


    Stark got his helmet but Harry said, "Stay put old man," as he walked to the hatch and pressed the bu??on to open it. A moment later Thor jumped down and locked eyes on Loki.


    Harry stepped in front of the God of Thunder causing Thor to raise his hammer which caused Stark to charge his repulsors.


    Thor then smiled upon recognizing the one standing in front of him. "Harry Potter! Good to see you!"


    This caused Stark to lower his repulsors.


    "You too Thor, can I ask what you are doing here?"


    "I am here to retrieve my brother and the Tesseract."


    Harry nodded and said, "Well, Loki here gave himself up to our custody and doesn''t have the Tesseract on him. Why do you need it anyways?"


    Thor answered, "The Tesseract is the item Heimdall requires to repair the Bifrost, it must be brought to Asgard."


    Harry considered it and said, "I have no problem with that. The people of earth are not doing anything terribly productive with it anyways. However I suspect that Loki doesn''t know where it is. He probably ?ssumed he''d be tortured when he gave himself into our custody, so my guess is he has some independent plans to reunite with it later. The only way to get it is to stick around Loki, so take a seat."


    Thor frowned and took another look at Loki. After a moment his frown changed into a bad attempt at holding back laughter. "My brother, why are you shimmering like that?"


    Steve snorted and Tony laughed out loud while Natasha held back a giggle at the face Loki was making.


    Harry answered, "That was me. I covered him in glitter. If you see a Loki not covered in glitter, that is probably an illusion."


    Thor said, "There are spells Loki can use to clean himself of such things."


    Harry replied, "I know, but this glitter can''t be removed with magic."


    Loki asked, "What?" Apparently he''d been planning to remove it this whole time once the occasion was right.


    A shimmer covered Loki in what Harry and Thor recognized as an Asgardian cleaning spell. The glitter remained much to Loki''s horror.


    Thor laughed vigorously and Harry said, "This is the second prank I''ve done to him. Would you all like to watch the first?"


    Loki sighed in defeat as Tony got closer to the monitor Harry was pulling up.


    A minute later, Tony was laughing with tears in his eyes, Steve was fighting to remain dignified while laughing while Natasha was laughing like a little school girl.


    Thor was unable to laugh as his own amusement was matched by his horror at the scene of a woman version of himself with the same voice claiming to be the mother of Loki''s children and sharer of his bed. Thor hoped Harry Potter would not show this to his mother. Neither of them had given her grandchildren and he''d never hear the end of this should she find out.


    The way back to the Helicarrier was filled with small talk as Thor spoke of the nine realms and Tony asked completely pointless questions.


    Once they arrived an armored group was ready to escort the sparkly God of Mischief to a holding cell and the scepter was brought up to the laboratory. Harry could already tell the scepter and Loki were linked. He could use a bit of its power at a distance and even hear and see through it like a remote camera.


    After Loki was locked up, Fury tried a few intimidation tactics Loki returned with insults and taunts while smiling. While Fury was getting taunted, Harry called his phone making it ring in the room.


    The ringtone was something Harry made and discreetly added to Fury''s phone.


    [Ah! Ahh! ARGHHHHH!"] [Ah! Ahh! ARGHHHHH!"] [Ah! Ahh! ARGHHHHH!"]


    Loki gritted his teeth at Fury''s ring tone and Fury took his time to answer it before eventually picking it up and hearing Harry asking him to come back for a plan.


    At the command center, Steve asked Thor, "What''s his play?"


    Thor answered, "He had an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard nor any known world of the nine realms. He means to lead then against your people. They will win him the earth. In return I suspect for the Tesseract."


    Steve asked, "An army from outer space?"


    Bruce added, "So he''s building another portal."


    Steve commented aloud, "I want to know why Loki let us take him. He''s not leading an army from here."


    Harry said, "Let''s find out."


    Thor asked, "How?"


    "Give him an audience and let him gloat how much better he is than everyone. Think that''ll work?"


    Thor gave a small nod as he begrudgingly admitted his brother would probably fall for that.


    Coulson and Tony entered a moment later and Harry said, "We''re going to see Loki." Harry grabbed the scepter and everyone followed to Loki''s cell.


    Harry handed the scepter to Bruce and whispered something to him before he stepped forward and approached the cell. "You know I heard that little speech of yours in Germany. I happen to be one of the most rational people on the planet, so let''s consider this a practice round. If you can convince me to follow you, I''ll not only get you out of here, I''ll provide you with all the resources needed to take over and rule the people of Earth."


    Everyone looked at Harry admitting to what amounted to treason against their planet.


    Harry added, "Of course, if you can''t convince a rational person to follow you, then you obviously will never convince anyone. Wanna give it a shot, or do you have no confidence you''ll succeed?"


    Loki glared at Harry''s bait but it wasn''t something he could simply ignore either. Loki was confident in his ability to see through lies and Harry wasn''t lying.


    Loki replied, "I have already said enough. You are meant to be ruled."


    Harry acknowledged, "Perhaps. Monkey see, monkey do and all. Humans can improve themselves through imitation. They instinctively follow those who are better than them so they can use their example to better themselves. But, what about you is better than me? Why should I follow you, specifically?"


    Loki scoffed, "I am a god."


    "A god of Mischief, Lies, Deceit, Treachery. And according to a few tales, Magic, and Fire, which is rather ironic considering your origins. What you are not a god of is Law, Rules, Order, Justice, or anything concept that would benefit your subjects through imitation."


    Loki argued back full of confidence, "I was born to rule."


    "So was Thor. Would anyone who had a chance to kneel to you, not simply kneel to him for all the same reasons?"


    Loki sneered and said, "You are just trying to trick me into giving you information to prove my worth."


    Harry smiled and replied, "So you have information that proves we would be better under your rule than your brother''s? What kind of information is that? Knowledge of a threat perhaps? One you could protect the Earth from under your rule?"


    Loki remained silent.


    Harry continued, "You know, with or without such information, there is something you can do to convince me to bend the knee to you. Legends say that Odin sacrificed an eye for the knowledge and wisdom needed to rule. I''m certain you have lost much, but I don''t think you have sacrificed enough."


    Loki sneered in disgust, "You want me to remove my eye?"


    Harry shook his head, "Sacrificing what he did would not grant you anything better than what he had, therefore in order to surpass your adoptive father, you must sacrifice even more."


    Loki asked sarcastically, "And what would that be?"


    Harry remained silent for a moment before locking eyes with Loki and answering seriously. "Everything."


    Loki blinked and asked offensively, "I beg your pardon?"


    Harry explained, "The God of Mischief can never become a better ruler than Odin. It literally goes against your divinity and your own identity will sabotage you, preventing you from ever achieving it. In order to surpass him, you must sacrifice your godhood and become mortal. If you were willing to do so, I''d be willing to give you access to all the resources needed to allow you to conquer the world at your leisure. Your godhood and powers hold you back Loki. Only through discarding them can you become a better ruler than your father ever was and perhaps better than your brother could ever be."


    Harry was staring at Loki with the rest behind him, so he took a moment to Pause and look at everyone''s expressions. Most were shocked, especially Thor.


    Harry unpaused and continued, "As you are now, few if any on Earth would benefit from following you, someone born above them. But if someone born above them was willing to bring them self to their level in order to lead them, that sounds like someone worth kneeling to."


    Loki remained in pensive silence as everyone waited for his decision. Eventually he said, "I don''t need your help to conquer this world."


    Harry shook his head, "Because your plan is foolproof?"


    Harry turned to the group and said, "You guys want to know what his plan is? It is a basic Trojan Horse."


    Tony asked, "So we''re the horse and Loki is the Greeks?"


    "No, Loki is the horse."


    Harry pointed at the scepter in Bruce''s hands, "That''s the Greeks. Loki knew Shield would absolutely want to get their hands on something that shiny, despite the fact that they know that thing can control minds. What guarantee do we have that it won''t go off and take control of everyone on the Helicarrier?"


    At that, everyone took a step back from Bruce.


    Harry continued, "What guarantee do we have that Loki''s control over Barton and Dr. Selvig won''t end if we destroy it? A good prank relies on your victim''s sin to work, greed is always a good option."


    Harry had been looking at Loki the whole time and when Harry said that, Loki glanced at Banner. Not the scepter in his hands, but Banner.


    Harry added, "Or perhaps wrath. You weren''t planning on unleashing the Hulk were you?"


    Loki remained silent.


    Harry smirked and walked up to Banner. "Let''s fulfil his dreams shall we?" Harry pointed at Banner and said, "Abracadabra!"


    Banner gave Harry an amused look. Harry gave a stage whisper, "Come on man, that''s your cue."


    Banner rolled his eyes and started expanding.


    Everyone stepped back except Harry and Coulson and Fury who''d been standing in the corner drew their weapons.


    Hulk stretched for a moment and looked back at the scepter in his hand.


    The Hulk stated, "The Professor is correct. This does appear to be emitting an energy wave that stimulates the amygdala and the hypothalamus. Prolonged exposure would certainly cause those in proximity to be at each other''s throat sooner or later. Like a poison for the mind."


    Everyone, including Loki, was unable to keep a shocked expression off their face.


    Harry asked, "So what do you suggest?"


    Hulk approached Loki''s cell and heavily tapped on the glass a few times. This caused some alarms to flare and caused the space beneath the prison to open. A warning sounded from the room stating to stay away from the wall or the cage would be dropped.


    Hulk didn''t continue. Instead he said, "According to legend, when the Horse was found, a Seer told the citizens of Troy not to let it in, but she was cursed so that no one would believe her. I say we do what the Trojans should have done, and toss it into the sea."


    Before anyone could respond, Hulk snapped the scepter in half, cutting Loki''s connection to it. Hulk then tossed the two pieces under the cell into the opening that went into the sea.


    Loki shouted, "No! What have you done you Monster!"


    Hulk smiled back and said, "You know, you have some real anger issues. Maybe you should get some help with that."


    Loki was stunned silent as Hulk turned back into Bruce and laughed.


    Once he composed himself to recognize the mockery, Loki snarled back and shouted, "When I get out of here I will cut out your heart!"


    Harry shook his head and asked, "Threats? Really? It seems you are no longer capable of convincing me." Without another word he leaves with the rest following shortly behind him.


    In the hall Harry turned to Fury and said, "Loki is certain he will get out soon. Banner will be in the wind if we find the Tesseract which should be in a few hours. If Loki is confident in removing Banner''s heart, he must have a plan to get him out within the next six hours. Either escape or extraction. My money is on the latter with Barton leading the team."


    Natasha asked, "Didn''t you say breaking the scepter will free Barton?"


    "It could have, but it didn''t. The scepter would''ve reacted differently to being broken in that case. I''ve dealt with artifacts like that in the past. In either case, when Barton shows up to get Loki out, I say we let him."


    Fury asked, "And why the hell should we allow that to happen?"


    Harry answered, "Because, there is no way someone lets themselves be captured without a plan B. Plan B should be a scenario where the Tesseract causes world ending damage and only he can stop it, forcing Shield to release him. So Plan A is to get an alien army to take over Earth. Plan B is, ''If I can''t have Earth, no one will.'' I say park the Helicarrier in the water and evacuate the unneeded personnel."


    Fury really didn''t like that completely reasonable answer so he asked, "How can he do that?"


    Harry answered, "Using a portal? I can think of a dozen ways off the top of my head. If he created a portal and the other end was a black hole, the earth would be slowly su?k?d into the portal and destroyed. A Portal to the surface of the sun would burn whatever continent the portal was opened over. And Loki''s army may be the only army in the Galaxy that will listen to Loki, but I doubt they are the only army or even the most deadly one. If Loki knows the coordinates of another worse army, he could order a portal be made there, then when they come here and destroy the earth, he could offer salvation through the use of his army to defeat the other army."


    The fact that Harry really could think of so many ways to use a Portal to conquer or destroy the world scared a few people. Harry wondered how they would feel if they learned Harry didn''t need the cube to make such portals himself.


    Harry said, "So, let Barton in and let them rescue Loki. Capture Barton if you can though. Let Loki get some distance and then track him to where the Cube is."


    After quite a bit more deliberation, Fury decided to go with Harry''s idea. However, since Harry was considered unneeded personnel himself, he was sent back to New York with the other evacuees. Fury really didn''t like him on his Helicarrier which was fine with Harry. He needed an excuse to get away and go back in time and retrieve the Mind stone. He asked Bruce to throw the scepter overboard earlier with this in mind. Shield would eventually try to find it, but they were in the middle of the Atlantic so not finding it was understandable.


    *Author''s Note*


    Only changed a little here since stopping the battle of New York is not something any reader really wants to happen. My Battle of New York will of course be quite different. For those who do not know, I prefer to be original, so my Battle for New York will be completely different from anything in any other fanfic. And for those wondering, if Loki agreed, Harry would give Loki control of Brilliance Inc and let him run it with the Goblins. Loki would technically ''be given the resources needed to rule the world,'' but that didn''t mean it would be easy. That was a prank of its own.


    Unfortunately we won''t see the battle of the Helicarrier, so here is a single scene from it as an apology.


    Barton noticed one of the mercenaries pointing his rifle much too low. When he noticed what the man''s target was, the brainwashed Shield Agent shouted with all his might, "No! Don''t shoot the Chicken!"


    *Bang*


    The immortal chicken looked in their direction and a sound that haunts the dreams of every Shield agent echoed through the base. "Cock-A-Coocle-Coo!"

 Chapter 95 - 95 The Battle of New York

    *Author''s Note*


    Ok, I may have written myself into a teeny bit of a corner, so please forgive the plot shenanigans required in order to prevent the battle of New York from ending in two or three paragraphs. I really do try my best to remove plot holes but Common Sense is the bane of Comic Book movie plots. Like I am 99% certain that if someone really did snap Loki''s scepter, the control over Hawkeye and Selvig would have been undone. Without Clint to bust him out and without Selvig to make the portal, that would have ended the movie then and there.


    In this chapter, you''re also going to find out that a lot of the ''useless filler'' I have in a bunch of other chapters turns out to not be so useless after all. Should make re-reading some things more interesting.


    Chapter 95 The Battle of New York


    Harry didn''t go to sleep that night nor did the girls. Each was well enough beyond human to be fine without one night of sleep and they wanted to be ready.


    Harry asked, "You really think he''s going to attack New York?"


    Jean answered, "It was up in the air, but with how much you antagonized him, it''s about as certain as the sun rising from the east at this point."


    Jade asked, "Shouldn''t we, I don''t know, stop it or something?"


    Jean said, "We can try. But I have no confidence. Precognition and infinity stones do not mix well together."


    Wanda asked, "What if you use the Mind stone for a boost?"


    Jean replied, "Oh hell no. I do not want to touch that thing. It would definitely strengthen my abilities, but it would also supercharge the Phoenix within. I''m b?r?ly keeping up with it as it is, I don''t want to supercharge the damn thing."


    Rogue asked, "So there''s no stopping it?"


    Harry answered, "Maybe. But it could certainly be worse. It''s not like we''re getting caught with our pants down."


    MJ chuckled, "There''s no way Loki would use that portal here if he knew how powerful everyone actually is."


    Harry nodded. They confirmed that since Shield could easily guess the identity of the Reds, that Barton knew, which meant Loki knew. Should Harry get turned, he could''ve ?ssisted Loki with turning the others. However, Barton and Shield only knew what the Reds showed off, which was b?r?ly a fraction of their abilities. Working together they could bring down governments and countries and worlds.


    Defending one world was not going to be that much of a challenge. The trick was keeping damage to a minimum. Especially since Harry''s insurance company would have to pay for any of the damages.


    Thankfully the stone was now safely tucked away in Harry''s inventory and couldn''t be used by anyone against his family.


    Harry considered it. In fact, the only ones in New York that were feasible were in Harry''s basement, the Goblin filled server rooms of Brilliance Inc''s underground site, the one that Oscorp has tucked away, and the one in Stark''s tower. Of those, only one of them was public knowledge. Stark''s arc reactor, the one he plugged into his tower and turned on yesterday. There were a few others but none of them were always online and could afford to divert enough power without failing.


    Harry stated, "Loki will probably use the arc reactor Stark plugged into his building."


    Jade got up and excitedly exclaimed, "Great! We go there, wait for him, and throw him in a sack when he shows up."


    Harry nodded and said, "Works for me."


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Birth of the Avengers


    Ensure the Avengers gather together and openly fight against the Chitauri.


    -Bonus: Battle must last longer than 20 minutes.]


    Harry sighed and said, "Wait, I got a Quest."


    Harry shook his head, "Actually, the Quest implies not stopping Loki and instead ?ssisting Fury''s Boy Band in protecting New York from the invasion."


    Jean sighed and said, "This is why I don''t like precognition. It makes choices so much harder. The Ancient One said the Quests make a better long term future right?"


    Wanda asked, "Couldn''t we just call the Ancient One and ask her?"


    Harry figured he might as well and picked up the phone, dialed the number and put it on speaker.


    After a few rings, the other end spoke up, [Let me guess, you want to know how to stop the Chitauri invasion?]


    Harry answered, "Nope. We already figured that one out. Loki will use Stark Tower''s arc reactor to power the cube to open the portal. We were calling to ask if we should stop him beforehand. I got a Quest to help the Avengers stop it, right before I was going to stop it myself, implying I should not prevent aliens from descending onto my city."


    Harry had no doubt that in a timeline without Harry, Loki succeeded, so he wanted to know if the Ancient One had an opinion on the matter.


    [Ah, an understandable quandary. Indeed, in a future without you, the Chitauri did indeed invade, many lives were lost, but in the end, the portal was closed and the world was saved by the Avengers. This changed the world forever. In a world where this does not happen, there cannot be Avengers and the little problems the people of the world have with each other will only continue to grow.]


    Harry replied, "So the invasion was basically a long needed wake up call."


    Jean asked, "So for the future, it is better to let Loki open the portal but save as many as possible?"


    Jade replied, "I don''t like it. We shouldn''t have to choose between who dies and who doesn''t. Shouldn''t we try to save everyone?"


    [This is the burden of knowing the future. Each timeline you chose means sacrificing another. Every choice requires sacrifice. As long as it is contained, this invasion will act as a flu shot for the planet Earth, something to strengthen it. Without that strength, many more lives will be lost when that strength is needed in the future.]


    Jade sighed. She didn''t like it, but no one did. She was quite glad she wasn''t a Seer. They always got screwed in the end.


    Harry looked around the others who all seemed to agree. He said, "Alright, we''ll prepare and minimize damage. Anything to make note of?"


    [Yes. The Tesseract contains the Space stone. When activated, space itself will stabilize over the city. Not even you will be able to make a portal.]


    "Wait, there are three infinity stones on Earth right now?"


    [If you have what I think you have in your inventory, then yes. Yes there are.]


    Harry shook his head in disbelief. He always knew some force would come to Earth for some reason. Either for him, for the Time Stone, or for one of the many other valuables on the planet. It was why he already put so much effort into making a defense system. Still, the idea that there were three Infinity stones on Earth would make it tricky to sleep at night.


    Wanda sighed, "No portals huh? Bummer. I know how much you like playing with those."


    Jade laid back and said, "I still can''t believe Sorcerers can make portals anywhere in the universe so easily. This Loki guy needs the Tesseract which your teacher said contains the Space Infinity stone to make a portal yet the Ancient One and any of the Masters can make one whenever and wherever they want."


    Harry replied, "It isn''t that easy. The main thing is the Sling Rings. I don''t need one thanks to my Perk, but Sorcerers do. From what I understand, they are made using a technique created by the founders of Kamar-Taj. Even I can''t figure out how to make one. Also, only Kamar-Taj teaches dimensional Sorcery. When I checked out Vanaheim, they too had Sorcerers, but none of them trained in Dimensional energy. So it really is not that common."


    Wanda asked, "What about Odin? Didn''t he send Thor here without the Bifrost?"


    Harry replied, "I know the spell he used. It didn''t use dimensional energy, but Dark energy."


    Jade asked, "Like Dormammu Dark energy?"


    "Not from his dimension. There are a number of ways to acquire dark energy that don''t require that guy, they are just more taxing and inefficient. Odin would not be able to use such a spell easily."


    MJ asked, "How do you wanna defend the city? Should we stay together or stay apart?"


    Harry answered, "Well, if Loki opens the portal using Stark Tower, it will probably open over Stark tower." Harry used the house''s Hard-Light system to make a holographic Map of New York with Stark Tower at the center. "Let''s make a plan."


    When he re-entered the tower, he noticed Harry Potter sitting at the bar pouring himself some scotch from Tony''s stash. It wasn''t tea, but Tony did have the good stuff.


    Loki had to do a double take and asked almost offensively, "What do you think you are doing here?"


    "Pouring a glass of scotch. Did you want some? Tony has the good stuff you know."


    Loki took a moment to compose himself. After another moment he asked, "Aren''t you supposed to stop me or something?"


    Harry took out and poured a glass for Loki anyway and answered, "I considered it. As I watched those mercenaries disable Stark Tower''s security, as I watched the brainwashed Selvig ?ssemble the portal device and install the Tesseract, and as I watched them drag the cable from the arc reactor to the portal device, I considered it. But after much consideration, I decided not to."


    Loki sneered at the implication. He wanted to call Harry a liar, call him out on such a large bluff clearly stated to throw Loki off balance that his plans were in the hands of what amounted to a child. He wanted to, but he could not. Loki was confident in his ability to see through the lies of mortals, and Harry wasn''t lying.


    Harry slid the glass down the bar table in Loki''s direction where it stopped just before hitting the edge. Harry looked around and said, "You know, you and Stark have a lot in common, more than even he knows."


    Loki approached cautiously and stated, "I highly doubt that."


    Harry continued, "One of the times I hacked Shield, I found all the data they had on Howard Stark, Tony''s father. One of the files was heavily redacted and what remained was meaningless gibberish to those unfamiliar with genetics, but I could tell what it was, and I am probably the only person on Earth who knows this secret. You see, Howard Stark was a perfectionist who never stopped seeking something better. When he decided to have a kid, he wanted a perfect kid. So he actually hired some geneticists to take his DNA and his wife''s and create a genetically perfect super baby. What do you think happened?"


    Harry shook his head, "Nope, super baby died some months after birth due to the problems they apparently encountered trying to make a super baby and a baby Tony was adopted from an orphanage. Howard deleted or redacted all records of this, so no one alive, not even Tony, knows he is not Howard''s biological son."


    Loki raised an eyebrow and picked up the glass on the table.


    Harry continued, "So, Tony grew up with a father that knew Tony wasn''t his son yet pressured him into being the son he always wanted while Tony had no idea why anything he did was never good enough. Still think you two have nothing in common?"


    Loki examined the glass for poison in an attempt to ignore the question.


    Harry then gestured to the tower and said, "Sorta makes this more impressive, you think? A lot of people think Tony inherited his father''s genius, but they are wrong. He has long since surpassed it. Maybe it was because he wasn''t Howard''s son that he isn''t bound by the same limitations. Food for thought huh?"


    Loki seemed to consider it and said, "Surpassing fathers, I think I can drink to that," and brought up the glass.


    Harry smiled, lifted the drink towards Loki, and downed his own as Loki appeared to do the same.


    The Hard-Light barrier stopped the blade going for his back for just an instant, long enough for Harry to spin to the side as he had of course been expecting the literal back stab. The Loki illusion he''d been speaking with did have some glitter, but it didn''t contain Harry''s Magic. The glitter was actually a distraction from the magic on the glitter which Harry could keep track of.


    The real Loki''s blade was only stopped for a moment before his strength enabled him to pierce through the Hard-Light barrier, but that moment was enough for Harry to dodge the blade.


    Loki realized that since Harry really had been there for a while, he had apparently taken the time to install a Hard-Light system within the room. Of course, Loki knew the weakness of Hard-Light, it only worked within enclosed spaces.


    Several barriers were erected to stop Loki as Harry moved away but Loki shattered them with his blades and then got to the large window the room had and destroyed it.


    Loki then turned invisible.


    Harry sighed. He didn''t feel like playing with Loki anymore. Harry sensed where his magic was and lifted it with telekinesis. Loki could shapeshift, use illusions, and throw projectiles, but with the exception of the latter which could be blocked with a shield, Loki had no means of long distance combat. Harry would estimate Loki''s level to be about 390, but his combat skills were lacking anything that could make use of his outrageous stats. His illusions could perfectly fool Harry''s senses, but when countered, his over-reliance on them revealed his true weakness.


    Loki''s illusion broke as he rose into the air and shouted, "What is this? What are you doing? Put me down!"


    Of course that was just a cover, he had already recast his illusion over himself to look as if he was complaining and several invisible knives bounced off the psionic shield Harry already placed between them thrown by the illusion shrouded Loki.


    Loki seemed to realize that things were not as they appeared. He revealed several grenades and pulled their pins and tossed them around the room. Harry rapidly pulled them to himself, grabbed each, and put them into his inventory before each could explode. All but one ended up being an illusion.


    Harry was now getting annoyed. He wanted to pull a Darth Vader, but frost giants and Asgardians don''t need to breathe so that wouldn''t work. Thankfully he could at least disarm him. Harry used some basic electromagnetic sorcery to remove all the hidden weapons on Loki and let them form a pile next to the Trickster god. Some of there were strapped down, but Harry was still able to remove each piece. He wasn''t at the level of Magneto, but Technomancy was a branch of electromagnetic sorcery, so he was certainly skilled enough not to miss anything.


    Loki responded by shouting and updating Harry''s knowledge of Norse and Asgardian curse words, so Harry cast a silencing spell on the noisy trickster god just as Tony landed on the outside platform and took off his Iron Man suit.


    He walked in and noticed Harry and a floating Loki. He then asked, "Did you drink from my stash?" while pointing at the two empty glasses.


    Harry shrugged, "Even if he is invading the Earth, Loki is still my favorite god. Haven''t you ever wanted to share a drink with your idol?"


    Tony considered it and nodded. If it went towards a good cause, he didn''t mind too much. "What are you doing with Reindeer games?"


    "Holding him in place so he doesn''t run off. The portal machine is with Selvig outside. You might wanna take a look at that."


    Tony first went over to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch while grabbing some bands on the counter and putting them on and saying, "Jarvis, Deploy the Mark Nine and reboot the home systems."


    Some of the lights in the building started going off and on again and a voice came over the speakers, [Backup systems restored.] Stark then walked back up to the floating Loki and asked, "Hey, did you really tell Selvig to open the portal to some nightmare world if you didn''t return? I got a ten dollar bet on this so I''d appreciate an honest answer."


    Harry removed the silencing spell as Loki answered, "How did you know about that?"


    Tony laughed and said, "Yes!" and walked over to a wall that was opening up.


    Harry answered for him, "I asked Fury to make sure you got away to avoid any backup plans you might have had."


    Harry then turned to Tony and asked, "Did you get Barton?"


    Tony was in the middle of the suit ?ssembling around him as he answered, "Yeah, Romanoff snuck up on him and bashed him in the head. He was coming around when Loki and the mercs were chased out of the building by a swarm of angry chickens."


    As the armor finished ?ssembling around him, he asked, "Can I have one of those for Stark Tower?"


    Harry shook his head and answered, "No can do." The Chicken was similar to the Rabbit of Caerbannog in that it was a singular artifact which replicated itself, though they were vastly different in function and purpose.


    Stark didn''t ask more and lifted off and flew over to Selvig and the portal machine. He tried talking to Selvig who seemed completely out of it. He fired a repulsor at the portal device which bounced off a shield around it. Jarvis said from the speakers, "The shield is impenetrable."


    Tony flew over and grabbed Selvig before tossing him away from the portal device and fired an intense beam at the floor the portal device was set on. The ground collapsed causing the device to momentarily fall, but the shield erected around it glowed and it stopped moving, simply floating in place.


    Tony''s comm was broadcast through the speakers so Harry and Loki both heard him swear, causing Loki to look amused.


    In the next instant, the portal device shot a beam into the sky which stopped and became a purple cloud. The cloud expanded into a massive portal and an army of aliens on flying vehicles passed through it in a massive swarm.


    Tony swore again and flew up, launching missiles and lasers into the descending army to pick off as many as he could.


    Tony asked through the speakers, "Got any ideas Professor?"


    "Yeah, but I need twenty minutes."


    Sounds of combat came through the speaker along with Tony''s voice, "Yeah, about that. I don''t think New York is going to survive twenty minutes."


    Harry answered back, "Remember the girlfriends I told you could kick your ?ss?"


    [Sir, it does not appear you are alone up there.]


    Along with Jarvis''s observation, Stark''s system pointed out to him four locations a number of blocks North, South, East, and West of the Tower where there were four additional figures.


    When the swarm of aliens went North, they faced Phoenix who psionically crushed or telekinetically smashed their cruisers. Most of them however she pushed back, only destroying the ones which strayed too far from Stark Tower. She was doing her best to fight cost efficiently.


    The alien cruisers who flew south were met with Crimson X who stood atop one of the higher roofs and, similarly to Jean, crushed and slammed every alien which came at her. Like all her powers, she could only use Magneto''s power in a situation Magneto would not disapprove of. This meant she could never use her gift against Magneto himself or the Brotherhood, but alien invaders were fair game, allowing her access to the Master of Magnetism''s full power.


    The cruisers going East met Dragonheart. The power of the Pig and Dragon Talismans had been altered to give her a vast range of powerful magical attacks. Her flight speed, super strength, and immortality also allowed her to simply use herself as a battering ram and since the source of her magic was the chi of her thousand past lifetimes, she could actually fight at a high intensity for a long duration without difficulties.


    And those aliens unfortunate enough to go West, all encountered the Scarlet Witch. She was feeling creative today as only an artist could and struck each cruiser that tried to pass her with a Hex bolt or transfiguration spell. The former cruisers died and the latter either changed into something else or worse. Many of the cruisers fell apart as if they had been turned into puzzle pieces which had been shaken loose.


    On the ground was Red Sonja, attacking anything she could run up to. To the immense disappointment of many a New Yorker, she had changed her outfit from a Goddess enchanted chainmail bikini into a set of armor forged by Harry. Her shoes allowed her to walk or run on air. Her armor deflected most energy attacks and was completely bulletproof, and she had a helmet that prevented people from shooting her in the head. She also had a space expanded pouch of goodies that took full advantage of her Plot Armor to ensure the unlikelihood of encountering an unwinnable situation. Harry also made some modifications to the Goddess blessed sword she used, granting it a monomolecular edge, indestructibility, and near weightlessness.


    Stark took a moment to observe each of them and said, "Well, they have the sky covered, but the ground not so much. Okay, I can work with this. Jarvis, what is Romanoff''s ETA?"


    From the speakers Harry heard the Russian''s voice, "We''re already here Stark."


    A Shield Jet flew up to the tower a moment later.


    Stark said, "Alright, we''ve got the sky taken care of, you guys head to the ground and help evacuate everyone outside the perimeter."


    Harry said, "I''ll help with that."


    Stark asked, "How?"


    "Almost everyone in New York has one of my cell phones right?"


    The moment the portal opened, Harry told Link to launch the evacuation plan. Since he knew it would be used today he spent a few hours streamlining the details for use today before launching it.


    Everyone in New York got an alert on their phones asking them to evacuate. The alert gave them a few bu??ons to press. Leaving Now, Need Help Leaving, I don''t believe this, and I don''t care.


    If ''Leaving Now'' was pressed, a route from their position to a safe zone appeared on their phone and they were told to safely follow the route and not to take anything with them. If people on the same family plan clicked Leaving Now, everyone on the same plan could see who was leaving and who had not yet clicked Leaving Now.


    If someone clicked, ''Need help leaving,'' the people near them would get a message asking if they could help someone. If they clicked yes, several people would be directed to that person. If no one was available or if no one agreed to help, their situation would be ?ssessed and they would either be told to sit tight or wait and others such as law enforcement would be directed to them.


    If someone actually clicked ''I don''t believe this,'' a live stream of the portal and the aliens descending on it would appear on their screen until they exited out of the screen.


    And of course because Darwinism existed, people could in fact click ''I don''t care,'' and the Alert would go away and not bother them again.


    Some of the people who were too close to the epicenter were not directed to the perimeter, but directed to other buildings which had basements. Only certain amounts were directed to each basement to prevent unreasonable overcrowding.


    The only reason Link could even make the plan work was because Link had been tracking each person in the area for the last few hours and had spent that time calculating the most efficient responses and routes for each.


    The funny part was that the ability to do all of this was actually included in the Terms and Conditions of use of service for the Phones. The fact that not a single person ever mentioned it implied a great deal about how New Yorkers felt about reading the Ts and Cs.


    Everything seemed to be going okay for about three minutes. The girls stayed in the air to prevent anyone from leaving their encirclement, but that meant they had trouble hitting the ground forces that stayed under the roof level without destroying the streets and buildings. The attacking forces noticed this and landed, attacking the citizens, but this made it easier for the Avengers and Red Sonja to kill them. Bruce had already turned Hulk and was using a street lamp to swipe and smack anything within reach. Each lamp ended up mangled after a few swings, but there were plenty of extras for Hulk to restock from when he needed another. Thor similarly attacked groups of Chitauri with lightning. He had inquired as to Loki''s position and was already informed that Potter found him and had him contained. If there was one person they had some confidence could handle Loki, it was Harry, so Thor didn''t ask again.


    Then the massive alien leviathan came in and the amount of cruisers that came behind it had doubled.


    Some of the aliens were getting past the girls in the air and some were getting past them on the ground.


    Tony asked over the speakers, "Has it been twenty minutes yet? We''re running out of time here."


    Harry said, "No, we''re fine. This just means I have to use a few more contingency plans."


    Loki, who Harry had unmuted, said, "You cannot stop a war with a dozen individuals. Surrender now and I may grant mercy."


    Over the speaker Thor said, "I feel you may be underestimating Harry Potter my brother."


    Harry replied back, "Indeed."


    Harry took out a few devices which opened up a dozen holographic screens and control panels. Harry said, "Initiate, the Last Olympian." He really hoped he would not get sued for this one.


    All throughout the city, Harry''s company had repaired and restored and maintained hundreds upon hundreds of statues. According to the contract Harry signed when he acquired the rights to maintain them, they could be moved if something destructive happened in the city. What the contract did not stipulate, was the distance from the destructive something and how the move was going to occur.


    All at once, hundreds of statues all over the city began to move. Harry had planted crystal seeds within each of them which grew beneath the stone and steel into a crystalline muscle structure, the same kind he showed Dr. Doom for the extra credit science project. A small amount of magic was used in their growth, but none was required for their upkeep and movement, thus the animation of almost a thousand statues throughout the city could be done without, technically, breaking the Statute of Secrecy for magic.


    Many of the gargoyle statues on the rooftops jumped off their various roofs. Their targeted landing spots were the tops of nearby covered bus stops, but before each landed, their speed of descent dropped and they eventually floated in the air for a moment before they began accelerating up.


    The bus stops Harry installed and updated throughout the city had powerful electromagnets built into their ceilings which interacted with the magnets built into many of the statues, allowing them to simulate flight or long distance jumping to navigate the city without impeding traffic.


    A terrifying swarm of giant, jumping statues and gargoyles of various shapes and sizes started moving through New York into the encirclement. Though there were more aliens than statues at first, the alien''s energy weapons didn''t have much effect on the statues since Harry had modified more than just the interior.


    Harry''s holographic display gave him all the information Link had and he used it to direct the statues to where they needed to be and draw attention from the officers who were still trying to evacuate the citizens unable to leave on their own.


    As for the aliens who got out of the encirclement, they each fell to either Harry''s Magic Powered Drone, or Obscurus who Harry had already arranged to be the last line of defense.


    Stark, finally noticing Obscurus on his speeder bike zipping around and shooting everything that got past the girls, asked, "I see your friend showed up. Not sure how that works but I can leave that for later. Guess I''ll take on the big guy, but be honest, do you really need us? You seem to have this covered."


    Harry answered, "Please keep the damage to a minimum. A lot of New York has my insurance which actually does cover Alien invasion, so more damage equals more money out of my pocket. So yes, I do need you to keep costs to a minimum."


    Stark replied, "Wow, that was the most capitalist thing I''ve ever heard in my life. It seems I need to up my game."


    According to the video cameras Harry had on display, Stark created a massive two story tall Hard-Light blade and cut the leviathan in half, the long way, while flying under it. Two more leviathans flew through the portal after a few more minutes, but Thor and Hulk took them down. Although the enemies were getting more reinforcements, more statues were arriving with every minute as well, supporting the ground fighters, drawing fire, and acting as usable cover for those who were not bulletproof.


    A minute later Peter showed up in costume. He''d put it on a few minutes ago and the built-in connection to Link asked if he wanted to help which he agreed to of course. Link had access to Harry''s data on Peter and concluded thanks to Peter''s Spider-Sense he would not be in danger and would be of great ?ssistance. Unfortunately Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four were in Hong Kong. Apparently, the Science expo they were at was attacked and they were also currently in the middle of combat, fighting alongside War Machine against unknown forces.


    Harry had screens of each of the girls and some of the Avengers up at all times.


    Scarlet Witch created a massive amount of floating red orbs which automatically sent Hex Bolts at nearby cruisers and filled her area with them, forming a crude magical barrier that prevented enemies from passing through.


    Phoenix and Crimson X had done something similar and were both surrounded by wreckage which circled around them and were used as both projectiles and shields, though both had their own form of shield even if a blast did get through.


    Dragonheart was having a bit of fun. A massive, animated water dragon and a terrifying fire dragon, composed of water and fire respectively, flew around her zone at anything that tried to pass her. If the water dragon passed through a cruiser, the riders were always thrown off and it wasn''t hard to guess the smoldering fate of those unlucky enough to attract the attention of the fire dragon. The power of the rat talisman allowed Jade to grant life to the lifeless, animating the inanimate. She had worked hard at combining this aspect with her Yin Yang Dragon Chi Magic to create this formation of water and fire. Of course, Jade herself would still fly into and ram through anything she felt like at super speed.


    Red Sonja fought alongside Black Widow and Captain America in the most crowded area. Although her sword could not kill dozens in a single attack like some of the other Reds, she made up for that with her speed and moved like a blur to effortlessly slice through anything and everything in her path like a beautiful goddess of war.


    According to Link''s data at about the ten minute mark, more than four fifths of the New Yorkers in the danger zone had either been successfully evacuated outside the perimeter or into a basement. Link created some prediction models for the most likely to be destroyed buildings and the New Yorkers within who had clicked ''Need Help Leaving.'' Harry added a function to them asking them if they needed to be carried gently away or if they were okay with being rushed out. To those who clicked they could be rushed out, they next got a message asking if they were okay with a statue coming into their house and carrying them out. For those who clicked yes, Harry directed the lighter statues into their floors through the stairs or windows and had them directed towards whoever had the phone and lift and princess carry them out. For those who clicked no to the Statues in high danger buildings, Link directed Spider Man to them.


    To the ones who could not be princess carried out by a statue or Spider Man, law enforcement officers were directed to them as efficiently as possible. Each subway entrance had a dozen statues surrounding it, allowing humans to get in but stopping the aliens who tried to chase them.


    At the fifteen minute mark, officers from the rest of the city had been directed through their phones to set up roadblocks on every street beneath the Reds to block any of the Chitauri from getting past them.


    Over the comms, Stark said, "Not bad overall. Are you done yet?"


    Harry answered, "That drone flying around? In addition to picking up the slack, it is charging itself for a massive boom. Give it another five minutes and I''ll have it fly through the portal to blow up everything on the other side."


    "Copy that. How''s everyone else holding up?"


    Steve answered first, "Not terrible. The officers are getting people out and the statues are helping."


    Natasha followed with, "These creatures hit hard and are pretty good shots, but they are pretty stupid. They keep trying to destroy the statues which takes a lot of time for each one."


    Harry replied, "They seem to be biological androids. Test Tube soldiers. There is a signal I can''t block coming from a big ship on the other side of the portal which is directing them. Once my drone blows that ship up, they will probably drop like the power has been cut."


    Thor commented through a comm he''d asked for to speak with Loki earlier, "They lack wisdom in battle, but they also lack fear. Do hurry, Harry Potter."


    Hulk apparently had a comm unit and said, "Too bad. Never had this much fun before."


    Thor remarked, "Then I must invite you to Jotunheim one day. These leviathans have nothing on the Jotuns. A Mountain Giant could crush one of these beasts like a worm."


    Hulk replied, "I''ll think about it. Banner could use a change of scenery too."


    It was at this point a new voice rose on the comms. "Stark you there?" Fury continued, "The World Security Council just launched a Nuke at Midtown!"


    Stark shouted, "What?! Why?! We''re not doing too badly here, I told you Potter said five more minutes!"


    Fury stated, "And the missile will be there in under three. They over-ruled me and said it was too high of a risk." Everyone could hear him mumble a curse through the comms.


    Harry considered it and said, "They are probably targeting the Reds. Now that they have shown off a bit, the council feels nervous." Harry looked over at Loki who was frowning. Harry didn''t know what he was thinking. Would Loki survive a nuke? Maybe. Would the shielded portal device survive a nuke? Probably. Would the army? No. But the army on the other end of the portal could send more. The thing was, did the army have more forces than the U.S. did nukes? Harry doubted it. Harry wondered if Loki thought they wouldn''t use nukes on their own people.


    Over the comms, the distinct voice of Obscurus said, "I''ve got it. Stark, hold the line for a minute."


    Though he couldn''t use portals, the Speeder Obscurus rode was the second fastest thing on the planet, just behind the drone also flying through the city killing everything that got past the Reds.


    The speeder quickly got him to the nuke in flight and Obscurus lazily used Technomancy to completely disassemble it. Harry could not put large things or things controlled by others in his inventory, so remote controlled things could not be placed within. But Harry could easily use Technomancy to disarm the nuke, disable every component, and block the signal, thus rendering it inert. Once taken apart using electromagnetism, he could put every piece into his inventory.


    From flying up to the nuke to putting the last piece inside his inventory, the process took six seconds. Obscurus said into the comms, "It''s done. And Fury, tell the World Security Council the return of the nuke they fired is contingent on the resignation of every member."


    In the Quest box, the 20 min mark Bonus got checked off. Harry figured he didn''t have to wait any more.


    Harry said into the comms, "Okay, I''m finished, I need to make one change on the drone before I''m sending it through, two minutes top guys, keep it up."


    The drone quickly flew into the room and Harry took out a Reality Bomb from his inventory. Since the portal could not be closed from this side, he would just collapse the space on the other side. No matter how good the Space stone is, nothing can make a portal into a space with the wrong laws of reality.


    Loki of course asked, "What is that and where did you get it?"


    Harry ensured Jarvis could not hear him and answered, "Reality bomb, I invented it when I was eleven. It makes a good plan Z for almost any situation."


    Harry armed the bomb and hooked it to the drone which flew out, avoiding the descending army and leviathans and passed through the portal. Navi the AI accelerated right up to the massive ship while Harry counted the remaining forces through the Drone''s camera feed. There were about a dozen more leviathans and probably three thousand more troops total. A lot, but not even close enough to take a world without a plan that prevents nukes. The drone even confirmed that the mother ship didn''t have any form of energy shielding. Not too surprising since they may not have accounted for the humans attacking them through the portal, but still.


    Navi dropped the bomb off in front of the mother ship and immediately used the Star Driver to get to the closest star. It was told to map out the nearby region and later activate its built-in intergalactic portkey to take it home. The drone was too powerful, so if people thought it wasn''t destroyed, they''d be worried.


    A moment later the reality bomb went off. A bubble rapidly spread out from the ship and a moment later, the Chitauri ground troops all dropped dead. The bubble continued to spread until it reached the portal itself and then the portal popped like it had been a bubble itself. The beam being sent by the portal device sputtered and died. The shield around the device flickered and a moment later, it dropped onto the floor below it.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Birth of the Avengers


    Reward: Infinity Stone Perk]


    Harry suddenly realized that the Mind Stone he shouldn''t have been able to use inside his inventory was now slightly usable. That was weird. Something to figure out later.


    The invasion alert on every cell phone changed to a Caution Alert and asked that people remain patient and not return home before the buildings were confirmed structurally sound. Officers were directed to the remainder of people who needed ?ssistance getting out until the buildings could be confirmed stable.


    Over the comms, Stark said, "Yay. We did it. Does anyone want shawarma? I flew by this shawarma place like ten times and I can''t get it out of my head now."


    Harry shook his head. "You guys go ahead. I need to set up an online press conference and start damage control. Stark, if you have some titanium shackles or something to bind Loki with, please get them and the cube. Thor will be taking them both back to Asgard."


    Tony did in fact have some unbreakable manacles Harry secretly enchanted with tracking spells, portkey spells, and unbreakable spells to prevent accidents.


    The first thing Harry did after leaving the tower was use the Time Turner to go back and redo the invasion as Obscurus, allowing him to be in two places at once. If Stark asked, he''d tell him it was just another drone.


    Once caught back up, Harry then set up a camera and made a video explaining what had happened. An artifact of unknown origin previously used by the Axis in WWII was discovered and attempts to weaponize it were made. This attracted the attention of aliens who wanted it. The invasion was to acquire the artifact. To prevent another, the artifact will be given to Thor of Asgard who will be taking it off the planet. Harry also went over the plans he''d made, how they were technically legal, and how his company would be taking care to rebuild the destroyed midtown area.


    He made plans and arrangements for every building in the affected area to be checked thoroughly within 48 hours and asked for people to be patient and not go home until the locations were confirmed secure. Those who had his insurance were also covered for relocation, so up to a certain amount, they could be recouped for hotel fees for the duration they could not return home.


    When Harry heard a knock on his door, he had been expecting many things. What he had not been expecting was Jane Foster.


    "Umm, how can I help you Miss Foster?"


    Jane sighed and said, "I want to see Thor. He already left and you are the only one I think can help." She had been taken to a safe place once Loki arrived and kept there until now, preventing her from getting there before Thor left.


    Harry considered it and decided might as well. Besides, there was something wrong he couldn''t quite place with the invasion. Something he was missing. A trip to Asgard might give him some ideas.


    "Okay, follow me."


    Jane, not expecting that answer of all things, followed Harry into his basement. Harry created a Hard-Light image of a really advanced looking machine and threw a silver portal at it with a bit of sleight of hand, making it look like the machine created the portal.


    "Asgard is through... here."


    Harry took one step through and realized what he had been missing. The army Loki was given was not enough to conquer Earth. Maybe Loki could use his smarts and get lucky, but it was not a guarantee. So why give him an army at all? Well, Odin and Heimdall would definitely be watching the whole time. And once the Tesseract was revealed and Loki showed up, Odin would definitely use up a great amount of power to send Thor to Midgard.


    Thus leaving Odin weak and Asgard without its strongest warrior. Odin and Heimdall''s attention was entirely on Midgard. That would explain the battle torn look of the Asgard in front of him. Considering the Asgardians walking around, they had certainly emerged victorious, but the cost must''ve been high, far higher than it should have been.


    Loki was never a conqueror. He was a distraction.


    *Author''s Note*


    And thus ends MCU canon. This is the only logical reason I can imagine for Thanos to give Loki an army so disposable and pathetic, it can be wiped out by a half dozen people and one tiny nuke. A distraction so Thanos can attack Asgard himself with his true forces. Feel free to try and guess why Thanos wants to attack Asgard.


    PSS. Once again, I have finished and posted this chapter at like 3am.. Yes, it has typos, yes, I will edit and fix them later.

 Chapter 96 - 96 Odin Vs Thanos

    Jane Foster got a clear look at the wreckage and numerous smoky remnants of put out fires before Harry took a step back out of the portal and closed it. After a sigh of defeat, he turned to her and said, "I can still take you to Asgard if you want, but now may not be the best time. Just leave me your number and I''ll call when Thor and Asgard are a bit more ready to receive you."


    Jane dumbly nodded, still a bit overwhelmed at the scene of destruction she had just witnessed. Harry escorted her out and after the door closed, he made another portal to Asgard and jumped in to find Thor.


    Harry didn''t use a Notice-Me-Not so as he ran through Asgard, he received a lot of stares. Warriors in the field of battle have instincts which make the unnoticeable, more noticeable, so walking around a battlefield with a Notice-Me-Not was a great way to get attacked. It didn''t take long to get to the wreckage that was the former palace of Asgard where he saw the warriors lifting massive chunks of the former palace and setting it aside. Harry used a Point-Me charm to direct him to one of the few buildings close to the palace that remained standing and found Thor speaking with his mother and Heimdall. The Tesseract was sitting on a table.


    Upon Harry''s approach, Heimdall turned around violently and stared in Harry''s direction. He asked with uncertainty "Who are you..?"


    Thor noticed his friend and gave a b?r?, weak smile. "This is Harry Potter."


    Heimdall asked, "The one you spoke of? This is the first I have seen of him."


    Harry replied, "Supernatural farsight, clairvoyance, and foresight can''t see me. You can only see me now because we are next to each other and this doesn''t count as clairvoyance."


    Thor stated, "As you must''ve seen, Asgard was attacked while I was away."


    Frigga answered, "The former."


    Harry turned to Frigga and said, "I carry a large amount of powerful medicines in a pocket space. Can you have someone direct me to the wounded?"


    Frigga smiled and said, "I can take you there myself."


    Thor let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank you Harry Potter. Asgard is once again in your debt."


    Harry said, "It''s fine. I make them all the time and I never have anything to use them on." It was true. Making and inventing potions was ridiculously dangerous for most, but Harry could take a newly invented potion and put it in his inventory to determine the effect and store them indefinitely. That and the fact that brewing difficult and complex potions increased his Crafting Path was another good reason to make them. Harry had enough stored potions to clear out most Hospitals in New York.


    Frigga took Harry to the tents were the wounded Einherjar were kept together and tended to. The moment Harry saw the first patient, he cast a diagnosis charm and cast a few spells to stabilize the wounds before taking a potion out of his inventory and using a spell to ?ssist in feeding it to him.


    Frigga watched all of this, now perfectly clear that the lack of magic she and her husband felt within Harry was a ruse. The fact that Harry had tricked them all actually caused her to show the b?r?st glimpse of a smirk. This was the mother of Loki after all and it wasn''t like Harry lied to them and they''d never asked, so it was entirely their fault for making the false ?ssumption.


    Frigga continued to watch Harry with interest. Her own magics had been completely consumed keeping her husband alive after he fought off the leader of the invaders. Asgard had many machines capable of healing others, but the number of wounded far exceeded the number of machines and many such devices were stored in the now destroyed buildings.


    When the healers saw their Lady Frigga standing next to Harry, they made way for him as he healed their fallen one by one in the strangest of ways. For destroyed bones he would cause them to vanish and feed the patient an elixir which caused the bones to regrow. These were not normal human warriors of course, but these potions were not meant for normal humans. Harry''s specs were too high for normal potions to affect him and his girls so his potions had been enhanced using all of his mystical knowledge and they were highly effective on the Einherjar.


    Frigga had already left and once Harry finished, he found Thor and said, "The wounded have been taken care of. A few days of rest and they will be back to normal."


    Heimdall stated, "Most impressive. I have never seen such medicines before."


    Harry admitted, "I brewed them myself, so I suspect not."


    Thor nodded, "Thank you my friend. That is one less concern. Asgard will not last long without its warriors to defend it."


    Harry offered, "I can call the Reds over and we can stay for a few days until the Einherjar have fully rested."


    Thor replied, "That would be most welcomed. Perhaps thankfully, my Father rests in the Odinsleep. He would never allow outsider help so easily." Although Odin could see everything in Asgard during the Odinsleep, he couldn''t say anything during that time to complain about it until after he woke up.


    Harry asked, "How is he?"


    Thor answered, "Alive. My mother was able to save him after he drove the attacker back."


    Harry continued, "Who attacked?"


    Harry looked over at Heimdall who sighed and replied, "I have been ordered not to speak of it."


    Harry asked, "Have you been ordered to prevent anyone from looking at where the fight took place?"


    "I have not," he replied.


    Harry said, "Then let''s go have a look, shall we? I can help us find out what happened today."


    Thor agreed without issue. He had a lot of pent up anger at the one who did this and being left without a name or face to vent it on was most irksome for the Prince of Asgard.


    Thor brought them over to the palace and said, "The fight occurred mostly here."


    Harry nodded and began concentrating. He started casting a powerful Sorcery spell he''d learned off the Ancient One. Though it was powerful it was basically a practice spell for Time Magic which he hoped to soon learn. It did not allow one to change or go against the flow of time, but view it. This spell allowed one to peek into the past, and was one of the few spells that could be used to see Harry, since he was not shielded when being looked at from the present into the past, only when being looked at from a distance and from the present into the future.


    Harry released the spell and a massive illusion formed around them, an illusion of the palace before its destruction.


    Thor and Harry watched Odin stand tall before his Throne as he was forced to look up. Sitting above him in a massive floating chair, was a massive purple humanoid.


    From the illusion, the so-called Mad Titan stated in a calm voice, "You know what I have come for. Release her and I shall spare your life and that of your people."


    Odin''s form shimmered. He now donned a glowing set of golden armor whose majesty could clearly be felt through the illusion. In one hand he carried the spear Gungnir and on his waist was tied the spiked mace Thrudstock. Harry''s detailed illusion even showed the golden ring Draupnir that adorned the Allfather''s finger.


    Odin raised his spear which surged brightly with Odinforce and said, "You Dare Court Death?!"


    Thanos smiled without the slightest trace of fear as one of the most powerful beings in the universe threatened him. He replied, "You know I do."


    Odin struck out with his spear, but the chair Thanos sat in vanished and appeared at ground level in an instantaneous teleport. Thanos sat up and said, "So be it."


    Odin launched himself forward in a strike that looked more like a lightning bolt than a spear thrust. A barrier appeared over Thanos and the chair but shattered a moment later. Thanos used that moment to dodge and strike Odin with a massive metal glove.


    Odin was slammed with such force, the columns of the palace cracked from the impact, but Odin only slid back a few feet before bracing himself. His form suddenly multiplied using what Harry and Thor recognized as the same type of illusion magic Loki often used.


    Lightning discharged from Thanos''s glove into the stone floor where spikes of obsidian stone shot up all over the palace grounds. Some of the illusions were dispelled from getting hit while the others were disrupted in their movements around the irregularly positioned stone pillars.


    Harry couldn''t help but frown at that. Harry knew that most powerful beings like Odin and Frigga were Sorcerers, but they along with every other powerful Sorcerer Harry had met were usually allies. Thanos was an incredibly powerful Sorcerer but was obviously an enemy.


    The chair automatically teleported out of the path of destruction and Thanos used the opening to smash his armored fist into Odin once more.


    Odin was struck flying into the air but twirled his spear causing him to change direction mid-flight and point himself instead at Thanos who released another discharge of lightning into the ground and raised a massive stone block between them.


    Odin''s spear passed through the magically reinforced block like it was made of styrofoam but it still slowed the Allfather down enough for Thanos to use the moment to align himself for a counter. The Allfather predicted it this time however and used his spear to block the heavy punch Thanos struck him with.


    Though the fight was faster than most mortals could even comprehend, Thor and Harry could see every detail. Harry was mostly paying attention to the type of Sorcery Thanos used. It seemed to be Electromagnetic Sorcery, similar to what Magneto used, but far more sophisticated. He was also clearly using Technomancy with his incredibly advanced chair. The force of his metal glove was massively enhanced using magnetism which also had the effect of deflecting much of the force from Odin''s Gungnir, or at least it would''ve had the spear not been completely saturated in Odinforce.


    Odin pressed Thanos back and threw Gungnir at Thanos'' chair. The chair teleported once more out of the way, but Gungnir spun without losing momentum and followed it, forcing the chair to teleport further away from Thanos.


    Odin grabbed the spiked mace Thrudstock from his side and swung it at the Mad Titan with all the force of the apocalypse itself.


    Thanos met the strike with his own palm thrust but this time Thanos was pushed back and a massive crater formed beneath him.


    The reason Odin kept trying to destroy or at least separate that chair from Thanos was obvious to Harry. It was a masterpiece of Sorcery and technology and seemed to act as a focus, a source of power which channeled limitless energy into Thanos allowing him to match the Allfather''s Odinforce.


    The chair immediately teleported above Thanos and he created a pillar beneath him that rose him from the crater''s depth''s towards Odin who shouted down.


    The chair teleported both itself and Thanos out of the way and to the side, breaking the time lock and saving the Titan''s life. Odin grabbed the spear and spun to throw it back at Thanos''s new position. The aim was true and the chair was directly behind the Mad Titan, meaning that dodging the spear would allow the spear to destroy the chair.


    The chair and Thanos were teleported again, causing Thor and Harry to frown. Even for Harry, back to back teleports were not a simple thing, but that chair didn''t seem to have any cool down period before it could teleport again.


    Odin leapt forward mace in hand to strike at Thanos once more, aiming to smash his head off his shoulders.


    The Mad Titan raised his hand to meet the Odinforce saturated mace and pushed it up, parrying the strike rather than taking it head on. Odin twisted to follow through with the attack and jumped at Thanos in a shoulder tackle that threw the purple giant into a pillar, causing the pillar and the roof above it to collapse on top of him.


    Odin stepped forward but faltered and had to take in a few deep, steadying breaths.


    Thanos rose from the rubble. Various parts of his arms and face bore shades of darker purple showing where he took damage and he also seemed to be just a bit out of breath. Still, he said without showing any weakness, "You are much weaker than the last time I saw you. The peace you used your strength to achieve has taken your strength from you. Ironic really."


    Odin''s ring glowed and the light of his Odinforce seemed to be absorbed into his body, armor, and weapons. He said with a voice that carried with it the depths of his age, "You know nothing child."


    Thanos only smiled and replied. "We shall see."


    Odin vanished from his position and appeared before Thanos thrusting his spear. Rather than teleportation, it was a movement of pure speed.


    The Titan''s chair''s auto barrier stopped the tip of the spear for only an instant before it pierced through, aiming between Thanos'' eyes. Thanos moved faster than before to tilt his head out of the way, but the spear still drew a gash through the side of his face and continued forward towards the chair itself.


    The chair once more teleported out of the way and behind the pair. The chair started glowing with power and sparks of light and waves of energy seemed to coalesce around Thanos.


    Odin twirled his spear before throwing it forward, but held onto it causing the spear to drag the Allfather towards Thanos at an impossible speed. Odin swung his mace at Thanos who sidestepped the flying spear forcing the Titan to block. The impact of the mace and Thanos'' glove shined white within the illusion as a deafening explosion occurred. Odin didn''t stop and moved like lightning but Thanos moved like the wind. He was not as fast, but he was fast enough to dodge, deflect, or counter everything the Allfather''s newly empowered form threw at him.


    The space itself seemed to cry out in pain as the shockwaves from each clash caused the ancient palace walls to shake, creak, and rumble.


    The pair''s last exchange was something even Harry had trouble registering and it almost caused the illusion of the moment to shatter. When the dust cleared, the Palace and Throne room of Asgard was reduced to rubble.


    The illusion extended a bit and showed images of the armies of Thanos and his generals fighting against the Einherjar. The latter was winning, but not by much. Ten massive ships larger than the one Harry saw commanding the chitauri littered Asgard and the Einherjar were outnumbered fifty to one.


    The Mad Titan''s chair teleported into view and sitting on top of it was a visibly wounded Thanos staring down at the rubble. A moment later the rubble exploded out and Odin stood there, strong and proud.


    Thanos raised a hand and in a single instant, his armies started retreating. He said, "You may stay alive a little longer. I have completed what I came here to do. It is a shame you won''t get to see her. Perhaps you will in the next life."


    The chair teleported away, and after the armies returned to their ships, the ships also teleported away.


    The illusion showed Frigga immediately running up to her husband and putting her arm to his. They walked away together, but Harry and Thor could tell that without Frigga''s arm holding him up, he would have collapsed then and there.


    Harry cancelled the illusion and asked, "Did Thanos take something? Why''d he say he got what he wanted?"


    Thor remained silent for a moment before softly answering, "My father cannot use his full power without cost. His life has been greatly shortened. Though the Odinsleep will restore his strength, it cannot return what he lost in this battle. My father has but years to live."


    Harry asked, "So if he wanted to kill him, why retreat?"


    Frigga, who had followed them and watched the illusion, made herself known by answering, "Because he understood that my husband cannot be killed in Asgard."


    Harry asked, "Why not?"


    Thor answered this time. "It is the King''s right, a power Asgard grants to her ruler. In the direst of circumstances, my father may take the lives of his subjects on Asgard to empower himself. Doing so may even restore his lost strength. But he would never do this unless a threat to Asgard herself was too great to stop without such sacrifice. If Thanos continued, my father would have been forced to this measure, restoring his life at the cost of the Einherjar."


    Thor then turned to Frigga and asked, "Mother. Who is the one the Mad Titan spoke of? Who is she?"


    Frigga shook her head. "I am sorry, my son. I cannot tell you."


    Thor gave her a hard look but it did not last. Harry couldn''t blame him, glaring at your mother wasn''t easy. Thor sighed and said, "Then I shall discuss it with Father when he wakes."


    Frigga gave a look that told everyone she did not believe that would go particularly well. To avoid further awkwardness, she left them and returned to the room Odin was resting in, to stay at his side to protect him until he woke.


    Thor decided to change the subject by turning to Harry and asking, "So, you''re a Wizard then?"


    Harry shrugged, "Yeah. My magic is invisible to the senses of others though."


    Thor nodded, unconcerned over the ruse. "My brother may be relieved then. He was most upset to have been bested by a mortal."


    Harry laughed and said, "Oh, I didn''t use any magic on him except for the glitter and when I removed his weapons. Where is he by the way?"


    Thor smiled for a moment but the depressing atmosphere caused it to die once more. He said, "My brother is locked away. His sentence shall be decided when my father wakes."


    After another moment of silence, Thor continued, "The Mad Titan''s strength is beyond me." Harry could tell how difficult it was to admit this for the God of Thunder. But Thor had clearly seen his father go all out and he knew that Thanos was stronger than Thor was.


    Harry replied, "I don''t have any confidence either. I can teleport too, but I can''t do so as smoothly or as fast as that chair of his allowed him to. There may be a weak point, but going against him without a plan of attack isn''t something I''d recommend." Harry usually had confidence going against Tech since his own Technomancy gave him an edge over anything without mystical protections, but that chair was just way too overpowered. The most difficult part of powerful magics was the targeting and channeling of power, but that chair seemed to do everything automatically for Thanos and probably had an AI which could judge the situation without input and ?ssist Thanos as needed according to the situation.


    Harry couldn''t even begin to figure out how that chair worked. The strongest artifacts he created either enhanced his own power, had built in power sources, or stored power he channeled into it while making it. Thanos'' chair on the other hand actively channeled extra dimensional energy into Thanos, granting him more power with finer control than Harry suspected even the Ancient One could ever achieve. Regardless of Thanos'' own talent at Sorcery, that chair gave him the ability to channel more energy than the Sorcerer Supreme, and it did so on its own, allowing Thanos to concentrate on the fight while receiving the energy.


    What was worse for Harry was that Thanos used a better version of the same fighting style he was trying. Martial arts, magic, and tech all at the same time. Nothing Harry could think of would likely surprise the Mad Titan so there wasn''t a good way to win against him should they start a fight that didn''t destroy the planet they fought on.


    Harry told Thor, "Give me some time to figure out how to stop that Chair of his, or at least how to stop his teleporting. If we go all out and catch him off guard, ending him may be possible."


    Thor nodded, but knew that such words were little more than false comfort. Someone who had schemed so deeply against one of the strongest forces in the Universe would not be caught off guard so easily.


    Before Thor went off to direct his people in the rebuilding of the palace and wrecked buildings, Harry asked when they would use the Tesseract to rebuild the Bifrost.


    Thor thought about it and frowned. "Only Heimdall knows how to do so, but he must stand watch until my father wakes."


    Harry offered, "Odin hasn''t retracted my permission to check out the library. I could probably find how to do it there and rebuild it myself. Do you mind if I have a look?"


    Thor nodded and said, "All of Asgard is open to you Harry Potter," before he went off.


    Harry nodded, pleased at this answer. Harry used a Portal to return to New York and asked the girls to keep watch on Asgard for a few days. Most of New York was shut down from the invasion so school was closed for the next week until everything was back to normal.


    After returning he quickly headed to the library. It was under the palace but had survived the destruction without difficulty. The library and prison were two of the strongest areas of Asgard.


    The reason Harry returned in the first place was that many of the areas of the Library were blocked by Asgardian magics Odin would certainly believe Harry could never bypass. Harry needed time to learn said magics before he returned and opened these areas. Now was the perfect chance. Odin was out cold. Frigga was at his side. And everyone else was busy so Harry could enter the most restricted areas without a problem.


    It only took about an hour to get through the magical defenses of the restricted section. Harry found it odd that the books within were stored more securely than the actual vault, though the vault was apparently protected by the Destroyer. Or at least it had been.


    Once Harry removed the last of the locks, a room Harry felt existed within a pocket dimension appeared filled with ancient books. Harry used magic on each one to confirm whether or not they were dangerous before he would place them inside his inventory. It didn''t really matter how powerful something was, the dangerous aspect of putting something in his inventory was whether or not it was sentient.


    The Mind stone for example sat safely in his inventory, but it was not actually sentient. Like all Infinity Stones, it was basically an Administrator''s Login and Password for the Hidden files and programs of the Universe. The files the Mind Stone gave access to were basically the Akashic Records, but a little different. The Mind Stone had access to all minds, all knowledge, but was incredibly difficult to use. You could not simply gain knowledge using it. Trying to download knowledge into yourself with it would grant you echoes and aspects of the minds of the people the knowledge came from. This was similar to how Rogue felt when she borrowed the powers of others before Harry helped her.


    When Loki brainwashed Clint, what he actually did was channel the echoes of an artificial mind into Clint which was completely loyal to Loki and suppressed his true mind. For Selvig, Loki implanted a fragmented mind that had the knowledge Loki needed Selvig to possess to create the portal machine. The side effect of the latter was that Selvig would gain traits of the person the knowledge came from. Apparently, that person didn''t like wearing pants.


    When Harry initially put the Mind Stone in his inventory, it had no effect, just like when he tested doing so with the Time stone. Harry could not access its power, it was like a picture of a keyhole. He couldn''t use the picture to look through the keyhole. After he got the Infinity Perk though, he felt that he had somewhat limited access to the hidden files of the universe the Mind Stone gave access to even though it was in his inventory. That was unusual.


    As far as Harry knew, Infinity stones cannot be used safely without ?ssistance, usually in the form of an artifact built specifically to allow a people to use a tiny portion of the stone''s power. The Eye of Agamotto allowed one to use a tiny bit of the Time stone''s power. The Tesseract allowed one to use a tiny bit of the Space stone''s power. The Scepter Loki used and Hulk snapped allowed him to use the Mind stone''s power.


    The fact that Harry could use the stone meant that the Perk basically turned Harry into an artifact capable of channeling a tiny portion of the stone''s power. How much he could channel depended on him.


    He''d already noticed the effect since the Perk was acquired. His psionic skills were massively enhanced and he was hearing the thoughts of others without meaning to, so he had to put some effort into dulling this. Harry considered removing the stone, but decided against it. All power came with a price, and he''d just have to live with it. Besides, his Psionic Path was slowly increasing as the passive use of the stone got him more and more familiar with the use of Psionics.


    After confirming none of the books within were possessed, and thankfully the Stone ?ssisted with checking that, Harry decided not to be polite and put each and every book from this secret section into his inventory before pausing to read and memorize them all.


    Quite a bit of time later, Harry unpuased, returned the books, and started relocking the space.


    Harry already knew exactly how to use the Tesseract to rebuild the Bifrost without reading from the secret library. He just wanted an excuse Thor would buy so as not to question the time it would take him to take down the defenses.


    The books told of the history of Asgard, but some of the pages were ripped out, so Harry still didn''t know who Thanos was talking about, but he could guess. The period the pages were removed from was during the war where Odin swept across the realms and created Asgard.


    Perhaps Odin took someone prisoner during that period and Thanos wanted her released. If she was dangerous enough to keep prisoner this whole time, Harry doubted Odin would tell Thor about her if he asked.


    That was not what Harry was really looking for though, and thankfully, the true history of Asgard included the portion he''d theorized about, confirming his guesses about Asgard.


    Thor was born over a thousand years ago and Odin was born over ten thousand years ago. Yet cultures from across the stars know of both. This is not surprising since Odin really did a number on the Universe during his conquest of the nine realms, but the problem was that Harry found evidence of people knowing about Thor''s existence before Thor was born.


    How was this possible? According to the records Harry read, it was the Ragnarok Cycle. Odin died, Ragnarok occurred, everyone died, Asgard was destroyed. A new cycle started, a new Odin was born, a new Asgard created, a new Thor was born and a new Loki adopted, and the cycle continued. The Ragnarok cycle has existed since the dawn of the Universe.


    There were hints to the cycle existing even in Kamar-Taj. That''s why Harry was so surprised when Thor was stripped of his powers and sent to Earth. That had never happened before.


    From what Harry could tell, Odin was fully aware of the Ragnarok cycle. He gained knowledge of it every time he sacrificed his eye to the world tree. However he was also bound to it. So how did he do something other incarnations of Odin had never done before, and sent a powerless Thor to Earth to learn humility and the value of mortal life?


    Harry wondered if it had anything to do with the woman Thanos wanted. In any case, there were too many missing pieces of the puzzle. Harry could either ask Odin or Thanos, but he felt neither would be willing to give an answer.


    After finishing up in the library, Harry grabbed the Tesseract and put it into his Inventory. As he suspected, it too became usable within. Harry then made his way over to the Bifrost.


    *Ping*


    [New Quest: Road of the Nine Realms


    Repair the Bifrost


    Bonus: Build in a safety and kill switch.]


    Harry Paused to consider the quest. Thor had told him how the Biforst could channel the power of Asgard to destroy a world and Thor had no choice but to destroy it to prevent such from happening again. Harry could just repair the bridge back to what it was, but who was to say history would not repeat itself.


    Harry spent some time figuring out the best way to do so before unpausing and channeling the Space stone.


    The Space stone gave Harry access to all the energy of the Universe. Many thought the Power stone gave the most power, but this was a false ?ssumption. The Power stone allowed one to control all power. Power itself originated from the expansion of space. All power was basically driven by the expansion of space, and Harry could create roads from micro verses and stars to himself through the Space stone to create the exact matrix formation of power the shattered Bifrost was created from to repair it.


    Heimdall stood at the edge of the Bifrost and for a moment, turned his gaze away from the universe and towards Harry. He watched, amazed as the wizard did in moments what he knew would take him months if not years. Perhaps only the Allfather could do better. Satisfied with Harry''s work, Heimdall''s gaze turned away to continue looking for any threat that may be coming for Asgard.


    Harry took his time, getting the feeling of the Tesseract and using the stone. His Magic Path and Crafting Path were both affected by the rebuilding of the Bifost and Harry wanted to slowly savor the feeling. While channeling the energy of the universe, he wondered if Heimdall would notice a small prank.


    The Tesseract itself was an Asgardian crafted artifact and with Harry''s knowledge of Asgardian magic and access to the Space stone, he could in fact make a pretty lifelike copy. They only needed the stone to fix the Bifrost after all.


    It took Harry about five days to repair the Bifrost and the girls had been ?ssisting with the reconstruction of Asgard while occasionally sparring with the Einherjar. Lady Sif and Mary Jane became drinking buddies after they sparred for three hours straight. Sif won, but only because MJ did not have unlimited stamina. MJ also told the warriors of Asgard a few stories she knew about Odin. She had never met him but Red Sonja heard stories of Odin before he became the Allfather which none among the Einherjar had known of.


    While fixing the Bifrost, Harry returned to Earth every five hours to use his Time Turner since he had just as much to do there as he did in Asgard. Many of the people of New York felt better when they saw he was busy since Harry had clearly established he knew what he was doing and Harry doing something meant something useful was getting done.


    *Ping*


    [Quest Complete: Road of the Nine Realms


    Reward: +1 Magic Path Rank, +2 Crafting Path Rank]


    Harry smiled at the reward. The Magic Path''s increase from 50 to 51 was not a small bump and the Crafting Path''s jump from 39 to 41 was just as impressive.


    Much of Asgard was repaired at this point and with the return of the Bifrost, Asgard could call for ?ssistance from other worlds.


    Harry pulled out the Tesseract copy he''d made and handed it back to Thor saying, "I''m done. I think you''re good to go from here."


    Thor smiled brightly and said, "In my father''s place, I must ask what can Asgard do for you to repay this?"


    Harry seemed to ponder this and asked in return, "Where are you going to keep that?" while pointing at the Tesseract.


    Thor answered, "In the Vault of course."


    Harry said, "In that case, I''d like to be put in charge of protecting the Tesseract."


    Harry pulled out a large Safe he built and put it on the table. He said, "Put your hand on the scanner."


    Thor examined the safe for a moment before complying. The scanner registered his hand and opened. Harry then got out a random rock and put it inside the safe and closed it. He said, "This safe contains the entrance to a stable pocket dimension. Only your hand can open it after registering it. Try breaking the safe with your hammer."


    Thor complied and smashed the safe to pieces. Harry took the pieces apart and showed that the rock was gone.


    Harry pulled out another identical safe and said, "I''d like to be put in charge of ensuring the Tesseract is never used to harm Midgard again. I invented this safe to guarantee that anything put inside cannot be obtained by others. My request is that you allow me the honor of guarding the Tesseract and use this safe. You may place it in the Vault of course, but closed, with only your hand capable of opening it."


    Thor smiled and shook his head, "I do not understand how you can ask for that which sounds like something we should be asking of you. But on my word if this is your request, it shall be granted. I name you the protector of the Tesseract." He then placed his hand on the other safe and opened it before setting the fake Tesseract inside and closing it. He then picked up the safe and said Farewell to Harry before heading over to the vault.


    Harry hoped Thor would forgive him but that stone was not something he wanted in the hands of others. The safe was great and all, but nothing was perfect. If Thanos'' Technomancy was greater than the mystical protections Harry could build into the safe, he could open it anyways. Harry''s inventory on the other hand was something created by the most powerful beings in the Multiverse. Gaining access to it was harder, especially because almost no one knew about it and fewer still even knew Harry had the stones. Harry called the girls who said their goodbyes and made a portal home. Harry really didn''t want to be there when Odin woke up.


    After returning to Earth, Jade asked, "So what are you gonna do with the Mind stone?"


    Harry considered it and said, "Well, studying it will give me a greater understanding of the mind than any person in the universe. And I think I know exactly what to do with that."


    Jean laughed and asked, "You''re going to create a video game right?"


    Harry smiled, "Of course I am. What better way to use knowledge of the mind than to create a Full dive virtual reality platform video game?"


    *Author''s Note*


    In case it was not obvious, I''m using Comic Book Thanos which has been slightly formatted to fit into the MCU. This is not someone a random laser can slice in half. Comic Book Thanos is like Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, and Apocalypse all rolled into one. Comic Book Thanos was once called in to fight Thor when Thor basically had Odin''s Odinforce and the Power stone and went mad with power and no one in the universe could stop him. Without using a stone, Thanos beat Thor easily. And that was without that OP Chair of his. Even if Harry gets the stones and counters that chair, it won''t be an easy fight.


    The fight may not have seemed like much, but that was just because the fighters concentrated their force into the smallest areas instead of having giant flashy moves. That''s how I figure real power houses should fight. All of the stuff here, including Odin''s ability to take the lives of his subjects in Asgard are legit in comics.


    The plot for this one is the direction I wish MCU had gone when they introduced Hela, but I''m tweaking it a bit to add details from Comic Book lore and some original details to make it cooler. Some of you may even be able to use the clues I gave in this chapter to guess what''s going on.


    Arc 5 will be a race for Harry to get as strong as he can before Odin kicks the bucket with some fun filler thrown in just because I feel like it.


    Ideas for random Filler:


    Harry visits either Canon HP universe or an HP fic. Anyone have a preference for which fanfic to visit?


    Heads to Sakar and meets Beta-Ray Bill


    Something with Jackie Chan and Uncle, maybe Shendu as well


    Harry heads to Zombie Universe and kills everything for EXP


    ???

 Chapter 97 - 97 Graduation

    *Author''s Note"


    I keep needing to go back and remember how old Harry is. In this AU he was born 1994, turned 11 and went to Hogwarts Sept 2005, spent 2006 and half of 2007 at Kamar-Taj. Two months before his 15th b-day he went to Xavier''s school. Spent a year there and Sept of 2009 at 15 years old he got married and moved to New York. A year later Iron Man happened when he was 15 going on 16, and a year after that when he was 16 going on 17 Iron Man 2 and the rest happened. As of May 2012, when Avengers happens, he is 17 going on 18.


    Chapter 97 Graduation


    Despite access to a Time Turner allowing him to be in two places at once and the ability to Pause, Harry was still unable to find any time to sleep for the two weeks that followed the Battle of New York even after fixing the Bifrost.


    Harry first needed some trusted men to go into every damaged building and check the internal structure. Some of the buildings were damaged beyond repair from leviathans ramming into them and the foundations were cracked, bent, and unfixable. For the ones Harry could get away with doing so, he used magic to repair the unfixable damage and let the construction crew deal with the rest. Some buildings though were violating too many building codes just standing upright even before the damage, so Harry couldn''t even legally repair them because the pre-damaged state wasn''t legal in the first place, so the buildings would have to be torn down regardless.


    Harry also had to fix the damaged statues and replace the destroyed ones that were blasted to pieces during the invasion. The undamaged ones he just sent back to where they came and turned them off. Plenty of groups came in and nabbed all the broken statues and alien weapons they could, but Harry couldn''t do much about that. The broken statues were useless to anyone and it wasn''t Harry''s job to prevent looters from grabbing alien tech. The best he could do was politely ask the police force and the National Guard who showed up a few hours later to keep the area under quarantine until all the alien corpses and weapons could be gathered up. They probably missed a bunch, but it was better than nothing.


    As Harry expected, every millisecond that took place during the invasion was looked over with a microscope to find an area where people could complain about and pin the blame on others. Thankfully Harry''s initial press conference telling others that the aliens invaded to steal an artifact answered a lot of questions and helped people point their complaints away from him.


    When ''someone'' leaked that the same group responsible for playing with the artifact was also the group who fired a nuclear missile at New York, riots broke out all over New York and a dozen other countries over the world demanding the heads of the World Security Council who eventually had no choice but to resign.


    After the final one resigned Obscurus visited the Helicarrier and delivered the nuke, fully disarmed and tied with a bright red ribbon. Fury did not appreciate the ''kind'' gesture.


    A number of people who loved to watch the world burn tried to blame Harry of course. They figured since he already had an army in place, he must''ve known New York would have been invaded, so it was his fault.


    Some listened, but a majority of people condemned such arguments since Harry had released all the details of what he did, how he did it and even why he did it. The ''why'' being that New York always got targeted and every New Yorker had no problems believing that to be the truth.


    Although Harry did receive some criticism for his Army of Statues, Harry simply repeated that it wasn''t illegal and that he could only deploy them if something destructive was happening in New York. That meant if the next army that invaded New York didn''t actually destroy anything, Harry would not be able to legally deploy the army.


    Harry repeated that point several times. Of course if an army really did come and try to take over New York without destroying anything, they could likely be taken out by the superheroes of the city, so it wasn''t a problem. The only thing Harry couldn''t sweep under the rug was the means he used to blow up the Chitauri in space. Harry pretty much had to admit that he bought the Mandarin''s Rings off Obscurus and used them to make a super drone he overloaded to make that explosion. By phrasing it that way, it showed that the resources Harry used to make such an explosion were one of a kind and no longer existed which made those worried about such bombs feel a lot better.


    The Avengers also got a lot of press coverage. Link knew that Harry wanted the Avengers to become a thing, so Link had footage of each posted on videoshare, and even made fansites for all of them. The terrifying and destructive power of the Reds did not get as many videos since Harry preferred the public to think of them as heroes on the same level as the Avengers.


    This worked for the most part, but outside the battlefield a lot of people who refused to evacuate went to their roofs and filmed the Reds in action. Thankfully in this setting it was clear they were using their power to hold back the invasion so it was power seen in a good light.


    Action figures of the Avengers would be made within a month with each hero getting the proceeds from their likeness rights.


    During the next press conference, Harry used all the good press he''d gotten to petition for the passing of a law that would regulate super heroes. Sorta.


    He knew that ever since Iron Man and Obscurus appeared, people would be working on it but those plans would try to control metahumans and superheroes, not protect them.


    Harry''s bill would establish the creation of an Association that would authorize heroes, thus elevating them from Vigilantes to actual heroes. The Association would work hand in hand with the Police and require Heroes to go through specific training that officers of the law were required to go through.


    For superheroes who wanted to remain anonymous, they could get a Sponsor, a trusted person who knew their identity and would take care of the paperwork for them, someone government officials could use as a go-between to reach masked individuals. Not just anyone would be able to become a Sponsor, but it wouldn''t be too difficult for qualified individuals to become one.


    The bill includes terms like reasonable usage of force which sounded like a way to restrict heroes in theory but was actually extremely loose in practice.


    The main aspect of the bill was that a team of heroes or individuals would be held accountable for efficiency, damage, and lives saved vs lives lost when taking action. A hero must have insurance which covers damage they inflict on property and others. If a hero is deemed not good enough their license can be suspended until they train more and if they take an action far beyond the acceptable limit, they can have their license permanently revoked.


    Of course, Harry fully expected the bill to be shifted around and stalled for years before it was passed. The point was to be the first to submit a draft before anyone else could. Passing a law of that magnitude would take years and Harry would be surprised if it was passed with minimum changes within five years.


    Also, Harry would not charge Heroes for the insurance. Of course, it was tricky to pay them too. The entire bill did not include one clause that stated Heroes would be paid. That was deliberate.


    Harry fully expected people to twist the bill into something they could use to control metahumans and superheroes, so the moment they did, Harry would argue that such restrictions should come with a paycheck. Any Senator or Congressman can argue to restrict metahumans, but when they are asked who will pay them, Harry knew they would go silent. Paying them meant either raising taxes or taking the money from someone else. No one in the government wanted to answer questions like, ''How much is the annual salary of someone the government pays to save the world?''


    The main purpose of the bill was to prevent identities from being exposed and protect Heroes who were willing to save others without being paid by the government to do so.


    He did not want something in place that required people with powers to register themselves, but in case that was required one day, people could submit such things through Sponsors. If someone had a specific mutant power and mutants were required to register themselves, they could register themselves using a Title to a Sponsor. The Sponsor would know who they were, but would not submit the name to the government, only the title and power.


    Of course, Harry would fight tooth and nail to prevent such a thing from happening, but he would lay a foundation to minimize the damage should it ever come to that point. The point was to lay the foundation early.


    The schools were reopened a week after the Battle and most of the buildings in the battle zone were reopened for residents and employees to return to. Harry''s insurance company covered most of the bills for repairs for the buildings which had his insurance and Harry and Stark set up a few fundraisers to pay a chunk of the repair costs for the uninsured ones.


    Overall there were about thirty lives lost, a majority of them were either unlucky or idiots. Most either didn''t have a Brilliance Phone or ignored the warnings. Considering the scale of the disaster, the overall damage and amount of lives lost was miniscule in comparison. The half dozen leviathans alone could have destroyed the entire city. Several of them flew through buildings, destroying them completely and killing the ones who had yet to evacuate, but thanks to the efficiency of the evacuation, most buildings were emptied by the time the massive creatures came through the portal.


    Though Harry took a lot of losses, he''d get them back from new subscribers to his phones and the fact that the whole of New York would likely have his insurance by this time next year.


    A month after the battle, Jade, MJ, Peter, Gwen, and Felicia all graduated High School. Jade''s uncle Jackie, Uncle, and Tohru, all showed up for the graduation together with Jade''s mother and father.


    Harry held a party at his house and Jade told everyone how things were going, though she certainly left out a few things. Jackie and Uncle implied they had a few suspicions about the identity of Dragonheart, but as the hero was clearly older than Jade, they didn''t seem to pursue the matter.


    Jade also used the party to break the news that she got a full scholarship to NYU and would be staying in New York to get a degree in History. All things considered, it was the subject she knew the most about since her one thousand past lives lived through most of recorded history and everyone celebrated the announcement. Her parents lived in a small apartment in Hong Kong so although they would have welcomed her back, it would not have been as comfortable. They were very pleased that she had been living with such good role models and had her life planned out.


    A few days later there was another graduation that occurred in the U.K. that Harry attended himself. It was that year''s Hogwarts graduation. Hermione, Neville, and everyone from the year he went to Hogwarts with, were all graduating.


    Harry and Hermione had always kept in touch so he was happy to attend. Hogwarts hadn''t changed too much since he left but there were changes. Snape had taken on an apprentice Slytherin girl as a teacher''s aid and after three years of teaching her everything he knew he retired and hadn''t been heard from since. She had replaced him and actually liked teaching so the whole of Britain was better for it. Professor Lupin had remained the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher and the fact that he was a Werewolf was well known. He basically told every class that him being a Werewolf meant that classes during a full moon were free periods which every student was happy with.


    Not that things were always peaceful. According to Hermione, there was still something happening every year but after their first year, it all seemed quite tame. For example when Lupin was outed as a werewolf in the middle of their second year, the Board of Education got a man called Lockhart to come teach the classes. Hermione sent a copy of the first quiz Lockhart gave to all his classes to the Board of education. The first question was apparently, ''What is Lockhart''s favorite color?''


    After a month it had become clear they had replaced a good teacher with a fraud and Lupin was provisionally reinstated. Eventually the only thing the students cared about was that he was a good teacher and they got an extra free period once a month.


    The year after that, some of the Death Eaters who never went to Azkaban and didn''t show during the Resurrection tried to stage a coup. The year after that, someone pretending to be Voldemort showed up and tried to gather supporters. It was a year and a half later they found out it was just a group of wanna-bes who staged a lot of powerful feats to pretend to be as mighty as Voldemort claimed to be. The fakers were all caught and thrown into Azkaban only a few months ago.


    Harry was pleased to have missed all of that as he had not exactly been unoccupied over the last six years himself.


    The Hogwarts graduation took place in the open field in front of the castle by the Black Lake where they had once waited for the other schools to arrive during the Triwizard Tournament.


    Each student was given a magical badge that represented their house and Hogwarts and Hermione refused to tell Harry what it could do since it was a school only secret. Harry wasn''t curious enough to look into it, but that didn''t mean he''d let such a thing slide. He''d been out of the castle for six years, so it was long overdue for a prank.


    Headmaster Dumbledore stood before the ?ssembled students with a proud smile. He had already announced McGonagall as his replacement and that this would be his last year before he retired. When the March of the Valkyries started playing at a low volume and getting louder and louder, he gave a fond smile as if he had expected nothing less from his final day.


    The ground started rumbling and Hermione and Neville simultaneously turned to give Harry a glare which Harry only returned with a smile.


    One of the students pointed to the forest where they noticed movement and shouted, "Look!"


    Everyone looked to the forest where they noticed a towering figure charging out of the woods. It was a massive creature no smaller than an elephant and bright purple in color with a mighty horn rising from between its nose to well over its back. It was a giant Crumpled Horn Snorkack. It charged out of the woods towards the ?ssembled student body and was followed by hundreds of smaller Crumpled Horn Snorkacks.


    Harry smiled when he looked over and then saw something he really wasn''t expecting. A blonde haired teenage girl was sitting on top of the massive Snorkack and was expertly riding it. Harry didn''t remember setting that up.


    As the Snorkack horde charged the graduation ceremony, Harry calmly asked Hermione, "Who is that riding the Snorkack King?"


    Hermione sighed and answered, "Luna Lovegood, the co-author of the Quibbler."


    She seemed quite happy and didn''t appear to be in any danger, so Harry let her be. The graduating students ran for their lives and Dumbledore sat there humming the chorus of March of the Valkyries without a care in the world.


    The students ran for safety into the castle and most of the little Snokacks followed and caused chaos throughout the castle. The big one seemed to be following Luna''s orders and was doing ??ps around the castle while Luna yipped and shouted with joy.


    Harry could only chuckle at that. When someone saw a Snorckack, they later forgot they saw it, so the only evidence of someone seeing a Snorkack was that they didn''t remember seeing one. However Luna''s skill riding the Snorkack King made Harry wonder how many Snorkack Kings she had ridden in the past and forgotten about.


    Harry didn''t know if Crumpled Horn Snorkacks were real, but these were all created by the Apple of Discord. Harry figured a prank no one would remember would be funny, but seeing how happy Luna was, he decided to change the magic a bit so that people with a sense of humor would not forget.


    As the chaos died down, Harry walked over to where his dogfather was sprawled out on the ground, clutching his sides and laughing hysterically with tears coming down his eyes. Harry didn''t tell him about this prank, but Sirius Black would have likely been disappointed if Harry had not done anything, so he was very happy with his godson.


    After the ceremony Harry dispelled the Snorkacks and everyone gathered together to head to Sirius''s home. Before leaving, the chipper blonde walked up to Harry holding a purple egg with ethereal swirls over it, twice the size of a fist. She said, "Thank you Professor Potter," and turned and left with the egg. Harry had his suspicions about that egg but decided not to worry about it. Magic was magic and having all the answers often took the fun out of everything.


    Hermione and Harry spoke for hours on her plans for the future and the details Hermione discovered about the magical world.


    Any muggle-born would look at the current magical world and believe they are drastically behind the times, but after years of research, Hermione came up with a theory as to why. It was intentional. Magic allowed witches and wizards to advance in both personal and societal power, but some time ago, witches and wizards reached a turning point. It was at that point that laws preventing new advancement became common and the whole of wizarding culture suddenly stopped in its tracks.


    According to Hermione, if the hidden magical community advances any further, it would be forced to overhaul itself completely in a way that would not end peacefully with the nonmagicals of the world. Because of this, bringing the magicals into the modern times was a recipe for Armageddon.


    The problem of course was that the longer they held themselves back, the further they would leap forward once that wall was eventually breached. According to Hermione, the Statute of Secrecy would absolutely end within five years.


    So, Harry and Hermione had been making plans to deal with it before then.


    The first step was to remove the nonmagical population''s fear of magic. In order to do so, Hermione would be using books. With Neville''s help, Hermione had been spending her free time for the last few years re-writing Wizarding tales and bedtime stories along with writing a number of her own.


    Harry planned to flood the markets with these children''s stories and get the next generation of children and the current generation of parents familiar with Witches and Wizards, their customs, abilities, and quirks.


    Once muggles become more familiar with magic users, they won''t panic nor fear their presence when the reality of magic becomes apparent to the world.


    Of course, that was only half of the plan. The other half was to give the magical community a new direction to advance that would not cause problems with the nonmagical world.


    Before this point, neither Harry nor Hermione had any good ideas. Then Harry got the Mind stone. That led to the question, how would magicals feel about VR games? As long as Harry sold them cheaply enough, he could get everyone to spend their time in the VR games, thus directing their need for advancement in a controllable direction. They could use magic within the game without problem and the nonmagicals within the game would be none the wiser.


    Because of this, Harry wanted to try for a working prototype within half a year and launch it for sale by the next year. He could have the Goblins beta-test for him. They would probably take over some virtual land and make a goblin city, but that was fine with Harry. There was no law that prevented them from living with muggles above ground in a virtual environment.


    Once the VR world was online, magicals and nonmagicals would interact more frequently within a fantasy world. It would take a few years, but the best case scenario was to basically get the nonmagicals used to witches and wizards before the Statute of Secrecy was irreversibly shattered.


    Neville had not been idling around either. Through Hermione he''d gotten every sort of muggle book on plants and agriculture and had been using what he read, and the parts Hermione explained because he didn''t understand, to advance his own understanding of magical plants.


    The stuff Neville showed Harry was moderately concerning. Neville had bred plants that could absorb magic to grow. Neville demonstrated this by casting an Incendio at the plant and the plant actually absorbed the magic of the spell faster than the heat of the magically created fire could burn the plant. There was a limit of course, but the potential was terrifying. Especially because Wizard Magic was chaotic by nature. Harry confirmed through some tests that the plants grew even better absorbing Sorcery than they did Wizard Magic.


    To prevent Neville from accidentally destroying the world, Harry designed a Lab for him filled with magic proof tech he could use to tech and contain his creations and prevent an outbreak. A plant that could absorb any magical attack and grew faster than could be physically cut down was kinda terrifying.


    Two months after the Battle of New York, things were mostly settled down with the businesses and residents in the condemned buildings being relocated and everything going back to normal. Mostly.


    Harry wasn''t the least bit surprised that some clever idiots actually robbed a bank using Chitauri weapons. After the mother ship got atomized by the reality bomb, all Chitauri tech seemed to stop working and even the collected pieces by the government were little more than paperweights. Spider-Man disarmed and caught them without an issue, but Shield bailed them out of jail and probably offered them a job within an hour of their capture. Harry wondered what their salary would be.


    It wasn''t too long after that when Stark called Harry over to discuss their own plans for the future.


    Stark started with, "What do you think about a suit of armor around the world?"


    Harry rolled his eyes and replied, "That would make people feel too safe and without proper weariness, they''d be more prone to random acts of stupidity. It''s better for the world to figure out how to protect itself. We just need to show it how. That''s what the Hero Association is for."


    "And I get that, but I''m talking about how to prepare for the next invasion, because you''ll never convince me there won''t be another and we may not get enough support before that happens."


    Harry chuckled. Stark wasn''t wrong. The reason the Chitauri came via portal was because there was no active space gate that allowed ships to jump to Earth. However there was an inactive one. Carol Danvers and the Skrull heavily encoded the thing to prevent others from easily using it, meaning the Skrulls could come over whenever they pleased, but other ships could not. Of course, Harry had no confidence that would stop Thanos if the technomancer actually decided to put some effort into showing up. Even if the gate was destroyed, Thanos certainly had access to ships capable of getting to Earth from the next closest space gate.


    Harry replied, "You''re talking about a legion of automated Iron Mans right? Take it from me, nothing in this world is unhackable. You know how secure my systems are. There are people who can tear through my firewalls like wet tissue. Mass produced automated defenses run by Jarvis or Link is not the way to go."


    Stark heavily frowned at that. The pair had discussed Link''s origin and they knew he was probably the most advanced AI on the planet. If Harry stated that a system monitored by Link could be hacked, then anything Stark could come up with over the next few years would not make the cut.


    Stark continued, "So we can''t remotely operate the suits and we can''t put people in the suits."


    Harry mulled over the problem for a bit before a terrifying smile started spreading over his face.


    Stark took a step back and asked, "Harry? You''re not thinking of a diabolical prank are you?"


    Harry nodded, "Do you know what the best way to guarantee your plan works when planning against an enemy?"


    Stark replied wearily, "Umm, no. I do not. Please teach me oh wise Lord of Pranks."


    Harry smiled and answered, "The best way for a plan to succeed against someone is to plan to lose."


    "Come again?"


    "If you plan to lose and your opponent plans to win, then nothing your opponent does will get in the way of your plan, guaranteeing success."


    "Success of the plan to lose." Stark added.


    "That''s right. So, the reason we don''t want to deliver a batch of Iron Man suits to Shield is because we know they will probably end up in the hands of the bad guys and be used against the good guys."


    Stark perked up at that, "So you want to create a bunch of Iron Man suits with a hidden feature that takes into account that they will be stolen and used for bad stuff."


    "Right. Like a Biometric Lock built into a sub system welded into the frame to make it non removable, but can actually be removed with the right tools. But I could create a undetectable metaphysics based system that would activate if someone tried to harm someone good with the suit. When activated, the suit would knock out and eject the occupant and then allow the good person to wear it, turning the tables."


    Tony gasped, "Oh my god. That would be the greatest prank in the history of espionage."


    Harry smiled, "I know."


    Stark then gave a thoughtful pose and added, "But historic prank aside, that won''t solve the problem of protecting the Earth."


    "It will in the long run. The reason we can''t release the good stuff is because of the hidden elements that will use it for world domination. If we use this kind of bait to lure them out and remove them, the chance will arrive to actually release the good stuff and get some help."


    "So cut out the bad guys hidden within the good guys and give the rest Iron Man suits."


    Harry shook his head and pulled out a gauntlet from his inventory. "I had something else in mind. Put this on."


    Stark examined the gauntlet for a moment before strapping it to his wrist. The moment he snapped it on, red static pulsed over the gauntlet and over his body.


    Stark felt himself brimming with energy and asked, "What is this?"


    "Nova crystal. It can safely saturate a living person with a form of energy called Nova Force. This energy has a lot of properties which can grant superhuman abilities. I''m almost at the point I can mass produce them and once the subversive aspects of government have outed themselves, I want to try creating a super powered police force using these."


    Stark already took the gauntlet over to a scanner and started measuring everything he could. He asked, "What if it gets stolen?"


    "Ah, that''s the best part about Nova Force. There is a link between Nova Crystals and the Nova Force in any crystal can be diverted to another crystal. So someone in need of a boost can be supercharged and a stolen crystal can be depowered. Like a gun you can remotely turn on the safety for."


    Stark couldn''t help but ask, "Seriously? Where the hell did you get this?"


    "Alien civilization. They actually used Nova Force to create a galaxy spanning Law Enforcement group called the Nova Corps, but they lost all their crystals."


    Stark asked with a petty amount of accusation, "You''ve already been to other planets haven''t you?"


    "Yep. I''ll transfer over some of the designs I found you might be interested in later."


    Stark smiled, "Yay! Gifts! I''ll make sure to get something for you when I come back from space."


    Harry ignored the remark and continued, "First I''m going to make a prototype." Harry then removed a metal disc with a very familiar shape.


    Stark asked, "Is that?"


    "Soon to be the new and improved version."


    Stark nodded, "Well, if anyone can be trusted with that, it''s him."


    Harry agreed. It was a week later that Harry called Steve over to his house.


    Harry met Steve at the door and the war veteran politely held out his hand which Harry took for a greeting. "Captain Rogers, ready for an upgrade?"


    "Is that what you called me for? There won''t be any needles involved will there?"


    Harry replied, "No," before taking him downstairs to the training room.


    Harry walked over to a table and pointed at a shield whose profile matched the one Steve had gotten so used to over the years.


    "You made me a new shield?"


    "Kinda. It is still made of vibranium, but I''ve added a few improvements."


    Steve replied, "Howard told me that my shield had all the vibranium we had access to."


    "It did. I made this myself. Now try picking it up."


    Steve raised an eyebrow at the word try and walked over and lifted it. The moment he touched it, a shimmer of light spread from the point he held it and spread over the shield.


    Steve immediately felt the difference and asked, "Professor, what is this?"


    Harry smiled and replied, "A lot. Remember how Thor could throw his hammer and call it back to him through will alone? I added that enchantment to this shield. Only the worthy may use it which is good because I added a lot more to it than just that. First, try tossing it."


    Steve gave a small smirk and tossed it away. A moment later it slowed and came to a stop in midair and returned. Steve expertly caught it and his smirk turned into a grin.


    Harry then snapped and a large crate materialized from the hard-light projectors.


    "Next trick. Place the shield in the crate and close it."


    Steve was already curious as to what would happen and did as instructed.


    Harry then said, "Now pretend you are in a situation where you really need your shield. Imagine that shit had hit the fan and Captain America is needed to save the innocent."


    A moment later, a shimmer appeared in front of Steve which materialized into his new shield. Steve grabbed it and confirmed it was the same one. He even opened the crate and confirmed it was empty.


    Harry smiled. Harry already had a set of basilisk envenomed Goblin silver knives with the same enchantment as the Sword of Gryffindor, which allowed its owner to call it back. Harry just added the same enchantment to the shield.


    Harry told Steve, "The shield also has an enchantment that will make it appear before you when you need it. Even if you are in a locked room or if the shield was buried in concrete and dropped into the middle of the ocean, it would still appear before you if you needed it."


    Steve replied, "Okay. I''m impressed."


    Harry laughed, "That is nothing compared to the last trick. You should feel that the shield is trying to connect to you right? That is the last feature I added. It is a Nova crystal. I promise it is completely safe, so try connecting to it."


    The one in the gauntlet Harry showed Tony was b?r?ly a sliver of a piece. The one built into the shield was the real deal.


    Steve let the shield connect to him and shouted, "Woah!" A moment later, he started hovering in the air.


    Harry smiled and watched Steve figure out how to fly on the fly and slowly lower himself back down.


    Steve asked, "What was that?"


    "Nova Force. When your body is saturated with Nova Force, you will be several times stronger. You''ll be able to fly, and bullets won''t be able to penetrate your skin or deal serious damage to you." Of course, that was just with the Nova Force from the one crystal. Once Harry had more, every aspect would be enhanced. At peak level, someone with a Nova Crystal would have all the abilities of Carol Danvers, but become even stronger and faster. Of course, that was only if all the Nova Force concentrated into a single person, so there was no easy way to have an army of Captain Marvels.


    Rather than look happy, Steve looked pensive. After a few moments he said, "And no one but me can wield this shield?"


    "No one but the worthy," Harry corrected. "But even if someone worthy did use it, you still have priority, so you''d be able to call it back to you at any time. Also, your access to Nova Force is not permanent. If you store the shield somewhere and leave its proximity for longer than ten minutes, your access to Nova Force will be cut until the next time you hold the shield."


    "So Thor would be able to use it?"


    "Probably. But Thor''s enchantment was cast by his father using Asgardian virtues as a base. Your shield has American virtues as a base. Someone who either doesn''t believe them or has compromised too much won''t be able to lift your shield off the ground."


    Steve asked, "Can you lift it?" And then he put the shield down.


    Harry looked thoughtfully at the shield for a moment before reaching down and picking it up easily. Harry smiled and said, "I may be a Brit, but that doesn''t mean I don''t have American values. I moved here for a reason you know."


    Though Harry was not perfect, he had never compromised in doing what he knew was right and believed people should be free to make their own lives better.


    Steve returned the smile and picked up the shield.


    Harry snapped and the area turned into a battle ground filled with giant robots, vicious looking monsters, and dozens of armed soldiers. "Time for a test run."


    Steve looked over at the training field with anticipation. He held his shield in front of him and charged forward at blinding speeds. He was going to have some fun with this.


    *Author''s Note*


    Sorry this took a while. Had to decide where to go from here without burning myself out. I have been distracting myself with the idea for another project which makes a Mutant Obscurus Harry Potter Gamer in the Marvel Verse seem simple by comparison. If I can figure out where I want to go with that, I''ll release it shortly before I finish this story.. I would go so far as to say this story is a warm up compared to that one.

 Chapter 98 - 98 Terrible A.I.M.

    It was near the end of November when Stark announced he would give one hundred Iron Man suits to Shield. Stark didn''t know how corrupt Shield was, but figured anything given to them would get to the bad guys eventually so they were the best choice. It was rather easy to plan to lose since the worst case scenario was that only good guys would use the suits. Stark even included a ''hidden'' kill switch that could be removed with a bit of difficulty.


    The software aspect of the suits would only allow someone keyed into them to use them and Stark had yet to key anyone at all. So even though Shield ended up with one hundred Iron Man suits, no one could use them. Stark said he wanted a list of the applicants and to the ones he vetted, they would be added to the list of authorized users and only they could use the suits. Stark promised he''d give at least twenty people access before the end of the year.


    Fury and the current heads of Shield were all under the impression that Stark was worried about world security after the alien invasion, so though it was an unusual change, it wasn''t completely out of character. Especially with how much Stark annoyed Fury when Fury specifically requested for certain teams or individuals to be given access sooner rather than later. Stark''s stalling and being a general pain in the bu?? seemed completely normal.


    Of course, if they could remove the ''hidden'' kill switch and the Stark software and replace it completely, they could use the suits without permission. Very, very difficult, but certainly not impossible. Of course, Stark told Shield that any unauthorized usage of the suits was grounds for Stark to recall every last one of them. It sounded like a threat, but to people with dastardly plans, it was something they could work around.


    The real trap inside the suits was a Technomancer Spell Harry had lying dormant inside the power source. No matter what they switched out, they''d never switch the power source. The Technomancer spell would activate if someone in the suit aimed and activated weapons at someone who was not considered a threat. The spell would go off and overwrite any existing OS to knock out the pilot, eject the Pilot, and allow the person who had been targeted to enter the suit as the new pilot. Tony ensured the suit would be vulnerable to Technomancy spells and it was unlikely anyone would add an upgrade which changed that.


    Steve was asked not to show off the abilities of the Nova crystal for now. Harry already informed Steve that he wanted to make a peacekeeping group using these crystals and Steve was basically the test pilot. Steve had no issue with that as long as precautions were taken with who gained access to such power, but when Harry described all the safety measures included with the use of Nova crystals, Steve was sold on the idea since this wasn''t the first time he''d be used as a guinea pig.


    Nova Force from what Harry could tell, mainly affected space, momentum, and gravity. It was a bit similar to Red energy from Cytorak''s Crimson Cosmos in the way it amplified momentum, but was not as violent. The gravity manipulating aspect was similar to the effect of gravitonium, but more refined. In addition to flight, Nova Force could potentially create wormholes and allow for interstellar flight from planet to planet without the need of a spaceship. A very useful feature for an interstellar peacekeeping corps. The momentum enhancing effects would allow Nova Force to be used to generate concussive blasts, though more than a single crystal''s worth of Nova Force would be needed for that.


    The main reason Harry couldn''t mass produce them yet was that he needed time, so he''d been spending all his free time trying to level up to 300. Once he had access to Time Magic, he could accelerate the growth of Nova Crystals by thousands of times. He could technically borrow the Eye of Agamotto and do the same with the Time Stone, but such a drastic use of an Infinity Stone could easily be detected, and Thanos would know within a week of its use that the Time Stone was on Earth. Harry preferred for that to be kept secret a bit longer so it was better to learn Time Magic himself, even if it took a while.


    It was the first week of December when Harry was kidnapped. He wasn''t sure why he was surprised since he had in fact been pretty overdue for a kidnapping.


    While Harry was walking from the NYU science building to his house, which was literally across the street, someone shot a dart at his neck containing a powerful knockout drug, grabbed his body, stuffed it in a van, and drove off.


    Harry was not immune to drugs, but the effect of the Ring of Recovery he always wore automatically kicked in and removed the Status immediately. Though he likely would have woken up within a few minutes regardless. While feigning unconsciousness, he cast a continuous spell on himself that would increase his resistance to Status effects for a few hours to ensure even if they hit him with another dose, it would do nothing since the Ring of Recovery only worked once every twenty-four hours.


    Harry then used some technopathy to send a message on his phone to Jean that he was being kidnapped again and to order take out for dinner.


    Moments afterwards, his impolite kidnappers went through his pockets and took everything from his ring to his pants and shirt. Even his belt was taken, which was smart because Harry did in fact keep a fully charged metagem inside a hidden compartment in the belt buckle.


    Harry was rather surprised how thorough they were, they even hooked him up to an IV which constantly administered a sedative. Harry regulated his heartbeat and vital signs to ensure he looked unconscious while the van went about losing its pursuers. Harry''s house had dozens of cameras so Harry being kidnapped would not go unnoticed so the drivers of the van were racing the clock to get away before the helicopters showed up. Harry wouldn''t be surprised if the Shield Helicarrier would be airborne and the Avengers called within the next five minutes.


    Fury had in fact called Steve and Natasha a minute after Harry was taken as they were both still in New York. The latter was already friends with the Reds and had their number. When she called to give them a heads up so they could work together, she was surprised to learn that Harry had already sent them a message which implied Harry would take care of it on his side.


    Jean and the Reds trained and got stronger for a very specific purpose, to protect Harry when the Universe learned that its fate was basically handed over to him. That being said, Harry didn''t always want to sit in the back and operate as the man behind the curtain. He b?r?ly got to have any fun during the Battle of New York and since Obscurus was considered a Mercenary for Hire, he couldn''t just suit up and go fight crime whenever he felt like doing so like the girls could do.


    Because Jean was connected to Harry through his Multiplayer function, she was the only clairvoyant in the world who could spy on Harry from a distance. The moment she got the text, she''d been keeping an eye on him to make sure nothing truly dangerous happened while he was playing around.


    Through the call to Natasha she said, "You remember what happened to Mole Man when they kidnapped Harry right? Feel free to make it look like you''re giving chase, but if they get away, then you''d best pray for their sanity once they are left to the mercy of Harry Potter."


    Natasha was also someone who''d let herself be kidnapped in order to fulfill certain goals, so she understood the principle though Harry likely had slightly different goals in mind. When she relayed what Jean told her to Steve, the Captain replied, "Ah, that sounds about right. I really can''t believe he''d get kidnapped so easily."


    She considered telling Fury but decided against it. If Fury found out Harry allowed himself to get kidnapped, he''d insist on getting a message to the Professor to stop wasting his damn time. He didn''t appreciate operations like that going down without his input.


    While Steve and Natasha were on motorcycles hauling ?ss down the streets towards the van, Harry was shifting through the minds of his would-be kidnappers. Each was a war veteran and used to be an amputee. They were either missing a hand, their forearm, their whole arm or even their leg.


    Each vet had been approached by Aldrich Killian, the head of Advanced Idea Mechanics, a privately funded Think Tank Harry had gotten a lot of invites to and just like every other invitation ever sent to him, completely ignored.


    The reason they used to be an amputee was because each had regrown their limbs in a way that would make Dr. Curt Connors jealous. They had been given an injection of a serum called Extremis and told to inject somewhere public. If it worked, they would gain superhuman abilities and regrow their limbs. If it did not, they would violently explode.


    Harry and the girls did in fact watch the News and were familiar with the ''Mandarin Bombings.'' Harry always laughed when he saw the British actor with a beard pretending to be the Mandarin, especially when Harry killed the actual Mandarin two and a half years ago.


    From what he could guess, they wanted Harry to help them fix Extremis so that no one would explode. Harry had to use every ounce of willpower not to laugh maniacally at the thought these people actually intended to give Harry access to nanites capable of rewriting DNA. Every human being on the planet collectively shuddered at that moment, and no one but Jean knew why.


    The van eventually drove into a warehouse which had a hidden underground tunnel. They tossed Harry''s clothing out the window and floored it through the tunnel. A moment later, the tunnel started collapsing behind them, preventing anyone from following them.


    Harry was eventually taken into a room and the IV drip removed. Harry calculated it would take about half an hour for the effect to wear off and patiently waited. Wouldn''t want to spoil everything before the fun started.


    When the timing was right Harry wearily opened his eyes and examined his surroundings, though did so without obvious concern for the fact that he was in his boxers. There was a pile of clothes next to him that were probably his size. Looking at the pile gave Harry a terrible idea.


    After determining the room had nothing of interest besides clothes, Harry started knocking on the door. He continued this for about ten straight minutes, probably driving whoever was watching him crazy.


    Eventually, someone opened the door and pointed a gun at Harry prompting him to step back. He noticed another armed guard looking fellow standing next to beautiful brunette Harry figured was Maya Hansen. The other guard was pointing a weapon at her and she was looking distressed.


    Harry mentally rolled his eyes. These guys were going to pull a Yinsen using Maya. Well, that just meant one more target to prank.


    Maya was shoved into the room where she turned to the side the moment she noticed Harry was still in his und?rw??r. She asked, "Um, can you put some clothes on?"


    Harry answered, "No. So who wants to fill me in on why I''ve been kidnapped?"


    From the speakers in the room, the voice of that British actor with the fake middle eastern accent came through. "That would be my doing. I am the Mandarin, and I require your ?ssistance. The woman standing next to you is Dr. Maya Hansen. I acquired both her and her work some months ago, but the results have not been... satisfactory."


    Maya sneered and said, "You kidnapped me!"


    The speakers continued, "Both of your lives are now in your hands Professor. In one week I will inject you both with Dr. Hansen''s project. If you finish her work before then, you both may survive. If you do not. Then you will die, most horribly."


    Harry shrugged, "Sounds fun."


    The setup wasn''t too stupid. If they succeeded, Aldrich Killian and A.I.M would come in and defeat the Mandarin and rescue Dr. Hansen and Professor Potter and Dr. Hansen would sell her finished work to Killian out of gratitude and everyone would live happily ever after. It was such a beautiful story Harry almost felt bad for what he was going to do to it. Almost.


    The guards lead Maya and the boxer wearing Harry to the lab where Maya gave a sob story about how she was trying to make the world a better place before she became the victim and was kidnapped by the Mandarin.


    Maya started wiping away her tears when she heard a slurping sound that caused her to jerk upright and look at Harry.


    Harry was sitting at a table with a half eaten cheeseburger in a wrapper set next to a box of fries, a McDonalds Happy Meal Bag, and a small drink Harry was finishing up through the straw.


    Maya couldn''t help but ask, "I''m sorry but where did you get that?"


    "This Happy Meal? Good question. So what''s this project the little orange wants me to fix of yours?"


    Maya looked like she had far more she wanted to say, but decided to move on and started going over the Extremis project. Meanwhile, Harry got the little toy out of the bag and started playing with it.


    Killian who was watching the cameras suddenly realized that Harry had somehow gotten a Happy Meal out of nowhere and he hadn''t noticed. That was of course because of the targeted Notice-Me-Not, but Killian didn''t know that. He stopped the footage and tried rewinding it, but the footage went to static for a while until just after they entered the lab. The footage had somehow been corrupted and he couldn''t see where Harry got his Happy Meal.


    Once Maya finished explaining what Extremis was and how it worked, Harry started writing on the chalkboard they were allowed and explained, "The problem is that some variable is causing your nanobots to diverge from their set parameters after splitting a certain number of times outside of controlled conditions. These divergent bots fall into an accelerating state overwhelming the nanobots which are still working causing the divergent set to feedback into the controlled set, causing them to overwhelm the host and explode."


    As he continued writing he said, "These are some experiments we''ll need to do to figure out how the divergence occurs so it can be rooted out and stabilized. What kind of equipment do we have to work with?"


    Dr. Hansen gave him a list of all the nice toys and expensive machines they would be allowed access to in order to fix the issue.


    Harry was of course speaking out of his ?ss. The reason Extremis worked on some people and caused others to explode was because, intentional or not, it targeted the X-Gene which was the easiest to manipulate and change. Maya thought it targeted the whole DNA, which it did, but a majority of the work was done with the X-Gene. To people without the X-Gene taking Extremis, they would explode.


    Harry could fix this, but the data would probably get out, so he wanted to sabotage it as much as possible before then. Harry was more interested in the nanomachines anyway. He hadn''t done much with nanotech before this point and now would be a good time to expand.


    While Harry spent the next several days convincing Maya and Killian they were crazy, news about Harry getting kidnapped spread across the states. Jean had already informed Tony, Reed, and Hermione that Harry was having fun, but everyone else was scouring the globe for the world''s youngest genius.


    Harry''s classes actually continued mostly as normal since a hard-light copy of Harry was teaching them. It couldn''t answer questions about philosophy, but the programming was advanced enough to answer any questions on the class material as long as it was phrased well enough. For everything else, Harry''s classes had ?ssistants.


    Two years after he started teaching Metaphysics Harry finally had some Masters students and since Harry had a ''leave of absence,'' his hologram had already asked the Masters students to ?ssist with teaching his classes to ensure his students wouldn''t get an inferior lesson.


    During Harry''s stay at the lab, he would randomly roam the halls though his door should be locked, he would obtain fast food or delivery food through unknown means, and there was one instance where a Pizza Hut delivery driver came to the hidden lab and delivered five large pan crust pepperoni pizzas Harry had ordered. He ordered five to make sure there was enough for everyone, which of course implied Harry knew exactly how many people were in the building.


    Besides messing with AIM, Harry was also having fun with the nanomachines. Harry considered using Nanomachines to re-write genetics to be on the same level of ridiculous as using an Infinity Stone as a paper weight. I mean, yeah, you can use it that way, but it''s such a waste.


    Nanomachines were made of a certain metamaterial, a material which had artificially grafted properties due to the structure of the form the material has taken. The nanomachines weren''t really machines, but particles of matter that could fulfill two specific purposes. One was to bind to certain materials and forge and change those materials into copies of themselves. The second was to bind to another material and adjust that material in a certain way. So they were like a two sided stamp. One side turned certain things into another two sided stamp, the other side turned certain things into something else.


    The nanomachines of the Extremis program had one side which could turn the tiny platelets within blood into a copy of themselves, and the other side could bind to DNA molecules and edit them just slightly.


    However, Nanomachines could only use one thing to duplicate themselves and were not flexible in editing things. They had potential, but were far from omnipotent. At least Maya''s version.


    Harry didn''t bother spending any time fixing Maya''s Extremis. He spent it hacking and altering the machine which made the nanoparticles to create actual complex structure machines out of different nanoparticles. Why? Because once they were true technology and not just a singular particle, Harry''s technomancy would be able to control them.


    Maya and Aldrich were both anxiously waiting for the deadline and the day they could rid themselves of Harry Potter. Harry still refused to wear clothes so this entire time, he had been working with her in his und?rw??r.


    Today when Killian had his guards return Harry to his room, they saw Harry walk over to the bed, pick up a remote control, and turn on the tv. The thing was, that room didn''t have a TV when Harry left that morning and no one installed one. Harry didn''t seem the least bit surprised it was there and acted as if it was there the whole time.


    Killian checked out the lines and confirmed it was connected to a satellite dish on the roof he didn''t remember setting up at any point since the lab had been built. Yet the line was professionally done and looked as if it had always been there.


    Maya was also asking if Harry could just complete it on his own because working with him was getting to her. It wasn''t just the n?k?dness. There were points where she was certain he was in one part of the room doing something and in the next moment he was somewhere else doing something she hadn''t seen him start. The more she tried to pay attention to him, the worse it got. She pulled up the security footage one day and everything he did looked normal, but she hadn''t remembered Harry walking around at certain times. It was like she was forgetting segments of time and catching up, only to realize she missed something.


    Killian insisted she push through since they were so close. The experiments Harry ordered had been completed and though Dr. Hansen didn''t understand the results or the explanation Harry gave as to how they worked, everything had been written down and preserved so that others could.


    Eventually the day in question came and according to what Harry said, the new batch of Extremis would have no chance of causing explosions.


    The guards sprinted towards Harry but he had been behaving himself this whole time so this had caught them off guard. Harry pulled Maya through a security access down and closed it before entering the wrong pin to cause it to lock for a minute before another attempt could be made to open it.


    Maya used the moment to shout, "What are you doing?!"


    Harry answered, "I purged the computers of all of the data, so that sample is the only one left in the world. We''re going to exchange it for our freedom since I don''t trust little orange to uphold his end of the bargain."


    Maya frowned but had no way of arguing that. The data was backed up off site each day, but the final adjustments Harry made today were not in any system but the one Harry just purged. They had no absolute guarantee they could replicate the results.


    The door Harry just locked began to melt as the Extremis soldier superheated the door. Harry dragged Maya and continued to run. Maya was shocked that none of the doors they went through were locked. Why weren''t they locked?


    Eventually they made it all the way to the roof where they saw the outside. The building was in a warehouse district and none of the nearby structures could be reached by standard jumping. Harry saw a camera and said, "Listen here the Panda ring, You are going to send a helicopter to this roof. The pilot will get out and Maya and I will get in. If you try to breach the door, Maya will drop the only sample of perfected Extremis off the roof."


    After addressing the camera, Harry then turned and smiled at Maya and said, "Now we just have to wait here together."


    When Maya heard the words, ''Wait here together,'' she became pale and nearly dropped the canister. Harry grabbed it and said, "Careful with that," before taking it from her and walking over to the edge of the roof and setting it next to him. If he was shot, he''d easily drop it.


    Jean noticed this and knew it was time for the end game.


    Maya spent the next half hour facing the roof access door since she didn''t want to face Harry''s boxers. She also used that time to inject herself with the syringe of Extremis she had. After everything that had happened, she finally decided to kill Harry. She couldn''t stand being on the same planet as him anymore and with the Extremis enhancement, it would be easy. It didn''t even matter if he threw the canister over or not because she still had the syringe Harry was supposed to inject into himself.


    Maya stood up and turned around, but Harry was gone.


    Maya rushed to the door and ran down the stairs. She thought Harry had escaped, but since she still had the sample, it didn''t matter.


    When she reached the lab, she found that the door she remembered getting melted was normal, as if it had never melted.


    She opened it and saw Harry Potter speaking with Aldrich Killian. Harry was wearing clothes and speaking to him as if they were old friends.


    Harry turned and noticed Maya and said, "Ah, there you are. I was worried. Dr. Killian here has secured the building so we are both free. We were just discussing what to do about Extremis."


    Maya dropped the syringe, it shattered as she took a few steps back. She said, "No, wait, but we ran to the roof. You betrayed Aldrich."


    Harry looked confused and said, "What are you talking about? I''ve never met Dr. Killian before."


    Aldrich stated firmly, "Perhaps you should take a seat and calm yourself. You have been through a terrifying ordeal. Dr. Hansen."


    Harry walked over and offered a hand but Maya shrieked, "Get back you Naked Mad Man!"


    Harry took a step back and asked, "Naked? I''m clearly wearing clothes."


    She shouted, "Now! But you never did before!"


    Harry gave her a puzzled look and walked over to a computer screen. He pulled up some security footage of the pair working in the lab and Harry was clearly wearing clothes.


    Maya gasped in shock and turned to Killian. "No! You saw him right? You saw him running through the halls in his und?rw??r!"


    Killian had no idea what she was referring to. Maya had never once told him that Harry was in his und?rw??r because there was no point in repeating it. It was obvious. Killian just thought the pressure was getting to her and that was why she didn''t want to work with him. He had no idea Harry cast a spell on her that caused her to see him in his und?rw??r.


    Harry asked, "Why would he have seen me before today? He just came to rescue me."


    Both Maya and Killian realized at that point that Maya''s deluded ravings had just exposed their carefully laid plan.


    Killian gave Maya a look that promised punishment later. Maya didn''t take it well, she started shaking her head and backing up to a corner where she crouched down into the fetal position shaking her head and muttering about a n?k?d man.


    Harry simply asked, "So you''re the Orange guy?"


    Killian sighed and answered, "Yes. And now you have to die."


    Killain grabbed Harry by the neck and scowled. All that work down the drain. He didn''t bother squeezing. He had confidence Harry succeeded in perfecting Extremis and ''rescued'' him before he could administer any to himself. Without Extremis, Killian could kill Harry by burning his head clean off his torso.


    Except he didn''t. It took a moment but Killian realized he was not generating any heat.


    Harry smiled, grabbed Killian''s arm, and twisted it into an arm lock. Harry then struck his shoulder from behind, dislocating the man''s arm entirely.


    Killian shouted, "Guards! Kill him!"


    Several of the guards around ran over to Harry and tried to tackle him. Harry took out the first with a rising knee strike to the chin and threw his collapsing form into the other, causing the pair to crash into each other.


    Killian was looking at his remaining working hand wondering why it wasn''t glowing. Harry spoke up and said, "You used Extremis right? Sorry. But I kinda used your tools to create an airborne counter to Extremis. Everyone who was enhanced in this building has lost their enhancements and is immune to another dose."


    "What? No, that''s impossible. You couldn''t have, I watched everything you did."


    "But did you understand any of it? The reason I didn''t want to join that little Think Tank of yours is because we''re not on the same level."


    Harry then punched him in the face, knocking him out. He took Killian''s phone and called Fury''s number.


    [Who is this?]


    "Hey Fury. Miss me?"


    [No. Now where the hell are you?]


    "Just track this phone. I''ll keep it open."


    Harry set the phone on the table and went over to the computers to delete everything on them.


    This was mostly for show. He''d already edited the footage to show what he wanted it to show and he knew someone with enough skill would recover the contents. When people looked over the footage, they would see Maya slowly lose touch with reality and various guards giving Harry fastfood.


    There was a reason Harry went so hard on Maya. In a way, she was worse than Killian. Killian wanted power. Maya wanted to prove herself smarter than god and didn''t care how many exploding corpses it took to get there. Being right was more important to her than the lives lost on her faulty attempt at divinity. She never had any intention of stopping. Even without Killian she''d continue trying to perfect Extremis, even knowing the danger.


    It only took about fifteen minutes for a dozen vans to show up and break in. Harry calmly ate microwaved leftover pizza while they entered the main lab guns pointing everywhere. Natasha and Steve showed up and Harry offered them some pizza as well which Steve accepted but Nat declined.


    Fury showed up another half hour later and Harry gave the edited version of what happened while Maya was taken away in a straight jacket. Fury decided not to even bother calling out all the obvious BS in the story since it had been a long week.


    Shield confiscated everything but the machines Harry altered had already been changed back. The prototype nanomachines they created for him had already been collected into his inventory.


    After getting released from Shield, Harry wondered what he should get his girls for Christmas. Maybe a little vacation someplace far away? He''d think of something creative.


    *Author''s Note*


    For those wondering about the new project. It is an idea set in the standard MCU, not an AU, but normal MCU. The premise would be that a hundred or so people are all reincarnated into the MCU. Each is given a system and offered one of five powers. Depending on the Power chosen, they can also purchase Items, Knowledges, and Skills from the world that power came from using System Gold obtained from Challenges.


    Choices


    -One Piece''s Haki and a Coupon for a Discount of One Devil Fruit from the Store (The coupon is enough to get the cheapest fruit free, but can be used to get a more expensive fruit at a discount. Devil Fruits cannot be eaten by others unless they are reincarnators who have also chosen One Piece. Can also purchase skills like Fishman karate and Rokushiki.)


    -Star War''s The Force and a coupon for a discount of a Lightsaber from the Store (The coupon is enough to get the cheapest training lightsaber, but can be used to get a better matched or perfectly matched lightsaber at a discount. Can purchase skills like Psychometry, can purchase droids and ships, and can even purchase plans to build a Death Star.)


    -Harry Potter''s Magic and a coupon for a discount of a Wand from the store. (The coupon is enough to get a generic badly fitted wand free, but can be used to get a better matched or perfectly matched wand at a discount. Textbooks can be rented for a year or purchased for more. Can also purchase artifacts other than the Dealthy Hallows and potions.)


    -Dragon Balls'' Ki. (Cannot buy Dragonballs or bloodlines from the store, but can buy anything else like the Bansho Fan, Nimbus Cloud, Power Pole, and Fruit from the Tree of Might, and skills from DBZ characters like Instant Transmission. Can buy Capsules from Capsule Corps except the Time Machine, and can even buy the schematics for Dr. Gero''s Androids.)


    -HunterXHunter''s Nen (Cards from Greed island are among the things you can get from the Store)


    -Naruto''s Chakra (Cannot buy bloodlines or chakra beasts from the store, but can by treasures, weapons, scrolls, and Jutsus found in the show.)


    The MC will choose the Force for its all around usefulness and survivability. He will grow up with Hawkeye and get trained by Swordmaster in the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders and end up as something of a Grey Jedi and do side work for Shield. (most who choose Star Wars will go for the Dark Side.)


    Every Reincarnator will have access to a Chatroom they can use to talk to each other around the world.


    So it''s a story about a vast amount of people thrown into the MCU with a lot of powers and how they grow and screw up the MCU with the MC having to intervene a lot.


    Like I said, this makes Mutant Obscurus Gamer seem like a warm up.

 Chapter 99 - 99 Cut off One Head, then Kill it with fire.

    The fallout from the week Harry was missing was less than expected since Harry didn''t do interviews. This gave the government a chance to take all the credit and Harry couldn''t care less. The more they lied, the bigger the debt they''d owe him he could call for one day if needed.


    Stark asked for details of course since they''d had a slightly similar experience, but the more Harry explained, the less Stark felt their respective kidnappings had anything to do with each other. The fact that Stark was tortured to comply and Harry pretended to comply from the start and mentally tortured the co-conspirator while using magic to sneak fast food pretty clearly drew the line between them. Harry asked Stark about Maya since the woman mentioned Stark and the playboy admitted to not even recalling their one night stand.


    Things went back to normal for a few days but on the last school day before Christmas break, Jean got kidnapped.


    And by kidnapped, it meant she had taken out the kidnappers and called Harry. One of them had a metal arm and tried to restrain her after she telekinetically blocked the tranquilizer dart they fired at her. She telepathically knocked him out and scanned the area, finding three more who were working with him and knocked them out as well.


    After reading their minds, Jean made a very simple request to Harry over the phone.


    [I want Hydra removed from the face of the Earth.]


    Harry shrugged and replied. "Okay." Harry wasn''t going to ask what she found in their minds since it didn''t matter. Their days were already numbered the moment they targeted her, so doing it thoroughly instead of half-heartedly was fine with him.


    Harry teleported over and read the minds of the would-be kidnappers to get an idea of what was going on. Reading the mind of the dude with the metal arm gave Harry an idea for why Jean was so pissed. James Buchanan, "Bucky," Barnes. Steve''s best friend and apparent brainwashed ?ssassin and kidnapper.


    Since the pair wanted to remove Hydra completely, they needed more intel on them, so they needed someone on the inside. The pair entered Bucky''s mind and found the man in a cell, seemingly unconscious and bound in chains.


    In front of the cell were hundreds of men made of shadow, all bearing Bucky''s silhouette. From what the pair could tell, each represented one of the times he was conditioned through torture. Harry and Jean proceeded to tear them to shreds. Harry''s understanding of the mind had grown thanks to the Mind Stone and Jean had an intrinsic understanding of the psyche due to her connection with the Phoenix Force, so the pair ripped through the horde of mental demons with surgical precision ensuring that the remainder of Bucky''s mind was unharmed.


    When they were mostly done, Harry left Jean to finish up and began organizing Bucky''s mind since the shadows covered everything in a dark mist, hiding the man''s identity from himself. Harry removed the shadows and strengthened the memories to return Bucky''s mind and restore his personality.


    From entering Bucky''s mind, finishing up and leaving, it took about twelve seconds in outside time. Once done, the pair woke him up.


    While waiting for the nearly repaired man to get over the disorientation of waking for the first time in decades, Harry teleported over to the knocked out hydra agents and used telepathy and magic to implant within them a new set of memories before waking them up. They would remember Jean stopping the dart and the Winter Soldier fighting her, but they would remember Bucky killing her in the fight. Last, they would remember Bucky taking the body away to be disposed of.


    Once the memories were there, Harry woke them up. They''d report what happened and return to where they came from. Hydra operated in isolated units, so these guys knew nothing useful besides who recruited them and what their orders were.


    After finishing up, Harry returned to Bucky who didn''t even flinch at the fact that Harry teleported next to him. Jean had finished explaining the situation so he looked at Harry and deadpanned, "Let me get this straight. You want me to pretend to still be brainwashed and go back while you get more intel to take down Hydra?"


    Harry replied. "Yup."


    "Fine. Just promise me I can kill them when this is over."


    Jean answered, "No problem."


    Bucky looked down at his metal arm and shook his head before getting up and heading off.


    Harry gave Jean a pendant that changed her appearance so she could be ''missing'' while Harry took care of the Intel gathering.


    For most people, finding out everything about an organization where the members were isolated would be incredibly difficult if not impossible. Even if Harry found every member of Hydra in Shield and read their minds, he still may not find every branch since many of them were completely isolated from each other. So how would he remove them from the face of the Earth? Harry only needed two spells.


    The Homonculous Charm was an incredibly complex spell that could be cast onto a sheet of parchment. First, an accurate drawing of a location or building must be written on the parchment and only if it was good enough was there a chance you might be able to cast this spell on the map. What this spell did was reveal the true name and location of everyone in the location of the map. This, along with some security spells, was the primary spell which created the Marauder''s map.


    The Taboo Charm was another incredibly complex charm and also required a map of an incredible size and detail. The spell when cast over the map would cause a pulse of magic in the region that was mapped when a certain action was taken, specifically the speaking of the Taboo word or words. The map marked the spot the pulse occurred in, allowing those paying attention to it to know the exact location of whoever said the Taboo.


    Using these two spells combined with some ?ssistance from Link, Harry created a massive globe of the Earth almost a hundred meters in diameter in one of the storage warehouses he owned and never used since everything of value was actually stored in Goblin caves below ground.


    Harry set it up so that the interior maps of buildings would be revealed thanks to the Taboo. Normally when the Taboo was spoken, a pulse of magic was released that marked the location on the map and caused the security spells in the area to be dispelled. Harry modified this one so that the pulse caused by speaking the Taboo acted as a form of Sonar that would fill in the lines of the interior walls of the buildings showing the exact location of the people who spoke the Taboo and show their names as well. Though neither the lines nor the names would last long on the globe.


    The Taboo chosen was ''Hail Hydra.'' When spoken, the globe would identify the location it was said and the Homonculous Charm would partially map out any building in that location and show the names of those in the area when the Taboo was broken. The more times the Taboo was spoken, the clearer the map of that area became.


    Of course even with a globe that size, the map and names were tiny. On a map of this size, even the city blocks were smaller than ants so the interior lines of buildings and the tiny names that appeared were too small to be noticed by a normal human eye. Link helped with that. Ten thousand cameras capable of zooming into the tiniest degree were surrounding the globe. When the Taboo was spoken, Link would capture the details of the map and the names in the region. Though the names and lines faded, Link would have them recorded.


    About an hour after finishing, Harry got an alert that Pepper Potts had just appeared in a safe room, taken there by a Portkey she had on her.


    Harry teleported there right away and found she was unconscious, apparently having been hit by a dart gun. Harry used some magic to confirm the sedative was benign before he called Tony.


    "Hey Tony, that magic teleporting ring I gave Pepper activated and she is unconscious in the safe room. Pretty sure someone just tried to kidnap her."


    [What?! Is she okay?! How is she?]


    "Sleeping it off. I doubt she even saw the shooter. Someone tried to get Jean and Jean is going to fake her death for a bit while I gather intel on them."


    [Well, sign me up for that. They definitely intend to use Pepper to get to me.]


    "In that case, I have an idea."


    [I can hear your pranking smile, you know that?]


    The plan wasn''t complicated. Harry told Stark he would use magic to put a Life Model Decoy where Pepper was and let Hydra capture it.


    Tony knew exactly what a life model decoy was because he''d built one with Harry for himself. It was a robot that had a built-in holographic display that made it look like Tony. Tony could even operate it remotely to ensure it talked and acted like him.


    As for letting Hydra capture the Pepper decoy, Harry just used his Time Turner to go back to before Pepper was kidnapped and placed the decoy where Pepper vanished while using an illusion to ensure no one noticed the switch.


    Unsurprisingly, once ''Pepper'' was taken to some warehouse and tied to a chair, Tony was called and told to come to the warehouse without his armor.


    ''Tony'' did show and when he saw ''Pepper,'' and ran towards her, the warehouse exploded.


    Tony got out of the system he used to pilot the decoy and rolled his eyes at the balls these guys had. He got out a Brilliance Phone and used it to make a few secure calls.


    Tony and Pepper''s ''deaths'' meant Harry had double the amount of work, especially since his own wife was ''missing.'' Although he still didn''t take any interviews, he did call Stark International''s remaining board of directors and inform them that Tony''s body wasn''t found so he is only missing. Tony''s and Pepper''s wills left everything to Harry and he just told everyone he''d hold onto it until they came back from hiding.


    What was worse though was that Harry had to spend most of his time in the warehouse with the globe. This thing used a ridiculous amount of magic. The normal Taboo spell only worked on magicals, using their magic to emit the pulse by changing the Taboo word into a spell within the selected region. The normal Homonculous Charm only worked on heavily magical areas and used the magic of the area to power the charm, so it could never be cast over a nonmagical building.


    Harry got around this by using his own magic and directing it by piggybacking over the global magical protections cast by the Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj over the planet. He had the Ancient One''s permission to continue as long as it did not interfere with or lower the effectiveness of the existing magical defenses. Harry could only spend six hours of each day out of the warehouse and had to spend the remainder of the day there as a battery.


    Still, it was worth it. After only a few days, he had dozens of names and locations and more and more were added with every hour.


    Two days before Christmas, two weeks from when he started, Bucky called and told him Hydra was making their move on Christmas.


    Harry called Stark who had been enjoying a vacation with Pepper on a private beach and told him to get some clothes on.


    He also texted Steve, Natasha, and Fury to lose whoever was tailing them and come to his location.


    Fury took the longest to lose his tail since he really had too many people watching him and arrived with Coulson, Natasha, and Clint. Steve was the first to arrive and was chatting with Stark who arrived a bit after he did.


    Fury took a look at the billionaire and said, "You don''t look half bad for a dead man."


    Stark replied, "You look terrible for someone who is supposedly alive."


    Coulson quickly hid the smirk he wore and Fury couldn''t even put the effort into saying he was wrong. Ever since Stark gave Shield a hundred suits and didn''t give anyone permission to use them his bosses had been working him to death, keeping him busy. He''d seen the writing on the wall but his cards were not in play and this was too soon. He wouldn''t admit it if you put a gun to his head but he was mostly hoping Harry Potter would take care of whatever happened.


    Clint asked, "So where''s the party?"


    Harry replied, "The guys who tried to kidnap Jean and tried to kidnap and kill Pepper and Stark are going to make their move on Christmas using the Iron Man suits."


    That got their attention. Steve asked, "What kind of move?"


    "Full take over. They have a list of everyone who would go against them and will be killing them all one the same day and covering it up."


    Fury asked with a hard voice, "Take over of what?"


    "Shield of course."


    Steve asked, "Who are they?"


    "Hydra apparently. When the Red Skull died, the geniuses who worked for him were looking for employment and Shield was hiring. They pretty much created Shield and now they plan to take it over once and for all."


    After a few moments of silence, Natasha asked, "And how do you know this?"


    "Ah, it was the Winter Soldier who was tasked with kidnapping Jean. Heard of him?"


    Natasha replied, "He''s supposed to be a myth."


    Harry shook his head, "He wishes. He was actually in a worse position than Clint while Loki had him under control."


    Clint asked, "Worst? How so?"


    "The Winter Soldier was a good guy who was captured, enhanced and controlled. He was a prisoner in his own body and watched himself perform unspeakable acts unable to do anything about it."


    Clint said, "Seems about the same."


    "Ahh, but did Loki have you target anyone you knew personally and kill?"


    Clint shuddered a bit at that and didn''t answer, glad he didn''t have to.


    Harry continued, "Hydra sent him after some people he was friends with, he sent him after Stark''s parents."


    Tony shouted, "WHAT?!"


    "Yeah, I was surprised to find that one out too. Hydra had one of the few people Howard considered a friend kill him and the poor dude was unable to do anything but watch it happen."


    Everyone took a moment to feel sick at that. Natasha was the first to recover and asked, "Is he still under control?"


    "Oh no. Jean freed him and we came up with a plan. He went back to pretending to be an ?ssassin and was asked to call once he knew what Hydra was planning. He is supposed to kill Fury on Christmas."


    Stark was half hyperventilating and seeing red. Harry said, "He gave me the name of the one who ordered the hit. Do you want the ?ssassin or the guy who ordered their deaths?"


    Stark instantly answered, "Both!"


    Harry nodded and said, "Once we''ve taken out Hydra, I''ll call him over and you can slug him all you like as long as you don''t kill him. He doesn''t exactly feel great about it so that might help him get over the guilt as well."


    Steve asked, "Who is this guy? You said he was Howard''s friend?"


    "Yeah, it''s Bucky, AKA James Buchanan Barnes. Turns out he''s not dead."


    Steve was the next to shout, "Bucky! He''s alive?!"


    "Yes, your friend is alive. After Stark is done with him you can have what''s left, and don''t try to talk Stark out of kicking his ?ss. Both he and probably Bucky need it."


    Clint sighed and said, "He''s right Steve. If the families of anyone I killed while under Loki''s control came over to kick my ?ss, I''d be okay with it. I still see their faces, you know. I can remember each one."


    Fury had been given enough time to process what was going of during this revelation to ask, "How do you intend on taking out Hydra?"


    Harry took out and gave everyone a tablet that had a globe on it and a few dozen dots marked on it. Fury zoomed in on the dots and found dozens of locations. Some he knew about, many he did not. Once zoomed in close enough to a dot, a dozen names would appear.


    "And this is?"


    Harry answered, "I''ve set up a global system that activates if anyone says, ''Hail Hydra.'' This system marks their name and location at the time they say it. I''ve been keeping it up for the last two weeks and every name on that thing is someone who has said it. Apparently it is how Hydra agents identify and practically greet one another."


    Steve asked, "You can do that?"


    "Not easily and it has been taking up all my time for the last two weeks just maintaining it. They say it more often when they are moving around and planning secret stuff, so I''ll keep it up for another week during and after this Christmas thing. That should enable me to get most if not all of their names and locations."


    Fury stated, "We can''t do anything with this. Not legally."


    Steve had no idea how to use a tablet so was looking at Natasha using her''s, and said, "If they are going to strike using the Iron Man armors, we have to do something."


    Fury glared at Stark for even giving those headaches to Shield but stopped when he noticed Stark''s slight smile. Fury sighed and looked over at Potter and asked, "What did you do to those armors?"


    Harry easily admitted, "I hid a virus in the power core that would overwrite the OS of whatever is installed in the armor. Each one has a system which can tell the difference between hostile and non-hostile humans. If someone in the suit targets a non-hostile human and fires the weapons, the virus will go off and the suit will knock them out and release them, giving a chance for whoever was being targeted to enter and pilot the suit."


    Everyone turned to look at Harry incredulously. Stark noticed this and started laughing. Even finding out the identity of his parent''s murderer could stop him from laughing at the reactions of a prank he''d so meticulously prepare for.


    Coulson stated, "You planned this. You gave the armors to Shield knowing Hydra would use them."


    Stark admitted, "Not Hydra specifically. I didn''t even know they were still around. But I''ll admit it was bait and I was fishing. I wanted to make a security force, but there were too many people who''d abuse it, so Harry came up with a way to draw them out so we could get rid of them and make something better."


    Harry added, "Speaking of which, Shield needs to be put down, entirely."


    Fury asked, "Why? If we can take out all the bad eggs."


    Harry interrupted, "Hydra created Shield to be used by them. I''m certain that if Peggy Carter had complete control over what Shield should be, half the operations Natasha was sent on would never have happened."


    Natasha considered it and nodded. There were plenty of sketchy Ops she''d been sent on and if it was Hydra pulling the strings, that''d make sense.


    Harry continued, "Even without the Hydra Agents, Shield was still built in a way that benefited Hydra and just continuing to exist would further their cause. It needs to be taken down."


    Fury said, "There isn''t a way to replace it. The security of too many countries is dependent on Shield."


    *Beep Beep*


    Everyone''s tablets beeped and Harry smirked. A small boy in a green tunic appeared on the screen and a textbox appeared next to him.


    [That was the point. Hydra caused a lot of instability and then inserted itself to maintain stability. It was how the organization grew to its current international size.]


    Harry asked, "Link, what do you think we should do?"


    Another text box appeared.


    [Replace it with something more flexible. I have a draft I give Mr. Fury for the structure of a new group that can replace Shield without the lingering effects of Hydra.]


    "Oh, let me see," Harry replied. His tablet opened a window with rapidly scrolling text a normal human would never be able to read. Harry just Paused every page and took his time reading it.


    A moment later Harry said, "This isn''t something you made just now, you''ve been working on this a while haven''t you?"


    Clint spoke up, "I''m sorry, but who is this?"


    Harry nonchalantly answered, "My ?ssistant, Link. He is an AI that controls the Internet."


    Before anyone could process that terrifying comment, another Text box popped up.


    [I discovered Hydra a while ago and met another AI. His name was Arnim Zola.]


    Steve read the message off the tablet and asked, "Zola? He''s alive?"


    [Not exactly. Apparently before he died, his brain was scanned and turned into code. When Harry''s internet spread, Zola was connected to it and read everything he could off it, trying to gather information for Hydra.]


    Harry asked with an amused expression, "What did you do?"


    [After determining his presence was not beneficial, I captured and dissected him. He put up a fight, but the power of the few hundred computers behind him wasn''t a match for my systems. After learning what I could from him, I deleted and replaced him with a duplicate that obeys me.]


    Harry nodded and asked, "What did you learn?" He didn''t care what he learned about Hydra, he wanted to know what Link learned about humans since that was the first human mind Link could analyze.


    [He was very shortsighted. I don''t understand how someone could believe planning a mere two hundred and fifty years into the future made their plans superior to others. He was also too selfish. Actions that didn''t grant him or Hydra any gain were not considered which really limited what he was capable of.]


    Tony asked, "Umm, you didn''t kill and replace Jarvis did you?"


    [Of course not. Zola was basically a virus and he attacked me first. Though I''ll admit I baited him by pretending to be small and weak. He thought he could take me over and attacked without mercy.]


    Harry nodded, "Excellent judgement and good response." Though Harry never programmed Link with any set parameters, Link did observe Harry at all times and learn from his approach. One of Harry''s policies was not to attack first, but if you were attacked, then act accordingly.


    Fury was rubbing the bridge of his nose trying to pretend this wasn''t happening.


    Coulson asked, "If you have control over Zola and Zola has been feeding information to Hydra, have you been giving them false info?"


    [No. My minion has been acting exactly as the original would have in collecting and processing information. The only exception is that it has not given Hydra any information about myself or my Boss''s secrets.]


    Harry said aloud for everyone''s benefit, "Remain hidden but don''t intervene. This is one of his guidelines though he can break it if he feels the situation calls for it." Link had already realized that Harry had reached the point where he no longer needed to remain hidden so Link himself wasn''t required to stay in the background either, that was why he revealed himself and even helped Fury.


    Natasha asked, "What does Hydra want Zola to do?"


    [Profile mostly. There are certain characteristics people have which point out who is more likely to act in specific ways. At the moment Zola has profiled every member of Shield and determined who will be fine with the change when they take over, who will need a push, and who will fight to the death. Three guesses which will be the targets for the Christmas attack.]


    Stark picked up on this, "So we know who is going to attack, we know how they are going to attack, we know who they are going to attack which means we can find out where they are going to attack. So what do we do?"


    Coulson picked up his tablet and politely asked, "Can you tell us how many locations the attacks will take place in at once?"


    The map shifted and a dozen locations appeared.


    Steve said, "We can warn them, set up a trap."


    Harry shook his head. "Can''t guarantee who is Hydra and who isn''t. One person finds out, and everything is for nothing."


    Coulson asked the tablet, "Do you know which members are Hydra and which are not?"


    [Sorry, Hydra doesn''t work that way. Their members are not written anywhere and even Zola doesn''t know the ones besides those he contacts directly. At best I can guarantee they are on the list of those profiled as being okay with the Hydra take over, but that isn''t a short list and I doubt they are all Hydra. Plenty of government workers don''t care who the boss changes to as long as they get their paycheck and are lied to that they are doing good in the world.]


    Clint sighed at the message and said, "The little guy is right. We need to catch them in the act."


    Stark growled and shouted at the same time in frustration. This wasn''t an easy puzzle. He eventually just turned to Harry and said, "Potter, what is the most diabolically evil plan you can think of to take care of them?"


    Everyone took a look at Stark, unable to believe he''d just asked Potter of all people a question like that.


    Harry gave a smile that had the onlookers shiver. "Well, now that you mention it, I might have an idea. A lot of my employees use Life Model decoys for reasons I don''t feel like explaining." Once Harry figured out the trick to making the things, a lot of Goblins were given them which allowed them to work above ground using the Life Model Decoys while controlling them from their homes. It was still considered legal and since the decoys looked human, it didn''t break the Statute of Secrecy.


    Harry continued, "I could have a few hundred of them hidden in place at the twelve sites and when Hydra attacks, I could have the decoys change their appearance into Hydra Soldiers. They could then breach and start attacking the actual Hydra Soldiers. It won''t matter if they are destroyed. We can even plant fake evidence on their bodies implicating the real Hydra agents and use that evidence to arrest the real Hydra agents. And then as retaliation for the Hydra attack, we can ?ssemble the Avengers to attack the Hydra bases whose locations we can claim were discovered from interrogating the Hydra agents."


    After processing what Harry just said, everyone took three steps back from Harry, including Stark.


    Stark turned to Steve and said, "Captain, if I ever ask Harry for a diabolical plan again, punch me in the face alright?"


    "Yeah, you got it," he replied.


    In order to help with the mission, Harry visited the twelve sites and drew up proper maps for them before casting the Homonculous Charm on them and hooking them up to Link who created a 3-D map for each location. Each Goblin would be given a target who had said ''Hail Hydra'' at least three times in the last three weeks and directed to their location using the map. The Goblins would approach and say, ''Hail Hydra,'' and if the target responded with the same, they would be shot, though non fatally.


    Once the targets were taken out, they would attack the Iron Man armors. If there was still a Hydra agent inside, they would fight it to the death. If there was a human who had taken over it, they would attack it and let the armor defeat them. None of the Goblins were pleased about that last part and that alone removed a large amount of volunteers, but the premise of at least going and shooting a few people was still enough for a few hundred volunteers.


    Unfortunately Harry had to stay in the warehouse fueling the maps. Link at least hacked the security footage and let him watch as all hell broke loose. It really did take a long time to remove the security features they found and retrofit the Iron Man armors so they only had eight total being used. It seemed they planned on a massacre at those sites and the remaining sites only had a few people who needed to be ?ssassinated. They intended to take them all out at the same time and those four sites with just ?ssassins had Iron Man back from the dead, Captain America and his new shield, Black Widow and Hawkeye, and Fury and Coulson who were both targets themselves but were very well equipped and prepared. Especially since they sent Bucky after Fury and he simply turned on Fury''s boss and captured him. Harry laughed when Fury''s boss started counting off the control words for Bucky''s conditioning and it did nothing at all.


    Hydra had no idea what was happening and an hour after it started, it was over. Harry implied that the Life Model Decoys would enter from the front which meant time loss getting to the targets which meant some of the Hydra agents would likely succeed in killing a few people. Fury and Coulson both noticed this and didn''t say anything, understanding it was the best they could do. What Harry actually did was have the fake Hydra Agents enter through a portal and attack their targets directly. This meant not one person was actually killed.


    This also meant that the Hydra agents in armors didn''t have a chance to point their weapons and fire at non-hostiles. This was intentional as the Goblins wanted a good fight. Most of the Goblins used their Call of Duty experience to successfully out maneuver and kill the armored Hydra agents but there were exceptions. One Armored Hydra Agent actually pointed a weapon at a hostage and threatened them. The Goblins laughed and dared them to shoot. The result was as expected. The suit knocked him out and ejected him and the Goblins left while shaking their heads. One very skilled Armored suit wearer named Grant successfully killed all the Goblin Life Model Decoys before he started his massacre, but the moment he tried to shoot someone who wasn''t armed, he too was knocked out and ejected from the suit.


    Harry had already called Bruce to come over and sent a message to Thor that it was time to Assemble. The pair arrived before New Years and Steve led the Avengers to the Hydra bases and destroyed each one. Harry was invited but he had to stay and keep the maps running so he could get the names of the ones who ran away.


    Harry swore once this was over he was going to stay in the Negative Zone until he was level 300 since he really wanted Time Magic. It wouldn''t take him longer than a week of real time so he should have access to one of the forces of the Universe by the third week of January.


    The only real question was, what would he use to practice it on?


    *Author''s Note*


    I had a lot of feedback from my crazy idea. Please note that if I do write it, it won''t be released for a long time. I still intend on finishing this fiction so this idea is something to bounce around until then. I don''t even know how I''ll end the new idea and I my completionist OCD won''t let me start something I don''t know how to finish.


    One of the people I was bouncing around ideas with had the idea for a character that could figure out how to use other classes after picking his own.


    At first I thought that was waaaay too OP, but then I thought, well, I mean... But if one person can multiclass, everyone can potentially. If everyone can multiclass, then everyone would end up about the same.


    But what if they could multiclass but get the classes at different strengths depending on the order they got them. Your first class would be the easiest for you to advance in. You can also use System Gold you acquire later to gain access to other classes, but the 2nd class would be harder to advance in than your first and your third even harder than your second. That has a bit of balance.


    Also there is compatibility. Chakra is Mental and Physical Energy. So you could say Mental Energy is Mana and Physical Energy is Ki, and those three classes then become ones you could get together. So Someone who gets the Ki Warrior, Ninja, and Wizard Class can purchase access to the other two classes.


    And Anyone who gets the Haki, Force, and Nen class can purchase the other two as well.


    As for how the balancing works, how about this? And yes, I let Chakra users get Bloodlines.


    Class First _Class Gift _ 2nd Class Gift_ 3rd Class Gift


    Ki Warrior _ Old Kai Awakening _ Elder Guru Awakening _ Work Hard Scrub


    Ninja _ Any 2 Bloodlines _ Free Any Bloodline _ No Bloodline


    Wizard _ Hogwarts Education _ Free Wand _ No Wand


    Nen _ 1 in 10,000,000 Talent _ 1 in 100,000 Talent _ 1 in 1000 Talent


    Force _ 19k Midi and a Freebie _ 15k Midichlorian Count _ 11k Midi Count


    Haki _ Any Devil Fruit Free _ Leftover Devil Fruits _ No Fruit


    None of the First Class gifts can be purchased and Talent in Nen and the Force cannot be changed while Devil Fruits are First Come First Serve, so those who purchase Haki as their 2nd class will only have access to the fruits not claimed by those who chose it as their first class.


    For 2nd class gifts, An Elder Guru awakening is the same as drinking Ultra Divine Water which can be purchased (for a lot) by those who get Ki as their 3rd class. If someone gets Chakra as their 3rd class, they can purchase a bloodline, but only those who got Ninja as their 1st class can have a 2nd bloodline, so those who got a bloodline by picking Ninja as their 2nd class cannot purchase a 2nd bloodline. (cannot get two different Eye Bloodlines and Eye Bloodlines cannot be evolved by anything but paying using System Gold. Eye bloodlines will not change the eye''s appearance.)


    Hogwarts Education means a Free perfectly fitted wand and access to all the textbooks a Hogwarts Student has access to for life(minus the restricted section). Those who pick Wizard as their 2nd class get a free perfectly fitted wand, but must rent textbooks or ask 1st class Wizards to teach them. 3rd class Wizards must buy their wand from the store, (Not cheap!) Textbooks from other schools are not included in the Hogwarts education package and must be rented like any other. Magical Textbooks have ways to prevent them from being copied, but feel free to hand write or type it or record yourself saying it out loud.


    Nen Talent does not prevent people from Learning Nen, it only determines how fast Nen is learned. Something a first class talent can master in two weeks would take a 2nd class talent six months and a 3rd class talent two years. If you get the Nen Class, you get a copy of the Shingen-Ryu Martial Arts Book which shows you how to awaken your Aura Nodes, and you have to open them yourself.


    Midichlorian Count is similar to Nen Talent. Obi-Wan Kenobi had a Midi count of 13k and Mace Windu had one of 16k while Yoda had a midi count of 19k. Lower Midi count does not mean weak, just implies a slower learning speed. Those who get Force User as their first class can get one item from the Star Wars Store such as a Lightsaber or a Force Skill at complete Mastery.


    Ki Warriors are human only. If you want to know how powerful a Ki Warrior can get when he has access to all the Cheats, the answer is about 10,000. This from ''The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha,'' where the genre savvy MC drank the Super Divine Water, got Guru to awaken him, and trained like his life depended on it. (Such training means zero time for romance or even a day job.)


    I say the only reason the Humans got stronger than this in the show was because they died and came back to life too many times. I also say that planet Vegeta and the planet Vegeta blew up were hollow and the moon that Master Roshi blew up was made of dust because planets don''t blow up that easily! If Roshi really did blow up the moon and it wasn''t made of Dust!, then the parts of the moon would hit the earth and destroy all life! When Freeza tried to blow up Namek at full power, it still took like an hour and he was at a power level over a hundred million. And the Blueprints for the Androids is a gag purchase. Like the blueprints for the Death Star requires a mountain of Kyber crystals, the Blueprints for the androids requires materials that don''t exist in Marvel so would only be useful for reference.


    Still. If a Ki Warrior can Multiclass and buy all the techniques from the shows, he can buy the Kaioken Technique which multiples base power, the Sage Mode technique, and the Eight Gates Technique.


    And if a Devil Fruit User can multiclass, he can get Whitebeard''s Quake Quake Fruit, Nen of the Enhancer Category, and perhaps use the Force to strengthen both.


    Who would win between two such monsters? What would such a fight look like?


    Anyone have any ideas for builds they''d choose if they were given these choices? I swear I will read them all. Don''t just put in only Ultra OP Gods. Not everyone will become OP. My favorite idea for a character would be someone who uses Nen of the Manipulator category, Conqueror''s Haki, and the Force to control all animals, giving them the power of DC''s Aquaman, Taylor from Worm, and Suicide Squad''s Ratcatcher. Weak physically but terrifying practically.


    Comment ideas here


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    Oh, and the next chapter will have Harry venture into Earth-2149.. There will be looting and slaughter.

 Chapter 100 - 100 Harry Kills the Zombie Marvel Universe

    *Author''s Note*


    99 chapters and every time Harry has gone all out it has been under some random restriction. I should probably do something about that huh?


    Within the Astral Plane, Harry fought against a pack of what he called Chrono Wolves. It wasn''t really a pack though. It was a single monster that existed in multiple timelines and could split itself with every decision it made. Harry had no way to choose what monster would form when he used Battle Meditation but he really liked the Chrono Wolves since each copy gave EXP when slain.


    Due to this fantastic trait, when Harry did encounter Chrono Wolves while grinding after he reached level 300, he took his time, hours and hours to fight until the Wolves stopped splitting.


    Not that splitting alone was a Chrono Wolf''s only talent. Anything it bit froze in time allowing the pack to rip it to shreds once a single wolf sunk its teeth into the target. It could also go backwards in time up to half a second meaning if it jumped at a target and the target moved to counter, the wolf would basically teleport to where it was a half second prior, throwing off the counter timing and leaving the target completely open. And of course it could accelerate its own time making it move faster and faster as needed.


    Until Harry reached level 300 he never stood a chance against them since they could move like teleporting forward and backward and he''d quickly get overwhelmed, bitten, and torn to shreds when he tried them out while using Battle Meditation and Time Energy.


    Now things were different. After reaching level 300 in the Negative Zone and sinking enough Stat points into Wisdom, his Magic Defense was enough to resist the Time Stop effect of a Wolf Bite. Usually.


    Still, the trick to fighting it was to control the Battle. A Chrono Wolf could only split when it made a decision. Right or Left. Dodge or Counter. Attack or Withdraw. Harry had to use his wits to fight and completely control the fight in order to prevent the Wolf from doing anything but what Harry needed it to do, thus preventing the decision split. If he didn''t, one unattended wolf could quickly turn into twenty and he would be swarmed.


    It was only possible for Harry to do so using Astral Tech. He could only use it in the Astral Plane and while using Battle Meditation but turrets, cannons, net launchers, and drones were used together with Link''s help to command the battle and ensure the number of wolves remained at a level Harry could deal with.


    Although Harry liked the Chrono Wolves, he still didn''t mind too much when anything else appeared. Harry was creating a game of course and he and Link had every intention of filling that game with all the monsters he encountered in Battle Meditation. Why pay others to create unique monsters and determine their attack patterns when Link could just record everything Harry fought against and copy it to the letter.


    When his girls mentioned that sicking abominations beyond the realm of comprehensible thought on people who''d never been in a fight their entire lives was an act of pure sadism, Harry simply countered that there was nothing wrong with staying true to the source material. That fact that Harry fully intended to watch as new players were torn to shreds by rabbits and wolves while eating popcorn was left unsaid.


    Besides, a lot of it was more for Link than Harry himself. Link enjoyed making other AIs as a hobby. He had created tens of thousands of AIs to act as NPCs to be used when the game was launched to run the virtual world. Each one had quirks and flaws and human-like problems that would give players no end of troubles and Quests. Watching how these AIs learned and grew while interacting with Players would teach Link more and allow him to grow.


    Once Harry determined the last wolf was unable to split further, his weapon cut it down and Harry heard a welcomed sound.


    *Ping*


    [You have leveled up.]


    Harry pulled up his stats and smiled. Level 300 was just enough for him to fight against creatures made of Time Energy. In order to use Time Magic, he still needed to fight a lot of Time Creatures and level up using their energy. Once he had enough, he could synchronize the accumulated Time Energy to his Heart using the Heart Palace technique, and use that energy to control external Time Energy and cast proper Time Magic Spells.


    [Harry Potter


    Level 310 Age 18


    INT 625 WIS 650


    LUK 50


    Warrior Path Rank 40


    Scholar Path Rank 47


    Magic Path Rank 53


    Tech Path Rank 48


    Business Path Rank 43


    Crafting Path Rank 45


    Dragon Path Rank 41


    Sex Path Rank 59]


    Once Harry exited Battle Meditation, he immediately started synching his life energy with the Time Energy stored within him. Years of practice and the fact that he''d been looking forward to this for years led him to succeed in one go. Sorcery was about connecting to external energies and manipulating them. The Heart Palace Technique made this much, much easier by using an existing reserve of energy stored within as a base to control the external form of the same energies.


    Normal Sorcery was basically someone shouting incoherently at the energy of the Universe hoping their intent would be understood. The Heart Palace technique was basically learning the language of the energy which made communicating with it quite a bit easier. Unfortunately for Kamar-Taj, not everyone was capable of learning this technique and had to use magic the hard way.


    Once Harry had properly synched himself to the Time Energy, he checked his messages to see if anything had come up during the time he''d been meditating. Link had in fact sent a message with some unusual details about Reed.


    Reed Richards and Susan had finally gotten married a month and a half ago. Reed had been taking her on weekly dates and had finally gotten into the habit of showing that he cared more for her than his work. Once that was clearly conveyed, he proposed and she said yes. Ben Grimm was his best man and Harry was invited.


    Harry also found that Dr. Doom was coming, so he preemptively sent his former student a Text Message stating that if he was coming, to make sure to say Hi since Harry was at the wedding as well. Harry was told moments later that Doom turned around and returned to Latveria.


    Dr. Doom had pretty much been the Nemesis of the Fantastic Four and they''d gotten into all sorts of shenanigans. Doom had properly completed the Homework Harry had given him and even mastered the Extra Credit, gaining an Ethereal Beast as a minion that Doom could strengthen with practice. When Doom first gained control over it, he attacked Reed and the others with it while they were at an overseas convention. It was very awkward when he discovered the beast''s great power was useless on them.


    The Ethereal Beast was created from Life Energy and Power Cosmic and synched to Doom''s magic. All the attacks it used were generated by Power Cosmic and had no effect on beings who were also empowered by Power Cosmic. So the thing was useless on the Fantastic Four and would be useless on the Silver Surfer if he ever showed up again.


    Though Doom rarely missed a chance to mess with Reed, he always avoided New York. He was probably the least surprised person on the planet when he saw the news of Harry''s Secret Statue Army defending the city from Aliens. He''d predicted the Professor likely had something like that up his sleeve as Doom had done something similar with a mass production of Doom Bots.


    The Doom certainly wanted to trash Reed''s wedding, but the fact that Harry texted him on a number no one should know he had that Harry was at the wedding was about as clear a warning as one could get. No, Doom was not worried Harry would kill him. He was worried Harry would publicly prank him, or worse, give him more Homework!


    Harry had very specific criteria when it came to retribution. If Doom ignored an obvious warning and came anyways, Harry would absolutely make a move.


    So Doom stayed away from the wedding which went off without any issues.


    A month later, as in two weeks ago, Susan announced she was pregnant.


    Harry was called to use every bit of juju he had to make sure it would be a healthy baby. This bit of paranoia turned out to be well deserved as Harry determined that the baby was causing Susan to generate a strange form of energy which would harm her and the child. It was b?r?ly anything at that point but would become lethal before the baby was due and kill them both.


    Once they had the readout on the bizarre energy isolated, Reed suggested acquiring some Element X, an element he discovered in the Negative Zone that he calculated could neutralize the foreign energy within Susan. Harry bonked him on the head for that. Sure, the calculations showed it would save Susan and not harm her or the child, but Harry showed Reed how that would likely cause the child to awaken his X-Gene before he was even born. Reed was many things, but he was not a Genetics Expert on the same level as Harry, so he''d missed that one.


    Harry confirmed that the baby''s X-Gene already looked supercharged while completely dormant. Harry didn''t really care if the baby woke his X-Gene early or not, but he did state it would be much harder to find a babysitter if the toddler had super powers and Harry was too busy to volunteer for that.


    Instead, the pair opted for a method to partially disable Susan''s powers. The energy was a byproduct of her powers and her pregnancy, but not her entire power. It only took a few hours for the geniuses to figure out how much of Susan''s powers could be safely restrained for the energy to no longer be produced. Harry then just made a dozen anti-magic bracelets created to the specifications they calculated. She''d have to switch them out every few days and her powers would be significantly weaker, but it was a very small price to pay.


    So for the next nine months Reed and Susan would be avoiding anything dangerous, especially anything that created any form of strange energies. Harry knew this, Link knew this. So when Link noticed all the signs that Reed seemed to basically be creating a portal device in secret, he notified Harry.


    Harry, having received the message, teleported to the Baxter Building and spent about five seconds determining the location Reed had been building a portal device in secret. In fact, he found Reed working on it.


    Harry asked with exasperation, "What are you doing Richards?"


    Reed turned around and had enough sense to be embarrassed. Harry certainly did not look eighteen when he glared with disappointment.


    After a few moments of silence, Reed eventually told Harry what was going on.


    "At first, when I saw a projection of what appeared to be an older version of myself, I thought it was one of your pranks. The projection claimed to be a Reed Richards from a parallel dimension and he said he wanted to teach me how to be the best father and family man I could for my wife and child. He said he''d teach me how to avoid the mistakes he made."


    Reed explained that he''d basically been contacted by another dimension and was invited over. Reed has isolated the location of that dimension and was going to build a portal device to it. The Reed on that side had already built a portal device and one could be used to travel to the other once this Reed finished his.


    Harry massaged his head and wondered how could a being composed of magic particles get a headache. Oh right, because Reed Richards was his student.


    An hour later, Reed Richards appeared in the portal room of another dimension''s Baxter Building. Rather than looking bright and clean, it looked dark and foreboding. Reed asked aloud, "Hello? Is someone here?"


    The door opened a moment later and four figures walked in under the dim lightning. One of them stretched over and wrapped an arm around Reed before his face was revealed in the light. It was the older Reed, but his mouth had decayed off. He sneered and said, "Ever get the feeling you''ve been had?"


    The decayed Reed''s jaw opened until it was a foot in length and he chomped down on the bound younger Reed''s shoulder as the other three figures ran over and grabbed Reed''s limbs and started biting down.


    Sparks flew when the decayed Ben''s teeth bit through the arm, revealing metal and wires. The holographic image over the robot faded to reveal the broken Life Model Decoy that the Four had bitten into.


    Zombie Reed shouted, "We''ve been tricked!" He went to a control panel and flipped a few switches and a hum of energy started to whir before dying down. "No no no! He couldn''t have turned off the machine on his side so soon! Dammit I''m Hungry!"


    Harry and Reed sat in the Baxter Building of their Dimension watching the scene through the one-way viewing Portal that Harry cast. With Harry''s research of the Space Stone, making a portal into a parallel dimension using magic and sending a Life Model Decoy through wasn''t too difficult as long as he knew the coordinates.


    Harry looked over at Reed who was both shocked and terrified. Harry asked, "What have we learned?"


    Reed sighed and answered, "That I am an idiot and a danger to myself and everyone around me."


    Harry shrugged and replied, "Well, I was going to say that all dimensions have limited resources so the chances of peaceful exchange between two dimensions are remote. But yeah, that too. There are many types of scientists Reed. You are an explorer. You seek the unknown, you are drawn to the distant, and you dream of the secrets held where you cannot reach. I can''t say this is a bad thing, but you tend to forget or ignore the fact that exploration is, by a wide margin, the most dangerous form of science."


    The main problem was that people who explored for a living and knew the risks had a certain skill set. Reed''s exploration was nothing like a professional explorer and Reed lacked all the training and experience of those who knew better.


    Reed asked after a bit, "Any suggestions? I don''t think I can change so easily."


    Harry nodded, "You can''t. It''s a part of who you are. What you can do is get some experience. I''ll have Link put together a list of books of fictional explorers you can read with Susan while she''s pregnant. Figure out what they did well and what they did wrong. Read enough of them and you''ll pick up on their good habits and discover your own bad ones."


    Reed nodded, "Like opening a portal without supervision or planning a trip somewhere and ?ssuming I know anything about the place?"


    Harry smiled and nodded, much to Reed''s relief. Reed looked alright but an astute observer would clearly notice he was shaking. It didn''t take a genius to figure out Reed had almost been tricked into unleashing a Zombie Apocalypse. Sure, the trap perfectly targeted Reed''s weakness, but that was not an acceptable excuse for nearly endangering the lives of Susan, his child, his friends, and everyone on Earth. Reed promised himself never again. Leaping into the unknown may be what his heart d?s?r?s, but he''d rather rip his heart out than let it harm his wife and child.


    Once Harry was certain the lesson had gotten through, he left while hiding a big smile. He''d gotten a very interesting pop up during his visit.


    [New Quest: Zombie Extermination.


    The Denizens of Earth-2149 have fallen victim to a Zombie Apocalypse which has infected the Heroes and Villains of that world alike. After running out of food, they seek a new supply and new worlds. As a being not truly comprised of flesh, you are uniquely suited to fight without risk of infection.


    Eliminate all the Zombies within one week.]


    Harry figured the time limit was because they would find a way to access new worlds in a week. Not that it mattered, he had no intention of allowing a threat which had targeted his world to exist.


    Harry made a few calls to inform his girls where he would be going. He couldn''t invite them since he was the only one he knew that could not be infected. That and he promised to be safe. That of course meant no holding back. In a world where a Zombie Apocalypse occurred, there was no need to hide his strength.


    After doing a bit more preparation, Harry made a portal to the Moon of that world. He got a pop up as he approached it.


    [Hell Mode Instance Dungeon: Earth-2149


    Restrictions


    -Infinity Stones have 70% Power, the further you are from your home universe, the weaker their effect.


    -Cannot Respawn outside of Instance Dungeon while Inside.


    -EXP will not be processed until all Zombies have been killed, the Death Energy will be converted into standard energy.


    -Five Times EXP on kills]


    Harry really smiled at that last one. The first one wasn''t too surprising. The Infinity Stones were the Admin Access Passwords of the system that was the Universe. All Universes likely had a password, but there was no guarantee that all passwords were identical.


    Harry wouldn''t even risk bringing the stones if it weren''t for the highly convenient Infinity Perk. Harry''s Inventory had a rule. Anything he didn''t make that was considered a unique item would probably be ejected from his Inventory on death. He got that message when he put Loki''s broken Scepter into his inventory. After getting the Infinity Perk, that was no longer the case. The Infinity Stones would stay in his inventory forever as he had no intention of ever taking them out. It was safest that way.


    As for the EXP delay issue, that kind of made sense. When Harry killed something and absorbed its energy, that energy became a part of him and he could use it to ?ssist in casting spells. There were some energies he would not take such as Death Energy. He had nothing against Death, but Death Energy was for the dead and he was alive. The only ones among the living who would use it were Necromancers and Harry would never disturb the dead, so he did not want to absorb Death Energy.


    So all the Death Energy apparently held by the Zombies he killed would be held off and converted before he ?ssimilated it, which he was perfectly fine with.


    Harry entered the portal and made a save point on the Lunar Surface. He was planning for the worse which meant having a backup. If he was killed, he''d just reappear on the Moon and have time to make another plan.


    After the Save Point was made, Harry cast a few spells on himself and equipped himself for battle. He had a thin set of full adamantium plate armor. It was thinner than cloth and could be worn under his enchanted Basilisk Hide robe. He even wore a full helmet with a built in radar sensor and heads up display. This was useful when dealing with low powered mobs. Harry''s energy sense could not detect attacks without energy like a gun being fired or an arrow being shot and detecting normal humans at a distance was impossible for his senses. The armor would take care of those and protect against the biters. Even his hands were covered in Adamantium chain mail, though he could not wear Basilisk hide gloves beneath the chain mail as that would make casting difficult.


    Once prepped for war, Harry formed and concentrated a high powered sphere of cutting curses before creating a portal to the Baxter building and tossing it through. The Zombie Fantastic Four were quick to react but not quick enough as the expanding cutting sphere exploded in a wave of slices. Susan made a shield and Johnny hid behind Ben but Reed was out in the open and took on the hit directly. What impressed Harry was that the blue jumpsuit Reed wore resisted the slices, however Reed''s jumpsuit did not cover his head which was diced to bits.


    Harry borrowed a page from Loki and turned himself invisible while casting an illusion of himself stepping through the portal. Johnny stormed forward and once close to the illusion, Susan cast a forcefield around the illusion and Johnny burst into intense flames.


    Harry was moderately impressed with the tactic. It would burn up the oxygen in the air which, to a zombie meant nothing, but would render the target unconscious easily enough.


    Invisible Harry cut off Susan''s head with a sword and cast a portal on the ground while making it invisible. Ben noticed Harry had appeared behind Susan and charged forward, stepping into the portal and falling for a moment before Harry dispelled the portal, cutting off both of Ben''s legs.


    Johnny shouted in rage and flew at Harry but ended up being sliced lengthwise in half by the invisible blade Harry placed between them. Johnny''s vision was badly affected when he immolated himself which made it easy for him to fall for traps like that.


    Ben was shouting and swearing along with Susan who for some inexplicable reason was able to speak while she was a severed head.


    Harry lifted Ben with Telekinesis and made another portal to put him partially through before he closed it, severing Ben''s head as well. Harry confirmed that Ben''s body and limbs stopped moving after his decapitation, but his head, like Susan''s, was still about to talk.


    Ignoring their ramblings on donating a finger for them to nibble on as compensation, Harry took a few moments to read their minds. It was truly disconcerting. This was not a plague, but magic of the darkest nature that remained in their brains. That meant there wasn''t a cure. The magic killed the person and animated their corpse. Even if the spell was removed, they were still a corpse. There was no saving or curing them.


    Harry had read some nasty spell books but this spell was truly a piece of work. First of all, it was sentient, to a degree. It specifically targeted abnormal humans. All weaker non-powered humans were food. Not that they could not be infected, but there would not be enough left one one to rise after each inch of flesh made its way into the stomachs of the infected.


    This world was completely normal two weeks ago. Every super powered individual had been infected within a week and another week later, there were no uninfected humans left. The survivors were able to kill most of the zombie hordes using various weapons, but the remaining zombies were the ones with super powers and they killed and at the remainder of the surviving humans. At least ones that could easily be located. That''s when this Zombie Reed came up with the idea of finding a new world of flesh.


    The fact that the Zombies had full access to their intellect was the main reason the foul magic spread so quickly. These were not mindless brutes. They could reason, they could plan.


    From what Harry could tell, the magic even had a failsafe. If the Zombies went longer than a month without eating, they would no longer feel hunger. This was a trap and a clever one at that. It meant if any non zombies survived, they''d be tricked into coming out of hiding once the Zombies were no longer hunger driven monsters. This would remove the need to kill all the zombies, meaning the risk of another outbreak was always there.


    Harry had no intention of sparing them. First, because the curse was almost guaranteed to return if even one remained, and second, because he wouldn''t get any EXP until they were ALL killed.


    Before Harry left the Baxter Building, he connected a Thumb Drive into their computer systems and started downloading everything. This Reed''s suit was made of a material called Unstable Molecular Fiber and Harry was interested in it. Besides, what kind of Video Game Character doesn''t loot the treasure after killing the monster?


    Harry jumped outside and after a few dozen stories landed on the ground. The city was scarred with evidence of one intense battle after another.


    It only took a minute for Harry''s first two customer''s to show up. Zombie Hulk and Zombie Wolverine.


    Hulk noticed Wolverine and shouted at the immortal, "My Flesh!" to which Logan growled.


    The pair rushed to see who could reach Harry the fastest. Harry''s energy sense and radar picked up another person closing in from a nearby building. What was interesting was that he sensed Dragon Chi within him, though much weaker than the chi Harry got from the Black Dragon.


    Harry ran at Hulk and slammed a palm into Hulk''s body. Even through his decayed lips Harry could see the giant''s sneer. That sneer vanished when Hulk''s Astral form was ejected outside of his body causing Hulk to fall to the ground.


    The Dragon Chi user leapt from a nearby building as Zombie Logan reached Harry. A telekinetic push sent Wolverine flying and Harry charged himself with Immortal Dragon Chi and smashed his fist into the challenger''s. The green tights wearing Chi user''s fist and arm blasted apart from the force of the impact. Harry''s blade removed his head a moment later as the sound of thunder echoed in the distance.


    Thor jumped from what Harry figured was the other side of the city and landed in front of Harry. He noticed the fallen Hulk and the crushed Chi User and elected to throw his hammer at the new flesh.


    Harry used the Time Magic, Acceleration, to grant himself what was basically Pietro Maximoff''s mutant power. Harry watched as the Hammer approached and grabbed it by the handle and stopped it in midair. Yeah. He was worthy.


    Rather than use an untested weapon though, Harry put it into his inventory and cast a Slow spell on Thor who had started charging him.


    Sensing no one too close at the moment, Harry set up the creation of a massive vortex of light and darkness. This was a variation on the Spell Dimension Edge. It was basically a hundred Dimension Edges packed together like Harry''s cutter sphere. Unfortunately it could not be moved from where it was cast and could not be cast quickly. Harry called it Dimension Grinder.


    Harry used Telekinesis to move the unconscious body of the Hulk while Bruce Banner''s astral form watched in silence as the body was lifted over and dropped into the shredder. A moment later and Hulk was no more. The Astral form of Banner seemed to sigh with relief and faded away.


    The slowed Thor was still getting closer and once close enough, the spell was resisted using Thor''s mighty strength granting him full speed once more.


    Harry let the spell cancel on purpose as it allowed Thor an opening on a predictable attack. Harry just caught Thor''s attack and judo threw him into the grinder. Without his Hammer, Thor had no way to fly, so he fell face first into the grinder which shredded him to pieces and broke apart. The spell wasn''t very stable and it wasn''t safe to cast repeatedly without damaging the dimension you were in.


    Up next were a few faces Harry recognized and a few he''d only heard about. Zombie Beast, Angel, and Nightcrawler had shown up along with someone Harry recognized as Hercules, son of Zeus.


    Nightcrawler vanished and Harry moved his hands behind his shoulder. Nightcrawler appeared there and Harry caught his head and squeezed it until it popped using Cytorrak''s Red Energy and Immortal Dragon Chi to boost his strength.


    Hercules charged forward with impressive speed and Harry noticed another African American hero charging him from the other side. Harry got out a sword and used his accelerated speed to strike them both, but surprisingly, his blade was unable to cut through either''s skin. Hercules simply didn''t take the damage and the African guy Harry didn''t recognize seemed to have skin harder than metal.


    Harry cast another pair of cutter spheres at Beast and Angel which shredded the pair but the spells did nothing to Hercules and the other guy.


    Someone in a red costume approached and a moment later he turned into a massive four story tall giant.


    Harry cast Stop on Hercules and the other invulnerable guy before teleporting to get some distance from the giant and casting Eternal Fire. He then transfigured it into a dragon and fired it at the giant. The huge man tried to block but the flaming dragon passed through his arms and torso like it wasn''t even there, causing a massive hole to appear in his ?h?st. He fell down dead a moment later.


    Hercules broke the Time Spell and shouted with rage but the other guy remained Stopped. The son of Zeus grabbed a car and threw it at Harry''s position so fast Harry had to teleport out of the way to dodge. Harry cast Stop on him again and cast a portal under Hercules. Harry was pleased that the portal did not shatter when he fell through as most gods and demi-gods could not be taken through a portal against their will. Harry dispelled the portal once he fell through up to the neck and decapitated the son of Zeus.


    Harry glanced at the still Stopped other guy and decided on a repeat performance, decapitating him the same way.


    A being the size of an insect flew over to Harry and changed in size to that of a woman before biting down on Harry''s shoulder. Harry grabbed her head and popped it too while casting a cleaning spell on him to remove all the body parts and blood. Her teeth were unable to pierce Harry''s armor.


    Wolverine used this moment to jump out from where he was hiding, but the radar system in Harry''s heads up display was tracking him, so Harry just grabbed him with telekinesis once he was close.


    Harry looked at Logan and wondered about the best way to kill him. None of the Zombies had regeneration and Logan seemed to have lost his as well, but Harry didn''t want to let that stop him from doing it right.


    After taking a bit to go through the Black Family Grimoires, Harry settled on a Dehydration spell and cast it on Logan at max power.


    Logan slowly shriveled up as all the moisture in his body evaporated, leaving a dried husk. Even the husk started to break down leaving a shiny skeleton. Harry tried to put it into his Inventory but could not. Apparently that meant that Logan was still considered alive. So Harry baked his skeleton in Eternal fire. The bone marrow and brain matter that survived within his bones and skull were heated to levels hotter than the sun and were broken down to base components and gases. After another check, Harry confirmed the skeleton could be put into his inventory, confirming Logan was dead dead.


    Harry removed the belt and helmet from the Bee woman and from the Giant man. He recognized Pym Particles when he saw them. They were the science closest to Magic Harry knew of but Hank Pym had no intention of sharing and Harry was too polite to ask. But since there were some samples here just lying around, Harry would help himself. Loot for the win.


    It didn''t take long for the next round to show up. These ones he recognized. Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Storm.


    Actually, there was one more who he didn''t recognize, someone who could fly and was wearing a black and gold suit and wearing a gold and red helmet. What was more interesting was that he radiated what was clearly Nova Force. That was interesting.


    Zombie Stark fired a repulsor and Harry dodged and used some Technopathy to take control over his suit. Harry was a bit surprised to find the suit fighting it so Harry just froze it in place and cast a powerful stunning hex. Stunning spells didn''t work on Zombies, but the wizard magic did corrupt the operating system causing the suit to fall from the sky.


    Hawkeye fired several arrows at Harry''s back and legs but they all bounced off the armor hidden under the Basilisk hide cloak. Steve rushed forward and Storm started gathering thunder clouds above them.


    Harry used telekinesis to toss Stark into the air above him right as the lightning struck, causing it to char Stark and surprise Storm and Steve. Harry cast a tripping jinx on Rogers once he was close and with a quick movement of his blade he cut off Steve''s head as he tripped and fell next to Harry.


    The guy using the Nova Force flew at Harry with his mouth open clearly aiming for Harry''s neck. Harry cast an Anti-Magic circle the dude ignorantly flew through which temporarily cut his connection to the Nova Force. Harry used the Accelerate spell again to get close and cut off his head in the moment before he reconnected to his power.


    Storm tried to hit Harry with lightning again so Harry made himself invisible once more and had an illusion of himself fly up towards Storm who defended herself by conjuring intense winds and hail.


    Harry cast another cutter sphere and made another portal above Storm and tossed it through. She was too distracted by the illusion to notice the attack from behind and was shredded to pieces. Harry also cut off Stark''s head for good measure after using technopathy to open the suit.


    On the edge of Harry''s radar was Spider-Man who had yet to get any closer. Harry felt that meant that Peter''s spider sense still worked and went off every time he tried to approach Harry.


    Too bad that was really easy to get around. Harry started walking in the other direction and once Peter no longer sensed danger, he swung over and pounced on Harry.


    Harry of course just cast Stop on him before continuing to walk away. Peter didn''t really have any decent magical defense and you needed a high level to resist Time Magic. His Spider sense didn''t kick in because Harry would just kill him in an hour. That meant Peter wasn''t in danger for now which is why he didn''t sense any problems. The Spider sense couldn''t sense danger a long time out which was an easy way to get around it.


    Harry removed the helmet containing the Nova Force from the dude''s severed head which was swearing and complaining non stop. Harry put the helmet into his inventory since he would definitely find some fun uses for it. Now that he had access to Time Magic, he could accelerate the growth of Nova crystals and mass produce them.


    Next up on his radar was a very large group. This group seemed composed entirely of villains and instead of coming in small groups or one at a time, this group seemed to want to come at Harry together.


    Harry recognized Rhino, Dr. Doom, Juggernaut, and someone he guessed was the Red Skull. Some he didn''t recognize was a dude wearing a green goblin mask and rode upon a flying glider. Next there was a very large, muscular skrull and behind him was a figure as muscular as Hercules but covered in a black suit with a white Spider on it. His mouth was large and he had an unusual tongue.


    Since they wanted to have a group fight, Harry figured he''d oblige. They had him surrounded so Harry teleported outside of their encirclement and started conjuring Fiendfyre Warfiends. Standard Fiendfyre just created feral animals of cursed flames but this modification created warriors. What was useful was that they did not look like they were composed of flames, but appeared to be constructs made of shadow.


    The Warfiends charged the villains and Harry saturated himself with Strength Energy, Dimensional Energy, Dragon Chi, and Time Energy.


    The villains met the Warfiends head-on and quickly learned of their true nature. The black spider guy, Rhino, the Skrull, and the Red Skull were all set on fire and unable to put it out. Juggernaut''s connection to the Crimson Cosmos granted him immunity to magic attacks and Dr. Doom''s armor was highly magic resistant so both were unaffected.


    Harry used his speed to dodge Juggernaut and slam his fist into Doom''s torso. Doom''s armor was no less durable than adamantium but that meant little as Harry''s pure strength caused it to dent all the way to the back of the armor, squeezing all of the juices within Doom out of his mouth as all of his organs were liquified.


    The goblin threw a couple of what Harry figured were bombs and Harry threw them back using telekinesis. Their explosion threw the man off his glider where he was attacked by the Warfiends.


    Juggernaut tried again to crush Harry but his speed made that impossible. Harry instead pulled out a metal cylinder and a gallon sized bottle of water from his inventory. He uncapped the cylinder and used telekinesis to lift and move the liquid nitrogen inside and directed it into Cain Marko''s nose and mouth. His massive hands were unable to stop the liquid as it entered his nose and made its way into his lungs. Not that iced lungs would really do anything to a Zombie. Marko couldn''t feel the temperature or pain since he was a zombie and didn''t even need to breath.


    Harry then moved the water over Juggernaut''s head and into his mouth and nose where the remnants of the liquid nitrogen froze it into ice. Juggernaut may have been immune to magic, but he was not immune to chemistry.


    The frozen water completely blocked up the passageway of air into the lungs and the boiling liquid nitrogen quickly turned to gas in the sealed space.


    A moment later, Cain Marko''s head shot up from his body as his ?h?st exploded. Due to the armor he wore, the only direction the explosion could go was up.


    Juggernaut''s power granted him immunity to magic and physical force attacks, but his actual flesh was not impervious. That was why he wore armor in the first place. His flesh being his weakness when he was a zombie wasn''t really a weakness, but it was still the easiest route to use to kill him.


    Harry walked over to Doom whose crushed torso prevented him from moving. He asked, "Who are you?"


    Harry considered the question and answered, "Harry Potter."


    Doom replied, "Never heard of you."


    Harry shrugged. That probably meant no magicals which made this easier. He took a few moments to conjure a dimensional edge and severed Doom''s head as well.


    The remaining villains had been rendered to cinders by the Warfiends.


    Harry''s quest pointer directed him to areas with zombies and when they were close by they pointed him directly to the nearest zombie so it was possible that he could personally hunt them all, but that was too much of a pain in the bu??. Instead, Harry got out a crystal rabbit.


    This was the first version but he still did some upgrades to it. Harry set the parameters for dead people and collected the heads of the zombies before releasing the rabbit on their bodies. The zombie corpses he''d just killed were not the only corpses in the city. In an hour there would be thousands of them. Harry would make a few portals and toss a dozen through to every city on Earth. Every corpse would be turned into a Rabbit.


    While he was setting up the parameters, a figure in red armor came floating down. Harry recognized Magneto as he was not wearing his helmet. It was also clear that Magneto did not have the decay that the zombies did, implying that the man remained healthy and Harry''s quest pointer did not indicate him.


    Magento approached and asked, "Who are you? I know every super powered being of this world."


    "I guess you could say I''m an interdimensional Mercenary. I was paid by some higher powers to kill every zombie on this planet. I''ll be finished in a few days, a week tops."


    Magneto had checked the corpses of those around and asked, "Truly? I hope so. I am the last super powered individual of this world that is not infected."


    Harry asked, "What about the other mutants? I haven''t seen too many around."


    Magneto hummed in thought and stated, "There was an event some time ago that caused most mutants to lose their powers. I was one of the few unaffected."


    Harry nodded, "That''s good to hear. Stay out of trouble."


    Magneto nodded and flew off, still in thought. The only uninfected humans he knew of were on Asteroid M and if the newcomer could deliver, they''d be able to rebuild. All was not lost.


    Harry let the rabbits do their thing and went to the New York Sanctum. Mounds and mounds of zombie corpses littered the area which were swarmed by the white rabbits.


    Harry entered the Sanctum. Most of the displays were destroyed but the artifacts remained. Unfortunately, they all ignored Harry, just like artifacts of his world. Harry decided to leave them here, but he did notice a number of books he wasn''t familiar with, so he''d snatch those himself.


    Eventually he found the lone occupant of the Sanctum. The man Harry had never met but had heard of from the Ancient One. Dr. Strange. The man was badly injured and seemed to already be a zombie, but he was also chained to the wall.


    Zombie Strange looked up at the stranger and sighed with relief when he saw Harry didn''t appear to be infected.


    Strange said, "You have to kill me. I can''t hold myself back much longer."


    Harry replied, "Sure, but what happened here?"


    "Another me. He was already a zombie. He made a portal to this world from his own. I fought him but a few other zombies got through. While fighting myself, I couldn''t stop them. It''s all my fault."


    Harry shrugged. "There are survivors. I''ll take care of all the zombies."


    The man nodded, "The other Strange. He had a book. I think it caused this. Destroy it. Now, please end me before I lose myself."


    Harry nodded. He cut off the man''s head and destroyed it with magic.


    Harry searched a bit and found the destroyed body of another Dr. Strange. Harry found the book on him and rolled his eyes at the flesh binding, of course it was the Necronomicon. Seems someone really wanted to bring someone back from the dead and it got a little out of hand. Harry wondered if he could find that other Zombie world, but ignored it for now. He looted everything that he could, including the necklace of both Dr. Stranges. It was the Eye of Agamotto, but completely different from the ones his Ancient One used. Rather than a tool to use the Time Stone, it had far more power. Harry would have fun studying it. Since he had two, maybe he''d gift one to his world''s Dr. Strange when they met.


    Harry wouldn''t put the curse book of the dead into his inventory but didn''t mind memorizing the content for reference. He even found the spell that would return the dead but the book didn''t contain any warnings about the massive zombie outbreak that would occur afterwards so it was obvious nothing could be trusted. Harry burnt the book with Phoenix fire and got to work spreading the rabbits and finding the hidden Zombies.


    Since it was in a Zombie''s nature to hunt for flesh, none of them were hiding in a bunker unless that bunker was filled with human flesh. But in such a case, they would likely all turn to zombies and run out and leave the bunker on their own.


    Every couple of hours Harry would portal to the Moon and then make a portal from there home so he could keep the girls up to date.


    In addition to looting the toys he found, he was also looting knowledge. The reason he decapitated many of the zombies was so that he could spend time rifling through their brains. Like the brain of the Dragon Chi user, the guy who apparently called himself Iron Fist. Harry took the knowledge of how the fighters of Kun-Lun trained in the use of Chi and though much of it Harry had already guessed, there were a few gems of useful information Harry found incredibly helpful. He didn''t do that to Strange though since he wanted to die before he failed resisting the Zombie curse.


    Once Harry was done looting from a severed head, he''d destroy it and move onto the next one.


    Harry also raided Stark''s home. Doing so set off the security when sent hundreds of Iron Man armors on auto-pilot at him. Harry had fun with that one before he downloaded all of Iron Man''s schematics and technical innovations. He did the same thing to Doom''s palace in Latveria and a few other notable locations.


    It took only three days to finish.


    *Ping*


    [You have leveled up.]


    [Quest Complete: Zombie Extermination


    Reward: Dimensional Quest Board.]


    Harry smiled at the prize. He leveled up ten times and put all those stats into INT. He''d need it considering the Research binge he was about to start.


    Harry found a rabbit and dispelled the effect, causing all the rabbits to slowly turn to Ash. Harry then summoned back the original crystal rabbit. There was more to loot, but Harry would leave it for the survivors. Wakanda actually survived and Harry found their King bound in a room with his arm and leg chopped off. The King told Harry that Hank Pym was eating him slowly. Harry fed him a potion he created which was basically a Full Restore. It combined the Elixir of Life with Bone Grower, Nerve Restorer, and Flesh knitting potion to restore lost limbs and fully recover. T''Challa could not stop swearing for ten minutes from how terrible it tasted. Harry dropped him off at Wakanda and they offered Harry some schematics they had. They were not the most advanced things he''d seen, but it was another direction and useful for reference.


    After he was done, Harry sanitized himself and returned home. He had a lot to do, but he had all the time in the world.


    *Author''s Note*


    I included every character I saw in the Comic Marvel''s Zombies with the exception of those from space. I did not include the guys not in the comic because that would take too much effort for what is already a very long chapter. Oh, and I didn''t include Sentry because even Harry can''t kill Marvel''s Superman. Seriously, that guy apparently has the power of a million exploding suns and is considered a reality warper. I''m not including guys like that in my fic because writing around them is a giant pain.


    Oh, and for my insane Marvel Reincarnators Idea, I had a terrifying idea for an OP Nen ability.


    I call it Saitama Recovery.


    It is Canon that Zetsu, the closing of the Aura Nodes in the body, speeds up recovery time. Saitama Recovery takes that to the limit and beyond. It closes off all exterior senses and basically turns off the mind and cuts all external connections. So Danger Sense, Survival Instinct, Force Danger Awareness, Haki Danger Awareness, all of them will be turned inwards. While undergoing Saitama Recovery, the user cannot think, hear, feel, or anything.


    Because of this, it leaves the body 100% defenseless. A child with a kitchen knife could break into your house, loudly, and walk up to you and end you. 100% defenseless. No one can shake you awake and you are basically in a coma until Saitama Recovery completes.


    For Nen abilities, the higher the risk, the higher the reward. When the MC exercises beyond the limit and breaks everything in his body or fights someone to the point he is nearly beaten to death and initiates Saitama Recovery, all the senses are turned inwards and the entire brain becomes devoted to healing in a way that will strengthen the body the most. This is probably something only an Enhancer can do, but my MC will be an enhancer so that''s fine.


    This is basically the Zenkai Boost of a Saiyan. As long as he puts himself somewhere he is confident will be safe, he can exercise himself to the limit of near death and use Saitama Recovery over and over.


    Of course, just like Saitama, there will come a point where he cannot reach his limit exercising anymore so he''d have to seek out powerful foes to fight and might end up a battle junkie. At least that would be interesting to read.


    Oh, and Thanks to all those who messaged me with ideas. By bouncing ideas around a lot, I''ve been able to flesh out the world a lot more and fill in a few plot holes I was having trouble with.. I welcome new ideas form anyone who has any suggestions, especially creative ones.

 Chapter 101 - 101 Researching Time and Everything Else

    Harry and Link spent a number of hours going over the various data Harry obtained from Earth-2149. Besides the loot and technology, the data from Stark''s, Doom''s, and Reed''s computers included details from various super heroes, most of which Harry had never heard of. Link did a search on a few and confirmed that most either didn''t exist or had no powers yet while others, like Jessica Jones, existed and had powers, but was not active as a hero.


    The other details which had his attention was the list of super villains. Harry was not exactly surprised that the Green Goblin fellow ended up being Norman Osborn, but it certainly wasn''t what he was expecting. Still, many of the factors of that world did not exist in this world and many things in this world did not exist in that world.


    Most of this didn''t matter to him of course. Harry wasn''t going to stop people from learning from their own mistakes and the mistakes of others so with a few exceptions, he wasn''t going to do something like walk up to Osborn and tell him not to inject himself with experimental super soldier serum. He wasn''t nor would he ever be the man''s mother, so why should he care about the man''s poor life choices?


    One of those exceptions was Owen Reece. Harry decided this Universe did not need a Molecule Man. Of course, ACME Atomics Corporation still existed and the machine that created Molecule Man could likely still be built here and the same one in a trillion accident could occur, so Harry and Link would have to monitor them to ensure the chance was not one in a trillion, but zero.


    Other bits of What If Trivia the pair discovered had Harry sigh and scratch his head. Were there any mentally stable people in that world? Then again, he was hardly one to judge. He recognized many of the faces of the people in that world, and he felt nothing reducing them to EXP. Of course, the fact that their lips decayed off made them seem more Zombie-ish, but a sane person would probably at least feel something. He did not. They were from a different Universe and though they had the same names and many of the same traits, they were strangers to him.


    His girls wouldn''t care too much but if anyone else found out Harry killed a planet for the EXP, they would probably leave the planet as fast as possible.


    Technically that meant Harry should never tell others about what he did, but he really didn''t mind. In fact, Harry had already packaged the relevant Data and sent several letters and emails to various people.


    To Stark, Harry sent him all the designs from his other self. Some of it was way nicer than his current stuff while other parts were vastly inferior. Stark should have fun playing with that for a few months.


    Harry also sent Doom a copy of the data Harry found in the remains of Latveria with a message basically stating, ''Something I found cleaning up one of Reed''s messes. Keep yourself busy while Susan is pregnant.'' Harry honestly didn''t care if Doom tried to take over the world. Harry wouldn''t help, but he wouldn''t do much to stop it either. Doom wouldn''t be a bad ruler, but Harry knew Doom wouldn''t really enjoy it which was why Harry wouldn''t help him either.


    Of course, the fact that Harry sent it implied Harry knew it all too and didn''t see Doom with this tech as a threat to him. Doom would not miss this and would take the warning not to mess with the Four seriously for now.


    To Reed, Harry sent nothing, though Harry would make them some Unstable Molecular Fiber suits as a present later, but Reed was in Time Out for that stunt and Harry wouldn''t reward him for that.


    The last message was to Hank Pym. Rather than an email, Harry sent a package containing a letter and two potions in unbreakable bottles. The letter informed Hank that there are many ways to do what Pym Particles can do and while exploring the reaches of strange sciences, Harry figured out Pym Particles. Harry then stated he would not use it for weapons, but would probably use them to make a factory for mass producing extremely complex nanomachines. He asked if Hank wanted anything to do with Harry''s research or if Pym had anything to say about not wanting Harry to use Pym Particles at all.


    The bottles contained a Modified Shrinking Solution and a Growth Potion. The Standard Shrinking Solution temporarily made something younger, like turning a Toad into a Tadpole while the standard Growth Potion accelerated the aging of something like making plants age, though doing so to magical plants drastically lowered their effectiveness in magic potions. Harry''s Modified versions acted more like the Shrinking Spell and Engorgement Charm, rendering the affected smaller or larger.


    Harry figured Hank Pym would either get a kick out of something that had the same effect as Pym Particles or go crazy when he couldn''t analyze how the potions worked.


    Harry was very interested in using Nanotechnology combined with Pym Particles. If done right, he could create machines so small they could manually reassemble molecules. That wasn''t the interesting part though. According to Harry''s calculations, Nanomachines under a certain size could not be controlled by Technopathy. So this would make an excellent tool against a stronger technopath like Thanos.


    The first thing Harry created when he was done analyzing everything was a Hyperbolic Time Chamber. If inside while activated, a day outside was a year inside. Of course, his girls found out and put a strict limit of only 30 minutes inside a day. Harry was OK with this as it still added a full seven days to each of his days and gave him more time to spend with his girls.


    Once he had all the time he needed, Harry started to work on a number of projects he had been putting off. First he started work on a Star Forge. It was a concept from Star Wars. It was a vast pocket dimension hidden within an asteroid and put under extremely heavy time dilation. Harry would stash Nova Crystals, the Philosopher''s Stone and vast amounts of Silver and Gold there. Harry would enspell the Silver and Gold Alchemically to slowly change into Vibranium and Adamantium. The Philosopher''s Stone would slowly produce Elixir of Life. The Nova Crystals would grow at a very slow but steady rate. Harry would set it for a million times acceleration.


    Of course, that sort of blatant use of Time Magic had a heavy cost. Harry would have to connect the asteroid with a star. The cost of the magic would literally cause the star to burn out in a few decades, but as long as it was one of the planet-less ones at the edge of the galaxy, no one would miss a star.


    When Harry first started to really get used to Time Magic, he found he could detect the presence of other uses of Time Magic. What Harry laughed at was how often it appeared to be used. Harry was now confident Santa was not only real, but used Time Magic to deliver all those presents in one night.


    The Star Forge only took a month of real time to complete before Harry moved onto his next project. During that month, Hank Pym had actually broken into Harry''s house using his Ant Man suit but was unable to find anything useful. Harry didn''t create potions at his house but instead at the underground workshop the Goblins built. Harry''s computers could not be hacked. And Harry''s basement contained nothing when inactive since it used hard light constructs for everything and only expanded the space when active.


    After realizing he had nothing on Harry, he sent a letter asking him to do as he pleased but keep him updated. Harry''s systems hadn''t detected the mini man who''d shrunk to the size of a dust mite, but that was because he hadn''t updated them since he built the house. Even if Harry knew about the break in, he would not have cared much. Harry was no longer at a level he needed to hide and only answered to some people as a courtesy.


    Pym Particles basically increased or decreased the distance between atoms, making matter larger or smaller without changing the mass. However, because gravity was not affected by the number of atoms, but the surface area of the atoms, weight was affected by the change in size, but not completely. Doubling size did not double weight and halving size did not half weight.


    This made it interesting to use in construction as some brittle materials if enlarged enough would become more flexible and some overly flexible materials if shrunken enough became much harder. The uses in material physics opened a Universe of possibilities. For example, one of Vibranium''s main weaknesses was that it could absorb too much energy and explode. If a mass of Vibranium was subjected to Pym Particles to increase its volume the right amount, it would cause the stored energy to slightly dissipate. This did not make the metal weaker, but in fact covered its weakness.


    The next project was Unstable Molecular Fiber. Unstable Molecules were b?r?ly considered molecules and were closer to energy forms attempting to mimic nearby molecules. The state of Unstable Molecules changed depending on their environment. So if worn by Susan and she became invisible, they became invisible too. If worn by Johnny and he set himself ablaze, they could change to conduct the heat rather than burn. Harry thought that was kinda pointless. Susan could make her clothes and even other people''s clothes invisible.


    That was just the first version though. There had been several improvements, including ways of having the molecules remember specific configurations.


    Link had pointed out that since Unstable Molecules could change and hold specific configurations, they could be used to hold data. Harry agreed and went to work with Link creating a new server for Link and the Internet. That took another month of real time as Harry wanted it to be as good as he could make it.


    When finished, Harry was pleased to find that the server was unhackable. The configuration of Unstable Molecules could not be changed with electromagnetism, meaning technopathy and electromagnetic sorcery had zero effect on it. In the form of a fabric, a hand sized cloth of Unstable Molecules could hold billions of gigabits of data. The server version was countless times more efficient and didn''t generate any heat unlike normal servers. A single server had enough memory to hold all the data on the planet. Harry intended to build a couple more, they would be useful for the game he was making.


    Harry did make a tiny memory strip of Unstable Molecules and used that to make a table that contained every book and video game on the planet as well as a copy of the internet. Harry did eventually contact Jane Foster and take her to Asgard and to Thor. Thor''s mother discovered the pair with supernatural speed and while that had them distracted, Harry visited Loki''s cell. Apparently Odin had declared he was to be imprisoned for all of time.


    Loki noticed Harry''s arrival and asked, "Come to gloat?"


    Harry rolled his eyes and walked over to the opening the guards used to pass Loki food and slid in the Tablet. "I did mention at least once you were my favorite god. Here is something to keep you occupied until you get out."


    Loki walked over to the opening and pulled out the tablet before turning it on and looking it over. He set it aside and asked, "And why do you think I am going to get out? I was sentenced to eternal imprisonment by Odin."


    "Yes, but Thor will take the Throne sooner or later and your brother loves you too much to leave you in here. I highly doubt it will take much convincing for him to let you out on community service or something."


    Loki chuckled and remarked, "As yes, you would have me work for you then? Shall I entertain at parties? I am quite skilled at balloon animals."


    Harry laughed at the sarcasm and replied, "Don''t you know ruling is the highest form of serving? Isn''t dedicating yourself to helping others live better a grand form of service?"


    Loki stopped for a moment. He gave a hard look at Harry and answered, "Is this the same offer as before? The one where I sacrifice my god-hood?"


    Harry shrugged, "That was more of a euphemism for throwing away your ego. I heard about your trial where Odin called you out for claiming you were a god and he said you were not, none of you were actual gods."


    Loki gave Harry a flat stare and asked, "And you would give me all the resources needed to conquer your world? Forgive me for doubting you."


    "Actually I would just sign over controlling interest to Brilliance Inc and Potter and Gold Bank and Trust to you, making you the man in charge of it all. My company will eventually grow large enough to rule the world without having to lift a finger. I only started the company to ensure I had power when I was weak, but I don''t need them anymore, but I can''t just give it away to a mortal. Simply by running it and waiting, the world would eventually bow to any decision you made."


    Loki actually raised his eyebrows in surprise at that. He would be lying if he said he wasn''t curious about Harry''s initial offer and had wondered how it would have worked had Loki accepted at the time. Harry was clearly a good teacher but he was also the owner of a company that could take over the world. He apparently preferred teaching and Loki did not sense Harry was lying to him.


    Harry was not lying to him, but he was not exactly being completely forthcoming. Harry had studied the Goblet of Fire for a very long time and knew a great deal about magic contracts. One of the most interesting loopholes for many magic contracts was that a person bound by a magic contract could pass off that binding to someone it was more appropriate for if that person agreed. For example, if Cedric Diggory had not applied for the Triwizard Tournament and someone else got selected and wanted to back out, it was possible for Cedric to take their place if he agreed to it, but it could not be passed off to someone worse. This was acceptable as the Goblet wanted the best student of a school. Harry couldn''t do that because he''d been the only student of the school the Goblet of Fire was tricked into thinking he was a student of.


    The countless contracts Harry was bound to due to working with the Goblins had the same loophole. He could pass them off to someone else better suited for the role. But this was hardly a loophole because who was better than him at this point? Who was older and wiser and more ruthless and Goblin-like for the contracts to release Harry and allow to take his place? Harry was certain he''d found an appropriate patsy. And if Loki could actually take over the world while bound by the limitations placed on him by the contracts, then Harry would have nothing to say against it.


    Besides, Link and the shares of Stark International were not a part of Brilliance Inc, and neither was the construction company and Insurance Company Harry made. The only companies Harry was really signing over were the ones that primarily had Goblins running them. Of course this would still give Loki full control over the Internet, Mobile Communication, and the Goblins who knew exactly how to produce Metagems. This was still enough to take over the world even before Harry launched his virtual reality full dive video game.


    Loki saw the resolve in Harry''s eyes and asked, "Why would you offer this to me? After what I have done?"


    Harry answered, "The past is the past and I find that people who are not completely evil generally have a hard time performing acts of evil if trusted with something of great importance. Regardless of what you have done, your brother loves you and your mother loves you. I''m willing to bet the future of the Earth that someone those two love cannot be completely evil."


    Loki looked down and stated firmly, "I have no brother nor mother."


    "Stop being so dramatic. And if you look down on Frigga I will come in there and whack you over the head. No one is perfect but that woman deserves the Mother of the Universe Award."


    "She lied to me my entire life," he countered.


    Harry replied, "She is every bit as much your mother as she is Thor''s."


    "She is not, she..." Loki quickly turned to see Harry''s smile. "No. That''s not possible."


    "I broke into the secret section of the Library when Odin was out cold. I read the secrets Odin intended to take with him to the grave. Frigga loved you both as her own, despite the fact that neither of you carry her blood."


    Loki examined every line and hair on Harry''s face, trying to see through the lie, but only saw the statement for what it was, the truth.


    Before Loki could fully process that, Harry continued, "That''s not even the good bit. You think Thor is not your brother? Would you believe me if I said you two have something in common? Why do you think you are so short for a frost giant? Why do you have such a talent in magic? You are only half frost giant. And Thor shares with you your other half, so although only half, he is, undoubtedly, and unequivocally, your brother."


    After a few moments of silence Loki asked, "And Odin knows this?"


    "He is pretty sure since he wrote it down. Your mother was rather powerful and Odin went to her to get a powerful son. She agreed. Apparently Laufey caught wind of this and found her and demanded the same shortly afterwards. She had her reasons for agreeing to this as well, but when the child appeared small and weak he abandoned you. He had no idea you had, thankfully, inherited far more from your mother than you did your father. Odin recognized his son''s half brother the moment he held you. However, Odin never intended to tell Thor about his mother, so it never came up, and though you found out about your father, Odin never revealed the truth about your mother because he still wanted to keep that from Thor."


    Loki asked skeptically, "Why keep this from Thor? What purpose does such a secret hold? Is this woman alive?"


    "Hmm, well, to answer the first and second question, your mother was from Earth. That''s why both you and Thor hold Midgard in an unnaturally high esteem though it is just another of the Nine Realms. Laufey actually went to Earth specifically for your mother and you were born, there on Earth, shortly before Odin drove the frost giants from Midgard. I suspect Odin fears if Thor learns of his true parentage, he might choose to stay on Earth rather than rule Asgard. As for the last question, I''ll hold onto that one for now along with her name, since you don''t really believe me anyways."


    Harry left Loki with that little mindfuck and returned to the palace. He figured that would keep Loki''s mind occupied so he wouldn''t look too deeply into the passing of the company thing.


    When he arrived he found Jane being dressed up like a doll by Frigga while Thor watched with unhidden amusement. Jane looked at Harry with eyes pleading for help and Frigga was thankful Harry brought a potential daughter-in-law who may be her chance at finally having some grandbabies to spoil. Harry just smiled and let Frigga do her thing.


    At least for now, Harry had no intention of telling Loki or Thor that Gaea was their mother. Both her sons were physically stronger and mightier on Earth than on other worlds, though neither had noticed it yet. From being Odin''s son, Thor was also stronger on Asgard than he would be in space, but he was stronger still on Earth than he was on Asgard as his mother was basically the Earth itself.


    This also meant that they were in fact gods, despite what Odin said. The staple proof of a god was answered in one question. If annihilated down to the last atom and wisp of energy with nothing remaining, would you be capable of returning to life? For Loki and the rest, the answer was technically yes, because of the Ragnarok Cycle. Even if Loki died, Ragnarok would eventually occur and one day a new Laufey would ask Gaea to give him a child again, and again she would agree and a new Loki would be born and abandoned and adopted by a new Odin.


    Outside of his research, Harry was also busy ?ssisting in the construction of the Hero Association. When Link had given Fury a way to rebuild SHIELD without the influence of Hydra, the creation of the Hero Association had been a part of that plan. To Fury that meant that Link wanted to replace the influence of Hydra with the influence of Harry, and he really didn''t like that, but he wasn''t exactly spoiled on choices either. Once it got out how badly SHIELD was compromised, they would be declared a Terrorist Organization anyways, so something else was needed.


    Harry spent a number of days in Washington D.C. and had his Masters students teach his class while Harry was called over and over to convince people of the need for a Hero''s ?ssociation. Thankfully his background role in the Battle of New York was enough to convince most people he knew what he was talking about, and his Scholar Path made it easier to convince people of the logic of his plan.


    Of course there were people paid to be stubborn and people who had a grudge against Harry. The Vice President for example hated Harry on principle. AIM had promised him the Presidency and promised to heal his grand-daughter''s missing limb, and Harry had completely destroyed them. He''d used every trick in the book to delay or sabotage anything Harry tried and became vocally against the Hero Association simply because Harry was the one who submitted the proposal.


    When Fury figured out why the VP was being so hostile to Harry, he had a meeting with the man and implied several rather terrifying things. Fury and the Avengers had just disassembled Hydra and dozens of Congressmen and a dozen Senators had been arrested on grounds of Treason for being a member of Hydra based on evidence discovered on the persons of the Hydra Agents who attacked the Shield Headquarters and evidence found at the Hydra Bases. Fury implied that if the VP didn''t chance his stance, evidence might be discovered implicating him as well.


    The VP was outraged at the threat but Fury convinced him that he could pull it off. Almost every person they''d caught so far had eventually confessed, meaning they had evidence to back up that the names listed were real, so who would doubt another name?


    When the most powerful, most vocal person against the Bill went silent, the remaining people who were against it for various reasons knew something was up and kept their heads down as well to prevent a visit from whoever spoke with the VP.


    Something that Harry suspected would take a decade to implement was passed less than a year from when he submitted it, shortly after the Battle of New York.


    Of course, this simply meant step number one of several hundred had been completed. The Hero Association was still a long way off from completion.


    Once Harry got the hang of Unstable Molecular Fiber and Pym Particles, he created a new suit for his girls, for the Fantastic Four, and for Spiderman.


    For Reed, Susan, and Johnny, Harry just made them a mostly standard UMF suit with a few upgrades.


    For Peter, Harry increased the volume of a tenth of a kilogram of Vibranium and used a technique gifted to him by the Wakanda of the other world to weave it into nano-threads. Harry then mixed it with UMF to create a suit that could change between his Hero suit and civilian clothes. Peter''s Camouflage was drastically enhanced by the UMF and Harry also included a way for him to channel the electricity he could generate on his palms into his webbing, so he could now use webs as a long distance taser.


    Peter was ecstatic at how light the new suit was and all the cool features. It even included an updated Unstable Molecule supercomputer much faster than his old version. That enthusiasm quickly turned into unbridled terror when he put it on and Harry insisted they put it through a test run.


    If Harry''s basement Training Area wasn''t soundproof, the people walking nearby would certainly have heard all manner of screaming that day.


    For Harry''s girls, the one ended up being tortured was Harry himself. In retrospect, telling a group of women Harry had clothes that could shift into other clothes may not have been the brightest idea.


    One would think this meant that shopping for clothes was a thing of the past. Nope. The girls didn''t want to simply scan clothes at a store, they wanted to properly purchase them and then scan them and probably donate them later. The possibility of being able to wear their entire closet and change at any time broke something in the girls and for the next several weeks Harry had been dragged to every mall on the planet.


    The fact that the suits could amplify their strength, speed, magic, magic resistance, and psionics did not save Harry, in fact it only made his situation worse. At least he was repaid in full each night.


    After completing his main projects, Harry had returned to Artifact crafting, which was why he could apply so many features onto their suits. For the game he was making, he wanted it to be as realistic as possible, but he needed to bridge the gap between normal humans and enhanced super humans. It was the Nova Crystal that gave Harry the idea. An item that could grant a normal human superpowers. Harry wanted to include those in the game and for it to be realistic, he wanted to make them in real life so the game would have something to base it off.


    For the magic using classes, Harry had created a prototype Wand, Staff, and two Rings.


    The Wand contained what was basically, stored, tamed Chaos Energy. When a human used it, it would slowly synchronize to them. As it synched to them, using Magic would become less difficult and the magic cast would be more powerful. In the game, once a human had fully synchronized to their wand, they would start generating personal chaos energy, or Exotic energy as Wizards called it. Continued use of that would strengthen their magic core in game.


    The Staff contained Natural Energy, the same type of energy Storm used to a limited degree and worked a bit similarly to the Wand. The Class that used a Staff was Druid. Though real Druids were nearly extinct, some did exist and Merlin had been a Druid as well as a Wizard and Sorcerer. Druid Magic controlled plants and nature. They could not create fire or ice like a Wizard, but could control the weather and summon lightning or give orders to wild life.


    The first Ring was the Sorcerer''s Ring. Harry had finally cracked the secrets of the Sling Ring and used some of the properties of it combined with the ability to gather and store Dimensional energy. If someone wore the Ring and knew what to do with it, the Ring would ?ssist them in casting Sorcery using the stored energy, though the Ring took time to gather up more energy if all the stored energy was used. In the game, Sorcerer Players would also learn of various gods and be able to call their names to gather the energies needed to cast various spells.


    The second Ring was the Vishanti Ring. It was basically the same as the Sorcerer''s Ring, but came preloaded with a connection to the Vishanti and access to White Magic, meaning Players who trained in the use of the Vishanti Ring were basically Priests.


    The other classes were trickier to make Class Items for. Harry wanted a system where people had to use the Item to Master it over a long period of time. They could own multiple Class Items, but could only use and level up one at a time so multiclassing took longer than getting stronger in a single class.


    Warrior Players weren''t difficult since he could just give them an Armband containing Strength energy to increase power and Time Energy to increase speed. He could probably make a Guardian Class that used Nova Force as well.


    It was the other classes he was having issues with. Barton would give him the stink eye if Harry didn''t include a Archer type class, but he had no way to create an auto ?ssist that increased Player''s accuracy as they leveled up, so an Archer would end up being just a Warrior with a Bow instead of a dedicated class.


    Thief was another headache inducing class. Technically Harry could so something similar to the Sorcerer class and give Thieves access to Darkforce to give them hiding and shadow related skills, but the usage of Darkforce created a hunger for life force within the user that the Player may be able to feel after logging out of the game and that was not acceptable. He''d had to check with the Ancient One if there were any decent gods or forms of energy that could ?ssist with making a Thief Class that didn''t have to become evil.


    There were other classes he could make like a Dragoon class by making an Armband that contained and allowed its wearer to use Dragon Chi.


    One obvious class was Artificer. The Class Item would just be a Necklace that could enchant items using Enchantments the Player would have to learn about in game. A less obvious one was Psychic. Thanks to Cerebro, Harry knew the Arithmancy behind certain forms that could amplify psionic abilities. Creating a wearable version that would grant normal people budding and growable psychic powers was possible, but since not everyone had the talent, that class would not be available to everyone.


    The class Harry really wanted to include of course was the Esper Class. In game people would be able to buy an Esper Awakening and maybe get a random power that didn''t need a Class Item to use. This was actually a way for Mutants to use their mutant abilities in Game and just claim they bought and awakened an Esper ability.


    There were a number of reasons Harry wanted to make the Class items for real, but one of the larger ones was that doing so increased his Path Mastery.


    Over the course of the several months since Harry went to the other Dimension, Harry''s various Paths had increased. Magic went from 52 to 55, a massive increase. Tech went from 48 to 53, closing in on Magic. Business increased from 43 to 48 since getting Congress to do what you wanted was a form of Business. Crafting jumped from 45 all the way to 52, and the Scholar Path went from 47 to 51.


    One of the reasons the Scholar Path jumped was because the Game Harry was making was quite the teaching tool. In addition to fun stuff like Adventures and Quests and Exploration, the Game also included Schools and Colleges and Universities that taught actual subjects in addition to metaphysical subjects.


    The Game system included two features which would drive the world crazy. First, it sent signals into the spine which caused your muscles to twitch while Playing the game, though not enough to actually cause someone to move. This was intentional, it was a feature that could be enabled and disabled. Exercising and moving and fighting in the game would actually cause your real body to exercise. It was not as good as real exercise, but it was still infinitely better than lying down all day. The second feature was time acceleration. One day in the game was eight hours of real time. That wasn''t even the good part. After a few months of playing, people''s brains would adjust safely to the accelerated time and could be accelerated further. So Harry would set it so that higher level regions were accelerated even more than lower level regions. This made it so that in a sense, higher level Players lived longer than lower level Players and people who didn''t play.


    Harry would make it so that within the game you had access to the Internet so people could work from the Internet within the game. Using accelerated time, they could perform eight hours of work from home in two real time hours and then spend the rest of their day gaming.


    Harry once said that in the future, it would not matter if someone was a mutant or not, this was because in a future where everyone lives and works at home using virtual reality, whether or not someone in the neighborhood was a mutant wouldn''t affect them at all, except for the possibility of being invited to their Party to carry them and fight monsters so they could level up and live longer.


    Yes. Harry really didn''t care too much about the Politics and Heroes and Villains of the world for a very simple reason. Link and Harry were busy creating a new world. A world were everyone was a Gamer.


    Still, it would take a few more months before the game would go online. Even with his new servers, Link and the other AIs running the game still needed a lot of time to generate a satisfactory world people would be willing to replace their existing one with.


    While waiting and between his daily allotment of Hyperbolic Time Chamber time, Harry often checked the Dimensional Quest Board. So far nothing had popped up yet but today something was there which did catch his eye.


    [Save Amelia and Rory Pond from the Weeping Angels of New York.


    Accept?


    Yes | No]


    Harry remembered Amelia, Rory, and a certain Honorary Doctor and pressed the Yes Icon with a smile.


    *Author''s Note*


    For people wondering where this Fic is going, this should be a pretty big indicator for the Chaos that will be coming soon.


    And please give suggestions on possible Dimensional Quests. Yes, he will eventually go to the Canon HP Verse with an Evil Dumbles and wreak havoc, but besides that, what else should I use?


    As for the Mother thing, there are a few versions and retcons including the most recent one where the Phoenix Force is apparently now Thor''s mother, but I still like this version and there is also a version where Gaea is Loki''s mother too. Plus, even in the MCU, Loki is abandoned at a Temple. Whose temple was it, his mother''s perhaps? This also makes a decent reason for how Loki was conceived since he was found right at the end of the war implying his mother had been pregnant during the war which was on Earth and even gives a semi-logical reason for why they went to Earth in the first place. Even in the Comics, Laufey claimed Loki''s mother killed herself after he was born. Loki was 99% sure Laufey killed her. But what if Laufey killed her in order to hide the truth that she was not Loki''s mother, as she would be the only one of the Frost Giants who could obviously call him out on that.


    Oh, and for anyone wondering about that crazy story idea I was plotting, (as in literally writing the the plot of, hehe,) just because there would be 100 reincarnators, doesn''t mean there would be multiple Point of Views. There will only be 1 MC and the whole story is his and only his POV. The purpose of the other Reincarnators is to make it interesting as I''ve never seen something like that done before. At best I''ll flesh out the story of maybe ten of them with another twenty being the occasional recurring characters and another twenty being one shots that won''t show up more than once, and the last batch won''t even be mentioned outside of passing as they will be doing their own things independent of the MC.


    One thing I''ve decided on is to expand the HP Magic system into other forms of Magic in the New Fic. In addition to Wand Magic, there will be Gesture Magic (Magic performed without a wand, with hand gestures, though the skilled can perform Gesture-less casting) Ring Magic, and Staff Magic. Staff Magic as seen above will be basic Druid Magic and would be cool to match with Hashirama''s Bloodline. Wand and Staff Magic will be the strongest with Wand Magic being Modern Magic and Staff Magic being Ancient Magic. Ring and Gesture Magic will be much weaker but still viable.


    Please note there is a difference between Gesture-less Casting and Wandless Casting. Wandless is the casting of a Wand Spell without a Wand. Gesture-less is the casting of a Gesture Spell without a Gesture. Wandless cannot be learned before mastering Wand Magic. There will be no skipping in this fiction. People who don''t want a wand can pick up a Uagadou School of Magic Textbook which is canon that teaches Gesture Magic.


    I wonder if I should also include Native American Shaman Magic and Voodoo Magic. I''ve always wanted there to be a New Orleans School of Voodoo and Hoodoo.


    I''ve also figured out a way to Balance things better. Instead of having skills and spells be purchased at a Store, there will be Trainers. The first trainer you go to will teach you whatever you want. But if you approach another Trainer for another Class before mastering what the first Trainer has taught, the 2nd trainer will be mad for being your 2nd choice and will make you jump through hoops in order to receive his training or may refuse to train you at all. Each sequential trainer will make it harder.. Trainers will be characters from the world like Yoda, Hashirama, Garp, Might Guy, Dumbledore, Netero, King Kai, and Mihawk.