"What does he need brooms for? Could he not just clean with his magic." Wanda asked, confused.
"Harry's magic stops things from getting dirty in the first place." Loki said. "Observe." He summoned some sand into his hand and sprinkled it on the counter. The grains started rolling to the side as if the table was at an angle and the sand was simply following gravity.
"Harry doesn't mind cleaning up a spill, but dislikes scratching up the bar with sand, so he arranged things this way." Natasha informed them.
At that moment, Harry appeared next to the bar with two brooms. He held one out to Wanda and when she took it, Harry mounted his own and kicked off, gently. "That's not how you instructed me the first time." Loki said as he pulled his own prised broom from nowhere. He never did tell Harry how he did that. Called it tricks of the trade and smiled, but never revealed the trick.
Harry scoffed, "You could handle the fall." he countered. "She's a human. If she falls wrong from just a couple of meters she could die." He turned to her, "Want to give it a try?" he asked.
Wanda looked at the two men flying on brooms and grinned, not because it looked fun, because it did, but because it looked ridiculous to her. It didn't stop her from putting the broom between her legs and wondering what to do.
"Lean slightly forward and kick off of the ground, like a small jump. You should feel the broom begin to support you when you try to take off." Harry said.
Wanda looked at him sceptically, but lifted the broom up and tried jumping. She felt silly as the broom didn't shoot off with her like it had with them, but then she felt it, just before her feet touched the ground, she was suddenly sitting, quite comfortably, on the shaft of the broom. She was about to ask how it was so comfortable, but then realised the answer would be magic.
"Good." Harry smiled. He was inwardly whooping in glee. An actual human witch! "Okay, so to go forward…"
Soon the three were flying around the island and Pietro had to ask Natasha for a refill, but before she could, an Elf appeared behind the bar, having been waiting for his moment. The elves had been indoctrinated with the need to be helpful and Harry hoped it wasn't the start of the next race of house elves. He gave them all the necessities and encouraged them to ask for things. Fortunately they didn't ever ask for more work as a reward for good work, like a certain house-elf had.
Pietro had taken a liking to the Iced Vodka, and asked for another one with lime and lemonade. The elf, not having made this drink before looked at Natasha, who pointed at the right nob for the requested sparkling lemonade. Then asked for one herself, not having drunk it like that before. "It's really good." she said with a nod, as she tasted it.
"It's better than it normally is." Pietro said. "Is the vodka kept really cold, or something?"
"The vodka is magical." Natasha said. "It has a potion in it to keep you cool."
"That… is awesome." Pietro decided.
"You should try the Firewhiskey." the Elf, Eldrin, suggested. "It is by far the favourite. It has an element of fire and has a calming effect." The elves, fortunately, were quite unused to alcohol and didn't need a lot to become intoxicated, so they tended to drink very little. It was a shame, as Harry had heard that some of their kind were renowned for making the best wine known to even Asgard.
Wanda was the first to land, "I still say you cheated. My broom is limited, unlike yours."
Loki just laughed, "You should not accept challenges to a race if you don't know what your broom can do."
Wanda wouldn't admit defeat, so she had simply used her power to try and pull the others back, but had been unable to bend her power onto their brooms. "How are you immune to my power?" she asked bluntly.
"You mean when you were trying to grab onto our brooms?" Harry asked. She glared, but nodded. "Well, brooms are enchanted to resist outside forces, to prevent such tampering. You'd have had more luck if you tried to grab Loki by his head." he chuckled at Loki's scandalous look.
Wanda looked at Pietro, "Do you want to give it a try?" she asked. She knew the chances of him being able to use it was small, because she had asked about it, but wanted to see for herself. Also, it might be funny.
Pietro was at her side in a flash and took the broom. He had watched her and did as she had, but nothing happened. He knew he'd been had when she smiled at him. "That is not funny." He said as he removed the broom from between his legs.
"Hold on." Harry said with his own smile. He passed his own broom to Wanda, "Be careful! Remember not to go too far or you'll not be able to come back." He lifted his hands and touched Pietro, for just a second while touching the broom. "There, you're bonded with the broom. Even non-magicals can use them that way."
An hour later, they were back and Pietro demanded to have a faster broom. It was not fair that he was slower than everyone, in his opinion. Harry told him that he could always bond him to the one his sister had used, which was his own, and Natasha's when she felt like it. Harry could fly without, after all. Pietro declined. He did enjoy the flight, but it would not be the same unless they were flying together.
"Do you want to go for a fly?" Wanda asked Jarvis, who shook his head.
"The magic does not communicate with my physiology the way it does with yours. Harry is still working on that." Jarvis replied. "Don't worry about it. When Harry takes us on the tour later, I'll take Charlie for a ride."
"Charlie?" Wanda asked with a raised eyebrow. She walked to him and touched his arm, then her eyebrows rose. "Really?" she asked.
"What did you see?" Harry asked.
"Some kind of eagle-horse hybrid." Wanda said.
Harry congratulated Jarvis, "Well done choosing what to show her."
"It's not unlike what I did at my previous job." Jarvis smirked referring to taking control of televisions and projecting things for people to see.
"I bet." Harry said. "If you don't want to wait, you could always ask Wanda to give you a lift on the broom…"
"Um, I'm not certain that's a good idea." Jarvis said, before turning to Wanda. "No offense, but you did only learn to fly today." He was actually very interested in the idea, but the blush had brought with it the certainty that certain physiological responses might be triggered if he spent time in such close proximity to the young witch. He tended to connect with people for their minds, but something about Wanda and the way she could read his mind was very attractive to him.
"I understand." Wanda said to Jarvis. She wasn't pouting, but she wasn't smiling either. "Tell me about the eagle-horse." she asked him, instead.
"I have not met him personally, but I have heard all about Charlie and the other Hippogriffs." Jarvis started. After that it was question upon question and Jarvis tried to provide everything he knew, which was quite a lot, considering the time he spent listening to Bruce, as he was figuring out the properties of magical ingredients.
Pietro, meanwhile, had a bit of a far-off look in his eyes as he watched some of the Nymphs playing in the pool. "Pietro?" Harry asked. He didn't respond. "Xera?" he called into the group. There were a few too many for him to know where she is at all times like he had before. He saw a head snap up and swivel his way. When he spotted her he pointed at Pietro. She saw and understood the look immediately, followed his eyes and went to go speak to the frolicking girls.
A minute later, Pietro seemed to come to himself. He turned around and spoke to the bartender again, having apparently been in the middle of a conversation.
Harry decided to let it go in favour of watching the little ones playing in the shallow pool that he had added recently for children. He'd also had to expand on the big one around the bar, since there were so many people to accommodate these days. The fact that they were all beautiful bikini-clad women didn't bother Harry in the slightest. Xera had had to take charge of the new additions, when they had started openly flirting with Harry. They still needed time to adjust to feeling as alive as they did on the island.
Logan didn't object to the attention when he came to deliver fertilizer for the Nymph House. He'd actually taken quite the liking to Xamantha too and had started taking the younger Nymphs, because there were a few now, to explore the island. He said it was to make certain that they didn't explore in the wrong places, but Harry secretly thought it was because they had adopted him as Uncle Logan.
Harry was not aware of Logan taking anything further with the Nymphs, but wouldn't mind either. He knew what he was doing and everyone on the island respected him. As the island's chosen caretaker, it had come as a shock to him when the creatures now actively sought him out when they had problems or injuries. He didn't complain, as it made his life easier.
Puppy now also had a couple of young, who had all lost their mother, before they were ready to leave the nest. Logan had found them almost dead and starving. Puppy had jumped at the chance to raise them. Once they were healthy, they had started exploring under her strict supervision. So far, there had been no issues or need to step in. Logan's connection was now strong enough that he could tell she had been making sure that they knew how things worked on the island. Logan brought food. They were happy.
Puppy had taken to flying around the island every now and then as a sort of sentinel. Her highly accurate vision allowing her to spot the smallest movements on the ground. When there were issues she'd either inform Logan through the link or she'd show the creature where Logan was, by flying to him. The system worked reasonably well and Logan hoped that the small ones would join her at some point and then learn what she was doing by example. As it was, they just waited at the entrance to her habitat when she left, still too young to fly.
The twins had been shocked when Puppy came by on one of her normal patrols and blew out a gout of flame in greeting of the guests. "It that a dragon?!" Pietro asked incredulously.
"Yes, and she's almost an adult too." Logan said as he stepped out of the foliage, as he liked to do. "Just has a little more growing to do if the books are right."
"That thing's not fully grown yet?!" Wanda exclaimed. It was a very large creature, easily larger than an elephant.
"Nah, she's still a kid." Logan said fondly. "She's getting there, though."
"Did she tell you we were here?" Harry asked.
"Yup." Logan confirmed. "I decided to come see the new faces and maybe the girls, for a bit." he said looking at where the young nymphs and elves were splashing in the kiddy pool. It seemed that Xamantha had started coming out of her shell and while she was still shy, the other kids were encouraging and tended to follow her around as she knew the island best. She actually started speaking, even if she said very little.
Logan walked to the bar and tapped the counter-top. The bar-elf handed him a beer almost immediately and Logan sat back to watch the girls play, as he spoke, "The little ones have been spreading their wings lately. I'm thinking they are getting impatient to join Puppy in her patrols."
"Puppy?" Wanda asked.
Logan pointed at Puppy's warm-spring where he had heard her enter shortly after arriving. The babies could take care of themselves for a bit. "Puppy's my dragon. She's the gentle sort, but only as long as you respect the island and its inhabitants."
"She still stewing about the Elves?" Harry asked with a smile.
"They should have known better." Logan grumbled. "Running off a unicorn because they were getting curious. Unicorns don't bother anyone, why would you scare one? It'll take months before that mare steps anywhere near where her favourite grazing spot was."
"I do apologize, master Logan." the elf behind the bar said. "When faced with a creature with a very sharp horn, some of our people react badly. We could not have known that they were the unicorns of legend."
"You should have asked then." Logan grumbled.
"We could have taken them on a tour faster than we did." Harry said. "Let's just be glad they didn't attack the creature. If she was injured in the slightest, there probably wouldn't be an elf community on the island anymore. I don't think Prongs would be that forgiving."
Logan grunted in agreement. "Have you seen him yet?" Logan asked.
Harry shook his head, "No, but I can feel he's around. My magic won't pinpoint him for me, but I suspect he'll come to me if there's ever a need."
"Who's Prongs?" Jarvis asked.
"Didn't we tell you?" Harry asked. When Jarvis shook his head, Harry got a sad look, "That's probably my fault. I was quite upset at missing the big event." Harry got a look and asked, "Did you ever get the Pensieve Tablet to work with the new features?"
Jarvis perked up, "Oh, yes! I forgot to tell you!" Then he got a look himself, "I never used to forget things."
"Happens to the best of us. 'S only human." Logan said easily. Harry noted that he twitched when one of the kids slipped and fell, but when they came up laughing he relaxed. Logan was such a softie when it came to children.
Jarvis smiled softly at that, "Thank you Master Logan." Then he turned to Harry, "And yes, I was able to get the prototype finished, just a couple of days ago."
"Where is it?" Harry asked excitedly.
Jarvis sighed and got up, "It's in my lab." he said. After much deliberation, Harry had set up a small rune lab connected to Jarvis' own office remotely, on Harry's hidden floor. Harry turned a portal for Jarvis who knew his employer would not want to wait. "I'll be right back." He excused himself and stepped through.
"Is that a kind of magic I can learn?" Wanda asked. "It seems very useful."
"Maybe one day." Harry said. "I learned this one after using my magic to monitor and test the effects of an event that happens only once every five thousand years." he explained. "If I feel you are at a point where you can do the same, I'll have you monitor my portal and see if you can figure it out."
"But don't be disappointed if you can't." Loki interjected. "I've been a magic user for longer than Harry's been alive, but even I cannot figure it out." He looked at Harry, "And he won't tell even me, his doting older brother!"
"Tell me how you have anything you want within reach at all times?" Harry countered.
"That's not the same." Loki defended.
"Oh, really?" Harry said as he opened a portal and took Loki's glass away from him from where he was sitting. "It's not like I don't have my own ways of doing exactly the same thing."
"But how do I do mine?" Loki smirked.
"Oh come on!" Harry said. He wasn't really that interested, since he literally could do something similar, but it had turned into something of a game between them. They had many games, now that Harry thought about it. Just for the fun of it, he opened a portal beneath Loki's chair and sent him falling into the pool.
"Very useful." Wanda repeated.
Jarvis came back through the portal. "Sorry for the wait. I had to quickly forward a mail on to my boss." he said with a smile.
"Who's it from?" Harry asked as he watched Loki climb out of the pool and knocked him back in with a flick of his finger and a smirk on his face. He laughed when Loki yelped before splashing back in.
"A certain Miss Susan Storm. Apparently there's a problem of some sort with a device they built that's supposed to go to something called the Negative Zone." Jarvis informed him.
"What?!" Harry exclaimed as he jumped up to open a portal quickly.
"Wait!" Jarvis interrupted. "They have a mirror, if it was an emergency you'd have gotten a call." he reminded Harry.
Harry stopped mid action and looked at Jarvis. "Next time, just tell me who it's from." he sighed.
Loki, having made it to the bar this time, had heard the whole thing even though he was wading his way out of the water and between frolicking and giggling Nymphs to make it out. He was impressed with Jarvis. He could tell the AI had meant for Harry's reaction. Maybe they could team up against him at some point.
Harry glared at Jarvis a bit longer before taking out his phone and looking for the mail. When he found it, he quickly read through it and then sighed. "Their first test was a success, but then they had a breach and had to forcibly shut it down. Apparently the shield I helped put up, blocked something trying to get through and they want me there for the next test."
"When?" Natasha asked.
"Tomorrow." Harry said. "I'm not bothered. I'll go to the test and then I can bring the team to the island for a visit afterward. I'd like to show them the new feature." he finished with a wink.
"New feature?" Loki asked.
"New feature." Harry confirmed. He lifted a hand and clicked his fingers, activating the Room's programmed feature as a tube started forming around the bar, making lazy circles overhead and impossible loops, where one could see the water running through the half-pipe where it was completely upside down.
"You made a waterslide?" Natasha asked.
"It started as an idea for the kids, but then I wanted to try it too and it kind of went from there." Harry confirmed. Then he took off, levitating Natasha with him, to where the stairs had materialised and rose up the many floors to the top, where he landed with her, only to find Pietro already jumping into the pipe, fully clothed. "Bastard! I wanted to let Natasha have the first go!" he screamed after him.
Before he disappeared around the first corner, Pietro turned and smirked back, "You should have seen it coming, wizard!"
Harry looked after him incredulously and lifted a hand only for Natasha to catch it. "Don't. He's just having fun."
Harry grumbled good-naturedly, and decided to let it go. But next time, he'd open a portal and have Pietro stuck going through the whole thing over and over for an hour. Natasha shrugged off her top and sarong, which she had gone to put on earlier, grabbed him and kissed him passionately before jumping into the pipe. "Witch!" he called after her, before smirking and transfiguring his clothes and jumping in after her.
The experience was quite magical as the water seemed to flow upward on more than one occasion and the ride took more than two minutes to complete. You had to love magic, when a small straight could be turned into a long slide that culminated in multiple loops, before you carry on with the twisting, turning ride.
When they reached the bottom, which ended in the circular pool, Harry looked around for Pietro, only to hear him cheering up above him, having apparently entered the tube again. Harry just smiled and laughed to himself as he flew out of the pool and hovered above where Natasha was floating in the water and looking up at the slide, trying to track Pietro's progress. He kissed her and then went back to the bar, with her attached to him as she had grabbed onto his shoulders.
They landed and Harry looked up to note the steady line of Nymphs all making their way up the stairs after Logan of all people, who was most likely going to instruct them on water-slide etiquette. Harry saw the first people behind him were the kids, which made him smirk again. Such a softie.
The ride turned out to be a huge success and Harry promised to himself that he'd leave it there for the others to enjoy. Not long after the water-slide appeared, the elves had started turning up and the pool area was soon inundated by magical creatures and people, just hanging around and enjoying the atmosphere as the music played in the bar and they watched as people were ejected from the slide with smiling faces and more and more interesting positions, some coming out sideways and some sitting with their backs to the water. The spectacle of the exit positions kept everyone entertained and there was a lot of laughter and merriment all around.
The bartender needed Loki's help to keep up with the requests for drinks and he was more than happy to comply. Something about the act of serving drinks to grateful people had struck a note with him and he understood why Harry enjoyed the pastime so much. Why he guarded his territory so jealously. He suspected the Elf understood as well, because he had showed up the moment he could help.
Harry was not surprised when Tony and Pepper soon joined them. He'd heard they were going to the island and were introducing the twins to the locals. Harry seemed to have gained the Asgardian ability to turn any occasion into a party. Bruce and Sif soon followed, then Clint and Laura with the kids, who soon found their friends among the elf and Nymph kids. Harry suspected Tony had spread the word when Steve showed up and joined Logan at the top of the waterslide, to keep him company.
When Harry saw the amount of people turning up, he decided to make a quick run to go fetch some more. Pretty soon the residents of the X-Mansion had walked through the portal. Xavier wasn't too happy when Harry had walked into the class and summarily dismissed the kids and told them to get ready for a bit of fun and a barbeque on the island in ten minutes. The other staff had simply laughed and encouraged the kids to get ready quickly, to help their fellows and to ensure nobody was left behind.
When Harry appeared at the Baxter building, he greeted Roberta, the robotic/holographic AI receptionist and walked in, hoping he wouldn't find anything strange happening. Fortunately Reed was busy compiling data and, apparently, fine-tuning the control equipment to what seemed like a gateway of some sort, which had a sealed space vehicle of some sort in front of it.
Harry snuck up behind Reed invisibly, to try and scare him and just as he was about to make a noise, Reed said, "If you were planning on scaring me, you really shouldn't greet Roberta. It's literally her job to announce visitors."
Harry pouted as he became visible. "She wasn't supposed to tell you." he complained.
Reed still hadn't looked up and answered as he worked on the inside of the control panel, his arm having stretched to get at a difficult screw from a different angle, "And last time, when you asked her not to, she didn't. I had to give her strict orders to ignore your orders to ignore mine."
"So if I told her to ignore your strict order to ignore my order to ignore yours, would she do it again?" Harry asked with a smile.
"Please stop that?" Ben asked from the couch. He was in his human form, reading through what seemed to be an instruction manual on the craft currently in the middle of the lab. "I get a headache when Reed starts talking his science stuff as it is."
"But you're a bloody astronaut!" Harry objected.
"Yeah, but I'm not a 'bloody' astrophysicist. Nor am I a genius. I got my qualifications the old-fashioned way, by working for it." Ben had given up on the manual and got up to greet Harry properly. "Hey, Harry. It's good to see you." he said with a genuine smile as he shook his hand.
"It's good to see you too, Ben." Harry said. "How's that girl of yours doing?"
Ben smiled and said, "She's doing a lot better than she did when you surprised her with those reading glasses!"
"Hey, I didn't think she'd pass out from sensation overload, I didn't even know that something like that existed!" Harry defended himself. "I thought she'd appreciate being able to see again!"
"Sensory overload." Reed corrected.
"Oh, she's more than happy, don't get me wrong. Just, warn a girl before you do strange things to her." Sue said as she entered the room. Carrying two cups of coffee, one for herself and the other obviously for Ben, since it was huge.
"Thanks, Sue." Ben said as he took the large cup from her with ease, in one hand. She had had to use her force field to help her carry the cup, but for Ben, it wasn't even an effort. Harry had been able to change the outward appearance of his physical body, but inside he was still the large rock-man, that needed more food for sustenance. Fortunately a permanent weight effect on the amulet allowed him to use an elevator again and not crush a couch when he sat down on it. It also allowed him to jump great distances, much like Hulk.
Those two had gotten along like a house on fire, when they first met. It was while Ben, in his Rock form, had gone to Harry's lab for the first time, to try the first iteration of the amulet. As he waited for one of the adjustments, Hulk had asked to meet the big man and Bruce had agreed. The rest is history. Now, when Hulk feels cooped up, he's got a buddy to go smashing/clobbering with him in the room.
"Hi Sue." Harry said with a smile and a friendly wave. She ignored him. "Still mad that you can't sneak up on me?" Harry asked with a smirk. She still didn't say anything. "If it makes you feel any better, you could probably still explode my heart with just a thought, not that I hope you try that anytime soon…"
When she still refused to answer him, Harry shrugged, "Okay, fine. Be that way." He turned to the other two, "Reed, Ben, I'm having a party on the Island and you are both invited. If you happen to know any girls you want to invite I'd be happy to bring them, if they are capable of acknowledging my existence, because there are more than a hundred beautiful magical women on the island, all in bathing suits, and they are likely to be interested in having long, meaningful conversations with my friends."
"When?" Ben asked.
"Right now. It was kind of spur-of-the-moment." Harry apologised. "I understand if you're not interested."
"I'm in!" Johnny said as he walked in from where he had been listening in from outside the room.
"Hi Johnny." Harry said. "Are you sure you can handle all those girls? Once you start something with a Nymph, you'd best be prepared to finish it. And they tend to keep men for months to years depending on their prowess."
"They'll be done with him in minutes, I'm sure." Ben said with a smile.
"Have you seen what I look like?" Johnny asked incredulously with a hint of humour.
"You look like a model," Ben started with a nod, when Johnny smiled, Ben continued, "For an STD infomercial."
Johnny soured. He'd love to insult Ben about needing to date a blind girl, but Harry took that away from him. Ben's confidence had actually grown since Harry helped him. Considering his physical strength, combined with the durability and other gifts afforded to him by his natural form, he was kind of the lucky one. "At least I don't have to rely on magic to fit into normal society."
"I've seen the girls you hang out with. You're the one that wouldn't fit in with normal society." Ben argued, the smile didn't leave his face. Johnny had not been able to use him as a verbal punching bag since Harry showed up. He still felt he owed the man a proper reward, if only for that.
"So, are we leaving those two behind?" Harry asked Reed, pointing at the arguing pair.
Reed had finally finished what he was doing and straightened out from his strange position. "That does sound like sound advice, until I remember that that means we'd come home to a destroyed building."
"If you two can't behave yourselves, I couldn't in good conscious take you with us. I wouldn't want to expose my people to you and let them think that that's normal behaviour for our world, especially while many of them are still learning our customs." Harry said before he turned seriously to Johnny. "Also, the majority of the people on my island were freed from a life of slavery in the last couple of months. If you so much as give the impression of impropriety, I'll make it so that you have to sit down to pee for a month, do you understand me?" He said it calmly with a smile on his face.
Johnny actually gulped. "Yes sir." he said. At least he'd get to watch.
Sue was impressed, despite herself. Johnny hadn't listened to anyone seriously in a long time. He tended to just smile and charm his way past obstacles and do whatever he wanted anyway. She nodded and turned to go get some things.
Harry smirked and subtly cast a couple of privacy charms as Ben called Alicia to find out if she was available. She responded positively and Harry quickly got some info from Ben to go through a portal and pick her up. She was able to send a photo and describe her location well enough for Harry to get the portal set in the correct place.
They greeted each other and then they were just waiting for Sue. She soon returned and looked around, not spotting them. "Harry. Are you hiding us from her?" Reed asked.
"Why would you think that?" Harry asked shrugging his shoulders and undoing the magic. "Maybe it's an extension of her illness. You know, the one that makes her not notice me?"
Sue had noticed them the moment the magic was dropped. She knew Harry was having fun showing her how he could hide them better than she could hide herself from him. "Okay, that's enough." she said. "If I promise to stop giving you the silent treatment, will you at least give me a straight answer? How did you know I was there, because I know you couldn't see me?"
Harry huffed, but nodded, "As long as you can apologize for accusing me of cheating when I tell you." Sue didn't look happy, but nodded and held out her hand to him, which he shook. Harry smiled, "The emergency portkeys you all wear?" he started. When she nodded, he continued, "They use my magic. I can feel them."
"So you did cheat!" Sue accused.
Harry just shook his head in resignation. "I don't call it cheating when you use your gifts to try and sneak up on me, just like you shouldn't when I use mine to detect you." He did not wait for a response before he opened another portal and stepped through. With the amount of people frequenting the resort these days, they had set a designated arrival location just off the bar area which people avoided naturally because of the limited wards on it. It was no more than a compulsion, but good enough to keep the people safe.
Once the Fantastic Four were through, Harry decided to make one more call, so he opened the portal one last time. "Hey guys," he said as he walked through, "How are things going here?"
"Harry!" Rocket exclaimed. "Perfect timing! Mind sending a bolt of something extra magical at the ship following us? It's been trying to take us down for hours now. I think its run out of heavy munitions and ballistics, but they are still firing on us constantly using energy weapons."
Harry didn't look worried as he sat down on a conjured recliner with an equally conjured drink, "And what did you do to deserve being attacked by them?"
"Our magical friend is right to be suspicious. We have a habit of committing crimes and getting into fights because of it." Drax said with a smile as he got up out of his chair to greet Harry.
"We stole from a dead person." Mantis said excitedly from her seat.
"Technically, he was alive when we got there, but he ended up walking in front of stray weapons fire." Rocket said.
"Whose weapon?" Harry asked.
"Who knows? Everyone was shooting at that point. Probably had something to do with us listening in on Kree encrypted communications for Brand and Nova Prime. They don't like that kind of thing." Rocket said.
"And the stealing part?" Harry asked.
"Well, the guy's jump ship was just sitting there after we killed him and I thought to myself, 'Who do I know who has a real love of looking into advanced technology and who needs a long range scanner system for their planet?'." Rocket looked at Harry. "Do you know who popped into my head?"
Harry couldn't help but smile, "You are incorrigible, Rocket." He got up and cast his modified bubble-head charm outside where he could see and directed Rocket to go around it and lead the enemy ship through it. As planned the enemy ship couldn't detect the pocket of air and even though the air didn't do much, if your ship wasn't running on runes or specifically protected, the magic still wreaked havoc on your more sensitive systems.
The enemy ship stopped chasing them and just continued to float in the last direction it was going. "Does that ship look dead to you?" Rocket asked.
"We did just kill most of their systems with magic, Rocket." Harry said. He looked around and asked, "Where's Quill and Gamora, anyway?" He had seen Groot on a seat, but he hadn't been interested and was playing some kind of hand-held game. "Hi Groot."
"I am Groot." Groot said. It sounded like 'Whatever' to Harry.
"Yeah, about Quill and Gamora…" Rocket said, pointing at the floating ship.
"What are the chances that we killed any really important life-sustaining systems on that ship?" Harry asked urgently.
"The chances that life support systems are down is one hundred percent, but that should still give them a couple of hours of air." Rocket assured Harry. At that moment, there seemed to be an explosion as a part of the ship was blown away and the air started escaping. "They probably still have internal shields as long as the power is on." Rocket tried lamely, just as the last external light they could see went off. "That might be a problem."
Just as Harry was about to cover the entire ship in a bubble of air, he felt something and relaxed. There was the sound of a crash from further inside the ship and Peter's voice yelled out, "Damnit Rocket! I told you not to leave your stuff in our landing point."
Gamora's voice also spoke up, "I landed fine."
Harry just smirked. These Guardians were a random bunch, but so much fun. He took out a mirror and called for Brand. "Yes." she answered.
"Hi, I'm about to open a portal in delivery point alpha. We've got some friends coming for a visit and they have gifts." Harry said before closing the connection.
He opened a portal and used his magic to direct the enemy ship through. Then he told Rocket to have them follow it. "Where are we parking?" Rocket asked as he directed them through. These portals of Harry's was amazing. It would have taken them days to get that far even when using Jump Points.
"Just hang tight." Harry said. He had a smile on his face as Peter and Gamora walked onto the bridge. Gamora looked fine, but Peter had a couple of bruises, a split lip and a cut above his eye. "You look like you had a fun time."
"Harry?" Peter asked before a smile appeared on his bruised face, "It's damn good to see you. Did you do that?" he asked pointing at the broken ship.
"I am… Groot." Groot said, 'Needing someone to save you… again.'
"I don't always need someone to save me!" Peter objected. Groot actually looked up from the game and just looked at Peter.
"You are the reason I was captured!" Gamora objected. "Next time I'll just leave you to try your luck in a Kree interrogation cell."
"I said I was sorry." Peter said with his hands in the air.
"You could still change your mind." Nebula said as she walked in from the rear of the ship where she had been sleeping in her bunk. She had faith in her sister and didn't really care about Peter. "The tree will probably mature in another couple of years." she joked. Harry wasn't aware that she had decided to stay with them, but considering what they were doing and who for, it wasn't a big leap to understand why.
"I am Groot." Groot exclaimed, 'No thanks.'
Gamora just glared at the tree creature, who seemed to divert his attention to the game to avoid eye contact and she let it go. Turning back to Harry, she said, "Thanks for the help." Then she walked to her seat and sat down. She didn't do 'thank you' very often. Harry's intervention had interrupted the interrogation of the man she reluctantly cared for. She was then able to break both of them free, grab their gear and activate the emergency portkey, which was connected to her favourite dagger. She didn't go anywhere without it.
"Guardians." said a voice over the communications systems, while a giant holographic screen appeared outside the ship's main windows with the face of Brand looking at them like they were insects. "You're supposed to be keeping tabs on the Kree for the next week to get us information on their movements."
"We got word of something important and needed to get out. They spotted us and Harry showed up to help." Peter spoke up, before Rocket could. Rocket loved to act like the captain of the ship.
"Fine, we're lighting the way for you. Leave the broken ship where it is. We'll get our people to retrieve it. Anything to declare?" Brand asked, with the tiniest of upturns of her lip.
"Lots of dead Kree." Gamora said with a happy smile.
"We also picked up a jump ship with a good long-range sensor array." Rocket added.
"Good work." Brand said before the holographic image disappeared and a new one appeared. That of a three-dimensional rectangular tunnel made out of flashing lights with red at the top and green on the bottom, to show which orientation to approach the docking bay. The galactic standard, according to the Nova Corps.
Rocket took them in and they entered a large door that appeared before them in the middle of nothing. "Good cloaking tech." Peter said.
"Magic." Harry responded.
"Yeah, I realised." Rocket said with a smile. "That hologram is magic based?" he asked as they stopped inside the first door where recompression would take place before they would be allowed into the bay where gravity was active.
"Yup." Harry said proudly. It was technically one of Jarvis' additions, but he was still proud of his friend. "Just added it a couple of weeks ago."
"Devious." Rocket approved. "Anybody decides to fly through the 'hologram' and they kill their own systems due to magical overload."
"It does serve as a nice first line of defence." Harry agreed. "Jarvis says you're busy with your first mastery project."
"Only planning at this point." Rocket answered with a grin. "I still need to set up a place where I can experiment somewhere outside the nearest couple of galaxies, just in case I blow the nearest one up."
The thought made Harry queasy. A short couple of years ago, he wouldn't have understood the implications of such a statement, but now it was something he could understand to fear. "Blow up?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, when you try to weaponize the gravitational forces of supermassive black holes and the singularities that make them up, you start to tread where nobody ever should." Rocket said as he smirked at Harry. "Don't worry, Harry. I know the rules. I'll make sure that both the location of my tests and the supermassive black hole I'm tampering with aren't anywhere near each other or any living thing."
Harry was still feeling kind of sick at the idea, "Please have someone check your information first? It sounds like you're messing with universally destructive forces, here."
"I am. It's going to be amazing." Rocket said with a look of wonder in his eyes. "But it'll probably take most of my life to just get the math right for what I want to do, so don't worry."
Harry sighed in relief. "Thank science." he said, much as Tony once had. He'd have to see what Tony thought of the idea and maybe help dissuade Rocket from his plans. Teaching him runes may have been a mistake. He didn't know that Rocket was just messing with him. He couldn't see any way to mess with a normal black hole from a collapsed star, let alone a supermassive black hole, which kept entire galaxies spinning around them.
Once they had landed, Harry opened a portal and told them to contact him once their debriefing was done. He'd open a portal and they could join the party, if they were interested. When he turned around again, Groot, Drax and Nebula had already walked through, with Mantis standing there and wondering if she should stay or go. Harry smiled and shook his head before he indicated for her to go through. Peter caught a glimpse of the pool party going on through it and wanted to join Harry immediately, but Gamora caught his arm and held him back.
Harry smirked at him before stepping through and closing the portal behind him. The first thing he saw was Groot being manhandled by an excited Xamantha who had come to take him to meet her new friends. He seemed to be only slightly annoyed, but he was soon smiling sincerely for the first time since Harry had stepped onto their ship. Harry hoped he kept his bad attitude in check around the kids.
"Don't fear. Groot has very gentle feelings toward the tree people and especially his Xamantha." Mantis said.
"His?" Harry asked with bit of worry as he looked over to the girl.
"He has found a kinship in her, and he often speaks of her fondly. He believes he is the last of his kind and they are the closest he could ever have to a real family. Someone that can understand him." Mantis explained.
"What about Rocket?" Harry asked.
"Rocket is like his overprotective father. For the moment." Mantis said. "It will get better. Groot just needs a bit more time to grow up."
Harry nodded along. "Maybe he should spend a bit more time with the Nymphs, then?" he suggested. "I'll talk to Rocket about it. Maybe they will be off mission for a bit and Groot can stay here."
"Wise as always." Odin's voice boomed from behind Harry, who jumped at the sound.
Then Harry smiled and hugged the man. "It's really good to see you." he said looking around to spot the rest of his family scattered around and chatting to the rest of Harry's friends and people. "Who told you about the party?"
"We were already aware that a lot of people were converging, thanks to Heimdall, but when Sif reported that you had gone to go fetch more heroes that we had not yet met, we decided to come visit." Odin said with a smile. "Between you and me, Frigga wanted to come see how the Nymphs were doing. I think she's still hoping you'll slip up and start producing heirs for your kingdom." he chuckled.
"I think most of the people on the island are hoping for that." Harry confided. Then he turned and started introducing Odin to the Guardians that were in attendance, followed by the Fantastic Four.
Xavier had a lot to discuss with Mantis and they were soon found sitting at one of the tables, which Harry had conjured when people started needing places to sit, other than the ground. They were just staring into each others eyes as they communicated telepathically. Xavier had yet to meet so powerful an empath and she had never met so powerful a telepath. He actually confirmed that she had a small gift along those lines as well, but not strong enough to use on most complicated life-forms. It did explain how quickly she was able to pick up on Groot's speech though. Astral projection was something she could work on and probably achieve, but he warned her to be careful and not practice something that leaves your body vulnerable when she was alone.
Harry was soon making food for everyone, including vegetarian for the elves, who had at first declined, until Harry's superior cooking won them over when he introduced them to vegan alternatives, which he had researched and procured for them. Tofu Steak was a big winner with them. As was coconut cheese. Harry wasn't too fond of it, but any cheese was better than none.
Once evening set in the party started winding down and the elves started making their way back to their village. The Nymphs didn't last much longer, so when they left after a long procession for them to hug Harry again, they left as well.
"Seriously," Wanda asked, "How do you not get jealous?"
Natasha smiled sadly, "The Nymphs all have a connection to the land and the land is connected to Harry. They can't help it. If I got jealous, it would be directed at someone as guilty as you are, just for breathing."
"The land of our Harry is much as Asgard is." Frigga said. "Power flows to and from it with Harry at its epicentre. Much as Asgard is connected to its king, so is New Atlantis connected to Harry."
"There is also the fact that New Atlantis recently became the recipient of a spirit of its own." Odin said. "It was a marvellous thing to behold, the birth of a living island. Many legends will start here."
"The island is alive?" Wanda asked. She felt like a parrot most of that day, with her repeating things back at people for clarification.
"Indeed." Odin confirmed.
"I was there." Logan said from where he sat at the edge of the circle around the fire pit where he was sipping on his firewhiskey. "It was something special." he said with a far-off look.
Around the fire-pit was arranged the rest of the heroes who had all showed up. All the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Asgardian Royal family and even Director Fury, Branch-Director Hand, Director Brand, Coulson and his team, Jarvis, Wanda and Pietro. Those with partners had brought them along as well. Clint's kids had been taken to the guest house, which would see some use that evening with most of the people staying the night.
Harry was still upset to having missed the event, but he reminded himself that he could not be in the centre of everything that went on. That didn't mean he wouldn't have liked to have been there, to feel the magic as it happened. A lot of what happened that night was still a mystery to him. He was about to change the subject as he returned from greeting the Nymphs, when something unexpected happened.
As Harry sat down, there was a breeze and something stirred in the very ground beneath his feet. A feeling ran over him that he didn't immediately recognize and Natasha had stiffened next to him, "Harry, what's going on?" she asked softly.
"I don't… know." Harry said as he let his magic roll off of him to feel what was going on. When he felt his magic touch on it, he immediately withdrew his magic, accidentally snuffing the fire as the magic flew back into him. The darkness did not last long, as a faint glow drew everyone's attention.
"Be very still and do not interfere." Odin warned softly, but in a voice that carried so that everyone heard and understood.
From behind a tree the glow revealed the glowing figure of Prongs as he stepped out of the tree-line and started walking to them slowly. Harry watched with awe as, for the first time, he saw the spirit of his island after it merged with New Atlantis. It walked up to Harry and performed a bow, with one hoof lifted up, before it went on to smell and acknowledge all of the people seated around the fire pit.
When it came to Groot, it actually head-butted him softly and Groot seemed to glow for a second, before he sat down and stared open-mouthed at Prongs. "I am Groot." he said softly, 'Thank you.'
The Stag continued its circle until it came to the twins. If sniffed at Pietro and nodded, before going to his sister. It sniffed her and then straightened suddenly a look of alarm on its features. It looked at Harry and communicated something non-verbally, which Harry only barely understood, before it lowered its antlers and rushed at her suddenly. Harry was suddenly by her side, holding her in place. "What are you doing?" both her and her brother demanded as the deer ran right through her.
She immediately collapsed onto the ground and Harry ran his magic through her to feel what was going on. The deer had somehow communicated that there was something wrong with her magic and that it would attempt to cleanse her. Harry had heard of and seen dark magic, but that was usually because the user of the magic was dark, not the magic itself.
What he felt now shocked him. Actual dark magic, like the kind he'd only ever experienced in demonic creatures, like Dementors, the magic itself clung to her and tried to return to her, to affect her. It was strange too, like the opposite of Harry's magic. Where his magic was straight forward and wanted to be used like a tap under pressure, this magic was greedy and wanted to multiply and become more. He felt a randomness about it, a kind of indirectness. Driven, but not directed?
The deer, having done what it came to do, trotted off as Harry started flooding her system with his own magic, much as Loki had shown him he could do to get rid of foreign magic. The dark magic fought him and tried to infect him, but Harry had a secret weapon. He lifted his hand and started summoning patroni. He channelled the magic directly from his ring and kept on summoning the light creatures.
Tony was telling Pepper what he was seeing through his special glasses, which he had put on the moment Harry lifted his hand and nothing seemed to be happening except for the looks of amazement from the powered in attendance.
Harry directed the twenty patroni to run through her over and over again in a straight line before running in a circle and doing it again. Pietro had a look on his face like he was watching his sister die, but Loki had locked him in place, when he realised the man would attack Harry if he thought he was doing something nefarious. Not on his watch.
The patroni kept on going through her over and over again and slowly Harry could feel the dark magic give way. Slowly its hooks, that had been dug in so deep, started to let go. All the while, Harry was filling her with his own magic, so that the dark magic had no place to go, even if the patroni stopped what they were doing, which he would not allow.
Minutes passed and Tony had given in and everyone that didn't have the ability had had a look to see what was happening. Unfortunately the dark magic wasn't visible to them, so they just had to believe that Harry knew what he was doing, and they had all the faith they needed. Ben had stepped up to hold onto Pietro, when he kept on struggling with Loki's hold. Loki, was grateful, because the more desperate Pietro became, the faster and harder he seemed to move, but Ben was immovable, even in his human form.
When Harry felt the dark magic release its hold, he directed the patroni, who had become the de facto host for the malicious energy to stand in one location. He quickly summoned the hardiest container he owned to contain magic, which just so happened to be an MSC Shell from before they started using the enchantment factory.
He directed the patroni into the Shell and watched as they entered the magical container. Then he sealed it and sighed in relief feeling the magic roiling but contained. Then he returned to Wanda. He checked her vitals and found that she was only sleeping. He stood back and cast an enervate at her. She instantly shot up.
"It hurts!" she screamed.
"She has absorbed too much of your power, Harry!" Odin said. "She must release it or it could destroy her!"
Harry caught on quickly and created a target, much like he used to do for Hulk. "Wanda, I need you to use the power and destroy the target. You know how to do this. Just focus your will and-" Harry went silent as the target was vaporised, but Wanda was still brimming with energy. "Good. Next." He said as he started conjuring more and more targets, all quite a ways up, just in case there was an unexpected piece of debris. Fortunately it was all within the area Harry had set up for the fireworks, so the creatures on the island weren't disturbed.
Five minutes later and a couple hundred targets destroyed, Wanda finally relaxed as her overloaded stores became bearable again. "What… was that?" she asked between breaths.
Odin who had gone to inspect the container spoke up, "Chaos magic."
Loki sucked in a breath, "It cannot be. He was banished!"
"He is an Elder. There is no killing him." Odin disagreed. "He will always try to find a way back."
"Who are you talking about?" Pietro asked after checking on his sister. "What just happened?"
"It seems your sister had become host to a very dark influence and the spirit of New Atlantis wanted to save her from a very horrible fate." a new voice said.
Harry and Natasha recognized it instantly. "Ancient One?" Harry asked, remembering at the last second not to call her Yao.
"Didn't think I'd ever use that portkey, did you?" Yao asked with a smile.
"What are you doing here, now?" Harry asked.
"My job." Yao said honestly. "I'm here for the container." she said pointing to Shell. Harry looked at it and saw that it was slowly darkening. Her hands flashed through a few movements and then held her hand up, palm forward as green mandala formed around her forearm and the darkening stopped completely.
"Do you have a safe place to store it?" Harry asked.
"No." Yao said easily. "I was simply going to send it to a more deserving recipient in one of the darker dimensions which we have complete protection from."
Harry shrugged, "As long as we don't have to worry about it coming back to bite us in the ass."
"Your island's protections will be good enough, even if this seed somehow finds its way back to this dimension, which it won't, I can promise you that." She assured as she walked up to the Shell, her arm still shining with green light as she picked it up, before she bowed and said, "It was nice to see you all together. Have a good evening." Then she activated her portkey again and was gone.
"Can someone, please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Fury demanded. He so disliked it when people forgot that he was there.
"Fear not, Director Fury." Odin said. "It seems that one of Harry's hidden allies has decided to show herself. That is all. As for the vessel she decided to take the liberty to dispose of, it was a connection to an ancient evil, which I do not name for fear of drawing his attention. Suffice it to say, the danger is passed and you need not mobilize the troops."
"What does it mean though?" Frigga asked.
"If the old ones are moving, we have entered a time of change and we need to be prepared for it." Odin said.