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A Third Path to the Future by Vimesenthusiast
 Harry Potter & Marvel Xover Rated: M, English, Adventure & Romance, Harry P., J. Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix, Words: 1862k+, Favs: 11k+, Follows: 11k+, Published: Jun 30, 2013 Updated: Jun 2 6,476Chapter 6: Let's Have a Little Race
I don't own Potter of Marvel.
Remember what I said about monster chapters, well, here's another one. the next one will be out in three weeks, but my marvel muse would just not let me be until i wrote this.
Some good reviews I would like to mention:
Narsil: Moral decisions are difficult to understand from once removed, but you are correct that at that time Xavier was correct, and I did that on purpose to showcase another difference between Harry and him, something that will be pointed out again in this chapter.
Preier: Harry was disappointed in his performance too.
SerialKiller: In that case you should like this chapter.
TJG: the T there stands for telepathy doesn't it? You'll notice I had some of the same ideas you had in this chapter, as well as a bit more, hope you like it.
For those familiar with the X-men Evolution episodes, I switched around the chronology of the two episodes Shadowed Past and Grim Reminder. Grim Reminder is first, to give the X-people something to do.
I have a bit of an announcement at the end of the chapter, but lets get this lengthy show on the road.
Chapter 6 Let's have a little race
Harry and Ororo took the three injured swiftly to the hospital wing and got to work on them. Fred, the only one of the brotherhood who had been injured walked away under his own power, and the four of them left swiftly after Harry went inside, with their still comatose leader being carried by Pietro (though not until after he took a bit of a feel before showing up with her, he didn't actually like the bitch all that much but he still thought she was hot).
As Harry laid Kurt on one of the beds he castigated himself fiercely about how he acted today, and the kids, for that was what they all were to him, just kids despite their powers, had paid for it.
The bed's medical scanner, a mix of MRI and x-ray that had initially been developed by Reed and a Henry Pym, and was now used worldwide in many of top tier hospitals, went to work and Harry raised a hand. Hedwig appeared at that moment, carrying a bottle of healing potion, which Harry took from her swiftly.
Kitty was surprisingly worse than she looked, on the outside she only looked a little singed but inside the damage was much worse. She was suffering from a severe system shock, as if whatever had hit her had just fried her nerves right under the skin. So she was fed the potion first, and then Harry began to cast several healing spells that were aimed to heal the nerves over her, thankful beyond words that Hermione had made him promise to learn them after he had been hit by the cruciatus at the end of fourth year.
Harry worked on Kitty like this for thirty minutes while Ororo looked over Kurt and Evan. Evan was merely knocked out, the first version of his bone armor having protected him from worse than a concussion. Kurt on the other hand had several cracked ribs, and was having trouble breathing.
Rogue too came in to be checked, but her shock after touching Cyttorak's shield was far less than Kitty's, more like an electrical jolt than some kind of torture that Kitty had suffered, probably because she had only tried to tag him with her hand not her full body like Shadowcat. Ororo swiftly turned her around after giving her a sip from Harry's healing potion, concentrating her work on Evan and Kurt, using some of the medical equipment to ease the blue-furred German boy's breathing. Luckily there was no permanent damage, and a few healing spells from Harry once he was done with Kitty would set him right.
About an hour later Harry had done all he could. All three of the injured would recover, but Kitty in particular would have to rest for the next few days. Once all three were sleeping peacefully after sharing a mild sleeping potion, Harry and Ororo left them there.
Harry was filled with self-loathing for his shortcomings but Ororo saw this and stopped him before he could walk away. "Stop." She said firmly. Harry turned to look at her, his face sorrowful and she continued. "This is not your fault Harry Potter, so don't even think it is. You weren't the one who broke that lunatic out, you weren't the one who hurt our charges, you weren't even the one who called the kids in, none of this is your fault."
"Yes it is!" Harry burst out angrily. "If I had taken Juggernaut as seriously as I should have from the start I could have ended it before the kids arrived. If I had, none of them would have been injured! But no, I heard he was Baldy's brother, and just saw it as a silly family spat despite their powers!"
"So that means you made a mistake, it does not mean you are at fault." Ororo answered calmly. "You cannot take responsibility for all that went wrong. Yes I'll admit you should have taken it more seriously, but you seemed to have started with that attack that caught Logan. And after that…"
"Yeah punk, it anyone should be blaming themselves it's me." Logan walked in, a morose, almost beaten look on his face and a beer in one hand. He had held it together to help Jean, Scott and Chuck return Cain to the Vault (and boy had Chuck had to talk quick to explain how they caught him and what had happened to him) and then returned with the intention of drinking away his problems. All those years devoted to mediation, all those sessions with Chuck and I still fall into a damn berserk state!
Hearing Harry, the guy who had taken Juggernaut down in the end blame himself had broken him out of his own depression, at least for a moment. He took a sip from his bear then pointed one finger at Harry. "You remind me a lot of guys I used to know during the war. The guys that were out in the woods, who were in the field, in danger for so long it became second nature to them. Once they realized they weren't in any danger they went all to pieces, they lost the edge and couldn't regain it. You were able to slip back into combat mode eventually punk and you did good. Not only beat Cain, but made it so he'll never be the threat he was before."
Ororo nodded firmly. "If you weren't here Logan would almost certainly have never been able to slow Juggernaut down, and Charles would be dead before I could have returned with the students, and that supposes they could have handled him without you. Do not blame yourself for this outcome." Logan nodded agreement. He knew his limitations. Logan would bet on himself against anyone he could actually injure, but that shield of Juggernaut had stymied him completely.
Harry looked at her fierce determined face and slowly nodded, then without warning leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. He pulled back quickly but he was smiling when he did, and so was she, despite her surprise at the act. "Thanks, Ororo." He then turned to Logan. "What was up with that anyway Hairy One? Why the bloody hell did you attack me like that?"
Logan grimaced as the trio made their way to the TV room. "I was raised by a pack of wolverines in the wilds of Canada kid, ain't got no idea who my parents were. Anyway I took on some of their attributes, including falling into a berserker rage if I'm in too much pain. It's sometimes been my greatest strength, most of the time my worst weakness. Your sound attack managed to just, to just smash through all my defenses and cause the inner animal to come out. And because you were the one that did it, I kept on targeting you rather than Cain." He sat down in one of the chairs and took a long pull from his beer before slamming it back down. "All that time I spent with Chuck working on getting better and when it matters the most I can't keep control!"
Harry shook his head. "If I'm not allowed to blame myself neither are you Logan, it was just damn dumb luck and me not realizing what could happen with my sound attack." Ororo nodded firmly, sitting down on the sofa next to him. The trio sat silent for a time, each lost in their own thoughts. Harry though back about it and, was thankful Charles had stopped him. He wouldn't have shed a tear if Cain had died in battle but executing him afterward in cold blood, no that wasn't something he would have done if he had been wholly rational.
Yet at the same time he knew Cain should be facing the death penalty at the very least for what he had done since gaining his powers, but probably wasn't. After all, he had been broken out once, who was to say the person who did it couldn't do it again anytime they wanted, just like back in his old dimension and Chez-Azkaban. If it was a choice between letting Cain live and possibly escape to misuse his powers again, or feeling guilty afterward, Harry knew what he would choose. But in the end Charles had stopped him, and he would be the one that would carry that burden.
At that point Jean and Scott came in having changed back to their normal clothing followed quickly by Rogue. Jean was the first to speak asking, "So, um, what will we be doing about the wilderness survival camp? I mean, we did leave rather suddenly."
"And Evan and the others won't be up for anything for a few days," Ororo mused. She looked speculatively at Logan and Harry.
"You do it." Harry said bluntly, pointing a finger at Logan. "I have projects to work on."
Including hunting down whoever it is that's been watching the house. Harry thought grimly. I want to make bloody certain that whoever is watching doesn't see a damn thing. They shouldn't have been able to see anything today, but I'm not going to leave that to chance. After that I'll spend some time in the Danger Room tonight, and then resume working on my projects tomorrow when Logan is training the X-men. Logan's right, I've been too complacent, I need to get my edge back. "The sooner I get my current projects done, the sooner I can figure out a way to create a suit that'll give the team more protection."
Logan grunted angrily, but agreed. Storm spoke up then. "I think I'll join in the training as well, it could be good for you all to fight another opponent. Though I trust all of you will be taking the training seriously from now on?" She stared sternly at all three of the students who all nodded firmly. Fighting Juggernaut and seeing Harry in action when he was serious had been a major wake up call. They all thought they were tough and getting stronger quickly, but that was before Cain took their best shots and kept on coming never treating them more than nuisances.
A short time after Jean and Ororo both left to spend time watching the wounded, and Rogue simply decided to go and listen to some music and wait to see how long it would take for her power up from draining Juggernaut would last.
Scott went up to his room to think about what they could have done better. He was a little resentful of Harry taking command like he had, but he realized that Harry had handled it as well as it could have been handled. Juggernaut was simply one hell of an opponent. But that didn't mean he didn't think he could have done better as a leader.
Harry's time was spent a bit more aggressively. First he went up to his room and grabbed his invisibility cloak. Then he went out and hunted down the watcher down the street. It turned out to be a man dressed almost exactly like the poster child for a spy, tie, good suit and all. He was blond, with short cropped hair and a stern jaw, who look incredibly bored as Harry found him. By this Harry deduced that the weak notice-me-not ward he had installed, designed to simply make it seem as if nothing interesting was going on in the mansion, had worked very well. Good, I was worried that Juggernaut had broken it when he shattered the intent-based defensive ward.
With a silent stupefy the man fell asleep at his post on the balcony of the house he was apparently living in. "That says something about the money and planning of whoever he works for," Harry muttered, checking the man's wallet. Inside he found a badge with a bird design on the back of it and the acronym SHIELD, as well as several different I.D.'s none of which he assumed was real. Harry didn't recognize the unit or group or whatever it was, certainly Reed and the others had never mentioned a group called that. Hmm, that means they are really secretive, don't trust the FF for some reason, or are new, ah well, it doesn't matter which really.
He worked quickly after that, placing a tracking charm on the man and a bit of a confundus spell that made him think he had spent the entire day stuck inside throwing up with food poisoning. He had no idea how this guy contacted his superiors, but he wanted him to have another reason for not having seen any of the action, regardless of whether he had checked in yet today or not. A bowel issue was embarrassing enough even a spy wouldn't include it in his report unless pressed. No way would the changes in Cain go unnoticed if this group is at all confident, so I need this guy to have an excuse to not have noticed. Something that can't be traced back to me or to Baldy the mind tweaker, at least not right away. I doubt anyone would think the straight-laced Chuck would use something like that after all.
After that he placed a tracking spell on the man then left, fighting the urge to leave some kind of prank that would activate if the man was brought in for questioning. But he didn't want to make more enemies right now, not until the issue between him and Charles stabilized one way or another.
With that Harry went back to the mansion and moved into the Danger Room. Everyone else save Charles had already gone to bed, exhausted from the battle, allowing Harry to have some privacy. I know what Ororo said, and I agree with her for the most part, but I could have done so much better even after I started taking Juggernaut seriously. I could have done so much more with indirect spells, but I never even thought of them, despite my using them and runes so often in my pranks. I have to get my edge back. Regardless of anything else, I know now there are people out there who can push me to use everything I've got, well, below my BI spells, at least I hope that there isn't anyone who can force me to use those.
What Harry called his BI or Bloody Insane spells, were spells he had developed in the Negative Zone. They were designed for one thing and one thing only: utter and complete annihilation. Several of them could in various ways destroy an entire planet. Harry had not been kidding when he said there were denizens that could wipe out humanity with a thought. Harry had fought a single member of one such, and had used two of the UI spells to finally kill him (or it, Harry was uncertain afterward if the bastard even had a gender) as well as the planetoid the fight had occurred on.
Still that was unimportant for now, and the Danger Room created a slightly smaller version of the Juggernaut, programmed with all the data he could tell the Danger Room of his abilities. After a moment it roared and charged Harry. "Let's dance," he whispered, green lightning sparking in his eyes.
Mystique woke up with a groan and a curse. The curse was not because of the pain, as a spy and a fighter she was used to pain. No, the groan came because of how stupid she had been to think that Cain Marko would be willing to work with her. "That's what I get for not reading his entire profile." She muttered. "Egotistical asshole."
Pietro's voice answered her from the side. "Yeah well, maybe if you had also, you know told us what the hell you were doing we would have been in a better position to help you."
Lances voice cut in sharply at that point. "Fuck that, that bastard was willing to take us all on and might have done us all in if that new X-guy Potter didn't beat him down."
Mystique sat up quickly looking at them all standing around a sofa she was laying on. She saw they were back at the small dorm house she had bought them and frowned ferociously. "All right, how long was I out, how the hell did I get back here, and what the hell happened?"
Todd Tolansky, the Toad, a small misshapen boy who looked very much like his powers had twisted his body to match them answered her. "Well, ya see, we were at the survival camp with the X-dorks when their plane showed up and took them away to help fight the big red. Then we went with them because that black MILF of theirs said that you were in trouble too." Elsewhere a certain Nubian goddess had a sudden desire to fry some toads and wondered why. "We show up and throw down with the big red and then well…"
Lance took up the tale. "We didn't do too hot to be honest, Toad couldn't do anything to him, Fred could barely match his strength for a few minutes and even at almost full power I couldn't do much either. And Pietro had left to look for you." And didn't come back like a fucking coward, but that's going to be 'discussed' between us later, no need to mention it now. "Potter, the new X-teacher, he took command of us and the X-men, tried to keep us all safe while hammering the big guy but it didn't work so well. Rogue and Kitty, I mean Shadowcat, they both went down when they touched the big guys shield and then Kurt went down and well, Potter went crazy."
"He got in close, Juggernaut somehow lost some of his power and then Rogue drained the rest and that was it. We were lucky Fred was only hurt a little, I don't think any of the three X-dudes that went down are going to be moving any time soon." He scowled a little. Lance was always trying to measure himself up to Scott as a leader and a fighter, and he felt they were pretty even. Maybe if he was honest Scott was a little more powerful and more, well more leader-ish, but Lance thought it was though, he was on a whole other level, and the battle as a whole showed Lance that he and the rest of the Brotherhood had a lot of work to do before they were ready to play with the adults.
Mystique scowled at the lost opportunity but at least it wasn't a total loss. "So you saw Potter's powers, what are they?"
The four teens all looked uncomfortable, scuffing their toes and glancing away not meeting her eyes. Toad spoke up then. "Um, well see, it, we, we don't know. We know he was fighting and that he took out the big guy at the end almost by himself, but other than that, none of us can remember for the life of us how he did it."
The spell Harry had activated on the four teens was a very targeted version of the 'Confoundus' charm that completely scrambled their memories of his powers. They would eventually be able to piece together what they had seen in a month or two, but for now none of them had any idea what his powers were. They didn't even remember Kitty using the word 'spell'.
Mystique stared at them, a deep scowl on her face. So Charles will go to such lengths to keep this punk's powers a secret? Or was it Potter himself somehow? Her thoughts were interrupted when Lance spoke up again. "But he was a weird one, he argued with the bald guy about how it would be better to kill big red rather then put him away, and then as we were leaving he told us he'd be in touch. He said he wants to 'hear your sales pitch' too."
"Hmmm." Mystique said, unable to figure out what the hell that meant. If he didn't believe in Xavier's cause, then why the hell was he living with them? "Well whatever, but you say you weren't doing too well? The answer for that is simple, training. And since you all left that survival camp, that means we have the rest of the week to train." She smiled evilly, and all four of the boys gulped worriedly.
Harry was incredibly sore the next day but was also pleased. After spending half the night training in the Danger Room he spent the rest of the night working on the thorniest part of creating a ward for a non-magical to use continually: power. By the end of the night he had figured out a power source, now he just had to figure out how to create a runic array that would feed off it. Bio-energy, the energy a living body gave off, could be used as a power source, and Harry thought that it would be strong enough to power something like the ward for Ororo, but not something like a flight array, and maybe not something for Rogue. That still eluded him, unless he could figure out a way to draw more bio-energy from the individual without actually harming them. It would of course mean the person had to take in more energy in terms of food, but that was ok.
When he walked into her arboretum he found Ororo already naked and sitting at the table waiting for him. She smiled in welcome and he smiled back despite how sore he was. After taking off his own clothes, making a point of not noticing how Ororo's eyes trailed over his muscles and new bruises (fairs' fair after all) he sat down across from her. "Well, how are you this morning milady?"
"Better than you obviously," Ororo said rather tartly. "I take it you decided to beat yourself up despite my admonishments that what occurred was not your fault?"
"I did indeed, but on the plus side I also found an energy source that could work on the ward I am designing for you. Could you spare sometime this week to make certain what I have so far works? Say a few minutes of our morning time together? I want to make certain it works before I start work on anything permanent."
Ororo's frown turned into a smile. She was looking forward to not watching her emotions, and could think of several fun ways the two of them could 'test' the ward designed to block her emotional connection to local weather. She frowned inside remembering some of the names her boyfriend in college had called her.
Of course her relationship, if that was even the word for a single night, back when she was living on the Serengeti plain wasn't even considered, there had been no emotional connection there, it was merely a physical thing. Though there had been that other boy from a foreign tribe when she was younger, but he left and anyway at that time she didn't know to watch her emotions.
No it was the boyfriend who she had when she went to college that she remembered most. A cold fish am I? Frigid, unresponsive am I? I wonder what he would say if he knew how much it took not to flay him to the bone every time he finished without taking any consideration for my needs! Hmph. Yes, Ororo Munroe had quite a bit of frustration to work off, not that she would push things that far too quickly. No, the connection that was growing between her was too much fun to rush like that.
That didn't mean they couldn't have some fun though…"That is wonderful new truly. I am looking forward to being able to show more of my emotions." The gleam in Harry's eyes told her he was looking forward to it too, and she went on hurriedly. "It will be nice to see if I can connect more with our students without it getting in the way."
"I'm sure it will," Harry said, in a tone that implied far more than the words. But then he sipped his tea and changed the subject, asking if Ororo knew of any other groups like the FF or any other adult mutants. The discussion lasted the rest of their morning together, and both of them walked out to face the rest of the day in much better moods than they had been.
The three teens able to move came down to see a high calorie breakfast waiting for them and Logan and the other adults already eating. Harry was fixing up three plates for the invalids and waved his hand at Jean. The redhead's eyebrow began to twitch violently at seeing all the sausages bacon and other fatty things on the table. Jean sat down, her eyebrow twitching even more violently as Harry walked off. She sat down at a place well down the table from where she normally sat and began to fix herself a very small plate of food, hoping that the change of place would save her from the trap Harry had no doubt laid down for her.
Logan smirked a little. "I wouldn't bother Grey, Potter's probably figured out a way to keep ya here until you eat as much as he wants ya to."
Ororo nodded, smiling a little as she had seen how Harry had set up this particular trick. "Indeed, and you should eat anyway. I realize you all had some leftover pasta last night, but you also all used your powers far more than normal yesterday, you need the energy if you're going to get through training today. You'll be working with me, and you too Rogue. We'll be working on power projection and hand to hand combat." Both girls looked at her in surprise and Ororo smiled. "There are some moves and techniques that a woman can teach that a man cannot and I have decided that I wish to involve myself in your physical training more."
Logan looked over at Scott. "You're with me Summers, we'll be working on hand to hand and physical endurance as well as some other things." Scott nodded, knowing he was in for a very painful time.
Charles smiled, happy that the others had organized things already. "I've already called the camp where you were all supposed to stay and gave them your excuses, so don't worry about that."
The conversation then split, with the adults talking about the consequences of yesterday's battle and the three teens discussing the same thing though on a more personal level.
Rogue had been astonished this morning when she went to turn off her alarm that she still had the super strength that taken from Cain yesterday. Rather than simply tap the darn thing she had crushed it with two fingers. In fact, while the memories he had gotten from him had already faded (a side effect of his being unconscious when she drained him, his memories were only of the short term and very quickly gone) his strength had stayed with her and showed no sign of leaving. She was due a short stop in the research lab because of that, to make certain that there wasn't any lasting harm done to her and to check and see if she still had her original powers. She hoped that was not the case; that draining Cain completely had broken her power leaving her with his super strength and durability instead, but she wasn't too hopeful.
Scott tried to get the two girls to talk about the fight in an attempt to go over what they could have done differently, but Jean headed him off, opening a three-way discussion about school and classes. While Rogue was in the grade below the other two she was taking some of the same classes they had and they shared some stories about teachers and classmates while the adults had their much more serious conversation, talking about the ramifications of what had occurred the day before.
Charles had to talk very quickly to explain how Cain had lost most of his powers, and the story he had come up with was probably not believed by the head warden of the prison. He well knew that mutant-kind wasn't ready to be forced into the spotlight just yet, and Harry's powers would cause consternation and fear in both hate groups and certain religious institutions. Charles was hopeful however that his fast talking had worked well enough for now to keep attention off them for a while longer.
It hadn't.
Nick Fury, the head of the new overarching intelligence institution name SHIELD was incensed. He was a man who wanted to know everything he could, the more he knew the better he could perform his duties, which put simply was the defense of the world and America in particular. Well, to be honest it was just America at the moment, none of the other nations that had been asked to join up had been willing to pony up the cash or trust an American chosen head just yet, but that was neither here nor there. And even when they did SHIELD would have no jurisdiction in China or Russia or India, and very little in Africa. Still that was neither here nor there.
Yesterday a super threat had escaped from the Vault, one of the most secure prisons on the planet. Today said super threat, someone on the order of the Hulk and some of the extraterrestrials the FF had faced (and the FF themselves, though that was a tightly guarded secret) could be barely classified as a threat. The Juggernaut, whose super strength was on par with the Hulk or The Thing, the strong man of the super hero team Fantastic Four, was now without said strength. He had also lost his mystical armor and his shield which protected him from nearly all damage. His strength, which even without mystical aid should have been near that of someone like that Spider-man fellow given their analysis, was now far, far less, barely above human norm. Something had happened to take his mystical and mutant powers away while he was free and Nick Fury had no idea what.
He knew when and where it had to have happened though. Xavier's school, it was the only explanation. After all it was Charles that had subdued Cain the first time, and he had returned his half-brother to the Vault this time. The man may have gotten the okay from someone in the government under the table to have a school for mutants, but Fury knew there was more going on than just teaching them how to control their powers, especially with his old friend Logan there. And whatever had happened to Cain Marko had happened there. Unfortunately despite this knowledge his man on sight was unable to tell him anything.
When asked by his supervisor Agent Barton had told the man that he hadn't seen anything, which was so out there Fury had contacted the man himself. When pressed Clint admitted to having spent practically the entire afternoon in the bathroom with bowel issues. Shit happens, if anyone knew that Fury did, but this was remarkably well timed shit. No, something was going on and if it didn't have something to do with this Potter kid that came out of nowhere and became friends with the Fantastic Four, Nick would eat his eye-patch. He decided to send a few more undercover agents into Bayville when he could. When that would be he didn't know yet, SHIELD had quite a few logs in the fire right now, but he was going to do it and find out what the hell Harry Potter was.
Kitty and the others were woken up by the delicious smells wafting from the large trays Harry was carrying as he came into the medical wing. Kitty opened her eyes and Kurt sat up quickly, while Evan kept his eyes closed but turned his head toward the smell. Light hurt his eyes right now, but he was certain if food was the first thing he saw the pain would go away.
"Hey guys" Harry said setting one tray down between Evan and Kitty, and the other one next to Kurt, whose appetite was very like a certain orange-haired Gryffindor, though Kurt had much better table manners. "How are you three feeling?"
"Crappy," Kurt said bluntly, grabbing up a fork. "Exhausted, like a punching bag or a piece of tenderized meat, take your pick, but ve'll live I think."
"Yeah what he said" Kitty said, already digging into her oatmeal (heavy on the sugar and cinnamon and with extra raisins, just like she liked it) with a spoon while she was already chewing on a sausage. She waited a moment to swallow before going on. "That big guy was tough but hey, we're all alive. Did you have to use some of your magic to heal us?"
"Yep. But even with that you all will be bedridden for at least two days. Still that doesn't mean we can't work on your thinking and tactical planning, so that's what we'll be doing in the mornings and a bit of the afternoon." Kurt and Evan groaned but still nodded agreement along with Kitty.
Kurt, who had already polished one plate of sausages and eggs asked. "As nice as breakfast in bed is, it's a pity that ve missed your normal war with Jean." They all laughed a little at that.
Jean had finished as much of breakfast as she wanted to eat, and was now searching around for the rune holding her in place. She first checked her back, not wanting to fall to the same trick twice. After a few minutes spent searching, she frowned, not having found anything. She looked at the table wondering and then at the others, none of whom, not even the professor had left. In fact Charles had a resigned expression on his face and had leaned back, reading a newspaper he had pulled out from behind his chair.
The others were still eating of course, but the professor still being there was very odd… After another moments thought Jean stuck her head underneath the table again, but this time concentrated on the carpet underneath the table. There, about as large as the table above it was a rune of some kind.
She didn't know what it was but it was a simple 'hold' rune, modified to hold them all in place. If she knew that she could have simply waited it out but...
She sat up and began to summon her power then frowned as her stomach rumbled a little, reminding her it was still hungry and at the same time she felt the professor's stern regard. Giving it up as a bad idea she sighed and began to eat her fill, and not two minutes later the rune dissipated, having consumed its power without Harry there to power it. Ororo noticed this and smiled inwardly at the little trick.
About an hour after breakfast had settled, Rogue and Jean met with Storm in the Danger Room. Jean had spent that time checking in with their friends and found them sitting up and having a leisurely breakfast with Harry while discussing new ways to use their powers. Rogue had spent that time in the research lab with the professor checking her over, and had found that her strength seemed to have become permanent! It was a shock to her, but she was happy as well as this made her a more powerful member of the team.
Ororo had converted half the room to a target range, with dozens of small moving targets at one end while the other half had been turned into a martial arts dojo. She stood in the target range section and motioned Jean and Rogue to join her. "Today we will be working on strength, target practice, and martial arts training." She twirled away suddenly and a lightning bolt shot out of her hand with a violent crack shooting downrange to destroy one of the smallest targets. "First, target practice. Jean stand over here, Rogue come over here and pick up this spear."
The spears were a suggestion of Harry's from their discussion that morning in her arboretum. Each spear was about seven feet long and made entirely of metal. The things were very heavy, but with Rogue's newfound strength they felt about as light as toothpicks. "We'll work on that for an hour or so, and then Jean you'll work on the strength exercises Harry had you doing while Rogue you will work on controlling your new strength and finding its limitations until lunchtime. Don't think I didn't see what you did to that chair arm or the knives and forks young lady." Rogue shrugged her shoulders, a little embarrassed, but not so much, still enjoying her newfound strength.
While Harry spent the day going over new ideas for weapons and ways to use their powers with Evan and the others, Storm worked Jean and Rogue to the bone. Rogue learned to control her powers, though it was hard, she had never felt as physically powerful before. Before today she was barely benching 60 pounds, but now it was more like 60 tons! Jean too was feeling stronger, though in her case it was if her powers had risen to the occasion yesterday and now that was their new norm.
Their target practice sessions however couldn't be more different. While Jean quickly got the hand of hitting even the smallest targets, it turned out Rogue had absolutely no eye for long range weapons. They had gone back to target practice after spending most of the morning on control and Ororo shrugged philosophically as Rogue missed one of the large targets yet again. "Well that is what training is for, though we might tell Harry not to build that taser gun he was planning for you until you can use it properly. On the other hand he did say the team needed a tank more than another long range specialist, so you are in a way a godsend Rogue."
Rogue smiled happily, setting the spear she was holding back into its holder. Ororo went on motioning the two girls to follow her. "Now let's do some stretches and then I will show you some martial arts katas." The stretches were vastly different and far better for the two girls than the ones Logan normally used. They were designed to limber them up rather than build muscles like the ones he used, Logan simply thought one exercise fits all. When they were done warming up Ororo showed them several holds and moves from Aikido to start with, a soft style that Logan didn't use. Jean took to it like a duck to water, but Rogue wanted something different to use with her strength. Ororo suggested boxing and kickboxing lessons, both of which Logan could help with. Grappling however did have its uses for Rogue, especially given her powers, and she learned several holds easily from Ororo, while she was careful to not actually touch the younger girl's skin.
Both girls learned that in this as in teaching languages Ororo was a truly gifted teacher. She was able to explain things simply, showed every move she wanted them to learn first, and corrected their mistakes easily. Both girls realized they enjoyed learning this way, and despite some misgivings about how important hand to hand skills truly was, put their hearts into it.
Scott was learning some of the same, but Logan also had him check to see if he was comfortable with some hand to hand weapons, and started training him on using a knife. He wasn't very at home with anything hand to hand, and only really went through the motions, something that Logan saw but didn't really know how to correct.
When they met up for dinner and she heard that Scott was learning knife work, Ororo's lips twitched very slightly, that was all. Perhaps later I can show him some of my own knife work, Ororo thought, remembering how she had learned to protect herself with a knife as a thief in Cairo and kept it up later. After all a young girl on her own needed a hidden secret to protect herself at times. None of the youngsters noticed her reaction and even if they had seen it all of them were too tired to wonder about it. That night, despite having left the endurance camp, every X-man went to bed exhausted. Harry however wasn't.
That night Harry spent his time coming to grips with his new magical strength in the Danger Room, something he had ignored last night with his eagerness to get some real practice in. He had belatedly realized he had fought far too directly against an opponent after he should have realized that tactic wasn't working and he took on Juggernaut with indirect spells, illusions, attacks on his senses, conjuration and transfiguration to hold him in place, and other tactics.
Now casting a spell on himself he whistled a little at the number that floated in the air like mist for a few seconds in yellow before dissipating. "400,000 wow, that's almost, that's about twice as strong as I was before, I think, never really checked myself when I was in the Negative Zone." I'll check back in a few days, but if that's permanent damn, just bloody damn. The spell was designed to test a magic user's power level using something called a UOM, or unit of magic. Hermione was the one who found it somehow in the library at school and she had tried to explain what a UOM was once in fourth year but Harry had been too busy trying to ignore how good she smelled sitting next to him to actually listen.
After a moment's thought he muttered "Magia Erebea," and began to go through some exercises. He quickly determined that the spell was now doing far more than before. Where before the spell would augment his speed and durability now his strength was also massively reinforced. It seemed the magic had, for want of a better word, a preference as to what it wanted to do. While he had no real way to tell, he thought he might be as strong as Ben, or maybe as strong as Rogue was now. His durability too had been greatly enhanced, so much so that his crisis suit was redundant. Not that he was going to stop wearing it of course. "I said it before but wow."
After that Harry went to bed, deciding not to pull an all-nighter again lest Ororo be irritated with him, she had been talking to Hedwig earlier for some reason, and he wouldn't put it past his familiar to decide to rat him out, for his own good of course.
The next day Jean woke up determined to speak to Ororo about flying, having had simply the most magnificent dream of doing so ever, and waking up early feeling great despite her exertions yesterday. She had dreamed about flying since she was a little girl, and she knew that she was strong enough telekinetically to do it now, all that remained was figuring out how, and Ororo was the only one who could possibly help her. She knew the older woman spent her mornings in her arboretum so she went there first.
What she didn't know was that Ororo and Harry spent their mornings together there. Nor did she know they spent those mornings naked in Ororo's case, and almost naked in Harry's. When she walked in she found the two of standing next to a table, touching a large stone with a series of very small runes on it. They turned slightly to look at her and Jean froze completely.
She had seen Harry in a similar state once before, but still this was just… Of course I've seen Duncan's chest and muscles when he takes his shirt off to try and impress me, and the other cheerleaders of course, as if I can't tell what he's thinking even without using my powers hmmf, but he's all heavy muscle and built for upper body power. Harry looked like a swimmer, wide shoulders, incredibly toned, a stomach you could use as a table and those abs looked just yummy to the redhead. His scars too were intriguing and she wondered where they all came from, she just knew there was a story behind every one of them, and she wondered if she would ever learn them.
Ororo too was enticing, a thought that surprised Jean greatly. She had always known the older woman was gorgeous of course, something that had made all three of the younger girls a little jealous from time to time, but seeing her like this was something else. Her dark chocolate nipples, her milk chocolate breasts and unblemished skin was incredibly something, making the younger girl question her preferences for a moment. And that didn't even mention her long legs or "Wow, I really didn't think you would shave down there, a lightning bolt, really?"
The two nominal adults looked at her for a moment contemplatively as her face grew as red as her hair in mortification when she realized she had said that out loud and what she was seeing. Then Harry shook his head and laughed a little and Ororo asked "Jean dear, since you're standing there could you check the weather outside for me?"
Jean looked out the glass wall of the arboretum by the door grateful for the distraction and was grateful when she heard the rustle of clothing as they dressed. Well Harry dressed, Ororo wasn't embarrassed or irritated so saw no need. "U-uh, um it's looking really windy, the wind was really picking up for a moment but it seems to have settled down."
"I see." Ororo said sadly, leaning away from the table. "I'm sorry Harry, but that one doesn't seem to work either. I was feeling quite amused there, in fact I was feeling the equivalent of falling down laughing at Jean's face, though it was much closer than the last one"
Harry nodded and made a note on a little notepad by his chair before turning to Jean. "You my dear need to work on knocking. Unless you're doing it on purpose of course, than please carry on."
Ororo giggled a little at that while outside the wind picked up once more for a few seconds before dying down, but Jean had recovered enough of her poise to shoot back sharply "Oh grow up Harry, you're not that good looking. And I was looking for Ororo anyway."
Harry paused buttoning up the last button on his shirt, staring off into the distance in silent contemplation. A lightning bolt slammed into him from out of nowhere knocking him out of it, and he shook himself. "Right sorry, next time be more careful about feeding my inner pervert like that. But anyway, back to the drawing board for me, I'll leave you two ladies alone."
Ororo mock scowled at him then he left bowing his way out grandly. Jean growled a little while Ororo merely chuckled, waving the other girl over to join her. Jean did so, still a little flustered despite her earlier bravado, and a little on edge given Ororo's continued state of undress. "So why did you wish to talk to me so early Jean? If you wanted to ask about help shaving you could have asked me for that later if neither of the other girls are up to it."
"No! Well I mean yes, that would be nice, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to ask you, well I wanted to ask you to help me learn to fly." Jean said. "I think I'm strong enough now to do it."
Ororo looked at her for a moment as outside the wind picked up again, building almost to a full storm as she smiled happily. Flying was easily the greatest thing that her powers gave her the ability to do, and helping someone learn sounded like incredible fun. "I'll be happy to my dear."
Instead of going back to his room Harry made his way to Xavier's office, deciding it was time to eat some crow. He found the man up and about frowning down at some kind of missive from someone at his desk but he looked up as Harry knocked on his door. His eyes narrowed and he tensed himself a little as Harry came in, and his voice echoed that wariness when he spoke. "Yes, Mr. Potter, what can I do this morning?"
Harry walked forward until he stood right before the older man's desk then said abruptly "You were right about not killing the Juggernaut." When Charles looked at him in surprise he went on. "At the time you interrupted me the battle was over, it would not have been a death in combat, but cold blooded murder, and that isn't something I want to be a part of. I would have shed no tears if I had killed him during the battle but not like that. I'm also not used to trusting the government to really do its job, and I'm too used to… doing things on my own. I have to get used to the fact that I don't have to take that kind of thing on my own shoulders any more, and you were right about that issue."
As Charles relaxed and nodded in understanding Harry went on sharply. "But you're not right about the issue with Jean! That girl is getting stronger all the time with her training, and I am getting more and more concerned how the mental block you put in her head will affect her, I've seen such things before in the dimension of my birth and such blocks can have lasting consequences beyond what their creator intended. You've had a week and a bit, and your time is running out to be the one to tell her."
Charles frowned staring hard at the other young man. "Mr. Potter, not only am I a telepath, I have several Masters Degrees in psychology. Suffice it to say I knew what I was doing when I placed that mental block in place to keep the entity that I found in her mind from influencing her. I realize you might have met others who suffered from the magical equivalent, but the ones I put in place are different and I know they will prove sufficient. I resent the implication that I would not do what is right for one of my students, and your insistence that I tell her now is not going to change my mind."
"So you refuse to even consider that my knowledge of these things might be greater than yours?" Harry asked, his own face going hard. "That you might be wrong about how they're affecting her? How many of these things have you done to people anyway?" Charles opened his mouth to answer but Harry went on inexorably. "It's only because she trusts you that I gave you the three weeks in the first place, and I reiterate old man, you have only a week and a bit before I do it for you." Charles frowned but said nothing in response preferring to simply stare stonily at the young man.
Harry glared right back for a few minutes then turned and walked to the door where he stopped looking back. "Sometimes even the best of us can be wrong Charles, I hope you realize that, because sometime in the future more than Jean's mind might rest on your ability to listen to others. Remember a week and a bit." With that he left the office, leaving a frowning Charles staring out his window in thought behind him.
The next two days followed fell into a new pattern. Harry and Ororo would test his runic arrays in the morning and then she would work with Jean on flying, switching out target practice and strength building exercises to make time for it. She wasn't quite able to by the time the three invalids were up and about (Kurt was the only one still sore by that point) but she was getting there.
Harry spent his mornings with the three X-men still stuck in the hospital wing, and his afternoons working with his newest toy: Juggernaut's armor. It hadn't disappeared when his magical enhancement had died, and Jean and Scott had taken it off him after he shrank out of it. Harry had thought at first that they might have magical properties, something he could either study or drain, but in fact it didn't. Instead it was an entirely new kind of metal, stronger than anything Harry had ever seen. After assuring himself there was no actual magic in the armor he had Logan try to slice it with his adamantium claws, and they weren't even able to score it, and the sword of Gryffindor had no more luck when Harry tried it. Next he'd had Cyclops try to damage it, but even at full power the one armband he tried to destroy was still in one piece after a five minute blast, scorched a little but that was it.
This discovery had Harry practically salivating at what it could mean, but he would have to wait to figure it out. He needed to figure out some way to actually work with the unnamed metal (Harry name of Harrytanium for the metal had been roundly rejected by everyone who heard it), so he could figure out what the hell it was and recreate it. He had asked for and gotten permission to renovate one of the unused rooms on the teacher's floor to a lab, but he needed a lot of other things, most of which he would have to create himself, to start to really analyze the metal. The science room didn't have any scanners that could do the job, so Harry was going to have to build some, or buy some but he wanted to analyze it both magically and scientifically. After all, once he understood what it really was, he might be able to transfigure some more for the others. For now, since the metal had no anti-magical property like the shield of Cyttorak had his shape changing spells and shrinking spells were able to change the main body and bracers to fit Rogue, who had asked him to change its color to black (to match her green and black uniform). She refused to use the helmet though, which gave Harry a piece to experiment on.
This finished making Rogue into the tank of the team, and Harry had immediately given them all new tactical exercises to reflect the new team dynamic. Scott was alas the only one who worked through them all. Again say what you would about his empathy, charisma and lack thereof, he was a hard worker and took his assumed role as field leader seriously.
This wasn't the only thing Harry was working on though. In two days Harry had finished creating a rune to pull energy off the wearer's bio-energy. It would be enough to power a minimal crisis suit that the X-men could wear for now, though he wanted to figure out a way to do the same thing with technology as well. This stripped out suit provided a shield much like his own crisis suit though nowhere near as powerful and was heavily antiballistic, about three times as much as a Kevlar vest. It didn't have any of the offensive aids, it wouldn't help their speed or reaction time as those took far more energy, but it was much better than nothing.
The more he got to know these kids the more he wanted to help them survive, regardless of his issues with Charles reminding him far too much of Dumb-as-a-door, and these suits would help them survive. Still he thought he could do better, and resolved to keep working on getting up to speed on the tech side of things so the next suit would be based off technology rather than magic.
"However," Harry muttered to himself later in the night he had finished the runic array to feed of bio-energy, "that isn't only one area I need to look into going forward." He looked up at Hedwig who was sitting on her perch looking at him intently. She actually didn't care for anything he was saying, and in fact the subject was a little beyond her, but she knew he just wanted someone to listen to his ideas, and she could provide that at least, especially when he stroked her feathers at the same time. "The question is, how can I make serious money? I don't mean thousands but billions at a minimum. Selling such crisis suits, once I figure out a way to create the same properties without magic but with science will hopefully take care of that, but to make them in numbers to sell I'll need even more money than my gold can give me, even if I figure out a way to use it all without, what was it, depreciating the value? I can't just dump two plus tons of gold without messing up the price, though I have no idea how much, and of course that doesn't even mention how no matter how I do it that much money will get me noticed sooner that I want to be.I want to be situated and have a firm position before I'm noticed by most of the powers that be.
If I want to make an impact, the crisis suits need to be just the beginning. Next there are the seeds I've got for potion ingredients. Veritaserum and healing potions would be a major source of revenue, but I need land for planting and people to care for it, a lot of both if I'm going to even try to meet the demand for them. I need to do more research in the economy of this world, and the history of the past twenty years or so. What little I've done already was too narrow in scope, just looking for evidence of the magical world isn't important anymore."
Hedwig made a sort of hiss, which was the owl equivalent of an interrogative noise. "Yes, that means we'll need to head to Switzerland at some point." Despite the differences between this universe and his, Switzerland was still one of the best and certainly the easiest place to set up a bank account with as little banking history as he had. And I'll need a bank account, Harry thought a little grimly, most of the things I'll be buying, they'll only take checks not straight up cash. I bet I could go to some third world country and hire workers and buy space, but then the money would mostly go to the local bully boys, so hell no. So I'll need to use that passport that Reed made me. I bet it'll pass muster. But getting there is going to be interesting. Hedwig can't go that far, and I can't teleport to a place I've never been, not with all my bits anyway. A picture just won't cut it over distances like that. I can always try…. Well, yeah that might work, I know it exists in this dimension, and I know it well enough to picture for a teleportation, but it might also kill me. Best to get a few of my other obligations done before I try that, that way if I do die I'll at least leave something good they'll remember me by. And maybe the flight array as well, just in case.
A few days after Juggernaut's assault, Steven Strange, Sorcerer Supreme returned from battling his most powerful foe yet, the Dread Lord Dormammu. He did not return alone, he in fact brought back a new girlfriend, whose name was Clea. Absolutely nothing about their courtship was normal or even easy to understand, as she was Dormammu's niece, former slave, and daughter of another of Strange's foes, the sorceress Umar. You would think he had beaten Dormammu to free her but you would be wrong.
He and Dormammu had been forced to work together to renew the barrier between their realms and the prison of the Mindless Ones, powerful yet utterly mindless and savage beasts whose origins were unknown, but who had threatened to utterly wipe out Dormammu's subjects. To say that the dread lord had been unhappy with having to rely on his foe for aid was an understatement, yet he had agreed to leave Clea and Earth alone. Steven knew that eventually the other dimensional being would find a loophole, but for now he was looking to some peace and quiet, some normality and maybe some nice, calm romance.
Wong greeted his master and his guest with a bow. "Welcome back master. I trust that your time abroad was interesting?" Wong was truly the world's reigning champion of understatement.
Steven sighed, taking in the soothing vista of his own magical laboratory. "Yes, quite interesting, a little too much so really. I am looking forward to some peace and quiet for a time."
Clea nodded. "I too would like to sample those concepts, they were sorely missing in the Dark dimension."
Wong nodded. "As you wish, I will screen all incoming calls and if anyone asks for you I will tell them you are still out. Madame Harkness however was in touch several days ago, asking to talk to you at your convenience, and a young magic user whose name I have never heard before, a Harry Potter stopped by and asked me to give you his regards and compliment you on the wards the household. If you wish to meet him he told me that he is staying upstate at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters."
Steven paused in removing his cloak. The ability to see wards like that is very rare, he thought. Perhaps I should go and meet this young man, it might be a very interesting conversation. Clea moved past him, swishing her hips as only women could and he thought, then again perhaps not. "Interesting but not important right now, perhaps you could prepare us a meal Wong, and after that I think we have earned a few days to ourselves." Wong bowed in answer and Steven followed his new girlfriend out of his lab.
The next day the invalids were back to 100%, and Jean and Harry 'welcomed' them back by having a battle royal at breakfast.
Jean looked around from her place at the table, smiling a little at something Rogue and Kitty were saying, but most of her attention was on finding the rune that was holding her in place. I've gained seven pounds since Harry moved in, no more! I swear to god I will win today! After about thirty minutes of searching every nook and cranny she could she gave up on looking and decided on threats. Everyone else save Kurt (who really was a bit of a bottomless stomach) had finished but they were all still there, waiting to see how Harry had trapped her this time, and they would not be disappointed. "Alright Potter, how the hell did you do it this time?! I've gained, well never mind how much I've gained, but I'm not giving up this time and nothing you can do is going to make me eat more than I already have!"
Harry looked up from a little homework assignment he'd given Kitty on runes, one eyebrow cocked in inquiry. "I'm sorry could you say that again?" Ororo groaned inwardly, yet part of her was wondering how this was going to turn out.
The others didn't have as good a grasp on Harry's mind yet, but Logan felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end and he very carefully backed away from the table. Seeing this Charles made to speak up but Jean beat him to it. "I said nothing you can do is going to make me eat more!"
"That's what I thought you said." With a bare wave of a finger and an aimed silent leviosa a small donut hole from a plate on the table shot up and into Jean's astonished mouth. As she reflexively closed her mouth and began to chew, Harry smirked. "Challenge accepted. Now what else to feed you…."