She glanced idly over at a clock set on her book shelf and frowned a little, seeing it was nearly three in the morning. Time certainly flies when you are having fun, she thought. "Actually you're right, we both need to get some sleep." She turned back to look into his face. "Stay with me?"
The offer hovered in the air between them, ripe with far more than the words alone conveyed, but after a moment of staring into hr cerulean eyes Harry shook his head. "No. I'd love to, I really would, but I know you like to sleep naked, and there is no way I would be able to stop myself from trying something with you in the morning if we both slept that way. Sorry." He waved one hand, hitting them both with a Scourgify that cleaned off the fluids from both of them and their clothing.
Ororo smiled, actually happy Harry hadn't taken her spur of the moment offer. She was of much the same opinion of him after all, and she really didn't want to get to that stage that fast. "That is fine Harry, thank you for respecting me enough to not push it."
Harry smiled and stood up from the bed, grabbing his pants and shirt off the floor where they had been thrown earlier before leaning down to place one last, lingering kiss on Ororo's lips. "And with that my goddess, I will bid you ado till the morn."
Ororo chuckled, shaking her head at her boyfriend's antics. "Goodnight Harry." She began to strip off her pants and panties in preparation for bed, enjoying the fact Harry nearly stumbled on his walk out at the sight, but kept going. She chuckled again, then reached over and turned out her light as the door closed behind him.
OOOOOOO
Director Fury was utterly furious, something major had happened, and he and his people had no idea what. They knew something had happened in orbit, when a gigantic fucking asteroid appeared out of nowhere (and that had startled the hell out of his sensor teams) on their 'radar' only to break apart before his pilots very eyes before they could fire a single missile. Then target MM, the wanted super-threat Magneto, had been seen leaving in bad shape before disappearing off their sensors.
What the fuck are we paying these eggheads for if they can't make a device that will actually detect people? He knew he was being unkind, the extent of Magneto's power was not well known, but it was obvious it extended far beyond simply magnetism, no matter how powerful that alone could be.
SHIELD had also lost a retrieval team. The team had been mostly taken from the FBI and CIA, but Fury would have thought they would have been relatively competent despite that, but no trace of the ambush that hit them was to be found. Five men dead for no return was a harsh pill to swallow. Add to that their charge, a mutant that might have been involved in the whole thing apparently named Candra had disappeared entirely.
Now here he was the next day standing in front of the 'oh so mysterious' board of executives. As if he didn't know who we they all were. The number had grown slightly since SHIELD had been commissioned in the first place, yet despite this they were still all Americans. He knew that there were ten others up for confirmation for the board of but none of them had been confirmed yet, nor had SHIELD been approved by the UN so its jurisdiction was basically America openly. Everywhere else they could go so long as they weren't discovered, much like other secret services, which wasn't the point of SHIELD at all, their purpose was supposed to be dealing with threats to the world and to humanity as a whole, but they weren't there just yet.
"You had a chance to capture Magneto and you weren't able to? This is a massive blunder on your part Director Fury," said one of them interrupting his thoughts. The fact that her voice was a woman did not make her words any more welcome, nor did that slightly western accent of hers.
"SHIELD was created to handle issues like this. If it cannot, why should we keep paying your monstrous budget? The fact MM seemingly had an asteroid fortress in orbit that no one knew about is another black mark on your record." Another councilor joined in quickly.
Fury replied quickly, biting his teeth and spitting each word out as if they personally pained him. "With all due respect counselors the extent of Magneto's power is still only loosely understood. In all honesty the fact that he could hide from us this easily doesn't surprise me. In fact as you know counselor we barely have our sensor net up and running, and we haven't extended over the entire globe yet, let alone into space, where we are still relying on NASA's satellites."
"I'm hearing excuses," said another voice this one with an eastern drawl that spoke of Massachusetts. "We don't pay you for excuses Fury, we pay for results."
"Then I suggest you let me bring in the only people who might be able to tell us what happened up there. Xavier and his group are a bunch of loose cannons. If you let me bring them in we can figure out what happened, and maybe put them all to better use."
He actually didn't believe what he was saying, he felt that the X-Men were necessary right where they were, but god-damnit he was a spy, and he needed to know what the fuck had happened, and right now he didn't have any lines of communication with Xavier or any of his kids.
His instincts, instincts honed both as a spy and as a leader of the Howling Commandos, were screaming at him that the Potter enigma was somewhere involved in this. There was no way it was coincidence, Potter showing up then a month and a bit later this happens, and all the odd things happening before Magneto made his move? The fact that his spies couldn't even spy on the mansion at all bothered the hell out of him. It tasted a little too much like the occult to his mind, and was starting to give him nightmares about his time during the world war fighting Baron Strucker.
Luckily Barton seems to have regained most of his form, and his report about the telekinetic's abilities, the fact that we were able to pick up the fire manipulator so quickly are both down to him.
Four of the heads shook from side to side firmly. "No," said one of them. "Xavier has too much backing in Congress for his coexistence ideal right now to make any moves against him an allowable option."
Congress was in fact becoming more and more split on the whole mutant issue. On one side were those that were tacitly backing Xavier, who in the mutterings of one of the mysterious financiers were 'namby-pamby idiots', and on the other was a group led by the firebrand Senator Kelly of Texas, who felt that mutants needed to be regulated, controlled, identified and separated from society for the good of everyone. Fury wasn't happy about that idea at all, it sounded too much like an idea taken from the Nazis for him, but there was no doubt that it was slowly gaining ground. The fact that he felt America should take the lead on this issue need not be stated, but it wasn't happening anytime soon. Luckily no other country seemed willing to step up to the bat either.
"In that case counselors," Fury said calmly "I suggest you wait. SHIELD has so many irons in the fire at the moment it's not even funny. And I'm still running into jurisdictional issues with a lot of the other bureaus, not to mention the Army. I thought we had an agreement that the Big Guy fell under my jurisdiction, but Ross is still making problems." In fact he knew Ross had found some lead on the Big Guy, but what it was his agents hadn't been able to discover. Say what you would about Old Thunderbolt, but he was a man who knew who he could trust, and his hand-picked crew of Marines and Army regulars were fanatically loyal to him. Of course that brought up the whole other issue of personal armies, but the president didn't want to make waves there just yet. It would need something major for the president to step in and relieve Ross of his rank given his status as a war hero. To Fury's mind it could not come soon enough however.
That comment brought everyone up short and there was a thoughtful pause. Fury could almost see their faces as they worked out how many fires he was in fact juggling at the moment.
There was the Big Guy, there was anti-spy stuff (which he really shouldn't have to handle but was) there was the continued breakdown of communism in Russia and all that entailed with its super soldier programs and who knew how many skeletons ready to jump out at the unwary. The fact that they still didn't know where Omega Red was as well as some of the other failed experiments to combat the Captain America super-serum bothered Fury a hell of a lot. There was no telling what that those individuals would do in a world without Communist Russia, if they had even been loyal to it in the first place.
Then there was the whole Stark thing which Fury just knew was going to blow up in their faces at any moment. Already the idea of a metal soldier was going viral, and he could practically guarantee there would be copycat attempts the world over soon. After all the world had already seen what Dr. Doom's suit could do.
Then there were some powers in Asia staring, and his spies had been picking up signs of some new group called AIM. The fact that it had been linked to disappearances of several high-level scientists in Europe was bothering him, as eggheads like that were a problem all on their own.
And then there was that hammer that had appeared like a shooting star a few weeks ago. In fact he was considering moving Barton to the protection detail on that thing, given what it might represent.
That didn't even count the issues that these people had him checking up on that he didn't think were actually worth it, such as the Fantastic Four and the rising number of superheroes appearing recently. Oh sure some of them needed to be watched but the FF had certainly proven their bona-fides. In point of fact he was happy that the Fantastic Four were around because that meant he didn't have to deal with the threats they dealt with. The Skrull, the Kree, and Galcatus in particular were issues he was thankful he didn't have to handle. That didn't even mention their more terrestrial foes.
"That's true," said one of the voices thoughtfully. "Still I wish we could devote more resources to finding this terrorist. Someone with his power running around loose is unacceptable."
"Some would call him a freedom fighter," said Fury, though he personally didn't believe it. The rumors of Magneto's doctrine that they had gotten (and he really needed to start recruiting some mutants of his own there was only so much he could do in the growing mutant community without them) was again something Hitler would have approved of.
One of the figures barked a cynical laugh. "One country's terrorist is another's freedom fighter? It really doesn't matter since we're the ones calling the shots here does it? Status quo needs to be maintained Fury, and Magneto is nothing else if someone who will disturb said status quo."
The fact that he had used his power to utterly destroy several years arms submarines of Russia and America a few months back, and continued to take out nuclear weapons anywhere he found them was a major problem.
"Then I suggest counselors you let me get back to work and stop jogging my elbow."
The counselors looked at one another then frowning heavily signed off one after another. The last to leave was the woman with the western drawl that had to get the last word in. "You were put in this position Fury because we felt you were the one who had the best chance of juggling all the responsibilities a director of SHIELD would need, the one that could get the best results. If you don't start actually getting some results you can be replaced. Remember that."
Fury scowled heavily and smashed his fist into his palm a few times to relieve some anger. Of course they would say that, and he was constitutionally mandated to step down if they asked him to, but on the other hand these weren't exactly elected officials, and threatening the a person who knew where so many of the skeletons lay like he did was idiocy.
For now though he had to put such thoughts aside and concentrate on his work. "Well, at least we'll get some of the answers once that punk wakes up."
OOOOOOO
When Scott woke up the day after the battle against Magneto (and why couldn't he remember where that had actually happened?) he knew he had screwed up by the numbers, not only big time but comprehensively. He raised one hand to slap his face, groaning aloud. "Holy hell, I fucked up so badly they'll need to invent a new word to describe it!"
"All too true boyo," said a voice from the side of his bed. Scott turned his head slightly to see Harry sitting there, face grim. Charles sat next to him in his wheelchair looking incredibly disappointed, and Logan leaned against the wall by the head of the bed looking grim but somewhat less disappointed than Charles. Ororo leaned against the far wall impassively, her face not giving a hint of her thoughts.
Outside of the door to the medical room he could see all the others but Evan staring in at him. Evan was sitting up in the bed behind Harry glaring at him, though for some reason his lips kept twitching like he was trying to keep a smile off his face. On Scott's other side Alex continued to sleep peacefully in the next bed over.
Harry had decided to keep him that way until they were done 'talking' with Scott, figuring it would be humiliating enough for the older brother without it happening in front of his newly rediscovered younger sibling. Harry was all for using publicly humiliating people via pranks, but not for life lessons.
Harry went on. "Seeing as you seem to have come to terms with the fact you screwed up, you want to go over how badly you did so before or after you render your apologies to your teammates?"
Scott rubbed his face, looking more haggard and repentant than any of the teens had ever seen him before. "I…. I guess I should probably take my lumps sir so if it's all the same to you I'll let you lay into me first."
"Alright. Like you said you fucked up on so many levels it's not even funny. I've never had any family to miss so I don't know what it feels like to find one, but you let Alex and his wants, his mostly uninformed wants at that, influence you far too much. On top of that you made two very big mistakes in judgment. First you trusted Magneto despite the fact it was obvious given his imprisoning myself and the girls that he had ulterior motives at best for what he was 'offering' because you only saw what you wanted to see, a way to end your personal problems. Then after achieving what you expressed as your dream you turned your powers on your friends. I realize by that point there was extenuating circumstances, mind control is scary stuff, but it was still well beyond the pale."
Scott nodded grimly. "That, that about covers it sir. I, I realize I fucked up, and I'll try my best to apologize to the others after you're done with me. I just was blinded by the idea of controlling my power like that, of being able to see the world normally with my own eyes uncovered. I'll willingly step down as team leader sir, what I did, attacking my own teammates like I did, it shows a lack of control that you can't have in a team leader."
Charles shook his head, smiling faintly at Scott's offer. "I don't think that's necessary Scott. Simply make your apologies and…"
"Charles." Harry's voice was like ice as he cut the older man off. "Scott's right, he needs to be punished for turning on his comrades like that. Strip him of his leadership duties for a few weeks at minimum, make him earn it back."
Logan's gruff voice spoke up then, "Potter's right, Chuck. Scott fucked up you can't let things go on like nothing happened." Ororo nodded agreement.
Scott nodded too. "Sir, I'm grateful that you want me to remain as team leader, but I know I messed up and I need to pay for it."
Charles nodded sadly. "If everyone agrees then I will not fight it, I simply think you are all underestimating the power of Magneto's charisma, and there was certainly a mind control element to the transformation, so I don't blame you for what happened after that Scott."
"Which we may very well be, but seeing as you still haven't told us about him or how you know him, we'll need to go with what we do know." Harry replied sharply.
"Regardless I should still have realized Magneto was manipulating me," Scott replied stubbornly. "Everything before that transformation was definitely all me, sir."
Harry stared at Scott thoughtfully, pleased that the teen was being as honest as he was about his shortcomings. It was something Harry had been hoping for from him for a while. Now to make certain he learns the rest of the lesson, he thought, then waved a hand, putting a Mufilatio around the bed and him.
The others looked on as a brief shimmer went up around Harry and Scott, something that would keep their words from being overheard and Harry leaned forward intently. "Scott, making mistakes doesn't make you a bad leader or even a bad person. You think I never made a mistake? Hell, I made personal mistakes and as a leader. Making mistakes comes with being human, no one is perfect. It's how you deal with your mistakes that show the measure of a man. You and Rogue, and other mutants whose powers are dangerous to those around them, you all got knocked down the moment they activated. You stood up when you agreed to be an X-men, turning a dangerous mutation into something you could use for your own good and that of others. Now your own mistakes have laid you low again, but it isn't how often you fall, it's how often you get up again. You screwed up, take it to heart and move on."
Scott nodded firmly, at last truly listening to Harry for the first time and Harry waved his hand dispelling the privacy spell. "Now I believe that you have some apologies to make, and then I'd suggest cleaning up your face before anything else. I hope someone knows how to get permanent marker off."
The teen looked at him quizzically. Harry conjured a handheld mirror and handed it over letting himself chuckle a little now before standing up and making way for the other X-men. Scott gaped at what he saw in the mirror. On one cheek someone had drawn the image of a lump of crap, while on the other someone had written 'idiot', 'fool' and other names. His forehead was now marred by the word 'Asshole' surrounded by flowers and vines.
To the shock of Harry and the other teens rather than becoming angry or sad, Scott actually chuckled a little, shaking his head. "I can tell Kurt was part of this, Evan too I guess, but who drew the roses? I don't think either of you have that much artistic ability."
Evan and Kurt snorted but it was Kitty who answered, her arms crossed while behind her Rogue and Jean looked on with frowns on their faces. "I did it, I think that word really encapsulates how you acted, don't you?"
Scott nodded, looking down at the floor. "Guys, I'm really sorry. I just lost my mind, what with finding my brother and wanting to stay with him, and finally getting full control of my powers, it just blinded me to everything."
"Yeah it blinded you to the fact that red armor wearing asshole was using you. Instead you were all, 'my power is a burden', 'oh I'm so cursed', 'no-one understands me' and then turned on us, on me!" Rogue yelled out before anyone else could.
Scott flushed, and shot back angrily "You have no idea what living with these cursed eyes is like! To know that one moment of inattention, one second without my visor or glasses could kill someone!"
Jean whistled a little to herself, stepping back out of range and motioning Kitty to do the same as Rogue seemed to swell up with anger. The powerhouse reached forward grabbing up Scott and pulling him out of the bed so they were face to face as if he weighed no more than a feather. "Ah don't know what it's like!? You say that to me?! Me, who since mah powers activated haven't been able to touch someone, not even for an instant, for fear of draining a person of his life force?! Ah put my first boyfriend in a fucking coma by kissing him for god's sake! Get the fuck over yourself!"
Kurt grinned a little but Ororo clamped a firm hand over his mouth, knowing this was not a time for the young teen's dubious sense of humor.
Scott gulped a little, both from the proximity of the rather good looking Goth girl, and her words hitting far too deeply. "I, I hadn't thought of that I guess, there are other people worse off than me aren't there? I guess I've been a bit of a dick for longer than this latest crap huh?"
Rogue nodded grimly. "Just remember you're not the only one sufferin' around heah sugah. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and realize how much yah've got to be thankful for." Scott nodded and Rogue huffed, dropping him back onto the bed before turning away, leaving the medical wing. Scott couldn't stop himself from staring after her for a moment, watching her rear flex and move athletically under her exercise shorts.
Kurt and Evan looked at one another then grinned. "We'll be pranking you for a week or so Scott, after that we'll be even. Just don't get yourself controlled by any more magical devices okay?" With that the two most easygoing of the X-men walked away Evan limping a little, but that was now the only sign of his wound from battling Sabertooth.
Kitty followed them a few seconds later. It wasn't like Scott could have hurt her anyway, so her main problem with Scott was the fact he'd turned on them for his brother, but if she ever had to choose between family and the X-men she might have done the same.
Jean stared down at Scott, shaking her head. "I guess if the others are willing to forgive you after a few pranks then I won't make a big deal out of this, especially since I was unconscious when you made your choice to first go along with Magneto." Her jade green eyes narrowed. "But that doesn't mean I won't remember it." Scott winced a little. Despite the mildness of Jean's response, that comment cut deeper than the others because of his feelings for her.
Behind the two teens Ororo looked at Jean for a moment then motioned the other adults out of the room. Harry lifted one eyebrow in inquiry as he followed his lady out of the room, but she simply smirked in reply before leaning forward after the door shot behind them. "It seems time for the two of them to clear the air between them, and for some misconceptions to be laid to rest if I'm any judge of my friend's response to that line."
Harry reared back a bit then laughed gently. "Ah, so Jean is going to lay down the law a bit?" Ororo chuckled in reply and Harry shook his head. "Ouch, but possibly about time too." Ororo nodded as well, hoping that Scott could let go his fixation on her friend.
OOOOOOO
After a second Scott got up the courage to respond in a way that might get him out of this, or at least sound a little romantic. "I know I messed up, I just, I wanted to look at you without my glasses in the way." Scott muttered, blushing a little then looked away.
Jean sighed, shaking her head, her red hair swishing slowly through the air. "Scott, I know you've got some feelings for me. When I cleared by head of the blocks, it was pretty obvious in the looks you sometimes sent my way. Maybe at one point I might have been flattered. Maybe at one point I might have come to return your feelings, but not anymore."
Scott frowned. "It's not Duncan, even I can tell that these days, so who is it?" Who is keeping us apart, was the unsaid portion of that question.
"Why does it have to be anyone Scott? We've just become too different from who we were. You have devoted your entire life to the X-men, I can see it. Five, ten years from now you'll still be here. Not me. A year from now I don't know where I'll be, but I won't be here. The professor's dream is a magnificent idea, but I don't agree with how he wants to work toward it. I want to make a difference in this world not just as the X-woman Phoenix, but as Jean Grey. Ororo says I'm like a butterfly, I'm ready to spread my wings and leave the cocoon. For you, the cocoon is enough for now. You may be willing to put your own stamp on it but that's all. And I'm not going to wait until it isn't."
She wasn't going to point out but beyond their lives moving in different directions she had long since decided Scott was far too needy, too emotionally unstable for her. She wasn't going to waste her life propping him up and keeping him going. She very much preferred a man who was an independent sort, the kind she could lean on rather than vice versa.
The image of Harry as he had appeared during the fight with Magneto, his power roiling off him like a heat haze, emerald eyes glowing with power and amusement as he looked down at her in his arms shot through her mind, and she bit her lip to keep from blushing. Her crush had yet to go away, and it couldn't leave fast enough to suit her. The idea of getting between Harry and Ororo was enough to make her skin crawl with self-revulsion. Though maybe you should be thinking of joining them instead, a small voice at the back of her psyche said, and Jean shook her head firmly, banishing it back into its book which was labeled 'immoral desires'. Looks like I'll need to meditate a bit longer tonight than usual, she thought ruefully.
Scott had no idea what was happening in the redhead's head, which was just as well considering. "So, that's it, just forget about us and move on?"
"There was never any us, Scott, just you being interested in me." Jean shook her head, this time much more emphatically. "Get over it Scott, and move on, please. You'll be much happier when you leave this fixation of yours on me behind."
Scott frowned at her word choice, but under her hard stare simply nodded. He wasn't going to get over his first crush anytime soon, but it was obvious just the way she was talking to him that what hope there might have been for her to become interested in him in turn was long gone.
Jean smiled. "Good, trust me, you'll find someone for you eventually. Someone you can be happier with than you would with me, someone who can match you better than I can." With that she turned and left Scott to his thoughts.
OOOOOOO
About an hour later the adults returned to the medical wing, where they found Scott staring out the window introspectively. Charles took up position by the younger Summer's bed and nodded at Harry who shrugged. "I'd wait until someone removed those doodles on Surfer-boys face, but meh." He waved his hand over Alex's face and moments later the teen woke up.
"What, what the hell happened? Where the hell am I, what happened to all that power I felt?"
"That power, Alex Summers, came at a price I doubt you would like to pay," Charles said frowning a little, then going on to explain what had happened. After a while Alex's frown receded a little, but he still looked put out and very suspicious too.
"Magneto used us Alex," Scott said earnestly, leaning over from his own bed to stare at his brother. "That power up, it came with something that let him influence our minds, control us. The professor's telling the truth."
Alex looked over at his brother and nodded. "I guess I can see it, he did have a whole megalomaniac thing going there didn't he?" Chuckles went around the room at that, but Alex went on. "That doesn't change the fact that I've got these new powers of mine."
"Indeed, well despite our rather regretful introduction I would like to offer you a spot among the X-men. We will train you in your powers, and perhaps give some direction in which to use them for the betterment of all." Charles said, smiling faintly in hope.
The blond Summers brother shook his head. "No, I'm not going to follow this Magneto character, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to follow yours either. All I want is to be left alone, have a normal life. I'm not interested in taking sides or being a child soldier for either group. Right now I just want to live my life as normally as I can."
Scott frowned at that and was about to speak when Harry put a hand on his shoulder squeezing. Scott looked up at him and Harry shook his head. Scott frowned but stayed silent.
Charles sighed sadly. "That is your prerogative Alex. We're not going to conscript you or anything like that. If you wish to return to your normal life, we will of course allow it. I'll have Logan drop you off where we met you."
Alex nodded and looked over to Scott. "Sorry bro, but I'm not a hero or a freedom fighter, not yet anyway. Maybe in the future, but right now I just want to enjoy being a regular teenager you know. I've got a girlfriend too," he grinned reaching out to punch his brother's knee. "That kind of soaks up a lot of my time."
Scott pushed aside his thoughts about Jean and what might have been to smirk at his younger brother. "Yeah I know how that is, I'm dating this cheerleader named Taryn and other than being a chatter box, let me tell you there's nothing else wrong with her if you know what I mean."
"Oh yeah, well my girls a surfer and a gymnast. There's this thing she can do with her legs…"
Harry rolled his eyes. He had never seen the point of dick beating contests, even when he had been a teenager they had seemed pointless at best, and indelicate at worst. Ororo shook her head resignedly and Charles smiled while Logan grunted in amusement. "Well, you just tell me when you want to leave surfer boy, we can afford to give you two a few hours to keep jawing." With that the four adults got up and left. The two teens so engrossed were they in their game of one-upmanship didn't even notice.
A moment later outside the room they heard someone shout. "What the hell are these doodles on my face!"
Alex left a few hours later to rejoin his foster family, leaving behind a few good memories and his phone number with his brother. However just because Alex had no interest in choosing sides didn't mean that other groups would be as nice as Charles and the X-men when accepting his decline.
OOOOOOO
About an hour later Harry finally had enough of Charles's procrastination, and after a late lunch asked him bluntly "Now, I believe you were going to tell us all how you met that, what did you call him Jean, that 'megalomaniacal asshole'?"
Jean nodded firmly, also looking at the professor. The other teens, most of whom had been about to leave the table, sat back down again. Logan and Ororo both looked at Charles too. Logan knew about Magneto, but Chuck had never told him how the two of them met. Ororo had known about him, but not about his backing the Brotherhood or his overall dogma, she had simply been told he was a mutant who used his powers for personal gain.
Charles looked around at all the curious faces and sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to share this with them. It was just a painful memory for him, one that he didn't like revisiting. "Eric Magnus Lensherr and I met about 20 years ago. We were both working at a psychiatric hospital in Israel, and became friends through a mutual friend named Gabrielle Haller….."
For the next hour he filled them in about how the two had met, how they debated for hours on end about the future of the world and the rise of mutants and what they would face, their endless chess games while Gabrielle would watch and play the winner and how Eric eventually opened up to Charles about what he had faced in the war, the loss of his family and friends to the concentration camps. He told them about how they had opened up to one another about their powers when they were forced to work together to protect their friend from a rouge Nazi faction led by Baron Strucker a war criminal of the highest order. And how Eric, convinced that war between Homo sapiens and Homo superior was inevitable had left Charles and Gabrielle absconding with the gold the war criminal had been after.
Harry frowned. "So he basically became a mutant Nazi to prevent the mutants from being treated like the original Nazis treated the Jews. Talk about becoming what you hate."
Charles nodded. "I would not put it so bluntly, but I am not unaware of the bitter irony there Mr. Potter. Eric alas cannot see it."
Jean frowned. "So he used this gold to set up his own faction, which the brotherhood was involved with. But why do that chooser of the victor thing he did?" As they all looked at her wondering what that garbled sentence meant she hastened to explain herself. "I mean why did he pick the winners of the fights and bring them to wherever that was? Did he think he could brainwash us all? That doesn't match to someone who is doing what he's doing for moral reasons professor."
Charles frowned in turn at the memory. "Eric has a need to show that he is in the right, he will take every opportunity to try and convince other mutants such as all of you that his is the right path to follow. But he was not acting like the man I once knew. I put it down to it having been so long since we last saw one another, but his use of that mind altering magic gem is very much out of character for him. I have no idea why he would have changed so drastically as to think brainwashing you would have been acceptable. Kill you if you refused to join him perhaps, he is a ruthless man when he needs to be, but brainwashing? No."
"The gem might have been influencing him somehow, the better to spread its own influence, or perhaps something else happened in the past." Harry said thoughtfully. A subtle compulsion spell might do it, though that helmet might be able to block that kind of thing. It certainly blocked the Confoundus spell I tried.
"In any event, we know he's dangerous, and we know at least some of his abilities, with that we can figure out ways to combat him in the future." Logan said, and after that the group broke up, allowing Harry to clear the table.
While he worked Harry had a thoughtful frown on his face. Something about that story is off somehow. Charles told us a lot but I still get the impression he knows more than he told, or something else happened there that he doesn't want to share. I wonder what it was? Ah well, hopefully it isn't something that will bite us in the ass later.
OOOOOOO
The kids were given the rest of Sunday off from training given their ordeal on Saturday, but Harry decided to work himself to the bone. He wanted to finish as many projects as he could so that during the week he could spend his time fixing up the asteroid.
He was still trying to think of a name for it, Potterland sprang to mind, but he knew that was kind of egotistical. He couldn't use Sanctuary, since Magneto had used that name a few times in relation to the asteroid, and he obviously wasn't going to name it asteroid H permanently, he liked to think he had more imagination than that whatever Ororo thought of his naming ability. Still that was a very minor problem.
Before he could put any of his plans into motion for the asteroid, and boy did he have plans, he needed to finish his jobs for the X-Men. The first thing he did was to put up heavier wards around the house, which met with limited success. He strengthened the notice-me-not-ward around the house but his attempt to link it to the bio energies of the people inside the area thus cover failed. It was simply too wide an area, and the bio absorption just would not take.
Wards over large areas tended to either have their own internal power source i.e. a fully powered hearthstone, the individuals living there, or lay lines. There were no lay lines anywhere near the mansion, in fact there was only one lay line flowing straight through the state of New York and the city of the same name. Harry was willing to bet a lot of his gold that it flowed directly below Dr. Strange's house. Harry only had two hearthstones, and while he knew the mechanics of trying to make another one it was a time-consuming and laborious process and even then he wasn't certain he could get it right without considerable trial and error. And alas he was the only magic user in attendance. This unfortunately meant that the moment he left the ward would start to lose power (and did so now whenever he was away for long periods of time), unless he figured out a way for the X-Men to power them when he was gone. He decided he'd share that problem with Charles and the others later.
On the other hand he had placed some semi-permanent charms and wards on the mansion itself. An unbreakable charm and fireproofing wards and set up the array to power them via the bio-energy of the inhabitants, and that seemed to work well enough. At least it didn't immediately go dark and fail like his attempt to power the notice-me-not ward over the whole grounds.
With that done he went on to the next project and at last, finally, finished a working ward array for Rogue. The charm/Ward he had finally devised was difficult, and rather large despite his best efforts to shrink it down. First it took the ward he had already devised for protecting her mind against absorbing the memories and thoughts of other people and added a choice to it, sort of like a cut off in a circuit.
Then he added a ward that would turn invert any energy released from her into someone else returning them to her painlessly without any attempt to siphon power from the other person. Again he added a cut off switch to this, so she could use her powers at will. The final result was a rather two inch wide bracelet with bronze and copper interlaced discs, shaped but not transfigured by Harry's magic with each segment of the array on a different piece. The two cut off points were represented by a ruby colored quartz and white spherical stone. Rogue would have to touch either one to activate the cut off to use her powers, as Harry had set it so that the normal mode would be with her powers off. The last hurdle, whether it would somehow interfere in her new secondary mutation, her Juggernaut derived strength, proved to be a non issue thankfully.
All in all, it was one of the most difficult arrays he had ever devised. Not just the memory inhibition part, which he'd finished first, but the whole thing. A cut off to a ward like this, and intent based at that, was unheard of. Then there was the problem of figuring out how to stop the loop from happening between Rogue and another person's bio field. That had been appallingly difficult. After all, he didn't want to figure out a way to completely stop her power, just to stop the transfer from happening every time she touched someone, and he didn't want it to fail with continued use, so it had to be robust.
In a few years time a certain person who would call himself the Genegineer would figure out a way to inhibit mutants powers via a collar and a technology based inhibitor, but it wouldn't compare to Harry's work. That work after all would be made to take away the rights of the individual, Harry's was to allow the individual to have those rights in the first place. Self-control was what this ward allowed, not control by another person.
He presented that to her during dinner, and her effusive thanks for it, her tears of gratitude was a sight to see. The look of thanks on Ororo's face however was even more precious to Harry. Jean's dual thumbs-up was also very welcome, as was everyone else's praise. Scott, who even as little as a week ago would have been a little jealous of Rogue simply smiled and congratulated her.
Harry's color changing spell on his glasses had taken away a bit of his anger at his mutant ability, and he wanted to prove that he was in control of himself. He needed to know, that he was the one in control of his powers, and besides Harry had once told him offhandedly that creating a ward for him would be almost impossible. Harry could stop the feedback occurring in Rogue because it was based off touch. Scott's mutant ability was based off of actual chemical changes in his eyes and body directly connected to his ability to see. Harry couldn't stop his mutant power from working without making him blind in the process.
Waving away their thanks, Harry went back to his workroom and began his next project. This was the mix of charms, wards and defensive spells for Emma.
The only other project that was still ongoing, the research into what he still (somewhat jokingly) insisted on calling Harrytanium had run into a dead end, and he realized he needed more high-tech scanning equipment than he currently had to get any further. It was obviously going to take a mix of science and magic to figure out why he couldn't duplicate that metal, and a way to get around the problem and start producing it. The idea of creating Kevlar vests for example with this metal built into them was intriguing to say the least.
With that done, he spent the evening with Ororo simply sitting in silence solace interrupted by a few questions from Kitty and Jean at times.
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