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The probe had found appropriate servants for its master. Two of them in one fight, if the probe had actually been alive it might've been joyful at that. Instead, it simply sent back to its master information, while he continued to watch and compile a database of the local players, in particular the two possible servants, searching for exploitable weaknesses.
OOOOOOO
For the next two days Guardian and Jean spent all their time figuring out how to run the Hellion at something approaching normal levels of efficiency with the lowest number of crew they could get away with. Reed was ecstatic with the opportunity to go, and with his stretching powers could handle the engineering room alone, which was an excellent saving in terms of men. The ships reverse-engineered programming could also allow the bridge crew to perform most of the functions of the ship, though the weapons would not be as responsive from there, and the ship's life support system couldn't be run from there. Well, they would once the bridge was fully repaired.
Ororo led the rest of the team in stocking the ship with foodstuffs four three months along with some exercise equipment that Guardian bought especially since they would be in space for possibly over a month and a half at best. Even with the ships artificial gravity they would lose muscle definition quickly if they didn't keep up their exercises.
Harry was still not happy about not going along, but he knew they needed the ships as quickly as possible. To make certain of that he had talked to Mar'vell about that one soldier to another the morning after Lefton's presentation. Mar'vell, was now fully convinced he had been set up and far more loyal to his girlfriend than the Kree Empire, so was more willing to help Harry. He agreed with the majority of the pale-skinned Kree in that the Hellion's mission to capture him had been part of some kind of power-play from Ronan. The use of a Sentry pointed to it being so, those were damn expensive and could not be sent anywhere without someone high up okaying their mission these days. But if that was the case, then there would be a much quicker follow-up than would normally occur.
"If you have two local lunar cycles before a follow-up mission is sent I'll be astonished." Mar'vell had said bluntly. "Ronan is many things, but he's not incompetent, and if this really was a power-play on his part, then your capturing the Hellion and destroying the Sentry as you did might have played into his hands. It was the Supreme Intelligence that sent me here, if Ronan can point to that as a failure because it helped Earth become a threat, even just to any force sent against it…"
Mar'vell shook his head. "I have no idea what his goal with that would be, and I doubt he could split off anything more than a raiding pack, not without a lot more uproar. But sending a Medium Fist led raiding pack wouldn't be that difficult and packs almost always operate in groups of fifteen. Any one of them would have enough firepower to wipe out life on your planet if they were unopposed."
Medium Fist was the Kree name for what humans would call battlecruisers, and while they often operated in packs all on their own, they were also used as flagships for packs of lighter units. A raiding pack would normally consist of eight frigates or as the Kree called them Fast Fists, and six Light Fists, which were their equivalent of light cruisers.
After several different training exercises, Harry felt that with surprise on their side his team could take out six ships like the Hellion in a pinch, less if the ships they attacked were larger. Jean and Harry could take out one ship at a time if they had to, though it would be very tough. The rest of the team he could split the team to retain significant firepower in each small group, but that would possibly spread them dangerously thin, something Harry really didn't want to be forced to try.
Harry could, if he got onto a ship, summon up a golem army to wreak havoc, but he couldn't direct them while on another ship himself, and the Kree had proven they could stop his golems with sufficient numbers during the battle of the Hellion, so that tactic while good wasn't a be all. He and Jean would be able to destroy several ships at one go from the outside as well if they needed to , but even so, they couldn't cover the whole globe.
Doom could probably take out one all on his own or four if he devoted enough of his robotic servants to the assault, and the Fantastic Four another two or possibly maybe three depending on the efficacy of the weapons and tactics that the Kree had developed since the fantastic four's first brush with a Sentry. They hadn't seemed to find any way to deal with Susan's invisibility, which made that a wildcard, but Johnny couldn't burn through the outer shell of the ships quickly enough to destroy them like Jean or Harry could, which was a minus.
And even if they could defeat the first assault, Mar'vell was certain the next attack would come within two weeks of when the first didn't report back on time. And they would continue to escalate. So not only was the mission to get humanity some ships a necessity, but Harry would have to come up with a way to somehow bamboozle any follow on assault into thinking that they had succeeded.
All of this meant that the team, and Harry and Jean in particular, were working non-stop. However that did not mean that all of them were happy with this state of affairs. When Ororo once more awoke to an empty bed the day before Jean and the others were due to leave, she frowned irritably before her lips curved into a smirk. She had been planning a bit of fun for a while now, ever since she realized that Harry wouldn't be naming the team anytime soon unless he was kicked in the ass about it. Harry and naming things just didn't work, something Melody also seemed to have figured out if her unilaterally naming the Hanging Gardens that was anything to go by.
She sat up, then asked the room around her, "Nessy?"
Her personal house elf popped in curtseying. "Mistress asked for Nessy?"
"Could you get me two of the house elves that are on kitchen duty this evening? I have some requests for dinner to pass on. And then, I think you and I are going to go out shopping for a bit." She smiled, remembering how Jean had confided Harry's worries to her about their date, and how Jean had said that the date could've been made a little better by some dancing to appease him. "I think it's two birds with one stone time, or actually three birds considering."
At around seven that evening Harry and Jean returned to the castle. Harry had finally finished working several runic arrays into the outer hull of the Hellion. They wouldn't last for very long with no magical along to take their power from, but Harry had pumped them with as much magic as they could hold. He estimated they would last for at least three weeks, which would make the ship's hull far tougher than it should be given its weight, at least four or five times the original. That would come as a nasty shock to the enemy if they got into a firefight.
Jean too had finished her work, repairing all of the ship weapons that had been damaged in their taking of the ship and putting back together those they had taken apart that she could while also repairing the bridge, which was the most important task. While the navigation systems and accompanying programs had been repaired previously, or else she and Harry would never been able to go on their amazing date around the star system, the sensors, the internal communications gear, the external communications gear, and the weapon control systems all had to be repaired. Even with Reed and some of Doom's robots helping her, finishing that task in two days had been really pushing it.
The two of them had teleported into their bedroom, where they found Ororo strangely absent. Checking the clock Harry nodded. "I guess she's down eating with the others." Jean nodded, and the two of them made their way through the Castle down to the dining Hall. Halfway down to the first floor they began to hear sounds of laughter as well as someone singing and looked at one another in surprise.
When they got closer the doors to the dining Hall from the staircase opened, and Illyana and Melody burst out, racing forged up the stairs to grab Jean and Harry's hands. Melody grabbed her father's hand, and Illyana grabbed Jean's hand pulling them forward. "Father, it's amazing, Ms. Ororo brought in a karaoke machine! We've all been taking turns, and there's pizza and grape soda, and lots of snacks and everything!"
"It's really fun, and we all got to put down our ideas for names for the castle, the school even names for the team!" said Illyana smiling as widely as her friend. "Ms. Ororo says the person who gets their name accepted is going to get a prize!"
The two lovers looked at one another, then smiled widely. "She must've been planning this for a while." Harry chuckled.
Well I have to say that her timings magnificent. We could all do with a bit of fun, especially with my group heading out into the great beyond tomorrow." Said Jean, linking her free arm with Harry's as they moved down the stairs opening the door.
The dining hall was abuzz with lights, conversation, laughter and music. There were only two tables in the hall, one table along the far side of the dining hall from the main doors which held the karaoke machine. The other was set in the direct center, and was filled with food: pizza, chicken wings, and other snack foods that were not routinely seen in the castle because Ororo and the others in charge of the students had decided to keep to a nutritious diet. Drinks were absent, but that probably only meant that house elves would have to be called for them.
Along one side was the two teens that Ororo had rescued when she went to rescue Douglas, along with the three youngsters from Russia and several of the newcomers playing what looked like some kind of charades game along with Ms. Brown and two of the new teachers. Several of them were wearing what Harry could tell were penalty outfits, rainbow colored suits that looks like one of the house elves had gotten out of control when conjuring them up.
A little ways further down that same wall Betsy, Emma, Piotr's grandparents and the other two new teachers. They were playing an incredibly bloody game of Risk using the hard light system. Between them were bottles of wine along with some much more highbrow munchies than the rest of the partiers were enjoying.
Emma didn't look up as Jean and Harry entered, all of her concentration at present on the game that she was currently losing to Betsy. She desperately needed some downtime after the last few days dealing with the fallout of the attack on her mansion and Cordelia. This was the first time she had been able to get away without anyone knowing. Cordelia had become almost clingy since her second brush with violence, and Angelica was simply twitchy all the time. Even now one of the house-elves was watching Emma's mansion to make certain she could get back immediately if someone came looking for her for any reason.
On the other side of the room was what looked like a first-person shooter game being projected into the air using the hard light system. Jesse, Christopher, Dennis and surprisingly young Rahne were there, engaged in what looks like a shootout between the four of them. The fact that Rahne was here at all given the level of noise was surprising, but something Harry was happy to see. Other than Dani she didn't seem to get along very well with the rest of the teens, she was friendly but not close with them, and seemed to be leery of Harry and the other magic users, which made sense given her staunch catholic upbringing, but she didn't make an issue of it.
With the karaoke machine Danielle and Amara were singing a duet of 'Firework', dancing along on the table to the words. Danielle didn't actually have a very good singing voice, she couldn't seemingly hold a note very well, but Amara had a decent one. The two girls was clearly having a lot of fun, dancing around one another, linking arms occasionally and even once or twice dancing together from one end of the table to the other.
The rest of the teens were around them along with Kitty and Sam. Nikolai was leaning into Piotr's shoulder, whispering into the larger youth's ear something that seemed to be putting quite a large blush on his face as he stared up at his girlfriend and Danielle who were dancing along the table together at that moment, more grinding than regular dancing really.
Ororo turned from laughing at the two girls on the table to smile as the two young girls led Jean and Harry towards them. "Thank you my dears," she said reaching down and rubbing both of their heads affectionately. "I saved you your spot so..."
Illyana and Melody both grinned as Danielle and Amara finished their routine, hopping off the table while the two younger girls rushed over to the karaoke machine. The two of them quickly found their song, then hopped onto the table and began to sing Akuma Matatata from the Lion King. Melody had an extremely good singing voice thanks to her powers, while Illyana had an okay voice, but no training at all. Still, there was very little they could do to mess up that song.
Below them the teens cheered and clapped, and when they heard their friends' voices many of the other younger children turned from what they had been doing to come over and cheer them on as well. Watching this Harry wrapped his arm around Ororo's waist, pulling her into his side while the other did the same with Jean. "This was a magnificent idea Ororo, thank you, we really needed this."
"I felt it was time for us to do something to figure out a new name for the castle and for the name for the team to finally be decided. We need a single call-sign, something that people can remember. We'll also have to think of some kind of badge for us, a symbol in the future. Right now, we've all been working hard, and I think we need a bit of a break." Ororo replied, resting her head on his shoulder.
So the evening continued, with all of them taking turns with the karaoke machine. Interspersed with everyone else's performances, some stood out. Harry and Jean performed a rendition of 'Shut Up and Dance With Me' that had everyone wolf whistling. Piotr performed a surprisingly good rendition of We Didn't Start the Fire with his sister. Harry and Ororo performed Butterfly. Paige convinced Douglas, Rahne and Nikolai to join her in a horrible performance of Closer to the Heart. Then near the end Jean and a reluctant Emma performed a rendition of Uptown Girl before Emma had to leave to head back to New York.
She kissed them all goodbye beforehand, lingering with Ororo and Jean as much as with Harry before he escorted her up to the secure room that held the runic doorways. As they reached the threshold, Emma leaned up, capturing Harry's lips again in a heated kiss, her tongue thrusting into his mouth to duel with his. She pulled back only when she had to breath, murmuring, "Have I told you how grateful I am for your rescuing my sister?"
Harry gulped in air, his face flushed from the kiss. "Um, yes, you um did, yes."
"Hmm, I don't think I've shown how grateful I am just yet for all of your help though…" Emma hooked one leg around Harry's waist, her dress, riding up so that her panties rubbed against Harry's crotch. "I don't suppose I could convince you to send a, what are they called, a simulacrum to my house and then spend an hour or so shagging me rotten against the wall right here?"
Again Harry had to gulp, not for air this time just self-control. "Um, n-no, sorry. That, um that wouldn't work, the simulacrum couldn't be programmed enough to deal with everything it could run into. And um, you're drunk Em, I don't think that'd be appropriate for our first time together…"
Emma scoffed, pulling back slightly, though not before she rubbed herself just slightly against Harry's traitorous erection. "Part of you doesn't seem to agree with that. And in any event I'm not nearly as drunk as you think."
"Still I don't want our first time to be a, a quickie against a wall."
"Very well, but remember what I said after your date with Jean. I'm not going to wait for long." Emma reminded him, then leaned forward to kiss him again. "I love you Harry." She said aloud, one of the very rare times she had done so, before kissing him again.
Harry responded in like kind. "Don't worry, we'll make time at some point, just the two of us."
"I'll hold you to that." Emma replied, then backed away, swaying her hips deliberately as she made her way over to the runic doorway that would take her home. After activating it, she looked over her shoulder one last time, her eyes smoldering with desire, before walking forward.
Harry shuddered a little, then closed his eyes trying to calm himself down before turning to head back down to the party.
When he arrived he found Melody and Ororo performing My Hero Is You. After the two finished, Ororo waved her hands in the air to get everyone's attention before speaking. "All right, it's getting late and some of us have bedtimes that we're well past by this point." All of the younger children booed at that, though the teachers nodded approval. "However, we have to have a vote on the new name for the castle and the school specifically before that. Everyone has had a chance to put their names in, so we'll vote on them now."
This took some time, by the end of which all the youngsters were almost nodding off where they stood or sat. Eventually the name for the castle was voted to be Camelot. It was sort of obvious, British, castle, magical place. This school name however would be the Avalon Academy for Outstanding Children.
That name had actually been thought up by one of the new teachers, Mark Tuborn. Mark was an older man who had gotten through Ororo's vigorous hiring process because he had an older brother that was a mutant and because he was fine with magic having lived in Wales for much of his life, where some magical creatures could still be found when you weren't looking for them. He had spent most of his life in the public school system first as a student then a teacher, and had fallen into ecstasies when shown the hard light system and the curricula for the school. He felt that it really encapsulated both the fact that that most of the children here would be mutants, and the fact that the education offered here would be at a much higher level than most schools could offer.
With that, the youngsters were led off by their minders and most of the other older adults also made their way to their beds leaving only the teens and the team members along with Dr. Druid strangely enough. Harry personally took Melody and Illyana up to bed, bringing them up to the room they now officially shared. It was situated next to Piotr's room on one side and the entrance up to the headmaster quarters on the other. The Rasputin grandparents were situated in a room on the other side of the hall.
"Did you enjoy yourself father?" Melody asked wearily, while Harry tucked her into her bed. Illyana was already in her own, her eyes slowly sliding shut despite her best efforts. It had been a very long, tiring day.
"Of course I did Melody." Harry said leaning over the bed to give her a kiss on the four head. "You and Ororo did a magnificent job organizing things. Thank you."
He pulled back looking down at her but Melody was already fast asleep, utterly exhausted from the party. Harry stood there a moment looking down at her lovingly, brushing her hair lightly then looked over at Illyana and gave her a good night kiss on the cheek as well before leaving. By the time Harry returned all of the other youngsters had been led off as well, the teachers having gone to bed immediately after, and thus they could move on to other matters.
Ororo nodded to the remainder. "And now for the team name. Same as last time, put the name you're voting for on the small card in front of you, one of the house elves will gather them up and I will look them over up here."
Jean and Harry grinned to one another, amused by the way Ororo had taken charge so easily. Whatever else she was or would become, Ororo was an excellent teacher and organizer. A few minutes later the ballot was in, and Ororo counted them out. "We have three votes for X-calibur, two for the Thunderbolts, one vote each for the Spartans and Legionnaires, and the rest is for World Guard."
"Now hold on a minute, I like the image the name World Guard conjures up, but I prefer to have it be a little more mysterious and worldly than that." Harry objected, to which Amara and some of the others all nodded agreement.
"Something in Latin?" said Rahne, scowling irritably. She hated Latin, it reminded her too much of the priest who had run the orphanage and who had beaten her even before her mutation had been discovered.
"I like Latin," Harry replied mildly. "In Latin that would be 'Custodes Mundi', which would be Guardians of the World. What do you all think of that?" After a moment they all nodded save Amara, who had tried to convince them to use the Grecian version, which was Kósmo Frourá. But she was outvoted badly.
After that, the party began to break up. Many of the teens headed off to the dormitories, though Harry was rather amused to note that Danielle and Amara were dragging Piotr off somewhere together, while Nikolai and Shiang-Chi were moving over to the area of the room that had been devoted to the Risk game.
Lemon Start:
By unspoken agreement Harry and Jean led Ororo up to their room. As soon as the door to the spiral staircase closed Harry began to kiss Ororo ardently, his hands going around her waist while Jean pressed into her back. She moved Ororo's hair out of the way then began to kiss and nibble at her neck while her hands fumbled at the dress that Ororo was wearing, pushing it off her shoulders and undoing the back zipper. A moment later the dress pooled around Ororo's feet, and Jean moved back, beginning to pull off her own clothing which had been her work clothing, T-shirt and jeans.
With her mouth still locked with Harry's and her eyes closed Ororo moaned as Harry's hands rested upon her rear, lifting her up slightly. Her legs automatically went around his waist, and Harry took her weight with ease, turning around and moving towards their bed. Once she was resting on the mattress his hands relinquished their grip on her rear moving up her back to unclip her simple white bra before tossing it aside.
By that point Jean had divested herself of her own clothing and joined them. Still concentrating on Ororo she began to lick and nibble at the bits of Ororo that she could get to given Harry and her hugging each other. Jean moved from sucking on the African woman's fingers up her arm and then down to her chest when Harry moved backwards to allow her access to it moving down himself to work on Ororo's other breast. "Goddess… my loves…"
As always Jean was enthralled with how Ororo's skin tasted so much like cinnamon and chocolate and some other unnamed space. It was intoxicating, and her breasts were simply amazing, large milk chocolate orbs capped with dark chocolate nipples that were so incredibly enticing. Jean took one of them in her mouth, licking, biting and sucking in the way that Jean knew drove her insane, listening with delight as Ororo threw back her head and moaned aloud. "Ohh, Jean… oh goddess…"
Harry was doing the same on Ororo's other breast, though he had left her nipple alone for now. He leaned back slightly gazing up at her past the curve of her breasts as he worked at their underside murmuring. "You put on one hell of a date for us, I think it's only fair that you are spoiled a bit, Ororo. Just lean back and enjoy."
Ororo might have tried to protest but Jean leaned up from the breast that she had been worshiping to kiss the older woman on the lips. Their tongues dueled in Ororo mouth before Jean pulled back, licking at the underside of Ororo's tongue in midair for a moment before moving down Ororo's jaw to her neck and then back down to her breasts while Harry moved his own mouth further down Ororo's body. "He's right Ororo, you deserve it."
By this time Ororo's panties were literally drenched, and Harry quickly removed them, revealing her distended clitoris and the white lightning bolt above it. He nuzzled into the lightning bolt for a moment, licking around the outside of her flower before beginning to work on it in earnest.
Above him Ororo moaned loudly, her hands now hugging Jean to her. Presently she pulled Jean away from her breasts kissing her again. While Harry continued his work on her nether regions Ororo pushed the younger girl upright slightly to get at Jean's chest where she went to work licking and nibbling at Jean's white, freckled, breasts before taking one of Jean's pink nipples into her mouth while her fingers traced down Jean's front, finding the fireball she had helped Jean shave there before moving slightly further down. Feeling how wet Jean was Ororo's fingers immediately went to work moving in and out of her pussy first one then to finally three at a time as Jean threw back her head moaning loudly. "Gahmmmm….Ororo! Yes!"
A few minutes later Ororo's hips bucked in her first orgasm of the evening when Harry performed his Parseltongue trick for a few seconds to give Ororo that final push over the edge. "Goddess Haaaarry!"
Ororo bucked up from the bed so hard that she almost pushed Harry's face away from her privates. Yet he gamely stayed in place, his tongue as deep into her as it could go as he murmured in Parseltongue. "Yes that's it Ororo, that's it my love, cum for me!"
"AHHHHH!" In response Ororo shuddered and bucked, her eyes wide while a continuous moan came from her mouth as she rode through her orgasm and several aftershocks before collapsing back onto the bed for a moment, unable to remain upright.
Jean followed her down, kissing her tenderly on the neck cheek and mouth for a moment disengaging very reluctantly with Ororo's fingers which had been inside of her when Ororo came, her own body trembling slightly. She had been very close to her own finish there and was now momentarily frustrated.
Seeing this Harry reached up from where he had been kneeling beside the bed to pull Jean down and to the side laying her chest to chest against Ororo before leaning up and taking Jean's smaller slightly more hooded flower in his mouth as his fingers gently probed around Jean's opening before thumbing at her clitoris.
Jean moaned, arching her back then moaned again louder when Ororo recovered enough to lean down and began to nibble and lick at Jean's breasts. When Ororo took one of her pink nipples into her mouth once more and nipped at it slightly that threw Jean over the edge as well. "Oh God, Harry I'mmmmmm!"
Shuddering slightly Jean fell forward, her breasts flattening against Ororo's. The two women put their arms around one another kissing tenderly murmuring sweet nothings for a moment in one another's ear while Harry divested himself of his jeans and underwear, moving to join them.
Looking over her shoulder and seeing this Jean smiled wickedly, reaching between her and Ororo to use a few fingers to open Ororo's petals slightly with two fingers while her thumb began to lightly flick at the small hood at the top of Ororo's flower.
Seeing this and hearing Ororo moaning agreeably Harry lined himself up with his African lover first, slowly sinking his cock into her waiting pussy. He took up a slow rhythm at first while putting his arms on either side of Jean and Ororo's bodies. At the same time he began kissing and nuzzling at Jean's back causing the redhead to moan in delight under him. "MMm… can't get enough of this Harry, fucking intoxicating!"
She and Ororo exchanged heated kisses, while Ororo slowly lost herself once more to Harry's rhythm, her arms around Jean moving to grab Harry by the head pulling him down past Jean to kiss him lovingly on the lips. "Harder my love!" she murmured pulling back. "Faster!"
"As, the, the lady co-, commands!" Harry said, his voice deeper than normal and disjointed, showing how hard it had been for him to keep to such a slow pace. Gratefully Harry sped up, his hips now slapping into Ororo where they met while his chest did the same to Jean who had not moved from where she straddled Ororo yet.
A moment later Jean moved slowly up Ororo's body, stopping at her breasts for a moment her legs on either side of Ororo's chest. She reached down, and played with Ororo's breasts while Ororo continued to rock under Harry's thrusts. Moving forward and to the side slightly, she let her pussy glide over one of Ororo's nipples several times before turning around and situating herself over Ororo's head, her hands going down to kneed Ororo's breasts. Ororo's hands willingly moved with her, gripping her thighs as Ororo leaned up and began to lick and nibble at Jean's soaked nether regions.
Both girls were so worked up that the neither of them could last for long, and Harry's own self-control was losing the battle quickly. At that point he suddenly remembered to use a contraceptive spell on Ororo and himself, shaking his head at having forgotten.
Jean saw the glow and smiled tenderly at Harry's thoughtfulness, though it was somewhat redundant. She knew Ororo had been taking contraceptive pills since that night Harry had returned after defeating Magneto. Ororo had even gotten Jean to start taking them when she moved into the castle with them. Still, Harry was a magical so a magical contraceptive on top of a normal contraceptive made for good sense.
Harry and Jean leaned forward sharing a deep kiss for a moment while Harry picked up speed again, pushing Ororo over the edge. Ororo, who had been licking and nibbling at her Jean's clit, bit down slightly in response before she could stop herself, which sent Jean over the edge for a second time.
Feeling his African lover clenching around him Harry bellowed "Ororo!" and came thrusting in one last time as he did so. He fell forward slightly as Jean did the same, leaning against one another murmuring "I love you," into one another's ear while they recovered.
Below them Ororo, almost exhausted from the three orgasms in such quick succession smiled slightly tapping Jean's thigh to get her to move to one side. After Jean did so, Ororo sat up slightly, while Harry withdrew from inside her. She saw he was still hard, and licked her lips before twisting her body around so that her face was facing Harry's cock. He shivered as her breath hit it and she looked up at him wickedly. "I hope you're not done yet?"
Harry laughed, reaching down to run his hands through her hair as she leaned forward slightly, causing him to hiss as her tongue played across the head of his cock. "With the two of you as my muses? I don't think so."
End Lemon
OOOOOOO
The next day the trio slept in, before very reluctantly heading up to the Hellion, with the rest of the newly named Custodes Mundi, before Harry teleported down to grab Reed and Susan. It had been decided the he and Jean would be in joint command. Reed was in command of the running of the ship. Jean would handle any combat related issues that came up and keep the crew training while making certain the Kree 'prisoners' going along didn't do anything.
Besides the team Jean had decided on, they were taking Mar'vell, his girlfriend Una, and several other pale skinned Kree. They had all given their word not to act out in return for being allowed to live on Earth after the mission was over as normal citizens. One of them was a communications tech who was the most vocal among the prisoners when talking about his dislike for the Kree society. Douglas had also already agreed to go to handle the programming issues that popped up occasionally. He, Jean, the com tech, Mar'vell and a sensor tech composed the ship's bridge crew.
Looking over at him now, Harry could see Douglas working with Hisako as they stared into one of the computer screens on the repaired bridge. They were preparing some kind of program to overwrite someone's sent image with that of the former captain. This way the person they chose to act as the captain would be seen from other ships as Yon'Rogg but it would be much more reactive than a program to simply show his image from stored data would have been.
Paige stood behind him leaning over Douglas' shoulder in such a way that her chest rubbed against his back and neck and Harry rolled his eyes. The Kentucky native was apparently trying to stake her claim on Douglas in no uncertain terms, though Harry didn't think Hisako was actually a threat in that area. Watching Douglas blush so much that his face looked as if it was about to burst into flame was amusing however. It gave Harry something to do for the few moments it took Jean to return from flying down to the engine room to talk to Reed.
He turned when the bridge door opened, showing Ororo carrying a clipboard, which seemed so anachronistic surrounded by the high tech of the bridge. But Ororo liked to have a physical list to check off rather than a computerized one. "All the supplies are stored." She reported. "Final tests of the available weapons checked out, and a visual of the outside of the ship shows nothing that would hint the fact that it's been taken over, thanks to last night's work by the space-bots. So long as they haven't already totally written the ship off, we hopefully will be able to get in and out of the junk system quickly."
From where he sat nearby Mar'vell nodded. "I don't think the junk systems are patrolled routinely, and they only have a bare minimum human element. It's mostly automated, and it would take incredibly bad luck for us to be there at the same time a pickup fleet came through."
"Good to know, though I'd prefer not to have to rely on chance and luck." Harry retorted, shaking his head. He moved over to Ororo, putting one arm around her waist. "You can't handle everything yourself Harry, no matter how much you want to." She murmured into his ear, easily able to see how anxious he was. "Jean and the others will be able to handle this easily enough, and Emma was right. You need to stay here."
"I don't like the fact that we're making militarily strategic decisions based on good PR and business sense." He said, his voice more serious than Ororo had expected. She looked at him and she realized that this was one of the main reasons why he was bothered by it, not just his concern for the people going, particularly Jean. "I understand the necessity, but I don't like it. It leaves us vulnerable to sudden surprises, and I am worried we're spreading ourselves too thin."
"Harry, paranoia in our line of work is a necessity, almost a survival trait. But it can be taken to extremes. Control what you can, and let the rest handle itself. You could not have chosen a better team to go, and we still have a sufficient team on hand, especially with Johnny and Ben willing to aid us or vice versa at need. Now," she said briskly. "Straighten up and smile, Jean and the others are heading off into the great beyond and they don't need to hear your concerns."
Watching as Jean entered the bridge, Harry realized that Ororo was right.
Jean was effervescent, literally sparkling and not just because of her telekinetic powers going haywire due to her happiness. Her eyes were glowing, and Jean had a smile on her face almost as wide as the one she wore during cuddle time after their lovemaking. She hugged both of her lovers one after the other than both combined, grinning eagerly. "We're going to be the first humans to ever leave the solar system!"
"Well technically, the Fantastic Four of have left it a few times on their adventures. But we'll be the first to actually leave on a ship! And alternate dimensions and other crap like that don't count. Susan and Reed are happy about it too, they're calling it their honeymoon anniversary, even if the date doesn't align."
Harry chuckled, shaking his head. The Richards had said goodbye to their family an hour ago, before having Harry teleport them up to the Hellion, and he had seen how they were almost giddy about the opportunity. The fact Reed had brought along at least a ton of scanning equipment, and had convinced Harry and Jean they needed to stop for astrophysics experiments at some point was part of it. The rest was simply having so much time to themselves where no crisis could get to them was the rest.
Of course they had left Madame Harkness in charge of looking after Franklin, with Ben and Johnny around at need. But Harry had surreptitiously asked the Madame to allow him to send over a house-elf to help. She had agreed to that, though refused to let Tibby, the house-elf Harry had chosen, do anything except in emergencies, which Harry was fine with. He had also given her an emergency Portkey, just in case. Harry would also make certain to stop by at least once a week.
Still chuckling Harry leaned forward to kiss Jean on the lips. She responded to it enthusiastically, their hands going around one another's waist for a brief moment. Then she pulled back, pushing lightly at Harry's chest. "If we keep doing that, we'll never leave."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Ororo said laughing quietly as she moved forward to share her own kiss with Jean. "Stay safe." she ordered after pulling back, her forehead against Jean's. "The unexpected can always occur, and I do not want it to occur to you. To any of you." She said looking around at the others. They all murmured reassurances, while Nikolai, who was sitting in the captain's chair smirked.
Jean nodded then looked at Harry who nodded as well, and she moved over to the interior communications console. Tapping a few buttons she got Reed in the engine room. "Reed, are you ready?"
"Power core is operational, engine is go, shields are up, weapons on standby. We are ready to go."
Harry motioned to the others who were not going on this trip to join him. "Good luck, we'll see you when you get back." He said to them all, nodding his head. He had explained the importance of this mission to the team the day before, and all of them knew the importance of this mission and had even volunteered when asked to go.
He looked over at Jean and said. "Come back safe." He kissed her a final time before moving back to join the others while Ororo gently removed her arm from around Jean's shoulders before doing the same. The two of them waved one last time, then Harry and the rest of the group that was staying on Earth teleported down to Hogwarts.
Jean stood for a moment looking at the place where they had been, her happiness dimming for a moment, then her smile broadened into a wide grin as she turned back to the bridge members. "Let's go." she said simply.
From his position Douglas muttered 'to boldly go' and then felt a telepathic slap upside the head.
"None of that, I am not a Trekkie we are not trekkers understand? Stupid computers and their idiotic ability to create anything out of literally nothing! Do they have any idea about the computing power that would require! And their dumb mass ship designs." Jean moved off still mumbling imprecations as she keyed in the ship's navigational orders.
Behind her Douglas pouted a little, but nodded. Slowly, the Hellion pulled away from Earth's orbit, moving out past its gravity well swiftly before disappearing into hyperspace.
OOOOOOO
The very next day, Harry took a flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York. For this Harry had to be seen to be arriving in America, and he hadn't yet made the time to buy his own personal airplane. He wanted to talk to Tony Stark about that, but was waiting for Tony to get back to him about the AI core.
Almost immediately upon the plane's landing he felt Emma's telepathic touch, asking for permission to enter his mind, barely felt outside his mental invisibility cloak, like a wind against the canvas of a tent. Harry allowed the connection, once again lifting up a small portion of his invisibility cloak to allow her into that section.
"Are you ready for this Harry?" she asked, while she was getting into her own limo at her mansion. The two of them would meet outside the hellfire club, and go from there.
"As ready as I'll ever be. Remember this isn't the first time I've had to act out a role in public, Emma. I'm actually quite proud of my Weatherby persona and I even had to do that kind of thing back in my old dimension. Is there any new development with the Hellfire Club or with the public? I've been so busy lately getting Jean and Company ready for their mission, that I haven't been able to keep up with it, sorry we haven't had time to talk."
In fact he had been so busy on the spaceborne aspects of his work that he had been unable to keep up with anything dirtside. His companies were running well enough for now, but Harry knew he needed to make some decisions there, and in particular about the implications of Arc Technologies in the near future, specifically whether or not to run it like Saab, a self-sustaining company rather than an offshoot of Magical Minds. Would he be simply selling all the arc reactors like the first, or would he go into the energy business? Emma and Ororo both felt he should, but at the moment there was simply so much stuff that only Harry could do that stuff like that decision didn't seem important right now.
Harry hadn't even had time to read Dennis' reports lately, though Dennis hadn't been reporting much. He was too busy trying to hunt down two specific areas of interest to care about public opinion overmuch. One was backtracking Sabretooth and Forearm's activities before the attempted heist in Paris. He had found several safe-houses this way, and had alerted the local authorities to them considering the Custodes Mundi didn't have the manpower just now to take care of that on their own. But Dennis hadn't turned up any hint as to who had been giving them commands or connecting Sabretooth and Forearm to any larger cell.
The second was his ongoing search for whoever was instigating the more brutal clashes between human hate groups and mutants worldwide. There had been several clashes where mutants with offensive powers had defended themselves by killing their attackers before disappearing off the grid, and others where the human hate groups had beaten or even killed mutants. Dennis wasn't having much luck finding the instigator behind these clashes but he and Harry were now certain that there was someone behind it. Whether that was Magneto or someone else was the question, as was their goal. The mutants that had disappeared after being attacked were worrisome though.
"The public's opinion of you hasn't dipped since the interview here in America, worldwide is a different issue. I'm getting rumbles of anger in China as well as Russia because you won't sell to any of their hospitals let alone them because of your stance on human rights and there are lots of little countries out there who are pissed about it as well. That is causing some issues here in America as well, but not much, even when added to your thumbing your nose at the FDA, rejecting any more federal investigations into your potions. The government might care about its prerogative there, but the public is willing to accept the Brit's word on them, and hospitals countrywide are almost desperate to begin stocking them.
"In fact, there is a slow but growing push for the government to decide what to do about mutants, one way or another. Mind you, there is some backlash against you personally. Lots of people are saying that you must be a mutant because you are backing their rights, and that your potions are based off your power somehow. But your connection to the Fantastic Four and their popularity is winning you the benefit of the doubt despite what certain media outlets are trying to do to you." Emma replied.
"What they're trying to do to me?" Harry asked quizzically. "What do you mean?"
"You're foreign, pro-mutant and you're not a liberal, that is a double whammy for some of the news companies, and the rest don't like the fact you stated that the alien races the FF have faced would not be interested in diplomatic discussion." Emma replied dryly. "Trust me, the media outlets all have their positions in the range of politics, and will skew everything the way the position tell them to. However, Paris is still on your side, and has bluntly ordered her media companies to play it straight with you. Considering that playing it straight with you is precisely what we want, that's magnificent. So long as that remains the case we're golden. Though we might want to do some more public appearances, specifically you and one of your lady friends in a public setting, a dinner or something like that."
"Will that wait until after we've finished trapping Shaw?"
"Probably not." Emma replied after a moment smiling thoughtfully and sending that image through their connection. "I would recommend Ororo. Seeing Jean with you in public might cause issues not least of which her parents might recognize her as well as former friends. And before you think about using those spells of yours that mess with people's memories or anything like that, you want your lady to be recognizable. And while Ororo will have some issues if anyone recognizes her, her connection to the Institute is the only issue there."
"And as much as I hate to say it, Ororo has this air about her that neither Jean nor I can have. I can do coolly businesslike, coldly furious and unemotional, and well haughty and arrogant, but there is a difference between that and having every bone of your body scream out that you're royalty." Emma was just a little jealous about that actually. She was of course Queen of the Hellfire Club, but even Paris couldn't seem as regal or personally powerful as Ororo could.
"I don't think I could do that anyway not in public," Harry replied over the telepathic link, shaking his head slightly. He sped up his steps, waving aside several reporters who were hurrying toward him while he exited the airport, making his way quickly to the waiting limo.
After he gave the driver his instructions, Harry resumed the mental conversation. "The more people that are paying attention to you, well let's just say that the power behind that spell would be impossible to sustain for any stretch of time without exhausting myself. All right, that's the public aspect done with, remind me later to actually hire someone to handle my personal PR. I've got PR people for my companies of course, but not one for me personally, and it's not fair to you for me to have to rely on you for that."
"So noted." Emma replied dryly. "Thankfully however my companies are already set up to run by themselves, with me checking in on them only every other week or so." Of course, Emma owned several dozen companies large and small, so that still made for quite a bit of work but it didn't hold a candle to the amount of work Harry put in on a day-to-day basis on all of his various projects. "In other news, Edward Buckman is going to be at the Hellfire Club today, as well as Leyland."
"Interesting." Harry mused. "So which should be our priority? I mean, who should I try to ingratiate myself to?"
"None of them." Emma replied quickly. "Don't try to do anything, other than seem cool or even antagonistic toward me. Other than that, be yourself, draw them in naturally. I have no idea how Buckman is going to act towards you, given your relationship with the Fantastic Four. I have no idea his opinion on them, whether or not he sees them as jumped up unnatural mutants or something like that, but both he and Shaw would smell a rat if you tried to become too friendly with them."
"Very well." Harry replied with a nod. He was still sore about having been called away from taking out Shaw and his team before, not that he was unhappy to have rescued Cordelia but the timing had been horrible. If he had been able to do that then whatever Emma had said after about the long term consequences of such they still would've only had to deal with Buckman, which Harry was firmly of the opinion would've been a better option.
The two made telepathic small talk for time while their respective limos moved through New York, with Emma arriving half an hour before Harry thanks to setting out earlier. When Harry was ushered inside the club he stood a moment taking the interior in, shaking his head mentally. The London Branch was pretty much set up in the same manner, which amused him somewhat. That was especially humorous considering that several of the members of the London Branch were very much against the upstart New York branch, but it was pretty clear that their branch while old had been almost entirely superseded by this one.
He moved to the bar where he ordered a gin and tonic. A moment later he heard a very cool female voice behind him. "Mr. Potter you're rather late."
Harry turned to see Emma standing behind him, her face cold cool and distant which matched their public personas. Harry's face which had been smiling faintly, closed down slightly as he raised his glass to her. "Ms. Frost, I do apologize but I have yet to purchase a personal plane, I thought I sent you a memo about that. You refused to loan me yours."
"I gave you the loan of Frost Pharmaceutical's distribution network." she replied coolly. "You can afford to buy your own plane. Unless of course you blew all of your savings on that car of yours. If you would please follow me, you have to be announced formally to the… upper ranks."
"The Pagani was a magnificent purchase." Harry said standing up and moving towards her. "Just because you Americans seem to think that you need to kowtow to the lack of common sense among your populace is no reason for me not to have a fast car. Besides, every man must have one precious thing."
Emma scoffed a little, then without another word led him away towards the staircase and up onto the second level then into the meeting room of the inner circle. Shaw was sitting there already, though there was a marked space between him and Harry Leyland. Across from Shaw, Edward Buckman sat, with Paris by his side.
As the senior member, Edward stood up bowing his head slightly not in deference, but in respect to Harry Potter's position and wealth if not the man himself. "Welcome Mr. Potter to the Hellfire Club of New York. We… we welcome you as an equal and we… we rejoice in your taking your place as the Red King. Take your place at our table, and be welcome."
Over the next hour or so Harry talked with all of the inner circle, during which they all formed their own opinions of him. Shaw felt him a bit too idealistic, and far too much of a Samaritan, but personally capable, and confident, a veteran of a very nasty war by all accounts, which Sebastion pressed him on, receiving somewhat vague accounts of battles but gruesome details about the aftermath of said or raids by the 'Death Eaters'. This gave him a good idea of Harry's skills, but no hint as to whether he really was a mutant or not. Edward came to much the same conclusion, unable to decide if Harry was human and naïve or mutant and therefore a threat. Which was a shame considering the youth was competent, intelligent and witty, all of which Edward liked in allies. Yet until he could find out if Harry was a mutant, he would keep Harry at arm's length. No, his main concern was his own enterprises at present and what happened to Pierce and how he could profit from it.
Both Kings and even Leland realized there was some animosity between Harry and Emma however, which all three saw as a good sign. Edward reached the conclusion that the two of them were simply too alike, and too competent to enjoy being around one another. Emma and Harry were of an age after all, and Emma was not used to having other people her own age be even more successful than as she was, and that rubbed her the wrong way, exacerbated by Harry's personality and the swiftness of said success. After all, Emma didn't build the companies she owned, she inherited them, something Harry actually slyly pointed out during the discussion.
Shaw on the other hand saw their dislike for one another as an opportunity. When and how to take advantage of it however eluded him for the moment.
Only Paris knew the two were closer than they appeared, and while on the surface she didn't show anything, inside she was laughing fit to burst at how the two were trying to hook Shaw. Thus as Emma was retiring from the Club for the evening, well after Harry had already made his excuses, needing to head back to Britain immediately, Paris paused on her own way out to exchange a brief word. "Happy fishing my dear." She murmured as the two passed one another, her voice so low it wouldn't be picked up by any nearby listening device.
"Thank you, the fish does seem to have seen the bait." Emma replied in a similar volume then smiled at the other woman before the two separated.