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PLNN was a huge building in Jacksonville, standing out even among the other skyscrapers in the city's center. With Paris's approval the limo and Harry both parked in the parking area reserved for the president. "With that car I'm sure you wanted in the most secure spot possible." Paris said, once more admiring Harry's Huayra then leading the way to the elevator.
"Thank you," said Harry not mentioning all the defensive magic his car had before following her. The elevator deposited them on the 17th floor of the building, where the dialogue was set to take place. The room itself was set up sort of like a talk show set with several seats for questioners, one seat for the main questioner, and one for Harry, separated from the reporters by a dining table set between Harry and the announcer.
Harry only noticed those things peripherally however his attention was locked on the woman waiting for them. Another blonde, she was even more well-built then Paris or Emma, and her beauty was almost otherworldly. In fact, Harry would bet on it being precisely otherworldly, because what he was sensing from the woman was magic, almost as much as Ororo had now.
It was only long practice that kept Amora from staring in shock at the magic user that had just walked through the door behind her new benefactor. She and Paris had gotten along famously from the start (in fact she actually lived with Paris, back in New York). Amora had easily been able to use her magics to get her a Bachelor's degree in communication, and that plus her own looks and intelligence had done the rest with Paris helping along. Amora wished to accumulate quite a lot of money, which she used to get what she wanted, in particular clothing and jewelry. This was going to be her first major show hosting, but she had appeared in various other jobs that put her in the limelight since their initial meeting.
The way the magic user's eyes locked on her told Amora that he had sensed the magic around her as well. She frowned wondering what was going on here but Paris's voice interrupted her. "Amora, this is the person were going to be interviewing today, Mr. Potter."
"Charmed." Harry said bowing slightly, though his eyes glittered like emeralds even as he did so.
"Have any of the other reporters arrived yet?" Paris went on, and not noticing the slight tension between Amora and Harry.
Emma had, but didn't know the reason. Paris had introduced her to Amora before this, and the two of them had gotten along well enough. They were very different people but had a few interests in common, and it was clear that Paris had not lost any of her ability to spot talent. "Harry, what's going on?" She asked telepathically.
"Tell you in a moment when I figure it out." Harry replied dryly in the same fashion. "Do you think you can convince Paris to take you off somewhere for a few moments?"
"Not really, not without using my powers and I am not wishful to do so to a friend." Emma replied tartly, still feeling guilty about the way she had invaded Paris' mind earlier.
"Then I'll have to use a bit of subtlety."
"Oh, god, that's never a good sign..."
While their telepathic conversation was going on Amora had replied to Paris' question. "Some of them have, would you like to talk to them?" "I had security escort them to the waiting room next door."
"Yes." Paris replied. "I want to make certain that the other agencies sent their best as they said they would. I okayed a certain group, but if someone had a 'sudden cold' and couldn't make it and had to be replaced, I'd rather know about it now. I also want to make sure that they know to keep questions on the up and up. We are not running a tabloid magazine here."
"Despite the set looking like a talk show?" Emma quipped, lightly nudging Paris with her shoulder.
"Despite that. This setup is a new idea of mine, one I imagine that say, the NFL or other sports could use same for their press conferences. Something to look into." Paris replied smirking a little at the younger blonde before heading towards another doorway where the reporters would be waiting.
Emma followed after her, since it would be unusual for her to wait, and Harry made a show of looking around as if he was interested in the set up ignoring the man who had come up to fit him with a small microphone. He deliberately passed close by where Amora was standing, having just been fitted with her own microphone. "Are we going to have trouble?" he asked in a very quiet voice.
"Not for me war mage." Amora replied fervently, using the name she had heard used for magic users whose magic was an intrinsic part of their bodies. "If you are that Harry Potter that we are supposed to interview today, some mysteries are cleared up for me, but I don't really care about medicine or business overmuch. I am here to have fun, and my arrangement with Paris is simply to aid that."
Oh, Amora liked everything she was doing working for Paris else she wouldn't do them, and this interview was certainly going to be one interesting. But she wouldn't lie to herself and say that she was going to be staying around overlong. No, once she had enough money to set her up in the life she wished, say for about forty years or so, she would gracefully retire, with no one the wiser as to her true nature.
"You're not from this world are you?" Harry asked. "So long as those are your real long-term intentions I don't care but your accent reminds me of someone else I've met recently."
"I am of Asgard, specifically a descendant of the Æsir, so I hale from another dimension." The Sorceress replied, wondering who Harry had met recently that came from there, as it surely hadn't been her or Thor who she kept an eye on, ostensibly still following Odin's orders. "But I'm not here to cause trouble, certainly not with you, certainly not with my current employer."
Harry briefly glanced at her then nodded. "I thought I'd placed your accent." He said, now louder for the cameramen and others around them. "Always nice to see someone else from across the pond."
Paris smiled politely as if that had been all they had talked about, then moved forward gesturing to one seat across the table that would separate her and Harry from the other reporters. "Just so you know how this will work, I will open things up." Amora began, the tension not disappearing, but in abeyance for now. Such would always be the case when magic users met one another in unexpected circumstances.
A few moments later Paris and Emma returned, followed by a troop of about 12 men and women, mostly men, who moved over to take seats in the audience section of the studio. They each stopped by a man who fitted them one after another with a small microphone, more than a few pointedly not looking in Amora's direction.
All of them were of the opinion that she was not a true reporter, and reporters and anchors rarely got along. Reporters in general were somewhat incorruptible, only interested in the story and ferreting out information regardless of their area of expertise. Anchors however were political animals, always understanding the party line that their network followed and willing to bend public opinion this way and that for better ratings. And talk show hosts were of course scum of the earth to any right-thinking reporter.
Nonetheless they all knew they were here on sufferance. This was a major coup for PLNN. Harry Potter had made a tremendous splash in the medical world and in the business world as well, which seemed to be growing if his recent acquisition of Saab and some construction companies was anything to go by.
But nothing was known about him! Not where he got the money, not where he came from or any of his background, nothing. Most pharmaceutical companies were not open about how they created their medicines, but their owners were usually well known, and of course most were owned by several people rather than just one person. So none of the reporters were willing to rock the boat, which was why they hadn't raised any issues when Paris laid down the rules.
She did so now for Harry's benefit saying that each reporter would be allowed to ask two questions as he and Amora chose, giving the two of them control of the discussion, and that they had 50 minutes, which would translate to an hour with commercials slotted for this show. Then she and Emma left for the observation booth, turning the show over to her stage director, who walked Harry through the signs of when they were cutting to commercial, and to face the cameras at all times.
He also suggested that Harry drink a cold bottle of water before the lights came on, as they were notoriously hot. Harry replied with a smile faint smile and did so, though he didn't honestly expect to be bothered.
"This is going out live people." The stage director reminded them all. "So no cursing, and think up your questions now before we start the show." Not two minutes later he held up a hand to his headset then nodded, pointing imperiously at Amora. "And we are going live in five, four, three, two, one, now!"
Amora smiled, enhancing her beautiful features further. "Good evening everyone, today we have a very special guest with us, Mr. Harry Potter. Many of you know Mr. Potter as the owner and president of Magical Minds, then new pharmaceutical company whose products are making such up a tremendous impact on the medical world. Am I correct Mr. Potter in assuming that you are also the sole shareholder?"
"That would be correct yes, Amora." Harry replied, having been told to use her name rather than the more British 'Miss', which he had thought to use.
"Would you care to tell us about yourself a bit? You are a rather mysterious individual in many ways after all." Amora led him on.
"Hmm… well for a start I'm not from around here, and I don't mean I'm from Britain. I am, just not this one." At the reporters perplexed expressions Harry smiled. "You see, I was born in what is known as an alternate universe, one that diverged from this one several millennia ago. I found myself in, call it the area between dimensions, where I ran into the Fantastic Four after finding Franklin Richards and rescuing the little tyke from being kidnapped by one of its denizens."
Harry laughed, ignoring their shocked gazes. Of course a lot of the public followed the Fantastic Four's adventures, and this sounded rather plausible, though it would be the first time the FF had brought back someone who was actually friendly. One of the reporters, rather more intelligent than the others blurted out, "Is that where you get the ingredients for your medicines?"
"I think that counts as one of your questions even if we haven't gotten to that portion of the interview yet,, but yes." Harry replied with a smile before Amora could interject. "But yes, I got the seeds for the ingredients to my various medicines from my home universe. That's why I have a limited supply for now, I had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to transplant them." A lie, but a small one, and close enough to the truth that it wouldn't matter in the long run.
Amora spoke up leaning forward slightly in her chair before the reporters could try and take over the dialogue. "I just want to be clear on this, you claim you come from an alternate dimension? What exactly would that entail?"
"Well for one thing, my universe didn't have a King William, it had a queen Elizabeth." There were some startled laughter at that, and Harry smirked before becoming more serious. "And for another, the world was moving quite a bit slower than this one, if you understand what I mean, technology was advancing slowly, not in the leaps and bounds of this world. My home world didn't have geniuses like Tony Stark or Reed or the rest to fuel its advances. No cell phones, which let me tell you would have been bloody useful."
"I see." Amora murmured, while the reporters laughed once more. She however was thinking hard about what Potter had said and what it meant about his magical ability. She once more confirmed that she didn't want to tangle with this war-mage at any point in the future, though this would not be the last time that thought occurred to her during this interview. "And what was your occupation in this other world? Business entrepreneur, doctor, what?"
Harry shrugged. "None of the above I'm afraid, oh I was taught medicine but that was more to help my other occupation. I was a student, who then became a soldier in a very nasty guerilla war. I was fifteen or so when I was forced through many different pressures shall we say to join the war. It was… well it was nasty."
He paused, watching with amusement as the reporters eyes widened and they leaned forward, before his eyes took on the thousand yard stare of a soldier who had seen too much. "We, my friends and I, were fighting against a group of terrorists that had tacit governmental approval for their actions, and we were fighting it alone for the most part. This small group of individuals wanted to rule over the majority feeling it their divine right because they were born with it."
He did not specify what 'it' was in this case. That was unnecessary, and unneeded.
For now a bit of information about the kind of war it was would go a long way. "If you were not one of them, you were less than an animal in their eyes, and what men will do to other men when they believe such as that is…"
There was a moment of silence in the studio before Harry shook off his grim mood. He still lost himself in memories like that occasionally, but such episodes were becoming rarer as time went on. "Anyway, we fought them, and we eventually won, but it was a pyrrhic victory at best. All my friends were dead, and I had lost all my faith in the government. Nor did I want to merely leave the country because I had become rather famous there and knew that fame would precede me wherever I went. There was an experiment involving dimensional travel and I decided to see what was out there."
Harry laughed suddenly, breaking the somber mood his words had evoked. "I freely admit that I probably wasn't in my right mind at the time, but it worked out very well in the end. Franklin and his family saved me from the Limbo I found myself in, and here we are."
"Well that was interesting, but I'm afraid it's time for a brief commercial break." said Amora after a moment, her voice betraying no shock though there was a bit of amusement at how Harry had given the reporters just enough information to whet their appetites yet no more. "When we return, we will open the discussion up for questions."
During the break, Paris looked over at Emma, whose eyes had narrowed. "You didn't know?"
"I knew he had some connection to the Fantastic Four, that was all I could discover, though he seems to look down on 'heroes' in general, feeling them to be, well useless frippery I think." Emma replied with seeming honesty. "But I had no idea he was from another dimension like that."
Parris hummed thoughtfully, watching as the reporters tried to question 'off the record' which they would then feel free to use later in their follow-on articles, which they could word to convince the public to draw the conclusions their networks desired. However Harry just ignored them, talking quietly to Amora about cars of all things.
A moment later the show restarted, and the questions began. Harry shrugged. "Let's start with the front row and work our way back then." He pointed at a man in the front row on the far right.
The man quickly replied. "Your origins are fascinating Mister Potter, but do you have any concrete proof that it's the truth and that you don't really pose a threat to this world?"
"If I was a threat, would I have shared my origins?" Harry replied blankly. "And other than my medicines and their efficacy, no, not really. I had the seeds for my various medicines ingredients, and a few other knickknacks, but most of them are of a personal nature, and I am not about to share them with anyone."
"But your medicines could be some kind of mind control… thing…" The man began then petered out, realizing how lame that sounded.
"Yeah, I've been there mate." Harry said consolingly an amused smile on his face. "We all have moments where we speak before thinking. Next?"
This time a woman questioned him. "I've never followed any of the armed forces so I don't have any questions about your history and I trust the Fantastic Four enough to not question the otherworldly aspect of your origins. My question is business related. Recent reports indicate that while your company is still compiling orders, it can no longer fulfill them at the present time. Why do you have such a small amount of stock, and do you have plans to solve this issue?"
"I do. I recently found some more land that could be turned to that purpose. It will take approximately four months before the next crop is ready to be used to create the medicines, but after that I will be able to multiply my current stock by a factor of fifteen to twenty."
"Will the prices for your medicines go down at that point?" The woman asked hurriedly. She was mostly assigned to medical topics, and had an uncle who had just been in a fire a week ago. His face and body had been badly burned, but the salve that Magical Minds sold was so amazing! If she could get some of that…
"The prices won't go down in the countries who haven't met my demands until they do so. That is non-negotiable. Next?" Harry replied evenly and honestly.
The next man was assigned to business topics much like the other woman was to medical as were the next few questions. They covered the fact that Harry refused to sell to any hospital based in a country or any country's military if that country didn't have a good record of protecting their citizen's rights. He would emphatically not sell to any hospital based in a country that was home to a terrorist group regardless of its ideology.
"It is not a matter of protecting my medicines, certain failsafe's I've installed on their containers see to it that my medicines go to their buyers, and only their buyers." Harry said, his tone grim even though he looked faintly amused. "It is the idea of seeming to ignore the fact they cannot control their own citizenry, who have proven a danger to those around them."
"Other countries can however earn the right to buy my company's products at the prices hospitals in Ireland, Italy, and France are currently paying by extending their citizen's rights to include those of 'mutants'. Until they do that, they can wait for that to occur before buying or continue to pay twenty times what those forward-thinking countries are paying."
Ireland had gotten a hint somehow about Harry's pro-mutant stance even before Magical Minds went public and since then had leaped ahead of France and Italy, passing a set of laws explicitly stating mutants had rights under the law. They were now clamping down hard on their home grown version of Friends of Humanity. Indeed they had gotten ahead of France and Italy, both of whom were moving forward much more slowly on that topic. Harry had ordered Magical Minds therefore to send the next shipment bound for Italy's hospitals to several of Ireland's hospitals who had ordered his potions instead, as a marked hint that Italy needed to get a move on that issue.
After that there were a few questions about Harry's origins, but most of them dealt with the war he had been involved in, which Harry covered like the veteran he was, imbedding in the watching populace's mind that here was a soldier who had seen things no one should ever see, yet had come through it with his morals and his mind largely intact. Above everything else, Harry came off as, well, human. Much like his neighbors were discovering about Thor, despite his otherworldly origins, Harry wasn't arrogant, or felt he was perfect or anything like that. He was simply personable, in a way politicians tried to pull off yet failed at miserably.
Eventually the question and answer session wound down, each reporter taking more time to think up their questions. This group of reporters was comprised of some of the more intelligent of the breed, and knew not to try and reword questions or try and finagle more information out of Harry than he was willing to give, especially given the fact they were only here on sufferance, and the fact he had dropped several bombshells already.
As they were winding down, one of the last reporters asked. "Does your background in your home dimensions have any connection to your pro-mutant hiring policies and views?"
"I have lots of reasons for that policy." Harry said with a faint smile. First, I think it's rather stupid to arbitrarily equate having odd powers with not being truly human, the whole Homo Sapien Homo Superior thing is idiotic in the extreme. In fact, I thought I'd be asked this question and brought along a few visual aids."
He reached into his bag which had been laying against his chair, and pulled out three pictures on cardboard when folded out became about 2 feet long each. He set them up on the table, and asked "Do you know what this is Sir?
The reporter nodded wondering where this was going. "Those look like DNA strands."
"That is exactly what they are." In fact they were a copy of Sir Dennis, a normal humans, an apes, and Storm's. She had volunteered after Harry had explained what he was going to use it for. "Now can you tell me which of these is human, which is that of an ape, and which is a mutant?"
That threw the man, because at first glance all of them seemed alike. "Can anyone?" Harry asked.
He waited a few moments and finally one of the reporters volunteered an answer, "That one in the middle I think?"
"Now should that count as one of your questions," Harry said laughing and the woman gaped at for a moment before chuckling. Harry replied, "In fact no it isn't. You're correct that that one seems the base model as it were of the other two, but that is the image of an ape's DNA. Humans are basically an offshoot of apes, this has been scientifically proven."
"And there is even less difference between normal human and 'mutant'. It just seems horribly arbitrary to me to have someone come around and say all guess this group he said pointing at the normal DNA and this group are separate species. There's no real easy definition of species, but two different species are largely seen as such if they can't interbreed. Since mutants and humans can interbreed, or else where would mutants be coming from, I fail to see that 'mutants and humans' are two separate species."
"You're defending them so ferociously Mr. Potter, even going so far as to link your company's profits to their civil rights, are you perchance a mutant too?" One reporter asked before Harry could go on.
Harry paused for a moment, cocking his head to one side, a faint smile on his face. "Could you tell if I was by looking at me?" He shook his head grimly. "Face facts gentlemen, if I am none of you could tell. And really, when the smob goes looking mutants who do they find? Those with physical deformities, the ones who look different than what is called 'normal', many of whom are defenseless. A young boy was killed months back in Idaho for the crime of having bug eyes, that's all, nothing else, no powers no nothing, simply a physical deformity, just like any autistic or physically deformed child. Nor is he the only one to have died in America alone because of such."
"Would you cheer if a child with cancer or a cleft tongue was butchered by a mob, or would you stand up and shout no this is not right!?" Harry's voice had become passionate with those last words, and he took a moment to calm down before continuing. "It is those mutants, those whose mutations don't give any kind of power or skill that are the targets of the hate groups like the Friends of Humanity. And I will do all I can to force the world to see the sophistry of preying upon such poor souls."
"I am not trying to apologize for those mutants who use their powers for their own gain, like that incident in France recently. I don't think that mutant powers give mutants any special right to look down on non-mutants. It is simply that they were born with gifts, which they need to be trained in using so they can learn to not define themselves by those powers alone. To think their powers make them better than non-mutants make those mutants who follow such ideology no better than the hate groups on the other side."
Harry went on quickly before anyone else could question him on that point. "Yet there is far more to my loathing of the anti-mutant movement and the mutant superiority movement than simply understanding how similar we are deep down or my intolerance of bigotry. The fact of the matter is, that there are a lot of other issues humanity should be dealing with right now rather than coming up with yet another reason to tear ourselves apart. Can you tell me sir, how many alien races the Fantastic Four have met?"
When the man who had questioned him couldn't' reply Harry waited a moment looking around at all the reporters. When no one answered he said simply, "Five or six depending on how you count the Mole Man and his forces. Now, while the Mole Man might have retreated and signed a nonaggression treaty with the Fantastic Four, and several of the other races aren't in the same dimension as this planet, the two most dangerous and expansionist of them are. The Kree and the Skrull have very different ways of doing business, as evidenced by the forces the FF has dealt with previously, which is their equivalent of human Special Forces operatives. Bloody Hell, I shouldn't have to tell any of you that considering that the battles against the Sentry and the most recent alien assault were in the news, yet despite that no one seems to be doing anything about it."
"What do you mean by that Sir?" asked one of the reporters.
"Well, there hasn't been any agreement in the United Nations yet to fund any kind of space based navy, defense system or even a space radar system to cover the Earth's orbitals or anything of that type, really. Why? The nations of the world are too set in their ways, too used to looking at one another as enemies rather than seeing that humanity is all on its own here on this small fragile marble that we call home. I've looked at the reports about those threats that the Fantastic Four shared with the American government, which they urged the American government to share with the UN. I've also seen Reed Richard's estimates of the size of the empires of those races, and I've talked to the Fantastic Four about those threats and what's the Kree and the Skrull think of humanity.
Harry's voice lowered in timbre as he looked out around at the reporters, then stared into the camera that was currently trained on him. "The Kree think of us as nothing more than animals. If Earth was any closer to where the Fantastic Four estimate their empire to be, they would've already wiped us out as simply as a human would spray his garden for bugs. As it is, they just don't wish to devote resources to it yet."
"As for the Skrull, the Fantastic Four's reports on them were actually somewhat more in-depth. Apparently the representatives of their Special Forces units liked to talk much more than the Kree Sentry. The Skrull think of humanity the same way old time slavers thought of their victims. We're useful, but the very idea of us having rights, of human life being important in any way to them is laughable."
He let that sink in for a moment, letting the reporters there remember what they had seen of the Fantastic Four's battles in the past before going on in a very soft tone of voice. "Humanity is living on the sufferance and laziness of others."
"The only reason either race hasn't bombarded the earth back into the Stone Age is because they don't care enough just yet to put forth the effort. But after this last battle against something that looked remarkably similar to the first Sentry the Fantastic Four tangled with how long will that remain the case? How many Special Forces units can they lose before they decide to send in some of their regular navy? The fantastic Four couldn't stop a full fleet of spaceships, and they know it. Nor will talking with these aliens work. If it would, they would have opened up dialogue with us, rather than try to send in their Special Forces to see if Earth was worth conquering."
He leaned back slightly shaking his head. "That is why I lose the mutant human divide, why I loathe the idea of 'Homo Superior' and 'Homo Sapien' being two separate races. Not only does it seem an arbitrary and a rather ridiculous distinction, but I feel we have much bigger problems that we as a race need to tackle together. Not just America, not just Britain, not just the Fantastic Four doing their magnificent job of defending the planet, but all of us working together to make certain that we cannot simply be wiped out on a whim by other, more powerful races."
Amora stared at Harry for a moment, wondering if he thought the Asgardians were a similar threat. But since he hadn't named them among the threats she decided to take the fact that he had met an Asgardian before and didn't seem to hold any ill will towards them as a good sign. She looked over at the reporters, who were staring at Harry some of them with blank faces, some of them aghast. It was as if no one had really set out the reality of humanity's position in terms of alien races before. Or that they thought the Fantastic Four could deal with them regardless. Even Paris looked shocked and thoughtful. She wondered if this would be a wake-up call for America and the world in general
But Harry, despite wishing to take the chance on putting it out there, knew it wouldn't be. The bureaucracies of NASA and its equivalent in other countries were too entrenched, space exploration cost too much money, and all governments were much better at ignoring long term problems rather than dealing with them. As for the rest of what Harry said, that might go over slightly better with those who were willing to think, but if that would be the majority of the populace Harry didn't know.
Amora looked over at the stage director who nodded his head rapidly, one hand waving to indicate she needed to wrap it up. "Well that wasn't precisely a high note to end on folks, but I am afraid we are out of time. Thank you for joining us Mr. Potter, I think you've definitely given both us and our viewers a lot of food for thought. Till next time this is Amora Incantare, wishing you all a good evening."
OOOOOOO
From where he was watching the news broadcast in the helacarrier, Fury groaned, wondering what the hell this public demand for action was going to do, and cursing Potter vociferously for trying to change the status quo like that. Elsewhere the helacarrier however, Carol Danvers rubbed her face, then nodded determinately, and turned back to her computer.
OOOOOOO
"The initial public response to the first interview is positive, the government's not so much." Emma was saying into her phone the next day. The phone in question was one of six that Reed Richards had made and distributed to Harry and his own team. They were far beyond anything else on the open market, and their signals were also untraceable by any technological means.
"In fact I am sensing a distinct lack of government enthusiasm, though I am uncertain where all of it is coming from because it is making for very strange bedfellows in some cases. I think some of it might be simply the bureaucratic response to your blatant challenge to not only the FDA's authority but the American government's competence as a whole, or something else. The Republicans might not like you because you're a foreign influence, the Democrats because Magical Minds is a natural monopoly, and both might not like you because you're using your influence to push your own private agenda while not even making a nod in the direction of playing the game as they see it." Emma explained.
"I really don't care so much about the government's approval one way or another." Harry's voice replied from the other end. He was back in Hogwarts with the team right now, taking a break between controlling the 'enemy defenders' for them on another ship assault.
Jean was finalizing the plans for the Ravens he had started, but the two of them had run into an impasse with the Ravenspires: there was a major difference between simply hollowing out an asteroid and designing it's interior so that it becomes an orbital fortress complete with everything it needs. Jean was good, very good at reverse engineering or coming up with new designs for weapons or simple, single-purpose items, but there was so much to be considered when designing a space fortress, above and beyond the obvious, that she didn't know where to start.
"We need to get the American public on our side." Harry said, voicing a portion of the solution to that item. "America is the only nation that has both the industry and the knowhow to build large scale military ships. China doesn't, nor would I wish to do business with them at present in any way, the Russians have major bloody quality-control issues, and while they make a decent sub, that's it. I don't trust anything that they send up rather than down.. Britain's got the know-how, but their shipbuilding sector is fully utilized in keeping its own fleet supplied. I need access to those designers, those systems experts, one way or another, and if we can get the American public on my side now regardless of the government, maybe I can do so openly in the future when we go public with my space-based needs."
"That's months in the future if that, but we made a good start." Emma replied. "You'll probably have to do a follow up interview at some point, especially if you buy American based industries, but for now, I think we're good to go. Remember though that Shaw and I are almost ready to move on Pierce, and we should bring you into the New York branch soon."
Harry had been duly inducted as king of the London Branch a few days after his company had gone public with their medicines. Since then he had only rarely shown up there, busy with everything else he was doing, but the rank was real. "Hmm… I thought you wanted me to get to know Buckman and Shaw one on one before showing up?"
"Buckman is a possibility, though he is being incredibly hard to nail down at the moment. I, I'm getting really worried about that. I think whatever this Sentinel Program is, it's nearing completion." Emma said, her voice much less certain and far more worried than she would ever allow it to be in public. "Shaw is not going to have time to meet you in a social setting until Pierce is dealt with, unless you wish to walk into his den as it were, and meet him on one of his own properties."
"Got it, how about this coming weekend?" It was Monday, though Harry and his ladies frequently forgot the actual day, since their lives were dominated by jobs that did not conform to the five day 9-5 mold.
"Perfect, that will give me some time to get to know my newest bodyguard, thank you for the stack of one shot arrays, I hope they will work as advertised. And I might have an idea about how to get more information about the Sentinel program, though I wish to talk to Xavier about it, so if you could set up a meeting with him, that might be a good idea. Other than that, we're about to pull up to the prison's wharf, so I've got to go."
Harry chuckled. "Trust me, it'll work. If Sandman tries to turn on you, those throw-away arrays will work to at least limit his ability to attack you. I'll talk to you later."
Emma hung up the phone and smiled grimly, getting out of the limo. This had taken far too long, and she knew she might have made an enemy in Oscorp for some reason, but that was for later. About an hour later, after having to deal with the smarmy chief warden Emma was led once more into the special area reserved for the Sandman. "Well, Mr. Baker, while it has taken far longer than I would have liked…"
OOOOOOO
Emma's words proved prophetic. Several hours later she was walking the Sandman through the mansion while laying down the rules of his parole and introducing him to his fellow security guards. Emma also made certain that he knew where not to go i.e. the fourth floor where she and Cordelia had their rooms. After coming back to the security center and introducing her security chief, Emma received a call from Shaw on her home phone.
"It's starting," he said coldly, "I've already begun to move against Pierce's holdings, and myself and the Hellions will be moving against Pierce soon. I want him panicking and running, he'll bolt for one of his South-American holdings, and we'll hit him then."
"We?" Exactly what do you mean by 'we'?" Asked Emma, holding up a hand to Baker and her security chief, both of whom paused in their conversation to watch Emma walk out of the room, talking into the phone a maid had given her.
The security chief hadn't initially been a fan of bringing the former supervillain in, but upon reading his background, he mellowed somewhat having come from a similar one himself. If he hadn't lied about his age to get into the army, he might have well ended up very much like Sandman did, minus the powers of course. He was all for giving the man a second chance, but that wouldn't stop him from watching Baker very closely.
"I want you on site nearby when Pierce starts moving. Break into his mind, that'll panic him even more and let us be certain that we've found all his hidden caches of cash and resources after." Shaw replied.
"It might also make him look around for where such an attack could be coming from. A startled beast is a dangerous one." Emma retorted.
"How close do you have to be then?" Shaw asked, his voice bland.
Emma smiled to herself, shaking her head at the blatant attempt to dig for information. She could actually use her powers from miles away, so long as she knew the specific mental signature she was looking for. But she wasn't about to share that with Shaw. "A few blocks is the best I could manage, and I am not willing to bet against Pierce being paranoid enough to have protections or defenses hidden around his property rather than on it. Besides, why do you think he'll start running immediately? That makes no sense if you're opening up with corporate attacks."
"That supposes that the corporate attacks are the normal sort." Shaw said smiling grimly. "I have in fact pointed out to the government at some of his work in cybernetics, which break several dozen medical practice laws, excluding several dozen other areas where he's played fast and loose with the law, and a surprising connection to a certain crime syndicate."
At that Emma winced slightly, seeing that as the example of a pot and a kettle.
Shaw of course couldn't hear Emma's inner thoughts, and had continued speaking. "…And certain agencies will be raiding many of his holdings within the next hour nationwide. There is also a call out to the Air Force to make certain that his personal plane does not leave American airspace."
Let that be a lesson to you Emma, the blonde thought to herself. Shaw has connections, just like Buckman. And he's telling you this so you know what he can do to you in the future if necessary. Of course, my holdings aren't nearly as open to that kind of assault as Pierce, not with his cybernetic experiments and extra-legal business deals with the Magia. But planted evidence is something to watch out for in the future.
"Isn't that too precipitous?" she said aloud. "I thought that the plan was to slowly scare him into running, while removing all of his bolt holes one after another before he decided to."
"Pierce doesn't actually have that many bolt holes, hidden supply caches and offshore accounts yes, but not actual hiding places. He apparently had an agreement with Hammer Industries to give him shelter, but the agreement was that he had to get to them in Mexico. With my own forces watching for movement in that direction plus with the Air Force alerted, he's unlikely to get away."
Emma rolled her eyes certain that if she had been in Pierce's place that she could. But she wasn't Pierce, and a sudden thought occurred to her. "I think…" she said suddenly, "I think we are working under a false assumption here."
"What?" Sebastian said, his previous tone of smugness disappearing for a moment hearing the worry in Emma's voice. "What kind of assumption are we making?"
"I think that we're forgetting something very important, Pierce isn't what anyone would call sane. He can act sane, but he's underneath that act he's a fanatical ideologue with a helping of psychopath. What would a a psychopath do who suddenly realizes he's under attack? He's not going to run, he's going to lash out." She frowned as she considered it. "The question then becomes, who is he going to lash out at? Is there any chance that he is aware that you're a mutant or can trace this governmental attack back to you?"
Shaw was silent for a moment. "While his intelligence agency isn't nearly as good as my own, I believe he might be able to trace some of the assaults on him back in my direction. Not the federal government's involvement, but possibly enough, and… I will admit the timing will look rather suspicious. And he might well know I am a mutant, though not my specific powers."
"Then I suggest you do what you can to defend yourself, or at least remove yourself to a position of strength. I will bunker down here." Besides being a psychopath Pierce was a misogynist, and he had been harboring a growing hatred for Emma and her business acumen for weeks now.
With that she hung up the phone, and moved back into the command room to talk to her head of security and newest recruit, while at the same time opening up her mental link to Jean. Normally it would be difficult for Emma to open a link across such a distance, but between the two of them it was as easy as if Jean was standing right next to her. "Jean, tell Harry that Shaw's moving against Pierce now, and I think we might run into a bit of a problem. Is there any way you or one of the others could stop by here?"
Carrying on two conversations was difficult, but she managed to do so, and convey to her head of security and Sandman that they might be facing an actual assault on the mansion soon. Emma even came up with reasons that the two men took at face value: that Pierce was harboring a secret lust for her, and might now that he had been pushed into a corner because of federal investigations into his companies and he might decide to lash out. She even shared a psych profile of the man, which was the final bit of evidence both men needed to realize how serious she was about this. She then told them that in the event of an attack she would pay them a month's wages for that day's work.
Forty minutes later, Vanguard, Ghigau, and the Cherokee arrived on the scene. Not having a way to explain their presence, Emma asked them to set up on her mansion's roof. She also asked them to only fire if the battles entered her property and they could hide it in some manner.
Jean arrived with them, and stayed with Emma in her room just in case. Ororo was busy with the new teachers and couldn't get away. Harry however had another job to do.
OOOOOOO
Elsewhere, Sebastian had taken Emma's warning to heart, and had informed Domino to get the Hellions ready for anything. He'd also turned the security of his mansion on high, something he would never normally do since his defenses were much more proactive at that level then was remotely legal. Even with his mansion being literally dozens of miles from anyone else, it might bring official anger down on his head.
But this was a special case. Small camouflaged alcoves opened up everywhere around his property, which was dominated by a natural seeming forest and a hedge maze in the back. Large, Gatling guns, main battle tank cannons, multi-shot lasers, the weapons were varied and eclectic. Swiftly they powered up and began to scan for intruders, their barrels sweeping this way and that.
Ten minutes later the Hellions had gathered on the first floor in the main hall of the mansion, which was much like Emma's. There Sebastian informed them of what he knew, which was scant little, and then what he fondly thought was a pep talk. "I have no idea of what the cyborg's capabilities might be, or what kind of numbers Pierce can call upon, but if he attacks us here I expect us to be ready."
He said, calmly stripping out of his shirt to reveal a hairy muscled chest with wide shoulders denoting the heavy exercises he routinely did. Without his shirt Sebastian Shaw looked much more like what he really was underneath his urbane air and business acumen: a brawler. "Domino, if you were attacking my mansion which way would you come from?"
"It would depend on my knowledge of your security and my own force's capabilities." Domino replied promptly, not even looking up from where she was busy recalibrating the sight on her rifle. "And if I cared about leaving witnesses behind. What are our basic assumptions here? What would his objectives be, and are we assuming that he's gone full on rabid on us, or is he still able to think?"
Shaw paused, thinking. Regardless of anything else most of Pierce's holdings and Pierce himself are going to be wanted for questioning by the federal government. That can't be stopped now, and my electronic assaults have badly eroded his monetary assets, including his overseas bank accounts. If he can get away at all, he'd probably be heading to one of the countries which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States, so I doubt he'd care much about breaking US law at this point or further evidence of said against him at least. And if Frost's right…
"Assume that he doesn't care about witnesses, and that he is primarily attacking to kill me for my part in the current debacle. It's not a stretch to assume that everything that's happening to him now is caused by me after all, he certainly knows at least a few of the electronic and corporate assaults are." Sebastion scowled irritably. He had thought that Pierce would act like a businessman or a crime lord and bolt if he was pressured from all sides like this. But he won't act rationally, Frost's right, we ignored the fact he's a fanatic. Now Pierce is a beast looking to lash out.
Twenty minutes later alarms began to blare, and Shaw moved over to a monitor in the nearby wall. On it a camera set into his properties outer wall showed what had prompted the alarm. Twelve giant dogs all much larger than they should be in real life almost as large as brown bears really, had just broken through the outer wall as if the stone was so much cardboard.
As Shaw watched the automated gun emplacements opened up on them but the dogs survived the fire and kept coming. A dog that looked somewhat like a Doberman raced to one side, its eyes locked on a Gatling gun. Its eyes glowed and then beams of laser fire fired from them, slicing into the Gatling gun. A small panel on another dog's front shoulder opened, revealing a small rocket launcher. The rocket sailed straight ahead, slamming into another gun emplacement, blowing it into flinders.
The dogs soon cleared the hole, and then Donald Pierce entered his normal, somewhat controlled expression in abeyance as he glared around him. Next to him stood a black haired man of similar age and body type, who had two small machine guns in either hand.
A third man rolled in on small tank treads, his lower body disappearing into them, or perhaps he no longer had legs. Given Pierce and his people were cyborgs, Shaw knew that was possible. In one arm he held a large caliber machine gun, and his other hand held what looked like a large shotgun, though there also seemed to be other weapons set into the tank portion of his body.
Two more men followed him. They were large bruiser types that almost looked like rip-offs of the Bruisers that Shaw had designed and added to his own security force and the Hellions. Seeing them he cursed volubly. "It would appear as if Pierce knew more about my own doings than I had thought."
Domino had come over to study the video with him, and frowned. "I wish we had built up the number of security guards again sir. I'm confident about my team, but this is going to be tough." Sebastian had not yet built up the numbers he had lost when he sent the Hellions and the rest of his forces in to see if they could subvert Paige and Sam Guthrie.
Of course there had always been men in his companies' normal security teams willing to sign up for 'training'. But he couldn't make those men disappear or get reassigned immediately after such training in large groups without gossip doing it's horrible work and the security teams becoming leery of such or worse, individuals going to the authorities themselves. He'd had to liquidate a few men before they could go to the police about missing friends already, but such things were messy and best to be avoided.
"Fight them in the mansion or out on the grounds?" Sebastian asked looking over at Domino.
By this point the dogs had raced on, and now several more were coming in after them sixteen dogs in all. "Outside, use the guns to back us up." Domino said nodding her head sharply over to a green haired woman and two Southern American men, one of whom was Jetstream.
"Sunspot, Polaris, Jetstream, take to the sky, start hitting the dogs as they move away from the humans. See if you can draw their fire but don't try to take on the humans themselves until we know what their abilities are."
All three nodded and moved off. Jetstream looked particularly excited. He had been convalescing ever since the Guthrie debacle, so this was going to be one of the first times he could really spread his wings as it were. His body had been almost entirely rebuilt, and he was possibly as much of a cyborg as Pierce's people were reported to be, but that and his mutant ability of creating thermo-kinetic energy still allowed him to fly.
As the trio left Domino murmured to Shaw. "If the five humans are as tough as those dogs seem to be, that's fine, we can handle that. If they have any more tricks up their sleeves, then it will get nastier."
"Agreed, but there's nothing we can do about it now." He replied, in an unruffled calm.
Outside Sunspot, better known as Roberto DaCosta, summoned up his powers. His entire body turned yellow black with gathered solar energy then he shot into the air above the mansion. It was pushing evening now, but they still had a few hours of sunlight.
Beside him Polaris flew up, her green hair flying in the wind as she used her magnetic powers to polarize herself in relation to the rest of the world. She was already attacking the dogs down below, ripping out the pieces of destroyed gun emplacements and throwing them at the dogs at almost supersonic speeds. The makeshift buckshot tore into two of the dogs, ripping them into bits and pieces of wire and flesh which she then hurled against two more, but those dogs dodged.
Polaris then held up a hand almost contemptuously, stopping a rain of bullets coming at her. She flung them back at the man with the two machine guns who yelped and dodged to one side. "Mutant bitch! Looks like you were right Pierce!"
"If he's employing muties as security Shaw's probably one too." Pierce replied grimly, holding up a finger towards Polaris. His nail suddenly fired off, and Polaris gaped for a moment as it zoomed through her protective field several feet in front of her before dodging at the last moment, taking a small gash from it along her side. She gritted her teeth, but she had been training with the team for long enough that she was able to handle the pain.
"Hunters!" shouted Pierce suddenly even as he dodged a blast from Sunspot. "Concentrate on the land defenses, Pretty Boy, Bonebreaker and I will handle those three." Then he went on, in a lower tone that the pickup didn't catch. "Pretty Boy do your thing but keep up your anti-air fire all the same."
The two Bruiser types behind him and Pretty Boy both nodded, racing forward with the dogs as they did their hands seemingly changed shape, not like Random's or like that of a mutant shape changer, but their skin parted to reveal robotic parts underneath, which shifted and changed. When they stopped, they had coalesced into what looked like two large laser cannons, which the men turned on the gun emplacements all around them.
Domino held the rest of the team back, allowing the defensive emplacements to soften up the enemy, forcing them to come to her while at the same time giving her a good idea of their abilities. This didn't stop Domino however from taking potshots down range with her sniper rifle, one of which impacted on Pierce's shoulder, making him stumble to one side, blocking Pretty Boy's fire. Bonebreaker had already turned away to fire at Sunspot and was out of position to cover his fellows.
Seeing this opportunity and eager to regain some team cred after having been manhandled by the hillbilly, Jetstream raced in. His guns blazed at Pierce, eager to finish him off.
Pierce however simply took the damage and calmly got up, then one hand lashed out changing as it moved through the air, elongating to nearly fifty yards long. It looked to be made of liquid metal changing into tentacles reaching out for Jetstream. Before the rash youth could get out of range Pierce had him in his metallic grip pulling him down to the ground and then dragging him closer like a landed fish.
Once he was close, Pierce laughed, putting his foot on Jetstream's head. "This is how all mutants will end! Oh, and don't bother bitch!" He shouted up at Polaris. "Whatever you're trying to do to my body won't work, I have a field that reverses the polarity of all the metal in my body every millisecond! Your merely human brain can't keep up!"
That had initially been designed to allow him to go after Magneto, which he knew he would eventually. "Just keep on flying up there babe, you're next!"
Polaris kept on trying to gain control of the metal parts that made up Pierces body, but she didn't have any luck and she screamed in horror as he crushed Jetstream's head under his boot. "No!"
Then she was forced to dodge as the one Pierce called Pretty Boy moved away from Pierce, turning his machine guns on her again, only this time when she tried to control the bullets they didn't stop. "Rubber bullets!" she growled. "Damn it, they came prepared!"
Nearby Sunspot also couldn't come to her aid because of the amount of antiair fire that Bonebreaker was throwing up. The heat-seeking rockets were especially troublesome. He zoomed down low, then quickly jetted upwards again causing the missiles to impact on the ground, blowing large holes in the landscape.
However as he ascended once again he was caught in the side by another blast from Bonebreaker. This one however wasn't a physical assault that his solar power could burn to nothing or divert.
Instead it was a sonic attack, and it completely ignored his solar-given strength and durability. "GAHHH!" Sunspot lost all of his ability to focus on flying and slammed back into the ground like a wayward missile.
"Plucked that bird's wing!" said the half-tank cyborg laughing wildly. "That's the way to deal with the freaks!" The fact that this was being said by a man whose lower body had been replaced by tank treads f was highly ironic, or would have been if any of the fighters had time to comment on it.
Seeing another teammate go down Domino ordered the team in rather than wait any longer, even Shaw joined in, rushing out to engage the attackers. All of them were armed with various weapons, and their firepower caused Bonebreaker to turn away from the downed Sunspot for now.
Havok, or Alex to his friends, had been recruited almost immediately after returning home to the islands after the whole Magneto thing, though he couldn't remember anything about the X-men thanks to Xavier hiding their identities from his mind. Initially he had joined the Hellions because of Empath's messing with his mind, and over the next few weeks Empath had done so much permanent damage to his mind that Havok now fully believed in Shaw's cause.
He had also formed a close relationship with Polaris. Now Alex was the first to race forward, his hands glowing with energy as he brought them forward firing concussive blasts of force down range at the invaders. One such blast caught one of the cyber-dogs, hitting it with such force that it actually came apart as it flew backwards. The other caught Pretty Boy, but didn't do as much damage to him, only throwing him backwards. He was up soon returning fire with his machine guns forcing Havok to dodge.
Domino had gone to rapid fire on her rifle, and was now belting out bullets as she charged, trying to get Bonebreaker's attention away from the downed Sunspot enough to for him to get his feet under him. "Richter! Do your thing!"
She was speaking of another young man who had joined the team thanks to Empath's ability to mess up his mind much like Sunspot and Havok. Richter had the ability to create localized earthquakes as his codename suggested, and used that ability now. The ground began to quake under several of that attack dogs as they raced forward to battle the newcomers, allowing Shaw and the others to bypass them.
Shaw personally made for Pierce. "You seem to like it crushing heads Pierce, a pastime that I enjoy as well! Let's see how you like it from the other side!"
The cyborg leader laughed, moving toward him. He threw the first punch, his arm lengthening to slam into Shaw's jaw, but Shaw merely moved his head slightly, grabbing Pierce's head and pulling him in close throwing out a punch that caved in Pierce's jaw sending bone, teeth, and some metal bits flying. "That's how you punch, you half-metal atrocity!"
Nearby, Domino's fire had allowed Random to close the range but he was being held back by several of the dogs moving around him. However, Pretty Boy hadn't been concentrating on the physical fight, he had been concentrating on the digital. One of his special skills was the ability to wirelessly invade any local network and take it over. He had been working on gaining control of the local security grid since Pierce had ordered him to start, and had finally won through.
Suddenly all the remaining gun turrets around the combatants turned their fire on the Hellions. Richter went down his head missing from a Gatling round, and Catseye, who had been trying to get close enough to jump on Bonebreaker, lost her hand, going down with a scream.
"No, not again!" Polaris shouted, grabbing all of the gun turrets around the Hellions and ripping them out with her magnetic powers showing strength that she hadn't exhibited in the team exercises then hurling it at the many of the remaining dogs. But the effort took it out of her forcing Polaris to land, gasping for breath.
With the ground no longer quaking under their feet, the attack dogs raced forward, trying to get at the most dangerous target, which was Polaris after that show. Havok however raced to her aid, destroying two dogs with energy blasts before standing over her protectively, lashing out and destroying nearly all of them.
By this point Sunspot had regained his feet, and was engaging in a brutal long-range duel with Bonebreaker, who had a force field that kept Sunspot's solar blasts from reaching him. Sunspot however was pressing him so hard that he had diverted nearly all of his internal power to that shield. He was so busy doing so however he didn't dodge when one of the attack dogs attacked him from behind. Sunspot was forced to turn and engage the animal in hand-to-hand, bringing up his arm to block the beast from taking him in the throat. Gripping the animal's muzzle Sunspot used his solar power enhanced strength to rip the beast jaw and the rest of its body in two.
That however had taken his attention away from blasting Bonebreaker, who took advantage quickly, nailing him in the back with the missile. "Got you mutie!"
"ARGH!" Sunspot went down with a cry. However, Bonebreaker didn't have any time to gloat. Domino was on him, her knife flashing, catching him in the eye as her empty rifle dropped to the ground. He yelled angrily, not in pain, just anger and tried to grapple with her, but she leaped away, rolling in the dirt and coming up next to Sunspot who she grabbed and hustled into cover.
The reason for this became apparent when Bonebreaker looked down at himself, having feeling felt something on his chest. When he looked down, he saw that Domino had placed at least four hands worth of C-4 against his chest, and at a little bit of circuitry was blinking at him as he looked down at it. "Well fu-!"
That was far as he got before Domino hit the detonator. "BOOOM!" Bonebreaker and quite a bit of the ground around him went up in a massive explosion.
Nearby Pretty Boy and Random were fighting each other on equal footing, their ability to change their forms negating one another's advantages. However Random was slowly winning, pulling off any bit of Pretty Boy that he could, slowly taking his ability to change forms away. He was still super-strong, and Random had taken more than a few broken bones, but in close he was winning this fight.
Meanwhile Havok and Polaris had rejoined the battle, and had taken out the two bruisers. They didn't they have the liquid metal kind of ability as Pretty Boy and Pierce it seemed, nor the basic intelligence to dodge.
Pretty Boy got Random down on the ground with a sudden over the shoulder toss and raised one hand, quickly changing it into a heavy blade. He was about to bring it down, when Domino shot him in the back of the head with a holdout pistol. He staggered forward, but was about to finish his downward thrust when Havok's energy blast slammed into his body throwing him away from Random.
He even tried to get to his feet from that, but Random and Havok both began to blast him with both barrels, Random's arms changing into the triple barrel cannons that he had used during the Guthrie debacle to slam bioenergy at the cyborg. After a few moments they halted their fire. "Did we get him?" Havok asked.
What was left of Pretty Boy wasn't pretty at all, all of his skin and flesh had been blown off by their blasts, leaving only a bare skeleton of metal. Even that had been broken and smashed, yet something inside it was still propelling it forward.
"Oh hell no!" Polaris reached forward with her hands, her magnetic powers gripping the metal monstrosity, and gestured violently to both sides with her clenched hands, turning the remains of the cyborg into so many bits and pieces throwing them every which way.
Polaris huffed, going to her knees once more. "They're much easier to deal with after you destroy whatever anti-magnetic field they created!" she murmured, staring around the battlefield much of which was littered from the destruction that she had caused.
She turned to look up at Havok who had raced back over to her. "Havok, honey, I'ma gonna take a nap now…" And with that she collapsed sideways, her exertions having pushed beyond what she could endure.
Kneeling down, Havok checked frantically for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when he found it. With that taken care of, he looked over to where Pierce and Shaw were going at it hammer and tongs.
Neither man was giving an inch, but Shaw was clearly winning. His mutant ability was to take and absorb any impact on his body and use it to power his physical strength and his ability to heal. Pierce didn't have anything in his repertoire that could damage him, except for sonic-based assaults, which apparently had only been fitted to Bonebreaker.
Pierce had durability, super strength, and the ability to heal himself cybernetically going for him, but eventually that was simply too little against Shaw. Realizing this, and seeing all of his men and dogs down he tried to disengage, but Shaw had a grip on his shoulder.
"Oh no you don't!" Shaw growled, slamming him to the ground. "You don't get to run now that you've tried this, it was ante up time, and I'm afraid you lost this hand!" Pierce tried to kick out, but Shaw merely grunted, and then his own fist came down, punching into and through Pierce's body to dig deep into the ground. He pulled it out, and sparks and various fluids came with it, gushing out of the giant hole that Shaw had created in his chest.
Even so Peirce was still alive, and Shaw watched in amazement as he tried to crawl away. "Oh well." he shrugged. "If that doesn't kill you…"
With that Shaw reached down with both hands grabbing Shaw's head. "I did say I would crush your head Pierce." Without further ceremony Sebastian crushed Donald Pierce's head between his two hands before wrenching the remains of his skull off Pierce's body.
Sebastian held it up in one hand for a moment looking at the mangled twisted and above all crushed bits of metal and flesh that had been Donald Pierce, bishop of the Hellfire Club, smiling thinly. After a moment he looked over at Domino. "The Hellions?"
"Catseye is missing a hand, Richter and Jetstream are both dead, Sunspot needs immediate medical attention, Random and Polaris are both exhausted and rather battered in Random's case, Havok took a bullet to the side but his body armor protected him though he probably cracked a few ribs, and he took a bite in the leg from one of the cyber-dogs."
She gestured over to where Random was already carrying Sunspot back into the mansion. The other three were also moving in that direction, with Havok and Catseye supporting Polaris' comatose form. Domino looked back at Shaw, shaking her head. "That trick Pretty Boy did taking over the controls of the defensive guns nearly was the turning point. If it wasn't for Polaris the body count would be a lot worse."
Shaw nodded, then reached down to pick up the remains of Donald Pierce. "We'll have to figure out some other way of recruiting new members, but for now, I believe we've done enough for one day."
"You don't want to send me over to the Frost place to help her? Frost's espionage activities were able to find that there were four main cyborgs, and judging by the cyborg dogs and those two bruisers, he might have had even more that we weren't able to discover."
"That's her problem." Shaw replied coolly, continuing on his way towards the mansion with Domino keeping pace beside him. "It will serve as an interesting test of her capabilities. While she might be an ally now and one that served us well here, in the long run she is simply another problem to be dealt with."
In the sky above, Harry Potter frowned angrily, his invisibility cloak making him undetectable by any means Shaw had access to. Emma's agents had paid in blood to discover where Shaw's mansion was, but they had found it, and Harry had quickly flown down from High Note to watch the battle. Now, he began to gesture, magic crackling from his fingers as he stared down at Shaw. He knew that Emma wanted to wait before moving against Sebastian for many good strategic reasons, but it would be so simple, and it would remove a major issue in the long run…
Harry's rather violent thoughts were interrupted by a telepathic call for help from Emma. The instant he removed a corner of the invisibility cloak covering his mind, her voice hammered into his brain with all the force of a pickup truck. "Harry, my sister's missing, something's happened, I know it! Find her, please!"
For just a second the seriousness of that plea didn't register, then he sighed, looking down at Shaw as he entered his mansion. "You were lucky this time old boy, but that won't last." With that he raced away, only stopping to grab up a stick on which he used the 'Point Me' spell. Then he flew in the direction it indicated, hoping that this was a false alarm.
It turned out it wasn't. Pierce had sent two bruisers to kidnap Cordelia who had gone to a water park with Angelica and her bodyguard that day, hoping to use them as leverage against Frost just in case. They had rammed their reinforced SUV into the limo the girls were using, knocking out Angelica and Cordelia in the crash. Harry arrived just in time to help Cordelia's bodyguard in secret, killing both cyborgs with quick Rifela spells to weak areas. The damage done by that spell looked like that of a gun, so he was able to leave the scene with no one the wiser.