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Harry spent the rest of that day researching dimensional travel as much as he could, which caused a bit of an argument with Dr. Strange since Harry had to ask for permission to raid his library. Wizards had no truck with demons or other dimensional beings, while sorcerers did, both good and bad in every sense of the words. Dr. Strange, in fact, knew of Mephisto. He was one of the oldest and most powerful Hell Lords in existence, in fact there was some speculation that he might be the oldest. As such, he was insanely powerful as well as immortal and of course, as a Demon Lord, he would be even more powerful on his own ground.
Steven had been appalled by Harry's desire to find a way to his dimension and tried to talk the younger man out of it, right up until Harry had told him about swearing a magically binding oath to that effect. After that, Steven had reluctantly decided to aid him, loading him down with scrolls that mentioned the King of Evil that Harry would read over the next few days. The two of them quickly found a ritual to open a gate to Mephisto's realm, but spent the rest of the day figuring out how to, basically, change the rules, so that the individuals who traveled through it wouldn't then fall under the rules of the realm.
This meant Harry, Doom, and whoever else Harry decided to bring with them, wouldn't be effected by anything the realm itself did to invaders. It would allow Doom to use his mechanical devices and would protect them against magic embedded into the realm itself designed to mess with their minds and senses. Such mental traps included but were not limited to, simply removing an invader's sense of direction, weakening their willpower, making them forget little things, heightening their anger and hate.
Harry wondered aloud what his mutant power would make of being in such a magic rich environment. He had to touch something physically for it to activate, but since the entire dimension was saturated in magic, what would touching, say, the ground do? It was a question that he was going to need to think about further. Still, by the end of the day Steven and Harry had created a ritual that would enable the party to enter Mephisto's realm on their own terms.
The next day, Harry put that aside to spend time with Melody and the other kids. Thanks to the time difference, Harry was able to have a good half day with them, getting to know the newcomers and spending time with his adopted daughter, before heading over to talk to Emma.
One of the house elves, he wasn't certain which one but he was very thankful to whoever it was, had gone out and picked up several different outdoor toys, including Frisbees, several kinds of balls, and other sports equipment. Harry had quite a lot of fun with the kids trying them out. Football in particular was a major hit with all of them regardless of age, so much so Harry was thinking of making a permanent pitch for it. Miss Brown joined them, while Ororo began to create detailed lesson plans for the kids. This would be an ongoing project for her, but she could do a few lessons today for Miss Brown to use to help the majority of the children learn English when Ororo wasn't around. She would of course still be teaching the lion's share of those classes, as Miss Brown didn't speak Russian or Sudanese.
Piotr and Nikolai joined him in spending time with the kids because, rather than training, the two of them were going to go on a mission later today with Jean and Ororo. Harry and his ladies had decided that they needed to clear out those caches of Selene's before anything else. The gold would be a fantastic help, yet the cache down in Greece also worried him because it was the place where Selene had put items she didn't know what to do with.
When Death slipped the information of those caches to him, Harry hadn't gotten the impression that it was all dangerous stuff or even inherently magical items, just odds and ends that the immortal woman either didn't want to take the time to figure out, didn't know what to do with, or was simply wary of. That last reason for an item being there was his main concern with it. Ororo had suggested the evening before that she and Jean take Nikolai and Piotr out to raid the second gold cache, which was once more in the middle east, this time in the Taurus Mountains, in Turkey.
Eventually, however, Harry's time with the kids ended. Hedwig flew down towards him, making a beeline for his shoulder. He looked at her and nuzzling his head against her body for a moment and asked "Is it that time already?"
Hedwig gently pulled out his hair with her beak for a moment, then looked around at the kids all having fun. She had spent the night previously over at Emma's then came back to Harry when the time came for their meeting, having memorized the place Emma wanted Harry to apparate to.
"Ah well," Harry muttered, "to business then." He waved over Piotr and Nikolai, and after making their excuses, the trio of men made their way into the Castle, the two younger men moving off to get their temporary uniforms on. Harry meanwhile communed with his familiar, getting a sense of the area he was going to be teleporting into.
He looked up as Nikolai and Piotr returned along with Ororo, Sir Dennis and Jean, the two women both wearing their uniforms. Jean's phoenix was emblazoned red on the golden background of her chest and she was just putting on the mask which had a Notice-Me-Not spell on it. Ororo wore the same uniform she had worn during their battle against Selene and her followers, which also still retained the Notice-Me-Not spell Harry had cast on it. Harry made a mental note to spend some more time adding Orihalcum scale mail to all of their uniforms. It would be irritating to do, but it might not be that time-consuming beyond the first portion of creating the scales in the first place, and it would certainly help the toughness of his team.
With reluctance he turned away from his two ladies to look at their two new team members. Piotr had opted for simplicity, a pair of loose shorts, coupled with a tight spandex outfit that went from his stomach up to his shoulders and flared out there but let his arms free. Nikolai had opted for a spandex suit that covered him from head to toe, including a full-head mask that he could pull over his face, all of it in black lined with red. Since there was no doubt his face would be well known by the Russians and possibly other countries who had followed Russia's work on a super-soldier program, this was a very good idea. On his back he carried the shield he had taken from his fellow super-soldier, still covered with the Russian star (which would need to be changed, Harry noted) and resting over one shoulder was one of the sniper rifles, the one that jean hadn't taken apart just yet.
Harry was going to hit them all with Notice-Me-Not and Disillusionment charms before they left, but didn't comment on Nikolai's paranoia. After all, spells sometimes failed and Nikolai's presence would bring a lot of heat down on them from Russia, if he was recognized, which, you know, the shield would make so much easier it wasn't even funny. Instead, he merely nodded approvingly. "You four look ready to go."
They all moved from the entrance hall into the dining hall, which they were still using as a command center. Eventually, Jean would be going back to work on adding hard light projection systems in all the rooms, especially the one in the basement which Harry had set up for this purpose, but until then this place would do just as well.
Jean handed Harry one of the command bracelets with a smile. Harry manipulated the hard light system, calling up a map of the world from the Internet and then placing a dot in Turkey. "Alright, like the cache Jean raided in the Hindu Kush, this one is deep in the mountains, specifically the mountains of Turkey."
The redheaded telepath winced a little seeing that, while the two newcomers merely nodded, having been filled in on the 'adventures' their seniors had run into before they showed up. "I really don't want to think about how many international laws we have already broken. Let's just hope we don't get seen this time. Turkey actually has decent relations with the rest of the world."
Harry nodded firmly. "That is important, I don't want us to make any more enemies than we have to. Try not to be seen by any of the locals and keep any explosions or anything like that to a bare minimum if you can."
As the most experienced team member, Ororo would be team leader on this one and she agreed with Harry's sentiment with a nod. "Agreed, let us get in and out as quickly and silently as we can."
Jean nodded. "If the defenses there are anything like at the other caches that might not be possible, but I suppose I could do what Charles does when the X-Men run into trouble, cloud the minds of the individuals nearby, if I have to." She frowned distastefully at that, messing with someone else's mind, even a little, didn't really sit well but she was willing to do it in very limited circumstances.
Harry frowned as well and the two of them looked at one another communing silently until Harry shook his head. "Morality among mutant-kind is going to be an interesting discussion." As will our laws, eventually. "But you're right, that should do. You won't actually be mentally or physically harming them, simply covering your presence."
The redhead nodded with barely concealed relief that Harry agreed with her on that one and Harry went on. "We don't know what kind of defenses will be set up here. This is a monetary hoard, not anything else. Jean can fill you in on what she ran in to at the other one. Growing giant stone and sand scorpions, wasn't it?"
"You know damn well it was!" Jean scowled now, remembering running into the golems in the tunnel of the first reserve she raided. "They weren't much of a threat so long as I kept to the air. Still, Selene never struck me as the sort to reuse the same kind of defense. I think that we'll run into other things, although almost certainly some kind of golem will be involved. That seems to be a favorite of hers."
"Yes," Harry said blandly, "creating golems and adding them to an existing warding scheme is always an amusing move." He gestured over to a few of the suits of armor which were situated at the entrances into the dining hall.
Both Nikolai and Piotr looked at them with a renewed respect, connecting them to the golems Harry had summoned during the battle in Russia. Ororo and Jean however merely smiled, knowing that such golems were only a small part of what made Hogwarts one of the most fortified areas in the world. "Dennis will guide you all in." Dennis merely nodded as Harry went on. "Jean and Ororo will fly down, and one of the house elves will go with to teleport Piotr and Nikolai down. I'm going to head over to Emma's now. I'll see you all when we get back."
Ororo coughed delicately. "Before we do, you need to let these two in on a certain secret and hit them with your translation spell, yes? Neither of us can do it after all."
Harry nodded, overcoming a momentary bit of irritation, fighting a bit of himself that wanted to keep High Note a secret just between the three of them and Melody. "Harry Potter possesses the asteroid fortress known as High Note." he said clearly looking at the two of Russians. Of course, neither had known of High Note before this, so there was no rush of information or anything like that, they merely looked at him blankly and Harry laughed. "I'll fill you in later on why that was necessary but, trust me, you needed to hear me say that."
Both younger men simply shrugged their shoulders, Nikolai looking rather eager to see some action while Piotr merely looked interested.
Harry then cast a single Dissillusion spell on the group while they held hands, then a Notice me Not spell on both Russians. He followed this up with a translation spell, smiling at Ororo having been the one to mention it. Her irritation at that spell was truly a thing of the past.
With that Harry leaned in, kissing Ororo briefly on the lips before pulling Jean into a hug and then moved away slightly, waving at them before apparating away.
Jean chuckled and looked around. "Do you have a preference of Cory or Clare?"
Ororo laughed, linking her arm around Jean's and called for Clare, who had recovered from her exertions teleporting the two of them up to High Note from Scotland to its position over Russia a few days ago. Soon enough the dining hall was empty save for Dennis, who smiled and pulled out a book, waiting to be called.
OOOOOOO
Harry appeared in a dark room. Not dark as in without light, dark as in very gloomy and oppressive. It had very heavy blinds covering the windows, letting in a little bit of light but not a lot, casting the room into gray. The furniture around him did not help this impression, the few pieces that were still there being covered with cloth, giving the room an aura of disuse to go with the gloom. He frowned faintly, shaking his head. There was a faint smell in the air, of old vomit or the scent that comes from a long illness. He quickly moved toward the doorway, not wishing to spend more time in than necessary.
Outside the door he ran into Emma, who was waiting for him. She was wearing a very feminine and extremely attractive business suit that showed off her legs and chest without putting either on display, her blond hair falling loosely to her shoulders.
As he opened the door, she smiled, happily pulling him into a hug. She had turned off the video cameras for this corridor and the only servant in the house at present, outside the security teams on the first floor, was her secretary. With no witnesses and after not seeing him in person for a month she was damn well going to greet Harry with a hug.
She smirked, nuzzling slightly into his chest. "I don't suppose Ororo neglected to tell you to not allow anything to happen between us?"
Harry shook his head, but still hugged her back before gently releasing her. "Afraid she did. But don't worry, I'll be installing a transportation doorway in there." He jerked his head back into the door he had come from. "I put the first one in Hogwarts last night. I was sort of on a runic roll at the time, you might say. I had initially thought to give that job to Kitty but she's going to be busy creating the lie detector array for a bit, then the defensive runes for the team's uniforms, and then she might be helping me set up a warding array at a new installation that'll be the front for Magical Minds. She also has, well, just call it some homework, which will elevate her to journeymen status in runes once she finishes it."
"Actually, emplacing the other side of the door here will actually be an experiment, of sorts." Harry laughed. His magical senses were telling him that, like Charles' mansion, this place was nowhere near a ley line. The state of New York was actually unusual in that it only had one ground ley line passing through it, though it was one of the largest that Harry had ever seen, if not the largest, and it passed right underneath Dr. Strange's place. But neither the Frosts nor Charles lived on its path. "We'll see if the doorways power one another once they're connected, or if they both need to be in a magically rich environment."
"I certainly hope it is the latter. I've missed you." Emma pulled him into another hug in a very rare display of emotion. "And I've missed hanging out with Jean, just as much." While Emma had determined over the past few weeks that she wasn't quite as attracted to Jean as she was to Harry, that didn't mean that the redhead hadn't become one of her better friends, and like she had said the day before yesterday, talking on the mirror alone wasn't cutting it.
Emma was never really a touchy-feely sort of person. She had grown up in an environment where emotions were discouraged, after all, but having found a friend she could trust and the man she was both intensely attracted to and respected as much as she respected Harry, the floodgates had opened, so to speak, before being closed abruptly thanks to their various duties. The distance had been rather painful in many ways, something that had only been held at bay because of how incredibly busy she had been.
Harry once more returned the hug, gently running his fingers through Emma's blonde locks, earning a murmur of appreciation from the girl. Harry had to admit to himself that the idea of Emma… joining Ororo, Jean, and himself in their relationship was appealing and not just for the physical aspect. He had felt attracted to her the first time they met, or at least near enough, and it had very little to do with her beauty. Her mind, will, and personality appealed to him greatly and it had only grown since.
Despite that, he wasn't willing to see where that could go without Ororo's okay. Even if Ororo was moving in that direction, she wasn't there just yet. Jean was attracted to Emma as well, though by her own words at this point it was only attraction and friendship whereas she loved Ororo and Harry. She was willing to see where it went, to see if Emma could join them, but only if Ororo agreed. Until she and Emma came to some kind of agreement, be it affection or something else, Harry wasn't going to let anything beyond moments like this happen.
Eventually, he pulled back, patting her head slightly. "So, what's on the agenda today?"
Emma reluctantly pulled back but soon enough she was once more in control of herself. "You said you'd want to meet Sandman in person the other day so I've made an appointment to interview him this morning. You can become invisible, correct? You can follow me into the prison complex…"
"It's not the Vault, is it?" Harry interrupted. He hoped not, that would be a little strange. He also felt somewhat guilty about the Vault, since Charles had passed on that the previous warden, along with several of his staff, had lost their jobs thanks to Steven and him breaking out Melody and Wanda. Of course no one knew it was them, but still.
"No, it's not the Vault. The name of this place is the Abnormal Criminal Penitentiary. It's actually quite new but it's already been somewhat filled." She shook her head, amused. "New York seems to have developed something of a magnet for superpowered types. Have you heard of this Spider-boy fellow? He's a rather interesting case, a hero obviously, who tends to solve small crimes and is trying to clean up the streets or something. He has filled the Vault up with low powered types or criminals that have found new and interesting ways to give themselves powers above and beyond what could be considered normal. What amuses me is that he's only been on the scene for a year or so and that, despite all the good he's been doing, he also has some kind of feud with one of the local newspaper owners."
At Harry's raised eyebrow she elaborated. "He apparently uses spider powers: webbing, super-strength, that kind of thing to save people and fight crime. But the Daily Bugle calls him a vigilante, who is as much of a problem as the super-powered criminals he sometimes fights, in an attempt to try to turn public opinion against him. The Bugle's owned by a little man named Jay Jonah Jameson, whose only claim to fame is the newspaper he runs, which is small change, really. It doesn't have national dispersion, it doesn't even have statewide dissemination. There are a few other newspapers and news agencies that listen to him, but that's all. Still he seems to hate the costumed hero, although I'm not certain why."
In actual fact, Jameson did have a few more businesses to his name other than the Daily Bugle, all of which were centered on the news. But in comparison to Paris, Emma's acquaintance/comrade on the inner circle of the Hellfire Club, that was indeed very small change. Paris owned a worldwide conglomerate that was connected to almost every telecommunication network, several news agencies, and dozens of newspapers in the Americas and Europe.
Harry nodded, and the two moved through the mansion, with Harry quickly Disillusioning himself as they moved. He didn't want to use his invisibility cloak for this, because he wanted Emma to be able to see him. With the disillusion spell it traveled to other people you were touching at the time, and even if you canceled it on the other person they could still see through to you.
His eyebrows shot up at the sight of the limousine waiting for them in front of the mansion's main entrance, as well as the three very well-armed bodyguards. Each of them had what Harry recognized as one of his long ranged knockout guns on his hip. Two of them carried submachine guns, even here.
Emma saw his look, smiling internally as none of the three guards reacted to Harry's presence of all. She waved her fingers at him, trying to indicate that she would explain later, to which Harry nodded.
Two of the guards got into the front of the limousine while the last, their commander, simply bowed his head to Emma. "When should we expect you back, miss?"
His employer shrugged. "It will take us several hours to get there and the same back, though thankfully we should miss traffic both ways." Indeed it was nine o'clock here, well after rush hour, and there was no way this trip was going to take them into the evening rush hour.
The head of her security forces nodded, then turned to reenter the mansion, heading towards the command center, moving with a very noticeable limp. He was a relatively new man who took his job very seriously, and the command center was a new addition to the mansion. In it, the commander could watch the progress of the limo, which had a small locator device on it. The devices signal was changed on an hourly basis, which helped keep other people from tracking her using it. Whenever Emma was out of the mansion, there were two teams of four security guards ready to go in two helicopters, just in case. They hadn't been needed yet, but this man believed in being prepared.
Emma explained this to Harry the moment they were in the limo with the security separator up between the back and the front of the limo. Harry, for his part, raised a Mufilatio around them. "You seem to have found yourself a good man there."
"Yes, he is very good. I recruited him after he was medically discharged from the American Special Forces. He's revamped our security protocols and seems a good judge of character."
"You mean he simply agrees with your judgment." Harry chuckled.
"Of course, what else could I mean?" Emma replied disingenuously. She went on more seriously however. "I had him look over the dossier for Sandman. He agrees with me, that if the man is serious about reforming, he has a good chance to become a law abiding citizen. Needless to say, he would also be a fantastic asset to my security teams."
Harry nodded and the conversation turned to what had been happening in their lives lately. Emma frowned throughout the tale of Harry's intervention in Russia, though she smiled appreciatively after he finished. "That was well done, both in terms of gathering more members for your combat team, whatever you decide to name it, and for helping the children." Emma really wasn't that good with kids herself, she would never even think of being a teacher or anything like that, not in this lifetime anyway, but the idea of children being experimented on still made her see red.
She didn't comment on the whole morality question. She was of the opinion that the overkill was a good thing, sending a very strong message that if you treated or mistreated mutants poorly then you would face retaliation, but she knew she was at times too ruthless to really have a considered opinion there.
In turn, Emma shared with Harry the things that she had been up to, including the sales of them weapon designs he had given her. "I've been astonished at how quickly the various police forces have embraced the stunners, for one. Normally, it takes years for them to approve a new weapon but it's only been a few weeks and Cold Steel has already had several large orders placed for the stunners. Eventually, I might very well corner the police weapons market."
"That's good! And my cut will be arriving when, exactly?" Harry asked, rather amused. Those were his designs after all. He had also begun to realize that money truly was a very important aspect of his overall plans.
"I'll send you the first check after the shipment for the Washington police forces head out. I'll wait a few weeks after that, to make certain that they are happy and will not be returning it, then transfer the funds to you. Will that suffice?"
"Perfectly." Harry replied, shaking his head. "I have some more resources coming in today, but I've realized you can never really have enough money for this sort of thing. I'll be setting up headquarters of my corporation in the UK, I presume." At Emma's raised eyebrow Harry shrugged. "That won't be a final decision until we meet with the King this Friday at three but he definitely has the inside line, for reasons of magical defense if nothing else." Emma nodded at that and Harry went on. "He got back to me the same day I sent Hedwig off and the meeting has been set for Friday at three. Will that do for you?"
"Three o'clock in the UK is ten in the morning here correct? That's fine. I can disappear for a few hours or just tell people I wish to sleep in until one. No one is going to bother the boss except for emergencies."
The rest of the ride passed companionably, the two of them simply talking about small things for the most part, with Harry refusing to talk about long-term plans until they were back at the mansion and had discussed the business aspect.
When they reached the prison, Harry found that it was situated on a small man-made island in Lake Erie. It took them forty minutes to take a boat out to the island and they were stopped twice along the way. Both times, Emma's information let them through, though her bodyguards were given the evil eye from the prison security team and rather politely, but firmly, told they would be staying on the boat once it reached the island.
As they reached the prison, which was a brand-new edifice like the island it was on, Harry took the time to himself with a cooling charm, and started to levitate an inch off the floor. He also pulled out his invisibility cloak, showed it to Emma and, in the brief moment before the doors to the prison opened from the moment they got off the boat, told her what it would do before throwing it over his shoulders.
Emma shook her head, amused by all the ways that Harry could personally make himself invisible. She determined that he had been correct when he said that he could do this spy thing rather well.
Seemingly alone the blonde telepath continued on, moving through the prison with six prison guards all around her and Harry, all of them unconsciously not moving towards him thanks to his Notice-Me-Not spell. She was soon greeted by the prison warden, a fat old man with a walrus mustache that gave Harry a bit of a flashback to a far less appealing time with a fat man yelling at him, calling him a freak, and abusing him. He shook his head, however, throwing off the memory with the ease of long practice.
"Ms. Frost," the man said smarmily, eyeing her up and down, his thoughts obvious, "It's nice to see you again. I understand you want to meet prisoner sixty three in person. I've prepared a meeting room for you, already. Though I have to say, he would not be my first project of reintegration, if I was so inclined." He sneered a little. "Most of the people here are here for good reason, they're mutants, freaks, and criminal degenerates: dangerous to themselves and all those around them."
At the word 'freaks', Harry's fingers twitched unconsciously. It took all his self-control not to fry than irritating man right there, which was not helped by the look he was giving Emma. Despite the fact that Harry and she were not actually involved, that look made the hackles on the back of his neck rise.
Emma's response, however, made him smile and cooled his anger. "I was under the impression that a prison facility was not only to keep the inmates from the outside world but also to rehabilitate them so they could eventually rejoin it. If that is not the case, I'm sure it will come as a great surprise to the tax payers who paid for this facility, warden. Many of them are under the impression that prisons actually perform some kind of service beyond being a rather weak deterrent against crime, after all."
The warden flushed a little at her tone but Emma went on smoothly. "Regardless, there are many things in this man's background that tell me that he can perhaps be rehabilitated and it is to be hoped he will respond appropriately."
"I'll believe it when I see it," the man muttered, but led her on anyway.
Soon they came to a room on the first floor of the prison, with a door on the far end and two simple wooden chairs. The warden let Emma in not realizing that, as he held the door open and looked at her derrière, that he allowed Harry to sneak in right behind her. "The prisoner will be escorted in soon. You'll have forty minutes to spend with him. After that, he will be returned to his cell."
As soon as the door closed, Emma nodded to Harry, indicating that there were no people around, though she indicated with a slight twitch of one finger and eye gestures that one wall held a one way mirror.
Harry nodded, and quickly cast a Mufilatio once more, moving forward and pulling his old trunk out of a pocket. Since Jean had taken the mokeskin pouch on the gold raid, just in case anything they found had any curses, Harry had been forced to fall back on his old and weathered expanding trunk. He had a rather whimsical moment after he pulled it out where he wanted to put some magical legs on it. He wasn't certain if he could figure out a way to make it alive like the Luggage but he could get it to move and act a bit alive. He was certain that Melody and the other kids would get a kick out of it, even if they had never heard of the source.
He shook that off, however, as he saw Emma's raised eyebrow as the trunk suddenly grew. He reached inside, his full hand disappearing inside the trunk before pulling out a wooden chair and a piece of crystal, shaped like a hand-sized pyramid. He set the crystal object on the table, and then switched the chair across from where Emma had sat with the chair in his hand, which Emma now noticed was covered with runes of some kind. Then he covered it with an illusion, an illusion so good that even when someone sat on the chair, they wouldn't be able to tell if it was real or not. "Ingannare Omnes Sensus."
Like the spell he had used to dispel all the illusions being cast by the magic user in Russia, the base of this spell came from Blaize, modified with some bits and pieces he had picked up from a book he had read from Dr. Strange's library. It wouldn't last very long and it couldn't be made to last longer, even if he poured more power into the spell, because it wasn't conjuration, but it would work for now.
The runic array he just put down was to analyze the form of the being sitting there. It was based off an array that had been designed to figure out the true form of a Boggart. The readings from the array set into the chair, like that of the lie detecting array, would be sent to a corresponding piece of crystal. In this case, however, the crystal, once Harry tapped the top of it, would project words into the air above the pyramid, telling him all that it had been able to discern.
Harry had wanted to do this because Sandman was the first individual he had ever heard of that could literally change his entire body structure. Colossus could change his body into metal, but that was all. Torch turned into flame, but couldn't change his body's shape like a real flame could. Neither of their base forms changed. Hopefully something he could get from the readings of it would tell him ways to shut down this morphing power if necessary.
Emma, on the other hand, was having a bit of a crisis, staring at the trunk. Spatial manipulation!? Oh… my… god… I am creaming just thinking about what that could be worth on the open market!
Harry canceled the Mufilatio as well as the spell he had used to block the two cameras in the room just in time for the far door to open.
The warden walked in first, followed by two guards escorting a prisoner, who was wearing a clear body suit over regular prison clothing, between them. It seemed to be completely full of some clear liquid, water possibly, which made sense given what Harry knew of the Sandman's power.
The warden gruffly pushed the prisoner into the chair, then turned and left without another word. This gave Emma enough time to shake out of her momentary stupor. When she sat down she was all business once again. "Hello, Mr. Baker, how are you doing today? I am Emma Frost, head of Frost Corporation."
William Baker, AKA Sandman, was a large man with broad shoulders made broader by the fact that he could exercise somewhat in the prison in fact it was one of the few things available to him to pass the time, especially since he was in solitary. He had been a boxer and a football player before falling in with several gang's after aiding a friend in rigging a football game and being kicked out of high school for assaulting his coach who had kicked him off the team for it. It was as a criminal on the run from breaking out of prison that he had been exposed to the chemical byproducts that had given him his power. He had made a short career as a super villain, before running into Spider-Man and being captured in the rather ignoble way of being sucked up in a vacuum cleaner.
That had been two months ago and since then he had become a sort of model prisoner. He had never truly been what most people call the villain. He had been a criminal, yes, but he had stolen for money that was all. He wasn't evil or anything, he had simply fallen into crime and couldn't get himself out.
While he wasn't extremely intelligent, he was in no way stupid. As such, Baker's eyes narrowed, staring at Emma, wondering why she was here. "I am fine I suppose, for a prisoner anyway. I've heard of the Frosts, though the last time I got real news, your father was the head of the company."
"Times change and one of his enemies got to him eventually, or at least that is what the police have told me." Emma replied blandly, nothing in her face or tone hinting at anything but a low key, well controlled remorse. Regardless of anything else, she was never going to take Baker completely into her confidence. She probably wouldn't even tell him about her connection to Harry, but that was knowledge he might prove worthy to learn in the future, if all went well. "I have some questions, Mr. Baker…"
As Emma began to question the man before her on his past and reasons, Harry watched the small pyramid, frowning. Unfortunately, the runic array wasn't getting a reading off the super-powered prisoner. After a moment though, it seemed to get something. To his senses the crystal filled up slightly with a smoky white color. That seems to be it, I wonder what it can tell me.
He thought for a moment, thinking of how he would stop someone who could transform into sand without killing him. Extreme cold, water as they use here, but how to do it? Obviously placing an array on his body isn't going to work if he can just dissolve himself and get rid of it. Hmm… Japanese runes then, they're less powerful but can be used on paper and can be used as one shots easily. Hmm…
Harry set that aside for now, listening in for a few moments on the question and answer session, paying attention to Sandman's tone of voice and watching his body for tells. He wasn't so egotistical as to think he could read those things better than Emma but he wanted to form his own impression of the man. So far, his impressions were… so-so. The man had a lot of anger and angst in him but seemed sorry, for the most part for, what he had done as a criminal.
After about ten minutes, Emma glanced over at where Harry had once more disappeared under his invisibility cloak, one eyebrow raised, making the act seem as if she was cracking her neck. As she turned back to Baker, Harry moved over to her and leaned in to whisper directly into her ear. "I'm done, don't promise anything just yet, simply tell him you might be able to work a deal for his release but don't go into any details. I want to make certain I can devise something you can use and carry on you at all times to defend yourself just in case."
Emma shivered, feeling Harry's breath on her ear, but did as he suggested. "Well Mr. Baker, I believe I might be able to secure your release. Don't quote me on that, but…"
OOOOOOO
Both of the younger men had been rather awed by High Note, both the interior and the fact they were in space. In Piotr's case, the view in particular grabbed his attention. In contrast, the magical aspects, the massively enlarged farming area, the hidden nature of the asteroid, and the implications of Harry's ownership of it, made Nikolai realize two things: one, that he was definitely on the right side if his leader could plan this far ahead, and two, that Harry might have other irons in the fire beyond promoting the dream of human and mutant coexistence.
Ororo showed the two Russian nationals around while Jean directed High Note into position over Turkey. After that was done, the two fliers left Nikolai and Piotr behind with Clare while they flew down through the atmosphere. Jean put up the same field around Ororo as she used when flying through space and the upper atmosphere, providing Storm with propulsion until they were in atmosphere and she could provide her own. The two of them made their way quickly through the atmosphere, heading down toward Turkey.
With Sir Dennis guiding them, Phoenix and Storm soon came upon the valley where the second gold deposit Selene was hid, and, truly not surprising either woman, found trouble. "Called it." Phoenix murmured mentally to Storm, the two women landing lightly on the rocky ground behind a large boulder and peering out from around it.
The cache they were here to raid was set into the side of a small gorge with steep sides and only one entrance to a larger ravine which ran down the mountain side. There was little grass, a lot of large rocky outcroppings and very little in the way of flat ground save the valley floor. None of this was trouble of course, no the trouble was what was already in the basin with them.
Below them in the valley were three disparate groups, although it was obvious one group, the smallest, were definitely there against their will, since they were tied up and captive of one of the other groups. That group was comprised of over two dozen gangsters of some kind, or at least that was what Jean thought they looked like. They didn't look like terrorists or militants. More than half of them looked like they wouldn't be out of place on an American street. Behind the gangsters were what looked like three medium-sized helicopters. Though they didn't actually have rotors so how they got around was an interesting question to Jean.
This group was led by three obviously 'superpowered' individuals, if their get ups were anything to go by. One of them was dressed in red with gold boots, gloves, and what looked like some kind of gold bug on his chest as well as a golden plated gun at his side. A golden disc hung from his other hip but that was all the duo could tell from here.
The next wore a black costume with white stripes along its cuffs and shoulders in a triangle shape plus what looked like a bull's-eye in white on his forehead. He carried a large bow and quiver on his back, had a small pouches on both his thighs, as well as white belt with a holster at his waist.
The last stood in the center and seemed to be the leader of the group. He wore a skin tight green suit that covered him from neck to toe, what looked like metal claws, like those of a hunting bird, on his hands, visible thanks to his arms being crossed at present across his chest. He also seemed to have feathered flaps of some type folded under his arms. He was bald, signifying age, but was also clearly the leader of the trio.
Along with this crowd stood a far larger group of terrorists, standing in front of the tents, possibly indicating that this group was the ones who had been leading this trip. Nothing down there indicated to either Jean or Ororo that this was a permanent or even semi-permanent base of operations so it was possible they were here just to raid the cache. In front of this group was a hulking man, nearly as tall as Piotr and even wider in the shoulders, with arms that were corded with muscle, possibly aided by steroids. He wore a normal soldier's slacks, a black muscle T with the image of crossed bones on the chest, as well as a black mask with white line down the center covering his nose. He carried several dozen pouches, and had a machine gun slung from one shoulder.
There were over a dozen wooden crates, one of which was open. Three of the terrorists were looking through it, and pulling out rifles and machine guns, thankfully the regular kind rather than high-tech versions. To the side, the one man in red and gold was pointing towards where the cache was, saying something to the man with the black and white mask, though his voice didn't carry up to where Jean and Ororo were hiding.
Behind the group of gangsters was several of what appeared to be prisoners and Storm looked at them closely. All of them were somewhat injured and two of them were unconscious or possibly dead, it was impossible to tell from here. One of the ones who were awake was a woman with blond hair. She was glaring around her angrily. Their uniform, however, was what interested her, not being one she was familiar with herself. "Jean, are those prisoners dressed in the same uniform as Duggan was? It looks a bit familiar from what I recall from that memory of yours."
"Yeah, those are SHIELD agents." Jean groaned. Great, just great. Why can't one fucking mission go off without a hitch for us? Is that too much to ask?
"You were the one who said that being, what was it Harry called himself, Fate's bitch, you were the one who said that was contagious. I'll call in Clare, you call Dennis on the radio and see if he can give you some information about the odd individuals down there." Ororo ordered.
Jean nodded, hoping that the Notice-Me-Not spells Harry had cast on them held when she began to talk into the microphone that was now part of her mask. "Gian-Diep-Chu, do you read me? I need an ID on four costumed individuals, descriptions are as follows…"
While she was doing that, Ororo called for Clare to bring in the other two directly behind them. Thankfully both of them were also covered by Disillusion spells and, because of the boulder, even Clare wasn't seen before she popped back out. Storm did not want the gentle house elf anywhere near the coming conflict.
Colossus looked down at the group sadly as Storm described what they thought was going on. I realize that both the gold and the lives of those prisoners are important, but I had hoped not to face the threat of killing someone so soon into my career as a superhero. He was about to voice the thought that there might possibly be a way to simply scare the majority of the people down there off, but Dennis began to give them all a rundown on the two below.
Dennis's tone was somewhat rueful but also rather worried as he filled them in. "The one in black with a bulls-eye on his forehead in point of fact goes by the name Bullseye. Past unknown, career assassin, believed to be trained originally by the American Secret Service. Deadly with any kind of, gun or any ranged weapon, and anything that he can somehow throw. Bullseye uses tiny throwing knives, playing cards, and arrows as lethal weapons. Highly dangerous, don't assume that your invulnerable or anything. He can hit literally anything so long as he can see it. Known to have killed at least fifty people in the past year, connected to organized crime."
Piotr's face stiffened and his hands clenched. That news hardened his resolve and he was now wishful to help wipe a murderer off the face of the world.
Back in Hogwarts, Dennis had no way of knowing how the peaceful, yet honorable and determined farm boy had taken his words, and moved on. "The next one is named Goldbug or some such, known to be obsessed with gold. I suppose he's the reason they're here. Connected to several dozen violent burglaries in America and is also connected to organized crime, specifically some group called the Maggia. Has some very odd guns, known to coat people in temporary paralyzing gold spray, among other things."
"Last, and certainly not least, is the Vulture. Thief, killer, and, surprisingly, inventor, uses an exoskeleton that enhances his strength and speed tremendously and allows him to fly like a bird, method unknown. Known to be somewhat honorable, has never killed a woman for example, well respected by the criminal community, and very deadly indeed."
Jean nodded, that might explain how there was a woman down there surrounded by terrorists and gangsters, yet, seemingly hadn't been abused yet. Her good mood however evaporated as Dennis went on much more grimly. "On the terrorist side, we have a real piece of work, Crossbones, terrorist for hire. No known real affiliation to any specific dogma, save perhaps the skinhead movement. He's an Expert hand to hand combatant, expert marksmen and expert bomber both placing and creating. Killer without scruples who takes joy in his work, known to use explosives in busy streets to kill off his targets, if possible, so as to kill more people. He was connected two weeks ago to a bombing over in China, wiped out a group of smugglers trying to muscle in on triad turf and killed over a hundred civilians along with the targets. Another bombing down in Nairobi, killed over two hundred, target unknown at this time. Crossbones is on the International Most Wanted List and has a standing dead or alive order, one of very few who have received that second designation."
Jean frowned reaching forward with her telepathic powers trying to see if she could use the same method against this lot that she had against the terrorists around the former cache in Pakistan. She pulled back quickly, however, when screams began below.
Three men came rushing out of the cave that led into what she assumed was Selene's cache, one of them armless, followed rapidly by several golems made of stone and sand that looked like an odd amalgamation of scorpion and man. They had wide pincers, the low slung body of a scorpion, although that raised for the front half of their body, which was human, making them look like a centaur based around a scorpion instead of a horse. Behind the body was the tail, which looked as deadly as you would expect. Each of them carried metal blades in both their hands. Like the scorpions Jean had dealt with before, these creatures began to grow as they came out of the cave.
Bullseye astonished her with the speed of his response, turning quickly and beheading one of the scorpions with what looked like a thrown playing card made out of extremely sharp-edged metal.
However, the now headless scorpion kept on coming and she shook her head. "Those things aren't going to discriminate between the terrorists, the Maggia, and the prisoners. We're going to have to get it stuck in now."
Storm nodded, leaning over the boulder for a moment, then began to issue orders crisply. Nikolai might well have done the same, but he lacked the real-world experience of Storm, and as had mentioned a few evenings before, Storm was a consummate tactician. "Colossus, your job is going to be to get in there and free the prisoners. Jean, you're our heavy hitter, with the way Selene's golems always keep coming unless you totally destroy them, that will have be your job. While the prisoners are still in the danger zone, concentrate on taking as many of the terrorists and gangsters out as you can while keeping the golems off the prisoners until Colossus gets there."
"I'll take out Vulture myself then join you." Down below, the elderly man known as the Vulture had already taken to the air and was now swooping down at the scorpion-men, so it made sense for Storm to take him on alone. "Vanguard, stay here and lay down some cover fire, though you might be forced to join us later. Concentrate on trying to pin down Crossbones and Bullseye."