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King William laughed, looking at his son's gob-smacked face and the faces of his guards who had immediately reached for weapons when the snowy owl flew in through what should've been a closed window. Both guards thought better of it, however, when the owl turned two beady eyes toward them, her glare giving the impression of her saying 'go on, make my day' in some undeniable fashion.
The owl flew around in the air of the King's sitting room for a second, then slowed to alight easily on the table between William and his son. His granddaughter was practically vibrating in her seat eager to touch the beautiful bird, but had more sense than to do so without an adults okay. Her baby brother had no such self-control and was reaching forward with his little chubby hands. In response, the owl glared at him before backing away slightly.
That caused William to chuckle again, although this time he kept it much quieter, not wanting to offend this rather intelligent bird. "I take it that you are here from a certain wizard of my recent acquaintance?"
Hedwig turned her head entirely around to look at him, then turned her body as well, holding out a leg with a message on it.
William took it, looked at the note, and smiled faintly before turning it over. He turned to his secretary, who was staring at the bird as well. "Could you get my daily planner, please?" Once he had the large black bound book in hand, he took a few minutes to look through it for Friday and Thursday, then nodded. "Friday will work better, around three o'clock."
He wrote this down on the back of the note, then retied it around the snowy owl's claw before nodding cordially to her. "Thank you very much, could you please return this to your master?
The owl glared at him, somehow making him understand that she didn't like the word master. Still, she turned away and flew up off the table, zooming out of the window quickly. When the owl was gone, King William turned back to his secretary. "Could you please inform the privy council that we will be having a short meeting in about 30 minutes? I think we're ready for this but I want to make certain everyone knows their part in this little play."
OOOOOOO
Harry and Jean spent the next several hours up in High Note, working on creating the magical metal Orihalcum to Jean's specifications. The spell itself came much more easily to Harry these days but working with the finished metal to shape it into the different forms Jean needed was much more difficult. The connector pieces, the equivalent of nuts and bolts, were the simplest part. The helix design that was the central part of the generator was by far the hardest.
At around five in the afternoon UK time (1700 hours), they were joined by Ororo, coming up to take a bit of a break from watching the kids. Besides Illyich, who was out exploring the woods with Shiang Chi, they were all, including Illyana and Melody, with Fay, the two Rasputin grandparents, and Father Garnoff, watching a movie in the small family area.
She said so as she stood in the small area of the room separated for the creation of the Orihalcum, which served as a sort of control area. It was protected so that Jean could watch Harry work and make certain that he was following the directions she had printed out, which were floating in front of his head as he worked on the metal in front of him. And it was a good idea, since he had already nearly messed up on the tougher shapes needed for the helix structure of the reactor, making the segments of the helix too far apart and without the appropriate openings.
"I never would have thought I'd say this, but thank the goddess for TV," Ororo murmured, nuzzling into the area between Jeans shoulder and head, sighing happily as Jean's arms went around her. "I really wanted to get away."
"I thought you liked kids?" Jean asked, looking down at her for a moment before her eyes tracked back up to watch Harry work.
"I do, in fact it's one of my joys in life, teaching and guiding kids like Kitty and the others, like you used to be." She emphasized that part with the kiss to Jean's cheek and another to her neck causing Jean to gurgle a little and turn to give her a kiss on the cheek as well. Yet, when Ororo went on she was much more serious. "It's just, those kids had been treated so badly, all of them, not just the group from Russia. Only one of them, the young girl, came from a happy family and even they turned on her the moment her power activated. Peer pressure, societal pressure, whatever you want to call it that is at work in Russia to make them hate mutants as much as they hate gays, is a powerful and immoral thing. And Jesse and Christopher were, in their own way, even worse off, their parents always saw them as a burden. They never had anything but the clothes on their back to their name. None of them had very many good memories and the way they act so happy at the smallest bit of kindness, almost overwhelmed by what we've done for them, it just emphasizes how much evil there is out there."
Jean tightened her hug, her face grim. She hadn't seen the kids that often just yet, having only greeted them and gotten to know their names. "Is the Father or Dr. Druid any help, or is it all you and that teacher you brought in, I haven't met her yet."
"Somewhat, Father Garnoff doesn't have as good an outgoing manner as I would prefer, but Dr. Druid does have one and is a surprisingly likable fellow once the kids got over their awe at his wooden hand. According to Miss Brown, the story about that was most definitely an icebreaker this morning. Piotr was a help, but he and Nikolai were busy with Shiang Chi from this morning on. I only saw them at mealtimes but I must say, Harry was right about that young man. There is a very good mind behind that farm-boy exterior. I think he and Nikolai, too, will prove to be valuable additions."
Jean nodded and turned back to watch Harry. Ororo stood there for a moment watching with her, then left, deciding she wanted to fly around for a bit in the Arboretum. Jean called after her, "Don't make any plans tonight, it's my turn to cook, and I'm looking forward to another date." Ororo laughed aloud and waved back at her before moving on, wishing to fly around for a bit with no one else around, just her and the air.
OOOOOOO
Magneto looked at his two spies, smiling faintly, as he glanced at the proof of their successful mission laying on the table between them. It had taken them over a week to get here, seeing as they couldn't head directly here, both because they might be followed and because there was no set path to the Savage Lands but, even so, they had been successful and made pretty decent time for all of that.
"You did very well." he praised them now, nodding his head at both of them, though he wondered why X-23 had such a surly expression on her face. "With this, I can build my own version of Cerebro and I have several telepaths working for me now that can use it to find more mutants to gather to our cause."
He stared out through the windows of his command center, imagining what he could do with that device and the resources of the Savage land behind him. I thought this place would simply offer me natural resources, a secret base, possibly some man power, but I was wrong! It isn't some random natural event that allows this place to exist but technology, alien technology so advanced as to seem like that of a race of gods! And soon, soon I will be able to call upon that technology as well as all the rest of the resources of this magnificent land.
Oh, it wasn't all Eric's just yet, but his conquest of it was continuing apace. At the moment, he controlled more than half of it. Several of the races here had been turned to his cause, many tribes of the so-called ape-men, many of the more animalistic groups as well as a few others, leaving only the ones who had reverse-engineered the technology that kept the Savage Land warm and separate from the rest of the Antarctic.
The Aerians and the savages led by the human Ka-zar are undoubtedly the most powerful remaining factions in the Savage Land allied against me. The others with high technology are too proud to band together, and they will all thus fall to me one by one. However, they are forced to face both me and the Sun People, another faction that uses advanced technology, al-though their lower castes are superstitious in the extreme. Against them I have several tribes of animal-like races, as well as the Swamp Men, who are taking well to my mutagenic treatments.
The last group of them should be done with their treatments soon. After that, I'll turn over the continued conquest to Exodus, I believe. Yes, Exodus is the best one I have here in terms of command ability, as well as power. Certainly he will be able to deal with the other inhabitants of this land, not a one of them, outside of possibly Garokk, can match him. We will leave the Sun People for last. Ka-zar is the more dangerous, as he knows about the outside world and might be willing to expose the Savage Land's presence if it could gain him aid against me. Still, Exodus will handle him with ease.
With that thought in mind, Erik looked down at the helmet and the data disk that Fatale and X-23 had stolen for him. And with this, I will build my own device to gather my fellow mutants to me. At the same time, turning over the continued expansions here to Exodus will allow my attention to the world at large. I wonder what has happened in my absence from the world stage?
OOOOOOO
After a very long day for all three of them, it was with a sense of relief that the trio met up that evening. While Ororo helped Fay put the children to bed, excluding Illyana, Melody, and Anechka, who were having a sleepover in Melody's room, Harry talked with Kitty, giving her the okay to start on the full lie detecting array tomorrow before taking her back to New York. Jean, as she had told Ororo, took this time to do the cooking. What she made was a minestrone soup with small, extremely tasty meatballs plus some surprisingly good rosemary and garlic bread to go with it.
The trio met up again in the little dining hall, exchanging kisses and lingering hugs before sitting down to the meal and diving in eagerly. For the next few minutes, comments about the food dominated the discussion as the trio did the meal full justice. Eventually, they began to fill one another in on the bits of the day that they hadn't been around one another for.
Jean leaned back, chewing a last bite of bread before asking. "So Emma will be able to talk to you on Wednesday? That's good, though I'm not so certain about her idea of using an ex-con as a project. I have no doubt she'll be happy to see you but try to make certain that the man she's chosen for her project really wants to turn over a new leaf."
"She is more than willing to meet up with me, although she definitely misses being around all of us. The mirror doesn't really cover it. Emma's missed hanging out with you in particular, Jean, though she said she owes you for some joke you pulled on her?" Harry cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.
Jean laughed, bright and loud for a moment. "Oh yes, I imagine she'll be getting me back for that one." she laughed again remembering how Emma had actually fainted when shown, through the mirror, the gold of Selene's cache that Jean had raided.
"Good." Ororo said keeping her attention on the main topic of conversation. "I definitely think we need to talk with her before meeting up with the British King and I think we need to make stronger, physical ties with her between here and wherever she lives. Though, I trust that any attempt to make a more physical tie between you and her will not occur, Harry?" That last was asked rather archly, with a very level stare directed at Harry.
"Agreed," said Harry firmly, showing no discomfort, "on all your salient points there, my dusky lady. What did you think of Piotr and the others by the way?"
Ororo smiled now. "I like Piotr, honestly. I think he's a good, kind young man and I think he will be a very good asset." She looked at Harry her eyes somewhat more serious than her tone now. "I also believe that he would make a very good friend for you. I believe that men and women both need companionship of their own gender at times, although I haven't noticed such a need in you just yet. Still, a close friend that you are not involved with might do you some good and I think it already has, given our discussion this morning."
Harry nodded a little glumly, remembering that and his own overreaction the day before while Jean simply shrugged. She, also, had been too angry at what had been done to the children they rescued to really worry about overkill Looking back on it, she realized the others were right but didn't want Harry to kill himself about it.
Now, the redhead changed the subject, knowing Harry had a tendency to beat himself into the ground about his mistakes, if given half a chance. "Anyway, I had a question, Harry. I'd like to use your memory device, whatever it's called. Something's been bothering me about that trip I had where I met with Duggan and dropped off the terrorists with his men in Pakistan. I can't bring it to mind though and figured seeing it in the third person might help."
Harry nodded. "We can go down after dinner. This is too good," he smiled at her, "to waste by eating too fast." Jean smiled and leaned over kissing him gently on the cheek.
About an hour later, the three of them stood in front of the Room of Requirement. The two ladies watched as Harry walked three times in front of the room muttering to himself. A moment later they entered, finding the room with blank stone walls with a single dais in the center holding what looked like a giant metal bowl with a lot of runes around the bowl's edge.
Harry cocked his head thoughtfully looking at Jean. "I'm uncertain how this is going to work, to be honest. I'm uncertain if the spell or the pensieve will work on a non-magical, but we will see. Think of the memory you want to share, bring it to the forefront of your mind. I'll do the rest."
Jean nodded, closing her eyes for a moment before indicating that she had the entire memory ready to go. Harry gently touched her forehead with a finger, concentrating and then bringing out the memory as a shimmering silver wisp before he plunged it into the mists of the bowl. Then he cast a spell on the pensieve, gesturing at the wall with his other hand.
The memory began from when Jean came back from raiding Selene's cache to pick up the terrorists, then sped forward through the time she was flying until she was attacked. Right then Jean shouted, "Stop!" For a moment, all three of them could feel what Jean felt in the air, the sense of sudden anger then purpose that filled the man who was about shoot her.
"That was no accident." Harry, said frowning. "That was deliberate."
But none of the others were feeling that, just him, so it wasn't something they were ordered to do on the sly." Jean said looking at the other soldiers. The memory sped up again at a gesture from Harry. They paused it again when Jean was on the ground talking to the redheaded Duggan. To one side, the man who had tried to shoot Jean's prisoner stood in the far back of a group of soldiers being reamed by a sergeant. Despite the fact he looked apologetic, his eyes kept tracking over to the group around her prisoner, tracking him as he was led away.
Harry frowned thoughtfully. "I think that we might need to inform Duggan of this. Get some good will with someone in SHIELD at any rate. There might be more to this than we can see."
"Yes." Jean replied dryly, shaking her head as she stared at the man who had tried to kill her prisoner. "Just add it to the list of everything else we're up to at the moment."
After that bit of excitement, both Jean and Ororo retired for the evening while Harry, fueled by his magical power, was still good to go physically and mentally. He went back up to High Note, where he spent the rest of the night putting up the runic arrays to speed up time in the farming areas.
OOOOOOO
The next morning, Harry joined Peter and, now, Nikolai at the breakfast table. While his sister was willing to once more fall into civilian habits and was embracing the opportunity to do so with both hands, Nikolai had been trained for too long to really be happy about sleeping in unless he was truly exhausted. Shiang Chi soon joined them, though Dennis, Miss. Brown and Dr. Druid were nowhere to be seen this morning. As the group shared a plate of bagels and a bowl of fresh fruit, they talked quietly to one another, though nothing deep or really interesting was said so early in the morning. Nikolai, in particular, needed caffeine in large amounts to truly get his brain up and running.
Soon Ororo and Jean came in. Spotting her lover sitting at the table when he had been absent from their bed all night, Ororo moved in, sitting next to Harry and leaning forward to kiss him very thoroughly. Harry returned the gesture pulling Ororo into his lap and nuzzling into her neck for a moment sighing happily as he took in her scent.
Ororo was always affectionate in the mornings, possibly a holdover from their time at the mansion where it had been their mornings together simply getting to know one another had fueled their growing regard for one another. "You did not come to bed last night, my Harry," Ororo said into his ear as she leaned against his shoulder, breathing in his own, masculine scent.
"Sorry," Harry replied quietly, looking over at Jean who was smiling at him from his other side. "I was up in High Note emplacing the time dilation array for the farming areas. The array on the house elves uniforms work and I think the ones on the farming areas themselves will work but, no pun intended, only time will tell. I'll head up tomorrow evening to check, if they're working then at least two weeks of growth should be visible in the crops."
A slight cough from the other side of the table caused Ororo to sigh and get off of his lap moving to sit beside him.
Piotr was still blushing faintly at the show of affection between the gorgeous African woman and the wizard. Next to him, Nikolai was wearing a very broad smile at his countryman's embarrassment. It would take the rather innocent Piotr quite some time to get used to how affectionate Harry was with both of his girlfriends, let alone Harry, you know, actually having two of them. Nikolai, however, was torn between manly chagrin and awe, wondering if he should build some sort of shrine to Harry for having two such gorgeous, powerful girlfriends.
Jean chuckled at him but, rather than lean in for her own kiss, gracefully changed the subject, asking. "So, how are your grandparents fitting in, Piotr?"
Piotr shrugged. "They are still having trouble getting used to the time difference but they are enjoying the fact that they can sit around all day. My grandmother says it is like having a retirement. For farmers, retirement is a pipe dream."
Harry chuckled, then asked the three younger men how training had gone, not having seen either of the Russians or Shiang Chi the evening before.
Piotr replied with another Slavic shrug. "It went well enough. My endurance in terms of my legs needs to be greatly enhanced, though my overall strength seemed to gain his approval. My cardiovascular system needs some work but I am never going to be a sprinter. My strength and reaction time were much better than Shiang Chi thought they would be. We have not yet begun to work with my mutant power of course, but today he is going to start training me in a martial art."
Shiang Chi nodded. "Nikolai and I both believe Sambo will be an excellent starting point. He has very good reaction time and hand/eye coordination. I will also be training him in several styles from pencak silat, which is the term used to describe many different styles of the art developed in Indonesia, both armed and unarmed, though the weapons styles will wait for a while. I want to give him an eclectic set, so that he can use his strength against equally strong or weaker opponents and use mobility against those stronger. To that end, I will be working with him to build up his leg strength as well as his footwork and recovery. For Nikolai, it will be the opposite. Other than some aikido, I will be concentrating on armed forms with him."
Nikolai shrugged when Harry turned his gaze on him. "I was already trained to a very high degree in several martial arts, including Sambo and judo, plus I am as fit as a soldier should be overall. Of course, I will continue to exercise. If you stop you lose your edge, but," he shrugged again, unconsciously mimicking Piotr's earlier responses.
"Mostly what master Shiang and I will be doing together is sparring, as well as, as he said, him teaching me various hand-to-hand weapons. In return, I will be teaching Shiang and Piotr the use of ranged weapons of all sorts. You don't have that many of those yet, however, unless Jean is willing turn over some of your booty from the sacking of my former domicile to us?" The last was asked with an arched eyebrow towards his fellow redhead, though really their two hair colors were as different as night and day. He was a ginger hair, the normal color people assumed when they thought of redheads. Jean's hair was as red as sunset, almost like a fire given form.
Jean tilted her head up for a moment, then nodded. "I can turn over two of the plasma rifles to you, the last I took apart. I'm nearly done with my own design, just have to run it through one more time. We won't be able to build them for a while but I can say my version is lighter and, while the muzzle velocity will be slightly slower, the rounds will be much more devastating and the fire rate much better." That caught the attention of all the others at the table, save Harry, who merely grinned at her, holding up an imaginary glass in salute.
The chief engineer of Magical Minds ignored that, going on. "Other than a crew served heavy laser, which I don't see you needing, a laser gun taken off a tank, and some other kind of crew served beam weapon, maybe fusion beam, haven't looked at it yet, that's it. For anything else, you might want to head to America." She shook her head. "You'll be able to walk into a gun store there and buy several types for us, which is kind of sad really when I think about it, but the freedom to own a weapon is so inbred into America's psyche I doubt it's ever going to change."
"That is not our first priority, however." Ororo interjected. She handed a plate of bagels, cinnamon raisin, multigrain, blueberry, and honey nut, over to Jean, who accepted it eagerly. "I dropped off much of the gold you had collected, my Jean, and we are back in the black and will be so for several months now whatever you wish us to buy. But if you continue to expand the number of rooms that have hard lights projectors, we may burn through it quickly."
Jean nodded a little morosely. She hadn't realized until going over the books last evening (while in bed with Ororo) but the parts for the hard light projection system for her laboratory, three of the teachers' classrooms, and the dining hall had actually cost more then everything else they had put together. She hadn't realized it at first because she had bought the parts in several lots, but she still blamed herself for spending so much money.
"Hold off on that project for now." Harry ordered. "It will be nice to have that system in every room, but we don't need it anywhere else, yet. We don't have enough kids here to need more than two teaching rooms at most and I think we can hold off on that, as well as bringing in more teachers and staff for now. I want to push the team organization forward plus get the kids we already have up to snuff. Ororo, since she's not here, what do you think of Miss Brown, can we leave the kids in her care?"
Ororo nodded, brightly. "Yes, I was very impressed with her manner both as a teacher and caregiver. Dr. Druid also surprised me as well with his manner with the children."
"Good, but I don't think we need to put it all on them. I'd like us to make time to spend with the kids at least during meal times, maybe organize some kind of movie night once a week, let them get to know us and vice versa. I'd say we could do something out on the lake but it won't stay warm for long here in Scotland, so making plans like that might be premature. Don't push them or anything like that for a few days and then only start them on learning English until the regular school year is set to start. Get them used to that format. My translation spell is only set for the castle and its environs. If they go elsewhere they'll have to know the language. And so will you all." He finished, looking over at Piotr and Nikolai.
Nikolai shook his head, but it was Ororo who answered. "Nikolai and Piotr can already speak English, although their accents are horrible, and Piotr cannot read it. I will teach him how to read it at the same time I teach Laynia, who cannot read it or speak it outside of a very few greetings and questions. For the others, children learn languages much easier at a young age so it should be relatively easy to get the quartet of youngsters up to speed, though the teenagers will be a little bit harder. However, your goal of getting them fluent in it before the school year begins is doable. I'll take a week or so to write up full learning units and turn them over to Miss Brown. But what do want me to do when it comes to the team itself?"
"I'd like to start working on team exercises soonest. We have a few jobs I'd like to get done as soon as possible. I don't want anything of Selene's left out there for much longer, for example, especially since at least one of them is another gold cache, which will allow us to fund ourselves for at least another year, even if our potions, for some reason, doesn't start earning in that time. But our company will be going public this summer. I'd estimate sometime in the next three weeks, though I can't give you a specific time frame until after our meeting with the King, and I determine the time it will take us to build the complex that will serve as the public face of our corporation. In terms of you personally, Ororo, you'll lead the team exercises when I can't for now, and I'd like you to follow up on Banshee. Jean, I'll ask Hedwig to help you this weekend so you can follow up on the girl you met down in Brazil, who you said might want to join our team as well as become a student here?"
Jean nodded, while Nikolai and Piotr looked lost, but Jean made a motion with her hand as if to say 'I'll fill you in later', to which they merely nodded. Ororo was watching Harry, nodding silently to his points, while Shiang Chi had leaned back, his eyebrows furrowed as he mentally put together a training schedule. Piotr and Nikolai were going to be run ragged mentally and physically that was for certain.
"I would like us all to spend a few hours this morning together working out in the Room of Requirement, just to give me a feel for your abilities, Nikolai, as well as how we could mesh as a team."
"One question about that." Nikolai said chewing a bite of bagel heavy with cream cheese, something he hadn't ever tasted before and found to be very good indeed. He swallowed quickly before going on. "During missions how are we going to be communicating? And do you have a set uniform or something like that?"
"Not yet, if you have any designs you want to use in your combat attire, tell me, and I'll send it over to the group that is making our clothing for us. Unstable molecule outfits aren't exactly off the rack, after all." Both younger men nodded, though they didn't understand what made these clothes so special. They were merely thinking about what kind of costume they'd like to wear as Harry answered the next question. "In terms of communication, we have Jean here who can connect us via telepathy, but otherwise we will be using earbuds on deployment."
Jean interjected. "I had some thoughts about those, actually. I think if we all wear at least partial helmets or masks, I can work the earbuds and mikes into them, which will make them much harder for them to be knocked out or damaged. Although, if we're ever in an area where we're worried about our radio emissions being detected, we'll have to fall back to telepathy."
Piotr merely nodded at that, not having a problem and trusting Jean while Nikolai frowned, not liking the idea of anyone else in his head but eventually he nodded.
Harry caught his look and addressed the topic bluntly. "I've got my runic apprentice working on something that will, hopefully, be able to protect your minds from mental intrusion but it will take a long time for her to get it ready. Until then, we'll have to trust Jean to be able to emplace temporary protections. Needless to say, if you're leaving the Castle, you'll have to tell her and she'll put them on your minds. Otherwise, she won't enter your head. And I will say also that communicating telepathically with someone isn't the same as…." he faltered and looked over to Jean.
The redhead chuckled and took up the explanation. "It isn't as if I'm trying to 'investigate' your mind or anything. There is a very thin layer right on the outer edge of your mind where I can send my mental voice and you'll hear it but my voice won't be a probe, as it were. That's about the best explanation you're going to get."
After a moment Nikolai nodded, and the conversation continued. None of the others showed up, however, but Harry was fine with them all sleeping in, though he wondered why his daughter hadn't appeared. He took a moment to savor that thought, smiling and staring off into the distance before shaking his head and asking "Where's Melody? She's usually awake by this point."
Ororo giggled at his expression, kissing him tenderly on the cheek, knowing precisely what had caused his smile while Jean merely nodded in turn, her own eyes rather faraway for a moment. "She, Anechka, and Illyana had a sleepover last night. I would imagine they stayed up quite a bit later than is normal, even if Jean and I turned off their lights for them. The stone walls, after all, do tend to keep the sound inside and Melody has a TV in her room as well as dozens of children's movies.
Harry nodded, chuckling a little but determining that he would see the youngsters this evening.
As soon as they all finished eating, the group made their way down to the RoR, with Ororo kissing Harry on the cheek once more as the window he had created just for her followed them down the staircase into the basement. When they arrived, the two Russians looked on perplexed as Harry paced in front of the doorway three times, while Jean and Ororo merely shook their heads in fond irritation. As he finished his last round, Harry opened the door, letting them inside.
The RoR had taken the form of desert, only there was no real heat to it despite the fact that there seemed to be a sun in the sky above them. Looking around them Nikolai cursed in shock, which for some reason didn't translate. "Oхуеть!"
"It is impressive, isn't it," Ororo murmured, stretching her hands up over her head and enjoying the sunlight for a moment.
"The Room of Requirement was the brainchild of four of the most powerful, knowledgeable, and inventive wizards to ever exist in my home reality. It took myself and several other students months to figure out how it worked. That was reverse engineering it, to put in a normal parlance, not actually coming up with it from scratch. This," Harry gestured around, "took me over a week of hard work and you do not want to know how many wards and runic arrays go into this thing. For now, however, let's get some training in."
Piotr was about to activate his mutant power but paused, looking a little sheepish. "I don't suppose we could go shopping at any point for clothing? It is just that my family and I only brought so much clothing with us and my clothing tends to fall apart rather quickly."
The others all chuckled except for Nikolai who nodded. "I didn't bring any clothing with me either."
"Well in that case, I suggest all three of you prepare for a shopping expedition. I know you need clothing as well, Shiang Chi. Just be thankful I'm not going to sick Kitty on you." For some reason that phrase from Ororo caused Harry and Jean to laugh, yet the trio so addressed both shivered for some reason.
After that, the group spent the next few hours working out as a team while Harry took the measure of their two new teammates.
Nikolai's power was still intermittent, the young man not having as much control over it as he would like but it seemed to reflect any and all force directed at him back at the person trying to attack him. It was a fantastic defensive power, which coupled with his training and skill was a game changer in many ways.
Piotr was much more maneuverable and flexible in his metal form than Harry had thought. He also saw what Shiang Chi had spoke of earlier, the former farm boy had incredibly good hand/eye coordination as well as body control.
After Harry had a handle on the two younger men's abilities, all five of them began to work out, first against constructed enemies that the RoR created, large rock golems as well as contrived enemies like Selene from Harry's memories, though not quite as lethal. Then after about an hour and a half they spent thirty minutes with Jean, Ororo, Piotr, and Nikolai against Harry.
Unfortunately for Harry, Ororo had predicted something like this and had made plans through use of Jean's telepathy with the others. The moment Harry said 'start', Piotr and Nikolai closed the distance quickly, with Nikolai moving in front of Piotr to take any attack spells Harry threw at them. Meanwhile, Jean got behind him and began to throw out telepathic attacks, both subtle and not, while Ororo created a fog around Harry alone, slowly freezing the air.
Harry responded by heating the air around him but was unable to fight Ororo's power on her 'home field', much like he had lost to Magneto in trying to take control of the metals when they fought in the asteroid base, so the fog stayed, clinging to Harry and blinding him. However, Harry enhanced his hearing, enabling him to hear Piotr and Nikolai closing in as well as Jean's telekinetic attacks moving through the air.
He conjured up a shield to protect him from the attack from Jean, which hammered it into it nearly shattering it, causing him to whistle aloud. "Wow, Jean, hold back a little why don't you!" He turned quickly, flinging Piotr aside with a wordless Wingardium Leviosa.
However, Harry couldn't hear Jean's subtle attack, which was a snake of telekinetic energy moving around the ground. The rope of energy suddenly grabbed his legs and pulled them out from under him. Despite being surprised, Harry responded quickly. Assuming that Piotr and Nikolai were once more moving in and Jean and Ororo were now throwing their own long-range attack said and shouted out "Bombarda Maxima!" before apparating away, appearing next to Ororo.
Jean desperately tried to pull Ororo out of the way as a spell from Harry's hand flew towards his African lover, but Ororo was forced to try and repel it, matching the spell with a lightning bolt which caught it in midair.
Then Harry wasn't there anymore, appearing next to Jean and tapping her lightly, a lightning spell of his own shocking her and flinging her to the ground. She wasn't out of it by any means but that was as much as he had time for before hurricane force winds caught him, flinging him aside tremendous power.
Nikolai caught him then, racing around a boulder to slam one fist into the back of Harry's head before trying to follow up with a hold.
Harry caught his arm then flipped the younger man over, his knee hammering into Nikolai's back before Piotr arrived, trying to grab him in a choke hold. The hold failed as Harry pushed more power into his Magia Erebea, grabbing the metallic Colossus' hands, forcing his arms apart before teleporting them both high into the air and throwing Colossus straight down at Nikolai.
It was only Jean's quick thinking and grabbing the falling metal giant with a quick kinetic grab that stopped both of the younger men from being put out of the fight right there. At the same time, Ororo flash froze the air around Harry, freezing him just long enough to slam him with another lightning bolt.
The freezing spell didn't hold long enough and Harry was able to block the following lightning strike but by that time both Piotr and Nikolai were back up and Jean was throwing out telekinetic blasts, including compressing the air right behind Harry's head and imploding it like she had in the tunnel with Selene's first cache. That blow slammed Harry down into the ground far below. It was only because of his Magia Erebea that he was still in the fight. But even that wouldn't have helped him if he hadn't thrown up a hasty shield against the blow.
"Okay, that was just damn nasty, Jean! Permit me to respond in kind!" Harry raised one hand and threw out his own high-end attack. "Latinium Malleus!"A massive hammer made of green and gold lightning zoomed toward Jean. The spell impacted the ground right in front of Jean, flinging her through the air, but her telepathic shield protected her from the majority of it, though one of her arms fell limply to her side. The next spell he shouted out however caused all four of his opponents to gasp. "Shi Jundai!"
About twenty minutes later, Ororo paused and held up her hand. "I think that's enough for now." she said smiling slightly.
Piotr immediately came out of his metallic form dropping to his knees and gasping, touching a few spots on his body where he had been scorched and burned in his metal form but thankfully it didn't seem to carry over. Nikolai, too, leaned against another boulder, looking utterly exhausted. "Now," he gasped, "I can see another reason why you were able to overrun my former domicile so easily."
Harry shrugged. I wouldn't call it easy, but I suppose so, yes." Despite all the exertion, he was physically only a little tired but he could already feel his magic working to combat it and his magical reserves were almost untouched. "You nearly got me there a few times and, if not for my magical strength, you would have won. Your teamwork was great, all of you. Especially that last push, where you lifted Piotr over me and let my attack hit Nikolai, bouncing it back at me. That was impressive."
Like Harry, Ororo and Jean were not nearly as physically exhausted as the two younger men, although Ororo was mentally exhausted. She had not used that much of her power in that many different ways in so short a time for some time now. Ororo resolved to get back to exercising regardless of her other responsibilities.
Jean on the other hand was, despite her numerous injuries, still good to go. Every time she used her power, she felt as if she was simply gaining strength in it, becoming more and more powerful. It scared her a little but then she realized that she still had a long way to go before she reached Harry's level and the fear receded.
With a thought, Harry conjured a timepiece, frowning as he read the time. "I'm going to go grab a quick shower and then head out. I want to get down to Barcelona as quickly as I can to set up some surprises for my meeting with the not-so-good doctor. If he attacks for whatever reason, I want to be prepared."
"Very good, I will be standing by with Cory here. If you do run into problems with Dr. Doom, I expect you to call me in." Ororo emphasized these words by reaching out and tenderly cupping Harry's face before squeezing his ear lightly. "Is that clear, Harry?" Then she diffused her scolding tone by leaning in and kissing him tenderly.
Harry laughed against her lips hugging her briefly, then leaned over to Jean pulling her into a hug as well. After a second, he moved back, slapping both of their rears lightly and rushing out of the room as they both squawked and made to follow him, with Shiang Chi trailing after, looking down at some notes he had written.
This left Piotr and Nikolai alone, staring after them before turning to one another. The ginger haired former Soviet Super Soldier candidate shook his head. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to life here."
"True," Piotr chuckled, "but it will be fun trying."
"Indeed." replied Nikolai and the two of them shared a laugh.
Not fifteen minutes later, Harry left the Castle, pausing along the way to hug Melody, kissing her fondly on the forehead before telling her to have a fun day. He waved at Miss Brown, thanking his lucky stars that she looked almost nothing like Lavender and had never had a daughter. As Harry left the castle behind, he zoomed into the air, moving faster than anything but the fastest jets could move, racing down towards Barcelona, covered with a very powerful Notice-Me-Not Ward, as well as a disillusion spell, just in case. He couldn't fly while wearing his invisibility cloak. It flapped around too much so there was a danger of it not covering his entire body at times. About an hour's steady flight later, Harry was over Barcelona, moving down towards the city.
He took a moment to look around, whistling appreciatively at the amazing looking buildings all around. The cathedral La Sagrada Familia was just magnificent, the many spires rising into the sky, the architecture that made the building look as if it was a mix of various styles, yet, also somehow alive, made it different from any other building he had ever seen. The area around the shore was equally fantastic looking, both around the aquarium and around the other buildings, all of whom stood out. There were small parks here and there with water playing around in them. Then there was another area that looked like a cross between a small village within the city, with the buildings within constructed to look like a romantic version of a medieval village, and a painters wet dream, with several areas of wildly colored tiles. Then there was the Casa Mila, which despite being built out of stone, looked almost organic with its wavy lines plus its lack of straight edges and corners. I might have to come back here with the girls some time. This place looks like it would be fantastic to just bike around and see the sights.
He settled down on the roof of Casa Mila, noticing even here that there were no straight lines in the building and there were little details everywhere, enhancing the beauty of the complex. Harry shook his head, however, and quickly got to work etching a few runes here and there on the rooftop, which took him about forty minutes. By which time, the bells around the city were tolling the noon hour, and he stood up, conjuring a table, two wooden chairs, and finally two crystal goblets, before setting down the bottle of very old fire whiskey he had among his things from his old reality. The fire portion had long since faded away but the taste would only have gotten better. With another spell, he chilled it and set it on the table before standing up and looking around. Looking around in satisfaction, almost automatically summoning the Sword of Gryffindor to his side, Harry wondered if Dr. Doom would arrive with some kind of fanfare or just suddenly show up.
Not ten minutes later, something caused his senses to tingle and he looked up into the sky. A moment later, a small dot in the sky started to descend and he frowned, wondering how Doom was going to be hiding himself from the eyes of the common people of the city or if he was even going to bother. He didn't know if Doom would simply be uncaring how the masses looked at him, seeing them beneath him, or if he would simply see their awe and fear as his just due. That question was answered when he didn't hear any hue and cry from below and felt some kind of low powered field, in his opinion anyway, covering an area around the descending metal-clad 'super-villain'.
Soon enough, Doom stood on the roof up opposite him. Clad as always in his iron seeming armor and full face mask, a green cloak about his wide shoulders, large, powerful, and gauntleted hands flexing slightly as they stared at one another. For a moment, neither spoke, then Doom opened the conversation. "Mr. Potter, or should I call you Mr. Wizard? Have you figured out a new name for yourself, yet?"
"Mr. Potter for now, I suppose, and no, I haven't. I have far more important things to do." Harry said with a chuckle, waving his hand to chairs. "I'd ask how you knew about my issues with that, but I figure you caught something from that battle in London. On another topic, Hedwig, my owl familiar I've used to send messages to you, has decided that she doesn't like you. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and I will say that my familiar can take that to unholy levels so if we continue to use her as a go between, might I suggest that you stop trying to analyze her mode of transportation? Else she might find odd and unusual ways to get back at you."
Doom waved that off, moving to stand by the table. As he did, Harry tracked him with his eyes, not moving from his current position until Dr. Doom was done moving. There was something off, something niggling at his senses about the man in front of him. "I take it you have covered the roof with a spell to keep us from being seen? I did something similar electronically, but it doesn't work as well on the ground as it does in the air."
Harry nodded, his eyes narrowed in sudden supposition. "I did indeed, so, shall we get down to brass tacks?" With that he moved forward as if to sit down at the table, but before he pulled the chair out his hands flashed quickly toward Doom. "Arresto Momentum!"
The metal clad Doom glared at him through his visor, though Harry had no doubt that his suit was already figuring out a way to break Harry's magical control of it. Harry quickly hit the man with several more spells, freezing and immobilizing him. The ease with which he did this proved Harry's instincts had been correct and he spoke firmly. "You probably did this just to needle me for not getting back at you as quickly as I should have Doctor, so consider the message received. Now, I only talk to the organ grinder, not the monkey, so let us stop playing games!"
With a wave of his hand and a brief overpowered spell he froze the figure before him like he had been dipped in liquid nitrogen, then brought around the Sword of Gryffindor around in an overhand blow, shattering it. If that had, in fact, been Dr. Doom or, indeed, anyone living inside that suit he would not have been able to freeze them like that, not without pouring far more power into the spell.
A chuckle reverberated in the air and, above him, suddenly a portion of the air that had been empty a moment before shimmered as if a heatwave had suddenly sprung up there. A moment later, the real Dr. Doom stood in midair, hovering by use of some device hidden in his suit, staring down at Harry.
Harry stood silent as Doom touched down lightly onto the rooftop. His feet crunched against the shards of the Doom-bot he had sent in his place. He had done so for the reason that Harry had mentioned, as well as wanting to see how Harry would react or if he would notice. However, what he wanted Harry's aid with was important enough to him to force Doom to be on-site, in any event.
"You have amazing magical powers, Mr. Potter," the ironclad King said, glancing down at what little remained of his Doom-bots head before crushing it with a single step. "What gave it away, might I ask?" Doom watched as Harry carefully set down the sword he held on the table.
Harry shrugged and sat down, gesturing Doom into his seat. Harry didn't address the first portion of what Doom had said, since he knew for a fact that such a spell would never work on the real Doom. He could already tell, even without actually attempting anything, that Doom had some kind of defense going through his armor that would make any attempt at a spell like that impossible or, at least, very limited. In fact, his first spell probably wouldn't work either. "Not to stoke your ego, but you have a sort of presence, a commanding air to you even through a hologram like you had in our first meeting. This one," Harry gestured to the remains of the Doom-bot, "didn't. There was also the fact I could sense a spell had been cast on it but it didn't feel as if the spell was holding as well as it would if it had been cast on the caster himself."
As Harry sat down, Doom had frowned behind his mask, but allowed the younger man his momentary act of insolence, sitting down before his better. At Harry's reply, however, he chuckled, sitting down and smiling faintly behind his mask as the apparent wooden chair didn't even creak under his weight.
He glanced around, idly trying to find what defenses Potter had put up before he arrived and could only find a single rune that he recognized. That made Doom frown once more, since he had made a study of sorcery and didn't like to think that his study had missed anything. He was certain that there were sorcerers out there with more knowledge than him of course but he should at least have been able to recognize all of the runic languages someone else used in their arrays. Instead, Harry seemed to be using several languages unknown to sorcery in this world, one of which looked powerful to his senses, yet jagged, almost barbaric, while the other seemed to have a hint of the orient, with sharp curves and delineations that looked somewhat like kanji. Considering that Doom had hypothesized that Harry had come from another reality entirely, that made sense but it still irked him.
The two of them were silent as Harry poured the whiskey he had brought into the two glasses, handing one over to Doom first. After sniffing at the whiskey, the Latverian King bowed his head, wordlessly acknowledging that the liquor was good and raised it to his lips, pausing for a moment as his mask analyzed for poisons. Finding it to be clear of such taint he took a sip calmly waiting as liquid fire moved down his throat staring across at Harry had done the same and was looking back at him.
There was a tension in the air; a crackling of potential danger but there was no hint of it suddenly exploding into violence from either one of them. It was simply the meeting of two incredibly powerful, dangerous, and, each in their own way, ambitious people.
After a few minutes talking about politics, as well as Doom hinting that he knew something had happened in Russia, but didn't know what, the conversation moved into the reason why they were here.
"I have made a study of sorcery and eldritch power, Mr. Potter," Doom said, lacing his fingers in front of him. "This was not only with the intent to enlarge my own power base, my own knowledge and strength, but for a specific purpose. My mother's soul is being held by a demon lord and I wish to free her." He finished bluntly watching Harry's expression closely.
For his part Harry didn't overtly react, merely leaning back and bringing up one hand to his chin as he leaned against the head rest of his chair. "You have my attention."
"My mother was a magnificent woman, Mr. Potter, a queen among women, She was a leader who wanted something better for her people, a group of gypsies called Zafiro that lived in Latveria, where they were not welcome, persecuted by those in power. To combat this she searched for power, and eventually thought she found what she sought in a Latverian mystic, whose name my research has not been able to tell me. Unfortunately, the mystic took his power from his agreement with a demon lord by the name of Mephisto. She used her powers for good for many years, until the persecution became too much and she needed more to combat it. The mystic convinced her to make her own agreement with Mephisto, never hinting at his own deal with him. She did so, made a bargain and, as with all such agreements with such beings, Mephisto was able to twist it for his own amusement. She soon died from wounds taken in a battle her out of control powers started and her soul has been Mephisto's plaything ever since."
"Several years ago, I was able to create a device that allowed me to communicate with her, only to find my mother was not in heaven as she deserved, but being tortured by a hell lord. Since then, I have attempted through scientific and magical means to breach the barrier wall between dimensions. I have failed every time." He paused then shook his head. "Say rather, that I have succeeded in part but not in the whole. I can send probes through but not myself or anything living through scientific means. Moreover, the probes I've been able to send through fail almost immediately. That means even if I do find a way to remove the wall and home in on my mother's position, I will be almost powerless, unable to gain her release."
Doom's hands clenched in an unconscious gesture of barely restrained rage, yet his voice was still level as he went on. "I have slaughtered every demon I could find, studied their abilities, their powers, but I cannot find a way to keep my abilities when I go through the portal. Not without many more years of research and experimentation. I will not allow my mother's soul to remain in that realm for one moment longer than is necessary!" He glared at Harry, who looked a little sheepish raising his hand in apology. "The only reason I am not far angrier with you putting off our meeting was the reason you stated for doing so at first. I respect the desire to not make bargains from a position of weakness. Also, the fact that I had thought, at the time, that I might have found a back door, as it were, that would allow me to enter the demon's realm without losing my electronics, but that failed."
"You tried to go to another demon realm and get to this Mephisto's dimension from there?" Harry asked shrewdly.
"You are astute and yes. Yet, I was mistaken. The demon realms have no trade or contact with one another beyond the barest minimum. Indeed, they are more aggressive towards one another than they are toward humans or other truly living beings."
Harry nodded, not commenting on the last portion of that statement. He had long suspected that demons were not, in fact, truly 'alive' in the sense of a human being alive, being able to learn, to imagine, build, grow, and then propagate their species. He wasn't certain where they came from but he suspected they were some kind of old experiment, or possibly created by the gestalt thoughts of those humans and other beings in the real dimensions, or possibly created, as was hinted in a book he had borrowed from Dr. Strange, by something that occurred eons ago in the wake of the Big Bang. Regardless how they began, it was obvious that they had taken control of their 'lives' since and Harry had no problem whatsoever with slaughtering every last one of them.
Doom moved back to the original discussion. "I want my mother freed. Alive or dead, I will not allow her soul to continue to be a demon's toy! To that end, I am… willing to agree to follow in good faith any agreement we may reach today." He didn't mention the Doom-bot, they both knew that if Harry had fallen for that, then in Doom's opinion he would not have been liable to any pact reached and Harry would have been rewarded for his lack of attention.
"Agreement, we may reach." Harry murmured sipping at his drink for a moment and staring across at Doom, trying to figure out the true nature of the enigma that was the King of Latveria. He sat forward abruptly, all his former calm nature disappearing as he glared into Doom's eye-slits. "Understand me Lord Doom, I fully sympathize with your plight. I never knew my mother but if I ever found out that her soul was being held as yours is, there would be nothing I would not be willing to do to see her freed. And I am willing to agree to help you. However, this is an agreement between equals, not a king and a talented individual who has an ability the king wants to make use of. I will deal with you as an equal and you will deal with me in the same manner or we will not deal at all."
Doom glared back at him, not used to being so addressed. He also hated the idea of dealing with anyone like they were equals. But he needed Potter's help, there was no other way to say it. He had tried for so long on his own, but gotten nowhere. And the idea of leaving his mother in that demon's clutches for even a moment longer filled him with fury. So eventually, begrudgingly, he nodded. Part of that was the fact Harry freely acknowledged he was a king, not, as many people the world over thought, a usurper.
Harry leaned back again. "That being said, I have a bit of a psychological question for you."
Doom cocked an eyebrow behind his mask, wondering what the younger man would say before nodding his head regally.
Taking this as a signal to go on, Harry leaned back and sipped again at his whiskey, thinking for a moment how to put this. It was a question Daphne and Hermione had thought up, to see the true nature of those in Slytherin house. If Doom wasn't a natural born Slytherin, Harry was a monkey. "In your hands you have a pie. It is a small pie, but you control it, it's all yours. And yet to the side is a larger pie. A far larger pie, so large that your small pie wouldn't even equal a single slice of that pie. Yet to have that slice, you will have to share with others. The pie itself will not be yours, because it is too large for one person. Yet, if you do take a slice of that pie, you may even enlarge that pie further, enriching all those, including yourself, who own the pie. So what would you do?"
Doom shook his head resignedly. "A rather childish and roundabout way to ask me which is more important to me, my control of those around me or my own personal ambition."
"Not quite what I was going for, but I'll accept that non-answer for now." Harry chuckled shaking his head. He looked up at the sky, his thoughts moving past the blue of the atmosphere and out into space shaking his head. "I will not insult your intelligence to think that you haven't made a study of your enemies. You know the threats that the Fantastic Four have run into and dealt with."
Doom stiffened slightly at the mention of the Fantastic Four but not overmuch and he too turned his gaze up into the stars. "The Kree, the Skrull, who knows what others are out there." he murmured, then looking back at Harry Potter. "Is that the direction that your ambition lies, Mr. Potter?"
"One of the directions." Harry replied blandly, once more sipping from his whiskey. "Though ambition and an urge to defend humanity, in this instance, move in the same direction."
Across from him the armor clad King of Latveria did the same, drinking from his own glass. The two were silent for a moment, sipping at their whiskey and looking at one another calculatingly. Doom, for his part, was impressed. There was a self-control and charisma to the younger man that he had rarely seen in other individuals. Nor was he as black and white in his worldview as Reed Richards was or, at least, pretended to be. Doom had his doubts about that. "Leaving the gravity well and getting out of atmosphere undetected has always been an issue," Doom mused, as if to himself, while watching Harry very carefully indeed.
Harry smiled very slightly. "That is not a concern that constrains me."
Doom frowned at the non-reply, wondering what spells Harry could use to get out of the gravity well and atmosphere without being seen. To teleport, you need a specific location, which implies that Potter has something in orbit, though I wonder where exactly his ambitions in that area will take him. He frowned thoughtfully. Of course, I know about the enemies that my enemies have faced, they aren't exactly subtle about it, yet I have not heard of any government pushing any kind of defense strategy. He remembered his own thoughts in that direction and how his first experiments in had failed. He had promptly changed focus to something else.
He put that thought to the side, however, but he did not forget it, determined to look into this once more. For now, however, he looked across at Harry. "Space is called the final frontier for reason, Mr. Potter, and of course it interests me but what precisely does that have to do with our current conversation?"
Harry set his glass down and stared at Doom, his gaze unflinching. "I will have two agreements from you for my aid in rescuing your mother. I will say that it sounds more like your mother is trapped there, not just her soul, though there is very little difference, and, if push comes to shove, when we rescue her I can easily enough create a body for her as part of our agreement."
Doom waved that off. "If it comes to that I can create a body for her myself. What are these two agreements?"
"First a personal one. I have no doubt that you have realized that I am going to be starting up a corporation..."
"In Britain possibly, with your potions first and foremost, I have no doubt that you will spread into other areas of interest." Doom said waving his hand.
"Indeed. So the first agreement is for you to swear on your name to deal fairly with my companies, to not steal, analyze, undermine, or take the secrets of those companies for yourself. Note that this does not in any way inhibit the companies I create from making deals with you or with Latveria through you. This is simply making certain that you do not try to steal or duplicate proprietary knowledge. Frankly, the last portion of that statement is the most important when it comes to someone of your intellectual prowess as I don't think you would stoop low enough to actually steal but I still wish for both of those terms to be included in the agreement, just in case you have some underling that does not share your sense of honor." After all, while Doom would undoubtedly punish the underling, he would already have the knowledge the underling stole, so no onus would be put on him to not use it.
Doom ignored the obvious attempt to pander to his ego. To buy himself time, he took a sip from the whiskey once more, enjoying the flavor and murmuring aloud "You must tell me where you got this brand, it is most excellent."
"It's a wizard's drink called fire whiskey, though the fire that gave it its name doesn't last for very long, the flavor of it keeps getting better as the years go by. I'll bring along several bottles when next we meet, if you wish."
That had bought Doom enough time to think through his reply. The potions by themselves were a game changer, there was no doubt, one Doom knew for a fact he would not be able to replicate. Potions were a very minor aspect of magic use in this dimension and what potions there were, were of very limited utility. Elsewhere, so long as he could deal with Harry's companies, he could gain whatever they were doing that way. Besides, he had no need of other's scientific or magical secrets. He could come up with his own, on his own. "I will agree to that, what is the second part of this pact?"
To this Harry replied, now much grimmer. "When, exterior threats to the world, such as an alien race or trans-reality invasion show up, you will stand with me and mine to defeat it. In return, any advancements in space technology will be yours to use and build upon so long as they're not then used to threaten myself, my interests, the world, or the individuals in it."
Doom was amused that Harry was merely making certain any knowledge he shared wasn't used in such a manner, rather than trying to control Doom's ambitions themselves.
Harry somehow realized what Doom was thinking and addressed it. "I know I can't convince you to stop your ambitions and the neighbors around Latveria are such that you expanding its national borders might benefit the people involved. Your scientific endeavors are your own concern. I also know I can't stop your feud with Reed Richards but I can make certain you won't use anything I come up with against him or the other Fantastic Four members."
"And by this agreement you give me another target for my ambition, space itself." Doom murmured.
"That as well." Harry replied nodding his head.
Neither of them commented on what they both knew. Regardless of this agreement, someday, possibly soon or possibly in a few years, the two of them would be facing one another in battle. This agreement might stave off that event but it was still inevitable. Yet Harry was correct in the fact that if Harry aided Doom in getting space-travel specific technology, then Doom would turn his attention to space. There were the planets in the solar system itself to research, there were the alien races out there, there was endless knowledge and scientific discovery, far more than could be seen on Earth alone.
"How long will it take you to research a way to transport us to the demon dimension?" Doom asked abruptly.
Harry frowned, touching the lightning bolt scar on his forehead as he thought. "I have a business meeting tomorrow but, other than that, I will devote as much of my time as I can to researching this. I'd estimate that by Saturday, I will be ready to go. I will prepare a place for us to create a true portal, one that will allow you to keep your electronics intact and I may bring along one of my associates with us when we go. Killing demons isn't the sort of thing you want to keep to yourself after all. I will also want to research this Mephisto before then. He may have some weakness that we could exploit."
"That quickly? Excellent. Very well, I agree then." Doom said brusquely as if it was of no moment.
Harry however wasn't fooled. "Say it Lord Doom. On your full name agree to my terms and I will swear to help you regain the soul of your mother."
Doom smiled faintly behind his mask, seeing once again that Harry had an amusingly accurate picture of his personality. Much like with the Doom-bot, if Harry had not asked for him to swear on his own full name than the agreement would not have been binding. "Very well, I Victor Von Doom, in return for his aid in freeing my mother's soul from her bondage, will agree to the two conditions that Harry Potter has put forth on this day, to wit that I will not attempt to either through guile, subterfuge, or scientific endeavor to steal the secrets of his corporation, as well as agreeing, so long as the scientific knowledge between us is shared, to help against any space-borne or extraterrestrial or extra-reality threat that threatens humanity as a whole. Does that satisfy you?"
Harry smiled, his mage sight allowing him to see a faint ring going about Dr. Doom for a moment. Evidently Doom had some magic in him, which reminded Harry that he desperately needed to look into the strange nature of magical cores in this world, since Doom hadn't been born with magic, yet had seemingly gained it, much like Dr. Strange might have. Regardless, whatever was there was now bound by that oath.
So he nodded, and held out his own hand across the table. "In return for his agreeing to my terms, I, Harry James Potter, agree to aid Victor Von Doom in the retrieval of his mother's soul from the clutches of the demon lord Mephisto, by my life and magic I swear it." There was a rush of magic from him, and Doom's eyes widened behind his mask, wondering what had just occurred but his sensors couldn't tell what that had been only that some kind of energy had passed. Nothing in the material world had changed.
Before he could ask however, Harry replied for him, not wanting Doom to become suspicious of him. "That was a magically binding oath, Dr. Doom. Now, even if I wanted to, I cannot renege on it. That is how seriously I take my word of honor."
Doom frowned thoughtfully behind his mask, having never heard of a magically binding oath, possibly because it was such a normal thing that it had never been copied down into any books that he could access or, possibly, because it was such a big thing people knew not to take it for granted. He frowned further, wondering if his own limited magic was now bound to his agreement with Harry but realized that frankly it didn't matter. The agreements were good enough that he would agree to them anyway, and his word was his bond no matter what anyone else thought. Behind all of his subterfuge and subtlety, once Doom gave his word, he would keep it.
Without further ado he reached across and clasped Harry's arm by the forearm with his own metal clad gauntlet. "We have an agreement, Mr. Potter. How will we get in contact again? You mentioned your owl disliking me and I refuse to back down from trying to figure out how she gets around. Her method of teleportation is simply better than any other method I have seen, nor is it covered by our agreement just now."
Harry chuckled, having expected that. "We can use this place as a drop-off point for messages, I suppose. I would prefer that method as I do not think the world as a whole would like the idea of the two of us working together, even after I move onto the world stage, as it were, in a few days."
"I look forward with anticipation to the chaos that your arrival onto said stage will cause." Doom replied dryly, still staring into Harry's eyes. The magical oath had surprised him but he was still looking for any duplicity, any hints that Harry would not give his all to retrieve his mother from her captivity. There was nothing and Doom finally released his grip and nodded. "In that case, I will look for a message here Friday evening, leave it with a beacon of some kind, preferably a technological message rather than magical, but it matters not which. Until then, I will bid you ado."
With that, Doom stepped back and, with only a faint gust of air from the thrusters in his feet, soared into the air. A moment later, whatever kind of camouflage he was using activated and the steel clad Doom was gone, disappearing behind it as he traveled further into the sky.
Harry shook his head, gesturing with his hands as he cast aFinite Incantatum on the table and chairs, grabbing what little of the whiskey remained in the bottle as he moved over to begin to erase the runes he had emplaced. He was no fool, he knew that despite their agreements he and Doom would clash in the future at some point, it was just the way of the world.
"Still," Harry murmured to himself as he finished cleaning up his runes, "that went as well as I could expect. Much better than I had anticipated actually." Once finished cleaning up, he leaned over the side of the rooftop looking down at the busy streets below as he sipped the remainder of his whiskey smiling faintly at the fire going down his belly. He laughed, finishing the last bit of whiskey and then pushing himself off into the air, flying back to Hogwarts. It was a lovely day out and he wanted to have at least an hour to enjoy it before getting back to the grind.