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For every action there is a response, every act causes ripples. At times, those ripples are obvious to everyone, sometimes only obvious in hindsight. And sometimes, they create ripples that few mortals could even fathom. So it was with the death of the mutant Magneto. Even as Irene collapsed once again, the future changing irrevocably and that change hitting her almost like a physical force, so too did Death feel it.
When those ripples hit her Death was personally taking the souls of the dead from a planet where they had no gods, no local agent for her to work through. A plague had occurred here, wiping out 98% of the population in great agony. For such like this, death was a release and on such a scale, Death was obligated to oversee events personally. Yet even so, Magneto's end distracted the personification of the ultimate reality.
It is interesting, she mused, to think that such a small out of the way planet could create such ripples that I can feel them even when my concentration is elsewhere like this. That small blue gem of a world was important, not just to its inhabitants which went without saying, but to the rest of the galaxy. The impact of that world on galactic affairs was only just beginning but it would grow.
The cold fire in Death's sockets dimmed slightly as she recalled what had happened to one of her servants on that world. She was not supposed to have favorites, but if pressed by a being who could do so, of which there were only four in all existence, then Death would admit to Hela being such. Which made it all the more irritating that Death could not help her.
Those Who Watch Above in Shadow feared her of course, in fact far more than mortals did. Those who were not used to thinking in terms of dying were the most horrified by the idea.
She could have stopped Hela's mind-rape. She could have, if she was allowed, but she wasn't. Death was not allowed to interfere in mortal affairs, even if those mortals were not technically mortals. She was not allowed to interfere, not in any of the material realms. She was a caretaker, the end of things, she could not judge, could not take part. That was not her roll as given to her by He Who is Above All.
She had gotten away with it the last time, Harry Potter's gift to Hela had after all been meant both for her and for Death, her mistress. But this last time she could not have stepped in without making it obvious she was doing so, and that was not allowed.
And so she watched, and waited, because in the end, Death always wins. In the end, even those who thought themselves above her power, who dared to interfere with her chosen servants, would they themselves come to judgment.
OOOOOOO
Late that evening Harry was still smiling at Jean's news despite everything that had happened that day as he walked through the halls of Magneto's citadel. Next to him Piotr and Amara followed, talking quietly about the sculptures and paintings scattered around as Harry stopped to look out the windows as the ascended to the tallest portions of the citadel.
"What is it with megalomaniacs and wanting to stare out at all they survey?" Harry asked rhetorically, stopping at one particular window which faced towards the distant mountains of the Savage Land. Seeing those white-capped peaks, their backs blending into the side of the massive cavern in the distance, truly put the size of the Savage Land in perspective for you.
Nearer at hand Reed was at work near where Magneto had attempted to utilize a few of his hoarded nukes against Harry with some kind of odd device which looked like the bastard love child of a vacuum cleaner, aero-spray can and a Geiger counter. Despite Magneto having modified the bombs to be somewhat clean, they were still nukes, and Harry's shields had only protected him from the radiation, not the area around him.
"Harry," Piotr said, smirking. "You live in a castle and have rooms in the highest tower of said castle. You have a quasi-throne room set into an asteroid where you can look down upon the entire Earth. I do not think a man who lives in a glass house should throw stones, yes?"
"In my defense I took Babylon from Magneto initially, and that's not a throne room any longer but a control room there's a difference. As for Camelot, exactly how much time do I spend there staring out the windows lording it over my peons?" Harry retorted, smiling back at the large Russian.
"Touché," Piotr chuckled, patting his shorter friend/leader on the shoulder. "But enough procrastination tovarishch, get a move on."
Harry sighed, and started moving once more while Amara and Piotr followed, linking their hands together for a moment as they did. They both knew Harry didn't like making speeches, especially in front of strangers but it was necessary.
Moments later the trio walked into the room that had been devoted to the prisoners they had taken in battle that had already been sifted through by Jean and Emma and the group who had surrendered or wholly come over to their side thanks to Wendy's efforts. Wendy herself was there sitting among them along with Amelia, and Harry sent the blue-haired girl a respectful nod before letting his eyes move on.
Morph was there too, standing at the back of the room with Rogue and Scott. Nikolai had already informed Harry how well he had done in combat and even Dani had sung his praises. Since the two of them were three of Harry's sort-of field lieutenants their words carried a lot of weight for Harry which was added to Harry's own opinion of the fellow.
Besides those worthies there were nine others, the converts from Wendy's mission and prisoners alike. Emma and Jean were still sifting through the minds of four other prisoners, but the trio of prisoners Harry had taken from the harbor had already been sentenced and executed by the locals, a task Harry had allowed them to take care of given the crimes they had committed here in the Savage Land.
Two more prisoners taken in battle Harry had also quietly executed.
The trial for one, the werewolf-like Feral, had gone on for hours. She was eventually executed for murdering several of her family members as well as carrying out various assassinations for Magneto over the years. Harry had felt Feral's murder of her father and mother were committed in self-defense, and could have used their abuse of her, and apparently her mutant sister who was not among the Acolytes but was supposedly still alive somewhere, as leading to her later violent tendencies. On top of that more than a few of her victims had frankly needed killing in the tribunal's opinion.
But she had also killed both her younger brother and sister, pushing one down the stairs and letting the other fall to his death. And Feral had also killed several prisoners taken in Magneto's campaigns here in the Savage Land.
Whatever her upbringing no one was willing to site mitigating circumstances for those, and Harry had executed her personally with the sword of Gryffindor. As the leader of his faction and the new 'ruler', of the Savage Land, he had felt it his duty.
It had been one of the most disturbing things Harry had ever had to do, and he knew it might give him nightmares in the future. Harry had killed numerous times in combat, and even executed unconscious opponents during the clandestine war against Voldemort when he and his friends had to pull out of a combat field. He had never killed a woman like that, and the fact she was awake and glaring at him only made it worse.
The other case had been far clearer cut and lasted barely half an hour, and Harry knew his execution wouldn't bother Harry a bit. Rakkus had been a follower of mutant supremacy for longer than he had known Magneto, and didn't honestly see 'flatscans' as people, seeing killing them as no more important than killing cattle.
None of the other prisoners had committed crimes which Harry felt warranted execution. Katu seemed actually repentant, and had been sentenced to the same asteroid prison Dr. Banner had been placed in initially for two years. Projector was not regretful, much like Pietro and Toad, and their stay in prison would be quite lengthy.
Shoving those thoughts aside Harry made his way to the front of the room, conjuring up a chair and looking around at everyone as he sat down. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I won't say we're meeting under the best of circumstances, I won't say there are no hard feelings. We just fought a bloody war with some of you, and if I said that, and you believed it, I would try to sell you the Humber Bridge."
Some of the tension in the room seemed to fade at his attitude, and Harry leaned back looking at the prisoners and possible converts before him thoughtfully before going on, his voice soft but carrying. "My first memory that I can remember was my parents dying from an attack by a Dark Lord, a flash of green, and my mother's scream. That's the only real memory I have of her of either of them. I was raised by my mother's sister and her family, or rather hidden with them, they didn't really try to raise me exactly. I learned more about life in general going to the library then from them. My home was where I went to be abused most of the time, slaving away for them in various ways."
He stopped speaking, looking around the room making eye contact with each person in turn, refusing to elaborate on any of that, letting the simplicity of his statement and the truth in his tone do his work. "I know a lot of you have similar stories, or equally hard ones in various ways. And I bet your reasoning was much the same as my mother's sister gave for allowing her and her husband and her fat slob of a son to abuse me: that I was a freak."
More than one person there flinched, and Harry nodded. "'A freak', 'unnatural', 'you shouldn't have been born Potter!', 'should've left you out on the curb'. I heard those words and more for the first 11 years of my life, and then heard them on every summer when I came home from school. But let me tell you the secret of such words, of having such feelings towards another person."
He leaned forward, and many of his listeners, even the oldest there like Amelia and the other blue-haired woman, surprised themselves by leaning forward as well. "Those words, they have nothing to do with you. They have nothing to do with your powers or how you look, or how you act, or what you can or cannot do. Those labels were put on you by people who fear what they do not understand or that which is different. It harkens back to the cavemen, when different meant 'enemy', or danger."
"When you give in to similar feelings towards your abusers, they win. When you return hate with hate, you're playing their game. You're allowing them to control the playing field, to control your actions even your own emotions. I did not let my relatives win, and I will not stand by and let racism, bigotry, elitism or hatred, to win."
"I called Magneto a Nazi practically the moment we met, and while I've learned since that Eric had his reasons; his means and methods marked him out as nearly as bad as Hitler. Planning to use nukes to wipe out large portions of humanity? Training you all as soldiers in a war against humanity, not to defend yourselves, but to kill your so-called oppressors in billions of numbers including people whom you had never even met before? Slaughtering his enemies here in the Savage Land for no reason but to take their land and transform them into his mindless foot soldiers? What moral person could say those were the acts of someone trying to simply fight for the rights of his people?"
Harry fell silent once more, looking around him at his listeners, who frowned, looking at one another. But even the two mutates among them couldn't argue that Magneto had acted with anything but ruthless ambition, and said nothing.
"Now, I have no doubt Wendy's passed on what information she has about my own activities, and I bet you'd all heard rumors before that. Though I can't say that all of the rumors you've heard are true, that would be rather silly wouldn't it? How tall is Guardian supposed to be in those rumors anyway?" Harry asked.
"About as tall as your friend over there," Morph said with a grin stretching his features to look like the Cheshire Cat, which seemed to be one of his favorite morphs. "I think we've all got a handle on the Custodes Mundi and the X-men's activities. But according to Wendy you're also supposed to pushing mutant equality via economic means as Harry Potter what's all that about?"
"I've tied the sales of my potions, and yes they are magical potions, but you don't have to be magical to have them work for you, to whether or not a country is making progress in mutant/norm equality. I've developed new technologies with Mr. Fantastic and Phoenix and will be linking the selling of those technologies to the same thing."
Harry's eyes hardened noticeably. "That doesn't mean I'm a soft hand. You've no doubt heard about Moses Magnum, and his activities. I went public with the opinion that he should be executed for that crime, and if you abuse your mutant powers. If you cause death and destruction, you are no better than a murderer or rapist in my eyes, and should be dealt with accordingly." He watched as more than one of the women there flinched, and a few of the men looked away. Evidently they knew about some of the things that had been going on here.
Mastermind had not been the only abuser among the Acolytes. Mastermind was the only one to prey on their own comrades, but Shanna wasn't the only attractive native woman, and more than a few of the Acolytes had abused their prisoners, men and women both.
"I also have been pushing the idea that humans and mutants have no reason to fight one another when there are bigger and more dangerous threats out there. Aliens exist, have been to Earth, have fought Earth's heroes, have attacked Earth in a military campaign that only myself, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom stopped within the last month. Given all that, why the hell is humanity still embroiled with internal conflicts likes this?"
"Wait," said one of the ones Harry had been introduced to briefly, Orator Harry thought his name was. "You mean to tell us you got the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom to agree to work on something together?"
"Yes," Harry said simply. "I brokered separate agreements with both of them, though I will say doing so with Dr. Doom was much harder and that agreement has a lot more caveats, But even Dr. Doom has recognized the exterior threat and is wholeheartedly behind the idea of humanity banding together against exterior threats. What does that tell you about hate groups on either side of the mutant human divide?"
"And then there's that whole speech you made about how humans and mutants are both just strange offshoots of monkeys!" Morph said with a laugh. "I liked that one."
"You would," Harry said with a chuckle of his own, leaning back deliberately shaking his head and when he spoke his voice was much less intense than it had been. "So, that's my sales pitch for my side of things. Now, what does that mean for you all? Well you have several choices to make. If you want to join up with my faction, you can, though I would insist that you finish your educations if you already haven't at the same time. Avalon Academy offers mostly elementary education but Charles Xavier is willing to put up a few more people at his mansion."
Harry hadn't actually cleared that with Charles except in the case of Wendy but he figured Charles would be good for it. Even if he required help to enlarge the mansion Harry was more than willing to do that. "We also have access to the Internet, and thus distance courses for college-age students who want to take them. You don't have to join up to get that of course, you'll even find my student loans are quite reasonable."
There were two or three interested looks at that, though for the most part most his listeners didn't look interested in continuing their educations. "If I let you out and about like that at Charles', realize you will have minders. The X-Men live there after all, and they will be watching how you interact with the non-powered locals."
A few heads turned to where Scott was leaning against the wall by more, with Rogue leaning against his shoulder lightly, still looking rather exhausted after the battle. Scott nodded grimly, while Rogue simply waved a hand lazily. "Don't worry ya'll. We're just gonna be looking for if ya keep yer powers in check, we're not gonna watch if you want to step out with one of the locals, not our business."
"Socks," Scott said nodding his head firmly. "A sock on the door knob is your friend under those circumstances."
There were several startled laughs at that, while Harry chuckled, doing his best not to beam like a proud big brother at the leader of the X-Men. Damn Scott's now making his own jokes, I'm so proud of him!
"Anyway," Harry said after a moment, gathering everyone's attention back to him. "If you want to join up with the Custodes Mundi or X-men, that will be a decision made by myself and Cyclops based upon your combat ability and if we decide we can trust you in a combat situation. We tend to handle the big things after all, and that's not for everyone. But if you don't make the cut for that, there is always the retrieval team."
"That is the other thing we've been doing," Amara said, stepping forward and looking around at the others grimly. "How have you been recruiting members here since retreating to the Savage Land?"
A few of them looked confused, but the oldest woman in the room, who Mystique had identified as 'something' Cortez, Harry couldn't remember her first name shook her head. "We haven't been of course. There was no need for it when we were converting the locals I suppose, and Magneto seemed concerned about exterior influences after a while. Now I see that it was not exactly a good sign but what exactly are you getting at?"
"We have certain magical devices in place that allow us to find mutants, once their powers activate, who are in danger. Of course that's mostly helped us with finding lots of little kids, with only a few teenagers thrown in so far, hence why Avalon Academy is more of an elementary school than anything else." Harry explained.
"And home, a training area, laboratories, oh, and all of it an ancient castle under monstrously powerful magical defenses." Amara said, smirking over at Harry.
"Quiet you." Harry mock growled before going on. "However, we're hugely understaffed to try and cover the entire world. Most of these days we don't see too many names go from red to black, but there have been more than a few, and that is hard to deal with…" Harry's said shaking his head his earlier humor disappearing in an instant as both he, Amara, Piotr and even the two X-Men in the room looked grim now.
"It is very hard," Harry said again, "To watch a name appear for a few moments then go black an instant later and then to disappear, knowing what that means."
Emily stood up quickly, throwing her arm in the air as if she was a student trying to answer a question from the teacher, reminding Harry once more of Tonks at her hilarious best.
"I'll sign up for that right now!" she said firmly. "That is the heart and soul of what I want to do, I want to help mutant kids who are in trouble for no more reason than they have powers!"
There were a few other nods among the other Brotherhood members and Harry nodded too. "Like I said if that's what you want to do you can do so though again you'll have to prove that we can trust you out in the big wide world. But you have to choose in the next few days. Until then, you'll remain here, not prisoners, though a lot of the locals aren't happy with any of you who wear that uniform so I'd suggest changing clothing as soon as possible."
There are some more chuckles at that but Ms. Cortez, and Harry made a mental note to learn her first name again, held up her hand. "What about those of us who want to join the Custodes Mundi and you don't feel like we make the cut who don't want to help round up kids? I understand that's a noble goal, but I just don't think I'd be well used in that role."
"Wait for a few days," Harry said with a frown. "I want to talk to a few of my people about some other ideas I've been thinking about, but understand, if those plans go through, I will be watching you. Go back to your old ways, and we will have… problems."
The woman nodded, unable to look away from Harry's emerald-eyed gaze for a moment until he nodded and turned away himself.
With that Harry left the room with Piotr and Amara though Scott and Rogue stayed behind to answer some questions. Morph however followed Harry out, smiling at him and the others. "What about me? Can I join the Custodes Mundi?"
"If you want to, your fighting with us in the campaign here made for a bloody brilliant audition. Though I will tell you the training is really hard, and ongoing." Harry warned.
"I'm not afraid of hard work!" Morph said sounding rather affronted, his nose sticking so far up in the air it looked more like a beak for a moment before he turned back to normal, shaking his head with a faint smile. "You did pretty well in there, more jokes would've been better in my opinion, but that's always my opinion."
Harry laughed, reaching over to thump the other man's shoulder before directing him to follow the other two down to where the rest of the teams were gathered, waiting to head back to Camelot for the night. He was greeted with smiles and nods all around, while Harry made his way down to where Reed was looking over the computers in the citadel's basement, or rather the lowest level of the basement, since there were several of them.
He stopped however when Emma's voice reached his mind. "Harry, we've run into a bit of a situation with the last two prisoners we've been mentally interrogating. You'd better get up here."
A few moments later, Harry joined Emma and Jean in the interrogation room. His smile returned as he saw Jean, and she returned the gesture, laughing as the love Harry felt for them both flowed through the link as he let his hands rest gently on her stomach.
Emma too smiled at the gesture, somewhat over her negative reaction to about Jean having a child. Her emotional response still reared its head occasionally, but not often. Family no longer meant what it did to her, and she was happy for it. The physical changes Jean would be going through still gave her the willies though.
With a sigh Harry turned away with Jean still in his arms, to look at the man tied to the chair in front of him is askance, then over to where another woman slumped unconscious against the wall. Both had no physical sign of their mutations, but Harry knew the woman fired blue bolts from her finger tips, and the other had a certain amount of super strength and dexterity. "SHIELD agents? You're positive they're both SHIELD agents?"
"Positive," Emma said with a nod.
Jean moved out of Harry's light hug to hold up a small device, only the size of a cufflink shaking her head. "This has got to be from Tony Stark or someone similar, it masks their deeper thoughts, acts like a natural seeming defense against telepathic scan, though it wouldn't have stood up against a real probe from that Exodus bastard. I don't know if Mastermind was strong enough to overcome it, but I guess Exodus never had cause to try."
"Well that's not good," Harry said with a frown. "Did Shanna say anything about either of them?"
"No," Emma said shaking her head. Shanna didn't implicate them in anything outside the actual combat. From their own memories they didn't revel in the combat, but they did participate in terrorist activity elsewhere before joining the rest of the Brotherhood here."
"Thank goodness for small mercies on the local front. Your recommendations?" Harry asked looking at both women. "My first inclination is to just hand them over to Fury along with Magneto's head to make certain he understands that yes, Magneto is dead. Whatever crimes they're guilty of to keep their cover will then be Fury's to deal with."
"The paranoid bastard might actually get a kick out of that one, but then he'll remember that means you're strong enough to kill Magneto in the first place," Jean said with a chuckle, before looking over at Emma herself.
""I think we can wipe their minds of the Savage Land's entrances, as well as anything else we don't want them to know." Emma said tapping her lips with one finger as she thought. "Though I think we should let him keep the memories of the Savage Land itself. Unless they have a telepath or some other truth detecting means, it'll sound too fantastical to be believed really. And incidentally, when you're done talking to everyone else, I demand a tour of this place."
"That's fine," Harry said blinking a little at the sudden topic change. "Any real reason why?"
Emma blushed looking away. "I've always liked dinosaurs," she mumbled, then blushed as Harry reached over pulling her into a hug and Jean gurgled in laughter.
"We'll see to that immediately then," Harry said decisively, pulling Emma towards the door. "Besides, I'll want you with me when I talk to Mystique. Keep the two of them unconscious for now, I'll drop them off with… a new friend tomorrow."
Jean continued to laugh, knowing who Harry was talking about and rather amused at the idea, even as she gestured lifting the two prisoners up and moving them out of the small room they had taken over for the interrogation process. With that done, she left them there for a moment before going to look for Reed.
They found Mystique quickly, as she had been looking for them, and she spoke before Harry could. "I got a call from Dennis, apparently Irene collapsed again, though this time she was prepared for it, and it didn't hurt as much. You've presumably changed the future again Potter."
"Sour grapes?" Harry asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.
Mystique shrugged. "More just irritation that I was in there when she collapsed, really. I was hoping to get someone to take me back though, I don't think I'm doing much here right now."
"I mentioned when you joined up with us that I'd like to put together a covert team, to handle covert-ops type missions." Harry commented.
Mystique eyes gleamed eagerly. "Yes! Does that mean you're going to give me the go-ahead to start recruiting from the people we just converted, or whatever you want to call it?"
"Not just yet, I want to observe them all for a few days, and you can give me some reports about their personalities and what you know of them before I give the okay. Morph wants to be one of the Custodes Mundi, but I can see no reason why he couldn't also work for you occasionally. But he and Wendy are the only two whose personalities and loyalties I am certain of."
"Your remit will be to undercover uncover things, follow up on hints and clues that Dennis has found of crimes against mutants or non-powered, specifically to try and see if you can figure out if there was someone else stirring the pot lately, or if it really was Magneto somehow. I'm getting the distinct impression here it wasn't Magneto, which means we have someone else out there."
"Agreed," Mystique said with a nod. "There were some rumors about something going on in China to, though they are just that rumors that Dennis' contacts in Japan passed on. We should get more penetration in Asia generally speaking, as well as the subcontinent and Africa."
"Then that will also be your first task: recruiting more agents who are willing to pass on information rather than anything more overt. Dennis has done a good job there, but you're right, even with Emma's assets in that area we're still sucking wind when it comes to boots on the ground."
Emma nodded too and frowned thinking. "I think I'll take part in the discussion of China. I have some ideas of my own in that area, and a few clues that we might wish to talk about in Egypt in particular, both as targets of interest, and as areas where we need more agents. Africa and Asia, those are different matters entirely, I'll have to do some more research on those. Say this weekend, meet up for lunch in New York?"
"So long as you're paying that's fine," Mystique said with a smile shaking her head at the other woman.
"But understand this," Harry said, staring into Mystique's eyes. "Your team will still be working for me. That means that I will back you to the hilt in any of your endeavors, none of the normal disavow all knowledge shite. But if you try to do something I wouldn't agree with, or do something behind my back, I will end you, understood?"
Mystique nodded. That was simple enough, and more than most black-op teams got. "Understood, and agreed."
"Good, now if you'll excuse me, Emma requested a bit of a tour." Harry replied before asking Cory to appear and take Mystique back to Camelot. Moments later, Harry and Emma were flying through the air of the Savage Land on one of the magic carpets since it was much more comfortable for Emma than him carrying her either magically or in his arms.
"Flying along in your arms is a romantic idea Harry, but not for the entire night," Emma had said before asking Harry to have Cory pop in with the carpet.
They flew over the Savage Land, heading away from the area where the battles had occurred, deeper and deeper into the underground cavern over the jungle. They stopped as a heard of Brontosaurus moved through the forest, hovering in the air between a few of them as Emma stared around her at the peaceful herbivores in shocked happiness.
"Reading dinosaur books was part of my childhood you know, my older brother read the first few to me, then he helped me learn my vocabulary words from a few others. Dinotopia was my favorite for years. The artwork can take your breath away when you look at it, and the storyline was good too." Emma murmured, seeming reluctant to speak as she looked around them.
"I remember that one, I thought it was a fun book too," Harry said with a nod, putting his arms around her. Like that they continued to float through the Savage Land, seeing none of the local inhabitants save for animals and dinosaurs at this point.
After a few moments Harry sighed faintly, shaking his head. "I've been neglecting you lately. I mean we've gone on dates but we haven't really spent a lot of time besides them and at night together just for the two of us, rather than as a group."
"Harry, enough self-deprecation, you haven't been neglecting me," Emma said bluntly, shaking her head and removing his hands from around her waist so she could turn and address him face-to-face.
She allowed her legs to move around his waist grinding slightly watching in amusement as his eyes began to narrow at the sensation. "I do love you, and I know you love me, I know it, I can feel the emotions through the link we share, just as much as I can feel Jean and even some of Ororo's."
"In terms of spending time together…" Emma shrugged. "I am much more of an introvert than Ororo or Jean. I prefer to spend time on my own, and what with my businesses and my little sister, I don't get much of that as it is. That's why I spend so much time just reading or curled up with a movie with you all, it's down time, I don't need as many actual moments of affection like Jean and Ororo do. "
She laughed. "Think of me like a cat, I will take affection and love when I wish, and then I will go my own way."
Harry laughed, shaking his head at the image those words conjured of Emma dressed up in a cat suit towards Emma through that the link she and Jean had somehow forged between their minds. In reply Emma laughed patting his cheek tenderly. "If you're very good boy I might dress up like that at some point, but you'd have to be a very good boy indeed."
"However," Emma went on more briskly, lifting up and away so she was no longer grinding her core against Harry's lap. "That doesn't mean that I am not a little irritated at the three of you. Your interactions with Hela concern me, especially since I can tell you and Ororo at least are interested in her."
She put a hand over Harry's mouth when he made to sneak. "Don't bother denying it. I can't say without calling myself a hypocrite to say that you can't look elsewhere, considering how late I came into this relationship. However I want your word that you won't start anything. No more flirting with her, no more trying to see if you're compatible, you can talk to her of course, but I want final say in whether or not this attraction you both feel goes anywhere."
"Agreed," Harry said instantly nodding his head after Emma removed her hand. "We weren't going to try and go behind your back you know that we know this is an equal relationship, and all of us have equal say in it."
"I know, I felt that up here, but I needed to hear the words from you in person," Emma said, tapping her for head and then leaning forward to kiss Harry lingeringly on the lips. She pulled back after a second, shaking her head. "And after you drop those two agents off, I expect you to try and set up a meeting with Hela again, and if she doesn't respond again, that will concern me."
"I know," Harry said with a nod. "Ororo and I had decided that already, but we wanted to get Magneto out of the way first."
"Good," Emma said then leaned in again and kissed him. "But tonight, all of your attention needs to be on me, understood?"
"When hasn't it been when we're alone?" Harry asked, rather offended.
Emma laughed throatily, once again grinding her center against his waist. "Exactly," she murmured, then leaned in once more to kiss him.
OOOOOOO
The next day, Harry traveled to New York touching base with Charles about what had gone on the day before, going over the injuries to the X-Men team, and generally helping Scott explain the battle as it had gone on before heading over to drop off the two SHIELD agents. As they finished Charles sighed, sitting back from the table and setting his teacup down. "I have to say I am sorry that Magneto died, but listening to how far he was willing to go for his own beliefs, I suppose I cannot argue with your methods."
Harry nodded, not saying anything. He didn't see why anyone would be happy Eric was dead, but then he hadn't known the man when he was younger and possibly had some decent point to him.
"By the way," Charles said in an effort to change the subject, "I understand there is going to be an announcement from Magical Minds soon? I believe it's actually tomorrow at lunchtime correct? You're going to announce a new breakthrough?"
"Yes," Harry said with a nod, and it must be said. a smirk. "A little joint project between Magical Minds and Reed Richards has come to fruition, as my chief PR rep puts it."
"Oh my that should indeed be interesting. If you had shareholders they would be ecstatic," Charles replied dryly, while Scott snorted.
"As the sole shareholder I am ecstatic," Harry said grinning and sharing a laugh with Charles.
"How are the newcomers handling what happened?" he asked Scott more seriously.
"Ups and downs sir. The Proudstar brothers have handled it the best, they had both been in fights before, even real combat occasionally apparently against poachers and other groups trying to hunt on Native American land, and one time a rabid bear of some kind. Same with Alex."
"Lorna on the other hand is having issues, as is Evan if for very different reasons." Scott sighed, shaking his head. "Evan has requested time off the team, which I've granted him, and Charles had our new live-in teacher Ms. McTaggart, drive him up to his family's for the rest of the summer. Lorna though… I sent to Dr. Strange to spend time with her half-sister. She has some major anger issues to work out."
"As for said half-sister," Scott shuddered. "According to Kurt and Nikolai who I touched base with, she was pretty damn vicious against Piotr. That worries me long term, but at least she seems willing to be happy he's just locked away for the rest of his natural life rather than try and find him and finish the job."
"Or until he realizes he was an asshole and should have followed his father's path whichever comes first," Harry replied shrugging shoulders. "I can't say I'm sorry that the other mutants from the Brotherhood died in the fighting. They had a chance to escape from the brotherhood, from Magneto's control, they didn't take it, and instead followed him into a war against the Savage Land's original peoples and wiped out many of them."
"They were so young though," Charles shook his head sadly. "It always bothers me when young people die regardless of their crimes."
Harry shrugged. "We were able to convince several of them to convert, and I'm not holding fighting against us while under Magneto against them, but that only gives them a reprieve now, I wasn't about to cripple my team by asking them to use non-lethal means in a campaign like that. As for the 'silver-haired daddy's bitch' as Wanda calls him, he's still going on about how he's going to avenge his father's death against me personally, so yeah he's going to stay locked up for a while."
"Good," Scott said seriously. "I never liked him, but I don't want him dead either, even after we heard from Logan and the others what he and the Brotherhood and Acolytes did in their Savage Land campaign." That Scott didn't regret being a party to Blob's death in combat went unsaid, as did his implicit approval for Harry's position regarding that campaign.
Charles sighed again sadly, but seeing neither of the other men seemed to understand his point of view he went on. "What about this unknown individual who got away?"
"Danielle was able to use her power to see who it was, and we know the guy's name was Gambit. But he showed a bit more power than he was supposed to have, and was blocking too much of his thoughts and emotions for her to get a read on the area he somehow teleported out of. She could tell that there was someone else there with him, but that's all."
"There is someone else out there then," Charles shook his head sadly. "A lieutenant of Magneto's perhaps, moving on his own after being left out in the cold too long?"
"Or a complete unknown," Scott said shaking his head. "We can't afford to think that we'll understand either the motivations or the long-term goals of this person Professor, don't get locked into the idea that he's trying to pick up where Magneto left off, or was somehow too extreme for him."
"Agreed," Harry said with a nod. "I could wish that Dennis could concentrate full-time on trying to find whoever it is, but there are a lot of other things that I have him working on. Sage is too tied up with the business side of things, but until Mystique and her team are ready we won't have enough field agents for clandestine ops."
"I want to observe her choices for a time before I decide to let them out into the wild once again." Harry stated firmly.
"No doubt a good idea. I have to wonder about how much freedom you'll allow them anyway. While I would be the first one to say that Mystique has her own sense of morality, it certainly isn't in keeping with a normal individual's, and it has led her to dark deeds in the past."
Now it was Harry's turn to sigh. "Charles, I can't be everywhere at once, I don't have the manpower, and most of the people on that Custodes Mundi aren't built mentally or physically for spy work. She proved her worth in hunting Magneto down. Without her, we would still be wondering where that neo-Nazi was. She's proved her worth, and I'll give her the go ahead. It's the others that concern me hence the waiting period."
Charles nodded. "You certainly have proven yourself a good judge of character before this, better than myself it must be said. Speaking of, will you be here tomorrow for when the other new students arrive? They should know who our support is coming from."
"No they shouldn't, not right away. If you want to drop my name as one of your backers sure, do it, but I don't want them knowing Potter is Guardian. Not until all of them have mental defenses in place so that no one of ill intent can make that connection without us knowing about it."
"And finally, have you decided what to do with Eric's young clone?" Charles asked.
Harry looked over at Scott, who shrugged, not having realized that Harry had wanted to keep that a secret from the older man. He hadn't, not really, but he wasn't about to just hand the boy over which he was perceptive enough to know Charles wanted. "He is staying at the Castle for now, he seems like a normal young boy physically, but we haven't, um, decanted him from the cryogenic tube. That will come this evening actually, but we'll see. I'm certainly not about to paint him with the same color as his possible clone father."
He didn't mention the fact that Reed had literally threw a massive hissy fit when looking at the cryogenic tube and some of the other machinery in it. Cloning like that should be well beyond human technology, making even Reed's similar areas of interest seem small. But when Reed looked through the computer, they found them dead, everything stored on them gone as if the damn things had been hit by an EMP.
"Good," Charles said of the side and a nod. "Good. I knew you wouldn't, but… Eric made so many mistakes. But someone with his powers and intelligence could do so much good, it would be a crime to miss this opportunity."
"Understandable Charles," Harry replied, though he thought defining someone just by their powers and what they could achieve with said was rather sad. Yet it was just so Charles he couldn't find it in him to be surprised.
"With that though I have to get going, Charles, Scott." Harry said getting to his feet, reaching over to clasp forearms with Scott. "I have a meeting with a new friend, dropping off a few problem children you might say." Harry's lips quirked, but he didn't reply to Charles' raised eyebrow.
After unshrinking his Huayra Harry drove off, zooming through the streets far faster and without stopping than any normal car could have. Around three hours later, Harry had was zooming through the outskirts of Boston searching for a specific address that he had been given a few weeks ago by a certain Captain. Steve Rogers.
Finding it, he pulled up to the front of the house, a nice two-story house in a very nice neighborhood, but nothing really special until he parked his car in its driveway. Getting out, he moved towards the doorway, ringing the doorbell quickly while also activating his car's Notice-Me Not array while casting a few sensory spells out.
Steve Rogers answered the door, obviously having been interrupted while exercising. His eyes widened in surprise at seeing Harry standing there. "Harry? Or are you here in your other persona?"
"Harry for now, did you know you're under surveillance?" Harry asked absent-mindedly, staring first one way and the other as his spell came back with two individuals with intent watching the house.
"Yes, the CIA apparently likes to keep a handle on me for some reason, and they're watched in turn by Army Intelligence, and SHIELD agents," Steve said with a shrug. "Unless you did something to them all though, they're going to know you're here so I hope your visits important."
"They'll be able to figure it out after a little while, but I clouded their senses a bit with a Notice-Me-Not. Don't worry, it covers my car too."
Steve nodded, looking over Harry's shoulder at said car shaking his head. "Probably a good thing. That looks like a crotch rocket."
"A what?" Harry asked blankly.
Steve chuckled wanly. "Don't worry about it, before your time obviously."
Then he looked down at Harry's hand, and Harry held up a six-pack of beer. "I come bringing gifts."
Steve chuckled more naturally and let the other man in. Inside the house was almost as normal as the outside, except the sofa in the sitting room was were slightly heavier, and larger to fit's Captain America's larger than normal frame, and the exercise machines were similarly more durable and high tech looking.
Sitting down, Steve reached forward, taking a beer from out of the container, smiling appreciatively. "I don't think you're here for a house call, though the beer is welcome. Micro-brewed, nice."
"Made a stopover in Pennsylvania for those, Logan said you liked that brand."
"Yes well Logan would know," Steve said shaking his head. "When I first heard that the Wolverine was still operating in this day and age, that threw me for a loop I have to say. Is he all right? I tried to get in touch with him after learning about that, figured he could help me acclimatize to this new age I found myself in but no one knew where he'd gone."
"That's is actually part and parcel to why I'm here." Harry held up a beer, saluting the air between them as he conjured up a chair for himself. "To fallen comrades."
Steve looked at him seriously, then held up his own beer clinking it with Harry's. "To fallen comrades."
The two of them sat sipping at their beer for a moment before Harry began again. "Logan was following Magneto, you know who he is?"
"A mutant turned Neo-Nazi because of his fear of mutantkind being the next prosecuted minority like the Jews were in World War II. Understandable in a way, but his methods marked him out just as bad as the one who forged him." Steve responded bluntly.
"Exactly. Well, after following a lot of different leads the Custodes tracked Magneto down to his secret hiding place. We just had it out with him yesterday," Harry said, figuring just to get it all out in the air immediately. "Magneto's dead, as are a lot of his followers. We took about dozen prisoners, many of whom we'll keeping in one of our own facilities."
"I wish I could argue with that," Steve mused. "But there aren't that many prisons which could accommodate mutant powers. How many can I ask?"
"Around six of them we're keeping under wraps, though honestly only a few of them are dangerous enough to concern me. The others worry me more because of their zealotry than because of their abilities." Harry said smiling slightly.
Ororo and Emma had both been worried about how Steve would react to the news that Magneto was gone for good, and the way which Harry and his group dealt with them. But he knew that Steve was foremost a soldier, and in wars people died on both sides. The battle between them hadn't been a war per se, but it had been something similar.
"But on a similar vein, I am afraid something else came up during our after-battle investigations."
"You say investigations I assume you mean interrogations?" Steve asked sighing and shaking his head. "I know it's necessary, but I've never been sanguine about that kind of thing."
"Nor am I, which is why we use Veritaserum if we have to and telepaths the rest of the time. No pain necessary unless they are somehow able to fight the telepathic process."
"Duggan said something about your truth serum leading to proof that the Red Skull was around," Steve said with a nod and a frown. "We've not seen anything of him of late, though we're getting some really interesting reports out of the former USSR countries and Dr. Doom's ongoing expansionism there."
"I imagine you are, let's just say that the Red Skull did something to intensely irritate the not-at-all good doctor, and he has decided to retaliate."
"I won't ask how you know that," Steve said, staring at Harry over the top of his beer bottle again. "Get to the point Harry."
"SHIELD somehow implanted two spies in among the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," Harry said bluntly. "I have them, and I'm going to return them to you to hand over to Fury. That man doesn't like me already, showing up somewhere on SHIELD property with two of his undercover agents would probably be a bad thing."
Steve snorted then shook his head sadly. "I don't want think I want to know what those two had to do to keep in good with those terrorists. I've never been happy about all this covert nonsense. That's much more Nick's area of expertise these days than it was ever mine."
"Give me a straight fight any day." Harry said with a nod. "But as for your question, as far as we can tell they didn't go full native, but then again they weren't the only ones among the brotherhood that had problems with how Magneto was doing things. I've even let them keep their memories mostly intact, though whether or not Fury believes their stories, that's up to him."
Steve nodding leaned back in his sofa, staring at Harry thoughtfully. "That can't be the only reason you're here. You could've figured out some other way of getting them to Fury after all rather than using me as a veritable mailman."
"Postman please," Harry said with a smirk, before he too leaned back. "I wanted to open up more communication between us, and through you to the Avengers." He held up his hand out, sliding a small communication mirror over the table. "That's a magical and untraceable communicator. If you're ever in trouble, or if the Avengers are ever in trouble give us a call."
Steve laughed, shaking his head. "Tony and the others won't like the idea that we need help, but all thank you anyway."
"We all need someone to lean on Steve, at least from time to time," Harry said with a faint smile. Then his emerald eyes hardened. "I've also heard some rumors I wanted to talk to you about."
Those rumors had come from Emma a few days ago, but Harry hadn't had time to follow up on them since. "There are rumors that Tony Stark is making androids, like the Sentinels only smaller, and to answer to SHIELD, or perhaps an AI created for SHIELD."
Emma had learned about that through several of the Hellfire club members, who dealt with high end electronics, metals and other items of that nature. Stark Enterprises had been paying for and taking in a large number of shipments of said in the past two weeks. It had taken that long for word to reach her, and it was very worrisome that there was nothing visible yet to explain away said shipments.
Steve scowled. "As far as I know that project was cancelled, I was told by Nick it was cancelled the moment it came to light. I've talked with Tony, and despite his… attitude… to certain things, I think I convinced him it was a Bad Idea. Warfare and fighting should always remain in the hands of humans lest we forget how terrible it can be. As for the AI, I think Tony got lucky with Jarvis, and doesn't realize it could have gone wrong very easily. He seems convinced that AIs are not as dangerous as people think."
"It's the army of robots that concern me more than the AI. Don't tell anyone, but I have an AI working for me, and I carefully limited his area of control. That and constant interaction with people has made Pinoptes as much of an individual as Jarvis. Yet at the same time, I did carefully limit his area of control." Harry said, shaking his head. "And I hate to say it, but I've heard rumors that might mean Tony hasn't stopped the program. Either that or he's decided to go into the weapons business again solely for SHIELD."
"I see…" Steve said, then gulped the last of his beer down, shaking his head. "I can't say the second idea doesn't sound good but I'll make some inquiries."
Harry nodded, and the conversation turned to other things, the two friends simply taking some time to talk again for a time. Eventually Steve finished the six-pack only to frown, realizing that Harry had only taken a swig from one before setting it aside. At his quizzically look, Harry laughed. "Jean's expecting, and myself and Ororo," and Emma "decided to cut alcohol out of our own diets."
"Congratulations!" Steve said with a grin and it must be said a pang of jealousy. Moments later he walked Harry to the door, watching as he sped off before looking at the two unconscious individuals which had just been popped into his kitchen. "Hmm… should I call in my watchers, or just take the two of you directly to work with me in my van. Both could be fun, but which would piss Nick off the least?"
OOOOOOO
Despite Steve's attempt to soften the blow Nick Fury was once again furious later that day. He stared angrily across his desk at Agent Winters and Mackel, who were looking somewhat sheepish. "A jungle, a giant prehistoric, underground jungle? Why do you think this is at all believable?!"
"Isn't it? After all, there was the Mole Man, and we know there are other races out there, Namor's people for example." Steve asked from where he was leaning against the wall, along with the Dr. Pym, currently in his normal size.
Pym had been taking copious notes about the number of animals, technology and other races that the two agents had seen, while another secretary, a woman who Steve didn't know well, but assumed was highly ranked on the helacarrier, had done the same at a desk nearby. She had occasionally shaken her head with something approaching relief more than once as the tale of the battle from the agent's perspective went on and the list of dead mutant terrorists grew.
For their part Fury and Steve had been more interested in what the spies could tell them about Magneto's activities and his faction. That had been a lot, but of course it was mostly old information now. How the Custodes had fought against them however had been very interesting to Fury.
At that Fury reined in his anger, nodding his head to Steve and the two agents. "All right, I suppose I can believe you about that much and your memory of the battles there. The fact that Magneto had conquered that place and now it's in Potter's hands however is a major concern."
Steve cocked an eyebrow at him shaking his head. "I don't see a problem with it. Harry might not be connected to the American government or any other existing government, but he's certainly proven he's on the side of the angels."
"You're too trusting Steve," Nick said, letting his anger further drain out of them. It hadn't really been anger now that he came to analyze it further, but shock, disbelief and growing worry.
Potter was too powerful by half already, and now this. The fact that the Custodes Mundi was also becoming so trusted in the media after its activities in Japan against Moses Magnum was another aspect too, not even mentioning the meeting Rogers had been invited to and the fact his agents in the US marines and Navy had stated that many who had been invited to that had begun to make plans involving ongoing communication with Potter.
"You like him," Nick said, shaking his head. "You're obviously biased."
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Point to something that Harry has done which shows he's our enemy, or is a threat to world peace." Steve countered.
"Harry Potter is quickly becoming the most powerful man in the world, with secret bases both on Earth and in orbit, a growing but already powerful foundation and a wellspring of support too. And none of it connected to any nation or under any kind of oversight!" Nick said, shaking his head. "Just because he isn't a threat now doesn't mean it will always be that way. That's why we spy on our allies as much as our enemies."
Steve stiffened at that, not liking that idea at all. "Does that mean you think I'm a threat too?"
"Don't be an idiot Steve! I spy on you because other people are doing the same thing and I want to know what they're doing and why. There's nothing personal in it, hell I even spy on the directors of various intelligence agencies both here in America and elsewhere, even those allied with America or just SHIELD."
"Pity Harry doesn't seem to play the same game," Steve said coldly shaking his head. "Regardless, Harry also told me he's seen reports that tell him Tony might still be working on that Iron Man army of his. Any thoughts on that?"
"It's not a robot army. Tony's seen the error of his ways and has decided to go back into the weapon making business for SHIELD." Nick replied promptly, almost as if he had been expecting it though Steve didn't notice that. "I convinced him that was the best way he could help us and work towards world peace. The robot army idea was a white tower concept if ever there was one."
"I'm glad to hear that." Steve said with a smile. "In any event, that was all I had to say about my discussion with Harry. So unless you have anything else for me…?"
"No. not right now, I'll call you in tomorrow though, I'll want your opinion on a few possible additions to the Avengers." Nick said, then watched as Steve walked out the door, sad he'd had to just lie to one of his best friends.
Because even though Tony had indeed agreed to make some weapons for SHIELD, he hadn't stopped construction on his robots. The Ultra Project was one way Nick thought they might be able to counter the Custodes Mundi when they proved themselves a threat, and for that, he was willing to lie to anyone. That was what he did, and he knew it was only a matter of time until Potter proved himself a threat.
He turned back to the two agents. "Now, what to do with you two…"
OOOOOOO
Mary Jane smiled as she left her small office to join her immediate employer in the hallway. Thomas Wallace was an elderly gentleman of the same age group as Mr. O'Cairn, Magical Minds manager, though of a much better build, and happily married to boot.
He was not as mentally flexible as Mary Jane had thought he would be working at a company like this, especially given the rather unusual manner in which Jean had conducted the job interviews. But, Mr. Wallace knew his stuff and was highly connected in the journalist field both here in the UK and abroad. Mary Jane had learned a lot from him already, not only about networking and who was who in the world of public relations but also about public speaking and how public speeches and other events like that could be controlled in a way that she had never really considered before.
But it wasn't as if she was the only one doing any learning here. For all his knowledge and connections, her boss was not as well up on what he called nouveau technology: the Internet, and what it could mean as it continued to grow and expand. Texts, e-mails, cell phones, all of these things were still growling still becoming more and more important, and he simply could not keep up.
MJ could, and did. She had been a major part of getting the word out about this new announcement. She had even begun working with a website developer to create a website for Magical Minds and its subsidiaries which the public could access, rather than just the internal network. Since they didn't sell directly to citizens, or single citizens, it wasn't as important as it could be but it definitely helped in the PR department area, making the company seem more personable. The higher ups had approved the plan based on that within a few hours of her submitting her plan.
Mary Jane's thoughts about her job skidded to a halt as several small bodies flitted down the passageway, one of them almost smacking into her before she dodged aside. "Hey! I didn't know it was bring your kids to work day." She said laughingly, reaching out quickly to grab the young black boy's shoulder holding him still.
The small black-haired girl who had chased after him also stopped, as four others gathered around her and Thomas, who was chuckling at them all. As a father himself he was used to such antics. "Do you mind telling me what you lot are doing running around here?
"We couldn't all fit in one elevator, and then James said we should play tag, and we sort of left everyone behind." Said the redheaded girl.
"I did not! That was your idea!" the African boy said, his English having a distinct accent to MJ's ears, as did the girl's though it was a different one to her ears. "I said we should wait for Ms. Brown!"
The girl glared at him, and Mary Jane chuckled winking at the boy, "Lesson one in dealing with girls kiddo: always try to take the fall for a bad idea even if it wasn't your idea originally."
"Come on," she said, gathering up all six of the little kids with a wave of her hands as Thomas did the same. A few moments later they were in front of the elevators waiting for the children's minders as Thomas questioned them, learning they had come here with Ms. Munroe and several others from a school they called Avalon Academy. That was all they said about it, and given Ms. Munroe's involvement that was enough for both Thomas and MJ.
The elevators, all three of them, soon opened, to reveal Jean and several other kids, their minders and Harry Potter along with the gorgeous looking black woman herself. MJ smiled at seeing Jean, though her eyes flicked over to Ms. Munroe for a second before she straightened her shoulders and tried to stand more assertively. She had met the slightly older African woman only twice before this, and she sort of intimidated MJ. Not her position in the company, which was rather mysterious, but her actual presence. Harry did the same thing though in a different manner.
All three of them are laughing, looking up at a little girl perched on Harry's shoulder, her head almost scraping the ceiling as they exited the elevator. When he turned MJ's way, to look at the kids with her, Mary Jane had to stifle a gasp as those emerald eyes of his landed on her for a brief moment. Good grief! I knew he was handsome but damn those eyes are just unfair on a guy! Shaking her head quickly Mary Jane got rid of that thought in gestured around the kids. "I take it they're all yours?"
"A school I sponsor has decided that the kids needed a day out, and since we're heading right there after this, they decided it was best to bring them straight from here." Harry replied as Jean smiled at the other redhead and Ms. Brown moved forward with deliberation toward the kids around MJ.
Even in the castle you couldn't keep people from becoming bored after all, even in a castle like Hogwarts and the last day trip they had to Disney World was a few months ago. Harry planned to take the kids to an Althing, a gathering like the ones the people he and Jean had met at the concert, though not the one they had mentioned, later that day. The reason they were here was so the teachers could make certain they all understood how to act in public before taking them to the outdoors Althing. Needless to say it hadn't gone all according to plan so far.
"Thanks for corralling them MJ," Jean said, shaking the other older redheads hand for a moment as she glared at the group. "Do you want to lose your privileges to come to the Althing this afternoon?"
Several little heads shook their heads, and Harry chuckled. "Come on, let's go get this over with."
To MJ's bemusement Reed Richards followed quickly out of another one of the elevators, his own boy on his shoulder, as Susan followed, laughing and smiling down at the children.
"This would be a very important school then," MJ murmured. Her eyes widened then as she saw looked closer at one of the little girls around Ms. Munroe. "Is, is that…"
"Best not to think about it." Harry said as an aside while Thomas, a UK native, stiffened as well seeing the young princess here.
Putting her worries about the princess' presences MJ fell in step with Jean smiling down at the little blonde girl between them, who had grabbed one of Jean's hands. "And who are you?"
"Illyana Rasputin," the girl said, stopping for a moment curtsying prettily before moving on. MJ nodded her head, smiling at the girls poise. But then she cocked her head at Jean had yet to answer her earlier question. "So this school…"
"It's not a normal school by any means , but a fun one anyway." Jean laughed, but didn't elaborate further as the cavalcade continued. The teachers and the kids broke off soon, moving in one direction towards a room MJ knew had several dozen computers set up for workers. She supposed they had been set up for the kids use for today.
As an intern, Mary Jane did not have one of the seats in the auditorium, rather she had to stay at the back with a few of the cameramen. As she watched from that vantage point Harry smiled and moved toward the podium, nodding his head as the cameras came on. "Ladies and gentlemen, you all were told to expect a major announcement, so let's get right to it. We are here to announce a major breakthrough in medical technology made with the help of Reed Richards. However, to talk about this further I will turn this meeting over to Betsy Braddock, one of my employees."
There were some murmurs at that from the UK locals, the identity of Captain Britain wasn't exactly secret after all. The foreigners however didn't react, simply watching as the very pretty, almost runway model pretty in MJ's opinion, purple-haired woman made her way to the podium. MJ had to nod lightly, impressed by the other woman's poise, though her attention was slightly diverted as a few of the cameramen shifted next to her. She frowned looking at them for a moment, noting that there cameras looked different from the normal sort somehow, though she wasn't familiar enough with cameras to say how.
Shaking her head MJ turned back the front of the room watching as Betsy began to talk. "My name is Betsy Braddock, and until Reed Richards helped me, I was blind. I was not born that way, it was not a medical condition but a result of an attack on my person, where my eyes were quite literally gouged out of my head."
Many of her listeners blanched at that, but then began to frown, leaning forward as they stared at her seemingly normal eyes. They certainly looked natural, and there weren't even any scars visible around her eyes.
"The eyes you see in my head right now are not real, they are cybernetic. They work, they feel they act, exactly like my real ones. Reed Richards designed these for me, and they work like this..."
She began to explain how her eyes worked through use of a few slides on the screen behind her. MJ couldn't follow much of it, but several of the audience Thomas had vetted for this announcement clearly could. Judging by the rising excitement though her eyes were defiantly passing muster but again MJ's attention was diverted to the cameramen around her. A few of them had shifted lightly again, a few of the other cameramen's movements catching her attention for some reason.
And it wasn't just her who had noticed, Jean seemed to have noticed two, and occasionally looked in their direction.