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Harry returned to Emma several hours later but had to wait while Emma once more emptied the corridor of servants as well as her sister, who had decided to take a break from her schoolwork. They had been able to bring in and clear a tutor for Cordelia, making the girl was much happier learning at home like this.
Still, Cordelia knew to stay out of Emma's way when she asked for it and she moved out onto the swimming pool area at the back of the mansion. Her personal bodyguard, of course, followed her. Cordelia was looking forward to seeing if she could tempt him with her swimsuit-clad body. She hadn't had much luck in that direction but she was having fun trying.
Thanks to the time difference, it was still early evening by the time Harry returned and they spent the rest of that night talking quietly in her office. Not only was it soundproof but the door could be locked as well and it had a computer, which she used to help with her presentation. During this presentation, she did have Harry take notes. Her face was serious as she went through all the laws that would pertain to his initial business, many of the laws that dealt with the legal/business concept of a corporation. Fun times could happen later but this was business and Harry needed to realize that business was serious.
"To change the world as you want to, you must be more important than Rockefeller ever dreamed of, bigger than Tony Stark or anyone else eventually. This business is a major part of that and you have to take it seriously."
After about three hours, they took a short break for Emma to order up some food, though Harry insisted on asking one of his house elves bring in some instead. That made a much better deal, and the two dined on a very tasty chicken gumbo with fresh bread and butter.
Emma shook her head, smiling faintly. "I would ask you how much I would have to pay one of your little helpers, Harry, but I know they feed on your magic. A pity, that. Servants who are that good and trustworthy, beyond price."
Afterwards, as they were picking at their meal, Emma began again. "Now I'd like to move on to public relations. New medicines, especially ones such as your potions, that can have such amazing effects will garner a lot of interest. Questions will be asked and you must be prepared to answer them. Are there any side effects? If there are, you must make them known immediately! Is there any chance of someone having an allergic reaction to them? You haven't gone through the normal method of being cleared and I can tell you now that there will be repercussions one way or the other. I have no doubt that people will almost certainly grab onto it, at least in the United States, and try to bring false claims against you."
Harry's eyebrows quirked into a question and Emma sighed. "There are quite a lot of people out there who think that suing someone is a great way to get rich quick. There are even some professional lawyers who specialize in those kinds of cases. Disgusting, I know, but that's human nature for you."
"Harsh," Harry replied mildly, "but I understand. The only potion that has any kind of side effect is a mild addiction and that's the pepper up potion. It cures the common cold along with giving you a pick-me-up but it's mildly addictive."
Emma nodded but kept her mind focused. "You may want to think about grabbing the bull by the horns, as it were. You need to think about coming right out and admitting your potions have magical origins. I'm not certain how but the effects are so amazing that people will be very suspicious of them. Unless you can come up with a really good lie, most of your potions have properties and effects that are just too far beyond anything else. The militaries of the world won't care much. They'll care about results. However, the moment you start selling to the public, you'll be running into a lot of skeptical people and those people will want answers. Of course, you'll also need to think about the religious backlash. Magic is still seen as a sign of the devil after all."
"That's a problem." Harry paused for a moment frowning. "For a time we won't be able to sell to both the militaries and to the public. I'd estimate at least half a year or so before we have enough product to sell to the public in any quantity." Though, I might stretch the sales to militaries to include secret agencies, or at least one in particular. I might not have liked Fury, but he certainly has a good eye for officers. "However, you're right; I can't hide the fact that my potions are magic. I've thought all along about that, to be honest. If it comes out my otherworldly origins could be enough to explain it away. I could say I found out how to make them somewhere in the Negative Zone or something like that. The full story will have to come out at some point and I've prepared myself for that eventuality, but you're right. It might be very bad indeed. I hope to circumvent that, a personal visit to the Pope perhaps before we start selling to the civilians sector.
"But I won't sell to any country that has any links to terrorists, regardless of their theology. Moreover, I'm going to practice a one strike you're out system. I have certain security systems in place." Or will, he thought to himself, once Kitty finishes her first job, I'm going to start throwing her at that that. "And if I find a single container has gone missing, is being horded, or has not being used by the people I sell it to, I will know it. If it can be at all traced back to that country or that military trying to double deal or anything like that, then all sales to that country will stop. All sales, not just military, eventually." At her horrified expression, Harry shrugged. "The potions are only the start of what I plan to be doing. I plan to, for example, start moving into the energy business, selling energy from my own reactors. My company be overseeing the defense of those as well as the upkeep. I will also sell various metals, both precious and not in the future."
"Still, if you're paid up front and then refuse to deliver, that could have a very negative effect." Emma warned. "You should probably wait to take a hard line on that as well as on the mutant rights issue until you are big enough for people to not want to double-cross you. A better way to do it would be to ask for concessions or a movement toward an equal defense under the law stance."
Harry shrugged. "I have it on good authority that a lot of people 'in the know', so to speak, are already aware of me and my abilities, although not many of them have much clue as to my agenda or any real understanding of how much my sphere of influence has expanded already. I wouldn't be thinking of stepping out into the spotlight if my power base wasn't already very secure. I think that I can get away with taking a hard line."
"I don't…" Emma paused for a moment as she mentally reviewed all the things Harry could do, all the things Harry had already done, and all she knew of his operations. Eventually, she nodded. "I don't know everything you're up to, but I have to say what I do know means you're probably right. But I can almost guarantee that there will be people out there who don't believe you and I think that you should rethink that one strike you're out thing. The three strike system would work better. You have to remember, after all, that countries aren't monolithic."
That in turn made Harry pause and he nodded in turn. "You're right, I shouldn't have to be reminded of that to be honest, people, governments, countries, none of them are monolithic. I can't paint an entire country with one color. That's what a lot of people are doing about mutants, after all. I need to get out of that habit, it was all too true where I came from, but not here." Harry was still getting used to the idea of governments that actually did their jobs, let alone the idea they could be on the same side, but that was no excuse to forget that 'people were people' everywhere.
"Which brings us right into the social aspect." Emma smiled. For the next hour she spoke about the do's and don'ts of high society, how to portray yourself, how to open up dialogue with other people and companies at social functions and via phone or electronic communications, and why the social scene was important.
She ended by saying, "The moment you can, move on the European branch of the Hellfire Club. Serious business can be conducted between people who meet there. Even with the loss of face they've suffered and the fact that none of the current members are able to meet the requirements to be a king or queen, you shouldn't underestimate its importance, especially those members that are based in continental Europe rather than the UK. Far more people are involved with the Hellfire Club both here in America and abroad than actually admit to being members or can even be identified as such. The British intelligence agency is a good one but I have no doubt that they don't know all the players."
She went into some of the many rules of the club itself, the pomp and ceremonies to be inducted into it, as well as what his duties as a king would be, which she knew he would undoubtedly become swiftly. Throughout this talk, Harry watched her, nibbling at the amazing bread the house elf Mipsy had served them. When she paused for breath, he spoke quietly. "You're hiding something, something that bothers you, more than you've shared so far with us."
Emma looked at him in surprise and Harry's cocked his head. "I've known for a while that you have some kind of plan in mind for the Hellfire Club but there is something seriously worrying you, something big. You're a little nervous, you have this little twitch of your right eyebrow that you get when you talk about something that scares you. Not often, I saw it when we first met when you were talking about Sabastian Shaw, and it only appeared once or twice, but I can see it now."
"For someone who hasn't actually known me for all that long you can read me entirely too well. Nevertheless, it's my problem. We're not at a point yet where your special talents could help me."
"Let me be the judge of that." Harry replied firmly, leaning forward. "If these are threats you can see coming," (He knew he nailed it on the head there when her right eyebrow twitched, just slightly.) "Then you need to be sharing it with me. I've been told recently that, regardless of my own thoughts on the matter, I am the leader of our little movement, and I intend to act like it. Tell me."
From anyone else, Emma would have either railed at that or simply tried to get out of it but Harry's stare pierced her and his words carried such force she eventually decided to share with him what she knew. "I have come across information about two of the inner circle of the New York Hellfire Club that concerns me. Both of them are anti-mutant and one, Pierce, is possibly the most unpredictable man I've ever met. In fact, I think he's a functional psychopath and he is a rabid anti-mutant hater. I have no idea why. I get the impression that it's very much personal with the brief glimpse of his thoughts I can catch without alerting his electronic defenses of my intrusion. I have no idea how he has done it but whatever technology he's using has gotten better since I met him. It's as if he's been testing out a product every week, something new and different, but it's always devoted to protecting his mind. I think a mental intrusion of some nature might be what has made him so hateful towards mutants but I can't be certain. I have plans already in place for him however."
That last was a white lie, actually. She knew Shaw had plans already in place but she was going to be the one to give him the nod to go ahead with them. Of course, even that nod would not be traced back to her. She was simply too good for that.
Harry nodded. "I'm not happy with the fact that you're so blasé about someone that you just described as unpredictable but all right. I see you think you have that well in hand and I won't press. I may provide you with some magical aid, another portkey for example, to augment the emergency one that's already in the necklace I gave you. Something tied to your general health perhaps." he mused thoughtfully then shook his head gesturing her to continue.
"Pierce is not the main problem. The two kings are the main problem. I told you about Shaw coming here and trying to bully his way into an alliance with man and I mentioned the young mutants he had with him?"
Harry nodded and she went on. "It turns out, he's collected several mutants, all of them young, all of them from bad families or bad situations. I'm afraid he's putting together a team much like the X-Men."
"Worrisome and, with Shaw's backing, even worse. You still have no idea about his powers?"
"Something physical is all I can think." the blond replied, shrugging her shoulders, which set her hair to bouncing for a moment. Emma took a sip of wine before continuing. "Shaw's also developed natural mental defenses such that I can't get into his mind without him knowing I've been there. I wish I could but I can't. Yet, even that isn't the main problem."
"Actually, I wouldn't even be worried about the main problem is much as I am right now if not for the fact that, thanks to my information gathering worms, I have a lot more detail on it. The other king, Buckman, is also mutant hater, though not as rabid about it as Pierce. He fears mutant kind and that fear has driven him to devote a lot of resources to what he calls Operation Sentinel. A lot of resources, I've only just become aware of how much, and it's staggering. He's literally poured almost all his liquid assets into it."
For some reason, the words Operation Sentinel sent a chill down Harry's spine and he leaned forward intently, his eyes hardening perceptively, urging her on. Emma responded quickly, feeling the force of his attention on her. "I've known for a while that Buckman's been funneling money and other resources into this project but all I could get from his mind was the person who was in charge of it without breaking through his own telepathic detection device."
She frowned angrily, trying to figure out a way to explain how those devices worked to a non-telepath. "Mental frequencies change, of course, but a person's mental frequencies only change in this very small pattern and will not change out of that pattern without external stimuli. When a telepath enters someone's mind, they change those frequencies slightly, adding their own timber to it, as it were. That can be detected, someone has come up with a way to defend the minds through some kind of electronic field, although it isn't very good. The White King's defenses, for example, sort of imitate the electrostatic defense that Ororo's mind has, which only allows her surface thoughts to be heard. Buckman's defense is nowhere near as good as Ororo's, but I can't break through it without leaving evidence."
She went on to describe the man in charge of the project, wincing internally as Harry's body language became grimmer as she did so. "If I had known anything about it, even where one of its installations was," she hastened to explain, "I would have brought you in once I learned about your invisibility. I just haven't had a target yet!"
"Is there any indication that this King meets with anyone involved in this project on a regular basis?"
"No, there is nothing to indicate that he's connected to the project at all if you're thinking about it in terms of a paper trail or something like that. Edward has not met with the man in person since the project began. I ordered my own people to look into anyone who had any interest in him at all and they were following Buckman. None of them report any kind of meeting with Trask. However, when I sense Edward's thoughts these days, I'm getting a sense of anticipation, not as if the project was ready to go right now, but as if it was coming closer to completion. I'd estimate we have at least a month before the shit hits the fan but I have no idea if that's accurate. This project is so black, I haven't found anything about it and I doubt anyone else knows anything pertinent either. Shaw certainly hasn't discovered anything. He would've shared it with me if he had. He knows that, at least in terms of the mutant haters, we are on the same side."
"More worrisome still," Harry muttered shaking his head. "Okay. I understand why you didn't bring it to my attention immediately. I'll even say that what with everything else I've had to be juggling since striking out on my own, you were right to do so. But in the future," he said looking at her, "I'll expect you to share these things with me. I'll be sharing more with you the moment we know that runic doorway upstairs works so I expect the same in turn. Try it out on Friday when you come to us before our meeting."
Emma wondered what Harry hadn't shared with her yet but shrugged off her curiosity right now to concentrate on the current issue. "I have tabs on Senator Kelly, who might be the only lead we get on this. I don't know if his mind is protected and I'm not willing to take the chance to attempt a long-distance mental attack since it would certainly warn them that someone is after them and I can't be as subtle long range as I can in person. Kelly moves in very different social circles than my family and I. The fact he rarely leaves Texas is another factor."
"The moment you get any hints, anything at all, that this project is about to go live or any hint whatsoever of where it's based, you'll tell me." Harry said, his voice commanding. "Something about this program has me very worried and I want to hit it as soon as we can, anyway we can."
Emma nodded, and the conversation then turned to the meeting with the King, covering specifics. Emma was pleasantly surprised to find that Harry already had a very good idea of what kind of deal he could wrangle from both the military and from the King about the specific set prices of his potion. He still only had a barebones understanding of the laws and what kind of deal he could demand to base his company in whatever country offered the best deal, but Emma could deal with that.
The evening ended on a high note and Emma escorted Harry back to her mother's former apartments with a smile on her face. She paused outside the doorway, looking up at him quizzically. "When should I appear on Friday for the meeting with King?"
"Show up around eleven in the morning local time UK. That way we can all spent some time together, go over our roles in the meeting, and decide how we want to play your role when we visit the King."
Before Harry could say anything else, Emma leaned in pressing her lips to his. Her hands went around his neck and, before Harry realized what was going on, she had her tongue in his mouth dueling with his. Before Harry could force her away, which despite his attraction to Emma he would have, given his promise to Ororo, Emma pulled back with a smile. "I'll see you Friday." she said impishly, turning and walking down the empty hallway, leaving Harry standing there rather stunned and bemused.
Eventually, he recovered enough to shake his head at her antics, then turned and left, this time using the runic doorway. He was impressed with how smooth it was. One moment he was walking, striding through it from the suite formally used by Emma's mother, the next moment he was walking through the room at the other end, a special use one. "These are interesting." he said aloud, smiling at Ororo who took his hand with both of hers the moment she saw him. "We might want to look into installing them elsewhere, for convenience sake if nothing else."
It was very late at night here, around one in the morning, but Ororo had been determined to wake up for Harry this time. She did not like it when he was absent from bed, she had gotten used to snuggling with him and it irked her when Harry was not there. Then too, she wanted to make certain that Emma hadn't tried anything, and from the bemused expression on Harry's face and the hint of a bit of lipstick on his lips, she evidently had. She reached up with one finger to wipe it off, then pulled him down into a deep kiss, holding it as long as she could before parting to breathe, staring at him as he spoke. "It seems Emma and I will have to have a talk. I'm still not sanguine about her joining us just yet, although I'm closer to it than I expected to be in so short a time."
"Understood." Harry said, his eyes a little wide at the sudden and rather forceful kiss, while his hands gripped her hips, his thumbs gently moving on her sides and rear in a way that set Ororo's heart to racing. "She surprised me as we were walking out, I didn't intend anything like that to happen love. In other news, I was able to get some information from her about what's been bothering her lately about the Hellfire Club. We don't have enough information to do anything about one of them but my gut reaction is it's bad."
"When has it ever been otherwise, my love," Ororo murmured, leaning her head down against one of his shoulders. She pulled away slightly after a moment, pulling him along by his hands. "Come to bed." she said firmly. "You've been running yourself ragged and I think we need a bit of a break from the outside world."
Harry went willingly but his mind was already moving forward, grappling with what he considered to be the most worrisome issue facing him, the assault on Mephisto's realm. He had several books he was going to be reading that evening but he could do that just as easily in the dark as anything else and if his Ororo, his lady of winds, wanted his presence beside her, Harry had no problems with following that idea.
They found Jean already asleep, her wild mane of flaming red hair splashed out across the pillows in a halo, sleeping on her chest with one arm underneath the pillow, the other arm and a leg falling off the side of the bed.
The two of them had barely crawled in and under the sheets before she turned murmuring sleepily and snuggling into Harry's chest. Despite it not being that long, in fact only a few days had gone by since that first night she had spent with them, Jean had become used to sleeping with the both of them and her other hand found Ororo's thigh, squeezing almost possessively.
The two older lovers shared a soft laugh at that and Harry leaned down to gently kiss Jean on the forehead. This won him a murmur and a smile before he turned to Ororo, kissing her on the lips before the two of them began to talk in quiet tones about what he had learned from Emma that evening.
OOOOOOO
It was rare indeed for Nick Fury to feel as much of a maelstrom of emotions as he was feeling right now. He was agog, elated, ecstatic, angry, and aghast all at the same time. While not anywhere near as bad as a spy within SHIELD itself would be, a terrorist spy in the US Army was still pretty bad, especially given the fact that there hadn't even been a hint of there being a spy like that before this.
It made him wonder precisely how secure SHIELD was in turn, since SHIELD drew its people from the US military and the US and Canadian secret services. Nick was fully prepared to put up with a random few that were still reporting to their old bosses. That was just the way the game was played and he, of course, had people watching their bosses in turn. All the watchers watched everyone, after all. It wasn't something you were going to simply turn off. But the idea that someone could have allegiance to a terrorist organization in his agency, especially one like this HYDRA seemed to be, that wasn't going to fly.
On the other hand, Crossbones had been on his Christmas wish list for several years now. The psychopath was just too damn good at his job. Beyond the terrorist attacks that had been definitively connected to him, Crossbones was tentatively connected to at least two dozen other attacks, ranging from assassinations via simple poisons to kidnappings and mass assaults.
On the other hand, he wasn't happy to find Harry Potter, or Mr. Wizard as he styled himself, was still flouting international law and still seemed to be cleaning up after a mess that Fury and his agency couldn't have handled. That both hurt his pride and worried him about what the loose cannon was really up to. He was happy to get Danvers and her men back make no mistake, yet her report about how and why they were rescued was,, simply a little too pat for his tastes.
The fact that Harry Potter had a truth serum that actually worked was very worrisome indeed. He hadn't seen anything like that from the wizards he dealt with during World War II but, then again, when he thought of dealing with those wizards that meant shooting at them so it wasn't a surprise that there was magic that he didn't know about. More to the point, who knew what the man could find out with a few careful magical spells, a kidnapping or two, and an application of truth serum?
His old friend Dum-Dum could read his boss like a book. "Oh, give over, Nick." Duggan laughed, looking at his boss in amusement from across Fury's desk.
Unlike the time Phoenix had dropped off her bundle o' terrorists, Duggan knew the capture of Crossbones was too important to try and sit tight on. He'd moved as fast as he could. The moment that Harry had applied the serum to Crossbones, he had begun his interrogation of the man and then quickly bundled him into one of the SHIELD special VTOLs. The plane rocketed up into the stratosphere then went supersonic, moving faster than most jets could on their way back to America.
Nor were his people idle during this. They had captured the spy stationed in the Army base and figured out how the man had been sending out his information via a small drop box that went out with the base's waste. They had also shut down Operation Ghost and had pulled literally everything related to it out with them, much to the chagrin of the base commander.
Now he Duggan shook his head. "Potter helped us big time and you know it. If not for him and Phoenix, we wouldn't know that HYDRA had gotten its tentacles into the US military. Who knows how high that goes? That's not counting what I got off of Crossbones. Who knows what more we can get off the spy, Sergeant Montoya, eventually, putting aside anything about what his indoctrination can tell us about HYDRA and its motives."
"Potter may not be an enemy, just yet. I still think he's a loose cannon but I'll agree he isn't our enemy. That's as far as I'm willing to bend. Now let's talk about what specific information you got out of Crossbones."
Duggan sighed and shook his head and pushed cross a recording of the interrogation. "You'll want to listen to this yourself boss. It's beyond disturbing and I think he represents a greater threat than HYDRA or maybe even that AIM group. Not only is this the first hint we've got that someone else is involved but it's who seems to be involved." The large man actually looked worried and… afraid?
Nick could read his friend as well as Duggan could him and he paused for a moment, looking at him searchingly. There were very few things that truly frightened Dum-Dum Duggan and not, as scuttlebutt had once put out when they were younger, because he was too stupid to feel fear. He feared death like any other man and was as brave as any sane man could be but he feared failing his duty more. Yet, now he looked worried, very worried, much more so than Nick had seen him in decades, long before SHIELD had been thought up.
Deciding to put that aside for now, he looked over at Carol. The blond field commander had been standing at attention in front of his desk, a sharp contrast to the laid back Duggan, who had pulled up a chair and was lazing back on it even as he gave his report. "Before I listen to this, do you have anything you want to add?"
The strikingly good looking honey-blond woman shrugged. "I'll be writing up a formal report of the fight that I witnessed but in a nutshell Mr. Wizard, Harry as you call him, seems to have developed a small team of operatives, all of whom have mutant powers, save one, though I could be wrong about him. They handled themselves extremely well, if not quite as professionally as I would've liked to see in a field team but that could've been simply the nature of the battle itself. It wasn't exactly a normal one after all, yet I will say this. That Phoenix woman, I have no idea what her powers are beyond telekinesis, but she's dangerous with a capital D. She caused some kind of explosion, I have no idea how, that took out all of the…well they called them golems and I didn't see anything that could gainsay that, although I'm still getting used to the idea of magic being real. Oh," she exclaimed, breaking from her ultra-formal body language to snap her fingers, "they took his backpack."
"Excuse me?" Fury said with a raised eyebrow, seeking clarification.
"The Phoenix, she had this bag. It looked only as large as my hand. Somehow though, she took the Vulture's power pack and it disappeared inside the bag. I'm not certain how that would work but I saw it with my own eyes, this thing about three feet by one shrunk to fit inside the pouch as soon as it got closed."
"I can see I'm going to be reading your report with great interest." Nick stated dryly, knowing that magic liked to break the rules of physics whenever it could.
"Realize I won't be able to give you any kind of physical description." Carol said seriously. "I don't know how they were doing it, the moment I looked away from them I couldn't remember their faces. Not even a single thing about their features, nothing about what they looked like, though I could remember their specific powers."
"Understood. Duggan reported the same thing the last time Phoenix showed up and I've had reports of similar responses in other areas." Fury replied waving his hand slightly. He wasn't at all surprised.
"Um, sir, on another matter… Has there been any further discussion about reactivating Team Skywatch? Not to put too fine a point on it, but my specialty, my interest and learning lies in that direction, not chasing down criminals, no matter how uncommon."
"No agent, there hasn't." Fury answered crisply. "We have far more duties right here on Earth than we can deal with already, looking to space is just asking for trouble."
"But sir, what about…"
"Agent Danvers," Fury said, coldly now, "that is the final word on the subject. Neither I nor the committee has the least concern over what might be out there, not given the drubbing the Fantastic Four has meted out to such threats. Nor do we have any funding to back Skywatch. Maybe in the future we will be able to come back to it, but not right now."
Carol growled low in her throat at what she considered to be gross stupidity, but nodded her head. "Yes… sir."
With that he dismissed her. When Carol was gone, Fury looked over at Duggan, who simply waved a hand at the recording. Fury looked at the disk for a moment then quickly reached out and stuck it inside his recorder, before he could think about putting it off further. Almost immediately, Crossbones' voice, deep and gravelly, yet somehow almost drugged in some fashion, came through.
The first few moments read as if he was quoting from a neo-Nazi manifesto, but then he said something that caused Fury's heart to stop. At a question from Dum-Dum the man said "All praise to white supremacy, all praise to human supremacy all praise to the Rote Schädel, who will lead us in culling the weak and debased, who leads us to our destiny!"
He leaned back, not entirely consciously, more in response to that name being spoken after so long. It brought up nightmares from World War II. How the Red Skull, as he was so aptly named, an agent of Hitler's most secret security forces, had been very close several times to turning the war against the Allied powers.
Brilliant, unscrupulous, and possessed of a passion and magnetism that made men want to follow him, the Red Skull was one of Hitler's most trusted agents and the first man to have been given the first version of the Super Soldier serum. The serum had a horrible side effect, changing his face to that of a red skull, yet he was still alive despite it, yet somehow warped mentally not just physically. More dangerous than Baron Zemo, more dangerous than even Fury's own nemesis Baron Strucker, the Red Skull was a general, a spymaster, a spy himself, an incredibly dangerous hand-to-hand combatant, marksman, master assassin, and scientist: all at a level well beyond normal.
He had come very close to toppling both the Americanand the British governments more than once, had succeeded in undermining the Russian front for several months, and had sown so much chaos and fear across Europe that he had set the war effort back months. Many European countries were still feeling the effects of his actions to this day. He had used terror like a weapon, killing hundreds and making thousands too afraid to fight against the German war machine.
It was only because of Captain America and the original Defenders team that his efforts were thwarted time and time again. And it was only Captain America's final sacrifice that stopped his most dangerous plot. The Red Skull had developed incredibly powerful bombs that he was going to bomb every city in the US, wiping out millions of people. The bombs were to be delivered by a massive flying fortress, whose defenses and ability to cloak would have made it immune to any defense.
Captain America led a task force into the secret underground hanger where the fortress was being built and armed, boarding it along with Bucky, his second in command. Bucky and most of the other men with them died but Steve Rogers, Captain America's, final act of heroism stopped the Red Skull. During a one on one battle against the Red Skull, the two of them had destroyed most of the controls for the plane and the Captain went down with the ship, directing it to crash land deep into the Arctic.
How long has the Red Skull been operating without anyone having even a hint that he's still alive!? How the hell is he still alive! He should've died with Captain America! Before the plane went down Steve reported that he noticed one of the escape pods was gone but he also said that the Red Skull had a huge piece of metal debris stuck in his chest from when cosmic cube broke out of its container. How could even a super soldier survive that!?
The recording of the interrogation continued. Duggan had naturally become even more determined and his questions came out as fast as he could ask them. He ran into several prepared mental blocks but the truth serum forced him to answer the questions regardless of prevarications. Eventually, they had the names and descriptions of several dozen specialized operatives that Crossbones had worked with, his handler, the names of ten terrorist groups that he had interacted with on behalf of his leader (all of whom had no idea they were who they were truly working for), and one location, a base in South Africa.
That made sense in a way, since that country was still under apartheid, despite national and domestic pressures to end it. In the end, however, Crossbones didn't really know very much about the Red Skull personally, what his plans were going forward, what other resources he had, or where he was truly based.
As the recording wound down, Nick kneaded his one eye, a worrying gesture that he had picked up after losing his other one, wondering what they could do with this information. "This is a gold mine." he said honestly to Duggan. "You did a damn good job getting that much out of Crossbones, I can see that. We'll see if our interrogators can work to get anything else out of him now that Potter's serum has worn off but I'm going to give them an ultimatum. If they don't get anything new out of him within a week, I'm going to put a bullet in his head."
Dum-Dum nodded without any sign of emotion. Crossbones was simply too damn dangerous to even think of keeping in a jail cell for any length of time, even on the helicarrier. The Red Skull had put in a lot of effort into Crossbones' training. The man had said at one point in the interrogation that he was being groomed as one of the Rote Schädel's new super soldiers. That probably meant that the Red Skull would try to make sure he escaped or was silenced.
They couldn't take that chance, no matter the legalities of such a move. "I'd say that's a damn good idea, boss. I got about a dozen men with me who'd volunteer to do it in a second. That man is one sick motherfucker."
Duggan wasn't just speaking about his Nazi beliefs but about his personal activities. The man was into necrophilia. He got off on killing in a very literal sense. He, seemingly also had a hidden trophy room somewhere in Dubai, rather a surprise because he didn't have any connection at all with the government there nor did the Red Skull. But what he bragged about keeping there was disturbing in the extreme.
Nick nodded, but his mind had already moved on to other things. His fingers flew over his keyboard for a moment, then he nodded again. "I'm going to put in motion operations Skeet-Shoot, Barnacle, and Zamboni."
The redheaded former body-builder didn't know what the first two operations were, though he could guess on Barnacle, but he definitely knew that last one. He grinned, has eyes alight with hope. Nick saw this and shook his head. "We might be lucky to find something but don't get your hopes up that far."
That didn't do anything for his friend's enthusiasm however, and he chuckled, not letting his own enthusiasm show. He had been planning for that operation long before the creation of SHIELD but it was only in the past few weeks that he'd had any hope of it actually succeeding. Thanks to Natasha whispering in Tony Stark's ear, they had several new scanning devices that could help them in their search. Who knew, maybe they'd get lucky and find something or, more particularly, someone.
"Eventually, I'll want you to be in a position to check in with Barnacle. That asshole is prickly enough that I want one of my senior agents to handle him but we'll see how the first overtures go. Until then, take a few days off. Then I'm going to put you and Hawkeye down in South America. We've got a lead on AIM and I want my best man to follow it up. We're just going to have to hope that the Red Skull is willing to keep silent for a while or, hopefully, hasn't heard about Crossbones having been captured, just yet. Oh, Hawkeye might bring along a tag-along. He's useful but young and inexperienced."
"What about the base in South Africa?"
Fury frowned thoughtfully then smirked. "I'll pass it on to our new 'friend' the Black Panther, that's his neck of the woods. We'll loan him some men if he asks but I don't want to step on any toes there. They sure as hell wouldn't let us in officially and unofficially we would run into a lot or resistance. He can get in and out of South Africa, I'm certain. We'll see what we can see."
"And no Duggan, you're not going to be on that team. I If I can finagle it,will be. If the Red Skull's there, I have to be there."
Eventually this operation would be abandoned, because the base in question had already been abandoned by the time the man called the Black Panther led his own men in.
OOOOOOO
Harry woke up the next day to find that Jean had somehow flopped over in her sleep so that she now slept almost entirely on him on her back, save for her head, which was nestled in the crook of Ororo's neck on his other side. Harry was able to look straight down and see a rather glorious view of the redhead's negligee clad breasts but this did nothing for the reason he actually woke up, to wit, he had to piss like a racehorse. Gently, ever so gently, he raised Jean's body off him via magic, ducking out from underneath quickly. He raced into the tower's bathroom and a moment later an "Ahhhh…" echoed out.
The sound woke up Ororo, who was waking up in any event. She smirked, looking up as Jean mumbled something, slowly falling back to land on the bed. Harry came back at that moment, shaking his head and smiling at his two ladies on the bed. "I'm going to be studying up on our target for Saturday all day today then, after our meeting with William tomorrow, will be working on our defense for same." Even covered by the wards of the castle, Harry refused to use Mephisto's name. Demon Lords had very odd powers and being able to overhear any conversation with their names in it was one of them. "What do you have planned?"
Ororo beckoned him closer. Harry leaned over, not surprised at all as Ororo pulled him down onto the bed, kissing him sweetly on the lips. This action woke up Jean, who looked up at them, smiled, and leaned in to kiss Ororo on one deep chocolate colored nipple then rising up to capture Harry's lips when Ororo gasped, letting him go.
The African woman chuckled, leaning in to kiss Jean in turn, before leaning back and sighing faintly. "I am going to be reviewing the results of the testing we did on the children and then working out in the RoR, possibly joining Shiang Chi and the boys when they exercise. I would like to work on using more of my abilities in close succession. I did not like how mentally exhausted I became during our little spar a few days ago. But I think we can spend a few minutes… waking up properly."
With that she leaned in to kiss Harry again, to which he responded eagerly. The lovers spent several minutes just kissing and gently cuddling with one another, something they all enjoyed, seeing it as part and parcel of their love. Eventually, however they had to start moving, doing so only reluctantly. As the two ladies took a shower, accompanied by much audible teasing in the form of moans and teasing phrases such as 'Ororo love, could you soap my back for me? Only if you do my legs' Harry related what he and Emma had discussed the night previously, paying particular attention to what she had related about Project Sentinel.
During that part, both of his ladies stopped their play and it was silent for a moment when he finished. The sound of the shower cut off and Jean stepped out first, her only concession to her rapidly diminishing sense of propriety a pair of hurriedly pulled on panties covered by a pair of daisy dukes that were just this side of decent.
Despite her clothing however, she was very much in work mode when the spoke. "That worries me, so much so I'm almost tempted to tell Emma to just rip what she needs from Buckman's mind and this is me saying it! Bolivar Trask is a name to conjure with, if you'll excuse the phrase, in the engineering industry. He developed the American MBT targeting system, the AEGIS targeting system, and a new engine system a few years back, though it was later pulled since the military felt it was too close to SI's jet engines and didn't want to offend their primary source of such high end toys. I also read his name once cited in a work about creating a security system based off specific heat temperatures. Targeting systems, programs, and power systems are his specific area of expertise and I really don't like the idea of what he could come up with if given unlimited resources. I hadn't heard of him being anti-mutant but that doesn't mean anything really since he hasn't published anything in… three years? Something like that anyway."
"That matches what Emma was able to find out about the man. I agree, if I thought she could get away with ripping the information out of Buckman's head, I'd tell her to take the chance. But she wouldn't and she won't. Not until she has to or is certain of Buckman's level of feeling for Paris. Paris helped her a lot initially and Emma sees her as an acquaintance, possibly even a friend, although nowhere near as close as you, Jean. Emma wants to use Paris's companies to put the word out about our potions but we will see about that. I've told her, though, that if she gets a shot at Kelly to take it or if even a hint of Trask's location, regardless of where, to call us in." Harry shrugged unhappily. "That's all we can do at the moment."
Ororo came out at that point, wearing nothing for the moment and brushing out her glorious white hair. "Indeed, but should we warn the X-men about this?"
"My gut reaction to that question is no but I can't tell you why. Charles isn't the sort to act precipitously nor is Scott, well not any longer." Harry replied, then nodded with frown. "His backers. We've known for a while that Charles has connections in the American government. He might sound them out about it and that could get back to Trask somehow, bringing more attention to him and the school."
"Or he could try to get close to Buckman somehow. They do both live in the same state, after all. It might be easy to do if he found out the location of the Hellfire Club." Jean said, taking the comb from Ororo with a smile. "I have a lot of respect for Charles. I know his telepathic power is greater than mine, as is his control, but I don't know if he's ever come up against something like the defense Emma has described that Buckman uses. Best not to chance it, especially since if we tell him and warn him off, he's almost certain to butt in anyway. He's a good man but he tends to not listen to other people when he thinks he knows best."
Harry nodded, not seeing the smiles his ladies sent his way. Harry, too, often thought he knew best and had a vision of the future that was much like the one Charles had. Yet the difference was he was proactive and also was always willing to listen as he had listened to Piotr about the morality of what he had done to the base in Russia. "That makes sense; although, it does… it does give me a good idea to get the information in the future. Not right now but maybe if we have time in the future…"
"Something else will come up beloved, believe it." Ororo replied with certainty, cupping his cheek tenderly. Harry laughed softly, nodding his head and gently laying a kiss on her palm, before smiling over at Jean, who had laughed in agreement with Ororo's comment. "Now, I believe that it is time for breakfast."
The two ladies finished dressing and the trio went down to breakfast in the dining hall. Piotr and Nikolai were both already awake, the former super-soldier candidate laughing at something, although his friend was blushing hotly, showing what kind of joke it had been. Illyana and Melody were both awake as was Anechka, talking excitedly about some adventure they were planning.
Harry made a mental note to make certain to send out a house elf to buy warm clothing for them. The warm season here in Scotland was going to end very soon and the kids would all need it. Of course, they also need regular clothing as well. None of us have had time to go out with them to buy any. House-elf made stuff is well and good but they'll all need some real clothing soon.
His thoughts were interrupted when Nikolai thrust a small packet of papers in front of him. "What's this?"
"My AAR, sir. I assumed you would want us all to write up one for the action yesterday." Nikolai said this with a faint smile on his face.
"Are you trying to tell me something, lad?" Harry asked, a wry smile on his lips.
'Kind of," the Russian redhead responded, shrugging his shoulders. "I think we could have lot of improvement in terms of communication during the actual combat, our roles, and our battle rattle."
"Battle rattle I'll agree with," Harry replied, while the others looked confused as to what that meant. "I'm going to eventually assign Jean and Kitty to that project but I've got some ideas in that direction as well. For now though, you all can work on teamwork as much as you want in your training. None of us have enough time to put into it now though, so you'll have to wait until at least sometime next week. Sorry if that offends your professional sensibilities, it does mine as well to be honest, but we just don't have the time and that's flat."
He looked over at Piotr, who had flinched slightly at the mention of the battle the other day. He walked over to the former farmer, patting him on one arm and leaning down to whisper to him. "I can tell that's bothering you, lad, sorry I wasn't available last night to talk but I'm here whenever you want to talk today. For now, remember that you helped save those SHIELD agents, that woman especially from a fate some would call worse than death. You gave those men a death in battle, far better than what Crossbones and his ilk would have done to Ms. Danvers or her fellows."
Piotr nodded, seeming to take his words to heart, turning to his food as it appeared.
Later that day, Fay and Ororo's initial impressions of the children were proven correct. They were all at different educational levels. Sergei, for example, had next to no education. While the priest had been able to find him and attempt to get out Sergei of Russia, he hadn't had the means to teach him Braille, not understanding that language himself. Fay and Ororo talked about bringing in a specialist for him but this would take time, so until then, he would have to learn all his lessons verbally.
Ivan had been with the priest for longer and was well up on his reading and writing skills in his native Russian, though science and math were sorely lacking. Jesse and James of course didn't have any real schooling, not having been born into an area where schooling was prevalent. They had basic reading skills and limited writing skills in Arabic but that was all. Once they finished learning how to read and speak English, they would have to join Sergei and Ivan.
The only one of the younger group that was where she should be going by her age was Anechka, whose mutant power had only activated a few days before she was rounded up. Up until that point, she'd had a somewhat normal childhood, though that all changed when her power activated and her parents turned on her like the rest of the community she lived in. They had also turned on one another, blaming one another for her mutation and the next few days, until she was taken away by government forces, had been a very nervous time for her.
Illyich and Mikhail were both actually well-versed, almost to their age level, and could move on quickly once they learned how to read and write English. Laynia was a little bit ahead of her developmental level and could possibly graduate high school if given the chance to test out of most of the core subjects. All they could do with her was simply test her. They would have to either bring in someone else to help teach Laynia or send her to Professors Xavier's, which was a distinct possibility.
Laynia didn't want to be part of the team and would rather try to have a normal life while still learning about her powers. She wanted to be a ballerina or possibly a scientist, if her skills couldn't take her to the professional level. What she was certain was that she wanted a normal life. Her powers to her were simply a thing she had. She would use them to defend herself and others, if she had to, but she wasn't willing to join the team and go out on missions to defend complete strangers.