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Exodus was a tall, black haired mutant, whose skin showed either Native American or Middle Eastern ancestry. Eric was not certain which and Exodus himself had no memory of the time before he had been sealed away by someone. He wore the uniform of the Acolytes, with the addition of a white cape and golden shoulder guards, and was a monstrously powerful telekinetic and telepath, among other things. His healing ability was near to Wolverine's, he was super-strong, and he was incredibly durable as well.
"We will begin running the surviving Savage land barbarians and Aerans through the mutation program," Magneto said. "That might take a few weeks given their numbers and the numbers of our own people who have not yet been given the same treatment, but it will be well worth it in the end. Zaladane, I think you should be in charge of that, since your people make up the majority of those who haven't gone through the process."
Zaladane was a woman who seemed to be in her early thirties with curly black hair falling in a cascade down to her elbows, a suit of blue cloth and white feathers denoting her status as a priestess, and an almost Aztec-like headdress. Since she was a sorceress of some power her actual age was debatable. She had challenged Magneto to single combat when he began his conquest of the Savage Land, and he had defeated her with ease, welcoming her by his side afterward. "It will be interesting to see what becomes of my people when they become mutants my lord."
"Indeed. At the same time, we will run the Acolytes and the Brotherhood through my new mutation strengthening device." Which, unlike the last one won't make them lose their minds because of their newfound powers. Thank you again Fabian, without your albeit unwilling aid such a thing would've been impossible. "Exodus, you will be in charge of that."
Exodus nodded his head in wordless agreement, and Erik favored him with another smile before going on. "Meanwhile, I will winnow through our ranks to pick out spies which we can send abroad when Mastermind returns. We need to begin getting more information about what has been occurring than we've been able to get just from randomized news dumps."
"While we are doing that Sauron, you will be in charge of keeping order within the Savage Land. I want no hint of further rebellion, do you understand?"
The pterodactyl-like mutant bowed his lizard head, but even so Magneto knew not to take his obsequious nature for truth. Sauron was a weapon that was all too likely to turn in Magneto's hands if he allowed it. "I will see to it my lord."
"I know you will not fail me," Magneto said, both comment and threat in one. Watching Sauron through his specially created contacts, which allowed him to ignore the other's hypnotic powers, he saw this hit home, and with a wave of his hand sent both Sauron and Exodus out of the room.
Zaladane remained for a moment, but at a slight shake of Magneto's head she too left, frowning sadly at this dismissal. With that Magneto turned back, staring out over the horizon once again.
OOOOOOO
While Puck was merely thrown into a regular jail cell and not given any medical attention, thanks to his healing factor and adamantium claws Wolverine could not be treated so cavalierly. Logan was placed into a special prison cell which was magnetized, pulling his adamantium clad bones in every direction with the force of seven G's. It was one of the most painful experiences Logan could remember and he was completely unable to move.
Logan didn't know how long he hung there, but he knew his self-control was fraying badly, the pain pushing him towards his inner berserker, until inexplicably, the pain stopped. Logan dropped to the floor, gasping there for a moment before extending his claws and jumping forwards claws extended towards the shadow outside the cage's doorway.
"Logan, stop!" Said a female voice, and he stopped, his claws a single finger's width away from slicing into a woman whose face he had never seen before. He turned to look at the woman who had spoken. It was Shanna, Ka-zar's girlfriend/partner in leading the Savage Land barbarians. "S, Shanna, what's going on?"
"I'm getting you and Puck out of here," said the woman in front of him. "You two and Shanna. You three are the last hope of any kind of resistance that the Savage Land has, and I'm terrified of what will happen if Magneto's able to launch his war machine against the rest of the planet without any warning."
Logan glared. The lighting in the prison cells was dim, but he could still make out the outfit the woman was wearing, it was one the Acolytes wore, that special gold around the shoulder plates made it pretty obvious. "You're betraying him, why?"
"I joined up with Erik because I thought there was no possible way humans and mutants could coexist peacefully, and I would rather fight for a cause then fight to retain the status quo." The woman, Amelia Voight said, not wanting to go into the full history she shared with Erik and Charles Xavier right now. "But for a while now I've been worried about Erik. He's become a megalomaniac. Worse, he seems to be unable to see that equality is slowly gaining ground in the outside world. Yet Magneto wants to change that. I, I cannot support that."
Logan stared at the woman for a moment, taking in her scent. He could smell fear on her, anger, but also some level of determination. The fear wasn't directed towards him either, nor did she smell like she was lying. "All right," he said nodding. "Get us out of here, and the three of us will do what we can."
"Head towards the main entrance to the Savage Land," Amelia, said as she unlocked the door. "Hide nearby there, maybe you can ambush the supply group when they come in, or stowaway on it when they have to go out again. That might be your best bet, but you have to do something! I've tried to talk to Erik, but…" she shook her head. "I don't think words will reach him anymore."
Logan nodded, and moved over to Puck, glad to see that his limited healing factor had begun to fight the wounds the short man had taken. "You know where my daughter is?"
Amelia blinked, then made the connection in her mind. "Oh, you mean Laura? She's out with a group of hunters, bringing in meat for a feast tonight I think. You can't be serious about talking to her right now can you?"
After a moment Logan shook his head reluctantly. "No, I've been trying to catch her alone in the jungle for weeks, but I suppose events just sort of haven't brought us together yet. Still, it will eventually."
With that he picked up Puck, setting the shorter man on his back and nodded to Shanna to lead the way. He turned back once to see the woman who'd freed them still standing there for a moment before moving off herself. Logan didn't know what to make of her, but decided not to over think things. She was right, they had to get out of the Savage Land, get the warning out. Because if they didn't, the idea of human and mutants equality would never be realized.
Further down the passageway, Sauron smiled to himself, wondering how he could use this to his advantage.
OOOOOOO
Taking a sip from the drink he'd grabbed from one of the several small desks set out in the large meeting room Sean McIntyre narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on here. That was 'tree' there at the end, not 'tire'. Everyone had little red buttons inside of them that no one wanted to push, and getting Sean's last name wrong was one of his.
Captain Sean McIntyre, United States Marine Corps was known as a hard charger in a branch that was almost entirely made of hard chargers. He had led several combat operations in the past against terrorists in the Middle East and Africa, including a mission a few weeks ago where he and a company of Marines had been called in to aid a SHIELD operation in South America. He was also known as a proponent of the idea that the Marine Corps needed to develop its own technology center, though most felt that was a whim on his part. It wasn't, it was because he and his marines had run into a group of mercenaries who had toys well beyond the weapons his marines had on a secret operation in a country whose name he could not even think of sharing with anyone else.
Their enemies had direct energy weapons, heat seeking bullets and grenades the size of their pinkies. His marines had still won, but Sean knew their casualties would have been far less if the marines, part of what was thought of as the strongest military in the world, had weapons to match those in the hands of what were essentially modern day Bedouins.
But that was neither here nor there, and wasn't actually on Sean's mind at the moment. No, the questions rattling around his mind where what was he doing here, and what was going on.
Sean had been sent an invitation to what he had thought was a seminar on leaving small units of diverse nationalities hosted by General Mountebanks of the United Kingdom. It had been a sign of professional respect that Sean had been extremely pleased by at the time. Now he was wondering if accepting had been a mistake. Although it's not as if I don't recognize a lot of my own age group here, but the number of brass was definitely unexpected.
In this signal room there were at least six admirals and generals of various nationalities, four Navy Commodores, and seven, count them, seven captains: three naval, two army, and two other marine captains, one Royal Marine from Britain, and one from the Korps Mariners, the Netherlands amphibious infantry. Two of the Navy Commodores, one of the other captains, and one of the generals came from America, and though Sean hadn't met most of them before, he knew their faces from several leadership and tactics seminars he'd sat in.
He waved his hand at the one other captain he knew by sight, then blinked and held up his hand even higher in the air as another man he knew entered the room. "Marcus, over here."
Marcus Greentree was about as black as the ace of spades, and proud of it. He was also one of those rare First Sergeants who could step into a captain's slot even better than most captains. He was not book smart, but he understood people and how to motivate them, was a very good organizer, and had been a First Sergeant for years before Sean even entered the Marine Corps. The fact that he was still only a First Sergeant was because he wanted to be one, not because he hadn't been offered a commission.
Both Marcus and the original woman that Sean had gestured to moved toward him. Sophia Madeira was a captain in the US Navy, a middle-aged woman off the cruiser Vicksburg, which had both dropped his marines off and then answered their call for missile fire in the same operation against the terrorists with the high-tech weapons. She was a decorated officer who was coming off a very bad divorce in her private life, and Sean knew she was also a proponent of integrating more energy-based weaponry into the Navy.
"Captain," Sean said, taking Sophia's extended hand and instead of simply shaking it bowing gallantly over it, kissing the back of her hand lightly. Before she could respond with a pithy phrase or a laugh to his overdone gallantry he went on quickly. "Have you noticed the common theme here?"
"I think so, though I'm having trouble with two of the generals, and you, Marcus, no offense," Sophia said nodding politely to Marcus and using the unofficial nickname for all First Sergeants.
Marcus nodded back, though he immediately went back to looking over his shoulder as he did so, staring at the door. "Damn," he muttered shaking his head. "Just damn."
Sean chuckled a little. "Which of the hostesses did you see Marcus?
"She didn't introduce herself, she was talking into a cell phone most of the time she brought me into the room," Marcus said shaking his head. "But damn that is one foxy lady! Er, sorry Miss," he said nodding his head once again to Sophia.
"Keep it in your pants gentlemen," Sophia murmured, shaking her head before exchanging a nod with one of the Commodores, a Japanese woman who she'd previously met at a conference years ago. "I doubt any of the generals or admirals would be very interested in watching your primitive mating rituals."
"Ouch," Marcus muttered shaking his head. Then he became more serious. "But those are experienced admirals and generals, and by experienced I mean some of the best ones still alive, from India, the United Kingdom, Canada, America, Israel… am I missing anyone?"
"France isn't represented, neither is Greece, but there's an Italian over there I don't know," Sean murmured, cocking his head to one side. "And then there's us, captains and lower, I count at least nine other noncoms. Can you put a name on some of them? I think all of them are from America or the United Kingdom."
"'Fraid I can't. I know one of them wrote a paper a few weeks ago about how energy state weapons fundamentally changed urban warfare tactics, and I think another one actually helped write a new rule-book about defending against said, but don't quote me on that, since I only've seen their pictures once or so," Marcus said with a shrug. "As for the others, I don't keep in touch with the noncoms of other services sir, sorry."
"Not a problem, I'm just getting a distinct feeling of collusion here on some level that goes well beyond what I thought this might be about."
"At the highest level at least from the United Kingdom," Sophia said suddenly whistling quietly.
Another Captain had just entered, and Sean immediately recognized his badge, a silver sword with golden wings growing out of the blade halfway down its length with the words 'who dares wins' written out on a blue ribbon floating below that. "SAS, good grief someone really is pulling out all the stops. And that is General Mountebanks with him."
"That's not just any SAS captain, that would be bad enough. That is Prince Duncan, who's married to Princess Anne, King William's daughter. Whatever this is, he wouldn't be involved with it unless his father in law had already signed off on it."
Marcus scowled a little shaking his head. He was one of many Americans who didn't really like the idea that there was still a royal family that had so much power as the United Kingdom's. He didn't deny that William had done a magnificent job as king, but it still deeply disturbed his democratic sensibilities.
Sean on the other hand was much more pragmatic, and he exchanged a nod with the other young man. The Prince nodded back, he and Sean sizing one another up as two young men who had seen the elephant often would. "Would General Murphy's presence also mean that America is involved at a high-end?" Sean asked out of the corner of his mouth, while he watched the young captain turn away to talk to General Mountebanks for a moment before moving over to a table to grab a drink.
"I don't think so," Sophia said shaking her head. "Him and Admiral Whittaker are known to be friends of course, but are also retired. They aren't even consulted by the Pentagon normally these days, despite being nearly as experienced as Mountebanks. I think… holy hell!"
Both Marcus and Sean looked at her, then towards the door to see what had caused her exclamation, and hissed in surprise. Another US Army captain had walked in just now, but not just any Army captain. This one had a face that was known to literally every person in a uniform in America and every child as well. "Steve Rogers." Sean sucked in a breath. "Okay, I think I know what all this is about, though I'm surprised it isn't an official SHIELD summons. Aren't they supposed to be the ones dealing with extra-ordinary threats?"
"I don't think so," Marcus said cocking his head to one side as he thought rapidly. "This is a little too much cloak and dagger to be officially unofficial if you know what I mean. The Brits might be at that level, but not the rest of us."
"Then explain why Captain America's here?" Sophia said. Despite being older than the two men she sounded almost as giddy as a schoolgirl about to meet her crush for the first time.
The object of their attention stood in the doorway for a moment, then spotted General Mountebanks, and moved over to him, saluting first and then extending a hand. The general saluted back, and gripped the younger man's hand firmly saying something that the others could not over here from where they stood. The fact that the two men respected one another was obvious, and Sean had to think a moment if the general had ever met the captain during his early years, but if so he couldn't bring it to mind.
Duncan had turned away from his drinks and moved over to Steve, holding out a drink to him as he smiled happily at the other man, saying something that put a smile on Steve's face as well and earned him a respectful nod.
"What was your thought on what's going on here?" Sophia asked, gesturing the two men to follow her as they moved away from the corner they had been inhabiting towards where Steve was beginning to grow a bit of a crowd as everyone wanted to pay their respects to the living legend. That the so-called living legend looked rather put off by the attention spoke well of him Sophia thought, remembering that Steve was supposed to be a rather humble sort.
She caught what looked like a strange design on one of the walls and turned to stare at it before shaking her head and moving away. It looked like some old-fashioned kind of writing, Celtic maybe or something similar. What it meant she didn't know, nor care at present.
"I thought at first we were here to talk about putting together a coalition to figure out a way to start integrating energy-based weaponry and other word high-tech into our various services. General Mountebanks is known as someone who thinks ahead like that. It was the only connection I could think of to most of the people here, and that kind of cross service/nationality thinking is somewhat more common than the civvies ever realize."
Sophia nodded. The other woman in the room, the Japanese commodore, was much the same as her, a proponent of energy-based weapons, though she came from it at the other end of the spectrum, the defense against said and the need to come up with new metals to do so. "Makes sense, but Steve's being here doesn't, does it? He's one of the Avengers, and they answer to SHIELD which is…"
"Which is death on any other service having access to weapons like that. Tactics and strategies against said sure, but they don't want to be a part of spreading such. Shortsighted of them, almost as much as Stark's grandstanding months back," Marcus said shaking his head. He had actually been scouted for SHIELD nearly a year ago, and had turned them down. He hadn't wanted to leave the Marine Corps, and while he had a lot of respect for Nick Fury, that wasn't enough to overcome his distaste for spooks in general.
"But then what's the other connection here? If this was an antiterrorist coalition, it would be above board and through normal channels rather than an invitation to a party, regardless of who was giving the invitation. And if it was a SHIELD run game, it'd be happening in America on the helacarrier. And would've come from Nick Fury rather than General Mountebanks."
"I thinka were about toa find outta," said another man nearby with a thick Italian accent, cutting into the conversation. "Victor Gregorio," he introduced himself gesturing with his hands towards the doorway. "Anda if youa think Captain America being here isa surprising, prepare for surprise number two."
The three Americans all turned, and their eyes widened slightly as Ben Grimm entered, followed quickly by Mister Fantastic, and a hero who had personally been in the news recently, first with the combat up in Montréal and second with Bruce Banner's interview afterward, then a lot of speculation about what had happened during the Sentinel Debacle.
"Guardian," Sean murmured. "Oh, this is going to be interesting."
"I just thought of another connection here between all of us," Marcus said suddenly, watching as the sexy woman who had shown him into the room came in behind Guardian, standing next to him in a superhero costume that allowed him suddenly to recognize her features as that of Storm of the Custodes Mundi.
Another woman entered, one none of them had seen before. She was wearing a suit showing a bird of flame on a background of red and was a redhead a foot shorter than the tall black woman. Even from here they could tell she had the same air of power and authority around her despite her shorter stature. Both of them were standing behind and to the side of Guardian, explicitly stating their loyalties.
There was a lot of murmuring going on all around them, though Sean saw that Steve Rogers, after an initial moment of surprise didn't look all that concerned or worried. Interested was what Sean felt he looked like, but not worried or concerned despite the Custodes Mundi and SHIELD not exactly being allies from what he had discerned of late. Unless they are now, they were rather friendlier in Tokyo that they were in Montréal. "What was that connection you thought you spotted?"
"I can't place a few, but the ones I can from America and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands," he said nodding to the Netherlander who caught it and nodded back. "Were all proponents who've written papers or otherwise spoken out about changing our standard recruitment policies to start including mutants."
Sean nodded, though he personally had only stated that occasionally. It wasn't his main thrust, it wasn't like he didn't care about mutants and the problems a lot of them faced. He just didn't really think about it one way or the other.
"Gentlemen and ladies," Guardian said, standing forward, his voice not sounding muffled by the mask he wore. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here, and why the deception. So I will as one military man to several dozen others, cut to the heart of the matter. Eleven days ago Earth was attacked by an extraterrestrial threat consisting of a small task force built around the Kree equivalent of a battle cruiser constituting several dozen light cruisers and frigates."
There were several loud exclamations of shock, and more than a few laughs at what they thought was a joke, but that ended abruptly when the lights went out, and a giant TV came out of the ceiling along one wall. Sean had only a moment to note that Steve didn't look shocked by the news, rather his eyes had narrowed and then he had simply nodded once, before the lights went out.
"This is a recording taken by the ships themselves, as well as an installation in space, and admittedly a bit of a dramatic representation of what happened. We'll stop it when we get to the dramatic representation parts of course, but since Ben here and myself were involved in defeating this attack, trust me when I say that we know what we're talking about."
More than one had turned to the Thing at that point, and he nodded grimly. "He's tellin' the truth. Earth was attacked by the Kree, not probed not spied not, but outright attacked from space. And if not for Guardian's preparations, we'd be mourning upwards of twenty million dead."
That number made more than one man cringe, though Sophia heard more than a few mutters of "I told you so," and one wise ass said arrogantly "Control the orbitals and control the world."
For a moment all they could see was the curvature of the earth, then suddenly several bright dots appeared in the distance with one being much closer than any of the others so close they could actually make out some of its features. It was a blocky ship, wider than human ships to the beam by at least three times. As it was moving away they were able to see more of it. Weapons emplacements could be seen here and there, and finally what looked like the engines at the back.
The image changed to what was possibly another camera, and suddenly from those distant dots that must be ships came beams of coruscated light, standing out against the backdrop of space much more easily than their motherships. A few voices rose in shock seeing them's heading straight to what looked like Earth, and then heading on for some reason, out into space.
"What just happened there," said one of the admirals Sean hadn't recognized, frowning. "Have we gotten to the dramatic representation part?"
"It isn't, don't worry," Inwardly Guardian smiled, happy to see that professional interest and worry had overridden their shock at his appearance. "I set up an illusion of Earth that could fool Kree sensors, and it was lucky I did." He smirked at the looks of disbelief that gained him, and shook his head. "Trust me, it isn't based on science, but something else entirely."
He went on from there, describing the attack as it happened, going into detail on what cities had been targeted, as well as the estimated damage from each strike. There were more than a few winces, but the depth of his knowledge, and the fact that Ben Grimm backed him up several times made a believer out of most of the people there.
Moving through the crowd Sean stood behind Captain America, and as the others began to question Guardian and the Thing on the attack and why the Kree had attacked in the first place, he whispered, "I take it SHIELD knew about this? Not this meeting I mean, but the attack?"
"Fury passed on a message about it yes, we knew something happened, some kind of combat and that someone had fired energy weapons past Earth, but that was all our sensors could tell us," Steve said, shaking his head.
"Huh," Sean mused, looking at Steve closely. "That makes me wonder what Guardian wants to get out of this meeting, and your being here in particular."
Steve chuckled. "Why don't we ask him?" With that he raised a hand raising his voice at the same time. "Guardian, I understand much of what we've been shown today, and that we, indeed all of Earth owe you a debt of gratitude for what you did, but can I ask, what is the purpose of this meeting? If you simply wanted to inform our various institutions of the attack you could have done so more easily through regular channels. And to be frank, very few of us represent associations which have anything to do with space."
Behind his mask Harry smiled to himself. He had not been sold on the idea of including Captain America in this meeting initially, but general Mountebanks had spoken rather eloquently in favor of it. And after talking to him and to Piotr, Harry had made the decision to include Rogers in the group he asked General Mountebanks to invite to this little shindig. Now Harry saw it had been a good move. Steve's words carried a lot of weight here, even with the men from other nations and their militaries, and he wasn't being directly confrontational, a win in Harry's book.
"My reason for organizing this meeting is twofold, but I am afraid we are at the point where we need to talk about security gentlemen. I will neither ask nor try to coerce you into sharing secrets this is about the dissemination of information from me to you, not the other way around. But to that end I am afraid I need you all to sign nondisclosure agreements here, to make certain you can't discuss anything we talk about from now on unless given permission. It's the same sort of thing many of you have no doubt seen before, but with a little extra added on."
More than one of the military men groaned, but they all nodded. After all, while their nations were technically allies, through the UN if nothing else, this was obviously a clandestine meeting for a reason. They watched as Jean calmly levitated several pieces of paper to each of them.
"These are magically binding contracts. So long as the writing itself actually has magic, all you need to do is smear a bit of your blood on that spot marked at the very bottom." That was actually a simplification in the extreme, but Harry wasn't about to share how much research and experimentation had gone into these contracts. Or that they were merely a part of the security over the meeting. The majority of the security had already been accomplished by getting these men and women into this room, which was rigged with a Trust-Me runic array with extremely specific rules behind it.
More than one man was now looking askance at Harry unsure what to make of that despite the sheer number of abilities and skills Guardian had been recorded using during the set-to in Montreal. Magic didn't really exist surely? They watched bemused as both general Mountebanks and Duncan unhesitatingly pricked their thumbs and wiped them across the mark Guardian had described before writing their name down. There was a bright but localized flash from the pieces of paper, and Harry nodded at both men. This was followed by the Canadian general doing the same, ignoring the confused look from his American counterpart.
Steve looked between his contract and Guardian, reading it carefully. Basically it said what Guardian had implied, that he, the signee, would not attempt to talk about or share any information mentioned from now on in this meeting with anyone else. "It says we can't share what we hear 'from now on'." Steve said thoughtfully.
Yet again Harry noticed that all eyes turned to Steve. He commanded the room not through simple force of personality, but through a mix of earned respect and charisma. "It's like watching you at work Harry," Ororo sent along the telepathic link Jean was maintaining between the three of them.
"Given what Captain America did during WW2, that makes a lot of sense. If we convince him the rest will follow along, if not then we might not be able to persuade any of them to stay. Yet despite his presence making our job harder, it could be very interesting talking to him later on."
"That's correct," Harry said aloud, nodding. "You can share the previous information about the Kree attack on Earth with anyone you think you should, but realize I don't think any of your governments are in any position to do anything about it. Indeed, most of them still refuse to admit that Thanos was an alien rather than a mutant."
That was true Sean thought, looking from his contract to Steve's. They were about the same, and Marcus' was the same as well.
"What exactly would happen to us if we tried to break this agreement" said one of the American noncoms.
Guardian shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing fatal, but certainly debilitating. If you attempt to break that agreement, you simply won't be able to. If you keep trying to communicate any information you learn from the rest of this meeting, you will lose the ability to speak entirely. If you continue to try after that, no matter the medium you use, your throat will close up, asphyxiating you."
At that more than one person quickly put down his contract and made for the door. Harry didn't bother to stop them, and only two of them continued to move when they realized that Steve, the Americans and the Brits hadn't moved. The Brits had obviously expected this, while the Americans had all looked to Steve for his response.
Steve frowned looking from the paper in his hand up and Guardian, staring or trying to anyway stare past that mask to the man behind it. "…I talked to Colossus, and some of your other Custodes Mundi," he said slowly. "They seemed to hold you in high regard. So I will ask why you think such a violent method of keeping this whatever it is a secret is necessary. Further, I am leery about putting my name on anything given to me by someone in a mask."
He laughed suddenly, moving through the crowd which parted for him automatically until he stood in front of the black clad Guardian. "Tell you what Guardian," he said, smiling thinly. "Throw in whoever his behind that mask, and I'll agreed to sign this."
"Deal," Harry said instantly. That caused some odd looks, and snorts of derision. Harry held up a hand looking around at the rest of the crowd, breaking eye contact with Steve for the first time since he had handed out there contracts. "This whole meeting is about the defense of Earth! It is not about self-aggrandizement, it is not about rubbing your nose in the fact that I've been defending Earth on my own. It is not about making you all party to something you will later regret. It is about gathering allies!"
Harry strode forward from the position he had taken by the large TV screen, moving around the room. "Look around you. You, all of you, are representatives of either the largest or the most well-trained and professional militaries in the world. But none of you come from a country that has even looked into the possibility of defending Earth or even just your own country from space! But even if any single country could, could they do a better job than the world united? Would the rest of the world even trust them to?"
He paused for a moment, letting that sink in, which it did quickly. Credulous these men were, but they were also intelligent and realistic.
"We are stronger together then apart," Harry said softly. "That is the meaning of this meeting, to foster relationships between me and all of you. So yes, I will agree to take off my mask. But you all must do something for us in turn, and keep that secret and everything else we ask of you from now on. If you feel unable to, I will understand, and hope that you will at least pass on all you've already learned here. That was the minimum goal for this meeting.."
"The taxpayers hate paying for anything," Marcus quipped, trying to break the tension in the room. "I'd hate to see what would happen if someone asked them to pay for something like that."
"We would hear the screams from here," Duncan said with a smile.
That rather lame joke and Harry's words seemed to break the stasis on everyone in the room, and more than one man used a small pocket knife or something else to prick their thumbs, pressing them on the spots on their contracts. It was an easy decision for the noncoms and the mid-ranker's to make, after all even those of them that had been on black ops missions weren't really high up enough to compromise their various groups, and Harry's vow to not ask them to do so carried a lot of weight with the admirals and generals.
Only two of the generals left, the Frenchman and the other Canadian. They were shown out the door by one of the Custodes Mundi that none of them had seen before this, a woman by the shape of her costume, but one with a strange birdlike helmet.
Once everybody had signed and the contracts had been collected Guardian made copies of them, which he handed back. Then as everyone watched, he lifted his hands up to his mask touching it directly below his ear. The mask retracted into the neck piece of his crysis suit.
When the men in front of him saw Harry's face there were more than one gasp, a few groans, and even one, 'oh dammit why didn't we see that coming!' from his audience. However he still introduced himself, a faint smile on his face. "My name is Harry Potter, owner of Magical Minds and other things, but I am also Guardian of the Custodes Mundi."
A few moments later the meeting continued, with Harry giving more of an overview of the battle against the Kree ships. Nearing the end of this explanation he was interrupted by Sophia asking wait, "Did you say capture? Do you mean you captured one of these alien starships?"
Harry nodded, and Sophia shuddered, muttering under her breath. "As the Brits would say I just had a crisis." Standing nearby Duncan and general Mountebanks laughed, while the others who heard her didn't seem to get the reference for a moment. "Where do I sign up?" she asked in a louder voice.
"We're going to get to that in a moment," Harry said with a faint smile. Then he turned to the rest of the group. "So we know that alien attacks on Earth are a distinct possibility. The Custodes Mundi and the Fantastic Four can stop them if we see them coming and if they are bunched up enough so we can engage the entire attack force at once or even in small groups."
"But what if we're busy with something else, after all the Custodes Mundi has another mission as well, and the Fantastic Four…" Harry looked over at Reed and Ben who shrugged their shoulders. "The Fantastic Four have their own missions as well. Worse, what if they don't come just to destroy, but invade wholesale?"
"If they come within atmosphere they won't find that so easy." A US Air Force, Lieutenant said, but his eyes flicked over to the Fantastic Four, and it was obvious he was speaking more from ego than anything else.
"True, at that point you'd be able to see them coming. But would you be able to do anything about it?" There was silence, and then Harry smiled. "For various reasons, energy-based and other more technologically advanced weaponry have not been made available in large numbers to the world's militaries. We will not go into the reasons for that, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't. However, in the face of an alien threat, all of those reasons matter not a bit. So if Earth ever is invaded we, the Custodes Mundi, are prepared to arm the units you all command for the duration of hostilities."
"Hoooly shiiit," Sean muttered, and Marcus actually cursed under his breath for several moments. Licking his lips, Sean looked around, and noticed he wasn't the only one stunned. He held up a hand slightly, asking. "Um, arm us with what exactly? You realize we'd have to work up tactics and strategies around any weapons before you even hand these weapons to us right?"
"That's part of why you're here Mister Macintyre," Harry replied, pronouncing Sean's last name correctly which made the marine smile. "As for the weapons…" Harry tapped a few buttons on the small computer in front of him, and the vision of the Kree battle cruiser, which Harry had not mentioned Doom had captured, disappeared.
It was replaced by several different weapon systems, guns for the most part spread out over its screen. Next to them appeared bulleted information lists about them.
Suddenly these images disappeared to show one of the Custodes Mundi, another one which most of them didn't recognize. He wore a red suit of spandex covering him from head to toe with an equally red shield with a single large white star in the center on his back. He was also carrying what was obviously a rifle of some kind with a sniper scope on top.
The man's uniform caused Steve to start and he looked sharply at Harry for a moment, then frowned, scratching his chin. But he remained silent as the video began.
The video showed the man in red running through a woodland stopping occasionally to hide behind trees. At one point he laid down a blistering fire of what looked like energy rounds, small finger width bits of plasma or laser perhaps. The damage they did to the targets which popped up in front of him was extreme, blowing through them easily. As the man raced on the audience saw a side view of these targets, and saw that most of them were made of metal about an inch thick. The ones that weren't were stone which was cracked and broken where the round hit.
The audience began to talk among themselves, but most of their attention remained on the video, in which the man had just come to a clearing in which stood what appeared to be a tank. It was a very high-tech looking tank, and was a style none of them recognized but it had a large main gun mounted on a turret, heavy seeming armor and what looked like heavy wheels. It was moving in a circle, it's turret up and swiveling from side to side.
Here Harry paused the video for a moment. "This is a Kree Heavy Land Assault Platform, their equivalent of a tank. It was taken from the Battlecruiser's hanger bay intact. The armor is about four times as heavy as an equivalent MBT. It's designed to stand up to anything an infantryman can carry and then some, though it actually isn't the largest LAP they have in their inventory. However, our weapons have been designed to equalize the playing field, as you will see in a moment."
The Custodes Mundi in red took to one knee, sighting down his sniper scope at the tank. He pressed a button along the side of the rifle's stock, and the audience could hear a faint hum in the background for a second. Then as they watched a white-hot bolt around four times as long as the previous 'bullets' shot out, impacting the tank and blowing through the armor where the turret connected to the rest of the tank.
It didn't seem to do much damage, but it had definitely holed through the tank's armor. Then he pulled of rifle off his shoulder, and fired again, aiming for its side, somewhat back of the center of the tank's body. The bolt punched through, and hit something which began to smoke out of the holes in the tank's armor, before suddenly exploding.
"A rifle," Sean said slowly, "which can do that? And which can also be turned on to full auto?" His brain was going, 'me wanty me wanty!' completely destroying his ability to actually speak eloquently.
"That's nice and all but what do you have for those of us who come from more sophisticated services?" Sophia said archly, ignoring the booing hisses from the grunts from the Army and Marine Corps.
Jean in her Phoenix garb stood forward, moving toward another wall. Once there she tapped another button and a second screen fell from the ceiling to block out that wall as well. On it was shown various designs for heavy weapons. "These are what we have designed long-term, but putting them in place would be a job and a half. So what we're going to have to offer you lot for the short term are acceleration rings."
"Something that would turn our normal guns into rail guns?" Sophia asked. She knew a few of the newest American Battleships had rail guns on them, but minimizing them for cruisers or other, smaller ships didn't seem to be in the cards.
"Exactly. Installing them would be simple enough, though you would have to replace your ammunition at the same time. Normal shells wouldn't be able to withstand the gun's speed and would break up in the air," Jean said, pressing some more buttons. The screen changed once more to show a small ring around four feet long, its width obviously supposed to go over the end of a cannon's barrel like a silencer.
One of the Army captains coughed apologetically. "Sorry to ask ma'am, but have you come up with one of those for tanks?"
Jean nodded, and a moment later the screen showed another, smaller, ring. "Yep, and this isn't exactly a finished process, were coming up with new weapons all the time."
"What we'd like to do right now," Harry said, regaining command of the meeting quickly, "Is break up into smaller groups. One group will go over the handheld weapons, we have a shooting range outside waiting for you all. Vanguard, the young man in the movie you just watched, is waiting out their along with Coyote and Ghigau, they are our rifle experts.
"Unfortunately, we don't actually have any tanks or ships, so you're going to have to make that up as you go," he said to the Navy captains and cavalry captains. "And for those of you not interested in that, I would like to talk to you about something else entirely.
"Point of order if I may?" Steve asked. "One of the reasons why SHIELD is leery about letting even those services it is allied with have weapons like this is because it fears they would not be getting them back. What's to stop Sean say," he said nodding over to the Marine Captain "from absconding with the weapons when you have to hand them out?"
"I'd never…" Sean said, though he was looking a little shifty.
"They all have teleportation devices on them, and if you try to remove those, the weapons won't work and will in fact melt down. Nor can they be opened or scanned in any way without melting down immediately," Harry said succinctly, unwilling and seeing no purpose to say those defenses were magical in nature. "These are to be used against alien invaders. They will not be used against human opponents, regardless of the reason. If you want to get better weapons than you are currently issued, I suggest you look on the market. Even with Stark Industries no longer in the game there are still some very good weapons out there."
After some muttering most of the noncoms, the army and marine officers all made their way toward the door following Storm, leaving the navy types behind. Steve followed them, wanting to talk to the young man in red for a moment. The navy officers all crowded around Jean and Reed, asking questions from the woman who seemed to be Harry's chief designer and the brain of the FF.
The remaining officers, a few of the generals and one Air Force Lieutenant General, moved to talk to Harry and Ben. That discussion touched mostly on the Kree tactics and their weapons, as well as ship sizes, and the Kree order of battle, as much as they knew about it. One of the generals in particular was interested in the Kree mentality, and came away with a bad case of the shivers at the idea of sociopathic racists in space.
From there the discussion moved to how much communication they could honorably agree to, how that communication would occur, and how they could eventually be given the weapons. This was a problem in particular for the two senior-most Americans, considering they were practically semiretired, but they were still on the books as Admiral and General respectively.
Eventually Harry handed that discussion over to General Mountebanks, who could talk them through the various communication devices Reed had made and the security on them, having been introduced to them a few days before this meeting.
Harry did this because he had noticed that Steve had come back from the shooting range early and was waiting nearby. Harry moved towards him, gesturing towards one of the bars. "Can I get you a drink, Captain?"
"You put me in a precarious position Harry," Steve said a moment later, swirling the beer in his bottle for a moment looking at Harry shrewdly. "Nick really doesn't trust you and he is going to go… what's that British idiom, spare? He's going to go spare when he learns this mission was organized by you and yours."
"Nick is too wedded to the current Powers That Be to enjoy the changes my presence has made. He's a good man, and I love the work your Avengers and SHIELD have done. But you need to ask yourself, does SHIELD defend the Earth and humanity, or only certain countries?" Harry replied, drinking from his own drink, a non-alcoholic lemonade. With Jean's pregnancy, all of the lovers had changed their drinking habits to match. And Harry had honestly noticed he'd been drinking too much alcohol anyway.
"Perhaps…" Steve said, looking away. He honestly was not at home with a lot of the tasks SHIELD seemed to be in charge of anyway, but then he wasn't a spook. "I'm not going to argue that your goals for this meeting weren't a good idea long term, but even so it makes me uncomfortable knowing I won't be able to talk to him about anything we've seen."
"Remember the contracts only cover what you heard after you signed them. I don't mind you sharing the information about the Kree assault with Fury." Harry grabbed up a plate of finger food, holding it over his shoulder as Jean came in, grabbing it as she passed by heading towards her computer followed by a few of the navy officers. To Steve's amusement Harry didn't even seem to notice he'd done so, his attention still on Steve. "In fact, I hope he and anyone he tells starts thinking seriously about defending against space-based threats."
"So you don't want a monopoly on space? I noticed you mentioned having captured some of the Kree ships, but made no mention of them other than that," Steve asked shrewdly.
"I have a monopoly on space, which has nothing to do with the Kree ships we've captured and that's not going to change anytime soon," Harry replied bluntly. "Three reasons. I can operate in space far, far cheaper than any government could, I'm already there, and no other government has even tried to move into space beyond a few short trips up to that bloody cheap looking international space station. With people like Stark and Richards to call upon, and NASA and co. make that? Uninspiring that is."
"And you've got no connection to any of those governments whose vision for space you so deride. How long have you been operating in space?" Steve asked.
"A little over half a year or so. And you'll note I've not used or even created any kind of orbital death-ray. Nor have I made any demands or in any way shown myself to be the threat I've no doubt Fury thinks me as," Harry replied dryly.
"Except of course that battle with the alien on Mars. You have to understand that show of power worried a lot of people, Nick being the least of them. I've no doubt a lot of governments the world over are wondering if they could contain you if they had to."
Harry frowned, then looked down at his plate only now realizing he didn't actually have one. Waving one hand at Steve, who chuckled at his confusion, he stood up. The two of them moved quickly over to the buffet table, still talking. "I had no choice in that battle, I was losing and knew that none of my team could handle Thanos, even injured. I regret that, but I can't change it."
The two of them filled plates, nodding at Jean and the navy officers, who seemed to be arguing over whether or not heat dissipation of all things should be the deciding factor between solid state and energy weapons for ocean going ship conversions in the future. Both Harry and Steve shook their heads at that.
Steve was more interested in observing Harry's face as he looked at Jean, then over to Ororo. The African woman was talking to the Indian and Canadian generals about something they couldn't hear in French, which for some reason the Indian seemed to be following as well as English.
Harry's love for the two women was rather obvious just then, even if Steve couldn't decide what form of love it was. That actually put Steve more at ease with the other man, as did this whole meeting frankly. Nick had painted Harry as a naïve, well-meaning but over the top loose cannon with far too much power at his disposal, but Steve just wasn't seeing it. In fact, from what he had seen, Harry was simply a man doing what he could to combat a problem no one else seemed able or willing to tackle.
"All men should be judged by their actions, not the judge's fears." Harry went on as they moved back to the table the two of them had been sitting at originally. "I don't want to use my power to make a point, I want to lead and defend, not dominate. You and the rest of the world learned to trust the Fantastic Four because of their actions, give me and mine the same benefit of the doubt regardless of my powers. And also, ask yourself how much damage Thanos and I would have done fighting on Earth. With Thanos having already said he would sacrifice the whole planet to his mistress. Still haven't figured out what that means."
Steve nodded slowly. "All men should be so treated Harry. Alright, I'll agree to, if not ignore then at least not worry about your apparent ability to burn the whole planet to ash." Harry chuckled wanly at that, but Steve went on more happily. "I have to say, the fact you know you can't go it alone against everything is also a point in your favor. Too many super-powered people seem to think that they can handle anything that comes along, but that's just not true."
He sat down, looking at Harry shrewdly. "Which brings to mind something Colossus said when I tried to get him and Magma to settle down: That I was just a normal man underneath the mask, indeed that I'd been a bit of a runt before given the serum. He said something you apparently said to him, so I ask you, what were you like before you discovered your powers?"
"Say magic why don't you. In the dimension I was born in we didn't have superpowered individuals, aliens or anything like that. At least, I don't think we had aliens, much more certain about the superpowers. We had magic. But before then, I grew up with a family that treated me like a cross between a slave, a burden and scum. I could only ever escape from them in the local library, where…"
Harry went on from there to describe his life growing up, Voldemort, and all the rest of it. Steve asked questions throughout then responded by talking about his battles against the Red Skull, Baron Zemo and others during World War 2. They shared both the dark gritty bits, as well as the good parts, laughing occasionally at a joke the other told, never noticing how the meeting around them had slowly wound down, or when Ororo came by to refill their drinks, smiling lightly as she left the two men alone.
They also talked about the ongoing violence against mutants the world over. Luckily in most first world countries outright violence had died down for the most part. America still had occasional outbreaks thanks to the FoH putting a religious spin on their rhetoric of late and the Federal government unwilling to get involved. But the Middle East, Asia, and South America still saw flare-ups on a weekly basis.
Harry admitted his group was slowly becoming overwhelmed, unable to be everywhere they needed to be, but they were doing all they could. Just earlier that day they had rescued four mutants scattered across the Middle East, and another in South Korea. But in those countries Harry and his team couldn't operate openly or legally, so they were limited to their own resources, with no local partisans to help them. His growing industrial might however could eventually turn the tide there, with far less bloodshed and general upheaval than direct action. Though Harry didn't rule out such a thing in the future if he felt the need for it.
Harry was careful to point out violence could be started from either side of that divide. Some mutants acted out believing their powers made them 'superior' to those around them, while many humans simply attacked any mutant with visible mutations out of fear or hate of the unknown. Harry and the Custodes stood against both sides, and were working toward equality, something Steve had already seen in Tokyo.
The next day, Steve left Britain, heading back to the helacarrier, and like he had anticipated, Nick called him into his office. "So, you have a nice get together with General Mountebanks? Was he really the one who sent out those invitations or was it someone else?" Nick of course knew that several American servicemen of all stripes had gotten the same invitation as Steve.
"Arthur was doing well thank you Nick. But you were right, he wasn't really the one behind the meeting. You're not going to like this…"
Steve was right, Nick didn't like it, but for his part, Steve felt the meeting, both the bit he could talk about and the parts he couldn't had been both thoughtful and interesting. He always enjoyed making new friends.
OOOOOOO
For the rest of the week Harry, his lovers and the rest of his faction went about their normal business, with Harry training with the team for longer periods of time while he waited on various projects to come to fruition. That wasn't to say everything was going smoothly, or that random problems and events didn't show up from time to time. Some were humorous…
OOOOOOO
"Time to wake up fath… Why is mother Ororo bouncing up and down on your lap like that?" Melody asked innocently as she and Illyana barged into the headmaster's quarters, skidding to a halt. Illyana nearly ran into her back, then looked around the older girl's shoulder for a moment before both of them suddenly found their heads covered by two towels.
Jean laughed as she came fully out of the bathroom, shaking her head as she telekinetically began to tickle the two troublemakers. "Someone needs to give his daughter The Talk Harry. And install a spell to keep them out or at least warn us someone's coming up the steps."
"I did, but we were rather too busy to notice," Harry groaned, torn between embarrassment and irritation as Ororo quickly pulled herself off him. "And why's it me who has to give Melody The Talk?"
That conversation went on for some time.
OOOOOOO
Harry and Emma turned as the door to their private box opened. The two of them had come out for a date, having gotten a brief break from their busy schedules to take in a Broadway show that Emma had wanted to see since it first came out nearly a year ago, Wicked. The evening had progressed splendidly, with Harry making a note to take Melody out at some point to see this show, thinking she'd love it.
Then during the halftime, as the two of them were discussing the play and flirting their door opened unannounced. "I'm getting a serious case of Deja-vu here," Harry muttered, checking his concealing spells for a moment.
"Too true, but I think this interruption will be more beneficial than the one you, Ororo and Melody had to deal with," Emma replied verbally, before continuing telepathically. I think it's Banshee, Harry, his surface thoughts have that name and his own in his mind.
The man coming into the room was indeed Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, late of Interpol, who had last been seen by any of the Custodes in the flesh during the battle in Paris which led to Sabertooth's death by magma. He doffed his disguises hat in their direction, no sign of recognition in his eyes as he looked at Emma, his gaze on Harry. "Beggin' yuir pardon and all, but you're a hard man to get in touch with Harry Potter."
"And you didn't think of calling the line we gave you, or use the one I gave your bosses?" Harry asked tartly, scowling at the man. He was beginning to hate his dates being interrupted like this.
"Heh, nah, wanted to keep my hand in so to speak."
"I see, well that's nice and all, call that number of yours when you're ready to move into our base of operations, we won't have you in the field just yet, you need to get fitted for your armored suit. I also know the French government released your daughter to your custody, so we'll have rooms prepared for both of you tomorrow. Now bugger off and let me get on with my date."
Of course not all of them were so humorous, such as the one the day before the next planned event.
OOOOOOO
Christ, why the hell did Kitty and Ms. Munroe not come up with some other way for us to get around? Flying carpets, ugh… Illyich scowled, stepping off the hated device as he stared around at the middle class suburb of the city of Rimini, Italy. Looking around he saw that not only was no one looking at the carpet, but the few passerby didn't seem to notice anything about him either, his image inducer working properly as well as the spells on the carpet. But that was scant comfort after several hours of flight on the cursed thing.
Sighing faintly, Illyich looked down at the piece of paper he held in one hand, reading off the address to the name which had, up until a few hours ago, been bright green, but had since shifted to dark orange. This was the first mission he would be going on for Avalon, and he wanted to get it right.
Walking down the street towards the house the prospective student lived in, Illyich stopped suddenly around the corner from the house in question, kneeling down as if one of his shoelaces has come undone as he whispered into his microphone, the earbud portion of it having just given him one heck of a fright when it went off with a buzz at his neck, like a bee had just landed inside his shirt. "What is it Father Garnoff?"
"The name just went from orange to red just now. I don't know what's going on but…"
Illyich cut the connection quickly ducking back behind a tree set into a small bit of grass by the road and then leaping up over a wooden fence by his left to land on the other side, hiding in among the bushes as he stared out.
"I think I do," he said dryly watching as a bundle about half his own height was swiftly and efficiently moved from the front door of the small house to a waiting car, an SUV of some kind or maybe a Transit van, he wasn't certain. Regardless, it was the kind of car that would literally disappear on any street with any traffic, and he scowled angrily, putting his hand in the bag of holding Kitty and Ms. Munroe had made for him. It didn't hold much, but it did have a small tracking device inside it, a small disk of metal which transmitted a signal to the receivers the Custodes used.
"We have a possible kidnapping here," he reported grimly. "Two adult males, both fit looking, a little older than middle-age, think I might've seen a hint of something metal hidden under one jacket. They just removed a largish bag of some kind from the house, could possibly be carrying a young kid."
"Confirmed," Father Garnoff said after a moment. "The name is on the move, and is now deep red."
At that confirmation, Illyich cocked his head, waiting until both men were inside the car and he could hear its engine start. With the sound and the windows hopefully muffling their ability to hear, he hurled the tracking device through the slats of the fence, watching as it stuck to the bumper of the car. It didn't have much power, and the adhesive would wear out quickly, but it would last long enough for the Custodes to start trailing them.
When the transit van moved out of sight down the street, Illyich leaped back over the fence hurrying towards the house they had left behind. Looking through the front door's windows, he could see two adults he took to be the kid's parents, both of them unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell which. Unfortunately the kidnappers had been smart, and had locked the door after them. He could break it down, but there was no telling who was watching the house, or why.
So he simply looked down at the piece of paper in his hand as if he had gotten the wrong address, then walked casually back down the street towards the nearest street sign, whispering into his pickup. "Two adults left behind one woman one man, both unconscious or dead I can't tell. Should I check on them, or try to tail the van right away?"
"So it's not money they're after it's something else," Father Garnoff mused. "If you can get into the house quickly, check on the two parents. We're going to be sending you a few of the Custodes down to help, the house-elves can use the carpet as a focus for their teleportation."
"Affirmative," the cat-boy nodded, heading around the house to the back. Here there was a small overhanging Willow tree hiding a bit of the fence and the property from sight of anyone too far away. Using this for cover Illyich leaped over the fence and into the property, quickly heading towards the back door. It wasn't locked thankfully, but not so thankfully the effort proved worthless. Both the parents were indeed dead, and he scowled angrily. "The parents are dead! Whatever is going on, it definitely has nothing to do with money."
"Agreed," said a new voice over the intercom, that of Gian-Diep-Chu, Sir Dennis. "Powers in Italy that could possibly be involved in child kidnapping for any reason, include AIM, the Mafia, and a local terrorist group whose stated manifesto reads like a HYDRA spinoff which calls itself The Sons of Mussolini."
"Not the Brotherhood or any pro-mutant supremacy group?"
"Pro-mutant Supremacist groups would not have killed the parents, not if they wanted the child's willing cooperation. And if mutant supremacist groups have begun to kidnap and somehow indoctrinate their people, that would be a very bad sign. It would be a conscious decision to forgo the supposedly moral high ground in favor of brute force," Gian-Diep-Chu responded.
Moving back to where he had left the carpet, Illyich was unsurprised to find that a few of the Custodes Mundi had already arrived. On days when they only had training, the Custodes were expected to respond quickly to any call for aid from Father Garnoff, or spymaster. The three in question were Nikolai, Dani, and Amara. They all seemed to be dressed normally, but Illyich doubted that was the case, they were more than likely underneath several illusion spells or ward schemes.
He filled them in on what he had discovered so far, and Amara quickly took charge. "All right, if there isn't anything we can do for the parents we have to move on to tracing that name instead. I want to be close by when they finally stop. Father Garnoff, check the list of names, let's see if there are any other new mutants in trouble in the area."
The transit van didn't stay in the city for long, instead heading up and away into the mountains following one of the main roads before cutting off onto a side road. It did this several times, almost doubling back at one point until they came to what looks like a small, abandoned airfield.
Ghigau frowned as she stared down at it. "Is this from World War II do you think, or was this simply abandoned for economic reasons?"
"World War II," Nikolai said firmly, pointing down to a rusted pile of metal at one end of the airport. "That looks like the remains of an Italian fighter. And Verona was known as a hotbed of resistance against their German 'allies'."
Magma frowned, but began to guide the carpet down to land on the far side of the mangled remains from the main building of the airport.
"Give me a one of your weapons," Illyich demanded suddenly, holding out his hand to Ghigau. "I don't want to go into combat unarmed if I can help it."
"No," Ghigau said shaking her head firmly, her helmet mimicking the move and even creating a strange little sound as if the stylized feathers in the headdress were real. "You've not been trained on any of the guns, and besides I don't use any of them anymore remember? I use Sigyn's Gift and a knife."
"Speaking of," Vanguard said, interrupting his countrymen's imminent explosion, gesturing to the control tower. Staring at it the others saw what he had spotted, several snipers were up there guarding the area, one facing out from each corner of the building. "Hmm, I'm thinking we should've taken the van once it was past all of the traffic"
"Maybe," Ghigau murmured, "but hindsight is always twenty twenty. Father Garnoff, Gian-Diep-Chu, are you reading any other names from the Big Book of Students at our current location?"
"No, but remember the limitations on this. There could be more mutants there who had already activated their powers before the Big Book of Students went online. Or this could be simply a holding place, and they're moved elsewhere. If they're no longer in danger after they leave here, would we notice a name in the green or even yellow being on the move? Especially with all the names in the Middle East showing up and then going black grabbing our attention?"
Father Garnoff made a sound somewhere between a groan and a curse while the teens shuddered at the mention of the Middle East. Islam was moving towards being the first major world religion to take a stance on the 'mutant question', and worse seemed to be leading to one which made all mutants abominations in the eyes of Allah, inhuman monsters that could be put down by any right-thinking individual. Given how those countries had already been treating the mutants, it was sort of a foregone conclusion, but that didn't help them get over how many mutant children were dying in those countries the moment they showed their powers.
Only Israel seemed to be leaning toward equality. There had been many mutants named in that country, but only one had gone into the red, and before they could respond to it they had shifted first into the orange then into the yellow and stayed there.
"I should scout around," Ghigau said after a moment's thought. "None of you have stealth gear on you, but I should be able to get in and out without being seen."
Magma nodded. All of them had a set of wards designed to cover their uniforms which would let them blend into a crowd, but only Ghigau was a stealth expert. The carpet covered the rest of them in its various spells and wards, but they would become visible the moment they left it behind. And those spells wouldn't stand up to them using the carpet as an assault platform. "Good luck."
"Hey, it's me," Ghigau smirked, kicking up and off the carpet, her own runic array covering her as she landed easily on the tarmac, skating forward and around the airport, moving randomly just in case at first, and keeping away from anything that would kick up dust to give her away. Behind her, Amara guided the carpet down to land behind the rusted jetfighter.
Moments later Ghigau was back, dropping down behind the rusted jetfighter startling Vanguard who was hidden among it, his rifle out and poking through a hole in the jetfighter's side towards the control tower. Amara and Illyich turned to her from where they had been staring out around the debris, doing their best to remain hidden.
"There's another kid here, another boy. This one's got red hair, and he looks as if he's either been drugged or something. They've also got some kind of weird chair. It sort of reminds me of the X-Men's Cerebro, it could be some kind of brainwashing device maybe? Regardless, I also know what the group is calling itself, I overheard a few of them call themselves the Maggia."
"Maggia, that's a crime syndicate correct? They want mutant enforcers or something?" Vanguard murmured, not taking his eye away his sniper scope. "Joy. Any adult mutants already working for them?"
"None that I spotted, or at least none with obvious mutations. There's about 17 people here, most of them dressed like heavy muscle and armed with conventional guns, with one or two more high tech weapons among them. None I think up to Custodes level though. One of them looks like the boss, he's dressed like one of those mobsters from the Godfather."
"Excellent movie series, Piotr and I enjoyed those immensely the other night," Magma said nodding her head. The two of them had had an in-castle date the previous evening, but she winced realizing she shouldn't of said that in front of Ghigau. Dani and she had talked about Piotr's decision the night after Dani returned to Earth and while the girl seemed alright with it, that didn't mean Magma wanted to rub her relationship status into her friends face like that.
But Ghigau didn't seem to hear, simply going on with her report. "They brought in the boy they just kidnapped, he's out of it too, looks like unconscious I'd guess chloroform or something similar. They stowed both him and the other boy in one of the old restrooms in the main terminal. They are using the check in area as their main base of operations, the rest of the building doesn't look like it gets any traffic, though I didn't scout it out seeing all the dust on the ground."
Magma touched the concrete of the runway gently. After a moment she smiled. "Yes I can work with this, heh, might even alleviate enough pressure that a nearby volcano won't erupt a few years down the line. Ghigau, Illyich, get ready to move forward on the carpet. It'll be your jobs to get in there and get the kids out. Vanguard, wait until the majority of the gangsters have rushed out of the building, then take those snipers out."
"One shot each, or a special round to the tower?" he asked.
Magma thought about it for a moment then smiled grimly. "I think we want to send a message here. Take the entire tower out."
"Music to my ears," Vanguard murmured. This would be the first time he had used the enlarging charm on his rifle in battle, and he was anxious to see if he could still function afterward. Kitty had made some modifications to her first attempt, and promised the effect wouldn't even be half as much, but he wanted to make certain.
With that in mind he moved his steadying hand down the rifle's stock, sinking them into specialized grooves, feeling the tiny runes cut out inside them under his fingertips. He then aimed again downrange, centering on the center of the control tower. "Ready."
Magma turned, saw that Ghigau had already pulled herself up onto the carpet, as had Illyich. She nodded at the two of them and they ascended into the air, once more covered by the carpets invisibility and Notice-Me-Not charms, rushing over to hover right above the main building. Once they were in position, Magma reached out through her powers deep into the ground, and suddenly for about a mile in every direction of her the ground began to quake.
While Italy wasn't the most tectonically active place in the world, its citizens certainly knew how to react when they felt the ground began to shake. Within a minute after she began men began to rush out of the building, knowing it was safest in wide open areas rather than inside. She counted as she saw them, still hiding behind the rusted aircraft.
"We'll want that boss character for questioning, other than that, I can't think of a reason to take prisoners." Magma mused grimly, seeing that fellow in particular, pushing several other men aside as he rushed out onto the tarmac to put as much distance as he could between himself and the building behind him. He was indeed as obvious as Ghigau had thought, dressed in a well-tailored suit while the others wore regular clothing.
"Now," she ordered, and a second later her ears were assaulted by the "FZAARK" sound of Vanguard's gauss round heading downrange at speeds. The magically enlarged shell slammed into the top of the tower with all the power of a tank round, or more actually considering its speed. The tower shattered, bits and pieces of rubble flying everywhere, including the four snipers.
She jumped up to join Vanguard on top of the jetfighter, her hands suddenly full of small balls of magma as the earthquake stopped, and the Maggia enforcers seemed to realize they were under attack. They weren't spotted at first and her magma balls hit several of them but then the Maggia enforcers began to return fire, forcing Magma to duck and cover.
Vanguard on the other hand simply stayed where he was, ignoring the slight gurgling coming from his stomach, his rifle now on auto as he took out enforcer after enforcer. None of them had anything that could break through his shield, and indeed two of the Maggia died when their attacks, low powered energy beams, bounced directly back and killed them before they could dodge.
Behind the group of criminals Ghigau took up position right at the doorway, bow out and firing at the Maggia members who had turned to try to get back to the building at the same time Illyich raced inside.. There was no cover on the tarmac, and now they were caught between two fires.
By the time Illyich had found the kids and returned to the entrance the battle was over. All of the Maggia members except for the leader were dead, and he was unconscious tied up and with his mouth gagged as well as his eyes covered by a cloth.
"Call it in," Magma said with grim satisfaction. "And I think you and those two should get back to Haven. Dr. Druid and Ms. Brown have been informed about what they might have gone through, and will be waiting to talk to them." The teens all exchanged looks, and Magma pointedly looked away when Illyich took the opportunity to kick the prisoner in the side.
While they were waiting Ghigau went into the building, touching the chair they assumed was some kind of indoctrination device. Thanks to her empathic psi powers, Ghigau could create illusions from the residual thoughts or emotional impressions of an area or single item if the thoughts were strong enough. They were here, but she didn't see any evidence of the chair having been used previously.
Walking back outside, she found that Harry and Storm had appeared, teleported in by one of the house-elves. Harry took one look at the bodies then at the surviving leader and nodded his head grimly. "Good work. Magma, after we're done do you feel comfortable with demolishing this place? You don't have to do anything with the bodies, but make it look as if an earthquake hit."
"Can do Sir," Magma said, nodding her head.
"Good," Harry murmured having already turned away. Storm had already disappeared, returning quickly with Emma via her own style of teleportation. "Jean is hip deep in work with one of the think tanks. Someone seems to have come up with a new idea for how to speed up work on the Ravenspires, and they are testing it out right now."
Harry nodded, and turned to Emma. "Do you want to take the knowledge from his brain, or do it the magical way?" Harry asked holding up a glass vial full of Veritaserum.
Emma eyes locked onto it with avaricious intensity. The amount of money Harry could get from marketing a truth serum was astronomical, but she knew he wouldn't, not yet anyway. "Given the type of things that Maggia members routinely get up to, I'd rather not look into his mind if I can help it."
"Understandable," Harry nodded, tore off the cloth over the man's mouth and tilted his head back pouring the serum three drops onto the man's tongue before waking him up with an Enervate. "What is your name?" he began.
The questioning went on for about three hours and two more applications of Veritaserum as Harry pulled all the information he could think of from a man about the Maggia's current activities, in particular their plans to make any mutants into enforcers. That plan had just started thankfully, pioneered by this man himself who had a connection with AIM, from where the brainwashing device had come from. Unfortunately he didn't know anything about any of AIM's current projects or bases in Italy.
He did know where several meetings were going to take place soon, as well as dozens of Maggia bases. Harry passed on a lot of that information to Duggan, along with the man himself, tied up with a pretty pink bowtie over his head. Over the next few weeks Maggia would quickly find itself under the same kind of attack in Italy and the rest of Europe that AIM had faced in South America, while Harry and the Custodes won more points with SHIELD. Unfortunately this goodwill did not extend to SHIELD's backers, or even Fury himself, who was becoming increasingly paranoid about Harry's resources and goals, despite his good deeds.
When Jean and Harry got back to Camelot, Harry found Emma waiting for him with Ororo. She smiled at them, an evil little expression on her face at the moment. "Sage and I are ready," she said simply. It's time you got in touch with Doctor Doom if he wants to be involved with this."
"I'll send him a message tonight. Tomorrow evening?"
Emma nodded, a predatory smirk on her face. "Imminently suitable. Paris is on board, so it's time to get the Hellfire Club moving to our tune."