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Upon arriving back in the castle, Ororo found that the children she had rescued from Sudan and the people they had rescued from Russia had woken up. Most of them were still sitting around the table listening raptly to Miss Brown. Laynia was off to the side, apparently reading a book with Dr. Druid sitting on the other side of the table from her doing the same. Nikolai wasn't there, nor was Piotr or Shiang Chi. Father Garnoff sat alone at one table, lingering over a late repast.
Ororo smiled when the children and Fay looked up at her. "Good morning, in case you do not remember, I am Ororo Munroe. This is Kitty," she said, waving one hand toward Kitty waved at the younger teens with a smile on her pretty face. They all waved back at her shyly, even the child with no eyes.
"She and I are going to set this table up," Ororo went on, waving at the very heavy looking table, behind which Cory was gasping a little from exertion. The thing had weighed much more than he thought it had. "And then we are going to ask you one at a time to lay down on it while the two of us and Dr. Druid look at the readings we get. Note that this table is not going to do anything to you. It is simply going to allow us to see if we caught all the problems last night the," she paused and controlled herself with difficulty, "vile people we rescued you from caused."
"Er, does that include us?" Jesse asked, looking between Ororo and his older brother.
"I would like you to use it, yes, but that is your choice." While the Sudanese siblings looked at one another, Ororo went on, looking over at Father Garnoff. "Father, could I ask you to go first, just so the children can see that it won't harm them?"
"I'll do it." said Illyich, though he looked a little apprehensive.
However, Blind Faith shook his head at the boy, reaching over to touch his shoulder gently before turning to Ororo. "I will agree to go first, though I would ask, do you know if there is a chapel in this castle?"
Ororo frowned and after a moment shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't. I would not think so but you could ask Harry when he returns."
In order to put the children more at ease, Ororo and Kitty set up the table in the dining hall, along one wall by an outlet that Harry and Jean had created during their initial efforts to put in power receptacles throughout the majority of the Castle.
Beyond a few old wounds, including a gimpy knee, the potions the Father had taken the evening before had fixed the majority of the issues that he had so the first test went without hitch. The children, encouraged by this and wanting to get it over with, moved forward one at a time. As she took her place in line, Nikolai's sister, engaged Kitty in small talk. Laynia was two years older than Kitty but the two were of similar disposition in many ways, both in tastes of clothing and outlook on life.
When it came time for his turn, Sergei was by far the most apprehensive but Fay and Ororo both did their best to put him at ease. The young boy, who had been born with his bat-like powers and had never known the love of his family or anyone before Father Garnoff had found him, moved forward hesitantly, and nearly flinched when Miss Brown put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Sergei, no-one here is going to harm you."
Sergei gulped, turning his blind face up to the teacher/den-mother. "You, you promise?"
Fay smiled gently, her hand gently touching his face. "We promise, don't we Ms. Munroe?" Ororo nodded firmly, reiterating Fay's promise, and the boy moved forward to lie down on the table. Despite this emotional moment, however, the children had nothing life threateningly wrong with them. Jesse and Christopher had a few old bruises but, to Ororo's relief (and shock if she was honest), had no old broken bones or anything that would point to physical abuse to go along with the mental abuse she knew they had suffered.
The children from Russia were worse, but still nothing major. A few old broken bones as well as numerous, as in over a dozen surgical scars on each of the five of them, surgical scars that the potions could not deal with, although Harry had once mentioned a salve for scars that could help. On Anechka and Ivan, the placement of the scars was particularly troubling but the damage they had covered, a missing rib and a bit of thigh bone, had been healed by the potions the evening before. Sergei, for all his fear, was much better off.
Dr. Druid, having a surprisingly good bedside manner and a face that the children seemed to trust, had helped throughout the procedure. Now he looked up from where he had been taking notes on a pad of paper, shaking his head. He kept his voice low as he talked to Ororo. "What these children went through is abominable. If I had known such was going on…" He paused looking down at his wooden hand which moved and flexed as his normal one would have. "I don't know what I would've done. I just hope that nothing like this ever happened in the United Kingdom."
"I have no doubt it has not, if only for the fact that King William would come down on it like the wrath of God," Ororo said dryly, "but regardless of the type of government, Russia has always been known to play fast and loose with the rights of the individual, as well as general humanitarian law. Given your area of influence there was nothing you could've done about this evil, even if you could have somehow found out about it in the first place."
"I know that, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I'll get to work on creating that essence of… whatever the name was of that salve Harry told me about a few days ago. I've looked at the ingredients and we have them on hand, thanks to Harry raiding that one particular dark zone. It doesn't look as if it is that difficult to brew. Besides, I will need the experience before starting to create the potions that Magical Minds is going to be selling."
Ororo nodded, and after a moment of conferring with Fay, decided the kids could have a few hours out by the lake before the two of them began to test their developmental levels.
At that moment, Harry apparated in with his house elf helpers, coming back from surveying the land in the Thames Valley. While they hadn't begun work on the building, the house elves had been able to tell him that the ground would be able to support a lot of development. They had also helped him survey the area for places where he could place ward stones as well as telling him where best to put the foundations of their new building. Once they had enough material, the four house elves, who were experienced with construction, would be able to help Harry put up the building, so long as he handled the wiring and other electronics. Plus, with the ley lines right there and the extra hearth stone, it would be foolish to not use it. All in all, it was a prime location.
Harry walked from the main hall into dining hall once more, only to be greeted with a bushy haired hug that reminded him so much of Hermione that Harry actually had to stop and blink away tears for a moment before looking down to where Kitty was hugging him across the chest grinning up at him. "Hey, Kitten." he said smiling a little wanly as the memory of being hugged like this right here in the Hogwarts of his birth reality more than a few times. "You, you ready to get to work?"
"You bet, Teach!" She frowned a little, looking over at the kids who were still gathered around the table, as Ororo gave instructions to a few house elves who nodded and popped off for a moment coming back with several different bathing suits for the kids. "You did a good thing there, Teach. I just wish the X-Men had Cerebro running so we could be out and about, fighting the good fight too, but it will be at least a another week before its up and running."
Harry shrugged, "Sorry, but my repair spell can't fix things if there are parts missing. Besides, I have no doubt that the X-Men will find more than enough to do in America once you lot are active again. Now, while Ororo's busy with the kids, let's go find Jean to see if she and I can find a way to protect your mind from outside threats."
He led Kitty through the castle to Jean's lab, where the redhead looked up from trying, and failing at the moment, to find a way to miniaturize the plasma blaster's heat sinks enough to be usable but maintain the needed level of efficiency while Country music, of all things, sounded in the background. "Oh, thank god, a respite! Hey, Kitty, you ready to get to work?"
"Yeppo, but Teach here says you need to figure out a way to protect my mind. Not that I, you know, mind that idea. I don't mind you or the professor being able to contact me telepathically but the idea of someone entering and, and just rummaging around scares me."
Jean nodded. "Let me tell you, it scares me too." She said this with considerable understatement. Especially after finding the mental blocks Charles put on her, the idea of anyone else messing with her mind gave Jean nightmares. That was why she had so many defenses to her mind, not just the outer layer of belsham trees, but an inner wall and even a third layer of defense in the form of another wall. "So, let's see what we can do."
Over the next few minutes, Jean placed a large mental wall around Kitty's mind. It wasn't permanent or perfect but it would do for now. Harry also informed Jean that she, as part of her journeyman test, would be coming up with her own runic array to defend her mind from intrusion. How long that project would take was very much up in the air, given all the work Harry was going to dump on her, but the very idea already had Kitty thinking up ways that could be done.
Once Jean was done, Harry showed Kitty to the runic workroom, two doors down from the hearthstone room. Once there he showed her the designs for the lie detector ward and detailed how he wanted it set up. His concept was a matched set of a desk and a chair to hold the different portions of the array. The sensing portion would be on the chair and the display portion, which would tell the user what the results were, would be on the desk hidden by something between it and the perspective employee. He went through each rune in turn, describing what they did and how they fit into the whole, then drew out examples of each standing alone. "So, do you think you can handle that?"
Kitty nodded. "It'll take me a while, but I think I can do it, although making the full array will be the toughest thing I've ever done." Harry patted her on the arm with a grin and left her to it. As Harry turned away, Kitty was already bending over the large sand table, writing out the runes, trying to master their forms.
Now that Kitty was working, Harry turned to check in with Ororo before calling Emma about meeting with her in two days. However, his search for his weather goddess was interrupted by Father Garnoff. "Mr. Potter, can I talk to for a moment?"
Harry looked over at the priest, who had come up to him in the stairwell, and nodded. "Certainly, what can I do for you? Does this have anything to do with you being the leader of the mutant railroad or whatever that doctor that was experimenting on you mentioned?"
"It does indeed. I have no doubt that the railroad has moved on, but I would still like to try and get in touch with it. Without my power they are probably having a much tougher time finding young mutants, let alone getting them out of the country."
Harry frowned thoughtfully, leading the way up to the Book of Students as he asked, "What are your powers, exactly?"
"Telepathy based around the momentary control of others or the usurpation of their senses, including hypnotic suggestions. With it, I was able to mask my own presence as well as blind the presence of others. It was particularly useful when spiriting mutants away. I was captured when we were attacked by soldiers who had their minds mechanically protected from my influence. Many of them died soon after, the implants burning their minds out. Phobos once said it had been an excellent investment of an experimental model." The father nearly spat those words.
Harry paused in the hallway leading to the library tower, his face blank as he mentally made certain that his invisibility cloak was covering his mind, once more covering, for the moment anyway, the small corner of it he had allowed to be open for communication with Jean. When he spoke his voice was measured and calm. "I understand that such powers would have been a major help in your fight against the powers that be in Russia, but you are among friends now. So, if I ever even get a hint of you using your powers on anyone here, for whatever reason, I will rip your skeleton out of your body and force it to dance a jig on your soft squishy bits. Do you understand?"
As outlandish and even comedic as the threat was, both the tone of voice and the cold, level stare Harry sent Blind Faith's way told him to take it seriously. So he simply nodded.
After that, the trip down the corridor resumed as did the conversation. "As to helping you get back into Russia, I can do that, though I am not so optimistic about your ability to stay undetected for very long. I highly doubt that Phobos only kept a single copy of your files on his system. In fact, I'd bet the government has multiple copies of your power signature, appearance, abilities, and what have you, as well as your followers. You might bring down more heat on them."
Father Garnoff frowned at that. "Nonetheless, I have an obligation to try to help my fellow mutants as much as I can."
"And is there a reason why you don't want to do that working with me and the others here? I can't promise that we will be concentrating solely on Russia but you might be able to help mutantkind far more here than you could alone. You should have already noticed, but I have a lot of resources and many of those resources are going to be used to aid mutantkind from persecution."
By this point, they had reached the entrance to the library. Harry entered first looking up at the top of the doorway, where a series of tiny runes were placed around a large piece of colored glass. This was a runic array much like the one Harry had tasked Kitty to start making, though somewhat more limited. The glass triangle would glow red if someone in its presence was lying or who was inherently untrustworthy. He watched it out of the corner of his eye as the priest followed him in and it did nothing, causing Harry to smile.
"For instance, there is this." Harry gestured at the monstrous book on the plinth in the center of the circular room, pulling Garnoff from his staring at the towering bookshelves. "This is the Book of Students and it can magically scan the world over for mutant signatures, although it isn't very precise in what it terms a mutant, yet. I think it might be only looking for ones with a noticeable change in energy level, not ones who have permanent physical mutations."
Harry gently brushed the open pages of the book, then frowned a little when he noticed that it had stopped creating names, and there were about five pages worth. The names of the children downstairs, along with Piotr's, were there in green with little 'S' symbols next to them, signifying their student status as well as Nikolai's and his sister's, both with the 'S' of students. However the children's names hadn't appeared before this, nor had Laynia's, which meant the book looked for sudden differences, it wouldn't catch someone whose mutation was just of their normal body form. That wasn't good. It meant either Harry would need to refine the search parameters or find someone else who could do the same thing in another manner. All of the current names in the book showed green, however, which meant that they were safe. He was still going to contact them to offer his services in training them in their powers but if they weren't in danger right away then there was no reason to run off just yet.
"I'll be honest with you Father, I could use your talents here. Moreover, I don't want to send you back to Russia alone, I think that would be as good as sending you to your death. I have no doubt that base wasn't the only one where mutants were being experimented on but we can only do so much without good intel, which I hope Dennis and this book can help us gain." He tapped the big Book of Students. "What I'd like is to offer you a job working here as part of the school and as the watcher of this, once I figure out how to modify the spell array to allow telepathic interaction. With your power and the power of this book, we can find more young mutants and, if necessary, get them out of danger. You can help mutants the world over, not just in Russia."
Blind Faith frowned thoughtfully then with a sigh, nodded. "Very well, I can agree to that. Besides, I'm getting a little old for fieldwork."
Harry nodded, looking up at the runic panel above the doorway and smiling faintly as he saw that it was still showing no change, indicating the man had no duplicitous motives. Evidently the man was trustworthy, despite the fact they had gotten off on the wrong foot when he tried to probe Harry's mind.
"In that case, you can help look after the kids for now. I think Fay and the others will need the help and the two teens that I rescued with you seem to trust you, as do the younger kids."
The older man once more nodded, turning away to head back down the stairs. Harry smiled, patted the monstrous book once more, then conjured up a soft chair for himself and pulled out his communication mirror.
OOOOOOO
"Ms. Frost, you have a call from an unusual individual on line three."
Emma looked up from where she was working at her desk, frowning internally, though at the same time, she took a moment to look around her office in the mansion before replying. She'd decided to work from home as much is possible, not only to spend time with her younger sibling but to also utilize the defenses of the mansion as much as she could. Emma wasn't really concerned about Sebastian Shaw flying off the handle but it was a fact that she was making enemies. Many of them would not hesitate to strike at her physically.
To that end she had taken over her father's office but had completely renovated it, as well. Gone was the large wooden desk and furniture, replaced by new age metal and glass furnishings complimented by the coordinating fabrics on the cushions and window coverings, as well as a few tasteful paintings on the wall rather than a few store-bought hunting trophies. It was much more pleasant this way, but, also more importantly, much more her, simply being another sign of the fact that she had taken over as head of the family.
Of course, she had also done a thorough search of each and every piece of the old furniture, trying to figure out if there were any hidden files anywhere, as well as going over the computer that had been part of her father's desk. While those files had helped her immensely, she had not found anything that pertained to the electronic worms that gave her family an advantage when it came to gathering information electronically. That was one secret her father might well have taken to the grave and it was worrying her more the more she studied them.
As head of the family, she could actually see the worms now as they worked and they were literally light years beyond anything on the open market or available to anyone but possibly Reed Richards or Dr. Doom. Yet at the same time, they didn't have the same feel that she thought that either of those gentlemen would put into their programming. They were almost otherworldly, alien, like she had thought after that one discussion with Harry.
For the moment, she shrugged off that thought, looking at the doorway where Greg was standing. "Unusual how?"
"Unusual as in this person has never tried to contact us before this, in point of fact he, his father and your father had a sort of gentleman's agreement to never even be in the same state at the same time, let alone contact one another." Greg's voice was dust dry as he spoke, not even hinting at why that might have been, even if both of them had a pretty fair idea. "Perhaps the change of management or your little meeting a few weeks ago at that gala you attended in San Francisco has changed things. Whatever the case, Tony Stark is on line three."
Emma smiled faintly, leaning back. "Transfer the call to here, Greg. I've been expecting him to call today, I'm sorry I should have told you." Her faint smile remained on her face a moment later when the video display lit up, showing Tony's face.
The video phone was a new device on the open market but Tony and other 'tech geeks' had been using it for years, though, and it had only recently installed at in her office. Her father had not liked seeing people face-to-face when talking to them on the phone since most of the people he talked to on the phone were underlings. If you were important, he met with you in person, the better to get a read on your body language in its entirety rather than just your voice or even your face. Many people in the business world schooled their facial expressions and voice but very few people were able to control all their body language, giving Frost senior an advantage when figuring out what other people were really thinking.
"Tony Stark, to what do I owe of the pleasure of this call?" Emma allowed her small smile to become an equally small smirk for a moment before hiding it behind the habitual Frost self-control. While she was known already in business circles to be warmer and more approachable than her father, that wasn't really saying much, and she was determined to set the tone early.
"I think you know damn well what this is about." Tony smirked back at her, though his eyes were hard. "So tell me, were you already working with Obadiah before that meeting we had at the Fireman's gala or did you start working with him immediately after. I have to say that it looks very damning to me."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Emma replied another, slightly wider smirk appearing on her face before, once again, she banished the expression. "Perhaps you should speak plainly, Tony. I can call you Tony?"
"A lovely lady can always call me Tony," Tony replied nodding his head as if he was trying to bow in place. "And if you're going to play that way I will ask plainly: How the hell did you get a hold of a further twelve percent share of my company on top of the seven percent you had already. You must have known where Obadiah had hidden them to get at them so quickly after his death!"
Now, Emma allowed her face to settle into more amused and somewhat friendly lines. "Not at all, I merely heard about your little run in with Obadiah over by the African coast and immediately had my code monkeys start looking for places where he could have hidden stocks from your company. There is nothing illegal in that. There was no hold on those stocks and, even if they were traced back to Obadiah, you hadn't at that point frozen his stocks either. And may I just say, Tony, really? 'I am Iron Man'? Must you be such a grandstander? Or is that just a guy thing, big guns, suits of armor, and testosterone cutting off your higher brain functions."
Tony chuckled, shrugging. "Pepper said much the same thing. I thought it was a great moment, actually. Besides which, what was I supposed to have said, that he was my bodyguard or something? How many people would really believe that? Honestly, if that's the best the feds could come up with as a cover story, then it's a wonder they have any spies at all."
"True enough, I suppose." Emma chuckled as well.
Tony went on. "So what exactly are you planning to do with those shares? You realize you don't actually have enough stock to really irritate me. I've long since gotten used to ignoring other stock holders."
In fact, Tony was very used to ignoring stockholders because he had been doing it all his life. Still, the new batch of stockholders was much more interesting then his old batch. He was almost certain that Anastasia, at the very least, was a front for someone else. Looking into her background, he had been unable to find anyone who knew her or had even heard her name. He didn't think that Emma was behind the girl. It wasn't her sort of thing really, judging by her personality and what he knew of her and her family. Too showy.
He just wished that he understood the purpose behind the façade that was Anastasia and whether or not she was the one that had slipped him that ever so interesting piece of paper. That selfsame paper was still indestructible but every test he ran on it couldn't find why. Tony felt he was getting closer, energy readings that was the thing. It was just a matter of finding the right frequency to detect something in the paper, but he wasn't there just yet. But Anastasia wasn't the only one who had at opportunity to slip it to him so he wasn't certain of the connection.
Still she was interesting, as was George who was former SAS. Much like Obadiah before him, that was the totality of what Tony could find out about the man. Everything else about George was just not there. And he wasn't about to irritate MI5 or the SAS by digging further. Still, he had recovered and then absorbed the stocks that Obadiah had openly held, giving him a simple majority share of the company.
"On another topic, I don't suppose you'd be willing to share any information you had about whoever is behind that Anastasia girl, would you?"
"You found out that she was fake?" Emma said showing no surprise at all. Tony was many things, obtuse he was not. His particular intelligence might be geared more towards engineering and electronics but he wasn't socially inept as a few other geniuses in the world were. He was in fact very good socially so the Anastasia character had probably been a little over the top, although the fact that it was a little too obvious might've made him hesitant to assume it was, in fact, more than it was. "I thought so at the time, but I was having such a good time with my friend that I didn't want to interrupt the evening."
She watched as Tony's eyes took a faraway look as he tried to bring to mind Emma's companion, couldn't, and almost immediately gave up on the exercise, looking back at her through the video screen, smiling faintly. "Oh yes, she's very fake. She has an electronic and paper trail but no one in her supposed hometown even heard of her and, believe me, she was rather memorable."
"And in oh so many ways," Emma replied dryly. "Still, I can't help you there. It was the first time I met her, as well as that interesting English gentleman. Have you been able to find out anything about him other than he was former SAS?"
Tony shrugged. "Not a bit. Still let's set that aside for now and get down to brass tacks, Emma. You have your own company, which is doing very damn well I notice. Your new weapon designs are most interesting. I don't suppose you'd be willing to share who came up with that long-range taser system of yours?"
The taser gun in question was one of Harry's and was already one of Cold Steel's biggest sellers. It was, without a doubt, going to revolutionize police work in America and beyond. At the moment, only a few areas were able to make room in their budget for them but those orders were from many of the larger municipalities, including New York, Washington, and several other cities along the West Coast and in Florida.
At Emma's amused chuckle and shake of her head, Tony went on. "You have Cold Steel, you have all your other companies, you have no need to go out and buy stocks in my own, and you don't strike me as avaricious enough to simply take them on as a flier to see if you can make another billion. What are you after?"
"Never go into politics, Tony. You're much two blunt and honest for your own good." Emma chuckled, leaning back slightly, the tilt of the screen on her desk following her automatically. "In fact, I am after several things, though I will say that when I bought those shares initially, I didn't have my family's corporation. My father was head of the family and the corporation at that point."
Tony nodded, conceding the point but one of his hands appeared in the pickup waving at her to continue. It was evident he wanted to know precisely what kind of bribe she expected him to pay so as to force her to not make issues. While he was correct that she couldn't really force him to follow her directions vis-a-vis the company, she could, along with George and whoever was behind Anastasia, form a block that could make problems for him down the line and in the media, something he really didn't want to deal with. It was better to deal with things like that before they came out. "So, what precisely do you want?"
"I would like some high-end electronics gear that your company produces, scanners and such like, along with a few computers, the kind that you are well known to use when designing things as well as to run your security systems at your various buildings. Possibly, I might be sending you a few commissions that I want you, personally, to look at. Don't worry, it won't be for anything weapons related. I won't offend your sensibilities like that but I'll have to think of that aspect further. I'm not going to make waves, Tony, if that's what you're worried about. I'm simply going to ask you to pass along certain items, that is all, business as usual."
Emma was actually speaking of the need that Harry had mentioned once for a long-range detection system to detect incoming threats from space. She was also wondering if she should ask for a copy of the program that JARVIS was built around. The program might not be a fully AI but it was so close it could serve the same purposes without all the 'ethical issues'. Still, she knew that Tony wasn't going to be willing to sell that, not without a lot more incentive.
Tony frowned, not liking the idea of handing over the proprietary tech that he had personally developed, but for the price of Emma not making trouble, what she was describing might actually be cheap. "Send me a list via e-mail and I'll look at it to see if I can agree to let some of that go. I will say that I would not be happy with the idea of giving you any of my computers specialized for 3-D design, since I know you'll just turn them to weapon design again."
"You have a suit of armor that is possibly one of the ultimate weapons in the world and you are using it as your personal superpower. I noticed that you were on the news again yesterday, something about a drug ring you smashed down in the Gulf of Mexico? And you're still irritated about the idea of selling weapons?"
"There is a difference," Tony replied sharply, his eyes hardening, "between trusting myself with weapons I make and trusting someone else. It's the same reason I'm not willing to sell my suit to the government. I'm not going to allow anyone to mass produce it. There is a difference between me owning that weapon and turning over all the weapons I have in my head to other people, when I can't control how they use them."
Emma groaned mentally, knowing for a fact that there were at least two secret government agencies in America alone working on re-creating Tony's suit, although neither had been able to figure out how to power the things, yet. "I know you've heard this before but just because you're not making those weapons doesn't mean someone else isn't going to step in and fill the gap. Your personal conscience might be clean but that doesn't really change the facts of the world, now does it? Your work as a superhero works better than your initial response, if that is your real goal. In any event, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind for those computers and programs of yours, but you really have no need to know what I do have planned for them. Is that all you want to talk about?"
Tony nodded then abruptly cut off, causing Emma to frown. Tony was still showing small signs of PTSD and he was still far too hands off in terms of his company for her liking. That was her personal belief of course. Tony had always been heads off but Emma would've thought that a smart man like him would've learned from the mistake shown by giving Obadiah so much power and stepped up to the plate. Instead, Tony was leaving more and more of, well, everything to do with the company to Pepper Potts.
Emma wasn't concerned about the choice of individual there. Pepper was a very good manager, not brilliant exactly, and she didn't have the social or business connections a president of a company as large as Stark Corporation should have, but still a good manager. Yet, it was a fact that Pepper wasn't as good at the job as Tony could have been, if he cared about his company at all. That offended her sensibilities and opened up Stark Corporation to attacks from other corporations and companies that Pepper couldn't see or handle as easily as her boss.
However, Emma also knew that there was growing pressure in Congress for the government to seize control of the Iron Man suit, which probably was taking up a lot of Tony's time and effort to combat. At least. I hoped it is. If he's so egotistical as to not see that as a threat, it's a very bad sign indeed. Much like the reports of daredevil activity from Tony that the news has begun to cover, not only in his suit but in his driving, in being seen hang gliding, and there was one report a day ago of him joining a Formula One race while inebriated. Is this a new symptom of his narcissism, a holdover of the PTSD, or something else? Emma mused, wondering what was making Tony tick these days.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt her pants pocket heat for a moment. She reached inside, pulling out the small compact that she had been using to communicate with Jean and the others. After touching the screen to activate it, she smiled, pleased to see Harry's face. "Harry, how are you doing? What can I do for you?"
"I'm doing well. We ran into a spot of bother yesterday but nothing too life changing or threatening. However, I was talking to Jean and Ororo. Both of them pointed out that I'm still not taking the business aspects of my plans for the future seriously. I was wondering if we could meet on Wednesday and just sort of spend the whole day going over everything. I think you'll need the entire day to pound the necessity of taking the business aspect seriously into my head."
"Be warned that I'll probably enter into the political portion of what you mean to do." Emma warned, smiling brightly at the idea of spending an entire day with Harry. "And I would love to. I can clear up my schedule for Wednesday, though I would prefer if you can get over here early enough for the two of us to go over and talk to the Sandman in person before starting our discussion, as you mentioned wanting to see Sandman before trying to find a way to control him without my using my telepathy to lobotomize him."
"I haven't really had time to devote to that just yet, but we'll see." Harry replied, waving one hand in the screen in a so-so gesture. "Still, I have no problem with that. Where do you want to meet or is there a place on your property where I can teleport in without anyone seeing? If so, I'll send Hedwig to you and you can take her to wherever you wish me to port in."
Emma thought for a moment then smiled sardonically, looking up at the ceiling and toward her mother's former rooms. They were now uninhabited, the furniture in them having been moved to her new house near the shore but both Emma and Cordelia were very reluctant to use those rooms. They seemed to have a sort of miasma around them, of distilled apathy and despair, but that was probably just their feelings toward the rooms and its former inhabitant. "I do in fact have a place which we could that set up, although we will have to be careful going in and out. Still, we'll see. Send Hedwig to me this evening around one o'clock AM local time. I'll show her where, nothing changes in there so it should be safe."
Harry nodded. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about right now?"
"Tony Stark just called, he seems to be somewhat getting over his PTSD but at the same time, not." She described to Harry the symptoms she had been noticing, as well as the state of Stark Corporation. "I'm not certain what to make of it. I'm not a psychologist of course but still it feels as if he's not all there, yet. And he's also taken up the Iron Man motif as a superhero. Have you been following that?"
Harry shook his head. "No, but given his personality that does seem like something Tony would do." Harry frowned thoughtfully. "I'd like to partner with him, possibly use him as a silent partner even after I get my own corporation going but if we can't trust him to keep things as discreet as needed, I'm not certain I'd want to trust him with anything to do with our extralegal activities. It's a pity because he would be a fantastic person to go to for a lot of the technological issues I can see on the horizon, which would free Jean to work on other issues, but I'll go with you on this one. If you think Stark's still too erratic, then we're not going to even approach him."
"I think that it would be a very bad idea, to be honest with you." Emma replied, smiling dryly. "Regardless of what new mental issues he is dealing with, Tony is an almost classic egotist. I think he's a good man, don't get me wrong, but he likes being the center of attention, he likes being the leader, and if he's not either of those things he is not going to be happy. And like it or not, the two of you would clash far too often."
"That was one of the impressions I got, yes."
"Besides, we don't need to partner up with him openly to get the technology you seem to think you will need. Get with Jean, ask her what she needs in terms of engineering tools and equipment, get with her and see how much money she spent so far on the projects you had her doing in the castle. That'll give me a round number of what we should ask Tony for in terms of buying my becoming a non-issue in terms of my shares of the company."
Harry nodded. "I'll do that. Do you think we could also commission him to make some kind of long-range sensor for space without tipping our hand?"
"No." Emma replied bluntly. "At first, when I was talking to him that was my thought but I realized after he hung up on me that it would be obvious to Tony what we were asking for. If he makes something like that he'll simply either sell it to the government or use it himself. After all he's a hero now, he'd think he could handle that sort of thing." The emphasis Emma put on the word hero was anything but flattering to those with that appellation.
Harry shrugged. "Well, it's not as if he was the only person I could go to for that." The two continued to talk for a time, with Emma informing Harry of what he should bring with him to their meeting on Wednesday and reiterating Ororo and Jean's warnings about trusting Dr. Doom. "Dr. Doom will follow the letter of any agreement," she said emphasizing the word grimly, "but if there is even a chance of not following the thrust of said agreement in the wording, then he will figure out a way to get around it. He's almost a lawyer like that. Also, make certain that any agreement he agrees to he does so in his full name, not just as Dr. Doom."
"I have every intention of wording whatever agreement the two of us agree to in such a way that he won't be able to get out of it, trust me." Harry replied dryly. "I'll be sending Hedwig as soon as I'm off the mirror with you over to the King to figure out a specific time to meet with him. After that, if she isn't too tired, I'll send her on to you so you can show her the area you think I should apparate to."
Emma nodded, eagerly looking forward to that meeting. "Very well, I'll see you Wednesday."
OOOOOOO
Harry nodded and signed off before standing up and making his way up to the headmaster's tower, leaving his comfy chair where it was to fade when the magic ran out. There he found Hedwig still sleeping, exhausted from her evening battle against Dr. Doom's traps, so much so that she hadn't even tried to get to him when he thought about sending a letter with her. A highly unusual state for the post owl, who prided herself on knowing when her Harry needed her.
She looked up as Harry began to stroke the plumage along her back. "Hey, Hedwig," Harry murmured, "are you feeling up to a trip down to Buckingham Palace and back?"
Hedwig precked indignantly, waking up fully to glare up at Harry.
Harry held up his hands placatingly. "Easy there Hedwig, I wasn't questioning you. I just know you had a rough night against Doom's entrapment attempts, that's all."
Hedwig nodded, mollified a little.
After stroking her plumage for a bit longer, Harry gently tied the message that he had prepared for the King to her leg. "Wait there for William's reply, we need to know when he wants to meet with us. I'll have at least twelve pieces of bacon ready for you right here when you get back."
With the ruffling of feathers, Hedwig set off, leaving Harry alone in the room shaking his head in amusement at his snowy owl. "I don't suppose I have to say it out loud, but could someone make certain there is a plate of fresh bacon here ready for her when Hedwig gets back?"
A female house elf whose name Harry couldn't remember offhand popped in, curtseying. "We have already prepared a plate for her owliness, master. We will be keeping it warm until we feel her return."
After thanking the house elf, Harry went down to find Jean in her lab. The redhead was still working on improving the design of the plasma weapon while sitting in her very comfortable looking chair. When Harry walked in, she was frowning intently at the rifle blueprints hovering in midair, with the parts of the sniper rifle laid out on a table underneath. "Hey Jean, you ready to head up to High Note?
Jean frowned as she looked up but eventually nodded. "Yes, it shouldn't take us long, I suppose." She paused as she moved her finger across the display, connecting the laptop system to the local printer, which was set up in the dining hall as a central area. She quickly opened the file with the parts list and specs, then sent it to the printer. "I've got some ideas for some of these weapons but the miniaturization aspect as well as the heating is going to be troublesome, unless we start using Orihalcum for these as well. Even so, it's going to take me a few days to go through all this. I haven't moved past the sniper rifle yet. The power system is good, almost revolutionary, but the rest of the design is too damn bulky for me to want to use any of it and even the power source could be made... tighter, I suppose is a way to describe it."
Jean wasn't a scientist like Reed Richards or Tony Stark or others of their caliber. She would never be pushing the envelope of what is known about the material world. What she was, was an engineer par excellence. Give her something to work with, and she could come up with ways to make it work better than the original in very short order.
Harry shrugged. "I'd prefer not to become too wedded to that idea. Orihalcum is going to become our calling card if we go into the energy business and I don't want it to be in any way connected to our combat team, not for a while anyway. I dislike the necessity but we need to separate our legitimate businesses from the work we'll be doing as… whatever the hell name you and Ororo decide to use for us, at least until we can get public approval and move fully into the open."
"In terms of time, take as long as you need, love. New toys always take a bit of time to get right and it's not like we have the rest of the battle rattle for our team set up either, that belt I made up for you notwithstanding. That's an awfully comfy chair by the way." he said changing the subject.
Jean nodded tapping the arms of the chair affectionately "I like it…" her voice cut off as Harry leaned in quickly, kissing her on the lips. Jean's eyes widened at first then closed as she responded to the kiss, her arms going around him as he moved in, pressing her deeper into the chair. They made out for a few minutes and then Harry retreated slightly grinning at her and kissing her once again lightly on the lips before moving away. "Come on, let's get something to eat and then head up to High Note."
Jean followed him, a little dazed by the suddenness of his passionate assault, her cheeks dusted with red. She shook it off quickly, however, and moved after him, chuckling quietly about how spontaneous Harry could be with his affection at times.
OOOOOOO
Rounding a corner looking for Ororo or Harry, Kitty gasped as she slammed into something with almost bruising force. "OW!" she exclaimed, falling backward toward the floor before two clamps latched onto her arms, lifting her off the ground for a moment until she got her bearings back.
A rumbling sort of voice said gently, "I'm sorry, little one, are you well? I should've been looking where I was going."
Kitty looked up, rubbing her forehead, and wondering what had clamped onto her, to discover that it had been a large young man, a few inches taller than even Harry and very handsome to boot. She gaped a little, blushing slightly, at his square-jawed, chiseled face, black hair, and intelligent kind brown eyes. He was also shirtless, showing off ripped muscles in his stomach, powerful arms, and shoulders, all of which were glistening with sweat at the moment.
The young runic apprentice blushed further after noticing that and stepped back quickly. "I-I'm fine um, w-who are you, and how did you get here!?"
"My name is Piotr and I came in from Russia with the others that you probably have already met. I would've met you this afternoon, I suppose. Harry had asked Shiang Chi to put myself and another Russian man named Nikolai through our paces." He grimaced a little. "I regret to say that I did not stand up to the running as much as my fellows did. The two of them are still out there but I was told to come in and get some water." In fact, Piotr's legs were burning more than he could remember at any other time. While his cardiovascular system was up to it, if barely, his legs just were not used to being forced to run that far or that quickly. Farmers were asked to lift a lot with their legs but not to run, so much.
"Though," he smiled, with a little smirk of triumph, proud despite his self-effacing nature, "I did much better than either of them thought I would in terms of strength, far better than either of them did in point of fact. Even in this." He tapped his still bare chest, though obviously the young girl before him did not understand his amusement.
This caused Kitty to look at the hand and the muscles underneath it before she blushed and looked away again. Idiot, Kitty thought to herself, you have a boyfriend you can't go checking out other guys like that although, she spared a single glanced down at his pecs again, this is one hell of a show… no, stop that.
While Kitty was conducting her inner monologue, Piotr was examining her in turn. Kitty's brown hair was as wild and curly as ever, extending a little past her shoulders. Her body was coltish, yet still feminine, looking like she was a sprinter or possibly a dancer. She also wore clothing that, despite the fact that it was probably worn more for comfort than anything else, showed off her body to good effect.
Piotr looked away, frowning a little at how he had noticed such things. They didn't know each other after all and he had been brought up to respect women. His grandmother was not one to let such thoughts enter her grandchildren's heads, after all, and it was many a time that he, and his older brother years ago, had been smacked upside the head for their attempts to join the other farmers in their bawdy humor.
"Um, ahem, anyway," Kitty stammered, "do you know if Teach, I mean Harry, is around? Or maybe Ororo?"
"I'm afraid not, I have not seen either since I reentered the Castle, though I believe that Ororo, at least, was still with the children a little while ago. She might have turned that over to Miss Brown, the, what did she call it, the den mother?"
Kitty grinned, and nodded. "Yep, too many hats make a very unhappy Ororo. Well thanks, um, I'll uh, I'll see you around." With that she raced off, trying to cover her blush. "Idiot," she muttered to herself aloud this time, "you have a boyfriend, although to be fair that… it isn't going so well lately." Lance had, in fact, been training with his mentor, Clint, every day and hadn't had as much time for her as she had hoped they would be able to have during the summer. He was also becoming much more secretive, although she understood the reasoning behind that now, which made it little better all around.
Still, she thought to herself now much more seriously, he's becoming more loyal to Clint, who is part of SHIELD. While I'm loyal to Ororo and Harry and the professor, and, judging by what Ororo told me about Teach's meeting with that Fury guy… I don't know what's going to happen there, but we might find ourselves on opposite sides.
That was, in fact, her list of loyalties. Ororo first, a personal loyalty that was built on their affection for one another and the fact that the older woman was Kitty's role model as much as she was a sister figure. For some reason the two of them simply clicked, something that had deepened over time since Harry had helped Ororo let out her emotions more. Then Harry, as her runic teacher and, in her opinion, the best hope they had for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. Then came the professor, for it was his dream that had grabbed her, his teaching that had helped her when her mutant power first activated.
Kitty wasn't blind to the tension that had been ratcheting higher as long as she had been known she was a mutant. She had followed the stories of mutants turning on people and mobs attacking weaker mutants, like that poor boy in Ohio whose only crime had been to have insect eyes. The professor's dream was an excellent one but he wasn't proactive enough for her tastes or, frankly, any of the younger set's. She had actually talked about that with Scott and been surprised that even Scott would follow Harry rather than the professor if forced to choose. It wouldn't be easy for the younger man but it would be a choice he would make willingly. Thankfully, the professor and Harry were on the same side, and it looked as if they would remain so.
As she finished thinking that thought, she came upon Ororo with several of the younger children on a bench in front of her in a classroom on the first floor. Miss Brown was standing in front of a table near the back of the room with a faint smile on her face as she worked with the two male teens on something. Ororo seemed to be smiling on the surface, but to Kitty's eyes, something was bothering her, though what that was she had no clue.
Laynia, the teenage girl Kitty had met earlier, sat alone at another table. The blonde waved at her and Kitty smiled, moving over to join her, pulling over another chair. "What are they working on?" she whispered.
Laynia shrugged her shoulders, pushing across a stack of papers she had been working on all morning since the end of the physical tests on them and the children. "I've been working on translated placement tests that Ms. Ororo and Miss Brown gave us older teens from Russia, they downloaded them off the internet somehow. They're trying to place where our educational levels are." Laynia frowned, then shaking her head as she looked at the younger teens who were working with Miss Brown. "Two of the youngsters came from peasant background or what you would call the bottom rung of the civilization, yes? Dirt poor in other words, no education beyond very basic reading, so when it comes to be their turn… Ms. Ororo is teaching them how to speak English right now. I am uncertain how, but over there, the translation spell that is everywhere else in the castle is being blocked." That had been done by Harry at Ororo's request that morning, and had been relatively simple to do.
The American teen nodded, noticing a small runic array on the table where the kids, including Jesse and Christopher, were sitting. She wondered how such a thing could have been done and what kind of array that was. She smiled as Ororo made her way over to her, leaving some of the children to draw on what looked like a educational coloring book, while others took out small books with pictures of animals and words in them. Sergei, on the other hand, was given a cassette player and a learning tape. "Was there something you wanted, Kitty? How are you doing with the project Harry gave you?"
"I think I'm done working on drawing the individual runes but I wanted Teach to make certain that my copying skills were up to snuff. If they are, I might be able to put one or two of these 'trust me, trust me not' array things up tomorrow." Kitty grinned. "It's a great idea and it makes me happy that Jean put in some defenses to protect my mind. I don't like the necessity or the way she needs to redo it every-day but for now it will do."
Ororo hugged her gently, grateful for the young girl's support. "Thank you for this, that will be a major help in the near future."
Kitty smiled, returning the hug, then stood up, saying she was going to go back and work on the full array until she could talk to Harry. Ororo nodded and turned back to the children, her smile now somewhat more forced as she looked at them. Despite that she moved forward, touching a shoulder here and a head there with a smile on her face as the children recited what they were reading aloud to her.