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While Harry was pretty much pinning down both the air assets (eventually literally) and about three of the remaining infantry companies, Laynia and Nikolai were having their own problems.
Laynia had only been training for a little over six months, and hadn't developed the situational awareness of a soldier. And she had drifted as the battle against the platoons of their former 'comrades' moved around, leaving her without Nikolai's rifle to protect her.
Nikolai in turn had been concentrating on the snipers and guards up in their lookout posts wherever he could, eventually forcing them to stop firing into the base at the main attacker and concentrate on trying to pin him down. With their more powerful plasma-based weapons they were more dangerous than the regular infantry, especially since the heavy weapons fire teams had all been pushed into the base against the wizard. However, his mobility and sheer skill offset their advantage in numbers and firepower. He had killed seven of them, leaving only two in his sight by this point.
Thus it was that Laynia was taken by surprise from behind when the shield of the Red Guardian, a shield that was made out of a mix of carbonadium and titanium, slammed into her back, sending her falling to the ground. Before she could turn around a kick to the temple knocked her out.
Alexei grinned down at the hot blonde teen. "Somehow I doubt we'll be winning this fight, but no matter, I can still escape. And after that, you and I are going to have some fun, Laynia. Now excuse me, I have to go and kill your brother."
With that he grabbed up the shield and raced across the training ground, effortlessly moving through the obstacle course toward the foxholes at the other end of the training area. Nikolai saw him coming and cursed, bringing his third purloined rifle (having expended all the ammunition in his first two as well as the ammo carried by a soldier he had killed nearby) around to fire at the speeding man in red armor.
Alexei put his shield up, blocking the bullets his former comrade sent his way, laughing wildly. "You'll have to do better than that, little Nikolai!" He reached down suddenly, grabed up a dead trooper, and hurled the man toward Nikolai.
His target cursed and jumped to the side, then raced away to the side along the fox hole, dodging at the last second a plasma round from the woods. Nikolai turned his sight to the sniper, shooting him dead with a single round before jumping out of the foxhole. He was trying to keep the range open between him and the charging Red Guardian.
It was not to be. Alexei had crossed most of the distance between them and now roared, leaping forward and covering the last twenty feet slamming his shield face on into the younger, more mortal man. "Hah, no running away now little Nikolai!"
"UNNGH!" Nikolai grunted in agony as he was thrown backwards by the blow, but he rolled with it, coming to his knees. He quickly brought his rifle up to blast a full clip out at his attacker, forcing Alexei to cover himself with his shield for a moment. But the moment the clip clicked dry the larger, far stronger Alexei was on his former comrade, leaping forward to smash a fist down into Nikolai.
Nikolai raised his rifle to block the punch, but it shattered under the blow, and he felt a few ribs crack under the punch as well as he was smashed to the ground. He still lashed out, kicking Alexei's leg out from under him, but the larger man simply hopped on his other foot. Then he lashed out with the leg Nikolai had kicked, smashing Alexei in the face.
Yet he had pulled the kick, so that instead of shattering the younger man's skull it simply threw him backward with a shattered nose. "You don't honestly think you can fight me do you? Even before I was given the Super-strength serum you could never beat me!"
He strode over to the red-haired young man, who had flown backwards to land limply on the ground. "You should never have tried to defect here Nikolai. I don't know about the rest of the battle, but you should know the state would never allow you or your sister go. Don't worry though, I'll put in a good word for Laynia, if she gives me the proper incentive of course!"
Nikolai made a weak groaning noise, and Alexei reached down, lifting him off the ground into the air. The younger man's feet dangled a foot off the ground and Alexei laughed as he made certain the younger man who had dogged his every step, forced him to push himself to keep his position, knew at last how outmatched he was. "What was that friend, I couldn't hear you?"
Nikolai's hands suddenly flashed out, one arm grabbing his tormentor's arm, the other slamming his fingers into the inside of his elbow as hard as he could. "ARGH!"" Alexei howled in agony, dropping Nikolai and immediately kicking out.
Yet Nikolai had fought Alexei dozens of times before and knew all his tells. He was able to see the blow coming and this time he was able to duck. His fist flashed out again, crunching into the side of Alexei's knee as he held it with his other hand, breaking the knee.
"Damn You!" Alexei howled, bringing his shield on his other arm to slam again into Nikolai's face with all his strength.
Even crippled, that blow would have ended the fight if not for one thing: mutant powers sometimes activate in times of great stress, and at that moment Nikolai's mutant power activated. A shield of some kind sprang up over his body, reflecting the power of the blow back into Alexei.
The reflected force from this attack threw Alexei back stunned, but Nikolai had fallen to his knees, momentarily unable to press his advantage. Then, he began to slowly push himself to his feet. He shook himself, not realizing what had happened. BHowever, he had something he wanted to say to Alexei before they finished this fight.
It was something that he had wanted to say ever since the decision to give Alexei the codename of the Red Guardian had been made. "You know, I grew up hearing conflicting stories about the original Red Guardian, Aleksey Lebedev. At first, he was hailed as a hero, then the 'mutant threat' was seen and suddenly he was a danger to the state, seduced by a mutant or whatever to turn against his beloved motherland. I wonder why so many of the sheep actually believe that? What I know, is Lebedev was a real hero. He led the fight against the Nazis; Lebedev led the tanks in during Operation Kutuzov, which gave us the momentum and the initiative for the rest of the war even after the horrendous losses we had sustained under their assault, and fought in Stalingrad as well as numerous other engagements large and small. He stood against fascism then and at home later, and was killed for it! The Red Guardian was a hero and you are not worthy of his name!"
With that he charged forward, dodging a wild swing of the shield, to hammer two blows into the man's face. Alexei was stronger and more durable, but he was also already crippled by the earlier exchange, leaving him with only the arm that had the shield on it. He was also reeling from the force of his own blow being returned to him and was truly feeling it now.
Alexei lurched back under the blows, trying to return some of his own. Now flailing with his numbed arm, he managed to catch Nikolai with a few blows. One caught him with Alexei's full remaining strength behind it, throwing him back.
But Nikolai merely skidded across the ground, grabbing up a knife from the body of a dead trooper. When Alexei lunged forward to bring his shield down on Nikolai edge first, Nikolai threw the knife desperately. It caught Alexei in the shoulder of his other arm, throwing off his aim just enough for Nikolai to roll to that side and lash out with a kick, catching his opponent in the side.
"Agghhhh!" Alexei howled in pain from the knife now sticking out one of his shoulders, something that the drill sergeants would have beaten him for. Pain was to be endured, to be loved by those trained as Super-Soldiers.
Even through the pain, however, he still brought his shield around again, intending to ram the edge with all the force he could muster into Nikolai's chest. Nikolai brought his hands up to meet the blow, knowing it would probably break both his hands. His powers once more activated at his desperate need and the force of the blow was reflected back again.
This time, however, it wasn't a thrust of the shield but a swing. This sent the shield back at Alexei too fast for him to compensate or change its flat trajectory. The edge of the shield caught him in the neck under the chin as his own power was turned against him. The blow crushed his larynx and Alexei fell back onto the ground gasping, gasping for air that would not come.
Nikolai had still been thrown backwards but he got to his feet as quickly as his accumulated injuries allowed. He stared down at his hands, murmuring in a rather shocked tone, "Huh, I guess I do have a mutant power, after all, huh sis?" After a moment he looked up then moved to stand over the man who had been chosen as the second Red Guardian, staring down at him with grim eyes. He then reached down, taking the shield off the dying man's arm. "You were never worthy of using this, Alexei. I'll be taking it off your hands."
With that he moved over, picked up a dead trooper's rifle from the ground, turned, and put two bullets into the man's head. With that done, he moved as quickly as he could in his condition across the training ground toward his still unconscious sister.
OOOOOOO
Harry pressed the two powersuits hard, pushing them back, in particular the Crimson Dynamo, its armor unable to take the pounding of the Titanium Man's. It was now missing several thrusters, more than a bit of his armor, and his hand from the elbow down, which was bleeding badly from the stump. The Titanium Man was still in better shape, but he was now reacting even more desperately than the crippled Crimson Dynamo.
When he got them close enough to one another, his hands flashed out, one finger pointing towards each of his attackers as he shouted out a spell. "Æther!" This was one spell he had actually created, more as a prank spell really than anything else, since he didn't normally face people in his old dimension that it would have worked on, but in this situation it proved to be very useful.
The powersuits were suddenly magnetized to an incredible degree, but only in relation to one another. The Crimson Dynamo was nearly pulled out of the air, despite all his thrusters could do. The Titanium Man was pulled into the air. The two of them slammed together with concussive force.
Both operators yelled angrily, trying to bring their weapons to bear on Harry but he was already gone from where he had been standing, reappearing directly over them in their blind spot. "Drill of Light!" he shouted bringing his hands down. With a thunderous roar of power thirty drills of light, a massive gouging, cutting and penetrating spell slammed into the two armored men, who were now unable to dodge. Both of them were shredded under his magical assault leaving more bits of armor behind than men, their last screams of pain cut off as their speakers died.
The few remaining troopers nearby saw this and broke at last, falling back and away, trying to run.
Harry however grimly flew above them, killing any he saw. After what he had seen in that laboratory, there was no mercy left in his heart for any of these men.
OOOOOOO
Over in the machine park, the two titans continued to clash. The majority of the tanks had already been destroyed by this point, but the fight between Ursa Major and Piotr continued, vicious as it ever was.
Piotr gasped as he was lifted off the ground, having overextended a punch and having his arm grabbed by Ursa Major. The giant bear lifted the steel clad farm boy off the ground hurling him around into one of the empty tanks. The tank rocked on its treads, going over on one side when Piotr slammed full body into it, smashing its side open. Piotr was only winded by the landing however, and pushed himself out of the wreck easily.
His opponent pressed the assault, jumping forward to try and land with all four limbs slamming into Piotr but he dodged, kicking out hard and catching the giant bear on the side of his chest, throwing it in turn into a strange, futuristic looking jeep which exploded as the bear smashed through its engine cowling.
This didn't do much to Ursa Major, merely singeing the bear's fur. At this point he was joined by the ax wielding warrior dropping out of the sky to slam into the ground next to Piotr, swinging his ax in a wide arc trying to cut into Piotr's side. Perun, which was the man's name, had decided he didn't want anything to do with the mage anymore and when he recovered his senses from Harry's punch had gone looking for the steel clad intruder.
Piotr desperately clapped his hands together catching the blade of the ax between his palms just as it was about to slice into his side. His strength was greater than the other man's and he began to press the ax back towards its owner.
Ursa Major roared, coming out of the fire from the jeep to slam one paw into Piotr's head, throwing him to the ground.
Even through the pain of the blow the young Rasputin kicked out, taking both of his attackers to the ground. A second later, his forearm slammed into the face of the bear again causing him to howl in agony. Piotr leapt to his feet quickly, showing all the speed that so often surprised people when they first saw him move, reaching forward to grab the bear by the shoulders, turning and slamming him into the side of a tank, raining blows on the bear before he could recover.
Unfortunately, this allowed Perun to get up and gather his power. A second later, he sent forth a lightning blast which impacted Piotr's side. Both Piotr and Ursa Major screamed in agony as the lightning blast took them, with the bear taking the brunt of it. Despite Piotr being made of metal, his skin wasn't actually conductive, whereas the bear was merely flesh and blood. The man however kept it up, willing the steel titan that had invaded their base to fall. "Fall, damn you!" he shouted, "Fall!"
Piotr gasped suddenly, though not with pain, when he saw Ursa Major's eyes start to glaze over as the smell of burning fur and flesh became more prominent. Piotr, realizing what was happening, let go his hold on Ursa Major, and leapt backward, but the damage was already done and the giant Kodiak fell forward, face down.
The man finally stopped his attack, gasping and breathing heavily, having expended most of his power reserves on that one attack.
Piotr however didn't know or care about this, appalled at what had just occurred. He leaned forward turning the bear over to lay his head on Ursa Major's chest trying to hear a heartbeat. After a few seconds he realized he couldn't and glared up at the man who had been attacking him. "You killed your comrade, is this the honor of a Russian soldier?"
The man gasped breathing deeply, from his exertions. "He, he knew the risks, and if one of us should die to make certain you do, that is a price I am willing to pay!" With that statement, his attacks began again. He had dropped his ax, now throwing lightning bolts with both hands. "I call upon the power of my God, Perun, whose name I am honored to bear as his avatar! Bury this man in lightning!" The lightning bolts somehow changed, becoming even more powerful and intense.
Piotr grimly placed his hands in front of his face, teeth clenched in agony from the pain of the continued lightning attack, but he continued to step forward through the elemental assault, grimly determined to close with his enemy.
Harry appeared in the air above him and Piotr glared up at him, everything in his face, despite the metal covering it, telling Harry that this was his fight. Harry didn't know why Piotr was feeling that way, but decided if Piotr felt so strongly about it, Harry would leave him to it.
With a wave of his hands, he ordered the remaining (around one hundred twenty five were still moving) golems to split. Most moved toward towards the training ground where two platoons had managed to get out of the base commons. They had pinned down the two Super-soldiers that had turned on them, one of whom wasn't moving, dead or unconscious, Harry couldn't tell from the air. The golems took them from behind, ripping them apart. Four more stationed themselves in the airfield, while twenty others moved into the remains of the machine park, smashing everything there, staying well clear of the ongoing battle between Perun and Piotr.
Harry himself flew towards the center of the base towards where he knew the command center to be. With long range communications down he hadn't bothered with it, knowing that the people inside were at best impotent in the face of the carnage his assault had unleashed.
When he reached the command center, Harry ripped off its roof with a single wordless spell to stare down at the general and the other soldiers inside. He was about to ask for their surrender when they all reached for their sidearms, pulling them out, and firing up at him. Harry's instincts took over and with one hand he summoned up a shield, which blocked all the bullets, while his other hand sent a Bombarda straight downward. After the smoke from that attack cleared, what was left resembled an abattoir.
All of the systems had been destroyed, all of the people had been torn apart. "Damn it, Harry, that was a fucking mistake," Harry muttered to himself. "Still, the computers seem relatively intact. I'll come back for them later." To make certain they would be there when he did Harry conjured up a rock golem and set it to guard the area. With that taken care of he turned and made his way over to the training ground.
The fight had gone out of the last pockets of resistance when the troopers saw the wave of golems coming at them from out of the wreckage of the base. Half of them tried to break for it, but Darkstar, once more awake, and her brother were having none of it. They both cut them down the moment they tried to flee. With the golems taking their heat off their hiding place, the two Super-Soldiers pressed their advantage, with Nikolai covering Darkstar as she blasted away at any group of troopers she could spot.
Harry then arrived on the scene and began to rain lightning spells and cutting spells, slaughtering the remaining infantry without mercy.
Piotr and his foe knew none of this, however, locked in their one on one battle. Step-by-step, Piotr forced his way closer, with the other man more and more desperately trying to pour more power into his lightning blasts. But Piotr grimly forged his way forward, ignoring ever-increasing pain, until finally he was it within arm's reach of his foe. His hands lashed out from where they had been crossed in front of his face, grasping the other man's arms and pulling him in close.
The man tried to struggle but, while he was much stronger than a normal human, he wasn't up to Piotr's strength and his attack fizzled. Piotr let go with one hand but retained his hold on the other man's arm and used that grasp to keep the avatar close while he pummeled the man with hard blows to the face. Perun tried to fight back, hammering punch after punch into Piotr's chest and face. While they hurt, they didn't stop the angered metal clad man.
Perun finally slumped to the ground unconscious and Piotr moved backwards, scowling angrily. "It is lucky for you that I am not a killer or I would send you to join the comrade you murdered." With one last kick to the face, he turned away, shaking his head wearily, his body already recovering from its exposure to the lightning blasts.
The sounds of battle gradually subsided, while Harry's remaining golems moved out into the forests surrounding the base, taking out any trooper who tried to stay and hide rather than flee.
"Stranger, I don't know who you are, but thank you, thank you for this chance." said Nikolai, laughing a little (any more would hurt his cracked ribs) and looking up at the floating wizard while he absentmindedly discarded his stolen rifle, the magazine in it spent. "I don't know what good fortune brought you here, but my sister and I have been hoping for a chance to escape from this place from the moment she was sent here."
Harry smiled, somewhat grimly. "Happy to oblige. I just wish I could've gotten here sooner. For now, you can use the name Mr. Wizard, stupid I know, but it will do for the moment. Now, let me see if I can help those wounds of yours."
As Harry began to work on her brother the blonde girl said abruptly "The scientist, Dr. Phobos, is he still alive?"
"No," Harry said, "he was my first target in this attack actually, and his prisoners have all been safely transported to somewhere nearby." "Cory?" he said to the empty air.
Cory appeared, smiling brightly at him. "Master calls for Cory? The people you had me transport are all fines, sir."
"Good, we'll be moving over there in a minute, just wait a second and I'll have you transport these two over there."
At the news that the mad bastard who had been their personal boogeyman for so long was dead, Laynia slumped against her brother, whose arms went around her comfortingly. After Harry translated what he had just said to the strange little fellow, both of them exchanged a glance before nodding. Wherever their new friend was going to take them had to be better than staying here, or hell, anywhere in Russia, once the government realized what happened here. Nikolai nodded. "We need to get out of here, so going with you makes sense."
Piotr came up that point, nodding his head toward Harry. "I think this was a bit more than you expected, Mr. Wizard."
Harry laughed, then made certain no one besides the trio were in hearing range before responding. "Piotr, you fought today when you didn't have to, came here with me when you didn't have to, and did damn well. I think by this point you can call me Harry. And yeah, it was quite a bit more. But when I saw what that madman was doing to those kids…"
That brought to Harry's mind the odd occurrence with the transforming individual who had used illusions. "Sorry. Cory, can you take these three over to where you have hidden the others and then come back for me but only when I call you. I have some unfinished business here."
When this was translated, the trio of younger fighters frowned a little, exchanging glances but after a moment, they all nodded and went with the elf willingly. Nikolai was still carrying the Red Guardian's shield.
As the trio disappeared Harry turned back and made his way through the carnage of the base. He soon came upon the first thing he was searching for, the body of the creature that had used illusions and a few low-level spells. He stared down at it, frowning thoughtfully, then knelt down and, summoning up a vial, took a sample of the thing's blood as well as a bit of its skin. For some reason I don't think this is a mutant, and I by Merlin want to know what it really is. Its personal transformation spell also worried him, as he hadn't seen any sign of it, even though he should have with his mage sight, if it was magically based.
With that done Harry moved back to the command center, taking several of the computers there after disconnecting them and repairing them as best he could. At that moment a flare appeared in the sky way, way above the base. At the same moment he heard a voice in his mind, through that small hole he had allowed in his cloak to let Jean through. "HARRY! Where are you? Are you alright?"
Harry smiled, shaking his head a little bemused, though he was also very happy for some reason. "I'm fine Jean, but the fact you came to check on me is, well… it makes me happy, love, thank you. Let me guide you in. How did you get here anyway?"
"It's not just me Harry, it's Ororo as well. She was able to get Clare and a few other popper specialists to pop us up to High Note, and we're flying down from there. After the first six hours passed and you and young Piotr hadn't returned with his family we figured something must be up. What the hell did you run into this time, my love?"
Harry chuckled quietly, before filling Jean in on what he had run into, guiding his two lovers toward his position. Then he called Cory to tell him to warn the others they had friends incoming. "I don't suppose you have the mokeskin pouch on you do you?"
Ororo and Jean arrived quickly, exchanging hugs with Harry, then looking around at the utterly demolished base. "This must have been an interesting fight. I'll be interested in meeting this young man, Piotr, his sister is fun. She's already bonded with Melody."
"That's nice." Harry said, taking the mokeskin pouch from Jean, and tossing the computers he had grabbed into it. "Thanks for coming to check on me loves, this makes it a lot simpler. And I can go around and grab some examples of the weapons they were using here."
Ororo on the other hand, had her mind on more important things. "Show me where this mad scientist's lab was." She ordered, her eyes flashing.
Her lover understood her, and wordlessly handed the pouch back to Jean, who took it and nodded, moving off through the rubble while Harry led Ororo to the massive hole in the ground where he had blasted his way out of the underground lab. Ororo silently flew down, moving to the bodies and wordlessly closing the eyes of a few whose eyes had been left open then touched the chests of the two dead children, shaking her head sadly. She looked up at Harry who nodded and began to levitate the bodies up and out.
The two of them moved to the training ground, where Harry began to use his magic to dig holes in the ground. Jean, after hitting up the lab for its lone remaining computer, joined them. "Do you want me to have Cory bring over the people I rescued and the others?"
The African woman shrugged. "They might wish for some closure if these were their friends, my heart." Cory popped in and out, A moment later Blind Faith, Piotr, the two young teens, the soldier siblings, and the children were all standing around the makeshift graves that Harry had dug out. At the sight of the children, Ororo's eyes widened and she moved over to hug Harry tightly. "Oh, well done my love. I shudder to think what those children would have gone through if you hadn't arrived."
Harry nodded, laying his head gently against her shoulder. "I just wish I could have done more." Jean wordlessly put her arms around them both, then they all stepped back. Ororo was about to step forward and give her benediction for the dead, but saw that the older man Harry had rescued was wearing a priest's cassock. "Father, I assume these souls were raised in your faith. Would you like to say something?"
Blind Faith stared down at the largest grave, where the desiccated remains of his best friend and follower lay. Iron Curtain was captured months before he was, and his body had been almost unrecognizable when Garnoff was brought in. He sighed sadly, but nodded, one hand rising to touch the starched wool neck of his cassock. "I, I would yes. I am unworthy, but I hope God will give me the words to aid these souls on their journey."
Father Garnoff began, speaking slowly, his head bowed. The others stood around with their own heads bowed as well. The kids were watching quietly, the two young teens standing with them crying.
Eventually the Father finished and Harry looked over at Piotr, smiling faintly as he already knew the answer to his question. "So, what do you think of all this now? Are you going to just be a student, or do you want to join my team?"
Piotr smiled faintly, though it did not reach his eyes which were still locked on the graves. The sight of the bodies that Harry had removed from the dead doctor's lab, especially those that had been dissected to figure out their mutations, had hardened his heart against those who would do such things. Even if it required fighting, Piotr was determined to do what he could to prevent such atrocities from occurring elsewhere. Joining up with Harry seemed the best way to do that. "You are rather opportunistic in when you ask that question but, yes, I have made my decision. Where do I sign up, tovarishch?"
"Heh, I think you already did and gave your resume quite a boost as well. Happy to have you, Colossus."
"Colossus?"
"It fits you I think, you're strong, immensely durable… it fits." Harry replied, shrugging.
Piotr said the word a few times, tasting the sound of it. "Colossus, Colossus, I think I like that."
"Good, I'm glad I finally got one damn name right. Still, I think it is time to go everyone." He moved over to a rope that had fallen from a climbing wall, muttering "Portus." He turned back to the others. "This will take you to someplace safe. My friends here will go with you and I will be right behind you, I have one more thing I need to do here first. There will be food, medical attention, and clothing there for all who need it. Cory, you'll have to go with them."
Ororo and Jean stared at him, then around at the base. "Are you going to do something here, Harry?" Jean asked in a low voice. "It doesn't feel write just leaving it like this…" she hinted.
"Oh yes, I want to send a message here." Harry's voice was grim as he spoke, looking around at the base then down at the graves.
Jean nodded, looking a little grimly satisfied, but Ororo looked more than a little sad. "There has been so much death here already, Harry are you certain…" she trailed off, looking at him hopefully.
"There's not many of the troopers here still alive anyway Ororo," Harry replied gently. "Besides you saw what was going on there, can you honestly say you would be happy to leave this place still standing?"
"No, No I cannot say that." Ororo reached over and kissed Harry on the cheek. "Simply, in the future remember that our enemies are people too? Especially in the case of soldiers we need to be careful about painting them all with the same brush as it were."
Harry nodded, understanding her point. In fact, he might well have spared more of the regular troopers here if they had run sooner, but they kept on attacking, and that sealed their fates.
Ororo moved forward taking one end of the rope and everyone else did the same, including the reluctant Cory who didn't like the idea that he couldn't pop from here back to the castle. A moment later, they all disappeared to reappear in the main hall of Hogwarts.
Harry lifted into the air, moving high up into the sky, then cast the Sciath na BhFéadfadh shield over the entire area. The Russians seem to like trying to overawe and overpower their enemies, let's see how they like it! He concentrated again, closing his eyes. When he opened them they were filled with his magical power, and he shouted out a spell that he had used only rarely, but he wanted to create an impression here. "Solus Perditio!"
Suddenly, a flare of white hot light appeared in the center of the base, flaring brighter and brighter, growing and burning, searing everything it touched. This included the unconscious body of Perun and the many other soldiers that Piotr had knocked out, although Harry was only peripherally aware of this, nor would he have cared if he had known. Perun had made his bed just as much as any of the other soldiers of this base. Soon enough the spell ended.
Harry controlled the spell however, melting the entire base, every building, every dead body, tank, machine, everything but the graves in the training area, which he left untouched. After ten minutes he stopped the spell and he let the shield fall, staring at the bed of twisted glass and molten metal that had once been a secret base and nodded, satisfied. With that done, Harry flew up into the air, heading up to High Note.
OOOOOOO
All was silent in the SHIELD communication center as dozens of people watched what had occurred with varied reactions. Dum-Dum was impressed, concerned, and, though he would never admit it to anyone else, more than a little scared. Two of the spells that the magic user used in particular worried him. The one where he summoned up an army of artificial beings was worrisome, since it offset any kind of numbers advantage, a true army killer. The other was the last spell he used to utterly wipe out the base and everything and everyone in it. The fact he had raised some kind of shield to help control the damage was even more worrisome.
On the other hand, the man was clearly a very moral individual, if more than a little ruthless to his enemies. The whole funeral for some of the people on the base had been interesting. It showed just as much about the morals of the wizard and those with him (and he recognized the Phoenix when she showed up) as the attack did.
These are decent people, fighting a good fight here. Those kids they rescued, that alone points to it, though I have to wonder if the two turncoats were plants or just trying to take advantage of an opportunity. Whatever the case, this will set Russia's attempts to make a government sanctioned Super-powered team back years, if not decades, which is all to the good. Yet, at the same time, they are damn game-changers and they ain't tied to any government or other power I know of. That isn't going to sit well with the boss or the damn councilors.
That made Duggan snort aloud and he shook his head in amusement. As if I care about those fuckers, tying up so much of our manpower on shit that don't matter or isn't covered by our remit. If they stopped doin' that maybe we'd really be an international agency. He turned away from such thoughts for now and looked over at the chief control officer for project Ghost. "Get that drone back here ASAP. This project is shut down as of now, no more drones are going out for now, and no more drones are going to be sent into Russia for at least a month. I know they're supposed to be invisible but I don't want to chance it for a while. There can't be anything to connect us to what happened here. The Russkies will try to make that connection anyway, but without proof, no one else will believe it."
Dum-Dum turned to stare at the major. "By my authority, this base is base is locked down. No-one, and I mean no-one, comes in or out, and no signals or message of any kind. If anyone tries to communicate with the outside world or leave, I'm going to order them detained and questioned." The man tried to protest and Dum-Dum barked, "Use your head man! Someone helped Talmud die, we don't know who they are yet, or what their agenda is, and I'll be damned if I let news of this get out from here."
"Why sir? I mean, these people aren't on the Russian's side, but that doesn't mean they're on ours you know." The major asked, sounding rather disgruntled.
"I don't know whose side they're on kid, and neither do you, though obviously they're pushing a pro-mutant agenda. But knowledge is power, and as long as we have the knowledge, we might be able to combat or influence these guys, who knows." Or gain some points with them by burying this shit as deep as I can. Frankly, that is the best thing that can come out of this. These people are fighting the good fight but are Dangerous with a capital D and I think SHIELD needs to try and get on their good side, maybe regardless of orders to the contrary…
The major frowned, but nodded and he and Duggan left quickly to implement his orders.
OOOOOOO
Irene slowly came back to consciousness, her eyes fluttering, yet tracking once more. She looked at her lover kneeling next to her where she lay on the bed. She groaned weakly, raising one hand to her throat and Raven immediately brought a bottle of water to her lips. Irene gulped the water down greedily.
"I found you out on our veranda having some kind of seizure." Raven's voice was deeply concerned, as was her face. "Did something happen, are you all right, what the hell happened?"
The older seeming woman shook her head, her body still feeling the pain of what she had gone through. "I, I have never felt anything like this before, the future, you know I have said that the future had originally three general paths?"
"Yes, and I also think we agreed that you wouldn't be using your powers anymore on this trip, it's been taking more and more out of you." Raven said tartly, but the gentle kiss she laid on her lover's forehead belied her tone.
"We did, and I will admit my instincts got the better of me. Yet, I will not apologize." Irene's hands gripped Raven's own with a strength that bellied their seeming age. "The future is changing every time I look at it! The third path, the one that the wizard leads, it is becoming stronger at every turn, and whatever just happened, the Russian steel has joined him, but more, something else, something that strengthens his position immensely has occurred. I cannot see what exactly. It is a harsh future in many ways, but our futures, the future of mutantkind, is far better than even if Charles's dream was taken to heart! Yet, it is so chaotic, so many things have changed, are still changing. Every move Potter makes, the future that had once been dominated by two paths changes. Every step creates these ripples, which smash into one another, making the pool of the future more and more choppy, more and more difficult to wade through."
Irene went on, now staring at her friend. "Now more than ever, if we join him we will be forces of good, forces of change, and in charge of that change."
Raven hadn't truly been sold on the idea of running to Mr. Potter for aid in staying away from Essex. She was all for being in the place where she could influence the future of mutantkind, but she'd had her fill of following someone else's vision. Still, Potter is a better bet than either Charles or Eric, and if we can influence him… "Well, in that case, I think you need to get some real rest Irene. We just arrived in Mumbai Harbor, and we'll be disembarking tomorrow. Being in India will still allow us to be, how did you put it, under the wings of the owl?"
The mutant known more as Destiny than by her real name smiled as Raven began to fuss over her, undressing her and getting her ready for bed. "Yes, I did. There is one person here who has something very dangerous indeed, something that we will need to remove from his person. But there is someone else, a man who will offer us a choice and I am still unable to see which way that can go."
"Hmm, so it's back to being a thief, huh." the shapeshifter Mystique laughed quietly. "Still, I can do that easily enough. The man worries me more."
"I as well," Irene said quietly, "I as well."
OOOOOOO
Harry entered High Note and sighed as he felt the wards close up behind him. Today had been a rather trying day, more so than he had thought, and his body was feeling it a little, even if his magic core was still not showing any kind of strain. "Gordon?"
The head house-elf of High Note appeared before him, bowing his head slightly. "Master?"
"Jean and Ororo told me they had three house-elves work in concert to get them up here and that they were exhausted. How are they doing?"
"They are doing alright master, simply exhausted. There was no permanent damage done to them, though I would not recommend any of them do any work for a time to allow them to build up their power again."
"Good, if they wake up, tell them to take tomorrow off and tell them they did an excellent job from me would you? I might not have really needed the support this time, but if I had, Jean and Ororo would've been a major help, one I hadn't thought to call in." He shook his head at that. "I think I've become just a little too cocky lately. I need to tone that back somehow."
"I will tell them master. Is there anything else?"
"No, not right now. I may be back sometime tomorrow night though, to put those runes I told you about a while ago on the farming rooms. We'll see how that goes." With that Harry waved Gordon away and moved to the command center, repositioning High Note once more over Scotland with the ease of long practice.
With the asteroid once more in its home position as it were, Harry apparated down to the castle, appearing in the dining hall. There he found that Illyana, her grandparents, and surprisingly Melody had stayed up, and had greeted the newcomers. All of them were sitting around a central table in the dining hall which was piled high with food, and only Melody and the two grandparents, who, Harry realized, he had never actually gotten the names of, being the only ones not eating. The children and the two young teens who he had rescued from Dr. Phobos were eating like people possessed, and father Garnoff was right behind them. The three combatants actually weren't as much, though they were still putting it away pretty well.
Jean and Ororo were not eating for some reason, and moved to Harry, pulling him into a hug which he returned wholeheartedly. Ororo murmured into his ear, "Don't eat anything just yet my love, I've prepared something for the three of us later. For now however, and I realize this sounds strange coming from me, but could you cast an area-effect version of that translation spell of yours I so derided? I think it would help immensely if everyone here could communicate without my having to interpret it. Not that we've gotten much out of the children anyway, they're too hungry to spend time on unimportant things such as introducing themselves to their hosts."
That last was said rather drolly, but there was some seriousness to it, too. It was obvious the children and the others had been starved in an attempt to break their wills. It would probably have worked in time too, so it was understandable they were so single-minded. It would be hard for next few days to actually make certain they didn't overeat and make themselves sick.
Harry raised an eyebrow smiling at her, but nodded acquiescence. With one of his ladies on each arm moved over to the table. As he got closer, he waved a hand, casting a spell that permeated the entire castle, allowing everyone to speak in English. It startled Nikolai who was taking questions from Sir Dennis and Shiang-Chi on what had happened in Russia. The others hadn't been speaking at the time and took it in stride.
He waved Piotr over from the place where he had been talking to his grandparents and younger sister, who moved over with him, with Melody and Illyana arm in arm. He smiled down at Melody reaching forward to ruffle her hair. "I see you've met my young daughter here, Piotr, Illyana."
Melody gasped and her eyes started to brim with tears and he cocked his head to one side. "What's wrong, Melody, what did I say?"
He was interrupted went by the young girl barreling into his legs and hugging him fiercely, crying quietly yet with a grin so wide you would have to use surgery to remove it. He patted her looking a little befuddled for a moment and Ororo shook her head. "Harry, did you ever actually call her that before or tell her that you see her in that fashion?"
Harry actually had to think for a moment and said a little sheepishly "Um… no I don't think I did actually. But I mean, er, after all I've done, shouldn't it have been sort of obvious?"
All the women there shook their heads and said in tones of deep despair, "Men."
Still, Jean and Ororo shared another thought as they watched Harry with Melody, and that thought was 'My god, what a father Harry will make. Ororo imagined the two of them holding a baby with a mix of their skin color but his hair and her eyes, while Jean imagined holding a baby girl with her hair, but with Harry's features and a mix of their eyes. The thought was surprising to both, as neither had thought about children before, and after all, even Ororo and Harry had only been involved for a little over four months. Still, for all of that, it was also a very compelling image. They both looked at one another then chuckled, somehow knowing without saying anything what the other was thinking, then forcibly shook the thought off.
After a little, Harry was at last able to calm Melody down and perched her on his shoulders as he waved at Piotr. "Anyway, ahem, ladies, I would like you to formally meet our first recruit, both as a student and as a member of our team. This is Piotr Rasputin, and he was instrumental in helping me today."
The younger man bowed his head slightly to both Ororo and Jean, rather awed by their beauty. "How do you do miss, ma'am?"
Jean merely nodded her head, rather amused by Harry wanting to make a formal introduction. Ororo smiled faintly. "If your sister hasn't told you, your family has already been placed in one of the rooms prepared for teachers for the moment. I'm afraid it doesn't have much in the way of furniture, but you will be able to go shopping for that in the next few days I'm sure. For now you can choose to either bunk with them, or with the students. Now that you are done eating, I would recommend that you all hit the sack, it's been a long day for all of us."
Piotr indicated he would rather stay with his family for their first night in the castle. He watched in shock as Ororo exchanged a kiss on the lips with Harry and the redhead before leading him and his family off.
Harry looked over to where Dilly was standing proudly watching the meal as the children slowed down their intake at last. "Has Gryffindor tower been prepared?" The tower in question had never actually been named that in this dimension, but Harry still called it that, in honor of those who had courageously given their lives to trap the dementors here. Regardless of his own thoughts on the matter, that act was among the most courageous he had ever heard of, well worthy of someone from the house of the brave.
Dilly nodded firmly. All the elves in the castle were ecstatic at having more people to serve, even if they weren't magicals. "Yes, master. We's finished replacing all the old bedsies and stuff on both sides. The two boys Mistress Orrie brought in are already asleep in one of them." He looked a little worried. "Master, we's also gave the kiddies some potions to help with their hurts, as well as missy blonde and the thin man."
Ororo had mentioned the fact she had also been out recruiting in passing so Harry concentrated more on the second portion of what the majordomo had said. "That is excellent Dilly, that's what I hoped you and my ladies would do."
He looked over to the table and seeing the kids were done, cleared his throat. "Ahem, if you ladies and gentlemen are done, I can show you where you'll all be sleeping. We can all get to know one another tomorrow, right now you all need some rest and need to get used to the time difference." Harry would also run them through a physical the next day, but at present, with the memory of the doctor and his experiments still at the forefront of their minds, mentioning anything to do with the medical field might have disastrous consequences. "But if anyone wants to get in contact with their family, tell me now and I'll try to set it up."
To his shock and horror, none of them, children, teen, or ex-Super-Soldier took him up on that, and he sighed faintly, shaking his head, as he lead them up the stairs to the tower. It appeared as if Piotr's family was the only one that truly had been supportive of him, and that was rather sad.
Even Nikolai and Laynia were looking around the castle in awe. It truly felt like something out of a fairy tale to them, suddenly being in a medieval castle. Father Garnoff, too, was in awe of the magical resources his young rescuer could call on and hoped to speak with him further tomorrow. The teens and children however were simply tired, exhausted both mentally and physically, and now that they were full, just looking forward to sleep. Harry had won a lot of good will in all of them thanks to his rescue, and the convivial, personal atmosphere of the castle (and the food) had made them feel safe and welcome, something the boy with no eyes and bat ears, whose name was Sergei, in particular hadn't ever felt.
Harry led them up to the tower and motioned them all to enter the common room there. This had been completely redone in light green, brown and red tones, with several small sofas and some very nice, comfy chairs scattered everywhere. "This is the Gryffindor tower and it is going to be the dormitory for students here at the school." Harry suddenly realized he hadn't actually thought about changing the castles name and decided he needed to figure that one out if he wanted students to take the school seriously.
For now however he simply went on. "Your bedrooms are up these steps, girls on the left, boys on the right. For now, you can choose to separate yourselves and spread out or not, but eventually we may become too crowded to let you do that. Eventually, you will also be able to personalize your area, bedding, a light, other furniture and posters and stuff like that. There are two boys already sleeping in the first room by the way, so be quiet when you pass them by please. Also, a word of advice, there is a bit of a security device on these steps." Harry looked up at Melody, who had refused to come down from his shoulders since he had, however absentmindedly, called her his daughter. "Melody, could you do me a favor and try to go up to the boys dorms?"
Melody got down from his shoulders and moved up the steps but after seven steps the staircase suddenly became a slide. Melody whooped a bit as she came back down. "That was fun!" she said excitedly. "Slides are always fun, but sudden slides are even better."
Harry chuckled and when Melody wordlessly asked to be picked up again did so, setting her once more on his shoulders. "The spells are spelled to keep people of the opposite gender out." That hadn't been here originally in this dimension and in his old one it had only been on the girls' side, but Harry had decided that was stupid, so put it on both. "The slide is actually the first warning, if someone tries again in a short amount of time, other spells will activate. There is also another spell that will activate if someone tries to fly up the staircase, so unless you like to be painted permanent puke green and ejected out into the lake, I suggest you don't bother."
Nikolai chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows. "Not that I mind this at present but in the future…" Laynia scowled at her brother, smacking him gently upside the head.
Harry on the other hand, merely laughed. "In the future students above a certain age will have their own rooms, elsewhere, and will be able to set their own security. Under a certain age however, sorry but your beds and bedrooms are not going to be places for your romantic meetings."
None of the current children seemed to have an issue with that, not even the young teens, who were nearly asleep on their feet. A second later the staircase reset and Harry waved them all up to bed. Laynia and the young girl with the morphing hair talked briefly then went up together after Laynia smacked her brother affectionately on the shoulder. The two of them had decided to share a room, for now.
Soon only Nikolai was left, Father Garnoff having been among the first to head up. The young man briefly rubbed his short cropped orange hair then spoke up. "When you talked to the farm boy, you mentioned putting together a team of some kind? To what purpose?"
"To help mutantkind the world over against oppression, to keep mutants from abusing their powers, and to face any threat that comes along against the whole world." Harry responded promptly. "Why, are you interested in signing up?"
Nikolai nodded firmly. "I am, although my sister does not. I was trained to be a soldier for most of my life, though I never bought into the idea of being a small cog in the machine of the state. I wish to fight for a cause worthy of my blood and sweat and that sounds much like it could be worth it. My sister on the other hand, is much more of a gentle peaceful soul than I. She has no wish to continue to fight unless under dire need. She would also like to continue her high school education."
Harry chuckled. "We're going to be setting up a school here, though we might have to change from being a middle-to high school to offering all levels. I think we've been making a grave mistake in terms of looking for mutants, one so obvious it never occurred to us, but we can adjust for it. And if she doesn't want to stay here for whatever reason, she wants to go to a more normal school say, I know some people who would gladly take her in. They owe me anyway."
Nikolai nodded. "We will talk about this more tomorrow, but again, thank you for timely aid, and I will see you in the morning." With that he turned and made his way up to the boys' dormitories.
The messy-haired wizard then took his adopted daughter to bed, who fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, emotionally and physically exhausted. Exiting Melody's room, Harry found both his ladies waiting for him. When they came up to him, Harry sighed faintly leaning in to Ororo's shoulder, breathing in her scent gratefully. "A rather long day."
"Indeed." she answered putting her arms around him and smiling faintly as Jean hugged his other side. She kissed him tenderly on the lips, and said softly, "Why don't you go get ready for a bath, my love. I believe you're do for some pampering. Then I have prepared a bit of the date for the three of us."
Harry cocked his head, a little surprised. "Really? Isn't it a little late to go anywhere?"
"Date's don't have to be extravagant Harry." Jean said kissing the back of his neck and pushing him slightly to get him moving. "Trust us, you'll like this."