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With that, he turned around, moving off as if he expected them to follow him without further discussion, causing Hela's eyes to narrow behind her half-mask. She was about to speak out against this breach in what she thought of as decorum, but Harry took her wrist in his hand for a second, shaking his head. "Remember, arrogance is part of their society. They don't know yet they have to treat us with respect, let them have their delusions for now. We'll shatter them soon enough."
Hela scowled but nodded, and Harry released his grip on her wrist, following after the others. In among the oddly cut trees and shrubs, they could now see dozens of Shi'ar guards. These soldiers did not salute or stand to attention. Instead, they simply lined the way their weapons pointed at the ground, their eyes cold as they stared at the humans. Harry didn't take it personally, nor did he really care one way or another about them. Their rifles were standard energy rifles, he didn't see any heavy weaponry pointed their way, other than the initial antiair weapons that they'd seen on the way in. This was a show of force, but it was a show of power from a tiger to a dragon: interesting, but not very dangerous.
Harry noted some amused looks and some frowns on the guards' faces as they saw Hedwig perched on his shoulder. Harry could almost read their minds without Jean's help, but she supplied it anyway.
"Huh, none of them have the same electronic defenses as the Starjammers, I wonder why? Anyway, a lot of them are thinking, 'Is he making fun of us?' Others are thinking, 'is that some other sentient being from his planet?' And one of them is wondering about symbiotic relationships. Naturally, Hedwig is seen as the smarter of the two. They really do look down at other races automatically. Odd to think that Chris and his wife are the only humans they have supposedly met. Is it because we look like Kree, do you think?"
Jean's continued comments on this score kept Harry amused, up until they entered the palace. "You will wait here to be called upon. The Emperor is a busy man," ordered T'fas. "You will not waste his time when called upon, and you will be searched for weapons now while we wait."
"No," Harry retorted, shaking his head firmly. 'We won't be." The man spluttered, but Harry held up a finger. "You requested our help. You requested us to come here to aid you against Galactus. If your Emperor is facing more dire threats than an entity that eats planets, the more populous the better, then he's got bigger problems than we could ever help with, so we might as well turn back and go home. However, I am willing to let us be searched so long as your guards to not attempt to take liberties with any of us."
"And who are you? Your voice does not match that of Reed Richards when he announced your mission," T'fas rejoined.
"I'm Guardian, I lead the Custode Mundi, our version of your Imperial Guard. Reed is the Galactus expert, but I'm the one in charge," Harry answered blithely. "Now, let's get this search process over with so we can move on, meet your Emperor, and get to work. Unless you want to wait long enough for Galactus to choose his next meal?"
T'fas slowly nodded, then turned aside to gesture to two of the guards, one man, one woman who moved forward and rather politely asked the newcomers to form two lines based on gender. Since none of them carried any weapons, the process was finished while T'fas was still barking angrily into a communicator.
Reed looked at Harry in confusion. "If we want to work with this Emperor, why did you make a fuss about waiting?"
"It's a power-play," Harry explained. "All of this is. The fleet of ships dogging us in-system, the guns of the space station following us down. Landing at his personal landing site, right in his gardens amid examples of his predecessors. The waiting. The Emperor is trying to overawe us."
"Even after asking for our help? That seems rather illogical."
"Just because they can't dream doesn't mean they can't be illogical," Harry said with a shrug. "Besides, from his point of view it might make perfect sense. He's already on the backfoot having to ask for help in the first place. It's been a little under over two weeks since he knows that Galactus Gladiator would have reached Earth. And Gladiator isn't the one talking to them right now." At that, Harry lowered his voice, his fingers moving to create a Muffilatio field around them. "And in that time, Galactus might well have eaten another planet."
"Quite probably. From my estimates, Galactus needs to feed at least once every month at a minimum, so he will have eaten at least once since Gladiator was sent to Earth. But he will gladly eat more if given the opportunity and considering how densely populated the central Shi'ar Empire planets are, it will be a veritable smorgasbord. How fast he eats will rely entirely on his Herald."
Harry nodded, "And since we know this Herald is a murderous psychopath, we know we can't afford to wait."
A few minutes later, them majordomo or whatever his station was turned back to them, his face showing a bit of fear and anger. "Very well. You will come with us."
Harry was about to ask who 'us' was when a door to one side opened, and several new people appeared. These were not Shi'ar, each of these beings was of a different alien race, Imperial Guard. One of them looked almost like a robot, with a smaller robot on its back, both of them made of some greenish covered metal, with larger ball-like joints and shoulders. This was the android symbiote Warstar.
Another man was made of rock almost, black basalt perhaps, with the cru-cut hair of light grey with massive shoulders. He eyed up Ben Grimm, who returned the favor. This was Neutron, a man whose power was based on kinetic energy absorption and super-strength.
The other two were women. One was the woman the dossiers knew as Manta, dressed in a form-fitting suit of white and black with a gold mask. The other was named Astra, a relatively new member of the Imperial Guard, who looked almost like a cross between Kitty and jean. She had a freckled, girlish face with red hair done in pigtails, but no pupils to her light orange eyes. She wore a suit of red and yellow that would have had Jean muttering about copyright infringement save for the fact there was no sign of any bird motif, and that the red in question was fur around her hands and feet.
Manta, they knew, had light-based powers, which could blind or act like a laser beam on command. Astra had something of the same power as Kitty, but not her control or ability to take others with her.
Harry led the way forward, nodding politely to the four of them. "Shall we?" One of them opened her mouth as if to speak but then clamped down, just nodding stiffly back.
Harry smirked, and very deliberately did not look back across his shoulder towards Jean. Or beyond her to the shuttle, where Nikolai, hidden under several different spells, was leading his infiltration team down and away from the ship, having come out with the others only to go to ground nearby.
Still, he trusted the Spetsnaz-trained Nikolai to handle that aspect of this mission. He had to handle D'Ken and the imperial court. With that in mind, he sent a question down his and Jean's link. "So, how worried are they?"
"They're not worried at all surprisingly," came the instant reply from his red-headed lover. "The Imperial Guardsmen seem to think that Gladiator has his own reasons for not being here. I'm not finding any concerns on that score at all. Some vaguely sad feelings from one of the women, I gather she might have romantic feelings to the purple-skinned bastard, but I can't get any sense if it was returned."
"They have that much faith in the man? That might mean once they learn of his fate, they will react violently without D'Ken ordering it. Annoying, but something we will have to plan for."
The four Imperial Guard led the way deeper into the palace, the route empty save for more Imperial Guard. Most of these were Shi'ar dressed in much better armor than the ones outside, their weapons much better prepared, although again they were not at any kind of parade rest, the guns were pointed downward but could be raised instantly.
The Imperial Guard, Harry knew from their interrogations of Gladiator, was more than just a Praetorian Guard for the Emperor. They were special forces, infiltrators, assassins, marines, anything the Emperor wanted them to do, there were those among the group which could do it. Although Harry knew the Shi'ar among them were not typically pulled away from their duties guarding the Emperor and the palace for more dangerous missions. Even in the Guard, there was a distinct level of elitism.
As they walked, Reed whispered, "I've lost contact with the shuttle. We're cut off from electronic means of communication."
"Jean," Harry asked, glancing over his shoulder at the telepath.
She obligingly reached out with tendrils of thought, lightly connecting her mind to all of the others around her. The connection wasn't deep enough to be invasive. But it could be used to facilitate communication, allowing the Custodes to coordinate despite the Shi'ar attempts to isolate them.
Soon, far sooner than would've been standard in a human-style castle this large, they found themselves exiting the corridor out into a long hall. The hall was larger than the main dining hall in Camelot, well made, well designed, but there was something off about it. Not just the aesthetics not being human either, more polished metal columns than covered ones, little to no stone visible and no wood either. All of them were prepared for that, but there was something else that threw everyone who noticed it.
Ororo was the first to realize what that was and shook her head from where she had been walking beside Harry. "There is no art. Those pictures, they are just photographs, the paintings are still-lives. There is not a single statue made for art's sake, not a single bit of representational or stylistic art."
"Just like outside," Jean added aloud, now feeling a little creeped out.
"We were ready for this, remember? We knew going in they don't see art like we do. But I am not thinking so much of the lack of art, as the level of self-aggrandizement," Reed whispered behind Harry. There are way too many self-portraits of emperors doing grand deeds, not a single one of defeat, or anything else. And what those deeds were was also disturbing, given the number of dead behind them, or the exploding planets. And there was even one of an Emperor tearing a sword out of the hands of someone who looked like an example of Raza's race, as behind him soldiers dragged away dead women and children.
At the far end of the hallway, there was a throne on a raised dais where the current Emperor sat on a large throne. Even the throne showed this lack of artistic ability. There was no sign of animal carvings, no sign of trying to make it look beautiful. There was only the size of it, the fact it was made of gold and other precious metals, dotted with dozens of rubies and emeralds.
Harry locked eyes with the man at that end, staring at him thoughtfully as his group trooped forward into the hall. The man was well built, middle-aged or thereabouts perhaps, with a strong chin, dark black hair that looked like wings, and a crown on his head. At his side was a sword in a scabbard. His eyes were deep sunk in his head, but quick, twitching from one member of the human delegation to another, pausing on the women for just a bit too long for Harry's peace of mind, remembering what Chris had told them of this man.
Ororo was more interested in the two women to either side of him. One wore a silver dress that flowed from her shoulders all the way to the floor. It was belted around her waist by a golden belt on which hung a blaster and a sword. Indeed, Ororo was interested to note that many of the courtiers had ceremonial weapons like this. Yet beyond her position to the throne, there was nothing that really stood out about this woman. In contrast, the other stood out by her enhanced musculature and the purple armor she wore. Stylized to emphasize the vaguely avian appearance the Shi'ar all had, the armor covered her body like a second skin, showing off her muscled arms and legs almost as much as a swimsuit would have.
They were a study in contrasts, hence her interest, and she wondered idly if that was on purpose. However, she shook it off a moment later. No, or if it is, it is none of their own doing. The subtle shifts of body language and glances across the sitting D'Ken's body told that the two of them were not comfortable being there, either on the dais at all, or so close to one another.
One, the more normal-looking Shi'ar woman, was looking back at the humans with interest. There was nothing of the waiting predator to her glance that there was in D'Ken's eyes or that of the other woman. But neither was there any kind of welcome. Worry was the most prominent feature in that woman's gaze, anger, and a predatory desire to attack in the other's. Her entire pose was that of a hawk, waiting to descend.
She wasn't the only one to notice that, and on Harry's shoulders, Hedwig hooted quietly. Her talons flexed as her head did a one-eighty, her yellow eyes locking on this woman.
Feeling someone gazing at her from within the group, Deathbird let her eyes roam over them for a moment, before finding the small avian on the human leader's shoulder staring back at her, unafraid, almost challenging. A snarl on her lips, Deathbird met that glare, only to find herself unable to look away, arrested by that yellow-eyed gaze.
The court's majordomo halted Harry and the others in place with a raised cane of metal. There they formed group, almost a circle, in the center of the court several yards away from the throne. "You will come no closer to the Emperor," he said, as the Imperial Guard bristled all around them, attack dogs ready to be unleashed. It was clear that whatever D'Ken thought, the Imperial Guard were not at all happy about their decision to ask for help against Galactus.
The man then seemed to breathe in, no doubt to launch into some kind of aggrandizing diatribe about the Emperor or the Empire, but Harry spoke up before he could, his voice loud in the near-silence of the Imperial Court. "Are we all supposed to shout then? This is not exactly a conversational distance."
That shout brought gasps of shock from everyone, and D'Ken's featherlike eyebrow rose as he leaned back, staring at Harry then to Reed Richards. "My advisor tells me you are the human scientist, Reed Richards. I expected this Fantastic Four, although I see you have been amalgamated into a larger group?"
"That would be correct," Reed said with a nod. "There is only so let much that a group of four can do after all."
And yet you did turn aside Galactus when you were merely four. Fascinating!" D'Ken said, slapping his thigh.
At the mention of Galactus, some tension began to appear in many of the faces of the civilians in the hall, including the two women on either side of the Emperor. D'Ken's expression, on the other hand, was opaque, giving nothing away other than a faint sense of amusement. Jean also reported that he, like most of those in attendance, also had electronic counter-measure against telepathic assault. He then cocked his head, smirking widely, the expression so fake that Amara and Johnny couldn't hold back a shiver of disgust. "But you are not showing proper respect. Or do humans not to kneel to their betters?"
That question won an appropriate sycophantic laugh from everyone in the hall, and Reed frowned, wondering how to respond. But Harry took the task from his hands as he had outside, a smirk on his face. "On our planet, men only kneel to their wives when they are proposing marriage, and women only bow to their husbands in their home. I hate to say this, Your Majesty, but you're not my type. And social mores are so important, after all."
For a moment, it looked as if D'Ken was about to explode, while both of the women to either side of him laughed openly, and indeed one or two courtiers had been caught by surprise by the joke. Then he too laughed, and the others decided they should join in. "Ahahah, most amusing. And you would be?"
"Guardian," Harry said, leader of the Custodes Mundi, the group that, as you so eloquently put it, amalgamated the Fantastic Four into our ranks."
"And you believe that your group can help us against Galactus. But how is it that the Fantastic Four was able to beat him off in the first place? Tales of that defeat, of the Great Devourer being turned away, reached us in space. But not the how of it," the Emperor asked, leaning further back into his chair, putting his feet up over the armrest.
Reed fielded this question smoothly, having been coached on this by Harry, Ororo and Hela on the trip. "Unfortunately, the original method of our turning him away will not work this time. We had a weapon then that was based upon a negative energy curve…" From there, he launched into a scientific explanation that was basically his own theory of what the Ultimate Nullifier did, making no mention of the fact it was both magic and technology merged into one.
It instantly went over most of their heads, as Harry and the others had expected. Finally, D'Ken interrupted Reed by clapping his hands, looking annoyed. "Fine, fine, but what did you mean when you said that you would not be able to use the same weapon again?"
"Simply enough, the energy source that we ran it on, no longer exists."
"And you believe that we, the Shi'ar, would not be able to re-create it?" D'Ken asked, scowling. "Do you imply, human, that our scientists are inferior to you?"
"How many years do you have your Majesty? It is not a matter of scientific knowledge. It is a matter of creation, making the tools to make the tools as it were," Harry answered.
"Furthermore, this particular power source was stolen off of Galactus' ship. And I rather doubt we would get lucky twice in doing so," Reed added.
D'Ken scowled that but nodded. That was irrefutable, after all. Very well. But yet you know about our enemy."
"Quite a lot, yes," Reed said with a nod. "I did not believe that Galactus would keep his word and have spent many years considering means to defend feet him. To drive him off at the very least."
"Excellent. Yet one thing bothers me," D'Ken went on, suddenly changing topics, leaning forward and staring from one human to another. "I sent my Praetor, my Imperial Guard commander, to you with my request for aid…"
"Your demands you mean," Harry interrupted, his voice no longer sardonic, or humorous but cold. "An Emperor shouldn't lie about such things."
With a disingenuous laugh, D'Ken raised his hands to either side of his head in a visual 'what can you do' kind of gesture. "Well, I suppose that is true, and I will not deny that I issued a demand, a summons rather, for your aid. After all, what could your piddling little planet do other than acquiesce?"
Another laugh resounded around the throne, which ended as Harry retorted, "We could take offense, with both the messenger and the message. We humans don't respond well to threats, especially against those we love."
"Where is Gladiator?" D'Ken said, his tone and entire body language changing in an instant. Where before he had been amused, now he was cold, haughty, demanding, just as poised to command violence as the purple-armored woman beside him was to deal it out.
However, Harry was not surprised, thanks to what Chris Summers had told them about D'Ken. He simply crossed his arms behind his back and repeated himself. "We humans don't take well to threats. I'm afraid our response completely disarmed him."
"…You have somehow taken Gladiator captive?" D'Ken asked. His eyes narrowing. "I suppose that a group which could threaten Galactus into retreat could do such a thing. But what would you say if I told you to release him on pain of death? I might need your help, but there is a limit to the effrontery I will accept from such as you."
"See again my last, Your Majesty. We don't take well to demands."
Usually, Harry might've tried to be a little more diplomatic. But frankly, the Shi'ar Empire was about as far removed as they could be from Earth and still technically be in the same galactic arm. They were not like the Kree or the Skrulls, both dangers to Earth, given how close the borders of their empires were to Sol. They couldn't sustain a fleet of any size that far away, as evidenced by how much fuel the ship they'd sent had to burn to get there in two weeks of travel. Instead, they would send the Imperial Guard. And Harry would set the Custodes Mundi with him at its head against the Imperial Guard any day of the week. On top of that, hearing about D'Ken and what he had done to Raza's people and Chris's wife had infuriated him further.
"Yet despite that, we are here to help," Harry went on in the ensuing silence as the Emperor glared at him. "We are not here to answer your threats. We are here to help because Galactus is an enemy of all, not just your Empire. We will not allow him to murder trillions of yours and then go on to murder trillions of someone else's, so long as we can do something about it."
"I do not care about your so-called reasons! The sheer gall you have to think you had a choice!" The Emperor said, leaping to his feet. "If I wanted, I could snap my fingers and have you all slain on the spot, no matter what kind of superpowers you might possess. I could have you killed simply for my amusement, then take my chances with only the Fantastic Four being alive to answer questions!"
"You would try," Harry replied, while around him, the others simply looked back at the Imperial Guard, seemingly at their ease but poised for violence. The Imperial Guard might not be the pampered elite that most praetorian guards became in human history. Still, there is a vast difference between that and the highly trained, extremely motivated group in front of them. Particularly since they were missing their most powerful member, and the Custodes had their heaviest hitters here.
"Just because we need your help against Galactus does not change the balance of power," D'Ken sneered.
"There is no balance. There is no connection. There is only us being here to help you. Do you not want our help? If that's the case, we'll just turn right around and go back home. We are offering our aid to help in this particular area. We're not bowing, we are not here because you decreed it, like so many supplicants," Harry growled, adding a spell to his last word so that it boomed out like a physical force. "You cannot overawe us, Your Majesty. Treat with us as equals, or we will not treat with you at all."
"…Where is Gladiator?" D'Ken asked, repeating his earlier suggestion. "Release him, now, barbarian!"
Wordlessly Harry pulled out a small box from seeming nowhere, causing the Imperial Guard to instantly move forward. Before even the fastest of them could take more than a single step though, Harry had dumped the contents of the box on the floor. Gladiator's hands hit the floor with a dull *Thunk*, rolling away from Harry just a few inches before coming to a stop. "He won't be joining us."
For a moment, D'Ken stared, while the court was silent. But then the furious D'Ken shrieked out, "Kill them!"
The Imperial Guard all around the room leaped to obey as the courtiers flung themselves to the floor or attempted to retreat to the doorway. The only voice raised in dissent was the normal-seeming Shi'ar woman who had been standing to the left of the throne, but her voice was drowned out in the sudden tumult.
Before D'Ken had finished speaking, Harry had already given his own orders mentally to the team via Jean, the directives coming at the speed of thought, quite literally, while Hedwig disappeared from his shoulder. The bird had her own plans evidently. "Remember no killing, ladies and gentlemen. We still need these people, beating them down for real can happen after we've dealt with Galactus. Magma, Earthquake. Storm, a low-powered gust all around us, Banshee, low key screaming, block their ability to give orders. Warpath behind, Ben to the right with The Torch, Hela, Havok, ahead, but wait for the Imperial Guard to be cleared out of the way first. Stephen, reinforce the room so that no one can break through the walls, Jean, take to the air first then the rest of you. Keep in mind what we know of these people and take them out with the minimum effort. We don't want to show all we can do."
Instantly the two named ladies reacted. Magma dropped to her knees, slamming her hands into the ground as her body shifted into its tectonic energy form. With a thought, the planet's tectonic energy of the planet reacted to her will. The ground bucked and heaved throughout the palace, sending several of the Imperial Guard to their knees, while the courtiers were hurled this way and that. Even the people on the dais lost their footing save for the Emperor who somehow stayed upright.
Then the hurricane hit, blasting a goodly number of them away into the various walls with the force of the wind. A number of the Imperial Guard powered through it, many of them being flyers who had already lifted into the air. Others were just too dense and too strong to be bothered by that level of force.
At the same time, Harry used his first spell of the fight, an old-time classic to even up the odds and make sure their captive audience didn't come to harm. Or continue to try and escape out the still open doors as Stephen's spell finished reinforcing the walls and doors. "Shi Jundai! Grab and restrain!"
From all around the area, several hundred golems appeared, thrusting out of the still-moving ground to grab at courtiers and Imperial Guardsmen alike. Others crushed their weapons if they had any and smothering them, pulling them down to the ground. That left only ten Imperial Guard still fighting.
"That was rather less diplomatic than we had discussed love. Still, with this lot, I suppose that's the way to go, especially after Chris's story," Jean quipped as she rose into the air dodging a blast of energy from the Imperial Guards woman named Ark.
He was a non-Shi'ar who looked somewhat like a cyborg, with arms that seemed somewhat mechanical under a blue suit who had weathered the previous wind attack with difficulty but had been the first to launch a long-range attack at the interlopers. His eyes crackled with electrical energy, and he launched a lightning bolt at her.
He was astonished when his bolt smacked into a shield of telekinetic energy in midair, dissipating, before a condensed blast of air from Storm hurled him backward to be grabbed by still more golems. The golems, being made of rock and dirt, were immune to his powers, quickly subdued him to join the Shi'ar courtiers and members of the Imperial Guard.
With that, Storm joined Jean in midair, as the two of them faced off against the flyers of the Imperial Guard. "You misunderstand Harry's reasoning. Given what Chris and the other Starjammers told us of his personality, this was going to come to a fight whatever happened. Best to start up what he called the shock and awe plan now. While also providing the most excellent distraction for our infiltration team."
"Exactly," Harry replied as he dealt with Astra as he had Kitty at one point, a short gas-based attack into her face as she phased into the ground, and then, as she was coughing, becoming tangible, a slight electric shock. For all her ability to phase through objects, the girl had no added durability in her physical form.
One of the flyers was the one called Electron. He was a Shi'ar warrior who wore a suit that, according to the information they had gotten from Gladiator's mind, gave him the powers of flight, a certain level of super-strength, and some control over electromagnetism. But his orders could not cut through the tumult of Banshee's low-key shriek, and he and his fellow flyers came in spread out rather than as a single force.
And whatever his powers, he, like Gladiator before him, had no defense against magic. A quick Stupefy lashed up from where Harry was still standing in the center of the hall, radiating cool control in the center of the chaos. With Electron concentrating on lashing out with an energy attack at Storm, he never saw it coming and was flung out of the air to land with a crash on the ground, his mind shut down by the spell.
There he was joined by another flyer quickly, Kyte, a member of an avian species who had kept their wings. His own suit, which gave him energy attacks similar to Electron's, didn't make him any more durable, and a blast of telekinetic energy to the face sent him tumbling backward.
The fight on the ground was a bit more serious, as Hela raced forwards, crashing into two of the Imperial Guard, who had been running forward in their own turn towards Harry. One had begun to grow enlarging his body to that of a giant, but before his body could grow too far, Hela's sword cut him across the leg, nearly cutting the limb off. Her magical sword could not be stopped by his enhanced durability, and he fell, screaming.
The other, the woman named Manta, blasted out a light-based attack that crashed into Hela like a large laser beam. But she had shielded herself in time with her shield, and even as she reeled backward, Stephen cast his second spell of the battle, an all-encompassing darkness spell on the woman. Thundra was there a second later, her whirling flail crashing into the woman's head and sending her to the floor.
In reply, Thundra was tackled to the floor by the one called Mammoth, an almost-elephantine looking alien with massive strength. She took a few hard shots while returning several of her own before Hela came to her aid.
To the side where another super-strong member of the Imperial Guard, the one called Smasher, who had been among the group who led them into the hall, the one with the white, dark blue and red suit and the red glasses, charged forward. With his super-strength, he ignored the earthquake and wind with equal disdain.
By his side came the one called Black Light, who was blasting out dark energy attacks somewhat like that which Nikolai's sister, Laynia, could use. Only instead of contained pulses, his strikes came in the form of beams. These attacks were blocked in turn by Stephen, who was handling defense at the moment as Harry finished sealing the hallway from all exterior threats.
Then Benjamin Grimm hit him, his hands clenched above his head as he roared out, "It's clobbering time!" Black Light raised his arms to block the blow, but his arms broke under the strike, and he was kicked aside.
Then Smasher and Ben crashed into one another. The two of them exchanged several blows, which caused shockwaves in the air, but Smasher was getting the worst of it by far, reeling back and further back. "Hah! Gladiator you ain't, pal!"
The human Torch flashed in the same direction as he crashed into one of the Imperial Guard, a group of four that had stayed together, fighting off the Golems as best they could. At the center of them was the man named Fang, who Harry had instantly labeled a scrawnier version of Sabertooth. While his strength was enough to tear off golem limbs, he had no natural resistance to fire, and screamed, as he was sent hurling backward, rolling to put out the flames while the others, All Shi'ar, were quickly overcome by the golems.
Nearby Johnny was somewhat flummoxed to see that the Imperial Guard member called Nightside had astonishingly been dealt with by Hedwig before she could extend her light-absorbing field. The blue-skinned woman, who was wearing, oddly, makeup that made her look something like a raccoon, was lying very still on the ground, having been flung there by Magma's initial assault. On her head, Hedwig perched, her talons very close to the woman's eyes. Her hands were flat on either side of her head, and she was staring at the bird in something like fascinated shock.
Harry had picked her out as someone who's power could be of particular use against Galactus or his Herald. After all, blinding an enemy was always a good idea. Most of the Imperial Guard would simply be dumb muscle, but a few like Nightside had powers that made them interesting. The fact Gladiator also felt the woman was trouble because she had refused the Emperor's advances was a bonus.
Another such, Neutron, was able to absorb kinetic energy and redirect it into attacks, something like Vanguard's ability only apparently, at a far higher level of both absorption and redirection. He had been dealt with by Mr. Fantastic. The rubber-man had simply enveloped the man with the odd, almost space-like skin taking his most forceful blows and absorbing them in turn before Jean could turn her attention to him. A telekinetic assault then sent him into dreamland, her powers overriding the electronic telepathic shield.
Behind the rest of the battle, the symbiotes collectively called Warstar ran right into Warpath. This was another contest of strength versus strength, the giant robot pushing hard at Warpath. But he was unable to do more than make the Apache warrior dig in his feet into the floor beneath them.
The competition ended abruptly as the smaller symbiote attempted to leap off his older fellow but was met by Storm. A lightning assault straight into the smaller symbiotic droid's brain disrupted their higher brain functions. It took quite a lot of energy to do so, enough to electrocute several dozen men into crisp, but that was well within Storm's capabilities, and again the dossiers they had been able to put together from Gladiator's mind aided them, telling them of the weakness of the symbiotic mind. Once one fell into the robotic equivalent of unconsciousness, the other did as well.
"Cry Havok!" With that, Havok moved around the brawl with Mammoth, launching his cosmic energy-based attack towards the Emperor. Everything his father had told him about how their family had been attacked, about how his mother had been raped, then murdered by this man as his father was enslaved was going through his mind. All Havok wanted in the entire universe right then was to kill the bastard sitting on the gilded throne in front of him.
But D'Ken was already on his feet. And in a surprisingly acrobatic move, he leaped behind his throne. There he activated a kind of shield which shimmered into being from. The shield took Havok's initial blast as the fight continued, but the entirely-scientific shield fared far worse against Harry's magical assault. The Drills of Light, thousands of them enough to cover the entire dais, hammered into it, fit to shatter even one of Stephen's magical shields. The shield on the was quickly overloaded, collapsing.
A second later, Havok's next attack struck, destroying the throne, which exploded, hurling everyone on the dais backward. At the same time, Hela finished dealing with Mammoth, sending a Stupefy right into his brainbox. With him dealt with, she charged forward and had her sword at the throat of the woman in purple armor before she could regain her footing from the explosion, having spent the entire fight on her rear, too startled to avoid Magma's Earthquake or Storm's low-powered tornado.
As quickly as it had begun, the battle was over. The Imperial Guard had been ready for action, but that was a far cry from knowing their enemy as Harry and the Custodes did. And while the Imperial Guard had numbers thanks to Banshee, they didn't have any organization. And that numbers advantage disappeared instantly thanks to Harry's spellwork. Now the Imperial Guard present in the hall were dealt with, held captive by golems as more moved to grab the people on the dais.
In the midst of them, Harry strode forward, conjuring up a sword of magic, placing the point gently at D'Ken's throat with one hand while pushing Alex behind him with the other. The younger man had raced forward as Harry had, murderous intent plain on his face. "Enough havoc. Remember what I said, we need him alive, for now," he ordered mentally.
Alex was quivering, his hands throbbing with cosmic energies fit to sear through steel, let alone flesh just waiting to be unleashed. "You heard what Corsair told us," he replied, although he had enough presence of mind to do it through the mental link that Jean had created. "You heard what this, this piece of filth did to my mother!"
"And he will pay for it. But do billions of Shi'ar, people who are mostly blameless and normal by their standards, deserve to die for his actions? Doing the right thing is often far more difficult than simply choosing your battles, and at the moment, that means we need this filth to live. I fully intend to kill him later," Harry added almost as a bland afterthought, shrugging mental shoulders as he felt Jean and Storm's resigned acceptance and Hela's stark approval at that. "But that must wait until after Galactus is dealt with. We need him in charge until then, until the espionage team has implanted the seeds of the Empire's destruction."
Harry waited a moment then asked Alex softly, "Can I trust you to keep a lid on your temper until then? Until he tries this again on us after Galactus is beaten off?"
Without replying with words, Alex moved away from him slowly, glaring hatefully at the Emperor for a split second before turning away with a huff. Harry clasped the younger man's shoulder as he moved, nodding once to him, getting a nod in return. Turning back, Harry removed the sword from D'Ken throat, and then crouched in front of the Emperor, holding out his hands to him.
He couldn't stop himself from making a wry comment of "I'm going to have to have a bath after this, I think." to Jean, causing her to chuckle dryly even as Harry addressed the Emperor. "This violence, like Gladiator's fate, is on your hands, a result of your arrogance and overconfidence. I said we were here to help as equals, not supplicants, not foreign barbarians that could be overawed by the might of your Empire. Earth may be small, but we are powerful now, and we have abilities and powers you can never even imagine." He held the Emperor's wild, rage-filled and frightened face as he went on, his own tone calm. "Now, perhaps we can move past this and deal with the real problem at hand: Galactus and his deprivations on your empire."
"I would take it if I were you, brother," said one of the two women, and Harry's eyes flicked to her. She bowed her head slightly, introducing herself. "My name is Lilandra, I am the minister of the interior. But I have to ask, despite your blatant statement," she nodded towards where Gladiator's hands still lay amidst the rubble of the rest of the hall, "Is Gladiator still alive?"
Harry shrugged. "No." Braindead was still dead after all, regardless of the state of the body. Emma had not been gentle. "He attacked and killed humans, he paid the penalty."
"Take the offer, brother," the other woman said jerkily, staring with hate in her gaze at Hela, standing over her with her blade outstretched. Her own steel whip-claws were wrapped around her by a simple spell that had caught her before she could even take part in the battle at all. Yet for all the predatory woman's anger, her mind was still working, and she well understood the recent struggle and Gladiator's death for what they were: shows of power that the Empire, for all its size, had to respect. Perhaps if the full might of the Imperial Guard had been brought together, or even at brigade strength, they would have been able to deal with the Humans. But as it was, and with Galactus looming, the Humans held the whip hand.
D'Ken seems to want to fight on, but with Harry's sword at his throat, whatever fight remained in him left him quickly. "Very well. But if you expect me to forget this effrontery, you will be sorely mistaken."
"That is for the future," Harry said, smiling calmly at him. "If you wish to try us again after we have dealt with Galactus, that is on your head. But I will not allow your ego to get in the way of saving your people."
With a wave of his hand, Harry dissipated the golem army scattered throughout the court. This was followed by another spell from Stephen, which repaired the damage to the throneroom and even the throne. D'Ken and the other bird people were still gaping at that, as Storm began to intone another spell, which spread her area of control around the court. Seconds later, she was healing the wounds of the individuals there within a few seconds.
That finally seemed to finish the job of overawing the Emperor and D'Ken began to laugh, shaking his head. "What you humans lose in numbers, I see you make up with the quality of your super-powered individual. Very well! I can be magnanimous about this. The loss of Gladiator is a sore one, but to have such allies against Galactus, I will swallow my pride."
"Come!" he said suddenly jovial, and Harry wasn't the only one who shivered at the swift turnaround. "I will show you to our Strategic Operations Control Center, and we can start planning our campaign against Galactus and his Herald. Do you have any plans going forward?"
Harry nodded equably, his entire body language and face under control, showing that he was taking the Emperor's sudden change of heart as reality, walking beside him as the other Custodes and Fantastic Four members fell in behind them, shrugging ruefully or simply nodding equably to their former enemies among the Imperial Guard, most of whom were looking a little shocked still at their recent defeat and sudden healing.
"Yes, I believe we do have a plan going forward. The name of the game will be ambush and separation. Separate the Herald from the master, kill the Herald, and then do everything in our power to hurt Galactus, enough so that he will be forced to give over, retrace his steps, and leave your Empire."
"Excellent, yes, the ambush, that is precisely how I felt as well. Doctor Richards, do you have anything to add?" D'Ken asked, still acting like the courteous host.
On the surface. Under the surface, however, Jean was able to sense the real story without setting off the Emperor's powerful, if electronic, mental defenses. Inside D'Ken was a broiling mass of rage, affronted dignity, and murderous hate. Just as Harry had expected.
Round one was over. It remained to be seen who would win the game in the end, or so the Emperor thought at least. Never knowing that Harry still had troops in play elsewhere, as Nikolai led his team to ground in the Imperial gardens, ready to play their own role in time.