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Releasing the hold and stepping back a bit, Husk grabbed Asp again before she could try to get away and then slammed her head back into the wall twice more. On the second impact, Asp went limp, and Husk gently picked her up, moving her over to the bed and laying the other woman on it. "Sorry, babe. But hopefully, after you wake up, and can get away from the over-compensator over there and might come back to yourself. At least I know you and Black Mamba at least didn't choose to be here, yeah?"
Raising a communicator from a pouch on her wrist, Husk called for Nightcrawler to come and retrieve their prisoner. "Before Ah put him out of his misery for good."
He appeared in a puff of displaced air, only to wince and look away as he had teleported to one side of the Black Spectre's naked form. "Gah, could you not have at least thrown a cover over him?"
"He don't deserve that dignity," Husk growled, her voice unusually serious for the Kentucky native even as her accent came out more strongly than normal due to her fury.
With that, Husk marched out of the room, finding herself striding through the rest of the mansion's living quarters, smashing down one door after another. Most of the rooms were currently empty, although one woman, who looked almost Brazilian, was in one of them.
She had apparently taken the time to get dressed and came out swinging a rifle at Husk's head. The end of it shattered, but the blow still staggered Husk back a step, and then, the woman dropped the rifle, pulling out and stabbing forward with some kind of electro-weapon, causing Husk to howl in pain and stumbled back.
A foot came up crashing into the woman's chest, hurling her back, and then Nightcrawler was there, behind the woman, a small spray can in one hand expelling air into her face. "Have you noticed how many women there are around?"
"Blame the Black Spectre for being a fucking rapist with pheromone powers," Husk growled, wincing as she touched her chest. "Damn, being the metal in a lightning rod fuckin' hurts! Seriously, though, I swear that kind of matchup is enough to make me think that the devil exists."
Nightcrawler grimaced at that, and after dropping another one of Kitty's sleep array stones on the woman, Husk reported what they had discovered to the others. Not being given an order to pull back out of the building to join the fight outside, the two continued their way through the mansion.
Outside, the battle had continued up to this point, but the defenders simply didn't have enough quality troops to matter. Normal troops, men and women, were tossed this way and that, their droid smashed, their weapons broken by Thunderbird, and Cannonball continued to smash into and through both buildings and any formation they tried to make. With one of her arms injured, Cortez had withdrawn to one side, firing from the rubble of the main building, while Coyote and Uzume zipped around the battlefield. Combined, the trio provided enfilade fire. Everywhere around the battle, bodies lay testament to their abilities and Thunderbirds, although none of the guards had run away, instead staying and fighting almost fanatically.
Ghigau joined Thunderbird in close combat. After, that is, she tied the Black Spectre's arms behind him and his legs to his arms. He looked like a very naked piñata laying out on the magic carpet, a feeling which was exacerbated as he was also tied up around the middle with rope.
Thunderbird was still coughing occasionally, and his face was a lot redder than normal, and it felt like it was itching. But he kept on smashing the last of the robots and closing with Madame Masque as she tried to retreat out into the darkness beyond the ongoing firefight. Trapster had been struck by a shot from Coyote, which had nearly taken his leg off at the thigh, dumping him to the ground. He had screamed for a bit but had since died from blood loss, none of his fellow criminals even attempting to help him.
Black Mamba was also down, her limited telepathy not much use against multiple enemies. A gauss rifle had smashed into a rock right next to her, and the woman had been riddled with bits of shrapnel, but she seemed to be alive at least. That could not be said for the mutant who had been launching tiny bits or razor-sharp bone from his fingers. Thunderbird had punched his head off his shoulders.
Among the few guards still fighting was the mutant with tornado-based powers. But unlike the others, as Ghigau joined the fight, he realized that the battle was lost. With a blast of tornado air towards Uzume which sent the woman flying despite her suit, he turned, racing away.
As he got within range of Madame Masque, Thunderbird saw this and shouted out, "Coyote, close with that ass hole and take them out! Cannonball, cover him!"
The Keewazi tribesman replied instantly, teleporting once more towards the tornado-tossing villain, while the criminal concentrated on knocking Cannonball out of the air. The attack pushed Cannonball off course, but a moment later, Coyote's kick caught the man in the leg, shattering his kneecap. Before the man could do more than scream in pain, Coyote had his head in both hands, bringing the criminal's head down into Coyote's armored knee.
The man fell back unconscious, probably concussed. At the same time, the battle around the mansion began to die off as the other shooters took out the last of the regular guards. Their suits, which seemed to be a mix of Kevlar and advanced polymers, were no match for gauss rifles and plasma bolts.
Thunderbird tried to tackle Madame Masque, but she flipped up and over his head, landing behind him. Two blows to his back followed, but he rounded on her, a blow that should have taken her head off whistling over Madame Masque as she ducked. A blow to his chest caused Thunderbird to stumble back very slightly, followed by a roundhouse kick to the face. Again Thunderbird stumbled, but the woman just wasn't strong enough to really hurt him.
The next time she punched him, Thunderbird went with the punch, his own arm lashing up to grab her forearm drag her in. A blow across the face followed, the supervillain's mask nearly cracking under the blow, and then Thunderbird turned, flipping Madame Masque over his head and down to the ground where her back thumped onto the rocky soil with bone-jarring force.
Before Madame Masque could recover, Thunderbird pulled her into the air and then into a sleeper hold, using the same technique Colossus had earlier on the Black Widow and Mystique. Madame Masque gasped, her arms coming up to grab at his, but like the two pheromone-influenced Custodes, her simple lack of strength worked against her, and Thunderbird held the chokehold in place until she fell unconscious.
Then, hefting her underneath one arm, he returned to the grounds at the front of the mansion while the other attackers all congregated, save for Sam, who continued moving around the perimeter just in case. There, he met Colossus, who was dragging the battered form of the Winter Soldier behind him. The assassin's fleshy arm was broken in several places, and his leg was also bent most unnaturally, but Colossus too looked somewhat pummeled, dents covering his chest and face that promised quite a bit of bruising.
Still, the team leader kept his mind on the overall objective, issuing orders crisply, splitting the team up into groups of two, with each team accompanied by someone who wouldn't succumb to the pheromones Husk had reported on. "Remember, taking this place out is just one part of this operation. We want to make certain the none of these people, scientists or criminals or what have you weren't able to escape. Spread out and search for any hidden tunnels or anything else."
"Speaking of," Husk's voice came over the team's coms once more, "I think we're going to need a lot more hands. And specifically, a lot of counselors…"
Moments later, John, Ghigau and Piotr all stood in the center of the basement of the mansion, a wide sprawling complex that had been turned into a laboratory. A laboratory designed for a very specific purpose: that of brainwashing mutants and other superpowered individuals. There were several such men and women here, none of whom the Custodes Mundi recognized, except that most were young and seemed to come from various nationalities. Of the younger individuals there, two were Chinese, four were Caucasian, and two were Africans.
A few others were criminals, who Spymaster identified when Piotr held up a camera, allowing him to see what was going on back in Camelot. "That one there is the Grim Reaper. I suppose he was due for another dose after we identified him earlier. That one there is Jigsaw, a mob hitman. The woman is named the Vampiress, real name unknown. She's been a hitwoman for a few years now, though notably one with scruples, unlike Jigsaw. And that other one… huh. That one is Deadeye, a Maggia assassin. Reported dead in a firefight last year. Still alive, apparently."
Both young people and career criminals were strapped to beds in a long row. Several of them were connected to IV tubes, showing that a mix of drugs was entering their system. Others were simply laying there, their eyes wide and unseeing. Nearby, the same kind of air freshener Dani had seen in the mansion above blew the Black Spectre's pheromones into their faces.
"Make sure the restraints will hold the criminals, then get the teens up and out of here. We will wake them up in the sunlight above, not in this, this place," Piotr spat, horror etched on his metal face. "And call in Diamond. This just became a humanitarian issue, not a criminal one."
OOOOOOO
As dawn broke over Greece, Emma arrived with Wendy and her retrieval team, all of whom had become proficient in helping distraught individuals of various ages to come to terms with what had happened to them. She also brought in Una, Amelia Vought – who was serving as the X-mansion's nurse – and, in a surprising move, Kitty and her parents.
While not having any experience with abused children, the Pryde parents were pretty much the best example of parents accepting a child with mutant powers, and they both were amazing with kids and teens. This worked very well to calm the slowly reviving superpowered teens, and Emma was happy they had diverted any outright disasters there.
However, the decision was made to not house them in Camelot. Instead, they would be slowly brought to Magical Minds, where they would be cared for until the Custodes found out if they should be brought back to their places of origin. Some young men and women professed to wonder where their families were, while others stayed silent on the matter.
With all of that organized and Amelia taking charge of it, Emma turned her attention to other things, breaking the Black Spectre's mind with a certain amount of vindictiveness. Like Hammerhead, he would never function as a human being ever again once she was finished with him.
But she was able to turn over everything she found in his mind to Interpol as hints and 'from an unknown source' to go with the various computers that the team had acquired in the assault, with promises to turn over the criminals they had captured soon after their mental health was seen to. Considering most of those were criminals, it honestly didn't matter if the Black Spectre had been controlling them since most of them were either his age or a little older, and their criminal activity had predated their connection to him and the Russian Mafia.
However, a few of the prisoners they kept. Black Mamba, Asp, and the Winter Soldier.
The two women were obvious. They were probably under Black Spectre's influence, pulled from their attempt to go straight into his control. The Winter Soldier, however, was a bit of a surprise. Emma had fully intended to hand him over to Interpol and watch as various governments argued for jurisdiction as to who would execute the man for his crimes. But when Steve stopped by to look over the prisoners, that plan stopped instantly. Because he recognized the Winter Soldier.
Emma gaped at Steve incredulously. "He's who!? How is that even possible?"
"I don't know! I have no idea how he's still alive, although, given my own experience with being frozen for a few decades, that certainly shows one way. But I am as certain of this as I am of my own name, Emma," Steve barked back at Emma's incredulous question, distraught as he stared through the glass at the prisoner on the other side. "That's Bucky Barnes, my oldest friend and my liaison with the Howling Commandos."
"Is there any record of him after Steve disappeared?" the blonde woman asked, not turning her own eyes away from Steve and the prisoner but addressing Dennis and Nick Fury, who Steve had brought in to make certain he wasn't hallucinating.
Both men exchanged glances, and after a moment, Dennis nodded to Nick. "He was your soldier."
"Bucky Barnes was lost in action during Operation Pinocchio, a joint mission of the Allies and Rommel's Germany to assault a last SS hold out near the Polish border. At the time, he was leading a paratrooper group, the plan calling for them to drop down on the base from on high. His plane had just reported it was under before all contact was lost," Nick declared, having looked up those records in after-action reports of the time. "Rommel's troops still stormed the place, but took a lot of casualties."
"The first time the Winter Soldier, although he wasn't called that at the time, appeared was during the Cold War, three years after World War II ended. At that time, he was involved in the murder of President Tito in Yugoslavia. The man was known to resent Russian domination of the Communist Movement and was a fierce patriot who wanted to strengthen his country's position. Several other murders were also linked to someone matching this man's description, including an aide of Mao's during the confrontation over Zhenbao Island." Dennis reported.
Nick looked at him, one eyebrow rising, and the older man chuckled. "I started looking into the Winter Soldier long before this, Nick. With Firestar's description of the man to work with, it was relatively easy to find past examples of his work."
Nick nodded understanding at that but said nothing, and then Emma spoke once more. "You have something to add, Fury, but you don't want to. What is it?"
"Did you just…"
Emma rounded on Nick, scowling angrily. "No, I didn't just read your mind. I read your body language, spymaster! Silences can say just as much as words at times. Now, what are you keeping from us?"
Grumbling, Nick reached up to rub at his eyepatch for a moment before sighing. "… There's also some evidence that the Winter Soldier was involved in Tony Stark senior's murder. As in, we know someone matching the Winter Soldier's description pulled the trigger."
Steve grimaced at that, one hand rubbing up at his face, touching the bruise heat taken fighting Bucky the day before. "There is no way that Bucky would have anything to that kind of thing, or hell, even become an assassin in the first place."
"Agreed," Nick announced, throwing off his annoyance about being called out by Emma as he too looked through the glass. Bucky had been one of his men at one point, after all.
"So he's been brainwashed, or perhaps some kind of false personality has been placed over his own. But even with that, how he became a criminal in the first place is still beyond me," Steve admitted.
"The Russian Mafia started as the KGB, remember? Someone probably had his control words or what have you. But in your opinion, the Winter Soldier, Bucky, cannot be held accountable for his actions?" Emma questioned quickly.
"That's a hard affirmative, Emma," Steve answered firmly.
"Knowing what I can do with my telepathic powers, it would be extremely hypocritical of me to push for him to be condemned then. Unfortunately, I've been probing his mind as we speak, and I am not getting through. Whatever mental defenses keep his new personality in place, they are subtle and powerful. Most definitely the work of another telepath of some kind, along with something mechanical device backing it up. Will have to remove whatever that something is before we can do anything else. But if we keep him sedated and in custody, we can wait until Reed gets back." Emma shrugged. "And I can promise we will keep him."
"You realize that part of the reason why I was sent here to help identify him was the fact that the American government wants Bucky handed over to them?" Nick asked sardonically.
Emma rolled her eyes. "I rather doubt that the president actually believes that we will extradite Bucky, let alone any of our other prisoners. Not until we are certain of their guilt and mental cognition. But I will say it firmly now for you, Nick. Bucky will remain our prisoner and under sedation until the mental blocks are removed. After that, he may stand trial, but only for those crimes Bucky committed when he had free will. Is that acceptable?"
Steve nodded firmly, and Emma nodded once, then turned, swirling back out of the room. "In that case, I have other duties to attend to. And don't worry Fury, we'll send you any information we get from the prisoners."
Nick nodded, and Emma left Nick Dennis and Steve there as she exited the room, heading over to the medical wing. Of Camelot There, she took some time talking to the wounded, thanking them for their efforts, exchanging a nod with Peter, and concentrating on Mystique and Natasha who had been affected by the pheromones of the Black Spectre. She then exchanged a high five with Paige, who smirked back at her in amusement, still delighted about her own role in the battle.
After that, alas, Emma had to get back to her own work. The deal with Russia, or rather the multiple deals with Russia, had finally been completed, although they were still going a little too slowly to combat the anti-mutant feeling that had become part of their society. Despite that, the rest of the deals were good to go, and with that, Emma was free to share some of the technology that they had claimed from Reed Richards and from the Kree ships to the various first world governments, along with Wakanda and a few other African nations of her and Ororo's choosing.
Nothing they shared would allow any of the other terrestrial powers to get into space. Throughout the discussions, Emma, Ororo and Harry had debated that point and finally agreed. The orbital defenses and the fleet would remain solely in Potter's control. But he wanted the various nations to be able to feel as if they had some measure of defense against aliens, and, beyond the military technology is a lot of other things, medical equipment, new types of metals, and so forth, could be shared with the civilian populace. For a fee, of course.
Besides that, considering the gravity well and the distances involved, it was doubtful that anyone would build a defense that could actually reach any attacking ship. Getting missiles up out of the gravity well took too long, and energy weapons were short-range weapons at best, considering how fast ships moved and how easily they could evade. Plasma-based weaponry was better, but even there, the arc of the firing gun worked against it. Perhaps the hellebore weapons E had designed with Reed and which had been a gift to the Americans for their revamped battleships could produce sufficient power. But even so, the main point of those defenses was to make the various governments or rather, the smaller unions, feel safer, unlike the Verdun defense stations.
She was still busy meeting various government officials in her Diamond persona when the call came in from Fortress Mars. The Long Voyager was back. It had jumped in near Pluto and was even now heading deeper in.
OOOOOOO
"Unknown warship, you have entered human space, identify yourselves..." The voice trailed off as the IFF signal, and the two frigates and the destroyer, which had been apparently doing some exercises out here against a squadron of Ravens, broke off their approach, slowing dramatically and moving into a guard position around the Long Voyager. "Apologies, Voyager, your IFF code has been confirmed. Welcome home, Custodes, sir Potter."
"Good to be home, Taffy 3, good to be home." Harry read off the destroyer's name, even as he examined the readout on a nearby teleportation ring. That hadn't been there when they left, but he knew Polaris and Kitty could build the things, and sticking one out here was also probably a good thing. Thanks to the gravitational trap on Mars, warping in this far out then moving in-system was the only way an attacking force could get at Earth. So hitting them right from the start with fighters is a great idea. I just would have built out from Earth rather than haphazardly.
However, ideas on that score could not stay in his head because as the ship headed deeper into the solar system, Jean gasped, twitching in her chair as her eyes rolled up in her head. A second later, Jean's mental persona found herself in the land of fire once more. The never-ending plain of fire, of life and rebirth, stretched all around her as the Phoenix appeared, once more wearing the guise of a woman.
And in her hands, she held out two bright sparks which Jean instinctually knew were the souls of her children. "Your mission is accomplished, and you fulfilled your end of the bargain, but you are back now. That means that your little ones must be returned. They cannot stay here any longer. Souls cannot dwell forever in this realm without being changed, and I warned you that you would have to pay once more upon your return."
"Can I say that is just so much bull? I destroy that sword for you, and you still demand more?" Jean grumbled, even as she held out her hands in welcome. The two small sparks flew towards her, through Jean's hands and then into her stomach.
Jean barely had a moment to feel those two lives, those two souls once more next to her own when she was back in her body feeling the change. And then Jean began to scream in agony. "GAAAAAAAA!"
The human body is not supposed to go from being at the peak of physical, athletic health to being on the cusp of the third trimester of pregnancy in a few seconds. And all of the people in the Long Voyager had assumed that the change would occur when they reached the orbit of Earth. Not right now, the second they returned to the solar system.
Harry quickly raced to her, using a spell to deaden the pain through her body, even as her eyes rolled back and she started to spasm, her body changing as they watched, almost like that of Morph or Mystique. Hela and Ororo also raced forward, doing what they could to help deaden the pain, as Reed grabbed up a scanner and began to run it over Jean's rapidly expanding stomach and body. "As long as I live, I will never get used to magic! Teleporting two fetuses back into the mother after removing them and somehow reversing Jean's personal time back to when she was in peak condition? Insane! And what is going on in her body is equally as impossible. Hell, the strain of the change should be killing her."
"Don't tempt fate like that, Reed Richards! Just tell me if the kids are all right, and if Jean is all right," Hela ordered, while Harry was too distraught to speak for a moment, casting another pain-relieving spell on Jean as he sensed the first few fading under the agony she was in.
He tried to avoid her stomach since it was known that using magic on babies before they were born was a bad idea. Despite his power, Harry wasn't the Phoenix, able to wave his hands and ignore such fundamental rules of his craft.
"I'll have to wait until the transfer process is done to tell you if Jean will be all right, but it looks as if the two unborn are well enough. No, it's Jean's body that is dealing with most of the injury. And I don't even want to think of how hungry Jean will be when she wakes up. In fact, we should probably set up an intravenous tube, just in case," Reed ordered.
Leaving Ben in charge of the bridge, Hela teleported Jean down on the med bay. There Harry met her, and the two of them laid Jean out on a bed, trying to get her to straighten up out of the fetal position she had assumed. Ororo soon joined them, crooning softly in the younger woman's ear, whispering words of encouragement which she prayed would get through Jean's agony.
Eventually, they could get Jean to straight up a bit, although this was only because Jean had slipped into unconsciousness. "Which," Hela remarked, "is probably a good thing. The last thing we want to have to deal with is someone of Jean's power losing control of that power."
Harry nodded absently while Ororo stayed silent, simply stroking Jean's hair while her body continued twitching and thrashing as it underwent changes. Watching her stomach distend and her hips and breasts grow so much was somewhat alarming for all three of them and even Reed, watching it happen all at once like this rather than gradually. But Harry supposed that it was even worse for Jean. Especially if she was still feeling pain despite their best attempts at numbing her body from the neck down.
Eventually, Jean's spasming subsided, and her body was back to the way it had been when they left. After making sure Jean wasn't going hurt herself further, Harry pulled away, looking over at Reed as he began to run a diagnostic tool over her body, reminding Harry somewhat quixotically of the medical scanner used in the Star Trek series Jean had once introduced him to. Only larger and connected to a nearby medical computer.
Eventually, Reed smiled, shut off the device and looked over at Harry and Ororo. "There doesn't seem to be any lasting damage to her system outside of extreme debilitation. She will need food and nutrients by the bucket load, to say nothing of water, and probably won't actually be up to moving around at all for days. But beyond that, both Jean and the children will be fine."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and Hela and Ororo leaned against one another. Both of them had been horribly shaken by the initial shriek of agony from their friend and lover, but to hear that she would be all right was a godsend.
As Reed had predicted, Jean was still unconscious hours later as the Explorer reached Earth orbit. Soon after that, Emma reached out to them mentally. Being unable to find Jean's presence caused Emma to panic, but Harry quickly relieved her of her concerns, explaining what had happened.
"Wow, and I needed another reason to not want to get pregnant," Emma drawled, her mental equilibrium restored.
That, and indeed all other thoughts, left Emma's mind as she met Harry and the others on High Note. So relieved to see her lovers alive, she ignored the rest of the Custodes and their allies as they disembarked, even the new alien girl, as she flung herself into Harry's arms in a way that she would never do in public, or indeed around most people. It was all right for her lovers to see Emma acting like a lovesick teenage girl. It was very much another thing to have her public persona, even that of Emma Frost rather than Diamond, acting in such a manner.
But when her mouth found Harry's, kissing him ardently, Emma had no thoughts for anything like that in her head. She then turned to Ororo, giving her a similar treatment, before turning to look at Hela, one eyebrow rising and very deliberately kissing her on the cheek just below her half-mask as Hela stiffened.
The Asgardian grumbled a bit even at that, but there was a faint smile on her face as Emma pulled away. Then she was back in Harry's arm, hugging him tightly, whispering, "Welcome home, all of you. And if you try to leave me behind like this again Harry, be prepared to believe you have turned into a chicken and need to cluck at dawn!"
Chuckling at that, Harry wrapped Emma in his arms, lifting her up lightly as they moved through High Note to the bedroom suite. "I don't have plans to leave again anytime soon, love, never fear. There's too much to do for me right here, after all."
"One of those things better be me, Potter, if you know…" That was as far as Emma got before Harry's mouth found hers once more, and she felt him using magic to tear her clothing into tiny pieces. Behind him, Hela beat a hasty retreat, giggling like a schoolgirl even as she obeyed propriety's stern injunctions. Behind her, Ororo simply smiled and joined Emma and Harry on the bed.
OOOOOOO
The next day, Jean was still unconscious, her body simply unable to deal with the sudden change. But while Harry would have wanted to spend time waiting beside her or continue to take time with the kids, Emma insisted that they tell the various world leaders what had happened with the Shi'ar Empire as soon as possible. "They all know you're back by now, and the longer we wait to tell them what happened to out there, the crazier the conspiracy theories will be."
With that in mind, Harry gathered the various world leaders together on High Note, disdaining once more the use of normal diplomatic channels. With him went Storm, although Hela too was invited. She decided to not join in, instead spending time with Emma and Garm.
The group Harry and Storm met with hadn't really changed much since their meeting after the Eurasian War. And this meeting wasn't anywhere near as acrimonious as that one. In fact, it really wasn't a discussion at all. Rather, Harry simply told the world leaders everything that had occurred beyond the solar system, bar the true origins of the virus. Beyond the crew of the Explorer, no one would ever know that it had been Harry and his people who had released that virus. Instead, Harry told them that the virus had been released as a final act from D'ken. Given everything else Harry shared about how D'ken acted, none of the leaders here had any issue with believing that he could do something like that.
The only one that seemed a little suspicious was Doctor Doom, whose eyes narrowed slightly behind his mask. But then he simply raised his glass slightly in a subtle salute before setting it down. Whatever that meant, Harry wasn't about to speculate.
Regardless, the meeting went off without much of a hitch, as Harry explained about the humanitarian effort he had set up, which would also give Earth some allies in the future. Not powerful ones, certainly, but any ally was better than none. He then further explained how Diamond had been acting in his stead and the various advances made in his absence on the Earth Defense Force. He also backed the decision to attack the Black Spectre's base in Greece when called out on it by President Northton.
After that, the meeting broke up, and after glad-handing for a time, Harry started a two week vacation with unvarnished delight. He spent most of that time with Melody, Illyana and the rest of the kids, simply having fun, enjoying winter in Camelot and training Illyana to use her magic. That, and spending time with the ladies, the time they weren't organizing the next wedding, which would be Jean's.
Jean awoke near the end of the first week, and after several hours of further medical tests, was declared relatively healthy bar the issues Reed had noticed right after the fact.
She still had to eat twice as much as she normally would even at this stage of her pregnancy, and her body was incredibly weak. No lasting damage had been done to it. Although she did reiterate the point she had made before they had met up with the pirates. "Two is enough Harry, I am not going through this again!"
Harry just laughed, helping Jean sit up in bed, his arm around her shoulders, before leaning in, kissing her ear and then neck as he spoke, his hand coming to rest on her swollen stomach. "Your body your choice love, I'll go along with whatever decision in that area you want. However, I'll remind you that we used both regular and magical contraceptives when these two were conceived. Perhaps before you make any such demands on me, you should check in with a certain higher authority?"
"What is the English term, prat? You prat, Harry! How dare you remind me I'm not exactly in full control here," Jean grumbled, although she did lean into his hug.
At that moment Emma entered the room, the blonde eager to spend time with her friend now that she was once more awake. Of course, being Emma, she showed this in her normal manner. "Oh dear, you're back to looking like a blimp. Well, don't worry, I understand that once the horrid business is done, it only takes a few months to get your figure back."
"In Vitro," Jean grumbled, lifting her arms away from Harry, as in the leaned in for a hug despite her caustic words. "Definitely going to push some more research into that area."
Harry chuckled, stood up, kissed both women, and then left them to their talk, heading outside to join a growing snowball fight.
Eventually, Harry's time off had to end. And the first thing he did once being back on duty was to finally bite the bullet. Over the next month Harry concentrated nearly all his time on finalizing the governmental structure for the Avalon Empire, as his holdings were now called.
"After all, when you're dealing with an empire that is connected to all of its constituent parts through magic and has magic and superpowers as the basis of its existence, what else are you supposed to call it?" Storm opined after she and the other ladies chose the name for Harry from a list of five he had made.
Harry's holdings consisted of the Savage land, Camelot, High Note, the Hanging Gardens, Prometheus 2, the Magical Minds headquarters. While still technically a British-based company, it was now the site of his embassy to the UK. Fortress Mars and the earth defense force also answered to Harry. Most of its people now had secondary status as citizens of their home nations and the Avalon Empire as long as they served in the fleet. The Savage land, Camelot, and the asteroid bases were entirely owned by Avalon Empire; however, as was the majority of Fortress Mars.
The Americans' attempt to start up their own base wasn't going as well as they had hoped, just not having the trained people needed, to say nothing of paying for the use of the runic doorways. By this point, Harry was cheerfully waiting for them to give up so he could claim their resources for his own.
The government for the Avalon Empire was, at its core, a constitutional monarchy, although as King, Harry retained quite a bit more power than the term constitutional monarchy implied. Even in the United Kingdom, there were a lot more checks and balances on the monarch than Harry was willing to accept.
Instead of having a parliament, each different segment of the Empire would have its own set of laws underneath the overarching laws of the Empire. This set of laws was called the Bill of Responsibility and Liberties and had been finalized only recently after quite a bit of initial work on it from Harry and the others in the time dilation area of High Note. Most of the month was spent on other things, including the creation and issuing of visas and IDs, to say nothing of the creation of a monetary system, banking system, and everything to go with that.
Moreover, each individual clan or tribe in the Savage Lands had their own laws, but those laws would not impact individuals of other clans or tribes, let alone the residents of the burgeoning city that were beginning to grow there made up of dependents of those men and women on Fortress Mars or employed elsewhere by Magical Minds. It was also the only place that currently had a police force. Magical minds had no need of such, nor did any of the asteroid bases, while Fortress Mars made do quite easily with a large MP force.
To create laws, each segment of the Empire would be able to create a Council of Prefects, the name harkening back to Harry's old Hogwarts days, although he hadn't been the one to choose it. Each segment of the Empire would also have a single governor. This post would be chosen by Harry from a list of candidates voted on by the locals. The Council of Prefects would oversee the creation of new laws specific to their area of the Empire, enforce those laws, and deal with local problems so that Harry wouldn't have to.
But he could be called in to do so, and he and his advisers or representatives would have the deciding vote in any single issue. And while he could not simply dismiss a member of the Council of Prefects, he could demand that they stand for a retrial and give his reasoning to the public for that. All of this, plus the fact that the Council of Prefects wouldn't actually be paid all that much - basically the same as a town mayor in America - would stop them from becoming corrupt.
Further, taxes would be very low across the Empire. After all, most of Harry's holdings were businesses, all of whom were making money hand over fist through what would soon become exports to other nations throughout the world. Thanks to that and his owning half the rights to all of the mining going on in space, Harry was far and away the richest man in the world, with Lorna, thanks to her efforts in mining out Fortress Mars and elsewhere, being a surprising second, although she had been quick to become an Avalon Empire citizen.
All of this meant that ninety percent of the money that the government of the Avalon Empire would have for its various municipal projects (one of which was the EDF, technically) came from Harry and his personal holdings. Really, the taxes were more to make the average citizen believe they were connected to the Empire as a whole.
The same went for the Freedom of Movement Law. Any citizen of the Empire could freely move between its various holdings, while citizens of other nations would now need to pay. Not much admittedly for private businesses, but there would be a fee now to use the runic doorways.
Of course, all of that was internal, while externally, a lot of the work had already been done: Visas, the creation of passports, News agencies and so on. Sage had, again, been a godsend in all of this.
But there was one thing that Harry had to see to on his own: presenting the Avalon Empire to the United Nations. Even though the United Nations had lost much of its cohesion and frankly was becoming more and more ignored as time went on, the smaller unions taking over its original duties, it was still a necessary symbolic gesture.
Harry waited in the antechamber for a moment, then, as the ambassador from the United Kingdom called his name, and third. He looked around the room, locking gazes with each of the United Nations Members, nodding to a select few in the rest of the audience, before moving to take the same chair that he and Storm had once occupied during their initial meetings with this body.
"We've been told Mister Potter that you have something to share with us? Or rather, you wish to make something official that has long been the case?" The French ambassador asked, smiling very slightly.
"That is correct Madame ambassador. As of 0700 Greenwich Village time, the creation of my nation has been finalized. The Council of Prefects for the Savage land and Fortress Mars have been chosen, voted into office and are currently having their first meetings. While it will be a constitutional monarchy, with myself at its head, I will not be overseeing the day to day lives of the individuals within it. That will happen on the municipal level, with no level of government between the municipal and myself. In the future, when the Savage Land has grown or further colonies begin in space, that might change. But at the moment, this is the method of government that works for us."
Harry waited a moment, then launched into a somewhat prepared speech. "When America came into being, its forefathers set out to create a nation built on the rights of the individual at two set aside old hatreds. My nation is built somewhat on the second of those. We set aside our differences, we denounce and decry the separation between mutant and non-mutants, white and black, religions, or sexual preferences. All we see is humanity. That is one pillar that the Avalon Empire is built on."
Harry held up a hand, counting a second point. "The second is defense, the survival of humanity against its extraterrestrial enemies. This blue-white marble of ours is but a small speck in the galaxy, and a very small, very fragile ship, to trust humanities future to. So long as my nation exists, the EDF will as well, and will continue to grow and become stronger due to my efforts and the efforts of the rest of humanity united."
He waited a bit, then spoke softly, although his voice still carried to everyone in the room and out beyond thanks to the video cameras set at the far back of the room. "That is the basis of the Avalon Empire. For mutants, for nonpowered humans, for humanity! For the future and taking our species to the stars!"
Harry's speech did not get a standing ovation. The United Nations was very much not the kind of place that would occur. But there was a lot of clapping, far more than when Harry had initially been stood in front of this body of ambassadors. He would take it. There still remained a lot of work to do, but at least, the foundation was finally fully in place.
And now, I have another wedding to look forward to, he thought wryly, as the floor opened for questions. The ladies had decided that Jean's wedding should happen next, and that it should be in the next few days before the next disaster showed up out of nowhere. Oh, joy.