Chapter 3: A Wild Card can Change any Game part 3

Logan growled from where he sat at the controls of the danger room. "I agree, that was just awful. Their ability to adapt and improvise is pure crap." Ororo didn't say anything, worried for her nephew and the others.

"I think you're being overly hard on them, Logan" Charles replied. "It's true they could be more flexible, but they have no idea about his abilities. With that limitation, I think they are doing remarkably well, and at the same time learning a valuable lesson about underestimating their opponents and their own pride impacting their decisions."

Logan shook his head. "Chuck, you're not getting it. He hasn't thrown anything at them that they couldn't overcome if they reacted as a team and tried to improvise, instead they try to stick to plans that are FUBARed from the moment they make contact. They're letting him dictate everything, all the momentum is his." Charles shrugged noncommittally.

OOOOOOO

After gathering the kids together, Harry went about healing them, starting with the one called Kitty, forcing a bit of healing potion between her lips. As she woke up, she started to spasm and whimper from the electric shock he had given her. A calm hand on her forehead, though, calmed her down. "Easy, curly one, you're alright, just wait a second, okay?" As she blearily opened her eyes, the pain began to fade slowly. She looked up and saw that the older boy was going around helping her other friends, starting with Spyke, followed by Rogue.

Scott was the next to wake up. Hearing Jean moan in pain, he looked over and saw her lying nearby bruised and battered. "Jean!" Ignoring his own wounds, he ran over to her, and was appalled to see that her chest, barely covered by the remnants of her uniform, was red and heavily blistered. "Okay that's it, this training exercise is over! We have injured people down here who need immediate medical attention!"

Rogue grunted irritably. She massaged her forehead while Harry worked on her back, using something to get rid of the cuts on her back. "And what are we chopped liver?" Not once had Scott looked away from Jean to see how the rest of his team was faring.

Harry finished healing her back and smirked a little. "Happens often, does it?"

"Ya got's no idea," The southerner muttered. "Scott always treats little miss perfect with kid gloves." She really did want to be angry with this guy for the butt kicking he was giving them, but at the moment she just didn't have enough energy to do it.

Logan's voice came from the ceiling in answer to Scott's announcement. "You don't get to say stuff like that in a real fight kid, if I was Harry I wouldn't be bothering healing you as much as he is, you lot have got one more round to go before you can quit."

"But…" Scott protested then was interrupted as Jean began to shake her head from where she was laying on the ground.

She waved off his hand and sat up, then looked down and covered herself with her hands, appalled by the amount of skin she was showing, and a little annoyed that Scott hadn't tried to cover her up, instead just standing there ogling her. "L-Logan's right, we were told to treat this as if it was real, we can't just back off when we get hurt."

A large, formless shirt fell out of nowhere onto her head, and she reflexively reached up to pull it off. "Well said Red, though I won't force you to go around without a shirt or anything like that. I'd recommend getting a tougher uniform or something in the future, though."

Jean eyebrow twitched at the nickname but she pulled the conjured shirt over her head, wincing as moving aggravated the burns on her chest. "Thank god for small mercies."

"Heh, well if you want to quit the hero business, I think baldy and the others would let you walk away, if you wished. But if you want to wear those, admittedly quite fetching", here he bowed toward the ladies, "uniforms then you should realize now that the people you face will play rough."

Jean and the other girls snorted at that but nodded along with the boys, understanding his point. Kitty, however, bounced up and down in place. "So, like, was I right, are you some kind of mage, all those weird powers were so totally cool!"

Harry nodded again, looking around at them. "Yes, I'm a wizard, though not like most on this planet I've discovered."

Scott shook his head, wondering how the hell they could make plans to match someone who seemed to bend reality to his whim. "No wonder we couldn't handle you."

Harry frowned. "Is that what you think?" He looked around at the others head cocked inquiringly. "Do you all think that way, that I'm steamrolling you because of my powers?"

All of them nodded their heads save the redhead, she merely looked thoughtful, as if she was thinking of something but couldn't quite put it in words. Harry shook his head. "It's not my powers that make me dangerous, One-eye. I'm dangerous because of my brain and my training, not just my magical power. Hell, I'll prove it right now, in the next match I won't use any magical power, just physical skills that any soldier could have. You lot have got ten minutes before we start again." With that Harry walked off down the street and out of sight.

Every one of them visibly perked up but Jean again, who remembered the way she had been handled. It hadn't been Scott's energy beam that knocked her out, she remembered the pain from it, but she also remembered a shield of some kind appearing and protecting the two of them before she was knocked out by a very professional choke hold. Why do I think we are going to get corncobbed here?

The others, however, ignored her for a moment, with Scott once more taking charge. "Alright, it's obvious he's the one underestimating us this time around. Kurt, I want you to be our scout for this one. Keep teleporting all around us as we start to search for him. Same general plan as before, I want to pin him in place and let Rogue touch him, so…"

Rogue spoke up then. "Ah don't know if that'll work, I was able ta get close but he fought me off without touchin' mah skin."

"Then we double team him!" Evan said enthusiastically. "He's been awful careful to take isolate us, take us out one by one, if we don't let him do that, we can hammer him under!"

Kitty was still euphoric about the fact magic was real to make any contribution to the discussion. "Like, I wonder what else can he do, like could he transform, or fly, or ohhhh…"

Rogue smacked her upside the head with a gloved hand. "Focus Kitty, fight now, interrogate later."

Kitty pouted but complied. "If he's promised to not use his powers, I bet he won't be able to fight my powers y'know."

Scott nodded firmly. "Then that's what we'll do. Kitty, go ghost mode as soon as we start moving, and the moment you see a chance to immobilize him, do it. I think that's all we should plan for now, let's play the rest by ear."

Jean groaned. Playing it by ear wasn't any of their strong points, well, except for Kurt, he was pretty good at that. Still, she knew that somehow this was going to go bad for them. A sneaking suspicion made itself known, and she reached out with her telepathic powers. "Professor, is that the point of this exercise? That we're just here to learn there's always a bigger fish?"

"Not the way I would put it my dear, but essentially yes," the older man's mental voice answered promptly. "I wanted to see for myself what skills Harry possesses, as well as getting you all to realize that your powers alone are not enough, it is how you use them. You all have started to slack off in your training and I felt a bit of a wake up was in order. And I'm sorry, but I want the others to realize this for themselves, so could you not tell them what you've realized?"

Jean sighed mentally, "Yes, professor though I'm not looking forward to being knocked out again."

"Don't worry my dear, we have an excellent medical facility as you well know."

Jean's lips pursed barely concealing a groan at that, but she followed along with the others. She wondered how Harry was going to attack them this time. And yes, she would remember his name like he asked, though if he called her Red again, there would be hell to pay. Now if I could only figure out what about him grabs my attention so much. There's just something about him, not just the eyes but something else that calls out to something in me.

OOOOOOO

Harry had retreated to the inside of a building, wondering anew at the technology this room represented. It was truly awesome, and he longed to get into its guts and figure out how it worked. Nanites, hard light holograms, both mixed together, or what? But for now he needed to concentrate on taking out these kids. "Hey Logan can this room create weapons too? I never said that I wouldn't use guns or stuff after all, just that I'd fight them as a normal soldier."

Logan's voice answered him promptly, coming from a small speaker set in the wall near him. "Sure kid, just tell it what ya want. But are ya sure you can take the kids out without using magic? I don't know what training you've had but that's a tall order."

"The only ones that will give me trouble are Red, the teleporter, and the ghost, her most of all. The others I can handle easily. And as for training, I was trained by a few Special Air Force members when I was younger, and I've kept up the training as much as I could, physically anyway." As Logan whistled, Harry asked the room for certain supplies and then went to work. Logan laughed at the list while Ororo shook her head in exasperation. "Oh and room, if I hit anyone with a few of these mission kill them, okay?" The watchers agreed and the program acknowledged the new orders.

About ten minutes later, he was on the roof of one of the buildings the room had created, looking through a sniper scope on a L115A3, with a sound suppressor on the end of the barrel. The ammo was a mixed bag, with rubber bullets that would hurt like hell, mixed with paint balls. He looked through his rifle, Following Kurt for a second then switched down to the streets for just a second to make certain the youngsters were following him, which they were. He sighed in irritation. Damn these guys are green; they just have no idea how to move in enemy territory, nor how to be sneaky. If I were them, I'd send the teleporter with little miss ghost shadowing him one way while I moved in an entirely different direction and tried to encircle me.

He watched for a few more minutes as they made their way through the cityscape coming into his range, breathing easily, calmly waiting until Nightcrawler stopped to shout down at the others, then took his shot.

"Kurt watch out!" The shot, a rubber bullet, was going too fast for Jean's warning to do anything. It smacked into his chest with bruising force, followed swiftly by another, this time a paint bullet that caught Kurt in his head as he clutched at his stomach.

"V-vhat the!" Kurt moaned.

Scott acted quickly, turning toward the way the bullet had to have come from and shooting out a full power blast from his eyes, demolishing the building. But Harry had already moved off as soon as the second bullet left the rifles snout, using a prepared rope to rappel to the next building over, then down.

Scott turned to look at Kurt, who Evan and Jean were helping to his feet. Suddenly the Danger room announced, "Subject Nightcrawler, mission kill."

The others looked confused but Logan answered their questions before they could voice them. "Sorry kids, since this is a normal human against you, Harry asked if he could take you out 'permanently', and we agreed. If this was real life Kurt, you would've just died, so for the rest of this exercise you're out."

Kurt groaned rubbing at his sore chest and the other bumps and bruises that hadn't fully healed from the previous to debacles. "I surely won't complain, I'll just sit here guys. Go get him for me, huh?"

Scott nodded. "He can't have gone far from the building he was hiding in. Keep together and let's go. Shout out if you see anything, and I mean anything, moving." The others nodded somberly, their earlier confidence having taken a nose dive at how Kurt had been taken out.

They moved forward now more seriously, With Jean trying to find their opponents mind with her powers, but yet again she seemingly couldn't find his mind at all. It was the strangest mental defense she had ever encountered. It was as if he had somehow made his mind disappear from her senses. She could tell it was there, barely anyway, but not its location, form, or anything about his thoughts.

As they neared the rubble of the building Scott had destroyed, they came under fire from another building. Cyclops and Jean both responded, one zapping the building at full power with his eye beams and the other by throwing several kinetic blasts at it. But the damage had already been done, with several canisters falling among the X-Men. A few started to let out a gray gas that quickly spread, making Spyke and Kitty both cough. Scott yelled, "Gas, everybody fall back!" The other things Harry had thrown, time delayed flashbangs, went off practically blinding everyone.

Jean and Rogue were able to fall back, but Harry had already rounded the corner from where he had jumped out of the building Scott and Jean had targeted. Harry came in, making for where he could see Scott doubled over and grabbing at his eyes through his mask. Harry didn't attack him though, he merely reached out when Scott brought his own hands away and ripped his visor off. Harry kept moving through the smoke and away as Scott lost control of his beams. They lashed out, catching Spyke and lifting him up to slam him hard against the wall, and nearly hitting a few of the others before Scott could close his eyes all the way again.

Kitty hadn't yet recovered from the gas, and was down on one knee coughing horribly. Harry really didn't have the heart to hurt her again as he had in the second match, so simply slapped her on the back of the neck with a deactivated shock stick. The Danger Room agreeably intoned, "Subject Shadowcat, mission kill. Subject Spyke, mission kill." Evidently the calculated damage Spyke had taken from Scott's eye beams had taken him out of the fight. Kitty groaned, and Harry took a second to ruffle her hair before moving off.

Harry faded back into a nearby alley, having done enough damage with this first ambush. However Jean and Rogue had a different idea. Jean blasted through the wall of the building next to him, letting Rogue jump forward in an attempt to grapple with him.

Harry swiftly threw another flashbang forward past Rogue's shoulder. Jean made the mistake of smacking it aside with her power, which merely made it go off quicker. She stumbled back blinking her eyes as Harry led Rogue further down the alleyway.

Rogue growled as she noticed that Harry had put on gloves and a long sleeve shirt, making it much harder for her to get skin to skin contact. They moved down the alleyway away from the others, while behind them Jean came out of the hole after them, still rubbing at her eyes with one hand, but still game.

Scott had again covered his eyes but now was stumbling around blind. He moved around on his hands and knees hoping to find his visor. He stumbled forward, tripping over something on the ground, something that felt strangely like a wire. "Was that a, oh cra-!" a loud boom sounded, and Scott was lifted into the air by a small explosion and found himself covered in paint. An instant later the Danger Room made its morbid announcement. "Well, fuck!"

He sat up gingerly, his whole body on fire with pain. He made certain to keep his eyes closed, as he shook his head very slowly in resignation, lest it fall off. "I think I know what the point of this exercise is now. We weren't supposed to win were we? Was this supposed to show us how much more we had to learn professor?"

"Partly, and partly because you all have been a little lackadaisical lately with your training. Ladies, do you understand now?"

Rogue and Jean, who were still fighting Harry backed off. Rogue answered with a scowl on her face. "Yeah, ahh guess, though if we were able tah continue this time at least we would've beaten him."

No sooner had she finished speaking that she flinched as a paintball smacked into her chest. She looked over in shock at harry, who was now holding a handgun. He turned, showing where it had been strapped to his back. "No you weren't. If Red over there hadn't recovered so bloody quickly from the flashbang, I would've ended you then and there but I didn't want to show my ace unless I could take you both out."

Jean twitched at the nickname again and smiled faux sweetly at the emerald eyed older boy. "Let's make a deal, you don't call me Red anymore and I don't use my powers to squish your head like a grape."

"Ooh, feisty, brilliant," Harry laughed. "But okay, I just thought Red was better than 'Marvel Girl'." He snickered and Jean groaned. She should have known that code name was going to come back and haunt her, but it had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Rogue laughed at her and the three of them made their way to the door to the danger room.

The rest of the X-Men slowly recovered and joined them as they exited the danger room, with Kitty already talking a mile a minute. "So, like can you fly? Are there other magic users? How did you learn magic, is it something you can teach anyone else? And like do you have to obey natural laws, like conservation of energy, or mass?"

Harry laughed, already seeing the girl as a younger, slightly more naive, and far more outgoing, Hermione. "Easy Curly, let me answer the first batch before you hit me with more. No, I can't fly under my own power; I can jump pretty far but that's it. I can use a broom to fly though and I know the runic array for that so I might create a broom or something else eventually, maybe a magic carpet. Yes, there are other magic users, though my magic is a little different from the magic people seem to use in this reality, so no, I couldn't teach you how to use my type of magic. And yes, I need to obey the conservation of energy and mass, although it's really tricky to see how the energy is conserved and where the mass comes from when you're using magic."

By that time the door had opened and the X-Men found their elders waiting for them. Ororo already had a medical bag ready and waiting, motioning her nephew Evan over to her immediately. It was a testament to how sore he was that he didn't even protest and went over to her willingly. As Ororo looked over her nephew, the rest of the X-Men moved to stand before Charles and Logan. Charles smiled, a little sadly, yet mostly kindly. "And what have you all learned from this experience?"

Jean answered crisply, "To always remember there is room for growth, and to never underestimate someone just because they don't have a mutant power. Scruffy over there..."

"Oh now you're just being mean.", Harry mock pouted. "I can't do anything about my hair. It's a family trait for it to be messy."

Jean pointedly ignored the interruption. "...took us apart slower but just as certainly when he wasn't using his powers but was using regular military equipment and was ready for us."

Scott nodded eager to show he understood the lesson, too. "We also were far too overconfident and went in assuming the enemy wouldn't have a plan of his own."

Harry spoke up again, his voice serious as he pointed at Kitty. "You also didn't listen to your teammates contributions. I'm not saying it would have made much of a difference, but you would have been a little better prepared to handle the surprises I sprang on you in the second match. A good leader doesn't make all the decisions himself without any input old boy, you have to learn to work with and take the advice of other people."

Scott frowned, feeling like he was under attack for a moment but nodded, slumping a little as he realized most of the problems they had run into he made through his assumptions. He vowed to get better while the others added their own opinions.

Charles smiled as they all seemed to have gotten the correct message. "Well in that case, I believe everyone has learned from this exercise. Now, once everyone has had some medical attention I believe we can introduce Harry to you all formally and vice versa." The youngsters nodded, marching off to the medical wing, with Ororo following helping Evan along.

Eventually, the medical programs determined that other than Kitty, Jean, and Evan none of the students had anything wrong with them that a few hours rest wouldn't cure. They'd be sore for a few days and taking oodles of pain killers, but there was nothing to be done about that. Kitty, despite still dealing with a bit of electricity in her system from the second round bounced around excitedly. "So what do you think of the new guy?"

Rogue shrugged. "Ah think he's powerful, but a little loopy. Ah wouldn't want tah fight him for real though, the way he took us apart in the second and third matches was kind of scary."

Scott shrugged. "I think if we had been able to have some more time to recover, we could have beaten him either time though I won't deny he's skilled and his magic is hard to counter."

Jean rolled her eyes, the bruises and burns on her chest and stomach bothering her more than she wanted anyone to know. She sat behind a partition so the others couldn't see her as Ororo put some burn cream on her stomach and chest. "I doubt it. He was basically toying with us the entire time. He could have taken us out easily at any point. And our team reactions sucked, every time we were surprised, we acted as individuals instead of a team. We'll need to work on that." Scott ignored the first half of what she said, but nodded firmly with the last part.

Once Evan was comfortable in the hospital rooms bed, the others followed Charles back out to the living room. Ororo opted to stay with her nephew for a bit. They found Logan and Harry there, sharing a beer. Well, Logan was drinking a beer, Harry was sipping from a glass of whiskey. Charles frowned at that. "I would prefer you not to drink in front of my charges, Harry, especially since you are so young yourself."

Harry waved away his concern. "I'm twenty one so I'm legal here in the colonies, old boy, and in Britain the legal age of drinking is 18."

Charles shook his head resignedly. "Well then, Harry, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Harry nodded and looked over at the others. He gave them a brief overview of his life, as well as explaining how he got into the Negative Zone, and back out.

Rogue and the others all gasped at his knowing the Fantastic Four, though the girls were more interested in Harry knowing the Invisible Woman than the others. "Do you think you could get us their autograph?" Rogue and Kitty stammered then Kitty elaborated. "Especially Susan Richards, she's like our idol, with how strong she is but also keeping her, y'know identity as a woman."

Harry laughed at that but refused to make any promises. After another hour of discussion as the kids introduced themselves and told their own stories about how they had found out about their powers, Harry had a good idea about all their personalities and how best to start teaching them tactics and strategy, as well as how best to use their powers. After a little longer, Charles clapped his hands. "Alright, as it is a Tuesday, it is a school night and as such the kids at least need to get to bed. Logan, could you show Harry to his room please?" Logan grunted an affirmative.

Harry nodded then looked seriously at the kids. "For your first assignment from me, I want an After Action Report from all of you detailing your mistakes and what you could have done differently in our matches. Get it to me by Friday, and we'll go over it individually on Saturday before a team exercise."

The kids groaned while Ororo and the other adults looked at him in surprise, but Harry merely shrugged. "What, did you think this would all be hands on learning? Part of getting better is analyzing your mistakes and AAR's are good for that. I won't assign them often, but I may have you do some reading, and a lot of studying about modern weaponry and tactics."

Charles smiled inwardly, more than happy with the way Harry was handling the students. "I agree, that sounds like an excellent idea." The kids grumbled but nodded and everyone dispersed for the evening.

Logan showed Harry his room on the third floor, which was designated the teacher's floor then entered his own room across the hall. Ororo's was down the hall at the end across from her large arboretum, and Charles had his own room by the stairs with its own elevator to accommodate his disability.

The room itself wasn't quite as large as his room at Potter Place, but was more than enough space for his needs. He set his laptop on the desk by the wall and lay down on the queen size bed, stretching luxuriantly. Charles scored a few points in the 'trust' column today, letting me smack those kids around a bit shows he cares about their training, and that he's alright with training to fight to kill if need be. The kids were a little arrogant at first, but a few more sessions like today's will hammer that right out of them. It'll be interesting to see if they all pick up on their most glaring weaknesses, but we'll see. I wonder about who they've been fighting though, certainly from the way they talked they weren't taking them seriously, so maybe it's just another group of kids? Oh well, I'll find out eventually. Have to figure out how to dump some gold soon though, I don't want to be dependent on Xavier no matter how much I agree with his dream for the future. That was his last thought before he turned his light off and fell asleep.

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