Chapter 6: Let's Have a Little Race part 4

Regardless, this young woman had easily the most defined telepathic probe he had ever felt bar Xavier's own. Jean's in comparison was blunt with not a lot of force behind it and even the legelimencers of his former dimension like Bumblemore didn't compare. That spoke of a lot of drive, training and ability.

Emma frowned a little when the man went back to perusing his map. She was unused to being dismissed so easily, and wondered what other tricks the young man had that gave him such an air of competence and concealed power. "Come now" she said, leaning forward. "Can't you tell me a little bit about yourself? It's not often that I meet someone who can simply ignore my mental suggestions and probes."

Harry looked up and took in the view she was very consciously giving him then concentrated solely on her face, allowing her to see his appreciation there for a moment before saying blandly. "Now why would I tell a complete stranger anything about me?"

Emma cocked her head to one side letting her hair fall coquettishly down one shoulder. "My name is Emma Frost, there, we're not strangers anymore."

Harry laughed a little, then shook his head, as he leaned back in his chair. "The innocent seductress act doesn't really work for you, you know. My name's Harry Potter how do you do?"

Emma leaned back met again, smiling a little now that they had broken the ice. "I know, but sometimes it's the only card available. I might as well get used to it after all," she said the last bit a little tartly, and then blinked, not having wanted to say that aloud.

Harry frowned. The young woman didn't strike him as someone coming from a bad family or anything like that, but the frustration, anger and the little bit of fear in her words struck a chord in him. "So," he said thoughtfully "you've run into someone else who is immune to your mental powers, and who wants something you don't want to give?"

Emma sighed, she hadn't meant to let that out, after all she was interested in getting information from the young man not giving out her own. "It's a lot more complicated than that. Suffice to say however that I was here searching for a way out of it, and my father has rather neatly sewn them all up long before I got here. I've been debating with myself whether or not to simply run off, unfortunately I doubt it would work for very long. Frost Corp has a very long arm."

Harry frowned thoughtfully recognizing the name now. Frost Corp was a big name in perfumes, pharmaceuticals, and scientific instruments and had holdings in some other industries. They had literally thousands of patents to the company's name, including some of the scanners he wanted to buy. "Frost huh, I recognize the name. I don't suppose you'd be willing to barter a deal for some of your scientific scanners."

"Satisfy my curiosity and maybe," she said bluntly. She now knew with the kind of assurance that came from long trusting her instincts that the young man before her held some kind of power that could probably help her. All that remained was to convince him to do so.

Harry smirked a little, while looking at the time. It was now three in the afternoon, and that left them with four hours of sunlight, which was perfect for what he wanted to actually be doing with his day. Talking to Emma was interesting, and certainly kept him on his toes, but he wanted to be doing something a little more physical and fun. "Now if you actually had a good car, we could make a little game of this. After all I just bought a car, and the dealer said it was pretty fast. I like going fast and I'd like some time to get to know my car a little, see if he was telling the truth before heading back to the land of the ridiculous 60 mph limits."

"I have a Ferrari 458" she said laughing a little. "I could probably beat any dinky little car you have in any kind of race you could ask."

"Wow, a Ferrari 458, that's incredible. Precisely the kind of rich little girl car I thought you'd have." As Emma's eyebrows rose in amusement Harry smirked a little. "All right, let's have a little race and put your money where your mouth is. The winner gets to ask the loser for three favors or the answer to three questions, no arguments, no prevaricating, okay?"

Emma grinned, looking far less haughty and far more impish. If there was one thing she loved to do more than make money it was race. "Fine by me, I'm finished with my tea, so shall we start now?"

Harry smirked finished his own tea, stood up and led the way outside. In the little parking area right by the café Emma stopped and stared.

The car Harry was moving towards was emerald green like his eyes only a little deeper shade, it was obviously built for speed with very fine lines, little side mirrors, a very big engine at the back and it was absolutely gorgeous. "What," she said coldly, "is that?" She had the feeling she had just been duped and she didn't like it.

"That,is a Pagani Huayra," Harry answered, grinning a little.

"A Huayra, as in one of the newest, fastest cars in the world," she said softly, knowing now she had been tricked.

"Yep, isn't she pretty?"

Emma growled but went over to her own Ferrari 458. Suddenly her certain victory wasn't looking so certain.

On a nearby rooftop a man wearing a skull mask, blue spandex and an orange cloak was watching this with amusement. On his back he had a quiver of arrows, on one arm he wore a shield and at his waist rested a sword and a short bow. He spoke into a walkie-talkie saying, "Keep an eye on them for now; we'll have a much easier time taking her outside the city somewhere. Wait until they're far enough away and as alone as possible before we move in, understand?"

He received three affirmatives, and jumped off the building toward his own car. Of course, given how fast the two punk's cars were, he and his associates would have a devil of a time keeping up with them, but that didn't matter. They would have to stop eventually, and the tracker he had put on Emma Frost's car earlier that day would enable them to track them down easily.

Taskmaster was much more of an assassin and trainer than a kidnapper, but the money he would get from some of the Frost family's enemies would let him retire from active duty and open up his training school for criminals that he had been planning for a few years now. Much easier, safer and more profitable than actually being out in the field. What his three associates would do with their pay was something he didn't care about.

The two young people stopped at a gas station right outside of Bern off one of the countries highways to fill their tanks and mark out their route. Emma, who of course had been around here before marked down a route to take down into Italy the halfway point of which would be the city of Devos. "The hotels in Devos are magnificent, and have very secure parking areas which would be good for us in particular. After that the road from Devos down into Italy this way is one of the best in the world if we end up running into too much traffic between here and Devos to make it really a race." Emma was of course covering her bases here. While she might not like being a Frost, she still was one, and just like the rest of them she hated to lose.

Harry nodded. "I shall be guided in this by you fair lady, though the traffic should be a part of any race, after all that will make it more exciting. Are you ready to go?"

Emma nodded looking a little amused by the older boys bravado. "And what about any policemen that see us?"

Harry smirked a little. "I don't feel like dealing with them, so I think we'll just ignore them. I assume you can do your trick from the café for yourself, and I have my own equivalent so…" Emma laughed and nodded, and the two got back into their supercars. As soon as they pulled out onto the main road the race began

Almost immediately it was clear the Huayra had a far more powerful engine. The 458 had a V8, the Huayra had a v-12 turbo, and Harry began to pull ahead, but Emma had tweaked her own car by adding turbo and other things well enough that she was able to keep within shouting distance. She also made up some time on the curves and in traffic, though not nearly as much as she had expected. "I really need to learn the specs of that car, it's amazing!" She laughed, and gunned her Ferrari further, the air coming in from her open windows swirling her blond hair around her head.

Harry too was having a lot of fun. The two were dodging in and out of traffic, pulling further and further away from the city, and they hadn't even really been able to open up their engines due to the traffic. As soon as they hit a good speed, normally around 70 mph, they would hit traffic and had to slow down again, and even as he realized this it happened yet again, allowing Emma to stay on his tail.

In an attempt to put some distance between them he changed from one lane to another to avoid a truck, then swiftly ducked back in to his original lane to avoid another one, and sped on. "This is almost as fun as playing Quidditch, the only thing missing is people trying to bludgeon me to death!"

Emma followed him swiftly, showing her normal lack of concern for her own safety when driving her car. Her parents always castigated her severely about it, not because of concern for her own well being but because of the bad PR their daughter being in car accident would give their family. But she'd never been in an accident, and she wasn't going to be in one now.

This was a trick she had learned early on with her telepathic powers, the ability to pinpoint minds around her, and predict what the owner of those minds would be doing in the near future. This allowed her to prepare for the actions of the other drivers around her, which in turn allowed her to react to them far better than anyone else. More she could send out a sort of radar pulse to read the territory around them and predict changes in the road, turns and any problems ahead of her. It had never failed her yet, and it was the only reason she was able to keep up with Harry, who didn't have that ability.

She swerved around one truck dodged into the other lane, then back in front of the truck and then did the same thing again to several cars that were going far too slowly in her opinion, than was right behind Harry again.

The further and further they got away from the city, the less traffic there was, and the two super-cars were finally able to really open up about an hour into the race. Emma pulled even with Harry at that point, but that was the last time they were neck and neck. Harry's car was simply that much better than hers, and his reflexes were utterly insane, almost able to match the knowledge her powers could give her.

Still, she was having a hell of a lot of fun, and she hoped that that she could probably talk him into helping her anyway. The more she thought about it the more she became certain that the young man could help her, that his aura of confidence and power was the real thing. Sebastian Shaw gave off an aura like that, but in his case it was more an aura of cruel malice and ambition rather than simple power.

The race continued for several hours, but they were obliged to slow down as dusk came and they began to see signs for the city of Devos. Harry signaled they should pull into an abandoned viewing area that overlooked a magnificent view, though the edge of the area was a simple cliff with no protective fence. Emma responded by following him in.

Harry smiled as Emma got out of her car, flashing quite a bit of leg to a very appreciative audience. She smirked a little as she noticed his gaze, and then smirked even wider when he concentrated on her face as she came up to them. She could count on the digits of one hand the number of boys his age or younger that could look at her and not just see her as a sex object and it was very refreshing.

"I believe I won that," Harry said, raising one eyebrow in question.

Emma nodded. " So you did. That car is truly fantastic, and your own driving wasn't that horrible either."

"Yes well, I did learn from a former super-car test driver."

"Oh, who, was that?" she said.

"Johnny Storm actually." Harry answered flippantly, though he was looking around for some reason, his instincts were telling him something was wrong.

And that she thought gleefully, clinches it. He radiates power like a beacon, has money to burn that's obvious, knows Johnny Storm and probably the rest of the fantastic four! Even if he can't help me with my present situation, he would be a fantastic connection later on.

Their conversation was interrupted when a large truck pulled in ahead of them on the side of the road. Four men jumped out of the back, all dressed in various uniforms. One was dressed in a decent looking blue suit with green pants, though the suit looked a little too tight on him, and his tie looked like something from the late Victorian era. Another was dressed in blue spandex, a orange cape and death's mask. The third was a taller, massively ripped man with blue hair and a slight tan that wore form fitting red spandex. And the last was a man twirling a large boomerang around in his hand and wore purple spandex.

Harry just shook his head. "What is with people in this dimension and wearing spandex? Honestly, it's almost obscene."

Emma heard the 'this dimension' bit there, but decided not to comment on it just yet. "I have no idea." She said blandly, "Though if I wore it. I certainly would look better in it than these four don't you think?"

"But of course you would my dear," Harry replied, bowing grandly.

The four had by this time surrounded the two racers, and the one with the death mask on his face spoke up. "Emma Frost, you're coming with us. There's someone out there who wants quite a bit of money from your father and you are going to be the key to that. You kid, can get out of here."

"Hey now wait, a minute," said the man wearing red spandex in Italian accented English. "That car of his is fantastic, let's take that with us too. And don't you worry honey, we'll take goooood care of you." He leered at Emma who merely rolled her eyes.

The man in the suit nodded, looking her over and smiling lasciviously. "Indeed, after all, our employer wanted to cause the Frost family pain. Kidnapping is only one way to do that, humiliation is another, isn't that right Taskmaster?"

"Hey," the guy in purple said sharply, his voice carrying a distinct Aussie twang. "I didn't sign up for any shit like that, let's keep this clean."

"Boomerang's right," said taskmaster sharply. "Keep on task Unus, Swan, we're not here just to get your jollies off. Let's keep this professional and not make this any more difficult than it already has to be. Now get out of here punk, before we change our mind and just dump you body somewhere."

Emma frowned and looked at Harry, who raised an eyebrow at her, his whole body tense like a spring. She nodded, indicating she could take care of herself and Harry shook his head and suddenly was holding a sword. "Yeah, that's not happening" he said calmly. "In fact I don't think that anything about this is going to be easy for you lot."

He cast a speed enhancing spell on his legs and shot forward, already conjuring up lions and other beasts out of the thin air to attack the Italian Unus while he concentrated on the one he saw as most dangerous, the one who seemed to be in charge and who was even now firing arrows from a short bow at him, the one the others identified as Taskmaster.

The one carrying a boomerang shouted "what the hell!" as Harry closed in, but Emma didn't waste time looking astonished (though inside she certainly was, that was two different powers Harry just showed) she simply lashed out with her power. A bolt of telepathic force centered around the idea, the concept and mental signal for PAIN hammered into the l minds of two of the attackers. Boomerang went down screaming in pain, out of the fight for now.

Swan however simply shrugged it off and turned to look her with a sneer. "So you are a mutant as well." He said a little coldly as he brought out his sword. "I dislike violence against young ladies of your stature, but if you do not wish to come with this peacefully. Then I have no choice. After all it is not as if I would not make our liaison as pleasurable as possible for you if you do not resist."

Emma smirked a little as the man's own power tried to get past her defenses, but it was easily beaten back and she lashed out again with her telepathic power. This time her assault was not a brute force bludgeon but a subtle illusion, making it seem as if Harry had summoned more beasts to fight him. Hundreds of such images assaulted Swan, who suddenly was no longer sneering. He began to stab out wildly with his sword at a few of the beasts as his power made some of her other illusions disappear. Emma simply laughed, slowly leading him away from where they had parked and towards the edge of the cliff the rest stop overlooked.

Behind him Taskmaster and Unus engaged Harry, the Italian's fists doing numbers on Harry's conjured animals, while he laughed madly at the beasts attempts to bother him, yet his power, the ability to create a impenetrable shield around himself, protected him from all attacks. Taskmaster too dealt with them swiftly, far more swiftly than Harry had expected, but he was fine with that. After all, they had only been designed to test his enemy's abilities.

So the one has a shield of some kind, but obviously it doesn't keep out air or else he wouldn't be able to breathe. Harry used one of his prank spells to conjure up a cloud that smelled like a full power gas attack and sent it towards the would-be rapist, and soon enough he was down and gasping for air as his eyes began to tear up.

That left Harry to engage Taskmaster, who at this point, had finished off Harry's conjured beasts and closed the range striking out at Harry with his sword. Harry deflected the first blow and the second then barely dodged the third. This guy is good he thought, but if he thinks I've run out of tricks yet he's sadly mistaken.

A brief wave of his hand brought up several hundred hands reaching out from the ground, but Taskmaster simply moved through them exceptionally quick, slicing them to pieces and blasting away at Harry with a gun he had pulled from his back, out of arrows for his short bow having spent them on some of the more dangerous conjured beasts. A quick shield spell protected Harry, but Taskmaster was once again able to close the distance and moved around the visible shield to run Harry through. Or so he thought.

The illusion that Harry had created at the same time he created his shield dissipated as Taskmaster's sword pierced it and the man's sword arm was still outstretched when the real sword of Gryffindor sliced in from behind the image. Even taken by surprise the Taskmaster was able to dodge the blow, only taking a very minor nick on the outside of his sword arm.

Taskmaster adjusted himself and came forward again, this time a knife in one hand and his sword in the other. Harry however simply backed away and then turned away completely to face Unus who had recovered by this point. Taskmaster was just about to step forward enough to run him through from behind, wondering why the hell he had turned away but not looking a gift horse in the mouth, when his knees gave out. A sudden wracking pain jolted through him, and he sagged. "P-poison," he said in shock, "There, there was poison on that blade?"

Harry looked over his shoulder as he sent out yet another air based spell at the man with the shield, but he seemed to have learned his lesson and now the shield was blocking that is well. It didn't block the blinding 'Lumos' spell that went off right in front of his face however, and the man once again fell back screaming and clawing at his eyes in agony. "Basilisk venom," he said softly to Taskmaster. "I nearly died from it when I was twelve-ish, and the only cure was the tears of a Phoenix, I truly doubt you'll find one of those around here." Eight days later remembering this line would cause Harry to bang his head against a wall as hard as he possibly could.

"This blade might not be the most dangerous blade in the world, but it sure as hell is up there, you underestimated it, and you underestimated me. When you see Death, give her my regards." Harry had no patience whatsoever for kidnappers, rapists or murderers, especially murderers/kidnappers for higher.

He walked away as Taskmaster tried to get to his feet, only to fall again, his eyes dimming over as his body shuddered and quaked around him.

The first one that Emma had taken out was almost back to his feet, when the ground underneath him rose up and ensnared him like a living wave of earth. After a second he gasped as his clothing constricted him, and then changed color into a paisley kind of thing. Harry walked up then slapping him on the shoulder. "The only reason you're still alive," He said cheerfully "is because you said you wouldn't go along with the rape idea. I suggest you get a new line of work, because I am very much a strike one sort of person. The next time I see you, you will be out." And with that Harry used 'Stupefy' on the man, knocking him unconscious.

It would take a bit of work later, but he would eventually erase all knowledge of Harry's abilities from the man's mind, or at least, Emma would once the battle ended, and Harry would install a small runic array based on intent on the man's back, that would change his hair color and make the man crap uncontrollably every time he thought of something violent, draining the man's own bio-energy to power it. Humiliation after all, was oftentimes much better than any other form of punishment. This way the man couldn't even think of violence without being humiliated, much better than simply putting him in prison and expecting him to mend his ways on his own.

Unus was back by this point, but his eyes didn't seem to be working properly. Harry wondered what would happen if he cast his own 'Protego 'on the man to cover his own shield, and did so. He walked away, and the man fell to his knees, gasping for air. He tried to break out but Harry kept the shield moving around him until he fell to his knees, lack of air having finally taken his toll. Harry made certain the man was down by using another overpowered 'Lumos' and the man didn't even twitch. Harry conjured up several more shields to surround the man, then pushed on the outermost with a 'Repulso', sending the man's entombed corpse over the edge of the cliff to get rid of the body. He would later do the same to Taskmaster after ransacking his pockets and transfiguring him into a rock. Dead beings after all were much easier to transfigure.

By this time Emma had handled the so called Black Swan. His blade was passing through the air at imaginary enemies and she had easily tied him up in knots so much that he didn't even realize she had also cast a subtle illusion on his senses that had to deal with the ground, extending the edge of the cliff just slightly. A moment later he stepped forward to put his back against the edge and fell as the ground which to his mind looked so solid wasn't in fact there at all. He tried to scramble at the edge but a sudden telepathic blast of pain rocked into his shocked mind, and his defenses crumbled. He screamed aloud reflectively clutching his head and then fell to his death screaming.

She turned to see Harry coming up and looked behind him to see one enemy seemingly having been mostly eaten by the ground wearing the most ugly outfit she had ever seen, one other dead and the other had already past her on his way off the cliff. She nodded cordially to him. "Now, where were we?" she said calmly.

Harry smirked a little at how composed she was despite the violence of the last fifteen minutes or so, and decided to see what her reaction would be to a bit of the truth. "I was going to ask you some business related questions, and hopefully make a deal with you for a few of Frost Industries patented scanning equipment. More I have a lot of gold that I need to get out into the market and I need to know the best way to do that without bringing any attention to my doings."

Emma perked up visibly at the word gold. "Tell me more."

Harry did so, estimating how much gold he had, and her smile, which had still been a little cold after watching the man called Swan fall to his death turned very bright and eager. "You know Harry," she said looping one of his arms with her own as they made their way back to their cars, "this could be the start of a lovely friendship."

Harry smiled a little and said "you know what, I think so too."

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