Chapter 14: Fiddly Bits

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Tony Stark hadn't had a good night's sleep ever since his kidnapping. Despite what he told other people however, it was not just the fact that the marines with him died by weapons Tony had designed. No, it was also the fact that his fellow prisoner had died to give Tony the time he needed to complete his armor's start up. Yinsen, a man who Tony thought had everything to live for if he could escape had instead laid down his life so that Tony could get away. That was enough to give anyone nightmares. In a man like Tony, who thought himself powerful and always in command of everything around him, and who had come closer to Yinsen in a short amount of time than he ever did to most people, breaking the barriers he kept around himself most of the time, it was even worse.

To get away from his nightmares Tony routinely woke up early, the better to get back to work on his Iron Man suit. Today however he had meant to try and sleep in, but that wasn't going to happen.

"Clang, clang, rattle and bang I'm gonna make my noise all day! Clang, clang, rattle and bang I'm gonna make my noise all day!" The sudden cacophony of the children's play song was accompanied by several loud clangs and, yes, bangs in the background like iron pots being smashed together.

Tony jolted out of bed at the noise, falling to the floor in a heap, his bed sheet twisted around him. He slumped against the side of the bed, grabbing a pillow before stuffing it over his head in a futile attempt to block out the noise. This failed and after a moment the 'song' actually got louder, if that were possible.

His conscious mind finally came online and he figured out that the noise was coming from somewhere else in his Malibu condo but what the hell it could be eluded him. "JARVIS, what the hell is that?" Even as he asked that question Tony thanked god that he hadn't had too much to drink last night, if he had this would be a form of torture rather than merely unpleasant.

For some reason his personal house AI (though no one but Tony knew he was almost a full AI, Tony really didn't want to deal with the flak he would get from creating him) took a moment to answer. And when it did the AI seemed puzzled, and almost, well if he was a human Tony would have said he was frazzled, almost jittery. "Sir… I am at a loss as to how such a thing is possible but the noise is coming from the piece of paper you came home with last night. Yet paper has no faculty to create noise, certainly not like this, there is no energy reading I can get off the piece of paper, but it has also somehow changed color. It is patently impossible but there is no doubt the noise is emanating from the paper. The… the complete impossibility of it is affecting my response algorithms."

Tony cursed, if the AI was admitting to that he was close to the programming equivalent of a nervous breakdown. "Hibernate for now JARVIS, I'll deal with it, get yourself together and then come back online."

"Affirmative sir," JARVIS's voice was definitely grateful as he went into the equivalent of a healing hibernation which would allow it to process whatever had bothered it at over a hundred times the speed a human could follow.

Tony got up, using the pillow to cover his ears until he could grab up a large pair of noise cancelling headphones by his stereo system. The headphones helped a lot, and he made his way downstairs from his second story bedroom into the basement, opening up the windows on the way.

Sure enough the paper was the source of the noise, the noise rising as he neared it to the point where his headphones could no longer block it all out. As he closed in Tony could see that the paper had indeed changed color from a bland white paper to an almost angry red. He wondered how the hell that had happened, but right now he was more interested in getting rid of the damn thing. Whatever the thing was, however the piece of paper was doing it, he needed to get it the hell out of his house until he had his morning caffeine and was able to think better.

Tony grabbed the paper up gingerly with a set of pliers then carried it up the stairs, holding it as far away from his body as possible.

The moment he came out of the stairwell into the light of day coming in from the main floor's window the noise stopped abruptly. Tony gaped down at the piece of paper, watching as it changed back from angry red to its normal bland cream color. Then his jaw almost dropped as the words of the message he read last night disappeared into the page and a new message appeared. "'Did I get your attention?' Oh, whoever came up with this is going to pay. I don't care why…" Tony mumbled,

Tony trailed off as the message changed again, this time to an actual message rather than a not-at-all funny header. "Ask yourselves these questions Mr. Stark: Who would benefit the most internally from you being out of the way? And who would have access to your weapons?"

The charms Harry had placed on the 'simple' piece of paper were many. Though each alone was simple, the total created a effect like a timed Howler coupled with a secret message that could only be read in the light of day. The total impact was enough to hopefully grab Tony's attention and tell him someone very powerful with very odd abilities was trying to tell him something.

Harry had felt that Tony was the sort of person who would respond better to a gentle prod like this coupled with a mystery then someone simply telling him Obadiah had turned on him without physical proof, and in that he was correct. The odd and rather obnoxious delivery piqued Tony's interest, and the message was just vague enough to grab his attention without making him think he was being led around by the nose.

He sat down in one of his sofas, thoughtfully staring down at the piece of paper, his headphones hanging from one hand until he heard the telltale beep and hum from the speaker system that told him JARVIS was coming back online. "Feeling better JARVIS?"

"Quite sir, I still am unable to rationalize what my sensors told me about the piece of paper, but am able to… deal with its existence."

"Fine by me. Tell me, can you break into Stark Industries mainframe from here, or do we have to form a physical connection for you to overcome the companies firewalls? I've got a feeling we're going to find something there, I'm not quite sure what just yet but something." He would soon be proven correct in this regard.

OOOOOOO

Ever since she'd bonded to the shard of the Eternal Phoenix inside her Jean had become an early riser, and Sundays were no exception. Shaking her head slowly from side to side Jean decided her hangover was slightly better than the first time, but she vowed again to not do this to herself again.

Ironically enough this time she would succeed in that vow. Indeed Emma would make the same one, and other than developing a taste for different spirits (wine in Emma's case, and strawberry daiquiris in Jean's) they would never drink to excess again.

The first thing that Jean saw upon opening her eyes was her friend's head leaning against her shoulder, their arms around one another. The second thing the redhead saw was a small glass vial on the bed table beside her, with the label 'anti-hangover potion, for oh so good little girls'. Grabbing it with her free hand she downed it quickly then waited for it to kick in.

After that Jean gingerly moved out from under Emma and, with a fond glance at her friend, stood up and pulled on a big t-shirt and panties before going out in search of food.

She found Harry working at the suite's small kitchenette. He was wearing a pair of loose exercise shorts and a apron but no shirt underneath it and by the smell of it he was making something delicious. "Mmmmm, that smells good Harry."

Harry turned to her and looked her up and down. Jean was wearing a large but not loose t-shirt which was tight across her chest that fell down to her thighs, her long, toned legs visible in all their glory. Her eyes were bright, her lips still looked mildly bruised from the amount of kissing they had done the night before, and her hair was a wild mane of red locks sticking out every which way.

To Harry she looked simply glorious. Now that they were together and he didn't have to hide it he let his desire for her show, and Jean found herself flushing under his eyes. "You look good Jean."

The young woman shivered at the amount of love he could put into saying her name. She moved over to him as he turned back to his work, smiling happily at seeing him working on several types of pancakes including blueberry flavored, her absolute favorite morning food. She leaned her head against his shoulder for a few moments while he flipped the pancakes, sighing contentedly. "A part of me still thinks this is a dream or something, you know?"

Harry smirked then suddenly turned. Jean's eyes widened but before she could do anything Harry's lips found hers, and despite her surprise Jean returned the gesture eagerly. The two kissed for some time. Eventually Harry discarded the utensils he had been using, his arms going around her.

Moaning, Jean opened her mouth, and Harry eagerly took the invitation, sliding his own tongue along hers into her mouth, twinning around one another. Jean's arms went around him, one hand grabbing his rear while the other buried itself in his hair. The hand on his bum squeezed a little.

In response Harry's own hands moved from grabbing the back of her large t-shirt down to her rear. Once there he fondled her butt for a moment, eliciting a squeak from the redhead, then he lifted her up into the air. Jean automatically wrapped her legs around his waist, and Harry moved backwards carrying her until they bumped into the small bar that separated the kitchenette from the rest of the seating area of the suite.

There Harry let her go, but Jean kept her legs wrapped around him even as she moved away from the kiss, looking at him through slightly glazed eyes. Harry moved his mouth down over her chin, kissing at her neck as he murmured "Does this feel real enough my love?"

The redhead moaned slightly, humping up against him, giddily feeling the physical reaction she had evoked. "Careful Harry, or you'll start a fire you'll never be able to quench."

Harry laughed throatily at the somewhat cheesy yet descriptive line moving his lips from her jugular up the side of her neck to her ears, responding in like kind. "I don't want to put your fire out my love I want to add fuel to it."

His words caused a gurgle of laughter to well up inside her but the feel of his breath on her ear caused Jean to moan again. Harry began to work on her ear in earnest, then pulled back as a feminine chuckle came from behind them.

Ororo stood there, one hand raised to cover her mouth failing to control her chuckles. She stood there in plain white panties and a white exercise bra covered by a silver silk camisole, open to show off her toned stomach. This did nothing to hide her milk chocolate colored legs, that despite not being as toned all the way down as Jean's were still powerful and of course very enticing. Her hair like Jean's was frazzled, and there were several slightly darker patches along her neck and shoulders from hickies Harry had given her the evening before. Ororo's cerulean eyes gleamed with humor, and her lovers returned her smile.

Harry reluctantly moved away from Jean, kissing her one last time before turning back to the batch of pancakes he was making just in time to keep them from burning. Nessy had popped in with the ingredients and been rather miffed that Harry had insisted on cooking again. She consoled herself by popping back to New York and then cooking a early brunch for the teens there, much to the happiness of all of them since Charles had yet to bring in a live-in maid/cook.

Standing up Jean moved over to Ororo holding her arms out for a hug. The older woman returned the gesture then surprised the redhead, by kissing her on the lips.

Almost immediately Jean returned it, feeling nothing but love and affection for her friend mirroring her feelings for Harry. Yet despite the fact her feelings for the two were almost the same, their kisses were extremely different. Even as most of her became lost in kissing Ororo, a small portion of Jean's mind compared the kissing technique of the three people she had kissed in the last twenty-four hours.

Emma's kiss had been rather sloppy, probably because of how sloshed the pair of them had been last night, and even sloshed Jean hadn't put nearly as much effort and emotion into it as she did kissing Harry and Ororo. That wasn't to say it wasn't nice, just that despite their friendship Jean couldn't say she loved Emma like she did Harry and Ororo. Emma hadn't used much tongue, and she had tasted of, well peach schnapps and mint actually.

In contrast Harry had apparently brushed his teeth before starting on breakfast. His lips were smaller, firmer, as was his kiss, not demanding or controlling but more… masculine, somehow dominating the kiss without making it anything but loving. When they kissed open-mouthed he used his tongue very skillfully, and had been able to drag the most amazing feelings from her just by kissing her.

The two women had almost immediately deepened their kiss, and now their tongues were twirling around one another, moving from the younger girl's mouth into the African woman's randomly. Ororo's lips were soft against Jean's, her tongue was thinner yet somehow slightly rougher in texture than Harry's, dancing around Jean's and while the kiss was softer, it was just as loving.

The feel of Ororo's body against her own was amazing, and Jean only very reluctantly pulled back, burying her face against the older woman's collarbone sighing contently. "I love you windrider."

Ororo nuzzled the slightly shorter woman's hair sighing contentedly. "And I you firebird." The two turned to look at Harry and Ororo waved one of her hands in the air languidly. "What are you doing boy, breakfast won't make itself."

The little act going on between his ladies had of course grabbed Harry's attention from the meal he was preparing. He looked back at the two now with wide eyes, reaching down to do some necessary rearranging in his shorts. "You two are ruddy evil, you know that?"

The two ladies chuckled, and remained cuddled together watching their man go back to finishing the pancakes he had made then moved in to help get out plates, drinks and utensils, opening the door to the balcony. Both women sighed happily, Ororo for feeling the air on her face and Jean as she felt the sun's rays on her. The two looked at one another, laughed and exchanged another hug before sitting down.

From her place on the railing Hedwig hooted amusement then flapped her way over to the table when she saw her human bringing out her just due. She had always known her Harry was an alpha, and it was good he had found such powerful mates.

Harry had made three pancakes each and several types of syrup thanks to the ingredients Nessy had brought along with bowls of mixed fruit and of course bacon for Hedwig. As the ladies sat down Harry returned to the kitchen to turn on the coffee machine, warming the water up and preparing some ready mix with a bit of an addition in the form of ground cinnamon.

The trio sat down to seat in convivial silence, enjoying the morning breeze and the scent of the ocean. The silence was broken about ten minutes later by a creaking sort of voice coming from inside from the room Jean had spent the night in. "Coffeeeee…"

Harry laughed gently and waved his hands aiming a few fingers aiming back into suite and then to the kitchen. A moment Later Jean, who was sitting closest to the doorway into the penthouse suite, saw a large mug floating out of the kitchen toward the room from which the sound had originated.

With that taken care of Harry turned back, smiling warmly at Jean. "Before Emma joins us I wanted to ask, do you want to go on a date sometime? Since we're together I mean, and I've taken Ororo on several…"

Jean chuckled, thought then shook her head regretfully. "I'd like to, but I think it would be better to hold off on anything like that for this week at least. Frankly I haven't had much time lately for one reason or another to study for my finals. Most of them I'm not worried about, but I want to smash them out of the ballpark." Harry looked blank at the baseball reference and Jean rolled her eyes. "I mean I want to ace them all."

Jean also knew she was one of the top five candidates to be valedictorian this year, and might have to come up with a speech of some kind. Ugh, she thought, that is a question. What to say to the sheeple, point out their sheep-like nature, demand they aspire to something better, or simply say screw you, you tried to pull me down to your level, now you have to watch me become all I can be? Decisions, decisions…

"Plus we've got so many projects we should be working on, I doubt any of us will have any energy to spend on anything else." Jean finished.

Harry nodded. "I get you, just don't think you're spending all your time working this week. You're right we've got our own projects to work on, but I'll be damned if I let my new girlfriend disappear into her work right after we get together." Ororo nodded firmly in agreement.

Jean chuckled again by which point the walking dead had arisen and made her way out of her room toward where she dimly heard the low murmur of voices.

Emma's wince as she came out onto the balcony in the sun had nothing to do with a hangover. Much like Jean, Emma had taken her potion like a good little girl, but unlike Jean, Emma was in no way a morning person. Despite her already incredible beauty, Emma needed her beauty sleep, a solid eight hours every night before she could really feel human. At home or abroad she usually had a maid with her that would bring her a few cups of morning coffee to get her going if she had to wake up before noon.

This was shown in her rather haphazard appearance. Even Jean hadn't seen her this bad, since after their sleepover at the mansion Emma had been the first one to somewhat recover from the previous evening. Now Emma's blond hair was fine on one side, but the other looked as if a giant animal of some sort had come along to give her the world's biggest cowlick, sticking straight up in a clump. Her dress from the evening before was gone, replaced by white panties and a bra that covered everything, both of which seemed made more of lace than anything else and almost see through. Her eyes looked barely aware, narrowed and drooping.

Her three guests were tempted to laugh at her appearance but decided not to. Instead Harry waved a hand, conjuring a bathrobe around the blond woman, looking away until Jean reached up and closed it around her friends waist, chuckling as she did.

Emma plunked herself down in the free chair facing Harry, and continued to glug at the coffee staring ahead of her. She didn't interact with the world around her at all for several minutes while the trio continued to converse in quiet tones around her.

The blonde woman kept sipping, only noticing that something odd was wrong with her mug when was able to concentrate enough to see that there seemed to be just as much in it now as when she began. The equivalent of three normal cups of coffee later, her normal amount before she really felt human, she finally looked up at the others.

Jean smiled sympathetically, having been a coffee user before her mental blocks were removed. Harry simply nodded at her, having used coffee often enough when he was younger, while Ororo, who had never touched the foul tasting stuff, simply smiled pleasantly.

After another moment she noticed that her cup had refilled again from the half it had been. "I know I've said this before Harry, but you are a most useful person to have around."

Harry smirked. The charm was an easy one to learn, though it had to be redone every few hours. It was the same spell that had been on the tables in the dining hall back in old Hogwarts that let the house-elves send up the food without going in person. "No worries Emma."

Then he became serious. "I think the little message I left Stark should have gone into effect this morning. Unless you think we should keep an eye on things here or further influence Tony I'm done here for now. Though if you have any information about him I'd like to look at it. I have to say he wasn't what I expected, and I'd like to see what he's come up with in the past to see if I can predict what he'll come up with in the future."

Emma nodded and looked over at Jean. "There is a black suitcase by the sofa inside, be a dear and get that for me would you?"

Jean mock scowled at her. "Yes mistress, at once mistress." She concentrated for a brief moment and a telekinetic tendril shot out from one of her hands through the open door into the interior of the penthouse.

Her blonde friend smirked back at her. "Say it with a smile, slave girl. MMmmm… you wearing one of those harem slave girl outfits…."

Laughter went around the table at Jean's flushing face though she noticed that Harry seemed to have a faraway look in his eyes. When he spoke he confirmed where his mind had gone. "I think she'd look better in a Princess Leia outfit personally. Or maybe a Red Sonja outfit, you've got the hair and figure for it certainly."

Ororo laughed then plucked the suitcase out of the air when Jean lost control of her power for a moment due to her monstrous blush and the fact that her own imagination was easily able to follow where such a role-play could lead, with Harry playing the part of Han Solo. Jean tried to change the subject asking "So what do you think will happen, will Stark take our warning seriously?"

"Given the odd manner it was delivered almost certainly, his curiosity will have been aroused, and the message will hit with much more impact that way." Emma responded assertively, having come up with the plan last night with Harry, though how Harry went about leaving his message was a mystery to her.

She dug into the plate of pancakes, moaning happily at the peaches and maple syrup. "MMmm.. a very useful person Harry. Anyway, I imagine he'll start to pull apart the company starting from the top. I don't know if he'll believe Obadiah is after his head, but we'll see. I would give it a 90% chance of finding some incriminating evidence and a 60% chance that he will believe it and move against Stane. I think we can trust him to take the man out on his own. If he's smart about, I.E. if he follows Ms. Pott's advice, he should be able to surprise Obadiah and put him away with little trouble."

"Unfortunately," Emma went on more pensively, "If he finds enough evidence to state unequivocally that Stane was working against him, the man's stocks in the company may be forfeit to Stark. That would give him a controlling interest in the company, a 67% controlling stock to be precise if he can find all the stock Stane has scattered under assumed names. If he can't it might only be 52% but that would still be a controlling interest. That would remove our ability to influence him, marginalizing our power as stockholders. I would have to see a copy of the man's contract with the company, as well as the original agreement that gave him his original stock from Howard Stark to be certain of that however. I believe it was originally done to curb Tony's enthusiasm, but I don't know the exact wording."

Harry hummed to himself as he opened up the briefcase and began to go through the reams of paper inside, opening the one on top and beginning to read. "Well, there are a lot of things I'd like to see Stark Industries build for me, but in the end there are other ways to get… What the FUCK!"

They all looked up at him in surprise and he waved one packet of papers in the air. "He developed a fracking AI?!"

Emma shook her head. "No, JARVIS isn't a real AI, as I understand the term. That was from the first report about it which is rather not well done, the others that are part of that packet gives more detail. The program doesn't have any self-awareness and cannot act without orders, though it can react to user generated stimuli at a very high level. Trust me, if Stark did create an AI he would have probably been lynched soon after. To the staunch Christians and Muslims that would be creationism I think, and to the government and other groups even if he programmed it with, what are they called… Asimov's three laws?"

The weather goddess shrugged, never having read much in the way of fiction, while Jean nodded. She on the other hand always loved science fiction, anything that had to do with space travel in particular. Emma went on at her nod. "Even if he did that, the thing would be too dangerous since the three laws are fundamentally flawed anyway."

"Take them to the logical conclusion, and robots programmed with them might conclude that to follow the three rules they have to conquer humanity and take over all our decision making because we, as humans are inherently illogical and dangerous to ourselves and one another." Jean replied, shivering a little. "Brrr, Skynet and terminators, we've got enough problems with other humans, we so do not need machines added to the mix."

"Exactly," Emma nodded, finishing the last bite of her pancakes. "JARVIS is just an extremely advanced computer, with a monstrous amount of interaction software that can allow it to seemingly mimic actual responses, but that's all."

Harry frowned, but honestly didn't know enough about programming or AI's to understand the difference. Still, if he came up with the programming once, he can do it again, or has a copy of the program somewhere. I was wondering how I was going to find someone who could run a space sensor that could cover all of earth orbit and beyond, and here we are. And if I can replicate it, and if his robotics technology is as good as it seems to be…. Harry shook his head, dispelling those thoughts for now. One step at a time Potter, I've got to have a strong foundation before moving on to the next phase. Walk before you run, damn it. "Well still, that is a fascinating and possibly useful bit of programming." With that he went back to reading the information Emma and her family's corporation had gathered on Tony Stark.

The blonde across from him watched him for a moment then turned to Ororo. "So, exactly how many doctors were there when Harry showcased his potions? How many countries were represented?"

Ororo frowned thoughtfully while trying to remember. "About six different countries I think, and about fifteen or so doctors and nurses?"

"Oh my," Emma breathed, "that is just lovely. Oh, but before I forget, who exactly were you lot fighting in London? Harry never said."

Jean and Ororo took turns replying to that while Emma frowned, not asking any questions as she listened. She had heard of Selene from her father as part of her initial briefing on the Hellfire Club. She had been known as the Black Queen, but had no relation to Shaw, and for some reason had not needed to follow the chauvinistic rules of the Inner Circle. From what little she had been able to get out of Winston, Selene had somehow forced her way into the Inner Circle without any of the ceremonial chauvinistic red tape bullshit Emma had to deal with when she first joined. Reading between the lines she had gotten the impression the woman scared her father, and possibly both of the other kings. What was more Emma got the impression it was a physical threat, not a financial one.

"I have heard of this Selene woman in connection to the Hellfire Club. I have also heard of Steed and one or two others in connection to the London Hellfire Club. Selene must have used the club's auspices to spread and hide her growing influence. I wonder if the Crown will seize their assets, shut down the club or what?" In point of fact that very question was being discussed at the highest levels of the British government, but a decision had yet to be reached.

Ororo and Jean both shrugged unconcern, then Jean glanced up at the sky before getting up to check the time. When she came back, Harry had finished reading through the information about Tony, and was leaning back, his eyes closed while he digested the information.

The information had confirmed several things for him. For one thing Tony was not a businessman. He let the day to day nuts and bolts to other people. After he took over the company, while Stark Industries aggressively expanded its number of weapons it made no aggressive moves against other companies, merely expanding its own holdings without actually taking action against other companies. Yet at the same time, nearly all the new weapons designs came from Tony, and they skyrocketed Stark Industries into the highest grossing company in the world.

Tony had also expanded Stark Industries into the commercial market before his near-death experience and subsequent denunciation of all weapons manufacture. SI made computers, cell phones, and TVs already, which made the man's ideas for the future something he could put out into the market much more easily. Tony had also come up with sensor devices for the medical field, as well as having literally designed the programming for his entire company's mainframe.

Yet those achievements were nothing compared to the ones he kept to himself, which Harry hadn't even considered. Several dozen automated robots that could respond to verbal orders and do anything from play the piano to put a car together? An AI, whatever Emma said, that could control all the appliances in his house including those robots? Several dozen computational upgrades that hadn't hit the open market, and it had been his work in solid state hard light projections that let Charles and whoever he employed to build the Danger Room, though it was still a very expensive setup. On top of that was the arc reactor his father had first envisioned that Tony had finished. Even if Tony hadn't created more than the first prototype it was still a major advancement in the energy market.

He looked over at Jean who had just come in after changing into a pair of tight Jeans which she tucked her large t-shirt in, thinking, One we can capitalize on since it isn't even patented by god! Why the hell didn't he patent it? That fact had actually been underlined in red in several of the reports he had just red. Emma's files say he had problems with his old man, but surely that isn't enough of a reason not to patent it? Or was it arrogance, that no one else would be able to recreate the arc reactor? Whatever the case with that and the advancements in robotics as well as the AI, I won't have to recreate the wheel when the time comes.

His thoughts were interrupted as Jean leaned down on her way back to her seat to give him a short kiss. "You were gone there for a moment love."

Harry chuckled and pulled her into a longer kiss for a moment then turned to the others. "Sorry, lost in thought. Anyway, you said you would go over what positions I needed to fill before my potions selling company was ready to go public? Should I be taking notes?" The last bit was said jokingly, but Emma nodded seriously and after a second where he looked at her a bit bemused Harry conjured up a whiteboard behind him. A second later a marker thumped down on the table between them.

The blonde woman nodded. "Good, now, where to begin. First you'll need a public relations advisor, then a commercial distribution analyst. As you're going into the medical field, you'll need to retain several doctors, both regular doctors and pharmacists. A manager of affairs…" Emma continued on and Harry willingly wrote the positions out on the whiteboard. Under each one he listed what traits to look for and what were red flags, the experience and educational level which was needed for all of them, the starting salaries he should offer, and when it came to departments the amount of funding they should each get. That part made him wince a little, since if he computed this right he would be dangerously close to running out of the gold he had brought with him to this dimension within three months. He could only hope that once he went public the money would start to pour in.

After a few moments the quartet moved inside, where the three women all sat down on the sofa, watching Harry fill in the information while Emma dictated them. Emma sat on one side of the sofa, with Jean in the middle and Ororo on the other side of the redhead.

After a few minutes Emma broke off to take a few sips from a glass of orange juice and Harry looked at the growing list of individuals needed. From the personnel director to the doctors needed, then the lawyers and the PR department and then the advertisement division. Twenty-five names all told to start with and each of them would add ten plus to each of their departments, hopefully before his company went public, then he would have to add even more especially considering the need to have reps in each country he sold to and on and on.

And this doesn't even consider my other projects, Harry thought. There's the need for teachers for the school both regular and in the use of their mutant powers. Farm hands and regular farms for food, and of course the trainers for the team I want to put together as well as the team itself. That last adds at least three. One to train them in the use of their powers, one to teach modern tactics and weaponry, and another to teach them martial arts and hand to hand. Heck, I could use that last one two.

Harry had been trained in hand to hand by the 'sport and social' trainers the Queen had assigned to him and his friends, but he knew he was barely adequate at it. It was only his insane reflexes that made him formidable in hand to hand, well that and short range spell plus the use of the sword of Gryffindor and his Magia Erebea.

He sighed and came back to the here and now looking across at Emma. "How many of these positions are universal, how many will carry over into other markets when I expand or open up new companies or whatever the wording is? I mean, the PR department can surely do that for more than one company, and Advertisement division too for that matter."

"Those two can possibly be universal, I'll show you the ones that will need different skill requirements." She did so, forcing Harry to now take notes on paper having run out of room on the whiteboard, and then went on. "And now we come to security. There is no doubt in my mind that once your potions are out in the open market they will sell for exorbitant amounts. As such your company will face a tremendous amount of corporate raiding in all its forms. I would have a security team ready to go before you go public as well as having holdings that other people can see. Distribution can be another issue, but I could offer you shipping with Frost Pharmaceuticals, I've got an excellent deal with one of the shipping magnates that handles shipping between Europe and the Americas, and our own distribution network overland is in place in both. I would be tempted to sell FP to you outright but it's really the only company my family owns that I am interested in, I was planning to get a degree in chemistry if I could." She smirked. "After all, I don't really need to get a business degree now do I?"

"Security isn't an issue," Harry mused. "There are runic arrays that can scan for lies, the issue would be having them in place in places where myself or another magic user isn't in residence to power them."

Emma stilled for a moment, then she began to breath heavily, her breath coming out in short sharp gasps as she looked at him. Idly Harry noticed that he could now see two hard points making themselves known through the bathrobe he had conjured for her. "That, why in the world are you mucking around with potions and energy?! That…. those wards, if you can get them to work without a magic user nearby to power them, they would be more profitable than… Jesus Mary and Joseph, any government would…"

"Because I have no idea how to power a ward without a magic user in attendance. I tried to do that at the X-mansion, but it didn't work, the bio energy draining aspect can't work on that wide an area." And no way in hell am I selling my runic arrays to anyone else, I don't trust governments nearly enough to give them something like that. Same with anything connected to the Orihalcum really.

"What about just a doorway or a single chair?" Ororo asked intelligently. "Say like someone sitting down in front of a desk at the single seat there? If it can take the bio-energy from the person who sits in it, and is connected to some kind of visible reaction that the person behind the desk can see…"

She was interrupted by Harry leaning over and kissing her deeply. He did so good a job she was very reluctant to let him go but eventually he pulled back, a thin trail of saliva connecting their tongues before he licked it away staring at her admirably. "That is the most brilliant and fiendish idea I have ever heard my love. That would work. It would take a bit to figure out, but it can definitely work."

Emma rubbed her legs together, mildly turned on not only by the idea of how incredible such an ability would be but also by the sight of the kiss the two had just exchanged. Jean merely looked on with a smile. After a moment Emma recovered enough to nod. "That is an excellent idea, one I would willingly go into debt to you to use if I wasn't already indebted to you."

The others all laughed, waving off that idea, and Harry and Emma continued to iron out the details of his new company. For a 5% cut of the profit, (just enough to make the connection formal) Frost Pharmaceuticals would transport Harry's potions for the first four months after he went public, after which he would take over having gotten his potions and their abilities spread to the widest group of buyers he could. Emma would also let him hire away any of her employees that wished to go without penalizing them after his company went public. Of course this alliance would benefit her and her position in the Hellfire Club as well.

At that point it was nearly twelve in the afternoon. The group had finished talking about the business end of things, and Emma was giving them a few names to look into for various positions (mostly doctors and pharmacists with a few others in the personnel department) when her cell phone, which she had left plugged in to charge before last night's party, rang. It wasn't the emergency one Stane had compromised or its replacement, but the one she used routinely.

Emma's eyebrow rose in silent query, but that was all the exterior response she allowed, her self-control shutting down while her threat began to thump in wild surmise. Jean looked up sharply at her regression, while the other two looked on in concern. "Yes, this is Emma Frost?"

"Ms. Frost, this is David Batar." David was the Frost family's chief of security. "There have been two accidents here, I think you need to get back to New York as soon as possible. Your father is dead, he apparently was sleeping with Imira Zegerisk, one of the maids. She was Ralph Zegerisk's wife, one of the regular body guard detail. Ralph found out and killed your father then was killed in turn by the other two guards. Your sister Adrienne was apparently meeting with a representative of Hammer Industries, the police are still looking into that. Their initial report says she was killed in a shoot out, but they are vague about who started it."

David didn't let any of his inner feelings about these two events show. He was a thoroughgoing professional, and didn't care to speculate about the odd timing of the two deaths, one so swiftly after the other. He had no idea how someone could have managed to plan this out, let alone carry it out, and any speculation along that line was worthless.

"The police will probably want to ask you some questions, and the family will need you here to make public statements. As you were being groomed as the next head of the family that shouldn't be an issue." No mention was made of Emma's mother, who was a literal nonentity as far as anything outside her own room and the wine cellar was concerned.

Emma nearly sighed in satisfaction and relief, but her self-control clamped down, stopping any sign of her thoughts from escaping. Her plans for Adrienne had been much less certain and more fluid than the one for her father. Emma had planted suggestions in a few random people who worked at the restaurants and stores where her sister met with the Robert Hildebrandt since their meetings had become more open. These suggestions were all one shots such as 'go out and use a radio', then 'use it' and of course 'get rid of it at a certain time', nothing permanent, nothing that would call attention to them at all. What happened after that would be predicated on how Adrienne's guards reacted.

And after Emma had caused Jeff Galloway, the bodyguard whose mental acumen had impressed her, to have an accident she knew that reaction would not be as well thought out as it should be.

The lack of control on what would actually happen had bothered Emma a little, but it seemed to have worked out. This whole incident would just look like a bad accident caused by a random event. The worst that could happen would be Adrienne's bodyguards, as the ones who began it, to come under scrutiny.

With Winston and Adrienne gone, that only left Emma's younger sister as well as their mother, neither of whom had any interest in the family business and little in the way of ability to threaten Emma. When that knowledge hit Emma it was as if a weight she had been carrying all her life, that had been there for so long she couldn't remember when it began, was gone now. For the first time in her life Emma could go home and not have to fear her family.

For now though she had to keep control. "I see. I am in LA right now, but I will be on the family's private plane heading home as soon as I am able. Prepare the entirety of the security team, I want them armed and waiting for me. If this is an attack on the whole family it could be that only my not being in New York has saved me so far. I will also have the plane searched before we take off. I should be back by seven at the latest, and I want our PR director ready by then. I'll make an initial speech, I doubt the vultures haven't heard of these events already, then we can wait until the police investigation finishes."

"Yes miss, I'll have the guards waiting for you."

Emma closed the cell phone with a click and suddenly found Harry's arms around her. "You alright?" He asked quietly.

She nodded, leaning lightly against his shoulder for a moment before straightening resolutely. "I will be." Emma looked up at Jean and Ororo's concerned faces, and shook her head dabbing at one eye, where something suspiciously like a tear made itself known for a moment. She wasn't crying for her father or sister, she was crying because, when she looked around at her friends (and potential/eventual lovers) she saw the care and concern that was normal for families, that she had never seen in her own, save in her brother Christian. "I will be. I am afraid however that we need to break this up now. Something," she looked at Harry earnestly, "has occurred, and I will need to deal with the fallout."

Harry nodded, understanding what she wasn't saying and realizing what had occurred. He wordlessly handed over a small compact mirror. "If you need to contact me, use this. Tap the glass and say 'ice queen to Marauder' and it will connect to one I have. If you need any help call me."

Emma smiled at him fondly, then returned a hug from Jean. "You've already done enough for me. Now it is time to deal with the consequences of my own actions, and soon perhaps I will be in a position to pay you back openly."

At that point the group began to slowly disband, none of them eager to split up and let Emma reenter the lion's cage but having little choice. Jean and even Ororo shared a hug with the young woman once she understood what might be going on. While she was still 'unhappy' (which was putting it mildly) with the necessity of permanently removing Winston and Adrienne, Ororo understood it was precisely that, a necessity. It wasn't simply an expedient solution, it was the only solution.

Jean was much more direct about it. She had heard stories about Adrienne and Winston, and knew how deadly they could be if left alive, and while she regretted their deaths slightly more than Emma (it wasn't hard) Jean was much more concerned about how well her friend would be able to defend herself from now on not only from their hangers-on, but also from police scrutiny. Emma had telepathically assured her that she had plans in place to help there, but that hadn't done much to assuage the redheads fears.

Harry was much more philosophical about things, not having any regrets about the deaths of the two Frosts, and knowing Emma's pride and personal ambition would not allow her to not go back and handle this as well as she could. He had given her as much aid as he could without being there in person, and she still flatly refused that level of aid.

Emma eventually stood by the door, her luggage packed and ready to go. She exchanged a kiss and a hug with Jean, then with a challenging look at Ororo shared a kiss and a hug with Harry, where she guided the wizard's hands to her rear behind her before breaking off. "I'll call you at some point every night after I'm certain I won't be observed. Till then."

With a final wave the blonde walked off leaving Harry to look at Ororo and Jean guiltily. Jean merely laughed leaving it off while Ororo shook her head, chuckling quietly at who the blonde was going to push their boundaries for a time. But Ororo was adamant that she would not join the relationship until Emma was certain of her own feelings and was able to somehow convey that certainty to Ororo and Harry.

OOOOOOO

Deep inside a hidden base in the mountains of the Andes mountain range two individuals were having a conversation. "Do we have any information on what truly happened in London?"

"No sir, not anything that I would trust. We do have reports of strange new medicines being used however. Things that could be frankly revolutionary if they are true. Unfortunately no samples have leaked, they were use onsite after the battle but their creator, who went by the appellation of Mr. Wizard has since disappeared."

"Tell our agents in London to be on the lookout for anything that can tell us where this mysterious creator came from and anything else about Mr. Wizard. Beyond his horrible naming sense obviously. If these new types of medicine are as good as they sound, they must be turned to our purpose."

"Yes sir. Hail HYDRA."

"Hail HYDRA."

OOOOOOO

After Emma left, Harry, after spending several minutes snogging the heck out of both his ladies, went up to High Note to work on some projects there and spend time with Melody. He had moved the asteroid out of its orbit over Scotland Friday, and it was in orbit above California for now, though that was subject to change. The young girl had stayed there last night after spending the day with him and Ororo walking around Yosemite National Park.

While he did this, Cory took Jean and Storm back to the mansion, popping in with them to the main hall. Jean smiled down at the little, creature ruffling his long ears affectionately. "Thank you Cory."

"It was no trouble miss." Like the other younger elves, Cory had taken Ororo's teaching to heart. On top of that he was doing what he did best . While the house elves could somehow share information about how to do different jobs, such as farming or new recipes, that didn't mean they were all as good at all of their jobs. Cory was far and away the best 'popper' of the house elves, able to 'pop' farther and while carrying greater weight than any other elf. For example Nessy would never have been able to pop from California to New York carrying anyone. Cory could have carried both women from California to Hogwarts if asked to. Going up to High note was slightly more difficult unless it was directly overhead, but not by much. In point of fact Cory was one of only four elves that could make that trip while carrying anything large. Of course all that was only because their master was so powerful but still the point stood.

Ororo smiled as well. "Yes thank you. Would you mind going up to High Note now, so Harry can relay any message through you? I know Hedwig doesn't like flying down from there."

"Yes miss, I will do that." With that, Cory popped off.

"So what are you going to be doing today?" Ororo asked Jean. She had come back here to go over the names Charles was considering for her replacement. She also wanted to see the kids and inform them of how well they had done on the last, in more ways than one, language tests she had given them.

"I'm going to take a look at Cerebro and its search criteria," Jean said promptly, "And I want to take a look at the medical center's med beds and the Danger Room. I know Harry says he might be able to recreate, what was it, the Room of Requirement, that can do something of the same sort as the Danger Room, but the med beds are a different story, and there is a lot we could do with hard-light projectors." What she would be doing with Cerebro was self-explanatory. Harry had shared with them his desires to create a school for mutants, as well as his plan to put a mixed combat team together, both of which Ororo and Jean wholeheartedly agreed with.

To do that, Harry would have to have the ability to find mutants, which Cerebro was supposed to do. "Maybe I can figure out why Cerebro doesn't work all the time, if it's just a power or technical thing."

"That would be a blessing Ms. Grey." Charles said as he rolled his way out of the sitting area toward them. "I have often wondered what the issue could be , as it certainly doesn't work all the time."

Scott and Logan came out from behind the professor, the Canadian wearing a broad smirk on his face. "Yeah it would be nice, but I gotta know, were you two and Potter involved in that little shindig that happened in London? The lack of any real information about it coming out in the news tells me it was a lot more than they're willing ta let on."

Ororo nodded. "It was a most disquieting time, but it was primarily a magical threat, and we dealt with it." Jean nodded firmly.

The young teen rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Is that all we get, come on details and why the hell didn't you call us in to help? I'm feeling a little left out here." He said the last bit in a joking tone that none of those present would ever have thought to hear from him.

"We didn't have time once the shit hit the fan, and before that only the professor would have been of any help to figure out what was going on." Jean responded, shrugging.

Logan however was sniffing the air, a faint frown on his face as he looked at Jean and Ororo. "The fuck… you both smell like Potter. What's up with that?"

Jean was saved from replying to this observation (which thankfully didn't register with the other two men for a time) from a shout from where the staircase went up to the second floor. "Ororo!" Kitty flew down the steps followed by the rest of the teens, though none of them seemed in a hurry to join the hug that Kitty was now giving Ororo.

"Hello Kitten," Ororo said, her arms going around the young teen that she saw as a younger sister. The two hadn't seen each other since Monday last week. "How have you been this week? How is school going?"

Kitty pulled back from the hug to reply. "I'm doing fine in school, I may even break a few school records on my finals, for my grade at least. Jean," she glanced over at the slightly older redhead with a smile, which was answered in kind. "Apparently is going to be a tough act to follow when I become a senior, but for now I'm pretty sure I'll ace everything. But enough about that." She glared up at Ororo in mock anger. "What the heck Ororo! You and Harry take Kurt off for two days, leaving me and the others" she added the last bit hastily, before going on "behind while Kurt goes off to enjoy the good food and sun? I could have done the ditzy thing for Teach's prank just as well as Kurt could!"

"Yeah auntie O, we could have used some fun in the sun!" Evan joined in, with Rogue and the others piling in. "Not cool at all."

Ororo laughed aloud with Jean but then shook her head. "Oh, so all of you are certain you'll get straight A's in the tests starting tomorrow?" Even Scott looked a little shifty at that though Kitty did not and Ororo directed her next words to her little sister. "Truthfully the idea of using you in that role never occurred to me Kitten. And while your acting skills might have been up to it, I doubt you would have as much fun after being able to drop your disguise."

"Truly," Jean shook her head remembering how much trouble she and Emma had run into with men hitting on them. It hadn't stopped after their discussion with Stark, in fact whenever Harry wasn't around it kept right on going. "Trust me, your apparent age would not have been any defense against some of the scum there."

"Nor was already being in a relationship," Ororo concurred. "I was hit on several times when Harry was off talking to Kurt and even before that during his time on the dance floor. If anyone at that party had hit on you Kitten I doubt I would have been able to stop myself from chastising them rather strongly." Her eyes began to change color denoting her readiness to use her power at the very idea.

Kitty giggled at her tone while Kurt nodded firm agreement. "I received many very… wrong invitations shall ve say despite me looking like high class, what is the American term, jail bait."

Okay that is a bit of an ugh dude." Evan shook his head. "But at least you got some good eats out of it after you could drop your initial disguise."

Rogue caught the slight color change in Kurt's blue face that denoted a blush and she snickered. "And p'raps a bit moah besides, huh Kurt?"

"A gentleman never kisses and tells," Kurt said primly, to much snickering from his friends.

"Besides Kitten," Ororo said putting an arm around the younger girls shoulders. "I have it on good authority that Harry plans to take all of us, that is everyone from the institute, on a trip after the graduation ceremony. Now, why don't we go over your grades from me, and then I can tell you about our day. Maybe even show you the sari I wore, I know you like that kind of thing." The last was said after indicating the small bag at Jean's feet, which held the dress and sari the two of them had worn last night.