Chapter 28: Stronger Together part 4

If you want to help me financially, you can do it on https://www.patreon.com/NeverluckySMILE

The New York branch of the Hellfire Club wasn't certain what to make of their sole remaining King. He hadn't handed out any new rules, nor had he been seen much lately, not since Sebastian Shaw had disappeared and Edward Buckman had been arrested. For many of the lower tier members, that was all to the good, business as usual after all was very much to be preferred rather than the kind of topsy-turvy chaos that had begun after the two kings had fallen.

That feeling of complacency did not last very long on the morning of the sixth day after Jean's return. Every member of the Hellfire Club woke up that morning to find a message either waiting on their doorsteps, in their mailboxes or on their phones. Each message was the same: there was a meeting of the Hellfire Club and missing it was not an option unless they wanted to be ejected from the club. The wording was such that many of the members feared that if they did try to leave the club their dirty laundry would instantly become known to the authorities. These were successful businessmen: practically all of them had dirty laundry of one sort or another, so that thought was rather terrifying.

The only exception to that rule was Warren Warrington the third. He disdained business entirely, leaving the running of his company to his company's managers, something his father's will had enforced. Besides, he had personal issues to deal with.

Most of the members arrived promptly at the time their notes indicated, entering the club en-mass believing that numbers could possibly give them power, or at least the illusion of said. It certainly made them feel better anyway. As surprisingly did the changes they found inside.

The décor of the main room of the Hellfire Club had changed. A screen had been erected around the dance poles, most of the tables had been moved to create seven extremely long tables, turned toward a fourth far smaller table in the direct center of the room. No strippers or servers were in attendance, but the tables all had food on them and several wine bottles had been set out on the tables.

Emma Frost sat at the head of that small table while Harry stood, leaning against it next to her. Paris too was there, sitting on Emma's other side. And unseen by any, hidden behind the screen and through various magical means, the Enchantress and Jean waited. They would use their powers in various ways to make certain that the club members would either be telling the truth and be dealing honestly with Harry and his allies or be outmaneuvered.

Harry nodded cordially to the men entering, gesturing them into their seats. "Please sit anywhere you like our announcements will wait until all of you are present. I do apologize for the inconvenience."

That first batch quickly sat down, murmuring to one another as they took in how close Harry and Emma were to one another, and the smiles on Emma and Paris' faces as they talked about something. There was something going on, but it was obvious now that Emma and Harry's previous animosity towards one another might have been, if not completely fake at the very least overdone. That had big implications for the future, and more than one Hellfire Club member winced at the idea of the sole remaining King apparently being allied with the two remaining queens.

A man called Nathan Clark, a lawyer and financer who was nearly rich enough to qualify as a bishop was one of the final members of the club to arrive, and he quickly took a position nearest the main table as he could. If this discussion moved in the direction he thought it might, he was fully prepared to take advantage of it.

His thoughts were so obvious Emma caught them without even trying, and passed them on telepathically to Harry. "Nathan seems to think he's going to be named king because he's the strongest remaining candidate. Won't he be surprised? I know I was when you came up with this idea Harry."

"Seemed an obvious one to me after Doom made that inquiry to me," Harry said mildly. "The only other idea I came up with was to reach out to Tony, and frankly I still think he's a little too indiscreet and far too wild to really be a good ally." That, and Emma knew Harry still had problems with Stark still refusing to go back into the weapons industry, especially because this had allowed Hammer industries to gain all the military contracts Stark Industries had previously held.

"I suppose, though if you asked me a few years ago if I thought this was a good idea, I would've not only told you no, I would have tried to get you locked up in an insane asylum! He's one of the Terrible Trio you know the three scientists/developers every good businessman fears would enter the business market."

"I know," Harry replied complacently. "But it's still a good idea now, isn't it?"

"So long as he keeps to his word, and I have to admit that he has so far, so, reluctantly, yes. That's the last of them," she went on more brusquely, tapping one hand on the glass for her lightly, and Harry nodded at the obvious and telepathic signals.

"Gentleman," he said, "Good evening. I realize that many of you are probably feeling rather disturbed or even leery of having been so unceremoniously summoned to this meeting. For that I apologize, but considering that this meeting is about the future of the Hellfire Club, I thought it appropriate."

"You thought it appropriate to act in such a manner because you're the sole king remaining. There should never be a single king in the Hellfire Club, it says so in our charter! Either there should be no royals, or there should be a balance on the great Council!" Clarke claimed loudly, standing up quickly.

"True enough," Harry said, deflating the man somewhat. "And that is part of the reason why we are here. The other is, I have unfortunately been busy with my own businesses, but I believe it has become time to reach out and start conducting business with all of you." There was a lot of muttering at that, and Harry could almost see the gleam of avarice appear in every face in the club.

"But first, I believe it is time to introduce… call it my nominee… for the place of a King." Harry shook his head slightly as he mused, "Yet I've always found that bit of anachronism rather strange. A king should declare himself rather than be declared by others."

"In that case," said a deep sonorous voice. "It is lucky that you reached out to me is it not Mister Potter? For I am doubly a king by my own hand."

The crowd turned as one to gape at the staircase leading up to the second floor and more than one man there flinched, several even went white. Doctor Doom stood there, his cloak in one hand billowing behind him, a small goblet of wine held to his metal mask as he stared over the crowd, visibly dismissing them before locking eyes with Harry.

"Your Majesty," Mister Potter said, nodding his head slightly, not giving an inch in front of the Latverian monarch even as many in the crowd winced, expecting to see a live immolation any moment now. "Please, join this august body, give us your wisdom and your strength."

Doctor Doom allowed his eyes to roam the crowd once more, many of whom now began to get over their shock, putting his appearance here into the frame of their world views. There was more than one face among them now lighting up in avaricious eagerness, and he smirked inwardly. Fools. Yet they represent economic power, and resources. Resources for my country, more importantly resources for the countries I've annexed, and resources for Potter and his goals.

Doctor Doom move forward, smirking slightly inside his mask as he stared at one face after another, and they all bowed their heads in submission save those three at the main table. That Emma and Harry would not bow was something he had come to expect. Though he did not know Ms. Frost as well as he had come to know Ororo or Jean, he knew Potter well enough to believe that any woman involved with him would have a spine of steel.

However Paris Lourdes caught his attention. She was older than Emma, but still a beautiful woman, somewhere around Susan's age or perhaps somewhat younger Doom felt. He hadn't researched her age of course, only her financial holdings, and found them and her to be intriguing. She was a formidable businesswoman who had carved out her own empire from the ground up with an ambition and vision that he could respect. She might be rather normal in comparison to the people Doctor Doom routinely interacted with, but her accomplishments still spoke well of her, and she was attractive and spirited if her current non-reaction was anything to go by.

And the fact my mother has been on my case about ensuring the succession or rather giving her grandbabies is another factor, Doom thought to himself. If anyone had ever called him henpecked to his face Doom would have made their death a thing of nightmares before scattering their ashes across the solar system. But that didn't actually change facts…

After the swearing-in ceremony to place Doom as the new Black King, Harry smiled grimly. "Now, let's talk business…"

Working together Harry, Emma, Paris, and Doom had browbeaten and otherwise brought the entire membership of the Hellfire Club to heel by the end of the night. Not only had they overawed the members, they expanded their business holdings tremendously, if in very different ways. So great was the awe Doom had evoked, only four or five times did Amora and Jean warn them about the people they were dealing with, and it soon became clear to all that Potter, for all his liberal social platform, was a business shark on the same level of the others.

Paris had the easiest time of it. She and her companies were almost entirely self-sufficient, and her interests were far narrower than any of the other power players. She did expand her connections quite a bit, keeping a notary expert at work on various advertising deals and moving deeper into the online sector than she had previously. Those deals would make her a lot of money if PNN and her other companies could make the jump from the TV screen to the computer screen in the next few years.

Like Paris, Doctor Doom had very specific desires. Latveria was almost entirely self-sufficient, but the annexed territories he'd taken over in an effort, ostensibly, to root out the Red Skull were not, especially with their governments mostly demolished. Managing them had stretched his resources and Doctor Doom also knew there were rumblings from Russia about his recent move into Croatia. His agreements were mostly with those businessmen who owned construction companies, metal manufacturing companies, and above all companies who had shipping concerns or food distribution companies in Europe.

A lot of what he was doing was out right buying goods and services in return for providing security not only for those companies when they began to operate in his country, but outside it as well. Many a businessman there thought erroneously that this meant he would be willing to share his technology with them, but that was far from the case. Any security he provided would be by his own people, and none of them would be so foolish as to share the secrets of Doom with outsiders. Indeed, any attempts to extort them would end badly for the perpetrator.

Emma and Harry worked together a few times but for the most part went their own way. Like Paris Emma went into electronics and anything online while Harry went into factory businesses in a big way, making agreements and deals here and there so that he could use those factories the other businessman owned as if they were his own, sometimes for a bare pittance of what they were really worth. He would have preferred to keep using his own, but frankly his needs outstripped what his own factories could make several times over. He would eventually be able to meet that need, but not for several more months, which was time he, and Earth, could not afford.

What was most interesting however was how Dr. Doom and Paris seemed to hit it off. The Latverian monarch actually flirted with her a time or two, and vice versa as they moved through the crowd of businessmen like sharks through minnows. Some of the poetry he used and a few of the lines, especially one comparing her hair to that of the ancient goddess Aphrodite, were particularly good. Harry could see them having an impact from where he was looking over some of his notes by the bar as the evening wound down.

"That is interesting," Harry sent along their mental link to Emma as he watched Doom bow gallantly over Paris' hand before turning away, teleporting away with a bare pop of displaced air between one step and the next. "And I'm not just talking about his ability to teleport away like that. We might need to ask Reed for some help in putting up anti-teleport defenses."

"It was," Emma mused. "I don't think Paris is in emotional position to wants to start a new relationship just yet, but she was definitely interested in the not-so-good Doctor."

"Meh, I guess some girls go for the bad boys." Harry mentally shrugged his shoulders, before switching to verbal speech as Emma joined him. "Still, I think this was a good day. We'll start looking over the various factories tomorrow, figure out how to re-purpose them, and then start laying down more of the groundwork to build up the industry that we need, specifically droid workers. We can use our new resources to build up more infrastructure while using the force we've already built up to start work on the Ravenspires and other things."

"Agreed, but remember you're going to have to deal with an entirely new brand of parasite now Harry." Harry looked at Emma quizzically, to which she smirked slightly. "A lot of those factories have union workers, so you'll have to deal with the unions for the first time."

She laughed mentally as Harry groaned, shaking his head in dawning horror. He tried to wipe that expression off his face as Paris made her way over to them followed by Amora and Jean. He evidently did not succeed because Paris smirked at him. "What's that look for Potter, some bad news?"

"Unions," Potter replied, still groaning morosely at his surely inevitable doom at the hands of legalized cliques.

"Ahh, enough said there," Paris said with a moue of distaste appearing on her face. "I understand the necessity of unions, and in some industries they serve a purpose still. But they are really irritating to deal with even in the best of times."

"Hngh." Harry grunted shortly while Emma nodded agreement. "Back to the matter at hand, I presume you're happy with the way the evening went?"

"I am most pleased by the way this event turned out, very happy indeed, though when you first mentioned bringing in His majesty I had severe doubts about your sanity. However he was… not what I expected, and rather charming," Paris replied, a small smile on her face.

"I thought him interesting as well," Amora said contemplatively, tapping a well-manicured finger to her full lips. "He has magical powers, much more than I thought I'd find in someone who is so technologically inclined." She suddenly smirked at her friend/employer. "I wonder however, if his interest in you could survive some competition."

"I'm not that interested in him, not so soon after Edward and everything that happened there. On the other hand, watching you crash and burn because I already have his interest could be funny, oh goddess," Paris retorted archly.

Harry frowned, not making the connection for a moment as the two blondes shared sneers then began to giggle like much younger girls for a moment. Emma chuckled too, shaking her head at the all too rare moment of levity from her recently bereaved friend. "So what's next on your agenda for the next few days Paris, Amora? I have a trip to France coming up and wondered if you might join me for a day's shopping in Paris, Paris."

"I've never heard that joke before, seriously," Paris replied dryly, rolling her eyes at the pun, reminding Harry of anyone exposed to his godfather's 'Sirius' brand of humor. "As for joining you, I'm afraid not, I have work, and I'm sending Amora to talk to a few special interest groups about their reactions to the whole mutant equality question. Did you know that a law about that's coming up again in the House?"

"I did hear about that from our political expert, but special interest groups?" Jean asked, looking at Harry with a little concern for a moment as he seemed to be trying to bring something to mind.

"Religious leaders and other groups. A few priests, popes, rabbis and others who have spoken out one way or another about mutants in general. The main religions either seem split on the issue or, in the case of Islam leaning towards calling mutants abominations. In contrast the children of the Torah seem to be leaning towards making it a question of conscience rather than god, as do the Buddhists."

Amora looked a little uncomfortable talking about the various religions before smiling slightly. "But then there are some of the smaller religions, one of which, the Asatru seems to be going the other way for the most part. Hah, but getting the Kindreds to all walk in the same direction would be as impossible a task as herding cats."

"Asatru?" Jean asked, the word sounding familiar.

"Humans that have chosen to follow one or other of my fellow Asgardians, the better known ones anyway. Those who revere the Vanir more might call themselves Vanatru but the principle is the same. They ask for strength, virility etc. from them when they ask for anything at all. They tend to be a somewhat, what Americans call libertarian in nature these days. Heh, humans and your politics make for funny, if interesting, reading." Amora shrugged her shoulders carelessly, then looked over to Paris. "I called for the car already, isn't there that movie on tonight you wanted to watch?"

"Oh, yes, we should go," Paris said, brows furrowed as she looked at Harry's suddenly shocked expression before turning aside. "Um…anyway Emma, I might be able to join you for a half day, I'll call you if I can get away."

"Excellent, I hope you can," Emma said, walking with the two other blonds and talking to Paris as they made their way over to the entrance to the club's parking lot.

Jean turned to Harry, now officially worried about him. "What's got you looking so shell-shocked Harry?"

"I cannot believe I forgot Amora was an Asgardian, damn it!" Harry ran both his hands through his hair in frustration, grabbing and pulling at the bird's nest and making it even more untidy. "I could be asking her questions about, but...huh, come to think of it I've never seen her name mentioned among Vorlus' notes. Still, just because she wasn't worshipped or revered doesn't mean I can't ask her some questions about them," Harry mused, kneading his lightning bolt scar thoughtfully.

"I think if Amora knew anything about the mental blocks or whatever else the Asgardians are dealing with she would've hinted at them already," Jean said cautiously. "Besides, she might not take kindly to any questions about her past, women are sensitive about that kind of thing. And, if you want my opinion about her in general, I'd say Amora's too flighty and far too arrogant to willingly admit she or her people are under anyone's control. And, not to make too fine a point about it but we've both said before we've got enough balls in the air right now without getting involved in this one."

"I suppose you could be right, but she's a resource we might have to look into. And as to your second point, I know we do, but the Asgardians are good people, if we can help them, we should," Harry said, torn between his realization of that very fact and his Saving People Thing™.

Jean nodded wearily, recognizing that fact. "Can't argue with that I suppose, but just go slowly alright? Last thing we need is anyone burning out with all the problems we still have to deal with. Speaking of other problems, where's Ororo? I thought she was supposed to meet us here tonight."

"She's trying to hunt down a certain polarizing issue with our newest teammate," Harry laughed as Jean groaned at the pun, turning toward the exit. She and Harry were due up in High Note to talk to Carol. Busy, Busy, Busy.

OOOOOOO

In the intervening weeks since she and Irene had discovered the shipments of supplies disappearing somewhere in the ocean between Alaska and Russia, they hadn't turned up any more clues no matter what they tried. Indeed Raven was close to tearing her eyes out. And if not for Irene's presence, and Raven's desire to spend as much time as she could with her, she would have. Then at last she had found a clue which had led her to another cargo ship.

But Raven couldn't get on the ship itself. It was guarded round-the-clock by a tightknit private security team with passwords both at the entrance, and round-the-clock changing every hour. She'd been able to figure out the password to enter, listening in on it in the guise of a drunk sailor who was puking his guts out into the water of the bay (not the most pleasant disguise it must be admitted) but that was all.

Still, she'd been able to find the ship and sic Storm and Banshee on it, picking it up after the ship left port. The two flyers followed it high up in the sky for the most part but unfortunately they had to come closer than that quickly because it joined with several other ships at one point. After several days the ship split off again, nearly losing them out into the deep oceans toward Russia. After that they could follow it much more closely, the better to see when they rendezvoused with the submarine they all felt was the next leg of this pipeline.

Considering that both of them were covered by Dissilution charms and Notice-Me-Nots, Storm was certain they wouldn't be spotted, and feared if they kept their distance the ship would find some way to give them the slip. But when a blast of light which looked strangely like Cyclops optic blasts, only a far lighter and thinner, shot out towards her, Storm had cause to rethink that certainty.

"Goddess blessed!" Storm cursed, dodging to one side. Even so the beam slammed into her foot, spinning her around in midair as she switched to Arabic, cursing luridly. There really was no other language save perhaps Russian that loaned itself to cursing so much, every other language was simply unimaginative in comparison.

Could Magneto have found a wizard willing to work with him!? She thought as she righted herself. Even as she watched several crewmen rushed out onto the deck, climbing up the stacks of cargo containers and entering a few of the containers on top. All of which were set along the side facing her. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she muttered to herself, pushing herself further up into the air and away from the ship.

It was well she had, because those cargo containers quickly opened, their sides falling away and the tops retracting backwards to reveal heavy Gatling guns and even a flak cannon. "Oh joy!" A second later the air around her was filled with tracers and small puffs of shrapnel.

For a few moments it was all Storm could do to dodge the incoming fire. At the range she was at it wasn't exactly accurate, but there was so much of it!

As she dodged frantically Storm could only fire a single lightning bolt off in reply. But even that didn't help, the bolt intercepted by a second type of energy beam well away from the ship. This one was circular in nature, a series of consecutive purple rings almost like a Stupefy except for the color.

Banshee came screaming out of the air right above the ship diving down onto the flak cannons from directly above, his sonic scream shaking one of them apart and knocking its crew out. But he was nearly hit in turn by the same energy blast that had broken through Storm's spells initially and was hit by a string of Gatling gun tracers as he pulled away.

This time however Storm saw the individual who had fired that beam. He was a mutant, short of stature and wide of body who wore some kind of metal helmet covering his entire head. Beyond that he wore a purple and yellow uniform, with the purple being at the joints.

As Banshee flew up to join her just out of range of the flak cannons storm concentrated for a moment, bringing up the area of effect which was at the heart of most of the spells Gaea had taught her. With that done she sent out the magical equivalent of an EMP, shutting down the ship's electronics. It wouldn't work on pure mechanical things like the guns, but it would keep the ship from radioing anyone for help or continuing its journey.

Wincing in agony Banshee joined Storm hovering in the air several yards away from her, shaking his arm out. "Where the buggerin' hell've you people been all my life?!" Like the other Custodes uniforms, his had been modified to include small scales of Orihalcum.

"You could've joined up months ago, don't complain," Storm growled then opened up her communicator to High Note. "This is Storm, we have a situation here! Somehow the Brotherhood were able to see through my spells, we're going to need some help here!"

"Roger that," Danielle replied, having been on standby up in High Note just waiting for this call with several others. Not the entire team unfortunately, just her, Piotr and Husk.

All of the others were busy with other things. Wyatt was in the Baxter Building doing his part to keep Johnny from going crazy over worry for Crystal. Nikolai was spending time with his sister, helping her move into the X-mansion. Amara and Betsy were again down in Brazil trying to get to the bottom of where Dacosta's girlfriend had got to.

An excursion that would end badly alas. It turned out that his girlfriend had indeed died in the battle at the high school. The family moving away had simply been to stop them from asking questions without piling up more dead bodies. Roberto's mental problems would continue for some time, because he truly had wanted to simply run away from everything, hiding underneath a new persona.

"Good," Storm said crisply. "Colossus, Husk, get ready." Closing her eyes she allowed the wind to carry her along for a moment, concentrating on reaching out magically towards her two teammates in High Note directly above them. Once she found them, she opened her eyes, staring down at the ship trying to figure out where to teleport them to.

It was only when Banshee shouted "Look out lass!" That she realized she had drifted downward into the range of the anti-air cannons. She winced as a flak round exploded nearby, ducking downwards away from where they were aiming, almost heading straight down towards the ocean. "Colossus, Husk, I am sorry in advance for your rough landing!" she shouted, now concentrating instead on the air directly above the ship.

"Wait, what kind of rough…" Husk began, only to cut off, squawking in shock as she and Colossus suddenly appeared in midair about fourteen feet above the ship. They plummeted downward, and she cursed in a way that would've gotten her mother to wash her mouth out with soap.

Even the normally calm and collected Colossus shouted in shock. "Boshe Moi!"

They smashed into the ship bouncing off several of the heavy duty containers piled high up on the cargo ship. Quickly the two metal clad teens pushed themselves to their feet, heading towards the front of the ship where the bridge was.

At the same time, Storm flew around the ship right above the ocean, hurling lightning bolts out towards the Gatling guns and flak cannons, specifically aiming for the flak cannons. Unable to dip down far enough they couldn't range on her and the crewmen manning the Gatling guns didn't seem to know to fire ahead of her route.

But the two mutants with energy powers were still a threat, a fact proven when Storm was forced to stop and dodge to one side so abruptly her shoes kicked up water. Rocketing straight up allowed her to dodge more fire from the Gatling guns and the two mutants, while also giving her a glimpse of the second mutant.

He was a tall wide shouldered man wearing the same uniform as the first, with a head that looked almost lizard-like but not quite, with red eyes and albino skin. Like the first, his beams seemed to come from his eyes, but they were slower, and he wasn't nearly as accurate. They were wider, but even easier to dodge.

Dodging downwards to the now undefended back of the ship, Storm became close enough to the ship to use her magic. A second later three of the four remaining Gatling guns froze before shattering.

Following her lead Banshee took to strafing the front of the ship with his sonic blasts. A few of the crewmen had posted themselves there to guard the control deck and had begun trying to fire up at him with handheld machine guns, but just like the people manning the Gatling guns, they didn't seem to realize they had to lead him, so it was easy to dodge them.

Husk and Colossus were having a much tougher time of it. They had taken out several crewmen including two teams who had attempted to get to the cannons on the other side away from Storm's initial attack, but then they ran into more Brotherhood opposition.

From out of one of the containers came a mutant with the head of a snake complete with a long scaly neck. He had shoulders almost as wide as Colossus and it was obvious that along with his snake mutation came super-strength. This was obvious because he smashed his way out of the cargo container he'd been hiding in and rushed Colossus, smashing into him and hurling the Russian off his feet for a moment while pounding two hard punches into the surprised steel-clad Custodes' head.

Behind him Husk moved to help, only to stumble when a woman only a few years older than her jumped on her back, pounding the back of her head with her fists. Husk grunted in pain, going to her knees as the woman screamed, "Finally some action! I don't know who you are, but Frenzy's been dying to get down for a while!"

Using what she had learned from Shiang Chi, Husk quickly reached up behind her head, grabbing one of Frenzy's arms before going with the movement of collapsing to her knees, hurled her forward over her head. Frenzy squawked her back impacting the container underneath them then Husk was on her, a punch smashing into her face nearly burying the woman's head in the hull.

"How you like it bitch I- yipeee!" Paige shouted, throwing herself aside from a small but highly beam of fire that looked hot enough to melt metal, something which was proven when it impacted the cargo container behind her previous position.

Her attacker was a thin middle-aged man with light blonde hair wearing the same uniform as the others with the addition of a metal chest plate. As she watched the beam of flame flicked out of the container like a whip before coiling around him like a living thing almost, growing as he gestured with his hands. "Be more careful Frenzy! She works with the race traitor Storm so she's probably been trained! Don't underestimate them, and you and Slighter, stay together! Basilisk and Peeper try to keep the two flyers off us while we deal with these two. Stinger, where the hell are you?!"

Another younger woman came out of the control tower ahead of where Colossus was dealing with his own enemy, immediately firing off several small bolts of electricity at him. In reply Colossus ducked away from his opponent for a moment, wincing. They might not actually do his body any real damage, but electricity attacks stung like all blazes. "I was trying to get the radio to work Crucible! We're cut off!"

"We aren't supposed to be using the radio anyway!" The man apparently named Crucible replied, now shooting a wave of fire at the two metal -clad attackers. Both of them backed away while their opponents got out of the fire's way quickly dodging to either side glaring at the man for a moment. Then Husk and Colossus broke to one side of the on rushing flame, dodging in between several containers, and the two super-strong Brotherhood members went after them quickly.

There wasn't really that much room to maneuver aboard the cargo ship. There were little walkways between stacks and levels of cargo containers, but unless you wanted to destroy them you couldn't really move that quickly except in straight lines.

But Colossus and Husk should have realized that their opponents were willing to destroy their own cargo to get at them. The two of them had retreated from the flame user, trying to get around him by ducking several levels down before moving around. Fire might not burn through Colossus' armor, but Paige was much more wary of it, and he wasn't willing to leave her alone.

Frenzy burst out from between one container and the next, slamming Husk back into another container causing the entire stack to wobble precariously for a moment. "Got you now bitch!"

Husk had barely a moment to right herself flailing out almost blindly for a moment, the debris from the inside of the container getting into her face as Frenzy continued to pummel her. The girl's punches weren't actually doing much damage, but Husk wasn't having much luck hitting back either.

This ended when Frenzy got in a little too close, and Husk was able to grab her by the hair. Pulling her in, Husk slammed several hard blows into Frenzy's stomach, hurling her backwards and out of the container the crazy woman had hurled them both into. Husk quickly followed, trading blows with the other woman for a moment, now getting the better of the exchange.

Thanks to Frenzy having jumped the gun on their ambush Colossus was ready when Slither tried to ambush them in turn. He grabbed Slither out of the air right before impact, twisting and hurling them both down to the ground. Now he was behind Slither, locking in a hold around Slither's long snakelike neck, repeatedly slamming his head down into the deck below them despite Slither turning his head almost entirely around, attempting to bite Colossus' arms.

A nearby Banshee wail sounded out, and one of the two mutants that Storm first saw dropped from one of the tall crates, hiding from Banshee's assault for a moment. Seeing his fellows in such distress, he turned his eye beams on their attackers. "Always it is Basilisk that needs to clean up after you both!"

His eye blasts hammered out, impacting Husk in the back, and surprisingly nearly knocking her unconscious. It wasn't the force of them or anything of that nature, the beams simply had the same effect as a Stupefy would. Thankfully for her, and rather ironically, Frenzy's continued pummeling actually kept her awake and upright, though she began to stumble backwards, her mind still woozy, unable to focus.

Colossus too stiffened, but he fell forward, slamming his head into the container underneath them for a moment right by Slither's, which woke him up. And by that point Slither was already unconscious from his hold. Rolling forward Colossus came to his feet, grabbing up a piece of debris and hurling it backwards at Basilisk.

By this point Storm had gotten close enough to the ship to call in the far less durable Danielle, who had swiftly taken out Peeper with a single concussive arrow slamming into his chest and hurling him away. Now Ghigau was stalking towards the front of the ship, where Crucible and Stinger had joined the defense against Banshee and Storm, with limited success.

Every time Crucible tried to hurl a fireball at either of the flyers a wave of wind and rain would intercept it, putting the fire out quickly no matter how hot it was. Stinger was much more accurate with her attacks, but both flyers were far too maneuverable to be hit by them.

Seeing this Ghigau had moved in to support Colossus and Husk. Firing off explosive arrows at both Frenzy and Basilisk she kept them away from the two tanks until they got their bearings again. Colossus did so quickly, nodding up at her in thanks and closing with Basilisk who had turned his eye beams on Ghigau, who had skated out of the way easily. Basilisk turned away from her right into a single punch to the face which knocked him unconscious.

Frenzy however had turned, taking Husks legs out from under her before she could get her bearings, and then shoulder blocking into her, hurling Husk off the side of the ship. "Hope you can swim bitch!"

"Husk!" Ghigau cried, moving towards her swiftly. Frenzy tried to attack her from behind, but Colossus was in her face immediately, grabbing her head and slamming it down into an uprising knee with enough force to create a small shockwave in the air around them. He did this several times, the girl desperately trying to pummel his chest in turn, before looping around behind her with an acrobatic flip in the air before locking in another hold on her. They were after all supposed to take prisoners.

Ghigau raced forward to the side of the ship where Husk had disappeared only to jump back as a rejuvenated Slither attempted to grab her around the legs. A kick to his face with one of her hover boots sent him away, but he came back, throwing another punch, only to take another kick to the side of his head. The kick didn't even phase him, but the stun arrow which slammed into his wide open mouth did, shocking him into unconsciousness.

Kicking Slither's unconscious form away, Ghigau turned away quickly, racing back to stare over the side of the ship. Concentrating for just a second, her magical bow shifted into a rope with a heavy weight on the end of it which she twirled over her head before hurling it down into the water with all her might. At the same time Colossus moved towards her quickly, grabbing the end of the rope behind her and nodding towards the front of the ship. "Go!""

Instead, Ghigau merely nodded at him, remaining where she was. "I don't know if Sigyn's Gift would retain its form if I let it go, and besides, Storm has it under control."

Having come close enough to actually land on the ship Storm did indeed have it under control. At a wave of her hand the deck under Crucible and Stinger became coated with ice, before she followed up with a blast of wind. Crucible desperately tried to conjure enough flame to protect himself from the wind, but the wind was so wet that it overcame his defense quickly, pushing both of them off their feet. Banshee then landed next to Crucible, and a swift scream in the man's ears knocked him out cold.

Seeing this, Stinger sighed, holding her hands up above her head. "I know when we're beat."

Storm actually paused for a moment looking at the young girl, she couldn't be more than 16, if that. She had wild blue hair done up in short spikes sticking up from the top of her head, but she seemed more morose than anything, certainly far less combative than the others had seemed. "What is your name child? Your real name please."

"Wendy." Stinger said shrugging her shoulders. "My powers sort of gave me my nickname."

"If you give me your world you will not try to escape, I will not knock you out as we have your compatriots."

"My word?" Wendy asked, before chuckling and holding up her hands once again. "You've got it I suppose. So long as it doesn't get back to the others that I gave up without a fight anyway I should be fine."

"The life of mutant terrorist not all it's cracked up to be lass?" Banshee asked. The girl was the same age as his daughter for goodness' sake.

"Are there any other Brotherhood members aboard?" Storm asked, cutting in quickly.

"No, it was just the six of us. And you might say that mister. I thought we'd be, you know, fighting the good fight. But all we've done is…" Wendy nee Stinger cut herself off, looking away. "We might've had a home I suppose safe from persecution, but it wasn't ours in the first place."

There was a story behind that but Storm wanted to make certain the battle was over first. Quickly she made her way through the ship, flying over it and making note of the unconscious forms of the defenders but then paled landing quickly beside Ghigau and Colossus, who were pulling at a rope stuck over the side of the ship. "Where's Husk?"

At first, Husk had dropped like a particularly not aerodynamic steel ball bearing through the water. But she had regained enough of her senses from Basilisk's assault to realize what was going on quickly and almost immediately began to peel at her steel body, peeling it off return to her base form before she could transform again, fear and terror of drowning fueling her speed. This was a weakness in her mutant power she had yet to get around, she had to return to her human body if only for a moment before transforming into a second form.

She stopped for a second when a rope zipped through the water right next to her, mentally thanking Ghigau's marksmanship but by the time she had finished peeling out of her steel skin, she was nearly out of breath and had fallen too far to reach the surface on her own power. Swiftly she began to peel away her now normal skin, uncaring of her nudity thinking that there was no one around.

After she had transformed her face and body into pumice, a type of stone that could actually float in the water, she realized this was not the case. She stopped and stared for a moment at two pale blue humanoids riding huge seahorses treading water in the ocean about ten feet away from her. Both of them were grinning unrepentantly at her, and she growled angrily, finished stripping her skin off and then flipped them both a finger with one hand, while grabbing at Ghigau's rope with the other.

One of them actually had the temerity to come over and say something to her, speaking a language she didn't understand. When he went to smack her ass however she smacked his hand away with as much force as her stone body could handle.

He cried out in pain holding his arm, which was now at an odd angle the bone in it having broken under the blow.

She snarled at him, giving him the finger once again. Serves you fucking right, she mouthed then finished peeling away the last of her skin, wrapping the rope around her pulling herself up and away from the strange blue-skinned men.

A second later she found herself being pulled out of the water as if she weighed nothing at all, smiling as she knew that meant Colossus was on the other end. Seconds later she was pulled up out into the air to fall back onto the deck of the ship.

"Are you all right?" Colossus said going down to his knees next to her.

"There are frikkin' blue-skinned perverts in the water!" She shouted pointing back in down into the water.

"There is a story I trust behind that my dear," Storm said, kneeling down beside the young woman and pulling her to her feet in and into a swift hug. "And the next time you decide to go swimming, please don't do it in your metal form?"

Husk shook her head with a laugh, taking strength from the older woman's presence and her friends. That had been one of the most terrifying experiences she'd had in her life. "I didn't exactly choose to go swimming you know. And there is a story behind it."

It took Husk a few minutes to explain what had happened, and Colossus studiously looked away, torn between laughing at her misfortune and simply groaning at it. They really did have to figure out a way to let her keep her clothing on regardless of her form. When she was fully transformed most of her feminine features went away, but her clothing simply couldn't survive the changing process. Not unless she pulled it off first and then put it back on, which like was not often doable.

"While interesting I think that is a mere sideshow to what we have done here." Storm said. "Well done everyone. Gather the prisoners together, along with young Wendy."

Husk and the others looked at her in surprise, and Storm explained about Stinger and her willingness to surrender. Having a live and willing prisoner was a boon that Storm had not seen coming.

"While you're doing that, I'm going to call in Diamond at the very least." With Jean and Harry still busy with the discussion with the big brains, and with Betsy down in Brazil, Emma was the only available telepath.

They could have called in Charles too, but he was busy with his various patients. Indeed, at that moment he was slowly bringing Lorna Dane out from underneath Shaw's indoctrination, after having already woken Alex up.

Moments after calling her, Storm had Cory teleport Diamond in. Now that they were in possession of the ship he was able to do that relatively easily, and at her command he stayed around, just in case. Diamond immediately went to work on the unconscious prisoners, frowning angrily after only a mere few seconds in each of their minds. "Dammit! Magneto is a paranoid bastard!"

"You were unable to find his location?"

"No, it's been erased from their minds, something only another telepath could've done."

"We do know at least one telepath that works with Magneto," Storm said soothingly, rubbing Diamond's neck for a moment from behind. "Don't take it personally."

"I do take it personally! If he'd just occluded the memories I could find them, but erasing them entirely is both final and much more dangerous! There are shadows there," Diamond said most of her attention still on delving into Crucible's mind. As the leader, or seemingly anyway he'd been the only one who attempted to order the others around she expected he would have the most information available. "But nothing solid. I'm getting some flashes of water? And some kind of underground tunnel? But it's all disjointed. There are a lot of very vague memories of combat too, in a jungle of all things."

Storm turned to the one conscious prisoner, who had not been making any trouble. She'd simply sat, exchanging a few words with Husk, who she recognized as a girl near her own age or maybe a little younger. She had spoken to Ghigau too, but seemed put off by Ghigau's costume. "Can you shed any light on this?"

Wendy looked back at her, then at Paige and around at the others before her face firmed up noticeably. "I… I'll agree to answer your questions if you'll answer mine."

"Do it," Diamond chimed in telepathically. "Whatever is hidden in the girl's memories she's been having second thoughts about Magneto and the brotherhood for a while now. Her mind's practically swimming in guilt."

"I could tell that without telepathic powers Diamond, thank you," Storm replied drolly over Diamond's link. "Alright Wendy, what do you want to know?"

"We weren't ever allowed off the boat on the few times we were sent out to guard the supplies. But sometimes we could hear the conversations on the docks or Peeper would share what he saw on the news."

"Point of order," Diamond said, holding up a thin finger, even as she sent telepathic tendrils into the young teens mind. After all, just because she knew Wendy was questioning her life choices up to this point didn't mean Diamond was going to trust her unequivocally. "Peeper? That's a rather bizarre codename."

As Diamond had hoped, the question sent Wendy's mind to picturing the man in question, a short, almost goblin-like mutant with wide eyes. "Peeper's powers allow him to see through walls and anything else that could block his sight, shoot low powered eye beams and even have X-ray vision if he concentrates hard enough. He's pretty harmless besides that though. I wouldn't call him a friend really, but he's not as bad as the Acolytes or the Acolyte wannabes."

"We'll come back to those terms when it's our turn to ask questions. But I believe you wanted to know something?" Storm asked.

"Some of the conversations were about mutants and what's been going on in the news lately. Is, is it true that equality is gaining ground in America and other places?" Wendy asked.

"Yes," Storm replied firmly. "It's not been easy, and the process is far from finished, but the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway, have all enacted laws or are close to enacting laws that put that equality into law. Other European and even a few Asian countries might follow suit in the next few months, and Israel is also close to doing the same thing. America is considering a law of that nature even now, but our political analyst isn't certain it will get through the House let alone the Senate."

She paused, frowning slightly. "I won't say it's all been going our way, because it hasn't, and there are still many more countries where mutants have no protection against discrimination under the law. But we are doing all that is humanly possible to help the concept of equality along without turning to wholesale violence, which would be counterproductive at best. Yes, mutants still are prosecuted, but there is hope for a better future."

Wendy stared at her, then around at the rest of the Custodes, before seeming to deflate slightly. "So while we were following Magneto in trying to carve out a haven for mutants, you and the Custodes Mundi have been the ones actually fighting the good fight. Damn, that's really depressing."

With a shake of her head Wendy threw off her odd mood, nodding somewhat grimly. "Ask your questions."

"Can you tell us anything about where Magneto and your Brotherhood have been hiding? Are you willing to tell us about the Brotherhood and this group you call the Acolytes?" Diamond asked quickly.

"Magneto's been using us to help him conquer… wherever he's been hiding. We've been fighting for a while against normal humans, and some other groups." Wendy frowned, her hands moving through, her spiked hair. "Some of them had high-tech weapons I remember that but most were really low-tech, like spears and flint arrows low-tech. Not all of them were human, there were cat people, lizard people, and these weird Pterodactyl people. And…" Stinger paused racking her brain. "There were dinosaurs? Does that make any sense, or is that just part of what Mastermind did to us? "

Before either of her listeners could ask the obvious question there she nodded quickly. "Yes every time a group left to guard one of the shipments we had to submit to Mastermind's probes. He's in charge of the submarine which actually brings in the supplies after we meet up with him."

"And if you protest?" Storm asked.

"No one has. I was sort of leery about it, but Ms. Amelia was there to reassure me that he wouldn't, you know, implant anything." Wendy shuddered.

"You can't trust him not to as a fellow member of the Brotherhood?" Diamond asked archly.

"If you ever meet Mastermind you'd know that's a stupid question," Wendy replied sharply. "He's a damn letch! No girl in their right mind would want him in their mind. I remember an incident there, he used his mental powers on one of our newer recruits, I…I can't remember the details! Dammit! He was only supposed to…" she shivered, leaning against the back of the cargo container behind her, putting her arms around her knees for a moment.

Diamond nodded, shaking her head. "I wish I could help you," she said honestly. As a telepath herself, she knew what damage a telepath could do. "If he had simply occluded your memories, I could bring them back, but he erased them. I will say however there doesn't seem to be anything traumatic there, something of that nature would have carried over into the more primal centers of your brain, but I don't see any hints of that."

Wendy nodded, uncoiling slightly then looked over at Storm, who cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you willing to continue?"

Before Wendy could answer, Colossus spoke up from where he had been leaning against the cargo ship's railing. "Storm, I believe we're about to have company."

Storm turned quickly moving towards the railing followed by the rest of the team and a curious Stinger. Almost immediately upon reaching the railing they saw what Colossus been talking about. From out of the water came several dozen of the same seahorse riding blue-skinned men that Husk had seen while drowning. Seeing them in person Storm groaned. She'd hoped that the two had been out-of-control, and indeed they might've been, but they were definitely Atlanteans. Worse at the head of this band was Prince Namor himself.

Harry had known of Namor for some time, having read about him in the Fantastic Four's journals and despite representing a highly advanced culture hidden from the rest of the world was loath to actually contact him. The dealings the Fantastic Four had with Namor had shown an arrogant, narcissistic streak, as well as a standoffish nature almost equal to the Inhumans. That plus the fact he'd tried to kidnap a married woman even after she'd married had told Harry very bad things about the man.

Without preamble Namor jumped from his mount onto the deck, staring at the group of strangely clad mutants. "Which one of you is the harlot that assaulted one of my men?"

"Harlot!?" Husks snapped, stepping forward quickly her anger overriding her caution. "I'll give you harlot!"

Storm grabbed her shoulder and pushed backwards. "Let's not start a diplomatic incident dear," Storm soothed then turned to Namor. "Your pardon your Majesty, but we had no idea that Atlantis was anywhere nearby. Further, Husk cannot help transforming like that. She was sinking in her metal form, and had to change back into her normal human form before changing into another. She did not realize she had an audience, nor could she have changed anything about what she was doing even if she did."

"Your ignorance of your location does not save you," Namor said grimly. "You assaulted this ship, a ship which was passing peaceably through my waters. It might not be one of mine, but it displeases me to think you attacked it in my waters, just as much as your teammates assault on my men."

"Really, I did not see any markers to that effect," Storm asked, one eyebrow rising in mock surprise. "Indeed, as far as I know no-one really understands where your national waters are in relation to what are known as international waters."

"There is no such thing as international waters, all the oceans belong to me!" Namor said arrogantly.

"I think you would find it very hard to prove that," Storm replied with a laugh.

She then stepped forward, her magical aura swirling around her, her mutant power crackling from her eyes. "I know not why you wish to make a big deal out of this, but this was a matter purely between ourselves and the Brotherhood of Mutants, a terrorist group who tried to style themselves as liberators of mutant-kind. It has nothing to do with you your realm or anything that goes on below the surface of the ocean. You could make an issue I suppose about Husk's attack on your scout or whatever he was, but considering he was reaching to slap her ass while she was desperately trying to change back to stop herself from drowning, I can't find it in myself to care about his injury."

"These are my waters woman, you would do well to curb your tongue!" Namor growled, stepping forward himself to get into Storm's face in a blatant attempt to intimidate her.

It didn't work. "You are not the first king I have spoken to, nor do I think you will be the last. As I said, this was a small and regrettable incident. Why exactly are you trying to make a mountain out of a molehill?"

Namor scowled angrily, turning away. In reality, he didn't want to make a big deal out of this. But he was looking for an exterior enemy to rally his people against. Recently one of his generals had attempted a coup, and his people were fractured and rather demoralized thanks to the minor civil war which had resulted from this. He needed something to rally them around him, and had hoped to use this as a Cassis Belli.

But Storm was right; it was a remarkably small incident to make anything over. If they had polluted the waters, or if Husk had killed the guard she had struck, perhaps it could have been usable. But as it was, no.

"Very well," he growled angrily. "So long as you leave these waters as quickly as you may I will not make any further issue about this. But know I will be watching you and yours whenever you ride upon my oceans."

With that he turned, jumping back into the water. A moment later he and his followers had disappeared into the depths.

Storm actually blinked a little then turned to stare at Diamond. "You didn't… did you?"

"Nothing invasive I assure you," Diamond said shaking her head quickly. "Merely the telepathic equivalent of a calming charm, Namor was looking for a fight. It might occur to him that his mind was manipulated if he's ever run into a telepath before I don't know if he has, but I didn't do anything other than try to calm him down. And isn't it better not to start a war right now?"

Storm nodded. "I suppose you're right." She shook her head looking over the prisoners. "Now, I believe you were answering some of our questions."

While the rest of the team made certain the prisoners didn't wake up, Wendy answered Diamond and Storm's questions. They learned about the Brotherhood, its organization and numbers. It turned out there were around forty Brotherhood members and another twenty plus Acolytes or so, Wendy wasn't certain about their numbers.

There were also upwards of two hundred or more 'mutates' groups of locals which had been converted to Magneto's cause. She didn't know how that was accomplished, an actual point of ignorance rather than something caused by Mastermind. What she did know was that nearly all of them were bestial in nature, superstrong, durable, near mindless, and brutal in battle. She had a lot of memories of them, Mastermind apparently not thinking them worth deleting from her mind.

The Brotherhood was the junior branch almost of the Acolytes, though the demarcation wasn't a solid one, and really depended on individual powers and attitude. Nearly to a man the Acolytes were fanatical in their devotion to Magneto and the majority of them were killers many times over. Their powers also tended to be more powerful or deadly than the normal Brotherhood members.

Moreover, the Acolytes were nearly all firm believers in mutant supremacy. Most of the Brotherhood was too, but many of them had also joined up to simply fight for mutant rights and equality, rather than supremacy. Wendy herself had initially thought mutants needed to be on top to keep from being on the bottom simply as a measure of self-defense, but that thought had faded in the battles since then. This was made worse by the progress the Custodes were making.

While eating a meal Cory had popped in with for them all with a certain amount of relish Wendy was able to give them physical descriptions of what she called the power players. Most of them were Acolytes, two were locals wherever they were hiding, and two were Brotherhood members. Storm recognized Quicksilver's description from that, but the other, an 'irritatingly flirtatious man' with a Cajun accent, she did not.

But she wasn't able to tell Storm about any of their actual abilities. Diamond, still in Wendy's mind, found that any example of those powers being used had been erased. Even glimpses of them during pitched battles with groups that looked almost primeval in their garb had been erased from Wendy's mind. And when she checked their prisoners mind, Diamond found much the same thing.

Satisfied that Wendy had no inclination to lie to them, Diamond left her to Storm's gentle questioning, turning her attention entirely on the other prisoners. Delving through their minds, she was able to build up a large number of mental imagery she could later use to describe most of the Brotherhood and many of the Acolytes. With that done, she signaled Storm, believing they had gotten as much information as they could get from their prisoners and Wendy.

Moving over she found Storm describing Avalon academy and its growing academic resources to Wendy, as well as the number of students they had already enrolled through various means. Wendy was eating it up, asking questions of her and Cory surprisingly. She seemed fascinated by the little house-elf.

"What's the plan now?" Diamond asked, waving her hand to encompass the entire ship and the prisoners behind her.

Storm frowned for a moment thinking. "Can you erase the memories of this battle from all of their minds? And I think implant a memory of Stinger going overboard while in port?"

"I can do the first easily enough, the second will take some work. Erasing memories like that is a lot easier than implanting false ones which will stand up to another telepath's scrutiny."

"What's that for?" Husk asked.

At the same time Ghigau smacked one hand into her other palm making a 'Ohhhh', noise inside of her helmet. "Trojan horse?"

"Something of that nature yes," Storm replied. "And a stalking horse besides."

Wendy frowned at that. "Wait a second, you, I mean, I get that you think that taking me with you is a good idea, and I'd jump at it, but I don't think any implanted memories are going to pass by Mastermind. That means Crucible and the rest won't be allowed in, the whole ship and everything on it will just be turned around, that's how fanatic Mastermind is about keeping this place a secret."

At a look from Storm, Diamond nodded, indicating Wendy was probably correct, while the younger girl went on. "And… and if you all are the ones really fighting for mutant rights rather than domination, I want to do my part to take Magneto down."

Looking at Storm and the others, Wendy's face firmed decisively. "That means me going back to wherever Magneto and the rest are. Erase my mind of this too, but maybe plant something on the ship or on me that will give them back maybe? Then you can use me as, I don't know some kind of spy or something?"

"While I applaud your courage, that's not needed Wendy. I can plant tracking charms on everything on this ship, that will lead us to wherever Magneto is hiding."

"But remember what I said, if I'm missing, the entire ship won't be allowed in, it'll be too suspicious."

Storm looked over at Diamond again, and she nodded once more, confirming what Wendy said a second time. Before Storm could speak again however, Cory surprisingly spoke up, staring up at Wendy. "You are very brave missy blue-hair. I's think though you's will be needing help."

"Cory?" Storm asked, startled.

"Miss should have help. I's could go with her mistress. You's know, er I mean you know no one sees house-elves less we want them too. I's could go along with missy blue-hair."

Storm's eyebrows rose from where they had narrowed at Cory's backsliding speech, and she frowned thoughtfully, staring between the two of them. "Are you certain you want to do this Wendy?"

"I don't want to do this, but I know I have to. Magneto, if you let him, he'll unleash war across the whole world, and any chance for mutant-norm equality will die," Wendy said, shaking her head. "And besides, I was part of the fighting that secured wherever this is from its natives. Maybe in this way I can atone a little."

Running a hand through her hair, Storm stood there for a moment, thinking. Her guts were telling her to go along with this, but this was really a decision Harry should make. With that thought, she turned her eyes to Diamond, and asked her to contact him.

Moments later, Harry nee Guardian appeared in person, teleporting down with Phoenix in tow. It took about twenty minutes to fill him in after which he talked some more to Jean and the others, hoping someone had a better idea than possibly sending Wendy/Stinger back into the lion's den. But after a few minutes, Harry realized no one did, and that Cory's inclusion could make this plan a viable one.

With that in mind Harry turned to Wendy and Cory. The house-elf volunteering for this was interesting. It could mean Wendy might be able to grow a magical core in time, and, more immediately important, Cory could teleport them both away. "You're a brave and good elf Cory, thank you for volunteering for this."

Corry beamed happily, and Wendy smiled, knowing they had decided to go with her plan.

Staring at Wendy, Harry fought off a small sense of Deja-vu. She looked quite a bit like Nymphadora Tonks at her punk-rocker best, with different hair color sure, but the face was nearly the same as Tonk's normal form.

While originally part of the Order of the Plucked Chicken, Tonks began to help Sirius and Harry after Sirius was exonerated during Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts. She and her parents had aided Harry's group of New Marauders with information and resources even though she had never joined them on their attacks, having severe reservations about killing even in war.

As a friend, Harry had always kept Tonks at arms-length because of her attempt to bridge the gap between Remus, Sirius and Harry, being interested in the older man for some bizarre reason. Luna had once said it was because of his 'porn mustache' which made Harry question how the younger blonde knew the word, and more importantly why the mustache could be called that.

She had been with her parents when they were personally targeted by Voldemort, and died before Harry and his people could arrive. That had struck both Sirius and Harry hard at the time, but they had been forced by the ongoing war to keep going despite their grief.

"I want to make certain you know what you're getting into here," Guardian squatted in front of the girl, pointing at her head with a finger. "There's a way to remove your memories for a short time, store them so you can get them back later. So I am going to remove the memory of this battle and everything else, give those memories to Cory to carry, and, when you are back to this hidden base, he'll give them back to you while we use the tracking charms and everything else to teleport ourselves in. Once that's done, you'll have a choice, to either stand and fight with us, or have Cory teleport you out. Either way, this is an amazingly brave thing you're doing right now, and I, we, cannot thank you enough for it."

Wendy nodded. "In that case, we should get a move on sir. No offense, but we were on a time table, and it's only so flexible. We had to allow for sudden storms and bad seas, but even so…"

"Right. Storm, get repairing, everyone else, gather up the wounded, heal them up either through the potions or bring them to Storm. Diamond, Phoenix, you know what to do," Guardian ordered.

An area of effect Reparo from Storm later, the ship was back to looking as it had before the battle, save a few scattered chips of paint and quite a bit of missing ammunition for the flak cannons and Gatling guns. Wanting to be thorough, Harry popped in some more from supplies they had taken from Shaw's weapon's factory after removing Wendy's memories and knocking the girl out..

After she was done with that, Storm went around, methodically opening every container and tagging some of the supplies inside with tracking charms, then doing the same with the prisoners, and finally the ship itself. She did not bother with the normal looking sailors. They had not been fighting in top form, and were quite obviously mind0controlled in some manner, something that Emma confirmed after a bare second's probe.

While Storm concentrated on the physical evidence, Jean and Phoenix did their bit on the mental. Putting the Brotherhood members back to where they had been before the battle was somewhat tough, but they managed, and soon the ship was on its way, none of the people on it any the wiser for what had happened.

OOOOOOO

Contrary to Harry and Ororo's hope it would take several days before the magical locator devices Ororo had emplaced even showed any change in the cargo ship's direction. Cargo vessels were not after all very fast. Not to say they weren't putting the time to good use.

Harry, Jean and Ororo had ceased all other work, cancelled all other meetings to work with the Custodes full time. They used the contacts Dennis and Banshee had brought with them to put powers to the faces and names Emma supplied from the Brotherhood, and trained relentlessly against them in large scale combat scenarios. They didn't have information on all of the Brotherhood or Acolytes, but they had enough to get by for now.

Despite that the wait was getting to Harry and two days after that battle he was still upset about the necessity. "I thought we would have a single day off, then be able to plan our attack on Magneto right away. I don't like how he's been able to hide himself away for so long. 'The unseen enemy strikes the hardest.'"

"That sounds like a quote," Jean said, as she came out from their bathroom in the headmaster's tower, where all four of the lovers had gathered for a short meeting.

Harry smiled at her, then stopped and stared at her get up, which consisted of short Daisy Dukes and a tight T-shirt. "Very nice!" he said then shook his head for a moment going back to the topic at hand. "It was, a quote I mean, from Sun Tzu I think. I am seriously worried about Magneto. Not personally, I think I can handle him alone. But he commands too many mutant's loyalties and our progress toward equality between mutants and humans is still damned fragile even in first world countries."

"I too am worried about it," Ororo said from where she lay on the bed, reading a book from one of her favorite authors which had come out earlier that day. "But I am more worried about young Wendy. She was very brave to volunteer as she did, as was Cory but I hope it does not come back to haunt them both."

"We covered her with as many spells as we could," Harry said with a shrug. He wasn't being uncaring, just understanding that they had done all they could to defend the young woman.

"I agree with both your concerns, but I'm not going to allow either of you to mope about it," Jean said authoritatively. "Ororo I know you've got that book to read, get your nose back into it and don't worry about things we can't do anything about yet." Ororo laughed but obeyed as Jean moved towards Harry grabbing him by the chin gently and tilting his head up towards her. "And you and I are going on a date mister."

"You have any requests?" Harry asked bemusedly.

"Yep," Jean replied, smirking. "Something that you would never catch Emma or even Ororo doing. Well, the second bit anyway."

"Too true. Why does one of your faults have to be your taste in music Jean?" Emma mused, her eyes not leaving her book where she was laid out in bed next to Ororo. Her book was quite a bit more salacious than Ororo's but just as gripping.

"Quiet you," Jean growled, before smiling over at Harry. "But first, we're going to go over to America. We'll fly down from Charles's place and go driving out in Oklahoma."

Harry shrugged then leaned over kissing Ororo ardently on the lips for a moment before whispering in her ear. "Seriously, don't worry. Wendy will be fine with Cory there. You know that he'll teleport her out the moment she's threatened."

Ororo nodded, her eyes still closed from the passion of the kiss leaning her forehead against his for a moment before opening them and staring into his eyes. "Thank you Harry," she murmured, "that is a load off my mind."

Harry smirked kissed her once again whispering "I love you" in her ear, before moving off reluctantly to join Jean by the doorway to this spiral staircase, where she had been smirking at them, gentle and loving amusement in her eyes.

At the entrance to the Room of many Doors (temp title) Jean patiently stood still for a few moments as Harry continued to cast spells on her, the runic array now embedded into the back of her hand glowing white occasionally, until he finally stopped and nodded. "Have you figured out why the runic array you gave me acts up like that Harry?" She asked, holding it up.

For just a moment Harry thought the microscopic array shifted somehow in Jean's skin, but then it was gone, and he shook it off as a trick of the fading light of that array of spells he'd just cast. "Afraid not Jean, just put it down to a minor mystery, something caused by your connection to the phoenix maybe?"

Harry shrugged, though internally he thought that was really close to the truth. The phoenix took power or gave power to the basest energy level of the universe, with magic several steps above that. It made sense phoenix power could impact magic in odd ways.

The two of them headed down to the runic doorway room and through it to Charles' place, taking a few moments to say hello to him and to the other X-Men, who were scattered around the place taking it easy for a time before the new students arrived next week. They began to fill Charles and Scott in on the progress towards finding Magneto, only to be interrupted.

"Wait, what do you mean you've got a lead on my old man!?" Wanda Maximoff shouted jumping around the doorway to the sitting room where Jean and Harry had been talking to Charles. Behind her came Kurt, torn between looking amused and rather irritated at something. Wanda had arrived that morning for a tour of the mansion prior to moving in to be closer to Bayville.

Clea and Stephen had, after their first real argument, decided Wanda needed to rejoin society. Highschool would not have been their first choice, but it was a necessary one.

"I… had honestly forgotten that," Jean said blankly for a moment shaking her head, while Harry remained silent. He hadn't forgotten it, but he had been undecided on whether or not to inform the young magic user about it at all. The girl hadn't exactly been the most mentally stable when they had first met after all, and while Stephen and his girlfriend had made a lot of progress with her, she still had control issues.

The choice was taken from him however when Jean filled Wanda in on their progress towards finding Eric Lensherr, and her further saying that Quicksilver still followed him. Indeed judging from the memories Emma had seen in their captive's minds, he had been upgraded to an Acolyte.

"I. Want. In." Wanda declared heatedly, her magic aura flaring out and around her for a moment before she clamped down on it hard. "I've wanted to kick my old man in the balls for years, and my brother deserves much the same treatment for going along with leaving me in the nuthouse! You, you can't leave me out of this Mr. Potter, you just can't."

Harry looked at her tortured face for a moment then sighed, looking over at Scott who after a moment nodded. "If you can get Stephen's okay, then you can join the X-Men when we call them in."

As Wanda pumped her fist in the air jubilantly, Harry turned his full attention to the senior team leader. "I'll have a dossier for you to input to the DG's computer tomorrow morning early."

"Agreed sir, forewarned is forearmed," Scott nodded. "I'd like more intel on the place where we're going to be fighting, but I suppose that knowing as much as we can about our opponents will have to do. Sam's already worked up with the team, and he's ready to go, and if the next batch of students arrive before the ball drops, I'll probably bring Thunderbird along too, there is no such thing as too much firepower after all."

"Heh, true enough," Harry chuckled, while Jean watched Kurt lead Wanda off, one eyebrow raised in amused surmise. Harry turned his attention to the girl too as she left, shaking his head. "Now that's gonna be an explosive family reunion."

"Actually… I think it might be beneficial, both for her and young Lorna." Harry gaped at Charles and the telepath held up his hand. "Please, let me explain. We have broken much of Lorna's mental conditioning, and Alex is completely free of his. But Lorna is now an immensely confused young woman, and much of that confusion is based around her feelings of abandonment by her father, and her wish to get to know him despite that."

Harry nodded. Charles had proven that Lorna was Magneto's daughter more than a week ago. Wanda had been informed of her half-sister's status, and her anger towards Eric and Pietro had climbed further, but she had controlled it relatively well. The two of them hadn't really connected yet, since Charles had yet to release Lorna from the medical bay, but he was hopeful they would in time.

"Lorna needs to confront him, to see how he acts towards the daughter he knew about, to break that bit of interest. And let her anger out on a worthwhile target all at the same time."

"I don't like the idea of taking two possible loose cannons into battle, especially against a foe whose strength is as unknown as this," Harry replied bluntly, then he sighed. "If she can control it, if she can prove she can work with the team and take orders, then I will consider it. But it will be me and Scott making that judgement call when the ball drops. I won't agree to it right now."

"Agreed. I think the idea might have merit psychologically Professor, but I want to run her through some team exercises once you give her a clean bill of mental health." Scott's voice was soft but firm even as he tried to make a joke and he shook his head. "Alex has problems working with the team as it is, and taking orders from me too, so adding Lorna might make him calm down or act up more, but I need to know what to expect from them before letting them or even Wanda come on a mission that important. Wanda at least has had a few days to work with the team, and has proven she can follow orders both from me and from Harry. Alex and Lorna don't have that."

Once again Charles nodded, smiling proudly at the way Scott had said that. The young man had truly come a long way. "Agreed, I just wanted to bring it to your attention."

With that the conversation ended, and Scott walked Harry and Jean to the door, where both of them took to the sky, flying faster than all but the fastest jet, heading down toward Oklahoma. That took them a surprisingly short amount of time, as did finding an empty road to set down on, whereupon Harry pulled his Huayra out of his pocket, set it on the road and enlarged it.

"So," Harry asked moments later as the Huayra began to pick up speed, zooming through what little traffic there seemed to be on this road. It was an old highway which stretched out as far as the eye could see both before and behind them, with nearly nothing in sight to break up the monotony of the scenery.

"There's an open-air concert I want to go to, Rogue got me the tickets," Jean said, letting one of her hands fall outside the car, waving it lightly in the area as it sped past. "I figured given the fact that we haven't spent much time alone together since arriving back on Earth it might make for good change of pace."

"I am sorry about that," Harry said. "There's just been…"

"Don't apologize Harry." Jean leaned over slightly to smack him on the side. "We've had time with Ororo and Emma, both inside the bed and out of it." She smirked wickedly at him, and Harry laughed turning lightly to give her a kiss on the cheek before turning his attention back to the road, not like that was really needed here really.

"Keeping our various projects moving forward takes a lot of time. I'm never going to complain about that, or you not spending time with me or anything of that nature. I'm not that egotistical, and you're not the sort to let work consume you to that level anyway."

"Understood love," Harry said, leaning sideways to rub his cheek against hers for a moment. "So an open-air concert, is the band anyone I might know?"

"Doubtful, you just listen to any music that's playing, so I don't think you follow country."

"You would be correct. But that means I'll probably have to activate the disguise wards around my car doesn't it? Wouldn't a car like this seem out of place at a country concert?"

"That's stereotyping!" Jean laughed. "It's not just country hicks and southern gals who listen to country you know. You might want to change the color a little bit, but I don't think anyone is going to realize what your Huayra is so they won't be astonished by it."

For a moment the trip was silent, while the two of them stared out on the road, with Jean's hand now on Harry's thigh. Then she began to speak again. Then Harry smiled, reaching down lightly to twine his fingers with Jean's. "By the way, have you decided on your car yet?"

"A Toyota people carrier, or maybe a Transit van," Jean deadpanned then laughed. "What I want to do is buy a Bugati Veyron and then take it apart, figure out how they did all of that work on that car. It is a real technological marvel you know! I'm not a fan of the body, I think it looks great for what it is, but it doesn't stand up to the looks of this Huayra for example. I just want to play around with them you know, given our own tech level I might be able to change the Veyron's body a bit, or a lot, we'll see. I was looking through old car magazines the other day, and they came up with some really damn pretty cars, the Jensen Interceptor for example."

For several moments the two of them talked about cars, then Jean reached over to the radio, turning it on and putting the country station on in the background to get Harry used to it once more. Then she began to talk about the first time she had ever seen a car that she had fallen in love with, and Harry replied with a story about how he had fallen in love with the local library, and the first book he had ever loved, 'Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn'. "The idea of running away to live on my own like that and have adventures really intrigued me at the time."

The two kept talking as Harry's car ate up the miles, the wind in their hair from their open windows. Neither noticed the time or two where they passed hidden police cars, or moved through areas with more traffic. The spells and charms and wards Harry had placed on the Huayra concealed them easily. Occasionally they kissed, and twice they pulled over to the side of the road to make out when the kissing became a little too passionate for Harry to concentrate on his driving. But for the most part, they simply spent time together and loved it.

At around six o'clock local time they began to see signs for a town in the distance, and they stopped in a small diner on the outskirts but decided not to eat there after they saw the menu. Jean was rather spoiled by the food available thanks to the house-elves, and Harry had no desire to eat food that was more fat than anything else. Instead Harry pulled a basket out of the Huayra, and the two of them ate sitting on the top of the car watching the passersby. They got a few odd looks, after all, neither of them were dressed to match Harry's car. Moreover they were both young looking, and the number of young people that could afford a car like Harry's was very small indeed.

They spent about forty minutes there before moving on, heading through the town to the other side where they began to see signs for a concert center. They arrived just as the crowd began to form, and were able to get in and pick a place near the front of the crowd. Not even a few moments later, the first of the warm-up crews began to play, and people began to dance here and there in the crowd, most of the crowd was still arriving.

This continued for about 40 minutes, with the crowd becoming larger and larger, and the music becoming louder in turn when the main events began. Eventually it got so loud that their conversation, which had been about Namor and what to do about him in the future simply stopped. They turned their attention to the music and eventually began to dance with everyone else, with Jean throwing her hands up in the air matching the lyrics of the song as Harry tried to sing along in her ear, much to her gurgling laughter.

Then another singer came on, singing 'Shake it For me', and Harry laughed as the lyrics of that began to beat around them holding Jean against him as they danced in place, practically but not quite grinding. After the song came to a close Jean leaned in, kissing Harry on the lips.

Harry returned the gesture, and the two of them simply stood there ignoring the crowd and even the next song, lost in one another. "I love you Jean Grey," Harry sent along their telepathic link. That connection was on at all times now, only shrinking or expanding in size if it was presently in conscious use.

"I love you Harry Potter," Jean replied in the same manner, shivering slightly as the feelings of love washed over her, responding in kind.

The two of them continued dancing there for another two or three more hours, before eventually deciding that while the concert might keep going for a while, they were getting hungry again. Making their way out of the crowd they passed the outer edge of the concert venue heading towards Harry's car.

Their good feelings ended about halfway back to the Huayra. There they came upon two mutants being harassed by a group of seven or so young punks, ranging from ages 18 to 24 or so if Harry was any judge. The two mutants didn't seem to have very many physical deformities, they had six fingers on both of their hands, and their skin looked a little bluish, but that was all. Their appearances were so alike that it was obvious they were twins.

"We don't want your kind here mutie!" said one of the punks, pushing the brother who had stood in front of his sister protectively, putting her between him and the back of a pickup truck.

"Leave us alone!" the brother said, pushing back quickly, then bringing his hands up in a somewhat decent looking boxing stance. "We don't want to fight, we just came here to enjoy the music! We've done nothing to you and last I checked America was a free country!"

"You fuckin' freaks don't deserve ta listen ta music like good, normal people! The Lord God will strike you down for the 'bominations you are!" said one of the punks. He was one of the older looking ones, looking as if he even had to shave regularly. "Ya'all need to be made an example of!"

Harry and Jean exchanged a glance, then sighed and moved forward, fingers flexing. Neither of them were willing to use their powers or weapons deal with this, but pounding on this group with their hand to hand skills alone seemed fair enough.

"You know, this being a free country and all we have to listen to that kind of crap, but your rights to free speech ends when you try to take someone else's rights away." From out of the gloom of the parking area beyond the altercation came four men of varying ages and three women. Two of them were dressed like stereotypical cowboys, denim jeans long-sleeved plaid shirts and cowboy hats. All the women were dressed similarly to Jean, and the entire group seemed to have just arrived. Two of the women and three of the men had pistol holsters strapped to their sides, empty now of course, but that didn't seem to impact their confidence any.

The man who had spoken stepped forward from the rest, crossing his arms over his broad chest. He was a somewhat stocky man, but he was massively muscled in the arms, torso, and waist, his skin tanned and weathered like someone who worked outside for a living, much like the men and one of the women behind him. "No one wants any trouble here, a concert like this is supposed to be a place to enjoy yourselves, it's not a place for violence. You want to get violent, you can come down to our Althing in a few weeks and step into the boxing ring. For now, leave off!"

The others fanned out from behind him, emphasizing his point. Harry noted that the expressions on at least a couple of the men suggested they might actually enjoy this confrontation, though he couldn't quite say why. Save for the fact their smiles exposed a lot more teeth than was normal.

Harry smirked in satisfaction, and began to clap lightly. Jean joined him, causing the punks who seemed to have been puffing themselves up to fight turn toward them. They stared at the young couple behind them, and something in those eyes, jade and emerald sparkling in the light of the scattered parking lights caused them to stop. They began to back away grumbling quietly to themselves, their courage fading with their former numbers advantage.

After they left, Harry and Jean moved forward, smiling at the newcomers. "It's nice to see that there are people around willing to stand up for those in need."