Cherreads

Chapter 138 - Chapter 31: Welcome! part 3

If you want to help me financially, you can do it on

https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile

Harry woke up a few hours later, and found Hela sitting by his bedside, reading from a newspaper of some kind. "You have been busy," Hela said admiringly, shaking her head and looking over at him thoughtfully.

"I suppose we have yes," Harry said, pushing himself up in bed, shaking his head at the pain there that told him he had overused his mental faculties with his magic. The shadows had come at him in the direction Harry had never expected, and dealing with them had taken it out of him mentally if not physically.

The two of them stared at one another for a moment, unsure what to say. Harry opened his mouth several times before closing it, thinking before simply saying, "So, I suppose Emma and I at least have earned your trust?"

Hela laughed, shaking her head. "Yes you did that but…" she frowned. "I won't allow you or the others to emplace your versions of our various interactions in my mind. That would be far too much like what I have just been through. And it would also be odd, seeing memories of that nature from a different perspective. However," she went on hesitantly, reaching out to take his hand and squeezing it. "I am willing to remain here and build new ones if you'll have me."

There were several levels of meaning going on there Harry mused, and he nodded his head slowly. "You are welcome in Camelot, Lady Hela, for as long as you wish to stay." he said formally before smiling at her.

Hela smiled at him, her eyes behind her mask actually lighting up for a moment as she squeezed his hand once more.

OOOOOOO

Later that day Dani and Amara, after introducing the second girl to Hela, took her out into the real world beyond Camelot for a time to get her some clothing and acclimatize her more to the world as it was now. Harry and the others had already promised they would compare notes with Hela that evening: what she remembered from her past, what they had learned, and to think about these enemies that were controlling the Asgardians and what they could do as well as the extent of their powers. During this time Hela was introduced to the joys of a pedicure, and found her enthusiasm for staying on Earth rising astronomically.

However, Harry had other things he had to concentrate on. One of them was the daily briefing Dennis and Sage which he had missed the day before. Harry, Ororo, and Jean, sat down with Emma that afternoon hoping she would wake up, but not really expecting it as Dennis and Sage began their daily briefings.

Sage started by filling them in on the business side of things, where nothing had truly changed from the last report, except they had begun to see a sharp return on their investments in various Hellfire Club-connected companies. Not monetarily of course. Harry after all didn't own stock in most of those companies, rather material. "There are going to be some questions soon, about where all of that material is going, just like we questioned where the material sent to Stark Industries went." Sage warned. "At present I'm keeping everyone who could be looking into such things from finding out that all that material is ending up in our hands. The Hellfire Club's own assets are helping hugely there, both the companies' and the club itself."

None of the companies or people involved obviously wanted anyone outside the groups involved figuring out what was going on. The fact that all of them were making large profits and could see more profits in the future was a major part of that.

"Good," Harry said breathing in deeply. He looked at his high command as it were seriously. The only one technically missing at the moment was Reed though Harry wasn't certain if he would actually call him part of the high command or simply allied to said high command. Dr. Doom was most definitely in the 'allied' category. "I'm seriously concerned about the next round of Kree warships and what they might consist of. Remember what Marvel said, the next might well be a full fleet."

"By my estimate we have about two weeks of the next response can arrive, and we're preparing as fast as we can for it Harry, that much hasn't changed in the one day you spent resting," Jean chided, rolling her eyes. "Carol? You want to take it from here or do you have anything you want to say Sage?"

Sage's hologram looked over to where Dennis was sitting on his own chair facing the seats around the bed where Emma lay still comatose. "Sage and I have something to say, it sort of straddles our areas of interest but Carol can go first."

Harry nodded and turned to Carol who like Sage was present via the hard light program and their communication network.

"Works proceeding apace on Fortress Mars and the hyperspace trap device installation," Carol began briskly. "We think we've got another week or so of work before its ready to go. We're working the droids and as many human teams as possible around the clock on that project Harry. We're running into more accidents, nothing deadly yet since that one incident you and the others helped stave off but and in fact Mars is actually a more hospitable environment and zero-G, but if we keep working the teams it's only a matter of time." she finished in a warning tone. Harry understood what she was asking. Should they slow down work, and stave off more accidents, or keep pushing it? Frowning momentarily he asked the air, "Dilly?"

The ancient house-elven majordomo appeared in front of him bowing formally. "Master called?"

"Could Hogwarts survive if we transferred say 10 more house elves up to our projects in space?"

"Easily master, we could do without fifteen or more here. Even with all the kiddies, there still be too little work to go around just yet." The elf replied promptly before going on accusingly. "Yous make everyone clean up after theyselves master, and even cook too occasionally. It not be right!"

"Good," Harry said, ignoring the house-elf's complaints with the ease of long practice. "Pick out the best poppers among those still available here at Hogwarts. "Cory?"

Cory popped in immediately. "Master called Cory?"

"Cory, I'd like to reassign you from being my personal house-elf for a time. You will all be heading up to Mars, go through the runic doorway we've set up rather than trying to pop there ok?" He admonished, and Cory chuckled his ears wiggling in embarrassment. "You'll be assigned there until work on the project my human workers are working on at present is finished.

Both House-elves' ears flicked up in interest, and Harry laughed. "Sorry, it's a little too technical to rely on house elves for most of it. But your jobs will be to watch, and make sure that any humans injured are popped away immediately." Cory nodded seriously looking over at that older house elf. "Cory will do so master, and will find the best poppers among those available. Can," he asked hesitantly "can Cory reassign Clare?"

"It will be up to Clare of course," Ororo said. "But I don't see any problem there. Clare?"

Clare appeared from where she had been watching over Kitty. After being explained she nodded promptly. "I's have no problem leaving fuzzy mistress for that amount of time master," she said looking over at Harry.

"That does it then," Harry said and the three house elves promptly popped away. "That's the best we can do on that. We need the trap device up and running Carol. We've run into three stupid commanders thus far, we're due to be hit by a smarter one and I want an ace in the hole when we do."

"That's a terrifying thought, but an understandable one." Jean said dryly.

Carol nodded at that too, and continued explaining the work going on in space. They'd pulled workers and droids off the other space-based projects, pushing them to finish the anti-ship defenses on the Ravenspires just in case, though transferring the workers to Mars had severely depleted the size of the workforce in orbit.

At that point Sage spoke up, looking over at the spymaster. "And that brings me to the area of intersection with Dennis. Dennis?"

The old English gentleman leaned forward looking at those present physically and the holograms of those who were not. "As you know we've begun hiring from various nations now, both for the expansion of Carol's think tank and the actual workforce in space. We've run into a few problems locally in Asia and other areas, but those are simple ones and as I said local issues. However one of our bases in the hiring posts in Africa has ran into a group from what we assume to be AIM who were trying to grab the scientists for themselves. It seemed to spur of the moment thing, but the local police forces lost several dozen men, and the building housing our hiring office was torched. We didn't lose any workers thankfully, but it was near run thing and several of them are in the hospital."

"If it's not already in place I want those workers to get the best health and medical they need as soon as possible," Harry said promptly. "AIM is beginning to irritate me."

"The feel in the international espionage community is that AIM is getting as desperate as Hydra, but they still have resources enough to lash out rather than go into turtle mode. Hydra also has something going on, and there've been some troop movements in Russia of late that concern me…" Dennis said slowly.

"Troop movements like they're going to move across their borders into other countries?" Harry asked quickly, sitting up as Ororo did the same. Jean didn't, having already heard this before but she was frowning.

"Something of that nature at the very least. Their ambassador to the UN has started to make noises about Dr. Doom's actions there, and well Russia was always felt that area was their own backyard. Alone, Russia is simply a powerful country, add the former USSR countries back into their fold, and they become an empire."

"An empire with a history of intolerance towards not only gays but religions and other minority groups and more recently mutants, not pleasant," Harry muttered. "Still, Dr. Doom can probably handle anything they throw at him militarily. I wouldn't want that to become a serious concern however, so keep an eye on it. I have no doubt he is also aware of this, but if not prepare a packet to share with Dr. Doom at the earliest opportunity."

"As for AIM, has Italy Spain and the other countries we've been in contact with moved on the information forwarded to them on the AIM bases in those countries?"

"No." Dennis said sadly shaking his head. "Most governments are slow to act on foreign-given information but still…"

Harry frowned. "I'll set up another meeting with William, see what he thinks about it. However, if they haven't moved against those bases in a week we will. I'm getting very tired of terrorist groups thinking they can have a go at us, no matter how obliquely."

"Anything positive anyone wants to report?" he asked only half-jokingly.

"Quite a bit actually. A few of our observers down in Rome says the Pope is close to publishing an encyclical letter on how mutants are to be looked at by the church. That will possibly be followed up by a public announcement of some sort, though it's doubtful he will speak ex cathedra when he does."

"About damn time," Jean groused, laying her head against Harry's shoulder for a moment. "I realize that the whole Catholic edifice is huge and slow, but come on people, there's slow and then there is fence sitting!"

"I would be inclined to agree with you except for the fact that the church is more worried about schism then about what people on the outside think." Dennis said simply. "It's a horrifying concept to them, and a religious split on this subject should worry everyone given how much the Friends of Humanity have been able to use freedom of religion to cover their actions in America."

"All right I can agree on that," Jean said as Harry remained silent, thinking. He wasn't any kind of atheist really, he had seen too much to believe there wasn't something out there. But despite that he didn't really have much interest in organized religions have all outside of his somewhat technical interest in the Asatru religion.

"Mystique and her team are in place in Cairo," Dennis went on changing the subject. "There's nothing to report yet, but their background stories seem to have held out to the usual people of interest there and abroad."

"Good," Harry said. "Hopefully they'll be able to find whoever is still trying to stir up trouble between mutants and humans and we can strike at them quickly. It is past time for humanity to become united against the problems facing us rather than continually trying to find new reasons to divide ourselves."

Everyone there nodded firmly at that, and looked at Dennis who smiled faintly. He looked at Sage who smiled as well, gesturing over to the bed. "Emma should be up and awake to tell you this since it was her connections that first made us aware of it. But Canada has come out and begun to put a bill on the works to make certain of mutant human equality through the law, and America's presidential race has started as well."

"Of course a lot of candidates have come out and put their names forward at this point, and we're at least a year away from anyone having much in the way of an actual plan to what they'll do as president, but four of them have come out in favor of mutant human equality." Dennis frowned. "One of the candidates is a major war hawk, but he's also pro-mutant rights, if in a very strange manner. I'd recommend asking Charles to take a look at him, both into his past and telepathically if need be."

"I would not be willing to get involved in any kind of political race," Harry said quickly. "I realize that's supposed to be the thing to do, special interest groups donating to their favored candidate, but I'm not comfortable with it. I'll willingly make speech I suppose," he said with a scowl, "but I won't spend money on it. That's like trying to buy the individual I back his way into office rather than letting him earn it on his own merits. Well, as much as they can in any democracy anyway, ruddy great population contest that it is."

Harry chuckled for an instant before going on thoughtfully. "However, if we find that anti-mutant groups are trying to donate to one or more of the candidates I'll willingly match the amount they spend. Keep it an even playing field, between the actual people trying to win the job."

He chuckled again, as did Jean and Ororo. Dennis and Sage looked on in confusion wondering what was funny not realizing how much planning Harry had begun to put in quietly on the idea of becoming king of his own little, and very well hidden nation.

"Emma also began to make overtures to the Mandarin, I don't know if she told you about that," Sage said slowly, moving on quickly from that topic. "It's going to occur in neutral grounds. Hoi An, in Vietnam, the city where you all apparently met Dennis? He has no assets there, and nor do we yet, so it made sense, and he refuses to leave Asia. I took the liberty of taking over those lines of communication and okaying the meeting for three weeks from now."

"Good," Harry said with a nod. "I'd love to get my hands on his anti-smog machine, and I'm sure we can come up with some form of trade there. And if working with him can open up China to our interests and get them behind our own plans going forward, it'll be a major step in the right direction. They have a monstrously large workforce that I would simply love to start putting to work."

Jean nodded firmly as did Ororo, though she was more hesitant. She looked at Sage and nodded at the woman, and Sage nodded back. "We've also begun to open up hiring centers in various countries of Africa. We're offering more incentives there than elsewhere, in particular educational aspects and medical. Ororo has already agreed to make a few speeches there in the next few weeks."

"Does that have anything to do with T'challa?" Harry asked looking at Ororo.

"Indeed. The strange thing is, I've mentioned him in front of Susan a while ago, and she seemed as if she knew something there but wasn't willing to tell us. Not her secret to tell I think. I hope it's not something that's going to blindside us, but I am rather afraid he didn't seem to get the message that you and I are together. If he flirts with me in a way I find uncomfortable or attempts to establish any other sort of relationship I am going to put him down hard," Ororo said grimly. "I'll apologize now if that gets in the way of our business and social ventures but there are some things I will not condone."

"You expect me to argue love?" Harry said with a smile, putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing. "If he's that pushy, go nuts. Now, anything else?"

OOOOOOO

That evening, Emma woke up still exhausted and unable to move her body out of bed, her head throbbing and her telepathy near useless, like a muscle strained near to the breaking point. Even so she might have tried to use it if not for a cool hand on her forehead and Jean's soothing voice speaking up from beside her.

"Easy Em, you've really strained yourself love, don't try to use your telepathy until that headache you're feeling goes away. We nearly lost you love, I don't want to see you hurt yourself now."

Emma chanced a nod, grateful that the move didn't make her head roll off her shoulders. "That would be rather bad wouldn't it?"

"Oh yes, especially considering how much of an idiot you were being before these puppet masters attacked in force." Jean's soothing tone turned biting at that, and Emma cracked an eye open once more to glance at the redhead incredulously.

"Tell me Emma, would you ever go into a business meeting without researching everything you needed to know about both the subject matter and the individuals you were dealing with?"

When Emma shook on of her hands no, unwilling to chance moving her head again, Jean went on. "So why the hell didn't you ever talk to us about Hela or her people's customs and beliefs? You insulted the lady of the hall, your host, and the Asgardians and the Kindred all take that thing very seriously. If Hela had wanted to she could have expelled both you and Harry, or assaulted you more than just the one push she gave you."

"But she didn't and that tells me a lot about her nature," Emma replied somewhat weakly. "I wanted to know how she'd react to me treating her as I did you when we first met."

Jean sighed. "I understand where you're coming from love, but damn it, don't do that again! Please? What if Hela had somehow rejected your aid later on, then where would you all be hmm?"

She leaned down, laying her forehead against Emma's. "We love you Emma just as you are, you don't have to prove how brave you are to us or anything like that, so please, just don't take chances like that again, okay?"

Tilting her head slightly Emma kissed Jean lightly on the lips. "I promise." Then she smirked. "Although if she starts something…"

Groaning Jean broke into chuckles, sending off a telepathic message to Harry that Emma was awake. Moments later Harry joined them. The three of them spent a few hours together talking quietly about what had happened, as well as the business side of things since he knew she was interested in that, and simply lying in bed cuddling with her as they talked.

Hela came in at one point and formally thanked Emma for her aid, though to Harry it was obvious there were still a bit of tension between the two women. He didn't know why they got off on such a bad foot, though possibly Emma's throwing up on Hela's clean floor and initial taunting had something to do with it.

Nonetheless Emma joined them for dinner that night, the five of them sitting around the dining table in the headmaster's quarters rather than joining the rest of the castle's inhabitants for the meal. Indeed, instead of having one of the house elves work on it, Harry and Ororo decided to make dinner instead.

Jean and Emma, after having been lifted through the air by Jean's telekinesis, took up the loveseat while Hela sat primly alone in one of the other chairs. But despite that physical distance, their discussion was warm and interesting. Decidedly on the light side, as the mortal women, though Hela wondered if that appellation could still be applied to Jean or even Ororo, filled Hela in on what Earth was like. In return she told them in general about Niflheim, telling them of her family as much as she could remember.

Harry frowned from where he was working on their dinner. "And you say that you're still connected to your realm? But there's no taint trying to attack your mind through that connection?"

"No, it was one of the first things I checked when I woke up." Hela frowned pensively, marshaling her thoughts. "I get the impression that the taint couldn't transfer from me to my realm, the taint was all in my physical body, as well as my mind at least at first. I think because in doing so they would corrupt the machinery of rebirth that my realm is part of. That would anger both my mistress and He Who is Above All."

"He Who is Above All?" Jean asked.

Hela waved her hands lightly in a vague all-encompassing gesture. "The original creator I suppose you could say. That is all he does, simply creates and then enforces the natural underlying laws of the universe. He does not care about mortals or anything else. You really don't want to have him involved at all on this level of existence."

"Understood," Emma muttered, shaking her head a little tenderly still. "Frankly I'm much more at home in the idea of god's like you then gods like that. I was never religious, it wasn't exactly encouraged in my family, but gods that are, well, understandable and sort of like humans only written larger is a much more welcoming thought to me than an all-powerful being like that."

"Yet you sit next to the Avatar of the Phoenix, one of the two most powerful existences in all of creation," Hela said dryly. "And over there is a man who could be an immortal, who could create re-create himself as a god, making dinner next to the Chosen of Gaea, the oldest and most powerful goddess of this plane."

Emma shrugged. "I met Jean as Jean Grey long before I understood this whole Phoenix avatar thing, same for the others really. And I've seen them come into their powers and retain what I would call their humanity if that didn't sound as if I was somehow insulting you without meaning to."

"As opposed to insulting me on purpose?" Hela asked archly, but went on before Emma could reply. "I am simply saying that your idea of what constitutes 'just like humans' seems to be a bit flawed."

With that she turned away again to watch Harry prepare dinner. Watching a man prepare a complex meal at all was odd, considering that among her people while a fireside meal would be looked over by a man, something complex like this would be a woman's purview and domain in the hall, with some men and other women perhaps helping her as needed. There was a startling amount of appreciation and some desire too mixed in with what her feelings were when watching him. It pleased her to know he had some domestic skills to him for some odd reason she didn't want to examine at present.

Ororo too was an oddity. The two of them had talked at least half the day away as they moved around Camelot and then after she returned from discovering the marvels of hair salons. Ororo was in form and manner a queen or goddess, Hela should know, she used a mirror everyday after all. But she was also at home in the kitchen, and seemed to take pleasure in that simple act, whereas Hela knew she would probably burn water should she attempt to cook.

"Done," Harry said eventually, turning towards the table as he set out a cooked salmon, along with Ororo's meal of light linguine and some fresh bread and fruit as well.

"It all looks magnificent," Hela said appreciatively, smiling at them both.

"I am so pleased that it meets with your requirements oh mighty Hela," Harry said with a grin and an unctuous bow, his hand scraping the floor.

"It does indeed, you may rise mortal, and partake of the fare yourself," Hela said grandly with a joking tone in her voice. The other two laughed while Ororo simply kissed Harry on the side of the head sitting down on his other side. Hela realized that she was sitting across from Ororo but that the table was round. All of them were equal here, a moment of symbolism that was not lost on Hela.

She watched in amusement as Jean filled up a fork and held it out it to Emma smirking. "Say Ahh…"

"I can at least feed myself Jean," Emma growled, grabbing the fork out of Jean's hand with a blush. She knew that someone had fed her earlier that day and while she was out of it, but she been so exhausted she didn't remember and was frankly happy at that bit of missing memory.

Harry Potter chuckled, and prepared a fork of his own before holding it out to Hela teasingly. "Say ahh?"

Hela glared at him hotly, flushing slightly at the teasing note in his voice, pushing his hand away and preparing her own meal quickly. She'd never had pasta and the sauce was something she'd never tasted, but it was very good, and the fish was excellently prepared.

"I don't suppose you have some of that ale from the party I apparently took part in? From what Ororo and Jean showed me it looks quite tasty."

As soon as she spoke that several steins of beer appeared in front of her, hovering in the air. "Good service," she muttered, reaching for one of them, then saluting them all before taking a drink.

The others did not partake in their own choice of beverage, instead drinking a kind of fruit juice. "A sign of solidarity," Ororo said gesturing to Jean whose pregnancy was showing now. "There is a link between drinking alcohol during pregnancy and a birth defect called Fetal Alcohol syndrome, and since Jean cannot drink we decided that we all would do without."

"I hadn't heard that before. A link between birth defects and drinking while pregnant?" Hela asked with strong interest. "Is this certain? There were many times that the peoples that followed those of my pantheon could not drink pure water and had to resort to thin or watered alcohol for safe drinking."

"The link was found a few decades ago, though of course the issue existed long before that."

From there the conversation segued into other things that was supposedly known now that had been implied or entirely unknown before, interspersed with conversation and light flirting over the meal between the three who were already involved. Nothing large, just a touch here or there, but enough to make it clear they were all involved with one another.

Hela at one point sat back watching as Harry complimented something about Ororo, pulling at her white hair with his fingers lightly as the two of them locked gazes, the love between them so obvious it practically sparkled in the air. To her other side Jean and Emma were engrossed in their own conversation, laughing at something. Hela didn't feel out of place watching them, they had let her in to a certain extent, but not quite all the way, it was hard to describe.

She was letting her hair down as it were and hadn't even realized she'd been doing it until that moment where she could step back from the actual conversation and realize it. That is as telling as the memories were, that I feel that comfortable with them already. I told Harry I would be willing to make new memories like this, but I didn't expect this connection to reform so quickly.

After dinner however, the conversation turned to more serious things as they moved from the dining room table to the sitting room. Hela sat in the one chair again as the three other women sat in the loveseat together, scrunched up somewhat but they seemed to enjoy it which of course Hela was aware of. This wasn't a harem with all the women concentrating solely on Harry. This was a loving multi-relationship, which thankfully set it apart from the Greek goings on she had been comparing it too in her mind.

Harry took the seat opposite Hela putting his feet up on the table in a deliberate attempt to seem casual, though his emerald eyes were hard as he looked off into the distance for a moment. "So, how to begin this discussion... How much do you remember about getting in touch with Dani and how that occurred?"

"I remember the gift itself as I told you in my halls. I remember a conversation about whether or not it was appropriate, though looking back on it my memory of that moment is itself disjointed, as if…" she frowned suddenly looking at Harry "as if half of the conversation's topic had been removed."

"I think that these creatures, whatever they are had gotten frantic at the point where they began to remove my memories, they wanted to be quick and dirty about it, not precise. Whereas I already know, that my long-term memories were a most masterful example of manipulation," Hela said grimly nodding her head thanks to Jean in and Ororo.

Harry hummed grimly. "I'd like to say I'm sorry for that but frankly I'm glad we've begun to worry them, and I hope that your escape worries him even more. Worried enemies sometimes make mistakes."

"Or lashes out and causes trouble," Hela replied tartly. "Still, go on. Start with that memory."

Harry nodded, explaining what Dani had told them about her meeting with Fenris, how her spirit had seemingly gotten lost in transportation, which made Hela start for a moment, wondering about what previous connection Dani had with her realm. Harry also showed the skin Dani had brought back.

When they got to describing Dani's previous connection to the Asgardians however, the fact that Dani held Sigyn's memories inside of her, Hela gaped all of her poise deserting her. "Who's soul is hidden inside Moonstar!?"

"Your mother's, at least from the old tales your adopted mother," Ororo said slowly. "She seems to have fond memories of you. Dani has shared much of her conversations with Sigyn with us, she sounds like a pleasant and formidable woman. Though of course any woman who had to raise someone as willful as you and your siblings and deal with someone like labeled 'the Trickster God' would have to be."

"Are you certain that she is who she says she is?" Hela asked after a moment, her hands clenched around one another as she seemed to do battle with the idea, or rather that her memories had been so abused. "I mean no disrespect, but I have never heard of that, but then I wouldn't would I?" She spat to one side harshly. "Pleasant memories of my family, would somehow have weakened the puppet master's control over me I suppose or interfere with the path they saw fit to put me on."

"And because of your connection to Death, you are already a little too far out of their control as it was," Harry replied with a nod whose grimness could not be understated. "I'm sorry for that," Harry said leaning over and taking hands are handing his squeezing gently.

The warmth of that contact and what she saw her eyes almost made Hela blush like a naïve maiden but she shook her head rapidly, moving on deliberately. "Go on," she said grimly, "Tell me what you found out about these enemies and the differences between what I and my fellow Asgardians believe and what these new 'Kindreds' do."

With Ororo's help Harry outlined what they discovered, up to and including the meeting with the Draugr, with Jean and Ororo then taking up the tale from there. Emma interjected at that point, telling Hela about Amora and what she had been doing on Earth, and the fact that there was no equivalent character in the Asatru myths. "She's gone now, along with Thor, summoned back to Asgard I suppose."

"So they are not just concerned about me, but about anyone being influenced to act in a manner outside of their parts in this grand play they've tried to create." Hela said, and Harry watched interested as her hands began to twist and warp the wood of the seat, not so much shattering it, but treating it is if it was clay for a moment.

Her place in said play had infuriated her, as did the fact that many gods who had been married in ancient times no longer were, their spouses or children erased from life and memory. To rend families apart in such a way offended Hela greatly, family being a very crucial staple of the way her people worked, to say nothing about what they had done to her own.

After a moment Hela nodded slowly, her hands releasing their grip, and finally sighed. "All right, where do we go from here?"

She did not mean personally. She had decided somewhere along the line during this conversation that yes she was definitely still interested in Harry as she had been before her memories were taken. Emma was quite possibly a sticking point despite her amazing abilities, but Hela was willing to see if they could grow closer if that was what she had to do to court these other three. The blonde was not insufferable, merely prickly, which could be said for Hela's own nature, so perhaps time would wear away their edges.

At Harry's questioning glance she said those thoughts aloud. "I said I was willing to build new memories," she said, reaching over to take his hand. "That statement can be reiterated again in this particular area. But where do we go from here against these Shadow manipulators?"

"It's obvious that we need to do a lot more research on their abilities," Harry said wearily shaking his head. "The way they attacked my mind, I hadn't even considered that someone could teleport their power into another individual's mind like that. We need to think of ways to separate their victims from their powers. It's obvious that they are getting power from you, that's why they want you all under their thumb, we need to figure out how to separate them from the feeding trough as it were. How we go about that I don't know, not yet. For now, we'll work on your memories, prepare ourselves going forward, and we'll see."

Hela shook her head, a snarl of rage on her lips below her half-mask. "And do not forget that there are those who serve them, willingly or not. Garm reported that he smelled several different Fire Jotun Clans involved in the assault on us, and then there is Ororo's half of the tale! My own brother, Jormungundr willingly serving this group these Those Who Watch Above in Shadow, and he might not be the only one. Surtur himself might well have sacrificed his people for power, t'would be in keeping with that foul creature."

"Just call them TWATs Hela," Harry said, eliciting laughter from Jean and a thwack to the back of his head From Ororo while Hela looked blank and Emma rolled her eyes. "But I think we might have our own partisans out there too. Or at least Odin himself is aware of what is going on and is trying to strike back as he may." Harry described the amulet what Harry took to be Odin's Wanderer aspect had passed on to him, and how it had helped them find Jormungundar, aiding their saving Sigyn's body.

Later that evening as Jean and Ororo put Emma back to bed, the blonde woman still physically wiped out from her exertions, Harry took Hela down to see her mother. She had been placed into a special room, full of flowers and other things of that nature, but her crystal sarcophagus had yet to be opened.

Harry had examined it briefly before Emma woke up and discovered that the crystal containing Sigyn was made of pure magical power and was tied into her body and feeding off it. The spell had possibly been cast by the woman or someone close to her to protect Sigyn's body from further injury. Removing her would take some time, in fact a full-blown ritual one Harry would have to be very careful of constructing so that her life force didn't fade away with it. And even after that, they had no idea how to separate Sigyn's soul from her hiding place in Dani's blood and shift it back into her body.

Staring at the woman in the coffin Hela murmured. "She's beautiful. She seems strong, beautiful and from what your Moonstar said is kind and loving. Yet I cannot remember her at all. I could wish that at least some of my memories were not tainted!"

"I am sorry," Harry said, shaking his head. "I don't have very many memories of my own about my family, just my mother's final moments. But in know how important family is. I cannot imagine what you are going through Hela, but know we're here for you."

Hela nodded, and Harry, sensing she wanted to be alone with her thoughts left her there, still staring at the crystal sarcophagus holding the body of the woman who might be her mother. Some of her oldest, dimmest memories took on a new cast as she stood there and Hela suddenly wondered, If my long term memories of my mother were twisted to serve the part set out for me in this Ragnarok farce, then what of the memories of my father? Is Loki the evil man I remember or not? How deep does the manipulation, the trickery and deception of these puppet masters go?

She spent several hours there simply staring at Sigyn's body, and when she went to be that evening it was with a mind in turmoil. And rage. Lots of rage.

OOOOOOO

The next day before Harry could set up a meeting with William as he told Dennis he would, Harry was interrupted at breakfast with Jean as Dennis knocked on the door to their room, his knuckles making a staccato noise on the woodwork. So as to not wake up Emma who was still sleeping Harry quickly made his way down to the door as Ororo stuck her head out of the bathroom quizzically.

"Harry, we just got word, our generator complex in Devonshire was just attacked!"

A bare two hours later Harry, in his official capacity as owner of Arc Technologies, stood with Jean, and Emma looking at the wreckage of the outer generator complex listening to the police and SAS officers explain what they had discovered. As a terrorist attack this fell under SAS jurisdiction, but the police had been the first to respond, and their crime scene investigators had been quickly seconded to the SAS specialists.

The man in charge of the police on the scene, an orange-haired inspector in a dark coat began. "The attackers disguised themselves as some of the morning shift workers coming in. Something happened then that set off a security alarm, but by that time too many of them were already inside. One put something on the outer gate's control system frying it. Then two troop transports of some kind rolled in with some even larger truck of unknown type. Later on, as the attack ended they all got into that large truck and seemingly teleported away."

The man shook his head, somewhat bemused by what he was saying but there was no doubt about the event that had occurred or the technology that had to be used. "After that, the truck exploded, so thoroughly it didn't leave any parts larger than a thimble. During the attack the guards in the building gave a good account of themselves, taking out at least seven of the attackers, whose bodies they left behind. But it wasn't enough, and they weren't interested in taking hostages or leaving witnesses. We have over two hundred and fifty people confirmed dead so far."

"Are those bodies being kept separate? Not only for what they might tell us given time but also just in case of any… contagion?" Jean asked quickly at a mental nudge from Emma. Emma was currently invisible, her regular persona having no reason for being here.

While Jean was there to examine the damages to the complex, she was there to examine the minds of any survivors or witnesses. There were several witnesses to the attack from near the complex, since said station was ensconced into the city it served, yet they could tell her nothing they didn't already know. And there were no survivors among the generator station's workers.

"Yes ma'am, it was the first thing we thought about," the SAS man replied.

"Do the dead include the morning shift workers they were impersonating?" Harry asked, while Jean nodded, her face grim.

"Yes sir. We found their bodies, and those of their families in two cases, dead in their houses." the police officer replied, his face a rictus of rage.

"Damn it." Harry turned to a secretary Sage had assigned them when they had passed through Magical Minds HQ. "See any surviving family members get any aid they need. Anything they need, those men and women died in our employ and I will by god make certain their families are looked after. That includes anyone romantically connected to them. I'll also want to see our PR department as soon as we get back. We'll need to make a public announcement about this."

As the secretary nodded, rapidly tapping on his notepad, Harry turned to the SAS officer. "So, AIM?"

"Unless you know some other group that uses yellow hazmat suits as a uniform. Forty bruisers, seventy regular troopers, and one man in a strange purple version of their uniform were spotted taking part in this attack." The SAS man, a middle-aged and almost scarily fit captain, said dryly, if grimly. "We were able to track the main attack force back to a warehouse just outside of town, but there's no trail to follow from there. We don't have an idea yet where the main attack group came from beyond that point, though our techs are going over the entire warehouse with a fine tooth comb."

"Why weren't they spotted before they hit the generator complex? If they had to pass through the city I mean."

"They used a kind of virus loaded into the computer running traffic lights to keep any traffic away from their route, and the large truck releases some kind of EMP blast. We have had at least sixty plus people coming forward saying their phones just stopped working after they spotted 'the bloody mental truck with even more bizarre looking drivers'. As far as we can tell they didn't care if they were seen coming or going so long as their target couldn't be warned in time." The police officer cut in.

"But they had to know those witnesses alone would have told us something. If so, what was the point of killing all of the workers inside?" Harry asked, his face like stone.

"We don't know my lord, though it might have been sheer pique. I realize AIM is supposed to be organized by a cabal of mad scientists or some such, but their foot soldiers are still the kind of murderous fucks that fill any terrorist group." The SAS man added.

"The magical defenses worked and ported out the arc generator to the Forge so I'd wager he's right about that, Harry." The locals had been told about the security measures installed on the arc reactor, so they knew it hadn't been stolen, though most of course were still confused about the nature of those defenses.

"But I'd also say this is a direct retaliation to the attack SAS launched on their local base." Jean sent telepathically, at the same time moving over to one of the security systems, pulling out a small laptop that Reed had supplied her and Sage with the day after the attack on the cybernetics announcement.

She began to type in a few commands, her fingers flying over the computer, trying to pull up what she could of the battle on the complex's interior security cameras only to scowl as all she got was static at first. Leaving the others there she moved into the main building followed quickly by a few police specialists, who understood she had some programs the company could use to get more out of its own systems then they could.

Looking around, Harry realized the damage to the actual facility wasn't as bad as it first appeared. The Security station by the main gates was a total right off, and a lot of the electronics in the building would have to be replaced. But the building itself was relatively intact, and the power system could be repaired within a few days once they restore the arc generator to its rightful place. The city would be without power for those two days, but Harry had already contacted the mayor and had promised aid would be incoming to cover the loss of the generator within a few hours.

In return the mayor had gotten in touch with his king and had already had his agreement to station a company of infantry at the complex going forward to aid in security. The mayor and his people were as furious as Harry was, and thankfully put the blame of the attack on AIM regardless of others trying to say it was Arc Technologies being at fault for lax security or whatever other spurious reasons they had come up with to justify the company.

But despite all this forward planning the dead lost in this attack still infuriated and saddened Harry so he was in a dark mood by the time the locals finished wrapping up their reports. These reports alas amounted to knowing a lot of what had happened, but having no leads as to where the attack came from, which only made his mood worse. Of course we have the information on their bases scattered around in other countries, but the SAS already took both of those out, so where…

Jean's voice broke into his musing coming in over the com. "Harry, Emma, you have to take a look at this, and you might want to bring the locals too."

The group found Jean by a computer port set into the wall near the massive empty space which had before the attack housed the arc reactor. "What have you found Jean?"

Wordlessly Jean hit a button on her computer replaying a bit of camera footage. Whatever EMP device the attackers had been using had initially missed one of the security cameras, not for long, but it had caught something odd. One of the attackers, an AIM scientist of course was carrying a very odd looking device in his hands as he moved through the doorway toward the reactor only to cut off and stumble to a halt. Harry supposed that was the moment the arc reactor's intent based apparition array had activated.

But most of his attention was on the device in the man's hand as Jean enlarged that aspect of the video right at the moment where the camera had the best shot of whatever it was. It looked like a tube of some kind, almost like an overlarge pipe bomb, but the sides of it were clear, glass or something else see through, with something like a timed primer cap on one side and what looked like a needle on the other. The interior of it was filled with some kind of purple substance.

"Okay," Harry said slowly. "I have no idea what I'm looking at here."

"I think this could be a kind of gas or liquid. I don't know what it is, but it might have been designed to cause a chain reaction in the arc reactor." Jean said thoughtfully, staring at the image. "I think that makes a lot more sense than them being after the reactor itself. As high tech as it is, there's no way AIM doesn't' know about arc technology. The metals we use to get the most out of such a small reactor might be more interesting to them, but not enough for this kind of attack."

"They wanted to blow it up. Not so much to blame us, but to cast doubt on the arc reactor and our company then?" Harry said, his teeth clenched. "How big…"

"Enough to take out the entire city and then some." Jean replied grimly. "It the explosion was large enough to break the container itself, the whole city would have been lost."

"And don't think they couldn't have blamed your company for it Mr. Potter." Said the SAS captain. The police inspector seemed stunned, appalled by the disaster they had dodged. "If that had happened, the entire city, and any witnesses to the actual attack, would have been lost as well."

Harry nodded grimly at that before stepping back, letting the locals go over the video as closely as they could, with Jean creating a copy for them on a disk to look at later.

An hour later Harry sat in the limo he and the others had taken from Magical Minds headquarters, Harry feeling that the Huayra was too sporty for the moment. Pulling out his phone, he called Duncan, King William's son. "Duncan I presume you've seen the news? Tell your father that if the SAS want in he has until midday to decide. AIM's just gone from a nuisance to a real enemy, and I refuse to let them strike at us without striking back."

OOOOOOO

Hela made her way through the castle, a small, somewhat bemused smile on her face as she made her way through someone else's halls, though the rest of her was wondering about where everyone was. That they have no one watching me is a sign of trust which I can appreciate, yet I would rather have had Ororo, Harry or Jean around when I woke up to talk to.

Walking through the halls she found several classes going on, each group of as many as fifteen and as little as five being taught by teachers. In one she spotted Illyana sitting next to Melody reading together while Hedwig perched on the young seidr's chair leaning over her shoulder to read from the same text. It was an odd sight to see so many being taught thus, especially mathematics, reading and writing, but there was a rightness to the sight too.

But the only other adults she saw were a few 'teens'. A few of them moved and had a look in their eye of men and women, others did not, but all were hurrying to classes or about their business.

When Hela reached the main hall, she found Garm looming over a young, thin redheaded young girl just on the cusp of womanhood, several other teens and two women who were talking quietly among themselves beside a large crate of some kind which disappeared as she watched. Hela's senses were such that she knew it had been teleported away, though it took her a moment to realize it must have been by one of those little servant creatures that had helped with the dishes after last night's meal. "Garm?"

"Mistress!" Garm turned, lopping over to her side quickly, leaning down to stare at her in the eye. "Are you well, mistress?"

Behind him, Hela could see the girl breathe a sigh of relief before looking at Hela then away, crossing herself.

That act made Hela frown, but since this was not her halls she decided not to take umbrage at it, instead answering Garm's question. "I am well my guardian, as you seem to be. Your wounds from the battle against the tainted Jotun are all healed? And are you comfortable here?"

"Most comfortable mistress, the seidr man is a true Jarl here, with leagues of forest land for me to roam." Garm gestured with twitch of his massive head to the girl he had been talking to. "I have also taken it upon myself to get that young puppy to be more comfortable in her skin. She is what the locals call a werewolf mistress, like unto the skin shifters of old. It is her blood gift, many of the younglings here that have something more to them. Indeed the only one without a blood gift here is a young girl of local royal blood."

Cocking her head Hela examined the girl, nodding. "I see, well we might be here for a while, as long as you are comfortable that is the important thing. We might need to talk in the future about our role going forward with this war the Shadows seem to have launched against the Vanir and Aesir, but that will need to wait until we have a target. Until then, my realm no longer needs its guard at present, so however you wish to spend your time is up to you. But have you seen Harry around, or the others?"

Garm shook his head but an elderly gentlemen working on a huge map of Midgard which was hovering in the air turned to Hela. She idly wondered if that was a magical spell of some sort, or more of this technology that Jean had seemed so enthusiastic about.

"Greetings milady, I am Sir Dennis, the resident spymaster." The older gentleman introduced himself, bowing from the waist. "As to your question, there was an emergency that Harry and the others wanted to check into personally. Harry is still dealing with our response to it, but Ororo should be back here soon."

"Ah, an attack of some kind I presume," Hela chuckled, looking the map over with a critical eye. "I imagine that is all too regular an occurrence with how much Potter has spread himself out. Fighting for the rights of those with blood gifts, trying to put together a merchant empire, trying to devise space-based defenses, and oh yes, aiding me…" She finished, smiling in a way that made Dennis flush, turning away as he muttered under his breath about 'bloody lucky bastards'.

"But you say Ororo will return soon? What of Jean or Emma?" She might not like Emma as much as the others, but trading barbs with her was at least somewhat amusing, and she was eager to continue her education in all things Midgard if she could not continue her discussion about the Shadows and what they could do there. She was not so arrogant as to think that danger could supersede all the other responsibilities Harry and his faction were dealing with.

"Emma has her own business to see to, and Jean is involved in a news conference today, so she won't be returning. Indeed, she'll be gone all day very publicly taking a licensed private jet to make certain that no one questions how she gets from one place to another so quickly." Dennis replied, though Hela was uncertain she understood what he was talking about. Some type of subterfuge certainly, but what type eluded her.

Ororo chose that moment to walk through the halls main doors, nodding politely to the group of teen and the two women there before smiling at Hela. "Hela, are you well? I know that our conversation last night was disturbing on many levels."

"Disturbing indeed, but there is scant I can do about much of it." Hela looked around then leaned in, her voice dropping. She had no desire to air her issues or distress in public. "I spent a quarter of the night trying to figure out if the woman in that strange container is really my mother, and having no success. Then I spent the next quarter trying to think of a way to get Sigyn, if that is truly her name, out of there, again with no success."

Nodding in agreement Ororo decided to not reiterate their position that Sigyn was who she said she was. Hela was having enough problems without them making a point of pointing out that they knew more about her past, at least her family past, than she did. "I take it you are looking for something to do then? We are sort of lacking in any way to follow up against the Shadows."

Harry had been adamant about that, above and beyond the lack of any real target. He had walked in assuming they would fight him like Shadow creatures, larger and more powerful versions of the Dementors. They hadn't, and instead they had attacked him in a way he had not anticipated, and then brought a military force to the party. It had been far too close, and they could not afford to underestimate their abilities or resources again or overestimate their own, which would be just as fatal.

"Indeed. What are you up to might I ask?" Hela asked curiously, seeking to know more about her hosts and…potential interests.

"We are heading over to another one of our holdings. We have quite a bit of work left to do there before it becomes a viable one, but it is ours, through right of conquest as the locals put it." Ororo said, smiling internally as she wondered about how Hela would react to the Savage Land. "You're welcome to come along if you wish. Indeed, as some of the things I am going there to do at present resolve around local judicial and administrative matters, your aid would be most helpful."

Hela nodded equably and joined the larger group, smiling lopsidedly as she noticed how Garm was almost herding the young werewolf. She seemed reluctant to go, but a single growl made her twitch in near-submission, nodding her head and moving forward. Ororo too noticed this and frowned but decided to let Garm see if he could get through to Rahne. Despite her kind nature and friendship with Dani, the young werewolf mutant was very much a loner in many ways in the castle, not fitting in with the teens, not fitting in with the kids and still very leery about magic at all given her upbringing, to say nothing about her feelings toward her own mutation.

The others had all made a lot of progress in becoming more comfortable with themselves, Rahne had not. Ororo knew the reasons for it, and Dr. Druid and Father Garnoff had tried to talk to her. She was over her bad reaction to priests, but when it came to her body, she refused to see it as anything more than a curse. Perhaps Garm's gruff, blunt manner and nonhuman status will be the tool needed to get her to open up.

The group was soon in the Room of Doors, where Hela stopped, looking over the runic work with interest as Ororo activated the doorway she wanted. A moment later they all stepped through into the main hall of the Citadel. "Come with me," Ororo urged, taking Hela's hand in one of her own. "You need to see this."

The two of them moved outside, and Hela almost gaped under her half-mask as she stared at the prehistoric jungle before her beyond a small cleared area. "Welcome to the Savage Land!" Ororo said from behind her, while Hela stared at a giant lizard beast of some kind rearing its long neck out of the jungle canopy.

OOOOOOO

Sinister smiled thinly as he set down the latest report. No one had been able to connect any of the 'spontaneous' clashes between homo sapien and superior, and they continued to go on despite the idea of peace and equality gaining momentum. And all his pawns were in place, the two sides agitating nicely in Genosha, soon he would be able to move openly there to take control of the whole country. His defenses were ready too, both scientific and what little in the way of magic he had been able to devise. Damn Morgana and her cowardice, this would be so much simpler with her aiding me, but still, by the time I am done Potter and his group can do their worst, I will be able to match them.

Looking up when a chime sounded Sinister sighed, turning his attention to the TV set into the wall of his lab. Jean Grey was due to be a part of some kind of press conference from Saab, the car seller. What she was doing with them he didn't know, but there were a lot of rumors going around.

I can respect her desire to use her mind in such a way, but still, it isn't what I would envision for a telepath or telekinetic of such power. Pity none of my assets could be in place to try and capture her at this press conference, but I suppose some chances must be allowed to slip between my fingers. Besides, my own analysis of Potter's growing material base isn't done yet, and I have no wish to show myself until I am ready.

Sinister's calm thoughts skidded to a stop as he saw Jean Grey, wearing a form-fitting business suit walking next to another, slightly older looking young woman with nearly the same hair color. The suit showed off Grey's body to good effect, without being anywhere near overtly sexual. But that was secondary to Sinister in the face of the slight bulge showing in her heretofore flat middle. "Computer, capture image and run analysis on subject Grey's body type!"

The last time I saw an image of Grey was several weeks ago, but far too short a time for her to develop a beer belly or bloat even as lightly as that. Is this what I think it is? An instant later Sinister's computers popped out a response. Sinister stared at it then began to connect the dots. Grey avoids Summers, leaves Xavier's band of do-gooders and joins this Potter's faction, all before he was truly a power in the world, long before he was even on my radar at all. Now she is pregnant, visibly so…

Slowly he sat down, then without warning his hands flashed out smashing into and threw the desk in front of him as he stood up once more, rage suffusing his chalk-white features. For several minutes the sound of smashed glass and furniture abounded as he let loose his rage. Decades of research, entire genetic strains twisted and brought together to try and create the ultimate mutant, two generations of Summers and Greys manipulated to make them both biddable in order to create the ultimate mutant, and what do I have to show for it, nothing!

That dumb bitch got knocked up by a damn mage,? Wizard genetics are utterly unlike that of mutants from what little I know of them given my association with Le Fay, and there is nothing to show if they are at all compatible. Who knows what kind of powers if any will carry over to their offspring? Useless and worse than useless!

He whirled, seemingly looking at the ruins of his lab or rather his current lab, though his mind was a thousand miles away. Even worse this ruins my plans to capture Grey during the Custodes inevitable strike at Genosha once I act there openly. Grey is certainly not going to be allowed to join any combat team, and given how I still have no idea where Potter's real base of operations is there is no way to kidnap Grey while the rest of the Custodes are away. But if she is involved in these public meetings, then perhaps there is a chance. And once fetus and mother are in my hands, who knows what manipulation I could force on the fetus' genes to make things go my way. Perhaps Potter's genes, with the right touch, could be made to be even better than Summers'.

A second later he turned back to his work with more energy than before. He had work to do.

OOOOOOO

To say that William was incensed at this attack on United Kingdom soul was an understatement of apocalyptic proportion. He closed his cell phone after getting off the phone with a damage inspector on sight before leaning back in his chair. Raising one hand to cover his eyes for a moment then held the hand out in front of him, looking at the signs of age and weariness there. But it is still strong hand, and it is still my hand that defends this realm.

"These AIM terrorists have killed citizens of my kingdom," he said sternly looking over at his advisers. "As such, I fully agree with Guardian on his choice of action." Since they were talking about a military operation William decided to use Potter's misnomer rather than his real name. Though considering the action had been centered upon one of Harry's business holdings, it was a somewhat legal gray area.

"General Demontebanks," William went on turning to his military adviser, his voice cool and collected. "I realize we have been holding back attacking the last AIM base in our territory, for fear of giving the game away as to how we knew they were there, but that concern has lost its import. "I want it gone. Indeed, I want every base of this terrorist group we know about destroyed regardless of where they are or what nation they reside in."

"Your Majesty, you cannot," said the Prime Minister, before Williams eyes turned to her and she stilled. William might be old, but he was King and his glare had the power to silence even so doughty a woman as Margaret Thatcher.

"Irrespective of the sovereignty of these nations, they house terrorists, terrorists who have now taken it upon themselves to strike at our nation." After a moment though Williams their lesson. "We will tell the commanders to be discreet as possible and rely on Guardian to clear up any hint of our involvement. His special abilities should be very useful for that. We will also inform the nations we have already sent word to about the bases in their realms that we will be doing so if they do not within the next day."

Now it was the Foreign Secretary's turn to make to speak but William went on implacably. "It has been long enough. If a nation truly has sovereignty, that is the ability to see to both the morale and the defense of said, they will have already made plans to strike at these terrorist bases. If they do not, they cannot then turn around and complain about us doing their jobs for them."

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary both winced at the dry biting tone in William's voice, but the rest of the cabinet all simply nodded their head. "I'll alert the SAS," said the general, getting to his feet with a smile, still not used to having the full range of movement of his body once again.

William nodded then flipped open his phone again as a thought occurred to him. "Mr. Potter, is there any way you could see your way to figuring out how to cut off communications from the various bases as we attack them? Surprise after all is worth a legion."

It turned out that Harry could indeed do so.

It came as a surprise to no one that GIGN took the strongly worded professional courtesy 'just so you know old boys were going to be doing this' hint very seriously. That very night they launched three operations across France to destroy AIM bases in its territories backed by the French Foreign Legion. They even smashed one base just across their border with Spain. All of these were classic smash and flash assaults, leaving evidence of the terrorist presence but fading before local authorities could figure out what was going on. Later the French government would release official statements about all but the attack in Spain, but the Spaniards would be able to connect the dots easily enough, yet would not care enough to make an official complaint.

Losses among GIGN on these attacks was heavy however. Each attack was led by a platoon from the intervention Force of the GIGN and a team of Force Observation/Recherche, backed by a minimum of two squadrons of Mobile Gendarmerie troops. Despite outnumbering the defenders, they ran into meat grinders in two of the bases, and never had technological superiority.

None of the French however could dispute the need after finding that two of the bases were testing mind control drugs of various types. The third was a training zone for regular infantry, hence the losses the attackers sustained there. And the last was a weapons development site. Most of the weapons there were destroyed in the battle, and the defenders had time to wipe their systems, but the fight had nearly wiped out the four squadrons assigned to that

In Canada the Canadian Special Operation Forces Command went to work. Thankfully they had still had a few homegrown heroes, which helped them out. Still losses among the Canadian special forces was nearly equal the French. Even the SAS, when they went in with out the Custodes, suffered losses. AIM simply had a larger technological base than most Special Forces units could deal with without piling up the bodies. Nonetheless they did do so gleefully.

And it wasn't as if Harry had been less than forthcoming with his own technological innovations to the SAS. At this point small arms development had reached such a pitch that Harry was able to outfit every SAS man who went on these missions with a few weapons, and he even got nearly all of them back afterward too. The four that he didn't destroyed themselves thanks to the security spells on them before anyone could find anything out about them. Harry liked William and his government, that didn't mean he wanted to arm them save against alien enemies.

The Custodes Mundi also took part of course, split into two uneven groups. Nikolai and Wyatt were seconded to the SAS and Captain Britain, who for this operation was dressed as a single SAS operative to be the strong arm against one base. Given its placement the base was possibly one of the more important AIM bases, deep in the Northern Limestone Alps in Austria. The Austrians had not replied to the professional heads up so the base was fair game under Harry and William's orders, though the group would be careful to not leave much evidence behind despite that.

This operation was a full nighttime operation. Even the stars overhead were obscured by cloud cover so it was as black as pitch when Nikolai, Wyatt and the rest of the SAS teams with them were dropped seamlessly into the nighttime forests by flying carpets, something that had made more than one of the SAS men look askance at their new companions. Much of their chagrin went away after they found out how fast, silent and unseen the carpets moved.

The rest went ahead as Vanguard and Coyote took the lead, moving through the forest toward their target with the ease of long practice from one and harsh training in the other. Occasionally Coyote would stop, picking out tracks or marks or people having moved through the forest ahead of them. When that occurred he motioned the SAS around quickly.

Vanguard too was an expert at spotting traps, even a little better than the SAS troops. At one point he found a perimeter alarm, which they couldn't get around except for climbing up into the trees and jumping over it. Since this perimeter alarm consisted of not one but two rows of devices, that was a tall order.

Here Wyatt showed why his team name was Coyote popping out of existence in one place to appear elsewhere, moving forward quickly followed by Captain Britain, who flew through the treetops to avoid the perimeter alarm. They then set up a small zip-wire, which Vanguard and the rest of the SAS troops used to bypass the perimeter alarms while Coyote used his helmet's sensors to make certain there were no traps or alarms nearby. A few minutes of slow movement later they came within sight of the target.

This place was supposedly a prison complex, owned and operated by the Austrian government, but astonishingly there is no prisoner transfers in or out for over a year and a half, and no visitors had ever come here.

From there, Nikolai and two of the SAS specialists took over, clapping hands on cut cocaine Captain Britain and Coyote's backs as they moved forward, disappearing into the dark ahead of the rest of the teams. Reaching the base of the prison's outer wall Nikolai pulled on special climbing gloves which he used to scale the wall. It was slow going, he had to make certain that no one heard his ascent, and more than once he spotted guards moving around on top of the wall. Those guards were dressed like normal prison wardens, but Nikolai noticed that one of them had a high-tech rifle that looked like someone's version of a laser weapon.

Marking that one out as someone he needed to take out even quicker than the rest, Nikolai finished his ascent of the wall, waited a few moments for guard to pass before slipping over the top of it. Moving behind the man quickly, he grabbed him around the mouth and nose with one hand around, pinching the nose quickly while covering the mouth, while he locked in a hold on the man's neck, snapping it quickly and silently.

Elsewhere the other two SAS specialists started their own assault silencing the guards on duty and quickly moving towards the two guard towers from where the lights were flashing. One of them tossed a grenade up into the watchtower, while Nikolai pulled out his own, thumbing the catch and quickly following suit. The two watchtowers exploded bright red and orange in the night as screams abounded and the alarm finally sounded.

Outside the others all saw this and Captain Britain rocketed forward, slamming into the outer door of the prison, slamming it off its hinges to let in the rest of the attackers. Coyote appeared on the wall next to his teammate at the same moment, his rifle on his shoulder.

The first part of his job done, Vanguard equipped his sniper rifle from the runes on his hand which glowed briefly unseen under his gloves. As he felt the rifle come to his hand he noticed the urge to eat something come to him for a moment but it was easily ignorable. Putting the rifle to his shoulder, he began to fire down into the group of troopers that had just come out from the interior of the prison complex in response to the explosions as Coyote did the same.

"There don't seem to be any large bruisers here, which is good," Coyote grunted, watching one of his gauss rounds nail a defender through the head before going on to kill or wound four behind him they defenders being so packed in the doorway to the prison complex. "Though it seems that our gauss rounds is somewhat overkill."

"There is no such thing as overkill, there is simply dead or not dead enough," Vanguard quipped. He turned quickly, his own shot destroying a popup turret of some kind that had just extruded itself from the wall, and Coyote did the same when other snipers joined them on the wall firing down into and through the doorway leading into the building, halting the advancing defenders.

The rest of the SAS troops charged forward, moving across the courtyard using fire and movement, but there was no cover here. Three went down to defenders firing from the few windows facing the courtyard, and several more fell back as they reached the entrance.

Coyote lined up a shot through one of the windows, killing whoever was inside before pushing at Vanguard's shoulder. "Go, we've got this!"

Vanguard nodded, leaping down into the courtyard and racing forward, his mutant power activating. Bullets, energy blasts and even one odd electrical attack of some kind bounced off his shield and he quickly secured the doorway. The energy and bullets that hit him all reflected back the way they came, killing many, and his shield allowed, allowing the SAS to gain the entrance without further loss of life.

Once they were in Coyote popped up to the roof of the building. There he found several antiair guns, which he swiftly destroyed. After that he cut into the roof with a laser torch for a moment before jumping down into its interior. Then he opened a radio communication intoning solemnly "Firefox actual, this is Coyote, exterior is silenced, come on in."

An instant later the same carpets that the initial squad used came in, this time loaded heavily with troops with Shadow Cat leading them, controlling the magic carpets as she had before. Carpets could be given precise directions, but couldn't then move or fly in anything but a relatively straight line unless a magical was around to control them. A second later they touched down the roof, and a second front was opened against the defenders.

The fight continued from there for barely twenty minutes while the AIM of personnel tried to defend themselves but the outcome after that point was never really in doubt. The defenders didn't have any bruisers, and this place didn't even have many actual fighters at all. The reason for this became clear the moment the teams reached the second floor.

"This was an indoctrination center," Vanguard said grimly, still wearing his balaclava and gesturing all around them. The first three levels of the prison complex were still a prison, housing not the original inmates, but various scientists and other academic looking people taken in small raids or well-planned kidnappings the world over.

One of them was walking beside Vanguard now talking with him and the local SAS commander, as his fellows were quickly rounded up, in an organized fashion for an equally quick egress. His English was marked by a thick Greek accent, but understandable. "Yes. This place was used to break us, indoctrinate us, or try to convince us to join willingly. AIM seemed to prefer willing inductees over indoctrinated ones, but willing or no we would leave in yellow or not at all."

He shrugged his heavy shoulders in clothing that now looked at least a size too big for him. "The indoctrination process was slow, as little as five days to more than a month in others. And there were only twenty indoctrination chambers here, though why that might be I do not know, I am a chemist, not an engineer. Once it was done however the indoctrinated soul was completely on AIM's side, as if he always wanted to be."

"Power supplies," one of the SAS specialists supplied. "The base's generator is huge, but still somewhat well covered by the stone and soil of the prison. Anymore and the heat signature would be visible by overhead flyers."

The former prisoner, who had not given his name yet but seemed to be held in some respect by the other prisoners, nodded his head. "I suppose that makes sense."

"How exactly were you kidnapped sir?" Vanguard asked.

"I was coming home after a trip abroad. My car started in the airport parking lot, then some kind of gas filled the interior. The next moment I am here," the man replied, again shrugging magnificently. "I had no chance to escape, no chance to even think."

It turned out that the man's car had been involved in an accident ostensibly the fault of a known alcoholic. His body had been found in the wreckage burned beyond belief, but his dental records had helped to identify him to the next of kin. This of course opened a massive kettle of fish, not just for the people they had rescued, but for the intelligence agencies the world over. After all, if AIM could create such amazingly lifelike body doubles, how many scientists had they kidnapped since they began to operate? Even Harry was disturbed by that idea, though thankfully thanks to Shadow Cat and Sage's work, the number of actual bases, and their physical resources, were being dealt with.

More Chapters