Chapter 46: Chapter Forty-Six
"What do you mean 'sword'?" Fury asked two months later as Harry led him to his hidden floor. Two months for Fury that is. Harry had been working on the project for almost a year in that same time.
"I mean, we now have this ship and it has enough fire-power to destroy small planets… potentially." Harry said. "It should be strong enough to destroy our moon, for example, with enough power."
"How?" Fury asked.
"You'll see." Harry said. Once they reached his office, Harry closed the door and locked it. Then he turned a portal into being. "After you." he said, indicating the opening.
Fury hesitated, but only for a second before stepping through. On the other side, he stopped and looked around at the control room. There were no people and only a few monitors were on, but Fury couldn't make out what the room's purpose was. Harry joined him and smiled. "What am I supposed to be seeing? Is this your idea of mission command?" Fury asked. "I thought you were going to show me a space-ship? When will you be launching?"
Harry's smile grew larger. "Follow me." He said and led Fury to a door, which opened for them. On the other side was what looked like a hanger, with a huge floor area and hanger doors on the far side. In the exact centre of the hanger was a large car, a Hummer by the looks of it. And next to the car was one, Tony Stark. "Are we ready?" Harry asked.
"Just waiting on you two." Tony said. "I can't believe you had me work on this monstrosity." he said pointing to the car, "It goes against the idea of fast and attractive."
"It's durable, spacious and was nice and simple to modify with everything we wanted, so suck it up." Harry said. "And stop trying to ruin this moment for me. You're already driving."
"Piloting, technically." Tony mumbled.
"This is your space-ship?" Fury asked. Both Harry and Tony smirked, but didn't answer. Harry just led him to the car and opened the front passenger door for him. "Couldn't you ever try to not surprise me?" he asked as he got in.
"I could try, but I suspect I'd fail." Harry laughed as he got in in the back seat.
Tony, in the meanwhile, had jumped into the driver's seat. "I'd say buckle up, but it's unnecessary." he said before starting the motor and smiling like a maniac while activating some of the controls and taking off at a decent clip, "Do your thing, Harry!"
Harry smiled along as he waved a hand in the direction of the door and pressed a remote control button as they approached the hanger doors. The doors started opening and Fury saw only darkness through them, "What the Hell!?" he screamed as they suddenly accelerated faster than Fury thought possible and in no time they were out the doors and into the void. He had braced himself instinctively once they started accelerating and especially when they shot out the door, but only now realized there was no need as he hadn't felt a thing and they were still apparently flying out into what appeared to be space. "Where are we?" he asked as he peered out the window and saw more stars than he ever had in his life.
"Welcome, Director Fury, to SWORD." Harry said as Tony turned them around and Fury could finally see the massive space-ship.
Fury could hardly believe his eyes. He was looking and still couldn't believe it. As they flew over the edge of the ship to what appeared to be the 'top' of the ship, his eyes narrowed, "Are those…"
"The Insight Carriers?" Harry finished for him. "Yes, they are. They were doing us no good down on Earth and I needed them."
"Who gave you permission?" Fury asked dangerously.
"Who could stop me?" Harry countered. "Until now, you'd forgotten that they'd existed, hadn't you?"
"You put a Fidelius on specific knowledge?" Fury asked. "How long have you been able to do that?"
Harry shrugged, "Technically the Fidelius was on everything in that base. Since all records and memories pointed to that specific location…"
"We lost the knowledge of the Carriers." Fury finished. "Fair enough." he groused, "I'm assuming I'm here for a demonstration of some sort? And don't think I've forgotten that you've somehow parked a giant space ship on the dark side of the moon. I'll need details on how you did that little trick."
Tony spoke up, "Well, when I cracked rune-based propulsion and magical flight became a possibility, Harry decided to join me on my first flight into space. That's when he told me about that little project of his." He said as he pointed to the surface of the moon.
Fury leaned forward unnecessarily as Tony steered them toward the bump, which soon became a house and then a warehouse and then a full-blown bio-dome as they drew closer. "What the hell is that?!" he asked.
"Welcome to EPI's secret lunar base." Harry said grandly as Fury inspected the buildings he could see in the dome.
"Is that a garden and a fountain?" Fury asked incredulously as he looked through what looked like glass.
"I thought it might be nice to have a picnic on the moon. Natasha really enjoyed it. You would not believe how great the view is when the moon is full on Earth." Harry said with a smile. He and Natasha had enjoyed becoming the first for many things on the moon. "There was also the hope that bringing life onto the moon would help generate magic that we could then use to power some of the necessary magical systems. It doesn't seem to work that way. We'll crack it eventually."
"Let me get this straight," Fury began, "You've established a base on the moon and started your own space program in the last couple of months. Is that about right?" he asked incredulously again.
"About." Harry said.
"But wait, there's more." Tony said with a smirk.
"How are we on time, Tony?" Harry asked.
"We've got a bit, but I'd suggest we get into position soon." Tony said seriously.
Fury did not miss the shift in mood. "What's going on?"
"A demonstration." Harry said. Then he went quiet as he looked at Tony who nodded and steered them back to the SWORD ship.
This time Fury noted them flying through what looked like a bubble into the hanger. Harry noticed the look and explained, "Modified bubble-head charm. Allows physical objects through, but maintains cabin pressure." Fury nodded as he watched the doors close behind them.
When they had parked the Humvee, Harry seemed to be in a hurry all of a sudden. "Come on, I'm giving you the tour, before we need to be in position. Right?" Harry asked Tony.
"Should be just enough time." Tony nodded, checking his watch again.
"Jarvis, please let us know if we need to start worrying?" Harry asked.
"Of course, Harry." Jarvis said politely, but followed it up, cheekily, with, "If you're late, I'll just align it so long and spare you the trouble."
"Don't you dare! I'm saving that for Nick, here." Harry exclaimed mock angrily.
Fury just glared at Harry. "I hope you're not expecting me to know how this contraption works."
Harry just smiled and continued on, "On your left here, you have the bunks and suits for guests and senior staff or 'brass'." He pointed out. As he went he pointed to the multiple facilities, the large amount of windows, the elevators, training facilities, enchanted ceilings and where he planned to add certain features, but he had left a large portion of the ship un-planned so that whoever took charge, could plan the rest of the ship's general layout.
After showing Fury the deck where the flight controls were, he took Fury to the 'engine room'. It was locked behind very heavy doors, which appeared out of no-where. It was a large room with multiple nodes all over the place. There were racks with what seemed to be plastic boxes that radiated with soft light. Some were mounted on nodes that looked like they were meant for propulsion and other functions. Fury watched as Harry levitated two of the boxes from their location on the shelves and mounted one on a blue node marked PD, and the other on a red node, marked BFG. "Is that?" he started with a wide eye.
"It means what you think it means and if you ever played the game, you know how much energy such a weapon uses. This one can do more, but it's currently limited to the amount of power contained in the Magic Storage Containment Shells, or MSC Shells." Tony explained. "This is our power storage facility. Harry calls it an Engine Room, because without this room, there is no power on the ship and thus no flight."
"I thought Magic was an endless power source?" Fury asked confused.
"I generate magic, but it seems it's more concentrated on the Earth. Odin is of the opinion that it has to do with the amount of life on the planet. Life and magic kind of go hand in hand." Harry explained. "Either way, space does have a bit, but it's nowhere near enough to power a ship like this, so we relied on one of Jarvis's latest inventions."
"Technically, Master Stark started the project, but I finished it when he saw no further need for it." Jarvis corrected.
"I don't mind sharing credit with you J." Tony said with a smile. "I can give you twelve percent of the credit."
"By my calculations you deserve twenty-four point two six percent of the credit, after I had to design the storage devices and modify the rune schemes to properly contain and measure the amounts of energies stored in the MSC Shells, Sir." Jarvis replied. He did not sound smug in the slightest.
Tony gaped, but then smiled, "I trust your calculations." Tony was very proud of the AI. He had advanced so far that Tony could no longer think of him as only a machine. He was genuinely a person in his mind. "That doesn't mean that I'll ever admit that you're smarter than I am." he added flippantly.
"Of course not, sir. You did think to start the project and hand it to me, when you couldn't finish it, after all." Jarvis joked.
Tony just laughed as Harry opened the door and led them out again, before sealing the door and making it vanish. "Standard security. The Engine Room is in a pocket dimension as well, to ensure nobody can scan and aim for it if we're ever in battle. The conduits are also shielded by magic for the same reason. This ship does not just rely on Runes and I needed to enchant a great deal of it myself. Fortunately enchanting embeds the magic in the structure of an object and it would take many years for those enchantments to simply stop working due to lack of exposure to a magical environment."
"How many years?" Fury asked.
"Hundreds." Harry said simply.
Harry continued leading them and soon they arrived at one of the weapons array rooms. It was in the heart of one of the stolen Insight Carriers as that was where the weapons arrays for that carrier was connected. "Welcome to the heart of SWORD." he said.
"This room is connected to the entirety of one of the Insight Carrier's weapons systems. Those, in turn have been retrofitted with many new devices. Things that I've been working on for a long time and couldn't hand out due to their sheer destructive capabilities, some of which even came with me from my old world. You will recall that I was working to kill the man who was seemingly immortal?" Harry asked.
"Voldemort." Fury nodded.
"Exactly," Harry confirmed, "Let's just say I've had a long time to work on destroying things."
"You never did say how you ended up killing him." Fury said.
"You don't want to know." Harry said with a shudder. Fury dropped the subject, for now. "I'm already giving you a really cool weapon." Harry said as he seemed to rally himself with some visible effort and a bit of a smile.
"It's time we get this party started." Tony said, having checked his watch again.
"Okay!" Harry said with his smile in full bloom again. "Director, if you would please step into the control console." He said as he pointed the director to the centre of the room where there was a semi-rectangular pedestal surrounded by a rail that went almost all the way around.
"Harry, I don't think-" Fury started.
"Scared?" Harry interrupted. "Don't worry, I'll be walking you through it."
Fury glared at Harry, but didn't back down and walked confidently onto the pedestal. When he was standing in the centre he felt it. There was a tingling feeling as an image started appearing around Fury. When the image had finished taking shape, Fury was looking at the outside of the ship, like he was standing on its hull, but when he looked down, he saw he was only outside the ship from the torso up, where the rectangular shape of the Insight Carrier around him matched the railing perfectly so he walked forward and placed his hands on the railing to look around. He felt like a giant, having seen how big the ship was.
"This is impressive." Fury said. "I can feel a connection to the weapons systems and it's like they are moving where I want them to." As he said it, he watched as the little turrets moved at his merest thought.
"Very good." Harry said. "We'll be changing your view a bit. I want you to watch the red line and try to follow it with your eyes." A dot appeared in front of Fury and started drawing a line towards… something in the distance.
"What is that?" Fury asked. Suddenly he could see it as if he had travelled, but looking down he was back at the ship. He focussed on the line and was at the object again.
"A potential threat to our moon base." Harry said. "It's an asteroid. It is going to hit the moon a little too close to our base and I don't want to risk damaging it."
"If it was heading to Earth it wouldn't be an issue as there's too much atmosphere and it would have burned up during entry." Tony said, "But the Lunar facility is not protected that way. Fortunately we have you."
"Me?" Fury asked.
"You." Harry confirmed with another smile. "Remember the BFG?"
Fury's face broke out in a demonic smile. "Oh, I like where this is going."
"I thought you might." Harry said. "I designed the BFG to shoot a beam, which I got the idea for from Odin's spear Gungnir, but somehow it turned out wrong. When Tony saw it, though, he saw the potential."
"Focus on the asteroid and will the cannons you were playing with to align with it. The red dot you followed is part of the targeting array." Tony said. "You'll find out soon enough how the BFG works."
Fury followed their instructions and soon the red dot turned orange and then slowly started turning green. The moment it turned completely green, Fury tried to will it to fire, but he heard a classic error buzzer.
"Sorry Nick, but this is not as simple as point and click. The BFG is ready to fire, but this is a three man key system." Tony explained.
"Tony and I must press and hold a release switch to allow you to fire. This is part of the protections on the system." Harry said. "When this ship is fully loaded out, the Captain will have a final key which activates the weapons systems, but for now that's bypassed."
"When can I fire?" Fury asked impatiently.
"Harry and I are using our own monitors to see where you are aiming." Tony said, ignoring the question. "This way we can ensure from different angles of the array that no friendlies are in the line of fire. And that is backed up by a portion of AI Jarvis wrote for the ship."
"Wait, Jarvis wrote an AI?" Fury asked.
"I did." Jarvis spoke up. "It was necessary as I will be doing something else in the near future. Mister Stark will need a replacement system that works as well as I did."
"Not easy is it?" Tony asked.
"Not easy at all." Jarvis admitted. Tony preened. "It took me days." Tony sagged again.
Fury was getting impatient, "Well? What do your systems say? Are there any friendlies in the way?" he asked sarcastically. "What is the range on this thing anyway?"
"It can go quite far." Harry piped up.
"We haven't tested it yet, but I imagine it can go a couple million miles." Tony said.
"Which isn't far when you're talking about the size of the solar system." Harry said. "We could probably go as far as halfway to Mars?"
"Just about, though it would take a while to travel that far one way or the other. Any advanced race would have systems to protect from such long-range attacks." Tony said. "Okay, target is entering the perfect firing range. Everybody ready?" he asked.
"Ready." Harry said.
"Ready." Fury copied.
"Okay, then fire in three, two…" Tony and Harry pressed their buttons and watched as Fury smiled and fired the weapon.
Fury felt the weapons recoil and looked down to see four of the eight identical cannons had fired simultaneously. What they had fired looked like balls of green plasma. Fury watched as they moved closer and closer above his head, until they seemed to combine and then they shot forward incredibly fast. He saw the impact on the asteroid, a flash of green and then, nothing. The asteroid was gone, with not a particle of it visible to Fury's eyes. The only evidence of the asteroid was the faint green glow where it was struck and that too soon dissipated.
"That, was cool." Fury said. "I want one." Tony and Harry looked at each other and broke out into laughter. "What?" Fury asked.
"We expected your reaction." Harry chuckled. "Fortunately, you've had your taste and can now start planning to man this ship."
"Aren't you going to be manning it with your people?" Fury asked as he walked off the pedestal. Every time Harry started something new he decided who to put on the project.
"Fury, you are my people. EPI is the biggest thing I've done and you are at its head. I put you there for a reason. You're good at what you do." Harry said. "I suggest you put someone else in charge here, though. Someone with actual space experience?" he hinted.
"But-" Fury started looking between Harry and the console, before seemingly deflating. "I suppose you're right." he accepted, before looking up sharply, "But I still want one."
"We'll have to think about it." Tony said.
"Like I said, with enough power that weapon can blow up the moon. We'd rather not make too many of them. As it is, the only reason I will allow it on the ship is because there are multiple fail-safes, which will not allow the guns to be pointed toward Earth or the Moon. This is a defensive weapon, only." Harry said.
"Why not call it a shield, then?" Fury asked.
Harry smirked, "Do you remember the blue power injector with the letters PD?" Fury nodded, having wondered about it, but his attention had landed fully on the Big F-ing Gun. "That was in case something went wrong and you missed the target."
"There was a second shot available, but just in case you missed that one too, we powered up the Phantom Drive." Tony said. "That was my idea, by the way. Complete insubstantiality. The asteroid was on a collision course with the ship, after all."
"What does that mean?" Fury asked, not liking what it sounded like.
"I showed him a trick Odin taught me, making things insubstantial and he had me layer an enchantment on the ship using some the rune induced field generators he installed. It still requires a lot of power to work, but it doesn't take me years to enchant the entire ship, at least. He would have had the asteroid pass through the ship and I would have apparated to the moon to protect the base as best as I could." Harry said with a shrug. "Though I doubted it would be necessary. I had faith in you."
"I told him to power it, just in case. This ship is too valuable to lose just because Harry wanted to give you a demonstration." Tony said.
Fury nodded at Harry in thanks for his faith in him and asked, "And what about threats that make it past your 'defensive weapon'?"
"They get to deal with the Avengers." Tony said confidently. "What else?"
-A month later-
Harry was in his lab working on a project for a new colleague of his, a certain Reed Richards, who had decided to help Tony on his space station project after he had finally gotten Harry to return the man's calls. Harry hadn't been ignoring the man on purpose, but he'd been busy.
Harry was currently working on an enchantment that would permanently keep a transfiguration up and turn his friend, Ben Grimm, back into a man from some sort of rock creature. The idea was that he could switch it off and on as necessary. He was still struggling with it, when his mirror activated immediately to an incoming call.
"Sorry for using the emergency contact, sir, but we have an immediate need for your help." The interim head of SWORD, Abigail Brand, said.
Harry didn't wait. He dropped the magic he was channelling and activated his portkey to the SWORD ship, named 'Midnight' after it was given its camouflage capabilities and hid itself in the darkness of the night perfectly. "What do we have?" Harry asked as he appeared on the command deck, where several feeds showed a strange image of some sort glowing blue rock having apparently appeared in the middle of a town. People were lined up next to it with their phones out and staring.
"We've requested SHIELD personnel to go and help," Agent Brand reported, "But we have no idea where this thing is coming from. It shot up out of the nearby forest of a small town in Missouri and seemed intent on an exponential expansion when it suddenly stopped. We have unconfirmed reports of people being crushed by whatever it is."
"What timeline are we talking about, should it start again?" Fury said as he jogged into the control room.
Brand seemed to scowl at Fury, but a nearby tech spoke up in a panicked voice, "If it picks up where it started and continues without stop, we're talking hours before the entire planet is covered."
"I'm going to go see what I can find out." Harry said and activated his armour before disappearing. He did not wait for any response. When he arrived at the scene, he flew out over the growth and focussed his magic on finding the source. It was not easy, but a couple of minutes later he found what felt like an antenna of some kind. And there was a faint connection going somewhere… out into the universe. Harry cast a bombardment hex in the direction he felt the connection and the stone glowed for a second before suddenly growing on the spot, where it had impacted. Harry activated his mirror as he flew out of reach, when the stone came a bit too close, and called for Brand, "It's extra-terrestrial. This is an attack and whatever was feeding it energy, stopped. I don't know why and I can't follow it back to its source, the connection is too weak. I'm going to try and block it if it starts again."
"Any chance of destroying it?" Brand asked.
"I tried. It seems that whatever made this runs on pure energy. My power made it grow." Harry said.
"Understood," came Brand's response. "Please open a portal to the throne-room in Asgard. Your brothers are waiting for you to come assist."
Harry scowled, "Why did you have to go tell them?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but you have been classified as our most valuable asset. Whenever possible, we will arrange backup for you. Agent Romanoff is on standby, should you require her as well." Brand said shamelessly.
Harry groused, but opened a portal anyway. Thor and Loki flew out on the royal carpet, fortunately, as Harry did not want to levitate them along. "You've been briefed?" Harry asked after casting privacy charms on them.
"We have." Loki said as he looked around with a sense of urgency. "Do you know the source?"
Harry pointed straight down. "There's a connection of some sort down there. I'm going to try and block the energy if it starts again. My magic only gave it energy."
Loki nodded and started focussing his eyes over the scene. "Those people need to leave. If you fail to stop it, they will be killed." Just as he finished saying it, a large aircraft appeared over the town with EPI written on the side and a golden phoenix behind it with its wings lifted up above its head.
Harry recognised 'The Bus'. It lowered to the ground and opened a large door on the rear. "May I have your attention? This is Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD. We have been tasked with evacuating the area from an unknown threat. Please allow the agents to show you to a seat and we will take you to safety." As Phil spoke, agents started streaming out of the aircraft. Harry presumed they were porting agents in to help.
He was soon focussed on his task again and Thor asked, "Should I not attempt to destroy this? Mjolnir will not be stopped and can find its centre and destroy whatever is feeding it power." he finished confidently.
"You can try, but I'd rather you don't give it more power while the civilians are still around." Harry said. Thor scowled, but nodded and they watched as the people were escorted away to the aircraft.
"Fawkes!" Loki suddenly exclaimed. "You should call him. He's good at following connections, right?"
"Just because Fawkes has done it before, doesn't mean he can do it whenever he wants and with all kinds of connections." Harry said. As expected, Fawkes appeared and landed on his shoulder. "But I suppose I can ask anyway." Harry said as he looked at Fawkes. No words were said, but the phoenix was nodding and shaking its head anyway. Then Fawkes looked straight down and up before flaming away. "Okay, so he's going to try and follow the energy and come back if he has any luck. If he does come back before this starts again, we can go to the source to stop it."
They all waited, but before Fawkes could return and give them good news, Harry felt a surge and he instantly lifted his hands and put up a shield. He may as well have done nothing as the energy flowed around the shield and started feeding the rock from a different location. "Damn. There's no blocking this!" Harry yelled as he looked around to see the last civilians enter the aircraft and watched it lift up just in time to avoid being overrun.
Harry was about to start trying to track the energy himself, when Fawkes reappeared with a triumphant, but urgent cry. Harry grabbed its tail-feathers and was dragged off. When he reappeared he was underground in the most fantastic cave he had ever seen. "-doesn't need to be like this, Peter." Harry heard and he looked around to see a man who was slowly being formed, right before his eyes. Before him was another man, tethered down by the same energy that was attacking Earth. "Why are you destroying our chance?" he demanded.
To Harry he sounded like the bad-guy, and Fawkes confirmed his thought. Fawkes had followed the power and its intent to the man on the floor, but it was being directed by the other man, who was monologuing. "Every time," Harry smirked as he opened a portal for his brothers to follow him. They were through almost instantly. "That's our big bad." He said pointing at the older man.
Thor was instantly off and started bashing at the startled man. "Asgardian?" he asked as part of his skull was destroyed, but he just stood there. "Why are you here? I have no quarrel with your people."
"You're attacking Midgard." Thor said with a scowl. "Earth is under my protection." Then he smashed the construct to pieces.
Harry in the meanwhile, summoned the man on the floor to him and Loki severed the links that were running into him with a couple of swipes from his daggers. "Are you alright?" Harry asked.
"Who are you?" Peter asked.
"I'm Ghost, from Earth. I'm here to help." Harry said.
"You're from Earth, too?" Peter asked.
"We can chat later." Loki interrupted. "How do we stop this man, if he doesn't have a real body?"
"Rocket and Groot are taking care of it." Peter said as he pulled himself together. His eyes were suddenly on the old man as he started reconstructing again and Thor kept on bashing the tendrils sent his way apart. "We just have to keep him busy." He said as he took a step towards the reconstructing old man and Harry felt him pull power to himself from everywhere in the cave. It felt a lot like magic, but he could also tell it was not. It was more like condensed energy, of some specific sort. Harry just couldn't put his finger on it.
As Peter took control of as much power as he could, he freed his friends, who he could suddenly feel being held by Ego. "Help my friends to the ship and I'll keep Ego busy."
Harry watched as Peter shot off using the power he had taken hold of. "Okay." he shrugged and started walking to a blue man with a fin on his head, while Loki ran off to go help his brother, who seemed to be struggling with the ever increasing onslaught of tentacles, some of which had started holding on to him. As Harry walked, tendrils of energy came at him as well, but he simply vanished them. Sure, he might be feeding the tendrils with power, but they could hardly hurt him if they were gone.
He reached the blue man and offered him a hand up, which he took. "Hello. Peter is apparently keeping Ego busy while we help you escape."
"Keep your help, I'm here to help the boy." the blue man said. Harry simply shrugged and turned invisible. He'd prefer to stick around anyway. No chance would he allow that connection to be formed again. So, until he saw their plan in action, he was Peter's bodyguard.
He followed them up as they flew to the roof of the cave and all over the show. It didn't seem like either of them were taking any lasting damage, so Harry watched and scanned the energies they were using, to see what the difference was. He finally had a breakthrough after watching some constructs they had created crash together, and they fell to the floor. Suddenly Ego's attitude changed as he lunged off to the side, trying to escape?
Harry watched in fascination as Peter kept him busy and Ego's urgency just increased. He had watched as Thor and Loki flew up after some kind of racoon creature earlier, so he knew that they would be safe from whatever was about to happen. He stayed just in case, still invisible and quiet.
"You are a god! If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!" Ego said, trying one last thing.
"What's so wrong with that?" Peter asked with grim determination.
"No!" Ego exclaimed, just before an explosion lit up the centre of the cave and a big chunk of suspended stone and metal was ripped apart. Harry turned back to Peter, to see Ego dissolving into dust.
Peter watched his hands as the last of the energy left him. Then he looked around at the planet coming apart around him.
Harry was just about to reveal himself, when the blue man flew by and grabbed Peter up. He smirked, these people were full of surprises. He flew up next to the pair as the blue man directed them out of a crevice and into the sky. Harry listened to their touching moment and learned the blue man's name was Yondu.
They had just exited the atmosphere and Harry cast his modified bubble-head charm to keep himself, and incidentally Yondu, alive. Yondu didn't know that though, and apparently he was holding his breath. Harry smirked and just followed them along, while Peter started trying to argue with Yondu about his heroic sacrifice.
Harry watched until Yondu was about to pass out and spoke up, while becoming visible, "You do realise there's air, right?"
Yondu's eyes popped open and he looked at the man who had helped him up earlier. Suddenly he took a deep breath before he swore at the unknown man, "Why the hell didn't you tell me sooner?"
"You were having a moment." Harry said with a smile, struggling to contain his humour.
"I thought I was going to die! A man should be allowed to say some things when he's about to die." Yondu argued. Peter was smiling at him, "Now don't let any of that go to your head, boy! You're still the scared kid I picked up from that backwards planet!" he said disgustedly.
Peter just smiled and nodded at him before looking away. Harry directed his bubble towards the approaching ship, as it seemed Yondu's rocket pack had run out of power. Harry took them to the front of the ship where he could look through a window at a strange man sitting by the controls.
Then he apparated them onto the bridge. The crack had the man jump out of his seat and stumble to the ground, before he could pull his gun and point it at them. Yondu and Peter were still winded from the apparition, so they said nothing. Harry just smiled and waved at the man. "Hi." he said, "My name is Ghost. I'm from Earth."
The man on the ground nodded dumbly before getting up and saying, "Kraglin."
Just then Thor and Loki walked onto the bridge followed by a couple of people Harry hadn't met yet. "It is good to see you are safe, Harry." Thor said with a smile.
Loki just shook his head, "Don't you mean Ghost?"
Thor's eyes widened, before saying, "That's what I said. Nobody here said Harry. I said Ghost."
"I am Groot." the little tree creature said.
The Racoon laughed and answered, "I also heard him call the guy Harry."
Harry just shook his head before looking around and shrugging before removing his hood and mask. "Probably doesn't matter. Who are they going to tell?"
"Better yet, who would believe them?" Loki smirked.
"Good point." Harry said. "Okay. So, who wants to explain what just happened?" he asked before getting a thoughtful look on his face, "Better yet, who wants a drink? I could use a drink after all that excitement." As he said it he opened a portal to the island. Ignoring the sounds of shock from the people around him, he walked through, followed by Thor and Loki.
Harry left the portal open as Loki turned around and spoke to them, "He will return you to the ship. He'd just like to talk to you in an informal environment." Then Loki turned around and went to the bar where he could see Harry pouring drinks for him and Thor already.
The occupants of the room seemed hesitant, until Rocket with Groot in his arms shrugged and walked through. Nebula, seeing their hesitation smirked and walked through, to hide her own nerves at the powerful unknown, but wanting to see what he could offer.
After that Gamora and Peter went through, followed by Drax and Mantis, then Yondu and finally Kraglin. Once everyone was through Harry closed the portal and he spread his arms, "Welcome to New Atlantis." Then he turned to the portal on the other side if the bar where Fury walked through with Brand. He had called them for the debriefing. "These are the heads of SHIELD and SWORD, Earth's strongest defensive forces. They would like to sit in and hear what happened."
"I'd like to ask a couple of questions too," Brand said with Fury nodding along. Both of their departments were involved, after all.
"Okay, but sit down and Brand, you know the rules about weapons here." Harry said as he summoned her handgun and opened a smaller portal to place it on her desk. When most of the new-comers looked up he said, "You're exempt, because I invited you, but my island is usually a no weapon zone. Please keep it in mind for the future."
Drax was looking at the dragon, who was in the spring once again. "I'm assuming we must kill our prey by hand then?"
"No killing. This island is a sanctuary for magical creatures. I can arrange anything you need here, just ask for it." Harry said.
"I'll take Thanos' head on a plate, then." Nebula stated. Harry smirked and snapped his fingers.
A moment later a maid appeared with a covered dish. She placed it in front of Nebula and uncovered the freshly severed head of Thanos. Nebula jumped from her chair along with Gamora, Peter and Loki. "Relax people." Harry said. "This island is my home. I use magic and the island supplies what I want. That is a construct, much like what Ego used, except mine isn't just hard-light."
"Hard-light?" Brand asked as she and Fury walked around the bar to look at the head of Thanos. It would be useful to know the face of the enemy, after all.
Peter had scoffed at the idea of magic, until he looked at the head again. He sat there in quiet contemplation for a bit. He did go through a difficult situation not too long back, after all.
"Very clever, Harry." Loki said, after sitting down again and studiously ignoring the severed head and Thor's chuckle. "I didn't think of it until you mentioned it, but it does seem the most viable explanation, doesn't it?"
"Where else would all that matter have gone, otherwise?" Harry confirmed. "When Ego was destroyed his entire planet imploded into nothing." Then he turned to Brand, "What happened to the blue rock?"
"Disappeared." Brand replied with a nod, "Everything under it was crushed, though. We thought you had something to do with it."
"I did basically nothing," Harry denied. "They saved the day." He said pointing at the newcomers.
"It's what we do." The racoon spoke up. "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."
"Is that a recognised organization?" Brand asked.
"We're more like a group of travelling heroes, who take pay." Rocket said. "And food and drink now that you mention it." He looked at his shoulder where Groot sat.
"I am Groot." Groot said.
"Yeah, can you get rid of the head first? Groot doesn't think it's appetising." Rocket said.
Harry vanished the head with a wave and asked, "What can I get you?"
"He'll have water, clean preferably." Rocket said. "I'll have whatever is good and strong."
Harry got Groot an ever-full pitcher of water and poured Rocket a Firewhiskey. "The pitcher won't run out, so go nuts, Groot. The pool's water is also clean, so take a swim if you want. The drink is firewhiskey. Watch out, it's got a kick."
Rocket downed the glass, without coughing, looked at the glass appreciatively, sighed and pushed the glass forward, "Don't get me wrong, magic man, it's very good, but it's not strong." he challenged.
Harry just smirked and poured him a small one of the Asgardian variety. "If that's what you want, I can give you strong. Just don't blame me if your liver decides to die." he said as he pushed the drink to the creature. "And my name is Harry. I'd appreciate it if you used it, since you know it."
Rocket took the drink and sniffed it before he lifted it to his lips and took a small sip. "That's more like it." he said with a contented sigh. "The name's Rocket. Keep these coming and we'll be good friends in no time." Rocket looked to the side as Thor blew out a gout of flame and smirked at him. "What's he drinking?"
"Same as you." Harry said. "There's a trick to making the fire. Ask Thor nicely and he'll show you." Then Harry turned to the rest.
Peter was looking at the selection critically, until he saw the tap. "Is that cola?" he asked pointing at the sign above the tap.
"Coke, actually." Harry confirmed. "I get tired of bottles and cans, so I set up a limitless supply." He picked up a glass and walked to the tap. He filled the glass with ice first and then topped it up, before returning and putting the glass in front of Peter. "Peter, right?" he asked.
"I'm known a Starlord, but my given name is Peter Quill." he confirmed before taking a sip. He closed his eyes in pleasure, "You have no idea how long it's been since I've had a proper coke."
"Been off world long?" Harry asked. He noted Brand and Fury paying strict attention as he started the coffee machine. He knew they would refuse anything else at this point.
Yondu spoke up after a sip of his own firewhiskey, "We picked him up twenty-six years ago for Ego, but decided to keep him when we found out what Ego was doing to all his other kids."
"What was he doing?" Harry asked.
"When they didn't have the power he wanted, he killed them." Gamora said with some disgust. "Impress me." she told Harry, indicating the bar.
"Not a threat we're unused to hearing." Nebula spoke up before turning to Harry, "I'll have something strong and fruity." She was still bitter about the unripe fruit from earlier.
Harry smiled at her, "Two Bahama Mamas, coming up." he said as he set to work putting together their cocktails, with enough for someone else to try, if they wanted. He didn't know why he liked the drink so much, but he planned on making Rum the next elemental drink he made, so that he can use that for the drink. "How are you two related?" Harry asked pointing between the two sisters.
"We were both adopted." Gamora said.
"By Thanos." Nebula confirmed. "Just after he culled half our worlds' populations."
Harry paled, "Does he do that often?" he asked as his magic took over what he had been doing with his hands. When the drinks were done, he decided to have one himself and poured himself a glass too, after handing one to each of the sisters.
When Nebula looked at her drink and the straw suspiciously, Harry put his own straw in his mouth and took a drink. Nebula followed his example and, if her surprised expression and the fact that she quickly took another sip was anything to go by, she enjoyed the drink. Gamora decided to answer his question after a sip of her own, "It's his crusade. He intends to kill half of all living creatures. He thinks it will restore balance to the universe."
Harry was shocked, but took a deep breath and looked at Brand, "I'll be coming to Midnight in the next week to give you a rundown of the remaining weapons functions. I can't have you unable to use everything we have." he said as he placed her coffee in front of her. He'd been keeping some of the more destructive weapons back from her, because he wanted to have them use the ART room and train with and get used to the less lethal weapons systems first. The BFG was supposed to be the last one, but he suspected that he'd have to ensure they were able to at least use the thing.
Then Harry turned to Fury with his coffee. "Bring yourself and a group of trainees along. While we don't have them now, I suspect we'll need some people trained in the use of these weapons, in case we start putting some guns on the ground."
"Better to have a gun and not need it, than need it and not have it." Fury said seriously, with a nod. He had hoped Harry would see reason. He also wanted to fire one of those big ones again.
"No." Harry denied. "If I'm doing this, it's because I'm not allowing Midnight to target anywhere near the moon or the planet. If Thanos is capable of attacking and destroying half of any civilization he chooses, and plans something similar for the rest of the entire universe, he's planning something big. We need to be prepared, because we know he's coming in the next couple of years. He's probably picked up some tricks and powerful allies along the way, too."
"How do you know that?" Gamora asked.
"Classified." Harry said seriously. "We can discuss setting you up with a contract, which will open some doors for you, but right now, let's enjoy a drink while we wind down, yeah?"
"We are out in the open," Drax said, "We do not need doors opened for you to give us information on Thanos, unless said information can be found inside one of those dwellings." he said pointing to Harry's house.
"Drax's people are very literal." Rocket spoke up. "He doesn't understand metaphors."
"I understand a finger on the throat means death." Drax said.
"Yeah, but do you understand that you just threatened to kill me?" Rocket asked.
"I did?" Drax asked.
Harry couldn't help but smile. "How did you lot meet?"
"Drax joined us when we broke out of prison, where we were because these two," Peter pointed at Groot and Rocket, "decided to capture me for my bounty out in public. Gamora wanted this orb I had and attacked me at the same time and went to prison with us."
Harry smiled. "You'll have to show me the memory sometime." he said.
"You can read minds?" Mantis spoke up for the first time, sounding very interested.
Harry shook his head, "I'm sorry, but we've not been introduced." he said as he extended his hand. "I'm Harry."
"I am Mantis." She said as she took his hand. Her antenna glowed and her eyes widened. "I can't feel any emotions from you, at all!"
"It's a constant effort. It took many years, but my mind is protected from most outside influences." Harry replied.
"Mantis is empathic." Gamora said. "What are you?"
"Complicated." Harry said. "So you read emotions? Is that the extent of your power?"
"No, I can also alter emotions and ease a troubled mind for a short while." Mantis said. "Ego raised me from my larva state. I helped him sleep. I do not know if that is the extent of my power, but it is all I know."
"You never answered Mantis's question." Peter said. "Can you read minds?"
Harry sighed, "What I was referring to was a device I have that allows me to extract and view memories." he said. He opened a portal and retrieved the Pensieve Tablet from his desk, where it constantly showed a picture of Natasha in full combat gear kicking ass. He found it dead sexy. He swiped his hand across the screen and placed the now empty tablet on the table. Then he put a finger to his head and withdrew it with a string of memory attached.
He placed the memory on the tablet and allowed it to sink in, before he tapped the side and a small illusory representation of the bar popped up and replayed the last minute of conversation. "See?" Harry asked.
"How does it work?" Rocket asked as he reached for the tablet, but quickly withdrew his hand when it was stung by a stinging hex. "What the hell?" he asked incredulously, looking at his uninjured hand.
"The bar has protections. Only certain people are allowed back here." Harry said.
"Truly. Even I, his eldest brother, am barred from entry behind the bar. He guards it jealously as his fiefdom, but I swear to one day liberate all the alcoholic beverages trapped back there. One at a time." Thor agreed with a smile.
"I can go back there." Loki said with a smirk as he reached across and picked up the tablet. "And this is a magical device, so you would need magical proficiency or a lot of knowledge to make or understand this."
"My friend Jarvis made it for me." Harry said.
"You are welcome, Harry." Jarvis spoke up from the bar's speakers.
"What the hell!" Peter said as he looked up to spot the person he had not seen yet.
"I apologise for scaring you, mister Quill. I am Jarvis, a sentient AI." Jarvis introduced himself.
"You've got an AI? That's so cool!" Peter said with a sudden smile, thinking of Knight Rider.
"And dangerous." Rocket said, also with a smile.
"I assure you that we have been warned of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence and I have ensured to keep mine quite well programmed. Its core systems have multiple layers of protection and only a more sophisticated AI will be able to hack or corrupt it." Jarvis informed them.
"Is that even possible?" Peter asked, confused. "Can one AI make another without it being a copy?"
"I am a bit more than just an Artificial Intelligence, and if our plans continue as they are, I'll have a body of my own in the next couple of months." Jarvis said proudly.
"Jarvis is unique. He's been working with magical knowledge for a while and it started altering him to the point where I believe he's achieved true sentience." Harry said.
"That isn't possible. There's no such thing as a truly sentient Artificial Intelligence. You cannot create real emotions, only emulate them." Nebula said.
"I beg to differ, Miss Nebula. I do feel real emotion. It wasn't programmed into me as protocols or subroutines, either." Jarvis argued. "Are you a cybernetic being?"
"I'm biological. I was modified." Nebula stated darkly with an unreadable look at Gamora.
"I apologise for making assumptions." Jarvis said.
"Where on Earth are we anyway?" Peter asked, trying to change the subject when he saw Gamora was getting angry.
"New Atlantis, like I said." Harry said. "This island is mine. I purchased it a while ago and established it as a magical creature sanctuary." he replied. Then he noticed something and smiled, "Since then it's become something more."
"Lord Harry!" came a voice from a bit past the houses as a group of Nymphs approached in swimsuits, led by Xera. When she reached the bar, Xera ignored the newcomers and went to stand by the entrance to the bar and beckoned for Harry to exit so she could hug him. The other ladies were standing there waiting as well. When Harry exited the bar he was engulfed and soon had to hug everyone. "You did not tell us you would be here today, so when we felt your presence, we decided to come join you. Are we interrupting?" she asked looking over his shoulder.
"As you can see, we have a couple of guests, so no sweets. We're discussing some things that happened earlier today and need to finish that before I can spend any time with you." Harry replied as he continued hugging the other Nymphs. Xamantha had waited for last, so she could hug Harry and hopefully stay with him.
Harry hugged her and she clung to him like she often did, so he just rolled his eyes and put her on his hip. She was one of the few that could go into the Bar, but only while Harry was in it. "Ladies and gentlemen. Please excuse the interruption. These are the Wood Nymphs of New Atlantis." There was a chorus of various greetings, before Harry continued. "This here is Xamantha. She's one of them and she's very shy, so she won't interrupt us, will you?" he asked her and she shook her head.
"Dude!" Peter said with a huge smile on his face. "Up top!" he held his hand up for a high-five, which Harry happily gave. "Being magic must make you lucky."
"I am lucky." Harry confirmed, "These ladies are refreshing company and keep the plants on New Atlantis happy and thriving. However, it wasn't the magic that brought them to me. I offered them a home because their race was hunted. That's one of the reasons why there are usually no weapons allowed on the island." Harry smirked, "As for luck, I have a friend who can make a potion for that, but it would probably cost an arm and a leg."
"I'll take one." Rocket spoke up. "I've got a couple of spares on the ship."
Harry cocked his head to the side, "Is he kidding?"
"No." most of the guardians said. "If you've got a prosthetic, don't tell him about it. You'll wake up missing it." Peter said.
"I am Groot." Groot said.
"I know." Harry said with a smile. He thought the tree creature was cute, if slightly simple.
"No, Lord Harry." Xera said from where she had been listening in, acting like she was sunning herself. "He said that Rocket is not just a thief. He's also very smart and can fix nearly anything." she said. "His words and his intent are different."
"Really?" Harry said with a smile, before thinking about it. What a cool trick. "Let me try." He focussed on greeting Groot and telling him he is welcome to join the Nymphs as they would all understand him if it's a tree thing. "I am Harry." He said lacing the intent with a bit of magic as he said it. Groot shook his head, but didn't seem to understand, so Harry tried again, "I am Harry." A little bit more intent.
"I am Groot?" Groot asked and looked around, seeming to have understood his intent. Then he jumped off the table and ran to the pool. Where he started repeating his sentence over and over again, with the nymphs going nuts over the cute little thing.
"We both understood your meaning, my lord." Xera said with a happy smile.
Rocket had cocked his head to the side, "So did I."
"Cool." Harry said with a smile. This could be useful in the future.
"Can we get on with this?" Nick asked. "A lot has changed in the twenty plus years you were gone." he told Peter. "What I'd like to know is what we can do for each other."
Drax was the one to reply, though. "If Ghost can go anywhere in the universe, why not take us to Thanos, so that I can kill him?"
"You would not survive one of his Black Order, let alone Thanos himself." Nebula stated.
"I am Drax the destroyer. I can kill anyone." Drax said emphatically.
"You could not defeat Ronin, and Thanos is many times stronger." Gamora retorted. "Your only chance is with the right allies and weapons, and even then your chances are small." she finished.
"People!" Harry said loudly, "What did I say about unwinding? Relax. We'll plan tomorrow. In the meanwhile we can just continue debriefing." he said with a calming hand gesture. "First off, what was Ego?"
"Ego was a Celestial, and my biological father." Peter said.
"Celestial?" Fury asked.
"The rest of the universe would consider him a god. The celestials were an ancient race that came into existence during the creation of this universe." Rocket spoke up, watching as Xamantha who had run after Groot held her hand out to him with a curious look.
"He was crazy. He wanted to turn all the planets in the universe into extensions of himself." Peter said sadly.
"Does that make you a demi-god?" Harry asked.
"Ego said that as long as the light existed, that I'd be a god." Peter said.
"Yes, I heard that. I was there, remember?" Harry said.
"You were?" Peter asked.
Harry cocked his head to the side, and then put a finger to his head and removed a memory. Then he played the memory for everyone. "Oh, I remember now. I was invisible. You seemed like you were distracting him enough. I just wanted to make sure you didn't get speared again. Ego's seed was growing quickly here on Earth, and I suspect on other planets as well if what you're saying is true."
Brand spoke up then, "Is there any kind of inter-planetary law enforcement out there? It would probably be a good idea for us to get in contact with them." Harry scowled at her, but she refused to acknowledge him.
"The Nova Corps don't generally operate this far from Xandar, but they'd probably be the best to contact. They can get the word out." Peter said.
Rocket took a device out of a pocket and fiddled with it for a bit. "There's some kind of interference."
"Magic does that, sorry." Harry said.
"Try to connect to the wireless connection. Scan for high frequency radio." Jarvis spoke up.
Rocket cocked a brow and then tried again. "Oh there it is. Wow, that's primitive. I won't be able to connect out by piggy-backing on this."
Harry rolled his eyes and turned a small portal to their ship into being right next to Rocket. "How's that?"
Rocket held the device up to the hole and pressed a button and there was a beep. "Got it." He said as he fiddled some more. To Harry it looked like an old-fashioned walkie-talkie, but only with more buttons, dials and nobs.
"Corpsman Dey." came a voice from the communicator.
"Hey, it's Rocket. From the Guardians of the Galaxy." Rocket said.
"Are you calling to confess to stealing from the Sovereign?" the voice asked.
"No, and that was mostly Drax." Rocket lied with a roll of his eyes.
"Am I your alibi again?" Drax asked loudly. Harry could not imagine that the other side did not hear it, especially when he heard a sigh from the other side. Drax was smiling, but it seemed he was just eager to be part of the fun.
"Why are you calling then?" asked the exasperated voice.
"We just wanted to let you know that we stopped the thing that was trying to destroy the Galaxy, again." Rocket said.
"You are aware of what that was? What happened?" the voice asked.
There was the sound of alarm on the other side and then the voice changed to a female one. "This is Nova Prime. Can you repeat that?"
Weekly Power Status
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