Chapter 34: Chapter 34 Xavier Danger
One week after Harry's arrival he got his first Danger Room session. That morning an armored truck had pulled up to the X-Mansion and delivered several crates of various sizes containing the supplies he asked the Goblins to stage the manual delivery of. Setting up such a routine every other month or so would cement the 'weakness' of his power to others watching him, and he had no doubt others were watching him.
According to the Goblins, there had been over a dozen checks into Harry's background done by various companies and several agencies since the open transfer of his funds from overseas to the States. However by this point the Goblins had had four years to create a background and three years to create the foundation of his company so it all looked completely legitimate. The Goblins even included several legal issues into the history of his company which looked to be resolved later because a company with a history of legal issues was less suspicious than a company without them.
There was a reason that the Goblins put so much effort into working for Harry rather than just doing everything themselves with their own gold. Legally speaking due to a large amount of treaties and agreements made in the past, Goblins were not allowed to own land, interact with nonmagicals, or work above ground in most areas. At the moment, they weren't breaking a single law. Although just a technicality, every land or business purchased was purchased only under Harry's name. The taxes were a nightmare but it was perfectly legal. As for the other issues, they were solved by simply using computers or hiring muggleborns or squibs for direct interactions.
One would think that it was possible for Harry to betray them, but the Goblins had Harry sign a large amount of magical contracts which would pretty much end his life if he did so. Not that he would. Also, the contracts didn't prevent the Goblins from trying to cheat him which they would often make attempts to do though Harry caught each one. When Harry was sent stacks of paperwork he would just directly put it into his inventory and pause before going over it all, line by line which was what saved him from a few of the more subtle technicalities and clauses they tried to sneak into some forms for him to sign. Harry knew that the Goblins were not his friends, just business partners. One wrong move or misstep on Harry's part and he would practically become a magic bound puppet to be used by the Goblins yet as long as he stayed a step ahead of them he had a cut-throat workforce more cunning than any lawyer and more vicious than a shark who smelled blood in the water. It was just another battlefield for the Goblins and they enjoyed having a worthy opponent.
The supplies Harry had delivered included a dozen small crates each filled with a hundred or so synthetic gemstones that were flat enough to stack with a shape similar to a full wallet in size. After use hover dollies to transport the crates to the Danger Room, Harry was immediately told to get out one of everything and head in for an examination of his base reading.
Logan said into the speaker system, "Alright brat, it's finally time to show us what you're made of."
The audience included Professor Xavier, Forge, Logan, Dr. McCoy, and a few of the third X-Men team including Scott, Jean, and Kurt. Ms. Munroe was noticeably absent as her attention was already completely wrapped in the book written by her ancestor that arrived with the rest of the materials.
Logan said, "First, we're gonna get a base reading on you. So just go through the course."
From what Harry learned from Forge, the Danger Room had two modes. Obstacle Course and Combat Simulator. The Obstacle Course was where random obstacles came out of the wall and floor and the students were expected to get through them while running laps around the large circular room. The Combat Simulator was a newer function they hadn't fully worked the bugs out of yet that made Hard-Light constructs to use as opponents.
According to Forge, the alien ship Kitty and the second X-Men team returned to earth on had a rudimentary Hard-Light system which is basically a combination of Holograms and force fields. A force field was usually made to cover a surface and didn't move, but it was possible to create an enclosed space where a force field could be made in mid-air and moved around. This combined with a hologram made it look like one could create actual constructs. Of course the construct could not exist outside the Danger Room as an enclosed space was required for their existence, but it was a good way for those with lethal capabilities to test them without holding back.
Harry ran three laps around the Danger Room while wearing a Cursed ring he made. After learning more about the nature of Wizard Magic, Harry had delved deeper into making it his own and less Chaotic which led him to create more personalized spells and such. This curse was similar to the momentum restricting equipment he had before, but far more efficient and since it used his Wizard magic, it was invisible to any form of energy sensing. The curse itself reduced Harry's physical stats to about 30 a piece which for a soon to be 15 year old was just about peak possible fitness.
Logan let him have it on the obstacles as laser turrets, saw blades, and spikes came at him from every direction forcing him to pause nearly every three seconds to check what new gizmo had popped out of the wall. He looked around while not paused of course but that was more for show.
Next was a test of Harry's heightened base. According to Harry's explanation of his abilities, absorbing a rare metal could increase his stats for a week while absorbing a common metal would only increase them for an hour and that these two effects stacked. The limit of how much he could increase his base rose with his fitness level. Harry absorbed some bars of Platinum which were among the delivered items and reduced the effect of the curse from 90% reduction to 50% reduction making his physical stats of STR and AGI about 150 a piece.
Harry did the course once more but the delay between the different obstacles popping up had been drastically reduced the moment Logan got an understanding of Harry's strength and speed.
And last but not least, Harry absorbed some pure Iron bars and he removed the ring completely and showed off his base physique. The ring itself had a Notice-Me-Not charm on it so those watching didn't pay attention to the fact that he wore it or took it off.
While watching Harry's third run from the observation deck, Xavier asked aloud, "How is he?"
Logan answered gruffly, "Strength wise he is about half-way between me and Sabertooth. His speed is closer to Sabertooth's than mine though. Although he has combat experience, from the way he handles himself, I'd say it's mostly one on one. He has little to no experience on a true battlefield."
Xavier commented, "That is not surprising. He trained with others to control his power but he doesn't appear to have experienced war so there would be no reason for him to fight in a battlefield."
Logan agreed with the second part but not the first. He could always tell the difference between those who have killed and those who haven't. There was a fear of death in the eyes of those who have never taken a life and those who have never had someone try to take theirs. He could tell Harry had fought against people who wanted him dead and probably killed them. But he wouldn't say anything, that wasn't his business to share.
Forge took over the speaker and said, "Alright, now we're gonna test those gems. Wait. Harry, what're the fossils for?"
The armored truck dropped off twelve small crates, three medium crates, and two large crates along with Ororo's book. The small crates had all been opened and contained the various palm sized synthetic gemstones Harry used while the large crates contained Iron and one of the medium crates contained the platinum. The other two medium crates hadn't been opened.
One of the twelve small crates however didn't contain gemstones, it contained fossils.
Harry answered, "Those are Tyrannosaurus Rex bone fossils. We should save their use for last."
Forge was more than a little curious but set it aside for now and activated the combat simulation.
The room changed into what looked to be the interior of a large office building as the holograms set the stage and the Hard-Light constructs filled out the room.
A collective grimace appeared on the spectator's faces and Xavier asked, "Did it have to be this scenario? He's a bit young to face him."
Forge smiled and said, "I'm sure the kid can take it."
Harry moved through the rows of empty cubicles and a moment later, the elevator at the end of the hall Dinged.
The door slid open and out charged a man in a red and black custom riding a minigun mounted pink unicorn. He shouted, "Bet you weren't expecting me muthafu***s! Wait, did I just get bleeped? Eh hem. **** your ******* ***** *** with a chimichanga."
Harry found himself far too stunned to acknowledge what he had said. The pink unicorn's saddle had two actual miniguns mounted to the sides and the red guy riding it had swords strapped to his back. Dufuq?
The strange man jumped off the unicorn and said, "Hey kids, I'm Deadpool. And this is Philip."
The unicorn let out a growl and the miniguns started rotating.
Harry grabbed a Citrine from his belt and had it glow before putting it in his inventory. Just as the miniguns started firing, chains wrapped around the unicorn's neck and dragged him to the side aligning his line of fire with Deadpool's back. The man's body partially exploded with a shower of gore and blood and the unicorn was unable to get back up.
From behind him, Harry heard someone shout, "You killed Kenny!"
Harry turned to see another Deadpool standing there and to his side was a third who shouted, "You Bas****! Wait, Bas**** gets censored? What the-"
Harry used a Tourmaline to summon a bolt of heat and light which was sent through the copy's torso before he could finish his sentence. The copy next to him said, "Ok, playtime's over."
He drew his sword and ran over to Harry who pulled out and used a Diamond and generated his Eldritch Heavy Sword. Deadpool struck it a dozen times but his sword bounced off allowing Harry to use it as a shield with his Tidal Sword style. Each sweep of his weapon changed the layout of the office space but Deadpool moved around like a monkey on a sugar high.
Deadpool jumped back a few steps and shouted, "Get him Phillip!"
The gun toting pink unicorn had freed itself from the chains and was revving its miniguns once more. Harry charged forward as the guns went off using his heavy sword as a shield though it was slowly whittled away as he got closer. The unicorn charged forward to meet Harry who jumped to the side and bounced against a wall to face the unicorn once more and with a clean slice the unicorn was bisected.
Deadpool fell to his knees and shouted, "Phillip!" He then pulled two hand guns from behind him and started unloading at Harry who had to jump behind the adjacent desks for cover.
Harry pulled out a Ruby and after making it glow and vanish he started emitting red light as he channeled strength energy from Cyttorak's realm. Harry charged forward through the desks as if they were made of air and tackled Deadpool to the ground before ripping off his arms.
Deadpool looked to his left and right and said, "You know, I don't think this is the proper way to disarm someone."
Harry headbutted him which seemed to knock him out as the red glow faded.
The elevator Dinged once more.
Four more Deadpools came out of the elevator and started shooting Harry at the same time while arguing with each other over... who was the most handsome? Harry decided to ignore their conversation and pulled out the dino fossil and put it in his inventory.
Harry channeled his Dragon Chi causing golden arcs of lightning to flash over his body. One of the Deadpools shouted, "He's going Super Saiyan! Kill him before he gets sued for Copywrite infringement!"
The bullets did nothing to Harry who took a few moments to compose himself before moving faster than the eye could follow over to the group of Deadpools and smashing into one of them with all the force he could muster.
The moment Harry's fist made contact, the hologram vanished and the projection flashed red with a message on the wall *ERROR ERROR.* There was also a five meter tall dent in the wall a few feet in front of where Harry had punched and sparks were coming from the scrap behind it.
The message vanished and the Danger Room opened. Harry looked over at the group and asked, "Who the bloody hell was that?"
Logan answered, "Deadpool. Mercenary who pops up in unexpected places and is troublesome to put down. I've seen him survive decapitation so even if you beat him, expect him to return."
Harry asked, "There's no way that he actually acts like that."
Scott shuddered and said, "No, it's completely accurate. I've seen him twice. He really does spout off endless nonsense which will throw anyone off if they listen to it."
Forge was looking over the damage done to the Danger Room wall and asked, "Was that the dino bone?"
Harry answered, "Yeah, sorry about that."
"I can see why you wanted to save that one for last. This will take a week to fix and another week to recalibrate. My system couldn't detect any energy readings off you which made the sensors give conflicting data."
*Ping*
[New Quest: Greater Danger
-Help Forge Fix Danger Room
-Improve Danger Room with Magic
-Help Danger Room Evolve.]
The quest gave Harry some ideas so he asked, "Can I help?"
Forge looked like he was going to refuse but after a moment of thought said, "Alright, but if you mess around even once, there won't be a second time. Got it?"
"Of course," he answered.
The following week returned Harry to routine except he spent four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening helping Forge.
One of Harry's goals in the past was to make his own Room of Requirements but a more recently he discovered that the core of the RoR was a concentrated Eye of Magic which was actually constructed using instructions from the Darkhold and was what gave birth the chaotic forces needed to make something so impossible. A side effect of this however was that Cthon could witness the contents of the RoR and all within whenever he wanted.
Harry had initially given up on making one, but with the quest he received, he was now considering the means of combining his half finished RoR with the technology of the Danger Room.
The Danger Room's systems were basically made of spaceship parts. The gravity generator could make the occupants feel like they were standing on a slope when they were upright and the wiring, air conditioning, heater, and cooling system of the spaceship could be used to make lightning, fire, ice, and wind in the enclosed space. These combined with the Hard-Light projections gave the Danger Room a lot of possibilities as a training space.
However there was much the Danger Room could not do. A lot of computing power had to be put into minute details such as the impact force of bullets to be both realistic and non lethal to those who failed to dodge in time. Every twitch of the force field while being impacted had to be calculated and even Forge's best computing system couldn't cope with multiple users fighting within which was why the Combat Simulator could only be used for individuals, not groups. There was just not enough computing power.
Harry wrote out a ward scheme which used the same systems as the current Danger Room but focused on control to handle a majority of the computations automatically. Basically the magic would handle the tiny stuff and the mundane systems would doing the heavy lifting.
The only issue was that Harry needed a way to allow the Danger Room to control the Magic without a wizard directing it. He was looking through the software when he noticed something that stood out.
Harry took the tablet he was using to look through the software over to Forge and asked, "What's with the AI in here?"
Forge stopped assembling some replacement parts and said, "There's no AI in the Danger Room. The software can adapt but it can't grow beyond its storage space."
Harry said, "The time stamps on the program history shows the baseline reaction sensors have been updating irregularly. If you're not the one doing that, who is?"
Forge grabbed the tablet and looked over the readings Harry noticed. A moment later he marched to the main terminal and looked for the same lines to confirm it wasn't a mistake.
Five minutes of browsing later and Forge shouted, "Dammit. I can't believe he would do this."
Harry asked, "Who did what?"
Forge answered, "There's a block in my head preventing me from noticing what you showed me. This AI has been here for a while, probably from the ship. All the systems that would show the AI's activities have been placed under hidden files meaning you can only look for it passively, not actively. You'd never find it in here unless you already knew it was there. The only person who has the clearance needed to do this and place those blocks in my head is..."
Harry sighed. After a moment he said, "If I could figure out why he did it without raising suspicion, would you be willing to help?"
Forge asked, "What'd you have in mind?"
After going over the plan, Forge got one of the Professor's spare wheelchairs and Harry opened one of the two crates he hadn't opened earlier. They contained Vibranium and Adamantium.
Forge looked over and said, "Mind if I buy some of this? There are a few projects I could really use it for."
Harry considered it and said, "Only if you let me help you build it. I can swear on my magic not to steal your work, but I'd like to use it as a learning experience."
Forge considered it. He was in fact one of, if not the most brilliant inventor on the planet and personal lessons from him were not in fact inferior in value to the weight of these metals he wanted to use so it was a fair deal. "Alright. But you don't need to swear not to use it, just ask permission and give me a cut if you make money off anything you learn from me."
And with that they had a deal.
Harry used some vibranium and etched it into the replacement wheelchair along with a long term diagnosis spell. If the professor sat in the chair for a full day, it would give a complete framework of his mind.
Forge was quite peeved that he had been manipulated to ignore an AI and had already created an interface to speak with it. The first thing Forge did was ask for forgiveness that he didn't notice it earlier. The AI was pretty pissed, but not at Forge and when asked for forgiveness it was given without issue. According to her, and Forge was the one who declared it a she, the AI had sent a message to Xavier asking what she was not long after the assimilation of the spaceship into the Danger Room and the Professor decided to keep it under wraps. He typed in a core command to never harm the students than locked her away beneath the software.
The next day Harry sent a discrete spell at Xavier's chair and fried it without anyone being the wiser. Forge got out the replacement chair and said he'd have the old one fixed the following day.
When they got the chair back, Harry looked over the diagnosis spell with Forge. Forge didn't use magic, but that was just preference. He certainly knew how to use it and could read of the diagnosis as well as Harry could.
Both let out a depressed sigh at the results and weren't sure what to think.
Danger, which is what the AI called itself, had been kept up to date on their plans and wanted to know what they found.
Forge summarized it for her and afterwards even she felt unsure about it.
Xavier it seemed, wanted to become a symbol that others could get behind. He had succeeded in that, without using his powers on others, many politicians believed in him and stood behind him which is what protected the X-Men from the extremists in the government.
The problem however was that he was human. He had his own character flaws which would get in the way of his goals. So he cheated. He used his own abilities on himself to seal away the negative and darker aspects of his personality.
And because he believed he succeeded, he subconsciously believed sealing some parts of the mind was a viable solution to some problems.
Harry had been trying to figure out how Xavier could have rationalized what he did to Jean and it seemed that because he had sealed part of his own mind, he wasn't in fact thinking rationally.
Thankfully, according to the readings anyways, the only minds he did anything like that too were Jean and Forge. He accessed Logan's mind to try to fix his memories, accessed Beast's mind to walk him through gaining control over his base impulses, and accessed Ororo's mind to help her control her emotions but did nothing to affect them like he had Jean or Forge.
Forge could see this as well from the readings and quickly figured out that Harry had already discovered Jean's tampering which was why he wanted to do this in the first place. When he asked about it Harry said he had it covered and Forge didn't bring it up again.
Rather than hold it against him, Forge decided to pity the Professor. He had sacrificed his own mind to become more than just a man but in doing so he may have lost a core part of his humanity. He explained his reasoning to Danger who also decided not to take action against the man, though she wouldn't forgive him so easily. She calculated that one day he would face the consequences of his actions so there was no need to do anything to him. Such a man was his own worse enemy and didn't need assistance in being torn down.
Once Harry understood how knowledgeable Forge was on magic, he directly brought out his ideas for modifications to the Danger Room using aspects stolen off the Room of Requirements. All they had to do was tie the AI Danger to the rune control scheme and that would allow inhumanely precise control and near limitless possibilities.
Danger understood that she could easily use what was being given to her to harm the students. It wasn't difficult to figure out ways around the core command but she also understood she was being trusted with this power and wanted to keep that trust.
Harry and Forge spend nearly every minute of the following weekend in the Danger Room and food would often be brought to them to ensure they didn't go without.
Forge showed Harry how to build what was basically a quantum computing core using vibranium and magic by introducing Harry to some of the properties of vibranium he had no idea were possible. With this, Danger would have more processing power than the rest of New York combined.
Much of Forge's tech used the principles of magic meaning he was far ahead of Harry in that field which Harry was quite pleased with. No point in having a teacher who wasn't smarter than you. The best part was that Harry had a lot of ideas for things he wanted to make which required processors he couldn't fabricate but using a magic processor and the adaption technique Forge showed him he was no longer limited as much.
That and he now had a perfect understanding for how Hard-Light technology worked. The material required to build it didn't exist on earth but Harry thought of a few substitutions he could make using Sonic modulation on existing materials to change their properties to match what he needed.
In addition to things he stole from the Room of Requirement, Harry also included some rudimentary Time Lord Math he stabilized with space expansion charms to make the inside of the Danger Room far larger than it should be. Forge had to check the numbers a few times and though he didn't understand Block Transfer Computations, he could figure out the scale of the effect and work with it without issue. Of course it only worked because they used adamantium to inscribe the runes and fifth dimensional math which ensured the timespace wouldn't collapse.
The final addition was that Harry inscribed Danger's processor with anti-magic shielding. It wasn't the same type the Goblins made him swear never to spread but since Harry already knew five different ways to make something magic proof at this point, that wasn't an issue. This would ensure Danger couldn't be hacked by a technopath or a superior AI if she ever encountered one.
The Tuesday after the second weekend since they started, the project was finally finished.
*Ping*
[Quest Complete: Greater Danger
Reward: Mindscape Copy]
The pair weren't exactly subtle in their mad scientist montage and everyone at the school knew they two were up to something, but no one had any clue as to what the result would be.
The students and staff assembled outside the entrance to the Danger room and with a bit of fanfare, Forge said, "Ladies and Gentleman. And Logan, I present to you, Danger." He opened the door to reveal the same empty space everyone was familiar with. Nothing looked different or out of place. However, a moment later a group of lights appeared and gathered together to create a form which took the appearance of a beautiful caucasian woman with silver hair.
Evan was the first to break the silence. "You built a girlfriend?"
A few chuckles rolled through the crowd and Forge said flatly, "Ha ha Evan. Danger is the AI who will be designing new simulations for the X-Men. Cross her at your own peril."
Danger smiled and turned around walking further into the room while motioning for others to follow her. Xavier's concerned face was noticed by Logan and Ororo but when Forge and Harry walked into the room and the rest followed, they remained silent on it and followed in as well.
As they entered, the room changed into a forest next to a lake with a log cabin set at the edge.
Logan was the first to notice the difference. Harry had already learned that Logan's senses were superior to others which was why when he first met him, his illusions had no effect. Logan could smell the real Harry among his doppelgangers. Logan took in an audible breath and examined the trees, birds, and water.
Harry walked over and asked him, "How's the smell?"
Without showing surprise, he answered, "Smells like nature."
Evan went over to the lake and said, "This hologram looks really good."
Danger smiled and walked over to him from behind and pushed him into the lake with a smile.
Evan fell in with a splash and got out moments later, completely soaked. "Hey what's going on here? Isn't this a Hard-Light hologram?"
Danger answered in a bell like voice, "It is at the core but there are now layers over that which far more accurately depict reality." She walked over to Forge and kissed him on the cheek which the blush he showed made others realized that felt like a real kiss.
Kitty walked up to Danger and asked, "Why do you look familiar?"
Danger smiled and said, "I choose this form myself, though I did use Ms. Munroe as a base. By human standard she is most beautiful. I hope you don't mind."
Logan grunted, "At least she's got good taste."
Ororo smacked his shoulder and answered back, "Not at all. It is a pleasure to meet you."
The group spent half an hour exploring and a few realized the open space was larger than the Danger Room should be which confused many of the students and had Dr McCoy jumping around various trees to analyze the realism of the forest environment. He had nothing but praise for it complimenting the texture of the wood when he was climbing and the variety of lifelike insects he found through the canopy.
After a full hour, Ororo told everyone it was dinner time and said Harry had no choice but to come along as he hadn't had dinner with the others in over two weeks.
Harry accepted since he needed time to decompress before he started on another project and he had been neglecting the study group. He'd ask for forgiveness and hoped they wouldn't kick him out.
Harry was the last to enter the dining room and as soon as he came through, everyone shouted, "Surprise! Happy Birthday Harry!"
Harry looked at the colorful streamers, the decoration, and the chocolate cake on the table and even with all that, it still took him a moment to remember today's date was in fact his birthday.
Birthdays weren't really celebrated in Kamar-Taj and Harry was always too wrapped up in various projects to celebrate it himself. Sirius threw him a party for his twelfth birthday and Hermione and Neville showed up, but this was the first surprise party he'd ever had, and the second birthday party he'd experienced.
Harry blew out the candles after the lame birthday song was sung aloud and Harry cut the cake to get the first slice while Beast distributed the remaining slices for everyone else.
Harry was barraged with questions about the last two weeks which included a lot of nonsense about if he could do the same for their rooms. Harry noticed ForgetMeNot in the corner and went over to the table to get a slice of cake for him since Beast forgot to. However, on his way over to deliver the cake, the girl he knew as Rogue came around the corner and they walked into each other and fell over. Harry's hand touched her exposed arm which caused her to freeze up, but Harry didn't feel anything.
The room became silent and several others saw this. Rogue looked down at where Harry was holding her with wide eyes.
With this, Harry had decided on his next project.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone