章 56: Chapter 56 Motivating the Students
Chapter 56 Motivating the Students
Harry was rather impressed with how many things his wives were able to hide from Jade and Jackie during the negotiation to allow Jade Chan to stay at the house. For one, they were able to skirt around the fact that all three of them were married to Harry, and no one brought up a single supernatural piece of information. For another, although Jackie understood Harry was very well off, neither knew that Harry owned Brilliance Inc. and P&G Bank and Trust.
Jade spent the night in the girl's main room. Harry knew they wanted him to think they were discussing the dreaded Girl Talk, but Harry knew the truth. They were playing four player co-op Borderlands until the wee hours of the morning. The game actually wouldn't come out for another few weeks, but Harry had connections.
It was breakfast the following day when Jean asked Jade at the table, "So what's with the magic rocks you think you've hidden in the mattress frame in your room?"
Jade almost choked on her waffles and looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Harry wouldn't deny she looked cute.
Jean continued, "Harry told me about you following him invisibly yesterday and hid those pieces under the couch."
Wanda giggled, "You hid them under the couch?"
Jade tried to answer, "Well, I uh." She was afraid of getting booted out or having them taken away.
Harry lightly teased, "I'm sure she also had a brilliant reason for thinking she could enter our home through a locked door and no one would notice."
Rather than answer, Jade deflected, "How did you know? I was invisible for crying out loud!"
Rogue nonchalantly answered, "Harry has the ability to detect cute girls so he can hunt them down more effectively. All of us were captured and devoured by him."
Wanda, Jean, and Rogue all slowly, but simultaneously turned their heads towards Jade and said under the same breathe, """You're next."""
Jade's chair scooted back an inch before the girls all broke down into a fit of laughter and giggles.
Harry did his best to hold back but couldn't help the amused smirk that appeared on his face.
Jade rolled her eyes and said, "Oh ha ha, very funny," before she crossed her arms and pouted.
Harry finished another bite of his own waffles before saying, "I can detect energy. All forms of energy, including Chi. It really helps with my Metaphysics research. Even if you're invisible, your Chi was not concealed and the Dragon Chi of that stone piece wasn't hidden either."
"Wait... So you knew I was there the whole time?!" she exclaimed.
Harry nodded before getting another waffle. Waffles were the under appreciated breakfast of champions.
"Okay? What else can you do?" she asked.
"I'll think about answering that if you tell me about the stones. I don't mind if you have them but I won't tolerate unidentified artifacts in my home."
"Fine, they're the Talismans of Shendu. Happy?" She obviously thought Harry wouldn't know their origin.
"Ah. The project of the Fire Dragon Demon Sorcerer. That explains the Dragon Chi. If you've got all twelve, I guess that means he's a statue right?"
Jade looked a little gobsmacked. "You know about Shendu?"
Harry nodded. "I've read a few books written by the Eight Immortals and he is heavily referenced. The strongest demon sorcerer to have ever existed. He reminds me a lot of Sauron from Lord of the Rings."
Wanda asked, "Why? What did he do?"
Harry considered the question and after a moment answered, "Sauron took the source of his power and separated it from his body and forged into the One Ring. As long as wore the ring, he was far more powerful than he was before. But of course this also gave him a weakness. According to the scriptures written by the Immortal Lan Caihe, Shendu obtained eleven noble animals from the Chinese Zodiac and refined their essence. Using a formidable ritual he then merged it with his own dragon essence and all of his chi to create twelve Talismans which vastly increased his power. Lan Caihe used this against Shendu by removing the Talismans and permanently changing the Immortal Dragon's essence so that when deprived of his Talismans, he changed into a statue."
Jade asked, "You've read books written by the Eight Immortals? What the hell do you need Uncle's Journals for?"
Harry shook his head. "Those books were written for posterity, to make sure the stories and events were not forgotten. None of the books I've read from the Eight Immortals have any hint as to how to actually use Chi Magic."
Wanda asked, "Magic Talismans huh. How strong are they?"
Harry answered, "They're probably pretty strong. Though I doubt someone who is not Shendu can use even a fraction of their power. That's probably why her invisibility sucked."
Rogue asked, "You use them often?"
Jade dropped her fork and said, "Wait, none of you are weirded out that I have magic talismans from a demon dragon?"
Jean rose a hand into the air and created a batch of flame in the shape of a bird. "No. Why should we?"
Wanda asked, "What's the worst they can do? Make you shoot lasers out of your eyes?"
Jade was still staring at the small fire bird and answered, "Um? Yes?"
Wanda's hands glowed red and she transfigured a plate into a red and white target. She then lightly tossed it above the table. Rogue stared at it and fired an Optic Blast at the target, destroying it completely. Rogue got another waffle and said, "Been there, done that."
Harry and the girls casually enjoyed Jade's shell shock reaction. Apparently the girls wanted to wait to break the news to her until Harry was present so he could watch her reaction too.
Jade took a moment to digest what she had just seen and said, "So everyone here has super powers? This house is so cool!"
Everyone chuckled at that. From what Jean had told Harry, the reason they were able to convince Jackie to let Jade stay was that Jade had no friends in San Francisco. They all promised to be her friend and since they were all around the same age and all seemed very responsible, Jackie could not deny that Jade being here would be a good influence on her.
If only he knew...
Harry spent the rest of the day and the next few days preparing for his classes. There were several students who apparently requested to change classes to Harry's and doing so in a University required contacting the teacher and asking express permission. Harry looked over those who applied. It wasn't too many so Harry approved the list. The background checks Harry did on some of the names pulled up some interesting details. He never thought his first class would have a student that could claim diplomatic immunity.
Jade was kidnapped and taken back to the malls of New York for a new wardrobe. Jean and the others didn't mind her tomboy attire but they didn't find it acceptable that she had nothing else. Wanda had this nice habit of shrinking everything they bought so it could all fit in one bag meaning they could easily carry everything no matter how much they purchased. Harry wondered which would be higher, the Research and Design Budget for Brilliance Incorporated, or the girl's credit card bill this month.
It only took three days for Jade to volunteer to show off the power of the Talismans. Harry and the girls went down to the basement and into a side room.
Jade looked around and said, "This room is a bit small."
Harry chuckled and activated the Danger Room Setting. The space suddenly extended into a massive field and a moment later a hard-light projection filled the room and turned it into a training course.
Jade smiled, "I love this house."
Harry said, "I did put a lot of work into it."
Jade pulled out the Talismans one by one and demonstrated them. Laser eyes, Flight and Telekinesis, Super speed, Super strength, Fire breath and Fire Blasts, and Invisibility were easy to demonstrate. Others such as Healing and Immortality, not so much.
Jade said, "These ones are a bit weirder. The Sheep Talisman can remove a person's astral projection. The Monkey can turn people and things into animals. The Rat can give life to inanimate objects. The Tiger. Well, it splits a person into a Yin half and Yang Half."
Rogue asked, "Like good and evil?"
Harry shook his head and picked it up. "Let me try."
Harry picked it up and poured a bit of intent into the Talisman.
*Ping*
[Yin-Yang Separation detected. Proceed?]
Harry was surprised there was a pop up. He mentally confirmed and Harry glowed white for a moment.
In the next instance there were two Harrys. One had a slightly more tan complexion than the other.
Wanda asked, "So is one of you evil?"
The tanner Yin Harry answered, "Yin and Yang are not the same as Good and Evil."
The other Harry calmly answered, "This is interesting. That's for sure." He was surprised that his stats had not changed. That meant both Harrys were as strong as the original. However upon closer inspection, Harry realized that was not the case. Harry's Path System encompassed every aspect of a Path giving an all around proficiency enhancement. Now however, Harry felt that his Paths only did half of what they were supposed to do. Yang Harry felt he was able to cast enhancement and fire magic without difficulty, but not ice and mind magic. Yang Harry would be more skilled at hard martial arts while Yin Harry would be more skilled at soft martial arts.
Jade looked a bit wary and said, "Yeah. Please put yourselves back together."
Yin Harry gave her a knowing smile and asked, "Why, are you afraid I'll do something bad?"
Rogue asked, "Are you any different?"
Yin Harry said, "Priorities are different. Like I don't feel like doing any more prep for classes tomorrow and would rather just take all of you upstairs and ravish you until you pass out."
Harry's smile gave each girl a furious blush. Yang Harry looked over and Jade and 'innocently' asked, "Why are you blushing too Jade? My other half was speaking to my wives of course."
Jade had eventually figured out that everyone there was Harry's wife but didn't seem to care. She was however looking more than a little abashed. She gave Yang Harry a glare and said, "You're supposed to be the good one, why are you picking on me?"
Ying Harry answered, "Because if he didn't, I would."
Jade said, "But you both are! Please, just recombine."
Both Harrys chuckled and touched the Talisman again to merge back.
Jade sighed with relief and shouted, "Don't do that! Do you have any idea how scared I was? I've had a lot of weird experiences with that Talisman alright?"
Harry shrugged. He knew what his heart was made of. Both sides of him were him. The thought of remaining apart did occur, but was quickly dismissed. His magic would not work the same if he remained apart and if he needed to be in two places at once, he could use a Time Turner, so neither half felt the need to remain independent.
Harry said, "Not surprising. Many aspects of a person are held back by another aspect. If those aspects separate, their limits are removed."
Wanda said, "I can see why that would be dangerous. If I got split. My Yin Half would either burn down the Salem Mental Institute or drag Harry upstairs and keep him there until the sun rose."
Jean and Rogue smirked and Jade continued blushing. Jade said, "No talking about that while I'm around, okay?"
Jean said, "We'll see."
Jade seemed to be wondering to herself if having friends of her own age and gender was really worth it after all. She said, "Alright, now you've seen mine. Please show me what you guys can do."
Harry said, "I'm just a humble practitioner of the magical arts. Don't mind me."
Every girl turned and gave him a mock glare.
Wanda went up, "I'll go first then. I can use Chaos Magic." She opened up the settings on the Danger Room and a group of twenty men in steel armor carrying medieval weapons appeared and charged forward.
Wanda pulled out some marbles and transfigured them into tigers which pounced at the troops. A few got past the tigers but they were no longer in formation and Wanda took them out one by one with an assortment of spells.
Jade's first reaction was, "Can I learn that?"
Jean answered, "No. Not everyone can. I can't for example. I'll show you what I can do though." She pulled up the room's settings and three giants and five mountain trolls appeared.
Jean floated into the air and wreathed herself in flames. She waved her hand and a flame in the shape of a phoenix launched out and struck one of the giants. She lifted one of the trolls into the air and accelerated it into the other trolls, knocking them all down before they could approach her. The other two giants got close and one used a massive club that was basically a very large tree and smacked it against Jean. The club bounced off Jean's psionic barrier and the tree caught on fire. Jean concentrated the flames and let loose, incinerating everything in the field. The only reason the field and the Danger Room itself didn't burn down was because of Jean's control over the flame.
Jade said, "That was so cool!"
Rogue was next. She changed the tablet settings and four Sentinels appeared. Harry had their specs so programming them into his Danger Room wasn't hard. Forge had done the same thing at the Institute's Danger Room.
Rogue blasted the Sentinels with ice to slow them down. She then teleported above one of them and fell, intangibly, though it, causing it to break down. Upon walking out from it she grew angel wings and flew into the air as the Sentinels started firing their heavy ion beams at her, but her use of wings and telekinesis to maneuver gave her perfect precision. She picked up some speed in the air and after lining the Sentinels up, she flew straight at them. Before the collision her wings vanished, replaced with metal like skin. With the unstoppable momentum of the Juggernaut, Rogue's metal form ripped itself straight through the Sentinels as if they were crafted of papier-mâché. Before hitting the ground, she used ice once more to make a ramp she used to land and made more ice to direct her slide back over to Harry and the rest.
Jean and Wanda simultaneously said, ""Show off."" Neither meant it of course. Rogue had worked hard to reach that level.
Jade had stars in her eyes. She walked over to Harry and pressed her shoulder against his, "Is there anything else you can teach me besides Chi Magic?"
Harry seemed to think very hard on it and said, "If your first month's report card is perfect, I'll give you your first lesson in Sorcery."
Jade asked with fake demure, "Can you show me some Sorcery? Please? So I have some motivation."
Harry exaggeratedly relented and said, "Alright."
Harry changed the settings to make fifty fake demons of different shapes and sizes appear. He then made a Eldritch long sword with dimensional energy and created a portal in front of him that was behind the demons. He then made three more silver portals on the field and started rapidly moving around and slicing each demon into pieces. The remaining demons tried to track Harry and surround him but he ran through the portals in a highly confusing manner making the demons unable to track his movements. Harry often closed one portal and made another. Although he was facing a large number, the portals allowed for a terrifying level of hit and run tactic allowing him to seamlessly wipe them all out.
Jade was too busy watching to notice the looks of pity the other girls gave her. They all made plans to be there on Jade's first lesson to see her reaction to the lesson's content. They all read through Harry's memories of Kamar-Taj and knew that the first step of learning Sorcery required learning Sanskrit so you could understand the ancient Upanishad tomes which described the art.
Harry finished up and said, "First, there is a difference between a Sorcerer and a Demon Sorcerer. A Sorcerer is someone who channels and controls foreign energies through their body. What you just saw was me channeling and controlling Dimensional energy. It lets me make constructs, empowers my body, and allows me to make portals. A Demon Sorcerer is someone who merges foreign energies with their own Chi which strengthens and warps their body but at the cost of their soul as such a tainted body is not compatible with a human soul. Thus they become demons. Either Shendu or one of Shendu's ancestors was likely a mortal who fused their Chi with something obtained from a True Dragon, thus becoming a Demon Dragon Sorcerer. Shendu himself also successfully merged himself with the Source of Fire. This is why he is Immortal and cannot be truly killed, he will live as long as fire exists on this world."
Jade said, "Woah."
Wanda said, "Alright, lesson is over Harry. Time for you to tell us your opinion on our new clothes." Harry was dragged away and for the remainder of the night for his girl's own version of a runway show. After some pestering they even convinced Jade to show off a few of their purchases. Life was good.
The next day Harry went early to his office at the University. He doubted he'd ever use it, but there was a little slot on the door that faculty and students could drop off documents for him to collect later. Of course most of the faculty was perfectly aware of how to use email so he doubted he'd get much from that.
Harry would teach three classes this semester. Metaphysics would require six classes to get a degree in but each one had its own requirements for a foundation so Harry could only teach the foundational class this semester and everything else would come later. In addition to Foundations of Metaphysics, Harry also taught Energy Physics and Advanced Experimental Physics to see if he could poach any promising students from those fields for later. Although he taught those classes professionally without issue, it was his Foundation of Metaphysics Class he was looking forward too the most.
Harry walked into his Metaphysics Classroom about fifteen minutes early and locked the door behind him. It was not a large classroom as the number of students who even qualified to take it did not number more than a few dozen in the University and of them, only eighteen had applied. Another six applied after the fact which Harry accepted giving a total of twenty four students.
Before his students arrived, Harry set his suitcase on the table and opened the duffle bag he brought. Within was a foldable step ladder and four black canisters. Harry used the ladder to reach the classroom's ceiling and attached each canister to one of the four corners of the room's ceiling. Once finished, he unlocked the door and let in the few students who already started loitering outside.
The first one, a young man who looked to be about twenty-one said, "Professor Potter, thank you for accepting my application."
Harry recognized the student and said, "Not a problem Mr. Richards. It's not your fault my class only became available after you finished selecting others for the term. You aren't the only one either." Reed Richards was already on his way to acquiring two Doctorates in Physics and his dissertation would be held in January. Harry had read all of the man's research during his own studies under Forge and Dr. McCoy.
A blonde woman walked out from behind the man and said, "Thank you for me as well Professor."
"You're very welcome Ms. Storm. Hopefully I can teach geniuses like you a thing or two?" Susan Storm was the same age as Richard and the heir to the Storm foundation. Had Harry not owned a company and wanted to teach for a living, he might have wanted to work over there.
The pair took adjacent front row seats and another young man Harry recognized took the other seat next to Ms. Storm. Harry recognized this fellow as Victor Von Doom, another young genius on scholarship and someone who actually obtained a Doctorate last of his own year at the age of twenty. Not a world record but not that far off. There were two very obvious things that stood out about Doom. First was the fact that his profile showed that his late father was the ruler of a European country called Latveria. Doom was considered a political leader and while in the U.S., had diplomatic immunity. This meant that if he committed a crime, the best that could be done was appeal to the U.N. to issue a sanction on his home country. Doom himself could not be arrested.
The second, and far more interesting thing about Doom was that he contained a good quantity of foreign energies within his body. He was undoubtedly an apprentice Sorcerer, quite a bit better than your average initiate at Kamar-Taj. However the hodgepodge of energies he contained did not include dimensional energy meaning he certainly was not a student of the Sanctum Sanctorum. This wasn't a big surprise. There were in fact more than one temple of mystic monks in the world willing to teach others how to control the energies of the universe. Kamar-Taj focused on Dimensional Energy because of its duty in defending the dimension but other temples had other goals and other specialties.
A number of other students arrived and eventually Jean did as well. She had actually tested out of the courses required to attend this class in advance as she knew what those were before Harry even applied to teach here. Technically anyone else could do the same as long as they watched and actually understood all of the videos on Metaphysics Harry posted online. Of course, those only gave the simplified versions of the science. Not everyone had an autocorrecting Scholar Path so most people needed an educator to fill in the gaps they couldn't grasp themselves.
Once everyone was seated Harry started, "For those who don't know, and that would be quite a feat I imagine, I am Harry Potter. You can call me Professor Potter. First let's get the syllabus." Harry snapped and a light appeared over each desk and vanished to reveal the syllabus. Harry said, "Any questions before we go on?"
Susan asked, "Yes, how did you do that?"
Harry pointed at the black canisters in the corners on the ceiling and said, "I like using Hard-Light projections for teaching aids, among other things. I actually already placed the paper on each of your desks and had a Hard-Light projection of the surface of your desk over the paper, which I removed to reveal the paper just now."
Richard had already finished reading the syllabus during Harry's explanation and asked, "What does this mean, 'Expect Pranks,' and 'Don't Panic'?"
Harry smiled, "Most things that catch you off guard in life only do so because you've never experienced anything like it before. Since I went through all the effort of developing a Hard-Light system and installing it in the classroom, I may occasionally use it to keep you on your toes. That is what I mean by, Expect Pranks. As for the Don't Panic, I've always found that to be excellent advise regardless of the circumstances.
Harry watched with a smile as his new victim/students started to realize that the teacher who was a few years younger than any of them would not be teaching this class like he did his others.
Doom asked the next question, "Professor, please clarify on these, Extra projects, and the rewards for them."
Harry nodded. "Well, I trust all of you are smart enough to read the textbook and since I wrote it, I trust the textbook is clear enough to learn the course material from. So if you can learn it from the book, why are you even here? It's obviously because a basic understanding of the book won't cut it. You need opportunities to go above and beyond that. Flex your muscles as it were to discover your own strengths and weaknesses on the subject matter. Reading from a textbook will not help you find what you lack."
Harry was pleased to see that most of the students looked rather excited about that.
"Before we begin our first lesson, I'll go ahead and give you the first Project. Please note, there will be no grade or extra credit towards grades awarded for this project. It is simply an opportunity to try something you've never done before in a friendly competition with fellow like minds."
Harry snapped again and the board in the front of the classroom suddenly had several images and moving pictures. It only took a moment to recognize them as scenes from the Star Wars movies involving Lightsaber fights.
Harry said, "Here are the rules for Projects in the future. I will give you the parameters of a tool that fulfils a specific purpose. You may work as an individual or in a group of up to four people. The groups have two options. You may create a blueprint for a design which you believe may actually work to fulfill the purpose. It is fine if it is not exact. The point of the Project is to get some experience in trying to make it, so success is not required. The second option is to actually create a working or mostly working prototype of a tool that fulfills the purpose. I will give feedback on the projects and the group that had the best project will get the prize. The prize is that I will show you my own working prototype of a tool that fulfills the purpose given. I will even show you the schematics and explain exactly how it works."
This had a number of eyes light up.
Harry pointed at the screens behind him and said, "This is the first project. A lightsaber. The parameters are as follows. Can be used by any normal adult. Can be carried and held in the hand. The blade can retract and extend without harming the surroundings. And when extended, the blade can cut through a cinder block with a quick slash without being destroyed and allow for at least one more cut through a second cinder block. Also, because option two is more difficult than option one, if one group submits a mostly working prototype and another group submits blueprints for something that, theoretically, would be superior, I will likely choose the former for the winner if the theoretical blueprints are missing too much content despite the possibility of a superior design."
Doom asked without raising his hand, "So you're saying you have a lightsaber which falls under those parameters, and whoever builds or designs one that comes closest to matching those parameters, you'll give a private lesson in exactly how yours works and how you made it."
Harry smiled, "Exactly! It will be due in one month. However even if you don't win, I will still go over the design you submit so everyone who submits a design will get a private lesson regardless."
Doom smirked and looked over at Reed. Reed apparently felt the stare and looked back with challenging eyes.
Harry moved on and gave the general rules for class, attendance, classwork, tests, etc. Most of the assignments included links to the specific video lecture Harry posted online which was relevant to the subject matter and some of the subjects had multiple video links.
As Harry left the classroom, he wondered if the group watching him would break into the class and snatch the black canisters in the room. Harry filled them with pieces of coffee makers, so if no one actually took them, it would be a waste of an excellent prank. Oh well, something else to look forward too.
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