บท 80: Chapter 80 Harry Potter, Space Wizard
Within the 17th floor of a building on the alien world of Xandar, Harry sat in a chair waiting for the woman at the counter to finish entering the forms he finished filling out into a terminal pad. In his lap was Goose the Flerken who had a new collar.
When Harry decided to take Goose on a walk through Xandar, he discovered a small problem which he hadn't expected. Apparently Flerkens really do look like orange cats and a number of people recognized Goose for a Flerken on sight. Of course, not everyone used eyes and visible light to see. Some aliens and species could tell Goose was a Flerken on sight even if Goose was surrounded by normal orange tabby cats.
Harry had to break out the old Memory Charm to prevent mass panic as the universal form of recognition when most species met a Flerken was to scream like a little girl.
Goose was nonplussed about the whole thing as if she was completely used to it. Harry made a collar that had a dozen or so spells imbued that either hide the visible signs or caused people to ignore the fact that she was a Flerken.
Harry was, for the first time, able to find out what a Flerken was from some of those people. Flerkens were considered Eldritch monsters with an internal pocket dimension that were capable of mass, indiscriminate slaughter which came in small, furry packages.
Harry chuckled at that. On Earth the species, besides humans, who participated in indiscriminate slaughter more than any other was none other than the house cat. No other species killed for amusement like the house cat.
Flerkens were also quite rare and could apparently teleport. Harry had never seen Goose teleport but he'd guessed she was capable of doing so since that time she appeared at the graveyard and ate Voldemort.
At the desk, a woman who looked remarkably similar to human said, "Alright Mr. Potter, your Identity has been successfully entered. Please confirm the details and sign here."
Harry walked over and confirmed on the computer screen the details were right. Harry was applying for an ID and the only thing missing was Planet of Origin. If Harry made enemies in space, he didn't want them to look for him on Earth. Thankfully planet of origin wasn't really a necessity. Some people were born on ships after all.
After confirming everything and signing everything, Harry took Goose and headed a few floors up to a bank to create an account and deposit a trunk filled with gold.
This had been a very busy week for him since his Prank War with Shield ended with Fury waving the Afro Flag. Harry arranged for a meeting with Coulson and 'Obscurus' where Obscurus listened to Coulson's sales pitch and politely rejected it.
During the meeting, Coulson asked, "Is there something you don't like about Shield?"
In the American accent Harry used for Obscurus, Harry answered, "Just spy agencies in general. Tell me, hypothetically. If there was a foreign Spy group in another country, would Shield send someone to infiltrate it?"
Coulson hesitated for a moment before he answered, "Hypothetically? I imagine so."
"And, hypothetically, this agent who infiltrated the group. In order to gain a higher position in order to gain more valuable intel, they would probably give up specific accurate tidbits of information. Basically giving information Shield has to this group in exchange for information the group has that Shield does not."
"Hypothetically, yes, that's how I imagine it would work."
"So, if that is true for other spy groups, then it is certainly true for Shield. Anything I tell another spy group will likely end up in Shield's hands, and anything I tell Shield will likely end up in the hands of others. When you remove all the pointless details, that's all spy agencies really are, hubs for the exchange of secret information."
"So you don't want to work with Shield because that would give your information to others?"
"There are other reasons but that one is probably the most important."
"How do you know I'm not a spy from another country?"
"Potter protected you right? I trust his judgement."
After that meeting Harry had to take a plane to California and meet with Stark about the cooperation between companies.
First thing Stark asked of course was, "So where's Demon Dude and when do I get to meet him?"
Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Obscurus is my bodyguard in the same way Ironman is your bodyguard."
The genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist did three double takes at that before he put together, "But I am Ironman. And you were with Pepper."
Harry tapped on the watch he wore three times and a hard-light hologram appeared over him matching that of Obscurus's form. He said in Obscurus's voice, "Ever hear of life model decoys? Useful to prevent assassination attempts and to prank billionaires with ice cream trucks and fudge bars."
Tony shook and shouted, "What! That was?! That was genius! You have to show me!"
Tony had suddenly turned into a five year old at Christmas time and Harry could only turn off the hologram and chuckle.
Tony regained clarity for a moment and asked, "But wait, why tell me your identity?"
"Because if I didn't, you'd waste resources trying to find out. If you found out yourself, you'd probably tell others because you'd feel you earned the secret yourself. If I tell you though, you won't tell others because that would betray the trust I'm giving you in telling you the secret."
Tony frowned for a moment before his eyebrows rose in minor astonishment at the fact that Harry apparently had his personality pegged.
"Alright, show me how these metagems work. I want to see if I can upgrade my armor."
Harry nodded and spent the day showing him the metaphysics behind a few of them and explained how they'd react to muons. None of them could be used to power up the suit, but they could give a few upgrades to the existing systems and grant him a number of neat tricks. Later, Pepper came over and Harry went over the details of what the companies could do together with her. It seemed she was pretty much the CEO in everything but name already.
For the Xandarian Bank, the only trouble Harry encountered was the scanner at the entrance Harry had to use a bit of technopathy to disable, otherwise it would have recognized Goose for what she was.
Harry's ability to manipulate alien technology with technopathy at the moment was limited to turning off and on scanning and monitoring devices. Manipulating and reading off data from computers was not an option yet though he could crash a system if needed.
Currently the forms of Alien technology Harry had studied were Makluan from the Mandarin, Time Lord and Sonic from the Doctor, and a tiny bit of Celestial from Mr. Sinister which he apparently got from Apocalypse. Surprisingly or not, nothing he learned from any of it was of any use understanding the tech of Xandar which seemed both advanced and primitive which was a confusing combination he needed to get his hands into first.
The fact that Harry's ID was brand new did raise a few flags at the bank, but bars of pure gold were a magic of their own and any issues the bank had were squashed then and there. Gold was commonly hoarded so there was always a need for the pure metal and the unmarked ingots Harry deposited were 100% pure thanks to the alchemic magic of the Philosopher's stone.
After getting an ID and a bank account, Harry needed a taxi, or the equivalent of one, to take him off the planet. Sure, there were some decent things he could buy on Xandar, but he didn't want to waste his time wadding through the kiddy pool. Xandar was not a place you could buy guns or combat capable space crafts because it was just too damn peaceful and there were a lot of laws that came with living here.
According to the info he lifted off a few seedy characters, the best place to head to was called the Hub. It was basically a space station built for and by ridiculously seedy individuals. Unfortunately, there was no bus from the peaceful and law-aligned Xandar to the dangerous and seedy Hub, so Harry had to find some characters to give him a ride.
That was how Harry ended up walking into a bar that happened to be the main hangout of the local crime syndicate in the area. The Ravagers were the collective group of thieves and criminals throughout this and several other Galaxies. Each clan was separate, but all followed the same, vague code of honor. This particular band was generally known for smuggling so they were the best 'Taxi' service around.
Harry scanned the surface thoughts of a couple of individuals who looked mostly normal. Psionics are a Universal form of communication so even if they thought in a different language, a slightly deeper reading would allow him to get the gist of it. No one spared a second glance at Goose.
Well, almost no one. A young man who looked remarkably human walked up to Harry and asked, "Hey, is that a cat or a Flerken?"
Harry raised an eyebrow and smirked, "You've seen a cat before?"
"Well, yeah, they were everywhere on Terra."
Terra was the somewhat accepted name for Earth since the planet couldn't be named after the word for dirt. Harry wasn't sure why they didn't just name it Midgard since that's what Asgard called it and the planet was under their banner.
Harry asked, "Wait, you've been to Terra?"
The man laughed, "I was born on Terra."
Harry smiled and said, "Then let me buy you a drink. My name's Harry Potter."
"Peter Quill."
Harry used the apparent human to gauge what was good and what was not. Apparently none of it was really good for human pallets but it was an experience so he got the best of what they had anyways.
The spells Harry put on Goose's collar would not prevent people from recognizing her as a cat, simply because he didn't think anyone knew that Flerkens apparently looked like cats. And if someone knew that Flerkens looked like cats, they could guess that an orange cat might be a Flerken even under the effect of the spell.
It wasn't something Harry had been expecting, though he couldn't be blamed for that because he wasn't even in the Milky Way and certainly had not expected to find a human, or as they were called, Terran.
After paying for the drinks, Harry said, "I actually picked up Goose here on Terra a few years ago. How'd you end up here from Terra?"
"Got kidnapped by the Ravagers."
"Wait, I thought the Ravagers didn't traffic kids. It's against their code right?"
"Well I wasn't sold or anything. They kinda just raised me."
"I see. Do you want to go back? It'll take a while, but I could probably figure out how to get you there."
"Thanks but no thanks. My mom... Well, she died of cancer right before I was taken. I don't have anything to go back for. Besides, they're not that bad."
"I see. Well, probably for the best. Terra is really dangerous now-a-days."
"Really? Why?"
Harry sighed and shook his head. "From what I understand, some crazy scientist caused all the animals to evolve into hyper intelligent humanoids. They outnumbered and outgunned the humans and took over. Now humans are at the lowest tier of the social cast, just barely above slaves."
"What?! That's Crazy!"
Peter looked outraged for a moment before he noticed Harry's smirk. Peter's eyes narrowed and he declared, "You're an asshole."
Harry burst out laughing at the accurate observation and said, "Well, in any case can I talk business with you? How much to take me and some cargo to the Hub?"
Peter rolled his eyes at the change of subject and asked, "What's the cargo?"
"Large metal crate, three hundred kilograms. I need to take it to someone at the Hub."
Peter considered it and asked, "How much?"
"Five thousand credits. One thousand now. The rest once we get to the Hub."
Peter nodded and said, "I'll get Yondu."
A credit or Unit as it was often called was worth a decent chunk more than an American Dollar or a British Pound. Ten thousand or so credits could get you a dinky ship that was probably stolen off a dead guy. For a Taxi service to the well known Hub without needing to go through any dangerous territories, it was easy money.
Of course, Harry fully expected to get ripped off.
A blue skinned man walked over to Harry's table and asked, "You here for business?"
Harry nodded, "I need to get a box to the Hub. One thousand now. Four more on delivery."
The blue skin man smiled, "Where's it being delivered and how fast would we get the rest?"
"Any port on the Hub will do. I'll take care of matters once we arrive. As soon as the crate is on the Hub, I'll pay you the rest."
Yondu held out his hand and said, "Well I think we've got ourselves a deal."
Harry took it and gave it a firm shake.
The crate itself was something Harry used transmutation to create and Harry had it delivered to the hangar Yondu's ship was in. The reason that more than two dozen other members of the Ravagers were coming along was because 'they also had business at the Hub.'
After lift off, Harry was tempted to ask for a tour as this was his first spaceship flight, but he didn't want to look like a rubbernecking hillbilly. Once he found the ship of someone who wasn't a part of a galaxy spanning crime syndicate, he'd consider breaking pretenses and having a look around.
Since he had time to kill, Harry went over the most recent stacks of paperwork the Goblins sent him which had been stored in his inventory. It wasn't long ago that some of the Goblins found a rather interesting loophole when it came to magical and mundane law about Goblins. To put it bluntly, the laws that forbid Goblins from working with Magicals or Mundanes outside of most circumstances did not apply to Genosha.
The island nation was composed entirely of mutants who, through a technicality, could be classified as neither magical nor mundane. The law did not prevent Goblins from working with a country that did not have magical or mundane occupants since such a place should have no one to work with.
After this discovery, dozens and dozens of applications had been submitted to create an unholy union between Goblin and Mutant kind.
Harry had no problem signing most of it as long as it didn't allow the Goblins to harm the people of Genosha. Many of these papers would also require Erik's signature using his real name, Magnus. Harry could tell Erik that signing such a contract and breaking it would have terrible consequences for him, but he wouldn't. After giving Erik Genosha, Harry no longer owed anything to Erik and the pair really weren't friends.
Some of the projects were rather interesting. Farms contained in collapsible spaces. The purchasing of materials some mutants were capable of creating. There was even a Goblin Magic Research team that requested access to the mutants to advance their knowledge. Goblins had purchased Harry's Metaphysics textbooks as well of course and could use it better than anyone but Harry because they were the only species with access to Metagems.
Harry approved the Research Group but placed a number of restrictions to protect the mutants who agreed to assist. He also wrote up a few suggestions for projects he thought of such as Space Farms. A number of mutants could teleport or create portals so if distance was not an issue, Space Farms would become a ridiculously profitable venture.
As for the actual setup, Goblins would form companies on Genosha the same way they did with Harry and Genosha would buy the materials and sell the products.
The only problem Harry could see was that Goblins may end up hoarding the planet's wealth for themselves so Harry would have to make more things Goblins would be interested in buying to ensure they spent the money they made rather than hoarding it all. As for the unspeakable horrors Harry's signature would unleash upon the world, Harry truly didn't care.
Besides going over the documents, Harry also spent the ride looking over the info of the Ravagers. The big thing going on in the Galaxy right now was the Kree-Nova War which had gone on for nearly a thousand years. That was both good and bad for Harry. Good because the weapons and combat capable ships up for sale would be better than decent at the moment. Bad because they would also be either really expensive or sold out. War really did a number on supply and demand, especially long wars.
Harry's wishlist for this trip included a Combat capable ship, an assortment of advanced weaponry, a detailed star map, a powerful interstellar communications system, and a sample of a large variety of spices. Though most space food would not be tasty for humans, nonpoisonous spices could be used to increase Harry's cooking repertoire and increase his Craft skill to a better degree with each meal.
From what Harry could tell though, he'd have a few problems. Space travel in the Andromeda Galaxy was not what Harry was hoping for. Around a majority of inhabited planets was a couple of Space Gates. Space Gates connected through another dimension where distance was far shorter to another Space Gate, basically a shortcut through space. Most if not all trips were basically just hoping from one Space Gate to another. The Ravagers' ship seemed capable of interstellar flight without a Space Gate, but Harry doubted he'd get a chance to see it in action.
That meant even if Harry purchased a ship, it might not have anything useful for traveling through the Milky Way. Harry didn't really need to travel the Milky Way, but he still wanted an engine that would give him the option of doing so.
The other problem was that interstellar communication seemed to just be connecting to the nearest Space Gate and using it as a telephone to the Space Gate of the planet you were calling.
This meant Harry couldn't use a ship's communication platform to jury-rig an intergalactic communicator to give to Jean.
The jump from Xandar to the Hub required about twelve Space Gates and passing through them was a bit weird, but far more comfortable than Apparition. Harry wasn't able to get the 6-Dimensional coordinates of the planets near where those Space Gates were set up because the time between jumps wasn't long enough and he was being watched, so he couldn't portal there later, but Harry already had his own plans for that.
Originally he intended to fill the metal crate with rats, porno mags, fireworks, or manure, but after seeing Peter here, Harry changed his mind and had another idea. It required making a portal to Earth and a Time Turner to set up, but it would be worth it.
Twelve jumps didn't take very long and soon the massive space station known as the Hub was in sight from the ship's window.
After docking at the station, Yondu walked Harry through the gate to the station and said, "This is where we part."
Harry feigned ignorance and asked, "Where will you be unloading the crate?"
Yondu smiled and said, "We're keeping it. So you can keep your four thousand credits. Pleasure doing business with you Mr. Potter."
Harry pretended to frown as if upset and then turned and stormed off to hide his smile. The deal was 4000 credits more once the crate was delivered to the Hub. Didn't that mean if they didn't want the money, they could keep the crate? It went against the spirit of the agreement, but not the letter. If they could get 5000 credits for delivering the crate, didn't that mean the contents were worth more than 5000 credits?
Of course, Harry implied that whoever was going to take it off his hands was at the Hub, meaning they couldn't sell it to someone else unless they took him to the Hub first. A thousand credits to get Harry safely to the hub wasn't that bad of a deal all things considering. He even left them with a gift.
After walking a short distance away from Yondu, Harry turned invisible and apparated back into the ship. The group excitedly gathered around the crate and using some fancy looking space crow bars they ripped the front panel off.
When the group looked inside, everyone had a look of confusion except for Peter. Peter looked like a kid on Christmas as he walked up to the Classic Arcade Machine and pressed the Start button which brought the machine to life. Within were the classic titles of Mortal Kombat, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Tetris, Pong, Tron, Frogger, Galaga, and Centipede.
Peter then called over Yondu and showed him how it worked.
Harry smiled. The machine's battery would last a few decades and included a tracking device that would mark the 6-Dimensional coordinates of any planet the Ravagers visited. Harry would leave a black box on Xandar which the tracker would communicate with via the Astral Plane. The coordinates would not be sent in real time and would have a delay of a few hours to a few days depending on distance, but as long as Harry got the coordinates eventually, the time it took to get them wasn't relevant.
They probably could still sell it, but Harry doubted it. Harry placed a number of compulsions on the thing which would make them want to keep it and set it somewhere in the ship, but the compulsions weren't very strong though so they wouldn't affect the ship or the Arcade Machine itself.
Harry couldn't be certain if the compulsion was working or if they were genuinely interested in the Arcade Machine, but once it was obvious they weren't going to toss it, Harry apparated back into the Hub and started exploring.
Harry didn't look like he was carrying anything but his shirt, pants, and shoes so even though he walked by a number of disreputable looking aliens, he was ignored. Harry tried a few spells and concluded the Space Station's tech was not as flimsy as Earth tech so nothing would explode if he cast a Wizard spell. Once he determined that, he cast a Notice-Me-Not on himself that would make people 'looking for someone who doesn't belong' to not notice that he 'didn't belong.' Of course, if someone was looking for someone to pick a fight with, they'd still be able to pick Harry out of a crowd, but Harry wasn't stopped when he passed through areas guarded by tough looking alien bouncers.
The Hub itself had a dozen or so levels, each larger than an apartment complex on Earth. The top couple of levels were where high end mob bosses set up shop and the middle levels were where things were bought and sold. The higher the level, the better the stuff looked. Not that much of it was actually better, it just looked better. The lower levels were a nice place to 'disappear' for idiots who tried buying or selling things without knowing what they were doing. Harry decided he might stop by later.
Harry found that although a number of locations sold weapons, most of them were worse than things he'd seen on Earth. Pretty much the stuff that was so bad, even the Xandarian military wouldn't buy them, which of course was likely they ended up here in the first place.
After a few hours of walking around, Harry found the equivalent of a space café where he ordered something that looked decent and found a table near a window. Well, 'convinced a person at a table near a window they were finished at the moment Harry happened to arrive.' He really missed being able to use magic.
"I am Groot."
Harry turned to see a walking humanoid tree talking to a walking raccoon. Though his words were clear, Harry felt the meaning was closer to, 'I want to sit at the window.'
There were a few empty seats at the table Harry chose and he gestured to them and said, "Feel free."
Harry did his best not to rudely perform a double take at the walking raccoon who took another seat and said, "Well, that's mighty neighborly of you."
Harry smiled and asked, "So what's a gentleman of your bearing doing at the Hub?"
The raccoon laughed, "Oh that's a good one. You're not a cop are you? Cause it's a rule that if you are a cop and someone asks you, you can't lie."
Harry said, "Nope. Not a cop."
"Alright not a cop, why you being so nosey?"
Harry shrugged. "First time at the hub. I want to know what's there to do there and where can I get some weapons and tech."
The raccoon chuckled and replied, "You don't look like a first timer. They get real jittery. And good luck getting any weapons that won't blow your hand off on these levels."
Harry couldn't help but smile at what the raccoon was implying. "Then you wouldn't happen to know any place I could find some would you?"
"Hehe. Depends what you're looking for and on how far you're willing to go."
Harry held out a hand and said, "Harry Potter, pleasure to meet you."
"Heh, name's Rocket."
"I am Groot."
Harry held up Goose and drew their attention to her by saying, "And this is Goose."
Rocket immediately shouted, "Holy Shit! Kill it with Fire!"
Harry laughed. For some reason he liked these guys.
*Author's note*
Sorry for the delay. My Plot map of what to write ended at the Prank war so I needed to figure out what to write next. The problem is that from, now until Iron Man 2 will basically be filler and filler can be boring to read. I didn't want to write something that would be boring so I needed to figure out what I was going to do. Decided to go in the direction of Wizard in Space, going back to his roots and using proper spells and going on adventures. Also decided Goose will be with him for much of his adventures in space because no one can skip any chapter with Goose, she's just that awesome.
If anyone has any ideas (besides meeting Ms. Danvers) about what to do in space, I'm all ears. Thankfully the Nova-Kree War has four years left in the timeline(unless Harry ends it himself) so throwing him in that is doable, but I have no idea what he would actually do in the war. Smuggling might work, but that would be boring. Seriously though, any ideas. I have no ideas where to throw a Wizard into a 1000 year interstellar space war and No idea means a longer period between chapters.
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