บท 63: Chapter 63 An Invitation to the U.N.
Once the elevator's door to the fifteenth floor opened, Harry saw an older goggle-wearing gentleman in a lab coat waiting for him.
"Doctor Potter, my name is Otto Octavius. I'm glad you could come because we have a real head scratcher here."
Harry offered his hand for a greeting and said, "Dr. Octavius, I've read all of your work in the field of energy physics."
Otto shook his hand and returned a smirk. "And I yours. I wish our first meeting could have been under better circumstances though. Please, follow me."
Otto escorted Harry through several security doors and past a few guards and a metal detector and scanner he asked Harry to put his suitcase through. Harry didn't argue as there was no point in the schematics of the toys in his suitcase being derived as it was pretty simple and used metagems as a base.
As he took him through the checkpoints, Otto said, "The four were exposed to something which I can't make heads or tails of. Each one is experiencing different... symptoms, I guess you could say. Every bit of lab work has yielded more questions than answers."
Harry asked, "Symptoms?"
Otto shook his head and said, "Show is better than tell at this point. We've arrived."
Otto gestured to a plane of glass and on the other side were four... beings, in a room with four gurneys.
Reed Richard's head looked mostly normal but it was near the ceiling with a neck stretching several feet. In his hand was a tablet he used to read being held by arms which had also stretched several feet.
There was another tablet which appeared to be floating back and forth through the room. However the ghost like figure of Susan Storm would flicker next to it showing she was holding it while pacing.
Johnny Storm seemed to be on fire. Kinda. Flames would ignite over his chest and arms and die out without burning his skin or causing any noticeable discomfort.
In the corner was an orange boulder that reached up to the ceiling in height. Further inspection showed the boulder appeared to have been carved into a human-esque silhouette of a giant stone man crouching on the ground next to a crushed-flat gurney. It's looked to be several tones in weight and took up nearly a fifth of the space in the room.
Harry asked, "Guessing that's Ben Grimm?"
Otto answered, "The mineralization of his cells started while he was in the ambulance and soon covered his whole body. What scans we were able to get before he changed into that thing indicated that even his organs appeared to have partially mineralized, though his blood is normal. Ms. Storm, as you can see, has a natural field around her capable of bending light. Mr. Storm, according to our readings, causes oxygen near him to combust into fire yet Mr. Storm himself is not burnt nor harmed. And Mr. Richards' body has gained malleability of indeterminable limits."
Harry said, "I'd like to go in to check on them."
Otto answered, "I do not know if what is afflicting them can be spread, are you sure?"
"I have a few ideas on what happened and there is no risk of this spreading through proximity, contacts, or most forms of interaction."
"Is that so? Care to enlighten me?"
Harry shook his head, "I would, but it makes no sense. I'll explain it to them and I'm sure that room has recordings so you'll find out when they do."
"Very well." Otto walked over to the door into that room and swiped his keycard and entered a nine digit pin code.
The door opened and Harry saw everyone turn to face him as he walked in.
Susan asked, "Professor Potter?"
Harry said, "Ms. Storm, good to see you." He looked up to Reed's head and said, "Mr. Richards, glad to see you're up and about."
He looked over to the corner where Ben was sitting next to Johnny and said, "My god! Johnny! You're hideous! What happened to you?!"
The male Storm sibling eloquently responded with, "What?!"
Harry continued in horror, "You're covered in warts! Moles! Pimples and Zits! All over your face!"
Johnny shouted back in horror, "Nooooo!" His body completely covered itself in flames as he rushed off the apparently ash covered gurney over to a mirror. He couldn't see his face beneath the flames so he took a few breaths which seemed to calm the flames and a moment later his pretty boy face was revealed in the reflection.
Harry said, "Oh, false alarm. That's just your normal face."
Johnny turned to look over at Harry and shouted, "Hey! That wasn't funny!"
The massive orange boulder started chuckling and Susan started giggling. Harry blatantly laughed at Johnny which caused Ben to join him in openly laughing along with Susan and even Reed.
Johnny realized he'd just been used to relieve the stress of everyone in the room with a harmless prank but couldn't help but pout. This caused everyone to laugh even harder and even he couldn't stop a small smirk from appearing at the corner of his lips.
Harry opened up his suitcase and walked over to Ben and pulled out a few tools for measuring energy. Most of them were not as good as his own energy sense but they could list off things he'd miss.
As Harry started talking readouts, he asked aloud, "So... about those energy shields I gave you the designs for."
Everyone in the room gave a collective grunt or sigh. Susan said, "The funds for the modifications were given to the project managers and they said it was done. From an outward appearance, it even looked like the shielding was installed. But the investigation last night showed that the materials that made the shielding work weren't included meaning someone just took the money and made it look like they did it."
Reed shook his head, "It was our main engineer. He apparently thought that the shields he designed were good enough and didn't like to use other people's work."
Ben's voice rumbled out, "And he pocketed the money anyways. When I get my hands on him.."
Trying to divert the conversation, Reed said, "Professor Potter, do you know what type of energy we were exposed to?"
"I've got an idea. I was in contact with a teacher of mine last night and we discussed some possibilities. The conclusion she suggested was impossible but it seems she was correct."
Ben said, "Give it to me straight Professor. Am I going to look like this forever?"
Harry answered, "Not if you don't want to."
Susan asked, "Can we be cured?"
Harry shook his head. "Not in the way you're thinking. If someone goes to war and comes back a different person, you can't 'cure' them back to who they were before they left. You're never going to be who you were before you left and you're going to have to accept that. But returning Ben to a form that can walk into a fast food restaurant without being stared at and getting the rest of you into a state where you can live your lives the way you want to live them is doable."
Everyone, especially Ben, gave a relieved sigh at that.
Reed asked, "Can you tell us what you think happened?"
Harry answered, "Well, according to my teacher, you were exposed to a form of energy which she didn't think has existed for almost fourteen billion years. According to her theory, before the Big Bang, there was only one form of energy. It was called Power Cosmic, but you can consider it primordial energy. When the Big Bang occurred, the Power Cosmic gave birth to all other forms of energy."
Susan and Reed simultaneous said, ""That's impossible.""
Harry nodded, "I thought so too. But if you really think about it, maybe not. All of you can think of a few ways to turn one form of energy into another right? If there are an infinitely number of ways to turn different forms of energy into another, then perhaps all forms of energy really do originate from the same source."
Reed said, "And after we were exposed to this Power Cosmic, it started breaking down into a different form of energy in each of us which would explain how we all have different conditions."
Harry tapped on his instruments and after a few moments said, "Mostly correct. This might be a bit tricky. I thought that at some point, all the Power Cosmic in your bodies would convert to another form of energy. After that, I could use a few means to flush it all out which, with some proper therapy, would return you to normal. However it seems that in addition to some of it breaking down into a random form of energy for each of you, the Power Cosmic is also absorbing background radiation and converting it back into Power Cosmic."
Susan said with some alarm, "But that would make it an endless cycle!"
Harry took a few more readings to confirm it but it was true. The spheres of Power Cosmic he'd experimented with didn't have this reaction. Basically some of the Power Cosmic had merged with their life force making each of them a bit similar to a demon sorcerer which caused it to stabilize instead of breaking down. The stabilized Power Cosmic absorbed background radiation which was converted into unstable Power Cosmic which then broke down into a random form of energy for each of them. Without dealing with the Power Cosmic merged into their life force, the cycle would continue indefinitely.
Another matter was that Ben appeared to have far more Power Cosmic stored in his body than the others, probably because he had just gotten through the airlock door when the wave hit.
Harry took out some metal straps and connected them together while putting some heavy duty magic into them. None of his equipment could actually help them, he just brought it as a cover for the magic he would try.
After connecting the straps he said to Ben, "You have the most Power Cosmic stored inside you which is why you have the largest outward changes. It is absorbing background radiation at a much faster pace than everyone else and converting it into the energy which caused your body to mineralize. This band will isolate you from the background radiation and if I'm right, will drastically lower the amount of mineralization energy in your body."
Ben presented his massive wrist which had a four foot circumference. The multiple bands Harry connected together were long enough to wrap around it and Harry clicked it into place.
Ben's boulder-esque face frowned for a moment. "I can feel. Something. Wait. Yeah.." He took in a few breaths and cracks were forming around his body.
Reed shouted, "Ben!"
Harry confirmed with his energy sense what was happening and said, "It's fine." The enchanted bands were basically anti-magic items which isolated the wearer from other forms of energy.
Pieces of orange rock fell off his body and slowly formed a massive pile around him, revealing something beneath it.
Beneath the rubble Ben seemed to be using his arms to wipe off the stone and dust. He walked out of the rubble pile revealing a smaller rock person at a little over six feet in height with an outline that more closely resembled Ben's frame the last time Harry saw him. His boulder-like exterior was smoother and looked closer to bulky muscles than it did a human boulder.
Ben looked at his hands and orange rock fingers. The band had a lot of elastic and had tightened as Ben shrunk so it was still securely on his wrist.
Ben walked over to the mirror and looked at his carved features. The bands weren't perfect and couldn't block all background radiation and even it if could, Ben's body was still saturated with the mineralization energy so without cleansing that, he's still be a stone man.
Harry said, "This is just a band aid using the stuff I brought with me. If I work alone, I should be able to make something that can give you back your normal appearance in a few months. If Reed works with me, I should be able to do it faster."
Reed said, "Yes! Absolutely!"
Ben said, "It's definitely an improvement, Professor. Now I can fit out the door and we can get out of here. Think I'd fit in the elevator?"
Harry said, "Yeah. I'd estimate you weigh about a thousand pounds and the elevators here are graded up to twelve hundred pounds."
Johnny asked, "Is that safe? We're not contagious or anything, right?"
Harry shook his head. "You are literally absorbing more radiation than you are emitting. There is less background radiation in this room that anywhere else in New York at the moment. The energy the Power Cosmic is converting into is only affecting you. If Mr. Richards wrapped himself around a naked woman and allowed her to wear him as a dress, she wouldn't be affected no matter how long she wore him."
Johnny, Ben, and especially Reed nearly choked on that idea and the blush Reed was sporting elicited another round of laughter from Johnny and Ben and a slight glare from Susan.
Harry made some more bands and said, "These should inhibit your newfound abilities but don't wear them at all times. Unlike Ben, you guys only have small amounts of Power Cosmic and I can already tell that it is controllable."
Johnny asked, "How can you tell?"
Reed answered for him, "Because he observed that our emotions affected our powers. It is not a passive effect like it is with Ben."
It was obvious they had already discussed this before Harry got there and arrived at the same conclusion.
Harry said, "Dr. Octavius, open up. I'll sign their release papers."
The door opened a moment later and Dr. Octavius said, "Of course. If there is no danger than there is no reason these four cannot return home. Please follow me, they also have to sign a few things. And then we can be on our way."
Reed returned to a normal size once the band was on and Johnny was no longer the incredible match man. Susan remained in the visible spectrum of light and they all walked out and looked over the papers.
Harry Paused to check what they were signing and sighed. The fine print was subtle, but it basically said that Oscorp had the right to publish the findings of their stay here. That in itself wasn't much. But when combined with a few loopholes in various laws, it meant that the blood and test samples acquired by Oscorp during the four's stay could be used for their own research purposes.
There wasn't anything Harry could do to destroy to remove those samples so he'd just have to pay closer attention to Oscorp in the future.
Harry made a few calls and got a moving company truck to park in front of Oscorp and bring a massive trench coat, hat, and sunglasses for Ben to put on before leaving the building. Oscorp was quite good at keeping cameras off their street but Harry still didn't want Ben's appearance to cause too much of a ruckus.
Once they all jumped in the back of the moving truck, Harry said, "Where are you going to be staying at? I know some good plumbers and manufacturers. I can have them re-fit Ben's space with a larger, unbreakable toilet, shower, couch, and bed."
Reed looked shocked at that when he realized he hadn't thought of that. He was too focused on getting them back to normal to think about how they'd live until then.
Susan said, "That won't be necessary Professor, we can take care of those matters ourselves."
Harry gave her an amused look and said, "I never said I'd do it for free. I just know most of the best companies in New York and can hook you up with some quality service at a decent discount."
Potter and Gold Bank and Trust had partial ownership of nearly a hundred small and medium sized businesses. With a pinch of magic to ensure that they could compete against the larger companies, the stores Harry had access to had higher quality products at a better cost than most and with a discount from Harry, it was definitely the best deal.
Susan said, "Oh. In that case, yes please."
Johnny asked, "Know any place that can make fireproof pajamas and beds?"
Harry gave him a few numbers and addresses.
Reed asked, "So when can we start creating a stronger band?"
Harry said, "Next weekend. I'd do it this weekend but I need to visit the U.N. for a somewhat important meeting."
All four rapidly looked at Harry with an incredulous expression.
Johnny asked, "The heck? Wouldn't that require you to be serious and stuff?"
Harry shook his head. "Of course not. If I have to be serious, I'll just imitate my Godfather, Sirius Black, who is the self proclaimed best Prankster in the U.K."
Ben chuckled, "So you're going there to prank those tidy suit-wearing fancy pants?"
"If the situation calls for it. The main reason I'm going is because I got a request for a meeting from Wakanda, a self isolated region in Central Africa. They always send their royalty overseas for schooling and it seems the princess wants to enroll next semester in my classes. It was a very interesting invitation and I've never pranked royalty before, so I'm definitely interested."
Johnny started laughing, "Man! I really want to enroll next semester too!"
Susan said, "You don't have the required courses and you failed the advanced placement test the last three times you took it."
Harry's classes had an optional advanced placement test that one could take. One hundred questions, two and a half hours. If you scored 85% or more, you could take the class without the prerequisite courses which was how Jean and a few others got into the class. Of course the questions came from a list of over ten thousand Harry had made so taking it over and over again wouldn't help unless you learned the material.
Susan asked for them to be dropped off at the Baxter building and Harry would ensure the renovators were there before noon. He knew that Reed would try to get a head start on the research by using his tools to check the band Harry gave him but unfortunately it would not do too much good as it was enchanted with Harry's undetectable magic.
Harry also told Susan and Reed not to worry about classes. He'd have two desks delivered to the Baxter building that had a built in Hologram system. It wasn't hard-light, but it linked to the Hard-Light system in Harry's Class briefcase so that when Susan and Reed sat in the desks, a Hard-Light copy of them would appear in the desks in class and the holograms the desks displayed would make it appear as if they were in class. Thus they could attend class from the comfort of the Baxter Building.
The fact that Harry could also use them in more pranks went unsaid but it wasn't like they could argue against it.
The next day, Harry confirmed with the University staff some of the details of the student's conditions but couldn't offer much. It wasn't so much classified as it was that Harry wouldn't divulge their privacy.
Susan and Reed were both getting multiple Doctorates at the same time and much of that was self study, so other than attending Harry's class, they could complete their papers and research this semester from their lab at the Baxter Building without issue. After they completed their dissertations, they'd be Dr. Richards and Dr. Storm in a few months.
The following weekend Harry in a nice business suit took out his visitor's badge and entered the United Nations headquarters in New York. He came a bit early as this was his first time here and five minutes later he found someone he knew.
"Dr. Doom. Fancy meeting you here." Harry's energy sense could spot Doom from the other side of the building and he was the only person in the U.N. with an energy signature.
Victor Von Doom answered back, "Professor. What brings you to the cesspool of the earth?" As the Ruler of Latveria, Doom of course would occasionally have business at the U.N. so it was not a surprise to see him there.
Harry gave a smirk and said, "I've got a meeting with the Prince of Wakanda in a little bit. His little sister wants to attend my class next semester."
Doom's eyebrow lifted in slight surprise. The fact that he was willing to display even a little emotion to Harry showed that he did not view his Professor in the same way he viewed most.
Doom asked, "What do you know of Wakanda?"
"Besides the fun facts off Wikipedia? I ran into and captured one of their drones a few years back. Perhaps not the most advanced but certainly in the top ten of most advanced things I've seen built by humans on this planet."
When Harry blew up Sinister's mountain, he decided to stick around for a while and see who would poke their nose into it. The drone that showed up was acquired by Harry and determined to have Vibranium circuitry. It didn't take much effort to figure out where the Vibranium came from.
Doom nodded. Most would be discreet or subtle about such knowledge but neither applied to Harry. Doom was a politician among other things but even he found Harry's behavior refreshing compared to the back to back meetings filled with political double speech.
Doom said, "Behind a massive hologram in their territory is an advanced city built on technology based on the wonders of Vibranium. You once told me the world we live in is based on its composition. As the world's only stable source of Vibranium, their world is very different from ours."
Harry shook his head. "If that is the case then Wakanda has the fanciest chains in the world. Supporting yourself on a resource you cannot share will chain you down and limit you." It was well known that Wakanda claimed they had a tiny, meagre amount of Vibranium and they even claimed all of it was stolen twenty years ago. If that was a lie, it was a lie that had shackled their entire country.
"Speaking from experience?" Doom asked.
Harry nodded, "Oh yeah. Parents grew up in a community that had a large amount of advantages over others but they kept it to themselves to avoid being taken advantage of for centuries. Sure, hundreds of years ago that community was far above everyone else. But the need for secrecy to hide those resources chained their progress and eventually the world caught up and surpassed that community. If Wakanda doesn't open up, they will eventually get surpassed and all of their advantages will become meaningless."
Doom sighed and said, "Far too many people look at Wakanda and turn green with envy. You on the other hand actually pity them."
Harry shrugged. "I don't see things the same way others do. In any case, I'm off to see a Prince about a Princess."
Harry walked up a few stairs and through a few halls to the meeting room. The door opened before he could knock and he was met by the Wakandan Ambassador who invited him in to meet Prince T'Challa.
On first impression the man seemed to be the third fittest person Harry had ever met, behind the Mandarin and Logan. Harry's energy senses however were conspicuously dull against him which meant something was muffling natural life energy emitted by most things. Harry doubted the Vibranium in the suit the man was wearing was specifically there to dull energy senses, but it was an interesting idea from Harry's perspective. Though a bit lavish.
T'Challa offered Harry a hand which Harry took and exchanged a strong grip. Harry was at least pleased at the surprise on the man's face from Harry's strength. This guy's Warrior Path Rank was possibly higher than Harry's but not his base strength.
After a moment, Prince T'Challa said, "Professor Potter, I thank you for agreeing to meet me here today."
"It's not a problem though I must ask. As long as an applicant passes the Placement Test with a high enough score to interest me, I would approve them as a student without a meeting. So why did you wish to meet?"
"Apologies, but I did not approve of my sister's interests in your class. I wanted to meet you myself to see what kind of person you were."
Harry smiled, "If that is the case then I am sorry but you have wasted your time. I am not the type of person you can understand after a short meeting." With that, Harry turned to leave. He didn't have to cater to the needs of royals after all.
"Wait! Please. I do not wish for a misunderstanding. I just want what is best for my sister."
Harry said, "So you're not using your sister's application into my class as an excuse for a meeting because you want something from me or you want to ask something of me?"
Just because Harry didn't use political double speech didn't mean he didn't understand it. Doom was the Sovereign Ruler of Latveria and he got in with an email and a 93% on the Placement test, the highest score Susan and Reed actually met the class's prerequisites so they didn't need to take the placement test. Doom's position was technically as high as T'Challa's father, much less the Princess, so there was no need for a face to face meeting.
Everyone in the room frowned as Harry had skipped straight to the main point they intended to wiggle to over the course of a long conversation which they probably hoped would involve Harry begging to allow the Princess into his class.
Harry said, "The only thing you need to know about me is that I take responsibility for my students and ensure an environment where students can get as far as the effort they put into learning. I understand the Princess is only sixteen at the moment so even if she does not apply next semester, she can apply to others after my class has a bit more history. There is no point in requesting a personal meeting."
T'Challa was about twenty-nine and his sister was thirteen years younger. According to Wikipedia anyways.
The Wakandan Ambassador asked, "Then why did you agree to a meeting?"
Harry smirked, "Because it's funny. I wanted to see if Wakanda was worth my time. However using family as an excuse is a bit low, don't you think?"
The Ambassador sighed and said, "You're not the easiest person in the world to meet after all."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I have a house and it has a door. You could have knocked. Yes the street is filled with surveillance, but that's a normal hurdle to go through. I doubt any of you actually care that in a week or so I'll likely have men in suits show up and ask me what our conversation was about right? Did you think I would lie for you?"
The Ambassador was about to answer when T'Challa stopped him. "You are correct. My apologies. I do not trust easily and for good reason."
Harry shrugged. "Don't blame me for saying this but that's your problem. Trust is easy under two circumstances. When you are not afraid of people knowing your secrets, and when you are confident people cannot discover your secrets. If you can't trust easily, that means you have secrets you don't have confidence to keep, and that is, entirely, your problem."
The Ambassador actually chuckled at that which earned a glare from T'Challa which was only returned with amusement.
Before either could continue, the ground, walls, and ceiling began to shake. Every guard in the room looked like they were about to pull something out but hesitated when they remembered Harry was still in the room. Harry knelt down and put his hand on the floor and said, "Huh. The building is sinking."
Everyone else in the room turned to face a window and noticed that the ground from about thirty feet away from the window down the way was rising up, slowly but surely. Like a massive elevator the entire U.N. was being lowered into the earth and in less than a minute the sun could no longer be seen as the edge of the edge they were descending into got higher and higher.
After about two minutes the descending stopped. The pit the U.N. was now in was over four hundred feet down into the earth.
"What are those?!"
One of the guards pointed out the window at a mass of orange humanoids being led by a small number of short, pale humanoids out of various tunnels at the end of the hole. The orange ones were as large as Ben and numbered in the hundreds. And that was just what Harry saw out that window. If the same numbers were outside the other sides of the U.N., that would mean they were surrounded by thousands of them.
Once the orange men reached the wall, some entered through the door while the rest directly scaled up to the window.
Moments after they were seen, the window to the meeting room was shattered and four massive orange beings entered through. A pale person on the back of one of them said in English, "Surrender and come with us. Your only hope of safety is to come peacefully."
One of the guards drew a silver sword and directly pierced one of the orange beings. The creature did not bleed. A moment later it's fist slammed forward and the guard was sent into the wall with a firm crack.
The pale man laughed. "The Ani-men cannot be harmed by blades nor bullets. You will come with us willingly or come with us in pieces. The choice is yours."
Harry struggled to not laugh aloud. He was getting kidnapped. Could this day get any better?
*Ping*
[New Quest: Lord of Pranks!
Use Pranks to slow down the migration of the hostages to give the time needed for reinforcements. The more pranks you pull, the higher the reward.]
Harry smiled brightly. That certainly answered that question.
*Author's Note*
Please note that much of this stuff I'm making up as I go. I already bumped Spiderman's age by a bunch of years so I'm bumping up T'Challa's sister Shuri by the same amount. I thought about having T'Challa in class but even without changing ages, as of 2009, he's 29 so that's not a great option. No idea if Shuri will join the harem of maybe I'll pair her with Peter. No idea.
Speaking of Peter, should he get the standard Peter Spider package or does anyone want him to have a few extras? Could easily have the spider be given some of Susan's blood and its bite grants invisibility and energy blasts, giving Peter the Miles Morales Package.
Oh, and go ahead and give me any ideas you have for pranks. I have a few which are insidiously diabolical, but if anyone else knows some to inflict on the Hostages, the Moloids, or Mole Man himself, feel free to add it.
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