Marvel/HP: A Third Path to the Future

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As Psylocke and Vanguard led their guests to the dining room, Harry allowed himself a brief sigh of irritation. "Now for the part I've been dreading. Mingling, ugh."

The meeting had broken up a few moments after the question-and-answer session, which had actually been far more extensive and informative than Harry had feared it would be after the first few nonsensical questions. Indeed, Harry felt that most of the military types and a goodly portion of the civilian types understood the severity of the threat facing them from space. That didn't mean that the civilians really understood how little their governments could do about it in the short term, or that they were any happier about his announcement, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

Emma had planned for food and a few other smaller discussions to go over various bits of Kree doctrine and technology. Jean, Reed, and Carol would lead the technology discussions, while Nikolai and Mar'vel would talk about Kree military doctrine to anyone interested. The group of soldiers and politicians had allowed themselves to be led out into the main hall with something approaching gratefulness. I suppose food is always welcome after so many hours spent sitting and listening and doing absolutely nothing, Harry thought sardonically, rubbing his own empty stomach. He stood up and helped William to his feet.

"Oh come now, Harry. I would have thought the presentation sections were the worst bit. I'm actually looking forward to this part, though that could be because it's why you asked me to be here at all," Emma cut in drolly, while Jean sent a wordless wave of reassurance down their mental link.

With the others leading the tech and tactics discussions Emma, Psylocke, Magma, Colossus, and Harry were left to mingle, a task both men looked at as a chore rather than something to be embraced. Psylocke was rather neutral about the whole thing, hoping none of the men tried to flirt with her too much, while Magma was almost looking forward to it as much as Emma. As a daughter of a senator of Nova-Roma, Amora knew how to move in such gatherings and how important they were.

Still under her Diamond persona Emma directed the two of them with the ease of a woman born to high-class society, Harry found himself moving through the crowd, conferring with this group or that group in passing, doing what Emma called, "a preliminary test of the waters." She then elaborated quickly. "I'll then use that to help us narrow down what groups we need to work on and what others are thinking."

During this time Harry got to grips with the various separate issues facing him from several of the different countries. A few of them he and Emma were able to deal with right away.

Easiest to deal with was Israel after Colossus brought Harry's attention to them. They wanted his guarantee that he would make no action against their nation, nor open any dialogue with Palestine or any of their belligerent neighbors. That was easy for Harry to agree to, since he had long since made the decision not to sell anything, even in his Magical Minds guise, to nations that either condoned or allowed terrorist groups to exist within their environs. If that state of affairs changed, so to would his policy towards that particular country, but Harry did not see that happening anytime soon.

Germany, however, was a far more intricate problem. They wanted access to Magical Minds and Arc Technologies merchandise. But they hadn't yet met his demands on social reform, and while they could be a huge boon both for the fleet and for his workforce, they simply refused to do so. They also weren't actually as interested in Magical Minds' medicine as Harry had thought. Rather, they were insanely interested in buying Arc generators outright. Germany had long resented the fact that they were so dependent on other countries for their energy and gasoline, in particular Russia. Harry sympathized, but wasn't willing to bend on that issue.

However, with Emma coaching him telepathically he did slowly change his mind on that point. Not that he would sell them Arc reactors as he had to Britain with his initial testbed, but that he would sell power to them. Harry's company would lease some land in Germany and start work on building Arc reactors there to take over the energy grid slowly but surely. But it wouldn't be cheap for Germany.

It would be far cheaper than what they were using, but they would still be dependent on him for that energy. As for Magical Minds, there Harry demanded that he see some movement on Germany's part to meet his demands on the mutant equality front, either through subtle social reforms or laws, he didn't care which. "But that is a completely separate topic from the needs of the EDF we discussed earlier," he said, shaking his head.

"Ah, there we have another issue entirely," the German Federal minister of Economics and Energy, a woman named Andreas Kasselhoff, said. She looked at her fellow countryman for a moment before turning back to Harry. "The Deutsche Marine is not large enough to meet your initial manpower demand, let alone your long term goal. We have less than 20,000 trained personnel all told, and we have duties and obligations we have to meet. Perhaps we could come to some other kind of arrangement?"

Eventually Harry and Andreas hammered out an agreement to send noncoms, ratings, and officers for retraining. Germany would then wait until Harry came out into the open at the UN to make a formal agreement with him and start ramping up a recruitment drive for the EDF from the civilian population rather than the existing Deutsche that Germany could hopefully meet Harry's manpower demands with relative ease at that point, but until then the help Germany could give him was limited. Harry wasn't happy, but he agreed to wait for now since he knew many of the other nations would try to push for the same thing, and that Germany's navy was kept small for very good reasons, both internal and external.

Emma, however, took him to task somewhat after they left the Germans behind, moving back to one of the buffet tables. "You were rather hard on them, you know, Harry. You could've been a bit more diplomatic at the very least."

"You and I both know what the next Kree response is going to be, Emma. If an entire battle fleet comes in as intelligently as this last attack did, knowing what this last attack was able to send off, there is no chance that the defenses we have will be able to stop them. Not even with the time dilation cavern Kitty's working on. We need the manpower!" Harry retorted, his face creased in worry as he covered them with a muffliato.

"Everyone knows that, I think," the upper-class socialite soothed, stopping to take a tiny sip from a glass of orange juice. Why orange juice? she wondered, not for the first time in her life. It's always been alcohol, soda, and orange juice at events like these. Why orange juice at something happening this late in the day?

Shaking her head to get rid of that whimsical thought, Emma went on. "Psylocke, Phoenix, and I are in agreement that practically everyone in this room understands the nature of the threat, Harry. The soldiers in particular are giving off feelings of anger and helplessness. And all of them without fail want to buy in and sign up with us, even that German captain we just left."

She turned, leaning in to continue the conversation. "It was the numbers that have really stuck in everyone's minds, Harry. 1.2 billion sentients in a single fleet, with at least 34 fleets of similar size on the front with the Skrull and more on other fronts? Worse, remember that when Powers asked him, Rika admitted that the majority of the Kree and Skrull fleets are actually broken into hunting packs which operate behind enemy lines, while others are devoted to protecting against the same thing throughout Kree space.

"No, we have the military minds in the room on our side. You should also take it as a positive that nearly every nation sent a real policy maker here. Now we have to conduct business, stroke egos, meet with then one-on-one. Play the game, Harry, and we can walk out of here with everything we could logically expect to," Emma concluded in a soothing tone.

"Ughgh," Harry groaned theatrically, shaking his head. He could be political at times, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "I would've thought the numbers game—and why was it the number of sentients rather than the number of ships that sank in?—would have made sense to even politicians."

"Even the military minds sometimes have problems with the concept of the ship classes the Kree use I think," Emma said thoughtfully, rolling her eyes at Harry's overacting. "As for the politicians, their emotions and thinking are much more complicated. Hold on."

"Jean, what are you getting from your passive reading all of the politicians?"

Realizing what Emma was doing, Jean linked her mind with both her lovers for a moment. She had been listening to Carol argue about Gatling guns in comparison to something called Glochesters. Carol seemed to be losing the argument, and was happy about it, judging by the way her face was lighting up. "Can't talk long; I think this discussion is about to get interesting. Anyway, I'm reading a lot of fear from the politicians. But it's much more…existential, than the soldiers' and very few of them are giving off the same feeling of helplessness. I think they can't get their minds around the threat from space because it is so far out of their previous experience."

"Can you give me some more direction than that, love?" Harry asked a fond smile on his face as he felt Jean's interest. "I promise I won't bother you again."

"I'd say ignore the French," Jean said immediately. "Captain Chapel is on our side, but Ambassador Sirovna is firmly set against us. She's going to push to cut all of the funding to the committee already looking into the 'mutant question' now that she knows how deeply involved King William is with us. She's thinking it so hard I can't help but pick it up!"

"Are you telling me that that woman is making a decision like this based on that age-old issue between the French and the British! I'm all for patriotism, but that's crazy," Harry protested.

"No. Oh, neither of the French are happy that William was the first to jump on board and has been given so much power in future decision making…"

"He hasn't," Harry cut in quickly. "I mean, yes, I gave William a heads up on what I'd be wanting from the UK, but that's not the same thing as giving him or Powers authority over the Earth Defense Fleet. That's still going to be my baby."

"I know that, but they don't. They see a young man with a faint British accent speaking about an Earth Defense Fleet with the king of the United Kingdom sitting beside him," Jean replied

Emma nodded, taking over from Jean, having just skimmed the French ambassador's mind. "Sirvona apparently also lost at least one family member during World War II when William agreed went along with Churchill's decision to attack the Vichy fleet. For her it's a personal thing."

"Okay, so we can't do anything about that," Harry groaned. "Fine. Anyone else I need to worry about?"

"The Americans," Jean said blandly. She watched as the discussion between a Swedish representative, one of the noncoms from the UK, and Carol moved to the computer board, while Reed looked on in amusement before turning back to his own discussion. "I'm getting a distinct sense of disunity from them. I have no idea why but I'm not going to delve into their minds without a better reason than that. Anyway, I'll talk to you both later, loves."

"Whereas I just proved I have no such qualms," Emma quipped as Jean pulled her consciousness out of their link.

She looked at Harry, who shook his head. "No. They're not a clear and present danger to us, Emma. In fact, you shouldn't have even probed Sirvona like that. There's not enough of a reason there to do so."

Emma pouted, shaking her head. "You're far too moral for your own good, Harry, especially as a budding king."

Harry shrugged. "The rights of the individual are one of my country's main tenets. I can't then turn around and deprive someone else of the right of having his or her thoughts to himself without just cause."

"Well then, would you mind if I see what I can find out from the Americans the old-fashioned way?"

"Go to it, Emma," Harry said, the two of them moving out from the corner they had hidden in for their discussion. "I am going to talk to Steve for a bit, and then I think that Nick Fury wants to talk to me."

"Go have fun, Harry. I'll handle the Americans best as I can," Emma said, smiling lightly.

She watched as Harry purposefully made his way through the crowd to the group of people around Steve. This included military representatives from the world around, including most of the Americans—the military representatives, not the senators—who had moved to a corner. There were also a few politicians around Steve, but not many. Harry joined the discussion, clasping hands with Steve for a moment before turning to the others, one eyebrow rising in query as one of the Americans, a navy officer, shot out a question Emma couldn't hear from where she was currently located.

She turned away, making a beeline towards the Americans, her best fake smile plastered on her face. "Gentlemen. Not enjoying the party?"

Both Doom and William were also making the rounds through the crowds. William simply stood in one place and held court there, letting other people come to him as they would. Quite a large number of the politicians and the military rotated through that area, paying their respects to the king of the United Kingdom.

Doom did the same thing, though he had not sat down as William had been forced to, thanks to his advanced years. Yet for all his imposing nature, Doom did find himself quickly approached by the Polish and Finish civilian representatives.

At first the conversation between them had been dominated by questions about space, his opinion on the Kree as a scientist, and other things of that nature. But Doom had quickly sensed that they really wanted to talk about something else. And that they had come to him because his nation was closer to theirs, especially in the case of the Poles, than Harry's apparent seat of power or William's country.

Latveria had originally been a small country set on the borders between Serbia, Romania, and Hungary. Now, thanks to his taking over those countries once they had proved to be puppets of the Red Skull, it had grown quite dramatically to cover most of those countries as well as a large corner of the Ukraine.

He had not entered Poland, which did not have, to the best of his knowledge, any connection formal or otherwise to the Red Skull. They had, of course, been very leery about him at first, but when they realized that he had no interest in conquering their lands that had faded…slightly.

This had been helped by the fact that, beyond searing out the corruption of those governments with a cleansing flame, Doom had not instigated any massive social reforms or tried to change the countries he'd conquered overly much. His conquered lands were separate principalities now under Doom's auspices, retaining their own languages and laws, yet answerable to him. And with the goods from Latveria spreading out into them, Doom had actually opened up more jobs and education to all of them than they had previously. Yes, there was still a lot of bad blood towards Doom and his people simply because of the sheer number of poor foolish soldiers who had been ordered to fight his forces by their corrupt officials. But as the weeks went on and there were no reprisals or massacres or anything of that nature, that fell by the wayside.

Doom was a tyrant, for certain. Any and all real governmental power came from his word. There was no chance of him allowing democratic elections on the national scale. But he allowed them for district, city, and smaller municipalities. This gave the people just enough self-control over their lives that, coupled with the new roads, technologies, and jobs on the offering, he faced little opposition to his rule, and none of it was organized.

After finishing a discussion with the Polish representative about roads across their common borders, Doom looked at both him and the representative from Finland. The Finnish man was named Ian Modell, the famous general's nephew, while the Polish man was named Peter Hamilsan. "There is something you wish to say. I would prefer us to be candid with one another, gentlemen."

The two of them looked at one another, then across to where their military representatives were talking to Steve and Harry, with Steve using his hands to describe something in the air for a moment. "We would like your word that nothing that we say now will get back to our countrymen," Hamilsan said quietly.

Doom's eyebrows rose behind his mask, and he nodded slightly. "You have my word they won't learn about what you tell me from my lips." This should be interesting.

"We don't want them overreacting to the news, but Russia is making noises on their borders with us," Modell said. "It's very subtle, and they haven't actually moved troops into the area, but they are building up the logistics for a move into our country from St. Petersburg."

Before Doom could ask anything, Hamilsan went on. "They've been doing the same thing to us, except they're spreading out the buildup in several different cities. And with their advanced train system it won't take them long to move the actual troops into the area."

"I had known that they were building up on the border with Croatia, simply waiting for the government there to ask for aid, which they might well do," Doom acknowledged his gauntleted fingers twitching. "The Red Skull's fingers are deep into too many pies there, and my troops have reported entire regiments of Croatian troops acting on his orders to attack the portion of their country I have already taken."

"You haven't had any luck finding the Red Skull himself?"

"He uses doppelgängers, the well-tested cell system, and numerous other ways to hide himself," Doom said mildly, though his stare coming out of that mask was disconcerting to his listeners. "Each doppelgänger that we have found thought himself the real Red Skull; it was only their physical abilities that proved out the lie. If you have any way to find a super-soldier trained in espionage and with a massive terrorist organization at his beck and call, along with several decades to work with in a country whose entire government he now controls, pray, tell me now."

As the two men shivered and looked away, Doom went on much more agreeably. "We are attempting to find him. Now that the countries I have already annexed are able to once more look after themselves, I will be able to devote more of my personal time to the search. So it is only a matter of time until I find Herr Skull."

"What did he do to you that angered you?" Hamilsan asked quizzically. "We heard of the official announcement, but…"

"He stole something from me," Doom said, his voice now a sepulchral echo of rage. "It doesn't have much monetary value, but its value to me and to my mother is priceless. He also launched terrorist attacks into my country to cover the theft, killing several hundred of my citizens. And Doom is not the sort of ruler to let that stand."

His listeners both nodded, though the Finnish man was still looking a little questioning. But Doom redirected his curiosity for a moment as he asked, "Why would the Russians invade Finland again? They still control large swaths of the land you owned before World War II. Surely the rest of your country does not have any resources that would benefit them, unlike Croatia. If the Red Skull orders the Croatian government to ask for aid from Russia, it's very doubtful that Russia will leave again afterwards."

"We don't know," the Modell said. "All we know is what our spies are reporting."

Doom sensed the man wasn't quite being honest there, and he resolved to send a few of his robotic spies into the country to see what they could discern as soon as he could. Some newly discovered resource perhaps? A gold deposit, or something else? Regardless, it matters not at the moment.

"And you are talking to me because you want to form an alliance of some kind? Like I have with Mr. Potter," he went on very pointedly. Doom had made it clear throughout the evening that of all the world powers, only he and the United Kingdom had come out and already forged an alliance with Harry Potter, and only he had done so prior to this meeting. Yes, the Fantastic Four had done the same, but they didn't bring much to the alliance other than themselves. Which was a lot, admittedly, in Reed's case. Doom had to admit that his rival was almost as good as he was when it came to technology. But they didn't have any industrial or population base to call upon as he did.

"Not quite," Modell said, shaking his head. "Admittedly, we would like you to intercede on our behalf with Harry as well. All of Finland saw the light show from Storm's defense of the planet. We know the threat from space is real. But Russia is an old and very present threat, whereas the one in space is one we can barely conceptualize. We also simply can't meet his demands for people or material."

"Very well, I will intercede on your behalf on that," Doom said, waving one hand towards Betsy Braddock, or, as she was known in her current guise, Psylocke. "Are you capable of being your Lord's representative for a moment?"

Betsy nodded, looking at the politicians around Doom thoughtfully. "We thought we'd have issues from some of the smaller countries in meeting our demands." The purple-haired woman pulled out some packets of paper and handed them around. "These are the agreements for technically first world countries who can't meet the manpower requirements."

Doom looked at one of the papers briefly. Instead of trained military personnel, this called for trained technicians, welders, and miners. Certainly Finland would have an abundance of miners. Unless my thought about Russia being after a new resource is correct?

Yet he saw no hesitation when Modell nodded. "We can raise at least 5000 miners in a week from government-owned industries at the very least. More over time, though it will become difficult to keep up that level of recruitment from just governmental sources after three weeks. After that, we will have to create an open recruitment drive.

"As for the resources you want," Modell chuckled, looking at that. "Four-thousand tons of wood a month, plus another sixteen of pulp? Was that picked out for us especially?"

"There's no wood in space, and we have a major need for furniture and such like coming up soon," Psylocke replied coolly. That this would keep them from trying to harvest wood from the Savage Land was a bonus.

Poland was given a similar offer for coal and copper especially. There, though, Doom added his own demands. Poland would receive sensor equipment and a limited military alliance in return for supplying Latveria and the rest of Doom's countries with coal and natural gas for the next two years. If Russia did not invade in that time, they could renegotiate.

"And can we reach an agreement of like kind, Dr. Doom?" Modell asked, looking at Doom.

"Weapons and sensor equipment in return for twice the tonnage sent to you in mica." Doom replied promptly. "I also will need access to several of your ecological teams. Several of my new…acquisitions have badly damaged their original forests and ecology. I wish to bring them back."

"Mica?" Modell asked quizzically, but Doom was not forthcoming in more details. It was admittedly a useful ore, but Finland exported large amounts of mica already, so it wouldn't be that hard to meet Doom's requirements, though it might cut into the amount exported elsewhere.

"Shall I request a notary to come over here? We have a few nearby for this meeting. Trusted associates of Magical Minds," Psylocke interjected smoothly.

Doom looked at Hamilsan and Modell. Both of them nodded agreeably. "Yes, that will do nicely. I also believe this will call for a drink."

Unfortunately for Emma, her subtle questioning of the two American senators did not go nearly as well as everyone else's politicking. She had tried to draw them out about their individual feelings about Harry and what was going on, but had not gotten anywhere, the two older men playing the game nearly as well as she could and united against her .

It was almost with relief that Emma turned as she was addressed by one of the Indian representatives. With the two Indians stood the Swedish and Italian representatives, all six of them wanting to talk to Emma. The two American senators excused themselves, moving quickly towards one of the corners and grabbing some food as they went for further defense against any further attempt to pigeonhole them again.

Darn Harry and his sense of morality. Five seconds, five seconds and I could know what those two were thinking! Emma railed to herself before calming down. But where would that end, Emma? Harry was right. This is different from using it on someone you know is an enemy or a threat, and I no longer have to be so profligate in using my powers to get ahead. Let them be for now.

With that thought she turned her full attention on the Indian representative, a Shavri Numera. At her look, the man quickly explained why they were all there. "We can't meet the military requirement Mr. Potter's asking us to, despite the fact that all three of our governments have met the requirements to be given access to Magical Minds goods at a reduced price. Our navies just aren't large enough for us to absorb that large a hit to our manpower. Italy has the largest navy of us all, and even they won't be able to do that."

"Mr. Potter did mention that there were other ways of meeting that requirement, didn't he?" Emma said dryly, not showing any of her irritation at her real work being interrupted or of the closeness she and Harry enjoyed.

"But we do want to send people," the Indian said. "And I think my own country in particular has a lot we can offer in terms of labor if you can provide the education! We might not have seen the light show directly overhead, like other countries did," he said nodding towards the Swedish military representative and a woman from their defense department, "but we do know the threat is out there, and we acknowledge it."

"And you?" Emma asked looking at the Italians.

"We're not happy with the fact that this was opened up to the British first, but we're willing to look the other way on that issue. Yet my friend here is right. We won't be able to loan out 25,000 men. Hells, we only have thirty thousand or so under arms as it is. We can give him some dedicated naval officers trained in subs, we decommissioned a few of them about a month back, and their crews are well trained in such, so that should cut down on the retraining necessary. From there we can make up the difference by helping Mr. Potter's recruitment drive in our countries. Yet if we do that, we'd like a little consideration on his part."

"Consideration?" Emma asked, though she knew what this was going to be about.

"Arc reactors," the Indian said before the Italian could. "That's what we're all interested in, isn't it? The technology's been proven now in the UK, and I've seen the numbers it's saving the UK government. My government would like to jump on that bandwagon very, very much."

"All three of you are prepared to make deals for your governments?"

"We are," the Indian said promptly.

"Good. In that case, come this way gentlemen, and we will start to crunch some numbers," Emma said, her voice nearly gleeful. Beyond even making money, the art of the deal was something she truly enjoyed.

Elsewhere Harry had broken off from the group around Steve and moved toward where Fury was busy propping up a wall to one side of the main group. Nick was nursing a beer, and he raised an eyebrow at Harry, who was drinking what he knew was a sprite without any added alcohol. "Not partaking of your own liquor, Potter?"

"It's a sort of sign of solidarity," Harry said obliquely.

Nearby Jean and Reed led the group who had been talking tech into the main room, making a beeline for the food, and Harry had to hide a wince watching Jean piling mustard on top of some of the shrimp canards for some reason, as well as dipping one of the small finger sandwiches into the actual shrimp sauce.

From where she was now chomping down on the food hungrily, Jean felt Harry's eyes on her and turned. The two of them locked gazes for a brief moment, and Harry flooded their telepathic link with feelings of love and affection the moment she opened the connection.

She smiled, looking away, but responded in kind. Ever since spending so much time in the time dilation chamber Harry had become far more attentive towards her than before. She couldn't say he was more loving, because that would've been impossible, but he made it a point to search her out every chance he could and just shower her with affection, not having enjoyed being separated from Jean for the second time like that at all. She understood, even if she felt it was a bit too much at times.

Harry's attention was brought back to Fury as the super-spy and manager of spies said abruptly, "I have to apologize to you."

Harry looked at him quizzically. "About what?" Given the dislike the two of the held towards one another it could have been have been for any number of things, but Harry couldn't' think offhand any specific thing Fury would feel the need to apologize for just now.

"I still don't like how you're dealing with things. I think you should have been working with the systems already in place from the get go. But the Kree and the rest of space, I have to hand it to you. You were right about the level of the threat there."

"And if I had worked within the system, would I have done as much good? I don't think so, certainly not against the space-based threats. And as to my stance on the 'mutant question,' the entire world needed a kick in its ass on that issue, and I as a nominal outsider was quite prepared to provide it. I don't think I could've gotten away with that if I'd tried it your way, or even Charles's way. Playing a simple vigilante would not have given my voice the weight it needed," Harry replied.

"I just admitted you were right about the space issue Potter," Fury growled, before looking away. "I think you could've done a lot of good for the mutant question if you'd worked with, say, the UN, but I can understand why you didn't. How certain are you that we can't find some allies out there?" Fury asked, abruptly changing the topic. Apologizing was not a forte of his.

"Very." Harry said bluntly. "There isn't a real power out there that would be looking to ally with a nothing-planet like us. We could probably make some allies among the independents, but most of them are weaker than we are in many ways. I say again, we could fight a battle fleet if it came in stupid and bunched up. They couldn't have beaten off the last fleet we faced."

Harry sighed, running one hand through his hair. "There's no one out there that would be willing to even view us as a semi-independent satrapy. The closest are the Shi'ar, but they are elitist, and if their ruling class suddenly decides we shouldn't have any rights, the rest of their nation will mostly enforce that belief. There was one rumor Mar'vel shared that the Shi'ar had actually wiped out a sentient species because one of their governors had tried to eat them and found them incredibly tasty. That is how screwed up space is."

"What would it take me to get some SHIELD involvement in the EDF?" Fury asked, looking a little pale at that rumor.

"It depends what you mean by that."

"Oversight. A separate group, answerable to you when it comes to space-based threats, but more importantly to make certain that the people you're taking on are all above board."

"No. If you want to have SHIELD agents working with us, that's fine, but they will be working for me. I'm not going to have them answer to two masters. As for everyone else who signs up with me or is seconded to the EDF, same rules apply. No one will be taking back designs or examples of actual technology to be used in battle against terrestrial threats. The EDF will defend Earth from exterior threats. The EDF's place will never be to play politics or take sides."

"I understand that, and it'll make my job easier at least. Will you at least give me a heads-up on when you're going to appear at the UN?"

"I mean to show up there in about a week's time. I'm waiting for Storm to recover, and we are still considering how to go about doing it." Harry replied.

"Understood," Fury muttered. The two men looked at one another for a moment, wondering where to take the conversation, before deciding to just end it there. They would never get along, and frankly at this point was it really necessary for them to? At least they both knew they could inhabit the same planet without becoming enemies, at least.

And besides, Fury thought as he turned away from Harry. It isn't as if I don't already have plans in place to stop Potter if he goes rogue. Tony Stark's Ultron project for one, and the other little surprises I have him and Pym working on.

Soon after Harry left Nick behind, the meeting reformed, with Harry once more taking center stage as everyone moved back into the meeting room. This final portion didn't really cover anything important in terms of the politics or the logistics aspects, but it did cover more of the strategy and long-term plans Harry had that he was willing to share. "Essentially, we're going to keep repairing and or rebuilding the ships we've taken. All combined, they are a decent defense force, which can see off any normal sized attack up to a battle fleet. With Fortress Mars, we can probably stop even a battle fleet if, as I keep saying, it comes in stupid. We cannot assume it will, hence my demands to all your governments."

"Point of order, Mr. Potter," said one of the Americans, whose name Harry blanked on for a moment. "Fortress Mars? Did I hear a capital there?"

"My people called it that, and they are the ones who died during this last battle, so yes, it is now Fortress Mars. And by the time are finished with it, the Red Planet will live up to that appellation," Harry replied, a thin, cold smile flickering across his face.

"You've lost people?" Fury asked, frowning. "You hadn't mentioned that earlier."

"Eighty-seven dead in that last attack, more in the attack previous. Their families received full pension and explanations as to how their loved ones died. Astonishingly, none of the Navy personnel attempted to break the secrecy clause. I wonder why?" Harry said, his smile fading on his last words.

"You're talking about defense only. In fact, all we've talked about this entire meeting is defense," said one of the British naval men, frowning as he looked over to the Americans, who nodded, understanding his point. "Defense is nice, but how can we hit back?"

"I have some ideas. Unfortunately most of them rely on logistics and infrastructure that we don't have yet. I also think that striking back at the Kree in any way that can be traced back to us or which uses our new technology would be stupid in the extreme until we are ready to land a telling blow," Harry warned.

Doom nodded. "One thing history should've taught us all is that introducing new technology to warfare piecemeal is to dare your opponents to find a way to counter it. I have a few ideas of my own that I will be testing on my ship, but I refuse to share them with anyone who has not signed up and joined the defense initiative."

"Exactly," Harry said with a nod towards Dr. Doom, not acknowledging the emphasis Doom had put on that one word, though more than one of his listeners winced, reminded once more that Dr. Doom had access to spaceships. "I have a lot of ideas on how to go on the attack, but you're going to have to actually pony up to hear them."

There was a lot of groaning at that. However, Admiral Whittaker held up his hand. "In that case it's a good thing I brought a duffel bag with me and that I'm retired. Where can I sign up, Mr. Potter?"

After the laughter at that ended and Harry had accepted, Reed stood up. "There is one more point we need to talk about, a short and long-term advantage that we have. Dr. Doom just hit on it. Our tech is still rising, not just our industrial base, but our technology. The Ravens, for example."

From here he put up the image of a Raven as it was being designed currently on the computer screen behind them.

After he explained what they were, several of the Air Force officers in the room gasped, and one of them said reverently, "You have developed jet fighters for space!"

"They are the more urban equivalent of a PT boat, or perhaps cutters. Not actual starfighters, considering they need three or four people to operate depending on the version. But yes, we have them. We are also developing technologies to make certain that our pilots survive, which I'm sure you're all ecstatic about," Reed quipped. "We are continually adding to our technology, while the Kree have reached a plateau."

Harry looked over at Mar'vel, who stood up and began to explain how stagnant Kree technology had been for at least as long as he had been alive. No new technology had been added to the fleet, no new strategies, little in the way of even advancements in how to ease logistical requirements or bolster the economy.

One of the American politicians rolled his eyes. "So if we hold off for, what, a hundred years, two hundred years, we'll possibly be at technological parity? Lovely."

Harry glared at the man for a moment but didn't answer, continuing the meeting from there for roughly another hour before it ended, with Psylocke and the other Custodes on hand leading the delegates out. Harry leaned back in his chair, looking over at Doom and William. "Well that went…well?"

"Quite well, yes, if they really were all able to make binding agreements for their governments as they said, which is by no means certain. Though you will have to watch out for the Americans," Reed warned.

"And the French," William replied, shaking his head. "I honestly don't know how the French government will react to today's revelations. I had not considered how negatively they viewed me personally, let alone my nation."

"Anyone else I should be on the lookout for?"

Doom thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Psylocke will no doubt give you a report about what she overheard from the Swedish and Finnish delegates. Other than that, I believe it is time for me to return to my own nation. Until next time, Potter." With that and without any further warning, Doom disappeared.

"Did he just use a technological version of teleportation?" Harry asked aloud.

"Yes, yes he did," Reed said, frowning before clicking his fingers. "Of course, his armor! Doom doesn't need a teleportation grid on this end or any exterior power source. He carries it in the armor itself."

"Smart, and it's just like Doom to make certain we know he can do that."

"Well, Admiral Whittaker is going to be seen to by Nikolai later. We'll house him in the Magical Minds building for now, though I'll move him to Fortress Mars tomorrow along with you and your group, Admiral Powers," Harry said, looking over at the British contingent who were all waiting for their king. "Until then, I bid you all good night."

"And with that, I believe it's our cue to leave, Admiral. If you could help an old man out to his car?" William asked, tottering to his feet.

Jean and Emma had left with the delegates, only to return from behind the rest of the group, dressed to the nines for an evening out, and William had realized they were no longer wanted here. Reed noticed the same thing and left with Banner, the Thing, and Mar'vel, leaving Harry and his ladies to celebrate the success of this meeting together.

OOOOOOO

"And thus I greet you, you who will become part of the New World Order!" As the rest of the crowd around them cheered, Mystique, Irene, and Morph carefully did the same, while inside each of them were lost in their own thoughts. The two shape changers looked at Destiny who was standing between them, the two of them having pushed the crowd slightly back so that the obviously older woman could have some personal space, not that it was very difficult given her apparent age and the crowd's surprising respect for that.

"That was interesting," Destiny said, her voice lost in the tumult of the group of forty or so mutant youths all around them. "Did you notice his tone and words?"

They weren't all from Cairo, of course, but Mystique felt that they might have been gathered from Egypt and possibly its neighboring countries. She had certainly detected some Libyan and Sudanese accents. Although "gathered" might not be the best word to use. Perhaps "culled" would be better? Since all of them have mutant powers which can enhance their combat ability. Odd how that seems to have worked out, hmm?

"I did," Mystique said aloud, her own voice as low as her lover's. With the noise the crowd was making it was unlikely they would be overheard, but she wasn't about to take any chances. "It was familiar, though I can't place..."

"I can. Imagine him with a normal white skin tone, blond hair, and blue eyes. While also possibly wearing an SS uniform of a major..."

Mystique controlled her physical reaction to that with the ease of a lifetime's worth spent in espionage, but it was very difficult. "Essex!? How, how is he still so young looking?! I knew he was a mutant, of course, but is that his power? The ability to not age?"

Morph looked at them quizzically, but Mystique shook her head slightly and gently guided Destiny through the crowd towards the door to the auditorium. The speaker hadn't been here in person; he had been displayed on a large computer screen at the front of the room. That probably meant that this base was a simple gathering center, not even a logistics base for this Mutant Liberation Front that Essex was leading. It looked as if Morph and I are going to be here for a long while.

They were met at the door by Riptide, who smilingly gestured the trio to follow him. "You three are the newest influx we've had, so some ground rules and I'm afraid a bit of sad information for you all. This is a semi-military outfit. We're here to fight for mutant rights and Irene, I am sorry to say, but you're little too old for that kind of thing. And your power doesn't seem to have any long term application we can use. Do you think that if you return home you'll get in trouble with anyone or anyone will notice that these two love birds didn't return with you?"

Irene shook her head, while beside her Morph chuckled, putting an arm around Mystique's shoulder as they too shook their heads. "No. We were in Cairo to look for jobs as a exercise instructor in my wife's case, and in construction for me."

"Indeed. I can simply tell anyone who is curious about it that they found jobs and decided to move in immediately," Irene concurred, turning bland eyes on Morph before looking back at Riptide. "I can even set up some moving trucks to ship their clothing and furniture. That should do as cover, shouldn't it? How likely is it that someone will be looking for them, anyway?"

"Not very, and that should do nicely, yes," Riptide said, smiling politely. "If you want you can have a meal in the commissary before we show you the way back to the surface. From there you'll have to make your way back to your hotel on your own, though given where our base is in relation to your hotel that shouldn't be too hard, especially since its broad daylight out now. We can even give you a disguise."

"I'd prefer to walk her back to our hotel ourselves, but I guess even that would be dangerous?" Mystique asked, reaching out to grip her 'mother's' hand.

"You two are going to be too busy training after breakfast, I'm afraid," Riptide said, laughing lightly, though Mystique noted that there was little humor in his eyes, and despite his attitude it was clear he was giving them an order. "You both have good instincts, and your powers are decent in terms of combat application, but you need a lot more training than you already have before you really join the MLF. Best to start now."

Mystique nodded, but couldn't stop herself from thinking: How strange that liberation in this case means subjugation of normal humans rather than simply fighting for our own freedoms and lives. First Magneto, now Sinister or Essex, whichever is his real name. The maestro might change, but the music stays the same.

True to his word, Riptide showed them first where their room was, then where the commissary was. Morph thanked him heartily for getting the 'married couple' a room with a single king sized bed rather than two cots, while Mystique smiled, ignoring the desire to slice the overacting Morph with difficulty. Irene smirking at her from one side was definitely not helping her self-control.

After that Riptide led them to the underground base's commissary, where the three of them had a decently sized, if rather bland, meal. There, once again, Morph made a point of being affectionate towards Mystique, though he did so now in a more subtle, publicly acceptable manner, carrying her meal, sitting close beside her, and touching her hand occasionally as they ate. It was good acting, Mystique had to admit, but she couldn't actually approve of it, even if it meant she wouldn't have to deal with any of the other men here coming on to her.

Not with Irene right there smirking occasionally at her, knowing that Irene would be leaving soon and that it would be some time before they saw one another again. After having had nearly eight months together, that irritated Mystique more than it should, even though she knew it was better for Irene's safety, especially if they had just begun to spy on the very man that had made them run off all those months ago, leaving Magneto's Brotherhood.

Once they finished eating Mystique helped Destiny find a new disguise, and Riptide showed the three of them up out of the hidden base that the MLF used in Cairo. They passed three mutants there who all nodded to Riptide, while a fourth stood nearby listening to a headset.

After a moment he nodded. "Okay. Sensor detects no one nearby. Head towards the entrance; I'll lower the illusion for a moment to let you out."

"Do you have the directions to your hotel?" Riptide asked solicitously, though again there was something about his eyes that gave the words the lie.

"I do." Irene bit her lip for a moment, then asked hesitantly. "But, but is there any way I can further help the cause? Any bank account I can exchange money to?"

"We have your contact information. If we can set something up which can't be traced by the governments of the world, we'll get in touch with you. But that is a tall order," Riptide warned, something like regret coming into his eyes as he looked at the old woman in front of him.

"Understood," Irene said with a sigh. "Good luck to you all, and I hope to see the day that mutants take their rightful place on top of the evolutionary food chain!"

Riptide nodded as the other mutants around them cheered at her words. He then gestured her out of the tunnel leading into their secret headquarters. The tunnel was in part of a park set near the outskirts of Cairo, but the actual base itself was below a nearby apartment block which had been a site of a fight between rival gangs years ago and been condemned since. The police and every other official thought that only squatters lived there, and hadn't noticed that anyone sent to investigate tended to disappear or be turned aside somehow. It was also, as Riptide had said, actually quite close to the original hotel that Mystique, Morph, and Destiny had been using during their stay in the city.

Without a backwards glance Irene made her way through the park out into the city proper, slowly making her way towards the hotel. Even as she walked, however, her powers were reaching out, delving into her own personal future. Even as old as she was, Irene could still see her own place in the future for up to a week without straining herself. She blinked in bemused shock for a moment before very carefully concealing any further reaction to what she had felt coming towards her in the future.

A bomb inside my room? Really? How...plebian. I would've thought they would've gone for a clean assassination: some poison in my food, perhaps, or a knife in the dark. But I suppose they could blame the attack on anti-mutant groups if they want to rouse my friends' ire further against normal humans and think they would believe it. Or simply blame religious fanatics for attacking a woman not wearing a hijab or any number of other reasons. In this cit you're rather spoilt for choice, frankly. The methodology still bothers me, however. It seems... seems rushed somehow. Sloppier then I would have thought this group would be.

Irene soon entered the hotel, nodding politely at the concierge who didn't look up from her computer work beyond a bare moment to smile at her. Irene entered an empty elevator a moment later. Luckily this hotel did not have cameras in their elevators, or she would've had to disable them before she did what she actually did next, which was to pull out a super-thin cell phone and holding it to her ear. "This is Destiny. Requesting immediate extraction."

A few moments later the elevator opened on a floor three floors below hers, only there was no one there to the visible eye. This state of affairs continued until the elevator doors closed, and Harry came out from under his invisibility cloak. His black hair looked even more disheveled than usual, and his eyes were rather bloodshot, as if he hadn't had much sleep the night before, though the number of hickies Irene saw around his neck told her that it had been in a good cause. "Good morning, Irene. Did you and the others have an interesting time?"

"Quite interesting. Moth and Mystique are now ensconced in the MLF. But this isn't their main base, so don't think about going in guns blazing just yet," Irene warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it. Your paramour knows she can reach out to us if she needs it, and there's a backup team nearby." So saying, Harry pulled out another object he had been dragging along underneath the cloak, its feet and his both covered by a Muffilatio.

Destiny blinked, pouting a little as she stared at a doppelgänger of herself. Do I really look like that? So, so wrinkled? It's a wonder Mystique still puts up with me. "I realized that they would be lifelike, but that lifelike?"

"I wish I could take the credit for this one, but I can't, since a simulacrum I'd create wouldn't be able to take any damage and retain its form. But Reed does good work," Harry said with a shrug. "Anything you need to tell me now before we get out of here?"

"The mutant that might be the leader of this group is ageless, or at least has not aged since World War II and is going by the name Mr. Sinister. He preaches mutant superiority as we already knew, but beyond that I have no concrete information," Destiny said with a shrug. "They're very compartmentalized and very security conscious."

"They should be," Harry replied grimly. "If I find their main base I'm going to come down on it like a sack of bunker busters."

"That's a new one," Destiny replied dryly.

"Bricks are too weak and too small to describe what I will do to them," Harry said with a shrug. "You want me to program this flesh-bot to just walk to your room, open your door, and what?"

"Flesh-bot? Reed does know what that sounds like, doesn't he?" Destiny asked weakly.

"He will when Susan hears him refer to them as such. I actually want to be around when he does," Harry laughed, before repeating his question.

Rolling her eyes at Harry's sense of humor, Irene said, "Yes, but then have it start getting undressed for a bath, I think. That is one luxury that they did not allow us since they recruited us. After that, the…robot, I refuse to call it a flesh-bot, should probably go sit in front of the TV to watch some TV for a few moments. That will put it at the optimum position for it to be utterly destroyed by the explosion I have foreseen in my future. But we're certain that this robot will fool people?"

"Read created this simulacrum to match the ones AIM has been apparently using to cover its kidnapping of scientists the world over, so we should be fine. Don't ask me how it works, though. While I might be a decent engineer, this thing is beyond me."

When the door opened next the simulacrum walked out, following its new orders. Behind it the door closed once more on an empty elevator, yet it continued to rise towards the roof until Harry teleported himself and Destiny directly to Camelot, having used Ororo's method of teleportation to travel to the city and to depart.

For a few moments the simulacrum continued on its way, opening the door and entering the room. However when it went to start changing to go into the bath, the explosion that Destiny had predicted went off, immolating the room and the simulacrum. Its burned remains would be found in a few hours as a Muslim terrorist group claimed responsibility for it.

OOOOOOO

Eager to start putting together the next wave of expansion to the EDF, Harry, Jean, Carol, and Nikolai met the two admirals and the other UK officers and noncoms who had been ordered to join the EDF later that morning. After having spent a night with Jean and Emma, Harry was somewhat surprised that Admiral Powers had already put together a small staff, consisting of six more officers to go with the four noncoms and captain who had been involved in the meeting the day before.

Powers introduced them, but their names didn't register so much as their specialties: logistics, communication, training, and research. There were three logistics officers, all of whom recognized Admiral Whittaker, who was more famous for his work in that area then for his field work, and one man from each of the other specialties.

Harry had them all sign the non-disclosure agreements, though as he put it, "Those won't really matter soon, given what we're going to tell the UN. But some of the things we can do will remain a secret even after that, and we still want to control what other information gets out as much as we can."

He waited for a time until they had all signed, then led the group through Magical Minds. Entering his office, Harry gestured to what looked like a normal door set into the wall. "If you will follow Phoenix through, gentlemen?"

Shrugging, the men did so, only to find themselves blinking, somewhat disoriented for some reason on the other side. The men found themselves in what looked like a long hallway dominated by what looked like several free-standing stone doorways.

Whittaker looked around for a moment, his engineer's background coming to the fore suddenly. "This room can't possibly be on the same level of the MM building as the office we were just in. Not unless I got turned around or half the offices we passed on the way are fake?"

"Not a bad try, Admiral, but not quite. What you just used was part of our transport system," Jean replied, once more in her Phoenix guise and feeling remarkably mellow after an excellent date last night with Harry and Emma. Emma wasn't part of this meeting, having volunteered to watch Ororo for the morning, both since due to the time difference between Scotland and New York she had no meetings of her own, and because she had pulled something during the aforementioned excellent date.

Shaking her head to clear it of such thoughts, Jean continued her explanation. "Each of these doorways leads to another one of our holdings or those of our allies. This one at the far end, however, is the only one you're going to be able to use. All the others are locked. No offense, but while we trust you, we all still have secrets from one another."

Some of the Brits looked a little affronted by that, but Harry spoke before anyone else could. "Only a few of those secrets even peripherally touch on the EDF in terms of logistical bases and research departments. The rest have to deal with the Custodes and our planetary-based enterprises. For instance, one of them leads to Avalon Academy, the secret school the British press have been wondering about ever since the young princess Modell was removed from her private school after the attempted kidnapping on her."

That mollified all of them, and they followed Harry and Phoenix to the runic doorway. This one was a permanent connection to Fortress Mars. The other end had to be recharged by Harry once a week, but it was faster and easier to travel to Mars in this manner than relying on the house-elves or Harry's own ability to apparate there. Harry could do so, but among the house-elves only Cory had been able to do the same thing from Babylon. The others had to work in groups to get there, but because they had their own magical cores were fine once they were there.

"I will warn you, this time you'll feel quite a bit more disorientation than you did coming here from Magical Minds," Harry cautioned. "I would recommend you speak up now if you had a large or greasy breakfast."

Even though they now looked apprehensive, the officers and noncoms all stepped forward bravely, crossing the threshold of the runic doorway one after another.

Harry quickly followed Whitaker and Powers and held them by their arms as they shuddered, their legs feeling like jelly underneath them. One or two of the others actually did fall to their knees for a moment, but most of the officers and noncoms bore up under the odd sensation easily.

One of them caught Harry's questioning look, and he chuckled. "Lifetime spent on the ocean in all sorts of weather, Mr. Potter. Your first real blow will either toughen your stomach or drum you out of the navy. Besides, half of us here are flyboys."

It had been a long time since Powers had flown his own plane or Whittaker had strode a deck, and they were much older than the others to boot. Yet even so they recovered quickly and looked around them in surprise at the size of the cavernous hanger bay. "This is the entrance to Fortress Mars. Needless to say we can't bring anything too large through the doorways, but we've got several of the captured ships working as tugs at present bringing in supplies. But if you think this is interesting, we'll have to stop by the observation deck."

The officers willingly followed Harry, and the group picked up Carol and Dr. Banner as they travelled through the fortress. Carol took over most of the discussion then, having come to be regarded as the commander of Fortress Mars somewhere along the line. Under her direction the group entered an elevator and proceeded to ascend around forty stories up.

"Of course this isn't even a tenth of the total height of Olympus Mons even now, but we decided to build down and out for the most part early on, working from the designs Harry and Phoenix had come up with for a rudimentary base." The elevator doors opened, leading them directly out into a square room whose entire outer wall was dominated by glass, letting the newcomers look out onto the landscape of the red planet beyond. "But we couldn't stop ourselves from creating this little gem."

Mars would never be gorgeous like a living planet could be especially after Harry had glassed it during his fight with Thanos. But there was something astonishingly beautiful about its blasted, seared majesty, coupled with the certain knowledge that they were now on another planet, that took the watcher's breath away. Harry and the others waited for the newcomers to get over their surprise before ushering them back into the elevator.

Soon they were ensconced in a conference room built to one side of Fortress Mars's command center. It was connected to the command center's numerous computers, though many of them were still offline. At least the orbital sensors were working, as was the computer screen in the conference room.

Whitaker was the first one to comment on this, shaking his head. "The overall design is good from what we've seen, but this fortress is nowhere near combat ready."

"Needs must when the battle comes to you. As for making it combat effective, I'm grateful you and these gentlemen are here, Admiral," Harry retorted. "The purpose of this meeting is to get you all up to speed on what you'll be working on, and what type of servicemen and women we're looking for. We also will be discussing some of the rules of the EDF which differ from most militaries. Shall we get down to it?"

The logistics aspect of that discussion went easily enough. Harry, joined by Sage halfway through the meeting and by Carol when it came to Fortress Mars itself, explained things to the satisfaction of their listeners. Harry was well pleased by the team Powers had put together. They asked insightful questions and listened to the answers, had a good head for numbers, and Whittaker in particular seemed to have a grasp of the engineering aspect of the work continuing on Fortress Mars and with the captured fleets. He, Carol, and Jean nearly went off on a tangent at that point, but Harry called them back.

Harry brought the conference back on point by working with the computer for a moment, bringing up the images of a few of the ships. "We're going to use the Hellion and these other two ships, which we've decided to call Buckler and Countershock, as training vessels. Max crew complement for the Hellion is 750 men, max for the battleship Buckler is 4,000, Countershock falls between them at 2,500. We've looked at ways to cut down on that through more automation, but it's an ongoing process that keeps getting pushed back. However, far smaller crews can pilot and look after the ships outside of combat ops. In terms of training sailors, those ships will be yours, Admiral Powers, along eventually with Warspite once it's operational."

Powers nodded, looking over the information on the ships closely. "Will we be based on the ships for training or here on Fortress Mars?"

"That is up to you," Harry replied bluntly. "I'd recommend the training cadre you will have to create first live on the ships for a time. There are a lot of things that you just don't realize about being in space if you don't live in zero-G for a while. Carol here has put together the start of that training. Nikolai, however, has handled the other side of things, the training of our marine force."

"Marine force? You mean ship boarding and defense, right?" one of the noncoms asked.

"Indeed," Nikolai said as he stood, and he began to briefly describe the training he, Scott, and Carol had put together over the last few days. Most of it had come from him and Carol, though Scott had thought up a lot of the tactics they used in the actual fights. "We will have a formal training regimen for you to look over by the end of the day, but we are also holding a training session this afternoon if you'd like to join us."

"But what we need even more than that are workers: dock men, welders, riveters, electricians, engineers, boilermen! We'd also like more ship designers, but the, I suppose you'd call it the blue collar workforce is the most necessary aspect right now," Harry interjected. Even after Kitty finished her work on the time dilation cavern that would be the case. "Besides, they can work on the captured ships and get to know them all first hand as well as get valuable experience in zero-G."

"When do you envision us building our own capital ship designs?" asked one of the new officers, a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache that did nothing for him named Durham, though Harry couldn't remember his first name.

"Carol?" Harry asked, looking at Carol and Jean.

Carol too turned to Jean who shrugged her shoulders. "Our reverse engineering has proceeded apace, and we have looked at a lot of the Kree ships at this point. We could start designing capital ships now if we weren't stuck on the defensive and had any resources to actually build the things. As of this moment though, we don't have the resources or people to devote to that project, nor really the incentive. We have more captured ships than we can crew at this point, and will for months.

"Mind you," Jean went on, looking over at Carol who nodded firmly, knowing where the redhead was going with this. "We will want to as soon as we can. Reed told you how the Kree and maybe the other big powers out there have reached a tech threshold. We think that's carried over into ship designs. We have a lot of ideas we'd really like to follow up on."

She looked up sharply at Dr. Banner, her empathy-based telepathy picking up a sudden spike of something from him. "Dr. Banner, is there something you want to tell us?"

Bruce twitched at that, his eyes narrowing and staying silent. But as Harry joined Jean in looking at him, he looked away, speaking up with manifest reluctance. "I have been looking at the Kree sensor equipment and I have possibly developed a series of countervailing systems which could be used to block them at anything but close range."

Looking at Bruce closely, Harry had no need of Jean's telepathic prod to want to question this statement. "And when were you planning to share this?"

Bruce flared up with anger at that so much that Harry readied a tickling spell in an effort to try and calm him down. "Recall, Potter, that you are keeping me prisoner against my will! I work with you on sufferance, nothing more."

"Recall, Bruce, that you are working with us to make up for the deaths you caused as the Hulk!" Harry retorted. "While Thanos might have controlled you, it was your hubris that put you in the position where you could be targeted by him. Work with us whole-heartedly, and you at least will be allowed visitors. If not you can lose such privileges."

After a moment Bruce looked away, nodding, guilt flashing across his face for a moment.

"What will my duties be, sir? As soon as I am up to speed, I mean?" Admiral Powers asked respectfully, if awkwardly. It felt odd to be saying sir to someone not affiliated with his country's government, and the moment was rather awkward as well.

Harry didn't notice this, smirking at the other man. "We'll get you up to speed right quick, trust me, though to you it won't seem quick at all. As for your duties, you'll be in charge of organizing and running the day-to-day repairs and the fitting of the ships, the logistics of the training cadres, and the housing for the military types as well as their unit organization. Sage, another one of my employees, has a lot of that already organized, but she won't be the one actually running things, and if you look through it and see things you want to change, that will be fine. While Sage is doing a fantastic job organizing, she just doesn't have enough time to actually lead."

Powers nodded thoughtfully, and asked several questions that Harry fielded easily enough. Whittaker joined in, and was informed he'd be in charge of the same sort of thing for Fortress Mars. There, however, most of the work force would be droids or civilians, so he wouldn't have as much military-style authority. Harry also informed them of the power structure among his people. Harry and his ladies were at the top. You could argue if you thought you had more information, but they were to be obeyed. Dr. Doom too. If he gave an order he should be listened to, just like Reed or the Thing, whose inclusion was a bit of a surprise. When it came to military matters, Carol, Nikolai, and Scott were also to be listened to, but could be overruled, though the individual who did so would have to back that up in front of Harry.

When the two admirals were satisfied, one of the noncoms from the other night spoke up. His name was Ernest Macready, and he spoke with a Scottish brogue which put Harry in mind of the Gryffindor Quidditch captain from his old dimension for some reason. "You said there are some rules that will be different for the EDF sir?" heasked. "If ya could just give us a bit of a heads up on that, I'd appreciate it, seeing as me and my fellow noncoms're going to be the ones enforcing those regs."

"Most of them are additions, and they deal with safety issues. I shouldn't have to say it, but space is a cold stone bitch, and it has hundreds of ways to kill you if you don't take precautions. We've been able to keep our injuries from accident and mishap to a minimum, but we can't assume that will continue when we are introducing so many thousands of people into the training program at once."

Harry waited until all of the noncoms had nodded at that, wanting to drive the point home. Telling a family that their father, son, daughter, or in one case, mother had died in a battle to defend Earth was one thing. Harry had yet to have to tell a family that their loved one had died in an accident, and wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. "I'll let Carol explain all that to you later today. Needless to say, if she says to do something, you do it. I expect you to work closely with her on this score."

"That will be a delight indeed," the Scotsman said, bowing in Carol's direction, causing her to snort and roll her eyes. "Anything else?"

"Yes, there is one more thing. As I don't like thinking of myself as a hypocrite, the normal regulation about fraternization in the ranks is not going to be enforced among the EDF." Harry held up a hand as more than one of his listeners tried to protest. "I realize that regulation is in place for a very good reason, and if anyone plays favorites or is caught trying to coerce sex out of one of their junior officers or soldiers they will be done. I will either send them back to their parent military or deal with the issue myself."

Something about the way he said those words made more than one sailor there think of people made to walk the plank for some reason. "Further, any fraternization should take place off duty," Harry went on. "But as I said, I can't allow myself, the Custodes, and my civilian workforce to act in one way and then try to enforce a more stringent rule for the EDF as a whole. It just won't work."

Harry waited a beat, then gestured to Carol who took over the meeting from there.