Marvel/HP: A Third Path to the Future

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Harry also, of course, met with the worker representatives, but unfortunately neither Jean nor Hela could join them. Jean was dealing with a few pregnancy pains, and Hela was watching Ororo.

"Okay," he said, sitting down quickly as he looked at the four of them. "Just to be clear on this, you all talked to me the last time, and we all assumed that I would be or had already begun the process of creating my own…call it a colony at this point, but a colony without any home country sponsoring it. Are we still all on the same page there? Have you made certain that everyone else who signed the original petition agrees with that interpretation?"

"There were a few that didn't. They want to know what they can do to help protect their families in the future, and an even hundred aren't interested in completely transferring their allegiance. But for the most part, well, the attacks from space have been very fucking dramatic, and a lot of us have been following what's been going on around the Earth lately."

"Still more just want to be involved in humanity spreading to the stars," said Jacque enthusiastically. "The entire science division, all of their families, and at least half of the miners are interested in eventually living in space. That's basically all they can talk about."

"All right," Harry said with a nod, while to his side Emma shuddered a little, the very idea disturbing her. Babylon and even Fortress Mars were all right, but to actually live in space?

"In that case, this is the Magna Carta, I suppose, for my country." Harry went on, holding out copies to them all. "It's far more limited in scope than the Bill of Rights at the moment, and the lawyers are still going over the wording. But this covers all of your rights and responsibilities under my flag, as well as giving an overview of what I would expect. You have to remember, however, that my nation is going to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for defense of the Earth. We may even institute a mandatory draft in the future."

Terrence barked a laugh, while the others looked over the document. "I know a few of my deadbeat cousins who we could cheerfully push into that kind of thing."

"Look it over," Harry requested, his voice just short of an order as he leaned back in his chair, waiting. He and Emma immediately began their own telepathic discussion, wondering about a few of the weirder concepts Carol had passed on from the quickly expanding design and planning teams. Now that Admiral Powers, Whitaker, and their teams were gaining ground, Carol was now only working with the training teams for the most part, but still routinely acted as 'Chief KISSer,' as one wag put it. "Keep it simple stupid," was a phrase scientists and design teams did not naturally follow. It was well known that Carol had Harry's ear, so her opinion was always listened to.

The four across from them continued their discussion, muttering under their breath here and there to one another as they got to this or that law. Harry thought he detected some doubt on the gun laws thing, but not as much as he would've feared. Apparently there was already some concern, as Hela had pointed out, that mutants would be given preferential treatment under Harry's rule. The fact that unpowered humans would have some way of protecting themselves physically seemed to offset that, and the fact that everyone with a gun license would need to submit to training on it along with registering their weapons took a lot of the initial shock out of their responses.

There was even more consternation at how harsh some of his penalties for lawbreaking were, but that subsided swiftly enough without his or Emma being asked any questions. At one point Marissa Coraline spoke up, looking over at Harry. "And you say we will elect our own officials to become part of a council? Will this be like a cabinet position, or do you envision it to be a senatorial position?"

"A cabinet position," Emma replied for them both.

Harry continued. "I intend to have as few actual laws as possible, and rely on social pressures to truly keep the peace for at least a while. That is open to long-term changes, but for now the rights of the individual is paramount, and I would be against any changes there.

"I also want it understood, however, that I am the one in charge, period. I…am…king," Harry said quietly. "I am open to discussion and happy to hand over responsibility of a lot of day to day things in terms of the running of my country. Outside of morality, in many cases I will cheerfully bow to the words of others whose expertise in one area or another outstrips mine. But when it comes to making laws and setting policy, my word is the final one heard."

That shut them all up for a moment, but they nodded and turned back to their work. Another point made them all look up at Harry. "Wait, so you're going to offer free education up to the college level?"

Harry smiled, a soft, tender smile that had nothing to do with the room around him while Emma chuckled, leaning back in her chair. "My lady Storm has already put in place an educational system up to the middle school level that can handle any number of students. Enlarging it to include the high school level is also in the cards in the near future, though at present we are still using the… call it the base template that is used in the UK for the moment. We have technology and resources that no school in the world has access to, and that has gained us an amazing return from the students in question. So yes, free education." Harry made no mention of the role Pinoptes had begun to assume there. It would come out of course, but not for a while yet.

The taxes portion didn't seem to bother them at all, which was good, though the fact that there were no unemployment benefits did seem to bother all four of them for a while. At that point Jacque and Shusooque took out pads of paper and wrote that down along with a few other points.

Harry wondered why that point had begun the note-taking process, but shrugged his shoulders internally before returning to his telepathic discussion with Emma. As he had told them, this Magna Carta wasn't exactly set in stone. There were some issues he wouldn't budge on, but that wasn't one of them. He had just felt at the time that people should look to their own selves or other public institutions rather than a government institution for aid.

For a few moments the four of them worked on the pad of paper, organizing it into something or other that Harry couldn't see from where he was sitting. Eventually they all nodded, and Jacque spoke up. "All right, I think we've looked through this enough for now. We'll share it with the rest of our people, but does this mean that you already have a place where we could move our families to?"

"No, I won't have that for another few months. I'm actually building it now, but I want you to know this just in case any of your family members were in the construction business or even city planning and want to be involved. I've already contracted several companies for the work, but there's always room for more."

He held up a hand as two of them made to speak. "However, remember that they will be going through a Trust Me array before arriving at the place where they'll be working. If they don't pass that, I would not be in favor of bringing them in until after everything has been set up. And even then, we might have to look at them more closely if they prove untrustworthy."

"Do these Trust Me arrays stop people from being the sort to commit crimes?" asked Marissa questioningly.

"No, they just imply that I can trust someone to not spy on me or have ulterior motives for working for me. There is no runic array they can look deeper into the mind of an individual than that. To do so I would have to abrogate their rights as an individual, and I won't do that without just cause," Harry replied.

"Is that what this line means: that if someone is accused of a crime, they will be swiftly questioned and then released? You wrote a word here we didn't recognize," Jacque said.

"I have a truth serum," Harry replied. "Once someone has been given it they will answer any questions given to them. They will have to agree to the questioning, of course. If they don't, however, that too can be a sign of guilt, and they can be given it unwillingly afterwards. But if they are proven innocent no onus will be placed upon them. That innocence will be as public as the questioning was in the first place."

"That's interesting and is going to take some getting used to. The idea of justice being so quick and so certain… Yeah, that's going to be a major game changer in terms of law and order."

"But it doesn't allow for the use of any kind of jury," said Terrence thoughtfully. "No judgment of our peers."

"The lower courts do," Harry replied. "Veritaserum will only be used in cases of rape or murder."

"That is understood," Shusooque said with a nod. "But what about gray areas, for instance vehicular manslaughter or crimes committed under the influence?"

"If they're under the influence while they do a crime they lose all rights as an individual and will be expelled from my country. Same goes with someone murdering or raping someone else while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Though in that case, I will execute them on the spot," Harry said bluntly. "Having a car and using it is a privilege, not a right."

All four of his listeners twitched at that, and he went on calmly. "They chose to take those drugs, they chose to drink. If they can't handle it, they should know that already. If someone wants to get drunk every night, it is not my place to stop them up to the point they impact someone else. They get drunk, and sleep it off after a cab home? No problem. They get drunk and get behind a car wheel? Problem. They go home and beat up a significant other or children? Problem."

His four listeners all winced at that, but set it aside for now. "We've got enough here, I suppose, to share, though I think the harshness of these rules will put some people off."

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I understood that when we wrote them up. But freedom doesn't mean the freedom to take other people's rights away. It means that you have to live with the consequences of your actions…or pay for them, as the case may be."

The meeting went on from there for a about half an hour, touching on things like government grants, when and how they would be able to move in this space, and whether Harry would help smaller groups set up their own tiny colonies. Harry cautioned them that all of this would take time and industrial capacity they didn't have yet, but the meeting went well overall. They were still leery about the harshness of some of Harry's laws, but overall Harry felt that they had understood and respected his points and agreed with most of them.

OOOOOOO

And so the week went until Friday, with meetings upon meetings upon meetings broken up with only short moments with the kids at mealtimes or his ladies in the late evening. This by now included Hela. Yes, they were still courting, but Harry had no doubt anymore about what he wanted to happen between them. It was just a matter of time and getting the other girls to realize that they too had come to care deeply for the Asgardian goddess, even Emma, thanks to the extensive amount of time they had spent together. That, and convincing Hela of the fact too, he supposed.

Harry groaned as he rolled out of bed, looking over to where Jean was still sleeping blissfully. And was that a faint smile on her face that hadn't been there a moment ago? "Are you laughing at my misery, Jean?" he asked darkly.

"One of us has to laugh, Harry, lest we all cry," she said with a chuckle.

"I'm drowning in meetings, and you are laughing at my misery. My horror is now complete," Harry said, shaking his head as he pushed his way out of the bed. He paused for a moment by Ororo's bed, reaching down to tenderly stroke a finger down the side of her face before scowling. "When was the last report we got of any weird weather systems?"

"There were two late last night, but they died down quickly. She should wake up any day now, I think. Today or tomorrow for certain," Jean replied, also looking at Ororo.

"I still don't understand why she couldn't have woken up and then done this in small lots," Harry grumbled.

Jean smiled, but didn't decide to go over that old ground once again head on, saying instead, "I think it pretty dramatic looking at a category six hurricane bearing down on Florida suddenly dissipating into a normal squall within four hours a few days ago, Harry. I think it comes down to simply being able to feel and concentrate on the whole planet at the same time. Maybe if she was fully conscious she wouldn't have been able to and would have missed some of the weather patterns she's taken care of this way?"

"Or maybe Gaia was using this time to bolster her reserves and help out somehow." Harry allowed himself a few seconds of grumbling before shaking his head, looking over at Jean. "I just don't like feeling helpless to help her. It's not a good feeling."

"I know, Harry," Jean said with a sigh, though she also knew that for Harry it was far worse. He had, after all, spent months apart from both her and Ororo in the time dilation chamber, and Ororo's still comatose form ate at him.

With that in mind she brusquely changed the subject. "What meetings do you have today?"

"Oh well, let's see!" Harry replied mock-brightly. "I have one meeting with Carol and a few scientists who want to talk to me about a design they've come up with, then a meeting with Admiral Powers, then back down here for a meeting with Ms. Brown and the other teachers. After that I need to go and re-power Fortress Mars's time dilation cavern, then I want to look at the Forge. I want to see if we can further expand it. After that…"

"Enough!" Jean said with a laugh. "Enough! Geez, me, I only have a few meetings today. Admittedly, they'll be longer, but they'll be simpler than yours."

"Simpler for you, love," Harry said with a laugh, leaning over to give her a kiss. Jean, however, did not relinquish her arms around him, pulling him down lightly on top of her, where Harry pushed himself up upright quickly, one hand tenderly going to the growing bump in her stomach as he sat on her legs. For a moment they simply smiled at one another, Jean's hands gently resting on his on her stomach as they felt the lives within that they had created.

Then, with a sigh, Harry pushed himself to his feet. "Have to get going. If I could I'd stop to spend the entire day here, I think."

"Me too," Jean replied with a laugh, rolling out of bed. She did so much more slowly than she would normally have, still not used to her bulging stomach and how it affected her. "And I'm only entering the second trimester now. Wait until I hit the third! Then I'll be a flocking blimp!"

She hadn't realized she had said that last out loud until Harry replied. "But you'll still be gorgeous, Jean; never doubt that."

Jean blushed but laughed, pushing his shoulder gently to make him start moving again. "Away with you, flatterer! I'm going to go down and use the adults only baths. I prefer bathing these days." She stopped, capturing Harry's emerald eyes with her own jade ones, the love they shared visible there as their telepathic bond literally throbbed with love. "See you for lunch?"

"I can hope so," Harry said with a chuckle, giving her another kiss on the cheek before turning and entering the bath.

After a very quick breakfast of a bagel and orange juice on the go, Harry found himself up in the control center of Babylon looking at Carol and a few scientists from her designs teams. A few of them were new faces, and Carol had to introduce them. "This is Nathan Demsky, formerly of General Dynamics in America, and Barbara DeMolay, formerly of LCS. Next to them is Giorgi Luvorski. Giorgi is one of Doom's men."

"I could tell from his uniform, thanks," Harry replied dryly, causing a chuckle from the man himself. He was of medium height and build, with brown hair and a large, well-cared for build over a uniform of dark green with iron colored shoulder plates, the uniform of Doom's army. That army might have been smaller than most of the great powers, but Doom's science and industry made it very dangerous, and their men were, to a man, devoted to Doom and Latveria.

That devotion was somewhat suspect to Harry, hence why he had drawn the line at the men and women of that army joining the actual EDF. Still, he had no misgivings about having them involved in the research and development programs, so long as they had signed the usual paperwork. And if Giorgi hadn't, he wouldn't be here. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"We've come up with a design for an automated defense platform we think will be able to defend Earth from further missile attacks or other long range assaults from things like mass-driven asteroids. That's one area which we know we can't really defend against as completely as we'd like at this point, as you know, and Admiral Powers, Sage, and I assigned Nathan to lead this group in looking into that problem."

"We think we figured out a way to deal with the issue," Nathan took over as Carol inputted some commands into the computer. A second later a 3-D image popped up out of a flattened sphere set into the center of the floor. The design was a strange dodecahedron with pointy bits, which as Harry watched split open to show the innards to one side, while the other side flipped around to show the exterior, which began to enlarge quickly.

The exterior picture showed around a dozen gun emplacements pointing in every direction, with small arcs of fire delineated from each one. Harry recognized the weapon system as a gauss rifle, the same one that Jean had developed for the team. This version was larger but Harry noted that it was also built for rapid fire rather than single shot. "Each of these would fire out six rounds with each pull of the trigger, as it were," Nathan explained. "Of course, against a ship of any actual size they'd be next than useless. Even if it didn't have its shields up, its outer armor would deflect or break up the pieces of these rounds easily. These rail guns are too small. Better, they'll burn up in any kind of atmosphere, just in case they fire back at Earth and miss, so we don't need to worry about any detritus. And the Kree missiles aren't that heavily armored."

"All right, so you've come up with an antimissile weapon, that's fine. How are you going to find the damn things?" Harry asked, frowning. Jean and Pinoptes had both been very clear that finding the missiles after they started to coast had been far more difficult than actually killing them. Jean had set kilometers of space on fire in an attempt to destroy as many of them as possible simply because they couldn't find single missiles easily.

"These stations will be packed with a lot of different sensor equipment, including the short range gravitics that proved our best bet against the missiles in that last bombardment," Nathan replied calmly.

"They'll also be equipped with Mr. Fantastic's Teleptronic Communications System, which will allow for real-time control and direction," Barbara interjected, her French accent reminding Harry strongly of Fleur and the first French ambassador to the UK he had met months ago.

"Barbara helped design the computer systems which will be running those systems," Nathan explained, before waving a hand at Giorgi. "But there is another system as well that Giorgi developed: a low-range EMP blast, which the platforms can release in waves around them. The platforms, of course, are hardened against it. We've run some tests, and while the missile's internal computers won't be affected by the EMP blast, their ECM, in particular the film they use to cover their actual structure, will falter for a time underneath its impact."

"I like it," Harry said, nodding to all three. "But I still have a few questions. First, how big are these platforms, and how much territory can they cover. Second, have you decided on a name for these platforms? And third and possibly most important, have you worked out how long would it take to create them? Will the Forge 2 be able to handle the build on its own?"

"That's part of the problem," Carol said, wincing as she took over for the team. "We're envisioning putting these in place in waves. The first wave will only have twelve, set equidistantly around the Earth. But for full protection, we estimate we'd need at least forty-eight of them."

The image in the hologram changed once more; the image, now of the space around Earth, updating in waves as Carol spoke. After a moment Harry winced at how little coverage the first two waves would really give.

Carol hurried on. "Forge 2 can, however, handle creating them on its own. They are only about as big across as two Ravens and about as tall as one. But that's because the majority of their computational power will be coming through the TCS, which let us cut down on the internal size needed."

"Pinoptes, these'll be your eyes. Can you handle them?" Harry asked, turning to the main screen which everyone had begun to use for politeness sake as the 'face' of Pinoptes, despite his actual core being part of the computer set underneath the floor.

"I can handle up to twenty-four such platforms at all times while also handling our larger sensor grid at the moment," Pinoptes said, his image popping up on the screen. Pinoptes had designed it himself, a craggy, aged face with several eyes set around the head above a kindly expression and a long beard. "However, as the sensor grid expands my ability to concentrate on both will diminish. This does not include my ongoing work with the educational system, of course."

"Yes, let's assume that you won't be handling anything on the educational front if we come under attack again," Harry said dryly.

"Agreed. But as I said, anything beyond twenty-four platforms and our current sensor equipment would force me to hand over actually detecting the missiles outside of the sensors these platforms contain to another system. This could be another AI or a dedicated computer program, but we do not have a another program that could handle the computational power necessary at present," Pinoptes warned. "The computer systems of the Death Bringer, tentative name Warspite, and Planet Crusher, Kree designation Demolisher, could handle some of it, but not all. I would recommend possibly looking into either expanding my own computational power, or creating a dedicated supercomputer for this purpose."

"I'll talk to Reed about expanding your abilities, I think," Harry said after a moment's thought. "We'll see what he says about that and whether or not it's doable at all. Although if it is, you might have to go off-line for a time while we transfer you into a new computer station. And…hmm…maybe moving you entirely to Fortress Mars might be a good idea at that point."

"Understood, and I have to admit to some existential angst about the concept. But I will comply," Pinoptes replied formally.

"So, back to my other questions. What are we calling these things and how long do they take to build?" Harry asked looking at Carol.

"We're calling them the Verdun class defense platform," the Frenchwoman said softly.

It took Harry a second to get the reference then he nodded. "Ils ne passeront pas, they shall not pass. I like it," Harry intoned softly, but his eyes were sharp as he looked at Carol.

That worthy winced slightly. "We've worked it out with Whitaker and Sage, and building even three of these defense platforms will take approximately seventy-four percent of our ready resources in terms of machined steel and electronics from other tasks."

Harry nodded, but couldn't help wincing himself. Their capacity was growing, but slowly. "If we make those three platforms, how far back will that push us on rebuilding Fortress Mars and everything else?"

The factory for the new robots wasn't even online yet, but it would be soon. After that Harry would have a lot more industrial capacity to throw at problems, and with Lorna and Wanda on the job he was also slowly gathering a lot of raw materials, even large amounts of gold, which was a very good thing considering how much he was spending at this point. The girls got a bounty for any such find, but even so from his last estimates Harry was sitting on as much gold as Russia, China, and the US had backing their economies combined. Of course, he was keeping that a secret for now. No need to destroy the global economy.

But finished goods, especially electronics, took time, and most of that kind of components came from Earth. While his connections with the Hellfire Club had begun to funnel large amounts of electronic components and other materials into his factories, that amount was a trickle in comparison to the needs on hand.

"As Dr. Doom is footing the bill for much of the work being done on rebuilding the Gravitic Trap Device, the rest of the fortress will be set back only a bare few weeks," Carol said, pulling out some papers and scanning them quickly. "The work on repairing the captured ships, however, will be set back even further. Admiral Powers ordered our people to prioritize completing the work on as many as we could regardless of class, which has helped, but not much."

Harry winced, but after a moment's frowning thought, nodded. "Something might happen soon to change that equation, but you're right for now. Still, my command stands. I'll want these Verdun platforms built and in place as soon as possible. As much as I hate to say it, we might consider that a political imperative. Ugh, I feel dirty now." He let the scientists chuckle for a time before he asked, "Was that all?"

Carol indicated that it was, and the meeting broke up quickly. Moments later, Harry was in Fortress Mars meeting with Admiral Powers. "You had a strategic point you wanted to talk about?"

The older man nodded. "I've been getting up to speed as quickly as I can on the various sensor equipment, our opponent's abilities, our own situation, and Admiral Whittaker and I have found a somewhat disturbing problem. What is to stop the Kree from jumping in and firing off some missiles as they did last time or somehow creating a long-range asteroid-based attack? Just randomly grabbing junk from the Oort Cloud and sending it on a collision course with Earth?"

"We can detect any group as it comes out of hyperspace, and if the group is big enough we can even detect the hyperspace wake as we did with the last attack. But the trap system won't be back online anytime soon, so we can't control where they come out in hyperspace," Harry replied, thinking. "I was more worried about close in attacks, but that's a good point. But none of their small ships have missile systems, so they'd have to rely on that kind of mass driver-like attacks. We can defend against them easily enough given our gravitic-based sensors if they are of any size, but you're right, a long range shotgun sort of assault might be very bad."

"Hence my concern," Powers replied. "Worse, what if they both spread out such attacks on Earth while also launching a attack on our fleet in Mars orbit? We don't have enough ships online yet to defend the entire scrap fleet."

"And myself and the rest of the Custodes would have to prioritize defending Earth. I presume, however, that you have a solution for this problem?"

"I don't want our ships to stay 'in dock' like they are. I want the ones that have power moving as constantly as they can. I realize we don't have that much fuel for them just yet, but there are places we can stash the salvage ships." Admiral Powers began to press some buttons on the computer in front of them, and then pointed to Saturn's rings, and a few other areas in the system. One of them was dangerously close to the sun, but before Harry could question what he was doing Powers explained.

"These are areas where even gravitic-based sensor equipment could not find something the size of a ship without coming closer."

"And you want to hide the damaged ships there," Harry stated.

"I also want to strip the damaged ships of all the fuel we have and concentrate the fuel on Buckler, Hellion, and the other four least damaged battleships you and your people took in this last fight. That'll give us enough fuel to run those ships for several months of maneuvers. That way we're never in one place long enough for them to launch an attack on us, and we're always moving so we can respond to any assault. While the Custodes can deal with the actual asteroids or what-have-you sent towards Earth, we can deal with the ships that launched them."

"Agreed. In fact, I'd like those ships under cover as quickly as you can get them. We initially moved the scrap ships we had at the time to Mars orbit to draw fire, but if you think they won't be necessary in that role for a time I'll agree to it."

Powers nodded and stood up. "That was the only suggestion I had at present, at least, the only real suggestion I have that we can actually act on. I can't wait until our industrial capacity gets better. Whitaker is also complaining about it, but he's used to the American logistical system. This is like going from feast to famine. But we will need some help moving those ships."

Harry nodded, and he, Stephen Strange, and Johnny Storm spent the next few hours moving the damaged ships. At the same time workers and droids siphoned off fuel from their injured fellows to the three training vessels and four of the other ships. Concurrently, four of the damaged battleships taken in the last battle received below-skeleton crews from the trained men and women and the training cadres. All of those ships had been damaged to various degrees, but they were still combat capable, and for now they began to use tractor beams to tow the future Warspite and Rika's former command ship to their hiding places.

For Harry this was an unexciting little break from the endless, endless meetings. Afterward, however, Harry once more found himself down at Magical Minds headquarters, this time meeting with a few of the think tanks. The meeting took several hours, by which time he was then hungry and feeling rather drained, but he had a free window of thirty minutes to meet with Jean and the others.

Deciding to spend this precious time with Jean alone, Harry appeared in the headmaster's chambers, where he asked Jean to join him and Cory to grab them something to eat. When she joined him, Jean shook her head, moving to massage Harry's shoulders. "Harry, you look so drained it's not even funny."

"Truer words were never spoken, Jean. I am literally drowning in meetings! Who knew that meetings like this could drain me so badly? At this point I would dearly like some excitement."

Even as Harry said that he had no way of knowing that the violence which had been rocking the world occasionally over the past week was about to hit a crescendo…

OOOOOOO

Mary Jane smiled, shaking hands and generally glad handing as the small public announcement in the main hospital of Malaga, Spain finished. She had been sent here by Sage and her immediate superior to meet and publicly unveil the first shipment of Magical Minds medicine to Spain, the first Spain had seen. They had just recently finished putting laws into place that would guarantee mutants equal rights, though it remained to be seen if they would be enforced, something MJ had subtly pointed out during what was only the second public announcement she had ever given, a task made all the more nerve-wracking considering one of her role models was in attendance.

"That wasn't bad," Paris said as the two women exited the room, heading towards an elevator to move toward the hospital's roof. Paris had a helicopter there waiting for them. The owner of PNN had a house in the city here, and the city was the center for her few European holdings. They had, however, come under attack recently because of some serious graft at the lower managerial level, and she had come to see that issue taken care of, as well as personally see to the welfare of a few of her workers who had been caught in one of the suicide attacks launched by the Red Skull's mind-wiped minions.

"But you need to work on your projection some more. Also, stop trying to dress down. I understand you wanted to come off as business-like, but don't allow that to cover your femininity." The older woman's words were somewhat critical, but not overly so, merely giving advice. "Your speech, on the other hand, was very well done. My hat's off to you or whoever wrote it."

"Um, th, that was me," MJ said, hissing internally as she stuttered. "I, I thought the speech Mr. Wallace wrote was a little too critical, so I rewrote it. The Spanish people are very…emotional, so I thought to play to that, but I thought dressing to impress would have given the wrong message."

"There's a middle ground…" Paris was interrupted by a shout from a male nurse pushing a gurney down the hallway towards the elevator. He was accompanied by several more, who were currently working on the individual on the gurney, the identity or gender of whom neither woman could discern. Seeing this Paris quickly reached out, halting the elevator doors from closing.

Her bodyguard, a tall, powerfully built man who would not have been out of place in the Secret Service, twitched at her side. But he didn't say anything, and the four nurses quickly moved towards them.

Mary Jane saw a flash of metal or something from under the gurney's blanket, and then there was a thud from next to her as the bodyguard's body flew back under the impact of several dozen bullets. Throwing herself to the side, she barely dodged some more bullets coming her way. To the other side of her bodyguard, Paris too ducked behind the door of the elevator, having the presence of mind to slam her hand on the emergency button.

Both women reached for small hidden guns set in the small of their backs, having a brief moment to grimace at one another before firing at the incoming men. The man on the gurney rolled off of it as the other men with him ducked or dodged the return fire. But, besides the gurney itself, there wasn't much cover beyond one doorway, and two of them fell.

The other two, now ensconced behind the overturned gurney and in the doorway, began to fire back with handguns. Luckily, they didn't seem to have anything heavier.

"Kidnappers or terrorists?" MJ asked, almost conversationally. After having seen what she thought were human cameramen attack with high powered energy weapons built into their arms, she wasn't going to lose her cool about something like this. Scream later, fight now. That's the way.

"Not kidnappers. They don't have any equipment to capture us, unless they belong to a particularly low tech group for one reason or another," Paris replied in a slightly more high pitched tone, while in the background the alarm from the elevator abruptly cut out. The lights of the hallway also went out, and Paris cursed. "Just great!"

Looking around, Paris pulled her bodyguard's body toward her, wincing as several bullets nearly took her in the arm. But she was able to get at the dead man's belt, pulling out his heavier pistol and a walkie-talkie, which she quickly turned on. The static it emitted was not helpful. Paris then cursed luridly before hurling it away. "Dead. I don't suppose you have a way to contact anyone?" Paris had no idea if MJ was in on the big secret with Potter, but wasn't about to assume one way or another.

"I have an emergency beacon but I have no idea if it will actually get through whatever is jamming your communications!" MJ replied, while still firing down the hallway. Red emergency lights had come on, but even so actually hitting one of their remaining attackers was probably beyond her at this point. "We'll just have to somehow dig in, conserve our ammunition, and wait."

OOOOOOO

Sage was, as usual, just as busy as Potter or any of the other higher ups. She was currently going over some paperwork, looking over agreements Harry had reached with other Hellfire Club members, reading the news that was coming out of the Ukraine, and going over Dennis's reports as well as the raw data his spy ring was generating. Thanks to her mutant powers, Sage had a superhuman ability to interact with and memorize information, just like a supercomputer, to a degree that even an AI would have trouble matching.

Her fingers flying quickly over her keyboard, Sage barely paused more than an eye-blink as the screen flickered. Opening several programs, Sage began to direct the MM headquarters building's network defenses against a sudden, almost overwhelming cyber-attack. But there was something strange about the data coming in. It was almost as if…

Sage again did not hesitate. Her mental powers gave her perfect control of her body, and this allowed her to push away from the computer and turn that push into a back bending flip away. The screen glowed white for an instant, the white spreading to the rest of her computer as something like hands made of pure computer data reached out toward her former position.

A second later the computer melted, and there was a loud buzzing sound followed by the fire alarm going on for a brief second before falling silent. The power didn't go out, but Sage wondered if that was really a good thing considering the ongoing cyber-attack.

With that thought, Sage raced for the door and out, eager to find another computer to regain some control of the situation. At the same time she pulled out a cell-phone connected to the building internal communications system. "Security, be aware we are experiencing a powerful cyber-attack at the moment. Logic would dictate that we be ready for a physical assault as well."

She was answered quickly, yet from the background she heard the sound of something exploding nearby and the shattering of glass. "You're a little late, miss!" the guard on duty in the reception area shouted, before cutting the connection.

Given the defenses in the building at that point, Sage was unconcerned about any physical attack. The cyber-assault worried her far more, and she raced forward, wondering who was behind this.

OOOOOOO

Emma Frost frowned as the Sandman suddenly reared up in front of her between her and the crowd of workers in front of the newest Frost Pharmaceuticals factory. This was supposed to be a nice little break from her ongoing campaign against Osborn and his holdings, a meet and greet and a discussion amongst the company which she had thought of as hers before her father's 'untimely' death. "What are you!?"

"Get down, miss!" shouted another one of her bodyguards, having seen the same thing Sandman had, a glowing red circle appearing on the door into the factory. That portion of the door suddenly exploded inwards in red hot shrapnel, killing dozens of her people as several super-powered types charged through.

First was a man Emma recognized from the news as Electro, a green and yellow clad supervillain who could fire electrical blasts much like Wendy's, only more powerful and less controlled. With him was another electric-attack using criminal named Shocker, who used a battle suit to create the same sort of attacks.

Next came an individual she had only seen recently appearing in the news, a green skinned creature flying through on a large, bat-winged glider and dressed in purple. The pundits had named this one the Goblin for obvious reasons.

Underneath the Goblin's hover board charged two more superpowered criminals. One was almost as green as the goblin, thanks to his suit, which consisted of green colored armor and a massive tail tipped with a scorpion's sting, hence that man's name in the news. The other was a relative unknown to Emma, though his face looked familiar, even if his backpack, which consisted of several long, prehensile tentacles, did not.

The last individual through the door was a tall man with albino skin and short cropped black hair over a square face. Emma didn't recognize him at all, though the Sandman did somehow given his shout, audible to Emma even over the sound of her bodyguards opening fire on the interlopers. "Tombstone!"

"Sandy!" the man said gleefully. "So the rumors are true; you really have gone straight. Well, whatever. There might still be a place for you alongside the Sinister Six. Hah, we could change it to Sinister Seven, and it'll still scan! Just hand over Emma Frost and no one else needs to get hurt. She's stepped on the wrong toes and needs to learn her place!"

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Tombstone! I ain't ever been a career criminal! I ain't ever been like you!" Sandman shouted, surging forward on a wave of sand and fury and slamming into the front runners of the so-named Sinister six, hurling Scorpion back with a mace of hardened sand even as his body absorbed the electrical assaults of the other two without any apparent damage.

While her bodyguards were armed with the best weapons Cold Steel, or even Harry, could provide, they hadn't brought any of their heavier toys, leaving them behind in the cars for the most part. They were armed with handguns, and they just didn't have enough penetrating power to get though the armor of most of the attackers. Even Tombstone, who wasn't wearing any armor, seemed immune, and the man with the octopus tentacles simply batted their bullets aside.

Hiding behind Sandman's bulk, Emma pushed one hand into her pocket, tapping out an emergency code on the small communication mirror there and shouting at her bodyguards at the same time. "Get the workers out of here! Fall back towards the inner entrance!"

At the same time she lashed out with her telepathic powers, giving no visible sign of doing anything but pulling out an odd-looking weapon. Instead, she used one of her bodyguards' firing on their attackers as cover. As his eyes locked on one target then another, her power lashed out, targeting that individual.

Pain lanced through Shocker's and the Goblin's heads, sending the Goblin careening into the floor as Shocker fell to his knees, his hands going to his head. The tentacle using man, however, shrugged off the pain, and Tombstone just grit his teeth and powered through the pain. "Whatever the fuck that is it ain't enough to stop Tombstone!"

Three of her six man security team were down by this point, but the other two unpowered bodyguards had pulled back successfully, and thanks to her telepathic powers the attack had slowed enough for them and the surviving civilians to reach the door leading further into the complex. "Sandman, fall back! We don't want to get separated!"

"Right!" Sandman said, leaving the two electricity using attackers engulfed in sand, while Scorpion charged forward. Changing his main body to the solidity of concrete, Sandman moved his consciousness down to the mass of sand that had previous constituted his feet, quickly retreating toward Emma just in time to block a pumpkin shaped bomb from a recovering Green Goblin.

The two of them retreated out the door into the rest of the complex while the bodyguards raced on, eager to get to their cars and the toys within. Emma took a brief moment to throw an illusion of a heavy Gatling gun set into the corridor into the attackers' minds, causing them to flinch back and allowing the two of them to gain some more distance. "Keep going straight up here. We'll exit out into a small park used for workers to get some exercise. That'll give you enough ammo for your transformations and lead us away from the others."

OOOOOOO

Nor were Harry's people the only ones under attack. A major assault was launched on the Vault by over a dozen mutants who tore through the outer defenses of the USA's premier super-powered prison in an attempt to free the numerous prisoners within. Doom's country faced several severe terrorist attacks in newly captured territories, while Doom himself assaulted the Red Skull's final hiding place.

Blowing open the bunker's entrance, Doom strode inside, dealing with several men and women who foolishly tried to assault him. Then he began to walk down the dark, dank corridor leading further into the bunker. It was obvious that this place was built to see its occupant through a war, not for leisure or even long term residence, and Doom felt his lips twist into a sneer underneath his mask.

"A true rat in his hole, that is what you have become," Doom said aloud, his voice booming out around him off the stone. "Your vast empire of terror smashed. Your name, a byword for vile insanity. Tell me, was it worth it, Herr Skull?"

Doom had not been prepared for a reply, but he was still unsurprised when the Red Skull deigned to do so anyway. The man really was a narcissist. "Ever since you appeared on the scene I had been studying you, Dr. Doom. I thought I knew you. Yet your reaction to my stealing those baubles from you shows you are as emotional and illogical as the rest of the human race. That is what humanity has always needed and will always need: strong masters, to bend them to the proper will. You know this. You assumed the place of mastery yourself, did you not?"

"I am King of Latveria," Doom said, his voice deep and guttural as he stalked forward, his suit's computers scanning the walls, ceilings, and floor for traps. He continued to walk forward as several pits opened up in front of him, walking on the air over them, ignoring the hail of bullets and summoning up a shield to block several dozen energy bolt bolts. Does every terrorist group have their own energy weapon these days? "You are nothing but a pretender, a thief in the night, a sycophant who clings to a belief system so reviled that is a byword for evil. You are no master. To use your own analogy, you are a true wolf to the sheep rather than the shepherd. We are nothing alike."

"Well, the world needs its wolves, after all, to thin out the herd, if nothing else. If we had perhaps solved the Jewish problem during the Fuhrer's reign, you and I would not have fallen into such disunity." The voice coming from hidden speakers sounded almost whimsical, but there was a hard edge of the true believer in it.

"Hitler persecuted Romani too, so I rather assume we would have," Doom said dryly. "But our current problem is much more personal than that. You stole from me. You killed my subjects. You persecuted a war of terror against my people. For all this, you will die."

Doom had been making his way forward as the two of them spoke, and now came to a slightly open area, a defensive point which had been recently cleared out. In the center of this area stood the Red Skull himself. He was taller than most of his doppelgängers, and far broader in the shoulders. Indeed, both his stance and his presence would remind someone who had seen Steve Rogers, as Doom had, of the good captain. It was as if everything about Steve Rogers that made him Captain America, physically, anyway, was there in the Red Skull.

But as for everything else, the feel of the man was inverted to the point of mockery. Where Steve gave off a feeling of bluff honesty and camaraderie, the Red Skull stood arrogantly, his entire manner screaming that he felt he was above anyone else in his presence. Also offsetting was a haunting, almost fearsome appearance thanks to his features.

"You have fought your way to me, and thus proven yourself despite your overemotional reason for doing so," the Red Skull said, sipping from a glass of wine as he stared at Doom who had paused in the doorway into the defense zone, the computer in his suit as well as his own senses reaching out, searching for traps. "It is not too late. Join me, and with my resources around the globe, your technology, the territories you have conquered, we could rebuild the Third Reich! Put aside your frail emotions, Doctor. Grasp your own ambition with both hands!"

"I already have," Doom said, chuckling quietly, the sound making the Red Skull start and glare at him for some reason, though at the laughter or his tone, Doom knew not. "I have enough territory now to feed my personal ambition and more besides open to me in the future. An entire…frontier, one might say, though I doubt it is truly the final one."

With that Doom stepped forward, an energy shield blinking into life around him as he did so, the nose and mouth partitions closing up quickly as crystal-clear glass slid into place over his eyes. A second later Doom was hit by some kind of gas in the face, but it did nothing. His suit analyzed it as some form of acid, mixed with an updated version of mustard gas.

It was very nasty stuff, but utterly useless against Doom's protections. A second later his suit blew the gas away via a blast of compressed air from both arms and shoulders. Doom then strode forward towards the Red Skull. "I wonder… I know why you are called the Red Skull, of course, as anyone who looks at you would. But I wonder, if I peel away your skin, will your bones be the same color? I have long intended to use your skull as a glass, but the color would certainly make it a better conversation piece."

"If you want my head, Herr Doctor," the Red Skull said, pulling a large pistol from his belt as well as a sword from behind him. The edge was thin, and Doom's computer warned him it was a monomolecular blade, and the Red Skull moved it through the air with skill. "Then I suggest you come and take it."

"My dear Red Skull, that was the point of this entire campaign! Never let it be said that Doom is unafraid of getting his hands dirty." With that the two men charged, and the battle was joined.

OOOOOOO

But the most serious assault came not on Harry or his allies, but on SHIELD, and more specifically its helicarrier.

"All right people, talk to me!" Fury said as he slid into his command chair on the bridge of the helicarrier. He scowled at the sheer number of red dots appearing everywhere on the massive world map that dominated one entire wall of the bridge, continually being updating through legal and illegal means. Just because SHIELD had no actual jurisdiction in most countries didn't mean he was prepared to not at least have some idea of what was going on there.

"Reports are coming in from all over, sir. Europe, Canada, America, most of South America, every friendly security agency is reporting a sudden uptick in cyber-assaults! Several dozen infrastructure computers are being targeted: governments, credit card companies, everything! We've got the ECW teams working on trying to track it down, but it's so widespread were having a lot of difficulty pinpointing the point of origin, especially since not all of it, indeed most of it, could not have come over the Internet," one of his people reported, turning and coming to attention. "We're safe for now, but how long that will remain the case, I don't know."

"Is there any indication there's going to be a follow on physical assault somewhere?" Fury asked intently.

"Nothing on SHIELD property. We don't even know if it's directed at us or to someone else," replied the same technician as before, still standing ramrod straight as all around him his people worked furiously to decipher what was going on. "There have been a number of attacks on government buildings here and there, and we've been requested to send aid to a few where laser and plasma-based weaponry are being reported."

Nick scowled, thinking hard. "All right, send a few field squads out, but do so sparingly. Hawkeye," he said turning to Clint, who was standing nearby. "Get the Avengers together. All of them!"

"You think we're going to have a target after this?"

"I don't know, but something's telling me we need the full team on hand. I want them locked and loaded and in the landing bay, just in case. Now move!"

Hawkeye's reply was to turn around and spring towards the exit, already pulling out a walkie-talkie. Getting the team together at such short notice was difficult, but not impossible.

To his surprise Tony Stark arrived quickly, having taken the opportunity to escape an argument with Pepper. She had apparently followed the money trail to a few of his…projects which he had begun with Nick Fury's consent, and thought them foolish in the extreme. He tended to sort of agree with that statement. Not that he thought that the project itself was foolish, but rather the reason why Fury thought it was necessary: to have an army of robots able to fight Potter and his group on an even footing. Tony went along with it, however, because he wanted to remove the human element from war altogether eventually, not just for America but for every other nation in the world.

Steve was already aboard the helicarrier along with Natasha. In fact, if Clint didn't know better, he could have sworn the two of them had been flirting when he came into the room. Or at least Natasha had been flirting with Steve. What that meant in the long term or if Steve even knew what was going on, Clint couldn't tell.

Pulling Dr. Pym away from his work was a chore and a half, but eventually Giant Man joined them, along with Hawkeye's own semi-protégé Avalanche. They then waited there in the loading bay as team after team of SHIELD agents went out over the next hour or so to help douse this or that point of violence.

Back on the bridge, Nick was slowly painting a picture of what was really going on, but what that picture was about he didn't now. "Why are they so spread out? Surely there isn't something in all those locations that call for an attack like this." He muttered, looking at the map. Further, how are they doing this? AIM's a broken force. HYDRA is dying, most of its heads now gone with the Red Skull facing Doom's troops. Who does that leave with the resources to carry out attacks like this?

Moments later Fury received at least part of the answer to his concerns. One of the techs sitting to one side of the helicarrier's massive bridge began to work at her console, unnoticed by anyone.

Then something changed on the screen which showed a schematic of the helicarrier. There should've been a few lines of blue and green around it, but they disappeared as the chief pilot watched in horror. "Sir! Shields are down! Energy, sensor and everything!"

"Not good!" Fury muttered, already calling up the Avengers while also beginning to bring up exterior cameras, assuming they were under some kind of exterior attack. Then he paused. "Wait, does that mean the teleportation shield is down as well?" Once Reed had developed that bit of technology, Stark and Pym had been able to figure out a way to do the same thing.

"Yes sir! I don't how it all of it fell, though. It's almost like…like someone turned it off!"

At that Nick's eye was not the only one who turned towards the suddenly quaking woman at the control center for the shields. It was only now that her neighbors looked up from their own work, and immediately the techs gasped at the sight of her face, reeling back in horror.

Blood was streaming down from her eyes and nose and mouth, and she had begun to rock in place. She then stood up preternaturally quickly, hand dropping to a sidearm that most SHIELD agents carried even here in the helicarrier, only for Nick to shoot it out of her hand.

She turned to him, her eyes glassy and unseeing under all the blood. "Too late! Too late, Fury!" she shrilled in a voice not quite her own. "Hail AIM, hail MODOK!"

With that sentence there was a loud crack of displaced air, and a massive group of yellow clad troopers with very high-tech guns appeared. But they were not what drew Fury's attention, no. That was given to the individual standing in the middle of the formation.

The creature lounged in some kind of hover chair, its arms and legs atrophied to almost the point of uselessness. In contrast, his head was massive. At least half or perhaps more of his total body weight was concentrated in the being's head. He waved his hand, and a blast of some kind of power ratcheted out from him, knocking people unconscious left and right as his own men opened fire.

Fury had sent most of his attack groups out, and the Avengers were down in the hangar bay waiting to be deployed. This left him with only the staff of the bridge, none of whom had heavy weapons, and only about a third had combat training at all. Despite that, they put up a decent enough fight, downing several of the attackers before still more teleported in as the strange being moved over towards the computer. "Fall back!" Fury bellowed as he lost six men within a few seconds of that second batch of enemies arriving. "Fall back! Wait for the Avengers to show up!"

By this point the grotesque being had reached one of the computer stations and was typing away with a speed that Fury could barely follow. A second later, he pressed his thumb to the USB port, uploading a program somehow into the system. The lights flickered, and Fury almost felt the entire helicarrier shake for a moment, then a robotic voice came on over the speakers, saying a line out of his worst possible nightmare. "Powering up Ultron project; removing the safety interlocks. Full AI awakening in two hours. Anti-Guardian robotic corps online. Awaiting command."

"The command," the creature said, "is given." His fingers moved again over the console even as Fury tried to jump towards his own command console. There were a series of overrides there which he could use to lock down the entire bridge if he could just…

He winced as an energy bolt took him high in the chest, hurling him backwards to land among his people near the doorway. Only the advanced armor he kept on under his clothing at all times saved his life. Two of his people grabbed him and pulled him along despite his protests.

The last thing he saw as the doors closed was the creature, laughing wildly. "Ah, Nick Fury. You and your paranoia. And yet like all humans you did not take that paranoia to its logical conclusion! And now, now you have given me the keys to not only AIM's resurgence, but its dominance!"

"All hail MODOK!" shouted the yellow clad AIM soldiers. "All hail MODOK!"

At several hidden facilities all around America, computers began to wake up, sending power up commands to lines of dormant robots. These droids were based around the Iron Man suit: same offensive firepower, same general look. But they were large, as large as the Hulk, and had initially been designed to go toe to toe with the big green monster or anything of similar throw weight, a redesign of power armor developed by Thunderbolt Ross's anti-Hulk army. And there were hundreds of them.

On the helicarrier alone there were forty, all of them coming on line within seconds of the command being given. Elsewhere it would take a little while for them to start moving, but once they did, they would answer to MODOK's orders, believing him to be the temporary commander of SHIELD, as they waited for Ultron to come online.

That was Ultron's purpose: to control the army of droids that had been built to defend the world if the Custodes went rogue. No one, not even a genius like Reed or Tony, could handle the input from so many sources, could control so many robots at once. Give them general orders and set them loose, yes, but use them like a true, organized military unit, no. A dedicated AI could.

Luckily for Nick and his bridge crew, the Avengers were on the ball and had heard the same announcements. Immediately Tony had rocketed out of the hangar bay towards the bridge, followed quickly by the others. "What is the Ultron project?!" Steve shouted, racing alongside Natasha and Hawkeye, easily outstripping them for a moment to catch up with Tony while the Giant Man lumbered behind them.

"It's a project! A, A combat AI that…"

"God dammit!" Steve shouted, nearly pausing his run before he remembered himself. "I thought you and Nick stopped that project!"

"We lied," Tony said simply. "We thought, admittedly for different reasons, that it was a good idea to keep it going. But if whoever is behind this attack somehow corrupts the base data file and turns Ultron to their own purposes…"

"Are we just dealing with the computer program here, or.."

"Just a program?" Tony shouted, shaking his head in his armor. Ahead of them automated defenses came online, trying to stop their forward progress, but he blew them out of these walls or ceilings without even slowing. "Ultron isn't just a program; he is a fully artificial life form, the next evolution of my own aide, Jarvis! It is also supposed to be housed in the best and most advanced robot I could personally ever create!"

"Dr. Pym, did you know anything about this?"

"I had a hand in helping to redesign the Hulkbusters. I thought they were supposed to be used against the Hulk or similarly weighted enemies, just in case we couldn't have handled them on our own. I never heard about this Ultron program," Pym said grimly. "Trust me, if I had, I would've put a stop to it."

Steve looked over his shoulder at Giant Man, who couldn't grow to his full height here in the corridors of the helicarrier, but still seemed to be a little too tall for them at the moment. There were very few things the two of them saw eye to eye on, but Steve was willing to take his word on this one. "When this is all over, Tony, you and I are going to have a talk. Scratch that; you, me, and Nick!" he said grimly

Then the first of the Hulkbusters appeared on the scene, and there was no more time to talk.

OOOOOOO

Not five minutes after bemoaning his lot in life at present Harry looked up from laughing at a joke Jean had just told him to find Hela entering the headmaster's quarters at a dead run. "Harry, Jean, you need to get down to the main Hall. Dennis says it's an emergency, and from what I can make out from that holographic display device, I believe he's correct."

Harry blinked, looked at Hela, then up at the ceiling and shouted "God dammit, that was not a request!"

As the three of them raced down the stairs towards the dining hall, Jean explained why Harry had shouted that, and Hela actually laughed gaily for a moment shaking her head as they continued to race on. "I would've thought that someone with your experience, and as a Fate Touched you would understand never to use such phrases! They are like begging old One eye to test you, especially for one such as you so loved by the Three Norns for what you give them to record!"

"I knowwww," Harry moaned, sliding to a halt in front of the doors and flinging them open. He found the entire Custodes Mundi already assembled, including Wyatt and Carol, coming down from on high at Dennis's request. Both of them were already kitted out in their armor, as were the rest of the Custodes in their combat gear. The only one missing was Banshee still on station with the team backing up Mystique and Morph.

Harry looked at Sir Dennis and the others who were crowded around the display at one end of the dining all, noting the absence of any of the other students and teenagers with approval. "All right, talk to me."

They all began to talk at once, and Harry held up a hand quickly. "Dennis, you talk," he ordered as he strode forward to stand beside the spymaster.

Dennis quickly began to explain everything that was going on. He started by talking about how the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building had gone on lockdown for some reason about an hour ago. Young Franklin and his mother had arrived at the castle, the pregnant woman cursing up a storm and talking about a meeting going wrong, but refused to go into any details. This told Harry that Reed had at least followed up his request to meet with the Inhumans, but what would come from that meeting he didn't know.

From there Dennis talked about the ongoing attacks going on worldwide from his perspective. "There is also some movement from the helicarrier that's very odd. It's moving out of American territory down towards Cuba of all places, and we're getting reports from elsewhere in America as well: the Vault and these Stark Industries complexes. I tried contacting Dugan, but he didn't answer."

Looking at the map and seeing what Dennis was talking about, Harry plotted the points. First he found where Emma was currently engaged with the this Sinister Six group, then where Mary Jane Watson and Paris Seville were currently under fire, and of course the Magical Minds headquarters. After that he looked at America and the dozens of reports coming in from there, his eyes drifting to the helicarrier.

Taking it all in, Harry felt a sinking feeling hit him. So what one enemy could never do by design, several could do out of chance. Still, there's a reason why we've been training a lot of our people in small unit tactics. Now is a perfect time to split up the team, I think. Spread out, yes, but in a controlled manner. "All right, let's organize this a bit by order of importance, from least to greatest. Mary Jane is facing what looks to be normal enemies, correct?"

When Dennis nodded, Harry went on decisively. "In that case, Coyote, you handle that. Extract Paris and Mary Jane from whatever they've wandered into; take out with extreme prejudice anyone who is attempting to get in your way."

Wendy and the retrieval team stood nearby, and she spoke up now running one hand through her blue hair. "We have all of the magic carpets here. One of them could get Wyatt down there."

Harry nodded thanks to her, and Coyote quickly exited the room, already heading to where the flying carpets were stored.

"Danielle, Betsy, you two head to help out Emma. Prioritize making certain that no other bystanders get hurt. From what Dennis reported, too many deaths have already occurred there"

Dani nodded brusquely. "We'll take the doorway to Emma's mansion, pick up Firestar on the way, and then take a magic carpet to wherever she is."

While Harry was talking, Dennis was still working the computer's holographic projection and had just brought up a series of newsfeeds from outside the complexes where the so-called Hulkbusters had been stored. Police units and even National Guard had been moved into the area, but were not slowing them down overmuch.

Seeing that, Harry bumped the priority of figuring out what was going on in America to number one. "Jean, head to Magical Minds to help the wounded and help Sage do whatever she needs to turn back this cyber-attack!"

Harry then held up a communicator as Jean nodded, leaning in for a kiss. She knew her time as a real field agent was gone, but she was very thankful that Harry was allowing her to take part in handling this assault even so.

Harry kissed her back, but broke off as the other side of his communicator beeped. "Cyclops, is your team ready?"

"We're already heading into the Vault, Guardian," Cyclops replied brusquely. "What's our rules of engagement?"

"I don't know," Harry said honestly. "You know more about the inmates of the Vault at this point that I do. Use your best discretion, I think. Unless, is Moses Magnum still there?"

"Yes, from last reports. He is still awaiting trial for his acts of terrorism."

Harry growled, making a note to prioritize selling Veritaserum the moment he could after following Dr. Druid's formula. The wheels of justice moved too damn slowly! "Okay, use your own discretion plus this one order: I do not want Moses Magnum to get out of there. Do whatever you need to do to prevent that, and if you know of any others of an equal level of vileness..."

"Understood," Scott said grimly.

"Magma, Husk, Vanguard, head to the main complex where these robots are appearing," Harry ordered. That left Harry, Colossus, and Hela. "You two will come with me. We're going to help the Avengers out, I think. Cut off the head, and hopefully this madness dies."

With that in mind, Harry pulled out his communication mirror, and connected it to the one he had given Steve Rogers. "Steve?"