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It was something of an open secret, something that a lot of people knew, but which really wasn't talked about or really affected anything on a day-to-day basis, but in World War II, some of the fastest ships afloat had actually been the Iowa class of battleships, and to this day the larger ships of any fleet were aster in a straight line than the smaller ships. It was somewhat nonsensical to non-Navy personnel, but it was true. Now however this became a very important fact.
Orders were cut, captains alerted, question asked, answered, and orders repeated. And then, 12 carriers and four super carriers, the might of the American Navy which had gathered in the Gulf of Mexico praying for just this sort of thing, broke off from the rest of their fleets, making straight across the Pacific towards the Mediterranean and then the Black Sea. At full speed. A speed that none of their fellows could sustain, a speed that left the heavy cruisers, the destroyers and frigates of their flotillas gasping behind them.
But the captains of those carriers, though they were zigzagging all over the place in order to throw off any attempt by a submarine, to ambush them, didn't particularly care. The news that they had received was that momentous: Head to the black sea, merge into a single fleet under the command of the admiral on station. Then, upon the signal of special operative, Custodes Mundi member Storm, you will launch fighters on a ground assault mission. Every captain of those ships had been hoping, praying that something could break through this weather, could overcome whatever was going on and get them into the war. And now, they had written and verbal communication that said that moment was coming soon. To the men and women of the United States Navy, and most particularly the carriers, that moment could not come soon enough.
Needless to say, this caused some consternation among a few Russian submarines, those very few that still survived in the Atlantic. They had been ordered to shadow the might of the American Navy, more because their masters back in Russia just wanted to know where the hell they were more than anything else. But none of these submariners had ever believed the rumors about the speed with which the American carriers could move. Now their subs were gasping, trying to keep up desperately only to fall further and further behind as the hours went on. It was galling, infuriating, and very, very worrying. Something was going on, something their masters needed to know.
Unfortunately, the three submarines in question were so busy attempting to follow the carriers, that they forgot to watch their own sonar emissions. In response to this gross debacle in submarine warfare, two hunting Los Angeles class submarines came upon them, sinking them quickly.
OOOOOOO
"You Wanted to speak to me?" Harry asked Polaris as he looked over his Guardian's suit, making certain it was ready for what was to come.
"I did," Polaris said, moving forward to sit across from him on Jean's bed, looking at the pregnant woman and absently patting her leg. "And here I thought I had a hard time of it these past two weeks."
"She, Sage, and Emma had to do not just their own jobs in a time of great turmoil, but a lot of other people," Harry said with a sigh. "But I doubt that's what you wanted to say."
"No," Polaris sighed. "No it isn't. Harry, I'm out. I don't... I can't… Those weeks I spent in Poland, and then down south, I..."
It is a horrible thing to realize how easy it is for those of us with power to take a life," Harry said after a silence moment of contemplation of the green haired girl, moving over to lay a hand on her shoulder. "And how sometimes we have to out of necessity take a single life in order to protect dozens, or in your case, take hundreds to protect thousands."
He sighed then, ruffling her hair like she was a little girl rather than a young woman. "You did your part," he said simply. "You held the line until the allies could get into position and I released Steve and his team. If you don't want to be involved in more combat that's your right. But, can I ask you to take over the movement of the hover ambulances and other medical equipment to and from one of the fronts?"
Polaris nodded. "that I can do." She looked at Jean thoughtfully, then shook her head. "I thought at first, when I heard about what Jean was doing, that was a copout, that she just didn't want to be part of the actual fighting, even if she could from on high like this. But then I heard about what she'd done to those Kree fleets, and I thought I understood."
Harry nodded silently, not saying anything. After all, his moment of mass destruction was coming up, and he honestly didn't have as much of a problem with it as the two women did. Yes, he regretted the necessity, yes, he wasn't happy and would never really want to do this if he thought it wouldn't save more lives in the long run, and it wasn't a card he wanted to play very often. But there was indeed a place for overwhelming power, and the fear it could cause. And this is going to be one such. "Tell Pinoptes which front you wish to take over, but do it quickly. The ball goes up tomorrow."
OOOOOOO
Later that same day Harry found himself overlooking the mine that Scott and the locals had found, having come forward with them to do this very thing. They were hidden among the forest and rocks nearby, blending in so naturally thanks to the attentive teaching of the locals that Harry had almost felt as if they didn't need any dissolution spells to further hide them. Not that that it stopped him from using them.
Ahead of them through the various trees they could indeed see that the Russians were quickly setting up a full mining operation. there were dozens of California construction workers and miners at work, and a truck nearby already loaded with the crystals that Scott had seen earlier.
"It's a bigger operation than it was before," Scott murmured into the pickup from one side of where Harry was hiding. Around them, the rest of the X-Men gathered, with Rogue high in one of the trees, hanging out there with Laynia next to her and Nightcrawler further back, and the rest of the group scattered here and there.
"And those guards weren't here either mine friend," said Nightcrawler, hanging from a nearby tree limb by his tail as he stared through the trees towards their target. "They look very different from the normal trooper do they not?"
The group in question were a foursome, three of whom were clustered at a certain distance from the mine. They were each dressed in formfitting red suits, over which silver armor had been laid. One of them was a woman, the other three men. Two of them had a distinct familial resemblance, with chalk white skin, while the woman had short-cropped black hair to her brother's blonde. The last one looked inhuman. he had a human body, but no face. And beyond a blue glass bubble his brain could be seen.
They seemed to be in charge of the other soldiers around them, and there was another one similarly dressed to one side of that foursome. he was larger and broader in shoulders. He also had nearly orange skin and darker blonde hair in comparison to the other blonde. He was also emplacing a large infantry weapon of some kind, a thing of six or seven barrels it was hard to tell with the soldiers in the way something like a Gatling gun only the size of a tank cannon.
There were four more groups of soldiers at work around the perimeter. Lines of barbed wire were going up, and the troops were digging in hard in different areas, including overlooking the mine itself on the small hill that it was set into. Almost none of that had been here before, hence Scott's observation.
"It does look a little more dangerous than it did the other day that's for certain," Warpath said as he moved up to one side. "And those four, they have to be some kind of super-powered team, don't they? All dressed like that?"
"I think Laura mentioned running into someone colored like them anyway, before she went off with her dad." Rogue said from where she was observing further back with her binoculars. "What do you think Darkstar?"
Darkstar took the binoculars from her friend, and reflected that that was indeed what the two of them had become over the last few days. Being the sole flyers in their group now and both women, they had become surprisingly close in the past week since Rogue had rejoined the rest of the X-Men. Before that, even though Darkstar had been going through the mansion to take lessons at one of the American colleges, she hadn't actually hung out with any of the X-men. But thrust into the furnace of this war, the two of them had become friends through long talks on patrols, sharing a room together, and astonishingly enough similar interests outside of training in combat.
She looked through the binoculars towards the camp, then hissed. "That uniform, I've seen it somewhere before. I was younger, right after my brother and I were brought into the super soldier program, some other super soldier, I think. I can remember he was a mutant too, not someone wearing a powered outfit or something, nor given a super soldier serum. At least I don't think so."
Where is Wolverine and his daughter anyway?" Harry asked, looking over at Scott.
"They split off several days ago, but that isn't exactly unusual. I decided it wasn't really worth the effort to try and corral them. I figured they would be doing all they could to harm the Russians anyway, and this kind of training is kind of terrain Is practically made for the two of them." Scott replied.
"They can move so quietly through the woods and forests that even I would be hard-pressed to find them," Warpath said with a nod. With cannonball busy packing up the world guard before, and now seconded to them for the next battle down in Poland, and his brother having taken command of another group sent down to the small island, Warpath it stepped into the role of Lieutenant for Scott, although this was the first time they had done so in the field since that reorganization occurred. "Still, I think he mentioned someone like that too, Laura anyway. she Muttered something about men meeting someone from her father's past."
"Since ways back then," Harry quipped, then all of them fell silent as someone shouted nearby in Russian.
They all turned in that direction, and watched in shock as another individual like the four in the camp marched through the woods towards the mine. He was taller looking than the others wider in the shoulders too, with massively built-up arms, a middle-aged man perhaps to their younger-seeming appearances.
More importantly he was currently dragging behind him Wolverine and Laura. Both of them blood he and tied up in long prehensile tentacles, which sprouted from his forearms. the tentacles gleamed like metal, for which Harry was oddly grateful. And the must have been very strong, since neither Wolverine nor his daughter could break free. they also both looked very weak, somewhere between unconscious and in pain.
The newcomer shouted out something in Russian and Harry quickly cast a translation spell on himself, and then all of the other visible X-Men around him, which were only Warpath and Scott at the moment. But behind them, Darkstar translated for Rogue leaving Spyke and Nightcrawler out in the dark.
"Our current employers were very generous for sending us up here, not only are we getting paid very well to fight for Mother Russia once more, but I was able to settle an old debt. Or I will soon enough, once I figure out a way to get through their healing powers more permanently. Her first," he said laughingly, pulling Laura up in front of him and dangling her from the prehensile tentacle, which looped like an arch in front of him. "then him."
Warpath began to rumble, but Scott held up a hand, looking ahead of them. "Look!"
Harry nodded having seen much the same. The regular humans among the Russians down below were quickly backing away from the man, and one or two of them were grabbing up gas masks of some kind, slapping them on before they the man to get to close. "He must be emitting something Some kind of invisible gas perhaps?"
"We have gas masks," Scott said reluctantly. "And what did he say just then, something about using them as batteries?"
Maybe he's not immune to his own poison? Warpath murmured. "he could have a healing factor to offset it but which needs the life force of other people to sustain it? Maybe a kind of vampirism."
"wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've run into," Harry murmured.
"I hate to jog your elbow fearless leaders, but aren't we going to be doing something?"
Harry nodded. "Yes I think we are Spyke."
"Gas masks on people," Scott ordered. "Warpath, straight up the middle. Get their attention. Nightcrawler, around the back towards that one who just arrived, get our friends free. Darkstar, long-range support, take those guns out. Rogue follow up as soon as we know what were really dealing with here. You and Spike will be our reserve."
With that, Scott fired his eye beams moving out from behind cover to do it. The eye beam slammed into one of the four super troopers that were already there, the largest one with the orange skin and hair, hurling him backwards with a cry of shock.
Instantly the others all turned in his direction, and most of the humans did the same, turning their guns towards him. But Cyclops had already ducked behind a rock, and Warpath roared forward, his hands holding the giant cleavers that he had become quite attached to since arriving here in Finland.
Seeing the bullets bounce off the large mutant, the first blonde young man stepped forward. "I have this one, beware further attacks! we will make them realize the folly of facing the Omega Clan."
From his wrists came large tentacles of the same type that the other man who just arrived were using. Indeed, now that they were preparing for battle, Harry could see all four of the ones who had been in the camp had similar tentacles growing out of their forearms. The woman had a few growing out of her chest, which Harry thought was one of the grossest things he'd seen recently.
Nonetheless Harry ignored the rest of the fight, moving forward through the others, and heading towards the loaded truck, sending a brief spike of magic into it, as he did so before stepping out into the open. The engine died, and Harry leaped up onto the back of the truck, pulling open one of the crates inside to reveal the crystal. He pulled it out and looked at it quizzically, trying to discern what could be so special about it. It wasn't radiating magically to his senses, it wasn't very pretty looking, although he supposed in the proper light the orangish color to it could be quite fetching. But Harry still couldn't discern what the heck they were supposed to be.
Shrugging his shoulders, he dumped several of them into his expanded pouch for later research, then hopped out of the truck, to find that the fight had suddenly started to turn against the X-Men. Warpath was down, with one of the omega clan choking the life out of him, with his prehensile tentacle, his body having shifted into some kind of gaseous form, his tentacles having shifted into an energy form. This seemed to have flummoxed Warpath's durability and the man was using Warpath's body as a shield against Cyclops and Darkstar.
Well we can have that can we?" He mused, pointing a finger at the man and sending a spell into him. "gwaywffon mellt."The comparatively small spear of lightning lashed out, flashing into his target's immaterial body and the man screamed, his phantasm form unable to block such an attack. He released Warpath, and then Harry grabbed him and hurled him into the sky with another spell, where Darkstar peppered him with her energy attacks, so much so that his phantasm form wavered.
By the time he came down, Warpath had recovered. He hurled one of his hatchets up, cleaving the man's head clean off.
This however left him open for one of the others who roared out in anger. "No, brother!"
This one didn't bother with trying to choke or otherwise incapacitate Warpath with his more solid tentacles. Instead, he thrust them forward like spears. And Warpath had still been badly weakened by his brush with the other one. They penetrated Warpath's chest in several places, overcoming his weakened state almost as if they were something like Wolverine's claws. The large powerful mutant gasped, going to one knee, and grabbing at the tentacles as they protruded from his chest, before spasming further.
"Warpath's healing factor isn't working on them! Stay away from those tentacles," Scott shouted as he kept his distance, and eye blast slamming into Warpath's attacker and knocking him loose of the large man, who collapsed face first into the snow. He disappeared an instant later. Whatever was going on in his body, was enough to activate the emergency portkey that all of the world guard and X-Men had on their uniforms.
"Rogue keep your distance," Cyclops ordered, 0long-range artillery!"
With that, Rogue dropped out of the sky grabbing up several bits of rock that were larger than her and began to hurl them forward. One of them slammed into the woman as she made to raced forward towards where Cyclops was firing at them from the woods. She was knocked Ass over kettle and then Harry was on her, a cutting spell sent into her throat ending her life.
All of this activity had forced the one who had returned from the woods with Wolverine and Laura as his captives to release them, and charge into the fray. instantly Nightcrawler was there stabbing forward with a short sword made of the same reddish metal as Orichalcum. Then he disappeared behind him, grabbing Laura up in his arms and teleporting away.
The sword was a momentary distraction, the man smacking it out of the air before it could impact, as he roared out "you cannot defeat Omega red! I have absorbed their life force and I will soon do the same to you."
"I doubt it," Harry said dryly, casting another spell. This one was a Bombarda spell straight at the man's head. It hit, and the man's head exploded in a thoroughly gratifying manner. "Just as I thought. Sometimes durability doesn't give you magical immunity."
The last two Omega clan men had broken through into the woods, closing with the X-Men despite spike and the others trying to keep your distance. seeing what Harry had done, they had no desire to face a magic user. Shrugging at that, Harry just turned his attention to the few Russian soldiers still trying to fight back.
Now knowing what they were facing, the X-Men led the two of them a merry chase, keeping their distance and hurling boulders of trees and other things at them. Spyke though was unlucky. he caught a random bullet from one of the Russians and stumbled letting one of the men grab him around the throat, whereupon Spyke gasped, his vitality slowly leaving him. But this opened him up to a blast in the face by Darkstar. The next second a ten-ton rock dropped on his head and he joined his fellows in death.
Shaking his head, Scott scowled. "Warpath and Spyke both of them injured in the same battle. I suppose I've still got a lot to learn."
"Considering we didn't know anything about their powers before the fight Scott, I would count this as a victory," Harry said, shaking his head.
"It was only a victory because you were here," Scott said shaking his head. "It would have cost us a lot more if you weren't here to help even the odds.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, sugar," Rogue said, hugging Scott from one side and leaning her head on his shoulder. "The emergency portkeys works, and our friends will be up and about far faster than anyone has a right to expect."
"Ja mine freund, and whatever they were doing here, we stopped it from occurring. Right?" Nightcrawler asked, looking over at Harry.
Harry nodded, gesturing to the truck and the mines. "As soon as those are dealt with."
Without a word Scott blasted a hole along the mine shaft's uppermost lip, collapsing it. "Right, now let's get back. I want to check in on our friends," he said grimly.
Returning to Camelot for the night, Harry was stopped as he was about to enter the medical wing of the castle in order to grab some medicine for Jean - just some vitamin pills and pain medicine - who remained laid out up in high note. With Emma in Azerbaijan, Harry intended to go and spend a few hours with Emma, then he and Hela would meet there to check on Jean before coming down to see Storm. But this schedule was interrupted by Cory popping into existence in front of Harry and bowing. "Master, the mistress is awake. She is not moving yet, but she ate enough for five for lunches and seems well. She wishes to speak to you.
"Storm," Harry said her name like a prayer almost, a soft smile banishing his grim look. "Thank goodness for that. Thank you, Cory, I'll go see her now. If you could assign one of the house elves assigned to High Note to watch Jean for me though, that would be lovely. I forgot to do it earlier."
"Of course master. In fact, Cory will watch over her personally until you assign me other duties," the little house elf said proudly, smacking his chest and causing his large ears to flop around.
Harry smiled at the little creature and ruffled its head then went to find storm in the headmaster's quarters. She was indeed sitting up in bed, staring out through the transfigured stone of the room and out into the snow-covered forest beyond. She turned and gave him a brilliant smile as he entered, holding out her hands to him. Harry moved forward, laying his palms down in hers, and then leaning down lightly to kiss her tenderly, before pulling back. "Are you well love?"
She laughed quietly. "You and Hela both asked the same thing, she was here earlier. Now Hela is off with Danielle and the rest of the team you assigned her getting to know more about the two she did not know before. But she said she would meet us up in high note for dinner in a few moments, and was in fact going to be preparing it herself, so I would not try to bow out of it were I you Harry." Her face sobered slightly. "But right now, I too would like transportation up to the asteroid. I feel I am still a half day at the least away from being able to exert myself in such a fashion.
Harry smiled at that. "Now that should be a treat. And as for transportation, your wish is my command." He then gently lifted her into his arms, smirking as she made a protest, smacking his chest with her hand.
"I'm not such an invalid as all that, my heart," she teased, feeling the hand under her rump becoming a little firmer than was actually needed.
"Never said you were Ororo," Harry replied with a chuckle, and once more the way he said her name was almost like prayer, a breath of pure emotion that caused Ororo to blush in pleasure. "Never said you were. But, is it any wonder I would like to have you in my arms as often as possible?"
"Smooth Harry," storm said with a laugh leaning up to kiss him ardently, a flush still visible on her cheeks. When he started to shift her his grip on her however in order to push her back down the bed, she twisted, wriggling out of his grip to stand in front of him, taking his hands in hers. "None of that now. Let us go up to Jean."
To Harry's surprise they found Hela and Emma there already, setting up a small table next to the bed where Jean slept, the noise of their moving around having no effect on the exhausted woman. "She is still sleeping?" Storm asked.
"I have my Pepper-up potions, and the fact that my magic recovers so quickly and in turn bolsters my physical abilities. You have the lady Gaia and her aid in your recovery. Hela is a goddess, with a rate of recovery almost equal to my own.
Almost Hela said haughtily, but then chuckled to take any sting out of her comment before taking up the tale as she gently touched the Phoenix Avatar's forehead. "Whereas Jean, has had none of those things, has her pregnancy sapping her physical and mental strength and has nearly as much of a sleepless time of it as we have. Is it any wonder that she is so out of it at the moment?"
"Enough," Emma said sharply. "Tomorrow is going to be a very hectic day for all of us, but for right now, let's all set business aside, all right? This is a moment for us to have some alone time, let's not waste it."
Harry nodded wordlessly, and Cory appeared beside him, carrying a bottle of wine from Camelot's stores, having retrieved it without even needing to be told. Harry took it graciously thanked him, and moved over to the table, looking over at Jean for a moment then back to the others. "I think given what tomorrow will bring that we can set aside the promise we made Jean about not drinking during her pregnancy just for tonight. And in the interest of talking about things not related to the war, Emma, tell me what your sister Cordelia's up to these days. I haven't seen her in person for months now. Is she still pining for your chief of security?"
OOOOOOO
At the same time Harry held his meeting, the Thing led his girlfriend Thundra and the human torch against the Mole Man. Their job really wasn't to fight it out now, though. Their job was instead to get close enough to see the Mole Man. There was something off about the Mole Man, Ben reflected. Every time they'd fought the little guy, before this he'd retreated into the ground after losing a few companies worth of troops. While most of his troops didn't seem to care so much about their own losses, the Mole Man had, instilling a bit of discipline and order in them. That seemed to have gone by the wayside in his invasion of Kazakhstan.
So, the big brain had devised a scheme, and a device. The reasoning behind it was kind of grim, Ben Grim thought with a bit of morbid humor, yet the suspicion was there. So the three members of the FF currently in the field were sneaking around the area of Kazakhstan conquered by the Mole Man's forces. This included Ben's alternate dimensional girlfriend who had been a stand in for Susan for months now, since Mrs. Richards was most decidedly not an active member at the moment thanks to her pregnancy.
Of course, none of us were actually built for sneaking, including Thundra. Why the hell didn't Reed think about asking for help? Ben groused. Was it ego, or just a lack of common sense. He paused, thinking about that, his orange stone skin actually letting him blend into the rocky background all around them better than most would believe possible, then shrugged. Meh, doesn't matter, I'll just have to make fun of them for both.
Above him on the slop of the mountainside they were currently treking over, Johnny signaled them to stop, and then down, before pointing at his eyes. He was not in his flame form at the moment, having instead done what Ben should have: raided Reed's lab without asking permission and coming away with a sort of chameleon field generator which fit on his belt. It wasn't really ready for the field, and it created a lot of heat, but Johnny could use his powers over flame to become his own heat sink basically, and could use it for a few minutes without trouble. That, and the fact he was the only one of them that had any experience in mountain climbing.
At Johnny's instructions Ben and Thundra crouched down, crawling up next to the smaller man, who moved forward quickly up over a lip in the mountainside where they could peer down into a flat area set between two mountains. Below them by several dozen feet of nastily slanted slope was a group of ten Subterraneans, most of them the normal-sized type, with two of the larger bruiser types. They were setting up what looked like some kind of large gun, as well as putting in defenses around it. Below them was a far larger group setting up what Ben could tell were some kind of solar power farm or something.
There was a large entrance to some kind of cave, which no doubt led into the ever-expanding tunnels of the Mole Man and his forces here in Kazakhstan. There were a lot of heavy cables leading out of it and down towards the larger group, but not hooked up to anything just yet.
For a moment, the sight of all that industry caused Ben to scowl. Huh, I know a lot of the logistics folk were wondering about where the Russians had gotten so many advanced tanks. I know one of 'em said it was like every tank model older than three years had been replaced, with no one the wiser. But if the Mole Man had created enough of an industry for his own forces and then opened that bag of goodies up to the Ruskies along with those underground trams they used to get the drop on everyone, then it makes a lot of sense. His scowl deepened. Fuck, I wonder exactly how bad it will be when we go on the offensive. Those tunnels, the Mole Man and his forces, that's going to be a damn nightmare.
Thundra jogged Ben's elbow lightly, moving a hand infinitesimally to point down to another cave entrance, one that Ben and Johnny had missed. "Look there. Is that not the deformed dwarf we are looking for?"
Wincing at Thundra's blunt speech Ben nodded, staring at the Mole Man. He was standing in the entrance to the second cave, talking to two of the normal-sized Subterraneans, who wore what had to be officers' garb: pants, shirt and a wide series of gold epaulets on their shoulders. Since most Subterraneans didn't wear much in the way of clothing (they seemed almost genderless so it wasn't an issue) these two stood out even more.
The Thing quickly handed the Human Torch the goggles that Reed Richards had created for this purpose and Johnny crawled forward, activating his obfuscation field as he slid up the side of the rock to one side, getting a higher vantage point to stare into the cave in question.
He flipped through a few controls on the goggles, staring through it at their target then gasped, nearly dropping them. Scrambling to catch them, Johnny lost his footing, sending a cascading series of rocks down towards the Subterraneans below.
The Subterraneans all looked up, and the Thing slapped one craggy hand over his face. "That's torn it." With a growl he pushed himself to his feet then leaped forward, smashing bodily into the large artillery gun the Subterraneans were setting up, destroying it in an instant.
Behind him, Thundra took a brief second to look at the Human Torch as he carefully set the goggles aside before flaring into his fire form. "I take it you saw something amiss?"
"Oh yeah, you might say that," The Torch said as the flames started to lick at his face, covering it as it already had the rest of his body. "It's certain now, the Mole Man is a shape changing alien. Not a Skrull though, I still thought we were dealing with some of those bastards whatever Harry said. Odd to think there are two races out there like that."
"Leave that shit for later! Right now, it's clobbering time!" Ben roared, leaping towards the Mole Man's position. That worthy was already retreating, but that was fine by Ben Grimm.
Pulling that rat out of his hole could wait, right now he just wanted to smash this place apart, whatever it was for and then get the info back to the big brains. They could determine what to do with it after that. Although, he thought irritably, with everything else we're all dealing with, I doubt the Mole Man will register for a bit. Not unless the shape changing ass who's replaced him decides to get involved elsewhere.
OOOOOOO
This was in fact the case. The Mole Man and his forces had yet to appear anywhere else in any strength, being concentrated on Kazakhstan. Since that was the case, that theater of conflict was deemed a low priority for most. Everyone was on the lookout though for the Mole Man aiding the Russians once the allies launched their assault. For now though, the Mole Man seemed content to slowly conquer Kazakhstan, and his forces weren't massacring civilians or even moving all that fast despite their advantages in underground travel. So they could be left to the Fantastic Four for now.
Genosha on the other hand was about to become an even more violent front than it had been already.
The Black Panther had not been telling Harry and the others the whole truth about his situation in Genosha. While it was true he had made tremendous gains, and he personally had dealt with several Mutant Liberation Front members and a few of the local government super soldiers, it was also true that he hadn't managed to break out of the port city with the majority of his troops. Ion the kind of close confines, small unit tactics a city called for his men were not nearly as well-trained or simply tough and prepared as the locals. Added to this was the fact that the Mutant Liberation Front seemed to be able to take advantage of Press Gang attacks, never being in the vicinity but able to capitalize on the movement of troops to that threat from elsewhere.
But later that same day as the meeting with Harry had been held, Mr. Sinister started to take direct control. Mr. Sinister might not be a general, or any kind of soldier. However, he did know quite a bit about warfare, and about chess. And while there was a lot the game got wrong about warfare, depending on the army it did get one thing right: It was all about removing the King. And when that army is led by someone like the Black Panther, someone who is known to lead from the front, that makes it all the easier.
The Black Panther looked up as one of his communications operators informed him of a new break-in along their outer cordon.
How bad is it?"
"It's bad she said simply. "It's being led by a new Mutant Liberation Front member, one we've not seen before. She is apparently super-strong, because she just smashed an entire building down on some of our troopers. And she's moving towards one of the civilian shelters." Those shelters were a holdover from when Genosha had been a young, aggressively militant nation, but they still served the people of the port for now.
"Which means, that I am needed at the front again," the Black Panther said with a barely concealed smile.
He stretched, cracking his neck and shoulders. It would ever do for him to admit it, but T'challa was certainly feeling the last few weeks of near constant combat. Pulling himself back from the front had not just been to answer the summons from Harry and the other high commanders, and it hadn't just been because his chief advisors had almost literally sat on him that he had stopped trying to get back to the front before getting some sleep after the meeting. Still, with a full four hours' worth of sleep and rest. The king of Wakanda felt up to getting back to what he felt he did best. This was not, despite what anyone else would tell T'challa, ruling. No, T'challa believed he was best utilized to kick ass and take names.
He cracked his knuckles, then watched as the Black Panther's claws slowly enlarged on his hands, the metal fiber extending quickly. He touched his necklace around his neck and the helmet elongated too, merging with his mask. While the Black Panther's uniform might look as if it was simple spandex or something simple similar, it was not. It was in fact nano-fiber, a vibranium variant of the kind of uniform that Harry had created for the Custodes Mundi and X-Men. It gave him quite a lot of protection from blunt objects, guns of all sorts, and even most cutting type of assaults. So far it had also proven effective against anything short of a true laser weapons, though of course T'challa preferred to dodge as best he could.
"Direct me to this new enemy, the Black Panther is on the hunt!" he said as he leaped out of his command bunker, which looked almost like an African tent, but the inside was most decidedly more high-tech than that.
The communications officer quickly directed him through the city, connecting him directly to a few of the forces at the front. Staring at their positions on a map which appeared on the inside of his mask's protective lens, he began to bark out orders. "Tcau, Da'fey, fall back two blocks. There is a small subway station there, it has heavier walls, and you can use it as a defensive positions. Rally your troops there but be prepared to fall back. Do not, repeat do not allow yourself to get caught in close quarters combat with these people. We have lost too many brothers as it is to them."
Flicking that line off, he connected to Thunderbird, who he knew had arrived in the country while he was sleeping. "Thunderbird are you and your team ready to go?"
"Roger that Panther, we were moving toward another incursion but we can finish that and get to you in ten, keep some distance between you and the MLF and we're golden," Thunderbird said, leading the way out from where he and his makeshift team had landed.
Havok, Coyote, get up high, move to flank out line of advance and prepare to bring down a building on our enemies, we'll need to move fast and we can't get bogged down," Thunderbird commanded as he clicked off his discussion with the Black Panther, smiling eagerly. This was his chance to make certain that Scott and Harry both realized that they had made the right decision to put him in command. He would not waste the opportunity. "Keep an eye out, remember that we have friendlies in the area, as well as enemies. I don't want any friendly fire moments gentlemen. Banshee stay in the sky for now, and aim for any large groups you can see. Five minutes only people, hammer them and then we got to move on."
Ahead of them, Thunderbird and Cortez, who he had kept with him, could see the force of a full Press Gang moving into the system to the city. The Press Gang were Genosha's top tier governmental enforcers, a group that had access to a lot more high-end technology than the world at large had realized until the civil war erupted. They consisted of highly trained men and women who wore extremely effective body armor on the one part, and others who utilized large robots, almost as large as the Hulk while sitting in a little control seat high up their back, protected by fire and blast resistant glass of some kind.
Thunderbird thought about all this as he charged forward towards the group, which consisted of fifty of the regular troops, and fourteen of the robots. "I have eyes on a Press Gang," he said into his communicator even as he charged forward, ignoring the blaster bolts from the robots and men ahead of them as they slammed into him. While normally he wouldn't be able to take heavy caliber laser weapons, like all of the other super-strong men of the Custodes Mundi and its subsidiaries, he wore a modified suit of armor that only vaguely looked like his personal Apache heritage inspired uniform, and was instead very effective body armor.
The only place that was truly vulnerable now was his face, and he was fast enough to duck and dodge enough to keep his head protected somewhat. Hell I'm even wearing a cup of the damn metal he thought, a snort of humor on his face as he barreled into the first of the large robots, picking it up and hurling it into his fellow to one side while the others retreated in order to bring their heavy cannons to bear again. One of them didn't, and a punch to his check slammed Thunderbird's head sideways and made him stumble back, but then he pulled out from his pouch, a heavy Orichalcum machete. A quick slash cut off the hand of that robot before he could pull back, and then Thunderbird's free fist slammed into the robot's chest head, smashing deep into its control circuitry.
He turned then, grabbing the robot that had just been attacking him and using it as a shield against more fire from the Press Gang. At the same time, he saw Banshee flying down from above to divebomb the Press Gang, hitting the back for their skirmish formation, pushing them out of several defensive positions and Cortez further down the street hidden in a burned out building and firing her energy blasts down the street, corralling those who had been trying to get around Thunderbird.
That left only two to account for. "Havok, Coyote, are you both in position?"
"Ready/yeah we're ready," said the two voices, one professional, one surly.
Shaking his head at Havok's ongoing attitude, Thunderbird, ducked down to one knee, and pulled the remains of the robot over his head. He ignored its controller leaping clear and sprinting away down a nearby alleyway, shouting, "Do it!"
The two shooters opened up, and not with rifles. Coyote was now sporting to armloads of small rocket launchers attached to his bracers, tiny rockets about the size of two fingers put together. He could fire 12 of the things at once, from both of his exo-suit's arms, and was doing so into two buildings on one side of the fight going on below.
At the same time Havok used his energy-based blasts to carve a larger building on the other side of the fight into chunks, which now began falling down onto Press Gang members hither and yon.
Banshee moved in quickly, now targeting the few remaining larger groups of enemies from on high discombobulating the Press Gang troopers with a low-pitched, barely heard whine that immediately began to hit their balance. He couldn't fly very high without losing all sense of visibility much like all of the other flyers and jet and planes, but he was both more experienced than the other Custodes flyers (bar Ororo), and just a little bit faster. That was why Harry had chosen him to fight with Thunderbird here in Genosha.
In moments, the sixty-four-man group of the Press Gang in front of them were beaten, the few survivors retreating in disarray. Thunderbird nodded grimly and turned aside, moving to heft Cortez up on his back as Banshee did the same with Havok. "Good job team, now let's get a move on!"
Alex frowned at him, from where Banshee had just picked him up like a little child in his arms. He hated flying like this with anyone but Polaris, and Why are we retreating?"
Thunderbird twitched, angry at the accusation. "Because it's not our job to hold the ground, our job is to blunt assaults, or head them, let the Wakandan troops hold the ground we take. Besides, right now we have to hurry and meet up with the Black Panther."
Havok looked like he wanted to argue, but Thunderbird had already turned away, racing faster than a speeding horse down the street. A second later Havok squawked as Banshee took off after them, with Coyote using his suit's teleporter to keep up with some difficulty.
Four blocks later there was a sudden bussing noise, and Thunderbird pulled his headset away from his head glaring at it. "What the hell!?"
Then he winced as a voice sounded off in his head like a clarion call. "Thunderbird get a fucking move on. T'challa wasn't dealing with a probing attack! The Black Panthers all alone facing, well I can't tell what he's facing, they've got some telepath over there blocking all of my probes. According to his commander his communicator isn't responding either, and I… damn it, I can't get through to him!" Emma's telepathic voice almost shrieked.
Thunderbird winced at that, knowing that was trouble. Either the enemy telepath is strong enough to block Emma entirely or… "Is he still alive at least?" He asked over the link Emma was now sustaining between them for a moment.
"I can sense he's still active, but I can't reach him. It looks as if my opposing number has some strength to her. Odd, it's almost like… but that would be impossible…" Emma's mental voice trailed off for a moment before giving the impression she had just shaken her head. "Nevermind, that's my problem. Just get in there Thunderbird, we can't let T'challa die!"
Thunderbird didn't bother to reply mentally as he felt her cut the link between them. "Cortez, hang on tight," He growled, then bunched his legs and leapt up onto the nearest building even as he began to tell his team about what he had just been told.
OOOOOOO
No sooner had the Black Panther arrived on the scene, physically ordering his troops away, and dragging more than one off through the streets himself, then four more of the so-called Marauders had appeared, closing in from all sides along with the woman he had been here to fight in the first place. The one called Blockbuster closed in first, racing forward to grapple with the Black Panther from out of the middle of a wrecked building.
But the Black Panther was a master martial artist and he simply ducked underneath the large white skinned bald man's reach, lashing out with his claws. They didn't penetrate Blockbuster's skin, but the dust that T'challa's other hand threw into the man's eye did the trick. He stumbled back, unable to see for a moment. The Black Panther then flipped himself forward, kicking off the man's upper chest, to dodge incoming fire from several others.
Riptide hurled his small metal daggers, so fast they could barely be seen by normal people, spinning quickly and quickly and quicker still, to impart that speed to them. One of them penetrated the Black Panther's shoulder, cutting through his armor with an ease that was a little scary. Note to self, don't close with that one. With the number of daggers he's tossing out, it would be like being close to a paper shredder.
A few of his men had pulled back just enough to open the range so that they could use their energy guns, raising them to their shoulders and firing quickly they save T'challa from further immediate damage. But Riptide ducked behind one of the other Marauders, the one that had been reported to be in the area.
She was a tallish woman with short cropped brown hair tinted here and there with purple, who wore formfitting armor that left one arm and shoulder bare while covering everything else in silvery metal.
Arclight slammed her hands down on the ground, creating a shockwave that advanced towards the locals. Two of his men were able to jump out of the way in time, but the other one was picked up by the shockwave, and hurled back into a building at a very bad angle, his neck snapping.
"SHAAAA!" Hissing a wordless battle cry, the Black Panther leaped away from the building he had been clinging to, lashing out with his claws at Arclight, going for her eyes. He had discovered that most superstrong individuals were still vulnerable in the eyes and the throat to a certain degree.
But Arclight grabbed his hands, and hurled him to one side, though he was quick enough to roll with it and avoid further injury. Super-strong and super-fast, and trained in the martial arts. Not good.
There was a loud buzzing noise to one side, and the Black Panther turned to see the remains of an electronic store's front suddenly shifting into a large cannon as large as his body, firing at him from near point-blank range. He leaped away just in time, but the heat of the blasts passage still cooked his legs a bit as he did so. Not having had time to see where he was jumping T'challa smashed into a window, not noticing how much damage to the city that blast had done, or the fact that it had immolated more than a few of his troops at the nearby subway station he had ordered them to regroup at.
He was then cutting into the top of the electronic store dropping down so swiftly that the man who had created that cannon barely had a second to turn, before a blow from the Black Panther nearly laid him out. He rolled with it though, coming up with his hands crossed in front of his chest, and a proper boxing stance. When he tried to punch forward though, the Black Panther simply ducked underneath, his foot catching the man in the side of the leg, shattering the bone. Before the man could cry out, or finish falling to the ground, the Black Panther had pushed himself off into a body check that threw an elbow straight into the man's throat, crushing it and hurling his body backwards.
"No!" Shouted a voice nearby. Then Arclight smashed her way into the building, crashing into him before he could leap back up out of the hole he had created. "You'll pay for that!"
With a growl, she grabbed T'challa by the throat, and slammed him back first into the wall, before holding him there with one hand, and bringing back a fist. He kicked at her but she didn't move, and he pulled his legs tight and finally flipped himself upwards, kicking her in the face several times before she could finish throwing her punch. The woman stumbled back from that, but didn't releases her grip on him before twisting around and hurling him to the ground where he landed, smashing his already wounded shoulder.
He grunted in pain, but then slammed his hand down onto her foot right above her ankles, which was bare. "Flash Stinger!" His hand fizzled with electricity from his suit and the jolt of it made the woman let him go, though he doubted it actually hurt. Rolling away, he then leaped up back into the hole he created earlier, out and away flipping himself back upwards to land on the roof.
T'challa moved his shoulder gingerly one way or the other, hissing a little but otherwise was unharmed. Really, Riptide is more dangerous than that woman was to me, so long as I can keep her from pinning me in place.
That was the last thought he had before a blast of energy took him in the back, hurling him off the roof and searing away his armor there. It was only his suit that kept T'challa alive though as he fell through the air, flipping himself to land on the ground, and staring back the way he had fallen.
He watched as a new individual appeared there. This man was tall, extremely well-muscled, but not overly muscular, wearing a black and purple body suit, and a black cape. He had white skin, white like chalk rather than the pale pink complexion that was normally meant by the term. In the center of his forehead he had a diamond shaped mark, and his hands were smoldering with purple and black energy of some kind. "If you want an experiment to go right, you must remove the impurities personally," the man said, leaping down towards the Black Panther.
The Black Panther met him halfway, lashing out quickly, but the man shrugged off his attacks, grabbed his foot when he raised it for a kick, and crushed it in his grip. T'challa bit back a scream of pain, then was hurled to one side, as another energy blast was sent after him.
"Force field!" he shouted, touching one of the controls on his neck. The energy attack slammed into his shield, which held for a brief second, while he regained his feet, the nano-fibers of his suit hardening around his injured foot as it had earlier to his shoulder creating a makeshift splint that was as hard as steel, allowing him to move unaided. But T'challa knew that this fight was beyond him. He touched another one of the claws on his neck, shouting, "Camouflage!" Then the king of Wakanda ducked to one side just as his shield gave way. He rolled quickly then pushed himself back into the shadows, where he disappeared even deeper under camouflage, his suit shifting like the skin of a chameleon. It couldn't sustain that for very long without roasting him alive in his suit, but it would keep for now.
"That will not save you!" the man said, and Arclight and Blockbuster went to work, smashing the buildings to either side of where the Black Panther disappeared to the ground. He wasn't caught in either demolition, but this act kicked up a lot of dust and dirt, which T'challa's attackers were waiting for. Riptide noticed his movements through the dust and quickly turned sending thousands of tiny needles into the area where he had just seen movement. The Black Panther gasped as his suit was inundated, sliced here and there, and then he was smashed off of his feet by a blow from behind again.
Where this one came from he didn't know, because when he looked, no one was there. Then he found felt himself being lifted as it by some force or energy, and then felt his body stretched, including his wounded shoulder and leg. "Excellent, Madeline," Mr. Sinister said, smirking slightly. "So much for the idea a mere human could ever be able to fight against Homo Superior. Perhaps this will teach you and yours a lesson."
"What, that villains talk too much?" said a the voice from one side, and then a third building came down, as a shout of "Cry havoc!" was heard.
Then Thunderbird and his team were there. They didn't try to stick around though, instead Thunderbird ordered them to grab T'challa and get out of there. The Black Panther was far too wounded looking for them to want him to be anywhere near the fight to come. To that end, Havok attacked first, then Coyote, shooting gas grenades and flash bombs down from a nearby ceiling.
But as he did so, Coyote ran into an attack of his own, a nearby MLF member having been moving to support his fellows instead attacked him. The armor-clad Wyatt stumbled, as up became down, his sense of smell disappearing, his sense of sight being badly diminished. "What, what is this!" Quickly he activated his suits teleporter, which allowed him to get away from his attacker.
His senses soon came back as he put distance between himself and a seedy, thin looking mutant with sallow features and mismatched eyes. He did this just in time to duck under a blast of heat and energy that cut through the building behind him, and out towards a few of his troopers who were trying to fight back against some of the other mutants nearby. The man's attack had disrupted Coyote's own so that what should have ben an overwhelming attack of flash bombs and tear gas had been barely enough to disturb the Marauders and their leader.
It still threw off the telekinetic long enough for T'challa to lash out with his own attack, a tiny stun grenade from his belt hurled at the redhead's feet. She encased it in a TK grip, but her lack of experience shown through here as she released T'challa from her powers, letting him fall to the road beneath.
Nearby, several of the Wakandans were caught out in the open, riddled with holes from the blasts of plasma. yet in return two of the mutants, the thin looking one and one other went down to the Wakandan's fire. But then as Thunderbird reached T'challa, the survivors were ambushed from above by one of the marauders. Blockbuster, the same man to the Black Panther had dealt with at the start of the fight, leaped down into their midst.
He crashed in among the regular troopers. Though they bravely stood and fought, their bayonets flicking up on top of their rifles and charging or grabbing at machetes at their sides, Blockbuster was highly durable and laughed at their efforts, tossing all of them around, breaking bones with every blow.
Making a decision to not try to save all of them, Thunderbird acted, turning from where he had bodily smashed into Arclight, smashing her to the ground before he turned in the other Native American's direction, grabbing up and hurling T'challa free of the ambush. "Havok, Cortez, Banshee covering fire, Coyote, catch!"
This did not save Thunderbird. Sinister had already been preparing a blast of energy to kill T'challa. Now he simply shifted focus and amped up the power. At the same time, the telekinetic struck too, her blast of TK power smashing Thunderbird from the other side.
The damage these two attacks did should have been fatal. Instead, the damage, and Thunderbird's heart stopping for a moment, activated his suit's emergency portkey system. And their concentration on him allowed Coyote to get clean away, with the others covering his retreat.
But they too didn't escape unscathed. Riptide once more proved his murderous ability, sending thousands of tiny glass and metal needles up at the flying Banshee as he did one last dive bomb on Blockbuster, trying to cover the retreat of the last to surviving Wakandans of the two companies which had been caught in this ambush. His attack saved them, but Riptide's assault nearly tore him to shreds, activating his emergency portkey in turn.
Sinister scowled as the heavily injured Thunderbird suddenly disappeared along with the Banshee, his eyes narrowing. "Magic. Damn it. It would appear whatever was done to block my own teleportation technology has no effect on magic. Always it comes back to magic with Potter and through him his forces. Blast you Morgan Le Fay, if you had only had the spine to stand with me."
He frowned mentally going through the individuals he had just seen, matching them up to his database. On top of that it looked as if the Black Panther is no longer my only worry. If he will continue to be at all. Whatever else, he has lost the use of his arm and leg, and his back was badly burned as well. With those injuries it will be a miracle if he lives through the day.
Scowling Sinister reminded himself however there was once more magic to consider. Dammit. I might have to do this all again tomorrow. Mr. Sinister frowned angrily. The idea of breaking out and fighting his way through the American naval forces was looking better and better. Yet he couldn't do it.
All or nothing he thought, this was an all or nothing roll of the dice. I have to stick it out until I at least have to entrap Potter and force Subject Grey to act in order to save him. It is the only way forward. That, or a blood sample from Potter to merge with the clone.
With that in mind, he turned to his deputy, Arclight, who was groggily shaking her head, still a little out of it from having her head used as a bouncy ball. When she was focusing on him, Sinister jerked his head around to indicate the city around them. "Press them hard, use the Press Gang and the MLF forces. Don't let them have a moment to recover from the loss of command the Black Panther's injuries will force upon them."
Even as Arclight nodded, Sinister was already turning to the genetic experiment who he had given the name of Madelyn Pryor to. "Madelyn, it is time, you must do your part to expel these enemies of freedom and mutant rights. Release your powers upon them."
The redhead smiled at him, her eyes gleaming with eagerness. "Of course, my love."
OOOOOOO
Emma had been basically observing everything she could of the fight occurring. She felt Thunderbird's pain, felt him dying and then disappearing. She had a brief moment to breath a sigh of relief before she felt it, a vast telepathic assault launched not as an attack on a single person, but as an attack on the minds of the Wakandan forces.
It was a brute force thing, simply creating and projecting out an aura of fear and terror into the minds of their enemies. In this case, the aura came with illusions of gremlins and other such creatures. To those effected by the attack they came out of the nearest shadow, attacking and cackling as they tore into the flesh of the Wakandans and even the retreating group of mutants. And those who took wounds from them felt the pain, their own brains tricked into believing the illusions were real.
Dozens of men died from their own pain induced brains convincing them they were dead before Emma could react. That reaction came in the form of a blast of telepathic power of her own, sent slamming down into the mind of the telepath who had finally revealed herself, and, as her attack was blocked by something, some kind of scientific device, she was then forced to throw up a kind of mental wall, a wall of diamond around the minds she could feel in the Genosha's port city.
But there were so many minds, and defending another person's mind was far tougher than attacking, putting Emma on the back foot. Her walls of diamond instantly began to show cracks, but she crushed every gremlin or demon that tried to appear behind it, using her far greater experience and control to good effect. Still, stuck on the defensive like this and this far removed, Emma was soon being pushed to the limit in a way she had very rarely been before.
"Pinoptes!" Emma grunted as she tried to turn the tide of the telepathic battle. "Get Charles on the line, I need Xavier's help damn it! And tell, tell Harry that whatever happens in Russia, Sinister's forces just got big reinforcement! Then prepare a shuttle or something to get me down to Genosha, I need to be closer to fight this person on an even footing."
OOOOOOO
Harry was determined to show not only turn the tide of the war in as quick and abrupt a manner as possible, but to also show everyone that the Russians did not have a monopoly on the strategy of shock and awe and, beyond that to force the Russian people as a whole to realize they had bitten off more than they could chew. To that end, once he had memorized where most of the largest Aerospace Force bases were, he and Pinoptes and Dennis made certain there weren't any secret bases the satellites had missed.
Oddly enough, there weren't. Dennis supposed, and Harry agreed with him, that the Russians and the Mole Man's forces had known that the magically induced insane degree of cold and had decided not to waste any time on the airborne forces. The rocket launchers and other ground-based weaponry that had initially been under the command of the Aerospace's organization had been seconded to the various army groups. Indeed, there was every indication that a lot of the Air Force's personnel had also been reassigned. That, though he didn't show it, was something Harry was very thankful for. It meant he wouldn't have to kill as many people as he had feared.
After that, he sent an ultimatum through diplomatic channels, an odd experience considering that Harry had never tried to actually talk to his enemies like this, not formally anyway. Still his ultimatum was simplicity itself to get across. The Russians would start to talk peace within three hours of their receipt of this warning, or the allies would go on the offensive.
Thanks to his asking lady Gaia to hold off on breaking the cold spell, not even the aliens working with the Russians had any clue that yes, the allies were really serious about that. Given the fact that the Russians were seemingly pulling more and more troops up from their more in land bases towards the front and would still have a numerical superiority by a wide margin, and further if the allies did go on the attack, would be fighting a defensive battle on their own turf, this was seen as mere hyperbole. Not a single Russian general or political leader believed that he was telling the simple truth.
Russia had never been successfully invaded, not once. Every time, the enemy would gain ground, but the sheer vastness of Russia would work against them. With the air forces of the world completely useless thanks to the cold and the lack of visibility from the magically enhanced and expanded winter, plus their ally the Mole Man, they had no reason to believe that this time will be any different.
"Harry Potter lacks the understanding, to realize how foolish his ultimatum is!" The Russian ambassador to the UN shouted, slamming his hand down on the podium. Why the man had been allowed to remain within the United Nations was one of those political bullshit things that Harry had long decided were just so much idiocy. "You will never invade Mother Russia, you will never take our lands! You lack the will, you lack the numbers, you lack the technology. General Winter will do away with you until we have regained what is rightfully ours! No false accusation of alien involvement, no gross lie to cover your own imperialistic tendencies, will change that basic fact!"
And on the rhetoric went. Staring into the TV screen at a live recording of the UN, Harry shook his head, looking over to Ororo. The two of them were in their room in High note with Jean, who was still sleeping, snoring at the moment actually. Her snores were quite cute in Harry's opinion, these little warbling notes. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to tease her outrageously about it later. In fact, he actually set up a recording device just so he could make fun of her even more. "well, that's it then."
Hela walked in as Harry muted the TV, and she took one look at it and snorted derisively. "Politicians," she scoffed. "If they were real leaders, they would be called something else. Statesman perhaps. But as it is, I have no patience for the breed, and I am most thankful that I do not need to listen to that one's particular bombastic nature at the moment, thank you Harry."
"You're most welcome. But on a more serious note, Is your team ready?" Harry asked.
Hela nodded and gestured behind her. "Both them and everyone else. It is time Harry." Her lips twitched under her half-mask. "Besides that, I doubt Hela would be willing to hold off for very much longer."
"true enough, and I'm certainly not going to argue with her on it," Harry said, to a chorus of chuckles from the two ladies currently awake in the room with him.
Heading out and down into the atrium, Harry found that the Custodes Mundi had gathered, split into two teams, one which would go with Garm and Hela, and one which would be backup for Steve and the Winter Guard.
Thunderbird's team had, since the events in Genosha, already been reinforced by Iceman, Hawkeye and, at a request by Harry, Sunspot. Harry and Ororo had of course also healed Banshee and Thunderbird within minutes of their arriving back in Camelot, during which time Una had kept them alive until the two magicals could get there. Harry had even gone to Genosha and healed the Black Panther.
The events down in Genosha were also why Emma was not there with them, though. Sinister's telepath was nearly as powerful as her, and her ability to inflict mental illusions on her enemies was an attack it was taking all of Emma's mental abilities to counter. The initial assault though had hurled the Black Panther and his men onto the defensive. And the Press Gang was taking advantage of it, trying to push the so-called 'opportunistic invaders out of the port city T'challa had been using as his beachhead. Still, the situation there was stabilized for now. The snake in the grass could wait until the attacking bear was dealt with.
He nodded at them all, clasping hands with Magma, who was still team leader despite Danielle returning. Danielle would be her second-in-command taking the place of Colossus, who would slip into his far more natural supporting role. "You all know what to do," he said grimly. "The Russians have another hour to start talking peace talks, and then we launch Operation Whirlwind."
Ororo smiled, as everyone looked at her, but she shook her head. "Don't look at me, for once Harry has come up with a good name for something. She teased, causing laughter all around.
All of them nodded at that and Harry smiled at them all. "Good luck," he said simply. And with that, he turned away, shouting over his shoulder, "And let's make sure that we're all still alive after this too. I've invested a lot of time and effort in all of your training and gear, I'd hate to see it go to waste."
For a moment, the others stared after him, then chuckled dryly as Betsy quipped, "And there it is ladies and gentlemen. I knew that British stiff upper lip and general all along all-around stiff shirt-ness would eventually come out in some fashion."
About five minutes later, Harry exited High Note from its position over Poland. With Pinoptes directing him with a small computerized map that was displaying on his wrist, he flew around the globe until he was directly over one of the largest Air Force bases in Russia. Then he flew down, through the atmosphere and the turbulent weather, through the near blind conditions that made flying at anything but nape of the earth impossible, and even that difficult. Once Pinoptes informed him he should be close to fifty stories above the ground, he halted, even though he still couldn't see more than a few yards around him.
Closing his eyes, he began to cast a spell, sending down his senses towards the Air Force Base, feeling out where it began, and where the nearby town ended. This is going to be one of the trickier ones. With the others, he wouldn't have to worry much since they were far enough away from civilian settlements. But this one was so close that he did have to worry, which was kind of irritating. But Harry wasn't about to let that stop him from doing what he had bluntly told the Russians he was going to do. You make a threat, you have to be willing to follow through with it
With that in mind when Pinoptes informed him the deadline he'd given the Russians had expired Harry cast another spell. "Sciath na BhFéadfadh." The spell, which he hadn't had to use in a while, created a shield around him, which he could manipulate and sue against magical attacks, though it was utterly useless against nonmagical attacks and was highly energy intensive. To wizards back in his old world. Harry could use it now, despite note quite being above more than half his normal strength, with ease.
Gesturing downwards through the atmosphere, he enlarged the shield until it surrounded the base as he descended towards it. He was about 400, perhaps 500 feet above the base's control tower now, and with another spell on his eyes to give him the eyes of a hawk he could see everything around it, all of its edges. With that, he created the shields, tying the spell off as it were. Below he could now see dozens, hundreds of Russian soldiers racing for the jet fighters parked in long rows or to a series of missile launchers set here and there as anti-air. There weren't nearly as many people as there should have been for a base of this scale, and for that, Harry was very, very grateful. But their scrambling around would not save them from what was about to happen. Once before I brought the thunder to Russia. Now I do it again. I can only hope they learn from it this time.
With a scowl of his face and a fervent wish that he hoped the souls of the dead would be going to a better place Harry put a hand against the shield, and intoned grimly "Solus Perditio."
It'd been a while since he'd used this particular spell, and Harry had gotten far stronger since so the speed with which the spell appeared and began to grow didn't surprise his all that much. The spell created a flame so hot it seared everything within the shield to ash. Concrete bobbled and disintegrated, metal melted, before simply turning into gas and dissipating. Humans, died in their hundreds, so fast they barely had time to feel pain before they died. A mercy, almost. Within a brief thirty, perhaps forty seconds, one of the strongest Aerospace force bases in Russia was just…gone, excised out of the landscape, with the nearby city unharmed, including the off-base quarters for officers. It would be a toss up as to which was more frightening: the totality of the damage, or the control exhibited.
Harry stared down at the destruction he had wrought and shook his head sadly. He hated the necessity of this, but that was just it, this was a necessity. He had to show not only power but a certain level of ruthlessness, or else the Russians, dupes of the aliens or no, would keep fighting. People would keep dying. And in that case, it was better the enemy die then his people or those of his allies.
He'd actually talked about this with Garnoff, Colossus, and the other Russians. Garnoff had been saddened by the necessity but understood. Colossus had been horrified and sad, as were most of the others. Nikolai thought Harry was being too soft, and would have to do something even more ruthless in order to force the Russians to the diplomatic table. His sister, Laynia had issues with her former country, and had actually cheered at the idea.
Her hatred of her mother country had risen to new heights ever since they had escaped, possibly because she had been able to almost immediately find a spot in a ballet school in America, where she had not been able to make the cut in Russia even prior to her finding her mutant power and a lifetime of hardship and training that would be considered inhumane by most. Or perhaps, unlike her brother, she had far fewer good memories of their life in Russia. Whatever the case, Scott had had been forced to remonstrate with her most forcefully several times when she almost crossed the line in terms of necessary force along the finish front.
Regardless, with their understanding if not blessing, Harry was going to bring the war to Russia in no uncertain terms. But he would commit no atrocity against civilians. Military targets only. I may be a horribly powerful wizard, but I am not a monster, I am not a god to reap innocent and soldier alike.
Harry's attack on the Air Force Base happened so quickly, that no one within had time to even get a warning off. Of course the destruction was seen from the nearby city, but the cause of it wasn't. Harry had time to fly of, and then come down over a second Air Force Base twenty minutes later, incinerating it in similar fashion before the Russians could understand what was going on and far easier since this one wasn't right next to a large suburban sprawl as the first had been. A third base, then a fourth fell in like manner, and suddenly the defense of mother Russia didn't seem so certain.