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Because the biggest concentration of demonic activity was centered in Japan Harry took a few days to plan it out. During that time Jean thankfully finished most of the work she could do on the Hellion, except for a few bits here and there that she was going to work on more leisurely. She slept most of a day after finishing, something, Jean confided to Harry, that Reed and Doom were both doing at the same time. Besides what they had shared via the network, what Doom got out of it she didn't know, though he spent a lot of time investigating the different metals that made up the ship. Doom had surprisingly entered the spirit of cooperation and he and Reed were actually civil to one another, wonder of wonders.
Nonetheless, that meant that the entire team was present including the newest addition, Psylocke. Betsy had finally decided to throw in the towel, not being able to break Emma Steed out of her coma. That would take a much more subtle, much more powerful telepath than her, since even with Jean's help they could barely find out that her psyche was still in there somewhere.
Betsy had since proven to Shiang-Chi's satisfaction that she was a capable hand to hand combatant, thanks to previous training from her brother, then even more after Mojo had kidnapped her. After that, she had been fitted out with a suit, a skintight dark purple and black suit of unstable molecules much like the one Amara wore, with a chest plate of Orihalcum.
Right now they were all listening as Dennis gave them an overview of Japan. "Japan is a very strange place for those who do not understand the Japanese way of thinking. It is all about the community, all about seeming, getting along in public. I personally never worked in Japan, but I know a lot about the Orient and about how they think. We can't just go in there guns blazing, because even if we do find demonic influence and expose it in as wide a manner as possible we'll still be seen as outsiders and just as much an enemy."
"To that end and with Harry's approval I already opened up dialogue with my contact there. We have a meeting with an Imperial representative, and if we can convince them to let us in, we'll be able to enter Japan and hunt down the Hand. We may need to make some concessions. If the Hand is there, then they've been there for a while, and the country is still running."
"So even if we prove there's demonic influence there they'll be like yes, but everything is still working, they seem to know not to make waves or something?" Betsy asked incredulously. She hadn't met any demons yet, but Jean, Harry and even Ororo were all open about what they were like and she wanted nothing to do with them, discounting her Church of England upbringing.
"Pretty much yes. Essentially even if we do get the go-ahead, we'll have to tread lightly and make certain that there isn't too much public disturbance."
"I don't like that, most particularly since we don't know what exactly we're dealing with here in terms of numbers or anything else." Harry muttered shaking his head. "Still, to take out the Hand I'll deal with my irritation. When is this meeting?"
"Tomorrow morning early local time in Tokyo. I was able to convey enough urgency to get us a quick meeting, but again that might mean we'll need to make more concessions."
"We'll see." Harry said grimly. If they try to railroad me however, I am perfectly capable of simply saying sod off to their entire government, and then going in just by ourselves. I'll deal with them as an equal or not at all."
The spymaster winced at that, but nodded.
The next day, all of them transferred up to High Note first, then situated High Note over Japan before flying down, with Jean taking control of the descent. Covered with a Notice-Me-Not the group made their way down easily enough, landing in a parking lot in Tokyo which was currently empty of people, it being quite early in the morning. After that, they walked the rest of the way to their meeting place, a large mansion on the outskirts of the massive city.
As they walked, Harry hit them all with the translation spell, then Ororo began to quiz him on some do's and don'ts in Japanese, most of which Harry discarded. He wasn't about to let one of the others speak for him after all, even if that was the Japanese way, using intermediaries or lower-level functionaries to talk. Nor was he willing to spend time on small talk either. Tea, being British, he could of course get behind.
At around seven A.M. local time Harry and company stood in front of a large Japanese style mansion. It looked like something out of a historical documentary save for the addition of a doorbell to one side, and what looked like a security camera set into the roof. When Harry rang it they were answered quickly, and the group was ushered in.
The interior was equally old-fashioned. Several Japanese paintings were here and there, and the interior walls were all of paper. There was no sign of anything European or American inside, and all the furniture was very old style Japanese.
They were shown into a waiting room, dominated by a low-slung table. A maid dressed in a kimono stood in one corner, and she moved forward, quickly placing down some small snacks and tea. "Your men can wait here." said the man who had led them inside. "Guardian may follow me."
Harry and Jean exchanged glances and Jean gently tapped her forehead as if she was moving hair out of her face. Harry nodded, and she opened the connection between them, then back to Emma who was back in America of course. He smiled, sending a wave of love down the link to Jean for a moment. "I might need your coaching on this Emma and you Ororo."
He got three affirmative answers as he continued on his way.
The servant led Harry into another sitting room, though this one was not dominated by anything except the man sitting on his knees it at the far end. He was youngish, around Harry's age if he was any judge, thin, but with a well-muscled frame, hair done in the traditional bowl cut, dark eyes and a haughty expression.
In front of him was a small pillow, and the majordomo gestured Harry imperiously down onto it. For just a moment Harry wondered if he should break this Japanese mold right now by conjuring up a proper chair, but he sighed when Jean telepathically smacked him upside the head and sat down in the same position as his greeter.
"We will have tea first of course." the man said briskly. He clapped his hands twice, and another woman came in wearing a slightly better looking kimono than the one serving the others, with an extremely intricate hairpin tying up her hair. She sat perfectly equidistant to one side of them, and then began to brew tea.
At the same time Harry took his seat, Jean was seeing the man through his eyes, and Jean passed on his description to Dennis in a low tone. He, still in Hogwarts looked up the information then nodded and eventually the information got back to Harry. "Shiro Yoshida, codename Sunfire, Japanese mutant and one of if not the most powerful of said, connected to an old-time samurai family, who are very much part of the Traditionalist party."
The traditionalist party controlled a large block in the government, but was not actually in power at present. The Yoshida clan also had connections with the Emperor so technically they were a power to be reckoned with socially if not economically or lawfully at least.
"Dennis says it's a good sign we're talking to someone who considers himself a samurai, that means they won't try to force concessions from us. Though, he might demand to go along as a government representative." Jean added after a few moments, to which Harry sent back an affirmative reply.
After about fourteen minutes of silence the tea was finally prepared. Upon Ororo's passed on instructions Harry rotated his cup, looking at it carefully before sipping the tea. It was bitter, very green very bitter tea, not his thing at all. For completely destroying the Hand and the demon backing them Harry was willing to put up with a lot.
After both men sat sipping tea and making small talk for another half hour, with Harry getting more and more irritated, Shiro finally got to the reason Harry was here. "One has heard that you wish to operate your band of so-called superheroes in one's nation. Something about demonic influence? To say that Japan has any truck with such is almost to offer insult."
"To say such is also fact." Harry said shrugging his shoulders. "We dealt with this group in Vietnam recently, smashed their main hold there but I have certain gifts in magic, and they pointed to Japan being the center of this pestilence. This is fact, not supposition."
The man's eyes narrowed as Harry simply sidestepped the fact that it being insult, and then shrugged. "Nonetheless, we certainly have not had any such sightings, if you can provide us with proof that is one thing, but until you can, this is simply supposition."
"You actually have had such sightings," Harry said then rattled off several assassinations of various political figures that had occurred in the past few years. He could've gone further back than that but he decided to stick to present-day things. "Those were all murders, not suicides as they were purported to be, and one of them was quite blatant. The Hand knows or at least believes that it can act with impunity in your nation, is that something you're willing to put up with? I'm surprised, I thought the Japanese people more honorable than that, to let snakes fester so in their own backyard."
In his head Emma winced, as did Ororo when Jean relayed that to them, but she simply smirked. She wanted to get on with things, not waste time here.
Across from Harry Shiro's eyes narrowed dangerously, and flame flickered around his fingers for a moment. Harry wasn't worried, he could simply encapsulate the boy in a shield and then suck all the air out of it to stop him from using his powers , or hit himself with a flame freezing charm, making him immune to his fire. "Have a care who you challenge foreigner." Shiro growled. "My honor and that of my Emperor is beyond question."
"Then you will work with me to wipe out the Hand? After all, doing so will certainly be a boon to Japan as a whole in the future." Harry's tone was factual, not confrontational
Sunfire growled but nodded. "Prove their existence, tell us where they are, and you will have our help. I of course will go with you, no foreign power could act on Japanese soil without Japanese oversight."
"Observers certainly but oversight I think not." Harry held up a hand as Shiro seemed about to explode. "We will agree to a ROE after we survey the area, doing so before that would be premature at best, arrogant at worst. I'm fully cognizant of the need to handle this discreetly," he said throwing the man a bone. "But I want it handled."
With that he reached into his pocket, and pulled out the small globe he'd shrunk before leaving the castle, now enlarging it quickly to its original size between him and Shiro.
Sunfire's eyes widened at this sign of magic then narrowed as he stared at the red dots showing on the amazingly made globe. Tapping the one set into Japan he asked, "And these are?"
"They indicate demonic influence. The deepness of the red equals the strength. As you can see Japan is one of the top three. I think I even know why. The Hand, their assassins are dead inside, their life force given to the demon they worship. Only a select few seem to be more than mindless, lifeless husks. Regardless, nearly every assassin is connected to the demon that they worship, which is our primary target."
The Hand was indeed one of two high profile targets that would be hit in the next few weeks. The others however Harry was perfectly happy to hand over to Dr. Strange and his two aides to handle. If they needed further help Stephen would call Harry in, but until then Harry would take out the two biggest, the other being one in Africa.
It would take some diplomatic finagling to do if they didn't want to simply go in and smash it without any local aid. He and Ororo were still debating that point. There was another major concentration of demonic power in Uzbekistan, but Stephen had decided to assault that one with Clea and Wanda. Harry was uncertain why, but he was willing to let the Sorcerer Supreme earn his pay check.
Harry touched one end of the Japanese archipelago and the other with his fingers, slowly enlarging it while the size of the globe remained the same allowing them to zoom in. Across from him Shiro sat forward looking at it eagerly. "The Ishikari mountain range, up in Hokkaido." His eyes narrowed in thought now rather than suspicion and he eventually nodded. 'Very well, you have proof that something could be there I suppose. What do you suggest?"
"Myself and one of my companions will go in to scout the area, ascertain the level of force and the exact location of their activity. Once that is done, we will call in the rest of the team, create a plan, and wipe them out."
Sunfire frowned, but slowly almost against his will he nodded, each word coming out as if it had to be winched out of his throat. "I believe we may be able to lead you there."
OOOOOOO
Soon enough they were in the nearest city to the Ishikari Mountains, and from there made their way towards their target under disillusion charms. Soon they left most visible signs of habitation behind, delving into what was known to be part of a national preserve. In actuality it had been left undeveloped because of fear of the volcanoes that made up the mountains in this range.
It was night as they made their approach, which was good for them since it made it somewhat easier for them to move through the night, since Harry was uncertain if the Hand could come up with some way to see through his magic, the same reason for them to be hiking rather than flying. All of the team members had night vision goggles, even Sunfire was given a set. With Harry leading the way, his magical senses on full in an effort to discern any kind of sign of where the Hand's headquarters was truly located in this range, they moved through the mountains slowly.
It took them all night and through half the next day for them to finally find what they were here searching for. A very faint tingle hit Ororo and Harry as they stepped forward, through an area of mountains that seemed just as normal as all the rest they had passed through already. They looked at each other, then Harry beckoned the team close. "Alright, we're finally getting somewhere. Ororo and I will continue on, the rest of you wait here, rest if you can but remember to keep watch."
Jean nodded, reached forward and hugged both of them before letting them go. She knew intellectually that the Hand were really no threat to the three big guns as it were, herself and the two of them, but still all it would take would be one knife to make a wizards day go horribly wrong.
The others simply nodded, save Sunfire who scowled irritably then demanded to go with them. "As my Emperor's representative I must!"
Harry growled but nodded. The man had a point, but he demanded that Sunfire promise not to attack without his say so. "This is just a recon, not our full attack."
"I will act as my honor dictates," Shiro scowled. "Remember you are here on sufferance Guardian, you have no real power to command in my country."
Harry was about to respond angrily to that, but Jean's voice entered his mind quickly. "Go along with it Harry, I'm getting no sense of subterfuge here, he really thinks it's his beholden duty to continue with you. And he's not nearly as hotheaded as he wants us to think. There's quite a bit of calculation behind that face of his."
"Your empathy coming through?" Harry said, calming down a little.
"Yes, he's worried that this is all some kind of plot to undermine his family or his Emperor, but he also knows that the Hand really might be a threat. He's broadcasting both of those thoughts so strongly I couldn't ignore it. Trust me, I've been trying." Jean still didn't like reading other people's thoughts without their permission, but sometimes she couldn't help it.
Thankfully the team was not broadcasting nearly as much as Shiro, and her connection with Harry had allowed her some kind of buffer as well. But Shiro's thoughts came through more than a little bit, and she hadn't liked the misogynist bent of many of them.
"Alright," he said with a sigh. "Hold still a moment." Harry waved one of his hands, covering Sunfire with the same amount of spells to hide him from detection as Harry and his team wore, minus Ororo. Her spells were slightly different, Ororo would appear as if she was simply a rock or a tree in the environment if anyone happened to look in her direction, rather than simply not there or forcing the viewer's eyes away.
It was almost like chameleon's camouflage, and it would allow her a higher level of activity before failing than his own, but she couldn't cast it on anyone else with 100% accuracy. Harry was looking forward more and more to the two of them sitting down and comparing magical notes after she finished her training, but for now best to go with what worked.
It was a risk using magic this close to the Hand, but worth it. The ward they had passed hadn't had the taint that it would if it was supposed to detect magic. If anything Harry thought it felt like a very odd muggle repelling ward.
The three of them moved forward through the woods, now moving much more cautiously than before. Soon enough they came to an overlook, a bit of mountain which allowed them to look down into a large crag cut out of the rock of the mountain. It was cut out too, not a natural phenomenon. That was easy to see by the large demon mask cut into the rock, and the hundreds of ninjas exercising in silence below them.
Sunfire hissed at the sight, and Ororo and Harry both grabbed him by the shoulder pushing him down while they crouched down as well. "No sense in taking chances." Harry said to the man, who looked furious at being manhandled.
Leaving the man to fume for a moment Harry turned his attention back downwards. The mask looked like one of those from Japanese plays. The one playing the demon or ogre would wear one, but whereas most of those looked a little comedic, this one was anything but. It glowed a vile black to his magical senses. Unwilling sacrifice had been practiced here, above and beyond the demonic taint.
Sacrificial magic was powerful, very powerful but using the Ministry of Magic's terminology it could be light or dark. His mother's willing sacrifice to defend a loved one was possibly the 'lightest' magic known, giving of her blood, soul and life to defend another. At the opposite end of the spectrum was unwilling sacrifice, when the essence of a person was torn from them. This could be a slow or fast process, the magic twisted so that the more pain and anguish and fear the sacrifice felt, the more desperate he or she was to live, the more power the practitioner could gain. He explained this to Sunfire and Ororo, his eyes still locked down below.
He did not see Shiro's look of sheer horror then rising fury, or Ororo's own fury and grief. Her training with Gaea had let her feel the same things magically that Harry could, but even more so. Harry could feel the magic that had been done here. She was getting their feelings of despair, pain, and above all fear, and it horrified her. "This place must burn!" Shiro growled, his hand almost beginning to crackle with fire.
"I agree." Harry replied grimly. "But we need to make certain that we get them all and the demon inside." Even from here he could sense it, either a connection to a demon dimension was open, or a demon of extreme power was manifest in this realm. Not nearly as powerful as Mephisto, but certainly more powerful than the ones he and Jean had fought with the Fantastic Four.
Rather than a demon king a demon baron perhaps, he thought almost whimsically, though there was nothing whimsical about his emerald eyes. "Wait here." he ordered. "I need to figure out what kind of defenses we're dealing with."
Shiro didn't argue this time. It was all he could do to keep control of himself after learning what had happened here on the sacred land of Japan for who knew how long.
Harry floated down silently, landing behind a random boulder several hundred yards from the demon mask, every spell he knew hiding him from detection. It was as well he had, since the defenses here were not merely mortal. Like in Vietnam, there were several demon dogs outside posing as statues but they moved occasionally when a few of the Hand ninja came or went. This happened several times as Harry watched, trying to figure out if there was a pattern. Deciding there wasn't, he slipped through, entering the inside of the massive structure, floating just an inch off the ground to avoid any pressure plates or magical traps set into the floor.
He paused once inside the entrance, cursing inside his head as he looked at the ramp leading downward. There was chanting going on somewhere deep down, and the entrance was the topmost level. That did not please him, close in combat in an underground base would be deadly.
Still, he continued on building a mental map in his mind of this fortress. On the first level there was nothing but a few barracks full of meditating soldiers of the Hand, still and motionless in their repose. Harry frowned seeing them, wondering about something he had thought a time or two since the battle in Vietnam; that maybe most of the Hand ninjas were no longer human, but physical constructs of some kind controlled from afar. But here in their headquarters, would these ninja be the real ones, or more constructs? He couldn't answer that until the fight actually began.
There were four such barracks, each of them containing 100 ninja, not a good number. It got worse, because the next three levels down where the same. Then it got even worse again, because the next two levels were a maze, a defense for what was further down. The two-story maze had a single passage through that would lead you further into the massive underground fortress.
The next level was a prisoner barracks complete with prisoners, about 70 men and women held there. They didn't look as if they had been mistreated, but they also didn't look as if they had been fed well either. When he continued on through the prison to the far end Harry found what was no doubt a ritual chamber. At the moment it wasn't in use, but the altar had been used in the near past, the smell of blood was heavy in the air, and it had not been washed clean if it ever was. The site of that blood drenched altar nearly made Harry lose his cool, but he kept control of himself for now.
Harry continued on, turning away from that sight and back to the stairs which again lead down. This level however was much smaller than the previous ones, and was entirely devoted to a single thing, a large temple that bore a striking resemblance to the one where the demonic hand Jean had fried had been. As before, there were dozens of ninjas supplicating themselves before the altar, with twelve of them wearing different colors on either side of the central altar. It was only then that Harry realized that quite a few of the ninjas that he had seen both on this level and on the first few had similar colors as the ones who could teleport through shadows back in Vietnam. That wasn't a good thought.
What also wasn't a good thought was the fact that there was indeed an open gate to the demonic realm here, centered above the altar. Harry wondered idly why if there was an altar down here was there a sacrificial chamber up on the next level, but then shrugged that thought off. Maybe they were used for different things, one used for the sacrificial magic which gave the demon its power, and that other one for something else, something connected to their recruitment maybe? It didn't matter it was all going to be destroyed anyway.
He did not enter the temple, fearing that the demon on the other end of that portal would be able to sense him somehow. Harry retraced his steps, and was almost out of the temple when Ororo contacted him through Jean. "Harry, Ororo says there is something going on, she asked us all to move up. Apparently there are some prisoners arriving."
OOOOOOO
Ichiki Hisako was not having a good week. First, she had to deal with the bullying at school simply because she wasn't part of the 'in' crowd. Her parents wouldn't help her, she was much too independent and forward thinking for their traditional views. The woman's place was in the home, not wanting to go to college to study high-end computer programming, or politics, or current events, except of course to make intelligent discourse with their husband if prompted.
And of course when prompted the wife would have to agree with everything the husband said. Ichiki Hisako wanted nothing to do with that kind of crap. She had hopes and dreams for the future, and they certainly did not center around marriage or children in the distant future.
This of course was made worse when during one particular altercation with the bullies things got physical. Two of the girl-bullies had called in their boyfriends to rough her up after she out did them not only in class but also on the track field. The oh-so pretty (and petty) girls couldn't deal with that, and before she knew it she was cornered by several large senior boys. Between one punch and the next however things had changed dramatically.
Armor made of some kind of energy had appeared all around her, keeping their punches from landing. Then when she struck back wildly it added to her power tremendously, flinging the boy she struck away like he weighed nothing. The other boys ran off, leaving Hisako alone. Only problem was, she couldn't turn it off before the girls ran off, indeed it only turned off on its own after several hours. This ousted her as a mutant of course, and her parents promptly tossed her out on her own, wanting nothing to do with her. The last thing Hisako had seen of them was the two blaming one another for her bad genes.
With no other choice Hisako had debated joining a gang, hopefully a real yakuza group rather than the more violent, less predictable punk gangs. Anything was better than sleeping on the street or whoring herself out, which was something she had heard was another choice for girls that had nothing else going for them. So she had willingly gone with what she thought was a yakuza recruiter, it was only after she had been hustled onto some kind of silent hydrofoil thing that she realized it might be more than that.
And it was only when she saw the first few men dressed as freakin' ninjas (honestly she felt real ninjas would laugh at the very idea of wearing what amounted to poufy pajamas) that she realized maybe, just maybe she had bitten off more than she could chew. By that point it was too late, Hisako was completely surrounded by other would-be-recruited, and it really looked as if she was going to be part of some kind of ninja cult whether she wanted to or not. Hisako was tempted to turn on her powers, if she could figure out how without being in mortal danger, but she didn't want to attack them and simply hope her powers activated to save her again.
This feeling of helplessness got worse when Hisako was pushed out of the large hydrofoil (but it was silent, how the hell were they doing that) with all the others, and saw the giant, extremely evil looking hanya mask carved into the mountain face, with an entrance where the chin should be. And, yes, those demon dog statues were moving as she watched. "Oh this just keeps getting better and better," She muttered, shaking her head.
OOOOOOO
Harry had rushed out of the building almost bumping into several ninja as he moved, but thankfully had been able to dodge them. When he was back on the first floor he saw what Jean and Ororo had reported to him. A bunch of young teens and adults being herded by the ninja, who were armed both with swords and modern weaponry, into the temple.
He skirted around them then flew through the air up to where Shiro was, finding the rest of the team already assembled there. He looked around and immediately launched into the planning session. "All right, I've got a layout of the place, and a plan." Harry quickly filled them in on what was inside, all of their faces getting grimmer as the bad news piled up. The news of there being that many Hand shadow jumpers in there bothered the hell out of Jean, who knew how tough those things were to nail down, but they continued the briefing.
"All right, here's what we're going to do. Team three will be myself, Paige and Magma. And Paige, seriously, figure out your damn codename before the next mission, or I'll force you to sit it out." Paige winced at the threat, but nodded and Guardian went on. "Team three will try to ignore most of the fighting once it starts, our job will be to take out the demon and the elites down in the main temple by heading straight down to get past the maze. We don't want to fight in the maze, it's too dangerous, too large, and might even be able to change if the Hand will it somehow. That's why I'll be taking Magma with me; if push comes to shove she can just make us a hole while Paige and I protect her. I'll take out the demon if I can, we'll see what happens, but I don't know how quick any response to its death will be."
"Nor do I want the prisoners to remain unguarded, since I have no idea what the Hand will do once they realize they are under attack. Guarding them will be team two, consisting of Storm, Psyclocke, Colossus and Ghigau."
Colossus cracked his knuckles grimly. "For certain, we will not let any harm come to the prisoners, tovarishch."
"What about the rest of us?" asked Vanguard.
"You're going to be the assault team, but you'll have to lead their attention away at first to let the other two groups in. Coyote, Vanguard, far assault, start the party rolling immediately. Sunfire, Phoenix, you take the fight to them, keep to the air as much as possible though, that way the shadow jumpers won't be able to get at you easily."
Sunfire growled, not happy with being relegated to what he saw as a mission of secondary importance. Still, he had to admit it was a good plan. And part of his powers was flight, which would be negated underground to a large degree. "I will burn away those demons outside the doorway quickly, that should bring the rest of their defenses running to engage us."
Harry nodded. "Wait until we tell you though, I want teams two and three and inside already before they start responding to your assault."
The others all nodded, and Coyote and Vanguard got into position, waiting for the signal. Phoenix and Shiro simply waited where they were, both of them united in a desire to burn the demon worshippers to ash.
Harry and his team went down first, sneaking in easily enough covered with his concealing spells, then waiting on the second level of the maze. Magma had the thought that maybe they could cut off this section from the rest of the fortress, cutting into the amount of enemies the rest of the teams had to face, since the shadow jumpers, according to what had happened in the fight in Vietnam, had a limit to how far they could jump. Harry had decided that was a good idea, and so they waited there for team one to start their assault.
Ororo and her team took longer to get into position, the ninja stationed around the prisoners were dealing with trouble already, making getting into position much harder. The prisoners were now causing a ruckus, or one of them in particular at least. A young girl covered with what looked like red energy of some kind formed into armor was fighting hard to not go into the holding pens, and had already slain several ninja. She was under fire now from several ninjas using modern machine guns, and several were also trying in vain to get through her armor with their blades.
Seeing the armor around the valiant girl beginning to flicker, Storm relayed through Jean that they were about to start the party. Jean immediately got in touch with the others outside, and she and Sunfire immediately flew into the air above the fortress, raining down fire without further ado.
Sunfire was true to his word; his first attack was a massive fireball that exploded right in front of the underground fortress' entrance, immolating the demons there with howls of anguish. The several dozen groups of ninja outside exercising and practicing turned as one, those with modern weapons bringing them to bear on the flyers while the few shadow jumpers began to jump about, trying to figure out a way up to them. One of those died, shot through the head as he waited just a little too long in the open.
At the other end of the little valley Vanguard went to rapid fire on his gauss rifle, zipping rounds downrange impacting several dozen ninja in as many seconds, blowing them to pieces which quickly dissipated in the late afternoon air.
"Interesting." he said aloud, then had to dodge as one of the shadow jumpers appeared directly above him, his sword coming down quickly. Without even missing a beat Vanguard pulled out his pistol and shot the man dead, turning around to continue firing down range then moved on to another spot when he came under fire, his shield taking some hits but nothing it couldn't handle.
Coyote used a different style altogether. He jumped around using his built-in teleporter, making it seem as if his rifle was coming from several dozen snipers rather than one, never still for more time then it took to get off a single shot.
This was necessary, because almost as soon as the attack began more defenses became apparent, camouflage doors sliding away to reveal automatic guns rising out of the ground. A few antiair turrets of modern design began to fire into the air at the flyers, while several anti-infantry SAWs began to fire downrange at the snipers.
Then over a dozen more demon dogs poured out of the eye sockets of the mask carved into the valley's wall at the same time hundreds more ninjas poured out from the entrance. A few demons, looking like the imps depicted in catholic frescoes followed the demon dogs, flying into the air to battle Sunfire and Phoenix.
"Change of target!" Jean shouted, her voice going through the communication device built into her mask now that they didn't have to worry about the radio waves being overheard. "Vanguard fire at the winged demons, give us cover fire. I'll take out those antiair turrets. Sunfire you're on crowd control, hit any large group you can, but try to take out the demons if they look to be heading toward the snipers. Coyote, try to concentrate on taking out the shadow jumpers as they appear. Otherwise targets of opportunity!"
All of them answered in the affirmative save for Shiro who growled angrily at being ordered around by a woman. But he could see the sense in her orders, and he followed them despite his irritation, frying several large groups of ninjas, before concentrating on the demon dogs, forcing them to scatter.
Phoenix ducked down, avoiding antiair fire to land on the ground, her hands flashing out with telekinetic force blasting aside the demons around her, while her Phoenix aura was on full, burning any got close. She reached out with a thought, grasping the guns and ripping them into pieces, then flung the pieces into the ninja all around her, slaughtering them as if they had been hit by a massive shrapnel burst. "Team 1 Lead to team 2 Lead, we're under heavy assault out here, hope we're taking the fire off you as much as we can!"
OOOOOOO
Inside Ororo had immediately sent a dozen lightning bolts at the men trying to fight the energy armor girl. They all burst into moats of darkness, and she and her team raced forward. "Remain in your cells for now!" she shouted. "This is a rescue, but this place is massive, we need to clear it before trying to get any of you out!"
There were some shouts of bewilderment at their sudden appearance, and one or two protests that they needed to escape immediately. But the young girl with the armor simply nodded her head, moving forward to stand with them.
"What's your name young lady?" Ororo said smiling at her in approval.
"I guess you can call me Armor." she said tapping it. "I'm not trained or anything, but I think this evens the score a little doesn't it?"
Colossus shook his head gently pushing her backwards. "If the ninja get past us guard the prisoners, but otherwise leave the fighting to us. This is not a mark against you for your feminine nature but your youth."
The girl scowled slightly, but nodded moving backwards. Danielle laughed at the girl's attitude, taking a position behind Colossus already firing at the ninjas as they appeared at the entrance to the cells, while Psylocke jumped around here and there, taking out the ninjas who attempted to shadow jump in behind them. Betsy's telepathy, worked like radar, it was on all the time low key, and this gave Betsy a slight tingle every time right before they finished porting in. Ororo, with the three of them guarding her back moved through the area, blasting any ninja that appeared most of which were shadow jumpers, alerted to this second assault. There were a lot of them, but with her powers both magical and mutant, they couldn't get through her defenses.
Ghigau had a much harder time of it, having to use her skates a few times to get away from sudden assaults coming out of shadows around her. But the Hand didn't have anything that could break through Colossus' armor, or Dani's armor which covered most of her body. Her eyes and her face were still at risk though and they began to target this unerringly with each assault, cutting her face several times when they could get around Colossus' close in defense, while she continued to fire her bow at the ninja trying to enter the cell area the old fashioned way.
OOOOOOO
The moment the attack began Amara summoned up her powers. Here underground her powers were even more deadly than normal and suddenly gushes of molten magma came out of the walls filling the entire area then quickly the entirety of the maze. Seconds later, it hardened in place, cutting off the upper area of the fortress from the lower entirely.
Harry nodded grimly. "Good work, now let's go talk to the Hand."
"Oh that was just wrong!" Paige said, though she cracked her knuckles eagerly.
With Harry leading the way the trio marched down the stairs and into the temple. Thanks to Magma's quick action, all of them were still here, and most of them turned, racing toward them or popping away to attack the trio of intruders from the shadows.
Six of them however were clustered around the portal, opening it wider with some kind of chant based magic in a language that Harry couldn't recognize even with the translation spell still on. That was a first, but not something he was concerned overmuch with. As they entered, the demon portal opened to its widest position and huge demonic hands appeared, reaching forward to grasp the altar.
"None of that now!" Harry said. "Fulgir!" He tossed a spear of lightning and light magic straight into the portal. There was a scream of anguish as the demon on the other side was blasted back into its dimension.
The six high-level ninjas turned as one, teleporting into the shadows and then attacking quickly along with their fellows. Magma gasped as one of their swords went straight through her shoulder, but in energy form it couldn't really hurt her. It startled the hell out of her, but it wasn't painful. In reply she grabbed the man's hand, and began to burn him alive. He simply grabbed up a knife from his belt and began to stab at her face, but her energy form protected her while her powers melted the ninja, who unlike most had an actual body. The ninja didn't even make a sound as she immolated him.
Magma shuddered at her first real kill, but then turned to help Paige, who was surrounded by ninja. The ninjas were flitting in and out trying desperately to fight all three of them, but they were overmatched badly. Page was again clad in steel, none of their weapons could pierce her hide, Magma had her own powers, and Harry…
Harry was a whirling, spinning dervish of destruction, spells of lightning and light flashing out, slaughtering ninja left and right, his hands and feet smashing others aside as he made his way through the room towards the portal. Fully half the ninja died before he reached it. Once there Harry cast a few spells, holding the portal open before he turned, now casting area of effect spells to clear out the remaining ninja. The last died to a blow from Paige that smashed in the man's head.
Harry nodded grimly. "Alright, neither of you has anything that'll really bother a high level demon. Stay here and guard my back while I… deal with this." Paige and Amara both scowled slightly, but nodded. Paige took up position staring around them, while Amara stood staring into the portal ready to aid him if needed. Harry jumped through.
The realm of the other side wasn't large. The area was a simple throne room, beyond which pure chaos could be seen. This demon evidently had created its own little pocket dimension, and had been enlarging it slowly over the millennia rather than try to gain one through conquest. It was an intelligent creature then, but lacked power.
Suddenly the demon was on him from out of the shadows, bearing Harry to the ground of the room, rending and clawing at his back. But it couldn't break through his Magia Erebea or his crysis suit, strengthened by forty percent of his magical core just in case.
Harry quickly pushed off the ground, raising one hand above his head and flashing up a light spell at the thing's face. It screamed letting him go and moving back allowing Harry to turn and finally look at the thing.
It was a misshapen hulk, a small head dominated by a fanged maw, kept open due to misshapen fangs under large yellow eyes. It had a large hump on its back, with massive shoulders and arms, dominated further by even larger hands, the fingers each having five knuckles and large claws. In comparison its lower body was almost atrophied, small hooves like a satyr's, but evidently able to support its weight easily enough.
"Damn your ugly!" Harry said then slammed his hands together and intoned a lightning spell. "Latinium Malleus!" The lightning Hammer slammed into the demon throwing it away screaming. Now faced with a prepared opponent, and worse recognizing The Sword of Light, the demon tried to escape, fading away, but Harry hastily threw up a cage around the demon then skewered it with a light spear.
For a moment the thing just screamed, its life force fighting against his spell, power pouring to this place from through the portal, dozens of ninja fighting Harry's team disappearing as the energy that made them flowing back to the demon. Harry growled, but a blaze of pure magic cut off that source of magic quickly.
OOOOOOO
Outside the battle had suddenly taken a turn for the better when dozens of ninja simply collapsed into nothingness, their robes hitting the ground with nothing inside them. The demons were still around, but now the outcome of the battle was certain. The team's ability to coordinate their movements and their own individual abilities had offset the numbers of the Hand, and now the tide turned quickly.
The same was true of the battle going on inside the base. Only a few of the ninja were still around after their demonic deity had retaken the energy that made them. One moment Dani, Betsy and Piotr were hard-pressed, the next there were only a few opponents left alive, and then all of them were struck by lightning from behind. The two younger members of the team turned to Ororo who was striding forward towards them, her hair flying behind her and her eyes crackling with power. "I believe that Guardian has done his job, let's start getting the prisoners out of here."
Nodding dumbly, somewhat shocked by the sudden secession of hostilities, the three of them nodded, and began to usher the prisoners out of the holding area and up through that various levels of the underground fortress. Dani took the time to move over to the mutant girl. "So, what is your name and how exactly did you come to be here?"
OOOOOOO
The demon finally ceased trying to run away, and charged Harry, bellowing wordless rage and fear. It disappeared, and Harry had to duck aside as its massive hands appeared out of the air behind him grasping for his head. The demon snarled again before teleporting again, then sending blades of cutting force that greatly resembled one of Selene's spells after Harry.
Harry threw up a Protego several yards in front of him, then grimaced as the spells actually bent around the shield, obviously under the demon's control. In response Harry teleported away himself, then threw thousands of Drills of Light at where the demon was. None of them hit, but Harry kept on strafing the spell all around him, and one drill caught the demon as it came out of its apparition.
It howled as the drill of light took off one of its feet, but its hands disappeared. One appeared to Harry's right, slashing into his side, while the other tried to grab his head.
Harry grimaced, but his crysis suit and Magia Erebea allowed him to take the blow to his side, and he stepped back quickly, his hand flashing up to grab the demon's forearm before it could disappear again. The thing screamed as Harry's mutant power automatically began to take its power, but Harry sent a spell threw his hand, a Fulgir that sent lightning through its arm. The arm first sizzled creating a smell of cooked meat before Harry let it go to aim at the demon's body.
The demon was still screaming at the pain in its arm when Harry's Drill of Light was in the air, thousands of them. The Demon tried desperately to teleport away, but it couldn't before the spell hit, gouging into its overly muscled upper body. The thing screamed again, the spell it had been attempting dissipating, and it tried to throw an attack that looked like raw magic at Harry.
Instead of trying to block it, Harry simply dodged, creating a dozen illusions of himself dodging in different directions to cover the move as he rolled on the ground to his right. He sent a cutting spell of his own at the demon, his illusions throwing their own illusory spells. The demon couldn't seem to figure out which was which at first, and his cutting spell impacted doing little damage. The railgun however caught the knee on its as yet uninjured leg.
Figuring out from the direction of that which Harry was real and now desperate, the demons remaining uninjured hand enlarged dramatically, slamming into Harry then trying to grab him, having forgotten what Harry had done moments before.
Harry however teleported away, switching with a golem he called up, which grabbed several of the fingers of the enlarged hand. With the golem thus holding its hand in place, its legs crippled and its other hand fried, the demon was defenseless to Harry's next spell. "Sol occidit interfectos diripiet: Dæmonium lamina! The demon specific penetrating spell caught the demon in the side of the head, blowing apart its head in a welter of gore and brains.
The demon fell to the floor of it dimension, flopping around, its hand held by Harry's golem going limp at the same time. But Harry wasn't going to let anything to chance. He spat out several dozen more light based attack spells, all of which hammered the demons body and body parts, cremating it.
He kept them up until there was naught but a stain on the ground, then reactivated his mage sight before going to work on the spell that had created this dimension, being careful to not take in any of its actual magic, which practically dripped with demonic power. He sent his magic into it, cutting and slicing the magical network that had created this small pocket dimension out of nothing.
After it was almost entirely unraveled Harry made his way back to the portal, doing the same to the magic holding it open save for his own, before stepping back through it. A final thought sent back, and the pocket dimension of the demon the Hand had worshipped for so long simply ceased to be, becoming one once more with the chaos between dimensions.
Behind him Paige and Magma had dealt with a few remaining shadow jumpers who had appeared while Harry was busy, and both of them grinned as he turned to them. "That ladies, is how you deal with demons, lightning, lightning and more lightning."
The two of them laughed, then gathered round as he teleported them out of the fortress. Moments later the prisoners joined them, with Colossus in the lead. Ororo used a spell to make certain that there was no one left alive down there, prisoner or ninja, then nodded to Harry, who then turned to Magma. "Destroy it."
Amara grinned, then leaned down to touch the ground, her eyes closed for a moment. There was a rumble and then the ground under them began to shake then she looked up. "I would suggest moving away from the doorway."
This proved a prophetic statement, as suddenly the doorway filled with magma flowing out filling up the little area around it. She looked up frowning at the mask, and suddenly magma also spouted out of it, breaking it in half and adding to the river that quickly began to fill the area hissing and steaming in the air.
At the looks sent her way Amara shrugged. "There was a fault line here, we're over part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, I just… got rid of some of the pressure. It'll continue to flow slowly for a time, probably fill up this entire valley before stopping."
Sunfire shook his head. "I'll have to think of something the government can say about this, but I know nothing about mineralogy or earthquakes. Still, this was well done Guardian."
He turned to Harry his manner stiff but warmer than it had been. "My Emperor and my nation thank you for this. I will provide transportation for these," he went on, gesturing at the prisoners. "They will need to be told what they can and cannot say, but I believe we are done."
Ororo nodded over at the young girl whose power had yet to turn off. "We'll be taking her with us. Young Hisako was apparently kicked out of her home when her powers manifested. Will that be a problem?"
Sunfire scowled but nodded. "What is your rank girl, what is your family's station?"
"Not samurai." she answered promptly. "Commoners if you're going by that old fashioned crap, merchants if you want to be nice about it I suppose."
Sunfire scowled again not liking the idea of commoners able to activate powers like that, they should be left to the samurai who would obviously make better use of it for their nation and Emperor. Still he couldn't argue, she was not just of common stock but also female. "Very well, take her."
As Guardian and the others began to lift into the air to head up to High Note, once more covered by Disillusion charms, Sunfire began to organize the former prisoners, while calling in transportation for them. Most of his thoughts however were on the team of foreigners who had proven so efficient, and if his country and emperor would be served in further dealing with them.
As he flew through the air up to High Note, Harry brought out the globe Hela had passed on to him. Over a dozen smaller red dots had disappeared, and he smiled grimly. It looked as if the Hand had operations elsewhere, but they were all tied to the same demon. With its death they too had died.
Indeed throughout the world there were people suddenly collapsing into nothingness, and over a dozen hidden bases suddenly became nearly empty as well, the lesser demons and conjured ninja all having been drained by the unnamed demon before it had begun to drain the warriors in its main temple. There were still a few shadow jumpers around, but without the demon to give them their abilities, they would be simple men once more, powerless, and almost brainless.
And so the Hand, an ancient order of deadly assassins was destroyed, not with a bang but with a whimper, completely overwhelmed by Guardian and his team.
OOOOOOO
Over the next few days Hisako fit in well with the rest of the teens. She was definitely not willing to sign up for the combat squad just yet, though she lapped up anything she could get her hands on in terms of classes and training in how to turn her power on and off. After a day she could do it after a few moments of concentration, after two she could do it quickly. She got along best with the other new students, including Douglas Ramsey with whom she shared an interest in computers. It turned out his power to understand languages extended to programming languages as well.
With the success of their first anti-demon attack, Harry was content to let the team have a few days break. None of them had anything to add to their gear, the Hand having been so overwhelmed by their abilities and organization they hadn't really been a good measure of their gear other than their coms.
A few days after that battle Una agreed to start working for him, though Harry was adamant that Mar'vell would not be allowed into Hogwarts. Despite apparently being betrayed by his superiors the man still had a little too much loyalty to the Kree, as a race if not a nation, for Harry to want him anywhere near his projects, much like the purebloods. The blue-skinned ones, Harry was slowly, unwillingly coming to believe that they would never be willing to be anything but unwilling prisoners. Several of them had tried to escape, but the wards on their prison had kept them from getting far.
The same couldn't be said for most of the other prisoners, the light skinned Kree were quickly coming to embrace the idea of being allowed to live on Earth, so long as their health was assured. That would be weeks, maybe months in the future, since they had so much to learn, and Harry wasn't willing to simply let them go, not without some way to make certain they didn't try to spy or get in touch somehow with their people.
He was uncertain what he would do there, but handing them over to Doom for him to watch in Latveria might be an idea. None of them had any more technical knowledge that Doom could use to add to his knowledge that he hadn't already gleaned from the ship. And Latveria, while a nice place to live, certainly wasn't an 'open society'.
Una on the other hand was much more pragmatic about such things and already had a lot of the knowledge the others would need to learn. Her loyalty was to Mar'vell, and herself. She was also eager to use her knowledge of medicine, and so it made sense for her to work with Harry in this capacity.
While Una began to get used to working in the castle (she loved working with the children, and had a very caring manner that all of them ate up) and Emma began the process of acclimating the prisoners to becoming nationalized earthers, Harry once more buckled down on the business side of things with Ororo stepping up her game in preparing the castle for more students. Four more teachers were hired and vetted ,while the team went out bringing back kids of various ages, mostly young, adding them to the school.
At the end of that week, Harry, Emma, Jean and Ororo met up for their group date. Ororo and Jean cooked them all dinner, while Harry teleported all of them up to Mount Everest, because Jean hadn't stopped raving about the view from their first date. The same runic array as previously allowed them to breathe easily, and Emma and Ororo's reaction was all Harry could wish for.
After a few hours however Emma had to excuse herself to head back to America, and Ororo smiled kissing both Harry and Jean on the cheeks. "Have fun you two." she whispered, before capturing Jean's lips with her own then moving onto Harry, deepening the kiss ardently for a moment before moving back. She gazed at them with smiles on her face, then turned teleporting away under her own power.
Now that it came to it Jean was rather nervous but just as eager as she had been for weeks. She reached out and grabbed Harry's hand. "Sh-shall we go?"
Harry nodded, not commenting on her stutter, then teleported the two of them up onto the bridge of the Hellion. Doom and Reed had finished their examination, and neither had gainsaid Harry keeping control of it. He had plans for it, both as a training center for the team to learn close quarter combat on enemy territory, and as a midway point for other space-based industries. Thanks to the three engineers, the bridge had been repaired if not completely fixed. All of the controls worked, but the exterior damage was still visible. Harry had taken this a step further, hitting the exterior with a spell that made them able to see through it like they could the observation room in High Note.
"Where to first?" Harry said looking at Jean with a grin.
Jean laughed. "Take me to Saturn first. I want to see the rings up close."
"Saturn it is." he laughed, sitting down in the captain's chair. This wasn't the first time they had moved the ship around, and both of them knew how to use it. Jean sat in his lap, leaning back against his chest, his head against hers as she used her telekinetic powers to run a few of the other stations while Harry punched in the destination point. Moments later the frigate started to move, pulling away from Earth's gravity and out into space. Once out of Earth's gravity well, they micro-jumped away.
Moments later Jean decided that Saturn's rings were as magnificent as she hoped they would be. Bands of color, as they neared they seemed solid then as you came closer they quickly became separate, different motes and pieces of ice and rock, an entire field ringing the planet. Even up close, they were still magnificent, as was the planet itself. Striations of color moved slowly across the surface.
Harry leaned his chin on Jean's shoulder while they stared down at the planet, then after twenty minutes of silence kissed her neck lightly. "Where to next?"
"Surprise me Harry." Jean laughed, leaning back, licking her lips as she turned her head.
The two of them kissed for a time then Harry punched in another code. This one took them to Neptune, where they looked at the much brighter, incredibly beautiful blue planet. They spent some time there, first lost in the view then lost in one another. Jean and Harry kissed ardently, breaking off only occasionally to kiss one another's necks, Jean leaving a few hickeys on Harry's neck while Harry did the same to her, moving down her collarbone to suck at her skin right above her dress.
Jean ground her rear against Harry's rising erection, pulling away from a kiss. "Take me to Olympus Mons Harry." she said softly, leaning her forehead against his and staring into his eyes with all the passion she could muster. "Take me to bed."
Lemon Start:
Harry did so quickly, and about an hour later he set the ship into Mars orbit directly over the mountain before teleporting them down. It took him a few moments to set up an area where the atmosphere was breathable and to keep the dust from blowing around, then he conjured up a bed setting it down on the ground.
Turning he was surprised when Jean leaned quickly into him, kissing him ardently on the lips before turning slowly pushing him backwards towards the bed he'd just conjured. Though surprised by her eagerness Harry gave as good as he got, their tongues dueling first in his mouth then hers, once or twice in the open air between them before they once more deepened the kiss, hands roaming up and down backs. Harry hit the side of the bed first, with Jean leaning over him, kissing him still while her hands fumbled at his pants. With a single telekinetically powered rip both his pants and her own dress were gone, fluttering away through the air.
Underneath she wore a set of negligée that Harry had never seen on her before. The crotch-less panties were a surprise, as were the bra, which didn't so much as cover her breasts as lift and present them for his attention, complete with little slits that allowed her long bright pink nipples to be seen. This item and the body underneath it nearly took his breath away. "My God you are beautiful! You, Ororo and had Emma, all of you so… What did I ever do to…"
"That's enough of that Harry." Jean laughed quietly leaning down to kiss him ardently. Harry needed no second urging, his hands rising to her breasts, tweaking her already hard nipples between his fingers and kneading her breasts. Jean moaned, breaking off the kiss which allowed Harry to lean down taking one of her nipples into his mouth. He lightly sucked it first, tenderly lathering at her nipple with his tongue before sucking harder nipping it at with his teeth.
Jean squealed aloud when she felt his teeth on her nipple, grinding her barely covered crotch against his erection. One of his hands trailed down her stomach, feeling the musculature underneath her skin. She didn't have full definition there but it was obvious that she worked out. Slowly his hand wended its way down to her crotch, finding it already drenched, the fine red hair there above her pussy shaped surprisingly like a little bonfire.
For a moment, Harry held Jean still, simply lightly exploring her most private area with his fingers, never penetrating her, just lightly stroking. First down one edge, then up the other, then around before lightly running his fingers over her trimmed bush, tracing the little tuft of hair with a smile. By this point he had moved away from her nipple, letting his head rest between her breasts as he looked down her body while directing his fingers' intimate exploration.
When he spoke, his voice was husky with desire, yet at the same time also amused. "I take it Ororo helped you with this? I recognize her work." Harry had always thought Ororo's little lightning bolt was sexy as hell, that splash of white against her chocolate colored skin. This was no different; the contrast between Jean's white skin and the shocking red of the little bonfire sitting like a crown on top of her bare pussy was erotic in the extreme.
"Mhhh, ye, yeah, she, ummm, she helped me with it last nighhhh!" Jean moaned, unable to form a full sentence, her body thrumming with desire while Harry played her like a violin, his fingers so soft, so gentle it felt amazing. Harry then lightly fingered her clit, and she moaned again humping against him harder and almost going over the edge already.
But this was the opening act, Jean wanted the real thing. With that in mind Jean reached down, grasping his cock in her hand. Lightly removing Harry's hand from her crotch, Jean lined up his large member with her glistening slit.
Raising her hips slightly, Jean then plunged them down impaling herself on his cock before Harry could stop her. She first moaned then yelped aloud as her barrier broke. Small and barely there given all of her activity first as a cheerleader then as an X-Men and beyond, it was still there and it still hurt breaking it like that. "All right." she muttered through clenched teeth. "Maybe thinking it would be best to get it over with quick was a bad idea."
Harry shook his head, stilling her hips where they were, simply holding Jean, kissing her neck, shoulders and breasts letting Jean get used to him. "I could have told you that Jean, but live and learn I suppose." he murmured between kisses, one hand briefly lighting up with a spell as it rested on her stomach, before moving down to his own touching his balls lightly with the same spell.
"And I want to learn soooo much…" she murmured, kissing him between each word. The two of them held one another tenderly while Jean got used to the feel of him inside her and the pain receded. Harry spent the time kissing jean on the neck and the upper slopes of her breasts, his hands now feeling up her breasts with the same tender touch he had previously used on her pussy.
Jean reciprocated by kissing Harry's face and neck, then nibbling on his ears. She found they were one of Harry's weak points, and he almost thrust up into her when she first nibbled at his ear, licking it. She pulled back for a moment, moving to rest her forehead against Harry's then. The two of them stared into one another's eyes, tilting this way and that occasionally to kiss one another, their eyes always staring into one another, jade and emerald.
Then Jean began to move, gingerly at first then with more purpose as the last bit of pain receded.
After allowing Jean to set the tempo for a few moments Harry began to thrust up into her slowly in time with her own movements as they began the oldest dance in the known universe. The sensations that were currently hitting her were too new for Jean to continue for long. After about ten minutes Jean gasped bucking hard down against Harry as she came with a scream that was astonishing in how loud it was, almost like her battle cry but with a very different tone to it.
Throughout Jean's orgasm Harry kept thrusting up into her. She went limp against him then Harry turned them around laying Jean down on the bed continuing to piston in and out of her first as she lay on her side then moving Jean to lie on her back with him between her legs. "Love you!" he murmured against her lips. "Love you!" he murmured into her ear, biting it ardently as she did the same to him on the side of his neck.
Jean's hands, now that she had recovered, moved down his back grabbing his rear and urging him on as she murmured. "Deeper, deeper! Love you love you, oh god deeper!"
Despite being much more experienced than Jean, Harry was now having trouble keeping from erupting inside of his redheaded lover. She was just so tight, so tight wet and warm! Tighter even then Ororo, and warmer than Ororo as well, very warm. He thrust deeper every time now, and Jean wailed as she came again, thrusting up hard against him. Harry finally let go, cum churning out of his dick deep into her waiting, pulsing pussy.
That drove Jean over the edge for a third time and she also came with a wail of, "Harry!" her eyes suddenly blazing with Phoenix fire, so powerful was her feelings at that moment that she couldn't stop herself from reaching out automatically to his mind. Their minds connected as one as they each felt the other's passion, their feelings caught in an endless loop of an orgasm. Jean's Phoenix aura flared out from around her, great wings of power spreading out for miles around as she came, feeling her lovers seed splash her insides.
It couldn't last. Jean didn't have the strength nor the concentration at the moment to keep that connection open for long, and after a few moments the Phoenix fire faded from her eyes, her aura going out from all around them. She collapsed almost boneless to the bed, her eyes wide and staring at nothing, a smile so wide and joyous it was a sight to behold on her face. Harry collapsed on top of her for a few moments, simply murmuring her name along with exclamations of love into her ear, which she responded to in like manner kissing him lightly on the neck and ear as they recovered.
Eventually Harry pulled out of her reluctantly.
End Lemon
Then he looked around before quickly recasting the spell keeping the air breathable around them, the original spell having been almost broken by the Phoenix manifestation. The spell keeping the dust out also had to be redone. Despite that Harry laughed, looking down at Jean. "You know if that was visible from orbit, years from now some people back on Earth might be wondering what the hell that was."
Jean smirked, reaching for him. "Then let's give them something to really talk about."
Harry laughed then happily obliged her.