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Mystique, Destiny, and Morph walked down the streets of Cairo together, posing as a family for the moment. Morph was the husband, Mystique the wife, and Destiny the grandmother, though if anyone became privy to their sleeping arrangements that would've given the lie away. "I still don't see why I can't get at least a little public affection," Morph mumbled under his breath, shaking his head. "We are supposed to be married after all."
"For one thing public affection like that isn't actually normal around here outside of one armed hugs at times. For another, I understand method acting, but there is a limit to how far I'll go with some things. Touching you with anything but a ten foot pole is one of them," Mystique quipped, both of their voices low and utterly drowned out by the crowd around them, a mass of humanity moving through the city, each and every one of them on their own errands or tasks, ignoring everything around them.
Or at least, that was the way it would have looked to someone who wasn't on the lookout for anything unusual or for dangerous threats. Mystique, however, was an old hand at this. She spotted the pockets of immobility, the watchers here and there who were doing nothing but looking over the crowd, the flash of movement in an alleyway as several dozen men came together, all of them looking through the crowd towards the three of them.
"We are about to get jumped," she said briskly.
"Professionally or amateurishly?" Morph asked. He looked somewhat gray-skinned with flat features, while Mystique had longer fingers than were natural. Simple, small, and purely cosmetic mutations that made them stand out, but not enough to look like a threat. Destiny had a blindfold over her eyes, but that was the only thing that made her stand out from the crowd.
"It looks like amateurs, but I don't know. The gang's coming together too quickly."
"They are, and there are more of them beyond the alleyways than we can see," Destiny said, her precognition powers well up to the task of scanning the near future for the three of them. "There are also two watchers standing alone several buildings away, watching events. I believe they might have been involved in creating the mob about to drop on us, but they are not a part of it."
"Hmm, looks like we chose the right city then," Morph smiled, his teeth suddenly morphing into shark's teeth in his mouth for just a second. "It's your show, Mystique. Continue to play dumb or set up an ambush of our own?"
"Let them come to us," Mystique said promptly. "The fact that we might be watched by members of the overall organization changes things. We don't want to show off, we want to look just strong enough to be recruited. But that doesn't mean we have to be stupid."
"Let's head back to our hotel," she said in a slightly louder voice, turning and moving in such a way that they would loop around their previous path back to the hotel where they were staying.
As they walked the crowd slowly dissipated, the women, families, and children in the crowd around them disappearing. At the same time, clumps of younger and older men began to appear. Many of them looked like gang members or criminal types. Others, however, looked like normal people, swept up by the throng, united in their cause. All of them had begun to look at Mystique's group with a dangerous look in their eyes, muttering in Egyptian about mutant freaks and Shaitan's, or Satan's, get.
In return the three targets had begun to look more and more fearful, but it was only after someone shouted, "Death to all children of Shaitan!" that the three of them bolted. They ran down the road toward an alleyway which would hopefully lead them away from the gathering mob that had almost surrounded them.
While running from a mob might seem like a good idea, all too often doing so was like showing fear in front of a wild animal. So it worked this time. The crowd, which had heretofore been content with shouting and muttering, raced after their victims with a group howl more animalistic than any wolf's. Many of them hurled bottles, bricks, or other things towards the fleeing trio, but none of the bricks struck, and Morph, at the back of the trio at the moment, took the bottles and the rest on his back and kept going.
Unfortunately for the trio, the mob knew the streets and alleyways of Cairo better than they did, or at least that was what the mob thought. They soon were able to corner the trio in an old bazaar which had several of its entrances closed up with brick or concrete. The three mutants paused in the entrance, seeing this, turning at bay. The crowd closed in, only half of them armed, but all of them still slathering for blood. "Rip them apart! Feed the blood of the perversions to Allah's plan to the sands!"
Destiny, Mystique, and Morph spread out, holding the entrance so they wouldn't be encircled. Morph was in the center, his hands morphing into hammers, though the rest of his body stayed the same. Mystique pulled out a small knife and stood in an advanced martial arts stance. The two of them had talked and figured that if whoever was behind this might know about Mystique, or rather, her powers, so that limited how often she could use them. Despite that, Mystique was still a deadly hand to hand combatant, which the first few people who reached her found out to their cost. One went down with a kick to the balls so hard it emasculated him, another took her knife to the side of his neck and the third took her thumb to his eye, stumbling into several others getting in their way as he screamed.
Morph seemingly ignored any actual hits they landed on his arms and chest, while the two ladies had to dodge. His hammers were slow, but each hit threw several people back so tightly where they packed. Indeed, the crowd really got into its own way, since only a few people could come at the beleaguered trio at a time, though the sheer pressure started to tell immediately.
In contrast, at the third point of their triangle Destiny was grace personified. Thanks to her precognition powers she could anticipate any attack directed at her, which gave her all the time in the world to think of her response. In a crowd like this that was quite a bit harder than it sounded, of course, and she was sweating and gasping within two minutes of the actual fight
Seeing this, Mystique pulled the trio to one side, for an instant letting the crowd's mass push it forward as the three of them backed into the rest of the bazaar. But before they could be fully encircled, Mystique and Morph were in one of the corners of the bazaar, with Destiny behind them, holding the corner against their attackers. They left several more dead or screaming on the ground, which slowed the mob further. But it still came on, screaming their blind hate of all mutantkind.
It's times like this that the idea of helping Potter over Magneto's faction really takes a hit! Mystique, thought between one blow and the next. And these are supposed to be intelligent, sentient people?!
A blow came in from the side that would've caught her in the face, but Destiny's hand was there, grabbing the hand wielding a small hammer right behind the wrist, and snapping it with a quick twist, before moving slightly to Mystique's side, her other hand flashing out in a blow that caught the man right underneath his outstretched arm into his armpit. He screamed as the blow landed shattering muscle and bone before Destiny quickly stepped back and behind Mystique and Morph once more.
From on high the two watchers that Destiny had seen in her clairvoyance powers looked on in interest. "They're holding out pretty well. I suppose they could be useful. What do you think?"
"I think we should have chosen another group of mutants to attack," said a second man dryly. He was a tall, thin looking man with spiky white hair dressed in a long trench coat. "Have you noticed that two of our three scapegoats are down now?"
"I haven't, no," drawled the first voice. He was a somewhat stockier man, with wider shoulders, a short Fu Manchu mustache, black hair falling limply down to his shoulders, and an earring glittering in one of his ears. Like his fellow he was wearing a trench coat loosely over his body. "Still, it hardly matters. They're only flat scans, after all. We can always replace them with others. It's amazing how much money talks to such people."
"It's not money, it's hate. We simply help them find an outlet."
"So how do we want to play this? Recruit them through violence, or recruit them through leading them away?"
"Violence," said the dark haired man. His name was Scalphunter, and he was high up in Mr. Sinister's organization. He was not in charge most of the time of actual espionage, but when there was violence to be done, Scalphunter and his group of Marauders were called in. "We've allowed a lot of worthless mutants to die in this city of late, but I think it's time for the Mutant Liberation Front to show itself. Our violence in turn will make Master's plan for Genosha make a lot more sense to the public."
"I don't know about that one," said the second person. His name was Riptide, and unlike Scalphunter he really was a pro-mutant supremacist, while Scalphunter was in it for the violence and money. Riptide enjoyed the violence too, of course. Indeed, he was even more of a sadist then his companion. He was also a realist, however. "With all the hoopla about what might be going on in space it doesn't seem to me as if up a lot of the governments of the world will truly care."
"Which actually makes it all the better for the master's plan. If America and the rest of the so-called superpowers are busy with that, they won't be able to gather enough support to intervene in Genosha," Scalphunter said with a chuckle. "Now, let's do this!"
A second later they attacked the mob from above.
Scalphunter's mutant power was the ability to mentally manipulate technological devices, changing them into any configuration he wanted. He could change a microwave into a laser or a computer into a shield emitter. The only limit to his power was size: he could not create new mass from the old, he could simply reconfigured the existing mass into the shape he wanted, and it had to be something technological in aspect. He could control a computer or a laptop or a printer, or the inch thick circuit board that covered most of his body, leaving only one shoulder and arm bare. He could not do the same to a lamp, unless the light fixture was connected to a computerized timer, and then only to a limited degree.
He was also a master marksman, and both aspects came into play now. With a thought he'd configured a portion of his suit into a plasma rifle and began using it to rain down fire on the crowd from behind.
Riptide was even more violent, though his clothing was seemingly more normal, being a skintight suit of dark purple. Whirling in place his body disappeared, looking for all the world like it had been replaced by a cyclone. From the cyclone tiny throwing stars came out fast enough to slice through metal or stone.
The bone, sinew, and flesh of the crowd below didn't even slow them down. Between one moment and the next the shouting raging crowd which had been trying so hard to kill the three mutants were dead, dying, wounded, and above all screaming. "GYAAYAYAH!"
The wail of the injured rose to high heaven, and Morph had to fight to keep his bile down, actually transforming his innards into a solid-state to do so. Mystique, however, knew they had to play the parts of rattled civilian mutants pressed into a corner despite how good they were at it. So she had no problem letting loose with a gasp, and then backing away and actually dry heaving for a moment as she stared up at their so-called saviors. "What, what was, who are you!?"
"We're Riptide and Scalphunter, your saviors. Come on, their screams will rouse more people soon enough. That's the thing about flatscans, there's always more of them," Riptide shouted, while Scalphunter hurled down a length of rope, the other end of it tied to an air conditioner behind them. "Now come on! We need to go."
"Why did you save us?" Morph said, after a second following Mystique's lead as Destiny did the same.
"Because mutants always need to watch out for one another," Riptide said blithely, now running along the rooftops, stopping occasionally to hide as movement below grabbed his attention. "Especially against such mindless prejudice."
"We, we weren't even doing anything!" Morph shouted, before going on in a lower tone after Scalphunter hissed at him to be quiet. "We were just looking around the city, you know, doing the tourist thing! And then, and then they were, they were…"
"I know, my friend. I know," Riptide said sympathetically, though all three of his listeners saw that his sympathy didn't quite reach his eyes, which were hard and assessing. "That's what happens when flatscans are scared of their genetic superiors like us. They try to put us down, like we're wild animals, only showing how close to their monkey ancestors they are in turn!"
"I will agree to that," Destiny said, slowing down slightly. "If not for our powers, my and Rachel's heightened reaction times and strength and Eric's hand powers, we would have been overwhelmed. Even animals don't act like that mob did. Rabid is what they were."
"Which is why we put them down," Riptide said simply. "It's happened a lot in the city. That's why we mutants are getting organized in the first place."
"I can definitely see the point of fighting for our rights and those of others like us after this," Mystique said, wiping at her mouth once more. "Sorry I went to pieces like that. I'm just not used to…"
"You're a civilian, no reason you should have been. You were doing well despite that, though," Scalphunter said, the first words he'd uttered since they had left the site of the battle. He was looking at the three of them, in particular "Rachel," somewhat suspiciously, though only Mystique caught it.
"Thanks, I guess. My parents were both marines, and they opened up a martial arts center, so me and Iris were taught how to fight from an early age," Mystique replied. She and Irene had talked about whether the precog needed to use a cover name, and had decided better safe than sorry. "I've been trying to get Daniel interested since we started dating, but no such luck. Not that he needs it."
"Huh, that's interesting. So tell me, how would you to like to fight the good fight?" Riptide asked, fully intending to both look the trio up to make sure their background stories checked out, and to kill them if they didn't agree to join the MLF.
The three of them all exchanged glances, then Iris replied. "Tell us more."
OOOOOOO
For the second time Sean Macintyre and Marcus Greentree stood in a crowd sharing drinks and talking shop. Though it was a much larger crowd this time than it had been the last time, and the discussion, while being louder, was also what Sean would describe as brittle: too loud, the laughter uncertain, made of false bravado and uncertainty.
When he said that aloud in a quizzical tone, Marcus nodded, but Sophia replied with a snort and a muttered curse in her native Spanish before actually trying to rectify his ignorance. "You think so, really? It couldn't be because of the number of nervous civilians that are here, or the fact the whole world knows Earth was attacked again?"
As Sean winced, conceding the point, Marcus spoke up thoughtfully. "I see at least two senators, both of whom are on the Oversight Committee, four or more scientists who work for various Beltway bandit companies, and that's just among our group."
When Sophia used the term "our group" she was referring to the Americans in the room, all of whom had arrived in one large group. They were one of the two largest groups here, with most of their original representatives having been ordered to bring along specific "dates" by their government.
The largest, the UK group, did not include any politicians, something Sophia noticed. They were now led not by Prince Duncan, but by an Admiral who she recognized: Admiral Rodrick Power, son of Admiral Power who had served the British navy in World War II and had organized the Italian landings. He was known as a decorated officer who had come up from the aviation branch and commanded the Prince of Wales before achieving flag rank. He had served as Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty Board, which in recent times had become the office most devoted to running technology and design research.
Originally, the American group had not included Captain America or his date. The two of them had arrived later and had been held up at the door for some reason.
Sophia's eyes slid sideways to where Nick Fury stood like a dark shadow against the far wall, speaking quietly to a few people, most notably one of the two senators and several of the Indian representatives. To one side stood several Germans who had not been involved in the first meeting, either listening silently or having their own discussion, Sophia couldn't tell from here. One of them was a Deutsche Marine noncom, the second a Major in the same uniform, while the other two were dressed in civilian garb.
In contrast to Nick, who looked wary and worried, Steve Rogers was in the center of the room, talking warmly with several officers of various nations alongside Duncan and Power. Others came and went from that little group, meeting and greeting the famous, if somehow still self-effacing and humble captain.
"I wonder why someone didn't get stuck with bringing along Tony Stark to this soiree," Sean mused. "If this is what I think it is about, that is gathering further support for a space based defense, wouldn't it make sense to bring in someone who owns a large and varied industrial base and is also a genius?"
"Ita mighta, if Tony Stark was not persona-non-grata in a lot of European countries," said an Italian accented voice next to him. The three American officers turned to see Victor Gregorio standing there with a magnificently leggy brunette on his arm. "Lady, gentlemen, and I use the worda loosely as you are both American, may I introducea Minister for Defense Luisa Fioniti."
Sophia whistled low, taking and shaking the other woman's hand warmly while Sean and Marcus both sneered good naturedly at the other man's jibe. "Pleased to meet you, and I think we're going to be very glad that your government took this seriously enough to send someone of your level."
"From what little Victor was able to tell us of the last such meeting, I fear so. We've been able to connect a few of the dots, as you Americans would say, so while we don't know much about Guardian's true power base, we know it is quite large. And that his concerns about space based threats are well-founded." Luisa's English had no noticeable accent, a marked difference to Victor's.
"So can you tell us who's who? The three of us brought along eggheads," Sophia asked. "Admiral Whittaker and General Murphy brought along two senators, but I'd rather not take Senator Prichard away from talking to Steve or deal with Director Fury."
"I cannot say I blame you for that last bit. Director Fury is looking a little put out." The Italian woman's voice was respectful of Fury, but also wary. "I can put a name to most of the faces save from Japan and India, but I think I can say with confidence that the people you see are, if not policy makers, then at least high level policy advisors."
"Our governments have to take this meeting seriously despite the clandestine nature of it, if not altogether willingly," Luisa went on somewhat bitterly. "Whoever released the Kree Report to the public has caused a fucking panic. If it was Guardian or done on his orders, he needs to answer for that."
The Kree Report was the name for the exhaustive study Reed Richards had created and submitted to the UN after the first time the Fantastic Four ran into a Kree Sentry. Each time they learned more about the Kree, of late through the Custodes Mundi, the report had been updated. The report had shown up in the hands of various news agencies that very morning.
"I don't think it was Guardian. That's not his style," Sean disagreed, waving one hand back and forth.
"At any rate, the only ones who haven't sent high level delegates are the Russians and the Chinese, who have no representatives here at all, and France and Japan," Luisa finished, not replying to Sean's comment but continuing to address Sophia's. "Though I am not certain on Japan. I haven't had any dealings with the Japanese before this."
Germany and France had not been involved in the previous clandestine meeting, nor had a few others like Sweden, Finland, or Poland. But those countries had been allowed to bring a plus one just like those from the original countries. Most of the new officers fell under the same heading as the original group: that is, they were all proponents of bringing more technology into their various militaries, who the three Americans knew of from various papers and reports.
Luisa explained that she recognized the Frenchwoman. She was an ambassador, someone to hear Guardian out rather than someone who could truly agree to anything. The man with her, however, was a captain in the GIGN, the French Special Forces group.
"I wonder why there's no Russians or Chinese here. If Guardian is really looking to get the whole world involved that is a pretty big damn part of the population to leave out of things," Marcus grumbled.
"Something to ask, though I bet the Russians would have refused any invitation. As for the Chinese, they wouldn't like to be involved with something like this anyway with all the other nations here. You'd have to deal with them specially," Sophia replied. Having served in the Asiatic she had met several Chinese officials of all sorts and knew what they were like.
"Plus, remember that those two countries are the sites of some of the worst anti-mutant violence," Sean supplied in a low tone, causing Marcus to nod though Luisa didn't get the connection of course.
Actually Sophia's reasoning was closer to the real reason why those countries weren't represented than Sean's. When it came to China, of course, Harry already had a meeting set up. But Russia was under deep suspicion thanks to their unusual buildup along the Russia/Ukrainian border, and Harry and Doom's concern about there being further shape-changing alien infiltrators among their ranks.
That, and the fact Harry couldn't find a military officer in Russia who was pushing for more technology that he would be willing to vouch for. Even among this group there were a few that had triggered the Trust Me array set on the room.
One American who had been turned back at the onset, one French officer who hadn't made it past the door, and a German civilian. They had all been escorted out one after another by the Thing and his girl, the reasons being given that they were security risks. No one had been willing to argue after Thundra had lifted the German like he was a child and simply walked away, holding him in the air by the scruff of his neck.
The Trust Me array had also responded to Fury, but Harry had decided that was just because the man was an actual spy and thus inherently untrustworthy rather than because he had come here intending to try to spy or harm Harry's position. As such, and knowing what a major help SHIELD's resources could be and not wanting to alienate Steve, Harry had decided that the spymaster could stay. Harry would still hit him with a spell designed to reveal his real name just in case at the end of the meeting though.
Moments later the last group, a Netherlands Korps Mariners captain and his "date," a rather fat woman, arrived. After they were served some small finger foods, two of the Custodes Mundi swiftly walked into the large auditorium holding the various representatives.
One of them was Vanguard, the young man who had shown off the Custodes infantry weapons. The other was a young woman with long black hair falling straight down her back wearing a skintight uniform and heavy bracers on her forearms. These, though no one knew it, were a new part of Magma's uniform that she had asked Jean to design to give her a nonlethal weapon. They fired off heavy sonic based blasts which could knock any opponent unconscious.
In their hands they held piles of papers, each with a tiny pin in a small fold at the top. "Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who have been here before know the drill. For those of you who don't, this is a contract that will make certain you keep certain things you're going to see to yourselves. Yes, it can actually make you do so," Nikolai drawled from behind his mask, beginning to hand out the papers. "If you doubt that, just ask the people around you who have been through this before. I don't know how it works, I just put it down as magic. But it does work."
Nikolai fell silent as many of the newcomers shouted and squawked in indignation at that idea, but they were quickly assured by their fellows that it was indeed the case. More than half of the officers and noncoms who had been here before had tried to see if they could get around the previous contract, but they couldn't. None had pushed things to the point where they lost the ability to speak, thankfully.
"After you've looked the contract over, if you feel unwilling to accede to its rules, myself or Vanguard will show you to the door," Magma said, taking up the spiel smoothly. "If you agree to the terms of the contract, sign your name, then please prick one of your fingers and press them to the symbol at the bottom of the page." She held up her free hand, wagging the small box she held. "We have Band-Aids for afterward."
There were a few rueful chuckles at that, and one after another the officers and civilians in front of the two Custodes signed their contracts, with only two balking. One of them was the new Japanese representative, a young man with a haughty expression to his face who eventually followed the Custodes' instructions with ill grace. The other was a Swedish civilian, who objected to the contract despite its wording, unwilling to chance there being a trick to it. He was courteously shown the door as the others signed.
This process took a while, but eventually everyone in the room had signed, even Fury. Magma smiled, and gestured to the double doors behind her. "Then if you'll follow us, we'll take you to the meeting area."
The meeting room was actually just down the hallway from the reception area. It was large, with a long half circle table set up facing the front of the room where a smaller square table sat, with two other tables set against the far wall to either side of it. The far wall was dominated by several computer screens of various sizes.
Yet it was the individuals already sitting down at those tables which caused consternation among the soldiers and civilians led into the room. At one of the side tables was Phoenix and Dr. Banner, whose likeness had shown up on several news broadcasts. That was fair enough to those who knew they were here to meet with Guardian, since the man was known as a scientist, so his presence caused only mild concern in most of the guests. The Canadians were angry he was there, but they controlled themselves.
At the other small table sat Carol Danvers, Emma (in her Diamond persona), and Mar'vel, though of course none of the guests knew who either of them were. Only Fury knew who even Carol was, and while later he would lament that she had so easily gone to work for Potter, right now he had something else on his mind, and for once his emotions showed on his face just like those of the people around him.
At the central table sat Guardian in the center, with William the Fifth of Britain to one side. His presence caused the British contingent to stop and snap up sharp salutes, as next to them Steve Rogers did the same.
At the far end of Harry's other side sat Reed Richards, while between them sat the object of the consternation of most of the guests. Dr. Doom sat there in his armored regalia, sipping at a wine glass as Guardian drank what looked like an orange juice.
"Wh, what is the meaning of this!?" shouted one of the American senators. He was quickly followed by several of the others, ignoring the group of British officers. "Why is this, this terrorist criminal sitting here like, like he is an equal partner to this meeting!?"
"I am no terrorist. A terrorist is someone who targets civilians or otherwise helpless individuals with the intent to cause terror in order to promote a religious, social, personal, or political position," Doom replied before anyone else could speak, his deep urbane tones cutting through the tumult with ease, a distinct tone of condescending amusement in his voice. "I could hold my hand up to acting in a criminal manner in the past in pursuit of my goals, but no longer."
He used one gauntleted hand then to gesture to the meeting room all around him. "As for what I am doing here, why I have been involved in the defense of Earth from alien threats since the very beginning, not just in material but in my own person. That is something none of your nations can say even if individuals from a few of your nations were involved under Guardian's banner. As such, I rather think I have more rights to be here than you do."
"I can vouch for Dr. Doom's sincerity on this point," Reed spoke up, as he and Harry had agreed he would at this point, despite Reed's dislike of his rival and vice versa. "And if that isn't enough for you, both of us sitting peacefully here should tell you not only how seriously we take the subject, that is, the defense of Earth from alien threat, but also about Guardian's ability to gain and retain allies."
That Mr. Fantastic said this did quite a lot of the concern in the room, but there was also the point that Doom, despite his military escapades into the countries surrounding Latveria, had not attacked any other targets lately, or really ever, discounting his personal war with the Fantastic Four. And more than half of the civilians there were also privy to reports that told about how he dealt with the people of the occupied countries, which spoke somewhat well of him.
Still grumbling and a little angry, the crowd began to disperse around the table. Admiral Powers and Steve, however, took a moment to circle around the table to shake hands with William the Fifth. The admiral cocked his head at his king, a faint, bemused smile on his face. "I suddenly am getting a sense of collusion here, Your Majesty. Though I do not know why I was asked to pass my position on to Admiral Demain just yet."
"You'll understand in time, Admiral. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. I think you'll like it, once you get over your shock anyway." William waved Powers off, turning to shake hands with Steve, marveling at seeing him again after so long. "Steve, you don't look as if you aged a day."
"That's what happens when you are basically in cryogenic sleep," Steve drawled. "You don't look bad for a man your age." That was actually a bit of a lie. William did look good, but he was also very old, and his health had begun to come and go. Steve could still remember him as the young vibrant king who reclaimed the reins of power in his country. "So, you are involved in this now?"
"Both myself and soon my nation, yes. Like Admiral Powers, you will find out what that entails soon enough."
Steve nodded thoughtfully and moved to join the others who had sat down in no real pattern at the half-circle table though the nation groups did tend to stay together. As Steve sat down, Guardian stood up, pulling off his mask and setting it on the table in front of him. "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Harry Potter, and I am Guardian of the Custodes Mundi. I am also the head of the defense of Earth from alien threats. Feel free to once more get your exclamations of shock over with now so we can get down to business."
Most of the newcomers did so, though more than one was heard to mutter the equivalent of "Holy crap, why couldn't we see that connection before!"
However as this was going on, Steve Rogers stood up once more, looking around. "Harry, before get down to business, can I ask if Storm is all right? I don't see her here." Steve knew given their relationship and how important the other woman had been during the first meeting of this nature that her absence was a bad sign.
"Storm exhausted herself to the point of injury during the last minute defense of Earth, the light show that was so visible from the ground," Harry replied calmly, keeping his worry about Ororo off his face. The others were worried about her too, which was the reason Hela wasn't involved in this meeting. She could have been a help on the political side of things that would be a part of this meeting, but not as big an aid as Emma due to the blonde human's greater knowledge of the countries involved.
"And can we ask why, if that is the reason for Doom and Richard's presence, why the king of the United Kingdom is sitting there?" asked the French ambassador sharply.
"Because I have already agreed to throw my aid behind my country joining in the defense of Earth," William replied calmly. "The how of which you will learn soon enough if you allow Mr. Potter to speak."
That cause even more consternation, but Harry waited it out. None of the people who had made it this far was willing to back out now.
"Before we begin, let me introduce those around me, after which I would like you all to introduce yourselves in return. While I know many of you, I don't know all of you. To my left is Ms. Danvers and Mar'vel. Carol is one of my leading military and space-tech advisors, and Mar'vel is the leader of a group of Kree who have asked for asylum on Earth. We will get to the why of that later."
Several dozen of his listeners hissed at that, staring at the handsome blond man who ducked his head, looking away embarrassed.
"Next to them is Diamond, my political and economic advisor. Phoenix is the same in the areas of technology and weapons, and next to her is Dr. Banner who should need no introductions, if for several different reasons." Harry finished, falling silent and staring at the end of the table where the British contingent sat.
Understanding, they got the ball rolling, and each man and woman stood up in turn to introduce themselves. Of course, thanks to Emma and Sage Harry had been able to put names and position to faces quickly, but this was more a way to make certain everyone else knew who was here even if they hadn't spoken out in the reception area. It also gave Harry a vague idea of who was happy or enthusiastic to be here, and what he could expect from them, thanks to Emma.
Emma wasn't actually invading their minds to back up her impressions. Indeed, most of the people here were blaring out their thoughts so much she only had to open up telepathically just in case. Thus Harry knew the French had decided to not go along with anything just because they didn't like the fact the British had gotten in with him first, and that the Germans were eager to listen to him, and had become more so since Harry had shared his identity. Germany had not met Magical Mind's demands in terms of insuring mutant rights, and both Germans wanted to figure out a way to open that door.
Harry reflected that this was rather sad, considering that they, France, and America were the only nations here that had not met that demand. America, he knew, had decided to put that decision off for the next president and batch of senators to deal with, and both of the senators here were in the pro Magical Mind camp, if for different reasons. Germany was a site of Neo-Nazism and other sorts of bigotry, and anti-mutant feeling actually was as bad there as that would indicate. France, however, had no reason to not have followed through on their promises to support mutant rights. They just hadn't quite done so in law yet, though their police did defend mutants whenever they could.
With the introductions over with to his satisfaction, Harry moved the meeting on quickly. "All right, as everyone knows thanks to Susan Richard's initial announcement, the Kree attacked Earth three days ago. That attack consisted ofeight battleships and what the Kree call a Planet Crusher, a super-dreadnaught designed for the purpose of bombarding planets from space."
From there Harry began his presentation, ignoring the hisses and muted whispers of his audience. He called on Reed, Doom, and the others to speak about the battle. He asked Phoenix to give a brief overview of the missiles, how they were so effective, and why they had come as such a shock. The redhead stood up as she spoke as had the others, though in her case her body was covered by a slight illusion, hiding Jean's now visible pregnancy from view.
Several times the discussion of the battle got bogged down. One sticking point was Harry's willingness to create Fortress Mars, which many of the civilians had issues with. Harry replied that it was necessary to house the gravitic trap device. But several of the politicians were leery of such a powerful fortress being in his hands, despite having no reason to doubt his morals or evidence to support the idea he would ever threaten their nations.
There were also other interruptions about the various technologies involved. Jean's description of how hard it was to find the missiles in particular brought a lot of consternation from the various navy and air force officers, though many of the infantrymen in the room didn't understand why until it was explained to them.
When the battle came to a halt there was even more consternation at how Rika had surrendered himself. Some of the civilians saw it as a good sign, but Harry cautioned them to not read too much into it. "It isn't as if he found his orders distasteful or considers us worthy opponents now or anything of that nature. It is simply that he hoped that by doing so he could save more of his men that would have died in combat against us. He is under no illusions as to what his mission was, and still sees no problem with that mission or its orders."
"Rika is, as the Kree judge such things, an honorable officer, and he has made no effort in the limited interviews we've conducted with him to prevaricate or lie. I actually have him here to answer any of your questions after this presentation is done. However, I will not hand him over for interrogation. There's no point to it, and I withhold the right to stop any questions that I deem too stupid or showing a lack of understanding of the subject matter, in other words, if you haven't read the Kree Report," Harry finished blithely.
"I, for one, am still concerned about you acting as if you own Mars," Nick interrupted, shaking his head. "Setting up like that, did you have this in mind when you fought that Thanos character?"
"No, but I wasn't about to turn my back on such a resource either. It's called seizing opportunities as they come," Harry replied, shaking his head.
A little while after that the presentation ended, and Rika was led into the room by Colossus and Psylocke. And almost immediately one of the newcomers, the French ambassador, spoke up. "Commodore Rika, I understand the enormity of your people's empire and how we are not important in the great scheme of things as your people see it. As such, and since we have not proven that we could be an expensive nut to crack, would it not be possible for humanity to surrender to your people and be given fair terms? Perhaps to even join your empire?"
"Bloody French surrender monkey," Muttered one of the Brits, only to be immediately shushed by Duncan. Though the prince thought it was amusing that even the French officer looked irritated at the ambassador's words.
"No, of course not, why would it be?" Rika asked, as if he could not at all understand why anybody would think like that. "No other race is allowed to join the Kree Empire. As for being tough, yes you are for a single system polity, but why should that matter? All it would mean would be that we need to devote more resources to crushing you. This planet is not important in the great scheme of things, but you have challenged the Kree, and as such will be destroyed, no matter how long it takes."
"As you would have known had you bothered to read the Kree Report, as I said earlier," Harry interrupted, shaking his head. "Does anyone have any intelligent questions for the prisoner?"
It turned out that they did, though a lot of the questions asked by the civilians simply went over areas that Harry and the others had already known and put in the Kree Report. Harry got tired of repeating himself on that score.
Yet it got interesting when the naval officers cross examined Rika ruthlessly on how the Kree navy was organized, the disposition of their forces and, as far as he knew, the defensive strategy that the Kree used. Most of that Harry had already known, but he listened intently as a few of the noncoms in the room questioned Rika on the makeup of the Kree's normal ship crews, the places of training, preparedness, and the supplies ships of different types were supposed to have on hand.
Throughout this, Rika's answers made it clear again and again how huge the Kree Empire was, how militarized and how powerful their navy was. When Rika gave a description of how large a battle fleet was more than one officer and civilian alike looked as if they were going to faint. A single Battle fleet of the Kree Empire would have nearly 2 billion Kree serving within it, a little under half of Earth's total population. And there were more than fifty of said fleets, with far more smaller fleets of various sizes out there.
In some ways, however, it seemed there were unprofessional aspects, inbuilt weaknesses within the Kree Empire. For one thing, they didn't have a real noncommissioned class. There were only officers of various levels and then regular crewmen. The humans knew this could only damage the efficiency of the different sections that made up the ship. For another, while training and experience were prized highly, ship supplies were often not what they should be. And above the rank of commodore, popularity with those above you was more important to gaining further rank than competence.
Another interesting thing that made Doom and Harry exchange a glance was how few technological advances there had been in Rika's life. This was something they had assumed, but to have it confirmed by an experienced commander was excellent.
Harry was also interested in Rika's response to a question from one of the British naval officers about how much of the Kree and Skrull fleets were actually tied up behind the front lines, protecting their supply lines. Like in the world wars of Earth, attacking supply ships was a major aspect of war in space.
Eventually the questions wound down, and Rika was taken away. Harry once more took center stage, looking out over his guests seriously. "You've all heard about the nature of the threat we face in the Kree, and you should all know by now they aren't the only threat out there." He paused for a moment for emphasis then went on. "This is a threat whose size the Custodes Mundi and our allies cannot face alone. As such, from now on we will no longer do so. I will be making a formal announcement in front of the UN within a week, but I must demand that the nations of the world beginning to do their part."
"And if we do not?" asked one of the American senators with a wince. He was a proponent of demilitarization mainly because of how much of America's budget the military already took up, and his inclusion in this meeting had been a purely political move due to his place on the Oversight Committee. But he wasn't blind either, and he listened at least to those around him.
"In the future when it comes to stopping an orbital bombardment or setting up defenses against a missile assault, priority will be given to defend those countries who have agreed to aid in their protection." Harry replied calmly. "In this manner we will be able to husband our resources and defend those countries that have proven to have the will to meet this threat on their feet rather than die like an ostrich with its head in the sand."
He waited once more for the shouting and recriminations, taking them calmly while noticing that most came from the civilians and some of the newcomers, with only one of the original Canadians joining in. Most of these accusations came down to, "You can't do that!" or, "You're supposed to be a hero!" which almost made Harry laugh aloud. When the hell have I ever said I was a hero, and since when did hero mean chump? Throughout this Steve and Fury were silent, one contemplative, the other watchful.
Eventually Doom had enough and stood up abruptly, his presence and helmeted glare around the room silencing everyone. "Are you all so cowardly that you will not even fight for yourselves? That when someone who has fought for you already in the past asks for your aid you will not give it? Then perhaps humanity really is worthless as the Kree seem to think."
That shut them up, and Harry began, his voice an icy calm dagger in the wake of Doom's deep baritone growl. "The payment for aid we will require each nation to donate will be up to negotiation, but in general terms there are three tiers. Tier one will be in the form of trained military personnel, marines and navy, no army. This force will not be operating under the flags of their own nations, but will instead be submitted for further training under training cadres created by me, after which they will fly under the EDF, or Earth Defense Forces, for the equivalent of five years. The amount of…"
"Never!" shouted the other American senator, a hardline Hawk who believed firmly in America's military power. "American forces already serve in the UN. I'll be damned if they serve under someone else's command entirely!"
Now Harry lost his temper. He slammed his hand down on the table, nearly shattering it in a burst of misdirected magic as he roared, "I AM THE ONLY PLAYER IN THIS GAME!"
Staring out at the now shocked and somewhat appalled crowd he went on. "Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four, and I have spaceships, with the majority being under my command thanks to the Custodes and I being the ones who took them! The industry is mine too. Thought up by Reed and Dr. Doom, built by myself, Doom and those brave souls who have agreed to work for me up in space already. Only I can get large numbers of people up into space, and without my forces and the agreements I have made with Doom and the Fantastic Four, Earth would have been attacked at least by the Hellion, whose orders were to bombard major cities from orbit while retrieving their spy."
He paused once more for effect before starting to speak once more, his voice lower but no less intense. "The facts were there, the alien threat was known, and what have the countries of the world done!? Retreated from space entirely, just like the damn ostrich in my earlier analogy, hoping the lion won't see it! I may have a saving people thing like an old friend once said, but I am not stupid! If you are unwilling or unable to work with me on this, when it is your only fucking option, then why should I try to save your lives when you so obviously aren't willing to do the one thing you can to help me do it!?"
Harry glared around the room, and only Steve and Nick met his gaze. He let the silence linger for almost half a minute while people looked around uncomfortably.
"As I was saying, tier one will contribute in the area of manpower and material. Most of the countries you all represent would fall under this heading. I am willing to pay for the material at price, and the man power will be added in lots of 20,000 or the equivalent every month. These troops will be pulled from your existing navy, special operations, or marine forces at first. After we have a large enough training cadre we can start retraining army units, but at the moment crewmen and troops already familiar with fighting on ships is a must. Nations will be able to send advisors and observers to the training centers, but those troops will no longer be answering to the parent nation." He emphasized, glaring around the room once more. "You all had your chance to do something about the alien threats. You didn't. Now it's up to me."
At that point he gestured, and William stood up creakily as Harry sat down. "Admiral Power, this is why you were asked to pass on your duties to your successor early. By my authority and after discussion with the First Sea Lord, we decided that you would be the correct choice to become the leader of Earth's first space troops. You will serve for ten years, and after training in space warfare, you will be the first flag rank officer of the Earth Defense Fleet. The navy and marine officers and noncoms with you here will also be sent to serve under the EDF."
Admiral Power stiffened and stood, saluting quickly, trying to keep from smiling at the amount of trust his king had just shown him as the other UK officers all stood up and saluted in turn. "I will not let you or our race down, Your Majesty."
Harry smiled at that before standing up once more. "Just to sweeten the pot, this is the ship that will eventually become your flagship." The image of the Doom Bringer that Jean and Reed's expedition had brought back, came up on screen, with the Hellion beside it to give a scene of scale as the list of their weapons systems popped up in turn. "The ship at that point will be rechristened under the name Warspite."
At that storied name Power's eyes blazed, as did those of the other Royal Navy personnel, while the navy officers of the other nations looked on in sudden interest, as did the Japanese contingent, Sunspot and the other man with him. The Warspite most people thought of when they heard the name had been a battleship laid down in 1910 and which went on to serve in both wars. It had seen numerous small and two large engagements in its time, surviving to become the most decorated ship in the Royal Navy. Its end had been rather ignominious, but the name still had power to it.
This had been one of Harry's ideas to add to this meeting. Names had a power to them, and the idea of carrying respected names into space had a lot of appeal to the naval men of every nation.
"If our nations join up as the UK has, does that mean we too will be issued ships and can name them?" Admiral Whittaker asked intently. He had served on CV-8 Hornet as a barely eighteen year-old rating, and would dearly like that name or one of the others to be among the first spaceships humanity owned.
"Yes, but I will have final veto on the names. This fleet will come to represent the best and brightest of humanity. It stands to reason the names of the ships will need to show that importance. That means no ships named after senators, no presidents, generals, or kings unless the ships that bore those names in the past were of great renown." Harry replied. He smirked as the naval officers and noncoms all began to talk excitedly about that idea and the idea of fighting in space, while the civilians were more ambivalent about that.
Sensing this Harry went on. "Like tier one, tier two will be made of people and resources, but there instead of trained soldiers their people will need to be trained from scratch as soldiers, techs, or miners, mostly the last two, and their numbers will be lower than the level I will demand of tier one nations. Tier three will be simply people again, with the majority of the training needed to be from the ground up. On top of all this, I will also be opening larger hiring and recruitment centers in every country me and my people deem safe.
"I am, not going to be an ogre over this however, each nation's contribution is up for negotiation. It is only the fact of that contribution which is not. If you have too many troops tied down in police or defensive actions, I will understand and you can contribute in other ways. If you have too small a population or too small an industry or are simply having trouble gearing up to meet your agreed quota at any point, we can renegotiate."
Fury shook his head slowly. A bare few weeks ago he would have been railing about all of this, seeing Harry as trying to enlarge his power base, worried about what might happen in the future. But his eyes had been opened to the good Harry had done, and he had come to trust Potter as much as he could anyone he didn't have handles on.
That didn't mean he liked all he was hearing. "I can understand your points, Potter, but this, the turmoil this will cause will be tremendous. On top of that I think I speak for many here when I say I am worried about you owning the orbitals. The law against weaponizing space is one the areas the UN has followed since the beginning."
"I don't care. Your fears can guide your thoughts. I will not let them guide mine," Harry retorted. "I have never made any move or ever even spoken in any way to indicate I had any desire to conquer the world, or to turn my orbital stations against the Earth. I am frankly insulted you think I would."
"Potter, you can work with the UN. It already has a structure in place for national units to work under its banner." Louisa of Italy urged, looking worried. "There's no need to go this far, surely?"
"Yes, there is, and no I can't. Leadership by committee is no leadership at all. The UN has proved to be not the best tool to face even its own mandated duties. Furthermore, the EDF would live up to its name. It will not take part of or be a party to any intervention on Earth.
"The defense of Earth will have two leaders, Dr. Doom and I. Again, gentlemen and ladies, we are the only players in town. We make the rules. We call the shots. If you want more options, then please tell me how you're going to defend Earth or even just your own nations without us?" Harry retorted.
"And then there is your alliance with Doom!" Fury shot back. That point he still had a problem with.
"Yes, what of my alliance? What, save his invasions of third world countries dominated by the terrorist group called HYDRA, has Dr. Doom done lately?" Harry asked archly.
"I am harsh in my conquests, but nowhere near as harsh as the Red Skull. He, who I hunt, is with his non-Germans. Have you asked the people of those countries I have conquered whether I am worse than even the leaders they had before the Red Skull began to control their governments?" Doom asked harshly. "I am no saint, but I am Latveria's rightful king, and I have become such for the lands I have taken in honorable conquest."
Fury's teeth ground, but Steve laid a warning hand on his arm. "Will you be choosing the captains of these ships you want our people to man based on previous experience and ability, or will you be putting your own people in command?"
"Given the fact I've said the Admiral's slot would go to Admiral Power that should be obvious. I only have a few people I'd be willing to put in command of those ships, and the only one who I would be willing to shift over to that is Carol Danvers, who has the background necessary as well as the experience in space," Harry replied promptly. "However I refuse to say that any captains or officers who are sent to re-up in the EDF would automatically assume their equivalent positions. It would be more possible for Air Force or submarine captains than anything else frankly, considering what space warfare is like."
That seemed to mollify a lot of the officers in the room, and this included Fury surprisingly. The civilians all still looked like they had bitten on lemons though.
"S, surely some form of peace talks would be possible in the future? Or even a, a surrender? I know that Commodore Rika said that was impossible, but he's not exactly a mover and shaker in his nation," One of the Swedes said, speaking up for the first time.
"Do you think a T. Rex would even talk to let alone make peace with a mosquito? That is an accurate representation of our differences in power." Harry said, shaking his head sadly at the man's idiocy. "There will be no peace with the Kree, and no other race out there would care to step forward and defend us. Now, does anyone have any other questions?"