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Over the next week the trio worked on various projects both together and separate. Ororo handled going through the dossiers for prospective employees that their personal director had compiled and the list Dennis made covering his contacts around the world and for the actual security division. She did however have to step on several of his ideas rather promptly, limiting the list in scope. Contacts and analysts and computer experts were one thing, but they wouldn't actually need security guards or agents. Security, both physical and other (which covered a rather wide gamut) would be provided in other ways.
She also went over the first few choices she had compiled for teachers for the school, as well as one position which she designated den mother. This was going to obviously be a boarding school, and one of the issues with boarding schools was that their parents were not there obviously. Having someone who wasn't a teacher but was an adult figure of either gender around to handle problems and provide a ready ear for any non-school related issued that popped up was a good idea, one that Harry and Jean both approved of. "You sort of became the den mother at the Institute Ororo," Jean had said when she mentioned it. "But with all the other hats you're wearing already I can see why having someone dedicated to that task would be a good move."
Ororo was also practicing with her own mutant power outside on the lake and in the air above Hogwarts. She had a few ideas of new ways to use it and she wanted to see if some of them panned out like the focused tornado sphere had.
While she was doing that, Harry and Jean finished the redesign of Hogwarts and Jean led the elves in putting in the actual wiring both for electronics, Wi-Fi and everything else. Despite making time every evening to be with the others during dinner time that task consumed her days almost to the exclusion of all else, and what little other time she had she spent on another little project she was working on, something she refused to share with the other two, calling it payback.
While she was doing that, Harry finally finished his work on the Room of Requirement, and after going over what it could do with everyone else he devoted an entire day off for training himself.
After imagining what he wanted to face Harry moved inside, and almost immediately died under the spells thrown his way from a doppelganger the room had created to face him using, as Harry had phrased it, all his power and knowledge. "Holy bleeding fuck!" Harry shouted, dodging to one side as a stream of something white zoomed past him.
Before he could set himself dozens of spells were heading his way, and Harry yelped, dodging and shielding frantically. Even the shield Sciath na BhFéadfadh, the most powerful shield he could call upon, only bought him a few seconds before collapsing, and Harry frantically began to cast spells back at his doppelganger, who sneered and waved a hand destroying most of them before they reached him and easily dodging the others, returning fire.
Ten minutes later Harry was staring down up at his doppelganger who merely stood there after Harry went down. The spells they had thrown back and forth had been insane. Harry found himself back on his heels the entire fight, taking hits from spells Harry knew were in his repertoire but had only rarely used. Facing a person with as much power and knowledge as himself was a definite wake up call, and sobering in the extreme. The landscape around him was also shattered and boiling and in some places simply gone, like reality had warped and shattered and Harry shuddered. "Alright, so that's what I can do I guess if I take all the stops off. Fine. So, let's do three rounds of that, I doubt I'll be pushed that far for a while, but it could help me prepare to face the Celestials and other similar threats. That Galactus fellow the FF dealt with in particular concerns me."
An instant later the doppelgänger appeared across from him and the next round began. Harry lost three more times before he finally got a hang of his magical strength and the spells he could throw out.
"That actually makes sense," Harry murmured after sneaking in a nasty flesh to acid curse in under the barrage of area effect spells. "After all, outside of Selene, Magneto, and the Juggernaut I haven't run into anything that demanded my all,
"All right," he said shaking his head while around him various targets appeared and the setting changed to that of a barren desert environment. Let's do some more experiments here."
Over the remainder of that day and well into the night Harry worked on, and eventually realized a few things about his power level. One, it was huge. Harry realized that the spell to gauge his power didn't tell him enough so turned to other means. The easiest test to measure a wizard's power was to create the most complex and strange thing he could, then see how long it would take his conjuration to disappear. Harry's didn't disappear. He created it at the beginning of the day, a huge rose created from several different metals and complex substances, and not a bit of it had wavered or disappeared. It sat there, it's very existence a massive finger at the laws of Conservation of Energy throughout the day, and would still be there two weeks later when he next used the RoR in this format.
Harry tried all of his high-end spells, trying to exhaust himself really, throwing all the spells he could around save for his Bloody Insane spells, which he would never be able to actually practice, not even in a room as heavily warded as the RoR was. The results were… sobering, and he began to feel like that genie from that Aladdin movie. "infinite cosmic power," Harry murmured, hovering in what felt like space as he looked down at what had once been a world (thankfully completely created by the magic of the room) which now was simply a large number of bits and pieces spiraling away. "Itty-Bitty living space."
However he was able to learn how to limit himself just as much as he learned how to pull up his full power, and had found out how to call upon pure magic without even the use of nonverbal spell or any kind of gesture. That alone made the day an excellent use of his time, and he exited the room quite a bit more tired than he normally was, and he fell asleep quickly.
The next day Harry called Wyatt where he was still staying with the FF.
"Hello Harry, how are you doing? What can I do for you?" Wyatt said, the first one to answer the phone for some reason.
"You mentioned a friend who had a daughter or niece was it? Who they wanted to enroll someplace where she could learn how to use her powers?"
"Yes I did, are you ready to go forward with that?"
"I'm ready to meet with her and her parents, we won't be set up for an actual school here just yet until we get in a few teachers of course, but I do have the space available to start training her"
"That is a relief," Wyatt said rubbing his forehead. "There's been another incident with her powers, and with all the fervor going on about that murdered boy in Boise the family's anxious to get her someplace safe. Not that taking her would be any easy task for the 'Friends of Humanity," the normally even tempered Native American scoffed nearly spitting the words. "They have no friends among the Cherokee, they would find it very hard indeed to get a hand on her."
Harry nodded grim agreement, and hoped that the X-Men were up to the task of protecting defenseless mutants from the so called Friends of Humanity and other threats. He wasn't certain how they were going to go about that, but the heat being directed at harmless mutants like that boy and others whose mutations were merely physical and didn't actually add anything to their abilities was horrifying. It also made what he continued to think of as the 'Israeli Initiative' look better and better.
And with that in mind I think that gathering some more resources would be a good idea he thought remembering that he was getting close to the bottom of his ready cash supply. He had run out of gold a month ago, but the amount he'd turned into cash in various ways would see them through the rest of this month and the next at the very least even with the massive amount of money he had spent on material to revamp and upgrade Hogwarts. Still their funds could use a shot in the arm, and he could always use anything else he could find. Time and past to see to Selene's caches, and maybe those bank accounts as well…
"If you can either give me a number to call, or a time and place to meet them, we can set up a first meeting sometime in this coming week."
Wyatt nodded, and asked "Do you want to talk to any of the others?"
Harry shook his head. "Not right now, though tell Reed that if they're free sometime next month we can continue that discussion I had with him after that problem with Dr. Doom."
"And there's another thing I have to do," Harry groaned as he signed off. "I've put that off for long enough."
"Indeed my love," Ororo said coming in behind him and sitting down next to him on the sofa. Ororo and Jean had created a sitting room for the trio with the help of a few house elves that was in a former classroom right by the staircase up to the Headmaster's quarters. Jean and Melody's rooms had been moved town to be right by it. Melody was still living up in High Note, she was now on the same time as Hogwarts, and they brought her down for dinner every night.
The sitting room was composed of several large leather chairs, two plush bean bags, and two furry sofas along with a TV system, though that was a recent addition, and wasn't hooked up just yet.
"We do not want to make Dr. Doom an enemy more than is necessary. I have no doubt that we will clash with him eventually on one issue or another, but at the moment we're still at vaguely clean state stage. It's been over two months since he expressed interest in talking to you, I think you need to send him something now, or he might start to take offense at the amount of time it is taking you to get back to them."
Harry frowned. "I'd hoped to wait until I was set up as a power in the world or at least a known power in the world. But you're right, I have to send Doom something now."
Ororo smiled faintly and kissed him on the cheek. "You already are a power in the world, my Harry. You might not realize it fully, and much of the world has no clue, but I'm positive that's Dr. Doom would not be unaware of it."
"That's true enough," Harry sighed. "I've reread the FF's files on him, and that man is almost frighteningly intelligent. Sort of like Reed, only without even his level of empathy, and Doom has ambition to match his intellect."
"That could possibly be the line you should take with him, appeal to that ambition and possibly his ego though not," Ororo warned seriously, "in any adroit sort of matter. Doom is far too intelligent to be taken in by such, yet appealing to his ambition might help."
Harry nodded, and leaned forward to kiss her on the lips. "I'll send him something tomorrow, and I'll send it with Hedwig. That should show both my trust and the amount of respect I have for him, I have no doubt he'll be able to tell that she's my familiar after all."
"And," Ororo said amusedly, "Hedwig can almost certainly get away from anything Doom throws at her."
"True." Harry chuckled. He hadn't actually realized it, but as Harry's powers grew so too did Hedwig's abilities. Before he had come to this dimension those abilities made her almost frightening in many ways. Now, there was no almost about it, and Harry had tested her a few times over the past few weeks as well.
"After you send that message off, come down and join us in the dining hall. I think Jean had something she wanted to show us all." Ororo ordered, her eyes sparkling with amusement. Harry nodded and, not ten minutes later joined her, Jean and the others down in the dining hall, while Hedwig winged her way off to Dr. Doom in Latveria.
Jean still hadn't moved in with them up in the headmaster's tower, not wanting to take that final step just yet. Not surprisingly Ororo agreed with her, saying that she had only been officially going out with Harry for a little over two weeks now. Harry of course didn't say anything, he wasn't about to push her, though he had teased her a time or two about how much better the bed up in the headmaster's room was in comparison to hers.
Jean and Ororo were already in the dining hall, playing with a bit of a hard light projection in the center of the hall while Dennis watched interestedly and Shiang Chi sat nearby sipping a glass of tea. He looked around trying to spot where the projectors were and smiled faintly to see dozens of them up in the ceiling. "I take it you finished rewiring everything?" he asked Jean dryly.
"Yep!" Jean chirped happily moving over and giving him a slow, thorough kiss which Harry returned tenderly. She pulled back sighing happily as Ororo took her turn, and the two of them grinned at him.
He shook his head a little stunned by the double it attack there. "If you two keep doing that I'm going to grab you both and drag you up to bed and we won't leave it for the next few days."
"Flatterer," Ororo said laughing lightly. "Still, now that this is done and I've gone through the dossiers for the teachers and everything, and our guests are ready for work?" She looked over at Dennis and Shiang Chi, who both nodded agreeably, "We can move on."
Harry nodded, sitting down at the table and motioning them to do same. He smiled faintly at the image of some kind of flowchart disappeared behind the two of them. "So now we not only have magic but high-tech as well, excellent."
Jean shrugged. "I also set them both up with a TV and Internet access, Sir Dennis I think is keeping an eye on public opinion and trying to get a handle on the worlds view of mutants right?"
Besides that first test of Harry's, the former spy had been tested a few times since. He still had quite a bit of loyalty to the crown, yet had no desire to go back to work for it, and was unwilling to be a small cog in the big machine again. He also seemed rather angry at the way mutants were being viewed, comparing it to the system dehumanization the Jews went through under the third Reich.
Now Dennis replied, his urbane British accent standing out in comparison to Harry's practically non-existent one. "Oh yes old boy, I've been trying to keep a heads up so to speak. Sent emails to several old chums the world over, they've agreed to exchange contacts with me. Next I'll want to head out to meet with a few contacts in the real world, specifically a few people that specialize in computer and electronic corporate espionage. A few fellows who are working in the field so to speak." He frowned sadly. "I was sad to hear of the old Union Jack dying, he was a good man, but there are a few of the old crowd, and one or two new up and comers in the UK and the colonies I want to look up."
"Remember what I said," Harry warned, "I want to meet anyone you'll be employing for us directly before you hire them. I'll set up a meeting room and some way to get them here without having to show them everything else sometime in the next few days, so wait for that."
Shiang-Chi spoke up then. "I readied a list of everything I would require to start training people in the martial arts." He shrugged. "I would prefer to have an outdoor dojo rather than an underground area like the current setup, but given the weather of this part of the world I can understand why that isn't a good idea. Other than that, I've spent my time exploring the surrounding forest and lands, and resting of course."
The young man was feeling rather torn about his life at the moment. For so long his whole existence had been dedicated to serving his father, who he thought a great philanthropist working for the betterment of the world. Then when he learned the truth he turned around and concentrated with the same level of dedication to taking his father down. Now Shiang Chi didn't have anything like that to truly concentrate whole-heartedly on, though he was grateful to Mr. Potter and the others for giving him a task that allowed him to help aid such a good cause. It would take him a while however before he got used to the void not having his own cause to fight for had caused inside of him however.
Dennis on the other hand had thrown his whole weight into his new job just as he had his crusade against organized crime in Vietnam. The cause of normal/mutant cooperation was an excellent one, and something he could tell would benefit the world as a whole. The fact it made him the boss of his own agency was a very major bonus.
"So what's next?" Jean asked.
"A few things," Harry said thoughtfully tapping the table in front of him. "I want to head out and raid those caches of gold and other things that I told you about. I have no idea what's in them, my… informant was not that generous in her knowledge. She merely gave me the locations and the information to access the accounts, nothing else. I'm worried about what might be there, Selene was around for a hell of a long time, well before recorded history, and there's no telling what she ferreted away. I also want to head over and see if I can figure out a way to get through to what King William called the dark regions, the other areas in Britain that are warded against non-magical's. If there's nothing there, we could probably sell the land for quite a bit of profit. Or we could simply keep it the way it is."
He was also wondering how the hell those places had been hidden from the sight of Dr. Strange and his predecessor. Harry had determined during his own the wizards of this universe had quite a bit of esoteric knowledge of, and assorted magpies tendency toward anything to do with their own school of magic which was strangely at odds with what Harry was used to in his old dimension. The wizards in his dimension discarded knowledge if they deemed it too dark, or at least they did so publicly.
The Unspeakables of course didn't, but they horded it away, never used it. He had no doubt that the Unspeakable's had a vast library, possibly larger than the libraries of both Hogwarts put together, though how much of it was actually useful was debatable. The wizards in this dimension hadn't developed that tendency, possibly because of the numerous wars they fought amongst each other and the fact that they had never spread out beyond Britain coupled the fact that Britain was where they had started from, not ancient Greece or Egypt as was the case in his dimension.
What they lacked in comparison to sorcerers was power. Most sorcerers probably didn't have the knowledge available to break down wizard created wards or protective spells, but that certainly would not be the case for the Sorcerer Supreme or wizards of equivalent knowledge.
Dr. Druid certainly knew about the dark regions, and he now spoke up from where he had been sitting quietly reading a book on potions that Harry had given him. He was trying to create a periodic table of sorts for the potions, and was having a bit of luck though not nearly as quickly as Harry could've hoped. "I certainly would be interested in that as well," he flexed his wooden hand thoughtfully. "I honestly have no idea how the wards are still up after so long, I know for a fact that one of them at least is not on any ley line. That's about all we can tell about them from the outside."
He paused thoughtfully and then went on slowly. "It could be that other beings moved in after the wizards were gone and found a way to keep the wards up. Vampires for example, I know ancient vampires have similar abilities to sorcerers, and they certainly have learned enough about the art."
Harry nodded grimly. "If so I'll burn them out. The idea of vampires having a secret unassailable hiding place like that is a bad one." He frowned thoughtfully. "If it is one of the other magical races that I know of from my own dimension, somehow surviving to the present day, I'll probably just leave them alone."
The green-eyed wizard had been greatly disturbed to read of the wizards in this dimension having wiped out the dragons, and working in concert before their isolation with regular sorcerers to wipe out centaurs and goblins, but if either of those races had been able to survive then taking over a position created by wizards to hide themselves would've seemed poetic justice. After such a history however their welcome to him would probably be in the form of violence to say the least.
"I will hit up Selene's caches," Jean replied promptly. Harry looked at her and Jean shook her head. "You can't take everything on yourself Harry, and it sounds as if the dark places you guys are talking about needs a wizard's touch to get through the wards. The caches, since they rely on hiding rather than wards to protect them, probably don't. Or if they do," she said her had fingers flashing with telekinetic lights, "I can probably figure out a way around or through them."
"She's right Harry," Ororo said softly leaning over to kiss him gently on the cheek. Dr. Druid coughed looking away embarrassed. He was still not used to the three of them being in a relationship, and was a little bemused by the fact all three seemed so happy about it.
Ororo went on, not noticing their ally's embarrassment. "I realize that much of what we are doing at present needs magic to do, but you have too many demands on your time. You cannot keep piling more things on your own shoulders, when you have Jean's and my shoulders to call on. I will handle interviewing the teachers, and I will look up this one," she said holding up a specific folder.
Harry looked at picture on top of the folder and smiled faintly, nodding agreeably. "That will set up the training portion for our team certainly, and add a veteran presence to the team itself. After this is over I can get started on figuring out how to connect to the ley lines."
Jean nodded, "Can't argue with that. Though, you might want to talk to Emma about setting up a PR blitz once we start making money. We seriously need to start pushing back at the hate propaganda it's gaining too much headway in China, Russia and America."
Smaller countries were more ambivalent to the mutant threat, not having as many mutants popping up in their populations, but Russia was already calling for all mutants to be regulated by the state, and it looked as if the battle in the Senate was going to come to a head in the next election. Despite the fact that there were numerous other threats to world peace, including one very nasty terrorist group that seemed to be operating out of the Middle East and some sort of new criminal syndicate starting up in the states and Italy (or possibly an old one with a new phase and new technology) the public had grabbed onto the mutant menace as the one that was most dangerous and important.
"I'll talk to Emma as well," said Ororo smiling lopsidedly. The White Queen was rather an amusing woman to talk to at the best of times, full of barbs and hidden angles. Talking to her was fun, and Ororo was becoming fond of her. She was no closer to agreeing to let Emma join the trio then she had been after that gala where they met Tony Stark, but she could acknowledge that such a time might be in the future.
"I'll want Emma's input on the various interviews in any case. Might I use Cory? Using him will allow me to set up as many interviews as I can today, in New York, London and Galway then tomorrow I can go see Kitten and her parents." Her smile widened. "I'm looking forward to that."
Jean nodded. "I know, not seeing her and the others every day is weird. I hadn't realized it would be, but it isn't a bad thing so much as just odd."
Harry shrugged not having that issue, but watched Ororo thoughtfully. "You can call him whenever. I'm not certain what the younger set of elves are up to, but I know that it'll be interesting once they shared with the rest of us."
Ororo and Jean joined him in chuckling at that while the other men looked on confused. All three of them had noticed over the past few days that more than half of the younger set of elves, those below a certain age and those of more of a flexible set of mind, had not been taking part in the usual rotation of activities. It was a fact that they still didn't have as much to do as the 200+ elves could handle, so it was a good thing allowing the work to be spread out over a smaller group.
What they were up to was a minor mystery but since their loyalty was literally unquestionable, Harry had decided to let sleeping dogs lie. Cory and a few others, those that were more at home with technology and moving around in the non-magical world, were an exception which gave Harry a hint as to what the others might be up to.
Harry turned to look at Jean. "I'm not happy about this," he said honestly. "Magic is so diverse and can be so deadly. I would really prefer to wait and hit them up later myself."
"Harry," Jean replied, her voice soft, "I know you want to protect us, but I can handle this, truly. You can't keep on doing everything yourself like Ororo said. Hell, load me down with as many spells as you want but unless you can be in two places at once, I need to be the one to handle this."
"Jean, its not that simple, Selene…"
"Selene wasn't a wizard, she didn't rely on the same warding system the wizards did, she'll have active defenses which I can get through using my own powers. Haven't I been able to overcome most of the things you can throw at me in the Danger Room? I can handle this."
Harry frowned, he was really not happy about this, but Jean and Ororo were right, neither of them would be able to get through active wizard wards, whereas Selene didn't seem to use the same type of defense. And she's right about her ability to match most of my offensive spells with her telekinetic power. If she has time to react Jean can figure out ways to use her power to overcome my magic. She's not strong enough to truly match me, but she should be able to match whatever Selene left to defend her caches. Selene wasn't subtle, and was rather contemptuous of me, let alone non-magicals. And she didn't have any knowledge or wards, at least that's my impression given her abilities and how she set up her place of power in the Gherkin and it matches the information Death crammed into my head. All of her caches are hidden through nonmagical means rather than behind wards.
Eventually he sighed. "Alright Jean, but you'll need a spell on your mask to let you see magic, and I'll redo the modified confounding charm on it when I add that just in case you meet any of the locals. I also prepared an initial small load out for us that I'll want you to take, mirror, regular radio, a small foldable knife, some pouches with emergency rations. It's on a belt up in our quarters. I'll also give you something called a mokeskin pouch. It's magical and bottomless, and no magic can get back out of it, so whatever you find just push it all in there and we can go through it here. And I'll write up some notes about what to look for once you're on the ground." The pouch had been a present from Hagrid, and while he had never trusted the half-giant thanks to his utter devotion to Dumbledore, he could never truly bring himself to hate him either.
Jean stood up, grabbing a final bit of fruit and popping it into her mouth before leaning over and kissing Harry, sharing the fruit with him in a spontaneous and extremely sexual display. She stood up sighing faintly and licking some of the juice away from her mouth before smirking at him. "In that case I think I'll go and get changed." She moved gently out of his arms smiling and actually giggled a little as he whined when she did so.
Harry shook his head that had really got to him for a moment there, and looked around. "Can I use the holographic projections too?"
Jean shook her head. "Sorry," she said raising one wrist where a small metal bracelet with several glowing buttons could be seen. "I've only made two of these things. We only had the parts for them really. I had to cobble it all together so it isn't perfect just yet."
"Put what you need to make more on a shopping list," Harry replied, then chuckled as he was poked from behind turning to see Ororo glaring at him. "Ororo I guess will be the one handling that as well."
Ororo nodded faintly smiling in triumph internally. She handed him her own bracelet, and he began to call up a small computer board in front of him under Jean's direction. It connected to the primary server that Jean had set up, and allowed Internet access and a lot of other things.
It had nowhere near the capability of JARVIS, or even the series of computers that Reed had installed in different segments of the Baxter Building, but it was good enough to create a 3-D map of the world and let him input different places highlighting them in red via the coordinates.
"These are the caches," he said, "I just wish that SHE had been able to give me more information about what was in them." Harry didn't think saying that he had gotten his information from Death would go over well with their two new friends. "I have a vague idea that this one," he pointed at one in the Middle East, "was her main emergency gold deposit, but it's this one that worries me." He moved the globe around twisting his fingers under the image enlarging it and twisting it in at the same time.
It came to a stop to show them South America, and a glowing icon of what the map called the Atacama desert. "If you're up to it Jean," he said looking at her as she returned a little worriedly "that is the one I would like you to hit up first. I got the impression that it was her main magical cache, and I seriously do not want to know what could happen if someone stumbled in there. Selene wouldn't have left anything around if she wasn't certain that her defenses were up to date and able to stop anyone from getting in but those defenses may have been draining power from her in some way, and I've learned since coming to this dimension that there are far too many adventurers around that like to poke things and say 'what does this do'?"
Jean laughed. "Ahh but that's how science was invented Harry. Yeah I can do that." She frowned momentarily. "Can you ask one of the elves to pop me to our other base, and I'll fly down there." While she wouldn't be able to blurt out anything about High Note thanks to the Fidelius on it, but even if Shiang Chi and Dennis had passed every test so far, there was no need to even hint about the existence of the asteroid in front of them. With the tricks Jean had come up with during their little jaunt in space she could easily fly down through the atmosphere from High Note. And it had nothing at all to do with wanting to check out the view from space again. No, nothing at all…
Harry smiled knowing precisely what she was going to be doing for a few minutes at least once she got up to High Note again. Jean had routinely taken off on an evening this past week just to sit and stare out into space.
Harry and Ororo joined her a time or two, but Ororo was much more at home with an atmosphere around her. She said there would was some kind of weather in space, but it was an odd feeling to her, something she would have to get used to before being able to try and control it. "That's fine I'll have Zippy pop you over. He's sort of taken over the duties between here and there, I think he's trying to dislodge Cory from his position as best popper."
Jean nodded, "In that case I think we should be about it."
Harry nodded and sent a brief commands out, printing out the list of information he could remember from the information death stuffed into his head, the longitude and latitude coordinates, and several other bits and pieces of information that Jean could use to find the specific cash when she was down on the ground.
Dennis came over as well, volunteering to guide her in via communicator. Jean came back after they set that up, and tucked the communicator Harry into her belt along the pouches Harry had prepared. Harry also said, as he hit her mask with several spells, "I've also fitted each of your uniforms with a Disillusion ward. So long as you're just flying along or just standing still, it'll make you invisible to anything but pressure sensors or short range sonar."
After one last round of kisses between Ororo and Harry and her Jean waved farewell and Zippy, a young elf with a very odd braided haircut, popped her away.
"She was in a good mood wasn't she?" Harry said smiling happily.
"Success will do that to one my dear." She waved her hand, not incidentally waving it through the hard light projection of the earth. "This was a major project, and she not only succeeded, she exceled. That plus letting her in on High Note last week, it's no wonder she's euphoric."
"Chasing dreams and seeing them slowly come true can indeed provide a major attitude burst," Harry nodded. The two of them exchanged a grin and a lingering kiss then went to get ready for their own tasks.
OOOOOOO
Jean spent about an hour up in High Note playing around with Melody and staring out the viewport before tearing herself away to head down to the Atacama desert which was located in Chile. Flying down took her about an hour and a half, and she reveled in flight as she always did, zooming through the stratosphere down on a diagonal towards Chile. She passed briefly over Brazil, and remembered the odd reports about a city state of Roman expatriates having been discovered recently. If I have time I definitely want to stop in, that sounded fascinating, like a living, breathing Pompeii. Or at least do a flyby.
Soon enough Jean was over the desert. She frowned, sending out her senses, making certain there was no one around then lightened on the ground. While she trusted the feature Harry had built into her suit, to keep her from being seen unless she was moving too much, she didn't want to suddenly walk into anything she could avoid.
She needn't have bothered however, the Atacama desert was one of the most inhospitable places in the world, so hot, so arid, that only very tough or extremely adaptable life could live here, and no humans lived in it.
She momentarily dropped her telekinetic aura, and gasped slightly before raising it back quickly. "Yeah," she muttered, "no chance of other people being around here willingly." With her telekinetic aura up Jean could regulate her body's coolness a bit, much as she had been able up in space, but without it… Jean was in extremely good shape, but she had never dealt with a place like this. She concentrated for a moment closing her eyes and creating what Jean would term a loop of power, designating a bit of her mind to keeping it up while the rest of her concentrated on her exterior environment. After a moment Jean opened her eyes nodded and started to move her forward, looking around, raising her communicator to her face. "This is Phoenix to Gian-Diep-Chu, do you read me?"
After a few moments she heard a response from Dennis. He had chosen to simply go by the Vietnamese name of spymaster for now, though eventually he might choose something else if he continued to handle their communications like this. The voice going both were badly scrambled thanks to the communicators, and the use of call-signs and that would hopefully stop people from tracing them. "This is Gian-Diep-Chu, we read you, somewhat loud, not very clear, over."
"Can you walk me toward the target?"
"Confirm that, move to the north of your position on a straight line, you'll be looking for something on your right. Do you know what to look out for?" Dennis wasn't certain what they were searching for, but he knew just enough about magic to not want it out there where anyone could find it.
"Harry's notes say to look for a fang shaped rock with a very light blue marking right above where it sticks out of the ground, so yeah. Just tell me when I get right on top of it."
"Roger."
Jean soon reached the area right near where the map said the cache was and began to search around. This took her about an hour, by the end of which she was rather sweaty and irritable despite her ability to regulate her body temperature. However she had found the marker. A large stone, that seemed as if it had been carved naturally into the shape of fang, and a very small almost invisible line of blue paint along the bottom to denote the entrance to the secret cache.
Jean stared hard at what looked to be a solid stone surface of a huge rock face sticking out of the desert then reached forward pressing her hand against it. It was solid, but if the cache was here this was the place. She briefly wished that she knew a trick to duplicate that echolocation spell that Harry had briefly mentioned once when he was explaining how they had found the Hogwarts library. Jean shrugged stepped back and gestured, and a blast of telekinetic force slammed into the stone wall, shattering the rock face. When the dust cleared Jean saw that she had indeed found the entrance to the caves that housed Selene's ill-gotten gains.
She waited a brief moment, letting the air inside the cave to settle then moved in flaring her aura out to allow her some light to see by.
Inside the cave the ground was smooth, almost like a floor made of glass but it was made of volcanic rock instead, which was bizarre here in a desert. All the walls were made of the same volcanic rock or something, all Jean knew was it seemed to drink in the light from her aura, making it unable to truly light up the area until she flared it out even more, and she scowled irritably. "Thank God I'm the one doing this, Storm would be a wreck in here. Alright, I'm moving in, I doubt the coms will penetrate through solid rock, so I'm starting up again."
'Roger that, be careful, I don't want to explain to Mr. Wizard how you got yourself injured."
"Roger that," Jean chuckled.
She moved further inside, quickly leaving the small amount of light cast by the open entrance behind her. At the far back of the cave Jean found stone stairs leading down and she frowned thoughtfully. After a moment she sent a brief blast of telekinetic power forward, a wall of force that road the steps going downward.
Like Jean had almost expected this triggered several small poison darts shot out from the walls and ceilings. She frowned thoughtfully staring at them then pulled out her small viewing mirror. Harry had made these at the same time he had made one for Emma, and then had almost forgotten about handing them out to her and Ororo, only to be reminded by Hedwig a few days ago. "Storm?"
The mirror soon went from its normal reflective surface to opaque then it showed Ororo's face, smiling back at her. Her hair was undone, and it looked as if she was combing it after a shower as she responded. "Yes?"
"Sorry to interrupt you," Jean apologized, "but Mr. Wizard was right to be concerned, there are traps here. Can you give me any hints to what to look out for? I mean I just got lucky, I came upon these stairs and I decided not to trust them. I used my power to trigger several traps, but what if one of them collapses the ceiling on top of me or in front of me and blocks me from going forward or brings the whole down or something?" Despite this being a magical method of communication Jean was taking no chances.
Ororo frowned thoughtfully. "Most traps before technology truly became common place are pressure based, so if you're flying through you should be good. Avoid touching the walls however, they too might have traps on them. Keep a close eye out for tripwires in midair, and you may want to send forward a bit of dust every now and then to check for defendant tripwires, even infrared if that was around but when that place was built. I doubt it given the age of it, but you never know."
She went on from there, describing several types of other traps that Jean could be running into, finally finishing by "And if you see a lock or anything like that call me back, and be certain to hold up the mirror to it. There are several little traps that can be placed around the lock itself, but I know what to look for." She smiled briefly. "My time as a thief in Cairo did give me quite of bit of esoteric knowledge did not?"
Jean chuckled as she moved on, liking the fact that she could hear one of her lover's voice as she moved deeper into the dark gloominess of the caverns. "Yes, and made you into the person you are today. We're not just the sum of our good experiences Ororo, we're the sum of all of them, and if you hadn't gone through what you had you wouldn't be the magnificent woman Harry and I have grown to love."
Ororo smiled, happy that Jean had never looked down on her for her previous lifestyle. After all, Ororo hadn't just been a pickpocket. She had eventually become one of the best sneak thieves of Cairo which was how she had gone through Candra's defenses to steal that gem of hers, which Ororo subsequently turned in to her gang leader. Until that minor issue with her gang leader wanting to pimp her out came up Ororo had been quite at home on the street.
Ororo supposed she could have simply stayed in Cairo and gone into freelance work, but freelancers rarely survived long unless they were very, very good indeed, and while Ororo would hold up her hand to the first very, she wasn't quite at that level. Besides, Ororo had been a young girl at the time, and what could happen to a woman in that kind of profession didn't bear thinking about.
"Thank you for that Firebird," Ororo said looking at her with worry and love in her eyes. "Be careful, no amount of treasure is worth your life."
"No worries there Windrider." With that Jean and Ororo signed off and Jean made her way down further keeping all of her senses and pushing them out as far as she could, her fingers almost twitching in readiness to send out telekinetic power.
OOOOOOO
Ororo turned away from the mirror, placing it gently into her purse and watched as Nessy, who had become her sort of hand-elf, finished doing up her hair in a tight bun along the back of her head. She wanted to appear professional today, female yet professional, outgoing but not available. She had already talked to Emma, and the blond had helped her decide on the clothing and hair style, and with Nessy's help Ororo thought that she was able to convey the correct message. She had learned her lesson from that young man who kept on hitting on her, and she did not want to deal with that again. "Thank you for your help Nessy."
"You are most welcome miss," Nessy responded, curtseying. "Does miss want me to continue to look up uniform designs?"
"Yes thank you. There's no rush, but I think all of you would look much smarter if you had uniforms, and none of us have enough time to design them. Something understated though."
Nessy responded in the affirmative and popped out, after which Ororo exited the bathroom of the headmaster's suite nodding to Cory who was waiting there for her. "Can you pop me to Ireland please, the same place as before?"
"Yes miss, I'm able to pop anywhere my master has been, no matter how much time has passed." Cory had been able to pop to the place they were talking about because Harry had gone there before to talk to some government reps about what they could offer him as incentive.
"Hold on Ororo," Harry said, coming up the spiral staircase. "I want to hit you with a spell before you head out, it should help you from accidentally revealing any secrets and make whoever you talk to unable to share it with anyone else. Dennis just brought it to mind really."
"A most excellent idea my love," Ororo said bushing his cheek then stood still as he cast a spell on him for several minutes, muttering words under his breath.
Finally he nodded. "All done." Ororo thanked him, and the two exchanged another kiss then Cory popped her to a small unmonitored parking lot in Galway, Ireland.
Looking around, Ororo nodded. "Well done Cory, thank you." She briefly reached down again and ruffled his ears, smiling faintly. "I'll call you when I'm ready to go so can you follow me for now?"
Cory nodded, "Yes miss, I will follow you."
Ororo nodded and as the house elf disappeared to wherever they hid while waiting for orders she stepped out into the street, making her way down to a bus stop. Eventually she found herself outside of a small 'hole in the wall' pub, where she was scheduled to meet her first contact of the day, and in many ways it was the most important one as well. It would give them both another trainer for the team they were going to set up, as well as providing them with hopefully a second intelligence operative or an operative with intelligence experience at any rate, and a team member.
The man was already there, grabbing a beer from the bar when she entered, and Ororo took a moment to study him. Tallish, thin and athletic, decent looking she supposed, though not her type, wavy light ginger hair and brown eyes. Smile lines around a face that had seen quite a lot to not smile at, experienced but not old, age was given has 35. At present he was wearing a tweed sweater and some kind of flat hat she had only seen in a few fashion pictures before whose name escaped her. Done with her perusal she strode forward toward him, her hand outstretched to shake "Sean Cassidy?"
The man bowed gallantly. "Aye that'd be me m'darlin'" he said, in a full Irish brogue. "Would ya be Ororo Munroe then?"
"I am, shall we sit?" Ororo asked, gesturing to one of the tables.
She sat across from him and he sat down looking at her. "I' faith I don't know why you want ta meet with me lass, you offered a job in in your e-mail to me, but ye dinna go into any details. I have to say that while I'm takin' a wee hiatus from me work from Interpol, but I c'n be called back at any time." Sean had actually buried himself in his work for Interpol for years, ever since his wife had died thanks to his brother's neglect. That and one nights stands with women the world over had helped him ignore the pain, and eventually get over it. Of course his 'skills' made him in high demand to his superiors.
"I realize that," Ororo replied smiling faintly. "But I would like you to be aware of a job opportunity Mr. Cassidy, or should I call you Banshee?"
Sean leaned back, his eyes narrow now. "And had do you know that name lassie?"
"I'm certain you have read Interpol's files on powerful mutants, though hopefully they don't have that much on me. My name is Storm."
"So it's like that then is it?" Sean asked rhetorically, draining his beer. He looked over the rim of the glass toward her, trying to figure out what angle this was. He knew the name of Storm, but the file he had seen hadn't had a description of her. And if it had it certainly wouldn't have done her justice, he thought raking his eyes down her body discreetly. This is one enchanting woman. "Why don't you put your offer on the table lass, I've never been one to beat around the bush. Who exactly are you recruiting for, and why?"
Ororo smiled and did so, hitting the high points of their sales pitch, the fact that they were putting together a mixed unit of mutants, superpowered and normal humans both to defend mutant rights and to take on any world threatening issue that came up. But they had to be the right kind of people, both as people they could trust, and as role models. That eventually they would be stepping out into the public eye, and that they had already secured alliances with the Fantastic Four, who governmental suspicion were extremely well thought of by the general populace of both America and the world at large.
Sean sipped his beer thoughtfully. It sounds interesting, but how good could the team be?
He asked a few probing questions about the team and found to his surprise that he was the first person that was going to actually be recruited, but that they already had three people on it as well as a trainer and someone to head the intelligence division. "Who do ya 'ave fer that can I ask?"
Ororo paused for a moment thinking then shrugged and said "Sir Dennis Nayland Smith."
Sean's eyes widened, then he chuckled. "I know him, an upright an' honest individual, a little too honest for the spy game if ya ask me, which was why he stayed over in Vietnam after the rest of the Brits pulled their big noses out. That's a mark in yer teams favor lass."
It was Sean's turn to pause thoughtfully and he did so leaning back, tapping one finger on the table in front of him as he sipped his beer slowly. Finally he looked up at her and said "I'm not going to say yay or nay at the moment lass, but c'n I ask if you guys were involved in that ruckus in London a few weeks back?"
"There was much going on there that the public does not know, mainly for their own good. Suffice to say that there was a threat to the lives of everyone in London that could have eventually been a world class threat and we stopped it." Ororo answered affirmatively, yet without giving any real information.
The Banshee nodded thoughtfully then shrugged. "I'll tell you plain lassie, I'm interested. It sounds fascinatin', and if ye're connected to Mr. Wizard," and he chuckled a little at the name "then if e'en half the tales that're buzzin' 'round the spy community, at least I know ye'll have the firepower ta back ya up. I'll have to think about it some more, I'm not going to make a snap decision about this you ken, but I am interested."
Ororo smiled faintly. She prided herself on being a good judge of character, not as good as Harry possibly, but good nonetheless. She could tell his interest had spiked almost immediately when she said they would be fighting for mutant rights, as well as equality. And it spiked even more later on when he asked about London. There was also the fact that Harry had hit her with a modified Notice-Me-Not spell before he left the castle, so she had no qualms about giving him time to think about it. "That is fine Mr. Cassidy, if you wish you can reach us on this number.
She handed over a small card, which only held the number to the cell phone Reed had given Harry, nothing else. With that she stood up gracefully, and Sean stood up hastily. "You dinna need ta rush off Lassie, don't ya have time ta spend having a drink with an Irishman?"
Ororo shook her head firmly. "I'm sorry, but my boyfriend might not appreciate that."
Sean chuckled backing away. "Message understood lass."
After exchanging farewells the two of them backed away from one another, Ororo leaving the bar quickly and heading to a deserted alley where she could call Cory. She had a lot to do today, and with the time spent going from places where Harry and Cory had been to before to where she was meeting the teachers, she didn't have much time to spare.
OOOOOOO
Jean descended down the staircase without further incident, going down forty feet or so before she came out onto a long corridor sloping down. She kept moving down through the strange sloping corridor, stopping occasionally to close us down the corridor to check for wires. She wished Harry had been able to tell her more about any magical traps that could be in here, but his 'don't touch anything if you don't have to' hadn't been very helpful. The spell to see magic was somewhat helpful, though it didn't seem to see inactive magic, and didn't give her a total 360 degree view around her either.
Jean had felt something hit her telekinetic shields a few times, the first few had been rather weak, but the last one had actually made her stop and pour more power into her shield. It'd been an odd greenish glow that zoomed towards her from three corners the first two times.
The third time however it had been this almost oppressive black and red cloud that seemed to boil out of the very obsidian stones around her. It had actually been enough to push her back, though the oppressive fear and what Jean would call primeval emotions trying to break her mind couldn't get through her belsham-tress. "Good grief," Jean muttered, her voice loud in the dead air of the crypt. "That was unpleasant. Still, why do I get the impression that it was just the tip of the iceberg?"
By her estimate she had been going down for about an hour or so since she had called Ororo. She was going slowly, but that still meant that they were going deep into the ground, that wasn't good. "I really, really hope there isn't any kind of Indiana Jones-ish trap in here that collapses everything, that would truly suck."
Finally the slope ended, and she moved forward along the now level corridor.
Unlike the slope and the series of steps before it, this corridor was not simply matte black obsidian stone all around her. Instead it was lined with faces, all different, all looking somewhat human yet in the throes of great agony, fear or some other dark emotion. It was hard to tell, and Jean didn't care (and wasn't stupid enough) to examine any of them closely enough to find out. Warily Jean made her way through them, still floating in the air, trying to keep to the center of the corridor despite the fact that it was actually a bit wider here, so wide now that she and her two loves could probably have walked along it abreast with elbow room.
Jean didn't notice that set into the center of the floor which had always been smooth was a small line, moving from one end of the corridor together. At the direct center of that line was a slightly larger circle, going around a small socket that was filled not with the obsidian of the rest of the corridor but a black diamond. Black on black of course it molded into the rest of the background, but it's purpose was very different.
The somewhat intrepid explorer passed over it, and almost immediately she felt the difference in the air. It was more oppressive for one, and she could almost hear a throbbing noise in the air, beating at her senses. The silence of the corridor was suddenly broken by the sound of cracking noises, like stone grinding and shattering.
She looked around her as the masks came alive, and suddenly from out of the corridor's walls forming two dozen golems made of stone and iron. What was worse the a stone wall slammed down behind her, blocking her escape. "Shit," Jean growled, looking around for what the hell she had tripped and finding it right below her. "Damn," she muttered again shaking her head. "No wonder I couldn't see it. A trap, I guess an array of some kind set up on a black diamond on black. And my eyes couldn't spot it."
Then there was no more time for words, as the two nearest golems attacked her immediately. She dodged to one side, surprised at their speed which was well above human normal despite looking as if they weighed more than a main battle-tank. Her hand flashed out, slamming one backwards with a blast of telekinetic force but after a second it simply shrugged it off and kept on coming.
"Oh this is so not good," Jean growled, ducking again with telekinetic reinforced speed as her instincts warned her to duck. Doing so allowed her to avoid the punch that would've slammed into the back of her head. With a thought she reinforced her shield just in time to avoid being smashed aside by another blow in the side. Two more hammered into her shields, but they held for now, and she returned fire, throwing the golems way, but doing no real damage to them as more came on.
Jean reinforced her shield shaking her head. "Crap!" The blows hadn't quite gotten through her shield, but even with reinforcing it she had still felt it, and knew she might have a few bruises tomorrow. She slammed out the telekinetic blasts now rapid fire, not going for brute force this time but precision trying to find a weak point to blast through her attackers. Each attack was made to penetrate rather than to simply slamming into and she immediately saw a difference. The first golems Jean hit with it looked as if it had been made into Swiss cheese. Several jagged holes were blown straight through it even as she watched the stone of the corridor seem to flow up into it and the golem reformed. "That's new and rather irritatinGGG!"
Again she ducked under a blow this time slamming her hand back against the golem, pushing a blast of telekinetic power through the slap using it as momentum to push herself back in away from the middle of the corridor ducking and dodging so that eventually she was back where she had started.
"This way I don't have to guard my back against any of you at least, allowing me time to do this," Jean said holding her hand up in the air while her other held up a shield keeping them away from her. In her palm flickered a tiny flame, growing into a large fireball swiftly, then she concentrated on compressing it. She waited a brief moment, putting more even more power into her shields just in case, then thrust her hand forward sending the now nail sized fireball towards her attackers.
A moment later it hit the first and Jean had to close her eyes reflexively as the blackness of the corridor lit previously only by her aura suddenly flared with a massive explosion. There was a resounding "BOOOM!" and Jean shuddered as her shields almost failed and she was thrown backwards into the closed door behind her, slamming into with punishing force despite her shield. She gasped, and it was almost like was there was no air to breathe for a second, but Jean waited it out, her eyes closed trying to regain her battered sight for a moment.
When Jean again opened her eyes it was to see a corridor that had been slagged from end to end. The obsidian of the wall was actually bubbling, turning into molten rock in places, and all of the golems were just gone.
Jean breathed a sigh of relief before standing up on shaking legs. "Note to self, no more using compressed fireballs inside." He turned to the door leading back the way she had come debating whether to break it down now or when she had to actually retreat but Jean decided against doing so just yet. Who knew, the thing might be booby-trapped either magically or physically, and could trigger a general collapse.
With that thought Jean turned away and again moved forward, walking now wanting to conserve her power for any future use just in case. About three minutes walking past the black diamond that had been the center of the golem trap the passageway took a sharp right turn, and about five feet in was a large wooden door. Or at least it looks like wood, at first glance. When Jean stood before it she realized it wasn't wood but a kind of bone, aged and darkened, lots of different sized bones melded together to look like slates of wood. "Okay that's just disgusting," Jean said this stepping back a little. "Selene was one crazy bitch."
Jean moved back towards the turning point, almost hiding her body around the turn and aimed a blast of telekinetic fire at the door. The blast continued for a moment then she stopped and looked, staring. That last should've been blown the door into its composite atoms, but it had simply absorbed her flames. There wasn't even a mark on it. "As Harry would say, bugger," Jean frowned, pulling at her hair thoughtfully. "Methinks I need to find another way."
She looked around the entrance way, trying to find anything that looked magical or like a switch or anything like that. She didn't find anything, but she hadn't really hoped to. Instead Jean stared up at one of the corners of the stone arch around the wood, and smiled. "I wonder if this stone is protected in the same way as the wood."
She raised her hand, tapping the rock there with one finger and concentrated, pushing her kinetic power into the rock face through her finger. It was slow going, because she didn't want to just blast her way through and trigger another trap. "Slow and easy, slow and easy" she chanted to herself, more to break up the oppressive silence of the corridor than in real need.
A moment later there was a crack, and the small triangular shaped area of obsidian rock above the doorway shattered. She caught the pieces with small tendrils of telekinetic power and sent it around the corridor to join the rubble from the destroyed golems, not noticing that a few of those remains were twitching.
Jean flew up so that she could see through the hole she had just created lighting her finger and moving her hand into the space so that she could see on the other side, and smiled brightly. What she could see was something almost like Harry's laboratory that he was setting up at Hogwarts and up in High Note. There were dozens of books lining the walls in large black (what else?) bookshelves, though the majority of bookcases were not filled looks but with other paraphernalia. There was a large crystal ball of some kind set on top of a plinth in the middle of the room, surrounded by fluffy large pillows, sort of like what you would find in a Bedouin tent. There was a wooden chair in front of a table in one corner near another, smaller bookshelf.
She sent her telekinetic power forward slithering down the back side of the door, and she at last found a latch and she unbolted it quickly, opening the door with a loud creak. With that, Jean stepped into the work room, looking around. Grabbing a bit of rock dust from the hallway she scattered it around everywhere, coating everything in the lab with a layer of it but not seeing any further traps.
With that done she took another step into the lab, looking at a few of the items and frowning faintly. Jean's telekinetic power was her primary power, but that was personal preference rather than a sign of its power level in comparison to her telepathy. Her telepathy was also very powerful indeed, but it also leaned more towards picking up emotion as well as thoughts rather than simply thoughts than Emma's or even Betsy's and she didn't like using it much.
Jean had rarely been in the position of being able to feel emotions from items, but some of these items were very odd. One of them looked like some kind of demon elves, and she almost she shuddered at the malevolent aura it was giving off. Other items gave off emotions of fear, and one or two seemed to be almost trying to grab her attention, but their attempts couldn't get through her belsham-trees.
Others were simply odd in appearance, one of them looked almost alien. One was some kind of helmet, which looked somewhat Egyptian but was clearly not, and made of a shiny metal, half of it missing, sheered off by some magical blast or something, but it was the shape of it which told Jean it had not been made for anyone with a human's head, more pointed in the back. Jean looked at it closer than the others, wondering what it could be.
Mindful of both her lovers' advice about not touching anything Jean moved back reached for the mokeskin pouch Harry had given her hanging on her belt. She opened it as wide as she could and with a thought she began to gather in books and items, tossing them all inside without touching any of them.
Jean whirled around suddenly to face the doorway having heard something moving. In the doorway stood a golem, though this one wasn't as well put together as they original ones had been. It had three arms, one arm taking place of a leg and one of the upper arms looked as if it had been patched together. Behind it she could see more movement, and Jean frowned faintly rubbing her nose irritably. "What does it take to put you lot down permanently!?"
She raised her hand, creating a shield around the door pushing the first golem back into its fellows and she held them there with one hand while her other systematically continued the task of filling the moleskin pouch with the items here.
Finally Jean removed the last item, the giant crystal ball from the center of the room. Not once did she touch any of the items. Once that was done Jean turned her attention to entrance way again frowning. I don't want to keep fighting these bastards all the way back… With that in mind she asked the air around her hopefully "Er, any house elf listening?"
Nothing happened and she shrugged. She hadn't thought she'd be able to summon a house elf. She had never actually been able to unless one had already been assigned and watching her. The elves didn't make a big deal about it, but they preferred to take orders from Harry than Ororo or Jean.
She hesitated just a moment too long, and the first golem had somehow reentered the doorway, one of its fingers on the hand that had replaced a leg scrapping along the stone of the entrance way under her shield. When that happened it triggered another trap. This one was designed as a purely destructive one rather than one designed to kill or keep out explorers and suddenly the entire room was filled with purple lights.
Jean backed away into a corner, raising her shield and making it so that it blacked out the air just in case of some kind of gas and then suddenly the purple lights all shot out purple lines connecting to one another. There was a flash and a resounding sound like a keening wail, and Jean shuddered as her body began to vibrate as if it was coming apart.
She reinforced her shield again, blocking out any and all sound or light or any other kind of sensation. Jean didn't even notice when the golems that had forged through the doorway when she rerouted the power that she had been using along that shield to her own came through and began to crumble into nothingness, nor did Jean notice when everything in the room fell apart or exploded, adding to the keening wail as if the sound was somehow in some was attacking the molecular bonds of everything inside the room.
At the same time her belsham trees came under attack from a brute force assault, hammering in. Hastily Jean threw out the image of a massive steel and stone wall to reinforce them, and even then she couldn't block out the pain getting through. Jean gritted her teeth though, pushing back with all the will that had made her the first true avatar of the Phoenix since before the creation of the earth, holding the line both physically and mentally with grim determination.
The attack seems to go on forever, but Jean continued to fight back, pouring more and more of her will into the shields trying to keep it together. Eventually it subsided and she slowly allowed her senses to come back one at a time, though she still kept her shields up for a moment.
Once she was certain the danger had passed Jean went to her knees as she at last released her control, gasping in air for the first time inside this dungeon without her telekinetic shield between her and the air. She was so exhausted that she didn't even notice, and she suddenly wasn't looking forward to having the flyer back to High Note. "Holy crap," she gasped, "what the hell was that!?"
She looked around, and noticed that there was nothing in the room anymore. The rugs, the plinth in the center, the bookshelves the tables and the golems, both those, everything was gone as if it never existed. There wasn't even any dust or other residue on the floor. "I seriously hope Selene doesn't have something like that set up at all her caches," Jean said pushing her to her feet with a groan. She almost reached out to the wall to steady herself but first made certain there was nothing underneath her hand before touching it. Once that was done she looked around again, and noticed that something was different. Where before had stood one of the bookcases against the far wall there was now a small hand sized open aperture.
Jean looked inside of it, and realized with surprise that she would barely be able to fit one of her rather small hands inside yet on the other side was a slightly wider hidden hidey-hole. Resting on the floor of that wider area was a gem about as big as her hand with all her fingers extended. She sort of recognized it, she had seen two like it before. "Well now," she muttered, smirking a little. "It looks as if Juggernaut's patron is about to lose another tether on this world." She frowned thoughtfully though, because it wasn't the red color that the other two gems she'd seen associated with Cytorrak had been. Instead it was yellow, almost like a citrine.
"Now if I was a bitch like Selene would I put a final trap on something like this? Yes I would," Jean muttered to herself, kneeling down so that she looked closely at the edge of the tiny hand sized opening. It took her a single look to realize the gem or her hand would have to scrape along the top or bottom if she just reached in and tried to remove the gem physically.
And even with my telekinetic power it's not going to be easy to get that gem out without touching any of the sides. So the entire thing is probably a pressure or touch based trap of some kind. Harry said there were a few wards like that.
Jean stepped well away, taking a moment to gather herself before reaching forward with one hand two fingers extended as she sent a tiny tendril of telekinetic power through the small aperture. Carefully and very slowly Jean raised the gem into the air, moving it forward just enough so to make certain that she had judged the height right and then slowly moving it through the opening.
Selene had been even trickier then that however, as there was a slight dip in the upper side of the small opening, and Jean had to alter the gems flight just slightly to move around it
"Pity I didn't find something shut all the wards and defensive spells down," Jean said to herself, as the gem finally came out of the aperture without having touched the side. "Or maybe there isn't anything like that around. Some of these traps seem much more final and pyrrhic to be the kind someone can turn off."