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Jean actually did not get to the bath before being told Ororo had gone off. She had stopped by her room to grab a change of clothing then was interrupted by one of the house elves on her way to the bath. It was the majordomo, Dilly, and he looked a little worried. "Miss, new peoples just popped into the entrance hall. It be by a Portkey made by the master, Her Owliness be's with them, but we's cannot talk to them. Young Derry be with them. Missie Ro be gone, and Simmy says she be off to someplace far off, she told him to direct her to a dot on the, the floating globe thingie." Dilly was one of the few house-elves who made a point of speaking in the manner they had for so long, despite Ororo's lessons, and he wasn't very at home with technology, but he did such a good a job at running the castle, Harry was willing to overlook his faults.
The redhead looked at her bundle of clean clothing then sighed, nodding resignedly. "I'll be right down." Jean pulled off her tight shorts and pulled on a pair of jeans but didn't change her shirt, not wanting to put on clean clothing until she was able to take a bath.
She went downstairs as quickly as possible, coming down the main staircase into the entrance hall. Down below were two people who looked to be in their 70's or so, possibly younger, it was hard to tell with how weathered they were. Between the two, was a young girl of ten or so with blonde hair falling down her shoulders wearing a very furry looking tiger shaped pajama suit. What was astonishing however was that Hedwig was perched on one of her shoulders.
While the two grandparents were looking around themselves warily, she looked much more interested than anything. In fact, the girl was trying to talk in rapid fire Russian, if Jean had to guess, to a young male house elf. Derry was one of the better cleaners among the house-elves but that was, of course, no help right now in dealing with someone who couldn't speak English.
In fact, the knowledge that Jean couldn't follow the language caused her to groan aloud. "Of course, it just had to be a language I don't speak. Crap!"
Her voice grabbed the attention of all four of the beings below. Derry sighed in relief, popping out quickly, which caused the young girl to gasp in shock, but the two grandparents hadn't even noticed. They stared up the stairs at Jean, and she somehow felt they were a little disapproving of her mode of dress. Jean shrugged that off however and continued down the steps.
The grandfather tied to talk to her but she shrugged. "I can't understand you, sorry." She pointed at herself. "Jean."
The girl popped up form where she had been squatting, pointing at herself, then up at her grandparents. "Illyana. Babushka, Dede."
Jean smiled warmly, pointing at her mouth and miming eating movements then shook her head. "Hold on, why am I doing this? I bet Sir Dennis can talk Russian and, if not, I can contact Ororo to translate." She motioned for the trio to follow her, and led the way into the dining hall, smiling when Illyana gasped at the sight of the dining hall and the large map hovering in the air in the center of it. Another young elf was there and he turned to stare at Jean with relief. "Miss Jean, mistress Ororo ordered me to wait here and direct her dot on the map to the other one. She said she saw two names of young boys in danger in the Big Book of Students."
"I understand." Jean said, shrugging. "When it rains, it pours, ah well. I can handle this, could you pop down to Sir Dennis and ask him if he can speak Russian? If he can, pop him back here."
"I will do so miss." Simmy replied, popping away immediately, very relieved he wasn't going to have to work with the technology any more. Even if he had been taking lessons from Clare and a few others who handled it better, the computers and stuff still bothered him.
Not a moment later he was back, with a somewhat drunk Sir Dennis in tow. "Heellloooo, young lady. I've 'HICK', been told you needs a trans, trans, voice person thingy."
Jean slapped her hand over her face irritably, and Illyana giggled, while her grandparents shook their heads. The one called Dede said something to his wife in Russian. "I thought Mr. Potter's operation would be more professional than this. We have one girl who dresses like a shlyukhawhore, several little creatures who can somehow disappear which we cannot communicate with, and a drunk old man with questionable taste in clothing."
"I would not try to call her that again sir, the young redhead has a bit of a temper at times and she is no slut. Those are just the clothing she wears when she is working on engineering projects." Dennis responded in Russian, sobering somewhat. "Normally, I am no drunk, but a good friend of mine died recently and I was having my own personal wake for him." That mollified both grandparents somewhat, they were old hands at grief. Dennis then went on. "May I ask you who you three are and how you arrived here? Going by what you just said, I must conclude Mr. Potter sent you here?"
After that the two older adults gave a description of what had happened, with Mr. Potter and their grandson having stayed behind for some reason. When that was relayed to Jean, she sighed. "I imagine Harry wanted to stay behind to see what he could figure out about how the Russian government is treating mutants. Though why he allowed the young man, Piotr?" She asked, looking at their guests, who all nodded, with Illyana exaggeratedly enunciating her brother's name. "Piotr, I have no idea why Harry would allow him to stay."
"Our grandson has a high sense of honor, if he saw Harry wanted to stay, he might well have decided to stay and help." The grandfather replied, after this was translated, his voice a mix of stoicism and pride in his grandson.
"Damn it." Jean muttered. "Why do I think he's going to run into more than he expected. Oh, that's right, that's how the world fucking works for all of us! Well, I suppose I can set you three up in one of the rooms here for now."
Even while saying that, Jean sent out her telepathy, searching for that connection she shared with Harry. Yet after only a moment she sighed and came back to her body. She couldn't project her thoughts anywhere near far enough to contact her lover. Harry was on his own for now.
She looked around and asked the air, "Can I ask a house elf to prepare a room for three guests please, with three beds?" Jean actually wanted to go and race after Harry, but if he was moving there was no way one of the house-elves would be able to get to him without first being called. If she just tried to fly to Russia, it would take her several hours at least. She couldn't move nearly as fast through air as she could through space, something she had noticed during her adventures the other day.
Two female house elves popped in and bowed. "We will do this, miss Jean, where would you like them to be?"
"In the first room on one of the sides of the Gryffindor tower, I think. Those rooms are already set up for residences. We can switch them to a room on the seventh floor, once we go out and shop for some furniture." She turned to the three Russians and smiled. "For now, why don't you get these three something to eat, if they want anything, and then show them outside? With the time difference, you all are nine hours ahead of us, so you should get used to it if you can."
At that moment, the door to the dining hall opened and Melody stumped in happily, followed by Shiang-Chi. The stag seemed to have dissipated, though how long that had taken Jean had no idea. "Hello Ms. Jean! Oh, and who are these?"
Illyana looked at the slightly older girl and smiled, waving her hand shyly. Melody returned the gesture and Jean smiled. "Good timing, Melody. This is Illyana and her grandparents. Her older brother is a mutant who is back where they came from in Russia with Harry. Could you first get her some jeans or something, then show Illyana around, particularly the lake area? They should try to stay up until at least nine, and I bet you and Illyana can have some fun until then."
Melody looked at the slightly younger girl, entranced by the songs she saw there, a mix of rustic tones and lilting woodwinds that she could almost match to some songs she had seen in Fantasia, along with another song that had odd rumbling tones to it, which she could see in the two old people as well. "Sure, I can show her around! It will be fun." She held out her hand with a faint, almost tremulous smile. Melody was all too used to being bullied or ignored because of her powers, but was willing to try to make friends.
The blonde girl reached out and took Melody's hand, not having understood anything the girl with the multicolored hair and forest-folk features had said, but knew she was being friendly and that was enough. The castle itself was so amazing to her that she was still dealing with it, the idea of having a new friend to show her around was just icing on the cake.
The two young girls raced off together with Hedwig following through the air much more sedately. Is it just me, or did Hedwig seem rather fond of the young Russian girl? Jean turned, with a faint smile, to the other two Rasputins. "As for you two, I think we can set you up outside somewhere in the sun and the warmth and ask one of the house elves to bring you some food…"
OOOOOOO
With the dissolution charm on her costume covering her, Ororo had no need to worry about being seen, so she rocketed along as fast as her powers over air could propel her, which was very fast indeed. Still, she had barely begun to fly through Italy's airspace when Jean's voice came over the headset. She had left the communication mirror at home, unfortunately. "Your timing was particularly abysmal for this little excursion, Storm. The moment you left, Mr. Wizard portkeyed in the family of the mutant he went to help."
After that Jean filled Ororo in and the African beauty shook her head in amusement. "Good grief, I wonder what Mr. Wizard is up to. Still, never fear Phoenix, I should be back in a few hours. After I return, we will need to figure out if we can somehow go after him."
"I don't know how we could, unless he calls one of the house-elves to him first and we get him or her to take us along, we might be able to get there simply flying there, but not in any kind of timely fashion."
"Hmm… you're right, just trying to fly to Siberia would take far too long, even this trip down to Sudan is a little overlong."
"That's what I thought," Jean agreed with her. The two made small talk for a time as Ororo swiftly flew through the air, faster by far than most jet fighters could go, zooming through the air towards her target near the border between Sudan and Eritrea as night descended around her.
About two hours flight, brought her over the Mediterranean Sea and then she was in Egyptian airspace, moving through the now dark sky. Fifty minutes later, she was nearing her target and she called back. "Phoenix, I think I'm near my target area. If I am, can you direct me in?"
"Roger that, and yeah, you're very close, I would say head down and toward the sun on an angle, and you should be right over the area. Though why the Big Book of Students gave you longitude and Latitude, I don't know."
"I assume it will only do that if the area the prospective student is living doesn't have addresses. In Sudan, that makes sense." Indeed, very few countries in Africa, in particular, had the organization necessary to actually have set addresses. So when the Big Book of Students gave them longitude and latitude as well as a description of the building that was actually the best it could do. Here it gave the longitude, latitude, and 'shanty building created by pieces driftwood and metal siding'.
Ororo landed gently on the ground and wondered for a moment if she should've brought along a change of clothing, so as to not appear so unusual, but she shrugged that off. In fact, if I'm lucky they'll have heard a description of me from my time in the Serengeti. I know that my time as a goddess spread the rumor of my powers far and wide. Indeed, Ororo remembered several times during that era of her life when young men and a few young women from other tribes and nations came to look for her, though most never found her.
The area where this house was located was a widespread shantytown on the outskirts of some inland city, the houses made of bits and pieces of metal and wood, none of them permanent, all of them barely enough to be called houses. There were no paved roads here, only hard dirt tracks. While there were several trucks and cars here, all of them were old. One of them looked as if it had been made during World War 2. More looked as if they were spliced together from several different types of cars. All of them showed wear and tear well above what they should've taken, but in areas like this they were probably the best anyone here could do. This was the case for far too much of Africa, but then again it was the case in far too much of Europe as well, it was just that hit Ororo harder here.
Despite the fact that the area was so run down there were dozens of people around, and several half-dressed and more than a few almost entirely undressed children running around. Ororo frowned at that sight, remembering all too easily her own childhood on the streets of Cairo.
That sense of familiarity was heightened as she drew closer to the house she was here to see, which was on the right side of the ramshackle town near a small copse of trees. It was two voices raised in anger, though apparently not at one another. As she grew closer, she was able to discern actual words, and she easily translated them from Sudanese Arabic. "This is the last damn time, you two have destroyed too many electronics! If you two freaks can't control yourselves I'm putting both of you out on the streets! See how long you last without someone to look after you!" That was, surprisingly, a female voice, and the hate in it was practically physical. "If we didn't have to take care of you two maybe we could actually make something of our lives!"
There was a plaintive voice now, one that sounded much younger than the two who had been yelling. "But mom we didn't do it! We don't…"
There was a slapping sound and Ororo hastened her steps, her face growing flinty. She had to stop and compose herself for a moment before knocking on the door. This act made her Disillusion ward fail abruptly, causing several passersby to stop and stare, but she ignored them with ease.
"Who the fuck is knocking on the door?! If you two have been causing trouble again…"
Ororo waited, controlling herself with the ease of long practice, although at the moment, what she really wanted to do was tear apart the house with her wind power and, possibly, whoever was inside yelling at their children like that, but she womanfully refrained. For every family like the Prydes, there must be its polar opposite, I suppose, she thought, rather sadly. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something about that in this case.
The door was opened by a large man about six inches taller than Ororo, but he was also very fat. It wasn't the fat of over eating, the man instead had a major beer belly. His arms were somewhat muscled and he seemed to take inordinate pride in them, given the fact that he was wearing a muscle tee and had crossed them in anger the moment he opened the door. A rather childish display, in Ororo's opinion, as was the anger on his face when faced by a stranger. "Who the fuck are you!"
From behind the man, a whiny voice, the same female voice that spoke earlier, spoke up now. "Dressed like that she can either be a whore or some kind of circus freak. Maybe she's here to take our freaks off our hands!"
It was with extreme difficulty that Ororo kept control of herself. "While I am neither of those things, that might be why I am here. But may I come in, I don't think this is conversation you would wish us to have on your doorstep?"
The man paused about to launch into a fresh tirade but something in the white-haired woman's eyes caused him to falter and stepped back. "Fine," he mumbled, "you can come in."
He stepped back and Ororo stepped forward through the makeshift door, which was made from very badly cut wood that did not fit into the actual opening. She kept her eyes on the man as she did, staying well out of range of any sudden lunge. One hand also fell to her waist, where Ororo had one of her hold out daggers hidden behind her belt buckle. She hadn't thought to grab the utility belt that Harry had put together, but Ororo was always armed with at least one holdout knife.
There were three other people in the small room that was obviously the main area of the small house and Ororo took a moment to look them over. The woman, she assumed the wife and mother of the house, was sallow faced and rather unpleasant looking, the sort of person you would not want to talk to talk to on the road or attempt to converse with. There were signs she might've been better looking when she was younger, but like her husband the passage of time had not been kind.
There were two boys as well, young teens of fourteen or so, and Ororo looked at them closely. The older one had a guarded expression on his face, and was staring hatefully at his father. He was somewhat malnourished, though not as much is the younger brother, and seemed to be somewhat tougher, more inured to the blandishments of their parents. He glanced at Ororo and it was with a jolt that she realized he was trying to figure out if she was a threat or not. Both boys had their hair completely shaved, which in this area was probably a very good thing. The younger boy looked fearful, although not of Ororo but of his own parents. Unlike the older brother, he seemed somewhat more inquisitive in terms of Ororo. But it was obvious that he would follow the older brother's lead, who stood in front of him protectively.
"Hello." Ororo said pleasantly nodding her head to the two children, trying to appear as nonthreatening as she could, which, given her normal regal air and somewhat imposing presence, at first meeting anyway, was a little hard. The older one looked at her even more dubiously, but the young one returned her smile tentatively.
After a second, she looked around at the parents. "My name is Storm." she said holding up one hand and generating a lightning bolt there for a moment which went from one finger to the other "I am what is known as a mutant, an individual given power by a chance mix of genes. There are many of us worldwide and all of us, when we start out, need to train our powers, either by ourselves in some fashion or preferably in conjunction with others. I am here to see if I can interest you in sending your children off to have their powers be trained in a safe environment."
Surprisingly, neither parent questioned how Ororo had found out about their children's powers or, rather they did, just not in the manner she would have thought. "Oh just what we needed, our freaks attracted another freak!" the woman spat angrily.
Ororo couldn't tell whether or not she truly was that bigoted or simply hated her children for some other reason. She knew that there were parents like that, parents who saw their children as burdens, but she had never understood why. To Ororo, who had seen far too many children dead on the street or babies dead from disease before their first birthday among the tribes who worshiped her, all children were a gift from the gods.
The woman went on. "If you want the freaks, then fucking take them, so long as we don't have to fucking pay for it!"
"I think that is enough of that." Ororo responded, now showing a bit more anger. Despite that she turned to address her next comment to the children as well as the parents. "Mutants are not, as you put it, freaks, we are simply chance byproducts of a possible evolutionary step. That does not make us freaks! Our mutations make us different, yes, but different does not mean evil, wrong, or unnatural. It doesn't make us better, it doesn't make us worse, we are all still human. Moreover, these are your children, your flesh and blood!"
"They're a fucking burden, that's what they are," growled the man flexing his arms angrily. "My wife's right, if you want the little bastards, you can take them."
Ororo stared angrily at the two parents, all of her self-control now brought to bear on her anger so that she didn't simply wiped the two out with hurricane force winds. Or freeze their bodies with subzero temperatures and then shatter them, electrocute them, or any number of ways that she could use to wipe out these blemishes on humanity. Ironically enough, thinking of all the ways she could kill the two of them actually calmed Ororo down.
She turned to the two children, who were both staring at her with wide eyes. The older brother had kept his gaze on his father for most of the discussion, but had been sneaking glances at Ororo. Since her little light show and speech, his eyes had slowly changed from their guarded expression to being filled with suppressed hope. Ororo knelt, bringing her face level with theirs and said gently, "Well, would you to like to come with me?" They both shared a glance, and then the older brother nodded, followed quickly by the younger. "What are your names?"
"I'm Christopher," the older boy said, trying to sound older and tougher than he was by making his voice low and gravelly. "This is Jesse."
Ororo stood up, moving slightly to one side and turning swiftly to look at the father, who had been trying to get behind her for some reason. "Very well, I will be taking these two with me. Frankly," she said staring angrily at both parents, "if I have my way, you'll never see them again. You are two of the worst examples of humanity it has been my horror to meet the past two years and I hope to never see you again myself, either. But if these two were abused in any way, above and beyond the malnutrition I can see, then I may well be back to… discuss that with you." Her whole body started to crackle with power, lighting her body up like a Christmas tree with little electric lights, the wind rising around her. Both parents shied away fearfully, but the sight brought a grin to Christopher's eyes and a small smile from Jesse.
With the two parents thoroughly cowed Ororo gestured again for the two children to precede her outside. She kept her eyes on the two parents as she followed the kids, closing the door behind her.
She turned to see the children looking at her apprehensively and she sighed faintly. "I'm sorry that you have had to deal with those two, I can promise that where you are going no one will yell at you like that, no one will blame you for your powers, and no one will call you a freak. We can help you understand and control your powers."
"Why?" Jesse's voice cracked a little, and there were tears in his eyes. Christopher's eyes were dry, and he was staring at the doorway hard. "Why don't our parents love us?"
Ororo sighed again, going down to one knee and reaching out gently to trace his face with one hand. The fact that Jesse flinched a little at her touch made her anger rise up again but she fought it down. The important thing was to get these two away, not to take vengeance on the parents. "I don't know child, but I do know it wasn't you or anything you did, no matter how much they wanted to try and blame you for it. Nothing about you caused your parents to act like that. Some people are simply petty and hateful and some fear what they do not understand."
Christopher scoffed. "They looked at us like a burden even before our powers developed. Even if we don't understand, it we know we're different. They just called us a burden, but if they didn't want us, why the hell did they have us in the first place?"
"That I cannot answer." Ororo said standing up. "There isn't anything inside there you to want to keep is there?" Both brothers shook their heads and she nodded. "Good." She frowned suddenly. "I should have thought about this before," she muttered to herself in English shaking her head, then raised her head looking around. "Can I have a house elf appear here please?"
The young female house elf, Clare, did so, wearing a pink frock, at the moment, which was rather quite fetching on her or so she thought. Clare had begun to develop a taste in clothing but her main claim to fame was still being the second-best popper around. "Yes, Ms. Ororo?" Claire piped up in her voice squeaky but the sudden appearance of her had caused both brothers to jump back in alarm before staring at the little creature, who was even shorter than Jesse. "What can I do for you?"
"Could you pop all three of us back to the castle, Clare?"
Clare frowned a little while the two children looked lost, not able to follow the language. "I will be having to take the children back first Ms." she said looking at the two malnourished children clucking under her breath at the sight. "I will also be telling the cooks to get some food ready for them. It is nearly dinnertime in any case. These two look as if they could use several meals worth of good food."
When Ororo translated this and told the children what was going to happen, both brothers perked up visibly, having only been given enough to live on by their parents.
Ororo gave her approval and Claire popped off with the two children holding her hands. A moment later she was back, and Ororo, still ignoring the crowd around her who had begun muttering and shouting, she too disappeared.
At the entrance to the shanty town stood a man who was dressed in a tiger stripped loincloth and who had the look of a jungle tribesman, though his eyes were shrewd, offsetting that somewhat. The man frowned as he watched the goddess disappear. It was only chance that had put him here in this shantytown to hear the murmurings of a African woman with goddess-like beauty and white hair and he had arrived to get to speak to her. "King T'challa will wish to hear about this." he murmured, wondering where the goddess had disappeared to and what the little creature had been. Regardless, the king would be pleased to know that the goddess of weather was still alive.
OOOOOOO
Piotr watched as Harry began to weave spells, his fingers flicking through the air and suddenly across from him stood a replica of Piotr. At the originals astonished gaze Harry shrugged. "It's a simulacrum, a golem that you can sort of program to respond as the person who it resembles. Normally, it would be a sorcerer spell, but I can power it easily enough, unlike sympathetic magic, which I have no idea how to use. Wish I did actually, that way I could connect it to you and let you control it."
At Piotr's blank, look Harry went back to the original topic. "Now, if you help me with this, I can get it to act like you for a time. How long that is, I have no idea but when they come to take you, they can take this instead. Then we can follow them back to their base and figure out what they're doing with mutants in this country."
Piotr nodded, looking worriedly at the image in front of him. "Do I really look like that?" he asked.
"I don't think any of us look exactly the way we picture ourselves." Harry said, shrugging. "Now, let's walk through what kind of questions we can expect the people who come to collect you to ask."
They did this for about forty minutes until they heard the sound of jeeps pulling up outside and shouted orders. Harry quickly cast a dissolution spell on Piotr and himself, then pulled out his Invisibility cloak and threw it about their shoulders just in case, before pulling Piotr back into one of the corners of the small entrance hall. Then he cast a Mufilatio over them both, to cover their voices and any other noise.
Harry chuckled, but said warningly. "Try not to move too much. I don't want to throw too many spells around just in case they have someone here who can sense it."
"I have not heard of the government having a magic user," Piotr muttered, "but I take your meaning."
A final spell zipped from one of his fingers to impact the simulacrum in its forehead. It began to move, looking around nervously as the noise from outside registered on its 'senses', but other than that stayed put, silent and waiting.
Piotr stared down at his own body as the line of disillusion went down his body. "This is a very odd experience."
They watched from the corner when thirty seconds later, the front door suddenly burst open. Six heavily armed troopers came in, wearing black mufti and infrared goggles over their eyes. At their barked command, the simulacrum held its hands above its head and two of them stayed put, keeping their guns on it while the rest moved through the house.
They quickly came back. An officer entered soon after, staring at the simulacrum then looking around as one of the troopers whispered in his ear. "Where has your family gone!?" he barked.
"I asked them to leave."the simulacrum said calmly. "I knew you would come. I surrender, I will not put up a fight."
The man, an army major or something similar, Harry wasn't well read on Russian military ranks, frowned. It was unusual for the family to up and abandon the person like that entirely, most of the time they simply waited until the state came to collect their shame, but the reports had told him it was composed of two old grandparents and a young girl so they couldn't have gotten far. If they had to find them, just in case, they could do so later. "You understand why I am here. Your power makes you both a threat and a resource for the state."
"I understand." the simulacrum nodded, "I will come quietly."
The man nodded. There were always a few who did come quietly. Whether or not he would be useful, was still up in the air. The reports of the young man's power however were impressive. If he remained biddable, he could be an asset to the Super-Soldier program. "Good to see you are a patriot. Leave everything behind, your identity as a civilian has ended. Your identity as a servant of the state has begun."
Piotr snorted, a sound that caused Harry to look up at him quizzically. Piotr saw his look and shrugged. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, yes? I wonder if the military has even had to change their public speaking lessons since the fall of communism."
"Yes, exactly what is going on here with the government and everything anyway?" Harry muttered, watching as the simulacrum march out with the soldiers before motioning Piotr over to follow him as he moved towards the back door. "I've read the news, and after the fall of communism it looked as if Russia was going to become a democratic state but…"
"Democracy is all well and good, but stability is better, yes?" Piotr said, shrugging his shoulders in pure Slavic stoicism. "The Americans and their allies put in place the pieces of democracy here, but they could not keep the trash being picked up, the food flowing from one place to another. They left and other people moved back in. The KGB is still around in various forms and people who were high up in the final days of the Soviet era still have that power or have passed it on. In Russia, the trappings do not matter so much as the reality. And of course," he said, now showing some more insight then most would have thought to hear from a farmer, "the government keeps people from noticing this by focusing on external and internal threats. Islamic terrorists, the 'mutant threat', and of course European and American aggression, all of these have been used. Oh, and China of course."
"So people don't really notice that they're not exactly represented because they prefer to have the simple things taken care of day by day. Wish I could say that came as a surprise to me. Though, I didn't expect that insightful an answer from you, given the fact that I didn't see a TV or even a radio in your house back there."
Piotr shrugged. "Farmers gossip, Mr. Potter, and we all exchange news. There are many things that can affect farming and the crops after all and we need to be aware of more than just the weather."
"Makes sense, I suppose." Harry shrugged. By this time they had exited the small garden at the back of the house, and had turned to look at the group of soldiers, about a platoon spread out in five open trucks. "What I know about nonmagical farming could fit in a thimble. Come on." he said rising into the air and casting a levitation spell on the larger Russian, who squawked a little as he felt his feet leave the ground. Ahead of them, the simulacrum had gotten into one of the jeeps and the troopers were pulling out.
Piotr visibly controlled himself, looking down at the group of soldiers. "Are you certain they will still not see us?"
"Positive." Harry responded, nodding his head. "I haven't run into any tech yet that can look through a dissolution spell, I don't doubt I will eventually, but not yet. And I don't feel any magic user among them."
They traveled through the air following the convoy down below, watching as outside the community, it met up right with a much larger force, consisting of a tank squad and two motorized rifle companies. Piotr barked a laugh that was more than a little concerned and worried. "All that for just me?"
"You didn't tell me what your power is," said Harry, looking across at him.
Piotr shrugged. "My skin transforms into metal. I also gain strength from it as well." He went on to explain why his powers had activated and what he did.
Harry whistled, a little impressed. "I've seen a tractor, they're rather large and you smashed one to bits to save your sister? Given that, I think that they are rightly concerned although, obviously, they're still trying the whole Soviet overpower and overawe plan."
Piotr shrugged again. "It is in our national character, I suppose. If you show you can crush your enemies, sometimes they do not become enemies."
"Yes, and has that ever actually worked? Outside of Russia anyway?"
That caused Piotr to fall into a rather thoughtful silence, and Harry smiled as they continued on their way. The two of them began to talk again, just trading stories of their childhoods for a time, and a few of Harry's early adventures. Harry also gave Piotr some advice on how to call up his mutant power. "The best I can tell you, is to think of what it felt like at the time, reach down inside of you and pull out that feeling, that sense of steel, I guess." Piotr simply shrugged again, and the conversation turned to other things.
The now much larger convoy continued to move for five hours or so, during which Harry led Piotr sleep, having noticed that his eyes were drooping. Harry kept watch, not feeling tired really, despite it being early morning now.
They turned off the main road onto a dirt path that entered what looked like a large forest with trees, as far as the eyes could see. But as Harry followed them, that image blurred, eventually disappearing, and he looked around, whistling in surprise.
Close by where Harry and his still sleeping companion were floating, was a spear like metal pole about tfive stories tall. It was very thin with what looked like some kind of conical shaped emitter on top, which was one of dozens of others he could see all around, somehow creating the illusion he had just passed through.
These towers were set at very specific intervals all around a large base, about fifteen miles to a side. There was an air strip here, complete with over a dozen helicopters, although no fighter planes, as well as a machine park full of different types of tanks and BTR armored personnel carriers. There was a control tower for the air strip, several large concrete buildings including an obvious communication and command building, and over a dozen smaller, equally permanent buildings that were obviously barracks. One entire side of the base was dominated by several training grounds spread out over the entire side of the base. At this time of the day, there were several platoons and fire teams working through them.
The base was surrounded by trees on three sides with the back of the base leading deeper into the huge forest. Harry could see several guards perched in trees here and there, although more than half of them were turned inward toward the base rather than to defend it from outside threats.
Here and there, as they swooped closer, Harry could see groups of soldiers marching about exercising and training. He frowned, however, as he noticed that a few of them looked to be very young, teenagers in many cases, no older than twenty in some others. These soldiers were not the majority; there were only one or two of them for every platoon of regular soldiers. All of the younger soldiers were wearing matte black formfitting uniforms rather than the regular army uniform. Surprisingly there were two women here as well, surprising and somewhat disturbing.
There was actually one older looking man dressed in the same suit with red armor over his chest with a large backpack of some kind built in. He was tall from what Harry could see, with dirty blonde hair down to his shoulders, and he was standing aloof by one of the exercise areas, either watching or waiting his own turn, Harry couldn't tell. By him, one of the older looking teens, a female, was racing through an obstacle course, sometimes flying along to add to her speed.
Harry frowned even more when one of the other oddly dressed troopers changed into a giant bear at a barked command from someone else. The massive bear began to perform what looked like strength building exercises, lifting and lowering, like a deadweight, a granite block about five feet on a side.
"I thought I'd find something but nothing this built up or organized. This is like going fishing for minnows and nabbing a shark. Why me, why the fuck me, why?" he muttered, the sound of which woke Piotr.
The Russian farm boy stared around him in shock. "What is all this?"
"A training center." Harry said, guiding them down towards the ground now. They landed on the empty rooftop of one of the larger buildings and Harry frowned again, looking around. Now that they were closer, he noticed some discrepancies. Some of the weapons here, including some of the tanks, looked far more high-tech than the others. A few tanks had main guns that looked too much like something more in keeping with what Richards, Stark, or Doom might come up with than he liked to see in a regular army unit. "I'm not certain if this is just a training center, however. It also looks like some kind of high-tech proving ground."
Piotr however was watching the training of what he supposed he should call mutant soldiers. The bear in particular was very aggressive, wholeheartedly putting his all into the exercise. A few others he could see were somewhat more reluctant, yet they were all following orders readily enough. He looked over to Harry. "Well we're here, what are you going to do? I must confess I didn't actually think this through."
"You," said Harry grimly, recasting the dissolution charm and Mufilatio charm on the large Russian, "are going to stay here. I am going to sneak around and see what the hell this place is."
Harry had noticed something that Piotr hadn't. While there were several mutants here in their teenage years and up, there were no younger ones. That didn't make much sense if this place was one of the main holding centers for mutants. The ages when mutant powers activated varied greatly, being from puberty on for the most part, although, obviously, physical full body and permanent mutations could impact their bodies even before that. The Blob was one such example as was the Toad and, of course, Kurt. In Kurt's case however, Harry had been wondering for a while if Kurt's looks were really part of his mutation or an unrelated issue.
"You just want me to just stay here?" Piotr asked incredulously.
"Yep. You don't have experience in sneaking around, whereas I'm very good at it. I need some answers from this place."
Piotr shrugged again, but his face was worried. "I am getting the impression that neither of us will like the answers you find, Mr. Potter, but I will wait for you here, if you wish."
Harry nodded. "Just in case something happens, my code name is Mr. Wizard". He then leapt off the roof, floating quickly to the ground before moving away, his invisibility cloak over his shoulders, just in case, despite the dissolution spell still on him. There was no such thing as being too careful, after all.
He paused by the doorway into to the building they had been standing on, looking inside briefly. Seeing it was an armory, with normal, mundane weapons, he then moving on towards the largest building he could see, besides the command center. On his way, Harry noted where the communication tower was in relation to his location. He also noticed another tower rising from a smaller building, which might be connected to the hologram covering the base.
Behind him, Piotr settled down on the roof to wait, stretching out and wondering if he should just go back to sleep. He'd had a very long, trying day after his power activated, having to deal with the reactions of everyone else in his community as well as his own fears. The nap he had gotten on the way here hadn't been very restful, really, and Piotr realized that it might be a while before he truly got a good rest.
OOOOOOO
Harry made his way toward the larger building that was built like hanger, yet instead of having a door on either end, it had large doors on either side, with a smaller one on one end. The central location of it on the base made it a likely place to start looking for answers. It also had a security lock on the doors. Harry waited outside the door, then moved inside quickly after a man dressed like an army engineer, regular mufti with dozens of pockets added to it and with a large wrench as a company badge, came rushing from one of the barracks and entered it, swearing something about being late.
When he entered the building it looked like the interior of the building was separated into three distinct parts. What they all had in common, however, was the fact they were given over to high tech weapons. "Fuck… its already started?!"
On one side, several tanks were in the middle of being disassembled by technicians. Above them were a few of what looked like laser cannons, ready to be used to replace the former cannon and turret system.
But it wasn't that which had made Harry groan. No, that would be the other two sections, which were smaller but even more filled with the paraphernalia of engineering and one suit of armor each. Mechanized armor that looked to be based off of the Iron Man suit or Doom's, possibly.
One of them was huge, about 15 feet tall and very wide at the shoulders, painted all in green. It looked monstrously powerful and this was displayed most in the weapons that were being fitted to it by the technicians all around it, which included a twin-barrel Gatling gun that wouldn't be out of place on a warship as an AA gun. Harry couldn't hear the scientists but by the gestures and exclamations, he decided there was an argument going about that particular gun, but he didn't know what about. Nor did he particularly care.
Next to that one was another area separated by a waist high wall. In that area was a man-sized, much more streamlined suit, painted all in red. It didn't have nearly as many technicians working around it, though the ones that were seemed to be working more in concert than the ones around the green painted behemoth.
What this suit also had was a man inside it, since the helmet was off and a bearded face with dark intelligent eyes could be seen as the man wearing the suit gave his own input. One of the scientists was a short diminutive fellow with a craggy face and quick twitching hands, who seemed to be generally in charge of that project. Well, either him or the man wearing the crimson suit anyway, it was hard to tell.
Harry scowled at the sight, wondering how many other countries were working on a version of the powered armor that Tony Stark had shown the world could indeed be built even if your name wasn't Doctor Doom. How far will this spread, and how will it change warfare and the balance of power? What will the effect on my plans be? I wonder if I take this place out, what that would do to Russia's efforts in this direction. Very tempting, it must be said.
In front of Harry were two men watching the activities on that side of the hanger, talking quietly. As he watched, the two men turned and began to make their way toward the doorway. Harry leapt into the air, sticking himself to the ceiling to let them go by.
One wore the uniform and markings of a general or so Harry thought, not having made a study of Russian rank tabs. The other looked almost like an academic, except that he was wearing purple body armor under his coat. His eyes were also cold and hard in a thin, arrogant looking face with a short clipped beard and he seemed to be fighting back a sneer.
It was the doctor who was speaking as they were passing. Harry frowned for a moment, looking between them and the powered armors before deciding to follow them rather than start destroying things just yet.
Luckily his translation spell was still working, and he easily understood what they were saying. "While I can understand your fascination with the idea of armored soldiers general, it is simply not going to be economical. The numbers tell us this! Moreover the designs we are working with are based off Tony Stark's old designs, as well as the impressions of Dr. Doom's suit. We were aided by Professor Vanko knowing what he does about the arc reactor, yet it stands to reason that unless we can come up with something fundamentally different from them, our suits will always be, what is the American phrase, 'behind the eight ball'? We will always be playing catch-up."
The door to the outside opened, and the doctor waved his hand around expansively as he led the way over to another building Harry had discounted. It was short, squat and only a single story, which Harry had assumed meant it was some kind of office, not anything really important. "No, the future is in my Soviet Super-Soldier program, as you should have already seen in my predecessor's experiment, the Winter Soldier."
The general growled, turning angrily to the scientist. "Yes, the Winter Soldier has proven his worth, but your mutant freaks have not, as yet. You have been training your initial batch of recruits for months now and, of them all, only four are of any worth in combat."
The man shrugged. "The problem is not their skills or combat potential, but their loyalty. It is true that indoctrination is taking over long, but once it is finished they are ours, body and soul, devoted to the government. Is that not worth the extra time? Besides, my other endeavors have already proven their worth have they not? The one you chose to don the name and armor of the Red Guardian, young Alexei has proven to take to the new version of the super-soldier serum very well, yes?"
That seemed to mollify the general, and he went on in a much calmer tone. "Yes, he is a credit to the program. Yet at the moment, we are in need of immediate results. The government needs to show that we can handle super powered threats, that is why so much of your funding has been changed over to the Steel Armor projects."
"That," the doctor replied dryly, "and the fact that you found out that young Boris had already begun work on his Titanium Man armor. There must've been quite a bit of, what is the phrase, eating a crow?"
"Your fascination with Anglican phrases irritates me, Dr. Phobos." the general said coldly, causing the scientist to clam up. "Still, I take your point. If your four original soldiers are ready, how long will it take for the rest of your senior projects to be ready? I would like the team to consist of at least three more, if we include the two armored soldiers and Alexei."
"Why not add the Bogatyri in?" The doctor, apparently named Phobos, asked, glancing at the general out of the corner of one eye. "Their numbers would give us that and one more, and the combat potential is more than enough to let them fit right in."
The general stiffened and his voice came out in clipped, cold tones. "You are not cleared to know of that project, Phobos! Do not mention it again, or I will be forced to report the fact you know things you should not to our superiors. Now, answer my question."
The doctor frowned, though whether at the general's tone, his words, or something else, Harry couldn't tell. "Those few that have survived of our second batch haven't responded well enough to indoctrination to be trusted in combat against enemies of the motherland just yet. It will take more time for them, though now that we have captured the ringleader for the mutant underground, we should have much better luck bringing in new recruits, which will help us add to our numbers far faster than have been able to do previously."
The general grunted, this time in satisfaction rather than irritation. Harry however was listening to all this and frowning heavily. It looked as if he and Piotr had arrived on the scene just after a major victory for the powers-that-be here in Russia. "We captured him and several of his followers, did we not? How long until they too are indoctrinated?"
"That will take some time. The two followers we captured are too young to take the majority of the tools that we would normally use."
The general grunted again, though this time Harry couldn't figure out what the grunt meant this time. "Still, progress. I'll leave you to it, Phobos, just remember that we will need to report on our progress in two days."
With that the man marching away, leaving the doctor behind him. Phobos stared after him for a moment, his face now twisted into a sneer of contempt, then turned and moved inside the building they had been walking toward. Harry debated which one to follow then decided to follow the scientist, seeing as he was the one who had apparently been put in charge of prisoners.
As he passed through the doorway, he muttered "Magia Erebea," which he hadn't done before on this trip. Doing so, he shunted about 40% of his magical reservoir into powering the body enhancing spell.
Behind him, two of the Super-Soldiers that had been training outside had turned away from the training, the giant bear changing back to his human body. One of them, one of the two women Harry had seen, stopped suddenly. She stared at where the simulacrum was walking being taken to an outlying barracks building for processing, then moved in that direction, waving the skin-changer to follow her.
OOOOOOO
Harry followed Phobos inside the building, which consisted of two heavy weapons emplacements with very large guns pointed at the door and a short, thin corridor leading to an elevator. Since the building was only a single story tall, it stood to reason that the elevator went down, which made Harry feel better about his decision to follow the scientist over the unnamed general. After all, people always hid things they didn't want found under the ground, it was almost automatic.
The elevator opened only after the scientist swiped his card, and presented both his eye and his thumb at the same time to two different security devices. With that done, the door opened and Phobos went in, with Harry still unseen following him in quickly. The elevator went down swiftly, Harry couldn't tell how far, though he didn't think it was that far, maybe thirty, forty feet. It was impossible to tell, as the elevator seemed to only have two destinations.
Soon the elevator stopped and the door opened, exiting out into a large area which was a cross between a laboratory, a medical facility, and a torture room with twelve scientists moving around it. There were dozens of computers at stations scattered around the room and one location that looked like a communication station. But it was what was along the walls that made Harry gasp in shock and horror. It was all he could do to stop himself from reaching out with his magic and ripping the scientist to shreds right then and there.
Along one wall were several tables and upon those tables were bodies, two of which were small and childlike, though after the ravages of the experiments they had been put through Harry couldn't tell their genders. Another body was almost adult sized, and his body was mostly intact, except for the fact that his brain had seemingly been removed placed in a jar to one side, with electrodes leading out of it. The next one over looked as if someone had merged two people together, only the merging had failed and both of them had died, in great agony judging by their faces. The last, and most complete body, had been that of an above average height bald man. Yet his body was utterly desiccated, as if all the blood in him had been removed. His skin had also been peeled back in places, and his chest cavity had been opened, a few ribs missing from his corpse for what purpose Harry didn't want to contemplate.
Chained to the far wall were two boys of around fourteen or fifteen, possibly. One looked like a Siberian tiger crossed with a boy, wiry, quick of limb, and wild eyes. He had ears like a tiger, fur like a tiger, and showed in his snarling expression fangs to go with his claws and a tail. His companion in captivity had a swarthy complexion, who was glaring in fury at the surrounding scientists. His hands were in what appeared to be specially made metal devices, connected to a large machine alongside him. They were both chained there spread eagle fashion, though the second boy was only chained by his hands instead of all four of his limbs like the Siberian tiger boy. Both of them had small bracelets of some kind on one wrist.
In pride of place, so to speak, in the center of the room was an old man strapped to a gurney that had been tilted so that he was almost standing upright, his eyes covered by metal glasses, which were part of a helmet that covered his entire head, connecting into a monitoring or control device behind him. He was thin, though not malnourished and he had a short beard but what was really odd was the fact he wore what looked like somewhat damaged priest's cassock. He, too, had a bracelet on one wrist.
Along the last wall, also in chains, were several children of varying ages, all with various physical mutations. Four of them were very obviously dead, their bodies looking as if they had gone through autopsies, but three of them were alive, though they all looked as if they had been mistreated, and were very frightened. One had skin that looked almost like a lizard's, another had no eyes, just a blank space where eyes should be but he had huge ears. The last was a girl whose hair was in the same kind of clamp like the swarthy teens and chained to the wall along with her arms, linked to the same machine as the teen.
Harry's blood boiled as he watched two of the scientists take blood samples from the boy with lizard skin before moving onto the next. All right, he thought to himself, this has just become a rescue rather than an intelligence gathering operation.
Phobos stood before the man on the gurney, smiling faintly. "You did so well Father Garnoff, or should I call you Blind Faith? That's the name you used as leader of the Mutant Underground Railroad, is it not? Forty Years you've kept from being captured. How many assets to the state did you help escape from our mother country? That was a great evil my friend, one you will spend the rest of your life paying for. Your friend, Iron Curtain, has already paid. With his help, we were able to recreate the original super-soldier serum and have already assigned a new Red Guardian to wipe the slate clean from the previous traitor."
Despite the fact that he was physically abused, despite the fact that he was chained and a prisoner, there was no fear in the chained man's voice as he spoke. "Dr. Phobos, please don't patronize me. You do not care about the state." He moved the arm that had the bracelet on it, clanking it gently. "Or you would have never developed this, using it for your own gain. By the way, any luck in that area? Any new powers that have recently begun since you began to try and siphon ours off?"
The man's face twisted into a snarl of rage and he flicked a switch, causing what looked like electrical current to start running through his prisoner for a second, after which he turned it off. "Keep that spirit, Father, it will make it all the more interesting when I break you."
Despite the pain he must be in, the old man sounded more resigned than anything. "Why bother? You shattered my mutant underground syndicate and captured me. Everyone else will have gone to ground and started over. I can tell you nothing."
"You need not tell me anything, my friend," said the doctor, smiling evilly, "but your telepathy can help us greatly. With that and certain devices we have been working on, we might be able to find the mutants you have so shortsightedly hidden from us."
Now the man showed real emotion, his teeth gritting as he strained against his bonds as he shouted his reply. "Never! You will not use my powers against my friends! I will not allow it!"
The doctor snorted. "You make it sound as if you have a choice."
While this 'discussion' was going on, Harry had been listening to it with half an ear, concentrating the security devices. There were ten gun stations, six in the ceiling and one below the four cameras in the corners. There wasn't a single place that wasn't covered, but that was more an irritation rather than a true obstacle to Harry. The cameras however, are a problem, Harry thought to himself, if I want to get the group of us out of here without raising an alarm I…"
Almost as soon as he had that thought, an alarm sounded elsewhere and the beeping red of the alarm began in the laboratory. A hissing sound came from the elevator as if some security device had activated there, some gas let loose or something.
Doctor Phobos moved swiftly over to a communication device in one corner and shouted into it "what's going on, who sounded the alarm?"
"Doctor, the new recruit we just brought in wasn't a new recruit, Fantasia spotted it as some kind of construct. Then she found someone under some kind of concealing spell up on a roof. It looks as if we've been infiltrated. Lock down has been ordered as per standard procedure. Fantasia and Ursa Major are already moving to deal with the threat." A man's voice replied from the other end, while in the background several voices began to shout orders.
The doctor cursed, but before he could do anything Harry made his move. Seeing that the time for caution had passed he struck with brutal and overwhelming force. "Diffindo!" He spat, pointing his finger at the doctor. A white crescent shaped blade of magical energy shot out, cutting the man in half along with the communication device, despite the armor he wore under his doctor's robe.
Exclamations of surprise and horror sounded from the scientists all around, and Harry whirled, shooting out more spells, cutting them down mercilessly where they stood, ignoring for now the turrets that were already trying to range on him, to make certain none of the scientists tried to escape. When the last scientist fell, Harry turned his attention to the gun apertures along the walls, smashing into them with precision "Rifela!" spells from one hand while his other hand shot 'Diffindo', destroying the cameras.
"Not how I wanted this to go!" he shouted over the beeping of the now broken systems, pulling off his invisibility cloak, which had dropped from covering his arms when he started casting spells. "But needs must when the devil drives and all that." He loped over to the two teens who were chained to the back wall, both of them now watching him in shock. "Are you two able to move, at least?"
The one who looked like the love child of a Siberian tiger and a human snarled angrily gesturing at his chains. "Get us out of these stranger and help the Father, we'll help you!"
"Good enough, kid," Harry said pointing his fingers again. The boy's chains snapped under his spells. Harry switched to the other boy's, being more careful now to not injure the swarthy looking boy's hands.
The boy's special cuffs fell away from his hands as Harry raced over to the man in the middle of the room, gesturing the two teens over to the children chained along the other wall. "They'll probably respond better to you to then to me at the moment, other children aren't nearly as frightening as adults after what they've been through."
The swarthy one nodded, and pulled his friend over before he could move toward the old man in the center of the room.
"I take it we're being rescued, though who by is still a mystery to me." the man said, now much calmer than he had been a minute ago. "I am Alexi Garnoff, sometimes called Blind Faith, and you are?
"Mr. Wizard."Harry muttered. "Rather lame and silly I know, but I haven't had time to think up a new name for myself just yet. My naming sense is… even I have to admit it's rather pathetic."
The two teens chuckled at that, which was what harry had hoped for really. It actually drew a giggle from the young girl as well, though that might also be because the two boys had found some keys and had unlatched her from the wall. Her hair, now loose from its confinements, transformed into hundreds of tiny metal knives and began to move around as if controlled by her thoughts.
Harry pulled the man's helmet off him, wincing a little at the fact that some of the connecting devices had gone through the helmet into the other man's head. A few whispered healing spells healed the damage superficially, but he shook his head. "You're going to have to see a doctor after this, I have no idea what that thing did your brainbox, or worse."
"It canceled my telepathic ability, as does this." The man replied, motioning towards the device still around his eyes.
Harry removed it and the man stared at him. Suddenly the wizard could feel a presence pushing against the cloak covering his mind. "Don't do that." he said staring hard at the man. "I'm trying to rescue you, but my mind is my own."
The man shrugged. "Sorry, but I just wanted to know what sort of person my rescuer was."
"We can talk later." Harry muttered having other things to worry about. He moved over to the children, going down on his knees and pulling out from a small pouch a few emergency potions he kept on him at all times. "I am here to help you, my name, for now anyway since I don't know if I took out all the listening devices, is Mr. Wizard." This drew a weak chuckle from the kids, who had heard him introduce himself to Father Garnoff. "This is a magic potion, it should replenish your blood, after that I can use some spells to heal your wounds, but only if you let me."
The young boy with lizard skin moved forward quickly grabbing the potion out of his hand and gulping it down. After a moment he nodded, and the girl and boy with huge ears moved forward, taking sips from the potion as well. While this was going on Harry started to cast spells on them all, healing what he could, but their basic malnutrition couldn't be solved by any potions he had on him.
Harry wished he could spend more time healing these kids, but what he had overheard from the other end of the talk with Phobos worried him and he turned to look at the teen and the older man. "I have someone upstairs I need to go rescue but you and these kids need to get out of here." He frowned a little, hoping this worked. "Cory?"
The house elf appeared in front of them, looking ecstatic, as he always did when popping to someplace new, until he saw the children and how badly battered they were. "Who did this master!?" He growled, his house elf magic crackling around him in a kaleidoscope of colors. If there was one thing most house elves would take very poorly indeed, it was the mistreatment of children.
Harry took a moment to wonder if he should probably make some kind of training manual for the house elves, after all they could be a help in combat situations, but then shook his head. They were too valuable, and frankly too kindhearted to make good soldiers under most circumstances. He hadn't gotten to know all of them yet, but that seemed to be the norm at least. "Can you pop these kids and this man back to the Hogwarts? How far can you carry them all?"
"Weight be changing how far I can pop, master, it be much harder to go sideways than up for some reason, too. I can't pop back with any of them but the smallest back to the castle." Cory said, frowning. "I coulds pop them up to High Note in two groups though."
"Damn it." Harry muttered. At a small swishing sound he whirled with the speed of a striking snake, one hand rising to point at the door of the elevator which was just opening. "Bombarda!" The spell zoomed through the elevator doors, exploding inside and reducing the fire team of infantrymen, who had been rushed down to the lab after Harry cut off the doctor's communication with the command center, to offal. It also buckled the doors, nearly blowing them off their hinges.
He looked around at the children, none of whom had been able to follow the conversation with Cory then at Blind Faith, who was now staring with sorrow on his face at the emaciated corpse along the wall.
Harry didn't want to send them up to High Note. For one, Cory actually wouldn't be able to get them through the teleportation wards Harry had put up, only Harry could get a new individual into High Note. For another, Harry was unwilling to tell them the secret of High Note, not knowing enough about the old man to trust him with that secret. The castle however had Ororo, Jean, Shiang-Chi, and the majority of the house elves, who could handle anything this man or the two teens, who were apparently with him, could do.
Sending them up without letting them in on the secret was possibly worse. The disorientation of being in a place under Fidelius when you didn't know the secret was incredibly debilitating. On top of the trauma they had all been through, it might well cause permanent mental damage. On top of that was the trust issue. The kids at least would never trust Harry again, even after he had rescued and healed them.
Harry also didn't have Hedwig with him and without his familiar with them, he couldn't create a portkey that would get them through Hogwart's wards, which was a part of the wards here that was vastly different than in his old world. There the headmaster could create a portkey and have anyone use it to bypass the wards. Here, the wards were more untrusting when it came to magical transportation and only the headmaster or a representative (which a familiar was) could use a portkey created by Harry to get through the wards.
All this flashed through Harry's mind and he nodded crisply. "How far from me can you pop without any other reference?"
Cory frowned, then shrugged. "I's can pop into the local woods with them master. Woods be easy to feel out."
"Do it, then stay with them to guard them." Harry switched to Russian for the kid's benefit, all of whom had been staring in wonder at the little house elf, who greatly resembled cross between a gremlin and a domovoy, a spirit of the house. "This is Cory, he is going to transport you by magic out of here into the woods. Stay there until I come and get you, and then we can get you all someplace safe."
Cory nodded and moved over to the former prisoners, who were all looking happy about the idea of getting out of here, except for one. "Wait!" the Siberian tiger boy said. "I can fight!"
"Then protect the other children and Father Garnoff." said Harry grimly. "I have a young friend I need to rescue. I can't do that, watch over you, and guard them at the same time."
The younger teen growled a little but nodded, grabbing the hands of two of the kids while his friend held the young girl in his arms.
"If I may?" The man who had been the ringleader of the Mutant Underground Railroad, said weakly. "There are at least four minds up there that are not fully indoctrinated as yet, possibly more. Two of them, in particular, are debating whether or not to throw in their lot with your friend or, at least, I assume he is your friend. He is fighting one of the heavily indoctrinated ones however, I'm afraid that if you don't get up there quickly, it might go badly for him, as I sense more minds heading in his direction."
Harry nodded grimly, and as the group popped away, Harry pointed to the ceiling and shouted out "Bombarda Maxima!"
A massive hole was blown through the dozens of feet of solid ground between him and the base above. He dodged to one side as some of the rubble came back down, shaking his head a little. I need to seriously remember to not vocalize my low level spells, its not as if I need to anymore. Really need to break that habit.
With that, he jumped up through the massive hole he had just blown, eyes ablaze with lightning, hands crackling with power. He couldn't say he was exactly unhappy for the chance to get it stuck in with the rest of these bastards, grimly ecstatic would describe his current feelings much better. Killing the scientists hadn't really made him feel all that much better about what he had found below but, perhaps emptying the base of every soldier and individual within it who had, passively or actively supported Dr. Phobos and his experiments, would.