Beyond the Veil Book 2 Challenges

Chapter 1: Shadows of the Past Part OneChapter TextDisclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, United States Congress, A Lemonade Stand, A Cheerleading Squad, Power Girl's Rack, or Your Souls. 

The Veil was an anomaly located within the Department of Mysteries. There had been many curiosities regarding magic studied in that location but none had been more mystifying then the Veil. There was something about it that drew people to it. For years, it was used by the Ministry to send prisoners who had done horrific things to a place where they would suffer a fate worse than death.

Then the Ministry made a deal with the Dementors and the Veil forgotten about.

Harry Potter was another mystery that had defied all explanation.

Harry Potter stepped through the Veil.

The essence of magic flowed through Harry Potter in that world and followed him out of it. After the events of Halloween 1981, Albus Dumbledore stated foolishly that the Magical World owed a debt of gratitude to Harry Potter. The Ministry agreed, even though it was a politically motivated maneuver to get them into the good graces of the general public. They would put their wagon behind this young hero and reaped the benefits.

The moment the Wizarding World failed Harry Potter, that debt caused the lives of every man, woman, and child to be in peril. They forfeited any freedom that they would have.

Some lost their powers, others perished, and for some, it was like they never existed. They were erased from the vast tapestry of the multiverse.

Harry Potter stepped through the veil and the pouring of magical energy swirled around them like a vortex. Said Vortex caused reality as it was known to be rewritten, lives to be changed, and twisted all around until they were recognizable.

Lord Voldemort clung onto life, he refused to be defeated by his own mortality. He refused to lose this easily. His body burned down to its very atoms as his essence was torn cleanly from it.

Sirius Black was the first to go through the Veil. A physical body was never sent through, rather a ritual was sent to banish their souls through the veil whilst the physical body was burned as a symbol, but be that as it may, Sirius Black's body went through the veil. His soul ripped from it whilst it floated aimlessly in the void and his body was left in a state of flux.

Harry Potter followed him, the moment he stepped through, the debt that Dumbledore and the Ministry claimed that they owed him was called into question. As a result the world became unraveled, it was no longer the same.

The second Harry Potter passed through the veil, a soul was torn from his body. However, the powers that be were not particular about whose soul was torn from his body. The soul fragment of Tom Marvolo Riddle was ripped from his being and floated aimlessly. Harry's body drifted in stasis for what seemed like an eternity and given the nature of time and space passing through this Phantom Zone, it might as well have been. Then somehow he escaped through a backdoor that had been set up by his bloodline.

The Phantom Zone was a place that no prisoner had ever escaped but Harry Potter always defied expectations.

Once he found a way to get out of this room, it had been secured with a powerful seal that he could not break. And then after he killed Potter, and his friends he would find out where here was.

The Dark Lord found his way out of the Phantom Zone through a weakened body that was strengthened over time through Potter's foolishly noble efforts to revive his godfather. Little did he know that there were three things that went through the Veil that day.

As for Sirius Black's soul, he was forever lost in an endless void, it's fate undetermined. Lord Voldemort suspected that this soul fragment was consumed by the Phantom Wraiths. The Phantom Zone was a worse fate than twelve years under the tender loving care of the Dementors of Azkaban.

Despite the fact that this body was inadequate, Voldemort summarized that this was better than the alternative. He remained asleep, in this place, until the moment where Harry Potter would return and he would finish the job he started on Halloween Night of 1981.

Then he would slaughter all of Potter's friends because that's what he did.

Once he found a way to get out of this room as well, it had been secured with a powerful seal that he could not break. And where he found out where here was.

Chapter One: Shadows of the Past Part One. 

All was quiet in the Xavier Institute, the X-Men were known to the news media where they had been mere myths a few weeks ago. It was only a small relief that none of the names could be attached to the faces. Only time would tell whether or not they would be outed even further to the public but the Friends of Humanity membership swelled over the past couple of weeks.

A young woman with a hood pulled over her head made her way to the Xavier Institute. She was dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans. The woman phased through the front gates of the Institute, unseen by the Mansion's legendary security system. The woman turned around to ensure that she was not seen by any unsavory individuals on the outside before lifting a hand and knocking on the door.

She waited for someone to answer the door. The hooded individual knew that things likely would have gotten rather chaotic thanks to Harry's disappearance. She tapped her foot on the ground impatiently.

The door creaked open and she heard a laugh track in the background and a faint, but still audible, uttering of "Hello, Megan!" from the television in the Institute. A smile crossed her face as she waited for the person on the other end to answer.

The individual who opened the door was a red haired woman with green eyes. She had short hair and was dressed in a green top that hugged her upper curves, along with a tight pair of black shorts.

"Rachel, isn't it?" the hooded woman offered.

"Yes, this is me," Rachel commented in a distracted voice. "Who are you?"

"My name is Megan Morse, I'm here about an urgent matter," the woman stated and Rachel tried to peek underneath the hood. The hood fell down to reveal a woman with red hair and green eyes, along with freckles.

Rachel's eyes flickered, as she looked from the Megan on the television screen to the Megan in the doorway and blinked. The redhead telepath tried to keep her mind on the business at hand but curiosity brimmed through her mind as she wondered what was happening here. She faced the other redhead, and decided to get straight to the point.

"What is about?" Rachel asked in a curious voice.

"It's about Harry Potter," Megan told her and Rachel's eyes widened.

"If you're here to see him, you're too late," Rachel stated, her voice nearly choking a little bit. She managed to keep herself calm.

"He's still alive."

Rachel's eyes widened before she turned around and saw a few other people sitting around the mansion's living room.

Rogue sat there, dressed in a yellow jacket along with a green top and green pants that tightened around her shapely hips. She had shed most of her goth look over the past couple of weeks, it was a phase that she went through as she was a teenager, but now it was time to move on to something else. Even though she was still technically one, the point still stood.

Given that it was also a byproduct of Mystique's attempt to control her surroundings, it was just as well. Rogue recalled that it was something she was conditioned to do and she had been thinking about making the change for some time. After what happened with Harry, this was the ideal time to pull the trigger.

Wanda sat around the front area of the Xavier Institute as well, her long dark hair flowed freely down her back. She thought about cutting it but decided not to. She was dressed in a red tank top and red shorts, as she crossed her legs, deciding to skip wearing shoes for now. She had been hit hard ever since that ship opened so her eyes flickered with a far off expression in them.

Kurt was still Kurt, blue and fuzzy as ever, although losing a member of his team, even though it was one that was technically leaving anyway, took a lot of the fun loving part out of his persona.

The rest of the New Mutants were presently in the Danger Room with Scott. Scott's taking over the training from Harry went over about as well as a fart in church. He was not liked by many of the new recruits, with Tabby and Bobby being among the two most vocal about voting to enact a procedure to remove the stick from his ass.

"What is it?" Rogue asked as she turned around, watching the situation unfold.

"She says….she says that Harry's still alive," Rachel commented in a tense tone of voice.

Dare she hope?

"I must admit, I was quite skeptical about young Mister Potter's demise as well."

Doctor Henry McCoy, better known as Beast, stepped forward. His kindly demeanor was enough to offset his blue fur and skin. He watched the entire group, curiosity brimming through his eyes.

"What….what did you find out?" Wanda asked speaking up for the first time.

Beast waved his hand a little bit to get the group to calm down. "I've been analyzing samples from the area where Harry was….supposedly vaporized."

Rachel was the one who decided to ask the question that was burning on the tip of their tongues. "Supposedly?"

"Yes, it does appear that young Mister Potter could not have been murdered at that point, as normally there should be particles that matched up for him, no matter how microscopic it was," Beast commented to them.

"And we didn't find this out after this happened why?" Rogue asked, feeling a bit angry about the entire situation.

Beast held his hand up in a calming manner as he surveyed her. "It wasn't that simple. Tests of this nature take time, there are variables both intended and unintended that we have to hammer out, I'm just beginning to piece together a vague idea of what happened."

"So….there's a chance he's still alive."

These were the first words that Jean had spoken in almost two weeks since it happened. She stepped down the stairs in a funk. Her red hair hung loosely around her face as she was dressed in a red top and a black skirt as she edged down the steps.

The worst thing about this was that the Phoenix Force appeared to have left and Jean could not access it. Losing the Phoenix Force meant a huge part of her died and no matter how much she tried, it refused to respond to her.

There was something that happened two weeks ago when the ship landed down on the ground and Jean mulled it over in her mind. The redhead telepath could not determine what happened.

"There's more than a chance, he is alive," Megan offered them and they all turned to her.

"If he's alive, then he should have…."

"Do not judge what is happening before you hear me out completely," Megan stated, her voice flaring up with a certain amount of warning as she stared down the X-Men.

Ororo was the next one that showed up and she was followed by Professor Charles Xavier who turned up being wheeled in a wheelchair.

"The world has changed, although none of you realize it yet," Megan continued as she spoke to them in an extremely cryptic tone of voice. "Very few remember how things used to be before the change happened."

"How did it happen?" Kurt asked, curiosity getting the better of him but Rogue side stepped him.

"That doesn't matter, tell me where Harry is," Rogue stated as she prepared to adjust her bracelet and get some information out of this woman one way or another.

Megan's eyes flashed for a few seconds. "I cannot do that, but I do have a message from him from you."

"What do you mean you can't do that?" Rachel asked her. "Do you mean you can't, or you won't do it?"

"Calm yourself, Harry is fine," Megan argued trying to keep a cool head in the situation. "He's not been held anywhere against his will if that's what you're worried about."

Megan took a second to compose herself. She sympathized with the fact that they were worried about him, if the situation was reversed, she would feel the same way.

"Harry has left a message to give all of you, to Jean, Rachel, Rogue, Amara, Laura, Wanda, and Kitty in particular," Megan narrated for them.

"Kitty's not here, neither is Laura," Ororo informed Megan. "Laura left the morning after so she could track Harry, because she's adamant that he's not dead."

"And Kitty left in the middle of the night, with a note that said that there's no reason for her to stick around since the reason she came here is gone," Rogue added, had she known, she would have told Kitty to stick around for a little bit longer.

Yet, by the time she woke up to go use the bathroom, Kitty was already gone. She took her stealth training to heart as she did not even wake Rogue up. Rogue was very much annoyed about Kitty up and leaving and she'd better have a good explanation as to why she left.

"Just take these messages and make sure they receive them should they return," Megan told them as she handed them to Rogue who passed them around.

"What can you tell us about where Harry has gone to?" Xavier asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He asked a question to get the information first and foremost in this young lady's mind and with a telepathic prod, he tried to enter her mind.

Xavier was evicted rather quickly. Her mind was both that of an extremely strong telepath and also very alien, a human telepath would be unable to read it properly. Then again, he had never been able to read Harry's properly as well, the thoughts were too chaotic for him to handle for more than a few seconds.

'I wouldn't try that again, if I were you,' Megan thought to him in a sweet tone, although there was an undercurrent that hinted of more drastic action should he do so. 

"So he is okay then," Rogue offered in a quiet voice.

"Yes, he's fine," Megan remarked before she added. "It will be a while before Harry will return. If you must have any solace, it will be a lot longer on his end then from your perspective."

With this cryptic statement, she slipped out the door phasing through it.

"She's a telepath," Xavier remarked to them and Ororo looked at her mentor in an exasperated expression.

"Please tell me you didn't try to read her mind," Ororo said to Xavier after she finally found her voice.

"I….I didn't read her mind," Xavier commented, his voice shaking a tad.

"Maybe because you were unable to," Rachel offered, there was something about the world that was different. She had a feeling that they would know about it all too soon.

It had been two weeks since Harry disappeared which meant that he must have been in bad shape if he just woke up. Rachel did not doubt that there was something that happened to prevent him from seeking them out. All of those meteors raining directly down on his head, plus that mysterious alien ship were two things that Rachel thought that she should known about.

"I'm afraid we have another problem," Ororo offered to them and the group turned to face her. "It appears that Kitty left but she did not return home to her parents as we thought."

"So where did she go?" Wanda asked and Kurt popped in.

"She wasn't at school or anything, I thought she went back to Chicago," Kurt offered, and the others nodded.

"It was the assumption to make, but Charles wished to get in touch with her, see if she had any second thoughts," Ororo continued before she paused.

The mystery of what in the world happened to Kitty Pryde was only secondary to what happened to Harry at this point. They wondered if she had come to a similar conclusion that Laura did and tried to track Harry down.

Jean was glad that Harry was fine but she wished that someone would shed some light on the Phoenix Force problem. Everyone assumed that her recent problems had to do with Harry and while that was not necessary untrue, there were other factors as well.

The Artic was secluded and out of the middle of nowhere. It was the perfect location for the Fortress where a certain emerald eyed young man rested and recovered.

The heritage of Harry Potter was many things; in fact, he tried to figure out what he was. He was a wizard or at least he could perform magic. Then he was technically classified as a mutant as well. His extraterrestrial origin was something that added an entirely new dynamic to this issue.

"So what am I?"

That was the question that Harry Potter asked of this mysterious Fortress. He had been out for eleven days and had rested for four more before he was able to move around for more than a few moments at a time. The meteors wouldn't have normally affected him as such but given the large quantity they did.

"It is a long and labored story, so I do hope that you can spare the time," one of the four Artificial intelligence constructs in the Fortress stated.

The Fortress had four artificial intelligences, advance and light years away from anything that would be crafted on Earth. It was amazing to think of the possibilities that such a technology could be made but it was true.

The first Artificial Intelligence was a blonde woman with bright blue eyes, dressed in white robes that wrapped around her body. Her name was Lara Lor-Van, she was the birth mother of Kal-El. Best they could figure was that Lily using Harry's blood to revive the injured infant Kal-El after his escape pod failed caused them to merge given that magical blood was different than non-magical blood. It was slightly sentient in fact. Therefore Harry Potter and Kal-El merged into one being, known as Har-Rell.

The second Artificial Intelligence was named Alura In-Ze, she also had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was the mother of Kara, and thankfully Kara took after her mother more than her father from what Harry could find out. Her father undertook an illegal mining operation on Krypton that led in part to the planet's demise. Granted there were a lot of other problems with Krypton but that was one of the underlying factors that contributed to it's destruction.

The third Artificial Intelligence was Peve-Rell. She was the daughter of a lost house on Krypton and a genius inventor. She had created three artifacts that were the subject of much mystery, not to mention bloodshed, in the Wizarding World throughout the past several hundred years. She stayed on Earth for a time and after that time; she created an extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence that was supposed to seek out the one worthy of her heritage. She had chocolate black hair and dazzling green eyes that only a few shared.

The fourth Artificial Intelligence was something that was a surprise and quite frankly a shock to Harry Potter. It was a bit of a mystery how she got here. She had red hair, green eyes, and was dressed in robes that were white. Her name was Lil-Rell but she was better known as Lily Evans or as she became Lily Potter. She was the last daughter of the House of Rell, sent to Earth years ahead of it's destruction and found by the Evans family after they struggled to have a second daughter after the birth of Petunia.

If Petunia only knew how special Lily was, she would be far more jealous than she was to begin with but that was beside the point.

"The world as you knew it no longer exists and only a few remember what has happened before the flashpoint," Lara stated, breaking the silence.

"Once you opened up the box to escape the shadow realm, the crystal acted as a temporal beacon," Lily explained to all. "Some had already found their way through the barrier but not completely. Reality has a way of fixing anomalies whilst creating many more. There were many things that happened on many Earths. There was a collision of sorts, a Crisis On Infinite Earths. Everything reset and nothing was as you remembered."

Harry inclined his head, his jaw set before he commented with two words. "I see."

"The people you knew and even cared for in the Wizarding World, they may still exist in this new fusion world," Lily offered to Harry and he paused for a long moment. "However in another sense, they don't exist."

Peve was the next one who chimed in. "Those names and faces might be the same but their experiences, memories, and even powers can and will be different. They would be hard pressed to pick your face out of a crowd, many, if not all, of them have not even heard of Harry Potter."

'There's a change,' Harry thought with a smile and it was a welcomed one.

Harry's head turned towards them and figured that this would be the case. He had truthfully made peace with that world months after he arrived here. It was going to be somewhere between a snowball's chance and when hell froze over of him ever returning. The fact that none of them remembered him would make it rather easy to make a clean break.

"You didn't sacrifice them and anyone who accuses you of doing so is a fool," Lily added in a firm voice. "They were the ones who tried to make you into a symbol. If Dumbledore had not done so, if he had kept his mouth shut and did not give birth to the entire Boy-Who-Lived legend, then none of this would have happened."

"Empires fall because of many actions, you going through that Veil was the final feather on an already back breaking amount of fucking idiotic decisions," Alura added, speaking up for the first time. "It happened with Krypton, it happened with that world, and it will happen on several more. The smallest event could get the domino effect rolling."

The domino effect of disasters fell over and that lead to the situation that was now. The fury could be scarcely believed.

"It's done now," Harry said in a conclusive tone of voice and everyone agreed with that point.

"Yes, it's over," Peve agreed. "And you have sent your messages through to your friends."

"Yes, I have," Harry remarked before he placed his hands on his lap and shifted his body, sitting perched on the block of ice. "I will remain here forever long it takes for my training to occur."

"It is a mature action not to seek them out immediately," Lara commented in a proud voice.

Harry waved it off. "If they are unable to function without me, then I feel in some way that I have truly failed."

"Or they have failed you," Lily remarked in a crisp tone voice.

Harry did not respond to this revision of his statement; all he did was keep his eyes calm.

"I'm sure they'll all be fine, they have to be fine."

Kara stepped forward, practically floating a few inches off of the ground. She threw her arms around Harry in a strong hug. He pulled the blonde into him tightly.

Harry and this Fortress was all that she had left of Krypton, it was destroyed, her entire world crumbled to nothingness. The fact that Harry and her remained here together would give the blonde some time to come to terms to it.

She did not completely understand everything that happened with the death of Krypton. Thanks to the weirdness of the wormhole, she arrived technically after Kal. She was supposed to keep an eye on him but that didn't go as planned. Make sure that the AI system launched completely as planned.

Lara's AI was the only one that she knew of. Granted, she supposed that she should have figured out that her mother was adept enough to figure something out. Lil-Rell and Peve-Rell were surprises to her but Kara decided that the best she could do was roll with the punches.

"How are you finding the Fortress?" Kara asked Harry and Harry turned towards her with a smile.

"The Fortress is fine, I'm still in awe over the technology inside," Harry informed her. "And trying to figure out my own heritage….that was a surprise."

Kara supposed she could understand, all she knew of Earth came from television signals that came from the planet. Harry tried to educate her the best he could but there were so many things that needed to be explained and somethings that were hard to explain.

"I think that your heritage is elementary," Lily remarked as she mulled it over. "You are forty percent my son, thirty five percent Lara's, twelve percent James, and eight percent Jor-El."

"And that eight percent of Jor-El might get you in trouble," Lara deadpanned with a shudder.

"What as he like?" Harry asked, curiosity brimming from his voice.

"He was the foremost genius on all of Krypton," Kara chimed in, although she did not get along with Jor-El that much, she had to respect the many achievements of the man.

Alura on the other hand snorted. Sending a child alone to an unknown planet with no failsafe in an escape pod that wasn't tested made her question his intelligence. She had little to no respect for Jor-El at all and saw him as fairly immersed in his own hype.

"So he's kind of like the Kryptonian version of Reed Richards," Harry remarked and Lara let out a whistle.

"Yes, if Reed Richards is an absent minded scientist who focused more on his work and wouldn't notice a naked woman if she was dancing in front of him, then yes, he was Reed Richards of Krypton," Lara stated coolly.

Harry smiled, sounded exactly like Reed Richards.

The AIs were fairly intelligence and could interact with Harry, could be touched by him and touch him, and could feel. That was quite interesting.

"So how was the first fifteen years of your life?" Kara asked, trying to initiate conversation.

"Terrible," Harry chimed in, completely blunt.

"Well he has his mother's sharp tongue," Peve remarked dryly, not bothering to clarify which one she meant.

"But things improved when you left that world," Kara stated and Harry simply nodded towards her. "And for that I'm glad."

"I am too, I am too," Harry stated as he prepared to start his training.

"You're going to be amazing and are going to do some great things, you know," Kara remarked to him as she placed her arm around him, looking at him with wide eyed adoration.

"You have some really lofty expectations of me, don't you?" Harry asked her and Kara nodded.

"Wouldn't have them so high if they weren't so true," Kara remarked as Harry tightened the hug around her. She curled up onto his lap. "I just can't believe it's all gone."

"Nothing is forever," Harry informed as he ran his hands down her hair. "Krypton sounds amazing."

"It was," Kara remarked with a smile as she rested herself in Harry's arms. This was about the only place she felt safe, here and inside the Fortress, in their brand new world. "I can't wait to meet them."

"You will soon," Harry said to her.

"What if they don't like me?" Kara asked as she bit down on her lip.

Harry held her in tightly as he looked in Kara's bright eyes with a smile. The blonde stared back at him, she could get lost in his emerald green orbs for hours.

"They'll like you," Harry told her in a bold tone of voice as he stroked her cheek.

Kara nodded, she could not wait to learn more of her new home. Although she hoped to stick to the Fortress for a little bit longer because it gave her a sense of home and security after losing hers. For her, Krypton was still around a few weeks ago from her perspective and now it was gone. She still saw the images in the back of her mind.

On the outside world, he would be gone for a month but inside the Fortress, he would be in here for a year. He would not age physically but then again, he was slowly reaching the age where he would stop aging to begin with. Kara would stop aging as well when she reached her mid-twenties but since she just turned sixteen years old before she went into stasis, she had plenty of maturing to go.

"I want you on it right away."

Nick Fury barked these words to the SHIELD agents that he spoke through over the communication link as he was on route with the Avengers on a little recruitment mission.

"And what are we after sir."

"I told you, there's been sightings of a vigilante in Gotham City, that's in New Jersey," Fury told them, agitated that he had to repeat himself. "Reports are sketchy, but the clearest reports are that this vigilante is dressed up as a giant bat."

"A giant bat, sir?"

"I'm just telling you what the reports indicate, I want to find out more about this," Fury continued, the fact that there was someone out there who had been adept enough to escape Nick Fury's watchful eye put him in a dither.

Potter was another one but Fury knew that he was still out there. He had people searching for the last two weeks but the emerald eyed sorcerer turned out to be annoyingly resourceful. That was something that Fury learned anew time after time when he went up against that particular young man.

Now that they were on a mission of a different kind, Fury arrived at the lab of Doctor Henry Pym, flanked by Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. The rest of the Avengers were on other missions, the world did not save itself after all.

Fury was thankful as well that his men managed to salvage the alien ship before anyone could get their hands on it. They had not been able to get it open but it was only a matter of time. SHIELD needed to possess whatever secrets was on that ship, it was a matter of galactic security. If there were aliens among them, then Fury needed to take the steps necessary to protect the world.

The Commander of SHIELD walked forward and entered the lab.

"Nick Fury, it's….an honor to meet you," a young woman in her early twenties stated, in an excited voice. She had dark hair and was dressed in a stylish black top and tight black pants, she was buzzing with excitement. "You might have heard of me….I'm…."

"Yes, I've heard of you, Miss Van Dyne," Fury commented in a business like tone of voice.

That tone was so dismissive it nearly took the wind out of her sails. Janet Van Dyne, or as she now was called, the Wasp, a budding superhero who had aspirations of joining the Avengers, looked eagerly towards Fury.

"Right, I'm sure that you're here to recruit me to the Avengers," Jan commented as her voice bubbled with excitement. She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, overly excited and smiling widely.

"Actually we're here to see Doctor Pym," Tony stated in a business like tone of voice.

"But we'll be sure to get you an autograph if you're really good," Clint added with a smile and Natasha rolled her eyes at his antics.

She had been leading the search in the aftermath of Harry's disappearance, at least until Fury pulled her off of it. He commented that she had too much of a personal interest in Harry. It was just as well as she was having no luck but the rest of SHIELD had even less luck.

The man in his mid-thirties with sandy blonde hair barely looked up from his work. A number of inventions were strewn across the lab table, it was the true calling card of an absent minded inventor. He tapped his fingers on the table before he looked up. There were tanks of ants all over the lab as well.

"Hello, Commander Fury," Pym stated as he barely looked up from his work.

"We believe that your technology and how you've adapted it may make you a perfect fit for the Avengers," Fury said gruffly, getting straight down to the point.

"What about me?" Jan asked, and Fury turned towards her.

"Yes, Miss Van Dyne, you as well," Fury remarked calmly and Jan looked excited about the possibility of doing something decent for the world.

"Yes, I've seen what the Avengers have done," Pym commented in a docile voice. "I'm appalled at some of the actions that this team has undertaken in their attempts for so called justice."

"What do you mean, appalled?" Tony asked, he felt like he was personally insulted in some way.

"Well you use ruthless violence against those who you go up against, when you should just talk to the criminals to try and pacify the situation," Pym stated as his voice remained calm and even. "You may be making the situation worse with your heavy handed tactics."

"Talk to and…pacify the situation," Natasha muttered, as she mulled over those words in her mind. They sounded as absurd out loud as they did inside her head.

"Yes, I'm all for the fact that criminals can be rehabilitated, but they need to be treated with respect," Pym offered the entire group.

"Treat the murderers and crazed maniacs with respect?" Clint asked with a raised eyebrow. "What, are we supposed to play patty cake with them, bake them some cookies, maybe do some hopscotch for an encore?"

Pym shook his head and tutted.

"I created the Big House for SHIELD and I am confident that the criminals inside will become productive members of society," Pym offered to them. "They are being treated with respect, I speak with them about their problems and try not to bait them or worse injure them with brutality."

Clint bit his tongue, it was very hard for him to be quiet now.

"Here are the readings you requested, Doctor Pym."

A robot with glowing blue eyes walked over.

"What is that?" Clint asked looking rather disturbed by the presence of the robot.

"That's Ultron, he is the next generation of artificial intelligence, based off of my brain waves," Pym informed them as Ultron stepped forward towards them and handed Pym a piece of equipment.

Jan, Tony, and Clint all shuddered but Natasha remained stoic and stared forward even though she was secretly unnerved. She had to resist the temptation to smash this stupid robot into pieces.

"Okay that's kind of creepy," Tony whispered as his gaze focused towards the head of the robot but Pym heard him and frowned.

"It's not creepy, it's based off of an ant's head," Pym offered to them sternly. "Ultron is a pacifist and wouldn't harm anyone. He does not know the concept of violence unlike certain Avengers."

"Yeah, well sometimes you got to get your hands dirty to protect people," Tony offered Pym but the scientist shook his head.

"I wouldn't suspect a hedonistic playboy who goes joyriding around in an overgrown tin toy to understand my work," Pym offered with a tut before he turned his attention fully to Stark. "You're still selling weapons to the government, to go against enemy countries."

"Not any more, Stark pulled his weapon's contracts," Fury corrected Pym, not sounding too pleased with that fact but it was something that he had to deal with.

"Well, maybe there's hope after all," Pym commented flatly as he turned away. "My answer, in case you haven't figured it out is no. I don't want any part of the Avengers."

"Okay, well if you change your mind, you know where to find us," Fury remarked and the group turned around.

"Wait, I didn't say no," Jan offered and Pym looked up, looking at her.

"You are actually considering joining these people," Pym stated, feeling rather betrayed.

Jan's face crossed with a bit of annoyance. "Hank, they might get rough a lot of times but the Avengers do a lot of good for the world. Like it or not, they are something that is necessary."

"If I can rehabilitate these people, with the help of my Ultron bots, I'll prove that the Avengers aren't necessary," Pym argued stubbornly, the doctor determined to show that his way was the right way.

The Avengers made their way back to the transport vehicle. As always, Tony could not resist putting in his two cents on the matter.

"Really charming guy, isn't it?" Tony asked to the group.

"Some would say the same thing about you Stark!" Fury snapped as he kept walking.

Clint frowned before he spun around to face Tony. "He hasn't been the same since he got married, has he?"

"When did this happen?" Natasha asked, confusion flickering through her eyes, this was news to her. Then again, she had preoccupied by other things.

Clint was all too happy to let her in on the news. "Well Fury met up with an old flame from during his CIA days. It was one of those whirlwind things that happened so fast if you blink you'd miss it. Go to Vegas, get smashed, get married, you know something like that."

"Fury doesn't seem to be the type," a woman off to the side stated, her face immersed in the shadows. She was a fairly new recruit to SHIELD having been brought along from the mission although she was trained by Natasha, which was the highest praise one could offer.

"I didn't think so either, but he surprised me," Clint remarked before he raised an eyebrow. "Although this woman….well she's a handful in more ways than one."

"Yeah, Nicky Boy likes his woman large and in charge," Tony commented with a chuckle. "She's tenacious like him, I'll give him that."

"She's more than enough woman to handle Fury," Clint added.

"If you two are quite done gossiping about my personal life!" Fury snapped and Clint and Tony shut up.

Natasha found some amusement that they had been smacked down like two children.

"Sir, an energy beacon has been picked up over the Jersey Shore, and it's heading North."

"What now?" Natasha asked but she got no answer.

The work of the Agent of SHIELD was never done.

"Krypton was not a world that prided themselves on their emotions," Lara explained to Harry before she added with a small smile. "Although we could get emotional with the best of them and it always got us in trouble, no matter what."

Kara picked up. "Yes, we were supposed to be the stoic race. Yet we were responsible for more wars than most other planets in the universe."

"According to the official archives, a lot of Krypton's problems were because it was in a strategic location between two warring alien races," Peve stated as she combed through the archives that Lara had left in the Fortress.

Jor-El had been killed before he was able to complete his AI Programming but given some of his more questionable decisions, Lara suspected that it might be for the best. He would want to test his son, making him run through hoops until he reached some vague and mysterious destiny.

It was mostly completed actually but Lara conveniently misplaced it. It was Lara who put Kal-El on the ship, cursing Jor-El for making such an inadequate escape vessel despite knowing that the planet was going to hit critical mass almost eight terminal cycles before it happened. Thankfully she had a failsafe that she could send along, giving it to M'gann to get to her son when the time was right.

"Those two races were the Skrull and the Kree, they've been going at it for thousands of years, long past the point where the entire point of the conflict has been forgotten even by them," Lara continued as her construct shifted her eyes around. "Several planets were destroyed. The Skrull had a prophecy that they would take over a new home world as their own. They tried a scheme to gain control of Krypton but Jor-El and Zod managed to uncover their plan."

"You've spoken of Zod a few times before," Harry told them. He was curious about something. "Who is he?"

That was a loaded question and Lara decided to give the most concise answer she could. "Zod was a brilliant war commander on Krypton. He waged several successful campaigns, both against rebel forces on Krypton and against attacking enemies as well. He waged one of the most successful campaigns on our planet in the Argo Valley during a bitter winter. Despite most of his troops suffering severe frostbite and fever, he managed to defeat enemy forces and was instrumental in protecting Krypton against many grave terrorist threats."

"Sounds like a true blue hero," Harry commented and Kara let out a long sigh. She looked despondent which Harry noticed and he grabbed her hand.

"Well he was," Alura remarked in a saddened tone of voice. "War turns people funny and Zod lost his sense of reality. He thought that Krypton owed him a greater debt and more credit than the Council was willing to give him. So he decided to stage a coup and overthrow the government."

"Zod failed but got the last laugh as he planted an explosive device that sped up the deterioration of the already unstable core, but naturally we were in denial for eight months, well most of us," Lara picked up where Alura left off. "The wars with the Kree and Skrull did more than their fair share of damage but mark my words; it was Zod who was the final nail in Krypton's coffin."

"So Zod was killed with the destruction of Krypton?" Harry asked them.

"No, Har-Rell, it was worse, much worse," Peve added, speaking up once more. "His soul was stripped from his body and it was banished into the Phantom Zone. It is a dimension that some of the worst criminals of the twenty eight galaxies were sent."

"Dementors were once creatures who escaped from the Phantom Zone but the Ministry thought that they could foolishly tame them," Lily offered them. "It was merely a ceasefire at best for their darkest desires were fed, the souls and memories of others which they could consume."

"The archway you arrived from your prime dimension, before the merger, was a primitive gateway that was lost hundreds of years ago," Peve explained to him. "Your Ministry used it as a means to dispose of less than desirable elements from your world."

This was a fascinating conversation but M'gann showed up once more. She was the only one who had been allowed entry into the Fortress, other than Harry and Kara, and had been used as a go between to the outside world if they needed anything.

"I delivered the messages like you requested," M'gann offered to Harry.

"I appreciate it, really I do," Harry told her with a smile. "You know why I did it."

M'gann nodded. "Yes, if you left, it might be difficult for you to return. It's best you get your training done before seeking them out again. At least they've been told that your okay."

"Yes, at least they've been told," Harry agreed but there was a few seconds more M'gann dropped the next bombshell on him.

"Kitty and Laura weren't there."

Harry's eyes flickered open and suddenly a feeling of dread filled. It was likely nothing but at the same time, he could not help but jump to the worst possible conclusion. That was the way that Harry was.

"Did you find out where they were?" Harry asked M'gann and she was prompt to answer.

"Laura left shortly after you disappeared, she never believed that you were dead so she went looking for you," M'gann offered Harry.

'Well that's proof that she's Logan's daughter more than anything,' Harry thought to himself.

"What about Kitty?"

M'gann paused. "She thought that since you were gone….there was no point in her staying."

Harry could have smacked himself. "I should have…."

"No she left days before you even woke up so even if you sent something straight away, the point was moot," M'gann commented, she had been around Harry often enough, incognito, to know when a fresh round of self-loathing was coming up.

That was true but Harry had other problems. The world at large was not fond of mutants, especially one like Kitty. She had butted heads with the Friends of Humanity a few times already and while she was not as known as someone like Captain America or Spider-Man, there was a chance that someone might have recognized her.

Despite every precaution possible being taken, Harry was still outside.

"What about my ship?" Kara chimed in suddenly, that was something that she worried about but it had been lost in her concerns to make sure that Har-Rell was well.

M'Gann's eyes snapped open before she stated in an apologetic tone of voice. "I don't know…it was gone, someone took it."

"They won't be able to get it open, would they?" Harry asked Kara and she shook her head.

"I don't think so," Kara stated but never the less she dreaded the humans finding out more than they should. Harry sensed her dismay and placed an arm around her shoulder to try and calm her down.

"We'll get it…eventually, I need to find out where Kitty is….unless she went back home?" Harry offered M'gann but the Martian Girl shook her head.

Harry thought about it, it was time to take drastic action.

"Har-Rell, if it's important to you, go, but return once you have found that she is okay," Peve said firmly and the other Artificial Intelligences were in agreement.

It was time for Kara and Harry to venture out into the outside world, with all of the dangers of it.

The new semester was going into full swing at Midtown High School and Gwen in particular looked forward to seeing what would happen in her senior year. The events of two weeks ago still flickered through her mind and just this morning, she received a message that confirmed her suspicions.

Gwen hated to tell people that she told them so but she really did tell them so. The blonde stood at the edge of the schoolyard, waiting for the first bell to ring.

'As usual, Peter is late,' Gwen thought, but then again, he always tended to run into some early morning crimes that he had to bust.

"Gwen, did you hear the news?"

Gwen's other male friend, other than Peter, walked up. Harry Osborn greeted her with a jovial smile.

"What was the news?" Gwen asked, curiosity getting the better of her. There was something that was going to happen but she had no idea what.

"My father has gotten a clean bill of health and he's back to work," Harry stated with a bright smile and Gwen tried to remain calm although she was a bit worried about Osborn.

She wanted to be happy but the truth was she was not happy. She knew what Norman Osborn did as the Green Goblin. Therefore, while he claimed insanity and was rendered in a catatonic state for nearly six months, she wondered how much of it was legit. Gwen offered a bright smile, trying to be happy for her friend.

"And my father is funding the new Mutant Response Division," Harry added with a bright smile on his face. "It's ironic, isn't it, because it's mutants that put him there in the first place?"

"Really, I didn't think….I didn't think you got along with your father all that much," Gwen offered and Harry looked at Gwen with a wide smile.

"I kind of don't but I'm happy that he was put in charge of the MRD," Harry remarked as he looked Gwen directly in the eye. "Maybe he'll micro-manage someone else's life other than my own. And maybe I'll stop getting lectures how I should take more after Pete or Lex or Tess."

Gwen heard all too much about how Norman downgraded his son and said that he should take more after his best friend or his cousins. Having never met them, Gwen could not say anything positive or negative, although she did hear the younger Osborn go on a few rants about them.

Harry looked over his shoulder.

"Speaking of which, where is our grandmaster of tardiness?"

"I don't know," Gwen offered as she did wonder if he had been caught up doing the Spider-Man thing a bit too much this morning.

The disappearance of Arcane was something that was the topic of discussion throughout the schoolyard. There were many people who had their own theories about what happened but none of them could even figure that point out.

"I tell you Arcane is still out there."

"Where is he, flying in a UFO with Elvis and the Loch Ness Monster?"

"I don't know, he might be," one of the students stated.

"I heard he crash landed on an island nation made up of nothing but Amazon women."

"Oh don't be ridiculous!"

A young blond haired man dressed in a Midtown High Football team jacket, a t-shirt, and sweatpants rolled his eyes at the spectacle. "I don't know why they're talking about Arcane like this. I mean, the guy's alright, but he's no Spider-Man."

That was the words that came out the mouth of Eugene "Flash" Thompson. Flash was the number one fan of Spider-Man and the number one tormenter of Peter Parker. Life did love its little irony's like that. Regardless he stood them, bold and brave.

"I don't know, I think he's kind of cool," a dark skinned girl with Hispanic features stated as she turned around. Her name was Liz Allen, she was the captain of the Midtown High School Cheerleading Squad and the on again and off again girlfriend of Flash Thompson.

Today they were on again but that could change before the next bell. Thus was the politics of a high school.

"You think….I can't believe it Liz, he's some brooding loner who is standing in the shadows, who does that?" Flash asked in an exasperated tone of voice as he threw his hands up.

Despite everything, he was pumped up for the latest Football season. Flash in particular could not wait for the game against Bayville High. He wanted to show up that low-rent, third rate, Flash Thompson wannabe, Duncan Mathews and show him who the man was on the field.

Gwen turned her head around and a red haired girl with a black t-shirt and tight jeans showed up. "Hey, MJ."

"Have you see Peter?" Mary Jane asked her.

"Funnily enough, you're only the second person to ask me that, and I don't know," Gwen offered Mary Jane and the redhead nodded in response.

"Fair enough," Mary Jane commented as she peered out before a smile crossed his face. "Ah, there he is."

Gwen noticed that there had been something off about Peter's demeanor over the past few days but it really set in to her now. The blonde eyed her friend; there was something vaguely unsettling about the way he was acting. She would not say that she was completely concerned but it was getting that way.

"Hey, Pete," Gwen offered with a smile but Peter brushed by her, with a sour expression on his face. "Okay, not….not the greeting I was expecting."

"Pete, good to see you," Harry commented in a cheerful tone of voice. "Did you hear about my father?"

"What did Osborn do now?" Peter asked, his eyes glaring with a serious bit of maliciousness.

"Well Dad….he was given a clean bill of health," Harry remarked, trying to keep his voice excited, as if he did not sense the serious undercurrent of hostility coming from his friend. "And he was put in the charge of the new Mutant Response Division. We'll all feel safer at night, won't we?"

"Don't be an idiot, the only person who benefits from this is Norman Osborn, just like it always has been," Peter offered, his teeth grinding together before he peered over his shoulder and then turned back towards Harry. "If you ask me, Osborn should have gotten blown up. Serves the psychopath right."

Gwen and Mary Jane exchanged shocked looks at this statement coming from the mouth of Peter of all people. Sure it was something that was thought, by Gwen in particular, but it was not anything that they would dare say out loud. The blonde wondered what Peter might have been thinking, there was a sense that his filter had been removed from his mind.

Harry in particular, well he was not too happy to say the very least.

"You know Pete, that's out of line, I don't know what your problem is."

"Hey look over there, nerd fight!"

"Butt out Eugene!" Gwen snapped angrily before she turned around and saw Peter and Harry who were both staring down each other, tension was raising between both of them.

"You know, your dad's a psychopath, I'm just telling you what everyone else is thinking," Peter answered.

Peter smiled, it felt good not being a meek little child. It felt good to pound those criminals today until they begged for mercy and then pound them some more. Sure he broke a few bones but they lived. Granted it was in pain but things could be worse, they could have been dead.

Gwen wondered what the problem as but the bell rang and that was the cue of everyone to go inside.

"Pete's taken a huge dose of the Jerk Juice today," Mary Jane whispered to Gwen and Gwen responded with a nod.

Gwen had no idea why Peter was acting the way that he was but it was starting to annoy her a little bit. She would have to worry about it later; she did not have a class period with him until fourth, so she would not be seeing him until them. The blonde edged her way into the school, her mind half on everything.

There was a sense that she was waiting for some sword to drop over the top of her head to lop it off.

"Gwen!"

Gwen spun around and saw the person who was waiting for her by a set of doors the other end of the school. She greeted her with a smile and a wave, before the young blonde with a headband was greeted by another young blonde.

"Hey Chloe, what's in the news?"

Chloe Sullivan smiled at the utterly bad inside joke that the two of them shared.

"Nothing good, it appears that a certain group wants to hijack my paper for their nefarious purposes," Chloe remarked as she lead Gwen inside her office. Well it was an office in the loosest sense of the word, in reality it was a converted Janitorial Closet but Chloe still counted it as such. "You might have heard of them, they'll the charming group known as the Friends of Humanity."

Gwen's eyes widened at this news and suddenly she was worried that Chloe said something that she should not. As long she knew Chloe, there was always this fear that the young female would say something that would not be in her best interest. The two blondes kept their eyes on each other.

"Yes, I've heard of them," Gwen said in a slow voice, really hoping that things did not spiral out of control in the worst way possible.

"I wrote a piece in the Torch, that talked up the X-Men, saying that they were misunderstood and did not deserve to be judged because of them being different," Chloe told Gwen as the two walked forward around her office. "Sure, it's not the latest awe inspiring Flash Thompson victory on the Football Field, but still I thought it was a relevant piece of information."

Chloe let out her breath in a long sigh before she turned her head around towards Gwen and cupped a hand on her chin.

"And that's only the beginning, he wants me to print awareness against mutants," Chloe said to Gwen, her frustration becoming obvious. "He wants me to spearhead a call to arms to out mutants and to put them in their place."

"So that didn't go over too well," Gwen remarked to Chloe and the blonde shook her head. "Actually can't he get fired for that?"

"Given how crap the school board is around here?" Chloe asked Gwen and Gwen nodded. "The only thing they put money into is Football and the circus er I mean the Cheerleaders. It takes them forever to get anything constructive done. No one's going to complain, for fear out of being outed as a mutant supporter."

Gwen nodded, that did not seem right but that was educational politics in the 21st century. The people running the place did not care, teachers didn't care, and they herded students out like they were cattle.

"And that's only the beginning, he wants me to print awareness against mutants," Chloe said to Gwen, her frustration becoming obvious. "He wants me to spearhead a call to arms to out mutants and to put them in their place."

Chloe's expression turned a bit irritated and there was a certain fever pitch in her eyes before she added.

"And if I don't do it, he'll find someone who could."

Chloe sighed, she turned around and looked out the window, when she started the paper, she didn't even have a window or a door. Her office was an alcove in the middle of the math corridor, so a converted Janitor's closet was a step up. That was how far she brought the Torch in the past few years since she came here. Even though she was in her Senior Year, she didn't want the paper to fall out of her hands just yet.

It was amazing, there wasn't a school paper until she founded it, well unless you counted the badly printed and full of grammatical errors lunch menu as a school newspaper with "dessert" being spelled as "desert". Chloe remarked one day that she'd have a Gobi with her lunch.

She was landed in Saturday detention for a month for being an disruptive force. In slightly related news, school administrations had no sense of humor whatsoever.

"I wonder if I could be fired from the paper that I set up," Chloe offered with a despondent sigh but Gwen placed her hand on her arm. "Guess we'll find out before long."

"Don't give up, if anything else, trying to silence you might make the story that you wrote more attractive to other people," Gwen remarked before she offered an alternative. "If push comes to shove, you can take it to the Daily Bugle. Jameson might be a hard ass, but if you fight for it hard enough, he'll give space to anything. Hell he's ran some pro Spider-Man pieces, in the same issue even where he is bashing the web head like it's nobody's business."

"The Bugle….I don't know about that," Chloe offered in an apprehensive tone of voice. "That might be….that might be stepping in on my cousin's territory."

Chloe smiled, said cousin may have gotten an overinflated sense of her own self worth and also her own mortality landing the job with the Bugle straight out of college. She supposed that she should be happy for Lois but she did get herself into situations that tested her mortality more often than not. Then again, she was adept enough to get herself out of some rather tight fixes.

"I'm sure that there should be no problem," Gwen offered before she eyed the wall with several press clippings and computer print outs that described Arcane. "Well this is new."

"It's merely a scientific curiosity, he's been connected to the X-Men or at least he was before he disappeared," Chloe remarked before she clicked her tongue and checked her e-mail. She deleted the male enlargement pill spam before she got down to the grim and gritty of what she needed to read. Amusement flickered through her eyes as she read the e-mail "Although after his disappearance, he's been sighted in more places than an army of Elvises. Or is it Elvii? I wonder, what is the proper plural form of Elvis?"

Chloe wondered if there were many more puzzle pieces that she needed to put together regarding the mystery that was Arcane. There were many theories, some of them really wild. One of them was that he was part of a race of vampires that sparkled in the sunlight.

Who the hell came up with such absurdity? Vampires didn't sparkle in the sunlight, they burned to a crackly crisp.

"Hey, Chlo, what's this?" Gwen asked as she looked at a pamphlet that was buried underneath some clutter on her desk.

Chloe raised an eyebrow before she turned towards Gwen. "Oh that's just some junk mail that I found when I was doing some digging. It's nothing."

Gwen looked through it; it was promotional material that advertised the First Church of Shi'ar Enlightenment that promoted the worship of the Star Child who they claimed to be the one true savior of the universe.

"The Star Child and the Fire Bird Shall Unite To Bring A New Hope to the World."

Curiosity got the better of one Gwen Stacy, even though Chloe discounted it as bunk.

"No way," Chloe breathed, letting out a prominent sigh.

"What?" Gwen asked as she corked an eyebrow.

"There's an alien ship that's been sighted outside of New York City," Chloe commented as she watched the grainy images come to light. A poor quality video clip really did not show her anything.

Gwen could not discount that business was about to pick up in the worse way.

The raven haired reporter with violet eyes walked down the streets of New York at a brisk pace with a purpose. She continued to keep her movements fluid, careful. Her name was Lois Lane, less than a month on the job at the Daily Bugle and already she was on the story of the century.

Two alien invasions in less than two weeks, that couldn't be a coincidence. New York was rocked by the meteor shower that brought the mysterious ship. By the time that Lois arrived to get a better look at the ship, it was gone.

Was it government intervention or was it something else?

There was a humming above her head and Lois turned her head around. She stood on her heels and there was a hushed crowd around them. The raven haired reporter continued to make greater strides to her destination.

A holographic image popped over the ship. The image was distorted but a milky white face with blue eyes could be seen. Lois arched her head over to the side, she wondered if it was going speak.

Would it be capable of sentient speech?

The voice module crackled to life and the entity stated in a gruff tone of voice.

"I am here to protect you from the Star Child. You have one of your orbital cycles to surrender him to me or you will face oblivion."

Lois wondered if her first big story would be the end of the world as she knew it. Somehow she wasn't feeling fine.

To Be Continued in Part Two on August 22 nd 2013. 

I didn't respond to review responses for the last chapter because it was old news anyway. So if you read this and still wonder why, now you know. And if you don't read this, well…there's no use to really talking to you anyway because you're not reading this text to begin with. 

Really simple explanation for the world as it is: When Harry opened the box, the DC and Marvel universes fused and retroactively combined together. Harry and Deadpool are the only ones who remember the world completely how it used to be. Given that this is a comic book story, it runs off of comic book logic. As we know, every time the Scarlet Witch has the sniffles, reality could get rewritten(*)