45 Chapter 45 Cutthroat Business

Within a field of kaleidoscopic color which marked the astral battlefield Harry's Battle Meditation took place in, Harry was standing off to the side while he watched Rogue, Wanda, and Jean fight off a group of twelve tiger sized wolves.

It had been a little over a month since the girls were added to the Multiplayer function and every night since they had used Battle Meditation with Harry. The girls themselves could not initiate Battle Meditation so Harry had to do so first and only then could he invite them into the astral plane to take part. Of course he had to lower the level of the conjured constructs so the wolves they were currently facing were about level fifty a piece.

Jean was probably the most excited to take part in Harry's Battle meditation because she knew how to access the Astral plane on her own, though she had no intention of finding and killing beings within to level up. She knew that Harry leveled up in this space and had tried to find it a few times so she could watch him, but Harry told her he was using a concealment formation to prevent Xavier or other telepaths from interrupting him while he fought. Having the Ancient One find him that one time was awkward enough, he wasn't going for a repeat performance.

All three girls were floating above the pack and raining hell down into the poor wolves. Jean had already figured out how to float using telekinesis and Rogue was copying her. Wanda had invented her own Chaos Magic spell that allowed her to float as well which proved to be a great advantage against opponents incapable of flight.

Jean had three forms of attack. She could attack the target's mind to stun then, use telekinesis to hold or throw them, or create psionic blades to physically attack them. She could use Phoenix Flame as well, but they wouldn't get Experience for defeating enemies with those so she refrained from using that. While defending she could create barriers and move debris or enemies into the way of oncoming attacks.

Wanda's fighting style was mostly about controlling the enemy and the environment. She didn't have anything to transfigure into allies in this space but she could transfigure the terrain and apply various status ailments against her opponents. Her Hex Bolts were no longer unpredictable and she could directly transfigure weaker targets into whatever she wanted.

Rogue's combat style was more unpredictable. At a distance she would use Cyclop's eye beams, Iceman's Freeze rays, Pyro's Pyrokinesis, or Storm's wind or lightning. When up close she could cover herself in Spyke's spikes or Colossus's organic steel and use Juggernaut's Unstoppable Force or Quicksilver's Speed. In a pinch she would use Wanda's Hex Bolts.

None of the three were particularly stronger than the other two. At first, Wanda and Rogue were stronger than Jean but with the Autocorrecting properties of the Path System combined with her own Phoenix Flames perk which acted as a multiplier in the speed at which the Path increased in rank, eventually she found herself nearly matching them most of the time.

All three had their weaknesses of course. Rogue's weakness was the duration she could fight. Most mutant powers come with passive physical enhancements which allow the mutant to use them easier but Rogue didn't get those so her use of a power was always less efficient than the original's use. For example she could run at the same speed as Quicksilver but she would tire herself out long before Pietro reached his limit. When she used multiple powers at the same time she tired out much faster so when she sparred with Wanda and Jean, they would use everything they had to force her into a corner and make her use multiple powers at the same time, then drag the fight out until she was exhausted. Neither considered it a cheap tactic as Rogue could use Wolverine's healing and could become invulnerable using either Colossus' or Juggernaut's power.

Wanda's weakness was her lack of fast, strong, single target attack moves. Her casting for lesser spells was near instantaneous but if she wanted to take down someone like Logan or any of the other first generation X-Men, she would need something stronger which took more time to cast. She had been getting around this by using stalling tactics and learning different strategies while increasing the strength of her Hex Bolt's ability to disrupt other mutant powers.

Jean's only real weakness was her lack of experience. In that sense, Wanda and Rogue were perfect practice partners for her and she was learning something new every day. Harry offered to allow Jean to copy his own understanding of physics into her mind which would allow her to easily learn it herself using Harry's understanding as a reference. Jean could use telekinesis and astral creation to mimic many other powers and with a connection to the Phoenix Force, using those powers didn't drain her even when she tried something big. However maintaining a constant connection to the Phoenix Force would change her intrinsically so she only maintained brief connections at various times.

In addition to facing off against monsters in Battle Meditation and sparring against one another, Harry himself would sometimes fight against them either individually, in pairs, or against all three. Although the girls were strong enough to whittle away at the pack of level 50 wolves without issue, Harry could still clobber them all no matter what they tried. Harry found that close quarters combat was a general weakness for each of them so he would stack Strength Energy from Cyttorak's realm with Immortal Dragon Chi and use his Dimensional Long Sword along with Sorcerer style physical enhancement. In this way he used his Warrior, Magic, and Dragon Path all at the same time and proved to be too strong for them. For now anyways. Harry suspected in two years or so they'd be able to give him a very good fight. Though he still wouldn't let them beat him.

Harry couldn't fight the monsters the girls were against or else all the energy would automatically go to him, so he had to just stand around the whole time. Instead of wasting it, he would invoke his Immortal Dragon Chi and practice using it to raise his Dragon Path. Other times he would use Astral Creation to practice making AstralTech. The AstralTech of Lockheed's race was fascinating in more ways than one. Apparently Lockheed's race had actual ships they used in the Astral Plane they could use to fly from one world to the next and would move their physical bodies with their astral selves.

Harry's interest in AstralTech was due to the fact that he could not use items from his inventory in the Astral Plane but he could place AstralTech into his inventory once it had been completed and he could take it out when he returned to the Astral Plane. That meant he could make weapons and pieces of equipment that he could use in the Astral Plane.

Harry's Tech Path apparently loved AstralTech as well as it had gone up two ranks to 34 since Lockheed's tutoring in the subject had started. That along with some other breakthroughs of his allowed Harry to complete several projects he'd been working on.

The final wolf died and the natural energy they were formed of scattered and was absorbed in equal parts by the girls to Harry's satisfaction. Wanda who had the lowest level before had reached level 40 and Jean and Rogue were already at level 41. Even though they shared the Exp, they were leveling up faster than Harry did at Hogwarts because they already had Path Ranks higher than their levels and Harry was getting them access to monsters at higher levels than the girls.

The Multiplayer function had three main features which benefited the users. The first was the recovery properties of the Obscurus cells. When injured, their natural recovery increased depending on the ratio of Obscurus cells they had in their body which increased the more they leveled up. When they reached level 50 they could likely survive being stabbed in the heart and at level 100 they could shrug off such a wound without decreasing their combat effectiveness. Even Rogue couldn't channel Logan all the time after all.

The second function was that they could exceed the limits of their body through leveling up thanks to the Obscurus particle's propagation. Even if they all trained at a spartan style boot camp from hell for a year, they had no chance of even reaching level 35 from level 25, yet Harry suspected they would all reach level fifty in the next two months.

They could even distribute the stats they gained however they wanted. Wanda for example used a lot of her stats to boost her Luck and Rogue and Jean did the same with a goal of getting the Luck to 50 each. Harry didn't want to increase his own Luck for the simple reason that he might get bored if he was too lucky, but he had no problem with his girls boosting their Luck since they would not come back from the dead if they got unlucky.

The third and biggest benefit of the Multiplayer status was access to the auto correction of the Path System. Their skills naturally increased with use and skills within the same Path also became easier to use even if they didn't practice them thanks to the autocorrect.

For the Path system, Jean chose to focus on the Psionic Path and Wanda focused on the Magic Path. Rogue however decided to walk a similar path to Harry's and used the Magic, Psionic, and Warrior Paths at the same time to try to stack them together. Most mutant powers fell under one of those three Paths anyways. Spyke's, Colossus's, and even Wolverine's power fell under Warrior. Iceman's, Storm's, and even Scott's power fell under Magic. And Pyro's and Domino's powers fell under Psionic. There were also powers that fell into multiple categories like Quicksilver's and Juggernaut's which were both Magic and Warrior since their power used Time or Strength Energy to enhance their physical combat abilities.

The girls loved getting stronger faster but under Harry's suggestion they had to hold back in the Danger Room when showing off to others. Rogue and Wanda had been doing so already and Jean was starting to get used to it though she didn't like it. Harry mollified her by informing her about Sinister who knew that she had lost interest in Scott and that was why she was kidnapped. The fact that he could find that out meant he had means of monitoring inside the institute and the reason Harry was able to get her so fast was because Harry had hid all the useful information about himself behind covers. Jean didn't like it but she understood it.

The fall semester of Harry's first year at the Institute had ended and today was Christmas. Forge and Xavier both had very pleasant smiles on their faces as Harry had shown them his gifts for some of the students and teachers in advance and both were incredibly happy for everyone.

Harry had started openly going out with Jean and had confirmed they were boyfriend and girlfriend. This was something Rogue and Wanda suggested as they wanted to make sure the few eyes coveting Jean knew to stand down. Thankfully since Harry removed Sinister's influence, Scott had only been treating Jean like a sister and he had given up on all other ideas. He knew that Jean was happy which made him happy.

In exchange for this, Harry would often share Rogue's and Wanda's bed at night. Nothing X-rated happened but they were enjoying the skinship and closeness. Occasionally Jean would sneak in as well and Harry would enlarge the bed.

Jean was not exactly a different person after the mental locks were removed and she regained her full ability to feel love, but everyone could see how different she was since she started dating Harry. She was more colorful and vibrant and seemed both softer and stronger at the same time. Thankfully everyone attributed it to Harry being an awesome boyfriend which was not entirely inaccurate.

Storm and Logan did of course take the two aside and give them the Adult Lecture about hormones, consent, and love in general. Harry did his best not to point out that the Goddess of Nature and the Feral Animal required a soundproof room when they chose to sleep together.

Storm herself had taken an instant liking to Laura and Dr. Kinney, often chatting with the latter over coffee in the morning with Domino. Both appreciated some new female friends as they felt being the only mature women in the institute became droll after some time. They also enjoyed grilling her viciously about how close she was getting to Dr. McCoy. The two geneticists had many things in common after all.

When they started opening presents, Harry was given many small knick knacks, a cool poster of Captain America, some books and some t-shirts.

Near the end of the gift unwrapping Harry had Xavier bring out gifts for Kurt, Dr. McCoy, Josh, Sarah, and the others who had features which prevented them from going out in public.

Kurt was the only one Harry had told about this project beforehand and when he saw the watch and who else got one, he teleported over to Harry, took the forehead flick without complaint, and hugged him much to everyone's confusion.

"Thank you thank you thank you! How does it work?"

Harry answered, "The instructions were in the box, but you just tap on the glass three times to activate it and tap on it five times to deactivate it."

Kurt put the watch on and tapped the face of the glass three times which caused his appearance to look like static for just an instant before he was suddenly no longer blue. Kurt looked caucasian, seemed to have five fingers, and no tail though his hair remained its trademark blue.

"Ah, my tail is getting pressed against my leg!" Kurt look back to where he tail had been and didn't see it. He tapped the glass five times and his image returned to his loveable blue demon form. He then wrapped his tail around his waist and tapped the glass three more times and looked normal again. "Ah, much better."

Harry got out a large, full length mirror he already had in the corner and got it out. Kurt didn't bother walking over to it, he just poofed in front of it and started admiring his reflection. "Oh! My hair is still blue! It's perfect!"

The other kids put their watches on and tapped it three times as well. The gold skinned Josh became caucasian as well. The bone-like horns on Sarah's face were gone. And Dr. McCoy was suddenly a very bulky man who nearly matched the Juggernaut in profile, though he was not nearly as tall and one would only think he was incredibly fit.

McCoy's surprise when he saw his reflection was the strongest. He asked, "How did you know what I looked like before I changed?"

Although Dr. McCoy considered Harry a student and colleague, he didn't tell Harry much about his past. Harry had in fact used some of the man's fur and what he knew of removing the X-Gene combined with a variant polyjuice potion he used on himself. In other words, he made himself a copy of without his mutation and took pictures of himself to be scanned and used for the Hard-Light construct.

Not exactly wanting to lie, Harry answered, "It's a secret, though I'll tell you later if you really want to know." Making that particular batch of Polyjuice was gigantic pain, but perhaps Dr. McCoy would learn more about his own mutation if he used it himself.

Not just the children gifted the watches, but everyone in the mansion was happy and many had tears running down their faces. They all knew what this really meant for the kids and it took away much of the hidden burden that being a mutant entailed.

While everyone was laughing and showing off, Harry walked over to a corner and got out his last present. "No, I didn't forget about you."

ForgetMeNot rolled his eyes and opened the package to find a metallic bracelet and a tablet.

Harry said, "Keep that on for the next four hours. It will scan your memories and connect to this tablet. The tablet will display events and people you've encountered and you can select them. Any person you select will remember you. Any event you select that you took part in will be remembered by everyone who took part in it. I can make a new tablet if it breaks and there is an extra bracelet if you lose this one, but try not to as this bracelet and the spare are the only ones in existence and I'll never be able to make more. As long as you wear the bracelet, you will not be forgotten."

ForgetMeNot stopped moving about half way through the explanation. He was in too much shock. Sure, he knew Harry was going to try something, but he didn't expect him to actually succeed. No one succeeded. He wanted to rebuke Harry for getting his hopes up but the swarm of smiling children Harry had already done the impossible for today held his tongue. He stared at the bracelet for what seemed like hours before he put it on his wrist and felt someone inside his head. He understood that this was whatever was copying his memories.

Not really knowing what to do, ForgetMeNot softly said, "Thank you.."

Harry patted his shoulder and said, "It's an honor. I look forward to working with you in the future."

Harry had to practically use Alchemy in order to turn the DVDs into something he could store memories on but eventually he succeeded. The big breakthrough was actually a paired component of AstralTech Harry made that connected the Tablet to the bracelet through the astral plane. That meant they didn't need to be close to each other and the astral plane could easily access and transfer mental information like memories.

ForgetMeNot carefully pulled out the tablet and the large instruction booklet it came with and started reading it. Harry knew he wouldn't accept that this was real until later so he wouldn't bother him for now.

Sometime in the afternoon, Harry's own watch started blinking. Harry kept his homemade cellphone in his inventory so he used his watch like a pager to inform him of incoming calls and messages.

Harry pulled out his cellphone and was quickly called by the Goblin Bloodclaw. He was basically Harry's secretary. "Mr. Potter. A voicemail has been left on the company line by one Winston Frost."

Harry asked, "As in CEO of Frost International, Winston Frost?"

"The same. He has requested a meeting on the 27th at the Headquarters of Frost International in Massachusetts at 10am."

Harry tried not to laugh but did not succeed and he could practically hear Bloodclaw's razor toothed smile through the phone. Both knew the type of man Mr. Frost was known to be and both knew it was unlikely for things to end peacefully. Harry felt the Goblins were probably rubbing off on him in the wrong way because he was looking forward to it.

Harry said, "Call back and confirm I'll be there."

"It shall be done."

Harry hung up and smiled. It had been about six months since Brilliance Incorporated started selling gemstones. Harry wasn't too sure about the name but a company that made gemstones and would soon make tech had to have a catchy name and he didn't want to call it Potter something. He felt with things like Worthington Industries, Stark Industries, and Frost International, putting his name up like that would feel just too weird and he already had Potter and Gold Bank and Trust.

The Goblins had pretty much figured out how to get around all the annoying laws that prevented them from earning among the muggles. Each leader among the Goblins had a human counterpart and that human's name was on record as the one who was employed doing whatever it was that particular Goblin did. These humans were employed in shell companies that looked like they did things but in reality they did not. The so called human board of directors were all squibs or muggleborns who knew about the Goblins and also knew they were just proxies. They had signed magical contracts to fulfill the role of proxy and were paid relatively well.

Thanks to this however, it was impossible to steal the secrets of the company. The hiring process for most positions that were just covers included magical means of weeding out the criminals and spies so no one who wanted to look was able to find anything as they would always look in the wrong places.

As long as you ignored a few breeches of the Statue of Secrecy and squinted a bit, it was all still just barely considered legal.

The company itself had actually garnered great success so far. Nearly indestructible sapphire panes to be used as windows, diamond drill bits and cutters, large rubies for lasers, there was indeed a market for Harry's synthetic gemstones that could be crafted to nearly any size and shape and many groups were starting to take notice. Most companies had things they wanted to make but could not as the resources to make them were too scarce for the product to sell profitably. Projects that fell under this category that required gemstones were now suddenly profitable as long as they purchased those gemstones from Brilliance Incorporated.

Harry informed his girls of Mr. Frost's invitation and though Jean looked just a little worried, Rogue and Wanda wished him happy hunting.

On the morning in question Harry wore a custom made acromantula silk business suit with silver cufflinks and his Potter family signet ring. The smile received from his girls at his appearance was a show of how he looked which was good enough for him.

Harry used a Portal to head to MIT, a place he had been to before and got a cab to take him to Frost International's main building, a humble sixty seven floor tower thirty floors higher than anything else in the nearby five square mile area. Harry figured the man needed lessons on subtly.

The guard at the door motioned for Harry to come to him first as the door wouldn't automatically open for anyone without a badge. Harry said, "Harry Potter, meeting for 10am?"

The guard didn't look through any schedule or paperwork, he just gave Harry a once over and directed him through the door behind him.

Inside there was another guard who said, "Mr. Potter. Please step through here." There was an open ended box-like path Harry followed the guard through to the elevator on the other side of the room. He sensed the X-Rays that traveled through him and confirmed he only had a wallet, pen, cellphone, keys, and a watch on his person. Some of the keys looked fancy and high tech but there were toys Harry made that didn't unlock anything. Nothing Harry secured used actual keys, but not having them would be suspicious.

Once he was through Harry saw the woman at the counter was speaking on a phone, likely notifying others of Harry's arrival. Several others seemed to be coming and going from the entrance but they used key cards to both enter and exit. There were no doors to be used by guests without going through a guard first.

The guard escorting Harry to the elevator seemed to be the most muscular. He seemed to be the type who would never smile and his silence had an air of intimidation.

Harry found the entire setup amusing. Compared to meetings with Harry's actual board of directors, these guys were positively adorable. That board did not have a Voting process when there was a difference of opinion. Their arguments were carried out through battle and the shedding of blood.

Adult Goblins that survived growing up among other Goblins had a Warrior Path Rank averaging between 15 and 25 with the strongest ones being above 30. That combined with their Goblin forged weapons and armor meant they were very hardy and Goblins themselves were far faster and stronger than their size gave away. Goblins matured slower and reached their prime between the ages of 50 and 75 with the best maintaining their strength when they were over a hundred. However, although the strongest Goblin Warrior wielding the finest Goblin armaments would likely defeat most wizards, there were far too few Goblins who survived the number of battles required to reach such standards making them weaker than Wizards overall and thus forced to abide by their laws.

Unsurprisingly, most of the strongest who had in fact reached that standard were on Harry's board of directors and none of them were meat heads or younger than sixty. Harry did have to kill one particularly stubborn Goblin during his second board of directors meeting but that asshole had it coming. He thought that because Harry hadn't killed him up to that point after all the times he tried to cheat him and fail that Harry was a pushover. The remaining board members and that Goblin's replacement knew not to make that mistake again.

So compared to that, Harry had to stop himself from laughing at Winston's so called intimidation tactics.

The elevator ride was unsurprisingly all the way to the top and the security guard motioned for Harry to continue into the following room while he stayed behind.

Something that was slightly surprising was that Harry's mental trip wires went off just before Harry entered the room at the end of the hall. Someone was listening to his thoughts and was very discreet about their entry. However even Xavier couldn't get in without tripping Harry's alarms because those alarms were made using wizard magic and invisible to even the strongest telepath.

Harry smiled at the opening move of his opponent and figured this meant it would not be boring.

Harry opened the door and saw Mr. Frost on the other side of a large, apparently hand carved desk sitting in a large, leather chair. Behind the man was an open view of the Boston cityscape and in front of the desk in what he supposed was reserved for him was a smaller chair. Winston himself wore a three piece suit and the grey hair on his head was slicked back in a way that both appeared professional while giving the aura of experience and wisdom.

Fully knowing that his thoughts were being heard by another party, Harry thought that Winston was very stereotypical and without a dead body in the room or bloodstains on the desk this entire charade was cute compared to what he was used to dealing with.

Harry had already sent a reverse tap to the telepath and confirmed it was a teenage girl in another room, not the man himself.

The man looked up from his desk as if he only just realized Harry had walked in and said, "Ah yes, Mr. Potter. Thank you for accepting my request for a meeting."

Harry didn't bother sitting in the provided chair, instead he just leaned against it and answered, "Now why would I turn down such an interesting invitation from a man such as yourself?" As in, why should I fear you? I obviously don't. Harry could swear he heard a giggle coming from the other room which was quickly stifled, though didn't make anyone aware he had noticed it.

Harry continued, "You are also the first person to successfully reach my voicemail. I'm most certain I didn't make that number easy to find so it would be quite improper of me to decline your request."

By law, contact numbers have to be somewhere but the Goblins knew how to hide things within bureaucracy and Harry knew computers. The FBI hadn't found his contact number yet and he knew they were still looking.

Winston seemed to attempt a smile but it was strained. He didn't ask Harry to take a seat as Harry already seemed quite comfortable leaning over the back of the chair and was standing above the seated Winston. The old man said, "Quite. Your company, Brilliance Incorporated, is certainly interesting. There is potential but only if handled well. I called you over to discuss the future of your company."

Harry only laughed in his head instead of out loud that the man thought anything he said or did would have any say in the future of his company. Outwardly, Harry said, "Of course it has potential. Nobody has my company's techniques when it comes to producing gemstones. No one can even come close without burning more money than they'll ever make competing with me so my company's future is, well, Brilliant." Harry said that last part with a smile that showed his supernaturally clean teeth. Brilliant was such a fun word to say with a British accent and a smile.

Winston didn't bother smiling back, instead he seemed to decide play time was over and said, "Indeed. It's that potential that has me interested. I called you in here to buy controlling interest in your company. Frost International has a clothing and jewelry line that could use someone with your manufacturing capabilities and I already have everything here you'll have to sign."

Within Harry's head he heard words which sounded mostly similar to his own voice, 'It is a good idea, it is-,' Harry interrupted the false thoughts and thought to himself, 'no, that's a terrible idea. Gemstone manufacturing is the tip of the iceberg. Selling now before I make my true play isn't an idea worth considering.' Harry was immune to telepathic persuasiveness as long as he wasn't dealing with an Elder God within their own realm, but he didn't want others to know that so thought to himself a logical reason to ignore the thought along with some juicy bait to keep the telepath interested.

Harry blandly said, "I refuse. Was there anything else?" Harry didn't hide his thoughts that this man was already boring him with his cliché gimmicks. He hoped that by thinking such thoughts, he'd draw out the telepath directly.

Winston didn't appear to expect a refusal, but added easily, "You should reconsider. Young companies such as yours often face difficulties which cannot be recovered from. Becoming a branch of Frost International would protect you from such things." He didn't even bother trying to hide the various threats within that statement.

Harry knew that the Goblins had become a bad influence on him when his reflexive response was to give a toothy smile and answer back, "I look forward to the challenge."

It was clear they had nothing else to discuss so Harry turned to leave. The telepath from before seemed to run around the hall and after reaching the corner where she was in view she started calmly walking as if she hadn't run up to him. The guard didn't block her and she opened the elevator and said, "I'll escort you out, I'm certainly better company than Mr. Orth here."

Harry said, "I'd be a nutter not to agree with that. Harry Potter, at your service." She appeared to be a little older than Harry at about sixteen though matched him in height which was impressive as he was quite tall for his age. She was completely lithe in form but showed no weakness in movement meaning she had a well conditioned body. That and the whole flawless white skin, golden blond hair, and perfect blue eyes made it very clear this telepath would not have to rely on her powers to get herself a man, as long as she didn't get greedy that is.

The elevator door closed and she said, "Emma Frost, charmed. I'm impressed with the way you dealt with my father. Most have difficulty looking him in the eye, much least denying him so outright."

Harry's internal thoughts about Emma's appearance was simply that she was beautiful and he wished she had been sitting at that desk instead of the grumpy old man. Sharing the company of a beautiful woman was far more pleasant than staying in a room with an irritable grey haired old fart.

Harry said, "Compared to my own board of directors meetings, that was outright boring. Every member carries at least one weapon and the better parts of our discussions and negotiations over disagreements don't start until first blood is drawn." Harry thought back to a few of those meetings and the sparks that his own personally crafted knife carved out of his opponent's blade before biting into their flesh.

After thinking about it for a moment he Paused and turned to see Emma's face comically distorted in utter shock. Harry couldn't help but laugh at that. She didn't see Goblins in Harry's memories though as the Contracts he signed prevented him from telling others he worked with Goblins and the secrecy within the magic of those contracts prevented that information from being taken. What she saw would then be appropriately altered to look like old balding men snarling at him while rapidly exchanging blows with exotic blades.

Harry unpaused and turned to see she had corrected her face so that he wouldn't see her gaping. She said, "That.. would certainly put some things in perspective."

After a moment of silence she said with worry clear in her voice, "I just hope you are not underestimating my father. He has many ways of bringing down companies that go against him and I understand that Brilliance Incorporated doesn't have any military contracts yet."

In most countries, military contracts were shields of protection. If someone went against a company that was contracted to sell products to the military the government would likely step in to assist.

Harry thought, 'to himself,' that her mention of yet implied she had a way to get him a military contract through her. Harry wondered if she was poaching or if Winston put her up to it as a plan B. However it didn't matter.

Harry said, "I don't need them. Although it was hard to find out that I am the CEO of Brilliance, it is not impossible. What is impossible is finding out what else I am the CEO of. I wonder how silly your father would feel if he knew I am also the owner of Potter and Gold Bank and Trust. I had trouble not laughing in the man's face."

P&G Bank and Trust had partial ownership of thousands of Businesses and was an unstoppable stream of wealth that spanned most of the UK, much of Europe, and was rapidly expanding in the U.S. Even if no one purchased a thing from Brilliance Incorporated, he'd never go into the red.

Once more Harry thought 'to himself,' that this would be a fine test. If Emma told her father of this, it would come to nothing for either of them. If she kept that from him, it would be a good sign she might be trustworthy when she takes over the Frost International in the future.

Harry didn't look, but he did Pause again to see her smile a bit at that. The fact that Harry clearly believed that she would lead the company in the future was something she likely enjoyed hearing.

Harry unpaused and Emma said, "In that case I can't imagine you'll have much to worry about. There may be some.. Personal attacks. Slander, libel, that sort of thing. But your board of directors doesn't sound like pushovers so I don't think there will be an issue."

Harry said, "Well, I don't want to get their hopes up. They sharpen their blades enough as is without knowing they are being targeted."

"I see. I must say, you are far more interesting than most I've met. Would you mind meeting me another day for a longer conversation?"

She added a mental suggestion that Harry would like to ask her out on a date. Harry smiled and asked, "Are you asking me for a date? I don't mind."

She frowned, just barely, that he thought she was asking instead of getting him to ask but endured it.

Harry continued as if he didn't notice, "I know a nice restaurant in New York. Would you be able to make it for oh say, the 31st?"

Harry was clearly implying that he went to Massachusetts for their invitation so she should come to New York for his own.

Emma smiled and asked, "Where and when?"

Harry pulled out his wallet which contained a business card and his pen. He wrote down an address and a time on the card and handed it to Ms. Frost.

An eyebrow raised at the address which told Harry she recognized it. The fact that Harry could get a reservation on New Year's Eve, just four days from now showed his capability.

She gave a beautiful smile and said, "I'll be there."

The elevator reached the ground floor and Harry left for the exit. Once he was further down the street and away from any cameras, he directly apparated back to the institute and told his girls of the meeting with the young telepath.

Jean asked with a mischievous smile, "So, a date huh."

Harry said, "Well she did ask me for a date and I do plan to deliver. First things first though."

He turned to Jean and asked, "Would you like to go on a double date with me?"

Wanda realized what Harry was up to and started giggling. "Ah, so you'll give her a date. It just won't be you who will be taking Jean who is also a telepath. I want pictures."

Harry said, "I'll show you the memories."

Jean smiled and asked, "So, Scott?"

Harry nodded, "Yup. Scott."