52 Chapter 52 Teaching the World a Lesson

On August 2nd, a few days after his sixteenth birthday, Harry was positioned on a comfy yet professional looking red chair sitting across from three others on an expertly lit studio stage. Three cameras were set at the front of the stage and behind them was a live audience of about fifty or so individuals.

There were several ways to get a message across to people, but there was something about human nature that made people enjoy watching two groups arguing with each other. Taking this into consideration, Harry set up a 'Debate.'

The feed was streaming live to some news channels and the same website Harry posted his Teaching Videos on. He'd placed advertisements for this shindig all over the internet and a number of channels over the last few weeks to get the word out and from what he was told, there were several million viewers at the moment and the Debate hadn't even started yet.

Sitting across from Harry were the three experts. There was the silver haired woman called Dr. Hays who was an expert on Sociology. The balding man next to her was Dr. Fields, a renowned expert on Political History. And the young glasses wearing man next to him was Mr. Redsif, one of the more outspoken Journalists in New York against Mutants.

These three represented all of the loudest Anti-Mutant arguments most people would hear at some point in their lives and Harry invited them to speak on their beliefs on live TV while Harry acted as a sounding board. Of course, Harry told them he would be acting as their sounding board by countering their arguments but he would give them a chance to speak up against his counters to prove the validity of their points.

Thanks to that they were willing to show up today. That and what Harry was paying them. He was rich after all.

Most of Harry's personal income at this point did not come from his salary as owner of Brilliance and P&G. It actually came from the Interest he received on his savings and the direct cut he got from anything sold that had his patents. Technically he'd get that money anyways, but the taxes were lower if he got a cut from his Patent Rights instead of Salary.

The stage itself was ornate but classy. It set a professional mood without looking tacky. The wall on the back of the stage was actually a giant screen connected to a tablet Harry had on hand he could use to pull up pictures, videos, and web pages for reference.

Harry wore something formal which looked a little similar to the wizard robes he wore for his video Lectures yet wouldn't draw attention if he walked down a busy street. Below his shirt he wore the Necklace of Chosen Path and had it boost his Scholar Path from 46 to 49. If he wasn't the best Teacher in the Galaxy at this point, he was confident he at least made the top ten.

The feed started rolling and Harry introduced everyone and thanked them for coming to the camera before moving onto the main points.

Unlike a standard Debate with a moderator, Harry just gave every chair a button with a small light on the side of the chair. If someone pressed the button, the speaker would have to stop talking and allow the one who pressed it to give a one sentence comment. The speaker would then either address the comment or ignore it.

Harry started with, "The visibility of humans with nonstandard abilities, commonly called mutants, has caused a shift of the times and today we are here to discuss and argue possible scenarios and futures that could be just around the corner."

Dr. Hays' chair lit up and Harry let her speak up. "As an expert in Sociology I can confirm, Mutants are clearly a danger to society."

Harry tapped on his tablet and on the large screen behind the stage, the word Danger appeared along with its definition. 'The possibility of suffering harm or injury.'

Harry looked over to it and said, "You're not wrong, but it is meaningless to point it out. Anything could be dangerous. Dogs are dangerous because they could get off their leash and bite someone. I can't think of any states that prevent you from walking dogs. Cars are very dangerous. So many people die from wrecks, accidents, etc."

Mr. Redsif's chair lit up and Harry gave the man a moment to state, "Cars and transportations are an integral part of society! Mutants are not."

Harry smiled and said, "They are now. There were not always. They proved their worth and over time became an essential part of modern life. Another example would be electricity, specifically AC current. When it came out, many people stated it was highly dangerous and even gave public demonstrations of its danger. AC current is now even stronger and more dangerous today than it was then, but it is still wired into the homes of every person watching this. Shall they move out because their homes are dangerous?"

Dr. Fields' chair lit up and he asked, "Are you a mutant?" It was clear he was trying to avoid the topic and even discredit Harry.

Harry smiled again and asked, "If I said I was not, would you believe me?"

The balding man pulled out a small disk and said, "I happen to have this Mutant Sensor which would be able to inform us of the truth. May I turn it on?"

Harry answered, "One moment." He turned to the audience and said, "If this device works, an unidentified mutant in the audience may be outed. If there are any mutants in the audience who do not wish to be revealed, please calmly stand up and you can be escorted away from the cameras."

The tickets for the audience were awarded to certain individuals who contributed to the Videoshare website.

One person who was sitting at the edge actually got up and covered his face before leaving. The cameras did not turn to him but the reactions on the three experts showed they were surprised.

Once he was gone, Harry said, "Alright, go ahead."

Fields enabled the disk and a small laser pointer popped up from its head and spun around. A small mechanical voice said, [One Mutant Detected]. The laser pointer then spun around to a teenage girl in the audience who didn't look worried.

The cameras turned around and showed the audience and the girl who gave a beautiful smile and waved at the camera.

Harry said, "Ah, that's my girlfriend. Wanda." A few in the audience gasped and those on the stage looked startled.

Harry continued, "Wanda has the amazing ability to generate and control certain chaotic forms of metaphysical energy. Wanda, would you mind a small demonstration?"

Wanda smiled back and with a wave of her hands and a red glow, a Corgi appeared in her lap and gave a happy bark.

Harry immediately got up from the stage and said, "Corgi!" And proceeded to unceremoniously jump off the stage down to the audience and walk over to his girlfriend who handed him the smiling Corgi.

Harry then took it back onto the stage and sat down with the Corgi in his lap and said, "She knows how much I love Corgis."

While petting the fuzzy twinkie Harry continued, "According to your gizmo, I don't appear to be a mutant."

Dr. Hays asked, "How can you be so at ease in the presence of a dangerous mutant?"

Harry chuckled and said, "I've been practicing martial arts since I was twelve. As a joke, I registered myself as a lethal weapon and funnily enough, the registration went through. I can take care of myself well enough."

Harry let that sink in for a moment before he said, "However, even if I couldn't, even if I was uncommonly weak and she was a stranger, I still wouldn't be afraid. Tell me. If you took an African Safari Tour and saw a lion, would you be terrified of it? Of course not. A lion has no reason to harm you unless you give it a reason. You are not a gazelle. Even if Wanda here was a complete stranger, if I've never done anything to her, why should I fear her doing anything to me?"

Dr. Fields chair lit up and he said, "But there are mutants who do not care for laws, they-"

Harry interrupted, "How is that any different from a non mutant who does not care for the laws?"

"Because a mutant doesn't need a weapon to hurt someone. A mutant is a weapon!"

Harry calmly countered, "According to New York, I'm a weapon too. A lethal one."

Mr. Redsif's chair lit up and he said, "But you required training to reach that level. A mutant does not."

"I can assure you Mr Redsif it is easier to acquire a firearm in this country than it is to gain metaphysical abilities and under a certain range outside of combat situations, firearms do not require training to understand the concept of pulling a trigger. Every American citizen has the potential to harm others and focusing on a class of humans-"

Dr. Hays didn't allow Harry to continue before interrupting, "Mutants are not human!"

She gave a concerned look over to Wanda who seemed completely disinterested in her.

Harry visibly rolled his eyes and said, "Let's take a step back. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Millions of people watching the feed from their own homes honestly thought to themselves, 'What?'

Harry continued as if he had not just asked an absurd question, "The answer is actually the egg. Mutation occurs during the time before birth meaning something that was not a chicken had a mutant baby that had traits different from both parents and matched the parameters of what we would call a chicken. That chicken laid eggs and those eggs were chickens too of course, but the bird that laid the first chicken, was not a chicken."

Harry felt satisfied he was able to put a centuries odd puzzle to rest on live TV.

He continued, "In order for a species to be considered different, it must continue the line of that new species. In other words, for mutants to not be considered human, all children of mutants would have to be mutants."

Harry stopped petting the fuzzy corgi for a moment and tapped on his tablet a few times before a face appeared on the massive screen behind them.

Harry said, "This is info uncovered by certain investigators under the paycheck of a certain Senator. I asked permission to use this information he paid to gather and he approved. Meet Graydon Creed. Founder of the Friends of Humanity."

A picture of Graydon appeared on the screen.

Harry tapped the tablet a few more times and two more pictures appeared, a picture of Sabertooth and a picture of the blue skinned Mystique. Both were obviously mutants.

Harry said, "And here were have Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme. See the family resemblance?"

Though Sabertooth had the appearance of a wild animal, his jaw was a perfect fit to Graydon's and though Mystique was blue, her cheek bone structure also matched Graydon's.

Harry added, "They left him at an orphanage by the way. Apparently the reason he didn't like mutants wasn't because he felt they were dangerous, he just hated that his parents abandoned him for not being a mutant."

The silence of the audience and experts was deafening. This information had not been released to the public yet so this was the first time it had been revealed.

Harry continued as if he had not just dropped that bomb, "Graydon does not have any discernible nonstandard ability and cannot be considered a mutant. In other words, he is a human. If mutants can give birth to humans and humans can give birth to mutants, then there is no way around classifying both as the same species, Homosapiens. Any comments Dr. Hays?"

She remained silent. She was not a biologist but Harry's arguments didn't leave room for counters.

Mr. Redsif tried another angle, "If mutants are not another species, then why the sudden emergence now? I do not believe there was any great mutant population one hundred years ago."

Harry clapped his hands together and said, "Excellent question!"

The Journalist was not expecting that. He was expecting some room to argue.

Harry tapped on the tablet again and said, "The very earliest record of the appearance of a mutant, a homosapien born with nonstandard capabilities that cannot be duplicated with training was over fifteen thousand years ago. However throughout history, the appearance of such mutants has been extremely sporadic."

Several images and slides flashed over the background screen. In the corner of each picture was a stamp which showed the image's source which others would no doubt look up later.

Harry continued, "According to the research of a Victorian era scientist named Nathaniel Essex, mutants have actually always been around and have always been around in about the same number. However, usually their manifested abilities are extremely weak. Their natural born nonstandard abilities were not apparently enough for notice as they rarely if ever exceeded what a standard human could achieve with training. Essex was cast out of the London Society for experiments attempting to study mutants and strengthen their weakened powers to a degree that could not be acquired with training, but his research showed that Mutants have always been around, there are simply periods where they are more noticeable than others because of stronger abilities."

Harry let the slides do the talking for a bit. Harry had stolen a lot of nice things from Mr. Sinister's evil lair and didn't mind showing his research to others.

"What is interesting however is that there have been several times in history where the average strength of awakened mutant abilities reaches an apex many fold higher than the average during unawakened periods. Counting the current age, there have been four times in the last fifteen thousand years."

Harry's slideshows moved onto some ancient carvings. "The oldest we have records of was the Hyborian Age. There are as many different translations of the texts from that time as there are texts themselves. But what they all agree on is that the planet earth was being threatened by something, and many people were born with great abilities during that era."

Mr. Redsif asked, "Isn't that where the story of Conan the Barbarian comes from?"

Harry smiled but didn't answer. He tapped the tablet again and another set of images came up. Each was clearly Egyptian in origin.

"The next period was five thousand years ago. Things are a bit more clear on these ones. Tell me Mr. Redsif, what do those look like?"

Harry was pointing at one side of a stone carving. On one side was clearly a group of humans with carvings around them signifying something special about them. They were clearly in battle ready stances. The other side of the carving, the side Harry pointed at, contained numerous carvings of smaller creatures.

After a moment Redsif answer, "They look like bugs."

Harry nodded. "The closet translation we have for them was Brood." Harry moved to another slide and said, "According to this mural, the Brood came from the sky. This happened to be around the peak of the emergence of many very powerful mutants."

He moved to the other slide which showed that a larger insect controlling not only small insects, but other humans. Harry said, "According to these pictures, the Brood could control humans and drew many to their side. I cannot prove to you that these five thousand year old carvings and murals are not the ramblings of crazy people with chisels, but according to them, the Brood were planet conquerors."

The next slide showed a very large humanoid fighting against a very large Brood and many small humans with strange poses fighting against an endless horde of insects.

"If this is not a story, then due to the fact that we were not conquered, we obviously prevailed and defeated the invaders. However, think on this. Was it a coincidence that mutants with great powers were born during the time when the world needed them the most?"

Harry ignored his own question and moved to another slide that showed angels and demons fighting.

"This one is actually about three thousand years old. More stories of threats of unclear origins. What makes this period interesting was that the variability of mutant powers was reduced during this period. Almost every mutant during that era was born looking like this or like that," he said gesturing to the two sides. "Records show these mutants," he pointed at the angels, "were called Cheyarafim and these mutants," he pointed at the demons, "were called Neyaphem. They fought against each other and another threat, but the nature of the threat is not known."

Harry put up another slide and showed the three eras. "So three eras with threats and three eras where the average strength granted by a mutation was much higher than normal. And now we have a fourth."

Mr. Redsif hesitantly asked, "So, you're saying the population growth of mutants is a defense mechanism to protect against something that is coming?"

Dr. Fields asked with a bit of fear in his voice, "Something is coming?"

Harry gave a wry smirk and answered, "I believe so. But don't worry. We'll be prepared."

Dr. Hays said, "You sound confident."

Harry bent behind him and motioned for someone off stage to bring something over. Someone walked up and set a briefcase on the table between Harry and the others. Next, three more crew members pushed over a large punching machine.

Harry stood up and placed the smiling corgi on his seat before opening the suitcase to reveal three rubies.

Harry asked, "Could one of you select a volunteer from the audience? I'll show you a sneak preview of the future of Metaphysics."

Dr. Hays pointed at a woman in the audience who stood up and walked over to the stage.

Harry said, "Hello and thank you for volunteering. First things first. Would you mind giving that punching machine a good whack?"

The woman nodded and walked over. She took a stance and reeled back before giving a resounding smack against the machine. A number appeared, 560. Harry nodded and said, "Once more please." She did so and a 570 appeared.

Harry nodded and said, "These are ruby metagems. Each one contains a static charge. Much like how if you rub your head on a balloon and gain the ability to send a bolt of static electricity to the next person or thing you touch, these gems will give the person who uses them a charge of Red Energy. The charge is perfectly harmless however it will increase the strength of the charges person in the next action they take which uses a lot of strength."

He pointed at a ruby and said to the volunteer. "Please grab one."

She looked over and Dr. Hays who nodded.

The young woman picked up a ruby and before the eyes of the audience, it glowed for a moment and vanished.

Harry asked, "Feel any different?"

"Um. No?"

Harry said, "Right now you're like a person who rubbed their hair against a balloon. Please give the machine another punch."

She walked back over to it and reeled back again. This time, the moment she threw her fist forward caused her to momentarily glow red.

A harsh thud echoed through the studio and a number appeared on the machine. 16800

Harry ignored the gaping audience and said, "Once more please."

The volunteer was more shocked than anyone and reeled back to hit the machine again. No glow this time. 540

Harry said, "Thank you. The effect only lasts for a single move and wears off after that."

Harry put his tablet over the remaining two rubies and turned the tablet's camera on. He turned on the light and zoomed in so that the Ruby's inners were displayed. Within the rubies were dozens of parallel lines which resembled circuitry.

Harry said, "This is the technology of the future." He turned to the experts and asked, "Would one of you like to go try?"

Mr. Redsif got up before the others did and picked up a ruby. It quickly vanished with a flash.

He frowned as he didn't feel any different. He asked, "Do you have something besides the puncher to test this?" he obviously thought the punching machine could have been rigged.

Wanda shouted from the audience, "I'll help."

She waved her hands around a bit and after a flash of red light, the chair the man had been sitting on turned into a large, wooden dummy.

Harry said, "Thanks Wanda." He turned to Redsif and said, "Please punch it towards that wall."

He nodded and reeled back. His body glowed red for a moment and the wooden dummy shattered. The pieces shot backwards towards the wall as if it had been hit with a battering ram.

Redsif was looking at his hand and Harry said, "Red Energy has the effect of conserving momentum, breaking Newton's third law. It doesn't actually make you stronger. It simply reduces the effect of colliding momentum which is why your hand probably doesn't feel like it just shattered a wooden dummy to pieces."

Dr. Fields said, "I want to try."

Harry shook his head and closed the briefcase. "These things sometimes vanish without even being touched and send their energy pointlessly into the air to dissipate. I brought an extra to make sure we got at least two tests. These things are ridiculously expensive to make. For what they do the amount of money spent to make it isn't close to worth it, these are just prototypes, proof of concepts."

Harry had someone bring out another chair for Redsif and take away the briefcase and the punching machine.

Harry continued, "You asked me earlier why am I not afraid of mutants. Simply put, it's because in the future, once this type of technology becomes readily available, it won't matter if someone is a mutant or not."

Harry put the corgi back into his lap and started petting it again. "In the future, whether or not someone is a mutant and what their power is will have the same significance as whether or not someone owns a dog and what breed it is today. It will be relegated to dinner conversation and the gossip of housewives. Interesting, but not something that will have any great impact on their lives."

Harry spent the next hour going over various facts about mutants and their powers and answered many questions about the history slideshow he showed on the screen. he even had the audience come up with various questions and he answered them as well.

What even the experts didn't know was that most of this was of course staged. Harry put specific compulsions on the experts to get them to ask specific questions. They likely would have asked them anyways, but Harry remained in control of the topics. The mutant detector was real, and the expert didn't know that Harry had anonymously given it to him. It was bait to draw out those with an interest in the tech and Harry would have fun with them later.

Harry of course would not show up on any sensor so it didn't detect him. In fact, if Harry didn't use a spell as cover, Harry wouldn't even show up on an Infrared scanner. All the energy he emitted was invisible after all. Thankfully no one had called Harry out on that before he started using said spell to fake a heat signature.

The Metagems which he used for the demonstration were in fact real. Harry had this idea ever since he got to New York. Using this as a cover, he could continue doing as he did with the X-Men and not even be considered a mutant. As long as he didn't show off that he could absorb books anyways.

The facts he brought out would certainly be argued against for months and years, but everything he referenced was real so they could only argue against the evidence, not his interpretation of it.

Harry himself didn't actually know if something was coming but to him it didn't matter. He'd get stronger regardless and he wouldn't get bored anytime soon.

Harry ignored most of the fallout from the show including the people calling him a mutant lover or crazy. The only thing he cared about was the fact that his Scholar Path successfully Ranked Up to 47. To those who complained, Harry just said he was in fact a lover of beautiful mutants and since he was sixteen, they should not hold it against him for having a strong imagination and loving a good story.

After that the only people who continued to argue were those who ignored Harry's arguments. Harry in return ignored them.

During the last week of July and the first week of August outside of the interview, Harry spent much of his time finishing up the constructions of his New York Home. The property was only a few blocks from the New York Sanctum Sanctorum and shared a leyline he could use with the Ancient One's permission. The reason he was finishing it up was because he wanted to hold the wedding's reception at the house before taking everyone to Black Island.

Everyone Harry cared for got their invitation. The Teachers of the X-Mansion, his friends among the students, Mordo, Wong, and the Ancient One, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones, and even Hermione and Neville. Apparently the latter would be having their own wedding June of 2011, after their Hogwarts graduation.

Probably the most fun part of the entire wedding was handing out the invitations. Harry insisted on doing so for most of them personally. Up to this point, only the Ancient One and a few of the more insightful students knew Harry was dating all three girls. When Harry delivered each invitation, he could see the shocked look one their faces that Harry was marrying three girls at once!

The only ones who did not get an invitation were Rogue's parents and Jean's parents. The latter did not approve of being in a polygamous relationship and Rogue parents were apparently cultists Rogue never wanted to see again. Charles was considered the legal Guardian of all three girls but he would not go against their wishes in this.

Although the ceremony would have all the bells and whistles, it was not official for two reasons. First, in New York you could not get a marriage license unless you were eighteen, had permission from your parents, or were an emancipated minor. Seconds, you cannot legally marry three people so the main wife was decided to be Jean while the other two were girlfriends on the side. This decision was made by the girls for a few reasons, the main one being that she was the most empathic and needed the most love.

Still, even if it wasn't a legal wedding it was the thought that counted and for all intents and purposes, this was all of their wedding. After weeks of laborious preparations, the day had finally come.