Chapter 71 Insert Cliché Doom Pun Here

Most in the world were completely unaffected by the vanishing act of the world's most famous billionaire, but in the two weeks since his disappearance, Harry had been nothing but busy.

Unsurprisingly, the stock of the world's number one weapons manufacturing company was something the Goblins were interested in, and since they couldn't buy anything legally, Harry had to do it of course.

Although Harry didn't care about it one way or another, he did agree to ask Link to buy everything that went on sale since that particular stock never went on the market and this wasn't a bad decision. To gain an advantage over others, Link ensured that anyone who sold the stock would be redirected to Harry's firm where he'd buy it at a better price than anyone else. Most stock traders sold through third party companies and Harry simply had to make sure those companies knew Harry's firm was buying the stock at a higher price than anyone else. It wasn't even illegal.

Harry had also been busy planning the downfall of Genosha. The masscr-... invasion, was set for the second week of May, two months from now, and he'd been planning for every contingency he could think of.

The first step was security. Harry created about a hundred or so nodes filled with natural energy, the same type of energy used by Storm to control the weather, and planted them all over the island. The nodes would ensure that thick clouds covered the whole of the island on the day in question to block any and all satellites from peeping. The change would be gradual over the course of the next two months and not even an expert meteorologist would assume it was unnatural or suspect anything.

Next, he'd worked with Link and the Goblin Hackers to access the digital network of the island. Harry already installed a few wireless hack boxes directly into some of the most guarded computer systems which directly bypassed the need for breaching. All data would be locked and halted once the invasion began so no footage or pictures of the Goblins would be spreading around.

One problem Harry had was with the resident civilians of the island.

Erik had already decided that with the exception of government envoys and guests, the island would be mutants only. The island currently had a policy where everyone was tested for the X-Gene and if found to possess it, the citizen was taken by the government and weaponized into a loyal mutate. That meant every civilian on the island above the age of twenty did not have the X-Gene and would never become a mutant.

Harry had a few options. First, arrange for the entire population of several hundred thousand to migrate elsewhere. Second, kill them. Third, turn them into mutants anyways.

Harry was learning towards the third option, but doing so would give away the fact that Harry could do so. Harry had stolen all the research of the Weapons X Project and Mister Sinister's research and had studied under Dr. Hank McCoy. Thanks to his Scholar Path, he'd gone further than any of them in the theory portion of Genetics and adding and even activating the added X-Gene to any base human wouldn't be difficult for him.

After thinking it over for a while, Harry decided to go with a combination of options 1, 3, and some high quality BS.

Harry would tell everyone that the test the island did to determine if someone had the X-Gene was terrible and those who tested positive were just unlucky. He'd tell them they all had the X-Gene. Then he'd give them the option of leaving, or awakening the X-Gene and living on a mutant only island.

Harry wasn't the only one who knew a way to awaken an inactive X-Gene so it was a much smaller problem. Harry would also disguise himself when administering the Gene Therapy so no one would know. He'd even tell Erik and Charles that everyone on the island had the X-Gene so they wouldn't know either.

Once everything was done, no one would know of Harry's involvement. None of the methods Harry intended to use could be traced through normal means so once it was all done, it would look like Magneto used a strike force, likely of mutants, to take over the island.

Harry had already figured out how to apply the memory charm to the whole island. There was a precedent for a similar incident in New York where a group of wizards fought against an Obscurus in front of hundreds of muggles. A vial of venom from the creature known as the Swooping Evil was mixed into rain clouds which diluted the venom and caused all non magicals in the area of the rain to lose their memory of anything bad associated with magic.

The Goblins wouldn't be helping little old ladies crossing the streets so no one who saw them would have good feelings for them. The only one on Harry's side who would be affected was Erik but Harry would protect him from the effect. The best part was that effect would spread to all water in the area and physical contact wasn't even needed. Turning on a faucet and inhaling the air next to it after the rain would be enough to be affected. It didn't make sense from a scientific perspective, but creatures which had inherent aspects of Wizard Magic rarely did.

Something else taking a portion of Harry's time was that Wanda had decided to sell her art. Wanda often used Chaos Magic while painting to create unique and beautiful works of art. Harry confirmed the art had no residual magic and would not affect anyone in any negative way, even confirming with the Ancient One.

After doing so, he set up a website where each work could be viewed. There was no point in selling them until enough people appreciated them so the site would display the pieces and each had a timer beneath it. Once the timer reached zero, people could bid on the pieces with a starting bid of $200 and each bid had to be $25 more than the previous bid. The shortest timer was two months and the longest was a year. Wanda set the timers herself depending on her mood for each painting and had hundreds of paintings on the site. More would be added over time and Harry would ensure the site got decent traffic.

Harry didn't give his metaphysics class any projects for March due to all the places he had to be, but that didn't stop him from doing the occasional prank.

In the last week of March during a lecture, a small sphere of light appeared next to Harry's desk and expanded into a larger sphere while cackling with lightning and an intense humming sound.

In the next moment, the sphere of light vanished and a recognizable figure wearing a biker's jacket and sunglasses appeared on his knees. He stood up and everyone saw the pump action shotgun strapped to his back. Small layers of his cheeks appeared to have peeled back revealing shining metal beneath the flesh.

The visitor stood motionless for a second before his head slowly spun, observing the class. He stopped at one student and walked up to his desk.

In a thick, stoic, Austrian accent, he asked, "Are you Mr. Connors?"

The student who in no way was related to Professor Connors nodded slowly.

The visitor stretched out his gloved hand and said, "Come with me if you want to live."

Mr. Connors and the rest of the class stared at the man for a few moments and with a great deal of effort, Mr. Connors shook his head in the negative.

The visitor retracted his hand and turned to the door before walking out. Before leaving the class, he turned to face Mr. Connors again and said, "I'll be back," before looking forward and leaving the class.

Several students started snickering and a few were openly giggling. Harry smiled as he leisurely continued his lessons. Though the student was a Connors, not a Connor, and his first name wasn't John, it was still close enough and Harry couldn't resist pulling that particular prank.

It was the first weekend of April when Harry visited the Baxter Building. Several things had changed for Reed and his friends. The Storm Foundation was eventually changed to the Baxter Foundation and the Fantastic Four had been, on occasion, receiving calls for assistance on various things. Just the prior week, an apartment building caught on fire and the water lines the Fire Fighters used were damaged so they didn't have any pressure. Someone had the bright idea to call the four, and not only did they answer, they arrived in what the media began calling their Fantasticar. All four were, in some way, fireproof so there was no great danger to any of them.

Reed's body was quite insular and he could actually cycle heat through his body making standard fires unable to burn him. Susan had her shields and Johnny and Ben were of course fireproof. When the Fantastic Four showed up, Johnny absorbed the flame and Susan used shields to deprive the fire of oxygen. Ben moved the rubble and broke through doors and Reed was able to quickly grab and move the trapped victims. There were dozens of videos of Reed grabbing people on the 14th floor and extending himself down a window all the way to ground level to safely set the victim down before returning to the window and looking for more people.

The media loved them and the overall attention was turning a lot of heads and it got a lot of people thinking. Oscorp especially had been moving a lot of money around and Harry had a great sense of foreboding about that.

Peter had not come over for the study group since his trip to Oscorp. Harry asked Gwen what happened and she said they got separated and she didn't see him for the rest of the day. The next day she got a call saying he was sick, though the next day he showed up at school looking fine. Better than fine apparently.

Harry was tempted to call him and ask what was going on, but he'd just been too busy and would give it some time. Jade was still getting top scores in her classes along with the rest of the girls so there wasn't a problem.

In any case, once Harry reached Reed's Lab, he headed over to one of the advanced computer terminals.

Reed spotted him and said, "Professor Potter, the designs are almost done. I was able to work out a way around the critical loss using that formula you gave me."

Harry had already logged into the terminal and was checking Reed's programming.

The plan was to build something to drain the excess Power Cosmic from Ben's body, but the Power Cosmic had been bound to Ben's life force, and even though they found a way to drain it, doing so would probably kill him. Harry's study on pure life force gave him enough insights to work around this problem and after he gave the formula to Reed, the later wasted no time incorporating it into the system.

After he finished going over the projections, Harry said, "It definitely looks promising. But are you sure you want to go this route?"

Ben had already walked over and answered, "Yeah. I actually don't mind the rock form as long as I can become human again."

There were a few ways to permanently return Ben and the rest to normal, but the Four decided they would keep their powers as they enjoyed the ability to make the world safer using their powers. Once the procedure finished, Ben would have four different outputs. His normal self would look human, but his interior would still be mineralized, basically making him very, very difficult to harm. With training he'd be able to completely remove the inner mineralization or enhance it to his current, orange rocky self. He'd also wear a watch filled with stored mineralization energy Reed figured out how to isolate and he'd be able to use it to change into his massive form to fight anything huge if he needed.

Harry wondered if that meant a new toy line would come out.

Reed had already exceeded the entry level in metaphysics and Harry was sorry to say that it was unlikely he'd need to attend any future classes. It wasn't that he had nothing more to learn, but he'd likely figure the rest out just using the text books Harry had made and his own private studies before Harry even started the classes those textbooks were for.

Richards had already done back to back dissertations in February and had obtained a number of Doctorates making him Dr. Richards now. Still, he always called Harry Professor as did Susan and the rest.

For the first class of April, Harry had a new Project for his spring Metaphysics class.

"Sound Proofing. The schematics or prototype must be under twenty pounds with an interior of eight by eight by eight inches. I'll place a super sensitive mic in the box and when it's closed, I'll play some loud music outside the box. Whichever project ensures the mic records the least amount of noise, wins."

The content of the lessons for that month were about energy distribution and redirection, so just going over the book would give the students a few ideas for ways to make a soundproof box. Although there were only three prototypes last time, many of the students did submit schematics which Harry gave poignant feedback for and ways to improve. Harry expected a few more students or groups to submit schematics this month.

When another couple of weeks pass by and something interesting actually happens, Harry decided to take a break and get out the popcorn.

Within one of the many stereotypically abandoned warehouses that dotted the outskirts of New York was a cell-like enclosure containing an unconscious Susan Storm. It didn't take long for the door to the enclosure to be ripped open by Ben who peeled the steel door back inch by inch until Reed could squeeze through and enter the enclosed space.

Susan had somehow gone missing and Johnny had been given an anonymous tip about her location. Johnny flew over of course but found a composite steel door that he couldn't burn through and he called Reed and Ben to come over.

Had the missing person been someone else and had Johnny not been the one to call him and tell him to get over, Reed probably would have taken the time to consider the possibility of a trap, but this situation feel within a psychological blind spot and he hoped in the Fantasticar with Ben and sped over as fast as he could.

"Ben! Get in here quick, she's unconscious but shackled!"

Ben put some more strength into it and finished ripping off the door before he rushed inside along with Johnny over to where the unconscious Susan was.

Besides the metal walls and the dirt floor, the warehouse was bare of anything noticeable except for Susan and the chains on the ground binding her position.

Johnny grabbed one set of chains and tried to melt them but the chains started to uniformly heat up. Reed said, "Careful Johnny, it's too thermally conductive, you'll burn Sue."

Ben walked right up and said, "Just give me a moment and I'll get her out."

With a single snap, Ben broke the first of the two chains.

Red lights flashed on the warehouse walls, distracting the team from the multiple sets of small pillars that had shot up from the ground.

Before any of them could act, the pillars started emitting a high pitched ultrasonic sound. The group grabbed their ears but it was no use and the pain from the soundwave forced them to their knees.

The ground started to vibrate and hum, revealing the structure hidden beneath the dirt as the surface layer of sand gave way to the mechanisms beneath. Reed paled as he immediately recognized what was going on, he shouted, "Break the Floor!" but it was too late, the panels beneath the group glowed white and each of them felt their strength being pulled from their body. Johnny's flames went out and Reed's elongated arms retracted. Ben's exterior cracked and rocks fell off like broken sand to reveal pink flesh.

Susan's body started flickering away and reappearing as she started shouting in pain as the sonic blasts had woken her from her unconscious state.

The panels beneath them continued to glow brighter and brighter. Once they reached peak intensity, the light flowed as if channeled over to a far wall.

Moments after it started, it was over. Ben was unconscious, the drain hurt him harder than the others. Johnny was unable to stand but barely conscious. Reed was able to get up, just barely, and went to check on Susan who was groaning with discomfort.

The far wall made a hiss sound and a panel slide upwards revealing a door and a familiar figure.

Reed frowned and said, "Victor, what is this about?"

Victor Von Doom walked out and shook his head, "Oh Richards, how fantastic do you feel now?"

Reed narrowed his eyes and said with just a slight smirk, "That's Doctor Richards to you."

Doom said, "Still think you're clever do you?"

Johnny was still struggling to get up and said, "What did you do to us?"

Reed answered for him, "He drained the latent Power Cosmic from our bodies using a larger version of the machine I intended to use to cure Ben."

Doom nodded and said, "Your security measures were pathetic. I had no difficulties getting the blueprints and ensuring the materials you needed to build it was delayed long enough for me to build my own modified version was simple."

Reed rolled his eyes knowing full well Doom was just showing off.

Susan had regained enough strength to ask, "Why?"

Doom rose his hand in the air and with a concentrated effort, made it glow. He then shot a bolt of light at Richards sending him back and skidding across the floor with a scream of pain.

Johnny and Susan shouted, "Reed!"

Doom made his hand glow again and this time, Richards' body glowed as well and started floating up. It then floated over to Doom and Reed looked over with teeth clenched in pain as he struggled to break free of whatever force was binding him.

Doom answered, "Power. That's why."

Still struggling, Reed was able to piece together what happened and said, "You.. channeled the Power Cosmic... into yourself?!"

All heads turned to Doom in shock as the man admitted, "Indeed."

Reed said, "You're mad!"

Doom shook his head. "If the design was created by you alone, I wouldn't have been so bold, but Potter's input was obvious. There was more than enough room to safely calculate the odds and even a reasonable measure of success. Even so, there is no way to gain real power without risk, but it was worth it. Energy manipulation. Directed energy manipulation. That's what I have achieved. This is the power I have obtained."

A bolt of lightning shot from Doom's hand at the struggling Richards and caused him to cry out once more in pain. Doom's Sorcery was directly amplified several fold by this power and he knew exactly how to use it.

Susan shouted, "Stop this Victor!"

Doom stopped and said, "Why do you care so much for him? He is weak. He could never protect you."

Doom threw Richards to the side and said, "Richards has cost you everything. Your life was destined for destruction the moment you chose to be close to him and staying with him will only make it worse."

Doom benevolently extended a hand to her and said, "Come with me Susan Storm. I can protect you and give you anything your heart desires."

Reed got up and staggered to his feet. "No. I won't let you take her."

Reed approached Doom but the latter once more shot him away using an energy bolt.

Doom observed Reed getting up once more and said, "This is pathetic Richards. You will never win against me."

Reed said, "I don't care. I will never stop fighting for Susan!"

Susan gave a soft look to Richards which made Doom narrow his eyes.

Doom concentrated a blindingly bright light into his fist and said, "Very well, Mr. Fantastic. Come and meet your Doom."

*Loud Popcorn eating noises*

Everyone except the unconscious Ben looked over to see Harry sitting in a lawn chair near the wall with a bowl of popcorn in his lap.

Harry stopped stuffing his face with popcorn and asked, "What?"

Doom's eye twitched for a few moments before he took a few breaths and asked, "What exactly are you doing here Potter?"

Harry put the popcorn down and said, "Every piece of tech I design has a built in way for me to track it down. I noticed this thing and decided to take a look and ended up watching a good show."

Johnny sighed and then shouted with just a bit of indignation, "So you just watched Reed get tortured?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Reed was showing off his manliness to Susan. I wasn't going to interrupt that." Harry felt he had to honor the bro code.

Even Susan sighed at that. She then calmly asked, "A little help then? Since you're already here?"

Harry smiled and got off the chair. Technically he only got there a few seconds ago. Though Harry could track his tech, it wasn't instantaneous and this was the first time it had come up as no one on the planet had successfully built his tech before. Once Harry confirmed everyone was alive and in a state that he could work with, he broke out the Time Turner and a lawn chair.

Harry was in the room when the draining system went off, but Harry was unaffected by the Sonic disruptors thanks to his ability to turn the Sound off on his Settings and his energy could not be drained using this machine thanks to his mutant power.

Once Harry caught up with the present, he let his invisibility and sound removal spells fade and revealed himself in the most satisfying way he could think of. Thankfully the popcorn in his inventory was hot and crunchy, as if it had just been pulled out of the microwave.

Doom calmly stated, "Stay out of this Potter." Surges of light and energy swirled around him at his command and enveloped him. "You are no match for me."

Harry shook his head. Doom turned himself into a Mutate with energy manipulation as a power. This made him to normal Sorcerers what Wanda Maximoff was to normal Wizards. His limit on how much energy he could manipulate was multiple times higher than others. Harry had demonstrated his skill in Sorcery before, but had never given any indication that his level exceeded normal Sorcerers.

Normal Sorcerers used practice and discipline to passively channel energy through their body to cast spells. Doom could now actively control energy to cast magic. If his active control was stronger than a Sorcerer's passive control, he could render a Sorcerer's magic useless against him.

That, and it seemed that Doom was on a power high and probably not thinking straight. Harry had mentioned before that he was an apprentice of the Ancient One and it seemed Doom had forgotten the significance of that. Not that it mattered.

Harry said, "Since it seems I am going to be teaching you a lesson, you should call me Professor Potter."

Harry took out two glass orbs and channeled their energies together.

Doom converted the energies he channeled into spells and shot them at Harry in a blinding array of light and sound. However all the energy was directed into the pool of energy Harry was channeling.

Doom was not at a level he could learn anything from sparring with Harry so Harry decided to give him some remedial lessons and homework.

The energies gathered together into a shape which started to resemble a phantasmal creature of some sort.

Harry then casually threw it at Doom.

Doom created a massive energy shield but the creature passed through it as if it were not there and invaded Doom's body. In the next moment, the energy shield shattered and Doom fell to his knees in pain.

Harry grabbed the remaining shackle holding Susan down and cast an unlocking charm on it to free her.

After a few moments, Doom asked, "What, what did you do to me?"

Harry said, "As a foreign dignitary with Diplomatic immunity, I cannot legally punish you for anything you do. However as a student of mine, I can give you some homework."

Harry let the absurdity of that statement settle for a moment before he continued.

"I fused some Power Cosmic I had lying around with some Refined Life Energy and let it absorb the magic you cast at me to synch it to your magic source. The Ethereal Beast born from this has possessed your body and is using your magic to incubate itself. In order to regain command over your magic, your control must exceed the innate control the beast has over your magic which will grow over time. If you can master your new power faster than the beast matures, you can suppress and kill the beast, regaining control over your magic. For extra credit, if you can not only gain control of your own power, but the power of the beast as well, you can control it and gain a powerful minion once it matures."

Harry then gave Doom a smile that was not a smile. "Of course, if your control over your magic does not exceed the beast's when it matures, it will deprive you of your command over all mystical energies and leave you with nothing. It will then leave your body, taking all of your power with it."

Doom looked at Harry with both fear and anger. Not anger at Harry but at himself for how ridiculous he felt. This entire plot was to obtain a source of Power Cosmic for himself and it turned out Harry just carried sources of it around with him. The level of manipulation in order to achieve what Harry had done was infinitely superior to any acolyte or master he encountered in the temple he studied at and and yet he actually thought he had a chance against Harry moments ago.

Doom clenched his fists and turned to the exit. He said not a word as he left, he knew that as long as he was in New York, his life was in Harry's hands. The Fantastic Four were nothing compared to him and everything Doom was capable of was little more than a noisy child in comparison.

Harry sighed as he watched his student go. His 'homework' was a bit harsh but Harry was confident Doom would pass without difficulties. If he couldn't, then that level of power with such meagre skill would be a danger in his hands anyways to himself and others.

Once Doom had left the building, Harry used his Technopathy to disable the cameras and everything else in the room and said, "The machine only took the excess Power Cosmic off the surface layer. However that surface layer of Power Cosmic is what converted the background radiation into more Power Cosmic which in turn, broke down into the energy which gave you your powers. He didn't take all of it of course and after a while, the remaining power Cosmic will convert enough background radiation into more of itself to restore your powers."

Reed said, "As long as Ben's latent Power Cosmic is permanently reduced, then he'll be able to consciously control the power so it's fine."

Harry checked on the unconscious man who was, thankfully, wearing scratchy pants which shrunk when he shrunk so he wasn't butt naked. Harry confirmed, "Yeah, Ben shouldn't develop a massive outer layer of Power Cosmic once he recovers so he'll be alright."

That had the group relived. Though Doom changed a few things, the original design still seemed to have an effect and Ben was cured. At the moment his organs were still mineralized but his exterior was normal looking. With practice, he'd be able to demineralize his internals or fully mineralize his flesh and muscles to return to his Thing form.

The rest of the month was not nearly as exciting. Doom returned to Latveria and it did not seem like he would be coming back any time soon.

Ben woke up feeling mostly fine and though angry about what Doom did, he was happy that Doom lost what he'd gained and had to finish his 'homework' to gain it back or he'd lose it forever.

The first thing Ben did after waking up was get himself a new wardrobe and the second was to go to an art museum. Apparently there was a sculptor there he was sweet on and now that he wouldn't attract stares on the street, he wanted to ask her out on a date.

*Author's Note*

I ended up writing myself into a bit of a corner for how to get Doom to become the Four's Nemesis while having the practically omnipotent Harry get involved. Overall it could have been worse so I'm happy with how it turned out.

I'm still not adding Susan to the Harem but if Richards is going to get her, I at least made sure he'd have to earn it which was the point of the whole torture scene. Do remember that Susan and Reed are like 5~6 years older than Harry and I've already established, no Harem member will have more than a year of difference in biological age.

Next chapter will have Harry meet Stark. You'll see me write myself into even more corners.

You know, I released this fic as a Harry x Avengers Crossover April of last year. Now 12 months and 370,000 words later, he will finally meet a Avenger...