Chapter 81 It's time for a Heist.

Harry had already cast a discreet silencing charm around the area once he started speaking with the bipedal racoon so he wasn't concerned with the outburst.

Goose simply stared him down like he was an idiot as Rocket shouted, "That's a Flerken!"

Harry nodded and continued, "Yes, what's your point?"

"They're Monsters! Horrible Abominations!"

"I'm still not seeing your point."

"They're bloodthirsty killers!"

"Are you going to get to your point anytime soon?"

The tree said with a bit of concern, "I am Groot" which Harry took as the warning, 'They eat a lot.'

Harry replied, "Goose is a picky eater and I'm a damn good cook, so she won't eat anything off the menu unless provoked."

This seemed to placate the tree who reached over with a hand and said in a questioning tone, "I am Groot?"

Harry glanced at Goose who wasn't reacting negatively to the tree reaching out and answered, "Sure."

Rocket shouted back at the walking tree, "Noo! You can't touch it!"

Groot ignored the warning and was already petting Goose who started purring.

The tree said with some satisfaction, "I am Groot."

Rocket gripped his head and struggled not to pull his fur out in frustration.

Harry changed the subject by asking, "So what's the target?"

Rocket's gaze remained locked on Goose for a few moments longer before he released a sigh of defeat and said, "Fine. Look, once a week a shipment of the best of the Hub's toys are taken by transport to the frontlines. This week's shipment just so happens to be today meaning a nice stash of primo weapons and other goodies are about to be loaded on an easily hijackable ship."

Harry smirked and continued, "But even if the ship is 'easily hijackable,' the guards would not be so easy to deal with so you need a distraction to get as much security as possible away from the ship after it has been loaded with goodies so you can sneak in and take it for yourself."

"Heh, that's right. Of course, it would have to be one hell of a distraction for it to work. Think-"

Harry interrupted, "Not a problem."

"Wait, really?"

"I am Groot?"

"Oh yeah. Ability is not an issue, only knowledge, I really am quite new to this galaxy. I don't know how the weapons or ships of this galaxy work and this is my first stop to find examples of them to procure."

Rocket rubbed his chin in contemplation for a moment and said, "Is that right? So you don't actually need a cut of the haul, you just want to know how all the goodies work?"

Harry nodded, "Exactly. The ship too. Is it safe to assume the transport ship won't be some dingy little shit pot?"

Rocket smiled, "Got that right. Armored, shielded, capable of star travel, and very heavily armed."

"And just to make sure, we're not stealing from kindly little old ladies right?"

"Nope, scum of the Galaxy. These shipments go directly to the fanatic Kree on the other side of the war. They aren't the types who use weapons to help people but are definitely the type I enjoy screwing over the most."

"It sounds like you know your stuff."

"That I do."

"In that case, I have a proposition for you. I help you with this score, and in return, you show me how everything works. I'm a very quick study, so a single lesson on each piece is all I ask for. I'll even buy everything you don't need using gold or credits."

Rocket considered it for a moment and turned to the tree, "Hmm. What do you think?"

Groot unsurprisingly said, "I am Groot," but the tone was quite positive, implying he felt it was okay to work with Harry.

Rocket nodded and turned back to Harry. "Heh, you know what? You're on. The ship is currently in the hangar in the Upper Docks. I got a way for me and Groot to get into those docks, get into the ship, and fly it out, but like you said, the less people there, the better."

Harry nodded and asked, "When will the ship be loaded with the goodies and when do you need the dock empty?"

"The ship will be loaded about twenty minutes before it launches in about three hours. That gonna be enough time for you to do your thing?"

"Three hours? And here I thought this would be hard. No problem. Just give me the exact time you'll be entering the dock and I'll make sure the coast is clear."

"Alright. I'll plant a little present in the data center to make sure any footage of you in the docks doesn't get saved, but don't let anyone see your face unless you want a lifetime ban from the Hub."

"Again, not a problem."

"Heh, we'll see if you're all talk or not. Come on Groot, we've got a heist to pull. And Stop Petting the Flerken!"

Groot frowned and seemed to sigh and said, "I am Groot," to Goose as he got up and left.

Harry turned to Goose with amusement and said, "You don't usually let others pet you."

Goose conveyed back through their link, 'Flora Colossi from Taluhnia don't count.'

Harry shrugged at that. He had of course never met another Flerken aside from Goose, so he didn't know if all Flerkens were this smart, if it was just Goose, or if Goose became smarter after becoming his familiar.

It didn't take long for Harry to find an empty corner and ward it against people who could bother him. Harry sat down and Goose acted as his bodyguard as Harry left his body for the Astral Plane to scout the area. Length and distance in the Astral Plane rarely matched the physical plane, but the basic details were enough to use for scouting purposes such as where guards were located and what was on the other side of locked doors.

Once Harry confirmed the bare details of the Upper Hangar, he returned to his body and removed the ward. Harry then picked up Goose, made the pair of them invisible, and walked up the access ways to the Hangar. Since he didn't know its exact position relative to himself, he couldn't teleport there, so he would just have to enjoy a leisurely stroll.

At the edge of the public area Harry found a locked door and used the Unlocking Charm on it, but the door didn't budge. Harry wondered if it was because he didn't understand how the lock worked, or because the tech in the lock was crap and fried from the spell. In either case, Harry teleported a few feet forward, beyond the door and continued on his way.

Since Harry was invisible to all forms of detection, could teleport, and fly, he did not have any issues heading into the restricted upper zones. His Sorcery spell, the Kestrel Key of Krakkan, was able to open locked doors without frying anything for some reason so Harry decided to just keep using that instead of Alohomora.

Once Harry found his way into the docks, he immediately spotted the small, armored cargo ship and about thirty guards of various races all wielding space guns.

Now that Harry knew the ship was there and that it was going to be filled with valuables, he could easily cut Rocket out of the deal and take everything himself, but he wouldn't. Harry didn't know how a raccoon from earth ended up in space, but Rocket was definitely either born on or descended from a raccoon from earth and Harry didn't want to betray him for something he could get anytime he wanted to now that he knew where it was. It was better to make a friend.

Over the course of an hour, the invisible Harry started creating a massive Muggle Repelling Ward centered around the ship. He'd delay the activation, but once it was set up, everyone in the vicinity should suddenly think of something incredibly important they have to do away from the ship, leaving it empty. Although Harry would set the ward to exclude Rocket and Groot, he didn't know how the other aliens would react to it.

It didn't take much longer for several dozen grunts to start heading into the hangar with metal crates and set them aside. They'd be loaded onto the ship at the last moment and would be heavily guarded until then.

Harry cast a massive Gemino Charm on the crates and made duplicates appear next to each while he cast another spell to make them invisible.

Every guard noticed that each crate seemed to shift in position, so Harry cast a Confundus Charm on the lot to get them to ignore it. Harry didn't know if it was just luck or because they were stupid, but the spell had the desired effect on all the guards, leaving them to go back to monitoring the surroundings.

Next, Harry used telekinesis to lift all the crates into the air and place them inside the cargo ship. He then applied a sticking charm on the fake crates to prevent them from being lifted off the ground.

And last, Harry took out the Apple of Discord.

Once it was time to move the crates, the guards tried and failed to lift them up, causing everyone to gather around the crates. Harry tossed the apple into the group where it vanished from view. In the next moment, all the crate copies opened and an endless stream of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks poured out from the crates to the confusion of the assembled party.

Harry activated the muggle repelling ward and the Snorkacks either chased off or were chased by all the security guards who either had no idea what was going on or had the sudden idea that the furry mini horned purple pig hippos were the valuables they had to ship, thus they had to quickly retrieve them all.

Harry along with Goose took a look inside the empty cargo ship and confirmed that he had absolutely no idea how to fly it. He could rip the knowledge out of the pilot's head, but his Paths would increase more if he learned it without cheating.

Not long after Rocket shouted from behind, "Wow, you really aren't all talk after all."

Groot said with a bit of admiration, "I am Groot."

Harry said, "Thank you. So do you actually know how to get this thing out of here?"

Rocket glanced at the now visible crates in the cargo bay and said, "Oh yeah, give me a few seconds."

Rocket easily removed a few panels and cut and sliced a few wires together, causing the outer door to close. He then ran over to the front and opened a few more panels and sliced a few more wires before splicing them together, causing the front panel to lit up.

The sound of weapons fire echoed outside the armored door as Rocket pulled some levers causing the ship to lift from the floor. He said, "Too slow suckers!" before pushing two joysticks up causing the ship to lurch forward directly into a metal wall.

Harry wasn't someone who feared death by explosion so he was calm as the armored craft rammed through the bulkhead doors into the black void of space. Rocket shouted, "Hang tight," as he pushed a few buttons and pulled a few levers, jumping directly into faster than light travel.

Rocket jumped off the pilot's chair and headed straight for the crates. Upon seeing the lock, he shouted, "Do you mind?"

"I am Groot," Groot walked up and ripped the locks off each crate.

Rocket opened the first and said, "Hello laser cannon."

Harry asked, "So how much are you willing to sell to me? I'm definitely interested in the ship."

Rocket continued opening the crates and said, "To be honest I didn't think you'd come through like this. Half is yours. As for the ship, there are a few things I need it for, but I've got you covered. Since you're pretty good, I'll teach you how to fly, then I'll escort you to where the Kree are making their best toys. I'll help you steal something even better."

Harry smiled. It was good to make friends.

Rocket had already disabled the half a dozen trackers on the ship and to make sure they weren't ambushed on arrival, he set the destination for a planet that would take several hours to get to instead of one of the closer ones. It was slower than taking a Gate, but unpredictable so they'd survive the trip.

Rocket then went through each and every weapon. Harry placed each one in his inventory to memorize what it was made of and Rocket explained what each part was called and how it worked.

Next, Rocket showed Harry how the flight controls worked and explained how some ships had a different layout and how to fly those. He got out a data pad and connected it to the console and downloaded the schematics. Most ships had a system which showed where damage was located and that system had the ship's schematics within, so Rocket just used that and took the time to explain what each piece of the ship did and how it did it.

Groot spent the trip petting Goose who was a grand master of the art of chill.

Eventually Rocket ran out of things to tell him so Harry started asking specific details about various aspects of the tech and Rocket answered to the best of his abilities, though there was of course much sarcasm involved.

Rocket gave Harry the Gate and Space coordinates for various points of interest in the galaxy such as Knowhere and a number of civilized planets that you could find something to do on. He also confirmed the lack of certain technologies such as Instant Galaxy wide communication and lack of an internet on most planets. Harry wondered if he should create one.

After running out of questions, Harry broke out some food and they just started chatting about random stuff. About the war, about the galaxy, about all the idiots in the galaxy, Rocket did not sound like he would ever run out of things to say about the idiots of the galaxy.

Rocket had a lot of stories to tell, most of which involved idiots making idiots of themselves while he laughed his ass off. Rocket considered himself a bounty hunter who was always looking for opportunities. Usually opportunities to screw over the Kree.

According to Rocket, the Kree were always wasting Units on projects to make them stronger and it usually either fell through or turned against them. He said it'd take a week or two but it shouldn't be difficult to find the next Kree Super Ship project and just steal whatever they find.

Once the ship arrived at its destination and landed, Harry gave Rocket the number to what was basically a voice mail box Harry claimed he'd check once every couple of days and went on his way after filling his inventory with his share of the weapons. Though Rocket didn't see Harry take them and assumed Goose had eaten them when he wasn't looking.

Once alone, Harry made a portal home and made dinner for his girls. Jade, Rogue, and Wanda had a girls day out with MJ, Gwen, and Felicia while Peter had been trapped in the combat simulator in Harry's basement.

Over dinner, Harry went over his adventures while the girls asked various questions.

Jade's question was of course, "Wait, a raccoon? A walking, talking, gun toting raccoon?"

"Yep, though he was much skinnier than the raccoons you'd see in the dumpster."

Wanda asked, "What about the walking tree?"

"Goose told me it was called a Flora Colossus."

Jade asked, "How does she know?"

Rogue answered, "She's probably from space too. At the mansion she got along really well with Kitty's purple alien dragon."

Jade asked, "Wait, there are dragons in space too?"

Harry nodded, "Oh yeah. With the exception of the very few immortal dragons on earth, most of the remaining dragons are incredibly weak compared to the dragons of other worlds. Most planets with dragons usually end up with dragons as the dominant life form."

Rogue asked, "Did Lockheed ever reach out to his parents?"

Harry thought back and said, "Yeah, though it wasn't much better than a two way voice mail or heavily delayed text message system. Got some nice AstralTech Blueprints as the reward for that quest."

Jade asked, "So when are we going to see the Hub?"

"Not any time soon. The Hub and its Space Gate don't orbit a star, it wanders about aimlessly so you can only get there through the Space Gate, not coordinates. Because it has no set orbit, it's coordinates can't be predicted in advance so I can't make a portal to it. Though while at the Hub I can make portals from it and invite you through. So the next time I'm at the Hub, I'll already have a space ship."

Wanda said, "Gwen asked how Peter's doing."

Harry smirked at that. Harry gave Peter the cover of a paid Internship at Brilliance Inc to tell others what he is doing with his time while he was training. His aunt at first refused to take the very large check Peter gave her as a signing bonus, but once he explained that he'd get more later, she reluctantly took it. 'Coincidently,' that 'signing bonus' was enough to cover all of the unpaid bills and expenses left by her husband's death, meaning as long as nothing big came up, she'd be fine living the remainder of her life with her retirement pension, especially since Peter would now have a steady income of his own.

Once dinner was finished, Harry had the Hard-Light Corgis start the dishes and Harry headed down into the basement to check out if Peter still had a pulse.

The dimensionally expanded basement contained hard-light simulated wreckage of giant robots and armed men tied up with sinuous grey materials Harry recognized as synthetic spider webbing.

Peter himself was still fighting against three sentinels while a dozen dog shaped monsters three times larger than a tiger were chasing him around and barking and trying to eat him. He wore a red and blue suit that looked like it was made of spandex, but was actually composed of carbon fiber and non-reflective microplates that could disperse impact damage, stop blades, and was completely bulletproof. On Peter's insistence it included black lines which spread out to look like a spider web.

The webbing he used in combat was something Peter made up and shot out using a micro air compressing system to fire strings of web at nearly the speed of sound. His original designs were not capable of firing the strings so quickly and his original costume idea was in fact spandex, but Harry ordered the materials and created the custom parts required for a higher quality of equipment.

Harry snapped his fingers on arrival and the Hard-Light simulator turned off and Peter landed on the ground with an exhausted oomph.

"How are you holding up Peter?"

After taking a few moments to catch his breath, he said, "Harry, the suit is too heavy to use for so long. It's not like I need to be bulletproof, my spider-sense can ensure I dodge bullets."

Harry rolled his eyes, took a space gun from his inventory, and cast a spell on Peter that isolated him from interdimensional energies.

Peter didn't feel any danger but felt the pain of the force slamming into his forehead before hearing the sound of the gunshot threw his head back and caused him to cry out in pain.

Harry asked politely, "Could you repeat that again? Slowly this time. I'm a bit hard of hearing."

"You shot me!"

"You seem alright to me."

"In the head!"

"And your point being?"

Peter quickly took off the hood of the suit to take away Harry's excuse to fire another round and took a seat on the ground. He took a look at the mask and confirmed that the bit of metal residue on the top could be wiped off, it didn't actually damage the piece and although the bullet it a single point, the entire head covering turned nearly solid at the moment of impact, dispersing the blunt force making it feel like he wore a steel helmet and someone hit him with a baseball bat rather than had just been shot in the forehead.

Peter started rubbing his forehead and asked, "How'd you do that?"

"I said it before Peter, your 'Spider-sense' does not originate from yourself, but comes from something else. If it's being given, it can be taken away. Use it, but don't rely on it."

"So you know how it works?"

"Kinda. There are strings of interdimensional energy which appear to congregate onto you, like a web. Those strings don't just go into this distance, but go into other dimensions, the past, and future as well. My guess is, when you are in pain, in trouble, or are in proximity to someone with the intent to cause you harm, the strings vibrate like the warning system of spider web. However since the energy strings go into the past and future as well, your warning actually comes before the danger occurs."

"Okay, then how did you get around it?"

"There are actually a number of ways to get around it Peter, even if you knew how I did it, that wouldn't stop me from being able to do so and wouldn't stop others should they figure it out. Don't get complacent."

Peter took a moment to consider it before sighing and saying, "You're right. I'm sorry."

Harry pulled up a data pad and went over the record of what Peter had done in the last six hours. Harry's form of training was basically, 'If you experience it all at least a dozen times, then you won't be surprised when it happens again.'

While going over Peter's scores, Harry said, "Relatively speaking, there are four types of combat. Destructive, Defensive, Constructive, and Technique based. Destructive would be combat that used pure force, power, and damage to overwhelm the opposition. Defensive is basically where you outlast the opposition. Constructive is where you add to the terrain to control the battlefield and end the fight. Technique is where you use skill and strategy to defeat the opposition."

Harry then asked, "Have you heard of the Culver Incident?"

Peter shook his head, "Doesn't sound familiar."

"Yeah, I'd be remarkably impressed if you had. It's quite classified."

Peter rolled his eyes at Harry's expectations. Not everyone hacks classified files for materials to prank with.

"Then I can at least assume you know of Doctor Bruce Banner."

"Of course, though I think he hasn't published in a few years."

Harry continued, "Five years ago, Culver University was given a grant to research a project with the express purpose of granting humans extreme resistance to Gamma Radiation by the government. The project involved three parts, a serum that made the body healthier, a serum that made the body ready for the procedure, and a very unhealthy dose of gamma radiation."

Harry actually used the projectors to pull up various documents that all had a bright red Classified Logo on each page which Peter could only sigh at.

"Dr. Banner's team was in charge of the serum that made the body ready for the procedure and the machine that could apply the gamma radiation. At some point he had become quite confident that it had been perfected, but rather than wait until additional testing had been approved, he injected both the body modification serum and the health serum into his body and shot himself up with Gamma rays."

Since Banner had not been seen since, Peter understandably asked, "Did he die?"

"No, he lived. What he did not know however was that the 'health serum' was no such thing, it was a hard-pressed copy of the super soldier serum which originally used Vita-Rays while this version required Gamma Rays. Nothing happened initially, but then."

Harry pulled up a few videos of a massive green humanoid that moved with incredible speed and unstoppable power.

Harry stated, "He'd gone into hiding since then." Harry put on more videos of the massive brute fighting against armed forces that were always attacking him.

The Culver Incident was one of the reasons Harry would never trust the American Government. Five years ago and even now, there was no great war or known danger. Why would the government waste money trying to create an all powerful super soldier if the world was basically at peace? Why was General Thaddeus, 'Thunderbolt' Ross still hunting Banner down and had even charged him with 'theft of government property'?

The answer was obvious, General Ross didn't care for Peace. Would a general be remembered for his contributions towards peace during peacetime? No, the generals that were remembered were the ones who contributed the most during war. Ross probably figured that if the U.S. could mass produce soldiers at Banner's level, the U.S. could actively declare war on the world and even win. Harry may have obtained U.S. citizenship, but he was never going to allow that to happen.

There weren't many clips of Banner, so once finished, Harry said, "Banner is both a Destructive, and Defensive combat specialist. Nothing can really hurt him no matter how long the fight goes, and his power can take on anything that stands in his way, but as you probably noticed, there is a lot of collateral damage."

Peter absentmindedly nodded while looking over the pictures.

Harry continued, "Iron Man uses Destructive, Constructive, and Technique based combat, but his collateral damage isn't small either." Harry pulled up a few videos of Iron Man destroying stuff and using gadgets to defeat bad guys.

"If you want to fight in a city, the best forms of combat are constructive and technique based. For you, that means using your webs to control the area and using your speed and skill to dispatch your foes as quickly as possible. Do not fight defensively or try to break everything. That's the reason you're so tired. You relied too much on your strength and got bogged down too often."

Harry pulled up some footage of Peter's earlier training which showed him trying to outpunch the enemies or trying to trade blows.

Harry added, "Honestly speaking, there should not be any reason for you to ever punch anything. Compared to the option of using your webs and leverage, it's ridiculously inefficient."

Peter looked like he was finally catching his breath and after a few moments said, "Alright Harry, I'll try."

Harry smiled, raised his fingers, and said, "Good, time for round two."

"What?!" From that moment onwards, Peter knew that the sound of Harry snapping would haunt his dreams forever.

*Author's Note*

Thank you everyone for the Space Ideas. I now have a good idea of what to do and I don't mind spoiling it. How do you think the Kree's Supreme Intelligence will react to the logic of a Wizard Magic Prank war? Should be something to look forward to.

Oh, the Peter shouldn't punch anyone is a discreet reference to the Spiderman cartoon where they were not allowed to show Peter punching, so in the entire series, Peter never actually punches anyone.

My Avenger Jedi SI fic ended up with a few problems when I tried writing it. If I go with an actual Jedi, he ends up negotiating everything meaning no action. Hydra/Shield sends him to destroy some rebels trying to topple a terrible dictator, he has the rebels disband and 'coincidently through unrelated means,' the dictator steps down. Stuff like that, so there are very few times he even needs to pull out his lightsaber. My writing style ends up having such scenes become terribly bland if done one after another, so my only real option is to turn it into something of a crack-fic where Hydra and many others try to manipulate or kill the Jedi but it always goes wrong for them. Please comment if that is something you might have an interest in reading, or if you have another idea on how to make a jedi working for Shield do something besides using diplomacy on everything.

Oh, his backstory is that he grew up in the same orphanage as Hawkeye. In the real Hawkeye origin, he runs from his orphanage and joins the circus where there is a swordsman called Swordsman, and an archer called Trickshot. Trickshot took Barton as his apprentice so the Jedi SI could claim he was Swordsman's apprentice to justify his sword skills. Later when Fury recruits Barton, Barton can tell him about his brother.