Chapter 7 : Saving her bones

[Author note : here's a new chapter. Hope you like it !

Also, if you're interested in supporting or encouraging me, please look for Cathbel on Patréon (you'll see my ugly mug xD). There's a couple of advanced chapters over there :

KoSP : 2 advanced chapters

Squib who became Iron Lad... In DC : 3 advanced chapters.

See you there, hopefully ! Oh ! And please, don't hesitate to comment, give a few advices, tell me what you like, etc... And, why not leave a review, if you do like my stories ? Anyways, read on !]

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The night was young in England and Amelia Bones, after a long and tiring day in court was finally returning home. Her niece was currently spending a few weeks camping with friends abroad, as miss Bones feared she would be targeted by the Death Eaters because of their connections. Earlier this month, she was approached by Albus Dumbledore who wanted to move her to a safer location… He'd conjectured that she'd be Voldemort's next target since there was a good chance for her to replace Cornelius Fudge. Obviously, she refused. She wasn't some damsel who needed saving ! And after all the Death Eaters had taken from her, it'd be her pleasure to kill a few of them… In self-defense.

She went to change into something more comfortable. As she was about to finish, she felt her wards… breaking.

« They're here… » She whispered, equal parts frightened and bloodthirsty. Finally, her brother and sister-in-law would see some vengeance !

* * * * *

A few days ago, in New York.

« Come on ! Come on ! »

Ned was working on his Mark II armor ; this one focused more on defense and counters rather than attack. Thanks to a breakthrough he made while studying Wizarding means of transportation (mostly because he wanted to improve them so they made him less sick), he created another, more comfortable (he hoped) : portals. By linking, or rather folding space with magic, he could 'open' portals that led to a different location. In addition to his usual mean of propulsion, he added an enchantment to open portals of varying size.

That, coupled with the small advancement he made in his legilimency applications, would prove very effective even against the Unforgivable… At least, that was the idea.

The problem, however, was that the attack on Amelia Bones was imminent. He didn't remember the exact date but he knew it happened in the first half of July. And he was afraid the armor wouldn't be ready by then…

« Warning Dumbledore and his people is out of the question since they'd either not take me seriously, or ask where I get my information… Besides, I need to face this on my own ! »

« Oh, so you won't need my help piloting the armor ? Good to know ! » Mel's voice interjected through the speaker.

« Let me rephrase that, then ! We need to face this on our own… with madam Bones, of course. »

« What about… those ? Do we really need them ? »

« Oh, come on ! » Ned complained. « We've worked very hard on the space expansion enchantment ; might as well use it, right ? Besides, Voldy and his cohorts need a little schooling on no-majs… We can't leave them in their ignorance, right ? »

« And what if you gave them ideas ? »

« That… Uh. That's a good point. Though I don't think their pride as purebloods would permit it… Unless their master ordered it. Damn… And that's why dealing with lunatics is such a pain ! You can't ever know what they'll do ! »

« And yet, you somehow know exactly what he's planning… »

« I told you why. But my knowledge will soon become obsolete and useless. As for our country, besides the superhero scene, I know next to nothing about it. And even then, it's too little to really make a difference. » He sighed, regretting inwardly not having read more Detective Comics books and stories. The Multiverse was so vast, so dangerous… Despite his brilliance, he was still terrified and feeling inadequate. Would he be able to survive the fights to come ? Could he protect his family ?

He shook his head to clear his insecurities. He had an armor to finish and a fight to prepare for ! Now wasn't the time for that !

For days, with very little sleep and the occasional snack, Ned frantically worked on his armor. Trying to get the final kinks out of it before the battle… He couldn't afford for it to fail him at a critical moment !

The armor's color scheme was different from the Mark I. While the latter was silver and blue, the blue on this one was deeper, darker and bits of gold could be seen on the faceplate, the wrists and ankles, as well as the joints. Not too much as it would make it tacky, he felt, but enough to be visible and enhancing the overall appearance… At least, in his opinion.

« Okay, we're almost finished ! » Suddenly, he turned his head toward his computer screen who was flashing in red lights, a sound ringing with urgency. « Dammit ! They're already there ! » He paused, then shook his head : « I guess we're as ready as we're going to be if we want to save miss Bones. How are they ? » He asked Mel as he pointed at two football-size spheres resting on one of his workstations.

« They're ready. As ordered, I didn't download any of my code on it and will only be commanding them remotely. I have to ask however… Why ? »

Ned shrugged :

« I'm not sure how the Unforgivable curses would work on you, Mel. You're not human or even possess a fleshy body but I don't know if it'll change anything if the killing curse strikes you… I'd rather you not die on me ! »

Although she didn't say it, Mel felt an unknown process rising from the depths of her circuits. It was kind of distracting to her usual operation and yet it didn't feel… wrong ? The word she was looking for was 'unpleasant' as for the unknown process, Mel was slowly doing more than emulating feelings. It was something Ned hoped for when he created her, but to this day, he could see no signs of it. And even now, it would take some time before he realized what he achieved.

Donning on the armor in a few minutes, he also stored a few of his 'lessons material' for the Death Eaters. Although what Mel said was true about giving them ideas, Ned doubted the purebloods would have the contacts to procure some of the things he had in his workshop. Still, he decided on using the less… dangerous ones. Once he had finished, he declared as he opened a portal :

« Alright ! Show time ! »

* * * * *

« Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Senior. Ironic and pretty hypocritical that the son of a muggle leads the pureblood supremacist movement, isn't it, Mr Riddle ? »

Just as the duel between Voldemort and Amelia Bones was about to start, an unwelcome and unknown voice disrupted the Dark Lord's concentration. Amelia was about to capitalize on it when some… rift in space opened up over their position and something came out of it. Amelia stopped, briefly wondering where she had seen such an armor. Then, she registered the word uttered earlier and noticed how it froze the barely human wizard in front of her.

Was that his true name ? She thought to herself. It seemed so, and moreover, it seemed to have made him mad. A few in his escorts could be seen whispering to each other. She doubted they knew this little fact about their master…

A hysterical female voice could be heard yelling at the armored person :

« You filthy mongrel ! What did you say about the Dark Lord ? » After a second, she exclaimed : « Wait, it's you ! » She seethed in anger, drawing her wand.

With a mock bow in mid-air, something that truly baffled Amelia since it was extremely difficult to fly without a broom or an enchanted item, the new arrival said :

« Silver Lad, at your service ! » Then he amended : « Well, not yours… I don't serve rabid dogs and their master who's more nutty than a peanut bag. » A pause, then : « Or perhaps, in a way, I am…Since I'm here to school you all about the consequences of your plans. »

« You speak of things you do not know of, boy ! And so, I have no patience for it… » He raised his bone-white wand, aiming at the hovering Ned. « Avada Kedavra ! » He called out, only for the green light to be absorbed by a second rift in space while another opened behind the group of Death Eaters. The green beam of death travelled through one to exit from the other, striking one of the masked figure and sending it to the ground, dead.

The armored figure sighed :

« I wasn't sure it'd work against that… Well, live and learn, right ? But, Mr. Riddle, you should really pay attention where you fire those things… I believe one of your men just died. Oh, well… One less garbage on this earth, I guess ! »

« How… ? » Voldemort's cold and confused voice came.

« That's the first lesson : science ! You and your cohorts look down so~ much on no-majs and no-majs born when their 'kind' have made much more progress than ours did in the last 2 centuries. One of the leading reason for that is the scientific method. I won't bother to explain it to you : you can just read some Descartes if you're curious… Using science however, or rather one of the theories in Quantum physics, I was able to link 2 places in space, creating portals. And for that, I studied the different means of instant transportation Wizardkind uses. »

« Now, onto the second lesson : History. No-majs have become expert in the business of ending lives. In fact, they're oftentimes much more effective at it than most dark spells. To illustrate this point, I just have to mention the 2 World Wars with death tolls in the millions in just a few years. Here's one of their tools of death they keep on improving… In fact, I believe this particular one is considered old nowadays… Oh, well ! It's still useful ! »

A somewhat egg-like contraption suddenly appeared in the armored figure's hand and just as he opened his hand for a rift to swallow the contraption, the voice of one Death Eater, who seemed to have recognized the object yelled :

« Dodge ! »

Tom Riddle did, too, much earlier, but he didn't bother to warn his companions. And since he couldn't disapparate, he turned into black smoke and rushed out of the way.

When, in a loud burst of sound, fire and white-hot metal, the device exploded, it took one Death Eater's life and injured 3 others with 2 having rather significant injuries. Meanwhile, the armored figure who nonchalantly flung objects of death continued his speech (or lesson, as he would have them believe).

« That… was a hand grenade. Extremely common in the no-majs' military and it's History could be traced back to the invention of gunpowder but it has greatly improved in efficiency and ease of use ever since the 1st World War… For the ignoramuses among you, it lasted 4 years from 1914 to 1918 across most of Europe, Africa and some of the colonies. As for the death count… more than 10 million people. This war saw a number of ingenious ways for no-majs, or, as you call them, muggles to kill each other. The hand grenade was just one of them. Here's another… »

While he worked on retrieving another of his 'teaching implements', the Death Eaters decided not to take it lying down. As did their leader… Amelia, meanwhile wasn't sure what to do, but what she was sure of, was that she couldn't do nothing. The stranger was not only helping her, he was also offering her a chance to not only avenge her family, but survive while she did so, as well ! She had no intention of letting it go by !

The armored figure barely glanced as his opponents aimed their wand at him, when he, for some reason, paused and raised a finger, as if an idea had lit up inside his head. A few spells flew his way… only to be intercepted by a hovering, invisible and spherical object. Amelia could only guess its shape by the ripple of magic impacting upon it, however…

Once again, the Silver Lad paused but this time, when he spoke it wasn't directed at the Death Eaters and their master.

« So, Mel ? How'd it work ? »

« The magical energy was safely dissipated and the sphere has barely taken any damage. I've registered a couple of cutting curses, a blasting one as well as an Unforgivable… From the data, it seems to be a cruciatus curse. »

« No pain on your part ? »

« None. »

The Lad sighed in relief. The spheres were his first attempt at Golemancy, one of his new field of magic and technology. Golems weren't sentient and could only respond to simple commands… At least, at first. Now however, after a few years of working on it, they could be compared to drones : piloted remotely for complex maneuvers and operations. Moreover, Mel was in charge of them, so he could focus on piloting his armor.

As for why the magic dissipated without too much damage, it was thanks to the new coating he worked on. Unfortunately, it was incredibly difficult to make as well as expensive. He couldn't use it on his armors… for now ! Another problem he noticed was a drop in the spells efficiency and an increase in energy cost.

As his opponents were still baffled by the obvious disregard the armored figure had for them and their master, he spoke again :

« Before I was so rudely interrupted, I realized that, although demonstrating how no-majs' weapons would be extremely effective against Wizardkind, teaching you a bit of maths would be more… appropriate and logical. I understand however, that logic isn't something most wizards possess… Still, I'm hoping a few of you do… » He shrugged : « Anyway, mathematics and statistics ! Do any of you actually know the number of wizards and witches in the UK ? » A pause where no answer came forward. « About 3000. Now… Do you know how many soldiers the UK have ? » Still no answer and at this point, Ned didn't expect any : « More than 200.000 ! Now, I'll give our kind a bit of an edge 'cause… Well, I'm biased, too ! Assuming a wizard (or witch) without formal military training can take on one or two trained soldiers… Do you realize how many you'd need to win a war against no-majs ? » A new pause and he said after a bit : « I won't look down on you too much and assume you see how stupid it is to try and fight them… And anyway, in truth, with their rather drastic training, their various special forces, not to mention all the weapons I haven't shown you, the truth of the matter is… A soldier could easily take on at least 5 witches and/or wizards. They could use vehicles to crush us from afar or bombard our places with planes… I still don't know how this idea that wizardkind is somehow superior to no-majs is even entertained these days ! I guess it takes a fossil like this repulsive snake-face to bring it back to life… »

As the Death Eaters' faces explored a range of emotions, from rage or plain anger, to confusion and fear, the aforementioned Snake-face wore an emotionless mask. But it was all a facade as he soon erupted :

« You dare ! » He fired wildly with his wand as Ned effortlessly dodged. Between Mel's trajectory calculation and the chief Death Eater's predictability in this moment, it was made rather easy. The unfortunate thing was that he was soon joined by his number one fan : Bellatrix Lestrange.

Ned idly wondered even as he continued dodging or redirected a few attacks how she was even here. Either the UK's Wizarding society was even more rotten than he thought or their governmental forces were incompetent.

However, just as he was about to resume talking and taunting his adversaries, Amelia Bones suddenly attacked the Lestrange woman. They exchanged a few attacks for a while, with even Ned directing his elemental repulsor toward them to fire a few spells.

Taunting the madman once more, Ned smirked as he spoke :

« It's not so easy to kill people able to defend themselves, huh ? I mean… It was surely easier to kill the poor girl when you were a student at Hogwarts, wasn't it ? Then again… You didn't really kill her, did ya ? »

As he was about to fire yet another Unforgivable, his wand stopped in the air and his gaze hardened as he asked menacingly :

« How do you know these things ? »

Ned just smiled. Not that anyone could tell…