Chapter 70 Gathering Intel Off World

In the expanded basement of Harry's New York home, Harry watched his newest lover fire bursts of green energy at small black demons Harry had conjured earlier. With each shot, the demons dissolved into shadow and darkness only to fade away.

Due to the influence of her Dragon Heart, Jade Chan's Chi had traces of red, but it was still effective for use in Chi Magic the pair had been practicing. Harry's Chi, while also green, had streaks of gold, making it very eye catching.

These meagre demons were not from any general demonic plane, but creatures Harry made using what he knew of demon magic and the air of negativity prevalent within any human city. The origin of this conjuration spell was an attempt to make creatures he could fight in this plane for Exp instead of going to the Astral Plane and using Battle Meditation. It didn't work out the way he wanted.

The air of negativity could be considered a psionic and magical field generated when people who had a lot of problems gathered together. When defeated, the little demons did indeed become energy Harry could absorb. The problem was that they were too weak and the gain from absorbing it was miniscule. They were about as formidable as a swarm of Karens demanding to see a supervisor.

Moreover absorbing negativity like that was useless for Harry as he didn't use any Black Magics which required it. That's where Chi Magic came in.

Chi Magic contained some of the strongest purification spells out there. Harry was originally worried that the influence of the Dragon aspect of his and Jade's Chi would reduce the purification effect, but in fact the effect was enhanced, much to Harry's relief.

The air of negativity coalesced into these Karens was purified when they were slain with blasts of Chi Magic. Though hardly a reduction in the overall mood of the city, it was still better than nothing and was a method even the Ancient One approved of to train Chi Magic as it purified the area around it instead of polluting it as many other forms of magic practice did more often than not.

While firing said blasts out from a two fingered point with her hands, Jade was quickly muttering under her breath, "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao, Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao." The rough translation of which was, 'Evil demons and malevolent spirits, be gone!' It directly rejected all evil and the direct rejection combined with the characteristics of Chi Magic caused complete purification against weaker demons. Even against stronger ones, it would harm them.

This incantation had centuries of history and many benefits. Of course, it had obvious weaknesses as well. The rejection effect could be used to harm, purify, and protect from evil and evil magics. It had no effect what-so-ever against anything that was not evil and it had weaker effects against evils that did not originate in China.

These Karens obviously did not originate in China, but the strength of Jade's Chi and her experience in using this incantation made up for it and even if these demons were fifty times stronger, Jade could manage to beat them if it was one on one.

Harry never used incantations and wasn't going to start now. Thankfully Uncle's journals were well written and by reading between the lines, Harry was able to figure out a training regime to practice implanting his Chi with Intention to cast spells in the same way he could do so with other forms of energy and magic. Of course, it wasn't easy. If it was, Harry wouldn't have asked for assistance and would've figured it out himself.

Chi is not like other forms of energy. Chi is a person's individual life force synchronized with their soul. Pure and young children naturally draw in vast amounts of Chi until they are tainted by the world. That Chi stays with them and the body uses that Chi to grow. Once they reach adulthood, the Chi is mostly used up. That's why an untrained child will have more Chi than an untrained adult.

Or at least it was for other people. Harry's status as a living person was questionable at best since his death and revival as a human form Obscurus. Harry wasn't an Obscurial. An Obscurial is a human who possessed an Obscurus. Harry was the Obscurus, who just happened to be able to maintain a human form due to his mutant power. Even though he'd figured out a few new ways to use his mutant power thanks to the Obscurus Perk he acquired, he couldn't remain in human form and send away an Obscurus like an Obscurial could.

Thankfully his body was able to accept and merge seamlessly with the Immortal Dragon Chi. Because he merged with it, he could apply the same invisibility to his Dragon Chi as he could his magic. This was useful since the Immortal Black Dragon Chiantang had probably revived by now since Immortal True Dragons could do that. If he was ever in the same city as Harry and Harry wasn't cloaking his Chi, Chiantang would be able to locate him with ease.

Though he merged with it, it wasn't originally his Chi which gave him a handicap when it came to learning Chi Magic. Thankfully, using Dragon Chi was easier with the Auto-Correct of the Dragon Path and using it for Physical Combat was additionally assisted by the Auto-Correct of the Warrior Path and of course everything he did when it came to Magic was assisted with the Auto-Correct of the Magic Path. Thanks to that, he had already caught up to Jade and the pair were neck and neck in their advancement of Chi Magic.

After finishing off the remaining Karen Demons, Jade took a few breaths to steady herself and smile. She wasn't physically exhausted, but the mental strain of the Chi Magic practice wasn't something to look down upon.

Harry smiled back and said, "Nice work. That will be all for today."

Jade's smile widened and she said, "Thanks. Now if only I had a way to wind down." Jade's form flashed with light and had changed to her adult form disguise.

Harry grinned with approval at the look in Jade's eye. She could shift into this form while doing something noble and apparently, she considered this a noble pursuit.

Harry, not wanting to be out done, shifted his own form from seventeen to twenty-five, to match Jade's and over take her in height. After months of practice, he'd finally figured out how to use his Obscurus Perk to adjust his form in the same way Mystique did so he no longer needed to rely on nasty tasting Polyjuice potions for a disguise. Just because he could turn his taste buds off when he drank it didn't mean the taste didn't linger after all.

Jade pulled down her silk mask and started to slowly unbutton her red cheongsam while locking her eyes Harry letting him know exactly what she was thinking. Harry's smile widened and he joined her thinking, 'a noble pursuit indeed.'

*Ping*

[Sex Path has risen to Rank 20]

After taking Jade's unconscious, smiling form to bed, Harry did not go to sleep but headed for his own room and prepared a few things.

Harry's form shifted once more into that of a stranger and Harry put on some clothes that would stand out in any city simply because of how remarkably plain they were. Once finished, Harry took in a breath and shot out a silver ring which expanded into a portal and stepped through before closing it.

The sky overhead was bright as it was daytime and though Harry was in an open venue surrounded by people, no one was looking in his direction. Harry had made a tiny portal to this spot earlier for scouting and had placed a time release Notice-Me-Not here to prep for his arrival.

Harry was no longer on earth. Although Jean claimed she 'found' and followed a spaceship, Harry figured she just didn't want Harry to know the effort she actually took. Harry figured after blowing the planet, she waited while cloaked at the location until some big, fancy looking ship appeared and then followed it back to the planet it came from.

This was Xandar. According to the info Jean got from the heads of the pilots she followed, Xandar was the home of the Nova Corps, a set of self appointed Peacekeepers in the Andromeda Galaxy which was why they sent out an investigation in the first place.

After finding out they thought someone was faking a Phoenix burn, she got the planet's location and returned to the route she needed to travel to find the next to be burnt planet.

Six Dimensional Coordinates also included aspects like planetary rotation and movement around stellar bodies so even though the planet had obviously moved its position in space since she'd taken the coordinates, the coordinates remained the same allowing Harry to make a portal here.

The area he'd chosen to enter through was rather scenic and included a vast public courtyard with a fountain in the middle and dozens of benches around the area. Harry found an empty bench away from others and sat down. He took something from his inventory and put it in his pocket before leaning back and just watching.

Harry was not sure which was stranger, the fact that so many species on this planet could pass for human, or the fact that they were apparently speaking english. This of course brought up a chicken and the egg series of questions but Harry decided not to care about that.

And pass for human was relative. Most of their facial structures were not something Harry could categorize as something belonging to any nation on earth.

For example the man sitting on the bench on the other end of the courtyard reading something had cheekbones and a nose which stuck out further from his face than any normal human, even Professor Snape, giving him an almost bird like quality.

He wasn't sure if he should have been thankful the written language was clearly different. On one hand, if the language was the same, he'd have an easier time. On the other, it would completely throw off the Alien World vibe.

In any case, he used his telepathy to scan for passing minds to get tidbits here and there about the local common sense and customs before he did anything.

Harry had a couple of goals for coming to Xandar. First, it was cool. It just was. Next, he wanted an exotic vacation house to make the girls feel special. Further down the list of priorities, Harry wanted to check the Star Maps and the local tech. The local tech would help him advance his tech path and the star maps would give him more options when it came to using his portals.

Harry was fully aware that his Portals were too useful. Only beings with ridiculous skill in magic or god-like beings could resist being pushed through a portal so even if Harry could do nothing else, he could solve 80% of all problems with portals.

Especially since Harry had the coordinates to Galactus's Homeworld. Unkillable monsters? Toss them at the Heavy Anti-Electro Matter cloud. A being who can devour all forms of energy and can resurrect itself from the dead? Toss him at the surface of Galactus's Homeworld. A machine from the future built to kill you? Portal it to the sun. Got sucked through an interdimensional doorway with nope hope of escape? Portal out. Late for work? Portal to work.

The problem with how useful portals were was that people who knew Harry could use them may end up asking Harry to use them to solve all their problems. Harry told those at the Xavier institute he needs a big diamond to make a portal so they wouldn't ask him for stupid things. If they ever did so, Harry was prepared to wipe their memories of his portals. Thankfully Harry was not included in their Team sessions and they knew not to rely on him. Besides, they had Kurt. Though not as good as a portal, his teleporting was still useful enough.

Harry had subtly removed the memory of portals from Blade, Whistler, and Karen so they wouldn't ask bother him about portals, but Harry couldn't wipe the Fantastic Four's mind. He'd already discovered that the Power Cosmic within them made them resistant to most forms of energy. Even if Harry overpowered the spell, the energy of the spell would eventually be devoured by the Power Cosmic and converted into more Power Cosmic, just like it did with the background radiation around them.

They all respected him though and appreciated that Harry only revealed his portals to them because it was a world ending threat. Harry may have also mentioned once or twice that if they ever called him for anything and one of them wasn't dying when he got there, he'd prank them. Harry's smile when he told them sent shivers down their spines.

The only other ones who knew were the Sorcerers who could use Portals themselves, Sirius Black, who knew better than to take advantage of his godson, and Magneto and Mystique, who were unlikely to ask something of Harry as they knew Harry would expect something in return.

Portals were simply too useful. Harry had faced several beings they could not be used against but that was not entirely Harry's fault. The Immortal Dragon Chiantang could fly and disrupt magic. The Juggernaut was protected by the Elder God Cyttorak so he couldn't be pushed through a portal without the portal being destroyed. Selene could fly and there was no way to push her through a portal. That damn avatar of the blood god couldn't be pushed through and Harry was still annoyed by that. And Apocalypse could both fly and not be pushed, so even if Harry made a portal beneath his feet, the immortal wouldn't have fallen through it and may have had ways to teleport out even if tossed into another dimension.

Of course, those exceptions were beings at the peak of existence on earth or had connections to beings at the peak of existence in the cosmos.

At the very least, unless there was a 100% world destruction imminent threat, Harry wasn't planning to let others know about his portals for now lest he be bugged to solve all the world's problems with them until the end of time.

Harry shivered at that thought. Some thought otherwise but even if Harry was a part-time protector as a hobby he still didn't think he was a hero and he certainly wasn't a janitor.

He was pretty sure that most problems he faced could be resolved without portals anyways so it wasn't a big deal.

Harry sat on that bench for a few hours and had a responsible idea of the planet itself. First of all, it was considered peaceful. There were a lot of laws to prevent idiots from doing whatever they wanted and most followed them. Something interesting was that besides being the Headquarters of the Nova Corps, Xandar was also the capital of the Nova Empire.

According to what Kitty and the other X-Men learned when they got abducted, the planet earth and the Milky Way was a part of the Shi'ar empire, but that was not technically correct. The Asgardians had taken 'Midgard' into their own territory along with several other worlds so the Shi'ar had earth declared off limits, lest they anger the battle hungry Asgardians.

From the info Harry was getting, this Nova Empire was one of two Empires in the Andromeda galaxy, along with the Kree Empire. The two had frequent on again, off again wars over the last several thousand years and the latest one had been going on for a thousand years already and it seemed most people had enough. They were trying for peace talks at the moment but hadn't gotten anywhere yet.

This planet's identity as a capital planet certainly explained the peaceful environment and the overall beauty. What Harry found funny was that a lot of people had already heard about Jean's handiwork.

The planet Jean burnt was not, technically, a part of either the Nova Empire or the Kree Empire. It was a self enclosed planet that did not allow visitors or meddlers and had no great resources to speak of so no matter how horrible it was a place to exist, no one had any great reason to step in and change it.

Even though there were people who knew the Phoenix only burnt planets which were stagnated, that didn't stop the fact that a planet burning entity was terrifying to most life in the cosmos.

Jean obviously wasn't the first host of the Phoenix Force but she may have been its first Avatar. According to records in Kamar-Taj, there had been three human hosts for the phoenix in the past. The first was during the Hyborian age. There were even stories about that host hooking up with a young Odin, before he became the Allfather. The second was an elderly viking woman from the eleventh century who fought alongside several others, including a young Thor against foes such as Mephisto and Apocalypse. The third was a woman from the sixteenth century who quickly left the earth and was never heard from again.

Though Earth was obviously not a great standard for the Universe, the fact that the Phoenix pops up pretty often on his planet or others makes it common enough for most people throughout the universe to recognize her.

In all likelihood, Jean would be the last. Harry wasn't sure if it was due to his presence or not, but the Phoenix was not treating Jean in the same way it treated its previous hosts. She wasn't really a host at all.

After another hour, Harry pulled the red gem he'd placed in his pocket out and took a long look at it with a smile. On earth, there were a number of ways to find the Philosopher's stone because people knew it existed and knew where to look for it. Everyone had been told it had been destroyed and none of those means had worked since Harry kept it in his inventory, but that didn't mean those looking for it had given up.

Harry had been sitting at this bench in what should be the most technologically advanced planet in this Empire and no one approached him about the stone in his pocket. No one had any special means of tracking this thing which meant he could actually use it here.

The Philosopher's stone had two main functions. If you put enough magic into it, it could either create the Elixir of Life or it could turn base metals into Copper, Silver, or Gold. However there was a limit for the first one. The stone needed some time between uses, otherwise if continually used, would only produce a drop or two a day.

In the years since getting the stone, he'd only been able to get six vials. Each vial could stop a person from getting closer to death for one month and heal any wound, restoring a body to a state furthest from death. If left out, the stone could produce four vials a month. The problem was that Harry's inventory stopped time and wasn't considered 'out.'

Before Harry got the stone, Voldemort squeezed it for everything he could which was quite a lot since it hadn't been used for about ten months up to that point due to being hidden by the Flamels. Harry was about to get two vials when he was in the past since there was no spell to look for the stone before the stone had been invented and he'd figured out a way to completely isolate all energy forms and keep the stone in a protected space for a few hours a day every once in a while to give it enough time to get four more vials.

He'd used one on Whistler, but didn't have any use for the others so they remained in his Inventory, but that didn't mean it wasn't useful enough to stock up on. If Harry could get a nice, safe place on this world, he could safely leave the stone here and collect all the Elixir he wanted.

The other function of the stone, the ability to turn metals into Gold and the like, was easier to use and less limited. Charging the stone with magic and touching it to a metal would cause the magic charge to be converted through the stone into a pulse of magic that would permeate the metal with a catalytic transmutation wave which would convert it into 100% Gold or the like. The amount of metal changed through the pulse was determined by the charge, though the stone couldn't hold too large of a charge. There was no way to give an infinite charge to the stone and touch it to the side of a metal building to convert it into gold. It was easier to change small pieces to gold and there was no way to change any metal protected by magic into gold. It could also only affect base metals such as iron, nickel, lead and zinc and would have no effect on metals such as platinum or titanium. You could also use it to convert copper to silver or gold and convert silver to gold. But you couldn't convert silver into copper or convert gold into anything else.

This would give him some easy funds since Harry had already confirmed that gold was valuable on this planet. Harry had even found the address of a place to sell some it from a few of the shadier people who'd wandered through the area.

He wouldn't sell it now though. Today was just for scouting. He'd bring the info to his girls and decide what to do later. One of his primary goals, besides having fun, was to see if he could use what he found here to make a communicator which could allow instant communication at any distance. If he could, then he could call Jean wherever and a situation like what happened with Galactus would never happen again.

Harry left the area and scouted for a while before finding an area that was out of the way. He felt there was a possibility that some security camera looking at the courtyard may have seen him, but no one approached him so the footage had not been flagged and noticed by anyone who cared.

Harry's technopathy was less effective here as he didn't know the programming language of the tech of this world, yet, but he could at least feel when there were cameras nearby.

Once Harry found a spot that was too narrow for onlookers and he felt there were no cameras, Harry took note of the coordinates and portaled home. It was the end of the month and time to see who submitted projects.

Harry's metaphysics class was normal today, for him anyways. He couldn't prank them every class or they'd expect it which would take away from the impact of the class.

Three teams had submitted prototypes for his Bounce Project. Fitz and Simmons worked together as one team but Hope Van Dyne and Liah Ardyh both submitted their prototypes as individuals.

At the end of class Harry took the four down to the lab the University let Harry play with and the four all locked eyes on what looked to be an old, ship cannon from the 18th century and a brick wall.

Harry's technopathy could feel the three cameras on Simmons and Fitz and the seven cameras on Liah. Harry turned them all off once they entered the lab just to mess with them.

Harry said, "Alright, first is Mr and Mrs. Simmons"

Fitz twitched and immediately said, "Mr. Fitz and Ms. Simmons."

Harry asked, "What, you're not going to take her name?"

Fitz had no idea why such a question had been asked in a place like this and said the first thing that came to mind, "What? No."

Harry asked, "Why not?"

Ms. Simmons was apparently quicker on the draw than Mr. Fitz. She turned to him and said, "Yeah, why not?"

Fitz looked like he was about to have a panic attack and Ms. Van Dyne seemed to be suppressing a smirk. Ms. Ardyh looked like she was smiling, but there were no wrinkles in her eyes.

Harry shrugged as if it were nonconsequential and said, "Anyways, please place your prototype on the wall facing the cannon."

Hope asked, "You're really gonna fire a cannon at them?"

Harry answered with a smile, "Why, do you want to fire the cannon instead?"

Hope smiled back, "Yes!"

Harry nodded proudly. This student of his would be going very far in life.

Fitz and Simmons pulled out several rolls of what looked to be carpets and placed them on the wall in layers. Harry walked over to a cabinet near the wall and pulled out a bunch of earmuffs and handed them to everyone. He also pulled out a massive torch and after setting it with a lighter, gave it to Fitz and said, "Light it up."

Though socially awkward and not the best spy, Fitz was a man and he was happy to take the flame and ignite the cannon fuse as everyone put on their earmuffs and waited.

With a massive boom, the cannon recoiled back a few steps and the cannon ball bounced off the wall and back a few feet. Harry pulls out a tablet and checks a few things before saying, "Nice. Go on and collect your stuff. Liah is next."

As the next prototype was set up, Harry refilled the cannon with gunpowder and stuffed a different cannonball into it before setting another cannon fuse at the end.

Once ready, Harry handed another lit torch to Liah who carefully lit the fuse before handing the torch back.

An equally massive boom followed along with the sound of a crumbling wall.

Harry shrugged. "It happens. Please collect your stuff."

After Harry checked a few things in the tablet, the broken wall vanished and a new wall appeared, showing off that the wall was a hard-light construct.

Hope finished setting up her own stuff by the time Harry had set the cannon back up.

Hope gleefully fired the cannon and after the final boom, the cannon ball bounced back, this time even further than Team Fitz.

Harry was pleased with the obvious results and said, "We have a winner!"

Hope smiled confidently and Simmons seemed to be consoling Fitz.

Harry walked over to Fitz and said, "The material was too uniform which resulted in too much energy bleeding away. If you tried again but made the materials non uniform, the compression would bleed less and even become slightly unpredictable which could be useful as well."

Harry then walked over to Liah who asked before Harry could say anything, "Is there anyway I can convince you of giving a private lesson? I can pay whatever you want."

Simmons and Hope rolled their eyes and Harry answered, "Nope, I'm ridiculously busy all semester. In any case, the materials you used reminded me of something I read from some German scientific research papers. I'm sure it's just a coincidence and you certainly didn't plagiarize another's work and claim it as your own."

Harry handed her a sheet of paper and said, "Here are some works and other papers which had similarities to your project. If you look them up, you should be able to find out a few of the flaws and ways of correcting them."

Harry ignored the anger in the brunette's stare and said, "Alright, Hope won so I'll be showing her my version of this project. Better luck next time."

Simmons 'forgot' a 'pencil' on the floor and walked away from it. Harry said, "Please don't leave your trash in the lab. Do it again and I won't be accepting any projects from you."

Simmons looked embarrassed and quickly turned back to pick up the 'pencil.'

On their way out, Harry turned back on all of their cameras, including the tiny one hidden in the pencil. Harry thought it would have been less conspicuous in a pen, but maybe that was the point. Who'd expect a spy camera in a pencil? By turning the cameras off when they entered and on when they left, Harry could give the false impression that the room was shielded from recordings.

Once they were alone, Harry said, "The principles you used in your material were pretty fancy. It could take the energy, store it, and release it for a bounce. My only real suggestion on how to improve it would be to hook a battery to it. Yes it is less cost efficient to keep it precharged, but energy was lost from the cannonball's impact charging the material so it it was precharged, it would have bounced further back."

Hope asked, "How can you tell how this works without even looking at it? Was there a scanner on that wall?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm familiar with most materials on that planet and know how to put them together. Unless you use a material I am not familiar with, I can usually guess how something works by seeing it once."

Harry walked over to a foot locker and opened it up, revealing a roll of material he took out and set up on the wall.

Harry also sets up through Hard-light a clear wall in front of them. Harry lights the torch and tosses it over the clear wall where it lands on the cannon fuse and ignites it before the torch hits the ground.

After a moment, the cannon goes off with a boom, but in the next moment, the cannon itself jerks to the side and the cannonball plants itself into the clear wall in front of Harry and Hope.

It takes a moment for Hope to realize what happened. The cannonball bounced back at the cannon and knocked it to the side before hitting the see-through wall.

Harry pulled out the schematics of the material and said, "This material uses red energy to reflect momentum. Now I used a metagem emerald to make it but I'll show you a way to make it without one that will still be stronger than what you made."

Harry pointed out piece by piece each segment of his schematics and explained step by step how he processed the materials and how it could gain the properties of red energy.

Red energy was of course energy from Cyttorak's realm, but since Harry wasn't using Cyttorak's name to obtain the energy, there wasn't anything the destruction loving elder god could do. Harry wondered how Cyttorak would take it if Harry told him he was making defensive tools with his realm's energy.

Once finished, Harry packed everything up and said his goodbyes to Hope before going home. Hope and Fitz were probably the only ones who'd use what Harry taught them properly so Harry had no problem teaching either of them. Harry didn't care who Liah reported to or who made up the work she submitted, but that wouldn't stop Harry from viciously trolling them if they couldn't come up with something original.

Later that day after Jade's study group had left, Harry explained to the girls what he'd learned about Xandar while they ate dinner and watched tv.

Everyone was excited of course. This was an alien planet and as long as they wore the right clothes, they wouldn't stick out too much and could explore and have some fun.

While discussing the legality of 'borrowing' spaceships, the news actually said something of interest. After a weapons test in the Afghanistan, Billionaire Tony Stark had gone missing.

*Author's Note*

Tony was missing for three months so he won't be showing up in person until chapter 72.

For those not familiar with the timeline, Xandar and the Kree had their peace treaty signed in 2014.

And don't say to get the Power Stone. Apparently, the ruins the stone is in is underwater and it only surfaces for like an hour once every 300 years. That isn't difficult info to get since even 'Star Lord' got it but Harry won't be going near any stones for a while.