8

Trish Tilby had just settled down into a nice hot bubble bath after a long and arduous day. Politicians were boring old letches and she desperately needed to wash the stench of their leers and corruption off of her.

She nearly drowned herself when Dr. Potter just appeared in her bathroom with no warning.

"Whoa! Easy there, I just had to bring one person back to life, not looking to make an encore." Harry laughed. He absently conjured a piece of plastic over the bath so only her head showed, giving her a modicum of decency.

"What are you doing here?!" She hissed angrily.

"I came to offer you the second biggest story of the year."

"You barged in here- "

"There was no barging, I just appeared!"

"Shut up! You barged in here, nearly cause me a heart attack and then you only offer me the second biggest story of the year?"

"Well, I'd already promised you the biggest story." Harry shrugged.

"You did?"

"I offered to let you interview me."

"How is that the biggest story of the year?"

"You don't think that the arrival of Death in this universe, on this planet, at this time is the biggest story of the year?"

She had to admit, when he put it like that…

"Why couldn't you have called during office hours?"

"Because the story is going down tonight and I thought you might want to grab a camera and have front row seats."

She instantly tried to sit up, only to remember she was naked.

"Out!" She snapped.

Trish was standing by a building across the road from Reverend Stryker's church. Harry had dropped her there with a camera and tripod from the Institute and told her to watch from there and that no one would see her. He also told her that she would witness a young Muslim woman get shot down in cold blood, but that she should not move or they would see her.

Then Harry had morphed into a completely different person with longer hair. She was worried for a second that she had been set up, but Harry had assured her he was still… Harry.

It was over ten minutes since Harry had entered the church, Trish was wondering how long this would take and just how much tape there was in the camera. But she could see a figure approach, dressed in black with face and hands covered. This must be the Muslin woman Harry warned her about. She began to realise just what Harry had told her, she would see a woman murdered in front of her!

Trish desperately wanted to warn the woman. She didn't know how Harry knew she was going to be gunned down, she didn't think Harry was going to be party to it, but she knew she couldn't just stand there and do nothing as the woman was killed.

"WAIT! TURN AROUND! RUN AWAY!" Trish began screaming and hollering, anything, but the woman didn't respond, she just kept walking. She ripped off her watch and tried to throw it at the woman to either get her attention or scare her off.

She received a nasty surprise when the watch bounced off an invisible shield and smacked her on the nose. As she held a hand to her bleeding face she realised that Harry had locked her here. She would be forced to watch this woman be mercilessly killed.

She began to cry as she watched, tears mixing with the blood flowing from her nose. The woman reached the steps of the church, the doors flung open and bullets started pounding into her defenceless body before she fell to the floor, dead.

Trish sank to her knees in defeat, she was startled as a huge red and gold bird arrived in a flash of flame and landed on the camera where it started to sing. Strangely she knew that it was the bird's song that made her feel better, if only slightly.

Her heart lurched as the sound of a gun being fired echoed from inside the building. Seconds later and a veritable thunderstorm of bullets sounded; and then stopped. She cried again, they must have killed Harry.

The red and gold bird sang still.

*BOOM*

The bird squawked in shock as the top of the church blew off and a huge white figure surrounded by a purple light shot out of the top with a huge dragon on it's tail.

Trish was no longer crying… she was too confused for that, especially as the dragon broke off pursuit and became Harry who landed next to her.

"You bastard!" She cried as she pounded his chest. "Why didn't you let me help her?"

"Because she didn't die." Harry told her softly as he waved a hand, healing her nose and cleaning her up. He gently led Trish to the site of the body as the bird landed on his shoulder. He had to pull her a bit as she was very reluctant, she'd seen her share of death and tragedy, but she'd just seen this woman gunned down in cold blood.

They arrived at the body, there was blood everywhere, it had pooled in a large circle beneath it, the body was riddled with holes.

Harry waved a hand and the body shimmered and vanished, taking all the blood and evidence with it.

"Why did you do that? The police need to see it!" She said angrily.

"It was a form of illusion. Did you really think I would let someone walk into a hail of gunfire? That 'Dr' in front of my name is not an honorary title you know."

"But what about the people who did the shooting… and that huge white thing that flew off… and how did you turn into a dragon?"

"Easy, calm down. The dragon is a natural form of mine. The white thing, I need to ask Scott about, and the shooters and Stryker are all dead."

"Dead?" She asked worriedly. "You were the one that shot them?"

"Er, no. They kept shooting me, kept calling me an 'abomination before God'. They were as evil as they come for humans."

"But… you just killed them, why didn't you capture them, they could be rehabilitated."

"Why?" Harry asked. "Why do they deserve to be rehabilitated… not that I believe they could be.

"Those men and women willingly killed a young girl in cold blood before your eyes. Earlier this evening they blew up a school bus full of innocent children heading home to their families, they used a sniper rifle to assassinate a lovely young lady who wouldn't hurt a fly and finally… Stryker put a bullet in my head because he thought I was a mutant.

"They made their choices, and they had to deal with the consequences. The consequence was death."

"But what gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?"

Harry just smiled at her. "Ask me that question when you interview me in the next few days."

After dropping Trish back home, Harry returned to the Mansion and called for Scott to assemble his X-Men, this was going to be one long night.

"Ok, Stryker and his goons are dead, Trish Tilby recorded them trying to kill Sooraya in cold blood. But Stryker had this robot, it looked like this:"

Harry waved his hand and the image that appeared had several X-Men swearing.

"Where the hell did that idiot find Nimrod?" Logan growled, his claws flashing in and out in agitation.

"This is how you saw it?" Hank asked Harry as he examined the image.

"Exact replication from memory."

"It is damaged. If we can find it quickly we will have a better chance."

"Better move quick then, this thing was talking about getting repaired when it lit out of the church. Even worse news is that it has some sort of shield that deflected my magic, plus it was strong enough to escape my dragon form."

"But-But you took out Apocalypse with a single swipe!" Lorna said worriedly.

"I didn't think anything could stop your magic." Emma frowned.

"No, I have weaknesses. Always remember that I am a powerful human, not a weak god. The only thing I can't do is die. My body can be destroyed, but you have to keep destroying it as it keeps reforming. My magic can be counteracted, specifically by raw electricity, Nori is on my list to offer magic to, it might stabilise her powers… or make her explode… it's all good." Harry smiled reassuringly.

"Do you know where Nimrod was heading?" Scott asked, choosing to ignore Harry's threats of making his students explode.

"Not a clue." Harry sighed.

"Can we track it?"

"Ororo is not gonna be happy." Logan muttered.

"Ah, your wedding plans!" Harry said in realisation. "Lorna, Dani, you ever been to… erm, where was it?"

"Wakanda." Scott supplied.

"Right, you been there?"

Both women shook their heads.

"Ok, can either of you fly the jets?"

Again they shook their heads.

"Ok, no problem. If someone flies you over there now, then once we have sorted out this Nimrod thingy I can teleport the rest of you straight there. Hell, ask Ororo if she would like the rest of the school there, they could use a getaway."

"Are we really all needed to deal with Nimrod?" Emma asked.

"You really want to take the risk that this thing can get away and cause more havoc?" Harry countered.

"Ok, I'll go to Cerebro, see if I can't pick up any stray thoughts regarding a large white flying robot." She muttered as she marched out.

"I will endeavour to track whatever energy trail might have-" Hank was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Rogue turned around and opened it to find Ms. Marvel standing there in her costume. "Carol?"

"Er… hi guys. Crisis time?" She asked worriedly as she took in the large collection of senior X-Men.

"You could say that, Cher." Gambit smirked.

"Is she a heavy weight? We could use another heavy weight." Harry whispered far too loudly to Hank.

"Very heavy." Hank muttered.

"I beg your pardon?" Carol demanded.

"Damn it Harry!" Hank muttered.

"I was asking if you were a heavy hitter, powerful."

"Oh… why?"

"Big nasty robot out to kill all mutants, needs its arse kicked."

"But you worked with me already."

Hank turned to Harry with a look of betrayal. "You bastard! You set me up!"

Harry just grinned smugly.

"I… erm… we, Iron Man and I, were, erm, called to a local church by the police. Lot's of dead people. Including the Reverend William Stryker. We found DNA from a known mutant, Icarus."

"Yeah, I killed Stryker and his goons. They kept trying to kill me and all the mutants. Nearly succeeded with Laurie."

Carol just stared at him.

Harry stared back.

The X-Men shuffled nervously.

Everyone was saved from responding by the door bursting open to reveal Noriko Ashida standing there in a t-shirt and panties cradling her special metal gloves.

"Forge… in trouble!" She panted, out of breath.

"What?" Harry asked.

Gambit hastily removed his coat and wrapped it around her. He might be a bit of a ladies man and a scoundrel, but there was a line. Under-aged girls were on the wrong side of it.

"Look!" She marched to the desk and placed the gloves on the table. Hovering above the palms was an image of Forge and Nimrod.

"Erm, you know how to find him?" Harry asked Scott.

"I'll do you one better, I know where he lives, I'll go there and you can follow." Lorna smiled.

"Great." He turned to Carol. "You get Iron Man to meet us here and Dani can bring him over with the rest." Harry ordered.

"Wait just a minute! I didn't come here to get involved in a fight-"

"Are you a hero?"

"I am."

"Then act like one. Everyone, get yourselves ready. Dani, start putting the kids down below, just in case."

"I'll see if MJ can help out. She'd love to see Jean." She snickered as she walked off pulling her phone out.

"Everyone back here in five."

As everyone filed out Harry turned to Lorna. "Take me to this Forge guy. I'll try and hold the line till you get everyone else there."

"Analysis: Identity unknown.

"Mutant signature: Not detected.

"Threat assessment: Minimal.

"The Maker will disregard and continue repairs to this unit."

"Did he just call me… insignificant?" Harry asked, somewhat insulted by the assessment the white robot had given of him.

"Kid, trust me, run, whilst you still can." Forge prompted, he was sweating and panicking and praying that the X-Men got his message.

"But I just got here!" Harry protested. "Oi! Nimrod. Perhaps you remember me looking like this?" Harry morphed into Icarus.

"Reassessing…

"Threat level: High

"Abort all activities and terminate."

"Now that's more like it!" Harry grinned as he clapped his hands together gleefully. "You know, it's been awhile since anybody could take me on."

Harry waved his hand at the ceiling causing it to vanish before he floated up.

"Well? Let's do this up here, unless you were programmed to accept unnecessary collateral damage."

"Assessing challenge…

"Assessing environment…

"Assessing target…

"Scenario accepted. Moving to civilian safe combat zone"

With that Nimrod floated up out of the building to face Harry.

"Now, I have- OW! Can't we chat first?" Harry asked as he was hit by a blast of purplish/pink energy. It definitely hurt.

"Discourse is futile. You are not the maker."

"No, but I am the ender."

"Designation entered into database."

"Wait… what? No, my name is Harry Potter aka Death aka The Master of Magic."

"Database updated.

"Cross-referencing with 'Sorcerer Supreme'.

"Connection not found."

"I'm new to this universe."

"Database updated."

"Yeah, can you stop saying that." Harry rolled his eyes. "Now, are you going to stop trying to kill mutants?"

"Negative. Primary directive is still active."

"Under what circumstances would your 'primary directive' become 'inactive'?" Harry asked with finger quotes.

Meanwhile, the X-Men had arrived on the scene via Lorna and Dani.

"Cher, is 'Arry…. Talking to de robot?" Gambit asked slightly befuddled.

Rogue just chuckled. "Looks like, Sugar."

"Mutant signatures detected.

"Threat level: High.

"Initiating termination procedures."

"Wait! You didn't answer my question!" Harry shouted, but Nimrod clearly wasn't interested in a philosophical debate. Nimrod had charged it's weapons and was bearing down on the X-Men.

"If you fight them down there you'll hurt Forge!"

Surprisingly this brought Nimrod up short.

"Being designated 'Harry Potter' will remove The Maker from the battlefield."

"Answer my previous question first." Harry challenged.

"Prime directive becomes inactive when mutant infestation is eradicated."

"Excellent! Ok let me get Forge out of the way."

The X-Men watched in horror as Harry cheerfully flew down next to Forge.

"Try and get him into the building, as deep as you can." Harry whispered to Scott. He then grabbed Forge and flew up.

"Are you nuts? We can't just leave them down there!" Forge argued.

"Oh relax, they can hold him off till I'm finished. Now stay here."

Forge screamed as Harry let go of him.

He then stopped screaming and looked around.

He wasn't falling. Actually, he couldn't move from where he was. He turned to ask what was going on only to find the kid was gone.

Forge spent a good few seconds cursing up a storm before deciding to enjoy the show as best he could.

Back in the building the X-Men were showing just what good teamwork was about. Whilst the heavy hitters like Cyclops and Rogue pounded Nimrod with all they had, Beast and Nightcrawler bounced around the cramped battlefield, repositioning people when they became targeted.

Things became a lot dicier when a large group of the students turned up via Sofia, Kevin and David and began pounding on Nimrod.

"Surge, what the hell are you doing here?" Cyclops demanded as he slid to a halt behind the cover she was using.

"My friend was in trouble! I was not going to sit back and hope you succeeded against something that kicked your ass before." She hissed before leaning over and firing a burst.

"We will discuss this later. For now stay behind cover as best you can. Do not approach to engage in phys-"

"Too late." She winced as she saw both Mercury and Rockslide charge in with X-23 hot on their tails.

"God dammit!"

"Initiating protocol: Overrun."

Nimrod seemed to curl up into a ball and began to glow.

"EVERYONE BACK AWAY AND TAKE COVER!" Scott screamed.

Nightcrawler and Beast began moving quickly, depositing X-Men and New Mutants outside the building or as far away as possible. They were soon backed up by Lorna, Sofia, David and Kevin who could teleport more people at a time and further than Nightcrawler could.

Five seconds later an explosion emanated from Nimrod that literally blew the building apart sending the remaining X-Men and New Mutants flying through the window. The teleporters didn't stop as they began plucking the falling mutants from the air and depositing them on the ground.

"TRIAGE!" Scott shouted. "Get the injured back to the Institute and have Elixir deal with them."

"For god's sake! All you had to do was keep him in the building!" Harry ranted as he floated down. His clothes were barely there having been severely damaged in the blast, what was left was on fire or smoking. "And what the hell are the kids doing here?"

"We came to help!" Noriko shouted back as she stepped up and began patting Harry's clothes down in an attempt to put out the small fires.

"You-"

"This is our fight too!" She argued before he could begin.

Harry was completely stopped by Fawkes appearing and giving him a sharp peck on the head.

"Ow!"

Fawkes looked him in the eye as he hovered in front of Harry.

Eventually Harry sighed in defeat.

"Fine, we'll discuss this later. Now what happened that caused that explosion, did you manage to defeat Nimrod?"

"No, several individuals charged Nimrod for physical combat, when he was about to be over run he initiated countermeasures which destroyed the area, like a firewall." Scott answered.

"So he's not dea-" *BOOM* "Never mind."

"Recommencing termination procedures."

"Alright, keep him busy as best you can, I need to find somewhere else to contain him. I'll be back as soon as I can." Harry vanished leaving the mutants to scatter as Nimrod resumed his attack.

Harry rushed into the air. He needed to find either a big container or a small building. He was a little worried. Not for himself, but for the others, Nimrod was a new experience for him. He hadn't experienced a challenging fight since Tom Riddle. He'd encountered other challenges, but not like this, not in a fight.

He eventually came across a large freight train in a train yard. It was perfect, he swept down and phased inside each shipping container until he reached one that was empty, and then he got to work.

Santo was down, obliterated by a missile he took for Cyclops. Cyclops was proud of his students, they hadn't hesitated they had just upped their attack. But he knew they would be hurting and it would hit them hard later. Especially himself.

Wolverine had gone completely berserk as X-23 was practically burnt to a cinder, she wasn't healing properly, and Cyclops hated to think what that meant.

In the meantime he and the other long-range combatants where hammering away at Nimrod, but Nimrod was smart, it would focus on one target at a time ignoring the others. Which was really annoying as so far only X-23 and Wolverine could get past it's shielding and armour. Both of who were out for the count.

Nobody was trying to get closer anymore; even Rogue was making strafing runs as she used the abilities she acquired from Sunfire.

What was worse was the news and police helicopters closing in. They had kept a reasonable distance before now but as the battle had remained contained for the past ten minutes they had gotten braver.

Running through Cyclops' mind were two questions: One, how long would Harry take. Two, where the hell was the O*N*E?

Question one was answered when in all the smoke, fire and energy rays, the target just seemed to vanish.

As everyone seemed to cease fire and the smoke cleared they saw that in place of Nimrod was a large shipping container standing on it's end in mid-air, closer inspection showed Harry standing calmly on top of the floating object.

Slowly Harry lowered it to the ground and jumped off landing next to Scott.

"Mission accomplished."

"How, exactly?" Cyclops asked.

"You reme-"

"FREEZE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"

The mutants all turned to face the voice to find several armed policemen standing there with guns pointing at them along with a crowd of civilians and reporters.

"Why?" Harry asked. "What crime are we being accused of?"

"We all saw what you did." The policeman stated firmly, although clearly nervous.

"Good, so now you can tell us why you are trying to arrest us for defending ourselves from something that was trying to kill us. How about you explain where you were whilst we were being killed."

"Harry, that's the thing, Laura, she isn't healing, we might lose her." Scott said worriedly. "Also, I think Santo might be gone as well."

Harry vanished on the spot, appearing next to a very badly burned Laura.

"Dammit Laura, I said distract him, not get killed by him!" Harry muttered as he placed a hand on her chest and focused. Everyone including the cops, reporters and civilians watched in awe as the young woman's body began to heal before their eyes and cameras.

"Hi!" She told Harry with a small, yet bright smile.

"What have we learned?" Harry asked sternly, but with a smile.

"Harry can heal anything."

Harry sighed. "It's a start."

"Good, think ya could give me a boost then, healing on my own sucks." A badly burnt Logan grunted.

As Harry moved to heal Logan, Rogue quickly shed her long coat and placed it around Laura's practically naked body.

Harry moved over to where a crying Cessily was kneeling over a mound of rubble.

"Don't cry Cessily, Santo wouldn't like that."

"Yeah, it makes me sad when you cry, Cess'."

"Santo!" Cessily scrambled to her feet and skidded over to where most of Santo's intact face was lying.

"Erm… has anybody seen… ya know… my body?" He asked worriedly.

"Your 'body' is everywhere. Now focus and pull yourself together." Harry ordered.

Cessily scowled at him for being so inconsiderate.

"Hurry up kid, we gotta get back, I wanna get some sleep." Logan griped.

"Harry, Emma is asking me to remind you that Forge is screaming his lungs off up there, he is also attracting the attention of the press and cops, the cops seem to be getting itchy trigger fingers." Scott informed him.

"Oops." Harry clicked his fingers and Forge appeared next to him.

"I think I hate you." Forge groused.

"Jeeze, ya save a guys life!"

"And left me up there as a laughing stock!"

"Well forgive me for making sure that the single minded, mutant killing machine was neutralised and that Laura wasn't going to die!"

"I would have preferred death." Forge mumbled. "What the hell did you do to keep him contained in this thing?"

"It's hard to explain. I'll have to show you later."

"Scott, we've got O*N*E inbound." Rogue called out.

"Magicals, start teleporting everyone else home and stay there. Scott and I will handle clean up."

"Scott, mind if I crash at the Mansion?" Forge asked as he indicated the demolished building that was once his home.

"Sure Forge, just go and join the kids, they'll get you back."

"Stop! Stay where you are! You are all under arrest!" The cop was still shouting and waving his gun about, changing targets as his current ones disappeared.

"Shouldn't you do something about him?" Scott asked. The cop was getting antsy and Scott was worried he might start firing, that would likely cause a chain reaction amongst the other cops. Not all mutants were bullet proof.

"Already have." Harry smirked.

Scott hated that smirk.

Usually that smirk meant that Harry had done something that, whilst neutralising the threat, would give Harry a laugh.

Scott would never admit it, but he would laugh later in private… or smile widely.

Still, someone needed to calm the cop down. He moved to talk to the cop, raising a hand to remove his visor. It was something he had never been able to do before; make eye contact.

Unfortunately, the cop saw this as an aggressive act and fired his gun.

There was a loud bang, and the cop was covered in blue jelly. His skin was now the same colour as the jelly.

Scott's head snapped round to look at Harry with a glare.

"You could be covered in red blood and be dead." Harry shrugged, still smiling.

At this point the Sentinels had landed along with several helicopters.

Harry was surprised to see General Lazer jump from the lead helicopter, but understood when he saw it was not a human but some form of robot.

"Gentlemen, the O*N*E will be taking possession of the Nimrod unit." The General said smugly.

"Good luck with that." Harry smirked rising up and down on the balls of his feet.

The General just sneered at him. "I thought you threatened me with something?"

"You are not General Lazer. Not really. You are some kind of remote controlled robot."

"An LMD? Life Model Decoy?" Scott asked.

"No idea. I just know that I can't see his soul, but I can see a whole lot of circuitry."

This seemed to piss Lazer off. He had been hoping that Potter would carry out his threat in front of all the press, he could arrest him for attempted murder. He hadn't thought that he could tell it was an LMD.

"Men, hook up the container." Lazer snapped.

Harry had that same smile and Scott took a step back, just in case, as the O*N*E personnel moved forward with chains.

A few seconds later one of the men hurried over.

"Sir, we're ready to proceed."

"Are you really going to let them take it? You know they will just turn it lose on us."

"What do you think?"

"Right, instead of telling them no, you are going to watch as they make fools of themselves." Scott muttered.

"Nah, it's late. I want to sleep. I have a ton of people to magic up tomorrow and a worldwide interview to give. We can catch the highlights on the news."

Scott was a little disappointed when Harry teleported them out. He was curious to see what was going to happen, he missed the slight wave of Harry's hand.

The following morning every TV in the Mansion was tuned to the national news as it replayed not only the events of the previous night but the current situation where the O*N*E was still trying to cart away the shipping container. No matter what they did they couldn't move it. So far they were on their third try and had moved up to using three helicopters at once. The previous two had suffered badly as they burnt out their engines in mid air, although the second attempt saw the bottom of the chopper ripped away.

Harry explained that he had hidden the real container deep in the heart of the Earth's core where Apocalypse's ship was burning up. Although he had cast an Impervious charm on it. In order to keep Nimrod contained he had cast the Fidelius charm on the inside of the container. As far as Nimrod was concerned there was no world beyond the walls of his new home. And as there were no mutants in the container, Nimrod would hopefully deactivate.

Harry assembled the students in the auditorium to talk to them again.

"I was born to a mortal human couple. Apparently I was born the Master of Magic, I didn't become Death until I was about fifteen.

"Before I was born, a prophecy was made about me and a Dark Lord. He was terrorising the country at the time and discriminating against non-magicals, much like humans discriminate against mutants.

"When I was about one and a half, the Dark Lord came to my home and killed my parents, I can actually remember my mother dying in front of me as she begged for my life.

"My status as the Master of Magic meant that the spell he used combined with my mother's sacrifice backfired and destroyed his body.

"When I was eleven, the Dark Lord started to come after me again, I didn't defeat him until I became Death.

"But my point is this: I have been fighting for my life since I was younger than all of you. As was pointed out to me last night, this is your life and you have the right to fight for it as well. So I will be supporting any and all training routines that Headmistress Frost and Headmaster Summers arrange. Participation in any field work will be voluntary, anyone wishing to hide in safety will be allowed to and not be judged, especially as the X-Men and I can probably handle it by ourselves.

"Julian, up here please."

Julian frowned, how could he be in more trouble? He got up warily and headed to the stage.

"If you are going to defend yourself you need all the help you can get." Harry said as he placed a glowing hand on his shoulder. "I've reactivated your power, the rest of your punishments still stand though."

Julian sighed in relief, but remained serious.

"One last question." Harry said, still addressing Julian but speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. "I believe in having every advantage you can get. Would you accept the gift of magic like Sophia, Kevin and Leech? There is no catch, but they do not give you the right to circumvent the laws and rules of the land."

"You mean teleport, phase and create stuff?" He asked with a frown.

"And much, much more."

"Erm, hell yes!" He said enthusiastically causing the teachers to groan and the kids to laugh.

Harry just smiled. "Everyone who wants to do magic, line up behind Julian, no pushing and teachers last!" He called out.

There was a sudden stampede as they all lined up. Lorna grabbed a reluctant Emma and Scott by the elbows and frog-marched them to the end of the line.

As Harry finished each magical upgrade he told them to try and teleport to Dani who was currently in Wakanda with Remy. Lorna kept an open line with Dani in case they went missing, but it was simple to do and Dani was a well loved member of staff that they easily found their way… if it was Logan they had to teleport to… there was no telling where they would have ended up hiding away.

Emma and Scott were the last, as soon as Scott was finished he stood aside to watch Emma go through it.

"Ah Emma. Once again your breasts and I come together." Harry smirked.

"Different set of breasts I believe, darling." She smirked. "Although Scott did notice the difference."

Scott was conflicted, he didn't know whether he should be upset that Harry was playing with his girlfriend's breasts or embarrassed that they were discussing him and his attention to detail regarding his girlfriend's breasts.

"Scott, dear, your face is turning the colour of your lasers." She clucked. "Such a prude." She sighed.

"Makes me wonder how copes with how you dress."

"We used to be enemies, back then I wore a lot less. He's had plenty of time to get used to my body in public."

"And private I guess."

"Absolutely."

"Can we move this along." Scott croaked nervously.

"Well, we're all done here. You two can head off for the wedding, pass my congratulations on to Miss Monroe and her fiancé."

"You're not coming?" Scott asked.

"No, I don't want to party crash, I also have things I need to do, I owe Trish that interview and I want to start layering some protections on this place."

Emma and Scott decided to leave Harry to it. They realised they couldn't really stop him but he would definitely respect their wishes.

This meant Harry was alone in the house, he started putting all the protections on the house he could think of short of a Fidelius, pretty much replicating Hogwarts.

He had decided to approach Trish for the interview around 6pm, more people would be watching.

At nearly 4pm there was someone at the front door, so Harry decided to answer it.

"Miss Danver's. What can I do for you and your friend?" Harry asked tightly as he greeted her and Iron Man at the front doors.

"We need to ask you, Scott and Emma some questions about last night." Carol said.

"Everyone else is out for a few days. I'm the only one here."

"Then we can talk to you." Iron Man stated firmly as he barged passed.

"Lovely manners you have there." Harry spat. He was pissed at them, they hadn't helped out yesterday at all.

"You claim you killed those people at the church last night, including Stryker." Iron Man stated, ignoring Harry's tone.

"Yes, they were trying to kill me and the students but no one was defending us."

"What gives you the right to kill civilians?"

"They were terrorists and genocidal maniacs. The right was given to me by who ever gave me my abilities."

"Did you go there with the intent to kill?" Carol asked.

Harry considered that for a moment. "No, I went with the intent to remove a threat, but when I saw that imprisonment wouldn't work I took more permanent action."

"But why not turn them over to the O*N*E?"

"Because the O*N*E has proven themselves to be biased against mutants. They would only release Stryker later."

"You have proof?" Iron Man asked.

"I have witnesses and testimonies and circumstances that amount to incontrovertible proof."

"But no physical evidence? No recordings or documentation?"

"I can have them provided if you want." Harry shrugged.

"We will have to report this to the authorities. You may find yourself taken into custody pending a trial."

"Do what you want, I have a job to do. I won't be letting anyone interfere with that job."

"What job is that, Mr. Potter?"

Harry really didn't like his attitude. "Well, Tony, I was specifically asked to come to this universe to help mutants and bring about equality for mutants and end their persecution. Other than that I am the Master of Magic, it is my job to ensure that magic isn't abused or doesn't run amok, like that annoying little incident with a colleague of yours wiping out millions of mutant powers.

"I am also Death. I stop people from cheating death without cause and messing with souls."

"So, you're a delusional mutant." Iron Man nodded thoughtfully.

"And you're a dick." Harry rolled his eyes. "You've seen me work, you saw me send the souls of Genosha on."

"Harry? Scott? Lorna? Anybody home?" Came a familiar female voice.

"In here MJ." Harry called out.

"Oh, erm… is this a bad time?" She asked as she nervously took in the two superheroes. She had brought Jean to visit as she had offered to babysit till she grew up.

"Probably, but I could use a break from Mister Ego over here." Harry said as he skipped over. "Hello Jeanie? Have fun with MJ?"

The little baby gurgled happily.

"She really doesn't remember anything?" MJ asked curiously.

"Nah, she doesn't have a brain capable of doing much more than small physical feats." Harry said as he took Jean from MJ.

"Is he safe to be around babies?" Carol asked worriedly.

"Harry?!" MJ just laughed. "Harry has been in this universe less than a month and he already has a fan club, I am a very proud member of that club, so is Peter. Now, what are you doing that would annoy Harry? It's pretty difficult to rile him up."

"You are aware that he killed several people in a church the other day?" Tony questioned.

"What? Why would you do that?" She asked in shock.

"Why don't you tell her who I killed and why I killed them?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"The Reverend Stryker and his fo-"

"Oh that! Yeah, Harry told us all about that. They definitely got what they were asking for." She said with an angry scowl.

Carol was no longer paying much attention to MJ and Tony, she was more interested in Harry and the baby, Harry had conjured a complete baby play centre out of nothing.

"How did you do that?" She asked in awe.

"Magic." He grinned.

"He killed them in cold blood!" Iron Man argued.

"You really believe that? You have proof I did?"

"I was at the scene myself, there was no evidence of any gunfire or bullets or weapons. Just a lot of dead bodies with their heads cut off."

"Wait… heads cut off?" Harry stopped and frowned. "I didn't cut anyone's head off… was there any blood, what were the wounds like?"

"There was plenty of blood, the knife wounds where similar to a butcher's knife. It was disgusting." Tony spat.

Harry conjured four comfortable chairs in there in the lobby for them. "Yeah, that is disgusting. It definitely wasn't me though, I did kill them, but I did it painlessly and didn't leave a mark. If I did cut off their heads there wouldn't be any blood, my blade cauterises the wound."

"You use a superheated blade?" Tony asked curiously.

"He has a lightsaber." MJ grinned. "Lorna told me." She explained at Harry's curious look.

"As in-"

Carol was interrupted by the appearance of the green coloured blade.

"It really was a lightsabre." Carol said in awe as she realised this was the weapon Harry had used against Xorn.

"Can you provide any other proof that you didn't behead the men?" Tony asked. He was still standing, he was on duty and Harry was a suspect, regardless of what Mary Jane thought of him.

"I could show you my memories." Harry waved a hand and the scene appeared on the wall nearby.

"You're claiming that you are a shape-shifter who can become a dragon and is impossible to kill?" Tony scoffed when the memory finished.

"You tell me?" Harry asked as he turned into a replica of Icarus, then turned into Tony, he then turned back into himself. "I am not showing you my dragon form in front of Jean, she doesn't like it, besides you saw it the other day, but feel free to try and kill me."

"You want us to just- OH MY GOD!" Carol screamed as a blade suddenly appeared through Harry's chest.

"Did I get the heart?" Mary Jane asked gleefully.

Harry just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't have to do that, MJ." He said softly.

"Somebody had to. Tony is being downright rude and disrespectful. Dr. Strange himself has vouched for you." She said, her happy smile began to fade and a tear slid down her cheek.

Harry vanished the blade and pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, didn't hurt a bit, you could have tried to chop my head off and it wouldn't have worked."

"I believe I have answered your questions. Unless you can actually prove I did commit those crimes, we have nothing else to discuss."

"There is one last thing, we need your details for the Superhuman Registration Act." Tony said stiffly. He was not going to be dismissed.

"What's that?"

"They want all super-humans to register and reveal their secret identities." MJ scowled lightly. "Tony tricked Peter into a blood oath to support him."

"Why the sudden interest in people's identities?" Harry asked curiously.

"Due to recent events where a group of superheroes caused the deaths of a lot of young children, the public wants to know who they are entrusting their lives to and that they will be held accountable." Iron Man stated.

"That's what the O*N*E was set up for, right?"

"The O*N*E was set up to handle mutant issues."

"Not according to the mandate I read."

Tony did not like having to keep defending himself, he was Tony Stark, Iron Man. People generally respected him simply because of his work and experience. Provided they overlooked his more extravagant playboy billionaire adventures.

"Regardless, this is the way it is, now, are you going to sign up peacefully or are we going to have to arrest you?"

"I'm not signing up, anyone can come to me for protection. Let Peter know that." He told MJ.

"Thanks Harry." She said as she kissed his cheek and walked over to Jean.

"Now I've had enough from you. You don't have any right to make demands of me, no evidence to accuse me of the crimes you say I committed and on top of that, you willingly neglected a call for help last night that nearly left two teenagers dead. Or did you not see the mutants having to defend themselves from Nimrod?"

"Mutant affairs are not within the Avengers domain." It was like Tony was reading from a manual or handbook.

"Get out. And you had better not be the ones to come begging me for help when you need it. I suggest sending Peter or Captain America. He seemed like a pretty decent person."

"Captain America is a fugitive from the government and you are obligated to report any encounters you may have with him to the authorities." Tony scowled.

"Sure, I'll get right on that." Harry said sarcastically.

"Hey Harry, MJ, Carol and Tony… erm Hi." Dani said weakly as she teleported in with a statuesque woman of African decent with snow-white hair. "This is Ororo Monroe, the new Queen of Wakanda, Ororo, this is Harry Potter, the Master of Magic."

Harry smiled and walked forward offering his hand to the new Queen. "A pleasure your Highness, and may I say congratulations on your nuptials."

"Thank you Mr. Potter." Ororo smiled. "My friends, the X-Men, where telling me of all the wonderful things you have done for them, including making them magicals. I expressed my desire to meet you and Danielle offered to bring me over. Seeing you here with Mary Jane Parker, I would like to invite you both to my wedding reception. As you know, Mary Jane is a friend, but we can't advertise that due to the connections that may be drawn. Perhaps you could stand in as her escort?"

"I'd be honoured, Your Majesty." Harry said with a slight bow. He waved his hand and transformed his jeans and t-shirt into a suit a second wave saw Mary Jane in an outfit that would make any man drool.

Mary Jane's eyes widened in shock and she sidled up to Harry and whispered in his ear. "Where's my underwear?"

"You won't need any." Harry whispered back.

Mary Jane blushed. "Harry!"

"Just think of the fun you can have when you meet a certain arachnid and tell him about your wardrobe malfunction. That costume doesn't have much give." Harry whispered with grin.

Mary Jane couldn't help but giggle. "You are evil!"

"Only when I need to be." Harry said at normal levels. He walked over and picked up Jean transfiguring her baby clothes into a cute little dress. "I hear you are well acquainted with Jean Grey?" He asked Ororo.

"She's shorter than I remember." She said dryly.

"Cuter too." Carol blushed when Tony scowled in her direction, the others just laughed.

"Are you sure you won't join us?" Ororo asked Tony and Carol.

"Thank you, Ororo but we should stay and keep an eye on things here." Tony declined politely. "But I wish you all the best."