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The War of Titans-13
🕑 Added 2022-01-09 04:16:14 +0000 UTCWaking up from his long, recuperative sleep, Harry stretched his hands above his head as he slowly opened his eyes. Sighing in contentment at the sharp, popping noise that came from his now loosened joints, Harry removed the sensory pads connected to his body and stood up, his eyes taking in the three-dimensional hologram of his body projected beside the bed. There wasn’t a single injury left on his body, courtesy of the twenty plus hours he had spent sleeping and arranging his mind in some semblance of order.
Rolling his shoulder slightly, Harry smiled as he felt a new bond in his mind, much like the one he had with his swords. Already having a suspicion on what it was, he was about to yank on the connection when his ears picked up the sound of bare feet pattering on the floor, the distance between them shrinking by the second. Even as his eyes turned towards the door, a smile came over his features at the familiar scent of orange and pine that preceded the arrival of-
“Harry!” Jean positively shrieked as she stopped at the entrance, and looked at him for a second with her green eyes blown wide. He had just started to raise his hand to wave at her when she shot forwards like a bullet and the next moment her arms were around him as she laid her head against—he suddenly realised—bare chest.
“You stupid dolt!” she choked out as her hands tightened over his back. “I wa-we were all so worried about you!”
Chuckling slightly at her change of words, Harry brought his own arms around her and hugged her tightly. “Why? because you had no one to mentally spar with? Or because only I can emulate your telekinesis and help you with it?”
She pulled back a little at that and glared up at him, her eyes briefly flaring with orange embers—something which had been happening with increasing frequency in the last week, Harry noted. “No, that’s no-” Jean frowned for a moment before her mind reached out to his own, hesitantly asking for permission.
Harry lowered his walls for her, and suddenly he was drawing in a sea of emotion. Loneliness, worry, sadness, anger, joy and a hundred other feelings made his mind swim in a maelstrom. He experienced all that for a fleeting moment, but as Jean’s presence vanished from his mind and he opened his eyes, Harry was left in awe of the woman in his arms. Awe that she could experience such a storm of emotions over him, and equal measures of worry that she was undergoing more and more of these emotional shifts and swings as the days progressed.
Looking into her green eyes so like his own, yet so different, Harry was hit by a realisation…Jean Grey was an amazing young woman, and she was making him feel things he had no business feeling. However, even as he had this epiphany, he couldn’t help but take in more of her amazing scent, the mix of orange, pine and something else which never failed to make him feel warm.
“Ahem,” someone coughed from the doorway, ”are we interrupting something?”
Slowly, very very slowly two pairs of gemlike eyes turned towards the speaker, and found a grinning Hank and a chuckling Ororo at the entrance to the infirmary. Harry and Jean jumped apart as if scalded, and with a burning face, both of them realised how it would have looked to any third person, especially with Harry standing there half naked and Jean’s arms on his shoulders.
“Oh we definitely were, Hank,” Ororo winked at Jean. “Nevertheless, you two lovebirds can spend some time together later. Harry,” she turned towards him, all levity gone from her face, “Charles wanted to talk to you, so if…”
“Oh yeah, I mean no problem” he nodded hastily, conjuring a shirt upon his torso and completely avoiding Jean’s eyes.
“And Harry,” Ororo spoke up as he was about to go past her, “Thank you.”
Dippin his head slightly in her direction, Harry made his way to Charles’ office, intent on doing some talking of his own regarding the red headed telekinetic behind him. On his way to Charles, Harry stopped at a window and loomed out at the grounds where they had fought against Juggernaut. From where he was, he could see how much devastation they had wrought upon the earth with their attacks. Trees were uprooted and burnt at the entrance to the forest, and the ground itself seemed like an epicentre of a Class 8 Earthquake with the way it was cracked and raised in some places. Several spots were charred and blackened completely, with one or two even turned into glass.
It was a shame he never had the aptitude for manipulating plant life like Neville and Altaria had possessed, Harry thought as he moved on. Within a few moments, he was at the doors of Charles’ office with his hand raised to knock upon the wooden surface but they opened of their own accord leaving with his fist raised in the air and an eyebrow raised in he bald man’s direction.
“I had Hank install the feature,” Charles explained as wheeled himself a little forwards. “How are you Harry? Desp[ite your warning, all of us were quite worried after you fell asleep.”
“I am fine,” he assured the Professor as he took the seat in front of him. “Battling with Cyttorak put a lot of strain on my mind, enough that even my body was feeling burnt out. So I had to hibernate and let my body heal while I repaired my mind into some semblance of order.”
Charles nodded at that and looked at him for a few moments, before he opened his mouth and then closed it, looking embarrassed and troubled at the same time. Bemused by the usually unflappable Professor’s actions, Harry conjured a mirror in front of him.
“What are you doing?”
“You keep looking at my face before that look comes on yo face,” Harry responded with a frown as he failed to spot anything unusual with his features. “So I am checking my face for something that may warrant such reactions from you.”
Charles snorted at that, and when Harry looked at him, his lips split into a smile as a short huckle came out of him. Shaking his head, he leant his head back against the padding on his wheelchair and gazed at the ceiling.
“I am just perplexed regarding how you defeated Cyttorak,” Charles said after a few moments, lowering his gaze to look at him. “I was there in that temple when Cain got buried there. I read the inscriptions and the carvings on the wall. Cyttorak was proclaimed as a god, Harry, and with all of what I have been able to uncover over the years, he was a monstrously powerful one.”
“He was,” Harry nodded in agreement. “He was absurdly strong, and if my mutation hadn’t activated when it had, then I am pretty sure I would have turned into the newest avatar of Cyttorak.”
“Gods,” Charles blanched in horror. “Nothing against you Harry, but the thought of your already diverse and powerful skill set getting the strength of Juggernaut…It is not a pleasant thought.”
Harry barked out a short laugh at that, “I said the same to him” he informed the Professor. “He took offense to the thought of a mortal refusing him, and then we fought in his own realm for the control and survival of my body.”
Charles said nothing in response as Harry’s gaze turned towards the window, his eyes turning sombre and pensive. “I had forgotten that feeling of fear, you know,” he said quietly, his hand running through his hair. “After Voldemort was dead, there was no one left who could equal or surpass my power. There were some who came pretty close, but making me give it my hundred percent…I had forgotten how it felt to stand in front of someone so much more powerful than you that you might as well be an ant to it. I was angry then, in the realm of Cyttorak…but now that I am able to look back at those moments with clarity, I realise there was a healthy dose of fear as well.”
“I won’t counsel you Harry,” Chares said after a few moments. “You have experienced and dealt with things much more troubling, and you are not the type to mentally collapse in the face of grief and fear. But, if you ever want to talk or just ramble,” Charles pointed at the mini-fridge behind him. “I have beer and others available.”
Harry snorted at that and nodded once, and then Charles started to update him upon the events that happened after he fell asleep. He was surprised when the telepath admitted to his use of telepathy to change the memories of several people, and thankful when he came to know about his own involvement being deleted from their brains and devices both.
“What did you make them believe when you removed my presence from their minds?” Harry asked, genuinely curious about what sort of memories Charles had crafted.
“Wolverine managed to lodge his hand inside Juggernaut's eyes and then opened his claws directly into his brain,” Charles responded, making him blink at the brutality and imagination of the usually quite mellow and easygoing man. “When Cain went into shock for a moment, Spiderman and Tony managed to unclasp one latch while Rogue did the same with the other. After that I just subdued him but sadly, Cyttorak decided to abandon his avatar then, turning Cain into a normal, super-strength possessing mutant who died because of the sudden strain put on his body.”
“So they left without his body?” Harry asked, surprised by the conclusion he had come to.
“Yes,” Charles nodded. “While I am not supportive of Erik’s methods and intentions, I cannot deny the fact that any mutant genome landing in the hands of a research lab will open a can of worms best left untreated.”
Harry hummed at that and stood up from his chair before he walked to the window and stood at it, gazing out into the forest with his hands clase behind his back.
“For the last one month, Jean and I have been conducting mental sparring sessions of our own,” Harry began softly. “She has made tremendous progress, and her skill and power only grows with each passing day.”
“That…is good to hear.”
“It is,” Harry agreed, turning to look at Charles as he continued,” but I am perplexed by something Charles. In moments when her feelings run high, or even sometimes when she is doing nothing but study or talk…her emotions and powers flare up erratically. Just now her usually green eyes burned with orange embers, and I recall numerous instances of her showing facets of her personality that she has never displayed.” Harry walked towards the table and leaned forwards, splaying his hands over the desk as he looked Charles right in the eye ,”Would you believe me if I told you that the usually standoffish Jean Grey danced with me a week ago because she felt like it?”
“Wh-” Charles began to speak, only to be silenced by Harrys raised hand. After a few seconds of silent contemplation, Harry spoke up, “You are a smart man Charles and I have seen how much you care for the children under your supervision and care. And I am personally very thankful for helping me yesterday. But Jean?” he pointed a finger towards the floor and continued, “you had to have known about her condition, her stunted emotions, her rapid personality changes in the last two months. Tell me Charles, did you do something with her powers and mind?”
Both of them stared at each other for a few moments, before Chares sighed and nodded, a pensive expression on his face as he leaned back. “You are right,I tampered with her mind, Harry. When I first saw Jean, she had just witnessed the death of her best friend and that had activated her telepathic powers. When I got to her, I brushed my mind against hers…” Charles trailed off, his eyes seeing something far off before they turned towards him, and Charles continued with a grim expression. “Do you know what I found?”
“If I would have known then I wouldn’t be here.”
“That’s true,” Charles chuckled before his whole countenance turned serious. “When we were in that temple in Indonesia, I had felt the divinity, the primal nature, the devastational capability of the gem of Cyttorak. I will never forget that feeling Harry, how it felt like I was about to enter a thunderstorm from which I would have no hope of ever returning. With Jean.” he sighed and continued, “Jean’s mind had a presence in it…one who hadn’t fully manifested inside her, but through that small sliver, I managed to get a glimpse at the entity which was starting to seep into her psyche through a connection they shared. That thing, it was so much more dangerous and powerful than Cyttorak Harry. I couldn’t let what happened in Indonesia repeat itself, so I sealed the entity in Jean’s mind. But in my haste, the emotional aspects of Jean that the entity had first latched onto were also sealed with it.”
“How did you know the entity was destructive in its nature? Harry asked. “For all you know it was a benevolent one.”
“I wasn’t willing to chance the benevolence of a thing like that, Harry, “Charles said with a frown, “Believe me when I say it, Cyttorak seemed like a bonfire before the sun in comparison to what was in Jean’s mind.”
“Does Jean know about it?” Harry asked. “A powerful force is bonded to her and is breaking the shackles you placed on it with each passing day, which may inadvertently or knowingly put her in danger.”
“She doesn’t,” Charles admitted, making Harry tense as he awaited the words ‘I know what is good for her’, only for Charles to throw him off when he continued, “I wasn’t going to tell her about it, because she would then knowingly go looking for the block in her mind, and well that would defeat the purpose of it in the first place. I was just going to re-apply the block within two or three days, and things would be back to how they were.”
It took a monumental amount of his already frayed mental strength to stop his mouth from dropping open at the sheer…he didn’t even have the words for it!
“Are you fucking stupid?” Harry said, and continued on before Charles could say anything, “Jean is finally coming out of her shell if what I learned from Ororo and others is true. She is finally becoming friendly with the other girls and boys here, showing more emotions, being more alive than ever…and you want all of that to go down the drain because you suspect that the entity within her mind might be harmful?”
“I understand you concerns Mr. Potter, but while Jean growing into a vibrant, outgoing and more emotional woman is impressive and a good thing, I have several other things to consider too,” Charles said placatingly, raising his hands towards him. “What do you think will happen if a telekinetic and telepath as strong as Jean turned rogue because of the thing in her, one which may very well augment and develop her powers exponentially. There is not a single thing we may be able to do except for lethal action as proved with Juggernaut, and tell me Harry, is that acceptable to you?”
His heart clenched painfully at that, and Harry once again crushed that small voice which recognised it for what it was. Instead, he focused upon Xavier’s words, their ramifications, and ultimately Jean’s oscillating mental state itself. Raising his eyes towards the ceiling, Harry contemplated how to answer Charles’ question, and after a few moments he stood up and headed out of the office.
He stopped at the threshold, and turned around to look him in the eye. “I will not stand and allow someone else to suffer what I have gone through based on the fear of a third-person, legitimate as it may be. Tell her within forty-eight hours Charles, or I will do so, and you know which one is better.”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you sure you are up for this Professor?” Kitty asked as he entered the danger room along with them the next morning. “You did take a beating from the Juggernaut, and then you were asleep for a whole day!”
“Then I suppose you will have no problem handling me and some other opponents today, right?” Harry said as he turned around to look at the brown-haired girl, his lips curling into a smile as Kitty’s eyes widened and she shook her head, Rogue silently frowning at the bubbly girl at her lack of tact.
“Very well,” Harry clapped his hands and looked at each of them. “Today’s exercise is simple, I will be standing in a circle of radius five feet. You have to push me completely out of it but there are restrictions upon each of you.”
“That is not fair,” Kurt protested, “Twinkle Twinkl-”.
Everyone looked at Kurt in confusion, and the furred mutant himself appeared shocked by what had happened. “What are you doing Kurt?” Evan asked, a distinctly unimpressed yet amusing look on his face. “You want to recite nursery rhymes now?”
“No I don't!” Kurt burst out and stopped for a moment, “I am s[eaking fine now?”
“Yes Kurt,” Scott rolled his eyes behind his glasses, “Now stop wasting our time and let him speak.”
‘You are so mean Harry,’ Jean’s voice whispered in his head, the woman mockingly glaring at him in the physical world. ‘Using you powers like that, shame on you Mr. Potter’
He rolled his eyes at her, cousin her to giggle once before Harry cleared his throat, and the all quieted down. “As I was saying,” he began, “There will be restrictions on you. Evan, you cannot create armor over yourself in any manner, only offensive work for you today. Kitty, you will not phase in the ground or through people, you can use your ability only in direct combat with me. Rogue, you will try to limit your super-strength, I don’t want any broken bones today.” Harry rubbed his ribs, remembering the sensation of Cain kicking him off like a football.
Turning towards the last three members, Harry thought about how to curtail their powers, and it was as he looked at Scott’s glasses that an idea struck his mind. “Kurt,” he said, turning towards the blue mutant, “You will teleport only when your eyes are closed. If you do so with your eyes open, then the room will terminate you. Scott, your beams will not rise above thirty percent of their highest intensity, you cannot hit your beams on the same area twice, so no wild attacks for you today.”
Kurt and Scott both gaped at him and the rest of them were not far behind with their shocked expressions, which was in a way understandable considering Harry had limited each of their greatest strengths. However, if they thought he had removed their greatest powers and plus points, it was Jean who got the harshest conditions yet as Harry said, “Jean, you will not use your telekinesis in any way, and neither will you telepathically attack me head-on. Your purpose is to provide support to your teammates, and hinder me without using telepathy in its basic and direct form.”
Her eyes narrowed at his words and a moment later she nodded once sharply, knowing that Harry wasn’t going to budge on his directions. Now that he had set his demands, Harry moved into the center of the room, the projectors foring up and creating a circle of sand with rocks and mud all around it.
“Wait!” Kitty suddenly said, making him stop and turn towards her. She gulped once and looked at her teammates, and then after a pause she hesitantly asked, “Will you be using your full powers?”
“I will only use CQC in this session,” Harry shook his head and moved into the circle, “No energy manipulation this time. But if you guys don’t manage to win against me , then the next time you will be without any powers, just a good-old Battle royale between us.”
As the danger room finished creating the environment, Harry heard Evan ask to himself, “How hard can it be to push a normal human out of a ring?”. However, Jean evidently caught him mumbling, as the sound of the boy getting thumped upside the head came followed by her sharp voice, “He is not a fool Spike! If he thinks he can take us all on with those restrictions in place, then he can, and you better not create problems for others in that ring!”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked over at the six mutants around him, each of them standing in a hexagon formation at the edges of the circle. A bright green light lit up once over their heads, signalling the start of the training, and immediately Spike ran forwards towards him. He managed to control hsi ingrained habit of creating a chest piece in favor of covering his fists with a thick and pointy exoskeleton as he jumped up and launched his fist towards his face.
But as strong as his exoskeleton and the punch behind it was, Harry’s own strength far surpassed Evan’s even without consciously augmenting and changing his body further into his animagus forms. With a motion too quick to be seen, Harry bent backward so that his back was parallel to the ground and raised his leg just enough that his toes brushed against Evan’s chest. A slight push of his ankle, and Evan’s own momentum was used against him as Harry threw him clear over his head, before he calmly straightened up, not a hint of exertion or disbalance in his movements.
‘Those spars with Logan have certainly helped me’ Harry thought as looked at the gaping faces of Kitty and Kurt both. ‘That man fights like a demon, and if nothing else, my flexibility and combat prowess has certainly improved leaps and bounds over what I had.’
Raising his left hand to his chest height, Harry extended it forwards while he twisted his body slightly towards the right. His right hand near his torso, Harry looked at the glowing eye pieces of Scott’s glasses and the rapidly advancing figure of Rogue, before a grin came over his face. Ducking underneath her jab, Harry rolled forwards and spun his leg around, whipping up the dirt below him into her face as she turned around. A squawk came out of her throat, only to be silenced midway as he leaped up and slammed his fist into her midsection.
However, his eyes widened as instead of flying backwards like she was supposed too, Rogue only stumbled back a step or two before she instinctively lashed out with a fist. He turned his torso to evade it, but due to the proximity between them she managed to make contact with his shoulder. It was a glancing blow, the kind of touch one would get when brushing shoulders against someone, but with her exponentially increased superhuman strength, the mere touch was enough to dislocate his shoulder and send him spinning into the dirt.
“Rogue, quickly throw him out!” Scott said, “You only need to move him a single foot and we will win!”
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Fuck that hurts!’ Harry gasped mentally as he felt his body come to a stop. ‘I guess it serves me right for getting arrogant and complacent. If only I hadn’t been too hasty…Rogue is nowhere near as strong as Cain, but she still absorbed a good amount of his power. Denser and more efficient muscles, exponentially stronger body and a substantial increase in her dexterity. I don’t think my shoulder would have remained attached to my body if she had caught my arm fish in the joint.’
His thoughts were pierced by Scott’s words and snorting at them mentally, Harry focused on his surroundings. A split second later he spun upon the ground and after he felt Rogue’s leg pass by his face, he pushed against the ground with his fingers and stood up within a blink of an eye. Rogue was left gaping at the move, her eyes blown wide as she stared at Harry, and the rest of the mutants around them were not far behind her.
“Haa!” Evan shouted as he came running from behind, a stark-white baton in his hands, his eyes glaring at the back of Harry’s head. Snapping out of her shock, Rogue too jumped forwards with her hands raised above her head for an overhead strike. Just when they were about to make contact with him Evan stopped in his tracks and her own hands were stopped in their descent by Harry’s own suddenly raised ones.
But her stopped hands were far from her mind as she looked behind Harry and found Evan coughing up blood as he stumbled back and fell to the ground, his face firmly planting into the sand. Bemused and alarmed at the sudden fall of her template, Rogue increased the strength she was pushing down Harry with and to her delight, his knees buckled as the sudden increase in force.
“You genuinely had me the ropes for a second there,” he suddenly said, making her glance up at him, his eyes still closed and a little smile on his lips. “But you should have been quicker!”. His eyes snapped open at that, and she nearly shrieked at the slit, black pupils and poisonous yellow flecks in his emerald green eyes. His forehead met her nose a second later, and stunned from the blow, she could do nthing as he headbutted her twice more in quick succession, the brutal blows watering her eyes from the sting and the pain.
His knee then shot up into her kidney, a choked gasp leaving her throat before reared his fist back, and punched her right in the middle of her forehead. Rogue’s feet left the ground for a second,and the next second, Harry turned with his punch and raised his left leg high in the air, before it came crashing down her sternum.
A shockwave blasted out from the impact, and despite her increased durability, three of ribs outright cracked into two. Leaning his head sidewards, Harry felt Scott’s beams pass by his face even as he kneeled down and looked at the gasping woman at his feet. Usually, he wasn’t as violent in his fighting, but he felt the team was due a lesson in humility, especially Rogue who had been on cloud nine and had been flaunting her strength every possible moment.
“Rogue; terminate” came the modulated, female voice from the Danger room as the lights above flashed a deep crimson once. Leaving the girl on the floor, Harry looked at the four mutants in front of him and tilted his head to the side, a mocking smile on his face. It wasn’t that he was sadistic of something even close to that…but Harry couldn’t deny that a part of him felt good as he saw the trepidation in their eyes, and the disbelief in their expressions as they beheld their fallen teammates.
“Rogue would have won that contest eventually,” Harry stated as he calmly stood there, waiting for the remaining four to make a move. “But she made the mistake of not hitting me first with her legs or her head when I blocked her initial strike. Her second mistake, not reacting fast enough when my knee went for her abdomen and later when my leg came down upon her ribs.” Harry glanced down at the fallen girl and then looked up at them, his smile all teeth. “Now, if only Kurt was sensible enough to use that superior hearing he has and teleport me out of the ring without opening his eyes, then maybe Rogue and Evan wouldn’t have gotten their ribs busted?”
Kurt and Scott both grit their teeth at that and even the usually happy and smiling Kitty glared at him at his callous words, Jean too was incensed, Harry noted as he took in the slight floating hairs around her neck. But wasn’t this what Charles had aimed for when he had asked him to teach his children? The fight with Juggernaut had opened his eyes to the harsh reality of this world, that this world too had its Voldemorts and Dark Lords, and these kids were not at all prepared to handle the killing instinct, the ruthlessness and the skill with which they would be attacked once they stepped out into the open world.
“I gave you your directions,” he began a moment later in an emotionless voice. “If you cannot act within the limits I have imposed on you, then you are not fit to be a full-fledged team member like Ororo or Logan. You have fifteen seconds to come inside the ring, but know that once you do, you will go out only when I am unconscious” he stopped and looked at the already fallen mutants, before continuing with a smile aimed at them, ”or you are.”
