29 Chapter 29 Meet the Mutants.

New York was a place Harry liked to visit through the Sanctum Sanctorum branch here so Harry knew a thing or two about the area before leaving the airport. Kamar-Taj also had some masters who left the Sanctum living there who occasionally shared their homes with guests. Harry asked first and got permission from one of them to use his address as a temporary place of residence. On paper anyways. The Immigrations Office wouldn't just let someone come over without evidence they had a place to stay. There were other things Harry could have done of course but that would have brought attention to his vast wealth so he now had a place of residence he would only visit to give a thank you gift later.

Now Harry just had to figure out how to apply for a place that only sends invites. According to the Ancient One, Charles Xavier was a telepath and had a machine which amplified the range of his Clairvoyance. Clairvoyance itself was a Psionic skill that fell under both Telepathy and Astral Creation but it was also something that didn't work on Harry along with Precognition. Harry was rendered invisible to any paranatural means that allowed Farsight or Future Viewing.

This of course meant Xavier had no idea he existed even though Harry was in fact a very powerful mutant. The Ancient One stated that Xavier's machine allowed him to use the Astral Plane to visit nearly any location on earth, though he would only be able to sense the minds at those locations, not the content of the location unless he borrowed the senses of those he visited. She never approached him but did observe his passing a few times through the Astral Plane though he did not notice her. That is how she learned of him in the first place.

There were three approaches he could think of for first contact. One, he could catch a cab to the school and knock on the front door. Two, he could call ahead and ask for an appointment or meeting. Three, he could make a scene and have them come to him. Maybe he could do all three? Walk up to the Institute, yell profanities, and when they came out he could overcharge his flesh with energy and violently explode in front of everyone. Naw, pranks like that couldn't be pulled on the first day. First week on the other hand...

Harry had already decided to tell others his mutant power allowed him to temporarily increase his stats when he 'absorbed' metals, heal when he 'absorbed' food, and allowed him to memorize the contents of books for a few days when he 'absorbed' a book. Although it would limit him, it was the safest option for the long term and he decided that under no circumstance should he show off his magic.

*Ping*

[New Quest: Get Drafted with Style

-Go to the marked location and display abilities. Will become visible to nearby clairvoyant: Charles Xavier.

-Display use of magic and psionics to X-Men who arrive to meet you.

-Get recruited into the X-Men.]

Harry sighed and thought to himself, 'so much for that plan.'

After getting the quest pop up, Harry went over to a nearby Hotel Lobby and asked permission to use the phone to make a local call which they allowed. He went over the phone and removed the Hack box from his backpack and plugged the lobby phone's cord into it and made a call.

[Hello Harry, I wasn't expecting a call so soon.] The Ancient One seemed more than a little amused.

"Yeah yeah laugh it up. I got a quest to show off my magic and psionics and wanted your opinion."

[I see. We've discussed this before, but in all likelihood, your Quests are generated by the power of the Living Tribunal. There has yet to be a quest with negative consequences for completing it.]

"Yeah, only negative consequences for failing it. You think there might be a reason I need to show off my skills in the future?"

[From previous experience, that does seem more likely than less likely. However, did the quest say to show off your magic and psionics, or your full range of abilities?]

"It said, 'Display use of magic and psionics to X-Men who arrive to meet you.' So the former."

[Interesting. If I had to guess, a choice Charles Xavier will make in the future will be different depending on his knowledge, or lack of knowledge of the existence of magic or your psionic talents. Possibly both. If it is the power of the Living Tribunal that suggests informing him now, I would recommend doing so. Therefore, it would be prudent to ensure he knows at least most of what you are capable of. However, I do have a suggestion for how to keep with the original plan while displaying magic and psionics.]

"Please impart your wisdom to this lesser being oh great Ancient One."

[For that alone I should hang up on you and allow you the chance to grow by solving your own problems.]

"That is cruel and unusual and you know it as well as I."

[Indeed. Very well. Several of the companies you own that make jewelry use synthetic gemstones correct?]

"Yeah. Turns out the magic properties of some gems are even better when synthetic because they can be made 100% pure. Use them with the right symbols and talismans in jewelry and they can work as weak protection amulets even without a magic user charging them."

[Excellent, here is the plan.]

Harry had to cast a few discreet low power wizard spells during the call to prevent people from telling him to get lost after the call reached a half hour in length. Nothing nearby seemed affected though the phone may need to be replaced later. Thankfully it didn't seem like anyone really needed it as the lobby had a second phone line across the hall.

The Ancient One's plan was basically to get some large gemstones and have Harry claim the ability to use certain energies when certain gemstones were 'absorbed.' Like the ability to use Strength energy spells after absorbing a ruby, use Dimensional energy spells after absorbing a diamond, ect. He would also display his ability to sense energy. This however meant he would have to walk around with giant rubies and diamonds which was kinda tacky. He'd had to make them big too so people didn't think it could use magic with tiny ones, about the size of an egg would do. First he would need to reorganize a few things to make sure he had a visible means of acquiring such gems which meant he had to contact the Goblins. However one considered a few things, he decided this might be an opportunity.

At the moment, there wasn't any big company that made large amounts of synthetic gems of large size because there wasn't a need or market for one. However gemstones had far more uses than just jewelry. There were hundreds of uses for various gemstones in engineering and they only used synthetic stones. Harry however knew thousands of applications for gemstones. He had analyzed the Mandarin's alien tech and the Doctor's future tech. He knew that there was more to electronics and technology than copper, iron, and silicon. Almost all technology relied on properties of electromagnetic energy whether it be electricity, radio waves, or even colored light. However Harry knew about other forms of energy and knew the means to harness them. He knew properties of gemstones and certain materials that no one else on earth knew about.

Harry decided his first move into the direction of tech he was considering was to create a large company that mass produced synthetic gemstones of various shapes and sizes. Most of these would have commercial engineering applications and sold at the proper price, but the point was to find and get settled into a niche. Harry knew both mundane and magical ways to create gemstones and so did the Goblins.

After getting out a stack of papers and his portkey box from his inventory, Harry wrote down his intentions and plans for the future. Once the company had visible mundane means to create large amounts of synthetic gemstones, Harry would introduce the Goblins to the concept of the sonic screwdriver. Harry certainly couldn't build one at the moment, but he could create a massive machine that could do a few things a sonic screwdriver could do, like alter the properties of some materials without magic. Harry knew that some technologies required materials with properties that simply didn't exist yet. However if he used an imitation sonic screwdriver, even if it could only affect gemstones, Harry could alter the properties of some gemstones to get materials which had the properties needed to create highly advanced technology.

And that was just the long term benefit. By saturating the market with synthetic gemstones, those who measure their wealth in gemstones will find themselves poorer while those who don't measure their wealth in gemstones will be richer by comparison. Thus was business.

*Ping*

[Business Path has risen to rank 17]

Harry smiled at the pop up. That was a good sign.

In order to prepare his dastardly plan for the X-Men, Harry used magic to create three chicken egg sized gemstones of four different types and put each in a pouch Harry strapped to his belt. He used a Notice-Me-Not spell on the pouches so a pickpocket with a knife wouldn't pay enough attention to them to swipe for now. He wouldn't use it later though since that was a great weakness to have. The point of this charade was to demonstrate his magic and other abilities in a way that would allow people to believe Harry could be beaten in the right circumstances. In this case, deprive Harry of his gemstones. People were less likely to try to kill a person if they thought they could beat or control that person but someone could only be beaten or controlled if they had a weakness to exploit.

Harry wondered when the men in black suits would visit him and deprive him of his 'source of power' and threaten him. He figured he should start writing a list of pranks now to use on the unfortunate souls who tried it first.

Once finished, Harry caught a cab to North Salem which was where Xavier's Institute was located. However the map pointer was pointing to another area of North Salem, not the institute.

When the cabby realized the area they were heading, he declined going further and asked if he could drive around. It seemed that strange things went on in that neighborhood. Harry said it was alright and got out and paid the man with a nice tip.

The street he walked through was somewhat checkered. Several locations on the street seemed to be freshly made while other locations were old. Several of the various houses or store fronts had windows with cracks while others windows looked brand new. There were few if any buildings that didn't seem half old and half new. In other words, this street saw a lot of damage at one time or another. What stood out the most though was the lack of people walking around.

It didn't take long for Harry to reach the map marker so he just started wandering around.

"Hey, haven't seen your face around here before."

A young man looking about a year older than Harry shouted from an alleyway while approaching Harry. He looked tall for his age with a shoulder length unkempt mess of brown hair.

Harry said, "Well I'm new in the area. Just arrived actually. The name's Harry."

"British? Never met a brit before," he remarked. Harry could have dropped his accent but decided not to. It was a part of him and anyone who didn't like him for it could bugger off.

The teen said, "Well, I'm Lance. And this is John," he said motioning to another teen with blonde hair that stood straight up. The newcomer approached Harry opposite Lance's approach and were effectively surrounding him. Harry appeared oblivious to them.

"Nice to meet you Lance and John. Know anything fun to do around here?"

The blond chuckled, "Yeah, there's an arcade a few blocks down. Ah, that's right, I used up all my quarters doing laundry for the homeless. You got any cash on you?"

Harry said, "Perhaps, perhaps not. If I told you I only had British Pounds in my wallet would you believe me?"

Lance grinned and said, "You don't seem to understand the situation here you scrawny little Brit. We're members of the Brotherhood and we own this town. Unless you give us everything you got on you, you ain't returning to jolly ol' England."

Harry cracked his knuckles. "And who said Americans didn't know how to have fun. Come on them."

The pair glanced at each other for a full second before they broke down laughing.

John pulled out a lighter and said, "I think we should have a reenactment of the Great London Fire. What do you think?"

Harry was getting tired of these guys so he threw himself forward and smashed his fist into Lance's still laughing face. The force of the blow threw Lance's whole body back which spun three times before crashing into the side a garbage can on the other end of the street.

John nearly dropped his lighter in shock. Harry didn't bother using the opening and said, "All talk after all. So much for the colonies."

John was successfully enraged from the insult and flicked the lighter to cause a spark. Harry felt a rush of Psionic energy fill the flame which mixed into the air and grew large and larger. Harry sighed and thought to himself, 'Of course he's a pyrokinetic.'

Harry ducked under the oncoming flame rushing at him and made it to the street. The blond shouted, "You're gonna burn for that!" He agitated the flames to make them larger and larger and Harry just stood there.

Harry reached into two of his pouches, one had Smoky Quartz and one had Zircon. He said, "You got a nice trick there. Let me show you a few of my own."

Harry cast a Lumos spell within the egg sized orb of Smoky Quartz which shined brightly in his hand and then he took it back into his inventory, making it vanish. He said, "Hit me with your best shot."

John didn't need anymore encouragement and threw a large ball of flames at Harry just as Harry cast a Flame Freezing Charm using a massive amount of power. Several of the lamp posts exploded as Harry wasn't suppressing his Exotic Energy and was actively casting very powerful wizard magic. However the building behind him seemed to be abandoned so there wasn't anyone inside or any electronics close enough to get fried besides those lamp posts.

The fire heavily impacted Harry like a massive ocean wave crashing down on him but he withstood it using a proper stance and when the fire scattered, nothing had burned. One downside of Psionics based Pyrokinesis was that the fire they controlled was just fire. Unlike magic fire used by magic based Pyrokinetics, psionic based fire control had no means to prevent itself from being extinguished by normal fire extinguishing means and it had no resistance to magic. So each had their ups and downs.

John looked at Harry in absolute shock. He was also surprised that not only had his fireball not burned anything, it had actually gone out. The reason it went out was that the Flame Freezing charm prevented it from burning anything, even air, so it went out without anything else to burn. That trick doesn't work when it is burning wood, but air is different.

Harry then lifted his other hand which contained the lump sized Zircon and cast another Lumos Charm inside it. "Are you ready for my next trick?"

The shining Zircon vanished into Harry's inventory and golden chains erupted from the ground and bound themselves around the pyrokinetic and dragged him to the ground.

The shaggy brunette from before was still out cold which wasn't surprising for one of Harry's punches. Harry took a look at them both and had a nasty idea. He reached into his pocket where he actually drew from his inventory a sharpie. He then walked over to John who was shouting profanities at him and said, "You know if you want to act like the villain, you really should look the part." Harry then bent down and drew a villain mustache on the bound teen which caused another string of profanities, half of which Harry didn't even recognize, to run out of his mouth. Harry thought it was odd the man had a vaguely Australian accent when swearing.

Harry walked over to Lance and drew a matching mustache on him as well and said to the one who was still conscious, "You need to cool down a little or you'll burn yourself out. Have a nice day."

The quest display showed a check mark on the first item show Xavier probably saw him and would be sending his X-Men to scout Harry in a bit. The map marker showed another area Harry ran off to as he wanted to set up a few things for this confrontation.

The location the map marker led him to was at was at the edge of an empty, trash filled park and an abandoned construction site where some materials had been left around. Something about it seemed stereotypical but it was as good a place as any for a meeting.

A few minutes after he started waiting, Harry felt a tug and warming sensation from a certain direction. It was the Phoenix Flames gifted to him, trying to lead him some where. Though that seemed pointless as where it seemed to want him was moving closer. Harry was more than a little surprised that the one the Phoenix told him about was not only here, but on her way. He wondered if that was why the quest not only wanted him to show his magic but psionics.

The four types of gems Harry had in his prepared pouches were Smoky Quartz, Zircon, Quartz, and Emerald. According to his cover, those types of gems could be absorbed to use Wizard Magic, Binding magic, Psionics, and Illusion magic respectively. Any other type like Dimensional energy and such would be overkill for most as the Eldritch magics powered by Dimensional Energy had been honed and sharpened in combat for tens of thousands of years.

A black van with a red X within a red circle on the side drove up to the construction site and parked once they had a visual on Harry. A shorter than average man of indeterminable age and a gruff exterior exited the driver's seat and stood next to the door without approaching. The Van's side doors slid open and from one side came a teen with red sunglasses Harry sensed formidable power behind and from the other side a fair beauty with shoulder length red hair his gifted flame was excited to see. Their gazes locked and green eyes met green eyes. She turned away a moment later with a slightly self conscious blush. From the passenger side of the van emerged a young woman who, like the other, only stood next to the door.

The sunglasses-wearing teen and the redhead walked over to where Harry was sitting on a large piece of metal and watching.

"Hi there, I'm Scott, and this is Jean. Were you the one who got in a fight with some of the brotherhood earlier?"

Harry smiled. Who doesn't like a little comical misunderstanding? Harry had been living with monks for the last three years and hadn't had a good target for a prank in far too long. He placed the metal he was sitting on in his inventory which made it vanish before everyone's eyes as he got up and said, "Ah, I see, you must be a friend of there's."

"What? No-"

Harry dashed forward to nail Scott in the stomach but the teen shifted his weight and turned to dispel most of the force of the blow. He seemed to instinctively move to take his sunglasses off which caused Harry to jump back before a surge of red energy erupted from his eye sockets that threatened to gouge out the sky.

Jean shouted placatively, "No wait, we're just here to talk!"

Harry said, "Americans must have the most interesting conversations since those who talk can either make great big fireballs or shoot lasers from their eyes. Of course if that's how American's choose to converse, I'm happy to reciprocate."

Harry took out a large emerald from his pouch and took a moment to look at it before saying, "It matches your lovely eyes Red," which had her turn away from him. Scott had closed his eyes and was taking what appeared to be a visor from his pocket and putting it on.

Harry once more cast Lumos within the gem causing it to shine brightly before he placed it into his inventory while closing his fist for effect. Harry only had two illusion spells he could cast and the cover he was using would only allow him to use one spell per gem. Harry cast Independent Doppelganger which made four Harry Potters appear and start running around in accordance to Harry's will.

Two of the illusions rushed Jean while Harry and the other rushed Scott.

Jean pressed her hands forward at the illusions coming at her and Scott's visor released a thin red beam at the Doppelgangers which passed harmlessly through them. Had he started on the ones coming at him, he would have hit Harry first but instead he shot through the ones coming at Jean first with a sweeping motion. Harry accelerated before the beam reached him and delivered another gut blow, but this time he centered it not allowing Scott to throw off the force.

Jean released a field of psionic force which locked onto Harry and lifted him into the air.

Harry smiled at her and pulled out a large piece of Quartz from his pouch which started shining brightly in his hand before it vanished into his inventory. Harry then thought up what the Phoenix looked like in all its glory and concentrated on the image before locking in on Jean's mind and sending her the image.

Jean's focus on telekinesis was completely disrupted by the intense and vivid image sent through telepathy and the breaking of her concentration caused her a headache which made her groan slightly.

Harry safely dropped from the air and Scott noticed Jean get 'attacked' and shouted, "Jean!" before turning to Harry and releasing a high volume blast of red energy. That passed harmlessly through him.

The real Harry switched for an illusion the moment he hit the ground and Scott had been too distracted to notice it.

Harry had moved behind Jean who was still rubbing her head. A part of her wanted to get the image out of her head so she could focus on the fight but another part wouldn't let her ignore it.

Scott couldn't recklessly fire his optics blast when Harry was behind Jean so he would only watch Harry pull out another gem, Zircon this time. He noticed it was different than the previous two gems he pulled out but recognized the pattern and tried to shoot a pinpoint optics blast to shatter it. Harry ducked partially behind Jean and the Zircon glowed with the cast Lumos spell before vanishing once more.

Golden chains shot from the ground and just like with John, Scott was completely bound by them before he could react.

Harry casually walked over to the van and said, "That was fun. Do you want to talk?"

The gruff man said, "Naw, I'm not much of a talker. Fighting though... How about a little one on one?"

Harry smiled and took out another emerald from his pouch and it glowed once more. The gruff man said, "That's ain't gonna work on me brat," and rushed at Harry, the real one.

Harry figured he somehow could tell the difference so he dispelled them and moved to fight. He struck his side but those ribs reminded him of Chiantang's and when Harry blocked the man's counter it made his own bones ache.

Harry had long since figured that although stats were not always clear cut, they were usually straightforward.

An average adult human had ten of each stat. However an average adult man struggles with the newspaper's crossword and doesn't bother memorizing anything not related to his job or life. An average adult human can also deadlift about a hundred pounds. If that was broken down, then each point in STR was ten additional pounds that could be deadlifted. Harry once heard that the world record for the deadlift was over 1000 pounds meaning a normal human could in fact reach a STR stat of 100.

From the force of his blows, Harry figured this guy had a STR of at least 200. His own was higher at 275, but neither of them were going all out, that was just Harry's estimate for his max. Moreover this guy's bones had zero give and unless he was mistaken, the short man was at least four times heavier than Harry was.

The amount they held back lessened and lessened as blows were exchanged or dodged at faster speeds with heavier strikes. Harry wasn't nearly as sturdy but he didn't bruise and injuries recovered quickly which his opponent took notice of. Harry was shocked to find that this guy's combat standard was close to if not in the same realm as the Mandarin and even if Harry's strength and speed were a fraction higher, Harry was only keeping up because of how easy the man was going on him.

Harry rushed back while taking out his last Zircon and making it glow.

His opponent took a stance and though he was bound in golden chains a moment later, he was not taken to the ground. He smirked at Harry and with the sound of metal against metal, three shining claw-like blades erupted from between the man's knuckles. He swung up his arm and the nearly indestructible chain was cleanly sliced through.

Harry frowned. "Metal claws? I should have brought a diamond or a ruby. Well, live and learn."

Before the fight could continue Harry felt Scott's energy build up so Harry jumped away to dodge the sneak attack. Since Harry was using each gem stone to cast a single spell, he wasn't maintaining them so the chains binding Scott had faded giving the teen what he thought was an opening to strike.

Harry's opponent snarled, "Scott! What do you think you're doing?! I said this is a one on one fight!."

"But Logan, he hurt-"

The red head said, "I'm fine Scott, he didn't hurt me at all." She had recovered and was watching Harry's fight. Harry felt her mental probes and allowed her to scan his surface thoughts. She already determined Harry was just sparring. It seems Scott was the only one who thought the fight was serious.

Harry turned to the visor wearing mutant and flatly said, "You came here to talk. Words are cheap so I wanted to have a different type of conversation and you've said more than enough. Someone willing to shoot another man in the back isn't the type of person I want to have further conversations with."

He turned to Jean and said, "It was a pleasure to meet you." And he turned to the warrior and said, "It has been an honor to fight someone at your level. I'd like to continue but I'm just about out of gems." Harry flattened the pouch he took the last Zircon from to show it was in fact empty.

Harry then took out a Smoky Quartz and before anyone could react it glowed and vanished. Harry said, "It is a shame but my trip to the states seems to have been a waste." He glared slightly at Scott for a moment before Apparating away, vanishing before them all.

Or at least that's what it looked like he did. Harry apparated to the highest point of the construction site and shifted into his Snowy Owl form. Just to be safe he also cast a few spells to completely suppress his presence. From his new vantage point he saw a large raven perched on the top of one of the nearby trees who seemed to have watched the whole thing and was paying close attention to the X-Men. Harry also saw someone further down the street, a teen with white hair.

The man apparently called Logan growled out in a tone laced with sarcasm, "Way to go Cyclops. The future leader of the X-Men just showed a potential ally exactly the type of person he would be following if he joined up with us. Nice job displaying the virtues and values Charles took all that effort into shoving into your thick skull."

"But, but Jean-"

"QUIET!" he shouted. He then looked over to the red head and asked, "What did he actually do?"

"He sent a really detailed image into my head of a giant flaming bird. A phoenix maybe? It looked so real. It broke my concentration which gave me a bit of a headache, but that's it."

Logan asked, "He's a telepath?"

"I don't know. When he sent the image into my mind, he seemed to be a telepath. But while you were fighting, his mind didn't have any trace of telepathy."

Harry inwardly smirked. Telepaths have natural, passive defenses against mental intrusion. Harry simply withdrew them all and let her see his mind. However she saw only what his Occlumency allowed her to see.

Logan said, "So a telepath but not a telepath. Everyone noticed him using those crystals right? And didn't he make that metal piece he was sitting on vanish too?"

Scott seemed to try and be helpful by adding, "Yeah, I'm not sure about the metal, but he definitely pulled one of those crystals each time he did something. When I tried to shoot one, he moved it out of the way."

The woman who was still standing next to the van said, "So what? He absorbed those crystals for power?"

Logan shook his head, "He wasn't weak even without them Pixie. Kid was actually stronger and faster than me. He also has experience. Not practice, but actual life and death combat experience, and a lot of it. I think he might have had a healing factor too."

Logan narrowed his eyes and looked at Scott, "He was testing us. Not much of a point joining with someone weaker than you."

He turned and headed into the van, "Back to the Institute. Let's see if Charles can track the kid down."

Harry himself never planned on turning down their invitation, he was just playing hard to get. The fact that the quest hadn't failed proved that.

Once the van drove off, the white haired teen sped over to the area faster than a blur. A moment later the raven on the treetop flew down and transformed into a blue skinned woman with blood red hair. Now Harry was interested.