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Emma stretched contentedly as the door beside her closed, then looked across at her sister who had gotten into the limo before her. "So what do you think?"
The younger girl frowned at her, once again not really putting enough cold emphasis on it for it to be a true Frost expression. "Is this some kind of test?"
"Not at all," Emma replied, leaning back into the blush leather seat contentedly. She had been on her feet for several hours after all, and it felt good to sit down. "Like it or not however, you are part of this family and we have certain responsibilities and duties. We wield a lot of power, and we need to know how to do it."
"Our father never spoke like that," Cordelia said, though there was no scorn or contempt in her face. Responsibility was for 'lesser people'." Emma noticed that Cordelia once more did that irritating air quote thing, and made a mental note to try and break her of the habit at some point, but didn't speak up, letting Cordelia have a moment to gather her thoughts. "I think that your speech went over well, they seemed to like what you're saying, but of course that's to be expected given the fact that you're paying them more than their former jobs, and giving them job security on top of that."
In point of fact Cordelia felt that Emma was giving away too much, but at the end of the speech she had given what was probably the whole point of the speech. An open door policy for anyone who could come up with a new or better design for weapons, armor or engines? And buying the patent of said weapon from them? Stark industries had done something similar for its manager level employees, but not for all of its employees, and Cordelia wondered what would come of it.
She didn't realize that she had spoken that last bit aloud until Emma replied. "Probably a lot of dross at first, but among that will be one or two gems that will make us quite a lot of money as well as the people who think them up. It's sort of like a lottery, a lot of people are going to try and get rich quick, but only a few will be able to win, yet that few will keep the dream alive. Couple that with the better pay, and I don't think we'll have much of a security issue at this level. There will be no headhunting or spying among that group."
In fact Emma was sure of it since she had taken the time during her speech to scan all the minds around her, not in an invasive manner, but simply to see what the general feeling was towards Cold Steel and her family, and if there was anyone there who had been planted there. Unlike in her previous meeting with the new managers she had hired there hadn't been. Four of the ten new factory managers had already taken payment to spy on her and sabotage their assigned factories, and she had let them walk out the door without a job. Luckily as president, CEO and exclusive stockholder she could do such a thing without giving any reason beyond personality incompatibility.
Cordelia frowned again but eventually nodded. "Loyalty and long term investments, you're playing a long game," she mused leaning back and crossing her legs. She sent a sideways glance at her new bodyguard, hoping that the man had taken the opportunity to look at her legs, but she was disappointed in this. While Cordelia did not take it to the extreme that Kitty was currently in, she was still in that coltish, rather ungainly phase of children in their teenage years. Despite her good looks, dominated by black hair (from their mother), a rather attractive angular face and pushing B-size breasts, there was no denying she was still a very young girl.
"Exactly so," Emma nodded approvingly. She looked up as she felt the car moving towards the security station outside the factory parking lot, and turned to Patrick. "Could you ride up front with the driver please, I think my younger sister and I need to have a private chat."
Cordelia's eyebrows flew up at that, and she wondered what this chat was going to be about, but Patrick merely nodded and exited the limo before getting back in at the front. A touch of a button in the center console next to her allowed Emma to raise the security screen which also blocked out all noise coming from the back. If her father had been fast enough he could have raised that to protect himself from the assassination Emma had planned, but he hadn't. Of course if he had, then the man who killed him would have used other means to do so, but that was neither here nor there.
As soon as the car started moving again Emma turned to her sister her expression a little colder than it had been. "All right, let's set some guidelines right now. I don't know if you are aware of this, but your boarding school has basically informed me that they would not like you to come back next year. Your grades are decent enough, but you've raised too much hell on campus for them to want to put up with you. And I'm not willing to bribe them to look the other way like our father did. Not because I can't you understand, but because that would be enabling your activities, and I don't care to do that. The question becomes, will you continue to act out and be an 'irritating, little rich bitch' I believe was with the way one teacher put it, now that our father is no longer around to act out against?"
The younger Frost flushed angrily. After a moment however she controlled herself and began to actually think about that question. Her acting out had indeed been against Winston and the total lack of familial feeling she got from him, her mother and indeed her two older sisters. Emma had never been mean or anything to her, but she had been rather distant, preoccupied as she was with her own issues. And Christian had been a little too old to be of any interest to Cordelia or have much to do with her.
Across from her Emma nodded approvingly as she watched Cordelia regain control of her first initial response. "Good, you have some self-control at least. I'm not asking you to be the perfect little girl either, just don't be a bitch or act out to simply act out. No drugs either," Emma went on, her voice growing colder. "No drugs and no drinking until you're 21. Other than that, if you keep up your grades at your new school and don't become too much of an irritant, you'll have no problems with me."
Cordelia frowned but then nodded. "And I don't have to do anything with the company?"
"You may have to appear with me at certain functions, charities and the like, but other than that nothing. I know you're not interested in business per se, have you decided what you are interested in yet?" Cordelia frowned and Emma shrugged. "That's fine too. You will of course have Patrick as your personal bodyguard, and he'll be putting together a team of three more. Have you thought of where you want to go to school?"
Her younger sister continued to frown. This conversation was going a lot easier than she had expected, but there was no denying Emma had steel underneath her velvet glove. She had almost been tempted to say that she wasn't interested in further schooling, but she could sense that that would be a bad idea. "If I ask for homeschooling would that be possible? If so could we cut down the number bodyguards to one or two when I'm not at home?"
Emma nodded thoughtfully. "We'd have to find a tutor for you that would be able to clear our security checks but that is possible. Now onto more serious matters." She leaned forward eyes locked on Cordelia. "You know Adrienne had a power, a mutant power. And I bet you have an idea that I do as well. No secrets here sister, do you have one?"
This was quite a bit more direct than Emma normally would be, but Cordelia was utterly under her control unless she wanted to run away and leave everything behind. She wasn't about to abuse that power of course still Emma had to know if Cordelia was a physical threat to her.
Cordelia couldn't look away from Emma, her own eyes locked with hers. "I haven't," she muttered at last looking away with relief. "I haven't had my power manifest yet, and I don't know what yours is," she said looking at Emma angrily. "Adrienne wasn't exactly subtle some of the time when she used her powers." She flushed angrily remembering one very embarrassing moment when Adrienne had found an electronic toothbrush that Cordelia had used for… other things, and had embarrassed the younger girl immensely spouting it out in a roundabout way in front of the staff.
Emma nodded. "Well in that case, I will leave my powers to your imagination, and if yours do manifest tell me the instant they do. I…"
She looked up suddenly, feeling a spike of aggression coming towards them along the road they were about to intersect. Like Betsy, Emma always had her telepathy on, acting like a low-key sonar that could home in and get her conscious attention if she found anything out of the ordinary. The sudden spike of aggression and focus on the limo did so and she delved further, feeling the minds of the seven people in a van coming towards them.
"Get down!" she ordered, and when Cordelia didn't immediately jump to obey she grabbed her and pushed her down into the bottom of the limo. Emma joined her, laying down next to her. "Brace yourself!"
Cordelia didn't know what was going on, didn't know what had grabbed her older sister's attention or why she had ordered this. Yet the sudden spike of adrenaline she felt at her words and Emma's serious expression convinced Cordelia this was something serious.
Not a second later just as Emma was about to shout at the driver to speed up or warn him, she wasn't certain which at the time, the van came across the intersection slamming into the limo's side, spinning it around to smash into a lamp post.
The moment the cars slid to a stop the sliding door along the van's side opened, and three masked men jumped out quickly.
The limo however had several modifications on it, making it even tougher than most limos made for the purpose of security, and even as the three began to fill the limo's side with lead the opposite passenger side door opened and Patrick dove out followed swiftly by a man named Ben Tobard, who had been the driver. Both of them disdained shooting over the car at first simply laying out on the road and shooting underneath at the men's legs.
Unfortunately the two bodyguards were only armed with their sidearms, while the three men who had poured out of the truck were armed with machine guns. They were also well trained, and one of them immediately dropped to the ground firing underneath forcing the two bodyguards to take cover behind the wheels, shooting back only as they could while one other circled around the car to take them from the side.
The two bodyguards were ready for this, and before he could get off more than a single clip fell dead shot several times in the chest and head. Both of them leaned out across the car taking potshots at their attackers who had taken cover around the van, one of them keeping the two bodyguards busy while the other continued to pound away at the side of the car with his machine gun.
They were soon joined by three more people coming out of the car, while screams and shouts began all around them the city bystanders running for cover.
Emma sat up, hitting a small button set into the center console of the back of the limo, and a panel opened up along the backside of the bottom of the chairs. Inside was a small single one handed machine gun, a Cold Steel design that was only 3 inches longer than a normal handgun but with two clips underneath feeding the bullets in as fast as they could go. Reloading it was easy as well, and it was one of the best-selling designs. In fact of this point was their only best-selling design, but that was going to be changing as the research and design team that they had taken over from Leyland, Harry's designs, and the workers previously from Stark Industries began to make up their own designs.
That didn't matter at the moment of course, what did matter was that they were here, in the compartment that she had added to her limo in response to what happened to her father. Or at least that was the line she fed the family's live in mechanic, and he bought it easily. Emma had also practiced with guns with the few remaining security men, and had proven herself a decent shot, with an icy control that was surprising in someone without actual combat experience.
Cordelia looked on aghast at her sister as she pulled out another similar gun. She opened the door away from the incoming fire tossing the first one out to Ben who was closest.
He grabbed it quickly, dropping his own handgun and began to fire madly at the group attacking him. One of them went down, but another one turned swiftly, and Ben fell backwards his arm, shoulder and chest hit by a spray of bullets. Patrick grimly grabbed up the gun and began to fire over around the side of the car from his end, but had to duck back as one of the attackers turned from attacking the car trying to get through its armor to pin him in place.
As that was going on Emma suddenly began to use her power, sending out pain bolts at everyone who was firing at them. Not enough to be obvious to any onlooker, she still wanted to keep her powers of secret after all, but enough to make their attention waiver for just a second. A second was all she needed to kick open the door, and began to fire out with her own gun. Three of the attackers fell back dead, and before the other could open fire on the now open door Patrick popped up and the attacker fell back, his body riddled with bullets.
Emma swiftly got out of the car, followed by a now trembling Cordelia. She had acted out several times, gone slumming, rock climbing without a harness, sky diving, even gotten into a few fights with other girls, and she considered herself a thrill seeker. But this, this was beyond anything she had ever thought to experience and it had been terrifying.
Emma however was cool and composed, this wasn't the first time she had been attacked like this after all. She was just grateful that none of these men had been superpowered like the group she and Harry had tangled with in Sweden.
She very carefully used her powers to see if anyone in their nearby area was watching with too much interest, or if there was anyone else harboring any kind of aggressive feelings towards her. She found one almost immediately, a sniper that was up on a rooftop about three blocks away even now zeroing in on her.
Before he could pulled the trigger however he collapsed to the side as Emma methodically began to lobotomize the man. At this distance it was very difficult, but still doable. She went to one knee, ostensibly searching the body of one of her attackers for an IP or something, while her mind was busy rampaging through the snipers mind pulling everything she could from it, and she was not gentle. The man's mouth opened in a silent scream, his vocal cords not answering the call of his brain while his body began to spasm.
After a moment she pulled back, ruthlessly doing enough damage that his mind would never function again, as if he had had a brain aneurysm.
Emma spared the would-be assassin no mind however sifting through the information she had gleaned from him. According to the sniper this had been a sort of going away present from Robert Hildebrandt before he had to leave the country. Evidently he had decided he knew who was behind the assault that had taken out Adrian, and wanted to reply in kind.
A rather stupid move on his part, reflectedEmma, standing up and away from the dead bodies shaking her head in an obvious sign that she hadn't found anything. Patrick finished off looking over the bodies making sure they were all dead and as he walked towards her sirens began in the distance coming closer. She sighed massaging her for head. There goes the rest of my day.
OOOOOOO
One moment they were standing altogether in a circle around the ring in the basement of the mansion, the next moment they were standing on a deserted beach somewhere. It was rather rocky, with several large rocks blocking the small alcove from view on either side of them and fog billowing off an unknown ocean in front of them, with the sun just coming up in the distance. Even though it was the morning it was decidedly warm, thought the sand underneath them was still cool. The waves lapped at Kurt and Logan's feet, who were the ones closest to the ocean when they popped in.
Of course not many of them had any attention to spare to their surroundings for a few moments after landing. Traveling by magic was always a chancy proposition, and the reaction of the human stomach to suddenly finding it X amount of kilometers distant from its starting point was always… interesting.
Charles groaned, grabbing his stomach and leaning over his legs in his wheelchair, closing his eyes as he tried to keep his gorge from rising. Rogue, Scott and Kitty were little better, swaying in place. Rogue let go of the ring and sat down heavily trying to keep herself from throwing up. Scott and Kitty merely leaned against one another their faces green for a moment.
Kurt had no reaction at all, merely looking around with interest as he let go of the ring, absentmindedly turning on his image modifier.
Logan's healing factor (and cast-iron stomach) allowed him to merely grunt in irritation before standing away from the hoop and looking around sniffing at the air, trying to figure out where the hell they were. Evan was the exact opposite, he simply collapsed from the knees down groaning as his body betrayed him.
Jean merely shook her head getting rid of a headache of some kind, while Ororo, who had somewhat gotten used to traveling by magic simply rubbed at her forehead.
After a moment however they all recovered, and amidst dire threats of what they would do to him if they ever traveled that way again they all looked around in puzzlement. Evan finally asked the question they were all feeling. "Where are we Harry?"
Harry smiled faintly, and cast a spell on them all one after another save for Logan, Ororo and Kitty. Ororo's eyebrow began twitching, connecting the dots from that spell to where they might be. "Harry," she said warningly, "was that the translation spell?"
Harry's smile widened. "Yep, you can punish me later mistress," he said obsequiously, "but I think the kids would prefer not to be around for that."
His lover's eyebrow twitched again, while the others save Evan all chuckled or laughed, while he merely stuck his fingers in his ears muttering "Lalalalal, I'm not listening!"
Kitty however was putting connecting her own dots, and began to grin. "Seeing as you didn't cast it on me Teach, does that mean were in a place where I already know the language?"
"Indeed it does," Harry replied grandly, and after casting another spell on Charles's wheelchair tires to let him get along easier in the sand, he led the way through the rocks. After walking through the rocks for about 4 minutes they came upon a small trail leading toward where they could all see what looked like a small cluster of houses about a mile away down the stretch of the beach. The beach was for the most part empty, and the buildings along its edge seemed to indicate that this was probably either private property or a very expensive hotel. Well it would be expensive in America. Here it wasn't nearly that expensive, but it was still an amazing hotel.
"May I present ladies and gentlemen, the Vietnam historical city of Hoi An. I've booked us into the hotel here for two nights. I've also put down credit for all of you to buy a suit for yourselves at a local place called the Silk Shop. I heard that you guys want to put together your own uniforms, and they'll work with you to create one out of the material I got from the Fantastic Four, as well as clothing to go over it for everyday use." In point of fact he had put a mild notice me not spell on the sheets of unstable molecule fabric, making the workers simply think he had brought in his own silk for them to use for some reason. Odd of course, but not enough to draw unwanted attention, not around here anyway.
As the others all muttered excitedly Ororo raised an eyebrow and leaned in. "Did you create enough Orihalcum to armor them all?"
Harry shook his head. "No, that's a very slow process at the moment, which is something I'm going to have to work on but honestly I've got so many other projects and my work on the Room of Requirement took precedent." Ororo nodded understandingly, knowing that to a magic user control was very important, and that Harry was worried about how his growing power was impacting that control as well as what he could do with it. "I've created enough to give a few of them some protection around the chest regions, but unless Rogue wants to volunteer the rest of the juggernaut armor for me to experiment with and manipulate, we don't have enough for everyone even for that."
Scott and Rogue had been walking behind them, and Rogue spoke up immediately. "You can have it sugah. Ah never much liked the look of it on me anyway, ah prefer something more formfitting."
Scott blushed slightly at the idea of the growing woman be next to him wearing something formfitting. While she was still growing, it had become very apparent that she was going to be at nearly as good looking as Jean if not more so when she finished.
Right now however Scott was concentrating on more serious things. "If it's a choice I would suggest giving armor to Kurt, Evan and Rogue in that order, Sir. For my part I'm more of a distance fighter anyway, and should try my best to keep my distance. I know Evan can make bone armor, but if he doesn't have to concentrate on defense that will help his endurance in terms of the amount and size of the bone constructs he can make. And even though Rogue has some of the Juggernaut's personal durability, the armor could help her a lot as well. Though I don't know how the weight issue would hinder Kurt's teleporting ability."
Ororo smiled faintly and tapped her stomach where underneath her everyday clothing she was in fact wearing her uniform. "Harry's not talking about heavy armor here. Think of it more as the lightest sort of chain mail or leather armor you can imagine. I will testify to its efficacy. During that business in London I took a high-speed rifle round to the stomach, and I walked away with only a faint bruising."
By this time they had reached the rest of the beach, and they noticed a few people out sunbathing or swimming, but not many. While this was a great vacation spot, it was too early for most people to be up and about just yet. The group soon arrived at the hotel, walking through it to the front where the concierge was. Harry quickly checked them in, ignoring his girlfriend's twitching eyebrow at his continued use of the translation spell.
He did not however have the ability to ignore her when Ororo leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You are going to pay for this, you won't know when, you won't know how, but you will pay for this." She wasn't just irritated at the fact that he used the spell, but that he used it in circumstances where she couldn't actually argue against it.
Harry thought about that, then thought about what he had wanted to use his forfeit for their bet that afternoon and sighed sadly. "How about if I use that forfeit from our bet during the ceremony to ask you to forgive me?"
Ororo growled a little but nodded. "That is fair I suppose"
As this was going on Kitty had quickly moved to the front of the group, and was excitedly chatting away with the girl who was standing beside the concierge, asking her what she would recommend that they do. The girl, who looked about 16 or 17 or so, was a nice looking young lady, who had at first looked at the group as just another bunch of obnoxious tourists she could help a few friends and acquaintances fleece for bothering her this early. That was business as usual of course, and on top of that they looked American which meant it was her civic duty to fleece them.
But Kitty's ebullient personality as well as her command of the Vietnamese language had completely won her over. Now the two were chatting away as if they were old friends, much to the amusement of both the concierge and the rest of the group behind Kitty. "And that happens tomorrow night?"
The girl nodded. They had been talking about the local sights as well as what kind of nightlife there was in Hoi An and the girl had just finished describing the festival of lights, where people would place little lights on floating stands with multicolored sides shaped they were flowers and send them down the river that had bisected the city as long as the city had been here. In fact the Thu Bon River and the harbor around it's mouth was the whole reason that the city was here in the first place, as a trading port and a lay-off spot for up river traffic. Nowadays of course river travel wasn't nearly as important as it had been, but the city was still here, and had become a world heritage site.
The festival was held on the 14 day of the lunar calendar, and luckily (it actually was luck, Harry had chosen this place because of its historical sites, not the festival or anything else) that was tomorrow night. "Yep, I definitely recommend it to all the groups that come in, though if you're looking for some real fun, there are are a few bars and nightclubs," the girl leaned in whispering, "and they don't check ID."
Kitty looked a little intrigued, sharing glances with the guys and Rogue behind her, who all seemed to think about it for a moment then shrugged and nodded. Logan groaned massaging his four head. He pictured a lot of irritation in his near future playing chaperone to this group.
After a moment Harry had finished checking them in, and they were shown to their rooms. These were actually a set of bungalows along the edge of the beachfront. The three girls had one, Logan and Charles had another, the guys were in the third and Ororo and Harry of course were sharing a fourth. This caused Evan to gnash his teeth a little, but it wasn't as if he hadn't had time to get used to the idea, he just didn't want to think about it.
After that the group left the hotel, making their way into the city proper. As they did, they were looked at first with suspicion. After all there were still a lot of people around that had lived through the Vietnam War, and they were not exactly friendly to Americans. The group however were not your typical Americans, and the fact that they all spoke Vietnamese was a point in their favor, as was the fact they were such an eclectic group.
The kids, even Scott, were having a lot of fun, just looking around at this new city, with all it interesting sights, sounds and people. They passed an outdoor market, where Kitty was a major hit. She was simply that type of person that drew other people to her, outgoing cheerful and friendly she drew like responses from everyone.
Evan, Kurt and Scott however found that they too were a hit as they were talking to the locals. After all it wasn't only men who enjoyed exotic things, and they were all good looking, fit and knew the local language.
They soon arrived at the local clothing store, where they were walked through the process of getting their own fitted clothing done in silk (the unstable molecules) in a single day. This sort of thing would cost a lot of money in America, but not here.
Harry smiled faintly. He was nearing the end of his ready cash, having expended quite a lot of the gold he had brought with him from his home dimension on various things (in retrospect his car was possibly not a necessary expense) but he would still be able to pay the people that they had hired recently and he had given a very good to their new personnel director. This whole trip wasn't even a drop in the bucket in comparison to the expenses that he had been paying recently for parts, supplies, material and the deals Ororo had made over the past few days.
He looked around, and noticed that even Charles and Logan were talking about getting some new clothing.
His smile widened as he felt a familiar presence behind him, and looked around noticing that none of the other kids were nearby or looking in his direction. A red head briefly laid against his own from one side as two feminine arms went around him. "While I think Hoi An and this whole trip is fascinating," said Jean breathing deeply of his sent and nuzzling into his neck for a moment. "And a great going away present for us all, I sort of expected something more personal for me."
"Did you think this was your graduation present my dear?" Harry leaned his own head against hers for a moment before she moved back slightly. He turned to face her, and noticed that her eyes were blinking with humor despite what could've come out as a complaint. "You said I had to wait until your finals were over, well they're over now, and we have two nights here…"
"And what exactly do you have planned for us Potter?" Jean asked, smirking.
"Well," he replied, waving at one particular worker who smiled and moved forward quickly, "why don't you let this lady help you with a new dress on top of the suit she'll also prepare for you, and then you'll have to wait and see. I think you'll like it quite a bit frankly, but at least let me keep a bit of a surprise."
Jean chuckled throatily, and leaned in to kiss him briefly on the lips before pulling away swiftly as Logan and the others began to look around for her. "I'll hold you to that."
Harry chuckled, looking over to where Ororo was talking animatedly with one of the managers, not discussing clothing at all actually, but the local economy. Ororo had not developed an interest in clothing or fashion, but she did care about people and getting to know them. My ladies may be very different, but they're both wonderful in their own ways.
Unfortunately for Harry and the others, there were those among their watchers who did not just see another group of tourists arriving early, but something far more important. One man in particular was watching from a store across the street, having followed after them on a diagonal, he knew better than to actually try and trail this particular quarry, and his eyes were now locked on Logan before switching around to those with him, seeing nothing unusual there.
After a moment the man moved back, leaving swiftly to rejoin the mob around the market square, letting its different smells and scents cover him just in case Logan had felt someone watching him. "You should never have come back to Asia, Logan," he muttered to himself as he moved through the crowd, "we have not forgotten you. The Hand never forget it's enemies."
OOOOOOO
William, King of Britain, pawed tiredly at his face as he leaned back in his comfortable leather chair. While this meeting had happened at a regular conference table with the regular uncomfortable seats William was old enough and wise enough to use that old age to his advantage and demand a proper comfortable seat for himself at the table. And everyone else around it was intelligent enough to not make an issue of it. "And that I think just about covers the foreign affairs, now onto the domestic front. How are our people reacting to the news story we concocted, and the reality of the attack?"
The government had released a statement saying that the attack on London had been planned by foreign terrorists with the involvement of local partisans who looked to create a new government in their own image once the current government was decapitated in the attack on London. The police held up Courtney, Selene and Emma along with several others as the local partisans in question, though in one case, guilt had yet to be determined. They refused to speculate on the nature of the 'gas' used in either part of the attack, merely stating it had been a two pronged assault and that it was only because of Buckingham Palace's air filtration systems and gas warfare protocols that allowed the Gurkhas to be awake after the initial attack. And of course afterwards they moved out into the city, clearing it of all the saboteurs and terrorists before they could set up the second phase.
While this in no way satisfied the pundits, they concentrated on the fact that the attack should never have happened, and were calling for a referendum on the intelligence agencies of Britain as well as the air force's preparedness, stating the time it took for the army to arrive after the initial 'gas' attack. The army was spared this do to the provable fact that it was a single army company that staved off disaster. MI5, the internal division was in fact being overhauled, and Ms. Betsy Braddock had been offered a job with them, though she had yet to say yes to it, and she was already working on something for the government in any event.
The PM shrugged her shoulders. "Well for one thing we're still getting a lot of criticism from former and current members of the Hellfire Club for our dismantling of the club and freezing of their accounts. It's one of the oldest gentlemen's clubs in the world after all, and it's section here in Britain is its oldest."
The Home Security Sir Jeffery Peel, the grandson of Robert Peel, father of the modern police force, scoffed, looking like he wanted to spit for a moment. "That place is a cesspool your highness, there might not be any actual threats to the government or the state in there, but I doubt anyone involved in that club is clean."
"I know that," said the PM firmly yet resolutely "But unless we want to shoot ourselves in the foot I doubt there is much we can do about it." Margaret Thatcher was called the Iron Lady and she was not exactly comfortable with the idea of old money and 'old boy' clubs like this, but she knew there wasn't much she could do about dismantling it unless they wanted to damage the economy of Britain and she said so. "History has proven that the idea of nationalizing companies doesn't work. We can keep them going for a time, but not for long. We're talking about 23% of our total economy, everything from food production to cars is represented in the companies we've seized. It just isn't possible for us to keep them all frozen for long without harming ourselves."
Margaret and her conservative party were deeply interested in the economy, wanting to make it as powerful as it had been in yesteryear, and solve the unemployment problem while also funneling more government funds into the upkeep of the roads and other public works. They had won the last round of elections on that basis, and she was not going to be a part to anything that went against the progress they had made in the last year and a half.
"And it's not like we found anything pointing to the fact that any of the others were involved in this business," she said finally, winding down. "We can keep Selene Gallio's import/export and construction companies frozen for longer, and the late Courtney Ross as well since the one was accused of aiding a terrorist attack, and the other had no provisions in place for what to do with her company if she passed away, but that is all."
William waved a hand placatingly. "We know that, Margaret. We'll release the other companies to independent bidders, let them take over that company and its workings, and I believe Ms Steed had made provisions for what was to happen to her company if she was incapacitated?" Margaret nodded.
Emma Steed remained the sole prisoner taken in the battle against Selene's forces, and she was still comatose. Her body was alive, and her mind was in there somewhere, but that was all modern medicine could tell them. Margaret was not comfortable (putting it mildly) with the idea that magic was real, she had enough issues with mutants and their odd powers without that added to the mix. Yet she couldn't help but hope that young Betsy would be able to help Emma Steed recover, if only so she could be asked several dozen pointed questions.
The king went on, "Yet that doesn't change the fact that the Hellfire Club is a problem. This whole mess has shown it in a very poor light, but it won't clean itself up without something new being added to the mix. I refuse to allow the idea that such a den of inequity will be allowed to continue on business as usual simply because its members are rich and influential. I fought the idea of the lords having that much power before, I refuse to even hint at the idea we will allow it now. I have thoughts in that direction, however" he mused smiling faintly, "so we can put that off for a few more weeks yet. What about the domestic reaction to the attack?"
He had been so busy lately dealing with the foreign element he hadn't been able to see the news lately, that and the PR director spoke up. "It's been remarkably positive your highness despite several news agencies trying to mash the conspiracy button. The fact that the first attack got through is causing problems abroad as you know, but our subjects don't seem to have the same mental block on the fact that it took us completely by surprise that other countries seem to have. The fact of the second portion of the 'gas attack' he said using air quotes causing most of the others to chuckle, "Didn't succeed is a far better mark in our favor."
"And the response among our military?" William asked, looking over at Lord Demontebanks, the secretary of defense.
The old general smiled faintly, "Overwhelmingly positive your highness." He looked at the door, on the other side of which stood two of the guards. They were not in formal wear but were in fact wearing full battle rattle, and went about their duties on a hair trigger. "We've seen a resurgence in morale across the board at how well the King's guard did, and our popularity in London and elsewhere has risen thanks to the quick reactions times and our disaster relief efforts. Moreover it's done a lot to mitigate some of the still remaining dislike for the Gurkhas among the rest of the armed forces, which is all to the good."
He coughed delicately. "However, while the Gurkhas have not talked, some aspects of how they were healed by mysterious potions has spread. The feeling is as soon as we can get it we should start using in the field, and I've been approached by several generals and not a few doctors on that score. There haven't been any side effects from the potions uses far as our army doctors can tell, and they and the foreign doctors are extremely interested in it."
That was a gross understatement. Even the civilian doctors who had been called in to monitor the previously injured soldiers for side effects realized how important Potter's potions could become.
William nodded. "I will be speaking to Mr. Wizard two weeks from the day of the attack to thank him. I will also hopefully convince him to base his potions company here in Britain, we shall see how it goes."
"Your highness," said Margaret Thatcher frowning noticeably. "He might make that prevalent on you agreeing to make the government stance on mutant rights crystal-clear. And if we take a side on that issue, we're going to take a lot of flak for it. This whole incident has been a shot in our arm in popularity, but mutants and their rights is such a hot-button issue my party may well be kicked out of power for doing so."
The PR director shook his head. "I think your overestimating the impact. Domestically I don't think we'll have an issue, we haven't had much in the way of violent mutant related crimes, not like Ireland which has had more than a few. We've had some riots against mutants, but nothing major. I think if we appeal to the humanity of it, make the connection from it to the civil rights movement, even the suffrage movement we'll get a lot of good publicity, and actually make people think for once, rather than mindlessly hate." The PR director was a staunch human rights activist, and had in fact been urging the government to take a stance on mutant rights for months now.
"Agreed," said William, nodding his head sharply. "I was willing to stand up for mutant rights as an individual before this, and I had wanted but did not have a big enough stick to beat the rest of you in line, but considering what a jolt Potter and his goods could be to our economy and the treasury in particular, that is no longer the case is it?"
He held Margaret's gaze and she flinched a little. She was in fact against mutant rights, she felt that they were dangerous individuals who should be monitored and possibly segregated not only for their own good but for everyone else's. She wasn't alone in this, and many of her party members felt the same way but it was one of the areas which seemed to cross party lines, and there were just as many for as against. "If you all agree, I'll toe the party line," she said. "I don't like it, I think that the mutant threat is real and will be real as long as there are those of them who think that their powers make them superior, but as long as that is a minority among them I think we can handle it, and I won't argue about the good having Mr. Potter and his potions based in our country will do for us."
William nodded. "Good, in that case we all will do my utmost to convince Mr. Potter that he should opened his company here in the UK." He smiled at Margaret. "I should also point out that with a man like Mr. Potter the potions are probably only the beginning. Trust me on this; that young man has quite a mind to him, and he dreams big. So what deal should we offer him to get the most out of it as long as we have him, yet to also be the most acceptable to Mr. Potter? I would warn you all however that while he does not seem to be a natural business man, he has access to them, and it would not surprise me if he turned up with a negotiator when he arrives in two weeks. Also recall we will have to outdo all the other countries whose doctors will have reported back to them the efficacy of his potions."
After that the discussion turned to the nitty-gritty of what they could offer in terms of subsidies and tax breaks and other matters, and he leaned back with a smile, noticing that not a one of them had realized that first part of what he had said as 'long as we have him'. Harry Potter was too intelligent to not see what could eventually be needed to ensure the rights of mutant kind, and William was a student of history. He'd lived through enough of it after all.
OOOOOOO
For the rest of the day Harry and the kids had a lot of fun simply seeing the sights while Logan went off to do his own thing trusting Harry, Charles and Ororo to look after the kids. In point of fact though he didn't show it Logan was very concerned. His instincts were playing up on him and he began to look into alleyways and dark places suspiciously
There was a reason why he had not been back to Asia in about ten years after all, and he shook his head remembering the last time he had been here. That time he had been in Japan, working with Nick fury and a few of his Howling Commandos on a not-so-little mission against a growing cult of death worshipping assassins called the Hand.
(They weren't actually Death worshippers per-se, but worshipping a demon from another plane and death were rather similar, so his confusion about that could be excused.)
Nick was trying to find out where their funding was coming from, but had never been able to figure it out, and the two of them had joined forces to attack one of their bases in an effort to find out more about them.
When they arrived they found that the Hand had kidnapped a young aspiring Russian spy named Natasha Romanov. Apparently she had been pushed through a series of experiments to get her strength and speed up almost to super-soldier level, but the Hand had kidnapped her before she could be fully indoctrinated into the Soviet. This was of course during the long slow collapse of communism, but she was still fiercely loyal to them. Nick and Logan had interrupted the indoctrination process that would've turned her into a perfect weapon for the Hand.
The Hand had not taken kindly to that, and Nick, his men and Logan had to fight their way through a veritable army of ninjas to free her, by which time all evidence of whoever was funding the group had been destroyed.
It wasn't like the dumb broad even thanked us for it, Logan groused. Natasha had swiftly gone back to the Russians escaping in the turmoil without even a thank you thrown her rescuer's way. Logan wasn't even certain she knew that Logan had been part of the escape attempt, which was in fact the case. Natasha did not know about his part in it, though she did know Nick Fury had been behind it, which was one of the reasons she had gone to work for him after defecting from Russia.
Of course that wasn't the only group Logan had pissed off in Asia in the past. There was the Chinese government, who probably remembered him, certain groups in Korea, and a few in Tibet as well, and several groups in Japan alone that would cheerfully laugh as they watched him die.
So to say that Logan had some enemies in Asia was putting it mildly. But then again you would be hard-pressed to find a place in the world where Logan didn't have enemies. He had been in this game for a long time after all, far longer in point of fact that even he knew anymore. Weapon X had done a number of things to him, and most of them had a very horrible effect on his long-term memory. Still he could remember a lot of things he did for them too, as well as during World War II and knew he had a lot of enemies out there.
"Still Vietnam should be all right," he muttered to himself. "I was only peripherally involved in the war here, and all the people who knew about that are dead anyway."
While he was right about not having any local groups after him, the belief he was safe here was wrong, dead wrong. And this was pointed out to Logan in no uncertain terms when, after spending a few hours exploring the city he had sat down at a bar with outdoor tables, his back against the wall. He sat there drinking some of the local beer. It was okay though he preferred European brews.
Not five minutes later Logan suddenly leaned forward, ducking underneath a tanto blade that had nearly taken his head off. Of course given his adamantine skeleton whether or not it could have done that was debatable, but he wasn't about to find out.
Logan turned swiftly, getting up out of the chair and moving into a crotch, one arm reaching back picking up his chair and throwing it at his attacker before he sprang forward, taking another attack in the throat and slamming him down to the ground. Suddenly the whole area was full of people dressed all in almost formfitting black outfits all of them carrying short swords of a Japanese design.
As one they charged him and he growled angrily. "The Hand, since when have the fucking Hand had a presence in Vietnam?"
Of course none of the ninjas responded, the Hand prided itself on the silence of its members during assassination attempts, and he scowled angrily as he popped out his claws with their distinct 'Snikt!' sound and got ready to rumble.
OOOOOOO
The Hand was an organization that believed in painting with a large brush, which was always a bad thing for anyone near one of their enemies. Logan's connection to Charles and the others was of course spotted by the spy who had first seen him, and he had their descriptions to his superiors.
The group in question had split up. Scott and Rogue had gone off alone, at a rather stammering Scott's appeal. Rogue agreed to it smiling. Scott was trying to work up the courage to ask her out, something he hadn't done before, and hoped that hanging out with her like this would give him the courage to do so. After all Taryn had asked him out not vice versa, and she hadn't been nearly as good looking or as interesting as Rogue.
Around five o'clock local time found the two of them down where the river met the ocean, where Scott was in the process of looking around for a place where they could rent a boat for the day, interested in seeing what they could see from the River.
Kurt and Evan had hooked up with a few of the locals, and were being shown around by them, or at least that was what they had said they were doing. Scott and Rogue both had doubts about that, seeing as the locals in question were three girls their age all of whom seemed to like Evan and Kurt's foreign looks.
"Of course," Scott mused whispering to Rogue as they walked on, trying to find a place to rent a boat, "Kurt's looks are a little more exotic than I think they imagine but that doesn't seem to slow him down much."
"He's become a bit of a horn dog yes," Rogue replied, chuckling. For some reason the trip with Harry out to prank Tony Stark had done wonders for Kurt's self-esteem, and the guy had become even more outgoing and confident since, especially around girls.
Evan on the other hand had always been confident around girls, and in fact had several girlfriends over this past year. Therefore it was no wonder that the two were a hit with the local crowd. Especially since they were not in point of fact normal tourists. They were here to look around certainly, but weren't exactly as interested in heritage sites, knickknacks, local history or anything like that as a few of the others were.
Harry and Charles for example had made a beeline for the museums, while Kitty, Ororo and Jean were going to go to something called the Silk Village later on.
Scott laughed and nodded. "This was one heck of it excellent idea from Harry, a great going away present I guess."
"Both for him and for Jean and Ororo too" said Rogue shaking her head. "That scene this morning with her parents was pretty bad, but his offer seems tah have nipped it in tha bud."
"True," said Scott, but not sharing what he thought about the trio. He had some suspicions that way, but he wasn't about to voice them to anyone else.
Their search for a boat rental place was interrupted at that point by someone coming up behind Rogue and attempting to stab her in the back.
Rogue however despite not having the Juggernaut armor on still had some of the Juggernaut's durability. Her skin was at least up to the task of stopping a normal person trying to stab her with a normal blade, and the sword went skittering along her side leaving a small welt but unable to penetrate.
Before the wannabe assassin could try again Rogue turned and clipped him upside the head with a smart roundhouse blow, sending him flying away. She hadn't pulled her punch at all since she was so surprised at the sudden attack, which meant the man's neck snapped under the strength of her blow.
Unfortunately Rogue didn't have time to contemplate how she had just become a killer, because all around them a dozen more ninjas suddenly appeared charging forward.
"Back to back!" Scott barked, pulling up his special ruby quartz glasses and sending out a beam of power that hit four ninjas one after another slicing through their bodies. He blanched briefly, then dodged to the side as one of other ninja tried to stab him, catching him lightly in the side as he dodged.
Before the ninja could pull the blade back to try again Scott's hand snaked out to grab his wrist and pull, before blocking a punch with an elbow. Scott twisted the man's sword out of his hand and use it to slice into the ninja's jugular before blasting away at another one as he came forward, wincing as another one sliced into one of his shoulders, but he again dodged enough of the blow to not let it slow him down.
Behind Scott, Rogue was proving a little too much for their attackers to handle her brute force and durability left only her eyes and possibly her ears as weak points and her punches and kicks were utterly brutal. The Hand had very rarely fought someone as purely powerful as Rogue was. In the future other chapters of the ninja cult would do so again and again yet at this point this group didn't have that experience.
Scott kicked out catching a ninja in his kneecap causing him to fall forward then reached forward grabbed the ninja's head bringing it down to meet his knee going up.
Once that ninja fell to the ground dead or unconscious Scott looked around seeing that it was the last one of this group. Around them the bystanders had either disappeared or were already in hiding and he fingered his two wounds wincing slightly.
He reached back, grabbing Rogue's hand and pulling her to her feet where she had gone to one knee, shaking slightly, the fact she had killed dawning on Rogue as her adrenaline left her. "Back to the hotel!"
As they raced back in the way they had come, Scott began to think very strongly, trying to send out his thoughts to get the professor's attention. "Professor, Professor, we've got trouble professor are you there?" While he did this Rogue noticed he was bleeding from the cut in his shoulder, and began to try and put a tourniquet on it while they raced on, a practice she was only marginally successful on.
Behind them, the bodies of the dead assassins began to dissolve, swiftly turning into a fine powder that blew away on the wind.
OOOOOOO
Evan and Kurt had gone off with a few of the local girls, having become quite a hit with them because of their exotic looks, their ability to speak the local language and their manners. Finding all three in a foreigner was almost impossible at the best of times, finding two such was an amazing thing.
For their part the three local girls, Hoai Mi, Chi and Kym were all decent looking. Not as good looking as the girls they had come with but more welcome to the two boy's flirtations, and were a lot of fun. Hoai Mi seemed to know wherever everything was so she was their guide. Chi had a down to earth, rather ribald sense of humor that both guys got a kick out of and Kym was extremely touchy-feely with both of the boys, which of course was a lot of fun in and of itself.
They had decided to go out onto the ocean rather than the river which Rogue and Scott had wanted to explore. The idea of sunning themselves on a boat and fishing with was pretty appealing to all of them of course. They had just rented a small boat for this purpose and helped the girls aboard when they too were attacked.
Eight ninjas suddenly appeared behind them rushing forward to come to grips with the two young boys, but they should've chosen their ambush points better. A five feet wide wharf was not a good place to try and bring numbers to bear.
The Hand had decided to go for simultaneous attacks and overwhelming numbers, not realizing that outside of Logan their opponents would be trouble. The fact that they were with Logan should've hinted at something, but even if it had they didn't have any information on their other opponents.
The moment the ninjas appeared Kurt teleported, his image inducer switching off as his tail whipped around. He appeared above the ninjas slamming down into a few of them and kicking them out into the water. While he did not have the superhuman strength of Rogue, Kurt was much stronger than he appeared, and his punches were able to knock out or smash the ninjas back a few feet.
Evan on the other hand had simply formed some bone bullets in his fingers and sent them at the ninjas, sending several of them flying back under the impact amid sprays of blood.
One ninja got close enough to use his blade and he tried to attack Evan, but he simply covered his hand in a thin bone plate, grabbed the blade and broke it before punching the man hard enough with a another bone encrusted fist to send him off the edge of the wharf and into the water with a shattered jaw.
As suddenly as the attack began it was over, most of the ninja down, unconscious from Kurt's blows or dead from Evan's bone bullet attacks.
Kurt teleported into the boat where the three girls had almost immediately begun to duck and cover. Kym only screamed once before being quickly muffled by Chi and Hoai Mi. This was not America where screaming could possibly bring help, this was Vietnam and if you saw someone fighting you hid and hoped that no one noticed you, something all the locals knew all too well.
To Kurt's surprise none other three girls seemed put out by his appearance when he appeared, though Chi wrinkled her nose at the smell of brimstone. He bowed grandly saying, "You will have to excuse us ladies, I think that our day out on the ocean has been canceled." He turned to Evan while the girls began to talk among themselves. "You think we can take this boat back to the hotel?"
His fellow X-man shrugged before Hoai Mi spoke up moving past Kurt to take the wheel. "If your hotel is along the beachfront, I can get us there." Hoai Mi worked part time as a tour aid, and beyond knowing whether everything to do or see was also knew where all the hotels were.
Evan got on the boat looking at the three girls who had not made any effort to run away. "You three sure you want to get involved with this? I'm not certain what's going on, but those guys were definitely trying to kill us. I don't like the thought of you three getting involved with anything that dangerous."
"Why not?" Hoai Mi asked, smiling slightly. "It looks interesting, and you two are fun anyway."
The girl whose mouth had been covered, Kym, nodded. "Besides, if they noticed us being with you is safer than trying to go off on our own. We got involved the moment those assassins appeared."
Kurt and Evan exchanged a glance then shrugged. Kurt suddenly shivered as Kym ran her hand up his the back of his neck. "It feels like velvet," she said wonderingly and then began to play with the fur along his neck.
Evan took one look at his friend's face and began to chuckle, while the girl at the wheel started the engine and began to power the boat away from the wharf.
In the waters behind them the dead bodies of their attackers began to dissolve immediately. The unconscious ones remained where they were for now, but would soon be joining their fellows in decomposing.