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Harry rubbed his lightning shaped scar for a moment while he thought. "I think we can safely say that if the humanoids on this planet are willing to rebel that we don't have to worry about our major concern there, that they wouldn't be able to act independently, or would be coerced back into slavery at some later date. Have you found anything out about their defenses?"
"The primary defenses on this world consist of androids of various type, gun emplacements in several places around the city and the open sets my drones have been able to scout, and several slaves that apparently work for Mojo willingly apparently in return for better treatment. Two of them in particular seem to be his major enforcers, like the six armed woman I mentioned during our last meeting. Alone I would say they're not a threat, but combined they could be."
Several more images popped up, showing a ram headed humanoid and a woman with silver hair wearing silver armor that made her look like some kind of Valkyrie. Except in her case she had six arms rather than the normal two.
"Other than that, I have created a real-time map of the only city on the planet. I don't know anything about the layout of the interior of its buildings unfortunately, but I know where all of the various TV stations are, the TV towers, as well as the ten main bases for security androids. I would estimate that only about 2% of their total android output is online at any given time, all of it involved with the various TV shows and movies. However, don't assume that that will make them any less deadly." With the touch of a button another image popped up and Reed began to walk them through all different types of androids his drones had spotted, as well as the location of the gun emplacements.
Harry listened to this still rubbing at his scar mark, thinking hard. Something was bothering him some sixth sense told him Mojo was more dangerous than they were giving him credit for, but there was nothing they could do about it now expect assume the worst. "All right." He slapped one hand flat on the table for emphasis. "Reed, are you and your team still willing to aid us? And how are we going to get there?"
Reed nodded firmly while the rest of the Fantastic Four followed suit. They all owed Harry, and helping him with this was one way to repay him. "Yes we're all willing to help you on this operation. As for our method of transportation, I will be opening a dimensional gate to a place on the outskirts of the city in a rather run down area. I will have to keep it open however, so my lab defenses will be turned on while we are gone."
"In that case, I'll leave a dozen golems or so to defend the other end of the gate. Then we're going to split up into six groups. One. Infiltration and expatriation. Captain Britain, Susan, Reed, that will be you. I'll cover Captain Britain and you, Reed, with as many spells as I can hide to hide your presence, your job will be to find your sister captain. I trust you have an idea on where to find Betsy?"
Reed nodded thoughtfully and Harry went on. "You can decide after that if you want to escape with her right away or meet up with group two, which will be moving in to aid the budding rebellion. That will be Ororo, Wyatt, and Vanguard. Ororo is carrying a magically expanded pouch that contains as many weapons as I could get my hand on, hand them out to the rebels and direct them as best you can to take out the TV towers. The more of those that go offline, the worse their communication net is going to be, the more they will be unable to react en-masse to the rebellion, and the more people they will be able to convince to take up arms with them."
"Group three will be Colossus, Thing, and Magma. Your job is going to be to smash as many of those android depots as you can, cause as much havoc as you can to pull attention away from the rebellion as it starts up. Group five, Phoenix and the Human Torch, air support. Air units can turn the tide of the fight if we let them, take command of the sky and knock anything else out of it."
"And yourself, beloved?" Ororo asked looking over at him one eyebrow raised. "What exactly will you be doing?"
"I'm going to go after the big man myself." Harry replied grimly. "With group two causing havoc and group three helping the rebels, if I remove Mojo from power the chaos will really start to work for us since I doubt any of the rest of these couch potatoes has the mental faculty to step up and take charge."
Reed frowned not liking the finality of the way Harry said the word 'remove', but in this case he certainly understood that removing Mojo permanently, however that was accomplished, was very important going forward. He was not as willing to kill as Harry was, and it disturbed him sometimes that Harry was so at home with it, but he trusted Harry's judgment.
"What are we waiting for then?" The Thing smirked, cracked his rocky knuckles. "Let's get this show on the road."
OOOOOOO
Longshot frowned as he crouched in the sewer pipe that the rebellion was currently using as a meeting place. "We're agreed on a time frame, but how are we all going to communicate? This won't work if all the bits and pieces needed to go off don't work."
"That means we'll have to take one of the TV towers first, so we can use the airwaves to signal with one another." Muttered a man next to him. The man was slightly more handsome than even Longshot, and dressed in a flowery, even gay manner. His name was Maury, and he was known as a comedian and talk show host, one of the better draws of Mojo's Empire for the group of Spineless Ones that weren't interested in violence. He had brought over two hundred other slaves into the rebellion a mere month back, but he had proven himself capable and tougher than his looks suggested.
The other men all nodded, including Longshot's fellow conspirators Bowser and Sebastian, the men who had been with him since he first began to plan this rebellion. "Makes sense." They both said as one, then laughed a little at that, causing a little of the tension to leave the air for a moment.
Bowser was a large man with a massive beard and deep set eyes who routinely played the 'strong type' sidekick or villain and even sometimes the behind the scenes inventor. After a smirking over at his friend he went on. "I'd recommend station 12, I was over there working on the next Bojo movie. While on paper it looks like the most heavily defended, it's got a single weak spot, all of the power comes from a generator nearby. Cut that out, it doesn't have an internal generator to fall back on like most of the other TV stations do. It's due for renovation, but they haven't gotten around to it yet."
There were some laughter and murmurs of irritation at that. The Spineless Ones were nothing if not, well, spineless. It wasn't just a description of their bodies but of their attitudes towards life. They wanted everything handed to them on a silver platter, they weren't very organized, and their attention span was measured in seconds rather than minutes. If it wasn't for their technology, most specifically the armies of androids they controlled, coupled with Mojo's leadership, the Spineless Ones could've been overthrown decades ago, well before Longshot was birthed in his crèche.
"Alright. I'll lead that attack at first, that'll leave you Longshot to lead the main assault on Mojo." Maury said. While the others all muttered agreement he plucked at one sleeve fastidiously while staring at the small watch he wore. "Now I think we all need to head out, you have a show you're doing in an hour Longshot, and I have to get to a meeting with my designer to see how Mojo wants us dressed for our show later today." With that the meeting broke up.
Bowser, Sebastian and Longshot made their way out of the sewers one after another before meeting up two blocks down, moving through the night deserted city. It had been designed and built before the Spineless Ones had fallen into the habit of TV watching, and barely saw a fraction of the traffic it would have before that. Not that Longshot knew any of that of course, the city had always been this empty as far back as he could remember.
About four blocks after meeting up the trio of actors hailed down a hover taxi, a flat hover type vehicle that had low-slung sides. These were habitually used in several of the TV programs Longshot starred in, but also were used to carry goods around the city, particularly the androids used as film crew. Like the rest of the city they had once been used by the Spineless Ones themselves, but none now alive could remember that time. They were now also used by the humans to move around the city quickly. Indeed, there were already two men, cameramen from their uniforms, aboard, working franticly on what looked like a badly broken camera between them.
Longshot and his two friends sat down, talking quietly and moving their hands in various manners going through some of the stunts they were going to have to perform for the show that afternoon. Sebastian was a little irritated however. "I don't understand why I have to play the bad guy in this one. Without my beard, which I got rid of on the producer's orders in the last season of Star Conquerors thanks to that stupid plot of it being one of my 'power sources', I don't look evil. Why can't the smart villain and tough villain be rolled into one in this episode?" He asked, looking pointedly at Bowser.
"Don't look at me." Bowser said shaking his head. "None of us make the decisions around here remember?"
"Yes, but that will be changing shortly, won't it?" Longshot muttered causing Sebastian to smile and nod in agreement. Longshot laughed quietly reaching over to punch him in the shoulder. "Then you won't have to be a villain any longer, and I can stop dodging around for a living. I swear, I wake up in a cold sweat sometimes imagining why the Spineless Ones like to watch me jump around dressed all in tight leather."
Sebastian laughed at Longshot's quip, but oddly enough Bowser didn't join in. "That supposes…" Bowser said his voice slowly changing with every word. "That Lord Mojo hasn't anticipated your little rebellion."
"What are you saying Bowser?" longshot said suddenly on edge though he couldn't tell why, it was his friend sitting there after all.
"That information I said about Station 12?" Bowser said with one hand reaching up to area right under his hairline. A seam appeared there, going down his body as his voice finished changing into a metallic growl. "It was a lie. Station 12 is actually the most up-to-date and heavily guarded in the TV station in the city next to Lord Mojo's personal tower. Lord Mojo's been on to you since the very beginning Longshot, though he didn't really want to believe his star performer was plotting against him. After all, everything you are you owe to Lord Mojo. But if you're willing to bite the hand that made you, well that hand can just as easily unmake you!"
Sebastian and Longshot stood as one, with Longshot reaching down to a bandolier of knives that he carried at all times, his signature weapon in most of the roles he played. Sebastian reached down as well for a laser gun at his side. It was supposed to be a prop, but he had long ago figured out how to remove the safety limiter on it to turn it into a real weapon.
He would never get to use it in real life. There was "Splurch!" sound, and Sebastian stared down at a silver claw that had just punched straight through his torso from behind.
Both of the cameramen that had been working on a camera at the other end of the hovercraft had transformed into half human, half bestial silver creatures, that looked vaguely canine even if they could walk like a human.
"Sebastian!" Longshot shouted in anguish, hurling one of his knives at the same time, jumping back onto the side of the hover cars security railing.
The thing that he had thought was his friend Bowser dodged to one side, which had been precisely what Longshot wanted him to do. The knife continued on its course slamming into the controls at the front of the hovercraft. There was a squeal of electronics shorting out, and the hovercraft descended like a rock to slam into the ground.
Longshot was the only one prepared for it. When the front of the hovercraft suddenly pitched down, slamming into the road pitching the rest up into the air he pushed off with his feet, leaping away with as much acrobatic ability as he possessed to grasp a wire going between two buildings then flipping himself down to the ground safely.
He stared at the crash for a moment, wondering if he should try to pull Sebastian out of there then shook his head. Sebastian was no doubt already dead from that hand through the chest, and he couldn't afford to stay around here. He had to find Maury and the others, get the word out not to start the rebellion. If Mojo knew they were going to rebel, especially their time table, any chance they had had success flew out the window. Longshot knew he would probably put to death anyway, or possibly brainwashed like a few others had been after showing unique abilities, but if he could save his friends, even if they remained slaves it was better than the alternative.
He raced down the streets, racking his brain for where Timothy was scheduled for his next show, as well as a way to get there without being seen more than he had to. He didn't get two blocks however before a silver body bore him to the earth.
Longshot crouched with the weight that had just landed on him, one hand reaching back and, with the luck that gave him his name, grabbing a outstretched claw. With that hold he threw the creature over his shoulder, throwing another knife at it in midair. He smirked as the knife caught it in the body, punching through the allow that made up its silver carapace but his smile disappeared when he saw he was surrounded by the rest of the pack.
"No one runs from the War Wolves, Blondie." one of them said, though not the one that had been impersonating his friend. "Not for long anyway."
"Did you kill Bowser! When did you do it!?"
"Your friend Bowser never existed." The one who had impersonated the bearded man said. "He was simply a creation of Lord Mojo. I was assigned to work my way into your confidence, and then turn on you the moment you tried to betray him. We've known all about your independent streak! In fact everything we've said since leaving that meeting has been recorded, as will the death of everyone else involved in your little rebellion. It'll be the greatest blockbuster in existence! We like to call it The Last Hurrah! Catchy, isn't it?"
"I don't know." Said new voice. "I think it's rather cliché myself." From above them came a human, clad in a formfitting red suit from head to toe, wielding a red and white shield in one hand and a rifle of unusual make in the other.
The rifle spat out several small slivers of plasma, slamming into and killing one of the werewolves while he dropped directly on another with the shield edge thrusting downward into its spine.
The third tried to turn, but a far hotter and slightly larger plasma bolt struck it from the side. The bolt hit the war wolf in the side of the head with such force that its head almost entirely disappeared leaving its now headless torso to fall to the ground, spewing sparks and electrical fluids.
The rest of the pack were blown away from successive lightning blasts from the clear sky above. A beautiful black woman dressed in black and with a strange black and gold cloth tiara on her head floated out of the ground to land lightly in front of Longshot. "Good day, I believe your name is Longshot? We come from Earth, where Mojo has been appropriating some of your fellow stars. We were waiting for an opportunity to come in and take him out when we learned of your rebellion, and decided to help you along. I am Storm, this is Vanguard, and our sniper, who is setup elsewhere, is named Coyote."
This sounded almost a little too good to be true, especially after his friend's betrayal but Longshot realized he had no choice but to trust these people for now. He was also a little nonplussed. Normally when a woman was around him they would be blushing or sending various signals that they found him attractive. This one wasn't, and it threw him off his stride for a moment.
Still, the urgency of the situation forced him back into action. "We have to hurry then!" He exclaimed for a moment turning to find the nearest camera before he stopped himself. "My friends, most of them might be walking right into a trap…" Longshot paused as explosions went off elsewhere in the city, one of them was so big he could even see the smoke from where he was standing. "What…"
"We're only one group of the team that's come to help you." Storm replied simply. "Another group is basically causing as much havoc as possible. Now, let's go meet your friends shall we?" The weather witch smiled, somewhat impishly it must be said. "I come bearing gifts."
OOOOOOO
Betsy Braddock was of two minds about this whole experience she was currently undergoing. Naturally no one liked being kidnapped from their bed, let alone forced to act in TV shows for someone else's sick, twisted, pleasure. But Mojo's domination of her mind hadn't taken anywhere near as well as Mojo hopefully thought, and whenever she was away from his presence she could regain control of herself. It was horrible, she was fucking telepath after all, she knew what Mojo was doing to her mind, but Betsy could fight it off, like pushing herself out of a deep quagmire. Thankfully she was a very decent actor, something she had done in high school and even college for a time. And on the other hand, Mojo and his scientists had been able to give Betsy a new set of eyes, far faster than she had ever dared to hope would be the case with Harry Potter.
Part of her resented the fact that Harry had never gotten back to her about his promise to try and make magical eyes for her, but given what Storm and Phoenix had told her whenever they talked, it was obvious that other things had taken priority, and she really couldn't fault Harry for thinking he had more time to get back to her. After all, who could've predicted she would be kidnapped like this?
At first Betsy had tried to escape on numerous occasions the first few days, but Mojo and his people were old hands at capturing and then 'taming' new stars for their TV shows. She had been returned quickly, then put under Mojo's mental domination, but as before her own telepathic ability had been able to help her fight it once she actually left his presence.
It was horrible, not being in control of yourself like that, but Betsy could fight through it. The worse part was that Betsy knew she didn't have the strength to fight off the initial assault. Betsy had tried, oh how she had tried, the first few times, but Mojo's will crushed her own easily. It was less painful to simply let him put his mental control in place, then break it the moment she was out of his presence. It wasn't quite to the level where Betsy could call it a mental rape, Mojo didn't crush her spirit that much, but it was certainly close.
Given her looks and athleticism, Betsy found herself being one of their main draws for a new show that reminded her somewhat of the old Get Smart program. It had a bumbling silly male lead, and an extremely effective female costar who was the one who really did everything, which had been Betsy's role. It had, while not been fun, at least been amusing at times. Yet even that showed how good the spineless ones had become in convincing their stars to become used to their lot, and Betsy fought against that feeling as fiercely as she did throwing off Mojo's control the moment she could.
Betsy looked down at her hand, and with a thought formed telekinetic blade of purple power that stuck out from her hand about 9 inches or so. This was the other reason she was somewhat ambivalent about being here. Somehow Mojo had awakened within her a small latent telekinetic ability, which Betsy could manifest in the form of these blades of hers.
Yet for all that she owed Mojo in a sick twisted way for her upgrades, when she began to hear screams and alarms she recognized a chance to escape and took it with both hands. One moment Betsy was sitting on her bed, the next she was up and getting dressed in her skintight purple suit that she used for most of her roles, watching the door warily. She closed her eyes concentrating for a moment then cursed. Of course I can't sense androids, she thought sardonically, they don't have minds per se, but I think I'm going to have to chance this. If I could just find that strange teleportation room or whatever it was called that they used to bring me here, I might have a chance. A slim one,Betsy had to admit to herself, but slim was better than none to get away from Mojo and his control.
OOOOOOO
As he had said, Reed's portal opened up into an abandoned area on the far northern edge of the city, one that had fallen to have disrepair thanks to the nearby mines which had been used to fill it with goods from outside the city having faltered. Harry spent a few minutes conjuring up several golems while Reed emplaced several portable gun platforms to defend the portal.
After that Reed left with the two others assigned to infiltration, followed quickly by Harry slipping on his invisibility cloak and slinking away into the city, heading towards the large tower Reed had pointed out as Mojo's headquarters. Then, with Johnny and Jean on over watch destroying anything that got into the air, Thing, Colossus and Magma went to town.
The nearest android depot didn't even know what hit it. One moment everything was all right, they weren't even going to be called in to help put down the rebellion since they were so far out of the way from its target. Then the next, there was a giant orange rock-covered monster in their midst, smashing the door down as well as the two android guards posted outside. Following the monster inside was a being made of some kind of energy that looked almost like flowing magma. Where she stood the ground underneath began to sizzle and buckle. The few first-team responders to this break-in were destroyed by a hail of very tiny bits of super molten rock, which burned through their robotic bodies like molten knives through hot butter. The next group, heavy hitters who were routinely used as mid-level bosses in some of the adventure brand TV shows, trundled out, only to run into a steel covered Colossus who tossed them around like so many toys despite their heavy cannons and bodies.
The nearby TV station was even worse off. With Johnny killing the few air drone that were currently in the air, Jean paused a moment, allowing a few of the androids who were programmed as cameramen to catch her in all her Phoenix aura glory as she checked the building telepathically to make sure none of the genetically created slaves were inside at present.
There weren't, and Jean couldn't even feel a single mind in there. So with a thought she conjured up her telekinetic powers, but rather than smashing into the building, she simply brought her powers down like a hammer on top of it, ripping the top five stories off before throwing the rubble down on the remainder with all her might. With that tower down, Mojo or whoever ran the city's defenses lost the ability to convey orders to any of the android depots near the portal.
About twenty minutes later after the diversion began, both the air group and the chaos group began to run into real resistance. The group on the ground ran into a roadblock between them and their second target another, much larger android depot nearer the center of the city. This group of androids were ready for them, and had time to pull out the big guns.
Something like a bomb, only more focused, went off from one such cannon when Colossus and the Thing tried to close, impacting Colossus and throwing him backwards with a grunt of pain. He was however saved by his metal form and the armor he wore, which allowed him to shake off any real damage despite the impact.
Grimly he rushed forward taking up point in front of the others, getting hit with two more such blasts for his trouble before Magma was in range to use her powers. Concentrating for a moment, Magma slapped her hands down onto the ground. This planet was nowhere near as seismically active as Earth, which impacted how quickly and how well she could call upon her geothermal powers, but she could still call use them.
The ground rumbled, and the buildings all around them began to quiver and quake, then suddenly a fissure opened up in the roadbed, causing the androids in front of them to either fall onto their sides, unable to stand the shaking, or into the fissure. With another grim thought Magma closed the crevice, while Colossus and the Thing raced on smashing into the remainder. Even so, more androids came up against them as the city began to respond to the invasion.
Above them the two on over-watch ran into the same problem. An anti-air cannon popped out of the side of a nondescript building, followed by dozens, hundreds more all around the combat area. Soon the air was filled with speeding bullets, laser rays and plasma bolts. Phoenix and Torch had all they could handle for a few minutes simply dodging all of the fire coming at them now.
Eventually Phoenix got tagged, a plasma round from below slammed into her as she was pummeling the top of the nearby buildings, destroying all of the defensive sites there as quickly as she could. She grunted as she was flung out of the sky by the impact, but her telekinetic aura and her suit protected so that she wasn't particularly injured, simply fried a little around the edges.
When she looked around however Phoenix groaned irritably, seeing reinforcements coming from another of the androids station in force both on the ground and in the air. The sky heading deeper into the city was filled with hundreds of drones rising into the air from the nearest intact depot, all of them zooming towards the attackers.
Still, she grinned evilly and began to conjure up massive spheres of fire throwing them out down the street at the oncoming rush of androids. Above her, Johnny zoomed ahead, smashing into the air drones like a solar flare burning all that stood in his path.
About ten minutes fighting brought them to the next depot, wading through thousands of combat androids. Here they were again stalled, the defense of the depot holding them back.
While The Thing and Colossus protected her, Magma once more knelt to the ground, her eyes locked on the massive squat building in front of them, were android continued to pour out of the large entryway. She ignored them, even as Ben grunted, having taken a blow from some kind of heavy cannon whose impact even he could feel. Again, it was more difficult than if it had been happening on Earth, but Amara was able to pull her power together to perform what she was thinking of calling her signature trick.
The ground rumbled, cracked and there was a loud, booming sound. Suddenly the androids coming out of the depot were not running into battle so much as they were trying to get away from what had occurred behind them, and the amount that were rushing out had lessened considerably.
"What the hell did you do girl?" Ben asked, even as he smashed some kind of close combat robot to pieces when it got too close.
"Just watch." Amara smirked. "There's something a little nostalgic about this for me really, after all, this was what I did when my powers first manifested."
Ben didn't get it. Only when real magma began to appear along the ground of the entrance to the depot did he understands. Then there was a booming sound as suddenly a massive plume of magma and fire and ash blasted out of the center of the depot. "Heh, not bad. I don't think we need to worry about this depot anymore."
"I rather doubt it." Colossus muttered, slightly in awe of the girl's abilities, despite having seen them during practice sessions in the RoR.
With no more androids coming out, the battle on the ground shifted, with the three of them able to smash through the remaining defenders and move deeper into the city to their next target. Above them however, the battle remained very much in doubt, even with Phoenix, having silenced all the nearby anti-air guns, joining the assault on the flight capable drones with a vengeance.
But, as diversions go, Jean thought cheerfully as claws of telekinetic force ripped into dozens of gun drones. This one is sure as hell doing its job!
OOOOOOO
While his teammates and allies were causing havoc elsewhere, Harry flew over the city unseen to land in front of an entrance to the massive spire where Mojo resided. It was at least half the size again the size of any of the signal towers or the TV stations, and much wider besides. That alone would signal it's importance. The ten-story tall face shaped to look like Mojo's on the side of it took it beyond the realm of important and into the realm of grotesquely self-aggrandizing.
Covered with his invisibility cloak, and his footsteps silenced with a spell, Harry made his way through the first few levels. Noting the purposeful movement of all of the androids here, Harry realized that he had made the right call on both the tactical and strategic level. Mojo, despite looking like a ham or a hysterical actor in some of the imagery Reed had shared, was very obviously a good organizer for all of that, and he had the troops already acting quickly and under control rather than in a disorganized fashion.
He frowned however as he noticed a flash of purple out of one eye. Turning quickly he saw Betsy striking down two androids who had found her while she coming to this level. He saw the bright purple blades of kinetic force she wielded from her hands, and raised once energetic eyebrow. Those are new. Quickly Harry made his way over to her, pulling back his hood for a moment to show his face. "Betsy!" he whispered. "Over here."
Betsy turned and saw Harry's face hovering in mid-air. Hearing the noise of more searchers coming their way, Harry motioned her over to him, and the two took refuge in a small storage closet right beside where Harry had been standing. It was so small the purple haired girl was forced to press up hard against Harry's chest in a way that most men would have killed to feel, but Harry was too busy concentrating on the here and now and the danger of their situation to feel anything sexual about it. This did not however stop his male mammal brain from noticing that Betsy was rather more stacked up top than he had thought she had been when Brian had accidentally opened the door on her changing.
Betsy didn't notice anything sexual about the situation either, covered with sweat and a few bruises and scratches she had sustained so far in her attempted escape. What she did know was that Harry had come to rescue her from a fate that was, in it's own way, worse than death. To say this made an impact on her was a severe understatement.
When she spoke however, she did her best to push those thoughts to the back of her mind. And if her voice still quivered with emotion, who could blame her? "So, are you still going by that bloody stupid moniker of Mr. Wizard, Mr. Potter? Is it just you that is here to rescue me? What took you so long?"
"No." Harry said looking through the sliver of space he had left open in the doorway to peer out into the hallway. With their quarry no longer in sight, the robots they had heard continued to run down through the building towards the entrance to join in trying to suppress the chaos occurring elsewhere in the city. "Ororo and Phoenix are here along with your brother and several allies I've made since the last time we talked. Why are you here in this building though? We all thought female actors were kept in a separate building more central to various studios."
Betsy shook her head, shivering a little. "Mojo likes to keep his 'guest stars' as he calls those of us he captures closer than that. Thankfully I'm the only one of those here right now, though he was planning a major expedition soon to gather up more mutants. Something about needing to replace his top star or something, and the amount of 'ratings' I drew in convinced him it would be a good idea." Betsy shivered again her arms clenching around her.
Harry noticed this, but didn't have time to ask about it at present. He simply filled her in on what they knew about the rebellion, staring out into the hallway waiting until it was clear for a moment to open the door. He then hit Betsy with several other spells, and said quickly. "All right, head out into the city and try to stay up onto the rooftops if you can, Torch, Storm or Phoenix will see you up there and get you to where your brother is."
"What about you?"
The wizard shrugged. "My main mission in this building hasn't changed, I'm still going to hunt down Mojo and remove him from the equation."
Betsy's eyes widened at how casually Harry mentioned killing Mojo. Not that she had any problem with that, it was the casual way he said it that startled her. She was used to most superhero types not being willing to kill their enemies, even if that was the best idea at the time. She felt it had something to do with the spandex they wore negating their common sense.
Of course, Mr. Potter isn't wearing any spandex, Betsy thought, giving him a once over for the first time, and liking what she saw. He really is as good looking as I thought. Not as good as Longshot, but neither as smarmy as the blonde wanker is either. Still, not handsome enough to make me want to get between him and Ororo and Jean, nor enough for me to share.
However in regards to the idea of escaping alone Betsy shook her head. "I know where Mojo's rooms are, the area he personally uses as offices and sleeping quarters, it doubles as one of the studios for his talk show. They're not on the top floor is your expect, but on the seventh one, right at the lower end of that face on the outside, and they aren't marked either. I'll show you the way."
Harry frowned, but nodded. He canceled the Mufilatio spell over them both that he had cast earlier then pulled up the hood of his invisibility cloak, telling her to lead the way.
At the same time, he was happy to feel Jean trying to get in touch with him via their mental connection. "Harry, the diversion's going great out here, I think we've got at least half, maybe more of the defenses of the city tied up right now. The problem is, they really do have weapons that can hurt us, even with the armor, and they are getting more organized as the fight goes on. I'm trying to keep in touch with Ororo, the rebels haven't begun their part of this party yet, but it's damn hard to split my concentration like this while still fighting."
"Understood love, I'm moving in on Mojo now, with him down, their organization should be shot to hell. Contact Reed and his team if you can, tell them I've found Betsy, and she'll stay with me for now. Tell them to link up with Ororo and her team."
OOOOOOO
Reed, Brian and Susan had been having an easy time of it in terms of moving around, but had no luck at all in finding their target. Moving through the city was easy, with all three of them invisible to any detection, but their overall speed was somewhat lacking until they decided to chance the use of one of the hover cars. After that, they arrived at their first possible destination, an apartment complex used to house all the single female actors, quickly. They had found no trace of Betsy there, nor did her name turn up in the buildings system when Reed hacked into it.
They left quickly, and moved to the nearest rooftop, where Reed frowned, looking over the city towards where the battle was occurring, the noise of it reaching them even here. Below, many of the female actors, which included several aliens, came out to look in the same direction, talking excitedly to one another. Mr. Fantastic however was more concerned about their personal mission. "This was one of only two places I thought your sister would be Brian, and I'm afraid it was by far the most probable. The only other place would be a studio where she stars as the female lead in a spy show. I know where it is, but it will take us even further away from the fighting."
Brian frowned, something only visible to Reed because they had been in contact when Harry cast the spells to hide them from sight. For some reason though, Susan could see it too, something in her own method of becoming invisible allowing her to see through the Dissilution spell.
Whatever Brian was going to say however remained unsaid as all three felt something touch the exterior of their minds. It was a very light touch, but for all of that all three got the impression that the person on the other end of it was being very careful to keep it so. "Susan and company, Guardian says he found Betsy while breaking into Mojo's spire. Apparently he keeps stars taken from other worlds close by for a while, probably to make certain that their indoctrination keeps. She's going to stay with him for now, and he asks you to join up with Ororo. She says the rebels are about to hit their target, on of the TV towers in the western section of the city."
While Brian breathed a sigh of relief Susan replied for them all. "Roger Phoenix, we'll move in that direction and try to get in touch with them. Do you think you can guide us to her?"
"No can do, it's taking all my concentration just to talk to you while keeping myself safe up here. Sorry." With that, Jean cut the connection, turning all of her attention on the fight once more. She ripped another empty building apart with her telekinesis, hurling the bits and pieces down on a column of heavy androids, massive two story monsters with heavy weapons for arms, moving through the city below. Hidden by the skyline of the buildings around the road, none of them saw the assault coming, and she grinned, before flaring her phoenix aura higher, swooping back into the dogfight around Johnny.
Susan and the others heard the booming sounds of explosions and the tortured shrieks of torn apart metal crescendo for a moment before settling down to a dull background roar. Reed shrugged. "If Betsy is with Guardian, then she is as safe as can be expected. I think Phoenix is right, we should get in contact with the rebels." With that, he led the way off the roof, his body stretching to allow his wife to ride down on his back while Britain simply flew down and the trio made their way towards the western section of the city.
OOOOOOO
It had taken forty minutes to get to Timothy, and ten minutes more to get him to trust the newcomers. That Storm was willing to supply them with weapons, and proved so by handing out several rifles and SAWs to his own rebel cell, helped immensely. They in fact called in four more cells, the ones scheduled to help him take the TV tower, for rearming. Timothy and Longshot looked on in growing shock as Ororo pulled out weapon after weapon from a bag only as large as her hand. Machine guns, crew served heavy machine guns, rifles, and even two rocket launchers were handed out, with the promise of more once they had more rebels to arm. Tony Stark had really come in for them, putting aside the numerous bugs he had tried to emplace with the shipment of course.
Eventually she, Vanguard and Longshot joined the attack on the new target, Their TV station 17, which was in the eastern side of the city. Once they took that, they could talk to the other rebel leaders elsewhere in the city, both among the actors and others working for the TV syndicates that ran nearly everything in the city, and the hundreds of invisibles.
One thing Reed's drones hadn't found out was that there was a decent sized population of humanoid slaves not involved in the TV sector. Oh, that sector was the most important in terms of the Spineless One's attention and the personal power Mojo and his very few competitors wielded, but they still needed to eat. They still needed maintenance run on the various utilities in the city, and living minds could perform many of these tasks with more initiative or simple flair than an android, no matter how advanced or well programmed could. That population was small, but extremely versatile, and all of them were willing to rise in rebellion.
At first, the group of two hundred strong rebels passed through the city with little trouble. The massive onslaught Colossus and the others were performing on the other side of the city had pulled all the attention of the security forces that way for now. Ororo had no way of knowing if that was because the androids were merely reacting as programmed, or if Mojo was the one calling the shots and thus being tricked at present with no one else to provide another point of view.
Whatever the case, they were able to attack the target tower without any of the security forces intercepting them. When they arrived however, things went south. The rebels moved in quickly, taking fire and returning fire from the dozens of gun emplacements and security stations that had been set up outside. Before Ororo and her team could move forward to provide support however, they and the rebels found they had been flanked. Fire came from the buildings to their left, and several medium-sized combat droids including several War Wolves, dropped down behind them, catching the rebel forces in a trap.
Dozens of men went down as Ororo turned shouting "Protego!" Her shield spread out, covering the men out in the open even as Coyote, who had been moving on a diagonal over the rooftops from the rebel's line of advance, took the flankers from behind. Ororo's shield held protecting the men until they could get undercover in the nearby buildings or in the rubble of the road for a few moments before shattering under the firepower hitting it.
With that done, Storm looked over to Vanguard. "Vanguard, Longshot, take out the War Wolves before they close, I'll take out the droids that are firing on us from the left!"
Under the fire from Coyote and Vanguard and Longshot taking them on from the front, the War Wolves all went down quickly, but Ororo was nearly blown out of the sky when she tried to take to the air covered by another Protego. Dozens of strangely colored energy bolts slammed into her shield, smashing it and flashing threw to burst against her body armor.
Ororo grunted under the impact, but kept going, getting into the air and taking the shooters under fire themselves, throwing powerful lightning and wind blasts down at them.
However she was stopped by a six armed woman wearing silver armor, the same that Reed had mentioned as being Mojo's chief enforcer. Spiral pointed to hands up at where Ororo was flying while her other hands pointed downward into the firefight below. Scabrous green bolts of finger sized energy shot out from her empty palms.
Again, the Protego shield availed Ororo not at all, the first bolt shattering it to allow the second in to smash into her chest. It was only because of the Orihalcum laced into her bodysuit that allowed her to survive that, but even so the heat form the blast caused her to grimace in agony.
Below, the other four magic bolts slammed into four rebels, including Alex, Timothy's second in command, who jumped in front of the bolt meant for Timothy.
Seeing that, Ororo snarled, blasting back at the woman with lightning which Spiral deflected with some kind of nunchuck which she grabbed from her belt with one arm while in her other arms continued to fire out spells.
Longshot turned form finishing the last War Wolf, jumping up and grabbing a overhanging wire and flinging himself up even higher, landing lightly on the roof right next to Spiral. His hands flashed out with knives in each hand, but Spiral's own hands moved with preternatural swiftness, moving down to her belt and coming back holding two long swords, whose shapes vaguely resembled katanas.
She easily blocked his blows, but this took enough of her attention away from Ororo for Ororo's next attack to hit her, throwing Spiral off the rooftop and into another building with hurricane force wind. With a roar Ororo called up a powerful tornado ripping and tearing the building apart, collapsing it down onto the woman.
Ororo doubted that had killed Spiral however. The speed Spiral was throwing out spells was amazing, not as fast as Harry or Dr. Strange perhaps, but certainly fast enough that she could have been able to raise a shields to protect her from the debris. "Longshot, you and Vanguard join the rebels, take that TV station! I'll handle this one, Coyote can guard my back!"
Longshot grimaced, not liking the fact that someone else was going to take Spiral on rather than him, but knowing he would be more helpful in a major battle, where his luck could work for both him and those around him. Besides, if Spiral is here, that means Quark is around somewhere, I'd love to get a piece of that bastard!
He flipped himself off the roof to join Vanguard, who was moving forward with Timothy and several others, having developed the technique of fire and maneuver. They were able to force their way forwards despite the defensive fire, and soon Vanguard was close enough to charge the entranceway. He did so, his mutant power fully activated.
With his shield up none of the incoming fire could harm him, rather it all bounce back. Nikolai had been practicing religiously with his power so he could call it up at will and for longer periods of time. He still couldn't use it for more than five minutes at a go, but that was long enough for this. Vanguard slammed into the forces stationed right around the entrance, his shield smashing into one android while his rifle stitched up several more, while behind them the rebels kept on coming.
In the main entrance hall, which was made wider than humans needed to allow for the bulk of the spineless one's hoverbeds, they ran into another group of defenders. This time they were led by a humanoid with a goat head who had heavy powerful shoulders, and goat legs, wearing armor and a heavy bandoleer of what looked like grenades. "Maa, it's the end of the line Longshot, you'll never get past Quark! Your rebellion is dooGAH!"
He was forced to dive aside as Vanguard fired at him. "Sorry, we don't have time for the normal villain speech."
"Damn you, you newb!" Quark roared, pulling out a rocket from where it had hidden behind the makeshift barrier his team of androids had put up. "You're not going to ruin my combat scene!" This caused Vanguard and the other rebels behind him to duck and cover, losing several more men when the other androids, who had actually been waiting for Quark to finish his speech, opened fire on them. "I'm the damn star of this scene!"
Longshot bounded forward, trusting to his luck based powers to keep him safe as he closed, smirking all the while as his hands flashed with his knives. "Hah, you a star!? You're nothing but a bit player Quark, and I'm going to prove it to you personally!" He was forced to retreat however as dozens of androids came off the lifts filling the air with laser fire.
Outside, Spiral smashed her way out of the rubble of the building Storm had collapsed around her. Her helmet was gone, letting her silver hair fall loose down her back, her armor was scuffed, and one of her right arms was broken, showing it was mechanical unlike her others. She ripped it off throwing it aside as she glared up at where Storm stood on the roof Spiral had originally occupied. A second later, she disappeared with a pop.
Storm's eyes widened in surprise, but she felt the air move behind her just enough to give her warning to lurch forward. This allowed her to dodge the sword thrust, but not the magic bolts that came from Spirals upper arms. She grunted in pain as they struck, but they couldn't penetrate her Orihalcum armor, even if the heat, for whatever reason, could. Storm whirled, far faster than Spiral had expected and one hand held her belt knife, thursting for a weak point on the other woman's armor.
Spiral disappeared again, but Storm was already moving. She lunged to the side, then gripped the air all around her, whipping up a sudden wind that grabbed Spiral when she appeared again throwing her aside. Still she was able to fire some more magic bolts at her opponent causing Storm to duck aside.
At this point Captain Britain and the others arrived, having not run into any trouble that caused the spells on them to fail. Spiral, warned by some sixth sense, dodged aside as a fist came out of nowhere that would have taken her head off. Even so, one of her hands pointed in that direction, firing off several bolts of magic.
"Protego! Difindo!" Storm enchanted quickly, sending out a cutting spell at Spiral at the same time she cast the shield over Reed, whose covering Disillusion was fading even as she watched. "Watch out, she uses magic!"
Spiral disappeared once more then suddenly a web of fire appeared, encasing the roof. Storm and Brian quickly flew out of the way. It nearly caught Reed and Susan, but Susan enlarged her shield to cover them both, bursting through it to the other side. Her almost fell however when dozens of green bolts slammed into it. Susan gasped, nearly brought to her knees by the effort of holding her shield against what was apparently an anti-shield spell.
"Reed, Susan get out of here, you don't have any protection against magic!" Storm shouted, then rained hundreds of lightning bolts down out of the sky in a wide arc all around their position.
Spiral screamed as two of them impacted nearby, but her teleportation ability allowed her to keep from getting hit full on. She scowled, throwing out another kind of spell with a gesture of her fingers, a yellow orange beam that nearly impacted with Storm, who threw up a Protego at the last minute. The spell splashed along it, but could not penetrate like the magic bolts Spiral had been using. Spiral cursed, then turned the same spell on Reed and Susan.
They both ducked aside, and Captain Britain zoomed in, trying to close to hand to hand with Spiral. The silver hair girl smirked, and hit him with the same spell, but then had to duck aside as it did nothing for some reason. She frowned, then switched to another kind of spell, a white and yellow one that smashed into Britain, to send him plummeting into the ground, unconscious as if he had been hit by a powerful Stupefy spell.
When she moved in for the kill however, Coyote made his presence known once more. He had been busy covering the last of the rebels as the stormed into the TV tower, taking out shooters who were trying to fire at them from the upper levels. Now he turned his gauss rifle onto the woman fighting Storm, Brian and the Fantastic couple on an even footing.
Spiral screamed in pain when the gauss bullet caught her mid-back, slamming her forward, but she rolled with it, her armor for some reason able to withstand the blow even as it cracked under the impact. She teleported away again, closing in with Storm in an effort to keep the sniper from lining up another shot until she could neutralize him.
"GO!" Ororo yelled. "You'll be more help with the rebels than out here!"
Reed and Susan exchanged a scowl but couldn't argue, magic was one area where they were at their opponent's mercy, unstable molecule uniforms could only do so much against magic. With a nod the two raced towards the building, with Coyote once more covering them while Storm, one hand wielding a katana taken from where Spiral had been forced to drop it, the other a magic laced sword of wind, began to trade blows with Spiral.
OOOOOOO
True to her word, Betsy was able to guide Harry straight to the office/ostentatious lounge/talk show area that served as the center of Mojo's business conglomerate, as he called it. Other people of course would call it an empire, despite the odd way he retained his power over his 'subjects'. They did however have a minor argument at the doorway leading into that area hearing the boisterous laughter of someone thoroughly enjoying what he was seeing inside. Betsy wanted to help Harry against Mojo, wanting to get some of her own back as well as insisting she could help Harry.
"No," Harry said calmly even as he flexed his hands, readying himself even while he noted the dark, wrathful edge to Betsy's tone. "You and I have never worked together, I have no idea how you move, what you're capable of except for those telekinetic bleeds of yours and some telepathy, which you say doesn't work or even backfires against Mojo, only the faintest idea. You are not going in there with me."
Betsy scowled but her scowl shrank as Harry went on. "There are two voices in there. Does Mojo have some kind of Vice President or something?"
"He does." Betsy smiled evilly. "A former slave of some kind whose intelligence and knowledge of what would bring in more ratings made him valuable. I have no idea what the man's name is, but yeah, he serves Mojo as some sort of chief executive."
"Good." Harry nodded sharply. "You take him out of the equation, I don't care how you do it, but we can't let someone else simply step into the leadership void while I start hammering on Mojo."
Betsy nodded, and Harry counted down on his fingers as he ripped off his invisibility cloak, it was too cumbersome to really fight in. When Harry reached zero he smashed the door in with a Reducto, then reached out with another spell to grab all the shards from the door and tossed them through as well, creating a sort of shotgun effect on the other side of the doorway.
There were six mid-size android soldiers lined up in front of the doorway, as if they were an honor guard for the man who was right behind them a sort of sallow faced old looking human male with long black hair and yellow skin every inch of it crisscrossed with what looked like circuitry. He dodged aside, but the androids were not nearly so mobile. They all were destroyed, speared, decapitated or simply torn apart by the deluge of bits and pieces of the doorway.
Mojo was much bigger in person, Harry thought sardonically as he whirled on his walker's legs from speaking into a recorder of some kind that was hovering in front of him. He laughed suddenly, clicking his fingers which turned on several cameras set into the wall frames around his studio. "Of course!" He yelled aloud. "We can't have a hostile takeover without the main man taking part! Ladies and gentlemen!" he said turning his head to declaim into the closest camera. "I bring you Mojo versus nameless other! Will Mojo succeed hah, of course he will, but! Will he kill this man too quickly for any…"
That was as far as he got before Harry transfigured the nearest recording into a sphere of metal and hurled it at his head. Mojo quickly brought up his own hands, deflecting it with a magic shield that appeared around his hand allowing it him to smack it aside.
Harry made note of that sign of magical talent, with a frown. He also began feeling some kind of magic spell or a kind of miasma around him, beating at his mind and power, but it failed to find purchase. Harry decided however not to try to close the range and drain Mojo. Something about the miasma around him told him it would be a bad idea. He turned on his mage sight, frowning as he saw very tiny lines of some kind of energy, not magic or at least not any kind of magic he was familiar with, hovering in the air, with Mojo at its center. Still, it didn't seem to be able to find any purchase on him, so he ignored it for now.
Behind him Betsy had charged the man who was just getting out of the wreckage of the androids hopefully about to take out one such individual.
Harry strode forward, leaping lightly over the piles of broken androids. "The name is Guardian, Mojo." he said calmly, that calmness being a striking dissonance in comparison to the sounds of ongoing combat ringing out over the city outside and the violence he had just unleashed. "You kidnapped a friend of mine, and I'm here to make certain that you don't do it again."
"NEVER!" Shouted Mojo, and suddenly from his back appeared some kind of scorpion tail, whose end showed several cannons of various type. At the same time fighting music began to blare out of several speakers, the song The Night, by Disturbed, though Harry didn't know enough about music to tell that. "The show only ends when this fat man says so! I'm the producer, you're just a bit player!"
The central can on his tail thing fired, and Harry dodged to one side, noting what it did in passing. It blew a hole through the intervening wall between what was possibly Mojo's sleeping area if he ever slept, and the studio where they were currently fighting.
Harry returned fire, not bothering to exchanged quips with a madman. His return shot of Diffindo slammed into a hastily repaired shield, but the impact of it nearly pushed Mojo back on those skittering little legs of his walker, making him seem unprepared for the next blows. "Rifela! Rail Gun! Fulgur Plumbum! Drill of Light!"
Each successive spell was more powerful than the last, each attack more powerful than the proceeding one, going from a single blast to a dozen to a hundred to a thousand. Mojo however simply laughed, and reinforced hid shield with one hand while directing several attack drones with the other. They had popped out of the walls everywhere around Harry, and all of them zoomed in, armed with various weapons. Several of them were very esoteric ones, simply swords sticking out of their bottoms and other things, but there were some more serious ones such as a heavy laser that seems to fire out rounds as fast as a Gatling gun.
Jumping around as much as he could Harry summoned up his own shields to block the blasts that still found him. He then slapped his hand down on the ground summoning up to golems in the form of gryphons which began to rip and tear through the drones.
"Amazing exceptional, keep it up, the people deserve a show!" Mojo yelled aloud even as he fired off several more blasts from his own weapons, more of which had appeared on the sides of his walker unit. He muttered a word in his native language, and suddenly a ball of fire appeared above his head. It then began to blast out smaller fireballs at Harry. "Violence sells! There is nothing to get the ratings up like a good murder!"
Harry laughed darkly, still moving around. With the drones now having their own issue with his two lien golems, Harry cast a quick freezing charm on the fireball that was about to hit him, going through it easily and shooting another spell to dissipate the fireball above Mojo's, while at the same time slashing at the ground sending a spell through the ground. "Terra Hasta!"
The original spears that this spell created died smashing into the shield Mojo had raised around him, but the spell itself continued on in the ground underneath, causing mojo to leap backwards to avoid being speared through his walker from below. On the heels of that one however came another spell centered on the ground, this one changing the ground into a quagmire that clung to the legs of Mojo's walker, greatly hindering his ability to move.
His opponent quickly tried to reverse that spell, but this wasn't Magneto in metal. Harry was still uncertain even now if he would be able to overcome Magneto's ability to use and control metal on his home turf so to speak, but in a battle of spell versus spell it was a different story. Harry grimly poured some more power into that spell, more than he had expected if he was honest, but not enough to worry him, keeping Mojo's counter spell at bay. At the same time Harry sent another shockwaves through the air, imitating Ororo's ability to suddenly summon up spears of hurricane force winds.
Mojo's shield still held, but it was clear now that Mojo was sweating. He spat another one word spells in his native language, sending out bolts of power from his hands, calling upon sudden lightning from the air above them, which Harry ignored, his Potter family immunity to lightning making him overconfident.
Mojo however was a little more subtle than Harry thought, and one of the lightning bolts that hit him actually contained another spell inside, one that smashed into his back with explosive force hurling him to the floor. His crysis suit and Magia Erebea spell protected him however, and he leapt to his feet quickly pressing forward grimly.
Still, that had allowed his attention to waiver just a moment for Mojo to successfully cast a spell on the ground to regain his footing, and the fat creature grinned at him evilly. "Loving it!" He pointed to one camera in particular, which had a red stripe along the side rather than the seemingly normal blue. "Make sure you keep getting me from my good side in all this!"
Harry didn't respond verbally, simply throwing more spells at him, these however were not just attack spells but area of effect spells and spells designed to attack his opponent's senses. Interspersed with the attack spells and sense attacking spells word dozens of illusions, forcing Mojo to split his attention between Harry and dozens of after images that were all around the room, also seemingly casting spells. Harry couldn't make them do that of course, but he could cast an area of effect illusion and then control that to make it seem as if he could. He also tried to transfigure the walker Mojo was riding on, but his spells couldn't find any purchase.
It took a few minutes, but eventually Harry was able to use this as cover to get in close and slap a hand on the very visibly straining magic shield covering Mojo. "Briseadh Sciath!"
The shield shattered like a pane of glass, and Mojo was open to his next spell, a supercharged lightning spear that sizzled through the intervening yards of air between them, slamming into the fat man's shoulder even as he dodged, blowing his arm off with sizzle and a shattering crack.
Even as Mojo reeled he tried to throw another spell at Harry, but Harry deftly dodged it, idly noticing it looked like some kind of black coruscating disc of red and blue swirls, almost reminding him of some of this spell Selene had used. While Mojo screamed at the pain of his arm, feeling more agony than he had ever felt before, Harry was forced to dodge again from something coming at him from behind. Looking over his shoulder as the same sphere tried to hit him from behind, somehow homing in on him.
Harry shrugged and hit it with a high-powered cancellation spell, then turned to find Mojo had skittered away deeper into the studio, now throwing even more drones after him, as well as several androids coming through the wreckage of the doorway. Harry scowled, and summoned up several more Gryphon golems. As he finished he was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue and fear that tried to tear at his mental defenses.
Behind him, Betsy had finished her task, slamming a TK blade home straight through the head of the ex-slave. She had not liked some of the books he had given her, nor did she find it particularly amusing to remember some of the suggestions he gave Mojo for using her in the future. The same wave of fear and fatigue hit her, bringing Betsy to her knees even as more androids tried to get through the wreckage by the door.
The main target of this assault however simply laughed. "If a horde of dementors couldn't make me feel despair, you certainly won't! Expecto Patronum!" A massive gold and white stag appeared seemingly made of solid magic with no need to add a more physical body, something Harry hadn't actually noticed about them before this. Now it was unmistakable, since the stag used its massive horns to gore several drones out of the air, then turned charging the doorway.
Betsy looked on in awe as the magnificent stag slammed into the horde of androids that were trying to get through the doorway, pushing back against the terror and exhaustion she had felt, leaving her once more in control of herself. Betsy pushed herself to her feet, then raced forward joining the battle with a loud yell.
Behind her Harry quickly followed Mojo, not wanting to let up for an instant.
OOOOOOO
The battle inside the TV station was indeed much more Reed and Susan's speed than a fight against a teleportation using sorceress. They found the battle inside having seesawed, with the rebels splitting up to try and get to separate lifts to take them higher into the building. Since these building had been made by spineless ones, they had no stairs per-se, only lifts and ramps. The ramps however were proving bottlenecks against the rebel assault. The fight in front of the lift was particularly vicious, since Quark was there directing the battle.
As the two experienced adventurers entered the lobby area, Longshot and Vanguard were trading shots with Quark, whil Timothy had quickly split his forces. He left six men to back up Vanguard and Longshot, while splitting his other men into two even forces, heading up the two ramps that could lead up into the rest of the building.
Susan and her husband exchanged a glance, and without a word Susan raced to catch up with one of the teams heading toward a ramp. Her shields would be of immeasurable value in such an environment. Reed however raced forward to join the fight against Quark and his troops.
Longshot ducked under a shot from Quarks rifle, returning fire with one of his knives shouting "Hah, you'll never defeat me Quark, don't you know, the star always wins!"
"Hah you're not a star anymore, Master Mojo's cancelled your contract! After all, you can't pay a dead man!" Quark reposted than had to duck from a plasma round from Nikolai.
Unfortunately that was it for Nikolai's rifle. The runic array that was part of the cooling system didn't work when separated by dimension, a problem the magic users had overlooked. Nikolai had burned it out from successive firing, and now was forced to toss it aside.
Reaching down next to the body of a dead rebel, Nikolai grabbed up the fallen man's makeshift gun, then charged forward. He used his force field to cover the distance between their positions, then smashed one android to the ground with a blow from his shield before peppering two more with large nails from the gun.
Quark however charged him in turn, and Nicolai, reaching the end of the time he could sustain his force field, dropped it to meet the other humanoid with his shield. Quark slammed a punch home into the metal shield, but Vanguard rode the blow, spinning around to land a flashing kick into Quark's side.
Quark retaliated, slamming his head down with punching force onto Vanguard's sending him reeling to the ground.
That was when Reed arrived. He threw his arms around the genetically modified humanoid encasing him in rubber. Longshot moved forward, quickly slamming the pommel of one of his knives home right behind the man's head. Quark slumped unconscious in Mr. Fantastic's grip who looked at Longshot quizzically.
Longshot shrugged, looking uncomfortable for a moment. "There was a time when Quark was just an actor like the rest of us. If Mojo did something to him, some kind of mental brainwashing or something, well, I can't fault him for what he's done since. Besides," he smirked. "He always was one of the better muscle type villains I ever faced."
Reed nodded and Longshot beckoned two of the rebels forward, who took the prisoner from Reed and tied him up while Reed joined Vanguard and Longshot in the lift. He looked at Vanguard, who was shaking his head groggily. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay, the mask portion of my outfit doesn't have a lot of protection from simple impacts though. That guy's head was really hard!"
The others laughed ad Nikolai while the lift carried them up. Thanks to the lift, they were able to bypass much of the fighting on the other levels, and went straight for the command center for the tower.
Here they ran into further resistance in the shape of dozens of fun ports that opened up from the walls and ceiling, even the floor. Longshot leaped and twisted his way through their beams, trusting in his acrobatic skills and luck to get him through, having been down to just two knives now he couldn't afford to throw them. Reed used his power to simply slip, slide, and stretch his way through them, while Vanguard and the rebels laid down covering fire.
Twenty minutes later they were in the control room, where Longshot and Vanguard took the lead, not wanting any of the computer stations to be damaged. Vanguard took another blow, this time from a android who slammed his stomach into the red-clad human's midsection, but his armor withstood the impact, dispersing it easily. Longshot got through without even a scratch.
Reed pushed a decapitated android out of a chair and quickly began to type in commands. "Interesting, the controls and programming is all in English?"
"Oh yes, the androids aren't the only ones who use these systems, slaves sometimes do too. In fact that was the whole reason we knew we could use Mojo's own airwaves against him to spread the word. I guess at some point the spineless ones did this for themselves, but I don't remember any spineless one but Mojo taking part in anything that could be called work."
The former actions star knew he was babbling a little, as he frantically tried to figure out the controls to the various systems. Just because slaves knew how to do it did not mean he did after all, but he knew there was some kind of local area command switch, that he could use to force all the androids in the building to obey him.
"Hmm, I think I can do one better than that. Hmmm…" Reed typed away at the computer for a moment, then he smiled faintly. "Ah, there we go." A moment later all the androids in the building ceased to function, shutting down on command. "Now, lets see about this signal. Did you know these radio towers are all linked? I think it might be possible, yes, I can hack into the signals coming from the other towers, use them to carry your call to arms. I can even… hmm… I can even cut out Mojo's spire from the TV network. He probably has some override or something, but I assume we can trust Mr. Potter is distracting him sufficiently. Grab a microphone Longshot, you're about to go live across the entire city!"
Longshot grinned, and reached over to pick up a headset.
OOOOOOO
Mojo turned at bay in the direct center of what was obviously his command center for the majority of his media-based empire. Hundreds of different TV screens were everywhere, many of them on some kind of robotic arm. These automatically moved towards Mojo as he entered only to be smacked aside by his one remaining hand angrily while he turned to face the way he came.
Once Harry was in the doorway however he began to hammer Harry with spells, flames, darkness and pure magic spells for the most part, which Harry blocked deflected or shielded himself from with one hand while returning fire with the other. Busy as he was on defense however he could only use low who scare to medium scale spells, which Mojo's shield, once again thrown up around him could withstand. Changing tactics Harry suddenly apparated, causing Mojo's eyes to widen.
He looked around wildly, but Harry reappeared directly behind him slamming his hand into the shield once more shattering it with the same spell as before. The next second a Magia Erebea enhanced fist slammed into Mojo's porcine face throwing him backwards.
Mojo's walker automatically compensated for the force of the throw as well as reacting to the danger of its controller, two of its legs twisting in place to spear through where Harry was floating in midair.
Harry dodged them, reaching out to grab one of them at the same time. He pulled sharply, ripping the lower half of it off, and turned trying to use is as a spear on Mojo's fat stomach. He was caught by Mojo's flailing hand however and flung aside by the force of the blow though that was simply because he was so light himself rather than the fact it did any damage. Harry rolled with it, coming up on his knees to block the next blast, but he winced when a shard of steel broke through his shield to let in another of those odd spheres of coruscating blue and red to slam into his thigh. Thankfully his armor was up to the task of taking it, helped by his Magia Erebea.
This gave Mojo time to hastily raise his shield again and begin preparing another spell, but suddenly he wavered, looking around wildly. Harry's eyebrows shot up, the haze of minute particles of that odd magic he had never seen before, the ones that had been running into Mojo since the fight began, were gone now. "What… No… who said to go to commercial damn it!"
"Drill of Light! Fulgur Plumbum!" Harry didn't know what was going on, but he sure as hell was willing to capitalize on it. He slammed spells into Mojo's shield, hundreds thousands of drills shrieking and drilling into it breaking it once more, allowing the next spell to hammer into his body causing a tremendous amount of damage despite Mojo's high level of magical immunity.
The spineless one's ruler howled. "You can't do this to me, don't you know who I am! I AM this town!"
"A little fish in a small pond is what you are." Harry said coldly, and lining up for another shot. He grimly took three laser blasts from defensive stations set into the ceiling to concentrate on casting his next spell. "Fragor unda fortitudine!" This was the same spell he had used as a 'doorknocker' on Mephisto's castle, albeit much less powerful and more controlled.
It came out as a tight beam, sweeping aside the two attack spells Mojo had thrown up before spearing through the hastily raised shield Mojo had thrown up. It caught Mojo in the face, disintegrating his head, sending bits and pieces of gore everywhere.
With no mind to direct it Mojo's walker slumped to the floor, and mojo's fat corpse rolled off it. Harry however was not done, they didn't know anything about the physiology of these spineless ones, and Harry wasn't about to take the chance that they had a second brain somewhere or something like that which could regenerate the rest of the body from even decapitation.
To that end he hit the body with Blackfyre, which turned the body to ash in short order, along with slagging the remains of the walker before he cancelled the spell. He smirked a little, unable to stop himself even as he winced at a few bruises and cuts on his face and hands that he hadn't noticed during the fight. "And that's a wrap, ladies and gentlemen!"
OOOOOOO
Outside, the commandeered TV station, the battle between Spiral, Wyatt and Ororo continued. Thanks to her ability to teleport without any warning, her general speed, and the power behind her spells, Spiral fought both of them on an equal footing until she caught Wyatt with a magic bolt that slammed into him just as he was teleporting in, somehow having figured out his pattern. Thanks to the armor the Native American biathlete was wearing, he wasn't that badly harmed, but the spell still knocked him out.
Spiral then turned her attention to Ororo, but she was prepared. Having retreated to a rooftop that was almost entirely flat, Storm turned at bay, throwing out lightning and wind at Spiral as spiral closed the distance, using her magic only to protect herself. "You can't win!" Spiral shouted, breaking her silence. "Surrender, and Master Mojo will give you a fair contract! He's always looking for new leading ladies!"
"I think not." Storm murmured, even as she blocked the incoming magic bolts Spiral hurled at her. The two exchanged assaults, with Storm staying put for some reason, while Spiral teleported all around her while Ororo concentrated, feeling out the wind and air, trying to predict her opponents movements, something she had been trying to do since the fight began. At last she knew what to look for to predict where Spiral would appear. Then she shouted "Bombarda!" the most powerful spell currently in her repertoire, pointing a finger where the air had just begun to ripple slightly.
The spell caught Spiral just as she was teleporting in, throwing her aside with a cry, one arm a blackened and smashed wreck. Still she had managed do dodge most of it, and her reflexes allowed her to roll with the explosion. There however she ran into a problem. "Wha-!"
Ororo had prepared herself much like she had so long ago when she wanted fight Jean in the Danger Room. She had lowered the temperature just a few inches right along the rooftop, coating it in a slim layer of ice. The Ice stopped Spiral from regaining her footing, allowing Storm to press her advantage.
A lightning blast smashed into Spiral. She cried out but fought back, slamming three of her working arms onto the ground hard enough to guage her fingers into the ice to stabilize herself while the forth shot another spell at Ororo, before she teleported, appearing in the air right in front of Ororo, one leg raining down blows at the other woman.
Ororo however could feel where she was about to teleport to. She dodged back then slammed her hand, covered with hurricane force winds moving as fast as she could make them, into Spiral. Her armor amazingly held for a moment before giving way with a tremendous squeal of tortured metal. Spiral screamed as her body began to be torn away, yet despite her pain she was able to punch Ororo away.
The two combatants pushed themselves to their feet, staring at one another. Even with her Orihalcum armor, Ororo was feeling it by this point, sore, weary, and with at least one cracked rib despite her protection. And she knew that most of her magical defenses were gone by this point, overwhelmed by Spiral's magical assaults.
On the other hand, Spiral was a more than little crispy and battered around the edges. She had taken numerous near misses from Ororo's lightning attacks, one or her arms was useless, her armor was nearly gone front to back, hanging on by slim pieces of shoulder plate, her weapons were gone, dropped throughout the fight, her headpiece was gone and half her hair gone, and she was holding her side gingerly with one of her remaining arms.
Even so, she was the first to stand upright. Spiral flicked her fingers on three of her hands, all of which filled with magical power while Ororo wearily rose into the air, preparing herself.
Suddenly Spiral twitched, then again. Ororo frowned, wondering what was going on, then gasped as Spiral collapsed to the rooftop like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Still wary, Ororo sent a small zephyr at the other woman's body. Nothing happened but the other woman's hair moving under the wind.
Ororo sighed, her shoulders relaxing. "I have no idea what just happened, but goddess I am glad for it. Yet, why do I think my Harry has something to do with this?" So saying, she gathered her powers and froze the other woman to the rooftop, then flew off, back to the TV station the rebels had taken.
OOOOOOO
Generally speaking, after that it was all over bar the shouting. Thanks to Reed taking over all of the broadcasts, the Spineless Ones had been cut off from Mojo, and not a one of them had shown the ability to actually function without the constant TV broadcasts. Even the other media moguls who had at one point been real threats to Mojo's monopoly had long since lost the ability to concentrate long enough to do anything. Harry estimated it had also been this act that had so thoroughly weakened Mojo in some fashion, though how that could be he couldn't say.
Thousands of the pathetic aliens had died in the fighting throughout the city, not because they in any way took part, but because they were in buildings the fighting had demolished. It was a very rare Spineless One who could even figure out how to do anything beyond order food or change the channel on their specially made hover chairs, so none of them had even thought of, much less been able to, run or even hide when the fighting rolled over their buildings.
While Reed and Susan seemed to be saddened by this, Harry and the others couldn't bring themselves to care. If there was ever a race that was an evolutionary dead end, it was the Spineless Ones. Harry had no idea what would happen to them, and frankly couldn't care less. Their vaunted technology had left them with almost nothing in the way of drive or physical ability, and it had come back to haunt them.
With Mojo's very public and very violent execution his loyal humanoid servants had surrendered. Harry was of a mind to either imprison them or banish them somehow, but Longshot spoke up for them, mentioning that at one point Spiral in particular had been one of the backers of the rebellion before she had become one of Mojo's major stars and from there segueing into one of his enforcers.
The rebellion had lost upwards of a hundred and fifty men in the assault on the TV Tower they had initially taken, most of those in the fighting outside the building thanks to Reed and Susan's role in taking the interior. Casualty reports were still coming in from the fighting throughout the city, however, but the main fighting had died down now. Pockets of androids here and there were still holding out, obeying orders to fight against the rebellion that Mojo had sent before Harry had attacked him, but they were no longer any real threat. Ben, Colossus and Magma, who had a rather amusing reaction when she saw Longshot, had destroyed the majority of their depots throughout the city.
"Should we leave the weapons we brought with us here with the rebels?" Jean asked.
She and the others were standing around Harry on top of a rooftop looking down at Longshot, Timothy and two other survivors of the rebellion's High Council while they continued to organize things. Harry and Ororo, who was now leaning against her lover's shoulder, tired beyond belief, had taken two hours to do what they could for the wounded, and had dropped off several hundred potions to aid in that endeavor going forward.
That was after Ororo had to smack some sense into Harry about his concern over her wounds and his anger at Spiral, alas. She was not a doll, and refused to let such thoguhts grow in Harry's head. She was a warrior and wore her bruises proudly.
Strangely enough the most necessary for the wounded amongst the rebel injured was the blood replenishing potion. The gene banks, the places where the humanoid slaves had all been created, had seen some of the heaviest fighting, and had been smashed into disrepair so no one was able to tell anything about their medical history or even their blood type. The other potions were also a big hit, saving lives and limbs, and winning the earthmen even more good will.
"No, its not like the weapons we gave them were any better than the ones the androids used, they could just as easily make their own now as keep the ones we gave them." Harry replied. "No, I think we can trust the former slaves to put together a proper government, not one with piratical or imperial leanings. In fact, I think we're done here."
"I definitely agree with that." Ororo murmured shaking her head from where it rested on Harry's shoulder. "And I think that Longshot at the very least has his head screwed on somewhat straight. If they can get over the fact that there is more to the world then can be shown in TV screens, and stop posing for the cameras, they'll be fine."
Ben laughed quietly. He and Colossus had had a pretty easy time of it all things considered. Yeah they had been banged around many times by super-strong androids, but in the end the spineless ones really hadn't had anything that could kill either one of them. Batter and bruise yes but kill no, not with Spiral and her magics pinned down by Ororo.
Not that this was something Ben wanted to do ever again. "It isn't every day that you help a rebellion to over throw off a dictator, and hopefully watch the beginnings of a new democratic government." Indeed, they could see what looked like a vote of some kind down below, which resulted in Longshot and Timothy taking bows before several dozen other men and women. "But still, I can hear my extra-large bed calling for me."
Harry looked over at Reed and Susan, and both nodded in agreement. After saying their farewells to the rebel leadership, they left without any fanfare, with Betsy and Brian leaving the way. The two of them had quite a bit of catching up to do, telling one he another what had happened since Betsy had been taken. Reed had volunteered to look after her and run some tests on her cybernetics, to make sure that there were no hidden surprises there before letting the two of them head home.
In the Baxter Building, Betsy stopped Harry and Ororo as they made their way towards the teleportation room, with Jean in front of them gently needling Magma on her blushing response to Longshot. The geologic manipulator didn't really understand why she had been reacting so strongly to the TV star, and confessed to having had a very odd moment there.
Amara noticed and smiled very slightly at the look of relief on Piotr's face at that. She took his hand when he held it out his solicitously as she made her stumbling way into the teleportation area, more exhausted then she had ever been from her continued use of her powers. Which included, at Longshot's behest, shutting down the tiny volcano she had created. That had actually been more difficult than creating it in the first place.
Ororo and Betsy looked at one another smiling. Then Betsy turned to Harry. "Is there room on your team for me?"
Harry frowned a little. "Realize that I'm not at all comfortable with a government spy on my team." I'm not even particularly enthused about Banshee being one for Interpol, but his expertise in the area of law enforcement and their contacts will probably be necessary in the future so I can put up with that. "You would have to agree to cut ties to the British Government before I say yes, and you would need to agree to be trained as well."
"I'll quit my job then." Betsy said firmly. My brother Brian can continue to stand for our family with the government. I want to broaden my horizons, to do good for the entire world not just the United Kingdom, and I think I can do that best as a part of your team."
Harry and Ororo looked at one another, communicating in that way that couples often did. Finally, Ororo nodded smiling at her friend. "We would be happy to have you, as long as you get cleared medically by Reed of course. How long should that take?"
"Finding anything physical will take only a few hours, even with her cybernetic eyes. I would like however to look at the technology there, specifically the technology and programming that connects her eyes to her brain. It's an area of interest that I haven't gone to before." Reed said, not mentioning that he and Susan would also be monitoring the young woman for any mental issues brought upon by her time in captivity. She seemed to have born up under it extremely well all things considered. Yet Reed knew that such captivity left scars of the mind, especially when your mind had been controlled to keep you as a slave.
Jean heard that and looked over at her them from the entrance to the teleportation area. "That's an excellent idea! Think of what that could mean for people who have lost their eyesight to warfare or accidents!"
"Just so." Reed nodded. Of course to make certain that this signals heading into their brain could not be piggybacked for any reason, either to simply see what the person is seeing, or to modify that imagery in some fashion will take several days. I'm not as good at programming as I am at electronics or pure science." He made that admission without any sign of false hubris. He was in fact one of the best at programming, what he was not, was fast at it. "It will take me some time to make certain that there isn't any malware as it were inside the eyes. After that however I see no reason why she couldn't join your team Mr. Potter."
Harry smiled, reaching over and shaking Betsy's hand firmly. "When you're cleared then we'll welcome you aboard. Wyatt, are you going to stay here?"
Wyatt nodded from where he had been peeling off his armor, handing them over to Vanguard, wincing occasionally from chaffs and from a large bruise on his forehead. "I think I will remain. The Fantastic Four is often attacked in their home base, and could use some help at such times. I will however stop by ever day for training, and will always be available should you need me on a mission."
Harry nodded. "Excellent." With that, he and Ororo bid farewell to the FF and their guests, turning to teleport back home, exhausted, battered, but happy.