Chapter 68 - 68 No Rest for the Weary

On the way down the stairs from the Baxter Building's roof, Harry sent out several text messages. The first was to the Ancient One. [Everything has been resolved, I'll head over for a debrief after settling matters in New York.]

Harry got a reply, [Please do. The future is restored thankfully.]

Harry wondered if he would have considered calling Xavier if the Ancient One hadn't basically told them he was going to lose. The only reason they had a chance was because of Magneto and he only acted because Xavier had informed him of the situation. Not only did his act of sacrificing Asteroid M buy them time, it also gave Harry the opening he needed to free Norrin Radd from Galactus's control which is what gave Harry the info needed to get the Quest.

Harry next sent a group text to his girls. It was actually still morning and they might not have woken up yet. [Big thing happened this morning. It was solved, I'll give details at dinner.]

Harry expected that they might end up angry at Harry for not including them in this mess. They could have ȧssisted the Four with stalling Galactus, but the Quest only said to have the Four stall. Harry figured it was because of their level. His girls were far more powerful than the Fantastic Four and may have caused Galactus to become irritated faster. Though powerful, Harry didn't ȧssume they were powerful enough to survive Galactus's ire.

The next text was to Xavier. [If you didn't already notice, Galactus was sent packing. See if you can get Erik to come over, I want to speak with you both about a few matters.]

Harry got a reply, [It will be done. I'll text you when he arrives.]

The last text Harry sent was to Link. [Find a big piece of land preferably an island, the bigger the better, that can be acquired through legal means.]

Moments later his phone's screen was directed to a page with the top ten best results found. Harry used Technopathy to connect to the phone and went over the details.

Relatively speaking, there were no pieces of land on Earth that weren't owned by someone so 'through legal means' basically meant somewhere that no one cared about a revolution. The top result was not the largest island available, it was only about a third the size of the state of New York and located north of Madagascar, but the details about who owned the island definitely had Harry's attention.

Harry messaged back that he wanted a list of plans to be made available and to discuss them with the Goblins. They hadn't had a good war in a while and the self isolated circumstances of this island nation was perfect for one. Genosha wouldn't know what hit it.

Harry was also checking out the reactions from the world. The Planetship was invisible to low level beings and any normal camera that looked at it would be instantly covered in static. A number of people were able to filter out the static, some better than others, and many saw the blurry planet ship while a few with real skill saw the entire sphere and even Galactus himself with crystal clarity.

Then there was the fight with the Fantastic Four against Galactus's goons and the Silver Surfer facing off against Galactus himself. None of the goons nor the Surfer were covered by static so any recordings of them were crystal clear.

And of course there was Galactus's voice. Though his image was blurry or covered in static or crystal clear depending on the camera operator, his voice was clearly recorded as it echoed very well.

Not all of the fights were seen of course. The Baxter Building was the tallest building in the area so even if witnesses stood on adjacent roofs, they could only film the flight of the Surfer and Johnny while only catching glimpses of the other two aliens when their fight was seen near the ledges.

Though Reed's computers were very good, they didn't have any defense against Technopathic hacking so Harry was already editing the footage to show Reed using the Nullifier while removing himself from the film with Link's help. Harry's voice was also being removed and replaced with Reed's and since Harry didn't shout, none of the witnesses from the adjacent buildings heard him speak with Galactus.

According to the footage and anything witnesses would see, the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer fought against Galactus, then Reed showed Galactus the Nullifier and shot it into the clouds, breaking them apart and scaring Galactus into retreating. Reed then offered a giant pie to Galactus delivered by Susan's force fields and, for some reason, he pied himself in the face with it and walked away.

Yeah, Harry wasn't going to leave out his masterpiece from the footage.

Now he just had to bribe his students enough to go along with the story and take the credit. The longer Harry could remain 'low' profile when it came to abilities, the more pranks he could pull on those who didn't know what he could do.

In addition to everything else, Harry also wanted to make a few plans to prevent this from happening again. Harry didn't know how many World Devourers were out there but Galactus may not have been the only one. Harry wondered if he could just ask Jean to give him the locations of those Planets that needed to burn and he could use their locations as a bargaining chip, but Harry doubted it.

The Phoenix burning a world was different from Galactus devouring one. A Burnt world would be wreathed in Phoenix Flames and would be granted new life meaning any world burnt by the Phoenix would one day grow into a flourishing new world. From what Harry understood on how Galactus's Devouring worked, there would be nothing left but a husk afterwards and there would be no way to return life to a devoured world.

Jean got those planets from the Phoenix and the Phoenix may not have been ok with killing the chosen planets completely instead of allowing them to be reborn in fire. Still, it was worth a shot. Harry would send Jean a message later and maybe get back from the Phoenix some details about Galactus.

Otherwise, it might be a good idea to cultivate other planets. Like what if Jean and Harry covered Mars in Phoenix flames to burn the surface and convert it directly into life force and then Harry planted algae and various seeds over the planet which absorbed the lifeforce to grow? The planet would be a bit smaller if he did that, but it might work. Or perhaps Harry could create a means using what he learned from the Silver Surfer's Surfboard to create a system that could generate Power Cosmic? If he could perfect such a system, he could feed it black holes and convert their energies directly into Power Cosmic.

Of course, such plans would take a while to implement but Harry probably had time so it wasn't an issue.

Once Harry and the Fantastic Four had returned to their lab, Harry said, "Alright, whose first?"

Johnny quickly said, "Yeah I got one. Who are you really?"

Harry considered it and said, "Husband, student, teacher, prankster, practitioner of most forms of magic, billionaire, warrior, inventor, and part time protector. Part time because it's more of a hobby than a calling."

He was also a mutant, an obscurus in human form, and a gamer, but he didn't want to give away all of his secrets. Not just yet anyways.

Before anyone could ask a different question, Reed asked, "What did you mean when you told Galactus you were a chosen of the Living Tribunal, Eternity, Infinity, Lady Death, and the Phoenix Force?"

Harry considered it and said, "I died when I was nine and for some random reason, those guys, who are big shots in the universe, brought me back to life and gave me some abilities. I was never told the reason they did so, but a few years back the Phoenix Force did tell me I could do whatever I wanted with those abilities."

Johnny was quick to ask, "What sort of abilities?"

"A few. The main one being direct energy manipulation, what others might call Magic, Sorcery,, Extra-reality Programming. I had to spend a long time learning how to use it but I can do a lot right now."

Susan then asked a question no one in the room was expecting, "Were you the one who saved the Shuttle?"

Three pairs of eyes turned to face Susan before turning back to Harry.

The latter smiled and answered back, "I wondered if you could see that. Yes, that was me. Since you know about that, I might as well come clean with a few other things."

Ben exclaimed, "Wait a minute, you're the one who steered the Shuttle back when everything was on the fritz?"

Reed added, "I confirmed the auto-pilot was completely disabled so some external force must have been behind it."

Harry nodded and said, "Well, remember my TV appearance? I referenced some powerful ancient Egyptian mutants and someone watched that and actually opened the tomb of the guy I was referencing. Turns out he wasn't dead. Once he woke up, he enabled a system which launched those pyramids into the sky and turned the sky purple."

Johnny asked, "Wait, that was made by some old Egyptian guy?"

Reed said, "It would explain the structure's form."

Harry continued, "The purple sky was the prelude to something much worse so I made a portal and used it to shoot the pyramid with magic and the Egyptian guy showed up and tried to kill me. I had backup and friends there with me and together we fought and beat him. According to his monologue, the pyramids were a part of a Mutant Ascension System which would awaken the dormant X-Gene in everyone on the planet."

"After beating him, I fired more magic at the main pyramid which caused the little ones to explode. The system was disabled but the main pyramid didn't explode, so I left it alone since I had other things to do at the time."

Ben frowned and repeated back, "You left it alone."

Harry nodded. "It was my wedding day."

"When I found out you guys were going to investigate it, I gave you those shield designs since those should have protected you from any form of energy the Pyramid generated. I just didn't expect things to go so wrong."

After a few moments of silence, Susan sighed and said, "I can't blame you Professor. You did what you felt you could."

Harry gave an awkward smirk and said, "Well, when the shuttle started its crash course, I went back into space and used some unique means to control the descent of the shuttle."

Rather than let the awkward mood settle in further, Reed asked, "How did you find Galactus's Home World and the Nullifier so quickly?"

Reed could guess how large the area Harry had to search for was and Harry had found it in under ten minutes.

"One of the abilities I got when I came back to life was an innate sense of how to solve certain problems, but only after I learned of their existence. Once Norrin Radd told us about the Ultimate Nullifier, that sense kicked in and told me the direction of the Nullifier. I made portal after portal to narrow down in the Universe where my sense was pointing until I found it. I'm pretty sure that this sense was gifted to me by a very powerful being called the Living Tribunal, though it was gifted on a whim. Once I got the Nullifier, the manual for how to use it appeared in my possession and I'm pretty sure that too was given by the Living Tribunal. Beings on that level won't interfere with beings on our level but giving me a direction and showing me how to use that weapon was not a large enough matter to be considered interference. I did most of the work myself."

Ben said, "So youse got some friends in high places, guardian angels like."

Harry considered it and said, "I'm not sure if I'd put it that way but it's not entirely wrong. However what activates that sense and what does not are not in my control in the slightest."

Johnny said, "Sounds like a video game, quests and stuff."

Trying not to smirk, Harry pretended to ponder over the 'analogy' and said, "I guess you can consider it like that."

Harry spoke as if he was speaking about the weather, but the Four were stunned at the content of the conversation. Harry inwardly smirked at having successfully broken them. Now to go in for the kill.

"After coming back to life, I spent a year in a Scottish Castle learning Wizard Magic. A lot of evil wizards tried to kill me and I took all their money and invested it into a company. Then I spent two years in a Temple in Tibet learning Sorcery. I then got American Citizenship and spent two years at a High School in Salem learning under Dr. Hank McCoy and Johnathan Silvercloud and got my Doctorate while expanding my company. I used what I learned of magic energy to create Metaphysics and then I applied for a position at NYU and that's my story."

All four of the world's first Superhero Team stood there gapping at the simplistic summary.

Harry smiled and said, "No more questions? Alright. Oh, and I edited the footage of that fight and removed myself from it. If anyone asks, tell them the Silver Surfer gave you the Nullifier and you were stalling until you could make it work and then you used it to fix the sky and threaten Galactus."

Susan was the first to recover and asked, "Wait, but why?"

The others looked like they were about to convince Harry to take the credit for saving the world, but Harry replied back with a smile, "If they know what I can do, I can't prank them anymore. Pranks are far more important to me than credit, so please do me a favor and don't let the world know I did anything, Make something up please."

That logic would not make any sense when it came to anyone else, but Harry took the time to hold back the Devourer of Worlds so he could trick him into pieing himself in the face. Harry did not work on normal logic.

Reed sighed and said, "Very well. We'll come up with something believable to cover for you."

Ben understood that Harry was pushing the problems ȧssociated with this mess on them and said, "Fine, but if we need something later and you skimp out on us, I'll make sure everyone in the future calls us the Fantastic Five."

Harry visibly flinched at that making Johnny give a predatory look. "Yeah, I wonder what your name will be? Wizard? Professor?"

Susan wanted to get in on pranking Harry back and said, "I don't know. Harry gives me the feeling of some old guy who spends all his time in a cave on the mountain so maybe Hermit? Or Sage, the wise and powerful."

Harry got goosebumps and said with a whimper, "Please no. stop."

Reed chuckled and said, "He does have that ancient, all knowing vibe doesn't he."

Harry apparated out of there before he took any more mental damage. The cameras built into the lab he turned off with his technopathy would turn back on when he left and he'd already said everything he wanted to say.

After escaping from the Baxter Building, Harry took out the long distance communicator which let him stay in contact with Jean and sent a long message. When Harry moved to the States, he built a Quantum Entanglement Communication system he used to avoid long distance charges, but that system was heavily reliant on magic and didn't work so far away from Harry. He'd tried to make a few similar systems which could be used at any range, but they hadn't worked out forcing Harry to rely on AstralTech for now.

Magneto hadn't gotten to Xavier's yet so Harry made a portal to Kamar-Taj and arranged for a meeting with the Ancient One. Wong was waiting and Harry got out his best tea once he arrived at the table.

The Ancient One took a sip and with a calming breath said, "Alright, please begin."

Harry nodded and told her everything that happened. About the Silver Surfer who sent the Beacon before Harry could do anything. About Galactus and his world devouring cloud. About calling Xavier and the world's failure to attack the ship. And about Asteroid M and Norrin Radd's release and the quest.

Then Harry told her of his tracking of Galactus's Home World, about going back in time and sending an SOS to Asgard, and breaking in and getting the Nullifier and getting the manual. He explained what Sublime was and why he decided to use the Nullifier on it before he headed over to threaten Galactus which got him to leave.

Harry refilled the Ancient One's cup twice during the tale and Harry could tell she was rattled. She could have escaped to another realm or plane of existence but the Sorcerer Supreme was one who went down with the ship. Her only option had Harry been unable to stop the end of the world would have been to use the Time Stone but that would have merely delayed the end of the world.

Even if the Time Stone was used to defeat Galactus, the energy released for such a massive usage would tell the whole of the universe about its presence on earth and probably invite something just as bad as Galactus to earth. All magic comes with a price after all.

Of course since even Time Energy can be devoured by Power Cosmic and converted, it wasn't a guarantee that would have worked anyways.

After sitting in silence for a few moments, the Ancient One said, "I agree that a plan B must be devised to prevent this from happening again. If you need any ȧssistance, please keep me informed."

Harry informed her of the possibility of creating another planet rich in life he could use as a bargaining chip. That or a way to protect the planet. It had been hours since the SOS was sent and no word had been heard from Asgard and neither expected them to respond meaning Asgard was a poor choice for a plan B.

The title of Sorcerer Supreme was not as grand as one would think. It was granted to the most powerful magic practitioner on the planet or dimension, but Earth was not the only planet with a Sorcerer Supreme. The powerful beings that the Ancient One and those who came before her defended the Earth against were, in the grand scheme of things, basically pirates and rogues. Powerful on a planetary scale, but in a Universal Scale, not so much.

Galactus was on a completely different level than anything any Sorcerer Supreme has ever, in the history of earth, successfully defended against. The only times that anything came close, the reason they survived was because they hugged the shin of something more powerful, like the Allfather Odin Borson.

Thankfully it worked out and the Ancient One was highly pleased with her student. She had taught him when fighting something more powerful the best option was to borrow the name of someone bigger and bluff like your life depended on it. Harry had pretty much done just that.

Even after Doctor Stephen Strange became the Sorcerer Supreme, Harry would still, in her mind, have that title as well.

The actual definition of Sorcerer Supreme was, 'The practitioner of the mystic or magic arts who has greater skills than all others or commands a greater portion of the ambient magical energies than any other organism on a given world or dimension.'

Because the word 'Or' was used in the definition, if there was a Sorcerer who commanded a greater portion of the ambient energies of the world but was weaker than another Sorcerer who possessed more skill in the mystic arts than the former and all others on the planet, then both would actually have the title.

The Ancient One was, for now, more skilled than Harry in the Mystic Arts and she controlled the greatest portion of the planet's energies. Harry never used Evocation Magic so the amount of ambient energy he could use would never match a master of evocation. Evocation masters borrowed the names of Realm Lords to control the energies of those realms while Harry always controlled those energies manually.

According to what she'd seen, Stephen Strange would grasp the command of energies unlike any other before her and become a powerful Sorcerer Supreme who would far exceed her. He would also be a master of Evocation and be capable of using vast amounts of power. However, she felt that even at his peak, Stephen's skill when it came to magic may never exceed Harry's.

The pair discussed matters of great and of little importance for some time until Harry got a text from Xavier that Erik had arrived at the institute. Harry said his farewells to the Ancient One and made a portal to the Institute.

Charles and Erik were waiting with the latter in full metal armor. Without wasting words, Erik said, "I'm glad to see you're not dead." He'd been fully informed of the power of Galactus. Otherwise, he'd never have been so decisive in the sacrifice of Asteroid M.

Harry nodded and took out a hologram projector and placed it on a table.

"This is an island called Genosha. The ruler of the land has every child tested for an unawakened X-Gene and if found, the child is forced to undergo a treatment to turn them into an Brainwashed Enhanced who is added to the ruler's army and used to suppress the locals."

Being friends with Charles and being a self proclaimed mutant leader, Erik was not a layman when it came to genetics. He asked, "What does this island have to do with anything?"

Harry brought up a few U.N. Charters and said. "I would not have had the time to do what was needed without your sacrifice and you sacrificed a lot, so I am in your debt. This island nation is in a temperate climate and far from the control of the U.N. but ideally placed for shipping and travel. Because the country actively violates human rights, they have no protection granted by the U.N. and within six months, I will be removing the current government from power and giving full control of this island to you."

""What?!"" Apparently both were surprised.

Harry continued, "If you become the leader of Genosha, you will have Diplomatic Immunity meaning your crimes until now will no longer matter. As long as you follow U.N. guidelines, you can choose your own laws and if you want, have a mutant only country."

Erik was only stunned for a moment before he stared thoughtfully at the hologram.

Xavier asked, "This is.. legal?"

Harry smiled, "Oh yes. Of course, I'm 85% sure if Erik leads his own, mutant only country, he'll eventually use it to declare war on others. Because of that, you will help him with the country."

Erik looked at Harry with a slight bit of amusement at Harry's accurate presumption and said, "If our people are all gathered in one place, we would simply be putting a target on our backs."

Harry nodded. "You were already prepared for that with Asteroid M. Completely your plan with Asteroid M would have made you the greatest enemy on the planet simply because of your position. Becoming the leader of Genosha will have the opposite effect which will increase the rate of migration."

Harry added, "I also found the one responsible for causing humans to hate mutants and I killed him earlier today."

""What?!""

Harry wondered if there was an echo.

Harry asked Xavier, "Before the clouds broke up, did you notice the static of the Astral Plane vanished?"

Xavier nodded. There had always been static in the astral plane, but suddenly it was gone. He had no idea why.

Harry continued, "There was a parasitical, bacterial, psionic entity on the planet that was unable to infect mutants so it wanted to kill all the mutants on earth. That static was a low level telepathic field over the planet which caused people to mistrust mutants. I stole a weapon that could delete anything from Galactus's planet and used it to threaten Galactus with. Before doing so though, I used it to delete that bacteria off the planet."

Xavier's eyes widened and hundreds of pieces fell together in his mind. He'd always know the fear of mutants was irrational, but never understood the cause.

Harry said, "From now on, people will only fear mutants if you give them a reason to." He gave a poignant look at Erik and said, "In addition to removing the current regime, I'll also arrange some farm lands and reshape the land a bit. I'll get the details to you in two weeks and we can discuss how you want to build your capital."

Xavier asked, "Why would you do so much? What would you have to gain?"

Harry shrugged. Giving the Goblins a chance to let loose was already a decent reason. If he wanted to gain something, he'd had Erik meet the Goblins and they could discuss business. Since Harry was married to Erik's daughter, Erik could be brought into the fold of Magic, the same way Vernon could be informed about magic 2nd hand through his wife who was a muggleborn's sister.

Harry answered, "Someone who uses magic cares a great deal more about debts than most. Erik sacrificed his most valued possession and in doing so, save my life. Yes, he saved his own life and everyone else on the planet's life too, but that doesn't make it any less meaningful to pay him back with something of equal or greater value than what he gave up."

Erik had remained silent for a moment but said, "Very well. I accept your offer."

Harry nodded and brought up documents, maps, charts and figures for the region and explained everything about it detail by detail over the next few hours.

Eventually they finished discussing the preliminary discussions and Harry returned home. Not just because of the black clouds and the news, but because of the after effects of Sublime's Deletion, classes had been cancelled for the day and the girls were all home watching the news.

Rather than explain everything for the umpteenth time, he simply invited the girls into his head and directly showed them all the memories. Jade didn't have any way to explore the mind so Harry had to pull her into his head.

Unsurprisingly, Rogue, Wanda, and Jade were pissed that Harry didn't invite them to face off against Galactus with the Four.

Harry could only reply, "The quest said, 'The longer he is stalled, the more likely he is to reduce them to their molecular essence.' Galactus treated the four like insects. If something stronger than an insect tried to stall him, he might have 'reduced them to their molecular essence' right away. With the power of the Dog Talisman Jade can be considered immortal but I don't even think she'd survive that so I couldn't risk it."

Wanda said, "I get that, but being left out still hurts from our side. I want you to promise, no matter what the quest says, next time you are in a situation even close to that, you'll call us."

Rogue said, "Yeah, I don't like being kicked to the sidelines but a pop up message."

Jade said, "Besides, video game rules are more like guidelines. It's not cheating if the game doesn't crash."

Everyone turned to look at her and she responded, "What?" causing the group to release a collective sigh.

Harry turned on the news and pulled up his tablet. There were about a dozen applicants for Harry's next Foundation of Metaphysics Class who actually had the proper pre-requisite courses and there were five who'd gotten more than 85% on the 100 question placement test. Shuri the Wakandan Princess was not an applicant this semester which was fine with Harry, but there was something about the placement tests which Harry found humorous. Some student profiles tried the placement test over a dozen times and still didn't get a passing grade. The placement test said how many you got wrong, but didn't say which you got wrong and the 100 questions were taken from a list of 10,000 Harry had come up with.

Harry figured there were some groups who ȧssembled large teams of scientists and had them try the placement test together so they could fake a test result and send someone into Harry's class. The problem was that these teams kept getting the stuff wrong. Not everyone was like Victor Von Doom.

The news channels all had the same story about the planet ship, but with the exception of channels from New York, all other channels seemed to agree the entire thing was an elaborate hoax.

The governments of the world knew differently, but they neither confirmed nor denied the reality of the situation and the press didn't want to look like idiots for telling people space aliens invaded New York, so they pretended to be smarter than everyone else and accuse them of lying while stating they were smart enough to see through the lies.

Harry was not surprised at how easily people were convinced of something if they were told smart people believed it and with lines of experts pointing out why this was a hoax, it was easier to get around than the terrifying truth.

Most in New York still believed what they saw, but no one else in the world was buying it.

The girls quickly got tired of the world calling New Yorkers liars so they changed to another news channel that finally had a different story. It turned out that Stark Industries was releasing a new weapon called the Jericho and would be demonstrating it soon. For some reason, Harry felt he'd be meeting the genius billionaire soon.

*Author's Note*

Who should show up in Harry's Class Next Semester?

Imma save Shuri for later and I've forgotten most of what I watched from Agents of Shield.

Besides shield agents, spies from other countries or other people, who should be in the class?

Also, for a terrible, cringeworthy, yet accurate name, I'm thinking either Hermit or Sage.

Marvel Timeline details. Iron Man the movie was released in the year 2008 but was set in the year 2010.. Iron Man 2, Hulk, and Thor were all set in 2011, and Avengers was set in 2012.