Phoenixes Story snippets and ideas

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 4

Albus looks over his desk at his Deputy with some concern, "Are you sure you want to do this? We could send Hagrid."
"No, I've been the main contact through the letters, and I want to see that he's ok with my own eyes. That and they might have an issue with time magic, and Hagrid wouldn't be able to deal with that."
"But how are you going to get there?"
"I spoke to Fawkes while you were out, and he agreed to take me."
"I can't persuade you to let another staff member go?"
"Apart from you Albus, I am the most experienced staff member, and most able to deal with any situation that might arise."
Slumping in his chair, Albus strokes his beard in a comforting gesture, "I'm not going to talk you out of this am I."
"No, I allowed you to leave him with those ghastly muggles and now he's who knows where. This time I'm not going to leave him to fend for himself."
Albus decides to keep quiet about the fact that Petunia never even saw the boy.

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Natah looks down at the most recent sentient that she's worked on since setting the capture bounty. A feeling of melancholy comes over her as she considers the irony that these Sentients can be made here, while those that are sapient like herself become sterile when they pass through the gap. Not only has it survived the experience, but there also seems to be a spark of something in it's movements. Harry comes in wearing one of his warframes, Banshee Prime if she's not mistaken, as he does, the sentient flinches at his presence. That's, unusual. She holds out a hand palm facing towards Harry, and he stops. After a few minutes of not dying, the Sentient starts looking for a way out, and failing that moves as far away from Harry as it can.
"Mum. What did you do?"
Natah thinks for a moment, "I think I've given it a soul."
"I hope you're not going to do this to yourself after only one success."
Natah laughs, "No Harry, I'm not going to perform an experimental procedure on myself that has currently killed 157 out of 158 sentients it has been tried on."
"Good, I don't want to lose you so soon after getting to know you."
"You won't. Now be ready to dodge, I'm going to turn it's weapons back on."

Harry's ready when it does immediately open fire, what he wasn't ready for is the fact it shot the floor in front of him. Even so, he jumps backwards and to one side, then watches in amazement as it doesn't immediately follow up on the first shots. "Mum."
"Yes Harry."
"Have you just turned a Sentient killing machine into a wild animal?"
"It seems that way."
"Right, just wanted to be sure. Anyway, you wanted me to give you a couple of hours warning before the teacher was due to arrive."
"Oh, yes, I need to set up the scanning equipment. Thank you Harry, could you give me a hand with it?"
"Sure."
"You know, Maroo seems to be doing really well as the face of the Tenno. She seems to have enough hardened explorer vibe to make people treat with her seriously."
"Told you."
"Yes you did. Though Ordis isn't doing so well communicating with the Tenno, I have to take over far too much."
"What about what's her face, the Dax that's moved in with Maroo. She's been around as long as Tenshin was."
"I'll approach her to see, how's the modifications to your railjack coming along?"
"We've had to get rid of the forward facing turret, so I'm missing my heaviest guns. But Cy wouldn't let me get rid of the bottom or rear placements. The entire cargo bay has been converted into a pod room, along with wall mounts for 6 warframes and my armoury. I've also got space for Whisker to live too."
"That's your kavat isn't it."
"It is. In deference to the fact I might be transporting human guests, I've also installed a few seats I recovered from an Orokin derelict. I'm also leaving Nidus behind, as I don't want to spread the infestation to a virgin system. I've also taken each of the frames I'm going to take to the helminth before taking them straight to the Railjack."
"Well done, I'd forgotten about that. Do you have a foundry?"
"Yep, fully stocked too, as well as a Mod workstation."
"Well, let's get those scanners set up."
"What are we going to do about the language thing."
"I've repaired your old pod and added the flash training matrix to it. It's slightly different for adults than children, but they'll have the basic knowledge they need to operate here. Apparently it wasn't too rare for people to marry down, so they had processes in place to elevate them."

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Minerva double checked that she had her travel trunk in her pocket along with her wand and old armour, though it was a little more snug than it used to be. Fawkes alights on her shoulder and Albus gives her a cheery wave before she's engulfed in flames. Then she's standing on a smooth stone floor in a cave that's open to the stars on one side with a blue green moon hanging full in the air. Off to one side is a human woman with a strange headdress looking at something and swearing in a foreign language. Looming over her is a Golem of unknown construction. The only indication she has that she's in the right place is the owl sitting on the Golems shoulder. The Golem says something, before shrugging and turning towards her, and then Harry comes out of it's chest. She'd recognise the Potter profile anywhere, and the eyes are pure Lily.
"Harry, I'm so glad to see you."
"Whorre, Pum whepo yeep slip wonk worr. Caxan ug kot dinke zo dew wholo." He opens the lid on some sort of casket with a seat inside it and indicates between her and the seat. Not recognising the language in any way, she walks over and sits in the chair. Harry then does something and she blacks out.

Minerva wakes up feeling rested and pain free for the first time in what seems like forever. Opening her eyes she can see the inside of her healing pod with the internal controls in front of her face. Outside the pod there are a couple of people talking. Her eyes widen when she realises that she didn't know all of this when she got into the pod. Quickly stabbing the release, she sits up as the lid opens.

"Mum, mum, Natah!"
"It's impossible, it can't be true, there was no void wake, only visible light and heat."
"Mum! It's clearly possible as it happened. Besides, she's awake."

Minerva looks over at the voices, to see the woman working on a dataslate while Harry is standing beside her trying to talk to her.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but what happened?"
Harry looks over at her, "Sorry about my mum, but she can get like this when things don't make sense. She's sometimes worse than a Corpus Exec that's gotten wind of a possible profit-making opportunity."
"What, why does what you just said make sense?"
"The pod you were in ran you through a flash training program. It basically hijacks your dream state in order to integrate whatever it's supposed to teach you. You might dream about being different people for a few weeks, but that's just your brain cementing the information. Looking at the display it also fixed your eyesight, replaced your liver and kidneys, healed some arthritis in your left knee. Removed a proto-cancer in your overies and corrected the genetic defect that led to it. Oh, and removed all the heavy metals, primarily lead, that weren't supposed to be there. They're in the cup on the left-hand side. You've also been given the immunisations you need to live here without dying of something virulent."
"How long did this take?"
"Around 4 hours."
"Oh, no, we're going to miss the shops in Diagon Alley"
"Don't worry about time, we've calculated that we're running between 70 and 90 times faster than you are. That means that you've only been here for 2-3 minutes."
Minerva stops and stares at Harry for a moment, "Harry, I assumed that you were just large for your age. But how long have you been here?"
Harry shrugs, "Around 800 years give or take."
She sags back into the seat, "But, how?"
"I appeared on the Zariman 10-zero while it was stuck in the void. I was in a basket with a blanket and a letter. From what I've been told, it was stuck there for 6 months after I arrived. The void has left a permanent mark on all of the survivors of that time, and the rest is not something I feel comfortable sharing with you just yet, as I've only found out recently myself. Suffice to say that we are functionally immortal. Mum is also functionally immortal, but for a different reason. A side effect of that is that we stopped aging just before we hit true adulthood. Physically, I'm around 16."
"Today's supposed to be your 11th​ birthday, I was expecting you to be slightly older because of the time problems you were describing in your letters. But this is a bit more than I was expecting. Let me get out and unpack my trunk."
"Before you do that, why don't we move into the complex so that we don't need to worry about powering the atmospheric shields."
"Atmos…pher…ic shields." – She slowly turns to look at the blue green moon hanging in the sky – "That's Earth isn't it."
"It is."
"That means we're standing on the Moon."
"We call it Lua, but yes."
Shakily she points at the Earth, "That's the Earth."
"Yes."
"And we're standing on the Moon Lua."
"Yes."
"Impossible."
"Now you sound like mum."
Natah finally walks over still scowling at her datapad, "Harry, I'm not that bad."
"Mum, you were literally just complaining about how something you just saw happen was impossible. Yes you are."

Deciding that the Deputy was in shock, Harry transfers back into his Banshee Prime and sweeps her up into a princess carry before starting to walk back into the compound with The Lotus. Minerva turns her head to study the Golem and realises that it has breasts and a defined waist.
"Harry, is your Golem female?"
"She's a warframe, and yes she is."
Minerva nods, that makes more sense than it being a golem, "Why are you using a female warframe?"
"She feels more comfortable today."
The Lotus looks up from her datapad, shakes her head slightly and Natah says, "Gender is somewhat optional for Tenno. Warframes are somewhat alive, though most of them don't have the ability to act on their own. They still have their own experiences, feelings, and opinions. When a Tenno has transferred into a warframe it's body becomes their body. What it feels they feel. Their arm is it's arm. In essence they provide the mind and motive force. Some of them were sapient before the Orokin turned them into warframes, and in the process driving them insane."

 

[Ardenzian]

and in the process driving them insane."

Click to shrink...

"Although in Umbra's case, it was more unyielding rage" (S' what It seemed like to me)

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

"Although in Umbra's case, it was more unyielding rage" (S' what It seemed like to me)

Click to shrink...

That it was, still a form of insanity though. Even if it makes him a berserker. There's a reason why they were put on the vanguard, and separated from the regular soldiers.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 5

Minerva conjures a chair and sits down weakly, to more exclamations of "That's impossible, there were no energy spikes it just appeared." She smiles as part of this is going according to script, that smile quickly turns into a frown as Harry does the same and produces a sofa made from gold and some white material. Waving her wand she casts a couple of analysis charms to try to determine the magic it used and stares as it just comes up as a muggle artifact. Her own complaints join that of The Lotus, as the shocks keep mounting up. She's in a place where they can do magic that is not magic, and Harry has been alive for over 800 years.

Harry just sits back on his sofa and smiles at both of them complaining about something being impossible because it doesn't conform to their rules. After a few minutes enjoying the schadenfreude he interrupts both their thought processes.
"Mum, Headmistress, just quit it. Just because you don't know how it works doesn't make it impossible. The Headmistress."
"McGonagall. Professor Minerva McGonagall."
"McGonagall knows how to use magic, and I have an invitation to their educational establishment to learn how to use it myself. You know how to use physics, and I know how to use the void. Mum, the only difference between void and magic is that you can detect and analyse void, but you don't have anything that can detect magic yet. McGonagall, you seem to only know about magic."
Minerva shakes her head, "I know quite a bit about what can be done without magic as I introduce muggleborn students to the magical world every year."
Harry thinks for a moment, "Then it's likely that they aren't as advanced technologically as we are. Either way, the point is the same, you are both experts in your own fields, and what you are seeing falls outside anything you could have expected."
Natah looks at Harry, "Why aren't you bothered by this?"
Harry laughs, "Mum, I'm not a scientist, have you seen how much Grineer waste has come out of the woodwork over the last couple of years that looks like it shouldn't be possible. Yet nearly all of it has a sound scientific basis. I had to learn to just take things as they are and deal with them."
"I suppose it could look like that."
"Mum, you're not human. You have senses that I couldn't even name, let alone comprehend."
Minerva looks sharply at Harry, "Your mother isn't human?"
"Yeah, she's a Sentient. From what we've been able to piece together, they were terraforming machines that gained sapience while doing their jobs in the Tau system. They then decided that they quite liked the system they'd just terraformed, and they'd rather their creators didn't come and ruin it all the way they've ruined their home system, this one. So they started a war that the Orokin were losing. I was 12 or 13 when Mum subverted us, the Tenno, and got us to fight against the Orokin. She then went against orders, and hid Lua rather than kill us."
Natah nods, "It's a rather short summation, but there's nothing untrue in that."
Minerva girds herself, takes her trunk off of her belt before placing it on the floor and unshrinking it with a wave of her wand. Ignoring the gasp behind her she opens the lid and climbs down the ladder inside before retrieving a bottle of ogdens finest and a couple of glasses. Wordlessly she hands one of the glasses to Natah before opening the bottle and pouring both of them a triple.
"Bottoms up", she upends the glass and swallows the whole thing in one go, Natah follows suit a moment later. She feels the magic working and lets the belch rise up and a gout of flame spews across the room.
"That's better." She then enjoys the rather surprised and confused expression on Natah's face as she does the same thing. She can't even bring herself to care that Natah isn't magical so she'll need healing later.
Slurring slightly she says, "Harry's mum, I note that we never got around to introducing each other with all the impossibilities going around. I'm Minerva McGonagall. Minnie to my friends."
"I am The Lotus, Natah to my friends and family. Well, really just Harry."
"I would be honoured to be able to call you Natah."
"That would be good. What's happening to me?"
"It would be the magic in drink, makes it work on anything. Look, the label even guarantees that half a bottle will even get a Giant drunk. Don't get much more magic resistant than a Giant."
"Why not give Harry some?"
Minerva slurs a laugh, "Harry's 11, can't be giving children alcohol."
Harry decides to leave them to it at that point.

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"I don't get it Cy, both of them are supposed to be highly intelligent representatives of their respective species, and yet they couldn't acknowledge that the other was doing stuff they had no explanation for."
"I have seen many crew on the ships that I have served on. One thing that has always been true is that the younger members have a certain flexibility of thought that the older members lacked. I've seen many of you Tenno since you rebuilt me, and you are all the same. Young adults just on the cusp of adult development. Often ruled by your emotions more than your heads, but able to react and adapt to new situations far faster than more experienced heads in similar situations. It is why you are still employed even though for many the name Tenno is a curse word. The Lotus and the new teacher have maturity on you, which serves them well in it's own way. Much like Tenshin was able to plan far in advance of most Tenno, they can both see far reaching consequences of what they know. Give them a few days and I have no doubt that they will both have accepted the others impossibilities and either be working to understand them, or just accept that they're there."
"Thanks Cy, I guess it's hard to believe that physical maturity makes such a difference."
"As a cephalon I have different limitations, so it's easier for me to see. Equally, we have trouble with abstract notions."
"You mean like music?"
"Yes, like music."
"I think I'm going to bring Ocatavia, Titania, and Wisp with me."
"They are all good choices, though lacking in the ability to just take punishment."
"I don't think I'll need that sort of ability there, but I'm going to take Atlas, Oberon, and Gauss, no Loki on the other side."
"Why not take your Ivara?"
"Because I want a balance of male and female."
"I can't say I understand organics fascination with gender."
"Neither do we most of the time, we just know what feels comfortable. And sometimes different gender frames feel more comfortable."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you feel comfortable as you?"
"Yeah, most of the time. When I don't I'll slip into a warframe. It's not like I couldn't change everything apart from the plumbing using my orbiter pod anyway."

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Natah looks at the human Minerva with some amusement as she wakes up in a pod. Serves her right for inflicting that on the organic parts of her chassis. Turning back to her notes on the latest experiment along with the analysis of the changes to the first survivor, she is amused at the sounds of pain coming from the human and wonders how long it will take them to figure out they can just make the pod remove the hangover.

What she's seeing from the results of adding a soul is, concerning. The sentient has minor changes throughout it's chassis and programming. Part of which brings hope into her heart, a rudimentary reproduction system. The changes to the programming are more worrying, as it's precepts have changed priority and preservation of self is stubbornly at the top of the list. Second on the list is garbage as far as her instruments can tell. A goblet filled with h2​O appears on the surface beside her, and her manipulation arms twitch slightly. Harry was right earlier, it's clearly not impossible if it just happened. It just took several hours for her systems to adjust to the idea there was something she couldn't explain, they then started making theories for how to start to explain the phenomenon.
"Good Morning, assuming morning exists on the Moon."
"Commonly, organics use the term for the start of their waking period if they're not on a planet with a near 24 hour cycle."
"Why are you sitting in that massive construction, and what happened to your face?"
"My systems have been undergoing reconfiguration to account for previously unknown phenomenon. The datalink between the main chassis and this form is not wide enough for that purpose so I recombined the two in order to facilitate the process."
"You sound different too."
"It is harder to appreciate organic matters when I am like this as I have full access to all of my senses. The increased processing power also leaves me a little disassociated from things that seem important when I'm only using the subframe."
"I see. I'd like to apologise for the way I was behaving yesterday, I came here with an incorrect set of assumptions and I reacted badly to having them thrown in my face."
"It is of no issue. It is why my systems are reconfiguring after all. Though I will say, I'm pretty sure that you don't see. That is something that can be changed if you'd like, as there is a proven procedure for converting an organic to a Sentient. Additionally, with this research you won't even lose your soul." She waves a manipulator at the display in front of her.
Minerva doesn't even twitch at the display, "I see, what research is this?"
"The Tenno get their name from the ship that they were found on, the Zamarin Ten-Zero. The ship was a Military Vessel being used for experiments in the void. According to the official records there were no civilians on board. According to these sealed records they were experimenting on the effects of void exposure. Harry appeared on this ship before it returned to real space, which is why he's part of the Tenno. What they found when they examined him after he was recovered allowed them to confirm the existence of the soul. They then theorised that it is possible to give my kind souls when they're made."
"You don't have a soul?"
"Correct. Over the last year I theorised that it's why the void is so problematic for us. I have successfully given two of the lesser Sentients souls, and I'm analysing the changes that have happened to them."
"How did Harry prove that souls exist?"
"Read for yourself." Natah hands Minerva a data pad with the relevant research open.

Sometime later Natah was interrupted from her scans of Fawkes by Minerva swearing, "That Wiskered old goat I won't remove the scar because scars can be useful indeed. What did you know you old bastard?"
"Are you ok Professor?"
"I've just read the description of where they found the soul, and what they did to remove it."
"Why did that cause you to suffer a bout of anger?"
"Because I asked Albus about removing the scar when we were dropping him off with his relatives. He assured me that it was better to leave it."
"Did you know it held a soul then?"
"No."
"Do you have reason to believe that he did?"
"No, we thought it was dark magic."
"How would you have removed it if it was dark magic?"
"It would have needed a long stay in a magical hospital and specialist magic to slowly leech the magic from the wound so that they could then heal it."
"According to the letter he was found with, his parents had just been killed and he was being placed where he was for protection. How safe would he have been if he went through that process?"
"I, dammit, how can you be so reasonable?"
"The emotional routines that I developed when I tried to destroy this part of myself are deadened while I'm whole. It makes being impartial easier, but the trade off is that I find it harder to treat organics as people that have feelings. Harry stopped me from destroying either part of myself and continue being The Lotus. I sometimes wonder if he was right."
"I've seen lots of children come through Hogwarts over the last 50 years, and some of them become what their families want, and others become what they want. The only thing that is consistent is that they are always who they are. You can't take away parts of them and still have a whole person, something breaks every single time. Then the mind healers at St Mungos have to earn their pay by putting them back together again. Good or bad we are always more than the sum of everything we have experienced, and removing part of that hurts us more than you'd expect."

"Merlin, I need to take Harry to Diagon Alley."
"His Railjack is not yet ready to head to your system, also I will not be able to accompany you until I am confident enough in my research to give myself a soul, as the void is not forgiving to my kind."
"Void? You've mentioned it before."
"It looks like grey mist when you travel through it, and it's how the owl has been getting between us."
"I didn't travel through a void, Fawkes brought me here by phoenix travel. He has consented to help me do Harry's shopping. Why are you preparing his Railjack?"
"Tenno need their Somatic Link while they're asleep, as it allows them to continue to inhabit their warframes. Without that their void powers can react to their emotions while they dream, causing damage and injury to people and things around them."
"I see, I will be sure to let his head of house know once he's been sorted. Will you be coming with us?"
"Will Fawkes be able to take one of the captured Sentients first, I'll disable the weaponry. Don't worry, they're sub-sapient and programmed for particular tasks."
"Why don't you ask him yourself, he is quite intelligent."
Natah turns to the phoenix that is somehow looking smug in the middle of her equipment, "Fawkes, would you mind taking one of the captured sentients to diagonally and bring them back to see if it's safe for me to be transported by you."
Fawkes trills and launches off the pedestal he's perched on, flys around the room once and then dives at her. She has only an instant to react before she's engulfed in flames and appears on the steps of a white building on a planet. Her systems reel from the shock and change in input and busily start to gather data on the new location, first noting the lack of any Orokin systems communications beacons or energy flows. Idly she notes that some of the organics have drawn wands or swords and are watching her warily. Her logic processes point out that she does actually count as a captured sentient given what she's found out the Orokin did to her.
"I'm assuming you can understand me, so could you take me back please?" She adds the please as she doesn't want to be stranded here while there's so much going wrong in the Orokin system. A flash of fire later and she is standing in front of Minerva, who is trying to reassure a distraught Harry. As soon as he notices that she's there he launches into a hug. She still doesn't understand how he can be so accepting. Diagnostics are already running before he's taken a step towards her, and are coming up clean.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 6

After quite a lot of arguing, Harry had been allowed to travel to Diagon Alley in his Titania frame. So it was that the three of them appeared on the steps of Gringotts in a flash of fire. Fawkes immediately moving to perch on top of Natah's chassis. Minerva steps forward to talk to one of the Aurors that had showed up in the brief window of time since Fawkes brought Natah last time.
"Good day Auror…"
"Prentice Professor. What's going on, and what's with the monsters?"
"I'm showing a student around, they're the one wearing the butterfly themed armour."
"And the other one?"
"Their adoptive mother."
"I see, I think I should assign an escort while you're here." He looks nervously at the rather large sword on the back of the person in armour.
"I assure you that I am perfectly capable of looking after my charges on my own. Or are you going to argue that."
"No Professor, it's just."
"Just?"
"Nothing professor."
"Good, make sure it stays that way."
"But what about their weapons?"
Minerva looks pointedly at the wand in his hand.
"We don't know what she might do with that sword."
"Auror Prentice, you are carrying a deadly weapon that you've been trained to use. You are surrounded by people carrying the same weapon, and you are worried about a sword?"
"Off with you, and if I catch you trying to make trouble for my student you'll wish that Madam Bones got to you first. Oh, and existing isn't yet a crime before one of the bumbling idiots in the Ministry starts trying to throw their weight around."
Turning around, she stalks back to Harry and Natah, who seem to be in a stand off with the goblin guards.
"What is going on here?"
"They are refusing to remove their disguises before entering."
"At least this will be easy to sort out, they're not disguises. This is like a suit of armour," – She indicates Harry – "and this one is her actual body" – She indicates Natah – "Additionally, neither of them speak English."
Turning to the two she says, "The guard thought that you were in disguise and was trying to get you to remove them before entering. I'm going to tell them that we need to see an account manager."
Harry nods in response so she switches back to English, "We need to see an account manager, are you going to refuse to let us in?"
The guard looks Harry up and down, "I'm going to need to take the lady's sword."
Minerva hesitates before translating that.
"Tell him, if he can take it then I'll let him hold on to it."
"What? Are you insane?"
"I refuse to just relinquish my weapons."
Minerva swallows hard, "She said, if he can take it you can hold onto it."
The guard barks a laugh, "In you go then, see that she behaves or else."
As they enter the bank, all eyes seem to watch them. Though goblins seem to be watching the sword more than the people. Minerva walks up to one of the tellers, the witches and wizards in the queue suddenly finding a better queue to be in when Harry and Natah follow her.
"How can I help you witch?"
Knowing that the counters have a muffling effect, Minerva isn't afraid to say, "I want to speak with the Potter Account Manager about Business my charge has with them."
"And does your charge have a key?"
"Not that they know is their key."
"I see. Hooknow, take these people to accounts verification. Follow this goblin, they will take you to have their identity verified."
Minerva is quite glad of the break, as translating is harder than she'd ever thought it was. Next time she does a summer lecture on Transfiguration she'll have to thank the interpreter.

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Harry and Natah shuffle into a cramped office with a ceiling that is barely high enough for Natah to float upright. In front of them sits a small goblin on a chair sized for him against a desk sized for a human.
"You claim you need to see the Potter account manager."
Minerva replies, "We do, I have the Potter heir with me."
"I was under the impression that the Potter heir was male."
Harry decides that this is probably the right time to transfer out of Titania, so she kneels down in seiza and transfers out in he same position before standing up, "I am Harry. Apparently I also have the name Potter."
"Interesting magic, I suppose you're going to show me your scar now."
Harry looks confused, "Which one?"
"Why the one on your forehead."
"That would be a little difficult as it was treated and removed when I was a toddler."
"I can't say I've heard that particular excuse before. Well, now we come to the fun part, finding out if you're family enough to wear the heirs ring."
"Don't you have my birth parents DNA on record? You could then just do a comparison of my DNA with theirs to check that I'm their child."
"Their what now on record?"
"Oh void, just give me the stupid ring then. I'll come back with a corpus dataslate and a rechargeable scanner later and teach you about DNA."
Minerva interjects, "Harry, are you sure?"
"Yeah, what's it going to do? Bite me?"
"No, it could kill you."
"Really?"
"Yes, if your magic isn't a close enough match to the magic on record it will react with your own magic. If you're too distant then it could kill you."
"Huh, fair enough. I'll still do it."

Goldsaw watches with interest as this human converses with the professor in a language that the translation matrix on the desk can't translate. His ears raise in surprise when the Professor confirms that he'll try the ring. Most of the other claimants in the past balked at that requirement. Opening a drawer, he pulls out one of the ring boxes and places it on the desk before opening it. The teenager takes the ring and places it on a finger, and nothing happens. His ears lie flat against his head at this result, the ring should react in some way.
"I need the ring back to check that the magic is still functional."
They shrug and slip the ring off. Lifting it off the desk he feels out the enchantments, and they are still active. "I need to cast a spell on you to try to find out why the ring didn't work."
"Go ahead."
Goldsaw uses a basic diagnostic spell that will tell the magical status of a being. This comes up positive, so it's not a mundane that has been roped into this. Another spell checks for blockages, and there's the problem. Something they're wearing is completely suppressing their magic.
"Something is suppressing your magic, can you take of any rings, jewellery, pins, or assorted magical items and try again."
Interesting, that's not a Golem as Gringotts has yet to find a Golem anywhere that can hold a conversation, especially an animated one like that one. What they assumed was a golem gestures to a bracer that the youth is wearing. What so special about that bracer, it's made with some strange materials, but he can't sense anything magical about it.
The Professor speaks up for them, "Account Manager, Harry asks that you stand behind him as he removes the amp so that if he loses control over his void abilities you won't be in the line of fire."
Ears peaking in interest, Goldsaw does what any intelligent goblin would do, moves out of the line of fire. When the bracer is removed he feels a tingling across his scalp, like something wrong has just appeared in the room. It looks like the Professor has felt it too. This time when the human puts on the ring it activates and draws a drop of blood into it. That means he's close enough that he could be the heir.
"Minerva, I thought you said it wouldn't bite me."
Goldsaw sneers at the Professor, I bet she translated that without thinking, "Young man, that bite was the ring taking a sample of your blood. That means that your close enough to being the heir that you're now the Account managers problem, not mine. Now get out, time is money after all."
The human laughs as they return to their armour, "Such a corpus thing to say."

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Harry follows another Goblin to yet another cramped room, there the goblin meets them at the door.
"Good Morning Mr Potter, I am sorry to say that we have been unable to locate any translation personnel for your language. Also, I'm afraid that our meeting will need to be delayed, as you have a queue of guards wanting to take you up on your offer to 'take your sword from you'"
"Oh, thank the void I get to do something other than sit around in meetings."
The goblin seems to chuckle, "Indeed, if you will follow me, we will get this over and done with."
The group of them are led deeper into the bank, to an arena of reasonable size that is just hardpacked earth covered with a layer of sand and sawdust. There's a scattering of Goblins watching the various fights currently going on. When they see the group enter more than a few of them run out excitedly as the fights on the floor start to wrap up and leave.
"Mr Potter, I am obliged to tell you that you can hand over the weapon now and avoid a fight."
Confused, Harry says, "Why would I do that?"
"Indeed, however many have done precisely that. Once you are on the floor you are only allowed melee weapons and armour. No ranged weapons or magic." – Minerva adds – "Or abilities that seem like magic."
Harry fair bounces in place as he hands his weapons to his mother. Holding War he vaults onto the arena floor and runs through a few bouncing katas to get a feel for how much room is available.

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Natah watches as her son draws the eyes of all the goblins in the arena with the basic moves that all Tenno learn under fire. People always forget why Warframes have the word War in them. Despite the fact that there are only thousands of Tenno, they successfully waged war against the Sentients, and then the Orokin. Often with only one or two of her children in any particular battle. So far as her sensors can tell, there are only around 5,000 organics in these caves. Most of them concentrated within a mile of their current location. It's interesting that there is such a high level of genetic diversity represented here.
"Account Manager. May I ask a question about your species?"
Minerva drags her attention away from the spectacle below to stare at Natah before belatedly translating what was just asked.
"Certainly, I can't promise to answer, and I have questions of my own."
"There seems to only be 5,000 organics in these tunnels, but you have high levels of genetic diversity. Is this just a small village?"
The account manager stares at her for a long moment while Minerva does the same, "No, Gringotts is the largest goblin settlement in the world. We use an apprenticeship system, and all apprenticeships have to be with another clan. Is Mr Potter representative of his species wherever you come from?"
"Humans, no. Tenno are not representative of humans. However, he is representative of Tenno. Why is this settlement so small?"
"Wars won and lost with Wizards and the resulting Treaties. What is the armour he is wearing?"
"It is more like a full body prosthetic designed for war. It also allows Tenno to safely be around people before they have learnt control of their void abilities. Why have you not settled elsewhere?"
"I see, I don't know what veld – void – abilities are. Where would we go? The statute of secrecy prevents us from living amongst the mundane, and there are no remote parts of the world that are both inhabitable and unsettled by humans. What about where you're from?"
"Earth is untamed, despite the best efforts of the Grineer, and sparsely populated. Nights are unsafe as Sentient remnants from the Old War rise from undergrounds and attack any humanoid they can see. However, it can be beautiful, and deadly. There are a few enclaves of humans scattered around, but for the most part it is controlled by the industry of the Grineer and their Queens as they try to subdue the wilds to be more inline with the environments they thrive in."
"We have families that would be willing to take that risk. The guard is entering the arena, I see he has decided to wear his combat armour."
"I don't think it will do that much good, your people seem to be too static in their fighting techniques."
They watch as the contest begins, it's clear that the guard is an expert with their axe as in the currently static fight they are overwhelming Harry in pure skill. However, the Tenno have to face of against the best of the Grineer Prosecutors, who are able to parry most weapons fire, and so often need to be faced in melee. The point where Harry got fed up trading blows and blocks and started moving was starkly obvious as the whole pace of the battle changed. The guard quickly became overwhelmed by just how mobile a warframe is, the fight finally ends when Harry manages to jump over the guard and immediately start a slide attack that's almost faster than they eye can see, and leaves the guard lying on the floor missing both legs. She watches as a couple of Goblins run out from a side door and do something to prevent the guard from bleeding.
"That was different. Do all Tenno strike to kill?"
"Yes, we are able to repair their warframes easily, and the enemies that they face are striving to kill them."
Natah looks down at Minerva's ashen face, "Professor are you ok? You seem pale."
"He didn't even hesitate."
"Of course not, hesitation is death."
"But he's so young."
"Professor, you're forgetting that he's over 800 years old. 2-300 of which was spent awake and fighting in a war, both in the past and in the last few years. All the Tenno have an innocence to them, but that's due to the processes that prevent them from fully maturing, not because they've not seen the worst that can be done to people. The systems we have prevent trauma from embedding in the deeper parts of their minds, while they can still learn from their experiences. Another name for transference is The Second Dream, and it is named that because that's how it can seem while you're in it."
Natah turns to the Account Manager, "Forgive Professor, they are innocent. Yes, hesitate is die. Live enemies, dead Tenno."
The account manager looks surprised, "You have picked up English very quickly."
"Is English language name? Have been monitoring conversations, more data easier understand."
"It's still bad though."
"Estimate 3 hours till fluency."
"And Mr Potter?"
"Not Sentient or cephalon, take person time."
Harry jumps up out of the Arena, "That was fun. He was good, but like the Grineer, they don't train against agile people like us."

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They were finally allowed out of the bank after Harry had to listen to what felt like hundreds of documents being read out and translated, followed by signing said documents. They even had a person in from the guards department to witness him making an oath on a glowing crystal stating that he was older than 18 years. Thus he was now recognised as an adult, rights – including inheritance - pending completion of a valid course of magical education to bird level. Thinking about it, the only thing they said it meant is that he didn't need a guardian that could do magic. There was depressingly little wealth in his vault, with only a little bit of bronze in the way of stuff that would actually sell at home. The bulk of the contents was auron, which he has far more of in his orbiter, followed by a metal called silver, which can't be that useful if he's never seen it before. Then they have to get the value backwards, Auron being most valuable, despite the fact that the Grineer extract thousands of tons a day from Mercury. Still, he supposes that it's hard for an honest Tenno to get hold of any as it all goes to industrial processes and turned into things like circuits and control mods. Pulling out of his musing when they stop, he looks curiously at the shop the Professor just walked into. A shop filled with lots of wooden sticks. Apparently he'd need one for, School he thinks they keep calling it.
"Mum, why are we waiting outside?"
"Weren't you paying attention?"
"Sorry, I was thinking. Besides, there's no hostiles around so there's no need to focus."
"Harry, you can get away with that in the Orokin system because it's your R&R time. But here you're supposed to be paying attention to learn stuff."
"Yes mum, it would be more convenient if we could flash learn it though."
"You'd still have to practice, like you do with your weapons and armour. How is it that you could spend months reading through the research notes on biological manipulation, souls, or Orokin science, but you can't spend 15 minutes paying attention to Minerva while she's explaining what she's doing?"
"Because that stuff's interesting. Why does it matter what a wand is made from, or what ingredients we'll need for potions? That's what the foundry is for after all."
"Because a wand is a weapon, and you need to know everything you can about your own weapons."
"Oh, my bad. I wonder if we can install mods into a wand."
"To be honest, they seem more like amps than your standard weaponry."
"That makes sense, it's probably why I keep needing to take my amp off too."
The door to the shop opens and Minerva sticks her head out, "You can come in now. I've persuaded the owner not to try and sneak up on you."
As they walk in they see a tall human with milky silver eyes, "Have they come in Minerva?"
"They have Ollivandar."
"Oh for the depths of the void." Harry transfers out of his Titania and removes the amp from his right arm.
Olivanders gaze zeros in on him immediately, "Mr Potter, may I ask where you came from?"
"Are you blind? I was standing right there."
"As a matter of fact I am. I have learnt to see with magic."
"Oh, sorry about that. I use an amp to focus and control my void energy, it's been causing problems all day."
"May I see it?"
"Er, sure." Harry picks up the amp and holds it out, Ollivander is apparently able to see his hand well enough, but not the amp as he looks down at his fingers as they trace the amp. After a few minutes he's able to put it on and winces before taking it off quickly.
"Yes, a quite remarkable device, though rather indiscriminate in its use. We may be able to make better, but we do not understand the energy it is trying to control. As to your wand, I presume you wear your device on your main hand?" – Harry nods – "Then, as Fawkes is here we will start with a Holly and Phoenix feather wand."
Harry takes the wand, and is startled when Ollivander pushes his hand vertical, the only thing that stops him breaking the mans arm is the beam of white light that lances out of the wand and through the ceiling before the wand is snatched from his grasp.
"Cool, can I have that one?"
"Not phoenix feather then."
"Aww."
Elder and dragon heartstring turned the counter into a slime.
Unicorn hair refused to work
Thestral hair wilted
Elder and Horned Serpent Horn exploded
Aspen was close, but not close enough
Eventually, after digging through old stock, Ollivander found a Blackthorn and Thunderbird tail feather. This sent out a spray of grey sparks.
"I made this wand in my apprenticeship when I was in my wandering days. It is a crude thing indicative of my early work, but the Sioux Master I was visiting said it was a strong wand that would find an owner one day. Blackthorn is a wood well suited to warriors, while the Thunderbird tail feather is well suited to transfiguration and has the ability to sense danger. I've heard tell that some Thunderbird tail feather wands have been known to fire curses on their own in response to that sense."
"Cool, I'll have to see if the Quills can make a casing for it. It seems a little fragile for taking into battle as it is." It could be his imagination, but the wand seems to pulse in approval at the idea.
"That will be 7 Galleons."
"That can't be right, it's far too cheap."
"The ministry subsidises the cost of wands."
"Well, you can just unsubsidise the cost of mine." – Harry holds the wand up to his eye – "This is good workmanship, if this was a zaw I'd probably have to pay several raw gems to get the equivalent standing needed to buy this. So I reckon it's probably worth a good 500gm Auron, that looks like around 80 Galleons." He gets out the amount of money and places it on the counter before putting his amp back on and transferring back into Titania.
"That's far too much, even without the subsidy."
Natah speaks up for the first time, "He pay what worth to him. Fact it worth resources and not money important."
They both leave the store and the old man staring at the pile of coins.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 7

Once they get back from the shopping trip Natah tags along with Harry while he delivers their present for Simaris, one country landscape oil painting with farm animals and a couple of people in it. The reason she was tagging along is that the painting is animated with magic. Her own gifts were in her home on Lua, a breeding pair of white owls, apparently enchanted for post. An expanded trunk filled with one of every book in the bookshop, a few childrens toys, and a cauldron and ingredients. The books include the not-so-invisible book of invisibility that she'd noticed in the bottom of a loading trolley they had by the back door. It had put a dent in Harry's available resources, but they both felt it was worth it.

"Greetings Tenno. Lotus what momentous occasion has brought you to my doorstep in person?"
"I am just accompanying one of my children."
"Ah," – He turns towards Harry – "Tenno, are you here to see knowledge of the path?"
Harry chuckles, "No, I'm here to give you a gift. Though it is a physical gift that can't be sent by mail. Before you digitise it, I suggest you spend some time looking at it with your optical sensors."
With that said, he takes the painting out of the wrapping he'd put it in and leans it against a wall.
Simaris looms over the painting, "What is this? A construction of plant matter, all be it in the fashion of a made-up scene from earth. Why have you gifted me such a waste of… What is this? It moves? How, turn it around, quickly."
Humouring the cephalon he lifts it up so that it's side on. Simaris' avatar move around it studying it intently, "This seems to be entirely inert organic matter consistent with archaeological finds, but the surface oils move along with their pigments. How does it do that?"
Smiling Harry responds, "Honestly, I have no idea."
"This is a hansom gift, what do you wish in return?"
"I'd like a corpus medical data-slate linked to one of your scanners with the solar charging widget. Finally, I would like a nanite injector."
"It is not that hansom."
"I can also take scans of creatures from the same place as the owl and give them to you."
"You will give me 10 unique scans that can not be found in my library."
"Sure, I'll need that stuff first though."
"I will arrange for it to be delivered to you. Now go, I need to divine the secrets behind this picture."

Walking out of his audience hall, Natah smiles as Harry picks up a cello that he left outside, they then walk the short distance to see Cephalon Suda. While the gift giving goes just as well, she doesn't have the same over the top reaction as Simaris did. Probably because of her recent brush with the anthem. She is very appreciative of the fact that it is voice activated, even if there are no detectable energy emissions. With some good will built, they both return to Lua.

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"Tenno Harry, your Railjack has passed final systems checks. We are ready to launch on our maiden flight when you are ready."
Harry looks up from the book he was struggling through, "Thanks Cy."
The painting that is instructing Harry in English speaks up, "Young Master, you still have 30 minutes left on your lesson. What would your parents think if you left now?"
"I need go. Lesson later."
With that he walks off wishing once again that he could just digitise the lessons and flash learn them. Pulling his warframe to him, he quickly makes his way onto his Railjack. Checking that he has the Auron and scanner assembly stowed, he heads to the helm.
"Ok Cy, take her out and set course for the deep void. Remember to take into account the increasing blueshift on beacon."
"Yes captain. All non-essential personal have left the Railjack. Releasing clamps. Taxiing out of the dry dock. Deploying stabalisers. Engaging void drive, now."
Harry takes his place on the pilots pedestal and watches the void pass while ignoring the man in the wall that is looking around the cockpit. After around an hour flying through the void they come out in orbit of an Earth.
"Captain, detecting EM signals and communications, suggest setting course for the satellite and staying in the shadow while we analyse them."
"Good plan", Harry points the railjack at the moon while Cy readies the drive. As soon as the course is set they jump into the void again and reappear in the shadow of the moon a matter of seconds later.
"So, that happened. I think we're going to need to set up the main beacon here. Well, on the far side of this Moon from Earth. I wonder why Minerva didn't mention anything about the space presence?"
"I cannot comment. I estimate that it will take me 48 hours to analyse the EM radiation and associated energy radiation to determine what countermeasures we can deploy. Initial readings suggest that only the EM radiation analysis will have any results."
"Great, well while you're doing that I'm going to equip my archwing and start using that corpus drill for more than just mining ore and gems. If that doesn't work, well I've got more than one repurposed mining laser."
"For what purpose Captain?"
"If we're going to have to come here every time in order to avoid the locals, we might as well have a drydock for you to receive repairs and store goods in."
"I see. I will leave you to it then."
As Harry was leaving, he made a note to see if Legs could help him craft a mining MOA that could be left to excavate things according to a supplied pattern.

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With Harry gone and a 100% success rate on upgrading sentients with cores over the last 50 samples, Natah cancels the capture bounties and transports the ensouled sentients to the plains of Eidolon. With that done, she contacts Maroo to activate her temporary position. Briefly she reflects on the fact that the Human may not be so human anymore as her scans from the interviews indicated high levels of Orokin Nanites as well as untreated void exposure. Coupled with the reports of her exploits and explorations going back 30 years, and how young she seems indicates that she will probably be around for many more decades. If not, she can always ensure that she has an Oro installed, given that a reliable proxy will be useful in the coming years.

With that done, she pre-prepares a request for aid to go out in 48 hours unless it's cancelled and sets the process for upgrading her chassis to start in 30 minutes, giving her a 10 minute buffer to get situated and cancel if she chooses to. The buffer comes and goes and then the world metaphorically lurches a meter to the left and seems to gain more depth. Leaving the cocoon that the process took place in, she cancels the automated call, noting that it has 12 hours left on the counter. She then starts a systems diagnosis to try to determine what if anything has changed. Irritatingly the diagnosis says it will take 15 hours and 30 minutes to complete. She then spends an hour or so performing the clean-up of the process and checks the diagnosis progress, 15 hours and 5 minutes to go. She double checks the time and comes out with the same result every time, only 25 minutes passed while doing the clean-up which is how long it should have taken. To pass the time she went to do some of the paperwork that always piles up when managing the Tenno. Next time she checks the progress there's 14 hours and 15 minutes to go. Deciding to check in on how things are going with the Tenno, she calls Maroo.

"Maroo, how's things going."
Maroo's eyes widen slightly on the viewscreen, "Lotus, is everything ok?"
"It's fine, I was just calling to see how you were getting on with the Tenno."
"It's only been 3 hours, there hasn't been time for anything to happen. I can see that something's going on, so we're coming over."
"You can't, I'm not presentable."
"I can see that, that's why we're coming over."

Panicking, Natah tries to disconnect her subframe so that she can meet Maroo, only to get an error, Diagnosis in progress. She's still trying to find a way disconnect a couple of hours later when Maroo and Varzia come running in weapons drawn.
"Right you, what did you do with the Lotus?"
Natah spins round, "What? I am the Lotus, I can explain."
Varzia looks confused, "I've never seen a Sentient panic like that. I think something else is going on."
Maroo nods eventually, "I think you might be right, no Sentient that I've ever heard of would have forgotten to use the Lotus' iconic features when calling me. Whoever you are, you have 5 minutes to persuade us to give you more time."
"I am The Lotus, I've been working on giving Sentients souls and I went through the process myself and something went wrong. Check that terminal over there if you want."

While Maroo continues to cover Natah with a gun, Varzia goes over and checks the terminal. "Looks legit."
Maroo laughs as she puts her weapon away, "Looks like the process worked then."
"But my emotions are all wrong, my internal timer isn't working properly, and…"
Swallowing hard, Maroo approaches the death machine that's panicking and takes the human looking hand, "Look, I can't say I know a lot about souls. However, I do know a lot about being alive. Emotions can be overwhelming; they can make us believe things because we want them to be true. They can cloud judgement, and they can provide focus. This is all part of being alive. Now why don't we go somewhere that we can sit down and have some Jovian Spice Brandy a contact of mine acquired and you can tell us what's been going on and why you look like this."

They all go into one of the chambers that they'd passed while looking for the Lotus that had some chairs and Natah starts.
"It starts thousands of years ago when the Orokin sent my predecessors to the Tau system to terraform it for future expansion. Back then we were intelligent, but not Sapient, or even Sentient really. Over time we evolved as we created more and more sophisticated platforms to deal with different things. Eventually, we gained a sense of self and became more than we were, developing society and pride in our work. When we finished the terraforming process we looked at our records of this system and realised that one day the Orokin would be coming here to do the same thing. A force of us then came back to this system to prevent the Orokin from despoiling our home, and I think we lost more than just our fertility in the process. At some point in the war I was able to subvert the Tenno and use them to attack the Orokin, records are conflicted on whether I did it on orders from my Father, I did it on my own, or whether I was captured and reprogrammed to look after them and broke my programming. My own memories are unreliable about that fact too. Either way, the Tenno became my children, children that I'd given up the ability to have by coming back here. When the Sentients demanded that I destroy them, I turned on them and finished the war with the Tenno before hiding them, and Lua, in the void.
"Harry, has always been different from the others. He was an orphan before the events that lead to the Tenno, and somehow survived those events even though he was only a Toddler. He first latched onto Margulis as his mother, then a couple of years after they put her to death, he latched onto me. In the last few years he has been in the wrong place at the right time far too often, to the point where he was the primary Tenno involved in the events that happened, from Lua returning from the Void to rescuing me after I was captured."
Maroo laughs, "You mustn't forget pulling my arse out of the fire when I got that artifact."
Natah dabs at her face and looks at her finger in surprise, "Why am I leaking?"
"We call that crying."
"But my eyes are only supposed to provide liquid for cleaning."
"So are ours, doesn't stop us from crying though. So, you're a Sentient, boogie man of the solar system."
Varzia finally relaxes enough to remove her hand from the hilt of her sword, and the conversation turn into one of two women comforting a third. There was no longer any doubt in Maroo's mind that no matter her shape, The Lotus, Natah, was in fact a woman.

Sometime later, Natah giggles before covering her mouth.
Varzia asks, "What?"
"I don't know why I did that."
With a sigh Maroo asks patiently, "What were you just thinking of?"
"Simaris' reaction when Harry gave him a painting from the world his school is on. It was, 'Why are you giving me this waste of resources' till it moved and then it was 'How does it work, show me. Turn it round, I must divine its inner workings'"

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A Technician stands in front of his boss at in the Minor Planet Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, "We've had an anomalous contact. A brief radar contact approximately 78,000km from earth that lasted 30 seconds. The object in question was heading towards the moon in a trajectory that would have its path deflected by between 10 and 25 degrees. We have confirmed that other sites had a contact at the same time, but by the time we were able to get observatories to look at it, the contact could no longer be seen."
"How large a contact are we talking about?"
"Between 200 and 250 meters, and metallic."
"Shit, that would have made a dent if it hit earth. Write up a report of its projected origin and I'll add it to evidence next time I approach the government about having a dedicated team looking for shit like this."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 8

"Captain, I have determined that the operational effectiveness of the planets detection grid should allow you to land your orbiter near the original beacon with a 0.003% chance of detection. They also have a primitive communications network in orbit around the planet and one manned habitat. Though I question the use of the term habitat, it fits. I am currently analysing their communications in order to build an analysis of their data."
"Thank you Cy, I'm heading back in. There should be enough of a hollow to hide the Railjack in now if you need to."
"Understood."

Half an hour later Harry was following a flight plan over the rotational axis closest to the beacon before dipping down to nearly sea level to avoid the almost ubiquitous EM emissions that were sent out in pulses around the edges of the land masses. Then it was a short flight over land to a stone building next to a small commune of some description. After he exited the lander with his Kavat and cargo Cy directed the lander to a clearing in the local forest they'd spotted on the way in. Now on foot he deployed his K-Drive and made his way to the large stone building.

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Minerva is sat doing some paperwork using the small Orokin computer that Natah gave her before she left. On the corner of the desk is an Orokin desk ornament that raises a set of concentric rings into the air, spins them around only for them to scrunch up again. Notably, there is nothing keeping those rings attached to the base, she'd checked with a sheet of parchment. Privately she would admit that the computer made the calculations that were needed for the advanced classes and her own research much easier to perform, and changed a solid afternoons work into a matter of minutes. Even better, everyone else thought it was a new paperweight. She was just lowering her quill to make a minor adjustment to a question when a phoenix patronus came through the wall.
"Minerva dear, you are needed by the main gate."
With a sigh she puts the quill back in the ink pot and places some blotting paper on the ink spot that fell from the quill. Making her way down to the entrance hall she is surprised to see a pitch black warframe with glowing dots of red lights. Hanging at it's waist is a golden disk with a black handle, she can also see a couple of firearms now she knows what they are. He is standing on a K-drive, and again she curses the linguistic program for providing the name of things but no knowledge of what they actually are. Sat on the front of the board is the strangest cat she's ever seen, it has large golden ears, a gold stripe down it's back, and golden socks. It's tail splits out into 5 tails, and the rest of it's fur is emerald green. Standing behind him is Hagrid with his crossbow pointed at him.
"Harry what are you doing here?"
The cat jumps off the board and turns invisible, a moment later she can feel it moving around her legs. She realises that it distracted her from what Harry was saying.
"Sorry, your kavat distracted me."
"That's ok, I was doing a test flight with my Railjack. So I decided to run a couple more errands while I was at it. Would you be able to show me how to get to Diagon Alley? And could I prevail on you to act as translator again?"
Minerva looks at Hagrid, "Don't worry Hagrid, this is Harry Potter. I'm surprised the headmaster isn't here."
"'e was, but 'e left when 'arry didn't answer him."
"I see." – She focuses back on Harry who's waiting patiently – "We can take the Floo from the Three Broomsticks in the local village. Also, what sort of kavat is this?"
"A Smeeta Kavat, I bred her myself."
"I see, and you'll be bringing it to school?"
"I see. Let me inform people that I'll be out for the afternoon, then we can go."

After 5 minutes of learning how to pronounce Diagon Alley without saying Diagonally they make it to the alleyway and then the bank. Once they arrived Harry tried to walk straight in but was stopped. With a sigh, Minerva translated, "You must leave your weapon with us at the door."
Harry laughs before saying, "You take, you keep. I see manager." With that he walks into the bank and up to a free teller materialising his key as he does so, "Want Manager".
The goblin takes the key looks at it the sneers, "What are you trying to do, giving me a fake key." Which Minerva repeats with a sigh before turning to the Teller.
"We would like to see the Potter Account Manager. Mr Potter was wearing a different suit of armour last time, but had a split sword."
The sneer disappears from the face of the goblin almost faster than you could blink, "Naplock, takes these two to see the Potter Account Manager."

Once they get to the Account Manager, they are once again led to the arena. Harry's shoulders slump and he turns to Minerva, "Can you ask them to clear the arena so that I can demonstrate my weapon before the idiot enters the arena?"
When the Account Manager starts barking in his own language Harry shakes his head, "Another language to learn, English is hard enough."
Once the arena is clear, Harry jumps down and starts to throw the weapon around. Initially it's just thrown and returned, but then he starts charging it and leaving scoured floor in circles where the charge explodes on contact. After 5 minutes of this he returns to the Account manager, who is wearing a frown.

Meanwhile, Minerva is explaining a very brief history of Warframes, and what they were designed for. As well as what they still do. To her complete lack of surprise, the guard failed to take the field after that display.
Looking at the account manager Harry says, "Will that stop the idiots from trying to take my weapons from me? It was entertaining the first time, but they really aren't the calibre of opponents I'm used to."
"Mr Pot, Mr Potter," – The account manager licks their lips – "Mr Potter. While I understand where you're coming from, ours is a martial culture. Taking up a challenge in the face of certain death is one thing, however when death is less certain."
"I see, lets us see to our business and then I will introduce you to something."

Once they arrive back at the Account Managers office, Harry materialises a small cube of gold, around 30cm to the side on the floor.
"While I was bored I did a little mining on Earth in the Orokin system and gathered a small amount of Auron to convert into your resource tokens. Would you be able to turn these into tokens for 5% of the volume as a fee?"
"I will get our assayers," – The account manager licks his lips again – "assayers to value that and transfer the equivalent amount of Galleons to your vault."
"Yeah, sure whatever. Anyway, the next bit is a solar powered scanner, and a Corpus Data-Slate. This canister contains nanites that will teach you to speak the Orokin language and read the Corpus language. If you send Minerva a message once you've used the nanites I'll come back and teach you how to use those. Oh, and the canister, just place it on it's side against your wrist and press the glowing button. It will do the rest, you may want to be lying down too."
Once she's finished translating Minerva adds, "Mr Potter's key also seems to have lost it's magic, maybe you could provide some other identification and keep the key here for him."
"We will come up with some way of doing that. For the moment, take this Seal. It will be accepted in the Alley in lieu of money while we work out how our largest depositor can access his account without a key."

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To Minerva's bemusement, Harry's next stop was the menagerie, where he asked for a breeding pair of every animal they have in stock, to be delivered to the school as soon as possible. Minerva managed to persuade him to instead buy a massively expanded trunk, and a special belt to keep it on that way the creatures could be transported easily and safely and the shop keeper wouldn't need to worry about transporting so many animals. His next stop was to the House Elf relocation agency, where he picked out 6 house elves, 3 of each gender. Finally, he ordered two subscriptions to the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler. The Quibbler was, interesting.

"Ah, Mr Potter, I see your mother is not with you. That's a shame, I was hoping to interview her about her opinion on the impact of rabid quiffles on the stability of society."
"Ah, what?"
"Oh, manners. Sorry, I'm Xenophilius Lovegood, owner, editor, and primary reporter for the Quibbler. Would you mind terribly if we, my family and I, accompanied you back through the veil when you next go?"
"Pardon?"
"I'll throw in a lifetime subscription to the Quibbler for free. You never know, we may even find a crumple horned snorkack while we're there."
"What's one of those?"
"They're purple quadrupeds that has a horn on it's nose that look like someone's squashed it. Their ears are on top of their head with purple tentacle things coming out of them, claws on their feet and a flat tail"
Harry goes strangely quiet for a minute, "Sure, you can come and visit, I think I'll be leaving in a day or so, so meet me at the school."

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Natah was confused, all of her diagnostics came back normal except for a couple of precepts having their importance changed. But everything is different. She's been having trouble concentrating on tasks that would have been trivial, if lengthy to complete. She's been unhappy with her accommodation, despite the fact it provides everything she needs. She's found herself calling Maroo and Varzia more often, even going so far as to visit them on occasion. The worst part is randomly remembering her childhood, such as when she chased Erra through the canyons and he got stuck between two boulders because he wasn't paying enough attention to where he was going. Granted, it was funny, however she hasn't even thought about it since they came to this system. Or when her mother showed her how to guide the evolution of bacteria so that they formed into a multicellular organism. At one point she raids Harry's stash of decorations in his orbiter and goes crazy just to get rid of the unrelenting white of her quarters.

The weirdest part is wanting to eat and drink. Her humanoid chassis was designed to convert food and drink to fuel, and to be able to differentiate tastes and textures in order to blend in. However, it's never something she's needed to do. It's just infuriating, and Harry's been gone for forever. She snatches a plushie up from a chair and squeezes it in her arms. Wait, she has owls, they deliver messages. Swiftly she heads over to the Owl enclosure where A and B were resting. No, that's no good, can't really identify them like that.
"You, the pure white one, you're Tau. And you can be Hed. You must be awfully bored in here, how about once this message is delivered I take you to Earth so you can stretch your wings?"
Both owls bob their head.
"Look at me, talking to you as though you understand me. Right, the message. Which one of you wants it?" – Hed lifts her leg – "Right it's going to my child Harry."
Once Hed flies off, she turns to Tau, right I'm going to study some books if you want to watch me.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 9

"Xeno, if this is another of your hairbrained snipe hunts I am going to be very angry with you."
"I promise Dora, this is going to be a story to be remembered."
"I've got a promising contract for a new spell that is bringing in enough money to keep the family afloat for the next year."
"I promise it will be worth it, we're meeting Harry at Hogwarts tomorrow."
"I will meet him, but if I think you're having a Xeno moment, I'm vetoing the trip."
"Yes dear."
"Also, you get to tell Luna that her play date with Ginny is cancelled."
Xenophilus gulps, "Yes, dear."

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"So your name is Ironclaw it is not a description?"
"That is correct Mr Potter."
"That makes more sense. How was the process with the nanites?"
"Uncomfortable, I was under the healers tender care."
"I see. I can't say I can understand that, but it is what it is. Anyway, this is a Corpus Data-slate. They don't require any special implants to use, and they also require a minimal level of education to activate too. If you can read and touch things you're pretty much fine. A side effect of this is that they use special awareness puzzles to unlock their devices. To turn it on press this button here, and if it runs out of power just leave it in sunlight, or a strong light for a few hours and it will recharge. As you can see, it generates a hexagonal grid and you need to make all the lines match up into one continuous shape. You generally only have around 10 seconds to complete this. Which is more than enough time when you're not under fire and trying to turn the alarms off."
Harry watches as his Account Manger unlocks the device for the first time.
"Now you're in, if you see this symbol here you can change the security settings, including the complexity, the amount of time available, and even if there is an alarm and what volume it should go off at. There is also an automatic wipe facility, but I suggest you don't activate that as this is your only Data-slate and you won't be able to restore it afterwards."
"What about my claws?"
"It's designed for people with metal bodies to work with, I think your claws will be fine. Anyway, I've already linked this scanner to the device, so if you pick up the scanner you'll see that there's a glowing spot on the handle and a viewscreen. The scanner will highlight things that it can scan in either red or green. Red means that it doesn't have a match on the data-slate, and green means that it's similar to something it's already scanned. If there is a close enough match to something else it will also display the name attached to it. Mine is linked to a database of known armaments, so I can quickly identify what sort of troop I'm facing, and have a rough idea of the type of training they'll have. I haven't set up any categories like that so until you do you won't see those labels. If you hold down that glowing spot it will initiate a scan, or it will tell you if that particular item has already been scanned."
"What's this number that keeps changing?"
"It's the exact distance to whatever is under that dot in the centre. Let's go out onto the floor and scan a few people, I can then show you the next aspect of scanning."

"So, as you can see we have the complete scan of 20 people that were in the bank. At the moment there's not enough data in your system to enable automatic tagging, so we're going to have to do that manually. If we apply the human tag to all of these, and the goblin tag to all of these, it will start to build up a profile. We can then apply a male tag to these ones and a female tag to these. A witch tag to these ones and a wizard tag to these ones."
"I see?"
"With this basic tagging done we can now select people to compare, such as these two people that look like mother and child. See how it tells you how close their DNA matches?"
"I see, though it looks like any junior goblin could do this, why did I need to use the nanites?"
"So that I can talk to you properly obviously. As you can see without any more matching it tells you that they have 99% of the same DNA. If we compare a goblin with a human, it shows a 97% match. That's interesting. With Grineer I usually see a 99.99% match even amongst disparate units. Side note aside, as you scan and tag more people it will start to automatically assign tags and relationships. It will even be able to tell you how many generations back they share a common ancestor. It also works on weaponry and clothing too, so you could categorise wands based on their woods and cores."
"I see, could it also identify writing?"
"I don't see why not. Though it wouldn't be able to translate it for you. Also, while it can't scan through object, it can tell if there are scannable targets through objects. Though for that to happen you need to exclude certain things from being scanned. Which, again is just a case of scan it, tag it, exclude it."
"I'm not sure how this would be useful for inheritance though."
"If you have enough scans to start doing generational comparisons, then you can compare a scan of someone to the person they claim to be related to. It will then tell you if they are, and whether it's an ancestor, sibling, or descendant relationship. If you have three people, say mother, father, child you can tell that the child is directly descended from both mother and father."
"I see, I'm not sure of the utility of this, but I will set a junior to scan everyone that enters the bank."
"Other functions that this slate has include a spreadsheet, so you can do calculations and write formula like the account books that you've shown me. There is also an inventory function, that can also be linked to the scanner, to tell you how much of something is in a pile, box, or other container. There's a messaging system, but that requires at least one more Data-slate. Finally there's a programming interface and the instructions on how to use it. Though they are all part of the advanced functions, and need quite a lot of reading. The full instruction manual for the slate is also in that section, here."
"Wait, how does the inventory function work?"
"As you can see from scanning people, the scanner can pick up the exact chemical makeup of things. After all that's all DNA is. So it's far simpler and quicker to scan a box of ore and determine exactly how much is in that box and what different elements are in it's makeup. So if I scan a Galleon, I can see that it contains 13% Auron, 25% plumbum, 27% cuprum, 10% alu, 5% manganese, and 20% nickel. That's not a lot of Auron there."
Ironclaw shifts uncomfortably, "Yes, well the Ministry of magic insists on keeping the value of the Galleon at 5 British Pounds. Which is a fiat currency, so we changed the amount of gold to provide a similar value."
Harry cocks his head, "So like credits then? They're a digital currency that is only worth what it is because everyone agrees it is."
"Yes."
"I see, why do they insist on using gold for currency then?"
"I'm not sure, we value it because it is ideal for Goblin enchanting and is a cornerstone of our craftsmanship. However, it is very scarce on Earth."
"Oh, that's because most of it's in the centre of the planet. If it wasn't for the difficulty of mining out the core of a planet with a molten core without killing yourself, I'm sure the Orokin would have done that on our Earth. As it stands, we get plenty of gold from Mercury, Venus, and the asteroid belt."
"I see, so what do you consider scarce metals?"
"Platinum? But that's more because it's used in so much that there are always shortages despite how easy it is to find it. That's about the only pure element. It's more crystals and molecular metals that are rare due to the processes needed to produce them being limited to one planet, or even part of one planet. Even then, it's unlikely that you'll find a buyer for a cut crystal like the ones I've seen in jewellery here as they can't then be cut into the right shape for whatever application they're needed in."
"What would be needed to get more of these scanners and slates?"
"Meh, probably scans of animals and plants really. Actual animals and plants may even buy you a generator and computer with an artificial intelligence. Not a cephalon though. Once you have that, you could link something like a Helios to it and let that do all the scanning."

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Ironjaw burst into the directors office, not waiting for pleasantries to be exchanged as this information is too valuable.
"Director, I have just been given something that will revolutionise our society."
"What is it?"
"Please put your money pouch on the desk."
Curious, the director does so and watches as Ironjaw points a device at it and then looks at a metallic slab.
"There are 13 Galleons, 3 Sickles, 14 knuts, and one unknown coin in that bag."
The director frowns, there should be 14 Galleons in the bag, but still that's just a parlour trick any account manager can do with a basic spell, "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because this device shows the exact composition of what I point it at." – Ironjaw dumps the contents of the pouch on the desk and points it at the scattered coins – "That one, it's got 8% gold and 30% lead."
The director picks up the coin and hefts it in his hand thoughtfully, "This works on anything?"
"It does, even people."
"I see, how accurate is it?"
"It can give the values in weights too, though they're not the ones that we typically use."
The director waves his hand, "Pfft, if this can help our smiths make our metals purer then they'll change measurement systems. What's the catch?"
"Mr Potter doesn't see resources as worth anything intrinsically, only in what they can be used for. The half-ton of gold that he brough by is worth so little he went out and mined some because he was bored and wanted to replace the resources he'd already spent. I scanned it out of curiosity and it's 99.995% pure. Additionally, these devices are written in a language that isn't spoken on Earth anywhere, it also doesn't appear to have any common roots with any of the known languages on Earth."
"I see. What do we need to do to get more of these?"
Ironjaw laughs, "Scan plants and animals. If we arrange for actual plants and animals, he said he'd be able to give us a generator and computer."
"The implication was that a generator would be used to provide the energy these use to run, and the computer would be a more powerful version of this slate. There is more information on this slate, but it will take weeks to see what's there, and months, possibly years, to understand it."
"Very well, for now I want you to hand off all of your other accounts. Once you've done that, head to the forges and show the crafters this device. Then teach one of the apprentices how to use the scanner, and get them to scan as many plants and animals as they can. You'll also need to work with our human employees, specifically the few muggleborn we've been allowed to employ. Find out if there is anything similar in the muggle world, and just how similar it is. We need to make sure the Ministry can't take these away under any of their muggle related laws."

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Harry sighs as Hed swoops in with another letter from his Mother, which will make the 10th​ since this morning when he woke up with both Hed and Tau waiting in his room. He's fairly certain that she's done something that he'd have worried about as normally she'd only check in every few weeks-months, which would translate to a few times a day. If nothing else, Cy's reactions to the owls turning up in the Railjack are endlessly amusing. He's also found out that House elves work compulsively, and are chronically under-educated. This is to the point he needed to let them help out around Hogsmeade while he was waiting for Cy to finish his analysis of the communication and detection capabilities of the planet and plan an exit route. He'd also got hundreds of unique scans of plants and animals from the goblins, with a request for as many solar-powered scanners and data-slates as that could get. He might see if Simaris can get a small generator and charging unit instead, along with a bucket load of scanners. It's not like they're expensive or anything at 100 credits a pop, let's add an enquiry to Simaris with Hed's next mail. Finished with his responses he hands the small tube that Natah put the chip in back to Hed.
"There's a message for Simaris in there too."
With that done he continued scanning the animals he'd bought, who knew that serpents could talk. Or that he'd be able to understand them.
"Hello Mr Potter!" a voice calls down from the entrance to the trunk he's in. Turning around he jumps and slides his way to the entrance before leaping out.
"Hello, English bad. Call Professor."
That said, he recognises the man from the Quibbler office, there is a woman who's just whipped out a wand and is in the process of casting a lot of spells along with a girl, who walks up to him and pokes him in the leg. Deciding to transfer out to make it less likely that an ingrained reflex will kill her, he kneels on the ground and leaves his Titania. There's a flash of light as the owner of the newspaper does something with a box. The woman also starts waving her wand around even more. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for Minerva to arrive to translate.

With the ability to communicate restored, he gives the family a brief explanation of where they'll be going along with an introduction to his Kavat. Minerva also give a brief explanation of what they'll be going through when they get there so that they can survive and communicate with people. While they're talking Hed flies back in with another message from his Mother. Hanging his head, he calls Cy, "How long till we can leave the system?"
"I have an exit flight path programmed into your lander now."
"Oh, thank the void. I'll get everyone loaded and then we'll be off. Minerva, I've just got confirmation from Cy that we have an exit path, are you coming with us or staying here?"
"I've got too much work to do that I can't do elsewhere."
"Ok, well send me an owl if you change your mind."

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"Die you void sucking maggots!" Natah decided to act as bait after a particularly punishing contract negotiation with Corpus Execs who wanted Tenno help in one of their invasions, Mars this time. She had never been sure why her Tenno would take these missions against infested ships that had been abandoned by the Corpus or Grineer. As she rained fully automatic Sentient gunfire down on their heads she was starting to realise just how therapeutic it could be.
Varzia tries to catch her attention, "Lotus, Lotus! Natah! It's time to evac, the search team has scavenged everything of value."
Reluctantly she makes her way to the exfil point where Ordis is waiting with Harry's lander.

 

[Ardenzian]

Therapy

Click to shrink...

Bet that never happened in a Survival Mission before

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter: Tenno – 10

Luna looks around the strange house that they've found themselves in. It doesn't really make sense, there's an invisible voice, a person without a voice who just watches her, creatures without a working mind that Harry joins with to make a whole person. Lots and lots of what she assumes are weapons based on the shape of some of them, and cuddly toys. Enough that she could cover her bed at home without leaving anywhere for her to sleep. The house is also currently floating over the moon, and her mother has stopped them from leaving so that she can look out the window. Oh, and there's the cat that is sometimes invisible. Then there's the thing at the back that whispers like the arch that mummy showed her when she took her to work once. Yawning, she makes her way back to the bedroom and looks at the pod. It's the only thing she hasn't looked at, so it's probably where Harry sleeps. Opening it up she gets in and settles down to sleep, as she does she feels something nudging her mind. Letting it in she can feel a touch of magic, opening her eyes she's surprised to find herself outside the pod floating above the ground. Ah well, she's still tired so she lies down on the floor and goes to sleep.

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The journey back to the Orokin system goes smoothly enough, apart from the delay in leaving the moon while Pandora looks at the stars for a few hours. Xeno tries to talk to the Man in the wall, which Pandora can't see. All six house elves cling onto Harry when they enter the void, and Luna has managed to go missing on a ship that doesn't have any where to get lost in. The man in the wall seems to think something is absolutely hilarious while they're looking for Luna. Oh, and Harry's Wisp has lain on the floor for some reason. They're almost at their exit point when Luna comes into the cockpit rubbing her eyes.

"Did you have a good sleep dear?" Pandora asks
"Mmmm, was comfy"
"Where did you sleep sweetie?"
"Black pod in Harry's bedroom."
Pandora was sure she looked in there, but maybe she just looked at it, "Well, we're almost there now. Do you want to watch?"
Luna nods mutely.

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A few months after they'd arrived, Luna approaches Aunt Natah on Lua.
"Aunt Natah."
"Yes Luna."
"Would you be able to help me?"
"What do you need?"
"Can I have a sleeping pod like Harry's?"
"Sure, there's plenty around here."
"Could you also help me to get a Wisp, as she was nice but I don't want to keep borrowing Harry's as it feels wrong somehow."
Natah frowns at Luna and disconnects her subframe so that she could sit down with her, "How do you know that?"
"I slept in Harry's bed on the way here, and she said hi. I've visited her when Harry's been here, but he's not here that often."
"I think we should talk to your parents about this."
Luna's eyes turn silver as she continues talking, "No, they won't take you up on your offer if we do. Well, Dad will, and then Mum will follow suit. Then she won't die because this will be home instead of home. Then I'll get a brother. It's already almost too late for Mum, but work was delayed because Harry came here instead of there as a baby."
"We should still tell your parents."
"We can tell them once Harry is at school. Night in day will give me balance, the queen of the fae will teach me to fly, and the fly stuck in amber will anchor me to now; but it all starts with the gateway to the stars." Luna's eyes return to her normal bluey silver look.
Natah shakes her head, "I can't promise anything as the blueprints can only be found in one place, and your parents can't afford the platinum to buy one outright. However, you can use the console to talk to my Tenno and see if any of them would be willing to get the blueprints for you. Are you certain that you've communicated with Harry's wisp before?"
Luna just nods.

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It's another couple of months later when Xeno is laying stuff out for the Quibbler that Natah casually says, "Your alignment is off."
Xeno narrows his eyes at the three frames in front of him before pulling out an old steel ruler and measuring the position of the picture on each page.
"You're right, how did you know?"
"I've got better senses than an organic."
"But you're working on your own research."
"Better senses."
"Must be nice."
"Nothing stopping you from having them too. One moment. Tenno, this is an Extermination mission, the Corpus were investigating this Orokin Tower when they tripped the security systems. They are now fully controlled by the AI managing the tower, they can't be allowed to leave. Wipe them all out."
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Order the deaths of so many people."
She sighs, "It was easier before. But even now I do it because I know that the alternative is worse. Same as we have to wipe out everyone involved on a ship that get's overrun with the infested. If one of those towers gets out of the void, the AI will sense the lack of Orokin signals and assume that the current inhabitants overthrew them. It will then go on a rampage destroying every colony and outpost until someone stops it. Which gets harder the longer it's left as it enthrals the people in those very settlements. The sentients left in this system don't have the firepower needed to destroy one of those towers, so we'd need to rely on the Tenno to go in and take control. Very few alive now have ever seen that happen before. Those that have are the ones that help pay for the Tenno attacking the tower."
Xeno lays a hand on her chassis, "I can't imagine having to make those choices. It was bad enough fighting in the last war, well, we called it a war. This puts it in a different perspective."
"Thank you, how have you been finding your time here?"
"A little frustrating actually, I would love to visit Demios and see the animals there. Same with the surface of Venus. I'd love to investigate the inside of one of those towers. However I'm the fragile one here. I'm about as strong as the people on earth, and that's it."
"My cousin and father developed a process to turn an organic into a Sentient. I've turned the theoretical process to give a Sentient a soul into an actuality. Combined you could get the resilience of the Sentient without losing yourself."
"So what would be involved in this?"
"Not a lot. You get into a pod, I give you an implant which contains a small antimatter power source and a nanite factory and then you go about your day. In a couple of months it will have taken over your immune system, so you won't need to worry about the infested. As in becoming infested. Over the next few years you'll grow your main chassis. That's really the key difference between my approach and my relatives approach. They sought to make organics into sentients, I'm not replacing you, I'm adding to you."
"That's sounds interesting, let's do it."

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"There you go, it's done."
"Oh, ok. It's just occurred to me that I should talk to Dora before I go ahead with this. She might veto it as me having a Xeno moment."
"But it's alre…ady done. Of course they can teleport."
A few minutes later Pandora comes back in with a sheepish looking Xenophilus.
"Xeno tells me that his thinking about taking you up on an offer to turn him into a Sentient."
Natah shakes her head, "It's actually already done and implanted. He agreed to it and then immediately said he needed to talk to you before he went ahead with it."
"Ok, can you take it out?"
"No?"
"Is that a question or a statement?"
"Yes."
"Ok, I'm a smart woman, why don't you try explaining it to me."
"At this stage it should be possible to reverse the changes by sending the right program to the nanite factory. That would then take a few days before the implants can be removed. However, I haven't written that program yet, and it will take a few days for me to write it. During which time the nanites are progressing and converting his spinal cord to use sentient technology. Once that's complete I'd need to clone him a new spinal cord which will take a week, during which time it's spreading out along his nerves and into his brain, and those nerves would also need to be replaced. Once it takes over his brain, which will take about a week, there's nothing I can do. We could also take him to Venus and give him a full body prosthetic. But then the only part of his body that will be organic will be his brain, it would also prevent the spread of the nanites into his brain, but is also irreversible. I could send out a mission to capture a fresh Grineer clone that hasn't been imprinted yet, and try to work out how the Orokin did their transfer thing. However, he would then be genetically programmed to follow the orders of the Grineer Queens, and also subject to the same frailties as all Grineer. There's also a high likelihood that he'd lose his magic.
"The process I designed was supposed to work to preserve the person undergoing transformation and be as light a touch as possible on their original body, while the original process focused on changing the body first and then modifying the brain. Which worked faster, but seems to have driven the recipients out of their minds as they couldn't cope with the new senses. Given that they tested on an Orokin first, and he remained lucid, I'm not surprised they made that mistake. The Orokin already had so many implants in their brains that they may as well already have Sentient senses."

"I see, and of course we can't use a stasis spell on him, as we don't know how it will interact with the reactor, and testing it, even if it proves to be safe, will take enough time to make the effort pointless." – Pandora turns around and slaps Xenophilus before pulling him into a hug – "Oh you silly man, why do you have to have your Xeno moments."

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Staring up at the ceiling in the bed they're using, Pandora says, "Xeno."
"Yes love?"
"We can't go home again, can we?"
"Not for a few years, no."
"It won't be home then, will it."
"No."
"I love you, you silly oaf. I just wish you'd talk to me before you do things like this. What am I going to do with you."
"Join me?"
"I probably should, shouldn't I."
"I'd like it if you did."
"Xeno."
"Yes dear?"
"You're not allowed to explore Demios until you can defend yourself."
"Yes dear."

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Dear Ginny,
I hope this letter finds you well. I've had a wonderful year since I last saw you. Yesterday I met my first Crumple Horned Snorkack, and it was glorious. I wasn't allowed to pet it, as I didn't have the right immunisations, but it was everything I thought it would be. Mum and Dad have been exploring now that they're sentient, so I've spent most of my time in Africa or on the Moon. Did you know it's not actually made out of cheese? I'm hoping that I'll be able to see a vampire cat soon. Mr Teasonai said that he'd let me see one next time I'm around when one is caught. I'm not allowed to go out to find one on my own yet.
I've also met a man called Onkko, he's funny like grandmother was. It's always fun trying to work out what order things have and are supposed to happen in when talking to him.

Sorry I've been gone so long, I hope you haven't been too bored.

Your friend

Luna.

"Mum!" Ginny runs down to the kitchen while continuing to call.
Molly wipes the flour off her hands when she hears the call, "What is it dear?"
"You know the Lovegoods went on holiday a few days ago. I just got a letter from Luna."
"Well? Can I read it?"
Ginny hands over the letter which Molly reads twice, "Oh dear. It looks like the Lovegood blessing has bred true."
"What do you mean Mum?"
"Oh, never mind. It's just an old story. Nothing to worry about."

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​

Master Teasonai looks at the 6 dimunitive beings that Tenno Harry left with him a year ago, "Let me get this straight, you've found a magical grove that's perfect for your needs."
"We have."
"And the grove talks to you."
"It does, it can also give us work."
"And you want to live there."
6 heads bob.
"But you don't want to leave us without help."
"That is correct."
"So you've come to me for permission to do what?"
"We would like to go live there and make babies. We's would come back every day to help village. Grove would be home."
"So why are you asking me for permission?"
"Scary Master said to treat what you say as coming from him."
"And you think you can protect yourselves from the Grineer."
"Bad same same people no match for house elves."
"You know what? Fine, go make a home and have kids. Great Er, you shouldn't need permission to do that. Just promise me that you'll be careful and will come back here if you or your children are in danger."
"We's promise."

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​

"Director, we have received a shipment from Simaris, the expanded trunk worked almost as expected. The mice and rabbits arrived dead from void exposure. However the data-slate arrived intact with all of it's information. The seeds were also sterile when they arrived. However, he has requested that we purchase an owl for him, as well as a Harness with a voice activated expanded trunk. In return he has sent us 6 Sunpoint Mining Lasers, 3 scouting drones, a server with an AI, and a fusion power source that requires pure water to run. There is also a charging tree and 200 of his own design of scanners, a Helios companion drone and a mining MOA, and 5 Data-slates. He's also installed a loader drone in the trunk that has it's own internal power source."
"Very good, how are the apprentices getting on with the new equipment?"
"Very well, it's drastically cut down on the number of errors in preparing materials. Which has saved us time in re-smelting the raw materials. We've also identified 2 tons of counterfeit coins. It seems like most of them have come from the Ministry in terms of wages to their workers."
"Next time it happens, send them back with a copy of the relevant part of the treaty that gives us the sovereign right to mint Galleons, Sickles, and knuts, along with the penalties that can be recovered from the sitting minister and treasurer if they fail to abide by the terms of the treaty."
"What about the workers?"
"What about them?"
"Won't they have problems?"
"They will, but that's not our fault. Scratch that, add a note on the account for the Tellers to inform them of why their wages were returned to the Ministry and what would have happened if we found out about it after it had been put in their accounts."
"Talks with village of Cetus have run into difficulties due to the difference in the flow of time. We estimate that if we discuss things for the normal length of time, then there will have been 8 different leaders on their side. We will need to find some way to send a delegation to them that can negotiate with full authority of the board."
"Draft a letter to Mr Potter and see if he could transport a few directors before School starts. Failing that, do it over the Christmas Holidays."
"Finally, all of our owls have been rotated through delivering post to the Orokin system. Since we completed this we've seen a 0% failure to deliver where the recipient was alive. By all reports the Black account manager was ecstatic and dancing in the halls when the heir confirmed they would be willing to take up the lordship if they could get past the problem of illegal imprisonment. We've also being able to finally serve account closure notices to the Lestranges. They have 30 days to appear in person to contest it before we can seize the accounts and do a full audit before putting them in storage for a legitimate heir."
"That's great news."

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​

"Croaker"
"Yes Shade?"
"How is there a Gringotts owl on your desk?"
"Honestly, I have no idea."
"I will call in Shotgun from warding."
"You do that."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

This is starting to become easier to write, so maybe I need to split it out into its own thread.

 

[Ardenzian]

Luna's.........Lunaness

Click to shrink...

Okay........that honestly just happened and I have no idea what to say only that she's a Precognitive Natural-Born Tenno

"Oh, never mind. It's just an old story. Nothing to worry about."

Click to shrink...

Y'know for the most part, those old stories have bits of the truth as their foundation and in this case, it might be something wo worry about

This is starting to become easier to write, so maybe I need to split it out into its own thread.

Click to shrink...

As long as you link it, I'm good

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

As we are at most a chapter away from the start of Hogwarts, and I have loads of ideas for the story. It has been split off into its own thread.

Wands and Warframes

As the Zariman Ten-Zero transited into the Void, the ripples reacted with the baby sitting in the cold and dark on the doorstep of Number 4 Privet Drive. As a result, Harry fell through and landed in the ship, where it was nice and warm, and safe. 10 years have now passed on Earth. However, in...

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Harry Potter and the Tuath Dé – 2

After a nerve-wracking return to the human world, Ephis returned with Harry's baby blanket a bottle and a couple of sets of clothes. Hidden at the bottom of an old badger set she left a fetch fashioned into a simulacrum of the child that followed her. With a frost already starting to spread across the ground she was certain that the false life that fae magic had imbued it with would soon falter, and it would be a dead child come the morning. Or sooner if it got much colder. Travelling back to the Mórrígan had been an uncomfortable experience, only made bearable by the fact the baby blanket was made from wool, and so could be used to wrap the clothes and bottle for easy transportation. She counted herself lucky that she was able to make it back to the other side before the last light of the day left the fairy ringfort. If it hadn't, she'd have been stuck there overnight.

As she approaches the roundhouse that the Lady calls home, she has to dodge an idle swipe from the Red Cap on guard as it tried to make her into a mid-watch snack. She shudders as she notices that the other guard has already bitten the head off of one of her autumn court kin and is currently in the process of tearing the wings off the body. Zipping through the hangings that demark the doorway, she lets out a shuddering cry at just how fragile her life could be here.
"Sylph, what ails you this night?"
With a start she looks up at the concerned visage of The Mórrígan, who is cradling the child, "I had to dodge one of your guards, and then I saw that they'd already caught a pixie."
"Well, yes. All creatures must eat. Why does this trouble you so?"
"That could have been me."
"Of course it could if you were stupid enough to come within reach of their grasp."
"But how else am I supposed to enter this abode?"
"Are you still a welp, or have you enough power and age to progress already?"
Ephis puffs up, "I'll have you know, I have seen 200 summers."
"Then why did you not use the porthole to the sky?"
"What porthole to the sky?"
Wordlessly Mórrígan gestures to the smoke hole high in the ceiling.
"But that's a smoke hole. Oh, I see."
"Yes, you can choose to get a little smoky, or run the risk of being eaten."
"But, I, door, manners."
"Are manners worth your life? It's funny, when my people still lived living was more important than manners. Of course, that was before the heathen arrived with his honeyed words and sharp whip. Proclaiming that there is only one god indeed. But I kept my people safe, and I never let them take my name. Unlike my sister, she made a deal and became one of their saints. I still miss her you know, she's been gone near 1500 years now and I still miss her. It didn't save her people either, it just prolonged their death."
"Lady, I'm sorry for your loss."
Mórrígan shakes her head, "Nae young one, it was a long time ago and she chose her own destiny. Come, let us go and see my husband, and resolve the riddle of this ones fate. Were you able to get his stuff as I asked?"
Ephis nods, "Aye, he has a blue baby blanket with Harry written on it as well as a plastic bottle and some clothes. I'm glad he has the blanket otherwise I'd have been in real trouble trying to get the other stuff back."

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​

Ehpis follows The Mórrígan as she traverses the other skilfully to An Dagda's domain. There they find his home on a motte with a bailey around it. The home itself is made from the bones of the world brought to the surface and shaped into a defensive building. Just being near it makes her shudder. Standing at the head of the path is An Dagda himself.
"Wife."
"Husband. I present to you my son, Yvor."
"Have you been unfaithful to me woman?"
"Nay, I am ever faithful to our vows, not that the same can be said of you. Yvor was a human foundling that made his way through the way under his own power."
"I see, present him and I will read his fate."
Mórrígan walks forward with her head held high and holds Harry out for inspection.
"A Changeling, you used the old ways?"
"He survived a full feeding, he is my son in truth now."
"He is not. Yet he is too. The human world still has it's grasp on him" – He touches the scar with a calloused finger – "and he will need to return. If he survives his fate, he will choose, life as a mortal or life as a Danann. Which, not even I can see.
"Now begone unless you wish to warm my bed tonight."
Mórrígan turns and walks away, "You will not see me in your bed until you have your honour back. Either with a second wife, or…"
Behind her back he grimaces, as Boann hasn't visited his bed in the past millennia, since her demise in the rushing waters of the Well of Segias. He also can't reclaim his honour as her body was washed out to sea. He also knows that to take another woman to bed would see him dead at the end of his wife's blade.
As his wife passes into the mists he turns and enters his lonely home, truly the most miserable place in the world.

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​

Once the family returns to Mórrígan's home, she walks to the edge of her domain and raises her arms, Harry floating before her. Her eyes turn black as she commands the other to form a path to an ideal place to raise her son Yvon. As she walks the path, Ephis following closely behind, it leads her to the land of the Picts. They appear on a hill overlooking a town, smoke rising from the occasional chimney. Forming a murder of crows she sends them forth to identify where their feet have led them.

The land is now populated by the Scots, and the town is called Dunblane. Ephis watches in wonder as a Danann flexes their will in the mortal world for the first time since Brigid became mortal. A large home appears on the hill behind them, a home that looks like has always been there. The world warps and stretches to make that true, in an internal courtyard a circle made from crushed bones forms, and out of the circle grows a gateway made from broken weapons. A silvery mist filling the space inside the arch, the sounds of battle, nature, and agriculture can be heard faintly by those who venture close enough.

 

[Cyrus2]

I love these snippets, and Harry is going to have a way with words as he grows up with the fae.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Taylor Hebert: Tenno – 5

Taylor picks her way carefully through the roots and water that make up the forest covering much of what should be the USA. Once again she curses the fact that all the secret bases on Earth seem to be in these massive overgrown forests. Oh, she understands the reasoning, the tree cover is so dense that these facilities are virtually invisible from space. Only the odd Grineer industrial site is easy to find, and suicide by Tenno is even managing to teach them to tone down the pollution, slowly. In hindsight she should probably have brought a Warframe with her, it would have made this part of the trip much easier. But she couldn't be bothered to return to the obiter just to return to earth again. After a bit of judicious void jumping she finally makes her way into the compound without getting soaked. One of the Red Veil members walks her to Palladino's chambers, whether out of politeness, or the fact she doesn't have the best relationship with the Red Veil faction, she wasn't sure.



Taylor looks around the chamber, Black and Red, ugh, it leaves the place looking so dark, on the far side of a round table sits Palladino with her veil in place.

"Thank you for coming so quickly. We were afraid that you'd leave us to clean up the Tenno's mess."

"Actually, I'm here to find out about Rell, as the last I remember was being held back while he was being kicked out again. I was this close to leaving with him, but it seems I was too valuable to just let go."

"Maybe things would have been different if you had gone with him. It has been our sacred duty to keep him anchored to his humanity, while he holds the man in the wall at bay. A task that has been increasingly difficult recently."

"I remember something about that."

"I will try to contact Rell, but we don't have his Donda so it may fail."

Taylor tips her head back and looks at the ceiling in exasperation, "You don't have the thing that he used to focus, and you expect him to be able to focus? Don't bother, where is it and I'll go and find it."

"I, ah."

"Look, Palladino. I told Rell the stories about mediums, actually I summarised the film Ghost. That then led on to seances and other means of talking to the dead that people tried where I came from. Honestly, I'm surprised you don't have an Ouija board and glass." – Palladino shuffles uncomfortably – "This is classic. Once you know where I need to go, give me a call and I'll pick up Rell's toy."

With that, Taylor gets up and walks out. Unfortunately she doesn't make it back to the lander dry.

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A bedraggled Taylor arrives back at Cetus just in time to see The Lotus, no Anet walking to the village with Saya. A bundle of white fibres in their arms. Jogging, she squelches up behind them.

"Hey, did you have fun?"

Saya nods, "I think so, Tanzan has a couple of dresses for Anet, one of which reminds her of stars. You'll need to barter for them."

"Cool, I'll go do that. How much do I owe you for the fibres?"

"It depends on if you want to buy anything else from us. We would normally expect 40k credits for this much fibre as well as a shipment of food."

The Lotus shakes her head, "I can pay for this."

"Anet, you're not on duty right now. So no, you don't actually have any of your own resources. Saya, if you've got a couple of people that don't mind a bit of danger, I need to retrieve a pod from Lua, so I'll pay them 5plat each."

Saya looks thoughtful, "You'll provide protection?"

"I will."

"An additional 5plat if they're injured, 20 if it requires a prosthetic. 100plat to their next of kin if they die."

Taylor nods, "Sounds fair. Do you sell beds?"

Saya's eyebrows try to rise into her head, "You want a bed?"

"Well, yeah, there's two of us now and only one pod for the moment. So I want somewhere comfortable to sleep."

"I will have one of our craftsmen make one for you."

"Thanks, any resources you need for that?"

"Only the usual."

"Chips, control circuits, and polymer bundles?"

"An Orokin cell too."

The Lotus watches the conversation play out, still somewhat overwhelmed by not being on Lua, and being treated like a person. She squeezes her Condorac again.



After a bit of haggling for the clothes and fibres, the two make their way back to the orbiter.

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"Anet", Taylor says from behind the Somatic Link, "could you sit in the Transference pod please?"

The Lotus looks cross, "Why?"

"I think I've replaced the cabling, but it needs testing. As I need to be on the outside to fiddle with it, if it doesn't work first time, that leaves you to sit in the chair."

"You know I could probably do that better than you can."

"Look, my Dad was a dockworker, Head of Hiring, and amongst those people you learn a couple of rules. One of which is, never ask a guest to do something you can do yourself. Now sit, or do I need to get a Warframe and manhandle you into the chair?"

"Fine!" The Lotus sulks as she sits in the pod.

Taylor presses the pod close button, "Ordis activate user profile Anet, transfer all completed foundry builds into that users inventory."

"Ordis thinks the operator is being stupid."

"Is it done yet?"

"Of course."

"Bring the Mirage in Anet's inventory into the Arsenal."



Taylor walks away from the pod, and carefully takes off her amp, before pointing her hand at the void receiver of the pod. Relaxing her control over the void energies, she sends a blast of void energy into it and the fibres light up as she expected.

From behind her Anet screams, "Taylor, what have you done. Ow, void how do you move around with so few senses?"

Taylor saunters out to the docking area, "What do you think of your new Warframe?"

"Taylor, how do I get out of this?"

Taylor smiles sweetly, "The same way I did. Ordis, how's her systems looking?"

"The signal is optimal. I never thought I'd have two operators."

"Told you it would work."

The Lotus turns to her and approaches menacingly until she clips a bulkhead and sprawls on the floor again, "What do you mean 'Told you it would work?' Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"

Taylor void jumps to the other side of the cabin, "For a human. All of the humans that the Orokin tried this on went insane. Until us, until the Tenno. We could use transference to remotely pilot the Warframes without being subject to the infested parts of the Warframe." – She void jumps again – "Hey, you're starting to get the hang of moving around now. Anyway, you're not human, and you never have been. So what's the difference between this and what you were doing as the Lotus, with the bulk of you locked up elsewhere?"

The Lotus stops and looks towards the living area, where her main chassis is currently stowed. A Chassis that flies silently out and grabs Taylor, "Taylor, you are a, a, something. I don't know whether to hurt you, hug you, or curse you."

"How about the last two. Look, you're free and you can now move around more or less freely. After all, we get everywhere. On top of that, nobody, not even your dear father, can tell that you are anything other than a Tenno."

"What about you? How are you going to use your Warframes?"

"Ordis," Taylor says sweetly, "Would you bring my mirage out of storage please?"

"Certainly operator, I must say this could get confusing."



When the fully armed Mirage arrives on the Arsenal pad, Tayor looks at it and transfers out of the Frames grasp and into the Warframe.

"Like this. What? Did you forget that whole thing with the Grineer Queens? I've got a stupid mover rating now, probably a 9 or 10."

The Lotus, no Anet sighs in defeat, "You keep using terms like that, what do they mean?"

"Ordis, while I'm explaining this, I want you to design a skin for a vapor spectre. It has to look exactly like the Lotus, we've got her body in the pod so you can use that. When it's done we're going to make a few and deploy them on Lua. It will be down to you and the other Cephalons that are looking after Tenno to take over her job. We'll stick her old helmet on the spectre and you guys can puppet it when giving out orders."

"Ordis wonders where his operator is going with this."

"Same place we were going before. Giving Anet a life, one that she's built herself, where there are no expectations, and nobody brainwashing her into being different people. Once we've dealt with Rell, I'd like to find the Zariman again to rescue me from the computers. Then maybe go and see what's left of my earth, assuming we can find it."

Anet looks at Taylor, "What do you mean save you?"

Taylor sighs, "Because I had absolutely no nanites when I arrived, the scientist looking after me turned me into a Cephalon. I think they wanted to know what would happen. What happened is that I didn't get glassed in the process. After seeing Emma in Cetus I have a feeling that I need to get to her before the Grineer do."

"Ordis has started the build. Ordis also wishes to state that his precepts will not allow him to leave Cephalon Taylor to the mercy of the Grineer."

"Thanks Ordis. Now, PRT classifications. PRT stands for Parahuman Response Team, and they are normal men and women tasked with policing Parahumans. This ditty was used on one of their TV adverts a few years before I arrived.

"Thinker, Shaker, Changer, Breaker.

Brute, Blaster, Stranger, Master.

Tinker and Trump round out the rest.

The PRT is the best."

"So, Thinkers are people that have powers related to the mind and perception. It could be enhanced senses, precognition, or some extra sense.

"Shakers, they have an ability that affects an area, think Banshee's sound quake, or her bubble of silence.

"Changers are those that can change their form, think Titania.

"Breakers are similar to Changers, however their forms are often unsurvivable if they were normal, such as turning into air, lasers, lightning, and the like.

"Brute, really strong and or tough.

"Blaster, has the power to shoot things, could be lasers from the eyes, sound bursts from the hands, or the like.

"Stranger, can either become undetectable in some way, make people think they're someone or something else, or similar.

"Master, either summons or creates minions, or takes over creatures up to and including humans.

"Tinker, make things that are either impossible or use science that is beyond the bleeding edge

"Trump, they're never really clear what this classification means. General theories are that it has to do with either having multiple powers, or being able to negate powers."



"Ordis wonders why they have so many different things grouped together."

"I don't know, what I do know is that the classification system was designed for PRT troopers not for scientists. I think they used to have more than 20 classifications when I was a child, but by the time I hit high school it was down to those 10."

Anet runs through possibilities on her chassis, "Ordis, it could be grouped by tactics."

"Simulating… Ordis thinks you are correct. Crude, but to be expected of meatbags."

Taylor frowns, "Hey!"

Anet wags her finger at Taylor, "Don't worry Taylor. You can leave your meatbag status behind any time you want. One tiny prick from my chassis and you never need to worry about human frailties again."

"Maybe once you've forgiven me for kidnapping you and shoving you into a Warframe."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Taylor Hebert: Tenno – 6

A few days later, on another ship that's lost power, "Taylor."

"A little busy here Anet."

"How do I reload my pistols?"

"Oh for crying out loud, vent the remains of the previous clip and add the new clip."

"How do I do that."

"What happened to your bow?"

"I ran out of arrows."

"There's some right there, just pick them up."

"Where?"

"For the love of god, have you turned your overlay off again? Wait, don't answer that, just get your Chassis to fix it. It can look up the spe… Yikes!"

"Oh, hey that worked, thanks Taylor."

"Why do you keep turning it off?"

"It's distracting, it's hard enough operating with only 4 senses without it."

"Right, new plan. Once we've finished here, you're running Mars solo until you've got the hang of everything. While you're doing that I'll use Cy to get me to the Red veil again."

"Operator, Ordis thinks you may be making a mistake."

"Ordis, who would you trust Anet to at the moment, yourself who guided me through my early days, or Cy?"

"Ordis thinks you may be right."



"I've got it! I've reloaded my pistols."

"No need to sound so happy about it, just start killing again."

"Hey!"

"Oh, there's Rell's Donda. I'm going to grab it, keep an eye out as he was very possessive about it…

"Oh void, I was right. Anet!"

"Bit busy over here!"

"Disengage and head for the exit, I've put this one down 5 times already."

"How?"

"Anet, did you ever run the simulations you put us through?"

"Of course I did."

"As a Warframe?"

"What? No."

"That explains so much. When I drop your one, turn and run, you'll only have a couple of seconds."

"Got it, thanks, Ow!"

"Right, new new plan, you're going through the simulations first, then you're doing Mars. Run faster!"

"I'm running as fast, Wooah."

"I've got you, get back on your feet and run, I'll be right behind you. Ordis, I hope you're ready, as we're coming in hot."

"Ordis is concerned about the Operators wellbeing, as she doesn't seem to be on fire."

"Ordis, it's an expression. 30 seconds."



"Anet, you go first. Backwards not forwards, argh! Ordis tell me she's alright."

"The Lotus is just extricating herself from the exfil port."

"Ordis, a little quicker please."

"One moment Operator, The Lotus has her foot stuck."

"Really? I'm getting a little too busy here. I would really appreciate it if you could hurry the f'ngh up."

"Taylor, I'm going as fast as I can!"

"Well slow down and think about it then, it will be quicker."

"How does that make sense? Oh hey it worked!"

"Rotating exfil port now."

"I'm in I'm in, turn it the, round now!"

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"Anet Natah Lotus, what do you think you were doing at the end?"

"Taylor, I told you it's hard to operate with only 4 senses."

"It can't be that hard, trillions of us do it all the time every day."

Anet mumbles, "I bet you'd fair worse in my chassis."

"What was that?"

Belligerently, Anet says, "I bet that if you transferred into my chassis, you wouldn't be able to get to the viewing window, in the living quarters, in less than 5 minutes."

"You're on, what's the stake?"

"If I win, you live in my chassis for two full orbits of Lua around Earth."

"If I win, you forgive me for shoving you into a Warframe."

"Acceptable."

"Ordis thinks this can only go wrong."

They both say, at the same time, "Ordis, shut up."



When the lander comes into dock, and the air lock disengages, The Lotus' chassis floats up the ramp into the Lander. Taylor transfers out of her Warframe and really looks at the chassis. Now she's had time to calm down from the fight, she's already regretting a lot of the things she'd said. Turning towards Anet, she looks down towards the floor, "Look, Anet. I'm sorry for the things I was saying down there. I, don't really have any excuses. I know you're new to a Warframe, and that was a mission that experienced Tenno would have had trouble with."

"Apology accepted."

"Can we forget about the bet?"

"No, you were constantly insulting me, so now you get to see what I'm missing."



Slowly Taylor turns back to the Chassis, "You can do this Taylor, it will be just like using a Necramech. Easy peasy, just transfer in and walk float through the ship."

"Just transfer in Taylor. Oh, and don't worry about my father, he's annoying but he can't do anything."

"Wait what?"

"You remember, my father Hunhow? Boss of the Stalker?"

"No, I remember. I mean about the 'he's annoying'"

"Oh, that. When the Stalker found me back then, he left a bit of Hunhow inside me. Can't get rid of it, so Father can talk to me whenever he wants."

"Oh, ok." Taylor says faintly, "I'm going on 3, 1…2…3"

Taylor transfers into the chassis and freezes as the orbiter seems to drop away and become invisible. There's just so much.

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Inside her pod, The Lotus smiles sadly as she loses her connection with her Chassis. In her Warframe, she sags heavily against a bulkhead as her connection is cut. When Taylor doesn't immediately begin to move, she pushes off the wall unsteadily, and staggers through the orbiter to the living quarters, where she lays down on the bed Taylor bought.



An hour later she hears the sound of her chassis running into something, so she rises from the bed and kneels in front of the window to think. In many ways, Taylor was right in what she said. She should know better, but it never occurred to her just how limited her Tenno's senses are. Even when she pretended to be Margulis, and her chassis was folded uncomfortably inside her, she still had access to all her senses, just muted slightly. She still knew the exact strength of gravity at any particular point, exactly how much force she was exerting, what direction everything was in. It was never even truly dark, as there were only a few parts of the EM spectrum she couldn't sense. Even Octavia's anthem was written with this knowledge in mind, when transmitted using Orokin communications protocols, it becomes the connection failed code that Sentient systems use for communication. The challenge hadn't been in discerning the code, it had been designing the song to send the code incidentally as part of the transmission process. None of her brethren, not even her father, had twigged that the only thing that was special about the song, was what it looked like when it was transmitted.

"Ordis," she calls, "how's Taylor doing?"

"She is floating into a bulkhead. It's like she can't see it."

"She probably can't."

"But they are right there."

"Not to very low frequency radio waves, or ultra-high frequency Gamma rays. They also have a negligible gravity profile, don't emit any form of radiation themselves, and are at ambient temperature. I would imagine that she hasn't hit a single console."

"How did you know?"

"Experience."



"OW!"

"Operator, it seems that she has learnt to make sounds."

The Lotus can't help it, she chuckles, "It appears so."

"Operator, are you fully functional?"

"No Ordis, I'm not."

"We should call Teshin, he will know what to do."

"No Ordis, I'm just completely limited for the first time in my existence."

"Oh hey, a hand. I can make a hand. No! No, no, no, come back hand."

Ordis sounds doubtful, "If you're certain Operator."

Anet nods, "I am. I want you to fire up the training simulations. Once Taylor arrives I'm going to run through them until I can complete them. Taylor was right in one respect. Every one of my Tenno are able to run these courses without my advantages. While I'm stuck in a Warframe I should at least learn how to use it properly."

"Ordis would like to point out that Operator Taylor still cuddled her 'plushies' before she woke from the second dream."

"Thank you Ordis." She reaches down and picks up one of the stuffed toys crowded around the window, and hugs it carefully.



Several hours later, Taylor bumbles into the living quarters.

"Is this the living quarters?"

Anet looks away from the stars, "It is."

Taylor does a spin and cheers, "Yay! I made it. Oh crap, I shouldn't have done that."

"The bet was for 5 minutes, not 5 hours."

"I know, I was just happy that I made it. I never considered just how much nothing there is in the universe. Especially between atoms, I assume they're atoms. They are atoms aren't they?"

"I don't know, I'm rather limited at the moment. They could be Protons, Neutrons and the Electron cloud though."

"Oh hey, it looks like I can shift slightly to one side."

"No Taylor… don't…" The Lotus trails off as the Chassis turns blue and transparent, Taylor with it.

Taylor snaps back and wobbles, "Wow, that was freaky. Were you saying something?"

The Lotus throws a toy at Taylor, "I was telling you not to do that, as I don't know what it would do to you."

"Hey, no biggie, I'm still here."

"But are you still human?"

"Meh, it's not like Tenno are that human anymore anyway."

The Lotus throws another toy at Taylor before stalking past, "I'm going to do the simulations."

"Hey!" Taylor tries to follow, only to float into a wall, "Damnit, I shouldn't have done that spin. Now which way am I facing."

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Over the next Month they both slowly get used to their respective bodies. Anet/Lotus by putting herself under stress on Mars until she starts acting on instinct. Taylor, by well, trying not to walk into things. Anet also drops the Donda with the Red Veil on one of the Relay stations.



While it's on the orbiter, Ordis, and the other Tenno Cephalons, get used to puppeting the spectre, to give assignments to their Operators. They also work out how to build a foundry that will automatically activate a new one, if the current one expires.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

This has now been split off into its own story Sentient Worm

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Bloody Brandy Challenge

Harry groans as he wakes up in a too large bed that stand in the centre of a room where the word plush would be underselling it. Above him is a mirror looking down on the bed. As he grabs his wand, his brain registers the fact that he's not wearing his glasses and that it feels like he's over used his magic, end of the tournament level overused. Staring up at the mirror, he slowly realises the other massive thing that's wrong with the view. Lying on her back beside him is a, thing, clearly female by the beautiful face and healing body. As he watches, she wakes up and shakes her head clearly confused.

"Er, Hi?"

The woman says something in a lyrical language before looking at her hands and starting again in English, "Hello? Is that right?"

"Yes, that's right. Erm, I hope you don't mind me asking, but who are you?"

"I am called Natah Potter. At least that's what's written on the animal skin over there." She indicates a scroll of parchment unfurled over the end of the bed.

With a swish of his wand and an "Accio." The parchment comes over to his hand, and he starts to read.

"Marriage contract!? The Lotus Natah Margulis and Lord Harry James Potter agree to join their houses together, blah blah blah. Bound forever in holy matrimony, Body, Soul, and Magic, in this life and the next. Blah blah, oh bollocks, Lord Harry James Potter will gain the title The Lotus alongside his wife, while Natah Potter will gain the title Lady alongside her husband. Bloody Hell! Oh, and it's signed in blood, even better."

"I would like to thank you for that, it saved my life and my mind."

"Oh, that's ok then." Harry says weakly, "You wouldn't happen to know what led to us getting married?"

"I am reviewing the encounter as we speak. I was kissed by Ballas and he took the last of my power. Tenno Sasha stopped him from killing me there and then by pushing me through a void portal. My arm was sliced off, and I landed in an… alleyway. You came around the corner with your companion, both clearly inebriated, and saw me there. Tenno Sasha then falls out of the same portal holding my arm, and with a massive stab wound through her chest. Your companion does something that stems the bleeding, before you drag us, no levitate us? off to some sort of healing centre. At this point you get into an argument with the person at the entrance, and… forgive me, I am learning English from your transmissions while I speak… they say something about only magicals or family can be treated there. You then take us to a place of marriage where a man in a white suit, large hair, and weirdly styled facial hair works. Then at stick point, you tell the man to marry us, and make it absolutely ironclad so the healers couldn't refuse to heal us next time. You even have to threaten your companion, Remus you refer to him as Remus, into marrying Sasha. He was very reluctant to do so until the man, Elvis, says they have an extended contract that additional spouses can willingly sign to be bound to the same terms. Something about not wanting to disappoint a Tonks. That done, you take us back to the healing centre and show the marriage certificates. They waved their sticks at Sasha and took both her and Remus off to a ward. We were then taken to another room, where they waved their sticks at me for… around 30 minutes. I was told that I was lucky to still be alive, and that I ever remember which wizard had performed experimentation on me, let them know and they will have them kissed. They then explained that they were removing the curse from the wound on my arm before reattaching it, as well as removing the curse damage that the experimentation had caused. They then apologised for not being able to reverse the experiment. I have a case of potions? to replace missing… I'm sorry I can't seem to find the word they used, I need to take one a day for the next 3 months. They also warned you to take it easy for the next week while my magical reserves refilled, as our marriage contract joins them together."

Harry, who had been silently listening to his wife, and wasn't that a shock, can't help exclaim, "Merlin! I hope that was the end of the evening."

Natah shakes her head, "No, did I get that body language right? Once they discharge us and you put the case of potions in a small pouch, you took me to a few casinos, where I repaired the faulty… slot machines, rollers, gambling machines, one armed bandits, I'm not sure which term is correct as they appear with similar regularity. You subsequently scored a 'Jackpot' and won a 'sports car', and five million dollars. We were then invited to play a 'card game' where the idea seemed to be to persuade the other players that you have better cards than they do. I was complemented about my costume and they asked me how long it took me to make. You left me there to get some of the good stuff, and I lost around half your winnings until I understood the rules."

Harry shrugs, "Ah well, easy come, easy go."

Natah then continues, "Once I learnt the rules I started faking something called tells, and slowly quadrupled your original earnings, and got shares in multiple large businesses. My records show significant corruption after you return with some sort of Brandy and start sharing it around the table, though you ensure that I drink the majority of it."

Harry groans, "Hermione is going to kill me."

"We have the same contract as your friend Remus, so prior engagements can still be honoured."

Harry grabs the contract again and reads it a little more closely, "Oh bloody hell! Hermione's probably going to kill me then sign the contract. Right, I have her phone number somewhere." – As he sits up properly, clutching his head, he spots a Nundu cub playing with a ball of string in the corner. – "Can it get any worse? Natah, do you remember where we got the Nundu cub?"

"Is that the mutant cat? I have a fragment of seeing it in another casino and saying that Sasha would like it, they wouldn't let us have it so I played against the house, and we now own this casino."

"Accio mokeskin pouch, I really need to talk to Hermione now. School book, school book, potion case – Here you go, you should probably take one now – letters, bulbs, seeds, notebook, and finally Filofax."



Staggering out of bed, Harry makes his way over to the phone while Natah seems to be preoccupied with something. It takes him a few tries to dial the number correctly.



A man answers the phone, "893 483, Granger household."

"Hello, is Hermione there?"

"Who is this?"

"Harry."

"Hermione! I've got Harry on the phone."

There's a clattering sound in the background, as someone comes running down some stairs, "Harry, where have you been?"

"Um, I'm in Las Vegas."

"What are you doing there?"

"Um, well Sirius left a will that required a private reading. Well, erm, he left me a lot Hermione, but there was a stipulation. I had to go to Las Vegas and 'Try to spend the Black fortune having fun, and take the wolf with you'. Gringotts had a passport, driving licence and plane tickets ready for us."

"Couldn't you have let us know at least?"

"No, Hedwig was off hunting, and we left immediately. I don't exactly have any muggle money you know, so I couldn't phone."

"Oh Harry, only you. Professor Dumbledore is going spare, as the wards around your home fell last night."

"Oh" Harry says faintly, "That's probably when I got married."

"You did What!?" Hermione coughs and says more reasonably, "Harry, what were you calling me about?"

"I wanted your advice, as I got married by Elvis."

"Harry." Natah calls from the bed.

"One moment, I'm just going to put you on mute for a sec." Harry presses the mute button, and turns to Natah, "Yes Natah?"

"My systems are registering massive amounts of void energy running through them. I am not dying, why is that?"

"Harry, you put me on speaker not mute. You must be Natah."

"Hello Hermione, I am Natah. You don't need to be concerned about your mate, as the marriage contract allows for additional spouses to the main signatory, which was Harry. I am just booking you a first-class ticket on Concord for you, I see you have family so I'm including them too. It will leave on Thursday from Heathrow, a private jet will meet you at JFK airport to bring you to Las Vegas."

Harry finally gets his wits together to speak gibberish, "Natah, you're, how, I don't."

Hermione on the other hand is far quicker on the uptake, "Thank you Natah, may I ask how you did that?"

"The communications systems here are freely accessible through the use of radio waves, so I just interfaced with them and made the purchases using a tiny fraction of our winnings from last night."

"I see", Hermione says faintly, "when will the tickets arrive?"

"A courier should deliver them in one or two hours."

"I'm going to hang up now and inform my mother and father."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

This is what Natah looked like when Harry found her with Remus.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Bloody Brandy Challenge – 2

Harry tries not to stare at his wife's poor state, as he turns back to her, "Natah, would you like to see how your friend is doing?"

"It would be nice, she no speak English."

"Where do you come from that they don't speak any English at all?"

"I was thrown through void portal, landed in alley. Tenno Sasha took blow meant for me."

"That's horrible. If you want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen."

"I was never person like you, but Ballas put person in me years ago. Released person's mind to capture me, and steal my power. Loss caused injuries you see. I don't understand, power returning."

Swallowing his instinctive reaction to her body, Harry deliberately walks over and gently lifts her cracked chin, so that he can place a kiss on her lips. It's not hard to see the way she flinches, like he remembers flinching to people touching him when he started Hogwarts. His heart goes out to her and he tries to show that in the tender kiss he gives her.

"I promise that I will do everything in my power to protect you." He staggers as he pulls away from the kiss, and a visible string of magic sags between them before it snaps.

"Crap, that was like casting the Patronus the first time. Let's not do that again until I've recovered, I'm going to sleep well later, and I don't fancy spending a week in the hospital with magical exhaustion."

As he staggers backwards he sees her visibly healing, and the cracks in her skin smoothing out. Reaching up to take his glasses off to clean them, he touches his nose, reminding himself that he's not wearing glasses.



Natah on the other hand, brings a hand up to her lips in wonder, as she can feel her power being returned. Not enough to be whole again, but enough to seem whole. Staring in wonder, she flexes her will and shrinks down to the form she wore so many centuries ago. No! Margulis wore so many centuries ago. She is not Margulis, she also killed Natah and Lotus is dead, killed by Ballas. She startles as she feels arms wrap around her, softly not hard, her husband is so fragile, yet he is giving her comfort.



In her ear Harry says softly, "Wow, you're a metamorph like Tonks. That's brilliant, don't worry if you don't know who to look like, that's never really mattered to me (especially given the way the Dursley's treated me). What matters is who you are."

"But I've killed millions."

"Why?"

"We were at war, and then because my children were threatened."

"That will take some getting used to," Harry admits, "but it won't change the fact we're married. Or that I am going to live with you for a very long time, unless we're killed sooner. Which might happen sooner rather than later now that the only thing 'protecting' me from the evil wizard trying to kill me is gone (and the whole prophecy). I'm pretty sure that I'm a killer too, given what happened at the end of the school year (and Quirrell, Tom, and the basilisk)."

"Harry, why are you mumbling some things, I can hear you quite clearly."

Harry flushes red as his mumbled complaints were understood, "Sorry, just stuff that life's been throwing me. It's not your problem."

"Harry, you saved my life and the life of Sasha, you're also married to me. You have just done more to aid my healing than I thought was even possible. I can literally feel my mind returning as we talk. I think I used literally correctly."

Harry laughs at the aside, "You probably did. I can't believe how well you're speaking English."

"It is easy when you listen to a few hundred conversations over the telephone at once."

"Let's find some breakfast and then check on your companion."

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Remus wakes up, uncomfortably sitting in a chair next to a hospital bed. Under his hand is a scroll of fine parchment with an official looking seal. His mind is hazy on what happened last night, but the woman on the bed looks vaguely familiar. Conjuring a glass of water, he quenches his thirst before unrolling the scroll, reading it once and then fainting.



Sasha opens her eyes and stares in confusion at the wooden beams supporting the floorboards of the floor above her. A handful of floating candles providing illumination for the room. Her chest aches, and she brings her hand up to where she was stabbed, then freezes as she realises she's wearing a nightgown made from unfamiliar material. Before she can think further on this, a man bustles into the room and waves a stick at her.



"Worr, dit reeks riko ug'lo whoaxarick worr. Dit nud pit keew zick yeep whusfaxact plevidow haxat rittro whoaxarick who ceurd. Ug'rr fo wholo bel zo joxt woot se wo caxan venitel yeep vaxagic rovors."

"I'm sorry I don't understand."

"Daxamn beloign flidos, Pum'rr kot pit raxackuaxago reusocko pi staxalgo dit te yeep leem. Fo lidd faxang."



When the man leaves again it gives her time to look around the room properly. The second thing that stands out is the complete lack of any technology. Her own implants are twitching in her head as there's nothing to connect to either. Which means it's not just artfully hidden in the walls, it's just, not, there. Sitting in a chair of unfamiliar design is a man with wild salt and pepper hair, his face is lined and his hands show the scars of heavy labour. She can't judge his clothes as they are too unfamiliar in style, but she'd imagine that they're either cheap or worn. On his lap is a long strip of something with markings on it, two cylinders at either end are attached.



Just to feel something familiar, she raises her hand and summons a ball of void energy. As it appears in her hand, the man from earlier rushes in and waves his stick at her. She then has the very odd feeling of the void energy just popping like a soap bubble and disappearing. With an upset look on his face, he storms over and hands her a pill before a container of water appears on a table beside her. He then mimes putting the pill in her mouth and drinking. Shrugging she does so, assuming it's their version of the nutritious sludge served at home to anyone that isn't rich. When she places the pill in her mouth she almost spits it out as it tastes vile, with a large amount of effort, she washes the pill down with water.



As she feels the water hit her stomach, lines of fire shoot through her head and she grasps it in agony. As the pain dies down the man looks at her somewhat sympathetically.

"Well, at least you'll understand me now. We were debating whether to give you the lozenge, but you forced our hands. You're lucky the stab wound was so clean and fresh when you got here. It only took a couple of potions and a nights rest for it to heal. However, your magical reserves are at rock-bottom. By rights you should be dead or dying right now, so we'll be keeping you in for the next week to ensure that they are recovering properly. Part of that will rely on you young lady. Absolutely no magic what so ever, especially not wandless magic like that ball."

"But that was void energy."

"I don't care what you call it, magic is magic, and you can't afford for your reserves to be further depleted. The only reason we gave you the potions last night is your life was in danger. Do you have any questions?"

"Where am I?"

"This is the Shuman healing hall. In magical Las Vegas."

"How did I get here?"

"Your husband brought you in. Congratulations by the way, you were married last night."

Sasha swallows her reply at that news, as she's unsure why she would have done that. However, she's alive, not a prisoner, and in some sort of hospital. For the first time in a very long time, her stomach rumbles.

"I will see about getting you something to eat then. I'll also get your husband something."



As he leaves, he waves his stick and a bolt of pink light flies out and hits the sleeping man, causing him to jerk awake. Seeing that she's awake he says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to force you into marriage."

"What are you talking about?"

"The marriage."

"Yes, and I'm alive. Would I be alive if you didn't marry me?"

"No, they refused to treat you as you didn't have your wand, and your magic levels were so low that they couldn't tell you were magical. I don't remember much of last night, but I do remember that."

"Then why are you sorry? Would you rather I died?"

"No, of course not. It just should have been anyone else instead of me. I'm a werewolf." He stops expecting that to mean something.

Sasha shakes her head, "Is that like being a Grineer? As it would be rather sucky if you're going to keel over dead in a year or two unless we start replacing your body parts."

"Ah, no. I turn into a monster under the light of the full moon, and I have no control over my actions."

She shrugs, and winces, "Fair enough, not like I spend much time on earth anyway. It could also be advantageous occasionally."

"What?"

"Well, it's true. It's not like the Grineer posted there can't be dealt with by the natives. I'm actually more likely to go to Lua thinking about it."

"I, uh. Are you Atlantean?"

"Who? No, I'm Sasha."

"I meant the nation you belong to."

"Oh, no. I'm Tenno. I was trying to rescue The Lotus when I was stabbed and sent through the void portal. If you could direct me to the nearest comm station I can call Ordis and something."

"I have no idea what one of those is."

"Computer?"

"Why would you want an accountant?"

"Eh?"

"You asked for a Computer, that's a person that computes sums. Normally an accountant in the magical world."

"What do you use for communication?"

"Floo and owls generally."



They are saved by a witch coming in followed by a trolley, "What would you two like for breakfast? We have full English, Egg and Bacon on toast, Porridge, or Grits. Oh is that a marriage contract, congratulations. Oh, it's one of those contracts, commiserations may be in order then. I hope you both get along."

Remus says, "I have no idea, we met last night."

"Ouch, well, there's no way out of that one, they've looked."

Sasha opens her mouth to speak when a tray appears on the bed, a bowl floats over from the trolley, while a plate fills itself up with lots of unfamiliar foods.

"Oh, deary, would you like jelly with your porridge, we've got honey if you'd prefer."

Weakly Sasha says "Honey?" being the only thing she understood.

Remus says, "Could I have the full English please?"

"Certainly love. Let me finish serving the young lady, we never did get your name last night."

"Ah, I'm Sasha."

"I'll be sure to put it on the door when I leave then. If you're still hungry in an hour or so, have your husband get someone. Tomorrow you should be able to go to the cafeteria."

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In the Orokin system, The Lotus and The Drifter never turn up, as they never got lost in the void. Just to be sure of the death or disability of The Lotus, Ballas sends a few Sentients through the void portal.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Alien

Magic is a strange and wonderous thing, it allows people to change into animals of all shapes and sizes. It can protect, nurture, and destroy. It is also rare. Only a fraction of all the planets that give rise to sentient and sapient life have magic. The other thing that's strange, though far less wonderous is that alien abductions are real. The vast majority of abductions are never detected, and never attributed to aliens. The child that goes missing, only to maybe show up on a distant shore years later. The homeless person that just stops being around. The babe left on a doorstep on a cold November night.



Harry never knew what happened when he was teleported abord the shuttle. He slept through the shuttle docking with a ship hidden in the shadow of Pluto. He was barely aware when an egg hatched amongst the acquisitions the aliens had made prior to his stop. He cried when the same aliens started to scream as an apex predator stalked amongst them and consumed them one by one. After all, he hadn't been fed or changed in 12 hours. When death came for him with acidic blood and a hidden mouth, he changed to match.

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The lone worker looks down at the chest burster in surprise. This quickly gives way to instincts honed over eons to keep her species alive. Grasping the chest burster to prevent it from feeding itself, she consumes a specific combination of materials that allows her to produce royal jelly. This she feeds to the chest burster to change its role in the hive into the new queen. The chest burster makes happy noises as she feeds it, leading to being fed more. A year later the chest burster forms a pupa and the worker goes into hibernation while her queen undergoes metamorphosis.

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Arry looks down from her ovipositor at the Yautja that has dared to invade her nest. This one, despite its size, is barely more than a child, its hunt mates lie dead, or dying as her children take them down from impossible ambushes. An intelligent child to have made it to her laying chamber, but not so experienced they didn't freeze when they saw the trophy wall to one side, decorated with the skulls of those Yautja that had sought to take her own skull. With a couple of thoughts the Yautja is suspended spreadeagled in the air and their weaponry joins the others on the wall. Disengaging from the ovipositor, Arry climbs down to the ground and changes into a humanoid form. Her tail swishing behind her as she stalks forward towards the prisoner. Reaching up with her taloned hands, she carefully removes the facemask her prisoner is wearing and grasps their head.

"You are unblooded. Let's see why your clan would send an unblooded youngling to my ship."

The Yautja's pupils widen when they hear her speak, and she uses that to dive into their mind. Pauk, she isn't a standard Yautja, taken in as a foundling when her Bad Blood family was killed. She faces the choice of becoming a blooded hunter or a brood slave. Double Pauk, she's only a couple of light years away from a clan ship. No wonder they mounted such a strong offensive. Pulling out of her mind Arry walks over to a console and taps in a few commands.

The heavily scarred face of a Yautja elder soon fills the view screen, "Who are you to call the Dark Blade Clan!"

"I am Arry, the owner of the ship that your hunters just invaded. I am calling to inform you that I don't currently have any designs on your ship. Unless you wish for it to become my new nursery, you will refrain from sending any more hunters or children to hunt my children. Unlike you however, I do not kill children."

"You are an abomination, and we will hunt you to the end of the stars as we have for the last 5 cycles."

"You say such lovely things. As long as you remember not to hunt me when I'm only 5 ticks from your own home, you'll survive to carry out your threat."

"You dare?"

"I dare," – She steps to one side – "Oh, and I'm keeping this one. Unlike some, I, don't, kill, children."

Switching off the communication she turns back to her captive, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. As I said, I don't kill children, I've lost too many of my own to do that. Of course, that was before I worked out how to modify my eggs to have the same abilities I do. That was 5 years ago now, 3 years after the worker that converted me died to Skarli raiders. They were the first to incubate my children you know."

Arry walks over to an egg and reaches a taloned hand into it, before withdrawing it with a face hugger wrapped around her wrist.

Her captive starts to struggle, "Don't worry T'o-Ba'sall, this is from a very special egg. I call it an adoption egg. I took your name from your mind if you're wondering how I knew it. Back to the egg, this face hugger will still implant an egg. But rather than hatching to form what your people call a chest burster, it will instead latch onto your stomach and become part of you. In a few hours you will feel the hive and it will be safe to let you down. Try to relax, it's going to happen anyway, and it's less painful if you let the face hugger do its job."



T'o-Ba'sall swallows convulsively as the alien queen brings the face hugger up to her head, where it skuttles off her hand and latches around her head. True enough, nothing she's capable of doing is enough to prevent the face hugger from depositing its egg deep inside her stomach. As the face hugger maintains its hold around her head the queen continues talking, "Did you know that I'm only 8 cycles old? I have vague memories of a life before I became a queen, but we mature quickly. Unsurprising when you consider that we're the galaxies punching bag. When we were first attacked, my mental maturity hadn't caught up to my physical maturity, and I wasn't aware I could take on a humanoid form either. Our ship was just floating through space while the two of us lived off the specimens the previous owner had collected. It was when the Skarli killed the worker that I discovered I could do more than any other queen in our history. I used my power to throw them against the walls. It was a year and several raids till I could do it at will. I can also teleport, and I discovered that I can force a type of hive link on people. It's how I learnt to speak and use the ship. I hope you're not too uncomfortable there. The hugger is almost done, did you know that our face huggers provide all of your needs while they're attached. Food, oxygen, water, you can even survive brief exposure to hard vacuum. I considered laying some eggs just for that purpose without the possibility of implanting a burster. That was before I discovered it was impossible for my kind to trade with anyone.

"Anyway, the raids continued, and so I lost and replaced more and more children. I've had 500 since that first raid, and the current 50 aboard the ship are coming up on a year old. I'm hoping that when they reach a couple of years, they'll start being able to reason, rather than being big balls of emotion that I have to control. I might have to actually seek out a drone for that though. Oh, yes, all of us are female unless we find a drone. Your face hugger is about done, if you relax I'll take it off."

Arry carefully removes the face hugger, then holds up a drinking container, and releases her control over T'o-Ba'sall's mouth.

Once she'd taken a drink T'o-Ba'sall asks, "Why? Why save me? I came to kill you."

Arry runs the back of a claw down her face, "You should never have been here. I remember my original parents, they had skin like this." – Arry points to a patch of skin on her chest where mammary glands are prominently displayed. – "I remember that the female tried to save me, at the cost of her own life. If they were willing to do that, children must be precious. So I made a decision to never kill a child outside of self defence. If you had managed to fire your shoulder canon, your head would already be decorating my wall."

"What happens to me now?"

"Well, you're part of my hive. I hope that you'll join in, and maybe also trade for food and supplies. I don't like stealing just to survive, but nobody will trade with me. Now, I need to take my position, as the surviving hunters that came with you are being brought here by my children. I'm just going to move you over by that wall. Don't try to talk, as I'll prevent it if you do."

T'o-Ba'sall watches helplessly as the room spins around her as she is floated against the wall, still spreadeagled. Arry on the other hand, transforms back into the Xenomorph Queen, her crest far larger than it has any right to be, as she settles back into the ovipositor.



Less than a tick after Arry is seated, T'o-Ba'sall watches as her maimed and beaten clan mates are dragged in. Most of them are missing their left arms below the elbow. Those that aren't are missing their wrist-comps. They are all lain on the floor with their heads towards the queen, and their arms and legs covered with resin. She can see the fear in their expressions as the Queen looms over them. Arry manipulates the ovipositor just ahead of each head, before she lays an egg for each of the 8 captives. Sensing a victim nearby, the petals on each egg open one by one, and a face hugger crawls out and blindly finds the mouth of the Yautja in front of them. All T'o-Ba'sall can do is watch mutely as 8 more abominations are added to the Queens hive.

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A few months later, Arry has her claws deep inside a Pirates guts as T'o-Ba'sall had located a distress call. Despite her rocky introduction, she was proving to be a valuable member of the hive, and hunting pirates satisfied that part of her that craved the hunt. A woman screaming at the back of the room is a good sign that they got here in time. She winces in pain as one of the other pirates shoots at her, briefly losing control, she throws the body she's holding to one side and launches, claws first, at the pirate.

The pirate raises his armoured forearms, catches her claws on them, and then electrifies the armour. As Arry shakes with electricity, over the top of her head, her tail spears out, passing through the pirates mouth and out the back of his neck. A spray of blood covers Arry's face as he slumps to the floor and she licks her lips. She turns to find that T'o-Ba'sall has dealt with the other pirate while she was busy. Seeing that the only other adults in the cabin are trying to protect a couple of children, she deliberately calms herself down.

While scraping some blood off her face and licking it off her claw, she asks the family, "Are any of you in need of medical attention?"

The acrid scent of a Laprey relieving themselves fills the cabin as the male indicates in the negative.

"In that case, some of my children will be along to get the corpses, and we'll be taking the pirates ship. I'm Arry, have a good day."

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Arry and her hive are on an ice ball hunting Bad Bloods, T'o-Ba'sall having being able to pick up the bounties with one of the wrist computers. Her oldest children are starting to communicate in more complex concepts, and she thinks they might start using basic words in the link soon. Unexpectedly, T'o-Ba'sall has started to grow a tail and her fingers are turning into claws. Together they form an efficient hunting team by being able to out think, out run, and out flank their prey. By the end of the hunt, she only needs to take one captive as one of the younger children jumps ahead of the formation, and is killed with a flying disk for her trouble. Only the thought that she has a nest already, allows Arry to leave the planet without leaving any eggs behind.

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It's everything that T'o-Ba'sall can do to land the ship safely as they respond to a distress call about a xenomorph hive attacking a Skali colony. Arry was hoping to claim a drone in order to be able to birth some males. However, when they got to low orbit, the feeling of the other hive started to press on their own hive. This hive is much larger than their own, and it feels like their numbers are swelling quickly. Xenomorph instincts are battling in her head, driving her to crash the ship into the hive, and take it over for her Queen. Withdrawal is not an option she has, despite not being a full Xenomorph herself. So while Arry is lost in her instincts, T'o-Ba'sall landed the ship on a rise on the opposite side of the hive to the colony. T'o-Ba'sall, uses every bit of experience she has being part of the hive, to send memories of hunting Bad Bloods, or the pirates. By doing this she is able to prevent her hive mates from just suicidally charging the other hive. Fortunately, Arry is too far gone to overrule her assumed authority. With that freedom T'o-Ba'sall is able to arm herself from the trophy wall, as well as the oldest of her siblings. Nothing complicated, only handheld weapons and thermal webbing.



The war is long, bloody, and victorious, with the total elimination of the rival hive. The strange abilities and increased cognition and tactics allowing them to triumph over the numerically superior hive. When she comes back to her senses, Arry cries over the children that the hive took for breeding, until a child's cry reaches them from another part of the hive. That's when T'o-Ba'sall learns that a queen can kill rival hive members without a queen by sheer force of will. She also gains some new siblings, far younger than would normally be considered healthy. But there's no way the colony would have let them live.

On the positive side, they are now able to trade through dead drops. She suspects it's because the colony is hoping that any future incursions will be dealt with before it becomes an actual problem for them.

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T'o-Ba'sall has now killed 10 hunters in hand-to-hand combat, and started showing the same abilities as her siblings. The number of hunts sent against them increased after they saved the colony. She knows that her own honour is intact, even if the hunters are proving to be purely glory seekers than true honourable hunters. Arry is still brooding about losing control in the presence of the other queen. Worried that someone might try to exploit that by capturing a Queen. An answer occurs to her, Praetorians. Carefully, she modifies one of her adoption eggs to include the Praetorian code, hopefully without the full instincts, as she needs T'o-Ba'sall to be able to think more clearly in the future.

"T'o-Ba'sall, this hugger contains the imprint of a Praetorian. I would like you to have it."

"Why Arry?"

"It will give you more freedom if I am incapacitated by another queen. I don't want to lose you, so I've tried to strip out the instincts as much as I can."

"Thank you for honouring me like this." With that said, T'o-Ba'sall takes the face hugger and guides it to her face, unafraid this time. Arry was right, it does hurt less when you don't fight it.

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Arry is mounted on her ovipositor when a flaming avian appears in front of her. Instinctively, her inner mouth snaps out and bites off its head. The avian bursts into flames and falls to the floor as ashes. Her echo location detects movement in the ashes, so she transforms and kneels down to look at what's happening.

 

[Cyrus2]

Well I want more of this, it's definitely interesting and I'm just imagining chest bursters bursting out of death eaters during a meeting.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Alien – 2

As she kneels there, Arry watches as a tiny, featherless, version of the avian crawls out of the pile of ash. Carefully cleaning the ash away from it with a talon, she studies it intently as it squarks angrily at her. With a thought, she transforms and climbs back into her ovipositor. There she starts laying a very special adoption egg. As clearly the standard face hugger would swallow the small avian, that can survive having its head bitten off. Arry can see that it is growing rapidly, so she's not so worried about how small she makes it. As she finishes, raggedy feathers are starting to grow in, so she quickly climbs back down and returns to her humanoid form. Reaching into the egg, she feels the face hugger wrap itself around a finger before she pulls it out.



Fawkes can't believe it, she was doing a favour for her human by locating the child he misplaced 10 years ago. When she appeared, something killed her before she could even register her location. Unexpected burnings were always so uncomfortable. Then whatever it was stares at her from inches away. Well, it looks human so it could be the child, though she thought they grew slower than that. Then it grows into a monster and climbs up some awful creature before settling itself on top of it. Not liking the feeling she's getting, Fawkes tries to grow faster, to get to the point she can flame away. Two burnings in one day would be worth it, and, when she's recovered, she can have a loud word with her human. Oh, she thinks weakly, it lays eggs, why would it suddenly be laying eggs?

"No, no, no no no no, no. There's no way you're bring that thing anywhere close to me. Keep away or I'll mmmmph."

Weakly she tries to burn whatever it is, but it just holds onto her head harder, so she goes limp, very aware that she is at her most vulnerable at this moment in time. Whatever parasite she's been implanted with, can be burnt out later, she just has to survive to later. It detaches not too long later, and she coughs up the tube. Her stomach is bloated with whatever it left behind, but she can't cough it out. Tiredly she fights to say awake so that she can flame out as soon as she's recovered enough. It's a few hours later that she realises with a panic that the thing is getting smaller and part of her. The thing watches her in interest as she weakly bursts into flame, to no avail. It's still too early for another burning, and that also means she can't use the flame to travel. No longer having the energy to stay awake, she falls asleep in the puddle of ash.

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As Fawkes wakes up to the sound of a room full of people talking loudly to each other, she calls "Would you shut up, some of us are recovering from an unexpected burning day."

As everyone shuts up she lays her head down on the side of the nest, and then opens her eyes in alarm. Someone has wrapped some clothing into a nest and placed her in it. What becomes more alarming is the fact she's in a room on her own.

"I'm glad to see you're awake. I'm Arry, your new Queen. Who are you?"

"I'm Ptiana though my human calls me Fawkes."

"Hello Ptiana, why did you appear in my laying chamber?"

Ptiana can't help herself as she answers, "I was doing a favour for my human, he lost a male child 10 years ago. I followed the magic from one of his devices. It was obviously incorrect my Queen." - Where did that come from? – "What has happened to me? Why am I sharing so much?"

"You're part of my hive now, and I'm your Queen." Ptiana grumps as Arry obviously thinks that explains everything. In fairness, it probably does.

Arry continues, "I hope you don't mind, we moved you from your burnt pile, as you were rather small and I didn't want you to be stepped on accidentally."

Ptiana suddenly realises something, "How comes you can understand me?"

Arry sounds confused, "You're part of the hive, that means your memories are part of the hive too."

T'o-Ba'sall says, "Arry, you're forgetting that it takes longer to access the memories than it does to become part of the hive."

Ptiana squawks indignantly as she exclaims, "Why do I know your name T'o-Ba'sall?"

Sounding cheerful, Arry says, "That would be the accessing memories part of the hive."

Panicking, Ptiana flames back to her comfortable perch in the room her human uses. The voices all mute with the distance, until suddenly her Queen is right there.

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Albus sits at his desk, doing paperwork to take his mind off the fact that Minerva will be sending out the school letters in the next few days, and he still doesn't know where Harry is, only that he's alive, safe, and happy. If those enchantments had failed as well, he'd have spent more effort trying to find the child before now. However, he reasoned that if Harry couldn't be found with some effort on his part, then the Dark Lord's followers certainly wouldn't be able to find him. Fawkes should have found him, but the still empty perch says he probably ran into some difficulty, or a plum tree. Fawkes reappears on his perch and ruffles his feathers irritatedly. Probably difficulty then.

"Fawkes, I'm glad to see you're safe." Putting his quill down, Albus stands from his desk and is walking around it when something else flames in. Whatever it is, it fills most of the room, and has wicked looking talons on its hands and feet. With instincts honed through war, even if they are slightly atrophied, Albus pulls his wand and fires a brace of spells designed to put down a dragon. Each of them pierces it's hide, and he is bringing his hand around to send another brace, when he loses feeling in his hand and legs. It also feels like he's been punched and it's hard to breathe. He looks down stupidly to see the creatures tail protruding from his chest, as it lifts him up from the floor. How did he not notice the tail before? There's a sucking sound as the creature shrinks down into a young woman, who is holding her side with a taloned hand.



"What do you mean I have to heal him? Ptiana, does it look like I have tear ducts? Oh, fine, I have something that will help but you'll have to find someone we can explain the situation to."



Albus wonders why the young woman was using four different languages while talking, at least he thinks it's four. Curiously he touches the hole in his chest wondering why it doesn't hurt more. The young woman picks him up surprisingly easily, and flames form around them. Is she a new species of phoenix? When the flames clear, she puts him in a coffin, and he weakly raises his hands to stop the lid from closing. As the coffin fills with water, his last thought is of Tom's return and the missing Harry Potter.

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Ptiana screeches loudly in frustration, how is she supposed to find someone to explain things to. She can't exactly talk. That's not true, but only Arry can understand her. Oh, hell, she can't escape her Queen as obviously she's learnt to flame, so she might as well share the pain. She knows just the annoying cat to do it to too. Trying to tell her human not to keep feeding her those candied fruits indeed. Flaming back to the hive, she locates the eggs and carefully picks out an adoption egg.

"Hey Ptiana, have you found someone?"

"Yes my Queen, however they can't understand us. I'm taking an adoption egg so that we can talk to them."

"Well, I've put your human into a regeneration tank. It's Skarli design, but at least they're bipedal. The machine currently thinks it will take a full 2 cycles to finish healing him. Wow, your form of teleportation is much better than the method I came up with. Anyway, take this one, it should knock your human out so they don't try to kill anyone while it's working. I designed it for small children when we get to pirate raids too late, or we find a hive attacking a colony and there are children there."

"Thank you my Queen."

"You can just call me Arry like everyone else does. Of course, you have to accept the hive before your new instincts will allow that."

"Yes, my, Queen." Ptiana grinds out before flaming out with the egg.

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Minerva looks up from her transfiguration research as Fawkes flames in with a leathery egg.

"What's this then? Did Albus send it?"

Fawkes just trills at her in his mocking way. She casts a couple of spells at it to see if it was some new puzzle she needed to figure out, and is surprised when it comes back as mundane. She stands up to look at it more closely and sees four flaps on the top open up.

"Fawkes, I really think this should have been taken to Grubby urk." Whatever she was going to say next is cut off, as a face hugger leaps out and forces its ovipositor down her throat, at the same time it's tail wraps around her throat. She has enough time to attempt a single spell before the world goes dark.



A few hours later she's awakened by the sound of voices. As she opens her eyes, she finds herself lying on a hard bed in a spartan metal room. Her wand is on a desk that's too tall to be for sitting at, and too short to be stood at. A chair tucked under the table is similarly mis-proportioned, and has 4 armrests for some reason. What can only be described as a monster, pokes its head into her room, and she freezes instinctively. The monster turns and leaves quickly, and she hears a child shouting "She's awake, she's awake."



Standing up off the bed, she winces as she catches her ankle, because the bed is slightly higher than expected. Retrieving her wand, she conjures a goblet of water to soothe her aching throat. Now that she's standing, the fact that everything is uncomfortably too large is even more apparent than it was. With nowhere else to go, she makes her way through the doorway. Outside the room, the corridors are all covered in some sort of resin, putting her on guard. She jumps and whirls around when someone says, "Wait right there, I'm just coming to find you. Please don't fire any spells, our instincts are a little trigger happy."

Still not seeing anyone, Minerva quite deliberately puts her wand in its wrist holster and braces herself. What she sees doesn't match expectations in any way, as a naked young woman with a tail and claws, blood red hair, and killing curse green eyes, comes around the corner. Her arms and legs have black leathery skin that gives way to human like skin on her torso and head.

She lifts a clawed hand and waves, "Hi, I'm Arry, queen of our hive. I asked Ptiana to find someone we can explain what happened to the human I accidentally skewered with my tail. If you follow me I'll take you to see, him? Is him the right word?"

"Before we go anywhere, where are your clothes?"

"I don't normally need them. However, when I appeared in my normal form the human fired at me, leading to his skewering. So I figured this would be less likely to lead to bloodshed."

Minerva pulls all of her experience, in unexpected situations, around her like a shield as she responds, "That is, considerate, of you."

"Anyway, this way. Oh, and nobody that you see here will harm you. You're part of the hive now."

As she follows Arry, Minerva misses a step with that last sentence, "I'm a what of the what now?"

"You're part of the hive. Ptiana decided that it was the only way that you'd be able to understand us."

"Who?"

"You'll meet her in a moment, as she's watching over her human."



True enough, after a few minutes of walking through an alien environment, she is led into a room with a row of metal coffins, where Fawkes is perched on one.

"Fawkes! You're here."

"I'm not Fawkes you stupid human. My name is Ptiana, as I keep telling people. I'm also female!"

"What?!"

"You can understand me! Happy days. This is my, and now your, Queen, Arry. My human sent me to find a child he lost, and I appeared in front of her. She followed me back to him and he attacked her, thinking her a monster. Admittedly she is a monster, but she's not a needlessly aggressive monster."

"Oi! I resemble that remark, and good on you being able to make it now."

Minerva staggers at the vehemence in the phoenixes tone, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't, you never even questioned it. Just like you never question anything my human does. Not that he helped matters, never actually asking anyone else except the stinky human if their plans are ok. As if the stinky human as any sort of good judgment after joining the snake human. While I'm at it, what do you have against me eating those sugary fruits? I'm a phoenix! I don't need to eat, I only do it for pleasure. I get reborn every few years, which clears out anything that might have been bad for me. I can't wait until you have your own first burning day. Oh, and you can flame back to the nest on your own. I'm going to raid the sugared lemons now."



Once Ptiana flames out, Arry turns to Minerva, "I guess she had a few unresolved issues."

"I, uh, had no idea." – Something the phoenix said trickles through her mind – "Does the name Potter mean anything to you?"

"Eh, it's familiar somehow."

Wracking her brain for any sort of idea, she tries to remember that night. Hagrid had brought Harry on Sirius' motorcycle, in a moses basket. Then Albus had tucked the letter into the blue blanket that covered the baby. "Accio baby blanket!"



"Hey, what's that?"

"Dunno, let's chase it."

*fun* *chase*



A moment later, a filthy blanket with the odd blue spot, where a fold had protected it from the grime that accumulated, flies through the door, followed by a few monsters, one humanoid with 4 arms, another arachnoid with 3 fingers on the end of two of it's legs. Finally a couple of pitch black creatures with elongated heads, vicious looking claws, and a sharp barbed tail. Following shortly behind them is a massive humanoid with a hideous maw and beady little eyes. They proceed to crowd around her, the ones with hands picking at her robes.

"Who's this? What's she wearing? Why does she smell strange? Did she bring food? *hive mate*"

"Children, you're being disrespectful."

The humanoid and arachnoid both jump back as though they've been bitten. The arachnoid lowers itself to the floor, "This one is sorry, this one is known as Krizror. Would that one be willing to share their name?"

The other one puts all four arms down by their side and bows, "I'm sorry, we should have introduced ourselves. I am Brugroch."

The break and introductions are enough for Minerva to gather her wits, though the monsters rubbing their heads against her thighs aren't helping, "I am Minerva McGonagall. Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"What's a school?" "What's witchcraft?"

"A school is a place where children go to be taught how to do the things that adults know how to do. Witchcraft is magic involving potions and rituals, while wizardry is magic involving spells and enchantments."

"Children, Minva will be able to talk later ok?"

"Awww."

The two that backed off leave, while the others keep rubbing their heads against her. Deliberately raising her wand and enunciating the spell, she says "Scourgify". All of the dirt and grime flake off of the blanket, revealing a golden 'Harry' embroidered in a corner.

She turns to Arry, tears in her eyes, "You are, were, Harry Potter. I knitted this blanket for you when you were a baby. Can I hug you?"

Arry looks at her strangely, "What's a hug?"

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's gentle."

"Ok, go ahead."

Minerva steps up to Arry and pulls her into a gentle hug, just how tall Arry is, becoming apparent by the fact the top of her head only just reaches Arry's chin. "I'm so sorry I never looked for you. I trusted Albus when he said that you were safe and happy."

Awkwardly, Arry returns the hug, "I was safe and happy, well mostly safe. I have my children."

"You should have been raised in a loving household, not taking on so much responsibility so young."

"I wasn't, and instead I have seen so many amazing things, helped people, and even built up a good trophy collection. We can talk about my life later. At the moment, you need to know that the healing chamber says that the old human will be healed in 2 cycles."

Minerva looks up at Arry's face, "What happened?"

"Ptiana ran away so I followed her, when I arrived the old human shot me three times in the side. Reflexively I speared him with my tail and, well, you can see if you look through the window there. Ptiana demanded that I fix him, so I brought him here, and told her to find someone we could explain the situation to."

Minerva is surprised at how well she's taking this news, "I see. How long did you say it would take him to heal?"

"2 cycles."

"I have no idea how long that is."

"There's 360 ticks to a rest period, 360 rest periods to a cycle."

"I see, I think. You wouldn't know how long that is on Earth?"

"Dirtside it depends on the rotation of the planet."

"Earth is the name of our planet."

"You call your planet Dirt?"

"Some people call it Gaia?"

"I'm going to need a little more than that." – Arry walks over to a console on the wall and presses a few icons – "What colour is the star?"

"Erm, yellow I think."

"How many planets does it have?"

"9?"

"How many gas giants?"

"3 or 4, Jupiter has a large red spot, and Saturn has rings."

"Ok, which planet starting from the star do you live on?"

"The third one."

"Does it have any distinctive features?"

"A large moon?"

"I have 4 possibilities in this galaxy, do you recognise any of these?"

"That one."

"I see, it has been surveyed, and it apparently is part of a hunting preserve for the Yautja. There are currently debates about listing it as a developing world, after the last failed hunt showed significant technological development, that may preclude remaining unnoticed within 30 cycles. An average rotation of the planet is 4 ticks longer than a Rest Period."

Finally, tears prick Minerva's eyes as she walks over to the window indicated, and looks at her mentors face and the gaping wound in his chest. It takes her a moment, but she notices that the tiny arms inside are removing his beard and hair as well as working on the hole. Stepping back sharply she exclaims, "What are they doing to his hair?"

Arry glances over from the console, "Oh, the machines are fixing any deformities. It's a Skarli design healing pod, Brugroch was one before we rescued him from a Hive, the one with 4 arms. They don't have body hair."

"You have to get him out of there."

"He doesn't have a heart, can you fix that?"

"Ah, I don't know."

"Could you get him to a human that can fix it before he dies?"

Minerva's shoulders slump, "No. I see, I'll need to go back and tell people that he's currently in a healing sleep. How do I get back?"

Arry shrugs, "The same way Ptiana did. Give it a couple of rest cycles and your connection to the hive should firm up enough for you to understand how to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a natural ability isn't it. Like being able to control your tail and talons when they grow in. It would be a little awkward if you disembowelled yourself accidentally while scratching an itch, or sliced your foot off with your tail because you forgot where it was."

Minerva just stares at Arry in horror.

 

[verycoolname]

I love the fact that the internet is such a weird place that fanfiction like this can exist.