Chapter Three - Global Exposure
It was July 31st, Harry's birthday, and he, Sirius, and Remus were standing outside The Leaky Cauldron, the magical pub that hides the entrance to Diagon Alley.
"This is the place?" said Harry as he stared disbelievingly at the shabby building. The too-tall-for-his-age lad now stood just shy of 5'11", and according to his doctors, was going to get even larger.
"Sure is," said Sirius in an excited voice. "This is where your journey on the wizarding world begins."
Harry looked at his godfather for a moment, then turned to his honorary uncle and asked, "Did you give him sugar this morning? I sure as heck didn't."
"No, he's only slightly hung-over, though he is also living one of his dreams of bringing you here for the first time," replied Remus as Sirius stuck his tongue out at them.
"Let's go on in, gentlemen, and I use the term loosely," said Harry as he headed in the doorway, followed closely by Sirius and Remus.
Inside the old pub was dark and a bit musty with the smell of stale drink and torch smoke. Patrons were hunched over the tables and bar in quiet conversation until they noticed the group of three men entering the building. A toothless man with a walnut-wrinkled face looked up from cleaning a glass and smiled in recognition.
"Ah, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. How wonderful it is to see you again," said the barman. "Will you be having your usual?"
"Not right now, Tom," said Remus. "We're just passing through on the way to Gringotts."
"Gotcha. I won't hold you up any longer," said Tom as he went back to cleaning.
Once outside, Harry let out a small breath he had been holding. "Good thing we didn't announce my name, or I would have been bombarded," he said to his guardians.
"You know, maybe we should go back and introduce Harry to these fine people," said Sirius with a smirk on his face.
"You do, and the next time you're Padfoot will find yourself at the vet getting an 'operation'," said Harry darkly, his face matching his tone of voice.
"I'll be good," said Sirius quickly, covering his lower mid-section with his hands while Remus laughed.
"Come on, let's get to Gringotts for the inheritance test," said the werewolf as he led them to the white marble building that houses the bank's surface levels.
The test did prove that Drune was somewhat right. Harry did have some Elven blood in him, but it was such a small part of his overall makeup that all it did was make his magic about .05% stronger, and even then, that went to healing magic, in other words, what kept him alive while with the Dursleys.
Getting some money from his trust vault, Harry and his guardians left the bank to get his supplies.
Meanwhile, a young man covered in a neutral brown cloak was in a used book store close to the entrance of Knockturn Alley, searching for a book, any book, that could help him.
Stupid DEMON cult, cursing me with their demonic powers. Stupid parents with their 'Holier than thou' attitude, forcing me out of the family for bring 'Dark Magic' into their lives. Stupid Ministry of Magic, for trying to kill me just because I'm no longer fully human. Damn bitch is probably even less human than I am, thought the young man under the cloak named Eric Henson. Last year on his 18th birthday his celebration was interrupted by the world-wide cult known as DEMON. Led by Luther Black (no relation to Sirius), DEMON's sole purpose is to release the Kings of Edom onto the Earth in the hopes that these demonic entities grant them immense power and rulership over the planet. One of their plans was to create vessels of their power here on Earth. Eric was one of those chosen. He was the only one in the ritual chamber to survive.
As the ritual to forge Eric into the vessel of power commenced, two of the runes were cast wrong, changing the power from inhumanly evil to user's choice, as well as granting him access to all five known Kings of Edom, instead of just one.
The power backlash ripped apart the forces of DEMON, but left all the other humans in the hideout alive and unaffected, and Luther Black fled before the initial explosion. His parents, thinking that powers like that were evil, no matter how they were used, banished him from their family and no longer acknowledge him as their son.
They probably won't even accept me if I ever do strip myself of this power, but I've got to try, thought Eric as he leafed through the book in his hands, hoping for something that can break his curse.
Back with Harry and the gang, after getting a trunk and book bag for his things, the trio headed to Madam Malkin's for his school robes. Inside, they ran into someone Sirius never thought he'd see again.
"Cissi, is that you?" Sirius asked of the young lady standing next to the counter as she watched her son getting fitted for robes.
Turning around, the three of them were in shock. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black's once beautiful face was covered with bruises and a couple of recent cuts, with her right cheek swollen and a bright shiner of a black eye on the same side. Looking over at Draco, he also sported a couple of bruises, though his were older and nearly healed.
"Siri? Oh, Siri, it is you!" cried Narcissa as she flung herself into his arms. "Please, you got to help me and my son. Lucius is not the man I had married, not any longer. His cruelties are beyond anything our parents ever did to us."
Sirius, once he got over seeing his second favorite cousin's (Andromeda being first and Bellatrix being dead last) face beat up like that, growled loudly and felt a deep, rising anger that was taking everything he had not to explode.
"How did he get out of prison?" asked Remus.
"He managed to bribe his way out again. That was the last straw for the Wizengamot. Umbridge, who replaced Fudge, got voted out and Amelia Bones took her place," replied Sirius.
"Oh, right. Forgot about that article," said Remus quietly.
"He came into the manor like a man possessed. As soon as his eyes laid on me, he charged over and started beating me since he couldn't take his anger out on you," said Narcissa with tears in her eyes. "Draco tried to intervene, but was smacked into a wall for it."
"Well, seeing as he defaulted on the marriage contract due to not reading the fine print, I can get you out of the marriage. Remus, can you watch the boys while I go with Cissi to Gringotts? Malfoy is gonna wish he never heard the name Black when I'm done," said Sirius in as level a voice he could manage, his eyes flashing darkly with his inner rage.
"Go do what you need to do, we'll be fine here and wait for your return," said Remus, and the pair hurried out to void the contract.
"My soon-to-be ex-father is going to be very angry once he feels the contract break," said Draco in a worried voice.
"Which means we better call in some backup. Georgina, can I use your floo to call the DMLE?" asked Remus.
"Sure thing, Remus. Let me get the powder," said Madam Malkin.
"Harry, use your com-watch to contact The New Knights of the Round Table and get some of the Muggleborns over here as soon as possible."
"Permission to use the armor?" asked Harry.
"Granted. Have A.M.O.S. use the scans of the weakened Dark Mark, that will be your targeting signature," said Remus as he went into the back to use the floo.
"What did Mr. Lupin mean by armor, and just how are you so big anyway?" asked Draco curiously as Harry talked with the knights. Draco thought to himself, Muggle technology sure does make things a lot easier.
"You're about to find out," said Harry as a bunch of Death Eaters apparated in. "Lucius must have been with his other cronies for them to get here this fast. C.O.M.B.A.T., armor up!" In seconds, the teleporter beam surrounded Harry as his armor beamed in, encasing the young man in the blue on black Holo-Hex Ablative Armor.
Draco and Georgina Malkin could only stare at how cool the armor looked on the young hero, while Remus looked at him proudly.
Pulling out a device, C.O.M.B.A.T. handed it to Remus and said, "As soon as I leave, activate the magnetic shield projector."
"I hope this works. We still haven't gotten the right frequency for this to repel magic consistently," said Remus with worry.
"Either way, the Knights and I are gonna try and herd them over to Knockturn Alley. Maybe we'll be lucky and we can blow up Borgans and Burkes!" said C.O.M.B.A.T. excitedly.
Remus just shook his head. "Get out of here, you big lug. You're missing the fight." C.O.M.B.A.T. opened the door, quickly charged up his jetpack, and flew outside. As Remus closed the door, Draco called out, "Where can I get one of those suits?" Remus laughed at the excited look on the boy's face.
Lucius Malfoy was pissed. With the breaking of his marriage contract by that blasted head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, his ranking was downgraded from Noble back to Newcomer, being his family moved from France back in the mid-1700's, and had either needed to wait five hundred years or marry into one of the Ancient and Noble houses to move into the Noble rank, which is what he did by marrying Narcissa Black. However, with the breaking of the contract, not only was the Malfoy name back where it started from, so was his political power, for no-one in the Ministry listens to a Newcomer.
Using the threat of unleashing his wrath on the Death Eater cronies he was with at the time once they realized he lost a lot of political power, the group made their way to Diagon Alley to start blowing everything to kingdom come.
A cart full of cabbages was the first to succumb to their rage. As the destroyed leaves fell to the ground, the cart owner looked at the ones who fired the curse in the first place with undisguised anger.
"Every world... every lifetime I've lived through... all I had wanted to do was raise my cabbages and sell them to people who wanted to enjoy them, but no. Each and every time I get sent down here through the reincarnation cycle, it's the same thing! My cabbages get destroyed! First it was the Avatar, the Last Airbender, followed by that Waterbender girl who was next in the cycle, then it was that blond loudmouth who housed the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, and now it's you guys! Enough is enough! For the cabbages!" yelled the cabbage seller after his rant was done as he charged at the Death Eaters. He was almost on top of them when Goyle managed to fire off an Avada Kedavra. The man, after dying, thought to himself as he moved on to heaven, Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
Meanwhile, the Death Eaters were just getting into the rhythm of destruction when a powerful beam of energy blasted Crabbe, Sr. into the wall next to the Diagon Alley entrance. The others turned to look at who fired the blast, and saw that it was the same blue on black armored person who captured Lucius Malfoy at the ICW meeting last year.
"You!" growled the blond inbred degenerate as the others took on a battle stance.
"Me," said C.O.M.B.A.T. in a steady, even voice. "I'm so glad you decided to show up today and save me the trouble of tracking you down."
"My last team and I may not have been ready for you at the ICW, but we're aware of you now, and have you out-numbered," sneered Lucius Malfoy, however, that sneer was lost as a large blast of hellfire came from above and took out another seven of the Death Eaters.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join?" asked the guy up in the air. He was wearing a mostly black suit with hellfire green and platinum as the secondary colors. Platinum gems brightly shined on his leg bands, bracers and the chest of his flared chestplate. His face looked human, though he had pointed ears and instead of being white, the sclera was also glowing hellfire green. His hair, while a muddy blond, had the same green on the tips. A soul patch, a hellfire aura and the spiky eyebrows completed the ensemble.
"The name's Hellbane," said the guy as he dropped next to C.O.M.B.A.T.
"I heard of ya," said the cyber-suit warrior. "Heard you've been trying to strip yourself of those powers you got. My friends and I researched the ritual. Hate to tell you this, but thanks to that screw-up, the powers were stripped off the kings completely devoid of the dark essence they came from. When they entered you, they became yours to command for the rest of your now immortal life.
"Fate must have a sick sense of humor," said Hellbane, looking up at the sky.
"That she does, unfortunately for us," said C.O.M.B.A.T.
"What the blazes are you to babbling about over there!" yelled Lucius Malfoy in anger that he was being ignored.
"Whoops! Sorry, forgot all about you guys. That was just shop talk. Nothing that concerns inbred idiots like you," said Hellbane as he formed a Hellfire Blast ready to fry these morons.
"You just had to rile them up again, didn't you?" asked C.O.M.B.A.T. as he got his blasters charged. However, before anyone could attack, another group dropped in.
"Knights, attack!" yelled the squad leader of The New Knights of the Round Table, as he and the other knights started trampling the Death Eaters into the ground.
"Well, that was a bit anti-climactic," said Hellbane as the pair relaxed a bit.
"You can say... check that, got a couple of runners," replied C.O.M.B.A.T. as he spotted Malfoy and Goyle Sr. run away in different directions. "I got skinny, you take fatso."
"Hey, why do I have to take lard butt?" asked Hellbane in indignation.
"You're closer!" yelled C.O.M.B.A.T. as he jetted off after the elder Malfoy.
"Blast it," muttered the demon-powered human as he flew off after Goyle.
Neither of the runners lasted very long, as C.O.M.B.A.T. grabbed Lucius at about 70 mph, then quickly banged the moron's head against the wall a couple of times (more like eight) until he blacked out. Hellbane just kept it simple and fried Goyle until he was still alive, but extra-crispy.
With Lucius and the others captured again and no Fudge in office to bribe, it was the end of them being free to torture, rape or kill anyone ever again, even though there were still others who managed to evade capture.
"Well, if this is how all your crime-fighting goes, we're going to be glad to have you in the neighborhood," said Sir Jacob, who had come to inspect the results of C.O.M.B.A.T.'s and surprisingly, Hellbane's battle prowess. "Minimum loss of life as the cabbage seller was the only one killed, though according to reports, he was saying some very strange things... anyway, disabled a good majority of them, nice, nice... pre-fight banter was used effectively, kept short and no monologueing, always a plus... well, since Harry's only school age and is going to be a free agent up in Scotland, that leaves you, Mr. Henson. Because of your powers, no matter how purified, you cannot be accepted as a New Knight of the Round Table. However, there are openings in both London Watch and Nightwatch. Do you want to talk with the leaders?" Hellbane was stunned, but nodded yes all the same.
"Good, I'll set up an appointment for you to talk with Drune and Blazon." Placing a hand on Hellbane's shoulder, Sir Jacob continued. "You did good, son. I heard about the fallout you had with your parents. You didn't ask for these powers, but you stepped up and took responsibility for, and how, you used them. It they're too blinded to see that, it's their loss." Hellbane looked down, trying to hide his newly released tears. "If you ever need someone to talk to, my door's always open, as is Harry's here. Just don't ask him for dating advice, as he's only eleven," said Sir Jacob with a grin. Hellbane looked up at Harry in surprise, while Harry looked ready to punch the Knight in his face, though this was not seen under the helmet.
"Good day, gentlemen," said the knight, and he left to join his fellow knights.
"One of these days, I'm gonna shoot him right in the arse," grumbled Harry.
"Are you really only eleven?" asked Hellbane. Harry nodded in the affirmative as he reached up to remove his helmet. "But... but you're huge! How...?"
"Long story," replied Harry, now free of the helmet. Luckily they were in a private room at The Leaky Cauldron. "Let me get out of this and into the spare clothes I brought, and we can discuss this over dinner in a mundane restaurant." Hellfire agreed, and went to go change himself.
"And that's everything," said Harry as he and his guests, including Draco and Narcissa, dug into dessert. Harry and Eric exchanged their life stories over dinner in a private room at one of London's more upscale restaurants. During the meal, Narcissa and Draco decided to move away from England in order to keep away from Lucius Malfoy should he escape, and Sirius offered them their own apartment in Millennium City, which they gratefully agreed to.
"So Eric, have you decided which group you're going to join?" asked Harry of the demonic-empowered man.
"I'm not too sure. I was only here for research into my powers. I'm also a U.S. citizen, so it would make more sense for me to join one of the teams over there, especially around Vibora Bay," said Eric. "Something's going on over there, and it's giving me the creeps."
"Considering they have gangs of zombies, fallen angels, vampires, werewolves, and who knows what else roaming around, you might have better luck there than anywhere else," said Remus.
Just then, the ground started shaking with a mighty boom resonating through the air, and a large voice yelled out, "Puny heroes can't stop Grond!"
"Great, the Atomic Green Giant left Burning Sands and is on another world tour," yelled Harry over the noise as the group dove under the table.
"Aren't the two of you going out there to stop him?" asked Draco in a worried voice.
Harry and Eric looked at Draco as if he grew a second head. "What are you nuts?!" they exclaimed.
"One, Grond is about thirty feet tall, has four arms, is built like Kilauea and is just as explosive," said Harry.
"Two, we may be strong, but we're not that strong!" said Eric, stressed from the fact that the booms were getting closer.
"And three, Sirius wound ground me for five lifetimes if I went out there, armored superhero or not," said Harry as Sirius nodded his head, agreeing with that statement.
Another massive shake occurred, then Grond bellowed out, "Grond bored now! Grond leaving!" and with one more tremor, Grond leapt off to sights unknown.
"Man, am I glad that's over with," said Narcissa as the group got out from under the table.
"Just what was that?" asked Draco.
"Grond was once a small-time career criminal in New Mexico back in the 80's," said Eric. "The man he was had the worst bad luck. First, while he was in jail, he volunteered for medical testing in order to get a reduced sentence. Unfortunately he was injected with the wrong serum. No-one knows if this was the cause or not, but the guy went berserk. The guards tried to subdue him, but one tossed him into a shelf full of other chemicals, which entered his body through all the cuts he gained from the broken glass. Pushing past the guards, he escaped the medical center he was at for the testing and jumped into a heavily polluted river.. In the middle of a thunderstorm."
"Let me guess, the river was struck by lightning?" asked Harry, his eyes wide at the string of bad luck.
"You got it. What's worse is that the river ran next to Burning Sands. From what scientists could tell, he wandered into the old testing grounds after getting out of the river and fell in one of the irradiated pools," said Eric.
"Do you happen to know what his name was before his transformation?" asked Sirius.
"According to public records, it was Sydney Potter," said Eric, stunning the others.
"You don't think..." started Remus slowly.
"Better to be safe than sorry," said Harry. "UNTIL probably has a genetic sample of Grond, so we could compare it to mine."
"What's going on?" asked Draco.
"Remus and Sirius has been telling me about my family, and that I had a great-uncle who was a squib who left for the U.S. as a young man. There's a good chance that Sydney Potter, A.K.A. Grond, is my cousin," said Harry flatly.
Thankfully, the U.K. UNTIL base was one of the few doing testing on Grond's biology, and the scientists did a genetic comparison between Grond's DNA and Harry's, which, shockingly to everyone there, proved to be a match.
Harry sat down hard on the chair behind him in shock. "Oh, Merlin. I knew the possibility was there, but still..." he said, leaving his statement unfinished.
"I know what you mean, and what's worse, I'm going to have to change my stance on facing him," said Sirius.
"What?!" exclaimed the others in the lab.
"What are you talking about?" asked Eric, anger present in his voice.
"An old family rule. No Potter, squib or wizard, cannot harm another, save for physical or magical defense practice," said Harry. "It basically means that I have the only chance of getting Grond to stop long enough to try and get him to listen."
"Luckily, we don't need to deal with this now, considering you and Draco are going to Hogwarts next month," said Remus.
"That's for sure. Let's head back to the hotel. Narcissa, Draco, will the two of you be okay at The Leaky Cauldron?" asked Sirius.
"We'll be okay. Most of our stuff was already packed up, so we'll be ready to meet you for the portkey back to the U.S.," said Narcissa.
"Alright, we'll see you at the international transport office in the morning. Eric, it was a pleasure to meet you," said Sirius.
"Same here," said Eric. "I'm gonna stay around the U.K. for a while before I head to Vibora Bay."
"Good luck with that," said Harry, and the six left the UNTIL base and went their separate ways.
Harry, Sirius and Remus spent the next month showing Narcissa and Draco around Millennium City. The mother and son were in awe at the splendor of it all, especially Renaissance Center with all the heroes (for Draco) and Downtown, with all the shopping (for Narcissa).
Harry and Draco were walking through the park west of the center one day, about a week before school. Things were going nicely, until they saw a group of rough looking guys standing around near the stairs that connected Westside to the park.
"Inferno is heading into Westside, guys," radioed one of the purple clothed toughs. Looking up, Harry and Draco spotted the superhero they were talking about. Inferno was a once an ordinary worker at a natural gas plant. He is of Russian descent, what with his grandparents coming to the U.S. back in the 60's. However, due to an accident involving some stellar material falling into the area of the plant he was working in, he got changed into the superhero he is now, complete with very intense fire powers.
"Damn, The New Purple Gang must be monitoring hero traffic going into Westside," said Harry softly to Draco. "Let's go, I don't want them to become suspicious of us especially since you're in more danger than I am." Draco just nodded and the pair headed to the other side of the park.
Once out of the way, Harry told Draco to get to Defender's station and tell him what the gang was doing, then to wait for him there. Draco ran off, and Harry found an out of the way place to change into C.O.M.B.A.T.
"Heads up, C.O.M.B.A.T.'s heading..." started the New Purple Knife Man.
"Right towards your face!" shouted C.O.M.B.A.T. as he punched the thug with one very powerful right cross, knocking him out in one hit. The Heavy and the two Drivers, as well as the other Knife Man, quickly got their act together and started attacking C.O.M.B.A.T., but he kept up the assault with his particle blasts. It wasn't long before he finished off the Heavy and piled them all into a small heap. Looking at the other stairs. He saw Defender and Kinetik, who was on patrol, take care of the other groups.
"I see my cousin didn't take long in informing you what was going on," said C.O.M.B.A.T. as he flew up to Defender.
"They'll be quiet for a while, but will soon have a new group up here to monitor our movements," said Defender. "Something big is going to be happening soon in Westside, but the gangs are being extremely tight-lipped about it."
"I know, even Kodiak is getting nervous," said Kinetik.
"That's not good, especially since he ups his coffee intake at times like this," said C.O.M.B.A.T.
Defender and Kinetik just looked at each other. "Doesn't he usually drink decaf?" asked Kinetik.
"What do you think they run out of at the Westside station in the first two hours of his nerves getting the better of him," said a dead-panned C.O.M.B.A.T.
AN: Okay, that's enough filler. Next up Hogwarts. Also thanks to Wolfey141 for letting me use one of his characters, in this case Hellbane.