Chapter Nine: Day Off
A few days had passed since the adventure with the Doom Patrol and there was a rare opportunity for some downtime for all involved. Harry ducked his head down, before Diana swung a glancing blow at him. He dodged another attack whilst they stood face to face with each other, in one of the many gym areas of the Shining Light Foundation. This sparring session gave Harry a nice little work out. He dodged the attack from Diana and bounced back, before sliding underneath the legs.
"Nice one," Diana responded, she was dressed in a tight black top and a tight pair of leather pants, but she had no shoes on. The Amazon moved forward, trying to box Harry in with strength but his speed and agility proved to be a challenge. "These workouts get more intense."
"No holding back," Harry offered and he swung a punch, dodging it, before he grabbed her around the waist and took her to the ground. Diana grabbed around his arm and flipped him to the ground, before she tried to leap up.
Harry caught the foot and flung her back down to the crowd, before trying to catch her with a leg sweep. She avoided that one, and tried a back hand but Harry blocked it.
"Keep it up," Harry encouraged her, blocking her back hand punch and the Amazon had a smile on her face when she eyed Harry.
"Oh believe me I am," Diana responded before she slid underneath his legs and tried to take them out from underneath him but Harry blocked the attack once again. "Well you're doing rather well, I think."
"Agreed," Harry offered as he spun and pivoted off to the side, blocking even more punches from the woman. One had to think two, three, four, moves ahead of an opponent, otherwise they would go down in a heap rather easily.
Harry's thought processes were getting quicker, as was his reflexes. Diana, Karen, and Kara were good at keeping up with him; even Chloe was making marked improvements with her powers and how to utilize them rather well, with her hand to hand abilities increasing as well. All of his girls were doing well in that arena, even though Diana was the one that was doing it for her entire life, so naturally she would be a little bit better in that arena.
The kick aimed for Harry was dodged and the wizard kept a steady pace, ducking his head and rolling out of the way. The Amazon flew forward; trying to grab him in a bearhug but Harry squirmed out, and turned around, before grabbing her arm behind her back and twisting it.
Harry was not going to say that he had this one, because he knew that being premature with something like this was going to bite him in the ass later. Especially with a proud warrior like Diana, who kept coming at him, swinging her punches but Harry dodged them, pivoting around, and he swung up, before kicking up into the air. The wizard evaded the attacks, before going down, and grabbing her legs.
"Not bad," Diana breathed while she blocked his attack and hoisted him up but Harry flipped over onto his feet with precision.
Harry used the woman's leverage against her and aimed a kick but it was blocked. The wizard twisted around and landed on his feet. This sparring session without any powers was going rather well, actually it was going far better than Harry could have ever expected. The raven haired Herald of Death avoided the very spirited attacks of the Amazon princess; she kept coming at him, swinging fists of fury that got more furious.
Diana's attacks were varied and she decided to go in for another attack but Harry slid behind her and grabbed her arm, pinning her down to the ground in a hammerlock, but she reversed it and flung Harry across the room. He stuck the landing on the wall, bounced off, flipped over her head, and landed from behind her.
A smile crossed her face before she told him teasingly. "Show off."
"Not showing off if you can back it up, princess," Harry offered with a bow, before he motioned for her to come forward.
Diana offered him a smile before she edged forward, going for another swing of her hand, but the attack was avoided. The dark haired Amazon Princess smiled when she enjoyed more and more of this little sparring session, as their battle increased. She spun around and then pivoted on her heel, before aiming a kick but Harry dodged that one.
"Well you can most certainly back it up," Diana remarked when another attack was avoided and another spell rocked her back. "In more ways that one."
"We're jumping ahead to the cool down, aren't we?" Harry asked with a grin when she grabbed his wrist but he flipped out of her grip again. There were no powers in this battle, just skill between the two of them. Powers tended to not allow them to push their bodies to the limits, even though they had some high limits.
Diana's face twisted into a smile before she watched him, calculating what she would do next and a n eyebrow raised. She pushed forward with another attempted attack, but once again Harry dodged them. Punch dodged, kick evaded, spin around, and sweep the legs but Diana avoided that, before slipping out of the attack.
The two continued to circle each other, the strikes getting more intense between the two of them, but neither backed down. They could go at this for hours and in some ways they had been going at it for over an hour. The warrior spirit both of them had proved that they were not about to back down for any reason. The raven haired princess backed up against the wall and Harry pushed her to her limits and beyond. The wizard was not done and he kept up the attacks.
Eventually, Diana stopped, when she felt her lasso wrap tightly around her, and she was down on the ground. Harry had her trapped and pinned down to the ground, tied up in her own lasso. The woman's blue eyes snapped up to face Harry's.
"So you win," Diana breathed heavily when her eyes gazed towards him.
"Yep, bit of a cheat when you consider it?" Harry asked, but he grabbed Diana's face, stroking it, before pulling her into a sharp kiss. Their lips met together in the passionate fury, their tongues dancing together for dominance that only the two of them could offer.
Harry placed a pair of hands on her breasts and helped her out of her lasso. The moment that she got up, she grabbed Harry around the waist and backed him against the wall.
"I've got you now, Mr. Potter," Diana stated before she unbuttoned his shirt, and teased his abs with her fingers.
"You got me, but you think you can keep me here?" Harry asked as she pinned him against the wall.
"I think, I might," she stated, before smashing her lips against his with another searing kiss. Harry wrapped his arms around her, when the two continued their motions.
Smut/Lemon Begins.
-PROFILE-
Smut/Lemon Ends.
"I don't know, it's just almost like I've had a better focus on my magic since these training sessions started."
Rachel closed her eyes when she sat down, panting after another session with Harry. The truth was her magic did not really have many defined limits but Harry was trying to push her to see if she could edge past those limits. So she could be the very best that she could be and seize the day, at least that was the plan that Harry offered. The wizard wanted to get the most out of her abilities.
"Are you sure that wasn't because you have a better pull on the emotions that you have?" Harry asked Rachel, a smile crossing his face, which the half demon returned, a bit guiltily but she returned it never the less. The wizard always made her smile, no matter what, that was one key thing that she could take to the bank.
"Yeah, I guess that would be it, kind of," Rachel admitted as she focused on Harry, and all of the moments that the two of them shared together. Of course, that caused her mind to go wild with what they got up to recently. "It's just that….I thought that I had control of my powers before."
"No, there is potential, untapped potential," Harry remarked carefully when he placed his hand on Rachel's and flipped it over, before watching her. "I think that bringing out the most out of your potential is the thing that we're striving for now."
Rachel nodded, Harry did seem to get the best out of the people that he was working with but there was one spot that he seemed to be frustrated with.
"So, how are things between you and…."
"I don't want to talk about it Rachel," Harry responded as the half demon raised an eyebrow at this sudden outburst. He was unusually firm and stern, to the point where it kind of took her aback to hear him speak in such a tone. The half demon's eyes flickered carefully when she watched him.
"Okay, I respect that," Rachel offered as she turned around and they prepared for the next stage of their lesson, it was unwise to have her grow too restful with the type of magic that they were doing. At least that's what Harry constantly drilled into her head.
Harry thought about the latest snag in Clark's life, which could pose a problem. He hated to say this, but Clark really needed to stop and take a good long look at his life. This desire to prove that he was not the weakest was really unsettling to Harry. In some ways, he supposed that he could sympathize, to an extent but in other ways, he wanted to take a really huge cinderblock and bash Clark's head in repeatedly with it until he got the point.
The only one holding Clark back, was Clark and his own insecurities. That was the point that Harry saw. So what if there was people who were better than him, stronger than him, or whatever? He should take that as a challenge to motivate himself to do what he could, not a challenge to make more reckless mistakes than Harry ever did make at his lowest.
Harry decided that after the incident, he was best if he kept his distance firmly away from Clark. It was just kind of smarter for his sanity all things consider. Lana, Raya, and Lois were going to have to keep a tighter watch on them and he appreciated the daily progress reports Lois gave him when he swung by the Planet. Whatever grand destiny Clark had, it was not shaping up to be one that he could handle now.
Never the less it was back to the lessons with Rachel and Harry watched the dark haired girl, impressed with the progress that she made. Her hair framed her face when she tried to manipulate the magic around her.
A light knock on the door brought Harry out of the thoughts and he turned to Rachel, before he whispered to her.
"Continue the lessons, I'll take care of this right now," Harry answered as he edged away, leaving Rachel to do what she needed to do.
He opened the door and saw Megan and Claire standing on the other side.
"I have to swing by and give you some messages and Claire figured she'd tag along for a visit," Megan answered and Claire gave a brief smile, when Harry pulled his daughter into a hug.
"How are you doing, Claire?" Harry asked, as he bent down with his daughter.
"Fine Dad," Claire offered with a smile, the truth was that while the workload in her classes increased, she was doing well. "I'm making a scrap book for a school project."
"Oh really, what's it about?" Harry asked when he walked down the hallway.
"its newspaper clippings featuring the Blur," Claire answered in a happy voice when she moved down the hall. "The other kids already took Supergirl, Power Girl, and Arcane, and Batman."
Claire hung her head feeling that she was the victim of a random drawing that was so totally rigged.
"Well at least the Blur is doing what he can," Harry responded, keeping his voice neutral, not wanting to give his daughter any of the hints that he had about the distaste that he had regarding Clark and his attitude as of late.
"Yeah, but it doesn't seem like he's been around that much, I hope he's doing okay," Claire remarked when she looked outside the window.
"Even heroes need some time off," Megan offered wisely and Claire nodded, that made sense. Her parents took a day off, sometimes, well it wasn't that off, but they did. And they were her personal heroes, even if the Blur was kind of cool too.
"True, that's true," Claire offered, with a smile, before she checked the time. "I think I've got to get back to class."
"Well your attendance is so good, I don't think you want to mess that up," Harry offered to her.
"Perfect attendance so far this year, not even a sick day," Claire offered with a smug smile that she got from hanging around Chloe a bit too much.
"Well I'm sure you'll perfect that perfection," Harry stated as he lead her off and Megan smiled.
"Tell Mom I said hi, and I'll see her tonight."
"I will, I will," Harry offered with a smile and he spun around to face Megan.
"They're downstairs," Megan whispered to Harry and now his curiosity got the better of him. "Two of the Kandorians, they actually took your olive branch."
Now Harry's curiosity got the better of him.
"So how is Garfield settling in?" Harry asked as they moved forward.
Megan frowned before she offered a smile. "Coping rather well especially, given the circumstances."
Harry did feel a little bit of guilt with what happened, even though he could not get too hung up on it. Clark's self-righteous act tended to grind on his nerves, because there were instances where he ignored the fact that there were things that needed to be done. They actually made progress regarding Doomsday but now with that step forward, Clark took about twelve steps back.
The wizard decided to not focus on that but rather he focused on the Kandorians before him. Two women sat in the waiting lobby, patiently, with civilian clothes being worn. One of them watched Harry carefully, with an appraising expression in the eyes before she turned away when he caught her looking but the other regarded him with a bit of trepidation.
"Sorry to keep you waiting for so long," Harry responded to both of them.
One of the women, dark haired spun towards Harry. "No problem, Mr. Potter….I mean you're a busy person and we're….you have people more important than us after all."
"Everyone is of equal importance," Harry answered with a warm smile when he took a look at the women. "So what do you want, tea, coffee, water, anything?"
"Water would be fine," the second woman stated as she regarded Harry. She had been sent here to get a feel of what Harry Potter's offer entailed and whether or not he was being sincere with said offer. The woman thought that he might be but there was a certain amount of certainty which she lacked. "My name is Faora, and this is my sister Vala."
"Please to meet both of you," Harry offered with his usual charming smile.
"How did you know about the Kandorians?" Faora asked, prodding him.
"I come across the orb a long time ago and I did some research on it," Harry answered them and the two women nodded. "Someone released you from the orb."
"As far as we know, the last thing we remembered is giving our blood on the battle field before we charged in for the battle of Kandor," Faora answered trying to piece together the information but there was something about his piercing green eyes that seemed familiar to her. "And then that was that other woman that was released along with us."
"Other woman?" Harry asked, feigning innocence, but also keeping a bit of interest, and he tapped his pen down.
"The witch," Vala whispered, looking over her shoulder. "She has red hair, green eyes, just like yours."
"My mother," Harry answered nonchalantly. "We've had our share of…disagreements in the past shall we say."
That was something that did not even scratch the surface with what the problems between Lily and Harry were but it was good enough for now. At the very least, the wizard would not be accused of making an understatement of the century. His eyes carefully watched the two women, gauging their reaction.
"Major Zod believes that she holds the key to restoring our magic," Faora stated, now was the moment when she watched Harry.
"Does Zod believe that now?" Harry asked as he watched both of the women to get their reaction. "Does Zod also know that it could be a catastrophe if hundreds of super powered Kandorians are left with free reign of the Earth?"
Vala thought about that and thought that he might have some kind of point but Faora kept her eyes on him with a firm gaze..
"Zod wishes to make the world a better place," Faora responded as she watched him.
"Perhaps, you know him better than I do," Harry commented lightly, but he was reserving judgment for now about Zod. Perhaps Zod would never become the man that destroyed Krypton or perhaps he was doomed to that destiny.
Harry had a meeting with Zod in a couple of days, then he would know. This business deal between Luthorcorp and the RAO corporation could prove to pave the roads that could allow the Kandorians a better life and maybe Kryptonian technology could benefit humanity in the future. Of course, Harry wondered if humans would be ready for it. They would find out in due time.
"I wish to reserve judgment until I personally meet Zod," Harry commented in a light tone of voice.
"A fair assessment," Faora nodded in a diplomatic tone of voice when she watched Harry. There was a shade of green eyes that was only seen one other place by her before, other than his apparent mother. There was a lost house of Krypton, the house of Rell, and she wondered if this Harry Potter had distant ancestry from it. She recalled her studies; it was a union between the oldest daughter of the House of Zod and the youngest son of the House of El centuries ago to create a brand new house.
"Yes, extremely fair," Vala answered as she watched his eyes carefully but there was another figure that came down and Faora and Vala watched her. Vala gasped when she saw her blonde hair and blue eyes and she remarked in a confused tone, "Alura?"
"No, I think you have me confused for someone else," Kara answered whilst she surveyed the two Kandorians before her. "I'm her daughter though."
"Of course, we forgot ourselves," Faora answered with an apology. "It's just you resemble your mother so much and we were friends with her, even before the Kandorian army."
This caught Kara off guard but she nodded. Then again there was so much about her mother that she did not know.
"So, you were there at the end?" Faora asked as she eyed Kara with a ghost of a smile. "How did we die?"
Kara paused, freezing up a little bit, the last thing she wanted to do was tell Faora what happened regarding her and Zod. The two of them got married and then they eventually created that twisted creation as their son. Then her body was stripped and sent to the Phantom Zone.
"I'm afraid you must have died with the end of Krypton," Kara responded, deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt. She supposed that Vala died, casualty of the war, or anything. She didn't know everything.
"Then we will make sure that end does not come again," Faora responded briskly.
"Believe me, if any of your Kandorian brothers and sisters need anything, I will do what I can to help," Harry offered. "The mission of the Shining Light Foundation doesn't extend to empowered humans."
"I'd…."
Vala was cut off by Faora. "We'll consider your offer but do you have any information that we can look at in the meantime."
Harry was prepared for that answer and popped open the brochure before handing it to them both.
Faora flipped through it lightly. "It's written in Kryptonian?"
"It is charmed to display in the language that is most understandable to you," Harry informed her and Vala looked impressed, as did Faora, although she hid it better.
"Magic really can do anything," Vala stated as she watched Harry, found herself caught in his eyes until her sister cleared her throat.
"But can it restore our powers?" Faora asked Harry as she kept her eyes on him. He did not answer with anything for a noncommittal shrug. "Thank you for your time."
He shook hands with both of the women, as did Kara. The two watched them leave.
'So did you slip a tracking charm on them so they can lead you back to base?' Kara asked.
'Not this time,' Harry responded as the two of them left and Kara's eyebrow corked in a slight amount of surprise.
'Mind if I ask you why?' Kara asked Harry, trying to follow her husband's thought process regarding this situation.
Harry was only too happy to point out the situation. 'Because, I want to gain their trust in any way that I can. And spying on them is not the way to do it, at least not now. And Zod's going to come to me eventually; I don't need to follow subordinates.'
'But there's another thing,' Kara thought to him.
'Your mother is out there,' Harry replied back through the mental link.
'But where?' Kara thought, biting down on her lip in frustration and Harry grabbed her hand, before squeezing it tightly. She relaxed in his grip.
'I don't know, love, but we'll find her, along with everyone else that seems to have been thrown off the grid,' Harry thought to Kara.
Kara was visited with a painful thought, what if her mother didn't want to be found?
Tess sat across from Harry at a table and watched him carefully, raising an eyebrow when she kept an appraising eye on him.
"So you've had visitors within the last day?" Tess asked Harry and he nodded.
"I was surprised, pleasantly so, when they arrived," Harry offered when he watched them.
"And you let them leave," Tess offered, not in an accusing manner but trying to figure out the thought process. The woman rubbed her hands together, when watching her through a pair of green eyes, staring him down.
"Yes, I let them leave, no one is ever held at the Shining Light Foundation against their will," Harry responded when he took the wine and brought it up to his lips, before looking at her thoughtfully. "The Kandorians need to know that there are options, Zod could make them overly reliant on him."
Tess nodded, although she did wonder what his game was. She held out the folder that she brought to the meeting.
"This is Zod's project," Tess answered as she passed the blueprint in front of Harry, seeing the two towers stand there side by side. "Do you know what his purpose might be?"
Harry studied the blueprint carefully when he watched the blueprints, an eyebrow raised when he did it, taking a few moments before running his finger along it. The Herald of Death kept a moment before folding it over his head.
"In theory this will revolutionize energy," Harry responded delicately when he read the outlines of the blueprints, studying it. "The thing is, I wonder why Zod wants to turn the yellow sunlight into red?"
"Come again?" Tess asked with a raised eyebrow as she read the document, before tapping on the side of the paper.
Harry was all too happy to indulge her with the answers to her question.
"See those reflective mirrors on the top of the towers?" Harry inquired and Tess offered a light nod, when she followed his progress.
Suddenly it clicked in her mind.
"The satellite uplink increases the potency of the mirrors, which bounces back a loop and causes red sunlight to be bathed across the Earth," Tess murmured, it was a more technical process in that but she was impressed. The towers were innocent looking enough, and the red haired woman thought about that. "If it wasn't for that one small feature…."
"It would have been what Zod claims it was designed for," Harry responded as Kara turned up to join them for the meeting.
"A few people were roaming around the outside of the Shining Light Foundation, it looked like some of them wanted to go in but they pulled themselves back," Kara explained to them before Harry placed the tower blueprints in front of him. There was a moment where Kara watched the tower, her eyes widened when she saw it. "So that's what his game is?"
"Yes, that's his game," Harry offered to her, with the blonde sitting down in the empty chair next to Harry.
Harry paused for a moment before he thought over everything in his mind, there was a moment where he mulled over the problems with this in his mind. The fact of the matter was that if he denied Zod this request and this partnership, he would go to another company. If Luthorcorp went through with this project, than Harry and Kara could keep a close eye and control the project, along with forging alliances with the Kandorians.
"So are you going to tell….a certain party about this?" Tess whispered to both of them.
"That party, needs only what he needs to know," Harry responded with a shrug, after the way Clark was acting, Harry thought that he should be kept out of the loop for his own good.
The entire Zod thing was a disaster waiting to happen and with Clark's current mindset, Harry wanted to mitigate the damage. Of course, he had a feeling that those two worlds will collide when the time was right. The wizard calculated a dozen different plans in his mind and how they went wrong.
"The Kandorians might leave Zod if they have the right leader," Tess prodded at him. "And if it wasn't you….someone else might step into that role."
Harry understood that someone else could mean more than a few people and one of those people was in fact Lily Potter. The wizard thought that his mother going underground meant that she was plodding something.
"I thought for sure that I heard something regarding your mother," Tess offered as she sighed and watched Harry, keeping her expression businesslike even though there were other thoughts on her mind. "There are ways to track the Kandorians, but only within a certain range. And these images came in, maybe you can make heads or tails of it?"
Harry and Kara looked at the images.
'That's…Rose…Sinclair…you know, your aunt?' Kara thought, looking over the pictures.
'I know,' Harry thought in responded, watching the pictures. Anyone who did not know better, what mistake Rose for Lily within the pictures but there were a few subtle differences, Rose's hair was a slightly darker shade and she was about an inch or two shorter.
"The final figure really gets me confused, I see this pair of hands but she's caught in the shadows," Tess explained as she paid close attention to Harry. "All of these people coming out of the woodwork, but why?"
"That's the million dollar question," Harry answered, whilst he studied the pictures and blinked. He saw a pair of hands and frowned. A hint of dark hair was seen but that's all the Herald of Death could make out.
'And the plot thickens,' Karen thought through the mental link, when she clasped her hands together.
'You can say that again,' Kara thought back through to her.
"Mind if I hang onto those images?" Harry asked as he stared Tess directly in her eye.
"Be my guest, they're only copies," Tess stated, with a shrug, figuring that if anyone could figure out anything, it would be Harry. She spent countless hours trying to pinpoint a face or anything but there was nothing. "And Zod is going to meet with us at two o'clock in two days, I trust you'll be ready for that."
Harry was looking forward to this meeting that he was gearing up for Zod.
"I'm ready," Harry answered as he clasped hands firmly with Kara but she corrected him with a slight smile.
"No, we're ready," Kara stated with a wide smile.
Tess watched the two chief members of the Shining Light Foundation and technically her partners in Luthorcorp and she was glad that they were ready to go. Perhaps everything was going to turn out for the better after all.
"Fair enough, I'll see you then," Tess responded, knowing that having Harry and Kara as back up would allow her some more leverage. Plus if Lily crashed the party, well she would be privy to a little bit of a family reunion.
Tess kept the knowledge of the side effects of the blood that healed her to herself for now, although she ran numerous tests. There were several elements in her blood that were unknown and as someone who studied much that baffled her.
It give her extraordinary abilities beyond many humans but she'd keep that under wraps, for now at least.
Lois sat on the edge of desk at the Daily Planet, sipping her coffee and deep in thought. Clark actually took a long leave of absence and no one knew when he would be back. He sat in the barn at the Kent Farm long nights, remarking that he was reflecting on everything, and wondering if there was a place in this world for someone like him. The Last Son of Krypton was someone who could get into these weird phases that even Lois failed to wrap her head around. After the incident with the Doom Patrol, he had one what seemed like monthly crises of faith.
"Clark's still thinking that I'm the anti-Christ, isn't he?"
Lois nearly jumped but remained calm otherwise. Thankfully she did not spill her coffee because invulnerability or not that would be bad.
"I'm pretty sure he doesn't think that you're the Anti-Christ, he's just being complicated," Lois offered Harry with a light shrug and Harry watched her with a raised eyebrow. There was a moment where the two of them stared each other down. A grin crossed Harry's face when he watched her.
"Complicated, is that what we're calling it these days?"
Lois thought that was understating things actually. "He's just being quite, reflective, the spark that was in his eye for heroism is gone."
'Doomsday killed it,' Kara thought to Harry through the mental link.
'Yeah, I imagined so,' Harry responded with a thought as he thought his eyes.
'Do you think….things are getting difficult?" Lois asked with a tentative glance in her eyes. She made a promise to never retreat despite how hard things were getting but there were days where she wanted to rip her hair out by the roots. The only thing that soothed her was that Lana and Raya voiced similar irritations.
"Have things ever been simple?" Harry responded as he locked eyes with Lois.
Lois folded her arms, shifting a little bit, with her feet on the ground, it was honestly true, things were never easy. There were always going to be complications and these things were getting even more complicated with each passing moment.
"I guess not," Lois admitted to him. "I think we should take a vacation or something."
"Vacation, could you clarify what that means, I'm unfamiliar with that term?" Harry asked with a teasing glint in his eye.
"Well, it's where some of us….you are winding me up, aren't you, Potter?"
Harry offered her a slight smile before he stared her down. "Guilty, guilty, I'm so guilty."
"Well, always," Lois responded as she turned around and watched the traffic for a second.
Lana and Raya were extremely patient despite their obvious frustrations with Clark's behavior and Lois thought that she personally was showing a lot of patience herself. Normally she would have flipped out and did something drastic to Clark by now, given the way he was acting. This entire protector situation, it did tax her, but she figured that life was not worth living without a few challenge. Even though this was a challenge that might end up throwing her in some kind of crazy house.
"So the point is that we're going to take Clark, if he's consenting to go with us," Lois responded before she closed her eyes. "I don't know where, but I heard Brazil looks nice this time of the year."
"It would be a change of scenery with the same-old, same-old of Smallville, Metropolis, or whatever, plus it might spark something in Clark to get his act together," Harry offered with a thoughtful smile.
"I sure hope so," Lois stated when she closed her eyes. "I don't want to think that it's a last ditch effort but things aren't looking good."
"Clark's still down and moping, isn't he?"
Chloe turned up to greet Lois.
"Hey, Chloe….no, I don't want to call it moping but he's oddly silent, it's almost like he's not interested in doing anything," Lois responded with her attention half on Chloe and half on Harry. She then turned it fully on Chloe. "You knew him longer than any of us so maybe…."
"I can't say anything, but I will say that I know Clark has a stubborn streak a mile long and when he digs his heals into the ground, he can go deeper like anything other," Chloe answered as she patted her cousin reassuringly on the hand and the dark haired woman nodded carefully. "Just stick with it. Be warned, the super sulk might be prolonged until something snaps him out of it."
"I hope so, because Lana's about to lose her patience with him and she might do something drastic," Lois answered fretfully but Chloe watched her.
"Just, Lana?" Chloe asked with a curious expression.
"Well Raya too?" Harry inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Well both of them, alright?" Lois asked before she offered a moment's pause, with both her cousin and her cousin's husband staring her down. Lois shifted in annoyance. "And I guess I'm part of that as well, but I don't know what to do."
"Just keep at it Lois, something will break," Chloe offered in an encouraging voice and Lois nodded.
"Slow news day," Lois offered when she watched Harry.
"Never slow, you just aren't looking in the right places," Harry responded and Lois offered him a mock solute before she edged off. "Send Lana and Raya my regards when you see them….and Clark too, I guess."
That left Chloe and Harry along with each other and the two walked forward.
"Any luck?" Harry asked in a low whisper to Chloe and the blonde held out the paper.
"Well the face is not being recognized, which means….there's no record of it anywhere," Chloe offered as she bit down on her lips lightly and Harry grabbed her hand, carefully squeezing it lightly.
"You did the best you could, Chloe, that's all we could ask for," Harry offered, seeing everything click into place. He managed to pick out one more detail that had been missed by him. "Green eyes…not just any green eyes, but my green eyes."
"So your female doppleganger strikes again," Chloe offered when she watched. "And she's helping your estranged aunt."
"The more I know, the less I understand," Harry stated, closing his eyes and sighing.
Find Lily, find Rose, find his female self, and also keep an eye on Clara, who decided to fly off to god knows where. He had a feeling that everything was piecing together, although he had no idea how it was being pieced together.
"Problem?" Harry asked as Zatanna sat at the edge of his office, folding her arms.
"Well, more or less," Zatanna responded, wondering where to begin. The beginning seemed like a good place as any. "Some of my father's old possessions…well someone acquired them and sold them to the highest bidders."
Harry could have cursed his bad luck and her bad luck after he heard about this news. There was a moment where he never thought anything else happened but then he did.
"My father also had a tendencies to fly off the handle and start hexing things for revenge purposes," Zatanna added as she moved forward and placed her arms around the waist of her old friend and current lover. "Which might be an occupational hazard of him running out with your father and godfather during their younger days. Half of the time, I think they egged him on."
"Do you really think your father needed much prodding?" Harry asked as he spun around and brought the raven haired sorceress onto his lap, her legs crossed over his when she peered into her eyes. A frown crossed her face before she responded with a slight inclination of her head and threw her head back with a sigh and crossed her arms with a frown.
"No, not that much prodding," Zatanna admitted as she faced Harry and leaned in to him. "But you and I both know the type of things that could be out there and how unpredictable magic could be, especially the longer the item has been enchanted."
She paused before adding, wrapping her arms around him when she straddled his lap.
"We're talking about the Statute of Secrecy violations flying everywhere," Zatanna continud before she paused and added. "If there still was a Ministry or Ministries, I suppose."
"How many times did your father get hauled in front of the Ministry because he broke that act anyway?" Harry asked with a grin across his face.
Zatanna looked oddly reflective when she asked this question, an extremely thoughtful expression coursing through her blue eyes. "A few, give or take."
"Give or take?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow and she nodded.
"Mmm, hmm," Zatanna answered as she watched Harry, trying to gauge his reaction to what she said. "So will you help me?"
"Well if I used your magical signature, we might be able to pinpoint where your father has the items with the Shining Light Foundation super computer," Harry responded as he held Zatanna's hand and she bounced on her heels.
"Great," she responded in an excited voice, unable to wait to get started.
"Okay, press your hand to the console like so," Harry offered, showing Zatanna the general movement and she copied it.
Moments passed when the Shining Light Foundation scanners copied everything. Given that the computers ran off the entire essence of life itself, it was something that was capable of everything, to the fact where it was evolving to serve whatever purpose Harry had figure out. The green eyed wizard watched when everything clicked into place, when the blinking dots flashed, one by one, by one.
Harry watched as the dots amplified, multiplied, several times past what they were in the past. The wizard's curiosity could not be sated so he turned to Zatanna with one look in his eyes.
"So how many objects did your father enchant?"
Zatanna watched the dots blink to light and began to see that there was a lot more to her father's work than previously met the eye. If nothing else, her heart sped up even more when she watched it. Sure enough, there were a lot of objects on the radar and they increased with every single moment. As it turned out, her work was cut out for her. Thankfully, Harry was able to set this up where she could gain the general proximity of the items, otherwise she would be in a bind.
"It seems to be a bit more than I thought," Zatanna remarked as she bit down on her lip and Harry raised an eyebrow, a smile crossing his face before he teased her.
"Just a bit?"
Zatanna crossed her arms and inclined her head a little bit. "You know what I mean."
"Enlighten me a little bit," Harry responded as she sighed.
"Well I was under the impression that most of the items were destroyed or lost their potency," Zatanna explained with a shrug when she watched everything. "My father tended to get prolific, although I didn't know he would be able to do that much or that many things."
The girl turned before she added as an afterthought.
"I'm half tempted to blame this on Sirius."
"Hey, leave the man alone, he's dead," Harry responded with a teasing grin. "Besides, why would you lay such a serious accusation on Sirius?"
"Well seriously speaking, Sirius was really serious, about….no we're not playing this game," Zatanna responded as she watched him with a frown on her face. She had been tricked into this never ending loop of Sirius and serious before.
"Seriously?" Harry asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, quite," Zatanna offered before she threw her head back and sighed, allowing it to escape her lips. "But getting back to your question….loads more, but the worst of it is his desire to curse random comic books."
"Seriously?" Harry asked her once again and Zatanna turned towards him, a narrowed gaze being given. The emerald eyed sorcerer smirked and offered a faux innocent expression. "Okay, I'll stop, promise."
Harry kissed her on the lips briefly, which caused her to be less irritated and she relaxed.
"The good news is that most of them are rare collector item where no one will open," Zatanna added when she watched the dots slow to a crawl. "Because you know, they won't be mint condition and drive their collector value down the toilet."
"Thank Merlin for geeks being obsessive compulsive," Harry offered as he watched the computer crawl to a blinking halt when he pulled back.
"Yes, that's always a fortunate thing," Zatanna agreed before she took the print out from him with a gracious smile. "Thanks, I'll be able to track this down."
"If you need any help…."
"Don't worry, I know that you're a call away," Zatanna offered, when she leaned forward and gave him a kiss, this time out of gratitude. "Bye."
"See you later, Zee," Harry answered as he turned back to his work, he had to focus on the task at hand.
Harry continued with his person search but so far, not good enough. Of course if she was a Herald of death like he was, she had ways of hiding herself. It was like trying to play chess against yourself and Harry was stuck in an infinite loop against his double.
There were many times in his life where Harry Potter waited for the moment of truth but it was sneaking up to him. The moment of truth was ahead. Tess stood next to him, as did Kara, and Karen decided to stop by with the meeting as well, even if she watched outside, circling the building in invisibility mode.
This was one of those situations where it was best if Harry had some sort of back up and any minute, he would come through those doors. For better or for worse, he would come inside, to face Harry and the meeting would be at hand. The green eyes of Harry flickered when he thought about what would happen during this meeting.
"Miss Mercer, Mister Zod has arrived."
It was the moment of truth and in many ways, it was the day of reckoning. Harry and Kara exchanged an expression filled with tension before they waited and heard the footsteps. One step at a time, he reached closer and closer. They sat at the edge of their seats, knowing that there was going to be an instant before the arrival of Zod took place.
The door knob twisted open and the door swung open to allow the entry of the man. Tall, dark hair, dressed in a suit. He was the charismatic type but behind that charming exterior laid the man with the twisted ideals to turn into potentially one of the greatest monsters any world had ever seen. Zod was here and he walked into the meeting with the type of bold confidence that few could match.
"Miss Mercer, our initial meeting barely scrapped the surface," Zod responded with a smirk crossing his face and there was no mention that Tess was held captive when Zod briefly encountered her. His eyes looked towards Kara for a brief moment.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Zod?" Kara asked in a cool voice.
"No problem, you just remind me of an old friend of mine," Zod responded when he looked at Kara and the young man beside her. Kara blinked but otherwise did not react. Those green eyes were quite striking, if Zod was a woman or inclined to be attracted by the same sex, he could find himself be lost to them. "And this must be the famous Harry Potter."
"You'd be surprised how often I hear that," Harry stated as he watched Zod offer his hand.
"I hope I'm not being brazen with offering a handshake at this juncture," Zod responded in a crisp voice and Harry took his hand, carefully shaking it, his grip firm, as was Zod's.
Tess watched the silent interplay between Harry and Zod, it was almost like two Alpha males jockeying for territory on the same position, on the same turf. And neither was willing to back down and give up the dominant stance they held. They squeezed tighter yet in the extremely firm handshake before Zod was the first to show any emotion with a slight wince which Tess and Kara both caught and they caught each other's eyes.
"A pleasure to meet you, Mister Zod," Harry responded as he stepped back, the wizard caught the wince as well. "We've been looking over your proposals."
"I forgot, you and your wife are Miss Mercer's partners in Luthorcorp, so of course you will be privy to that information," Zod responded as he watched them all, all three of them, ready to maneuver them. "And I've heard about your marvelous foundation, where you help people cope with their powers. The helping hand you extended to my Kandorian brothers and sisters, it was quite generous of you Mr. Potter."
Zod wondered what Harry Potter's game was but he suspected that answer would be given to him all too soon. The crafty Major watched Harry and Harry stared back towards him, neither backing down or breaking off their gaze. Both refused to even give up any ground whatsoever. Still the fact that some of his Kandorians looked to Harry and Kara Potter as a potential beacon of light, someone who could help them on Earth, made Zod feel a bit inferior.
And inferiority was something that had no place in the House of Zod.
"The solar towers will revolutionize your world," Zod responded and he went over the proposal about all of the way that they would cut back on energy consumption.
Harry and Kara listened to his sale's pitch and technically speaking, a good portion of it was extremely accurate. The dark haired wizard and the blonde Kryptonian kept their thoughts firmly focused on the ways that Zod would corrupt the towers. It was one of those situations were good technology got perverted for uses that was less than adequate.
"Well, there are many benefits," Harry responded as his fearless gaze locked onto Zod's eyes. "If you don't mind, I have a couple of concerns."
"Relay them," Zod responded in a cordial voice, when he leaned back on his chair.
"Well first I have….an issue with the satellites and the way that they are configured," Harry responded when he pointed them out to Zod. "The atmospheric shields would present a problem, as they could decay the Earth's ozone layer beyond what has already done."
"I agree with your concern," Zod responded before he decided to drop the bombshell. "But these healing nodes on the edge of the tower, they will beam the energy and heal the damage. Said damage will allow the sun to be filtered in more naturally."
Harry figured this out and so did Kara.
'He's permanently altering the atmosphere,' Kara thought to Harry
"I just want to make my adopted home a better place, Mr. Potter," Zod responded as he eyed him. "You know where I come from."
"Yes, Zod, yes I do," Harry responded in a brisk voice and the tension could be cut with a knife.
"We are very much alike you and I, more so than you could ever realize," Zod stated in a cryptic tone of voice.
"Maybe I have a word with both of my partners?" Tess chimed in for the first time. "Your plan is sound but we want to make sure that we're all on the same page."
Zod waved his hand before he watched them, calculating expression dancing in his eyes before he peered at them. "Take all the time that you need. I will be waiting for the answer."
Kara, Tess, and Harry made their way to the adjacent room. While Zod did not have his super hearing, Harry took no chances, hence the reason why he put up the anti-eavesdropping spells. All Zod would hear was a buzzing in his ear.
"So?" Tess asked Harry and Kara.
"Sign off on it," Kara responded and Harry nodded in agreement.
"My opinion is still the same that it is a few days ago, better Luthorcorp oversees the production of the towers than someone else," Harry answered when he closed his eyes.
'Plus I can lock onto the towers and control them with the SLF computer,' Harry thought to his bond makes.
'You…that's not a bad idea per say, but I wonder about the risks,' Karen thought from outside. 'Zod is just sitting there right now, in case you're wondering. It would be so easy to take him out and make it look like an accident.'
'Give the Kandorians credit, they'd suspect something,' Harry thought when Kara kept Tess distracted by talking to her.
'So…you're going to put power in the hands of a tyrant?' M'Gann chimed in, feeling surprised at her daring.
'No, my hands,' Harry thought. 'It's always in my hands.'
Harry spun around, under the pretext of checking something before he nodded.
'Harry knows what he's doing,' Diana warned them through the bond link.
Harry edged himself through the room, with Tess and Kara following.
"I do have several other proposals if you are…."
"Luthorcorp will agree to construct the Solar Towers," Tess responded in a firm and diplomatic manner when she crossed her arms, watching him and she sat down, reading over every single line of the document, to make sure she was not being tricked into signing anything dubious. The redhead kept her eyes firmly on the document.
"I can tell you that everything we discussed is followed preciously to the letter," Zod answered, popping his lips briefly.
"I can see that, with my own eyes," Tess responded swiftly, she was not an idiot, she refused to sign anything without reading it, so she passed the contract to Harry and then Kara.
Harry read over the contract three times, he was extra careful.
"Number one rule of business, never can be too careful," Harry commented to Zod when his eyes were locked on Harry's.
"Of course, Mr. Potter, I wouldn't want to do business with someone who doesn't know what you're doing," Zod responded but his mind was going many miles a moment.
Those eyes were something that marked a legend on Krypton and one that Zod found a bit of obsession with. He gathered a strong obsession about the occult throughout his time on Krypton and the various legends that surrounded it. One of the greatest mystical legends was the nature of Death and her Heralds, there would be many.
Obtaining the power of the Herald of Death was something Zod found himself intrigued by. Looking into his eyes, Zod saw him, he was the personification of the barrier between life and death and he had power beyond measure. He had the potential to be an extremely powerful ally and also an extremely mortal enemy.
Tess was the first one to sign the document. Then a moment later, Harry scratched his signature on the document. There was a slight pause, before Kara placed her signature on the document and both of them watched each other, wondering what would happen next.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you," Zod stated with a slight bow of his head.
"Likewise," Harry answered, not bringing his eyes off of Zod's face, not even for a mere moment but he backed off.
Now, it was time for the aftermath or whatever that brought. Zod left the building.
'Now we wait to see what he does next,' Kara thought to Harry, grabbing his hand tightly. 'And….we're not going to tell Clark about this, right?'
'We will eventually but not until I know where all of the cards lie,' Harry thought to her and Kara responded with a nod.
The doors burst open and Indy popped in.
"Miss Mercer, I have traced the source of the signal that tried to hack into Luthorcorp computers," Indy responded and Tess turned around.
"I thought you said that you weren't able to trace that," Tess responded, half in an accusing voice.
"Well it is coming from some remote location in Brazil," Indy added, her violet eyes dancing with the triumph of her success.
Harry and Kara locked eyes with each other; there was most certainly something to this entire business.
"We better check out before the trail runs cold," Harry answered and Tess offered a stoic nod before they made their preparations.
To Be Continued.
