"I'm telling you right not, the entire world has gone nuts, or at least Metropolis has."
Claire said those words, as she stood with Bette and Carol. Carol decided to elaborate things even more for Harry.
"I'm not sure what happened in the last twenty four hours, but people are getting more daring, there are a number of riots in the street," Carol told Harry, and Helena and Chloe both stood by his side, eyebrows raised. It was obvious that any time they had for rest, well it was cut completely and utterly short. "I'm not sure what is going on."
Harry sighed and made his way across the way into the War Room. The map was flashing which was not good.
"A huge spike of magical energy," Harry told both females and they looked completely transfixed by what occurred. "Lovegood must have unleashed the artifact and it's powers. Just like that, she had to know that there were going to be consequences. But despite that fact, she did it anyway, despite the consequences."
Harry tried to remain calm and there was something about his expression that was oddly tranquil.
"So are we too late?" Chloe asked, regretting asking that question but she felt at the same time that it had to be asked.
"No," Helena said and she decided to elaborate on that point, as Chloe moved over to check something. "It is never too late."
"It isn't, but we don't have much time," Harry said as he switched communications. "Yes….another one, I realize that…..yes…..well things are just going to get a lot worse before they get better. See what you can find out and get back to me. The Ministry could implode upon themselves, which would make my job a lot easier but there are other headaches."
"The United States Government has been compromised, big time," Chloe whispered as she went through the system. "And I mean….by more than how we compromised it. We unmasked enough of the pawns but there are still some who are lingering around and….."
"Say no more," Harry said, he could tell this was going to be one of those days and he stepped halfway into the hallway. This facility was one of the most secure on the planet, but not the most secure. Harry was not about to move them to the most secure facility. That was only his final trump card if everything went to pot.
Harry ran into Karen, almost literally, as she stood in the hallway.
"We're taking a field trip to LilyCo, so we can get an assessment report on the damage," Harry said, leaving pretty much no room for any argument.
"Well, I can tell you that it's a lot, there are reports coming in by the dozens," Karen said and Harry nodded. "It's jamming the system. This is bad, it's almost like the world is ending."
"Close enough maybe, and people panicking will speed up the process," Harry said without missing a beat. There was no question about it, time pretty much ran out.
The green eyed wizard teleported along with Karen and landed in the front lobby of LilyCo.
They made their way up the stairs, where an extremely frazzled Lana met them. The redhead looked at her wits end and Harry could not really blame her, after all what happened.
"So, do you mind telling me what's going on?" Lana asked as she looked out the window. "I can see enough of it but…"
"It's worse than what you see, it's deeper of what you see, something is happening," Harry said and he could feel a buzz in the back of his ear.
"So, do you want me to suit up?"
Kara stood, waiting for Harry and the sorcerer nodded.
"You're going to need to be ready for anything and I do mean anything," Harry said firmly and the blonde's shoulders slumped down. She turned on her heel and back her way into the costume.
Seconds later she returned and Karen smiled at her approvingly. "Loving the new look. See Harry was right, you do look better in black and silver."
Kara smiled in spite of herself and in spite the situation. The black top stretched done towards her stomach, showing a lot of skin. More skin was needed to absorb a lot more yellow solar radiation and give her a lot of power. The "S" shield still rested on her outfit, old habits did in fact die hard. The black mini-skirt showcased a dazzling set of legs and was topped off by a nice pair of black boots.
"So what do you think?" Kara asked Harry, deciding to twirl around. She felt kind of silly a few seconds later but never the less she did value Harry's opinion.
"Very nice," Harry said and Kara beamed at the glowing words of praise. Harry switched from adoring to business like at a drop of the hat. "So now you're dressed for success, are you ready to save the world?"
"Let's hope so," Kara said and the three made their way towards the top floor, where it would be easiest to fly into the city. Right now it was a bunch of riots.
"Harry, super villains have been broken out of prison, they're going on a war path, the Justice League is on their way but…"
"We'll see what we can do and they can see what they can do," Harry said, peering down. He was waiting for more updates, but he saw some fires, some literal fires, in addition to the riots.
"Right, I'm trying to feed them information through our mutual source to make this more bearable," Chloe said and Harry could see the bridge about to wobble. The two female Kryptonians watched its progress, with Cir-El touching down ahead of them to join them.
Harry knew that it was time to see if he could ease the chaos. Naturally, he could not help but think in the back of his mind that this was some kind of calm before the storm.
"I'll get the bridge, you get the people."
Karen smiled, as she balanced the cars with the frantic people over her shoulder, as Kara and Harry worked to repair the bridge.
X-X-X
Chaos reigned supreme through the Ministry of Magic. The misfortunes that visited them in recent weeks were hard to describe but one should count the ways.
The first one was the disappearance of their savior, the chosen one, the Boy-Who-Lived, Neville Longbottom. With it, the ability to pass a lot to put Muggles in their place and enforce the fact that magical users were the master race on this planet.
The second one was the Minister of Magic dropping dead, likely from an assassination plot from Harry Potter. That treasonous bastard who turned his back on the Ministry of Magic and refused to obey their orders, after all they've done for him.
The third one was just recently, Draco Malfoy had vanished. He was a respected pureblood with a lot of gold and connections. Very few people were to see him go.
Then there was the sanctioning of the Ministry of Magic by the International Confederation of Wizards. Those warlocks got it in their head that Harry Potter was some kind of hero and the Ministry of Magic were the villains. It was borderline absurd, actually there was no borderline about it, it was completely and utterly absurd. The Ministry was considered an outlaw government and as of just five minutes ago was voted out of the ICW.
Despite the fact it was the choice of the ICW to go after Harry Potter himself.
Completely and utterly mad this entire thing was. They were the strongest magical community in the world, they would survive, thrive, and everything else that went along with that. There was no question, not a shadow of a doubt in anyone's minds about what needed to be done.
"We've got a problem, there's something in the Department of Mysteries, I don't….."
"Well find out the problem," the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement said, looking rather frazzled. Amelia Bones, he wasn't, and that was a fact that many of his workers often stated. Often in an earshot to him and they did not care about any consequences.
"I don't understand, we can't even get in the Department of Mysteries….."
"Surely there is some way that you can get in the Department of Mysteries, I mean, for the love of Merlin, we have magic in our hands, we're not weak Muggles," the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement said, trying extremely hard not to lose his head.
"I don't think you understand sir, anyone who gets close enough to it, they get turned into dry soulless husks."
"What did Potter do now?" the head of the DMLE swore, he took his games against the Ministry to new levels of spite. It was bad enough he abandoned them to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as Dumbledore told the Ministry years ago. But this was something that was entirely different. He had employed dark magic at the slightest.
"I'm not sure if it's Potter sure….this is darker than any human can imagine…"
"We need to evacuate the Ministry, now," one of the Aurors said, hoping that cooler heads would prevail.
The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement looked frustrated. He was trying to get the options together in his mind. To choose sudden death or to choose cowardice. It was quite the puzzler that wrecked his mind. To do or not to do, that was the question.
He knew what he had to do. Given the Minister was dead and a new one had not been issued, and he had nothing left to lose, he figured to make the order. "Get everyone out of the Ministry and make sure no one steps one foot in the Department of Mysteries."
"What about the Unspeakables…"
"They made their own bed," the head of the DMLE said through gritted teeth. "If they know a way out of there, they're going to take it, but if not, they understood the risks when they signed up. They were dealing with unstable and dangerous magic."
Everyone in the Ministry, well most of everyone in the Ministry, looked out for one person. It was a mentality that had been encouraged their world.
The sirens were raised, along with news that this was not a drill.
"Everyone get out of the Ministry, standard procedure, our defenses are failing…"
"The Floo Network's down sir!"
"Fucking great," the official swore, slamming his palm against the wall angrily. The wall won, the bloodied and cracked knuckles being the proof of it. "See if you can find another way out and hurry, we're running out of time."
There was no one who had the guts to say that they might be out of time. The walls in the Ministry glowed, something that never happened before. The sands of time ran down, like some kind of demented hour glass.
"The doors are blocked!"
The people in the Ministry were losing their heads and this time, for all of the right reasons.
Was the world ending? Superman hovered over Metropolis and could see the riots going down on the street. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Zatanna joined them, seeing what was happening.
"This is one of those all hands on deck situations," Batman said and he did not want to say that he had his own problems. Someone had broken Arkham Asylum open and the inmates were on the street. Except for the Joker, who claimed he was taking a lazy day today. Then again, with the Joker, one could never be for sure what he was planning. If he was planning. "Stay alert….."
Dinah could see the group of costumed inmates.
"Looked like they got their hands on some of Luthor's stash," Dinah said and Shayera looked down at them.
"Good, then I won't feel bad when I do this," Shayera said as she lifted her mace over her head and slammed it down onto one of the armored thugs.
"Take them out," Green Lantern said, as he created a wrecking ball with his ring and with one fell swoop, took down three of the armored thugs.
They began to fire on the Justice League, but Dinah, sensing an opportunity, issued her Canary Cry and caused the truck to flip over. It smashed into the thugs and caused them to fall down onto the ground.
"Get them, get them, nothing is going to stop us from owning this town!" one of the thugs yelled, as he rolled out a cannon and began to fire at them.
"Where are they getting all of these toys anyway?" Wally asked, running into the battle. He plucked the gun out of the man's head and slammed him down to the ground. "Hey be careful with that thing, you'll shoot your eye out."
He dodged a missile being launched at his back and then Blockbuster ran forward, and slammed him into the building.
"That smarted," Flash said, and Superman dove down, knocking Blockbuster for a loop with a huge punch to the face.
Several metallic spheres flew into the air and broke against the ground, with a sonic wave erupting around them, staggering the League.
"It's Intergang, they must have kept a few toys from their partnership from Darkseid," Superman said, clutching his ears, as he almost dropped down to the ground.
A muscled thug in a bodysuit ran forward, but Diana dropped down, wrapped her lasso around his legs, and pulled. He fell flat on his face and the Amazon princess did a flip over, landing on the back of his neck just like that.
"Just about a dozen more of these guys, and we'll be home free," Zatanna said, wrapping three heavily armed thugs up with ropes.
"Don't look now but the Calvary is here," Dinah thought and John looked up, his mouth hanging halfway open.
Kara dove down and launched her heat vision at the ground, causing the thugs to be stuck. Karen dove down from the heavens and smashed her hands down onto the top of the heads of the thugs and sent them scattering.
Diana smiled, as she rushed forward, sliding underneath the outstretched attacks of one of the larger thugs. Green Arrow fired a series of arrows but he caught it in his hand. A detonator caused the arrow to submerge the goon into a sticky type of goo.
"Gets them every time," Oliver said, shaking his head, but suddenly, the ledge blew up from where he stood.
Barely, he managed to hang on, and pull himself back up.
Harry dropped down and the thugs all surrounded him. He threw a glass orb to the ground and it released a chemical. This chemical increased the weight of the guns and they staggered, trying to hold up their weapons. They failed dismally at doing this, and Kara and Karen swooped in from the heavens and drove the point of their elbows down onto the heads of their enemies.
Superman dropped down but he came face to face with a large mech that appeared to be powered by Kryptonite. He dropped to one knee, weakened.
Kara sighed, used his downed head as a stepping stool to springboard up. A huge punch sent the mech flying and Harry dove down, getting rid of the Kryptonite. He figured that was as easy to get ahold of as candy.
"Looks like we missed a few pieces in our sweep, Tess," Harry told her and Tess sighed.
"Yeah, I know," Tess agreed, wringing her hands together fairly nervously. She tapped her finger across the table. "I'm sending you the disarming codes to get those mechs down, Lex was rather transparent about his security. Seems to me that had warehouses that I didn't even know about."
"Very clever of you….yes, I've got the codes now, and preparing to launch," Harry said, as the mechs dropped down.
The people in them only had seconds to escape before the mechs blew up with them inside them.
Harry, Kara, and Karen dropped down to face the members of the League, and they turned to face them. Cir-El and Helena, who had been putting out fires, joined them, along with Priscilla and Carol. There was a sense stand off with all of them. Artemis showed up, and she could feel the pressure.
"What are you doing here?" Superman asked, as he managed to get up to his feet.
"Yeah, I didn't mark you for the heroic type," Green Lantern said and Harry raised his eyebrow at him.
"For your information, we were saving you, you're welcome for that," Harry said and he turned to two particular members of the League. "Dinah, Zee, how are you doing?"
"Fine," Dinah said with a smile.
"Long time no see," Zatanna said but then again, both of them had been busy.
Shayera and Diana exchanged a rather puzzled look. They had no idea what they had been missing but judging by the smiles on the faces of their two teammates, it was something that they regretted missing. Something that they might have to correct soon.
"So, we should work together now," Harry said and Diana nodded.
"Yes, we should," Diana said, and there was that type of tone where there was no question about it. Despite any personal differences they had, they had to work together to fight a common enemy.
Harry had no idea what the word normal meant. It wasn't in his lexicon but the fact was, he found something underneath Metropolis.
The artifact activated some kind of glowing rune column underneath the city. Where Harry dropped down and he prepared for deactivate it.
"I've found the bad boy down here, if I can figure out where the others are, I can deactivate them," Harry told Chloe.
"Trying to isolate where the highest level of crime is, because that could be the magic that is making everyone loopy," Chloe said, chewing on her lip. "Then again, Gotham City, you'd never know if something is happening. Think there might be something in the water now."
"We just got to assume that there is something down there, other than what is normally down there," Harry said and he could hear the gears of justice grinding in Chloe's head. "We're about ready to….."
"Three seconds, just three more seconds," Chloe said, keeping herself calm. She clapped her hands together and muttered underneath her breath .Focus, focus, she had to focus, because if she failed to focus, it would all be over.
The blonde now had everything that Harry needed and she radioed it over to him.
Harry was not under any delusions that this would be the be all and end all to all that ailed him. In fact, he suspected that this might be a temporary cure to all of his problems. Never the less, here went nothing and Harry did mean nothing. He tried to lock onto the other rune pillars, his hand placed on it, and it vibrated underneath his hand.
"Okay, easy does it now," Harry said, knowing that one small misstep would lead him down to the road to chaos and that was quite the barren road to be down. The pillar vibrated beneath the palm of his hand and he drew one breath out.
He had no delusions that this would end everything, but it would be completely close. The League and his team did all of the heavy lifting above, where he would work his magic. Work his magic with a potentially violent source that could kill him or cause the world to blow up.
So in other words, it was just another Tuesday for Harry. The green eyed wizard could feel everything vibrate around him and the ringing in his ears would not subside.
Then there was calm, but would it be calm before the storm?
Harry breathed, the pillar faded into nothingness and Harry took half of a step back. Then suddenly he waited for the confirmation.
"Things are calming down," Chloe reported to him and Harry dropped his shoulders down. "Or at least calming down as close as they're going to be right now."
"Oh good," Harry said, he was not going to lie, he thought things would get a lot worse before they got a lot better.
"You're at ease, aren't you?" Chloe asked.
"I can't help but think this was a warning shot," Harry said and Chloe groaned.
"You would have to take the pessimistic view, wouldn't you/" Chloe asked and Harry jumped in to defend himself.
"Not pessimistic, its realistic," Harry said, in his profession, there was such as a thing like the calm before a storm and they were in for a hell of a storm. "But, yes, things are calming down."
Harry returned back above the ground and he could see the battered bodies of the escapees. He didn't envy anyone.
"So, we did it?" Kara asked, what would normally be a declarative statement had all of the hints of a well-placed question.
"Well we put out one really big fire, yes," Harry said and it was Helena who shared Harry's sentiments about this situation.
"It's far from over," Helena said, in a grim voice and Karen nodded by their sides.
"Well, we're pretty down today, aren't we?" Artemis asked and Priscilla turned to the young archer and gave a heaving sigh.
"For good reason," Priscilla said and she turned towards Harry, who elaborated with this situation.
"Almost too easy, I've got good news though, the map is back up, we should be good to go," Harry said, he had not forgotten about Luna Lovegood, but there was this chance that she had met her maker once she activated the artifact.
"So, it's back to LilyCo now?" Kara inquired and there was seconds before Harry gave the answer and it was one with a nice calm nod.
"Yes, we need to discuss things with Barbara, she was in Gotham City, getting the rest of her things, she would have gotten a bird's eye view of the situation there," Harry said and he got into the air, the League were elsewhere in the city, likely cleaning up some loose ends. He left this in their mildly capable hands.
"Oh, well I hope that she's okay," Kara said and Harry smiled at Kara.
"Don't worry, you know Barbara, I know Barbara, if nothing else, she's a survivor, she'll be fine," Harry said and the two made their way. "In fact, she might be on her way there right about now."
Harry activated the communication link.
"Lana, are all of the systems back online?" Harry asked.
"Yes, our emergency protocols held, even though no one else's hardly did," Lana confirmed for him and her sigh was long. "What's going on anyway?"
"Let you know in about five minutes, although I haven't completely figured this out yet," Harry said and the redhead haired woman nodded. "Is Barbara there?"
"Yeah, she arrived just before this went down," Lana confirmed and Harry smiled.
"So she wasn't in Gotham City when this went down."
He couldn't say that he was entirely disappointed with all of that. Never the less, he and Kara were on their way to LilyCo.
"Should I tell her to expect you?"
"Yes, it's time to tell her exactly what she's in for, now that she's on the payroll," Harry said, reaching the gates. Security was heightened and only Harry could override the external locks. And only when he was in sound mind, because you can never be too careful.
Harry finished briefing Lana on what she needed to know, but Cassandra showed up right at his shoulder.
"She's here," Cass informed Harry and he raised an eyebrow. "The daughter of the Demon, she's here."
That was quite interesting and Harry followed Cass down the steps. It had been a long time since he had seen Talia Al Ghul .The rumors of her demise had been out there, but then again, perhaps many of them had been put out there by her. She was the type of person that would fake her own death.
"Hello, Harry," Talia said as she looked him over. She was incognito, with her hair tied back and a pair of sunglasses, in a long coat that covered the body suit that normally covered her ample frame. Then again, such a coat would allow for concealed weapons and after a brief scan, Harry discovered a handful of weapons.
"You've heard that….."
"Something is happening, I know, the League is in shambles and with my father….missing, presumed dead, they are going to get increasingly brazen with their attempts to gain control," Talia said and she smiled. "Shiva managed to track me down. She's more annoyingly resourceful than I thought she was."
"A small part of you wanted to be found, didn't you?"
"Yes, perhaps," Talia admitted, albeit rather grudgingly. She let out the breath that her body was holding never the less. "Still, with the Ministry….."
"According to my source, the Ministry is in shambles, although I haven't had a transmission for at least eight hours," Harry said and Talia raised an eyebrow.
"Are you concerned?" Talia inquired Harry and there was a second where he looked thoughtful.
"Well not completely, at least not as much as you would think that I would be," Harry told the Daughter of the Demon. "With the map back on, I should be able to figure out what is going on in the Ministry. And I'm sure my contact will check in as soon as she can. They're on a hair trigger and they're looking to bring me in."
"You would think that they would have better things to do with their time," Talia said, disgust dripping from her voice. "But I guess that would mean too much from them."
"Yes, that would be giving them far too much credit," Harry said, and he hated to give them too much credit. "So….."
"I'll be staying in Metropolis if you need me," Talia informed him, it seemed to be the best for their plans. "The operations in Gotham are cooling down, as most of the leaders have either been killed or disabled by Batman."
"Well he does have his uses," Harry said.
"You're not bitter that my father wanted him as his heir over you…."
"No, I prefer to make my own legacy and not be standing in the shadow of Ra's Al Ghul," Harry said, firmly, in one of those tones that left no room for argument.
"Fair enough," Talia agreed, she could tell Harry planned on making his own legacy and it would be one that would dwarf everything that was ever made. "You know where the base is…."
"All too well," Harry said and Talia stole a quick kiss, as she turned her back at Harry, and made her way down the steps.
"Well, she's asking for it," Cassandra said and the young assassin shook her head, slowly amending it. "Actually, one could argue that she is practically choking for it."
"Well she will be choking on something, but….I think that we should check up on Barbara, see how she's settling in," Harry said and Cassandra had a knowing smile.
"I'll watch the door, join you in fifteen minutes."
The two exchanged a long kiss with each other, knowing that fifteen minutes on the outside could be a long time for Harry to work his magic. Cass knew that the longer Harry went, the stronger that he got. It was one of those weird things that could only be explained with the magic of magic.
Without another word, Harry knocked on the door.
"It's open," Barbara said from the other side of the door and Harry opened the door. "This office….it's impressive….."
"It's one of the smaller ones, I hope you don't mind," Harry said and Barbara opened her mouth and closed it for a second.
"I think I'm good," Barbara said as she crossed her arms, looking over Harry, an appraising nature going through your eyes. "So, I'm in from Gotham, just seemed like I missed some excitement."
"Stick around and there will be plenty more," Harry said to her and Barbara raised an eyebrow, whistling with a smile on her face.
"Right, I forgot, excitement follows you pretty much everywhere you go," Barbara said, she was not going to lie; her heart was racing just a tiny bit. And it was not because of this larger than life young man standing before her. Although to be fair, calling him a young man would not be fair because she was a couple of years older than she was.
"That's for certain," Harry said with a chuckle as he looked over at Barbara. Shivers went down her spine as he gave her one of those looks.
"So….I overheard what you and Kara were up to….."
"I'm sure you did," Harry told her and Barbara folded her arms across her chest for a second, staring Harry down. She tried to remain calm, even though a warmth spread between her thighs at the suggestive way Harry looked at her.
"I couldn't help myself!" Barbara yelled but then she calmed down. Harry didn't bewitch her to watch after all, as far as she knew anyway.
"So, you couldn't?" Harry asked, his hands were on the desk, which Barbara was now sitting on. The skirt she wore was work appropriate, but never the less, showed enough of a hint of her nice legs to be alluring. "Are you sure you couldn't?"
"Um….okay, I really couldn't help myself," Barbara said and there was a moment where she decided to do something. The worst that could happen was that she could get fired.
The best that could happen, well the possibilities of that were more then endless.
Never the less, Barbara pounced upon Harry, giving him a nice kiss on the lips. She almost pulled away when she came to her senses.
Almost, but not quite, as Harry held her in place and returned the kiss, pushing her back onto the desk. Barbara could not believe this.
His hands roamed over her clothed body and she wondered what it would be like to have his hands all over her naked body.
Pleasure was a perfect way to describe what was happening, as he slowly undressed her, and kissed down the side of her neck, as she closed her eyes.
"Harry," Barbara whimpered, this was how her wet dream the other night about Harry started. And if she woke up this time, she would be fucking pissed.
Something told her that this was the real deal and Harry was the real deal.
Harry basked in the afterglow, after the day, he could use some time to unwind.
Suddenly a burst of black energy appeared, and a flock of ravens surrounded it. A female dressed in a robe appeared before Harry, bypassing all security protocols. It may have took her awhile.
"We have a problem, Lovegood has been manipulated into releasing my father."
Harry said one name, growling it. "Trigon."
Suddenly everything made a lot more sense now than ever before. Even though he was banished, evil like that always found a way back.
To Be Continued on 6/27/2014.