Chapter Thirty-Six: As We Left You.
Harry wasn't sure when the next time jump was going to be, all he knew was that it was going to be really soon. He put himself into position and made his way to the HYDRA base that they managed to uncover, with Kara and Gwen following him.
'Oh, raiding a HYDRA base,' Kara thought. She looked fairly amused for some reason. 'I hate to say this, especially considering the circumstances, but did we really have to go back in time to raid a HYDRA base?'
Harry didn't really say anything. This was just going to be like old times again. HYDRA was the gift that kept on given. Half of the toys that Harry got were swiped from HYDRA. He made his way down into the tunnel.
'I don't know,' Gwen replied. She looked intrigued. 'These low tech HYDRA bases are almost quaint compared to the more high tech models. I mean there's certainly some level of charm here. Am I completely insane in saying that?"
"Yes,' Harry agreed with her. 'But I do understand what you're saying.'
Harry broke open one of the vaults that lead him inside the HYDRA base. He was fairly curious to see what was behind door number one in this case.
'Oh, I wonder what you're going to win this time,' Kitty said through the bond link. 'Might it be some weapon that HYDRA intends to use to cause untold damage and mayhem to the entire world?'
'You know, it just might be,' Harry agreed. He was going to have to see where this was going to lead him.
He cracked open the vault and saw some weapons. Kara knew what they were seconds away.
'Well, they just raided the Darkseid cookie jar, didn't they?' Kara asked. She looked at the weapons and whistled. The young female looked fairly impressed when she looked over everything that she had. 'Not too bad, wouldn't you have to say?'
'No, Kara, I agree, it's not too bad,' Harry added. He thought that this was a pretty good haul.
'You know, you never really have to develop anything else ever again,' Diana replied. 'Given that your enemies are doing the development for you in the first place.'
As much as Harry was amused by that, he couldn't help but point out one small little logical fallacy in Diana's statement. 'That might be a good thing, if it wasn't more rewarding in improving on some of these things.'
'And also developing counter measures for any other things that HYDRA might as well develop,' Gwen added in agreement.
Harry nodded when he uncovered a box full of grenades that could blow entire armies away. Some of these items were useful, while others were dangerous in the wrong hands. And Harry recalled the sayings, there was nothing more wrong that HYDRA.
'You know, HYDRA really did get better in hiding their stuff,' Kara admitted.
'Likely on the account of Harry always swiping it in the past,' Gwen thought. She shook her head. 'Just about right that Harry inspires even his enemies to step up their game.'
'I aim to please, it's not satisfying in defeating a weak enemy that doesn't know what they're doing,' Harry said. He could see another crate of extremely powerful weapons.
He wasn't really too sure what a lot of these weapons did, but he was pretty sure that some of them were going to cause some great damage if he didn't utilize them properly. Harry frowned when he looked over the weapons in his hand. He thought that he had struck some kind of gold with these weapons.
'And I'm surprised that HYDRA didn't use those, they might have actually put up more of a fight,' Diana thought.
'I have to ask, what did you do to HYDRA?' Kitty asked.
'Trust me, you don't want to know,' Diana thought. There was a unsettling type tone to her voice and it was obvious that she didn't want to talk about this matter anymore than she had to.
Harry whistled when he looked around. He could see that there was a lot that he needed to uncover just now.
'Unless I missed my cue, I think that we've got pretty much everything cleared out of this particular HYDRA facility,' Harry thought.
Kara and Gwen helped Harry stack all of the crates that they found up. It nearly stacked up to the ceiling. Adding onto the other HYDRA items that Harry, Gwen, and Kara found during their various raids today, it was adding up to be quite a collection.
'Preparing for transport,' Harry projected mentally.
'Ready, willing, and able for transport,' Selene agreed. She couldn't believe the great haul that had been placed underneath her. The Church would have some new technology to play with soon.
Harry thought that he was joined by quite the colorful and powerful group of women. The Alpha Council was present, as they always were. The original quartet that moved through time with him in Kara, Jean, Kitty, and Gwen were with him. The two newest members of their party joined them in the form of Hope and Kat. Selene was there, as always, with Madelyn and Rosalina and also Ravonna, Morgan, Loki, Isobel, and Circe all were there.
For reasons of security, Circe and Isobel were sat on opposite sides of the room. Loki had been tasked as their babysitter as part of her pittance.
'You really do love making people suffer, don't you?' Ravonna thought. She smirk and shook her head. 'Oh you really do love making people suffer, don't you?'
'I wouldn't say that I love making people suffer per say, although it can be pretty fun to put people down a few pegs,' Harry thought. He could sense the tension that was going through Hope's eyes.
Harry decided to get down to the meat and the potatoes of the meeting.
"This is the first time, that I don't think any of us sensed Darkseid around," Harry said.
Jean shook her head. "No, I didn't, did you Hope?"
"No," Hope confirmed with a frustrated sigh.
Some might say that no Darkseid was a good thing, but they all disagreed. The fact that he had not shown up was rather discouraging.
"I guess that I shouldn't have sent Granny hurling to her torment," Kara said.
"I'm pretty sure that she'll be back, doesn't she always come back?" Gwen asked.
Kara responded with one of the most prominent, "thanks for reminding me" looks. Harry reached around and grabbed her around the shoulder.
"I have a feeling that the minions only have the foggiest idea of what the end game plan is," Harry reminded them.
"That makes it pretty difficult to get information, then," Gwen said. She lifted her hand and put it on the top of her head. It was feeling really funny to her. She realized that all eyes were on her and Gwen shook her head. "Not sure what's going on. My Spider Sense isn't really tingling all that much, but it's almost like I can feel something. I'm not sure what to really make of it."
She really wasn't sure what to make of any of this and that much annoyed her to no end. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and gave a lengthy sigh. It was almost about ready to go off, but yet it wouldn't go off.
"I think we've all reached the same conclusion," Harry said.
Hope's gaze locked onto Harry's. "Yes, Darkseid isn't going to come out again until he's to his fullest strength."
Harry looked at her for a brief second, and smiled. "Good."
The looks around the room pretty much told the story. Harry was going to have to elaborate on this point quickly. "Because, if he's strong, he'll have a higher opinion of his abilities, and he'll be less guarded."
Harry hoped that would be the case anyway. He was really not too pleased with the fact that Darkseid was still out there.
"I suppose that our only hope is finding Essex," Selene said. "And Raven is still on the hunt as well."
Harry smiled; Raven would be the one that would still be hunting down Essex. She took things extremely personally with what happened in the past regarding him. Harry would have felt sorry for Essex, had it not been Essex. So he didn't really feel sorry for him at all.
"Best of luck to her," Harry said with a brisk smile. "She'll do well, we all know that."
"Well, unless she runs into a clone," Gwen said. Kara and Gwen exchanged a look with each other.
Maddie, who had been quiet for a moment, spoke. "Is there something that I'm missing?"
"We've had a lot of bad luck with clones, it seems like we run into one every six months," Jean said. "It normally works out in the end because Harry ends up bedding all of the women. But, it's a long road to that point."
Jean thought about the other Maddie when she was talking about that. That was really a mind numbing experience.
She nodded in affirmation. "I see."
"All we have to do is be ready and we'll be able to take him down," Harry replied. He wasn't going to mince words; he knew that by getting into this battle, there was a chance that many of them might not get out of there with their sanity intact.
There was also a chance that if Harry took down Darkseid, he might be done for good. He was more determined that he ever been.
He did remember one thing, determination only got people so far, before it got them trapped in a corner. Harry needed a plan that would trap him. Even if it didn't work, it was better than just lifting his thumbs in the air and pretty much doing nothing.
Diana really hoped that one time she could visit back home and there were no vengeful gods and sorcerers attacking her.
'I mean, there has to be one time where that doesn't happen, isn't there?' Diana asked Harry. She turned towards him, hoping for some positive reinforcement.
'Yes, there's one time where it doesn't happen, a few times,' Harry admitted.
Diana always hated to think that the place she called home was the nexus of weirdness. On one hand, it did make her life more exciting. On the other hand, there was really too much excitement and too much of a good thing can be extremely bad.
That being said, Harry arrived at the edge of the island. Diana's amusement rose when the Amazons stopped doing what they were doing to come and greet him when he returned.
'I almost forgot,' Diana thought. 'Although I shouldn't have.'
Leading the charge of the Amazon greeting party was a now fourteen, almost fifteen year old, Donna.
"Daddy!" Donna squealed in excitement and she moved her way over to nearly knock him off of his feet.
Hippolyta watched her daughter nearly take her mate off of the ground with amusement dancing through eyes. The Queen of the Amazons looked really amused.
'I think that she's happy to see you,' Hippolyta thought.
Donna managed to detach herself with Harry with a smile on her face. She looked up at her and Diana looked at her sister with a frown. The younger Amazon Princess looked at Diana, almost as an afterthought. "Oh, it's good to see you Diana."
"I'm glad that you're happy to see me as well, Donna," Diana said. She kept a sweet little smile on her lips when she looked from her sister to Harry. "So, how have you been holding up on your training?"
"Oh, I've been fine, one of these days, I swear," Donna said. She looked at her sister and smiled. "But I've been keeping up with my training, hoping one day that I can get the better of you."
Diana smiled when she looked at her sister. "We'll see, Donna, we'll see."
The older Amazon Princes actually was fairly interested in seeing how far Donna had come. She had been training where Diana was exploring the world.
"So, you've got to tell me what you've been doing," Donna said. There was a tone in her voice that indicated that she was excited. Harry's gaze locked onto hers and Donna didn't really back off from his look. She shook her head when Harry pulled his head back. He smiled. "I mean, I'm just…..you know…"
"Don't worry, I know," Diana said.
She, Harry, Hippolyta, and Donna made their way off to an area of the island. It was pretty much shaded and really cool for this part of the island.
"So was your journey without problems?" Hippolyta asked.
"About as unproblematic as you would think that it might be," Harry told her. Hippolyta looked back at him and nodded in response. "So, there hasn't been any trouble?"
"No, no trouble," Hippolyta agreed to it. The Warrior Queen knew better than to say anything. "Is he still lurking?"
"Closer than ever before, but at the same time, further away," Harry told her. The Queen of the Amazons frowned deeply when Harry allowed her to chew on that. "But, we've gotten some more assets, if we can crack the code."
Donna looked at Harry curiously about this.
'You know, in a few years, she'll be old enough to be brought into things,' Diana thought to Harry. He smiled when he looked back at her. 'But you know that she's not completely ignorant on everything. She's figured out a lot. She's no different than I was at that age.'
Harry gave Diana a smile. 'That might have been the problem….but it's true, she's not too much different than I was at that age either.'
Diana grinned, she had a feeling that Harry knew more than he had any right to know, but there were many reasons for that. She turned her attention towards her sister, who stood before her, crouching down.
"So, do you think you can show me what you've been learning?" Diana asked Donna. Donna blinked in response.
"Yes, if you want me to," Donna said. She was a bit more nervous than she was letting on.
She looked equal parts confident and scared. Donna had been training hard for what seemed like a long time, but she had no idea what her sister was doing when she traveled the world. The two of them walked towards each other. Everyone gathered around with excitement.
"So are you ready to do this?" Diana asked her. Donna gave a shifty little smile when she looked back at her sister. She tried not to be too cocky when she responded.
"I'm ready when you are."
The two of them surrounded each other, ready to get a fight. The Amazons gathered around for the sparring match between the two Amazon Princesses. The King and Queen of the island watched over the battle. It was going to be an impressive battle.
Harry returned from his trip from the island and surprisingly enough, it was done without incident.
'I would classify it as a miracle, but you're not completely off the island,' Diana thought. She was really excited about the visit and more importantly the aftermath of her little sparring session with Donna.
'Oh that was amazing, one for the ages,' Kitty said. Her voice bubbled with excitement and she came close to losing her mind. The brunette girl rocked herself back and forth on the chair and started to mentally babble from where she was. 'That was so amazing, so amazing, that was….well that was kind of awesome, wasn't it?'
'Yes, Kitty, that was kind of awesome,' Harry agreed. He chuckled at the passion that she showed. She was going to have to be subdued or have her brains fucked out at the very least. 'But, I think you for not giving us a play by play on exactly what happened and who won. Because we were there, and we know. All of you got excited, and then you wished you were here because of the aftermath.'
'You have to admit, it's pretty epic,' Kara said.
'Yes, pretty epic,' Gwen thought. 'And I feel a time warp coming on again, don't you?'
'I don't think we spent nearly as much time in this time period as we did the other time periods,' Jean thought. 'Yet, we got a lot done.'
Harry was going to have to agree with that on both accounts. He returned to the Church with a smile on his face. He cracked open the doors of the Church to allow himself further inside. He stopped when he came across Loki.
"Selene and Morgan wish to tell you that they can't come around right now," Lady Loki said in a remorseful voice. "Guess that you're stuck with me for the present time."
"Yes, I guess that I am," Harry said. "So, what's the status reports of the girls?"
"Granny Goodness, for all of…..I'm not sure what gender to call that thing to start with," Lady Loki said. She crinkled her nose. "But anyway for all of the faults of Granny Goodness, one thing you can say about this…individual, is that she is through, almost to a fault."
Loki summoned a bench. Harry looked at her.
"Don't worry, this one doesn't bite," Loki answered. "And last time it was a force of habit. Although it might have been a way to gain myself hours of rough sex, but setting Sif and Kara on me last time made me learn my lesson. Until I forget it the next time that is."
'Should have not pulled that one,' Kara said.
Sif nodded in agreement. 'Although I'm pretty sure that she got rewarded out of the incident anyway.'
"As, I've learned the hard way in the past, brain washing takes a long time to undo," Loki explained to him. "But you knew that already, didn't you?"
"Yes," Harry agreed.
"Especially given the fact that this was done from the onset," Loki replied. She thought that there were going to be a lot of problems regarding this and regarding with putting these individuals back to life. "But, I think that things are going to be very promising. We just got to be a bit creative with what we're doing."
Harry raised his eyebrow.
'Is it just me, or is the term creative raising a lot more questions that it does answers?' Kara asked.
Gwen sighed deeply before she shook her head. 'It's not just you Kara, trust me on that one.'
She stroked her hands through here hair. Selene was the one who jumped in. 'Trust me, none of them will be harmed. I know that one of them has a bit of a personal touch to Harry.'
'That's putting things mildly,' Harry thought. 'And as for the prototype.'
'She's going to be the toughest of all, but I'm certain that Agent Carter will do what she can to help us when the time comes to return her from her subdued state,' Selene said.
Peggy decided to speak for herself when she hopped onto the bond link. 'There's no question about that, absolutely I will.'
'That's excellent,' Harry informed her. 'And I want to speak with you before we leave, if you don't mind.'
'Not at all, but is talking truly all we're going to do?' Peggy asked him. She offered a cheeky smile.
'Play your cards right, and you never know,' Harry thought. He cleared his throat and grew more serious. 'As much as I like to have some fun, it's business.'
'Don't worry, attend to it, my beloved,' Selene informed him. 'We will be here when the time comes and during the next time skip, they will be normal upstanding members of the Church.'
Harry smiled, would it be too much to say that he could hardly wait for that to happen?
Peggy Carter thought that she was forever saying goodbye, only this wasn't forever. She was pretty sure that she could see Harry on the other side.
"I'm certain that you'll have more than enough on your plate by the time that I get to you again," Harry said.
Peggy nodded, some of the things Harry told her, she was going to be extremely busy indeed. The world's threats were going to get more dangerous. The future was going to be enough to handle even without this looming threat of Darkseid out there. There were things that Harry eluded to that were enough to make a person's head spin and she was just going to hang on for the ride and how that she didn't get thrown off of the tracks.
"Do you have a rough estimate where I am going to see you again?" Peggy asked him.
Harry shrugged in response. "Wish I could tell you, luv, but you honestly, I don't know. These time skips are insane. At least you won't have to worry about HYDRA again for a few more months."
As much as Peggy wanted to reprimand him for such a blasé statement, it was likely extremely true.
'It was tough bringing her around for the first few months, given what happened to Steve,' Diana thought. 'Do you know exactly where he landed anyway?'
'No, not particularly,' Harry answered. And he was being completely honest with this now.
"So, this is goodbye, for another….however many years," Peggy said. She wrapped her arms around Harry and kissed him passionately, which Harry returned.
It was a pity that he couldn't stick around for too much longer. But that was just the nature of what he did and Harry did have a lot to do.
Hope waited outside to meet with Harry, and the other girls moved in to join them. She looked towards him.
"I can feel the light at the end of the tunnel or rather the darkness," Hope replied.
"So, we better be on our guard," Kara said.
The familiar flash of the time stream engulfed them. They left Europe in the 1940s and landed in Gotham City in the 1960s.
"Dare I ask why we're here?" Kara asked.
Harry didn't answer but he had a feeling that they were going to find out all too soon. Gotham City might have not been that bad before the murders of the Waynes, but he had a feeling that there was always that undercurrent of evil just breaking out. It just needed one bad day.
To Be Continued on April 23rd, 2015.