Chapter Thirty Seven: Homecoming Part Two.

Parasite was extremely dangerous for many reasons. One of them was the fact that he had been experimented on. He was extremely angry and didn't care knew it either. His eyes widened when he sensed the food that was near.

"I'm going to feast tonight!" Parasite yelled. He stalked them, like a shark smelling blood.

He dove towards the group. Harry put up a barrier. This effort caused Parasite to bounce off of it. The creature rattled onto the ground with an abject thud.

"That won't hold him for long, "Karen commented. She used her heat vision to take a pot shot at him while he was recovering.

Parasite screamed in agony. Despite his enhanced powers, his skin boiled. He rushed towards Karen in an attempt to get his hands on her. His slimy hands outstretched when he charged her. It was feeding time, this time. His blood soaked teeth looked quite ravenous when he lurched forward.

Helena stood in front of him, protecting her two super powered spouses. The Parasite stopped and looked at her, with utter disinterest in his face.

"Get out of my way!" he demanded of her. "You don't have any powers!"

"Maybe I don't," Helena admitted to him. She pulled a retractable staff out. "But I'm far from powerless."

She jammed the staff right in the rib cage area of the Parasite. He gave a loud and pained shriek when it connected. His eyes came very close to rolling up into the back of his head. There was another loud scream when she stabbed him with the staff.

He was in agony and he took a swipe at Helena again. Harry and Karen both mentally calculated a way for them to take him out.

'Open to suggestions,' Karen thought. She looked towards a section of the floor that was weakened. 'Actually, I've got something. And it's a long way down, even for someone like the Parasite.'

'Good, we just need to get him out of the way, he's not the reason why we're here,' Harry said. He was more curious than ever before about what secrets this Cadmus base held. He wasn't about to stick his nose into such problems through.

Harry lifted his hands into the air and sent a rushing bolt of energy towards his enemies. It cut them down like they were nothing, because to Harry, they were absolutely nothing.

The creature toppled over with a thunderous crash down to the ground. His arms and legs twitched and Karen decided to make her play.

She slammed her fist into the ground and it cracked beneath the Parasite. She grabbed Patricia and Harry grabbed Helena.

The group flew away as the Parasite crashed to the level beneath. A large piece of equipment slid down the floor and landed on top of him or so they assumed. They weren't exactly going to be sticking around to find out whether or not that happened. The group was driven completely and utterly breathless when they pushed out.

"Oh, this is madness," Patricia whispered. She brushed her hand through her hair. She shook her head and tried to return herself to some sense of sanity. "It's nice to see that you three haven't deviated from your normal ways of getting into trouble."

Harry smiled in spite of himself. "Well we do try the best."

"Did you ever have any luck in getting your powers back?" Patricia asked. Harry turned towards her and answered her honestly.

"For the most part, I did," Harry admitted to her. His frown deepened when he listened for something coming.

If Parasite was here, then he should go under the assumption that there were other super powered meteor mutants here or whatever he was. Harry didn't know what it was.

He kept his ear to the wall. Karen and Helena were tense. Helena leaned down and picked up a laser blaster that was on the ground.

She aimed it at a stack of boxes and blown them away. She handed it to Patricia.

"This seems simple enough for you to aim," Helena told Patricia. The woman's imploring eyes locked onto hers. "I'd suggest that you use it to the best of your abilities."

"Okay," Patricia agreed. There wasn't that much humor in her voice. Then again, Helena always was a bit intense sometimes. Given who her father was, she couldn't blame her. Karen stood by her, which made a laser blaster redundant.

'Is this a stupid question?' Lois asked.

'Nothing's a stupid question,' Harry thought to her.

'Yeah there are only stupid people,' Donna commented.

'Donna!' Diana popped in a reproachful voice. Donna and her sister got into a glaring contest in the bond and Harry cleared his throat.

Once he was sure that they were behaved or at least behaved as they were going to be, Harry pressed forward with his question. 'Yes, Lois, what is it?'

'Why in the hell does the government have weapons that shouldn't be invented for about twenty or thirty years?' Lois asked. She paused. 'Actually a better question would be, why does the government have weapons that Intergang might have their hands on.'

'Good question,' Harry thought. He wished that he had a good answer.

'Harry, we may have another small problem,' Barbara chimed in. She paused and sighed. 'And by small problem, I mean a really big problem. As in an extremely big problem, as in, this base will self destruct in five minutes type of problem.'

'Are you serious?' Harry asked.

'As a heart attack,' Barbara confirmed. One could almost hear her frantically typing over the bond to get out all of that information. 'I'm trying to get on through the system, to override it, but nothing's working. Nothing, oh god, this is complex, I really wish that I could break this one.'

'Babs, calm down, take a deep breath, and don't worry about it,' Harry said. He waved his hand and sent holographic duplicates of the group down one hallway, while the other took another direction. 'We're almost done here anyway.'

Thankfully, the soldiers took the holographic bait.

A mysterious shady figure in the shadows watched a group of scientists move in to work on the ship. He wanted to get this ship open. Answers could be in this ship, answers that should be given in the name of science.

Science was power and knowledge as power. There was a smile on his face with the fact that they got the ship and also a grimace of frustration on his face. They had been working on that ship for almost six hours and they hadn't been able to scratch the paint job.

In some ways, that was liberating. That was the pure personification of power. His excitement brimmed through his eyes when he watched. The phone call he received wasn't going to deter his mood.

"Yes," he commented.

"The captive has escaped!" the general yelled.

"You idiot," he grumbled in a crisp and disgusted voice.

"Hey, you have no right to call me an idiot!" the General yelled. The General was getting rather hot underneath the collar. The scientist smiled when he had stirred up his enemy. "I've served this company ever since you've been making a mess in your diapers. And you should know….."

"I've given you license to chase your alien enemies and I've equipped your friends," the man commented in a cool voice within the shadows. "Do not forget that I can take that way from you. It was my funding that brought you to this point. Given your lunatic ravings, you'd be lucky to push pencils at a desk. Or you'd be lucky to clean up the paper scraps of the guy who pushes the pencils."

"How dare you….."

"You could be making excuses or you could be doing what you do best and that's making actions," the scientist commented. "I'll be perfectly blunt and spell this out in a way that a two year old doesn't have trouble comprehending. Find her and find her now. Mr. Luthor doesn't tolerate failure and neither do I. Or would you like to talk to Slade Wilson and explain to him why you failed?"

"No sir," the General commented. He had properly been cowed by this scientist.

"I'm always in need of subjects and you could serve your company in a completely different way, General," the scientist said in a silky voice. "Just remember that."

"You devious fucking jackal…"

"Oh, I've been called worse, but flattery won't get you anywhere," the scientist responded. "Oh, and you might want to get out of this base. It's going to self-destruct in the next five minutes. Good thing it's a go between for…"

There was a sizzle of the lights and then a crack which indicated some kind of power outage. The scientist frowned when he was in the dark.

There was a rush as the security guards hit the ground first.

"GET A LIGHT ON!" he yelled. He was knocked to the ground seconds later, just as much as the security guards were.

The room with the ship was breached but there was no alarm because someone cut the power. The backup generator would kick on within the next ninety seconds.

The lights started to flicker back on. They came back on just in time for the scientist to spot a shapeless blur coming out of the shadows. The power was coming on and off at a rapid fire way.

The backup generator finally kicked back up and the scientist looked at the room. His subordinates were down on the ground. There were some busted jaws, a couple of dislocated limbs, and most of them were just about knocked out.

The lead scientist was incensed about one thing. He didn't care about his subordinates being taken out. They could be replaced. The alien ship they obtained was gone. It was like it wasn't even there at all. Someone came into the darkness and obtained the ship.

The scientist needed to inform his boss of his blunder and hope that didn't net him some alone time with an operating table. He could blame that glorified boot camp instructor they called a general. Yes, that was it, he would blame him. Mr. Luthor would not bat an eye if someone like him screwed up things. Far from it, it would be expected in some ways.

The self-destruct sequence of the base was about ready to go off. The guards grumbled when they got to their feet. The scientist bent down, with near pity in his eyes, but it was lost. The pity left his eyes completely and he smiled.

"I suggest you find a way to shake off what hit you because we need to be out of here in three minutes."

There was a warning siren and the scientist took the back door. This was one of their more minor bases, so nothing of value was lost.

"Is Mr. Jones secure?" the scientist asked.

"Yes, Dr. Warren," one of them whispered to him.

"Good, make sure he stays sedated, we've done the drill, we know what to do," Warren replied in a brisk voice.

The security logs would be downloaded to the computer of the next base. There weren't too many valuable assets at this base. A couple of meteor mutants were stored here but the experimentation on them left their lifespan at an end.

Warren exited the base. He had his research in a briefcase, and there was more information at the main Cadmus base. The ship would have been moved there tomorrow but that was completely out of his hands.

A techno-organic virus filled the base and caused it to self-implode. There was nothing left standing, not even one chunk of debris. Any person inside the base would not have even a fingernail for their families to bury.

Most of these scientists didn't have any families or their families thought that they were dead. That was well and beside the point though.

Warren's eyes narrowed when he watched the base. The Parasite was contained in a van. He would be moved to Level 33.1 with the rest of them, until he was needed.

Now it was the unfortunate task to tell Mr. Luthor that the alien ship slipped through his grasp.

Patricia arrived at the RAO facility. She was impressed. They had made something more interesting and dare she say it, more expansive than STARR. It was impressive what they did. In fact, she could see STARR going in a similar direction if they had been able to stay in the world that they were in. She really wished that she had an extra set of eyes to just take in everything that she was seeing.

Karen smiled at how impressed she looked. She might have laughed at it as well. The thing was that she really didn't blame Patricia for being impressed. If she was in her place, she would have been extremely impressed as well.

"The main elevator is this way, we need to get you to the lab to make sure your clean," Karen told her. Patricia snapped out of her thoughts and looked over her shoulder to face Karen. "You know, to make sure that there are no side effects regarding the meteors."

Patricia nodded. She understood perfectly. There were enough cases of meteor mutants in her world and apparently this one that caused more than enough problems. That base was working with these meteor mutants.

There was one question that was completely galling. She turned towards the group and gave a deep frown.

"Um, how long exactly did it take me to get from my world, to this one?" Patricia asked.

"Three years, seven months, two weeks, three days, twenty one hours, nineteen minutes, and twelve seconds," Karen informed her. That caused Patricia to turn to Karen with a sharp raised eyebrow directed towards her.

"Are you serious?" Patricia asked. She was actually impressed that Karen managed to count down the time that she was gone to the second. Or was it Helena? Actually she could see Helena being that meticulous.

"Pretty accurate wouldn't you think?" Harry asked her. Patricia gave him a smile.

His green eyes shined with even more power when she glanced into him. That was a very easy gaze to be trapped into.

"She's pretty accurate, yes," Patricia answered. She was lead into the lab area. "And I'd imagine that you looked for me through all of those years and you never gave up, did you?"

"Yes, I never gave up," Karen said. She leaned towards Patricia and gave her a shadow of a smile. "Would you have given up if you were in my position?"

"Absolutely not, I would have left no stone unturned," Patricia said. There was a bold inflection for her voice. She stepped back and took the chair Harry offered her. She breathed heavily. "It's been a long time, but it didn't seem to be that long when I was there."

Patricia's mind flashed back. There were some fragmented memories that were there, just bubbling beneath the surface. Accessing them was a slight issue.

Karen frowned when she asked the obvious question.

"Do you remember anything about what happened?" Karen asked. She looked at Patricia and she frowned deeply. Helena gave Karen a light nudge with her elbow and she straightened up. "You don't have to tell anything, but I'm just curious if you did."

"Honestly?" Patricia asked. It took a couple of moments for her to figure out how she wanted to best phrase this question. It was something that was extremely hard to deal with and really wrap her mind around. "I don't really have an idea what happened, and that's the honest truth."

Patricia paused and something came to her.

"The meteors started raining down a second before I went through the portal," Patricia said. She frowned deeply. "And I'm sure that they brought the ship. Time and space was already becoming undone and that brought….the gift that was on the ship. Speaking of which…..?"

"It's secure in a lab," Harry said.

Patricia nodded. She was essentially at ease with it. She placed her hands onto her lap and leaned back. The last thing anything wanted was someone to get their hands on that ship. She wrung her hands and Karen reached towards it. Her hand placed on top of Patricia's was a sense of comfort and Harry's hand placed on her other hand.

"That's good, no one deserves to be at the mercy of those people," Patricia said. There was a frown over her face. "Exactly who are these people? Who is this Cadmus?"

"That's what we hope to find out," Karen replied. She leaned towards her. "First thing's first…..this is Lara, she will be helping check you out."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Lara said. Her image flickered into focus. The download into the RAO main servers worked completely. She wasn't completely fully formed, the solid function of her hologram wasn't one hundred percent functional. She was getting there.

"This is my aunt, removed by an entire dimension," Karen said. Patricia nodded. She knew not to question these things by now. "And I have a cousin in this world."

"Also removed by a dimension," Patricia said. She stretched herself out. There were a lot of things that changed in this world but she would have to get used to this. "This isn't going to hurt, is it?"

"No, you won't feel a thing," Lara said. She looked regretful in breaking up this little reunion but it had to be done. "I'd like for you to please step outside for just one moment, if you may."

"Of course," Karen said. She could see Patricia frowning. The blonde extended herself forward and looked in Patricia's eyes. "Don't worry; we'll be right outside if you need us."

"I actually have to check up on the ship and I'm meeting with a couple of people," Harry said. He smiled. "I'll be back soon though."

"It's important," Patricia said. She got to her feet for a minute. "I understand."

Patricia threw her arms around Harry's neck and leaned forward. Her soft lips pressed against his with a kiss. Harry returned the intense kiss, his tongue pushing into her mouth.

The redhead shifted back, absolutely stunned by what she felt. Karen's lips curled into a momentary grin when she saw Harry walk out.

"Okay, we'll leave you to that then, Aunt Lara," Karen responded.

"That's all I ask, honey," Lara informed her. She turned her attention to the redhead who looked really pleased with herself. "Patricia, sit down, you won't feel a thing, trust me."

Patricia sat down and she did trust Lara.

Harry walked down the hallway where Claire waited patiently for him. He approached her with a smile on his face.

"So, it's been a while since the two of us have had a face to face conversation when the fate of the world hasn't been balancing on our shoulders," Harry said. He said all of that without taking a breath which was quite the feat to say the very least.

Claire thought so to. She looked on at Harry in complete awe. "That's quite a mouthful. But…..we've got a lot of things to do. This Cadmus, it could be the tip of the iceberg of something."

"The alien invasion opened many doors to some really nasty people doing some really nasty things," Lois said. She smiled when she turned up. "I'm not going to lie, there are a lot of people pointing some fingers. And those are some pretty important people, pointing some really important fingers."

"We're going to need someone to keep the peace," Claire advised. She leaned against the wall with a thoughtful expression on her face. She was half glad that she was not having the conversation with Harry that she thought that she was having. "But, all of the heroes, we're scattered out. They think that we're organized."

"Yeah they're calling us the Justice League, can you believe that?" Lois asked in amusement. She laughed for a second and then grew suddenly somber and serious. "You know, there are far worse names."

"It isn't the name that matters; it's what the people behind the name do?"

Diana decided to join the group. The quartet moved down the hallway and there would be some more people joining them.

Jean popped her head out of the room to join Harry. She stopped in front of him and greeted him with a kiss.

"You've shown something that most people who have power wouldn't have," Jean said. One could not mistake the pure passion that flowed through those green eyes. "You've given them a symbol that they could rally behind. Not because they have to but because they chose to."

"That really takes talent, I'm going to have to agree with her," Shayera said. She was pretty much on the mend now. She was ready to get back out there and crack some skulls in the only way that she knew how. She couldn't believe how excited she was. Pins and needles would be a pretty good way to describe how she felt. The woman leaned forward on the mace clutched in her hand. "So, are we ready to do this?"

"I'm ready, if you're ready," Harry told her. "I've got a couple of places in mind where we could establish our base of operations."

"I was wondering if you worked on something."

Batman showed up behind them. Harry saw him coming, although the others were survived at his sudden arrival.

"I was wondering if you were going to make yourself know, or if you were just going to stand there like you have been for the last ten minutes," Harry said to him. "And I know that you won't have time to be a full time part of this because Gotham City comes first."

"The promise I made, the mission, it comes first," Batman confirmed. "But this has its importance and I'll do what I can to assist when a crisis arises."

"And I'm sure that you can count on the League's help if you have any sort of trouble that you can't get yourself out of," Harry replied.

Batman's expression became grim. "Are you implying that I can't bail myself out of trouble?"

"Not implying it at all, but even Batman needs help every now and then," Harry said. He let the matter drop at that.

"We'll split the funding, that way no one will be too suspicious about too much money going out of either of our companies," Batman said. He obviously had some kind of plan mapped out and he knew that Harry did as well.

The two of them would spend some time to collaborate on that plan.

"And I'll see what I can dig up on this Cadmus," Batman said. He learned enough about them to be concerned but they didn't see to exist. It was like he was chasing a ghost that didn't exist. And that bothered him, it really bothered him.

"I would be disappointed if you didn't," Harry answered with a smile.

He had to deal with the ship. This one should be much easier to open given that the stasis system didn't have that long to lock up. The meteors weren't helping their favor though.

If he could get this ship open, he could figure out how to get the other two. And also get Kara's mother out of stasis, that was also an important goal. Given what Kara and Karen both said, Alura was one of the foremost scientific minds on Krypton.

It went without saying that to have her on their side would be a plus.

"I've considered your offer and I accept," Jean said to Diana. Harry raised his eyebrow and Jean decided that it was best for her to elaborate. "I'm heading to Themiscyria, so I can learn how to focus my humanity. I've been detached too long for it."

"We'll help you find a balance, we've had many women who have lost their humanity but found their way," Diana said. Jean smiled. "I'm confident that you will find your way as well when given the chance."

"The confidence is reassuring, as I do want to be a part of this," she commented. She cleared her throat. "Harry opened the door and showed me the way. But the rest of my journey must be completed on my own."

"I appreciate the journey that you're going to take, and I wish you the best on it," Harry said. He leaned in and wrapped his arms around Jean's waist. He kissed her heatedly on the lips. "I'll be around to visit you."

"I know that you'll check up on me and even after that, you're just a psychic call away," Jean said. There was a smile crossing her face.

The League was beginning to get formed and Harry had some ideas where he wanted to make it go. He crossed his fingers that things would go well but he felt that he didn't need to. There were a lot of things that were moving forward.

"I'll be in touch with all of you," Harry said. He had to go and check something.

"So, interesting things are happening," Claire chimed in. Lois snorted when she looked at her fellow reporter/super heroine.

"Obviously Smallville, obviously," Lois said. She reached forward and placed her hand on Claire's shoulder. "Surprise you didn't make your move. Or are you still pouting because your cousin beat you to the punch?"

"I'm not pouting!" Claire pouted. She crossed her arms. She got some amusement from her fellow League members.

'Ah, I think she's pouting,' Kara said. There was amusement flickering through her voice. 'It's kind of adorable, you know what I mean.'

'I absolutely know what you mean,' Lois agreed with mirth. She reached in and patted Claire on the head.

'Another version of me, that's going to be great, Harry's accumulating them really nicely,' Kara said. That caused several people in the bond to stand up at attention at these words from Kara.

'Wait a minute, how do you know that it's another version of you in the bond?' one of them asked through it.

Kara laughed. There was a lot of amusement dancing through her voice. She thought that she was going to drive them nuts just by holding things off.

'Wait, how do you know?' Lois asked. She was a little more demanding than normal but she really needed to know. She really had to know. That was just the bottom line for her. She wouldn't be able to rest if she didn't know.

Her arms crossed together and she gave a prominent tut. There was plenty of laughter from all of them.

'Trust me when I say, I just know,' Kara said. She looked rather amused to be honest as they guessed how they knew.

Anticipation brewed some frustration. That was what came to mind from Patricia. She nervously waited for the moment where she could get the good news. Or get some bad news. She wasn't really sure what kind of news that she would get right now. She patiently waited for it one way or another.

Lara continued to scan her. It was a delicate process.

"Ninety seven percent done," Lara said. Patricia's frown deepened. "I realize that this is a difficult process for you and you need patience. And I thank you."

Patricia amused herself with something. Her father would have died of shock, if he wasn't already dead, that she exhibited any amount of patience. Funnily enough, it was her father's death that caused Patricia to mature to the level that she was at right now.

Sometimes it took a slight shock to bring someone back to life. She saw Harry return with Karen and Helena as they waited.

"No super powers?" Patricia asked.

"None that manifest, although you should return for a checkup every few months until we're certain," Lara said. She sensed that there might be something different about Patricia but she couldn't quite frankly put her finger on it. "Just hold tight, you're almost there."

"Finally," Patricia muttered. She blushed, she didn't really mean to say that out loud.

Lara raised an eyebrow and gave her a warm smile. "One hundred percent complete now, you're clean. Although I would advise some bed rest and a good meal later, but I know that you have something else on your mind."

Patricia grew embarrassed for a second. Was she really that transparent? She would have liked to think that she wasn't but she guessed that there was a pretty good chance that she was.

Harry arrived to join her. Karen and Helena arrived behind her.

"One hundred percent completely clean bill of health," Patricia said. She paused and looked at them before she added. "Oh, physically at least, mentally….I'm not really sure. There are a lot of things in my mind that aren't clear."

Patricia rose to her feet and stepped forward to close the gap against Harry. She was pressed against his chest. She rose up on her tiptoes so she could properly look in his eyes.

"There's one thing that's coming back to me clearly now," Patricia said. "I don't know why I didn't take this particular action why I had the chance."

"The time was never right," Harry commented to her. He snaked his arm around her slim waist and pulled her in close to him.

She breathed. She felt a glowing energy around her. Harry always had that way to make a woman weak in the knees and even weaker in the thighs.

"We're going to a new age now," Harry said. "We'd like you to be a part of it. It's not STARR Labs but….."

"No, I saw what I saw around here," Patricia admitted to him. She pressed herself against his chest. She thought that she would lose all control of her inhibitions if she wasn't careful. There was a bit of a problem. She didn't want to be careful. "And I agree that it's far better than STARR was. You've built upon the foundation. That was my father's vision. Future generations should keep building upon the vision, and create something greater."

She absent mindedly stroked his chest when she spoke.

'This one's got it really bad,' Karen thought. She smiled when the brainy redhead was about ready to go down on Harry right now.

'She's had it bad for a long time,' Helena responded in a bold voice.

Harry looked at Patricia and smiled. "We're going to make up for lost time, aren't we?"

"Yes," Patricia breathed. She ran her hand down past his abs. She looked absolutely bound with lust and she was getting closer. "But why just tell you?"

She slid his hand down his pants.

"When I can show you."

To Be Continued On January 9th, 2015.