Chapter Two: Lockdown.
Nineteen years after being dubbed the Boy-Who-Lived by the world Harry remembered, everything struck him. Heightened senses gave way to complete and utter darkness. The cocoon wrapped tight around Harry and submerged him deep inside. Exactly what would emerge from the cocoon remained to be seen. Exactly what would emerge from his own mind also would remained to be seen.
'Embrace it,' Harry thought. 'They tried to make you suppress it, you tried to make yourself suppress it so you could be normal. So you could be just Harry…..to be something you're not. You are not human, you are more than you ever realized.'
The frantic yells, the bright lights, the alarms, the smells of his own decaying flesh, all of them had been muffled. The air hit Harry's skin at its most heightened sensitivity before his skin hardened. Harry touched his fingers together in the little movement the shell allowed him. Scaly to the touch and the air burned his lungs the first few breaths before Harry's lungs adapted to the oxygen.
The combination of Basilisk venom, Phoenix tears, his mother's charm, the echo of a forcefully removed dark shade of a demented man, and three magical artifacts which bound themselves to Harry, along with months, maybe years, of experimentation struck Harry all at once. The transformation which had been stunted and suppressed hit through.
'You'll feel everything, and then you'll feel nothing….'
Bindings snapped and it all hit him clearly now, in between the throbbing motion. The hunger flared up one more time.
'Not for food for….something else,' Harry thought.
Those green eyes flashed open, crusted over partially. Several cracks came within the shell emitted a bright light.
'Not ready yet, not now,' Harry thought.
A stronger more determined side of Harry flowed through. If he was not ready now, he would never be ready ever. Harry leaned back and he wouldn't say he relaxed. Rather stretched back though with a calm expression dancing in Harry's eyes. His heart started to beat even bigger.
'It should have started nineteen years ago,' Harry thought.
People feared what they did not understand and Harry almost fell into this particular and unfortunate trap. The crystalized shell continued to crack and the lights flickered around him. Harry kept his eyes closed and could feel the flames which birthed his regenerated form.
"Try it again," Henshaw said.
Time slowed down around them again. Something flickered in the back of the DEO director's mind. Some dark force trying to claw out from the crystalized shell. He sought to understand it, because if he did not understand it….he would go down the road.
'Your attempt is not going to work, you need to allow me to transform in piece.'
The DEO Director recoiled back for a moment.
'You've become the mask, trust me, I can relate,' he said. 'J'onn J'onzz.'
Henshaw took a step back from the cell. He realized his agents gave him those cross looks where they failed to understand what was going on.
"We're going to have to wait this one out," Henshaw said a moment later. "We're going to have to…"
"The temperature is tapering down," Alex said. "Maybe if we wait it out enough, I can go inside and make sure he's okay."
"No, it's too risky," Henshaw said. "For any of you."
He wasn't even sure if it was safe for even a trained professional such as himself to enter a situation like this. During his time, both as part of the DEO and in the life he left behind to adopt this mask, the director encountered many strange things, but none were more strange than this Harry Potter.
'J'onn J'onzz, I respect you as much as I would allow myself to respect any man,' Harry thought. 'But you should know you're woefully and unfortunately out of your depth. And you should get out of my mind…I'll take full responsibility this time, due to my mind projecting at a higher rate than normal. Next time….'
'What are you?' J'onn asked.
The interview concluded when the mind had retracted and the limited brain activity popped up on the scanner again.
"He's lapsed into a coma again?"
Alex responded with a shake of her head and leaned towards the screen. Something was not right. He didn't lapse into a coma, if she had to guess, he found a way to clear his mind.
"The temperature is dropping to beneath two hundred degrees," one of the agents said. "Whatever is happening, the worst has stopped."
"Until the shell cracks," one of them said.
Said shell cracked even further. The lights blackened and the only element they could see was a bright glowing light. The door swung open and the fluids from the shell started to lack. A puddle of white liquid flowed to the feet to the agents. Trained professionals, they knew better not to touch it. Not they didn't have a choice, given the liquid disappeared onto the ground, absorbing into it.
The door leading to the containment cell swung open and shut almost on its own accord. The door creaked open and closed on its own accord. The agents watched it and the energy flowing through the room caused all of them to stand back.
Alex took a step into the room.
"Agent Danvers, what do you think you're doing?"
Nothing guided Alex, but pure instinct. The dark haired DEO agent walked into the room and noticed the shell busted open. An outline of what was once a man rested in the cell. A mixture of fluids, some of it blood, leaked from the shell.
"He's not here."
The lights flickered back on and Alex stepped back to see Harry Potter standing at her shoulder. He stood in the bed clothes which the DEO had put him which, which had amazingly not been burned. Holes had been ripped out of back of the shirt though to reveal black looking wings.
"Harry?" Alex asked. "Are you….okay?"
Harry's eyes flashed open and looked at Alex. Alex took a step back from him and made her way to the outside of the cell. The shields flashed back on.
"That won't hold him for long," Hank said.
"What do we do, Director?" one of the DEO agents asked.
An alarm started to blare before them, saving Hank from having to answer, but at the same time, doing him in another way. Alex's groan could be heard from the entire DEO staff.
"Please tell me this isn't the alarm I think it is….."
"Prison break in the North sector," Hank said.
Only a select few knew what was in the North sector. The most disturbed and deformed prisoners, the ones who were more monster than human. The only reason why Patient E had not been put into the North Sector was he was in urgent need of medical care.
And they weren't certain if it would have held him to begin with.
Harry flickered out of the cell.
"You think I had something to do with them breaking out," Harry said. "They won't leave…..there's something down there….waiting for me."
Harry stepped forward and the door vanished leading up to the stairs. Hank and Alex walked half of a step behind him and stopped. Harry turned around to lock eyes onto both of them.
"It's been hunting me since before I came through your dimension and….it's here…and it's broken some of your prisoners loose as a diversion," Harry said. "Deal with the prisoners, I'll deal with them."
"What is it?" Hank asked.
"It doesn't have a name, only a purpose, to ensure I didn't make it to this dimension," Harry said. "It wants what I have as well."
"So, you remember what happened now?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Harry said.
Harry turned around the corner and walked up the stairs. The moment he regenerated, it restored him back to full health, it repaired the damage done his mind, and put him in a better place he was. Harry still did not know anything about the dimension he landed in.
Given he intended to sacrifice himself to stop a blood virus from spreading and killing a group of non-magicals, he did not expect to end here, in an alternate universe.
"I'll take care of him, just stay put."
Harry escaped this force when it was non-power.
"Wait, I should…you should….."
'Please don't force my hand and make me reveal who you are,' Harry thought.
Hank could hear from his tone he did not bluff. It would not be something the young man took sadistic pleasure in doing, exposing an alien running the DEO. It would be necessary though for him to get what he wanted and no matter the circumstances, he would expose it.
The hunter approached a facility out in the midst of the desert. Every single wand waver who passed through his realm had been food for him. His children were among the most feared creatures amongst wand wavers given how they incited bad memories.
'He lives.'
The hunter thought during their previous battle, the wizard had been wounded and would not cause any more trouble. Someone must have picked up this frustrating prey and something must have happened to regenerate the powers.
No one noticed him, even though they experienced a feeling of dread the second the creature dropped down to the ground.
The security network did not even register the hunter when he approached. It would be the easiest thing in the world to wipe them all out. They could not see him. The only one who had the capability to see the hunter was the one who he was after.
'So close, can feel it,' the hunter thought.
The hunter edged past the guards. They had been kept on high alert. The hunter looked around and smelled the air around him. Really powerful magic lingered in the atmosphere and he knew the target lingered closer.
'I'm coming for you, Harry Potter!'
The thought echoed when the hunter moved. He had been after this one for nineteen years, when he first cheated his demise. Death had chosen him as her champion, but there were other forces who enlisted the Hunter, who did not want any magic user to hold such prominent power.
The hunter shifted through the door and made his way into the lab. Several of the guards brushed past him. They looked at the hunter, but looked past them.
Their time would not be tonight, unless they found a way to intervene in their plans.
"What's happening up there?" one of the security guards asked.
The hunter ignored the conversation, knowing there were other elements in play. He sensed other power plays downstairs. A ghastly looking creature trapped in the cell pressed palm onto the ground every few seconds and tried to break through the glass. The creature did not escape from the containment despite the best efforts.
With all of these government agents lingering around, the hunter would not be able to strike down his target. Not without the playing field being leveled. The hunter smashed into the cell and disrupted the energy field without any effort.
The door of the cells slid open. The prisoner exited and stepped out. The air heated up when he approached and the ground started to rumble.
"We have a problem…"
One of the DEO agents flipped over when the creature stepped outwards. The alien walked into the hallway.
The hunter released two more aliens from the cell and proceeded to continue the hunt. The sounds of the DEO agents going after them resulted in a satisfied smirk to spread over the face of the hunter.
'Soon, they will all know, and he will know,' the hunter thought. 'I know you can hear me Harry Potter. I know you can hear me…..I will hunt you down….and add you to my collection!'
The parasite of life made his way down the hallway and corrupted the ground when moving forward. The hunter smelled the blood of an English wizard.
Harry swept down the hallway as fast as his recently strengthened legs could carry him. Alex made her way behind him.
"So, it looks like we're going to the same way," Harry said. He turned to Alex who loaded up the gun. "Those won't have much more effect on him then then did on me."
"So, are you saying they will have an effect?" Alex asked.
Harry raised a hand and looked down the hallway. The hunter vanished from his mind, at least the conscious one. The former Boy-Who-Lived raised a hand and opened the doors. He slipped inside.
"You'll find your aliens about two corridors down, they haven't reached the main floor yet," Harry said. "I'll be back, when the hunter is dead."
Harry hoped he would be done with dealing with this faceless, wicked, sadistic, hunter, the moment he had passed through the veil. Harry and Alex separated each other and he made his way to come down the hallway.
"Okay, you can come out now, I'm not hiding from you," Harry said. "I defeated your vile children once before, and I can defeat you."
The hunter stepped out of the picture. Harry got a look at his ghastly and skeletal face. Long and bony fingers stretched out to reach towards Harry. It instilled a sense of hopelessness in anyone. Harry had been immune to any sense of hopelessness.
"How many more have to die before you surrender to your destiny?" the Hunter asked.
"Only one," Harry said.
Harry raised a hand and an energy beam appeared in the midst of his fingers. A bolt of blue light shot out and caught the Hunter. The hunter dodged the bolt of light.
The hunter ran a bone spear through the chest of Harry. Harry faded into a cloud of dust.
"Trick," the hunter said. "Coward."
Another blast knocked the hunter back into the wall. The hunter flew back into the wall and had been crushed underneath Harry's attack.
"You've come for me," Harry said. "Here I am!"
Harry ripped the hunter in half! Sickening black blood splashed on the ground from the magic slicing through the hunter. The monster flopped to the ground with blood spilling in every direction.
Tendrils wiggled out of the bottom half and the top half of the hunter. They fused together and pulled together. The moment the hunter rose up, Harry sent bolts of sharp magic energy. Magical arrows penetrated the chest of the hunter when he staggered back.
"I won't rest until you're where you belong!"
"Funny," Harry said. "We have a lot in common after all."
The glowing red scythe flashed in Harry's hand. He nailed the hunter in the chest and pushed him back. The scythe slammed into the edge of the generator box and the hunter's body evaporated into dusty particles.
The dusty particles rested on the ground before they swirled into a vortex and had been sucked into the vent. Harry flashed outside of the door. He landed down on the hallway.
'Not over,' Harry thought. 'It's never over.'
Harry knew what he needed to do, he needed to disrupt the Hunter's power. The only problem was getting close enough to perform the death blow.
Two of the three aliens had been put back into their cells. It could have gone a lot worst for Alex. It could have gone a lot better. Alex made her way around the corner when her team went around the other side. They hoped to trap the alien before he made it to the elevator.
'At least they're weak,' Alex said.
Alex turned around and came face to face with one of the aliens. The alien stepped back against the wall and raised a hand at Alex. She adjusted the ear pieces so the low-level sonic pulses did not knock her off edge.
She hit a two shots in the chest of the alien. A paralyzing toxin spread through the alien and caused it to drop down against the wall. She fired one more shell into it for good measure.
"This is Agent Danvers, I got the third one it's…"
The air vent cracked open and a miniature cloud of mist appeared in front of the stunned alien. The mist surrounded the alien and the creature's eyes opened up with sadistic black eyes. Alex stepped back and she pumped the remaining three shells.
"You've been near him!" the alien yelled.
Alex raised an eyebrow and the alien grabbed her around the wrist. The rest of the team made their way down the hallway. The agent had been sent flying and landed on the ground. The agent rolled over and the others moved over. They fired the sedative and pumped the alien full of it.
Harry Potter flashed in front of the agents and raised his hands. He clapped them and sent a sonic wave of magical energy at it. The alien staggered back and Harry slammed his hand down on a button. A glass shield shot out of the wall and trapped them.
"How long do we have before it gets through?" Alex asked.
"About sixty seconds," Harry said.
"Why is it after you?" one of the agents asked.
"Because I'm me," Harry said.
The alien collapsed to the ground, a sack of flesh. The Hunter sucked the life force from the alien which put Harry in the mood they expected.
"Did you know it could do…what it did?" Alex asked.
"No," Harry said.
"What is it, another alien?" one of the agents asked.
"No, it's a manifestation of wild magical energy turned sentient," Harry said.
Harry could not explain this any further when the cell busted open. Several pieces of glass flew in Harry's general direction. He stopped the glass from slicing the agents into pieces. The hunter stalked them with sadistic mayhem in mind. Harry stepped in front of them.
"There's got to be a way to stop it," Alex said. "You stopped it before, didn't you?"
Harry could not answer the question given the hunter approached him. The hunter started to laugh when approaching him. Now he did not possess the alien, Harry was once again the only one who could see him.
"Your adrenaline has worn off because you haven't fed, Harry Potter," the hunter said. "It's only a matter of time before….."
Harry grabbed the Hunter around the head and flashed him outside of the DEO facility. This left several confused agents standing around, they were trapped on the inside, with the lockdown protocols still active.
Inside the DEO, the agents only had the slightest idea of what happened. All of them had way too many questions, not enough answers, and this was not a bad situation. Alex looked around and saw how Harry disappeared. For a second, she thought she saw something, saw the face of the Hunter.
'Perhaps it's for the best I didn't.'
Henshaw scurried down the hallway. The man walked down the hallway and frowned when he looked around.
"Where is he?" Henshaw asked.
"He's gone, both him and…the thing which was chasing him," Alex said. "I'm guessing we're still trapped on the inside."
"Two of the aliens have been return to the cell, what about the third?" Henshaw asked.
Alex blinked, not wanting to be the one to bring the bad news. Her heart thumped fast and a golf ball sized lump stuck in the back of her throat.
"That thing, consumed the third alien," Alex said. "I saw….well I don't think I could describe what I saw….all we know is he's….Harry….he's gone…and the alien is…."
The lights in the hallway kicked back on finally and this allowed them to get a good look at the decayed husk of the alien which had been consumed. A series of red sparks shot out of the alien the moment they walked forward. Alex felt the heat coming off of him.
"Get these doors open, we're going to have to…subdue whatever that thing is," Hank said.
The few thoughts he heard reflected memories of a dying red planet back to him and being hunted on Earth. The thoughts of what happened if he failed to keep his promise. And now, the thoughts of what might happen if the Hunter and his offspring had been set off on the world.
Harry dropped down onto the ground. He felt his body. All bones were there, all of his skin, all of the eternal organs, all four limbs intact, both eyes, pretty much everything there where it should have been.
'I see you.'
Harry thought this game of cat and mouse had gone on long enough.
"Feeling weaker than when you had the emotions of people to feed off of?" Harry asked. "No one out here for miles….just you and me…and nowhere to go….nothing to feed off of."
The Hunter manifested his ugly face in the middle of the dust storm.
"I've chased you for nineteen years," the Hunter said. "You now know why my children have…"
Harry manifested energy through the palms of his hands and slammed it through the chest of the hunter. The hunter screamed in agony and withdrew. Those razor sharp claws stuck out and jammed into Harry's face to try and leach off of the life energy.
"At least, I have you…"
The Hunter stopped his attempt to drain Harry. The wretched creature tried to yank his hands away from his face and the power started to reflect back at him.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked. "Bitten off more than you can chew?"
Harry expanded in mass and his aura flashed blood red. The moment the Hunter locked onto Harry's face.
"Let me go, demon!" The Hunter yelled.
A hideous shriek spread through the Hunter when he attempted to break free of the young man who held him up. The energy of the Hunter and all of the poor souls he drained over the years ripped from his body.
"This is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth!" Harry yelled.
The Hunter's wilted and destroyed form crumbled. The energy vortex which brought him here opened him up and Harry brought the weakened creature through, followed by all of the souls which he had hunted and absorbed throughout his creation. They were all too happy to have a word with him.
Harry spat, the inside of his mouth tasting like cardboard from absorbing the magic from the Hunter.
"Not pleasant."
His power levels had been put to the highest levels they would. The wings retracted and Harry ascended to the sky. He sealed the vortex, bridging the gaps between those two worlds once and for all.
Harry dropped to the ground. He waved a hand and released the DEO from the lockdown.
'So, that's what I am,' Harry thought. 'They're lucky I didn't lose it sooner.'
Harry turned back around and prepared to make his next move. He was out in the middle of nowhere, in an unfamiliar world.
To Be Continued.