To those that don't like the way my story's going... Tough luck.

I've been talking about this for months now, you know. Don't act like you're surprised :P

Special thanks to Tellemicus Sundance's reviews. I'm a big fan of yours!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other fandom I manage to squeeze in this story.

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Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2015
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Chapter 33: Metropolis and Smallville

Balthazar had ended up gobbling up eight more of the juicy beef patties, before hissing contentedly and going to sleep, stating that he was going to rest for a while, and that I shouldn't bother him.

As soon as he did, I dug into my own food, the moist food easily going down my throat. My mind began to wander as I ate.

How had I survived for months in the Darkness?

I gave a cursory glance to the black Falchion, currently on my lap, keeping its watchful senses on full alert as I worked to regain my strength. Erebus had somehow kept me alive for months.

A form of stasis, perhaps? It didn't seem like I had suffered any muscle atrophy from the ordeal.

To be honest, I felt stronger than ever before.

Why was that?

Could it have been because of the great amount of energies I had channeled whilst fighting the Devil Emperor Mundus? Hell, throughout the whole Temen Ni Gru debacle altogether?

I shivered, remembering Vergil's almost instantaneous dispatching of Lilith, the succubus Lieutenant of Mundus' army. He had done it so quickly, and made it look so easy…

It reminded me I still had a long way to go.

I shook my head, and focused on the present, my spirits immediately falling at the thought of what had happened to me.

From what I could piece together, I figured I drifted so far in the Nevernever that it deposited me in the United States when I finally re-emerged. I had arrived here, and was immediately captured by a greedy homeless man, who then sold me to some crazy scientists.

The scientists ended up killing the man when he protested against their shortchanging him.

I clenched my fists shut, remembering the humiliating experience which followed. They made me feel so weak, and they hurt me. They hurt Balthazar even more.

I wasn't sure, but I thought the anesthesia they gave me only put me to sleep.

My faithful friend might have been subjected to the harmful effects of that green liquid for the whole time I was unconscious, with no blissful unconsciousness for him to fall into.

The mere thought of that alone made my blood boil.

Worse yet, that same substance bound Balthazar to me— most likely indefinitely. The scales wer

en't just covering my skin, any longer.

They had become my skin. I could feel it, somehow. Balthazar and I had become one.

His energy was so intertwined with mine, I doubted that I could ever get us separated again.

As if that wasn't enough, the scientists had then tried to take my blood, and even a piece of Balthazar, but I stopped those particular attempts by destroying the sample material they had stored in the refrigerator..

However, they still had my semen. How was I going to find it?

I finished off the burger, and munched on some fries as I quietly sipped from the soda cup.

I needed a game plan, to figure what I needed to do. What was my highest priority? Going home? Retrieving my semen? Find who did this and stop them from ever doing it again?

I figured I'd do the second two, and then go home.

I felt around in the box of fries, prying out the remaining few pieces, and popped them in mouth before standing up. I took one final sip of the soda, before throwing it to the side, completely uncaring of the consequences of my littering.

"Think logically, Potter." I said to myself, wiping some ketchup off my mouth. "What's the first step to find my semen?"

A few more moments of thinking later, and I had an idea.

I pulled out my holly wand, and held it flat in my hand.

"Point Me My Semen." I incanted, and my wand ended up pointing at my crotch.

I palmed my face, before pocketing my wand with a disappointed sigh. Of course it would point there. Or maybe… Had they already used it all up?

I didn't even want to think about that.

So what was I supposed to do now? I could likely Air Raid my way back to England, or hitch a quick ride on an airplane. But I had to figure out what was going on here, and learn who did this to me. Seeing those little kids comatose like that...

I tried to wake them up. I truly did. I shook them, slapped their faces, yelled really loudly. Hell, I even tried to use Enervate on them! But nothing worked. They stayed asleep.

They were probably already too far gone, I told myself. I should have killed them, if only to let their bodies rest in peace. As it were, they were probably being moved to another hidden facility, in which they would be experimented on some more.

The very thought just made me so angry. Angry at myself for not saving them. Angry at the men who did this. I wanted to kill them all for their actions. Erebus pulsed in response to my blood lust, the blade vibrating excitedly in my left hand.

I took a deep breath, calming myself down.

First things first, I had to let Sirius, Daphne, and Dumbledore know I was alive. I pulled out my wand again, concentrating on my feelings of happiness. It took a while— considering the circumstances— but I managed.

"Expecto Patronum." Prongs burst forth from my wand, in his usual dramatic fashion, galloping around in the alleyway as if it were a majestic forest instead of the cesspool of filth that it was.

The Patronus stopped right in front of me, regarding me with almost curious eyes.

"All right, I need you to head to Sirius, Daphne, and Dumbledore— in that order." I stated, and the stag nodded obediently. "Tell Dumbledore: I'm alive. Don't worry about me, I'll see you when I'm done with my business here in the States."

The stag nodded in comprehension, before waiting for my message to Sirius Daphne.

"For Sirius and Daphne: I'm okay. I—" My throat constricted at the thought of telling the two of my latest ordeal. How was I supposed to tell them anything without getting them worried? Should I lie to Daphne? To Sirius?

"...I lied." I admitted. "I'm not okay. I drifted in between worlds for... months. I don't even know how long. And then, when I came back, I was... taken by some scientists. They did things to me. To other children! I—" I stopped again, taking a deep breath and scrunching my eyes shut for a long moment.

"What matters is, I'm going to find who did this to me, and all those kids. I know I should come back to you, immediately. But I just can't turn my back on these kids. I will see you soon. I promise."

The Patronus moved over to me, the great white stag easily as tall as I was. Prongs nuzzled my face affectionately, in an almost fatherly manner, before galloping off into the darkness of the alley disappearing through the wall.

Off to deliver my message.

I stared at the end of the filthy alley for a long moment, before leaving. I wandered the streets for a while, my mind still on the issue at hand.

To get to the bottom of this, I first had to figure out where I was, and how long I was gone. I could go around asking people, but there were a few problems with that.

First off, it was the middle of the night, so it was unlikely I would find anyone who would be willing to talk to a shirtless guy wearing a tattered pair of pants. More likely, the stranger would think I'm some sort of hobo or psycho and bolt immediately.

Second off, even if it was possible to actually find a friendly face right now, I couldn't risk the chance of being found. I didn't know what I was up against. That facility was functioning right underneath the hospital, and those same vans that had taken me were flanked by police cars.

If I talked to someone, there was the chance that the person I talked to could have been interviewed by the police.

I mulled things over for another forty five minutes, making sure to keep to the shadows, my steps still silenced by my spell.

I heard the sound of jingling bells as a door in front of me opened. A group of kids, probably around my age, stepped out, animatedly laughing and chatting with each other.

"That was a bad-ass game, man." An acne riddled redhead said to his friend, who simply shrugged at the praise.

"Nah, I just got an early triple kill, and then things snowballed from there." The boy grinned. The rest of the conversation faded into nothing as the group of kids got further and further away from me.

I stared at their form for a while, before glancing at where they came from. I could see a series of computers, lined up against the walls. A large desk, mostly made out of glass, stood in the middle, a clerk chatting with one of the customers.

Above the glass door, there was a sign which said:

"Cyber Warriors
Started by Gamers, for Gamers"

An internet cafe. I snorted at the name, before reaching into my pocket. I pulled out the wad of bills the worker at the McDonald's had given me, and began to count.

"Ten, Twenty, Twenty five, Thirty, Forty..." I mumbled the numbers as I flipped through the bills. It took about a minute because I made sure to double check my number.

I had about two hundred and fifty dollars; I assumed a session in here wouldn't cost nearly that much. I kept a twenty dollar bill in my hand, folding up the rest and placing them back in my pocket.

It was a risk, but I didn't have much of a choice at the moment. Besides, I was pretty sure that no one would question the workers there. A gaming cafe didn't exactly scream "criminal refuge" to anyone.

So, I entered the place. The door opened with a jingle, causing the clerk to look in my direction. I glanced around, noting the many posters, depicting various games, as well as some anime.

In the center of the cafe, there was a large, glass desk, filled with t-shirts, and some pants, with comic-book and game motifs.

"Can I help you?" The man, a fat clerk sporting a massive neck beard and wearing glasses, said warily. He eyed my sword, and my battered clothing.

I looked down at Erebus, who gave off a feeling of amusement at my predicament.

"Oh, right." I made a show of looking embarrassed, giving the guy a toothy grin. "A little cosplay that went out of hand. I was going for the 'mutant hero' look." Then I showed him my black scaled hand.

The man's eyes widened, and he stood from his seat, staring at my hand with interest.

"That's a pretty damn good cosplay, kid!" The man praised, before extending his hand. "Name's Derek; how can I help you?"

I placed the twenty on the glass table, and shook his hand with my scaled one.

"That's pretty cold." He said as his skin touched against the scales.

I grinned easily. "You should see how I feel. My skin's right underneath it all. I'm Harry, by the way."

"Anyway." I continued, breaking contact and pushing the twenty dollar bill forward. "I was hoping I could borrow one of your computers?"

"Yeah." The clerk— Derek— said. "Sure. How long you want it for?"

"How long does a twenty get me?" I replied.

"Five hours." Derek said.

"Ah." I shook my head. "I don't think I need that long for one sitting."

"Yeah, I get what you mean." Derek nodded knowingly, and flashed a simple looking card. "But you must not have been to an internet cafe recently."

"Never been, really." I admitted to the man. "I only recently got into this stuff. What's the card for?"

"Well, the beauty of this thing is." Derek explained, as he handed the card to me. "it keeps track of how long you've been on our computers. If I set it to five hours, the card counts down to zero— whenever you have it hooked up to our computers."

I nodded. "So, you're saying I can be here for an hour. Then, if I stop, I'll have four hours left on my card?"

"Exactly." Derek seemed satisfied.

I mulled it over for a few moments, before nodding. "All right. Five hours, it is."

I gave him his card back.

Derek took it smoothly, sat back down, and punched in some keys. He inserted the card in a small, black box, and then punched in some more keys.

"Five hours..." Derek said as a loud beeping noise came from the black box. He pulled the card back out, and handed it to me. "There you go, Harry. Just slide that in one of the card readers and have fun."

"Sweet. Thank you." I said, before making my way to the end of the room, passing by a few occupied seats; some kids playing Counter-Strike.

I smiled, despite myself, before finding an appropriate seat, placing Erebus in a safe spot. Wouldn't want to cut any wires, or anything. On the center monitor, I read the word "LOCKED" in red, over a black background.

I fumbled with the card Derek had given me, inserting wrong a few times, before finally getting it right.

The screen switched to a desktop with a black background, filled with all of the most recent games. A window popped up in the center. It read:

"Start session?
Time left: 5 hours"

I clicked "Yes", and the window was minimized to the right side of the taskbar, beginning the countdown.

All right, time to get to work. A quick check of the taskbar showed that the date was Wednesday, May the thirteenth, of the year two-thousand fifteen. Five months?

I'd been under for five entire months. I stifled a disappointed sigh, before opening up Mozilla Firefox. I dropped onto Google, and typed in Metropolis. I skipped a few weather reports, instead jumping on the Wikipedia link.

"Metropolis, in Kansas… Where the hell is Kansas?" I muttered under my breath, before navigating to Google Maps.

I typed in the internet cafe's name, followed by the city, and state; the page took a moment to load, but it managed to find the place.

I recognized one of the icons on the map as the Metropolis General Hospital. My eyes drifted back to my own position. I was currently located at 860 Bertrand Boulevard.

I leaned back in my chair, absorbing the information. I was almost at the literal center of the United States, far away from the UK. I scratched the back of my head, before opening a new tab.

I mulled it over for a few moments, before typing in the words "Freak Metropolis".

I received a set of links to various restaurants, a perfume place, and other useless things. On the top of the search list, it read: "Did you mean: Smallville Meteor Freaks?"

Meteor freaks?

I clicked on the provided hyperlink, and Google displayed a completely different list. I mostly found mentions of a school newspaper called "The Torch", as well as a few other, random dead ends.

I clicked the link, and almost groaned from the sheer frustration I felt. It was a dead link. How was I supposed to find what I was looking for?

I cracked my knuckles briefly, mind whirring with possible solutions. I went back a page, right back to the list of results. Underneath the link I had clicked, was the actual address of the website, with a drop down list standing next to it.

I opened the list, and clicked on "Cached". Essentially, the way web caches worked on Google is, if a website was accessed often enough, Google would create a snapshot of the page as it appeared in the last accessed date, just in case the site disappeared for any reason.

I smiled as a new page was displayed. In it, was a basic explanation of what meteor freaks were. I read it over for a few minutes.

From what I could understand, the meteor freaks were created from exposure to the radiation coming off of meteor rock. A few pictures were included of the rocks; glowing, green rocks.

The same color of the liquid that was injected in my veins. The next twenty minutes were spent accessing any and all content relating to this meteor phenomenon. Many different articles, talking about random mutations and strange events occurring for the past ten years.

Apparently, around sixteen years ago, there was a meteor shower, which impacted Smallville, a small town which was almost a stone's throw away from Metropolis itself.

It was a possible target for investigation. I opened a new tab, and looked up the name of the articles' author.

Chloe Sullivan.

The first few pages were a bunch of duds, until I reached the third. It was nothing earth shattering, a small column in the Daily Planet, covering some car crash.

But it was recent.

I read through the article, comparing it to her articles from The Torch. I wasn't sure, but it seemed the writing styles were quite similar. I looked up the Daily Planet, and immediately went to their contact page, before taking note of the number.

There, I had a lead. Someone who probably knew quite a bit about these meteors, and the meteor freaks— I disliked such terms. Those comatose kids didn't deserve to be labeled like that. Meteor infected had a much better sound to it.

Back to the topic at hand.

I had information, now. But I still needed resources. I didn't have infinite money on me, currently. Was there a Gringotts branch in Metropolis? Luckily, that particular search didn't take long.

I clicked on the link, and it led me to a blank, red page. In it, a message appeared. It read out as such:

"Thank you for choosing Gringotts Bank.
Company policy requires us to conduct
a test of knowledge for security reasons
before revealing information.

Do you accept?"

I immediately clicked "Yes."

The first question that appeared was: "Which school did you attend?"

I answered with: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry".

The second question was: "Where is the Gringotts Branch in Great Britain located?"

I typed in: "Diagon Alley".

The third question was: "What is the currency we use?"

I wrote: "Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. Seventeen Sickles in a Galleon, and twenty nine Knuts in a Sickle."

There were no more questions. The site simply displayed an address. I took note of it, and looked it up on Google Maps. It was about forty five minutes' walking distance from here, at 20 Morgana Street— a name which I found somewhat amusing.

Next up, was finding a place to stay during all of this.

I opened up another new tab, and searched for "Smallville apartment for rent". I immediately skipped a few links, asking for over two thousand a month. I added in "five hundred", and the list of available places went down to two.

The first was, quite frankly, a dump.

I immediately went to the second, reading over the details. It was a pretty nice place, judging by the pictures included. It was located above a coffee shop on 220 Main Street, in Smallville. The place's name was the Talon.

Seemed about as good a place as any. I printed out directions for the Talon, as well as the dump, just in case staying at the apartment over the Talon didn't pan out. I didn't want to sleep on the streets.

I called Derek over with a quick wave.

"Anything I can help you with?" Derek said with a smile.

"Yeah, you guys have a printer?" I asked hopefully, and received a nod in return.

"How many pages do you need printed out?" Derek asked.

"Just two, for now." I said, showing him what I needed to print out— directions to the Gringotts branch in Metropolis, as well as random notes I'd taken, like the basic information on meteor infected and the name Chloe Sullivan, which was attached to the Daily Planet's phone number.

Derek nodded. "It's a dollar a page. I'll enable the printer for your computer."

I fished out a five dollar bill, and handed it to him, while eying a nearby refrigerator. I went to it, and grabbed a Twix bar, as Derek was enabling my use of the printer.

"Does my five cover this, as well?" I asked, and received a distracted nod from the man. "All right. Keep the change."

I went back to my seat, waiting for Derek's green light. As soon as I received it, I printed the necessary papers, and went to grab them, making sure to check everything was printed correctly.

I logged out, and pulled my new card out of the reader, placing it in one of my pockets for future use. The monitor turned back to the way it was before.

I moved to the large, glass table, looking through the articles of clothing on display. It took a while, but I finally settled on a snake themed, black t-shirt, finding it to be quite fitting.

"How much is this shirt?" I asked, while pointing at the aforementioned item. Derek glanced over for a second, before meeting my eyes.

"Five bucks." Derek replied, seemingly amused. "I was wondering when you'd ask for a shirt."

I flushed in slight embarrassment, before hefting Erebus and saying. "Yeah, I'm not really sure what happened to mine. Also, do you have anything I can put my sword in?"

Derek rubbed at his chin.

"Couple of backpacks, nothing fancy like a sword sheath..." He finally answered, going in the backroom. A few seconds later, he came out, holding a few medium sized backpacks, and a duffel bag.

"I'll take the shirt and the duffel bag." I said, after mulling it over.

"Sure, that should be about twenty bucks." Derek said and pulled out the shirt.

I fished out a twenty, and handed it to Derek, receiving the bag and the shirt in return. I wasted no time, putting the shirt on. It was a size bigger, but it made no difference to me.

I zipped the duffel bag open, placing Erebus within, and slung the bag over my back.

I said a final thanks to Derek, before exiting the internet cafe, feeling a lot better than I had before. The sun was beginning to rise, bathing the streets in morning light.

I walked through street after street, navigating through the twists and turns of the city with the map I had printed out.

Before I knew it, I stood in front of a large, abandoned complex; an obvious illusion to ward off the non magical population. I went through the door, and silently marveled at what I saw inside.

It might have been somewhat large on the outside, but on the inside, it was definitely gigantic. I had expected something like Diagon Alley, but this was completely different. It seemed that the wizarding community here was a lot more progressive.

I stood in quite a large mall, which went at least ten floors down. There weren't that many people, but that was probably because it was still too early for most to be up and running.

I saw a few people, milling through the complex, doing their morning shopping.

I walked around the ground floor, not quite sure of where I needed to go. Eventually, after a few minutes of aimless wandering, I happened across a kiosk, showing a map of the mall.

"All right… So Gringotts is four floors down." I hummed to myself as I consulted the map.

I moved quickly, my eyes beginning to burn with the telltale pain caused by a lack of rest.

Consuming that electricity had given me the strength needed to escape the facility below the hospital, but I had been constantly up for hours, dodging the authorities, and researching this place.

My mind was filled with so much information, I was afraid it would burst at any moment.

I sighed, as I reached Gringotts, which took up a good chunk of the floor. I entered the bank, finding the familiar white marble surroundings to be slightly comforting. Unlike the branch in Diagon Alley, there were computer monitors next to every teller.

I walked up to a random Goblin teller.

"Excuse me." I got the teller's attention. He gave me a somewhat annoyed look.

"Yes?"

"I'm a British citizen, and I was wondering if there was any way to receive money from my vault in Diagon Alley. Is it possible?" I asked hopefully.

The Goblin regarded me curiously.

"Indeed it is, Mr..."

"Harry Potter; what's yours?" I supplied.

The Goblin's face immediately went into shock.

"I am Clawgrip. You are the wizard child who stopped the end of the world?" The teller demanded.

"End of the world?" I repeated, feeling a little bewildered. "Are you talking about the Temen Ni Gru?"

"It was said Harry Potter had died in the battle to save the Earth from the Demon Emperor." The teller began, almost glaring at me. "But our records still list the boy as alive."

"Right." I absorbed that information, and the hidden insinuation. "Well, Clawgrip, I can assure you I'm Harry Potter. How do I go about proving it?"

Clawgrip regarded me for a moment, before barking out a few orders to a passing Goblin. The Goblin in question ran off. A few minutes later, he came back, with an old looking piece of parchment, and two guards, who brandished their weapons threateningly.

"You understand that." Clawgrip began, grabbing the old parchment and placing it in front of me. "If you are not who you claim to be, you will be held for questioning, before being turned in to the authorities."

"Yes." I said immediately. "What do I have to do?"

"Simply place your thumb on the parchment, and it will identify who you are." Clawgrip instructed.

"Sounds easy enough." I said and placed my thumb on the parchment.

It glowed for a few seconds, before displaying "Harry James Potter" in bright red.

The Goblins gasped, before bowing to me in respect for a few moments. I looked around in bewilderment.

"Why did you bow?"

"Harry Potter." Clawgrip said patiently, his demeanor completely different from the annoyed persona he had projected earlier. "You went up the Temen Ni Gru, and closed down the gate to the Demon World. We owe you a debt of gratitude."

"I had help—"

"And they have been compensated for their contributions." Clawgrip said with a toothy grin, turning to his monitor and punching keys in.

"Ah, here we are." Clawgrip said, before reading the monitor. "To Sirius Black, and Tristan Greengrass, we awarded them with twenty thousand Galleons each. To you, and the Devil Slayers Dante, Vergil, two hundred thousand Galleons each."

Two hundred thousand Galleons…

"How much is that in US Dollars?" I asked immediately.

"Current exchange rate is seven US Dollars to a Galleon." Clawgrip said.

"One point four million?" I almost gaped. Holy hell, that was a lot of money.

"Indeed." Clawgrip confirmed.

"How long do I have to wait to receive the money from London?" I asked.

"You misunderstand, Mr. Potter." Clawgrip said, an amused grin on his face. At least, I thought he looked amused. "You are entitled to that money right now."

"That's… good."

It took another fifteen minutes of talking, and negotiating, but I walked out of Gringotts with a small pouch full of Galleons, five thousand dollars in cash lying next to Erebus in the duffel bag, and a credit card, of all things— though, with the way this mall looked, it shouldn't have been that surprising.

I spent the next half hour browsing the mall, and ended up buying a good number of potions, including but not limited to Strengthening Solutions, Murtlap essence, and Pepper-Up.

I stepped out of the magical mall, back onto the street. I looked around to make sure my surroundings were empty, before I took off my shirt, placing it in the duffel bag.

After one last look, I activated my Air Raid. Lightning converged onto my back, and erupted outwards, forming bluish white wings.

I grinned, leaned down to grab the duffel bag, and took off.

I went as high as I could, further past even the tallest skyscraper, marveling at the beauty of the sky, and the city itself. From up here, it looked quite the charming place.

I frowned, the feeling of euphoria I was experiencing killed by a sudden rush of anger, driven by shame and hatred. I sighed, and continued my flight towards Smallville, making sure to touch down in an empty alley near the coffee shop.

The trip itself had taken about half an hour. It would've taken much less time if I hadn't been forced to avoid being detected by a couple that happened to be looking up as I was attempting to touch down.

Recalling the Lightning back into my body, I reopened the duffel bag, and put my shirt back on, before zipping it closed again and exiting the alley. A few people gave me some odd glances, but I ignored them.

They were likely not used to newcomers. Small towns usually worked like that.

Not that I cared. I wasn't going to live here forever.

As soon as I was done with my task, I would go home.

I went in the coffee shop, and took in my surroundings. The inside was stylized as a modern coffee shop, and featured an Egyptian motif, judging by the various statuettes of sphinxes, and the hieroglyphics painted on the walls and pillars.

Not a bad place, all things considered.

I moved right to the middle aged, redheaded woman who was taking orders from an army of caffeine deprived college kids. I felt a little bad for her, so I simply stood to the side, and waited until she was done.

It took a while, but eventually, the endless deluge of kids petered out into nothingness. The redhead smiled at me warmly, my heart reminding me of my mother with a painful constriction. I swallowed it down, and addressed her.

"Hello."

"Welcome." The redhead said with a smile. "What do you need?"

"Need?" I said dumbly, before shaking my head. "Oh, no, not here for coffee. I'm here for the apartment that's for rent above the Talon? I saw it on an online advertisement."

The woman nodded, making an "ah".

"Is it still available?" I asked hopefully.

"It is." She confirmed with a smile. "Would you like to see it?"

I nodded gratefully. "That would be great, Miss…?"

"Oh, where are my manners?" She extended her hand, looking a little embarrassed. "Martha Kent."

I took her hand, giving it a firm shake.

"Harry Potter." I introduced myself. "About the apartment?"

The redhead— Martha— had given me a curious glance when she heard my last name, but seemed to shrug mentally, before calling someone over to take over for her.

"Lois!"

"Yes, Mrs. K?" A pretty, athletic brunette popped out from the back, cheerfully walking to us. She eyed me curiously for a moment, before turning to Martha.

"Could you take over for me here, Lois?" Martha asked the girl, motioning to me. "I have to show the apartment to Mr. Potter here."

"Sure." Lois said easily, giving me another cursory glance.

"Just Harry's fine, Mrs. Kent." I said with an easy smile, and followed Martha up the staircase and in the apartment.

I moved around the apartment, checking every inch of the place. The apartment itself was quite basic; just one big room. There was no real wall separating the bedroom from the kitchen, and living area.

"Well, what do you think?" Martha asked, after a minute of curious inspection.

"Looks great." I said, placing my duffel bag on a nearby table. I zipped it open, and pulled out five hundred dollars, before turning to Martha, handing her the cash. "Five hundred, right?"

"Yes." Martha confirmed, though she was frowning at me. "I know it's not my business, Mr.— Harry— but how did you get this kind of money?"

"No, it's fine." I smiled reassuringly at the woman. "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, that's not what I—" She said, sounding mortified.

"It's fine." I repeated. "I won it in a fight."

It was not technically a lie. I technically did win the money as the result of winning the fight against the Demon Emperor Mundus.

At the mention of the word "fight", Martha was now giving me a concerned look. She shook her head, before grabbing a few keys off of a nearby shelf, and handing them to me. One was for the apartment, and the second was for the Talon itself.

It wouldn't do to be stuck outside all night because I couldn't enter the Talon itself. There was another entrance, but I was hoping to avoid that.

"Well, if that's all." Martha said, after her explanations. "I should leave you to get some rest. You look like you need it. Welcome to your new home!"

"Thank you." I nodded gratefully, and she began to leave.

"Mrs. Kent." I called out, and she stopped, turning to face me again.

"I—" I stammered, feeling suddenly vulnerable in front of a woman who seemed to remind me so much of my mother. "Thank you. For not asking too many questions."

She regarded me for a moment, and then smiled, before exiting the apartment, closing the door behind her.

I went ahead and locked the door, before going straight to the bed. I dropped unceremoniously onto the bed, placing the duffel bag on the side.

I kicked off my boots, took off shirt and pants, and began to relax.

It felt like I hadn't had a relaxing moment for days. The past twenty four hours had been nothing short of a heart attack inducing stress fest. But I was finally getting a hold on the situation.

I'd found a place to stay, acquired some monetary resources, and I even had a lead to follow up on.

My last thoughts before succumbing to the inevitable pull of sleep were of the reporter I was planning on meeting.

Hopefully, Chloe Sullivan would have the answers to my questions.