MoP

Harry Potter and the Myriad of Possibilities: Prologue

Chapter 14: Deception, Part 4.

Disclaimer: This is solely a not-for-profit fan activity and does not intend to infringe on copyrights held by Time Warner, DC Comics, Bloomsbury et al, and JK Rowling. Any characters that are original to this work remain the property of the author.

A/N: The Myriad of Possibilities Series primarily uses the background from the Harry Potter books but some elements and scenes have been borrowed from other sources – including the movies, Pottermore and my own headcanon – that will be covered where they fit into the narrative. The timeline of the DC Comics elements borrows heavily from Young Justice (2011) and may adapt elements and characters from the comics and several additional other media instalments – including but not limited to Smallville (2001) and Superman and Lois (2021) – and relocates events of Young Justice to the Eighties and early Nineties rather than the New Tens as screened and includes several 'legacy' and original characters as a result. Any other recognisable characters belong to their copyright holders.

A/N: Thanks to Dragon97 and 6f5e4d for their help on this chapter.

A/N: I decided to take a little break from Rebellion so that I can close out Phantoms and get at least an idea what the plans for Targets are before continuing, but rather than go on a full hiatus I decided to go back and spend some time with one of my favourite Team members. I will be continuing with Deception until I catch up Rebellion, then I may alternate chapters or post full versions from each perspective depending on what fits the episode in question and where my muse goes up to at least Auld Acquaintance and potentially into some original Year One content.

Amusement Mile.
August 16, 14:25 EDT.

Artemis passing the Big Wheel when her cellphone beeped for an incoming message. She finished inside the pocket of her jeans and extracted it.

Can you come to see me? I've got something for you? GA.

"New boyfriend?" asked Michelle mischievously.

"My uncle," Artemis replied as she texted back. "He's wants to talk to me."

"Now?" she asked.

Artemis shrugged. "Probably. He doesn't usually text me if it's not urgent."

The red-head looked a little downcast but resigned. "I'll see you later?"

"Maybe," Artemis agreed. "It depends on what he wants… I'll call you."

She turned and headed out of the park, first at a walk, then she broke into a fast jog when she reached the main road.

The Vault.
11:55 PDT.

"Recognised, Arrowette B-Zero-Seven."

Green Arrow was standing at one of the weapons racks, he glanced towards her. "Thanks for coming."

"What's the emergency?" Artemis asked, a little anxiously. "I was with my friends… friends that I don't get to spend much time now."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to imply it was an emergency," said Green Arrow. "We can do this later…?"

Artemis shrugged, hiding her true feelings. "I'm here now, what is it?"

"I wasn't happy that you had to go out in your old suit when you went up against Yarrow and his men, so I got you a new suit and some more weapons. I thought you'd want to get hands-on with them as soon as you could."

Artemis nodded and stepped out of the Zeta-Tube and moved towards her mentor. "What have you got for me?"

He drew another kit bag out of the racking, then held it in one hand as he opened it with the other hand and extracted a compact crossbow.

Artemis took the weapon and examined it thoroughly, noting the rotating drum magazine of standard arrows and the grappling hook mechanism built into the leading tip of the weapon. Nice, I might forgive him for interrupting my time with my friends yet.

"There's another one in the bag," Green Arrow added. "I thought that it would be easier to use them as back-ups than your old bow."

Artemis nodded and moved towards the target that her mentor had set up in a corner. She was taking aim when an alert came in on the computer, she lowered the weapon and turned, watching as her mentor scanned the report.

He turned towards her after a moment. "Want to try that thing out in the field? Quentin's asking for back-up down in the Glades…"

"Love to." Artemis confirmed, then reached inside the bag again and pulled out one of the spare uniforms. "Give me two minutes."

Her mentor nodded and headed towards the exit.

"Recognised, Green Arrow Zero-Eight," declared the computer as it opened up the false wall so that he could leave.

Gotham.
17:30 EDT.

"Mom! I'm home!" Artemis yelled as she walked into their apartment.

"I'm in the kitchen!" declared her mother.

Artemis ducked into her room to change and stash her bad, then joined her mother in the kitchen.

"Did you have a good day?" asked her mother, looking up the dough that she was mixing as she walked into the room.

"Not bad," Artemis told her, as she wandered over the fridge for a drink. "Spent a couple of hours with Michelle and the girls at Amusement Mile… then GA called me over to Star City."

Her mother tensed a little. "Is everything okay?"

Artemis nodded. "He had some equipment and uniforms for me, which we tested against a new villain, Blue Lancer, who tried to make a play for the Glades… dealing with him didn't take long, but the clean-up took a while."

Her mother nodded. "Dinner will be ready in about half-an-hour. I'm making clam pie."

"Sounds good."

Mount Justice.
August 19, 19:39 EDT

"Initiate Combat Training," instructed the computer as Kaldur and Superboy circle each other within the training ring. "Three, two, one…"

Both teens charged at each other, Superboy lead with a right hook, which Kaldur easily ducked under, retaliating with a left-right one-two combo.

Superboy blocked both strikes, then ducked under Kaldur's jumping hook-kick follow-up and threw another right-hook at the Atlantean, forced him to a backward handspring, then a twist into a crouch.

"Kaldur's uh, nice, don't you think?" Artemis asked M'gann in a whisper, as the Atlantean rolled into a crouch. "Handsome, commanding… You should totally ask him out."

"He's like a big brother to me," replied the Martian light-heartedly. "But you know who would make the cutest couple? You and Wally."

Artemis as she followed her friend's gaze to where the speedster stood, leaning against the cave wall, noisily enjoying a burrito.

"You're so full of passion and he's so full of… uh… of…"

"It," finished Artemis with conviction, then joined M'gann's laughter.

Meanwhile, in the ring, Kaldur and Superboy charged at each other again, briefly grappling before Superboy was able to use his greater size and strength to toss the older boy over his shoulder to land on his rear on the far side of the ring.

"Aqualad: Fail," declared the computer which its usual impassive redundancy.

Superboy stood up straighter as he brushed off his hands. "Black Canary taught me that."

At that moment, a hole opened in the middle of the projector apparatus in the ceiling and Red Tornado dropped out of it.

Superboy moved over to Kaldur and helped him up as their 'den mother' drifted to the ground.

Wally sped over to stand in front of the android. "Do you have a mission for us?"

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."

"Yeah," conceded Wally, but quickly took a new tack. "Well, 'The Batman' is with 'The Robin', doing the 'Dynamic Duo' thing in Gotham… but you're heading somewhere, right?"

At this point, the other at this point all of the Team members were slowly moving in. "Hot date… or a… mission?" Wally wheedled.

"If we can be of help..." said Kaldur in his usual impassive and formal mode, starkly contrasting Wally's rude taunts and wheedling.

The android considered the teens for a moment, then he turned and called up a holo-screen. "This is Kent Nelson, a friend… He is seventy-eight years old, and he has been missing for twenty-three days. Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society…"

The image on the holo-screen changed to cover Kent's face with a golden helmet and his clothes turned royal blue leotard with a gold belt, breastplate, gauntlets, boots, and cape. "The precursor to the current Justice League."

"Of course," exclaimed Kaldur, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Nelson was Earth's Sorcerer Supreme… he was Doctor Fate."

"Pfft," Wally snorted, then leaned towards Artemis and added in a whisper. "More like Doctor Fake, he knows a little advanced science and dresses it up as 'magic' to scare the bad guys and impress the babes."

"Kent may just be on one of his… walkabouts," continued Red Tornado. "But he is caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of the doctor's mystic might, and it unwise to leave such power unguarded."

"He's like the great sorcerer-priests and priestesses of Mars," said M'gann, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I would be honoured to help find him."

Wally's hand shot up instantly. "Me too… so honoured, I can barely stand it."

Could you be any more obvious, wally, Artemis thought snidely, then grinned when the attention seemed to put him off balance.

"Magic rocks," Wally added and threw out a rock-and-roll sign.

Artemis glared at him, then rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in annoyance when he didn't notice.

"Take this," said Red Tornado as he offered an old brass key to Aqualad, who immediately accepted it. "It is the key to the Tower of Fate."

"What are the chances we both so admire the mystic arts?" Wally asked M'gann.

To Artemis' relief, she gave him only a small smile but said nothing.

Salem.
August 19, 20:22 EDT.

"So, Wally," asked Artemis mockingly. "When did you realize your 'honest affinity' for sorcery?"

"Well, I- I don't like to brag," stammered the speedster, watching M'gann – sitting on her podium in command of Bio-Ship – out of the corner of his eye. "But… uh, before I became Kid Flash, I seriously considered become a wizard myself."

Artemis rolled her eyes but said nothing.

"We've reached Tornado's coordinates," M'gann reported. "But…"

Artemis turned her attention and immediately sees what she means: The left side of the road has an abandoned theatre and a brownstone, but on the right side…

"Nothing's there," observed Superboy.

"Take us down," Kaldur commanded.

M'gann nodded and as soon as they were on the ground and she'd opened the ramp, Wally was outside of his chair and speeding outside, then moments later he skid to a stop in the middle of the field.

"Nothing," he reported to the rest of the Team, looking to Artemis, as they joined him. "This isn't simple camouflage."

"What do you think, adaptive micro-optoelectronics combined phase shifting?" she asked smugly.

"Absolutely…" began Wally, a smile briefly crossed his face, then dropped. "… Not! Clearly mystic powers are at work here."

Artemis glared at him but doesn't argue.

Kaldur glanced around the open field, then looked down at to the key in his hand. "A test of faith," he repeated, looking to the handle on the key where it says 'INSERT'. He walked between Artemis and Superboy. "Stand behind me." Then he stepped forward again, so he was a few feet ahead of them, then he raised the key and turned it as if in a lock.

There was a click and thud of unlocking tumblers, and then to Artemis' surprise, a massive stone tower shimmered into view.

Kaldur released the key and pushed the ornate wooden door at the base of the tower inwards. The rest of the Team followed him in automatically and once they were through, the door slammed shut, with the key still inside, then disappeared.

"Uh, where'd the door go?" asked Superboy, confused.

Before anyone could reply, a gold-tinted projection of Kent Nelson appeared. "Greetings, you have entered with a key, but the tower does not recognize you. State your purpose and intent."

Wally looked over his shoulder at M'gann, then declared dramatically. "We are true believers, here to find Doctor Fate."

'Kent' gave him a sad look, then faded from view.

Wally's face fell.

Then the floor creaked, and seconds later the floor gave out under them, dropping them towards a pool of magma below.

Reacting quickly, Artemis drew her crossbow and fired the grapple at the wall as she fell. The piton dug into the rockface and pulled her to a stop. Now secure, she swung towards Kaldur and caught him, guiding them both to the relative safety of the sheer sides and paused, glancing around again at their team-mates.

Superboy had managed to grab on the side and had slowed down, but he couldn't get enough purchase, even using both hands and feet, to stop himself before reaching the lava. He screamed in pain and with some effort was able to pull his feet out again.

Artemis was pleased to see that, though he was now barefoot, he was unharmed.

"Those were my favourite boots," muttered her 'White Rabbit', clearly annoyed. "This Kent better be worth it."

A sigh of distress turned her gaze away from him and over to M'gann and Wally, who were holding each other and still very slowly falling. "Having trouble, maintaining altitude…" wheezed the Martian as she wiped sweat from her brow. "Ugh, I'm so hot."

"You sure are," purred Wally.

"Wally!" exclaimed Artemis. Now is not the time for flirting!

"Hey, inches above sizzling death, I'm entitled to speak my mind!"

"My physiology and M'gann's are susceptible to heat," observed Kaldur, his weight shifting slightly as he wiped his own forehead. "We must climb out quickly."

"Hello, Megan!" gasped M'gann. "We never… truly answered the question," She turned her head slightly and looked up. "Red Tornado… sent us… to see if… Mr. Nelson and the helmet… were safe."

Instantly, a panel slid shut underneath Superboy's feet and he calmly he steps down onto it.

M'gann, out of energy for a moment, dropped Wally, causing him to land on his butt, then she hit in the ground on her knees close by.

Once Artemis had lowered them to the floor, Kaldur crouched and examined it. "This platform… should be red hot," he observed. "But it is cool to the touch."

"Don't worry Megalicious, I gotcha," said Wally as he helped her to her feet.

Artemis had had enough. "Enough!" she declared, then strode over to Wally and shoved him into the wall. "Your little 'impress M'gann at all cost' game nearly got us all barbecued."

Wally glared back at her. "When did this become my fault?"

"When you lied to that whatever-it-was and called yourself a true believer!"

"Wally?" said M'gann, stunned. "You don't believe?"

"Fine… fine!" Wally admitted. "I lied about believing in magic! But magic's the real lie, it's all a major load!"

"Wally, I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis," Kaldur told him mildly, from his spot still crouched on the floor. As Artemis glanced in his direction, he looked up. "The mystic mages created the skin icons that power my water-bearers."

"Dude, you ever hear of bioelectricity?" asked Wally, still clearly annoyed, but lacking the demeaning tone that he used with her. "Hey, in primitive cultures, fire was once considered magic too. Today, it's all a bunch of tricks."

"You're pretty closed-minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers," Artemis noted.

"That's science… I recreated the Flash's experiment, and here I am!" countered Wally with a sarcastic bow of his hand. "Everything can be explained by science."

Kaldur smirked, the expression strange on his normally impassive features. "Let us test that theory," he said, then grabbed an unseen handle and pulled.

"Wait, the backdraught from the lava will roast us alive!" protested Wally, to no avail.

But when the trap-door opened, it released not a devastating backdraught, but a harmless flurry of white droplets.

"It's snow!" M'gann cried cheerfully.

Artemis looked back at Wally with a smirk. "Do you ever get tired of being wrong?"

His frown deepened.

Miss Martian hovered over the opening for a moment, then dropped through, landing safely.

The rest of the Team followed her and seconds after they had gathered again, the portal that they entered disappeared in a flash of golden light.

The group gathered around Wally. "Well?" Artemis asked confidently.

"Ever hear of String Theory?" he retorted sarcastically. "We're in a pocket dimension."

"Ugh," Artemis growled, frustrated by his inability to reconsider his opinions.

"What's that?" asked M'gann, drawing their attention to her.

And a golden-headed wooden cane that was floating just above the snow.

"Ooo, maybe it's Kent's magic wand," said Wally, sarcastically and moved towards it, with Artemis only a breath behind.

"I got it," they declared simultaneously. Then the cane began to glow. "Huh?! I can't let go!"

Before the others could react, they were drawn into the air and disappeared in a flash of light.

The duo flashed back into existence within the Escher maze of the main area of the tower, initially they fell onto their sides, but they almost immediately moved to their knees, while holding onto the cane.

Wally begins to look around, and immediately spots Kent and the two villains. "Abra Kadabra," he declared with a growl, his scowl deepening.

Kent's cane began to glow with a golden light, and then Kent began to glow in the same colour and then flew away from the villains and floated towards Artemis and Wally. As soon as he could grasp the cane, he was able to free his hands and the teens were able to release it.

Kent immediately created a door in the nearest wall. "In here," he commanded.

The teens didn't argue and followed him into the alcove, and Kent closed the door behind him just in time to block a furious blast of red lightning that had been sent towards them by the ashen-faced teen next to Kadabra.

A panel with a number on appeared and began to increase, and elevator music began to play in the background. Artemis and Wally, briefly united in confusion and worry, turned to look at Kent, both wanting the other to speak first.

"I'm Kent Nelson… by the way."

"No duh," mumbled Wally, then hissed in pain when Artemis' elbow struck him in the chest.

"I'm Artemis, 'Miss Manners' here… is Wally."

Kent smiled. "Well, Artemis, we're up against an opponent that with tremendous mystic power."

"Abra Kadabra?" scoffed Wally and rolled his eyes. "Flash proved that he uses futuristic technology to simulate magic… Guy's all show and no biz."

"Right you are," Kent agreed blandly, to Artemis' shock.

"He is?" she asked, deliberately ignoring Wally's pride at her shock.

"Abra is a charlatan…" Kent continued. "… But Klarion the Witch Boy – kid with the cat – is an actual Lord of Chaos. The ultimate enemy of a Lord of Order like Doctor Fate."

"Right…" Wally drawled, but Artemis could tell he wasn't as confident now as he had been a moment ago. "You're a 'Lord of Order'."

"Oh, no… not me," countered Kent with a smile. "I'm just an old coot Fate used to put on. Until my wife Inza convinced me there was more to life." He opened his pocket watch and looked down at her picture. "Ah, she was a real pistol, that Inza," he mused, then snapped it shut. "Anywho, Klarion's after the Helmet… If he gets his sticky little mitts on it, he'll turn the planet into his own personal playground of pandemonium."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, the trio walked out into the bell chamber at the top of the tower. Kent moved towards the stairs that lead to the top of the bell and the teens followed him.

As they did so, a trap-door opened in the ceiling, allow Superboy and Kaldur to fall through, landing hard. Seconds later, M'gann appeared and drifted safely down.

Artemis broke away from her groups and ran towards them.

"Friends of yours?" Kent asked Wally sarcastically, from behind her, but before he could answer, a series of blue energy bolts began to rain down on them.

"Friends of yours?!" Wally fired back, equally sarcastically, as the teens dodged the attacks.

Seconds later, the giant bell tolled, and Artemis glanced towards it just in time to see Kent and Wally disappear inside, with Klarion hot on their heels.

If the rest of the Team thought that the sorcerer's absence improved their odds, they were quickly disabused as Abra Kadabra quickly imprisoned their two strongest members in cages of electrical energy and then pressed the attack against the girls.

(Wally, we're in trouble!) declared M'gann as she tried to deflect his hits physically and Artemis took aim with her crossbow, then released a series of arrows at the villain. (Tell Kent we need Doctor Fate.)

The villain easily blocked Artemis' attacks and replied with a series of strikes of his own, one of which eventually imprisoned her in her own electrical cage.

Moments later, Artemis watched helplessly, writhing in pain, as M'gann finally went down and was imprisoned too. Get us out of here, Baywatch! Artemis thought, gritting her teeth to try and hold in her screams.

To her surprise, they were free seconds later, and she watched with some satisfaction as Superboy strode over to the technologist – who was now weaponless and stripped to his underwear – and knocked him out with a snarl.

Mount Justice.
August 20, 02:48 EDT.

Red Tornado was waiting for them when they landed. "Were you successful?" he asked as Artemis and Kaldur lead the way down the ramp.

"Regrettably, we were not entirely so," replied Kaldur. "We were able to capture Aba Kadabra, one of Kent's kidnappers, but the other – a sorcerer by the name of Klarion the Witch Boy – eluded us."

"That is unfortunate," observed the android. "And what of Kent Nelson and the Helmet of Fate?"

"That news is also not entirely good," admitted Kaldur with a sigh, then turned back to watch Kid Flash walk down the ramp carrying the golden helmet. "As you can see, the Helmet of Fate is safe…"

"And Kent Nelson…?" repeated Red Tornado, but Kaldur was spared answering as M'gann and Superboy appeared, guiding the still, cold form of the sorcerer strapped to a spinal board. "I will notify the others."

03:04 EDT

Artemis helped M'gann get the body into storage and then went looking for Kid Flash. She found him in his 'souvenir room' placing the helmet on a shelf next to her sister's mask. She cleared her throat to get his attention. When he looked in her direction, she asked. "You never said what happened to you when you put on the Helmet?"

Wally's face fell into a bored, careless expression. "Energy from the thing rewrote my brain's beta waves… I was bio-scripted into becoming Doctor Fate for a few minutes… No big."

Really? And you call yourself a scientist? Artemis thought. "Wait, you're still claiming there's no such thing as Magic?! If that's how you feel, why keep it at all?"

Wally looked to it, then to back to Artemis, giving her a half-smile. "Souvenir."

"Geek!" she snarled and then stormed out of the room.

That she heard Wally invite M'gann to a magic show seconds later, didn't improve her opinion of the speedster in the slightest.