"So far so good," Imra said, and one of the bombs disabled with a click.
"Yeah, that's a good thing, but that's only half of the bombs," Tinya commented, looking rather fretful.
"Which means we have only halfway to go," Ayla said, trying to interject some positivity into the situation. Which might be more than they can hope for given the problems that they encountered so far today.
'Just keep at it, don't worry about anything, the bombs are not the least of your concern, at least not right now,' Chloe thought, and the sigh that passed between her lips was long.
'Right little ray of sunshine, aren't we?' Imra asked her, in a teasing tone of voice.
'Well I'm just being realistic, let's face it, things could go pear shaped in a hurry,' Chloe thought to the girls. 'Just do what you got to do and everything else should fall in order.'
Sure enough the facility where the next bomb was stashed was ahead of them. They almost expected to run into something dangerous that would cause them to be stalled.
"And there's another one, I can see it dead ahead," Salu said but there was something rumbling in the distance.
"Actually, aren't you a little bit more concerned about dead behind, the least of which, our dead behinds?" Tinya asked and Imra wondered what she was talking about. The blonde turned her attention forward.
There they were, approaching them. They were large and there was an army of it. They said that Ubu was a disposable minion for Ra's Al Ghul but this took that entire concept and punched it up to an entirely new level. He was cloned many times over.
That being said, an army of overly large minions were a harrowing experience.
"Damn," Imra whispered, losing herself. "They're primal, I could try and fry their minds but I don't think that would do any good."
"I've got it."
A blast of energy shot one of the Ubus in the chest but it only caused it to grow, pumping its arm up like a mighty gorilla.
"Or not, or not," Ayla groaned, she thought that she could have had that one. The beast rushed her.
She shielded her head, ducking its attack and it smashed into the side of the wall, it cracking the banister.
That was a bit too close for her liking. Ayla blinked, the breath rocked out of her body. The redhead member of the Legion peaked over her shoulder.
"Divide and conquer, remember your training."
They wished that they had some heavy hitters in this team, but they weren't incompetent. They were the Legion of Super Heroes and they never gave up.
Luornu smiled, being the epitome of the divide and conquer, she divided into three bits. She launched one of her dupes up into the air.
Ubu swatted at her like a fly, allowing another dupe to get behind him and take the legs out from underneath him.
"Savage or not, he's pretty well trained," Imra said, dodging Ubu's beefy fist, nearly having it cave into her face.
"Yes, I figured that much out," Tinya said, and she phased down into the ground, avoiding Ubu, dodging his attack.
She popped up on the other side and she breathed in and out.
"So what happens if we don't figure this bomb out before the timer goes off?" Tinya asked and she once again phased through the ground.
The man was taken down hard, going head over heels and landing on the ground with a loud crack.
"You don't want to know, you really don't want to know," Imra said, using her mental shields to try and pick up a weak spot.
Tinya screamed as she could see the throwing stars thrown at her. It was at the expert force of someone that she would expect from a person several times smaller than this version of Ubu. For such a large man, he moved with grace and precision that was insane and amazing.
'Okay, we're having some help on the way, just keep yourself calm, and keep them distracted until the Calvary is here,' Chloe thought and she was on pins and needles, along with the rest of the team.
'Okay, no sweat, and by no sweat, I mean a little bit of sweat and by a little bit of sweat, I mean a lot of sweat,' Tinya said.
Atlee stepped in from the shadows and closed her eyes. She could do this, she could certainly do this. She caused the ground to rumble underneath them, and caused the Ubus to nearly fall underneath the ground.
They dropped down to the ground like a stone and Atlee raised her hands, she did it, she did it.
Then they smashed through the rock, sending fragments flying everywhere. She did not do it, she so did not do it.
Oh she was kind of screwed.
Ubu rushed her, but then a woman with red hair ran in, smashing his knee caps out from underneath him.
"You dare put your hands on the Queen of Almerac, peasant!"
Suddenly, Poison Ivy turned up, manipulating several thorny vines, wrapping the Ubu army up and causing them to be left hanging, in more ways than one. They might have been strong, but they didn't really have much of a chance against Mother Nature.
The odds quickly got evened by several women who had brought in as part of Harry's rehabilitation program.
The Ubu army did not expect this, as the Emerald Express dropped down next to him, blasting him with an energy attack, burning his chest, and causing him to fall back onto the ground, the wind being knocked out of him.
'Not to put you guys under any more pressure or anything, but you kind of only have two minutes before the next bomb sends the signal to the rest of the bombs.'
'Right, I'm on it now,' Imra said, with Chloe feeding her information on what to do. Chloe's team was off dealing with the next bomb.
As for Harry, well he had a meeting with the and only Ra's Al Ghul that he could not be late for.
Harry made his way forward, the one and only Ra's Al Ghul was close, he could feel it, he could practically smell it. There was just one tiny problem that he had not foreseen through.
The man himself was tied to the bombs; therefore if there was just one bomb left out there when Harry took him out, then it would detonate. If they detonated, it didn't matter if he took down Ra's once and for all and put him down like the mad dog he was. Because whatever demented victory he tried to achieve, he already would have won.
'Well you got to admit that he makes things a bit more difficult on me.'
'That's the super villains for your,' Chloe answered.
Harry bounced off to the top of the ledge, seeing a pair of guards roam around outside. Harry motioned for his help to strike.
Donna used her lasso to pluck to ankles out from underneath her adversary, and hurl him down to the ground. She slammed him down on the ground hard.
Kara came up from behind at super speed and nailed her enemy with a super powered punch to the back of the head. The blonde grabbed him around the top of the head and hammered him with a series of punches to the back of the head.
Both of the girls gave Harry the go ahead and he could see more guards that were trapped by Rachel.
Harry could see that this hallway lead to something, some grand temple of some sort. He had a feeling that Ra's Al Ghul was in the very back of this temple.
The green eyed wizard paused and mentally added that there was likely some traps. Sure enough he saw a floor that was laid out.
He could see that several parts of the floor were enchanted to collapse upon him. And the air was locked in some kind of hyper-gravity field where he couldn't just fly over it. Therefore, he carefully stepped on each tile, timing his movements.
There was three doors and Harry had a feeling that none of them lead to anywhere good. Even the one he should have taken would lead to a couple of nasty surprises that he would have deal with.
The green eyed wizard used his instincts to pick out what door he needed to get through.
What was behind door number two was a trick floor, along with a room with spikes on the wall that was about ready to close in on him. A cliché super villain trap, but sometimes the clichés were clichés because it worked.
'Of course there is,' Harry thought, seeing the spiked walls close around on him. The green eyed wizard smiled, and shook his head. This was just another day at the office for him really, spiked walls closing in around his body. It happened every other day at one point.
He waved his hand and all of the spikes melted before the walls could close in, except for three. He took those three spikes, removed them from the wall, and super charged them with an intense burst of magical power.
The wall got blown up and the large hole was blown into the wall.
'I swear to God if I have to run down a tunnel and there's a giant rock chasing me, I'm out of here,' Harry thought and he stopped, his eagle eared super hearing listening for anything.
A swinging pendulum with a sharp edge rushed towards him. It came way too close for any comfort. He avoided the pendulum that nearly tore him in half, and then launched a bolt of magical energy, tearing it down. The green eyed wizard could feel his heart speed up.
'Well they're doing a wonderful job in trying to kill me.'
Harry could see the tunnel crack open and an army of bats attack him. The bats shot lasers at him, which was a lovely bonus.
'Well, this is kind of overkill,' Chloe thought to Harry.
'No shit,' Harry thought.
'Shows his mancrush on Bruce through,' Barbara thought. 'And let's face it, he was just living vicariously through his daughter when he tried to set them up.'
'I figured something that wasn't on the level when he was inside Bruce's body.'
'Bad mental images, really bad mental images,' Kara thought with a shudder and Harry smiled, launching bolts of magical energy to cut down the bats that swooped around his head. He blew them to bits.
'Sorry, I hope that I didn't scar you for life,' Harry thought, waving his hand and causing the bats to blow up, straight away.
Then the doorway opened and there was a large rock that rolled at Harry, shooting lasers.
'The rock is cliché but the lasers are new,' Chloe thought, shaking her head, as the twins started humming the Indiana Jones theme through the bond link, with a few others joining in.
Harry conjured a mirror, causing the laser lights to repel and that blew up the rock quite nicely he had an opinion.
The problem was that he was very close and suddenly several razor daggers flew from the wall. Harry waved his hand, causing the daggers to explode.
'I believe he's straight forward, and by the way, we've got two more bombs before we're home free,' Chloe said.
'Let me know the minute that they're disabled so I can end this, did you run into any trouble?'
'No, we didn't,' Chloe thought back to him and she sounded about as anxious as Harry felt. 'Oh and some good news, it appears that Divine is going to make a full recovery, although hopefully she'll join the side of good.'
'She'll be a good asset, and what assets she has,' Karen said with a wide grin.
'Yes, there's that but I'm in,' Harry thought, and it was ready for him to go one on one with Ra's Al Ghul.
Ra's Al Ghul stood over one of the remaining Lazarus Pits in the world. Most of them had long since been rendered unusable. Some of them had burned out and the few that remained were quite frankly unstable.
This one on the other hand, he must use it, even though the risks were high.
The Demon Head could feel his current body, even at the peak condition was, start to show the signs of aging. It was not as youthful as it once was.
"You know Ra's, for someone who preaches about trying to save the world, you're doing an excellent job in trying to destroy it."
Ra's turned around, seeing Harry Potter standing before him. The Demon Head's eyes narrowed, staring down Harry Potter.
"So, you think that you can match swords with me, Harry Potter," Ra's said, and he took half of a step towards him.
"Well it's happened before, and it's going to happen again."
The two circled each other and Ra's stared down Harry Potter. There was so much hatred, so much intensity in those eyes.
"You think you have a hope in stopping the world's destiny."
"Destiny is not something that I believe in," Harry said, dodging Ra's attacks with expert agility and speed.
Harry had to stall him until the final bomb was disabled. Which should hopefully be soon. He conjured a shield and slammed it back into Ra's.
"You fight valiantly as always, but I lead this dance," Ra's said, throwing a few pellets into the air and causing a blinding cloud of smoke to fill the room.
This situation was just a minor annoyance for Harry, who fired back with a series of punches, sending Ra's back.
A binding spell was dodged and Harry looked over his shoulder.
'We're on the last bomb, just hold him off a little bit longer,' Chloe thought and Harry tried to tie Ra's up but the ropes wrapped around thin air when he dodged.
"This dagger even dropped Superman to his knees at one time," Ra's said, trying to stab it at him but Harry blocked his arm and then headbutted him.
"That's nice, but I'm not Superman, in case you didn't notice that."
Harry tried not to throw too much magic around, with how disruptive the Pits were, he knew that there could be problems if he had thrown it around too much.
Ra's charged Harry but the green eyed wizard slid underneath his attack. He grabbed Ra's arm and pinned it behind his back.
"Just give up, it will be a lot easier on you in the end."
'And we're through the last of the bombs, pretty soon it will be go time,' Chloe informed Harry.
"Good, time to wrap this one up."
Harry knocked Ra's down to the ground, hammering him with a running jab to the throat, and doubling him over.
The green eyed wizard used his head as a step ladder, and clung to the wall. He caused the torches around the pit to blow off.
Darkness was not something that Harry Potter had a problem with.
"You think your parlor tricks are enough to stop me."
'And the last bomb is down,' Chloe reported to Harry and Harry smiled.
'Excellent,' Harry thought, as he could see the lights flicker on somewhere in the temple. Something told him that he only had so much time.
"You know, they might not be enough to stop you, but they could be enough to stall you, and your little scheme, your bombs are done."
Harry whipped his wrist and Ra's Al Ghul went flying backwards.
In his luck, Ra's managed to maneuver his body with his last breath to fall backwards into the pit.
'He just went into the Pit without any shielding, didn't he?' Barbara asked him.
'Pretty much, yes,' Harry asked her and suddenly there was an eerie glow that went around the temple, along with an even more eerie hum.
Ra's Al Ghul rose out of the temple, his body bulked up, pulsing and energy glowing from him. His eyes widened, and his mouth hung open. There was a feral crazed look in his eyes and his hand raised high into the air.
"You think you can stop me….."
Ra's cloned DNA was degenerating still and all Harry had to do was give him that one last nudge.
"Well, you just defeated yourself, when you cheat death over and over again," Harry said to him, and he casually and almost bored looking, dodged every attack.
Ra's was not as efficient as he might have been. His brain was inflamed and his body was even worse. All Harry had to do was outlast the distance. His green eyes flashed with fury.
"Come on Ra's, just give it up, you're outgunned and I can see it in your eyes, you know it."
'Stubborn to the end,' Barbara thought, and she could see Ra's trying to charge Harry like an angry bull but Harry flashed out of the way. Once again, Ra's Al Ghul went down extremely hard from the impact.
The green eyed sorcerer watched him once again and he was stopped short, his heart hammering against his chest.
Harry flicked him backwards into the wall. His body was unable to hold up and he crawled to the pits.
'Is he insane?' Chloe asked.
'If we can't answer that question just by looking at him, then we're kind of in a lot of trouble,' Donna thought and she felt the need to face palm at such an obvious question being asked.
Ra's was trying to get to the pits but Harry raised hand up and the shield blocked him.
"No, no, I must, the world…"
"Does not need another madman," Harry said and the pit was making some funny noises that he wasn't too sure about to be honest.
The pit was about ready to explode and Ra's body wilted, melting before his very eyes, like the Slade clones.
Kara flew in at the speed of light, picking up Harry.
"Here for pick up," Kara said and Harry smiled.
"You do realize I could have just teleported or flew out myself, don't you?" Harry asked Kara and Kara smiled.
"I realize that, but this is more fun, isn't it?" Kara asked him and Harry wasn't going to argue with that at all.
The temple collapsed, with the remaining henchmen being buried under it.
Was the League of Shadows finished? That was an interesting question to be honest.
The remains of Ra's Al Ghul were found in the temple and after a quick sweep, they made sure they had every bit of him under their position. They burned him and the ashes were currently stored in an urn in the vault.
"He comes back," Barbara said with a lengthy sigh towards her voice. "He always comes back."
"Not this time though, not if we can help it," Tess replied and she told them what she found. "We found a computer that stored his brain patterns on it, and we followed the trail to several more systems."
"So, we're destroying them one at a time, that's good," Imra said, Ra's Al Ghul was one of the most dangerous villains that the world had ever seen. The history that the Demon Head had was second to none and they doubted that many could match his legacy any time soon.
No one in the room was going to argue with that. Were there some villains that could come close and accomplished a lot in a short time? Perhaps they could but no one had the longevity of the Demon Head.
"Hopefully we'll be able to keep him from returning, although he will have followers out there, someone like that always has followers."
Harry offered this oh so interesting assessment of the matter, but it was true, Ra's Al Ghul would have followers. Zealots who would follow his every single word, without question, even though it might not be in their absolute best interests to do so.
"Hopefully now things will be back to….."
"If you say things are back to normal, I will hurt you," Chloe said and Karen shrugged her shoulders.
"Well how about a nice break," Karen said and Chloe just whistled, throwing her shoulders back and sighing.
"Okay, I'll allow it."
"Well, I guess that we all could deserve a vacation after what we all been through," Imra conceded with a smile on her face. "And it's been one little thing after another from Gotham City all the way through now."
"But isn't that what we signed up for, adventure and everything like that?" Ayla asked and Salu smiled.
"Pretty much, yes, but there can be too much of a good thing and the adventures that we're on…."
"It can be a bit troubling at times, yes," Diana said, but she wouldn't have it any other way. Then again, her warrior spirit would not demand anything else.
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"Whatever challenges life brings us," Harry said, answering Tinya's question and he looked forward.
The journey that he had been on for the past several years was an extremely interesting one and there were a lot of challenges. But in some other ways, Harry thought that his journey was just about to begin.
"So, are you ready to continue your lessons?" Harry asked to Karen and she smiled.
"I'm sure that my twin would benefit from some training as well," Karen said, placing her hand on Harry's. "And likely some other perks and benefits."
"We'll see what happens there, the twins said that she might be waking up soon enough," Harry told Karen. "But, you've come a long way with your studies, and now I can teach you the really fun stuff."
Karen's grin split from ear to ear and her smile got even more impressive, not to mention fairly prominent. "Oh, excellent, I can't wait."
"I figured that you couldn't," Harry told Karen with a smile. He could tell her anticipation simmered and built "And as you know, there will be various rewards….."
"You really know how to offer an incentive to a girl, don't you?" Karen asked, as Zatanna and Rachel walked forward to watch the proceedings with great interest.
"She's really taking to these lessons pretty well, isn't she?" Rachel asked Zatanna.
"Well, to be fair, there was a lot of concentration issues in the first bit, and she had to throw logic out of the window…."
"Don't you recall what happened when you learned magic for the first time?" Rachel asked her. Needless to say she did, but she tried not to.
"Well it was kind of embarrassing, and I thank you not to bring it up, please," Zatanna said to her. She shuddered at the memories of what happened before. It was a long time past, at least it felt like that.
Karen meanwhile tried to focus; she was actually a lot better at that, for sure. The blonde felt Harry's hands touch her and she could feel fire tingle from all sides of her.
"Just be ready, and fire," Harry encouraged her. "This is actually both a good weapon and a way to clear debris off of fallen comrades but you have to time it right."
To Be Concluded on September 11th 2014.