MoP

Harry Potter and the Myriad of Possibilities: Contagion

Chapter 5: Survivors

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 Jon, 6f5e4d and the Young Justice Writers Group Discord for their help on this chapter.

Alberta.
August 14, 15:32 MDT.

Artemis groaned as she drifted back into consciousness.

Violet was bent over her. "She's okay!"

"That's debatable," Artemis countered as she levered herself of the floor, then looked around. Most of the Team – even the rookies – were present, but M'gann and their survivor were not. M'gann?

There was no response.

"I don't suppose anyone is going to tell me that M'gann is taking Dr Stuart back to the Premier Building… or STAR Labs?" she asked hopefully.

"Sorry, Boss," said Cissie. "When you didn't call back after a few minutes we Boomed here… but you were alone."

"Tigress to Miss Martian, report!" Artemis barked. "Tigress to Bio-Ship! Tigress to Oracle!"

"Oracle here."

"Can you locate Miss Martian or Bio-Ship?"

"Bio-Ship is a few yards from your location," Oracle replied instantly. "Attempting to track Miss Martian now."

"Halo, is Forager at the Premier Building?"

She nodded. "Should I go and get him?"

"Please."

"On my way," Violet confirmed, then seconds later a Boom Tube opened with a bang, and she walked into it.

Artemis started to wander around the hut.

"What are you looking for, Boss?" Cissie asked.

"Just before we were ambushed, he was talking about a journal. He seemed to think that STAR Labs needed to see it…"

Cissie nodded, and gestured to the others, who spread out without the tiny room.

A moment later, another muffled bang sounded from outside. "Forager to Tigress. Bio-Ship has located Miss Martian, Miss Martian is a considerable distance away and appears to be pursuing someone."

"That'll be Sportsmaster and our survivor," Artemis declared. "Go after her."

"Should I accompany Forager?" asked Violet.

"Negative," Artemis replied. "Miss Martian, Forager and Bio-Ship can handle Sportsmaster. Join us the rest of us in the shack."

"On my way."

"I think I've found it, Jefe," declared Cisco a few minutes later.

"Just in time too," said Hank, glancing out of the front window. "We're about to get some company."

"Mounties?"

"I doubt it," he replied. "Pretty sure it's some more of our playmates from Leesburg."

"We don't have time for them right now," Artemis declared after a moment. "Halo, get us out of here."

The Hub.
15:16 PDT.

"Okay, I think I've found what Dr Stuart wanted STAR Labs to know," reported Hank as he stood in the middle of the Hub manipulating a large holo-screen

The Team left what they were doing and gathered around him.

"What have you found?" Artemis asked.

"I've got good news, and… potentially not great news," Hank replied.

"Well, we're chasing the cure of a plague," Artemis mused. "I'll take anything I can get."

"Well, take a look," Hank said, then tapped one of the screens to expand it:

The plague raged through the town as I held Fong prisoner at gunpoint. He implored, bribed, threatened and finally pleaded, but I would not let him leave. All around us, the native townspeople were dying hideously. We had no reason to believe we would be spared the terrible disease which ravaged them like a biblical scourge. I knew little about the man in front of my gun barrel, only that he was a gangster of some kind from the Far East, and that he had come to Greenland to hide from some colleagues who wanted to kill him, but that his chief enemy had recently been killed and he was planning to return home…

This I could not permit, not while Fong might be carrying a hideously lethal virus. So, for two days I held him at bay… Finally, however, exhaustion overcame me for a moment, which was just long enough for Fong to knock me into total unconsciousness and make good his escape.

When I recovered, I struggled to my feet and lurched to the door of my hut and then stood paralysed as a swell of horror spread from my heart to the last cell of my body. In their last moments, the villagers must have fled from shadowy bedrooms to die beneath the blue sky they loved and now everywhere I looked I saw corpses rotting in the sun…

There was only one other living creature in the village, a young woman I knew as Lenore. We stared at each other for a moment, saying nothing, and then she nodded and walked away. I remained there for another four days before the fishermen and then the authorities came…

"Okay, so we just need to find Fong and Lenore and we're back in the game," Artemis declared.

"Easier said than done, Boss," Hank pointed out.

"Finding Lenore could be tricky," Artemis agreed. "But the Justice League database should at least be able to give us a starting point for Fong."

"Good point," Hank agreed. "Running a search now… okay, I might have something: The SFPD has had their eye on a yacht called the Chinensis for a week or so since she sailed in from Hong Kong."

"Why do you think he's the guy?" asked Cissie.

"The yacht's owner – Muchen Fong – is claiming that he 'can't die' because he walked amongst those infected by the plague and felt wonderful."

"Yeah, sounds like our guy all right," Artemis agreed. "I think Zatanna's mentioned an 'in' with the SFPD, I give her call and see if she can smooth the way for us."

Embarcadero.
August 15, 07:16 PDT.

Well, that's not great, Artemis mused as she scanned the harbour through her binoculars. Fong's guards are heavily armed and there's almost no cover on the dock side. I'm not sure there's enough deck space to Boom in either…

"Tigress, Oracle is calling in," Hank announced from his position at the room's desk.

Artemis moved away from the window and moved to join him. "I could do with some good news, Oracle," she announced as the red-head appeared on the screen.

"Well, I've some good news and some bad news."

"I'll take the good news first," Artemis decided after a moment's thought. "I could do with some."

"I've located Dr Stuart, he's alive and in good health."

Artemis smiled. "Well, that is good news. What about Sportsmaster?"

"Escaped after he dropped him off at an illegal clinic in Emerald City," Oracle continued. "One of Lantern Jordan's old contacts passed the information on to us."

"Well, that's not unexpected…" Artemis mused. "Can you send someone to pick him up?"

"Cyborg, Looker and Windfall are already on their way," Oracle replied. "The rest of the news isn't so rosy."

Artemis sighed. "Of course not."

"I've just got confirmation that Fong is aware of the Babylon Towers bounty…"

"I take it he's not interested?"

Barbara shook her head. "According to the SFPD's informant, even the whole five million – bar a small 'processing fee' – is nothing compared to the wealth that he already has an immortal."

"Well, there goes that plan," noted Cissie as she joined them. "When do we go for Plan B?"

Artemis glanced toward the window. "Not during day light," she announced. "I don't want to risk a shoot-out with those goons he's got."

Cissie nodded. "Makes sense. I think I saw one of them carrying Apokoliptian tech earlier?"

Artemis nodded. "They've got at least one chest rig cannon, maybe some other gear."

"I've also talked with STAR Labs and the virus' mutation rate has increased exponentially," Barbara reported.

"What does that mean for the survivor blood?"

"Mr Slate has an expert looking into gene therapy options, but he says that culturing a conventional vaccine is a no-go, never mind a cure."

"Even if they can come up with a gene therapy, that could take months, even years to perfect."

"I know," Barbara agreed grimly. "And Gotham doesn't have that sort of time…"

I'm not sure the United States can afford to wait months for a cure, Artemis thought, but didn't voice that opinion aloud.

"Boss, I might have something!" declared Cisco.

"What is it?"

"Apparently Fong is holding a party on his yacht tonight."

"I doubt he's selling tickets on Ticketmaster," Cissie quipped.

"No, but the SFPD's informant might be able to score us a ticket or two."

"Oracle?"

"I'll make the call."

San Francisco Bay.
21:16 PDT.

Well, that could have done better, Artemis mused as she watched as SFFD paramedics zip Muchen Fong into a body bag, then she shivered slightly and wrapped her robe more tightly around herself as a stocky balding man moved into her line of sight.

"Can you tell me what you saw, ma'am…"

"Alice Cook, Inspector," Artemis replied, fingering her glamour charm as she did so. "I'm not how much I can add."

"I'll like to hear it nonetheless, ma'am," insisted Inspector Jacobi.

Artemis sighed. "Okay… well everything was pretty normal initially. Then Mr Fong started ranting about being 'Superman' and tried to goad one of his men to shoot him in the chest to prove his 'invincibility' but none of them were buying it. After a while he pulled a knife and started cutting himself and claimed to 'feel nothing'. One of the other guests tried to talk him down…"

"That would be Felicia Vukland?" asked the inspector, nodding to a tall, frizzly-haired blond woman who was sitting cried on one of the deck chairs.

"That's her," Artemis agreed. "I think that set him off even more though, as he shook her off and stalked off into the cabin."

"Was that the last time that you saw him?"

"Until they brought out his body, yeah," Artemis confirmed. "I heard that he was stabbed?"

The inspector nodded.

"I heard a couple of people saying that he stabbed himself?"

"We haven't confirmed the cause of death, ma'am," replied the inspector.

"I am I free to go, Inspector?"

"You are, ma'am," he confirmed. "If I could have a contact number in case we wish to talk to you again?"

Artemis rattled off the digits to a burner phone she used for her work on the Team and then she was allowed to go.

M'gann – disguised as a short-haired, bespectacled blonde and dressed in a white bandeau swimsuit and a blue sarong – met her at the gangplank. (What do we do now?)

(I'm not sure,) Artemis admitted as they walked down the gangplank together. (Forager, can you meet us harbourside as soon as possible?)

(Forager and Bio-Ship are on Forager and Bio-Ship's way, Tigress,) confirmed the Bug.

A moment after they stepped off onto the dock, a red-and-black luxury sedan drew up. Artemis opened the rear door and they slipped inside. "Take us back to the surveillance post, Forager. We need a new plan."

STAR Labs,
Los Angeles.
August 16, 13:16 PDT.

"Good afternoon, ladies," said Mr Slate as Artemis and M'gann entered his lab.

A tall, muscular black woman in a lab coat who had been standing beside the director, stepped forward and offered a hand. "Dr Paula Holt. Call me Paula."

"I've heard of you…" M'gann pondered without exactly asking the question.

"Me too," Artemis agreed after a moment. "You Gold medal in the heptathlon in eighty-four and eighty-eight, fourteen doctorates…"

"Sixteen actually," corrected the woman without a hint of arrogance. "I finished my PhDs in virology and genetic engineering last term."

"Congratulations," said Artemis. Given her own ongoing struggles over her first post-graduate degree, she had a tiny inclining how much of a feat that was.

"My late husband used to say I had an 'aptitude for aptitudes'," quipped the older woman. "I'd say the same thing about him."

"Paula has been helping us with the Clench," Mr Slate interjected.

"Not as much as I would like," she admitted. "The group that created this… L'Ordre de St Dumas… were clearly crazy, but they had some very smart cooks."

"We're not quite sure it's entirely their work that was co-opted by Die Geiergesellschaft or whether it was modified by Die Geiergesellschaft more recently…"

"Either way, it's impressive work… horrifically lethal but impressive," opined the doctor. "We haven't got anywhere near the data we need to cure it."

"Dr Stuart's blood was no help then?" asked M'gann.

"Not conventionally," Paula agreed. "He was genetically immune in such a way that no antibodies were created because he was never infected. The same appears to the case with Mr Fong, but it's difficult to be conclusive as we werte unable to obtain any live samples available from him."

"Sorry about that," Artemis said. "We tried but…"

"Don't worry about it," Paula told her. "Plagues can do very strange things to people."

"And according to the reports I've been able to track down, Fong was non to stable to begin with," offered Lt Stuart.

"Okay then, what's the next step for us?" asked Artemis. "Is there any potential for a gene therapy?"

"I've got a couple of promising lines running for a vaccine," admitted the older woman. "But as I said, data is a huge problem. Normally autopsies and survivor data would give us at least something to work with by now, even with Ebola… but we've got almost nothing."

Artemis' comm-link beeped. She turned away from the group and activated it. "Please tell me you've got some good news."

"Well, it's not bad news exactly," replied Mal. "We've found the third survivor."

"We have a location on the third survivor," Artemis repeated aloud for the group's benefit. "Where?"

"Her full name is Lenore We, full blood Innuit born in Nunavat, Canada. Went to Cape Heyjadick was part of her post-graduate degree. Looks like she ended up in Miami."

"Well, then that's where we're headed next," Artemis declared. "Any word on Robin?"

"He's holding his own for now, but…" said Mal, but trailed off.

"Yeah, that's what I figured," Artemis commented with a sigh. "Keep me updated."

"Will do," he agreed. "You should have her address."

A pop-up slid out from his symbol on her HUD. "I do," she confirmed, then turned back to face Paula. "Would Ms We be helpful to your efforts?"

"At this point I don't know," Paula admitted. "I doubt it…"

"But if we could find her, then maybe Die Geiergesellschaft can too," pointed out M'gann.

Artemis nodded, that thought had occurred to her too. "Are there any disadvantages?"

"Certainly not," Paula confirmed. "She might even have acquired immunity… it should be possible even if we haven't found any cases yet."

"Well, that decides it then," Artemis declared. "We're off to Miami."

Dade County.
17:16 EDT.

"Gold Coast Shipping Company?" asked Cisco incredulously as they dismounted their motorcycles outside the company's warehouse. "How are they going to be any help?"

"It's a safehouse," Artemis told him as she moved to open the door. "I'm hoping that they can help us with finding Lenore We."

"Well, we'll try our best to help, ma'am," offered a Cuban-accented voice. "Who sent you to us?"

Artemis waited until Cisco and Andie had joined her inside and closed the door behind them before answering. "Ellen Yin mentioned your little set-up, Detective…?"

"Gina Calabrese," replied the woman with a smile. "How's she doing?"

"Well, she's doing okay for the moment," Artemis replied. "But she's still in Gotham, so…"

"Yeah, that's true," admitted the older woman. "What can we do for you?"

"My team and I are working with STAR Labs on the Clench," Artemis told her. "We're having trouble locating any survivors outside of Gotham…"

"From what I've heard, there aren't any survivors in Gotham either."

"There are a few patients who've been infected who haven't died yet," Artemis clarified, feeling a brief pang as she thought of Tim Drake, current sequestered in the Bat Cave and struggling to survive. "But we've been able to locate three survivors of a previous outbreak. The woman we're looking for, Lenore We, is the last of the three."

"Okay, we'll help if we can," Detective Calabrese assured her.

"We tracked her to the city, but she doesn't seem to be registered at any hotel or renting anywhere."

"She might be staying with a friend in the city."

Artemis nodded. "There are references to a Donny in the city on her social media," she added. "But she didn't link to his profile, so all we know is that he's affiliated with the University of Miami in some way?"

"Donny… Donny…" mused Detective Calabrese. "Could be Donatello 'Donny' DeLuca. He's a low-level pusher on campus."

"Have you got an address?"

"Sure," agreed the detective, moved over to her desk, grabbed a pad of Post-It notes, scribbled on one and handed it over. "Good luck."

"Thanks," said Artemis and turned to leave.

17:32 EDT.

The sound of gunfire broke the quiet of the evening as they drew up outside the address that Detective Calabrese had given them. "Cisco was that…?"

He paused for a moment, then nodded. "I think so, Jefa."

"Andie, go!"

"Going!" agreed the white-haired girl, immediately turning into an almost invisible cloud of water vapour that floated up to the window.

Artemis dismounted her motorcycle, then waited for Cisco to do the same, then they crossed the pavement to the front door of the apartment block where the sound of gunfire had come from. As she was about to open the door, it blasted open from inside, knocking them off their feet and two men rushed out, dragging a woman between them and into a car.

"Mist to Tigress, man down!"

Tigress swore as the car drew away from them into the road. (Tigress to Miss Martian, Priority Red!)

(Go ahead.)

(Lenore has been kidnapped a pair of gunmen, they're heading north-west in a blue Ninety-Eighty-One Oldsmobile Cutlass, Dade County licence plate Yankee Juliet Charlie Zero One Six… follow them!)

(I've got them, pursuing…)

"Let's go and check on Donny DeLuca," Artemis said as she rose to her feet and crossed back to her bike, opening up its storage compartment and pulling out an large pouch.

"I've got you covered, Jefa," promised Cisco as they headed back towards the building.

18:16 EDT.

"Are they inside?" Artemis asked M'gann as they reunited outside an abandoned strip mall.

M'gann motioned towards a boarded-up store called Low-Price Lenny's. "They're in there… I haven't heard any shots or screams or any other signs of trouble since they went in a few minutes ago."

"The lock on the loading dock is broken," reported Arrowette as she joined them.

"All right… M'gann, take Andy and get ready to attack from the front," said Artemis. "Cissie, Cisco and I will infiltrate through the loading dock."

She paused to see if everyone understood, then motioned for Cissie to lead the way to the loading dock.

As predicted they managed to get in without attracting any attention and were soon hiding in earshot of the group, which had added two husky, Latino men in suits and loaded down with tacky bling, one of which appeared to be the leader.

"I wasn't part of Donny's deals," insisted Leonore as the leering, white-suited man gripped her chin and forced her to look up at him.

"Well, you're part of Donny's deals now, Popsicle," countered the sleezy gangster. "He shorted us on coke, and you're going to work off the shortage."

Yeah, that's not happening, thought Artemis grimly, drawing her crossbow and pointing it at the leader. (Move in!)

The bolt shot silently through the air and struck the gangster in the back, dropping him with an electric charge before he could even cry the alarm.

M'gann and Andie phased through the front of the shop and quickly took down the original pair of thugs holding Lenore hostage, while Cisco and Cissie took down the last member of the gang.

"Who are you?" demanded Lenore.

"I'm Tigress, this is Miss Martian and the rest of my team," Artemis replied. "We've been asked by STAR Labs to find you and bring you to them so they can possibly use your immunity to the Clench– "

"The Clench?"

"The filovirus that's devastating Gotham at the moment."

Lenore gasped. "It's the same plague that hit Greenland when I was there?!"

"Similar enough that it might be helpful," Artemis confirmed. "They're not sure as neither Dr Stuart or Mr Fong were of any help but Mr Slate still wants to try if you're willing?"

"I'll go anything I can to help," Lenore replied.

"I've contacted Gold Coast Shipping," said Cisco. "They'll deal with our friends here."

"Then let's get going," declared Artemis.