Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Invincible. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.

Chapter Three: Putting Names To Faces

Nolan stared at his screen with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. It seemed that his timetable was moving smoothly, and now that Harry was officially getting out into the world things could progress as they should. Which meant the message that had sparked his current mood shouldn't have worried him nearly as much as it did. He'd been awoken in the middle of the night by a pitched tone that only a pureblooded Viltrumite could hear, so he'd been rather shocked to discover his oldest at his door asking about it. Instead of answering where anyone else could hear them, he'd instructed his son to suit up and had taken him to his secret lab where the only method of communication existed that he had to speak to his homeworld.

It seemed Viltrum was sending new agents to check on the progress of those already in the field and offer assistance where necessary. It just so happened that the one being sent to Earth was… Anissa.

Harry eyed that message and asked the first logical question that came to his mind. "Who is Anissa?"

"She's a pureblooded Viltrumite warrior and she's thousands of years old."

"Really? So she looks older than you I imagine."

Nolan shook his head. "You would think so, but no. She actually looks like she's in her twenties by human standards because her blood is so pure and refined with the finest of our people's genetics. She's the only warrior I've ever met who took part in the great purge."

A hungry glint began to grow in Harry's eyes, "She sounds like she'd be amazing to fight."

Nolan nodded, that was the perfect response. "Indeed she is, and when she arrives I will recommend she spar you. It will be a good experience for you both." He smirked, "Who knows, she may find you an actually worthy match for mating."

"She hasn't mated yet? I thought you said all Viltrumites are encouraged to increase the population after the purge lowered our numbers?"

"We are, but she has maintained for centuries that she wouldn't bear unworthy offspring. There has not been a warrior thus far who has caught her eye."

"Really?"

"Well there was a time she was interested in me, but it didn't work out. We were deployed to different locations and her interest waned before anything could come of it."

"Unfortunate."

"Indeed. This doesn't say exactly when she is going to show up here, but we should be prepared to greet her when she does." He pulled up an image on his monitor, "This is her. Keep your eye out."

Harry eyed the image and took in every feature he could. He saw a woman of regal beauty with black hair cut short, dark eyes, perfect musculature, and a smile full of confidence in her own abilities. "She is beautiful."

"Tell her that when she gets here. She'll probably appreciate it. Well, since we're here already, let's talk about that fight you had last week with Professor Gravity. I liked how you handled it by crushing his gloves and hands, but let's analyze the events and see what could have been done differently."

"Sounds great."

The Next Day

Harry and his dad had talked long into the night before going home, but even with only two hours of actual sleep he woke up bright and ready to face the day. The pair of supers didn't talk about what had happened the night before at the breakfast table, but they did share a knowing look before he headed off to school with Mark.

Everything went fine at first. He attended his classes, actually paid attention in one or two of them, but it was when he changed for gym class and entered the gymnasium that something crazy happened. The students were all lining up for dodgeball when he saw a certain black haired Asian girl with an amazing figure. He saw the exact moment Dupli-Kate recognized him as well and gave her a cocky grin that set her face to blushing. There wasn't time to talk during all the physical activity, and the rush to the next class precluded any further discourse, but he knew, and she knew, and they both knew each other knew.

So when the bell rang for the end of the day he wasn't surprised to see her running to catch up to him in the parking lot. What did surprise him was the redhead that was hurrying just as quickly beside her.

"Holy shit," he stated when they finally reached him, "does every teen superhero go to school here?"

"Not so loud!" Atom Eve hushed him before taking his arm and leading them all back to an enclosed dumpster at the back of the school. Once she closed the gate and made doubly sure no one else was around she said, "To answer your question, I think we're the only supers in the school."

"How is it that no one has recognized you two yet?"

Eve huffed and crossed her arms, "Why hasn't anyone recognized you yet? Those glasses aren't exactly a natural camouflage. People see what they expect to. In a highschool they see high school students. When they see a teen in a super suit they see a superhero. The two might as well be mutually exclusive cognitively."

"Does the red suited asshole go here too?"

The redhead bristled a bit at that name. "His name is Rex and he is taking distance learning courses at our base. And he's really a nice guy once you get to know him."

"Really?" Harry shot back, "After you left our fight with the lizard guy did he admit he fucked up or did he spend a minimum of two hours badmouthing me to any of you who would listen? Did he even thank you for catching him and saving his life?" Eve's silence was answer enough.

"You deserve better than him, Eve. Why are you even together?" Harry wanted to know.

"T-That's not important right now." Eve answered, clearly not in the mood to get into it.

That being said, Harry took note of the wary sway of her shoulders as she spoke. It seemed she had taken note of at least some of the guy's behavior and she was not a fan of it. Where there was one chink in the armor there were bound to be more, and he fully intended to crack open all of them. "So we all go to school here and we all also fight crime. Seems like proper introductions are in order. I'm Harry Grayson."

"Samantha Eve Wilkins." The redhead answered. "But Eve is fine."

"Kate Cha." The brunette added.

"Well, Kate and Eve, it's nice to officially meet you." He held out his hands and each of them shook them. "You got any plans for the rest of the day?" When the answer was negative he offered, "If you have your suits we can go out on patrol."

"I can't fly." Kate argued.

Harry smiled roguishly at the girl and said, "Then I'll have to carry you." He didn't give them time to reply, instead he pulled his suit out of his backpack and began to strip. The girls turned red and ran around the other side of the dumpster to see to their own outfits, and the half-viltrumite couldn't help laughing at the sight. Training with his father he had long ago lost any qualms about nudity. The Viltrum martial arts were traditionally taught in the nude at first so the body further absorbed the movements. The practice also forced the trainees to realize they could rely only on themselves, not anything they wore or brought with them.

It didn't take long for the girls to come back and he allowed himself a moment to peruse their forms with his eyes now that they were at a closer distance than last time. Eve was more stacked in the assets department, but Kate was perfectly proportioned for her size and made up for the difference with a noticeable muscle tone.

"You both ready?" When they gave their affirmations he scooped up Kate in a bridal carry and took off into the air with the redhead hot on his heels. Because their little jaunt was unplanned it took a while to find any actual crime and they spent the time just enjoying each other's company and sharing stories and facts about each other. On the whole, a real friendship seemed to be growing. And Harry would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying holding the Asian girl close.

All too soon it came to an end as his sensitive ears picked up the sound of some form of carnage or other. He raced down to the source and came upon an urban area being wrecked by a team of gunmen and a large fellow absolutely coated in what appeared to be concrete or stone.

"How do you want to handle this?" Eve asked as they drew up short behind a cloudbank. For the Teen Team, Robot always put their plans together, but he was not here.

"That depends, "I know Kate can duplicate herself, but what about you? How do your powers work?"

Eve was touched by the question. Most people just thought she could make things with pink energy. Even her boyfriend took them for granted. "I can manipulate the atomic structure of pretty much anything. It's kind of like transmutation, but I can also manipulate energy into physical constructs."

"That's awesome!" Harry crowed, earning a fresh smile from the redhead. "Okay, here is the plan, Kate, you're going to duplicate and take out the gunmen, Eve, I'll need you to draw their fire so our little multiplier doesn't get shot, and in the meantime I'll handle the big guy."

"Right!" The girls agreed, and as one they dove for the ground, taking note of the police hiding behind their cars to avoid the bullets pelting the side.

"Stay down!" Eve called as she soared over their heads, creating shields of energy and Kate was dropped several meters away. In the meantime Harry shot straight at the stone man and smashed him through a wall into a neighboring warehouse. It was empty of course; why were so many warehouses empty these days?!

As his foe struggled to pull himself out of a pile of bricks the impact buried him under, Harry looked back out at the battle. Eve was doing a great job bobbing through the air with her shields, absorbing enemy fire with ease. Meanwhile over two dozen Kates were mobbing over the shooters like a living tide. Yup, they had potential.

Turning back to the big guy he asked, "You got a name, pal?"

"They call me Titan." The stone monstrosity boomed as he finally managed to free himself. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh no reason really. I just wanted to know what to tell the funeral director to carve on your headstone." In a flash he was in front of Titan with a fist cocked back before releasing a blow that sent him careening up into the ceiling. When he didn't come back down, the hero floated up into the rafters and found the guy clinging on for dear life, the stone around his head crumbling away to reveal a shocked face slowly dawning with terror.

"The fuck you mean my tombstone?" He tried to muster some courage there, but lost it the moment he felt a super powered kick connect with his ribs and send him carving a divet back through the floor beneath.

"Exactly what I said." Harry chuckled as he floated on down to meet him again. "You know, I appreciate that power of yours. You have no idea how annoying it is when your foes fall to only one punch. I think I'll get at least eight out of you before you kick the bucket."

"Y-You can't do this." Titan groaned as he began to crawl his way out of the floor. He could barely breathe, and the tip of one of his ribs was sticking out of the side of his chest. "This isn't how this goes. You step in, we fight, and I go to prison. No one dies in this business! You're a hero. Heroes don't kill villains."

"Most don't, but I do." Harry's voice took on a quiet menace as he landed beside the villain and slammed his heel down on his knee, cracking straight through stone and bone alike. The screams were music to his ears. "When the police ask, all I'll need to say is that you kept coming at me every time I told you to surrender." Another stomp, and then a punch. "Yes, you just" smash "kept" crunch "coming." squelch.

And that's just what he told the police when they entered the warehouse to offer support. Well, whatever support their pitiful human weapons could provide. They were upset at finding a corpse but they didn't question his story too much. Apparently Titan was a serial escapist from prison and was a constant figure on the bank heist scene. The idea of him constantly coming back for more was far from outlandish.

As the boys in blue carried on cordoning off the scene Harry moved off to join Eve and Kate who were getting a cup of coffee from a nearby shop.

"Oh Berserker!" Eve immediately pulled him into a hug, now that they were in costume their aliases were all they would go by. "We just heard. I'm so sorry you had to do that. Maybe if I'd been more proactive with the shooters I could have gotten to you sooner and helped."

It didn't escape Harry's notice how calm Kate was considering the topic, or how she gave him a subtle nod of respect and understanding. Interesting. Turning his attention back to the redhead he said, "You did exactly what you were supposed to, Atom Eve. Look at me, I'm fine, and I knew coming into this job that I might need to take a life here and there. I mentally prepared for it a while ago. So I'm good. That reptile thing we fought and Titan each were bad guys intent on doing bad things. The world is safer now that they're gone. "

"Well… if you're sure." She didn't release him from the hug, and he wasn't going to move.

"I am, but thank you for caring. Now are you two ready to head back out there?"

At their nods he picked up Kate once more and the trio took off into the sky. Once he was sure the windspeed would hamper any sound from reaching Eve he asked the girl in his arms, "Something you want to talk about?"

"You killed Titan."

"Yes, that's pretty obvious."

"But it wasn't self defense. You hid it well, but you enjoyed it."

Harry's face froze into his usual mask and he contemplated dropping his cargo, but curiosity held him back. "If you think that then why haven't you said anything to the police or Eve?"

In a move that surprised him deeply, the black haired girl blew a raspberry and started to laugh. "Tell the redheaded cheerleader? I think not. She does not yet understand the true ways of the world or just how fun true combat and destruction can be."

"And you do?"

Kate's mood dimmed for a moment before she quietly answered with a question. "Do you want to know how I got my powers?"

"A bit off topic but sure."

"Apparently centuries ago in ancient China an ancestor of mine went on the warpath. He beat down entire armies and eventually an emperor before he was done, but before he died that same emperor cursed his family line. At sometime in the future one of his descendents would be cursed with too many children to ever care for. As curses went, that didn't seem so bad, and for centuries nothing came of it and the whole thing turned into a ghost story the family told around the fire. Then…" She took a deep breath, "My parents had a pair of twins. Me and my brother Paul. Mom died soon after due to health complications from the delivery. My dad handled it well enough, until he came home and there were dozens of me and Paul crawling around."

"What happened next?"

"He went mad. Trying to care for so many of the same two infants just boggled his mind too much to carry on. The state institutionalized him and took us into the system, where the government eventually took control of us. Paul and I were turned into 'assets' and tossed into clandestine operations before we had even hit puberty. Two sources of near infinite soldiers were a pretty big draw for the guys in dark suits. Paul and I fought, killed, tortured, and we grew to love every minute of it."

"Hm, that sounds delightful." For the first time he actually allowed his mask to drop in front of someone other than his father. He had been listening to the girl's heartbeat as she spoke and not a single word spoken had been a lie. Even the part about enjoying the slaughter. "Why would you stop such a life?"

Kate frowned, "Apparently Robot's bosses in the government found out about 'our' government handlers, and stepped in to shut them down. It was something about how using children for wet work was immoral or something like that."

"Pitiful."

"I agree. Anyway, I figured if I couldn't kill legally anymore I might as well kick some ass legally instead, and I signed up with the Teen Team. Paul wasn't able to make the same choice and he disappeared. I have no idea where he is now."

"And how does all this relate to what I did?"

"It relates because I know what it is to enjoy the slaughter of a foe. You just might consider a more isolated place next time. One of my clones saw you through a window and I had to force the others to keep the police back a few seconds more for you to finish up."

"Huh, I had no idea I was spotted. Thanks Kate."

In spite of their rather heavy conversational topic, the brunette smirked and said, "If you really wanted to thank me you'd take me for a walk, or to the movies."

"Why Dupli-Kate, are you asking me out?"

"And if I am?"

"I would be delighted. We need to finish up here, and then I've got some homework to finish up, but I should be free around eight. How does an evening walk sound?"

"Fantastic."

"What's your address?"

The trio continued on patrol for another hour or so before heading back to the school, changing back to civilian attire, and going their separate ways. He made it home where he was informed by his mom that dinner was twenty minutes out. He informed her he was off to do some homework and went upstairs. Having already completed all his schoolwork for the year, his 'homework' was a written analysis of his fight with Titan and how he could have approached the situation from other angles. A complacent warrior was a dead one so it was always good to keep oneself aware of varying strategies.

It wasn't long before his mom called them all to dinner and the men folk ran down to the table. Their mom was a master in the kitchen and tonight was steak night. True to form they took their seats and the plates were all passed out. Their mom had thin sliced her own filet and diced it over a plate of steamed rice and vegetables. Nolan had his charred practically black, Mark a solid medium rare, and Harry… Well he liked his meat to still be bleeding so it was a deep red rare on his plate as he carved into it with gusto.

"So," Debbie began as they started eating, "how was everyone's day?"

The mustachioed man waved a hand, "Nothing crazy for me. A couple of dictators with Mech suits that needed reminding they weren't gods and a quick flight to the moon just to stretch my cape so to speak. What about you, dear?"

"Oh I had a productive morning cleaning the house and a fine afternoon of classes. I really feel like I'm ready for my exams." This news was met with happy applause from everyone at the table. Two months ago she'd announced that since both of her boys were now in highschool she wanted to go back to school herself and reenter the workforce in some way. She was mere weeks away from taking her tests to become a licensed realtor and her family couldn't be happier for her. "And you boys? How was your first day at school?" To her surprise, her youngest blushed, and her oldest looked smug. "Something to say?"

"I got a date." Harry smirked.

"S-So did I." Mark rubbed the back of his head.

"Wow, bro, really? Score dude!" Harry raised a hand and gave his little brother the highest of high fives. "How'd it happen?"

"I, uh, got a note from one of her friends. Apparently this girl in my class, Amanda, has had a thing for me since middle school and now that we're in high school she wanted to take a chance. I met her after school like the note asked and agreed to take her out. We're seeing a movie this weekend."

"That's awesome, dude."

"Yeah. What about yours?"

"Yes, Harry," Debbie winked at her oldest, "what about yours?"

"Well it turns out those two girls from the Teen Team I met at my debut go to our school. It was surprisingly easy to figure out who they were and they recognized me just as easily. We went on patrol, flew around for a while, and Kate ended up asking me out."

"Dupli-Kate?" Nolan mused. At his son's affirmation he gave a nod of respect, "Nice choice, son."

Debbie was also smiling, "She's the Asian girl, right? She seems nice, at least from what I've seen in her interviews."

"Chip off the old block, son." Nolan smirked.

"She really is nice." Harry agreed. "I'm taking her on a walk tonight."

"Maybe we could have a double date at some point, Harry." Mark noted. "Two bros hanging out with their girls, man that would be sweet."

"It just might." Harry chuckled as he dug back into his steak. Conversation went about as normal from there. No phones were allowed at the dinner table and his dad even put away his government issued pager for the family tradition. It was a merry time for them all and once the dishes were cleaned (The one that cooks doesn't clean so Debbie sat reading a book while her men handled it) Harry flew off into the night and landed outside the door of the address Kate had given him.

She answered on the first knock, smiled up into his face and looped her arm through his. "Let's go, I don't want my 'parents' to drag you in for an interrogation."

"Parents?"

"The government facilitated an adoption after I was 'liberated'." She made some air quotes as they exited the driveway and started on down the street. "They're nice enough but they don't really get me, you know?"

"I think I do. People like us, with powers like us, we're above the rest of humanity. We stand apart in ways that they cannot hope to ever comprehend."

Kate leaned against him, "It's lonely isn't it?"

"Yeah. I guess it is. I've known what I was and what I needed to do since I was a small child, but I always worried about being myself. How doing so would be received, and what it could reveal. I have to say, I never expected to meet someone that enjoys violence as much as me."

"Flattery will get you everywhere." The brunette girl chuckled. "You know, if we're lucky, and we make our way to the wrong side of town, someone might actually be stupid enough to try and mug us…"

Picking up on her meaning at once, the half-Viltrumite grinned wide enough to reflect the light of the streetlamps off his teeth. "I like the way you think."

So it was that the new couple carried on into the night in search of their own brand of mayhem.