MoP
Harry Potter and the Myriad of Possibilities: Betrayal
Chapter 2: January.
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, or 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, Langmore 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 and Twenties as screened and includes several 'legacy' and original characters as a result.
A/N: Thanks to Jon and 6f5e4d for their help on this chapter.
Smallville.
January 16, 08:16 CST.
Linda sat at her desk in her bedroom writing a letter:
Dear Hank,
I hope you're doing all right? Aunt Lana, Zatanna and I were in London on Friday and got an update from SHE about the Sirius Black situation and there's good and bad news on that front. There's no sign of Black at any of the expected locations and neither the League nor the British government can get permission from the Ministry of Magic to station anyone near Hogwarts (Jason is still working on that apparently). On the other hand, one of the analysts suggests that he might have been framed by your parents' friend Peter Pettigrew who then escaped using his Animagus form.
Linda's phone beeped for an incoming message, Linda checked it, growled a little and finished of the note with a flourish, then sealing it with the wax seal that would trigger a courier elf to come and collect it. Then she changed into her uniform and headed out.
Washington, DC.
09:20 EST.
"The Justice League has received intelligence suggests that Queen Bee is going to make a play for Mikron O'Jeneus and his new experimental energy source," said Kylie Rayner as she stood in front of the bank of holo-screens in the Mission Room.
"Do we know when?" Roy asked the rookie Green Lantern.
"Apparently, some time when the next sixteen days," she replied. "That's the deadline to ship the prototype to the Pentagon. If he doesn't complete it by then the project is going to be scrapped. STAR Labs Security is mobilising, but depending on who she sends, they might not be enough, so we're agreed to provide back-up."
"And I guess we're first up," Roy declared.
"You are," Kylie confirmed.
"Then let's get moving," he said, leading the way towards the Zeta-Tubes.
"Recognized Arsenal B-Two-Four; Red Devil B-Three-Nine; B-Four-Zero; Power Girl B-Four-One; Crimson B-Four-Two."
New York.
16:00 EST.
Alpha Squad turned towards the main door into the lab as alarms began to blare. "Arsenal to Watchtower… We've got a security breach at STAR Labs New York!"
"Do you have an ID on the hostiles?" asked a voice for their commlinks, one of the newer members that Linda didn't recognize.
"Not yet," Roy replied. "Linda?"
Linda reached out psychically, wincing as she felt several of the STAR Labs security guards die at the hands of the attackers. "It's Onslaught all right," she confirmed. "Or at least some of them… I don't recognize two of them, but Mammoth and Shimmer are heading our way."
"Did you catch that, Atom Smasher?" Roy asked.
"Copy that," Atom Smasher confirmed. "I'll see if I can get you some back-up."
Roy turned to Dr O'Jeneus, "Doc, lock yourself in your office and try and keep out of sight."
"Are you sure…?" asked the engineer, turning towards the other door. "Shouldn't we…"
"We might not be able to take them down," Roy admitted. "Depending on who we're dealing with. But I'm pretty sure we can hold them off until back-up arrives."
The lab doors blasted forward into the lab, taking some of the doorframe and part of the wall with it as Mammoth, a towering red-headed behemoth strode into the room.
"Doc, move it… now!" Roy barked.
Panicking, the diminutive genius hurried towards the inner door and slammed it behind him as the other three members of the Bialyan strike force came in behind Mammoth.
One of new arrivals reached towards a damaged power cable and grasped it.
The lights began to flicker, and several machines shut down as power was drawn away from them.
Roy raised his cybernetic arm and shot a grenade at Mammoth in the chest, ensnaring him in a mountain of expanding foam.
Shimmer snarled a command to Charger and Deuce and turned back towards her brother, summoning her own powers to free him. The two rookies ran towards Linda and her team, Deuce multiplying herself into several duplicates in a flash.
"That's not good," Eddie commented.
Linda reached out mentally and instantly sensed the truth. "Illusionszerstörung! Verwirrender Chaosausbruch!" A shimmering wave of crimson energy surged from her outspread arms and washed over the horde of Deuces, causing them to fade into nothing, exposing the original.
"That's crash!" exclaimed Red Devil, unleashing a blast of searing fire, engulfing her before she could react and rendering her unconscious before she could break through her magically induced confusion.
Linda glanced around just in time to see Mammoth ripped through the remains of the reinforced foam cocoon that had held him captive. The redhaired behemoth roared, a sound that promised devastation, and charged towards the rest of the squad. "Watch out!"
Anissa stepped forward to halt his advance, solidifying her body into a hyper-dense barrier to block his punch, replying with a pair of uppercuts of her own that was enough knock him back for a moment, but he recovered faster than she expected and swung a tree-like arm around quickly enough to slam into Anissa's unprotected side as she breathed out, knocking her to the side.
"I've got it covered, Peegee!" exclaimed Eddie as he glided towards the brute and breathed a stream of fire in his direction, staggering Mammoth long enough for Anissa to recover and deliver several blows to his head, dropping him to the floor.
Satisfied that another threat was neutralized, Linda scanned the battlefield, spotting Roy dodge out of the way of a series of three increasingly weaking bolts of energy from Charger and sight on a rolling cabinet behind the villain with his grappler.
Smiling, Linda turned away from that battle to crashing sound and a scream of pain, it time to spot Shimmer liquify the floor under Jodi's feet, knocking her off balance. I don't want to hurt Jodi, I'd better go for precision, not power, Linda decided. "Chaos-Energieschock!"
The bolt of energy weakened as it closed the distance but still struck with enough power to disorientate the woman, giving Jodi enough time to close the distance and deliver a knockout blow.
"Good teamwork, guys," said Roy as the quintet gathered in front of Dr O'Jeneus' office door.
A moment later, four familiar forms appeared in a flash of light. Cassie, Gar, Leslie and Tara would have been a welcome sight a few moments earlier, but now…
"Welcome to the party…" Roy quipped with a snort. "Just after the nick of time."
Lochaber,
December 17, 21:00 GMT.
"Hank, could I have a word?" asked a feminine voice from behind him as he was packing up after the meeting, her voice soft but carrying over the muted chatter of the departing club members.
He looked up and smiled at the speaker, "Sure, Qiu," Hank agreed, glancing at Hermione and indicated that he'd catch up with her later. "Have a seat."
"I received an owl from my grandfather at dinner," Cho Chang began, the candlelight catching her long inky-black hair as she dropping into the chair that Hermione had just vacated. "I have bad news and good news…"
"The journal…?"
Cho nodded gently. "My zǔfù wouldn't part with the original. It is too important to our history and never leaves the family archive. Perhaps if you could visit...?"
"I would like to if possible, but I don't think that will be possible any time soon," Hank said politely, as his mood dropped like a stone. "But you said there is good news?"
The Chinese girl nodded, then reached into her bag, extracted a small, tightly rolled scroll from it and handed it to him.
Hank accepted it, shifting it in his grip so that he could unknot the delicate silk ties that secured the document.
"My zǔfù was intrigued enough by your request that he went through the journal and identified some passages might… prove helpful?"
Hank unrolled the scroll carefully. Both versions of the ancient text were rendered in the same neat, precise hand in an elegant, old-fashioned script. He scanned the passages, his heart leaping. These weren't just descriptions of the ancestor Dēng Jiàng Zhāng's metal-crafting techniques – which were interesting in their own right – but also contained many passages on the eldritch gem known as the Starheart that he had forged into a lantern that he gifted to Kublai Khan and eventually came into the possession of the WWII mystery man Green Lantern, whose power had significant resonance with the Patronus Charm used by British witches and wizards. "This…this is incredible," Hank whispered, his fingers tracing the delicate strokes of the ornate script. "This is exactly what I need – at least from the journal – for my project. Please thank your grandfather for me."
"I will do so," Cho agreed, and rose to her feet again. "Good night, Hank."
"Good night, Qiu."
Salem.
January 21, 20:30 EST.
"Are you all right?" Linda asked Mary as they stood with several of the Justice League's magical members and associates.
"I've been better," Mary admitted ruefully, rubbing an arm. "I went a couple of rounds against Golden Eagle and Silver Swan earlier in the week."
"Lucas has been talking about them lately," Linda noted. "He calls them terrorists."
"I certainly wouldn't argue with that."
"What happened?"
"I got cocky, and they handed me my ass," Mary replied. "I caught up with them at the LexFoods packing plant down by the old docks."
Linda made a face. "Not the easiest place to stage a fight."
"Nope," Mary agreed. "But I thought I could handle them, but I made the mistake of keeping the 'Speed of Mercury' and they ran rings around me before driving me into the concrete floor… I managed to switch to 'Courage of Achilles' just in time for it not to kill or cripple me but I still got knocked out. By the time I woke up, Detective Vecchio and his team were there, and Theresa was able get me to medical help."
"Sounds like you need proper back-up next time," suggested Aboki from Mary's other side. "You've helped me before; I'd be glad to return the favour."
Mary started to reply but faltered. "The ceremony is about to start…" she said as three glowing yellow portals reappeared at the front of the room, allowing three men to step back into the room.
"Akila of Bana-Mighdall, Dr Vincent Kent Nelson, Orm Marius…" began Dr Fate in their signature dual voice. "You have been deemed worthy of becoming one of my Hosts, step forward and join your fellows."
They stepped towards where Giovanni Zatara, Traci and Khalid were standing, as Doctor Fate reached up and removed the Helmet of Fate and transformed back into Zatanna.
Zatanna turned to Dr Nelson who – dressed in jeans, a dress shirt, blue-and-orange striped scarf and a shabby olive chore jacket – resembled an American version of con-man John Constantine, rather than the skilled psychiatrist and listener that he claimed to be. "Are you ready, Vince?"
"I'm ready," confirmed the blond man and reached for the Helmet. Zatanna released it and allowed him to lower it onto his own head. Seconds later, a blue-and-gold uniform replaced his street clothes, and his voice shifted to the dual resonance of Doctor Fate. "A new era has begun."
Chicago.
20:16 CST.
Seconds later after Mary stepped out of the glowing yellow ankh-shaped portal that had brought her from the Tower, her phone buzzed with an incoming text message. She pulled out the phone, read the message and put it away again. "Speed of Mercury!"
She rose into the air and shot off towards the waterfront.
"Thanks for coming, Mary," said Traya, when she answered the door to the apartment that she shared with her adoptive father.
"Not a problem," Mary assured her as she shed her jacket and hung it up next to the door. "Is RT about?"
"He's on monitor duty today," Traya answered as she led the way through to her bedroom, which boasted a large array of computer and electronic equipment against one wall. "I've been working on a geographical profiling programme, so I decided to run the information that the CPD has on those feathered menaces and their activities through it as a test run…"
"And you got something?" Mary asked, hopefully.
Traya nodded, her curly mane bouncing a little as she did so. "You might be able to spot it yourself," she suggested, as she brought a map of the city on the largest monitor, then tapped a few commands that added a series of dots.
Mary peered at the map, "They've hit half-a-dozen sites across the Chicago metropolitan area… three meat farms; a thrift store that was selling a genuine fur coat; a leather goods store; and the meat packing plant…" Then she trailed off as she realised what she was seeing. "Animals… the key connection is animals."
"Yep," Traya agreed. "And if they stick to their routine, they're going to hit another location tomorrow, probably something big… and there's only one obvious possibility."
Mary frowned, her eyes darting over the map, trying desperately to come up with another option. But eventually, she sighed and pulled out her phone, putting it on speaker.
"Chicago Major Crimes."
"This is Mary Marvel, I need to talk to Detective Vecchio."
There was a pause, and then a new voice spoke. "Vecchio."
"Detective, I think I have a lead on our 'feathered friends'."
Ray gave a snort. "That's good news."
"Not exactly," Mary countered and explained.
Ray swore.
"He didn't sound happy," Traya noted.
"He's not the only one," Mary agreed.
Cook County.
10:16 CST.
"One please," Mary asked the woman at the ticket desk, and handed over the requested money in exchange.
A moment later, she entered the zoo, hunched under her heavy cotton jacket and began to walk around the zoo, easily spotting several undercover officers including Ray and a handful of deputies from the Cook County Sheriff's Office, as she moved around the facility.
16:00 CST.
The early afternoon snow, initially a light flurry, had thickened into a swirling blizzard, chasing away all but the most dedicated and hardy of the visitors who had come prepared.
"This is Officer Anderson, we've got activity over by the petting zoo… I need back-up!"
"On my way…" Mary declared. "Speed of Mercury!" Mary sped up and sprinting towards the disturbance, the snow crunching under her shoes, adding to a cacophony of terrified animal cries – squawks, roars, and bleats – and then a human scream as she turned into a scene that greeted her was pure pandemonium: She immediately had to dodge of a trio of Holstein cattle, and spotted a flock of frantic chickens, a herd of panicked of goats and a miniature pony, usually a picture of gentle docility, bucked wildly, its hooves kicking up a spray of snow before she noticed the fallen officer, blood tainting the snow under him.
"Golden Eagle, Silver Swan… show yourselves!" Mary shouted and was barely able to dodge a razor-sharp steel wing as the pair swept out of the fog.
"Back for more, hero?!" sneered Golden Eagle, as he banked into a hover.
"Stand down," Mary told him firmly. "You got lucky last time."
"I don't think so!" screamed Silver Swan and unleashed an ear-splitting scream, sending a wave of icy air rippling towards Mary, who instinctively dodged the blast.
"Don't say I didn't warn you…" Mary told the pair. "SHAZAM!"
A massive bolt of lightning lit up the fog-laden sky, barely avoiding to the two fliers as it sped towards her, enveloping her less than a second later, transforming her into a taller, curly-haired woman in a red t-shirt dress and a white cape – both trimmed in gold – and gold boots… Captain Marvel
Golden Eagle took a breath to scream, but Captain Marvel was too fast for him, slamming into him with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs and send him crashing into one of the fences that ringed the enclosures.
The brunette hero spun in mid-air, peering through the gloom to try and locate Silver Swan, but a sonic scream from the distaff villain slammed into her, momentarily knocking her from the sky as well.
By the time she was back on her feet – unharmed but soaked and more than a bit annoyed – the two villains had regrouped and hovered above her.
"You were saying?" sneered Silver Swan.
"Yes, I was…" Captain Marvel agreed, grinning slightly as she gathered her power and sent streams of lightning in their direction, sending the pair reeling, then floated back into the air and sped towards them, pummelling them hard and fast, easily dodging their erratic attempts to land counterattacks.
16:16 CST.
"Thanks for the help, Captain," said the Brookfield chief of police when he arrived at the head of a mixed uniformed contingent to take in the two villains. "We'll take it from here."
"You're welcome, Chief," Captain Marvel told him. "SHAZAM!"
The officers stepped back a little as another lightning bolt came down from the sky and transformed her back into her usual form and then opened a path for her to leave.
"Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help."