Alex and Harry decided it was time to swing by the Talon. Given they were staying in Smallville, Lucy and Lois had been working there part time. It would give them a chance to settle in. The two stepped into the room and walked forward, where a rather harassed looking Emily had been walking about. Thankfully, Chloe was there, giving her a hand and some words of assurance.
Emily's expression perked up ever so slightly, as she caught Harry on the other end of the room. She made a beeline over towards them, with Chloe following her close behind.
"Welcome," Emily said. "Sorry, I didn't see you sooner."
"That's okay, you're busy," Harry said. "Sorry to drop twice the work on your lap."
"It's not a problem," Emily commented, waving off Harry's words. "You couldn't have seen what happened. No one could have seen what happened."
"Including you."
Harry could see the guilt pressed in Emily's eyes over the next few seconds. She had been at the temple when Lana had been possessed. Harry put an arm over her shoulder and pulled her in tight.
"So, how is she?" Emily asked.
"Progress has been slow," Harry informed her. "Very slow."
"Yes," Alex chimed in. "The Teagues have not made any sort of move, and neither has Selena."
"With Genieve and Selena not doing anything, we're pretty much playing a waiting game," Harry said.
Oh, Emily had been afraid of that. Especially considering Harry pretty much told her that Lana would not be purged of her guest, until the point where Isobel got her work done. Which might not be any time soon, by the looks of things. Man, this was quite the glorious mess in many ways.
"Love what you've done while Lana is gone," Harry said. "I'm sure she will as well."
"Thanks, but Chloe, Lois, and Lucy helped where they could," Emily said. "Or tried. It's just, Lana had a lot of big ideas for this place. I really hope she gets better."
"I do too," Chloe said. "There's a problem in the back. One of the suppliers is claiming that there will be a backorder."
"You're kidding, right?" Emily asked. "I'll….I'll take care of it."
Emily disappeared into the back. One of the problems of running a business, was dealing with suppliers who could end up extorting just a few more dollars. Lana had been a bit more shrewd in dealing with this sort of thing, although both could be in over their heads at times.
Fortunately, Lena gave them some pointers on how to turn the tables on them. More often than not, it worked well.
A beep on Harry's watch caused him to perk up. Then the signal, a call for help.
"Detective Sawyer, she needs my help," Harry responded. "She wouldn't call unless it's important. Want to join me?"
"Sure," Alex said. "Gives me a chance to test out the new suit on the field."
After all, there had been no better experience, then practical experience. All Alex would do what be to press a button on her watch when they were out of view, and the nano-tech suit which Lena prepared for her, would be equipped and ready.
An armored Alex, and Harry turned up. Detective Maggie Sawyer stood outside of the bank, and looked very flustered.
"What's the issue, Detective?"
"Intergang," Maggie said. "They've got some new toys."
"I thought Morgan Edge had been forced underground due to the revelations of his involvement of the murder of Lionel Luthor's parents," Alex said.
"He's merely gone silent and lawyered up," Maggie said. "Wish I could have more to nail him a long time ago, but you don't get into a position of power like Morgan Edge without a lot of connections. And some of those connections stonewall an investigation. Evidence goes missing. Or witnesses."
Harry put a hand on Maggie's shoulder for a long second. She looked a bit despondent.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to get what we need out of there," Harry said. "We'll find you something tangible."
Maggie nodded, in appreciation. She really did not want to have to call him Harry, unless absolutely necessary. She had been just so desperate and these high tech robberies had been a bit over her paygrade. She hoped this would be the clincher to get some evidence to shut Intergang down. And get something to stick regarding Edge.
"They're inside the bank, they might have gone below," Maggie said.
"There's bound to be hostages in there," Alex said.
Harry took one look at the bank with his X-Ray visual. One casual scan of the bank confirmed what Alex had been saying as true.
"There are. Cadmus must have hooked them up."
It was here that Maggie groaned. Her last dealings with the shady lab had been fresh in their minds. Unfortunately, all of the evidence at the lab she knew of had been destroyed and all evidence scrubbed. Someone very powerful had been working it.
"Right, I'll go around to the left side, and….you…."
"Guardian," Alex murmured.
"So, that's what you want to be called?"
"Well, someone has to watch your back and protect you," Alex told him.
"Yes," Harry said. "Go to the right side. We'll sneak in. The armor has stealth capabilities. And make sure to get them away from the hostages. Detective Sawyer..."
"I'll be ready in case any of them run outside of the front door," Maggie told him.
Great minds thought alike, very often. Harry and Alex made their way around the bank. The lovely Detective watched and Harry could detect something in her eyes. Perhaps, anxiety in having to rely on a pair of what amounted to little more than vigilantes.
Harry understood it, but also understood that they had few options. If Intergang had high tech weapons, it was likely above the paygrade of the average police department. Unless they got upgrades to their gear and then it became an arm's race. And could lead to problems where average people could get hurt.
"Let's hurry up. We need to clear out this vault."
"Don't know why there's a hurry," one of the goons commented. "We have the goods. We have this machine. We are ready to take them."
"And if one of the cops get in their way, we have a couple dozen hostages who..."
A blur of light shot through the bank and all of the hostages had been taken out and left them with nothing. The Intergang goon who spoke did not have a chance to speak his sentence. In fact, he had been quite flummoxed in the process. At least until he got a leaping kick to the head.
"Someone's here!"
"No shit"
Several of the Intergang goons wielded weapons and pointed them at the direction of the goon who had been leveled. Their eyes came off of the drill which brought them back out of the ground.
"Come out, come out wherever you are."
Harry noticed them goon's attention away from the tank. Time to deal with their meals of escape. Harry rocked the tank and ripped the drill off of the front of it. The second punch crushed the tank and caused it to be reduced to little more than useless scrap metal.
"Shit!" one of the Intergang goons groaned. "I don't like this! I don't like this at all."
"Shoot at whoever is doing this to us..."
The goon which Alex punched out in the dark did not have any armor on. Harry rocked him, but did not drop them. One of the goons sent a blast of light at Harry's general direction. Harry flipped up over the air and smashed down onto one of the goons to bring him crashing down to the ground.
"Fire on him!" one of the thugs bellowed. "Or it! Whatever it is!"
"Could this be..."
Harry found one weak spot in the armor after some trial and error. He rammed his fist into it and disabled it completely. The man never had an opportunity to finish his sentence. Harry put him down onto the ground. Another huge smashing blow and the goon had been dropped down to the ground hard.
Alex used the blades on the armor to great effect and sliced open the suits at the points which Harry discovered they were weakness. The two worked in tandem and made good, work of the goons.
"We've got a runner."
Two of them to be precise. The pair of goons charged outside of the building where Maggie had been waiting. One of them activated a stun cannon and blasted it towards the detective. In a blink of an eye, Harry shot in front of the cannon and pulled Maggie off of the ground. They started to fire at her.
Maggie clutched onto Harry's arm.
"Don't think you want to get hit with that thing. Even if it is on stun."
Harry dropped down and disabled the two Intergang goons. He rose back up and looked at Maggie, who gave him a nod and a thumbs up in response before Harry pulled her up off of the building.
"Detective Sawyer," Maggie said. "I'm going to need back up."
Alex returned outside of the bank and met up with Harry. Despite having a helmet on, Harry sensed Alex had been very giddy at this.
"Overall, I would say the test run in a success," Alex said.
"These are glorified middle men," Harry said after a brief scan of their minds. "They just got the gear, were told to pull the job. And they didn't even meet with the guy in person who told them."
"Well, Edge obviously doesn't want any weak spots," Maggie said. "Thank you, you two, I appreciate it."
Harry and Alex resolved to stick around long enough to make sure this mess had been cleaned up. Maybe they would go over a few things with Maggie in the process before they would be heading back home.
Days passed since the adventure in Metropolis, and Harry and Alex now had been on the plane to China. Lena joined them on the trip.
"Tess cannot wait to tell us what she found," Lena said. "Although, she'll have to do it in person."
"Well, let's not keep her waiting," Harry said.
The plane touched down. The trio of Alex, Lena, and Harry exited the plane, where Tess had been waiting. Along with a lovely brunette woman who Harry met once before. Lori Lemaris, the Atlantean woman, beamed in Harry's direction as she had waved them over.
"Lori, it's great to meet you again," Harry said. "This is my girlfriend, Alex Danvers. And I'm sure you already know my girlfriend, Lena Luthor."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you both in person," Lori said.
"Tess," Harry said. "How are you doing?"
"Good, and I'm sure you'll be doing better when you've seen what I might have found," Tess said. "When Lena told me that you've found a vague trace of one of the stones in the far east, I did some digging. And I've discovered an ancient story about a temple which holds many secrets. And one of them is a stone of unlimited power."
The copy of the story had been passed to Harry. One casual read told Harry pretty much everything that he needed to know.
"The Stone of Fire," Harry said. "The secrets lie inside a temple just a little bit away from here."
"Well, we're going there next, then, aren't we?" Lena asked.
"Lori helped me with some of the translations, and it turns out her people had been studying it," Tess said.
It did explain why Orm had discovered the Stone of Water when he did. Although, Harry figured out pretty quickly that Orm did not have a full grasp of the true nature and ultimate power of such an object. Harry, Alex, Lena, Lori, and Tess all made their way into the temple.
Exploration indulged in the curiosity of the entire group. But, just being curious, did not mean an individual could be careless. And that was the problem, as Harry searched around the temple. As Harry suspected, these temples had a few curses to defuse them.
"Lori, how is your curse breaking?"
"I've studied it underneath the Queen herself," Lori said.
"Well, I'm going to need your hand to help defuse these traps."
"Traps," Alex said. "Of course there's traps."
"Well, people who built places to store treasure, they would have to have a security system," Lena remarked. "It would have to be crude."
"Makes perfect sense," Tess agreed.
Harry and Lori weaved their way through the numerous security defenses. Oh, some of them, they were classic. The old statues which came to life and attacked intruders, Harry would be well to avoid that one. The pit with retracted walls with spikes, could be messy, but Harry could avoid their activation. And then there was the oversized boulder which would roll down the tunnel ready to crush them.
"So, can we breath?"
"You can breath," Harry said. "The Crystal of Fire is through this door. I can feel it. It's calling for me."
That put Harry on edge and he was far from the only one being one edge. The entire party walked through those doors and made their way close enough to the crystal for there to be a great concern.
"Alex, is something wrong?" Harry asked.
"It's just, I expect something to happen when you touch that crystal."
Harry figured as well. All of the obvious traps had been neutralized. The only thing which would never be fully neutralized was his ability to trigger bad luck no matter where he went. Harry reached to the pedestal and touched the crystal of fire. He had no doubt anyone who was unworthy who tried to touch it would be burned to a cinder.
Still, the fire warmed his palm regardless and settled. Harry acquired the crystal.
Nothing happened.
"Okay, I was wrong," Alex said. "You have no idea how glad I am to walk out of one of these situations without…"
Harry pulled Alex to the side just as a shuriken whirled past her. The entire group stood rigid.
"Of course," Tess murmured.
A group of shadowy figures appeared in front of them. Alex groaned, very audible.
"Oh, why did it have to be ninjas?" Alex groaned.
"Why wouldn't it be ninjas?" Harry asked. "Lena?"
Lena stared, transfixed. She narrowed her eyes for a brief second. The group of assassins, had been lead by a woman dressed in white. A face-covering obscured her identity.
"Ta-er al-Sahfer," Lena told them. "The Canary, she's the Companion of Wraith al Ghul, the heir to the demon, the daughter of the demon, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul."
"How do you…."
Harry's question had been cut off by a super sonic scream which rocked the entire crew.
It was by sheer luck Harry managed to regain enough of his facilities to remain standing. The scream knocked Alex, Tess, and Lena to their knees. Lori just barely clutched down against the wall. Harry lifted his hand and sent the sonic cry back which caused some of the rocks to start to crumble on the ceiling above him.
Using his hand to block a sonic scream would cause Harry's hand to combust or at least every bone in his arm to break, if it had not been for the fact he had been super powered. He had blocked off the path of the ninjas, at least for now.
And not for long, as the Canary sent a cry through the rocks and moved her.
"Lori, get them out of here," Harry told them.
Lori closed her eyes. They did have failsafes around here. She noticed rune stones, completely hidden in the temple, almost faded for time. She pressed her palm against the rune stones and a portal opened open. Lena and Tess gave a backward glance.
Harry used his super breath to send the ninjas flying. Alex armored up.
"Get the crystal."
Well, that explained why the ninjas had been here. Guardian and the Canary tangled with each other, with the Canary avoiding some of the swipes from Alex's blades on her armor like they were nothing.
A particularly skilled ninja dodged Harry's attacks. The ninja created a ball of energy between his fingers and flung it with the precision of a ninja start. Mystic, which caused a problem. Harry had a few magic tricks of his sleeve as well. He dodged, ducked, and avoided numerous attacks.
More of the ninjas blocked their way. Harry decided to turn the tables on them by causing the ground to crumble out from underneath some of them. Some of the better trained ones avoided. Others had fallen into the room with spikes.
Whether or not they got out in time, Harry did not spent that much time to find out. Two of them held Alex. Harry distracted them just long enough to cause Alex to send them flying. The mystical blade which one held aimed to slice through Harry's skin. Harry flipped up into the air and landed down onto him.
"Where exactly are we?"
Tess's very obvious question caused Lori to pause. Perhaps activating a rune portal which lead to a location they had not known, had not been the best idea possible.
"Symbols on the wall, in some language which I don't even know what they mean," Lena said. "Well, this is a bit of a problem."
"Maybe," Tess said. "But, I've seen carvings like this before."
"You have?"
"On an island which I was a long time ago. And I was not there on my own accord either."
Lena thought Tess had a knack of getting into places against her will. Although this was not the time or the place for any snappy quips. Especially considering they were in the process of running from their lights. Despite being in the direct line of fire, the League of Assassins were persistent.
"Do you know what they mean?" Lena asked.
"Sorry, didn't get around to learning that before I freed myself," Tess said.
"I've seen them before too," Lori said. "I don't know the exact translation, but they mean nothing good."
Of course they did not. Lena, Tess, and Lori moved around and found another area in the temple. A wall weakened. They were going to have to trust this was the way out, and not their way into a pit of lava which would burn them alive.
Which, given how this temple was structured, Lena would put pretty good odds on that being the case.
Guardian battled the Canary. Back and forth, Alex realized just how out of her depth that she was in fighting. Still, her determination knew no bounds and she had to rise up and fight, harder, more vigorously, more violently than ever before.
"You're adorable," the Canary said breaking her stern facade. "You really think that you can handle someone who was trained the best the League has to offer?"
"No, but I'll not going to give up."
The Canary sent Guardian smacking up against the wall. Alex could feel rocked and she avoided a blade from connecting into her face. She sent her own blades and used a shield as well to block. Each movement sent Alex three steps back and the Canary had been five steps ahead of her at any given time.
Harry lowered the boom on one of the attackers. One sent a blade at him, which forced the crystal up into the air, out of Harry's hand and it slid against the temple.
Harry withdrew the mystical blade from the hand of the ninja who attacked him and fought his way through the swath of them. There sure seemed to be an army of them. Harry avoided the attacks of them and disabled them one at a time. He might not have the training they did, but Harry's reflexes and ability to read their moves before they could fully execute them put them ahead.
One of the assassins made a beeline for the crystal.
"Don't touch it directly!"
The assassin, in his greed to gain favor, grabbed the crystal, despite the Canary's warnings. She turned her attention away from Alex, who had a few bits of damage done to her armor thanks to the Canary's attacks.
The temple started to heat up, as the power of the crystal enveloped the assassin. He let out a blood curdling scream as fire burned around him.
"That wasn't supposed to be the plan!" The Canary said.
Fiery beasts rose up from the ground, directed by the man. Oh, this really was not supposed to be the plan.
Well, Harry had one idea, and that was to get the fire crystal away from this man. He did everything he could to stop the progress of the armor of creatures. He might survive, but the others, they would not.
"I'm sure you can use the portal Lori used to get out of here," Harry said.
"Two problems with that," Alex said. "It's blocked and I'm not leaving you anyway!"
The sonic scream the Canary used did little to block in the coming progress of the fire crystal holder. The power had been addictive, so he was not going to release it on his own accord. He kept moving away from him.
Harry charged right into the fire. Oh, the heat had been unbearable. He held the mystic blade, which only barely held up underneath the fire. Harry went straight for the arm, only for the blade he held to be burned to a cinder.
An arrow soured from the sky and broke open. It released a gas which caused the temple to ice up temporarily. Very temporarily, as the ice melted just an instant after it hit the ground.
This had been all Lori needed to rush into the temple. She moved around frantically. The hope that this would work, well it had to work, because they had no more options. She could feel the heat getting to her.
"Lori, get out of there!" Harry yelled for her.
"I got this," Lori screamed. "Just hold on a second."
She just barely managed to activate another failsafe with in the temple. Water rose up from the ground. It was another trap, intending to drown the person who tried to steal the crystal. The water almost evaporated as fast as it rose thanks to the fire elemental.
Harry charged in, with reckless abandon, and ripped the crystal out of the hand of the assassin who grabbed it. This caused the water to rise, and forced the assassins to retreat to higher ground.
The moment the fire had been put out completely. Harry forced his magic into the runes. Just as Lori disappeared and reappeared with Lena and Tess. Alex joined them on the outside.
Harry sealed the temple shut once everyone had gotten out. He flew up, higher and higher.
Seconds later, they were outside of the temple. And facing the Canary and the assassins. She looked at him through the mask, her blue eyes focused on him. Then she bowed.
"Vanish."
The assassins complied with her words. They all disappeared.
From the shadows, Harry came face to face with the hooded archer. Who spoke to him through a highly modulated voice, which did little to shed light on who the archer was.
"You can find the last stone where hawks fly."
The archer disappeared. Harry had the stone, and he may have had a clue on where the last stone.
"So, time to leave?" Alex asked.
"Yes, I would," Harry said. "Lena?"
"I'll tell you when we get back," Lena said.
Fair enough. Harry knew Lena had a few more secrets and he had a sense she was about ready to drop a huge one on him. At least that was the feeling Harry had right about now.
"This is a long story, but I'll try and get to the important bits. When I left the country, it was because I was in a bad place mentally. Not as bad as Lex was, but I was still pretty messed up. Fortunately, someone took interest in me and invited me to place called Nanda Parbat."
Harry and Lena had been back to the hotel room. Harry sat on the bed and Lena, she had been pacing back and forth, a bit anxious and rightfully so. At least until Harry took her by the hand and pulled her back onto the bed. Lena sighed.
"Around the time we broke communication?"
Lena nodded. Oh, she had not been upfront to Harry about this, but she never expected the League to come back into her life right now. Especially when she was at such a pivotal point in dealing with her father being arrested and her stepmother potentially being the cause of it.
"Communication to the outside world is restricted, and in most cases, forbidden," Lena said. "Although, I did not fully become one with the League, but I did get council of of their more prominent members."
"The League?" Harry asked.
"The League of Assassins," Lena said. "According to legends, they've existed for even longer than history has been recorded. And their leader, is named Ra's al Ghul, who is one of the most skilled assassins in the world. He's been around for centuries, and has taken extreme measures to prolong his life. Maybe at the cost of his sanity."
The quest for immortality, oh Harry felt like he had been through that one.
"The point is, my contact was Talia, who was his daughter," Lena said. "She had heard of my father's connection to the Traveler, and had been very intrigued by it. As are many women."
"Yes," Harry said.
"And others were interested in my father's word for other means," Lena said. "Perhaps they thought Lionel had been a recruit, or maybe, they saw him as a threat."
"So, that's where you were, among a group of assassins?" Harry asked. "And they know about the crystals, apparently."
"Ra's al Ghul knows much more than that," Lena said. "But, he's a man who is crafty as he is terrifying."
Harry had a lot to ponder on today.
"Were you going to share that with me, if Ta-er al-Sahfer, did not show up?" Harry asked. "And speaking of which, do you know who she is?"
"I have no idea," Lena responded. "I've got to step out. Important call to take."
Harry saw Lena leave and Tess passed the room. She sat down on the bed next to Harry.
"Long day," Tess said. "But, the good news is I've got an idea where the next stone would be based off of what the archer said. The journey though, is treacherous. "
"What journey isn't?" Harry asked.
He had to get the stones. The crystals and perhaps with them, he could assist Lana with her guest. At least that was the plan in Harry's mind. He could sense the tension in Tess and pulled her over. Harry started to rub her shoulders and neck which caused Tess to relax and sigh.
"This always helps when one of my girls has a bad day. I'll stop if you want to."
"No, I don't want you to stop," Tess said. "I want you to go as far as you want."
Tess enjoyed the massage. She could feel the heat swim over her body and she closed her eyes, relaxing ever so slightly.
"So, am I one of your girls?" Tess asked.
Harry just smiled and pulled back from her.
"Do you want to be?"
Tess answered by planting a huge kiss on Harry. The kiss had been returned, with Harry casually pushing his hand on the back of Tess's head as the kiss had been deepened.
The kiss broke. Tess smiled and licked her lips.
"Does that answer your question?"
Harry pulled Tess onto his lap and the two made out. Things heated up, more the temple they escaped earlier.
At Nanda Parbat, at the headquarters of Ta-er al-Sahfer, the Canary, turned up. She had been met by a dark-haired woman.
"Your journey was safe, beloved?"
"Yes," the Canary said. "But the Traveler has the stone."
"We will find alternative ways of bring down the witch," she said.
"Nyssa, there's one other problem. Al Sah-Him, she lives."
"Well, that's interesting, although not a problem. She's lost much. Her entire family, parents, twin brother, everything. But her targeting Vertigo in Europe and Kovar in Russia pointed evidence she was alive."
A third woman, dark haired, wearing a green dress, appeared at the temple. All of the assassins bowed before her.
"I did not stage a coup against my father to let one minor setback stop us from our goals," she said. "He never would have thought our mission to be possible. But, his time was at an end."
"Talia, what of him?"
" Ta-er al-Sahfer, is he everything Ms. Luthor told me he was?"
"Yes, and more," she said.
"Shall, I feel envious?" Nyssa asked.
"We can share," she said. "You promised that you would pledge yourself to him if I found him worthy."
"Yes, I trust your judgment, beloved," Nyssa said.
"As do I. The great darkness which the League prepared for his coming. He will be our greatest champion. The one which we are destined to serve as Earth enters a new age."
Talia, the daughter of the former Ra's al Ghul, who now had taken control of the league as the current Ra's al Ghul, issued this proclamation to agreeing eyes. Purging all of her father's hardcore loyalists and ensuring his body remained destroyed had been taxing.
But, now they had a clear vision. And perspective.