Chapter 83: Fall of Olympus Part Two

And here we have a chapter where we see how much the universe really has changed due to the misadventures with the Mirror Box.

Chapter Eighty-Three: The Fall of Olympus Part Two. 

It was later that next morning and it was the aftermath of the night together between Doctor Helena Sandsmark and Doctor Harry Potter. Both of them decided to have a small and intimate breakfast in a small restaurant. This was a halfway point between the apartment where their tryst occurred and the house that she lived with Cassie.

They got a both that was out of the way in the corner so their pressed in tight with each other. Harry looked fairly amused when an actress waitress left them in a bit of a daze. He had to repeat his order a couple of times, because she was distracted by him. She was lost in his eyes.

She went off to fill it and Harry looked towards Helena. She was taking the matter in great stride. He looked kind of amused by her gaze.

"Well, you seem to be taking this pretty well," Harry replied to her.

Helena shrugged in response. "Well, you did make sure that I had a great night last night and I know that you attract a lot of attention. Plus, Diana has been working on me for a while time and she's explained a lot to me."

'How much?' Harry asked Diana.

'Enough where she is able to comprehend the fact that you are with numerous women,' Diana responded. She crossed her arms together and she sighed calmly. 'That waitress was being rather rude though.'

"I suppose that you get that a lot, so you take it in stride more than enough," Helena said. Harry turned towards her and gave her a smile. "She had a large amount of jealousy in her eyes, when she realized that I was with you."

Helena shook her head in amusement. She looked towards Harry and offered him a crisp statement.

"You know, I can almost write a paper about it, since your relationship dynamics are quite different what you'd normally see in a day to day society," Helena added.

"Well, Vicki once told me that it reminded her of a pride of Lions," Harry offered her.

Helena placed her hand underneath her chin and went "hmmm."

"Yeah, I can pretty much see that," Helena agreed. She leaned back a little bit on the chair. "It's also similar to a lot of ancient royal dynasties, where the Chieftain, King, Pharaoh, or those of high status had a large number of wives or concubines. They would be only limited by their wealth, their ability to support them, and their religion."

Helena looked thoughtful about the point.

"Those practices tended to be fairly common for a long time and it still is in a lot of cultures," Helena added. "But, I guess that organized religion changed a lot of things. In fact, organized religion has changed a lot of things."

Harry responded with a brisk nod. "I was studying history back in school and noticed that, although I figured that there were a lot of reasons for the change."

Helena gave another poignant, hmm. She thought about things for a moment. "There have been many reasons, but the overall values of society have changed. It has to do with religion, since they shape the roles that society as a whole has held dear. It's very similar with you in some ways, considering there's a bit of a cult like atmosphere that has surrounded around you."

Helena paused for a moment and thought about something else.

"It does make me wonder about the relationship you hold with your family," Helena said. That caused Harry to raise an eyebrow. "Such taboos are not help in certain societies, after all."

Harry blinked again. This pretty much seemed like a brazen question. It came at him out of nowhere. If nothing else, it seemed like it was a pretty blunt statement that she knew pretty much more that was going on.

His face shifted into a grin. He leaned closer towards her. "So, does that mean that you want to study me?"

Helena grinned and leaned in close to him halfway. She pressed her lips onto his with a searing kiss. She pulled away from him. "I'd like to do a long, in-depth, through study, to make sure that I see what really makes you tick. See all of your secrets bear."

"Now that sounds interesting," Harry whispered. He was a spoke in a nice and suggestive voice. He leaned into her. "Although I'm pretty curious about when you'd like to start."

Helena's lips curled into a slight smile and she leaned in towards him. She kissed him lightly on the jaw. Her gaze pointed towards him. "Who says that I haven't started already?"

She paused and added something, almost as an afterthought. "There's just something about being around you that makes me want to act as naughty as possible."

'Wow, never thought she had it in her,' Donna commented through the bond link with pride. It was obvious that Diana was going to say the same thing.

Harry raised his eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Helena licked her lips slightly and she slowly slipped beneath the table. She wanted to show him how exactly naughty she made her feel.

Harry could feel her undo his pants and fish him out. Her hot tongue could be felt underneath the table and her mouth slowly worshipped him. Her lips wrapped around him.

Harry placed his hands on the edge of the table and kept a mostly straight face. Helena's mouth worked on him and worshipped him. Her hand stroked him when she managed to just fit him all into his mouth.

'I don't know how you're keeping a straight face during all of this,' Kara chimed in. Her amusement brimmed from her voice.

'Plenty and plenty of experience,' Harry added. The girls seemed to have this habit of trying to get him to break his concentration.

Helena was giving a good go at doing this herself. It was during the part of this.

"Where did your date go, handsome?" the waitress asked.

Helena redoubled her efforts in an attempt to make Harry slip up. He did have an iron will of steel and she kept working him over.

"She had to use the restroom, I'm sure that she'll be back soon," Harry groaned. She felt her go all the way down on him.

She made sounds that were subtle, but at the same time, not so subtle. Helena's mouth came down onto him and she worked him down to the edge. His pleasure was about ready to give way.

Helena sucked his treat into her mouth. She slowly made her way out from underneath the table and made sure to lick her lips to show the fruits of what she did. She looked at him.

"I wonder if this is how this is how our study is going to entail," Helena said. She got to her feet and smiled. She saw the waitress approaching and she gave her a grin. "Bag it up honey, since I'm fuller than I thought."

Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu were still dressed as stylishly as they always were. Chang-Tzu's suit has a more oriental styling to it. The two of the made their way down to a dark and dreary hallway, which was all kinds of dismal.

Edgar turned to his cousin, raising his eyebrow. He allowed himself a moment to sigh. "This couldn't be any more cliché if we tried."

Chang nodded in response. "Yes, I agree…..but we have to deal with the minor annoyance that got in our way last night."

"Yes, this Magpie, aptly named given her attraction to shininess," Edgar responded.

"It was an unforeseen variable that we had no way of accounting for, and our plan was perfect, "Chang replied. He paused and stopped against the wall against one of the walls. "It was perfect except for this one frustrating favor."

"That's true, but we should have accounted for the fact that no plan survives the first contact with the enemy," Edgar said. "Despite the fact that the attack was uneggspected, we should have known better. But, we should have considered all of the angles."

"Yes," Chang agreed after a long pause. "We know better now and we won't make the same mistake in the future. For now though, we must track down the wayward dove…"

"Who absconded with our property," Edgar answered. He shifted his stance and looked calm. "And to do so, we need information, and here we are."

It was at that particular point where they arrived at the location that they were heading towards. In this particular case, it was a door that had several different locks on it of various types and makes. The most prominent one was an extremely elaborate electronic lock.

The two gentlemen eyed it disdainfully for a moment. Edgar tutted loudly and reached into his pocket before he pulled out a device that looked like a simple remote control. He turned it on.

While he did that, Chang-Tzu leaned in and proceeded to skillfully pick each of the more mundane looking locks in turn. It took a moment or two later, before they heard a pair of clicks. One of them sounded like a bolt lock, the other sound was from an electronic lock. The door swings open.

The two of them took their steps inside the apartment.

"I sense obsession," Edgar said as he looked around the stalker-cave. He looked around the cave, with a look of disdain, as his eyes rested on a large picture of the one and only Doctor Harry Potter.

"The day has changed for the worst," Edgar commented. "The good old days have passed a long time ago. Criminals were people of class and refinement and their enemies were about as much so as well."

"I'm not certain how a woman who dresses up like she's a Playboy bunny could be considered refined," Chang said, with a raised eyebrow.

Edgar swiftly answered his cousin's question. "I remember back in the day, that the Playboy Club was the epitome of both class and refinement. Of course, I don't expect a communist to understand the fact."

I guess that I will never understand a bunch of tarts baring their goods," Chang answered. He shook his head in bemusement.

The two of them made their way through the apartment, their discussion was pretty brief. The two of them came across the man that he was looking for. It was Edward Nashton, who had fallen asleep at his desk, drooling his keyboard when he snoozed.

"It is hard to find adequate help in this day and age," Edgar commented. Chang turned towards him and gave his cousin a slight frown.

"Are you certain this is the man that we're looking for?" Chang asked. "The one that we need to move forward with our grand plan."

"He might lack…..certain qualities," Edgar answered. "He lacks that certain, jena se qua that we look for in a contemporary, but the man is pretty uniquely qualified to help us in that particular instance."

Edgar shook a deep breath and shook his head. There was another thing that he wanted to discuss.

"Besides, we've been out of this game for nearly twenty five years by this point and the people we relied on in the past have either retired, incarcerated, or have died," Edgar explained. "Our options are limited and beggars can't be choosers."

Chang sighed. "You do have a point, as much as I loath to admit it. But I can't help but to think that we're scrapping at the bottom of the barrel."

He reached forward casually and upends the chair. That caused Edward to fall backwards in a yelp of shock at the rather sudden and rather rude wake-up call. "What the devil was that?"

He looked up and at him. "Oh my, oh my, oh my, you're….you're them. You're Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu!"

"Please get a hold of yourself," Edgar said. He was regretting this already.

"But, surely you're two of the greatest criminal masterminds in your time or any other, you befuddled the JSA and eluded capture for years," Edward said. He bounced up and down in excitement.

It was a bit late in the morning to the Gotham academy. An Asian Schoolgirl by the name of Jade Crock was at the school. She just finished with the school administration in order to go over her records and plan her extra-curricular activities. She had been transferred out of a public school in one of the rougher districts. She would have started earlier in the year, but the Gotham Private Academy starts back a bit later after the holidays than the public school system does.

She had to admit that things got fairly smoothly. Jade sighed and she stood around looking bored while she waited for the student who was supposed to be showing her around the campus and to her classes. To pass the time, Jade started to fiddle with her skirt.

"I swear, this looks like something out of a hentai fan boy's wet dream," Jade groaned. She tilted her head back and allowed herself to sigh.

It turned out that she didn't have to wait too much longer for her student advisor to arrive. She saw a tall redhead girl with shorter, shoulder length hair that framed her face, along with a fit and athletic body approach her. It was far shorter than it was, but long enough where she can pull it back into a ponytail.

"Are you Jade Crock?" the girl asked.

"Yes," Jade answered. She noticed that there was a young brunette girl around her age following her. She seemed to be in some kind of indepth discussion with the girl on her way here.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," the redhead said. She gave the brunette with her a warning look, as it appeared that she was just going to keep on rambling if she was allowed to go on unchecked. "Homeroom went a bit longer than it was supposed to, since we're just coming back from Winter Break and there's a lot that we needed to go over."

"No, problem," Jade said.

"I'm Amanda Potter, and this is Lois Lane," the redhead said.

That caused Jade to be off guard. Given that the person that was responsible for her coming to Gotham Academy was Amanda's aunt, that was something that caught her a bit off guard. She wasn't one that would stay off guard for long at all. Especially given how much Amanda seemed to be relaxed by the whole affair.

"Thank you for agreeing to show me around," Jade answered. She leaned forward and decided that it was best to be polite.

"It's my pleasure," Amanda said. "I wanted to meet you ever since I found out that she played football, and I became the Captain of the team this year, since the former one just graduated."

Jade's eyebrow rose. Lois, sensing danger, slowly started to wave her off. "I wasn't aware that GPA had a football team."

"Oh, they call it soccer, but believe me, its football, that's what it is."

Jade stepped back and she allowed Amanda to fly in a passionate rant. She took an amused look at the face of one Lois Lane and it seemed like this was a rant that Lois encountered many times. So she just took things in stride.

"Um, I'm sorry," Jade said. It was more of a question than a statement.

Lois jumped in shrugging. "Amanda is a bit obsessed with soc….fine, Mandy, Football, because she's British and they seem to be just a little bit obsessed with the entire game as a whole. That and tea and crumpets, but mostly soc…okay, football! But she takes things to an entirely new level."

Amanda chuckled in amusement. "Well, laugh it up smart ass and see how you like it when I make you run wind sprints at the next practice."

That caused the one and only Lois Lane to be cowered. She gulped a little bit in response and Amanda shifted her way back a little bit from her. She slowly turned around to see Jade.

"Come on, we'll give you the grand tour around the campus," Amanda said. Lois, Jade, and Amanda all walked off.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Jade asked. Lois placed her hands on her hips, but Amanda side stepped her before she could say something really cutting.

"She shares a couple of classes with you," Amanda explained. That caused Jade to nod in response. "Plus, Lois is getting tested to see if she's dyslexic in the afternoon so she's got time to kill."

Jade nodded in response.

"So, what's your family like?" Amanda asked her.

"Well, I live at home with my mother and my sister as well," Jade said. She decided not to mention where her father was. Thankfully Amanda didn't press the issue and she looked towards Lois to warn her not to press the issue either. She noticed Lois's eye.

"Oh, me, well…I live with my Harr….my guardian," Lois said. She nearly had a slip of the tongue.

Jade might not have notice if, if Amanda's amusement broke through and she started to laugh like a madwoman.

Amanda finally caught her breath when the two of them made their way towards the cafeteria area. They were right outside as the tour was wrapping up. "Sorry, Lois lives with my family, since her father is in Germany. My older brother, Harry is currently her Guardian at the moment."

Jade heard of Harry Potter, naturally. He was all over the news. She decided not to say anything regarding him right now.

The three of them arrived at the cafeteria.

"And that's my twin sister, Emily," Amanda said. Emily looked identical to Amanda, or she would have, if she didn't have the longer hair. There was another group of girls. "Why don't you join us and I can answer any questions you might have?"

"That'd be nice," Jade said. She thought that she had a few, but they were kind of personal. So she would stick with school for now.

The snow came down hard in Kansas on the road that ran from Smallville all the way to Metropolis. It looked to be the type of weather that gave nightmares to anyone who wasn't used to driving it. It was a huge stretch of road that lead from the small town to the big city.

Martha Kent was sitting in the driver's street of her SUV, driving. "So, are you coming down to visit since you've got time off school?"

"I might, I'm not sure what's happening really now, my professor has just got up and disappeared," Kara replied. She seemed to be rather confused. "But I think regardless of what happened, I've got a couple of weeks off at the very least."

"What do you think happened?" Martha asked. She focused on the road and took a particularly tricky turn.

There had been so many wrecks down this particular stretch of road due to the fact that there were so many inattentive drivers during the winter weather. Martha focused on the road for a moment and then when she was safely back on a cleaner section of road, she focused on what Kara was saying.

"Considering the fact that this is Gotham, it's a good chance that he'll be found in the river somewhere," Kara said. She gave a sigh. "I don't know if it's because he pissed off the wrong person or not. He could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. And the GCPD has their hands full with the rash of gang activity as well."

"So, do you think that they'll find a replacement?" Martha asked her.

Kara shook her head after a second and spoke honestly. "Eventually, I'm sure. Until then, we're just spinning our wheels."

Kara closed her eyes and thought about it.

"I've also been talking to Karen and Patricia about some information that Alexa gave us, regarding some business she could do for RAO," Kara said. She was speaking more off the top of her head of anything.

"Seems to me that she's fitting in well," Martha added. She stopped and hoped that the snow didn't kick up too bad before she got home.

The entire town of Smallville can close down for the winter if a snow storm got particularly bad. She was glad that she and Jonathan had a lot of supplies for the winter.

"So, how are things going at the farm?" Kara asked. "Now that you have a couple of new farm hands that are helping you out with everything. There are no major problems, are there?"

"No, things are going pretty good," Martha confirmed. "It's the winter though, so they really can't do too much. It's mostly maintenance so they can get everything all ready for the spring."

Martha snapped her fingers as if something came to her suddenly. "There is a rumor that the Widow who owns the property next to ours is looking to sell. Things have been pretty rough since her husband died a couple of years back. And her son decided that he wasn't cut out for the farm life. She wants to get out while she can. This is Smallville and there's a good chance that Lionel will try and scare off any interested parties that aren't LuthorCorp."

"Then he'll try to lowball her, won't he?" Kara asked in disgust.

Martha sighed. "Yes, that's really how things have worked since the Meteor storm in the eighties."

Martha could almost visualize Kara scowling over the other end of the phone. Most certainly, she got the visual image of the girl crushing her fist together with a nasty look on her face and a prominent scowl on it.

"Well that son of a bitch," Kara murmured to herself.

"Kara," Martha said reproachfully.

"Sorry, you weren't supposed to hear that," Kara said nonchalantly. "I'm going to talk to Harry, Faora, and Karen to see what they can do. It's quite likely considering the location they might be willing to make a woman a fair offer. But, it really depends on the timing factor more than anything."

Martha could hear Kara's prominent sign over the other end of the phone.

"Things are budgeted pretty tight right now, so we really got to pick and choose are spots wisely," Kara said. She seemed a bit flustered in having admitted this. That would be akin to the blonde to admitting defeat.

"Kara, I understand, believe me," Martha replied. "That would seem to make sense with all of the projects that RAO has going on at any point in time."

"Yeah, a number of projects," Kara said. She lightly snapped her fingers. "Also, we're more or less in a subtle takeover of Queen Industries, so that can eat into a lot of time and resources. But one of our major focuses is the environment and revitalizing farmland, so it would make sense and be best for business to snatch that land up."

Kara decided to shift focus at that point. "How is Claire doing?"

"She's doing fine, dear," Martha replied with a chuckle. The woman smiled. "She was doing just as fine as when you asked me at the start of the conversation."

Kara sounded sheepish when she responded with a light sigh. "Oh….yeah."

The conversation couldn't go much further, when Martha noticed a peculiar sight at the side of the road. She looked to be fifteen or sixteen years of age and she was walking on the side of the road. She was pretty tall for her age, even though Martha could not make out her features completely.

Martha also could not help noticing, with all of her maternal instincts, she was shivering badly. Mostly because she was underdressed because of the weather and wore only a thin men's flannel shirt, which was over a white t-shirt, along with a pair of jeans, and to be frank, the only thing that she wore that suited the weather is a pair of hiking boots that looked pretty beaten up.

It was also noticeable that she was caring a backpack with her and didn't seem to be going in any place in particular.

"Something came up, Kara," Martha said in a half distracted voice. "I'll call you back when I get home."

"Yeah, okay," Kara replied. She frowned and wondered what that could be.

Martha pulled up beside the door and slipped down the car window. "Would you like a ride, sweetie?"

The girl turned around and it was at this point that Martha could make out a pretty distinctive white stripe that's running through the girl's hair. She was also an extremely pretty girl, although a bit of a waif at the moment since she's looking like she hasn't eaten in a while.

The teenage girl looked hesitate for a second. She fretfully looked over to the left and over to the right, as if checking to see if the coast was cleared. Then, when she responded, it was in a thick Southern accent. "If it isn't too much trouble?"

Martha shook her head and opened the door, so the girl could climb inside. "I wouldn't have offered if it wasn't too much trouble. My name is Martha Kent….I live down just down the road here."

The girl slowly slipped off her leather gloves and took a minute to warm her hands. She turned towards Martha, and shook her head. She responded with a soft. "Marie."

Siren sauntered her way through the Gotham museum like she owned the place. Security was tightened due to the break in last night and the collection that was being shown had been blocked off so that the GCPD can investigate things properly. The rest of the museum was left open though, so the museum can come and go.

"Yes, that would be wonderful, darling, if you can take me to him at once," she said in a soothing voice.

The guard nodded, enthralled by this particular woman. "As you command."

"Yes, as I command," Lorelei whispered. The guard was completely and utterly underneath her thrall.

There was an artifact being stored here that he boss wanted, or more likely needed in order to use his new toy properly. Otherwise, the delusional idiot might likely would end up being his hands off. The woman decided to take advantage of the fact that the museum was broken into last night to further Maxie's goals and by extension her own. She needed to acquire the artifact for him in order to do this.

"Yes, my mistress, anything for you, so beautiful, so perfect," the guard said.

"Yes, I know that you are devoted, now Professor McElroy's office if you please," Siren said in a dull and bored voice. It was almost like she was disinterested in what this man had to say.

Professor William Omaha McElroy was one of the three people in the building who knew exactly where what she was looking for was being stored. The other two were Helena Sandsmark and Margaret Sorrow. One of which isn't in the Museum right now and the other being tied up with the police currently in the building.

They reached the door and the guard turned his head to the Siren in an adoring manner.

"Well what are you waiting for, knock on the door and announce us to McElroy?" Siren asked. She paused and added. "And then after you're done, go jump off the nearest tall building that you can find."

The guard eagerly nodded his head and knocked on the door. "Professor McElroy, this young lady wishes to see you. She says that it's current."

The guard scurried off to go find that tall building to jump off of. Lorelei turned and saw McElroy, who was dressed down for him. He was in his normal attire, with his suit jacket hung on a coat rack.

"Professor McElroy, my name is Lorelei, I wish to speak to you about a problem…and only someone of your great intelligence would be able to help me solve it," she whispered in a breathy voice.

Lorelei smiled when she was lead into the man's office. The door was shut behind him.

"You are the only person that can help me, sir," she said. She said this like she sounded like a devoted fangirl. "No one is more knowledge about history than you are, sir."

At first, McElroy was a bit suspect about this young woman. But she seemed to be someone really eager to learn. His discomfort disappeared immediately and he was swept underneath the sincerity of her voice when she spoke.

"I'll do whatever I can to help you with your problems," McElroy said.

She had in perfectly relaxed. Lorelei thought that this was going to be more difficult than it really was. She used her voice.

"Yes, that's it, you are the great Pharaoh Tutankhamen," Lorelei whispered. Her powers washed over his mind and waved an illusion over him that was disconnected from the real world. "And I am your beautiful Nefertiti."

"Yes, I am, I am the great pharaoh and you are my queen," McElroy whispered. The woman's voice caused him to see the reality that she wanted him to see.

"And I need you to help me find an artifact that will prevent an insurrection on your Thebes," Lorelei continued. She pulled him on in, hook, line, and sinker. The man grabbed the bait, all she had to do was real him in. "The gauntlets of the sky god, I wish for you to tell me where they are. Tell me."

"They are currently located in a room in the back," McElroy whispered. "The inscription needs to be read properly so they can be researched and put on display properly."

There was a mixture of Tutankhamen and McElroy with the man. Lorelei reinforced the spell that she put on the man. She wanted to really make sure that she continued to hold him underneath her thrall.

"Yes, darling, yes, darling, tell me more," Lorelei whispered. She reached forward and lightly stroked his cheek. "Tell your dear Queen everything that you know."

"It was to be on display for Helena….Doctor Sandsmark's exhibit," the man whispered. His tone sounded rather raw when he spoke.

"Yes, yes, take me to them please," Lorelei commented.

"As you wish, my lady," McElroy said.

He walked forward. There were no guards there. Lorelei told the other guards to take a nap. The GCPD was tied up elsewhere in the museum so they shouldn't be a problem.

He did move rather quickly for a man his size and stature. McElroy reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. When he found the proper key that he was looking for, he unlocked the room, which lead them inside.

"Yes, yes, brilliant," Lorelei whispered. She was smiling at the thought of what these things could do.

Sitting on the table in the midst of the room was an open metal case and resting within them is a pair of black metal gauntlets which would come up to a man's forearm. They were trimmed in electrum and heavily etched with a scene of Olympus. It depicted Zeus throwing his lightning bolt from the heavens.

Her eyes widened and a dazzling smile crossed her face. Lorelei turned towards McElroy. "Pick up the case and follow me."

Harry and Barbara stood at the Gotham City airport. His back was against the pillar, where Barbara was snuggled tightly up against him. Her head rested on her chest. His arm wrapped around her snugly.

Resting in his hand was a prototype of the Red Sun Eclipse, which he was reading from currently. This would be the point where he would normally have a conversation with Barbara. There was one problem with that, she was sleeping quietly at the moment. The girl had a fairly long night.

They both did actually but Harry was able to function without a whole lot of sleep with a long period of time. Both of them were waiting for a flight for a very long time. It was evident by this point that the flight ended up getting delayed.

Harry was just finishing up the report, when a rather loud announcement jolted Barbara out from her state of sleep. Thankfully for her, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist and kept her from falling backwards on her butt.

His lips shifted into an amused smile, but that was the extent of what he said. He wanted to keep her from feeling embarrassed as much as he could.

"So, has she arrived yet?" Barbara asked. She yawned.

"No, she hasn't," Harry confirmed. He slipped the phone that he was on in his jacket pocket. "The weather is pretty bad at the moment since a plane blew in rather suddenly."

Barbara scoffed. "Well that's not too surprising considering the weather is pretty bad in Gotham this time of a year. She would have been better off flying into New York."

Harry looked surprised and leaned towards her. "I thought that you wanted to see your friend for a visit."

Barbara smiled when she looked around at him. "I do, especially since I haven't seen her for like about six months since she was in England. But we could have driven to New York rather then having her fly into Gotham in the middle of the winter."

Harry responded with a nod. That did make a lot of sense. "So, remind me again who are we waiting for?"

Barbara figured to enlighten Harry, even though he knew. It was likely just a means to have some kind of conversation to pass the time. It might be dead useful if someone was listening into their conversation that wasn't in the know.

"Do you remember my friend, Gwen?" Barbara asked him. "You two met once….that's who we're waiting for, by the way. You know, short blonde hair, glasses, a questionable sense of fashion…..not my words, but….yeah."

"Well, she is the type that was more into academics than fashion," Harry answered. Barbara nodded in response. "She did seem like a nice, pretty girl, if a bit nerdy. But that really isn't a problem, is it?"

They did meet pretty briefly many years back. Harry's new set of memories that happened after the crisis event did remind him of that. There were a few more alterations that he didn't have a chance to reconcile.

"What was she doing in England, anyway?" Harry asked her.

"Well, Gwen graduated early like I did, and she was either going to go to ESU or GCU," Barbara explained. "But her girlfriend's Aunt and Uncle were killed in a home invasion, so Gwen decided to go with her to Oxford for about six months in order to attend a prestigious course on Molecular biology. That ended though very recently, so now they're coming back home ended two of them wanted to check out GCU for themselves. And I offered to put them up, since she wanted to visit."

Harry smiled and had a question. "That makes sense. So what is the name of Gwen's girlfriend?"

"Theresa," Gwen replied. "But everyone calls her Reilly because her full name is Theresa Reilly Parker."

Harry looked thoughtful, there was something about the name that sounds familiar.

"Name does ring a bell, but I don't think that I've met her before," Harry admitted. Barbara raised her eyebrow curiously at him.

"Well she's pretty mousy by nature, and got bullied a lot until she met Gwen as a freshman," Barbara explained. Harry placed his hand underneath his chin and nodded. "It really wasn't that big of a surprise when the two of them had started to date."

Barbara thought of something and she frowned deeply. "Where exactly would you have heard Reilly's name, if you didn't meet her?"

Harry considered this question for a moment. "I remember the name from a biochemistry paper that I read recently."

Before Harry could get into that fact too much, they were interrupted by a loud and excited scream of "Barbara!"

Harry and Barbara both turned around. It was obvious how much Gwen had changed since the last time he saw her. The change she went through was rather stunning. She wore a black skirt that fell just above her knees, black leather boots that just cam below the hem of her skirt, and he could make out the stockings. She wore a tight black shirt that stretched across her ample chest and a black leather jacket that matched her boots. Her hair is pulled back with a headband.

An excited Barbara rushed over to greet Gwen with a hug, nearly running her over. This gave Harry a chance to come to his senses. He was mostly paying attention to a conversation between a rambling Barbara and Gwen.

"Okay, Babs, slow down, the human brain can't comprehend that many questions at once," Gwen replied. She looked extremely amused. Barbara's eyes averted downwards and she looked rather sheepish in the process.

"Seriously, how have you been, really how was England, were the classes at Oxford any good?" Barbara asked.

Barbara realized that she hadn't properly introduced Gwen to Harry just yet. That seemed kind of rude to her.

"Gwen, you remember Harry Potter, don't you?" Barbara asked.

"I remember him, are you kidding me, Barbara?" Gwen asked. She tried to keep herself in check, but she was prone to fangirl moments as much as the next person. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Doctor Potter, it's a real honor."

Harry smiled.

"Gwen, it's Harry," Harry said.

"Right, right, of course," Gwen answered. She shook her head and tried not to make a babbling fool out of herself. "But, it's just that you've got so many doctorates in such a short time and the Red Sun….it's been a life saver for a lot of people, and it's going to be bigger. You're going to be even bigger than Microsoft."

"Well, let's hope so," Harry replied, with a chuckle. "But, I hope to only put out the very best products."

Gwen managed to fire off a series of questions. She seemed to be intrigued to learn more about him and Harry indulged her with a little bit of interaction. He seemed amused, but not as amused as Barbara was.

"So where is Reilly in all of this?" Barbara asked, when Gwen finally calmed down enough to allow her to get in a word edgewise.

Gwen had been so enraptured with her conversation with Harry that it took Barbara clearing her throat and repeating her question to knock her back to reality.

"She went to get the bags."

On cue, a rather stunning dark auburn hair girl approached them. She wore a pair of blue jeans which tucked into a pair of high heel boots that end just below the knee, along with a dark blue shirt and leather jacket. A pair of stylish glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. She held a backpack on her back and carried a bag in each hand.

"Harry, this is Theresa Reilly Parker," Gwen remarked. "Reilly, this is Harry Potter."

Reilly gave Harry a going over and smiled. She could see Harry doing the same thing. "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot."