Chapter 11: Snapshots in Time.

Chapter 11: Snapshots in Time. 

"I'm so jealous of you Harry! I mean! Like! It's all so completely fascinating, isn't it?" Kitty asked, only for Rachel to give her a warning look to be silent. Kitty hushed up trying to keep her dignity the best that she could, but there was still a look on her face that indicated she wished she'd been on the plane when it crash landed. "An entire island of warrior women at your beck and call! I mean! That's kind of, like, that's really….that's….I mean seriously!"

Kitty shook her head to try as she tried to wrap her head around everything. Her mind was completely blown and it took her a few seconds to be able to even comprehend anything, much less everything. Harry smiled, placing a hand on the top of her head, then patted her, and the brunette mutant watched him with intensely focused eyes, as did Jean, Rogue, Rachel, Wanda, Megan, and Kara. All of them extremely interested in what happened on the island.

"I was there. So, yes it was interesting," Laura commented with bored indifference, but there was a mysterious smile on her and there was a few seconds where Kitty stared at Laura, with even more interest than she usually did.

"Details?" Kitty asked Laura with an excited look on her fact, only for Laura to offered her a slight shadow of a smile and a shrug of indifference.

"Maybe later," Laura said lightly, the smile widening slightly across her face, she was not going to lie, she enjoyed tormenting Kitty. The look on the brunette's face was absolutely priceless as her eyes bulged out and then she narrowed them at Laura, but the pout she had on her face ruined any attempts to be intimidating.

"Oh! Come on!" Kitty begged as she bounced up and down a bit. then intertwined her hands in a pleading gesture. Looking absolutely adorable due to the imploring gaze that she had directed towards the feral teen mutant.

"Now! Kitty, that won't get you anywhere and you know it," Jean commented as she crossed her arms together then she pushed herself back to lean against a nearby wall. The redhead's eyes flashed with amusement, she was looking forward to getting the full details on Harry's trip to the island, in complete detail later. It was going to be completely….well the few flashes that popped into her head during the hot and heated adventures on the island was amazing. She would be cherishing those memories for quite a long time.

Kitty shrugged her shoulders with a sigh, after throwing her arms off to the side. "Yeah! I guess so."

"Well, it does sound pretty cool," Kara admitted with a smile, she supposed that she would get to the island soon enough. She needed to inspect that monument to Har-Rell, to ensure that it was up to specifications and if it wasn't? Well! She'd melt it down to slag with her heat vision and tell them to make it properly this time. The blonde pushed her hair out of her eyes at that thought and the mysterious smile on her face widened into a slight smirk.

"And the side benefits were amazing," Rogue added with a cheeky grin and Harry had a calm expression on his face, although a smile threatened to twitch off at the corners of his mouth. He was not going to say anything, as his eyes said pretty much everything.

"Yes, the side benefits were amazing," Harry agreed with her as he tightened his grip around her hand and Rogue nodded, with a glowing smile threatening to spread over her face.

"So! What do we have to do today?" Rachel asked.

That was a loaded question, for many reasons. Even with his ability to create dupes, Harry still took on a lot more than most people did. Still, he answered the question with good grace and with a wide smile on his face as he looked at the girls.

"Well, there is a lot to be done today," Harry admitted to the girls and they all smiled brightly.

"I'm sure there's more than enough for someone like you to do," Kitty commented and the implied double meaning of her statement was not missed by Harry.

Megan's eyes widened and she flushed, recalling her latest encounter with Harry.

"Well, Har's always busy doing something," Kara commented to them all and there was a laugh that was shared by everyone.

"You two are about as subtle as Thor's hammer to the head sometimes! I swear to God!" Rogue groaned palming her face as she did so, she was kinda sorta amused by their antics though. She tried not to show it too much because it would be unbecoming of her. Still, the mirth of her eyes was caught by the more observant members of the group.

"Well! Given that Harry's trying to put together a multimedia empire. He always has more than enough to do. In does more in one day, than twelve people do in a week," Jean stated rather firmly and Harry smiled, nodding in agreement at her words.

"Yes, I do," Harry commented to the redhead. There was a few seconds where the wizard pushed his hair out of his eyes, as he thought about everything he was up to as of late with the picture perfect clarity offered to him by his eidetic memory.

The Torch was actually; well it was on fire, if you wanted to use the very obvious pun. There were other areas that they still had to tackle though. Jameson's mouth was being kept to a minimum, but it wouldn't be JJ if he was completely silent. Basically, he sat in his office, barked out orders, demand pictures, pictures of Spider-Man, fired and rehired Peter on a weekly basis, even though Peter was under contract and the only one who could actually fire him was Harry. He decided not to let Peter or Jonah in on this fact since it amused the hell out of them, but he was curious if Peter had ever learned he'd secretly paid off the mortgage on May's house and her medical bills.

Harry figured that things like that made life interesting so he allowed Jameson to keep his meager responsibilities, though it was Betty who more or less, actually ran things at the Bugle. He supposed that until he did a complete overhaul of everything and got more of his ducks in a row in other areas, it would be unwise to upset the apple cart too much. And as Harry reminded himself, Jameson did have quite a few connections which could be used to good effect.

"Sooo...what's going on with SHIELD?" Kitty asked Harry and he shrugged his shoulders.

"You know that's a good question," Harry commented, the entire situation was pretty baffling. Well, except for the fact that Maria Hill and Jessica Draw wanted to get into his pants. Which wasn't a new thing, but he was holding out on Maria until he could figure out a way to nail her in the middle of the command deck of the Helicarrier.

"Maybe Fury's taking a vacation?" Jean suggested and Harry's look became completely and utterly dubious. "I know, it's…."

"...Far fetched. If Fury takes a vacation, then I'll eat his eye patch," Laura chimed in as she mulled it over in her mind. She always wanted to know exactly where Nick Fury was at all times and she could tell that others thought the same thing. Even that was tricky though, because he seemed to have more Life Model Decoys out there in both Old Man Fury and Samuel L. Fury varieties than Doom had Doombots of himself and Harry had dupes running around.

Harry was thinking along the same lines. There was a sense that there was something in the air. Fury disappeared pretty quickly and Harry had been making excuses to take frequent trips to SHIELD as well, not that he needed many excuses given some of the sexy female agents on tap that he could tap, but still, he was curious.

He came to one conclusion, the people in charge of SHIELD, they knew little more about Nick Fury's mysterious disappearance than Harry did. The official word was that he was taking a leave of absence but everyone involved was very skeptical about that.

"We'll just figure out what happens from here, as it happens," Harry concluded and he left the question at that.

Knowing Fury, there was a reason for his disappearance. He doubted very much that Fury would have gotten captured but who knew at this point.

"It's one of those days," Betty admitted to Harry but then she could not resist adding a few more words. "Well, it's the Bugle, so it feels like one of those days happens a lot more often than it should happen, but you get the picture."

Harry nodded his head in agreement and he told her as much. "Yes, I get the picture, but we're doing very well here."

"Top newspaper publisher in the city right now," Lois chimed in as she popped up from around the corner. She was pleased that it was some of her stories were able to help push the Bugle to newer heights but she was only one part of a bigger machine. "Of course, all of us….we had to work together to get to this point."

"Naturally," Harry agreed with her and the woman peered at him for a few seconds with narrowed eyes.

"You haven't forgotten…."

"No. I haven't, Lois," Harry informed her. Appearing to almost be insulted, that she thought that he would forget something this important. The woman's eyes locked onto him and she nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd forget about our date," Lois said, mentally slapping herself for her lack of faith.

Harry nodded, since his meeting with Jan got pushed back a bit due to Avenger related business that came up. That was the perils of being a super hero, sometimes the social schedule did not line up. Still he had a feeling that it would be worth the wait.

"You're so busy sometimes, I swear you have to be about ten different people," Lois commented and Iris turned up, to hear the tail end of the conversation.

"You know that would be something, to be ten different people," the woman admitted and Harry looked at her with one of his patented "don't be so absurd" looks but then he shook his head. "Although if you move around at the speed of light, you can somehow find the time."

"Well, you moving at the speed of light would be the only reason why you got a story about three minutes after it broke," Cat offered as she took a donut before Iris ate them all, since Harry had taken control of the Bugle, they had gotten such treats.

"Cat, I told you, I was able to get there quick because I have a really good car," Iris persisted in a patient voice as she shook her head.

Lois smiled, she did not say anything, but she could have sworn that she saw Iris bolt out of here pretty quickly, pretty frequently. She wondered at first if it was due to her mind being the thing that was working at super speed because of too much coffee. Be that as it may, Lois still heard a lot of things that happened. The dark haired woman turned towards Harry.

"So…."

"I'll see you all later," Harry stated and Betty smiled at the very thought. She wouldn't mind seeing a little more of Harry, he did drop by a couple of times a week to see how everything was holding up but he was out of there pretty quickly. Then again, given all of his responsibilities, it went without saying.

Lois watched Harry having decided to tag along with him; she wondered if today would be the day that she could get him to slip up. There was times that she could have sworn that he had a feeling or perhaps knew that she knew, but that could have been because she was paranoid.

The young man walking next to her reached over and taking her hand intertwined their fingers. It was a wonder why people didn't mob him as he walked down the streets of New York City, but she supposed that he had his own tricks to keeping a low profile. Never the less, she was glad to be the one that was on his arm today.

"I heard that your company grossed record profits last quarter and it's making LuthorCorp, OsCorp…WhateverCorp, it's putting them on the ropes," Lois said to him and there was a smile on his face based solely upon this news.

"Think it's Luthor-Osborn right now and well, I don't mean to brag," Harry said to her and Lois raised an eyebrow towards him.

"That's fucking bullshit! You brag all the damned time Harry. Honestly, you act like Tony Stark did before his heart injury. Half the time you act like god's gift to woman, which, is sort of true. But when you're not acting like that. You sort of come off as an insufferably smug genius level asshole, I admit you make it work but still..." The woman argued as she watched him with interest, but Harry could not resist chiming in with a few words of his own.

"Well, you're equally as prideful," Harry fired back with a teasing smile across his face and the dark haired woman narrowed his eyes at him, but before she could banter back, loud angry voices were heard nearby.

Harry craned his neck forward and focused his super hearing towards the sounds. The green eyes of the wizard flashed with loathing as he heard exactly who it was. It was the group formally known as the Friends of Humanity, who admittedly had seen better days, but there were still a few of them who refused to give up their demented dream.

"Don't those idiots ever take the fucking hint?" Lois asked Harry with exasperation in her voice and he offered her a pained smile.

"Obviously, they don't," Harry said to her as he looked over his shoulder to ensure that there was nothing sneaking up behind him.

The goons were backing a young girl up down an alleyway. She was wearing a hooded purple robe that covered her face and she backed off warily much like a trained fighter would, giving them a glare that indicated that they better step back.

"So, you think you're tough, mutant?"

"You idiots, think I'm a mutant?" she asked in a stoic tone of voice, her voice was crisp and there was a warning present in it.

"We don't think! We know! What else would you be, you little FREAK!?" A member of the unnamed racist group against mutants said.

"I think she's going to cry! You know what I mean, Vern?" One of the members of the group stated as he looked at the young girl but she stayed back against the wall, calmly glaring back at them.

"Trust me. You want to leave, before it's too late," The girl commented as she watched them and then her eyes glowed, she was not sure how much longer she could hold back her rage.

"What FREAK Trick are going to do with your eyes now! Oh, are you going to cry?" The man said, he looked like an overgrown walrus as he stepped forward and held a tire iron in his hand. "Well I'll give you something to…."

The tire iron was ripped out of his head, then it smacked him in the face, busting him in the mouth and causing a good number of his teeth to fly out. It had also done the job of knocking him unconscious. Which caused the corpulent man to crash into some trash cans as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"You're going to pay for trying to take me down!" She stated and her eyes glowed with even more power. "You don't want to do this! You really don't want to do this, my power is greater than yours!"

She ripped the weapons from their hands, then crushing them into balls like they were tin cans, hurled them with great fury at her enemies. The sound of crunching bones and bodies clanging filled the ally. They'd bitten off a lot more than they could chew.

"Get out of here!"

Harry was even interested in what was happening and Lois was as well. She had never seen anything like this in her life, reality was literally warping around her.

'Bloody hell! Her magic is more chaotic than Wanda's was,' Harry thought as he leaned forward to get a closer look.

'Seriously? It can't be that bad,' Wanda chimed in through the link but everyone around Harry in the streets, screamed as the skies briefly turned red. 'Okay...that's much worse then I thought.'

Harry took a step forward to speak with her but before he could the girl opened a portal and escaped through it. The wizard's eyes followed her as she disappeared, then he looked over his shoulder towards Lois, she was confused as he was.

He then blinked as he saw a very familiar individual who had a mustache that made him resemble a walrus. He blinked suddenly, he couldn't help but notice the lack of a wedding band, but shaking it off he offered him a swift kick to the groin, then stepped on his head for good measure.

Lois blinked, wondering what the hell that was all about, the more she found out, the less she understood.

"So, you've had a weird day, but it's nothing compared the last few weeks that I've had," Helena said, seeming to literally appear out of nowhere sitting in a chair across from Harry with her hand underneath her chin. Who was currently sitting at his office desk in the RAO Corporation tower.

"Gang war getting you down?" He questioned, not even bothering to look up at her as he continued to finish up some paperwork. He'd know she was in the building the moment she entered thanks to the wards, but it amused him to see her attempts to get past the rest of his security without being seen.

"The gang war is pretty bad. It's always pretty bad, but it's gotten worse now that the gang war in New York has spilled into Gotham City," Helena informed him, she watched Harry closely, who nodded. "And given that the Gang War in Gotham City is always personal, any attempts on their territory will be considered a threat."

"Anyone that I should look out for?"

Helena was only too prompt to inform him of the details. "Black Mask is the name of the primary mob boss in Gotham City, although there are a few people who are trying to cut in on his territory. One of them is Oswald Cobblepot, who's better known as the Penguin."

Harry had heard about Cobblepot, he'd been around for an extremely long time, in fact longer than Helena's father was. He'd been a big time arms smuggler based out of England, who decided to return to the city of his birth and take it for his own around the same time the original Dark Knight Detective started stalking the night. He had gone toe to toe with the original Batman more than a few times and he was not ready to give up his empire, even if his age was a bit more advanced. It was actually a wonder he was alive, considering the head injury and throat cancer he'd ended up suffering.

"Do you need any help?" Harry asked Helena and she shook her head, a smile crossing her face despite the fact that she thought that it shouldn't have been there. The dark haired woman's eyes followed him and he could tell that she was mulling over the situation in her mind. The woman's mind was going a million miles a moment and Harry could appreciate it.

Helena thought that whilst this gang war thing was a challenge, it was something that she had to deal with, even if the Master Planner business being brought into Gotham City complicated things. Yet, her father would have handled it on his own minus outside help. Obviously, the sidekicks didn't count since they were trained in house. The young woman thought about everything that had to be done and everything that she had to do. She understood that having help might not have been the worst thing but her stubbornness overrode all common sense.

"No. I don't need help," Helena stated firmly, but she honestly wondered why she was turning down his help. She placed her hands on the top of her head firmly and leaned back with a sigh escaping her lips.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Harry asked her again, he always had to prod her to see if she truly needed anything. He could tell that there was some desire for independence but there was a bigger sense that she was in over her head.

"It's not as bad as it could be yet, when it is I'll let you know. Right now, I'm just here to give you a warning," Helena told him and then she paused, before deciding to address the other reason she was here. "Also I'm here to ask you a favor, something that I don't trust anyone else to do."

Harry's interest was grabbed by that one and he looked up towards the young woman. The heiress looked back at him and he raised half of an eyebrow before asking the question. "A favor?"

"Yes, a favor," Helena agreed with him, then she realized how that sounded but she managed to keep her mind on the business at hand. "About a year ago, I took in the daughter of an old friend of my father's after he died."

"That was nice of you," Harry said, wondering where this one was going.

"She has gifts that are much like yours, of the mystical variety," Helena told him in a lowered voice, getting straight to the point.

Harry smiled but kept quiet, he knew how difficult it was for her to admit that she needed help. it was a trait she'd inherited from both of her parents and because she was the god damned Batwoman now, she tried to live up to their example. Even though at times it ended up causing her more trouble than it solved. He kept his emerald green eyes locked on her ice blue ones as he waited patiently for her to continue.

"I trust you've heard of the famous mystic Giovanni Zatara?" Helena questioned him and Harry nodded to indicate that he in fact had.

The Sorcerer Supreme had mentioned Zatara when Harry met with him to ask about a reference that he found in a book. He was someone who was also a hero during the same time that Helena's father was or a little bit before. It was during a different time, some historians considered it to be the Silver Age, a second coming of Heroes after the Golden Age of World War 2, when Captain America was active alongside the Invaders.

"Yes, the world lost a great magical mind when he passed on a few years ago," Harry commented in a somber voice as he watched the heiress for her reaction.

"He was murdered, but yes, he was a great man," Helena agreed sounding a bit bitter about that fact as she watched him for his reaction and a somber smile went across Harry's face. "But his daughter has a lot of potential."

Harry thought that they were finally getting around to the point of this meeting. It was extremely hard for her to come out and ask him for help, so she wasn't quite ready to take that next vital step.

"And?" Harry prompted, inviting her to make that next move.

"There is only so much that I could teach her, even with the groundwork that her father gave her," Helena added to Harry and the wizard nodded towards her with a smile. The young billionaire heiress looked at Harry before she added. "Because, as you may have figured out, magic is not my area of comfort or expertise. I have enough of a grounding to recognize it, but I also can't use it. At all."

"And it can do so many wonderful things," Harry offered her and Helena continued to watch him closely, she was trying not to smile, she was trying really hard to keep a smile off of her face.

"Perhaps," Helena agreed, although her tone was very begrudging and Harry could tell that the woman was humoring him. "She's interested in visiting your school."

'Or perhaps the person running it,' Kitty suggested hopefully through the bond link but she could tell that Harry was going to let that one go, at least for right now.

She could sort of tell that there was a smile on Harry's face, but one could ever really say with him.

"Bring her here then, I'll be happy to meet with her," Harry commented to Helena.

"I'll bring her a few days, I'm sure she'll fit in with your school quite well," Helena told Harry and the wizard nodded with a smile crossing his face. She could tell that he was trying to work some of that charm on her and any other day, she might have been a bit more susceptible to it.

"I'm sure she will," Harry said back and she looked at him, before he crisply added. "And if you want to stop by, I'll be more than happy to give you the grand tour."

"I'll keep that in mind," Helena commented, she tried to remain stoic, although Harry could tell by the flashing in her eyes, she was keeping this more in mind.

Harry had business and so did she, so he made sure to say his goodbyes.

With that said and done, he made his way to the side elevator and with a smile crossing over his face, Harry tapped his hand on the side panel. The building, being his own creation, responded to him.

'One floor down,' Harry thought to himself and the elevator shifted.

Technically he could apparate down there, but he knew that sudden teleportation often startled other people. Therefore he made his way down the normal way. On top of that over using your magic tend to make you lazy.

"I take it you've had a productive morning," Jen stated as her way of greeting him. She was actually here to drop off some papers. "So with the restoration of the city complete, naturally someone tried to file a nuisance lawsuit claiming that their lost house and wages was your fault."

Harry sighed and offered one response to that. "Of course they did."

"They don't have a leg to stand on. Legally speaking," Jen informed him. "If this goes to court….well I've got information that this guy purposely got himself injured on the job and then…."

"I get the point," Harry replied with a smile as he kept his eyes on the woman in front of him, but he couldn't help but notice one of his newest interns, the one from Gotham City, out of the corner of his eye.

"He's a real scumbag," Jen said, but then she sighed and moved onto the next point. "Not as bad as Creed though….he suggested that I allow him to continue using the name."

"Well, he's the idiot who didn't trademark it," Harry told Jen but then his voice grew completely serious. "He isn't threatening you, is he?"

Jen decided to cut to the chase. "In a sense he is, but it's nothing that I can't handle."

Harry smiled, he knew that Jen could handle a lot, but he really hoped that she didn't get in too far over her head. Or, at least into a situation where she couldn't handle it.

After saying his goodbye's to Jen, who was in a bit of a hurry herself, the wizard spun around and made his way down the hallway. He saw her standing there. She had red hair that she currently tied back in a ponytail, vivid green eyes, a different shade from Harry's gorgeous emeralds, were behind a pair of glasses. She wore a tight white blouse that wrapped around her ample bust, showcasing her assets and topped it off with a pair of jeans that fit snugly around her tight ass. She finished it all off with a long white lab coat that nearly covered her assets from view.

"Mr. Potter, it's good to see you," the redhead commented, she nearly flushed from head to toe due to coming face to face with the man himself, even though she'd ran into him a couple of times before.

"Miss Isley, it's a good to see that you've been working hard," Harry told the redhead and she smiled shyly at him, she managed to look him in the eyes this time, which was a distinct improvement from the past two times they'd interacted. At least she wasn't addressing the floor.

Harry smiled, he could sense her nervousness, most females grew rather nervous until they got used to him.

"Well, a company like this, it's….well it's amazing!" Pamela commented as she locked onto his green orbs. It was really hard to look away from them.

"Oh, and in what way is it amazing?"

"Most companies….well they don't care about the environment, I mean you hear about all of the chemicals that OsCorp pumps into the air, thinking that they can make a profit off of them," Pamela told him with a really spirited tone to her voice and Harry smiled at her enthusiasm.

"It's one of the reasons that I set up RAO," Harry said to her.

"Right, and it's a good reason….a really good, really good," Pamela said excitedly as she kept her focus on him. She could have sworn that she never rambled this much under any other circumstances but yet here she was, tripping over her tongue and all of her words.

"Well, with bright young minds like yours, I'm sure that we're going to have ideas to go on between now and the end of time," Harry told Pamela and the redhead watched him with wide eyes.

"Sir, the end of time could be a very long time."

"But there's always a chance for progression," Harry offered her and the redhead could not deny this, in fact she nodded her head up and down in agreement.

"Always, always, sir," Pamela agreed with him, she was not about to doubt that fact even for a second.

Harry left her to her project, there were a few other promising females that had taken up residence at RAO. Gwen had a job waiting for her once she graduated from college, although she did not really need to prove herself that much. The Internship at Stark was giving her valuable experience and she would be a valuable member of his team, along with a few others.

Speaking of which, Gwen and Chloe were going to visit a friend of theirs who was flying in from Gotham City and Harry had promised Gwen that he'd put in an appearance. Needless to say, Harry was very intrigued about this woman and he never skipped a meeting, especially if a pretty girl requested he be there.

"It's been so long, about a year or more right?"

Gwen and Chloe smiled as they thought about it. Gwen was sitting across from a girl in her early twenties, actually thinking about it, she realized that she was exactly twenty years old. She had flowing red hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She had a blazing pair of blue eyes that shined expressively. She wore a black shirt that tightened around her body and a nice jean skirt that flowed down her legs, covering them nicely, yet showing them off at the same time. A pair of sandals allowed her nice set of feet to be displayed freely.

"Yes, something like that, you know when my dad and your day talked about….well their jobs, we hung out but that's been less and less often lately," Gwen commented with a sigh.

The redhead did not want to bring up the elephant in the room.

"Well, the last time I saw you, he wasn't on the scene for that long, but now he's becoming really well known," the redhead stated, hinting at the direction she wanted the topic to go and Gwen decided to play dumb, at least for the moment. A smile crossed her face as she looked at the redhead in front of her.

"I really don't know who you're talking about," Gwen commented and Barbara rolled her eyes.

"Don't give me that! You know exactly who I'm talking about," The redhead said.

"Spider-Man?"

"No, not that dweeb!" The redhead snapped, she was amused and annoyed by the games that Gwen was playing, although that allowed her to stretch her brain. "I'm talking about him! You know faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, he's able to leap tall buildings in a single bound….you know, Arcane!"

"Oh! That guy," Gwen commented in a half dismissive voice, knowing full well the effect that it would have on the redhead.

"That guy? That guy!" Barbara asked and Gwen smiled at her, it was one of those knowing smiles.

"Barbara! There's super heroes all over this city. It's not like he stands out," Gwen offered with a smile, having fun screwing with her friend's head.

Barbara shook her head, some people just didn't get it.

"He's saved a lot of people, he's inspired a lot more and he's made a lot of criminals shit their pants in fear," Barbara said in a gushing voice.

"Don't tell me you have a shrine to him?" Chloe said in a teasing voice.

'Don't you?' Gwen countered and Chloe looked at her sharply with narrowed eyes.

'Quiet you!' Chloe snapped and then she added with a smile across her face. 'Besides! That wasn't a shrine, that was a carefully constructed tribute. There's a difference.'

'Which is?' Gwen asked, unable to resist needling Chloe just a tiny bit more.

'There...there just is!' Chloe snapped again as she threw her head back and sighed in exasperation.

Perhaps, it was just Barbara's imagination but she had this feeling that she had been missing out on a conversation between the two of them. It was farfetched to think that they had some kind of telepathic link but then again, she came from Gotham City, where the far fetch often went hand in hand with reality.

"Sorry, I'm late."

This caused Gwen and Chloe to sit up straight and they turned in their chairs to see Harry standing there behind them.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I swear! You get off on sneaking up on young girls," Chloe stated crossly to Harry, with narrowed eyes. His sudden appearance was causing her heart to race a mile a minute. At this rate she was going to develop a heart condition or super powers, probably both.

Harry went behind her, which caused the young blonde to shiver and Harry leaned in with a smile, before he whispered in her ear.

"Don't pretend that you don't like it," Harry whispered so close to her ear that his warm breath brushed against it, which caused Chloe to shiver, especially given the fact that his tongue was so close to her ear. The things that Harry could do with that tongue, it had been proven to Chloe time and time again.

Chloe was not going to pretend that she did not like it, rather she offered a smile.

"Harry, it's good to see you," Gwen stated, as she stood up to give him a hug, her breasts pressing against his chest and her lips coming a few inches away from his. She paused and saw Barbara's bemused and somewhat amused expression, so Gwen figured that an explanation of some sort might be in order. "Harry, this is Barbara Gordon, she's from Gotham City, and nearly as smart as I am."

"Just nearly?" Barbara mouthed, but she shook her head, as Gwen was obviously trying to rile her up.

"Barbara, this is Harry Potter," Gwen commented, watching for the redhead's eyes to flash with recognition and become wide eyed, naturally the desire effect was achieved a moment later.

"I know….we met a couple of months back actually," Barbara said as she looked at him. "Seriously, Gwen, you're dating Harry Fucking Potter?"

"You'd be surprised how often that I get that," Harry commented, and this was true more so in this world, where he actually managed to create his own fame, rather than be branded a savior with too many hyphens in his title by a world composed completely of dunderheads. He enjoyed the fame that he created on his own, without any intervention.

"Well you must get it a lot, for good reason though, I mean everyone knows who you are, you're on the cover of every magazine in the world," Barbara stated, enjoying a chance to get to know Harry a bit more after their brief meeting.

Harry closed his eyes with a brief smile crossing his face.

"Surely, you're…."

"Exaggerating? No, I'm not exaggerating," Barbara told him in an excited voice as she tried to get a hold of herself. Granted, she didn't try too hard, but her heart was beating a bit more heavily than normal as she was coming face to face with a true living legend.

"I think you might be exaggerating just a little bit," Harry said holding his pointer finger and thumb up with a small amount of space between them with a smile crossing his face.

"Yeah, but it's really not a problem, because Harry deserves it, for all of the hard work that he does," Gwen commented and Barbara nodded, she would not be foolish enough to dispute that.

"So what brings you to New York, Barbara?" Harry asked her.

Barbara was glad that he asked. "Well, Gotham City, it's not exactly a place where one can get much rest and relaxation…..you know with all of the gang wars, costumed criminals, and police corruption that's going on over there."

"And you came to New York to get away from that?" Harry asked but he then whistled. It must have been bad, really bad in Gotham City to consider that New York was a step up.

"Well, that sounds bad when you think about it,' Barbara admitted with a slight whistle as she shook her head. "But you can't deny that….well, you can't deny that things are getting really bad in Gotham City. Even more so considering that there's….that there's, some criminal from your city causing even more trouble."

Harry smiled and it was pained one, he got exactly what Barbara was talking about immediately, even though she continued to press on.

"This Master Planner, he must be big time if no one could catch him," Barbara continued but then she dropped to a whisper. "He must be getting cocky through, thinking that he could handle what's happening in Gotham City. The criminals there aren't like the criminals in other places."

Harry remembered Helena's warning; the fact was that the Master Planner's little side trip into New York could bring criminals from Gotham City here. New York had more of their share of costumed criminals and gang warfare, on top of an alien invasion every other Tuesday, so to add the fun and games that was Gotham City into the situation, well that was just asking for trouble.

Of course, trying to figure out what the Master Planner was up to, that was something that Harry had not quite determined. There was just something about this situation that was causing him to stand up and take a clearer notice of everything that was going on around him.

He enjoyed the day off a bit more, getting to know Barbara, although he had a feeling that he'd learn even more about her in the coming weeks.

To say a warehouse was in one of the worst parts of New York was saying something, but this warehouse was in one of the worst parts of New York. Hell's Kitchen really was in fact that bad.

The criminal showed up and the fact that no one batted an eye when they saw him arrive indicated that the people of New York were very desensitized to everything that was happening around them. They were not going to even bat one eyelash when they saw a man dressed in a white suit with a black mask over his face. The mask had rough features shaped like a skull although cold dead eyes that stared out of the mask didn't help matter much either. He cracked his knuckles together and then the man took a step forward, leading his men into warehouse itself.

"That son of a bitch better not double cross us," The man stated, as he fingered a gun that was in his jacket. He had come all the way to New York after this Master Planner bastard messed with one of his shipments. He got enough grief from that ugly bastard Cobblepot, he didn't need some mysterious Master Planner trying to fuck with him. "He said to meet us here, so don't try anything until we know the score."

"Yes, sir, Black Mask," one of his subordinates stated as he bowed his head.

Black Mask waited, soon enough, he would come face to face with someone. There was a stirring in the shadows, as a man walked out of them. He had a flat top haircut and a grim face, dressed in a pinstripe suit. He looked like he walked out of a 1930s Gangster Movie.

"Gentlemen, good evening," the man said as he looked at Black Mask.

"Hammerhead, I presume," Black Mask gruffly stated to the mobster.

"Ah, can't put one past ya," Hammerhead said as he turned towards his bodyguards, both of them looking intense. "Anyway, we've got a problem, the boss has got a problem, and his problem is your problem as well."

"Yes, that fucking Master Planner, he stepped into my territory," Black Mask grumbled as he could see a look of what might have been sympathy cross the face of the grizzled gangster.

"Silvermane has run New York for years, and it's bad enough that Fisk has taken over, but now we've got to worry about this Master Planner mook," Hammerhead stated as he looked at Black Mask. "When I get my hands on him, well it will be curtains for him, see."

Black Mask nodded, he did in fact see. His eyes flashed with fury as he thought about everything, how his plans had gotten screwed up. That shipment was important, technology that could be used to jam communication equipment, it would even allow them to fly under the nose of the Bat.

Now that the Master Planner had it, which made things even more frustrating. The criminal cracked his knuckles as he leaned back.

"So tell me what you have in mind?" Black Mask asked and Hammerhead smiled, he was waiting for this question.

He had plans, big plans, and even plans that would eventually displace his boss to allow him to become the number one top gun in town.