Chapter 32

Overall, the first day of school had been completed. Megan and Donna were still buzzing, even though they were finishing up their homework. They might have gotten done sooner, if they had not been too preoccupied with other things. Still they were extremely excited about their first day of school and Harry did not entirely hate it.

"I made it, I made it!" Megan cheered. "Did you see that? I mean I was nervous at first…"

"You really shouldn't have been," Donna said. "You were born to do this...me, I thought that I was going to mess up, and that would have been embarrassing."

"I don't know why you were worried," Megan said with a soft smile. "You were born to do this. I mean, the fierce and brave Amazon has nothing to worry about. You will be amazing!"

Donna could not help and smile. The fact of the matter was that both of them did pretty well, although this was their first day of many at Happy Harbor High School.

Harry half watched the ongoing coverage of the summit, waiting any minute for Lois's interview to come on. Once Megan and Donna were done and once they were cleared for the tonight, he and Megan would be heading back to the Penthouse.

The lights emitted and Mareena's arrival back into the cave showed her arrival. She smiled when making eye contact Harry.

"First day of school go well?" Mareena asked.

"Fine," Harry said. "How was things for you?"

"We just finished cleaning up after Manta's attack," Mareena said. "Classes should resume in a couple of weeks. Still no idea where Black Manta went. My Father is interested in seeing where he went off to."

Harry levitated the books off of the couch onto another table to allow Mareena to sit down.

"Mother sends her apologies, and says she should be by to resume your lessons within the week," Mareena said.

"Looking forward to it."

A crackling noise brought Harry out of the conversation a second later. He moved over to the next room. It could be a call for distress from someone. Mareena followed behind him a second later.

"Overwatch to Cave? Is there anyone down here?"

"This is Superman," Harry said. "What can I do for you?"

"Bit a loaded question," she commented. "But...that's not the point right now. I want to know how much you know about the situation at Tapei."

"Tensions are running high, Luthor is involved, there was an attempt on his life," Harry said.

"Well, that pretty much covers the short of it," Overwatch said. "But there's far more that you need to know."

Harry and Mareena both listened to what she had to say.

"It's obvious like the North never wanted talks with us," the leader of South Rhealasia said. "They are not interesting in discourse, especially with their supreme leader and his missiles."

"If we didn't have missiles pointed at you, then the South would storm our borders, and subject our people to their broken rule," the North Rhealasia leader commented. "With the help of their American big brother, all in the name of freedom of course."

"So, you have missiles, you admit that!" the South Rhealasia leader said.

"No more than you do, my friend," North Rhealasia representative said. "If we find out that you were behind this attack, we will not hesitate to take the necessary measures to defend our borders."

"Bah, the cowardly North was behind today's events. This gentleman is a Capitalist, and there's nothing that you cannot stand more than…"

"Gentlemen," Lex said in a firm tone. "I appreciate the need for you to get this all out of your sisters. I really do. But, you need to appreciate the bigger picture."

The leaders of the North and South turned their attention to the man in question. One seemed more inclined to hear him out then the rest.

"You are all brothers, the only thing that separates you is a border," Lex said. "Thousands of years of common culture wiped away of fifty years of mistrust. Why, you should appreciate the things you have in common. Namely, the traditional tea ceremony…..Mercy."

Mercy stepped over and held out a couple of trays before moving them over to the table.

"Well, yes, it is a pastime," the leader of the North commented.

"Yes, I can appreciate it, as any civilized man would," the South's leader said.

"Excellent," Lex said. "Most excellent."

Red Arrow blended in the best she could through the security force. She noticed, in the distance, a woman disguised as a Geisha, wheeling in a tea cart. She knew from the walk immediately it was Cheshire. Thea slipped in to block her attempts.

Cheshire smiled, flicked a button in the side of the cart and hurled it. Two blades retracted and went towards Red Arrow. She jumped on top of the cart and steered it away, crashing through the wall.

Security moved in to protect the leaders and the man who was mediating the conversation. Cheshire just stepped back and lazily waved her hand.

Sportsmaster made an entrance, crashing through the window, and smashing a golf club down onto the head of a hapless security guard.

"As a wise man once said, I'll never call golf a dull game again."

Cheshire had more backup, as Red Arrow recovered. The trio of Tigermoth, Silken Spider, and Dragonfly dropped down. Silken Spider shot a thick line at one of the beefier bodyguards before taking him down. Tigermoth wiped out another bodyguard with a speedy punch, and Dragonfly wiped out another security guard.

Toe to toe when Cheshire and Red Arrow. She disarmed her bow. Cheshire just smiled.

"You can't stop all of us, you know," Cheshire said.

"Look up in the sky," Red Arrow responded.

Superman and Aquagirl crashed the party. The trio of assassins turned their attention to them.

"I'll take Cheshire!" Red Arrow yelled.

"And only on the second date?" Cheshire asked.

"I'll take the trio," Superman said.

"Mmm, my man, three ladies at once," Cheshire said dreamingly.

She threw herself down onto the ground, dodging an arrow. And that left Aquagirl against Sportsmaster, if she must do such a thing.

Cheshire beckoned Red Arrow to come after her. She deflected another arrow and jumped off of the wall, bouncing up. Cheshire threw two discs at Red Arrow. Red Arrow dodged them and she came back up, shooting another arrow at her.

The woman was good at dodging, Red Arrow would have to give her that. Red Arrow tried a different tactic. Cheshire smashed her down against the wall, knocking the wind out of her. Cheshire's knife stabbed down, narrowly missing her neck.

"You're not the target, he is," Cheshire warned her. "So, I'd suggest you step off, before you end up losing your head."

"Advice taken," Red Arrow said. "And denied."

Red Arrow kicked the knife away from Cheshire and the two of them ended up flying into a fountain off to the side. Both warriors came up dripping wet, still punching away at each other. Cheshire grabbed Red Arrow in a half nelson choke, until Red Arrow flipped her out of the fountain and narrowly missed hitting her with a net arrow.

Silken Spider performed an acrobatic move, which Superman turned around fast enough to catch her by the ankles with. He hurled her down to the ground, catching her moves before she could pull them off.

Tigermoth zipped as fast as possible towards Superman, who avoided at least two of the three punches, before coming back with an uppercut which blitzed her something fierce. She came up, Superman smiling and dodging each of the attack with precision. The crowd gathered at the summit watched him in eye, when Superman came up from behind him.

These swift movements positioned him for another play, catching Silken Spider's strand and jumping high into the air, flipping and wrapping up Tigermoth. Dragonfly came back up and blasted Superman a few seconds later. He deflected her blasts and came up to fly at her.

The two flew out the broken windows and disappeared out of sight.

"We keep running into you way too often," Sportsmaster commented. "In Biayla. In Santa Prisca...and then you took Red Tornado out of the cave, because you thought someone would be after him. Kids, you're a lot smarter than I thought that you were."

"How do you know this?" Aquagirl demanded.

Sportsmaster swung a pair of clubs and she just blocked it with mystical blades. She snapped them in half which caused Sportsmaster just smiled at.

"We have a source on the inside, very inside," Sportsmaster said. "Your day is over."

Off to the side, Cheshire finally had been wrapped up, tied to a pole by a rope coming out of the arrow.

"A pity," Sportsmaster said. "But, maybe I should learn the same lesson that the League would. Never send a little girl to do a man's job."

Sportsmaster avoided Aquagirl's waterball attack. She depleted the fountain of most of its resources and now had been running on fumes.

"Good thing Superman's always there to bail you brats out of trouble," Sportsmaster said. "Almost interesting how he's made himself irreplaceable to the point that the entire team would fall apart if he wasn't there to prop them up."

"We'll manage fine!" Aquagirl yelled.

Red Arrow's arrow came out of the corner of her eye. Sportsmaster dodged it.

"Archery, not a real sport," Sportsmaster said. "And you don't even have a good eye for it. No wonder Green Arrow replaced you."

"Wasn't aiming at you."

The sprinklers burst open, making Sportsmaster soaking wet and also allowing Aquagirl to fuel up. The water hardened around her body and created a super hard fist made entirely out of water which allowed her to punch Sportsmaster a couple of times hard and send him flying back.

Sportsmaster crashed down to the ground, and rolled over. Red Arrow curb stomped him down to the ground, groaning.

"Maybe some time in the penalty box will teach you not to talk trash," she commented after backing off from him.

Dragonfly had returned to be dropped down onto the pile of goons.

Cheshire freed herself, and realized this mission had gone badly. She hurled a smoke bomb into the air and also pushed a trigger, exploding the wall and causing several innocent bystaders to scream.

Superman zipped forward and pulled everyone out of harm's way, to prevent them from being crushed. Then he grabbed onto the wall, pushing it back together. A naked eye would see that he used extreme force to fix the wall, but a little bit of magic went a long way in fixing this.

The dust was settling and Cheshire, Sportsmaster, Tigermoth, Silken Spider, and Dragonfly all slipped away. Harry had no idea where they went and today's assault raised a number of attentions. He walked closer to Red Arrow and Aquagirl.

"Alright?"

"Good that you backed us up, Green-Eyes, and thanks," Red Arrow said, flashing him a fond smile

Everyone was calming down and it appeared that the intense talks were going to continue. However, from the shadows, one final assassin came on in, with a knife aimed. No one quite had a chance to know whether or not the assassin would strike against Lex, the North's leader, or the south's leader.

Rather, Mercy's arm popped open to reveal a cybernetic cannon and she blasted the assassin away. She scanned the area to make sure that there were no others in the shadows.

"My bodyguard," Lex said. "And she comes equipped with her own hardware."

"And none of my bodyguards would be that efficient," the leader of the south commented.

"Yes, she is most impressive," the North's leader agreed. "How much would it take for us to acquire something like that?"

"Naturally, the South would be more than happy to look into something that advanced."

"Gentlemen, we talk over your differences, and what you're willing to do to reunite, and I'll be happy to talk business afterwards."

Lex caught Red Arrow's eye, who folded her arms. The two leaders and several of the other diplomats at the table were gushing about how Lex saved their life, having forgotten exactly who did the heavy lifting.

"Doing good and saving lives is its own reward," Aquagirl reminded Red Arrow.

"I know, but I don't have to like it."

Luthor played her, making her go in and protect him, and then Lex was the one that got all of the glory.

Harry stood in the back, his hands draped over the shoulders of both of the other heroines. For a brief second, he made eye contact with Lex and the smug smile on Lex's face only got even more smugger.

Pulling his hand off of Thea's shoulder, Harry crushed his hand, the vision of wrapping it tight around Lex's throat, danced into his head.

"Today, a treaty to work together is in the process of being established….and perhaps now we have the first steps towards a unified Rhealasia, once again, after fifty years of being apart."

The doors opened and Lex Luthor stepped out, with a spring in his step and a glint in his eyes. Cat turned her attention completely towards Lex.

"Mr. Luthor, a few words with you, if you will," Cat said.

"Certainly, Ms. Grant," Lex said. "I think today was the first step towards a more unified front. I always have stated that globalization is the way of the future and best for business. Borders should be loosened and we should work together. When we look past superficial differences, we are all united under one common front."

A far off look appeared in Lex's eyes.

"My sister, Lena, she had a dream of bringing people closer together," Lex said. "And her sudden incapacitation was heart wrenching for me as it was for many others. But, I am certain that I'm doing her proud, and hopefully when she recovers...she will be proud of what I've done, building upon the work that she's done."

"Yes, but there's not been any progress in your sister's condition, has there?" Cat asked.

"Unfortunately, but the best doctors money can buy are working with her around the clock," Lex commented. "I'm confident that she will make a full recovery. In the meantime, she will be as comfortable as possible."

"And you still haven't found the cause of her collapse this past May?" Cat asked.

"I cannot reveal my sister's confidential medical information on the air, Ms. Grant," Lex told her sternly.

Cat nodded, and gazed up into the sky, to see a certain man of flight. The people in the square below pointed him out, and even Lex's attention was grabbed.

"But, truly today's events might have gone differently, if it was not for Superman," Cat said. "For today, he prevented a collapse of the plaza, which many would have perished had they been crushed."

"Yes, Superman did play his part," Lex admitted. "I must be going...there's still a lot to do...I have a very important and early breakfast to attend."

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Luthor," Cat commented. "And we'll all be waiting to see what the next step in these world changing peace talks are."

In a secluded area, Harry, Mareena, and Thea meet, the trio ensuring that there was no one coming in bother them. There had been no signs of the assassins since Cheshire, Sportsmaster, and the Trio had left which made them extremely worried.

Mareena frowned and launched into the topic at hand.

"Sportsmaster says there's a mole," Aquagirl said.

"I wouldn't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth," Red Arrow said. "He talks shit all of the time to seem important but...it's odd how Sportsmaster seemed to know more than he should. There's something that's compromised on your Team, or someone…."

For a second, Harry frowned and looked Red Arrow dead in the eye.

"Talk to J'onn, he assured that I was clean," Harry said.

"Unless the League was compromised long ago," Red Arrow said. "And even if you aren't compromised, there's a chance that there's someone in the League who could be a double-agent. Maybe removing Red Tornado from the cave was the right move. There were too many questions regarding that."

Whoever was after Red Tornado did not reveal itself.

"For you sake, I hope that you are clean, Green-Eyes," Thea commented. "And even if you are, you have to agree that it's pretty unsettling how much Sportsmaster knows."

"I agree," Mareena said. "But, the people who were stalking Red Tornado could have figured he had been moved. And the same mysterious Priestess was at both Santa Prisca and Biayla, so she could be their source."

"Maybe," Red Arrow said.

"I'll keep a close watch out for anything," Mareena said. "But, for now, we should keep the matter between us."

"I disagree," Harry said.

The other two women turned their eyes towards Harry, very much surprised by his sudden disagreement. They wondered precisely why he would.

"Secrets are just going to breed more distrust," Harry said. "And then the Team will fall apart on its own. Keeping secrets doesn't do anyone any good...as I'm sure you know."

It was here that Red Arrow was looking directly at Thea, who responded with a nod. She hoped to hell that Sportsmaster was lying, but there were just too many question marks regarding the team. And then there was the League, namely Oliver's questionable actions ever since Shanghai. And Superwoman's resurrection, what if she was another clone of the original, much like Superboy? There were just so many variables and so many question marks.

To be honest, Thea did not trust anyone right now.

"If it's anyone on the team, I'll find out," Harry said.

"And if it's you."

Thea's question caused Harry a long pause. He was about ninety five percent sure it was not him, but he humored her question none the less.

"Then I hope my team intends to take every step to neutralize me should I become a threat to them," Harry said. "I have your word, right, Mareena?"

"It won't come to that," Aquagirl said.

"I didn't ask if you thought it would come to that, I have your word, right?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you do," she said. "And I'm certain that you would do the same if we were compromised...although I don't think it is willingly."

And Mareena was not too confident about her ability to take Harry down, if push came to shove. While the Team would function without him fine enough, having a magical Kryptonian on their side made things a whole lot easier.

In a temple, Lex Luthor settled in with the man who invited him, Lex Luthor. The two of them shared a glass of tea, which relaxed Lex's mind.

"Today was the first step of an overall greater plan," Ra's told him.

"Indeed, my friend," Lex said. "And your associates were paid handsomely to make it look convincing."

"Yes," Ra's said. "So, you saw him up close for the first time, didn't you?"

Lex took a long drink of his tea, most likely to avoid the conversation which was about ready to come. Ra's eyed him casually and Lex put down the tea and nodded.

"Yes"

"And what did you think of your...progeny?"

Had Lex still had hair, he would have ripped it out by now. He settled by shifting his tea cup from one point to the other on the table.

"It's really unsettling how Superboy has things together more than he should at this point," Lex said. "Because, he wasn't supposed to fly."

"My daughter said that Superman was a more fitting name for this strong warrior," Ra's said.

"I'm sure she does," Lex murmured.

Ra's stood up and looked over at the sunrise. A new day dawned and one which they achieved some great things. Ra's could see everything clearly, even though Lex was raising questions. He assumed that Lex would see it as a blessing.

"I see a perfect champion to rule the world and force it into the Light," Ra's said. "Perhaps it had been a boon and blessing that he was allowed to grow in this manner, instead of being programmed by our organization."

Lex just nodded, not too certain this was a good thing. Mostly there was something with Superman's temperament that he did not like. Something familiar and unsettling, which made him feel the need to take a trip to Cadmus and look over all of the logs of his development with a fine tooth comb.

Something did not register right for him. And it was not the addition of the mysterious, but quite powerful, Subject X either, oh no, it was something else entirely.

Harry stuck around in Tapei for a short while longer, in an attempt to pick up some kind of trail. Something in the shadows made him stop suddenly.

A flying kick almost caught him in the face. Harry performed a duck and roll action, and came face to face with Cheshire. Cheshire brandished a blade and smiled.

"Enchanted to cut through even your skin," Cheshire said. "Because, you've been looking for me all night."

Cheshire plunged her blade at Superman, who dodged the attack just seconds later. Grabbing her around the wrist allowed the hybrid to disarm Cheshire. She was able to break free and land onto him. Superman followed her, as the two ended up on a balcony.

Three more kicks bounced off of him, with Superman just blocking her every step of the way. He caught Cheshire by the arm and pinned her up against the wall. He flew her off of the balcony all the way across the street, through an open window in a hotel room.

The two landed firmly on a bed, with it shaking underneath them. Jade's mask slid off, to reveal her smiling face, her hair draped seductively over it. The two leaned closer together, with Harry leaning towards her.

"Do you know anything about a mole feeding the bad guys information?"

"We're not all too bad," Cheshire told him. "And you seriously believed what he said?"

She chuckled in amusement as Harry tormented her by being on top of her, but not really touching her at the same time. She decided to lose the playful attitude for a minute, and look into his eyes.

"If the team has a double-agent, no one told me anything," Cheshire said. "But, I don't think anyone on your team is feeding Sportsmaster anything. He's talking out of his ass, which is nothing new."

Harry and Jade locked eyes. Harry believed that Jade was completely telling him the truth, without any hint of deception. She managed to free herself long enough to wrap her legs around Harry and hold him into place.

"I didn't have a chance to mention this tonight, but I'm really digging the new suit," Jade said. "It's almost a pity that it's going to lay on the floor when I finish taking it off of you."

The front of her uniform had come open in the scuffle and Harry caught a glimpse of her cleavage. Jade freed one of her arm and freed even more of her skin.

"Obviously, you know what we're going to do next. You couldn't think that I would let you catch up for me ,if we weren't going to have some fun. And dealing with Sportsmaster tonight means that I have a lot of stress to burn off….lucky you, hmmm?"

Jade made an honest attempt to get Harry's uniform off of him. She had some fun figuring out how it worked, hands moving all over his body.

"The shirt and jeans were bland as hell, but at least I could have gotten those off," Jade said with a smile.

Harry muttered something and it allowed Jade easier access to the uniform and also Harry's body, when peeling it off of them. She kissed Harry, while the two undressed each other.

He was always in the mood, something that Jade liked in a man. And now it was time for the next step.