Chapter 38

This news caused a lot of distrust.

"Your father's puppet?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Talia agreed. "Although one who thought he could cut his strings. He's nothing but a fool though, working with Maxwell Lord and with AIM. He hired David Cain for the attack on Marie Logan and Deathstroke to kill his own brother."

"Calculated measures to give Quarac the excuse to invade Biayla, and to ensure he would be the supreme dictator of the unified country, with a super weapon so no one could touch him," Harry said.

"He's quite the ambitious little snake, isn't he?" Nora asked.

"You're sure it was...it was...wasn't it?" Megan asked.

"Yes, my father gave Sumaan's insurgent group resources, and he took those resources to try and get ahead of the League's plan by formulating his own plan," Talia said. "He would have been cast aside like the trash he was eventually….."

"And he has Noor, and….."

"Noor is an unspoken young woman, and Sumaan detests that," Talia said. "She may still be alive, if not to prove a point. Watch her helplessly as Sumaan takes control and destroys everything before her, including turning Marina's weapon on a hapless city."

Megan, Nora, and Harry all looked at each other. Finally, Harry spoke up. He knew what needed to be done.

"Not if we stop them," Harry said. "And we will stop Sumaan, Lord, and AIM."

Talia just smiled. She had been hoping they could work together.

"My father does see greatness in you, Hadrian," Talia said quietly. "But, perhaps your true greatness lies in not my father's vision, but succeeding where he's lost his way."

The Daughter of the Demon would have said more, but they had a very serious situation. They had Sumaan, right in the cross hairs.

A woman at the tunnel met Talia, Nora, Harry, and Megan.

"They're taking Queen Bee to the royal palace of Quarac," Talia's aide said.

"Then we are running out of time," Talia said.

"She's strong, she won't give it," Nora said.

"It's not a matter of strength, not this time," Talia said. "Lord is a powerful manipulator, and despite Queen Bee's strength, he will have what he wants in a matter of time. He's able to...ensnare all minds."

Harry just frowned. Lord was a danger, but he knew Lord had his limits.

"Most minds," Harry corrected her. "We need to head there."

Harry sent a signal. All who could pick it up would come to help. All help would be appreciated Because at this time, they needed all of the help they could get.

"We can do this, the easy way or the hard way," Monica said.

Marina's hood had been removed. She took in a deep breath and found herself in the midst of the Quarac Royal Palace. Sumaan really was a blithering idiot if he thought snatching her and bringing her here would do him any favors. The cold war between both of the neighboring countries would be hot.

"Tell us how to activate it," Monica said.

"This takes too long! I'll loosen her tongue."

Sumaan stormed into the room, almost shoving Monica to the side. Monica frowned at him and the AIM guards grew a bit tense at his rough treatment of their boss.

"So, tell me," Marina said. "Do you treat all women so poorly because you know you could never please any of them?"

Sumaan reared back his fist to punch Queen Bee in the face.

"Master President, you should watch your temper," one of the guards said.

"Violence, you are a witless fool," Queen Bee said. "You think you can….."

Finally, Sumaan grabbed Queen Bee by the throat, knocking his own guards down in the process. He choked the bound and collared woman who gasped in sheer agony as she struggled to draw breath.

"Tell me how to activate the weapon," Sumaan said. "TELL ME NOW, YOU CUNT!"

"You're killing her, you idiot!" Monica yelled."We won't learn anything from a dead person!"

Marina collapsed to the ground as it took six AIM scientists to pull Sumaan off of Marina.

"You lay your hands off of me, the supreme ruler of Quarac!" Sumaan yelled. "How dare you?"

"You aren't needed here, so go," Monica said.

"No woman tells me what to…."

Monica put a gun at Sumaan and vaporized the desk behind him with a pull of a trigger. After the demonstration of the gun, she had it planted firmly at Sumaan, and if she released the trigger, he would join the desk in ash.

"Go," Monica repeated coldly. "Or else."

Summan wilted back into the shadows and only spoke when he was out of range.

"Cowardly woman, can't stand up to a man without a gun," Sumaan spat. "Biayla will either be mine beside Quarac, or it will burn."

An attack outside brought Sumaan's attack away from the room. Walking away from the weak woman and her gun, he marched outside along with his soldiers.

"Master President, look up in the sky!" one of the guards yelled.

Harry, Nora, Megan, and Talia slipped into the underground tunnel. They made their way to the prison cell area where Noor had been held captive. After Harry quickly disabled the guards he took the keys off and freed Noor from the cell. Noor left the cell, tearing the covering off of her face and letting it drop to the ground. The bruises and busted up lip, along with a black eye showed what she had been through.

Megan gently gripped Harry's arm, as he saw red. Nora looked about ready to rip someone apart as much as Harry did.

"That bastard did this to you?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Noor said.

"Did he touch you?" Talia asked her.

Oh, Nora hoped not.

"No, his assault was just physical violence," Noor said. "He's upstairs."

Noor picked up the weapon off of one of the downed guards. She knew there would be more on the way once this group did not check in after five minutes. So best to defend herself, especially given they would shoot her on sight.

As if on cue, the guards made their way from upstairs, backed up by AIM.

A blur came in and came from the guards, creating a cyclone around them. Kid Flash sent the guards flying.

"And the calvary is here," Kid Flash said. "Got your message….why is it always back here?"

Rocket, Zatanna, White Canary, and Wondergirl all showed up. Rocket deflected the beam of light from AIM and fired it back at them. White Canary sent them flying with a sonic attack and Zatanna wrapped them up in bandages and hung them from the wall.

Wondergirl fought a brutish Quarac soldier hand to hand. He punched, she punched back harder. Donna leapt on the man's back and flipped him down to the ground. She dodged another one and came back with a swinging fist.

"Get Noor to safety," Harry said to Megan.

Time for Harry to impeach the Master President. From life.

Sumaan scrambled up the steps and came face to face with Superman. He withdrew a dagger, made of Kryptonite, and charged Superman. Superman blocked the dagger and hurled him down the steps.

The emerald-eyed hero dropped down and Sumaan, favoring his shoulder, pulled himself up.

"You can't do this, I rule this country," Sumaan said.

"Not by choice," Harry said. "You created an atmosphere of fear to allow you to impose Martial Law, so you can take over this country as a dictator."

"The people never make the choices that are best for them," Sumaan said. "The last few Presidents of your America should be proof of that."

Not in the mood to discuss American politics with a complete and utter lunatic, Harry grabbed Sumaan by the collar and sent him crashing up against the wall.

"You can't….kill me!" Sumaan breathed. "If something happens to me, Superman, there will be international turmoil throughout the world. You can't kill me, you won't kill me because of that. Without me, this country falls into ruin, as the dogs would end up blowing themselves up."

Two guards fired at Harry and broke his grip from Sumaan. The bullets more annoyed then hurt Harry. He knocked them down onto the ground.

Nora dropped down and slammed Sumaan up against the wall, trying to take the lung out of his chest.

"You like hitting women who are chained down," Nora said. "Let's see how you dean deal with with one who can fight back."

Nora hurled Sumaan around like a ragdoll with her magic.

"People like you who use religion as a guide for sociopathic behavior sickens me," Nora said.

Two more Quarac soldiers came at them both, but were intercepted! Wondergirl grabbed one of them from the level beneath and pulled him back down. Rocket hit the other one from behind.

Sumaan stabbed himself in the shoulder with a syringe. His eyes started to bulge and his hands shook. Nora and Harry both stepped back an inch.

"And now, he injected himself with Kobra Venom," Harry said.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Nora grumbled.

The two looked down at their enemy as Sumaan took on a form of a hideous, greyish, gargoyle like creature, with pulsing veins on his body, and razor sharp claws and teeth.

"At least his looks have improved," Nora cooly said.

Sumaan's monster form swooped down and almost knocked Nora off to the side. Harry caught her and he pushed the two of them out of the way.

"I will rip them all apart myself, with my bare hands!" Sumaan growled.

The rampaging beast rushed towards Harry. He intended to rip him apart. Harry released a blast of energy at Sumaan's chest and it bounced off with a loud amount of laughter.

Nora sent a bolt of magic which should rip him in half. Only, it did not even scratch the skin.

"Really, the Kobra Venom makes them resistant to magic now?" Nora asked. "How is that even…."

Harry teleported them out of the way and Sumaan smashed his way through the wall into one of the palace libraries. Reaching down, and picking up a pair of brass knuckles off of a downed guard, Harry slipped htem on and super charged them.

He blasted as high as he could go, gaining momentum before coming down like a rocket with a huge punch to the face from the heavens. Despite the airtime Harry got on punch, he could only buckle Sumaan a little bit.

Sumaan almost ripped into Harry with a spike. His skin looked even harder and as the skin got harder, he breathed even harder.

"The more his skin hardens, the harder it is for him to breathe," Harry said. "Which means…."

Nora caught on quickly. She grabbed Harry's hand and the pair jumped down several flights of steps, with Sumaan following them. His wings spread, claws extended and firing spikes at them. Harry and Nora dodged the attacks coming from behind.

Suddenly, an explosion rocket the archway above them. Sumaan looked up in the air and Talia dropped down before them. She threw three balls at the ground which released a gas. Sumaan laughed it off.

"Oh, you think that you can stop me with such tricks," Sumaan said. "Another woman who will lose her head because she thinks she can defeat the Master President of Q….."

Harry kicked Sumaan as hard as possible sending him directly through the floor and down through the weakened floor. Sumaan hit the ground with the force which could break the back of a normal person.

"You talk too much."

Sumaan stretched up, only to find Harry and Nora cutting down the pillars holding the ceiling up from this underground tunnels. This half of the palace would collapse and bury Sumaan underneath the rubble.

Nora and Harry got out, with Harry picking up Talia on his way out to prevent her from getting caught in the crossfire.

'AIM's retreated,' Megan thought to Harry.

Harry and Nora stopped outside. Sumaan had been buried underneath tons and tons of rubble and digging him out was going to be quite a task.

However, his latest exertion stopped the man's heart. While Harry listened very hard for the sound of breathing, or a heart beat, he heard neither.

The League arrived to pick up the mess. Sumaan reverted back to human form upon his death and two days later, they finally dragged his corpse out of the rubble. Noor leaned against the edge of the wall with a folder in her hand. Harry came around the corner to greet her and she did, throwing her arms around him and kissing him lightly on the lips.

"I'm finally leaving," Noor said. "I have a couple of camps I need to visit, before heading over to the States...and a meeting I need to attend, with others who have fled, about our options. But, this folder contains everything about my Uncle's dealings with both David Cain and Slade Wilson. I'm hoping that this information will show the world what kind of man he is."

Diana stepped into the room ,along with Dinah and Karen.

"Lord is back to America and always, he has a albi, so nothing to do to nail him legally," Karen said. "One of these days through...and AIM and the Scientist Supreme….."

"Leave the Scientist Supreme to me, it's personal."

Queen Bee arrived. The bruises on her neck from that brute Sumaan had only been barely visible. Unless one knew they were there, they would never notice anything.

"The League won't allow your personal vendetta to put people in danger," Diana said.

The two women locked eyes. A very intense battle of wills followed. But, Queen Bee had confidence that Diana knew she could only make idle threats.

"Cute, you think the League has any jurisdiction over here," Marina said. "You should be more concerned with dealing with the consequences of those missing sixteen hours."

Wonder Woman locked her eyes with Queen Bee for a second. Dinah and Karen put a hand on Diana's shoulder to warn her it would not be good for her to rumble with Queen Bee. Especially since she now had been riding a wave of sympathy after the strength she saw.

"You know what happened," Wonder Woman said.

"Savage only knew," Queen Bee said. "The secrets of what happened, died with him, when Oliver Queen murdered him."

"Savage is truthfully dead?" Diana asked.

Somehow, she was very skeptical about it. Queen Bee just smirked, took her leave and Karen stopped her from going.

"What about the weapon?" Karen asked.

"What weapon?" Queen Bee asked.

"The Weapon AIM, Lord, and Sumaan were after," Karen said.

Queen Bee playing coy frustrated the hell out of a lot of people and taxed Karen's patience.

"Oh, you are a smart woman, I'm sure you can figure out what exactly is going on if you put your mind to you," Queen Bee said.

Harry figured it out, he suspected it from the beginning. Perception could be a useful weapon in itself.

There was no weapon. So people died based on a lie. Clever. Frustrating. Awful. But clever.

"Stay safe, keep in touch, and there's always a bed open at the Penthouse," Harry said.

"I know, and if there isn't, we could always share yours," Noor said with a coy little smile. "Talk to you later, Harry."

"Bye, Noor."

Standing in the doorway after Harry cancelled the call was Nora Darhk. They met in what was neutral territory. Without another word, Nora grabbed Harry, and pressed herself against him, and kissed Harry passionately.

Long overdue in Nora's mind and this time, she was not going to run away from her emotions. She was going to face them head on.

The only barrier to Nora and Harry meeting fully was their clothes. Something they could both take care of sooner rather than later.