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Phantom 16
🕑 Added 2022-07-23 06:13:11 +0000 UTC“Co-Cousin?” Clark blinked, his superhuman mind running through all the information on the House of El the AI of Jor-El had shown him. His eyes narrowed as he drew a blank on the faces in front of him, and he pushed off the bed as heat flooded his irises. “This is the last time I am going to ask this nicely, who the hell are you both, and how did you find this house?”
“Sit down Clark,” Jonathan said, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder as he sighed heavily, “the girl is speaking the truth, and I’d rather not have the Phantom once again put you on that bed.”
“What?” he blinked, the fire in his eyes dying out as he looked from his father to the man standing in front of him, “What do you mean the Phantom?!”
“He means I will put your ass in that bed and freeze you if you don’t shut up right now,” the man spoke, a calm expression on his face as he looked at the photographs on the wall, “So keep quiet and let my sister do the talking. You do remember what I can do, don’t you?”
“You are not helping,” the young woman next to him growled, glaring at the man fiercely before she turned towards him and sighed, “Alright, My name is Kara Zor-El, I am your cousin by the brother of your father, Jor-El. I was sent to Earth by my father after he tracked your escape pod, but the temporal displacement malfunctioned and I was ejected out of the wormhole quite a distance away from this system. It took me many years to get to this planet just with the help of the tracking system in my pod, but by then your own ship had stopped broadcasting its location.”
“Kara Zor-El had blond hair,” he said slowly, “and her face was different than yours.”
“Yes, well,” the man claiming to be the Phantom interrupted, “Due to the series of events, she had her looks changed when I…turned her into my sister completely. Anyways, you can talk that out between you both later on. For now, tell me about how your body is feeling. Anything abnormal?”
“What do you mean you turned her into your sister?” Clark instead asked, horrified and angered by the thought that someone—who might be his cousin—got turned into anything, “What did you do to her?!”
“Relax cowboy,” Harry raised an eyebrow calmly, nodding at Kara, “This one had a run-in with a few mercenaries and in the process of saving her life, her body was changed by my blood. Now, since words don’t seem to be enough for you, how do you want her to confirm her identity for you? A blood test or maybe you had enough familial pride to learn some Kryptonese?”
“I told you he seemed like a dumb kid playing as an adult,” he laughed, nudging a visibly glowering Kara as he turned around, “the version of him I met a decade and a half ago was a stupid child as well.”
“I am not a stupid child,” Clark snarled, speeding off the bed and appearing right behind Harry within a microsecond, before his face slightly softened as he turned towards Kara, “and I recognize the features I saw in her projection now…it is nice to meet you, Kara Zor-El.”
She blinked at the sudden change in his behavior, and for a moment, she doubted this to be a result of Harry’s machinations. But, having not felt any magic from him in the last few seconds, she just decided to thank Rao for at least one good thing happening today.
“So, I’ll just go out and walk around for a bit,” Harry interrupted, pushing off the wall as he walked towards the exit, and just to mess with the muggles, phased through the door by turning it intangible for a moment. “You guys sort out whatever lost cousin and grown-up baby things you have between you.”
Walking down the steps, Harry walked into the field beside the house, looking through the earth for any tunnel or underground cavity. Humming at the absence of any such space, he looked around himself, wondering where the Kents would have stashed Kal-El’s pod when his eyes landed on the large shed behind the house.
“So stupid,” he sighed to himself, moving towards the structure, “I swear, if I find that inside this shed, I am probably going to murder someone’s pet, or maybe empty Belle Reve—Gotham is a hive anyway, it will get filled right back up within days.”
Opening the doors, he walked inside the dusty shed, wondering how the Kents didn’t have asthma from all the dust mites here. A second later, he sighed once again as he turned back and looked at the Kents through the wall, “Well, seems like they were wise enough to move it away from here. Probably took it to the ship where he got that body armor and knowledge of Kryptonese from.”
Deciding to listen on what stunted conversation was going on between the cousins, he removed the ward to scramble their talk and conjured a chair behind him. Sitting down on the chair while summoning a bowl of popcorn to his hands, He grinned and leaned back, eagerly awaiting the words which were about to be said—especially since all the Kents looked mighty hopeful for some reason
—---------------------------------
“So, what do you think?” Martha said, sharing a look with her husband, *Would you like to come here and live with us? You can get to know your family and…well, we would love to adopt you like we adopted Clark."
"Yeah, and learn more about the society and humanity too," John continued, looking at the door from where Harry had ghosted through, "God knows that man could use some manners. I shudder to think how you must have lived with him for so long. "
“Seems too trigger-happy and impulsive,” Martha nodded, looking around as if Harry was right amongst them—which, for all Kara knew, was true, “Not a sign of a good guardian, especially with…his powers.”
“Phantom saved my life in Metropolis,” Clark interrupted, and probably at the right time too, she thought as the rising heat behind her eyes went away, “and he certainly made the defeat of the Imperium today much easier than it probably would have been.”
“I am not denying that he is a good man,” Jonathan sighed as he stood up, “But there is a difference between a good man and a good guardian. And we want Kara to live with us so that she can have a family in you and us both, along with a bett-”
‘Better what?” she growled, cutting him off as the light bulbs shattered over her, making the Kents jump as Clark took a step between them and her, “Better what, Mr. Kent? Harry is my brother, and I love him more than anything in this world. Don’t presume that my relationship with Kal allows you a say in my life. Had this been the first thing I had woken upto, maybe I would have loved nothing more than to accept your proposal…but I am not that Kara. I have lived on Earth enough to know about its best, and have personally experienced the worst—something from which my brother saved me. Therefore, with all due respect, I don’t need guardians or parents like you. Goodbye Kal, if you want to meet me sometime, just open a communication channel from your ship and broadcast a signal with the settings it is already set on.”
Repairing the bulbs, she gave them one last look of anger before she apparated out of the house to the shed behind it, and her senses burned under the feel of Harry’s anger as his magic lashed out violently. Thankfully, it seemed like he hadn’t lost enough control to destroy the whole farmhouse—but knowing that his switch could easily flip into that thought, she rushed forwards and hugged him tightly.
“I am not going anywhere you dolt,” she sniffed, tears coming unbidden to her even at thought of not being with Harry, “They both are nothing to me, and before you sprout some nonsense…Kal-El is just my cousin, someone who I realize is not the same baby I once held in my hands. But you? You are my brother. My only family in this Universe, and I am not leaving you for anything.”
The metaphysical pressure in the went away immediately at those words as Harry took a deep breath, his arms coming around her just as tightly as he crushed her against himself. Tucking her head beneath his chin, he apparated them out of there, and just to make the Kents realize how close they were to death, destroyed the whole shed into nothing but splinters and dust—conveniently forgetting about the tractor and gasoline in there.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“-nd what about this Imperium? The leader of the invading force?” a regal, strong female voice asked, her words echoing through the chamber as she sat upon her throne. “Describe that thing, daughter.”
“It was a large, white-colored form,” Diana answered, standing in front of the Queen of Amazons without her weapons, “and it had purple patches over it too. It was able to control its body, growing and manipulating it into many shapes over the course of the fight. Dozens of eyes, and an aversion to sunlight like its lesser brethren. Ultimately, J’onn, the Martian killed it by throwing it into the Sun.”
“...Tell me about your companions Diana,” Hippolyta murmured quietly, leaning forwards slightly as interest gleamed in her eyes, “I know about this Superman and Batman enough from your tales of the Man’s World, but I want to know about the rest of the warriors who stood against this threat from the stars.”
“Well, J’onn is another alien like Kal-El,” she began, remembering the serious, crimson-eyed Martian, “He possesses formidable physical strength and flight, along with telekinesis and telepathy.”
“Interesting,” she murmured in response to her daughter’s words, wondering whether the Martian would be able to sense their minds from out of the barrier, “Is his species coming to the Earth, or has he said anything about returning back to his planet?”
“No,” Diana shook her head, removing the circlet from her hair and letting it bounce free, “Like Kal-El, he too is the last of his species and is settling down on Earth. Other than him, SHayera Hol was another extraterrestrial that helped us. Apparently, she was sent here to establish ties with the Earth and to see its potential on the Galactic scale. She had wings on her back, and a mace made of a metal I have never seen or heard of. Like others, she also had enhanced strength and better senses than a human.”
“A winged woman…” Hippolyta frowned, leaning her head back on the hard planes of her throne, “and two males, last of their species. Gaea is attracting more and more beings from the far reaches of the stars…I fear to think of the day when something much less friendly than your comrades decides to appear. The last time had been a nightmare enough to last lifetimes…”
“You have fought against aliens?” she perked up at her mother’s words, wondering why the topic had never been brought up, or why was it not mentioned in the libraries or tales of Themiscyra, “Why didn’t you ever tell this to me?”
“Consider it something that was ordered to be withheld by your father himself, except in the direst emergency,” her mother said coldly and shortly, her voice firmer than it had ever been…but underneath it, she could hear the terror in her voice, “Pray to him and the Fates that such an instance never occurs.”
“As you say…mother,” Diana nodded, her mind still reeling from the fear she had heard and felt from her mother—a woman who had pointed her sword right at Lord Ares, “Next, was the Flash. He is…fast, much faster than I am for sure. I was able to track his movements, but only by a hairsbreadth, and the electricity he leaves behind him in a trail is also nothing to scoff at. With how much energy he gains by running so fast, his attacks are surely powerful considering he simply punched through a ton of metalwork in the factory.”
“A user of the speed force,” Hippolyta blinked, sitting up straighter, “I…have witnessed one in action, several centuries ago. They are a powerful breed of beings, and by the sound of things, this one hasn’t even scratched the surface of what one is capable of.”
“And then there was a Green Lantern,” she said slowly, half of her mind wondering about yet another piece of knowledge missing from her mother’s tales, “He and his…comrades evidently manifest their willpower literally into the physical world by the use of their rings. This one is a human named Hal Jordan, and he is the overseer of the Galactic Sector Earth falls under.”
“Great Hera!” Hippolyta gasped, standing up from her throne, and walking towards the balcony. Thunder rumbled in the sky above and lightning flashed across the sky as the Queen of Amazons almost stumbled to her knees, catching herself on the railing at the last moment, “A Green Lantern, A speedster, three powerful extraterrestrials…if there is any other news to be shared Diana, do so now. I will be going to the temple of Athena and Apollo after this…alone.”
“Harry and Kara are coming to Themyscira.”
“I thought you both had…parted ways?” she asked after a few moments, her eyes closed as heavy rain started to fall all over the Island. Violent winds stormed through the landscape as shouts of alarm began to come from all over the ground below, “or have you cleared away whatever the matter was?”
“We haven’t talked after that night, mother,” Diana answered after a few moments, silently coming to a stop beside her mother, “After the battle today, he had gone with his sister and Kal-El so that they both could finally meet. We agreed to meet here tomorrow, so that we could have a talk in a quiet, unpopulated environment…and when all is done, you and Donna can meet him.”
“You have faith that both of you will come back together?” Hippolyta asked, opening her eyes to look at her daughter, “That his lover from the past won’t be a shadow on your happiness once again?”
“Because I realize something now mother, something which I failed to do before,” she said, opening her eyes to look at the storm brewing above them, “Harry loves me, mother. He loves me enough to not hide a single bit of his past from me. He loves me enough to tell me the truth that half of his heart still belongs to another…and I love him more than enough to accept that. I was foolish that night in his home, angry and confused as opposed to the acceptance and warmth I had expected from myself in the face of such a situation. Knowing about his love for Faora was one thing, but actually seeing how he was researching and desperately working to find her—it was quite different in that moment.”
“And this was without seeing this…Faora,” her mother pointed out, placing a hand on her shoulder, “Are you sure you wish to go forwards in this Diana? Knowing that someday, this woman might come back into your lives. Will you be able to see your lover and his lover together without feeling jealous or neglected? Will you be able to maintain the same level of trust, warmth, love, and positivity in your relationship with Harry if Faora comes back? Think deeply about all of this daughter before you decide anything. Love is a great thing to have in your life Diana, and believe me, I am happy for you…but I don’t want to see you distraught again, my daughter.”
“I…am more certain about this I have been about anything mother,” she murmured, finally turning her face to look at her mother, “I love Harry, and I accept his love for Faora, as well as his yearning for her to rejoin him—and I swear this vow by Lady Aphrodite’s na-wait, did you see that?!”
“What?” Hippolyta asked, turning her head in the direction Diana was looking, “I don’t have the senses of an amazon-demigod hybrid Diana. What did you see, especially in this storm?”
However, before Diana could even open her mouth, a large explosion of emerald green fire lit the shoreline to their right, and the next second loud screams echoed through the howling winds, as the sound of the fire finally reached their ears.
Someone unwanted was on Themyscira, and the Amazons had just been attacked.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Fuck! This is definitely not the paradise Diana sang praises of,” Kara muttered as she created a shield above both of them, glaring at the dark, swirling clouds above them, “Why the hell is this storm here, I thought the weather here was always pleasant?”
“Diana’s father is angry for some reason,” he grunted, walking towards the palace he could see in the distance, “Which probably has to do with either me, or the invasion that we just thwarted.”
“I doubt that the King of Gods would get angry over his daughter’s love life,” she remarked drily, raising an eyebrow at him as she nudged a crab off her feet, “It must be invasion…maybe.”
“Given my rotten luck, I am sure I can expect a bolt of lightning to my face any second now,” Harry snorted, waving his hand at the storm as he pushed her lightly, “This sure as hell seems like a prelude to that welcom-huh?”
“What?” Kara asked, turning around to look at her brother, only to blink in shock as she found an arrow buried inside his eye. However, before she even let out a scream at the sight of the blood flowing down his right cheek, another arrow shot past her ear, and lodged itself into his left eye.
Using her hearing to its maximum capabilities, Kara growled as she heard the sounds of dozens of feet thudding against rocks and the forest floor, growing closer and closer with each passing moment. Building up the solar energy behind her cornea, she was just about to cut down the forest in front of her, when Harry grabbed her shoulder and pushed her aside.
“No, you stay put this time,” he whispered in a quiet, cold voice, making shivers race down her spine as she saw the arrows still sticking out of his skull. Wiping away the blood on his cheeks, he clenched his fists and turned his head towards the forest “quite nice of them to attack me unprovoked, at least now I have an outlet for THIS!”
Shouting out the last words, he raised his right hand and slammed the fist into the sand at his feet. However, instead of the earth-shattering Earthquake she had been expecting, Kara watched with awe and trepidation as a green pulse raced out from his hand towards the treeline. A few seconds later, a huge pillar of green fire erupted from inside the trees, the emerald flames lightning up the whole forest in a haunting glow as the Amazons caught up in the explosion screamed with pain.
Raising his other hand, he caught an arrow aimed at his throat, snapping the magical shaft between his fingers as he stood up. Above him, the storm gained even more intensity, a reflection of Zeus’ mood over the proceedings happening on Themyscira as Harry caught three more arrows in a single eyeblink. Throwing them aside, he turned slightly to his right as the sound of swords being unsheathed reached his ears, the first group of Amazons just about to exit the forest.
“Remember Kara,” he said quietly, hearing about a dozen more Amazons rush through the forest from his left, “Stay away. Fly into the sky if you have to, but I want you to remain hidden for now. I will call you when Hippolyta and Diana arrive.”
Breaking a spear against his palm as Kara flew away, Harry grinned as he felt the power behind the strike. These women were strong. No wonder Diana was physically as powerful as him despite being a daughter of Zeus. Ducking underneath a sword strike, he grinned at the surprised gasps that came from the Amazons when they saw the arrows still sticking out of his eyes, his feet sliding over the sand as heavy raindrops lashed down on them.
“You guys sure picked a wrong day to stick these in me,” he quipped, turning around to kick the legs of an Amazon, and rotating quickly to ax-kick her torso into the sand while she was airborne, “any other day, and I might have understood the reasons for these going into my eye before a single word, but I was already pissed off enough as it was.”
Delighting in the crack of bones and the pained howl that came from the woman at his right as she broke her hand on his face, Harry blocked a slash to his chest with his robe’sśleeve, adn broke the elbow of the woman with a simple jab. Grabbing her neck to stop her scream short in her throat, he threw her behind him as he kicked out with his left leg twice, breaking the knees of the amazons coming at him with their spears.
Wincing as the woman in his grasp slammed a dagger into his ribs with her working hand, he growled and threw her into her sisters, and broke the wrist of the fist that was coming for his neck. Twisting her hand completely to shatter the entire arm, he jumped up and spun over her head, his foot connecting squarely with the collarbone of the woman behind her. Dropping to his knees, he evaded the slash aimed at his head as the woman above him screamed and dropped beside him. He leaned back on his hands to kick out the pair of women in front of him, turning on his right-hand int the same motion to kick the screaming woman besides him in her other hand.
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
Rolling sideways to avoid the spear coming for his throat, he grabbed the foot of someone and simply powdered the bones under his grip, stopping the soul-wrenching scream with a chop to her neck as he stood up. The next two minutes were just ablur for him as he used his senses ot their maximum, evading the attacks of the Amazons as he disabled each and every one of them with cold, clinical precision. As skilled as they were from their centuries of practice, they hadn’t been in mortal combat for far too long, adn their strength and peed were simply nothing in the face of his capabilities. Breaking the elbow of yet another Amazon as he slammed his head into another’s shoulder, Harry twisted in the air and threw them both away, kicking three more while being midair. However, before he could do anything, an arrow buried itself in his spine, and a powerful kick launched him through the air towards the forest. He broke through a couple of trees, skipping and rolling across the wet, muddy forest floor before he came to a stop.
Groaning as the arrow in his back moved even deeper in his body, he cursed the magical spells laid into the Amazonian weapons and pulled it out. Standing up slowly, he was about to do the same with the dagger sticking out his ribs when he paused, feeling a dozen footsteps quickly rush towards him…one amongst them very familiar to him. And just like that, the burst of rage that had blanketed his mind went away, leaving behind a clear-headed Harry, who had just brutally broken the bodies of several amazons.
“Harry!” Diana's voice came to him from his left, and he smiled slightly as she suddenly appeared right at his side, “What in the name of Hera happened to you? And why are there arrows in y-wait! You are the one my sisters were fighting?!”
“FIghting means they had a chance of winning,” he grinned, tasting blood on his lips as he looked in the direction of where he could sense another five women, “Isn’t that right? Though, I think I should say that I wasn’t expecting arrows to my eyes in the way of greeting…your majesty.”
“Filthy men, they never change,” someone snarled, and the sound of steel being unsheathed filled the air for a moment, “Kneel down so that you may receive your punishment you scum!”
“For what crimes?” he arched an eyebrow despite the stinging sensation, pushing Diana a little away from him as he crossed his arms over his chest, and pulled out the arrows from his eye sockets, “Defending myself from a bunch of over-zealous women who thought attacking me first was a good idea?”
“For trespassing upon the land of Themyscira,” the same woman snarled back, taking a step forwards on the squishy, muddy soil, “and for laying your filthy hands upon Amazons, by the order of Queen Hippolyta…you are sentenced to death by beheading.”
Diana gasped at that behind him, and the brightest, loudest thunderbolt of the night flashed across the sky as if in approval from the King of Gods. however, before anyone could say anything, Harry began to laugh. Madly.
“That’s brilliant! That is just so brilliant, O Mighty Queen of Amazons and the Breaker of Chains,” he gasped out as he straightened up, “but there is a small, teeny tiny problem with the words of your commander Queen Hippolyta.”
“You see, normally, killing the males who mistakenly, unwantedly come to this Island might not be a problem for you and your subjects,” he continued, sighing heavily as he opened his regenerated eyes and looked at the Amazons in front of him, his emerald green eyes lighting up with a crimson fire as he let the shackles on his magical core loosen completely. Diana gasped behind him as the full brunt of his magical might bore down upon the area like a tangible, physical weight, and the knees of the Amazons in front of him buckled visibly—each of them grabbing onto the nearest tree for support as horror and realization dawned on their faces. Not content with just this much fear on their faces, Harry chuckled as he unveiled yet another of his powers, the grass and leaves around him withering away into nothingness as the trees too shriveled and dried, “But how do you expect to kill the Master of Death, hmm?”
Comments
Russell Taylor
I agree with Gerald, i also thought that him telling them they were basicly fighting a god with no hope of winning was hilarious
Gerald
I'd say I'd flowed nicely in most places. Probably fairly accurate about how they'd respond. The only confusing part for me is apparently the queen ordering him beheaded when she knew he was coming or was it just the standing order for invaders
PP092
So was it natural? The combat and the dialogue both? Cause it was as easy as it was tough this time
Gerald
Hmmmm the dialog between Diana and her mother was nice. And the fight at the end was interesting but could have be avoided had everyone been informed harry was coming especially since it seemed he already had permission from the queen to come
PP092
Decided to stop at the best forst place I found. On that note, what did you like about this one?
Gerald
Is a cliffhanger really necessary every chapter lol
