1,322AN: this chapter is censored due to its NSFW content (a Harry/Power Girl lime). To view the full chapter, you can join my Discord server, at /x7xdd53WqE. The lemon will be found in the section #limes-and-lemons, in the channel dedicated to this story, #emissary. It's all free, you don't have to pay anything.
It would be nice tho if you, horny dogs, would at least say a 'hello' when joining instead of rushing straight to the porn xD.
Anyway. On with the chapter.
Chapter 26 - Return (II)
Lois Lane sat with her hands crossed to her chest and a frown on her face as she watched Superman shaving his beard with the use of his Kryptonian heat vision in the mirror. He was getting ready to attend the funeral of the former president of the United States.
"You're really not coming to the funeral?"
"But I am," Superman said, turning and tilting his head to make sure he didn't leave any unshaved spots.
"You know what I mean. You should come as Superman, not as Clark Kent, on this occasion," Lois said.
"That guy should be glad I'm even coming there as Clark Kent at all," he grunted in response.
"That guy was the President of the United States!" she said in reproach.
"And that president spent dozens of millions of dollars creating a secret organization and put a hit on my head and the rest of the Justice League!" Superman raised his voice at her too. "What do you want me to do, Lois? Do you want me to go there and spout some drivel about how sad I am that the one who ordered the murders of Captain Atom and Rocket Red passed away? Is that what you want?"
In typical Lois Lane fashion, she did not back away easily and stubbornly kept on.
"...You have no real proof that the president was behind Project Cadmus."
Superman inhaled and exhaled loudly, feeling his irritation soaring.
"How many times have I told you? I watched Professor Hamilton's memories with my own two eyes. I know everything about Cadmus! Their secret plans, their actions, their members, their sponsors!"
"You're going to trust Emissary? The one who killed Batman?" she retorted.
"I wouldn't be alive today if not for him! None of the Justice League would! He saved my life and the Justice League two times already! It's not his fault that Batman died. Batman killed himself. His own paranoia is what got him killed."
"Batman would-" she began to say, but he immediately cut her off.
"Batman was the one who devised the plans to have us all killed in the first place!"
Something in the tone of his voice made Lois silent.
"I've had it with the government of the United States and with the United Nations as a whole too. They're nothing but a nest of vipers, a bunch of old men drunk on power, more preoccupied with maintaining their authority and preserving the status quo than truly helping out the ones in need."
When he said those words, she snorted.
"So what will you do now? Are you going to replace them? Maybe put yourself above them and rule them all? Is that what you're after now?"
Finished with tying his tie, Superman turned towards Lois with a frown.
"What exactly is it that you want from me, Lois?"
"I don't know!" she sounded like she was on the verge of breaking into tears. "You've never been like this before! You've never been so…agitated! So angry!"
"The Justice League is like a family to me. We've been shedding our blood and sweat for years, and we sacrificed time and immense sums of money to fight crime and protect the innocent, yet the government saw fit to repay us by having us killed. Captain Atom and Rocket Red are dead. Animal Man and Hawkgirl are still in critical condition at the hospital, fighting to stay alive. So tell me, how do you want me to act? How do you want me to be like in this moment?"
"I'm just-, I'm afraid of what you might do in your current state of mind. You and the Justice League are powerful… so powerful that if you were to do something drastic, nobody would be able to stop you!"
"Ah, that's right. We're too powerful. I see where this is going. So the government was right all along. We should've just let Cadmus be, or maybe even lay our lives down for them to kill us. Is that it?" he said sarcastically.
"No! I didn't mean that! Clark-" Lois was quick to say, but Superman left the room before she could finish her words.
⁂
While Superman and Lois were having a heated argument, on the other side of the world, things were completely different.
Currently, Harry was lying on a sunbed, nursing a bottle of beer, and reading from a book levitating in front of him as he waited for the potion in the cauldron nearby to finish brewing.
'Glacius.'
As he said that incantation in his mind, the bottle of beer became ice-cold but not completely frozen.
He took another gulp of beer and let out a groan of satisfaction.
"This is life."
Relaxing on a Mediterranean island, lying on a sunbed, and having a cold beer while he waited for his beautiful wife and adorable daughter to come 'home'. What more could a man ask for?
'Hmm…wife?'
He was caught unprepared by his own thoughts. He chuckled a bit and took another gulp from the magically self-refilling bottle in his hand.
'Is it not a little too early for that?'
He had not known Power Girl for that long. It was not long enough for him to say with certainty that he wanted to marry her. Or at least that would have been the case in different circumstances.
'Who am I kidding? I've even killed the president of the United States for Kara. And we've also got a daughter now. We're pretty much a family already.'
He smiled and let the book he was reading float down on the sunbed as he stood up and went to the boiling cauldron to check on the progress of the potion brewing in it.
"It should be done. Hmm... the colour doesn't look great…" he muttered at the sight of the muddy brown colour of the liquid.
The Skele-Gro potion was supposed to be yellow in colour. He sighed.
'That's what happens when you don't have all the ingredients.'
The Skele-Gro potion's ingredients were as follows:
1 Chinese Chomping Cabbage.
3 puffer-fish.
5 scarab beetles.
1 Fanged Geranium.
1 arm bone.
1 red spider.
He had acquired the 'muggle' ingredients before flying to Themyscira; the only things that he still needed were 1 Fanged Geranium and 1 Chinese Chomping Cabbage.
After spending nearly 10 hours flying over Paradise Island and scouring the forest by continuously spamming Revelio Charms left and right, much to his elation, Harry had managed to find 5 Fanged Geranium plants. But he had not been able to find any Chinese Chomping Cabbages whatsoever.
'It makes sense. It's a different world. And I'm currently somewhere in Greece. Chinese Chomping Cabbages aren't endemic to this place. I'm surprised I actually found any Fanged Geranium at all…and not just one, but four of them.'
That being said, he was forced to replace it with 'muggle' cabbage. The results were not ideal, to put it lightly.
'Seems like the potion lacks potency.'
Nonetheless, he could not just throw the brew away without testing its effects.
He went to a cage holding eight white mice and levitated one of them out. The terrified mice appeared to be squeaking in fear, but not a sound could be heard due to the Silencing Charm that he had cast on the cage.
Once the mouse was out, Harry pointed the Elder Wand at it and said:
"Imperio!"
The little animal stopped struggling and squeaking, waiting now on the table obediently.
Harry found himself sniffing with amusement when he vanished the bones in one of the mouse's forelimbs. He wasn't laughing at the mouse's plight but at the memory of what his Defense Against Dark Arts professor had made him go through in his first life as a child.
The Skele-Gro potion was known to have an awful taste and burn one's throat when ingested. Harry had experienced that taste first-hand, more than once. However, in spite of all that, the mouse did not show any signs of struggling to drink the potion from a small saucer that Harry had put on the table. The Imperius Curse demanded absolute obedience.
It wasn't a method that Harry had come up with by himself. Using the Imperius Curse on various animals was the standard procedure of all Potion Masters in any of his previous lives, especially those Potion Masters who experimented with creating new recipes. They could not possibly test their brews on humans from the start. They were using mice, rabbits, pigs, garden gnomes and so on and so forth.
Once he was pleased with the amount of potion that the mouse had consumed, he ordered it to stop, and he began to cast various Diagnosis Charms on it as he studied its condition.
"Increased heart rate... increased cerebral activity... a sign of acute pain... a chaotic breathing pattern [...]"
As he spoke, a charmed pen was noting down by itself all his words in a notebook.
Harry lost track of time as he started experimenting with the dosage and trying to increase the potency of potion by adding various other plants that he had picked up earlier that day or brought with him from the States.
When the Caterwauling Charm that he had set up around his camp suddenly started blaring, alerting him to the imminent arrival of other people, there were already four dead rats on the table.
'Bollocks! They're back earlier than I thought.'
He quickly Vanished the dead mice and cast a mental Banishing Charm on the cage holding the living rats, sending it flying into a trunk inside the tent.
And it was not a second too late! He barely finished hiding the rats and locking them in the magical trunk when a girl-shaped missile jumped into his arms with a yell:
"Daddy!"
"Astrid! Don't forget his arm is injured! Don't be too rough with him!" Kara yelled out in worry from behind, her voice coming out in gasps due to how hard she had had to run to keep up with the little girl.
But Harry laughed as he twirled Astrid around, not minding her affectionate behaviour in the least.
"I missed you so much!" Astrid said as she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him for all he was worth.
"If someone heard you now, they'd think we haven't seen each other in years," Harry said teasingly and chuckled.
But, to the little girl, that may as well have been the case. She had come into this world not that many days ago. Spending nearly 12 hours away from the person she considered the most important in her life had been a very tough trial for her.
Power Girl involuntarily smiled at the sight of the two of them. Once in a while, she still felt uncomfortable when she was reminded of the fact that Astrid was actually identical to herself, but those thoughts were always snuffed out whenever she looked at how deeply Harry seemed to care for her.
"...All the girls were so nice to me! We ran together! I even won my second race against them without flying! And then they tested my strength! They were so surprised when I lifted a big boulder with one hand! Mommy said it weighed 4 tons! Is that a lot?"
"It's incredible! It would be like lifting 50 people with my weight with one hand. You're one tough little girl, aren't you?"
Eyes wide in surprise at finally getting a better understanding of how strong she really was, Astrid puffed out her chest with pride.
"Hehe," she giggled happily and leaned with her face into Harry's hand when he caressed her cheek.
"So, how many friends did you make?"
"All of them!"
Harry and Kara both chuckled at her answer.
"Artemis, Mala, Penelope, Daphne, [...]"
The two of them looked at each other and smiled as she started reciting a lengthy list of names.
"And they gave me a new dress. Look!" the little motor-mouth continued and flew out of Harry's embrace, floating in front of him and doing a twirl.
True to her words, Astrid was now wearing a pure white, sleeveless toga that went down just below her knees, a pair of tiny leather strap sandals, and two silver bracelets similar to those worn by Wonder Woman.
It was a miniaturized version of the outfit that the majority of the Amazons on Themyscira liked to wear.
"I'm sorry I ever called you a little monkey! You're like a little angel!"
Stowing the cauldron with the Skele-Gro potion away, Harry and Kara started preparing for dinner together. They were going to have grilled fish.
⁂
"Good grief; she talked my head off. That's the opposite of what I expected," Harry said with a chuckle.
"I know, right?" Kara laughed too.
With how clingy and young Astrid was, the two of them had expected to have a hard time convincing her to train with the Amazons, even with Kara being present next to her the entire time. But, to their surprise, Astrid seemed to be on cloud seven. She talked about her day and her new friends for hours, never running out of things to say. It was only when the excitement and tiredness of the day finally caught up to her that Astrid started showing signs of sleepiness, and they tucked her into her bed.
"I didn't get the chance to ask you, though. How did the magical potion thing go?"
"I'm still working on it. I brewed it, but I'm in the process of testing it on mice now. I could've probably finished it today if you and Astrid had returned an hour or two later. I can't kill mice in front of her. She's too young to understand."
"Being a parent isn't easy," Kara said, sighing.
"Hey, we're in this together," he said in encouragement, and she smiled in response. Then he asked: "How did it go with the Amazons? Did they really like Astrid as much as she thinks they did?"
"Are you kidding? The Amazons are head over heels with her. She charmed them all. Did you cast a spell on her or something?" Kara joked.
"I should be asking you that question. You're the one who charmed me first."
"You always know the right things to say, don't you?" Power Girl grinned at his flirty answer and leaned to peck him on the cheek.
But Harry quickly turned his head and caught her by surprise when he stole a kiss from her lips.
Having used a few household charms to quickly do the dishes and clean up the remains of their dinner, Harry was now sitting together with Kara on a rug in front of a small campfire, chatting and relaxing as they sipped on a cup of tea.
"You little-" she began to say in fake chagrin, but she let out a squawk of surprise when Harry unexpectedly pushed her down. "Wait, my tea!"
Her worries were unfounded because Harry wordlessly and wandlessly levitated the cup of tea away from her hands and pushed her down completely.
Her heart hammering now in her chest, Kara looked up at Harry with a mixture of surprise and exhilaration on her face.
"Wait, what if Astrid wakes up?" she asked.
She hated herself for how breathless her voice came out, betraying how affected she was by his actions.
"Don't worry, she won't," he said as he got between her legs and leaned over her. "And if she does, I'll know of it. I cast a charm to monitor her sleep."
"But what about your arm? Is it-"
He cut off her words with a kiss.
"My arm is fine," he whispered, and his lips travelled to her cheek.
"Wait, I'm not ready! I hadn't showered today! I-"
Her breath hitched when he started planting butterfly kisses on her jawline, slowly trailing down to her neck.
[Lime removed]
.
.
.
[Lime removed]
"Daddy? Mommy? Are you not coming to bed?"
Harry took a few moments to get his breathing under control before replying.
"Mommy and Daddy will take a bath and then come to bed too, okay? Just wait a few minutes for us."
"But I want to sleep with you nooow!" she whined.
Harry groaned.
"Fine, I'll come now. Just give your mom a bit of time, and she'll be here too."
Although she was not fully satisfied with the answer she received, Astrid was happy enough to follow Harry back into the tent when he took her hand in his and led her in.
Power Girl could not get up from her spot for a while.
"Having a child is much harder than I thought."
But then, her thoughts shifted back to her lover, Harry. Her body was shaken again by an involuntary shudder when she recalled how his hand slowly travelled from her tummy to her breast, leaving a trail of fire on her skin. It was his fault that she was burning up now! He was the one who had started it all!
"Damn you, Harry!"
⁂
While night fell on Paradise Island and everyone went to sleep, it was still day in the United States. In fact, it was only 3 pm.
Not for the first time since he arrived at the National Cathedral that day, Superman tapped his foot impatiently. He had come to the funeral as Clark Kent, a reporter, not as Superman. It was part of his job as a Daily Planet employee, but, at that moment, he wished nothing more than to be away from that place.
Presidential funerals in the United States were carefully choreographed events that did not end in an hour or two. The ceremony of the coffin arriving at the National Cathedral and then being carried inside by the pallbearers took nearly half an hour alone. There were also an orchestra, a choral group, clergymen, and dignitaries from all over the world, many of whom had a part to play in the ceremony.
Now, nearly two hours later, Superman found himself zoning out, the words of the bishop going through one ear and out the other. He was starting to lose his patience because, due to his superhearing, he could hear what some of the presidents and politicians gathered at the funeral were whispering amongst themselves: gossip and words filled with ill will at the address of the Justice League due to the fact that not even one of the League members had chosen to attend the president's funeral.
'How could we show support to the government after they tried to have us killed? What a bad joke!'
He was so fed up with the whole thing and so bored that he was tempted to open his smartphone and start scrolling through his emails. But it was just a fleeting thought because he knew that his social life as Clark Kent would be over if he were to pull such a stunt at the funeral of the United States president. Besides, he had switched his phone to airplane mode so that he would not get a random call that would disturb the funeral. All sorts of random thoughts flew through his mind as he stared at the stained glass serving as the windows of the National Cathedral.
All of a sudden, it was not only Superman who was shaken awake from his reverie, but everyone at the funeral was startled and erupted into cries of panic and shock as the ceiling of the National Cathedral shattered with an explosive bang and the floor shuddered like during an earthquake as a human-sized object crashed down with a heavy thud, making a crater into the floor.
Blonde hair that fell past her shoulder, average height, a bit on the skinny side, and wearing a suit consisting of a red skirt and a blue top with a red S symbol on it—she was none other than Supergirl, the famous cousin of Superman.
A split second later, another, much larger being crashed through the ceiling of the National Cathedral, landing right next to the crater where Supergirl lay unmoving.
It was a hulking monstrosity over 3 metres tall, with leathery grey skin and sharp bone spikes protruding from its chin, skull, knuckles, elbows, and shoulders.
It was Doomsday.
AN: keep in mind that while he is a genuinely kind-hearted and good person, Superman is not a saint. For example, in the Justice League Animated Series, Superman was willing to let Darkseid and all the people on Apokolips die when Brainiac attacked them, refusing to help. Then, later on, Superman and Supergirl both were very adamant about going down and annihilating Cadmus despite not having solid proof of their intentions. It was only Green Arrow's speech that stopped them from going through with it.
To make a long story short, there are limits to Superman's tolerance. He isn't Jesus.
PS: For those who are interested, I have started a new Harry/Fleur fic. It's called [Living For Tomorrow]. It's a Harry Potter who was raised by his grandparents. He is not the BWL. There is an unusual twist that may not be everyone's cup of tea. But some may find that intriguing.