FicWad

Chapter Nine: The Desert Mercenaries of Magical America

The time at this point was late July, just a few days before Harry’s birthday. At this moment, Hailey, Ginny, and Harry were in the front lobby of the American Wizarding Government Headquarters, with Don and Mikey tagging on for the journey they were about to make. The two Turtles were disguised wearing trench coats, fedoras, and sunglasses, without their usual facemasks.

“Liberty School of Magic in Death Valley California,” read Don at the pamphlet that Harry. “It’s rather ingenious to hide a magic school in the middle of the desert.”

“Yes it is but did you look at this?” asked Mikey ignoring what Don had said and snatched away the pamphlet. “Free soda and free pizza. Now that’s my kind of orientation gathering type thingy.”

“I can’t believe I got suckered into doing this,” said Harry, shaking his head. “I have to give a speech about my experience in battling the dark arts to a bunch of first, second, and third year students at Liberty School of Magic. I mean, I don’t want to traumatize them for life, as some of my experiences are a little too dark for young, uncorrupt minds.”

“Just mention some of the spells that served you well during your various battles, answer some questions, and you should be fine, Harry,” said Ginny in a confident voice.

“Yes, Ginny, I suppose so, but it doesn’t ease my nerves that talking to these students might be a bit difficult,” said Harry.

“It’s just a bunch of first, second, and third years, Harry, how difficult can they be to keep captivated?” asked Hailey.

“You are a second year and you have the attention span of a brain dead fly,” said Harry coolly, causing Hailey to glare at her brother.

“Attention, Portkey for Harry Potter and company, leaving for Liberty School of Magic, in approximately five minutes,” said a voice that echoed through the lobby. “Please report to the Portkey room, now.”

“Come on, that’s us,” said Harry as he motioned for Don, Mikey, Hailey, and Ginny to follow him across the lobby to prepare to leave for Harry’s speech to the first through third year students of the Liberty School of Magic in Death Valley, California.

In the desert, just a few miles outside of the entry point to the Liberty School of Magic, a group of imposing figures dressed in red and black cloaks with their faces complete covered, riding camels, with swords strapped to sheaths on their side were riding up to where the Liberty School of Magic is located. These men were a group of American magical mercenaries, all wanted by the American Wizarding Government for acts of murder and sabotage. Their wands were hidden in their swords, making them able to be used as either a physical or magical attack. While a few of the mercenaries had been captured over the years, about a dozen of them were still at large.

The leader waved his hand, signaling for his band of mercenaries to stop before pulling out the Muggle communications device known as a cell phone. He dialed a number and waited for an answer before proceeding to speak.

“This is Kasbah,” said the leader in business like tone of voice. “We are upon the target and ready for further instructions.”

“You are to murder Harry Potter in the most vicious and gruesome way possible, in front as many people as possible and incapacitate any witches or wizards who might get in your way,” said a crisp, calm voice at the other end of the cell phone.

“And what of the Turtle creatures?” asked Kasbah shortly.

“Should they try to stop you, kill them,” said the mysterious contact on the other end in an indifferent voice.

“So be it,” said Kasbah. “Kasbah out.”

Kasbah and his fellow mercenaries continued to move on to their mission at the Liberty School of Magic.

At the front entrance of the Liberty School of Magic, Harry, Ginny, Hailey, Mikey, and Don were in front of the school. They didn’t stand by the school for more than a minute when a middle aged man with black hair, with streaks of grey in it walked up, waving them over.

“Hello, hope you had a good trip,” said the man in a jovial tone of voice as he shook Harry’s hand. “Professor Robert Stanley, Headmaster of the Liberty School of Magic, Mr. Potter and I must say, it is an honor and privilege to have you speak with our students.”

“Yes, a real honor,” said Harry in a polite voice.

“Your speech is set to begin in about forty five minutes, the students are just filing in right now, quite a few fourth through eighth year students have decided to listen in on your experiences,” said Professor Stanley, reminding Harry of the fact that American Magical Schools went eight years, instead of the seven that Hogwarts went. “Now, this way if you please, and you others are welcome to take a seat somewhere if there is still some available, but do hurry if you want a good seat, as Mr. Potter’s speech has attracted quite a few extra students.”

As Harry walked off to prepare his speech on Defense Against the Darks, Hailey, Ginny, and Don walked off but Mikey lingered behind.

“Coming Mikey?” asked Don.

“You go ahead, I’ll catch up, I have something I need to do,” said Mikey, who began to think where this school might be stashing that free pizza.

“If you say so,” said Don as he followed Ginny and Hailey to the auditorium where the Harry was going to speak. In a second, Mikey snuck off, as he was bound and determined to get some free pizza to eat.

At the back entrance, Kasbah and his fellow mercenaries, now off their camels, walked towards the school but they were stopped by a surly looking American Auror who was patrolling the school as extra security just in case someone attempted to make a name for themselves by attacking Harry Potter when he was visiting the Liberty School of Magic.

“You just can’t come through here as you please, I need to see some clearance,” said the Auror.

“Here’s your clearance,” said Kasbah coldly, pulling out his sword with a rapid fire motion before plunging it right into the stomach of the American Auror, impaling him. The Auror didn’t have a chance to block it, and he fell to the ground, slowly bleeding to death as Kasbah slowly pulled his sword out. “No doubt more Aurors will be around, we need to get in quickly and get to Potter before the American Wizarding Government becomes wise to what we are doing.”

In the auditorium of the Liberty Magical School, Harry looked around, seeing what seemed to be thousands of students sitting in front of him, definitely more students than all of Hogwarts put together. In his mind, Harry went over what he was going to say and how much he was going to relieve about the gruesome details of his past encounters with Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Professor Stanley walked up to the podium, as Harry took a deep breath. He could see Ginny, Hailey, and Don way in the back of the audience, they were fortunate to find seats even if it was in the back of the auditorium.

“Students, Faculty, and Guests of Liberty School of Magic, it is my honor and my privilege to introduce one of the most powerful wizards in not just Magical America, but the entire Magical World. We are definitely grateful for his time he has given us, as this young man is extremely busy fighting the forces of evil, most prominent of all, the British Dark Lord known as Voldemort and his followers,” said Professor Stanley in a booming voice. “Harry Potter!”

Harry stood up on his feet before approaching the podium as it was defining. He decided to wait a little bit, partly because it could give him a little more time to prepare what he was going to say, partially because the defining response made it if a loud explosion echoed through the auditorium, no one could here it.

In the hallways, Mikey kept looking around for the promised free pizza but it appeared to be eluding it.

“That pizza has got to be around here somewhere and then I chase it down with some of that free soda,” said Mikey as he looked around before spotting a catering table that was covered with at least fifty different pizzas with different toppings. “Whoa! Now that’s a lot of pizza.”

Mikey rushed over, a dilemma occurring within his mind on which pizza he should sample first. All of them looked rather appetizing as Mikey circled the table, twirling his nunchucks, deciding wherever his weapon landed; he would sample that pizza first. After a couple of twirls, with his eyes clothes, Mikey found that his weapon landed on a rather interesting, if not disgusting concoction that soiled the very name of pizza.

“Garlic, Anchovies, and Liver Pizza?” asked Mikey in disbelief. “Not even I would touch that one. What kind of savages thought of that topping? I’m definitely not eating this demonic concoction. Best two out of three maybe?”

Mikey raised his nunchucks up into the air, preparing to pick again but he heard lowered, yet deep voices from the hallway that made him stop.

“The auditorium is just around this corner, right Master Kasbah,” said one of the mercenaries.

“Correct, we must make haste through, because no doubt the other Aurors in this facility will know of their slain comrade in a couple of moments and will ruthlessly scour the facility for us,” said Kasbah. “We need to kill Potter while we still have the element of surprise.”

Mikey sprang up at those words. It looked like Harry couldn’t have had a peaceful visit to give a speech to a school without someone attempting to kill him.

“A-hem,” said Mikey causing Kasbah and his Mercenaries to turn around. “Whatever nefarious deeds you guys are plotting against Harry, you are going to have to get through me first before you can proceed on to carrying them out.”

“Very well,” said Kasbah as he pulled his sword out but Mikey avoided the quick thrust and plunge into the stomach move of Kasbah. As a ninja, Mikey was better able to avoid the attack than an Auror. Mikey flipped over and landed on his feet, twirling his nunchucks, as if daring Kasbah to attack him again. Kasbah turned to his men. “Take him out.”

“Eep,” said Mikey as he saw ten angry looking men advance on him with swords drawn, before they blasted jets of red light at Mikey form their swords. Mikey cart wheeled to the left to avoid the spell fire before his attackers advanced on the Turtle, attempting to close him into position for the kill.

“Now, I must say, I’m a bit surprised to see so many people there, but I’m sure many of you are curious to catch a glimpse of me or perhaps you may want a few tips to improve your Defense Against the Dark Arts,” said Harry as the crowd looked captivated. “Whatever the reason may be, I thank you for coming and I’ll try and give you the best overview of magic that I can. I’ve had many brushes with death, too many in fact to count, to be honest, I stopped keeping track of how many times I nearly died ages ago. The biggest piece of advice I can offer is use the environment around you to your advantage, if possible turning any disadvantage into something that could benefit you. If you are attacked by dark wizards for whatever reason and you manage to get everyone out of a room, find someway to cave the room in. With luck, you’re incapacitate your attacker long enough Also, while predictable, stunners and full body binds are a great way to put your foe out of commission. And don’t discount doing something unexpected, even if your method of attack would not be harmful at all.”

Harry paused, allowing his audience to soak in what he said, hoping that he didn’t point out the blatantly obvious as Harry had little idea how the American and British Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculums compared with each other.

Mikey somersaulted over the catering table as three of the mercenaries aimed their swords at him, sending jets of fire out Mikey. The Turtle managed to duck out of the way, causing scorch marks to materialize on the wall behind him. Mikey turned around and much to his horror, another three mercenaries, closed in on him.

“Come on, can’t we talk this over like civilized human beings,” said Mikey but he was rewarded with nothing but angry grunts from his attackers before Mikey looked to the side, spying the liver, anchovies, and garlic pizza. “Maybe over lunch?”

In a flash, Mikey tucked his nunchucks underneath the pizza dish before launching it up into the air and kicking it, causing the contents to splatter every which way before Mikey launched himself over the table, cracking one of the mercenaries across the back of the head with a swing with his nunchucks. He staggered forward as Mikey quickly ducked into a corridor.

Kasbah looked angry as he looked at three of his mercenaries.

“Go after him, make him pay for making us foolish,” said Kasbah to the three mercenaries who nodded, before walking away with their swords ready to attack. Kasbah turned to the remaining mercenaries. “You others come with me, we need to proceed with killing Harry Potter, while we still can.”

Kasbah and a group of six mercenaries walked off towards the auditorium of the Liberty School of Magic in pursuit of Harry Potter, moving at a rather rapid pace.

Harry looked out into the crowd, as he had finished the majority of his speech before looking at the students.

“Now, I’ve given you a detail of what kind of magic has helped me, I guess I better open the floor to questions,” said Harry before pausing, before a young, brown haired first year boy raised his hand. “Yes Mr…”

“Chris Damien,” said the boy in a slightly cocky voice. “My question is this. Surely you must realize that you are not as good as you are perceived, Harry Potter. After all, you only beat so called Dark Lord, Voldemort, who was a product of the British Magical School System, so obviously he wouldn’t be as much of a threat as if he was a dark wizard with an education of magical from the American school system.”

“I wouldn’t know that as I never fought any American Dark Wizards, so I couldn’t really make a comparison for you,” said Harry coolly, hoping not all of the students were as pompous as the one who asked that question. “Next question.”

A young third year girl with braided black hair began to raise her hand but before Harry could address her, Harry heard an explosion from behind him, blowing the auditorium doors open. Harry quickly pulled out his wand, pointing it at the source of the explosion. Screams echoed through the auditorium as Kasbah and his group of mercenaries stepped towards Harry, swords drawn.

“Great, a group of new enemies to kill me,” said Harry sarcastically as one of the mercenaries shot a jet of acid from his sword but Harry moved out of the way. The acid bounced off the stage, burning a hole through it.

“Students and faculty, we need evacuation protocol number two, Kasbah Mercenaries attack on the school,” said Professor Stanley in a frantic voice as the students and teachers of the Liberty School of Magic began filing out before turning Harry. “Mr. Potter, I must suggest that you leave at once before…”

“Sorry, Professor Stanley, I’m a bit too busy staying alive,” said Harry, as he leapt up, pulling out his weapon before slicing a curtain, causing it to form a barrier between the mercenaries and Harry. The mercenaries quickly ripped through the curtain as Professor Stanley decided it would be best to see that the evacuation of the school went smoothly. Harry prepared for battle, as the mercenaries shot jets of fire from their wands concealed in their swords at Harry but Harry decided to throw himself off the stage, causing the fire to scorch the top of the stage before Harry leapt back up, cracking two of the Mercenaries across the back of the head with a split kick.

“Subdue him so I can destroy him,” said Kasbah pointing to Harry as two of his mercenaries rushed forward prompting Harry to levitate the podium towards them before the Boy Who Lived crashed the platform down right in front of the mercenaries. The Mercenaries blasted the platform to pieces, before continuing their attempts to murder Harry.

In the back, Hailey, Ginny, and Don all looked horrified as they saw Harry barely fight off his mysterious attackers. One thing was for certain, the attackers had Harry at a slight disadvantage and they didn’t know how long Harry would be able to keep holding them off.

Don pulled out his Bo staff, finding an open before springing up over the students who were getting out, and hanging onto the light rigging before moving forward to join Harry in battle. Ginny looked to leap up but she found she could not do this without being swept up in the crowd.

“Hailey I’m going to go around the long way to try to get to Harry,” said Ginny. “You stay here.”

Ginny went for the side exit, it was of the utmost important that she got to Harry before his attackers finished him off. Hailey stepped off, towards the entrance that was nearest to a bathroom. It was quite fortunate that she was prepared in case of an emergency.

On the stage, Don used his Bo staff to block two of the swords before backing off and springing up before sweeping the legs out from underneath one of the mercenaries. The mercenary staggered back before taking a spill of the stage. The second mercenary shot thick ropes from his sword. The ropes wrapped around Don, binding him. Don fell on his back, struggling but those ropes seemed to be rather tight.

Harry banished a chair towards four of the mercenaries but they quickly blasted it to bits with a quartet of Reducto curses from their wand concealed in their swords. The realization hit Harry that he was rapidly running out of furniture to hold his attackers off with. Harry managed to knock one of his mercenary attackers off the stage with a sickening kick to the face.

Harry looked as if he ran out of room as the trio of mercenaries grabbed Harry by the arms as Kasbah stepped forward, raising his sword in the air.

“Ah yes, Harry Potter,” said Kasbah. “I must say you were a bit of a challenge but I regret not to have much of an audience when I kill you but I guess that’s the way the sword stabs.”

Harry found his legs trapped as well as his arms as Kasbah aimed his sword at Harry but a magical spotlight shined on the stage, temporarily blinding Kasbah and his men. Kasbah staggered around, seeing spots from that spotlight in his face.

“Evil doers beware, the Black Phantom is here,” said Hailey as she looked down at the attackers from the balcony, dressed in the disguise of her vigilante alter ego, the mysterious masked girl known as the Black Phantom.

“Oh hell no,” said Harry, rolling his eyes. If it wasn’t bad enough that he had to deal with mercenaries, he had to put up with the world’s most annoying wannabe superhero. Harry didn’t know who this masked person was but he did that she was when in over her head and extremely foolish putting herself in these dangerous situations.”

“Fry her,” said Kasbah sadistically as his mercenaries pointed their swords upward, before completely incinerating the balcony.

“Son of a…” said Hailey as she managed to avoid having the world’s hottest hot foot by jumping off at the last possible second and barely managing to clasp on the light rigging allowing herself to drop down, and sailing over the mercenaries. Hailey cracked her head on the stage, knocking herself rather loopy.

Harry seized his chance, grabbing one of the mercenaries by the sleeve before tossing him into his other two mercenaries. Harry knocked the trio of mercenaries off of the stage, causing them to spiral downwards.

Kasbah looked at Harry, before stepping forward; it looks like it was up to him to defeat Harry Potter.

“Accio sword,” said Harry, pointing his wand at the sword but nothing happened much to Harry’s horror.

“Anti-Summoning Charm Spell,” said Kasbah coldly before rushing forward and attempting to gut Harry but Harry grabbed Kasbah around the head, pulling it back causing the mercenary mild discomfort. “Let go you fool.”

Kasbah managed to fling Harry but Harry swiftly landed on his feet before quickly whipping a Kusari-Gama chain from his sleeve. The mercenary saw Harry’s attack coming and he swung the sword, slicing the chain. Harry heaved the sickle towards Kasbah but Kasbah expertly deflected the sickle with his sword before springing up. Both feet struck Harry in the midsection, before Kasbah stood over Harry, raising the sword above Harry’s throat.

Harry closed his eyes, bracing for the worst but he didn’t feel the sword slicing his throat so he chanced to open his eyes and he saw the Black Phantom hanging onto Kasbah’s leg, as Kasbah attempted to kick her off.

“Let go you meddlesome girl,” said Kasbah as he inadvertently dropped his sword, attempting to squirm free.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Hailey, grabbing onto Kasbah’s other leg for added leverage both Kasbah managed to launch her off, causing Hailey to fly about twelve feet across the stage. Hailey felt as if at least a couple of her ribs had broken from the way she had landed.

Harry caught Kasbah in the side with a kick. Kasbah landed on his feet and attempted to grab his sword to attack Harry again. Harry saw it coming, kicking Kasbah viciously in the face, breaking his nose with the blow. Blood dripped from Kasbah’s broken nose as Harry kicked his sword off the stage. Kasbah pulled out a normal wand from his boot but Harry was too quick on the draw, aiming his wand and disarming Kasbah with a wordless disarming spell. Kasbah leapt at Harry but the Boy-Who-Lived immobilized him with a wandless full body bind as he was in mid air. Kasbah landed on the stage, his arms and legs snapped together, cracking the back of his head and knocking him out.

Harry breathed heavily as he looked at his immobilized foe. That definitely was not easy but Harry had another business to turn to. The Black Phantom was slowly getting up to her feet and Harry raised his wand, causing the Black Phantom to back up.

“Your intentions may be noble but your actions were extremely foolish, you could have killed yourself,” said Harry in a lecturing voice. “My sister Hailey as more sense than you do, Black Phantom but now I’ll know exactly who you are when I take off this mask.”

“No you can’t!” yelled Hailey in a rather horrified tone of voice, wondering what her brother’s reaction would be if he found out who the Black Phantom was.

“I can and I’m going to, you will thank me later, as playing vigilante is putting yourself in…” started Harry but he was interrupted by the sight of Ginny rushing in from the side entrance on the stage.

“Harry, are you…” said Ginny before looking at the downed mercenaries on the stage, with Kasbah immobilized in a full body bind. “I see you managed to wrap everything up really nicely.”

“Precisely, but now I have one more piece of business to take care of,” said Harry, turning to unmask the Black Phantom to see exactly who she is but much to Harry’s dismay, she managed to slip out when he was talking to Ginny. “Or maybe not.”

“I’m really glad you manage to get through that, as you could have been killed,” said Ginny, before kissing Harry. Harry forgot all about his latest near brush with death or the fact that foolish vigilante; the Black Phantom had slipped through his fingers once again.

“Sorry to interrupt your display of public affection but I thought you should know that I knocked these three guys out before they finished me off,” said Mikey in a cool voice, causing Ginny and Harry to break up, blushing slightly as Mikey dropped three mercenaries who had their hands and feet tied with rope.

“Rope, that reminds me,” said Harry as he looked at the mercenaries before searching for Don, who had been knocked off the stage after being tied up in the heat of battle. After about a minute of searching, Harry found Don, reaching down before using a cutting charm to free Don of the ropes.

“Thanks Harry,” said Don gratefully, pulling himself up onto the stage. “Those guys don’t play around.”

“They don’t, I’ll be sore for a week after the thrashing I took,” complained Mikey.

No sooner did Mikey say this, a group of Aurors rushed into the school, wands raised in the air, looking around, but they looked around, looking rather perplexed before their looks turned to calm, seeing all the mercenaries were incapacitated.

“Ah, Mr. Potter, looks like you managed to get them all,” said one of the Aurors in a sigh of relief. “We made every attempt to get here but since this room is warded against apparition and portkeys, because we can’t very well have someone popping in and attempting to kill all the students in the middle of a presentation and if I remember correctly, the wards take at least three hours to take down so we had to take the hard way in.”

“Well, unfortunately these mercenaries did find another way in,” said Harry. “A weak point that the people who warded this school didn’t foresee, I presume.”

“Yes, the American Wizarding Government will make recommendations to ward this side entrance against forced entry promptly, as this is a rare breach of security for the Liberty School of Magic, despite all of our added security for this event,” said the Auror. “We apologize for this disgraceful incident, as Liberty School of Magic is nothing like Hogwarts and breaches like this, with attempts on someone’s life are extremely rare.”

“I see,” said Harry, looking amused of what the American Wizarding Government thought of the supposed safety of Hogwarts, as their views mirrored is as over the years, Harry had been nearly killed by Voldemort on two occasions, his memory on one occasion, a Basilisk ran unchecked through the walls of Hogwarts, and escaped Azkaban convicts broke into the school too easily. Not to mention the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher last year was a polyjuiced Death Eater.

The lead Auror bent down, pulling the covering off the face of Kasbah to reveal his face.

“Good word indeed, Mr. Potter, this is Al Kasbah, a leader of a group of mercenaries who had been wanted by the American Wizarding Government for years for murders, not to mention sabotage of many magical establishments in magical America,” said the Auror. “Someone really wanted you dead if he and his men were sent after you, as he was known for his ruthless efficiency in murdering people. Rest assure, during his trial, he will tell us who paid him off to attempt to kill you.”

Harry nodded as the Aurors gathered up Kasbah and his fellow mercenaries, to be taken to a holding facility before they were put on trial under Vertitaserum. If they were convicted for their crimes, they would be put to death for the sheer amount of people they killed.

Hailey stepped to the side of the stage as Harry watched the Aurors take off the incapacitated mercenaries.

“Guess I missed some excitement,” said Hailey in a slightly disappointed voice.

“Yeah, you missed the Black Phantom, that reckless vigilante who nearly got herself killed,” said Harry darkly. “Hailey, you should have seen her, recklessly attacking the villains and managing to distain Kasbah by sheer dumb luck. She makes you look like a child prodigy.”

“Gee, thanks Harry,” said Hailey sarcastically. “It looks like this Black Phantom person might have saved your life if…”

“No, no, no, if nothing else she got in my way and it could have cost me dearly,” said Harry. “When will people learn that you can’t play the hero if you keep tripping over yourself in your rescue attempts? If I ever get my hands on this Black Phantom and find out who she is, I’ll make her sorry that she ever…”

“Mr. Potter, your Portkey is going to be leaving in approximately five minutes,” said Professor Stanley. “I do apologize for the attack you suffered in my school but…”

“No, I’m not too bothered by it, just another day in the life of Harry Potter,” said Harry coolly.

A couple of hours later, a grey haired man sank into the chair, sipping on a glass of wine, attempting to calm his nerves after his latest failure. He was known as a rather prominent criminal in the New York underworld, but for all the wrong reasons. That reason being that despite being a criminal, he had never once committed a crime successfully and as a result, was rather hard up for cash because he was too pathetic to get a real job. The only reason he sat in this expensive house at this time, was a rather rich crime lord had paid him to keep an eye on it when this crime lord was on a business trip.

Of course, his most humiliating defeat happened a mere seven years ago, when one of his failed attempts to knock off a gas station was foiled by an eight year old boy. Not just any eight year old boy, an eight year old boy that many in the New York Criminal Underworld had come to whisper in anger over the years. Harry Potter had foiled his planned robbery and he had been branded as an even bigger disgrace. Ever since that time, he had been plotting ways to get his revenge on Harry Potter, but due to lack of funds, many of those schemes never took flight until this one. He managed to learn of a group of mercenaries who had been known for their ruthless efficiency and managed to contact them with a promise to pay them to murder Harry Potter, in front of many witnesses to gain his retribution. Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to give his real name as it was common knowledge among the circles of crime that he didn’t have two pennies to rub together.

Unfortunately, Kasbah and his mercenaries had failed to carry out their mission but this man had learned by now to expect failure in his schemes.

The criminal, a forty seven year old man named Max Windsor, sat back in his chair. Someday he would make Potter pay for making an even bigger mockery out of him. Maybe.