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Chapter Twenty Nine: Time to Kill Part One:

Thunder echoed through the sky in New York City on a dark and brooding night about a week after Harry and the Turtles had their latest battle with the dark forces of the Foot, and indeed the Shredder himself. That battle had been hard but fought well enough so the Turtles and Harry could escape with their lives.

Unfortunately life was never quiet for one Harry James Potter. In fact on this dark and stormy night, Harry had to face off against one of his most deliberating foes to date. A foe that may be more dangerous then the Shredder, Albus Dumbledore, Hun, the Foot Elite, Voldemort, the Purple Dragons, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, Luther Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Touch and Go, The Federation, the Triceraton Republic, the Mob, The Ministry of Magic, or Agent Bishop. None of those foes had put Harry in the state of mind that was in right now. Indeed Harry Potter was bed ridden at this moment, barely having the strength to move or do much else because of a particularly deliberating case of the flu.

“Mum, I’m fine,” insisted Harry in a weak, raspy voice that was followed a couple seconds later by coughing, that caused Harry to have the urge to rise to his feet and stumble to the bathroom, out of sight

Lily watched the bathroom door close behind her son. If she had been so concerned with Harry’s health, she would have been amused how stubborn Harry was. It reminded Lily about how she was at that age.

“Harry, you’re not fine,” said Lily calmly. “If you were, you would not be in the bathroom getting sick. Now as soon as you are done in there, I want you straight back to bed and not get out until I feel you are well enough.

“Mum!” whined Harry briefly but his half hearted pleas were interrupted by the fact that he had a sudden urge to get sick again. Harry slumped over, conceding the inevitable and obvious defeat, as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. Helplessness was something that Harry James Potter utterly detested. Sadly, he would have to concede to defeat after feeling a bit light headed earlier in the day and then this flu hit him full force.

Harry made his way back to his bedroom slowly and shakily, with a weakened expression on his face as he sank down onto his bed and pulled the covers over his form, feeling a bit chilled as he laid back into bed.

“Mum, what about the meeting of the resistance group against Voldemort,” muttered Harry in a weak voice, shivering once again. “I worked hard setting it up so the Ministry is preoccupied for a couple of hours tonight, I just can’t miss that, because I don’t know when I’m going to get the chance.”

“Harry, I’ll take care of it,” said Lily in a reassuring voice as she handed her son a vial of a light purple potion. “Here, take this.”

Harry took the vial of potion from his mother before he managed to tip it into his mouth and down his throat. The potion wasn’t exactly the best testing thing in the world as Harry shuddered as he registered how horrid the potion tasted.

“It’s not supposed to taste good Harry, it’s supposed to help you feel better,” said Lily, answering her son’s unasked question. “Unfortunately, the magical world has yet to find a cure all potion for the flu, but this should give you some temporary relief so you could sleep.”

Harry nodded weakly; he would be pleased if there was quick fix, even if it tasted completely horrible. After all, any horrid taste would be well worth that Harry would be up and about. Harry felt that he was losing valuable time that he could be doing something productive to prepare for the inevitable time that he would face off against Lord Voldemort once more.

“I’m going to have to leave now Harry, because there isn’t a moment to waste because of the diversion you set up to make sure the Ministry doesn’t find out what you are up to” said Lily. “I’ll pass on any information that might be useful for you know when you are better. Until then, stay in bed and rest.”

Without another word, Lily walked from Harry’s room and down the hallway. Harry yawned as he felt a bit drowsy before he slowly eased to sleep. His last thoughts before quickly falling asleep was that if something evil and nefarious happened tonight, it would be someone else’s problem and not his.

Around this time in the living room, Hailey leaned against the couch, deeply engrossed in the book she was reading. Normally Hailey avoided any and all literature at all costs, but this book was fairly interesting. The book had to do with magical time and inter dimensional travel. It didn’t have anything real concrete in the way of details as the actual magic, as the details had been either lost over time or had been branded as dark by the Ministry. There was strong belief that there were certain rituals to propel a witch or wizard backwards through time without the use of a time turner. Naturally, only the most powerful could have a hope in doing it, but Hailey found all the accounts of magical people meddling with time and it blowing up in their faces in the most spectacular ways possible to be very amusing.

“Hello, Hailey,” said Ginny, whose voice jerked Hailey out of her own visions of people foolishly tampering with time and erasing themselves out of existence. “I just got done with that Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts text book that Harry bought the other day. I suspect he will go over it in detail when he’s feeling better.”

Hailey nodded absentmindedly but she did notice that Harry had seemed a bit dizzy earlier today when they were practicing their defense magic and ninjitsu.

“Hope Harry feels better soon because he is not going to be that happy if he has to stay in bed and not do anything productive for too long,” muttered Hailey before she turned

the page of the book and read for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. “Some of these people are just too much. No wonder the Ministry closely regulates the use of time turners. These idiots accidentally killing their past selves or even their parents, which of course leads to them getting wiped out of existence.”

“Time travel, not exactly something I like to think about,” remarked Ginny. “Seriously, if someone accidentally killed themselves and they got wiped out of existence, in theory they wouldn’t be able to go back if they didn’t exist and thus they…”

Ginny trailed off, shaking her head, as attempting to think about this fact had been a bit confusing.

“It’s best if you don’t think about it, Ginny,” said Hailey seriously.

“Bloody paradoxes,” muttered Ginny in an agitated voice.

“Or as Harry put it when he tried to read this book, “this damn book is starting to give me a brain aneurysm”, before he flung the book into the wall,” said Hailey with a grin as she looked over the page. “Of course, it isn’t that bad when you are reading it for pure entertainment value and not trying to wrap your finger around the theory of magical time travel. Still, I better put this away before I accidentally learn something.”

Hailey closed the book and rose to her feet, before placing it on the table. She turned her attention to the television before she decided to grab the remote control. It was getting rather close to ten o’clock at night.

“Let’s see what’s going on in the Muggle news,” said Hailey.

“I just hope its good news for a change,” remarked Ginny.

“In this town, you have to be kidding, Ginny” said Hailey as she turned on the television. “In this town we get alien invasions, ninja assassinations, homicidal squibs, and various other petty criminals. The last thing we get is news of a nice, peaceful, incident free day. Besides, I need to check to see if there is anything in the news about the Shredder and his so called reconstruction of New York since Harry isn’t able to because he is sick.”

Ginny nodded as the news began to air. For a few minutes, there was really nothing of note and Hailey began to feel that she was wasting precious time but a very peculiar bit of news caught her attention.

“Earlier tonight, the latest in a series of strange, unexplained robberies occurred tonight leaving the New York City Police Department baffled,” declared the reporter. “A set of rare, priceless antique pocket watches was swiped from the Retro Memories Antique Store. The clerk is utterly and completely baffled, as he was assisting a customer, a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes, and the next second he was knocked out. When he woke up, his collection of pocket watches had vanished along with the young woman and he found himself pinned to the wall by arrows that resembled the hands of a clock. Channel Six News will bring you more on this baffling and quite strange crime wave that have had priceless clocks of all varieties being snatched all around the city of New York as the authorities continue to investigate this crime spree.”

“What kind of person goes around town stealing clocks?” asked Ginny.

“I think the answer is rather obvious, Ginny,” said Hailey with a bit of a grin. “They obviously didn’t have enough time on their hands.”

“I had to ask,” grumbled Ginny as she put her head in her hands and shook it from side to side.

“Seriously through, whoever is doing this is a bit hung up on time,” said Hailey. “I think someone…should look into this more thoroughly.”

“Well they did say that the authorities were investigating this,” replied Ginny.

“No someone a bit more competent,” said Hailey, as she slowly backed away from the room, preparing to make a quick change of clothes.

“Well Harry’s sick, so I doubt you should be bothering him with such trivial facts as clocks being stolen,” said Ginny sternly before suddenly realizing what her friend had in mind. “You aren’t going to do what I think you are going to do, I hope.”

“I don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about, Ginny,” remarked Hailey in an innocent tone of voice as she quickly left the room.

Ginny shook her head. Hailey still insisted that she wasn’t the Black Phantom yet it was plainly obvious to anyone that she was. Well, everyone but Harry, who was so used to figuring out completely convoluted plans that he tended to ignore the obvious in some instances. Ginny would have normally spied on Hailey to make sure she didn’t get herself in a sticky situation but she decided reluctantly against it. After all, Harry was upstairs ill and Ginny wouldn’t sleep soundly until he was better.

Meanwhile, in a run down and rat infested warehouse in one of the worst parts of New York City, a middle aged man with stringy grey hair and goggles with lenses shaped like miniature clocks along with a black bodysuit with pictures of clocks plastered all over it walked over to a table with an assortment of different clocks sitting on the table. He took the sack that he had in his hands and carefully emptied the assortment of pocket watches on the table.

At one time this man had been what some had considered sane. Due to a string of misfortunes, he had turned to a life of crime or at least in theory he had turned to such a life. He wasn’t much better at his life of crime, at least until rather recently. He had a few of his schemes thwarted by one Harry Potter and he couldn’t help but think that mutant turtles fit in somewhere in his disgraced past. However, he passed off any turtle based notions as part of his lingering insanity from the incident that transformed him from laughing stock of the New York underworld to moderately successful time obsessed lunatic.

As a result of an unfortunate run in with mysterious and illusive Black Phantom, he accidentally locked himself in a clock tower attempting to escape from her. It was three days before anyone had found him, because quite frankly no one gave a damn about him. By that time, the constant grinding of the gears of the clock had driven him completely and utterly to the point of insanity. His past life wasn’t important, as from that day forward he dubbed himself, Chronos, the self proclaimed Lord of the Clock Tower and the Tyrant of Time! Needless to say, he was making up for lost time.

“Yes, the police department in this city is quite the inept bunch, even more inept then I was as a criminal before my moment of clarity,” said Chronos before he gave a wheezy round of giggles. “Or insanity as some may be inclined to believe.”

Chronos gave another ear splintering round of giggles, rocking back and forth looking completely and utterly out of his mind.

“Tempus, come forth!” called Chronos in a loud, boisterous tone of voice and a few seconds later a young girl about seventeen or eighteen years old walked into the room. She had long blond hair and light blue eyes and wore a black blouse and a short silver skirt.

“Yes, my masterful master of time,” giggled Tempus in an air headed manner. “What is it you want me to do now?”

“My dear Tempus, the time is near, we are getting rather close to pulling off the clock caper of the century,” declared Chronos as he tossed photos of both Harry Potter and the Black Phantom on the table next to all of the clocks. “After we dispose of that meddling fool Harry Potter and then when he is completely finished, we will turn out attention to the illusive and enigmatic Black Phantom. I have had my share of run ins with those two and it will be their turn to clock out.”

“My lord, this Harry Potter is so cute!” giggled Tempus as she flicked her hair back and forth, looking at the picture of the Boy-Who-Lived. “Can’t you like steal him so I can use him as my personal love slave or something?”

“I’m afraid not, my young assistant,” said Chronos in a stern, almost serious voice. “The brat has stepped in my way in the past once too often and his time should be cut rather short. Besides, he already has a girlfriend and I daresay she wouldn’t care too much if you tried to use young Mr. Potter as your personal love slave. Of course, she could be more upset that I am going to kill him but that’s not the point I am trying to make”

Chronos gave a sharp, high pitched giggle. A jealous expression flashed off of Tempus’s face before she set her face into a neutral expression before the Lord of the Clock Tower could see it.

“Besides, I daresay you will attract a fair bit of attention with the valuable asset that I will acquire from the clock caper of the century,” declared Chronos as he pulled out a large picture and handed it to Tempus.

“An old grandfather clock?” asked Tempus in a confused voice, as she tried to figure out the significance of what her boss was up to.

“Yes, but it is much more then that, it is the key to my success,” answered Chronos. “It is not the clock but what is etched inside the clock that is I am after. To be blunt, etched inside this old grandfather clock is an ancient ritual that will enable me to have the power to manipulate the entire essence of time. I no longer need to worry about human error, as I can throw myself back in time up to sixty seconds backwards to erase my own mistakes from the annals of time. I will have the power of a god!”

“But what about me?” asked Tempus with a pouty expression on her face.

“You, my young dear, get all of these shiny clocks and watches to do with what you please,” answered Chronos. “Granted, many of them are useless but some of them are quite valuable and would fetch a good price should you pawn them off. Besides, I have no use for all of these time pieces and that old grandfather clock is the prize that I desire.”

Tempus seemed satisfied with that explanation. The only reason that Chronos was committing all of these frivolous thefts is to draw the attention of either Potter or the Black Phantom. The Lord of the Clock Tower didn’t really have any preference of who he would dispose of first, only that he wanted both of those meddling fools six feet under.

“Needless to say, we have a prior engagement before we commit the clock caper of the century,” informed Chronos before laughing madly. “I planted a subtle, but somewhat obvious, clue that I was planning to knock off the Bank of New York. By now Potter or the Black Phantom should have picked up the clue and no doubt would try to thwart my plan. Come now, Tempus, no need to dawdle. We don’t want to keep our victim or perhaps victims waiting.”

In the shadows across from the Bank of New York, Hailey Potter, under the guise of the Black Phantom, watched intently for any signs of activity. She managed to poke around at the scene of the last crime, barely avoiding the police, and managed to pick up something that the New York Police Department may have inadvertently overlooked.

My next crime has the potential rock all /of New York. /You can //bank/ on it./

After about a minute of studying the piece of paper and thinking to the best of her abilities, Hailey couldn’t believe how someone could be so obvious. It was almost as if this clock obsessed whacko was leading someone on into a trap but as Harry had constantly drilled in her head, she prepared herself to be ready for anything and everything that could come her way. If anything else, that mindset would allow Hailey the chance to survive completely attack.

Hailey looked around, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around other that the nighttime security guard who looked rather bored at the entrance of the bank. The time was getting rather late and she had been sitting at her spot for nearly a half hour. It was just a little bit after eleven o’ clock at night. Hailey was beginning to think that this was a waste of time and she could be at home sleeping instead of being outside in the bitter rainstorm that was raging outside of New York. Of course, another more logical part or perhaps slightly egotistical part of her mind inferred that she was the only one who might be able to defeat this clock obsessed nutcase. After all, Harry was sick, Ginny was busy looking after Harry, and the Turtles and Master Splinter had left for Japan, to visit some guy called the Ancient One. So she had few options other then to sit out and keep an eye on the proceedings.

The sounds of a scream jerked Hailey out of her thoughts and she peered across the street to see a very frightened young woman with blond hair racing down the street, looking around frantically.

“Someone help me!” shrieked the girl and the security guard turned around to consider the woman.

“What seems to be the problem, miss?” asked the security guard.

“A hood stole my purse!” sobbed the girl as Hailey moved into to right next to the bank to gain a closer look at the proceedings.

“Did you see which way he went?” asked the security guard as he pulled out a nightstick and twirled it.

“Down that alleyway,” sobbed the girl, pointing.

“But that’s a dead end…” started the guard but that was the lasts thing he heard before a loud thumping sound heard and he fell to his knees. Two arrows shaped like clock hands shot at a ninety tree arrow, pinning the guard to the wall of the bank.

The young woman, who was obviously Tempus, turned around as she watched the Lord of the Clock Tower giggle madly as he reached down and pull the keys to the front entrance off the guard’s belt.

“That ruse never gets old!” yelled Chronos. “NEVER!”

Chronos fumbled with the keys, before finding the one that would allow him easy entry in the bank.

“LOOK OUT!” screamed Tempus but it was too late as Hailey kicked Chronos flush in the face and caused him to skid across the sidewalk.

“Sorry, but the bank is closed,” said Hailey as she watched Chronos get to his feet.

“So, Black Phantom we meet again,” said Chronos before breaking into a round wheezy giggles before growing nearly serious. “I was kind of hoping that I would be able to dispose of Harry Potter first but you, my dear, will have to do just fine. You will fall to the Lord of the Clock Tower, the Tyrant of Time, the Master of Minutes, the Sultan of Seconds, the all knowing master of all things timely, Chronos!”

Chronos pulled out a crossbow and shot a razor sharp second hand arrow at Hailey. Hailey dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, causing the arrow to harmlessly sail over her.

“You can run but Black Phantom, you cannot escape the hands of time!” yelled Chronos as he shot another arrow at Hailey who managed to avoid it and knock Chronos back with a hard open handed slap. Chronos reached for the crossbow but Hailey kicked it away.

“Time’s up Chronos,” said Hailey but Chronos managed to pull himself to his feet and pull a medium sized bazooka like gun.

“My patented clock-zooka!” yelled Chronos as he shot a rapid succession of clocks from his bazooka which Hailey managed to blast away with the wand that was hidden up her right sleeve.

Hailey reached down and picked up one of the razor sharp second hand arrows before tossing it towards Chronos. The arrow knocked the clock-zooka out of Chronos’s hand and he fell to the crowd, nursing a slightly cut up hand. Hailey kicked Chronos in the face. Chronos staggered around before pulling a large clock from an inside pocket of his bodysuit. The Lord of the Clock Tower flung it on the ground a few inches away from the Black Phantom and the clock exploded, causing smoke to fill the area next to the bank.

Hailey backed off, shielding her face from the smoke with her sleeve while attempting to vanish it with her wand. After a considerable amount of effort, the smoke was magically vanished in a few minutes. Much to her displeasure, both Tempus and Chronos had used the smokescreen as a getaway. Hailey bent down, examining the remains of the clock and it had a small piece, ripped piece of paper stuck underneath fragments of the clock. The paper fragment read

The Grand Plan: Seizure of City Hall Clock…

Hailey looked over the paper, turning it over, fruitlessly hoping for more but that small fragment was the only thing she had available at this moment. There had to be more and no doubt that loon had some evil plan that had something to do with City Hall. Hailey felt it wouldn’t hurt to discreetly have a poke around City Hall, to see if she could find out anything else about what was going on with this strange and unexplained crime spree.

There was also something else that was really nagging at Hailey. The fact that this Chronos guy seemed to know her and Hailey could have sworn that she never meant the lunatic until tonight. Hailey thought she might be forgetting something key but after she racked her brain for any instance of meeting someone as memorable as Chronos, she came up with nothing. Maybe he had another alias, but other than Luther Malfoy and those bloody magical mercenaries, the only people Hailey had run-ins with as the Black Phantom were petty thieves, many Hailey couldn’t remember a damn thing about. Hailey really hoped she could figure this out soon, as this was driving her up a wall.

Some time later outside of City Hall, Hailey arrived, looking around cautiously, not wanting to get caught off guard by Chronos or anyone else for that matter. Hailey moved her head from side to side, before quietly moving past a large bronze statue of Oroku Saki and into the shadows. It appeared that there was no one at this location.

“Maybe I misinterpreted the meaning of that slip of paper,” muttered Hailey as she frantically looked around.

A loud ticking sound caught Hailey’s attention and she turned around, to see a wooden clock sitting innocently on the sidewalk in front of her. Walking over to get a better look, Hailey looked at the clock. From all instances, it appeared to be an ordinary clock just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Hailey stepped back slowly, before pulling a shuriken from her pocket. She shielded her face before flinging the shuriken at the clock and ducking behind the large Saki statue. If the clock was booby trapped, it should have exploded on contact. However, that was not the case and Hailey breathed a sigh of relief. She walked out into the open as the clock sit innocently on the sidewalk.

Hailey’s view of the clock was the last thing she remembered seeing before she felt something smash over the back of her head. She fell to the ground, knocked completely unconscious from this cowardly attack from behind as shards of glass were on the ground and stuck in her hair.

At five minutes to midnight, Hailey’s eyes slowly opened. Her head was sore and she attempted to move but unfortunately Hailey found that she couldn’t. It took a few seconds for her to realize she was strapped to the large bell clapper located in the City Hall Clock Tower. Hailey squirmed but she had absolutely no room to maneuver as she was restrained so tightly that her straps came dangerously close to crushing her.

“As much as I like to see my foes squirming, I highly wouldn’t advise it,” suggested a happy voice and Hailey barely managed to turn her head to see the smiling form of Chronos looking up at her, looking rather pleased with himself. “You could very well crush yourself.”

Chronos broke into a loud round of giggles that caused Hailey to wish she was able to strangle him to death.

“Now it would be wise to enlighten you that your time will be cut short in about five minutes,” declare Chronos, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “That bell clapper will strike the bell at midnight, twelve times. You are of course will be tied to the bell clapper when it strikes the bell and while I don’t claim to be an expert as this is the first time I have tried to kill someone in such a matter, I suspect one of two things will happen. You will be crushed into paste or every bone in your body will be shattered, including your spine. After all, some people like to kill time but time will kill you in this case. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”

Hailey didn’t give Chronos the joy of hearing her answer but she just glared at him, her emerald eyes narrowed underneath the black facemask.

“Now since your demise isn’t dreadfully boring, I would like to give you something to think about before I commit the clock caper of the century,” declared Chronos gleefully. “I am sure you are wondering who I am and how I seem to know you.”

“The thought did cross my mind and has been plaguing me since we crossed paths earlier tonight,” muttered Hailey through gritted teeth, glaring at Chronos hatefully.

“Well, let’s just say it started here and now it will all end here,” commented Chronos in a mysterious voice before turning his attention away from the Black Phantom. “Tempus, come, we need to leave, so we can steal my key to being the undisputed master of time!”

“Aw, I want to see the Black Phantom be crushed into paste!” whined Tempus, as she had her blue eyes glued on Hailey’s restrained form, with a gleeful look in them.

“Now, my dear Tempus, let us leave our friend to get her bell rung in piece,” declared Chronis before turning to the Black Phantom. “Enjoy your last few minutes and when the bell tolls, try not to go to pieces.”

Chronos gave another loud round of maniacal giggles before he made his way out of the clock tower with Tempus reluctantly following, looking as if she wanted to stay and enjoy the show of the Black Phantom getting killed by the impact of the bell clapper striking the bell in the city hall clock tower. Inevitably, she walked from the clock tower, with a bit of a pouty expression on her face.

Sweat rolled down Hailey’s face as she racked her brain trying to find a way to loosen the straps that she was restrained to the bell clapper with so she could slip out and to safety. Chronos had done a good job, too good of a job in Hailey’s opinion, in restraining her to the bell clapper. It wasn’t helping that her attention was diverted by that cryptic remark Chronos gave her about it all starting here and now ending here. That remark created more questions then answered them as far as Hailey was concerned.

Every second ticked away, with Hailey being fully aware that each second had the potential to be her last. Minute was edging closer and frantic thoughts raced across Hailey’s head, clouding her mind and blocking her limited ability to think rationally. She feared this could very well be her last moments alive.