FicWad

Chapter Twenty One: Time Flies

Harry Potter had returned to New York for roughly an hour and all ready the Boy-Who-Lived had already attracted unwarranted trouble.

Namely, another mysterious assassin had attacked him, the fifth one in many months. An assassin that was rather tough to take down, due to his massive girth and large build. The assassin swung a large iron mace with relative ease, but Harry leapt up out of the way, allowing the mace to impact the pavement, driving a large hole into it.

“You’re not as tough as my employer would have allowed me to believe,” grunted Harry’s attacker. “In fact, you are nothing but a puny little weakling.”

Another swing of the mace and Harry somersaulted underneath before striking his foe in the back with both feet, but this only caused him to move a step before he swung around, cracking Harry in the face, nearly knocking him unconscious with one punch. Harry pulled himself up and found himself grabbed around the head, with the man attempting to unscrew it like a bottle cap.

Harry leaned forward, the warrior had made a small mistake, having left his weapon within Harry’s reach, while attempting to injure him with his bare hands. Harry reached forward, grabbing the mace, before he summoned all of his strength. The mace swung upwards, cracking the large mercenary in the chest.

Harry’s adversary let go of him, staggering backwards, which allowed Harry to throw a Kusari-Gama chain around his opponent, wrapping his overly inflated arms behind his back. The mercenary struggled for the briefest of moments, before he snapped the chain effortlessly with his arms and charged Harry, who leapt over his attack and leapt up. A kick cracked the mercenary right in the face, dropping him just barely to one knee. Harry aimed another vicious kick but the mercenary grabbed his leg, before it was roughly pushed back. A wince was heard as Harry felt his leg crack underneath the impact and the attacker prepared to stomp his face in, but Harry put his hands up, grabbing onto the foot.

“Foolish imp, your might is not large enough to block the inevitable,” grunted the attacker, but Harry with a magically induced burst of strength pushed his foe backwards, causing him to stagger back.

Harry pulled himself to his feet, wincing as he limped slightly, from the tell tale signs of an injured ankle. The large mercenary was not done and rushed forward, but Harry managed to grit his teeth and leap over the attack, landing roughly on his injured ankle and turned around, right into the large man doing an uncharacteristic somersault, before Harry found himself struck in the chest with a leg which caused Harry to crumple in a heap and the large mercenary cracked his knuckles, before picking Harry up by his shirt and then casually throwing him to the ground.

Harry struggled back to his feet, before removing his wand from his sleeve and as his attacker charged him, Harry waved his wand. A rock wall burst up out of the ground and the assassin struck shoulder on with the wall, causing the wall to slightly to crumble but the attacker to also drop to the ground.

“Now, who are you working for?” questioned Harry but the mercenary still had some fight left deep down inside, as he pulled himself up and cracked Harry in the face with the hardest punch he could manage.

Harry dropped like a sack of potatoes, completely loopy and only barely aware of the surroundings away, as the assassin bent down, before he hoisted Harry up to a half standing position, before bringing Harry a couple more feet off the ground.

“A valiant fight, for a weakling, but now I must break you,” growled the mercenary.

“Time’s up,” hissed the voice in the mercenary’s voice.

“No, this is my meat, I will finish it,” argued the mercenary.

“The boy is mine, you are just testing his abilities, like the others,” replied the voice in his air in a bored manner.

The assassin prepared to disagree, but a large burst of energy shocked him, forcing him to drop Harry to the ground. Harry landed on the ground with a thud and the mercenary had been pulled into thin air, vanishing from sight.

As he clutched his head, Harry pulled himself to his feet, feeling rather dazed and confused, before he tapped his wand to his Portus-Amulet transporting himself back home, because he wouldn’t have been surprised if he would have gotten a concussion from getting hit so hard in the head from that mercenary.

“Thankfully Harry, no, it’s just some facial bruising and contusions, but you were very lucky that you didn’t crack your orbital socket or suffer a concussion,” explained Lily, as she had finished scanning Harry. “It should be easy enough to heal, much like your ankle, with only a black eye for a few days.”

Harry nodded calmly, but he was going over something in this mind.

“Five mercenaries have attacked me, but no two mercenaries have the same attack methods that have attacked me, not even slight similarities,” commented Harry as Lily waved her wand to fix her son’s face.

“That’s actually very peculiar,” interjected Hailey who came into the room. “I think we’ve pretty much agreed that Voldemort is behind this.”

“That much is obvious, especially since they keep disappearing by magic after a certain amount of time,” said Harry.

“Well maybe he’s trying to scout how you react to different fighting styles,” suggested Hailey.

“No, I don’t believe it, Voldemort’s ultimately against anything Muggle-oriented, he would think that any magic was superior to even the most sophisticated fighting styles,” said Harry shaking off his sister’s theory. “

“Okay, it was just a suggestion,” retorted Hailey with a shrug. “We could go with my other theory.”

“And that is?” inquired Harry.

“Voldemort hates your guts and wants to make your life a living hell for no other reason other than he is a bitter arsehole because he failed to kill you so many times but yet, his ego demands that he is the only one to kill you and he makes sure these mercenaries don’t finish the job,” answered Hailey.

“Yes, that one does make a bit more sense with the Voldemort we know, the one who despises all things Muggle,” said Harry.

“Why the alliance with the Foot, then?” asked Lily, as she had finished fixing up Harry. “Voldemort making an alliance with them didn’t make too much sense either, but it did get several of his followers broken out of Azkaban last year, so perhaps…”

“Saki obviously has something that Voldemort wants and I doubt Saki would make an alliance either if he didn’t find it beneficial,” said Harry dismissively. “Now that I’m fine, I’m going to go check in with the guys in the lair, I haven’t had a chance to touch base in several weeks.”

“Okay, just be careful this time Harry,” replied Lily.

“I’m always careful,” answered Harry.

“Yeah, Mum, it’s not like Harry’s asking all of these people to attack him,” remarked Hailey with a cheeky grin.

“I’ll be back in an hour or two,” added Harry, as an afterthought as he made his way from the Potter residence to take a short trip to the warehouse to make his way to the sewers.

In the lair, Leo ducked a swing from Mikey’s nunchucks, springing up before coming down behind his brother.

“Michelangelo, do focus, you are allowing Leonardo to get inside your head,” commanded Master Splinter as he watched the sparring session from above.

“Yeah, c’mon Mikey, as you’ve put it so many times, you are the Battle Nexus Champion,” replied Leo as attempted to spring up to disarm Mikey but Mikey managed to find the ability to dodge Leo’s blows, before using his agility to spring up and wrap his weapon around one of Leo’s katana, before yanking it from

“Leo, don’t encourage him?” hissed Raph as he jabbed his sai towards Don’s bo staff, but Don casually blocked the attack. Raph attempted to disarm Don, but Don moved his weapon slightly over, causing Raph to tumble, before casually stepping to the side. Raph rushed over, and Don stepped to the side again, before holding his bo outwards, to block Raph’s attack, which rather frustrated the hot tempered terrapin to no end.

“My attack too cerebral for you, Raph?” asked Don.

“What attack?” challenged Raph, as Don stepped to the side, causing Raph to nearly trip, before he swept in and jabbed his bo, knocking Raph’s sais to the side. Raph looked up, before making a go for his weapon, but Don leapt in front of him, before whacking his bo into the ground, preventing Raph for formulating an attack.

Leo, now aimed with one katana, had continued his fight with Mikey, who had wrapped his nunchucks around the other katana. A brief struggle, but Mikey leapt up, swinging around Leo, before the katana pulled from Leo’s hand. Mikey raised up his hands triumphantly and just a bit prematurely, as Leo gracefully backflipped over his second youngest brother, before grabbing Mikey by the facemask and flipping him to the ground, before pinning him to the ground with his own weapons.

“Okay, okay, Leo, you win,” said Mikey frantically, as he was caught by surprise by Leo managing to take him down gracefully without any weapons.

Meanwhile Raph made a movement for his weapons, but Don leapt up. In a blink of an eye, Don stuck his bo staff in Raph’s path. Raph’s impulsiveness did not allow him enough time to put the breaks on and as a result, the bo staff tripped him up, causing Raph to spiral to the ground, his shell breaking his fall.

“I believe I’ve won this round,” declared Don.

“Yes, I believe this was an excellent round of sparring,” interjected Master Splinter. “I must meditate on your improvement, I will return in a moment with my advice.”

Master Splinter walked off and entered his room, leaving the four Turtles alone to discuss their progress.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I should have saw your attempts to trip me up coming,” replied Raph. “But my temper got the better of me.”

“Wow, could it be that Raph’s learning?” asked Mikey cheekily which earned him a stiff slap to the back of the head from Raph.

“Stuff it Mikey,” grumbled Raph and just then, a creek echoed from outside the lair, before black smoke billowed from the lair, causing the four Turtles to look around, before they picked up their weapons.

The smoke cleared seconds later, revealing an ominous figure in black robes, with a hood pulled over his face, staring down the Turtles.

“How did you get into our lair?” demanded Leo in a commanding voice.

“I am here to look for a challenge,” responded the figure in an icy tone.

“You looking for a challenge, well you’ve got for of them right here for sneaking into our home,” responded Raph, he prepared to leap up but Leo grabbed his arm.

“Fight as one,” replied Leo.

“Yeah, the four of us should be able to take this joker,” said Mikey in a confident voice as the hooded figure quickly swept in and leapt up over the attempted attacks as they all charged him. Quickly, he grabbed Mikey by the arm and swung him around, before throwing him to the ground. Leo was next to attack, but the attacker dodged behind Leo, before kicking his legs out from underneath him.

The attacker removed a wooden staff and a Kusari-Gama chain in the confusion and Raph raised his sais but this naturally didn’t work as the attacker flung the chain outwards, causing it to spiral around the weapons of Raph, before they were pulled from his grasp and the attacker whipped his chain, causing the sais to fly backwards to Raph, knocking him off balance

The attacker then turned to Don and Don extended his bo staff outwards to block an expected blow but the attacker stopped short, before looking at Don with amusement, before beckoning for Don to attack.

Mikey leapt up, attempting to catch the hooded attacker off guard with a well placed swing of his nunchucks, but the hooded figure stooped down and Mikey smacked into Don, knocking him out of the attack, before Mikey was grabbed from behind, and flipped into Raph, who had just risen back to a standing position. The two turtles smacked together, thumping right down to the ground.

Leo looked around, it appeared that he was the only one left as the other three have been knocked down and the hooded attacker rushed forward. As he leapt up, he removed the staff, twirling it, but Leo sliced the weapon in half with his katana. Leo moved in and jabbed his katana to disable his opponent, but the hooded figure dodged, before quickly spinning around Leo, before Leo found himself caught off guard as his katana were removed from his grasp.

A leaping kick right to the face knocked Leo backwards and the hooded figure leapt up, gracefully propelling himself over Leo and Leo turned around, right into a somersault twisted into a double chest kick. Leo crashed to the ground as the attacker stood over the battered forms of the four Turtles.

“Stop,” replied Master Splinter as he moved over, staring right at the hooded figure before the figure bowed and Master Splinter responded with a bow of his own.

“I think we should let them in on the secret Master Splinter,” remarked the hooded figure.

“Yes, I must say, your suggestion to accurately test their abilities panned out rather well,” answered Master Splinter and the hood was pulled down, to reveal the smug face of Harry Potter.

“Jeez, Harry, did you have to knock us around and not warn us it was you?” grumbled Raph.

“Hello, to you to Raph,” answered Harry. “Actually this had two purposes. Number one was to give you four an unexpected test to properly evaluate your skills and plus, it was as much as a task to keep my skills sharp, as you four might have subconsciously held back if you realized it was me. Still, I must admit, I was expecting a bit more of a fight.”

“Well to be fair, we were just done with an intense sparring session,” said Leo.

“Yes, well an attack can come at any time,” retorted Harry. “What if it had been the Foot for example?”

The Turtles shuddered at the thought.

“So, exactly how has everything been around here since I was last here?” asked Harry.

“More of the same, we still need to keep a low profile as the news is going on about, and I quote, terrorist giant turtles,” answered Mikey. “The stories have been fewer and further between in the last week or so.”

“Yeah but we still have to here about the Shredder’s humanitarian efforts,” replied Raph. “When will the people in this city wise up and see the Shredder for what exactly he is?”

“Raphael, I daresay that might happen in time, but I do hope that it does happen before it’s too late,” answered Master Splinter, as the aged rat leaned calmly on his walking stick. “So, Harry, that is essentially all that has happened around here lately, would you kindly enlighten us on what has been happening with you lately.”

With that, Harry launched into a narrative of the highlights of the past couple of months of his life.

Out in the streets some time later an alarm went off and two hoodlums ran down the street, their arms full of stolen loot.

“Did you see that guy cower in fear when I threatened to club his head in?” taunted one of the thugs.

“Yeah, that was great, but we’ve got the stuff,” answered the second hoodlum as the manhole of the sewer pushed off and Harry Potter pulled himself up.

“Didn’t your mothers tell you that stealing is wrong?” asked Harry in a calm voice.

“No, but yours screamed real well last night,” replied one of the hoodlum, before both of the hoodlums laughed but their mirth was short lived.

Harry leapt up, ready for the attack, before grabbing one of the hoodlums and threw him to the ground with ease before stalking the other hoodlum.

“Get away from me man,” stammered the second thief. “We were only kidding, can’t you take a joke?”

Harry took other step forward and the thief pulled out a crowbar, swinging it towards Harry, but Harry blocked it with his blade. Another attack broke the crowbar in half and Harry prepared to finish off the thief.

The other hoodlum pulled out a tire iron before clubbing Harry from behind. Harry was only taken out for a few seconds, but this allowed the hoodlums to rush off as fast as their feet could carry them.

“You’re not getting away that easily,” muttered Harry as he rolled over, pulling himself up and following in pursuit.

“Is that punk still after us?” questioned one of the hoodlums.

“Yes,” answered the other hoodlum in a fearful voice but they were stopped in their tracks when a clock flew from above them and landed on the ground. The clock blew a large hole right in the pavement on impact.

“Foolish, vandals, no criminals will be safe from the King of the Clock Tower, the Sensei of Seconds, the Master of Minutes, the Honor Guard of Hours, the Dean of Days, the Warrior of Weeks, the Tyrant of Time, Chronos!” chanted the figure from above and sure enough it was everyone’s favorite clock obsessed nutcase, Chronos, hovering above them with the assistance of a jetpack device.

One of the hoodlums ran off in another direction and the other one stopped, but Chronos pointed his wrist and sent a jet of laser fire. The laser struck the criminal in the back which caused him to fly right into a brick wall before Chronos removed three curved clock arrows from underneath his costume and threw them, pinning the criminal to the wall.

The hoodlum was halfway down the street and Chronos pressed a red button to accelerate his jet pack to the speed of light, propelling him right in front of the fleeing criminal at the speed of light.

“Not so fast, my good man,” replied Chronos. “You cannot out run time, you foolish punk.”

The attacker pulled out a tire iron, but Chronos shot a clock arrow on a thick rope from underneath the sleeve of his costume and flew around. In a half of a blink of an eye, the hoodlum was tied up.

Harry arrived and stopped in his short. He gave a good look from side to side, as he saw the two vandals tied up before he looked up to see Chronos above him.

“You!” exclaimed Harry.

“Do not fear citizen, it is time for you to breath again safely as these two dastardly rogues have been brought to justice,” replied Chronos with a salute.

“How in the hell did you get out of the asylum?” asked Harry.

“Allow me to correct you, I was insane but I’ve been given a clean bill of health and now I’ve been given the tools to atone for my past crimes,” answered Chronos. “Now if you excuse me, it is time to clock out to search for further crooks and vandals, I trust I’ll be seeing you in due time.”

Chronos zoomed off and was out of Harry’s sight in a matter of time, thanks to his high powered jet pack. Approximately a minute later, the police arrived. As the sirens blared closer, Harry took that as his cue to leave.

Harry arrived back home, walking towards the kitchen, where Hailey was at the table, at work. Judging by her frustration, Harry suspected that she was working on a homework assignment, most likely from Potions.

“Oh, Harry, didn’t see you come in,” replied Hailey in an absent minded voice. “Mum says she needs to pick up something for the project she’s working on upstairs, so she might not be back for several hours.”

Harry sat down.

“I met someone on my way back from the lair,” said Harry. “I had gotten into a scuffle with two hoodlums that had robbed a store, but as they got away, they were subdued by the most unlikely person.”

Hailey looked up with interest.

“Remember, that nutter who attempted to steal the Weasley clock?” asked Harry.

“Vaguely,” answered Hailey in an even voice, but the truth was, she remembered Chronos all too well, more for his attempts to smash her into paste on the bell clapper of a clock tower when she was under the guise of the Black Phantom.

“Well, I had assumed he was still locked up in an insane asylum, but he was judged to be mentally competent and now believes himself to be some sort of avenging hero,” continued Harry. “I wonder what his game is.”

“Most likely something to do with clocks,” muttered Hailey, as she began to write the conclusion of her essay, which had taken her several hours of hard, pain staking work to complete.

“I’m going to go back out, to see what exactly his game is,” answered Harry. “Something here is extremely rotten.”

Hailey vaguely waved Harry off as Harry rose back to his feet, before he walked out the door.

“Yes, completed,” replied Hailey, as she read over her essay a couple of times, before rolling it up and walking up to her room, to retrieve her next homework assignment with the obsessively large amount of homework that the teachers assigned over the holiday.

Back in the city, a rotund man exited a restaurant, unwrapping a cheeseburger before taking a large bite from it before the wrapper was casually tossed aside.

Just as soon as the wrapper hit the ground, a jet of laser fire bound down on the man and Chronos swooped down on his jet pack.

“What the hell do you want?” asked the man.

“You committed a crime, you sick fiend,” said Chronos in a deadly voice. “You must suffer the consequences!”

The man attempted to stagger off, but Chronos flew circles around him several times. Clouds of dust rose and the man choked, before falling to his knees. Chronos removed handcuffs, with curved clock arrows, before snapping the clock arrows shut. He casually kicked the man in the back, before he bent down.

“I hope that shows you, that crime doesn’t pay, but time does” sang Chronos as the man grunted as he tried to pull himself free, before Chronos looked up towards a car passing him. “Now, if you excuse me, it’s time for me to clock out several more criminals in this city.”

Chronos blasted off at the speed of light after the car and in a split second, he was parallel to the vehicle.

“Pull over to the side,” ordered Chronos as he aimed himself in front of the vehicle but the motorist attempted to ignore him, so Chronos used a laser blaster hooked to his wrist to blow out the tires.

“Hey, what the…” started the motorist, but a large clock pendulum shattered through the windshield, sending pieces of glass flying everywhere, as Chronos reached inside, before casually tossing the man to the side as he landed on the pavement.

“It is my duty to inform you that I have you clocked at sixty one miles per hour in a sixty mile per hour zone,” admonished Chronos. “Now, we can’t very well have that, now can we.”

“Now, my daughter, she’s very sick, she’s on the verge of dying, I was just rushing to the hospital to see her while I still can,” stammered the motorist.

“Save it for someone who cares, law breaker,” replied Chronos in a cold voice as he began to bind and gag the terrified man. “It’s high time someone cleans up this city from vagrants and that someone will be the Count of Clocks!”

Chronos looked from right to left, using his modified goggles to enhance his vision, before he spotted what in his eyes were more miscreants.

“In the name of justice!” chanted Chronos as he sped off, leaving the terrified man still tied up.

Chronos swooped down on two little girls playing on a stretch of grass, before he looked down at them, before he made a disapproving noise.

“Now, that sign does say, no one is allowed on the grass,” said Chronos, before shaking his head and swooping down at the girls, who cowered in fear. “I’m afraid it is time for you two to atone for your vile crimes.”

Chronos pointed his wrist band laser blaster, but a shuriken impacted Chronos, causing him to spin around as Harry Potter stood there and looked ready for a fight.

“So, Potter, I see you are aiding and abetting dangerous fugitives,” said Chronos coolly as he looked over his shoulder, at the two girls who seemed petrified with fear.

“Youre not only a vigilante but you are a vigilante of the worst kind, one with a warped sense of justice, targeting petty criminals when there are other, more dangerous criminals running lose,” answered Harry.

“Don’t you see what I’m trying to do?” challenged Chronos as he hovered above Harry. “I’m going to make this city a better place and there is no such thing is a petty criminal, you meddler. So, I guess you are on the side of these fugitives as well and must be put down like a rabid dog.”

Chronos aimed his wrist laser blaster towards Harry, and gave a succession of five shots, which Harry all dodged, before he tossed a Kusari-Gama chain up and attempted to wrap around the legs of Chronos, but the obsessed self proclaimed clock lord’s jet pack propelled him out of reach, before he circled Harry.

“Oh no, you’re not getting away at easily,” muttered Harry as he removed an object the size of a match book before he tapped his wand to it, enlarging it and caused it to grow to his bag.

“Cool trick, mister,” said one of the girls bravely

“You two should go home, things are going to get dangerous,” replied Harry sternly as a jet of laser fire blasted towards Harry, but Harry managed to throw a pair of daggers up at Chronos to stall him, but they were deflected in a matter of minutes.

“Is that all you have, Potter?” taunted Chronos. “You were a tougher opponent when you were seven years old.”

Harry disregarded that oddity, before he mounted his Firebolt and shot up towards Chronos. He was extremely confident that walking case of insanity could not touch him in the air, when the odds were even.

Harry dove in a corkscrew manner, avoiding the laser fire from Chronos, circled him in an attempt to distract him from his next move. With expert precision, Harry attempted to bind Chronos’s arms with thick cords shot from his wand but the high tech jet pack allowed escape. As a result, the cords wrapped around mid air before they dropped down to earth and Harry moved into attack but Chronos cranked up a dial on his forearm.

“Time out, Potter!” taunted Chronos and a heavy blast of laser fire was sent right at Harry .Harry managed to pull up so he could avoid the fire but the broomstick was blasted full on, which caused Harry to spiral to the ground on his destroyed Firebolt.

At the last second, Harry leapt off, before the broomstick crashed into the ground, splintered into several fragments.

“Ah, did I break your little toy?” cooed Chronos before giggling madly before continuing in an icy cold, serious tone. “Well, call it payback for ruining my life.”

Harry was seething, that whacko had destroyed his broomstick and that was something that all Potters took extremely personal. Yet, Harry found himself with no way to beat Chronos if he had no way to catch him. Even in the air, Chronos few circles around him and Harry decided that it would be best to regroup, before coming back with a more concrete plan and disapparated just as Chronos plunged down, in a vicious attempt to impale Harry with a razor sharp clock arrow.

“Soon, Potter, it will be your time!” shouted Chronos and he looked around, where the two little girls had wisely departed. “And I’ll catch those two grass defiling vandals as well.”

Hailey looked up from a particularly difficult Transfiguration essay that McGonagall had assigned as Harry arrived, broken pieces of his Firebolt in his hand and his bag slung over his shoulder.

“Okay, this guy was a nuisance before but I’m really taking this personal now,” said Harry in an angry voice. “He destroyed my Firebolt.”

“You’ve got two more broomsticks Harry,” replied Hailey in a reassuring voice, referring to the broomstick that Sirius bought for Harry during his third year that Harry had kept locked up and the Firebolt that Harry used at Hogwarts. “Oh yeah, and that monstrosity that got recalled for being too dangerous that you had me and Hermione collect last year.”

Harry’s eye twitched briefly at the mention of his estranged best friend’s name, but that was quickly extinguished by something that Hailey had reminded of.

“That’s it, Hailey, you’re a genius, I can use my Wind Storm to out fly that nutter and defeat him,” said Harry.

“Harry, you told Mum that you only bought that broom for research purposes,” admonished Hailey and she did looked concerned at what looked like her brother’s attempts to commit and entirely reckless act with a dangerous broomstick.

“It’s the only way I can take him down,” said Harry, waving off Hailey’s concerns, before he made his way to the basement, where his Wind Storm was kept.

Hailey threw up her hands up defeat, as she knew there was nothing she could do to talk her brother out of using that dangerous, super speed, racing broom, so the least she could do was follow him and make sure he didn’t get injured. Her mother would kill Hailey and then Ginny would find a way to resurrect her, just to kill her again if something happened to Harry.

A quick change of clothes and the Potter family Invisibility Cloak would be in order for Hailey to follow closely and discretely.

Back in the city, Chronos looked around for more criminals to bust but Harry Potter walked out of the shadows.

“So, you haven’t had enough, have you?” taunted Chronos.

“Your time is up,” replied Harry in a stoic voice which caused Chronos’s facial features to contort in what might have been irritation, but it was difficult to see as his eyes were concealed by his goggles.

“Hey, I’ll be dispensing with the timely puns, you amateur,” retorted Chronos as he pulled out a cuckoo clock from behind his back. “And it’s high time you paid me respect.”

“You use high tech lasers and dangerous weaponry and now you pull out a cuckoo clock,” said Harry, with the belief that this shouldn’t take any time to wrap up, the Potter arrogance gene kicking into high gear as he stepped forward.

“This isn’t an ordinary cuckoo clock, Potter,” explained Chronos and a second later, the clock went off and a giant boxing glove sprung from the clock and struck Harry right in the face. Harry crumpled to the ground, knocked unconscious.

“It’s time to wake up!” chanted a boisterous voice and Harry’s eyes slowly opened and Chronos stood above his form. It took a few seconds to register that that Harry was bound to a large metallic pole.

Harry attempted to remove his wand from his sleeve, but to his absolutely horror, it wasn’t there.

“Looking for this!” taunted Chronos as he waved his want in Harry’s face. “Harry Potter or would you prefer I call you the Boy-Who-Lived?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” answered Harry.

“I know everything about you Harry, everything and those ropes are reinforced, plus completely resistance to any and all magical attacks,” replied Chronos. “My new friend, my hook up as the kids on the street call it, has informed me of your tale, from your defeat of Lord Voldemort all the way to your various misadventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

“Would this same friend be the person who supplied you with this high tech weaponry?” asked Harry.

“Very perspective Harry, there are brains in that skull of yours, it’s a shame that they’ll be splattered all over the city,” replied Chronos. “Time is not on your side, Potter, gaze above your head.”

Harry looked up and recognized the giant structure looming above his head.

“That giant ball falls to celebrate the birth of a brand new year and soon it will fall right on your dunderhead, to celebrate the royal execution of Harry Potter,” said Chronos before laughing madly for nearly a minute as Harry attempted to pull himself free, but since he was unable to reach his weapons or was unable to use magic, that endeavor failed. After all his battles, Voldemort, Shredder, Bishop, The Death Eaters, The Foot, Hun, Stockman, Triceratons, and many others, Harry’s ultimate death would come due to a giant glass ball controlled by a mentally unstable man with an unhealthy fetish for time.

Chronos looked at Harry with a triumphant look as he pulled out a remote control device.

“Farewell, Harry Potter,” declared Chronos as he prepared to press the button to activate the mechanism to drop the ball but a thick rope wrapped around Chronos’s arm causing him to spin around and drop the remote control device.

“Ready to surrender, Chronos?” challenged Hailey, who was naturally under the guise of the Black Phantom.

“My time is not yet up, Black Phantom,” retorted Chronos and he pressed the button to activate the jet pack which caused to burst up and Hailey to give a surprise shriek, as she found herself dangling from Chronos’s flying form as he moved through the city.

Harry looked up, wishing he had access to something sharp, a dagger, a shuriken, anything that could be used to slice himself free, as he watched the Black Phantom dangle from Chronos as he flew recklessly through the city. Despite her status as a vigilante, Harry held no ill will towards the Black Phantom and never liked to see innocent people perish, even if they deliberately put themselves in danger. That’s why Harry vowed to unmask the Black Phantom for her own good, but it didn’t matter now, as they were both in danger.

“It’s time to cut my losses,” replied Chronos as he sliced the rope causing Hailey to spiral recklessly out of control, but thankfully for her, she managed to grab onto a building ledge on the way down, before she plummeted messily to the ground.

Chronos touched down and casually picked up the remote control device, before he turned towards Harry.

“No way out now, Potter!” chorused Chronos and he pressed the button to activate the apparatus that caused the giant ball to come down, which would happen in thirty seconds.

A slice spell whizzed through the air and connected with part of the giant ball, sending jagged pieces of glass flying through the air and Hailey cursed herself, as her attention was to knock the ball down, away from Harry went awry.

“I’ll finish you off for trapping me in that clock tower and driving me to the brink of insanity!” yelled Chronos as he sent a series of laser blasts right at Hailey, which she just managed to doge.

Meanwhile, a piece of glass fell right at Harry’s face, and Harry tucked his foot underneath the glass piece, before managing to transfer it to his hand and Harry quickly went to work on the ropes, just as the glass ball prepared to crash down into his skull.

The ropes were sliced and Harry threw himself out of dodge, just a second before he would have been crushed. The Black Phantom had tripped her own feet in an attempt to dodge Chronos’s attacks, and Chronos aimed his laser blaster to prepare to finish her off. Chronos had dropped Harry’s wand in the confusion, so Harry rolled forward, before he picked up the wand.

A pair of chains shot from Harry’s wand but Chronos used his rocket thrusters to move out of the way of impact.

“I don’t know how you escaped Potter, but you’ll never catch me once I boost my jet pack into turbo overdrive,” replied Chronos, before he cranked a red dial and he was blasted into the air as quick as a flash.

Harry just smirked before he enlarged his bag and removed his Wind Storm broom, before he mounted it and the broom shot off like a cork, right at Chronos at an equally fast speed to start with, Harry gaining momentum as he flew towards Chronos. Chronos flew at the speed of light, but Harry flew at the speed of a Killing Curse, which was just a bit faster due to its magical properties.

“No, no, no one could touch me in this jet pack!” yelled Chronos, before he spun around and activated a control on his wrist bands. “This will blow you sky high, Harry Potter.”

A large, nearly solid wall of laser fire shot right from Chronos’s wrist bands, ripping through the air and for the briefest of seconds, Chronos had thought he had vaporized the Boy-Who-Lived.

He then felt a tap on his shoulder and he spun around, to see Harry perched on his broomstick, with a smirk.

“About time you turned around, slow poke,” said Harry and Chronos aimed his wrist band laser at Harry, but other than a few sparks, it fizzled completely out. “Out of fuel?”

Chronos angrily pressed the button to reactivate his jet pack but he only flew maybe half of a mile, before he began to descend to the ground and he crashed roughly to the ground, his jet pack along with his wrist blasters sliding off as he laid on the ground.

With a smirk, Harry descended to the ground and looked down at Chronos, who got up, begging for mercy.

“C’mon, you wouldn’t hit a man with glasses, would you?” pleaded Chronos, as he pointed to his goggles with a confident voice and Harry calmly used his wand to summon Chronos’s goggles, leaving him quite exposed and a punch right to the face knocked Chronos out cold.

Without another word, Harry tied Chronos up, stringing him up to a nearby light post, before placing a call to the authorities to come pick him up.

It didn’t escape Harry’s attention that the Black Phantom had managed to slip out before he had a chance to confront her. The more Harry thought about it, something seemed extremely familiar about her, but Harry couldn’t for the life of him place what it was.

Harry arrived back at the Potter residence, well past midnight.

“Oh, Harry, there you are, I though you would be back before I was,” said Lily, as she sat in the chair in the sitting room. “You didn’t run into any trouble.”

“No, not too much at least,” replied Harry. “Hailey told me about the part you had to get with that thing you’re working on in the attic, did you find it?”

“Yes, yes, I did,” answered Lily.

“You know, I don’t think you ever told us exactly what you’re working on up there, Mum,” said Harry.

“I’ll tell you when I’m completely sure it works, but it will of some use, I can tell you that,” replied Lily. “On another note, I just got done talking with Alexandra, she mentioned something rather peculiar that was stolen, that I thought you might want to know.”

“Really, what?” asked Harry.

“A mysterious magical box that was about to be moved to the American Department of Mysteries from a Muggle Museum was swiped tonight, in fact, the museum was a few blocks away from here,” answered Lily. “From what little is known, it is rumored to have mystical properties of some sort.”

Harry racked his brain, he remembered reading about such a box in one of the books in the Salazar Slytherin library, but he couldn’t remember which book or any other details.

Harry then had a strange thought, he wondered if the individuals who stole the mystical box and the people who supplied Chronos with his weaponry tonight were one in the same.