21. Checkmate

Inside the warehouse where Harry had first used as his headquarters, Harry was hosting a large meeting.

There was a massive table in the center of the warehouse with people surrounding it.

Harry had taken on leadership of the meeting simply because he had been the one to develop the plan.

That was not to say that he was unchallenged though.

Oliver had actually shown up to help, and he had wanted to take on the role of leadership.

The JSA's former leader, Hawkman, had done the exact same.

It was only when Clark had stepped forward and supported Harry's leadership for the mission that they had backed down.

The turnout for the meeting had been surprising, to say the least. Oliver's entire team had shown up, including Red Arrow. From the JSA, Hawkman, the Star-Spangled Kid, and the retired Green Lantern had shown up. They were joined by J'onn J'onzz, Kara Zor-El, and Raya.

It was the first time Harry had seen any of them in costumes, but Clark and the other aliens were in disguise. Clark had taken to wearing dark boots, blue jeans, a red leather jacket with the Mark of El engraved in the front of it, and a blue shirt underneath the jacket. J'onn had simply shifted into his Martian form with his clothes remaining the same for the most part. Kara had taken to wearing a blue shirt, a red skirt, and red boots. As she had not made a public appearance as Kara Kent yet, she would not be recognized. And Raya was actually wearing a Harry's original suit but with a solid black shirt instead of the one that had the mark of the Deathly Hallows on it.

"What's the plan?" Hawkman asked gruffly, still not happy that he was forced to follow the leadership of someone so much younger than him.

"Checkmate uses a base called the Castle as its headquarters. It is located in the Rocky Mountains. We actually know exactly where it is and even have the schematics of the building thanks to Raya. Tonight, we need to meet just outside of the headquarters. If you don't have a way to get there by eight o'clock tonight, tell me and I'll arrange magical transportation."

"I can take several people with me," Alan Scott said, looking at his power ring.

"I can fly," Carter Hall grunted.

"I'll be there," Sylvester Pemberton stated.

"I'll take Red Arrow, Cyborg, Aquaman, Black Canary, and Valkyrie," Oliver said, looking at Roy Harper, Victor Stone, Arthur Curry, Dinah Lance, and Andrea Rojas.

"I'll run," Bart Allen told them with a cocky grin.

"I'll fly," Clark said, followed by similar statements from J'onn, Raya, Kara, and Luna.

"And we'll meet you guys there," Harry said, looking at Zatanna. "But first, we need to get on to the plan after we show up. Plans never survive first contact, so I'll keep it simple. We need to split up into teams. I want the JSA members on one team. The second team should consist of Valkyrie, Green Arrow, Red Arrow, and Black Canary. The third team should consist of Cyborg, Aquaman, and Impulse. The fourth team should consist of Superman, Supergirl, Raya, and the Martian Manhunter. The final team will consist of Arcana, Doctor Fate, and me. We will divide the Castle into four different sections. Each team is to clear that section. The third team has a different task. They need to get into Checkmate's servers and find out everything they can. I'd prefer that they be wiped once it's done, but I'll leave that up to you."

"By clear, what do you mean?" Raya asked, remembering Harry's reputation.

"No one is to be killed unless there is absolutely no choice," Harry said in a tone that brooked no argument. "Take everyone alive unless you have no choice. I want everyone that you find inside to be knocked unconscious and left at least a mile away from the base. Once we are done, I will destroy the Castle with hellfire. Do not allow yourselves to be careless in your search through the facility."

"I might actually start to like you," Hawkman said gruffly.

"Save it until tomorrow," Harry told him. "Unless there are any questions, take a copy of the schematics off the table and move out."

Once he gave them the GPS coordinates to the base, they did just that.

The five teams of heroes met a mile away from the Castle.

It was partially located on a lake and would have had a beautiful view if it was not the headquarters of an organization that wanted to control metahumans.

Hawkman, Green Arrow, Cyborg, the Martian Manhunter, and Harry were the only ones that had on headsets so that they could directly communicate with each other. They were the team leaders. Clark, or Superman as Kara had insisted that he be called, would have led his team, but J'onn did have far more experience. Like Harry, he knew war.

Oliver's team was to take the courtyard of the Castle and help forcibly evacuate the residents.

Cyborg's team was to go in with Oliver's team and find the nearest access point to the Castle's network.

Hawkman's team was to fly in and clear the smaller of the two building that made up the Castle.

J'onn and Harry's teams were to take the other building. The former was to take the bottom level and the underground levels, whereas the latter was to take the upper levels.

Both teams had flown over the walls, but their actual entry into the Castle's structure was different. J'onn's team entered from the ground floor, and Harry's team had crashed through a window on the second level.

They just so happened to enter through the window of a populated room, resulting in a dozen guards pointing their guns at them.

"Freeze!" one of the guards yelled.

"No thanks," Harry said, disapparating behind the guard and slamming his pole into the back of the man's head.

Electricity shot from Luna's hands, shocking several other guards.

"Dnuob yb leets!" Zatanna called out, summoning chains that bound the rest of the guards.

"Doctor Fate, deposit them a mile away from the Castle," Harry ordered. He knew that she could do it easier than they could.

One by one, they began to clear the rooms, carefully disarming and incapacitating the guards before having Luna deposit them a mile away.

"Arrow to Emrys. Courtyard is secure," Oliver said through the headset after they cleared the second level.

"Cyborg to Emrys. Communications have been cut and all information had been downloaded. Back-up files exist in the Pentagon, so there's no point in deleting it all," Victor said through the headset a floor later.

"We're done here," Hawkman said through the headset right after they finished clearing two more floors.

As they were reaching the last floor, they heard J'onn give a report.

"There's been a complication on our end. There's a White Martian down here. She appears confused and angry."

"Be careful," Harry told him. He knew better than to tell J'onn to just kill her or to use all his strength. He had told Harry that he was the last Martian, so finding another one, even if it was a different kind, would have to mean a great deal to him.

They quickly searched the top level room by room, but they did not find anyone there.

As they were approaching the final room, they saw that there were figures standing in front of the final door.

The first two figures were massive stone golems that his Mage Sight told him were heavily enchanted. But the final figure was human. Harry saw nothing about him that looked different. Through his Mage Sight, at least.

Along with armor, he wore a mask that was half orange and half black. A gun was held in each hand. A sword could be seen on his back.

"I don't think so," Harry said,summoning the handguns to him with ease. The moment that they landed in his hands, he pointed them at the golems and began to shoot. They did absolutely no damage, but he did empty the guns quickly. Seeking that they were useless, Harry threw the guns behind him and gripped his staff.

Luna flew towards one of the golems and began to trade blows with it. It was much slower than she was, but it was more durable and had greater strength as well.

Zatanna moved towards the other golem, relying on her speed and agility as she cast spells upon it. Her ice and fire spells seemed to do no damage to it, though her lightning spells actually seemed to damage it.

Harry on the other hand, rushed towards the man and prepared to fight him.

Sword and staff met the moment that they neared each other.

"What are you called?" Harry asked as he casually threw him back.

"You can call me Deathstroke," he answered, doing a flip and then moving forward with a thrust.

"And you can call me Master of Death," Harry said, batting the blade of the sword aside with his staff and then hitting Deathstroke in the back of the head with the other end.

Deathstroke was not one to simply take a hit and go down though. Instead, he rolled forward, allowing the staff to just barely touch the back of his head.

Unfortunately for him, he did not yet know how to fight a wizard.

A red light shot from Harry's staff and hit Deathstroke in the back, knocking him out.

Fighting a wizard was not easy for someone that lacked powers of any kind. Possible but difficult.

Seeing that Luna was getting tired and Zatanna was close to exhausting herself as well, Harry stuck his staff to his back with a Sticking Charm and extended a hand towards each golem. Fiendfyre shot forth from each hand and wrapped around the golems as snakes. Apparently, they were not designed to withstand hellfire and were soon reduced to nothingness.

"Take Deathstroke away from here and wait for us outside," Harry told Luna as he made his way to the door.

Just as he was nearing it, he heard J'onn's voice again.

"Martian Manhunter to Emrys. We are done down here, and we appear to have gained a new ally. Once I was able to calm her down, she chose to join us and learn more about her people."

"I'm going to the last room now," Harry said into the headset. "If you are completely sure that we have cleared the place, then wait for us near the evacuation site."

"About time," Hawkman muttered.

"On it," Green Arrow said.

"We'll be there," Cyborg said.

"Good luck," J'onn replied.

Pushing the doors opened, Harry saw the woman he was looking for.

"Hello Waller," Harry greeted with his Mage Sight active.

"Emrys, I wondered when I'd have the pleasure of meeting you," Amanda Waller greeted in return. "I had hoped it would be under better circumstances though. You've made a mess of things."

"As did your agency," Harry retorted. "How many lives were lost because Checkmate forced the JSA into retirement?"

"The United States Government cannot support vigilantism. That is not how it works," she said, shaking her head.

"Maybe it should," Harry stated. "I've done more good as Emrys than any living officer of the law. The same can be said of any member of the JSA, not to mention the new generation. What does it matter if we bring criminals to the police and stop crimes that are in progress? It would be one thing if we were acting as the judge, jury, and executioner, but that's not how we operate."

"It would be so easy for that to change," Waller pointed out.

"Then find another solution," Harry told her flatly. "Come up with a plan to deal with us if we cross that line. We will not unmask. We will not become the pawns of any government. And we will never give up."

"I can respect your conviction," Waller told him, never breaking eye contact. "But tell me why. Why do you refuse to unmask?"

"It's safer to hide behind a mask. Not for ourselves but for our loves ones," Harry told her simply. "There's little difference in asking that of us and asking every spy and undercover officer that the United States has, along with everyone in Witness Protection, to stand up and proudly proclaim who they truly are to the world."

"You have a point," Waller admitted. "You've made your point. I will make the suggestion to the higher-ups that Checkmate should be shut down and replaced with something different. Not that they would keep it open much longer after we were compromised like this."

Harry could tell that she was telling the truth there. She was not giving up. No, she saw it as making a tactical retreat and coming up with a new plan of action.

"Portus," he whispered, pointing at a chessboard that she had in her office. "We will leave. You have three minutes to leave. If you touch that chessboard, it will send you to Star City. By the time you can report to anyone, this place will be burned into nothing."

"A portkey, huh?" Waller asked, looking at Harry curiously. "You're very interesting, Emrys."

Not saying anything further, Harry and Zatanna made their way out of the room. Both looked surprised to hear that she knew exactly what he had done to the chessboard, but it did make sense for her to know about the magical world.

Just after they were outside of the room, Harry removed a glass jar from his jacket removed the lid. He placed a small sphere of fiendfyre inside of the jar, replaced the lid, and then placed a charm upon it. For the next four minutes, the jar would be immune to all flames. He had tested that specific enchantment before so he would not make a mistake.

Once he set the jar on the ground, they vanished, one using apparition and the other using teleportation.

The fifteen heroes met not far from all the evacuated guards. There was one more individual with them. She appeared to be a girl in her late teens with red hair and freckles.

"It's done," Harry told them, erecting an Imperturbable Charm around them.

"Where are the flames?" Hawkman asked impatiently.

"Wait about four minutes and it'll go up in fire," Harry promised.

He noticed that the youthful girl appeared to be unnerved by the idea of that.

"Harry, this is Megan Morse. She is… well, you can call her my niece," J'onn said, introducing the two.

"It's nice to meet you," he told her, offering his hand.

She shyly shook it, still on edge.

"I'm sure we'll be seeking each other again," Harry said before he turned to Zatanna. "But for now, I think I'm about ready to call it a night."

"I'll leave once the place burns," Hawkman said.

"We'll tell the rest of the JSA what happened," the Green Lantern added.

"I think I'm ready to call it a night too," Oliver said, receiving nods from his teammates.

"Good luck out there," Clark said, looking to Harry. "You must have encountered the one in charge, so they'll be looking for you."

"I've dealt with worse," Harry chuckled.

That was something Clark could not deny.

After saying all their farewells, the heroes left. Oliver's main members made their way back to the road so that they could head to the airport, the Green Lantern flew back to Metropolis with the Star-Spangled Kid hitching a ride, the two Martians flew to Metropolis, two of the three Kryptonians flew back to Smallville, and the third Kryptonian flew back to New York.

Harry and Zatanna apparated back to the Sanctum only after the Castle caught fire.

The death of Checkmate represented a change that could only be good for the heroes.

"Amanda Waller, do you have anything more to say?" a figure standing in the dark asked.

Several days had passed since the Castle was reduced to ash, and the meeting that she had been waiting on had finally occurred.

"No, I do not," Waller answered, shaking her head. She had put everything that needed to be said in her report.

"In that case, you should know that it has been decided that you will face no repercussions for the destruction of Checkmate. It was an outdated agency and would have caused great pain if the public had ever discovered it."

That was true. After Emrys and Arcana had become accepted as superheroes in the Daily Planet, trying to control them would have ended horribly.

"These vigilantes do stand to cause us serious problems in the future, but we do have plans. You will be involved in one such plan, though it will have more than just that purpose," the shadowed figured continued. "We are placing you in charge of a special team."

"What team is that?" Waller asked curiously.

"The Suicide Squad."

Author's Note: And that is the end of Part 1 of the Emrys Saga.

Part 2 should be published tomorrow, 5/21/13. At that time, this story will be renamed from Emrys to Harry Potter & the Rise of Emrys.

This chapter was not as exciting as I would have liked it to be, but as the Suicide Squad was not formed until the end of this story, it wouldn't have made sense for anyone but hired guns to be at the Castle. Writing about anyone with super powers fighting regular people is pretty boring. Writing about Deathstroke vs Green Arrow would have been interesting, but a magical makes it too unfair.

To anyone who doesn't know, Megan Morse (Miss Martian) is a White Martian. Her parents sent her to Earth before the end of the war with the Green Martians. She landed in Colorado and was found by Checkmate. Once there, she was raised by King Faraday. She has to at least be a year or two older than Clark, but let's assume that she is mentally between seventeen and nineteen years old (she was in captivity, after all) and she can appear whatever age she wants because she's a Martian. King Faraday died a natural death before this chapter. That's a divergence from the Smallville comics, but it makes things simpler. While he died a natural death there was well, it was a few years later.

Anyways, I will not be adding anything else to this story, so don't expect a sequel notice to be added here. Just put me on Author Alert or check my profile until it shows up.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. It's been a blast.