A New Life
Chapter 3
To Robdor: Not exactly sure when I stated with absolute finality that Naruto was slower than FTL speeds. According to the Flash, in chapter 1, Naruto was PROBABLY just beneath light speed JUDGING FROM THE SPEED NARUTO DISPLAYED DURING THE WAR. The fact that Naruto CAN move at FTL speeds doesn't mean that he ALWAYS moves at FTL speeds.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Also: typing out 'yep, fuck this story' doesn't tell me why you're hatin' on it.
To Matthew: What's the cliché; Naruto joining or not joining? Either way, if you've read fan fiction long enough, and I don't mean only on this site, you'll discover that either one is a bit clichéd.
I'll deal with the rest after the story...
—~ ~—
Kaguya's POV
"Why did you agree to this again?" He asks from his spot behind me. "I mean, you don't strike me as someone who just bends over to accommodate someone else's request."
"I'm not." I clarify with a shrug as I scan the building opposite ours with my byakugan. Opposite being a bit of a misnomer considering that we're currently on a rooftop about fifty meters away from the target.
"So why agree?"
I smile as memories of myself seated at the feet of my father and older brother, learning the skills necessary for leadership. It's no big surprise that Naruto wouldn't understand my decision earlier. "The mistake you're making is in believing that I've already agreed to join this mysterious Team."
"Mind explaining why we're here then?"
"We're here to gauge the strength of our possible teammates." I shrug as I continue mapping out the layout of our target structure. "As to the sudden nature of my acceptance, I only agreed to do this so we could keep our Bat-themed friend off balance.
"While he was prepared for an outright rejection or acceptance, he wasn't prepared for both. Your angered response simply matched what he'd expected as did mine. However, he did not expect a sudden, spur of the moment switch to acceptance of a part of his mission. By abruptly accepting this task, he is now left wondering whether we will be joining his team or not."
"And will we?"
I feel my breath hitch up in my chest, knowing that he may not like what I'm about to suggest. "Currently? I'm leaning toward joining."
"Why?"
A part of me feels relieved that he hasn't raged at me yet, but another part wonders why. "I know you've heard of keeping your friends close and enemies closer so I'll head straight to the point: What do you consider the Justice League to be to us?"
"Potential allies." He replies instantly.
"Exactly. So where do we keep them?"
He doesn't respond and I use the opportunity to focus on finishing my mental map.
"We keep them in between." He replies as realization dawns on him. "Close enough to earn their trust but far enough to keep our own secrets."
"Precisely. While we could decide to decline his request, doing so would increase their interest in us. We'd be spied on at every opportunity and we'd have a hard time knowing it. This way, they get to see the side we choose to show them. And we get to do something good while we're here."
He doesn't respond right away, thinking over my opinion, and when he does, it's not exactly what I expected to hear: "What do you see?"
"The structure is like an iceberg. What we see right now is only about ten percent of the actual structure. There are at least forty-seven levels beneath ground level, though things get blurry the more I attempt to see the lowest levels."
"How far does it stretch?"
"It almost reaches the boundary walls. It's like a pyramid, the smallest surface is at the tip."
"And our possible allies?"
"I see two of them. One is hovering above us, the other is in some sort of pipe."
"Most likely the royal troops." I hear the smirk in his voice and I turn to him.
"Ready to go?"
"Lead the way, my lady."
"No bodyguard leaves their principal to wander ahead into unknown territory." I shoot back, knowing that my smile is smug but I don't bother to hide it.
"Alright Princess Smug-Pants." He concedes as he moves to stand on the edge of the roof we're on. "Just don't get left behind."
He then drops off the building.
Line —~ ~— Break
August 2nd
45m away from Sumdac Labs,
Washington DC
10:07PM
"See anything?" The Kid Flash asked as one of his partners scanned the grounds ahead of them.
"Yeah... Six guards, two patrolling the front gates, one operating the security booth, three making rounds within the tree lines." Robin replied. "There's a camera mounted on both ends of the gate and four laser trip lines crisscrossing the gate at varying heights."
"And those are just the security measures we can see from out here." Raven muttered from beneath her drawn up hood. "There are bound to be more inside."
"So, Robin, remind me again why we're about to break into a lab." Kid Flash asked.
"I saw this place on the list Batman's compiling of possible links to the War. However, he attached a footnote that investigations would be delayed until the whole fiasco with Senator Finch is over."
"So you decided to attempt a sneak operation to help?"
"Yeah." Robin shrugged. "Of course, pulling this off would definitely prove to Batman that I can work on my own and since I happen to know that you're also chomping at the bit, I decided that we could do this together."
"If you really plan on completing this self-set task, then you might want to figure out a way into that complex." Raven stated quietly.
"Already got it." Robin smirked as he dropped the binoculars he'd all but glued to his face to pull out a long, thin, pipe. "Here's the plan: I'm going to take out their digital eyes with this blow dart. Raven will use that moment to knockout the guards while I shut down their motion sensors. K.F, the moment I give the signal, blitz down there and take out the guards behind the trees."
His partners nodded, all signs of playfulness erased from the yellow-suited speedster as he pulled his goggles on.
"Remember guys," Robin exhaled slowly before sucking in a deep breath, "we have to be careful so we don't leave a trail."
There was a soft 'phut' as the Boy Wonder exhaled sharply, sending a small ball flashing out, angled expertly to minimize the effects of the wind, to attach itself to the back of a camera.
Showing absolutely no sign of elation at his successful shot, the dark haired boy swiftly activated his wrist mounted holo-computer and initiated a hack of the Sumdac Labs closed circuit security system. A few seconds later, he nodded to Raven.
The irises of the cloaked girl glowed violet for an instant, immediately after which the three guards at the gate slumped.
Kid Flash kept his eyes on the guards behind the trees, noting their positions and every little twitch they made. His mentor had warned him that even as fast as they were, remaining unobservant of their environment could easily spell their doom.
"K.F, go!"
The word wasn't completely out of Robin's mouth when Kid Flash was already on the ground, having sprinted straight down the walls of the building they were on. He was already on the first guard before Robin could close his mouth and he was done by the time Raven felt the movement of the displaced air he'd left in his wake.
Deciding to take things slow, he dragged each man to a tree and propped them up. By the time he was done, his partners arrived.
While Raven went to inspect each man, Robin scouted the slightly below eighty meters between their position and the front doors to the Labs.
"I cast a spell on them." Raven stated as she stood between both boys. "They'll wake up a minute after we leave here with no memory of being knocked out."
"Why not do that from the start?" K.F. asked.
"Range." She shrugged. "Beyond a certain range my spells weaken considerably and unfortunately, these guys were a bit too far."
"Gotcha. Robin?"
"Door is open. We have a forty second window before my hack's overridden but keep to the tree line just in case they've got any off-grid cameras."
"Visios Obscurum" Raven chanted, her voice reverberating with power as her eyes flashed. "Cloaking spell. Let's go!"
Line —~ ~— Break
Making his way through the underground pipes that lead into some random lab was not exactly how Kaldur'ahm had envisioned spending his first few hours as a free man on land. Scratch that, it was nothing like he'd envisioned it.
Still, he'd do much more than this, requiring only a command from his king.
Didn't also mean he wasn't a tad jumpy, a fact proven when he killed a rat that collided with his foot.
Side note: all the other rats gave him a very clear berth after that. The death squeals of their unfortunate brother had ensured that.
'According to my liege's information, I should be coming up on an outlet somewhere... here...' The dark-skinned Atlantean scanned his surroundings, seeking an exit of some sort.
It was while running his hands across the surface of the wall beside him that he felt it; a tiny, almost unnoticeable flow of air.
Tracing the area with his hands, he was able to find an outline of what was likely a keyhole.
'Stuck without a key?' He asked rhetorically as he whipped out one of his water bearers.
—~FLASHBACK~—
Holly Short, one of the King's personal Guard unit and one of those who wasn't blinded by the lineage of the young protégé smiled as she stood in front of a door.
"Stuck without a key?" She asked the boy by her side. "Well, for doors that actually require a key, I developed a small trick to help us get through without tearing the door down." She unhooked her water bearer and fitted it's head right over the keyhole. "I say developed because a... friend... of mine was the one to create it. I just refined it a bit."
She activated the bearer and a soft blue glow appeared around the edges pressed up against the door. "By activating the bearer while it's in the keyhole, the water takes the shape of the inner workings of the keyhole. A small twist and~..."
—~FLASHBACK END~—
'Voila!' Kaldur finished as the door popped open with nary a squeak. 'Thank you Holly.'
Moving swiftly, he slid past the door, ensuring that he pulled it shut behind himself. A quick but thorough glance around showed that there were no cameras around the hallway he was now in.
'That doesn't mean there aren't any security systems in place.' He thought as he closed his eyes to focus deeply, drawing on another skill his friends had taught him.
It was Garth and Tula this time, both skilled sorcerers had developed a technique for him as a birthday gift. According to Tula, all Atlanteans had an affinity for water, only that the sorcerers could actively tap into that affinity at will. The Atlantean water bearers were able to slightly enhance the ability to tap into that affinity, allowing the less strongly attuned warriors to utilize water like they did.
What they'd done was to create a meditative state that allowed him to sense the water around him. It wasn't exactly a combat worthy ability but for sensory uses...
'Four lasers.' He thought as he felt the slightly ionized water, different from the other moisture in the air. Upon marking their positions in his head, he opened his eyes and prepared himself to move.
Line —~ ~— Break
Unlike all the others, Donna Troy did not precisely have a skill set geared toward infiltrating anywhere.
That did not, however, mean she was incapable of getting in.
All that she required was a tad bit more planning.
She'd done her infiltration earlier in the day, disguised as a young university undergrad who was interested in seeing the Labs. Being one of the most foremost research centers in the country, she hadn't been alone.
During that time, she'd carefully mapped out her every step, noting exactly how she'd get through the security later that night.
Later, of course, being now.
Pulling the security system operator out of his chair, she settled in and searched for anything of relevance.
Her search was abruptly halted when she felt a blade drawn up against her neck.
"Don't move a muscle."
The voice was cold, devoid of any emotion. While her body relaxed, she glanced at a dark screen a bit to her right so she could catch a glimpse of her assailant.
His hair was raven black and the lower half of his face was hidden behind a black mask that peaked on the bridge of his nose. His eyes were cold chips of blue ice and from the little she could see of him, his mask extended to his neck where it was continued by a turtleneck of some kind.
"May I ask what you want?" Donna tried to sound neutral but her innate Amazon nature, combined with her near-royalty training, made her sound pompous and arrogant, at least to her own ears.
"Enlightenment..."
Line —~ ~— Break
Naruto's POV
The two guards ahead of us are dropped by Kaguya's Shigan and we move over to them. Rinnegan active, I create two more clones and use the Ningendo to drag their souls out of their bodies, absorbing the information within and dispersing it to my clones who instantly transform to look like the dead men. They'll have to do until I can send in more durable clones.
"Path's clear." Kaguya states behind me and I spring ahead down the next hallway, Ero-sennin infamous Invisibility jutsu cloaking Kaguya and I. Due to the fact that this technique utilizes wind to bend light beams away from the caster I know that the cameras won't pick up on our physical images so I blitz onward to the main security room.
A few meters away, I hear a squeak of some kind followed by a light thump and I hold a hand up for Kaguya to stop moving.
"Security room."
She is silent for a bit before answering: "Two people; one's on the ground, likely unconscious, the other is definitely conscious. Energy signature matches that of the Princess."
"Alright, let's go meet her." I proceed down the hallway at a slower pace, taking my time to avoid making any undue sounds that can alert our target of our presence.
Upon reaching the doorway, I dash forward, pulling out a kunai and enhancing it with wind chakra, and hold the weapon to her throat. "Don't move a muscle."
From what I can see, she's probably about Ino's height, with hair as dark as Haku's. Her clothing comprises of a pair of tight black pants and a sleeveless, skin-tight black blouse that, quite interestingly, seems to have stars within it, as well as two silver wristbands that stretch down to the middle of her forearms.
"May I ask what you want?"
Judging by her tiny grimace, I believe she realizes just how arrogant she sounds. I don't blame her, though. My experiences with Koyuki and a few other nobles makes me know that such a tone is more as a result of inbred training than actual arrogance.
"Enlightenment..." I reply. It's true anyway. I'm here to be 'enlightened' as to the skill sets and abilities of our possible allies.
Line —~ ~— Break
Every muscle in her body was tensed, coiled like a viper, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Unfortunately, her captor never gave her that chance, his blade never wavering from her throat as he studiously watched the scenes being played out on the multiple monitors.
So, having precious little to do, she watched the proceedings, boring as they were. Nothing odd showed on any of the monitors, just guards making their rounds and an oddly shaped creature setting fire to something in the hallway-
Wait, WHAT?
Her instant of confusion nearly cost her moment as her captor's attention seemed to be drawn off to the side.
'He's saying something!' She noted and she tried to listen in to his words. 'Is that... Japanese?'
Upon further eavesdropping, she realized that it was Japanese, though of a dialect she wasn't fluent in, and that she was wasting time.
Moving at speeds that very few on the planet would have been able to follow, she pushed his knife-holding hand away while lashing out with a swinging fist, spinning out of the chair as she moved.
To her utter astonishment, her fist phased right through her enemy, a second before his image flickered out of existence.
Her mind ground to a halt in shock as she realized exactly what had happened: an afterimage!
Donna knew that her sister was fast enough to leave behind afterimages when she moved. From what she had said, the metahuman hero, Flash and the alien she was enamored with, Superman, were likely fast enough to do so as well.
But could it truly have been either?
Donna had no idea and she wasn't about to waste time trying to figure it out.
It was while setting up the security guard she had knocked out back in his seat that she saw the recording.
A creature of some kind was almost mockingly playing a game of hide and seek with a group of three teens, leading them toward an elevator.
Just as they were about to catch up with it, the creature slipped into the elevator. Her eyes switched over to the elevator camera and she noticed a strange disparity.
The building schematics Diana had obtained for her showed that the Sumdac Labs building had four above ground levels and three sub-levels.
So why did the elevator display show that the carriage was headed down to the fortieth floor?
'This must be what Diana wanted me to investigate!' She decided and, with renewed determination, she sprinted out of the room, her destination: the elevator.
Line —~ ~— Break
"Just so we're clear, I wasn't the only one that saw a humanoid creature with horns and pointy ears waltz into this elevator, right?"
"You forgot the blue skin." Raven replied as she tried to figure out the absurdity she'd just witnessed. 'But then again, we just survived an alien invasion. Hell, I personally took out a few of them back in Blüdhaven. A blue skinned, elfin-eared, horned creature shouldn't be so much of a shock.'
"Maybe this is what the League planned on investigating." Robin murmured to himself, though both his partners heard him clearly. "An appearance of an alien creature a few weeks after the world was subjected to a terrifying invasion. Coincidence? Possibly. But little coincidences merge to become a larger picture."
"So what do we do now?" Kid Flash asked.
"We follow it." Robin stated decisively. "The building schematics show that there are three sublevels below the complex. I say we start from the bottom and work our way up."
"Wouldn't it be more reasonable to start from the top?" Raven asked. "We'd be able to create escape routes as we move along."
"Only if we don't get caught as we head down." Robin countered easily. "We're on a stealth mission; our primary objective is to gather information and get out as discretely as possible in as little time as possible. My way, we stand a greater chance of finding out exactly what is going on here and if the shit hits the fan, we simply race past them while they're wondering what the blaring alarms are for."
Raven stared at Robin for a few more seconds as she tried to think of an argument before throwing up her hands in surrender. "Fine. You still in their systems?"
The dark haired boy nodded. "We're wiped from their cameras. I slipped a bit when we were chasing that... thing... but I've wiped their original recordings for today and switched them with doctored ones."
"Well then: All Aboard the Silver Slip Express!"
Robin froze in his tracks and turned to his speedster friend. "Did you just say the Silver Slip Express?"
Inwardly, Wally shivered at the look Dick had turned onto him. Talk about intense! "Yeah, why?"
The instant he asked, his mind provided the answer.
"Holy... That's WAY too many floors!"
"Probably what set the League on to them." Robin said as his mind began churning information at impressive speeds for a teenager.
Raven was confused and she wasn't afraid to say so.
"The Silver Slip Express, SSE for short, is a superfast elevator that, due to certain design and functionality issues, cannot be fitted into a building with anything below fifty floors. Flash told me about it while he was working one of his cases."
It didn't take a second for Raven to pick out the disparity. "Factoring in even the sublevels, we're still looking for a whole forty-seven floors."
"We're definitely starting from the bottom here." Robin stated as he walked forward. Just like it had for the alien, the elevator doors parted silently for the young boy and his partners who were directly behind them.
A tad unfortunately, for Donna at any length, she rounded the corner just in time to watch the doors slide shut.
"Shit."
Line —~ ~— Break
To say that Kaldur was shocked would have been a gross understatement.
'This must be what my King sensed.' He thought to himself as he watched men in white lab coats performing all kinds of tests on a submerged Atlantean. The tank the Aquarian being was in shook violently as the imprisoned man slammed punch after punch at the walls of his prison, his features obscured by the unending flow of bubbles created by the raging man.
"Subject 34-B seems immune to the neurotoxin cocktail obtained from aquatic organisms." One of the scientists stated methodically, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that they were torturing a living sentient creature. "This seems consistent with initial tests and proves that the Warrior class of the Subject's species are immune to all forms of aquatic poisons. We will now sedate Subject 34-B and return it to the Pen and commence phase four tests on the older test subjects."
Kaldur clenched his jaw hard and tried to calm himself. It was difficult, though, and it became utterly impossible to control when he saw the next subject.
'Holly!'
"Commencing tests on the Subject 3-B, an Atlantean female of the Warrior class, obtained six months ago."
'So she wasn't killed!'
"Subject has proven to be extremely resistant to all forms of aquatic-based poisons. As such, 34-B will now be subjected to terrestrial-based poisons."
Kaldur's rage turned his vision red as he reached for his water bearers only for his body to freeze.
'Wait!' A female voice commanded, loud enough to make him wince in discomfort. His eyes roved around the room, seeking the source of the voice even as he wondered why the scientists remained oblivious to it. 'Calm down. You can't help her if you just charge in recklessly.'
Kaldur did not want to listen to this disembodied voice, particularly when he didn't trust it, but he knew that there was an element of truth in its words. Rage, Aquaman had once said, was only useful when focused. So he forced himself to calm down before sending a thought message back to the voice. 'What now?'
'Now, I'll put these guys to sleep. You can get your friend out after that. You'll have to be careful though. There are some really strange creatures riding on some people's shoulders and they don't strike me as friendly.'
'I'll keep that in mind. So, what do I call you?'
'Crap!' Kaldur could have sworn he felt the Voice's owner slap her own forehead. 'I forgot. Not exactly used to Earth customs. I'm Megan. Megan Morse.'
She spoke with such innocence that Kaldur caught himself smiling just a bit. 'Kaldur.'
Line —~ ~— Break
Kaguya's POV
"Naruto, what's wrong?" I ask as we stealthily make our way past the guards on this floor, the thirtieth, by my count, since we found the hidden stairwell.
"It's nothing. Be quiet." His curt response almost feels like a physical slap but I ignore it and grab onto his shoulder, halting him.
"We go no further until you explain to me what's eating at you."
He turns to glare at me and within his cerulean eyes I see disgust, revulsion and hate, all distilled into tightly leashed rage.
None of which is directed at me.
"Twenty-fifth level." He replies shortly before wrenching himself free of my grasp.
I watch him sprint ahead to scout the uncharted territory ahead of us, cloaked from nearly all forms of sight by the innovative jutsu his godfather created as understanding dawns on me.
The twenty-fifth level was one where depraved acts were committed, acts no sane human should ever subject another being to. Torture and pains of all kinds were afflicted onto living, sentient beings and the agonizing screams of the ones unfortunate to have been held there echoed throughout that much too extensive level continuously.
When we made our way through that level, I had wondered how Naruto was able to simply ignore everything around him and keep moving forward. Now, I realize that he was simply burying whatever emotions seeing such had triggered, lashing them back with pure willpower.
"The path's clear to the next level." His voice is channeled to me via the ingenious seal tags he attached to my ear. "I'm waiting."
Hearing how terse he sounds, I can only wonder what he will do to whoever runs this place...
Line —~ ~— Break
"Got anything?" Raven asked as she glanced around the elevator, her left hand subconsciously going up to rub at her right elbow.
"Not yet, sorry." Robin replied as his fingers moved tapped on the holo-keyboard projected from his gloved arm. An ultra-thin micro-filament cable linked the glove to a tiny access hole on the elevator's control panel. "Of all fifty-two sublevels, this one has the most powerful locks. I can break the encryption but I'll need a bit more time."
"Hopefully the damned door doesn't open to a squadron of aliens with their guns pointed at us." Kid Flash huffed from where he stood, leaning against the wall with is arms crossed. He seemed more cross at the lack of action than anything else.
Raven closed her eyes and accessed the well of energy within her as Arella had taught her. "Let me see if I can find anything outside."
Slowly, taking her time to remain alert to her physical surroundings, she allowed her energy to merge with that of the world around her, greatly expanding her sensory sphere. She'd been unable to utilize this technique when she was outside the building because of her own limited skill with it.
The first things she noticed amongst the abundance of life forces within the complex were the significantly larger life forces within the sublevels, five to be exact. There were two on this level, one of which seemed more active than the other.
Two more were a level above them, the largest by far amongst the five and the third largest moving together like they were a unit.
The last was making its way down a chute almost parallel to that of the elevator but on the opposite end of the building.
Which led to the second thing she noticed.
"Azarath..." She gasped softly, the discovery being staggering enough to nearly break her concentration.
"What is it?" With her awareness of her physical surroundings, she felt (rather than actually seeing) Kid Flash push off the wall to stand a little bit closer to the door.
"This place... It's huge!" She barely managed to keep a tenuous connection to her expanded senses as she battled with the scale of the building. Fifty-two sublevels spreading out to cover an almost kilometer wide expanse at its widest point.
"Raven?" Robin called out. "I'm in their system. We need to know if there are any of those creatures waiting for us."
"Right. On it." She focused on the space outside the elevator. "Nothing."
"Alright. Give me a second."
Suddenly, she felt an intrusion on her sensory sphere. Instinctively, she attempted to push back on the intrusive feeling only to sense it latch on to her energy. The only reason she didn't instantly try to cut it off was that she sensed no malicious intent. In all honesty, it seemed to want to help.
That didn't mean she trusted it, though, particularly when a trace of its path led back to the largest life force in the complex. A further trace, one she was certain the owner of the life force allowed, showed that a similar connection linked the owner with the fourth largest life force in the building.
"Raven, let's go." Robin's voice pulled her back into her body and she nodded to him, prompting him to open the door and let them out.
She kept an eye on the foreign energy linked to hers, prepared to sever it if she caught so much as a wisp of negativity from it.
—~ ~—
Alright people! Chap 3 is now up. Sorry for the delay though, between exams and family life and work I just go horribly slow.
Even worse, my muse pretty much deserted me on this chap! She simply decided that the chap was long enough and wouldn't allow me to add anything more.
On a positive note, chap 4 is already moving along nicely. I'm already prepping for the fight between Blockbuster, the Team and a third party.
Now, a few more review responses:
Guest Oct 15: Sorry mate. It most definitely is a Naruto x Kaguya fic. He may be her descendant but the DNA link is so watered down it isn't even funny. Maybe if Naruto was a Senju I'd be a tad bothered. Also, being the 'reincarnation' of her grandson isn't so much of a reason considering that Naruto only shares chakra and ideal with Asura. My opinions though...
Guest Oct 10: Damn... Now I'm considering not even naming them and simply sticking with the unimaginative but highly popular 'the Team'. You, sir or ma, present one hell of a convincing statement.
As regards the jutsu: Sorry, I just flow better writing the techniques in whatever language necessary, be it Japanese or esoteric. Anyways, here's a glossary of all techniques used in this story to date in order of appearance:
Kamui- Divine Judgement
Dōryūdan- Earth Dragon Bullet
Katon: Nezumi Kidama- Fire Style: Mouse Hairball
Fūton: Atsugai- Wind Style: Pressure Damage
Banshō Tennin- Almighty Pull (Dumbed down)
Shinra Tensei- Almighty Push (Dumbed down)
Wakusei Rasengan- Planetary Spiralling Sphere
Ōdama Rasengan- Big Ball Spiralling Sphere
Shikotsumyaku- Dead Bone Pulse
Yōton: Jinsoku Yōtama- Lava Style: Rapid Fire Lava Bullets (Alternately: Godspeed Lava Bullets)
Yōton: Yōken- Lava Style: Lava Fist
Chōgata Inu Inu no Me- Extra Large Puppy Dog Eyes
Visios Obscurum- Obscured Sight (Raven's Spell)
Feb 16 2018
-POV markers still…
