A/N: Before I forget, Happy Thanksgiving everyone who happens to celebrate that holiday! Seeing as there won't be a chapter next week for Thanksgiving, I'm saying this now.
Man, it snowed earlier this week so I got to watch the episode for this chapter without any interruptions. Well, besides food anyway. I also want to thank all of you who have reviewed and favorite'd and more. Last chapter was a little short but I plan on making up for it with this one. I don't really have much to say right now that isn't part of the notes that go into the end of the chapter, so I guess it's just going straight to the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Justice League and any related material are property of DC comics. The following is a non profit fan based story. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT are owed by FUNimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama. Please support the official release.
Enemy Below Part Two
Superman was currently in a video call with the United States ambassador along with the Security Committee from the World Assembly. He had been trying to arrange a session in the Assembly to have Aqua-Man plead his case. So far, it hasn't been going well.
"His forces attacked a U.S. nuclear submarine without provocation or warning. If it wasn't for your interference, we would have lost a lot of men." The ambassador told him.
"Not to mention that his country at the bottom of the Atlantic, in the middle of several trade routes and has advanced technology. The threat Atlantis poses to not only the U.S. but to dozens of other countries can not be overlooked." The Security member from the U.K. stated as well.
"There also remains the fact that Atlantis is not recognized by the World Assembly, or any other country for that manner, meaning that what we can do is very little outside of hostile force." Another Security member said, this one from France, the translation program translating it to English.
"And yet we have sessions with countries that are publicly hostile to many others. Ambassador, Council members, I'm not asking for his forgiveness, I asking to have a session to negotiate terms for peace. If we don't solve this diplomatically, we could have a serious war on our hands. He's gripe is with the whole world, not just one country." Superman explained further, knowing that Aqua-man was willing to attack the surface world
"Fine. We shall hold a session for a negotiation of peace and if willing, we will try to start to process of having Atlantis become a recognized sovereign state by the Assembly. However, this does not mean we will forget his aggression towards other states." The ambassador said. The members of the Security Council nodded, but none seemed too happy to agrees with this. They knew however, that it was better to try and avoid war if possible.
"Thank you ambassador. We will take the duty of escorting Aqua-man to the Assembly, no doubt there'll be some people that'll have an ax to grind." Superman told them. The Council member looked relieved at the news, having to provide protection detail on a unpopular statesman always got them bad press.
"Very well. Please notify the Assembly when you have arrived on the premises. Good day Superman." The U.K. Council member bid farewell, soon followed by the rest. Once the call was over, Superman let go a sigh of relief.
"That went better than expected." J'onn said, having listened to the whole conversation.
"Yeah, for a while I thought that they wouldn't listen at all." Piccolo said, remembering how the conversation started.
"At least now there's a chance for this to be resolved peacefully." Superman said, glad that this part was over. Now it was up to Aqua-man to convince the other ambassadors.
"Um...where's Green Lantern? He wasn't around for that." Wonder Woman asked, coming into the room having looked for the Lantern for a few minutes now. Piccolo having heard this started to find the man's Ki and noticed that he had just entered the Watch Tower.
"He just got back from where ever he was. He's going to be walking through the door soon and he's not happy." the hybrid said and on cue entered the angered Lantern.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! I knew it!" He shouted in barely controlled rage.
"John, what are you talking about?" Superman asked, worried about what might have happened.
"I went back to the sub to check to see if everything was in place and it wasn't leaking fuel and I saw that the plutonium was gone. That stuff is stored in a secure vault, there's no way it just disappeared, Aqua-man must have ordered it to be taken." Green Lantern explained what he had seen when he sneaked back into the sea.
"WHAT?" came the combined shout of Wonder Woman and Superman. Piccolo and J'onn had stayed quiet, trying to think this situation through.
"Why would he need the plutonium?" J'onn asked, trying to find a line of logic for Aqua-man to steal the radioactive substance.
"We already saw that his ships are more advanced than most countries and doesn't seem to have short supply of them." Piccolo said.
"That doesn't hide the fact that it's gone." Green Lantern rebutted.
"Look, we can ask him when we escort him to the Assembly. I've already called Batman and he's working on setting up a security net. Also, he asked for you to help him with that Piccolo. He's already in New York by the way." Superman told the younger man, putting off the debate until later.
The young Saiyan nodded as he exited the room. He flew down to the hanger and entered a small air lock. Batman had installed the air lock for those that could survive the vacuum of space long enough for them to reach Earth, namely himself, Superman and John.
'Glad I can hold my breath long enough. Shouldn't take me more than a couple of minutes to reach Earth and a few more to fin Batman.' he thought to himself as he used the control panel to shut the door behind him and started to depressurize the room. After taking one last breath, Piccolo powered up as the heavy gate that lead to space opened up.
He immediately started to fly downwards as the air lock behind him was automated to shut close after he left. As he continued to rocket towards the Earth's atmosphere, he level out some as to avoid coming in at a direct angle and possibly destroying something like a satellite in orbit. Soon enough, he started to enter the atmosphere and thanks to his power, the heat of re-entry was negligible. That didn't stop his golden aura fusing with the red trail from entry into a large gold/red trail that could be seen for miles.
'Luckily I know where New York is. All I have to do is find Batman once I get there.' Piccolo thought to himself, flying at hypersonic speeds towards the North American continent.
It wasn't long after that he saw the towering buildings of one of the world's largest cities and as he entered it's airspace, stopped in mid air to find the Dark Knight's Ki. This one was more difficult than say Green Lantern, whose Ki was infused with the energy from his ring or Superman, whose signature wasn't human. Batman's Ki was that of a normal human, albeit a good amount stronger. He finally got a fix on his location after about a thirty seconds and flew towards the other superhero.
"Nice to see you got here quickly." Batman mono-toned as Piccolo landed besides him on the roof. They were currently across of the World Assembly building in Manhattan. Batman had a pair of binoculars surveying the area before he turned to the hybrid.
"I've check the avenues where the rest of the League is escorting Aqua-man from and their clear. Security has also already sealed off the roads that lead in so I need you to see if you can sense anyone around here. Most people are security or police officers standing guard street level and us. Anyone else tell me." Batman instructed, having already been quick to work and the security for the Assembly being deployed quickly.
Nodding, Piccolo set out to scanning the area for anyone that could have sneaked. For the first few minutes, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Like Batman had said, the signatures he found were of the officers standing guard along the avenue to the building and the gathering press in front of the Assembly. For a while, everything was going smoothly. Batman soon got a transmission from Superman saying that they had picked up Aqua-man and were heading towards them. After a couple of more minutes, Piccolo noticed something off. A Ki signature was starting to act erratically and seemed to be moving somewhere.
"Batman, I got something. Someone is starting to behave oddly. Third building to the right, across the street. However it is, they're on the roof now." Piccolo said, emulating his former mentor's no nonsense attitude. Batman immediately surveyed said rooftop to find whoever it was up there.
"Deadshot. He's an assassin for hire and probably paid to take out Aqua-man. You go and stop him while I notify the others to make a detour." Batman said, slightly surprising the younger man who thought he would have taken the mercenary himself. That did not stop him from doing his task however, immediately moving into speed too fast for the normal eye to see.
"Had to move things up didn't ya. Well, this will cost you extra." Deadshot muttered to himself as he lined up his specialized rifle mounted rocket with the approaching Aqua-man. The escort of Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern was unexpected but he was paid for his kill and figured he could make up for it with is accuracy. That is, until the purple Gi and white cape of a Saiyan hero appeared in his scope. In response, he shot off the the rocket and it connected with the torso of Piccolo, exploding on impact.
The rocket however had no effect whatsoever, the noise of the explosion only serving to get the attention of the media down simply advanced through the smoke on the hired assassin. Ditching his rifle, he trained his silenced wrist-mounted guns on the young man and fired. Predictably, they also had no effect on the half Saiyan.
After taking the hits in case of collateral damage, Piccolo simply disappeared from sight and from behind Deadshot, delivered a kick hard enough to knock the man off the roof. Again disappearing, he reappeared half way down the building catching the man. Of course, the reporters down on the street had caught it all on tape, and most were currently rushing to either the main members of the League or to Piccolo holding the the assassin in his grip. They never got a chance to talk to him as the security reached the two groups first and ushered them into the building.
"What is the meaning of this? " Aqua-man demanded, wanting to know what's going on.
"Someone hired this man to kill you. Apparently, someone doesn't want you to have negotiations with us." Batman said as they walked through the building. Eventually, they entered a meeting room in which the members of the Security Council were already there.
"We just got news of an attempt on your life. Can you help us figure out what's going on?" the U.S. member said, having gone through this situation before.
"What do you mean figure out? Was he not hired by you?" Aqua-man accused, still not trusting the 'surface dwellers'.
"No, he wasn't. I heard him say that he had to hurry things up to be able to attack, which means whoever sent him had no idea of your arrival. Besides, I don't remember anyone that pays people in gold coins." Piccolo stated, having found the gold coins on Deadshot's person. Batman decided to take a look at the coins and the eyes of his cowl actually widened.
"Spanish Doubloons? No one makes these anymore. The only place you can get these are sunken Spanish merchant ships." Batman said, already figuring out where this was going.
"But that would leave only..." Superman never got to finish his thought, as Aqua-man did for him.
"Someone from Atlantis contracted to kill me..." he said, now realizing what was going on here. No sooner was this said as Batman grabbed Deadshot and held him up by the throat.
"Who from Atlantis hired you?" He demanded, wanting to enough information to proceed.
"I don't know his name, but he wore the same colors as him." Deadshot said nonchalantly, his head indicating Aqua-man. Said man was furious, and stormed out of the meeting room.
"We have to follow him. If someone tried to kill him on the way here, there's probably people waiting for him back in Atlantis." Superman said. However, he did remember that there were negotiations that were supposed to happen and looked back on the the Council Members.
"It's not the first time a session has been postponed because of an attempted on a politician's life. I don't know how long it'll be but once this is over, tell him that he must come back in order to straighten out the deal. We'll be waiting." The U.K. member said, as the rest turned to convey the news to the rest of the Assembly.
"J'onn, prep the Javelin. We're going to follow Aqua-man." Superman told the Martian over the comm link. As the League filed out, Batman stopped Piccolo from continuing with the others.
"Listen. I want you to hang back and keep a watch on things. If they don't get to Atlantis in time to stop the Coup, your the only one strong enough to hold back those forces." Batman told him, wanting to have a contingency plan in place in case things went south.
The hybrid had to flex his hands a couple of times to keep his growing anger in check. He was starting to feel his Saiyan blood start to emerge, wanting to fight, wanting to battle. However, he had to keep a level head for this.
"Alright." He nodded as he started to walk out. He knew that Batman would be on call in case something else happened as well, but for now, he had to go and start calming his anger.
(Above the Atlantic Ocean)
Piccolo was currently floating directly above where he sensed Atlantis, waiting to get any message from the main group on their progress. He kept track of their Ki signatures as well and could tell that they were right outside the underwater city. He could also sense the large mass of Ki signatures that were outside the city. However, when he tried to find Aqua-man's the signature was faint. He knew at least he was still alive and in the city.
He didn't like that he had to wait back. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to go down and fight his way through to sort things out, especially with how he sensed Aqua-man. However, he knew that he could seriously mess thing up if he did. This wasn't like the battles he had back in his reality, were you could fight your way through. No, he knew he was now part of a group and he couldn't be reckless since it could cost the rest of them their lives.
He snapped out of his thoughts as he sensed the Ki of the others diminish, as if they had been knocked out.
"Batman, something's gone wrong. The signatures of everyone that went down to Atlantis is weak." He said through the comm link in his year.
"They were probably captured. Can you sense Aqua-man?" Batman reasoned.
"Yes, he's...he's being moved right now!" Piccolo noticed that the King's signature was being moved.
"They no longer have a need for him and are most likely going to kill him. Can you figure where their forces are heading?" Batman need to know to see if he could get Piccolo to save the King in time.
"They're heading north but not Aqua-man. I got to go save him!" Piccolo said, already powering up.
"Go, I'm sure the rest can handle themselves and I can intercept them on the way but I'm going to need your help to hold them off long enough for the others to catch." Batman told him, the roar of his Bat-plane in the background. Piccolo wasted no time, putting on the rebreather he had and diving into the ocean and locking on to Aqua-man's Ki.
Then he felt it, a second and third Ki with him. One was flowing with foul intentions and another one that seemed in distress and young. Now fearing for the two lives that were in danger, the Saiyan increased his speed.
It took him no longer than a minute and half to get to Aqua-man's location, where he saw that the King was shackled to a large boulder that was falling into a magma vein. He also saw next to the king was a small child, still wrapped in a blanket and hanging from a dagger.
Flashbacks from thirteen years went through the young man's mind, from when Radditz had kidnapped him for leverage against his own father. Rage started to boil inside of him, making him want to chase the Ki signature that had put these two in this situation. Still, the years of meditation with his mentor and the teachings from his father helped him manage the anger, for the time being.
He flew down to where Aqua-man had managed to break one of his bindings and was struggling on the second. When the Atlatian king saw him, a look of relief seemed to sweep over him. Piccolo grabbed the second chain and easily snapped it off the rock and right after, Aqua-man grabbed his son and the three left the area.
"Head back to Atlantis and help the others, I need to go and hold off those forces." Piccolo said, remembering that Batman would need help and the others were still at Atlantis.
"Boy...thank you, for saving me and my son." Aqua-man said, swallowing his pride to thank young man. Piccolo nodded as the two went their separate ways.
Pushing his Ki outwards to further increase his speed, he could feel that he was already catching up to the Atlantian forces. He could also sense that Batman was nearing them as well.
Not even a quarter of an hour later, he was able to see the forces; at least a dozen of the large craft and hundreds of of the smaller motorcycle-troops to protect them. However, the hybrid was done playing around.
"Masendan!" the explosive Ki blast flew past most of the escorts and impacted one of the ships. The resulting explosion completely took the ship out of existence and the shock wave knocked around the escorts and even the others warships. The escorts that weren't knocked off their bikes turned around and charged them and the Saiyan speed up to meet them.
Moving at a speed that surprised the escorts, Piccolo was able to punch, kick and elbow his way past them with ease. Deciding to not give them any advantage he flew out of the sea back into the air. The forces followed him to the surface, with the ships opening up weapon bays to shoot him down. Shooting the energy spheres that impacted, they expected a corpse to fall back to Earth. They were surprised when another explosive Ki blast flew through the smoke and the ship that had shot at him was reduced to nothing.
"Batman to all points, we got trouble in the Arctic. It seems that the ice caps are beginning to melt." Batman said over the comm link. Piccolo, however, was still focusing on the forces that he needed to hold off. Soon after Superman responded.
"Aqua-man says its some sort of doomsday device that he created but never armed. We need to go and stop that device from destroying everything." Superman relayed.
"Superman, I'm already dealing with the military forces and I'll be able to keep them off of you guys. Go and stop that machine." Piccolo told what he was doing as he dodged another energy sphere.
"Boy, let them through. I want to deal with my Orm myself." Aqua-man said as over the comm link. The was a moment of silence after that comment as everyone considered the action.
"I should be able to shut down that machine as long as the rest of you stall the forces but you'll have to hurry. Piccolo, your with me, let the others deal with Orm and his forces." Batman said.
"Alright, you heard the man. Let's go." Superman said as the rest could be heard moving about. Piccolo, still not satisfied in releasing his anger, decided he would have wait until later to vent. With a burst of his aura, he flew off towards Batman.
"Batman, I believe I passed Orm when I saved Aqua-man so he should have set the machine on some sort of auto-mode." the hybrid told the older man.
"He'll probably head there once he realizes that his plan is falling apart and Aqua-man should be with us by then." Batman replied, looking out the cockpit of his plane and saw the teenager flying next to him.
"If we can stop that machine before he gets there, Aqua-man will be able to take care of Orm without interference." Piccolo said, the ice caps of the Arctic now in view. The two continued flying through the icy environment, Batman tracking the disturbance. Soon after, the Dark Knight landed his plane in front of a ice mountain with the teenage Saiyan landing soon after.
"This is the place. Superman, ETA?" he asked, wanting to know the progress of the others.
"We've meet the Atlantian forces and we're taking care of the situation. Aqua-man left to go find his brother. I suggest that you disable that machine quickly." Superman said, the noises of battle in the background. Batman replied back before looking at the teenager with him.
"How long do we have until they get here?" He asked as the two jogged into the mountain, coming across an ice bridge.
"I'll give it three minutes until Orm shows up and one after that for Aqua-man. We'll have to hurry." stated Piccolo, now flying alongside of Batman as they reached the Doomsday Thermal Reactor. Batman immediately got to work on the controls to try and shut it down.
"Can you actually shut that down without Aqua-man?" Piccolo asked, keeping mental tabs on the two Atlantians nearing them.
"It will take some time so cover me." he replied, as the mountain began to melt more and was becoming more unstable. A minute after, the Saiyan felt the presence of Orm enter the mountain and thinking quickly, threw a Ki blast at the ice bridge to destroy it.
""NO! You'll ruin everything!" Orm yelled as he saw the bridge in front of him destroyed. He took the trident in his hands and began to charge up a blast. Seeing this, Piccolo stood his ground to take the blast for Batman who was still working on the device. It did not help that large blocks of ice were now falling from the cavern they were in.
Before he could fire the trident, Aqua-man reveled his arrival by punching his half-brother.
"Got it!" exclaimed Batman as he finally was able to shutdown the reactor. That however, did not stop the fight between the two brothers who were still going at each other, punches and blasts going off every where. This went along with the large blocks that were still falling, the mountain taking the brunt of the damage from the reactor. In fact, the mountain was starting to collapse into itself.
Orm tried to impale his brother with the trident but Aqua-man successfully dodged the thrust and countered by grabbing the trident and pulling it and his brother forward. Orm's face met Aqua-man's fist which caused him to stumble backwards and falling over the edge of the destroyed ice bridge. In desperation for his life, he reached his hand out to his brother.
"Brother! Help me!" Orm cried out as he started to lose his grip on the ice, slipping down the jagged edge. Aqua-man looked down at this half brother and then to the trident in his hands, making his decision as King.
"Brother, this belongs to me." was all he said as he turned around and ran out, noticing more of the mountain falling. As Orm still clung to the edge, he saw Piccolo holding Batman as he flew out of the mountain. He however never got the chance to curse them as when they passed, a large block of ice fell on the section of the bridge he was still holding, making him fall with the rest of the debris. Soon, the whole mountain collapsed, sealing the man forever.
(Atlantis Throne Room)
"My King, Orm forced us to follow him, threatened us." the highest ranking General pleaded, as he and other leaders were being judged by their King.
"We were just following orders." another tried to plea for his life. Aqua-man simply looked at them in disappointment.
"Get them out of my sight." he ordered and the guards escorted them out of the throne. Aqua-man stood up and looked at his wife and son with happiness and then looked at the assembled League members.
"I was so preoccupied with the threats from the surface world that I was blind to the threats inside this very room. For helping me keep my kingdom, I must thank all of you. I almost lost something very dear to me today but it was because of you that everything has come to light. I had misjudged you." he told them, holding his son as his wife stood by him.
"You weren't the only one to have misjudged." Green Lantern said, in apology for his aggression towards the ruler.
"Don't forget you still have negotiations with the World Assembly in order to prevent this from happening again." Superman said, remembering that the Assembly would still hold a session for terms with Atlantis.
"I shall meet with them as soon as I can restore order and rebuild my forces. I shall not let something similar happen again." Aqua-man said, remembering very well. The King walked up to the League and shook hands with Superman.
(King Kai's Planet)
"King Kai, are you sure you can't sense my son anywhere?" came the worried voice of Earth former defender, Goku.
"Yes Goku, I've searched the entire universe and I can't sense Gohan anywhere." the Kai replied, having indeed searched for his former student's son.
It wasn't even three days ago that they got news from Dende that Gohan had disappeared from Capsule Corp due to a haywire experiment. The Z Fighters on Earth had summoned Shenron but when asked to bring back the teenage fighter, it stated that Gohan no longer existed in his domain and confirmed that he was not dead. Afterwards, Dende contacted King Kai to see if he was able to offer help.
Goku had not taken the news well. He was not able to train knowing that his first son was missing from existence itself. In fact, he was barely able to function as his normal self as he worried about his son. The only others that took it as bad as he did were his wife, Chi-Chi and Piccolo, who considered the teenager his first friend. Even Vegeta felt guilt, his Ki blast causing the incident to occur in the first place.
"King Kai...what are we going to do?" Goku asked, now lost in how he would find his son.
"I don't know Goku, I don't know." was all the reply he got.
(End Chapter)
A/N: And that is the end of the Enemy Below arc. Much longer than the last, however I felt that in places it could have been better, especially in some of the fight scenes. And now some notes.
1) There were some small changes that people can see easily and some that not so much. This is because of Gohan's presence. While it is slow and small at first, eventually somethings will and won't happen simply because of him being there. The effect of someone from another realm is vast and can change many things in a scope that I couldn't even start to comprehend. But I will come up with something for this story.
In a reply to something I know will come up, why did Batman stop Gohan from holding off the Atlantian ships? My response is that Batman didn't want all those people to die, which would undoubtedly happen if they faced Gohan and it wouldn't be good for Atlantis if the whole of their military is destroyed. Plus, he was most likely recording the event somehow. But yes, in this chapter, Gohan has indeed killed people, albeit nameless soldiers, but killed regardless. And no, I'm not trying to talk down to soldiers or those in the military, that just happens to be the fact here. Don't worry, some bigger names will meet their end, in due time.
2) Having a crisis for Gohan is very difficult, seeing as in the DC Animated Universe he is the proverbial Unstoppable Force and Immovable Object when it comes to power and skill. I'll have situations and circumstances to help create conflict with him, the first traces in this chapter actually, that being his anger and his Saiyan heritage. As for his civilian side, that's actually the next arc in this story and completely of my doing. This will not include anything from the actual show plot wise but it'll be important and will have some character building.
However, I want some help with this. I need to base Gohan somewhere. I've been feeling New York as it at this point in the DCAU has no actual protector and is a large and important city, like Gotham, Metropolis and Central. But I feel this is sort of a cop out. So, I want you, the readers', opinion on this.
Anyways, that's all the notes I have at this moment.
Thank you and have a nice day,
The Reaper.
