I do not own Dragonball Z, Justice League, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, X-Men Evolution, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Bleach, or Yu Yu Hakusho

Make sure to to check out Kobez2.0's "Blurred Identity"

****Chapter 09: The Keys****

In the bright sky, the silver white of the Justice League's Javelin with the large printed thirty-six splashed across the uplifted tail fins, flashed across the sky with a shrill scream as it raced off in the direction of Europe. Like a blur, the Javelin passed over the edges of the American border lands and over the blue and white capped ocean as on board, John tried hard to keep his cool as Vixen continued to stare unblinkingly at him, despite Flash's witty banter with the Shinigami.

John frowned slightly, distracted by the thought of his existence. Shinigami meant Death God in Japanese but everything he had ever read or seen involved a skeletal body and shadowy robes that always left a chill running down his back but this boy looked like a normal kid with bright orange hair and the speaking mannerisms of a typical Japanese kid. Even the way that the kid, Ichigo, was leaning up against the far wall with his arms crossed and his oversized sword strapped to his back, a vein slowly but constantly growing larger in annoyance at the Flash's personality was typical of today's kids.

He shook his head, knowing that at the speed they were traveling and the importance of their mission needed his full attention. As he was mission lead, he needed to keep his focus. Dr. Fate's mental suggestions and guidance as to their destination came through on a vague schedule so even slight distraction could miss a vital bit to their flight.

It was only a few minutes more before he got the mental nudge that they had arrived at their destination and lowered the craft down to the European dirt and lowered the boarding ramp with a soft thump. John stood and followed the team out and the four heroes looked around at the scene of normalcy. They were just outside of a smaller town, white picket fences enclosed modest sized homes and flush green trees that yielded shade to the otherwise open yard and dusty road that split the town in two.

"Fate, where to?" John asked into his comm.

"It feels as though you are very nearby," Fate said. "Of course, from this distance it is impossible for me to give you precise directions."

"That's fine," John said. "Just be as specific as you can."

"Maybe a mile ahead of you to the north you should find a small town if this European map is to be trusted," Fate said. Over the comm. came the faint rustle of paper, as if Fate was turning a map around and looking to see which was the top of it.

"We are standing outside it now," John said, running one hand across his bald head. So much for accuracy.

"Intriguing," Fate said, sounding genuinely curious. "Perhaps on the northern side of that town then. There must be a cellar of a sort in the vicinity for I sense the 'Key' appears to be underground.

"Alright. I'll get back to you when we found it," John said and turned his attention to the rest of the team. "Ok. Find a way under the ground," he said and started walking north to the area Fate. "Fate said the key is there."

"Done," Flash said, skidding to a halt in front of John. "There is a cellar next to the blue house at the end of the road. Funny, though. I didn't see a single person in the town. Just a bunch of manikin dolls."

John raised his eyebrows, surprised as much by the manikin's as to the speed to which the Fastest Man Alive had found the cellar they were looking for. "Uh-huh," he said. "And why would there be manikins living here?"

"Only thing I can think of is a military bomb testing ground," Vixen said, crossing her arms across her chest.

John glanced over at her for a brief second before turning his eyes to the boarders of the town. "I don't see anything," he said. "Let's just worry about this key."

"That's great," Vixen sneered. "And what happens when we find out this really is a bomb sight due to a bomb actually blowing up?"

"My ring is more than powerful enough to shield us," John said, sounding bored. "Let's move."

Flash led the way to the cellar next to the blue house. It was made of an old time design of solid stone with four steps leading down into the storm shelter that left much light to be desired. With a glint, John's ring flashed into a green tinted flashlight that he slowly swept around the cellar.

"Oh this is great," Vixen commented. "The key must be here."

"Don't complain to me," John said defensively. "I didn't find this cellar."

Flash shrugged. "Fate said cellar. I found cellar."

Vixen rested two fingers against her forehead in dismay. "Terrific," she said. "Now how about you find this key next?" she asked with a shake of her head.

"No need," Ichigo said, speaking for the first time and pulling his sword free from its wrapping. "I found it."

"I can't believe this crap," Yusuke complained as he and his team found themselves headed down to the Nevada desert in a second Javelin that the Justice League had provided as transport for this mission.

"What are you complaining about?" Diana asked from the pilot's seat.

"Come on," Yusuke simmered. "Nevada? It doesn't take a genius to figure out where we are going. I mean, what else is in Nevada other than Vegas and Area 51?"

"Lots of uninhabited desert," Dinah said from where she sat with arms crossed over her somewhat revealing Black Canary outfit. "Stop complaining."

"Why don't you get yanked out of your happy little life to go parading around a desert looking for aliens in a foreign desert," Yusuke spat acidly as he scratched at the small device behind his ear that allowed him to both speak and understand English, "then come talk to me, blonde."

"You should calm down with the hostility," Captain Atom said, his thick military accent sounding cool as the atomic man looked over at the much smaller teenager. "It wouldn't be wise to try such a populated area or such a secure base to plant a key."

"Unless an alien doesn't need to be there physically," Yusuke retorted, sticking his tongue out at Captain Atom.

"That is a possibility," Diana said. "But I don't think so. If that was the case, Dr. Fate would have just told us where to go."

"Whatever," Yusuke said. "If not one of those two then where exactly are we going then?"

"I don't know," Diana said. "Dr. Fate is directing us as we go along with Ichigo's and Superman's team. All he could tell us was that the our key is located somewhere in Nevada and Superman's is located somewhere in eastern Asia."

Yusuke heaved a sigh and banged the back of his head against the inside of the Javelin as Diana gave a minor course adjustment, presumably in accordance with Dr. Fate. With his head pressed against the side of the Javelin, he could hear the wind rushing past outside. Yusuke frowned as his heightened hearing picked up a strange sound. It sounded like... a yell. Yusuke peered out the nearest window and saw a girl wearing a pink kimono with bright blue hair and riding what looked like an ore. Yusuke's mouth gapped as he saw Boton flying after the Javelin as fast as she could, struggling hard not to get lost in the slipstream. Even as he watched, Boton sidled carefully over to the Javelin and, with a pop, appeared inside the ship.

"Yusuke, you jerk!" Boton shouted, to the startled surprise of the Justice League. "I have been trying to catch you since Koenma said you where meeting with Caliwone."

"Sorry, Boton," Yusuke said casually, not sounding all too upset. "What do you want?"

"I can sense your concern," Boton said darkly, narrowing her eyes. "Koenma said you could use my help."

"And what can you do?" Yusuke asked, lifting a finger and digging gently into one ear in order to clean it.

"You know full well that I am the most useful member of your team, Yusuke."

"Former team," Yusuke corrected.

"Excuse me," Diana said and Yusuke noticed that all eyes were now rooted to the blue haired bimbo that had just joined them. "Who is this?"

Yusuke spared a frown and lifted a hand to indicate Boton. "This is Boton. Personal assistant to Koenma, ruler of Other World, and the former Grim Reaper."

The other gawked slightly as the sprightly Boton gave a short bow and a wink. "Hello everyone!"

The Justice League members gave each other a shocked look. "I thought Ichigo was a Shinigami, a 'Grim Reaper'."

"She worked more on Koenma's behalf," Yusuke said. "Not a fighter and so, never deals with Hollows."

Canary cocked an eyebrow slightly but said nothing as Diana accepted a mental command and lowered the Javelin to the darkened ground. Flicking a switch as she did so, search lights flashed out, looking like an alien UFO sweeping in to land.

The ramp lowered to the ground and the group trooped down it. Outside, the darkened air was chilly and clear without a cloud in the sky. Canary shivered slightly against her will as the cool night air cut straight through her rather revealing hero's outfit. The sparse setting of trees also swayed slightly in the wind, giving life to the otherwise deserted baron. No fox poked its head out from the brush to watch with wary eyes at the newcomers, no mice giving lead to the nights predators, and no other human evident anywhere in sight.

Captain Atom gave light to the darkness, floating high above the team and allowed his nuclear energy to bathe the land in a pale blue glow that sent sharp shadows skidding away from the source. The team moved forward as Fate directed them until, with a lifted hand, Diana brought them all to a halt.

"Here?" Dinah asked and looked around at the complete emptiness around them. "I don't see anything."

"Well this is a bit of a letdown," Boton commented lightly as she looked around cluelessly.

"Fate, there's nothing here," Diana said into the comm. in her ear. She paused as she waited for Fate to answer, then gave a sigh. Fate can't pinpoint exactly where we need to be going, so at this point, we are mostly on our own."

"What about you, Boton?" Yusuke asked. "Didn't Koenma send you over with some kind of tool or something?"

"Why yes, he did," Boton said excitedly. Snapping her fingers, a normal looking brown briefcase appeared in the air in front of Boton and hung there until she reached out and took hold of the handle and lowered it to the ground.

"Detective Item number thirty seven," Boton announced proudly as she pulled from its innards something that looked like a compass the size of a basketball. "Koenma's brand new, cutting edge, top of the line Hollow locator!"

"What the hell, Boton?" Yusuke hollered. "That is cutting edge?"

"Well," Boton answered a little confused by Yusuke's reaction, "Koenma's technology department just finished it. They didn't have time to make it any smaller."

Yusuke took the thing from Boton with a look of complete disgust and turned it over, looking intently for an on switch of some sort. Finding it in an unorthodox place on the back, the indicator flashed once and fired off a series of rapid beeps like sonar.

"You can't be serious," Dinah commented as Yusuke turned in the direction that the device indicated.

"You got a better idea?" Yusuke asked.

"Since we have no other ideas," Diana said, "we must work with what we have."

The group trooped off toward the mountains in the far off distance for several minutes but came to a stop well before them. According to the Hollow locator, they now stood directly above their destination which meant, their target was below them.

"Hold this," Yusuke said, tossing the device carelessly over to Boton, Yusuke jumped high into the air and cocked back his fist, ready to punch the ground with the added force of his fall. If what they searched for was below, it only stood to reason there was a hidden room or cave underground.

"Hold on there, cowboy," Captain Atom said, sliding through the air to cut him off. "Let's try something less explosive." He landed on the ground as Yusuke floated out of the way. Putting his arms over his chest, Captain Atom spun like a top, red energy encompassing the atomic man and melting straight through the ground. Fifty feet down, he broke through into the cavern.

Wonder Woman dropped down the hole after Captain Atom with Dinah dangling from one arm and then followed by Yusuke carrying Boton. Once inside, Captain Atom brought light as he had done outside. Yusuke took the lead down the cavern but was jerked to a halt by Diana.

"What?" Yusuke asked. Diana merely pointed to the opposite corner to where an odd looking, obviously alien device sat. Its stalk like eye and several whip like tendrils lay unmoving on the ground next to it.

"This is just like the thing the Brotherhood in Bayville found a year ago," Diana said. "It's some sort of recording device that transmits what it sees to somewhere. Batman was unable to determine where."

"I guess that's a solid clue that we are in the right place," Yusuke said. "And here I was starting to think we were off."

They started away down the cavern, following after Captain Atom's bluish glow. None paid any more attention to the alien spy camera as they followed Yusuke's Hollow detector once more and so, didn't see the stalked camera rise up and follow them and then slowly, extended its tendrils down the halls after them.

With a swing of his Zanpakutou, the wall opposite the team in the abandoned cellar blew apart, shooting sparking bits of rock down through the hidden cave entrance that had been apparently been covered. With a squeal of alien technology, what looked to be a monstrous alien with a single stalked eye and several thin tentacles sat up, its eye focusing on the alien intruders to the cave that it protected.

The Justice League froze for just a half second, surprised by the sheer unexpectedness of seeing this machine but Ichigo did not hesitate. Racing forward with better reaction time than the Flash, Ichigo jabbed his Zanpakutou straight through the eye, sending sparks of shattered electronics and broken circuits flying outward. The machine twitched and died, all of its tendrils flopping uselessly to the ground from where they had been waving as Ichigo pulled the tip of his Zanpakutou free, relaxing as the Leaguers stepped closer to examine the machine but kept it out and ready.

"I've seen this before," John said. "One of these were found in Bayville."

"I remember that," Flash said. "But why is another one here, in the middle of nowhere?"

"This place probably hadn't been abandoned for long," Vixen said, quietly angry at the thought. "At least we know we are in the right spot."

There was a sudden howl from deep in the cave, the sound that could only come from a Hollow. There was a rumbling sound from the cave and then with a speed that neither John nor Vixen could comprehend, a Hollow that ran on four thick legs charged at the group, its gapping maw open wide to bit.

Flash dashed over to John and Vixen, sweeping them out of the way of the oncoming Hollow as Ichigo lifted his Zanpakutou and blocked the charge, the large blade digging into the upper and lower teeth even as the Hollow continued blindly to try and bit as Ichigo halted the advance. With a simple and powerful swipe, Ichigo sliced downward and cut the mask that was the hallmark of the Hollow and the creature vanished into ash.

"That's what we are fighting against?" Flash asked, his vocals a tad higher than they normally should have been.

"Probably not," Ichigo said. "These are just mindless souls that really have nothing more than base instincts. If the aliens are smart, they will have their own guards. These are just side effects."

"I don't think we have too much to worry about," John said, nodding toward Ichigo. "Seeing how easily you dealt with that thing, I am pretty confident that I will be able to handle things just as easily with my ring."

Ichigo looked over at Lantern skeptically but the power of his ring was unfamiliar to him. The Zanpakutou's had been designed specifically to deal with Hollows, even if the spirit within them changed based off of its user. He shrugged. "You better hope so. If there are more of them, I won't have time to constantly be saving your hide." There was another bellow, this time from multiple Hollows coming from deeper in the cave. Squaring his shoulders, John entered the cave first followed by Ichigo and Vixen, passing by the dead machine.

"I'll wait out here," Flash said, still sounding vaguely unnerved by what he had just seen. "Keep a guard on the entrance, you know?"

"Let's go, Flash," Vixen and John said together. With a reluctant gulp, Flash sped down the cave to catch up with the team, the rather odd sound of his rapidly moving feet bouncing off the cave walls as he went, sounding like a large group of skittering mice were all running at the same time.

The walls of the cave had a somewhat slimy look to them as moisture seeped through the walls, glinting in the light of John's ring and indicating that there was an underground reserve nearby. Maybe fifty feet down the cave entrance, the ground slopped downward sharply, eager to send unwary intruders off balance to slide down into what must be a trap. However, upon reaching the bottom of the tunnel, they found that this was not the case, merely splitting off into several different directions. There was another group of howls from off in the near distance, clearly coming from the right most tunnel. Clearly, secrecy was not the greatest concern.

John still took the lead, ready to meet the first of the Hollows to test his theory. He didn't have to wait long. As soon as the first line of Hollows caught the smell of a fresh soul, the entire group raced down the thin tunnel, pushing each other mindlessly out of the way as they all surged toward the heroes.

John lifted his right hand, his ring aglow and put up a shield. The Hollows penetrated right through the shields as if it was simply nothing more than a green glow in empty air. John didn't have time to dodge or bring up another defense as they lunged at him but a red flash dashed in, hitting the lead Hollow with extreme force thanks to momentum.

Ichigo dealt with the others as Flash hopped from foot to foot holding his right hand and swearing, even as the Hollow he had attacked stood back up from the wall. Rocks fell from its terrifying white mask and leapt back at John.

Forgoing any sort of fancy techniques, he blasted the Hollow square in the face, his will power and creativity making the attack appear as a giant power drill that worked its way through the center of the Hollows mask.

The Hollow continued to press onward, unconcerned with the man's attack even as he strained, resisting the Hollow as John gained mastery over this hatred filled ghost. Ichigo stood back, watching to see if yet another normal human could accomplish the same task that Caliwone had. Of course, this man wasn't normal. None in the League were, not even the Batman that he had heard so much about.

John dropped to one knee as the exertion of continuing to focus his will into his ring started to take its toll. Sensing the weakness of its prey, the Hollow pushed forward harder than before, roaring in delight as drool leaked out of its mouth.

John winced then gave one last roar as he pushed the drill through the mask. The Hollow dissolved in the air like ash fading into the wind. The mask was the last thing to fade, anger in its eyes as John looked at it, then fell to his knees, sweating and breathing hard.

Outstanding, Ichigo thought as he stepped over to John's side. Aloud, he said, "Do you understand now?"

"How do you do it so easily?" he asked between breaths. "With you, it is just one swing and its over."

"Shinigami's are also spirits, technically," Ichigo said, starting down the tunnel again. "We work in a different harmony than humans do. If it makes you feel better, Caliwone has about the same difficulty with them. Let's go. I think we are very close."

Princess Diana led the four around yet another corner only to reveal another split in the path. With a sigh, Diana chose yet another tunnel. They had been searching for nearly an hour, gradually sinking closer and closer to the Earth's core, it seemed. Not one Hollow had made itself known since they entered into the system. It was little eerie, especially with Yusuke's detector setting off a continual "ping...ping..." as they made their way.

"This is really sad," Dinah said at last. "Looking for dead ghosts with the help of a giant compass turned detector."

"By definition, ghosts are dead, ma'am," Captain Atom said, still providing the glow to which they walked.

"Shut up, Atom," Canary said.

"Why don't both of ya shut yer yaps?" Yusuke said. "These things may be dead but they can still hear us."

"Actually, that may not be a bad idea," Diana said. "That way we can at least get an idea of where they are and how thick their defenses are."

"I can help with that," Canary said, showing the first real signs of interest in this whole endeavor. Yusuke gestured her forward sarcastically but Diana reached out a hand lightly.

"Let's avoid the cave in scenario," she said. "Allow me."

Taking in a deep breath, Diana yelled. Small rocks fell from the ceiling all around them as the deafening bellow echoed down the many different corridors, ricocheting back and forth and into the darkened depths of the unknown.

"Feel better?" Canary asked, patting the Amazon on the back as she straightened.

"Much," Diana answered with a smile. "Feels like a great weight has been lifted off my chest."

A roar echoed back through the silence, shortly after sending Yusuke's detector into a fit of pings and alerts. Nothing could be seen as of yet that gave away their shapes, but the walls of the cave began shaking, harder and harder as the seconds ticked away.

"That worked," Yusuke said, handing off the detector to Boton as he let his own powers reach their battle points. Unlike Caliwone, however, Yusuke's energy did not flow uncontrollably around him at this level but was much more discrete unless one had the power to sense his energy. Nevertheless, he was just as lethal as the Saiyan against these foes.

The team braced themselves and a moment later, a group of Hollows, all misshapen and ugly burst forth from the darkness toward the heroes. Thunder echoed, making the heroes a bit disoriented in the narrow tunnel.

"Hera," Diana said under her breath as her eyes widened in complete disbelief at what she was seeing. Only in the dark underworld Hades ruled had she ever imagined such horrifying creatures, though true to form, they were no less demons of the dead than those in the underworld.

The first of the Hollows stretched out one bladed arm toward Diana who managed to block the attack with the bracelets on her wrists. Despite being one of the most powerful people in the entire Justice League, as well as the most powerful woman registered, Diana barely managed stay on her feet from the force of the attack. It was so powerful, far stronger than she would have guessed. How were these creatures possible?

Even as Diana fended off against the first of the Hollows, Captain Atom fired blasts of radiation at his own snake like Hollow and Yusuke tackled his own beast with a barrage of flying fists. Despite his familiarity with demons and the time he had spent with Ichigo, he still had a tough time killing these things without what he considered to be excessive force. Dispatching this Hollow would not be too difficult, but doing so without the use of his Spirit Gun and bringing the entire cave system down on top of them, would require unorthodox tactics.

The Hollow roared in anger as Yusuke continued to counter the mindless charges not having the basic intelligence to change tactics, the creature continued to blindly throw itself at its intended victim. He dodged another bite, countering with a powerful jab that sent his Hollow crashing into the one attacking Black Canary as she took in a deep breath to let out her supersonic scream.

"Use your head," Yusuke shouted.

"And what do you expect me to attack with?" Canary shouted back, spreading her arms to either side. "That's all I got for this." Yusuke didn't bother to answer as Diana threw her Hollow back the way it had come with a display of exceptional strength. That gave Yusuke an idea.

"Hey, Atom guy," Yusuke shouted from where Captain Atom was continuing to fry his enemy. "Pile them up."

Captain Atom looked in the direction Yusuke was tilting his head in then nodded. Letting up on his atomic attack and landed a strong punch that sent it to land with Diana's. With two swift strikes of his own, Yusuke had the others join the growing Hollow party and with a point of his finger, fired a Spirit Gun blast that lit up the Hollows, drowning their final roars in a thunderous crack as the blast swept them up and down the tunnel. With a flick of his wrist, Yusuke sent the blast straight up, tunneling upward. Without the sudden release of energy in the form of an explosion and the pure power that instantly annihilated any rocks or obstructions that fell in its way and burst upward into the empty sky. Once there, it released its potent energy that left no trace of the Hollows to fall back to the ground.

Diana patted Yusuke on the shoulder, impressed. "Great job."

"That's my Yusuke," Boton cheered, popping up from behind a large rock.

"Where to now?" Captain Atom asked.

"Seeing as how quickly those Hollows got here, I would say we aren't too far away," Diana said.

Several Hollow's later, Ichigo and his team came to a dead end in their cave that simply stopped as if a wall had been placed in the middle of the path. Of course, that was highly unlikely. More likely they had just taken a wrong turn at one of several conjunctions. In all the confusion of fighting the Hollows, it was certainly conceivable.

Ichigo looked around at the rest of the team, all looking over at him for direction since the Hollows were his specialty. Their faces were blank, as they waited, all bathed with the green tinted glow of Green Lantern that threw shadows across the sharpened edges of noses, cheek bones, and eyebrows .

"What now, Death God?" Vixen asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"We must have taken a wrong turn," Ichigo answered, swinging his blade over his shoulder and it reattached to his back. The tip of his blade scrapped the wall that had halted their search as he put it away. It was something that Ichigo had become accustomed to, wielding a sword as large as this one. That made him pause for a moment as he looked back at the black wall. A small scar blemished the smooth rock wall, sending a jagged shadow inside from Lantern's ring. The only blemish.

"Can you make that ring show in a different color?" Ichigo asked John as he stepped back to look harder at the wall but with John's ring tinting everything a green, it was hard to tell if this wall was anything more than what it appeared to be.

John cocked his eyebrow. "Green is sort of default," he said. "Unfortunately, that's about all it can do."

"Not to worry," Vixen said, stepping past her former boyfriend and over to Ichigo and the wall. "Tell me what you need to see."

"I am trying to see if this wall is false or not," Ichigo said, giving Vixen a hard look.

"And you'd prefer to see it in normal light?" Vixen asked. "I can help with that." Ichigo gave her an annoyed and disbelieving look as she reached up to the medallion hanging around her neck. Her eyes changed slightly, her eyes shifting from human to cat-like slits as she stepped back to take in the full wall.

"Douse the light," she said and John immediately did, blanketing them all in near absolute darkness, the only hint of light coming from a light aura that John allowed to remain around him. Not even cats can see in absolute darkness and he had worked very close with Vixen for a long time. Even now that they were not really on speaking terms, he had not forgotten how to work with her powers.

"This wall is fake," Vixen concluded after a moment. "Give me a second and I will get us through it."

Although no sound preceded the sounds of Vixen digging through the wall, John could almost hear the sounds of sharpened claws. It was the work of only a couple of minutes for Vixen to dig her way through the false wall, sending shrapnel flying behind her.

Ichigo felt along the ground until he found a piece of the wall and picked it up, rubbing it with his fingers. He frowned, feeling the smooth edges and lack of the solid substance that rock had. It felt more like plastic than anything else.

He dropped the piece as he felt a sudden waft of air brush across his cheek as Vixen broke through. John's light flicked back on as Vixen stood next to the hole with a smug look on her face as the team past her to duck through the hole.

"Uh," John said as he was the last one through. "Nice job."

"I know," Vixen said without a smile. "Go on. Waiting on you, again."

John grimaced and ducked through. The tunnel continued to stretch a little further and then around a corner. At the end, the team happened onto what seemed to be an ancient human artifact. It was a clay pot, unbroken or chipped as if it had been dug up recently and set near the middle of the tunnel. A slightly peachy glow hung around it, even in Lanterns green light.

Flash reached down and picked it up to look at it. Immediately, Ichigo's senses flared only a second before the howling of Hollows reached his ears. Through the walls they burst, their maws gapping as they prepared to feast.

"BANKAI!"

Dark light burst around the group tinged with red highlights. Only Flash was able to follow Ichigo's movements, his speed far outreaching that of normal humans. To Flash, it seemed like almost slow motion as Ichigo's clothes were suddenly different as was his sword. No longer was it the massive weapon, not its blade was smaller, much more like a normal katana but the blade was all black.

Ichigo leapt up toward the first of the Hollows disintegrated into ash as the black blade cut clean through its horrifying mask before moving to the next Hollow. With an upper sweep, Ichigo dispatched another one, then an arching slice finished the last few Hollows.

Flash was speechless at the speed and accuracy of this Shinigami while now that the Hollows were gone, the other two of the team ducked, trying to avoid the attack. Flash was so stunned by the performance, that he didn't even see Ichigo drop the tip of his Zanpakutou neatly through the pottery, cutting it in half. Flash jumped as the piece separated itself in his hands and the peach colored aura around it faded away.

"The key is destroyed," Ichigo said, reverting back to his normal self. "Call that guy and make sure the barrier is down."

"Uh, right," John said. "We are going to need to go outside for that." They retraced their steps back up to the cellar than out to the deserted town full of plastic people.

"I still say this is a bomb testing site," Flash said, running over to one of the manikins and pushing at it with his finger.

"Not now, Flash," John said. "Fate?"

"One of the barriers has fallen," Fate replied instantly. "Return here when you can. I must return my attention to the other teams. They seem to be having more difficulty than you experienced, in a number of different ways." There was a click from the comm. and Fate vanished from the communication. Slightly non-plussed, John motioned for the rest of the team to return to the Javelin.

Diana had been right. Another half mile down the tunnels, they entered a much larger cave. Here, the ceiling lifted to what felt to be sky like height after the time they had spent in the caves. It rounded off much like a bubble in a tube with softly rounded walls that glowed like a painter's illustration as Captain Atom's light reflected off the stone as he entered.

All were still on high alert, suspecting that a full onslaught of Hollows to swarm in on them now that they had no place to go. However, no roars warned of their approach, nor any thunderous footsteps from their oversized bodies gave hint. Granted, several of the Hollows they had faced had been airborne so the silence was as good as meaningless.

Yusuke seemed the most unconcerned of the group, keeping his eyes in front of him and walking toward the center of the large opening. There was a soft sound just then, like a sniffle or something slithering quietly against the ground. Yusuke's finger was up instantly, looking like a child playing cops and robbers as he threatened with his index finger. It was absurd but anyone who knew Yusuke knew that this was a threat best never ignored but his face drained of color, his heart falling below his stomach as Captain Atom's light washed over what had made the noise.

It was a child of no more than three standing in the middle of the domed cave and glowing a very faint peach color, unnoticeable until Yusuke was right atop him. His heart remained at the bottom of his stomach as his mind drew to the inevitable conclusion that this child, no matter how unlikely it seemed, was the key.

"Someone call that Fate guy," Yusuke said, drawing the attention of the rest of the team. "I think I found his key."

To be continued...

One barrier down but now, in order to bring the second barrier out of commission, will Yusuke and team have to kill this child? And what of the alien camera that they passed on the way in? What significance does that hold?

What about the three heroes we have not heard from of late, Caliwone, Helena, and Superman? What challenges will they face with the third and final key? Stay tuned...

Thanks Kobez2.0 for your continual support and Beta Reads! You rock!

Keep up the reviews everyone! You are making me blush ;P

Thank you all,

The Dark Prince