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

****Chapter 10: The Final Key****

Caliwone raced across the skies, intent on leaving his companions behind him but Helena was as fast as he was. Kal-El was faster than a speeding bullet and kept up with them just fine. More than fine. It was annoying to see the Man of Steel keeping pace with him without breaking so much as a sweat. Of course, Caliwone wasn't trying that hard. He had not yet transformed but for the relatively short distance they were traveling, it wasn't necessary.

From the direction they were heading, it was pretty obvious to Caliwone that they were returning to the place Caliwone had battled the first of the alien dregs. They must have something to do with the placement of the keys, it would seem. If that was the case, then the place Yusuke and team went to had to have been visited by the third, mysteriously unaccounted for, alien.

Caliwone snorted in contempt as he pictured the alien cowards hiding behind its three layers of barriers, thinking itself safe from his decisive hand. The others that followed after him would be mere witnesses as he did the work. He much preferred Kal-El that way, watching as Caliwone proved himself time and time again to be the better warrior, the strongest fighter.

With a smirk, Caliwone burst forward through the sky, trailing a light blue streak behind him as he raced of in anticipation. Since his reluctant alliance with the Justice League, he had not taken a life, once his stock and trade as a Saiyan Elite. His recent battle with the first alien, he had gotten the taste back. It was like a friend that had gone missing had just paid him a visit. It was very nice indeed.

The other two kept pace with him, expressing their disapproval that obviously fell on deaf ears. In Superman's mind, Fate gave the signal and the three descended to the ground, landing in the midst of the very forest Caliwone had once trained that seemed so long ago. Even after all these years of being on Earth, the forest still held a calming effect over the warrior.

He drew in a deep breath as Kal-El and Helena began to look around. He heard Fate's words just as well as the others as he tried to direct him, but he ignored him for the time being. He clenched his fist tightly and with another deep breath, turned his attention to finding the key.

The cave in which Fate directed them was not too far away from where Fate had had them land with a mental note to the team that the other keys had been located inside subterranean tunnels. It seemed the aliens had a rather limited sense of imagination.

Being careful to not run into any unseen barriers, Caliwone lead the group downward into the cave system. Light was no problem at all as they turned corner after corner beyond the reach of the natural light. Helena supplied the light as her red tinted aura sent a wavery glow dancing about the jagged walls and raised rock outcroppings.

"It's quiet," Superman commented softly as he looked around for any threats.

"Please spare us the 'too quiet' line," Helena said off handedly.

"I guess it is a little too obvious," the Boy Scout replied with a grin. "Hard to resist though." Helena shot Superman a quick smile over her shoulder and continued walking with Caliwone dutifully ignoring their unnecessary chatter.

"You need to relax," Helena said, her voice slipping toward the tone of command that she had learned to use when talking to Caliwone. Anything else he seemed to be dismissed immediately as an ignorant and annoying noise.

"I am relaxed," Caliwone said. "Why don't you shut your face and focus on finding these Hollows." Helena's jaw muscle tensed slightly but she let the moment pass. When they had been at the first cave, the Hollows had immediately attacked them as soon as their presence had been made aware.

She was just about to let out a yell to draw out the sleeping Hollows when there was a sudden flash in the back of her mind. Caliwone stiffened as well as he sensed the first of the Hollows as well. An evil smile spread across his lips and he took off down the cave in a flash of blue energy. Helena was right behind him with Superman immediately behind her.

The tail end of one Hollow, this one insect like, was just slipping around the corner of one turn, apparently unaware of their approach. Caliwone drove a booted foot at the base of the Hollows skull like mask, sending it crashing to the ground. It let out a howl as it pushed itself to its feet.

Helena slid under the standing Hollow, firing a blast under its chin that snapped its head back, a perfect set up for Superman to rush in from behind and snap its neck. The Hollow hit the ground again with another Howl as it pushed itself back to its feet and with abruptness that surprised the team, the Hollow vanished in a black cloud.

"That's new," Caliwone said, his warrior's instincts telling him that this wasn't over. "Stay on your guard."

The words had barely left his mouth when the Hollow reappeared directly behind Helena, already in mid lunge, its skull like mouth gaping wide. Helena turned in surprise, having no time to react as the Hollow clamped onto her right shoulder its cavernous mouth completely engulfing her arm. Blood spurted outward as the spirit beast dug deeper, trying to reach her inner spirit through its teeth but she managed to press down on the lower jaw with her free left hand and upwards with her right on the row of upper teeth pressing down, prying it from her shoulder.

Superman started forward to help but the earlier howls of the Hollow had attracted the hoard. Appearing as the first Hollow had, another lunged at Superman, aiming to make a snack out of the Man of Steel. Kal-El caught the attack with his bare hands, keeping the teeth from closing around his head.

"How do you kill these things again?" Kal-El asked Caliwone as he struggled to keep death from eating him whole.

"Destroy its mask," Caliwone answered, leaping back from the two Hollows that were attacking him.

"Easier said than done," Helena shouted, wincing as pain shot through her right arm as she struggled to keep the Hollow from winning. "Any pointers?"

"None," Caliwone retorted, firing a blast that seemed to have little effect on the beast and dodged a lunge from the second.

"Perfect," Helena muttered. Her red aura burst into gold as she transformed herself, no longer able to hold back. The inside of her Hollow's mouth glowed briefly before she sent a blast cutting through the Hollows mask from the inside out. She stumbled forward slightly as the Hollow passed from existence.

Superman grimaced. Just like Caliwone, Helena had a flare for the dramatics. He struggled with the equivalent strength of the Hollow for a minute more before, with an extreme effort, tore the upper jaw of the Hollow away from the bottom. Bits of Hollow teeth flew, shattered from the mask before they and the Hollow vanished.

He turned quickly to see Caliwone spin away from one of the Hollows and kicking it hard into the stone wall. The cave shuttered as Caliwone dodged the second and struck the first Hollow again. Kal-El could see Caliwone wince in slight pain from the impact against the mask, the effect of a normal man trying to punch through a steel wall. But Caliwone was nothing if not creative.

He maneuvered himself so that one of the Hollows swung a needle like arm to spear him just as the second Hollow came up from behind. Unlike Caliwone's physical attacks, the pointed arm of the Hollow pierced right through the others mask, sending it reeling away for a moment with a howl before dissipating into black ash.

"Its mask is weak if you attack it from inside," Helena shouted over to the Elite as Caliwone now faced the only remaining Hollow.

Caliwone didn't respond but immediately accepted Helena's words. Charging forward just as the Hollow opened its large mouth, Caliwone leapt inside, firing a blast of blue energy that pierced through the skull and shattered the mask. Caliwone disappeared inside the Hollow for a moment before the beast vanished, revealing Caliwone still gliding through the air to come to a skidding halt on the stone ground. With only the slightest nod in Helena's direction, he continued down the tunnel.

Smiling against her will with quiet smugness, she followed with Superman right next to her.

Yusuke held the kid up by the back of his shirt as the small boy wailed, raining tears down on the rock floor. He gave an uncomfortable look over at Diana and Dinah. The kid reminded him of boy he had given his life for when that ball had bounced into the street in front of that speeding car. Without thinking, he had leapt out into the street and pushed the kid out of the way and been struck by the car himself. Lucky for him, or unlucky as he constantly thought, that event had lead him to meeting Boton and Koenma and gotten his life back with many added bonuses and a new job as Spirit Detective.

Dinah walked over and took the child from Yusuke gently. Shushing the child softly, she rocked him until he quieted and Boton made faces at him until he started to laugh.

Yusuke shook his head. "I've never been good with kids," he said as Captain Atom stepped next to him and watched the two women fawn over the child. "I mean, what's the point?"

Captain Atom gave Yusuke an odd look and moved away again. Just then, Yusuke noticed Diana standing off to the side, watching the other women play with the child, looking uncomfortable.

"What's wrong with you?" Yusuke asked her.

"On Themyscira, we do not have children like the women do in man's world," she said.

"What, like an island full of women or something?" Yusuke snickered.

"Yes," Diana said without smiling. "We are all immortal warriors and protected by the Gods. I was molded by my mother out of clay and the Gods breathed life into me."

Yusuke felt his smile falter, not sure if Wonder Woman was joking or not. "Whatever," Yusuke said. "The problem is, what do we do now? I mean, the runt is the key and we have to destroy it, right?"

Diana looked a little disturbed as the possibilities ran through her head. On one hand, the fate of the world was at risk unless the barriers were brought down. On the other, she and the League could never condone killing. She reached up to her ear.

"Fate, we have a little problem," she said. "The key is a young human child."

"I see," Fate said. "This is an unfortunate situation. Of course, we cannot allow any harm to come to this child."

"Of course not," Diana said. "But what can we do?"

Fate was silent for a moment as he considered. "Perhaps," Fate said after some thought. "Perhaps the reason the keys are spaced across such great distances is because the closer a key is to the barrier, the weaker the barrier becomes. I have run across this scenario before."

"It is worth a try," Diana said. "We will be back soon." She shut the comm. off and cleared her throat. The two women paid no attention as they continued to make the child laugh. She tried again with the same affect. With an irritated sigh, Diana walked over to the two and grabbed the boy by the back of its diaper.

The child immediately began crying again as Diana informed the others that they were going to bring the child back to Fate then handed him back to the women, to which the crying immediately stopped. Shaking her head in disgust, she started back up the cave and back to the Javelin. No one noticed the alien machine quietly watching them and the child and shortly after, transmitted its findings back to the alien base.

The three supers eventually came to a large cavern, several stories high, deep underground filled with rock formations, dripping water from nowhere in a steady cadence. Small puddles of water lay in the divots and trenches that were spattered about, highlighted by Helena's golden glow. Erie shadows stretched out from the rocks, throwing disconcerting shadows over the ground and far away walls. All in all, it was a really creepy place.

Caliwone came to a stop, looking around warily. Helena felt it, too, stopping next to him and nursing her shoulder absently. Not a flash of sixth sense, but a foreboding feeling that they were being watched by something evil. The two stood, shoulder to shoulder, and swept their eyes around.

"What is it," Kal-El asked, looking around as well but having no idea what he was looking for.

Caliwone snorted at Kal-El's lack of warrior's sense. "We are being watched," he said.

"I'll take a look." Superman sent his gaze around, searching the cavern with his x-ray vision.

Caliwone sent Superman a glower over his shoulder, but said nothing. After a moment or two, Superman reported that he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Let's keep moving then," Helena said and started forward but then stopped as she noticed Caliwone was not moving with her.

"I trust my instincts far more than I trust Kal-El's eyes," he said his own eyes darting around the cave. "There is something here."

"Caliwone," Superman said softly, resting a hand on the Saiyans shoulder. Caliwone was too distracted to even notice the Man of Steel touching him, something he would normally never allow. That made Superman frown. Whatever Caliwone was perceiving, he meant it. "I believe you," Superman said. Nodding to Helena, he sent his gaze around again in case he had missed whatever it was.

Helena snorted silently. She knew what Caliwone was feeling alright but she couldn't see the sense in standing still. Of course, Caliwone was the warrior, she a fighter, and Caliwone was the one with far more experience in this sort of thing than she had.

She looked around and in the deepest corner of the cave, she saw something. It looked to be a white cone sticking up out of the ground, maybe four feet high and glowing a diffuse peach. She looked hard around the area in case that was where they had been feeling the eyes on them. Then it clicked in her mind. The key?

"I think I have something," Helena said and motioned to where the glowing cone sat. "I don't see anything else around it but is it possible that's the key?"

"I don't know," Superman said, frowning and looking hard at it. "If I had to guess, I'd say yes. I can't see it with any of my other visions which means it is not fully from the Earth."

"Maybe its lead lined?" Helena suggested.

"If it was, I would still be able to see it," he answered. "Lead prevents me from seeing through it but this is more like it simply isn't there."

"Hologram?" Caliwone asked.

"I don't think so. I am not detecting any source of energy that would power it." He reached up and touched his ear. "Fate, I think we may have found the key but we aren't sure."

"Ichigo's team has just destroyed theirs," Fate responded. "They said they identified it by a shimmering peach glow around it."

"That sounds good enough for me," Superman said. "Anything else special about it?"

"Their key was an ancient human pot," Fate answered. "It was heavily defended by the Hollow creatures but Ichigo was able to destroy them with relative ease."

"Alright, we will be careful," Superman said and signed off. "That seems to be it but Fate said Ichigo's team ran into resistance."

"No problem," Caliwone said. Before Kal-El could stop him, Caliwone had transformed and fired a blast of energy at the cone with enough power to level a small city block.

"You idiot, you're going to cause a cave in," Helena shouted, grabbing Caliwone by the shirt front. The blast detonated on target, sending a wave of super heated air flowing past them, blowing over stalactites and stalagmites in its path but the cavern itself seemed to sustain the blast quite well.

Caliwone slapped Helena's hand away with one of his own. "You continually underestimate me," Caliwone said. "No one ever thinks that perhaps I know what I am doing."

"In this case, I don't think it was enough," Superman said. The cone was still there without even a scratch on it. "Maybe it's protected by another barrier?"

"Let's find out," Caliwone said. His aura blazed around him and he clapped his hands together in front of him.

"Isn't that a little over the top?" Superman asked, sounding a little nervous as he recognized Caliwone's signature attack.

The ground under their feet gave a rumble and rolled like a wave in the ocean once. All eyes turned toward Caliwone, disapproving but Caliwone looked confused. The ripple had not come from him. Following the path the ripple had come from, it could have come from no place other than the key itself.

As they watched, the ground humped upwards under the key. Rock split and crumbled as the largest Hollow Caliwone had ever seen seemed to sit up from where it had been laying. The cone was now revealed to be part of the Hollow's nose, the first time Caliwone had also ever seen a Hollow with a nose in its mask. The rest of the Hollow was blacker than the darkness that surrounded it.

Caliwone grabbed Kal-El's cape and flew backwards, yanking Superman along with him. Helena apparently had the same idea and was close by as the huge head, nearly the size of a city bus, continued to rise, giving voice to its trademarked howl.

"Oh my gosh!" Helena said, landing next to Caliwone watching the Hollow, fully aglow by the peach color. "This entire thing is the key?"

"It is a Menos Gillian," Caliwone said, remembering the stories Ichigo had told him. From what he understood, these things lacked even base level intelligence and no agility to speak of. "They're tanks. Kind of like the evolved form of a Hollow. Unlike normal Hollows, this thing has an energy attack called Cero. Very strong. Be careful of it when you engage."

"And how exactly are we suppose to beat this thing?" Helena asked over another roar from the Menos.

"You keep hitting it until it breaks," Caliwone said. He burst forward as the Gillian pulled one enormous skeletal hand out of the ground to help push itself up. Using all of him momentum, Caliwone drove a sidekick straight into the space between the Gillian's eyes. The force of the blow rocked the Gillian's head back but did not so much as chip its bleach white mask.

He leapt off the gigantic Hollow, back flipping down to the ground in front of the Hollow's hand as it continued to push itself up unaffected. Changing tact, he attacked the hand. With one powerful kick, Caliwone knocked the Gillian's arm to the side.

The Gillian roared as it fell, landing on its chin awkwardly. Superman and Helena both streaked in and punched it in the same spot Caliwone had. While Superman opted to continue to punch away, Helena dropped back. Caliwone dropped as Helena began her attack. He watched her, having never seen this attack before, as she reached her hands forward as if gripping a large beach ball, one at the twelve o'clock point, the other at the six. She rotated her hands around clockwise, leaving a yellow streak in the air in front of her. Reaching back with her right hand, she slapped the circle in the center with her palm and fire erupted, contained in the diagram.

It wasn't real fire, Caliwone knew, but perfectly controlled energy that licked and danced like flames. Despite Caliwone's disdain for the half blood Saiyan, he had to admit that this was an interesting attack so far. He continued to watch as Helena brought both hands up and fired a blast straight into the center of the flaming diagram. Her energy burst through the other side in smaller and more powerful blasts that spread out in the air and converged onto the Hollow.

Superman dashed aside as the attack came in, the Gillian not seeming to notice Kal-El's efforts as it tried to push itself up again. The Hollow disappeared behind the attack and smoke that stray shots kicked up as they hit the ground and rock outcroppings. Helena continued to pour energy into the diagram until she felt it safe to stop.

Caliwone smirked slightly as the Gillian forced one of its skeletal human looking legs up out of the ground on the other side of the cave. It gave another howl as its head burst through the smoke, the blank expression on the still fully intact mask nearly enough to send shivers down Caliwone's spine.

Superman wasn't doing much better. He looked at this Hollow in absolute awe. How could creatures like this exist? He shook his head, trying to clear it from the doubt that was settling down on him. This thing had to be vanquished in order to save his adopted home.

He raced forward as the Gillian pulled its other leg out from the ground and punched for all he was worth. His blow struck with such ferocity that the Gillian actually slid backwards through the rock leaving a great fissure in the cavern floor. Before it had come to a complete halt, the Gillian swung its other hand up from underneath itself and slapped Superman across the cavern and deep out of sight into the rock wall.

Helena and Caliwone both raced in from opposite directions, both firing blasts that would have demolished cities but the Gillian shrugged them off as if they were minor annoyances that were not worth its notice. Caliwone landed back on the ground and lowered his right hand to the ground just as the Gillian managed to get to its knees. Blue energy sparked and arced around it as his Dragon Twister grew into existence.

Helena had taken up position directly over the Gillian her right arm ready to lose her Noventa Canon. Without warning, the Hollow stood fully erect, catching Helena by surprise. The broad forehead caught Helena full on, driving her up and up, through the roof of the cave. She felt the sharp bites of rock cutting into her as the Gillian continued to drive her up. She could feel the blood seeping down her back and staining the bleach white mask. Something hard buried in the rock slammed against her head, nearly making her lose consciousness and lost her transformation as the Gillian broke through the ground, through the trees and into the open air.

Still struggling to stay conscious, she dropped through the air off of the Gillian and toward the ground, unable to right herself. The Hollow made one last howl before red energy collected in front of its mouth. By the time Helena had regained her full consciousness, she didn't have time to do more than bring her arms up to defend as the Gillian's Cero attack lanced down at her.

The attack caught her full force, a red spotlight of destructive force and pride of the Hollow race, driving her back down, through the trees and rock and back into the cavern, burying her deep in the rock with a painful yell near the small lake they had noted earlier. The ground cracked and split under the force as the light faded and water began to pour in, a trickle at first, then the broken ground gave way and the water poured into the new crater.

Caliwone didn't hesitate and shot up through hole the Cero had just made to continue the attack while Superman dove into the water to play hero. He erupted through the hole just as the huge Gillian pulled itself awkwardly out of the hole to stand many times taller than the highest tree. Now seeing it in true light, Caliwone got his first real look the Menos. Below its white mask, white spikes jutted out around the area that Caliwone would have considered its upper chest, shoulder, and upper back of its otherwise entirely black body. The body itself waved slightly, its arms hidden inside its body like it was a robe.

The Gillian turned its blank attention to Caliwone and opened its mouth and red light gathered together. Caliwone clapped his hands together and pulled them apart and fired his attack just as the Gillian launched its own Cero attack.

The two met in mid air, ripping apart the forest below them but for once, Caliwone did not care. From his point of view, all he could see was his own blue blast but his senses could tell that he was overpowering the attack. He grinned tightly.

Helena was buried deep in the ground, the water completely covering her. Superman grabbed one of her hands, the ever Boy Scout minded hero not sure where else to grab her, and flew out of the water. He set her down as she coughed and gagged as she rested on hands and knees.

"Are you alright?" Superman asked in concern as he saw the blood and gaping wounds on her back under the severely torn clothing.

She pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. "I'm fine," she grunted. She shook her head once more to clear out the last of the cobwebs then transformed once again, her hair flared outward into gold with red streaks of blood giving it an off tint. As she became more aware of herself, she glanced down to see that, her cloths had been shredded from the attack but it still hung on well enough to keep the important parts of her form covered, which she was very relieved to see.

She took off up through the hole she had just come down through in time to see Caliwone battling the Gillian's Cero. As she raced forward, Caliwone gave a final push and his Burst Rush overpowered the Cero. The Gillian took a step back as the power of the attack hit, uprooting a line of trees as it did so.

"Distract it," Caliwone snapped as Superman made it up through the hole. Without question, Superman raced in and began battering at the Gillian's body while Helena, rather reluctantly, attacked the Hollows mask once more.

Caliwone lowered his arm again and started collecting the power for his Dragon Twister. Lighting arced around his hand, growing in ferocity, occasional lancing down to the forest, ripping smaller gashes through the trees like a lightning strikes. He didn't even notice as the Gillian fired another Cero blast that caught Superman, just missing Helena.

He looked up slowly as he felt the attack complete at the distracted Gillian. His grin spread into an eager smile, his golden hair tinted blue from his attack. He raced forward, flying as fast as he could. The Gillian prepared another Cero blast that was aimed directly at Caliwone. From the Gillian's right, Superman and Helena flew in and struck its face together hard enough turn its face to the side as Caliwone closed in.

The Cero lanced outward to strike the ground less than a mile away from the far off city. Caliwone was on top of the Gillian and drove his right fist into the mask. Light blazed around his fist as his attack struggled to break through the super tough mask. Bits of mask chipped away and flew past Caliwone as he pushed forward, refusing to be detoured. The Gillian gave another mournful howl, turning to face the threat.

The mask cracked at the center of the attack, then cracked more. Superman and Helena hovered far away, watching in awe as Caliwone pushed on. What he was doing was simply impossible. Helena started forward to help but Superman put a hand on her naked shoulder and shook his head.

"Let him do it," Superman said giving her a smile. "Besides, there isn't really anything either one of us can do right now."

Helena scowled but knew he was right. The two watched for the last few seconds as Caliwone pushed hard and finally broke through the Gillian's tough mask. With an explosion of dazzling light, the mask twisted and distorted and finally shattered with one last howl before it turned to ash, falling toward the ground and vanishing before it reached it.

Caliwone breathed heavily as he lowered his hand and dropped to the ground. Helena and Superman followed after him, ready to give support if needed but Caliwone landed solidly on his feet and brushed a few bits of ash off his shoulder. He gave Helena a careful look up and down as she landed in her very tattered cloths and smirked slightly as she placed a defiant fist on her hip with an equally defiant look on her face.

Superman shook his head as he smiled over at Caliwone. "Incredible," he said. "Every time I see you fight, you get stronger and stronger. I don't know how you do it."

"You should know me better than that," Caliwone said. "Be sure that the barrier is down."

Superman nodded and touched his ear. "Fate?"

"The second barrier is down," Fate said. "Yusuke's group has run into an...interesting...predicament. The barrier should be down soon, however. Please, return to the cave here when you are finished."

"Understood," Superman said and clicked off his comm. "That's it. Let's head back." He glanced over at Helena as he turned. "Maybe we should stop and get you some new cloths first, though. Justice League treat."

Helena gave a soft smirk, clearly intending to take advantage of the League's generosity as much as she could. "Appreciated," she said, ignoring Caliwone's snort. As a team, the three supers took off, leaving the destroyed forest behind without much of a second thought. Out of one tree, a stalked camera like eye retracted into the leaves of the tree, its several tendrils wrapped around the branches to keep it from falling. Its sophisticated technology whirred inside as it sent its recording of the battle to the alien's main base.

To be continued...

What a battle! I though Helena was going to be killed for sure while I was writing this. Lol. And Caliwone is sure showing his stuff a bit.

Only one alien left now but what is going on with those recording devices that are identical to the one found in the Brotherhood's house at the end of Book Three? Something sinister I suspect.

Thanks Kobez2.0. You are the best!

Please do not forget to review!

Fyi to all Dragon Sagas fans!

Chapter 4 of the comic is now in production. Hopefully, it will be done in June some time at the latest. I am accepting donations towards getting the comic done because it does cost a pretty penny. Any interested in helping out, please contact me by PM (Private Messege) or emailing me.

Talk to you soon!