A/N If you are writing a review without logging in, please use some kind of nickname so if I want to adres the review, i could at least have something. Better yet log in so I may PM you.
For unnamed guest asking about Bianca: Cutting it short, I have this story already planned and it would be hard if not impossible to do such a major changes. She might appear in the sequel. I have also another story that do feature her as one of main characters (Dark Waters, currently on hiatus). If you would PM me, I could talk more about the whole thing. I might introduce some parts of it, but no promise.
Also, sorry for so long of a wait. I had to scramble the whole thing and start over three times already.
Mount Justice
October 10, 16:58
Percy threw a punch at Kaldur, who dodged. The atlantean tried to go for counter attack, only for his fist to be dodged, caught and used as a leverage to do a judo flip on him. He landed on the ground with a thud and giant red 'defeat' appeared over his head. Percy didn't have time to cherish his victory because Garth and Tula came at him in tandem. Previously, he managed to send them away, but now they came back with new energy. He dodged punch sent by Tempest and at the same time blocked Aquagirl's hand. This left him open for Garth to try and kick him. If not for his superior reflexes he would probably already be on the ground or at least dazed, but luckily he was a demigod. For him everything around him was happening much slower, which gave him chance to push Tula away and grab the leg that was about to hit him and twist it. Garth made a 360 turn in the air and Percy hoped he would land face first, but no such luck. To his surprise atlantean managed to only fall on one knee. Demigod wanted to take advantage of this situation, but in the corner of his eye he saw a right hook sent by the atlantean girl. He blocked and did a counterstrike, but she dodged it. Aquagirl made a jab at his neck, but he matrixed his way away. He noticed Tempest going for a strike. In his current position he had hard time dodging the attack going to his midriff, so he did a backsault, kicking tula in her already hurting head and sending her flying. Before he saw a bright red defeat as the girl fell on her back, a Garth palmed him in the stomach and sent him tumbling into ground. Percy had no way of avoiding it. Normally this would not mean the end of any fight, but the rules Black Canary set were clear. Once you fall, you are out.
"Great fight everyone. I am impressed." She looked at Garth, Tula and Kaldur. "You actually managed to hold your own against Percy." She smiled. Everyone gathered gave a laugh. Since his return, Percy managed to best every single member of the team in hand-to-hand combat. Essence of Athena made a real number on him. During fight with Ares he 'learned' multiple martial arts. While his muscle memory for the moves was gone, probably due to godly essence leaving his body, the knowledge of techniques still remained, hard-coded into his brain. The more he practiced, the more attuned to it he became. Still, his ADHD did not let him just stand there in perfect form, repeating the same move for thousand times. He preferred action. That's why he was the most active sparring partner recently. Usually, Zoe was his combat partner because she thought that 'he is the only one that actually can pose any challenge'. Black Canary proven her wrong on that statement multiple times since, but she still refused to fight some of the 'younglings' and especially 'the males' as she kindly refereed to Robin, Superboy and especially Kid Flash. She had no problem with girls on the team and offered them to train them on multiple occasions. Only ones she had no problem with were atlanteans. Kaldur was always very respectful toward her and recognized her as a huntress of Artemis. Garth, while kinda rough on the edges, reminded her a bit of Percy with his hotheadedness and also how much he cared about Tula. He also made no attempts to flirt with her while staying more or less respectful. Tula was okay and quite easy-going. At the same time female sorceress had the fierce side to her. She reminded Zoe of Bianca. While the huntress long since came to terms with the death of daughter of Hades, seeing this same traits in another girl.
Zoe watched as Percy hit the floor and allowed smile to creep onto her face. She stood up and walked to the arena. She didn't manage to say anything before suddenly a red blur beaten her to Percy and started shaking his hand vigorously. She recognized it as Captain Marvel, one of the League members which was weird since Black Canary was supposed to be team's 'den mother' this week. They weren't expecting any other Leaguers to come.
"You are Perseus, right? Oh yes! You prefer Percy! Or Neptune! I am so honored to meet you. Well, technically I did before, but now I can talk to you in person! I am so thrilled. I saw how you've beaten Ares. This was sooo cool. You also took down the Injustice League with a wave of your hand! How cool is that?" Captain Marvel was speaking so fast that the others present in the room hardly managed to comprehend it. He kept going on about and praising Neptune's actions during the strange plants mess.
To Percy, this very much reminded him of Leo. Except Captain Marvel felt like he had also overdosed caffeine. "Yeah. I am pleased to meet you as well Sir." He finally managed to speak, interrupting the very eager and cheerful superhero. "Can you now please stop shaking my hand?" In all the mess, Captain didn't notice that he kept shaking Percy's hand.
"Oh yeah. Sorry. I got a little bit carried away..." He immediately backed away and looked guilty.
"No problem. I get it." Percy gave him a smile, which luckily cheered the muscular superhero. "So... May I know what brought you here? Do you have some mission for us?"
"Oh no! Missions are not my gig. I just had a free per... Some free time and decided to come visit. I quite like this place."
"Hi Cap. Do you have a mission for us?" Wally zoomed in, followed by Artemis, Dick, Conner and Megan. "Please tell me there is something to do. I am eager for some action." He zoomed to the kitchen and returned with jar of cookies, already half-empty. Robin could swear it was full only this morning. "Cookie?"
"Oh yeah!" Captain Marvel took five and started eating them all at once, throwing the crumbles all over the floor, which grossed all the girls and some boys out. Zoe definitely added this one to the 'worst males met' list. At the moment he was pretty close to Heracles. "An sably no. yssyos ae no ay gyg" He said... after he stuffed his mouth with another seven cookies. (And sadly no. Missions are not my gig)
"Comeon! Since Batman was removed from running this team, we don't get anything. It's like the league tries to keep us away from action." Robin moaned.
"I get you bro. I just woke up from longest nap yet and I don't even get any action." Wally joined his friend. "You could think the League does not trust us!" He sent Marvel and Canary a meaningful glare.
"If mission comes, you will know. For now better to prepare for what might come." Black Canary spoke diplomatically.
"You guys get that you are not contract-bound to do hero stuff only on this team, right?" Percy chimed in. "I mean I am with the team first, but I also need to do something in my free time."
"Besides watching old TV shows?" Zoe asked playfully.
"At least I don't try to fix history books." He responded with a grin.
"Not my fault they are all wrong and written by male mortals." She said with a pout.
"Okay. Easy there love birds." Artemis spoke. Before Zoe had time to choke her, she continued. "Thing here is, most of us aren't billionaires with fake school diploma. We still have school... or some of us need to work. Arrows aren't exactly cheap, you know?"
"Guess you may..." Percy was interrupted when Zeta Tube lightened up.
Recognized: Zatara 1-1
The magician then walked to console and pressed some buttons. The speed made it impossible to see what he did there, but soon enough robotic voice spoke again.
Access granted. Recognized. Zatanna Zatara A0-3 Authorization: Zatara 1-1
"Zatanna, this is the Team" He spoke while the mysterious person slowly materialized into the room.
The the tube appeared a young girl around robin's age. She wore a uniform consisting of white, button up shirt, dark blue skirt and even darker blue blouse with sleves ending around her elbows. She also had a dark blue bolo tie. When she stepped into the light, her medium length black hair and bright cyan colored eyes became easily visible. She had a rather slender build.
"Team. This is my daughter, Zatanna." The magician introduced the girl.
M'gann flew over to greet her. "Hi. I'm..." when she was about to give her name, Dick jumped in front and interrupted her.
"Robin. Khm. I mean I'm Robin. She's Megan," he waved at the Martian, "And that's Wally, Artemis, Conner, Kaldur, Garth, Tula, Zoe and Percy." He introduced the remaining members one by one in the order in which they stood there.
"Welcome to the Cave" Kaldur also greeted her, albeit in his usual monotones voice.
She was kinda abashed by all of this, but she managed to answer. "Uh... Thanks."
"So are you joining the team?" Robin asked hopefully.
Before Zatanna had a chance to answer, her father spoke "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is strictly a visit." He then turned to Canary. "Although I am sorry we missed the training. It is something Zatanna could benefit."
M'gann created mind link between the team. "Do the rest of you get the impression we are still on probation with Zatara?"
Conner was first to answer and he sounded angry. "Not just Zatara. I mean why is Marvel here. And why do they not send us on any mission since Injustice League. It was their idea for us to go."
"Well... I did kinda have to save you from execution." Percy added while grinning. He managed to overcome his fear of creating visions of sending the visions of Tartarus through the mind link. He no longer thought about this place as much, pushing it further and further into the very back of his head. There was no way he would completely forget it, but he would not let fear control his life.
"It almost makes one nostalgic for when Red Tornado was tending as our supervisor." Kaldur spoke. Garth, Tula and Zoe all stayed silent, listening to the conversation. Huntress felt like she was not the one to speak in this discussion since she had no real idea what was it about and two atlanteans didn't want to get into the crossfire. They didn't really had that much trouble with the team. They came to learn more and they were learning things they never before imagined. Fight on dry land was completely different than underwater. They even got to practice water manipulation with son of Poseidon himself. Well, the first training session ended up as one and a half hour surfing show after Wally (who was having a beach day with the rest, taking advantage of sunny saturday) asked the demigod if he was any good. Turn out being son of Poseidon makes you good at many things, including surfing. Or maybe this one was from Apollo, whose blessing was literary 'get as much fun from your life as possible'. Percy already knew he was great singer and above-average instrument player. He was yet to try his strength at other arts.
"Yeah. At least Red trusted us." Robin seconded.
"If you ignore the fact that we should not have trusted him!" Garth half-screamed in their minds, flaying his hands and gritting his teeth. He got kinda carried away. "He almost got Tula... All of us killed."
Being turned around, Tempest didn't notice Zatanna walking to them. "You guys having a psychic conversation?" This statement caused everyone in the room to look at her. "Because I can't decide if it is cool or... really rude."
After a moment of hesitation Conner turned at the league members in the room. "Alright fine! We were talking about red tornado. It's been weeks since his attack. And the league hasn't told us anything!"
"The league is serching for Red Tornado, as well as the other androids that invaded the cave and their creator T. . It's been made our highest priority." Black Canary tried to get them to drop the subject.
"But you found none of the above" Robin said in accusing tone.
"Not yet. But Tornado is League. And the team is not to pursue this." She started to loose her patience with the kids when Zatara stepped in.
"Why don't you kids take Zatanna on... a... tour... around the... cave..." He started to look around. When the rest noticed that the girl in question was missing, they also looked around, only to find her playing with Wolf.
"Oh! You are giving a tour?" Captain Marvel seemed very happy.
"Actually, I had hoped you could take Wolf outside. He needs the excercise. We will join you in a few minutes." Conner spoke. He was quite calm, which rose Percy's suspicion, but he did not say anything.
The whole group was about to leave when Zatara spoke once more. "Yhm. Percy. Mind if you stay behind? I wanted to talk with you about something."
"Sure thing." The demigod turned and walked back to the leaguers, followed by Zoe.
"Can I stay too? I am not up for another 'this is the TV and this is the kitchen' walk. I thought exploring the temple of Apollo was boring." Zoe said half-smiling.
"I see no problem with that." Zatara spoke. He activated the main holo-computer and loaded image of Nyssa. Percy Remembered her from the memorable 'clubbing with cheshire'. "I assume you remember this woman?"
"Yeah. She tried to control me with some spell. I broke it and I think kinda reversed it." Percy shuddered at the memory. In truth, Hera gave him the power to dominate the minds of others. Her essence allowed him to impose his will on anyone, but it also made him vengeful. He straight up tortured this woman to get what he wanted. The worst part of it was that he enjoyed it back then. The essence made him into completely different person. When he used the Athena's essence, it was also unpleasant, but in completely different way. The wisdom goddess took away all of his emotions, made him into perfect tool of war, a strategic mastermind not influenced by anything. After the fight it sill felt... wrong, but it was not as distasteful as with the vengeance thing.
"Well... I have bad news. She performed the spell on the guards and escaped. I hoped to track her down, but I would need to know what to look for." Zatara spoke.
"I don't really know. She didn't give me much."
"What about her magic?" Zatara asked, but Percy gave the magician a confused look. "There are many different ways to perform a spell. While magic is all about willpower and imposing your idea onto the world, the exact 'how' is special for each person. It all depends on the sorcerer. Atlanteans have magical tattoos through which they channel the power into the water, which is the base of their spells. Those close to the lords of order or chaos can access so called higher magic, which allows them to basically impose their will on the world."
"I know some basic healing songs. It's pretty old magic by your standards." Zoe joined the discussion. She was never one for magic, preferring the bow, but when one spent three thousand years in the hunt, there was a chance to dabble into everything at least a bit. "I also know how to manipulate the mist, but there is almost none in this world."
"People with high aptitude for mystic arts can also cast spells. It's..." Zatara wanted to explain more, but he was cut off
"I saw you speak backward. Is that it?" Percy was a bit confused. Magic never seemed that simple with Hazel, but then again she was never speaking backward.
"Not exactly. Speaking is just a part of it. Giving command to reality. The hard part is imposing your will. To cast a spell I must visualize the effect, give an appropriate command and overpower reality. Even the words matter. The simplest is to speak backward in any language. Some prefer to just throw commands in straight Latin. This can make spell easier or harder. I prefer simpler and more reliable form. Latin is crude and much harder to perform, but also gives more... impressive results. In the end it's mostly about willpower. That's the magic."
Percy remembered how Nyssa spoke about his will. "And I guess that to control someone you must overpower their will?"
"Precisely" Zatara sounded happy that his whole speech was not in vain. He didn't like to repeat himself.
"Then I guess I know why Nyssa failed. Sea does not like to be contained. She tried to overpower my willpower and she got served." He was proud. Not everyone could say they won a willpower duel against a wizard trying to enslave your mind.
"Maybe. But we've got off the subject. Anything about her magic?"
"Well, she spoke backward, but it definitely was not English. I think it sounded kinda like Latin." He remembered the words. He could barely remember the spell at all, but one or two words made most sense in Latin or Spanish. The former made more sense if she wanted the best effect.
"Anything more?" Black Canary, who remained silent through the whole discussion suddenly joined. "Maybe something about her goal or plan?"
"Yeah. She said that I was supposed to be the perfect weapon against her father and I was even better than 'big blue'. I don't think I was to be her intended target at first. She practiced this spell for more than a year and I am here for not even half that time."
"And who is her father?"
"Ra's Al Ghoul. Talk about father of the year." He smiled.
"Isn't that the guy who stabbed you with poisoned knife?" Zoe asked. Percy silently nodded. She flared with anger and accidentally crushed the bottle of water she was holding. If not for Percy's quick reaction, they would all be soaking wet. Instead, the water remained in place, still looking like it was in the same container. "If I get my hands on this stupid male, he will beg me for death. I don't know how he managed to get a jump on all of us, but next time he will get what he deserves."
"Hey. Z. Calm down, okay? I am alive and his little assassin organization is in ruin. We have nothing to worry about."
"It doesn't change the fact that she might try again. Or go against some other leaguer. The big blue is clearly Superman. I will warn him." Black Canary was interrupted when suddenly screen flared, showing that Bio-ship left the hangar. She walked over and opened the channel with alien craft. "Team?"
"We are kidnapping Zatanna..." Spoke M'ganns voice. "...To show her happy harbor. We will bring her back safe." She added.
"Rodger that. Have fun." Black Canary cut the connection and turned to Zatara.
"I did not give my permission for that!" Zatarra was less than happy with the whole ordeal.
"They are good kids Giovanni. Trustworthy kids. You don't need to worry."
"Back to the matter at hand?" Percy spoke. He knew very well that the team didn't leave to show her the city, but rather sneaked out for a secret mission. He was kinda offended that they did not try and get him, but oh well! He will get back at them later. Maybe some prank. Stolls taught him many tricks and putting the pink hair dye inside the showers, then making it invisible, much like invisible ink, suddenly seemed like a great idea. After few minutes in the sun their hair would be pink for weeks.
"Fine. I think I know this type of magic. It's quite rare. Mostly it was used by Amazon sorceresses if memory serves me right." Giovanni pondered the question for a moment. "It is possible that Nyssa is not working alone. She might have a teacher. Mastering such potent spell all by yourself, assuming she did not have a prior magical training, would be almost impossible."
"So you are saying that this 'Nyssa' not only works with someone, but this someone is most likely Amazon?"
"Not necessarily..." Percy pulled his big mythology atlas and opened the index on page with names. "I recall that there were some witches and sorcerers in mythology. Not to mention that any child of Hecate is quite proficient in magic. Any Demigod in general has some magic affinity. I heard that back in the times when gods resided in London, there was a place in Scotland where they taught spellcasting." He was still looking through the index.
"But gods disappeared... from this world" Zoe added the last part after small break. Percy thought that she forgot about this being different world than their home. "How would any... mythological people survive?" She couldn't find a better term.
"The artifacts stayed, Amazons are still strong on their island and Atlantis thrive. And we are here. Nothing is impossible with magic."
"Anyone with direct connection to gods would need to be at least one and a half hundred years old..." Zatara sounded unsure
"Your point?" Zoe sounded half-amused, half-offended, "I was born before first humans were created. Achieving immortality was not that hard in the past. Steal the apple of immortality, have a god take liking into you or just live in correct area." She explained.
"I was wondering... Did you know about other worlds? Like, before you joined the hunt. Or maybe as part of the hunt?" Percy turned to her with curious expression.
"It's not like that. Only ones that would be allowed on this kind of secret would be the Olympians themselves and maybe the Titans. Me? I was just a nymph back then. An immortal one, but not a Titaness or Goddess."
"Figures as much. Anyway." Percy lost a bit of his happiness, but he continued speaking. "I found a list of known sorceress. We have: Calypso, Circe, Gale, which I believe would be Galanthis, Lamia, Pasiphae, Ptolemy and well... Zoe and the Hesperides." He finished reading the list.
"What? You are a sorceress?" Zatara seemed caught off-guard. "I thought you more of a warrior much like Diana."
"That's because I long ago learned how to mask my scent and aura. Really useful when hunting monsters. I do prefer fighting than casting spells, but I still remember some of my childhood days." She explained to him.
"Fascinating." The magician wanted to ask her about a dozen of questions about the magic and probably they would spend next few hours discussing spells or something. Percy had another idea. He was really curious what the team was up to right now.
"As much as I enjoy this conversation, Zoe and I have a thing we need to do. I fear we must cut this meeting short." He said, hoping she would pick up on his idea. She did not.
"We do?" She sent him a questioning glare.
"Yes. Don't you remember? The thing? We talked about it." He tried to figure out what would this 'thing' be, but his mind was blank. Luckily, she figured what was his endgame.
"Ah yes. The... thing. Yes. Forgive us, but we must be going." She tried to play to his game, but she did a poor job. They both were already walking toward the Zeta Tubes when Black Canary stopped them.
"And may we know what this 'thing' of yours is?" She gave the two an amused glare.
"Fine." Percy had to improvise really quickly. "I bought three boxes of old TV series and movies on VHS and Zoe promised to help me get through some of them today." This earned a giggle from Black Canary and an elbow from huntress.
"Okay then. Have fun on your date!" Dinah said as the two already disappeared in the yellow light. This comment would probably earn her a death stare from Zoe if she wasn't already in different part of the continent. She let out one more giggle before turning to Zatara. "Fifty bucks they will end up as a couple before the new Year?"
"Although usually I am against gambling... You are on." He smiled at her.
"Now you will explain what was that about?" Zoe gave him a menacing stare. "You gave them impression we are going on a 'date'. Spill."
"Fine. If I know the Team, they did not leave to show her around Happy Harbor. I think they went after Tornado and his Red siblings." He explained, remembering their psychic discussion earlier.
"So? It's their quest for vengeance. You do not interrupt one's quest for retribution lest you want to have their wrath directed at your person instead." She sounded less than eager to follow them.
"Well, they are still our team and we should at least offer them help. I do not intend to try and stop them. It would be quite hypocritical from me, wouldn't you agree?" He refereed to how he sneaked out on the quest to save Annabeth, even after he was told precisely not to do this.
"yes. I remember how stubborn you could be." She smiled at the memory. "But even if it pains to admit it, without you we would not be able to complete that quest. And you've proven that you are nothing like Heracles." This last sentence caused a silence to fall between them. It was the last thing she said to him before she passed to the other side.
After a moment of uncomfortableness Percy finally pulled out his phone and called Kaldur.
"What is it Percy?" Kaldur sounded a bit guilty.
"A small advice: if you try to sneak and not get caught, don't act this guilty over the phone. Me and Z. finished with Zatara and wanted to know if you would want us on the quest with y'all."
There was a muffled chatter on the other side of the line before Aqualad answered. "I am sorry my friend, but this is something we must do alone. It's a matter of personal business."
"No problem. Be safe and don't hesitate to ask for help if you need." In truth, Percy kinda wished they did want his help, but he could get where they were coming from. Red Tornado did betray them and almost suffocated them all. "Seriously. I am here for you."
"We do appreciate your offer Percy. Have a nice evening." He disconnected.
"Welp. That did not exactly go as planned." Percy gave Zoe a smile, but she frowned.
"Now what genius?"
"We can still watch the VHS I got..." He gave her a smile, but seeing her still frowning, he relented. "Or we can stalk them and go save the day. Eh... I was really curious about this 'Hello Megan!' show. I think I heard it before..." He didn't have time to think because Zoe was already pulling him toward the nearest Zeta Tube platform. "How exactly do we plan on finding them?"
"You get that you are talking to someone, whose code name is 'huntress'?" She deadpanned at him.
"Okay. I don't have any more questions miss."
"Did you honestly believe that Satyrs are the only one knowing the tracking song? Their is much stronger and can pierce the mist, but I believe finding some mortals can't be that hard." She said while pulling out of nowhere a set of Pan's Pipes.
It turned out to be very hard. Contrary to what Zoe said, the song completely refused to work. They ended up somewhere around north pole for some reason, then in Shanghai and then in Gotham. After Percy got the two evacuated from the city ASAP before Batman found them they switched tactic. Zoe of course blamed him for constantly making her misinterpret the signs. He decided not to dwell into her logic and instead focused on figuring another way to find them. They ended up in blue Valley, South Dakota. It was not really their destination as much as they jumped anywhere to avoid the Bat. This dude had serious problems and Percy did not want to give him any reason to hate him more.
"Great. Now what's the plan?" Zoe asked him
"If I remember correctly, I voted to drop this and watch some VHS. I really wanted to see this 'Hello Megan!'."
"Ugh. You Males and your procrastination." She did not sound angry with him, but said it in rather playful way. She was warming up to Percy and staying in his apartment. It's not like she had a better option and it was not half as bad as she expected for living with some male.
"I take offence in that." Percy stated. Just then, he felt earth slightly vibrate. He recognized that somewhere to the west there was some earthquake. His powers told him, that this was in Yellowstone. "Okay. That is really not good."
"Seriously? You are now going to throw me a temper tantrum because of that?" Zoe asked. This was not something Percy would do.
"Nah. Not that. There was a tectonic wave from Yellowstone. Someone is messing with the giant volcano under the National Park!"
"How bad can it be?" Zoe was never a major at geology. Her interest in Yellowstone was more focused on their population of Jackalopes.
"We are talking end of the world. The ashes from explosion from volcano this size will enter the atmosphere and block all sunlight. I think I could stop the explosion, but I would need to get there fast. Like three minutes top."
"Maybe they will manage?" Zoe sounded hopeful. She had an idea, but it was very touchy subject for her. Deep down, she knew the answer Percy will give.
"As much as I believe in them, this is not something they can deal with. If the volcano was already activated, there is no way of stopping it. We risk while Yellowstone exploding as one big volcano. This would bring down whole continent. They have no way of stopping it. I can absorb the gathering geo-force and safely disperse it before it actually causes the volcano to enter the third stage."
"Fine. I got an idea." She relented. This was something she really did not want to do. Zoe touched the moon symbol on her diadem and silver Maserati appeared in front of them.
"Is that..."
"Yeah. That is moon chariot. Now get in. We don't have time for explanations." She motioned him while sitting on the driver's seat.
Once they launched in the air, they got to the general area of Yellowstone in less than a minute. Percy did not want to guess how it had to look for mortal scientists when moon suddenly jerked on the sky when there was no mist to cover it. Even before they arrived, Percy could notice the... Army of Kid Flashes rushing at giant red robot that held unconscious M'gann?
"That is one strange of a fight...!" He shouted before jumping while Zoe was trying to park. He fell about ten feet before water from one of the nearest geyser suddenly flew to him, cooling on it's way. He slid down like on some water slide and did a roll before standing up next to Aqualad. "I am guessing big red and glowing is the villain?" When receiving a nod, he summoned his trident, but before he managed to do anything water got it's own life and attacked his enemy.
"Nice hit Neptune!" Robin cheered.
"I didn't do anything yet." Percy defended. Kaldur pointed to their left and he saw another red robot with a symbol of downward trident on it's chest and head. Their new ally used water to raise himself in the air and ordered more water to attack Red Volcano. The attack worked, but evil robot rose himself on the piece of rock. At this moment Red Tornado flew down and smashed the rock. Their enemy fell back into the magma, but he seemed resistant to it. just on cue, Red Inferno flew there and started to fire multiple fireballs. The two robots then pulled him under the magma, but even after Red tornado sealed the deal, Volcano exploded.
Seeing that their sacrifice was not working, Percy plunged his trident into the ground. From where the four reds were submerged rose a rock that carried all four up. The two oldest mechanical heroes were badly damaged and Tornado lacked his legs, but Volcano seemed like he was mostly undamaged. "Stupid Human. You save the one that wants your death?" The evil red mocked Neptune, but behind his mask the hero was grinning.
"No. I save the three heroes. You I will just dismember." He mocked.
"Ha! You are already too late." Red Volcano's eyes flashed and earth started to shake. This was supposed to cause final explosion. Villainous machine did not notice that Neptune's trident was still plunged in the ground. He wanted to see the faces of this useless meatbags when their world ended. To his surprise, there was no explosion. Whole super-volcano calmed down. He noticed trident sparking with teal lightnings. "what? Impossible. There is no turning back from third stage."
"Oh well... I guess you can add this to the long list of rules that I broke. Let's see if I can break something other than rules for a change!" With that, Percy sent a series of waves toward confused robot. While he might have had a better processor, he was still trying to comprehend how this human could stop the eruption. Before he realized and dodged, a stream of tremor waves hit his chest. During first two seconds he thought that his superior armor plating could withhold the attack, but then there was a loud CRACK! and his armor shattered. It was only few seconds before there was a large gaping hole in the middle of his chest area.
"Imp-Imp-Impossi...ble..." was all Red Volcano managed to say before he shut down and fell into lake of Magma. Percy dispersed the remaining geo-force by sending it all high in the air before dousing the remaining hot lava with cold water and making it safe for the team to walk closer to the pillar which held remaining three robots.
"Tornado!" M'gann screamed as she saw him all burned. His eyes were no longer glowing and he seemed shut down.
"He... Can't... Speak..." Red Inferno managed to say before her systems once again started to reboot, trying to assess the damage and rerous the important processes to undamaged areas.
"Let's get the three of them to the lab." Garth said while trying to pick Red Tornado. Conner reluctantly picked Red Torpedo and Red Inferno and they carried the three to the entrance to the hidden base.
Once they set Tornado on the table, Wally got to work on restoring their former friend's voice. When they finally fixed it, his face closed with mechanical ZIID! His eyes lightened up and he was back online.
"There. That should do it."
"Yes. I can speak again." Tornado announced.
"You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet." Kaldur announced.
"The planet would have survived. It is humanity that was saved." Red answered. "'Though not by me. My sister and brother were true heroes this day."
Percy was about to protest about how he was the one that stopped supervolcano, but he decided that it doesn't matter who gets credit. In the end the people were safe and that's what mattered most.
"My point is this: you were never the mole. Never the traitor" Kaldur clarified.
"No. I left to protect you from further attacks. To find my creator, Morrow. I only regret that my siblings had to sacrifice their lives to save humanity."
"About that..." Percy had a loopside grin on his face. He stepped to the side to reveal two other androids. They were both badly damaged, but not beyond repair.
"I do not understand. I calculated that before the three of us defeated my brother, the magma would melt their cores and main personality cortices."
"I think you underestimated our friend here." Wally said while leaning on Percy's side. "He saved the three of you, stopped the explosion and changed Red Volcano into Mr. Red hole-in-the-chest."
"I am impressed. Thank you for saving my family. Now I will be going. Me and Z. have a moon to put back in place and some TV series to watch." On the last note he sent M'gann a grin. She did not understand what he was talking about, but chose not to dwell. "Also, I am not the one that is going to explain to our supervisor why you disobeyed orders. Or better yet: to Zatara in how much danger you placed his daughter."
The realization and fear dawned on their faces while Percy and Zoe climbed out of the lab giggling.
Undisclosed location
October 14, 16:16
Vandal stood next to a pedestal with a horned helmet on it. They awaited their partners to arrive. Vandal was in particularily good mood. It was one of their first operations that was not interrupted by this meddling kids nor by infamous Perseus.
"How am I to be sure this body will be able to actually work for me well enough. With each passing day, this punk gets more and more powerful. The longer he attunes himself to the oceans, the stronger he will get. He needs to be stopped now or our great plan might fall to ruins." Ares spoke from inside the helmet. Vandal could swear he heard a small tingle of fear inside the god's of war voice.
"Do not dismay my old friend. Luthor and Klarion promised that the new body will match your needs. They should be arriving soon."
"It better. My previous host tried to resist me. He fought back, stopping me from accessing my power. He was also flail and useless. Not even his mind was of any use. I need a body that won't go against me. Something that will increase my might and not hinder it."
"And you will have all that." Came Luthor's voice. He and Klarion appeared in the vortex of red and black, together with some stasis pod with something inside. "Gentelmen, I present you project 'Match'. We suited him for your need Oh great Ares!" Luthor smiled at the last remark. Klarion was not so subtle and let out a chuckle.
"Yes. I am certain it will match your needs." He gave another chuckle.
"So all this time you were making puns at me?" Ares roared in anger. "You pathetic..." He didn't have a chance to finish because Vandal intervened.
"Now now. Let's calm ourselves down. You should thank them old friend. It was surely not an easy task to prepare a body for you."
"Fine. You two have my gratitude. Now put my helmet on his head and let me finally be back to this world."
"As you wish." Luthor opened the pod. Inside was a clone of superboy, wearing white body suit with red 'S' on the chest. As soon as the air was let inside, his eyes snapped open. He tried to wriggle and break the bonds, but it lighten up with red runes that sent jolts of pain through entire body of Match. Vandal picked the helmet and walked toward the boy. As he approached, the clone started to wriggle more. His animalistic mind was sensing the dark power and it unnerved him. When the helmet was placed on his head, the body immediately calmed down. The black and burnt-red flames traveled from head down and transformed the clothes into crude armor. Two golden swords appeared on his back with golden chains hanging loosely and attaching them to the belt.
"Finally. Soon, I will deal with them. But first, I believe it's time for my sons to taste freedom once more." This caused Klarion to give another chuckle.
"And for the wannabe heroes to finally feel the fear of the light! Kukukukukuku"
A/N: Congratulations for those who guessed that Match will be the second body for Ares. I did italicize the word match every time it was mentioned.
And coming next my least favorite episode of entire show I think. Seriously. Who does such things to kids? Good thing this is fanfiction and I can change things.