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I was actually a little surprised when nothing else happened.

To be sure, the internet and news networks went nuts showing footage and pictures of the strange night sky that was covering a fifth of the globe, but other than that… nothing. Well, there were clear signs of panic starting up, but from where I was it seemed to be perfectly mundane panic rather than anything magically induced. And this was magic we were looking at. Troia's reaction was a bit of a giveaway, and the one of the first things the three Leaguers present did was get in contact with an expert. Who was current on one of the many holographic screens around us.

"The effect appears to be exactly as it seems." Mera said, the woman remaining calm while mages hustled about behind her. "It is a veil of night, even if its appearance and magical signature is strange. It's very powerful, it would require either a large group of mages working in tandem, or an extremely powerful individual spellcaster. But as to why someone would make it… I don't know. "

"Could we be looking at only the first part of a larger ritual?" Batman asked.

"I shudder to think what spell this would be a mere prelude for, but I can't discount the possibility. If I knew exactly how this night was caused, I might be able to give some insight."

Troia stepped forward. "The effigy of Nyx was the one artifact that Zatara sent us after which we couldn't recover. I think it's safe to say whoever did this has it."

Mera's brow furrowed. "Yes… I remember now, Wotan attempted to use a different artifact corrupted by the Brujeria a few months ago, attempting something similar." She shook her head. "But if it was him, I would expect it to cover the whole planet rather than just the ocean."

"We have leads we need to follow before we can say for certain who is responsible," Wonder Woman, a slight frown crossing her face. "Atlantis is known for its mages, and the effect originated in your area. Do you think one of your countrymen or a group of them might have done this?"

Mera started to respond before she stopped, uncertainty crossing her face. "It's... possible." she said reluctantly. "There has been unrest in Thierna Na Oge lately, purists causing trouble. As a great deal of magical knowledge lays there, Prince Orm has taken a portion of the Home Fleet to secure and stabilize the region." Her mouth pressed thin, and I can only guess what she was thinking about the prince. "My husband wanted to go, but Orm insisted that he remain here to keep the people calm. "

"Do you think Orm will be able to locate the source if it's there?"

"Perhaps, but the Conservatory is already working on that issue. A spell this powerful leaves a massive thaumic signature that can be tracked. We're triangulating it as we-" Mera cut herself off as one of the mages behind her approached with a scroll. She took the scroll and I could see several symbols rise up from it. "Ah, here we are. It's about a few hundred miles south of Poseidonis, in an unmarked valley-" She cut herself off, her eyes going wide and the blood draining from her face.

"What is it?" Superman asked.

"I… I'm not certain. I need to confirm something first."She looked back at the screen, her expression frantic. "I'll contact you again when I'm sure." And then the screen closed.

I huffed. "And of course she runs off without even saying what she was worried about. I'm sure that won't bite us in the ass."

Batman ignored my snark and turned to his fellow Leaguers. "We need to initiate Global Emergency Protocols. Superman, you go to Atlantis and help Aquaman find the source. Wonder Woman, go to DC and assure the government we're working on this before rendezvousing back with me." The other two nodded, and he looked back to us. "Remain here until we contact you."

"And where are you going?" Superboy asked, hands on his hips.

"Watchtower." He said simply. "We need to be prepared for anything that may result from this, and the Watchtower is the best place to coordinate the rest of the League."

"Fair enough, but, and not to harp on this point," I spread my arms. "What do we do?"

Batman was already heading to the Zeta Tube, and called back to us "Wait until further instruction. We need to know what we are up against." The three of them faded into the golden light and disappeared.

As soon as they were gone, Kid Flash threw his hands up in the air. "Is it just me, or are they getting even worse than usual?! Now it's like they don't want us doing anything at all!"

"Well, Batman has a point about getting more information." I pointed out. "Right now all there is to go off of is a spot in the middle of the ocean, which the League is already headed towards. Do you want to just fly out there?"

"Yes! It would be better than doing nothing!" He insisted. "We can't even gather info if we stay in the Mountain."

"Speak for yourself." I said, and with a wave of my hand the dozens of screens formed up behind me. "I'm keeping an eye on every information network I can find. If something happens, it won't be long before we know about it."

He settled down a little, but he still didn't look that happy. "Waiting isn't my thing..." he muttered.

He wasn't alone at being unhappy with the situation, but without a clear target there wasn't much we could do. The team settled into scrolling through the massive amount of data I was pouring into the Mountain's computer to try and find anything I might have missed, with various degrees of enthusiasm. I while I expected some tension, there was one of my team in particular that was showing an unusual amount of nervous fidgeting and stress. Unusual for her, anyway.

Keeping my attention split, I moved up next to Troia. "You okay?"

"I think so," She said, her hand going to her chest again. "I'm still feeling… I guess I'd call it anxiety, but since I know what's causing it, I can handle it." A huff. "I just wish I was doing something about it."

We fell back into silence, and for a few seconds I thought that would be the end of it. As I refocused on the news feeds though, she said "I tried finding her, you know."

"Huh?" I looked back at her.

"Nyx." Troia continued. "I'm not dumb. When none of the gods stepped forward to 'claim' me, I started putting the clues together. My fondness for the night sky, how I need to sleep less… it painted a pretty clear picture. But no one knows where she is anymore, and just like the rest of my past I'm left without answers." She let out a breath and looked down at her outfit. "Which makes me wonder if Hephaestus was making fun of me when he made this."

I blinked, remember what the God of the Forge had told me. "Well, he told me he got the material for it from Nyx herself… I think specifically for you."

He head snapped up to look at me. "Wait, what? But… that would have to have been after she disappeared."

"Before you ask, I don't know." I said. "He only mentioned it in passing and I… was quickly distracted by other things."

Troia briefly looked annoyed, but it passed quickly. "...Thanks. That's more than I had to go on before."

"I'll help you look into it after all this is over." I told her. I supposed I needed to give Hephaestus an answer while I was at it. "In the meantime, does your maybe-connection to Nyx give you any insights into what's happening?"

"Not really," She said, her gaze settling on the feed of the sky just outside of the Mountain. "Just the sense that this is wrong. This shouldn't be happening, it…" she trailed off for a moment, her head tilting to the side as her eyes narrowed. "There's something wrong with the stars," she muttered.

"Well yes, I don't think they're supposed to be flickering that much."We looked to see that Miss Martian had floated near us. "At least, in Earth's atmosphere. Or have such strange colors when I see them out of the corner of my eye."

"No not that." Troia waved her off. "Something else…" She trailed off before it clicked. "I don't recognize any constellations."

I hummed before I checked the fake sky against star charts, and she was right. I supposed it could just be part of the spell and it didn't mean anything, but seeing as I had some time… I pulled all the star chart's that the league had on file, gathered from the Hawks and the Lantern Corps to see if I could get a match. Though, even after building a comprehensive model, I didn't get anything. The closet match was still Earth.

Which got me adding in stellar drift into my model, and wouldn't you know it… "Interesting. It is actually Earth's stars. Or at least, what they would look like a few million years from now."

They looked at me for a moment before Miss Martian voiced the obvious question."But, why? Why would anyone do that?"

I shrugged, and offhandedly remarked "I don't know, maybe someone is trying to wake up Cthulhu."

"Wait, is Cthulhu real?"

I was met with a bunch of blank stares. A quick internet search told me that Lovecraft and his works did exist in this world, but considering what I knew about Thanagarian mythology… Oh god someone might actually be trying to wake up Cthulhu.

As if summoned by my own sudden existential dread (which felt like karma for some reason), an alert popped up on my feed. It was military, a high priority alert that the Watchtower had taps to pick up. Washington DC was under attack by…

I blinked a few times before I dove into the net, searching for any cameras I could hack into in the city. It didn't take me long before I found a security camera by the waterfront near the southern end, towards where the bay opened up into the ocean. By the time I got the visual up on the screen, I saw what I thought were infantry soldiers running away from the waterfront, and coming up out of the water after them was… fish people.

The stuff out of nightmares, they were roughly humanoid in shape though they were hunched over with long, muscled limbs. They were covered in mottled dark scales, with fins and translucent spines along their back. The head was the worse part, most resembling an angler fish with wide mouths full of needle teeth, and pale round eyes. Their spines glowed with bioluminescent light, casting all the ones I could see in an almost eldritch glow.

"Are those Deeps Ones?!" I yelled in panic.

"Trenchers… I think." Aqualad said. "But… they're not supposed to be that big, or move water like that." he pointed, and I noticed how the water seemed to stretch and cling to them, as if they were pulling the ocean with them onto land before it got too far and splashed to the ground. "And they should have been driven out of the Atlantic centuries ago."

"What do you know about them?" Starfire asked.

"No much. They were barely more than animals, feral raiders that attacked Atlantis for supplies. The histories don't go into much detail."

"Do your histories include the use of war shoggoths?" I asked, pointing at the screen as these creatures pulled… something out of the water. The best I could say was that it was a cross of a sea cucumber and a squid, scaled up to the size of a large van. It's tendrils flailed about as it pulled itself forward, and more of the ocean seemed to pull forward with it.

Fortunately, it didn't get very far before a blur slammed into it from above, shattering the concrete of the wharf. There was no sound, but I could imagine the horrifying nose as it was picked up and hurled back into the ocean. We then finally got a clear image of Wonder Woman standing there just before she sprung into action against the Trenchers.

Even as she fought though, more and more alerts popped up, and it was clear that this wasn't the only place this was happening. Lisbon, Miami, Dublin, and half a dozen other coastal cities around the Atlantic were reporting similar attacks. I was piecing the data together as fast as I could, but I wasn't seeing any kind of coordinated action or movement. "They're showing up all over different Atlantic coasts... but why are they spreading out like this?" I wondered out loud. "They could completely overwhelm a city if they stayed as one force."

"They do seem mindless." Kori remarked, watching as they attack Wonder Woman without care for themselves. "What is driving these creatures?"

Aqualad's comment of them being little more than animals didn't feel quite right. Yes, they weren't moving with intelligence, but they didn't have the sort of feral energy I would expect. They moved, well, fluidly. A sort of listlessness in every motion as if they weren't paying attention. Sleepwalking.

I found out why as one of them was flung towards the camera, and I noticed something strange before the camera was crushed from the impact. Rolling the footage back, I noticed a spot on the Deep One's head that looked wrong, and quickly realized why: There were metallic plates and shards that had been grafted into it. Those looked more 'grown' than installed, but I still recognized it. It was the same type of cybernetics that the Biaylan soldier back in Kyoto had.

"They're being controlled," I said. "By the same people who outed us."

"The Shadows found and mind controlled an entire sub-aquatic race?!" Robin yelled. "How?! How could they have done that without us finding anything out before now?!"

"Questions for another time," I said, packaging all the info I had just learned and sending it to the Watchtower. "But, if they're being controlled, that means that control can be broken. And I have run into that tech before, so I think I can do it. Of course, I need to find out just where their being controlled from-"

I didn't get to finish that thought, because at that moment the Mountain picked up another video feed. This wasn't due to one of my preset alerts, it picked it up because this feed was broadcasting out to every computer and TV it could reach, originating from the transatlantic communications cable.

At first the feed was so dark it was difficult to make out, all I could see for certain was the wavering stars above. Then a golden glow suddenly illuminated the scene revealing what looked like a high-tech submarine floating in the middle of the ocean. On the center of the main deck stood a man in dark 'scaled' armor, his upper face covered by a finned helm. In one hand he held a golden trident, glowing with a golden light as he held it over his head. It was hard to tell due to the color of the glow, but something seemed… off about the pallor of his exposed skin.

"People of the surface!" His voice managed to boom over the sound of the ocean surrounding him. "I am Ocean Master, and as of this moment, I am now king of all the oceans of this world!"

Behind me I could see Aqualad tense up. I know he had tangled with the terrorist in the past, but this was getting to him more than I would have thought. Then again, an enemy of the state just proclaimed himself king of his home, so…

On the screen, Ocean Master continued. "This night is only a taste of the power I wield. My control over the seas is absolute, the army I command is unyielding, as several surface cities can now attest." Even in the dark of night, I could see 'shapes' moving about around the vessel, just underneath the water's surface. "The cities of Atlantis will either soon come under my rule… or be destroyed. In either case, you may consider any treaties with them null and void."

The man moved towards the camera, a slow swagger in his step. "But before you assume what relationship you can expect between the land and the sea, an example is to be made." The camera turned, and I saw in the distance an oil rig, lit up by countless lights around it's frame. "And the lesson to be learned… is that you surface dwellers shall bow in deference!"

I could see the tip of the trident extend forward from the edge of the screen, and with that motion a wave built. It careened towards the oil rig, growing bigger and bigger with each passing second. It was at least 100ft tall by the time it reached the platform. It hit the metal structure with a deafening crash, but the wave didn't break. It slowed and acted like a solid wall that crushed the platform between it and the ocean's surface. In moments, the entire platform was completely annihilated.

"That… should be impossible." Aqualad. "Control of that much water is beyond even our greatest mages."

"Safe to say something is powering him up." I remarked darkly, wondering how many people I just watched die.

Ocean Master stepped back into frame, though I swore I saw the arm holding the trident tremble a little. "And I am not done yet. Before this night is done, I shall strike at the nations of the surface, stand at the ruin that was your assembly of power. And you shall know who commands this world." The line went dead.

The Mountain was silent for a long moment. This… had just gone from bad to worse. The last time the world had seen a threat this big had been the Apallexian invasion ten years ago. This was one of those 'save the world' moments.

The silence was ended when a screen with Batman appeared, on the emergency channel. He was broadcasting this to every League member at once."League, we are facing a Global level threat. Ocean Master has just claimed responsibility for the night veil as well as the creatures assaulting the coast. But his main target is Atlantis."

A series of images appear next to him, a swarm of Trenchers swimming past underwater mountains. "Aquaman is reporting an assault along its southern border. These things are attacking en mass, and spearheading straight for Poseidonis. They need to hold out until the rest of the fleet can return as reinforcements."

He continued "We need everyone we have working together to fight this. Assignments are as follows: Martian Manhutner and Green Lantern, go to Atlantis. Hawks, Miami. Flash and Green Arrow-"

While Batman was going down the list, Aqualad spoke in a low tone. "We have to help hold the line." he said. "If Poseidonis is under siege, they're going to need all the help they can get."

"That's going to be a problem for some of us," Starfire remarked in the same tone, looking at our more human teammates. "Not to mention you're the only one of us who has training in underwater combat."

"The Team will be of more use there than doing nothing." He insisted.

"We will not be doing nothing." She said, her tone turning resolute. "I promise you."

He didn't have a response, instead looking off to the side in frustration. His fixed on the image of the Trenchers, and I could have sworn I heard him mutter under his breath "Dolphin..."

And then, the Mountain sent me yet another priority alert. Considering how many I had just gotten in the last hour, part of me wanted to ignore it and focus on my team. But, that wasn't really an option. Holding in a sigh, I took in the report. "...New York City has just lost power and gone dark. Like, all of it." This was particularly strange because out of all the coastal cities that had found themselves under assault, New York wasn't one of them.

Starfire looked over at me. "Has it fallen under attack?"

"I don't know-" I started to say before I shook my head. "Ok, no, with everything going on it's definitely under attack, I'm just not sure by what and how." New York was powered by a lot of different sources these days, it was a lot harder to take out the entire grid. Which meant someone was putting in the effort. But the Trencher hadn't shown the intelligence to try attacking infrastructure. And if it was Ocean Master, why only this city?

"It could be some other supervillain," Artemis said. "Taking advantage of the situation."

"Maybe..." I muttered, though I had trouble buying it. If it was Ocean Master, what was in New York City that he would want-

"...'assembly of power'." I said to the room, before looking back at everyone. "That's what Ocean Master said. But what if he was being literal? The simplest way to strike at all the nations of the surface..."

"U.N. headquarters!" Robin shouted. "It's exactly the kind of dumb thing a villain on a power trip would do! Destroy the symbolic heart of their enemy!"

"Team." Batman's voice cut in, and we turned to see that he had finally gotten around to addressing us. "Your mission is to aid Zatara in locating Ocean Master. Find him and report the situation back to us."

I briefly wondered how he expected us to help find a man somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, but then the rest of my brain caught up. "Already ahead of you. New York City has gone dark. We have reason to believe that Ocean Master intends to attack U.N. Headquarters."

There were a few seconds where he checked the console in front of him before Batman replied "Likely… but that means our options are limited. The night veil is disrupting EM signals, anything that's not a hardline or short range isn't getting through. Which means there's no way to get to the New York Zeta Tube."

"What? How the hell does that mean we can't use our point-to-point teleporter?!"

"The Zeta Tubes still use classical signals for verification and encryption. Even if the generators are keeping them on, they can't get signal if all the lines around them have no power. And the night screen is preventing us from direct contact with the Watchtower."

"But we have the bioship!" Robin cut in. "We could be there in no time!"

Again, Batman paused before speaking. "Once your mentors finish at their respective locations, we'll come to New York. You are not to been seen together or engage Ocean Master until we-"

"Is this really what you want?!" Starfire suddenly shouted over him. "We are the only ones who can reach the city fast enough to render aid! Would you rather leave a city undefended than risk us doing the job you've already had us doing? Or are you worried that we'll be seen and you'll look bad?"

"This is not the time to discuss this." Batman snapped. "Yes, this situation is ideal to deploy you, but that is suspect in itself. The people who are targeting you and behind this. If they know enough about your capabilities, it stands to reason they know you'll be there."

"And so what if they do?" She shot back. "We won't let fear stop us from saving this world. From saving the people in it. Why can't you just trust we know how to keep ourselves alive?"

"You are not ready for this-"

"That's not your call to make anymore! I have fought and bled beside my team, and I know what they are. I know what they're capable of and how far they'll go to do what is right. They are heroes, and we don't need you to acknowledge it to do our duty. But if you have any respect for those you command, you need to acknowledge it for yourself."

Batman's jaw tensed, and for a moment I thought he might burst into yelling. But then… he went slack. For the first time since I met him, the man visibly slumped and looked tired. Even through the mask I could see the weariness in his face, the stress he had been holding back. It was only for an instant, before he regained his composure. When he spoke, he was quiet and resigned. "Go." he said, looking at Starfire before glancing at me. "Keep them safe." He signed off.

I took a deep breath. And activated War Protocols.

The Mountain came alive as everything I had ever built into the place powered up. Every drone activated and headed to the armory, which was already packaging it's contents up. At the same time, I put out the call.

[Ted, Serling, Rommie, Tornado… anyone who can hear me. New York is under attack. We're going. This one's serious.]

I looked to Starfire, who nodded to me. I looked to the rest of the team. "Alright people, head to Moya, our equipment will meet us there. Though you're going to have to gear up on the way."

"Uh, we are already geared up." Kid Flash pointed out.

At that moment, a small swarm of drones entered the main hall carrying numerous equipment that had come straight from my tech lab. I grinned.

"Not quite."

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A/N: This one took a while. There was a lot I wanted to put in and do right without dragging too much.