AN: Sorry for the EXTREMELY long hiatus between chapters. In short, personal crap, work, finances, the works. Hope you, my readers and followers, can still be invested in this story as it WILL be completed. Updates will most likely be on Mondays for the foreseeable future. Now on to the continuation...
7.
Bludhaven
September 11
15:21 UTC
"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with...'P'," Carrie said as she led the way down a dark tunnel.
Dark, stank water covered the feet of the group of teenagers as they made their way through the labyrinth of sewer tunnels below Bludhaven. Slick, oily substances covered the walls with moss filling in gaps where insects, roaches, centipedes, beetles, and other six legged creatures would come scurrying out. Broken objects floated in the murky water as with other, better left, unmentioned things.
"There's three things that start with 'P'," Zachary told her."One comes from the top of the body, and the other two come from below the waist. So shut up."
Ignoring the long haired male teen, Carrie stepped to the side. "Suit yourself. But I'm sending you a friend."
"What are you talking abou-AGH, AGH, JEEZ!" Jumping to the side of the tunnel they were traversing, Zachary got out of the way as a rather fat rat swam past.
"Don't worry Zachary," Carter said before he morphed his face to that of an evil demonic clown. "They all float down here."
"Dude, don't," the magician ordered. "I hate clowns."
"Why hate clowns?" Lorena asked as Carter went back to his normal appearance. "Only cowards are frightened of clowns."
"Obviously you've never been to Gotham," Carrie said.
With pets belonging to civilians still disappearing above ground, the teens hoped they could find a lead, if not the one responsible for the massive pet theft. The sewer entrance they chose was a block away from the commotion but by the sound of things, everything was growing quiet above with pet owners waiting for help in rescuing their furry family members.
"You sure we're going the right way?" Lorena asked.
"Yeah," Carrie told her. "We're nearly under the park. The first intersection is just up ahead."
"What's that?" Pointing forward, Zachary spotted a barely moving piece of metal glinting in the light from Carrie's flashlight.
Reaching the object first, Lorena carefully took it in her hand and identified it as a circular piece of metal with the name 'Harley' engraved in it. The back had a phone number barely visible to the eye while the blue nylon collar limply hung in the dark skinned girl's hand.
"There," Carter said, "another one, no...twelve on the left."
Augmenting his eyes to increase light intake, charter could see clearly in the near total darkness without the need for a flashlight. Separating from the others, the Krypto-Martian-Human hybrid spotted more and more of the tags belonging to the dogs once enjoying the sunny day in the park above them.
"Seventeen on the right here," Carter told the others. "They keep going into the tunnel."
"And what is this goop on the walls?" Zachary asked.
"Nobody touch nothing," Carrie ordered. "This is a sewer remember?"
"Dude, watch it," Irey said while searching the water around her feet. "I just got brushed by a snake."
Silently, a ripple in the water traveled away from the group into the darkness where it vanished below the black, inky surface. Double checking their immediate areas the five made sure they were in no danger of being bit before continuing forward. More of the same presented itself as the sewer never changed in its waste filled appearance. More tags were found along with discarded leashes and collars.
Stepping carefully to not slip, the teens spread out in a arrow pattern with one in the middle and two on either side slightly behind one another until they were forced to file in a line down a narrow passage. Forced to slightly squat, except for Carrie who was shortest, the group followed not only a trail of tags, but strange indentions of something traveling in the "mud".
As they made their way past an open pipe in the wall, a black mud-like glob floating in the water shifted ever so slightly. As if it were the eye of a shark, the glob opened a membrane-like covering to expose a lime green object. The thing in the water moved and faced the backs of the teens, watching them continue on their investigation until darkness overtook them where it covered itself and sank into the water. Then, as the green object disappeared from the surface, the walls began to bleed as a dark ooze flowed from between the bricks as if the grout were melting.
"Any idea where we might be?" Lorena asked after she picked up yet another metal tag.
"After all these twists and turns, Nuh, uh." Carrie replied.
"We need to get our bearings," Irey told the others. "Next man hole, we're seeing what street we're-"
"GRRRRRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUUURRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!"
Stopping the group, a loud, animalistic noise floated out of the darkness ahead of them. Somewhere between a burp and a growl, the sound was low and deep, forcing the teens to become guarded as they waited for it to stop.
"What the heck?" Zachary asked when the sound was made again.
"Shh," Lorena ordered.
Again, the sound came from the darkness ahead of them.
"Sounds big," Lorena said.
"Sounds mean," Grabbing a bird-a-rang, Carrie readied it to throw when the sound came again, from further away this time.
"Ten bucks says it 's Killer Crock," Carter told the group when Zachary gave a laugh.
"You're on." Snapping his fingers, the young magician materialized the denomination.
"Whoa!" Slipping to a knee, Carrie managed to catch herself on the wall before taking a nosedive into the black water. Gunk encased her hand from it hitting the slick brick while water splashed upwards, making her spit as some managed to land on her face. "Oh, sick!"
"How's it taste?" Irey laughed.
"Shut up! Pfftttt!" Wiping her face clean, Carrie spat and kept herself from gagging as the others tried not to laugh too hard. "Something moved."
"Like what?" Carter asked. "Was it a log of some sort!"
"Nasty!" Zachary exclaimed.
"Shut it!" Carrie yelled.
"Just remember to brush your teeth," Lorena added.
"I said shut..." Looking past the group, Carrie wiped the last traces of water and instantly turned white. "What the!"
"What?" Turning to face where her friend was looking, Irey searched the darkness of the sewer tunnel behind them.
"Thought I saw something."
Narrowing her eyes, Carrie stared into the darkness but could only make out the faintest of outlines forming the walls and tunnel behind them. The light she used was of barely any help as it faded into nothing.
That was when it all went wrong.
Faster than any could react, Carrie was pulled down and drug away by her feet. The next few seconds were all a blur as the water erupted like mini volcanos around the teens. Screams filled the tunnels as each resorted to their instincts.
Reacting first, Irey dove after her friend, bellyflopping into the sewer water. Zachary tried to get an idea of what was going on with his light moving on anything he thought was the cause of the trouble. Carter began to throw punches at anything that moved, finding himself being wrapped by purple tentacles holding his arms back. Behind him, Lorena had formed her water bearers into curved swords reminiscent of those used by Calvary men of the past to slice the tendrils attacking her.
As the teens battled it out with the unseen foe, the end of tunnel behind them began to close as a dark purple ooze created a barrier. Green luminescent orbs added an otherworldly appearance to it with the center forming rows of sharpened teeth. The pulsating purple form gave a roar, alerting the wannabe heroes to it presence.
Down the sewer tunnel, Carrie was fighting for air as she was being drug by her feet. No turns were taken as she felt herself being pulled in a straight line. Frantically, she reached out for anything to grab hold of in an effort to stop herself but nothing was available. She went airborne for a moment, crashing down on her back with some of the air knocked out of her for good measure.
"Carrie!"
Coughing up some water, Carrie barely heard Irey running fast behind her. Now able to somewhat see, the young teen girl grabbed at the utility belt around her waist and pulled whatever she could out. Bat-A-Rangs, smoke pellets, glow sticks, nothing was of any use to free herself when she felt her body go completely weightless.
"Carrie!"
Skidding to stop, Irey saw Carrie fly off the edge of the tunnel and into a large, circular gathering pool for the water with several other tunnels draining into it. Without hesitation, the ginger dove after her friend, free falling a good thirty feet before splashing into the water.
"Ca-Carrie!" Surfacing, Irey searched for her friend when a large eruption splashed water from her right side.
Flinching for a moment, Irey protected her face from whatever caused the explosion when Carrie surfaced and took a long, deep breath. Neither had time for recomposure as the water began to bubble around them, forcing the two to act without thought.
"Come on!" Irey shouted as she grabbed Carrie's shirt collar from behind.
Both girls swam for the nearest platform in hopes of escaping whatever it was under the surface of the water and quickly climbed onto the lip of another tunnel. Carrie was the first to leave the water and turned to help her speedster friend when the water erupted and a large purple form towered over the two with glowing neon green pustules lighting up the semi darkened area. The cylindrical creature, whatever it was, let out a roar as the top bent toward the girls and formed a circular mouth lined with crooked teeth as thick tentacles stretched out from its trunk of a body.
"Irey, come on! Get up here!" Grabbing her friend's hand, Carrie tried to pull the ginger into the tunnel with her but the surrounding brick was far too slippery to grab onto.
"Throw something!" Irey shouted before her foot slipped back into the water.
"I only had one shock grenade! I just have Bat-A-Rangs and smoke bombs!"
Shooting out from the creature, a tentacle snared Irey by the foot and pulled her from Carrie's grip. The girl struggled to get free, clawing at the purple vine when she was suddenly dropped and fell head first into the water. As she surfaced she saw Carrie had caught a thrown Bat-A-Rang and wound up to hurl it again when the creature attacked her. Flipping over the pointed end of the tentacle, she landed in a crouched position when she heard a battle cry from above.
Falling with her water bearers in their sword shape, Lorena sliced into the body of the creature, riding down the side for a bit before back flipping off and landed beside Carrie when a large chunk of stone came crashing down on the purple beast. Carter gave a grunt as he gripped onto the concrete overhead and brought it down to keep the creature at bay when Zachary came flying out of a tunnel backwards with his hands creating a neon blue shield in front of him where a set of teeth tried to take a bite out of him.
"Nia-niat, uh." Trying to cast a spell, Zachary stuttered for a bit when his leg was snagged from below and was pulled out of the way just as the larger creature attempted to swallow him in one bite.
"T, thanks," the young magician said once he got to his knees.
"You stutter?" Lorena asked while one of her water bearers morphed from a whip to a sword again.
"O, only whe, when I, I, c, can't',"
"MOVE!" Tackling both to the ground, Carrie kept her friends from being sliced in half by a sharpened tentacle.
"I got this!" Flying fast, Carter cocked a fist back and aimed for one of the glowing green pustules.
"Get clear!" Forcing the others back as well as grabbing Irey from the water, Lorena created a water shield to protect them as Carter punctured one of the the green orbs.
A sickening smell filled he air along with a 'hisss' as a green slime covered the super powered teen boy. The fluid spilt onto the concrete of the sewer and into the water, creating trails of steam as it dissolved any solid matter it came in contact with. As for the water, it was diluted after several seconds.
Letting out a roar, the creature reared back from the hit Carter delivered, not from the force, but from pain as the once vibrant pustule became a gaping wound with the purple 'skin' around it darkening and hardening.
"Acid?!" Irey shouted. "That thing's got acid?!"
"Just stay behind the shield!" Doing her best to cover everyone, Lorena had her water bearers forming a concave shield before them with the acid diluting to nothing once striking it when Carter came crashing down beside them.
"Stuff burns, man!" Wiping what acid spilt on him, Carter quickly recovered with only his Martian biosuit showing any damage, beside his slightish red skin. Being part Kryptonian did have its advantages after all.
"Blast it again!" Lorena shouted as the creature attacked her shield.
"Er, eri, er," Zachary stuttered.
Feeling his eyes heat up, Carter fired a blast of heat and struck the blob-like creature the same moment one of Carrie's Bat-A-Rangs sliced into another pustule. As hot as the shot was, it barely did any damage to the creature and left a black scorch mark on its side. What was worse, it seemed as if it simply shrugged it off.
"What was that?!" Lorena shouted. "You barely left a dent! You vaporized the other ones!"
"I can't fire consecutive blasts like that, remember?!" Carter rebutted.
"We're dead!" Carrie shouted.
Rearing two long tentacles back, the creature formed dozens of spikes at their ends before combining them into a large, round surface to not only impale the teens, but to fill the tunnel behind them to provide no escape.
"Run!" Irey ordered.
"Wh, wh, whe, ere?" Zachary stuttered,
It was a good fifty meters behind them with nowhere else to go. Irey could be able to outrun the creature but the others would undoubtedly be caught by it. Then there was also the fact she had no idea how to navigate the lower part of the sewer system to top it off. There was no where to go, no where to hide, and no way to fight whatever this thing was without intense heat since Carrie was out of high explosives, Zachary was a stuttering mess, and Carter had no way of generating another heat blast like the one he apparently made earlier.
With the teens in sight, the creature shot its large, spike-covered tentacle forward. The attack was so incredibly fast, except for Irey with her super speed, that all the group could do was flinch at the incoming moment of death when the spikes came to a stop less than a foot from Lorena's shield. Actually, it did not stop so much as crash into something, an invisible barrier protecting the teens.
"What, the?" Staring at the frozen spikes, Carrie was certain she and her friends were done for when an intense heat covered her back.
Shooting out of the darkness, a red beam of concentrated heat tore through Lorena's shield and struck the creature. Numerous green pustules burst along with the purple body being fried and torn through. As the creature roared from the pain, several explosions dropped from above and detonated to create magnesium fueled fires around it. Backing from the bluish flames, the thing was met with several explosives to the back, pushing it onto the mentioned blue hued heat source where it cried in pain. All this was before a distant rumble occurred as the water began to drain. Seconds later a torrent of sewer water impacted the creature and sent it further down into the sewer where it hit a metal grate. It was filtered through it so fast, there was no way it would becoming back anytime soon, if at all.
"Wha, what was that?" Carrie asked.
"You tell us." Emerging from a darkened corner of the sewer, Batman barely came into the dim light.
"Uh oh," Carrie quietly said.
Scaring the teens, a growl came from behind them. Whipping their heads around, they saw Superman lowering his hood with glowing red eyes slowly going back to their original blue.
"Crap," Carter gulped when his mother, Mrs. Martian appeared before them. "Double crap."
Riding in on sewer water, Kalder stepped onto the ledge with the teens. "And what is your excuse, young lady?"
"Uhh..." Lorena squeaked.
"Ooh, I think this is a family moment that doesn't involve me, so, uh, yeah." Backing up, Zachary tried to get clear of his friends and their parents when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.
"Not so fast, slick." Looking down at her son, Zatanna could see the panic in his eyes.
"It was all Carrie's fault," Irey blurted out.
"What?!" Carrie shouted.
"I tried to stop her, but she insisted, and with the peer pressure, and blackmail, and-"
"Isis Irene West!" Wally hollered from beside Batman.
"Oh, uh, daddy!" The ginger girl said with a mixture of faux sweetness and giddiness. "I was just thinking about you and wanted to tell you how much I love you and-"
"Street side, now," Wally ordered his daughter.
"(Gulp) Um, yes, yes sir."
"The same goes for all of you," Superman ordered in a voice that had the teens scrambling to get out of there without any backtalk or excuses.
With the teenagers quickly leaving the area to follow Batman to out of the sewers, Superman, Mrs. Martian, Zatanna, and the others shared knowing glances and tried not to grin. Unknown to their offspring, they knew their every move. Explanations would come later, as with what 'punishment' they would receive. But now, there was the matter of tending to the strange creature responsible for nearly getting their children killed.