oneredneckgoddess: Don't worry, I explain that later on. And the tech is simple enough. The employee's simply use it as a basis for their work, and progress very rapidly, instead of the slower progress without it.
WWLAOS: Thank you, I thought it was pretty cool. As for the route, I had to get them into the sewers, and diving out the window and through a manhole cover would have been cool, but would have killed Songbird at least. The resistance was a surprise to me as well.
"Akati's fortress is well built, and it moors only for embarking and disembarking, and then only for short times. Cargo is stored on ships that trail the fortress, and is brought across fresh with choppers." Robert pointed at the map. "Whenever he stops, it's always closer to the re-education facility." He touched a place near the island Ace had visited. "The water is always patrolled by his robotic sharks, but we can cloak our submarine from them. Can you get us in? We had simply planned to sink the fortress with Akati on it, but if we can get to him, and be able to display his body, or even him..." I nodded and glanced at the twins.
"Al, J'nol, and I might be able to break down the gate, but if we can't, have you got any tricks to take it down?" I asked.
"Sure, not alone," Ace started.
"But together we got," Rebecca continued.
"Dad's Gatebuster." They finished together.
"Don't do that. Please?" Annia asked.
"Sorry." They answered as one. I turned to Robert, desperate to pull the conversation away from them.
"Alright, we can help you get in, but we have got to find Zatanna. We think Fate has her prisoner on the fortress with him." I commented.
"What do you need her for?" Robert asked. I glanced at the others, who all, including Songbird nodded.
"To stop Akati forever, and from ever taking over the world, and destroying our parents." I informed him, and then gave him the full story. As I finished, he dropped into a chair.
"That's, crazy. It's..." He shook his head. "Impossible within the laws of physics."
"But magic operates by bending or breaking the laws of physics." Ace commented.
"Besides four of the people in this room can fly, and my brother and I can do magic. Impossibilty is a bit of a stretch for us." Rebecca added.
"Right." Robert nodded slowly, and swallowed. "Then it's settled, tonight we kill a snake, by cutting it's head off."
The sub was, as subs usually are, cramped. Even with J'nol changing his shape into something that took up less space in the middle, there was only barely enough room for the people in it. Part of the problem was the cloaking device in the middle of the room taking up most of the space in the main room of the sub. The gentle bump as the sub slipped from it's mooring was magnified several times because of the sheer number of people in it. As we approached the island, Robert flicked on the cloaking device, and the room began to get very hot, very fast. The internal dock of the fortress was unguarded, a strange condition for it to be in I thought, as cautious as Akati was in everything else. Of course the fact that he had deadly robotic sharks patrolling the waters around his fortress might have had something to do with it. J'nol exited the sub first, staying phased until he'd disabled the camera's and then signalled us. The three of us hit the doors in unison, and they crumpled under the attack, then fell inwards on the next. The resistance fighters moved ahead, and we followed, sweeping right around a corner, and into the middle of a group of sentinels. Gunfire erupted as the two forces fired at each other, the body armor the fighters wore doing little to stop the rounds of the larger robots. Grenades bounced along the floor, and exploded taking down the robots with them. Once more we advanced, and I took the lead, with Alfred and Songbird beside me. The latter had her bow up, and almost drawn, an arrow already knocked. Alfred had his hands clenched and I recognized that he was going to attack what ever showed up next.
As we turned a corner left, I mentally swore, and heard Annia and Songbird do so out loud. Standing before a set of doors, were twenty massive sentinels, these almost seven feet, a full foot taller than the normal one's. In black and red paint, they had to be Akati's personal guards. In front of them stood two Death Knights. Songbird was swearing at the one on the left, the silver scarred one that had killed her father. On the left, was one that had scarring of a different kind. Two long lines running parrellel up the center of it's chest. They were heat vision scars, and there was no mistaking them.
"What is that?" I heard Ace and Rebecca ask. Ellie answered. In a long flowing ball gown, she was floating above the two robots. She touched gently, and almost lady like, down before them. She patted the left robot.
"This is brave robot that destroyed that evil, nasty Green Arrow." I saw Rianne's knuckles go white. "And this one." She patted the right hand robot on it's shoulder. "It finished off the silly little girl who tried to be Superman's side kick." There wasn't time to react as Ace and Rebecca opened fire. It wasn't so much magic as it was simply a massive hail of energy blasts. I saw Ellie thrown back through the Sentinels, and then the fire shifted to the Death Knight on the right. A few seconds later an explosion from the robot knocked the other into the wall, but Songbird had already loosed her arrow and was firing another as it impacted. An explosion from it left it's scythe blade imbedded in the wall above my head.
As I charged ahead, I saw J'nol and Alfred just behind me, and knew Ace and Rebecca were back behind me. I caught Ellie in the stomach as she swept out of the smoke of the explosions, mace discharging into her. I felt Annia bullet past me, and could see arrows arcing over head. Explosions to numerous to count occured all around us as I swung at Ellie. Heat vision bounced off the mace, time and again, as she tried to fight me off, but she'd made me mad, and I didn't like being mad. An energy bolt slammed into me, but my shield flickered up, and blocked it. The mace flashed, and she threw up a shield of her own but it was too small, as I pulled away from the mace strike, and swung into a hard kick into her chest. She grunted in pain, and fell back.
"For my father!" Songbird was there beside me, and then ahead of me, face to face with Ellie. I saw her inhale, and I screamed.
"DOWN!" Everyone, except Ellie and the Sentinel's listened to me. Ace and Rebecca appearently saw what was coming because I felt a shield flare over the top of us as we fell flat. The scream resonated through the fortress, and I thought it was going to come down ontop of us. It didn't though, and the shield protected us from the killing reverberations of the violent sound. A few moments after it died away, we couldn't hear anything, then it all came back at one time. Songbird stood stock still, hands still locked around Ellie's forearms, the still twitching super clone's ruined body in her arms. The head was completely gone, and her chest had exploded inwards at some point and probably at the same time, her stomach had blown open. Rianne was covered in blood, and shaking mightly. Alfred reached her first, and caught her as she fell.
"Is she still alive?" Robert asked.
"Yes. She's alive, but she's somewhat out of it." J'nol answered. His eyes were glowing and he had a hand on her forehead. "Wait, she's waking."
"Did I get her?" Was the first thing she asked. I nodded.
"Yes, you got her." I answered smiling slightly.
"Good." She answered, and pulled herself up using Alfred as a crutch.
"Do you need to go back to the sub?" Robert asked concerned. She shook her head, with a half-laugh.
"Hell no, I've come this far, I'm not about to go back now." She grunted, trying to stand on her own. She didn't make it and Alfred kept her from falling.
"Alright, let's go then." I asserted, and we moved forwards. The doors before us were much larger and heavier than the others but the three of us hit them, Annia taking Songbird. The doors didn't budge.
"Then we'll get it." The twins called moving forwards. Hands interlocked together, they lifted their free arms, and began to hum. Not from gathering energy, but instead it seemed to be part of the spell. The air suddenly was awash with symbols, and there was nothing recognizable as they began to speak. A dozen concentric rings appeared on the door, and then four lines struck through them forming an X and a cross. Then it began to glow, and the symbols coalesced into a single one. I realized what it was just before the attack unleashed itself. The greek letter, Omega. The wave of silver energy crashed into the doors, and true to it's named, busted the doors. Not off their hinges, but at a molecular level, spreading a fine iron dust across the room inside. We poured in, the seven of us, and the dozen or so remaining resistance fighters. I saw the only two people in the room the instant we entered it. Sitting on a throne of plated gold, sat Akati, leaning back, everythign but his boots, which were plated with a metal I only vaguely remembered. To his right, and my left, knelt the objective I'd sought for all this time. Zatanna. She was chained to the floor, and muzzled, as well as being blind folded. Gray hair fell in loose folds over her shoulders as she stared at us through the blindfold. Her clothes were worn and tattered, and she seemed to be entirely disheartened. Akati's voice drew my gaze back to him.
"Bravo." Deep and gravely, his voice was not at all pleasant. "It appears that you are a far more worthy challenge than your predecessors."
"Predecessors?" I shook my head. Annia stepped forwards beside me.
"He means our parents." She smiled. "He's so powerful that he must have met them."
"The child is smart. Excellent deduction. I see you are definitely smarter than your parents." There was a gravely grate of laughter. "Yes, I faced your parents in combat, and unfortunately, I lost. This time, I shall not fail." His hands, coated in steel, and looking very flexible, slammed together. A wave of energy, though which kind I couldn't tell you, lashed out against us, and threw most of us against the walls. Some of the resistance fighters were thrown out the doorway. The doors reformed themselves as though they hadn't been destroyed.
"Now that we have privacy, I can kill you in..." Gunfire from the resistance fighters, as well as Robert cut him off, as the rounds pinged off his armor. I saw the energy beams heat up from his eyes, but they were too far ahead for me to stop as they cut through the men and women advancing on him. All twelve of them dropped dead painlessly, guns skidding away. Annia moved next, too fast for him to blast, but not too fast for a clothesline to catch across his arm. I glanced at the twins.
"Free Zatanna, we'll take Akati." With the nod of reply, I lunged into action. The mace smashed against the massive Iron chest plate, and I heard a scream of pain inside the suit of armor as the energy charge was transferred within. I didn't see the massive left gauntlet slam into me, though whether it was a convulsion, or deliberate attack, I'll probably never know. I tumbled across the floor, flipping up just in time to see Alfred slam into Akati, and go skidding to the floor, taking the megalomaniac with him. Arrows from Songbird hit him as Alfred flipped away, and then Annia was up again, working at the buckles of the monsters armor. It didn't matter, because at that moment, space warped, as the twins joined Zatanna in a spell. I recognized none of the words, but I knew what was about to occur. Someone was going to have to die. Then everything went white.