Escalation and Teleportation

A/N: This is pretty much the climatic part of the battle which will take up two to three chapters to finish, after which, will begin to wind down to the end (but VERY slowly). Enjoy!

"Have you noticed," Diana began to ask, knocking away one of the leech creatures into a hallway wall, "that every time I try to talk to you, we always seem to get interrupted?"

"I don't mind," Batman replied as he and his electric knuckle electrocuted another leech monster coming at him.

Diana, using the second she had free, gave Bruce an annoyed look before returning her attention to the battle.

"It's strange, they're not as strong as the original," Diana said in a professional and observant manner, backing up to Batman.

"It's probably because they're spawns of the original and they don't have as much energy to pass around," Batman explained, drawing an explosive bat-a-rang.

"Thank Hera," Diana whispered, facing the approaching leeches.

"Get ready," Batman ordered before flinging the bat-a-rang into the tall ceiling above him. The explosion created a hole in the ceiling, the rubble falling down on the floor. Diana immediately took Batman by the shoulders, carrying him through the wall. The creatures made to follow but several small objects, circular in shape with small spikes sticking out, fell through the hole. In an instant, the balls let loose powerful explosions, enshrouding the creatures in the following clouds of smoke.

"How long will that hold them back?" Diana asked as she set down Batman several feet away from the hole.

"Five seconds," Batman answered flatly, approaching a panel on the wall.

As fast as he could, Batman punched in a command code on the keyboard attached to the wall. Suddenly, a wall on each side of the two Leaguers began dropping down from the ceiling.

"What…"

"Defensive mechanism. To prevent damage from leaks and hazardous materials when detected in the vicinity," Batman explained as the leech monsters emerged from the hole, which was almost out of view by the dropping wall.

"Hold up!" a young voice called from the other end of the long hallway. Diana peeked under the dropping wall to the north of her to see Flash, who was being chased by two leech creatures that were shooting at him constantly with blasts of ice. Flash slid under the dropping wall just as it closed, making it only by a hair. Right behind him, a thud could be heard from the other side of the wall and then furious pounding.

"How long will these walls hold them off?" Diana asked as she saw heard thumping from both sides of the walls.

"Thirty seconds," Batman said before punching in another command code into the panel.

"Voice identification please," a computerized voice asked from the panel.

"Batman, identification 34561," Batman annunciated into the panel. The panel beeped three times and Batman then spoke into the panel again, this time his voice coming from all over the Watchtower. "Alert. Code Red. Intruders have infiltrated the Watchtower. This is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill," Batman's voice came from all over the Watchtower, attracting the attention of everyone.

Green Arrow, who was in a private room restocking his arrows beside Black Canary, who was still out on the diagnostic medical bed, noticed the call and began to worry.

Getting up, Green Arrow made to go find the intruders but stopped when he noticed a grey dot on Black Canary's jacket. Taking a close look, Green Arrow immediately pulled back when the grey dot quickly formed into a large, grey mass on the floor, which formed into three leech creatures.

"Oh boy," Green Arrow said in terror, reaching for an arrow. Pulling back on the string, Green Arrow was about to fire when the door behind him opened, where two leech creatures were standing in the door frame.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dr. Fate and Shayera landed in front of a large dome shaped building on a large cliff overlooking forest below, the sky above it having a multitude of dazzling colors. Shayera observed it in awe, unable to comprehend the majestic and magical beauty of it all.

"We have no time to sight see, Shayera, we must make haste and meet with the council," Dr. Fate said, approaching the building. Shayera took in everything for one moment before following Dr. Fate inside.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"We cannot give you permission, Dr. Fate," an elderly male voice said atop a high council seat within the domed building, the Interdimensional council building to be exact. Dr. Fate stood before them, in a defeated expression, while Shayera stood nearby with an annoyed look on her face. Shayera quietly crossed her arms, trying to suppress the urge to bash in the council member's foolish heads with her mace. All eight of them in fact.

"Council members, you must give me permission to cross into the dimension," Dr. Fate said in a pleading tone.

"No! Your dimensions tempering in other dimensions, especially the incidents with Ichthultu and the Justice Lords, as well as time travel have caused enough trouble for us," another said in anger. "Nabu was a fool to introduce so much magic and destruction into the human world!"

"But council members, this effects the entire universe. Not just earth!"

"Perhaps it is time to let your dimension die. It has done too much tampering with the fabrics of time and space," another said coldly.

"Please…"

"No more Dr. Fate, I'm sorry but your incident in the dimensional prison has decided your dimension's fate," another, who was gentler than the others, said, almost regretfully.

Dr. Fate's head dropped in defeat and backed away.

"I've had enough of this!" Shayera shouted as she stepped up to where Dr. ate hand been. "This man may have made a mistake but he's also done so much!" Shayera argued as she pointed a finger at the magician, who was only half surprised by Shayera's outburst.

Noticing Shayera's mace that was at her side, one of the council members, the burliest in form, although they were hidden by robes, said, "You're the Thanagarian possessor of the Nth Mace, aren't you?"

"Yes I am," Shayera replied, putting her hand on the mace's handle.

"And I also recall that you betrayed the planet you're trying to protect, am I not correct?"

Shayera flinched at those hurtful words but it did not deter her argument. "I may have done that, but I was forgiven for my actions. I was forgiven because I saved lives, I gained the Earth's trust friendship and in the end, I pulled through for them!" Shayera said in a passion and some of the members began to stir. "This man has done the same, saved us countless times and you know that!"

Now all the members were in complete unrest.

"If I can earn the respect of my colleagues even after I betrayed them, then Dr. Fate can certainly regain your trust and you can help him," Shayera finished, her body relaxing.

The council members began discussing among themselves for several moments and then, the kind one said, "We will give you the opportunity to do what you need to do."

Shayera smiled as she turned her neck to look at Dr. Fate who, back to his rigid and powerful posture. Shayera smiled brightly at him as he came up next to her.

"You will have 20 minutes to enter the dimension you seek to enter and return with what you need, otherwise, the portal we shall open for you will close and you will be trapped there." Shayera and Dr. Fate simply nodded.

The kind council member, stepped down from his seat and headed for the large door leading into another room. "Follow me," he said with a beckoning hand.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Replies

Gotham's Princess: They'll be fine…heh, heh.

Doc-trigger: Yes, I know all the plot twists are heavy on the brain (I think I'm getting a headache from coming up with all of them). It would've been interesting to see Captain Marvel and Supes see each other again…

Trebeco: Hmm…Lobo and the one liners…hilarious. But I don't know Lobo well enough to use him, sadly… Don't worry, Shayera will get to use her mace a lot. After all, a chick (pun used only for self amusement) needs to fight too.