Disclaimer: If I owned Justice League would I be doing this?
Chapter Three: Enemy Below
"The ice caps are melting, Leonard. In the future, swimming won't be optional."
— Sheldon, in The Big Bang Theory (TV Series)
Ivy was sitting across a table from Violet. They were having lunch together.
"Sooo," Violet began, drawing out the vowel sound, "I heard you got caught by a certain psycho clown."
Ivy made a sound of displeasure.
"Wanna talk about it?" Violet ventured.
Ivy gave her sister a flat look.
"I'll owe you one?" the blue eyed woman offered.
Ivy frowned. "I'm holding you to that." she said. "Alright, so I'm on patrol, I spot what looks like a mugging. Turns out it's a disguised Harley Quinn and the Joker. They knock me out. I wake up upside-down over a tank of acid, and have to hang there while the green haired sociopath waits for Batman to show up." here Ivy paused to take a sip of her drink. Violet stared at the red head for a moment, then asked "Why didn't you melt the chain?"
Ivy glared. "I was over a tank of acid. What was I supposed to do once the chain was melted, hover? I kind of need to be able to generate lift in order to fly. There wasn't enough distance between me and the acid." she grumbled.
"Oh." said Violet. "So, then what happened?" she asked.
"I got bored and started talking to the Joker. He tried to kill me. Batman stopped the winch from dunking me, and I… passed out." Ivy stated.
Violet giggled. "You passed out?"
"You try breathing acid fumes for and hour and a half and see if you can remain conscious." Ivy whined.
When Harpy arrived at the watchtower Superman was having an unpleasant conversation with someone holding the title of admiral. J'onn, Diana, and Green Lantern were talking near one of the windows.
"What's going on?" Harpy asked as she approached the small group. Green Lantern and Wonder Woman explained their encounter with the Atlanteans.
"Water breathers?" Harpy asked with a pained look on her face once the story was over. "They care a lot about their oceans. If you had explained the potential ecological damage the nuclear energy from the damaged sub could cause, they probably would have let you take it."
"How do you know about them?" Lantern asked.
"My people had dealings with them long ago. They weren't fond of humans then, it's probably a lot worse now." the winged red head explained.
"What do you mean?" Diana asked.
Harpy scratched the back of her head. "Well, for the past few hundred years humans have been polluting the ocean, and I know that if someone filled my home with trash and chemical runoff I wouldn't be very happy."
"More of a reason for them to want to attack us." Lantern stated before leaving.
Awhile later John came back. He looked very angry. "I knew we couldn't trust that fish man! The sub's been stripped and the plutonium is gone." He yelled.
"And you think Aquaman was responsible?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Who else princess? We got to go back to Atlantis and get some straight answers!" the Lantern snarled.
Superman was looking at the television. "If it's Aquaman you want, he is not in Atlantis." he supplied.
They all turned their attention at the screen. "According to eye witness accounts, Aquaman then forced his way past the guards and into a closed session of the world assembly. But as to why he's here or what he wants, we'll have to wait for further developments. "
"I take it we're going down there?" Harpy asked rhetorically.
The Justice League burst though the doors of the world assembly.
"Aquaman!" Superman exclaimed.
"I offer them a chance for peace and this is their answer" the King of Atlantis stated, gesturing to the angry politicians.
Harpy glared at him. "Making threats and demands will only bring about malice and contempt, not peace." she snarled.
Aquaman turned to her, with narrowed eyes. Superman tried to diffuse the situation. "Please, these things take time."
"I've wasted too much time already." Aquaman stated. He turned to leave. "Wait!" Diana tried to stop him but he shoved her out of the way and proceeded to the exit. He was immediately bombarded with questions from reporters, but he only shoved them aside as well.
Aquaman was making his way to the sea when a rocket came hurtling toward him. The rocket missed, barely, and the King was sent reeling from the explosion. Harpy quickly spotted the would be assassin and flew after him. The assassin ran to the entrance to the stairs. Harpy followed him down the stair and into an alley. She was about to catch up when the assassin a cylindrical bomb at her. She had enough time to think "Hey that's one of mine." right before it exploded and sent her crashing to the ground.
Harpy regained consciousness about a minute later. "Okay let's do a check." Harpy thought to herself. "Momentarily stunned and/or knocked unconscious. Check. Temporary loss of vision. Check. Temporary loss of hearing. Check… Are my ears bleeding? Just the right one. This is great! They work better then I'd hoped, my equilibrium is completely off kilter. Knew I should have charged more for those things."
Harpy had just gotten through thinking this when Wonder Women came up and began speaking to her. "I can't hear a word you're saying." the red head said a little louder then she meant to. Wonder Women kept talking, only she was making extra effort so the Harpy could read her lips and at least guess what the Amazon was saying. After a moment Harpy's hearing began to come back and she realized that Diana was trying to get her to go to the hospital.
"Did you find anything out about the assassin?" Batman asked as soon as Harpy walked into the room where Aquaman was recovering in a large cylindrical tank.
"Nothing really important. I might know who he is though." she said with a shrug.
"I think that identity of the assassin is pretty important." Superman stated in a disbelieving tone.
Harpy glared at him. "Floyd Lawton." she growled.
"How can you be sure?" Batman asked.
Harpy looked at him. "He had an explosive compound that only four people in the world have access to. Three of them are in jail." she explained.
"What reason would Lawton have to kill Aquaman?" Wonder Woman asked.
Harpy sighed. "Same reason as always. Someone hired him to."
Superman immediately came up with a plan. "So we find Lawton and ask him who hired him."
Harpy snorted in distain. "Good hitmen don't ask questions. Deadshot is one of the best. He doesn't ask questions and once he's paid he won't stop until the target is eliminated."
"If he has been paid then we might be able to follow the money trail back to who hired him." reasoned Batman.
"You seem to know a lot about him. How do we find him?" Wonder Woman asked Harpy.
Harpy smirked. "Already told you, he won't stop until he's sure the target is dead." She gestured at Aquaman. "The bait is set, now all you need is a trap and some patience. Speaking of which, it looks like the water breather is waking up."
Green Lantern stalked over to the tank. "Now, maybe we can get some answers. What did you do with the plutonium?" he demanded angrily.
Aquaman exited the tank. "Plutonium?"
"From the submarine… you stole it!" John accused.
"My orders were to leave that vessel were it lay." The King responded.
"You expect us to believe that?" G.L asked scornfully.
"You can believe what you want. Someone tried to kill me, and I need to find out who." said Aquaman.
"We already know who. Going after him is pointless." Harpy stated.
Aquaman turned toward her. "You would have me let this offense go unpunished?"
"You didn't let me finish, going after him is pointless because he is going to come after you. The smart thing to do here would be to set a trap." she explained.
Harpy was sitting in a room next to Aquaman. Green Lantern was standing in front of the door. After a while Aquaman got impatient. He approached John. "What's taking so long? I must return to Atlantis."
John dismissed him. "Sit tight your 'highness' we'll tell you when it's safe to go." Aquaman looked defeated for a moment, then he punched John in the face, knocking the Green Lantern out.
Harpy sprung up for her seat. Aquaman turned to her. "Are you going to stop me?" he asked.
Harpy hands were clenched into fists, she was shaking and the room seemed to be getting warmer. "Just go." she snarled. The Atlantian King left and Harpy attended to John.
After John regained consciousness he and Harpy went join the others. They arrived just in time to hear Superman exclaim "We have to warn Aquaman!"
"Too late" answered Lantern. "That royal pain in the neck is already gone. I couldn't stop him. Harpy didn't even try to stop him."
Wonder Women turned to the red head. "Why didn't you stop him? You know the amount of danger he's in."
Harpy glared. "I'm not allowed to fight with a water breather unless there is an immediate threat to my life, or someone else's." "You wouldn't have had to fight him if you had just reasoned with him" Diana argued.
Harpy's glare intensified and the temperature seemed to be rising. "We were beyond talking at that point, princess, I" "STOP!" Batman interjected. "Fighting isn't going to change anything that's happened. Superman, Diana, J'onn, and Green Lantern will go down to Atlantis and warn Aquaman." There was no room for argument in his tone.
Harpy and Batman were in the Bat cave. Harpy had only been allowed in because she had agreed to be blindfolded so that she couldn't see where the cave was located. Batman was working on the Bat computer, and Harpy was sparring with Robin.
"Why am I fighting the brat?" Harpy asked ask she dodged a punch from the boy wonder.
"Because you need to work on your combat skills." responded Batman.
"My combat skills are fine." Harpy snapped as she punched Robin in the solar plexus, winding him.
"You use your powers too much and favor long range combat. If you were better at close combat you might not have been captured by the Joker." Batman stated.
Harpy was about to respond, but was interrupted by the caped crusader. "Thermal readings show temperatures increasing rapidly at the north pole."
"How rapidly?" Harpy asked in a worried tone.
Batman frowned. "Rapid enough that most of the worlds major city's will be underwater by tomorrow." he stated.
"I know someone who can help with that, and she owes me a favor." said Harpy.
Harpy was flying next to the bat jet, when she was joined in the air by Violet. Violet was wearing as blueish-purple sleeveless turtleneck, darkly colored jeans, and a mask that covered the lower part of her face, leaving only her eyes visible.
"So why are we headed to the north pole?" she asked Harpy.
"The ice is melting at a rate that will have the world underwater by tomorrow. I figure you can slow it down long enough for us to figure out how to stop it." the red head explained.
When the trio arrived the other league members were already engaged in a battle.
"Are those water breathers?" Violet asked her sister.
"Yep. Think this counts as one of those immediate threats?" Harpy responded.
"Yep." Violet answered before she set about refreezing the nearby glaciers.
Harpy sent fireballs at some of the warriors on water bikes, sending them flying into the water. Violet flew down close to the water. She dragged hers hands through it causing pack ice to form. Several water bikes were caught in the ice, allowing Harpy to blast guns out of their riders hands.
Harpy soon found the glacier that the heat was coming from. She headed toward it while Violet continued to form new ice to trap the Atlanteans.
Harpy entered the cavern in the glacier just as the controls to the thermal reactor were destroyed by Orm, causing the machine to start giving off more heat.
Outside Violet had left the battle and was struggling to form new ice faster than the glaciers were melting.
Back inside the glacier Harpy was trying to find a way to shut down the reactor when she was joined by Green Lantern and Batman.
"It's no good. The reactor can only be shut down from the inside." she informed them.
Batman turned to G.L. "Can your ring protect me?" he asked.
"We'll find out." John answered and then proceeded to cover Batman with the ring's green aura. Harpy stood guard over the two in order to block any interference.
Orm soon noticed. "No! Get away!" he cried as he sent a blast of energy toward Lantern with the trident. Harpy sent a fireball at the energy blast and the two attacks canceled each other out. Harpy didn't have to do much else after that because Orm began to fight his brother again.
Soon enough the battle was over and Batman had shut down the reactor.
"It's shutting down. You did it." John stated as Batman emerged from the reactor.
"No. We did it." Batman responded.
Aquaman joined them. "Then the threat is over." He said.
Outside of the glacier Violet was on her hands and knees breathing heavily. Harpy rushed over to her and helped her up.
"Will she be alright?" Wonder Woman asked in concern.
"Yeah. She just needs to rest for awhile." Harpy answered. She looked at Batman.
"She's not going to be able to fly. Got any extra room in the bat jet?" she asked.
Batman glared. "Just this once." he said.
Violet was on the couch with an ice pack on her forehead.
"Ivy." she groaned out.
The red head looked at her sister. "What?" she asked.
"Never again. I am never playing superhero again." she growled.
Ivy just chuckled.
Well this is odd. I wasn't planning on using Violet again for awhile, yet she managed to get in there.
Review please!
