Oolong Island, laboratory of Dr. Niles Caulder:
"He's alive?" Superman asks in concern over the condition of Caulder.
"Yup, but out cold and with a great many broken bones." Raven confirms. "Let's see how Adam is feeling?" Raven says as she places a palm on the door, letting her powers seep into it, before turning the locks that holds it closed. The side of the door is pulled into the sides as the central part sinks into the ground, letting Raven in.
What is on the other side is not what she expected, she expected Adam to be a kind of center piece of the room, but from here she can't see anyone that matches that description. But she can see numerous other people locked in cages, with many different origins and ages. Raven is struck dumb by the sight as a man leans against one of his cage walls at the back, she'd seen old photographs of people like him, but he looks even worse fed than Starfire was.
"BEASTBOY!" Raven yells at the top of her lungs in hopes he hadn't gotten too far away, before she walks inside to have closer look at the captives, wanting to comfort them, but they all shy away from her. It initially confuses her till she hears someone pray in Spanish.
"Hail Mary, deliver us from temptation." Raven is hurt, it's her they are scared of, but she pushes the notion away turning it into determination to prove she is something besides her exterior, but changes shape nonetheless to her wingless guise.
"I am not here to harm you." She says in several languages before moving to the side before blowing the locks open.
"Raven?! Whoa!" Beastboy says as he comes into the room, followed closely by the rest of the Patrol.
"Dear God." Rita gasps.
"Gar, I need you to get these people out of here." Raven says as she pulls away to a corner.
"You got it." Mento says as the rest of the Patrol moves in to help the prisoners out.
"Get away from them! They are mine!" A voice suddenly says, Raven quickly moves around the cages to see who it is, find a very short bald man in lab coat wearing a pair of large circular glasses, hobbling down the stairs to a back room while leaning on a walking stick, Raven feel as wash of new fear come over the captives at the sight of him.
"Dr. Shivana." Batman growls. "Captain Marvel's Luthor."
"Shoo, get away, I'm still using them!" The midget continues as he walks across the floor, Raven quickly moves to block him.
"What are you doing to these people?" She asks as she towers above him.
"None of your business, get out!" The man continues, before Raven seizes him by the coat and lifts him up to her eye height. "Let go!" He says trying to pry open her fingers.
"What have you been doing to these people?" Raven asks again.
"What do you think I've been doing?! I've been enhancing them of course!" He continues angrily.
"Shivana is a master of almost every scientific field." Batman mentions.
"Odysseus stop them!" The pint sized man yells over his shoulder as the Patrol continues to herd the captives out. From the same doorway Shivana emerged from a hulking shape emerges, it appears to be a human-tiger hybrid, but with the size of a bear as the thing walks on its hind legs. The thing looks at the pointing finger of Shivana and looks at the patrol before emitting a terrifying roar before leaping several meters through the air to land on top of the cages, closest to Caulders door, preventing anyone from getting out.
"Hey, I'm the king of the jungle around here!" Beastboy yells before he changes into a large lion and jumps onto the cage as well, roaring a challenge to the man-beast. Odysseus just stares at him in confusion before growling deeply at him.
"We will handle this!" Mento yells to Raven before waving Larry and Rita into action.
"Was that thing once a man?" Raven asks harshly.
"Of course not!" Shivana grumbles. "I rendered two beings down to their component atoms before building them up again." Raven's eyes almost blaze with anger at this.
"Any of you in there think he should show us where he keeps Adam?"
"Personally I think he should be in a cage over a tiger pit, but that sounds good too." Flash mentions.
"Who are you talking to?!" Shivana asks.
"Oh just the voices in my head, how about you show me where you keep Black Adam before I decide to twist you head off?"
"You wouldn't find him faster that way!" Shivana finally says as he meets her stare.
"Well, I could just break into that shine dome of yours and leave you a drooling cabbage, and believe me, it has happened." Shivana suddenly grows pale at the thought and stops his struggles.
"Threatening his vaunted superiority, cute." Batman says from the inside.
"You…he will kill us if we let him loose?" Shivana manages as he genuinely looks frightened.
"Unless you can gift-wrap him for me, loose is what he will be." Raven says. "Now where is he?"
"Back there." Shivana points back up the stairs. "Wait, put me down!" He complains as he is carried along like a large doll. In the background Beastboy has the man-tiger trapped as he has changed into an octopus and is holding the beast's limbs down, with Beastboy hanging upside down under a cage roof. "He will kill me if he sees me!" Shivana pleads as Raven deftly passes through several small rooms with only two exits in each.
"Don't worry, he will be too busy to do that." Raven assures.
"You do realize you are carrying him one handed?" Wally notes.
"He doesn't weigh anything to me." Raven sends back.
"It's only some 40 to 50kg." Batman continues.
"Here we are?" Raven surmises as she steps down a few steps into a larger room, with a gurney in the center. Where what appears to be a large laser is transfixing a very large man dressed in a black and yellow version of Captain Marvels uniform without the short cape, while a yellow beam focused on his forehead. The part Raven read up on Adam was that he was once a servant of the pharos is partially confirmed as he does have Arabic features.
"Still shielded?" Superman asks.
"Yup." Raven sighs. "What's the laser doing?"
"It's not a laser, it's a dimensional field projector and it does what the name suggests." Shivana grumbles as he is finally put down.
"Thought he would be the kind to name it something ridiculous and extravagant?" Shayera mentions.
"Well, down it goes." Raven says as he takes a calming breath and draws her sword before she lets her powers seep into the machine and rips it from its setting the ceiling and drops it on the other side of Adam. The man himself opens his eyes a blinks a few times as if waking up from a long sleep, before groaning and raises a hand to his head before sitting up, eyeing the two people in the room with him, Shivana flees as fast as possible after Raven lets go of him.
"I suppose with a sword drawn, you are simply here to trade me from one prison to another?" He asks while rubbing his head.
"An old acquaintance of yours promised me something in return for bringing you to him." Raven replies.
"I hope you know your only reward is in the grave?" Adam says as he stands up, proving to be as tall as Raven before he begins circling her with his hands spread out.
"He's still groggy." Diana mentions while Raven holds her sword out horizontally, nothing that Adam is keeping an eye on it. Raven hardly has time to react as Adam moves, his feet bend the metal floor as he launches himself at Raven, tackling her trough the wall behind her, the impact causes her to drop Shadowfury.
Raven feels her back collide with several walls before she brings down both fists onto Adam's skull making them both slam into the ground before separating, crashing through three more walls before rolling to a stop inside a huge hall to the sound of many scared voices. She is quick enough to gather her wits to teleport above Adam to plant both heels onto the back of his head as he is getting up, pushing him back down, making a hole in the ground. She doesn't have a chance to capitalize on the moment as Adam reacts like a spring and snaps his head up, due to his massive strength Raven is sent flying into the air, slamming her against the ceiling many meters above her. As she falls down again, she is met with a blow to the left shoulder before she reaches the ground; the blow sends her flying through the wall and into the bright sunlight outside before crashing through the front end of a jeep and landing flat on her face.
"I feel a trend forming." Raven groans before she rolls to the side and gets up, that last blow had nearly dislocated her shoulder. The injury doesn't stop it from assisting her other hand to land a heavy blow to Adam as he comes flying straight at her, landing him behind the jeep and its two stunned passengers.
The remains of the vehicle sway's slightly before it is lifted above Adams head, with the guards still in it. Raven leaps into the air as he throws the car at her, passing over it, she grabs the guards with her powers and flings them away from the fight. Landing on her feet, facing Adam as he advances, Raven deflects a series of punches while landing several blows of her own, which seems to annoy Adam more than harm him, even if the palm that strikes his nose gets a nosebleed out of him.
Adam snarls at he grabs hold of her left wrist, halting the punch she was about to land, as he delivers a left hook to her, causing her to stumble back. Adam switches his attention to her right ankle and grabs hold of it after letting go of her arm, Raven hardly registers it before she hits the ground three times in rapid succession after being swung over Adams head like a sacks of potatoes, cracking the asphalt each time, leaving Raven to black out a second as she is hurled into something that heats up tremendously.
"Get up!" A voice filters into her brain as she wakes up in a sea of flame, over the fire's roar she can hear sporadic screaming and discharge of the strange weaponry everyone seems to carry on this island. "You need to step it up if you want to win this!" The voice continues, Raven ignores it, becoming strangely aware that she is completely enveloped by flames, but she doesn't feel its heat. A shriek brings her out of her wonderings, realizing Adam must be massacring the guards; she bolts out of the wrecked tanker truck she was thrown into, in time to see Adam crush the throat of a guard with one hand as he discards another victim with the other while ignoring the blue blasts that splashes against his body from the others.
As he sets his sights on another pair of guards, who are blazing away at him, Raven sprints across the open area, running faster than she ever had before slamming, shoulder first, into Adams backside. As her momentum carries him with her, they speed past the guards previously endangered now blown to the ground. Mid-run Raven manages to grab hold of Adam's clothes and hurl him forwards into a cluster of boulders, that reach from the edge of the main complex and into the beach.
"You again?!" Adam says angrily as he explodes out of the pile sending several of the huge stones flying as he hovers over the pile. "You are more resilient than I thought; I will not make that mistake again." He says as Raven stops, still a good distance from him. Her mind, however, is not and several boulders launch into the air before coming together with crushing force around Adam. His reaction is anticipated and the boulders are shattered into shrapnel as Adam burst free, racing straight for her again. In his rush to reach her, he doesn't take notice of the huge shadow emerging from the flames and smoke around her, before he finds himself swallowed by it.
"Relax and it will be over soon." Raven says as she observes her soul-self hover in front of her, Adam however is still fighting and Raven suddenly feels a great amount of pain rip through her being before a hand rips its way out of her soul-self and closes around her throat in a vice like grip. The sudden pain is enough for Raven to lose focus and her soul-self evaporates, leaving a fuming but frigid Adam staring at her.
"You fight me with parlor tricks?!" He seethes as while squeezing harder, shutting off most of Raven's air supply before he bashes her once, reactively she tries pulling away as she grabs his arm with both hands. "Who sent you?"
"Gaak!" Is all Raven can mange, she feels like two elephants wearing high heels a standing on each side of her neck, its making her light headed as Adam is also slowing the flow of blood to her head. Adam eases the pressure on her a fraction; realizing she can't talk much less breathe as she hit's weakly at his elbow with a fist.
"Who?" He asks again.
"Sh'ckam!" Raven manages.
"Who?" Adam asks again as he pulls her closer to her face, as her head begins to drop slightly.
"Your face!" Raven says sharply as she looks up as her arms and fingers are spread wide before they blur at the speed they are moved at, stopping at the opposite side of their starting points. Adam just glares at her for a second before his face literally erupts in blood from the eigth deep slashes that now form bloody crosses there.
"NNNAAAAAYYYYAAAARRG!" Adam screams as he clutches his face with both hands, dropping Raven on the ground to heave for air, while he stumbles three steps before tripping over a rock, blinded by his own blood. They both lie on the ground for a few seconds before Raven fights her way to her feet and jumps on Adams back, intent on knocking him out while she can. "Shazam!" Adam growls as he feels her land on him.
"MOVE!" Superman yells too late for Raven to react to the bolt of lightning that race out of the clear blue sky, towards her back.
For a second she feels infinity and oblivion, everything is possible and impossible in the same instant, she thinks she experiences every color and sound ever seen and heard and at the same time she feels nothing and is deafened. She feels this in an instant before darkness claims her.
The Watchtower:
"You called?" Batman asks as he slows his running as he reaches Mr. Terrific in the monitor womb.
"A massive electrical discharge was just recorded over a clear sky Oolong, which means in this case; Adam said the magic word." The man says without turning to face Richard. "We should have satellite uplink right about…now." He continues as an image appears on one of three large screens displayed on the outer wall of the satellite, showing Oolong from space before it zooms in on the island. "There are energy fluctuations all over the place, but it's hard to see anything for the smoke." Richard understands as parts of the island's obviously inhabited area is covered by black smoke, probably a gas fire.
"What's that?" He asks as he points at a crater far from the complex.
"Hmm, Adam's lightning." Terrific says as he zooms in on it, the image's resolution is big enough for them to see a figure stumble to get up and out of the hole. "That's too big to be Raven, unless she's changed into something that big?"
"It's not." Richard notes grimly as his eyes searches the screen for any sign of her.
"I'll raise the alarm." Terrific says.
Somewhere else:
"What a strange place." Raven notes half consciously at the view above her, its white and emits the sense of warmth as she floats up towards it like a swimmer lying in water. The white view slowly has shapes forming inside of them, like clouds, resembling faces she thinks she should know, they are all smiling at her. "Perhaps, dying isn't so bad?" She guesses that the lightning killed her. A noise from below her has her reluctantly turn to see what's beneath her; the faces above her seem to not want her to turn. Below her is complete darkness, with a pair of triangular white eyes as the only feature, Raven can feel its anger, but she doesn't care, she is floating upwards, and she turns away from it.
"No!" A male voice rumbles, Raven thinks she should remember it from somewhere, but she continues upwards, leaning forwards she reaches for the light. It's close enough for her to almost touch the closest face as something cold wraps around her right leg and pulls her away. Raven fights lazily to reach the light, but she continues to fall into the darkness before she is aware of it, the light is gone entirely and she is looking at the two, cold, white eyes. "Listen to me!" The voice commands. "You are fighting a god and holding back!" The voice roars into her face.
"I am already dead, why should I care?" Raven asks flatly a second later something slaps her head hard.
"You are not quitting! I won't allow it! Too much depends on you!"
"I never promised anyone anything." Raven continues.
"There are people who believe in you; Clark, Diana, Wally, Shayera, J'onn, John…me!" Raven looks up at this and it dawns on her that the eyes are those of Batman's cowl. "I hesitated because I did not want you hurt, but you were determined to go, so go, bring us back!" Raven suddenly has the sense of moving at an incredible speed as the eyes disappear, the sensation is fleeting as she feels like she is crashing into something solid.
She awakens with a gasp, but she is already on her feet facing towards the complex.
"Raven? Thank the gods! Bruce is trying to move you, but he's struggling with your powers." Diana's voice filters into her head. Raven can see what she means, everything around her is either floating or getting crushed in her powers.
"Bruce, you can stop now." Raven sends inwards, feeling another will trying to make her move.
"About time, this is much more difficult than you might think." The man's voice says as Raven feels the wills grasp dissipate while on the inside Batman falls over back awards after letting go of the orb in the Council room.
"Thought it was the last call there, thank you for bringing me back." Raven sends.
"We haven't done anything?" J'onn mentions, which surprises Raven.
"Bruce, didn't you talk to me?" Raven asks
"I could hardly hear anything over the canopy you have in your head, add the sensory overload I got." The man replies as John helps him up.
"Think Raven has an internal Batman." Wally whispers to Shayera.
"Glad it's not me." Shayera whispers back.
"If it got her back up?" Batman asks coolly, guessing there had been some sort of interfacing between him and Raven's minds when he took control.
"Raven, Adam." John notes.
"Right." Raven sends as she notices the man in question is not busy tearing her apart, but sporadic gunfire can be heard somewhere, more guards must be getting killed. Deciding on the first course of action, she sits down cross legged in the air and focuses.
"Batman!" Terrific yells from the womb, the man in black looks up from the floor where he was busy making sure everyone knew what going into battle with Adam meant. "Does that look familiar to you?" He points at the screens all showing orbital images of Oolong from different angles. As Richard looks a huge black dome is growing to cover most of the island.
"I'll take that as a sign that Raven is still alive, unless Adam can do that." Richard replies, as a flutter of hope springs within him. "We are still going, in case I'm wrong. Let's move!" he turns to yell at the assembled League.
"Raven, what are you doing?" Superman asks.
"Removing all the people who could get injured." Raven replies as she works.
"Uh, are you putting them the same place you sent me?" Wally asks. "Because I doubt any of these guys are prepared for the cold."
"It's quite warm where they are going; they will be fine, unless they do something stupid." Raven assures as she feels waves a familiarity hit her, meaning the Patrol was just taken, she searches a full minute more. "I can't move Adam off this place with the others; it would be like a wolf in a chicken house." She says as something strikes the barrier at the north-western perimeter.
"Raven you can't…" Bruce begins.
"I can't overpower him like this, I know." Raven cuts him off. "There, Oolong is scrubbed, people are safe." She says as she finishes, but leaves the bubble up. Flying up to land on the roof of a building, she gazes over the now silent and dark island, looking in the direction Adam is before she changes into her winged form. Taking a few deep breaths, she screams a challenge over the island, the voice she uses reminds Diana of the scream she heard in Luthor's complex, only louder. "Now we see if he is that easy to bait."
Somewhere less pleasant looking:
"Uh, where the hell, are we?" Mento asks as he gets off the ground, feeling warmer and the air smells funny.
"Think, hell is the right choice of words." Cliff replies, as he looks around him by guiding his head with his hands. As the rest of the patrol gets up, they see that their charges are with them, along with a great many others, all looking around the volcanic wasteland they are in.
"Is that Miss Cale?" Rita asks, spotting three people lying on the ground near the edge of the group. A guard walks over and turns one of them over, revealing it to be Cale, but she is unresponsive as she refuses to uncurl from the ball she is in.
"Think Rae, did a Dr. Light on her." Beastboy mentions.
"Ah, here you are." A deep voice says from above them all, some of the captives with the Patrol yelp in fright at the figure as it lands. It's easily twice the height of a man, powerfully built, has red skin and four yellow eyes, wearing only a white loincloth and holding a long white staff with a spiral design topped with a skull of a fanged creature. It has long black hair held in a pony tail that's falling behind it from an otherwise bald head where a pair of antlers rises over him. He immediately has every plasma rifle pointing at him. "I am the Emissary, and I bid you welcome to the Eight Pit." He continues without giving heed to the armed men.
"Gar, stay here!" Mento says, futilely grasping for the man's shoulder as he walks out to stand right before the immense demon.
"Raven, sent us here?" Gar asks calmly, appearing totally unafraid of it.
"Indeed young one, the Mistress wishes you to remain here while she fights her war." The demon say's before thumping his staff on the ground and a yellow circle is carved into the ground around the group of people. "Stay within the circle and no harm shall befall you." It continues.
"Hold up, just what the hell is going on here?!" A guard asks. "And who are you to tell us where we can or cannot go?!"
"I only do what the Mistress asks of me, and her words were; keep them safe, but do not let them wander, those who do are yours." The Emissary says before turning away and disappears without a trace.
"Fuck this." The guard growls before brashly crossing the glowing border and walks out side. Above them a roar is heard and a huge red shape descends, the guard manages to scream before the winged humanoid seizes him in its clawed hands and carries him off. As the group watches, the man is ripped apart as other similar creatures try to pry him from the carrier.
"You heard the thing, we stay here!" Mento says loudly, getting quick nods of agreement from everyone, before he turns to his adoptive son. "That was very stupid."
"Maybe." Garfield shrugs. "But I figured it was Raven who sent us here when I saw it's eyes."
"They did share a resemblance." Larry notes. "So was he like her brother?"
"Raven doesn't have siblings." Beastboy replies flatly.
Above Oolong Island:
"I see I will have to rip your head off to be rid of you." Adam says calmly as he floats in front of the flapping figure.
"Twice you have underestimated my endurance; I am beginning to think the first letter in that name you yell stands for stupid." Raven replies flatly with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I wonder if you mocking tongue are as sharp when I pull it out." Adam growls.
"You are no threat to me." Raven continues in a bored tone in an attempt to anger him.
"Like you are none to me." Adam replies. "But your previous beatings seem to have made you forget them."
"I was holding back." Raven continues as she lets her arms drop. "No more." Adam doesn't manage to get his guard up in time to counter Raven's strike, first an uppercut to his jaw before Raven spins around herself horizontally to plant a clawed foot on his chest, sending him flying through the air towards the ground, demolishing a concrete roof as he crashes into it.
He isn't down for long as he explodes out of the rubble and he and Raven collide in mid air as she was heading towards him as well, while the black bubble dissipates around the island. The two combatants punch, kick and tear at each other, neither willing to acknowledge the wounds they receive thought each hit landed would make holes in steel plates. It comes to a head as they each strike each other a simultaneous blow, sending them flying in each direction.
Raven crashes through a hangar wall of aluminum and takes off the nose of a private jet before rolling to a halt at a few oil barrels.
"You all right?" Wally asks.
"I think Diana is influencing me." Raven sends back as she gets up.
"Oh?" The Princess asks.
"This is fun." Raven replies with a slight smirk the instant before a blast of searing pain shoots through her right wing, growling she looks to find a metal pipe lodged in the membrane between the bones. With a hiss, she yanks it free and turns to the hole she made by entering seeing Adam stand in the hole.
She levitates the seven barrels behind her and hurls them at Adam who raises his guard at the projectiles. As the first barrel hits him, Raven hurls the pipe at him, aiming for his shoulder, but strikes an intervening barrel instead, resulting in a huge explosion as the barrel is punctured and the fuel inside catches fire. The heat and flame doesn't bother her at all and she lunches herself at where Adam was floating, colliding with something and carries it outside with her before it slips away from her. A blow to the back has her smash a hole into the ground.
"Persistent vermin!" Adam says as Raven feels him straddle her back and lands a heavy blow to the back of her head before grabbing hold of one of her horns and slowly bends them backwards. "Go on, plead and I will make it quick." Adam says while straining against her.
"No, way!" Raven growls before teleporting away, Adam moves in time to avoid the strike that comes from above and the two are quickly back to circling the hole and each other. Neither of them noticing the damage they had caused to the island complex.
"Amusing or not. This has to end, before Oolong is leveled." Superman's voice distracts Raven enough for Adam to make his move and slams her into the air using a double handed blow. The two end up exchanging blows again in mid air, this time while Raven tries breaking into Adam's head and extending her focus on something else.
"Stay out!" The man growls at her as he suddenly twist her around and attaches himself to her back between the wings, using his left arm to put her into a headlock while his right seizes her right arm by the wrist, batting the wing out of the way. "Scream for me!" He hisses as he places his knee against her bicep before pulling at her arm.
Raven roars in pain as her arm breaks above the elbow with a loud crack, the loss of emotional control has dark lightning shoot out of her and into Adam who growls in pain as even his natural resistance is beaten down.
"Hurk!" Adam look up in surprise as something hits him in the back and he lets go of Raven who floats forwards to clutch her wounded arm, while Adam looks down at himself, spotting a small piece of metal protrude from the left side of his upper chest. He looks up again to meet the weary eyes of Raven, as he feels a little light headed. From Raven's point of view, Adam looks very surprised at his blood comes out of the wound, but then again he would be since Shadowfury is sticking out of his back.
"His right arm should be seriously impeded now." Bruce mentions
"Guess we are even." Raven growls at him before grinding her teeth and sets the bone in her arm with a crunch. Adam looks at her in surprise when she tests the limb as if it had not been broken at all before she lays into him with several double handed blows, one resulting in two rows of cuts being made into his chest by the scallops on Raven's armguards, tearing most of his uniform away before Raven grabs the remains to look at him. "Fall!" She demands before she head butts him, bringing her forehead into his leaving him dazed enough for her to land a mighty overhead blow that echoes with a dull boom. Seeing where he is heading with the speed of a bullet, Raven throws up a shield in front of her and has Shadowfury return to her hand before a the world around her erupts in fire and noise. She stains against the pressure at the explosion before being blown away, sending her into the ocean.
"Guess you can't have your cake and eat it." Wally mentions to Clark.
"Sorry." Raven sends as she breaks the surface to observe the mushroom cloud rising into the air where the nuclear power plant used to be, obviously containing something other than just a reactor.
"Can you withstand the radiation?" Diana asks.
"No idea, but we can't let Adam get away." Raven sends back as she takes to the air again, surrounding herself with a thick black aura she flies over ground zero, finding it impossible to sense anything in the smoke, fire and radiation, she flies off and forms a large bowl to scoop up a sizeable portion of the reservoir feeding the hydro plant before dumping it all on the blast site and the surrounding forest, extinguishing most of the fire.
"There, in the center." Superman says as Raven also spots Adam floating face down in a pool of water. She swoops down and grabs him by an ankle before heading out of the radiation zone, feeling it tearing away at her shield. "Alive?"
"Yes, but down for the count." Raven says as she looks down on him in flight.
"Great, let's get him to old man Merlin." Wally adds.
"Agreed." Raven replies before vanishing, spotting the fleet of planes appearing on the horizon.
Authors Note: Hope it was worth the wait :) Next we have to see how other people take it.