Chapter 18

M2 Protector Series Zeta, otherwise known as Big Sister Zeta, was doing her routine patrol around Neptune's Bounty like Mother Lamb instructed her to do. It was fairly easy as not much monsters go there since Jack killed Peach Wilkins and there were only two Little Sisters that frequently wander around there.

But today was different. She could smell another Big Sister like her entering her territory. It was strange because usually only one Big Sister was assigned to a certain area and no other Big Sister can go there. The only exception was when Mother Lamb ordered two of their Sisters to go kill the Rogue Daddy.

What concerned the female Protector however was that her link to one of the Little Sisters was abruptly cut off, coinciding with the arrival of the new Big Sister. Surely, this Sister had no connection whatsoever to this, right?

She then heard the Daddy of the last Little Sister fighting a small group of monsters nearby. She wasn't particularly worried about this though since she was confident that the girl's Daddy would protect her with his life. If not, then that's where Zeta comes in. But just in case, she should see what was going on for herself.

Suddenly, something collided against her side with the force of a torpedo, knocking the air out of her. Zeta felt a viselike grip grab onto her arm and she was then flung to the ocean floor below. Before she literally hit rock bottom, a fist that was as hard as steel crashed into her chest and made her body twirled helplessly in circles across the ocean ground for a couple of meters.

The Big Sister dazedly tried to right herself after the two quick but powerful attacks. She shook her head to rid herself of the stars that were accumulating in her vision. Not even a Brute Splicer or a Big Daddy could match the formidable assaults done to her in the short amount of time.

Zeta was able to swim away in time before an orange blur crashed into the spot that she was occupying just moments ago.

After the sand settled, she could clearly see what her assailants looked like.

The first monster had blond hair and wore a tunic that was made of orange scales. He had a thicker build than an average person but wasn't as buff or grotesque as a Brute, which made the Big Sister wonder where it kept all of its strength. But what really caught her attention was the fact that it wasn't wearing any deep-sea diving equipment. Just how was this monster able to survive underwater? Not even Zeta or her Sisters could do that without their suits. For some reason, it doesn't look as ugly as the other monsters that she had encountered before.

Zeta propelled herself at this new monster with her telekinesis to provide extra momentum. Her armored knuckle bashed into its left cheekbone and sent it away from until it landed right next to the second monster.

The second monster wasn't ugly like the first one but it looked a lot younger than it. It wore a black t-shirt with a big red "S" on it, blue army-type pants, and brown work boots. Unlike the other monster, it was wearing some kind of mask that she guessed allows him to breathe underwater. Even with the mask on its face, she could plainly see its face and it was quite a handsome one at that.

The Big Sister could feel her face start to burn as she continued to observe the second monster. She was confused at why her face felt like she was using the Incinerate! Plasmid. It wasn't possible that she was using it because she was still underwater thus making it incapable of activating the heat based Plasmid.

She quickly shook her head to regain her focus, ignoring the baffling sensation. She charged at the second monster with needle poised to strike. It was too slow to dodge her deadly syringe but as the needle made contact to its skin with enough intensity to break through a Big Daddy's armor, it snapped apart like she had attempted to stab a steel wall instead of the flesh of another monster that dared to attack a Big Sister.

The monster grinned confidently at the sight of her broken harvester, which promptly angered the apex hunter of Rapture. Not to be discourage by her destroyed weapon, she created two condense balls of water in each of her hands with her telekinesis and launched them point blank at the black haired monster in a similar manner to the Plasmid, Sonic Boom. It was then propelled farther back by at least seven feet.

Zeta vanished in a purple smoke to avoid the attack of the blond monster and she rematerialized next to a sunken bathysphere that was nearby. She lifted the wrecked ship with all of her mental strength that she could muster and then she threw it with all of her might at the blond monster that was swimming towards her pretty fast. But the creature proved to be just as maneuverable underwater just as her for it evaded the sea craft with relative ease. It then tackled her with the same power as before to the ground, forming a decent sized crater.

The creature was straddling over her and was preparing to deliver another punch. The Big Sister caught the incoming fist with both hands, arms trembling from the exertion to hold back the immense force that the fist held. Zeta then activated Incinerate minus the flames so it only caused the water around her hands to boil at an extreme temperature. She was satisfied to hear the monster cry out in pain and she used its distraction to her advantage by flipping its body over her, slamming it to the ground above her head. Now she was the one on top and she placed her still boiling hands on each of its shoulders, making it cry out more in pain. Before she could fully enjoy herself, something knocked her off the monster that was in pain.

The female Protector found herself to be pinned down by the same broken bathysphere that she had thrown earlier. She had to combine her ADAM-imbued muscles and telekinesis to lift the vessel off her. As she returned to her feet, she saw the black haired monster standing a short distance away from her while displaying a couple of bruises and a ripped shirt.

"Go again?" it challenged with a condescending tone and earned a snarl of acceptance.

Then they began to trade crushing blows against one another. The strikes of the black haired monster were slightly weakened by the water resistance while the Big Sister didn't have this problem because of her armor. Although, she was about to be overwhelm by the creature's superior muscle-power and durability

As she was about to launch a telekinetically enhanced strike at the insolent creature to turn the tables, large tentacles wrapped around her body, completely immobilizing her movements. She turned to see that the tentacles belonged to a gigantic squid lurking behind her.

(AN: No dirty thoughts please.)

"I could have taken her," the younger monster panted to the older one who had two fingers on its temple.

"I know, Superboy but the others are already close to retrieving the Little Sisters so we needed to finish this quickly," the bearded monster told it.

Her Sister was in danger! She needed to get to her before it's too late. She thrashed about to escape from the massive limbs binding her with her ADAM-infused strength. She got close to succeeding but the black haired creature swam to her and undid the latches on her helmet, causing sea water to gush inside her suit. The suffocating water broke her concentration so much that she barely noticed that her helmet was fully removed. The last thing that she saw through her unfiltered vision was a fist heading straight towards her face. Then everything became dark.

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Superboy made sure to hold back on that punch but he didn't need to hold back that much since the Big Sister was a lot tougher than he thought. She may not have been as tough as Eleanor but he was glad that the fight ended quickly. He hastily returned the helmet on her head and then pressed a button located on the left side of head. The drainage system of the suit was activated and immediately flushed out the excess water from the suit.

It was a good thing that Siren had the forethought to show them every feature that Big Sister armors had like the drainage system for example. At first, he didn't really see the use for that kind of information but it came pretty handy just now.

He looked to the senior Justice League member beside him, who was currently nursing the burns that the Big Sister caused on his body. Connor remembered that it wasn't actually fire that Atlanteans were weak to but intense heat since their bodies would become dehydrated and severely weak. It was good thing that all she could do underwater was superheat her hands or the result could have been fatal.

Aquaman ordered the squid to release the now unconscious Big Sister from its grasp and transfer her into his arms. Since they was no need to stay here anymore, the Atlantean and the Kryptonian made their way to the nearest airlock with the cataleptic Protector in tow.

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Zeta's head was throbbing so much that she didn't perceive the pain in her skull until the spots vanished from her vision. It was like an entire army of monsters had repeatedly hit her cranium with sledgehammers then danced on it for good measure.

She found scrap metal bent in many ways binding her arms and legs. The makeshift restraints were thick enough to hold down a Big Daddy but she was quite capable of breaking free. However, she needed to replenish her energy to do that and it would take some time that she may not have the liberty for.

The last thing that she recalled was that she was fighting against two bizarre monsters, which were unlike anything that she had ever seen in Rapture. She highly doubted that they were even from Rapture in the first place. They were no such Plasmids or Gene Tonics that could make them that strong yet alone breath underwater without the aid of a diving suit.

Thinking about it just made her head hurt since the mental conditioning on her made it difficult for deep thoughts. She almost didn't hear the conversation that the two monsters were having.

"This is Aquaman. Have you successfully retrieved the Little Sister?" the blond monster said while had two fingers in his ear. For what reason why he was doing that, the Big Sister had no idea whatsoever.

To her surprise she a new voice that was emanating from the monster's ear. It sounded rough and emotionless like it wasn't used to speaking or just preferred not to.

[There were some complications but she was… dealt with.] he said with a bit of uncertainty at the last part like he was unsure how to explain something.

At the words: "dealt with", unimaginable rage began to consume the Big Sister and the restrictions on her arms and legs began to break from the anger-fueled strength. It quickly snapped apart but the effort heavily bruised the skin from under her armor.

The female Protector ignored it, reaching out with her senses to where her Sister was last located before the horrible monsters killed her. She successfully found the location and she started to teleport there to punish the ones who hurt her Family.

As the familiar violet smoke covered her body, she felt a powerful grip latched onto her arm. The unexpected weight dragged her down and the teleportation missed its mark by several meters.

As it turned out, the extra load was the black haired monster. Irritated, she threw it off her with all the vigor that she could muster at the wall. She grinned in satisfaction at the sound of it crashing at the wall.

The grin was swiftly wiped away when she detected the new Big Sister with the monsters that took the Little Sister away from the Family. The new Big Sister was already there with the monster that killed their Sister yet she wasn't even attacking them. This could only mean one thing: that Big Sister had betrayed the Family!

All the other monsters became irrelevant at this point and Zeta had her full focus on exacting revenge on the rogue Big Sister. Oh, yes. She will pay dearly, all right.

She lunged at the Rogue, determined to rip her apart. But an invisible force stopped her in mid-air. She was then smashed onto the ground by the same invisible force. Zeta attempted to get back up but the other Big Sister beat her to it by delivering a flame-imbued kick that was followed up by a small explosion. After being blasted back by the attack, Zeta repositioned her body so it was the bottom of her feet that hit the wall instead. She then kicked off the wall like a springboard and started to bounce off the walls while throwing fireballs at her foe. The Rogue merely deflected them with…wind?

It seemed that she was using an improvised version of Cyclone Trap where she sets a trap in front of her and then activates it on will. A normal monster would be incapable of doing this but not for a Big Sister.

This made the Rogue even more dangerous to the Family than Zeta had originally thought. The Rogue had developed abilities that she doesn't have yet. Not only that, she was also much faster and tougher than Zeta was. Killing the traitor will be a lot more difficult than before.

The fight dragged on for what seemed like hours but was actually less time had passed. The battlefield had also changed without them realizing it because of the intensity and the fact that they were both jumping around and teleporting to avoid each other's attacks. It was no wonder the battle took them to several different areas of Rapture and the two Big Sisters then damaged these places more than it already was.

If any of them were in their right state of mind, they would notice that whenever they seized hold of each other as one of them was about to teleport, the extra weight doesn't disrupt the teleportation and instead took them even farther than the possible distance that one Big Sister could reach with this Plasmid and they winded up somewhere that was far away from Neptune's Bounty because of the combined teleportation.

She was too busy dodging the traitor's fireballs to notice the really loud buzzing swarm of bees that was heading towards her. By the time that she did see the Insect Swarm, it was already pelting the spots where there wasn't any armor with countless stings. Zeta flailed her arms in a desperate attempt to swat away the bugs. She let out a screech as more stings could be felt around her unprotected parts of her body.

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The Big Sister's ear-shattering wail of anguish allowed Siren to return to her senses. Shaking her head once more to get rid of any traces of bloodlust that she still had.

She noticed that she and the female Protector were no longer in Neptune's Bounty and there were now in Atlantic Express Depot, the Drafting Room to be more precise. The irony was not lost on the Alpha Big Sister for she recognized this place as one of the starting points to her father's journey to save her. And she could recall from her father's memories that the safehouse of Brigid Tenenbaum was located in this very area. It was also highly doubtful that the German woman had moved the safehouse because it would be extremely dangerous to transfer supplies let alone numerous little girls across the dilapidated city.

"It must have been quite a fight if we ended up here," she commented as she surveyed her surroundings.

Siren was broken from her distraction by her Big Daddy's mental prompting and she jumped from where she was previously standing to avoid the desks thrown at her by the enraged Big Sister. As she was using the desks as springboards to get closer to the Sister, the radio in her ear began to ring, signaling that someone was calling her.

"Excuse me, I have to answer this!" she announced to her enemy for no particular reason other than being polite as she created a thick barricade of ice around herself.

[Siren, where are you?] Batman asked her, a bit of urgency could be heard in his voice if you listen very closely. [Tenenbaum had already contacted us. We need to rendezvous with Charles Milton Porter, an ally of hers at some place called Arcadia. She had already sent us the coordinates.]

"I'm at the Atlantic Express Depot and I quite preoccupied at the moment so I can't really regroup with you!" she replied as she reinforced her ice barrier every time it started to crack. She could still hear the frustrated screech of the Big Sister outside.

[You're still fighting the Big Sister, aren't you?] he half stated and half asked.

"No, we actually set aside our differences and are currently having tea and crumpets!" she exclaimed with as much sarcasm as she could in annoyance, briefly forgetting who she was speaking to. Not wanting to hear the Caped Crusader's response to her rude behavior, she cut the transmission and then willed the ice walls around her to explode outwards, knocking back everything close by including the Big Sister who had become dazed from the sudden blast of hail.

Taking advantage of this, Siren kneed the Big Sister in the stomach and then judo flipped the female Protector over her shoulder. Her enemy's back slammed onto the ground pretty hard and made a small crater.

The Big Sister began to get back up but she started to heave inside of her helmet from the blow to her belly. The Protector ripped off her helmet, breaking the latches that were securing it to get rid of the vomit that accumulated inside. But it was a mistake for her since it left her abnormally pale face exposed for the second time on the same day. And like the first time, a mighty haymaker collided to the Big Sister's cheek and promptly rendered her unconscious.

"Siren to the Justice League," Siren reactivated her communicator, hoping it wasn't the Dark Knight who answered, "Is there anyone that could tell me if Ms. Tenenbaum had changed the location of her safehouse?"

[Siren, this is Zatara,] Siren let out a relieved sigh at that it was the magician instead. [Ms. Tenenbaum had not changed the location of her safehouse. It is still in the same place. Why do you ask?]

"I will be heading there instead since my location is nearby."

[Understood.] the man said before the transmission ended again.

Siren glanced down at the face of the unconscious Big Sister. She was slightly tempted to leave the Protector behind but she remembered that they both used to be Little Sisters that were just wandering around Rapture while collecting ADAM with their Big Daddies. She couldn't leave the poor girl in this state. It would make her an easy target for any Splicer that passes by. And leaving the Big Sister to die would make Eleanor no different from the Rapture Family, from her mother.

"I'm really going to regret this," Siren let out a tired sigh as put the Big Sister's arm over her shoulders and held onto it with one hand while she placed her other arm at the Sister's waist. Most of the Big Sister's weight leaned on Eleanor's side as she was being supported to her feet. Siren would have carried her on her shoulder but that will make her companion's injuries become harder to heal. Besides, it won't take that long for her to heal so the English girl could just carry her on her shoulder then if she doesn't wake up by that time that is.

The two Sisters began their perilous trek across the railway system to reach the woman who was responsible for the cruelty done unto them but was now their only hope.

This was definitely not going to end well for both of them.

AN:

For those wondering why was Aquaman bulletproof like Superboy, his skin is a lot denser than normal humans that it's nearly bulletproof. If bullets had hit his skin instead of his armor, it would leave a small cut behind after bouncing off.

Superboy and Aquaman was able to beat the Big Sister relatively fast because they had the element of surprise on their side. Aquaman was at the home field advantage because he was underwater and he has the strength to rival even Superman's when he's in contact with water while Superboy was physically stronger than a Big Sister as I had stated in the previous chapters.

To the people who think that Aquaman is a lame superhero, f*** you! He is awesome and if you read the new comic books, you can see for yourself.

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