Chapter 24: Sleeper Cells

Two bodies. One mind. Two sets of thoughts completely intermingling as if in conversation. Two sets of senses giving information to the one mind. Commands issued to both bodies instructing them on how to act and what to do based on it all. Two bodies which could act in perfect unison or in exquisite combination to see a task was done.

And, on top of all that, a firm mental link to the control cluster that ran this entire cloud.

It was certainly an experience which Batman felt he would never forget. He could still differentiate his thoughts from Diana's, but barely, and she could hear all of them. It was a good job he had long since trained his brain to focus. There were certain type of thoughts which all men experienced that he didn't want to share with her, particularly not now, when they had more important things to do.

Flash and Shayera had already departed for the base of Imperium operations in this cloud. They would be there imminently, ready to make one hell of a distraction. Ready to get the people of Metropolis out of there, to both save them and seriously weaken the Imperium. For Metropolis' sake, that needed to happen fast.

Through the link with the core Batman knew that the assault on the city had begun again. He had seen the Imperium launch it, but there had been nothing that he and Wonder Woman could do to stop that, even if they had Martian aide. The Imperium still had too much mental energy on their side for that. They maybe still would once their human batteries were taken away from them, unless they lost that energy too.

It was time for the Martians to begin their part in the plan.

"J'onn, start the process now," Batman gave that order, though he heard it being issued from Wonder Woman's mouth at the same time as his. "Its time we locked the Imperium from their power. Its time we block their link to the core."

J'onn nodded in response, a nod that rippled back through his fellow Martians. They were all ready for this, they were all ready to do what it took to become truly alive again, even the ones who had been wounded in the Imperium's latest attack. They didn't need any more orders, or any more instructions, not even from J'onn or M'vall. They all just got straight to work, their eyes glowing bright as they knelt, reaching out telepathically to begin the process of creating a heavy duty mental shield around every Imperium they could. Thankfully they were aware enough to form a tight nit group as they did so. There were an awful lot of these Martians relatively speaking, a lot for Batman and Wonder Woman to try to defend on their own.

No doubt the Imperium would pick up on that fact soon. No doubt when they did they wouldn't just sit back and continue to watch. Batman knew that the Imperium would be coming soon, coming to try and kill the Martians before that cage could be created. Wonder Woman knew it too, whether from her own reasoning or from the fact that she could knew everything that he did.

"How long until they get here, do you think?"

She didn't ask the question verbally. She didn't have to. Batman heard it as soon as the thought ran through her mind. He responded in a similar manner.

"Not long. We need to be ready."

"We will be, Bruce. Despite how crazy this day has been, we'll be ready. Hera, its only been a few hours since I was sat on the Watchtower thinking it'd be more months before you came back, and then all of this..."

"I know, Princess. I know. And after this there'll no doubt be even more that we need to discuss. But this thing is not over yet."

"Don't I know it," Diana returned. She said so just as the link showed them a distant reaction from the Imperium, meaning there was no need for her to say any more. Batman and Wonder Woman could both tell that the Martians work had only just begun, but it was apparently enough to have caught the Imperium's attention. They couldn't possibly know what the Martians were up to yet, but it would only be a matter of time. J'onn, the Martians, even Flash and Shayera would have to make the most of what they did have. But Diana summed it up perfectly. "We really don't have long."

With the Imperium using the same control core that Bats and Wondy were now hooked into to drive their assault on Metropolis, it had been easy for Flash and Shayera to get directions to where the bad guys had set up their base camp. To ensure that they got there before the Imperium could use the cloud to move it, Flash had done all of the running, Shay hunched on his back just as J'onn had been earlier. She hadn't been too happy at the lack of dignity to it, but with Flash threatened to not make any quips about it now or ever or else receive a mace to the face she had agreed to it.

And now they were here.

Flash knew that it was all just a mental creation of the Imperium or some doohickey like that, but it still looked an impressive – and imposing – sight to him. It was a flashback that Wally didn't particularly want, too. This base the Imperium had set up, it looked almost exactly like one of their giant, sun-blocking factories from when that other bunch had invaded the Earth before, when they had almost taken the entire world.

But then, despite it all, the Justice League had saved the world back then, with just moments to spare. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all that this was so reminiscent of that day.

Perhaps they had real hope yet.

"Come on, Wally, let's go," Shayera beckoned him on with a steely edge to her voice. She was clearly back in full fight mode. She was definitely mentally ready for this. Since arrival here she had taken to the air, hovering right beside Flash as they both took a second to observe what lay before them. Shayera had clearly seen enough already. With her mace pointing ahead of her, she was gesturing to an entrance half way up the thing. There were many entrances, but with no Imperium anywhere in sight that one would be as good as any. The villains were clearly busy trying to kill everyone to think they needed to defend their home base from a counter strike. Too bad.

Now it was Shay's turn to do all the carrying. Taking flight properly, she had them both heading straight for her chosen opening.

But how long it would take before the Imperium did start defending themselves was anybody's guess. Flash's was certainly that it wouldn't take long.

But just so long as it was long enough for them to get the Metropolis citizens clear, Flash would be happy. It was a shame that he doubted that that would happen.

This shouldn't take hours, but it wouldn't be done in seconds either, even if it was only temporary. J'onn and all of the other Martians were working together through their telepathy. They weren't anywhere near as completely linked as Batman and Wonder Woman were, but their telepathy gave them enough to do what they had to do. With over a hundred of them around and the Imperium distracted with trying to wipe out Metropolis, they ought to have the mental strength to create the cage precisely according to plan.

The Imperium's link to the cloud's core was deep rooted from hundreds of years of use. Breaking it, no matter how temporarily, would not be easy. It needed all of the Martians to focus. It needed them to ignore the reward awaiting them if they pulled this off, in order to help ensure that they could pull this off. Thankfully they seemed able. Five hundred years of hiding, of living only as mental traces was clearly too much for them. The Martians were ready to live again.

And J'onn was helping them to do it. As the only Martian to truly survive – and defeat – the enemy, he was the one that the rest looked up to. He was their leader in the efforts, even more so than M'vall. He was the one who the rest drew strength from.

For he was the one who truly knew that he could trust the others. He was the one who truly knew that all of Earth's heroes would do everything in their power to save the Martians as well as themselves. He was the one who truly knew that Batman would live up to his promise.

The Martians just had to seal their end of the equation. Step one was creating a cage. Step two was tracking down every Imperium loose and dangerous in the cloud. Step three, the key, was ensuring that they got all of those Imperium trapped in it, that they got their power removed.

Right now they were already onto step two, but getting there had been the easy bit. This was the part when the Imperium really had the chance to detect what the Martians were up to. This was the part where J'onn was truly glad that they had Batman and Wonder Woman in place to protect them.

This would be the part where the Imperium would almost certainly come to try and kill them.

The attack on Earth's city went on. The Earth people's army had defeated their tidal wave, but that had just been the distraction to ensure the cloud got safely from the waters. Now it was clear of that ocean. Now the efforts to destroy the city were well and truly in progress all over again. It would take skill, cunning and plenty of raw power to batter through the desperate defences of the ones they knew to be called the Justice League, but they knew that they had plenty of all that in abundance.

They knew that there would be no stopping them. The cloud was not something that would need to stop and rest. The Earth heroes were. There was no way that the Imperium could lose this. Overconfidence could have been there weakness, if their confidence wasn't justly deserved.

The Imperium knew exactly what they could do. They had no doubts, not even as they felt that the Martians were attacking again. The Martians were trying to shut out their access to the core. They were trying to block their control. The Imperium couldn't allow that to happen. They would not. They needed that control. They needed it to punish this world, and to then try and track down their fellows who survived their leaders destruction. They needed it as much as they needed to go on living.

And so it was time to take exactly that away from the Martians. It was time for those Martians to die. At long last, their time was up. There would be no escaping this time, no place for the Martians to go and hide. With the Martians utilising their efforts on trying to strip the Imperium's power, the Imperium had some extra capacity. They could afford to send forth their army. Their best soldiers this time.

It was time for the Martians – and any humans helping them – to suffer. It was quite apt really. The Martians had decided to help the Earthlings to try and save their world. Well they could just burn along with that human city.

The Imperium leader would be avenged.

And the two Earth heroes they had also just detected entering their encampment could be the first to die.

They'd made it inside. Shay had set him down straight away as they ventured onwards, and ventured fast. They had countless people to find, and a whole bunch of bad guys to beat.

This place was a total maze. Flash and Shay, carefully sticking together, had been running around in circles already, and there hadn't been any signs of anybody. But that could all change quickly. So very quickly.

And it was about to. Flash rounded yet another bend within the organic looking place, leading Shayera all the way. Flash had thought that he had seen just about everything today. After the whole adventure of learning about the cloud in the first place, finding that the Martians were still alive and then the Wondy and Bats incident, he definitely hadn't expected to see anything else today that would make him stop and stare.

But then he saw the moving pictures. He couldn't exactly call it the footage or the film, not when it was no doubt being broadcast by some psychic mumbo-jumbo. But the pictures were there, and they were no doubt live. None of it was something Flash particularly wanted to see.

The cloud was definitely out of the ocean. And it was in the city again, causing all sorts of chaos. By heck, they had to stop it now. There was no sound, but the pictures were so vivid that Flash could practically hear the peoples screams.

"We fought it before, Wally," Shayera whispered from beside him. Flash quickly glanced at her, seeing that she was as lost in that imagery as he had been. "The League, on the outside I mean. We might not have found a good way to beat it, but we could hold it off. They can do it again. Superman, Atom... GL. They can buy us the time we need to finish this off, but we have to get going."

"Yeah..." Flash muttered back. "Yeah, let's move..."

But they didn't get the chance to move far. Flash had only begun to turn to get on the hunt again when the shot came whizzing in. Thank heavens he was the fastest man alive. Otherwise there was no way in hell that he would have been able to dodge it. Even more thankfully, Flash was quick enough to get Shay out of the shots path too.

But the message was immediately clear, before Flash had even bothered to look up and see them. The Imperium knew they were here. More, they had come to kill them.

Flash didn't wait to react. The corridor they were in was long and narrow, but with his rapid acceleration and phenomenal top speed the Imperium filling both ends of the corridor still couldn't hit him. The problem was Flash hadn't the room to fight on the run. He could take away their range advantage, but he was definitely in a battle.

Shayera was too. Flash had moved her in a hurry, dropping her off at the opposite end of the corridor that he wound up at himself. He wasn't watching her, engaged as he was with the enemy that had just tried to blow his block off, but he had heard her war cry. She had clearly engaged the Imperium who had emerged at the other end of the corridor, just as Flash had predicted she would, surely utilising the power of her mace to help protect herself from any shots sent at her.

But they were both fighting to survive now. The hunt for the Metropolis citizens had just gotten a whole lot more active.

Just so long as it hadn't gotten slower. From what Flash had just seen of the outside world, they had to be almost as fast as Flash usually was. But hey, Flash wasn't only usually that fast. He had his nickname for a reason after all.

They had taken roaming, ready positions at either end of the gathering of Martians, both keeping all of their individual senses peeled for any sign that the Imperium were coming. With their linked minds, it meant that they could see all directions at once, that they could keep all of the bases covered to keep the Martians safe.

Batman had a batarang in hand, ready to throw at the first sign of movement. Via the link, he knew that Wonder Woman was also ready, on the balls of her feet and set to take off at a moments notice in any direction, fists primed to unleash the full power of her strength.

The Martians had gone deathly quiet behind them, sinking into the powers of their minds as they got to work trying to cage the Imperium. Batman liked that. It meant he could hear even more of the environment. That he could be even more ready. It had been a few minutes since the Martians had begun their unenviable task. Surely, then, the Imperium would start to recognise that soon. Their attack on Metropolis was dependent on their own link to the cloud's core. They couldn't be senseless enough not to notice when that power started to get taken away.

"They won't be," Diana reacted, having heard the train of thoughts that were running through Batman's head, even though he hadn't meant them as conversation. Even the most trained mind couldn't block out everything. "They may be lost, but they're not stupid. Unfortunately."

"Even a stupid killer is deadly," Batman philosophically returned. It was then that he sensed something through the core. They could not see the Imperium's thoughts by any means, but the core was able to show them when the Imperium utilised its power. Batman only just had time to think a few words between that and the result. "They're coming, Princess."

And by the time he had thought that last syllable, the Imperium army had arrived. Scores of them, upon scores, emerging from the ground as their comrades had before them. And not just from any one side. They were coming from all sides. They wanted the Martians dead, the Martians who could do nothing to defend themselves. They meant business, real business this time. They meant to end this.

Once again, Diana summed it all up as both Batman and Wonder Woman sprang into action before the Imperium had even become to fully materialise.

"Then its time to show them they'd have been better staying lost in those crags on Mars."

Shayera roared as she swung her mace hard, tearing straight through the nearest Imperium's gelatinous form. There wasn't as many of them there as there could so easily have been but in the cramped space, and with the Imperium's ability to reform their shape, that didn't particularly matter. This fight wasn't an easy one.

Shayera would fight anyone though, and she would never give up. Besides, she had beaten these guys before. She could beat them again.

Through the crowd one of the Imperium tried to hit her with another blast of it's weapon. Shayera saw it coming. She quickly adjusted the mace with an incredible flick of her wrist, getting it in place just in time. The shot deflected off the mace's aura of power, ricocheting straight into another of the Imperium posse. The first bad guy, though, didn't seem to get the message that firing his gun in such a confined space wasn't the best idea. He shot again, but once again Shayera got the mace in to block it away.

However, this time the ricochet didn't hit another of the Imperium. In fact it smashed straight into the floor by Shayera's feet, making both her and the nearest enemies jump out of the way. A trail of smoke was issued forth from the very realistic imaginary realm as the floor smouldered. That meant that, for a second, no one paid attention to the damage that had been done.

Instead, Shayera was too busy ducking out of the way as an Imperium swung a melee blow straight for her throat, also sending out an attack of her own into the villains gut as she evaded. Lashing out, she allowed the mace to embed in the gloop of that Imperium, using it to swing herself around, both tearing that Imperium further in half and unleashing a hard kick against the two nearest cohorts. They both fell, Shayera's mace becoming free as that first soldier was left a puddle at her feet.

Knowing the Imperium's ability to reform, Shayera was careful not to step in it as she readied her poise for her next attack. She even allowed herself to drift back into the smoke coming from the floor, giving herself some sort of cover as she took the merest fraction of a second to choose her next target. It was a good job that that was the move she had instinctively taken. It was doing so that gave her her plan.

Her foot planted exactly where that weapon had struck the floor just moments ago, except it didn't just plant. That shot must have weakened the structure. It was too detailed an imagination to be able to hold up to the blow. The floor was crumbling beneath her feet, not enough for her to fall through, but enough to make an opening to the chamber below.

Shayera didn't look down there for long, but with her hawk-like vision and keen detective skills she was able to see enough in an instant. Prior to the Imperium attack they had been running around this place for too long without finding where they needed to be. Now Shayera had seen it. She had seen where they needed to go.

Through the crack in the floor she could see the glowing red pods down there in a cavern of vast proportions. The place was big enough to hold more of those pods than Shayera could actually count. Thinking back a few years, she had definitely seen them before. She didn't need to spot the traces of people inside them to know that the people of Metropolis were inside them, with so many that this place must house all of them. She'd found where she and Flash had to go.

But there were still those Imperium in the way. There was just no way around them, and so Shayera would have to fight on to get through. That was why she flung herself back into the battle, swinging the mace hard and fast to smash through the 'heads' of all the Imperium nearby before sliding to the side to avoid a retaliatory blow towards her guts.

That action left her relatively open to another of the aliens. He dove forward, using his altering shape to grasp her from range. He wrapped himself around her, pinning both her arms and her wings to her tight. That wasn't all. He was squeezing hard before Shayera could even try and throw him off, making her already start to feel it getting more difficult to breathe. Worse, she knew that there was no way in hell that she would suffocate. If she allowed this guy to hold her like this, then one of the other Imperium would just shoot her dead long before that would happen.

She had to act while the ones that were in place to shoot her were distracted by the small matter of having taken her mace in their brains. And she had to do something drastic. It was the only way.

Her wings and arms may be clamped beyond movement by the surprisingly strong Imperium, but she could still move her wrists. The mace was still clutched firmly in her grip, the only problem was her own proximity. She would just have to be careful not to hit anything too vital of her own...

With a trademark war cry, Shayera swung the mace with as much force as she could muster. It struck home, hard. It hit the band of Imperium matter wrapped around her midriff, but it also hit hard into her own ribs. The blow was strong, strong enough to make the Imperium release her in its pain. But Shayera also felt plenty of her own pain. Considering she was just meant to be a load of brainwaves right about now, her ribs were sure screaming in pain. She couldn't help but double over. Thankfully she was still aware enough to not leave it there.

She ducked even further, just in time. The other Imperium had finally got back together enough to be pulling their triggers. Shayera hit the deck, the shots flying just fractions away from her still flattened wings, sailing straight into the Imperium's own man.

They were a callous bunch, it seemed. They were utterly devoted to their fallen leader, but it seemed that for each other that was a different story. The Imperium didn't care that they had just consigned one of their own to a final non-existance. Instead, they just continued firing, trying to track Shayera's movement.

Luckily she had seen it coming. She had fought enough bad guys in her time, dealt with enough bands of killers and psychopaths to know that she could never rest on her laurels with them around. She was rolling as soon as she had hit the deck, away from the shots until she was in a position to do something about them.

But even as she rolled, the new plan hit her. The better plan. Why hadn't she thought of it before? She'd already established the floors of this place were weak. It was time to usethat.

Shayera flung the mace as she rolled, sending it crashing down ahead, right in her path. Right into that same spot where the shot had hit earlier. It was a gamble. This could have easily not gone to plan. It could easily have gotten her killed. Perhaps another day it would have done.

But not this day. This day it worked.

The floor collapsed under the blow, but Shayera didn't stop rolling. She fell as the chasm opened. She fell through it, down into the vast chamber below, the exact place that she was trying to get to. The thing about having unclipped wings, though, is that you never need to be afraid of falling. Shayera had only just gone through the floor before she took flight, hovering there just beneath what was left of it. She was through.

But she wasn't alone in this escapade. Now that she was out of that corridor, there was no one to cover her partner's back. It didn't matter if he couldn't fly himself. She wasn't leaving Flash behind.

"Flash!" she yelled with as much volume as she could muster to make sure the Speedster could hear. He had to hear. "Flash, down here! Run! I've found them! Flash!"

Where was he? Hell, for the fastest man alive he was taking his time getting there. Shayera was starting to get worried. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be–

"Woah!" Flash was screaming as he ran full pelt through the hole. Thankfully Shayera was ready. She had gotten so instantly worried for him that time had practically stood still. Thankfully as the red blur came to view it started moving again. It was just what was needed. Gravity was a great equiliser. Flash may be the fastest man alive, but he couldn't fall as fast as he could run. That gave Shayera all the opportunity she needed. Swooping, she managed to grasp hold of a flailing foot before the man could get out of reach.

The Imperium weren't slow to react themselves. In next to no time they were at the edges of the hole Shayera had made, but flight was a power that they didn't have. Here Shayera held the trump cards. She was flying fast and evasively, heading deeper into the chamber. No doubt the Imperium would be flooding to occupy and guard this place soon, but now that she and Flash were here Shayera knew that they wouldn't need long. After all, Fate and the others had gotten Batman extracted quickly enough before. What difference would it make if they were shifting hundreds if not thousands of people at once instead of one?

"Err Shay, are we were I think we are?" Flash was calling out to her as he dangled down below her, not sounding overly happy at being carried upside down over such a big space with so many people shooting at them, especially when he couldn't run. "Are those big old party balloons actually the funky and unwelcoming holiday homes?"

Trust Wally to have a colourful way of putting it. Shayera actually felt a slight smile forge at the edges of her lips, despite everything.

"Its the people of Metropolis," Shayera filled Flash in with the serious facts. "We've made it. Now we just have to hold out until Fate can get them all out."

But Shayera had only just said the words when she saw Imperium starting to appear inside the chamber, on all sorts of its many levels of access to those rows of pods. Worse, they were all instantly trying to bring their weapons to bear on the still airborne duo. Shayera desperately scanned for some sign of a place where she could set Wally down. Yes, in here flight was probably her best option of staying alive for long enough, but the same wasn't true for the Flash. His speed was by far his best option.

Yet still he managed to not lose too much of his trademark joviality.

"You know, this is the first time ever that I wished there was actually someone quicker than me. How long can it take to say 'abra kadabra' a few hundred times?"

Shayera didn't know what to say to that. She just hoped that it wasn't as long as she feared.

She still couldn't believe what was happening today. Magic she could handle, but all this sci-fi stuff went clear over her top hat, never mind her head.

But Zatanna hadn't the time now to begin trying to understand it all properly. She didn't even have the chance to reach out and keep an eye out for how Bruce was doing now that he had gone back in there. The League's magicians were all gathered together still, all sat in their empowering circle, all concentrating on what they could sense via their link to Shayera. Plenty was going on inside that cloud, that much was obvious, but the most important event had just occurred.

For it was in that moment that Zatanna suddenly sensed that Shayera and the Flash were no longer alone against the Imperium. She suddenly sensed the presence of scores of other people around them, other humans. This was it. They'd found them.

"Everyone, this is it," Dr. Fate made the confirming announcement in his role as head of the circle. "The people taken from this city are now in our grasp. Let us return them to where they belong whilst we have the chance."

Neither Zatanna nor any of the others said anything. They all responded purely via their actions. Dr. Fate had said it right. It was time to bring those people home.

The two invaders were not dead yet but the Imperium had complete faith in the squad they had sent to end them. Progress was already being made. More time was all that was needed before those two faced their end. The exact same could be said for the city beyond the cloud too. It was only a matter of time.

The Imperium's confidence was strong, just like their power. Just a second later, though, that thought was seeming to have come seconds too early. It was then that they sensed it. It was then that they realised their power wasn't as strong as it had been just moments ago.

It was then that they realised that their human batteries were disappearing. They didn't know how, and they didn't care. They just knew that somehow those two invaders were freeing the Imperium's empowering captives.

They just knew that those two invaders had to be killed before any more power was lost.

She was embroiled in all sorts of acrobatics but still Shayera was fighting. In between dodging shots she was taking out as many Imperium as she could. Flash, darting around from the bottom level upwards, was doing the same, perhaps even more so. Unlike Shayera he had nothing else to really concentrate on. She had to not only fight, but to make sure that she remained close enough to all of these Metropolis citizens frozen in their pods.

There was no contact with the League magicians who were the real hope for those people. She may have been the anchor that they were using to detect the Metropolis citizens, but she couldn't hear them directing her, couldn't hear any status reports from them. Whatever messaging there was was truly one way. Instead she had to rely on what she could see. That meant just dodging and fighting wasn't enough. It meant that she also had to scout as she flew, to ensure that none of the innocent were missed. They couldn't afford to leave anyone behind. Shayera wouldn't leave anyone behind.

It was thanks to that scouting that she was able to see as the citizens began to be taken clear of this place. Even through the red shrouds of their pods, Shayera saw people begin to vanish. She saw as the magicians set them free.

But there was no time to celebrate. She had to fight on. Even as she watched the first humans being taken out of this hell Shayera was hurling her mace through at least four nearby Imperium troops before having to quickly fly away again as shots began raining in.

Things kept going like that for what felt like an age. The fight was so active, so fluid that in truth Shayera began to lose track of it. There were too many enemies, too many near misses and too many battles for her to do anything other than fight them, especially with keeping watch vital too.

But eventually the good news came. Eventually she saw the very last of those red pods empty. The magicians had done it. They had the last man – or woman – clear.

That just left Flash and herself. Shayera knew that they would be out of here soon, but she also knew they couldn't stop fighting. There was no guarantees that it would only take a second for the magicians to take them out of the cloud. Besides, a second might be all that the Imperium needed.

Shayera swooped again. Now that there were no helpless citizens to keep an eye out for she had quickly looked to spot Flash amongst the alien horde. It wasn't hard to see him, the figure of red and yellow fighting with all those blobs of white and black. Even with his speed, the foes were beginning to surround him. Shayera knew that she couldn't let that happen. She had picked out a bunch who had been sneaking up behind Flash as he was literally blowing another group away with a whirlwind caused by his swirling arms. That sneaky bunch weren't sneaking for long. Soon they were left as a mace ridden puddle.

Shayera's howl as she had swung the mace alerted Flash to her presence. He turned to look back at her even offering her a cheeky wink.

"Cheers for the assist, Shay," he called, arms still whirling. "How we doing on the headcount? We down to se..."

Flash's sentence never got finished. He might have still been saying the words, but there was no way that Shayera could hear them. For even as he had been talking, he had gone. He had disappeared from right before Shayera's eyes, fading away into nothing. The magicians had gotten him clear too.

That meant that Shayera was alone here now. With Batman, Diana and the Martians apparently having their own way out, she was the only one left for the magicians to extract. But she still had to survive long enough to be extracted.

Seeing Flash be taken clear had caused her guard to drop for only a merest fraction of a second, but it was a fraction long enough to allow the Imperium in. The group she had only just minced had been reforming quickly behind her, but they hadn't bothered becoming the band of individual humanoids as they normally would. In fact, they stayed as a blob on the ground, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous. Stretching out and still with great strength, they latched hold of Shayera's ankles as she tried to fully take to the air once again. She didn't make it. Off guard and not possessing the Imperium's combined strength, there was nothing she could do to stop the Imperium slamming her down hard into the ground.

The pain hit her hard and fast as she whacked down head first. It took her a second to blink it away and look up again. By then, those Imperium had reformed properly. Worse, they were now all stood over her, each one with their deadly weapons retrieved. They looked so coldly malicious as they all took aim Shayera knew there was no getting out of this one. Too many of them were too close for her to be able to evade or fight them all.

But it was in that exact moment that she felt the first sensation coming to her from those magicians in all of this. They were getting her out too.

It was just a matter of who took her out first. It was just a question of whether she made it back out to the physical world, or whether these Imperium destroyed her mind for good.

She saw the faint red glows emerging from the Imperium's weapons. Then her entire world went black...

A/N:

Review time, friends! Fire them in please!