This world was born out desperation, and out of righteousness. The actions of Doctor Fate and Klarion the Witch Boy were set to save their world from falling to Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips. Old hatchets were buried for the sake of a greater good. The actions of Magneto were to change his world in retribution for it wronging him and his kind. While that world was amalgamated with another before we could see its impacts, we can see bits and pieces of what Erik Lensherr had used the Infinity Gems to do throughout the Amalgam.
Professor X was never the brother of Magneto by blood. Perhaps their bond was like that in spirit, causing Magneto to make that change to his reality. Had Charles died as Erik gained his powers, no one could stand in his way to reshape the world to benefit mutantkind. In this world, the Fatal Compass and Khlarion X battled for decades to uphold the balance between Order and Chaos. But one does not fight an abstract concept. Khlarion would influence humanity to do nonsensical things with his telepathy, and then create inane scenarios for the world to work through by assistance of Chaos Magic, the power of random potential and erratic possibilities. All the while, the Fatal Compass served as a mystical janitor of sorts to clean up the messes his brother caused. This balance allowed for magic to be kept under wraps from the rest of the world, at least for a while.
One of the most impactful acts of the chaotic demon child was the influx of Metamutants into the world. They had always existed in some fashion throughout history, Wolfhawk and Stormbird were examples of such. But they were few and far between. That was at least until the early 90s, when Khlarion toyed with extradimensional forces to create a genetic bomb of sorts. Once it exploded, it awakened what he dubbed the "X-Gene", which gave around 5% of the world natural superhuman powers. Bear in mind, this is completely unrelated to the Inhuman Amazons doing the same thing to an even smaller percentage of the population.
Since then, most of the fights between Erik and Khlarion were over how the world reacted to their sudden influx of existence. Humans are not too keen on the acceptance of people different than them, particularly when they have the potential to level buildings. Not wanting to repeat history, both Khlarion and Erik were dedicated to protecting these new children of the atom. Though given their mystical positions, both acted completely opposite to the temperaments of their Mutant counterparts. The Fatal Compass was the one to work to maintain peaceful coexistence and keep humanity from eradicating them, while Khlarion X would warp various metamutants into those of even greater power to cause chaos to eventually try and reign supreme as the dominant species on Earth. Given where we are now, it can be easily assumed who was better at their job.
Over the 30 years since the "X-Bomb" went off, humanity was forced to accept that superpowered individuals were here, and they just had to deal with it. Stark Labs was formed in the pursuit of research on these new abilities. Government agencies such as SHIELD, the Super-Human Intelligence, Enforcement, and Legislation Directive, work to minimize damage caused by those with powers through specialized training or if necessary, containment. And laws were passed to allow for professional use of metamutant abilities and the protection of civil liberties. It was a far from perfect system, but it maintained order.
Order was established and things were peaceful, the worst the world had to deal with was the stray news headline talking about the Blind Bat. Then, Thunderman showed up. Now humanity knew the Norse Gods and aliens to an extent, were real. Sergeant Speed came back from the dead, a giant green monster empowered by several Gods of different pantheons showed up, and the son of the founder of Stark Labs was blown up and rebuilt as a cyborg. The world was becoming so much larger than Fate had initially hoped. All the while, he'd been raising three kids, one of them in far away from the other two.
Things continued to get even more chaotic under Erik's supervision. A series of explorers traversed an ancient Egyptian tomb, and upon activation of the Orb of Ra, gained elemental abilities and resummoned a powerful pharaoh. These explorers, called the Elemental Four, would then also find the king of some version of Atlantis, and revealed the kingdom's existence to the world. Then Wonder Crystal returned with the same time a new, different race of superpowered individuals showed up, the Inhuman Amazons. A human air force pilot by the name of Carol Jordan, thought missing, came back from space with a collection of advanced alien technology beyond human comprehension. And worst of all, a cosmic force of destruction known as Brainiactus nearly destroyed the Earth, only to be fought back by its own herald, the Silver Martian. Throughout all of this, the Lords of Order forbade the Fatal Compass to interfere. The 2010's had made things much more complicated, much to the Fatal Compass's chagrin, and to Khlarion X's sheer delight. None of that was even caused by the boy, all the demon child had to do was watch and let his brother piece an ever-chaotic world back together.
And then there came a day unlike any other. The half-brother of Thunderman, Lo-Tal, otherwise known to the world as Loxxi Luthorson had made his claim to conquer the earth. Amassing great resources as a powerful business magnate and arranging a deal with the deep-space tyrant Ghanoseid, Loxxi launched a full-scale invasion of earth with Ghansoseid's Paratauri. The Lords of Order had told Fate that this was the natural order of things, and forced him not to intervene with the consummation of the planet. He had to watch his home, his family, be destroyed all over again.
That was, until the emerging powers of this world assembled right before Fate's very eyes. Thunderman, Blind Bat, Wonder Crystal, Sergeant Speed, Black Orca, Green Marvel, and even the Silver Martian, inspired to fight for humanity by the Elemental Four, banded together to fight back against Loxxi's invasion, and they sent the alien drones packing back into the deep void of space. They fought for the safety of the world when he could not. Old friends from a bygone age had returned just when he needed them to. Eventually those first seven heroes would form a team to protect from otherworldly threats. To avenge the worlds that had fallen before by the threats they faced then. They would call themselves…
The Avengers of Justice
That name stuck for about a week, then the Silver Martian left to explore the universe, partially to get away from the Blind Bat. The Martian was a telepath, and he was adverse to handle the sheer darkness of thoughts radiating off the Bat. And after that, Victor Stark, the Cyberman, came on to take his place. Stark gave the team proper funding, provided a satellite headquarters, and the team was rebranded in honor of those which came before them. The Fatal Compass had come on as a mystical consultant to help guide the team in the right direction, and as far as the history reforged by necessity goes, the League of Marvelous Individuals was born.
I am the Phantom Watcher, the spirit of Justice bound to be but a witness to this unfolding universe. As your guide, I felt it necessary to inform you on how this universe corrected itself upon amalgamation. With that given context, we can now delve into the present, a day after the return of Loxxi Luthorson, and after the Emerald Witch's deal with the demon child, and we shall see how much the LMI has changed since the birth of the Amalgam.
Within the confines of the Watchtower, only two sat around the meeting table. Diana and Victor were at the tower, while Thor, the Bat, Billy, and Jessica were on a conference call over wireless communicators in their ears. With the ever-busy life of a superhero, one cannot always spend time around a table to discuss politics.
"So, are you back for real Jessica," Matt was the first to ask.
"Yeah, I'm doing some special training on the side to get back to full strength, but I think I'm okay to run missions," Jessica answered between sharp breaths, as she was currently training against Khlarion, sending eldritch emerald blasts against massive dark tentacles emerging from a portal created by the demon child.
"Good…hey you okay Jess? You sound outta breath," Billy chimed in concerned.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Jessica answered taking a knee as she charged up her ring to create a construct of a monstrous figure not to dissimilar to Captain Gamma to hold back the hellish kraken, "I'm just in a middle of a workout. It's a lot of cardio. I gotta go, let me know if you need me, bye!" she said quickly hanging up on the call and returning to the training.
Matt's super hearing didn't exactly work over the phone, so he didn't know what was going on the other end, "Well, she seems in better spirits, and hopefully in better physical condition."
"Alright, we're done with her. Let's talk about the important stuff," Victor chimed in impatiently. He wanted to get straight to the subject of Loxxi.
"Yes, well Loxxi is indeed alive, he invaded my cavern and freed Beta Ray Zero," Thor answered full of regret.
"More than 6 months, hot damn! You owe me twenty bucks, Diana," Billy butted in excitedly over the phone.
"Wait, you placed a wager on my brother's life," Thor asked sounding offended.
"We all knew he'd come back, Thor. He fakes his death every few years. I humored Billy because I thought he would've come back sooner," Diana explained somewhat embarrassed.
"I thought it would've taken longer. I'll wire you the rest Banner. Please continue, Thor," Victor added before trying to course correct the meeting again.
Thunderman groaned in annoyance before continuing, "Well, Loxxi mentioned something about a benefactor, he needed to get rid of the Adth Metal because it was upsetting him. Loxxi was planning on forming a "league of his own". He wants the glory of the people by changing world, beating us at our own game so to speak."
"I'll keep a lookout for Nygma. Without his company, Loxxi will need someone to gather funding discretely," the Blind Bat responded.
Victor rolled his eye in response to the Bat's posturing. "Look Bats, I know the twig in the question mark covered suit is a major player where you're from, but I don't think a guy with as big an ego as Loxxi Luthorson is going to recruit the lawyer of a drugged-up crime boss just to run his money."
"Wesley Nygma is more than just a fundraiser," the Bat interjected, "He kept Bane's entire operation in the shadows for years. He's a brilliant tactician and knows how to manipulate the law to help anyone get away with anything. Every good crime syndicate needs a good lawyer, and he's the best there is."
Cyberman rolled his eye at the Blind Bat's posturing, "Fine, fine. I'll put him on the list of people to look out for. Any other costumed weirdos from Goth's Kitchen we should worry about? What about Jigsaw Face, Lightning Bug, what about that guy on the stilts with the puppet mob boss," Victor asked mockingly as he started entering a few names into the console attached to the table, causing holograms of the mugshots to appear above it. This was for Diana's benefit, as she was the only one who could see them right now.
The Blind Bat stewed in his annoyance for a moment before answering, "The Puppeteer and Don Pinocchio. But he's reformed now, and I keep the marionette in the Batacombs."
"Loxxi wanted to outdo us. He wanted to assemble a league to do our jobs better. But he talked a lot about wanting a family again," Thor explained further, "He wanted to make himself into someone worthy of my respect. Perhaps those he is bringing together have similar relationships with the rest of you."
"Well, he's had weirder plans. There was the frog thing," Billy mused with a stifled chuckle.
"We don't talk about the frog thing," Thor snapped.
"Speaking of animal transformation, he's probably got Minerva working for him. She can match Sarge's speed, Bat's agility, and Diana's strength. She's the perfect muscle if Loxxi wants to counter us. Not to mention she's Jessica's sister if we're really going down the family angle," Victor proposed clinically, as he pulled up an image of the Silver Cheetah to the table. As the name suggests, she had the appearance of an anthropomorphic cheetah with silver fur, clad in a green bodysuit with white lightning bolt detailing.
Diana stared up at the picture of Minerva Maximoff in quiet brooding. A wave of regret and guilt washed over her. She was Fate's eldest daughter, and for a time, a romantic partner of Diana. Minerva's superhuman speed was from a talisman given to her by her father, and she had served on the League for about a month as Miss Mercury. But unbeknownst to anyone, including Fate, within the talisman lay a curse that if the wearer was not of purity, they would become a bloodthirsty monster. Upon the consummation of the love between Diana and Minerva, she lost her humanity. Diana blamed herself, and the twisted mind of Minerva had done the same, and any attempt to save/cure her was in vain.
Diana snapped out of her haze with a tap on her shoulder from a metallic hand, "Hey Diana, you still in there," Stark asked with a concerned look.
"I'm fine, Victor. Thank you," Diana responded, putting on a reassuring smile. She found it therapeutic to smile regardless of her feelings, hoping eventually she'd start being happy again. It had about a 60% success rate, but over time that ratio has deteriorated.
Amidst her rumination, the rest of the League had been discussing other potential members Loxxi could add to his Legion. Names tossed around included Captain Winters and his Rogue Hydras, Attuma Nereus, Vandal Sabre, Circe the High Evolutionary, and the sinister Yon-Sinestro, among others. All were villains that were currently on the run, Blind Bat had proposed the theme of failure meant that he was assembling villains that the League had failed to permanently defeat or capture.
"That doesn't seem quite right," Thor disagreed. "Loxxi isn't so keen on working with so many big egos. He needs to be fully in charge. I have doubts that his mysterious benefactor even exists, maybe it's a red herring to throw us off course."
"Speaking of egos, Black Doom has been awfully quiet lately, what're the odds he's planning something," Victor proposed.
"If Doom was helping Loxxi, he would make himself known. He would probably even call his team the "Legion of Doom"," Blind Bat joked dryly.
"I doubt he's involved, the Four and I have him under control," Billy quickly shot down, he then continued to explain, "Ralph and I created a big force field around Khandatveria that even my magic can't break through. He'll take care of his people like the good little dictator he is, but otherwise he's essentially imprisoned."
Diana then came to a realization, "Imprisoned…maybe he's going for the people we've already beaten, breaking them out, and promising revenge on us if they join him. I mean, he went to the Cavern of Solitude to break out Beta Ray Zero, what's stopping him from going to all the other prisons and picking out hardened criminals like a child in a candy store?"
"Yeah, she's probably right! I feel like we're due for another breakout anyway. You can never hold these kinds of people for too long. Some are just born evil," Victor lamented.
"It's never that simple, crime is almost always a choice made of desperation. Redemption is always possible," the Bat asserted. Had they all been there in person, he may have shot Stark a glare.
Victor rolled his eye at the remark, "Sure, that's why all your little crazies are "locked up" in that sorry excuse for a hospital you call Ryker's Asylum. Even the worst of the worst, Kingpain, Dexter Zsasz, Purple Joke? Crime bosses, serial killers, mind-control rapists, do they all deserve redemption in your…well I can't say eyes, can't I? Sometimes you just have to cut the wire and let them fall."
Brief chatter turned to visceral arguing between the Blind Bat and Cyberman before Billy spoke up, "Guys, shut up!"
Billy's outburst managed to quiet the two, "We've been at this together for too long. We've all agreed we never kill unless we must. You've all taught me there's always another way. I've had my fair share of escaped bad guys, and my guys are a cut above the rest in terms of power. But I handle it the way I think is right. I'm not sure if there's good in everybody, but I'm willing to keep them around to look for it. I'll head back to the Cube of Eternity in the next few days to check on Leading Mind, General Sivana, anybody who could pose a threat by working with Luthorson. I suggest you all do the same." Banner spoke with authority despite his stature. He was committed to their cause, he didn't care for the team squabbling, he just saw a problem, and worked to figure out how to solve it.
"Good call Captain. Stark, we'll discuss this later. I'll assemble a team to guard Ryker's immediately. I'll guard the maximum-security wing myself," the Bat said with a degree of pride in his voice.
"Tell Tim I said "Hi" for me," Billy requested.
"I'll let Pupil know. I should go, I have other calls. Bye." And just like that, the Blind Bat was off the call.
Thor had been quiet during the less civil part of the meeting, but he agreed with the Bat's and Banner's sentiments. "I'll call the Sergeant after this and make sure he investigates the security at the Iron Vault. I'd do it myself, but I have work elsewhere."
"I'll check the Cube this weekend, I have a test to study for tonight. Diana, Vic, Don, I'll talk to you all later," Billy said before hanging up his communicator. He was currently in his college dorm, doing chemistry homework during the entirety of the meeting.
"I suppose that leaves the two of you to go to the One Eyed Wall's little hellscape. I wish you luck. Farewell friends." Thor said before hanging up his comm. He was in the office of a hospital doing paperwork in his Donald Kent visage. When he wasn't flying around, saving people in a cape, he was here in the hospital, saving people on the operating table in a lab coat as a surgeon.
Into his office came his elegant colleague, Dr. Lois Foster, "Hey, Smollberg, we got a heart transplant in the west wing already prepped for you. Ready to hog all the glory," she teased to Donald with a cheeky smile.
Donald stood from his desk an grabbed his cane, "Oh Lois, you truly know how to make a man's day, it's my favorite operation," he replied returning her level of snark. He removed his glasses and set them on his desk. And with that, he followed her to the operating room to begin surgery.
With Thor gone, the only two left in contact at the Watchtower were Diana and Victor. Victor was focused on something he was viewing inside his half mask. Once he finished, he turned to Diana. "Well, I've scheduled a "routine inspection" with our SHIELD liaison. I could use your company incase things go south. You coming with me, Princess?"
Diana was once again snapped out of another haze and quickly nodded, "Yeah, sure. I don't believe I've visited before. I've not heard good things. Although it will be nice to see Agent Barton again."
"Didn't think you remembered his name. Anyway, let's go, punching in the coords now," Victor responded with a shrug as he began typing away at the panel in his arm.
Diana stepped up onto the teleporter in the center of the meeting table and extended her hand down to help Victor up. Victor took her hand and pulled himself onto the pad. With a few more button presses and one final tap, the teleporter whirred. And with a flash of light, Wonder Crystal and Cyberman were gone from the Watchtower, and reappeared at the docks of Star Orleans, Louisiana.
Diana looked around to see a busy city behind them, the bombastic sounds of jazz and the aroma of freshly fried beignets invaded her senses. Her plastered smile felt real for a moment as she felt some of humanity's simple beauty.
Victor took Diana by the shoulder and turned her the other way, "We're on business here, Princess. We're heading out there." The cyborg then pointed out into the ocean. The coast was covered in a thick, murky cloud of fog. But just before the horizon, a faint domelike shape could be made out sitting in the middle of the water. That was the Belle Raft Superhuman Correction Facility. This was SHIELD's most extreme procedure when it came to the containment and "rehabilitation" of Metamutants, or any other enhanced persons by other miscellaneous means.
Diana was unnerved by the ghoulish sight of the yonder prison, "Surely there are better places to house them during their rehabilitation. Why didn't you just teleport us to the prison itself?"
Victor shrugged, "They installed some special tech inside the place that prevents teleportation, a kind of spatial lock. Some metas can teleport, so they took the precaution in case they ever had to keep someone like that in." Cyberman then triggered the repulsor jets in his feet and slowly lifted off the ground, "Let's just fly there, it'll take five minutes tops."
Diana sighed and aimed her hands at the ground. She channeled a gust of wind around her a began to levitate. Guided by the currents of air surrounding her, she flew across the water towards Belle Raft in the distance. Once she took off, Victor followed suit, rocketing behind her.
Cyberman as a great deal faster than Wonder Crystal when it came to aerial mobility, but he wasn't exactly in a rush, and he didn't mind maintaining conversation with Diana. While he found her idealism a little naïve, it was equally admirable to him. There was also the fact she was drop dead gorgeous and he didn't mind looking at such a nice face.
Diana wasn't paying much attention to Victor as they flew to the Raft. Minerva was still on her mind, in addition to the weight of all her other responsibilities. She'd been working with Amanda Fury and the higher ups at SHIELD for years to do what's best for her fellow Inhumans. She was also the face of international efforts by the LMI, being the usual hero sent to handle major disturbances in southern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She had the largest ground to cover because she was the most versatile. Amazonian physiology, millennia of combat training, and mastery of the elements; earth, wind, fire and water, made her comparable in power to Thunderman and Captain Gamma.
But with that power came with lots of unwanted attention. If she could be that powerful, to have the potential of a god, then so could anyone of the same blood, and thus have the same potential for destruction. At least that's what the common person would think. There was an even greater pressure to set a good example for her sisterhood, to show the world that the Inhuman Amazons are a force for good, to be the statuesque symbol of perfection anyone could aspire, and that level of extreme expectations she set for herself was overwhelming to her.
But nobody can be perfect, Diana knew she had surely made some mistakes beyond the ones she already ruminated over, and the other just slipped through the cracks. Eventually they would come back to haunt her. But for sake of those she cared about, Diana suffered in silence, putting on the smile she needed to show to let everyone around her that things were going to be okay. She held back a lot of herself from the League, the only ones she confided with were Sarge, her brother in arms and best friend, and oddly enough, the Blind Bat. His enhanced senses always let him know how she was truly feeling.
As the two neared closer to the prison, Diana felt another wave of unease hit her, fully independent of the crashing waves across the ocean beneath them. "Victor, doesn't this place seem a bit extreme? A manmade prison island seems excessive," Diana proposed as they landed at the edge of the Raft. It was smaller than expected up close, but that wasn't to say it was small. It was roughly the size and shape of an oil rig, with concrete pillars jutting down into the murky depths to match.
"This is the place for the most dangerous criminals in the world. They gotta be kept far off from the rest of the world so they can't hurt the normal people. The best armor from danger is a cage around it," Stark explained cynically. "My worst enemies are locked up here, at least the ones that aren't still running around. It's the only place I trust to hold them."
Before Diana could give a response, the front entrance of the prison opened. Large, steel, sliding doors receded into the walls. Out from it came a man in a sharp black suit, dark sunglasses, and a head of snow-white hair. "Good afternoon Mr. Stark, Ms. Amaquelin. My name is Agent Phil Faraday, I'll be your new liaison to SHIELD effective immediately." Faraday spoke with firm authority, but with an underlying tone of friendliness.
Victor raised an eyebrow, "New liaison, what happened to Barton?"
"Agent Rick Francis Barton, codename: Eagleeye, has been promoted to Level 7, beyond my level of clearance. All I know is he's doing specialized missions for Director Fury," Faraday answered walking up to the two and extending out his hand, "I want to put aside any worries, I don't want to get in the way of what you're doing. I'm only here to help."
Diana smiled cordially and shook Phil's hand, "We'll it's always nice to make new friends. It's good to meet you, Agent. We should get going into Belle Raft. We have the suspicion a breakout may be happening soon, and we just want to check the security," she explained looking back into the fog. "Let's continue discussion inside."
Agent Faraday nodded and led Diana and Victor into the complex. The doors slammed shut behind them with a loud metallic clang. Victor flinched at the noise and started tapping the side of his helmet, "Hey Phil, I'm not getting any signal. My GRID's offline."
"Another security measure, Mr. Stark. All communication in and out of the prison are sent through a discrete frequency, anything is jammed courtesy of signal jammers from Stark Labs. So, you'll have to thank yourself for that. They implemented them after we saw they worked on telepaths. It's how we were able to contain Calvin Cizko, he was one of your guys, right Ms. Amaquelin?" Faraday asked as they went through a series of security measures.
Diana felt uneasy at the mention of him, "Yes, Mr. Psycho was certainly very dangerous. He's one I'm glad is still locked up here."
"We have the best security and superhuman containment systems in the world. Escape is nigh impossible; you truly have nothing to worry about," Faraday reassured.
"You guys really keep my pockets full, with all the tech you're buying from Stark Labs," Victor commented with a smirk.
"Director Fury believes in showing support in the ways that benefit both sides, it fosters a team mentality," Faraday answered, "Speaking of which, I have to mention that I am a huge fan of your early work Ms. Amaquelin. Those old MSA comics inspired me to join SHIELD. I jumped at the chance to get this position so I could finally have the pleasure to meet you."
Diana was flattered by Faraday's geeking out over her, "Oh, well thank you, Agent."
"I also collect those old MSA Trading Cards. I was almost able to get a full vintage set. Only missed out on one that got discontinued. It'd mean a lot if you could sign my card of you," Faraday requested with a goofy grin, despite his age, the man still seemed starstruck working alongside Diana.
Diana snickered, "Alright, once we get out of here, I'll sign it. I'm intrigued to see what reference they used for the cards. I had my fair share of different outfits back then."
"It was the one with the star-spangled bathing suit and the eagle brasserie, your "Prototype Costume", they call it on the card," Faraday answered sheepishly.
"Okay, you're gonna have to show these to me, Phil," Victor interjected, his interests piqued.
Blush crept across Diana's face before she playfully punched Victor in the shoulder, making a loud clang upon contact with his armored body.
After going through a myriad of other security measures amidst this whole conversation, the three of them arrived at a large elevator. Faraday scanned a key card against a wall panel, and the elevator doors opened, all three then walked inside as they began their descent to the real prison underwater beneath the Raft, "All the containment cells are below. Anyone specific you want to check on, or do you want to look at every single one?"
Victor thought for a second before answering, "Take us to the Toymandarin."
Faraday nodded and hit a button to send them to one of the lowest floors. The elevator et out a droning hum before slowly gliding down the rails of the shaft. Any natural light faded as the elevator plunged beneath the sea into the murky depths where the prisoners lie.
Diana had never heard of this Toymandarin before, "I'm sorry, the who?"
"His name is Shu Winwu, Diana. You could call him my nemesis," Victor began to explain, his expression now a thousand-yard stare. "I don't like talking about him."
Faraday piped in to explain the rest, "Winwu's originally from China, he's the wielder of ten magical rings that let him interface with any machinery telepathically along with a few other benefits if he's directly wearing them. And that's any machine, no matter how simple or complicated. Something so trivial as a wheel and axle or a spring could be under his control if he sent one of his rings onto it. He came to the States and started wreaking havoc about four years ago. It didn't help he was also a genius engineer who could make more toy-themed weapons of mass destruction."
Diana processed the information, "So does that mean he…?"
"Yes, he managed to get one of his rings on me. And for weeks, he'd puppet me around like his own personal action figure. It was a living hell. That sadistic little bastard treated me like I was nothing but a piece of property, a damn toy," Stark said bitterly as he clenched his fists.
Diana placed a hand on Stark's shoulder, "I'm sorry you had to go through that. But, if he doesn't have any powers without his rings, why is he here? Wouldn't he be better suited at the Iron Vault? All of your other foes are there."
"Between you and me, Princess, I don't trust the guys running that place," Victor answered, "Those private places are full of corruption and shoddy security. At least I know if he's here, he's staying here."
"As for the rings, we keep them in a remote location far enough away so that Winwu can't recall them to his person," Faraday added.
Eventually, they reached the desired floor which contained the Toymandarin among a few other villains. The elevators door opened with a hiss revealing a large square room. The walls were lined with cells with plate glass walls separating them from the prisoners. And at the opening of the elevator was someone else to greet them.
Right outside the elevator of the cell block stood an iron giant taller than the door. It was a suit of armor not too dissimilar, but less advanced than Stark. It was grey and blue with some red and white detailing, glowing red eyes, and it sounded like it had the motor of a car. The entire mech seemed to be built from various car parts, including a radio antenna sticking out from the right shoulder. The faceplate of the helmet opened to reveal an older black man. His face was grizzled, but it radiated warmth. "Hey Vic, surprised to see me?" the man asked in a southern drawl.
"Rhodey! What the hell are you doing here, I haven't heard from you in months," Victor called out as he stepped out of the elevator to greet the man in the bulky mech. The two armored men clashed fists in a steel fist bump, followed by a series of coordinated actions akin to some longtime known secret handshake.
"Colonel Patrick Rhodes volunteered himself and the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. to our program as a part time guard. S.H.I.E.L.D. registered superheroes are chosen for guarding Belle Raft as apart of our extra security," Faraday explained for them.
Rhodes laughed, joyed to see his friend again, "I'm just happy to do my part. Besides, who better than to keep Toymandarin in check than your old sidekick?" He then noticed Diana step out of the elevator, "Howdy Princess, good to see you. Haven't see you since Fate's funeral."
Diana smiled in spite of herself at the mention of Erik, "It's good to see you to, Colonel. How are your kids doing?"
"Courtney's doing great, she's going to MIT next fall. We're so proud of her. She's got a heart that burns like a star. Mike is doing great too," Pat gushed as he talked about his kids. He had once just been a mechanic who worked for the Starks after leaving the Air Force. He was a very close friend to Victor growing up. Once Victor got into his accident and became the Cyberman, Rhodes had used his mechanical expertise to build a suit of his own. And now he was working for the government again, giving S.H.I.E.L.D. a Cyberman of their own.
Faraday checked his watch and tapped it, "Let's get a move on, people. Take us to Winwu, Colonel."
"Yeah, right this way, guys," Rhodes said pulling his faceplate back down and guiding them over to one of the cells at the back of the block.
As they walked past the other cells, prisoners within clamored and jeered at Diana and Victor. All were clad in orange jumpsuits; and distinctly, they were all wearing large black collars.
Diana looked to Faraday in confusion, "What's with the collars, they seem unwieldly heavy."
"Metamutant Dampening Collars, courtesy of Trask Industries. They provide a genetic block on superpowers, helps keep them in line. Those have been Fury's favorite additions to the prison," Faraday answered.
Unsure her true feelings on the use of such technology, Diana kept quiet and advanced on with the rest until the reached the back of the cell block. Her feelings would fully sour upon seeing something else.
Within a cell with just a bed, a desk, a toilet, and a few books was to Diana's horror: a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy. He didn't have a dampening collar, but he wore an orange jumpsuit all the same. There was some humor in the fact the one who's namesake involved the word "Mandarin" was wearing orange. He sat up from the bed, his eyes widened at the sight of Diana, Phil, and Victor. A deranged smile stretched across his face like a glob of silly putty.
"Well, if it isn't Barbie, Ken, and oh boy! My favorite action figure has returned to me! The Transformer was starting to bore me." The Toymandarin spoke in a creepy, breathy voice full of ominous giddiness. He didn't even seem to open his mouth, his words just passed through his eerie grin.
Diana's smile faded as she looked at Stark, Rhodes, and Faraday in outrage, "Why is there a young boy in a place like this?!"
"Look Princess, I know this looks bad, but this punk deserves to be here," Victor said trying to place a hand on her shoulder.
Diana pushed his hand aside. She was absolutely livid at the sight of seeing someone so young in Belle Raft, "Stark, that is a child!"
"Winwu posed an international security threat, and he was tried as an adult based on his mental capacity," Faraday explained trying to calm Diana down.
"Four years, isn't that what you said? This poor boy was ELEVEN when you sent him here," Diana shouted at the both of them.
"Ooh…Barbie is getting angry. This is the most fun I've had in a while!" Winwu started clapping his hands together.
Diana looked at the boy in the cell, placing her hand on the glass, "Oh dear boy, what has this place done to you? You had so much more potential for the world than this." She turned back around to face the three of them, "This boy needs psychiatric help! This place has degraded his mind to see everything as nothing but toys!"
"Look, Diana. I'm not gonna argue that this place ain't good, but he's too dangerous to put him anywhere else. If he gets his hands on the rings, we're in for hell," Rhodes interjected.
Diana sneered at Rhodes, "Was there no hope for any rehabilitation for him? Or was he supposed to just rot here for the rest of his life?! What have you done as his guard to try and make him better?"
"I told you what he did to me! There's no redemption for someone who'll torture someone like that with no remorse," Victor shouted back.
The Toymandarin stared at Victor as he always has, like a new toy on Christmas. "Oh, my favorite action figure, I would love to play with you again. You've gotten so much shinier last I saw you." He was hyper-focused on getting his toy back.
"Look at him Stark, this is a sick child who doesn't understand the world around him!" Diana yelled exasperated at Stark's visible stubbornness. "We owe it to the next generation to protect them, to help them grow into something greater than themselves."
Meanwhile, as all the four above continued to argue, sat someone else in their cell in the block below them. It was a Pakistani woman of about 22 sitting alone with a bulky collar around her neck. This was Kamala Zeul, she was a polymorph, having the ability to shapeshift, but mainly utilized it to grow her body to massive proportions. But these abilities were not from some X-Gene, but from other ancient ancestry; that ancestry being Inhuman Amazon.
She was once a superfan of sorts of the LMI, that of Green Marvel and Wonder Crystal in particular. But one day, while experimenting on Terrigen crystals during a college internship with the Supreme Idea Mechanics in Advanced Neurotechnology, she set them off, triggering her own latent DNA a few years late after the first wave of Terrigenesis that triggered the return of the Wonder Crystal.
At first, Kamala tried to work with Diana as a sidekick of sorts, but she had yet to fully control her powers, and that partnership hardly came to fruition. She was then, during a battle, placed under the control of the psychotic telepath, Mr. Psycho. A giant was set loose on the streets of Jersey City, and the Wonder Crystal had to stop her and Mr. Psycho. Both of them ended up in Belle Raft.
Diana had once promised Kamala she would make sure to get her out, to save her from this dreadful fate. She promised to bring her to Themyscrattilan to train her with her powers, but a week after all that happened, Ghanoseid attacked. With the invasion of the Titans of Apokolips and the death of the Fatal Compass, Kamala's problems slipped Diana's mind. And the Wonder Crystal unintentionally abandoned her.
And now, Kamala could hear Diana's tirade to Faraday, Stark, and Rhodes through the air vents. She recognized Diana's voice in a heartbeat. She heard her say all things about Toymandarin that she should have been saying about her, the hypocrisy of it all enraged her. Her sullen look turned to fury. She wanted to grow 30 feet tall, break through the ceiling and crush Diana, make her pay for forgetting about her, but she couldn't; not with the stupid collar on.
Then, to Kamala's surprise, she heard another noise. It was a bird cawing. There was a bird cawing in her cell. Her eyes darted around before she saw it sitting on her dinky, little desk. It was a raven, blue feathers with golden eyes, "Where did it come from?" she thought. It wasn't anything like she'd ever seen, and in its beak was a small, silver ring. And in the blink of her eyes, the bird disappeared into the shadows of her cell, leaving the ring behind.
Kamala was wary to take the ring, but she felt it calling to her. She grabbed it off her desk and slowly slipped it on her finger. She felt a surge of energy flow through her as if a whole new world was open to her now. It was as if she could see the inner workings of every electronic device around her, including her collar. Kamala raised her hand to the collar around her neck. She pressed the ring against it, and with twinge of force, the collar popped open, and it slid off her neck.
Kamala breathed heavily, and instinctively, she rubbed her neck after around 7 months of it encased in that thing. She felt her body get her powers back. Everything had felt so tight before, like being vacuum sealed in your own body. But now, she had full access to her potential. The woman looked down at her hands, she clenched them into fists, and they grew to the size of hay bales, the ring sliding off her finger into her closed palm. She smiled before looking up the ceiling, the one who forgot her was just 10 feet above her. And with a rather corny word, she would be there, "EMBIGGEN!"
The ground beneath Diana and the others began to shake. An alarm inside Rhodes' helmet began to blare, "Hey Faraday, there's a collar malfunction downstairs. Somebody's got their superpowers back," he called out.
Winwu heard all this and took a few steps back, crouching down behind his bed, "She's heeeere," he said ominously.
Victor turned to the cell, slamming his fist against the glass, "Who's here Toymandarin!? What did you do?!"
Winwu giggled sinisterly, "I didn't do anything, action figure. It was a pen pal of mine, it's always nice to have friends."
Diana shot a glare at Faraday, "Who else do you have locked up here?"
"The only one who could do this kind of structural damage so fast is…Ms. Gigantic," Faraday answered before a massive fist burst through the floor, grabbing the agent. The floor shook as the rest of Kamala emerged from the cell block beneath them. Glass walls shattered and concrete crumbled as the structural integrity of the prison plummeted.
Kamala rose from the massive hole she made through the floor. She stood twenty feet tall between the floor below and the ceiling above. But her body wasn't exactly proportional, her arms were oversized compared to the rest of her already very large body. Her legs were still in her cell below them, her foot busting through the glass wall of her cell. Her hair was covered in concrete dust, and the prison jumpsuit was extremely torn and stretched, barely even containing the woman wearing it. She stared down at Diana and grimaced, "Hi Ms. Wonder Crystal, remember me!?"
Diana's face fell as she looked up at Kamala. She recognized her face, and remembered everything that happened to her, and what she was supposed to do. This was it, that forgotten sin that was eating at her, here to enact vengeance for her failures. She looked up to see Agent Faraday squirming in the giantess' grip. She had to make sure she didn't crush him, "Kamala, I am so sorry, I-"
"You what? Forgot about me, left me to rot in this place for seven months!?" Kamala stretched out her arm and threw a powerful punch against the Amazon.
Diana was sent flying and crashed against the stone wall between other cells in the block. The prisoners within yelled and cheered out to Kamala as she gave Wonder Crystal what for. All the while, alarms blared throughout the prison. The destruction caused by Kamala's growth spurt led to a few other prisoners on the lower level to riot and run rampant.
Victor and Rhodes looked at Ms. Gigantic and then at each other, "You go high, I'll go low," Stark suggested.
"Same as always Vic," Rhodes responded before aiming his arm up at Gigantic and the fist of the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. rocketed off the arm and punched her in the face. The fist harmlessly bounced off Kamala's rubbery skin. "Okay, this ain't good," Rhodes muttered to himself as he called the rocket fist back onto his mech.
Kamala didn't even acknowledge Rhodes trying to attack her, she was tunnel visioned on Diana. "SHIELD called me a terrorist for what Psycho made me do, I was an "enemy of the state", I never even got a trial. You were supposed to defend me! You were supposed to get me justice! My life was in your hands, and you abandoned me!" She went to throw Faraday at Diana, but her arm was ensnared by a lasso made of water, and forced down as it froze into ice.
Diana strained herself as she tried to pull Kamala's arm down to let Agent Faraday go, "Kamala, I'm sorry. I failed you. But this has to stop. People are going to get hurt from this. I don't want to fight you."
Kamala's expression softened as she got an apology. She opened her hand and dropped Faraday to the ground. "I just wanted to be like you. But never meet your heroes, I guess."
"Just shrink back down, and we can work out something to get you out of here. You deserve a normal life," Diana pleaded, walking closer to Kamala.
Kamala took a deep breath and began to slowly shrink back down to size, but as she did, the sharp bang of a pistol sounded off before three glowing blue pellets struck her in the chest.
The shooter was Faraday, brandishing some kind of high-tech tranquilizer pistol. Like the rocket fist, they bounced off Kamala's body like pebbles. But she became enraged at the notion of being betrayed again. She began to grow even larger than before; Kamala was now even taller than the combined heights of the two cell blocks combined, hunching under the higher ceiling. Her arms stretched and expanded further as her proportions seemed more akin to some kind of amorphous monster than a person. Shapeshifting was a terrifying ability when combined with unbridled hate and rage.
"Agent Faraday, why?!" Diana shouted back as panic spread over her face.
"That wasn't meant to hurt her. It was just a tranquilizer, I only wanted to knock her out," Faraday answered as he looked around to see Ms. Gigantic encompassing most of the cell block. He kept firing at the ever-growing woman, but at this point it was doing more harm than good as the bullets ricocheted off her body and peppered the walls.
"Oh, and that turned out to be such a genius idea!" Diana snapped back.
Diana tried desperately to hold Kamala down with her ice lasso, but that was also quite fruitless. She transmuted the ice back into water and called it back to her canteen. If she didn't try anything drastic soon, Ms. Gigantic would grow too large for Belle Raft to contain. She'd make the entire thing burst, drowning the hundreds imprisoned here.
Kamala stretched and expanded her arms and careened them towards Diana to crush her and Faraday. Her hands were the size of garage doors, and they were about to smash them like a human panini.
Faraday was reasonably afraid of being squished and braced for impact, but before that could be the case, Diana held her arms out and caught them. She pulled forth the earth lying deep within her body, and her skin took on a deep blue crystalline structure. She became hard as diamond and stopped the hands dead in her tracks. She wasn't called the Wonder Crystal for nothing. Her body was quite literally made of crystal; Terrigen, the crystal which awakened the powers of her fellow Inhuman Amazons, to be specific.
Curiously, this was an ability unseen from either of Diana Amaquelin's original counterparts. Diana of Themyscira was born from clay, and yet she displayed no such abilities centering around her sedimental anatomy, whereas Crystal of the Inhumans had hardly ever displayed any major control over geodes in this manner. This development was quite anomalous upon my first viewing.
Although, a similar fate to this was done upon to Crystal Amaquelin by Thanos via the Reality Stone, turning Diana's marvelous half into a crystalline statue. Perhaps the Amalgamation spell took that curse placed upon her and turned it into a boon. It is intriguing how the mystical forces of Order and Chaos made sense of the Amalgam. As I have observed this blossoming universe's growth, developments like this make my work quite entertaining. This new universe had to generate trillions of new lives by taking halves of two other people, and through chaotic intuition, create beings who still functioned. Little quirks like this, emerging from the results, were bound to happen.
Kamala kept trying to force her hands together to squish the two, but Diana was too strong.
"Get out of here and go get help. I'll hold her off," Diana commanded with a slight echo in her voice, the sound resonating through her crystal body.
Agent Faraday gave a brief salute, "Yes ma'am," before rolling past the hands and running to the elevator. He quickly scrambled inside and rose topside to call for backup.
Diana stared up at Kamala with regret, she could see the rage burning behind her eyes. "I'm sorry for forgetting you. The world moved on and left you behind. You didn't deserve that, but I have to stop you." Diana began to expel fire from her hands, burning Kamala's and causing her to yank them away from Diana. The Wonder Crystal raised her flaming hands and clashed them together at the bracelets on her wrists to send a heat wave at Ms. Gigantic.
Amidst the chaos, Ms. Gigantic had dropped the ring she used to break her collar. It rolled across the cell block floor ever closer and closer to the Toymandarin's cell. Winwu stared at it with eyes full of yearning, "Yes, yes, my precious returns to me!" He held out his open hand as it gravitated towards him. It stopped against the glass wall, but gradually dragged itself up and up to the few round holes which served as ventilation at the top of the barrier. The ring slipped through and onto Winwu's finger.
The Toymandarin laughed giddily as he felt the powers of the ring return to him, "Hello old friend, how sad to see you all alone today. But don't worry, we'll be reunited with your brothers and sisters soon." He looked to the glass barrier and held out his ring, the magic within interfaced with the electronic locks in the walls, and the glass slid open to release Winwu into the world.
Rhodes turned around to see the Toymandarin's cell door open. He raised his arm and brandished a sonic cannon mounted to it, "Drop the ring and get back in there, short stack."
Winwu stared at Rhodes with a blank smile, "Come and get it yourself, Transformer."
Rhodes unleashed the cannon on Winwu, sending a concussive, high pitched, sound blast at the boy. Toymandarin rolled out of the way and grabbed a book off his desk. He began to rip a series of pages out of the book and started rapidly folding them into little paper airplanes.
"Try these on for size," He challenged to Rhodes before he held the ring to his crafts and imbued the paper airplanes with some sort of mystic energy. The planes pulsed with power, shaking, and jittering in the Toymandarin's hand. Rhodes went to smack away the paper airplanes, but not before shot off from Winwu's hand and flew into Rhodes' armor. The paper planes pierced into the thick, metal hull.
Rhodes piloted the mech back, plucking the paper airplanes out of his armor, "Goddamn it, I'm gonna lay you out, you little punk!" He threw a punch into the wall, getting the hand stuck. Winwu jumped onto the arm of the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. and ran up it to reach the shoulder. He then pulled off his ring and placed it over the antenna. With a sputter of the engine, the armor shut down. Rhodes struggled and flailed inside the armor to try and wrestle control back, but no avail. He was locked in.
Winwu laughed maniacally, "Well, you're not my favorite action figure, but you shall suffice for now." He grabbed the antenna and the outer shell of the armor began to shift, providing a set of handles on the back for Winwu to hold onto.
"Let me outta here you little creep," Rhodes shouted from inside the armor, but it was too muffled to hear.
Victor flew back up through the hole, brushing dust off the chest plate of his armor, "Everything down there's contained. Alright Rhodey, let's take care of this stretchy freak." He then looked at the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. armor standing still in the Toymandarin's cell, he grew worried, "Rhodey…where's the kid?"
Winwu poked his head out from behind the head of the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, "Sorry Action Figure, but the Transformer is mine. A fine addition to my collection."
Victor vision went red and he instinctively fired his repulsor cannon at the boy, "Get off my Rhodey!"
Toymandarin jerked the antenna around on the mech like a joystick for a video game controller, and the armor raised up its arm to block the blast, "Ooh, this one will be fun to use." He reached into the wiring between the helmet and torso and began fiddling with the circuitry to operate it from the outside. And like the great Sukapon, the Toymandarin initiated a joyful mech fight.
Cyberman tapped the side of his half-mask, and it mirrored over the other half of his face to provide full head protection. He jetted forward to clash fists with the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. While the Toymandarin commanded a much larger suit of armor, Stark was faster, and therefore easier to maneuver in such a confined space. Stark also had a better array of weapons within his body, but given they were in a pressurized underwater chamber, using missiles or anything stronger than his basic repulsors would be unwise. After dodging a heavy-handed haymaker from the diminutive delinquent, Cyberman fired a blast from beneath the bulky brute into its abdomen.
The Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. then threw a powerful uppercut and sent Cyberman up through the ceiling. The mech of immense strength was able to force Stark's head through the cell block above them. Toymandarin aimed the sonic cannon up towards the ceiling and blasted Cyberman. Stark heard the cannon charge up and fired his repulsor down. The two pulses collided and caused a loud explosion.
The cell block rocked from the blast. Cracks in the walls grew until they burst, and water started flowing in from outside. Diana and Kamala stopped fighting to stare in panic. The prisoners still in their cells rioted and panicked as water began filling the cell block. In about 10 minutes, the whole cell would be flooded. Stark fell back down to through the ceiling and looked in shock at what happened. He looked at Toymandarin, raising his arm to prime a missile stored within, "What did you do?!"
"Not me, we, my Action Figure. This was a team effort. I'm going to go now, let you clean all this up," Toymandarin said fiddling with the controls on the back of the mech, "Oh, and you can have your guy back. I have no use for him." With a few yanks of the wires and jiggles of the ring on the antenna, the armor opened up and Rhodey shot out of it like a gumball from a gumball machine. He was wearing a white shirt with red stripes and a set of metal braces on his legs. Stark ran over to pick up his friend.
The boy removed the ring from the antenna and hopped into the cockpit of the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. The armor closed back up as Toymandarin attached his ring to the control panel inside, the engine of the armor revving like a car. He gleefully hummed the Transformers "Robots In Disguise" motif as he booted the suit up, "Hey Stretch Armstrong, wanna come with? We couldn't have done this without you, so we owe you one," the boy called out, his voice modulated from the speaker in the armor.
Kamala shrank back to normal size. She looked at Diana, then at Victor and Rhodes. Anything was better than here. She ran over to Toymandarin in the mech. Victor tried to stand in her way, but she simply enlarged her hand to the size of a large chair and slapped him and Rhodes away.
Diana, breathing heavily and staggering to stand after exchanging a series of increasingly heavy blow. She reached her hand out to Kamala, "Please don't do this. We can still help you, it's not too late!"
Kamala looked back at Diana, and then she climbed onto the back of the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E., "It was too late a long time ago."
"We're going through some water to get out of here, you're going to want to hold your breath," Toymandarin advised before flipping a few switches inside the control panel and looking up to the ceiling. Kamala wrapped her hand around the handles on the back of the armor took a deep breath. She visibly inflated her lungs from within her chest and gave Toymandarin a thumbs up. And with further engine revving, the Iron S.T.R.I.P.E. took flight and rocketed through the multiple floors leading up to the surface, creating multiple holes through the ceilings until they broke through the single floor atop the Raft. This aerial escape created another hole for water to enter the cell block. There was now about 5 minutes until the cell block fully flooded.
Stark looked at the holes on the sides of the cell block walls, and the hole above them all overflowing with water. He acted quickly and grabbed Rhodey and flew him out of there. Once Stark was out of vicinity of the prison's signal jammers, he regained access to his internal AI, and his communications. "GRID, send out a distress call to anyone who can get here less than 3 minutes, doesn't matter who, just get me goddamn anyone!" He yelled frantically into his helmet.
Diana was in contrast much more reactive. Her crystal form receded back within her so she could divert all her focus into forcing the water out of the prison. She first used the water that was already there to fill and freeze over the hole first made by Ms. Gigantic escaping, and then froze the holes in the walls. It'd be a temporary fix for the lower level, but it was a Band-Aid on a broken leg.
Diana then threw herself underneath the cascade from above and raised her hands up. She was going to try and force the waterfall to fall up. Was this action likely extremely futile? Yes, but she had to try. Lives were on the line, the lives of those who once posed major threats to the world, but lives still worth saving, nonetheless. The weight of a waterfall was now quite literally on her shoulders, at least her physical state finally matched her mental state in terms of pressure.
The endless flow of ocean into the prison would not be forced out by Diana's hydrokinesis, merely contained. It was as if Wonder Crystal was carrying a massive bowl of water, except the bowl was invisible, and the bowl kept getting larger and larger. Eventually there would be too much for Diana to hold back, and the prisoners would succumb to the seas. As she felt her resolve slowly fading, her ice patches were starting to weaken as well. All seemed lost. Diana looked out to all of those still in their cells, panicking, pleading to get out, and she felt helpless to save them, "I'm sorry."
Then with a miracle, the waters began to slowly recede. Where the water was once piled up in the cell block, a strange array of yellow splotches took their place. It seemed even more of these weird objects were thrust into the cell block through the holes and began absorbing the water. They were sea sponges. The water coming from above slowed from a downpour to a stream, to a drizzle, to a trickle, and then to a few drops. Diana was able to freeze the remaining water she was holding into a large, round, ball of ice, dropping it with a heavy sigh of relief, the ice shattering into a large pile of snow. She looked above to see a sheet of ice covering the hole leading from the ocean, but it wasn't the translucent blue she was used to seeing, it was more of a purple.
In from the holes from the wall came two men. One was clad in purple scale armor, a shark tooth necklace, and the rest of the suit resembled a killer whale, dorsal fin on the back and blowhole on the helmet in all. The other man seemed much younger, covered head to toe in bright blue armor with fins on the forearms and legs. The helmet had no marine life basis, but shining purple eyes glowed through it. The younger man turned around and fired a blast from his hand, freezing the hole over with another patch of violet ice. It seemed a lot stronger than whatever Diana could conjure.
The older man removed his whale-themed helmet to reveal T'Kurri, King of Wakantlantis, known to the rest of the world as the Black Orca. He had a full beard and dreadlocks underneath the helmet, how it all fit under there was comical to imagine. Perhaps something to do with the advanced technology of Wakantlantis from their access to Vibranium.
Diana smiled at seeing a familiar face, "King T'Kurri, it's been too long, old friend. It's a blessing to see you. I suspect these sponges are yours?"
T'Kurri laughed as he brushed the hair out of his eyes, "The feeling is mutual, Princess Diana. And yes, we received your distress call and came as fast as we could. The sponges were Garth's idea," he explained patting the younger soldier on the back. He spoke in a distinctly African accent, T'Kurri carried himself with a great degree of warmth and charisma befitting of a king, extending pleasantries towards a fellow royal in Diana.
The other one, now known as Garth, then removed his helmet to show a young man with much more clean-cut hair, pale blue skin, a sharp chin, and a set of gills around his neck. "It's an honor and a privilege to meet you, your Highness. I am Sir Garth Drake, the Icelad," the young man introduced cordially. He bowed in the presence of Diana.
"Likewise, Sir Drake, your quick thinking saved many lives. I thank you," Diana said flattered, but clearly physically and emotionally drained. Normally she'd respond to such a formal display with a curtsy to humor them, but she was exhausted after all she'd been through. Diana just wanted to get out of here.
Then from the elevator that was somehow still operable after all that's happened came a small army of SHIELD Agents in wetsuits and oxygen tanks. They swarmed the various cells in the block to release the prisoners inside and bring them back above the surface.
While the agents worked, they seemed to ignore Diana and the Wakantlanteans. The three of them then took the elevator back to the top floor of Belle Raft. Icelad was guiding Wonder Crystal out of the main facility himself, providing the princess someone to lean on. She greatly appreciated his chivalry at the current moment.
Once they got outside, Stark and Faraday were waiting outside for them, Rhodes was gone, taken by some agents for medical attention. "Well, if it isn't Black Orca? You get hitched and then you don't return my calls for 3 months," Stark taunted, "Where is Stormbird right now?" Victor seemed to hold a degree of bitterness towards T'Kurri specifically.
T'Kurri had put his mask back on since they left the elevator, so his expression was unreadable to Victor. "Kendra sends her regards; I have been very busy managing the 70% of the world you don't bother to cover. Politics is a lengthy operation that requires great focus. My apologies for not being at your beck and call," he responded in a tone lacking the warmth of before. When amongst the others, T'Kurri became strictly business.
Victor wanted to make a snappy retort, but realized T'Kurri made a fair point. "Right, so whatever. Glad you got my call an got here in time."
"Actually, I didn't get your call," T'Kurri interjected.
"Once I got out of there, I called Director Fury, and she sent in reinforcements and called the King," Faraday answered.
"Oh, so you pick up her calls no problem, but you just hit ignore on your little conch shell whenever you see my name," Stark snapped at T'Kurri.
"One does not simply ignore the One-Eyed Wall, Stark. I have my priorities of course," T'Kurri replied coolly.
Diana stood up straight from Garth's shoulder, shaking the young knight's hand before joining the others, "I have a lot to exchange with Fury next time we meet. And after what I've seen today, they might not all be words," Diana said pounding her fists together.
Faraday tried to change the subject, "The real question is to figure out how Ms. Gigantic could break her power dampener. Or how Toymandarin got the ring."
"The little punk mentioned something about having a pen pal. Don't tell me that's a thing at Belle Raft, is it?" Stark asked.
Faraday was a little confused, "No, I don't believe so. Very little communication gets in or out to the prisoners."
"I also came to relay similar news. The Sonic Manta managed to escape from his cell in Wakantlantis just last week. After failing to find him in the seas, I've come to extend a request for your assistance in recapturing him," T'Kurri added.
Diana was delighted at the thought, "If this means you'll be back with the League for the time being, we'd happily take you back. It'd also be good to have Kendra back on active duty. We certainly have our hands full and could use the extra help."
Garth looked to T'Kurri and put his helmet back on, "Shall I return to the kingdom and let them know of your leave of absence, your Highness?"
"Yes, tell the people I am on a diplomatic excursion and arrange for the Queen's return to the surface world. I have already talked this over with her, and she agreed to return in search for the Manta. She has been homesick to say the least," T'Kurri explained looking down at the wedding ring on his finger. "As for interim leadership, Vl'Kabi shall lead in my stead under advisement of the elders. Understood?"
"Are you sure about leaving the kingdom, Your Highness? We are still in a vulnerable state," the squire questioned. While Vl'Kabi was adept at advising the king, putting him in full control seemed like a rash decision to the Icelad.
"I trust my advisor, and for the time being, my duties to the surface world supersede what I am needed before below," the Black Orca explained briefly, "Now go. They are waiting for you, Garth."
Garth saluted, "Yes, my liege! I shall leave right away." Despite this, he still carried some unease at the decision.
T'Kurri smiled and pat his sidekick on the shoulder, "Good lad, safe travels home."
Garth hesitantly nodded and leapt into the seas. He formed a platform made of ice and landed on it. He then started sliding across it, forming a bridge of ice underneath his feet as he traversed the seas. Within about a minute, the Icelad had faded into the waves, out of sight.
"Well, I think it's safe to assume that this has something to do with Loxxi's little legion he's throwing together. If he wants to fight the League, he'd want to get people with experience fighting each of us," Victor pondered as he looked off to the horizon, "That with Loxxi tossing the Adth Metal onto Mannheim makes me think he's working with a guy with magic. How else could he get the ring into the prison?"
"Now would be a good time to still have Fate. Losing him has made the world very vulnerable," T'Kurri said with a sigh. "A replacement for the role he played on the team would be wise."
"We have Jessica coming back in the next few days," Victor replied, "And the kid's got a fair share of knowledge on the stuff too. We can manage."
"Fatal Compass provided a level of expertise and training in the mystic arts that the League currently lacks. Besides, having more people around to lighten the burden of the world on your shoulders may provide beneficial," T'Kurri advised wisely.
Victor scoffed, "Not everybody can take that weight, and I can't afford to have anyone else crushed."
"That's not your sole responsibility, Stark. It never has been. The burden of protecting the world falls upon us all. You must learn to put your faith in others," T'Kurri said placing his hand on Stark's shoulder. "Do you not remember? You were the first person we put our faith in to join the team after it formed."
Diana stared at the heavily damaged prison beneath, "Agent Faraday, what's going to happen to the rest of the inmates in there. This place can't be safe for containment anymore."
"Fury is currently looking into other options, but she is not happy about any of this. We'll put as many as we can in the Iron Vault, but some of them are too high of a security risk. I don't suppose we can use that fancy projector Thunderman's got to throw the rest in that pocket dimension of his?" Faraday asked.
Diana's expression turned sour again, "Out of the question. The Silent Zone is reserved only for planetary threats," she snapped. After what happened with Kamala, Diana did not want anyone else being so carelessly cast aside. "Your whole system needs a major overhaul, Agent. I'd like to know exactly how much has slipped under the League's radar. Tell me, how many of these people actually got a fair trial? Was justice truly served, or is Fury using these people for something else?" She stared daggers into Agent Faraday. Diana was not messing around when it came to protecting the Inhuman Amazons, or any other superhumans at this point.
Faraday was intimidated by Wonder Crystal, "Look Ms. Amaquelin, your anger isn't with me. I'm just the middleman, my job here is to help you. I'll set up a meeting with Director Fury so you can voice your concerns. I want the same things you do. I'll make sure everything is properly addressed through the correct channels on my end so you can do things your way," he assured professionally. Faraday truly seemed to have the best intentions working with the League regardless of everything else SHIELD was doing above and around him.
Diana took a deep breath and shook Faraday's hand, "Thank you Agent Faraday. Fulfill your promise, and I'll make sure all the current surviving members of the MSA will sign your cards," she offered with an exhausted half-smile.
"I'll do my best," Faraday said with a nod, "Anyway, I should be back inside, I'm leading evacuation."
"You sure you don't need our help, Faraday?" Stark called out.
"We're good, we have carriers on the way for bringing the prisoners back to dry land," Faraday declined. "And to assuage your worries, Ms. Amaquelin, Fury called the Sergeant too, he'll be assisting transport to the Iron Vault over the next few days." After his explanation, he disappeared into the crowd of agents back inside the prison.
"Alright, best of luck, Agent," Diana said with a heavy sigh. She rejoined Victor and T'Kurri and groaned in exhaustion.
"Well, I am absolutely wiped out. I don't know about you, but I could use a drink," Victor suggested with a smirk, trying to brush past everything that just happened.
"Hold on a second Stark, we're not going to ignore what went on in this prison. Any superpowered people just tossed aside in here, no trial, even kids? I thought we were supposed to be fighting for truth, justice, and a better tomorrow," Diana said shooting Stark a glare.
Victor was set aback, but held his composure, "Those were Thor's ideas, but something that simple never works. You may not like it because some of them are yours, but I don't relish in it either. These guys have been popping up and wreaking havoc constantly since we all took center stage. Neither S.H.I.E.L.D. nor the UN would let us play ball if it wasn't by their rules."
"I don't like the safety risks this place posed to those held within. The ocean is no place to keep a human life. But otherwise, I see where you are coming from," the Orca said with a nod. As a king, he had to make many tough decisions, imprisoning threats to his kingdom were many of them.
Diana looked to T'Kurri in shock, "I can believe the leaders of the world can let things like this happen. But we are meant to be a standard above them."
"Man fears God, Diana. They always have. The only reason they believe in him is because of what he provides. Above all else, we provide security. It is our duty to protect this world and keep it from falling to madness," Victor asserted. "You brought me on this team because the Martian couldn't hack it. You needed somebody to run logistics, work with the government, and pay for everything the League needs to function. I do my job, I pray for the day I no longer have to, but until then, I protect the world. So, excuse me, Princess! Your fantasy for what the world should be isn't real."
"And what about Kamala? She was a victim of a mind control, she needed protecting from the systems you enforced," Diana snapped, her fist starting to heat up, igniting in a small flame, ready to strike Victor. "How can you not have any compassion or sympathy for what she's been through?"
"I followed due process, S.H.I.E.L.D. viewed Ms. Gigantic as a threat to national security because of her potential strength. And based on today, she is too strong to be running around playing hero with no training," Victor explained firmly. "And don't try and make me the bad guy in this. There are too many people for me to keep track of every case. Besides, you're the one who forgot to get her off." It was at this point that Stark flipped the right side of his helmet back over his face. Man did indeed fear God, and he wanted to be prepared incase this exchange was going to incite her wrath.
Diana's outrage only seemed to grow as she witnessed Stark's masking. The flames seemed to crawl up the rest of her arm like a twisted serpent. "That's always been your go to, Stark, hide behind your tech. It's always something else's fault, you were just the vessel to let someone else do what you wanted in the first place!" she chastised the former war profiteer. "You call it making the hard choices, but you're just a coward with no sense of integrity. You may have kept the Toymandarin here, but you've let others play with you like he did for years after." Diana tore into Victor's psyche like her flaming sword. "How can you even call yourself a man, when all you are is a shell?!"
Diana had crossed a personal line with Stark. Victor's arc reactor started to glow and pulse as if he was charging an attack, "Do you have any idea how much I have sacrificed to be a hero, to be a member of this team?! I have put more of myself into keeping the lights on and everything above board than the rest of us combined! If you really want to give me shit for what Stark Labs does, NOW, then you better tear up your ID card, Princess. What do you even know about sacrifice?" His voice echoed and reverbed from his helmet metallically as per usual. But it now carried a worn-out growl, the Cyberman was fed up with what he perceived as Diana's hypocrisy.
Wonder Crystal snapped and threw a flaming punch towards Victor's face. Cyberman quickly reacted with unleashing the unibeam from his chest, but both were caught by T'Kurri. Diana's punch was clutched in his hand, and he quenched the fire by a blast of water from the blowhole in his mask. Meanwhile the unibeam's power harmlessly dissipated into the Black Orca's Vibranium glove, planted on the cyborg's chest. The metal was designed for energy absorption and dispersion. He couldn't claim to be stronger than either of the two, but he possessed a very specific set of skills that served well for situations such as this. His powerset filled gaps in the team like an eel slipped in and filled a narrow sea cave.
The Wakantlantean king locked eyes with Diana, then turned to do the same to Stark. With just a glare, he made Stark unmask the human half of his face. "It is unwise for us to quarrel here. We as champions of this world have the most difficult set of responsibilities, the pressure can get to us sometimes, but we still have to be better." Black Orca spoke with great authority before eventually letting the both of them go. "We cannot showcase in-fighting for the world to see." Deescalating the conflict was his top priority to not sully the League's perception in the eyes of any SHIELD agents watching them.
"Diana, as much as you hate to hear it, Stark has a point. The League of Marvelous Individuals only exists how it is today because of what Stark has given us. Hard choices do have to be made sometimes, and he had to make a lot of them. Additionally, Ms. Zeul's imprisonment was your responsibility to undo. I know Fate's death weighed heavy on all of us, but that does not excuse your duty to your people. We will find her, and make sure she gets the justice she deserves for what's happened to her," the Orca assured, followed by Stark giving a cocky smirk. T'Kurri then redirected his attention to Victor.
"On the other hand, Belle Raft was a total disaster class of human rights violations that you outfitted and endorsed because you were afraid to stand up to Fury, and for many of those hard choices to did choose the easy solution. I know you think you have gone through suffering, but many have gone through much worse, and it is our duty as heroes to stand up for them. We had faith in you because of the potential we saw, Stark. And you let us, and the world down."
Victor let out a heavy sigh, he knew T'Kurri and Diana were right, and he was guilty over it. The bravado and ego he put on was gone. "What was I supposed to do, Orca? I know how screwed up Belle Raft is…well was. But SHIELD is cracking down on guys like us. That's hard to fight back against. I played ball to keep us from being next on the chopping block, and I am...so tired. I'm sorry for what this became. But I did what I had to."
"Well, what you have to do now, is rebuild. You're going to be focusing your attention solely on working to create a new facility for containing and potentially reforming the villains we defeat," Black Orca decreed with nobility.
"What? What gives you the authority to do that?" Stark asked incredulously.
"Simple, I am a king.," T'Kurri responded with a smirk behind his helmet. "And I think Thor would agree with me on this. You do owe him eighteen life debts. This'll probably count for two or three of them."
"What about the rest of my duties on the Watchtower? Who'll run monitor duty?"
"We'll rotate amongst ourselves for now, but we'll hire someone else to run things full time." Diana answered. "But don't you think you'll be doing this on your own either. I'll be working with you personally on this, so that I can assure that anyone else who goes through your system actually faces justice." She did not have any faith in Stark at the current moment.
Victor should have felt offended, but after T'Kurri's previous words, he was alright to have someone help shoulder the weight for him. "You drive a hard bargain, Princess. But alright." There was still tension there, but a respect for now that seemed better for the good of the team.
T"Kurri took pride in resolving a potential civil war before it got too out of hand, "Anyway, didn't Stark mention getting a drink?"
Diana let out a relieved sigh and smiled, "Yes of course, we should celebrate your return to active duty. Although it may prove wiser to wait for your wife to arrive for us to do so."
"I wouldn't hold your breath. Transporting a human from Wakantlantis to the surface world will be a complicated process that shall take a few more days," T'Kurri declined.
"Still, we should wait," Stark interjected, "After all, she's the person we'd actually be celebrating to come back. You're not all that special, Whale Man."
Orca remained in good spirits despite his teasing, "Just for that Stark, you are buying," he said with a snicker, "And you know how much I can handle."
Stark groaned and began tapping coordinates into the panel on his arm. "Damn Wakantlantean constitution. You still got your ID card, right?"
Orca shrugged, "Sorry Stark, crushed from the undersea pressure. Kendra's too."
"Alright, Diana, just grab him," Stark said with a roll of his eye, concluding the teleportation setup.
Diana smirked and wrapped her arm around T'Kurri's shoulder, "Welcome back, my friend." She still had a lot on her mind, but for now she was content to put that aside, even for just an hour, having a drink with friends.
And just like that, the three of them would disappear from the site of what once was Belle Raft. They would be teleported to a bar in Neo Metropolis called the Jack of Clubs. There, the three would have a brief refrain from the hustle and chaos that came with being a superhero. When one is tasked with the responsibility of protecting the entire world, the weight of it is on their shoulders. They know a looming power is upon them, and while they believe they can stop it, it shall be difficult. But with the return of Black Orca, and Stormbird on the way, the League almost feels united, but without the Fatal Compass, they aren't. The coming months will prove very trying for the League, but they shall fight through it together. But even on their own, they're never truly alone with themselves anymore, are they? I have been the Phantom Watcher, and I shall await your return to the Amalgam.
