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.
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.