Chapter 14: "Instruction"

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction."

Xun Zi

Chapter 14: "Instruction"

(Sunday-March 2, 2014)

Colossus couldn't stop himself from smiling. Even as Black Adam continuously barraged him with a flurry of punches across his face, the grin didn't even dim for a second. It was rare that he managed to find a person that could hold out against him for so long. It was even rarer when he got the opportunity to fight such people considering that half of them belonged to the Justice League.

As Black Adam tackled Colossus and slammed him into the ground, Colossus couldn't help but feel grateful. A fight for almost a full day, it was almost too much to ask for. Hell, Black Adam had even cheated or tried to flee once during the scrummage. It had been a good day, but like every good day, it had to come to an end at some point.

Above Colossus, Black Adam was breathing heavily. Sweat was pouring down his brow. Thanks to his near invincibility, the villain wasn't injured at all, but even he was exhausted at this point. Looking down at the giant brute, Black Adam couldn't help but smile. He just beat the ghost with the most raw strength. His ego surged. He was definitely the strongest—

Colossus's massive hand grabbing his face interrupted his thought process. A single shocked blasted directly into his face. The direct contact of the force caused even Black Adam to groan in agony.

"I thought Atlas never tires?" Colossus grinned as he stood, making sure to continue to hold Black Adam above the ground, "I guess even a titan needs a chance to get his second wind, eh?"

Releasing Black Adam so that the villain would fall, Colossus gathered his energy to his other fist. Glowing and trembling from the power behind it, the fist soared forward to Black Adam's unprotected torso. As soon as the fist made contact, the fallout occurred. A massive shockwave consumed Black Adam. The wave spread out and carried the villain away. Like a tsunami, the wave smashed against the jungle trees, causing them to splinter and shatter before Colossus's power.

Taking a deep breath, Colossus examined the decimated forest in front of him. Instead of the lush green beauty that existed before, there was only a brown crater of death and destruction. At the center of the chaos was an unconscious Black Adam sprawled out on top of several fallen trees.

Letting out a laugh, Colossus held his arms up in a victory pose. It was a magnificent fight, one of the best of his life so far. He savored the aches of pain that rushed across his body. Fatigue had finally caught up to him. Damn, he was getting old. He used to be able to hold his own against Pariah for days on end. One day of fighting and he was ready to collapsed.

Luckily, he didn't have to go all out. If that happened, he would have just passed out. That wasn't good considering that they still needed to get Undergrowth to safety.

…Wait…

"Ah, shit, I forgot about that. They're all probably long gone by now," Colossus groaned and smacked his palm against his forehead, "I'm going to get a tongue lashing by Vision now. Damn. And this day was almost perfect too."

He was too tired to be too much of a help now, even if he could track them down. His only chance of finding out what happened would be going to Amity Park. For once, Colossus cursed his tendency to break everything. It would be a lot easier to call with their weird communication devices, but they always broke whenever he carried them around for more than a few hours.

With a sigh, Colossus flopped down to rest. He would head back when he regained his energy—

Crack!

…Huh? Did he sit on something?

Reaching under him, Colossus found that there wasn't anything below him. But something was in his pocket. Pulling what appeared to be a broken hand mirror out of his pocket, Colossus stared at the shattered glass.

"Wait, I thought the Mirror of Memories was indestructible?"

"The Mirror of Memories is indestructible," Nocturne spoke to his companions, "But Colossus breaks almost everything he touches. Once his fight ends, he'll probably notice almost immediately that we switched the mirrors."

"That is fine," Hotep Ra nodded to his ally, "There's nothing he can do to stop us now."

"Stupid brute," Aragon sneered at the thought of the giant of a ghost, "He notices nothing around him during battle."

Holding the mirror with his ringed hand, Hotep Ra began to pour his ring's energy into the ancient artifact. Nocturne and Aragon soon followed his exampling, pointing their rings at the mirror and allowing thin beams of energy to strike the mirror and causing the energy to flood into the reflective item.

Glowing with the black energy, the mirror sent a burst of light up and created a shade. Dressed in a white lab boat, the shade had green skin and thick white hair. Dark shades covered his eyes, but the Black Lanterns knew that the shade didn't have the soul of the ghost that had once existed but was now human.

"Technus," Hotep Ra spoke to the shade, "Take control of the Sorcerer Initiative. Speed everything up to max levels. Do not worry about safety. The more people who die, the better."

"And while we're at it," Aragon let out a toothy grin, "Why don't we activate the Corruption Chips fully and see what kind of chaos can come from Master Nekron's full influence?"

Nocturne smiled at his companion, "Excellent idea."

Harriet looked across the various holograms around her. Her mouth and ears were in constant motion as feedback of the progress of the Sorcerer Initiative was flooded into her Fenton Phones. A quick glance to Mal showed that he was in the same situation as she. They had complete access to everything that was happening with the mission, and it was a bit overwhelming.

"Amity Park is still clear. Ghost Zone is still clear. Metropolis still has two more shadow cats. Gotham has three…" Harriet once again glanced to Mal, "How are things at the bases?"

"Everything is under control under the four surrounding bases," Mal stated as his eyes danced across the holographic screens, "Haven't gotten an update by the four squads at the center bases though. That's probably to be expected, though. As soon as the perimeter bases are shut down, the main bases will calm down."

"Then we can start sending in the others as backup," Harriet agreed.

"That won't work."

The suddenness of the new voice caused the two operations managers to jump. They quickly turned around to see a ghost standing behind them at the center of the Cave.

"Who are you?!" Mal glared at the new ghost defensively.

"Wait, I recognize him…" Harriet pointed a calming hand out at Mal, "He was at the Ghost Zone's Christmas feast."

"The Ghost Zone celebrates Christmas?" Mal raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"Yeah, that was my thought when I first heard about it too. Apparently, Christmas is a big deal to ghosts," Harriet stared at the ghost quickly oddly lacked any color besides black and white, "I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

"It's alright. A lot of people have forgotten about. I'm just glad you remembered me at all. My name is Sydney Poindexter," Poindexter adjusted his classes and nodded at the woman.

"Now that's a name," Mal forced himself not to snort. He hated bullying, but by God did this guy's partners set him up or something?

"Yes, I'm aware," Poindexter gave him a gentle smile.

"No offense, Poindexter, but we're kind of busy at the moment," Harriet's eyes snapped back to the holograms for a brief second, "Is this important?"

"Yes. I'm sorry that I didn't start with that. You see, I've done the math, and I've found that this operation will end badly," Poindexter waved his hands into the air. A scream popped up in front of him showing various numbers and calculations, "I've kept an eye on what was happening with the techniques Master Scribe has shown me. I believe that many people will die at the hands of these bullies if something is not done to change it."

"Wait…Scribe? The Ghost Writer?" Harriet remembered that name. It was one of the names in Masters Mansion's memorial room, "You must be the apprentice he took. Danny mentioned you a few times, but you never agreed to work with us."

"Yes, I was worried about the consequences of interfering," Poindexter admitted as shame filled his face, "Now, I'm worried about the consequences if I don't."

Mal gave Harriet a sideways glance, "Should we trust him?"

"If the alarms didn't go off, this guy must be keyed into the system," Harriet reasoned, "That means Danny trusts him. Alright, what do you want us to do?"

"The coms system is about to be hacked. Soon, you're going to be blind. So I'm going to give you instructions to tell them with the use of my powers," Poindexter shyly stepped forward, "Using the skills Master Scribe has provided me, we can direct them in the best way to avoid dying."

Phantom once again nearly avoided being incinerated. Once again, Jinx had dragged him away through the use of her teleportation spell. Klarion quickly reacted as soon as they appeared on the others side of the base. He swung his arms around and dragged the stream of fire blasting from his hands behind with him creating an arc of flames that left only a blaze in its wake.

This time, Phantom reacted. His blazing green ectoplasm quickly shifted to a cold blue. A blast of ice exited his hands and met the flames in a heads on struggle of power and elements. The meeting blue and red elements struggled for a few seconds before the combination of energy finally became unstable. A burst of steam and energy blasted from the connecting points, causing the combatants to stop their attacks in order to avoid damage.

Klarion quickly jumped through the room looking to sneak around his enemies. Unfortunately for him, the smoke greatly impaired his vision to the point that he couldn't even see his hand if he waved it in front of his face. That was quickly fixed when Klarion took a deep breath that his entire body expanded like a balloon and let out a breath that would make the Big Bad Wolf jealous. The smoke quickly disappeared from the force of the wind. It was just in time too, because Klarion could see that Phantom had found him in the choke and was charging at him.

The only problem for the halfa, though, was that Jinx was not by his side. The ghost was completely alone. Letting a maddening grin stretch across his face, Klarion extended both his arms towards the ghost. A few muttered words caused red energy to swirl around the Lord of Chaos's enemy. Freezing in midair, Phantom began to scream in agony as Klarion controlled his own energy to suffocate him. Just as the pressure grew to be too much, Phantom disappeared in a flash of green energy and smoke revealing him to be a duplicate.

Klarion didn't get a chance to comment on that revelation. Just as the duplicate disappeared, a giant claws of ice burst through his back all the way out from his chest. In a blaze of blue, the Lord of Chaos was completely frozen within a block of ice. With that task done, Jinx teleported them away from the frozen Klarion just like she teleported them behind him merely seconds ago.

This was revealed to be the smart choice as Klarion was not held for long. A giant burst of crimson energy blasted off of Klarion and shattered all the ice surrounding him. Snarling in rage, he quickly turned to the duo and sent magically charge electricity at them. Jinx merely extended a hand and absorbed the energy before the attack could do any damage.

"Gah!" Klarion glared at them. Energy danced around him, "This is pointless! Even if your combination is strong, I'm still stronger! Eventually you'll tire out or mess up!"

Phantom and Jinx shared a look. He was right. They had yet to perfect their teamwork, and Klarion had been closing to separating them more than once. Luckily, the entire point of fighting Klarion was not to beat him, but to distract and keep Klarion occupied and away from the other bases. To do that, though, they didn't necessarily need to fight the whole time though. After all, without Teekl, Klarion lacked a sense of tact and common sense.

"Not if you keep feeding us with energy," Phantom smirked at his enemy, "The more you fight, the stronger you make us."

"Idiot! All I need to do is separate you! Then I'll kill you! I will! I will! I will!" Klarion stomped his foot on the ground in frustration, "I have to! I have that new power! I beat Nabu with it! How can two babies beat me if Nabu couldn't!?"

"Where did you get that power anyway?" Jinx questioned.

Klarion calmed down a bit, "I…I actually have no idea, really. It just popped up one day."

"Was it after le Fey's attacks?" Phantom questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, I guess…Kekekekekekekekekeke! With so much chaos in the air, I must have leveled up! Chaos is destined to take over again!" Klarion cackled in ignorance.

Phantom bit his lip, "Klarion…I think le Fey did something to you. She attacked a few members of the Light. I wanted to keep this secret but—"

"Shut up! You're just trying to distract me!" Klarion exclaimed, "Well, no more! Time to kill you and that half-breed freak!"

Phantom froze. Did Klarion know about his real nature? "Half-breed freak?"

"Oh!? She never told you?!" Klarion laughed so hard that he nearly fell over in his glee, "Well, her whore mother screwed a ghost—"

"Shut your goddamn mouth!" Jinx snapped. Her energy flared as rage flooded her system. Phantom looked at her in shock. Was she actually some type of natural hybrid? That was impossible. Normal ghosts could not have children with humans no matter what the circumstances.

"She was originally the reason we knew that humans could gain at least a bit of ghost powers. Not to mention how ectoplasm can power magic," Klarion gained a sick grin, "So you can blame her for me trying to create Nyx and for the Ghoul project as a whole. None of that would have been possible if Sorceress didn't get pregnant from sleeping around with a ghost."

"But I thought Savage was your Dad…" Phantom muttered.

"Yeah…" Jinx admitted as she clenched Phantom's hand, "He is. He raised me after my mom died from birth complications. Truth is, he's my ancestor, but he never treated me like a descendant. He treated me like a daughter, so he's my dad. Not the ghost that helped conceive me."

"But that's not possible. The only ghosts that could possibly have children with humans are…" Phantoms' eyes widened as he examined Jinx's features. She obviously took after her mother more than her father, but there were traces and clues. The hair…the energy…the nose… "Oh my God…"

"Ha! Distracted you!" Klarion slammed his hands to the ground. A magic circle appeared below the distracted duo. Jinx went to try to stop the attack, but she was too late. She could do nothing as the magic prepared to incinerate her, or at least that's what she thought before the magic disappeared altogether.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Klarion clutched the back of his neck and tumbled to the ground as black veins traveled from the center of his neck and out to his face.

With a swing of her hand, Spirit cut through the magic that was protecting Nyx. Her Spectral Claws sliced away the strands of shadow that had been keeping them away from the ghost for several minutes. With a victorious grin on her face, Sprit finally made it to her friend.

Grabbing the front of Nyx's armor, Spirit pulled Nyx forward into a vicious punch. She then followed up with several strikes in the same manner. Each blow pushed then lower until Nyx's back smashed into the steel below. Even then, Spirit did not let up knowing that if Nyx recovered, the magic strands would cut into her.

Even without out Nyx's main form of protection, though, she wasn't defenseless. Dozens of shadow cats were now lunging at Spirit's back. They were smaller than the beast that Cyborg was dealing with, but the greater numbers had pushed Spirit and her friends back for a while. Before the cats could latch unto Spirit's unprotected back, they were destroyed.

Youngblood, still in child form, used his peg leg canon to destroy most of the cats. Raven then used her own magic to banish the remaining cats away. She then created a shield of magic around Spirit and Nyx to prevent further intervention.

This didn't stop Nyx's remaining cat on the battlefield. Turning around from the battery, it charged at Nyx's position with the full intent of protecting its creator. Cyborg wasn't going to let that happen, though. From his position on the top of the monster's head, he used the distraction and swung down to grab the side of the giant feline's mouth.

Using his enhanced strength and weight, Cyborg dragged the shadow cat to the ground. As the cat tumbled over, Cyborg reversed his position. Keeping his hold intact, He rolled back onto the cat's chin. He then thrusted his sonic cannon into the beast's mouth.

"Booyah!" With a blaze of blue energy, the cat's head exploded. Its body quickly followed after it into oblivion.

Knowing that she was completely defended, Spirit finally stopped her assault and released Nyx. She then activated her Spectral Claws. With a loud roar, she brought her claws down between Nyx's amour and cut deeply into the other ghost's shoulders. This caused Nyx to cry out in agony as the control of her arms were ripped away from her.

Spirit didn't stop there. She quickly grabbed the Lasso of Truth from Nyx's side and flipped the other girl over. With Nyx now lying on her stomach, Spirit quickly tied up Nyx's torso and legs to prevent them from moving and to lock up Nyx's magic. With that done, Spirit remained on top of Nyx and shoved her face into the floor to completely immobilize the girl.

"Sorry, Nyx, but it's for your own good. Being nice won't help you here," Spirit looked over her shoulder tot her friends, "Cy! Go shut the battery down, now!"

"Got it!" Cyborg then turned and rushed back towards the battery.

With that done, Spirit looked back down to Nyx and sighed with relief. She was grateful that she didn't have to go for the kill. The halfa girl had the full intention of taking Nyx down any way she could. Luckily, it didn't come to that—

"AH!" Cyborg yelled out in shock as a large blast of energy shoved Cyborg away from the battery into the far wall.

Just as Spirit looked back to her boyfriend, she instantly wished that she hadn't. She didn't even see as Nyx writhed in absolute agony. A roar of pain like which Spirit had never heard before left Nyx's throat. Then, just like Cyborg, Spirit was shoved away as a giant surge of energy blasted off of the daughter of Pandora.

Then, everything turned into anarchy.

Dusk rushed into the opening to the large cavern to see all of his friends either captured or trying to fight against Teekl. His first instinct was to rush in and try to rush to save his captive friends, but the guns and blades pointed at Fright Knight and Black Bat gave Dusk pause. The halfa may be fast, but he wasn't fast enough to get across the room before Deathstroke or Ravager could kill his allies.

"Ah! The prodigal son is here," Deathstroke noted, "Took you long enough. Now the fun can begin."

Deathstroke pulled out his other pistol with his free hand. Without even a small glance, he pointed the gun at Constantine and fire. With the giant bang from the gun echoing across the wall, Constantine was shot in the back of his shoulder. With loud curses and shouts of pain, he clutched at his bleeding shoulder and dropped to his knees.

"Bloody hell! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…." Constantine was cut off when he was forced to dodge Teekl's latest strike, "You bloody prick! I thought you were going to leave me alone!"

"Can't make it too easy on the boy," Deathstroke looked to Dusk, "I'd hurry boy. They'll die if you don't fight. Along with these two. Either you kill that cat and Klarion, or everyone here dies."

"Dusk, don't—" Black Bat was cut off when Ravager pressed the blade closer to her neck.

"Hush now. You lost the chance to talk, traitor. Just watch. I'm sure the son of the so called Great One will show us something interesting," Ravager whispered gently into Black Bat's ear.

Fright Knight was in a similar position, but Deathstroke wasn't going to shoot him without reason. As such, he had more room to move. He turned his dark helm towards Dusk and gave the boy a look of confidence showing that he believed in the boy and whatever decision he was about to make.

Dusk saw this. His mind was working overtime, but it still wasn't fast enough. With Constantine injured and Teekl continuously growing and looking more demonic with each passing second, Dusk didn't have the time to evaluate what to do. At this rate, both Cujo and Constantine would get killed.

"RAW!" Teekl suddenly stopped her assault and let out a giant roar. Energy burst around her in a massive blur. It bled into her, causing her fur, claws, and teeth to sharpen into razer sharpness. With a dangerous glint in its eyes, it moved with increased speeds to the downed Constantine.

That was when Dusk knew that he head to act. There was no time to think. If he didn't act, his friends would die. So, without really understanding the situation, he rushed in towards the demon cat intending to subdue the cat, not knowing that such a plan was doomed to fail.

When Ocean Master suddenly collapsed to the ground clutching his neck and screaming in pain, Vision did not stop her assault. She took advantage of Ocean Master's opening and sent dozens of her concentrated energy balls at the Atlantian villain. Each one struck the downed Ocean Master at full force. Soon, he was completely covered in explosions and smoke.

Even when the screaming stopped, Vision did not let up her assault. She continued to pelt the smoking crater once known as Ocean Master with a constant stream of attacks. He deserved nothing less. Vision had no mercy or pity for that monster.

Vision only paused when she felt a disgusting energy that sparked memories from long ago. She had encountered the energy many times in her long existence, but it had been a long since the extinct of the energy had been this clear. It was that the stink of Nekron's full corruption on a human being.

That was when the entire room became a swimming pool. Vision had never seen anything like it. One moment, the room was dry. The next second, the entire room was filled with water. Her mind raced as she realized that Ocean Master had actually managed to solidify the moisture in the air to such an extent.

Before she could even react, hands of water reached up from the pool below her. It grabbed her and pulled her down into the depths of the water. It was there that she was assaulted just like she had assaulted Ocean Master mere moments ago. A barrage of water bullets slammed into her from all directing. Sharks made of water appeared around her and began to bite into her. The water around her neck seemed to constrict and began to choke her like a noose.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Ocean Master bellowed out in laughter as he swam out of his crater. His armor was almost completely shattered, revealing his new features to the world. His skin was now covered in black veins. Red eyes of rage replaced his once collected orbs. Magic combined with black energy danced around him in a giant halo, quickly latching back to his skin and creating a black version of his previous armor, "You think you got the best of me, ghost! You have never been more wrong. I have finally achieved my destiny. I'm now a god of the sea! Even Poseidon will bow before my power!"

His energy then flared around his hands. It stretched out into a large black trident. Ocean Master then pointed his weapon at the woman and sent a concentrated blast of water that smashed into the woman's stomach, instantly shattering all her ribs.

"Don't die too quickly. I want to test all of my power on you before you pass into oblivion!"

Superboy never really carried weapons. He never really needed to in most cases. His strength and invulnerability generally made them redundant. Considering the nature of the mission, though, Superboy made an exception this one time and brought some of Danny's specially made weapons in a special Portable Fenton Crammer.

As soon as he saw Walker's Black Power Ring, he was instantly grateful that he did. While he had never faced a Black Lantern in battle, he knew of their strength. It was an unholy power, one that was incredibly difficult to fight against. Even with the numbers being three to two, Superboy was sure that their defeat was eminent without any help.

Luckily, he had help in his back pocket.

The Kryptonian clone didn't pull it out at first. He wanted to catch Walker off guard. So, he charged forward with the intent of getting Walker off guard before pulling out any weaponry. It worked, of course. Walker was definitely underestimating as he literally swung Superboy around the room and smashed him against the walls.

Miss Martian wasn't fairing much better. While she had her telekinesis on her side to give her mobility, Madame Rogue was quick to adapt. Her rubber arms and legs stretched out and chased M'gann across the room. The Martian girl wasn't given the chance to attack. If she paused to try to use a mental attack on the other woman, she would get hit. If she tried to rush forward for physical attacks, Madame Rogue would use her greater experience and flexibility to dance around the attacks, even when Miss Martian changed her shape to try to use dozen of limbs to try and hit the woman.

Not even psychic blasts seemed to work. Whenever M'gann tried to do that, Madame Rogue seemed to know. She either jumped out of range or rushed forward to physically stop the other woman. It appeared that Madame Rogue had her fair share of experience on fighting telepaths.

"Where did zee lizzle boy go?" Madame Rouge suddenly questioned.

Walker released his hold on Superboy and pointed a ring. A tiny blast of energy blast our and hit was appeared to be a fly buzzing around the now screaming Etrigan. The energy smashed into the fly, knocking it away and to the ground. The bug then quickly transformed back into a groaning Beast Boy holding his stomach in pain.

"BB!" Miss Martian's concern got her a punch across the face for her trouble.

Quickly getting to his feet, Superboy forced himself to ignore his injured girlfriend and brother figure. He had to take the big threat down first. Quickly pulling out his Portable Fenton Crammer from his pocket, Superboy managed to pull out a large ecto-bazooka without anyone noticing yet.

Most of the ectoplasmic weaponry failed to hurt Black Lanterns. Danny, however, wasn't one to back down to a challenge. He managed to study the energy waves released by the Black Power Rings and create weaponry that bypassed the energy's protection. It had worked once again Nocturne, and Superboy hoped it would work against Walker.

Raising his massive weapon, Superboy set the bazooka to the setting Danny showed him to use against Black Lanterns and fired the giant gun. An energy ball the size of a cannon ball shot out of the weapon and rocketed towards Walker's unprotected back. It struck the enemy before Walker even realized it was coming at him.

Superboy grinned as he saw the Walker covered in the following explosion. It worked. Now with Walker out of the way, he could deal with Rogue—

"OOF!" Superboy set out a grunt as a giant rule book landed on top of him, crushing him to the floor.

Walker stepped out of the smoke completely unharmed. The jailer ghost had his power ring pointed at the Kryptonian clone with a beam of light connecting the ring to the rule book, "Nice try, but did you really think that was going to work?"

"Gah…But, it worked on Nocturne…" Superboy grunted as he tried to push the book of him.

"Because the halfa was around the guns," Walker let out a chuckle, "Those weapons don't really work on bypassing our shields. It's because of Phantom that they work."

"H-how?"

"That would be telling, and telling is against the rules."

"Alright, let's start getting the Amazons to the evacuation ships," Nightwing stated once all the women had been freed from their pods.

"I'll lead them out," Bumblebee stated as she grew back to normal size.

"Right," Robin looked to Troia, "Go with Bee. I'm going to help the rest of your sisters."

"Oh? So thou are in charge now?" Troia gave him a small smile.

"Only this one time," Robin smiled back, "I prefer your aggressive sense of leading."

"I'm sure," Troia looked to be ready to say something else when suddenly the alarms from the base suddenly sounded to life. Red lights flashed all around the room. Everyone in the base looked around the room in surprise.

"Batgirl, what's going on?" Nightwing snapped his head over to his fellow protégé of Batman.

Batgirl type furiously into her keyboard, "I don't know. Everything is overheating for some reason. The machines are pushing themselves past their limits, and none of my commands are stopping them."

It was then that all the Amazons began to scream. Strings of energy jumped out of their back and reached up into the main battery. All the women collapsed in a combination of exhaustion in pain as their energy was once again ripped from their body.

"What's going on!?" Bumble Bee questioned.

"I have no idea," Nightwing's face twisted in concern and panic as he desperately thought about what to do, "We need to get them out of here. Maybe if we get them far enough away, the energy drain will stop."

Just as he finished that sentence, though, the exits were all shut by what appeared to be walls of black energy.

"Damn it!"

"RAW!" La'gaan, now in his giant puffer mode, rammed himself into the black wall blocking the exit. Despite his massive strength, though, the energy didn't even waiver a tiny bit, "Come on!"

"What's happening?" Artemis looked around desperately, knowing that she didn't have anything in her toolbox to deal with the situation. All the Atlantians that had been in the tubes now had strange energy strings sticking out of their back. For some reason, La'gaan was okay, but that might be because he wasn't keyed into the system.

Kid Flash was running rapidly around the battery checking to what the problem was exactly, "Nothing's wrong with systems. Someone must be hacking from the outside."

"He's right," Gear's voice sounded nervous, "I think…trying…hack…system…won't respond…Failing..."

"Damn," Red Arrow scowled, "And just when I thought things were going good enough for me to check the systems for the real Roy Harper."

"Really? Now is not the time for that!" Artemis looked over to her boyfriend, "Kid, would destroying the battery stop this?"

"Are you kidding? If one of the cooling mechanics or control monitors are broken, this whole place will go sky high, and not in the fun way," Kid Flash gained a worried look.

"How can going sky high ever be a good thing," Red Arrow blinked when he noticed Artemis blush, "Shouldn't have asked…"

"Shut up!" Artemis forced the redness of her face, "We need to figure something out right now, not have our head in the gutters."

"Attention bases 2, 3, and 4! This is Hornblower! I have instructions that might help you right now!"

Phantom didn't know what to make of what was happening to Klarion. At first, he thought that the Lord of Chaos was hurt because his familiar Teekl was being injured and possibly killed. That didn't seem to be the case, though. Klarion's body wasn't flickering or disappearing, and his magical power wasn't disappearing. In fact, it was growing.

"Stop him!" Phantom sent a large blast of ectoplasm at the downed Klarion. The blast just passed through the magic user, as did the follow up attacks from Phantom and Jinx. It was almost as if Klarion wasn't there.

"It's not working," Jinx hissed into the halfa's ear, "What do we do?"

"Try to survive!" Phantom quickly pulled Jinx back just as the ground below them exploded. Black ropes of energy were jumping out of Klarion and smashing against the ground and the walls. Each time the energy made contact with something, an explosion ensued.

"Kekekekekekekeke!" Klarion burst into laughter as he pushed himself up. His pale skin was now covered in pulsing black veins. Giant black horns rose from his head and solid crimson eyes now danced with complete madness, making Klarion look completely like a demon, "Now that's what I call a power up! I knew this Sorcerer Initiative would pay off!"

Pointing a hand out towards the duo, Klarion sent a massive bolt of lightning at them. Unlike the previous lightning he used, this blast was ten times bigger. It was wide enough to cover both of them, and, based on the way it scorched the ground as it passed above it, it was also stronger.

Unable to dodge, Phantom and Jinx tried to absorb the energy. As soon as the electricity touched them, though, they quickly regretted it. Pain surged through them as the electricity bypassed their protection and passed through them. It was only Jinx's quick recovery and speed that helped them avoid the follow-up blast.

Just as they teleported away from Klarion, though, he was upon them once again. This time, however, Klarion decided to take a more hands on approach. He swiped wildly at them with his hands. Knowing that Klarion could now bypass their protection, the two fighters ducked and weaved around his attacks. They were immediately grateful they took such actions when black energy burst out from his hands after each attack and tore through the metal in its path.

Their dance of dodging continued for several minutes before their relief finally came. A thin barrier popped up in front of them and stopped Klarion in his tracts. Before Klarion could even question where the shield came from, it folded around him, trapping him within a thin box of energy.

"What…" Jinx blinked at the strange occurrence.

"Phantom!" Poindexter's image appeared in a window right next to the duo.

"Poindexter? Is that you?" Phantom gestured to the box holding Klarion.

"It is, but it won't hold him long!" Poindexter stated, his voice brimming with panic and urgency, "You need to listen to me, the Absorption ability you gain when working together won't work anymore. Energy from Black Power rings can't be processed like other energy, even if you overcome the will of the user."

"Block Power ring? He's not wearing a ring," Phantom noted.

"But I can sense it. It's tainting him. Its reeks of death, like rotting meat. I remember that energy from when we fought against Nocturne," Jinx gave Klarion a look of utter disgust.

"But how did he get that energy?" Phantom questioned, "And why are you helping, Poindexter? You always refused to help us before."

"I don't have the time to explain. He'll break out any second," Poindexter stated, "Now listen! You can still win, but you need to use a different tactic! When fighting the power of death, don't rely on death! The key is life—"

Poindexter was suddenly cut off when Klarion managed to shatter the box like it was energy. Now free, Klarion sent another wave of black energy at them. Jinx managed to pull Phantom out of the way, but Poindexter's window was caught in the blast. Then, before the window could reform, Klarion raised his hands into the air and shouted a chant that made no sense to either of his enemies. The result was clear, though. Energy burst from his hands, jumped up into air, and spread all around them to form a massive green dome.

"A ghost shield!" Phantom's eyes widened in alarm.

"Not exactly! It's a shield designed to keep everyone out! No outside interference! No running!" Klarion giggled in glee, "It's just you against me now, kiddies! And I have the feeling that I'm gonna win!"

Spirit could only grit her teeth as the force of Nyx's magic pushed her against the wall so hard that the steel began to bend around her. She could see that all of her friends were in similar states of entrapment against the wall. Like her, they tried to fight against the force of the magic, but they were failing as well.

Her eyes then turned to the pained form of Nyx. Shadows rolled off of every inch of her skin. Black smoke piled of her mouth and eyes. Magical energy continuously flowed of her in constant waves. Hundreds, maybe thousands of strings of energy were now jumping out of her back, pumping her over her limit with magical energy. Several of the strings were directly connected to the five magic users connected to the main battery. Each one of the captives were screaming in agony as their powers were ripped from their bodies.

Nyx's magic was overflowing so much that it had bled across the room. The shadows now pooled at the floor, either moving around like a black goo or reaching wildly around in the shape of deformed hands. Dozens of giant shadow cats popped quickly popped up all around the room to surround the woman at the center of the chaos.

Despite the anarchy around her, Nyx was still covered in the lasso of truth. The rope held strong against the girl's frame. The rope glowed a golden light and fought against the shadows that rolled off of Nyx. With tears running from her eyes, Nyx looked to her friends. Her mouth moved, and it looked like she was about to say a threat or a taunt, but the lasso compelled Nyx's true feelings through the veil established by Klarion.

"Help…me…" Nyx pleaded, "Hurts…Help me…please…"

Spirit's eyes lit up with rage and protectiveness. With a shout of anger, she pealed herself from the wall and tried to push herself forward, "Raven! What do we do?!"

Raven too had managed to free herself. She looked to see her other friends also pulling themselves free, "I…I don't know…"

"What can we do?!" Youngblood questioned, "If we do anything to weaken her, she'll overload!"

"So the only option left is to kill her?" Cyborg question. An uncomfortable silence fell over the heroes. They exchanged looks of despair, not knowing what to do.

"The strings…" A familiar window popped up in front of Spirit. She instantly recognize the form of Poindexter despite the static and fuzzy image.

"Poindexter?" Spirit questioned.

"Cut…strings…Cut…power!" Poindexter's words were barely audible, "Energy…interference…can't….clearly…"

"Cut the strings on her back? And the power in the battery?" Spirit questioned.

Poindexter nodded, "Won't…easy…You need to…otherwise…"

"I can't hear what you're saying!" Spirit shouted.

Poindexter appeared to be trying to say something, but it wasn't coming out right. With a determined look, he expanded his window to massive size. He then turned his window so that he could look back and forth between Spirit and the captive magic users at the center of the battery. He then shouted out as loud as possible, "FOLLOW YOUR GUT! DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO!"

With that, Poindexter's image finally disappeared as the energy interference finally caught up to him. His message was clear, though. They had a game plan now, at least.

"All right! I can't think of anything else we can do!" Spirit addressed her team, "Let's do it!"

Teekl's head was smashed to the side as Dusk rammed one of his Burst Gauntlets to the side of the beast's face. He quickly followed up with a giant uppercut to the cat's chin. Energy blasted from the gauntlet, consuming the beasts head in green and lifting the beast slightly off the ground. Cujo quickly capitalized on this. The dog rammed into the demon cat was as much force as he could muster and sent the cat stumbling away.

Before Teekl could even land on her feet, Dusk was there. He absorbed one of his Gauntlets and formed a Pendulum Nunchuku in its place. Jumping on the feline's back, he grabbed its head and used the Gauntlet's burst to pull the cat's head back. He then wrapped the chain of his other weapon around the cat's neck. Extending the chain, Dusk flipped under his enemy and wrapped the chain around the beast's legs in order to tumble the beast to the ground.

"Great work!" Constantine placed his hands on the ground over the symbols he had written with his own blood. The symbols began to glow as Constantine muttered a chant that Dusk couldn't even begin to understand. As Constantine worked, a crimson circle appeared beneath Teekl. Magical energy reached up to grab the cat and pull through the portal to banish is from the physical realm of existence.

Dusk let out a small grin as he saw this. With Teekl taken care of, he turned to see Fright Knight and Black Bat's capturers. He didn't know how to deal with that, but he would think of something. After Deathstroke obviously didn't want them dead. If he dead, they wouldn't be breathing right now—

"ROAR!" Teekl suddenly let out a massive roar. Flexing its muscles, it shattered the chains holding in and sent both Dusk and Cujo flying away from it as energy poured from its body. With a shake of its body, it dispelled the magic holding it in place and turned to Constantine. Opening its mouth wide, Teekl sent out a concentrated blast of energy at the exorcist.

Constantine tried to move out of the way, but his legs gave out on him before he could even move a centimeter. His body was already too tired and injured for this fight. Looking up at the blast heading at him, Constantine could only scoff.

"Ah, burger…"

The blast of energy rammed into him, exploding against his chest and sending him flying back to the far wall. He quickly crashed into the steel and slowly slid to the ground where he tumbled to his face unconscious. His breathing was shallow and his body was badly burnt, but he still appeared to be alive.

Unfortunately, Constantine was their best bet in this battle. The entire plan revolved around him banishing Teekl and Klarion as a result. With him out of the fight, things were a lot more complicated. Dusk had no idea how to take the demon cat down.

"You need to kill it!" Poindexter's face popped up next to Dusk.

"Poindexter?"

"Glad the connection is clear with you at least," Poindexter adjusted his glasses, "Look, I don't have a lot of time. Just know that you need to kill Teekl immediately. I know it may hurt, but it will lead to the best possible result. If you hesitate, the consequences will be dire for a lot of people."

"Don't talk about killing someone with such ease!" Dusk glared at the other ghost, "I can't just do something like that on command!"

"Please, Dusk! If Teekl continues to exist—" Poindexter was cut off when Teekl lunged at Dusk. The halfa flipped out of the way and formed his Scribe Staff to try to trap Teekl. He weaved around the beast, leaving a trail of ectoplasm in his wake. Soon Teekl was covered in strands of ectoplasm, but like before, she quickly broke free.

"No! Create something sharp! Kill it! Kill it now!"

Dusk gritted his teeth as he dodged the animal's attacks. His eyes jumped to the downed Constantine to the captured Fright Knight and Black Bat. Deep down, he knew that he really didn't have a choice right now. People were depending on him. Besides, Klarion and Teekl could reform in a few hundred years anyway. It was for the best…

At least, that's what Dusk told himself to ease the ache he felt in his chest.

"Fine!" Dusk formed a bladed at the end of his staff to create a spear, "I'll do what I have to!"

"Attention bases 2, 3, and 4! This is Hornblower! I have instructions that might help you right now!"

Damon stopped his constant barrage of bullets at the wall blocking their exit and looked to the strange window hologram that showed Hornblower's face, "What's going on? I thought the coms systems were being hacked?"

"They are," Red X noted, "I'm…struggling….with it. Powerful force…can barely think…"

Rocket looked up from her attempts to help the Homo Magi and looked to the window, "Then that's not our tech. How's he doing that?"

"Right now, I'm using a ghost's powers to communicate," Mal answered Rocket's question unintentionally, "Banshee says that we can trust this ghost, and he's giving us a bunch of directions. You need to herd all of the people to one side of the room. Giants shadow cats are about to appear in the room. Form a protective position and defend the people being drained at all cost. Don't worry about trying to escape or shut the system down, that won't work."

"Is he insane?" Damon looked up to the sparking and overheating battery, "That thing will definitely blow if we don't do anything."

"It might sound crazy, but from what I'm told, if you don't do this, a lot of people will die," Mal gave them a pleading look, "Please, just follow the commands Poindexter gave us."

"Poindexter? I remember that guy. Kind of weird, if you ask me," Rocket mentioned.

"Yeah, but it's not like we have a whole lot of options right now," Damn let out a sigh. He then looked in alarm as he saw the shadows around the lab slowly began to take shape, "Let's just do it and hope that it doesn't get us killed."

"What…about…Metallo?" Red X looked to the downed android. His armor and mechanics were long since cracked and destroyed from his fight with the Exorcist Armor.

"We'll put him with the others. Guard him with your lives," The helmet to the Exorcist Armor closed. The man then looked to the Homo Magi that were all having their magic drained, "Okay, all magic people, please move to the west side of the base as quickly as you can. We're going to protect you, but we need you to stay together."

"What in the hell do you mean, screamer lady?!" Gizmo glared at the strange window beside him, "Why the hell shouldn't I just shut this place down?"

"I don't know…and don't call me that, you brat! That sounds terrible!" Harriet glared at Gizmo, "He just told me to plea to your better nature. Tell you that you need to use your special software to reroute the power."

"Reroute the power…Snot balls! REROUTE THE POWER MY ASS!" Gizmo sneered at Harriet, "Do you have any idea what that would do, ya dumb blond!?"

"One, not blond. Two, no."

"Blond's more than a hair color, burger breath," Gizmo gained an angry look, "I'm not doing it. I'm freeing Undergrowth and getting the hell out of here."

"Please! Poindexter says that you're the only person that can stop the other bases from exploding! You're the only one that hasn't been hacked—" The window suddenly disappeared when Gizmo raised a laser gun and blasted the image away. He then calmly went back to work.

"What is she talking about?" Lydia land next to the diminutive hacker.

"Something stupid…" Gizmo grumbled, "Don't listen to her. I'm just going to free Undergrowth, and then we can get the hell out of here. Forget the others."

"What did she mean that the other bases have been hacked," Ace asked curiously. He sudden appearance caused Gizmos to jump.

"JEZZE! Woman, do you make any noise at all when you move? Sheesh!" Gizmo grumbled as he looked over his shoulder. He could see the rest of the Royal Flush Gang along with Lydia's tattoos fighting of what appeared to be giant shadows in the shape of cats. Weirdly enough, that was probably the most normal thing he had seen today, "There's some hacker taking control of all the systems of the perimeter bases. I'm the only one that hasn't been hacked."

"And why is that?" Lydia questioned.

"Because I'm sick of magic and ghost types getting into my systems with ease!" Gizmo slammed his hand into his equipment, "I made a software designed to fight off empowered hackers like that. My systems say that it's ghostly in nature this time."

"How in the world did you do that?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I stole all of Fenton's research data after the Le Fey thing. You know, as payment for my help. I didn't want to get jumped again, so I spent the last four months trying to mesh my software with Fenton's ectoplasmic empowered computer equipment. I only recently got it working," Gizmo explained, "Luckily I have a lot of free time on my hands. If I had any distractions at all, I wouldn't have gotten it to work."

"And that's how you kept yourself from getting hacked," Lydia realized.

"Yep! And now I'm going to free Undergrowth and leave this crappy island before it goes boom," Gizmo stated.

"Goes boom?" Ace blinked.

"The hacker is causing every system to overload. Every single base is going to blow up soon, and I don't want to be around when it does," Gizmo rapidly typed on his keyboard.

"Can you stop it?" Lydia questioned.

"Yeah, but I would have to reroute the power, and that would be stupid," Gizmo grumbled, "I risked my neck enough already for these hero douches. This sorcerer thing has been stopped. The world is safe, so I get to go home and play some video games."

"At the cost of hundreds of lives," Lydia glared at Gizmo.

"Don't act all high and mighty, toots, look who you hang out with," Gizmo sneered at her, "First that Freakshow nut, then a bunch of terrorists. You have no right to lecture me."

"I only help them because Ace needs guidance to stop her reckless actions," Lydia hissed, "You don't understand the situation, so don't act like you do."

"Bitch, I understand everything perfectly, isn't that right, Andromeda?" Gizmo gave Ace a side glance.

Ace frowned, "Where did you learn that name?"

"I'm a hacker. One that pretty much hates the Light. I made sure to learn as many of their dirty little secrets as I could. Luckily, one of their dirty gym shorts is hanging out in plain sight for everyone to see. As long as you know where to look," Gizmo snorted, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"I see…"

"Please!" Lydia grabbed Gizmo's shoulders and stared into his eyes, "I don't want any more people to die. That's why I'm with the Royal Flush Gang. That's why I left Frederick. That's why I'm here. You need to save those people. It's wrong to just ignore it if you have the power to save people."

Gizmo just gave the ghost woman a deadpanned look. With a shake of his head, he turned back to his work, "Sorry, lady. I'm not a hero. Saving people isn't my thing. Especially when doing so has a one hundred percent chance of getting me killed."

David Cain ignored all the chaos going on around him. He was well aware of how every base was in trouble considering the energy being emitted by each one of them. In his personal opinion, it looked like they were about to explode, and he had a very intimate relationship with explosions.

Unfortunately, that wasn't something he could deal with right now. He would have to leave that to the others on the mission. Right now, he had to deal with those cowardice Shadow douches. They were moving fast for people dragging an unconscious body. Of course, Cain managed to catch up, but that wasn't the problem.

"Move you cannon fodder!" Cain shouted he kicked one of the assassins blocking his way. Dozens of the suckers stood in his way. That damn Talia had too many people under command. It was even worse considering they were all willing to die for her.

Cain could see his targets right beyond the fodder. They moving away rapidly, not even giving him a passing glance. Rage flooded his system. They take his wife and ignore him? Bastards!

Taking out one of his twin pistols, the freelance killer quickly took aim at Sportsmaster's back. Before he could get off a clean shot, though, one of the assassins in front of him jumped forward to cut him. This forced David to turn his shot towards his attacker. A quick twitch of the finger relieved him from that problem, but the other assassins decided to rush in at that moment.

With an angry grunt, David quickly fought back. His eyes darted to his retreating targets. He knew that he had to deal with these guys first, but he didn't like it. The further they got away with Shiva, the harder it would be to track them down.

"Guess that means I'll have to kill you fast!" Cain exclaimed as he open fired on his enemies.

Superboy groaned in pain as Walker massive foot continued to put pressure down of the side of his head to the point that the steel below him began to bend around his head. At the same time, the large rule book made of energy continued to crush him. There was really no real threat to him from this type of attack, but that wasn't the problem. Right now, he was still trapped. Walker had him trapped, so all he could do was watch as Madame Rogue killed Miss Martian.

Madame Rogue slammed her fist across M'gann's face for what seemed like the tenth time. The Martian's face was now bruised and swelled. Once again, the Martian tried to use her telepathy to attack the other women mentally, but she was stopped by another punch. This time, though, the punch hit her throat instead.

M'gann instantly clutched at her throat. It was only because of her extreme durability that her neck wasn't shattered. Still, she couldn't breathe, so her body desperately sought to find a new way to breath. Thus, modified gills popped out of her chest gasping for air.

"Nice efforts zhere, little girl, but you need to be more brutal if you want to beat me," Madame Rogue noted. She then lifted up her hand and shaped her hand in the form of an axe. Bringing the blade over the girl's head, Rogue prepared to end the girl quickly when she was stopped.

Beast Boy managed to pull himself together and fling himself at Rogue to save his adopted sister. In midair, he quickly transformed into the shape of a large green gorilla. Just as he was about to hit Rogue, though, the woman move. With the speed of a viper, Rogue stretched herself around Beast Boy's body. Her body became one elongated band that completely covered Beast Boy's legs, arms, and neck.

The villainess then controlled Beast Boy's arms to move down and grab M'gann's head. She then forced him to begin crushing the now screaming Martian's head. Seeing what his larger body was doing, Beast Boy tried to turn back into his normal form, but he couldn't gain enough focus to transform. Madame Rouge was squeezing his neck so tight that he couldn't even focus enough to think, let alone transform. He was stuck like that until he either passed out from lack of oxygen or he died from Rogue snapping his neck.

"Zhis is better, no?" Madame Rouge let out a chuckle, "Killing zhe woman zhat zaved your life? Very zragic. I always like to do zuch zhings on my jobs. Zhe looks of betrayal are priceless."

"RAW!" Superboy desperately tried to free himself to no avail, "LET THEM GO!"

"Yeah, screaming will help," Walker let out a snort.

Superboy clawed at the boot on his head, "Damn you! Danny should never had trusted you!"

"I am zorry about zhat," Madame Rogue admitted, "Danny waz a good client. Out of all zhe offers I got until today, his was zhe best. Paid well, but what good is money to the dead?"

"Traitorous bitch!" Superboy desperately looked around for some form of help. His eyes topped on a downed Wolf, who looked like he wasn't getting up any time soon.

"Szicks and ztones, boy," With that, Madame Rogue jerked to kill her two targets.

"NO!"

For once, Superboy's yell did not meet deaf ears. In the blink of the eye, both Madame Rogue and Walker were thrown away from the heroes. This caused both Miss Martian and Beast Boy to gasp out in relief. Superboy, on the other hand, immediately flung himself to their sides and pulled them into hugs.

"Hello, I don't believe we've met before, but we don't have the time for proper introductions," Poindexter's image appeared in front of the downed heroes, "Just know that I'm Poindexter, I'm on your side, and we need to work together if you want to survive."

"You…You saved them?" Superboy questioned.

"Yes, but we don't have ti—Oh shoot!" A clear wall appeared in front of the heroes and stopped a blast of dark energy from crashing into them, "Quickly! You need to move. I'll help guard you from Walker the best I can, but with the power of surprise out of my reach, I can't attack him directly with my Writers ability."

Superboy looked to M'gann and Beast Boy, "Can you move?"

"Yeah…" Miss Martian nodded as her form shifted back to normal.

"I could use a minute," Beast Boy admitted as he rubbed his neck.

"No time!" A single ball of energy popped out nowhere and smashed into Madame Rogue to stop her charge forward. Just like before, the villainess was flung away, "I'll help the best I can and give you instructions. Together, we can save Etrigan and get you out alive."

"Alright," Superboy nodded, "Not like we have a lot of choices."

On other side of the window, Poindexter nodded. He was about to go onto give instructions to the Kryptonian clone when someone else spoke up.

"Hey, what about Vision?" Mal turned to Poindexter and gave him a confused look, "You still haven't given her advice."

Poindexter just frowned and shook his head, "No point. That story's outcome is already decided no matter what. Death in imminent."

Vision had not been afraid of death for a long time. Ever since she turned into a ghost, leaving the physical plane for the spiritual one didn't cause her panic. She experienced death once before after all. The second time wasn't a big deal.

That was the mindset Vision had for her entire afterlife. No matter what happened, Vision wasn't afraid if she faded from this world. Her time now was only overtime in her mind. It was only fair that it could come to an end at any moment.

Right now, though, Vision was reminded why people were ever afraid of dying. When the last attack shattered her ribs, her mouth opened in a combination of pain in shock. The water instantly reacted as if it were alive and jumped down her throat, filling her lungs with suffocating liquid.

As this happened, the assault to the outside of her body continued unhampered. The sharks constructed of water nipped at her sides, instantly drawing out her ectoplasmic laced blood. The rest of water began to squeeze and crush her from all angles. Despite the torturous pain, though, that wasn't what made Vision remember the true terror that existed when looking at destruction's face.

Above her floated a figure cloaked in black. A dark weapon stood raised, ready to strike her down. Dark energy rolled off her attacker like smoke as he gave a sickening cruel grin. Just like…

Viola trembled before the monster. She covered herself in her daddy's large purple coat to the point that only her eyes were visible. Her daddy said that purple was the color of royalty and that he was king of many kingdoms. The coat was meant to protect her, to show that she was royalty herself, but this monster didn't seem to care, "Ahh…W-What are you?"

"Death," Nekron grinned down at her.

Viola felt her entire body freeze in fear, "No…Daddy will protect me…"

"Daddy?Hahahahaha! Little fool, the only one that you can ever rely on to protect you is you," Nekron raised his scythe and then slashed down, "And you're too weak to do that."

"Still awake I see," Ocean Master's grin was laced with madness, "You are a tough one. I cannot believe your lungs have not collapsed yet. Maybe adding a few holes will help."

Ocean Master brought his black trident down towards Vision's chest. In a desperate attempt to stop it, she lifted her arms and allowed to be impaled by the tree points of the weapon. Her arms managed to stop the weapon from piercing her chest, but her already numbed arms instantly went dead after the impalement.

"Very good. I can see why you are so respected, but you cannot fight me off forever," Ocean Master manipulated the water around the open wounds on Vision's arms, opening them more and allowing the trident to continue its journey unhindered, "You are too weak to do that."

Phantom had rarely seen such raw, unconventional power as the ability Klarion now threw around with ease. The best example he could compare it too were the times he fought against Freakshow and the Reality Gauntlet. Now, though, the power didn't come through a weapon. No, Klarion's power was far more internal and instinctual.

With a wave of his hands, the Lord of Chaos created a ring of fire around the base. This fire didn't seem natural, though. It reached out to them like it was trying to grab them. If that wasn't bad enough, Klarion formed a bit 'O' with his hands and then blew into it to form giant colored bubbles. When the bubbles hit something, they popped, revealing that they were filled acid that instantly melted the steal floor when touched.

"Dance, bugs! Dance!" Klarion cheered as he slammed his hands onto the ground causing energy to spread everywhere and take control of the unfeeling steal. The metal became distorted and shifted into large fangs and claws that went to try and snap at them.

Phantom immediately grabbed Jinx and pulled her up into the air to avoid getting caught by the now animated metal. As he used his airborne ability to dodge all of Klarion's strange attacks, Jinx used her magic to safely dispatch the acid bubbles. This proved nearly impossible as when one bubble was popped and the acid was safely banished, two more took its place. Nevertheless, the two of them desperately continued their struggle for survival.

That struggle came to an abrupt end, though, when Klarion decided to intervene directly. In a swirl of energy similar to Jinx's teleportation, the Lord of Chaos appeared right behind them. Grabbing their joined wrists, he quickly jerked them apart. He took great joy from their panicked expression. His glee only increased as he surged this black energy into them and caused them to scream in agony.

Creating a black gain of energy, Klarion wrapped it around Phantom's arm and then swung the chain. With a massive grin on his face, Klarion swung Phantom through several of the acid bubbles. Then, Phantom was smashed into the walls of flames a few times. Then, to finish off the halfa, Klarion slammed Phantom into the steel below, allowing the animated metal to latch onto him in a giant pile and began to tear the ghost apart.

"One down! And now for the traitor!" Klarion switched his grip to grab Jinx with both of his hands. With a mad grin of his face, Klarion began to choke the sorceress while pumping his darkened energy into her once more.

Jinx gasped and trembled in tortures as the energy spread through her neck and out through her body, filtering into her veins and causing her veins to build with enough pressure to almost cause them to burst. Through the pain, she managed to keep control over one of her arms. She pointed it down to the ground below, right where Phantom was trapped.

"He can't save you, traitor! Do you know how many people he's failed? Hell, his list is probably bigger than my kill list. Kekekekeke…" Klarion began to giggle in glee.

"No…Wrong…" Jinx gasped as she extended her arm out as much as possible towards the ground below. Pink energy flared from her fingers to the ground below.

"Wrong?! You know I'm not! Hell, I've known him longer than you! I remember him back after that burger joint blew up! He was so funny, trying to act tough even know he knew how weak he was! He knew in one look that he would never be able to fight me equ—"

Klarion's rant was cut short when his arms were suddenly cut off at the elbows. Eyes widening in shock, Klarion watched as Jinx fell from his grasp and his arms faded into nothingness. His eyes then bounced from the frost that covered his stumps to the sword of ice that was now slowly melting away.

"Jinx, are you okay?" Klarion's head snapped down with an audible crack as he looked to see that Phantom had actually managed to catch Jinx before she hit the ground.

"Danny…" Jinx's eyes dropped as she looked into his eyes, "How…"

Phantom nudged his head to show that the animated steel that was once attacking him was now destroyed with tiny strands of pink energy jumping off of the scrap, "Thanks for the assist. I couldn't focus with those things chomping at my neck. You gave me the time I needed to feel it."

"Feel?" Klarion's face scrunched up in confusion, "Feel what?!"

Phantom then looked up. His hair fell back to reveal what caused Jinx to feel so much shock. Powerful, glowing white eyes now existed where a neon green once stood. Klarion remembered those eyes. He had seen it up close and personal a little over three years ago. They were the eyes of ghost that had grown into a god.

Phantom smiled at Klarion. Strands of gold and white now filtered through his green energy, "I felt…Life."

It only took about a minute for Spirit to realize that their chances of actually get to Nyx and the battery was virtually impossible. Despite all their effort, none of them had even gotten close to either of their targets. While fighting against the constant force that Nyx's magic was putting out, they also had to deal with the dozens of shadow beasts attacking them.

What was worse was they couldn't let themselves touch the floor, as Cyborg quickly found out. He tried to walk his way over to the battery while the other distracted Nyx. He made to the end of the shadows that pooled and danced on the ground when he found out just how dangerous the ooze was. One step into the goo, and he was stuck. The shadows latched onto him and immediately began to slowly creep up his leg.

He tried to use his weapons to dislodge the shadow ooze from his leg, but it didn't work. Not even his energy canon could dispatch the energy. After a few seconds of trying to get his leg free, Cyborg finally decided that he only had one choice. A quick button presses to his forearm controller allowed Cyborg to disconnect the armor from the knee down and pull a thinner metal covered exoskeleton foot from the armored boot.

Seeing that wouldn't work, Cyborg did his last resort of using his jetpack to get around, but that proved just as futile as the others attempts. His efforts were even more fruitless, however, considering that using his jetpack used a large portion of his energy reserves. A quick glance to his energy gauge told him that staying airborne for much longer would leave very little energy for his weaponry.

"Ahhh….Ahhh…AAAAAHHHHH! RAW!" Nyx screamed out as her body began to be torn apart. Her body slowly began to dissolve as tiny drops of ectoplasm dropped off the bottom of her feet.

"Nyx!" Spirit shouted out as one of the cats smacked her back into the wall once more.

"What did Poindexter expect us to do with that info!?" Raven questioned as she formed a shield to try and protect herself, "There's no way to get close!"

"I don't know!" Youngblood grunted as he tried to fight against one of the beasts, "But we have to keep trying!"

"Yeah! Don't give up! We'll get to her!" Cyborg reached out to his friend, "We'll save you, Nyx! Just hold on!"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Nyx's tears were now replaced by streams of ectoplasmic blood running down her face. Her back arced as she tried to do anything possible to relieve the pain. All she manage to do, though, was force sent out another wave massive wave of magic that once again slammed all of her friends back into the far wall.

This time, though, no matter what they did though, the group of four could not fight their way back towards Nyx. Exhaustion and the raw power they were fighting against proved to be too strong. They couldn't move forward anymore. It was over. They knew in that moment that Nyx was lost.

One of the biggest problems Dusk had with fighting Teekl was the cat's defense. Its fur seemed to grow harder than steel. His blade only caused sparks to fly when it met the animal, not blood. Cujo didn't seem to be having any more luck than Dusk. Straight up physical blows did make her stumble, but she did appear injured by the attacks in the slightest. Nothing seemed to work on the animal.

Everything had a weakness, though. Even the Kryptonians had their Achilles' heel. So, Dusk just had to find it. The fur was had enough to protect the cat from steel, but…was everything so protected?

Dodging a blow to his head, Dusk swung his spear around to Teekl's nose. His effort was rewarded when dark blood instantly feel from the gashed nose and the cat scrambled back while making a hissing noise. It glared at them as its wound knitted itself back to normal.

That was it. No fur meant no protection. He had to aim at a place that had no fur, which was sounded ridiculous considering that he was fighting something covered in fur. No animal was one hundred percent covered in fur, though.

"Cujo, roll her over!" Dusk ordered as he flew up above the cat causing it to look up after him. Cujo obeyed and went after Teekl's legs. Cujo rammed himself into Teekl's unprotected legs and caused the surprised cat to stumble around trying to regain her footing. She never got the chance, though. Dusk took advantage of Teekl's weakness and dropped down on her once more.

Using his superhuman strength, Dusk flipped the cat over to her back and stood on the beast's chest. A solid kick to the cat's nose cause the cat to hiss in pain. Her mouth opened up wide, revealing her sharp teeth and furless insides.

With a roar, Dusk brought his spear down with the complete intent to stab the cat through the head. He made a single mistake, though. It was something that he had learned a long time ago when the Shadows were first trying to get him to kill. They said it was a rule for all inexperienced assassins who still had yet to develop the hardness of heart needed to take a life. The rule was very simple.

Don't look into the target's eyes.

Dusk froze as he stared into Teekl's brown orbs. Fear and anger danced around her eyes. The eyes were always the window to a person's soul. Looking into Teekl's soul, he saw a living being with fears, desires, and hopes. Dusk felt shame fill his chest. He was going to rob her of her existence, if only temporarily. He had no right to do that. No one had the right to do that.

"RAW!" Teekl's eyes suddenly hardened from a fearful kitten into a hunting tiger. She bit down on the spear with her sharp fangs. The cat instantly destroyed his and then flipped him over so that he was now trapped by her. In that moment, Dusk realized that he had been had. Teekl knew how to play with people's emotions, and she knew how to manipulate someone who had mercy in his heart.

With Teekl's hot breath and spit washing over his face, Dusk knew that he was now at her mercy. Unlike him, however, Teekl was had anything relating to mercy in her heart.

If Mary was being completely honest to herself, she would admit that she always wanted to be a hero. She often daydreamed of getting superpowers and saving the day like Captain Marvel did. As such, her response to gaining her powers had been complete and utter glee. All that short lived when Mary quickly realized the consequences of having superpowers.

Her first act as a superhero was crippling a man. That was a thought she had every day. She had taken an eye from a victim that was being controlled against his will. It on that same day that she wished she never had powers. Despite her bravado and kind nature, Mary gained an instinctual fear of her powers.

She would kill a man just by poking him a bit too hard. It would be all too easy. She even tried it on a stone. Her finger had cut through the rock with ease. Imagining the hole in the stone could be a hole in someone's head made her vomit for an hour straight.

She was glad Freddy was there to hold back her hair…

Freddie…Mary wished she was more like him. He never let anything bother him. His powers, while a shock, seemed more like a minor inconvenience for him. After finding out just what his powers were, he made a plan to control them and pulled her along for the ride. Despite never wanting powers, he was far better equipped to handle them…well, at least the physical consequences of it. He never seemed interested in developing the aura of kindness that the other Marvels had.

It was that aura and train of thought that made Mary better with civilians. She could sympathize with them, comfort them, and make them feel batter. Empathy and compassion…that was her natural gifts, and probably the reason she got her powers in the first place. Sure, being related to Captain Marvel helped, but Mary didn't think Shazam would let the power transfer if she didn't meet his expectations.

Unfortunately, it was that empathy that made the entire Sorcerer Initiative so much more painful. Mary could deal with her own pain. She had the powers of the gods after all. It was everything that made is so much worse. Beside her, two of her closest friends were screaming in pain. Not only that, the wizard Shazam and Doctor Fate were having their magic ripped from them as well.

Then, there was the sight in front of her. Four more of her friends were being beaten and killed by Nyx, a girl who had her free-will ripped away from her…just like the Box Ghost. This time, however, it was even worse. Nyx was being forced to kill her friends while she was being ripped apart molecule by molecule as well.

…Not to mention the hundreds of people going the exact same thing as them right now…She had to stop it, and there was only one way to do that…

"SHAZAM!"

Lightning roared through the base. In an instant, Mary felt all of her power being ripped away from her. Her form shifted from the amazing hero known as Lieutenant Marvel into the weak, barley in her teens Mary Bromfield. Now significantly smaller and lacking any magical power, Mary slid out of her restraints and to the floor.

"Mary!? What did you do!?" Sergeant Marvel's eyes widened as he watched Mary heave and gasp on the metal floor.

"I…did what I had to…Not like I had a lot of power left anyway…" Mary fought the vomit that threatened to crawl up her throat and pushed herself up. Her legs felt like jello right now, but she didn't have time to rest, "They need my help…They all need my help…"

With that, Mary quickly moved to an opening on the side of the battery that Cyborg had made in his struggle. With trembling fingers, Mary reached in and began to pull wires out from the tear in the metal. She gasped in pain as electricity passed through her arms, but she still continued to pull the wires out as quickly as possible.

After a few seconds, though, a few of the smaller shadow cats took notice of her actions. They quickly jumped at her. In her weakness, Mary could only barely roll out of the way. She tried to keep moving, but the cats had quickly caught up to her and smashed her body to the floor, causing the girl to cry out in both pain and surprise. Just as they were about to kill her, they were stopped by a familiar shout.

"SHAZAM!"

Just like Mary, Freddy collapsed forward from the loss of his powers. He managed to angle it drop, however, in order to fall onto one of the shadow cat's backs. Using all the strength he had left, Freddie clutched at the cat's fur and pulled it towards the other cat, causing the beast he was riding to ram into its sibling and freeing Mary.

"Freddie!" Mary cried out in shock as she saw Freddy give up his powers for her.

"I only put up with this hero crap for you! No point in having them now!" Freddie shouted out as he desperately clung to the shadow beast, "We're a team right!?"

"R-Right!" Mary nodded and quickly moved to help him.

"No! Stop the battery!" Freddy ordered, "I'll distract them! And Billy, don't you give up your powers! The world needs at least one Marvel!"

Captain Marvel opened one clenched eye and let out a pained groan, "B-but…"

"No buts!" Freddy explained. He turned his head to look at them and revealed that tears were now running down his face, "This time, we'll actually some good instead of messing things up! It may not make up for what happened to that box guy, but at least we can do some good losing our powers instead of getting them!"

Mary's eyes lit up like a flame, "Yeah!" She lunged herself towards the opening once more. Grabbing as many cords as she could, Mary pulled with as much strength as her weakened body had left, "This time, we'll be real heroes!"

Then, with a roar and a flash of electricity, the cords ripped causing Mary to fall flat on her back. The damage had been done, though. The man battery quickly died down and the remaining three captives stopped their shouts of pain.

"Oof!" Freddy groaned as he the cat finally flung him off just as it began to disappear. He landed on his stomach facing towards Mary. Looking at each other, the two young teens smiled. They had just turned the tide of this battle.