25 Chapter 25: Mission Report and Prophecy
[AN: Exam Season is coming soon so there might be a delay in the release like I might post the chapter later during the day or on the Weekend.]
[Third Person's Point of View]
[Mount Justice, Rhode Island. August 4, 01:06 EDT]
"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate STAR Labs,"
Aqualad reports. He is giving a summary of the unexpected events of the mission to Batman, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, and Green Arrow. Since he had been appointed to lead the mission as Vice-Leader then he should be the one to report or so Acnologia said.
"Ivo was taken into custody but he seemed to have escaped during his transport to Belle Reve. He had more robot monkeys hidden than we thought and the tracker we put on him was destroyed. Since he originated the tech, he is arguably more dangerous than the android."
"Capturing the professor will be a League priority."
Canary assures them.
Manhunter crosses his arms.
"But we understand your mission encountered… other complications."
The Team exchanged glances while Acnologia seemed bored.
Batman steps forward.
"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League."
"The whole League?"
Supergirl questions before Batman turns to her.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads."
Supergirl smiles to herself as Batman continues.
"Of course, there's no shame in asking for help, that's why the League exists. Because there's some problems even we can't handle individually."
'Speak for yourself... You know what... Let's not ruin the moment.'
Acnologia thinks.
"Please. If we really needed help we'd never get the chance to ask."
Robin interrupts his mentor. He holds up the arrow that undoubtedly saved Kid Flash's life.
"Look familiar?"
The other Leaguers in the room walk forward to stand next to Batman and look at what Robin holds.
"You were following us! Babysitting, you still don't trust us!"
"We didn't follow you."
Batman says monotonously. Green Arrow takes the arrow in Robin's hand and pulls out one of his own so they can be compared side by side.
"And that's not your arrow."
Robin embarrassedly says before adding on.
"But that means-"
"Speedy!"
Kid says excitedly.
"He has our backs."
Aqualad adds, obviously relieved his friend did not abandon them. Supergirl wrinkles her brow. The one she saw leaving the scene was not Speedy, she wanted to voice her thoughts but decided against ruining the moment.
Kid Flash speeds up to the group and grabs the arrow from Green Arrow's grasp.
"Souvenir."
Batman and Green Arrow exchange glances. As the Team leaves the scene, Acnologia stays because he has something to inform them or at least that was what he had told them.
"I have acquired information from Ivo that may lead to his whereabouts but before I divulge them I would like to be assured that this information would not be leaked outside of the League members."
Acnologia says the last part looking at Green Arrow. The latter is about to protest when was stopped by Batman who gives him a glare that says:
'What are you about to say? He ain't wrong.'
Batman then looked at Acnologia before speaking.
"The information will not be leaked outside of League members."
Acnologia nodded before speaking.
"As you already know, my shadow can absorb the ability of what it ate but it is different for information. It does not need to eat the target though it is preferred if the target is unconscious."
"That sounds kind of ominous."
Green Arrow states and receives a Bat glare as a reward that says:
'Would you shut up!? I'm trying to learn what he learned from Ivo.'
"It is but that is not the point of this conversation, long story short, I looked through Ivo's memories and the reason why he sent Amazo towards Green Arrow and Black Canary was to test its abilities and gain the resources he needed for his work.
The plan was to have Amazo copy as many abilities from league members that would come to help as possible, defeating the league if possible and if it lost then he would retrieve the android when the League's guard was down.
After that, he would use the data acquired from the android to mass produce it while trying to fix its weakness to the android's inability for magic mimicry. The android was dismantled once more before he had the chance to collect its data and proceed with the latter part of his plan."
Acnologia said causing the eyes of every league member present outside of Red Tornado to widen in surprise.
"That is concerning."
Red Tornado stated.
"Indeed."
Martian Manhunter added.
"Thankfully, Ivo did collect the data of our abilities."
Black Canary said with a shiver down her spine due to imagining a legion of Amazo with the powers of the Justice League.
"Shit, we have to find Ivo as soon as possibl-"
Green Arrow stated before Batman cut him off.
"No, there is a more pressing concern."
"Bats, you heard the kid, Ivo plans to make an army of those things. We should go look for him as soon as possible."
Green Arrow said. Most of the league had thought that Ivo's goal was to make a single android that had the powers of the league. To them that was still doable but an army of such androids was not something that they could take on at least not without wrecking the place where they would be fighting.
"You are missing the point."
Batman said. The possibility of an army of Amazo had already been on his mind the moment they learned that it was related to Ivo.
"Triton stated that Ivo's reason to send Amazo on you two was to test its abilities as well as gain the resources he needed for his work."
Batman says as he looks at Black Canary and Green Arrow before looking back at Acnologia.
"Who is backing Ivo?"
"From what I saw from Ivo's memories, he does not know them. Anyone he has ever interacted with from that group was not among the highest-ranking members of that group... It is best if I just show you guys."
Acnologia said as he closed his eyes, brought his hand up, and spoke.
"Erahs s'ovi seiromem."
Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Red Tornado, and Batman's eye shone for a moment before the light faded away. Green Arrow and Black Canary looked like they were having a migraine while Martian Manhunter sighed.
The two leagues were not in any mental pain, it was due to the annoyance of the meaning behind what they learned. Red Tornado being inorganic did not display any sign of emotion while Batman furrowed his glare as he spoke.
"A counter to the justice league."
The information he learned from Ivo's memory felt like one of the missing pieces of a puzzle he had been putting back together. It was helpful but that still did not give him the full picture. He would need to investigate carefully.
For some reason, his mind repeated the arrest of the four ice-themed villains. He thought that their capture seemed too easy and the fact that they attacked on the same day was too coincidental for his liking, especially after learning of the Light.
Two of the four villains had been sent to Belle Reve while the rest were acting strange. Last time he checked, Mr. Freeze was petitioning to be declared legally sane while Icicle Junior wanted to be trialed as an adult. Batman was in deep thought.
'This all leads to Belle Reve. If that group is involved with those four then they have something planned for Belle Reve. If the result of the trial ends up with the remaining two going to Belle Reve then the league will have to send a cover team to infiltrate Belle Reve.
We would not be able to trust the staff due to the potential importance of such a mission's success. Still, the League members are stretched too thin for a possible long-term mission, this leaves the Team.
Kid Flash, Supergirl, and Robin are out due to their civilian life requirements of keeping up their appearance. This leaves only Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Triton. For such an infiltration mission, Miss Martian's ability will be a must... I will have to discuss this with the league.'
At the moment, the only people who knew that Acnologia had 'read' Ivo's mind were present with him. The unknown villain group still thought that the League had no clear idea of who they were which was partially true but the League now knew their game.
Batman knew that the easiest enemy to defeat was an enemy that thought itself untouchable and their guard dropped. He could not spook them until he knew every member that compromised its top rank. And Acnologia's next words mirrored his thoughts.
"This will become the League's business so I will give you guys a little advice. You are free to listen to it or ignore it as you wish, but if they are as dangerous and resourceful as they claim to be..."
Acnologia paused for a second gaining the attention of all the heroes once more.
"... It would be best to think of facing them as akin to facing The Hydra."
"Hydra?"
Martian Manhunter asked, not familiar with all of Earth's mythos.
"A monster from Greek Mythology. It's similar to a wingless dragon except-"
Green Arrow spoke only to be cut by Black Canary.
"It is poisonous and if you cut one of its numerous heads off then it would grow back before you know it."
"Indicating that should we not apprehend them correctly, they would remain, most likely hiding in the shadows. That is quite the simile."
Red Tornado stated. Acnologia had compared the unknown villain group to Hydra due to him remembering what every Hydra villain always said after being defeated.
'Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!'
"Which reminds me, Martian Manhunter, I am not familiar with the Martian anatomy but in the event of your death could someone use your body or your brain to gain your telepathy abilities?"
Acnologia's morbid question froze the heroes in their places.
"W-Why would you ask something like that?"
Black Canary asked with a concerned tone.
"When I learned about the existence of such villain groups I figured it would not hurt to think of what their objective would be. Statistically, it would be what the people on the surface refer to as a cliché, world domination.
So if that was the case then I tried to envision how they would do it. If I were in their shoes, thus limited, I would plant secret or sleeper agents in every major power and organization in the world including the Justice League since they would oppose plans for world domination.
Then there were also other ways to deal with the Justice League such as mind control. To my knowledge, the world's most powerful or at the very least most known powerful Telepath is Martian Manhunter.
With his telepathy, it would be possible to bring some of the League Members under their control but from what I know of you, that would not happen willingly thus you would either be forced into it or controlled.
To control you they would either need a more powerful telepath but that would eliminate the need to get you or your abilities which they could potentially replicate via your corpse if such golden opportunity would fall into their hands."
Acnologia replied.
"That is dark. I mean even if it's a hypothetical theory, there are some lines we don't cross-"
Green Lantern said but was cut off by Martian Manhunter.
"Keyword being we, the Justice League but as I am sure we have all seen, there is no line some villains would not cross. To answer, your question, I do not fully know the answer to it as it has never happened in all of Martian history but it is improbable due to the Martian physiology.
If I was to be killed and my corpse to be defiled, to use my psychic powers would require them to reanimate my consciousness which would mean that I would be in control of my mind."
"Good, I'd rather not wake up one day to find the Justice League believing themselves to be the villains all because someone stole your brain or something. Also, you should check with Zatara if there are any personality-swapping or reality-warping magic artifacts hidden somewhere, if I had to guess then I would say those things would eventually be targeted by the unknown group of villains."
Acnologia stated waving his hand in the air as he left. Martian Manhunter could not help but comment on what he had heard.
"He has quite the imagination."
"Nonetheless, it would be best to verify that such artifacts do not exist on Earth."
Batman states.
"You got to be kidding me, you believe that those things can exist?"
Green Arrow said.
"Whether I believe or not is of no importance, what is important is to confirm whether such artifacts exist or not and if it is the former safeguard them against those that would use them for nefarious means."
Batman added. The discussion ended soon afterward as the League members had to inform their fellow league members.
Unfortunately, Acnologia did not care enough to do more as he had done his part. The unknown villain group had yet to target him personally or so he thought. He still did not know that Klarion, his target was part of the unknown villain group.
Upon reviewing his preparation once more, he realized that he had made a happy mistake.
His ego would have been bruised had it not been himself that caught on to that mistake. The Hidden Sea is a partial realm at the Earth's core. It is only accessible from the Kingdom of the Trench. This meant that the power needed to turn it into his personal realm was considerably lessened.
With the freed power that would come from Klarion, he could build something he had planned on building in the future after acquiring enough power or sacrifices if an alien invasion were to happen.
It would be his ace in the hole. Still, the chance of success for his ace in the hole was not a hundred percent since he was lacking something. He could gain it if he took it from the Hero known as Captain Marvel but from Nabue's knowledge, Acnologia knew that he was the champion of the Wizard.
He also knew how the powers of the Champion worked which was how he learned that he could acquire what he was missing to make his chance of creating his ace in the hole a hundred percent. Acnologia also knew that Captain Marvel's appearance remained at the peak of his life while he was using the powers of the Wizard.
Out of curiosity, he performed a spell that came from Nabue that would allow him to see Captain Marvel's true form. Acnologia was surprised that Captain Marvel was a child, not a teen but a child. This was the reason why Acnologia would not take it from Captain Marvel as he was a child and he had never attacked him, tried to kill, eat, or take something from him.
He would just have to look out for something that could be of equal exchange to one of the abilities of Captain Marvel that he sought after.
[AN: I forgot that the Hidden Sea was classified as a realm and thought it was just located at the Earth's core. It does not really change what I was going to do with this story but it does make what Acnologia is going to make as his ace in the hole more plausible.]
Still, thinking about Hydra and the possibility that this unknown villain group could be this world's version of Hydra, Acnologia decided to change his plans. He did not know every Marvel story told but he remembered that Hydra often pulled a Deus Ex Machina with secret powerful artifacts or people.
Chances were that there was someone in the unknown villain group who was or would be looking for the Trident of Atlan with the goal of ruling the seven seas.
Since, the Hidden Sea was already a partial realm, as in it still had a foot in this plane of existence while the other was not, Acnologia could work with this.
He would have to rewrite his spell but he could temporarily keep the Hidden Sea hidden after obtaining the Trident of Atlan. Without Klarion, he would need the lives of one hundred million lives slash souls to make the Hidden Sea his domain as that is the amount that is required to convert into the Arcane Magical Energy required for such a feat.
To transform that place into an interdimensional realm under his full control requires a lot of power and one hundred million lives slash souls is the equivalent exchange for the Arcane Magical Energy needed to perform the spell.
Now most people would be stuck thinking of a way to meet the quota but Acnologia, after some thinking, realized that there was an untapped amount of lives that he could exchange for the required amount of Arcane Magical Energy.
The same reason why no Atlantean had ever stumbled upon the Trident of Atlan would be the same reason why Acnologia would be able to convert the Hidden Sea into his own domain. As many Atlantean knows the Trench are a cannibalistic race of ocean-dwelling creatures.
They were once one of the kingdoms of Atlantis before Atlan sunk the continent, condemning them to a fate of being mutated to survive the new conditions of their dwelling. Now they are akin to piranhas who will eat anything that stumbles in their way.
To this day, the Kingdom of the Trench is still unmapped due to the legion of Trenches that swarmed and ate the misfortunate fools who thought themselves capable of venturing into their kingdom. The more he thought about it the more he wanted to head to the Kingdom of the Trench.
Thankfully, he calmed himself and decided to review his plan before doing such. Upon reviewing it, he remembered something. The reason why he wanted to make his Ace in the hole. From Nabue's knowledge, the master of a new realm is often coveted and attacked by others wishing to take said realm or use it to expend theirs.
Like a bucket of cold water, his excitement has cooled down. A partial realm had no value to those who would try to take another's realm. At the moment, the best solution that Acnologia saw was to venture into the Hidden Sea, make the Trident of Atlan his but let it keep protecting the partial realm until he managed to take down Klarion.
This plan required fewer Trenches to be sacrificed. He would make his Trident bound to him, unable to be usurped by another, and upgrading it. Now some may think that it would be easier and faster for Acnologia to just summon Klarion to a place of his choosing but that method had a downside.
Klarion could refuse it and with Nabue's knowledge, he knew that Klarion would not fall for the same trick. Last time, the Chaos Lord had underestimated the young Atlantean and he would do so one more time but not to the same degree.
For his plan to work, it was preferred that Klarion had his guard down. It would be less likely for that to happen if he were to summon Klarion out of the blue. Still, he would need to prepare to make sure that no one would notice him as he made the Trident of Atlan his as he upgraded it.
[On Mount Olympus]
"Is what you say true?"
A man with white hair and a white beard asks while wearing a white toga. He is muscular and has an immense aura around him which fits the position that he is in currently, sitting on a throne. In front of him is three hooded women.
"We grow tired..."
The first says in an old and cranky tone.
"... of your constant doubts..."
The second says in a mature and calm tone.
"... about our prophetic abilities."
The third says in a youthful and energetic tone.
"So we shall repeat it one final time!"
All three spoke at the same time.
"When the font of life meets receives the Mark of Destruction. A great evil will have its strength stripped away and Chaos shall be tamed..."
The youthful one said.
"... Power unlike any other shall be born from the traded Wisdom and will be placed within your reach..."
The Mature one said.
"... Dread carefully, for your decision shall dictate Olympus' fate."
The old one said.
"So says the Fates!"
All three spoke at the same time once more before disappearing.
"What do you make of this Zeus?"
A beautiful brunette woman, who is sitting on a similar throne that the white-haired man, spoke while facing him.
"I will make of it as I wish but it is high time that we gather once more. HERMES!"
Zeus shouted that last part and before his shout fully left his mouth a young man in a toga with winged sandals and a funny-looking helmet appeared before them.
"What is it, father?"
Hermes said and at the word father, the woman beside Zeus frowned for a fraction of a second.
"Inform the others, that there will be a meeting of the twelve Olympians Gods soon. Inform Hades as well that he is also invited to participate."
Zeus said before standing up.
"Hera, I have matters to attend to, while I am gone I trust that you will manage Olympus in my absence."
*KRAKA-KOOM*
Zeus spoke once more before lightning hit him where he stood or at least that is what normal humans would see but the two that were present, clearly saw him turn into lighting and fly away into the sky.
*CRACK*
Hermes left as soon as he saw Hera crush the armrest of her throne via her grip.
"What matters to attend? Probably another whore!"
She said before sighing. Meanwhile, Zeus was currently on Earth observing a certain place. He might not know with certainty what the font of life was but he knew what the Mark of Destruction was in the Prophecy.
Only a selected few knew this information. Once upon a time, two members of the Endless came down to Earth. They were Destiny and Destruction where the former instructed the latter to create a seed of his power.
At that time, Zeus did not know what they were doing but he would never forget the Door that appeared that day. They were made of the same material as the source Wall. Zeus instantly realized that it was part of the Source Wall.
He saw Destiny instruct Destruction to send that seed of his power at the Door which opened as the seed came closer to it. A flash of light blinded him when the Door was opening and when he regained his sight, there was no one there but he still felt the power of the seed in that place.
'I did not know at the time but now that Destruction has abandoned his duty as an Endless and from what this Prophecy speaks of, I am sure that whoever gains that seed will gain the abilities of an Endless. I still have to figure out what the Chaos part refers to but regardless I MUST HAVE IT!
The mortals that gathered here at that time started to call this place the Altar of Creation before they became forgotten to time. For now, it is good that I can still feel the power of the seed around here just like I felt it that day.
This means that it is not time yet... Well, guess I will go put my dick in something.'
Zeus thought as he vanished once more but with a hard-on this time completely ignoring the most important parts of the prophecy.
[AN: I figured it was high time I answered some of the unanswered questions from Chapter 17 that you might be having while leaving you with more questions.
Quick question... Did I make a good foreshadowing? Or was there something missing? I know its not over yet but its good to have input here and there.
Vote about the harem are done and here is the result:
Three members: 8 votes
Four members: 5 Votes
So Three is the number of females in the Harem, for those wondering who they are, I already kinda hinted to all of them though the third one was done with kind of a foreshadowing.
Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]
