82 SS - Sidelines

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

-Marcus Aurelius

********

Batman's hands carefully didn't twitch as the drone teleported out. 

Instead, he maintained perfect control over the device, knowing focus was paramount. Losing himself to his fear would not help his missing friends.

"Approaching the last recorded location," Dragon's voice came to him from the control panel. The feed from one of her suits played along the screen next to his.

"Acknowledged," he answered.

They were the only two actively participating in the mission that hadn't gone dark. The AI had lost contact with all her suits sent to battle the Phoenix. Either they were destroyed or rendered inoperable in some way. Now, both were using backup, and thus sub-optimal, equipment to determine what had occurred with their comrades.

Batman did not have high hopes, knowing just how dangerous the Phoenix Force could be, but he needed to know. 

He needed to see what became of his friends.

The darkness on the screen was not encouraging. If the Phoenix Force was anywhere nearby, it would be visible from thousands of miles away, blazing like a fire in the dark.

Thankfully, there also wasn't much in the way of debris as would be the case if the ship had been destroyed.

Batman kept calm as his and Dragon's sensors pinged off an object in the vast expanse. Their drones only took a minute to get close enough to identify one of Dragon's suits.

"External damage, minimal," the AI reported. "Internal operating system is fried. Literally." Snark. A coping mechanism. Dragon was also worried.

Batman did not jump to conclusions. Ever since he had slightly relaxed the restrictions on Dragon, she had been able to operate up to six suits simultaneously. Finding only one in relatively good condition was not cause for celebration or worry. Yet.

"Was it destroyed before we lost contact?"

"No. They all failed simultaneously," the small, fake image of a woman on his screen cocked its head as if she was seriously giving the issue some thought instead of having already run the situation a hundred times through simulations. "This one is the only one not in active motion when I lost contact."

Batman simply grunted, acknowledging the point she was making.

If this one was still here, and the others weren't, it was likely they hadn't been taken by something but floated off in whatever direction they had been moving when Dragon lost control. With no resistance in the vacuum of space, they would have conserved their velocity when Dragon lost control.

"Projected locations if they are drifting," Dragon sent his way and lines of light were overlaid on his screen, going in various directions. Some were far, and others were barely a mile away. At the speed of the battle, some of the suits were far away by now.

It was a simple equation for her to calculate since she had the data before contact was lost.

"The flyers and the ship," Batman asked gruffly, directing his drone to one of the nearest ones to verify or deny the hypothesis.

"My best estimation is based on final estimated position, motion, and projected flight paths." New lines appeared on Batman's screen, bright red instead of yellow. They went much further than the estimation of the drones' locations. Even Dragon's best tech could not match the speed of most of the flyers. Two large lines overlapped, one going much further into the distance. "My predictions for the ship, depending on whether the thrusters continued to operate."

Batman idly wondered if it wouldn't have been better to not focus so much on the space vessels' stealth features, as it would make tracking it down harder. 

Then he remembered the capabilities of the other space-fairing races of the universe and decided it had been a good call, even if it would make the search harder.

They found the second drone in another minute of searching the projected location, lending credence to the drift theory.

From there, the pair split. Batman sent his drone on course to the nearest path to intercept one of the flyers, Iron Man, while Dragon sent her suit after the spaceship.

This took much longer due to the distances involved, but they were aided as Dragon continued to field more suits as she got them ready for impromptu space travel. They would pursue the other flyers.

They had only lost contact with the ship for ten minutes before getting their drones to the last known location. Five minutes searching for the drones and establishing the drift theory.

Batman found the Iron Man suit eighteen minutes later.

Drifting through the dark of space, completely powerless, the 'Phoenix Buster Armor' towered over Batman's three-foot tall, ten-foot wide, bat-shaped drone.

Bruce's heart sank as he stared at the human-shaped body of metal. Scans revealed no signs of heat from the machine or a human-shaped body inside.

Unsurprising. 

The void of space was not a slow killer.

Yet, even as Batman feared he would find another friend he would need to bury, he did what he could to verify Tony Stark's fate.

With delicate control, he landed his drone over the center of the armour. It had been designed to combat the Phoenix Force, so nothing this lone drone could do would damage it. Thankfully, Batman had helped build it and knew the emergency access hatch location.

Tiny, robotic claws extended from the Bat-drone and carefully removed the hatch. From there, it was a simple input of code to release the armour's core compartment. Batman took his time, knowing one wrong button press would lock him out and, depending on the severity, possibly destroy the armour entirely.

It still only took another minute for the Bat-drone to access the small room Tony used to operate the Titanic amour.

With a steel heart, Batman directed his drone to open the door.

With a rush of depressurized air, the capsule opened.

Nothing.

Instead of the limp, lifeless body of Tony Stark, as Batman feared, all his screen showed was an empty cabin.

Batman's mind raced, putting together what he knew of the situation.

They had lost contact with the combat team simultaneously, which implied a certain level of power. There was no other way someone could deal with two Kryptonians, Wonder Woman, a Green Lantern, the Phoenix Buster Armour, Captain Marvel, Eidolon, and a ship filled with some of the most powerful and skilled magicians Earth had to offer.

Occam's razor would mean the Phoenix Force was the culprit. 

Perhaps it had gotten fed up with their efforts to impede it and wiped the attackers out. It had been a risk the combat team had been aware of, but nobody had thought likely. 

The Phoenix simply didn't care about them, further supported by their initial clash and siphoning off its power. They had been fighting its aftereffects more than the creature itself, trying to delay it so Strange could gather more power. But it might have discovered their plan and decided to wipe them out.

But then where was Tony Stark, and why were the Dragon Suits and Iron Man Armors intact?

The Phoenix Force would have destroyed them if it wanted to kill the interlopers. Or, if it only used mental attacks, Tony would have been left within his armour.

Either Stark's body was utterly destroyed, unlikely given the lack of marks within the cabin, or it had been brought elsewhere. Which, given Batman had just verified it hadn't been unsealed before his arrival, had implications.

A third force had been participating in their battle against the Phoenix. 

One that was responsible for the disappearance of Tony Stark. And, more than likely, the cause for the loss of communication in the first place.

Both Batman and Dragon realized simultaneously, in the microseconds after discovering the empty armoured core.

"Did your sensors discover any energy signals that should not have been there," Batman asked as he directed his drone toward the nearest flyer's estimated location. He had been forced to make compromises for his space drone for it to be small enough to pass through the teleporter, limitations Dragon didn't have with her suits.

"None. Traces from Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, the ship, the armour and my suits. The few unknown foreign energy signatures match the powers Eidolon used."

"Magic," Batman grunted in dissatisfaction. 

That was one of the few energies of significant effect that they couldn't scan for.

Despite his scowl at the word, a part of him was pleased. 

The absence of Tony's body meant that he had been moved somewhere. There were only a few reasons to move a corpse and a lot of reasons to move a living person.

Batman had buried friends, family, lovers, and fellow heroes. He knew he would have to do so again.

He never wanted to.

If there was any hope that his colleagues, his friends, were still alive, he'd take it.

Less than a minute later, one of Dragon's suits arrived at the projected location Eidolon would have drifted to, only to find nothing.

No news was good news in this case. Luthor had been unconscious since losing communication with his projected double, and they couldn't wake him up. Its destruction should not have negatively affected him, but there was some concern that something was influencing the senator from the hero, but without finding it, Batman couldn't be sure.

It only took three more minutes for her suit to reach the ship's estimated location if the power had been cut like the armour. It wasn't there, however. 

Either it had continued to fly under its own power, passed in an unexpected direction, been taken in its entirety by whatever took Tony, or the others were piloting it after communication had been cut off.

The latter wasn't likely, as they would have sent someone to deliver a message, but it was possible if all the flyers were not in shape to travel without the ship.

"I'll have two suits continue to follow its flight path," Dragon said, and Batman nodded.

"Call back the rest and have them stationed at regular intervals to scan for their approach to Earth."

His own Bat-drone returned to the Phoenix Buster Armour and acted as a relay point for their teleporter to pull both to the construction facility. With any luck, most of the data would still be recoverable from the machine. If there was anything to be pulled from it, Parker would find it.

While waiting for Dragon's notice, Batman occupied himself with organizing the Justice League's patrols and duties to cover a possible extended absence of some of its most powerful members.

That took less than five minutes.

He reviewed cases, updated himself on current global trends, what zones were in active conflict and which were peaceful, evaluated the rebuilding progress of destroyed cities, and checked to see if the Elden Lord had done something absurd in the last five minutes.

That killed half an hour.

Batman spent another hour in extreme physical exercise. He was already in his peak physical state and would see no new improvements without some sort of augmentation, but he always spent time ensuring he stayed in perfect condition.

Once he had finished his exercises, Batman floundered for a half second on what to do. He couldn't leave, not while he waited for Dragon's report, but staying and staring at his screen and waiting for news was a waste of time.

Then he remembered the samples of Essex Corp.'s new medicine he still needed to review.

It took Batman a second to find the appropriate package, one of many delivered to a fake address and teleported in for his review. It was below the clothing samples for possible upgrades to League costumes, tissue samples from newly registered Supers that weren't a high priority, and beside Khonsu's severed arm.

Opening the small crate, Batman noted with a frown that the packaging was substandard. 

The placement of the medication was such that the vials of crimson liquid would not break upon transport. Still, no temperature controls, insulation, or extra protection to prevent thievery. Essex Corp was not known for their laxity in security.

Batman's frown deepened, knowing that with security like this, tones of the liquid would already be on the black market. If this medicine was truly as miraculous as purported and without side effects, it would not go to those who needed it most.

It was a concern for tomorrow. For now, he would simply run it through all his scans. 

This wasn't the first time some sort of universal panacea had been 'discovered.' Usually, the medicine came with severe side effects, only worked in limited cases, was created through amoral processes, or was incredibly expensive to make.

Taking one of the crimson vials, Batman extracted the liquid and started running it through the usual tests.

The first was always to test composition. While it wouldn't give him its manufacturing process, it would let him know if any harmful components were added, such as cancerous material or Super substances, like Fear Gas.

Batman had the single greatest catalogue of samples of various elements on Earth and possibly beyond. Everything from Kryptonite and Endbringer flesh to Klyntar and Skrull DNA. Mineral, biological, technological, and even metaphysical, he had samples or scans of it.

It was all wasted when the result arrived in less than a minute.

Batman frowned as he read the results.

Blood. 

All that was in 'Sanguine' was blood. While it lowered his opinion on Essex Corp.'s naming sense, it didn't explain its healing properties. But why hadn't it coagulated? And its molecular structure was... odd. DNA was almost wholly absent, and the only reason his scan determined it to be blood was the familiar forms of red blood cells within.

It wasn't human, thankfully, but it also didn't match any records he had in his database from the numerous other species humanity had encountered.

Batman frowned, tapping at his computer as he sent it to the next testing stage.

The fact that it was just blood, if alien in nature, didn't necessarily mean anything nefarious was happening. It was suspicious and merited further investigation, but it was not a crime yet.

Pulling up the FDA records of their approval of the substance, Batman spent ten minutes reviewing the information.

The information was... odd.

For one, the material listing was precisely in line with what his devices told him was in the medicine. According to the listing, 'Sanguine Summum,' the official name, was a blood substitute made to imitate the powers of 'Elixir,' a mutant with advanced healing powers after he died in one of Leviathan's early attacks. 

Not only did it accelerate the body's healing, but it allowed for advanced cellular development, possibly beyond human limits. The corporation listed 'superhuman physical development' as a long-term result.

Again, that was not a rare claim. There had been any number of 'wonder drugs' claiming to help regular people develop powers. Batman was aware of half a dozen sold in local pharmacies that were entirely placebos.

The only thing off about the application was the speed of its approval. 

It was listed as approved over a month ago, but Batman's customary paranoia had him double-checking the FDA's shipment records. Their earliest recording of receiving the medicine was right after Heartbreak. Even with the low red tape required of medicine in the wake of Endbringer attacks, that was nowhere near enough time for proper testing. Likely, bribes had been involved to expedite the process and backdate it.

A quick scan of foreign countries' pharmaceutical regulations departments also painted the same picture.

So, what was going on?

Essex Corp. hadn't lied about the material composition, so they weren't afraid of it being replicated somehow. And, despite the speed of approval, testing was ongoing. So, what was the end goal here? Did they simply want to capitalize on Heartbreak to make more money in the conflicts that followed and rushed things? Or was there a more nefarious motive?

Even if Sanguine was a genuine cure-all as it was purported to be, even if it allowed people in peak physical condition to push past human limits, there was every possibility that it could be used for other means. 

He'd continue to run it through every scan he could, but he'd also send it out for other experts to weigh in on potential risks it could pose. Batman would need Strange - or someone else if the Sorcerer Supreme was... unavailable - to verify it wasn't a magical threat before he would allow any of the League to use the medicine.

While Batman ran the blood through an exospectrometer designed to detect alien energy radiation, Dragon contacted him again.

"I found it."

Within seconds, he had switched the bat-computer back to the Dragon suits' feed, spotting the ship hurtling through space with thrusters at full blast, just as it had been a few hours ago when they lost contact.

It looked intact. Almost perfectly so, in fact. 

It was hard to tell in the dark of space, but there didn't seem to be any damage on the ship. It continued to speed along, propelled by gravity-based thrusters designed to not give off any detectable signatures in the void of space. It was lucky it wasn't going at full speed, or they would never have caught up.

Still no sign of the Phoenix Force.

"I'm patching in," Dragon reported as her two suits approached the vessel. Inputting the code on the access hatch, a panel opened, allowing her to connect to the control of the ship. "All coms are down. So are all cameras, even the ones hidden within the wiring. I'm blind inside."

"Open the hatch," Batman told her. The ship was still functioning, so it had power. And the cameras were in separate systems for redundancy, meaning communications and cameras were specifically targeted. 

Whoever, or whatever, did this, they wanted to be anonymous.

"Entering." With careful maneuvering, Dragon directed one of her suits into the containment bay, closed the hatch again, and repressurized it with air. The other suit remained outside, carefully examining the area for anomalous factors. "Life support systems are all green. Ship controls are operational. I can pilot it home."

Batman didn't say anything, keeping a careful eye on the feed from the Dragon suit inside the ship.

Despite the ship being intact and operational, the insides were a disaster. Supplies, tools, and objects were thrown haphazardly around, some damaged and destroyed while others looked relatively intact. Batman didn't see any direct damage besides what could be caused by kinetic force. There were no ashes, blast marks, or other signifiers of active combat from the heroes.

He took it all in, made his deductions, and formed a hypothesis in less than a second.

Then he saw the pile of bodies, and the tightness in his chest lightened.

"They're alive," Dragon reported, directing her suit to approach carefully. "And they're all here. Even Stark."

More than alive, they looked pristine. Not one was injured, despite the state the rest of the ship was in. They were pilled up in a tangle of limbs, breathing deeply as if asleep. Just like Luthor, attempting to wake them did not achieve anything, and they continued to sleep.

With confirmation of the safety of his friends, Batman directed Dragon to continue to look around the cabin for more clues on what occurred even as she led the ship back towards Earth.

The manual controls were a mess, like the rest of the ship's interior. Anything loose had been tossed about chaotically. There was no pattern to be found, which was a pattern in itself.

The only other clues the pair found, at least at the moment, were material warped from intense heat and slash marks from a blade. It matched the width of Wonder Woman's sword, but it wasn't impossible for it to be something else.

After reviewing all they could find for the moment, Dragon was left to pilot the ship back and alert Batman of any changes.

Only once communications were cut did Batman allow the relief to set in.

It was never easy being a human in a world of gods. Bruce's intelligence and skills earned Batman a Thinker and Tinker rating, but he was only human at his core. Replicating Stark and going to the frontlines with Powerarmor was a possibility, but one that didn't leverage his abilities to their most significant effect.

The simple fact was that for many missions the Justice League took on, Batman was better suited to act as mission control, only taking the field when he knew he had the tools to solve the issue.

It didn't lessen the fear of losing his friends. Every time, he wondered if this would be it, if they would face something he couldn't help with, and he'd be forced to watch them die.

A small, traitorous voice in his mind wished he could be more.

Batman's eyes slipped the box of Sanguine, and his mind conjured ideas of what he could do if he were not confined to human limits.

Then he shook it off. For now, his role was to discover what had happened, where was the Phoenix Force, and what the League needed to do about it.

Something powerful and subtle had interrupted their operation. Likely using magic, it had incapacitated some of the League's greatest forces. More than that, it had either done it without injuring them or healed them afterwards. Then, it released them to float through the vastness of space until they woke up or were discovered. 

While this likely meant whatever had done this didn't have outright malicious intent towards the heroes, the extent they went to to guard their identity was suspicious.

Batman felt he had a reasonable guess who was behind this.

It wouldn't be the first time the Elden Lord orchestrated a plan to gain power for himself or one of his Family.

Batman would wait for his colleagues to wake up before confronting Mikael. He'd get their testimonies, check the Iron Man Armour, and watch the Elden Lord for any changes.

A small part of Bruce hoped he was wrong.

The Phoenix Force was too dangerous to be in anyone's hands.

********

"SPACE!"

"SPACE!!!"

Medea watched her lover take off, a cheering Valeria on his back as they both echoed their silly cheer.

Mikael was in his lesser dragon form, the one his avatars could turn into, to not alert others of his 'apology flight' with the young girl. The Greek witch pretended not to notice the shimmer of air, almost heat haze, that followed behind the flying pair.

Since Melina merged with the Phoenix Force a few days ago, she had been... clingy. 

She still rarely talked and claimed to still have control of herself, but her emotions were a lot more noticeable. The fires in her left eye would rise and fall, changing colours with her state of mind. Emma claimed her nascent psychic powers, only at the level of reading surface thoughts for the moment, also acted as an almost television broadcast.

Mikael had kept a close eye on her, much to her poorly hidden pleasure, but it would be a while before the Kindling Maiden was practiced enough in her control to be let off the Island.

If the Caster was less confident in her husband's ability to navigate the woman's newfound power, she'd be more worried. But Mikael knew what he was doing.

...Most of the time.

Still, seeing the new Fire Dragon literally simmer in jealousy when he paid attention to his other wives tickled Medea's sadistic side.

Not that Medea wasn't slightly jealous herself. Melina had gone from potentially the weakest of the Family to the strongest once she gained control of her powers. She wasn't the perfect host for the Phoenix Force, even with her new Element, but it was a good enough fit that she had torched kilometres of the Island when she practiced.

Medea shook off her stupor, setting herself to her tasks. 

After the initial Phoenix crisis, the rest of the Family returned to their duties to help the world recover from Heartbreak. Medea's task, housing or the displaced of Beijing, was largely automated with her Dragonbone soldiers still at work carving out the city, so she had been left to 'watch' Melina.

Not an issue if the woman/psychic force of nature decided to follow Mikael.

It left Medea time to do her other tasks that she had been putting off for a while.

In a few days, Mikael had promised her a full-day date. Getting all tasks out of the way first was best so there'd be no interruptions.

Most of her tasks involved projects in her Workshop, but a few were on the Island.

With a swirl of her cloak, Medea teleported herself above the entrance of New Thymescria.

Strictly speaking, the name hadn't been officially decided yet, as the Amazons didn't know how long they'd be living there, but it would do for now.

Looking around, the Greek witch nodded approvingly at the area's development.

The settlement was placed in a hidden valley within the mountain range across the Island's southern side, cutting it off from the north. The valley itself was large but with only a few access points. 

It was less than a kilometre from the boundary field she had put up so long ago to keep the more destructive creatures from the mansion. By keeping so close to the magical boundary, the Amazons could close off one possible avenue of attack. It was also defensible, only accessible by air or a few narrow paths through the crags.

The warrior women had erected walls and gates from thick trees and stones in the few entrances. They were always manned by at least two guards, and four more patrolled outside the valley, overlooking it from the mountainsides. 

Rudimentary magical defences were in place as well. Nothing Medea was impressed by, but it would serve as a decent enough if they decided to continue to improve on them.

From her position in the air, Medea saw that the Amazons had diverted a mountaintop lake to flow down in a waterfall that filled a large basin and flowing river for them to use. A dozen or so buildings had also been built, just enough to keep the Amazons from the elements and clear space for their use.

Altogether, it was a decent start for a village, especially considering the limited number of occupants and the relatively short time since the women had been displaced. It was nothing compared to the paradise of their old home, but none of the women looked forlorn or lost, bustling as they were to and fro as they worked to improve it.

Medea mentally congratulated them as she descended from the sky in front of one of the newly built gates. Already, they were damaged from some sort of conflict. Dark red stains pockmarked them from blood splatters. Some of it was fresh enough to gleam in the light.

Upon seeing Medea descend from the sky, one of the three guards left in a run towards the valley center, and another glared at her, hands tightly gripping her spear, but the third waved her down as she approached.

"Lady Medea." The Amazon bowed in greeting. "What brings you today?"

"I am here to see Hippolyta," Medea answered easily, unbothered by their caution or hostility. Compared to what she had dealt with when she was alive, the glaring guard seemed cute. The fact that it was only a tiny minority that was hostile, and they knew better than to antagonize their benefactors, made it easy to ignore them.

"The Queen has been called," the polite guard nodded. "Is Lady Diana with you today?"

"No, she had other duties."

"And." The Amazon paused as if hesitating to ask more. Then she continued in a softer, more subdued tone. "Will Lord Mikael join you as well?"

Medea carefully didn't allow her amusement to show on her face.

"No, it is just me." It became measurably harder to not smirk when both guards sighed at the news. The glaring one in relief and the polite one in disappointment. "He believes it best he keep his distance until you are all more comfortable and settled in. He is aware of your traditions and has no wish to infringe upon them, even if this is his land."

"That is considerate of him," the nicer Amazon said with a smile. "Would you like to wait for the Queen inside?"

"No need," Medea didn't hide her smile this time. "I won't be here long."

This entire thing was a polite formality, a fiction they were all aware of. If Medea wanted in, none of them could stop her. Nor would they be able to keep Mikael out if he did want to visit.

Strictly speaking, Medea didn't even need to visit. She could just deliver her message and parcel with a spell. But she had been curious about how the Amazons were doing, and there was no need to antagonize them.

Also, a not-so-small part of her felt simultaneously sympathetic and vindicated when she looked upon the tribe of women betrayed and abandoned by the gods.

Medea was not above petty pleasures like this.

It only took a minute of further waiting before the wooden gate opened, and out stepped Hippolyta in her full armour.

And she had an unexpected companion.

"Medea!" Medea shouted in exasperation as she saw the fat cat with wings riding on the Amazon's shoulder. "Where have you been?"

"Pardon?" Hippolyta asked in confusion as the chubby feline blinked round eyes at her namesake, then flapped too-small wings to crash into the witch's chest.

"This is Medea," the Caster sighed as she dutifully scratched the fat floof where her wings met her back. "She's Mikael's cat."

"I... see," Hippolyta said slowly, still clearly baffled. 

"He named her before he met me. It can be confusing, but don't worry too much."

"Ah," the Queen of the Amazons nodded in understanding. "Still, it is good to know she is not a threat. She has been with us for a few days, and we were unsure what she was. She also has been eating at least half of all the prey we have brought down."

The witch gave the cat a questioning look with a raised brow.

"Mrow." The cat mewled in response, puffing out its chest in pride, completely unashamed.

Somehow, Medea was sure the cat was saying something like, 'I only ate half. That deserves a reward. Give me treats.'

"It's for the best you didn't attack her," Medea sighed again and resumed her scritches. Medea purred. "Even if you could hurt her, which I am not sure you'd be able to, Mikael would have kicked you off the Island. If you were lucky. He loves this cat."

"Good to know," Hippolyta said, giving the fat floof a more evaluating look. The other Amazons around had tensed as well. "Should we be aware of others like her? And how powerful would you say she is?"

"She's unique," Medea nodded. "As for how strong?"

There was a pause as the witch gave it some serious thought.

The cat was bound to Mikael, as were the rest of the pets. And like them, the cat was given one of his blood pills every meal. She should be nearing Tier 7, all things considered.

But Medea the cat was unique in an advantage she had over anyone else.

"You remember what Mikael looked like through the portal," Medea eventually asked by way of answer.

As one, all the Amazons shuddered in horror and paled. One of them, the glaring one, stepped back and almost fell off the wall.

"Yes," Hippolyta eventually answered, mastering herself much quicker than her fellows.

"Mikael regularly feeds her one of those tentacles," Medea said with a wry smile. "As a snack." 

From Dragon Blood alone, the cat should be at least tier 8, just because of all she had consumed over the few months Mikael had been sneaking her 'treats.'

"Mrow?" The fat cat perked up, looking around as if Mikael would be here with her favourite food.

One of the Amazons vomited.

"No," the Caster said sternly to the tubby tabby. "He's not here." The cat wilted. Her tail, ears and wings drooping in disappointment. Medea rolled her eyes. Like her owner, the cat was a drama queen. "I'll give you a treat when we get back. But don't bother the Amazons too much. They are friends. Not food."

"Mrow." The fat cat mewled its displeasure at the chastisement. It knew what to eat and what not to eat... most of the time.

"I... see," Hippolyta said slowly, staring at the floof in horror and looking slightly nauseous herself.

"So long as you pamper her, you don't have to be afraid," the Greek witch advised kindly. "She's just a big puff ball, isn't that right? Whose the cutest floof? You are, aren't you?"

The fat floof relished in the attention, purring even louder as her namesake lavished her with attention.

The walls of the narrow canyon rumbled with her purs.

"But that does bring us to why I am here today," Medea said as she pulled a book out of thin air with one hand and used the other to rub under the feline's chin. "This is for you. Mikael listed everything you might run into on the Island."

'You Died!: Mikael's Guide on How to Git Good!' - Was printed across the front in large letters.

"That is... very kind of him," Hippolyta said as she took the book and started flipping through it. 

It was surprisingly thick.

Medea knew as soon as the Queen found the Table of Contents by the face she made. She had made her own copy of the book. 

Mikael had a lot of fun writing it.

The first 'chapter' title was innocent enough. 

'Pets: Hurt them, and I'll find you.' 

The likes of Torrent, Medea (cat), and the four drakes were described in detail in that one, with surprisingly well-drawn images. 

The names got weirder from there.

'Skeleton Wheels: The Grind.'

'Basilisks: If you think you know where their eyes are, you are stone cold wrong.'

'The Many Species of Dragons and Drakes: A Suicidal Scaly's Solacious Sexy Catalogue.'

'Food: Mean, Lean Cuisine.'

'Dogs: Man's Worst Nightmare.'

'Caelid.'

'Trees and the Many Ways Nature Wants YOU Dead. Yes, YOU specifically.'

'Bloodborne: Kill it with Fire. This isn't a joke. Kill. It. With. Fire. And never get their blood in you, or I'll kill you with fire. I'll do it too. I know where you sleep.'

Those were a sample of the titles of the 'chapters,' which varied in length, breadth, and warning level.

"This is," Hippolyta frowned as she continued to flip through it, seeing pictures, diagrams, and even a pop-up of a large chest. Pulling a little tab had the chest standing on too-long arms and legs and opening a maw of teeth with a fleshy tongue that wiggled back and forth. 'Mimic' was listed under the chapter titled 'IT'S A TRAP! (not that kind)' "Quite thorough."

"He still thinks you'll eventually all die if you don't leave," Medea said casually. She wouldn't deny the amusement she felt at seeing the Queen deal with her husband's... eccentricities. "But he doesn't want you to, so he made it so you might survive another century or so."

"It is appreciated," Hippolyta paused on a particular page and looked up to meet Melina's eyes. "Convey our thanks to him, would you? And let him know we continue to follow his request, even if it is more challenging than we thought."

Medea didn't grimace, even as she wanted to, at the reminder of the Amazon's 'tithe' to her husband.

The less she dealt with puns, the better.

"I'll let him know," she said instead and prepared to leave, cat in hand.

"One moment, Lady Medea," Hippolyta stopped her. "Do you have a few minutes?"

"What for?" The witch asked with a raised brow.

"We were attacked by one of these," the Amazonian Queen held up the book to show her a picture.

'Carthus Sandworm' was a towering creature, tens of feet wide and hundreds long. Its enormous mouth was open like a flower, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth. Its entire body was covered with bone protrusions, like those on a spinal cord, only sharpened into blades. Mikeal's notes included terms like: 'Shoots lighting' and 'Immune to poison and frost.' 

It was in the chapter 'From beneath you, it fucks you up.'

"We slew it without too much issue," Hippolyta continued. "But we discovered something in its tunnels and would like you to take a look."

"I have a few minutes," Medea nodded, curious to what they found. Not even the women who had spent an entire year on the Island knew all its secrets. Only Mikael did. "Lead the way." 

Well aware of the Amazons' physical abilities, the witch returned to the sky as Hippolyta directed her fellows on guard that she would return soon. They saluted, and the two women took off, the fat cat still in Medea's arms and uncaring that they were moving faster than most cars.

Hippolyta ran through the narrow crags of the mountain quickly, navigating their confusing paths easily as Medea floated behind her.

They reached the 'cave,' a circular tunnel that was in no way natural, in less than a minute as it was relatively close to the Amazons' valley.

Without hesitation, both women descended into the dark bowels of the mountain, neither having trouble seeing in the dark.

As they descended deeper and deeper, Hippolyta navigating the crisscrossing tunnels as if she had a map in her head, Medea couldn't help but speak up.

"I will let you know that Mikael knows every inch of this Island." While he wasn't omniscient most of the time, anything within the Dream was under his view. "He never told me anything about something under these mountains, but he will know about it."

"While that is good to know," Hippolyta called back, voice echoing in the tunnels as she continued to run. "I just wish to confirm that it isn't a threat to my people. We are still early enough in construction that it would be better to move now if we are too close to something we shouldn't be."

Medea didn't begrudge the woman her caution, so she kept silent as they descended deeper. Even at their speeds, it took a good ten minutes to reach their destination.

Medea knew they had arrived as soon as the walls ceased to be the carved stone from the worm's passage and instead became flat and square, clearly indicating intelligent construction rather than natural formation.

It was a large room, easily bigger than the tunnels, and long enough that it took another few seconds from their arrival point near one end till they reached the other.

Stone stairs rose from the floor till halfway up the wall, and Hippolyta took them quickly, arriving on a rectangular platform. In its center was a round basin, a brazier, made of metal. 

Against the wall were two great stone doors, undercoated and pockmarked, set into a rectangular frame. Grey ash swirled in the air.

"We were not sure what lay beyond these doors," Hippolyta said as she stopped beside the brazier. "We sensed nothing, but it would be better to verify with you before we continued to explore."

Medea didn't say anything either as she looked around with a frown.

As a rule of thumb, the deeper something was underground on the Island, the more dangerous it was. 

Mikael had never said anything about this place to Medea, but that wasn't surprising as it was buried deep and possessed no entrance before the Sandworm tunnelled through. Mikael tended to not communicate things if he didn't think they would come up. 

Some things, like the Phoenix, came back to bite him, but the vast majority of his century of imprisonment or millions of years sleeping were irrelevant in day-to-day life.

Medea looked around, noting the smaller braziers beside the door and the other details carved from stone.

The cat in her arms squirmed, freeing herself and flapped tiny wings till she landed in the large brazier before the door. She circled it a few times before curling herself into a ball at its center.

She was asleep instantly.

"Best if you do not progress further," Medea eventually told the Amazon. "I'll ask my husband and tell you what he says, but it does not seem dangerous, so I do not believe you will need to move."

Hippolyta accepted the answer readily. Her people had too much going on to worry about strange doors just yet.

Medea continued to look around curiously.

Every part of the Island was fashioned from some part of his journey through his prison worlds so he would know this place. 

But Medea had never seen or heard of any man-made structure on the Island but the Mansion. It shouldn't be possible, as the Island was only supposed to take in creatures and natural environments that he encountered. It led to a few questions.

What was behind those stone doors?

Was this the only structure, or were there others hidden deep underground? 

And why did Mikael not bring it up?