Ritual site
October 1, 16:40
Third Person POV
"Hey! You shot me! Get him girl!"
The reaction of his cat in the Lord of Chaos' arms immediately overtook Elliot's discomfort over its master's nasal tone. It overtook more than that really. Not just from him but the common sense from everyone present.
Teekl, the cat that had previously shown an ability to assume a larger and super strong form turned into a blur of dark red lightning it slammed into Elliot with blinding speed, launching both of them back through the portal he hadn't fully stepped out of.
Everyone present affiliated with Elliot in some way felt not just immediate panic, but a familiarity with the lightning accompanying the cat's unnatural movements. However, before anyone could voice their thoughts, Klarion laughed uproariously and sauntered toward the open portal, both hands in his pockets.
It began to shrink and he took out a single hand, snapping his fingers. "Uhn uhn uhn…" he said in a sing song tone, and the purple portal turned into the signature red of his magic before drawing closer to him.
Of course, none of the people present remained idle. Attacks had been launched toward him; M'gann hurling boulders at him, Grace kicking off the ground in large strides in his direction, Ron flying toward him, and Roy and Robin showering him in their anti-magic projectiles.
The one that came closest however was Wally, his improved speed making the short distance between him and the little satan all but naught. Sadly for him though, Klarion was a Lord of Chaos for a reason.
He could output magical energy on a scale that would fry a normal human's body. A huge blast of red baleful energy erupted from the Lord with a mere hand gesture, scouring the earth in a large radius.
It launched Wally back with a vengeance and proceeded to do the same to the others, forcing the team to work hand in hand to ensure they all landed without injury.
As for the Shield agents, their jetpacks moved them out of harm's way with masterful precision, allowing them to avoid much of the brunt. When the chaos died down and everyone gathered their wits, Klarion was gone and so was the portal.
M'gann voiced her thoughts first. "Was that—"
"The cat is a speed freak like you!" Grace yelled and focused on Wally like everyone else. "How is that fucking possible?!"
"You're asking me?! How am I supposed to kno—"
"GUYS!" Rob interjected, making himself the center of attention. "I think I know what this is, and if I'm right, the sooner we get to SP, the better."
"Do we even know where they are?" asked Artemis.
Roy nodded towards the agents flying up to the decloaked Zephyr II. "They should know. They work for him."
"It's the bayou," Robin answered without a beat. "He went to deal with the Injustice League, remember?"
"Then that's where we're going," Kaldur said and looked up, the Zephyr responding to his thoughts and descending.
Before the Zephyr II could speed off, Captain Marvel flew out of it and dived towards the team. "Hey guys. We fixed the world but those guys up there seem pretty worried. What happened?"
An explanation was quickly given to him while the entire team rushed onto the plane.
"We need to inform the Justice League now," the child hero exclaimed after getting the rundown. "Get everyone there as soon as possible!"
"No," Rob yelled as the plane began to take off. "Inform them yes. But tell them to stay away. If this really is Amazo, having the entire Justice League there will be like an all you can eat buffet."
"Except this time its powers," said Artemis and Ron at the same time.
"Yes."
Captain Marvel understood things pretty quickly. "Then we just have to get the members without powers on site. But even then, how do we take it down?"
"We don't," Rob said and tilted the plane upward, hoping to use the maneuver Elliot first used to get them from one side of America to the other in minutes, except in this case faster. "First we save Elr—Spider-Man, and then we fight the robot and Klarion. There's no knowing when he's involved."
"You're hoping Spider-Man will have a plan," the young champion of the gods easily deduced.
"Yes. Spider-Man definitely has a plan for this situation, as convoluted and unlikely as it seems," he said and paused for a bit. "He's… paranoid. Take it from someone who knows Batman."
"Wait, why are we in space?" asked Marvel.
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Bayou Bartholomew
October 1, 16:44
Like some sick joke or maybe as a divine punishment from the gods Adam served—if he even served them—a thrashing on the level the evil champion suffered before his timely death was visited on Elliot with the same savagery and relentlessness.
And Elliot could do nothing but just sit there and take it. Why? The first lunge from "The Amazing Teekl" Klarion's name for his new familiar after he merged the cat with the creation of T.O. Morrow fractured his entire skeleton and damaged his organs and tissues from the sheer force.
It was the kind of force produced when the strength of a human-kryptonian-genomorph hybrid combined with the ability to break the sound barrier in moments produced were combined seamlessly.
His own innate spider durability, that of suit, and the regeneration spell running constantly to keep him in one piece is the one reason he didn't die from the impact.
Fueled by its master's grievances and desire for vengeance, the Teekl/Amazo hybrid didn't stop after that single lunge. Paw swipes that could demolish buildings rained down on Elliot endlessly, same for bites that crushed bone and turned tissue to mush.
His regeneration didn't struggle to keep up. In fact, the optimization by the mystic eyes meant it would adapt to whatever level of injury was sustained. However, almost every hit damaged Elliot's brain in some way.
That alone removed his ability to respond to the attacks in any meaningful manner. This was made much worse by the fact that he suffered full body paralysis after every attack because they were just that devastating.
For a clear picture, just imagine Superman going after a Spider-Man with Wolverine's impressive healing with the breaks on his speed and strength lowered just enough that the hero didn't die but suffered very greatly.
Throughout this entire beating that encompassed much of the bayou—Elliot had taken a trip through multiple trees that now lay in pieces and more than few ponds that now sported frazzled or dead alligators—Klarion had had himself a full belly laugh throughout his ordeal, much more than he could stomach.
However, he'd noticed quickly that Elliot wasn't dying, and with the source of this seeming immortality being magic, he noticed with a little prodding with his own.
"Oh Teekl," he sang like the child he wasn't.
A blur of dark red lightning zoomed to his side in an instant, Elliot's bloodied, limp form held in his familiar's bloody, open maw. The wounds on Elliot's body closed like they were being chased, the sight of flesh mending looking oddly like an eraser cleaning a mess on a sheet.
"Oh, what do we have here," Klarion lazily swiped at Elliot while Teekl dropped him. A wave of red washed over the nearly healed hero, stopping the effects of the regeneration spell and undoing it entirely.
Dazed and frankly, out of it thanks to the utter savagery he just suffered, Elliot didn't even notice this nor react when Klarion snapped his fingers and seized him with coils of red magical energy around his limbs, each pulling in different directions.
Perhaps displeased by the utter lack of a reaction from his captive, Klarion clicked his teeth together and arcs of violent red electricity arced over Elliot. He awoke with a scream and bulging red eyes, drawn back to the world of consciousness forcefully.
"There we go…"
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Unknown
October 1, 16:41
"Are you certain of what you're saying?"
Robin took in his mentor's question and the searching gazes of the other Justice League members and answered with what he had.
"All the facts point to it. We just did a review of the fight and confirmed that the cat made physical contact with three members of the team with powers. Kid Flash, Superboy, and Grace."
"Yeah," the redheaded speedster supported, holding out both hands as if something were in his grasp. "One minute I'm holding the cat and poof, red smoke. I look around and it's bigger, and it's attacking Superboy."
"And I tried to get it off of him," added Grace. "It was one tough pus—
"We get your point: stay away," said Superman.
Green Arrow didn't seem content to do that though. "Not all of us have powers. We can do something."
"Arrow is right," Batman said to the team. "Where are you right now?"
"We are three minutes away from the bayou. You guys can jump to the location with the zeta tubes on the Zephyr once we arrive."
"Friends," Zatana drew all the attention to himself. "Has anyone heard from Doctor Fate?"
The silence stretched on long enough for it to reach awkward levels before Red Tornado walked into frame.
"I tried to contact Kent Nelson when the children first disappeared, but I received no response. I have kept trying since then but the result has been the same. However, based on correspondence between him, Spider-Man, and I in the past weeks, I'd say there's no need to inform him. The scale of the world splitting spell and Klarion's mere presence should have already alerted him."
"This means El—Spider-Man is not fighting alone. I mean, the last time he and Fate faced Klarion, they managed to banish him," said Wally with excitement.
Many of the heroes present didn't think that today's fight would go down like the first, especially if the kids turned out to be right about the Amazo cat, and only Tornado voiced this.
"Somehow I doubt the Lord of Chaos will let himself be defeated again so easily."
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Man, Cassandra's face when I promised her I'd be back seemed even more vivid than the actual experience.
Back then I said it with my full chest, the strides I'd made in the fields of technology and magic and their merging giving me the confidence to do so.
Now, all the advancements I'd stuffed into my suit, cybernetic implants and weapons had been separated from me. Even my trusty watch, the original one that had been with me since my time with the team, had either been destroyed or thrown into one of the swamps.
And to think, all this happened because of a cat. A stupid overgrown cat that somehow triggered Tech Adapting when I gazed upon it. To that ability, the cat registered as Amazo, the android I'd warned the League about.
Klarion had been busy. After managing to find his way back to the Earthly plane, he'd learned his lesson and strengthened his tether to it. When I asked the question of how his childish intelligence came upon the idea to use Amazo as an upgrade, only one name came to mind.
And the person it belonged to had personally made a move during this chaos, finally revealing not just himself but his hidey hole. I had him and he didn't even know it. However, Klarion and his stupid cat had made themselves a massive speed bump on my way to him.
I don't know if you could it lucky, but the Lord of Chaos had briefly stopped his torture session to examine the things he pulled out of my body. One of them was a miniature reactor the size of a penny that converted electricity to magic energy.
And the utter fascination on the child satan's face as he dangled the implants with magic spoke to the amount of work that had gone into them.
"Vandal is gonna love these little toys, hahaha…"
He didn't get a rise out of me. My mind was locked on Cassandra and how I was going to keep my promise to her. I could not die here. Not today.
The little shit had me strung up with magic, he was magic, and so was his freaking cat. The obvious solution to my current problem was the Soulsword. Despite the numerous seals he'd put inside me to limit my magic and abilities, it was the one of the few left untouched.
It hung back at the edge of my conscious mind, eager and waiting to be used. Now, I could manifest it, sever the lines holding me up and then I'd be free but what then?
I needed not just escape, but a way to protect myself too. Against that cat. That stupid cat. I shut my eyes and ears, ignoring the pounding in my head and calling on another ability beyond the Lord of Chaos' reach: the candle flame.
Inward, I turned my gaze inward at the images of Cassandra, Felicity, Mike, and everyone else counting on me and then the sword I had put my hopes on to get me free. How could I use it to not only escape but stay alive in the process?
All I'd learned about the Soulsword since I got flowed through my mind: I could morph its shape and move it around. I could channel magic through it and cheat in that way; it made the mixture of magic and anti-magic possible.
In a battle between two fireballs of equal might, mine would always win—if I infused the flame with the Soulsword—because of the sword's magic nullifying ability. That is what I needed to break free first of fall, but how did I use it without my captor none the wiser?
My mind raced and raced, simulating various situations where the sword cut me free and flew me off to safety. The problem always occurred before I managed to undo all my bonds; that damn cat.
It was simply too fast.
I cracked my eye open to take a look at the pest and noticed it licking itself while its master played with my implants. Not much time had passed on the outside it seemed. Wait—the outside. That was it!
My eyelids closed shut again and I called upon the Soulsword, this time controlling it in such a way that it appeared within my body and not outside of it.
"HEY! What are you doing?!"
Klarion's words breezed by as the construct of spiritual energy broke down from its normal, albeit shrunken, sword from into a fluid substance before flooding every inch of my body.
"HEY! STOP THAT! TEEKL!"
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