Assimilation [Young Justice SI] (2024)

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With Moya putting on as much speed as could, we made it to the city in a little over ten minutes. I was impressed with how hard Moya must have been pushing herself considering how much more weight she was carrying than usual. I had pretty much loaded her up with my entire armory, which included a sizable drone supply.

30 Mk I reconnaissance drones. 30 Mk II combat drones. 25 Mark III search and rescue drones, a new kind I had made with a rounder body and several mechadendrites with sensors and grabbers. All of which was stacked as tightly as I could in the bioship's storage bay, along with everything else I could bring. Most of the other equipment I was also loading into small drop pods I had made that could be called down if needed.

During the trip my team geared up with everything I could provide them, though it was mostly in tense silence. We all felt the weight of what we were heading into. Made worse when Starfire ensured we were all aware of what Global Threat Protocols meant. If it comes down to life or death… lethal force was authorized.

We came down along the East River, and a mostly dark New York City is what greeted us. While almost none of the buildings or street lights were lit, some of the streets themselves were flooded with emergency vehicles and police that created small pockets of visibility. As we came up on U.N headquarters, I could see the dim emergency lighting in the windows. All of the activity was happening in the front plaza though, about half a dozen police cars along with other emergency vehicles. The U.N. hadn't been in session today, but the building had its own security force, and there were plenty of people who worked there who needed evacuating.

We pulled up and landed some ways out in the front street, no one noticing our sudden appearance due to the dark. If they had, they still might have had some trouble identifying us, even after the media leak. Sure, Superboy and Kid Flash remained unchanged, but everyone else had some modification to their outfits. For some it was just a few extra bits of gear, but others like Troia and Aqualad had additional armor as well. Troia just had a few extra plates covering her exposed arms and shins, but Aqualad was sporting a full suit in red and black, a mixture of imported magitech and my own designs.

Starfire and I took point and walked forward, pulling the attention of several of the police officers that were handling the evac. It was difficult to tell which were NYPD and which were U.N. security, but I figured the ones that approached us were the former. "Hey! Identify your- wait, Machina? And... Starfire?" The front officer who had spoken relaxed a little (and took his hand away from his holster). "I hope you're here to help, because the force is stretched thin enough as it is." He looked past us at the rest of our team, barely visible in the starlight. "Who are… wait, are those the-"

"They're here to help, and that's all you need to care about right now." I interrupted.

He ran a hand through his short black hair and looked behind him, but I still heard him mutter "I'm not paid enough to deal with metas," before he looked back at us. "Alright, whatever, look: we're holding out for now, but it's only a matter of time before the scum of the city decides to take advantage of this and starts looting. If you guys can set up a patrol-"

This time it was Starfire who interrupted. "We have reason to believe that the United Nations is about to be attacked by Ocean Master."

"...Who?" The officer asked.

I groaned. "Ocean based supervillain and a terrorist from Atlantis, he's the one who caused all of this." I gestured to the sky above us. "He's also leading an army of fish people to assault several places on the Atlantic coast. We think New York is his primary target." Outside of Atlantis, in any case.

"So, those reports of fish people are real? And they're coming here?" I could hear the stress in his voice. "sh*t, is the League on the way? The army?"

"They are aware, but there are many places under attack right now. Reinforcements are coming, but in the meantime we need to evacuate the area." Starfire said.

The officer looked like he wanted to argue, but thankfully his reason won out and he stamped it down. "Right, right. Well, we've already cleared most of the U.N., standard procedure for a suspected terrorist attack. But we still have some to go, and if we have to also evac the surrounding buildings..."

"Considering Ocean Master could show up at any moment, you best get started. We'll help."

The man let out a breath before he turned to the other officers and started shouting. "Alright, looks like the U.N.'s about to be attacked after all! I need the building cleared now, along with all the adjacent! And contact HQ on the relay, I need every SWAT we can get here!"

As the police moved into action, the Team split up to help with the evacuation. I sent a command to Moya, and my small legion of drones deployed from her underbelly. Most remained unseen as they spread out in the immediate area, but the search and rescue drones moved to join in the crowd control efforts. They had speakers along with hologram emitters so they could provide instructions. They could also breach most mundae electronics to force them to display those instructions if needed, at the cost of disabling some other functions. Such a shame that no one would be able to take pictures with their phone and risk hanging around long enough to get their neck crushed by a flying mailbox. But they'll live.

Given how used I was to everything just being in the nick of time, it was oddly refreshing to be able to do a little prep before everything went to hell. Well, it seems 'nick of time' has a plus or minus of about three minutes, because a few minutes after that, one of my recon drones picked up something moving in the south part of the river. "There's a wave moving up the East River," I commed. "Looks like it's going to breach over FDR drive on the south side of the building."

Starfire responded "Team, move to intercept."

By the time we all assembled the wave was visible from the shore, about 10 meters high and closing in fast. Aqualad moved first, pulling out his Water Bearers as he ran towards the on coming wave. The circuitry runes on his armor lit up along with his tattoos, and he thrust his arms out just as the wave crashed over the lip of the drive and reached him. The water crashed into what looked like an invisible wall, spreading out in all directions. I could see him strain as it spread further and further, and I know he wouldn't be able to handle the second wave I saw coming up behind it.

I took to the air, my arms forming into sonic cannons set to wide spread. I had to put a lot of effort into holding myself in place as I fired them at full blast, the waves of sound slamming into the waves of water just before they crested over Aqualad's control. It mostly stopped them, but due to the wide spread a few of the more dense 'objects' passed through.

The Trenchers that had been riding inside the second wave clearly hadn't expected it to be stopped like that, and so tumbled out onto the drive. They got to their feet quickly, but the rest of my team was already on them, the blur of sparks that was Kid Flash knocking them back down again. Troia and Superboy throttled any that got to their feet, and a telekinetic blast from Miss Martian sent the rest back into the water.

The wave stopped grinding against Aqualad's defense and pulled back, but still remained upright. After a few moments a golden glow rose up from the river to the center of the wave, which split open to reveal Ocean Master himself. Trident in hand, the villain stared at each of us in turn before a frown settled on his face. "And what in the name of the Abyss are you lot doing here?"

"Stopping you!" Aqualad yelled, drawing himself up while shifting his Water Bearers into sword form. "Whatever dark magic you might have tapped into, your threat to Atlantis will end here!"

As the helmet left his mouth exposed, it was easy to see the sneer on Ocean Master's face. "Ever the hunting shark for your king, it would seem. Well, no matter. None of you have a chance of stopping me." His grip on the trident tightened, which glowed brighter in response. "This 'dark magic' is far more than you pitiful wretches can understand. I have gained even more than I expected. I don't have just the power of the entire ocean flowing through me. I have seen so much. I have seen… Mglw'nafh..."

For a moment the man seemed to lose focus before he regained his composure. "I suppose it's just as well that I deal with you here and now, while I display the full might of the sea to the surface." He smiled wickedly, and I swore that his teeth were a little more pointy than they should have been. "You've even dressed up for the occasion."

Starfire strode forward, the light reflecting off her armored body. Her armor had been something I had been working on for some time, with my work on Superboy's solar suit finally pulling it all together. She wore the same solar material as the undersuit, but in her purple rather than Superboy's black. Over it she was lightly armored in white and purple plates, covering her entire torso along with most of her arms and legs. And on her head, she had a metal frame around her face, dipping into a point at her brow and turning up at her temples.

When I was designing armor for my Tamaranian warrior princess, I figured she deserved a Tamaranian crown.

Hair starting to ignite, she said "Attacking an undefended city is now not good enough? Yours are the actions of a coward, Ocean Master. And cowards can't hope to beat anyone with an actual backbone."

Ocean Master snarled, the water around him swirling faster and faster as it carried him higher. His voice had an odd cadence when he spoke.

"Come then."

Everyone moved at once. Starfire, Troia, and Superboy flew straight at Ocean Master, who pulled back as a wall of water formed between them. On the ground Aqualad led the charge against the next wave of Trenchers, Robin and Miss Martian following behind him. Kid Flash and Artemis dashed to either side, getting clear of the main conflict to get into better positions.

But I stayed floating where I was, watching everything. And there was a lot to watch as the Trenchers weren't just coming up right in front of us, they were coming onto land all up and down the FDR Drive from us. Fortunately, they were sluggish and I had already moved my combat drones into position. As one they opened fire on any target they could see, lasers lancing into their scaled hides. The few that were struck in the head crumpled to the ground, the others stumbling but not quite stopping from the deep wounds the laser burned into them.

Tougher than humans. I'll have to up the power if I want to confirm kills, but that will give them less time before they have to come back to me to recharge, I thought. And considering how the Deep Ones were undeterred by my fire, I was either going to have to do that or make sure I get disabling shots.

The police hadn't been idle during our brief interaction with the supervillain: They had hopped in their squad cars and moved them to form makeshift barricades at the intersections near the U.N. I knew from their communications that SWAT was on the way, but needed a little more time. And they were still trying to move people out of the area. For the moment the Trenchers were spread out over a 3 block stretch both north and south of the U.N. building, so about 14 blocks total. Which was far enough that I was starting to get a little bit of interference from my drones due to the night sky.

I took in all of this information about the battlespace, took stock of everything me and my team had, and came up with a course of action, flying north up the river side. Most of my Team was towards the south, and the north needed more reinforcement. I also started transmitting tactical data to the MK. IIIs and sent them to the police, so they would have better coordination. I then sent another signal to Moya, who moved to deploy my mechanokinetic pylons all along the current battlefield. Not the most efficient use of them, but they would come in handy if I needed a range boost or something new came up.

Speaking of which, as I flew I saw one of the shoggoths crawling up out of the water and over the drive. Two of the Deep Ones approached it from either side and… plunged their hands into it? The creature undulated and morphed, folding in on itself so that it was the shape of a squat cylinder with one end pointed towards the police cordon. That end opened into a sort of mouth which undulated before letting out a bass sound, loud enough that the air rippled with its passing. The sound wave hit the police cars, sending them flying.

I changed course and landed right next to the thing, knocking one of the smaller creatures away. My hands formed into high frequency claws and I lashed out with a series of swipes. The thing screamed as it fell into pieces, a mess of black and blue viscera falling to the ground… which then started to writhe and pull themselves together.

"Not going to make this easy, huh?" I muttered, my right arm forming into a plasma cannon and firing down at the mess. There was a flash and the thing was charred to ash. Which thankfully didn't move. "Ah, high energy plasma. Is there any problem you can't solve?" The Trencher I had knocked aside jumped at me, prompting me to burn a hole in its chest. "Thought not." I looked back up in time to see that the break in the police line had started to fill with Trenchers. I cursed and started firing, but I quickly ran out of targets that weren't mixed in with the cops.

[Deploy pod 1-15] A new canister rocketed from Moya towards my position. Once it was directly over the police cordon, the container burst apart in the air, and what looked like black sand was released in a great spray. Before it reached the ground I reached out, and the sand suddenly collapsed into ropes which wrapped around the Trenchers and flung them back towards the river.

A product of my nano tech research. Well, each particle was the size of a grain of sand rather than nanoscopic, but they were full of nanocircuitry for storing and conducting electricity. I had made the things as a sort of experiment for a shape shifting circuit board, thinking it'd be nice to have equipment that could change shape like me. That hadn't panned out, but I found a nice use for the Circuit Sand with my mechanokinesis.

With them separated, I made quick work of the fish people around me save one, which I bound with the Circuit Sand. Their numbers had thinned enough that my drones could pick up the slack, and I saw the first SWAT truck coming from the other side of the barricade, so I had a moment. I pulled the hissing creature close to me, turning it to look at the cybernetics growing out of it's head. "What have we got here..." A closer look revealed something… close to New God circuitry, but modified. The patterns were more spiral, folding back in on themselves. For all that helped me identify them.

Whatever this tech was, my mechanokinsis wasn't even picking it up. I reached out and touched it and- ugh. I felt the disgusting touch of Apokolipian energy, and a twisting internal architecture that reminded me of the spike that the Calculator tried impaling me with. I wanted to interact with this thing as little as possible, but I needed to at least figure out how the control signal was being sent. I dove in as deep as I could focusing on keeping that corrupting energy away, tried to find something to latch on to, to look at-

And then, I felt something looking back. {Mglw'nafh}

I recoiled. That wasn't familiar at all.

It was because I snapped out that I saw it coming. I caught a strange motion to my side by the river, and I swung my captive around to shield me from the dull red beam that lanced towards me. The Trencher pretty much disintegrated, and when the dust cleared I barely managed to see a large, hulking figure before it dived into the water.

I raised my arm cannon and waited for a few seconds, but whatever it was didn't pop back up again. I decided against diving into the water after it, considering Ocean Master's presence, and commed "Team, be advised, I think I just ran into someone using New God tech. Might be the one controlling the Trenchers, but I'm not sure." I took stock of the tactical data before taking off and flying back south. More Trenchers had shown up there, likely in response to my team.

As I approached the U.N., I saw Aqualad's group was making some headway on the ones near the plaza. His water bearers had formed into gauntlets around his hands, crackling with electricity as he drove it into the Trenchers that tried to get close to him. There were a few scrapes against his armor but he was laying them out left and right. Robin stuck close by, but was constantly on the move, ducking and flipping between the Trenchers while striking out with his escrima sticks. While out numbered, the two were much quicker than their opponents, which helped them stay on top of things.

And Miss Martian was there to lend support. The 'X' on her chest, normally flat but today made up of small interlinking plates, came apart. The individual links shot forward and slammed into several of the Trenchers who tried to flank them, before linking back together into restraints that made the creatures easy picking for her teammates. The plates were a little something I had made for her, based on what her uncle had told me about how Martians used combat telekinetics. Granted, I couldn't make mobile psychic disruptors, but I could give her some more options.

The next wave of fish people crawled up over the drive near the ground team, but before I could intervene I saw an arrow arch from high up and land amid the throng. On impact it burst in an explosion of plasma, burning the nearby Trenchers and scattering any farther away. Two more arrows fell in the same area, collapsing that part of the drive and sending everything tumbling into the water. Tracing the trajectory back I saw Artemis standing in a window of the U.N. building several floors up, letting lose a steady stream of arrows at the encroaching hoard. I see she's making good use of the grapple gun I gave her.

I commed her. "Artemis, I'll cover out here. Head in the building and make sure it's evacuated."

"There's a lot of building to cover," she replied, but still ducked back and out of sight.

"I'll send some drones to help," I said, sending a trio of Mk III drones in after her.

Turning my attention back to the battlefield, the immediate area was holding. Looking further down south, the police seemed to be having a harder time holding the barricades, but Kid Flash was breaking their momentum enough to keep the cops from being overrun. The yellow blur that was the teen superhero was darting between groups of Trenchers and knocking them down with bursts of electricity. That said, I could see two more of the shoggoths had beached and were blasting waves of sound, so I took off to take care of them. Along the way I collected 5 of my combat drones in my wake, making a few modifications on the fly.

By the time I got there my modifications were done, and I opened fire with the now amped up laser cannons of the drones. Extra bright beams cut through the Deep Ones standing guard by the shoggoths, and I commed "Kid Flash, the path is clear to the tentacle-sound-cannon-things. Turn them into sushi and get clear."

I only had to wait a moment before I saw the blur pass around the shoggoths, Kid Flash's HF blade lashing out dozens of times a second. It was over in an instant, and when the blur retreated all that was left were piles of cut up meat. That were still moving, but I quickly solved that problem with a bit of plasma fire. "Nice."

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

I was about to brush off his comment as banter, but his tone gave me pause. "Is there a problem?"

"No! No, I'll be fine. I… just don't think I like this sword that much."

Oh… right. I forgot that Kid Flash was still just a sixteen year old kid. And I gave him a weapon capable of horrifying, visceral damage. sh*t. "Just keep knocking them down. I'll make sure they stay down." He didn't respond, but another group of Trenchers found themselves knocked to the ground, which I then cleaned up with drone fire. The modified drones were eating up more power per shot, but as long as they stayed around me I could keep feeding them energy.

The second group of SWAT trucks then reached the area, further reinforcing our position. Between them and the drones handling things, I once against shifted my focus to the larger flow of the battlefield. We were holding, but the damn things just kept coming. The only thought the Trenchers seemed to give their own fallen was to occasionally toss them back into the river. This 'army' was just a horde that gave no thought to itself, and it was all we could do to keep them from spreading out more. If we wanted to end this without having to wait for the League to get here, we needed to take out the one controlling all of them.

Looking out, the fight between our fliers and Ocean Master had moved out to the middle of the East River, the latter of which had surrounded himself in a massive orb of swirling water. Tendrils of water periodically lashed out at the three as they circled and looked for an opening. Superboy tried to make his own opening by diving low underneath it before flying straight up into the sphere, trying to avoid the current. The sphere's current changed instantly, and while it was hard to tell through the dark waters, I thought I could see him strain to reach the dim figure in the center.

He didn't make it though, and a few seconds later he was tossed out of the sphere, tumbling up and through the air. I saw light bloom inside the sphere of water, and for a moment I saw Ocean Master's outline before lightning blasted forth from the shell at Superboy. Troia had already started to move the moment the light show started, and she flew in front of her teammate in time to catch the lightning on her crossed bracers. The two were pushed back by the steady stream of electricity, before with a cry Troia threw her arms upwards and the lightning shot into the clouds above.

Starfire took that moment to dive in close to the water sphere, pulling Ocean Master's attention as her hands glowed green. Yet more water tendrils lashed out to grab her, but she deftly weaved between. She didn't dive in like Superboy, instead tracing a fire trail with her hair along the surface, all the while her hands glowing brighter and brighter. Suddenly the whole sphere contracted and she flew away, just in time to avoid the massive water spike that reached out for her. It pursued her, stretching out the sphere until it was elongated.

Which is when she struck. Starfire abruptly pivoted in the air, heading fists first into the water pillar. She hit with an explosion of steam and kept driving forward, burning away the water in her path as she went for the core. The moment she reached it the whole area exploded in steam, obscuring everything from view. I moved a recon drone closer, trying to see anything through the mist.

The image cleared somewhat as the drone approached, revealing both Starfire and Ocean Master hanging in the middle of a cloud. The former was bound up in a cage of water that thankfully left her head exposed, and the latter was surrounded by several flowing streams. He was more vulnerable, but I couldn't see Superboy or Troia anywhere to take advantage of it.

The man pulled closer to Starfire, and I could see him scowling as he spoke. "You really are a bunch of pests." His gaze shifted to the U.N. building, the view hazy through the cloud but still visibly standing. "This was supposed to show how trivial it is for me to crush the surface, to let all know the king is absolute. But you had to be a nuisance." He raised his trident, lightning once again crackling along its length. "Now I'll have to level this entire city for your insolence. I will take it apart piece by piece, life by life, until there is nothing dral'ch before his-!"

He suddenly stopped, his hand lowering slightly. It was hard to make out over the sounds of the night, but I picked up him muttering "No, wait, that wasn't the plan. This is taking too long. I have to be… somewhere. I have to defeat… myself?" He growled and shook his head. "Shut up, shut up! I can't think with all these lw'nafh behind my brain!"

What's the saying? Never consume an energy field larger than your head? I thought, watching Ocean Master sway unsteadily. In the meantime I floated upwards and formed an arm into a laser long gun, taking time to carefully calibrate and triangulate the supervillain's position in the cloud.

Starfire took in Ocean Master's state and let out a grunt. "You are a king of nothing. Everything about you, your power, your army, was stolen instead of earned. You are grasping at something you can't even control, for something that was never to be yours."

Ocean Master's face split into an expression of pure rage, and he raised his trident. At that moment Starfire's eyes lit up green and she fired starbeams at his face. At the same time I fired my long gun, striking him in the side. The man screamed and pulled back, the water prison around Starfire falling apart and letting her rush him. She grabbed a hold of the arm that held the trident and proceeded to punch him in the face over and over. The two dropped, falling out of the cloud and down to the river while she pummeled him. Before they hit the water, Ocean Master's free hand grabbed a pouch at his belt and-

There was a pulse of dark energy, and Starfire was thrown away from Ocean Master. The villain was suspended just above the water, his back arched and something held out in his hand: the Nyx effigy. He has it on him? I only had the visual for an instant before there was another burst and I lost contact with the drone. From my spot on the shore I could see the roiling mass of darkness and water in the middle of the river, and somehow I could hear Ocean Master chanting. I don't know what the language was, but each syllable felt like it was scratching at my brain.

The pulses got faster and faster until the night sky deepened for lack of a better term. The stars burned all the more balefully, the void between them threatened to swallow everything else, and I could almost feel the weight of the sky pressing down on me.

And it was felt by others too. I saw several of my team stumble or take defensive stances, and a few of the police ducked into cover, trying to hide from something they couldn't understand. The Trenchers though had a different reaction, stopping where they were to let out a screeching sound. Water from the river crept up over the dive and to the creatures and… wait, were they getting bigger?

I almost didn't notice when one of them jumped several meters up into the air at me, slamming into me before I could move out of the way. I spun in the air to shake the thing off, but not before it dug a deep gouge in my chest plate with its claw. It slammed into the side of a building hard enough to crater, and before it could move I blasted it with plasma. There was a burst of energy and steam... before the thing leap out of the cloud straight at me again, ignoring it's horribly burned exterior.

That should have put a hole in it, I thought, catching the Trencher in the air with Circuit Sand and throwing it 25ft to the ground. Three more plasma shots turned it into a proper charred husk, but that wasn't comforting. Looking up I could see Trench- no, Deep Ones moving faster, more coordinated. I could see my teammates on the ground being pushed back by their new vigor. Aqualad was trying to fend off three working in concert to overwhelm him, while Robin was too busy doing the same to help. Miss Martian looked distraught and distracted, her telekinetic control faltering and the fishmen pushing past her orbiting objects.

Before they could be overrun though, two dark shapes smashed through the Deep Ones ranks, tossing them aside. Superboy and Troia were both completely soaked and looking a little banged up, but they didn't let that slow them down as they throttled anyone that tried to get near them.

But they were only managing to hold on. What the hell did Ocean Master do? How are these things faster? How are they tougher? How-

My thoughts were interrupted by a sort of roaring gurgle, and my attention was brought back to the river. Rising out of it, just behind the U.N. building, was the biggest shoggoth I had seen yet. It was hard to pin down it's exact size due to its amorphous shape, but as it crawled over the tunnel I guessed it was at least the size of a house. "Artemis, you need to get clear of the building now! There's a giant shoggoth headed your way."

A muffled curse was my response. "Easier said than done! I'm trying to get the last group out, but the fish heads have started coming through the windows!" To punctuate this, a small blast blew out a few windows on the fifth floor, and a few Deep Ones went tumbling out with it.

I had to trust she could handle it as I flew around the back of the building, coming to a stop just before the 15th floor. The creature flowed up the side of the building and… I wasn't sure what I was seeing. Everything it touched twisted and calcified into nodule structures that made me think of some kind of alien coral. It's terraforming the building? I wondered, looking at the streams of water that connected it to the river. Well, if water is the key aspect here…

I pulled a big chunk of reserve mass out of storage and reshaped my arms into heavy maser cannons before opening fire. It took a moment before the microwaves were just the right frequency to react to the water inside the thing, but then said water started to boil. An indescribable shriek preceded it's foremost tendrils popping into ichor-steam, peeling it off the building. The mass tumbled/twisted to the ground, a few of its tentacles trying to reach for me as it fell. Any that got close to me though were boiled just like the others.

Whatever intelligence this monstrosity had, it had some sort of survival instinct, as it quickly abandoned its attack on me and sloughed back into the water. I tried to kill it, but there was just so much mass that I only got through a quarter of it before it dived beneath the waves, a large cloud of steam following up in its wake.

"Everyone's out!" Artemis yelled over comms. "But I'm out of arrows!" Focusing on the drones I sent with her, I saw Artemis hunkered down behind a sofa in the main lobby, a trio of remaining Deep Ones shambling towards her..

"Resupply inbound." I commed, a supply pod shooting out of Moya. "In the meantime-"

She was ahead of me, rolling out of the way of a claw swipe that split the sofa before pulling her new sidearm off her waist. The freeze ray swept over the three and froze them near solid, and they tumbled stiffly to the ground. Artemis let out a breath and hustled to the doors. "If Cameron could see me now..."

Back over the river Starfire was doing her best to burn a hole in the new sphere surrounding Ocean Master, but now it wasn't just water. There was also a sort of dark energy mixing in with it, something that ate up her starbolts without yielding. Before she could try a different tactic lightning lanced from the sphere without warning, the same eldritch color as the stars above. She raised her guard as it hit, and the sheer force of it sent her flying back to shore. She dug a trench in the asphalt when she landed, her body smoking and shaking as she tried to keep her feet under her. The Deep Ones saw this moment of weakness and jumped at her.

They all piled on, one after the other, bearing her to the ground. I lost sight of her for a brief instant before I saw a flash of green between the bodies, and then all the Deep Ones were blasted off of her in a burst of energy. Starfire screamed a battle cry as she stood straight, launching herself at the creatures that dared to stand against her.

I went to concentrate more of my drones around her when I noticed several weren't responding. When I tried to check on them, all I got back were errors. The drones in question were all over the place, which was putting holes in my tacnet. I managed to catch one of them going dark at that moment, located just above a building north of the U.N. Swinging around the building and looking towards it I saw a figure standing on a roof, a hulking thing I couldn't make out even with my enhanced vision. But it had the same profile as the thing that tried to kill me earlier.

Still in maser configuration, I raised my arms and fired. Microwaves bathed the entire rooftop, and everything metal in the area sparked and cracked with electricity. When the flickers died down, the figure was gone, and I doubted I had managed to put it down. I suppressed a growl, taking stock before opening comms. "Team, a number of my drones have been compromised," I said, triggering the self-destruct override in them as I continued. "My tacnet's been reduced, and what I can still see is bad. The police can't hold on and I don't have enough to support them any more. And the big ball of evil is coming right for us." Ocean Master's sphere had finally finished forming and was drifting to shore. "Good news is that the area is evacuated of civilians."

My team had grouped up and made their way to the plaza, fending off the horde of Deep Ones. More were still coming from the water, and we were quickly losing ground. Starfire understood the situation. "Pull back." She said between blasting holes in any that got close to her. "Pull back into the city, don't let them surround you! Machina, cover us!"

I nodded grimly to myself and sent the retreat instructions to the police. I flew back to my team as they made a break for the nearest intersection, and I laid down a line of maser fire behind them. Once they were clear I sent the command [Deploy payloads 1 through 20!] Moya swooped down the street, several medium sized containers dropping out after her. These bits of equipment weren't particularly advanced or intricate.

They were just air-burst bombs.

I'm going to leave 'carpet-bombed the U.N.' out of my debrief report, I thought as the entire street lit up with fire and shrapnel. It took out a good number of the Deep Ones, and the resulting rubble had slowed them down too. I took off after my team and grouped up with them at an intersection about a block inwards from the river. They were shepherding any civilians they could see out of the area. Everyone looked a little worse for wear, but other than a few deep gashes into Aqualad's armor no one was seriously hurt.

I scowled when I saw the first Deep Ones climb over the rubble I had made and move towards us. I placed myself between them and my team, planting my feet (slightly embedding them in the asphalt of the street) and forming a heavy rotary plasma cannon that opened fire down range. "How are we holding up?" I yelled back over the noise.

"Not good," Robin breathed heavily. "There's too damn many of them! And now they got stronger somehow?! That has to be cheating."

Miss Martian gripped the side of her head, trying to shake something out. "I can hear… something from them, but I can't make sense of it. It's like a discordant tone on the edge of hearing." She shuttered. "I don't think I want to understand them."

Kid Flash skidded to a stop next to us. "This is the sort of thing we need the whole Justice League for. I hate to say this, but I hope they show up sooner rather than later."

"Communications are still spotty," I said, my plasma fire dying off as the Deep Ones finally started showing some survival instincts and ducked into buildings or down narrow alleyways. "So your guess is as good as mine for when they'll get here."

"Well, I hope they figure out that Ocean Master is here… if only because he's now the center of a magical maelstrom." She pointed up, and above the buildings was the swirling mass of water and darkness, still heading towards us.

Starfire set her jaw. "We have to keep them away from the populace until the League arrives. But with the strength our enemy is showing us..." she trailed off.

I ran the calculation in my head… and it wasn't good. Given how much force it now took to take down one of these things, and their sheer numbers, we wouldn't be able to stop the Deep Ones from killing a lot of people, regardless of when the Justice League got here. And that wasn't even factoring in what Ocean Master was up to. There was just too much. I had brought everything I had and it still wasn't enough.

So… it was time to start some 'in-field' testing.

"I have an idea," I said, turning to the Team. "I can reconfigure myself to be able to take out the Deep Ones fast. But I need you to cover me for about... 74 seconds."

"Why that long? And why haven't you done this already?" Superboy asked.

"Because I need to rebuild my body from scratch, and I've never done this before. Also I might explode."

Before anyone could question me on that last point, Ocean Master's ride started to descend towards us. He wasn't going to give us much time.

Starfire looked at me with an expression that was equal parts trepidation and exasperation. You're risking yourself again, could almost hear her say. But she knew as well as I did we didn't have time to waste. "Do it." She said. I nodded before taking off, flying a short distance away to round a corner and get out of sight of the upcoming brawl (though I still had a pair of drones watching it for me). Then, I got started.

First thing first, I pulled the rest of my nanite mass out of storage. I was going to need every last bit of processing and power to pull this off. As my frame got bigger, all of the structures in my body unformed and became a loose nanite mass. I started with my flight form as a structural base, creating primary apertures on my hands, feet and back, with a dozen more at key points. My external plating was simple but smooth, breaking for joints and apertures. Internally I needed to create the secondary systems first, so I started forming kinetic dampeners and freeze tech cooling all along my frame. Effectors were also a must.

My drones saw my team move to engage Ocean Master, fliers taking off to meet him in the air. Superboy picked up a car and simply tried to ram it into the sphere, but the vehicle was shredded and he was tossed aside. Starfire and Miss Martian pelted it with starbolts and debris, but neither managed to penetrate, and they had to swerve out of the way of lightning. Troia tried coming up from below, but a wave of water slammed her down, strong enough to put her through the street.

I can't worry about them. With secondaries done, I started forming the primary systems in my chest, spaced around the hollow chamber that would be the core. The first was the mechanokinetic core, which I needed to help control my drones and hold myself together. The second was an array of electric potential generators, for manipulating magnetic fields. It had to piggyback off of the effectors the other core was using, so it wouldn't get much range, but that was fine. Given the super conduction properties of the Circuit Sand, I could use them to extend things a bit.

Aqualad groaned as he tried to hold back a torrent of water, shielding those behind him from being swept away. Robin and Artemis stepped out, throwing and shooting their respective armaments. Birdarang and arrow burst with freezing energy which froze large parts of the sphere solid. A moment later Kid Flash was there, his blade cutting the ice away. But then the ice suddenly burst from the pressure of the water behind it, sending it and everyone around flying. I saw Kid Flash's sword break and the boy himself tumble-

No, focus. I focused hard on the third primary, the crux of all this… and the thing that I had only the barest working knowledge of: Bleed tech. The thing was, my nanites didn't just use Bleed tech for power generation and storage, they also used it to manipulate physical properties. A big part of why I could replicate pretty much any technology relied on it. And after all of my study into the Bleed, it was the first thing I figured out how to do on my own, if only at a small scale. But I only needed to do one small thing to make all this work. I just-

It was more instinct than anything else that caused me to look the other way down the street, a sensation that there was something I wasn't paying attention to. I caught the briefest glimpse of the damned, humanoid hulking figure before my vision was filled with dull red energy. I flung myself back, going clear through the street corner to avoid the beam. But, as I went tumbling, the impact of the ground knocked a few of my internals loose.

It also put me right in the line of fire of Ocean Master. His sphere of water and magic had shrunk considerably, to the point I could see his outline through the swirling dark. The only details I could make out though were his razor sharp teeth, and his eyes were twin points of baleful light. "Ah, there you are." He said, his voice reverberating throughout the street. "I was wondering if you had run off as part of a plan." He pointed his trident at me, lightning crackling along its length. "Let's nip that in the bud."

I awkwardly stood up to move, but I knew I wasn't going to make it. None of my systems were fully formed, and nothing to defend myself or dodge. I barely made it a foot before the lightning leap off the trident and lanced towards me.

But before it hit, something moved in front of me. Superboy screamed as the lightning arced of him, his torso leaning forward against the current. I could see parts of his solar suit start to burn and fray from the sheer amount of power being poured into him.

"The boy Kryptonian. How droll," Somehow, I could hear Ocean Master's taunting voice over the roar of the storm. "You can't even stop me. Or were you not aware of your species's vulnerability to magic?"

I'd have to find out just how he knew that latter, in the meantime I moved forward to help Superboy. However, even as his feet dug trenches in the pavement from the sheer force of the attack, he held a hand out behind him to stop me."You- you don't say?" Superboy managed ground out, dropping his stance to stop his movement. He got his arms in front of him and turned his head away from the blinding light, and I actually caught him grinning. "Maybe you're not aware… I'm only half!"

Slowly, Superboy stepped forward, pushing against the current. Step by ground-shattering step he approached Ocean Master, who was unable or unwilling to give ground. Once he got within a handful of meters, Superboy stopped and pulled one of his arms back. Then, in defiance of every law of physics I knew of, Superboy punched the lightning.

Said lightning reverse course and slammed into Ocean Master, sending the villain flying back through a building with cry. Superboy let out a groan and slumped, reaching up to tear off the ruined part of his solar suit before looking at me. "I got this, keep going!" he yelled before jumping after his target.

With that space to breath, I fixed the few things that had come loose and then finished pulling together the Bleed tech system. Ready as I'll ever be, I thought before I compressed. My body shrank down as I forced my nanites closer together, tighter than they were ever meant to be. It was an idea I had gotten from J'onn's description of Martian armor. This was not something I liked doing as it would be next to impossible to shapeshift while they were packed together, but I was going to need every last bit of structural integrity I could manage. By the time I was done, I wasn't much bigger than normal.

Initiate startup. Cooling systems online, magnetic fields cycling, mechanokentics increasing stability . Intaking hydrogen into main chamber. Moment of truth. I set the Bleed manipulator to lower the strength of electric fields inside the chamber. The hydrogen atom fell apart, letting me gather them into the injectors, and once I gathered enough I fired the protons at each other.

So, power generation. It's not something I have to think about a lot, considering how Bleed tech gives me effectively an unlimited supply. But, even though it was pretty high, there was a limit to how much wattage I could put out. After a lot of testing, I figured I could put out about a megawatt without hurting myself.

And when the tiny sun made by the fusion reactor in my chest came alive, it had increased to 20 megawatts.

My whole body flared with intense heat before magnetic containment and cooling adjusted to compensate. Even then I still felt a low roar in my chest, a reminder of the power I needed to keep under control. "Aaaaaaaalright, I'm good to go!" I commed, walking forward.

"Great, can you take care of the giant pile of nightmares heading our way?" Troia commed back.

I looked down the street towards the river, and sure enough that giant shoggoth I had forced back into the water was coming right towards me. The mass of tendrils and scales moved in a sort of horrifying rolling motion, crushing any cars that happened to be in its way. Fortunately there were no civilians (or penguins) in its path. Which also meant I could deal with this simply.

I raised one hand towards it, the aperture on my hand opening just before I let the sun in me go. If you were fast enough, you'd be able to see the plasma fill out the magnetic bottle in front of my hand before it tore down the street, taking up almost the entire road. The blinding blue-white beam slammed into the shoggoth, splashing over it's bulk as it was simply scoured from existence, along with any Deep Ones that might have been behind it. The beam lanced all the way out to the river before it dissipated.

Electricity crackled off my body, my energy shunts discharging the excess into the environment around me. Hmm, a little less stable than I would like, I thought as I looked at my hand for any signs of damage. But it was workable.

That's when Kid Flash yelled over comms "What the hell was that?! Machina was that you?!"

"Yep. So, I've figured out how to make a fusion reactor fit in my torso. That'll give us the firepower we need."

"No kidding," Artemis said. "So, does this mean you're not going to explode?"

"Not immediately. But if I lose containment on the tiny sun in my chest, everything within 50 feet of me is vaporized. And everything about 200 feet past that will be on fire."

"Wait, you couldn't make it any safer?"

"I'm still working on it, alright?! Never thought I'd have to use it so soon. Starfire, what's the plan?"

It took a few seconds for her to respond. "...You actually grabbed hold of the sun."

"What?"

"Never mind. Team, that idol Ocean Master possesses is our primary target. If we can get it away from him, we can end this fake night and at least render these monsters weaker. Troia and Superboy are still with me on the primary offense. Aqualad, do anything you can to disrupt his magic. Robin and Artemis, attack when you see an opening but don't expose yourselves. Miss Martian will provide cover, Kid Flash and continues evacuating civilians. Machina-"A pause. "Hold the line."

I crouched down into a sprinter stance, the thrusters along my back firing up. I dug my finger through the asphalt, drawing a line. "They won't get close to it." I said, and launched myself at the oncoming horde.

=====A=====​

*Collapses at desk* Oh god why did I do this to myself. I'm having flash backs to the end of A Soul of Fire. At least this time I don't have to bounce between several different perspectives.