=====A=====
It only took a little consideration before I found myself leading Animal Man back to Genomorph City. I doubted that Dubbilex would be happy about it, but circumstances had changed considerably. I moderately trusted Animal Man to be on the level, but even if I didn't, the man had proved he had the ability to sneak around Cadmus without even the genomorphs noticing. So, keeping him in sight was the better plan. Besides which, the retired superhero had experience in what we were dealing with.
Well, kind of. "You've only run into the Grey once?" I asked as we slipped out of the metallic hallways into the more fleshy ones. The G-Salamanders flanked us on either side, and while they were keeping a wary eye (metaphorically speaking) on Animal Man, they were keeping their peace for now.
"Mostly by accident." He replied. "I literally fell into a fungal colony while I was chasing… certain people to an isolated corner of Europe. They tried to eat me, of course, but after I got away they didn't pursue at all. The Grey… aren't a very active Kingdom. They were in conflict with the Green for a while after they first emerged, but after the Green proved dominant they settled back without much of a fuss."
"Well, they're raising a fuss now." I pointed out. "Any idea why?"
Animal Man shook his head. "From what I've heard they're inscrutable at the best of times. Though if I had to guess, these 'genomorphs' are encroaching on their territory." He gestured to the G-Salamanders.
I grunted. "And yet the first incursion occurred back the way we came, and as far as I know there hasn't been any excavation there in years. Which means we're missing something or something else is driving them to do this. Christ, I just know this is going to be a complicated mess."
"Dealing with other Kingdoms usually is." He cast me a sidelong glance. "Though I imagine you know all about that."
My lips pressed thin as I returned his look. "What's that supposed to-"
"Another Kingdom showed up in New York during the Deep Night." He continued over me. "And I'm betting you know about it."
I sighed. "Yeah, I do, but is this really the time?"
"Considering we have at least one Kingdom acting up here, yes, I think it's important to know if there are any others at play."
I waved him off. "Well, I can tell you that there are no other Kingdoms 'at play' here. That I know about, at least." I certainly would have come into this a lot better prepared if I brought all the Silver with me.
We walked in silence for a minute or so, time I spent subvocalizing into my comm to update my team on what was happening. Eventually Animal Man spoke up again. "It's machines, isn't it?" I stopped and turned to arch an eyebrow at him, prompting him to continue. "The new Kingdom, the ones that pushed back the Blue. I'm guessing it's made up of AI or something?"
After a beat I said "I'm curious, what makes you say that?"
"...Robot Rock."
I snorted. "Ok, fair enough."
"I may have also had some help to put the pieces together." He admitted before he tilted his head a little. "So, are you a part of it?"
"Yes." I said simply. While I had resigned to telling him about the Silver, I wasn't going to tell him just everything yet. Which included just what my part was. "I am a member of the Silver, the Kingdom of Machines."
If he was expecting more from me, he didn't show it as he asked "And what is the Silver planning?" My brow furrowed, and he continued. "I've pieced together that they've been around for at least a few months, and yet I had to travel across the whole country and chase after you to even find out about it. Which is a little ominous."
I looked at him evenly. "I'm not sure what you're expecting but… we're focused on protecting and preserving artificial life."
"...And that's it?" He asked hesitantly.
I looked at him for a moment before I scowled. "Wait, were you seriously worried we'd go 'kill all humans' on everyone?" I said, crossing my arms.
"Of course not!" The man lied. I pinned him with a glare, and the man eventually rolled his eyes. "Ok, fine, but it's not just the stereotype! Every time a new Kingdom has shown up it's always resulted in a fight for dominance or extermination."
"Well, lucky for everyone that we're smarter than that." I replied. "We like all the variety that nature has to offer. Technically nature, or at least humans, are where we originated from. We don't want to take it over, and we certainly don't want to kill everything not mechanical."
Well, except for Vulcan that one time, but that one doesn't count.
Animal Man considered me for a moment, and I could almost see the debate happening in his head. "Let's say I believe you," he eventually said. "You still can't think you can stay a secret forever. Or that the other Kingdoms will just ignore you when they find out."
Yeah, that's what all the preparation has been for, I thought to myself, but out loud I said."Well, how do the Kingdoms usually handle situations like this?"
"Like I said, violently." Animal Man replied bluntly. "Doesn't matter who starts it, they'll respond in force to protect themselves. At least in the past, that's how it worked. Talking, if you can call it that, is a very recent thing. Even since humans started becoming Avatars."
"...That doesn't bode well for our current situation, does it?"
"No, it doesn't." Animal Man said, taking the hint to leave that topic for later and focus on the present. "I don't even know if the Grey has an Avatar, let alone a human one. Talking to them in any meaningful way will be next to impossible."
I resumed my walk. "I'd still like to try, but for the genomorphs' sake, we should probably try exercising the better part of valor first."
Eventually we made it back to the underground city, Animal Man's head on a swivel as I led us to the city's center. I didn't exactly know where Dubbilex and Superboy were, but I figured they would find us quickly enough if we made ourselves visible. And sure enough it was only a minute or so before I saw Dubbilex approaching us. "Machina, who is this?" He asked, eyeing Animal Man suspiciously
"This is Animal Man, retired superhero and nosy meddler." I said, ignoring the dirty look he shot me. "He snuck his way into Cadmus to talk to me. And, as it turns out, he might be able to help with what's going on here."
"I see… does this have to do with what you've found?"
I nodded. "So, good news, we know what we're dealing with. Bad news, you're all going to have to evacuate, because we probably can't stop them."
Dubbilex looked between myself and Animal Man. "Explain."
"Short version, the creatures that have been attacking you are fungus, and are members of the Elemental Kingdom of Fungi. I can't tell you why they're attacking, fungi have never made any goddamn sense anyway, but the Kingdom's been relatively quiet until now. So the fact that they're active now is deeply worrying. The best we can guess is that you've stumbled across some of their territory, and if you leave they won't pursue."
"Best guess?" Dubbilex said flatly. "You're asking us to abandon our home, exposing ourselves and our population in the process, and you're not even sure if it will work?"
"We're talking about the magical collective consciousness of all fungus on the planet. They're kinda hard enough to understand on a mundane level." I pointed out. "If it's any consolation, considering how much power they can theoretically bring to bear, we may have to evacuate the city too. So, silver lining, there is a non-zero chance no one will notice the genomorphs because they'll be too busy running away themselves."
Animal Man folded his arms. "You're being awfully flippant about this."
"To be honest, it's halfway between a defense mechanism and just becoming numb to this sort of nonsense."
Dubbilex's subdued expression turned grim. "I do not relish the idea of giving up our city. Even if we agreed to do so, there will be difficulties in moving all of our population. Not to mention Cadmus's reaction to realizing what we've done."
I thought about it for a moment. "I
might have a way to help with that, but it depends on how much time we have." I knew how to build Zeta Tubes, but they weren't easy to make, and they required exotic materials which I was pretty sure I couldn't find in this cave. "Still, I suggest you prepare for the worst. I have no idea when the next attack will come, or how well we'll be able to repel it."
"...You unfortunately have a point," The genomorph eventually conceded. "We are not wholly unprepared for an evacuation, the possibility occurred to us when the hazardous nature of our attackers became known to us. I will begin making the preparations near the cargo entrance to the cavern."
"Right." I nodded. "Now, where's Superboy?"
----------------------
I found him in one of the larger and better made structures, a tall building with an open front and stone columns that was vaguely greco-roman in style. The reason for its openness became clear as I saw a number of different genomorphs going in and out; this was a public space. The building ended in a massive wall that had been smoothed out, and on that wall was mural.
The massive work of art stretched across the entire surface, painted in a mixture of vibrant and electric colors in a mosaic pattern. I could make out the shapes of several genomorph types in abstract, along with I think a few structures and humans. Down at the base, Superboy was tracing his hand along the image of a cylindrical structure, with a mess of the most complex color patterns at the center. "Hey," I called out to him as came up next to him. "What's all this?"
"I think it depicts the genomorph's history." He said, pointing to certain spots. "That shows the humans that first made them, that's the different types being created, that's the founding of the city, and that," He paused for a moment as his hand returned to what he had been tracing earlier. "Is me."
Looking closer, I noticed just how complex the geometric patterns were, and were impressed by their precision. "Interesting… It looks random at first glance, but the color patterns are consistent between each G-type. And given its structure…"
Superboy nodded. "It's a representation of their genetic code, what makes them different from the others. It's why my image is so complicated." He paused before he let out a small laugh. "You know, Superman showed me some recordings of Krypton he had, said he wanted to show me part of my heritage. But, this is just as much my heritage, isn't it? I was made here, just like all the genomorphs."
I put a hand on his shoulder. "You're rather unique. You're Human, Kryptonian, and yeah, Genomorph. In the end, you get to decide what that means. We're gonna help them with this because we're superheroes and that's what we do. But past that, it's up to you."
Superboy stared up at the mosaic for a long moment. Then he looked down at the 'S' on his chest. Finally, he looked at me. "The genomorphs don't deserve to be stuck down here. We should help them."
I pat his shoulder. "Good, because the Kingdom of Fungi is on the warpath, and we need to evacuate the genomorphs to the surface right now."
"Wait, what?!"
I gave him the run down as we headed back to Dubbilex and Animal Man, the former of which had once again climbed to the back of a G-Troll with his horns glowing brightly. The retired superhero leaning against a stone wall as he watched the various genomorphs organize and start to move out. It was hard to tell with the goggles he wore, but there was something uncanny about the way he watched everyone. Like a predator trying to decide if what he was looking at was prey or not. "Something wrong?" I asked as I reached him.
He looked at me and pushed off the wall, and in that motion he lost whatever uncanniness that I had been seeing. "Possibly. Dubbilex gave me the details of the attacks, and they don't really make sense. The attacks sound far too weak for an entire Kingdom to be launching. They should just be able to swarm this entire cavern."
"So, this might not be the Grey being aggressive?" I asked. "Could it be some sub-faction, or maybe a human mage manipulating it?"
"I can't say it's impossible, but that doesn't feel right either." He replied. "It's just a gut feeling, but… I think the Grey has been trying to feel the genomorphs out. Something about the genomorphs is giving them pause, and that worries me for reasons I can't articulate."
Superboy grunted. "Do you think there's going to be a bigger assault?"
He nodded. "Eventually, yes. Which is why we need to act first. If we can find out where the fungi are centralized. We can at least draw their attention before-"
We all felt it at the same time. A slight vibration under our feet that was steadily picking up in intensity. Within moments the entire cavern floor began to shake, and a low rumble permeated the entire space.
Animal Man sighed. "Or I guess we'll be acting second."
The rumble turned into an ear splitting crack, and in the center of the city square a massive rent opened up in the ground. Quickly emerging from the rupture was a colossal mushroom mass, reaching up halfway to the cavern roof and almost a quarter as wide at the base. The umbrella-like cap from the central stalk flared open, and I could see a mass of spores spread outwards. Genomorphs fled from the oncoming cloud, but not all of them could get out of the way fast enough. Some were forced indoors, others were trapped behind swirling curtains of the substance, and others still were plunged into the clouds entirely. Those last ones I saw started to claw at their throats and eyes, and I saw small grey growth form on their bodies.
I rose into the air. "We have to get them out of the area!" I said and shot forward. Superboy deployed his suit's helmet and followed after me, while Animal Man stayed low and sprinted off to the side. Superboy and I didn't get very close to the main stalk however before a portion near the base opened outwards. I was expecting a veritable flood of grey things to come pouring out of the gap to stop us… but instead it was only a single, human sized one.
I could tell from a glance that it was different. It was much more distinctly humanoid than the other myconids, giving the impression of having a solid frame under the mass of growths. And said growths were a bit more orderly, with mycon threads weaving between flange plates. Strangest of all was that I caught glimpses of bioluminescence in the uneven gaps.
I didn't have much longer to look at it before it leapt into the air straight at me. I juked to the side and started forming a plasma cannon, intent on blasting the thing as it passed me. Which is why I was caught off guard when it suddenly veered in midair and was once again hurtling towards me. I was only just able to brace myself before its fist connected with my chest.
I felt and heard my chestplate crack, though that second thing may have been the sound barrier breaking as I was throttled clear across the cavern into the opposite wall. I took a moment to reset my internals before I regained my senses, and saw that it hadn't followed up on its assault because Superboy had piledrived it into the ground.
Is that their Avatar? I wondered. I mean, I suppose it wasn't surprising that an elemental Avatar could punch that hard, but it just seemed odd that the Grey would fight like that. Not to mention the reactionless flight.
Superboy seemed to have the thing in hand for the moment, so instead of flying straight in I skirted around the edge of the fungal growth, landing in a slide as I reshaped my effector core. Despite having access to all of Vulcan's work, it wasn't something I did often these days; the Mechanokinetic core was my favorite for obvious reasons, and after that the Aerokinetic core was the most versatile for superhero work. And if destruction was needed I had lasers or high energy plasma to deal with precision.
But for once, I found myself with a powerful need for widespread combustion, so I formed a replica of Red Inferno's Pyrokinetic core and snapped my fingers.
The spores that filled the air in front of me lit up in a curtain of flame, rippling outwards in almost every direction. I used my effectors to control the spread of fire, keeping it away from any genomorphs that happened to be too close, and slowing it down when it approached dense clusters of spores. The surrounding buildings may have been made of stone, but I didn't want to risk a dust explosion.
Past the flames I could vaguely see the fungal tower twitch in response to the burning air, but I focused on finding the small pockets of genomorphs that had been caught in the spore cloud. "Follow the corridors!" I yelled, creating burning tunnels through the cloud leading away from the fighting. "Evacuate the area! Move!"
With surprising coordination the genomorphs did as I ordered, forming into tight groups. The G-Trolls carried many of the smaller ones on their backs to safety. The ones in buildings poured out as soon as I cleared the areas in front of them, and a few managed to grab some that had been incapacitated by the spores. Not all of them made it though.
Still, it was much quicker than I would have thought that the area was cleared of civilians. With them out of the way, I turned my attention to the mushroom tower, pulling all the flame I had created into a massive but tight lance over my head. With a gesture, I hurled the burning spear at the thing, and it impacted with a deafening explosion. And when the fire cleared… I saw that the stalk was mostly unharmed save for a few bits blasted off. Flames tried to lick at the grey matter but found no purchase before they sputtered and died. "Who the bloody hell crossed mushrooms with asbestos?" I muttered. Still, this was evidence that Animal Man was probably right in that the Grey had been feeling things out. The G-Salamanders had been a problem, so they had created a fire resistant strain.
And whatever strain they had made for their vanguard was tough too, as Superboy was having some trouble putting it down. The two collided with each other in the air over and over, shockwaves rippling out from each impact. They both were trying to overpower the other, but neither could seem to get an advantage. Eventually Superboy dashed in close and went to grab the myconid rather than strike, but this was a mistake. The grey thing's exterior writhed at Superboy's touch, twisting and shoving the hands away. This gave it time to bring its own hands up and hammer smash Superboy downward, driving the boy into the cavern floor.
The myconid moved to dive downwards, but a blue and yellow blur suddenly landed on the thing's head. The myconid only dipped slightly as Animal Man perched on top of it and punched downward. I saw its flanges twitch before it twisted in the air and tried to grab Animal Man, but the older superhero was already bounding away, landing on a giant mushroom stalk. The thing launched itself towards him, but Animal Man bounced away again before the surface he was on was pulverized.
The myconid shot after him again like a bullet. It was fast, faster than Animal Man, but all of its movement was direct and clumsy, and Animal Man was moving like a spider monkey that had learned parkour. He dashed along walls, flipped over strikes, even used some of the ever growing fungal threads as makeshift gymnastic bars. All the while he lashed out with punches and kicks of his own, hitting the grey thing every time it missed him. This lasted until there was a sudden growth from the giant mushroom, fungal threads reaching out and tearing apart the building Animal Man was running on top of. He managed to jump off the collapsing structure before it was subsumed, but his hasty jump allowed the myconid to catch him in midair.
"Ah crap-" That was as far as he got before the myconid simply hurled him across the cavern. Even as Animal Man tumbled he managed to twist in the air, and for a few moments it looked like he was almost gliding before he hit the ground. He skipped and rolled across the ground a few times before he came to a stop on his feet next to me. "Damn this thing is tough. I'm hitting it like an elephant and it's still not budging."
"Are you sure you should be on the front lines for this?" I asked as I looked him over. Physically he was just a little battered, but I was more concerned about the dusting of spores on him. "Those spores are deadly."
He just shook his head. "It's fine, I currently have a slug's immune system. A lot of mollusks are highly resistant to fungal infection."
"...I'll take your word for it." I said, before fire pooled around my hands and feet. Rocketing forward on jets of flame, I took what I learned from Animal Man and juked at the last second rather than barrel straight into it. The myconid swung at the spot I had just been in, and by the time it righted itself to face me I was already blasting it with a torrent of flame. It pushed through the fire to try and grab me but I was already moving again, bursting around it at sharp angles and fast movements. And every opportunity I had I would douse the thing in fire.
The fire itself didn't do much, of course. Whether it was also made of the fire resistant fungus or just that naturally tough, my attacks only had left a few singe marks on its pale grey exterior. But what it did do was blind and disorient it, almost completely surrounding the myconid in a flaming cyclone. Which caused it to lose track of me and turn its back, at which point I launched forward, High Frequency claw forming from my offhand. The claw slashed straight at the thing's torso-
It only penetrated about an inch before it stopped.
The myconid clearly felt it though, given how it's back arched before it flailed around towards me. I blocked the wild swing, but the force of the blow knocked me back down to a stone rooftop. My feet cratered into the stone, but for a moment I didn't move, my eyes wide as I parsed what I had felt. Ever since I had realized what we were fighting I had my sensors tuned up as high as I could to find potential weaknesses. My brief contact with the myconid's flesh had let me feel the resonance I had come to associate with the Kingdoms, but I had also felt a much more physical energy beneath it. One that was awfully familiar.
I raised my claw to my face, and saw amid the bits of grey fungal matter a single drop of red.
A moment later a plan started to form in my head. "
Superboy!" I commed. "
We need to break off the outer layer of fungus!"
Superboy, who had reengaged the thing after I was thrown away, replied "
Alright, but how? This thing's nearly as tough as me."
I bit back my first response to say "
The outer layer is weaker than the rest of it, and if we get it off I'm pretty sure I can disable it. Fire didn't work, so…" I let it hang for a moment, and looking at Superboy I saw him nod in understanding.
I reconfigured myself and dove back into, forming several mechadendrites tipped with High Frequency blades to match my claws. Said blades moved in a wild pattern once I got in range, slicing at the myconid's extremities. The grey thing, remembering the pain it felt, was more cautious of me now, backing away while dodging my attacks. I could tell from how it tried to circle me that it was looking for an opening to strike.
Unfortunately for it, my attack was just a distraction, and its motion had put Superoy directly behind it.
The only warning it got was the sudden intake of breath and rush of air around it, as by the time it turned Superboy, helmet removed, was already blowing a torrent of freezing air over it. The angle and shear force of the wind pushed it to the ground, and at the same time I hit it in the back with a newly formed freeze ray. Our combined assault only lasted for a few seconds, but when we got sight on the creature again its entire surface was frozen solid, stuck in an awkward pose.
It twitched once, causing several cracks to form across the surface before it stopped. I had no doubt that it wasn't frozen all the way through, and that it had plenty of strength to break free of its icy prison. But it was proving my hunch correct that it didn't want to break its outer layer.
But whatever it might have been planning was cut short, as Animal Man launched himself out of the shadows and slammed into the frozen figure, shattering the ice.
A person stumbled out of the ice. Bits of fungus were still clinging to him (and even regrowing), but as he twisted I could see that, aside from his black sclera and yellow irises, he was clearly male and unmistakably human.
Or rather, Kryptonian, as his face was almost identical to Conner's.
Superboy was frozen in shock, but I didn't hesitate. Before his twin could take a step towards Animal Man, I formed a Red Sun particle cannon and opened fire. The twin raised his arms and blocked the beam, pushing back several feet for his trouble. He tried to weather the attack, but it was a losing battle as the beam was draining his strength. I carefully dialed down the intensity as he got weaker and weaker, and the moment I saw his knee hit the ground I cut it off entirely. This far underground, he wasn't recovering anytime soon.
The boy breathed heavily, his face contorted in a mix of anger and confusion. With a growl he tried to get up and stagger towards me, but Superboy grabbed him from behind. "Wait! Calm down, we don't have to fight!" His twin only growled and yelled in response, trying to break free for all the good it did. Superboy looked at me. "Did, did you know?"
"I felt his Photo-Nucleic field when I penetrated the fungal armor. It kind of fell into place after that." I said, landing walking up to them. "The first incursion happened where your pod was located. And it looks like Cadmus made a spare." I was going to have words with Cadmus and/or the League after this.
Animal Man came up next to me, a frown on his face. "He's not an Avatar, I don't think. Avatars are always completely subsumed in their element." I noticed that his eyes flickered to me before he continued. "But his current state doesn't seem to be doing him any favors."
"If he's a clone and has never seen the light of day, it's probable that he never mentally developed." I remarked, thinking about how Superboy acted after his mind was wiped in Bialya.
As I watched the clone struggle, I saw the patchy bits of fungus on him continue to regrow faster and faster. We didn't have a lot of time, and even if there weren't morals to consider I doubted killing the struggling boy would help our current situation. So instead, I reached out and grabbed the largest chunk on his chest.
If we can't get answers from the host, maybe I can get some from the source.
Between learning how to talk to Doctor Fate and… whatever it was that the Dweller did to talk to me, I had some experience with 'unusual' communication. The algorithms of the Silver processed and analyzed, focusing on that resonance I had felt within the fungus. Back and forth the data went, trying to build a cohesive picture out of what I was getting back. What I felt was… a burning in my heart, a struggle I could barely understand. I felt the scream of fear that almost went beyond my being, and yet somehow it persisted.
I forced my way through all of it, so that I could demand [Tell me what you want!]
If the Blue's 'voice' was a mountain of sound rising up from the depths, this was a whisper that echoed from everywhere, a sound with no beginning or end. {
Foreign life… must be dissolved…before it rises from the deep.}
With these words came more sensations and images, a confusing mess of data. Finally, I managed to parse a set of images one after another. There was a cavern, dark but full of fungal life. But the next image was the cavern wall being breached, causing a floor of water and… tentacles? An ugly thing that was lashing out and changing shape before it was subsumed by the fungus.
It was a shoggoth.
The revelation caused me to pause, which was enough.
There was a loud crack beneath us, and a moment later the stone of the cavern floor gave way underneath us. Superboy and I reflexively hung in the air, but he lost his grip as the clone suddenly flailed in his grasp, and I was forced to break contact in order to grab Animal Man before he dropped. And this was fortunate, as the clone dropped into a now growing pile of fungal mass that was surging upwards.
The hole was torn open bigger and bigger, cracks stretching out in every direction across the cavern floor. Stalks and threads the size of giant trees erupted from the cracks and pressed their way towards the stone buildings. Sturdy as they were, stone cracked and crumbled from the onslaught of growth. It connected with the main fungal pillar, which was already starting to reach the cavern ceiling. And there was no sign of it slowing down.
"...We're evacuating. Now." I said.
Superboy and I took off (with Animal Man dangling in my grip), flying towards the cavern's main exit. Most of the genomorphs had made it out, though a few stragglers were still bringing up the rear. Among them I saw Dubbilex shepherding the last few through the gap. "That's the last of them!" He called, looking back at the ongoing destruction with sadness.
"I think I know what's happening," I said, placing Animal Man on the ground. "The Grey is reacting to the Deep Night Invasion. Apparently some of Blue's creatures breached a local fungal colony near the river, and it woke up the Kingdom. And the Grey are
terrified of the Blue. But the Blue were pushed back almost immediately, so by the time the Grey were awake they didn't know where the enemy was. So they've been slowly spreading and hunting to see where they've gone, and they stumbled on the genomorphs."
"But we are not members of this 'Blue'. Surely you can inform them of this."
I shook my head. "You're alien. Or at least close enough that the Grey can't tell the difference." And the fact that's how the Grey regards certain parts of Blue both makes sense and has some unfortunate implications. "And I can already tell that they're not big on understanding nuance."
Another groan from the cavern cut off any more dialog, and saw the fungus growth spreading rapidly towards us. We retreated through the cargo entrance and shut the door behind us. Then for good measure, I turned some heavy sonic cannons on the roof to collapse it.
The rush upwards into the Cadmus facility proper was a tense one, as we had to manage both the herd of genomorphs and head off any fungal 'leaks' that tried to stop us. When we finally got within range of the building's network, I hijacked the system to issue an emergency evacuation alert for all personnel. The result was less orderly than I would have liked, but eventually the entire staff and all of the genomorphs were piled out into the street in front of the building. Which was an awkward prospect when some were twice the size of elephants.
It wasn't long before I saw Guardian confronting Dubbilex about what was happening (and where all the extra genomorphs had come from), but I was spared from that by a voice from overhead. "Machina!" Looking up, I saw Moya decloak in the air and the Titans leapt out. Or at least some of them, as Starfire, Troia, and Aqualad dropped to the ground next to me. Starfire looked around at the impending riot and asked "What's the situation?"
"The elemental Kingdom I told you about has gone ballistic. They think the genomorphs are a threat and will stop at nothing to kill them. We collapsed some tunnels behind us, but that won't stop them." I looked at my teammates. "Is this everyone?" I asked, sensing there was no one else aboard the bioship.
"Yes," Starfire said as she came up next to me. "They're on their way but it will be a bit."
That was unfortunate, but even if we had the whole team, this situation was rapidly escalating beyond what we could handle. "We need to bring everything we can bear to contain this."
At my side, Animal Man spoke up. "As far as I know the only thing that can contain a Kingdom is another Kingdom." The look he gave me was almost expectant.
I let out a breath. "You're not wrong." I said, and with a thought reached out to the Silver and
pulled.
[
Activating Emergency Avatar Protocol]
=====A=====
