179 Priority A

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And I'm back.

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(General P.O.V)

"Ai...this is not good. Not good at all."

Iroh commented, his face tilted up at the Avatar State occupying Aden's body. The wave of white energy that had dispersed out into the surroundings disappeared into thin air along with every pocket of chaos energy previously dotting the surroundings. The Avatar State spared them a glance before dematerializing.

"What? Do you regret your decision to stand back and not intervene? A little too late for that don't you think?"

Lucifer snorted.

Iroh eyed him from the corner of his eyes.

"Don't act like you didn't agree with me. He needs to learn how to stand by himself."

Lucifer spread out his hands.

"And now we find ourselves at an impasse. What to do, oh what to do?"

The devil said theatrically.

"Nothing much from here. This dimension is stable. What worries me are the rest."

Iroh frowned. The Avatar State had saved Aden's dimension by expelling all the chaos energy from the realm. It made sense. The Order Avatar State could not control Chaos energy and according to Aden's instructions, it was to do whatever it needed to preserve the well being of the realm. That left the energy needing somewhere to go.

Too bad that resulted in a massive 'fuck you' to a few other unfortunate places. Earth being one of the 3 closely connected places to the Elemental dimension. All the boom tubing Aden had been doing usually left behind a trail. That was enough for the planet to be instantly buffeted by a wave of Chaos energy.

"I just arrived but a trip back to my own universe is in order. I shudder to think the effect of so much dark energy on the spirits." Iroh turned to Lucifer.

"If I am right, your own infernal realms are at risk as well."

Lucifer waved off his concern.

"Maze will handle it. I'm not the Satan anymore. However, I have been planning to take a vacation somewhere far from my father's eyes, your universe sounds mighty interesting."

Iroh considered refusing. He really did but with the depths of power his new friend had, he knew he would just open a rift and follow him anyway.

"Very well." The old spirit sighed. "However, there are a few ground rules we have to lay down."

Luci had an amused smile on his face as he nodded.

"As you wish, my friend."

(Watchtower - Meeting Hall)

"17 locations spread out across the globe. And that's just from the initial scan using the Watchtower. 3 of them located on the states alone. This is the current situation we have."

Batman clicked on his wrist computer and the image of the rotating sphere showing earth panned out to different screens all displaying the same thing. Dark portals.

"Black swirling vortexes, that seem to pull in whatever is near them in a distance of precisely 10 meters." He pointed to a terminal showing an industrial area, overrun by the military. The area was cordoned off and the soldiers had guns pointed at the vortex.

"6 of these 17 cases have been designated as priority A assignments."

"Civilian lives casualties."

Artemis stated out loud.

"That's priority X. Priority A is civilian lives endangerment."

Robin corrected her only for Kid Flash to snort.

"You guys can't be serious." Kid looked around at both teams gathered. "Those vortexes share the features of black holes! The chances of anyone surviving are astronomically low."

"Yet this mission is at it's core a rescue one."

Wonder Woman interjected.

"We will not lose hope until we have tried our best."

A chorus of nods answered her.

"Mmh." Batman took over. "I was just getting to that. 7 civilians were pulled in by the vortex in Kyoto, Japan. The military has sealed off the entire block and is open to coordinating with the League. A similar case for Atlanta here in the US, 6 school children were pulled into the vortex on the playground. A cruise ship 3 miles off the coast of the Bahamas lost the captain. Then an entire ward of patients in England met the same fate. Also, a popular nightclub in Los Angeles called Lux, lost the bartender and 12 civilians. Lastly, Disney land. No reported Civilian lives endangered but Plasticman seems to have been pulled into the vortex after saving people."

He concluded and ran a gaze around the meeting table.

"To reiterate Wonder Woman, we are not losing hope until we have done all we can. Both team members have been divided into 5 squads. As of now we're assign..."

"Alert non-authorized entry detected!"

The alert came from the Watchtower defense systems, putting everyone on high alert. A flurry of movement occured as they all left their seats.

"Computer, access the security camer..."

Wonder Woman started before a voice interrupted her from behind them. The door to the meeting hall retracted with a hiss and standing at the entrance, holding an access card and looking surprised was Iroh.

"Oh goodness. I hope I am not interrupting anything."

"Iroh? What are you doing here? I thought the regular check up on Superman was scheduled for next week?"

The Flash asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Yes, you're not wrong but something came up."

He made his way through the doorway and floating behind him in a blue platform construct made of spirit energy was...

"Aden!" Starfire shouted in alarm and shoved Captain Atom out of the way, her eyes glowing green, wide with panic.

"Star..."

Robin made to follow her when, Kid Flash in a rare moment of sensitivity, grabbed his shoulder. Robin rounded to glare at him only to see his best friend shake his head. The Boy Wonder grit his teeth and nodded at Artemis towards Starfire's direction.

"We need to take him to the med bay."

Artemis catching on, quickly suggested to Wonder Woman.

"Do it. Meanwhile, Iroh will fill us in what is going on."

The statement came out more as an order.

The old spirit nodded his head solemnly.

"What is wrong with him?!"

Starfire demanded from the grandmaster Firebender.

"He is fine. Just tired." Iroh waved off her concerns. Starfire looked as if she was going to push, when Artemis pulled on her arm.

"Come on, follow me."

The Tamaranean picked up Aden from the spirit construct, bring careful to hold the arm clutching Equity carefully and turned to follow the young archer.

"Aah young love." Iroh commented absentmindedly, watching them walk off. The cheer immediately died off as he turned his attention back to the majority of the heroes.

"We do not have much time. I brought him here because I think he is currently the only thing that can help you resolve what is happening."

"Why?"

Batman growled out.

"I'm more interested in what the cause of these black holes is."

Wonder Woman intervened shooting a strange look at the Dark Knight. Batman stoically gave no reaction.

"How about you take a seat, my friend."

Manhunter amiably offered.

"To rest these old bones? Bless your heart J'onn." Iroh chuckled a little, his belly jiggling as he sat on Artemis unoccupied chair. "All that is missing is some tea."

"We are wasting valuable time here! Each second that passes could spell doom for the civilians trapped in those black holes."

The Flash implored.

"Batman will stay back and get the full story from Iroh. The rest of us, we are moving out." Wonder Woman decided. " The squads are..."

(Aden's P.O.V)

I couldn't tell how long I'd been out of it. A glance at the corner of my vision showed me that 30 minutes had elapsed since I had been knocked out. I tried to sit up but a hand on my chest stopped me.

"Star? Kori what..."

"Shh. Rest up we'll talk later when you wake up."

I felt the familiar warmth of Equity as I was lulled back to sleep, noticing just how mentally tired I was.

'No! wake the fuck up!'

I shouted at myself, remembering with urgency that I wasn't in the clear yet. I shot back up, amid Kori's admonishing and sat on the bed.

It was so fucking nice and painful to see her. My heart clutched in pain at what we had lost and I delved into my connection with Equity or anything really to distract me from her presence. And scent...and...

"Wait this can't be right..."

Equity had reverted back to it's familiar form of a rapier. I might have had a fondness for it's Katana form because of the cool effect but without my urging, it naturally shifted into a rapier. But that wasn't the reason for my confusion.

"What's wrong?"

Kor... Starfire wondered from over my shoulder, her breath tickling my ears. I moved away, noticing the small twinge of hurt in her green expressive eyes. 'It's too soon Kori' I tightened my palm as I wore my long coat. The action gave me a chance to think a little. Something weird was happening.

Equity felt stuck at 90%. A fraction of what should have been it's full power was missing. A fraction of chaos. And last I remember, I was still in my dimension, so what was I doing in the Watchtower's medbay? Through my air sense, I could feel Superman's sleeping form in the next room over.

"Aden..."

I turned upon the mention of my name from Ko... goddamit, keep it professional, Starfire's lips.

"Where did I fuck up this time? I feel like I fucked up somehow."

She laughed a little at my humor. The sound managing to uplift my recently bad moods. But even with the happiness to be found, a familiar ache made itself known. I knew what I wanted and I couldn't have her. That soured the expression on my face.

Starfire noticed it and sighed.

"Can we please...have a conversation without it turning awkward?"

She asked but before I could answer, I noticed the slight shift in the shadows of the room.

"Shhh! Quiet."

"They'll hear us."

"Huggsies!"

I narrowed my eyes and created a large air construct, that dived into the shadow and pulled out a few 'interesting finds'

"Mum!"

"Greenie!"

"Stars!"

"Mum!"

A chorus of voices shouted out from the tumbling forms as I rolled my eyes in pleasant surprise. A small swipe of my hands and the camera at the corner of the room was promptly destroyed. Yeesh, Batman and the league would probably not be too happy about that.

My spirits all swarmed Kori. Match tackled her left leg then held on while floating around. Sai flew in his dragon form that was suspiciously still tiny just like Kai's to wind up in her shoulders. A puff of fire and smoke and his form shifted into a replica of a young me, 7 years old but way cuter. Breeze turned into a small tornado that blew Star back onto the bed with a yelp before settling on my ex's ample chest with a proud look on her face, and Kai simply curled next to her, her dragon form like Sai's shifting into a little human girl with some differences.

For instance she had on purple horns in her red air that matched Starfire's but her eyes were the same complete shade of glowing red to be found in my chaos form. Their happiness was plain to see. I knew they had missed Kori immensely. Star had really made my realm feel like a home just by her presence there. And just like the kids, Kori seemed happy to see them as well.

I cleared my throat, putting on a stern look on my face, despite the happiness I was feeling. They needed to learn how dangerous this little stunt had been. How had they even snuck out of the realm in the first place?

"You kids have a lot of explaining to do."

I crossed my hands on my chest.