Chapter 75: Mysteries

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Mera asked as she tensed.

"You're a long way away from Gotham, Croc. What are you doing in Atlantis?" Sora questioned but the reptile remained silent other than the low growls he emitted.

Seeing that, Sora didn't waste his saliva on the man and turned to the other two assailants. One of the two had a small missile launcher, showing that he was the one behind the earlier attack while the third assailant looked unarmed.

'That's wrong. Among the three of them, he is exponentially more of a threat than the others.' Sora noted mentally as his eyes focused on the man in the middle.

Suddenly the man in the middle spoke, his voice clear for all to hear.

"Kill them both." He ordered simply as killer Croc charged forward.

Blue glowing icons became visible on Mera's skin as she pulled on her magic, a vortex of water shooting forward into the Croc.

Sora's sharingan came to life as two missiles shot towards him, one behind the other. Upon reaching him, a single explosion rang out as the smoke surrounded him.

Out of the smoke, Sora shot out at high speed, a purple energy beam of energy shot out of his hand as a large metal shield appeared in front of the man, effectively blocking it.

Sora raised a brow at that, his interest peaking. He looked at Mera from the corner of his eyes, watching as she faced off Killer Croc and the other assailant.

The man's hand shot forward as an orange blast shot towards Mera, a blue tentacle made of mana blocking it as Croc flanked Mera.

Sora's eyes narrowed at him before turning to his opponent who had somehow gotten his hands on a laser canon, aiming it at Sora.

Sora made no attempt to dodge as the weapon shot out a red beam that engulfed Sora. Mera, who was in the line of the beam, barely dodged it as it grazed her side.

A few seconds later, he turned off the laser canon, Sora nowhere to be seen.

"One down, one to go." The man's gruff voice said as the laser canon disappeared, being replaced with a smaller ray gun.

He turned to Mera and his two companions who were still facing off, Mera struggling as Croc tore the water tendrils into pieces and an orange beam slamming into her.

Mera slammed into the wall behind her, slipping into unconsciousness with a groan.

"What do we do now?" He asked the other masked man who had been silent so far, rubbing the top of the helmet tiredly.

"We will continue with the plan. This is a only mere hiccup in our way. Go into the conservatory and get what we came for." The man ordered, his voice fairly young…much younger than Croc and the other.

"We'll have to find the entrance firs-!" He was interrupted as a feeling of dread drenched his entire being.

His surroundings turned pitch black as the only source of light were the two large red eyes that peered down at him from above.

"What the hell!?" He screamed in shock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora floated in front of the unresponsive man, his sharingan peering at the man who was stuck in a genjutsu.

"Pathetically weak." He muttered with narrowed eyes as he perused the man's mind for information.

From the corner of his eyes, he could make out an unconscious Killer Croc who merely laid on the oceans floors while Mera faced off the other man.

'So he's the one in charge. Makes a lot of sense seeing as how he's able to push Mera this much.' Sora thought as the man dodged each blast Mera threw at him, slipping into her space to deliver a kick to her stomach.

Fortunately she was quick as a tendril pulled her back, allowing her to evade it completely.

He focused his attention back on the unresponsive man, his eyebrows rising.

'So that's your power. Very useful indeed.' The man's power from what he extracted was a decently sized sub space where he could store items. It was very similar to Sora's inventory but without the time stop effect.

'It'll make a wonderful gift.' He thought as he brought his palm to the man's head, a small purple appearing on his palm as he made contact.

Tendrils of yellow energy emerged from the man, flowing into Sora who took it in. While doing this, he didn't stop going through the man's mind, reaching a particular memory that made his eyes widen.

The tendrils of energy stopped coming out of the man as Sora swam back in a quick burst of motion as the man's head exploded violently.

The explosion drew the attention of the others. The other assailant being distracted, Sora disappeared in a black flash, appearing in front of the other man.

His hand lashed out, smashing into a defending forearm as the man was sent flying back. The small boosters at his back came to life as he right himself.

"You seem pretty nonchalant about the death of your friend. I assume you weren't that close." Sora commented lightly as the man observed him.

"What's it to you?" He asked, his voice distorted by the mask.

"Other than the fact that without him your plan is a bust? Nothing. " Sora retorted in a mocking tone.

"That may be true but don't think that means that yo-" He stopped speaking abruptly, making Mera narrow her eyes in suspicion.

"I'll leave you with this. Things aren't always as they seem. We will meet again…" His distorted voice spoke as his body dispersed into mist, the man disappearing from their sight.

Reaching out with his perception, he couldn't feel the assailant in Atlantis.

"Who was that?" Mera asked wondered as she panted lightly.

"I don't know." Sora answered after a moment of silence.

"Come, let us meet with the others." Mera said, taking the lead as they swam away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mera, Kaldur and Sora stood in the throne room as they discussed the event that had just occurred.

"So they found nothing?" Mera asked only for Kaldur to shake his head.

"Nothing at all. There were no sightings of any intruders at any of the bomb sites." The sidekick answered.

"Bombings occur around the city while three intruders attack the conservatory. The bombs were simply a diversion for them to fulfill their objectives. If only we knew what their objectives were…" Mera trailed off, turning to Sora.

"Knowledge. That's what they were after. They wanted access to the magic that Atlantis has to hold." Sora threw out, deep in thought.

"That and the fact that they needed suits to breathe suggests that they're from the surface. As if Killer Croc being there wasn't enough proof." Mera pondered, some irritation bleeding into her tone.

"What about the civilians? How are they taking this?" Mera asked, turning to Kaldur.

"They are scared and panic. They were few casualties and many were wounded. The buildings can be rebuilt but the hospitals will be a bit overworked for the next few days healing the populace." Kaldur spoke to her chagrin as she let out a slight groan.

"You can end the facade already. We both know you're wounded." Sora said as he walked towards Mera whose eyes widened in surprise.

He observed the red bruised spot on her side for a moment before humming lowly. He had seen her get hit once by Croc and the power the other man held wasn't small either.

"Some internal damage but nothing too serious." He noted as her eyes opened a bit more.

"You didn't mention that you were a doctor." She commented as a smirk played on Sora's lips as he spoke.

"I'm a lot of things you don't know about." He stretched his palm out as a green aura covered it.

'[Evocation: Heal]' The green aura appeared at the red spot as a soothing feeling engulfed her. Within a second, he stopped, leaving the area completely healed.

"That is a pleasant surprise. You have done so much for Atlantis but I want to ask one last favor." She requested.

"Go on…" Sora urged on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora appeared in his mansion, his clothes still wet as he had teleported straight from Atlantis. He had stayed there for a few more days after the attack.

Mera had requested that he help them heal their civilians to which he had made a few conditions. One of such conditions being that Atlantis would be an ally of Sora's.

With Mera being the queen, she had more than enough authority to make that deal and also approve of his business proposal on Orin's behalf, not that the man would have been opposed to it.

A minor spell saw him dry himself of the water as he made his way to his lab. [Energy Sense] telling him that Zatanna wasn't home, he made a mental note to inquire about that later.

For the moment he had something important on his mind. Upon getting to the lab, he pulled out a large body from his inventory before throwing it into the middle of the room.

Before it could land, it metal poles emerged from the ground in a circular formation around it, blue energy leaving them and connecting with the body as it froze in midair in a form of stasis.

He observed Killer Croc's unmoving body with disdain as he typed something on the main computer making the walls of the room pulsed briefly.

'Amanda Waller, to think you'd overstep your boundaries so early.' Sora thought as he got to work.