Escalation

Author's Note

Balancing this many fights was kind of hard, which I knew would be an issue when I had everyone come along. Anyone who has a suggestion on how to improve the fight scenes, let me know. Also, the ending of this chapter is one I'm unsure about, so suggestions to improve are always welcome.

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I slowly stood up, storing the device in my storage cube along with everything we had stolen.

"Isn't most of your distinguishing features being visible counter-intuitive? I thought masks were supposed to hide your identity." I said.

"We will have to ask you to come with us," Aqualad said.

I could hear Kid Flash whisper "My mask totally hides my identity right? I mean no one's figured it out yet."

"I think there's a misunderstanding here, we're not criminals," Scott said, stepping forward.

"Yeah, because all the good guys steal," Robin said sarcastically.

"We are heroes, we just needed a way to get home," Scott said.

"Why haven't we heard of you then?" Miss Martian asked.

'Dammit Scott, don't answer.'

"We're from another universe," Scott said.

'And of course he does.'

"The multiverse theory is just that, a theory. It's not confirmed or supported in any way." Kid Flash protested.

'This is one of the earliest DC timelines. They haven't encountered other universes yet. I'll just have to work with this.'

"Regardless it's the truth. Considering aliens are real, the multiverse theory doesn't seem all that unlikely now does it." I said.

"While a fair point, it does not change the fact that you stole. Surrender yourselves and if we confirm your story, we will try to find you a way home." Aqualad said.

Scott turned to everyone and asked, "What do you guys think?"

"I can get us home in a day or two, which is definitely faster than they can. If no one here has discovered multiverse travel then I'm ahead of them, which means they can't help at all." I said.

"But it would be better to cooperate with the heroes of this world, wouldn't it?" Evan asked.

"That would be true, but let me ask a question and see what you all think of cooperating with them," I said and turned back to The Team.

"How exactly would you confirm our story?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"You would submit yourselves to a telepathic scan," Aqualad said.

Turning to the X-Men, I said "I'll pass, no one is getting in my head."

"My mind is my own," Laura said.

Scott looked around the group, seeing similar disagreement with mind reading. He turned to The Team and said "We're not having our minds read. We don't want to fight you, but if you force our hand, we will."

'Best decision Scott has made in a while.'

"Then I am sorry," Aqualad said and the Team attacked.

"Laura, take the big guy with the S," I said quickly. She nodded and ran at him, extending her claws and slashing at his chest, which Superboy allowed to connect, expecting it to not pierce his skin. Instead, she cut through his skin and blood began to seep from the shallow cut on his chest. Seeing that he could harm him, Superboy got some distance between him and Laura, but she was relentless, chasing him down as he avoided her attacks and delivered a punch to her chest, sending her flying a ways back. She flipped in the air, recovering and resuming her pursuit. She got close and stabbed her claws into Superboy's gut, causing him to yell and allowing her to swing over his body and hold him hostage with her claws.

Glancing into the air, I saw Jean and Miss Martian flying overhead, both having looks of concentration in what appeared to be a mental battle. I wasn't worried about that battle at all. Jean was guaranteed to be mentally superior to Miss Martian. When Superboy yelled, however, Miss Martian lost focus and Jean capitalized, attacking Miss Martian mentally and knocking her out.

Meanwhile, Scott had pulled off his glasses and opened his eyes, shooting a beam at Aqualad, who tried to form a water shield to block, but it tore through it, throwing him back. Seeing that Aqualad used water, Bobby moved to help Scott, but Scott said "I've got their leader. Help Rogue."

'Bobby's the best match-up against Aqualad, but he wants a leader vs. leader fight and it's going to get him knocked out.'

I saw Kid Flash about to take a step forward, so I overclocked my brain. I could speed up my reaction time to see everything in slow motion and be able to react to high-speed threats, but it was extremely strenuous. I couldn't keep it active for long periods, so I had to be fast.

I watched as Kid Flash sped towards me and threw a punch. I ducked before it neared me and grabbed his legs, flipping him into the air and slamming him down, knocking the air out of him and causing him to collapse. Immediately stopping the overclock, I had a slight headache from it, but it went away quickly.

Kurt was teleporting between Zatanna and Rocket, jumping between the two and trying to hit them.

"Tekcajtiarts!" Zatanna said and a straight jacket appeared on Kurt, causing him to tumble and fall to the ground. Evan moved to help him, but Rocket intercepted him and formed a bubble around him, trapping him in place.

Robin and Artemis were fighting Rogue and Kitty. Kitty phased through anything they threw at her and got close to Artemis, trying to grab her, but Artemis moved out of the way and continued to dodge.

Rogue pulled off her gloves and moved towards Robin, but he kept his distance. He threw birdarangs at Rogue, causing her to have difficulty getting close. Robin was agile and dodged around her hands, taking notice of the fact that she was trying to touch him and avoiding it. He waited until she overextended and got close, pulling out a bow staff as he knocked Rogue's feet out from under her and shot a rope that stabbed its ends into the concrete, binding her to the floor.

Bobby appeared behind Robin while he was distracted, freezing the ground under him and causing him to slip, falling back. He moved to put his hand on the ground to push off and recover, but Bobby froze his hand when it touched the ground. He then froze the rest of his body to stop him from breaking out in some way.

Aqualad had recovered and dodged around Scott's beam, closing the distance, which caused Scott to put back on his glasses and get into a hand-to-hand fight with him. The two seemed evenly matched in skill, but Aqualad was physically superior to Scott and knocked him. He hit him over the head with a water construct hammer, knocking him out.

Looking around, I saw Laura had Superboy hostage, Jean had beaten Miss Martian, I had beaten Kid Flash, and Kitty had Artemis on the defensive. At the same time, Aqualad had beaten Scott, Robin beat Rogue, Zatanna beat Kurt, and Rocket beat Evan. The record was relatively even, but what mattered most was who was left.

The strongest members on our side were me, Jean, Laura, Bobby, and Kitty. All of us had powers that made us extremely hard to take down while the other side still had Aqualad, Robin, Zatanna, and Rocket.

"I'd stop if I were you, Laura has your teammate hostage," I said, causing The Team, to gain some distance and regroup while the X-Men stood together.

"If you are heroes as you said, you will not harm him and we have your teammate hostage as well," Aqualad said.

"That would be true, but..." I said, turning to Evan who was in the bubble. He nodded and began to grow as many spikes as he could form, breaking the bubble and giving him the chance to roll over to us.

"Fresh air" he proclaimed.

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" I asked him.

"You looked like you had a plan, I didn't want to mess it up" Evan responded.

'He's more perceptive than I thought he was. I needed them to think we were on even footing so they would stop. If only we had the hostage they would've pressed it during the fight so they could try to negotiate. Now we have all the power.'

"What was the name of that superhero team?" I asked Evan.

"The Justice League."

"Alright, the Justice League. You contact the League and explain the situation. I want to talk to whoever's in charge so we can get this all cleared up."

Aqualad hesitated and I could tell they were slightly floundering due to the lack of Miss Martian's telepathic contact.

"Very well," Aqualad said, reaching up to his ear and contacting someone. After a short talk, he stopped and turned to us.

"They will be here soon," Aqualad said.

'Alright, I'm pretty sure the League will still underestimate us. They're correct in their thinking that some members of our team couldn't handle a team of Leaguers, but I could probably take down a majority of this version of the League or all of it if I went all out. With Laura and Jean, we should have a good chance even if the rest of us get knocked out.'

We waited while the other members who had been knocked out or restrained were still down. No one moved to free them, knowing it would restart the fighting.

'Aqualad is probably considering going for one of our members who are restrained, but he's comfortable in the knowledge the League is coming.'

After a short time, the top of the warehouse was destroyed as Superman came flying down from the roof, speeding over to Bobby and taking him down before moving to attack me. I absorbed the adamantium ring, which I was able to use to coat my entire body now after training, and grabbed his fist, throwing him across the room.

At the same time, Laura was attacked by Wonder Woman. She couldn't avoid all of her attacks or attack back while trying to restrain Superboy, so she let him go and got some distance, jumping and landing next to me and Jean.

Evan was taken down by Batman, who glided in from the roof and hit him with some kind of gas, knocking him out. Martian Manhunter moved over to the Team that was still up, recovering Miss Martian and looking her over to make sure she was okay. Green Lantern flew down as well, landing next to Martian Manhunter.

'A lot of Leaguers for us. Guess they are taking us a little more seriously, although I think it's mostly because Jean beat Miss Martian mentally. She's probably the one they're most worried about at the moment, we'll see how that changes.'

The only people still up from our team were Jean, Laura, and I. They had knocked out Rogue and Kurt while they attacked us to ensure they couldn't get free.

Moving my hand behind my back, I gestured towards my head to Jean and Laura. At the same time, I manipulated my mind, partitioning off my conscious thoughts so I could communicate, but not allowing Jean any access to anything I didn't let her.

'I thought you didn't let anyone in your mind,' Jean commented mentally.

'I don't. The only reason I'm doing this is because we need to communicate without them knowing and you still don't have access to anything I don't let you. I'm trusting you here, so don't cross any boundaries.'

'I won't, I promise,' Jean assured me, and I mostly believed her. She didn't have any reason to try to look deeper into my head, I was just paranoid about telepaths.

'What's the plan? They have us outnumbered and potentially outgunned.' Laura said.

'From what I got from Miss Martian's mind, the five Leaguers in front of us are Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman the founding members, and Martian Manhunter. Wonder Woman and Superman are both powerful, while Batman is extremely skilled and Martian Manhunter is a strong telepath. Green Lantern can form anything he can imagine. Plus, the rest of the teens are still up. How do we handle it?' Jean asked.

'Laura, when I say go, you take the teen team. They don't have anyone who can take you down, so you should be able to outlast and outskill them. Jean, get Martian Manhunter in a telepathic battle. You're the strongest telepath I've ever met, I have faith you can beat him. I'll handle the other three.'

'Are you sure you can handle all of them?' Jean asked.

'We'll just have to see, now won't we.'

"Surrender, you're outnumbered and outmatched. As a leader, you should know when to give up," Aqualad said.

A smirk came onto my face as I laughed a little.

"You would not believe how pissed Scott would be if he was awake right now. I'm not the leader, he is." I said.

"Regardless, it is time for you to surrender son," Superman said.

"Thought about it, I'll pass. You'll just try to read our minds and I'm not okay with that, plus you're just hindering us from getting home. I think we'll have to try another way." I said.

"You think you can win?" Artemis asked, amused.

"No, I know I can win. Go!" I said and the three of us moved into action. Jean concentrated and Martian Manhunter froze as he and Jean got into a telepathic fight much like the one she had with his niece.

Laura jumped at the Team, Moving swiftly through their number as she fought multiple people at once. Superboy was back up, but Laura was quick to put him back down, stabbing her claws into his chest. Zatanna tried to bind her the same way she bound Kurt, but before she could speak Laura was on her and knocked her out. Aqualad was able to last longer, trying to keep Laura at a distance with his water-construct sword while Artemis shot her with arrows, but instead of dodging, Laura let the arrows hit her while she cut through Aqualad's construct and closed the distance between the two. He managed to dodge for a time, but she got a few cuts in and finished the fight by sweeping his legs and knocking him out. Artemis followed suit as Laura made short work of her. Rocket tried to trap her in a bubble, but she cut through it with ease and Rocket was down for the count as well.

While Laura was tearing through Young Justice, I was facing the three founders.

"This should be fun," I said as ran at the three, still coated in Adamantium. Superman tried to hit me, but I dodged his punches. Despite being strong, Superman was relatively untrained and didn't have a set fighting style, relying on brute strength. After all my training with Laura, I was more skilled than him by a mile, and with Adamantium coating my body, his strength wasn't an issue. I punched him in the chest, sending him back as Wonder Woman threw her Lasso and wrapped it around my arm, pulling me toward her. Instead of fighting it, I let her pull me, flying at her as I grappled with her, grabbing ahold of her bracelets and absorbing them as my form became Amazonium. Mentally, I made another ring out of the material and had it form on my left hand.

"Halt" Wonder Woman ordered, since the Lasso was still wrapped around my arm. My body froze as the divine power of the Lasso stopped me, but I had a plan. Jean was in her mind and I didn't care if Laura knew, so I phased into the ground, falling through it as the Lasso was left above. Emerging out of it again, I was instead bound by a green light construct rope.

"Ha, got him," Hal said cockily.

"Really?" I asked as I began to absorb the construct, gaining a small reserve of green light as more and more of Hal's ring power was absorbed into my body before he cut the connection.

I was then attacked from behind by Batman as I dodged his punches. Despite my training, he was still far superior to me in hand-to-hand combat, but my body was so superior to his and that gave me a fighting chance. He shot a metal rope, wrapping it around my body as Wonder Woman bound me with the Lasso and Superman ran towards me and restrained my legs.

"AH!" Martian Manhunter yelled out as he collapsed. Looking over, I could see Jean panting, mentally tired from all of the telepathic fighting as she sat down and passed out. Laura had finished with The Team and was looking at me.

"You know, this has all been fun, but this is the first chance I get to really cut loose. Let's see how it goes" I said as phased through the ground, escaping everything binding me and regrouping with Laura.

"I've got this, but jump in if I need help," I told her. She nodded and I activated Bobby's power, sending a wave of ice at the heroes. Superman punched through it while Wonder Woman and Batman got out of the way. Hal tried to form a construct to block it, but the ice froze his construct and continued on, freezing his arm before he managed to fly out of the way.

"He has more than one power. Be ready for anything" Batman said.

I pushed off the ground, running at the group as I popped claws out of my hands, coating them in adamantium from my ring. My body was still made of Amazonium, so I was as invulnerable as Wonder Woman's bracelets as well. I fought all of the Leaguers at once, absorbing Hal's constructs whenever he tried to take me by surprise with them. Superman could keep up with me physically, but I partitioned my mind to allow me to devote part of my brain power to telekinetically holding him face down on the ground.

Batman pulled out some kind of device from his belt and turned it on as I felt my body being dragged.

'A super-magnet huh.' I thought as I removed the Amazonium from my body and instead increased my density. Wonder Woman tried to take advantage of my "weakened" form to punch me, but my body was still extremely durable and her punches didn't instantly take me out like she was expecting. Hal then came towards me with a constructed fist wrapped around his hand. I grabbed onto it, draining it dry, and then moved towards his ring and started draining it as well.

I could feel the rush of power as I drained more and more of the ring, and that rush started to overtake me completely.

My body shifted as my skin became blue. One half of my body turned into ice and the other half turned into Adamantium. My claws became the golden color of Amazonium and electricity formed around my body. A green lantern symbol formed on my chest and my body glowed green as I lifted off the ground. A small blizzard of ice swirled around my body.

"Hahaha, come on. I thought you were supposed to be Earth's protectors, try to protect yourselves from me!" I said, my mind slipping as a crazed look formed in my eyes.