CHAPTER SIXTEEN: UNDERSEA WORLDS

"Did I get here early?"

When Alex walked through the doors of STAR Labs, she had expected every member of the Justice League to be there. But in reality, only Shazam and Cyborg were seated at the conference table, which was supposed to be devoted to their meetings.

"You're on time, Supernova," Cyborg said, sounding a little resigned. "Only you and Shazam responded to the message so far."

"Yo!" Shazam waved his hand, looking bright and cheery, his legs propped up on the table.

Alex couldn't help, but wave back. Just as she took a seat next to him, there was a familiar shift in the air. Seated, she turned around only to see fellow forensic scientist and superhero, the Flash enter the room.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm...not late?" Barry trailed off, looking around the room only to see just three seats filled. "Where is everybody?"

"The human internet router's having trouble getting the word out," Shazam answered, motioning towards Cyborg.

"Let's do it the old fashion way, then," Barry spoke with a grin.

"Hmm," Alex let a smile spread across her face. "That's a good idea."

*

Alex flew and Barry ran. Though Alex was nowhere near as fast as him on the ground, the sky was where her speed was uncontrollable. She had been training herself to go faster and faster and only in the past month had she been able to achieve her highest speed. That was how she arrived at the base, only a few seconds after Barry.

They paused near a hanger and before Barry could go and get Hal, Alex stopped him. "Tell him if he doesn't get himself here asap, I'm going to..." She whispered the last part, silently laughing as Barry's face turned red.

"You never change, do you?" Barry shook his head, an exasperated smile on his face as he ran towards the office areas on the base.

Alex hadn't seen Hal in a while, not seen the day he had landed at her door when she had injured her back. They hadn't been texting much either, both of them rather busy. Alex was okay with that but it would be so much fun to just mess with Hal.

The air around her shifted as Barry arrived. He skidded to a stop. "Give him five minutes. He'll be here."

"Don't tell him I'm going to mess with him," Alex said, grinning. Barry just patted her shoulder. They carried a random conversation, talking about all sorts of things from work to life to Iris and Hal. They were surprisingly similar people, which made it easy to be friends.

Just as their conversation finished, a green light appeared on the ground in front of them. Hal descended, wearing his Green Lantern uniform as he called it. Alex liked to tease him by calling it a costume.

"Took you long enough," Barry said, standing up straight.

"Yeah yeah, what's the what? Tell Alex her threats-," Hal started to speak, but trailed off as his gaze fell upon Alex, who offered him an amused smile.

"Cyborg's got something. All hands on deck," Barry explained. "Race you to headquarters?"

Before Alex or Hal could react, Barry had already run off. Hal looked confused. "We have a headquarters?"

"We do, fly guy," Alex slowly hovered in the air. "Now, let's go or we'll be late."

"Sure thing, my love." Hal suddenly held onto her arms, dipped her and gave her the quickest of kisses. "Sorry for not texting. Please don't kill me."

Alex bit her lip. Even after all this time, Hal's kisses left her feeling a little dazed. "I don't mind it. But don't kiss me like that again. We're working."

"That's half the fun of doing it," Hal answered with a laugh. Then they flew, both of them together, leaving behind a trail of golden and green light in the sky.

*

Everyone was here. Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg, Shazam...all except for one. They all stared at the last empty seat on the table, the one that was for Batman. Hal stood next to Alex's seat, crossing his arms.

In an irritated tone, he asked, "What, the Bat's too good for us now?"

"It's Batman," Cyborg replied. "He doesn't answer hails."

'Rude,' But then again, Alex could see why he wouldn't. He was Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night. He definitely had a very busy schedule. Did he even sleep?

"Yeah, if I have to be here, so does he," Hal stated haughtily. Alex mentally facepalmed and pinched her thigh. This. This right here meant Hal was going to do something really reckless. Something that would involve Batman and it would lead to him getting into a lot of trouble.

"Hal, don't do anything..." Barry started to say, but Hal was already flying away through the small hole in the roof. "Stupid."

Alex actually facepalmed this time, shaking her head. Hal. Hal. Hal. She loved the man, but he seriously did the dumbest things sometimes. Now, all that was left to do was to wait and see what consequences he would face. When it came to Batman, there would be a lot of consequences for sure.

*

After Hal and Batman finally returned (with Hal grumbling away), the heroes got to work. Specifically analysing the submarine that Cyborg had hidden away in one of STAR Labs' giant warehouses.

Alex floated above the submarine as Shazam, Superman and Hal also worked to analyse exactly what had happened. Alex stared at the upper part of the submarine, trying to understand it from the perspective of a forensic scientist. She removed one of her gloves and ran her hand over the damaged metal. The damage definitely was not made by some machine, she thought. It felt as though multiple people had physically hit the submarine with a battering ram.

Hal's next statement corroborated her own findings. "No energy signature. This was all done by hand."

"Who could do that?" Shazam asked with surprise. "Besides us?"

"I caught four dozen handprints moving in sync," Barry informed as he finished his own analysis.

"Same thing for the upper part of the submarine," Alex said as she landed next to Barry.

"Four squadrons," Batman said gruffly. "This was a choreographed onslaught."

Wonder Woman looked grim. "You think Darkseid's army has returned?"

"No. Doesn't fit," Batman replied. Turning towards Cyborg, he said, "Walk us through your assault."

Cyborg nodded and led them all to the control room of the machine. Once they were inside, he activated a 3D holographic projection, a reaction of his memories, due to the fact his brain was a literal supercomputer. Being in the projection felt real; Alex swore she could feel the crushing weight of the ocean on her. She released a soft breath and continued to stare at the incident Cyborg was showing them.

"Kind of cool," Hal whispered to Barry. "Like watching a 3D movie with no glasses."

Alex rolled her eyes, ready to tell him off, but out of nowhere, a holographic projection of someone wearing some sort of armor came rushing through and knocked Cyborg into the controls.

"Freeze," Batman said. "Observations?"

"They avoided his gaze. Kept to the shadows," Wonder Woman explained. "Used their element. These were warriors."

"Agreed," Batman answered. "Resume."

The recording played and more of these strange armored warriors attacked Cyborg, trying to take him down as fast as they could. Cyborg fell to the ground with a harsh thud.

"Ooh! That looked like it hurt all over again," Shazam remarked, wincing.

"That shouldn't be possible though, right?" Alex said, looking towards Barry.

He nodded. "Who has the force to knock a quarter ton of metal to the ground underwater?"

The more the projection played, the more the heroes were questioning who these soldiers were. These were skilled warriors, probably trained in combat in a style that none of them knew since the fighting was taking place underwater. The projection took a drastic turn when Cyborg was stabbed in his shoulder by a strange-looking knife. The soldier just speed away after that.

Batman paused the recording. Cyborg stared at the soldier's receding back. "So that's what you look like."

"Magnify," Batman said as he walked closer to the projection of the floating soldier.

"Are those gills?" Alex asked with wide eyes.

"Gills?" Shazam sounded shocked too. "As in mermaids?"

"As in Atlantis." Diana simply said, her eyes also widening. She immediately strode to Cyborg and stood next to him. "Where is this?"

Cyborg stood up straight and pressed on the side of his leg; a compartment opened up and he took out the strange looking dagger from it. He handed it to Diana, who studied it closely. She twisted and turned the dagger, focusing on the uniquely designed hilt.

"These carvings," Diana points to the markings on the hilt. "I recognize them from the tales of Atlantis I read as a girl. It sunk into the ocean, but its people were saved by the magic of the king's trident which turned them irreversibly into creatures of the sea.

"That's a fairy tale," Hal said with a scoff. Alex squeezed his arm and he looked at her, giving her a stare that said 'what?'

"Cosmic powers from a space meteorite," She pointed towards herself. Then she pointed towards him. "Intergalactic space cop wearing a bright green suit."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Hal said. "I still don't believe it."

Alex rolled her eyes (for what seemed like the hundredth time that day), and focused on Cyborg. "So where is it?" He asked.

"The location has been lost to time," Diana answered grimly.

"What does a mythical mystical undersea world need with missiles?" Hal asked, still sounding like he didn't believe whatever Diana was saying. "And I so dare you to say that five times fast."

"Obviously, they plan to attack us," Batman said. Even though his expression was hard to read, it was clear that he was a little too irritated with Hal.

"Anyway you look at this, it's bad," Hal said, serious for once.

"Uh, terrible idea," Shazam raised his hand, like a child in a classroom. "I saw an Atlantis show on the what's-it channel with this professor. "Maybe he can help us."

"We are at STAR Labs," Hal said. "The greatest minds on the planet are right next door."

"Jeez," Shazam frowned. "I said terrible idea."

"Maybe it's not," Cyborg suddenly said. He projected a much smaller screen where data was constantly being processed. "Dr. Stephen Shin. I'm scrubbing through his research. He's got some pretty out-there theories about Atlantis."

"Superman and I will go question Dr. Shin," The second Cyborg finished his explanation, Batman spoke up.

Superman frowned and looked just a little confused. "When did we vote him team leader?" But, nevertheless, he followed.

"What should the rest of us do?" Barry asked.

"Find Atlantis," Superman turned around and said before walking away with Batman

"Well, it looks like we have a big job to do," Alex said, wih a half nervous smile. Tracking a mythical mystical undersea world that has been hidden for so long? It was going to be such a fun task.

So fun.

My sincere apologies for the lack of updates when it comes to this story! I haven't had a lot of inspo for my DC fics, but I am slowly trying to get updates out for all of them. Since this fic is the closest to being completed, I am going to focus on getting out more frequent updates for it. I missed writing Hal and Alex so much and while this was just a filler chapter of sorts, there's going to be a lot more action going forward.

Till then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!