jla_watchtower | Salem -- Fate's Watchtower

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Salem -- Fate's Watchtower

Hector Hall sits alone on a throne of stone in his tower, blood pulsing through his temples. The Helm of Nabu whispers dark things at him, but he pushes the skittering voice aside. He will not fall to chaos. Doing so is unthinkable.

So why don't you just cast off the helm? says the voice. He has no answer. The misery has gripped him since he returned from Bete Noir. His magic is wild, now. Sloppy. Things do not happen with the precision to which he's become accustomed.

"My soul is imperiled," he whispers to no one, and as he speaks, he realizes that they are the first words he's spoken in hours ... maybe all day.

Rose Psychic left them to seek assistance. She believes she has an answer for him. And Gemma ... Gemma has surely become concerned, by now. His absences and solitude are nothing new, but there is a shadow fallen over this tower. He doesn't know how to find the light again.

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The globe is now being buffetted by an underwater maelstrom, waves of water and pure energy bashing against their mystic shields. Which are beginning to crack. The visage cackles.

I saw you, Spy Flash, watching me through the veil. Did you thrill to watch my champion fell the Superman? And you, Gemma Marsters. If you knew what shadows lurked ahead for you, you'd turn over Fat to me yourself."

The storm engulfing the orb grows greater.

"Or did you already?"

"What the hell are you nattering about?" What shadows?

"I'd never give him to you!"

"She's just trying to rattle you, Gemma," says Rose sharply, her forehead creased and sweating fromt he exertion of lending Fate power to preserve the shield. "Don't listen to her."

Really, Rose Psychic, says the horrid voice. "Tell me then, you know the great evil arises in this era. So who is the Withc Queen?"

"NEVER!" shout Rose, in an uncharacteristic display of losing her cool. Rose lashes back agains the onslaught buffetting them, but it's spititng into a storm compared to the power raining down on them.

She adds her power to Rose's but the seed of doubt has been planted.

"You're not welcome here."

She's never really tested what her limits are, she might be doing that today as she pours her energy into the shield.

"Oh, fu...fudge this. Thunderbolt, make the waters surrounding this bubble within a five mile radius immune to the magic that's attacking us."

"I'll give it my best, bud." the Thunderbolt says, and magic pink lightning leaves through the bubble.

The waters glow pink as the Thunderbolt's power shields the orb, but he's being spread thin, and both The Witch Queen and Rose seem to know it.

"Hector," she says in her clipped, school teacher tone. "If we continue this battle, the storm will reduce Atlantis to rubble. We need to move. Seize the amulet and the battle's won."

"I ... dare not relent my will at this time. Soon, she will defeat the Thunderbolt."

Then, he has a plan.

"Jay Garrick. If I lend you protection from the elements, and Rose Psychic guides you to where you need to be, can you seize the amulet?"

"Just say the word, Fate." Jay's face is set firm.

Fate doesn't take his eyes off the visage hovering over the city, but Jay finds himself engulfed in a golden glow ... a mystic shield that will protect him from the depths' rigors.

"Go!" shouts Fate, buckling under the weight of the enegies he and the others are countering expanded her attack to the city itself.

Now, their magics are needed to not only protect themselves, but thousands of others.

And in a blur, Jay rushes for the amulet.

Fate's power tingles at his skin, as he moves through the water as effortlessly as if it were air. For a few moments, Jay Garrick is the fast man beneath sea level.

Rose Psychic's golden orb leads him straight to the temple ... but inside, it turns out Jay's not alone. A glowing, spectral hand is holding what seems to be the amulet, pulling it into some sort of mystical portal.

Jay grabs hold of the amulet and begins altering its vibration, attempting to find a frequency of vibration where it will phase through the glowing hand.

The amulet scrunched in it disembodied palm, the hand now clutches at Jay Garrick, the light from the portal expanding as it now tries to draw him in, too.

Someone disturbed the resting place of Queen Kella. The temple doesn't see worshipers - at least not openly. Worship of the dark things of the sea isn't exactly encouraged, even in a more "open," Atlantis. When the seals and wards in this area were disturbed there was a swift call to arms and who better qualified to deal with it? The Regent materializes inside the temple. The Atlantian guard will be there shortly.

This place makes him weaker then he'd normally be magically, but he still blasts the creature. "Back OFF!"

Magic touches magic, mind touches mind ... and in their intersection Tempest feels a presence that is definitely not a creature ... Indeed, both he and Jay Garrick feel in their bones a power that's both old and familiar.

This does not concern you, Garth of Poseidonis says the voice that seems to rattle within them both. Atlantis is in grave danger, unless you heed my warning.

And then, Tempest's magics and powers seem to abandon him, turning on their owner and propelling him backward with full force.

Remember the source of your powers, young Tempest.

"I am not of one city any longer! I am the Regent of all the ocean cities and I tell you to let the patriarch of the Flashes go now." Some things just don't translate well in Atlantian. To the older man. "He will go nowhere without explanation!"

This is a lot of trust in Jay Garrick, more likely then he knows.

The water begins to coalesce into a vaguelly humanoid shape -- one hand now holding the amulet, the other now clasping Jay Garrick's wrist.

"You'd argue with me while the The Witch Queen threatens the city? You have changed, young Tempest."

There is a face ... a vaguely familiar outline of a face ... someone important. Someone he should know, but can't recall.

"There is only one Atlantis, one true Atlantis at the heart of our powers. You know this in your heart to be true."

The voice now reaches all the JSA and their allies, whispering in their ears.

"Fight here and Atlantis falls. Trust me. My time here is short, and I dare not speak my name."

"I know you," says Rose, her will straining to against the Witch Queen's. "We have met before."

"My duty," Tempest replies. "Is first to the world which houses our city! A building does not stand without foundation! If the surface worlders are here in this crypt, then their need must be dire." And I will be bitching them all out handedly after this crisis for dropping by without a phone call...

"Explain yourselves - NOW!" His ire is on the adventurers, and if she tells the truth then he has to get back to the city quickly.

"ENOUGH" shouts Fate, his voice dark and echoing now. In a fit of rage, he tears through the mystic bubble and launches himself at the Witch Queen. "I will not be made a puppet by anonymous mystic forces!"

The aspect of the hawk comes to him again, as he blasts at the Witch Queen in a mad rage.

"Damn it!" shouts Rose, moving fast to reseal the bubble before they drown. "Gemma! Jakeem! Quickly!"

Her hands glow with magic as she moves to forestall the crushing ocean, but she's not as powerful as Fate is. Not by a long shot.

"Tempest, I know you don't know me, but you've met my other half, Richard Occult. I swear to you I will explain when I can, but now we need your help!"

"The world is at stake if Fate is here."

He may be many things, a mage, a father, a ruler of men, but at his heart he is a Titan - one of Earth's heroes.

"What's going on?"

Rose is straining now ... struggling to keep the ocean's depths at bay.

"We need the amulet to balance the forces of chaos encroaching on Fate's magics!" she shouts, more from desperation and exhaustion than anything else. "The Witch Queen seeks to stop us!"

And then another voice, the mysterious force guarding the amulet, whispers in a voice that resonates in all the heroes' heads.

"Tempest must stand between Atlantis in the Witch Queen. The rest of you must come."

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Salem -- Fate's Watchtower

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