2The next day soon came and the adventure group decided to get ready to go to school, but promised to come back to help more, but before they could get out the door...
"Hey, guys, Hilda and Zelda just got an email from your school." Salem said as he looked at Cherry's laptop screen.
"Did you just hack their email account and steal my laptop?" Cherry glared at the black cat.
"...That's not important right now," Salem replied. "But school's closed for the next few days."
"What? Why?" Atticus asked.
"I don't know," Salem shrugged before looking over to Drell as had a hidden feeling. "Did you have something to do with it?"
"Hmm...? What?" Drell shrugged innocently.
Salem narrowed his eyes curiously.
"Curiosity killed the cat..." Drell shrugged with a small smirk. "Whatya say we all have some breakfast?"
"Sounds good." Sabrina smiled.
"Yeah, let's eat." Thor nodded.
The princesses stirred in their sleep before they woke up to the smell of breakfast being cooked of waffles, eggs, bacon, and toast.
"I didn't know Drell could cook." Cherry said to Hilda and Zelda.
"Oh, yeah, he used to cook for me all the time," Hilda replied. "Especially whenever I would sleepover."
"When you were kids?" Thor guessed since Hilda mentioned a sleepover.
"...Uh, sure," Hilda smiled bashfully. "When we were kids."
"And after you were kids?" Cherry smirked.
Drell and Hilda began to look bashful as Cherry cracked up laughing at herself.
"Okay, Cherry, not at the breakfast table!" Hilda said, trying to sound firm.
Soon, everybody shared some breakfast as the princesses helped themselves after waking up.
"We can't let Rumplestiltskin get this arrow," Atticus said as he held Red's arrow that was shot. "Can't you guys just use this to get back home?"
"Yeah! We can bring back reinforcements." Sleeping Beauty agreed.
"Let me be very clear about this; we're not going anywhere until we kill him," Snow White told her. "What if it only works one way? If we leave now and we can't get back... This would be all for nothing."
"She's got a good point." Thor said.
"My father has a whole army back home," Sleeping Beauty spoke up. "Maybe if we open the portal, he can send them through."
"If he has an army, why the hell doesn't he use it?" Cherry rolled her eyes.
"Language, Cherry." Zelda scolded.
"Because he's employing strategy, unlike some." Sleeping Beauty retorted.
Cherry stuck her tongue out at that with a death glare.
"If we attack him with an army, it might trigger an invasion," Snow White warned. "It's probably best to destroy the fragment."
"Are you kidding?" Sleeping Beauty asked Snow White.
The princesses began to talk all at once.
"Well, if he wants it so badly, why don't you use it to lure him out and kill him?" Red asked the princesses.
"See? Even she doesn't wanna break it." Sleeping Beauty scoffed.
"Oh, be quiet." Drell glared.
"We can't risk it falling into his hands," Snow White shook her head. "We have to keep it from him at all costs. After he's dead, we'll see if it can get us back."
"That's probably best." Hilda agreed.
"But I would expect any one of you to break it before it gets into his hands," Snow White then said. "Is that understood?"
The other princesses were just silent on that question.
Unfortunately, a certain someone was outside who seemed to know that the princesses, Red, Drell, Hilda, and the adventure group were in the building.
Wolf snarled once he saw them and brought out a walkie-talkie. "I got 'em!"
"Good," Rumplestiltskin smirked from his limo as he sat beside Maven. "Stay with them. I'm sending... Someone. Also no doubt they feel lost without a certain friend of theirs on their team or as he calls it 'The Alpha Brigade'."
Maven seemed to smile brightly at Rumplestiltskin.
"Let's go make a deal." Rumplestiltskin smirked as he handed his phone over to her.
Meanwhile, back at the den...
Rumplestiltskin and Maven both began to make their way to Iron John's cell. Iron John sat on his cell bench before looking up through the bars to see that he had some company.
"Hello, John." Rumplestiltskin greeted.
Iron John soon snarled and jumped up, gripping the bars. "Where are my men?!" he then demanded.
"They're here and what happens to them, that all depends on you," Rumplestiltskin replied. "I think we have a similar problem: Snow White."
Iron John looked silent on that.
"You know her?" Rumplestiltskin smirked. "She's my problem. You seem like a man who appreciates order. People look up to you, they respect you, myself included," he then listed. "She disrupts that order and her little red hooded friend and those urchins she keeps trying to protect!"
Iron John looked more firm and sharp from standing in his cell.
"Yeah, she's your problem isn't she?" Rumplestiltskin continued with a smirk at his imposing anger. "So your men... Agree to help me out with my problem and I'll let them go. All of them."
"What do I have to do?" Iron John asked.
"Just shake my hand and say we have a deal." Rumplestiltskin told him as he held his right hand out.
Iron John was soon about to shake Rumplestiltskin's hand.
Rumplestiltskin then suddenly moved his hand out of the way. "There is... One... Thing..." he then said with a cocky smile. "I'd like to seal this deal with something a little more concrete..." he then said as he slipped the glove off of his left hand. "What's that name they call you?"
"I'm Iron John." The man grumbled darkly.
"Iron John..." Rumplestiltskin repeated with a laugh. "I like that! I can work with that. Iron John... Do we have a deal?" he then asked as he held his bare hand out again.
Iron John soon shook hands with Rumplestiltskin before the two began to shake as some sort of magic was flowing through the other man's arms which appeared to be metallic.
"Speak to me, John; what's happening?" A cellmate asked.
The only respond he got from him was screaming.
"Mayor Heart, what're you doing here?!" The cellmate cried out as Rumplestiltskin flashed a wicked grin on his face.
Iron John soon yelled out as he was going to go through a horrific transformation.
Meanwhile, Mo looked over at Red who had some scratches and cuts on her arm. "Oh... You're hurt..." she then frowned. "I can fix that."
"It's fine..." Red firmly pouted.
Fortunately, Mo began to bandage up Red's scratches and cuts on her arm.
"Thanks, I guess." Red said.
"It's okay," Mo comforted. "Luckily there's nothing too severe. So, uh... This situation you and the others are in... How's that going for you?" she then asked curiously. "How do you know this Wolf guy?"
Red heaved a sharp sigh as she explained everything. "When the war broke out, there were only a couple of us in my village who could fight. Most of my family were farmers and hunters. Obviously we weren't getting help from the royals." she then started out.
Cinderella rolled her eyes from that.
"When the Wolf came, he killed everyone," Red continued to Mo. "My grandmother took care of me and helped teach me how to fight before she died too... I was the only survivor. It was like... Like he wanted me to watch it."
"Whoa." Mo said.
"That was his mistake, but you have to realize you are better off with us than on your own." Cinderella told Red.
"I'm not going to wait around for you and the queen to play heroes." Red replied.
"Hey, now! None of us are playing at anything," Mo told Red. "My friends have faced Darkseid and we faced worse once we were all together... Such as the death of Superman and a new Superboy around town before the original Superman came back."
"I don't know what she's talking about, but she's right," Cinderella agreed. "Rumplestiltskin locked Rapunzel in a tower and burnt her kingdom to the ground. Prior's Kingdom has been under siege since this war began. No one has been or out..." she then looked over to Jack and Jill who tried to practice their powers with the help of Atticus and Cherry. "Innocent children are even at risk. I can't even imagine what it's like in there. You know what he did to Snow White's husband. And my husband, he still lives, but he's one of his thralls. You think royalty is a luxury?" she then rhetorically asked. "It's not. It makes you a target."
Mo soon put a secure bandage on Red's cut up arm as she was almost done.
"We are not heroes," Cinderella continued. "We're avengers."
They soon heard something with a thud with footsteps.
'I don't like the sound of that.' Thor thought to himself.
Drell soon stood in front of Cherry, Thor, Atticus, Mo, Jack, Jill, and Sabrina a bit protectively with a glare.
A certain man was shown to be stomping around until other people noticed him and he was very different now.
"John?" His partner asked. "How're we s'posed to get in?"
"Why don't you knock?" Iron John asked, sounding like a robot now.
"They're here!" Patch gasped from inside the apartment.
"We better be ready to fight them off." Atticus said.
"You get ready, I'll be right back." Snow White told them as she stormed off to go to her main door of the apartment.
Red soon hiked up her hood as the group got themselves ready in their Justice League outfits and the fairy tale people did what they had to to get ready.
"That costume though." Drell teased Thunder Mutt with a smirk.
"I'd like to see you do better!" Thunder Mutt narrowed his eyes.
"I did." Drell replied, gesturing to Thunder Boy's costume.
Iron John began to stomp towards the door down the hallway with his partner.
"Good thing I made a quick call to the Man of Steel." Drell said.
"Wow, really?" Thunder Boy asked his uncle.
"Yep." Drell nodded.
Cinderella and Red began to climb up the ladder outside.
"Round them out!" Iron John told his men.
"Quick! Get the mirror to the roof!" Snow White called out as she tossed the glass piece.
Red soon caught it and went to use it to escape out the window with. The door soon came open as Iron John stepped out, showing to be made out of iron as Snow White dove over to keep him from getting through the door, but it was too late as the door smashed open as the princesses took Jack and Jill out to get to the roof and to safety.
Superman soon came down first and looked around as he crashed through the window into the apartment. "...I can fix that." he then said bashfully as he smashed one of the windows as he flew inside.
"It's okay." Snow White told him.
One of Iron John's men soon went out one of the windows to get Red or one of the princesses or if he was lucky Jack or Jill. He then got his shotgun out and got ready to shoot as the group on the ladder tried to escape. "Not so fast!" he then called out.
Sleeping Beauty soon tapped his shoulder which made the man looked back only to be magicked into a deep sleep. Iron John soon stepped out in front of Rapunzel with a grin as she got herself ready to fight him.
"Looks like someone made a deal." Rapunzel said as she saw how Iron John looked.
"Get her!" Iron John told his men.
One man got his gun ready and shot instantly. Rapunzel then whipped her long hair out and whacked it against the gun, making it drop out of the man's hands. She then began to beat the man up with a metal ball attached to her hair as the man fell to the ground beside Iron John.
Meanwhile...
"Come on, Red, let's get this out of here!" Cherry said as she ran across the roof with Cinderella before looking over to see that the red hooded girl was gone. "Red...?"
Wolf snarled and soon came right behind her as she held the mirror shard.
"Oh, merde..." Cherry muttered in misfortune.
Wolf growled as he put her firm on the floor, ready to take the mirror shard.
Rapunzel faced Iron John who looked ready to fight.
"Go get the mirror, Jack, and Jill to safety!" Rapunzel told Snow White.
"Okay, now might be a good time for you to join in." Drell whispered to Superman.
Superman nodded before he bolted off. Snow White soon took Jack and Jill and ran with them.
"I'll hold them off." Rapunzel then said.
"But you won't have to alone." Superman promised as he came beside the princess.
"This should be interesting," Rapunzel smirked. "Princess Rapunzel and Superman himself against Iron John."
"Since you are going up against Iron John who is now like a robot, you should be grateful to have Superman by your side." Drell told her.
"Ready?" Sleeping Beauty asked Iron John's man that she put into a sleep state before facing him to the window. "Aim... Fire."
"We gotta go now!" Snow White cried out as she rushed out the door.
"What about Rapunzel?" Sleeping Beauty asked in concern.
"I said MOVE!" Snow White urged.
"Besides, she has a good helper with her right now." Jack piped up.
"I think the grown-ups in that room called him a Guy of Steel or something." Jill added.
Rapunzel whipped her hair around with the metal ball on the end of it to throw out, but Iron John caught it and punched her down.
"You did not just hit a lady in my presence!" Superman glared before he flew towards Iron John which made the metal man fly back and crash into the wall as Rapunzel fell to the floor.
"And I'm off." Drell said before running off with the others.
Superman began to fight off Iron John like he would with anyone that wouldn't break easily in a fight with him.
Snow White, Jack, Jill, Sleeping Beauty, and Drell soon began to go up to the roof. The Wolf snarled as he began to corner Cinderella and Cherry. Cherry backed up a bit as she felt really scared for the first time since before she started training with Batman who was soon to be her future uncle. Red soon dropped down with a sword and began to fight The Wolf to keep him away from Cherry and Cinderella. Wolf began to hold Red's throat as he started to push to one of the railings of the roof.
Superman and Iron John continued to fight which made the building shake until someone was shooting at Iron John which was one of his own men, but the bullets didn't do a thing to him. Iron John soon glared and hit the man who was shooting him right on the head.
"What're you shooting at?" Superman asked, unimpressed with the man who tried to shoot at Iron John.
The man looked around a bit stupidly before looking back. "I dunno." he then said.
"We're gonna go after I handle this clown." Iron John said as he grabbed a tight hold over Superman.
"We'll see about that." Superman glared as he hit Iron John with a headbutt.
Iron John grunted as he went back to fighting Superman, both being quite literally Men of Steel. The man soon decided to grab Rapunzel and move her out of the room during the fight.
The Wolf growled as he tried to strangle Red before she got out of his grip and they began to fight and dodge each other. Red sliced and cut with her sword while The Wolf tried to avoid getting hit while holding onto the mirror piece.
"Where is everybody?!" Cherry cried out as she was alone with Cinderella.
"I'm sure they'll be here soon." Cinderella said.
And where she was right as most of the others had arrived while Red continued to fight Wolf and where she had also taken back the mirror shard.
"Guys! Where's Rapunzel?" Cherry called out to them.
"Where's the mirror?!" Snow White retorted.
"Want it, boy? Is this what you want?" Red smirked as she held the mirror shard around Wolf who snarled at her.
"Red, throw it!" Cinderella soon cried out.
"Yeah? Fetch!" Red smirked before she soon tossed the mirror shard and Cinderella was the lucky one who caught it.
Once Cinderella caught it, the group soon hurried down and unfortunately, Wolf took that as his way to leave and escape.
"Dammit." Red muttered. She soon ran off with her sword at hand.
"Red, wait!" Cinderella cried out.
"Leave her! Come on!" Snow White demanded before they ran off.
Red soon jumped down from the high building after the Wolf, luckily not hurting herself once she landed. She soon looked over to where she heard Wolf's growl and where she saw Iron John's men in a van along with Rapunzel, who was unconscious, and where Iron John was still being kept busy with Superman. And this was understandable as this was Red's chance to try and save Rapunzel, but she saw Wolf close by and decided to go after him instead.
"Tell me, were you born pumping iron or am I just lucky?" Superman smirked.
"I can tell you're going to be an interesting opponent." Iron John replied as he kept it up.
"Why are you working for Rumplestiltskin? He hasn't exactly done any good for anyone." Superman said as he punched Iron John, sending him flying and crashing onto a wall.
"He agreed to set me and my men free and now I'm going to make sure I keep my part of the deal." Iron John glared as he got off the wall before charging at him and bear-hugged the Man of Steel, and where the bones of cracking could be heard.
The group met on the ground together.
"Is Superman still in there?" Atticus asked Drell.
"I thought he'd be done by now..." Drell said, checking his pocket watch.
"I gotta go back for him!" Atticus said, about to take off.
"He's fine..." Drell said, putting his arm around Atticus to weigh him down. "I'm sure nothing horrible is going on in there between Superman and Iron John."
They soon heard Superman's groans of pain.
"Uh, did I forget to mention that since Iron John made a deal with Rumplestiltskin, he might have magical super-strength which Superman is vulnerable to?" Drell smiled nervously.
"And you called Superman over just to have him get his butt handed to him like this?!" Atticus cried out after a firm face-palm.
"I guess I didn't think it would work out like that in hindsight..." Drell said, tapping his knuckles together.
"Seriously?!" Cherry groaned. "Of all the stupid, sadistic, cruel, manipulative, selfish, egotistical things you have ever done for this? THIS?! This is a WHOLE NEW LEVEL of STUPIDITY even for YOU! How did you even get in our lives in the first place?!"
"Cherry..." Sabrina called, trying to calm the perky goth down.
"NO! He needs to hear this!" Cherry snapped. "I bet we wouldn't even be in this Fairy Tale realm bullshit if it wasn't for him! Now Superman's gonna lose and possibly even die again! How much of an idiotic jerk ARE YOU?!"
Drell was about to retort to that until they saw Atticus gone. "We can already guess where Atticus went." he then said knowingly.
"Don't try to dodge my advances!" Cherry snapped. "You! Are! SCUM! I bet you're even why Lionel is gone!"
"I didn't do anything to your 5th-Dimensional boyfriend!" Drell glared in defense.
"Then where is he?!" Cherry glared back. "Why isn't he with us right now?! Why wasn't he in Aunt Selina's apartment? Why wasn't he with Batman and Catwoman?!"
"Because Rumplestiltskin took him away from this realm just to spurn you when he found out about this realm!" Drell told her sharply.
"And you didn't tell us until now?! WHY?!" Mo glared at Drell.
"You better have a good explanation." Patch growled at the warlock.
"Oh, now you wanna listen to me?" Drell rolled his eyes. "I thought I was a stupid, sadistic, cruel, manipulative, selfish, egotistical jerk. Anyway, I didn't tell you because I couldn't find a way to free Lionel and not even his special powers can get him free. Rumplestiltskin is just that powerful. I mean, Hilda, Zelda, and I are lucky to be alive today from when we used to visit the Fairy Tale realm centuries before any of you were even born."
"Okay, this just became way more serious." Cherry glared.
"Should one of us go with Atticus?" Thor asked.
They soon saw Iron John sent flying through the building as he landed in the vehicle where his men and Rapunzel were. The others winced a bit, though mostly concerned about Rapunzel's well-being. Atticus stepped out as he almost looked like he had murder in his eyes, though not as sinister as maybe his Uncle Sombra or Darkseid from Apokalips.
"Careful with that look," Superman told Atticus. "You look like you wanna hurt someone."
"I did," Atticus replied sharply. "I wanted to hurt him."
"I'm fine, a few bones cracked, but they'll heal." Superman said as he groaned from the pain in his arms.
Atticus winced at the pain for his former adoptive father.
"Thank you for helping me though," Superman smiled. "I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks, Dad," Atticus smiled back softly. "Why don't you go rest while you still have the chance?"
"I will... Good luck against this Rumplestiltskin character." Superman nodded before he soon flew off back home to get some rest so that he could get healed up.
"Alright, let's keep moving." Atticus told the others.
They soon went off together.
"I think someone owes someone an apology." Drell told Cherry sharply as he grabbed her arm.
"What for?" Cherry glared. "You didn't help Lionel."
"I told you I couldn't!" Drell told her sharply. "Especially since I don't have the Elements to save him."
"...What Elements?" Cherry asked.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later." Drell replied before he let her go so that she could walk off, looking firm and annoyed with his stupidity and carelessness.
"Oh, I hope this gets a happily ever after like in most fairy tales." Mo sighed to herself.
"It might and it might not." Drell replied as the vehicle below took off.
"They're getting away." Thor said.
"Then it's time to jump after them." Drell said.
"JUMP?!" Mo cried out. "From this height?! We could get killed!"
"All right..." Drell said before he snapped his fingers and teleported them on the ground. "Done."
"Now we gotta chase that van," Hilda suggested. "And I suggest with some wheels."
"Agreed." The group nodded.
Red continued to down the path Wolf had taken as she took out her sword, ready to strike as she heard his growls as she kept up her guard. It was quiet and dark, but she did her best to stay sharp and alert in case anything would happen to come up, such as The Wolf. She walked around until she heard some shuffling inside one way as someone appeared to have a bag over their head and was tied up, muffling and grunting.
"Shh! Shut up!" Red loudly whispered to the victim. "I'm here to help you." she then softly.
The Wolf snarled and growled as he raced down the dark corridor to go and track down Red as she was his main target.
"Shh... Shh... Stop... Shut up..." Red shushed as she came closer to the victim before taking the bag off over his head.
And where this caused the one under the bag to start growling at Red, startling her before Wolf was shown to be behind her as he caught her.
Meanwhile, the princesses happened upon a dark room before the lights came on.
Drell led the kids inside as they all looked ghostly and deathly pale. "Will you relax?" he then said to them. "I'm not that bad of a driver."
"I think my fur is turning gray." Salem said nervously as he had clutched onto Sabrina's head with his fur standing on end like a Halloween cat.
Sleeping Beauty looked around with a scoff. "What is this place?"
"This was my first home on Earth." Snow White informed.
"It's, uh, nice." Jack said.
"Cozy." Sleeping Beauty said sarcastically.
"Looks like a computer lab from the 1980's." Cherry said from the model of the computer.
"It's nicer than where I grew up," Sleeping Beauty remarked. "Not surprised."
The adventure team narrowed their eyes at Sleeping Beauty's behavior.
"So, uh, what do we do now?" Zelda soon asked.
"Someone's staying here to keep the fragment safe," Snow White replied. "I volunteer Sleeping Beauty."
"Here? Alone?" Sleeping Beauty asked with a scoff.
"What about Red?" Mo asked.
"We'll worry about her later," Snow White decided. "Rapunzel too."
"What about Rapunzel?" Jill asked a bit worriedly.
"Rapunzel did what she did so we could escape with the mirror." Snow White remarked.
"Okay, and let's say your friend tells Rumplestiltskin or whatever she did with the mirror?" Cherry spoke up. "What if he finds a way to track down this place?"
"She won't." Snow White shook her head.
"What if he makes her?" Cinderella then asked.
"He can't, his powers don't work on us, you know that," Snow White told her friend. "She will die before she tells him."
"No life is worth a kingdom, is that it?" Cinderella asked Snow White firmly.
"That's it." Snow White said.
Jack didn't look scared now, but angered by how Snow White would rather let one of her own friends die than try and save her.
"Oh... That is low..." Patch growled to himself.
"Not even I'd do something like that," Salem narrowed his eyes. "...Except for maybe Tok-Tok... And perhaps Amelia Earhardt... Oh, and there was that one time with-"
"I'm not even going to ask." Patch interrupted and face-pawed.
"We were seven a day ago and now we're five," Snow White told the other princesses, Jack, and Jill. "Your friend Red ran off again, clearly we can't count on her. Rapunzel, she could be dead for all we know, but thanks to her we have the mirror."
"That's not good enough!" Jack soon cried out in protest.
"How is that not good enough?" Snow White asked.
"Because Rapunzel is your friend, but you don't seem to care; all you care about is that stupid mirror shard!" Jack glared. "All this happened because Rumplestiltskin wanted me and Jill because of our powers and to use the same mirror that brought us all here so he could live like a god here! And now what you are saying is that there is no way that we can rescue Rapunzel or trust Red? Sorry, but I don't think so!"
"Well, you don't get to decide!" Snow White replied sharply. "I've been here too damn long to waste it on a rescue mission when we don't even know where she is."
Jack felt a little scared from Snow White's tone, but tried to not let that bother him. "That doesn't mean we can't look!" he then said. "Nobody should get left behind, especially from our home realm!"
"I'm sorry, Jack, but time is running out for all of us," Snow White told him. "If we don't kill Rumplestiltskin now before he attacks the city, it's over. If you think he's hard to get to now, wait until the streets are swarming with thralls."
Jack looked firm before bowing his head as he turned away and crossed his arms.
"Look, I promise you, we'll do what we can for Rapunzel, but our first priority is killing Rumplestiltskin!" Snow White told him softly, but also sharply as this was a serious situation. "Nothing else matters."
"Fine." Jack replied.
"Then where are we going?" Cinderella asked.
"We're going to find a way into City Hall." Snow White said.
The others looked at each other as they set course for the newest part of their plan.
"Aunt Selina? ...I'm with my friends... We might be a little late to lunch." Cherry said as she brought out her phone suddenly.
