#this post is long and convoluted and circuitous. sorry. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-scarecrow-of-aus · 6 months

Text

Chapter 3 is finally out.

(Hopefully writers block stops using my head like the log truck in final destination treats the people in the car behind it)

Chapter 3: difficult meeting's

Summary:

Jazz has had a rough time, the justice league are having a rough meeting

Notes:

*shaking myself by the collar* that's it, no more tinkering. post the darn chapter you anxious fool!

sorry about the delay, writers block. At least I got time to plan and plot out the rest of the storyline.

here's the chapter that was meant to go out late august.

Enjoy!

Gotham -the night of the Kansas storm.

In a small apartment in the narrows near crime alley a young woman sat on her bed thumbing a golden amulet with one hand, in the other she gripped a thin folder, a strange hunger in her eyes.

Her gaze snapped to the front door as voices could be heard approaching and she tucked the amulet into her jacket warily, she relaxed as she heard her room mate come in, talking over her shoulder at the neighbour "ha! Jokes on you, I'm into that shit!" She closed the door laughing and turned around freezing at seeing her room-mate sitting unmoving in the dark. "Oh shi... ancients jazz! you look terrible, you eaten lately?"

The thought of eating twisted her stomach for some reason, She shook her head and turned to the clock "he said not to eat until after the league received the files, that the meeting would be more effective if I was a 'little' off..." ember frowned before replying "that sounds creepy, *sigh* I'm sure the old man had a reason but still..." she trailed off before heading over to her room, tossing a book bag in and grabbing her guitar case "well... I have a gig at noonans Bar tonight, Baytor finally got back to me about work there. should help us for when the iceberg lounge is closed for 'urgent' repairs, You sure you don't want a feed before you go?" Jazz shook her head "I need the meeting to go right, I'll do whatever it takes to fix things".

Both their eyes glanced over at a metal thermos sat on top of the fridge, repurposed electrical wires spliced it into the fridges power supply, the outer shell of the thermos and its circuits cut open and cannibalised.

Looking through the mess of wires and circuits down to its inner layer, you could see it generating a low amount of blued mist, constantly emmited out of the shell only to be pulled back into the thermos opening as if there was a draught, in its stead it emitted a low red light from the mouth of the thermos, as if there was something else within.

Ember, eyes closed for a moment shivered, opening her eyes again and rubbing her arms like she was cold, she murmured "guess its gonna be sad songs tonight" before drawing her attention away and headed back out the front door "alright, I want you to call me if anything happens tonight, OK? No arguments!" She called not waiting for an answer as the door closed behind her.

Jazz continued to sit in the dark patiently watching the clock, she didn't get bored nowadays and that was marginally useful if a little annoying at times. She would prefer to be back home in amity with Danny though, not that that could happen anymore.

finally after time in the dark apartment the clock hit 6:15, unfolding herself from the bed she got up giving the thermos a lingering glance before leaving the apartment, it was time.

Jazz left her apartment and hailed a cab, keeping a weathered eye out for tell-tale signs of a trap, the last thing she needed was to be delayed by joker gas or fear toxin, heck even the Riddler grabbing hostages for some convoluted bomb scenario.

The trip through the dark city of Gotham didn't take long, the city was abnormally quiet tonight, minimal traffic. 'probably Gotham itself is trying to keep things quiet' jazz thought, giving silent thanks to the old spirit of the city who was willing to give her refuge.

All the rogues were supposedly in Arkham right now or laying low, as she travelled she could see the shadow of capes flick around roof corners as the vigilantes started their patrols across the rooftops guarding the city.

The taxi left the city proper climbing up to where Wayne manor resided, as the taxi driver pulled up to the gate possibly hoping to get into the manor grounds and look around jazz stopped them, thanking them for the ride and paying the fare.

As she waited for the taxi to leave disappearing down the road, she stared up at the manor then back down the path, nervously approaching the gates

"OK jazz, you got this. Just like we practiced".

Alfred pennyworth having bid all his charges good luck as they went out into the night, had just finished cleaning up after dinner and was preparing to settle down when there was a clear sharp knock at the front door, he frowned.

There had been no alert from the front gate and no sensors had gone off (nor his own personal alarms strangely).

For a moment He assumed it was Ms Cassandra forgetting something or possibly master Damien sneaking back with another stray cat he didn't want his father to find out about, but he highly doubted that, Damien would always use the back door and Ms Cassandra wouldn't need to knock.

After pinging the bat clan that something was up he answered the door, one hand holding his shotgun behind the door as it unlocked and opened.

A tall young woman with white streaked red hair, strange burns and cuts around the corners of her mouth and the look of a predator stood slightly back at the entry, hands clasped in front of her politely holding a document folder.

She smiled politely as well, not showing teeth and introduced herself. "Hello, it's Mr Pennyworth correct? My name was Jasmine Fenton, I apologise for disturbing you unscheduled but I have an urgent delivery to 'Agent A and the Batman for the Justice League', it concerns their current meeting".

She somehow spoke the names in a way the words didn't travel beyond him, he didn't know how but Alfred was certain the sound disappeared quickly without any sort of echo after it reached his ears.

Alfred, ever the consummate butler not to mention a senior member of the bat family was observant enough to see the signs of stress and nervousness hidden on her face, he smiled and opened the door wider "it will take a moment to arrange things, would you like to come inside and have a cup of tea while you wait?"

Jazz smiled slightly more, lips parting enough to show sharp teeth slotted together, her canines and the teeth next to them much longer then a normal humans.

"only if you would like me to, I'm just here to deliver the files. I can wait outside for confirmation or leave if you prefer, my contact information is in the folder if need be".

Alfred noted the teeth but chose to look at her with heartfelt concern "nonsense my dear, please come in. Perhaps I can make you something to eat, you do look hungry".

She looked sad as he invited her in and murmured "thank you, but tea is fine, I highly doubt you could feed me what I need".

---

The watchtower -primary meeting room, night of the Kansas storm.

It had been a week from hell for most members, everybody not doing intelligence gathering was dealing with hard nosed politicians refusing to admit any wrong doing or shady government officers who were urgently trying to destroy any evidence that they were connected to said wrong doing, sometimes it was the same people.

Attempted tracking of the two spirits who escaped the facility was vexing, originally all sightings pointed to them heading directly towards a small town in Illinois, but the moment league members got close to the town their comms completely shut off and the spirits disappeared from all media and view, this was later tracked back to another GIW facility based in the area that blacked out all outside communications within the town as part of a legal sociological experiment they had 'volunteered' for.

More investigations would have to be done on that as well.

With no way to track them physically or electronically, the league chose to switch to more magical means of tracking. More duties falling on the few JLD members there were, raven was the one currently on duty. She had last reported there was interference for the tracking of the spirits but hadn't checked back in yet.

Examination of data recovered from the facility had been just as difficult, all secure information seemed only viewable on the hardware from the building, of which very few hardware pieces survived the destruction intact. Watchtower technicians were carefully piecing together the functioning pieces into working computers.

The computer parts themselves while definitely low tech had what Constantine called ectoplasm ('heavily filtered, concentrated and refined Lazarus water' he grudgingly accepted as a description) mixed and bonded into their construction. Unfortunately attempts to recreate the pieces using the leagues limited supply of Lazarus water failed to work, simply frying the circuit boards.

As such any attempt to view it on normal or league technology resulted in either the data being unreadable or (unfortunately for the Batcomputer) tore the machine apart trying to comprehend it. Now even cyborg was wary to examine the data.

[Entry: green lantern-06, Constantine John, wonderwoman-01, superman-01, zatanna-01, flash 02, Question 00, Martian manhunter-01, green arrow-01, Dr Fate 02, captain marvel-01.

Zatanna spoke to the tower A.I "computer, please note Deadman also in attendance" the computer beeped in confirmation with her casting a spell quickly to let them communicate with Boston.

Batman studied the reports as league members involved in the case, both dark and light filed in. "How goes the containment of the facility, there are disturbing reports coming in from people near the site".

Constantine lit a cigarette glaring right back at anyone who tried to stop him. "Bad, but securely contained. I reached out to some of my more 'questionable' contacts for additional resources to help strengthen the barrier but until we find out what exactly did it and how to reverse it, all I can do is speculate on what's happening in there and how to stop it".

Green arrow spoke up "couldn't we ask those agents? What about the survivors from the lab, has there been any update?"

Constantine shook his head "I wouldn't trust a word that came out of that agency's mouths if I were you, that being said the agent that attacked the lanterns is the only lucky one, he must have been on a doughnut run or something when it happened. Either he knows nothing or is too devoted to his cause, he won't speak to us... it's that or he's just plain crazy now, but who am I to judge".

"Usually the first, since you often call me crazy" said the flash cheerily getting a glare from Constantine in return.

"Your entire family can break the sound barrier wearing sand shoes and have a habit of screwing with time, of course I think you're crazy. But for the agent, He's basically enthralled, the perfect employee".

"Care to elaborate?" Asked captain marvel

"Sure, From the medical observation it looks like he had already been systematically driven insane by something, then he latched onto his organisations beliefs to try and keep himself alive, 'probably didn't even question the surgical procedures they did to themselves...' uh, basically doubling down to anchor himself. Otherwise he probably would have had enough self control to avoid recklessly attacking the lanterns".

Batman spoke "what about those still in medical. is there any way to question them?"

Constantine looked weary at this, taking a last drag of his cigarette and stubbing it out. Breathing out the cloud of smoke he finally answered "there's no coming back for them. Their bodies might heal, those that are capable, but they won't truly live anymore"

"Oh dear, Why, what happened to them?" Asked Wonder-woman wondering what was troubling Constantine so badly.

"Mass Soul disruption" said Constantine itching for another cigarette. The answer made Wonder-woman, Zatanna, Doctor fate and even Deadman floating in the room visibly flinch.

"from what I could divine, after months of torture the agents must have broke open their captives core's and abused them. A ghost core is basically their heart, soul and mind. One of the spirits probably decided they had nothing left to lose anymore and let loose. those that were in the room got what was coming to them, for everybody outside, consider their deaths a mercy"

"What is soul disruption exactly?" Asked superman raising a hand, he and most of the non magic leaguers looked confused.

Zatanna uncomfortably gave the answer "soul disruption is a general term to explain damage to or loss of a soul" Zatanna paused and looked to where Boston floated, concern and worry plain on his face "stories say that a person without a soul is bound to become evil, but most of the time they just end up as figurative zombies, maybe over a long time period they could slowly recover. they can still perform tasks but no spark of life, empathy or creativity anymore, they're just on autopilot doing what they're told".

Lantern Simon baz spoke up "could I assume this 'Soul disruption' that caused the explosion is related to the green flames we saw on first arrival? Because I was unable to track any specific damage in the collapsed building short of the hole melted into the roof"

Constantine nodded "yes and no, the original explosion was the only attack that actually happened. In a tight underground space it reverberated around destroying anything it hit until it found a weak point and was funnelled up the elevator shaft, now concentrated, the wall of resonate sound melted through anything close by and shattering anything solid in its way. It forced itself out of the building, dispersing into the atmosphere with all the lab ectoplasm stores and debris which caught fire. more like a volcano erupting, unfortunately normal volcanic explosions don't make screaming skull shaped clouds".

Members that had been within earshot of the blast winced as they remembered the horrid sound

Constantine had finished the cigarette too fast, he definitely needed another but he held off, no sense in antagonising the bat with his habit. "Yeah… from what was recorded and reported, it sounds like a cry or scream, not an explosive blast".

Zatanna froze "scream? from a spirit... like a wail?... as in 'banshee?'... Oh gods damn it!" Hearing her curse and cover her mouth had the rest of the league concerned, Zatanna just stared blankly ahead, deep in thought without responding.

Boston gently poked her trying to snap her out of it "uh, maybe an explanation for those who don't know what a screaming lady has to do with this?"

Sighing Constantine grabbed the second cigarette, lighting up. "Ok, cliff notes on Banshee's.

-Creature's of myth from the olden days back home.

-they have an important job, which is they wail when a person is going to die.

Dramatic? Sometimes, Prophetic? Usually, supernatural? definitely.

-they do it for a very important reason though, it helps souls cross over without lingering, basically a reminder message to pack your bags and turn off the stove".

He shrugged at the assembled leaguers, some still looked confused "look, Without it the entire UK would have been overrun by the undead a millennia ago".

"Isn't England already full of ghosts and undead now anyway? I assume that's the reason we pack Nth metal weapons anytime we go over there" the flash asked, gaining an annoyed look from half the members present, including Constantine, "blame Charlemagne" He dryly replied.

"The species themselves emigrated from this plane along with a few other species like the yeti's when humanity went into their holy war's phase, mostly to avoid eradication. Smart thinking in my opinion, but that's not the issue.

A Banshee by themself isn't strong enough to do this damage, when they left earth, they all had to work together just to pass through the veil. Mostly they're human offspring of something vaguely referred to in historical records as half spirits.

So with the mounting evidence: it's dangerously possible that the GIW agents caught a progenitor of the banshee's... which would be really bad".

Mythology lesson apparently done, Batman gave Constantine a gesture to get him back on track.

"The major issue is, they did something so horrible to a creature related to a banshee, a creature who normally only warns of death.

With the use of a full strength wail, this spirit basically ruptured the fabric of reality in that area when it blasted their souls out, shredded them like a pressure washer on seafoam. The bodies in medical, they're empty vessels".

There was a priority comm beep from Batman and he excused himself to answer it quietly, Zatanna seemed to stir, while still looking deep in thought she spoke quietly "we need to prepare for what comes now".

"Prepare for what?" Asked wonderwoman.

"Prepare for whatever comes looking for the spirit that cried out and hope it's friendly not hostile".

Constantine considering a third cigarette went paler if possible "oh crap, I missed that part. Oh no, ohnonono crap! that's gonna cause problems".

Batman came back to the meeting and perhaps hoping to avoid witty remarks from the flash or arguments among the league members asked the question brewing: "what's the likely scenario, what will happen?"

Again Zatanna spoke "the creature would have left a tear in reality at the site. worse case, something notices the tear and tries to get into our world through it, knowing our enemies probably something infernal and therefore a Hellmouth may form".

Constantine, Boston and captain marvel groaned in different levels of stress "blast it, I'm definitely gonna need more resources, hey bats reckon you can stomach the bile to ask Lex for assistance? Nobody likes having a Hellmouth in their backyard"

"no, nope, I don't do hellmouths. They're uncomfortable to be near and eat at my soul"

"I can probably get some more help from the rock of eternity if needed?..."

The members broke out in various discussions like this till batman interrupted them "this meeting will need to be suspended for the moment, new information has just been brought to my attention down in Gotham and I need to personally verify it, we will pick back up in half an hour in conference room 3".

Green arrow called to batman as he got up to leave the meeting room "what kind of information?"

"An unknown woman appeared unexpectedly at Wayne manor with hard copy files pertaining to this meeting. Constantine, the first page was a letter to you, you're with me".

"Like bloody-hell I do! Most letters addressed to me are either letters of debt or the magical equivalent of letter-bombs, sometimes both. I'm not going near it!" Batman nodded not stopping, instead tapping a button on his gauntlet "the letter mentioned that".

The meeting rooms projector displayed a scanned shot of a slim stack of papers. The first page was a letter directed to Constantine:

John Constantine,

Two matters of urgent importance:

1. please come verify the authenticity of these documents or I will call in 'my' favours to Satan, Beelzebub and azrael regarding your 'shared' contracts.

2. Please summon me using the enclosed sigil for convenience, meeting room 3 will suffice. I have a matter to discuss with the league regarding the topic of your current meeting and to notify you all of destabilising incidents in the realms related.

(Batman, please be advised that Constantine will not trust this letter expecting a trap, show him a photo of this page to get him moving)

Don't keep me waiting John, you know I can't leave the realms easily 'without' consequence.

Yours in time

Clockwork (formerly Kronos)

Ghost of time

"Oh... bollocks... rutting, friggin bollocks, there's the blasted problems we were worried about" swore Constantine stalking out of the room after batman.

Boston took one look at the letter and shuddered "OK, I changed my mind. The Hellmouth it is, no way am I staying here if he's showing up"

Green arrow didn't get the chance to work with Boston often, the few times he did was through the proxy of possession so he sat and observed Boston's expression, trying to decide if it was fear or disgust... what he saw instead was envy and concern... whoever this clockwork guy was, Boston was worried about been seen by him.

The various JL members talked amongst themselves while they waited, hopefully batman wouldn't hold things up by interrogating the woman...

"Who's Charlemagne?" Captain marvel asked Zatanna quietly.

---

Wayne manor

Batman and Constantine zeta'd to the Batcave, immediately taking the main lift up to the manor. Constantine looked confused "uh, bats? We not taking the scenic route through to the front door?"

Batman gritted his teeth as he answered "there was an additional note attached to the letter, it was addressed to 'Bruce Wayne' and Alfred, in mine and Alfred's private security cypher, it was a warning that there was a security leak in the watchtowers systems and how to find it. Oracle is currently investigating, as for the woman, she seems aware and the note identified her as this 'clockworks' granddaughter, I need you to verify who she actually is"

"Verify if she's the grandchild of the mad titan? Are you kidding me, how am i supposed to do that? We already have Diana, and I doubt any of those Olympians could keep it together long enough to create another demigod! Can't you just look her up or did the Batcomputer explode again?"

Batman growled in answer, exiting the elevator into the manor heading straight for the kitchen. Constantine slowly grinned and held in a laugh as he followed "oh, so that's why were taking the direct path, going out the backdoor takes us past the computer! So it blew up again huh?" Batman glared at him "Yes, the same way it blew up when we tried to examine the GIW data. I need to know why it reacted to her like that".

Alfred was in the kitchen talking politely with Ms jasmine, she seemed insistent for him not to call her a Fenton. Apparently there was a huge falling out and jasmine was in the process of legally changing her name, a task that seemed to be more difficult then normal.

"So we get back to amity, i find out what they did to my siblings, enter the local justice department and I reach the front desk only to find those asshole agents waiting for me there like they own the place, they tried to charge me as an escaped fugitive and shoot at me again so I broke their noses and slipped back out of Illinois before they could hunt me down. Then I went off grid, planting a trail leading to my aunts place and made my way to Gotham with my friends"

"That seems rather dangerous, will your aunt be OK?"

"Oh yeah, it was her idea. After star city aunt Alicia completely disowned Maddie, she knew it wasn't safe in that house and had been trying to get Maddie to stop and think, but... after what happened to Danny and then me... Maddie's on her own, there's no chance for her anymore".

"No I mean will your aunt be OK from those agents?" Jazz snorted "oh yeah no, she'll be fine! Aunt Alicia said if we are going to come, go through Danny's space camp trail. Everywhere else will be a kill box".

"I see... well, next time you talk to her tell her I said good hunting"

Jazz was interrupted from further talk by the dark knight and a shabby blonde man in a overcoat walking into the kitchen "oh, hello Mr Batman sir. I'd say It's nice to meet you but honestly I hoped to never meet you outside of a university lecture, in fact I was honestly expecting a robin to come get the files... aaand you are that occult guy from a few years back who tried to make my parents stop their research. Mr... continuoustein?" Jazz cocked her head in thought.

"Constantine, and your name lass?"

"Oh I'm just Jazz now, formerly Fenton"

Constantine froze and stared blankly at her "you're little jasmine? 'Jazzy-pants? From amity park's Jack and Madelyn Fenton?"

"I hate that name but Yes, why are you so confused?"

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you of all people to be here, weren't you a strict non-believer and studying to be a psychologist?"

Jazz stared at him hard "I was yes, then Danny had his accident and I had to face the reality of the situation, 'no matter how much I protested'" she added "As for my plans, I was still planning to be a psychologist up until a month ago, I found out Danny had been taken by the GIW and my parents took leave of their sanity since they literally sold him to them, they also tried to take me as well, and... well I'm sure the news coverage on that was kept quiet. Anyway, here's the file's 'boobytrap' free for you to examine, my job of courier is now complete!".

Batman silently took in everything she said, a simple glance showed a tired college student, if he looked closer however, things were off like an uncanny valley effect.

Alfred had mentioned her teeth but he hadn't mentioned the angular lines to her face, it was definitely a normal human skull when she turned her head but if you looked directly at her the lines of her face blurred... made it look...off, elongated even. her blue eyes also seemed off, backlit like they glowed, she looked hungry. if you looked at her perfectly normal hands from the corner of your eye they looked a lot sharper while wrapped around the tea cup, like she had hardened claws for nails.

'Not human, or not completely human' batman thought, summarised from what he could see 'definitely signs of being a predator of some sort. Priority is the information though, the threat is secondary'. He decided reigning himself back in before speaking "Jasmine, I'm sorry but i need to ask you a few urgent questions".

"Sure, Jazz is fine but go for it, I can answer a few before I have to leave, although I'm pretty certain clockwork can answer better then me".

"Who is clockwork to you, how can i trust him or you? I ask because from what I was told the infinite realms should hold a sizable grudge against the living."

Jazz stared at him smiling gently as she listed on her fingers: "he's mine and my siblings adoptive grandfather, he doesn't lie but he does like to turn things into lessons to entertain himself and to my knowledge the only ones he has a grudge against is a Doctor fate for some past incident during WWII and time travellers including the flash family for making his job more annoying. As for the realms, excluding me... most just want to be left alone or pursue their obsessions. We police the more dangerous ones like pariah, Anything else?"

He watched her for any flicker of emotion, any sign she was lying... nothing. "Do you know where the leak is or who I am?"

She didn't even blink before replying "page three of the files, they're getting in through cyborg via his star labs uplink, an update installed a blind spot they took advantage of to install spyware marked as necessary firmware. We've added a patch note to allow him to view the GIW files you have, as well as stop computers exploding around ectoplasm. As for you? you are batman, that's all I need to know outside of a psychology examination... unless you want to discuss the theories that 'the butts match' or Wayne industries does a lot more then just help 'fund' the justice league?"

With no answer given Jazz finished her tea and got up, "this has been interesting but I definitely need to head out now, things to do, late for dinner, need to feed. Thanks for the tea Mr pennyworth."

"Are you a metahuman?" Asked batman making her pause as she left the kitchen "hmm, tough question... short answer no, long answer maybe? I'm liminal like my brother, Mr Constantine can probably explain it to you more when he gets past his... apparent brain freeze" Jazz finger gunned past batman causing him to look around.

Constantine, waiting too long to ask his own questions had closed his eyes for a moment to rub at a forming headache of her previous answers, opening his eyes in confusion to batman staring at him, Batman looked back to see jazz had disappeared, the path to the front door was completely empty.

Jazz was gone.

"where did she go?" Batman asked Alfred knowing he hadn't taken his eyes off her. "She left sir, prior engagements and the like. Don't you have a meeting to get back to?"

Outside the Wayne manor The sound of a motorbike revving and driving off echoed into the night.

---

Jazz knew they would begin following her when she reached the streets, she also knew she shouldn't instigated batman by disappearing mysteriously, but her hunger was getting worse! if she stayed a moment longer she would literally dig through the floorboards to get at that faint whiff of what smelled almost like ectoplasm coming from underground... she shook her head and stopped her body from turning back around to hunt the smell, if it had been ectoplasm it would have permeated the air of Wayne manor, not travel up like a bad smell... 'it. Was. Not. Ectoplasm'. She thought hard as she dug her lengthening nails into her palm beds.

It was probably just an experiment or batman stuff, nothing relevant to her.

Jazz exited the manor to find Johnnie waiting out the front on his bike looking idly up at the mansion, he turned to her with a solemn look on his face, no smile, no jokes. she nodded to him and got on his bike, gripping him comfortably as he drove straight through the closed gates, taking her back through the winding upper society roads into Gotham proper.

She tapped him to get his attention and he pulled over to let her off a few blocks away from home, johnnie held her hand for balance as she got off and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go, still not smiling. He seemed to be about to say something to her but clenched his jaw and looked away, a look of stressed concern or possibly anger flickered across his face before he shook it off and revved the engine.

he drove off without a word leaving her to walk the streets home.

Damn jazz was hungry.

---

The batfam were following their targets for the night, there was a suspected metahuman trafficker in Gotham and they were planning to hunt them down before they got a foothold.

The duress warning from Alfred however had made almost everyone try to race back to the mansion before he gave the all clear response.

Now with the city being so quiet and no leads on the traffickers they had idle time, as such they listened in on the woman named jazz's static filled conversation with Alfred in the kitchen (her words sounded like a old tape recorder message, an issue neither oracle or red robin were able to solve on their ends). She was polite and chatted about her life in a town called amity park, how proud she was of her brother for doing his best helping people around town despite their families reputation, the many peculiarities of her town with its fame for being the most haunted... then it got weirder. How Danny had to recruit the entire school to mount a rescue for all the brainwashed adults from a flying ghost ship, The time she almost got blown up by the school councillor who was feeding on the students negative emotions, her brothers creepy godfather who had him cloned resulting in a new little sister who she absolutely adored (once Danny actually thought to tell her she existed), her parents toxic obsession with the ghosts and how it had destroyed her and her siblings lives. "She's making this up, ghosts don't... aren't, capable of all that" grumbled Damien currently staked out on the manors roof, he wasn't risking Alfred being harmed because they dropped their guard.

"I'm glad you said that and not ghosts don't exist because I definitely recall your face when you first learnt about Boston and Greta!"

"That's not relevant nightwing, ghosts can rarely appear in the world let alone orchestrate physical attacks on groups of people, we have no record of these things happening, you would think someone would notify the justice league!"

Steph's giggling voice entered the channel "you know, since nobody was hurt the town probably kept it quiet to help with their most haunted town theme, that... or somebody stopped them reporting it, but that would be crazy-ridiculous and mean something larger".

Jazz's voice came through the com again, this time talking about her recent activities and they sounded even worse.

"So a few months ago I get ready to check out a few college's, waved goodbye to my parents, hugged my brother, the whole shebang. Off I go city to city checking out my preferred places, a few weeks in, hero stuff happens further up the train line and my friends and I get redirected to star city until the lines clear. A day or two in I get the odd feeling someone's stalking me, I stick to public areas and it fades... then the day the lines are clear and we're heading to the station the feelings back again and this time I see them, the freaking GIW are stalking me with their white suits and vans. My friends and I try to bail because we know, anytime they're near, there's gonna be collateral damage and friendly fire all blamed on ghosts. We almost make it before they act, blocking us in the public area and open fire".

Tim is typing away on his wrist computer looking more and more distressed till dick has to put a hand on his shoulder to draw him out "what is it RR?" Tim sends files to his siblings giving each of them chills when they read its contents. "We missed another GIW operation, it didn't turn up in our hunt because the officials who sent us the information were also our contacts with star labs in the city, we didn’t question the information, there's no record of a fire-fight but there is a record of a gas main explosion that caused quite a few casualties in star city a while ago..."

"Many casualties..." murmurs orphan staring at the list "can we confirm?"

Oracle chimed in "I found something while following a lead for 'B', a star labs I.D was used in an attempt to delete star city camera security footage which was flagged by green arrows security logs, the 'explosion' if you want to call it that was caught on a safe house security feed, and shows GIW agents shooting at people trying to cross into a train station. It's hard to be certain but it looks like 'Ms Fenton' was there... it also looks like someone took a shot meant for her!" Oracle enhanced some of the footage, a slightly staticky zoomed in clip showing an agent raise a heavy weapon and fire it at jazz, before it can hit, one of the people with jazz, a woman dived up in front of jazz and the were both blown off screen by the weapon blast.

The sound of B and Constantine entering the kitchen drew their attention, they listened to her answer B's questions when she started to leave. "Getting in position to tai..." Damien was getting up from his position on the roof ready to follow her but found himself frozen in place, unable to move the moment he locked eyes with a man on a motorbike in front of the manor. a man that hadn't been there a minute ago that was now staring directly at him on the roof, The man brought a finger up and wagged it at robin as if to chastise him.

"Robin, can you repeat, you cut out there. come in!" Spoke Grayson in his ear but he couldn't answer. Soon enough the Fenton woman exited straight through the manor door as if it wasn't there and walked up to the biker getting on. The man gave him one last glance before taking off and driving straight through the closed gates to the main road, the moment he left the property Damien could move again, he wasted no time in reporting in to the voices calling him.

"Ugh! Target left the property on a motorbike, driver is a male possibly mid to late 20's extremely pale with white hair, capable of inflicting full paralysis at a distance, may be sight based! Motorbike and riders went through closed gate as if it wasn't there, combined with appearing out of nowhere, may have matter shifting abilities similar to Martian manhunter!"

Unseen, Damien's shadow returned to its normal proportions as a patch of darkness before it flitted away after the motorbike, the woman Jazz had disappeared, gone in the darkness leaving them far behind.

---

A quick study of the documents and a quicker check-up of the annoyed but otherwise fine Damien was all Bruce could afford before they needed to return to the watchtower, folder and its documents in hand.

Exiting the zeta tube batman immediately contacted cyborg "cyborg, I'm sending you a file, immediately follow its instructions to remove a data breach to your systems, then head to the star labs branch in star city, bring the listed officials and workers in for questioning".

Conference room 3 was one of the older rooms, a sturdy work floor had been installed on top of the standard station floor for this room to allow repeated defacing of the surface without needing to constantly repair the space station section, Fortunately most magic rituals could be done with chalk these days.

Currently members of the JLD (minus Dr fate and Deadman who gave their apologies as not wanting to interact with Kronos) and a few supernatural aware JL members were surrounding a summoning circle drawn on the floor, there Constantine was grumbling under his breath while busy wrapping his hands around concoction soaked rags.

"Alright, here we go folks. Good news, clockwork is a neutral entity and is often quite reserved in his personality, that being said. Remember not to wisecrack the ancient entity of time... uh, that warnings mostly for me. So lets get this over with!" Constantine lit the rags on fire, filling the room with the smell of sulphur, clapped his hands together in prayer and began the summoning".

"venias ad me nunc aeternitatis exactor" the circle lit up before slowly turning down from a burning orange to a glowing green as he continued

"Ad te voco spiritum temporis ut det munus meum. Invoco te spiritus temporis ad dandum meum donum scientiae"

(*Come to me now driver of eternity. I call upon you the spirit of time to give my gift. I call upon you, the spirit of time, to give me the gift of knowledge.)

With barely a ripple, a being with red glowing eyes, one scarred and what looked like a grandfather clock jammed in its torso appeared floating in the circle glaring at Constantine"

"I gave you my summoning circle, yet you have the nerve to summon me like that Constantine? I'm not a damn demon. you didn't even use my name properly! if I hadn't wanted to talk to you I would have sent a hex down the line". The grizzled spirit stared at them unblinking, slowly shifting form between adult, child and elder as the sound of deep ticking echoed from him.

"I didn't think you'd really answer the summons for little old me without some kind of trouble waiting, besides, I don't speak Esperanto well, fortunately Latin works just fine".

Constantine tried to light a new cigarette but was stopped by batman nudging him to continue. "You said you had information for our case so I need to ask. I'm enquiring into two spirits we were tracking who escaped a holding facility last week" the ancient spirit glared at Constantine and replied in a mocking tone "a holding facility you say? I didn't know the justice league knew about such places capable of 'containing' spirits. Tell me John, do they just 'hold' spirits there, is that what they do?"

Constantine had the good sense to feel ashamed as Clockwork chewed him out "we didn't know they had gotten this bad, I had requested they be under more scrutiny bu-" "I don't care for excuses Constantine, the damage is done and still continues. Now! Ask what you wanted to ask so I can get back to dealing with some meddlesome intruders in my domain". "Uh right... the two spirits that escaped, they were wounded. We can't seem to track them anymore, I'd like their names so we can summon them and make sure they're alright and possible answer some questions".

If it was possible, the aura around the spirit became more dangerous.

"The spirits you are searching for no longer exist as they were" said the ancient ghost, anger clear on his face towards Constantine and the league members in the room. "Their cores begun final collapse and destabilisation this afternoon after being on the run from the humans agents called the Ghost investigative ward, those that hurt and hunted them. They didn't even get the comfort of their loved ones with them. The most we could do was shroud the area so they would not be recaptured in their final moments".

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What were their names?" Asked Zatanna "their human names? You might know them as Daniel Fenton of amity Park and his cloned half sister Danielle masters" The glare as he turned back to Constantine increased.

"Hang on! The Fenton boy? 'He was cloned?...' uh no wait, Why would he be a spirit? Aren't his parents working with the bloody GIW!" "Yes, yes they are". came the reply with a sense of finality to it.

Constantine's eyes went wide and his skin paled as he realised the implications of what jazz had said earlier, "Oh... oh no." "Oh yes" glared clockwork "my grandson Danny spent two years protecting Amity Park from both ghost attacks, his parents and the GIW without the league or outside help. He kept the human world safe from the ghosts and then had to switch to protecting the realms from the humans. Only to then get shot in the back by his parents, to have his body and core cut up piece by piece".

He watched them mutter and wince amongst themselves before continuing "it should interest you to note, His human allies and their families were also taken by the GIW and are being held by your government in rather unpleasant detainment facilities. If you would like to earn my favour I would suggest tracking them down and releasing some of them for starters".

The batman approached the circle and examined clockwork before speaking "what are their names? Do you know which facilities they are in or what they're being held for?" Clockwork seemed to contemplate something. A green sheet of parchment fell through the circle at their feet, a list of names, aliases and locations.

"You can start with Samantha Manson, she's currently booked illegally in Arkham under an alias, you should find her having tea with poison ivy since they have a lot in common. By the way, since her parents willingly helped lock her up in that 'tainted curse' of a place to avoid being incarcerated themselves, I would suggest helping her out with emancipation paperwork and bringing charges against the parents.

Next is tucker Foley, he's currently in the Cadmus lab in metropolis as a test subject, luckily he's smarter then them. You can give him a few more days before you collect him, he's having fun sabotaging their more shady work.

Last, You'll find Valerie grey residing in belle reve prison... most of the time. You will need to schedule time with Amanda Waller if you want to get her out".

Batman stared at the list "what are all these other names and locations?"

"The Foley's and the grey family are interred with students from Casper high, amity park. They're being held in detention cells throughout America" clockwork rolled his glowing eyes at that. "The students attempted to get in touch with authorities outside amity park and the GIW'S control, the agents found out about it and had them black bagged, or white bagged if you want to go by their theme, Now they're being held for breach of the anti-ecto acts. The rest of the locations are undocumented GIW facilities where captured ghosts and ecto contaminated subjects are experimented on. I would advise shutting them down soon or the GIW, if successful with their experimentation will gain enough strength to be a major problem for your entire reality".

Batman looked at the list and nodded, "it will be dealt with, how were these anti-ecto acts breached exactly?-"

[Entry: raven 02]

Their conversation was stopped by raven entering the meeting room and coming to a halt. "Oh, uh did I come at a bad time?" Clockwork shifting to a small child ghost, looked up at her and smiled "of course not Ms raven, in fact I was hoping to return something of yours, would you like it now or we can discuss later if you prefer?"

"What are you offering her?" Asked Constantine immediately suspicious, "memories" clockwork replied. Raven looked confused but nodded assuringly to Constantine "whose memories are they?" Clockwork pulled out a small clockwork gear printed in strange symbols on a glowing material and flicked it out of the circle like a coin to her. "I'd say yours, to remember in your own time" Clockwork turned back to batman shifting to an old ghost and continued explaining the anti-ecto acts and the loopholes they had used to get their way.

Diana glanced up at raven, still standing awkwardly by the door holding the cog unsure if she had been dismissed. "Raven, take a seat dear, has something happened?"

Raven sighed as she answered accepting an empty chair "I'm sorry, I was tracking the spirits down with superboy when that weird storm hit. tracking has completely failed and smallville was the last area I could locate the spirits. I've tried breaking through again but the storm is too strong, Not to mention strange reports began just before it appeared".

"Oh, what reports?"

"Public disturbance calls mostly, Magic sites across the globe that deal with spirits are reacting weirdly. shrines, graveyards even haunted houses". Diana caught clockworks grin at her and turned to look at him "what do you know about this?" She asked staring at him intently.

"Oh just the second reason for my visit, none of you would know this yet but the infinite realms is currently in a form of political turmoil" Constantine perked up "turmoil? What happened, did one of your more inane ghosts do something stupid like stealing Pandora's box again?"

"Close, due to the disappearance of phantom, who has being one of the more stabilising presences in the realms. some citizens of the realms (who may have had a hand in his disappearance) took it upon themselves to steal royal artefacts and dispense them to potential candidates for the throne, as such from tonight we are now locked into a war of succession"

"A war of succession... how? Pariah's been your king for well over a millennia!" Exclaimed Constantine. "exactly, pariah in his defeat was still wearing the crown while locked in the coffin of forever sleep. however during an incident two years ago he was temporarily freed by a greedy idiot. After a few days terrorising the realms, he was bested and re-sealed by phantom, this time without the crown. Since having been defeated in what was observed as single combat he lost the rite of control for both the crown of fire and the ring of rage. Both items at the time were stolen by Vlad masters and stored in his vault... they are gone now, and are in the hands of candidates to the throne".

Green arrows face scrunched like he'd eaten something sour, "Vlad masters? That rich, creepy mayor with a ton of shady businesses? How'd he get involved?" "The same way he got those businesses, he caused an issue then swept in taking what he wanted without the original owners being aware. You'll find files on him in those GIW computers you collected, fortunately he's not a candidate for the throne so I can sell the prat out without breaking the rules, by the way, I'd appreciate you hunting him down Constantine, he has many relics you might be interested in as payment".

"What makes a candidate? can we know who the candidates are?" Asked batman trying to bring them back on topic. "I cannot say the selection process was done by the Observants without permission of the ancients, those two relics are crafted in a way that I cannot detect or interact with them, a fail-safe pariah built into them to stop me ever trying to usurp him. They were stolen around the same time but I only discovered they were missing because another one of the stolen relics was guarded by the yeti's. That has itself brought up its own local problems. However, the earliest theft was shortly before phantom disappeared two months ago. all I can say is they are loose in this world and you will begin noticing their effects soon... or you may already have noticed these effects..." Constantine was getting irritated and really wanted another smoke " you're clear as mud clockwork, that doesn't really help things. Do us a favour and tell us what the items do to people, I mean, shouldn't they only affect ghosts?"

Clockwork grinned "how many times have you all died? Even for short periods of time because your heart stopped? Now, how many of you live in area's where there's a high amount of death energy permeating the city around them?" He looked to batman for this one with a raised eye. "The ring and crown influence those affected by death in different ways, fortunately you would need to be an actual denizen of the infinite realms to have full control of all the relics abilities".

Green arrow spoke up "so what can we expect from a non denizen who wields the relics?" A smile this time, "a good question green arrow. The crown will empower any undead that swears fealty to its wearer, the ring however will absorb the willpower from anybody targeted by it and give it to the wielder". Simon, content to just listen glanced up at clockwork who was looking at him intently as he said it.

Green arrow frowned, "so together they would allow you to both gain an obedient army and make them stronger?"

"Seems like it would be quite useful on a battlefield amongst the dead! Good thing they are currently separate".

Diana raised a hand to interrupt simply getting a smile from clockwork "we are not in class granddaughter, please go ahead" Diana hesitated at the title but pressed on "what are the requirements to become the new king? How will the succession war end, do you already know who will be victorious?" Clockwork looked sad and hesitant to answer "unfortunately the wielders for the relics are concealed from my sight and as for who the victor is I cannot say, all possible futures are laid out in front of me, futures where everything ebbs, futures where everything flows but without the present tense to follow the trails, I cannot see which is more likely to happen, all I can do is plan and prepare. For how it starts, claim the ring and crown and be acknowledged by the throne. As for how it ends, it ends when someone is foolish enough to stab the old king".

At the last part Diana saw his glowing eyes flicker to raven still holding the cog wheel "I... assume you have made your plans for the succession... should we be worried?" Clockwork chuckled loudly before answering in a bored manner "I am forbidden by ancient contracts that chain me to my domain, by their command and for the good of the realms. interfering in a war of succession is not permitted unless it risks temporal damage or destruction of the infinite realms". It sounded like he was reading off a contract he'd been forced to read countless times throughout eternity. "Are you really kronos? You are acting far too personable to be the mad titan" "No, I'm Clockwork. The ghost of time. If that doesn't answer your question ask me again next time we meet granddaughter, I will explain things better then, for now, be worried, or don't be worried. I'm sure you have many rogues and villains to confront to keep you busy, farewell".

Clockwork seemed to turn to leave before looking back "Oh and batman, the joker just escaped from Arkham, his cell has a joker gas bomb rigged to the cell door. Good luck!"

And with that he flickered out of view leaving them in the shadowed room.

---

It was only a few questions that had been asked, with much information being given in return. Batman had made his apologies as he stormed out of the room calling in the possible escape while the JLD members relocated back to the previous meeting room, there they were busy comparing notes on possible contenders for the throne and looking for signs of strange activity.

They needed to stay in the loop for this, while the infinite realms was definitely out of their jurisdiction, the threat of another pariah dark was enough of a threat to stay involved in the process.

Clark sighed as he looked over the footage of the spirits escape "if we could have just found them sooner, perhaps we could have saved them... or at least helped them pass comfortably" the Question, studiously looking through the green parchment of names and places, comparing them with old physical road maps replied comfortingly.

"Don't beat yourself up Kal-el, this entire situation came from a forgotten agency with no oversite, they've been keeping things off our radar, not to mention using their authority and the general public's disbelief in the supernatural... All we can do is prevent any further tragedies happening".

"Public disbelief? The public should know magic exists, including supernatural entities like ghosts!" "Yes but they're not like our ghosts are they. Deadman can only be seen by use of magic and could never interact with the physical world without possessing someone, Secret? while able to be visible she couldn't interact with the world for more then a few minutes at a time. These ghosts however are capable of feats of strength on par with you, powers that defy physics, rivalling masters of magic and superheros alike".

[Entry: cyborg 01]

They all looked up to cyborg entering the meeting room with an angry look on his face. "Oh what now?" Asked Constantine tiredly. "Three scientists. a visiting professor. 6 security guards with league clearance and the public rep for star labs are in custody, I guess the preference for white outfits should have been a sign to look out for. the security breach for the watchtower and the league in general has been closed" he gritted his teeth before continuing. "There has also been a break in at the holding facility where the GIW personnel were hospitalised. A GIW agent has been arrested but the patients are gone, nobody can find a trace of them". Simon perked up quickly looking into it "when did this happen? There's been no alert put out". "That's because none was issued, the agent rocked up to the facility with all the paperwork ordering their release, paperwork apparently signed off by us. the only reason he was caught was because I cleared the block preventing me from noticing them and ordered him arrested". Cyborgs voice became like acid "I've been running back through the watchtowers files, without the block I can now read all their data including the files from their computers, they've been tampering with us for years. Changing our logs, diverting emergency calls, even stealing equipment, research and funding!"

Diana rubbed her temples and sighed "so the government agency that has caused us so much trouble over a long time period, who has endangered this world with their recent actions just stole subjects of a priority investigation? We'll need to arrest them now, collate the data and we'll organise a priority meeting with the American government, this needs to be stopped. Any other information we should know?

Raven spoke up "I'm concerned with those GIW agents in the white vans, when we caught up with them they were tearing across Kansas after the spirits causing trouble, they destroyed a lot of peoples crops and fences. none of them seem to be magic users but somehow they can track the spirits long distance through some sort of scientific means. Fortunately it seems when the storm started they lost tracking the same time I did, unfortunately they then rounded on us accusing us of sabotaging their gear. Superboy was dealing with them and told me to head back to report, he didn't like the way they kept eyeing me and examining me with their gear".

Superman remembered the threat clockwork had mentioned and spoke looking at Constantine "-you may have already noticed it's effects-, Constantine you said the agent was driven insane previously right? He wouldn't have attacked the lanterns otherwise? Perhaps the GIW are involved in both issues. This is a new risk to watch out for, nobody approach or interact with those people by yourselves, always partner up, especially Dark members, they may decide magic is their contamination and I don't want to risk you guys getting captured by them. Send the warning out to all league members and any community's at risk. This meeting is now adjourned".

The league members quickly headed off to their tasks, there was a lot to be done.

---

In a GIW lab

Agent B hurried through the facility towards the high containment area, intent on ignoring the calls for help from the multitude of containment cells. In the far room was his new superior examining test results.

"Sir, the captured agents have been retrieved but agent A was apprehended by those ecto loving hero's! Permission to stage a rescue operation?"

The bald man with a pointed nose looked at the agent with disdain "why would I waste my time with that useless trash, if he got caught he got caught, bring those captured agents down to the containment labs, it's time for the 'live' trials!" He caressed a glass jar full of bright green ectoplasm and smiled. Agent B stared at his superior confused "sir, why would I bring the agents here, they need the medical wing so they can recover and get back at that damn ghos-" "-atututa" said the man shushing the agent "that's not needed, after all, the field reports indicate that the ghost in question is either destroyed or near complete ending, your wounded agents dealt it a killing blow in the lab before it's escape, you can be proud that they caused it to suffer immensely before fading. Well done, now bring them down here". The smile disappeared as the man repeated himself. "Agent B was about to object when the superior held up his hand with a green skull ring on it "I said bring them down here" the agent glowed slightly as something was drained away from him into the ring, he nodded and turned away to complete the task, the superior called to him jovially as he left "also once that's done begin recruitment to replace the fallen agents, we can't have the GIW looking too thin in numbers!" the door closed and the man added quietly "after all, a good scapegoat has to look healthy for people to buy it!"

---

Notes:

-that's all for this chapter, next ones back in smallville as Danni starts to find themself again.

-sorry if it got too wordy or is too close together, would you believe me if I said the last month has been me trying to figure out the last half of the JL meeting? I just couldn't put words down that stuck!

-might be a little confusing because I'm playing with time but ravens designation is because she's been reincarnated, the league would have to keep all biometrics of all people using titles in case they were temporally displaced.

-I'm keeping question ambiguous like a dread pirate Roberts because that is on character for question, so you can imagine them as Vic or Renee, it's up to you.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #best of both worlds #danny phantom #batman #long post #my writing

22 notes · View notes