Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Demons

He tried to scream but the bandage around his mouth made that difficult, only letting muffled noises out. He wriggled some more, but after a while, he just glared at the back of the man in a tuxedo. The other members of the newly founded Justice League had already turned around to face the 34 demons.

Neither the Justice League nor the demons made a move as they glared at each other before suddenly black lightning with a red outline colored rose up their body before traveling towards their hands.

Giovanni Zatara and John Constantine were already on the move, raising their hands a transparent orange barrier engraved with golden runes surrounded the group.

All the demons present released the demonic lightning from their hands, crashing into the barrier, but it held strong against their assault.

The demons slowly walked around the group as they kept firing. Lightning rippled across the barrier but was unable to break through. The barrier held strong. It was only until the demons’ attack stopped that Zatara and Constantine dropped the barrier for the Justice League to engage the demons.

Flash zoomed through the demon group and gave the majority a smack, sending them to the ground and disrupting their formation in the process. It wasn’t until a demon reacted by slamming the ground, creating a push that sent everything around them flying.

Even the other demons were affected, but managed to stay together with their ability to fly.

Flash was affected as well as he seemed to have reacted too slowly as he could be seen falling through the air. The demons, however, couldn’t take advantage of his momentary weakness in the air, as they had to put up a barrier to protect themselves against Superman and Wonder Woman rushing towards them.

Superman hammered his fist on the suddenly appearing wall, creating deafening thunderous booms with each hit. The barrier was creaking underneath his attack, like glass that was about to shatter.

Wonder Woman gave it the rest with a slash of her sword. The sword sliced through the barrier with astonishing ease, causing the rest of the barrier to shatter into thousands of pieces.

The demons looked shocked before they released a roar as they prepared to send more lightning to the group. However, before they could prepare themselves to attack again, several spinning pieces of metal had already arrived in their face.

The 8 simultaneously thrown Batarangs blew up right in their ranks, separating the demons from each other. The cave shook because of the explosions.

The demons were sent flying through the created smoke with their bodies twisted into impossible angles. Before the first had touched the ground, evil demonic energy dripped out of their body.

The energy surrounded their body before fixing it to their previous condition. It was an eerie sight to see their bodies snap back into position.

If the Justice League had seen Shallot’s prior battle against the possessed Kara they would have noticed that the demon that had possessed Kara didn’t do the same to heal. In fact, it hadn’t healed at all.

It was mostly because the one it had possessed was a Kryptonian coupled with the enhancements of the demonic possessor, healing the body was unnecessary if it didn’t get damaged in the first place.

Rocks surrounding the regenerating demons suddenly rose from the ground before flying towards the demons in the middle. The rocks assaulted the demons in the middle, separating the demons into smaller groups.

Demons screamed out as they defended against the storm of rocks crashing at them. Martian Manhunter held up a demon while still keeping the demon group occupied by continuing to telekinetically guide the rocks at them.

Hawkgirl appeared above the caught demon. Her mace spewed out lightning as she held it up high above her head. The demon was still screaming, oblivious to his soon demise. Hawkgirl swung her mace with all her might, cutting the demon’s scream short as his face was smashed by the lightning mace.

The demon promptly shot towards the ground. The ground cracked open by the force the demon was sent into it, creating a cloud of dust and flying debris. After the dust was settled, the demon was nowhere to be seen, leaving behind an unconscious young woman in her early 20s embedded in the ground.

Hawkgirl and the Martian Manhunter were already on the move to the next group of demons, who were surrounded by sigils containing it inside. Suddenly, a snake made of fire spewed out and into the contained demons, burning through the demons with ease.

“I got these, love.” With his lighter as the origin of the flame snake, Constantine winked at Hawkgirl, who responded with a raised eyebrow before she turned around to find herself another demon.

She saw how Superman and Wonder Woman were pummeling their opponents into their ground or cutting them up, while the Green Lantern shot his opponent out of the sky with a constructed Gatling gun.

The Flash sped around several demons, delivering several hundred punches in under a second before she finally found several demons besieging Zatara. He wasn’t overwhelmed just yet, and it seemed that he might hold on for longer, but he was by far the worst off with the most opponents in the group.

Zatara saw her coming and decided to distract the demons with some exploding fire spells. Hawkgirl quickly arrived at the nearest demon and smacked it across the back of its head, sending it dead on the ground, leaving the unconscious human host behind.

She positioned herself next to the magician with her mace spewing out lightning in a threatening manner, making the demons eye her carefully.

“Nth metal is truly the bane of all magic.” Zatara commented as he eyed her mace.

“You know of nth metal?” She asked, surprised by Zatara’s observation. Nth metal was able to negate most magic. It was even effective against ghostly entities. It was a multi-applicable metal with different abilities that were useful in most, if not all, situations.

“Any respectful magician has at least heard of it.” Zatara didn’t stay around to chat with her after responding, instead aimed at the hovering demons around them. Hawkgirl didn’t stay still either.

Martian Manhunter was on the other side of the battlefield, helping Batman engage two other demons.

The group was lucky that these new demons were minions of minions. If they had been comparable to the possessed Supergirl or even the three on the street that Shallot had blasted away, they would have it a lot harder than now.

The numbers of the demons quickly dwindled from the original 34 demons to only 9 before the rest decided that they wouldn’t be able to win.

Instead of giving up and surrendering, however, they stood together as they screamed out in a demonic fanatical screech, “For Trigon!”, before they erupted in a gigantic ball of malevolent demonic energy that ripped through the stone in the cave with ease.

John Constantine and Giovanni Zatara reacted quickly as they threw sigils and a giant wall around the incoming explosion, giving them valuable seconds for the ones with super-speed to carry the ones present out of the cave and, therefore, out of harm’s way.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived outside on the empty and ruined street. Flash supported himself with his hands on his knees as he bent over. He breathed heavily after having brought Batman out of the cave. The ground shook for a moment before silence filled the area.

After waiting for a while and not feeling any aftereffects of the explosion, Flash stretched his back. “Woah, that was close. Luckily we made it out just in time... Ahem, guys...” Flash started as he looked at the people present.

“... did someone remember to bring out Superman’s cousin and Shallot?” He hesitatingly looked around, only to see them shake their heads.

Superman spoke up, “At the end of the battle, I had turned around to check up on them, but they had disappeared. I wanted to tag out, but the explosion at the end caught me off guard.”

After asking if anyone had noticed the two leaving, each of the members of the Justice League shook their heads in dismissal.

“Bollocks!” Constantine suddenly shouted out as he held up his hand with a sigil floating in front of him. “I think they were teleported outside. Though the magic trail is wonky with the explosion and all that, I can feel the lass and lad close by.”

As if to answer their suspicion, a shout rang out from a window in the 3rd stock. They turned around to see a seriously battered and cut-up Shallot raising a rock above his head to smash it into a head that was leaning out of the window.

The back snapped back at the neck. If it was a human, they would have been more than dead, but instead, the head rose in a screech again before being quickly answered with another rock to the face.

With a savageness rarely seen, Shallot could be seen hammering his rock on the demon’s head as if he tried to open it. With a gurgled scream, the demon possessing the human screamed out in pain before dissipating in the air.

Shallot stood up as he saw his victim die and leave its host. He looked at them for a moment before his eyes shut and he leaned forward, tumbling out of the window before being caught by Superman.

Superman laid him cautiously on the ground and confirmed that he was still alive, if just barely. He sighed out in relief before letting his eyes wander upwards from where Shallot had fallen out.

He frowned slightly before his eyes glowed red and shot his Heat Vision. At an angle, it burned through the walls as if it were paper.

He then flew up and saw a demon’s face with a red glowing hole between his eyes as he stood above the still unconscious Supergirl.

The demon dissipated like his fellow demons and left a collapsed human behind in his place. Superman approached his cousin and confirmed that she was fine, too. He picked her up and flew out to the group that was tending to the unconscious Shallot.

“We should bring them to the infirmary quickly.” Although he had confirmed that Supergirl only needed some sleep to recover, he wasn’t sure about Shallot. He was heavily injured, with cuts all over his body.

Internal bleedings, bruises, sprained and broken bones littered his body. There was even a bit of blood filling his lungs. It was a miracle that he was still alive with these injuries, but they didn’t know for how long he would remain that way.

The others could guess the severity of Shallot’s injuries with a sheer glance as well, and Flash offered his help to bring him to the nearest medical facilities. Batman wanted to attend to the two unconscious heroes, while the others would help the people of Portland.

Although they had defeated any demon they had come across and the barrier surrounding the city had already vanished, there might be some of them running around, but that wasn’t the primary concern for the heroes now.

The destruction of Shallot’s battle with the demon had wrecked a major part of the inner city. It had especially hit the skyscrapers that had been between their flying path.

Most of the ground was ripped open and the possibility of someone buried underneath all the debris, waiting for help, was high.

The longer they waited for help to arrive, the lower their chance of survival. Fortunately, the group didn’t lack people capable of rescuing others. Martian Manhunter flew the trapped humans out with his intangibility that he could extend to others.

Superman spotted the people buried in the ground while the rest supported as the additional muscle to move around the debris and pull whoever was in danger out of harm’s way.

Although they were quick, inhumanely so, it still took them dozens of minutes to bring most to medical attention.

Reporters from another city had already arrived as well, interviewing the citizen about their horrifying experiences.

The Justice League and the two magicians grouped together after they had dug out anyone underneath the debris.

“So, who is this Trigon? I assume he is some kind of demon?” The Green Lantern asked Zatara and Constantine with steel in his voice. Seeing the destruction and the suffering people, pulled on his heartstrings. It made him want to know who their enemy was.

Zatara looked around vigilantly before sighing heavily. “Trigon is not just any demon. He is an ancient demon with unimaginable power… If he manages to arrive on earth, there would be nothing to stop him from wiping out all life on earth, not even you.” Zatara told them in a heavy tone.

He continued, “He is evil incarnate and had already conquered uncountable planets, galaxies, dimensions, and even entire universes. The only silver lining we have is that he can’t enter this reality. Another ancient mystical being prevents him from entering.”

“He conquered ‘universes’ as in multiple? Wait, the multiverse theory is correct?!” Flash exclaimed as he heard this. The others were surprised as well, and the atmosphere turned gloomy as they heard of Trigon’s feats.

“How can we stop him from coming here?” Superman said in a heavy tone.

“We can only hope to stop the cultist and the evil agents Trigon had placed on earth in the hope of delaying his arrival. We have to be careful when dealing with whatever Trigon had touched. He is extremely cunning, and he probably has a plan for anything and everything.

Some people in the magical community suspect that he is omniscient, making him nearly impossible to deal with. It was a good thing that I had already guessed the teenager’s identity as an offspring of Trigon, otherwise, Constantine and I wouldn’t have resolved his betrayal at the end this easily.”

“Pfft. Speak for yourself, pal.” John Constantine took the last drag of his cigarette before throwing the bud to the ground and stepping on it.

“Since everyone is up-to-date if ol’ Trigon, I think it is time for me to leave. And here call me, love.” Constantine said as he summoned a card out of nothing before giving it to Hawkgirl. He eyed her wings before disappearing in a puff.

Zatara huffed, annoyed, but he seemed rather relieved after seeing the unconcerned Constantine leave.

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After a while, some members of the Justice League, with Zatara in tow, retreated to a hospital not far from all the chaos. There were several doctors running around in a hurry as they attended to all the injured people. Although they were surprised by the heroes’ sudden appearance, they didn’t stop and continued in a hurry.

The members that came to visit Shallot consisted of Superman, Wonder Woman, Zatara, and Flash. The others continued helping to clear the streets for the emergency vehicles to increase their accessibility.

The three found Shallot tucked inside a bed in the infirmary, while Supergirl slept on a bed next to him.

“Will he be alright?” Wonder Woman asked with her hands clenched in anger as she looked at the cut-up Shallot. The clawed wounds had already stopped bleeding with the bandage on top of it, but that didn’t make the sight any better.

Any other man or woman would have been long dead by these kinds of injuries. They ran deep and would certainly leave scars behind.

“They both are going to make it...” Batman said without looking up as if he had expected their arrival. He continued to tap on a little tablet he held. He zoomed in on a live feed of some cells that seemed to shine golden for just a moment before returning to their initial appearance.

It wasn’t just an individual case. There were thousands of cells affected.

“Hey Bats, what is that?” Flash said as he peeked around Batman. He frowned slightly as he looked at the cells of Shallot’s back area. As a forensic, Flash had some knowledge about cells, but this was a weird sight that he couldn’t associate with any phenomenon he had encountered before.

Even the knowledge of some of the Meta-human cases could only make him guess at the cause with no evidence.

“I don’t know.” Batman then turned to Zatara, who consented to come with them in case they needed his magical experience. “Something magical we ought to know?”

Zatara let the tablet levitate in front of him before he raised his hands and performed some forms with his fingers before saying something in reverse.

“Real magic, that’s so awesome-” Flash stopped to rub his sides that had been elbowed by Wonder Woman.

After a short while with different sigils appearing from time to time, Zatara let the table float back into Batman’s hands. He hadn’t only targeted the tablet to gain information, but he had also performed several spells on the unconscious Shallot.

He held his chin with a frown on his face as he looked confusedly at the unconscious Saiyan. It took him a brief moment before he spoke up again.

“No. I can assure you that it isn’t magical in nature. Maybe it has something to do with his tail...? Though I don’t know if he is truly ailed by that particular curse...” He mumbled that last bit, but everyone here had enhanced senses and was able to understand him with ease.

“Ah, he is not from earth. His species is called Saiyans, and it seems like everyone has a tail. Maybe this here, his cells are the same. It is possible that it just has to do with his Saiyan physiology.” Superman said as he thought about the few instances he had observed his own cells. It wasn’t too far-fetched, or rather it was a given that alien physiology differed from the ones on earth.

Batman said nothing and left the room with the others in tow. He turned the tablet off before putting it away as they watched the two through the window in the hallway.

Zatara glanced through the glass at the unconscious man before shaking his head. “That’s probably it. He felt different somehow. It probably has to do with his race’s mystical or divine aspect of their culture. Maybe he was blessed, making him feel different from most beings.” He didn’t continue his words, but they were enough to let them know what he suggested.

Wonder Woman’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the Saiyan, wondering if he truly was blessed by the deities of his race as well.

...

The Justice League sat around an oval table with a hologram in the middle, displaying a middle-aged man.

“... for another topic of today is Giovanni Zatara. I nominate him for League membership.” Superman declared, which was met with an angry shout.

“Hell no! He tied me up just before the group battle!” A Shallot covered in bandages objected.

“Dude, you were already on your last leg. If he hadn’t tied you up, I would have knocked you out.” Flash said, trying to calm down the angry Saiyan at the round table.

“Yeah, and what good did that do? Kar- Supergirl and I were still taken away right under your nose. If I hadn’t escaped the rope, we two might have been dead, or worse, possessed!”

“It was made necessary because you didn’t want to admit that you couldn’t continue the fight.” Batman interjected.

“Made necessary? In the end, I came out on top, didn’t I?”

“You took care of one demon before passing out. Leaving Supergirl defenseless in front of another demon. You would have been a liability against the other 34 demons.” He stressed the point of there being 34 demons on the same level as the last demon Shallot had barely taken out at the end.

Their little back and forth was interrupted by Wonder Woman, “As a warrior, you should know when to retreat, especially with others being able to help you. There is no shame in relying on others. Teamwork is an important part of any battle.”

“... tch. Fine.” He crossed his arms as he leaned into his chair.

With the minor argument out of the way, the Martian Manhunter spoke up, “I agree to let Zatara join us. This incident had shown me that we need someone that would help us against the mystical arts.” With that, Martian Manhunter agreed to the nomination.

His vote held weight, as he was the one that had brought the others together in the first place. It had been to combat an immediate invasion, but that didn’t take away from him, basically dictating the initial lineup.

“Yeah. I agree as well. Without his help, we wouldn’t have been able to enter the city or fight off the son of Trigon. We wouldn’t even have found the underground cave this fast if it wasn’t for him guiding us.”

Superman nodded at that. Even with his x-ray vision, he wouldn’t have been able to discover it, as it was protected by a magical barrier, hiding the entire cave from prying eyes by making it appear that the ground was normal. It had already been difficult for Zatara and Constantine to find it in the first place.

It was only with the son of Trigon helping them that they had discovered it this fast. With that in mind, it was clear to the members of the Justice League that someone with a mystical background was needed.

One by one, the members unanimously agreed to expand the newly founded Justice League by another member if the one in question accepted their invitation. The Justice League hadn’t even formed for longer than a week, even after the disaster management of Portland, and the League wanted to welcome a new face.

Flash had asked if they wanted to invite Constantine as well, but Batman had told them he had already talked to Constantine and Zatara about them joining the team, which Constantine had rejected while Zatara would think about it first.

In the same breath, Batman had also voiced his concern about expanding the League too fast and that this should be an isolated incident for the foreseeable future.

After all, this team was new, and they had a lot to learn, especially on how to work together. If it wasn’t for this incident, Zatara might not have been invited at all.

“We put the discussion about Trigon on hold for now, at least until Zatara decides whether he wants to join us. Until then Shallot you should read the briefing about Trigon. That is all for today.”

The crowd dispersed. They wanted to hold these meetings monthly or even weekly now to keep everyone up to date. Of course, with big events like these, they were called upon more often to discuss together.

After everyone else left, only Superman and Batman remained in the meeting room

“Are you telling me what you have found out about Shallot?” Superman asked him calmly.

“It’s a hunch. Nothing substantial for now. I will let you know.”

“... Remember, we aren’t enemies. We are all collaborating to do good, even if Shallot is a bit reckless. He has the best in mind for the people.”

“Does he? He could have teamed up with Zatara and Constantine to contain his battle against Supergirl to a manageable degree, instead he spread destruction across the city.”

“He didn’t know if they could be trusted and he was highly emotional after knowing about Supergirl’s disappearance. In the heat of the moment, mistakes were made, but it was the best decision he could have made at that moment.”

‘You assume he didn’t know about Constantine and Zatara, but I found footage of a surveillance camera that filmed their initial encounter and it was obvious that he knew of them, at least of Zatara. Even knowing him, the first thing was to threaten them. It is clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to walk over bodies.’

Bruce thought this but didn’t speak out loud. It wasn’t time to throw around accusations like that. He had to gather more information before calculating the best move going forward.

‘The other members aren’t that different. Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter. They are all willing to go to lengths that will get out of hand quickly. We- no, I need to be aware of this and pay attention to it.

Superman will get defensive of them and treat me as an opponent while overlooking the hints that things could go wrong. One was raised on an island of legends away from modern society, while the rest are aliens with different cultures and norms. 

They all have yet to adapt to our society, to the people. I have to be aware of this and prepare for the worst.’ 

Batman strengthened his resolve as he thought about it. He knew the others wouldn’t have the heart to do what was necessary, but when the time comes, he was certain that they would acknowledge that this was the only, the best way to handle such a team.

This wasn’t a new idea he had come up with just now, but after seeing the devastated city that Shallot had taken upon himself to protect, he knew he had to speed up his plans.

“Maybe it was the best decision he could have made with his current understanding, but this team was founded to protect the earth and its people, so we wouldn’t end up in such a situation. 

It is obvious that Saiyans, as well as Thanagarians, seem to have a more brash and combative way of handling things, but sometimes diplomatic approaches are needed to de-escalate situations to prevent something like this from happening.”

Batman implored, and Superman could understand his reasoning and that he had something in mind. “What are you suggesting?” 

“We need to learn more about their culture. What they have experienced, what makes their race tick. Shallot at least seems to be rather open about it, so I am sure he would be willing to share his knowledge. 

This applies not only to these two. The same could be said about some of the other members of the League. One way or the other, we need to know our allies in order to work better with each other.

Maybe it will even save their lives because we aren’t completely clueless about them. Just like these golden cells that Shallot seems to be aware of. Although he said that it wasn’t anything to worry about, knowledge like this will be paramount in the future.”

The topic of cells was sensitive to Superman, especially after the failed cloning attempt of Bizarro, but he was able to see where Batman was coming from. They had to know how their partners would react in certain scenarios so they could make the best decision in the heat of the moment.

When he thought about this point, his thoughts wandered to some of the other members of the League. Mainly the Martian Manhunter, as he chose to isolate himself, but fortunately Wonder Woman was pulling him out of his slump. 

The princess herself seemed to do fine, as she had already begun to live among other humans.

Hawkgirl and Shallot were a bit brash, but their heart was in the right place. For all their seeming faults and escalation in combat, they were trying to do good.

With Kara’s affirmation, he knew that Shallot in particular seemed to have integrated adequately into society, except for his less savory ‘day job’. 

Although this approach could be seen as targeted information gathering instead of inquiring about a partner's life, Superman could see the necessity of it.

So, with a nod from Superman, they walked out of the meeting room together.

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