Chapter 24

“FELIX FAUST!? What, was Wotan and Klarion busy!?”

Constantine winced as the magician continued to explode on the british drunkard. It was quite amusing really. It was like watching a kid get berated by their parent for doing something stupid.

“…As a matter of fact, Zatara, Wotan was busy. What with attempting to block out the sun and all that rubbish.”

Zatara’s mouth opened in disbelief, before closing his eyes and pacing once again. Really giving off the impression that he was seconds away from exploding on the guy. Whereas Constantine seemed to only furrow his brow when he noticed there was no more liquor in his silver flask.

“…You said you gambled against him, correct?”

Constantine nodded.

“Yeah, he played a mean game of poker.”

“…You know he probably cheated, right?”

“Yeah, and he cheated better than me.”

Zatara gave Constantine a looked that seemed to question his intelligence before blinking for a few seconds.

“…Did you win anything from him?”

Constantine nodded before pulling out his flask.

“Yeah. He said it’s an unending flask of booze but it was all bollocks.”

Zatara immediately snatched it out of Constantine’s hands, causing him to complain a bit as he was annoyed. Zatara simply gave him a look, which caused Constantine to immediately back off.

Hmm, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this guy was afraid of Zatara. Interesting. I was starting to learn the power levels around here…

“I’m going to take this and maybe even give it back…” Constantine seemed less annoyed at that before Zatara continued. “As long as you’re still here when I get back. As well as telling me where exactly my other STOLEN artifacts went.”

He nodded at that before Zatara turned to us. The Titans. Alright, I was starting to see what was going on here. He gave us a much more mature and serious look than the one he had just used with Constantine.

“Children, Felix Faust is an ancient evil sorcerer bent on coveting any power he can get his hands on. And his hands are on the Jewel of Pandemonium. The Jewel will bestow its champion with the power to usher in an age known as the Kali Yuga. Which will see the end of this world. He must be stopped at all costs.”

Alright. If he was trying to pump up the Titans, he was doing a damn good job of it. Personally, while I wasn’t all that excited to fight someone trying to end the world, I was absolutely willing to stop them. I fucking live here, dickhead.

Though I got to say, the fact that he thinks of us as children and is still asking for our help was pretty amusing. Though I guess not exactly outlandish for the Justice League.

“Which is why you should lock your doors before I leave. For the next few hours, simply try to keep yourself as safe as possible.”

…Alright, He’s lost me. And according to everyone elses face, he’s lost them too. The only one’s who didn’t seem surprise was Raven, for obvious reasons, Galatea, likely because she didn’t care, and that dark haired girl.

“W-what? I don’t understand. Why did you need all the Titans?”

Robin asked in a confused tone. To which Zatara was all to eager to supply the answer.

“I need someone who I trust and is strong enough to help keep my little girl safe and sound while I’m gone. I would keep her at home but…she’s gotten pretty good at sneaking out.”

Ah, so that was he daughter. She seemed pretty annoyed at the attention she was getting from her father. Showcasing that she was none too pleased with him.

“Well maybe if you let me actually live life a little and make friends with people who are actually my age, I wouldn’t need to.”

“Ah, there, you see? Am I not already fulfilling one of those requirements? These children seem like fine playmates.”

“…Playmates?”

Robin spoke out in clear confusion. As if struggling to understand what Zatara was saying. Zatara’s daughter rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else before Zatara proceeded to turn his attention back to the Titans. Giving Robin a bell that would summon him in case of an emergency with his daughter, as well as two hundred bucks for…pizza.

Hahahaha, holy shit. This dude really thinks we’re just a bunch of glorified baby sitters, doesn’t he? Hahaha…It both pisses me off, and is extremely funny to me. Currently, the funny part is winning out.

Then Zatara proceeded to leave. Leaving the Titans just standing there in disbelief.

“…Well, that just happened.”

Cyborg commented, obviously not sure what else to say. Everyone else was simply scratching their heads, ambivalent, embarrassed, or completely stunned like Robin. These guys just made it too easy.

The British guy walked up with another flask, but this one was an emerald like green. And was apparently also empty, much to his dismay. He sniffed a bit, scratching at his five-o clock shadow that was starting to get out of hand before looking at Zatara’s daughter.

“So…how old are you again?”

She wrinkled her nose in disgust, causing him to back off with his hands raised.

“Woah, I didn’t mean it that way love. Not trying to get Zatara on me any more than he already is. Unless…how old are you again?”

It was probably the alcohol talking, but that was still a little creepy. Mostly just due to the way he was speaking. There was an age gap, but it didn’t look too big…I think? He seemed young at least. Early to mid-twenties at the latest.

I clapped my hands in order to get everyone’s attention.

“So…who’s ready to save the world?”

That got a chorus of smiles. Cyborg brought up his arm shifting it into a sonic canon with a smirk. Raven gave a calm nod. Starfire smiled. Robin looked away with a frown, something was bothering him. Beast Boy fist pumped the air. Exclaiming “Heck yeah!”. Aqualad crossed his arms and nodded. A small smirk plying at his lips. Kid Flash gave a two-finger salute. Galatea…seemed to be focusing on something else.

And Zatara’s daughter was sporting the widest smile. Saddling up next to me with her hands on her hips.

“I’m already starting to like you guys.”

I nodded at her.

“So…any bright ideas on how to follow Zatara?”

“I can probably use the same spell dad was going to use to track down Faust.”

…Alrighty then. Problem solved. Robin then strode up to the two of us and nodded. A much calmer expression on his face, but still a bit guarded. Something was bothering him.

“Alright. We’ll go with Zatara, but we’re going to need a couple of people to stay behind to look after Zatanna, keep an eye on the man-bat creatures in the city, and…the containment cells.”

Zatanna audibly was annoyed at this. Booing Robin straight to his face before walking up to him and frowning.

“I’d like to see you even try to stop me.”

…I liked this girl already. Robin put up his hands before looking over to me for support. Unfortunately, he was going to be left hanging.

“Come on Robin. She’s our only lead to her father’s location.”

Zatanna’s eyes widened before nodding along. After a few seconds Robin caved and allowed her a spot on the team. Only thinking to ask afterwards if she has had any experience in being a superhero.

“Nope!”

Hah. I could at least appreciate her honesty and boldness. Robin on the other hand seemed to cringe. Mumbling about how he was already regretting this decision. In the end, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Aqualad were to stay behind at the tower in case of an emergency and to keep an eye on Blackfire.

Me, Robin, Starfire, Raven, Galatea, Kid Flash, and Zatanna left for the mission.

Zatanna used the bell that Zatara had left in order to track down her father. Upon doing so, she then proceeded to open a portal close to his location. Well, that was certainly convenient, and also extremely different from Raven’s kind of magic.

Zatanna’s seemed…much more convenient. More utility focused. Which was very convenient. After a discussion on how we would investigate and walk around, we started to walk through the portal. Robin, Raven, Galatea, Kid Flash in front of me, while behind me was Starfi-

I blinked in surprise as I felt a hand grope my ass right before I walked through the portal with the others. Looking behind me, I just saw Starfire giving me a casual smile. It wasn’t a seductive smile that promised sex, nor a flirty or mischievous one. She was just…smiling with a wholesome look on her face like usual.

Jeez…I hadn’t really expected her to do something like this in public. Thankfully everyone that was still here had their attention turned elsewhere-

-except for Zatanna. Whose eyebrow was shot up and the smile on her face threatening to split her face.

Well. That’s awkward as shit. I blinked a few times before going through the portal myself. Upon which I was greeted to the rest of the Titans who were waiting on us. In what seemed like…a castle?

“Didn’t realize we were going to Hogwarts.”

I commented, causing a few chuckles before brushing off my pants and cracking my neck. A few seconds later Starfire and Zatanna arrived. Leaving the portal behind them to close.

Kid Flash did his thing and scouted around with his super speed before leading us in the direction he thought was correct. In doing so, we were greeted to a large wide spanning room that looked like an indoor coliseum. In it, Zatara was fighting with some guy who looked like he was Mongolian.

A massive flock of birds surrounded the two of them as they fought. Zatara pulled out playing cards that when thrown seemed to explode. Whereas his opponent who I assume might be Felix Faust summoned a portal that quickly started to pull everything around it into it. Including the cards.

That seemed way cooler than any of our fights to date.

I would have watched more if Robin didn’t push us onward. Instead of helping Zatanna’s dad who really didn’t seem to need it, we continued to look for the jewel. After several minutes of searching, we finally came across a room that had several pedestals and statues within. It looked like some sort of trophy room.

Jack-pot.

Zatanna then proceeded to point out where the jewel of pandemonium was. Causing all of us to carefully walk over to it.

Only for the three gargoyle looking statues around us to start cracking and come to life.

“Halt.”

“More playthings…hehehe, master is so generous…”

“The master will become the harbinger of a new age. You cannot stop the inevitable.”

The three statues called out, barring our way to the pedestal. They were all pretty large in scope, as well as different looking from each other. Only two had wings for one. The third instead had a bunch of spikes on it’s back. Of the ones that had wings, one only one also had a tail.

“Ugh…demons.”

Zatanna called out with a frown.

…Wait…demons were real? What the fuck? Did…did that mean angels were real too? Was there a hell? Because that likely meant there was a heaven. Oh wow. I think my worldview was shaken there for a second.

“What a scrumptious looking morsel. I will save that one for las-“

“Got it!”

We all blinked. Including the demons who slowly turned around only to see Kid Flash with the jewel in his hands. After a few seconds of pausing they hissed and all proceeded to jump at him. Causing him to run once again in order to avoid them as they barreled through countless pedestals in order to get to him.

Unfortunately for Kid Flash, he eventually became boxed in, forcing him against the wall as well all quickly approached.

“Catch!”

Kid Flash threw up the shiny red Jewel, causing the demons to scramble in order to catch it, only to be much too late in doing so. Instead, it was a flying Galatea who caught it. Much to the displeasure of the demons.

“You…bitch!”

The one with wings and a tail called out before jumping at her. Galatea’s eyes hardened before she met the demon head on. Her fist crashing into it’s head, rocking it back in it’s place. The other two demons attempted to jump on her too, only for the one with spikes to be grabbed with black energy, and the one with just wings to be wrapped in a large coil of rope.

…It was really convenient to have two magic users and a kryptonian.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t subdue the demons completely. As the one with spikes let a few of them loose and blasted them out of his body. One of which grazing Galatea, causing her to lose focus and get tail wacked for her trouble.

Causing a red jewel to be thrown from her hand…and into Starfire’s.

The demon bound by ropes got his wings free, and quickly flew up and smashed into Starfire. Only to quicky eat a series of punches from the same Tamaranean. He then decided to spear her in the air and attempted to drive her into the ground with himself.

Before he did however, Starfire threw the jewel once more.

This time at me. I almost completely fumbled it before catching it squarely in my hands. At the same time Robin and Raven’s dance partner with the spikes eventually broke free of his black prison and immediately started to hurtle towards me.

Well, that was unfortunate.

I wasn’t sure if most chemicals worked on demons, and I definitely didn’t have access to any holy water. Which meant I needed to get the hell out of the way. Fortunately, Raven was already way ahead of me, and condensed her dark energy into a hand that grabbed and proceeded to squeeze the demon. Much to his frustration.

Behind me, the floor started to creak and shudder. Before Finally opening and revealing…another demon. One that looked extremely similar to the one with wings and a tail. Yet this one had some sort of metal looking binding around its body.

“…The jewel…”

It reached down for me, only for to eat a Starbolt that tore right through its head. Turning it to mulch.

Only for it to deform into a brown substance and remodel itself.

Oh shit. That’s not a demon. That’s fucking Clayface.