A Hollow in DC

Chapter 22



With how the rest of my team members were gone and I was left basically alone at Mount Justice despite Red Tornado being there as our chaperone I just napped the rest of the day away until everyone got back.

Yeah, it turns out having a somewhat sentient machine watching over ornery teens isn't really effective as Red Tornado spent like sixteen hours a day hooked up to some kind of super internet cable so he could watch out for cybercrimes.

God I could just imagine some kid being a dick on Facebook or something and the next day Red Tornado turning up to your house and using his robotic voice to convey to your mother how he was being a bully and could be brought up on charges... Hell, just imagining Red Tornado listening in on Call of Duty lobbies and making some kind of naughty list of terrible children made me madly giggle.

"What are you laughing about weirdo?" Robin asked me as he sat on another seat aside from me as I was watching tv.

"Oh, I was just imagining Red Tornado finding those competitive game lobbies and having a robotic heart attack at all cursing and threatening the people do to one another without the context that it's just trash talk," I explained and Robin snorted before he froze and looked introspective.

"Well, he is from the forties... I might need to remind Batman to give him an update on modern slang and culture so Red Tornado doesn't think our entire generation is obsessed with sleeping with our enemies mother."

After a bit more talking with Robin as he was the first one back, after just getting up from his late-night patrol of Gotham I asked him if there was any news of importance.

"Huh, any news?" He pondered before shrugging. "Well Batman picked up a kid off the street and is being trained to be another Robin in a year or two as I plan on moving on from being Robin and we have been talking about striking off on my own when I hit fifteen- sixteen." He explained casually.

But I on the other hand was frozen briefly with indecision as I realized instantly that the new Robin being trained was Jason Todd. Arguably my favorite of all Robin's especially when he becomes Red Hood. But would I allow him to be tortured by the Light and their cronies after they throw his corpse into a Lazarus pit to be revived after the Joker kills him in canon?

I mentally sighed as unless I wanted to just go to Gotham and kill the Joker, I had no real way of stopping what was to come, but then again this was literally years in the future so worrying about it for now did nothing except give me anxiety.

"Huh, you don't feel like you are being replaced?" I lightly teased Robin making him scoff.

"Yeah, let me be replaced Haha." He laughed before he took a drink and continued to speak. "As a puny little human going through Batman's training, I can very clearly say that I have no problem if someone else is willing to take Batman's attention off me a bit."

'Well, that's fair enough.' I thought as I recalled how Batman was a very hands-on teacher and in other words, would kick the crap out of his Robins as he trained them to be ready to brawl with the evils of Gotham

-

Once the whole team was back in the mountain Red Tornado made a surprise appearance from his room and had us all gather together.

"Hello, young heroes." He spoke in his kind of scratchy robotic tone that was similar to listening to high-volume bass music out of a pair of headphones you got from a dollar store. "I have a mission for you of a more personal nature. I ask that you all go to Salem Massachusetts in order to check on my longtime friend Dr. Fate. We had an appointment a couple days ago but unusually he hasn't responded to any forms of communication sent to him."

"Seeing as it's not an official mission and it's in a single place you all can take the Zeta Beam teleporter as his home is rather close to one." Red Tornado continued and I saw Miss Martian slump in her seat at not being able to fly her 'baby' across the world.

The Red Tornado's voice took on a more solemn tone. "My old friend is very old and could very well have passed so beware the wards of the Tower of Fate. It will not tolerate insult."

Yeah, insulting the tower that's thousands of years old flooded with magic, and tied to Dr. Fate that gained some sentience over its long existence sounds like a terrible idea.

"Thank you for the warning Red Tornado," Kaldur spoke as he stood up and the rest of the team followed his action. "We will get going then."

We then left Mount Justice through the Zeta Beam teleporter and just as I expected Kid Flash began making noise about not believing in magic to appeal to Miss Martian and Artemis.

"Wait so you have seen Wonder Woman's lasso, right? Or hell I am a literal walking an example of the supernatural Kid Flash." I said with incredulity in my tone as I honestly thought with my presence that he wouldn't be as much of a tool and basically think I was lying about being a spirit.

"Well, it's just that there is no scientific proof of your existence beforehand and with how sensors can't really lock onto you we can't rule out that you are simply dimensionally displaced and that's why most people and machines cannot see you." He said weakly as though he was making up his shit on the spot.

"Kid Flash I can literally take you to Hell. Remember that offer from before? That wasn't a joke. I can literally at this very moment open a portal and we can all go to Hell and fight semi-immortal demons that want to eat or torture our souls into a power source for themselves." I said seriously and for a moment I considered just opening a Garganta in the middle of this empty night street to prove said point, but I decided not to.

"Kid Flash, magic is very much a real thing. Atlantean magic is a very real thing, and you see it every day when my tattoos light up and even Miss Martian's people have shamans capable of using some magic."

"Yes, the shamans of my people are highly revered even if there is so few of them," Megan explained and I recalled the absolute monster that was the Martian Sorcerer Supreme that was the reason why the Guardians, the race of aliens that created the power rings messed with the Martian Race to make them weaker as they were more dangerous than Kyrptonian's with their powers.

"Well, I don't believe in it alright! I won't believe in anything I cannot calculate and understand through science!" Kid Flash finally snapped after being put on the spot by us and I kind of got what he meant, as with his intelligence he was able to figure out the Flash formula and recreate it giving him his mentor's powers.

"Enough! We are here." Robin said as we reached the field where the tower was supposed to be.

"Sooo, where is the tower then?' Kid Flash taunted and I wanted to just kick him but as I was repeatedly sending out my Pesquisa I felt the presence of three very potent souls behind us.

"A test of faith," Kaldur muttered, and then out of his pocket, he pulled out a large golden key that Red Tornado gave us in case we needed to enter the tower if Dr. Fate would not respond to us hanging out on his property.

"Kaldur wait," I called out making him stop and then I turned around to the invisible group of three people behind us. "I can feel your chaotic filthy taint. Come out now!" I yelled as I flared my spiritual pressure and as the air began to vibrate you could clearly see a sort of large air bubble in the vibrating air that was resisting my pressure before the invisibility field popped like a balloon.

"Oh phooey! You aren't any fun at all kid!" A voice yelled yet out and as the field of invisibility collapsed, I saw among the bound form of Kent Nelson and the charlatan Abra Kadrabra, was the one entity on Earth that I truly saw as a threat to my life.

"Klarion the Witchboy," I said as my spiritual energy ramped up to its fullest even making my teammates stagger away from me as they knew if I was taking this so seriously that only Superboy and Kaldur could possibly help me. "Stay out of the way all of you... His Chaos magic will unmake you with none of you having magic resistance, nor can he be conceptually killed or captured due to his alignment with chaos being ever-shifting." I explained.

"Wow kid you really know your stuff... But what is a baby demon doing on the side of angels I wonder?" He mused before bursting into insane laughter as he pets the demonic-looking cat that was his familiar and binding him to this plane of existence.

I didn't say anything as I honestly thought playing dumb to the cat's importance was better so I may be able to get a Cero off to kill it in the middle of battle.

"Bah what does it matters but hey for being so contrary to demons I will tell you what newbie... I will let you live today, Haha!" Klarion cackled as he obviously loved seeing what he thought to be a demon, a force of evil working for good which fitted his chaos alignment. "So, you the little fish brat that should have never been born when I sunk Atlantis gimmie the key or I will turn you into hermaphrodite dolphin." He said pointing to Kaldur.

"Get Doctor Fate inside the tower and have him or someone else put on Fate's helmet," I ordered making my team flinch as I Sonido'd into Klarion's personal space and sent a Bala-infused punch straight into the Chaos Lord's face with the explosion separating the trio and allowing Kid Flash to run forward to grab the weak form of Kent Nelson and take him into the now appeared tower.

"Get them, you faker!" Klarion screamed at Abra Kadraba as I was blasted back by a crimson river of energy from Klarion's outstretched hand sending me flying through the air and through several trees before I could roll to a stop.

"Damn, they got away," I muttered seeing how his accomplice went into the tower to obviously contest getting the helmet and Klarion's familiar that bound him to Earth was nowhere to be seen.

 

 

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