Devil's consultancy 19

Tanya didn’t, strictly speaking, know exactly how Bruce’s infiltration of the delegation went. She did, however, know that the Thanagarians now had a bunch of hostages, and were proudly proclaiming the capture of the Justice League with the patrols that were enforcing the Thanagarian martial law. 

“So what now?” Static asked as they looked at the Watchtower’s screens. It was in lockdown now, with a powerful shield protecting it, and as the station was no threat without the Javelin, which is the name Diana gave the shuttle, the Thanagarians had merely put in a picket force with a complement of Thanagarian marines that was ready to invade the instant the lockdown ended. 

If she was limited to the Zeta tubes, this would be a problem, as the shields blocked that method of transport. But she wasn’t, so it was fine. Tanya was using her teenage form, but she had taken a step she should have taken sooner than she did: she was wearing her ‘hero’ uniform, an armored bodysuit and mask that evoked her demon form but with a Batman-style cloak to conceal her hair and keep things fashionable. “Well, we have time to figure things out.” Tanya said, because she didn’t really have an idea, per se. 

Gear was going through the computer system, his enhanced intelligence allowing him to absorb the data available quickly. She was still keeping an eye on what he looked at, but she was pretty nervous that he could slip something past her. Note to self: get Diana to check him afterwards. “Okay, so… I think I know how the Thanagarians were able to beat the Justice League.” He said, unsure. 

Wait, that’s the- “Why was that even accessible from here!?” Tanya shrieked as she saw Batman’s contingency plans displayed on the screen. 

Victor hummed. “I see. So there were contingencies in the database for if someone decided to become a villain. Not cool.”

Beast Boy, who had stopped paying attention a while ago, snapped to attention. “What? Who would do such a thing?”

“Batman, looks like.” Static said, pointing at the Batman logo on the top of the files. “Also, Devil Girl already knew about them.”

“Call me Rhine, you know this.” Tanya idly corrected, before sighing. “How did you find those? I didn’t think they’d be on League servers.”

“I did a keyword search for things like ‘mind control’, ‘evil clone’, ‘betrayal’, but what actually worked was ‘weaknesses’.” Gear explained, “It was password protected but I’m using your credentials, so…” He trailed off. 

Tanya’s eyes narrowed. “How did you guess my password?” She asked. It was a random set of five dictionary words that she changed out every three months. Easy to remember, but you’d crash the servers trying to guess it even if you did manage to bypass the lockout timer. 

“I didn’t.” He said quickly, clearly terrified of her wrath, as he should. “There just wasn’t an additional authentication step to access these.”

Ugh. “Okay, data security audit is now on my to-do list.” Tanya said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Robin, remind me when this is over.”

“Got it.” Robin said firmly. Batgirl was still in Gotham, because she wasn’t able to escape the occupation force’s lockdown. 

Static looked at the thirteen year old weirdly. “Hey, how old are you, anyway? How’d you get Batman to take a kid to fight crime?”

“After the eighth time he tried to go out and fight crime on his own, Batman tried to buy time by setting unreasonably high academic and physical targets.” Tanya said idly, “Then the boy met them.”

“Where were you during this?” Static asked. Virgil had matured quite a bit since he became Static, and he was not particularly comfortable with being the oldest boy present. 

Robin looked like he was going to say something excessively honest, so she magically silenced him and said something instead. “A lot of defensive spells. Most of the time, Batman had me play babysitter when he was allowed to participate.”

“Hey!” Robin said after the silence spell faded. “We were equal partners on those patrols.” He insisted. 

What a lovely selective memory. “Sure we were.” She said dismissively. “Personally, I’m not a big fan of the whole vigilantism thing, but I’m not about to let the fool get himself killed when I can stop it. Either of them.”

“Wait, so you treat Batman and Robin the same way you treat us?” Beast Boy asked.

Tanya winced. “Focus.” She said instead, “Now, do we know where the League is being kept?”

“I think I have it.” Gear said, gesturing to a scanner display of one of the Thanagarian ships, a distinctive model that appeared to be a prison ship. “They should be kept here.” He said confidently, using the mouse to highlight the section. “Well, this is where Green Lantern’s kept, at least. Flash, too. Not one hundred percent with the others, but everyone who was at the Gobi installation should be with them.” An alert pinged as scan results were presented. “Oop, there’s a red sun generator on board too. Superman’s there.”

“Good. Now find out which ships captured the other Leaguers.” Tanya ordered. 

“You got it, boss lady.” Gear said as he cancelled the other ongoing scans and retasked them to other ships, then resumed hacking the Thanagarian network. 

A phone app opened, with an anonymous user. “Anyone here?” Barbie’s voice came out. Gear gave a startled yell at the intrusion, nearly falling off of his chair. 

“You’re going to be helping me plug this security vulnerability.” Tanya said icily. “What is it, Batgirl? Rhine reporting.”

“Oh good, I wasn't sure if it was still here.” Barbie said, relieved. “They updated the camera’s security, but neglected… don’t worry about it.”

Tanya bumped Gear out of the way and connected the call properly with her credentials. Barbie was in the Belfry, suited up. The camera for video calls in there was pointed directly at the service elevator behind her, and the area was kept mostly clear for exactly this purpose. Well, they normally were, anyway. Barbie had not properly docked the Batcycle, and she had started to undress immediately after leaving, so her motorcycle jacket and shoes were also visible in the frame. “It’s past time we set up a proper connection in the Belfry, anyway.” Tanya said idly. “Robin, put it on the list.” The boy saluted to affirm. 

“Wait, your base is called the Belfry?” Static asked. “I thought it was called the Batcave?”

Tanya gave him an unimpressed expression. “The Belfry is not the primary base.” Tanya explained, having decided that not answering would be a bigger distraction. “It’s a forward operating base in the middle of Gotham, easier for her to get to.” She gestured to the computer. “Now, Gear: the call’s only taking up one monitor, go back to work.”

“Right, right.” Gear said, resuming his task. 

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Barbie asked. 

“I would also like to know the plan.” Victor added. 

“The Thanagarians are equipped with Nth metal.” Tanya explained, “Which is strongly anti-magic. This means that large swathes of my usual arsenal are limited. So I cannot, for example, just teleport into the ship and break them out. I could try, but I’d rate my chances poorly.” This was also why, she assumed, Constantine, Dr. Fate, and other sorcerous members of the League had not yet acted. “Batgirl, go to Gotham University and find Professor Blood.”

“Professor Blood?” Beast Boy asked, “Are we recruiting supervillains now?”

“Dr. Jason Blood is an esteemed member of the University’s faculty.” Tanya said, defending her ersatz magic mentor. “More importantly, he has his own bound demon, another rhymer by the name of Etrigan. He should be able to help, and as he isn’t a member of the Justice League, Shayera couldn’t have instructed the Thanagarians to ambush him.” As the 18-year-old Batgirl was currently a sophomore at Gotham U, she was well-suited to navigate the place. “In the Wycliffe building, his office is room 481, if he’s not there take one of my catalysts and crush it nearby, Etrigan will naturally investigate the spill of demonic essence in his territory.”

“Got it.” Barbie replied, all business. “What do I tell him?”

“Just say that Batman’s been captured and Rhine is requesting help to free him.” Tanya said, “I’ll brief the both of you when the rest of the plan is ready.” She ended the call. “Now, there’s one more source of recinforcements we can potentially tap into, but we’ll need to go elsewhere. Gear, Victor, you two keep at it here.”

“It’s Cyborg…” Victor grumbled as she left, Robin and Beast Boy following. Mas y Menos had already gotten themselves captured trying to fight the invaders on their own. 

“So where are we going?” Beast Boy asked, curious. They entered the main elevator. 

Tanya took out a device from her utility belt and ejected a contact from it, sticking it into a slot that was discreetly concealed among the buttons. A spark came out and the elevator started to move. “We need to go to Wonder Woman’s room.” She said simply. 

Beast Boy did not like that answer. “Uh… are you sure we should be doing that?” He asked, nervous. “Won’t she kind of… kill us?”

Robin scoffed. “If she kills anyone, it’ll be Batman for putting in a backdoor that lets him enter the room in the first place.”

Tanya heavily suspected that Diana would be more annoyed that he didn’t use it more often. “Nevertheless, Diana has allies that we should be able to contact. We’ll just need some of her keepsakes if we want them to pick up the phone.”

“How would-” Beast Boy began.

“The phone is a metaphor.” Robin said immediately. “She’s talking about the Gods.”

Before Beast Boy could probably freak out over the implications of that statement, the elevator opened back up to the Founder’s private suites, and Tanya walked forth with purpose to Diana’s room, which was the second on the left. She touched the contact of the device to the palm scanner, which caused it to turn off, took out a tiny screwdriver, removed the panel, and then touched the device to a spot inside it. It turned back on and opened the door, and she passed the screwdriver to Robin and gestured for him to fix it before walking inside the amazon’s room. 

Diana kept her space pretty clean, but it also had many decorative items on the walls. Weapons, armor pieces, shields… which would be best? She took a horn off the wall, and sniffed it. Smelled like wine, so… Dionysis. No. She put it back and picked up a bow. She strung it, and… yes, this will do. “Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. This bow strung of moonlight, danger and wisdom shining bright. With this string I pluck a note, sound resounding as we float, danger unique, not by rote. I call for aid, we are afraid, your champion’s caught, so please help a lot.” She plucked the bow’s string, sending out a note that thrummed with power, an offering of magic to bridge the gap between here and Olympus. 

A man blurred into the room from outside, and slowed to a stop. He was wearing a toga and a helmet that conformed to his jawline, but left his face visible. “You’re lucky the Fates warned us of your plea, or else that crappy prayer wouldn’t have done spit.” Hermes, Messenger of the Gods, said in an annoyed tone. “Okay, so before you say anything more, yes this is the kind of thing that the Gods are actually supposed to handle, so you can pay us back afterwards. I hope you know some good sculptors, because we’re going to want some statues for this.”

Tanya nodded firmly. “A reasonable demand. I’ll make the arrangements myself, there’s a rather large cathedral in Gotham that’s been closed down, I’ll buy it up and convert it to a temple honoring the glories of Olympus.” They already own it, actually. This was a contingency that Batman had prepared before, in the event that they needed to quickly appease one of the gods. 

“You get it.” Hermes said, pleased at her reply. “Now, deliveries: Apollo sent this.” He tossed her a vial of sunlight unlike any she’s seen before. “Give that to Superman, it’ll endow him with protection from the stuff he’s not already too tough to care about.” Excellent. “Zeus’ll throw one bolt at your direction, just break this little token to catch his attention and call out the target. You can use that to break into the place Diana’s trapped in.” He passed her a little golden lightning bolt. “Didn’t expect anything from Erebus, but he sent this.” He gave her a cloak that was as black as powdered midnight. “It’ll give you a little extra boost, I’m sure you can figure out how to use it, demon.” 

“Dude, who’s Erebus?” Beast Boy whispered to Robin. 

“God of Darkness.” Robin whispered back. 

“Woah, we’re even getting the bad guys?” Beast Boy asked. Robin slapped the other boy upside the head. 

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Hermes said, annoyed at the boy. “Moving on, Hestia’s going to bless this place to keep it safe, and Artemis gave that bow an extra blessing, get it to Diana and she’ll be able to use it.”

“I know a bit of Kyudo.” Tanya said, remembering those three months in middle school. 4th place at regionals… it was a girl’s sport anyway. “I could also bring in Green Arrow...”

“You do that.“ Hermes said, unconcerned. ”Last one: Athena wrote out a battle plan, use it and be assured victory, yadda yadda yadda.” Hermes pulled out a pair of scrolls and handed them over.. “The second one is the list for tributes, don’t keep us waiting too long on those.”

“Construction crews will be tricky to get quickly after the invasion, but sculptors will be much less busy.” Tanya said, “I’ll get the statues and shrines started immediately and put them into a museum while the temple gets worked on. Diana will be able to get some good references, I imagine.”

“Oh yeah, one more thing:” Hermes said, “Be sure to tell Diana to report back to Olympus after this is done, she’ll need to pay this back too.”

“Of course.” Tanya said, bowing respectfully. “I thank the Gods of Olympus for their assistance in our hour of need.” That puts them way ahead of Being X. Yes, they had a lot in common with the guy, but she’s not going to let her own personal feelings get in the way of military aid. 

“I accept thanks in the form of libations.” Hermes said, “Ciao!” He ran out of the room, vanishing into the ether. 

Tanya shoved most of the items into her pocket dimension, with the sole exception of the battle plan. “Okay, what does the Goddess of Wisdom have for us today?” Tanya asked as she walked back to the elevator. 

“Hey, is there anything else we should grab here?” Beast Boy asked, “Like, does Batman have a spare utility belt in his room?”

“We do not have the time to run a four hour course on utility belt usage, Garfield.” Tanya said, “Without memorizing what’s in each pocket, you’re better off not having one.” Spending ten seconds or more trying to find what you’re looking for is a pretty good way to end up dead. Or captured, at least. 

Beast Boy made a disappointed noise. “Robin, help a guy out here.”

“Athena’s plan has you delivering the vial of sunlight to Superman.” Tanya said, “So put this in your pocket.” She passed him the vial. “Just pour it down his throat. Or Supergirl’s, if she’s there too. You can split it between them as well.”

“Sweet!” Beast Boy exclaimed, happy to be included. He put it in his bodysuit’s pocket. It was created with an integrated DNA cloth, so he could shapeshift it away and back. Tanya didn’t really understand how it worked, but apparently, carrying things like that put a sizable limit on how small he could go, but the vial was magically reinforced, so he could still shapeshift into anything with a large enough stomach to hold it. 

By the time they had returned to Gear and Static, Etrigan was on the call with Batgirl, on what appeared to be the GU campus, using the Batcycle to conduct the call. “These aliens like angels dare to conquer, their futures can only be darker.” Etrigan said as Tanya showed up. 

“Okay, here’s the plan.”

-----------------------

Long distance teleportation was much easier as a cooperative venture, with two practitioners at each end, with it being even easier for one of the practitioners to be called through the magical connection instead of making a stable portal. The fact that both of them had identical means of generating the effect, demonic rhymes, made it so simple Rhine could probably have still crossed the distance if they were on Mars, much less simply in orbit. 

“If we wish to make it there, we need to wait for the craft in air.” Rhine said, floating up on top of a light pole so she could see when the Batplane arrived. Fortunately, Bruce didn’t take it when he went to the party. 

“Your words are clumsy, demon whelp. You should have taken my offer of help.” Etrigan said condescendingly. 

“Do you know why demons have to rhyme?” Robin asked the demon. “Because it’s still silly.”

Etrigan snorted. “I would not tell you if I knew, and if I did it would not be true.” Wise words. 

After another half minute of awkward silence, the Batplane slowed to a stop above them, cloaking device still active. Tanya wordlessly gripped everyone with telekinesis and phased into the vehicle. “Welcome back, Miss Rhine. I must say, that new cloak suits you.” Alfred said from his position in the pilot’s seat. “Master Robin, you still don’t have your license.” He shooed Robin away from the copilot seat, and Rhine slipped into it. 

“You have a butler!?” Beast Boy said in awe. Alfred was wearing a Batman cowl, but he was otherwise dressed normally, with his suit. 

“Buckle up, everyone.” Alfred instructed, and most of them obeyed. “You too, Mister Etrigan. We’ll be going quite fast.”

Etrigan visibly weighed whether or not to listen, and sat down onto one of the chairs. Rhine telekinetically buckled his seatbelt for him. 

Now secured, the Batplane abandoned stealth in favor of speed, because while it could certainly fly fast enough for city work while the stealth field was activated, traveling to the other side of the planet is another matter entirely. “Bogies, I see. Missiles, I set free!” Rhine declared, unleashing the ordinance against the Thanagarian ships that had moved to intercept. 

“Their next breath heralds their death!” Etrigan shouted, channeling magic power to enhance the accuracy of the missiles. All four ships were mission-killed, although she noted that there were survivors; they just prioritized their wounded over pursuit. Smart, given that they couldn’t keep up if they tried to pursue. Nth metal armor was powerful, but not that powerful. 

“How many missiles do we have?” Victor asked. “There’s no way we’re not gonna run into more before we get there.”

“Ordinance in store, we have but one more.” Rhine said ruefully. “The autocannons will suffice, if in our way they seek strife.”

“The cargo hold has additional missiles, Miss Rhine.” Alfred pointed out, “If you could use your magic to load them?”

“Our missiles are stowed, but now we reload.” Rhine intoned, magically teleporting the Batplane’s spare missiles into place. 

“More!” Batgirl shouted, pointing at the radar display. 

Unfortunately, Batman just didn’t keep more than twenty missiles at any given time, so they ran out before they actually reached the command ship even with Alfred having thought to have Harold put them all in the cargo area. 

The good news was that they were able to reach the prison ship without needing a twenty-first missile. The bad news was that the ship had a dozen fighters (which, unlike the patrol vehicles that were retasked for air superiority, were basically just single Thanagarian warriors in power armor that boosted their speed, durability, and firepower) sortied from the relatively nearby command ship to protect it from the Batplane, and they had a massive shield projector protecting it “A mid-air war over a shield, how nostalgic a field.” Rhine quipped as they phased out from the Batplane and entrusted the plan to the others. “Mighty Zeus, let your wrath loose!” Rhine snapped the golden lightning bolt token, and pointed straight at the command ship. “Break the shield, so that the enemy will yield!”

Now, the prison ship was high enough in the air that it was above the cloud cover. That didn’t matter, as a massive lightning bolt shot upwards, shattering the shielding, and probably destroyed rather large portions of the more delicate subsystems, from the explosions that wracked the surface. It was still able to fly, though, so Rhine engaged the Thanagarian warriors to delay them, allowing the Batplane to enter the prison ship unmolested. 

Of all the things that they had forgotten, this was not one of them. “Bring back my favored gun, recall the memory on the run.” A black metal copy of their favored submachine gun formed in their hands, and a spray of bullets created from dense magical energy primed to convert into physical phenomena flew at the formation of Thanagarians. They worked exactly as intended, the bolts of energy decohering into explosions as they impacted the anti-magic Nth metal armor’s energy fields. 

“You’re fighting against the inevitable!” One of the Thanagarians shouted as he thrusts his Nth metal spear at them. 

“You who seek to conquer our sky, are fools to think we’d lay down and die.” Rhine retorted as they swung a wing, converting the strength of the swing into pure kinetic energy attached to a dense metal slug that she brought out from her pocket dimension. It impacted the Thanagarian’s helmet, creating a rather loud ringing sound as it dented. The warrior fell, which caused another one of them to break off to rescue the fallen one from the fall. As before, wounding your enemy took out twice as many foes as kills did. 

There was an extended dogfight, Rhine alone versus a dozen warriors, just like old times. Unfortunately, just like last time, they were unable to win against such long odds. They managed to wound five of them, which forced four of them to carry the wounded out, but those last three managed much better coordination and finally scored a hit with an Nth metal mace, scrambling all of their magic and sending them down. 

The Thanagarians caught them before they could hit the ground, although Rhine had lost track of specifics, and they were then brought onto the prison ship, which was… currently in chaos as Static, Etrigan, and the rest were still in the process of fighting the guards. 

At this point, Rhine had recovered enough from the Nth metal that they could probably fight their way out of the Thanagarian soldier’s grips, but they decided to play dead, as it were, and kept pretending that the Nth metal shock from the mace had scrambled their thoughts more thoroughly than it actually did. They still had a pretty big headache, anyway…

Rhine was brought past the combat and into what appeared to be the prison room, with several Justice League members trapped in individualized cells. Superman and Supergirl were in a cell with a red sun generator, Diana was tied up with her own lasso of truth, Batman was thoroughly secured, the Flash was prone in a tube that appeared to have some kind of gravity field inside, J’onn was in a stasis field, which was wise, while John and Green Arrow were… in an ordinary cell without their equipment. Dr. Fate was wearing an Nth metal collar, and had his helmet removed. Kent Nelson was the man behind the mask, in this case, and he seemed thoroughly nettled that he was the only one who was unmasked deliberately. 

“Rhine!” Batman shouted angrily when they came into view. 

Diana, on the other hand, looked directly at the cloak of darkness that was still draped around their body. “Calm down Batman.” She said evenly, “She wouldn’t be here if she was injured badly.”

“Get another mage collar.” One of the incoming soldiers ordered the one remaining guard. 

“As I’m interred in this institute, the shadows of gods provide a substitute…” Rhine whispered as their consciousness seeped into their shadow. The collar wrapped around the demon form’s neck, and the cloak of Erebus dissolved into a wave of shadows that swept the entire room, providing just enough distraction to let Rhine jump into Batman’s cloak. 

The hero’s heart was beating frantically, but as their shadowy presence wrapped around his shoulders, hanging with nearly but not quite imperceptible weight, he calmed down as the Thanagarians shouted angrily to the air, demanding that Rhine reveal themselves. 

Athena’s plan was only barely holding together, but such things never survive first contact with the enemy; now it was time to improvise.