44 Pride cometh before the fall
(Batman POV)
Heat, flames, wailing, sadness, pain ... everything all at once pressured me right now. Evil all around and hunger in every being's eyes as I stood there ... naked and alone.
"Look at that ... fresh meat.", the evil spirit says as he approaches me. I have just arrived here and I am already not happy. On the contrary, I am livid right now. An emotion I don't feel normally, because there is no reason to. I am always ready otherwise.
For some reason, this happened.
I was not expecting this. Imagine that. I was not expecting something. Well, it's not entirely correct to say I didn't expect it, more like I didn't expect it to come to this, in this way. I calculated the chance for this happening to be lower than 1.e-10^1000%. But it still came to pass and that's not something I'm proud of. And yet, I can't happen to relish this new challenge.
.
(Flashback - how it came to this)
A few months passed since Mother's Day and I was still going at it cleaning Gotham from filth and inventing new things. It was one of those moments where I thought I should finally create a magical battery. I still had Dr Thomas Wayne or Dr Hurt captured who had fused with the Hyper-Adapter inside an Evil Spirit Containment Box.
As usual, I took the necessary steps to make sure that in the worst-case scenario, everything would be contained and nothing bad would happen. I began creating the construct of which I would siphon off the magical energy the ESCB produced. For this, I used materials which channelled magic energy, so it turned into a bit of a treasure hunt. I contacted Zatara about some of the materials I needed or thought I needed. Even though he was suspicious and wanted to know why I needed these things, he was able to either give them to me or tell me where I would likely find them.
So after working hard for two days, that's counting the time it took me to get all the materials, I was finally finished and could begin the process of firing it up and creating my magical multipurpose gun.
[Picture]
I placed the ESCB in the correct spot and then activated the machine. The energy began to flow into the wood and other materials I had slowly. The energy flowed through the structure like electricity would inside a cable. After that, the energy entered the specific container I had, which would power the gun and the process was finished. It took only a few minutes to do after all that time of collecting these materials. I hoped that I would get to use them again in the future.
.
I called KGButler, as he was called now, and we went to perform one of the things that I wanted to do but didn't have the time yet. I was going on a magical hunt to use the Multipurpose magical gun. KGBeast was no more and now only KGButler was left. That day, I didn't even need to torture the man, he was far too broken already and I managed to get the same result with intimidation alone.
Since then, he has done my taxes and a few other things I need him to do. He is like the Butler I have on the outside of the house, while Sebas is the main one who takes care of the mansion and me.
KGButler and I went through Gotham and either captured or killed any and all 'Evil Spirits' that we came across. I call them 'Evil Spirits' because there are so many different types that I lost interest in memorizing the different names. They're all the same to me anyway, so I just call them 'Evil Spirits'. It works better with my 'Evil Spirit Containment Boxes' as well. I don't want to rename them after all.
Now the real reason why I was going around Gotham like that, was to find a certain someone. A young man about 25 or 26 years of age has been visiting Gotham in the last week and causing some chaos by fighting a certain Evil Spirit. I don't like that at all. This is my city and if he wants to do anything here, he better consult me first. He is a tricky one and he will cause even more problems in the future.
.
KGButler walks through a particularly dark alley and reaches the end where a single door is located. The door has a sinister vibe to it, but KGButler just walks in. He is here for a purpose and he will do it, even if it kills him. He has a special device in his hands that is supposed to help him capture this man whom they are going trying to capture and interrogate, before throwing him out of Gotham.
The further he walked into the building, the darker it became and he finally reached the room that I told him about. KGButler didn't even think twice about it and only entered. There he was met with a gruesome scene. Multiple people were lying dead on the ground. Blood was everywhere and a lone man was sitting on a chair. He was watching KGButler as he entered.
Just before he could do something about that though, a magic circle appears on the ground and a blonde man in a trench coat appears. He is a magician from the looks of it.
"Now now now slow down there my friend. There is no need to do something so foolish and throw away your life is there? How about you put the cheap replica away and get out of here before you hurt yourself?", the man said with a thick Scottish accent. KGBulter didn't listen and wanted to attack the man sitting on the chair, but he didn't get that far.
"Oh, you're not going? I guess I'll have to deal with you in a different way then, mate.", he said and suddenly KGB was bound with magical ropes.
"Why would you do something like that? Are you out of your mind? It seems like you're sane enough, so then why?"
I chose that moment to enter the room. I appeared behind the man. I then used the magical gun and shot at him. He noticed something just in time to block the attacks and retaliated. But nothing was working as I cancelled them all out and finally bound him as well. He was similarly bound as he did with KGButler.
"Who the bloody hell are you?"
I chose that moment to come into the light. And as soon as he saw me, his face paled considerably. I didn't say anything for a moment.
"John Constantine, what are you doing here?"
"What are you asking right now? I was obviously hunting this-"
"I know that, but this is Gotham. You don't just come here whenever you please. Gotham's mine, I take care of it. You have a track record of causing chaos either knowingly or unknowingly. I ask you to leave."
"... Are you serious? What even is that? I didn't know the Batman knew magic."
"That's none of your business. Now ... if you come here again and cause a mess like that in my city ... I will hunt you down, I will find you and then I will break all the bones in your body. Are we clear?", I said with a very deep voice.
I was displeased with the shit he pulled here. He might have been hunting an Evil Spirit, but he messed things up further and caused more to come here, instead of reducing the numbers, he increased them. And that just wouldn't work for me.
.
I didn't know that this would be the thing that caused me to get a visit from a very nasty person. I was sitting in the salon and drinking my tea when the room suddenly got colder. The next moment, the doorbell rang and I was surprised. No one came here without me knowing. The security cameras of all kinds would tell me beforehand and make it so that I knew who would come.
Sebas knew that at this time of the day, I would not have anyone in my house, so he was about to shoo them away. Imagine my surprise when my instinct and warning senses proved to be correct and a very handsome man with a walking stick came into the salon, followed by Sebas. I looked at Sebas and knew that something was wrong, his eyes didn't have their usual clarity and his gait was off a bit. He was too stiff.
The blond man was smiling as he saw me and sat down in front of me. He acted like he lived here and then thanked Sebas when he got a cup of tea as well.
"Thank you Sebas. You can go now, we would like to be alone for a time.", the sweetest voice came out of his mouth and all alarms rang inside my head. Millions of different possibilities ran through my head. How to escape, how to beat this man, why he was here and why now. But the chances were so slim, that I gave up on it for the moment. I waited for the man to speak.
"That's a nice house you have here, Bruce."
"What did you do with Sebas?"
"Nothing much. Just a little bit of convincing to let me in, after he didn't want to let me in. How rude. Everyone wants me in their homes, I have been told."
"I doubt that. What do you want?"
"I think the question is rather ...", the man leaned forward and looked me in the eyes. His eyes began to glow red and twinkle for some reason, "... what do you desire?"
"..."
"..."
"... Eh, I make my own stuff."
"W-what? What did you just say?"
"I make my own stuff. You can leave now, thank you very much."
"This has never happened before. How curious. So there is nothing you desire?"
"Who said that? I make my own stuff. Are you not hearing well?"
"You're very arrogant ... no you're not. You're overly cautious. How peculiar. I have never seen a human such as you. That makes me even more interested. Constantine was right when he said that. I'm glad I decided to come for a visit."
I narrowed my eyes at that name. constantine told him about me. This changed things. I might be in grave danger right now.
"Truly fascinating. You know the situation you're in right now, but you're still not scared ... Your trust in your capabilities is truly immense. But you are arrogant in that you believe that you would have managed to do this if you didn't have your intellect. That is what gave you your advantage. That and the loads of money."
"Are you expecting an answer to this?"
"I'm saying that you wouldn't have managed to get here without those things. What do you think?"
"I think that what you're trying to do is called reverse psychology. You're trying to make me refute your claim and then want me to prove it. And you didn't invent it and neither did your daddy. Bugs Bunny did."
His eyes started to glow dangerously and with power. I knew what I said would provoke him, but that was the idea. There was only one way out of this situation and that was for him to believe himself in control and then take the very narrow way out.
"Oh? Did you not hear? Pride cometh before the fall. It would seem that you haven't learned that just yet. Allow me to teach it to you. But this time, without any of your tools to help you.", his voice became an echo and I was beginning to float and then ... he shot me through a portal.
(Flashback end)
.
This leads me to my current situation. Standing in front of hundreds of Evil Spirits ... naked.
"Tell me ... do you lads bleed?"
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Oh my.
