155: Prelude to Darkseid War.

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(General P.O.V)

The Titan's tower lay in ruins.

The attack had happened suddenly and without warning.

One second Jaime and Garfield had been playing video games, then the next the wall on the left had exploded inwards.

"Beetle!"

Jaime called out. Within a split second, his body was covered head to toe with the Scarab's armor.

No sooner had he done that, when something had sped out through the dust covering the place.

A crossbolt. It slammed onto Beetle's left shoulder and exploded. Jaime and the Scarab both let out a bloodcurdling scream, as the explosion ate through the armor and his flesh.

"Beetle!"

Beastboy cried out, then his gaze turned to where the crossbolt had come from.

Another sped through the air. Thinking quick, Beastboy shifted into a fly. It's huge compound eyes and numerous lenses allowed his reaction time to be enhanced as he flew forward, dodging the bolts easily.

The dust had already begun to settle enough that Beastboy could see who was responsible.

A tall figure wearing a purple and yellow costume that was decidedly from the era of the Italian Renaissance.

They had with them a gray crossbow that folded itself into a high tech gun.

"I see you little insect."

Kanto said with a chuckle, before pulling the trigger on the gun, sending red bolts of energy lancing out towards Beastboy.

Beastboy for his part flew up, evaded all shots as much as he could before winding back.

Next he shifted forms into an elephant, falling towards Kanto while aiming to squash him under his weight.

Only for another figure to jump over Kanto and deliver an earthshaking punch, smack in the middle of the Elephant's head.

Beastboy fell back into his human form, striking the floor with a loud impact and lying next to Jaime, passed out.

"Kanto, let us hurry up and find the girl. Desaad has taken the left wing, we should regroup."

Lashina, one of the female Furies told Kanto, Darkseid's chief assassin.

"But of course my dear. But first don't mind if I help myself to a few bites."

He said, walking towards a bowl of chips.

"Ugh."

Lashina sneered, crossing her hands together.

"How you can stomach the food from this backwater rock is beyond me."

Kanto stared at her with something akin to pity.

"You have no idea how much you're missing out. Backwater it may be, but the cuisines and elixirs of this world are second to few in the wide universe."

"Just finish up and let's go."

Lashina acquiesced.

(Elsewhere)

The left wing was in similar disarray to the lounge.

The only difference was that Desaad hadn't given the heroes time to adjust.

Para-demons poured out of the Boomtube in an endless stream. Bolts of green energy decimated a dozen of them but more simply took their place.

"Give up children."

Desaad addressed Nightwing, Starfire and Robin who were hiding behind an overturned table.

The former two had been enjoying some private time when out of nowhere, a Boomtube had manifested right in the middle of their bedroom.

Were it not for the intervention of Robin, both of them would have been taken down fast.

"We can't fight them unprepared. We need to fall back and strategize."

Starfire said, unleashing more of her energy attacks at the Para-demons.

"They've somehow jammed the communications. I can't seem to reach the League, not to mention anyone else in the tower."

Nightwing answered.

Battarangs cut through the air, digging onto the arm of a Para-demon that had crept up to their side. The Para-demons entire hand exploded, sending a spray of green blood out.

"Running is not an option. This is our base, we cannot afford to lose it. Hiyah!"

Robin yelled, jumping out of cover, landing on the bed in the room and unsheathing his blade.

Then he made another jump.

At the apex of his second leap, his blade slashed out, cutting off the Para-demons wings.

"No! Robin get back here!"

Nightwing yelled harshly, before sharing an exasperated look with Starfire.

"Is he usually like this?"

He asked, grabbing his Eskrima sticks.

"I told you he barely listens to anyone."

Starfire said with a shrug as she got up, blocking the energy attacks shot at them by the Para-demons.

"That looks like the head Honcho."

Nightwing observed, eyes falling onto Desaad.

"Maneuver 7?"

Starfire questioned.

Nightwing accepted with a nod.

The Tamaranean, grabbed him by his costume, spun and threw him straight at Desaad. Nightwing's Eskrima sticks swung out towards Desaad's sneering face.

Only for a crossbolt to tear through his left thigh and send an electric shock through his body.

Nightwing cried out as the streaks locked up his body functions. The last thing he saw was Starfire's panicked expression.

"Dick!"

Starfire yelled, taking to the air, only for another Crossbolt to smack right into her back.

"Two for one. Today is my lucky day. Well, everyday is my lucky day. Let's see of we can make it three."

Another Crossbolt shot out, this time headed towards

Robin.

The youngest Titan blocked the bolt with his blade before jumping back and creating distance.

His face was twisted into anger after seeing Nightwing and Starfire get taken down by cheap shots.

The situation was different now. Dire. If he got captured, the League would not know what had happened here.

Loathe as he was to admit it, he knew what both Starfire and Nightwing would want him to do.

"I'll kill you."

He promised Kanto, before throwing down smoke bombs to cover his escape and disappeared.

(Elsewhere)

Raven was in the shower, enjoying the hot water as it hit her back and washed away her exhaustion and worries.

It felt good to not have to constantly have to think about keeping in control of her emotions.

Losing her father was the single greatest thing that could have happened to her. She chuckled to herself. That sounded so bad when taken out of context...

Still, just because her father was gone didn't mean that everything was perfect. There was Grail to contend with.

The Amazonian New God as she had introduced herself was the strangest person she had ever met.

She had this steel like resolve yet contained within her a sort of excitement that could only belong to a child.

But then she would say something and you would realize for all her 'simple' thinking, Grail always considered every thought logically.

It was endearing and frustrating at the same time. But again she was-

Someone grabbed her by the neck. Raven's heart skipped a beat and she was ready to pull on her magic and destroy whoever had the nerve to...

"Shh!"

Grail whispered from behind her.

"Don't make a sound. They're here."

(Davian's P.O.V)

Following Black Adam's death, his soul was forever trapped in Limbo.

It would take time for his essence to reform as the Demonic lightning had effectively reduced him to nothing.

Speaking of,

The streaks of gray lightning cladding my body made me feel energized, my skin buzzing with power.

A part of me had loved killing him.

That part was the one influenced by the sins.

I could feel them all.

They wanted more. More death, more chaos, more depravity of the highest order.

I turned my gaze to Constantine.

"And then there was one."

I growled, freely unleashing my killing intent.

Constantine stumbled as the air around him grew heavier. Breathing became hard. Whether it was due to the Sin's influence or not, I didn't want to just kill him, no, I wanted to make him suffer.

Relish in his screams of torment for what he'd done.

I floated down gently with the grace of a god.

'You are one.'

A part of me whispered in affirmation.

'Always have been...'

'always will-

"That's enough."

Chase spoke, his voice booming out and cutting through the haze in my mind. I blinked, looking around.

What had just happened?

And why did I have Chesha Neko pulled slightly out of it's sheath?

"We have a problem. The Sins are influencing your emotions."

Chase told me.

It wasn't like that possibility hadn't been there when I'd taken the risk. Chase and I had theorized that due to my uniqueness, I could maybe control the sins.

Clearly that had only been half true.

"Did you find a way to perfectly fuse their abilities into me without any side effects from scanning Black Adam?"

I questioned through our mental connection.

The Seven Deadly Sins were polar opposites of the gods. In a way that ensured that they were also very similar.

The gods symbolized different aspects of the world. For example, it could be the four elements or a particular concept like Demeter who was the god of Harvest.

Another example was Hephaestus the god of the forge, who Nick's memories informed me had created some of the most powerful weapons and artefacts in Greek mythology.

And in the same way, the Sins symbolized the prime immoral practices. Though they were mostly entrenched in the Christian religion.

Both groups could bestow abilities to their hosts. The difference between Adam and I was that, I had taken the Sin's powers by force. In other words, while I had achieved my objective, it wasn't a perfect fusion.

Not like Black Adam.

I was banking on Chase's potent sensing abilities to figure out how to deal with their influence on my emotions.

If anyone could figure it out, it would be him.

"I might have an idea but it will take time to plan everything out. In the meantime, don't use any of the sin's abilities."

He said and immediately after, I felt him retract back into the inner world.

In reality our conversation had only taken up barely a second.

And in that second, Constantine had gone into pant-shitting terror.

(General P.O.V)

"Bloody hell mate, if you're going to do something, it would be preferable you do it before we both die again!"

Constantine beseeched Trigon, body tensed for a fight.

Trigon gave no answer.

"How the great have fallen. John Constantine, Wizard and Exorcist extraordinaire, reduced to begging that which he hunted before for help."

Davian mocked, floating to the ground.

"Yeah well, whose fault is that huh? You sent me to fucking hell!"

Constantine shot back.

"Only after you tried to stab me in the back like a hundred times."

Davian snorted,

"But I guess that little detail slipped your mind."

Constantine narrowed his eyes.

"Job Hazard. Get over it. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices."

"Mmh sure. Easy to say when you're not the one making said sacrifice."

Davian spat back.

"Though I'm sure your time in hell has allowed you to reflect on your actions. Don't make me kill you again because of your attitude John."

Constantine blinked.

"Okay mate, time out then. You seem to have a proposition."

Davian smiled.

"Indeed I do. You help me out with something and I'll consider the debt between us fully paid."

The Reaper offered.

"And how do I know I can trust you?"

Constantine asked.

Davian raised his eyebrows. 'He' was worried about getting betrayed? How ironic.

"How about this, I kill you right now and send you back to hell instead?"

Davian offered with an impassive stare.

"That won't be necessary mate. I believe you. I was just looking out for number one."

Constantine quickly backtracked, raising his hands.

Davian stopped before him, his face hard.

"Well, here's some advice for number one."

He started in a no-nonsense tone.

Before Constantine could react, Davian's Zanpakuto had left his sheathe and slashed out.

The magician blinked, taking a step back, only to bump into something. He turned around and found the corpse of a Devourer that had been creeping up on them.

He hadn't even sensed it.

"Don't fuck with me this time."

Davian added, pressing Chesha Neko's tip on the exorcist's jugular.

"Alright. No mind games. I promise."

Constantine gulped.

"Just, could you please get your incredibly sharp blade off my neck?"

There was a tense moment when Constantine thought Davian wasn't going to let him live. Then the sword retracted.

Davian snorted sheathing his blade.

"Let's get out of here before the commotion attracts something worse than a devourer."

The Mother-box in his hand pulsed as he sent his will within it.

"What's worse than this thing?"

Constantine enquired, staring at the dead creature at his feet.

"Limbo is in some ways like Hell. Which means it's got prisoners and most of them are powerful assholes that will attack you just because they can."

Davian answered.

A yellow vortex appeared before them, created by the Mother-box.

"This should...huh?"

Davian paused, neck whipping to one side as he stared at something off into the distance.

"Someone is watching us. Excuse me."

'Shunpo.'

His speed instantly allowed him to close the distance between him and the eyes he had felt on them.

He appeared behind a woman wearing a torn up white costume. She also had short blond hair that was bleached under the Phantom Zone's dim light.

"Who are you?"

Davian asked.

The woman immediately turned to him and he got a full look of her front. The costume she wore had the unique feature of a boob window on her chest, and her ample chest almost threatened to spill out of her cleavage.

She had a curvy figure with toned arms and legs. Clearly a fighter.

She was one of the most beautiful women Davian had ever laid his eyes on. Her beauty was on par with Grail and Wonder Woman.

She was also very familiar. According to Nick's memories, this could only be Power Girl. A parallel version of Supergirl from the main DC universe.

Of course Davian had no context. Earth 16 only had Superman. There wasn't a Supergirl as far as he knew.

Someone with her looks definitely wouldn't have flown under the radar.

The look in her eyes showed exhaustion and wariness.

"I told Zod I wasn't going to join his little band of sickos so he sends the two of you?"

Powergirl asked.

"HUh?"

Davian tilted his head in confusion.

"Fine then. I guess I'll just have to beat you to a pulp as a message to leave me the fuck alone."

Powergirl spoke up again, then with a yell, she brashly advanced on the Reaper.