6.5

Location: London. Taxi cab.

Time: After Lunch.

"You would be Chas, I presume." I asked, rhetorically as I slid into the back seat. I could read his taxi license, but I already had his name, nickname and face from Fleur as a known contact for Constantine.

"That's me. Where to?" He asked blandly.

I pulled out a handful of British pounds. "Where ever I can find John Constantine." I pulled down my sunglasses. "Magnus would like a word with him. I hear you are his preferred driver."

"Shit." He said. "Look, I don't know where he is. He said something about France a few days ago an' then buggered off."

"Fine, so you aren't totally useless." I threw the cash into his hands and got out again, to float into the sky.

'Chas' got out of the car and yelled up at me. "What has he done to have your panties in a twist?!"

"Poked his nose in my business, what else." I grumbled, before bursting into flight. "Great, so where would a dark, magic using anti-hero go if he was looking into me?"

I grimaced, then made a bee line for the first few places I went to upon visiting Paris.

The villain run restaurant I went to in the early days is utterly silent as I stand in the doorway, despite being packed. I think a few guys pissed themselves.

I give them a grin that has more to do with a threatening show of teeth than any real humour.

"A shady British man in a trench coat came here, smoking his foreign cigarettes, called 'Silk Cuts'. He was asking about me. Who saw him last, who talked to him?" I asked loudly.

Several fingers pointed to a certain booth. I cocked my head, my smile turning positively feral. "I remember you! It's Crotchgun! And look, you're still doing it!"

He spat out a drink and hastily denied it. "No, I'm not!"

I wagged a finger. "No, see. You still have a gun against your genitals." He began to retort when the revolver in a holster under his armpit slipped free, levitating and moved lower, the hammer cocking with a click. "So tell me all about your little chat and perhaps, that gun doesn't misfire."

"You can't do this..." He began yelling frantically.

"I'm sure no one saw a thing, am I right? Alternately I will be forced to start inspecting each of you very vigorously in the future. Some of you really are starting to look familiar." I laughed as they resumed their meals, watching from the corner of their eyes and listening intently.

Ah yes, the fight went out of him when he realised he was the sacrificial lamb.

"Where is he now?" I asked.

"North Station." He replied in a despondent tone.

"Oh, yes I remember that place." I moved closer and patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. "So what did he ask about?"

"Lots of things, at first it was small stuff. If I'd seen you, when and how. Then he he started to ask really specific questions. I brushed him off and he walked out, one of my boys heard him hail a taxi and head to North Station." He replied.

"When was this?" I asked, letting the gun's hammer lower and dropping into his waiting hands.

"Less than twenty minutes ago, why?" He asked not quite understanding.

I jerked away, before feeling in my pocket for his bike key. I threw it to him. "Here, you can have your bike back. I parked it somewhere safe."

I floated toward the exit.

"Where? Where is my bike?!" He yelled.

I turned to look at him, laughing. "Get a good telescope, It should be visible soon. It's a full moon, I believe."

"What has that to do with anything?" He asked weakly.

"I had such negative feedback when I clamped it to the Eiffel Tower, I decided to park it up there, naturally. Free parking, beside the Sea of Tranquillity." I replied, before leaving. His expression of sheer disappointment would have given a sad puppy serious competition for most pitiful expressions ever. The guy was a shady as heck gang leader, I was more than certain he deserved this. He was running around armed, illegally. Or he's a fool and a poser. Probably both.

I head toward Constantine's objective.

Yes, I remember this place.

I drift down as I see him from behind drawing on the ground with a piece of chalk.

"You here to ask the dead about me?" I asked, making him jump.

He turned, eye glinting with a dogeared cigarette in his mouth. "Well look at this, you come to me. I was just trying to get a bead on ya, but this is just silly. Jumping at ghosts."

I shrugged. "They were dead long before they met me. I just made it stick." I gestured at the alley and street. "After all, they were merely vampires. You've killed worse."

The corners of his lips curved. "So you say. Well, we'll just see how squeaky clean you are, mate."

"Probably more than you suspect, after all the only people I've killed were already unrepentant killers." I replied, arms folded glaring. "So why the need to get all up in my business, even barging into my school for magic. I doubt there is much to teach you yet, we are very young. You'd be the most experienced person present, period."

"If you didn't want me, your guys shouldn't have let me apply." He returned with a chuckle.

"Yeah, because mind control is the first thing we teach how to detect. Too bad we haven't run any classes yet." I retorted.

"So whats with all the cloak and dagger, what does the grand bullshitting hero so desperately want me not to see?" He asked.

That threw me for a moment, before I burst into laughter. "Seriously?! That is all? I didn't want you anywhere near it, because you're cursed and destroy everything you touch. Yes, I know. You have a particular bloodline that has that problem. But beyond that, you are the eye of a gigantic cyclone of chaos. Wherever you go, everyone dies and whatever good you do ends up buried beneath a layer of your victims. You are a double edged sword."

"Huh. You know, you're right." He finally said. "If I was you I wouldn't want me around either. Curious how you know so much about me."

"I mean..." I began, before things went hazy.

I snapped out of the fog that was briefly over my mind, with an urgent tug from the ring on my finger.

"Huh?" I blurted out, realising he was gone. Goddamit, Constantine. He gave me the slip and he's probably still investigating me. Now with even more dedication, because I made him suspicious. This can only lead to more trouble.

I glanced at my watch and noted it was near time for the Justice League meeting. I made a quick stop at some of the better stores for some fine food before the teleporter locked onto me. Can't show up empty handed. How would that look?