He was met with silence and the very distant sounds of fighting going on deeper in the magically altered building. Peter scanned for anything he could use to trace Kaine with and saw a small tickle of blood leading away from the small piles of window shards

Peter's lenses narrowed at this and slowly began to follow the small trail of blood towards a wounded and likely very pissed off Scarlet Spider

Peter couldn't help but sigh at the last part 'I really need to get him some anger management techniques or better yet get that guy laid!'

Peter snorted at the last thought as he followed the small trail of blood left behind by Kaine while also keeping a lookout for both the mercenary mages that haven't been killed or subdued and whatever this mysterious artifact is. After wandering through the buildings halls for a few minutes Peter finally came to a door that had a bloody hand print on it. Peter's eyes narrowed as he carefully pushed the door open to see Kaine leaning against a shelf while spitting out some blood

"There you are" Peter said as he watched Kaine tense before glaring over his shoulder at him "Now that we've both gotten the urge to hit each other beaten out of us, you mind telling me why you're here and better yet how?"

Kaine eyed Peter for a moment before he spat another glob of blood out and pushed himself off the shelf he was leaning on "Don't know how I got here, one minute I remember being used to help resurrect Kraven and dying then, boom. I'm waking up in some random ass cellar in the middle of some glowing ass magical circle surrounded by a bunch of these wizarding nerds in glorified bath robes"

Peter's eyes narrowed at that "Did you happen to see who it was that resurrected you?"

Kaine snorted at that "No not really, the moment I could move however, I attacked them and tried to get the hell out of there before they made me their enthralled bitch and use me to open some weird looking container they had…"

"Considering that your helping these guys, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you didn't get away in time" Peter said before he a slight tremor in the building

"You'd be right in that regard…the bastard in charge here had just released me from whatever the hell it was that was controlling me not even seconds before Frank showed up if I opened that artifact thing he had"

"Do you know what is is?" Peter asked "The artifact that these guys wanted you to unlock"

Kaine thought it over for a moment before he shrugged "No, but whatever it is…kind of glad I didn't get the chance to open it. Even more glad that good old Frank getting too close to the artifact's first location caused the leader of these assholes to send me after him without even bothering to place his control spell back on me

"Then why did you attack Frank if you didn't have to? Why not just sneak passed him and get the hell out of here?" Peter asked with a confused frown

"You really think I forgot that time he shot me in the back and nearly crippled me?" Kaine responded with a slight growl "I promised him that I'd get him for that, just wish it was on that one instead of this Frank, but beggars can't be choosers"

"As for trying to kill me?" Peter asked as he felt another tremor vibrate through the building

"I wasn't going to kill you Peter…I don't have that big of a death wish, I just wanted to kick your ass is all" Kaine said before giving the equally wounded wall crawler a knowing look "Plus I don't think the world would last long against…'it' running around"

Peter was about to comment on that when another tremor racked through the building and caused both men to tumble painfully to the ground

"The hell is going on down there!" Kaine hissed in pain while Peter groaned

"I don't know…but somehow I think it was Constantine's fault" Peter replied before he heard a dark growl and both men turned to see multiple Hell hounds approaching them "Uh nice doggy…"

Kaine hissed at them before he sent several of his venom blasts at the hounds that barked and growled in pain and anger and were forced back.

"Ha! Not so big and scary now are ya" Kaine gloated before he and Peter heard an even louder and darker growl emerge from behind the small pack of Hell hounds and gaped at the new arrival

It was a Hell Hound but this one possessed three wolf like heads rather than the Rottweiler like ones the regular Hell hounds possessed and was nearly twice the size of any of he the others. It's chest and under side were hollowed out exposing a skeletal structure that was filled by hell fire and seemed to drip from the large demonic beast

It's three pairs of glowing red eyes zeroed in on both Spider-man and the Scarlet Spider and growled loudly at the injured men

Peter gave Kaine a blank look "You just had to tempt fate, didn't you?"

"Was hoping that your 'Parker Luck' didn't rub off on me or at the very least stayed dead" Kaine said with a slight shrug before he shot another venom blast at the three headed Hell hound and leaped to the ceiling just as one of the heads spat a stream of flames at the red and black spider

Peter barrel rolled out of the stream sent to him by the other head and quickly stopped a smaller Hell hound from trying to sink its teeth into his neck and used it as a sort of make shift shield against the onslaught of flames from the hellish dog

"Thank god Jameson isn't here to see this" Peer said to himself before he threw the charred and still living Hell hound at the three headed monstrosity "I can already imagine him claiming that I'm some animal abuser"

"Jameson is still around?" Kaine asked from the safety of the ceiling as he watched the Hell hounds converge on Peter. Dick move to not step in and hell on his part yeah, but he'd be lying if watching his genetic template suffer in some form or fashion wasn't a bit amusing and satisfying to him

"Worse he's the mayor of New York City" Peter yelled as he kick a Hell hound away and webbed another to the floor and barley avoided another stream of fire from the three headed Hell hound by leaping over it "Also why the hell aren't you helping me?!"

Kaine shrugged "I'm still kind of pissed that your wife bitch slapped me into a damn window!"

"First of all she's not my wife anymore" Peter said as he sent numouers web lines towards the largest Hell hound's heads to keep them from trying to roast him alive

"Ha!" Kaine laughed "What happened, she finally put that Wisdom of Athena to use for once in her life and decided she was better off without you? Guess she didn't want to end up like that blonde girl Grace or whatever the hell her name was"

Peter felt a spike of rage rush through his system and in a rather uncharacteristic show of rage grabbed one of the three heads of the Hell Hound and snapped it's neck before delivering a literal bone crushing kick to it's side, sending the now two headed Hell hound flying to the wall and through it

Kaine watched this all with a hidden smirk 'Heh, still too easy to rattle his features'

If there's one thing that Kaine has come to learn about Peter over the years since his 'birth', it's that only five things can ever really set him off under the right circumstances. The first is the death of his Uncle Ben, the second is the death of Gwen Stacy, the third is the death of Kid-Arachnid, The death of his clones/brother and sister Ben Reilly or Jessica Drew, and the final one is insulting Diana in any way and he just did two of those

Peter took a calming breath before he shot a glare towards Kaine "Time's like this when I realize why your death didn't really bother me as much"

"Aww I'm hurt" Kaine said as he dropped from his perch on the ceiling and landed on a Hell hound, crushing its skull under his strength and holing in the urge to yell out in pain as he felt one of the cracked bones in his leg finally snap

Peter heard the injury and was about to point it out when the building suddenly shook again, this time causing Peter's spider-sense to flare

'The hell?'

…

Five minutes' prior…

…

"Get out of the dam way!" Frank yelled as he sent several shotgun blasts towards a small pack of Hell hounds that snuck up on him and Nick a few moments ago

"Those bullets aren't going to work on them" Nick said in an annoyed tone as he blasted away a Hell hound with a beam of ice "Unless those bullets are coated in holy water, all there do is piss these guys off!"

Frank ducked under a Hell hound that tried to pounce on him from behind and blasted the snarling monster in the head at point blank range, causing the demon dog to let out a yelp of pain as it backed away from the gun wielding vigilante

"Doesn't mean it can't hurt them" Frank said as he quickly backed against the wall and reloaded his shotgun "Can't can you make these things disappear with those fancy spells of yours?"

"Oh sure, let me just take the ten seconds I would need and stand perfectly still around a bunch of rabid hell hounds with only a powerless man with a few fancy guns to keep me safe" Nick said in a sarcastic tone and kicked a hell hound away and into another before he formed a small ball of ice in his hand and was about to throw it when he was knocked to the ground from behind

Frank saw the hell Hound standing on Nick's back and was about to try and shoot it when another Hell hound, the one he shot in the face moments ago, bit into his arm and dragged him to the ground

"GAH!" Frank yelled as he started to punch the flaming dog in the face in an effort to get it to let him go

The Hell hound growled and sunk it's teeth in deeper before it started to try and tear the man's arm off. Frank gritted his teeth in pain and tried to pry himself free only for another Hell hound to land on his chest and force him on his back. The Punisher was greeted to the drooling maw of a large Hell hound that was eying him like he was a piece of bacon

"Ah hell…" Frank said as he saw the dog lunge for his throat…only to be blasted off him by a woman in a top hat with mystical energy gathering around her hands

Zatanna gave Frank a brief look before she sent several beams of energy at the Hell hounds around and Nick and blasted them away from the mage. The hellish dogs turned their attention towards the newcomer and were about to attack when they were all suddenly incased in scarlet balls that then just as quickly shrunk down to the size of pennies

Zatanna was taken back by this action and looked to see Wanda approaching them with a unimpressed look "You were taking too damn long…"

The mistress of magic felt her brow twitch at that comment "I'm sorry but if I stayed put like you suggested then my boyfriend would be a bleeding corpse right now"

"Oh, like the world will end without the 'Great and Powerful Nick Necro' in it" Wanda said with a snort before she looked down at Frank with a raised brow "Who are you?"

Frank pushed himself up with a groan and reached for his shot gun "The Punisher"

Wanda had to hold back an amused grin "That's a very…interesting name…"

It was then that Constantine joined them "Oh it looks like I got here just in the nick of time"

"Yeah in time to kiss my ass John" Nick glowered at the man as he was helped up by Zatanna "What took you so long anyway?"

"Well it's kind of hard to come to one's aid when they don't tell the other's where the hell he is!" Constantine sent the man a look of annoyance "Be grateful that the Witch here could see through some of mystical illusions that were placed on that tunnel we followed you through or you'd be filling the gullet of a very happy Hell hound"

Nick's brow twitched at the man before he looked towards Wanda and gave her a stiff nod "Thanks-"

"Your illusions could use work Necro" Wanda gave the man a blank gaze before her gaze flickered to a still living Hell Hound. She formed a whip of scarlet energy and wrapped it around the startled hounds throat before giving a strong yank towards her which caused a loud 'snap to echo through the hall followed by the sound of the now dead Hell hound's body hitting the floor

"What are you on about? What illusions?" Nick eyed the woman before him

"Those illusion spells weren't casted by the mages here" Wanda said with a shrug "Tell me, what kind of para military mages guild uses illusions that can easily be negated if known prior to attacking instead of actual traps that I noticed were already sprung?"

"A smart one" Nick said with an eye roll

"And yet these men and women have yet to show any real intelligence outside of making this damn building a pain to navigate through" Wanda said with a glare

"Are you saying that Nick placed those illusions back there to slow us down?" Zatanna asked Wanda with a look of disbelief

"Well he did sneak off without letting any of us know where he was going and seemed to be working with trigger finger here…" Constantine said stepping forward and nodding towards Frank who eyed the man with annoyance "Nice gun by the way, you pick that up from the toy store"

"Why don't you come over here and get a closer look" Frank said as he held up the weapon

Zatanna ignored the two bickering men looked towards Nick with an unsure expression on her face "Nick, did y-"

"Look we can talk about this later. Right now we still have the artifact to recover-" Nick began only for Constantine to interrupt him after he made a rude gesture with his hand towards the skull symbolled vigilante in front of him

"Oh for fuck's sake Nick are you still on bout that? Even if we do somehow get to it, what makes you think Spider-man will even let you keep it?"

"What makes you think he'll want it?" Nick asked with a raised brow

"Because I'm giving it to him and if he won't take it I'll take it somewhere so that others won't be able to abuse it" a woman's voice spoke up and caused the group to turn and see Wonder Woman herself approaching them "What no hello? I'm insulted"

"Saying hello implies we are happy to see you or even want you here Princess" Wanda said with frown as she folded her arms across her chest

Diana saw the woman that was eyeing Peter the other night and narrowed her eyes at her "And may I ask what you're doing here?"

"No, you may not" Wanda said with a glare of annoyance

"Oh this is bloody brilliant" Constantine muttered quietly to himself before he loudly clapped his hands together and gained everyone's attention "Okay look, the artifact from what I can tell is just down this hall-" he pointed in the original direction that Frank and Necro were traveling towards "-So how about we find the damn thing, kick the piss out of the guy who's in charge of these people and we can all go home, sound good?"

Frank didn't respond as he finished loading his shot gun and without a word headed down the hall. Nick and Zatanna soon followed along with Constantine leaving Wanda and Diana to eye each other with a look of annoyance before they followed after the others. It didn't take long for the group to reach the end of the hall and greeted to the sight of a large metal door with numerous enchantments on it

Zatanna eyed the door with a critical look and nodded "Whoever sealed this door wasn't very smart, I'm seeing a lot of enchantments canceling each other out because of conflicting natures. And it looks like the metal of this door wasn't properly enchanted so the mystical energy running through it is starting to corrode the metal"

"So, does that mean we can get through it?" Frank asked with narrowed eyes towards the top hat wearing magician

"Yeah, hell the door is so degraded from the countless spells on it, a gorilla could break it down" Zatanna said before Wonder Woman approached the door and knocked it off its hinges with a powerful punch

"Hmm, you know Wonder Woman if being a 'hero' doesn't pan out to well, I can see you being an excellent door to door saleswoman" Wanda said as she followed after Wonder Woman who shot the Witch a glare of annoyance indicating she recognized the insult while the rest filed through the doorway and into a large room that only had one occupant in it

The figure was covered in a black cloak with their face covered by a hood. They were standing next to a coffin that looked like it was made of bone with faint web markings etched into its surface. The figure's head raised at the intrusion and quirked its head to the side

"Who are you?" Wonder Woman asked as she drew her sword and raised it towards the hooded figure while she kept an eye on what she assumed was the artifact that's been the source of all this trouble. There was something about it that didn't seem right to Diana, aside from the fact it looked to be made of bone

"The bastard who killed my family" Frank snarled out before he shot at the man with his shot gun

The figure didn't so much as flinch as the speeding pellets from the shotgun slammed into his body or making any sounds of pain. He simply looked down at the small holes in his cloak and snorted

"Really, you came to a mage fight armed with only a regular old shotgun?" the figure chuckled before Frank's shot gun seemingly dissolved, causing the man to curse "Talk about underprepared. The least you could have done is enchant it"

"Look just give us the artifact and we'll be on our merry way" Constantine said while keeping a close eye on the man

The hooded man's head quirked to the side again before he chuckled "And what makes you think I'll just let you take this from me?"

"Because you'll be too busy getting your insides ripped out by me" Frank growled at the man who turned to look at him

"Hmm you do seem painfully familiar, have we met recently?" the hooded man inquired with a hidden smirk

Frank glared at the man before he drew a small ball from his pocket and threw it towards the hooded man who actually seemed to have tensed a bit. The small device was a glowing blue ball it a small red circle on it, Nick's eyes widened as he recognized what it was

"Oh for-"

BWOOOOOOM!

The entire room was bathed in fire and Nick and Zatanna were only just able to create a barrier to keep the group safe. Diana eyed the flames washing through the room outside the barrier before turning towards the Punisher

"What was that?" Diana asked

"A Hellfire bomb" Frank said as he stared at the spot the hooded man was standing at moments ago "Found on one of the mages I killed earlier. Saw one of his friends use it and thought it migh come in handy"

"Who is this man anyway?" Wanda asked dryly as she watched the flames begin to recede "So far I have yet to see anything from him that screams interesting or noteworthy aside from being the leader of a bunch of subpar mages with average skill at best"

"Hard girl to please aren't ya?" Constantine smirked at the witch

Wanda shrugged "What can I say, I like my men to be…amazing"

Diana felt her brow twitch at the last comment that the witch made while Constantine snickered. Nick chose this moment to reveal what he knew of the man, which to his annoyance was vague at best even after spending the better part of a day questioning all of his contacts about this group of mages and it's leader

"All I know is that his name is Baron Mordo and he used to be a mage that hails from the mythical city of K'un-Lun, at least that's the rumor I've heard. Other stories claim he's from some group of Romani in eastern Europe-"

"He isn't" Wanda interrupted the man

"How can you be so sure?" Diana questioned the woman

"Because I'm Romani" Wanda said with a slight glare "And believe me, I can recognize another Romani mystic when I see one and this man isn't"

Nick sighed at that "Great, I just got conned out of fifty bucks for that information. He's also from what I've been able to gather on my own, a powerful Necromancer and has connections to a few unsavory cosmic beings…"

"I don't care if he has the Devil himself on speed dial and follows Jesus on Twitter, he's a dead man when I get my hands around his throat" Frank said darkly as the flames finally receded and the mystics dropped the barrier to see the now dubbed Baron Mordo standing there without a scratch on him, the artifact to most of the groups concern was nowhere to be seen

"Where's the artifact?" Necro demanded, mystical energy building in his hands

Baron removed his hood to reveal a black man with short black hair and a few faint scars on his left cheek and forehead. He also removed his robe to reveal that he was dressed in a faded green robe with the left sleeve being blue and several small knives on an elaborate belt he had on

Baron took several steps forward and rolled his shoulders in preparation for the fight at hand "The artifact's location shouldn't be your main concern"

"Oh, and why's that?" Constantine said as he aimed his pistol at the mage whose eyes started to glow

"Because…I'm afraid you won't live long enough to care where it is" Mordo said with a slight shrug before he sent a blast of mystical energy at the group

…

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