An Ambush and a Temptation

Raven was flying through the air, thinking about what had happened back at the clock tower. When Robin asked about using their combined abilities to force open the door, for the first time in her twenty years of life, her father was reaching out to her to convince her not to do it.

The act itself had definitely caught her attention. Her father only saw her as his means to enter this realm, so if he didn't want her to interact with it, it was all the important that she did. But she would need to know why, after all, just because Trigon was afraid of it doesn't automatically mean it's a good thing.

Raven suddenly heard Starfire say, "Raven, are you okay? You seem distracted." Raven answered, "It's complicated." Starfire wanted to ask for more details, but she decided to respect Raven's need for silence.

...

Nicholas was sitting outdoor patio of some restaurant. Power Girl was an unexpected bonus, Luther clearly tried to double-cross him, but it failed. That being said, the sudden arrival of The Unknown had been an inconvenience, to say the least.

Not that he hadn't turned it into his advantage, but the realization that certain Killers, as long as they had the right aptitude, could force a meeting, and thus a challenge, was annoying. The fried calamari he ordered was placed in front of him, but before he could enjoy it, a woman, caramel skin color, wavy brown hair, and wearing leather, with an impressive number of knives. Even by his standards. She also had a very smug look on her face, for some reason.

Nicholas asked, "Do you need something?" Another man showed up, black suit, white shirt, and no tie. He sat down and said, "My friend Maze here is a bounty hunter, who just beat my sister in hunting you." Nicholas turned to face the new arrival. The man extended his hand and said, "Lucifer Morningstar, the Devil." Nicholas accepted the handshake and said, "Nicholas... what I am is up in the air at the moment." Lucifer smiled and said, "What you are is a mortal who seems to be entangled with something very old and very nasty."

Nicholas responded, "Which brings us back to my first question, do you need something?" Lucifer put on a more serious look and said, "I want to know, what do you desire?" The glow in Lucifer's eyes were clear signs that he was using some sort of power to try to influence Nicholas. Nicholas in turn answered, "I did desire to eat my calamari in peace, but that doesn't appear to be going to happen, so goodbye."

With that Nicholas stood up, and before either could react, he was gone in the blink of an eye. Maze began to laugh, while Lucifer was left confused. Nicholas hadn't gone far before he ran into someone else. It felt like he hit something heavy, but when he looked down, he saw a young woman. It took a moment for him to place her, Emmylou.

She looked surprised, and even more so, when he pulled her up to her feet. However, before she could say anything, a woman in leather armor flew in, holding a spear, pointed right at Nicholas. He recognized her as Remiel, God's hunter, considering he just saw Lucifer, Nicholas shouldn't be surprised by the appearance of other angels.

Emmylou was clearly confused by what was happening, Nicholas casually said, "Mazikeen beat you by five minutes." Ramiel was clearly annoyed by that statement, but then she said, "If she hasn't killed you then victory can still be mine." Nicholas wondered, 'Is there some sort of prize for the winner, or is she just that competitive?' Ramiel began to thrust but was stopped by Emmylou. Ramiel demanded to know what she was doing. While Emmylou said, "I don't know what's going on, but you really can't be talking about murder in broad daylight, especially if I can get blamed just for being here." Both were struggling against the other, each surprised by the other's strength.

Nicholas was tempted to wait and see who wins, but since Ramiel's plan was to kill him, he wasn't going to take the chance, at least not here.

Nicholas placed one hand in the spear, which got both girls attention. Then he said, "Remmy, I'm busy, so we'll have to continue this later." Before Ramiel could react, Nicholas used his free hand to push her, but instead of hitting a wall, she disappeared into a black fog. Emmylou was left shocked by what just happened.

Then Nicholas placed his hand on her shoulder, and said, "I know you have questions, please come with me, and I'll give you some answers." Nicholas could tell that Emmylou was under the impression that she didn't have a choice. He escorted her away from that site, after all, Lucifer and Maze should be along eventually.

/////

Harley Quinn, technically an ex-criminal, but here she was working with active criminals walking towards a potential trap. Why? Because the offer of a favor from Amanda Waller was to good to pass up. Plus, Ivy had her back. It's the middle of the day, so there's a chance Bats won't hassle her.

However, she going to drag her feet and find out. When they arrived at their destination, Harley was surprised to find Bane's "daughter," Vengeance. She was standing in front of Calendar Girl's building, her stance indicated that she was deep in thought.

Not wanting to spoke her and trigger an unnecessary fight, Harley yelled, "Hey Vengeance! Why are you standing there?" Vengeance turned her held, then went right back looking at the building. She said, "Penguin's untimely demise demanded a response from Bane; however, we were unsure who to turn our attention to. So, we decided to split up to cover more of our contacts in order to find the answer. One of mine is here, but my instincts are telling me something very dangerous is making a lair here."

That statement had confirmed to everyone that this was a trap, but since some of them had no choice the entered anyway. This time with Vengeance in tow. They arrived and Harley knocked on the door. They heard a voice say, "It's open!"

They entered rather easily. Once inside they found their "host" dressed rather casually. What caught Harley's attention was the fact Calendar Girl wasn't wearing a mask. Harley said, "This new guy in your life must be doing you wonders." Paige Munroe, aka Calendar Girl, smiled and said, "You have no idea."

Both Katana and Vengeance seemed tired of the pleasantries, Katana stated, "Listen, don't waste are time, just answer our questions! Is your new man the one responsible for the recent deaths!?" Paige simply said, "Of course."

Vengeance realizing this was also her target, demanded to know who he was, and where she could find him. Honestly, Harley thought a fight was going to break out, and it was going to get messy. After all, Paige was a former model, not a super soldier.

Paige however was unaffected by the growing danger. Instead, she just casually said, "I don't know where he is, but let's see. Right now, we have; Katana, Hack, Rat Catcher, Vengeance, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn." She continued, "I suspect you know this was a trap, but not in the way you think. After all the nature of my relationship causes me to believe that he needs more. So, they are going to send you on ahead, as my gift to him."

Suddenly appearing out of know where, was a knight, a samurai, and some guy with a pyramid for a head. Everyone got ready to fight, but the three of them, instead of charging, had slammed their weapons into the ground. Each of them began sinking into some black fog and immediately found themselves unable to move. Paige said, "I can't control the gate like he does, so I honestly don't know where you'll end up. But I am excited to see how long you last, and what you'll ultimately end up as. Until then, bye."

Soon Harley's vision went dark, after a few moments she found herself standing in some neighborhood, a cop car with its lights flashing, but other than that the place looked abandoned. Harley quickly pulled herself together, she had too. Ivy was out there somewhere, and she was going to find her. Harley just had to figure out where she first.

/////

Lucifer was not having fun, and there were very few things that he disliked more than not being able to enjoy himself. He and Maze were currently trying to track down their target. Maze had been smug, until Lucifer pointed out that his sister, Ramiel, wouldn't admit that Maze had won until she had that man in her hands.

Maze commented how petty Ramiel was. Lucifer simply remarked that when it comes to hunting, his sister was very competitive. He then said, "Of course the real problem is that I totally miss read the situation."

Maze looked at him and asked, "What do you mean, I thought he was a mortal who made a deal with some old celestial." Lucifer was silent with a face that said he was hesitant to tell her, but then he said, "If that was the case my ability would've worked on him. But knowing what his soul is like and add his immunity to my powers. I can only conclude that he didn't make a deal with a celestial, he ate one."

Maze was stopped in her tracks. She said, "How is that possible for a mortal to accomplish?!" Lucifer responded, "It shouldn't be! I mean you would need a celestial so old that it would consider making a complete physical form a waste of effort, a dimension where it was the absolute power." Maze interjected, "While rare, those don't sound impossible." Lucifer answered, "You are correct, however, that last part should've been. That former mortal would've needed a tool attached to the celestial, to side with him."

Maze had a confused look and then asked, "Last I checked a tool has no will of its own, so how would that work?" Lucifer let out an exasperated sigh and said, "I don't mean a literal tool, for example your siblings could be considered my tools for torture."

They resumed walking, and Maze asked, "So, is this guy a new celestial or what, and why shouldn't we let your sister kill him?" Lucifer answered, "I'm not entirely sure she could, or at least not as long as she believes he is simply a tainted mortal."

They stopped again this time because if a rather large feather just lying on the ground. Luckily knelt down to pick it up. Maze asked, "Is it hers?" Lucifer said, "Yes, and if she had escaped the encounter, she would be here, either gloating or threatening."

Lucifer stood up, and then said, "You go on ahead and try to track him down, do not confront him, just find him. I need to make a few phone calls."

/////

Raven was gathered with the others discussing what they had learned. Things had really taken a turn. There were several people missing: Batwoman, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Catwoman, Pantha, and Zatanna.

Traps and ambushing had been responsible. The other two sites had been traps, but for some reason her team hadn't been. Batman and the others were questioning that little detail. Some were wondering if her father, Trigon was somehow involved. Raven had to talk about what had happened earlier, which caused Constantine to have a realization. He said, "If Trigon himself is cautious this thing, which means it is even older than we thought."

Batman asked, "How does that effect the situation?" Constantine answered, "First, we're looking for both a person and an artifact. Second, the people being killed are a form of currency and the women being abducted are payment."

Diana yelled, "What do you mean by payment!?" Constantine, unaffected, answered, "This is obviously an exchange, the user in this side collects blood, probably in exchange for a way to control the women they already collected. Which might lead to a reason why Raven's team wasn't ambushed... Bats is there a way to determine if there were other groups of potentially powerful or influential women that showed up in Gotham and then disappear?"

Batman didn't answer he just typed a few things into his armband. Then two screens on the wall suddenly lit up.

One had Catwoman and several other ladies in front of some apartment building. The other had Queen Bee and four others in front of an abandoned theater. Constantine looked at Batman, and turn Batman checked is armband. Then Batman said, "Cameras show both groups entering, neither are ever shown leaving."

Constantine then said, "Alright, so they ran out of currency before they could attack Raven. We should check those two sites, before they recover what they lost." Suddenly a police scanner lit up saying that GCPD was under attack by several large, unidentified creatures. Taking consideration of the nature of the potential attackers and their preference for ambushing, they decided to go together.