Chapter 15 - Tarot Demons

Project Cadmus. Metropolis.

Mylo had just finished packing all the intel and things that were in his office. He looked around at the cart of boxes and the empty room then he nodded and pushed the cart out of the room. As he moved down the hallway he smiled at the sight of people in black armor with a red lambda symbol on their shoulders. Then he saw Waller as he walked past.

"Like thieves in the night?" Mylo asked.

Waller gave him a cheeky smile and shrugged. "Yup, we are shipping off all our personnel to the offsite faculty. After tomorrow we will have officially burned our bridge with the U.S. Fortunately we are privately funded by you and our other shady benefactor."

Mylo only shrugged in response, "you dropped the Thanagarian ship off like I asked?"

"Yes, but are you sure about this?" Waller asked.

Mylo nodded as he started moving again, "I told you before. The Thanagarians planned to try and use our world as an invasion point for another sector of space. They are not the only ones, because the various races are expanding their influence. We have to prepare for the worst."

Waller nodded as he walked away, "I can not wait until we can operate in the open and public view." Then she turned to the activity of boxes being packed and moved. "Hurry it up! We have to leave before daybreak."

—-----------------------------------------

Hidden Facility in Arizona.

"So… what are we doing again?" One of Scarlett's subordinates asked. They were all packed in the backs of a troop carrier. They were in the process of landing at their new site.

"We are changing employers. Don't worry, as I have always told you. Trust me, and we will be on the side of the people. Cadmus had become too corrupt and overrun with greed to be cleaned up." Scarlett shrugged, "so, we decided to click restart and while doing so-" She turned to the lowering platform and smiled, "we decided to expand." She walked into the underground facility where there were several ships landing. "Welcome to Earth Defense Base 001!"

—------------------------------------------

Airspace over the U.S.

Batman nervously tapped his chin. Wonder Woman was flying the jet as they flew towards the location in Montana. They were currently flying towards the location of the Thanagarian Spaceship. Apparently it suddenly appeared in Montana in an open field. Superman was flying ahead with Hal Jordan. Batman was in the Justice League jet along with Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Dr. Fate, and their Thanagarian prisoners.

"Stop being so paranoid." Wonder Woman stated when she glanced at the expression he was making. "We spent a few hours recalibrating our sensors before they appeared. So it might have been another compromised system."

Batman grunted and Hawkgirl spoke, "have you been able to do a basic assessment of those two people who compromised your systems."

Batman flinched at Hawkgirl's words then sighed, "actually, Batgirl is doing a more in-depth psychological profile. But I can tell you outright, the one called Mylo is incredibly intelligent and clever. He will do just about anything to complete his objective, but if he sees no need to shed blood he won't. In terms of technology he outclasses us, in terms of magic he seems to at least understand it enough. As for Scarlett, I saw her use magic and then physically outmatch both Starfire and Wonder Girl."

"Huh that is impressive-" Wonder Woman gave a slight smile but was interrupted by Batman again.

"Actually I forgot at the time because I was caught off guard by something else. But she did mention something about sparring with a demigod and Wonder Girl being a wannabe version." Batman watched as Wonder Woman's expression changed several times.

"That… is actually worrying. It seems we will have to take a closer look. Because there are not that many demigods still alive. I for one am one of the only ones. I know of about five others but they all exist within the Greek and Norse pantheons. The Indian Pantheon strictly prevents demigods and when they appear they are either killed or become a god. The various African gods kill off their demigods. The other pantheons make a point of hiding their demigods." Wonder Woman explained as she started the landing procedures.

"So what you are saying… is that you have no clue who it could be even remotely." Black Canary sarcastically pointed out. "Hey Fate, do you think you could find them with magic?"

"Hmm… yes, but a spell so powerful and all encompassing would have severe drawbacks. I would prefer to use it as a last resort, not to mention this would also disturb those shallow gods. As soon as I do it it will alert the demigods as well, they will know we are tracking them." Doctor Fate explained as he went from a cross legged sitting pose to a standing floating pose.

"Huh?" Black Canary made a face as she stood up and the jet jolted as it landed.

"We should try to find them with a proper investigation first. So focus on the task at hand, let myself and Question worry about finding them." Batman explained as he stepped off the jet. As he walked towards the ship he noticed the ship had a lowered ramp.

Moving closer to the shiny ship, he would have thought it was made of bronze and gold. But he knew better, they were metallic compositions that were yet to be discovered. His company had been working on something similar. He pulled out a scanner to take readings while he looked around the ship.

Wonder Woman walked into the ship, "so is everything as you left it?"

One of the Thanagarian priests shook his head, "no, it looks like several things are missing from the cargo bay alone. We had a crate of Nth metal weapons that are missing." The Thanagaian started looking around, "one of our fuel canisters is missing. So are several other things but it looks like they only took non-essentials."

Another of the Thanagarians moved into the cockpit. "Thanagar is inputted into the navigation system. It looks like we also have just enough fuel to reach the nearest outpost." There was a moment of typing before he spoke again, "it looks like our systems and data were copied. They also removed the location records, even our 'crash box' has been altered."

"No surprise there," Batman responded as he took a few more scans. "Mylo must have had a hand in it, this is way too thorough. Does your ship have an autopilot?"

"Only for simple commands, nothing as complex as landing." A Thanagaian responded.

"Hmm… then there was a pilot. There is a town down the road, Wonder Woman-"

"I will take you Batman. I have yet to see our intrepid criminals." Hawkgirl opened her wings and pulled Batman in the air by one of his arms. "Hold on!" She started flying towards the town.

Batman hated this. Being carried by other heroes who could fly was embarrassing. As he was carried he focused on the town as soon as they got close enough he saw a police car. Once they were close he dropped down and landed.

"Officer… Jones. This seems like a small enough town where a newcomer would be obvious." Batman used his intimidating voice.

The officer, still awestruck, nodded his head and then pointed to a diner.

Batman moved towards the diner and opened the door with Hawkgirl landing behind him. As he walked in he noticed the shocked gazes of the onlookers. Except for one of the people who was sitting at the bar with a tactical vest resting on the stool next to him. He was midsip when he set his coffee down. Batman walked towards him and stopped in front of him. "Where did you get the ship from?"

"Haa… I picked it up and flew it from a facility in Metropolis. Damn, here I am a week into my job and I already am involved in heroes." He then flipped open the vest and pulled out a file. "Here is my job contract and the invoice for moving the ship." He then went back to sipping his coffee.

Batman opened the file and looked over it. He then grunted and nodded, "this will be enough."

—----------------------------------------

At the Thanagarian Ship.

Superman was looking around using his X-ray vision. "Okay, Fate unless you can try something…"

Dr. Fate floated up the ramp, "there is a tracing spell-'' He was interrupted when a small box just a bit bigger than a human fist appeared. Then an opening in the box that was thin and rectangular appeared. A moment later several cards were launched out of the ship from the container and landed on the grass.

"What is-" Wonder Woman did not get a chance to speak as puffs of gray smoke came out of the cards and covered an area above the card. Then various demons emerged from the smoke. Wonder Woman was punched by one of them and went flying into the field.

There were five demons in total. Two were crouching and hunched with horns coming out of their foreheads with pink and red skin. One was taller with several muscles bulging along his six arms and blue skin. Another had a lighter shade of pink and flaming red hair, she wore red lingerie with a corset and red horns, she was armed with a black whip in hand. The final demon was a faceless black one with horns where its eyes should have been, it had a more slick and thin look but in one hand it had a trumpet and in the other it had a spear.

"These are demons from Madam Griselda's Tarot Deck. They have a weak point that changes them back into Tarot cards. They each specialize in a kind of combat that-" Doctor Fate did not get to finish as the whip wrapped around his neck and he was pulled into the ground.

Superman flew towards the bulky six armed demon. But he was suddenly blindsided when the demon with a spear raised the trumpet.

*ROOOO*

A loud noise came out of the trumpet, the sound wave was partially visible as it impacted Superman and sent him flying. He could feel his ears bleed as he flew into a few trees in the distance.

Hal Jordan had a different problem as he flew at the six armed demon and generated a train and tracks. But instead of panicking the demon got in a stance that seemed like a martial arts stance and made some rapid movements before slapping the train once it was close enough. Hal flew over the demon in confusion, he was going to come back around when he was grabbed by a leg and slammed into the ground.

The two hunched demons moved towards Black Canary but one of them was hit by a Thanagarian while the other jumped towards her.

*AAAAA*

Black Canary let out a defining screech and the demon exploded into a puff of gray smoke and Canary caught a Tarot Card with the image of the red demon that just disappeared and the word 'Jumper' underneath it. On the card the demon appeared to be jumping. "Well there's one."

She turned her attention to the six armed demon and saw him raising an unconscious Hal into the air.

*AAAAA*

She screeched and the six armed man let go of Hal, sending him flying. And it used two of its hands to cover its ears. The other four arms it used to try and block the attack.

But then Wonder Woman flew in and punched towards the six armed demon, it used its remaining four arms to redirect her attack.

"He's avoiding getting hit by a physical attack!" Black Canary realized and pointed out.

"I got him!" Superman suddenly flew in to hit him in the back when-

*ROOOO*

The trumpet demon hit him again, sending him sailing towards the town with a blast of noise.

Black Canary turned towards the trumpet demon and let out a screech.

*AAAAA* *ROOO*

The two attacks met and met again as the ground was splitting apart where they met. They were also evenly matched. Meanwhile the pink hunched demon managed to push the Thanagaian off and was trying to bite them. Even its hands had mouths with teeth in them. Doctor Fate was struggling with dodging the physical whip and the magical attacks coming from the Succubus.

Wonder Woman kept trying to land an attack on the six armed demon and kept having her attacks redirected. It was beginning to get on her nerves, which was apparent because everytime she hit the ground it now made a crater due to the power.

Superman came flying back in just as Wonder Woman threw a punch, the punch got redirected into Superman's face. This time Superman made a crevice in the ground as he slid along it for several yards.

Black Canary suddenly had an idea. "Wonder Woman!" Black Canary jumped towards the six armed demon, narrowly dodging the trumpet of the demon and landed in between them. "Switch opponents!" Black Canary then started attacking and her attacks were redirected. But suddenly she grappled one of the demon's arms and she flipped him over her and slammed him in the ground, then she brought an elbow down on the demon's face and it disintegrated into smoke and another Tarot card was left where it's head was.

It had the picture of the six armed demon in the middle of a defensive martial arts pose. Under it was the word 'Martial Master'. "Ha! Thank goodness I became a black belt in martial arts." Black Canary turned her attention to the other demons. Superman and Wonder Woman kept striking at the horn demon but its liquid-like body was unaffected.

Looking towards the Thanagarians she got to see the demon's teeth smashed in and it then turned into smoke and a card. Then she looked over towards where Doctor Fate was and prepared to go to help. But she saw him walking back over with a card in hand. But he looked… embarrassed?

"The spear is the weakness!" Doctor Fate called out. Wonder Woman kicked the spear and it seemed to easily break into pieces. Then the demon and spear turned into a puff of gray smoke and a card fell to the ground.

Superman was bleeding out of the ears, probably deaf. While Wonder Woman looked more angry that she had barely done anything. Then Hal flew in confused, "where did those things go?"

"The demons were taken down. As I was trying to say before, each one has its own unique weakness which you have to figure out and exploit. Each one specializes in something which makes its weakness apparent." Doctor Fate explained as he picked up the card that came out of the trumpet demon. "For instance this demon is called 'The Hornblower', since his speciality is the horn then there would be no reason for him to have a spear."

"Still annoying." Wonder Woman grunted out.

"Actually…" Doctor Fate walked up the ship ramp and picked up the fist sized box. "This is one of the items that went missing from the vault in London." He opened up the lid of the box and showed the deck of tarot cards inside. "But… in order for this particular item to work it has to be summoned using magic and a will to direct their actions. But apparently, someone has figured out a workaround."

"Huh… So how did you take down that demon with the whip?" Black Canary asked with a chuckle.

Doctor Fate changed where his weight was balanced, "well… she is a 'Dominatrix' so I just had caused her pleasure without causing pain."

"Hahahaha!" Black Canary started laughing while Wonder Woman sighed. Hal was still confused and Superman was deaf. Quite a combination of ailments.