| Zandia - Nov 2
Joseph, dressed as Bullseye, dropped the lifeless bodies of Brother Blood and Mother Mayhem onto the cold stone floor of a silent temple. Nova had already finished extracting every scrap of knowledge from their minds.
After the last time the Team had rescued Raven from the Church of Blood—and Starfire had thoroughly humiliated Brother Blood while warning him never to pursue Raven again—the cult had appeared to go quiet.
They didn't have much choice.
They couldn't exactly announce to the world that their leader had been stopped from completing a demonic ritual—and marrying a fourteen-year-old girl—by a secret group of teenage heroes who might or might not be affiliated with the Justice League.
Zandia was already under international scrutiny for harboring criminals and supervillains. The government certainly didn't need another reason for neighboring nations to intervene.
And that fourteen-year-old girl—Raven—had turned out to be the daughter of the interdimensional demonic entity Trigon the Terrible.
No wonder she kept to herself.
She had likely feared losing Earth the same way she had lost Azarath.
Joseph intended to keep her heritage secret for now, at least until it became necessary for the Team or the Justice League to know. Though he would let Kori know since she was Rachel's closest friend.
Still, the Church of Blood hadn't actually been inactive.
The cult—fanatically convinced that humanity needed to be controlled—had hired Deathstroke to take revenge on the Team. Their plan had been to capture the young heroes and place them inside a machine that would transfer their powers to Brother Blood.
Unfortunately for them, Joseph had secretly killed Deathstroke before the plan could progress any further.
When that failed, they hired vampires to target the Team.
That plan had also collapsed—largely because Joseph and John Constantine had quietly purged several supernatural threats targeting Constantine. One of the vampire covens Joseph had eliminated must have been the same one the Church had hired.
With both attempts ruined, the cult had turned to increasingly desperate measures.
They began conducting satanic rituals, sacrificing their own followers to summon Corruptors—demons capable of possessing human bodies.
Whether their rituals had succeeded remained to be seen.
He should have eliminated them sooner.
But what was done was done.
He would deal with the demons when they surfaced.
And he'd need to eliminate the remnants of the Church of Blood as well. Many of which included influential figures outside of Zandia.
'Nova. Contact Blacksmith and have her Network take care of them.'
//Done, sir.//
Joseph opened a Boom Tube leading to the Tower of Fate as his Bullseye costume smoothly reshaped itself into his Nova suit.
He would need John Constantine's help locating his next target.
Wotan.
One advantage of working with an anti-hero who regularly dealt with demons was that Constantine had absolutely no reservations about permanently eliminating dangerous threats.
**
| Mount Justice - Nov 2
Match sparred with Aqualad in the mission room while the rest of the Team watched from the sidelines. Black Canary stood nearby, overseeing the session as their combat instructor.
The others had already taken their turns sparring.
Everyone had reacted positively to Match's recent changes—especially Conner.
His old Cadmus suit, which had deteriorated into rags, had been replaced with a new white uniform provided by Kelex. The suit featured a white cape and a red-outlined House of El symbol on the chest.
He also wore white ear coverings designed to dampen sound so he wouldn't be overwhelmed like he had been when he first awakened.
Before gaining full intelligence, Match had often been defeated during sparring despite his incredible strength and speed. Conner, Kori, Kaldur, and even M'gann had beaten him several times by using tactics—redirecting his momentum, exploiting his lack of technique, and forcing him out of bounds.
The rules were simple.
Either force your opponent outside the illuminated white tiles on the floor or subdue them by pinning them on their back.
But things were different now.
With his mind fully developed, Match was struggling for a new reason.
He was too strong.
Every movement had to be carefully controlled so he didn't seriously injure Kaldur.
The memory of nearly punching a man's head off still replayed in his mind.
Thankfully, Joseph had been there that day.
Now Match focused on limiting his strength—using only enough force to subdue his opponent.
Still, he had to remain cautious of Kaldur's Water-Bearers, currently shaped into twin swords.
Match remembered very clearly what had happened the last time he had been cut by a magical blade.
That had only been two days ago.
Match lunged forward, slipping past one of Kaldur's sword swings before reaching for his shoulders. The plan was simple—grab him and guide him out of bounds.
Kaldur leaned backward as far as he could, realizing he wasn't fast enough to fully evade. Instead, he moved to intercept Match's hands, bringing his swords up defensively.
Match reacted faster.
He seized Kaldur's shoulders and blurred forward with him, carefully controlling his grip before placing him just beyond the boundary.
"Match: win," the computer announced.
The Team clapped, and Match couldn't help smiling.
He extended a hand to Kaldur, who accepted it with a friendly smile.
"Well played," Aqualad said.
They both sat down as Black Canary stepped forward, replaying the fight on a nearby screen while analyzing what each of them could improve.
"Hey," a quiet voice whispered beside him.
Match turned.
Rachel sat to his right.
She remained distant from most of the Team and spent much of her time at the Tower of Fate rather than Mount Justice.
Kent Nelson's death had affected her deeply.
That was understandable—less than a month had passed since the Hour of Chaos.
Match felt sympathy for her. He felt sympathy for everyone who had lost someone.
He also mourned Kal-El.
A Kryptonian mentor could have helped him understand his powers in ways no one else could.
At least he still had Joseph.
And Conner.
"You're bleeding," Rachel whispered.
Match looked down at his wrist.
A thin but deep cut ran along it, and he suddenly registered the faint sting.
He must have been nicked by Kaldur's blade when reaching for him.
"It's fine," Match said with a reassuring smile. "A quick dip in the sun will fix it."
"Do you want me to heal it?" Rachel asked.
Match smiled, appreciating the offer.
"Sure. Thanks."
Raven raised a hand.
"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos."
For a brief moment, Match saw something.
A dark red figure flickered across his vision.
Then it vanished.
When he looked down again, the wound had completely disappeared.
'What was that?' Match wondered.
He was about to ask when Black Canary's voice rang out across the room.
"That's all for today."
When Match turned back toward Rachel, she had already vanished in a flash of black teleportation magic.
"Since Match is fully healed, this calls for a celebration," Kori declared brightly. "Tonight we're going to a carnival."
"I've never been to one before," Artemis admitted.
"No way," Wally said immediately. "Then I've got to show you all the fun stuff."
He paused, his face suddenly turning red. Artemis turned red too.
"With the rest of the Team, of course. Actually, maybe Robin should guide you. Before he used to be a—"
"Wally," Robin cut in sharply.
"Right, right," Wally said quickly. "Batman-mandated super-secret identity."
Match followed the Team as they continued chatting and joking while heading out.
But in the back of his mind, he quietly filed away what he had seen.
He would ask about it later.
**
| Egypt - November 2
"Trigon, huh?" John Constantine said beside Joseph as he watched the battle unfolding across the sand-covered ruins of an abandoned temple. He took a drag from one of his favorite Silk Cut cigarettes and exhaled slowly. "That's really bad news. You might want to ask Jason Blood about that. Etrigan would probably know more about how to stop his grandfather."
After a few phone calls and a handful of tracking spells from Constantine, they had pinpointed Wotan's location and moved in to ambush him.
Well—Joseph had ambushed him.
More specifically, Joseph's Heaven-Splitting Flash had.
Wotan darted frantically across the battlefield, raising glowing magical shields while desperately dodging the barrage of Nova Force beams raining down from dozens of golden orbs floating high above the temple ruins.
Watching the ancient sorcerer—someone powerful enough to have given Doctor Fate trouble—scramble around like a terrified rat was genuinely amusing.
Joseph hadn't forgotten what Wotan had done to him before.
The sorcerer and Atomic Skull had once trapped him inside a magical cage while Atomic Skull fired a beam of radiation at him and Wotan blasted him with lightning.
How the tables have turned.
"Didn't know they were related," Joseph replied. "I'll pay Blood's sanctum a visit."
Something about the fight suddenly caught his attention.
Wotan was getting… faster.
And he wasn't tiring.
Joseph frowned slightly. The sorcerer wasn't carrying any artifacts—not even something like the Amulet of Aten he'd once tried to use to blot out the sun.
Then Joseph glanced down.
Golden lightning flickered faintly across his own body.
Speed Force lightning.
"Ah," Joseph murmured.
That explained it.
When Joseph had previously absorbed Wotan's magical lightning, he had used it as a catalyst to permanently anchor himself to the Speed Force. The cosmic energy clearly possessed some form of mystical resonance—and it was reacting to Wotan now that the sorcerer was nearby.
Joseph was not about to allow a speed-enhanced dark wizard to exist.
He blurred forward.
Time slowed to a crawl as he grabbed Wotan and ripped the sorcerer's consciousness into the Dream State. Nova instantly began recording and analyzing the man's centuries of memories.
He was initially a prehistoric woman? Interesting.
A moment later, Joseph summoned Alien Excalibur and cleanly removed Wotan's head. No more reincarnations for him after getting killed with Nth metal.
As had become routine, Joseph opened a Boom Tube near the Sun and casually kicked the corpse through it.
Wotan had wanted power from the Sun by blotting it before.
Now he could become one with it.
Poetic.
Joseph walked back toward Constantine and opened another Boom Tube leading to the Tower of Fate.
"Aight, thanks for the help," Joseph said. "I'm heading to a carnival now."
He paused briefly.
"Oh, by the way—you do have lung cancer. I could fix it if you want. But you'd have to promise to stop smoking."
Constantine burst out laughing.
"Me give up smoking?" he said, shaking his head.
"I'd sooner swindle three devils out of my soul."