The sky above the Halls of Justice slowly tapered out and the storms receded. The more the seconds went by the more the nightmare a few minutes ago felt like a bad dream.
The dark grey thunderclad storm slowly broke apart for the sun's yellow rays to peel through. Below, on the ground, only the upturned earth and burning buildings remained as an evidence to the battle fought.
The shadows no longer looked frightening and the demons that crawled from underneath were all put back where they came from.
It almost felt like a little white lie, one that was easier to believe but scarier to disprove, but unfortunately for those involved, their lives were not so… convenient.
"That's it? A bit short for the end of the world, but I'll take it." The Flash said as he slid to a stop beneath the arch of the broken doors of the Hall of Justice.
"Don't even mention it. Those things got some teeth. They almost bit my legs off." Green Lantern complained. The only sign of exertion on him was his annoyed breath and the tirade of curses that spewed out of his mouth. That and his hair that was slightly out of place.
"So uh, we know what's going on in there?" The Flash asked, cutting off Green Lantern's impressive display of words.
Green Lantern shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh, the magician probably did a few tricks. I'm telling you, these apocalypse and whatnot are so out of style. Anyone sufficiently bored and a platoon of goons could scream a slogan and everyone would call it an apocalypse."
"Yeah, yeah whatever. What about J'onn, is he alright?"
"Greenie? He might be around here somewhere, I wouldn't know." Came with a carefree shrug. Accompanying his words were the arrival of said 'Greenie' and Superman.
"Hey there guys, Flash is looking for you." He said and jabbed a finger towards where the Flash stood.
"Very funny, Hal."
"So it's finally over. Thank goodness. I was worried for a second there." Superman said as he landed next to Flash with J'onn behind him. "If anything this shows us just how lacking we are in dealing with magical threats."
Flash shrugged. "Well, it's magic. It's entire thing is being as unpredictable and rule breaking as it can."
"That said, let's meet up with the others. I'm curious about what happened. It took us by surprise but that really shouldn't be an excuse we ought to be comfortable with."
But then again, like Flash said, it was magic. It had a way of acting on its own rules and being one of the most unruly forces in the universe.
Possession would never be a thing any person would feel happy with, especially for people like them who knew just how much power they had under their grasp.
Their only saving grace was that they fought each other in a curated space and whatever demons that possessed them could not use their strengths to their limits. It would have been most catastrophic than the backyard squabble that just happened.
And the fact that all this happened because they took their eyes off a young girl for a few minutes, despite the warnings they already had, struck home just how blindsided they had gotten. And the worst of it was that there was little they could do, why – magic.
Like the Flash said, it's magic. It had a way of bypassing its own restrictions.
"The silver lining is–," the Flash started.
"There's a silver lining?" Green Lantern asked.
"The silver lining is that no one died." The Flash repeated. "But we still have her to worry about. John and Dr. Fate might have gotten us a leg up but we can't be sure if this is a one-time thing."
Between Constantine and Dr. Fate, they had a lot of confidence when it came to dealing with magical threats, but then again magic was never straightforward as today showed.
"The others are okay. How about we join them?" Superman said.
"Got you on that." The Flash said before disappearing in a gust of wind, making Superman smile and Green Lantern snort.
"Hmm, there's someone else with them. Oh.." J'onn remarked with a slightly surprised expression, to which Superman gave a nod.
"I think I saw them crash in on a plane through the haze."
They arrived at the destroyed section of the complex that was Raven's temporary room and saw the familiar group that was gathered, plus the not entirely unfamiliar figure of a white haired bespectacled man that was slightly thinner than Batman's picture of him.
The man only gave them a passing glance as he held Raven in his arms but Superman did not miss the way the man's muscles tightened under his outer skin.
He shared a look with Martian Manhunter who gave a slight nod as he also noticed the oddities around the man, one being the receding heat haze over his body.
He also noticed the disgruntled look on Wonder Woman's and Batman's face which he attributed to the sleeping girl in the man's hands.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Chubby over here wants to hike it up and out. Grumpies over there aren't completely sold on demonic lass over here being completely Trigon-free." Constantine summarized with a 'couldn't-care-more-or-less' shrug while pointing at a mostly expressionless Taro Sakamoto, Superman recalled his name was.
He gave all of them the same passing glance but Superman felt his gaze lingered on him a little bit more than the others.
"I understand if you're worried about her but we just want to make sure that nothing like this happens again." Superman started as he took a step closer to Taro and was suddenly hit with a sense of déjà vu. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that Taro was somewhat familiar, or at least something about him was.
The two men stood in front of each other and though there was not a single hint of tension between them everyone felt that there was a sense of disagreement between the two men which surprised Superman a fair bit as he wasn't sure why that was the case.
'Bruce, that's what he reminds me of.' He spared a straying glance towards Batman, his arguably best friend, who was watching Taro with the same distrustful and analytical eyes that he had when they first met.
Before anyone could say something, Superman took a step back with his hands raised to show sincerity. It surprised his friends a fair bit but some of them must've realized why he did that when they saw that Taro was in something of an unintentional circle.
'He's just like Bruce.' Superman realized. This time it wasn't about his mannerisms but it was more so everything about the man, but Taro was more severe compared to Batman on the sole fact that he was harder to read compared to Bruce, and wasn't that an unsettling thought.
Wonder Woman, J'onn and Batman realized why Superman took a step back and made a show of opening up his entrance and exit, except for Batman who kept staring at Taro with a version of his intense bland stare without caring for the man's comforts.
The man who hadn't spoken a word since their arrival continued his silence streak and simply turned to Dr. Fate who got the memo and hovered in front of Raven with glowing hands and eyes.
The glow receded and Dr. Fate hummed as he stared at Raven with a tune that Superman had learnt to know was one of the man's contemplative tunes.
"What's the verdict, Doc? Dooms day cancer or last days symptoms?" Constantine asked as he flicked his lighter open and lit his cigarette and gave it a slow but calming draw.
"He's naturally sealed, or the closest natural can get when it comes to anything about him. It can either be the best gate to guard against him or being one of the loopholes he can utilize."
"You're not speaking English, dude. What are we supposed to do with the two choice options? Can we get anything more definitive?" Flash said exasperatedly.
"It will hold?" Taro asked softly.
"Yes. But how much hold she has on it to prevent another outbreak is something I'm not sure of." Dr. Fate replied. Taro had the feeling that the man was hiding something, or at least keeping something to himself, but he didn't press further.
This was enough of an answer for and he would prefer to leave as soon as possible. Being around these heroes unnerved him in a way no one has ever managed to do in years.
Symbols of hope and humanity's deterrence against the darker skies out there and all he felt was discomfort in being in such close proximity with them. Not necessarily because he was in an unfortunate position (as his instincts happily supplied) but because he knew more or less how selfless this bunch could be.
Old habits truly do die hard.
"That will be enough." He replied. "She'll come back if she wants to."
There remained little to be said and he simply turned to leave. There would likely be no harm in staying a couple hours with the heroes but what he wanted now was to be in a place where he could let himself think and that place wasn't here.
"What relation do you have with the League of Assassins?" he heard the Batman asked and had to stop himself from clicking his tongue.
Ah, of course that would be an issue. He would have loved nothing more than to blame Ra's for every single one of his misfortunes as of late… wait, it really was the man's fault anyway.
"Noisy neighbors." He replied with the first thing that came to his mind but it didn't seem to deter the Batman.
"And what do they want with the girl?"
He turned partly to look the Batman in the eyes so that the message would go through. "They don't."
He knew the man's type and personally he would rather deal with Batman than have another friendly conversation with Superman.
He held Raven tighter in his arms and turned to leave only to freeze up when he remembered that his getaway had been reduced to a burning scrap metal.
"We have a garage we don't use. You can take one of the vans from there." He heard the woman speak. She walked past him and he followed her to a wholly undamaged part of the building's east section.
"You're not a particularly trusting person, Mr. Sakamoto." She said with faint approval following her tone. "While commendable, I also want you to know that we don't mean her any harm. I know most people don't see the Justice League for what it is but we try to help in any way we can. We are not gods but we do all we can."
"Hmm."
She laughed. It was more of an amused snort, but technically still a laugh. "You're not one of many words I see."
"Hmm."
"Well, here we are." She tapped a button and the garage door slid up to show more normal transport vehicles than what he would have expected. The heroes were really doing a good job in changing his perception of them, or just cementing the good things he knew about them.
"I meant what I said about your skill with the lasso. Mind telling me how you got so good with it?"
He adjusted Raven in his arms as they came to a stop in front of a nondescript family van.
Wonder Woman took his silence as his refusal and spoke again. "It's just that I've rarely seen people who can use it well without problems. Even less to those who can use it masterfully well."
Taro carefully set Raven into the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt to keep her in place and turned to look at the titan of a woman who was weirdly interested in how one threw a rope.
"It's a rope. You twist it, turn it, and throw it." He said.
He turned around and saw her leaning against a pillar with clear amusement angling on her face.
"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"
"Hmm." He grunted offhandedly. He stopped just as he was about to slip into the car and looked back at her.
"Thank you." He simply said. For what, even he was not sure. It was a simple acknowledgement of what the heroes did for Raven and he won't forget that.
––––––
.
Patreon.com/1stDepth
.
––––––