LOOTING DC #42. Herald
It looked like a dance.
Not the kind with music or grace - but the kind built for war.
Jake and Raven moved like they'd trained for this moment all their lives, though they'd met minutes ago. He slipped between claw strikes and bursts of flame with twitch-speed precision; she answered each gap with spells that didn't feel cast - just unleashed. One blurred through shadows. The other blurred through stone.
When he struck low, she struck high. When she faltered, he was already there - Lasso snapping a demon's neck mid-lunge. She never looked back. He had no reason to worry.
It wasn't chemistry. That implied choice.
This felt inevitable.
A demon broke between them.
Both turned. One motion. One kill.
Time seemed to slow. Their eyes locked through the smoke and unraveling ash. Jake almost smiled without meaning to. For a second - just a second - he saw her face clearly through the fading infernal glow.
And she was... perfect. Not in some corny, romantic way. Just - complete. Whole. Like how Raven was supposed to be.
He didn't want this to end. He preferred the chaos, as long as it meant being this close to her.
She noticed his linger. Looked away.
Already taking on the next wave.
Jake's nerves tightened. Did I look too long?
"You still haven't told me how you plan on using the Lasso," she said flatly.
He blinked. "Too busy having the time of my life. Kinda forgot."
"What?"
He didn't answer.
Did this have to end?
A deep rumble shook the ground. The portal pulsed - then expanded in diameter. Getting bigger. A fresh wave of heat rolled out as magic exploded skyward. The column was growing. Trigon's approach was no longer a threat.
It was a countdown.
And there were still so many demons. Easy to break. Hard to escape. They kept coming. A distraction machine - one built to burn time.
Jake's eyes locked on the portal.
"I just need to confirm one thing," he muttered, firing a webline and swinging straight toward it. More demons surged to stop him - he didn't slow.
He landed in a slide, drove a kick through a crawler, and lashed the Lasso forward. Light cracked across the air.
The Lasso pulsed - not just gold.
Chaos magic ran through it now, threaded in faint red webs.
It wasn't just truth anymore. It was a conduit. One that had fed off Lian's storm and lived to tell the tale.
Jake gritted his teeth. If it could settle that magic… could it temper this?
And with only one charge spent...
How much chaos could it actually devour?
He powered through the last defenders, barreling straight for the flaming column. Heat slammed his senses - raw, suffocating. His spider-sense screamed. It felt like standing at the lip of Hell, like reality itself was unraveling here.
His muscles locked. His instincts told him to run. To flee. Or be devoured.
He swallowed that fear - and threw the Lasso into the fire.
One end wrapped around his wrist. The other vanished into the portal.
He waited.
Nothing.
No reaction. No shrinking column. Just that usual glow.
Then it pulled.
Jake staggered forward, feet dragging ash. The portal was sucking him in. The Lasso buzzed in his grip, drawing him toward the blaze like a leash around his soul.
He braced, firing weblines into the stone to hold ground - but the pull got worse.
"Come on," he hissed. "Come on, come on, come on - dammit, why won't you work?!"
He strained against the drag, arms shaking, fangs of fire inches from his mask. The heat felt alive. His weblines groaned.
"Absorb the chaos already!"
The portal roared.
"RECHARGE, DAMN IT!"
Then it happened.
The Lasso's glow flickered - then flared. Not gold.
Crimson hues.
The red threads woven into it lit up like devil's veins, gleaming against the hellfire backdrop. They burned brighter - until the whole cord blazed like a living mosaic. Neither divine nor pure.
Balanced.
A twisted aurora spread through the tether - flames turned light, magic turned motion. The air rippled. The ground cracked.
The pull weakened.
The column trembled.
Then it began to shrink.
Like a tank being drained, the portal collapsed inward, folding down on itself in violent, luminous spasms. Demons dropped all around Jake - collapsing mid-charge, twitching, evaporating into ash.
The infernal gate compressed, spinning down to the size of a manhole - then a coin - then a flicker of light on scorched stone.
Jake yanked the Lasso back.
Its glow faded - stable again.
He checked the tip.
10/10.
Fully recharged.
It had worked.
He turned, adrenaline still surging, half-ready to throw a dumb quip at Raven - some victory line, something smug, maybe even grateful.
But stopped cold.
She was floating - hovering several feet above the cracked earth.
The ruby on her forehead glowed like it had been ignited from within.
"Raven?" he said.
Didn't even get past that.
The air exploded.
Fire erupted around her, swallowing her whole in a swirling vortex.
"RUUUN!" A scream in Raven's voice cut through the inferno - high, fractured, and wrong.
Then came the rumble.
The voice hit like a shockwave, deep and disdainful and ancient.
"YOU ARE FOOLISH TO THINK YOU CAN STOP ME."
"SURRENDER NOW."
Jake's eyes widened.
He didn't move. Didn't breathe.
The one person who hadn't come at him fists first. The only one who hadn't doubted him, questioned him, hit him.
Raven.
She'd stood beside him. Vowed to protect him.
And now this?
No.
Not her. Anyone but her.
This wasn't happening. He wasn't about to fight her.
Then the attack came.
A fireball - fast and brutal. He dodged on reflex, shoulder skimming molten air.
Then came the beams - red flame slicing the ground where he'd just stood.
Precise. Merciless.
🕸️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕸️
Magic's a lot of things. By nature, it's a mystery never meant to be understood.
But what's certain is this: it's still energy.
An energy of sorts. Projected in balls, beams, or a simple flourish.
And like all energy - it runs out.
That's the catch. After enough use - after you rip through dimensions, burn through wards, and body-block infernal forces - you don't just get tired.
You go dry.
No juice. No glow. Just a limp spellbook and a prayer no one's listening to.
That had been the case for the Justice League Dark after Oolong.
Only in their case, their magic hadn't just drained.
It had decayed - tainted by some kind of mystical radiation pulsing off an unstable toddler.
Mystical radiation? Fun topic. Maybe a lecture later. If they live.
A day off would've been nice. Hell, a permanent vacation after getting fired was what Constantine had been hoping for.
But leave it to gods and devils to soil his plans for fags and shags.
The Trigon Breach alert had gone off in their HQ - right in his face. Bright, red, screeching like a banshee with bronchitis.
And sure, he'd thought about walking away. Would've been easy.
He was no stranger to being a level S++ asshole.
But then...
Zee.
Zatanna.
She'd already used more of her power than was healthy. And if Constantine knew anything about her - and he did - it was that she'd throw herself into the fire before she let anyone else burn.
He couldn't let that happen.
Not again. Not to her.
Wonder Woman? Eh.
Since she stopped reacting to his charm, he gave up trying.
The rest of the team? Not his problem.
But Zee?
She was more than a magician. She was family.
He'd watched her grow up. Saw her become something fierce and impossible.
The thought of leaving her in harm's way gnawed at him like a soul leech.
If he had to duct tape himself to her back to keep her safe, he'd do it.
So, long story short?
He had to help.
Bloody hell.
First things first - juice.
Normally, he'd whip up a potion. Something sparkly and impossible to pronounce, with side effects like hallucinating eldritch nudists.
But they didn't have time for finesse.
So he settled for cheap shots and cheats - charms with disposable energy charges. Low-grade, but passable.
Magic countering magic.
Quick fix over fine work. It'd have to do.
The Keshanti Key - his usual trump card?
Dead. Out of batteries.
Which meant they had to do it the old-fashioned way.
Chalk circles. Sigil chants. Latin spoken like you meant it.
One misstep and they'd end up with extra limbs or in a cartoon dimension with mice chasing cats.
But Constantine didn't make mistakes.
Mistakes were for amateurs.
The portal opened in a screaming rift of violet light - spitting them out into the center of what looked like a smoldering battlefield.
Dead demons everywhere.
Ash-covered stone. Char marks.
And in the middle-
A girl, hovering in crimson flame.
A ruby gem pulsed on her forehead like it wanted to burst. Her hand was outstretched - projecting raw energy at a figure doing everything but trying to stop her.
He dodged, stumbled, took hits.
Swinging with the tide, but never swinging at her.
"Spider…" Wonder Woman gritted the name out first. Her hand moved to her sword. Her feet lifted, ready to close the gap.
"Wouldn't do that if I were you," Constantine muttered beside her, eyes narrowing.
He wasn't blinking - just watching the Spider with the look of a man spotting a hurricane in a bottle. "Two calamities in a row? Feels like the universe's got a new bloody center."
Zatanna stepped forward, slower. Her voice dropped.
"That's never happened before," she said quietly. "Trigon's in full control of Raven."
Constantine grimaced. "Possession like this… that's not something you fix with stage magic."
His tone darkened. "You'd need a full-scale exorcism. And even then-"
He didn't finish.
"Then what?" Wonder Woman cut in, firm.
The sword was already halfway drawn.
"We're not doing this again." Her voice was steel. "We save her. No matter what."
A new voice answered. Calm. Clear.
"Good answer."
They turned.
The Spider swung past a fresh scorch mark, riding the edge of Raven's last blast.
He twisted mid-air - Lasso snapping in one hand - then landed with a pivot, eyes glowing beneath the cracked mask.
He didn't raise his voice.
"Because if you harm her…"
He let the words hang - then flicked the Lasso, cutting through a fireball mid-flight before it reached him.
Wonder Woman's jaw clenched.
The Spider turned his head - just enough to meet their eyes.
"I will kill you."
He swung again, fast and deliberate - straight toward Raven.
Constantine exhaled through his teeth, watching the Spider absorb blasts with the Lasso like it was born for it.
"Gotta say…" he muttered, almost impressed.
"Didn't think anyone could use it better."
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