Kevin Curry
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A young devil's consulting 4
🕑 Added 2024-03-01 15:00:16 +0000 UTCThis chapter is weird, too long in parts and too short at the same time. Still, it's done. More cuteness/brattiness next chapter if it wins again.
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Surprisingly, the alien invaders didn't take out all of Earth's Satellites as an opening move. Then again, his statement of ‘resist as much as you can' implied… hm. Batman’s rubbing off on her if she's psychoanalysing him as her first go-to.
“You can't go.” Tanya said immediately. “You're still injured.”
“I must.” Countered Batman. “I can power through.”
“The instant sunlight hits you, the augmentation spell will break.” Tanya reminded him.
“Not a concern.” Batman said, pointing at the display of the Bat computer.
Ultraa’s army was approximately one million strong, deployed to ten dense population centers around the world. The thing was, he deployed them outside those centers and started setting up military forts instead of attacking immediately.
His mothership landed in Australia… which was at dusk. Batman could fly there without needing to face the sun. “Hm. Leaving Gotham will weaken it…” Tanya said, but frowned. “If you're going, I'm coming with you.” She demanded, “To provide support.”
“Absolutely not.” Batman said immediately.
Tanya crossed her arms and glared at him. “You know crime, but I know war. You'll need my insight, and my magic.”
Batman’s brow furrowed. His cowl was off, so she could see him clearly. “You never talk about that.” He said softly.
“Because war is terrible!” Tanya shouted, “It's blood, shit, and worse! A charnel pit that ruins any notion of honor, all in the name of domination and victory!” Tanya took some deep breaths, which forced her to choke back a sob.. “To know the stakes of defeat, we need only look at our own colonial history. If you're going, I'm going.”
“On one condition.” He eventually said. “Use your magic to augment yourself, not me. Even then, you stay safe.”
Well, she's been workshopping this, but… now's the time. “Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. The Devil of the Rhine has died, rise again, be this Knight's guide.”
Hellfire burst from her pores, shaping her body and burning away her clothes. After about two seconds, the fire settled in around her and turned into a new outfit, the simple undershirt and pants she died in.
…Including all of the bullet holes. Her outfit was in tatters. “Tch.” Tanya said, “Couldn't even manage my uniform? No orb, either… at least I'm uninjured.”
Batman’s face did that thing it did when he sees something particularly gruesome that the Joker did. It was angry, but he was determined to not give the sadistic bastard the satisfaction of reacting. “How did you die?” He asked simply. His eyes traced her features, the dozens of holes in her clothing, but she knew him too well to see it as anything but clinical.
“Firing squad.” Tanya said carefully, as a storm of emotions threatened to break her composure. It was a familiar feeling, and in this body it was easier to keep calm in comparison to the younger mortal shell. “This won't work. Let's try again. Return to the grave, come home to the cave.” It was sloppy and improvised, but the hellfire dutifully returned her to the state she was in before. Which caused the anger she was holding back to redouble in strength, or rather halved her ability to hold it back, and tears poured out as sobs wracked her tiny body. Damn Being X and his kangaroo court.
She didn't even notice when Batman picked her up and sat down. After a moment of regathering her wits, Batman said, “You don't have to do this.” He said.
“Neither do you.” Tanya retorted, “There is not a single argument you can muster that cannot be applied equally well to yourself.”
Batman gave no argument. “...I'm still going.” He said. “Without you.”
“I'll break the Batplane if you try.” Tanya threatened, as Harold readied the plane to sortie.
“You failed to augment yourself.” He argued.
“I’ll need to assume my Devil form.” Tanya said simply. “I was hoping to get my old magic back, but it didn't work.”
Batman sighed. “This is not the time to be experimenting.”
“It's the perfect time to break out the big guns.” Tanya retorted. She took a deep breath, and got off of Batman’s lap. Ugh, does she have time to get a change? …No. “Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. Calling the power: Rhyme, behold the Devil: Rhine!”
This time the power that burst out from every pore was thrice as intense, and the fire coalesced into her wings instead of clothes.
Their form was as they vaguely remembered, silver skin with sharp obsidian fingernails, they were naked, but possessed nothing resembling sexual characteristics, primary or secondary. They possessed upside down wings of fire that came out of the small of their back. Fortunately, the hellfire seemed to clean up their face from her lapse in decorum. Training herself to cry on demand seems to have weakened her composure…
“...Catch this.” Batman said before winding up a telegraphed punch and launching it.
Tanya caught the fist, the effort required about the same amount they'd expect from catching a man’s fist when abusing military-grade reinforcement spells. Given that he was being enhanced by a weak version of them, that was a good sign. “A Devil's strength is grand, I'm ready to take a stand.” They said, before frowning. They didn't mean to… “An alert, Dark Knight. I cannot stop this, at least tonight.”
“Hm. I had wondered. There are rumors of another demon who spouts rhymes…” Batman mused. “Let’s go.”
Tanya wrapped their wings around themselves, the amorphous flames shifting to a skin-tight leotard that was decorated with ash-black feathers. “Towards the center we will go, to bring the fight to our main foe.” It’s going to be very hard to provide advice with this damned rhyming geas.
Still, with Harold finishing the readying of the Batplane, they entered it and went towards Australia. Going west, of course.
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Of course, the Batplane had satellites keeping a connection to the central computer going no matter where on Earth they went, so while Batman flew the plane, Tanya kept track of the progress of the invasion. Militaries mustered with surprising speed to attack the invasion points, launching large amount of ordinance but stopping short of nuclear missiles.
It was a good thing they held back, because the troop transports that landed and became the fortified bases each had powerful generators that powered a shield and an array of point defense lasers that, between them, kept the invading armies safe.
There was at least one base for each continent, with the United States getting two (one at Metropolis, the other at Coast City), Africa getting two (although one was in Egypt, which was culturally more ‘Middle Eastern’), Asia getting two (One in the mountains between China and India, one in Japan), and Europe getting two (one in Italy, the other in France).
Each fort had at least one superhuman attempting to deal with them, and most of them had multiple. Some were as expected, such as Superman protecting his territory before anything else (not that there was anything wrong with that), while others were surprises, as with ‘The King of Atlantis’ and the Amazonian Ambassador surging forth to assail the European attacking forces.
Information on the Asian and African locations were sparse, but the United States Navy were attempting to protect Japan, along with some local superhumans that only had stubs in the Batcomputer, and there were reports of a green Asura battling the one in the Himalayas.
Still, dealing with the enemy leadership would be best, so they focused their own efforts there. Well… except for the little fact that there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it.
The Almeracan capital ship had, as the dropshops had, erected an energy barrier to protect itself from artillery, and Tanya suspected the reason he didn’t bother knocking down the orbitals is that he knew there was not a single piece of ortillery among them. From that fortified position, hover vehicles were deployed, both armored vehicles with large turrets and bulkier troop transports that had a few smaller guns that Tanya assumed were meant to be anti-personnel.
The Batplane had set itself down on a nearby mesa, and they used the many scanning equipment to observe the place for weaknesses. “What’s your opinion on the tanks?” Batman grumbled after a few minutes of observing them.
“Maneuver warfare is deeply familiar, it’s orthodox, hardly sinister.” Tanya commented, “Good in this terrain, but it will be a slow campaign.” How long does Ultraa think this will take?
“I could send the Batplane to intercept, but it wouldn’t be able to take a whole convoy.” Batman grumbled, “The Batplane only has five missiles and two autocannons.” They actually had more than one Batplane, and this was the milspec one, that had lethal ordinance, in the event of someone with superhuman durability needing to be taken down.
“We could infiltrate on foot, compromise his troop’s throughput.” Tanya suggested.
“Hm… it’s our best option.” Batman admitted, “Use your magic to improve our stealth.”
Tanya wrapped their arms around Batman and, with an exertion of will, phased into the ground and advanced as a pool of darkness. Given the low light levels, it would be difficult for Ultraa to detect unless he had magic sensors. One of the advantages of being pure demon is that simple, weak magic can be done without any incantations, much like how they can do brute force magic like telekinesis without a rhyme in their mortal form as long as they gathered power with their mantra.
He did not, and the barrier also did not cut the earth beneath it, so was easily bypassed. Tanya released Batman to make his way around the base on his own, and just hid in his shadow as he went. After a moment for Bruce to take some deep breaths, “Can you breathe like that?” he asked softly. Tanya stuck their hand back out into realspace and gave her father a thumbs up. “Stay down there then, keep the element of surprise. Use your best judgment.”
Unlike Ultraa, who could easily be mistaken for a human with bad fashion sense, the footsoldier aliens were all identical brutes with ink-black skin. They moved without communicating with one another out loud, and Batman checked both infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies, only picking up electromagnetic communication. “Must be cybernetic neural communicators.” Batman mumbled down to Tanya as his conclusion. “Can we use that? Is there a central hub?”
Batman and Tanya flitted through the ship as ghosts, avoiding all detection until they found the central command post, where Ultraa sat on his throne, looking through hologram displays and manipulating them with some kind of tactile feedback system. “I see your planet has decided to send an assassin rather than face me on the field of battle.” Ultraa said idly as he continued to work. “Wise of you, really. I’m quite impressed by how you managed to get this close without detection, but you cannot hide from me.”
Well, shit. Batman was seized by an invisible force and brought in front of the Almeracan conqueror. The red-headed musclehead sneered at Batman as he strained against the telekinesis. “Your strength is pathetic, human. Fortunately, you still have a use for me.”
“If you want me to spill secrets, you’ll be disappointed.” Batman said with gritted teeth.
“Your willingness is not required. My telepathic domination will do that for me.” Ultraa said, smirking.
“He who rides on wings of nightmares, catches this mindbender unawares.” Tanya said, allowing the sound of their voice to be muffled through the ground they were inside.
Ultraa immediately started to scream in pain as the magical mental defense counterattacked his telepathic intrusion. “There’s two of you!” He said in surprise. Oh? He couldn’t detect them before? The black-skinned aliens that were attending to the consoles and such all clutched their heads as well, which was interesting.
Still, that was their cue. Tanya leapt out of Batman’s shadow and raked their obsidian claws across his flesh, scoring shallow cuts despite the magical edge to their fingers. Ultra threw Batman aside, launching him into the other room. “Kill him!” He commanded his minions before grabbing Tanya with his telekinesis. “Let’s take this outside.”
Putting deed to word, the ceiling of the bridge opened up, and he threw Tanya into the air before leaping after them himself. Tanya’s wings unfurled and burst into flame, the magical limbs acting much more like a flight computation orb than one would expect from wings.
Ultraa attempted to pull Tanya to him with his telekinesis, but Tanya’s own flight counteracted the pull, allowing Tanya an opening for a ranged attack. “You should not have invaded here, for it is where I take up a spear!” Tanya shouted, condensing demon magic into a thick bolt of energy that Tanya gripped and charged, wielding it like they would their bayonet.
“That’s some impressive killing intent, wretch.” Ultraa complimented, “But you’re slow and weak compared to me.” He fought Tanya with his bare hands, deflecting their spear with his arm and counter attacking with heavy blows.
Tanya backed up to get distance, having barely avoided his fists, and tossed the spear with as much magical propulsion they could manage. The rapid transition from retreat to attack caught the alien off guard, and Tanya’s spear hit his gut and exploded, extracting a scream of pain. “You…” He growled, “I am going to destroy you!”
“Not on my watch, big guy.” Said another voice as a red and blue blur impacted Ultraa and launched him into the ground, making a new crater. Superman had arrived. He turned to Tanya. “Good job, but I can take it from here. You are…”
“Call me Rhine, It will do fine.” Tanya said, as it was already sort of their ‘devil name’. “Beware his telepathy, do not become the enemy.”
“Thanks for the tip, he won’t give me the slip.” Superman said, clearly picking up on their rhyming geas. “You should go help that other guy, he looks like he needs it.” He said, pointing down to the ship.
Tanya gave him the ‘okay’ hand signal and dove down into the ship. Batman was ducking and maneuvering around the halls and rooms of the ship, ambushing the shockingly well coordinated black-skinned aliens, each one instantly knowing his location the moment he attacked. It made getting more than just one hit in very difficult, they wagered. Still, naval boarding combat was something that mages were good at.
With a roar, Tanya summoned up as much magic as they could muster and sent blades of fire into the thick of them, killing the ones that had gone into a turtle formation as the magical attack cut through their armored suits and thick skin like butter. “...You didn’t need to do that.” Batman said flatly.
“They are troops, I’ll not say whoops.” Tanya retorted.
“I know.” He said with a touch of melancholy. “Still, I should…” He started accessing Ultraa’s computer, and Tanya started watching for the next wave of troops. After their display, Tanya assumed they were regrouping instead of continuing to attack a powerful enemy.
“So how’s this coming along?” Said another person who was suddenly there.
Tanya shrieked in surprise, lashing out with one of their wings to cut the ambusher in half. He avoided the strike easily. “Woah, woah! I’m on your side.” After a beat, he added: “I think. You’re on team Earth, right?”
The man was dressed strangely, but Tanya already knew him: This was Wally West, also known as The Flash, ‘The fastest man alive’. “We are both defenders, do not repeat or you’ll be rendered.” Tanya warned him.
“...What?” He said, confused.
“I’m Batman, this is Rhine.” Batman said testily. “She can only speak in rhymes, she was warning you not to surprise her like that.”
“...That’s a girl?” He asked. Tanya waved their hand in a ‘so-so’ fashion. “So… was that pile of dead guys your doing, Bats?”
“I’ll take responsibility for them.” Batman said immediately.
“I am a veteran of war, my actions he does not pay for.” Tanya said immediately. “Beware, the enemy must be coming soon, to pincer us and invade the room.”
“No, I took all their guns and put ‘em in a pile outside by the bat-shaped plane.” Flash said easily. “Just need you to finish… whatever you’re doing there.”
“Or you could let me take care of it.” Said an authoritative voice from above. Looking up, Tanya saw the glowing green form of John Stewart, the Green Lantern. He was one of the more mysterious of the American superheroes, as he pointedly avoided reporters and such, unlike all but Batman. “This is a Citadelian ship, Ultraa must have stolen it when he mind controlled an entire invasion force worth of them.” He pointed his ring at the console and a green energy suffused it. “...Okay, my ring’s put the self-destruct command on all those clone soldiers he’s got. That’ll end this the cleanest way.”
“Clones?” Batman asked, intrigued.
“Yeah, according to my information, the Citadel is inhabited by clones of this one guy, who controls the others through cybernetic brain implants.” The dark-skinned human shook his head ruefully. “It makes controlling them with telepathy real easy, which is the only reason a single noble Almerac warlord was able to field so many soldiers.”
“Well, I’m glad it’s all worked out, then.” Superman said as he entered the room. His smile turned grim. “We need to do something about this, though. Keep in contact with one another in case something else big like this happens.”
“...I agree.” Said Batman.
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They adjourned to handle the cleanup and meet again under better circumstances, and also to gather the less mobile heroes that were of significant help during the invasion. Not all of them agreed to come, but a few did.
They met in a conference room in a convention center in Metropolis that Superman had rented (apparently for free, the landlord was happy to lend the use of it for a few hours). Fortunately, they didn't stand out in comparison to the anime convention that was taking place in the lower floors. Now, could they slip out and snatch up some manga? Batman always carries a roll of hundreds…
“Criminal justice on the galactic scale isn't any faster than here on Earth, so it'll be a few months before a verdict, but rest assured: he's looking at life imprisonment, easy. We have plenty of evidence.” Green Lantern announced. “He’ll be sitting in a cell until then, too.”
“I'm sure we're all happy to hear that.” Superman said, “Thank you for the update.” Apparently, Green Lantern was a title for galactic police, who use Clarke tech rings to, among other things, create energy constructs to fight with. There were many unanswered questions there, foremost among them being ‘do they know why this universe only has one galaxy?’ “Now, for the purpose of this meeting: everyone here has proven they're willing to step up when the planet is in danger. I'm pretty strong, but even I can't be everywhere at once. I propose an alliance, a… league we can form to help handle any future problems from outside Earth.” He smiles, “Maybe even more than that, but one step at a time.”
“I like the idea.” The Flash offered, “I don't know about you guys, but I was running all over the place, and Bats got there before any of us. I dunno how he did it, magic maybe, but just a phone call with a point in the right direction would have helped a lot.”
“While we're on the subject,” interjected the King of Atlantis, who asked to be called ‘Aquaman’ shortly after Superman introduced himself, “I was told by Diana that there was a demon among you. Where is it?” Diana was the ambassador to Themyscira, one of the few superheroes here to have a public identity. She still had a superhero name, ‘Wonder Woman'.
Tanya poked their head out of the darkness of Batman’s cape. “I am present, I do not dissent.” And ducked their back into the darkness. Their devil form was surprisingly mutable, allowing them to compress into an amorphous blob of shadow that Batman could hold in his cradled arms underneath his cloak without them needing to focus on staying phased into the ground.
“She’s shy.” Batman deadpanned.
Aquaman paled. “A Rhymer…”
“Is there a greater meaning to her speech impediment?” The entity who introduced themselves as ‘The Martian Manhunter’ asked.
“Diabolism is forbidden in Atlantis.” Aquaman said firmly. “But as the King, I am expected to have a basic familiarity with the subject. Short of demon lords, there is a rank, think titled knight, of demon known as ‘Rhymers’. Our own scholars don’t know why these demons speak only in rhyme, only that it is a mark of power, and only the most foolhardy of them would fake it, as those demon knights take offense to pretenders.”
“Hm. Rhine has never met another demon, so she couldn’t tell you.” Batman revealed, “She will not be participating in combat except in the most dire of circumstances. Think of her as… a consultant. For magical subjects.”
“Truly?” Aquaman asked, surprised. “Those must be truly unique circumstances, to have such strength.”
“She said she was a war veteran, I remember that.” Flash brought up.
“Enough.” Batman said, “We are not here to discuss Rhine, but this… League. Does anyone object to the idea in abstract? If so, you may leave while the rest of us discuss implementation.” Green Lantern looked like he was about to object, but Batman’s assertion, something that Tanya’s salaryman background noted as a power move, killed it. His words were clear: ‘this is happening with or without you’.
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Somehow, Batman’s ability to convince six aliens and superhumans to follow his lead was less impressive than finding out that he had thought to bring cosplay for the two of them to enjoy the convention afterwards.
“This is some lovely superhero art.” Bruce commented as he stroked his fake mustache. Her character’s father was a pretty simple one, just a navy suit, the mustache, and a small adjustment to his hairstyle. “What was your reference for the Batman picture? He’s a tricky fellow to get a clean picture of.”
Tanya brought out her costume’s magnifying glass and examined the picture. “The number of pouches on the belt is seven!” She declared inanely. She was a detective, after all.
“Good job, Prince- I mean, Conan.” Bruce said, patting her on the head. “You didn’t use your fingers or anything.” Tanya beamed at the faux praise.
“There’s this one picture that made the front page of the Gotham Gazette about six months ago.” The artist said, “It’s the best picture anyone has of the Batman.”
“Well, I think I’ll take one of each hero.” Bruce said, “If I put them next to each other, it’s almost like they’re teaming up.”
“That’ll be the day.” The artist laughed.
“Daddy! They have Super Robot Magazine!” Tanya said with poor volume control. “I want it!” She loved mecha manga. If it tracked to her first life… Getter Robo should be getting released this year?
“Quite the find, little detective.” Bruce said, laughing as he collected his pictures and paid.
Tanya couldn’t remember the last time she went to an anime convention. She must have been… in high school? Middle school? It was in the 90s, definitely. She went with some of her wargaming friends, back when she still played with actual miniatures. It wasn’t really her scene, but they were precious memories nonetheless. Still, dressing like the teen detective that had been de-aged to a young child by a mysterious organization was wonderfully appropriate. “Is there any wargaming at this con?” She asked, looking around.
“That’s probably a bit too advanced for you, Princess.” Bruce said, “But I’ll see if I can find some games you can play with Dick.” Unspoken was that having a confidant means that she can play multiplayer games with more than just Alfred and him.
A commotion spread among the con, which was quickly revealed to be Superman doing an impromptu autograph signing. “No.” Bruce said immediately when Tanya looked at him. “Too risky. We don’t want the paparazzi noticing that we’re here. This seems like Kent’s beat, and I still owe him an interview.”
Superman perked up and glanced over at them, idly commenting to the people around him while gesturing vaguely at the billionaire. “Oh that son of a corn farmer.” Bruce said, realizing what had just happened. He picked Tanya up and started walking away, “You’re probably hungry anyway.” She was.
“Bye-bye Mr. Superman!” Tanya shouted, waving to him with an evil grin. In Japanese, she shouted “Normie go die!” Saying rude things that she ‘didn’t understand’ was fun. It was also something that was directed at her way back when, so the convention just wasn’t complete without it being said.
Unfortunately, after lunch and a trip to the facilities, they got ambushed… by Lois Lane, ace reporter. “Bruce Wayne! Lois Lane, Daily Planet. It’ll take more than a fake mustache to fool me, I’m afraid. Do you have some time to answer some questions?”
Comments
Kevin Curry
It is, and I didn't invent the word either.
Eldar ortell
Is ortilery a portmanteau of artillery and orbital or a spelling mistake
Kevin Curry
Yeah, Bruce learned 3 things about Tanya today. 1. How Tanya died 2. How old Tanya looked when she died (for the record, age 14-15, but she looked more 12-13) 3. How incandescently furious Tanya gets when she thinks about it.
Dragonin
Now, this does bring a smile to my face. Also, the bit where Bruce was absolutely upset about what happened to his daughter was gold.
