Kevin Curry
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Devil's Consultancy 35
🕑 Added 2025-07-28 14:00:13 +0000 UTCThe Joker went on to elaborate on the details of his sick game: There were bombs spread around the Las Vegas Strip, and everyone had twenty minutes and change to defuse them.
He said that the only ones allowed to participate in the game are those currently within the borders of Las Vegas by the end of his introduction, and ‘he’d know’ if any new hero showed up. He specifically called out Batman as being already present, taunting him with Rhine’s absence. Which means that he’d probably set off the bombs if Tanya rejoined him… damn.
“Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. So to verify his claims, I must see this city’s frames.” Tanya intoned, her eyes glowing as she looked. Indeed, The Joker had bent his army of ghost-slaves into maintaining a perimeter around the city, and she didn’t understand enough about how he did what he did to know how foolproof that was.
Kara’s phone rang, and she answered it. “Clark? Yeah, I’m in Vegas, we’ve already checked into the hotel.” She paused. “Hey Tanya, do you think Joker’s bluffing?”
“He’s got a magic sensor net.” Tanya replied, “Unknown efficacy.”
“Yeah, he’s got something.” Kara confirmed to Superman. “I’ll take care of everything, I’m a member of the League too, leave it to me.” A pause. Kara’s eyes widened. “You what? That was so risky!”
Richard had just finished putting on his Nightwing suit and was examining himself in the mirror. It wasn’t the first time he wore it, but it was the first time he was going to put it through its paces, so giving him an extra moment for equipment checks was prudent. “What?” He asked.
“The Flash managed to get in the city before Joker finished talking.” Kara explained, “So it’s us, Batman, him, and apparently Black Canary and Green Arrow too.”
“That’s not bad!” Richard said, clearly surprised. “Seven against Joker and his crew.”
“Plus the bombs.” Tanya clarified, as she accessed the type 66’s interface. She had a bomb detecting spell in here somewhere… Ah. There it is. She cycled through the filters. Joker usually favored binary explosives because they’re harder to track, but magic doesn’t really care about that. She can scan for arbitrary chemical compositions and be fine, with the type 66 streamlining the process, although the precision wasn’t quite what she’d like it to be. The good news was, scanning for pairs of chemicals in close proximity meant that there were basically no false positives. After cycling through pairs of chemicals that Joker was known to use… “Twenty-six bombs.” Tanya declared confidently, “But the yields are all over the place. Most are weak enough that they’re definitely decoys, but some can do some damage. The biggest one’s in the Luxor, and that one’ll destroy the whole casino plus do enough damage that everything next to it’s a goner as well.”
“Where?” Kara demanded, looking around. After a few minutes of pointing out each bomb, Kara confirmed their precise locations with her X-ray vision. “I have to text Flash and Batman…” She murmured, her fingers blurring as she manipulated her phone. From the rapid beeps, they were having an incredibly fast conversation. Hopefully Bruce can keep up…
Nightwing scowled. “It can’t be this easy, there has to be a trap.” He insisted, “Kara, take me to one of the fakes. We’ll spring it. I’ll disarm, you run interference. Don’t let on that we know where his big bomb is.”
“I’ll stay up here, watch the TV.” Tanya said, “Keep comms going, I’ll reinforce as needed.” Also, she had a few… ideas.
With both of the others out, Tanya looked down at her clothes. “Hm. Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. Civvy’s stitch, time to switch, into a witch.” Her clothes poofed away into a haze of magic, and was swiftly replaced with the fake metahuman identity she had ready to associate with Nightwing: Witch Girl. It was deliberately a little terrible, so she could replace it later.
‘Witch Girl’ had a batman style cowl and cape combination, much like her Rhine costume, so her hair was concealed, but this was disguised by the addition of a floppy witch hat attached to the cowl, and a much more open (although still half-covered) face, albeit with a minor glamour to change her skin tone to a browner color and otherwise mess with her features. The body of the outfit was a dress that was a bit frillier than she’d prefer, primarily black with green and purple accents. The skirt went down to her knees, and she had striped long socks to go with her sensible buckled shoes.
Every bit of the outfit was enchanted to the best of her ability, and the type 66 was set into an armored chest piece that also made her look just a bit older than she actually was, closer to 13 than 10. Making herself look not underage was impossible for this identity, but that was sort of the idea. The chest piece also somewhat disguised the fact that it was the same magical artefact previously wielded by the not-a-nazi angel League member. You know, besides the fact that it wasn’t made of gold.
On that subject, Tanya had revised The Argent’s official profile to emphasize that she was not a nazi, and fiddled with the costume’s smaller details to make it more resemble modern dress uniforms instead. Everyone ‘knows’ that the angel hero is Rhine in disguise, but this was not officially acknowledged and new members were not informed. Many (crazy) members also volunteered for telepathic purging of that information. More did than didn’t, which was baffling.
The Witch Girl suit finished by accessorizing with several wands, magic rings, magic bracelets, and the back holsters, which concealed a 9mm pistol and an entrenching tool that wasn’t made of Nth metal. Just in case.
The Joker’s broadcast continued unabated. “Our heroes have finally shown themselves!” He announced, the footage cutting to Nightwing and Supergirl landing and rushing in to handle a decoy bomb. It then cut to Green Arrow and Black Canary handling another decoy. It cut again to Batman and the Flash handling one of the not decoys, although they left the Luxor alone for now. The Joker can and will change the rules if he doesn’t think he’s getting his way, so you had to spend that kind of advantage well. “Bats, the Red Streaker, Bat’s copycat, his singer girlfriend, Super-girlie, and… who is that? Does the Super-loser’s distaff counterpart have a new paramour? You’ve seen it here first, folks! Supergirl has a boyfriend!”
That sounds like a good lead-in. Tanya had already traced the Joker’s location by scanning for Joker Venom, an advantage she would never even hint she possessed to the clown, and used a communication formula to connect to his stream. “Hey!” Tanya said into the holographic display that the type 66 conjured. On the television in front of her, a box with her masked face popped up.
The Joker startled at the interruption. “Hey, whose horning in on my show!” He snapped, irritated.
“You didn’t introduce me!” Tanya complained, making sure to sound extra whiny. “I am Witch Girl, Nightwing’s sidekick!”
“Oh, is that what his name is?” Joker asked, disinterested. “How original.” He chuckled. “Well, it’s more original than you, anyway.”
“Also, Nightwing and Supergirl are absolutely not dating!” Tanya continued, “No way, no how!”
Suddenly, a muscular black boy, about seventeen years old if she had to guess, tackled Supergirl and slammed her into a stone pillar. Nightwing easily danced out of the boy’s reach, but was then assaulted by a boy with a clear stretching meta-ability, wrapped around like a cat tangled in a curtain. Batman and the Flash were similarly ambushed by a man with a scepter who fired some kind of energy blast from his hands as well as a rain of coins and metal stools.
“And here comes my winning hand!” The Joker crooned, seizing control of his program again. “Brightsing or whatever his name is isn’t the only debut from this show! Everyone welcome the Royal Flush Gang!”
The camera focused on each one as Joker introduced them. “Ten! Jack!” He said, referring to the ones attacking Nightwing and Supergirl. “King and Queen!” Apparently, the one controlling the metal was a provocatively dressed teenage girl, going along with the whole ‘playing card’ theme. They were all depicting the ‘clubs’ suit, as well. An interesting choice…
Joker didn’t introduce the much younger girl (Tanya’d guess… eleven?) in a somewhat less provocative than Queen’s leotard with full sleeves that nonetheless exposed her legs that sat in the chair behind him, the girl distinctly avoided eye contact with any of the cameras. Tanya’s eyes narrowed at the implications.
The fights between the Royal Flush Gang and the Justice League (plus Nightwing) proceeded apace for a minute or two, ending when Green Arrow arrived to support Nightwing with an adhesive arrow to immobolize Ten, allowing Supergirl to crush Jack into a ball, dip him in a fountain, and freeze the water with her breath. She was visibly furious, which was understandable given how Jack had comported himself in a distinctly non family-friendly way.
Nightwing failed to disarm the bomb somehow, but it was one of the decoys, so all he had to show for it was a jack-in-the-box clown taunting him for his failure. That could have been messy, but it was picked to be a practice round… As well as to flush out the Royal Flush Gang, even if they weren’t sure exactly what Joker had up his sleeve.
Batman successfully disarmed his own bomb after Black Canary intervened to distract King and Queen, who retreated in response.
“It’s not going to be that easy, kids!” Joker taunted as Nightwing failed. “Bats got one, but there’s plenty more where that came from! That’s right, there are decoy bombs!” Joker laughed uproariously. “How many? Who knows?”
“Twenty-three left.” Tanya said bluntly, and her image popped back up on the screen.
“Party pooper!” Joker spat back.
“Supergirl has X-ray vision, you know.” Tanya said tauntingly. “How did you think they found the first set?”
The Flash had gone off on his own to another decoy, while Batman and Black Canary maneuvered to another one, slowly making their way towards the Luxor and the primary bomb. Nightwing, Supergirl, and Green Arrow all made their way to another one, leaving the incapacitated Royal Flush Gang behind. The video showed Ten breaking out and also shattering the icy shell around Jack, and while they were a whole minute behind, they started to go for round two.
To fill the time, Joker started to wax poetic on the supposed tragic backstories of the Royal Flush Gang. Children sold to a government metahuman indoctrination program, secret facility in Arizona. While this neatly explained why he was in Nevada, Tanya didn’t trust him to have told the whole story on principle.
On the other hand… the security camera footage he had apparently acquired and cut into the feed was rather persuasive… Tanya also didn’t miss how he skipped out on explaining ‘Ace’ beyond her being lonely…
The type 66’s communication formula can only interface with electronics that have wireless receivers, unfortunately. So Tanya couldn’t do anything quite yet. “So you murdered a bunch of government incompetents and stole their abused children, good for you.” Tanya said, sarcastically clapping. “If you had done anything other than turning them into themed anarchist terrorists, that could even be considered admirable.” Oops, she needs to dumb herself down a bit. “But we’ll beat you!” Tanya asserted, raising her gloved, magic jewelry-laden fist into the view of the invisible magical camera. “On national television, even!”
Joker’s grin widened. Oh? “Sure they will.” Joker said sarcastically, unconcerned. “They’ve already gone through a few more of my decoy bombs, but will they have the time?” He aped looking at the on-screen timer. “Something tells me they’re not going to make it.” He bragged.
“...Bored now.” Tanya announced, cutting the communicator off. Joker looked appropriately incensed, right on time for Jack to be once more disabled, this time by being disoriented by Black Canary’s scream, followed by being shoved into a ball and being trapped in a hard plastic (naturally, there was a lot of bulletproof “glass” around) box that was fused together with Supergirl’s heat vision. Nightwing had thrown one of the air cycler rebreathers, advanced WayneTech gear for first responders, that he had in his utility belt inside, it should give the guy a good hour of breathable oxygen before the filter wears out.
With the box raced away by the Flash, one of the Royal Flush gang was finally disabled. Well, three were. King and Queen were not exceptionally durable, just dangerous, so the various nonlethal takedowns possessed by Batman, Nightwing, and Green Arrow dealt with them handily the instant one of the metas disoriented or just distracted them.
They had been making their way to the Luxor, still pretending that they didn’t know it was the right one, and once only Ten remained, Supergirl started fighting him one on one so that all the other heroes could tackle the bombs.
Tanya had flown straight to the helicopter that was providing a view for this. “Hi!” Tanya said cheerily to Harley Quinn, one of the Joker’s most devoted followers.
Once Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Psychiatrist, the tapes of her descent into madness were chilling… and also a misogynist’s wet dream, to be honest. Near as Tanya could tell, the Joker did not possess any kind of hypnotic power… but it would make more sense than what actually happened. But when Tanya expressed this viewpoint, Bruce had her go over the data of just how many love letters serial killers tended to receive in prison. It still didn’t make sense to her, but it explained why Tanya tended to avoid thinking about the disgraced doctor.
“Hey!” Harley shouted, annoyed. “Beat it, brat!”
“Nuh-uh!” Tanya said, shaking her head. “I’m Witch Girl! So I’m gonna do magic and beat you!”
“Harley, get rid of the brat and get me a shot of Supergirl!” Joker shouted over the helicopter’s comms. “She’s out of range of the cameras!”
“You got it, Puddin’!” Harley said, pulling out a gag pistol. Tanya used a pressure point that Batman taught her to cause her grip to spasm, stole the gun, and pointed it up. The gag pistol shot out a prop flag, as expected, but a second trigger pull launched the dart with completely inadequate force to deal any more damage than a tiny hole in the fuselage.
Fortunately, she had magic. A penetration formula along with a guidance one caused the tiny flag to tear through the roof of the helicopter, completely destroying the rotor and sending the blades flying off. Fortunately, civilians had largely cleared out of The Strip by now, so the odds of anyone getting hit by those were minimal. Tanya gave her witchiest cackle.
“We’re going down, Puddin!” Harley shouted in a panic. The other minions in the helicopter also panicked.
However, Tanya had full control over the descent. They slowed down from the flight formula she applied, gently landing on the ground. “You’re under arrest!” Tanya declared, pointing a wand right in Harley’s face. The shimmering aquamarine at the end of it gleamed menacingly. Tanya grinned widely, not even the torments of hell allowing her to forget how to act like a battle maniac. “Make my day.” She threatened.
Harley may be a trained psychiatrist, but she bought Tanya’s ‘crazy’ act hook, line, and sinker. “I give up!” She shouted, terrified.
Tanya pouted, and drew another wand with her off hand. “Walk onto the grass.” She ordered, and the clown-dressed girl and the men that may or may not be coerced civilians obeyed. Not once did the Atlantean combat wand deviate from Harley’s center mass once Tanya took a step back, and once they were on the grass Tanya used her wand to channel The Green, binding the lot of them with overgrown plant life.
“Woah, deja vu.” Harley said, wiggling in the plants with little concern. After the durability was appropriately tested, Harley gave a pleased hum before glaring at Tanya, now much more comfortable with defiance. “I’m not gonna tell you nothin’!” She boasted. “Not where Mr. J is, not what the plan is, not even what I’m wearing under this!”
Tanya tilted her head. If she had functioning hormones at the moment, she might have been distracted by that last line. “Why would I ask you where The Joker is?” Tanya asked rhetorically. “I already know.” Tanya activated her communication spell again, but this time she used it to tap into the broadcast instead of interfering with it.
The Joker was already talking. “Let’s give the Justice League and whoever this Nightwing kid is a hand for foiling my bomb plot.” He said, clapping lightly. “Come on!” He said, and some clapping sounds came through the audio.”
He doesn’t seem to be nearly dismayed enough for this to be everything… He must have… oh no. An Ace up his sleeve. What is her metahuman power? He was slowly bragging about how many viewers he has, so how would… It must be a memetic hazard of some kind. Easy enough to fix. She just needs to shut down all the cameras in his studio.
The Joker went in to explaining Ace’s tragic backstory, which was enough time for Tanya to fly off. Right when he was explaining her actual powers, Tanya shifted her communication formula for an interference one, completely shutting down all communication on all usable frequencies, which would stop anything that isn’t a direct wired connection.
…The internet! Shit! It was the work of thirty seconds to maneuver through the building to reach the room where the cameras were, waving yet another wand to destroy every single lens in the room. This also destroyed all the screens and a lot of the computers, but that was a sacrifice she was willing to make. Fortunately, she was able to exclude herself from the area, so the one phone she didn’t have safely ensconced in an alternate dimension was fine.
“The day is saved!” Tanya announced, “By the work of Nightwing and Witch Girl!” She gave a cute pose, which gave her a great view of the Joker being absolutely livid.
“You…” The Joker said, angrier than anyone else. “I was two seconds from driving fifty million people absolutely barking mad.”
“You’re welcome.” Tanya said, nodding to herself. Shifting slightly to focus on Ace, Tanya decided to gamble that the young girl who was desperate enough to fall for the Joker’s transparent manipulations would be much more receptive to a peer. “Hey, my hotel room has video games but my stupid brother won’t play Mario with me, wanna come?” Tanya was also betting that the girl had never actually played a video game, so the minor assistance role the latest title of that series has would be a good place to start.
“Do not ignore me!” Joker spat, “Ace, why don’t you give her a piece of your mind?” He said threateningly. Tanya immediately erected as much mental defense as she could manage, which was quite a bit, actually.
In what Tanya determined was a very good sign, Ace was clearly conflicted at the command. Let’s double down. “If you don’t wanna play video games, I have, like, thirty different colors of nail polish. With matching lipstick.” Ace did have some black lipstick on, but unpainted nails, so this might work.
“Ace, this little brat has ruined your revenge on Cadmus.” Joker said, deliberately evening his voice so as to be more persuasive than just shouting. “She doesn’t want to be your friend, she’s just afraid of you, like everyone else!”
Tanya picked her nose to demonstrate just how unconcerned she was. “Yeah, I was busy flying here when you explained what she could do.” she lied, she absolutely paid attention to the broadcast while she was flying. “I just figured if you wanted people to watch you so badly, I should just stop that.” Wait… was that… it was!
One of the more minor effects of her long association with Batman was that she could feel his presence if he got close; it was weird, because she could only do it in her child form. Bruce theorized that it had something to do with the fact that she was family to blood mages, so she might have inherited some kind of talent in blood magic, able to detect blood ties in close proximity. Batman was waiting right outside the room.
Confidence rising, Tanya increased her volume, hoping Bruce got the message. “Anyway, Ace hasn’t actually done anything.” Tanya explained, “Except be kidnapped by you. So if she continues to do nothing, she won’t get arrested. So I can ask her to come play with me after you’re out of the picture.”
Ace seemed intrigued by this line of logic. Logic that only worked because it was coming from another girl that was roughly her age. “What happens after that, though?” Joker asked, seizing on her weak logic. “If she goes with you, she’ll be sent right back to the government!”
Now for her checkmate. “Do you honestly think Ace would be the only human weapon in the shape of a little girl that the Justice League’s come across?” Tanya asked rhetorically, gesturing to herself. Ace’s eyes widened in shock. Perfect. Now, to make up some extraneous details to drive it home. She didn’t stay with the cult long enough to get to actual training, but if she was running a human weapon program, she’d probably include some controlled testing… ah. “Oh Lilith, can you cut this?” She asked rhetorically, making a mage blade and carving a furrow into the wall. Ace gasped, tears already forming in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her hands. She’s on the right track, excellent. “Oh Lilith, can you make yourself invisible?” Tanya activated an illusion formula to conceal herself. “Oh Lilith,” She said from directly behind the Joker. He leapt forward, clearly expecting a stab in the back.
She instead stabbed him in the front, having thrown her voice instead of moving. “-can you kill the clown?” She asked when she reappeared, summoning tears in her eyes (such a useful skill) as she shoved the temporarily dead clown off her hand. “No.” She said, “No I can’t.” It was truly a shame that the Joker didn't die from such pedestrian means of killing. Still, she doesn’t want him to leave this body and come back at some unknown time and place, so she subtly activated a healing formula to close the gaping hole where his heart used to be, making his regeneration look more impressive than it was. “He can’t die.”
Joker stood up, fear in his eyes as he scrambled away from her. The blood on her body slid off easily, her skin coated in a frictionless magic barrier. Tanya sniffled as she looked at her previously blood soaked hand sadly. She did kind of feel a little bad for manipulating Ace like this, but she also really sympathized with the younger (depending on one’s point of view) girl’s position, and if it took some stretches of the truth to peacefully get her into a position where she didn’t memetically attack people on accident or on purpose… well, so be it.
As the Joker scrambled, something fell out of his jacket, a ring of metal of some kind. On a second glance, it was a circlet with visible electronics on the interior. From the way Ace’s eyes immediately zeroed in on it, it was presumably the same one from the Joker’s camera footage, the suppressor that inhibited her telepathy with serious side effects that also… well, the camera wasn’t clear, but it looked like it put her into a docile state of some kind. “You…” Ace said, loathing filling her tone.
Batman stormed into the room, going straight to Joker and lifting him up. “Take me back to Arkham!” The Joker immediately begged, presumably cutting his losses. “I may be crazy enough to take on you, but this is the last time I ever work with children! Fields was right.” Who?
Before Ace could do something stupid, Tanya put her hand on the taller girl’s shoulder. Ace looked at Tanya, and her eyes softened. Those tears and acting experience probably made her look absolutely pathetic. Perfect. “Come on, I’m hungry.” She said, and gently pulled the metahuman away. “Let’s get some snacks.”
Ace’s hand drifted to her own stomach, and she allowed herself to be dragged out of the building. Nightwing was waiting right outside, Supergirl smiling brightly behind him. “Surprised you’re willingly touching her.” He commented.
“Why?” Tanya asked, caught off guard.
“She’s a telepath.” Nightwing said, as if it was obvious.
No, she wasn’t… was she? Telepathy couldn’t propagate through ordinary radio waves, so she has to be doing something else… right? Tanya turned to Ace. “Can you read minds?” She asked, doing her best to keep her tone ‘curious’ instead of ‘terrified’.
Ace looked to the side, ashamed. Ah. “Don’t read my mind.” Tanya said insistently. “I don’t like it.”
“She’s had some bad experiences.” Nightwing explained vaguely. “The last telepath that tried getting into her mind died screaming.”
Tanya hugged Ace, while also reinforcing her mental shields. She had to keep this nonviolent! Stupid Dick! “It’s okay.” Tanya whispered, “You’re not him.” While Tanya was absolutely sure that Ace could be a terror if she was pushed in that direction, and she didn’t doubt that Ace at least partially wanted to take revenge on the world for her treatment, she was also a child. Spending so much time studying the habits of them for impersonation meant she knew better than most how pliable they could be. “I’ll still be your friend.” Tanya promised.
Ace hugged her back.
Comments
Christopher Overbeck
Aww they are bonding through the power of trauma!
Dragonin
Seeing Ace not actively dying is a treat
