Kevin Curry
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Devil's consultancy 27
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 07:05:58 +0000 UTCI'm not really happy with this one, but I give up on making it better.
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Upon waking, Tanya immediately checked her messages. The Injustice League, as Tanya had decided to call them, had continued to fortify the Watchtower for the most part, but they had also made their first step towards their takeover: they had scheduled an all-hands emergency meeting.
Fortunately, Batgirl had conveniently started a communication pipeline to go around the replaced founders, so Tanya issued an instruction for people to attend, but be ready for a fight to break out.
The thing about learning at Batman’s feet for years was that you tended to learn a thing or two about contingency planning: specifically, that you should keep making more, and have a lot of tools in the toolbox.
For example, the type 66 operations orb. It wasn’t a real operations orb, to be clear, despite looking exactly like the type 95 except made of bloodstained obsidian rather than gold. Instead, it was a magical focus she had created out of her demonic essence that was capable of letting her close the gap between her human and demon forms. More importantly, it didn’t require her to rhyme to use it, or use any invocations at all: she could use it with the same mental interface she used in the Imperial military, as long as her spells were within that purview as well.
To be clear, it was still less impressive than simply using her demon form and going all out, despite her best efforts it was only suitable as a disguise. But a disguise is what she needed, so it will do.
“Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. The Devil of the Rhine, so often called, but never brought forth in truth, recalled.” Tanya chanted as she assumed her teenage form. By now, she was more or less fully grown, with an estimated biological age of 18. She would likely grow a little wider as she aged further, but for the most part she didn’t need to pretend to look like an adult anymore; she just needed to dress the part and she’d be disrespected for her youth in a more ordinary fashion.
On a more petty note, it was quite fortunate for her that she didn’t overestimate her future dimensions when padding her clothing for the role of ArcWayne CEO. Sure, if she was caught down the line still doing it it wasn’t exactly a life-ruining scandal, but it was nice to no longer need to worry about someone finding out.
Unlike her usual transformation spell, this time she changed out her outfit, too. She had been wearing her Rhine costume, the one she uses for interacting with the Justice League, but instead she was wearing a perfect recreation of her dress uniform from shortly before her execution, only adjusted for her new size. Every single medal was pinned, and the type 66 held pride of place on her chest. The Silver Wings Assault medal shone like the day she last saw it; polished to perfection.
With her outfit sorted, she went to the armory and, after going through three extra security layers, extracted her equipment for this assignment. Also, she added a mask.
If a Justice League member was so inclined as to explore the low security databases, they’d be able to find personnel files for every single other member. Granted, the data they could find depended on their security clearance, but at the very least you could get their aliases, pictures, and a few tactically relevant data points like ‘what their superpower is’, ‘base of operations’, and contact information, usually their official @justiceleague.org email address.
Within that database of personnel files, there were a few… fictitious identities. One of them was White Silver, an Argentina-based superhuman whose profile was deliberately built to lead the reader to the conclusion that they descended from a member of the Nazi party that had fled there after WWII. Not ideal for this situation, but it was a disposable identity that can be used to infiltrate an all hands Justice League meeting, which was what she needed it to do. More importantly, she had recently updated the equipment, so it was far better than the alternative identity she could use. This was not a situation you went into understrength if you could help it.
In most circumstances, it wouldn’t really hold up: few of the members of the Justice League actually perused those files, and the Argent’s persona and costume was sufficiently suspicious that anyone who didn’t would be on their guard.
However, the Injustice League would be operating on bluffs and whatever they could discern from their own access to the database, so they won’t be able to immediately point out her as a fake like the real Justice League leaders could, and Gear had already spoofed their credentials so they couldn’t actually see at their nominal security clearance, only appear as if they are, and while she didn’t usually disguise her magical signature, it was quite possible to do so: specifically, Tanya altered her magical signature to read as angelic instead of demonic, something only possible due to her experience working with the Type 95. Despite the power being the antithesis of her current soul, she still held scars from it, so she could bring out a facsimile of that holy power that should fool passive detection methods. As a side effect, it also changed the color of the type 66 to match the type 95. Her eyes too. Any probing scan would immediately see through the facade, though, so she had to be careful, to not draw attention from Dr. Fate, bare minimum.
The Watchtower had a single room with enough occupancy to allow the whole League plus official affiliates, which amounted to about five hundred people, to stand without being overly crowded. It was usually called the Console room, because it had the big computer that was used to communicate with… everyone.
When Tanya entered the room via the Batcave’s Zeta Tube; while the traffic logs did have that data recorded, the Batcave had a backdoor that could spoof the entry, in this case she had it logged as coming from the Buenos Aires relay. Most capital cities of U.N. countries got one; this one had to go through another layer of security compared to more well-defended relays, but naturally she didn’t need to bother with that via the Batcave. You could only tell that there was a problem if you knew the security systems very well and also checked the logs.
More and more members showed up, and Tanya took the opportunity to try and spot people who might take the Injustice League’s side. Before she could find one, however, Green Arrow cleared his throat. “Ja?” Tanya asked, leaning even further into her Imperial accent than she did with her CEO identity.
“White Silver, is it?” Green Arrow asked, scowling. “First time I’ve seen you show up to one of these things.” He, of course, is one of the ones who goes through the personnel files.
Damn it, this was not the time! Superman was definitely listening in. “You would be correct, Herr Arrow. It’s the first time I have attended. But it is also the first time that Superman has called a meeting.” She pretended to be a bit embarrassed. “He is… far greater than any other.” Usually, Batman calls the all-hands meetings. And all the other meetings. Really, it was the Injustice League’s first mistake if they wanted to have this look normal.
Green Arrow seemed pained at her deflection. “Yeah, he sure is something.” He said blandly, already looking for an excuse to disengage the conversation. “Did you really sign up for affiliate status just to meet Superman? Are you just a girl with a gun?” Hypocrisy, thy name is Queen.
“Of course not.” Tanya said, pretending offense. “What kind of idiot would think they deserve to stand among the overmen of the world with naught but marksmanship?”
That pissed him off. “Hey, I’m one of the first additions. All seven of the original members voted me in unanimously.” Like all hypocrites, having this pointed out was a sensitive topic.
Tanya patted his shoulder consolingly, floating up so she didn’t have to lift her arm above her shoulder. “Do not worry, Herr Arrow. Even the greatest Leaders can make mistakes.”
Black Canary, who had been watching the exchange, immediately stepped in. “Hey now, we’re all on the same side here.”
“With her?” Green Arrow asked, offended. “Did you suddenly go blind?” He asked, gesturing to Tanya’s uniform.
Tanya just grinned. This was fun.
“She’s just antagonizing you.” Black Canary deadpanned. “We’ve got bigger concerns right now, remember?”
Green Arrow scowled, but turned around and walked away.
“Men.” Commented one of the nearby minor Leaguers. This was Derby Darla, a muscular woman with high tech skates and an orange, pink, and purple outfit. Like many minor Leaguers, she mostly joined to pick up women. She was a metahuman, though, so Tanya was generally willing to bulk out the League’s numbers with reservists as long as they could be useful.
“Yep.” Black Canary replied ruefully. “Now, I would actually like to know what you can do. I don’t read every single file like Arrow does.”
She had prepared a backstory, fortunately. “I am blessed by God to be his sword, an avenging angel, charged with the destruction of the unbelievers.” She said firmly, sprinkling in a few Imperial words. “Like the godless communists.” One of the advantages of this backstory was that it was, technically, completely true. This was important when you were in a room where there were at least three people who could discern lies, at varying levels of precision and required attention.
“And he gave you a gun and a…” Black Canary looked at the melee weapon that was on her back. “-is that a shovel?”
“Of course, Frau Canary.” Tanya boasted, “The shovel is the tool of civilization, you will do well to remember that.”
She could see the minute Black Canary twisted her words and absolutely wanted out of this conversation. “Hey, Green Arrow looks like he’s about to punch someone, I should go.” The woman said, pointing and walking away.
Tanya looked to where Green Arrow was. He was in a heated exchange with one of his self-declared rivals, a gyaru in a shrine priestess outfit by the moniker of Onmyoji. She was a university student, captain of the Todai Kyudo team, and also a vigilante who used ofuda on her arrows to magically augment them.
Before anyone else could confront her over her outfit, an explosion occurred… or so it seemed, as it was just not-Superman, who Tanya decided will be called Overman, clapping his hands to draw attention instead of shouting like the real Clark would.
Overman, Albatross, Spotlight, and Dr. Fate were all up on the balcony, which was the usual ‘stage’ when having all-hands meetings like this, either that or the console’s biggest screen. In addition to them, there was not-Aquaman, which from his incredibly gaudy costume she’ll call Seaking, and not-Wonder Woman, who Tanya will call… hm. She’ll need to think about that one.
“I look back on what we’ve accomplished since our founding,” Overman began, “-how we’ve grown, the foes we’ve defeated, and find myself proud.” He made wide, sweeping gestures to the crowd, a common bit of political stagecraft but something the humble Clark would never think to do. “We’ve assembled the mightiest force on the planet, all unified in the idea that the Earth needs protectors, those who bring order to chaos.”
As was rather frequent nowadays, Tanya suddenly got the urge to interrupt Overman’s speech with a sig heil. However, she was currently not nine years old, so she suppressed the urge. Even if she could manage to avoid pissing off Overman, Dr. Fate would absolutely see through her disguise if she was to draw attention to herself.
“But the world is still broken!” Overman said, slamming his fist down into his palm. “We are compelled to turn a blind eye towards so many evils in the world, evils perpetrated by the governments and plutocrats of the world. We are forced to address symptoms instead of attacking the root causes of disorder. We leave the rehabilitation of criminals to ineffective systems that give psychopaths leave to kill again.”
Tanya looked over the crowd, judging them. Green Arrow was furious, of course, and most of them seemed skeptical, properly warned of Overman’s status as an impostor. A few, though, seemed to be genuinely considering Overman’s words.
“We’re better than that.” Overman continued, “We have the power, we have the numbers, we can truly build a Better World.” He paused, letting his words sink in.
Tanya started running to the door that led to the stairs that would let her approach the balcony from behind. Meanwhile, she was muttering “Superman is finally talking sense! I must proudly stand behind such a visionary…”
Something that usually escaped a lot of the Justice League is that Clark still makes mistakes. Yes, he can theoretically spot liars, and his super hearing meant that he could overhear secret talks… but he had difficulties doing both of those things at the same time. So he’d be aware of her approach, but he’d put trust in his “overhearing” her motivations to do that, without being able to tell that she’s lying. Probably. Overman might be better at multitasking lie detection and eavesdropping than Clark, but he also has to handle watching that whole crowd.
“Any questions?” Superman asked magnanimously. Fortunately, the Injustice League understood that they would have a much easier time if they got the buy-in of the rest of the Justice League. They’re not going straight to ambushing them like they did the founders.
“I got one.” Static said, scowling in a way that was unnatural to the normally jovial young adult. “What’s with the new threads, man? I know Fate’s got no style, but you didn’t need to change outfits in the middle of the day yesterday!”
Of course Static is going to try and provoke them. “Our sartorial decisions are not for debate.” Seaking said firmly.
“Yeah, but Rhine’s going to throw a fit about an inconsistent image.” Static pointed out, which was unfair. She doesn’t “throw fits”! …In her mature forms. “Where is she, by the way? Batman and Martian Manhunter too.”
Overman was clearly prepared for that question. “About that; Rhine savagely attacked Martian Manhunter yesterday, and Batman is occupied handling the fallout of that event. As such, as of now Rhine is hereby expelled from the Justice League and is designated Public Enemy Number One.”
Static burst out laughing. “Do you think that’s funny, boy?” Overman said testily, which completely ruined Static’s good mood.
“...You all are the worst impostors.” Static said instead. “Rhine’s not a member of the Justice League, which you’d know if you weren’t too busy talking out your asses. ‘Public Enemy Number One’, man get over yourselves.” He gestured to Fate. “Didn’t you tell them?”
“Irrelevant.” Dr. Fate insisted, “That demon could have killed the Martian.”
Tanya used the type 66 to enact her usual suite of combat spells, which when combined with the glamor of holiness manifested as a shining aura, rightside up wings of light, and a literal halo above her head.
“Look, we tried to get all of you onboard the winning side,” Albatross said, her Nth metal mace now in her hand, “-but this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve made Earth better by force, so you can either fall in line or in battle.” Her mace activated its internal battery, causing a corona of crackling power to erupt around the head. “Your choice.”
Tanya drew her shovel, and readied to activate its special function as well. To all appearances, she was on the Injustice League’s side. “The battle lines are drawn, infidels.” Tanya said, still in character. Some of the Injustice League looked strangely at her, but seemed to accept her. “On your side, the righteous heroes fighting our new Glorious Leaders. Sig heil!” She said, giving a nazi salute. She could see all of those who were considering joining the Injustice League reconsider their stances. Perfect. “On this side, there are only invaders…” Some of the Injustice League seemed to realize something was off at those words. Dr. Fate looked at her, and went still, all of his muscles straining as Kent Nelson attempted to suppress Nabu. “-UND TRAITORS!” She shouted, activating the Nth metal shovel and slamming it upside Dr. Fate’s helmet, cutting through the Lord of Order’s barrier magic like cobwebs. It flew off, and Kent Nelson shuddered.
“Thank you.” He said before collapsing.
Static immediately launched a full-powered electrical attack on Seaking and Spotlight, and Captain Atom launched Kryptonite radiation at Overman. Amazing-man, who was in some kind of energy state, engaged Albatross, and immediately copied her Nth metal for his own body. As it does for Thanagarians, it meant he was now able to fly while also being made of durable metal.
“Who the hell are you?” not-Diana shouted as she launched her lasso at Tanya.
“Who was I, all this time?” Tanya said, smirking as she dodged the rope. “Once they called me, the Devil of the Rhine!” Her angelic aura immediately turned dark, her wings flipped, and her skin shattered off of her before combusting into hellfire, leaving only their naked soul. The shovel was dropped, but Rhine pulled their rifle and started shooting at the Amazon.
Of course, not-Diana, who Rhine still didn’t have a good name for, deflected the bullets with her bracers, which somehow managed to not detonate the explosive spells. They weren’t very strong explosions, so the damaged sections of floor and wall didn’t lead to explosive decompression.
Hm. Fortunately, it appeared that amazons were not the only ones to have lasso skills, as the surprisingly unpowered Vigilante looped his own rope around her and pulled not-Diana into the crowd of heroes to be ganged up on while impaired from her one weakness: getting tied up.
Swooping down to where the Dr. Fate helmet fell, Rhine took out a duffel bag and shoved the helmet inside. They didn’t want to risk putting it in their pocket dimension, but the instant it’s worn, that’s another combatant on the Injustice League’s side.
As it turned out, when you’re not only outnumbered over fifty to one, but also given the large side time to plan their engagement, fights don’t tend to go your way. Granted, the Watchtower’s forcefield had to be deployed to prevent explosive decompression, but it will be easy enough to fix.
Rhine took out specialized restraints that they had taken from the Batcave’s vault for each of the Injustice League, and a portal opened up right in the same room right as they finished. Everyone tensed, but relaxed when Superman was the first one out.
Total victory.
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The vote to inform the UN about the interdimensional invasion was close, but passed. Superman apologized to the world about being unavailable when the “alien” dubbed “Doomsday” landed, and he said all the right words about taking responsibility for the brutality his alternate dimensional counterpart displayed in the battle. Kent was retired, although he refused to turn over Nabu’s helmet for containment, insisting that he could safeguard it himself. Given that this ownership allowed him to keep the heavily defended magical tower inside another dimension that comes with being Dr. Fate, this made sense and was thus allowed.
“What was it like over there?” Tanya asked once they all settled back into the Batcave’s ever-expanding lounge area. She was back in her true form, dressed for bedtime in pajamas covered in moons and stars. The television was on the news, but no one was really paying attention.
“Bizarre.” Bruce said firmly. He was seated on his comfortable chair, in the suit but without the cowl. Tanya was lying across his lap.
Diana hummed in agreement, seated on Bruce’s armrest and ignoring Tanya’s subtle kicks that were more something to bleed off energy than anything else. “I remember when the USSR offered a tour to international observers for the first time in a while.” She said, “They showed quite the prosperous and orderly front, but it was all a lie. That world’s Gotham reminded me a lot of that experience.”
“It was a Potemkin city.” Tanya concluded, “I bet if you had gone to more remote parts of the world, the story would be completely different.”
“Probably.” Diana allowed, “What do you think, Flash?”
“It’s kind of spooky to think that my death kicked off… that.” Wally said, lining up his shot. They had moved the pool table down here a while ago. He failed to sink anything.
John scowled, but walked around the table to plot out his next move after Wally messed everything up. “They didn’t have a Rhine, or a Supergirl either.” He pointed out, “You’ve got backup on this side.”
“I probably died too. Or was sent to the Phantom Zone or whatever.” Kara said casually, on the couch. “If Clark tried that stuff here, I’d be first in line to punch some sense into him.”
“Rhine never existed there.” Bruce said firmly.
“Oh yeah, you had the chance to chat with your counterpart.” Clark said, “He say anything about Kara?”
“No.” Bruce said, “Heather Graystone still conjured a demon into her womb using my DNA, the outcome was just completely different.” He explained, “Lilith destroyed the cult in its entirety for their temerity, and was eventually banished back to hell by Dr. Fate. The other Batman wasn’t even aware of the connection between those two events.”
“Is that how she was born?” Clark asked, “You never really explained it.”
“I do actually have a real birth certificate that says my name is Lilith.” Tanya added, “I assume Mother summoned the correct demon over there.”
Wally laughed. “It’s okay kid, my conception was a mistake too. My folks got a shotgun wedding, you know. Life’s just like that sometimes, we prefer this you any day of the week.” He zipped over and tousled Tanya’s hair.
Tanya waved the man away, who zoomed away too fast for any contact to be made. “I did not need reassuring, but thank you.” She said, “I’m not surprised at the difference, I doubt you’d find another one of me in any alternate dimension you could reach from here.”
Diana paused. “...Why not?” She asked.
“She’s from another dimension.” Bruce explained, “One where World War One was started in 1923, among many other divergences.”
Each member of the Justice League digested this information at their own pace. J’onn, who had been unusually quiet even for him, spoke up: “Tanya.” He began, “I thought you should know: The alternate version of myself? He did not survive his injuries. You killed him.”
Oh? She didn’t expect that. “Good.” She said instead, “He deserved it.”
“Tanya, no.” Bruce said, lightly chopping her head.
“He did!” Tanya insisted, not bothering to pitch her voice in a way to make it not sound whiny and petulant. “He was the one who lied to you all and got you ambushed, starting the whole takeover plot. On top of that, he invaded my mind!”
“That doesn’t mean you-” Clark started to say.
“YES IT DOES!” Tanya shouted, rolling off Bruce’s lap and landing on her feet in a move that she absolutely was not flexible or athletic enough to do before she learned how to figure skate. “Look, I’m not going to say that I would have been unhappy to hear that he survived. But the last time I got ambushed alone, I killed a lot more than just one man before I went down. I’m not going to mourn that green liar.” She certainly counted that green bastard’s actions as an ambush. Her attacking first didn’t change that.
There was silence as Tanya took deep breaths, trying to calm down from her loss of temper. “War wasn’t declared, Tanya.” Bruce pointed out. “Going lethal was too far.”
It wasn’t declared then, either! Tanya twitched, torn between screaming and punching the man who just said the absolute worst thing he could have said. Instead, she wordlessly pulled on as much magic as she could muster without saying anything and left the Batcave, teleporting the short distance into her room.
In the morning, after both of them had a chance to calm down, Tanya told Bruce the full story of the Norden incident, one of the few events in the war that she could still remember clearly enough to have the occasional nightmare about.
Imagine how it would have gone, if she had died there. She spent all that effort to get ahead of Being X’s plans, and she goes up and dies right when the war starts. Being X would probably have actually destroyed her soul instead of going through the effort to throw her in hell, laughing all the while and feeling like a winner.
Tanya knew that Bruce would have forgiven her, it was a character flaw of his, but it was still nice that he didn’t even feel the need to give her some kind of punishment over it.
Still, an interdimensional invasion was kind of a big deal; she wondered what kind of response such a thing would provoke?
Comments
Kevin Curry
Not emotionally, no. Physically yes.
Dragonin
It is good that they talked afterwards, also is Kent ok?
