"So." John began to say as he took a smoke. ", I think I have to start from the very beginning. Remember the Demons Three?"
I chortled, and not just because they were demons that I could not rip apart because John needed them, but also because I had met them one time in person. That's ONE time I didn't kill demons here. I am who I am, so needless to say I wasn't amused, especially given the three were exactly like all the others: utter scumbags deserving only of my fist up their asses, followed by their intestines down those very same asses.
On the other hand, I deeply enjoyed the sheer unease they had when they saw me, even though it was because they knew of me and what I had done to one of their friends, and not some intradimensional demon instinct. Scared 'em to the point one pissed himself.
"How can I not remember them?"
"Yeah, well, turns out they're a bit more willing than others to accept monetary payment rather than just guns, enchanted gold or souls... or maybe souls, I wasn't paying attention, what with having the shit kicked out of me."
Grundy and I stared at each other before looking back at John. "What happened."
"First, I spoke with Abnegazar and he told me to meet him at some pub in Woking. I knew I should have not gone the moment I found out it was that place, but he told he me had some critical need-to-know info on Trigon, something about his daughter. Sadly I was also drunk on my ass, so I didn't really consider the suspicious offer much before accepting. So, I go there, we trade hands the next... and then his walking shithouse of a brother comes out of a corner and conks me before I can do anything."
Grundy was disappointed, and to a point so was I, if only because we never expected John of all people to be captured like that. I also hid it better thanks to my helmet. "That it?"
"He's eight foot of muscle, and I didn't expect him to be there, what the fuck did you expect me to do?"
Grundy shrugged. "More? You wizard, you magic."
John groaned. "Nevermind. Okay, back to the story. I got knocked out, and stayed like that for a good while. Maybe it was magic, maybe drugs, maybe just a concussion, I don't know, but it was enough for them to attach this thing to me." He pointed at the bracelet he had. "It not only prevents magic users from casting, it also causes them unspeakeable pain if they still try to do it. It actually only stings them, but you know how am I."
The bracelet. Right, we had forgot.
I promptly grabbed the thing and tore it apart, careful to not hurt John.
"A bit late, but thanks. Anyway, guess whose phiz do I find looking at me ridiculously close? Lex motherfucking Luthor's of course!"
Lex Luthor. The man who had become half as obsessed with me as he was with Superman.
"You mean Rich Luthor?" Grundy asked. Nobody had told him of Lex's name until then, and he only knew of one famous person with Luthor as surname, so his confusion was understandable... even though he mispelled it.
"No, I mean German Luthor, the guy who basically made my job harder by being a pseudo-activist back in the Renaissance." John snarked before shouting at him."Of course I mean the rich, living and non-religious Luthor! Plus it's Luther, not Luthor."
Grundy just shrugged. "Similar names."
I just sighed "John, please continue."
"So, Luthor managed somehow to contact the three and offered them a monetary reward if they brought me to him."
"You of all people?"
John shrugged. "It's not just from seeing me helping you in Barcelona. I'm not keen in trying to hide my presence, remember? And I told you already, for some reason this guy has connections, and not just of the demonic kind."
Sadly he was right: even after meeting me, most of the time John didn't really involve himself with the public, mostly dealing with the supernatural so he didn't see the need to mask himself. Plus, as John stated, Lex had eyes and ears across the planet. He probably already knew of John and his career, saw him with me, and connected the dots.
"For three days straight he tortured me: waterboarding, good ol' beating, the usual... all the while asking me things about you: your origins, your tech, what do you have planned, if you have any weaknesses he can exploit... the standard, really."
"You tell him?"
John gave Grundy a sardonic grin.
"I told him things he didn't need to know, scared him shitless: that Slayer's been watching him for a long time, that he can hack into his bank accounts and reduce him to rags, that unlike Big Blue he'd more than happy to arrange an accident..." His smile then soured. "'course, that only made him paranoid, and worsened the torture, but that face he made? More than worth it." His smile then disappeared outright. "Still, didn't change the fact it fucking hurt."
"But how did you escape? Your bounds, I mean."
John shrugged "It was really easy, actually. Years of being caught and tortured have made me learn a few tricks to get out of captivity, be it magical or mundane, and the guards'll go to piss sooner or later. Lex wasn't the first one to catch me you know, just the richest and most thorough with the beatings. Of course, I really didn't know how to escape the place itself, but I figured I'd find a way. Still, thanks for the save, you and the robot."
"You're welcome Mr. Constantine." VEGA replied.
So, Luthor wanted to know more about me, to turn me into one of his lackeys? I actually saw it coming, but not so soon, and in my head what he possibly had planned didn't involve John at all.
On the one hand, at least it hadn't been Waller, but on the other, Luthor seemed to just... ignore the many, many things I had done, and therefore the many ways I had to kill him, for lack of a better way to describe it. I could just expose him, or even worse... and yet, he still tried to try to get some use from me, even though he had only done so then.
But the look John had at that moment, just after finishing talking, was the look of someone who had commited the greatest mistake of their lives. And I noticed it.
"Anything else?"
John's looked at me with the kind of look someone had when they had, for lack of a better idiom for this, unleashed the apocalypse.
That, in the face of John Constantine. The man whose reaction to accidentally summoning a demon was to be his usual jerk self and kill it, and to hearing the ghost of a mother who had murdered her children to beg for its unlife take a whiff from his cigarette and send her to Hell where she belonged.
That worried me, and by a damn lot.
"John?" I asked, and his grimace got worse. "John, please, what the hell did you do?"
He sighed. "Normal torture is practically Tuesday to me, and crap like truth serums and hypnosis just don't work... but that bitch..."
"Bitch?"
"Some purple-haired slag on Luthor's payroll, dressed like some cheap whore too, but her magic... shit, that thing nearly got me. She entered my mind while I was recovering and..." He trailed off before wincing.
"John..."
"Supes, Bats, Flashie... Even the Pausanias kid and his dog girlfriend. He knows of them, their civvie lives and their headquarters, or at least what I understood." He then dropped his head. "I practically told his witch of everything that didn't involve you directly, your origin, the mission and all that. She didn't even bother to look at my life."
Grundy, who I hadn't told my real backstory, looked between both of us strangely when he heard that, but stayed quiet.
As for me, I couldn't blame John, his mind had been mindraped for information, and the fact he didn't tell everything even after torture spoke volumes of his will and determination.
Still didn't change the fact we'd have to deal with something else than Trigon's ambitions. And unlike Trigon, my new obstacle was not only on this very dimension, but had good publicity.
Lex Luthor now knew the secret identities of three of the most powerful heroes in the world, one of them a multibillionarine like himself, another just some forensic cop from Central City... and Clark Kent.
And, given the kind of man he was, I already had an idea of what Lex had planned, one that turned out to be pretty close to the mark.
Blackmail me to capture or kill my allies by threatening their families and friends. The fact that he'll had to get through the very same people he wanted me to attack to get at their families didn't fully occur to him, but at least one was in real trouble.
Overtly simple and petty when you think about it, but still didn't change the fact he could still go through it. The only one really safe from him would be Kara, and even Luthor had kryptonite still in store.
And all that meant he slipped by my radar. Could have stopped him, but I didn't, and so we were in a new mess.
One that I could still fix before it went
"John, do you think Luthor's witch could undo Arella's spell if she had access to the other avatars?"
"She could enter my mind and do some damage, so yes, I'm sure of it, but I didn't "
"VEGA, hack into LexCorp's database and see what they have planned, and send it to me. And tell the others that Luthor's men may pay a visit to their homes."
"Done, Slayer."
I was right, utterly right: just the day prior, Lex had hired several mercenaries to lead specialized teams, and sent those same teams to Gotham, Metropolis, Central City and Tokyo to kidnap the three's families. Fortunately, they would find a nasty surprise awaiting for them.
But first...
I turned to look at John and Grundy. "John, Grundy, let's pay a visit to Mr. Luthor. I think it's just fair to see him given how much, don't you think? Grundy, I believe it's time for you to be seen by the public." I then looked at John. "And I'm pretty sure you deserve some compensation from his rather underwhelming 'hospitality'." Again, I stared between the two "But no killing. At least not yet."
Both looked at each other and then back at me... and grinned.
Yes, Luthor's ambitions and lack of foresight were going to be the death of him... metaphorically speaking
I think I rushed this chapter, but on the bright side I released it early. So, yeah, I realized that Lex may in fact have eyes where not even a hypercomputer from a sci-fantasy universe could see them, and John isn't exactly blending with the crowd with that apparel of his. And yes, next chapter Lex's gonna receive a nasty surprise visit. As for why is Garfield missing even though this chapter takes place on the Fortress... he's sleeping. That's not a really shitty explanation either, kids his age tend to sleep a lot (he's gotten accustomed to be safe), and frankly, what else could he do?