Without even a Garganta as I 'traveled' the Fae Paths I reached Earth as the sun crested over the hills and trees, twilights final soft rays of light crested over my form, and I felt a great number of eyes upon me as the fog cleared and I after days of traveling through Fairy Land my path finally ended with the eyes previously watching my travels no longer able to grasp my form as I reached Earth.
With a final somber step, I stepped off the yellow worn path that I knew instinctively that should I turn around and go back I would go ever deeper into the Fae Realms, but I could feel my traveler essence like a turtle feeling the worlds magnetic field telling me that I was back on Earth the moment I set my feet off the Fae Path.
"I am starving," I muttered as I rubbed my growling stomach as I had of course not consumed anything within the Fae Lands be it food or drink, so I was feeling rather weak at the moment.
As I looked around, I noticed that I was surrounded by an old forest. and the sky above me was rather overcast with no other distinguishing features. "The real question is where in the world am I now?" I spoke as I zipped into the air with a Sonido to get a lay of the land as I had no clue where I was other than being on Earth.
"Well, I am most certainly in the western hemisphere," I muttered as I took in the surroundings, and as I came to a highway, I saw that the writings were in English which was a major point in favor of my thought.
As I stood upon the edge of the highway still in my hollow form so most people wouldn't even be able to see the person flying randomly above a highway I considered just flying down and 'boarding' one of those people's cars.
But that idea was swiftly passed off as I realized the very real fact that whoever's car, I jumped into would freak the fuck out of when I retract my Hollow features and become visible to them.
"I guess I need to follow the denser traffic. I will be able to find some kind of sign telling me which city the highway was heading in." I muttered as I began to follow one of the lanes of traffic through rapid uses of Sonido until I finally came across a sign as I was heading North.
"Star City... Well better than Los Angeles." I muttered shuddering about 'accidentally' running into Lucifer while I tried to find some League presence but thankfully, I knew where a Zeta Tube was, in Star City.
'Should I try to say hello to Green Arrow or Black Canary? I pondered as I flew into Star City but then I remembered how anal people were in DC about secret identities and as fucking obvious as Green Arrows secret identity was. Somehow the greater people of his city haven't figured it out.
I mean come on Oliver Queen has the same very very obvious facial hair as Green Arrow does, and really how many people out there have such thick well-cared-for blonde facial hair?
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Soon enough I reached Star City's tallest tower and then took the Zeta teleporter back to Mount Justice while being inwardly grateful that my permissions hadn't been changed showing I likely hadn't been gone for years in the Fae Realms.
Because if someone disappeared for a while then without a damned good reason Batman would have their teleportation permission's taken away to prevent other people from possibly changing the details within that profile to infiltrate the league.
"Hey Jake, so how did your... Is that you, Jake?!" I heard Wally cry out in shock as I stepped out of the Zeta Teleporter.
"Yes, it is," I said with the rest of the team moving from the rec room hearing Wally's cry of surprise and definitely looking surprised at my more human appearance. "Uhh, how long have I been gone?" I asked unsurely as I looked around and didn't notice anything about the team looking to have changed as Robin was still short.
"Say something only Jake would know... You look very different and not knowing when you last left. That's suspicious..." Robin all but ordered as he pulled out a batarang and the rest of the team tensed at the thought I may have been compromised or I was someone else altogether.
I couldn't help but groan as demanding such a thing when I was starving and exhausted was just mean but thankfully a good one popped up into my head. "I offered to blow up your school when we went to deal with Amazo... And I helped give Conner his name I guess." I said with Robin and the others untensing.
"But if it helps, I can now change freely between this human form and my Hollow one," I said as I did just that my light skin paled even further to an almost chalky white as the large crown of bones appeared back atop my head.
"Oh, that's so cool!" Miss Martian cheered as she walked over and began poking my bone crown as she lowered a bit off the ground so she could reach it. "Can you change anything else?" She asked excitedly but obviously wilted when I wryly shook my head.
"Lorde where even were you? We obviously had no way of contacting you and the trackers Batman put on you were lost within the minute of you leaving the mountain." Robin asked excitedly. Honestly, he seemed more interested in how I managed to lose Batman's trackers than where I had actually been.
I couldn't help but smile softly as I mentally looked back at my trip through Fairy Land and honestly, I didn't dislike it except for the whole not eating anything of the land bit... Maybe I can bring my own supplies next time?
I shook my head to clear my thoughts before I looked at Robin still wearing the soft smile. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you even with the horrors of Gotham you have seen I doubt you would believe me," I said making Robin and Wally frown as my words obviously implied, I was doing stuff heavily involved with the supernatural which they hated dealing with, due to being realists.
But I was met with the gruff voice of Batman as he all but stretched out of the shadows of the rafters above us as he fell to the ground and stood before us. "Try me... I would like to hear where Dr. Fate's and Zatanna's trackers couldn't find you."
I merely raised an eyebrow at Batman as I groused. "And putting a tracker on my person without consent?" I questioned with Batman not even flinching at my questioning tone and we stared at each other in silence before he broke it.
"You aren't special in any regard, except for having more magical type tracking upon your person. All League members now have such tracking devices, however, do not worry of enemies controlling it, as the system is being directly controlled by Hephaestus, who answers to no one in essence." Batman explained as I nodded with a frown but mentally swore to purge myself of such things as even if it was for my protection, I'd rather just deal with the consequences of being caught then have my very actions watched under a microscope.
"I went to Fairy Land and accomplished my goal of becoming stronger and being able to fit in with the rest of humanity," I explained concisely not giving any real details as much as I wanted to brag about dealing with an immortal perpetual child eater.