This chapter features a devil's trap and an exorcism, with the same style as the ones on Supernatural. I got the words to the exorcism from the Super-wiki. I hope that sequence reads like I want it to.

Enjoy!


Palo Alto, CA
November 15
7:45 a.m.

Adrian ran his knife through the sharpener, trying to clear his mind for the mission ahead. Now a full-fledged order of the Brotherhood he had been given a task by the Grandmaster himself; to track down a demon. It was an honor to be selected and Adrian felt proud of his accomplishment, but the feeling had soon turned to frustration. The demon was proving harder to track than he anticipated. Even with all of his training, he had lost the demon three separate times in the last month alone. This one, who told him that her name was Hannah, had escaped his pursuit and jumped to a new host every time he got close.

That last bit bothered him. He'd never met a monster quite like this one. He'd seen demons on several occasions and even led a few hunting parties and performed some exorcisms, but this was a whole different level of weird. This demon was more talkative than one would expect, right before she'd 'smoke' out of the person she possessed, Hannah would take the time to taunt him about his failure. And he hated being taunted. What was more troubling was the last thing she'd said before leaving her last victim.

"You're in over your head boy."

That single sentence had haunted him in the weeks after the encounter. But what made him truly question his purpose was how she left the host body. When a demon possesses someone, they make the body stronger than any human. They're able to withstand gunshot wounds, cars crashing into them and multiple stab wounds. Adrian knew from experience since he'd done all three during his last fight with 'Hannah'. But once the demon left the body, all the injuries came back with a vengeance. The poor girl, only in her early 20s, lasted for three minutes while Adrian stood over her broken body.

Despite his upbringing Adrian couldn't help but think what the point of fighting monsters was when he couldn't protect this girl from harm. His instructors had never told him how fighting a demon would mean hurting someone who was innocent. He shook his head as he sheathed his now fully sharpened blade, his teachers knew that fighting evil sometimes meant putting innocent people in danger.

But the time for self-reflection was done. Night was coming and he had to be on the move. He donned his cloak, checked and re-checked his arsenal of weaponry and studied the picture of the demon's new host body. The girl, one Artemis Crock, was maybe two years older than he was at 22. Hannah had possessed easily, but this time she actually kept living the young woman's life. He couldn't help but think, 'What's different about this girl?'While it was odd, it definitely made tracking her much easier.

So far, he'd observed her taking a morning run with her and her husband's dog and taking care of their young daughter. It was funny to watch actually, as the demon tried to figure out how to handle a weeping child. He could have grabbed her then, trapped in the host's body before exorcising her, but that would have put an innocent in harm's way, something he swore to never do again. Her evening run: that's when he'd grab her.


November 15
8:15 p.m.

Wally came home later in the evening than he planned, far deeper into the evening than he planned to, worried that his wife would less than pleased with his late arrival. He was surprised to find an empty house. Even more surprised when he saw the cops pulled up in front moments later, his neighbor pulling up in her silver BMW with Wally's 2-year-old daughter on her hip.

The fastest man alive sprinted over to little Iris, scooping her into her arms and trying to calm his heartbeat. A young lieutenant removed his hat and walked to the now very worried father. The officer decided to not intrude on the reunion, but the gears were already turning Wally's brain. If the cops were here and his daughter in a near stranger's arms then it could only mean one thing.

"Where is my wife?" he asked as calmly as he could.

"We don't know sir," one of the older officers said.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Wally nearly shouted, pulling Iris into his chest as he stepped forward toward the cop.

The lieutenant backed a step away from Wally, but was saved any further rebuke when Wally's new neighbor stepped in.

"Mr. West, about 30 minutes ago a madman dressed in a white robe showed up at my door and handed me your daughter. He said to keep her safe and make sure you get her."

"Did he say anything about my wife, about Artemis?" Wally demanded, his grip on Iris tightening the slightest bit.

The woman shook her head. "No, he didn't, but I think he may have taken her. He seemed in a real hurry to leave."

Wally was silent for a moment as he looked over his daughter. He slowly looked around at the police scattered around his front yard.

"I need all of you to leave." Now." His voice held no hesitation, but the cops looked to one another. "Now."

The lieutenant tried to intercede. "Mr. West. I have to advise you that-"

"I know the statistics, I am CSI you know. Now I'm going to ask nicely one last time. Take your men and leave."

Wally watched the police, after a long moment of arguing with him, climb back into their cruisers until only he and his neighbor remained.

"Thanks for bringing me my daughter, miss…?" he trailed off. He only realized he didn't know her name at that moment.

"Park. Linda Park." Wally shook her hand.

" I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave as well. Thank you again for your help."

Linda gave Wally a quizzical look before heading back to her house.

Wally waited until he saw Linda shut her door before he went back inside and activated his communicator.

"Nightwing, it's Flash. Get a team together. Someone took Artemis."


An abandoned parking structure
Oakland, CA
9:25 p.m.

Hannah blinked as the sack around her head was pulled off. The dimly lit area seemed far brighter than the pitch black of the burlap sack. She tried to stand up, only to find herself shackled to the chair she was occupying.

"You think these chains can hold me, boy?"

Adrian stepped out from behind the demon. "Yes, I think they will. I've etched into them various demon-trapping sigils. You have no power while they touch your skin. And the demon trap at your feet keeps you locked where you're sitting."

The demon looked down to see the bright red pentagram inside a circle. "What do you think you can do to me? Going to kill another innocent little human?" Adrian tensed at the memory of Hannah's last possession. "Seems I struck a nerve little boy."

The demon laughed. "You know, I always thought you were a rumor. A baby falls to Earth from on high, raised to fight us monsters. The stories said you were the best they ever trained. Well, if you're the best then I'm fucking Santa Claus."

"Caught you, didn't I?" Adrian snapped challengingly. His patience was already wearing thin.

The demon paused. "Well, I supposed I did have that coming," she sighed, shaking her head as if reprimanding herself for doing something wrong.

Adrian pulled out his notebook, re-checking the lines. But he couldn't shake the sense that something was off.

"Why did you stay in this girl's body?"

The demon shrugged. "What can I say? I have a thing for sexy young blondes."

Adrian slammed the small leather notebook shut. "Cut the crap. You took over her life. Something had to be different about her."

The demon looked thoughtful for a moment, before busting out in laughter. "As if I'd tell you, you piece of shit!"

Adrian's response was a dousing of holy water. The demon screamed loudly as her skinned burned red hot and steam rose from where it made contact.

"I will ask again, why this woman?"

The demon shook her head, earning another round of the holy water. This time her screams turned into answers.

"She's not like the others! They were a means to an end, something to get you off my trail for a while. This one, let's just say she's got connections. Things I'd need to do my job."

"What job?" Adrian demanded, eyes narrowing fiercely.

The demon laughed again as Adrian reached for the holy water. "Don't try it, kid. My boss would flay me alive and you alongside me if I dared speak his name. Put a little spell on it, so any one of us demons said his name he'd know and come running, or teleporting in his case. I say his name, and we're both dead."

Seeing the demon wasn't lying for once, Adrian stood up. "Fine then, just one thing left to do." He opened the leather notebook again and started reading in Latin.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus
omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio
infernalis adversarii, omnis legio,
omnis congregatio et secta diabolica."

The demon tensed and shook the chains as she recognized the chant. She was not going to like what happened next.
"Ergo draco maledicte
et omnis legio diabolica adjuramus te.
cessa decipere humanas creaturas,
eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare."

Hannah shook violently, seizing as the words took effect.
"Vade, Satana, inventor et magister
omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis.
Humiliare sub potenti manu dei,
contremisce et effuge, invocato a
nobis sancto et terribili nomine,
quem inferi tremunt.
Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine.
Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus
omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio
infernalis adversarii,omnis legio,
omnis congregatio et secta diabolica.
Ergo draco maledicte
et omnis legio diabolica
adjuramus te."

Adrian didn't even pause to catch his breath.
"Cessa decipere humanas creaturas,
eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare."

While the demon screamed out, a thunderous explosion rocked the structure. Dust billowed out as none other Flash, Nightwing and Superboy charged through the newly created opening in the roof. Adrian's eyes widened as he tried to hurry through the final words.

"Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi-"

A hard charging Superboy caused him to fall back in a defensive fighting stance. Using his training he managed to flip Superboy over his back, sending the Kryptonian flying in to the wall. But the move left Adrian vulnerable, as Nightwing caught him in the ribs with an eskrima stick. Adrian slumped on the ground, the breath firmly dislodged from his lungs.

Nightwing brandished his eskrima sticks. "I suggest you stay down. Or my very fast, and very angry friend will be happy to put you there."

Wally, meanwhile was busy trying to figure out for to untie his wife from whatever contraption the supposed nut-job had put her in.

Adrian raised a hand to Nightwing, trying desperately to gain his breath. You don't understand."

"What don't we understand? You kidnapped out friend and we caught you."

"She's a -" Wally sped through the chains, his super speed causing enough blowback to cause a break in the devil's trap. The demon smiled at this as she sent Wally flying back with her telekinetic powers, finish Adrian's sentence as she smiled. "Demon."

Superboy extricated himself from the wall and stood next to Nightwing, neither sure what exactly was going on. Adrian however, had now fully recovered from Nightwing's blow.

"facias libertate servire."

This time the demon shuddered, screaming with her mouth wide. But in seconds it wasn't a scream that came out, only black smoke billowed out and burned into the ground. Artemis crumpled toward the ground, only to be caught by Wally at the last moment.

Adrian moved toward the couple, but was quickly slammed by Connor, who wasn't taking any chances. Before Superboy could strike he was stopped by Artemis' voice.

"Wait! Stop! He actually saved my life!"

Nightwing glanced in the direction the smoke had disappeared before he nodded. "I sort of figured."

Wally shook his head. "And you know this how?" he practically snarled, glaring furiously at Adrian.

Nightwing nodded at Adrian. "Seen his type before. Not the most tactful of fellows, but they do their jobs."

Connor was still trying to figure out what happened after he hit the wall. "And that job would be…?"

Adrian dusted off his cloak. "To protect the world from creatures like that. While you fight the public evil, we fight the one that stays in the shadows and the night. But I don't think I've ever seen a demon possess a superhero before."

Nightwing holstered his weapons. "How long ago was she possessed?"

"At least three days. Her husband had no knowledge of the change. The demon was very good at her job."

"She had a job?" Nightwing asked, eyes narrowing.

"One she only hinted at, she wouldn't tell me her boss' name. If you'll excuse me, I must report back to my masters."

With that, the white-clad man quickly leapt from the side of the building, grappling onto an opposite roof, leaving the four heroes standing awkwardly in an old parking structure with a massive hole in the roof.

Wally looked to Nightwing. "So…what now?"


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