Faith Wayne (9/?)

Faith grinned as she arrived home and ran right into a hug off Xander. "Hey stud, easy on the ribs."

"Oh sorry," Xander practically dropped her. "Are you-."

Eyes laughing, Faith gently punched Xander on the arm. "I said loosen up, not drop me. I'm five by five, stud."

"Do you know who hired him?"

"I don't know hon." Faith grimaced at the question. The wanna-be assassin had remained remarkably close-mouthed about his hiring despite certain growls she'd made. Not that she could exactly go full-bore at him, not with all the witnesses around her. "It's not like I have a shortage of enemies."

Xander ruffled her hair and smirked. "You do have a knack of collecting them." Faith laughed as she flipped her boyfriend the bird and melted into his arms, but even as she did so, her mind was whirling over who just could be behind the attack. The Cult of Antemorth perhaps, but it didn't make sense that Kakistos' followers would send a human after her. She'd decimated several Tarakan cells, so they had a grudge, but as good as Drakon was, they had better. Perhaps it was a random follower of the Mayor, but they tended to want vengeance personally, 'sides, she thought she'd killed the last off years ago. The two best possibilities were W&H, they still held a particular grudge against her for her refusing to kill Angel and going to his aid during the fall of the Black Thorn, and the Shadow Council, who'd made runs at all the major New Council players and 'cause of their beliefs never used demon assassins. Course she was probably forgetting someone.

Yeah, no shortage of enemies.


JLA HQ, Moon

Still frazzled from Faith's news, Batman was hardly in the best of moods to be called to an emergency meeting of the JLA, so it was doubly unfortunate that the first face he saw upon entering the meeting room was Guy Gardner.

"Hey Bats! Have you ever seen Wayne's daughter on your patrols? Man is she the bomb!" Batman turned to face the ever-belligerent Green Lantern. "Not too difficult to get in her pants if the papers are right 'bout her either!" Guy leered at him. "I'm gonna have to use the super-hero card on her, see if she wants to ride the Green Lantern Express-, ugh!"

Batman's gloved fist slammed into Guy Gardner's jaw, snapping his head to the side and laying the Green Lantern on his back, eyes closed into unconsciousness. Batman turned to face a jaw-open Martian Manhunter. "When he wakes up, tell him if he brings up my daughter again, I'll end the conversation by using his ring as a butt plug."

J'onn J'onzz raised an eyebrow. "To be fair, Guy couldn't have any idea he was talking about your daughter."

Batman glanced down at the motionless Green Lantern before looking towards the alien, unwilling to admit his friend had a point. "Then he should consider this an object lesson in how not to talk about women."

Martian Manhunter stared down at the chauvinist's unconscious body. "Oh I'm sure he will." The Martian looked towards him, gaze probing. "And what sort of meta is your daughter?"

"Have you been reading my mind?" Batman stared cold-eyed at his friend.

J'onn smiled. "I doubt your right cross will work as well on me as it did Guy," the Martian shook his head. "No I didn't read your mind, I hardly needed to. Drakon is a considerable assassin, it seems unlikely that an untrained young woman would survive much less best him."

Batman smiled thinly. Good old J'onn, as astute as always. "Those are my daughter's secrets," he evaded. "But you're right, she is a Meta."

J'onn nodded, a thin smile pulling at his mouth. "Perhaps you'll be recommending her for JLA membership?" Something twinkled in his friend's eyes. "I know Guy would be pleased."

"Ha, ha." Batman half-scowled at his friend, although the thought of an enraged Faith feeding a hapless Guy his ring somewhat dampened his rage. "From what I understand Faith has her own Calling, a Calling she doesn't even know I know about."

"Sounds complicated," J'onn commented.

"Oooh."

"You have no idea." Batman glanced towards a wakening Guy. Batman reached down, grabbed one of Guy's gloved hands and unceremonially yanked him to his feet.

"Hey," Guy blustered, his glazed eyes struggling to focus, "what the hell did you hit me for?"

"Because you're an obnoxious ass with no respect for women," Batman growled.

"Hey," Guy leered, "I respect women plenty, especially ones with curves like that."

Batman glared at Guy. "You don't learn do you? Keep that crude mouth shut or I'll shut it for you."

"Ah," the meeting hall's metal doors slid open and Superman strode in, "making friends as always Guy."

Batman turned back towards the door. "Given Guy's presence, there better be a really good reason for gathering us all here, Superman."

"There is," Wonder Woman followed Clark into the conference room, her face taut with tension, "we had best sit down." Batman joined the others in sitting, even as the rest of the JLA entered, the emerald archer and his paramour, Zatanna, Flash, and Firestorm following behind.

Then came their guests, the helmeted Dr. Fate, his orange cape flapping behind him, and Jason Blood standing at his shoulder, a foreboding expression on his face. Once the two had sat, Dr. Fate spoke. "I've consulted with a number of my contacts in the supernatural world – Madame Xanadu, John Constantine, and others-."

"I assume others include The Phantom Stranger?" Batman interrupted.

"No," he was surprised when the helmeted super-hero shook his head. "I've tried to get in touch with him, but no matter what summonsing ritual I use, he doesn't appear."

Batman raised an eyebrow. That was slightly worrying, but not necessarily indicative of anything. "And what of you been consulting about?" Superman queried.

Fate glanced towards the Kryptonian. "We in the supernatural community have all noticed signs and portents that suggest something dark is on its way."

"Something dark?" Wonder Woman put in. "That's a little non-specific."

"I have in my possession a book called 'The Heavenly Schism'," Fate replied, the room somehow chilling at the book's mention. "It has been carbon-dated as being millions of years old, pre-dating the earliest dinosaur by tens of thousands of years. The book's writer is unknown, but it seems he was a man driven mad by the war between God and Satan. In his insanity, the man became prophetic and made several predictions of a time when 'the world shall once more quake before the hordes'."

"Sounds ominous," Superman commented.

"Yeah, but last time they were here we didn't have metas," Guy commented. "Besides we don't know if these prophecies are true. Or if the book's even legitimate."

"The book's legitimately that old," Fate replied. "As for its content, I sense the writer believed what he was writing, whether he was correct is another matter, however several of his predictions have come true."

"Such as?" challenged Green Arrow.

"'The long-dead fires shall spark once more', three volcanoes that have been dormant for centuries in India, Venezuela, and Turkey have all erupted in the last month -."

"I was at the Turkey and Venezuela eruptions," Superman shook his head. "A bad business."

"'The quiet land shall shake before the giants' footsteps'," Fate said. "England's not known for its major earthquakes, but in the past month, both London and Manchester have fallen victim to quakes that were high sixes on the Richter Scale." Fate paused. "Then there's this 'fires from the sky will ignite the Marvellous City'."

"The meteorite storm that hit Rio?" Batman said before glancing at Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter, those three in tandem with a number of the other most powerful heroes had been called into action to combat a rain of meteorites on the Brazilian city just the other week.

"Yes," Fate nodded, "all these predictions relating to places not even in existence when they were made. And they're coming true." Fate paused. "Did everyone see the light show over Israel on the news last night?" Everyone nodded. "'Just before the beginning of the end, Jehovah's land shall see false, blazing hope.'"

"That's depressingly accurate," Batman heard Black Canary's mutter. The dyed blonde looked towards the Order Lord. "I don't suppose we could have a copy of this book to study?"

Fate nodded. "I uploaded a translation to your email accounts."

Superman looked towards Jason. "And what of demons? What's their general mood?"

The occult investigator grimaced. "Scared yet anticipatory."

Superman sighed. "Okay, it seems we need to prepare for this threat, but the major problem is we don't know exactly what exactly the threat is. J'onn, Guy, I want the two of you checking there's no alien compartment to this threat. Fate, Diana, Jason, check out the supernatural angle, consult with whoever you see fit. Arrow, Batman, try and find out if there's a more mundane threat, either from a super-criminal or a despot or terrorist starting an ill-advised war."


Platinum Flats, California

"Come in."

Bruce, now in his normal suit, hesitated as the door clicked open, as reluctant as always to confront the guilt of one of his failures in the flame-maned form of one of his closest friends. Then he stepped forward, grabbed and pulled the door open, and slipped inside. He eschewed the hallway's gleaming elevator doors in favour of running up the dozen steps. Once he'd reached the door at the top of the landing, he knocked on it.

"Come in."

Bruce forced a smile as he walked into the computer-filled office, confronted by the wheelchaired woman who'd been one of the Joker's victims he'd failed to save. "Barbara, it's good to see you."

The former Batgirl smiled at him. "And you, Bruce. How can I help you?"

"JLA and personal business," he replied. "First of all, have you any information on any despot or terrorist stockpiling chemical, biological, nuclear, or meta-gene weapons?"

Barbara turned to the computer and tapped at the keyboard. "Nothing according to Checkmate or Interpol."

"And what about funds being moved around by the despots and terrorists?" Batman queried.

"The same," Barbara shook her head.

"Okay, thanks," Bruce grimaced. He hadn't really expected to hit paydirt with his first attempt, but he was nothing if not thorough.

"And what was your personal business?" Barbara queried, interest gleaming in her blue eyes. "Was it something to do with Faith? What is she like?"

Bruce allowed himself a slight smile, a rare warmth cloaking his heart. "She's smart-mouthed, flippant, hot-tempered, and wary, but you sense beneath all that there's a gutsy fighter whose loyalty to those she believes in never falters."

"Sounds like you're proud of her," Barbara commented.

Bruce smiled. "I'm proud of who I think she is."

"You're not often wrong in your assessments of people," Barbara commented before handing a slim folder. "That's all I could find on Slayers. It's not a lot and a lot of its taken off conspiracy websites and the like, so it's of questionable origin, but in each case I noted where I got the information off. However there's also information from Checkmate, DEO, Hayoth, International Operations, and a few other more informed sources."

"Thanks," Bruce glanced down at the folder, barely able to contain the eagerness to tear through the folder and perhaps gain a better understanding of his daughter, "what's in here?"

"Nothing but supposition on the creation of the Slayer Line , some on the history and structure of the Watchers Council, a lot on the actual powers of a Slayer, their traditional enemies, and a few biographies of the most historically significant Slayers, including Faith. There's one major thing, there's not one Slayer, not anymore." Barbara paused. "Of May 03, there's just over a thousand Slayers throughout the world."

"Thank you,"Bruce nodded. "And the assassin, any news on who hired Drakon?"

"No," Barbara shook her head, "but if I was to make a guess, I'd say it was someone unaware of Faith's abilities." Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Drakon is a supremely skilled human but no match for Faith. Anyone who would have knowledge of just what she was would have sent a meta, a demon, or a vampire, rather than a mere, although exceptionally skilled human."

"So it's an enemy of mine?" Wayne felt a stab of guilt. Once again it came back to him.


Unknown Location

The coffin-sized device had cost him a considerable amount of his fortune, but then it was an uniquely one of a kind invention created to entrap and hold an one of a kind being. In addition to having a field that nullified magic, it also had a chrono-meter that ensured the being inside was shifting constantly through time so not to allow him to teleport through time, and a constantly varying energy field to prevent its prisoner from teleporting through the matter.

Yes, Lex Luthor smiled inwardly, it was massively expensive, but as yet he didn't dare kill the Phantom Stranger in case it brought attention to him he wasn't yet ready for, but imprison him, he could dare to do that.


Santa Prisca

"The Bat has a daughter?" A low rumble built up in his chest. "What a pretty, delicate little thing, I wonder how he'll feel when I break her back?"