The Ninth
Chapter 11: The Demon Within Pt 2
-(X)-
I own nothing
-X-
"Normal Speech"
'Thought'
"Demonic Speech"
Television/Newspaper/Letters
-X-
A month passed by since Naruto had basically taken over Klarion's mansion without any resistance. His group of fanatic cultists and ever loyal soldier also took their own rooms there and spent most of their time trying to better their masters new home, cleaning the numerous years worth of dust that had settled over most of the rooms seeing as it's sole resident had only used a few during his life.
Klarion began learning how to use the demonic power granted to him by Naruto, looking up to the blonde as a student would the master and willingly going through any type of training that he was given.
"Again," Naruto ordered as he watched the boy form a large ball of red energy between his palms.
Klarion concentrated on the attack and sent it flying at a tree, causing it to explode and snap the large trunk in half like a twig.
The attack was a variant of the Biju Bomb used by powerful demons but much weaker and less destructive. The boy had finally reached the maximum of the attack but comparing it to a full powered Biju Bomb was like comparing a normal missile to an atomic bomb.
"Good work little witch," the blonde told him, "You've reached a proficient level for this to be of use. Go and clean yourself up, that auction starts in a few hours."
-X-
"We here at Gotham Auctioneers would like to thank Mr. Wayne for his generous donation that made this all possible," One of the auctioneers stated while standing up on a stage behind a large table and motioning to Bruce, who had been standing near the edge of the stage.
Bruce smiled and nodded towards the seats where multiple history buffs and wealthy socialites sat or stood, all dressed up and looking their best.
"Please feel free to look around at our prized collection of artifacts on display, the auction will begin very soon."
The seats were in two sections with a set of stairs between them leading down to the auctioneer stage while the other end had guardrails keeping someone from falling down into the seats from where their displays were stationed.
Bruce walked up those steps to where Barbara was standing, wearing a sleeveless blue dress and looking at a set of authentic medieval knights armor.
She turned and noticed him standing there, "Thanks for inviting me here Bruce,"
"I was surprised that you agreed to come, you usually don't come to these things," he replied.
The girl shrugged, "I just felt like getting out of the house for awhile. Although I didn't think that I'd be the only one my age here." She then looked around and noticed a boy a few years younger than her looking at an old set of pots made brass and decorated with mien designs, "Or maybe not."
Bruce looked over to where she was looking and saw the boy, "Why don't you go talk to him, I have to go talk to someone."
Bruce walked away and Barbara walked over to talk to the younger male, "So did your parents drag you here or something?" she asked.
The boy turned and looked at her with his sharp black eyes, "I beg your pardon?" he replied while rubbing the brown cat in his arms.
"Did your parents make you come here?"
"I'm here by my self,"
"Oh," She muttered, her plan of making a friend not going as smoothly as she thought, "Well... at least you have kitty to keep you company,"
The boy watched with a hidden look of amusement as Barbara reached out to touch the animal, only for it to hiss and swipe at her hand. She pulled her hand back and narrowly dodged the set of claws but grimaced when it gave another hiss, almost as if mocking her and daring her to try again.
The lights around the display and the seating dimmed, signaling that it was about time for the auction to begin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats and make yourselves comfortable, we are now ready to begin." came the auctioneer over the speaker system.
Klarion smirked and walked around the girl without a word, stopping at the top of the stairs as the man onstage opened a protective case that had been moved up onto the table.
"Tonight we offer a number fascinating artifacts of the so-called 'Dark-ages'." the auctioneer stated to the people while holding up the item in question.
It was a branding iron close to two and a half feet in length. In the middle it split into two smaller bars that connected to a round end with a gothic 'M' in the center.
"The first item on the block is this. It is rumored to have been the personal branding iron of the Arthurian witch Morgan le Fay. Legend has it that this piece has some sort of magical power... Gotham Auctioneers makes no such guarantee." the man joked as an afterthought, which made the group of possible bidders laugh before the man continued, "The suggested opening bid is ten-thousand,"
"One hundred thousand!"
Everyone turned to see the young man walking down the steps, holding his cat with a confident look on his face as they all started whispering and murmuring about him.
Klarion turned and took his seat on the right side of the room, "I said, one hundred thousand," he repeated.
"Ah, Master Klarion," the auctioneer greeted, recognizing the boy, "Good to see you again, one-hundred thousand is the opening bid."
Following shortly after, Barbara spotted Bruce sitting on the other side of the room and walked over, taking the seat next to him while looking at the young man.
"That kid has a hundred grand?" she whispered to Bruce.
With everyone watching Klarion, no one really took notice of the blond wearing a black suit and overcoat slipping into the room and sitting in one of the chairs on the back row with a smirk.
The auctioneer, already happy that the price asked for had already been more than tripled, looked around and began to speak, hoping to see if someone else would bid higher, "Do I here-"
"One hundred and ten," A man called.
Once again the muttering started as everyone turned to see the bidder. This time it wasn't a young man but an older man wearing a black sweater under a brown suit, his hair was jet black and short but had a streak of blood red in his hair along with dark red, nearly black hair with a streak of white in the shape of a lighting bolt in the middle.
"One hundred and ten is the bid from Mr... Blood, was is?"
Jason Blood nodded to the auctioneer, lowering his hand after making the bid.
Klarion leaned up to look at Jason Blood before leaning back, "One-twenty,"
"One-thirty," the other man spoke without missing a beat.
"One-forty,"
"One-fifty,"
Narrowing his eyes, Klarion glanced to the side where he could see the man, who also looked at him from the corner of his eye with a frown. Raising his hand, the boy made his bid, "Two-fifty," he spoke, smirking at the sudden look of shock that the man had before grimacing and interlacing his fingers.
"Going once... going twice..."
Bruce raised his hand, "One million,"
Klarion's eyes widened before sending a hidden death glare at the man. Naruto who had been sitting in the back raised an eyebrow at the man, wondering why he made the bid.
Bruce turned in his seat and nodded to Jason Blood, an action that Naruto saw.
-X-
"So what are you going to do?" Barbara asked as Bruce was handed the case containing the brand he had bought, "Buy a herd of cattle and use it on them?"
"No," Bruce replied with a small smile, "This was to help a friend."
"Some friend," the girl mused, wondering what kind of friend Bruce had that make the man willingly spend that much despite being rich.
"You don't know the half of it,"
"Exquisite craftsmanship, isn't it Mr. Wayne?" Klarion asked as he walked up to the pair, rubbing his cat absently, "Enjoy it while you can,"
Hearing the threat, Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Who are-"
"Klarion," Bruce and Barbara turned and saw Jason Blood walking up from behind, "Why am I not surprised to see you here?"
"We do have a way with bumping into each other Uncle Jason," The boy mused with a sneer before turning away, "Next time it'll be on purpose,"
Bruce watched the boy walk away with a frown on his face then turned to the other man, "Jason," he greeted with a grin, taking the mans hand and shaking it.
"Bruce, thanks for stepping in,"
"It was nothing," the hero shrugged, "but tell me, how'd you get a brat like that for a nephew?"
Jason frowned, "We're not related," he said darkly while shaking his head, "For some reason it amuses him to call me uncle... but don't underestimate him, he'll do anything to get what he wants."
"Surely his parents..."
"Don't expect any help from them," Jason frowned, "The little witch boy turned 'em into mice,"
Bruce looked at Jason then to Klarion, "Your not serious... then who's he talking to?"
The other man turned as saw Klarion standing near the exit and talking to a blond man wearing a black overcoat. "I don't know, I've never seem him before,"
-X-
"You are aware of what must be done," Naruto stated while meeting his student near the door.
"It is no problem," Klarion replied while glancing back at the three, "Teekl (Almost like Tinkle but with an 'E' instead of 'in') will retrieve it for me right from under their noses,"
Naruto looked at the cat in question, which seemed to purr in agreement with her master. "We shall see."
-X-
After leaving Gotham Auctioneers, Bruce and Barbara went with Jason Blood to his home to talk. Jason took them to his study and carefully placed the brand on his desk next to a few glass vials across from the window.
The study was a decent sized room with multiple medieval items around it. There were a few shields and swords decorating the walls, paintings of castles, a suit of armor, stone statues.
"Thanks again Bruce, I'll repay you someday... though it might be awhile," Jason told his friend while Bruce stood nearby.
"Let's just call it a professional courtesy." Bruce replied, glancing to the side where Barbara had walked off to. She had found herself looking at a mantle with a basketball sized stone statue of a monsters head.
"Excuse me but what is this?" Barbara found herself asking, looking closely at the statue.
Jason smiled and walked over, "That's Merlin's demon, Etrigan." he answered, "He summoned it to defend the realm of Camelot, Merlin's home. But when Camelot finally fell, Merlin decided to keep the demon in the service of humanity and merged the creature with one of King Arthur's noblemen."
Bruce walked over in the middle of the story and looked at the statue while listening, never seeing the brown cat jump in onto the desk and silently paw over towards the branding iron.
"There's something on the other side," Barbara noted, leaning to the side and seeing that there was something carved into the back. Reaching over, she slid the statue around and blinked as she saw another face carved, "It looks just like you!"
Jason looked amused, "You think?"
"Hey Jason," Bruce spoke, "You said something about Merlin summoning demons, do you know anything about the demon worshiped by a cult known as the Cult of the Ninth?"
Teekl picked up the brand in her teeth and began to move to the window to escape, but the handle of the brand knocked one of the vials, causing it to fall off the desk and shatter.
Having heard this at the end of his question, Bruce turned and saw the cat that Klarion had been carrying around him holding the brand. Running over, he caught the handle just in time to snatch it away, causing the cat to hiss.
Teekl leapt at the man, swiping her claws only for the man to lean back and out of the way.
Bruce turned as the cat landed and watched as it stood on two legs and began to change. It's body seemed to turn black and gray as he changed, growing tall as a normal man but taking the shape of a woman. She still had brown fur, claws, fangs, and ears but now they were larger, her belly was now off white along with her face and her normal high-pitched hisses sounded deeper and more threatening than ever.
Leaping with twice the agility and grace as before, Teekl just missed the man with the first swipe of her claw, landed on the desk and threw a backhand, knocking the man back.
Bruce grunted as the fist hit him and caused him to stumble, but before he could do anything, he saw her swinging a claw at him with deadly intentions and tried to back up, only to trip over a vase and fall while the cat demon sank her claws into the wall.
Bruce landed with a thump, loosing his grip on the brand which was soon picked up by the demon.
"Hey Kitty!" Barbara yelled in mid drop-kick.
Teekl turned and saw this, grabbed her ankle with catlike reflexes and threw her into Bruce, who stopped her as she hit the floor with a slide. Turning, the cat demon ran and jumped, looking to leap from the window only for Bruce to run forward, catching her by the foot and trying to pull her back. She hissed and spat, turning and swinging the brand which struck the man in the face.
Jason back away as this happened and closed his eyes, "Gone, gone the form of man..." he chanted before opening his eyes, revealing solid glowing red eyes, "Rise the demon Etrigan!
Like the cat, his body turned to shadows and began to change. His suit ripped and changed along with him until there stood a hulking demon known as Etrigan. He was close to six and a half feet tall but hunched over, his body looked like it was made of solid muscle the color of clay and he wore a red tunic along with matching sock-like shoes, lastly was a long fades black cape that flowed down to his ankles.
Barbara watched the transformation in shock before Etrigan sprinted to stop the cat and help Bruce. She went to move but pain flared in her leg and she looked down to see that the broken fragments of vase that Bruce tripped on had cut her leg up badly as she had landed on them. Another pain deeper down made her worry that her leg was broken, but considering how it only hurt when she tried to put pressure on it and not constantly told her that it was most likely sprained
The cat swiped at Bruce again then followed up with a kick, hitting the man and knocking him away just moments before Etrigan rammed his shoulder into her face, throwing her back and sending the brand flying over to where Bruce was sitting against the wall.
Quickly jumping to her feet, Teekl attacked the other demon over and over with her claws until he caught it and slung her around, only, he didn't account for the fact that cats always land on their feet so when he threw her, she landed next to the brand.
Grabbing it at the same time as Bruce, she kicked him away where he landed into a bookshelf, causing three glass vials to fall and shatter, sending their contents all over the ground around the man.
Etrigan turned to check on Bruce but Teekl took the moment to sprint to the side where a oil lamp was burning and threw it at the floor next to Bruce, causing the liquid around him to burn violently.
The two demons glared at each other before the male pointed at the cat, "There will be a reckoning," he growled before running into the fire to save Bruce, giving the other demon the chance to escape.
They quickly got the fires put out and looked at the open window, "She's gone... as is the brand."
-X-
Sitting alone in his bedroom, Klarion boredly looked around at the various objects that decorated his room. Crystal balls, masks made to look like demons, a few shrunken heads, small statues of monsters, he even had a few old alchemy charts hanging from the wall.
His fingers rapped against the arm of the chair, over and over as he awaited his familiar and faithful servant Teekl, waiting for her to deliver the brand to him. It had been a couple hours since she left and he knew that she would return very soon.
His head popped up at the sound of scratching at his window, speak of the devil... or should he say, demon.
Standing, he walked over to his bedroom window where he saw her hanging upside down above his window with the brand held in her mouth.
"Ah... Teekl, you've done well," he greeted while reaching up and taking the brand before she changed back to her cat form and dropped onto the window seal with a meow.
-X-
"I see that your faith was not misplaced," Naruto spoke with his eyes closed as the boy walked into the room.
He was sitting in the manors large living room, a room that at one time had been unused and covered in dust. It wasn't overly large but was easly the biggest room in the house, and as such, was the perfect room for him... or so his worshipers believed. The room didn't even seem like much of a living room anymore, the five cultists had removed most of the furniture on one side and had placed one large armchair against the wall like a throne while the other side still had a few of the couches and chairs.
Klarion looked at the five people that worshiped his teacher, raising an eyebrow at the sight of them kneeling at the blondes feet as he meditated in what seemed to be his throne.
Naruto opened his eyes to look at the boy, his crimson orbs staring deep into his inner being, "Now that the brand is yours, the question is what will you do with it?"
The witch boy smirked, "That is exactly what I came to show you," he said before holding the brand up with both hands and closing his eyes, "Ancient Morgaine, I beseech you, from what was one now do make two"
The blond demon cocked his head to the side and watched as his student tried to impress him, he could feel the old magic within the brand working but all it visibly showed was the 'M' on the front glow red.
-X-
Back at Jason Blood's, Barbara sat on one of the chairs with her dress pulled up to her knees, wincing as Bruce cleaned her leg wound. Now that the blood was washed away she saw that it wasn't nearly as bad as she had thought, before she could've sworn that it looked like someone hacked at it with a chain saw but now it looked much better. On another note, it turned out that he leg wasn't broken only sprained.
Jason walked over holding a crystal vial in his hand while Bruce dabbed at the blood that slowly dripped from some of the cuts, "Here, this'll fix you right up," he said while nudging the other man out of the way.
She watched as he pulled the stopper off and slowly poured a fine dust-like powder onto the wound with his eyes closed. He began to chant something in another language under his breath and to her awe, the would faded from existence and didn't even leave a scar. He even did the same to her ankle and soon she felt like nothing had happened.
"That's amazing!" she said in awe, looked at the two men.
Bruce for his part didn't look surprised at all and she didn't doubt that he knew about this all along while Jason had a small smile on his face.
"Is this all really what I think it is?" She questioned after a moment, "You know... magic... sorcery?"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" Jason quoted while turning around.
Barbara blinked, "I've heard that before," she said to herself in thought before realizing, "It was from Hamlet, I had to read it for a project... but I never got to figure out what it meant."
"It means get up," Bruce told her like a parent to a child, "We have a brand to find."
Jason suddenly cried out, dropping the vial that hit the floor with a thud as he clutched at his head in pain.
Bruce hurried over and grabbed his shoulders, "Jason!"
The man didn't answer, he only grabbed both sides of his head while grunting in pain.
Etrigan appeared, fazing from the man's back like a ghost where he turned solid with a glowing red 'M' in the middle of his forehead.
"Jason?" The hero asked while looking at the man then to the demon, "Etrigan?"
The demon wordlessly turned away.
"Etrigan!" Bruce called again, "Etrigan wait! Something's wrong!" he stepped forward and grabbed the larger beings shoulder, causing him to turn and look at him with a grim expression.
"Nothing is wrong," Etrigan spoke deeply, "My new master awaits,"
Without warning, the demon grabbed the man by the head and threw him aside where Barbara ran up to check on him. With that, Etrigan jumped out the window and vanished.
-X-
"You hate me don't you?" Etrigan heard his new master speak as he stood before the young witch boy. He refused to look at the boy as he sat on a chair and toyed with the brand.
Klarion stood and walked in front of him, "Speak up, I order you,"
"Yes... I hate you,"
The boy smirked, "But there's nothing you can do about it... Not while I have this, you can't do anything unless I tell you too and you have to do everything I say... Understand?" he questioned, acting like a snobby rich boy.
The demon only nodded.
"Good, now lets go have some fun,"
-X-
"Sir... I don't mean to question you but... is it wise to allow that boy to have something that can control demons... seeing as your... well..."
Naruto looked at Joseph who had just returned from bribing their cop friend. He could understand the mans worry but it was unneeded.
"Fear not... for it will take more than the magic of a whore such as Le Fay to control me." Naruto hummed from his seat, "Even in her time magic was already a dying art, the magic needed to hinder, much less control one such as I have long since been destroyed. So let the child play and enjoy his toy... after all, that pathetic excuse of a demon has been the plaything of humanity for years... it's only fitting that he should truly become such a thing."
"But enough of such lowly subjects," the blond spoke suddenly, "Tell me of the progress."
"Blackmask is cooperating, reluctantly I must add, Biggis is kidnapping people to work in the mines, mostly homeless and the jobless but his methods are questionable at best."
Naruto closed his eyes and leaned back, "Biggis will soon outlive his usefulness, I will no longer require him by then so allow him to ruin it with poor decisions. What of our 'other' project?"
"No one suspects a thing sir,"
"Good... Good..." Naruto smirked, "Continue your work, leave 'that' project be for now and concentrate on the others."
"And the boy?" Joseph asked, "What if-"
Naruto cut a glance at the man, making him stop in mid-sentance, "If the little witch proves to be a nuance in the future then rest assured that I will personally destroy him along with that pet of his."
To be continued...
-X-
Please review.
I need a pick me up.
Anyway, I've finished this part and would like to know what you think, I know that some parts suck but it's the best I've got right now.
But right now I got to ask, after I finish with the next chapter or two, do you think that I should bring in the Justice League, go to the Teen Titans, or keep on with this.
If you chose the last one, what villain should I introduce next?