Prepare for the Ritual
"Hey you. The cute college professor. Wake up time."
Etrigan felt a burning slap across he face and woke to find Volcana, still blue from her charge of demonic energy, kneeling over him. Because the energy that supercharged her powers also caused her to give off pheromones like a succubus Etrigans's first impulse was to kiss her. Full and deep on the lips. An impulse he would have gladly followed through with if his body didn't ache and feel strange. He groaned and muttered a curse that sounded wrong in his ears. As if his mind was trying to make sounds that his mouth couldn't.
Taking that as a sign of life, the fire elemental stood and addressed Superman. "Jason seems to be OK. How's the kid?"
"Groggy but fine," the hero replied with relief from the other side of the couch. Etrigan could hear the youth's moans and figured everyone was hurting from whatever had knocked them out.
His libido thwarted by an uncooperative body, Etrigan tried to gather his wits. Why was she risking her life by calling him Jason? And why did everything between his toes and his hairline hurt? For that matter, since when did he even have a hairline? Then it hit him and another curse that wasn't meant for human lips tried to escape what he now suspected was Jason's mouth. Lifting a hand to his eyes confirmed it. Because what he saw wasn't the healthy yellow of his own strong appendage with its five claw tipped digits, but Jason's sickly Caucasian thing with weak nails that had been groomed into even more useless nubs. "What the blazes happened?" he growled as he struggled to sit up. "The last thing I remember Jason was politely pumping Roseira's boy toy for information. The next I'm waking up in his body wishing I could kiss Hot Lips here." He nodded towards Volcana, who seemed unsure how to take the Hot Lips comment, and tried to suppress a wince.
"Short answer," Superman replied as he came into view from around the sofa, ignoring for the moment that Etrigan was controlling Jason's body. "Morgan Le Fey wasn't as out as we thought. She zapped us when we weren't looking and probably took Maeve."
At the mention of his girlfriend's name Jimmy got up and, ignoring the pain such movement clearly caused, staggered to his room to check on her. "Probably moving more on the instincts of a familiar than conscious thought," Etrigan thought to himself as Superman watched with clear concern. Ready to push past his own pain if his friend needed help.
Etrigan took the moment to examine the room. Looking for clues that would help him recover the missing memories. It was a modest apartment living room. With most of the furniture being secondhand and possibly curbside salvage. Though the entertainment system looked close to top of the line. Probably belonged to the roommate the kid mentioned earlier.
There was also a computer in the corner. The general lack of damage to anything but the door indicated that the witch he had thought safely unconscious and bound had freed herself and taken them off guard. He looked at the front door, now hanging open by one hinge, and remembered the attack. Morgan Le Fey had burst through the door and zapped both Jimmy and Volcana with near simultaneous stun spells. Jason would have been hit instead of Jimmy had he not dodged by rolling over the back of the couch. Not that it helped him as he was hit soon after in the middle of the verse that would summon Etrigan. Though that still didn't quite explain the current persona switch. Superman must have fallen soon after that. "But why didn't she destroy us while she had the chance?" he mused aloud. A check of Jason's antique pocket watch, digital devices tended to get disrupted by magic if not properly protected, showed that they had been out for at least an hour. Plenty of time to finish them all.
"Maybe Roseira's attack did do a number on her," Volcana suggested. Recalling the clash earlier today when Maeve's demon was still newly released and had blasted Le Fey to protect Jimmy. "Just not as much of one as she was pretending. Or maybe she's late for something and couldn't spare the time."
"Possibly both," Superman added. Etrigan nodded in agreement. There must be some mystical event that the witch was trying to make use of. Such an event could also help explain his current predicament in Jason's body.
"She took Maeve," Jimmy said. His voice indicating that he was still groggy but getting better as he staggered back into the room.
"Well I guess she won then," Volcana said reluctantly as she plopped into a chair. "I mean she took us out, grabbed Maeve, and disappeared back to whatever corner of the world is still stuck in the sword and sorcery days.
"We have to save her," Jimmy stated. The demon in human form wasn't sure if this was a statement influenced by the boy's link or because of the genuine emotion between the young lovers. Either way he agreed. Whatever Morgan's plans for her daughter were, it wasn't even a bet that they were bad news. And he just hated to lose to anyone on general principal. Her least of all.
"We will Jimmy," Superman said as he moved to comfort his friend. The effects of the stun spell already wearing off. "We just have to figure out how." He turned to Etrigan. "How did you track down Maeve in the first place?"
"The EGPS we've been working on with Fate." He pulled the device out of Jason's Tweed jacket pocket. "But it was calibrated to sense the cracking of the seal that imprisoned Roseira. Much like humans trace the epicenter of an earthquake. Now that the seal is broken I'd have to recalibrate the device." He put the device back in Jason's pocket.
"Well there goes plan A," Volcana was lazily tracing figures of flame in the air. "So, unless plan B involves a Justice League magic bloodhound you just happen to have in your local clubhouse I don't see what we can do."
Etrigan glared at the elemental. Wishing he had his own eyes instead of Jason's. Then an idea struck him and he looked at Jimmy. "We may not have a bloodhound," he said as he went to the kitchen, "but with the right ingredients maybe we can turn our lovebird into a homing pigeon."
"What do you mean?" there was an edge of concerned warning in Superman's voice. Which Etrigan ignored as he rummaged through the spice rack. Grateful that someone in the apartment knew how to cook though he suspected it wasn't Jimmy.
"Just ask the kid where he keeps the energy drinks and stay out of my way. We've wasted too much time as it is."
Maeve and Roseira were in the middle of a round of combat dress up when they felt their mother enter the apartment. They had both rushed to the door that would lead to the waking world. Maeve wanting to flee whatever wrath her mother had in mind for her disobedience while Roseira was eager to fight. Desiring vengeance for the years of confinement. Unfortunately the door was barely large enough for one of them, for only one could control their body at any given moment.
"Let me through!" Roseira snarled as she struggled to get past her human counterpart. "I will not cower before her!"
"No we have to flee!" Maeve cried as she fought to both restrain her demon side and reach the door first. Glad that the yellow ball gown she had zapped onto her demon sister offered enough fabric for a good grip. "We don't stand a chance against her!"
"You may not have the strength to face our mother," Roseira growled in reply as she pulled back on one of the leather straps of the outfit zapped onto Maeve. "But I have waited our entire life to rend her flesh with my claws!"
Maeve's response was muffled by the sound of the lock and crossbar that slammed into existence upon the door. Visual manifestations of the spell that now bound them in slumber. In her sudden shock and despair Maeve released Roseira who threw herself at the barrier and began to attack it with claw and flame in a futile attempt to break through. For while it appeared to be wood and metal it would take more than raw demonic power to break the barrier.
Morgan Le Fey gently set her daughter upon the altar at the center of the stone circle and then ran her hands through the child's red locks. A motherly gesture that had become habit during the years spent raising her in that fairy realm. Another gesture transformed her modern peasant garb to a simple chemise not unlike what she would wear to bed.
"If only you had not left the castle," the Arthurian sorceress said sadly. "Then you would not have been corrupted by this modern world, the seal would have remained unbroken, and you could have slept peacefully through this ritual." She turned to the tools and spell ingredients spread upon the table her silent servants had brought along with the chair that held the living corpse of her beloved Mordred. "Now, you must suffer as I destroy your demon to restore your brother."
Superman stared dubiously at the strange steaming brew that Etrigan had created in Jimmy's coffeepot using some carefully selected energy drinks, some spices he found in the kitchen, and something from Jason's silver hip flask that he refused to name. The concoction had been mixed and then handed to Volcana to boil for a minute before he poured them each a steaming mug of it. "You're sure this isn't going to harm us?" He asked before cooling Jimmy's mug to a safer temperature.
The demon's signature sneer was recognizable even on Jason's features. "Your concern is as annoying as it is unwarranted. This potion will not harm you or the elemental."
"And Jimmy?"
"At most the boy will suffer a few minor side effects. High energy, heightened awareness, a few days of insomnia, nothing that will permanently damage him." Before the Kryptonian could press him further Etrigan took a swig from the Playboy Bunny mug he had selected for himself.
Far from satisfied, but figuring that he had gotten all the demon would give, Superman drank from the Captain Zoom mug he had selected out of nostalgia. Jimmy and Volcana following his lead. The potion took a moment to work, but the effect was like drinking a double espresso on a sugar high. He quickly turned to the others. Etrigan's body seemed to switch back and forth with Jason's so rapidly it would be subliminal to anyone who wasn't capable of perceiving things at super speed. This was overshadowed by Volcana who had suddenly gone from blue to blinding white yet somehow managed to contain the heat that would have otherwise decimated, if not the block, then at least the building. Only Jimmy seemed outwardly unaffected though his eyes seemed to get a faraway look. As if he was looking at events happening on another part of the planet.
The effects ended almost as quickly as they had started. Leaving everyone feeling both tired and invigorated. As if they had all just run a marathon but were somehow almost chomping at the bit to run it again.
Jason felt like he had been crammed back into a body that was at least a size or two small on him as he took a look at the contents of the mug in his hand. Though the potion had been made with energy drinks instead of his usual breakfast tea, thus putting it in the EMERGENCY USE ONLY portion of his magic cook book, Jason knew it well. Etrigan called it some Eldritch name that Jason suspected only sounded arcane and dangerous, but he, and the few mystic members of the league he had shared it with, called it Ultimate Wakeup Juice. Capable of restoring energy and curing even magical hangovers. He took another swig, knowing that it was only the first swig that held the dramatic effects, and turned to Superman. "What happened that would give Etrigan reason to use energy drinks to supercharge this potion?"
"Your ex-girlfriend happened," Volcana stated. Her tone an interesting mix of irritation and sultry. The latter element probably being an unintentional side effect of her demonic energy boost combined with the potion she took a moment to sip carefully. "Blindsided us and took Maeve. Your yellow alter ego, while in control of your bod, told us this whammy juice of yours would allow Jimmy to home in on her location through their link."
Further explanation was cut off as jimmy cried out and started to hold himself as if trying to resist being ripped in two. Whatever Morgan Le Fey was trying to do with his daughter was clearly starting. And it was tearing the two halves of the girl apart. Jason could feel Etrigan wince in sympathy as they both remembered win Clarion the Witchboy had split them apart. Possibly one of the most painful experiences In Jason's long life. Yet he knew the experience was like ripping apart Velcro compared to what Maeve and Roseira were only starting to feel now. He only hoped they could save the girls before it was too late.