YESTERDAY
John Constantine sits down at his father's desk. He almost laughed, the thought that his drunk abusive shite of a father had a desk. Usually desks were for people who worked and cared to provide for their families instead of their alcoholism.
While John Constantine was a masochist, he wasn't there to relive the gory days of his youth. He grabbed the letter the lawyer had left him after the will reading. I know better to think the bastard actually left me something.
Constantine rubbed his face, remembering that his sister had gotten the old house; something that left both siblings bewildered. Do I actually want something from him, Constantine asked himself.
After a few minutes with his head in his hands he opened the letter.
In terrible cursive was the words: Sorry. John almost scoffed and would have crumpled the letter if it weren't the words that took up the bottom half.
:Check the top right drawer.
John groaned as he leaned onto the desk and foreheaded the letter. Was he actually gonna engage with the dying brute's game.
He lifted his head a few inches and reread that one word. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!" he shouted at the letter before yanking the top right hand drawer open.
His chest hurt as if there wasn't enough space in his torso. Lying there looking old from disuse was his tome. His first tome that he made when he was eleven.
He picked it up. He rose from the desk in a dream state. The joy and excitement returned as he spent hours making up shit and copying words from Latin books. He chuckled at the name of a spell called Mad Hatter Tits.
But good memories always fades into darker ones.
His father breaks down an already fragile door, bellowing "The bloody lights you shite can't you go a day without bleeding me fucking dry."
"I'm just using a flashlight." Cried out John scrambling to the corner of his bed, pressing his tome into his chest.
"Are you talking back to me, like I don't know what the bloody hells goin on en my house!?" If John Constantine knew magic then he would've shrunked into a mouse to hide from the rage.
With a mad lunge his father snatched both flashlight and tome in one hand and slammed both into the wall. Shattering the flashlight and breaking the spine.
"What is this?" he demands squatting over the tome and squinting at the blue ink scribbled across its cover.
For the first time and now never the last time, John jumped out of the bed and races for the tome to save it from his father.
Even inebriated his father scooped the tome into his arms before John could save it and then shoved the boy head first into the wall. At the sound of skull meeting wood, his younger sister began to cry.
"We're freezing to death in this house and you're hoarding paper!" hollers his father. "Have you no shame."
"Please, please, don't burn it, I'll do anything, I'll work, I'll quit school and go to work, or anything please father don't burn it."
John is thrown into his bed. "You shut up, this is my house and I'll do what is necessary so this family can survive."
Pleading turns into rage, "If you gave any shite you'd be protecting us instead of drinking like a bum, you're a bum, I hate you."
It was a beating that John was lucky wasn't deadly. But it was that day he had already planned to run away.
John stared at the unburnt tome and an unbridled rage was ignited. With a shout he flung the tome at the door.
But there was no thud of a book hitting wood.
"Usually I'm able to sneak in without detection came a familiar voice. John Constantine jumped, pulling out his lighter ready to face the intruder.
"Oh… its just you." Grunts John.
Oliver Queen the Green Arrow raised an eyebrow at the dabbler of dark arts. "Yep, glad you didn't burn me with your lighter."
John sits ontop of the desk as he pulls out a cigarette from within his coat. "Don't knock my lighter mate, its lit with holy oil." John lights the cigarette and takes a puff. He finally acknowledges Oliver and notices the hero was pretty banged up.
"Wat the ell appen to you?" John asked around his cigarette.
"Got in a tussle."
"With what Solomon Grundy?"
"It's actually why I'm here, I need your help."
"ooh then this must be some high shit if you're asking me and not your super friends." John teases getting up and shoving his hands into his trench coat pockets. He got into Oliver's face.
"You're not the only one I'm asking." Oliver said letting the implication hang in the air.
NOW
Badlands
"Mission accomplished." Said Catman as he dropped the bag full of Quadium onto Mr. Terrific's work table.
"Mission failed." Green Arrow said coming into Mr. Terrific's lab marching right toward Catman.
"What do you mean mission failed?" demanded Catman who only took a slight step back at the Arrow's approach. Mr. Terrific ignored them as he continued to work at his wall console.
"First starters the Flash found you guys, second Deathstroke is out of commission, making us one member short when the Vorrians attack, and we don't know when they'll arrive." Green Arrow shouted, each word forcing Catman to take a step back.
"Actually…" said Mr. Terrific tapping a dozen more keystrikes. "We might actually have an early alert system."
Green Arrow backed off Catman and moved to Mr. Terrific's side. "Does it work?" asked Green Arrow.
Mr. Terrific shrugged. "We still need…" But his sentence was cut off by the screen turning red and blaring an alarm.
"So soon?" Mr. Terrific growled as he began to type away at the monitor. The map on screen zoomed in on a small area in the Yellowstone Park."
"I'm gonna contact Adam to meet us there." Green Arrow growled grabbing the Quadium. "Can you weaponize these?"
"No not without a portable welding torch." Mr. Terrific said before opening up a ton of drawers and shoving and tossing miscellaneous things. He finally opened a cabinet and pulled out what he was looking for.
"With this I could put together a few arrows and a cat weapon." He said the last part looking at Catman, who merely grumbled, "It's a catarang."
The three heroes rushed over to the Javelin.
NOW
YellowStone Park
A small group of humanoids step through a blue and white portal.
"This earth is breatheable." Said the lead figure. A man dressed in what would be known as the garbs of crusades of red and blue steps ahead of the others. "It…is time."
"Maybe..." started a second voice belonging to a man in similar garb but his colors were white and black.
The other two figures also dressed in crusader garb of different color combinations :Green and Purple, and red and Gold. Began to construct a Box with two cylinders attached to the side.
"You have reservations after all this time?" questioned the blue garbed man.
"We are Asha'man." Reputed the man, "we defended truth and justice and right for everyone. A guardian who would not yield even when hope was gone. But have we failed by giving in to the vorrians, Captain Victorious."
Captain Victorious looked down at his red gauntlets. "We defend the truth, justice and rights of our people not of other Earths, Black Swan."
"It is done." Said the red and gold figure.
"Good Lady Steel." Captain Victorious, "we'll return to our world, set the…"
A giant bubble of smoke surrounded the Asha'man. "I don't think you're going nowhere until my buddies arrive, mate." Said John Constantine who stepped past the tree line.
Captain Victorious smiled, "So I assume you and your friends are your Earth's mightiest heroes?"
John Constantine snorted as he tossed his cigarette under foot. "Nope, we're just a bunch of assholes being lead by a bossy green boy scout."
"It doesn't matter." Said Captain Victorious before unsheathing a gold sword.
"Asha'man Kill!"
The Asha'man of purple and green garb ran up to the smoke barrier and slammed his fist into it. John Constantine knew the bubble could withstand a hundred grenades even hold Hawkman for an hour.
John's smirk was blown away by the smoke blowing past, the tree line a good meters back were tipped over like the leaning tower of Pisa.
"Take care of the magician, Manyman." Ordered Captain Victorious. Manyman leapt high into the air."
Constantine barely got his bearings when he noticed a shadow growing over him. "Oh fuck!" he growled pulling out a flask of mysterious liquid and tossed it into the air. The liquid turned into a green Chinese dragon that roared at Manyman.
Manyman roared back, and slammed its left fist into the dragon's snout knocking it aside.
"Oh bloody hell." Was Constantine's last words as he prepared to arrive in hell a few years much to early.
There was a loud of explosion of skin on skin impact.
Constantine opened his eyes to see Black Adam holding back Manyman.
"Constantine… move." Grunted Black Adam. Constantine didn't need to be told twice as he dived out of the way.
Black Adam used Manyman momentum to body slam him into the ground creating a new sulfer lake. Manyman recovered only to begin gagging at the horrible smells proximity.
Black Adam had barely thrown Manyman when a shield penetrated his chest. Black Adam threw up blood. The first time he's seen his own blood since his fight with Hawkman and Captain Marvel respectively.
Manyman did an incredible jump slamming into Black Adam and began to pound on the stupefied dictator of Khandaq.
Steel Lady felt her body expand until she was the size of building and charged at Constantine. Constantine would feel excited by the sight of a woman chasing after him.
"Come on miss, I think we got off on the wrong foot!" Shouted Constantine as he threw a ton of playing cards into the air. But they weren't a normal queen of hearts that zipped through the air.
The card sliced through her leg. She howled her voice like steel scraping metal. Constantine covered his ears only to pull his hands away to see blood.
"Bloody hell." He said before a metal hand slammed on top of him with a splat.
Steel Lady tried to stand.
The javelin slams into the back of Steel Lady's head only to explode like a firecracker.
"Holy Hell!" shouted Catman as he watched Mr. Terrific fight for the controls.
Captain Victorious dropped his half of the ultimate nullifier. "Steel!" Years of fighting together, years of unspoken tension flashes before Captain Crusader's eyes. A rage fueled by loss love sends Captain Crusader bounding across the field toward the fallen Javelin.
Green Arrow stumbles out of the Javelin first.
"Murderer!" hollers Captain Crusader raising his sword over Green Arrow's head.
Captain's sword never falls on Green Arrow. In fact Captain Crusader is no longer on the ground.
"Was this your shield." Asked the rumbling voice of thunder. Captain Crusader looked up to see Black Adam covered in the blood of Manyman.
"No." was Captain Crusader's last word before Black Adam smashed Captain Crusader's head into his shield.
Black Swan drops the ultimate nullifier. Black Swan looks behind him to see the blue and white portal home had closed due to Captain Victorious' death. A tear falls from his eyes as his knees meet the ground.
Black Swan says nothing as the heroes approach. He says nothing when they take him. He says nothing as he flies in their broken plane. He says nothing when they place him in a cell.
Black Swan says nothing when they leave him in the dark to care for their dying comrade.
Black Swan…