Constantine – The Laughing Magician Presents; Chapter 7: An Eye for a Cyclops's Eye

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~ Just to make this story straight for all of you ne're do – wells like ole' Johnny here, I do not whatsoever take advantage of teenagers. Well, why am I tellin' you all this now? I'll go an' say it; Buffy. Teenager! Zatara? Teen at one point before she got old enough to tell her old man off, and lastly…the Trese everyone seems to know by name? She, is very small to me, and I stay out of kid business when I very well must. Today though…no, tonight. She isn't alone and I'm the one she's calling to. We'll hop back to it, then? Right! ~

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Trese….

I ponder her question and her face, a rather ghostly appearance. She reminds me of one of those goth lunatics I'd find wanderin' on my terf to gawk at Mucus Membrane. My old punk band, lot of history there.

That or "Fantasy Final" had a runaway costumed fan off the grid…Not that the long black coat with gothic impressions or eyeliner isn't facinatn' to anyone in the restaurant's back lot. Only place to use the loo, and going back into the grease fire would have my stomach back to being a wreck all last night. I eye her curiously as her own two are very similar to the House of Mystery's guardian's. She didn't sprout wings and a ail, so I'll bite.

"What is this all about, then." I finally want to ask; have to, even.

The high pony wearing sorceress from overseas rolled her eyes at me? How did I say anything offensive!

"The matter we are seeking to find a solution to, Mr. Constantine, is why creatures from my country of Laos are currently escaping to steal bodies from innocent bystanders in your home country of Great Britain."

"Yeah, lov. That's a pretty good way to address her majesty's homeland, but I'm as baffled as you are about these chimps –

" Demons." The Trese spoke up with her monotonous tone to we, bickering badgers. "They went to find their brothers an sisters who had been taken away….humans want what does not belong to them."

I nod. "Too true; Nessie's Shangri – la is a dead man's land to us. I saw how human intervention; even a minor compensation to the gods of old, can throw the whole of the universe into a spiral."

"You speak as if you are a messenger of the gods." The sorceress from Laos squints at me as if I'm her prey. Great. Make friends, not enemies; isn't that what we're told in Sunday school?

I turned to her, sarcasm may do the trick – or…have my head chopped clean off.

"Well, yes. Yes, I may seem that way…. because I've convened with the gods of space time, lov. What….is your name?" I'm trying to be polite; I won't come off as crass, now, can't I?

Sighing, she'd rather not face her superior falsely, I'll assume.

"Lae." She tells me her first name only, rather unorthodox… "You can call me, Lae. I'm supposed to capture those swine – primates before they find a new home."

"London attracts plenty of chimps, but not blood – suckers." I agreed and she actually snickers at my joke. "Was it that funny? I'm no joker but still…Owch, mate…"

"We will proceed in contacting someone else who can find our flock, and then we will "round up" the escaped ones." Trese said to the two. "One more thing, Constantine." She isn't done, not yet with poor ole' me. I humor her. After all; the drink was enough to keep my gullet in line.

"You'll need to keep out of the way when Lae casts her spells. She knows the creature and you didn't kill it with unhealthy foods." Trese explains while Lae raises a brow and crosses her arms over her chest, wondering the same.

"What did it then?"

"Peppers. The meal was many different flavors, yet one was laced with hot peppers which also made your body ill." Lae nodded to her cohort, really??

"So…it's not a fan of chilies?"

"Works to drive them away, fire too in the forests at night. Just light one up in a pit and watch the swine mouthed demonic ones, scatter." Lae's having a lot of fun being a bloody tease. She sounds like this is pure entertainment, why does that scare me, then…Trese just, acts casually…Aw…Such very, strange women, indeed. And I'm stuck with em.

Bollocks.

Dragul's bloody posse will have to get in line, mates. This won't end with a clean shirt for my next trip.

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Officially branded as the dysfunctional tour guide to London, I find that ditching the Trese isn't fairly certain – and in my future, I end up strung by my ankles to a flag pole.

Fun little fantasy and all, but the Lae person is, quite a bother. She's got eyes on the sidewalk and in the air! Paranoia daemon magic or bleedin' what, It's all still cutting into my social hour with Chas and my mates back at the pub.

Happy hours don't come swiftly enough for dragon tamers…

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We wind around to see the damned monkey nipping the throat of a damsel in distress by the bus stop. I raise a hand to stop it, but Lae and Trese must not be all human by how they move across the road, toppling buses in their wake. I stuff my hands in my pocket. Yep. Just a useless tour guide, Johnny. You've certainly got your work cut out for ya, mate.

Scrutinizing as I may be of the women, there is no doubt in the corner of my mind that someone is still watching me…

I slide round to catch, but the spider crawler leaps over a tall building. The Trese heads after it, saying it's for her.

I don't ask any questions; the burnt monkey had taken another life, and we aren't even that close to finding its den of body snatching' thieves.

Lae mutters something Laotian and I try to keep my nose out of spell casting. A necklace by her throat starts to glow, and it has to be a compass for locating more demon like the monkey she just threw into a building wall. All as it went; KERSPLAT.

Yet we wait on the Trese, who finally speaks and lowers her cloaked hood to direct her attention at me.

"Cassandra." She says without cracking a smile. I nod, awkwardly. "Yeah, good to know, you too…" She nods to me, and we are all fine for that while –

Until another set of screams sends us back down the alleyways in a huff.

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~ For the real world to sometimes exist in tandem with the other – realms floating about, you can't always assume things are as they seem on the surface. A bloke who taught me magic as a teen in that band I ran on about earlier; he was a bit of a warlock who didn't like to stay in the lines, and mates. Let me just say, you cannot believe how I tossed him aside and what he felt…well, it was in my best interest to sleep with a friend, so we broke it off. And the moral to this story?

The goods ones always have a secret or two to keep themselves quiet. I'd be good if it hadn't been for Nergal making me lose half of what I was, or if Chas had actually not become a reanimated corpse stealing my calls late at night to keep an eye out on me. But, what appears to be simply that, is not always. Rule number two of being an esteemed protector of the rights to super – natural kind? You must never give away one secret for another, unless you can seize up to your gamble, amicably and without hesitation.

And I did not, not with the demon Nergal, and hopefully the Trese won't probe me for answers on our little hunt much longer. ~

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The docks come into plain sight and I withhold a breathy sigh. One, because it would be just plain creepy of me and two; we have to be very, if not absolutely quiet.

The rats scurry across this place and look larger than dwarfed piglets.

The scrappy animals are at it again, harvesting organs. We see them shove hearts in hands so lanky into those bloody boxes, and the parts pile up as the night wavers on…

I shudder, and Trese realizes that they are not here to get what was owed to them, but what their leader may want.

"These are, slaves…" Lae gasps at the scene and I put it down to a science in no time.

"I tracked a messenger from my home, and he was aware that something had changed the phys's nature. They should not be doing this…

"We cannot be too sure." Cassandra frowns. "I think they may be gaining power, but it is not from devouring lives. Something else is rotten, and we have to investigate this, further." She fears saying what this is will give it power over her. Highly superstitious, then?

Lae nods to us and slips away to get a closer look, while the two masked men in black return to flank the Trese. I'm left on my own, so I've decided to play by their book for now. I didn't even forget my lines, mum! I don't have many in this part of her smashing, performance.

~Best we can do all evening…~ I sigh quietly, as the Trese and her companion "sorcery experts" ready to sneak up on these, monkey - nibblers.

Or, man eaters in fake skin….

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I'm just about to beat the boat's horn, when my belt grows hotter and I realize that my ringer wasn't set to –

The demons stare our way as a few melodic beeps puts us in an off spot…I am such a wanker myself! Blood –

~GET THEM!! ~

"London boy!" Lae shouts at me, and she has a right to be furious. "Shut it! No, worries… I'll hold em off!"

"NO! We must stop that shipment –

"Boss? Can we?? Please??"

The two grinning, masked men are like children in my eyes. The Trese releases them from their whatever you could say they have, and they gung-ho it up to the ship – dipping down and using their double sets of pistols with magic bullets to ruin the Phys from their smuggling operation going global.

I start up at spell and decide a little eight - legged aid is good enough.

~ Rikki beast fran djúprinn - komnúr til devour demoninn ór Austriinn hverr hafsetjar foot á þessi soil! svá ek kommanð þat! svá þat munu munu!~

I take in another breath, seeing as this is a big type of shock to my system. Still, I have to help in any way I can. The boardwalk shimmies, butt I dance to its tune with my legs still grounded.

Lae looks to be having a ball, hitting the man – eaters in every shin till they cry out…

The Trese waits for her enemy to come out of hiding by the boat. Her demon man – suited assistants are happy to scrape a path together. I also oblige with a shout.

~I summon…THE GREAT KRAKEN OF DEEP WATERS!!!! RISE, BEAST OF THE FROZEN NORSE MYTHOS! LIVE AGAIN TO ERASE THE EVIL FROMT THIS REALM!! ~

There, and you thought I didn't have a part to play! See what happens next. You'd be sorry to skip a chapter...in this deep as we now are…. I have no choice but to carry on.

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