The Clock Tower August 13th 2010 8:00 PM

I closed my eyes, focusing on the blazing numerals behind my lids. Three hundred and fifteen points. That was enough for me to finally get my next power. My epiphany in the battle with Leoric made choosing them properly even more important, synergy was key, the more my powers meshed and compliment each other the more they would bleed together in combat and the more strength I could bring out in battle. This particular ability was a perfect match for my current power set and I was anxious to see what it could do.

I glanced over at Zee and Artemis. As the only two people who knew my secret they were the only ones who were aware something was going to happen today. Another reason to carefully choose my abilities and make sure they meshed was that I could pretend they were an evolution of the powers everyone already thought I had. Shadow Dancing fit my current abilities well. Despite the ease with which I could explain to others Artemis and Zee knew where my powers came from, and I knew they would be annoyed to miss my next upgrade.

Zatanna in particular was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement at what was about to happen, and it was hard not to smile at how cute my beautiful girlfriend was when she was geeking out. I smirked at her. "This isn't as dramatic as you're expecting. There won't be a flash of light or some chorus of angels. I'll get a box with-" I checked the email. "The dark blood of the divine lord of the dusk." I winced. That was top level cringe, even for a weird goth cult scam. I wasn't excited to find out what dark god blood tasted like. I was guessing not black raspberry.

Zee was giggling at my expression. "Oh gods, I knew your power worked on spam, but I never realized how lame some of the spam emails you get could be. That's so...edgy." I grimaced at that and she just giggled some more, reaching up to pat my cheek. "Sorry baby, I know it's not your fault." She sat up straight and folded her hands in her lap in the chair next to me, adopting an adorably serious expression. "Go ahead. I'm just an observer. No more comments." She raised three fingers in a salute. "Scout's honor."

That got an eye roll from me. "You weren't a girl scout Zee." I raked my eyes over her body. "Though we could get you an outfit if you want." I was cut off by a loud gagging sound as Artemis covered her ears and closed her eyes. Apparently discussing role playing was TMI for my best friend. Zee burst out laughing again, but not at me this time so it was fine. Smiling smugly at getting one over on Artemis I resumed my explanation. "Point is, I get the blood, drink the blood, get the powers. Easy peasy."

Without further ado I pressed the order button, having the small fee deducted from my bank account automatically as part of the process. I'd noticed most of the really in depth magic scams cost money, which of course made perfect sense. This one ran me a hundred and fifty dollars, which was hardly the most I'd paid for a perk but wasn't an inconsiderable amount as far as scams went. I wondered if any ridiculous emo idiots had actually paid for this stuff out of pocket. The fact that it worked for me literally proved it was bullshit.

As per usual there was a knock on the door. Zee jumped and Artemis just smirked as I got up to go get my new power. When I opened the door I found, as expected, a box. It was small and shiny matte black, with gold traceries forming linked lines of bones along the edges, a morbid filigree that made the tiny container seem larger than it was somehow. I reached down and picked it up, bringing it inside. It was a pretty nice box, and I made a mental note to store it in the closet with my collection. I had a weird thing about boxes and kept the containers for all of my more interesting powers.

I set the box down on the table, and the hollow thud that echoed out from the wood when it made contact echoed more than it should have. In a way it reminded me of some of Jim's theatrics, but somehow less ethereal and more...malevolent. I flicked on aura sense out of curiosity and saw nothing. Not a lack of aura but an absence of anything in front of me as a writhing mass of impenetrable darkness stretched across the table. I turned that off fast, completely fine with not seeing the particulars as I flipped open the delicate gold skull clasp held shut by a single bone key between its jaws that I turned.

An aura of frost and dark leaked from the box as it opened, and I was almost drowned in the emptiness of the void as I flipped open the lid. This was the first high priced power I had bought, and just from opening it I could see why it cost so much more. It made me wonder how amazing some of the even higher priced items were. At level seven I had forty points a day in income, but once I got to level fifty I would have two hundred and fifty points. A few weeks would be enough to afford even some of the higher ranked powers.

Shaking the greed for more power from my mind with the mental promise to try for quality over quantity if this was what it got me, I stared down at the vial. It was...strange. The glass was relatively normal looking, a long thin tube of the stuff, but the stopper was a tiny golden skull sealed with blood red wax. The liquid inside was a thick black substance that resembled tar more than blood, and as I watched it rippled slightly without being touched, as if it was quivering in anticipation under my gaze. Gross.

Well, I was absolutely not going to sit around thinking about this shit, I grabbed the vial, popped the seal, removed the stopper and tossed it back. Then I screamed. Loudly. The blood was COLD. Not just chilly or even near frozen, it felt like I was shotgunning a vial of liquid nitrogen. My muscles seized up and I fell, the vial rolling from my limp but twitching fingers as Zee caught me with a surprised gasp. I noted idly through the haze of pain that the glass vial was fine, having bounced off the floor of my room instead of shattering, but that was all I had time for before the freezing pain climbed back up my throat and reached my brain and my world dissolved into icy agony.

I came back to myself being shaken. Zee was sitting above me with my head in her lap and her beautiful blue eyes were streaming tears as she cradled me, murmuring sweet nothings and stroking my hair, telling me it would be alright. I wasn't sure how long I was out really. But I felt different. Stronger. I brought up my character sheet and my eyes went wide in shock. That small addendum on the email about strengthening my physical body had been a gross understatement.

Twenty five strength, twenty five vitality, fifteen dexterity, and FIFTY in the points stat. I cursed myself for an idiot. Of course there would be a way to raise my points income without the labyrinth. It was an outside force not a part of my power. Strengthening my body past human limits apparently made me strong enough to handle a higher points generation as well. I sensed that it was of varying effect though. Adding stats to my point total in the dungeon actually raised the requirements on my body to do it naturally.

Which made sense. Being a certain level of powerful would give me a higher points total, but if having fifty strength woulds normally give me a hundred points of income then if I already had two hundred points of income it wouldn't do anything. That meant that investing in points was still valuable because it helped me gain more to spend on more powerful upgrades between jumps in my power. Though maybe not as exclusively as I had been. It also meant my next power had to be much bigger in order to push me past the cap that I would hit pouring points in.

I decided to keep to two fifty as the max for points I poured in, saving the rest for upgrades to things like my dexterity. It was only fifteen points but it should help shore up some weaknesses. I also changed my plans for my transformation. This made it worth it to save for something bigger than the fallen angel. I remembered an email I saw about the heart of an ultimate devil, and how it could remake you into a devil yourself and turn you into a pure blood infernal hegemon. I had thought it was too expensive at three thousand points, but with this new information waiting seemed worth it.

My introspection was interrupted by a sharp slap across the face and I yelped, looking up at Artemis, who was glaring down at me in actual anger. I saw her aura roiling with fear and concern, and having the sight up made Zee visible in it too, and that broke my heart. If Artemis was afraid Zee was terrified. I could tell seeing me like this made her imagine what her life would be like without me, and while I was pretty sure she was being pessimistic I still felt terrible for making them both freak out. Artemis saw I was aware and spat. "What the actual fuck was that Morgan?"

I groaned and sat up my Zee seeming reticent to let me strain myself but deciding not to stop me. I climbed to my feet and then immediately slumped into the chair. My muscles were healed but tearing themselves apart and reknitting themselves back together had wiped out all my energy. I was fucking exhausted. In answer to her question though all I could do was shrug. "Sorry Arty, I have no idea. None of my powers have manifested that violently. That was on a whole different level. My only guess is that it was extreme because it was such a huge change. I didn't just get shadow powers, it refined my body."

She looked upset, but Zee cut her off. "It's fine baby, we were just worried. That was...I thought it would be cool seeing you gain a power out of nowhere but I didn't like that one bit. I don't think I'll be watching one of these again. You said it was safe because of your power but I don't like seeing you in so much pain. Also maybe next time lay in bed first." That was a solid point actually, and I made a mental not to take and future upgrades laying down somewhere soft. I reached down and pulled her up off the floor and into my lap, wrapping my arms around her.

She heaved a relieved sigh and rested her head on my shoulder, and even Artemis was too freaked out to make a comment about us being sickening. I was glad we had soundproofed my room for the conversion, just so Jim didn't hear us talking or anything, otherwise everyone may have busted in, I sat like that for a while, my best friend calming down silently from where she had sat down on the bed and my girlfriend curled against me in fright and finally I decided we had all panicked enough. I shot them both a wide smile. "Well now that we got the shitty part out of the way, who wants to see me test my new superpower?"

The Cathedral August 13th 2010 11:00 PM EDT

We left Reggie and Kit behind on this trip, but since there was no real boss on the fourth floor just the three of us were more than enough. We took the portal down and as we walked I had to marvel at how my body felt. Every muscle was humming with energy after a healing potion to patch up the soreness from my transformation and I felt more flexible and explosive than ever thanks to my dexterity. Zee however, was staring at me. When I caught her looking she blushed, and my raised eyebrow got me a response. "You look different."

Artemis gagged again. "Oh gods, I didn't think this through, now I'm, stuck down here third wheeling it while you two have your epic love story without even Reggie to be a mood killer. What have I done?" She paused, cocking her head a bit as she finally looked at me. "Well shit. You're right, he does look different. Like he was always jacked like that, though maybe less cut, but his face isn't as plain as before. Sharper cheekbones, squarer jaw. Nothing too different but somehow way better looking overall. I guess the weird evil god blood made him hotter." She shrugged. "Kudos I guess. I always thought it sucked you were so boring looking with a body like that."

Zee glared at her. "He was not boring looking. He was unassuming." I winced because that was basically the same thing but she didn't notice and barreled on. "Besides, he was always handsome on the inside." She gave me a sneaky little grin. "And he has...other very impressive attributes. Still I like the new look. I'll spell a glamour charm for you that will fade over time. The difference is subtle enough that if we introduce it over a few weeks it'll just seem like a natural change." I hadn't even considered how everyone else would react, and I gave silent thanks for Zee.

Artemis looked genuinely disturbed. "Ok first of all ew. That's basically my brother you're talking about, it's one thing to suspect he's packing heat and another thing for you to outright tell me." She generously didn't mention that I'd almost definitely used my powers to make my dick bigger, though I think we all knew it. "Second of all that's a good point. Shame we can't do the same. It would be nice to show off all this-" She gestured down the length of her body. "But our charisma is too high and changes too much per level for that to be safe I think."

It was and it did. At level five (we'd been funneling all the experience from the fourth level of the dungeon to the girls since I was already level six) Zee had eighty charisma and Artemis wasn't far behind at seventy one. My girlfriend only dropped her glamour when we were alone, and even I had trouble dealing with it. Lucky that devil transformation would push my looks up by a large margin, because I didn't want Zee to feel like I wasn't good enough. Logically I knew that was unlikely, but hey, insecurities aren't logical.

I shook off my train of thought. "As nice as it is to be hot now, that isn't why we came down here. We're here to test my new powers." As I expected, they bled into my old ones quite a bit. I could feel the shadows around me and step through them at any time, but I could also become one with them, allowing for much further travel than this ability should grant by combining it with my shadow form. I could see how this would be a huge asset to me in so many ways, but I could also feel how insanely draining it would be on my points.

For the moment I had fifteen points to burn. It would last me through a fight or two maybe, but I needed some levels to keep up with the upkeep and still get my devil form in any reasonable amount of time. Which meant investing a bunch of my upcoming points into grinding down here until I had enough in my my income to get that done. I put that out of my mind for now, it would be weeks or months until I could manage it anyway. For now I was going to test my new abilities and see what they could do, which meant I needed targets.

Luckily unlike Zee's spells my shadow porting gave me the flexibility to take down even magic immune enemies. Even if my shadow manipulation couldn't put them down I could just appear behind them and stab the shit out of them. I turned to Zee. "Hey baby, can you find me some monsters to stomp? I want try everything out." I'd have to be economical about it sadly. My shadow manipulation's power usage scaled with the points put in. Theoretically I could create huge powerful shadow constructs that could smash apart everything in my path.

Doing so however would cost dozens if not hundreds of points depending on the size, so it wasn't really useful until I massively increased my points generation. There were some much more subtle things I wanted to try out though, uses of the power that even the magically immune skellies and zombies should have problems with. Zee shot me an excited grin. "Sure thing babe, in fact, I can do one better." She murmured a series of backwards words too low for me to hear and the light in front of us (the weird omnipresent glow that surrounded everyone in the dungeon) dimmed slightly.

The diverted glow funneled down into a physical form, condensing to form a glowing white rabbit. Zee shot me a wink then shooed the bunny away and it streaked off at top speed, which for a rabbit made of light was pretty damn fast. Seeing our looks of shock Zee shrugged. "It has no offensive potential, it's just an illusion, but it should be plenty to draw in some demons for you to fight. Plus since it's light it can't get hurt, so no risk to my sweet fluffy buddy." She cooed the last part and I grinned at my big softy of a girlfriend. Maybe I should try to get her a rabbit with my power. Something to think on.

But my thinking doesn't last long, because the dungeon is crawling with creepy assholes and the light bunny did its job as well as we could have hoped. The little rabbit came speed hopping down the tunnel, dragging about a dozen fallen ones behind it, and I couldn't help but grin. The light from the rabbit lengthened the shadows around it, making it the perfect distraction and boost for me in one convenient package, and I wondered if Zee had done that one purpose. The small horde of demons came barreling toward us, and as soon as they saw our forms they switched targets.

Which provided a perfect opportunity for me as they looked up and away from the ground. I'd been waiting for this power for a while, and I'd had some inkling of how rough the power scaling might be, so I'd gone out of my way to come up with a few economical but effective concepts for how I would use the ability to get the most effect out of the least power. As the demons ran toward us I reached out to the shadows, not around or above them, but the ones case by their feet, and with a single point of power, I turned those shadows into a slick frictionless substance.

Of course I was only able to manage about a one foot area with that single point, but that was the risk of running in a crowd, if one went down, so did everyone behind them. Spread out in a thin line, that one foot area managed to wipe out four of them as they fell squealing to the ground, with the ones behind then smashing into them in a stampede of tangles limbs and screaming anger. With another ten point expenditure I pulled on the massed shadows under the pile of demons and connected them to the shadows on the ceiling above me.

Aside from the point cost, I felt a genuine strain from moving so many across even a small room but with just that effort of will, demons began to fall from the ceiling. With my new fifteen points of dexterity and my unsheathed tanto I reacted like greased lightning, my sword flashing out to cleave apart bodies before they even hit the ground. I managed to dismember ten of the bastards before they even hit the ground, and cleaned up the last two or three as they lay stunned on the ground.

I felt amazing. This was it. The point when I finally started becoming a real threat. My other abilities had been useful and impressive, but this was that one last thread that tied it all up into a pretty package of death and destruction. I was a legitimate power in a fight now. Not just against normal run of the mill thugs, but against actual supervillains. I turned to grin at Zee and Artemis, who were grinning back, clapping in appreciation at my quick and brutal execution of a dozen tiny demons.

Of course I couldn't count on it to be this easy every time. I had tapped into quite a bit of my power and let them get awfully close before I did it, but still this was proof of concept. I couldn't wait to get my next batch of points in an hour and get started merging this into my combat style. It would waste some power, but you had to spend money to make money and the more points I used perfecting my training the quicker I could level up and increase my points income some more.

As soon as I sheathed my sword Zee tackle hugged me with a gleeful squeal. "That was amazing baby! I felt some of that power use since I was paying attention, and that first bit was barely a whisper. Using the shadows to create an oil slick was brilliant and so economical! I wonder if I can come up with some new low power high impact spells like that? I could fight for so much longer!" I neglected to point out that due to her absurd magical power she didn't really need to do that, she was having fun so I wouldn't ruin it.

In point of fact based on her character sheet Zee's medulla jewel increased her mana per level from the three that Artemis got to a full five. My girl was rocking a full seventy five mana, neck and neck with her magic power, and she had a decent mana regen rate, recovering five mana per minute. Not the worst thing considering mana regen in Diablo didn't even exist. We suspected it was another side effect of the medulla jewel since Artemis didn't have a mana regen at all, though to be fair she also didn't really use mana much.

We ran another mob, though I had to get more physically involved here because I didn't have the points for another mass teleport. I ended up managing to use the oil slick technique on myself to move at blinding speed between enemies, and combined with my ability to control my movements with shadow manipulation and my reflexes I was skating around shredding through all the demons that I could find. By the time I ran out of points I was only about ten minutes from a refill, but I decided to head home instead.

We took the town portal back up to the tower and Zee headed home after a kiss goodbye, eager to work on her new ultra efficient spells and needing to be home before her dad was. I, in the meantime, waited until my points came back up and decided to test my most exciting new ability. I shifted myself into shadow form, feeling that this made the cost of shadow porting minimal, and then used the ability, visualizing the shadows under my bed as I did so. It sapped a full ten points moving so far, even at a one percent cost from being in shadow form, but after a moment of disorientation I appeared in my room. I resumed my human shape and slumped down on the bed. This was going to be so much fun.

Salem August 19th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

The next week or so had been busy as hell. We spent six days constantly running the dungeon, stopping home for family time and going to school before hand but still spending hours every night down there. My new power finally merged together all my disparate abilities and gave me a solid base for combat, and despite having burned more than my fair share of points in battle I was sitting pretty at three hundred and fifty points after a few days, now at level ten and earning seventy five per day.

The girls were both rocking level seven, had been pouring points into their best stats, and had each gotten a new weapon. I had relegated my tanto to a back-up weapon and was wielding my new favorite weapon of all time, the King's Sword of Haste. Combined with my abilities and my reflexes the thing was monstrous, and the magical nature of the damage meant it could injure pretty much anything I would be fighting. We'd made it to level nine before leaving town, and Zee had gotten the Guardian spell from the Chamber of Bone on level six when I got my sword.

Artemis was using a unique bow called Blitzen, which fired lightning bolts instead of arrows, and was still working on channeling her holy lightning through it. Reggie was carrying a unique sabre called The Lightsabre, which did lightning damage on hit and gave lightning resist. Finally Kit was wearing a unique armor set called the Leather of Aut, which gave five each to strength and dex and had fifteen armor class. The Chamber of Bone had been a treasure trove of unique gear for us and we'd come out much stronger for it, but it remained to be seen how much good it would do in The Caves.

Not that it mattered at the moment, because we were currently headed for Zee's Uncle's tower. A tower which he lived in because he was a fucking superhero. I shot my girlfriend a glare as we trekked through the woods out to the field the tower was built in. "I can't believe you didn't think to mention your Uncle Kent was Doctor Fate. That's not a small detail Zee. Not to mention he doesn't even know we're coming? I know you were worried he might tell your dad about us if you didn't get a chance to explain but what if his security kills us all?"

I was not excited about trying to bypass the defenses of the sorcerer supreme, but Zee just shrugged it off. "Don't worry so much. I have a key so we'll be fine. Besides I know my way around the Tower and the guardian spirit there knows me. I used to play there when I was a little girl." I glanced at Artemis and we rolled our eyes. Zee was every bit the magical princess sometimes, completely unaware of how weird and over the top her childhood was. I was crazy about the girl, but she sometimes lived in a very idealized version of reality.

But bringing this up wasn't going to do anything but make her angry so I just let it go and focused on the open field in front of us. "So you're sure your dad is going to be at his briefing thing all night? Because even you or I would have trouble teleporting that far in one shot. If he gets home early you're pretty fucked. Not to mention I don't feel comfortable telling a superhero the details of my powers. Like you said your Uncle Kent might have answers but I didn't know he was a Leaguer."

Zee look embarrassed and stopped, turning to pull me into her arms. "I'm sorry baby, I wanted it to be a surprise. My Uncle Kent isn't the kind of guy who cares about someone being a thief, he deals with magical problems that affect the whole world. But if you don't want to tell him that's ok. We can just use his library to try to find something that could help! With your speed reading and perfect memory I bet you could track down a few leads, and we won't have to tell him anything you don't want to. I'll just say I came to visit."

I grumbled a bit at that, but I also slid my hand down and successfully palmed one of her soft bouncy ass cheeks so I called it a win. After finally letting me grope her butt for a minute my girlfriend rolled her eyes and pulled back. "That's enough of that. Be good and I'll let you play with it some more later." She gave me a heated once over that made my heart race and then turned and headed into the field, swaying her hips for me as she walked. Artemis made a gagging noise as she walked by as usual and Kit and Reggie chuckled, but we followed behind her all the same.

As I approached the empty space, I got the oddest feeling I'm being watched and I spun on the spot, activating my aura sense. I winced at the veritable cloud of red energy floating around. I debated saying something, but I'm pretty sure whatever is out here is way stronger than us, and if we draw it's attention we were fucked, so I pretended not to have noticed anything and step closer to my team to protect them. I rested my hand casually on my King's Sword of Haste, ready to draw at a moments notice.

Zee pulled a key from her coat pocket, since she wasn't wearing pants, ans I marveled at her soft voluptuous ass again, licking my lips a bit before Artemis smacked me upside the head for staring. Getting to cop a feel had definitely put me in a bit of a mood, but I had to admit my violent best friend had a point. We were all in costume, so I fixed my slightly askew hat as Zee stuck the key in an invisible lock and turned. The Tower beneath began to slowly reveal itself, almost looking like it was being built in real time by magic.

After the door opened I stepped in first, aura sight trained on the space behind us as the rest of them traipsed in. The red force seemed to be concentrating into a figure that was trying to follow us in. With a grunt of effort I flexed my will and burned twenty points erecting a wall of densely packed shadows behind us as Zatanna slammed closed the door. There was a crash outside, and I winced as my shadow construct shattered, but the howl of rage from the other side of the door actually made me feel better.

Everyone whirled to look at the door in shock then spun to look at me as I smirked at the entrance. Artemis was the first to question me. "What the actual fuck was that? It sounds powerful and super pissed off. What did you just do?" She looked around nervously. "You didn't make the tower angry or something did you?" I was pretty sure I hadn't. Dr. Fate was a lord of order, and whatever that...thing on the other side of the door had been had not been orderly at all. I pushed down an urge to puke when I remembered the brief glimpse of the condensed form of that aura before I shut off my sight.

I shrugged. "I doubt it. Something was out there, I think ti wanted to follow us in. I shoved a shit load of shadows in front of it as it tried and we slammed the door in its face. It wouldn't have worked at all if the thing wasn't playing at being sneaky.I didn't say anything because I was worried it might attack. It was obviously pretty damn strong. It smashed my wall like it wasn't even there and barely slowed down." Twenty points into one wall of shadows was a massive expenditure. I could teleport a bunch of creatures across a room for half that. It was worrying that whatever the fuck it was had destroyed that construct so easily.

Everyone here knew about my shadow powers luckily, I'd started using them more. Nightshade had even offered to do some lessons with me, but Zee had been there at the time and had looked kind of murderous as she glared at the pretty twenty somethings very large breasts so I had politely declined. Zee apologized later but honestly it made me feel good that she would get jealous over me, and it wasn't like she actually did anything but glare. Still we had passed off my abilities as an evolution of my shadow form so it was no big deal talking about it.

Despite that they didn't know enough to understand that the amount of points I'd put into that wall was enough to do some serious damage if I'd been attacking, and I had condensed it down hard. My shadows constructs remained under my control after I made them until they broke or dissolved and I had basically jammed a whole shit load of power into a very small space to make a defense that would have stopped ten times the strongest blow Leoric could have managed. I was glad the wards here were up to the challenge of holding it off.

Zee looked troubled but finally shook her head. "We should take the back way when we go, but whatever it is it shouldn't be able to get in. If it was trying to follow us in the defenses should keep it out, and only Uncle Kent and I have keys to this place. He's more than smart enough not to let some hostile entity in with him when he opens the door so we shouldn't need to worry abut it." She turned to smile at me warmly. "Great work baby, I don't know what I'd do if some monster got in here and hurt Uncle Kent." She stepped up and kissed me on the cheek, resting her head on my chest as I held her.

Clearly sensing a genuine emotional moment Artemis didn't even gag this time. I kissed the top of Zee's head and stepped back. "Speaking of your Uncle, are you going to tell him about your...change in origin?" I didn't want Dr. Fate of all people knowing about my powers, but since we were telling anyone who needed to know Zee and Artemis's race change came from the dungeon (which due to randomness and instancing they couldn't disprove) they could safely share without giving it away.

Artemis sighed dramatically. "Ugh, don't get me started. Yes. Your girlfriend is a world champion level weasel when it comes to getting her way. Those big blue eyes and that pout." I was familiar with the allure of Zee's pout. I'd done more than one thing against my better judgement because of that pout. Besides which her full one hundred and thirty charisma made her near impossible to resist even through her glamour. Just her attitude and demeanor were exponentially more compelling than they had been, and Madame Xanadu was working with her on further refinement of her illusions.

Still, it was their business to share or not, since they were keeping my name out of it. I just shrugged and left them to their decision as I looked around. After ingesting the dark blood shadows were within my control, so dark didn't really hinder my ability to see at all. A small but pretty helpful side effect that I definitely enjoyed. But just as I was looking around I heard a noise behind us and spun in horror. The door was opening.

As the the barrier to the outside swung inward I watched in terror as several forms stepped into the Tower. My aura sight up I watched the red light streak past us and into the depths of the tower, as the blinding flash cleared all I could see were the group of teenagers behind it. I recognized two of them by their auras. Robin was the obvious, but I did not look forward to telling Artemis her boyfriend was Kid Flash.

Tower of Fate August 19th 2010 6:30 PM EDT

Nobody moved. Literally, we all just froze. People talk about fights and encounters between capes all the time, but they never mention how absurdly awkward things can get, and running into a random team here was definitely awkward. Speaking of teams, I couldn't believe the boy wonder and my best friend's guy were in a super powered teen social club. Which was way different than our team. For some reason. I shook off the shock, but I wasn't the first, a really large guy with blue eyes and dark hair who was better looking than me even after my recent upgrade sneered at us. "Who are you!?"

Dude sounded pissed. Serious anger issues when he yelled at me, but I couldn't blame him. We did look like supervillains. Luckily we hadn't done anything they knew about yet, so they had nothing on us. Zee meanwhile did not like muscle guy snarling at her boy, and stepped in front of us. "I'm Zatanna Zatara, and I'm here to see my Uncle. I have a key, I should be asking what YOU'RE doing here." I winced, she had done that on reflex I was betting, but her dad would definitely hear about this.

I kept my aura sight on to watch them, though they were watching back, and if Robin didn't stop shooting lust vibes at my girlfriend I was going to throw him off this tower to see if he could learn to fly. I couldn't just glare though because I was looking around for whatever that red light had been. It wasn't sticking around to attack us, which seemed like a bad sign because it meant it had more important things to do here, and I was of the opinion we should hurry up and go figure out what that was.

I noticed something strange though, the green girl (which was strange enough to begin with) had extended her aura out from herself. Some kind of tendrils that were reaching for our heads. I glared at her through my mask. "Hey, jolly green, quit that shit!" Everyone froze and turned to look at me in surprise. I pointed at the red haired alien girl. "She's doing something to our heads, or trying to anyway." Luckily her tendrils were having trouble getting through the masks. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what I was doing and I mentally thanked Jim for giving us masks that interfered with mind reading.

She actually blushed and looked down, letting the aura fall away. "Oh no, not mess with them! I was just going to read them. Sorry. I forgot earth people don't like telepathy used on them without permission, it's just kind of the way we do things back on Mars." Right, green mind reader meant Martian. Wild, I'd never met an alien before...probably. She smiled shyly and waved. "I'm Miss Martian, and this is my team. Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Aqualad. We came to check in on Mr. Nelson, nobody has heard from him in a while. Might I ask your name?"

I was feeling petty, and now distracted and worried about Zee's Uncle, so I just reflexively spat out the most sarcastic answer I could think of. "I'm the Black Weasel, Brave and Heroic Leader of the Bold Bush Dwellers." Every single person on both sides stopped and turned to gape at me. Which made sense, because the title was a mouthful and I'd had to practice it a bunch to be able to say it, which I'd done when I read Split Heirs by Robert Aspirin as a kid because it was hilarious. I'd been wanting to use that name for years and now that I had I was glad my mask hid my smirk.

Aqualad cleared his throat, looking...weirdly disturbed by my claims of being the Black Weasel. I guess he had issues with colored animal names, who knew? "Ah apologies Mr...The Black Weasel. We simply came here at the behest of our...mentor, Red Tornado, to check in on Mr. Nelson out of concern. They were teammates back in the day. We would be happy to travel with you all to check on him if you would like." He was respectful and polite, but it was pretty obvious he thought we looked shady and wanted to keep and eye on us.

Kid Flash spoke up. "Well whatever we're doing can we do it please? Being around all this superstition makes me itch. I don't care if we have to wander through some kind of nested pocket dimension but if everyone is going to be oohing and aahing about it being witchcraft for the rest of the night I'm going to lose it." His aura leaked annoyance like a sieve, and it honestly shocked me that Wally could spend so much time in the dungeon and not believe in magic. More importantly though, despite having a decent mask, Wally did NOT use a fake voice, and Artemis seemed to be suspicious.

The last thing I needed was my best friend losing her damn mind because she found out her boyfriend was secretly a superhero. I decided to derail that train wreck as best I could and cleared my throat. "Sure, you guys can come with us. The Bold Bush Dwellers always have room for stalwart allies." Robin hadn't noticed my own voice, which I found odd, or I would have if I hadn't noticed him drooling over my girlfriend. I suspected his enhanced observational skills were actually hurting him here, since he must be picking up on the spillover from Zee's glamour.

Not that my lady wasn't sexy enough even pre elfing to turn his head, but Robin didn't strike me as the distractable type. Preening and showing off was one thing, but being oblivious to my presence made me think the kid was whammied but good. Regardless I figured telling our real cape identities to a bunch of kid heroes was a bad plan since it was more than possible they had heard of us from Zatara. As long as it was just a resemblance and Robin stayed distracted though we should be fine.

We followed Zee as she headed for the place her Uncle was supposed to be, which I was forced to note was in the direction the red light had gone. I had a very bad feeling about all this, and honestly having the junior justice bros with us was kind of a relief in case of a fight. A relief that faded quickly as my best friend sidled up to Kid Flash. Despite wearing a mask she wasn't in her glamour charm, and was turning on the full court press for her unsuspecting boyfriend. "Hey there. Love the costume. It's tight in all the right places." Her voice was a veritable purr of seduction, with the hundred and twenty one charisma doing it's work well. She sounded totally different than she did without her glamour. Not wearing it was pretty much a perfect disguise combined with the mask.

I didn't know for sure, but I suspected she was hitting on Wally in costume to see if he would react. She was angry at him and wanted a reason to dump him over this, but Artemis did her best never to be a hypocrite so she wouldn't let herself dump him for having a secret identity. This was petty and unnecessary but I knew better than to interfere. Luckily I didn't need to. Wally stepped deliberately away. "Thanks. But I have a girlfriend. I could introduce you to Kaldur if you want though, he's single I think."

I smirked under my mask as he deflected her attentions, not only was he turning her down he was actively offering to introduce his girlfriend to other men. Despite that however Artemis just turned and stalked away to sulk over near Zee. The weird thing was her aura was both annoyed and pleased. Women make no goddamn sense to me at all. Kit meanwhile actually was talking to Kaldur, and seemingly hitting it off too. She was asking him about his tattoos and seemed fascinated, while the uptight Atlantean was playing cool but judging by his aura wasn't uninterested.

Reggie was bugging the big angry one in the superman T-shirt, Superboy, and honestly it was pretty much the beginning of the most hilarious buddy cop movie of all time. My friend was nattering on to the taciturn musclehead who was almost as big as I was in terms of bulk, though slightly guy's aura was pulsing with annoyance but also amusement. Like he couldn't decide whether to be pissed at Reggie's antics or not. I got the impression not many people just came up and fucked with him, and his reaction to it was odd, like it was a novel experience he found interesting.

Finally we came to Robin, who was trailing after my girlfriend asking innocuous questions about anything and everything, at least until I shadow ported in front of him and he walked into my back. I turned slowly. "Oh, sorry about that little guy. Guess I was so anxious to get to my lady I didn't see you there." I stepped up and put an arm around Zee's shoulder possessively. It might be petty but I didn't like him staring at her. Zee just giggled and rolled her eyes, leaning into my chest a bit. She'd had her own possessive episodes so she couldn't exactly complain.

Despite her tense giggle over my antics my girlfriend was tense. Her shoulder were locked up in worry and she was looking around furtively trying to figure out what was going on. That red light had gotten in here and she knew it from the conversation we'd had beforehand. She was worried about her Uncle and I didn't blame her. I rested a hand on my sword hilt as we walked, ready to shove her behind me if needed. At fifteen dexterity and with my sword and reflexes there weren't many things that would be able to get the drop on us, but I had to try to make it look natural so Robin wouldn't use the danger as an excuse to get underfoot.

We got to a study and library and Zee barrelled in, slipping out from under my arm to worriedly check the room to no avail. She looked upset. "Uncle Kent should be here. He's always in his study when he's home." She turned and shouted. "Jeeves!" An image flickered into existence, a holographic illusion of an old man. "Jeeves where is Uncle Kent? Why hasn't anyone been able to reach him?" She was starting to sound frantic. As the old man illusion answered her questions I took a look at my girlfriends aura and winced at what I saw.

This was her nightmare. After losing her mother Zee was crazy protective of family and loved ones, and the idea of losing her Uncle Kent, who had helped raise her when her dad wasn't around and who had been there for her through some of her best memories with her mother, had her nearly insensate with terror. She finally got enough information and we barrelled out of the room, heading for the roof along a back staircase that appeared in the wall at Zatanna's say so. She was so frantic even the justice bros didn't complain, just following after us worriedly as we ran for what was apparently the roof. We burst out onto the top of the tower in a panic, and what we saw up there did not help. An old man, the same one from the illusion but real, was kneeling exhausted under a dome shield of yellow energy.

Standing in front of it, grinning a too wide smile of teeth that would better fit in the mouth of a shark, was an unusually pale boy with overly formal clothes and ridiculously pale skin holding a cat. The boy looked irritated but somehow gleeful at the same time as he raked his claws over the yellow energy in a sadistic show of force, and I knew this was the red light thing I had seen before. When we saw the boy Zee's eyes flicked to her Uncle and locked on his labored breathing. "UNCLE KENT!" And then the holy lightning of heavenly punishment tore apart her glamour and my elven warrior goddess of a girlfriend rained down destruction on the unsuspecting thing that looked like a kid.

Tower of Fate August 19th 2010 7:00 PM EDT

The deluge of holy lightning my girlfriend poured down on that weird kid was, in all honesty, terrifying. Despite that however, he turned to meet it was a casual disdain that made my heart sink pretty quickly. I focused on his feet and tried to shift his shadow into an oil slick and he just drifted up a few inches until he was standing on air before turning to grin maliciously at all of us, holding up a hand to swat the lightning away. When he reached up however he let out a yelp and yanked his hand back, hissing and sucking his finger like he'd touched a hot plate.

His beady eyes narrowed at Zee. "Ow! That wasn't nice!" He glanced down at his cat with a pout "They're cheating, aren't they Teekl, using weird magic." He flashed us that shark's teeth grin. "I can use weird magic too." He raised a hand to cast a spell at my girlfriend. So I shot him. Four times. In the head. With my magic death gun. Everyone turned to look at me, some in surprise and some in horror. Unfortunately one person turned to look at me in annoyance, which was not the reaction I was hoping for from the guy I just quadruple skull tapped.

The vicious little demon boy wrinkled his nose and spat all four bullets into his hand. "Ow! What is that?" He sniffed the bullets then held them up for the cat to sniff. It did and then meowed, to which he nodded with a wince. "Smells like high level death magic, it's pretty weak but that really hurts! I'm going to have a headache for days now." I winced. Jim and Madame Xanadu had warned me the gun was low level still and couldn't just kill anything, but I was hoping for more than a headache.

Meanwhile the others had snapped out of their gaping when presented with danger and the justice bros deployed. Robin "vanished" in a puff of smoke (he wasn't close to good enough to do that successfully in front of me, I saw the whole thing) Miss Martian flew over to the yellow bubble to try to reach out through it to talk to Kent Nelson. Superboy charged head on and Kid Flash tried to circle around behind the kid. The little demon casually blinked from one place to another as the two clashed where he stood, with Wally's arm shattering as Superboy accidentally shoulder checked him.

Artemis let out a scream of pure rage and started raining down lightning bolts with her bow, stepping past a very worn looking Zee who was struggling to cast her Guardian spell but had pretty much used up all her mana throwing down that torrent of lightning. I'd officially had enough of this kid and nodded to Reggie, who swapped me for Wally, leaving me right next to the demonic brat. My king's Sword of Haste flickered out with every ounce of speed and power I could manage and even the demonspawn couldn't react in time to keep me from neatly severing his head.

The whole battle froze. Everyone just gaping at me and at the headless body of the kid. Rather than topple over like normal though he just squatted down and picked up his pouting head, sticking it back on his neck. "That was mean! No fair!" I shadow ported as fast as I could, as the little bastard hurled a gout of bright red fire at me, catching my arm and searing my forearm down to the bone before I got away. He glared around at us. "I want that helmet! I wanted to just slip in, kill the old man and grab it. And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

I reappeared next to Zee, who saw me and freaked out. "Jesus Rand, are you ok? Here let me see." She leaned down and slipped a rejuvenation potion out of her jacket, pouring it directly on my wound before force feeding me the other half. Then she downed a mana potion as I healed and the strain seemed to ease a bit from her face. She smiled as the wound closed up and pulled me close. Being so close to her when she was unglamoured like this was intoxicating, even with the practice I had, and I just close my eyes and basked in her glow for a minute.

Unfortunately we were in mid battle, and getting distracted to cuddle was a bad decision. I felt myself suddenly yanked away from Zee, and I was confused as I went stumbling back. She'd shoved me away herself. I didn't see why until I looked down at the spike of stone impaling her through the stomach. Her eyes looked so wide and confused and scared. She muttered something on reflex and the stone vanished, and I dove forward to catch her, driven by every ounce of reflex in my body.

I pulled out a full healing potion and poured half on her wound and half down her throat. But the wound only healed partway. Luckily I had about six of the damn things on me. Artemis had gone berserk and was pouring out lightning arrow she'd finally managed to imbue with her holy lightning, but the demon brat was just laughing and dodging while my girlfriend bled out on the roof top of this stupid fucking tower. And just like that, I was fucking done. I was finished with this bullshit.

I whistled to Kit and gestured her over, handing Zee to her. My girl was still healing and still in shock so she shouldn't be left alone. Reggie came with her to keep an eye on them and I nodded my thanks and stood up, turning to face the bastard who had shoved a length of stone into my girlfriends stomach. Then I reached out to the shadows. All the shadows. I poured three hundred fucking points of power into creating one single construct, emptying my tank of everything I had, and with almost no wait time, a black hand the size of a fucking VW bus appeared above the kid and smashed down on him like the fist of an angry god.

He must have sensed it because he sneered and flicked a hand, conjuring a red barrier over his head, but he'd clearly underestimated what three hundred points of my power could fucking do. The shadow construct hammered into his shield and his beady little eyes widened as it literally forced him to his knees. For the first time in this fight, the kids face showed anger. Not annoyance, or pouting, but true boiling rage. He dropped the cat, lifted his other hand like he was atlas shouldering the world and fucking PUSHED.

I felt the strain in my soul as my construct was contested, but rather than move too much the edges of the shadows just started smoking off. I snarled. Finite power in the construct, there was a lot of it but it would fade eventually. Luckily the shadows themselves were bound to me, and I could move them around without dissolving the construct itself. The hand vanished in a puff of darkness and the kid stood up straight, nearly staggering at the lack of pressure. He grinned nastily at me, ready to finish what he'd started with Zee. Unfortunately for him that meant he didn't notice when the shadows reformed into an only slightly smaller hand and slapped him clean off the fucking tower.

When I say slapped him off the tower, I don't mean he stumbled over the edge. I mean that hand hit him like a fucking driver hits a golf club and the little bastard went flying off the building and literally streaked off into the horizon. I watched to see if he would come back, and didn't see him, or weirdly the cat, which he'd somehow taken with him. Just to be safe I reforged my shadow construct again, losing a small bit of the power and condensing a dome of condensed shadow metal over the roof to protect us in case demon boy came back.

I had saved a very few points in case of an emergency there at the end, but I was so close to empty I had no clue which way was up. I hadn't felt like this since the early days of my power when I'd burned all my points without realizing it and passed out after. Regardless though I stood up and staggered over to Zee, falling to my knees next to her and pulling her against my chest. "God baby you scared me. Seeing you like that. Never do that again you hear me. We're getting you some armor first thing." I wanted so badly to kiss her, but with my mask on I had to settle for leaning my forehead against hers.

She smiled at me dazzlingly before it dropped and her eyes widened. "Uncle Kent!" She staggered to her feet and barreled toward the yellow shield, stumbling right through it. Apparently the old mans magic recognized his niece. She rolled the insensate man over. He...didn't look good. Pale and weak. Luckily we had a fix for both issues. She pulled out another rejuvenation potion and poured it right down his throat, and the old man sat up with a gasp, mana and health flooding into him. Zee laughed and leaned forward to hug him with tears in her eyes. "Oh, gods Uncle Kent I'm so glad you're ok!"

The man looked dazed, looking around in shock at the damage around us. I saw him take in Kit and Reggie helping patch up Superboy, who I hadn't noticed being speared on one of the stone spikes the kid had sent out. Artemis was hovering over Wally, holding him close, he was messed up from the clash with Superboy and from a few stab wounds of his own, but his body seemed to have lightning coursing through it. Rather than harm him the lightning was supercharging him, healing his wounds quickly. That was...interesting. Seemed like Wally and Artemis were going to need to have a talk soon. I didn't envy her that discussion, since I didn't see it ending in anything but a break up. She'd never tell him who she was, she didn't have it in her.

Well...theft from when we stole the dagger, but Zee said her dad was kind of prideful and wouldn't have gone around telling people about that when I asked in Kent's study earlier. Speaking of the former Dr. Fate, the man looked shocked. "What...what is this? Last I remember I was being attacked by Klarion the Witch Boy." He turned his eyes to Zee. "And what in the gods happened to you girl? You look so...different." She helped him sit up and he stared around at everything nearby, taking in the shadow dome, the burn marks, and the messed up teenagers. "Who chased Klarion away? He's outside the wards now, and can't get back in without a key."

I sighed with relief and slumped back onto the stone. Good. Because I absolutely couldn't do that again. I'd caught the little sadist off guard but if he had come back he would have ground my construct down to nothing and then killed us all. I'd never heard of Klarion the Witch Boy, but he was not someone I was even remotely ready to fuck with. I needed to talk to Jim about this immediately. Who knew if this kid would be looking for payback. Thank the gods we came in costume instead of as friends of Zee. I flicked my hand and the shadows of the dome condensed into a single point, forming a black stone in my hand.

I could use this construct to fuel our teleport home, and I wasn't going to let all those points go to waste. If I didn't use the thing it would dissolve over time. It was already severely weakened from the clash, the energy was steadily bleeding off. The condensed form of the orb was keeping it sealed in for the moment but I needed to use it soon. Luckily three hundred points should be enough to open a shadow portal all the way home easily even with some shaved off the top. With that I climbed to my feet to make my way over to my girlfriend and her Uncle. I wanted to be around for her explanation, just so we had our stories straight.

To clarify a few things here folks, Morgan is not NEARLY at the level of beating Klarion in a fair fight. He sucker punched him out of fate's wards with an attack that was way stronger and more versatile than he should have been able to manage at a huge cost, and even then if Klarion hadn't been locked out after getting tossed he would have come back in and curb stomped them all. This was fighting dirty and getting lucky and nothing else. Not to say it won't happen later. pat-reon. has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent . Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think.