Arkham Asylum December 14th 2010 10:00 PM EDT

The actual pain from the transformation hit me after I repeated the words, but suffice to say it wasn't as bad as I expected. Somehow I got the feeling my devil transformation had made this easier, like the two were especially compatible or something. Still, there was a wave of freezing energy inundating my bones as the "half ghost" transformation altered me at a fundamental level.

Not just muscles or bones, I could almost feel the alteration down to my cells somehow. Like the cellular make up my body had come alive and was roaring in satisfaction. Despite the overwhelming sensation though my cells seemed to adapt as it happened. Something about my devil physiology was open to change, like it was naturally predisposed to being altered like this in the depths of my biology.

It took about twenty minutes for the change to complete and the alterations to finish taking place, and by the time it was done I was leaning against the wall of the closer panting harshly through clenched teeth as I did my best to ignore the pain. Once it passed I brought up my character sheet in my mind. My species had changed to "Ghost-devil, Abaddon bloodline" and my stats had SOARED.

A hundred and one strength, up from the fifty one I'd had before. A hundred and fifty dexterity and a full two hundred and fifty vitality. My point value had tripled, jumping up to twelve hundred. I felt...absolutely fantastic. The explosive power in my body was impressive as hell sure, but it was the vitality that really made the difference. I felt immortal, no, more like invincible, like aside from killing me, nothing could even hurt me.

I suspected it was a side effect of my Pride, so I clamped down on it, but I did enjoy the sensation. I exhaled heavily as the last of the pain vanished, and my breath came out as a cold swirl of icy mist energy. Aside from that I saw the inside of the closet brightly lit by some kind of green glow, but despite searching everywhere I couldn't find out exactly where it was coming from.

I finally had the presence of mind to open a mirror and look at myself, though, and I quickly realized the glow WAS my eyes. A ghostly pair of green irises stared back at me, softly illuminating the world around me. As I focused on them however, the light dimmed. I nodded in satisfaction, I was a thief, having bioluminescent eyesballs I couldn't turn off would have been kind if inconvenient.

Aside from my eyes my hair had changed too. The formerly pitch black locks were interspersed with streaks of white. Based on the email I'd expected the transformation to be the kind you turn on and off (though that wasn't actually specified, just sort of implied) but this wasn't that. I'd been altered irrevocably, but I really couldn't bring myself to be upset about it given all my new power.

It seemed odd that being half dead would make my vitality surge up so high, but upon cutting myself a bit I realized that my cells had become more malleable and adaptable as they were altered, allowing them to reform and heal more easily. With concentration I could even stretch or change my body. I mentally added training with my new capabilities in the Outer Body trace to my list of things to do.

My next move was contacting Jim with details. I mentally sent a quick recap of the ritual to my mentor, having been too shocked at what was happening to do it while I was down there. Plus I'd have been lying if I said I hadn't worried I might tip them off somehow with the stones. They were almost undetectable, sure, but almost only counter in horseshoes and hand grenades.

When I finished filling him in he paused for a while, before finally responding. "We wait." His voice sounded cautious, but firm in my head. "With so many Amazon's nearby we can't afford to challenge them head on. Our best bet is to wait until the last moment and let them whittle down their own numbers. Before the ritual is completed we strike disrupting the ascension."

I understood his point but I couldn't help but worry. "Is it a good idea to let Circe get so much stronger? The Mark channels the power gained into the magic user who cast it, she'll be getting notably stronger over the next few days, and we already might not be able to take her. I got another upgrade and I'm as confident as I've ever been but even I have limits."

Jim's internal sigh sounded tired. "It shouldn't matter. As long as the ritual is active it'll take a considerable portion of her power and attention. She may get much stronger, but we'll only be facing a fraction of her power in any case. As long as our timing is carefully controlled we can hit her at her weakest and disrupt the ritual.

Zee's mental voice joined in. "It should work for the same reason waiting will work to begin with. Stopping or interrupting a ritual like this can have dire consequences. If Circe tries to break away from it mid cast to bring her power to bear against us she'll suffer a terrible backlash. I think that's one of the major reasons for the siege to begin with. Not just to hide from the gods, but to distract all of us."

I grimaced but mentally sent an impression of understanding, the sending version of a begrudging nod. "Fine. We wait. But should we leave? There's no real reason to stay here now that we know what's going on." Honestly I was much less worried about being in Arkham than I had been before my change and if we did stay I'd just use the time to train anyway so it didn't matter to me, but I felt like I should ask for Zee and Artemis's sake.

The pause on the other end told me that Jim was as uncertain as I was, but in the end he decided against leaving. I don't believe we should, no. We've managed to infiltrate this place in such a way that I don't expect our presence to be revealed. Circe wasn't down in the ritual chamber from what you said, so she must be hidden amongst the inmates as we expected, keeping watch. No, I believe we should stay and keep an eye on the situation, in case thing's change unexpectedly."

That made perfect sense. One of the hallmarks of a good thief was patience, and despite his lackadaisical attitude about most things Jim WAS a master thief. He could lie in wait as well as anyone. Whether he was casing a target or gathering information undercover my mentor was the type to keep his eyes open and not move until he needed to. He was like a snake that sat poised to strike until the perfect opportunity.

Everyone confirmed their understanding of the plan and got back to their business, and I sat down and crossed my legs inside the closet and I closed my eyes, entering my Outer Body. I wanted to test out my new abilities, and I suspected they would use points if I accessed them in reality. The Outer Body trance required knowledge of my enemies and careful study to create a simulation to fight against, but it should work fine with my own powers, which, despite not having tested them yet, I had an instinctual grasp of.

As I appeared in the darkness of the Outer Body void I closed my eyes, a feeling that was odd given I already had my eyes closed in real life, and focused on my new powers. Much like my devil bloodline I could feel strength hidden in the depths of my body now. Cold and eerie power that reminded me of death. Despite the creepy vibes though I was far from unhappy, the power was perfectly matched to my own inherent abilities and would be a perfect addition to my combat style.

I tested out my basic abilities first, the ones that were on the tip of my metaphysical tongue. Invisibility was the easiest. It had much in common with my stealth skills. I was used to not being seen and tapping into that was childs play. I could think of multiple ways to use this in situations where my shadow skills wouldn't be suited. Shadows couldn't always be found at all times. Shadow form was obvious and attention grabbing in the light of day, and this new ability would fix that, giving me more options.

Along with the invisibility came the intangibility. Another flip side to my shadow power, lacking substance was something I was more than accustomed to. It was to my invisibility what my shadow form was to my ninja sneaking skills. The other half of the whole, and between the two power sets it expanded my potential as a thief exponentially. Next came the constructs. Burning structures of coldly glowing ectoplasm that could be used alongside my shadow constructs or even in conjunction with them, training with those would be the labor of months if not years, so I put it on hold for now.

The blasts of energy were just a manifestation of that, so in the end that left only the most useful and terrifying of my new powers. Duplication. Out of all of my new tricks, this one was probably the most dangerous, and definitely the most versatile. The ability to make more of myself was invaluable. With my shadow dancer and shadow form abilities I could change size, but as I'd seen in my fight with monkey boy true duplication was beyond me.

He's demonstrated in that battle exactly how useful the ability could be though. Especially for someone like me who could teleport and explode out with an exponential burst of strength. Duplication was the cherry on top of the assassin sundae that was my powers, and it was more than enough to push my combat abilities to an entirely different level. I concentrated on the void and summoned a copy of the Warlord and one of Myrina, pushing them both to attack me at once.

They did, and within seconds I died, obviously. I hadn't grasped my new powers yet exactly and the two of them were a terrifying combination. Still, it gave me insight I needed to sharpen myself, so I did it again. A second time they came at me, and I used my intangibility and teleportation to try to maneuver between them, once again getting cut down in seconds but once again discovering new insight into how I could do battle.

I was going to be here waiting for days, and I had nothing but time in the Outer Body to get this right. By the time the ritual began I wanted to have grasped as much of my new capabilities as humanly possible. Demonically possible? Whichever. The point was I had training to do and plenty of time to do it in. I still had to do my exploration since we were still casing the place, but now that was easily solved. Without even opening my eyes in the real world I conjured a duplicate with only twenty points, and incredibly weak version of me, and sent him out to explore.

Whereas someone else would need to use their own essence to create a duplicate and weaken themself, I could use points and avoid the issue altogether. My duplicates could be just as strong as myself without expending any of my personal energy aside from points. I was even more driven to learn how to use this power properly now. I grinned to myself as I conjured a version of monkey boy from the void. If I wanted to learn to fight with clones, why not learn from an expert. Time to start my training in earnest.

Arkham Asylum December 21 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I exhaled a cloud of frozen mist from my spot in the closet, opening my eyes as I exited the Outer Body trance. I'd spent the last week in here, occasionally communing with my friends but mostly just pouring my focus into training with my new body. It had been excruciatingly painful for most of the time, but I'd managed to progress rapidly with time to really beat my head against that wall.

My new body was massively powerful, but to get any actual value out of the training I'd needed to suppress that strength. I pushed my stats down to the lowest they could go while still remaining combat viable and relied on my skills and abilities to combat my enemies. And I did mean all my enemies, I'd fought the Warlord, Myrina, Monkey Boy, the Talons, the Butcher, and every boss and monster I'd even come across.

Hell I'd used my perfect recall to put together a simulation Klation to fight, as well as every member of the justice bros I'd seen throw down in person, which was all of them except Miss Martian. One after another I fought them, learning from them, finding their weaknesses. The average battle only lasted a few minutes, and I'd had seven full days with only a few hours of sleep between hours full of those minutes. Thousands of battles.

I'd lost them at the start. Lost them badly, almost all of them. But the more I fought the more I learned. I learned to employ Robin's agile martial arts style against Superboy, to use Myrina's split second attacks to counter Kid Flash. I beat Aqualad with monkey boy's unpredictable style, and even fought against Blood and Jim. I maximized my benefits and bled for every ounce of combat experience I could squeeze out of my brain, and finally, I'd been contacted. It was time.

Jim's voice rang in my head. "The ritual will take commence in four hours I believe. This is our only chance to stop her while she's distracted. I can't exactly tell you what will happen to Gotham when Circe tears a hole through to the Sphere of the Gods, but I sincerely doubt it's going to involve puppies and rainbows. We're sealed in a confined space with the city, I doubt any of us will emerge unscathed."

Zee spoke up next. "Agreed. We've managed to track down the person we think Circe is masquerading as, we'll need you to follow her for the last few hours until this goes down, since you're the sneakiest of us. Unfortunately we have a slight problem. We were hoping they would leave before it was time and we knew you were training so we didn't want to interrupt but the justice bros are here."

Artemis cut in, her mental voice annoyed. "Ok, that's getting annoying, can we stop calling my boyfriend and his friends that please? I get their little club is a sausage fest, but aside from the boy blunder the rest of them seem ok from what you guy's have told me. Well, Aqualad and Miss Martian, Superboy needs to get laid. Shame I'm taken because that boy is fine."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes thank you for that important news bulletin Arty, but can we get back to the fact that the fucking Leaguers let their daycare center loose on one of the most horrifying places in Gotham? What the fuck is Batman even doing? He knows how terrible Arkham is. Hell I've scouted every inch of this place and even I want to throw up. I've been to a literal Hell dimension."

Reggie was the next to chime in. "Well, from what we can tell it's not all of them. Miss Martian seems to have shapeshifted and joined the girls over with the female inmates, but she hasn't noticed them yet. We think she's avoiding reading minds because of all the crazy people in here. Wally and Conner are in with the male inmates, and Aqualad is on surveillance outside. The only person we can't pin down is Robin, which based on his past performance means he's probably ninja'ing around out there with you."

I cursed. "Fine. Seems like if they're in with the male inmates they don't actually know what's going on, but we still need to keep an eye out. I'll track down the boy blunder and scope out what they know. If I'm lucky that asshole might come at me and I'll have an excuse to knock him out and shove him in a vent somewhere. I hope he tries something. He doesn't want any of what I am right now."

I stood up and stretched. I didn't actually need to stretch, any more than I'd needed to eat the last week. My ridiculous vitality meant I could pretty much go months without food from what I could tell, but I stocked my spatial ring with snacks because I love to eat so I'd been keeping fed. I stretched because it felt right and because my new insane flexibility was fun to play around with, and once that was done I shifted to my intangible and invisible form.

My shadow form was something Robin was familiar with and despite his dickishness (pun intended) I doubted I would be able to sneak up on him with it. Taking my ghostly form cost a few points, but at over eighty nine hundred I wasn't too worried about the ten or so I needed to make the shift. I stepped through the wall and split off a few clones to search while remaining intangible.

I'd memorized the whole layout by this point so finding him wouldn't be hard. I made sure to leave a clone in the vanishing hallway so I'd have a way to get back if I needed to. Shadow porting would let me open a portal between my two selves to get back so I didn't have to worry about it disappearing. Once I was sure I wouldn't lose our way in I set off towards the first places I had searched.

I might be giving Robin too much credit but I assumed he was at least decent enough at at infiltration to come up with a similar pattern for casing the place to the one I arrived at by instinct and experience. After a lengthy thinking process. Probably. Unfortunately I'd given the asshole too much credit, and he ended up circling around the other direction. One of my clones found him and then dissolved, returning it's memories to me directly, and I took the quick way over via intangibility as I dispersed all the others except the one in the hallway.

Once I found Robin I followed him for a good ten minutes, paying special attention to his aura and the way his eyes and body were positioned. I waited until his attention was momentarily snagged by something nearby and then when he looked away I went visible right where his face would be when he turned back. I stayed intangible of course, so when he shrieked and lashed out at me with his dumb little staff out of reflex it passed harmlessly through me.

He glared at me through his mask, managing to portray the proper amount of rage even with his eyes covered, though seeing his aura might have helped. He looked like he was about to attack me, but he seemed to think better of it, exhaling slowly and evenly until he had his anger under control. When he had his temper in check he hissed at me. "What are you doing here? Do you really think you can just waltz around in front of me after what you did? Every League member in the city is looking for you!"

I rolled my eyes, not that he saw it through my mask, but I'd learned enough body language from Jim to make an eyeroll obvious without my face exposed. "Get over yourself bat brat. I could tie you up like a pretzel on your best day. Not the point though, I'm here for what I assume is the same reason you are. The ritual." I didn't choose to dignify his comment about devastation with a response, mostly because I knew we weren't going to agree.

He froze. "What ritual? You know what's going on here? We've been tracking Amazons that have been vanishing into this place, but we don't know why they're here. They'd been slowly shuttling in but for some reason today they all flooded here at once. Specifically the most powerful of them seemed to wait until the last minute to show up. Who's casting this ritual? What does it do?" He stepped forward, like his tiny thirteen year old ass was going to loom over my much taller form, but I wasn't impressed and he seemed to sense that.

He stepped back, trying to give me space and obviously hoping I would share. I paused to debate. It might be useful to have some more heavies on side. I didn't trust them as far as Reggie's sister could throw them, but I wasn't exactly worried about them either. With Jim and I here and the League clearly not there was nothing they could do to us. I sent a silent message to Jim telling him what I was going to do and when he didn't tell me to stop I took a deep breath and spoke up. "Circe is performing a ritual here."

His face drained of blood, showing me that he knew who Circe was and why that was very bad, so I kept going. "She's trying to do some sort of ascension thing and she's sacrificing Amazons to build up power. She's way too strong to stop already at this point but if we can hit her while she's casting the actual ritual but before she finishes it she'll be too wrapped up in the magic to fight back. It's our only shot."

I expected him to go off on me about the Amazon's but he bit down on the obvious rage and forced himself to remain calm. "When exactly is this ritual happening?" His teeth were gritted, and I could tell even entertaining my plan was pissing him off royally. Unfortunately for him he needed the information I had so he had to play nice for now. I made a mental note to make damn sure not to tell him anything until the absolute last second.

I honestly wanted him around less as an ally and more as a potential meat shield, but beggars and choosers, Circe was way out of out league and the justice bros had a history of pulling off wins against odds like that. At least based on what we were told about the Injustice League showdown. I checked the time, we were coming up on a few hours out. I decided it was about time to gather and try to figure out a plan. I'd put a clone on the woman they suspected was Circe.

I mentally reached out to the others. "Alright boys and girls, looks like we're doing a team up. Remember to expect a double cross, especially from bird boy. Of course let him and his apple dumpling gang be the ones to head up first. With the addition of new people though I think it's time to meet up. I'll send a clone to follow your Circe suspect and leave the one I have down by the sacrifice chamber in place."

Jim responded quickly enough. "I'll retrieve the ladies and we'll meet you at the boiler room. It's relatively close to where you spotted the chamber so we can move as needed. Keep an eye on you wayward guest Random, he may be a risk yet. I sent my agreement back and turned to tell Robin the plan. He sneered but contacted his friends anyway, and we both headed for the boiler room. I could already tell this was going to be annoying.

Arkham Asylum December 21st 2010 11:00 PM EDT

Getting everyone together and helping them slip off to the boiler room took hours. Specifically I had to go and help several of the justice bros disengage with clones to get them here and Superboy actually got lost. Finally, after running around getting ducks in rows, we got everyone gathered together in a single room. The boiler room wasn't exactly spacious either, so it ended up being extremely cramped in there with all of us.

Surprisingly the auras of the others didn't seem particularly hostile. Robin was a seething mass of douchebag, but the others seemed less confrontational that I expected. There was wariness there sure, but it was mixed with a not inconsiderable amount of guilt. I was guessing the boy blunder hadn't told his team about the call to turn on us during that truce, and when they found out they weren't happy.

The wariness I assumed had more to do with the very public execution I'd staged a week ago. Still they listened as we filled them in on what we knew. I wasn't worried about them finding the ritual with only an hour to go so there was no need to be wary of them double crossing us. They wouldn't jeopardize their chance to stop this just for a bit of petty revenge. At least not most of them, and if Robin tried the others would stop him.

Aqualad spoke up first. "So, if your leads have panned out and the ritual is taking place nearby, which I have to assume to be the case, you must know the location of the sacrifice. Since you mentioned it has to take place tonight and midnight is the optimal time for such things it must be close. I take it you are withholding that information until the last minute so as to avoid potential betrayal?" I nodded. He sighed. "I...I cannot reassure you of our intentions. You were ill treated in the past, but with so little time to act every moment counts. I implore you to tell us what we need to know."

I sighed. I wasn't against telling them, but I wanted to wait a bit longer so they had no chance to screw us. "The room is a huge stone chamber filled with columns." I changed the subject to the rooms layout, hoping to come up with a game plan while we waited and kill some time all at once. "The Amazon's were lined up wall to wall, and some priestess was sacrificing them. They all seemed willing. There were hundreds of them, though I don't know how many will be left, still given who we think is performing the ritual this will be a hard fight. Not to mention I'm guessing Circe isn't going to kill every single one of her flunkies. I can think of at least one we'll definitely have to fight."

Myrina was the toughest of the Amazon's I'd seen or even heard of, and there was no way Circe wouldn't have SOME kind of insurance in place. With me pinned down fighting Circe though it would be up to the others to take her down, and I wasn't sure any of them were up to it. That was less of an issue now though. Having clones that can become completely invisible and intangible that can execute split second attacks with pinpoint accuracy and sneak undetectably gives you quite a few options in combat.

Of course, I was sure that my temporary allies wouldn't be happy with my solution for the Amazon Assassin, but I was equally sure that I gave no fucks what made them happy so it worked out pretty well for me. Seeing I had no intention of discussing the location for the moment Aqualad made the command decision to engage in the planning process with me, and the others seemed to follow his lead. Robin's aura pulsed with rage for a minute but clearly whatever they had said or done to him after he tried his little backstab had been enough to make him wary.

We talked for a half an hour before I finally decided it was close enough to the moment of truth for them not to be able to double cross us and stood up. The others, who had been embroiled in a discussion about how to deal with the leftover Amazon's, stopped and looked up. I gestured to one side, having my clone open a portal to the vanishing hallway and gesturing towards it. "It's about that time boys and girls, heroes first." I absolutely wasn't offering Robin my back, even if I was sure I could crush him if he tried anything. Aqualad seemed to understand because he took the initiative himself.

He stepped past me without hesitation and stepped into the shadowy portal, vanishing into it's depths. A second letter he stepped back through partway to wave everyone in and the others let the tension drop from their shoulders as he proved I hadn't just dropped him into the sun or something. Superboy followed him in, with Miss Martian coming up behind him and Kid Flash bringing up the rear after Red Arrow. The archer glared at us suspiciously the whole time but I didn't really care so I ignored him until he vanished.

Finally it was time for my own team to head in. Jim was the first, followed by the girls, then Reggie, and I brought up the rear. I stepped through the portal and as usual appeared on the other side instantly. I'd had the clone hide so I didn't give away and secrets and I dispersed the thing once I walked through, reclaiming the memories as the portal shut. I gestured for the others to follow me and we slipped from the closet quietly, filing out of the cramped space one at a time. Then I led them down the hall to the stone archway and gestured them all forward.

The trip down the spiral stone steps seemed even longer walking on two feet, despite how slowly I'd moved as a shadow. I even considered flying down. My aerial mobility was leagues above what it used to be, my new ghost flight combining with my devil wings to boost my speed in the air to levels that dwarfed even what I was capable of on my own two feet. In the end however, I stuck to my sneaking, sticking with my crew so we could all act together. Plus I didn't trust Robin not to stare at my girlfriends ass, so I made sure to stand between them.

When we reached the bottom we stuck our heads out to look around, and the resulting sight made even me a little sick. Blood. So much of it. They had apparently abandoned getting it in the blood pool at some point, or maybe they just had enough, because they started killing the sacrifices where they stood. Bodies and gore were strewn about, but all the blood was softly glowing with that same light that infused the first sacrifice even without flowing into the actual pool. It was being used somehow.

Circe stood in the center of the chamber, naked and splattered with glowing blood, her head lolled back as she chanted. The priestess knelt in front of her, echoing her words, and the blood on the walls and on the goddess pulsed in alternating beats. I could see that each time they switched the glow on her skin brightened and the glow on the walls faded. The blood in the blood pool pulsed behind her as well, the light casting an eerie blood red glow throughout the room, the strobing making it seem like we were standing in a beating heart.

I didn't know how she'd escaped my clone, but upon reaching out I noticed he was dead. Apparently I needed to actually disperse the damn things to get the memories. Inconvenient but good to know. Circe was surrounded by several brutal looking Amazons still, guarding her as she performed the ritual, and as I suspected Myrina was indeed one of them. I looked at the others and made a gesture with my hands, showing a number to denote which of the plans we'd come up with we'd be using, and then I activated my ghostly form and sank into the floor.

Contrary to my expectations Robin didn't argue or bitch, he just followed the others and got in position. I split off a clone that circled around to get behind Myrina and my main body took position right below Circe. Because the stone around us was so soaked in dark magic she didn't notice me approach her. If I'd been above ground even with my most effective camo I doubted I'd have gone unnoticed, she was way too attuned to the magic in this place right now. I crept up under her, taking a mental breath to get myself ready before finally acting.

With a split second movement using every trick I knew I reached up, grabbed both of her ankles, and simultaneously yanked and made her intangible. Circe countered the phasing ability immediately of course, which was unfortunate for her, because she was already ankle deep in magic saturated stone when it happened. Her feet became physical again inside the stone of the floor. Stone that, based on it's location and nature was probably some sort of semi dungeon material from what we could tell. This whole place screamed dungeon and it just made sense given what she was doing.

Circe hissed in anger, and as she was getting ready to unleash that fury, my ghostly clone appeared undetected behind Myrina and, propelled by monstrous strength and an absolutely perfect assassination technique, drove a composite blade of grey energy made from a blending of shadow and ghost constructs into the soft spot at the base of her skull and into her brain.

Aside from my unnatural skill and strength, I'd studied Myrina's fighting technique obsessively for months now and baked it into my own style fanatically. Assassinating someone from a position of surprise is incredibly effective, but it can fail. Driving a dagger through the weak point in a person's defenses that you've studied for countless hours is much easier to manage. The powerful Amazon assassin collapsed bonelessly as my blade severed her brain stem from her spinal column. She died instantly and every single being in the entire place froze.

Even Circe's words stuttered during the recitation of her ritual chant, but she managed to force herself to continue, despite the shock of seeing her strongest warrior murdered and have her feet fused into evil supernatural stone. I had to at least give her credit for that. The justice bros and the other Amazons had all remained motionless, staring at the dead Assassin. The sidekicks had sharp spikes of betrayal in their auras feeling they were used as a distraction to commit murder, but I had absolutely no time for that right now.

With no suspense I phased into existence behind Circe, hoping to spear her through the heart with my King's Sword of Haste, but after getting Myrina I had zero chance of managing a sneak attack. A wall of violet light sprang up around her, and my blade skittered off it, shooting sparks as it skittered across the surface of form fitting armor of mystic force she'd willed into being to protect herself.

Circe turned her head toward me, her eyes glittering with rage, and without breaking her cadence or stopping her recitation at all a second voice echoed from her body somehow. "You'll pay for that, boy." I barely had time to fling up my own shield before she flung out a cascading wave of energy, not at me, but at her own feet, shattering the stone fused into her lower extremities into shards that somehow passed right through her flesh and flew right at me. I winced at her livid tone. I had a feeling this would not be an easy fight.

Arkham Asylum December 22nd 2010 12:00 AM EDT

There are some times in life where you go into a situation perfectly prepared. You execute a flawless strategy and demolish your enemy, establishing a well deserved reputation for excellence and frightening all your enemies into being way too scared to ever think of crossing you again. This, sadly, was not one of those times. Mostly because in all my planning and admittedly impressive training I had not considered that Circe, who came to my attention through my phantom mentor and was in Gotham knowing fighting him might be necessary, might have a way to FUCKING HURT GHOSTS!

Which spoiler, she did. Because of course she would. I felt like an idiot as my spectral body was flung across the room, solidifying right before impact with the stone. Luckily, though she was able to cancel my intangibility, I was only HALF ghost, and the mixture of ectoplasm and devil cells that created my apparently unique durability was not one of the powers she could invalidate.

I heard Jim's voice in my mind as he used the sending stone to contact me. "I'm assuming you only recently acquired your new abilities and wanted to surprise me with them after honing your skills for a while? Because I can't think of another reason you wouldn't have asked me for tips on spectral warfare." I mentally cursed. I was a moron. Jim had never seriously fought me so using the Outer Body to mimic his style to learn from was pretty much useless. He was right, I should have asked for help.

Luckily before the column of purple flames was able to hit me my mentor appeared before me, human form abandoned in favor of his usual ghostly white suit, and stopped the blaze with his cane. This time, he spoke aloud. "You're a bit inexperienced in these matters to attack her head on. I'll take primary, try to slip by her defenses. Even if you can't the distraction may help." I turned to go and he added. "And obviously don't use your ghostly form to perform your attacks. She's clearly prepared counters."

Luckily I had other options. I assumed, having met me before, she would be aware of my shadow form, but being an idiot sometimes could be an advantage. She probably figured I'd try that next, and was prepared to deal with it. She was not however prepared to deal with my embodiment of my Hole bloodline, what I liked to call my Devourer form. So that's the form I took. I poured five hundred points into my body, shifting myself into a form that made me one with the void.

I circled around behind her, sneaking in close to attack, and as expected, she was waiting for me. She didn't even look up as she unleashed a volley of emerald lightning right in my direction, clearly trying to exterminate my shadow form in a blazing torrent of arcane energy. Which was just...fantastic. Nothing makes you feel better about a stupid fuck up like the enemy falling into a trap hook line and sinker. I felt a literal waterfall of energy flood me, thousands of points worth of power added to me as I absorbed and digested her energy.

Sadly I did not get to keep all of said energy. Hole, in reality, was not just about absorbing power, it was also about spitting it back out, and my Devourer form was more than capable of dishing out as well as taking. So, regretting the loss of power, I sent about a thousand points of that energy back out, approximately the force of one of those lightning bolts she hurled at me. Circe, who had been distracted by Jim, was not expecting one of her own attacks to smash into her back and cried out in pain as she whirled to face me angrily.

Which was, of course, what Jim meant when he asked me for a distraction. One of the main benefits of battling the simulacrum in the Outer Body trance was that even if I didn't know all his moves, I did know Jim's rhythm. Being my teacher he mostly knew mine too, and it made collaborating exponentially more effective for the two of us. When Circe wheeled to attack me Jim was already casting, faster than I had ever seen, and the massive skeletal hands that I'd seen him use before reached out to grip her from behind, restraining her for a second.

I took that time to catch my breath. I somehow doubted it would hold her, so I contacted my mentor. "Ok boss, you got a plan here? Because my big ace in the hole was my new ghost powers, which, admittedly, was not the smartest choice given her relationship with you, but live and learn. I still have all my other abilities at least, maybe some devil magic or something? I'm drawing a blank tactically, this is bad." I had monumentally fucked this up. I'd gotten so used to my new powers being a huge game changed I'd ignored the obvious.

Jim's voice was calm in my head as he responded via sending stone. "Calm down lad. I can understand why you're worried, but haste makes waste. We have her caught in a back and forth. There's no need to be impatient. Time is on our side here, not hers. If we distract her long enough she'll miss the crucial period of the ritual and the backlash will cook her. Your tactic worked beautifully, notice she's stopped chanting. We just need to keep her off balance."

That was all the time we had to commune about the next steps we needed to take before Circe, eyes literally glowing incandescent with rage flexed as hard as she could and fucking blew the giant skeleton hand apart. The limb was yanked back through the door, leaving behind several fingers, and Circe's body steamed as she stepped out of the wreckage of her undead prison. She narrowed he glowing eyes at both of us. "You are both extremely annoying. No more games!"

She brought her hands together in a clap that literally shook the space we were in as a torrent of arcane energy pulsed out from the impact site. A huge wave of force came hurtling toward me, and I barely had time to shout "Block!" Through the sending stones before it reached me. Luckily my reflexes were absurd and I'd been able to shield in time, dumping three hundred points into a half dome shield of that grey composite power made from shadow and ectoplasm.

The shield held, deflecting the force around me, though admittedly it wavered a bit. I was down to ten thousand points now, I'd gotten three thousand or so from the lightning attack and burned a thousand on the counter then another three hundred on the shield. I turned to check on my team to make sure they were ok and froze. Reggie had translocated with an Amazon and avoided most of the damage and Zee had shielded, but Artemis didn't really do much magic.

My best friend had been thrown clear and smashed into the wall. Hard. She was up, if dazed, but that wasn't what had me worried. On impact with the stone her mask, which despite protection enchantments was made of carved rock, had shattered and fallen off. She was standing there with her face exposed, and that face was painted with an expression of horror as she realized what had happened.

Wally, who had fortunately been bought a bit of time because of the wave of pure force that had hit literally everyone (Circe really didn't get the concept of friendly fire) was staring at her in shock and hurt. "Artemis?" I winced, narrowing my eyes at Circe and mentally promising to kick her ass for this, but I shouted to Wally anyway. "Wally, not the time man. You're going to get us all killed. Just focus on the job, we can have the General Hospital moment later." His eyes widened, his aura pulsing recognition, but that was unfortunately all I had time to see.

Circe had taken the initiative to close with me, manifesting a burning purple sword of light and lashing out at my throat as she resumed her chanting. Fortunately for me, this bitch had made a bad call. I might be kind of shitty at magical combat, but I was especially good at eviscerating. I drew and swung at her guts in a single motion, and she had to change direction mid swing to counter, losing out on a substantial amount of power. The two blades, metal and energy, clashed, and thankfully my King's Sword of Haste held up.

That was where the good news ended however, because being a Greek goddess, Circe had obviously gotten plenty of practice with her blade skills, and she was WAY stronger than I was. Perfect technique was keeping me alive (along with some cheatlike ghostly impact absorbing with my arms) but she was weirdly good with her sword. Probably should have figured that honestly but I hadn't really had time to think about her melee skills.

She flicked my blade aside, abusing her overwhelming strength advantage, and tried to cut my fucking head off, but was forced to divert by a thin blade of softly glowing steel that came darting past her guard to try to spear her in the eye. My eyes widened as I took in the sight of Jim, my mentor who I had never known even owned a sword, standing in a fencing position and holding the a blade with a very familiar hilt. I blinked in dumbfounded amazement for a second. "Wait, it's a fucking CANE SWORD? Why didn't you ever mention that?"

Jim gave a dismissive snort. "My dear boy, I am the Gentleman Ghost. Fencing is the art of Gentlemen. I'm naturally well versed. I simply never bothered to instruct you in this discipline because you insist on swinging around those oafish heavy weapons. It seemed much more appropriate to let a barbarian like Blood teach you the ways of the blade. You lack the sophistication for my methods in this particular aspect of combat I'm afraid." With that statement he launched another attack, and I adjusted swinging my own magically speed enhanced blade at Circe's thigh to open an artery.

Circe never stopped chanting once she regained her rhythm, but she was clearly annoyed. She conjured a second glowing blade and proceeded to single handedly fend off both myself and my ghostly mentor at the same time. I winced, she was actually really good, which I realized should have been obvious since she was millennia old and had met fucking Odysseus, but still, I considered myself a hell of a sword master, no pun intended, at this point, and Jim was fucking GOOD from what I could see, and she was still holding us both off like chumps.

I was starting to panic honestly. Admittedly this could be much worse. Being forced to split her attention and attack with both blades was preventing her from using either sword properly at the very least. No one tells you but dual wielding blades is kind of a messy way to fight. The need to remain balanced and functional with both swords prevents you from putting the proper amount of follow through on swings with either, or committing properly to an attack, and it was all that was saving us right now.

Sadly, it wasn't enough, because our little distraction had stopped working about halfway through the fight and she'd resumed her spell work, which gave all the time she needed to finish the last steps of the ritual. A sound like tearing sheet metal ripped through the air and the blood pool on the other side of the room started to flicker. The glow ramped up and then turned into a vortex of cascading light as a massive white...rip, in reality came into existence behind us. Jim and I disengaged, turning in horror to look at the portal as Circe crowed with triumph. We were too late.

Arkham Asylum December 22nd 2010 12:30 AM EDT

The massive sucking energy vortex in the middle of the room was, unfortunately, a bit distracting as we tried to fight. The Amazon's had been swarming my team and the sidekicks as we fought Circe, but even they were kind of frozen in terror at this point. I was pretty sure, however, that we didn't have much time before everything went to hell again, so I shadow ported over to where the others were fighting. Circe seemed almost hypnotized by the vortex, so we were able to slip away from her to rejoin the others for the moment, though who knew how long that would last.

As I appeared Robin glared at me. "Great work. You murdered a woman and then failed to stop her boss from tearing open a portal to a higher dimension. She's going to kill us all and then go through, and I'm guessing that the portal isn't just going to quietly fade away after she's done. Is there any way we get out of this without all of us dying? Or did your terrible plan already doom the entire city and now we're just enjoying the last act?" I found his voice annoying as fuck and wanted to punch him, but he wasn't wrong. I'd fucked up planning this.

I'd gotten so used to just brute forcing my fights with my powers that I hadn't been selective enough about WHICH powers I'd picked and I'd fucked myself. I looked to Jim, who had teleported over after I did while Circe appeared to continue the ritual. He shook his head. "It isn't over yet. The ascension ritual requires her to go through the portal. The shock wave from the ascension itself will collapse the Labyrinth, which we are technically in right now, and probably most of the city. That said there is another option."

Zee, who had been worrying her bottom lip in thought, suddenly looked like she was hit by a brick. Her eyes widened in shock and she blurted out. "We need to cut off the connection to the Labyrinth and destabilize the portal! If we can do that, when she falls through her destination will be completely random. Even if she ends up on the higher plane she wants she won't be anywhere she'll have made preparations for and without a connection to the rest of the Labyrinth the worst the damage from that would be is Arkham collapsing."

The justice bros looked at her in horror and she held her hands up defensively. "Not saying it's ideal, but if we have to pick between the cesspool of madness and the entire town, I pick Arkham. It might not happen anyway. The portal being unstable means that when she goes through it might be partially closed or closing. The energy feedback from the ascension would still be blaster out but it would at most just blow a big hole in the roof instead of collapsing the whole place." They didn't seem to like that any better but they didn't really have another option so they nodded grudgingly.

Wally, meanwhile, was treating some minor wounds while avoiding looking at Artemis, who looked halfway between wanting to cry and gut someone with a butter knife. I wanted to help, but I figured now wasn't really the time, so I focused on the rest of the team as I checked for any serious injuries. Superboy and Aqualad were fine for the most part, Robin was a bit beat up but ok, Red Arrow had been lightly stabbed, but I didn't like him and he wasn't dying anyway so I didn't care, and Miss Martian was in perfect shape.

With at least some plan in mind and the knowledge that the team at my disposal was operating mostly unchecked I felt much more hopeful. I turned to my girlfriend. "Ok, sever the connection to the Labyrinth, that sounds...not easy but possible at least. Any big ideas on how? Can you use your heavenly punishment lightning to do it?" I didn't remember if that was a secret from the sidekicks but at this point I couldn't afford to care about secrecy. We might all die any minute now wasn't the time to walk on eggshells.

She shook her head. "No, we don't have the output for it. Not to mention out powers COME from the Labyrinth, it would probably just absorb the energy and strengthen the connection. We need something that can hit a large area at once and that has no relation to the Labyrinth itself. Do you have any powers that might work?" I snarled in frustration, my most versatile power was demonic magic but it wasted so many points. Damage on the scale we needed would require much more than the ten thousand points I had.

As for my new abilities, I didn't have anything that would destroy a large area...I froze. I had a basic understanding of my abilities after becoming half ghost, but they were from the email. I did remember something about an ability that might work. I held up a finger. "I might, hold on." I closed my eyes, slipping into the Outer Body trance like I was slipping on a glove. I remembered something in the email about a few different powers, ectoplasmic blasts and intangibility and the usual phantom stuff.

Most importantly to know I remembered mention of a "ghostly wail" that was considered the most dangerous of all my new powers. I didn't know exactly what that meant or why it was considered so powerful but it very obviously did something profound and sound traveled widely. I closed my eyes and did my best to figure out how it would work. I tried imbuing ectoplasm into every part of my body involved in the vocal process. Voice box, throat, I did tried I could one by one until finally I got some kind of response.

I didn't have time to work on training it, once I figured out how to trigger it I had to slip back out of the trance. It would cost me three thousand points to use, but it would have to be enough. I had no clue how powerful the attack would be given the lack of things to destroy in the Outer Body trance, so I just hoped this would be enough to destroy the connection. I turned to look at the others and nodded. "I've got something, but you'll need to have Jim shield the hell out of all of you. This one is going to get a bit loud."

I looked at Zee specifically. "Once we break the link I assume we need to get her through the actual portal by any means necessary? My attack should stagger even her." Zee nodded. I exhaled heavily. "Alright, Zee, Artemis, your heavenly punishment lightning is the only real divine force we have her. It should be able to stun her once my final shot puts her off balance. Swap, once she's stunned I want you to get her into that portal. I'll grab an Amazon to throw in so you can switch her out."

My friends all confirmed their roles and I stepped up. As I did Jim formed a powerful shield around them. Jim's spectral nature should definitely negate some of the damage. Then, I poured three thousand points of ectoplasm into my throat, leaving myself with seven thousand as a cushion, and wailed. The waves of enhanced force billowed out from my mouth, tearing across every surface nearby, and the entire world began to crumble. Stone fractured, columns broke, the ground heaved.

The feeling of using the Ghostly Wail was...indescribable really. I'd barely had time to figure out how to trigger it in the Outer Body trance, and my test version had been pathetically weak and cut off too quickly, but this...this was a flood of ectosplasmic devastation the likes of which I'd never seen. The Labyrinth was a powerful place, one that had it's own rules, and we'd needed something truly brutal to destroy it. Three thousand points of unchecked undead sound was basically everything we could've hoped for and more however.

The longer it went on the more it felt like I was a tube of toothpaste that someone was squeezing really hard from the bottom up. Like every emotion and thought was pouring out of my mouth and mixing with the ectoplasm to create a palpable wave of despair so thick you could fucking see it. The Wail wasn't just a sonic attack, it was concentrated misery too, the physical and the emotional blended together where they met in the afterlife. It washed over everything, and as the stone crumbled, so did the wills of the Amazons.

Even Circe looked seriously off balanced, eyes unfocused as she tried to steady herself, just as I'd been hoping. The girls bolted forward unleashing a burst of powerful purple lightning with everything they had point blanks. Circe's stunned form turned rigid as the electric power of another god locked her muscles. I teleported to the nearest Amazon who was too dazed to stop me and grabbed her, hauling her into the air and racing top speed towards the portal.

Reggie was creeping in closer worried the massive power difference between the two would affect his range. His power normally only worked on mass, but who fucking knew how the sacrifices had changed Circe, so better safe than sorry. He got close enough to the edge just as I released the Amazon over the portal, dropping her into the whirling vortex. Reggie translocated the goddess, and Circe vanished, appearing over the hole in reality while still completely stunned, vanishing inside the gestalt of power beneath me.

I turned to give the others a thumbs up once I saw her go in, and I got relieved smiles from everyone, but then their eyes widened. I looked down and saw the unstable portal fluctuating like it was supposed to, but the edges of the thing started expanding and contracting too rapidly. Artemis and Zee, who had been standing with Circe, were swallowed up by the edge, being sucked right in. My eyes widened in horror as I heard Wally scream in denial and without a second thought I barreled my way in after them.

I heard Reggie and Jim in my head through the stones, telling me not to do it, but I wasn't leaving my girlfriend and best friend trapped in some higher dimensional hell. The shift in the portal meant it had changed destinations from when Circe went in, but I had to get inside before it contracted or I was going to end up somewhere completely different. As I made my way in I saw another shape barrel into the light, and it took me a minute to understand what it was. Wally had jumped in at the same time I had, great minds think alike.

I swept down after him, pushing my wings and my spectral flight together as fast as I could move and breaking the fucking sound barrier, and we just barely made it in. As we went into the portal, I could still see Zee and Artemis falling and I raced after them, grabbing the speedster who was in free fall like they were. I sent back one last message to Jim before I was out of range. "Take care of our families boss, we'll be back."

Then I got close enough to them inside the shifting portal to grab them both before we dissolved into a riot of light and color. The last thought I had as I felt myself stretched like a piece of taffy between two places on opposite ends of creation was how indescribably annoying it was going to be to get home. I was betting I could but a teleportation array or something but it would be so expensive. Oh well, I'd faced worst challenges, at least we were together. That was the last coherent thought I managed before my brain was swallowed by the light.

And so ends the siege arc! Probably not what anyone was expecting but this is going to play into the overarching plot big time in a lot of ways. In any case look forward to the next arc in far off lands, though sadly without some of the members of the team. pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent. Bit of a bonus for my ao3 and ff readers, I have a new YJ story called Greed God that's going to be coming out at the same time as the next update. It's another YJ OC but this one is a pure villain mc and a harem for those interested. My first real attempt at writing an evil (or at least dark grey) character. Same update schedule as this one, and five advance chapters already up on my pat-reon as usual.