The Watchtower:
"Yo B? Star…? Whoa?!"Cyborg exclaims as his eyes fall on the two in the gym, Beastboy struggling with the barbell Starfire was trying to bench press, the princess herself is flushed red in the face from the struggle and from helping Beastboy guiding the barbell back onto the rack over her, neither of them seem to have the strength to get it up to where it needed to be and Cyborg immediately races over to help them. "You two all right?" He asks after getting it in place.
"I am well, thank you." Starfire replies halfheartedly, the strain of the 250kg was not a boost to her spirits, considering the several tons she could lift once without strain.
"Fine, thanks Cy." Beastboy pants as Starfire gets up and walks over to the wall of mirrors to regard herself for a second, which seems to lower her spirit even more before walking out with a sigh and slumped shoulders.
"Was she supposed to lift this?" Cyborg mutters to his green friend.
"Only a hundred, according to Rob's program, but she insisted." Beastboy whispers back.
"Gar…" Cyborg shakes his head at him.
"She needs a boost to her confidence Cy, every time she looks in the mirror I can see it disappear from her. I thought if she could lift this even once, it would help." Beastboy replies.
"I know what you mean, but don't do it like this, had she dropped it on herself it would be even lower." Cyborg replies. "I know you mean well, but it will take months for her to regain her old shape."
"I know, but she really feels like she is in the way up here, what do you want me to do?" Garfield sighs.
"Stick her to Rob's program and cheer her on, compliment her, make her feel like she is doing well." Cyborg says while patting Garfield on the shoulder. "If she doesn't feel like it, try and lure her to do it anyway, and then compliment her, if that fails, order her to do it if you think it will help. You can always join in alongside her." He adds.
"Vic, you sound like Rae." Beastboy notes at the sudden stream of words Cyborg had sprouted as if he had come prepared with them in mind.
"Sports psychology Greenbean, studied it before the accident." Victor mentions with a smile. "Now, go get her back in here." He says with a smile, Garfield just smiles back and races out the room.
"Hey Star, come back, we aren't done yet!" He yells after her, almost colliding with Donna, wearing a black sports top and a pair of gray training pants and white sneakers, on the way out.
"Where's the fire?" She asks with a smile looking after the changeling.
"Starfire needs to build up her confidence along with her body, the two influence one another." Cyborg mentions, it was actually only Richards theory it was like that, but it made sense with her powers fluctuating with her mood. "Anyone ever tell you look a lot like Diana?"
"All the time." Donna says with a smirk. "I'm sorry we haven't been introduced, I'm Donna Troy." She says as she extends a hand to him which he takes.
"Pleasure to meet you, Victor Stone or as most people call me; Cyborg." He replies, though he has a hunch she already knew that.
"So, are here for training yourself? I could use a sparring partner." Donna says as Beastboy leads Starfire back into the gym by the hand.
"Sure, gives me a chance to keep an eye on those two." Victor replies with a smile.
Wayne Manor, late in the afternoon on the day Raven gave her presentation:
"Long day Master Richard?" Alfred asks as Richard enters the kitchen and promptly places his forehead on the counter after sitting down.
"You have no idea how boring those meetings are." Richard sighs without looking up, he feels tired in a way he rarely was, not because he had done a lot of physical activity, the kind where his body just thought he was getting ready to sleep because of the lack of activity.
"At least you weren't about to burst into flame or jump out the window in a self-induced panic." Raven says as she enters the room from a door leading into the garage, wearing a black training set. "How'd it go?" She asks after sitting down next to him.
"Don't sweat it, you did fine, they've agreed to 'test the water', as they call it when they approach some of the more sympathetic members of LexCorp's board and brings up the subject." Richard says while keeping his head on the counter.
"Why so glum then?" Raven asks, internally relieved she hadn't drenched the shirt needlessly.
"You wouldn't believe how boring it can get when their talks drift off into subjects like boats, fishing and wine brands." He says. "When they weren't trying to figure out your skin color that is." He adds.
"Well, thank Azar, I thought I was becoming invisible." Raven replies sarcastically. "Do you think they know?" She asks.
"Who you are? No, these people read Forbes and the Financial Times, they don't care about superheroes when they aren't in front of them and even then they don't know who it is half the time. I told them you had a rare case of albinism and colored your hair. Has Bruce said anything about it?"
"No, he's been quiet most of the day thankfully." Raven sighs, wondering why he had not said anything about the presentation.
"Busy with the others?"
"I know he's been keeping an eye out, but they have remained mostly quiet today. Bruce has been in Knowledge's realm after I left the boardroom, been reading ever since he got there." She says and Alfred looks up from his dishes.
"Peculiar, Master Bruce rarely reads anything thicker than the daily paper or case documents." Alfred says. "Has he become bored?"
"Anything interesting?" Richard asks.
"Can't say what he's reading, while I know where he is and what he is doing, I don't know what book he is reading unless I go in and look." Raven replies.
"How about you?" Richard asks, finally picking his head off the tiled counter, leaving a cross mark on his forehead from the tiles, Raven just stares at it.
"Meditation after a shower; I was down to see what was parked in the garage." Raven says. "It's an expensive collection you have." She could tell when the cars stopped being for Bruce Wayne's use and started becoming intended for undercover work simply by their state and what kind they were. It also gave her the chance to have a look at the huge Maybach limousine that Alfred would chauffeur Bruce around in, which resulted in another comment about how that single car probably cost more than the combined apartments of the other Leaguers.
"Thanks, it's mostly Bruce's." Richard notes. "Said he wanted at least one privilege over me."
"Funny." Raven replies flatly at his smirk. "So what are we having tonight?" She asks Alfred
"Sandwiches due to the time constraints." Alfred replies ruefully as he finishes the last of the dishes.
Like comparing the sandwiches to Alfred's true culinary capabilities, the nightly patrol proves largely uneventful, with Raven only breaking up a fight outside a bar, Richard grabs a single burglar and Tim getting the drop on three separate muggers and a possible rapist before they called it a night. Since heavy rain is pouring down, even most of the criminal elements seemed to prefer to stay indoors.
The following day is mostly uneventful, Raven spends it mostly meditating to prepare herself for the evening, when asked why she did it in advance, she replied she is already annoyed with the one she is meeting, from several hundreds of miles away and she has a feeling he will get worse when she meets him in person.
"So you think that is appropriate?" Richard asks as Raven walks down the stairs, getting ready to leave for New Orleans. She is wearing a long black satin dress that only leaves her bare toes visible along with her shoulders and arms, with two spaghetti straps going over her shoulders before crossing each other at the back of her neck.
"No idea, this was the best I could find in case I have to grow wings." Raven replies casually, she would admit the dress from Themyscira would be better suited, but that was ruined.
"Ok, good luck I guess, and try not to blow up an island this time." He says with a smirk.
"Will do and I will try." Raven says giving him a smirk before she teleports away.
"Wonderful, it's Friday night." She notes as she appears above the rooftops of Bourbon Street, New Orleans.
The street beneath her is filled with people, all either singing, dancing and drinking like there is no tomorrow or standing in lines to get to do any of those activities.
"Reminds me of Thanagar after a successful battle." Shayera mentions.
"Doubt any of them can defend themselves even when sober."Raven replies as she lands in an alley.
"Do you know where you are going?" John asks.
"Up that street and around the corner." Raven sends back as she walks calmly towards her goal, to her senses, the smell of magic is almost overbearing. On her way to her destination she has to trip one drunken youth who thought she would make good company, his friends only laughed at him for being clumsy. "And here we are." She sends as she turns the corner, spotting the bar with the huge red neon letters spelling DIS in bold letters over the entrance.
Beside the door stands a huge white man with sunglasses, a shaved head and an open leather jacket that reveals the white shirt underneath. Besides he is a long line of people, all young, most of them drunk, all waiting to get in, which makes Raven wonder if it is by design or just accident she can't see any Invites Only signs.
"This will take hours." Raven grumbles, as she steps into the street, fearing she'd have to wait in the queue with the others. The doorman however seems to notice her immediately and waves her over. "Maybe not." She continues as she changes course, heading directly for the door, getting a host of catcalls and complaints thrown at her. As she comes closer, a half-full plastic cup splashes down right in front of her, soaking the lower part of her dress and feet in the spilled contents. Raven looks up in surprise and sudden anger the direction from where the cup came from.
"HEY FUCK YOU! WE'VE BEEN WAITING HERE AN HOUR!" A drunk, redheaded girl yells, before the doorman stands before her, she doesn't get the chance to say anything before he grabs her arm and drags her out of the cue before pushing her in the direction of the main street.
"We don't server to troublemakers like you." He grumbles before turning to her friends, two boys with black hair and a blond girl. "Any of you wanna start some?" He growls menacingly.
"No, sir…" One of the boys peeps before stepping out the line, followed swiftly by the two other who join the redhead. The doorman stares after them till they are out of sight before turning to face Raven again.
"Our apologies for the behavior Miss, please enter Dis." He says as he motions for her to enter the building that has a red glow coming from the door.
"Thank you." Raven replies before entering, finding a fine, rug covered, staircase leading into the basement, the red light proves to be a lamp with a red bulb.
"Was it just me or did he seem a little odd?" Superman asks, Raven guesses he caught the flash of red behind the sunglasses, or they were beginning to see the world as she saw it.
"He would, it was a rhymer demon, same class that Etrigan belongs to, only that one is hiding in plain sight." Raven replies.
"How could you tell? He didn't rhyme." Shayera asks.
"The way he read to me. And it's an old term, most of the older and more powerful ones can avoid it." Raven replies as she turns the second corner, emerging into a setting she did not expect.
To her left is a long line of tall round seats in front of a long bar desk of black painted wood that reaches half way down the room with a line of dimmed light half way between the mirror-surfaced desk and the ground. It gives way at the far end too; a currently empty, dance floor and the slightly raised stage area at the far wall. In the far left corner is the source of music; a lone man with blond hair dressed in a fine black dinner suit playing a piano with his eyes closed, completely unaware of the world around him while playing a slow jazz tune. To her right is a line of tables with surrounding tall black leather couches fixed to the wall and the ground, each table giving seated parties' privacy. The last table towards the stage only has half the seats the five other tables have, leaving a clear view of the stage.
While the room looks normal enough, Raven is more surprised that none of the people inside are completely human, some not at all, as her senses can detect magic on most of them. To her, only the piano player seems to be a normal human, but Raven somehow finds that incredibly suspicious in itself. Other than that, the bar is only half full, which seems odd considering the line of people outside waiting to get in.
She walks over to the bar desk, where she is quickly met by the tall dark-haired woman that hides the right half of her stern face behind a featureless white mask, through Raven can see what appears to be a lot of scar issue hidden beneath it.
"What'll it be sugar?" The bartender asks with a southern accent.
"I'm looking for Sam, I have an appointment." Raven replies flatly.
"Huh, so you're the bitch? Eyes on the piano." She huffs before returning to the other customers.
"That was rude?" Wally notes.
"Her name is Mazikeen, closest thing Lucifer has to a partner if that book I once read holds true." Raven says as she walks up to stand at the last table, watching Sam while he plays. "She would be quite protective of him."
"Not exactly what I expected." Shayera notes after a moment as Raven watches the blond man in the dark suit play on.
"And what did you expect Thanagarian? Curled horns and cloven feet?" Sam smirks without looking up from his playing, he sounded more amused than annoyed. Raven has the image of Shayera quickly covering her mouth with a hand. Sam plays on for a few more minutes before finishing, getting applauded by everyone as he stands up, even Raven who has no idea if he was doing it well or not.
"Thank you, you are too kind. I'm terrible, really." He says the last part with a smirk that Raven can't avoid noticing sends a tickle of fear thought most of the patrons as if he was daring them to agree with him. "Now, a pleasure to meet you Raven." Says while taking her hand and kisses it once, Raven can feel a pang of anger coming from the bar. "It is not often we have royal visits, please, have a seat." He says motioning at the enclosed table next to the one closest to the stage, Raven sits down with her back to it and he sits down opposite her. "Now I hear you are in a bit of a pickle, or rather that crowd in that head of yours is." He says.
"I take it you already know what I will ask of you?" Raven replies.
"Of course. But before we discuss that, Mekela!" He turns putting two fingers into the air as he looks at the woman behind the bar, another spark of anger. 'Mekela' pours two glasses of brandy and adds some ice before they float through the air over to their table, with Sam's landing neatly in his hand, Raven's spills a little as it hits the table. "Cheers." He says raising his glass, Raven eyes her drink for a second before raising it as well.
"Cheers." She says as they both take a sip. "So?"
"Well; why I should?" Sam says while that smirk appears again, which bothers her, because he is totally unreadable to her empathic senses, but his body language seemed to suggest he was amusing himself.
"Would you miss one terribly?" Raven counters.
"Perhaps I would?" He continues, still smirking. "But perhaps you can convince me to let you try and have one?" Raven eyes him for a second.
"A test within a test?" She asks reminding herself that she still didn't know what he meant when asking her to come dressed accordingly.
"Not at all, through simple conversation and my personal entertainment. And I will tell you why, look." He says before leaning out to face the bar and the other patrons again. "SPITLICKERS!" He yells suddenly, making them jump and one man jumps clear off his seat and falls onto the floor and the others nervously turn to regard Sam who just turns away from them having proven his own point. "See that? Most of them that come here act like that, it's annoying, I left Hell over a decade ago and they still act like in the old days." He sighs.
"Considering who you are?" Raven asks, she wasn't sure she'd have reacted any different if she had any length of experience of Lucifer when he ruled Hell.
"I hate stereotypes and I hate being seen as one." He replies and puts on a disapproving face. "Everyone assumes I'm the grandest evil to ever walk the cosmos, that I'm the great destroyer, that I will lie, make deals simply to get people's souls and occasionally set kittens on fire. But you know what?!" He asks briskly as if he was about to lose his temper.
"What?" Raven asks keeping calm, wondering where he was heading, if anywhere.
"It's all lies, started by… ding ding ding." He says the last part while pointing into the air.
"God lies?" Raven asks raising an eyebrow as she guesses who he was referring to.
"Of course it does, it proclaimed victory in a battle that never happened, so it wrote a book where I ended up the bad guy, mainly because I didn't give a damn. Of course when I had gotten settled down below, the PR war was long lost." He finishes by downing the rest of his glass.
"And the whole rebellion in Heaven and the fire pits down below?" Raven asks.
"All planned and sanctioned. Look at it this way, it is written that all rebellion against Jehovah is blasphemy but it is also written that everything happens because Jehovah guides it to do so. See where I am going?"
"God had told you to rebel or… leave." Raven says. "And those who followed you?
"Bingo, you are clever." He says, smirking again while she can't help but think he was actually insulting her. "The others… well lets just say some had grand ideas of their own but not enough balls to be the first to voice them, some however I just tested for the fun of it." He replies with a smirk. "Now back to the point, you saw how most of them reacted when I yelled? Why didn't you, since you know who I am as well as they do?"
"I threw out all presumptions I had about you when I was told that you ran a bar in New Orleans, but I will say I didn't believe you were actually real until recently, thought it was impossible to unite Hell they way you did." He appears to smirk in satisfaction at his, making her quickly wonder if denial of his existence was actually a trick he pulled. "And since someone called Neron rules the Greater Hell to my best knowledge." He pulls a face at the mention.
"Hate that guy; he's the poster boy to the stuff they keep blaming me for, he's the actual Prince of Lies you know? But thank you for at least trying to be open minded." He replies.
"No problem." Raven says with taking another sip. "Can I ask why you asked me to dress; accordingly?" He chuckles slightly at this.
"Merely to see what you would think was appropriate." He replies.
"So anything would have been appropriate?" Raven asks while nodding, it had just been a test that would do nothing but provide him with some amusement.
"Yup, while I don't steal souls from people, I do enjoy leading them astray into damnation." He says without batting an eye. "Actually that's one of the old things that's actually true about me; manipulation. I bet you are wondering why this state is not a battlefield with winged crusaders trying to smite me?"
"I wonder if the Spectre hasn't been by at some point?" Raven counters.
"Oh we've met eons ago, he just needed to stand in front of me to see he didn't have anything on me, not that he can touch me even if there was." He smirks in satisfaction. "Anyways, once or twice a year, to you that is, some hotshot from above tries to rally and army to get rid of me, I usually counter such bores by letting some information slip out or something that takes them somewhere else, not always pleasant places mind you." He says.
"Don't they ever get close?" She asks, knowing even the greatest of manipulators could fail if the target was unwilling to act as dictated.
"Once or twice, burned down Lux, my previous establishment in Los Angeles when I wasn't home. Heard firefighters found two bodies in the fire, not sure who's, human authorities couldn't identify them guessing it was me and Mekela, so we moved here instead. Now back to the appropriate dress, funny thing, a renegade succubus once wanted to ask me for a favor and she arrived in her underwear and a choke collar with a leash."
"I take it Mekela wasn't too happy about that." Raven notes, guessing anything female within 50 feet of Lucifer was considered a potential rival in Mazikeen's eyes.
"No, but it was hilarious since I asked her to go get something for me on the other side of town in that getup, no magic, no help and nothing to cover her up and very little confidence to begin with. When she got back she was ready to cry and go hide under a box for a year."
"A bit mean, wasn't it?"
"Of course, but I had fun. Mekela another!" He shouts, and another pang of anger comes from the bar.
"You are doing this to annoy her aren't you?" Raven asks.
"Of course, it's the reason why I asked you to come alone, not that I couldn't infuriate her with the Amazon or the party magician along with you, but you do have my genuine interest." He replies as another brandy sails over.
"Oh?" Raven asks, hiding her own amusement at the thought of Philipus sitting here, she'd be even more out of her element than Raven is. A small part of her does however find it a bit worrying that she was considered interesting in the eyes of Lucifer and she wasn't sure she wanted to know why.
"Well, the people in your head also have some interesting thoughts going through their heads." He says still keeping up the smirk.
"You're reading my mind and theirs." Raven grumbles.
"Of course, how else do you think I push people in the right direction? Oh and mind you, I am still the first bastard ever." He says before taking a sip, something Raven does as well.
"Suddenly I understand why none of your staff has held employ for too long." He just laughs at the deduction.
"Clever, clever, but true." He says with a broadening smile. "You know, some of them I just hire to see how long they will put up with me." Raven just humors him with a smirk. "Now then, enough about me, let's talk about you? Oh and this part is private." He says as Raven can feel the others suddenly lose sight, sound and the other sense she had granted them, there are a few protests. "I wonder how you shower with a group of men looking out your eyes? Secret narcissism perhaps?"
"Like you just did, I take away their sight." Raven replies suddenly feeling a little exposed all of a sudden.
"Not that Diana doesn't know what hides beneath your clothes." He notes offhandedly. "Such a lovely memory, kinky too. So, first embarrassing question of the night is; will tying you up become something regular in your love life?" He asks with a wicked smirk, Raven's face just flushes instantly.
"I… don't know." She sighs, a part of her was screaming at her to lie or to shut up, but Knowledge had concluded Sam already knew everything about her; he just wanted her to admit it. "Not like I have more than that one time to go on."
"Was it unpleasant having thrown all cares out the window and just lie back and relax?" He asks, Raven thinks for a second, fearing he would dance around this one subject all night.
"No." She admits.
"Excellent, I can tell you will be a good wife one day." He says with a laugh. "Now then, besides the Princess, who has your eye?" He asks while a glint appears in his eyes, Raven just downs her drink.
Meanwhile, in the Batcave:
"May I ask what has you so fully engrossed, that you have let Master Tim handle the city alone?" Alfred asks as he brings down a glass of water to the younger man seated at the computer.
"Had a strange feeling about that place Raven is visiting." Richard replies as he brings up several pages. "Look, first of all there is no record of the owner ever applying to the city planners about opening his business." He says pointing at a row of documents that scroll over in one window that was missing the one he was looking for. "Secondly, no official branch of the city has ever visited. And no contractors seem to have been contacted to work there. And it gets weirder, there are no tax records on the place or any of its employees. It's like the place is just there and no one cares or knows."
"The owner, being magical in nature, may wish it so?" Alfred suggests.
"Even Fate pays taxes." Richard mentions dryly, he also knew Kent Nelson was an expensive man to hire for his expertise within a number of areas such as archeology, ancient languages and such. "Now the weirdest part; these two, Sam Ale and Mekela Travish, there is absolutely nothing solid on either of them, no birth dates, no school records, no medical records, not even a social security number, it's like they just popped out of nowhere a few years ago and settled down. I don't know, but I have a very bad feeling about that." Alfred just raises an eyebrow shortly, unseen to Richard before putting down the glass.
"Miss Raven divulged the possible true identity of the man to me, perhaps this will aid you." Alfred says before taking over the cursor and clicks on Sam's name box before rearranging the last two letters and removes the space between the two names spelling; Samael. "I believe you might be more successful in your search for him now Sir." Alfred says before leaving. "But I might suggest you sit this one out?" He says over his shoulder before walking up the stairs, knowing Richard would have left when he worked it out.
Richard stares at the name for a second before running the inquiry, his eyes grow wide at the information he receives from the League's databases, he doesn't think for a second about the consequences before he leaps down onto one of the lower platforms and continues moving till he lands in the jet's cockpit. Two minutes later he is airborne, blasting out over the Gotham Bay.
"I am not going to let you make a deal with the Devil Rae, no way in hell!" He swears as he points the jet in the right direction and blasts off into the night.
Authors Notes: As (a guest) pointed out, Raven is not arriving during the Madi Gras, but rather a regular Friday night (possibly ramped up a bit in regards to how wild the nightlife is).