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Mallory had been out of school for nearly a week when the League finally called its first meeting since Jason's death. She was in Keystone, joining in a belated birthday celebration for Jay Garrick with the Flash family. She and Artemis sat with Iris while Wally goodnaturedly took the teasing from Jay and Barry about how out of shape he was after taking ten full seconds to go to the store and back. When the call came through, though, the joking stopped, and Mallory and Barry stood immediately to go.
"Hope it's nothing serious," Wally's mom mentioned, looking at the Leaguers with concern.
Mallory flashed her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Huh, I remember when my Jay used to say that to me before he went to meet his super hero friends for some crisis or another," Joan said.
Barry laughed and gave the older lady a hug. "Don't worry, we'll be back in a flash," he said. Mallory and Wally exchanged an eye roll, and Barry cocked his head to the side. "If you say one word, you can find your own ride," he warned jokingly.
Mallory chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't say anything, did I?"
He shook his head and scooped her up, running them to a zeta tube. They were in the watchtower in less than two seconds flat. Barry let the pyrokinetic down and they changed into their costumes, Barry's coming out of his ring and Mallory burning her civies off to reveal her uniform underneath. Zatanna was the only other person there, so Mallory went over to her to see if she knew anything.
The magician shook her head at the question. "No, nothing. I've been on monitor duty since this morning, there haven't been any disturbances."
More Leaguers started arriving, and Mallory said, "Well, we'll find out soon enough."
The girls found their seats as the last few League members arrived. Batman and Superman's chairs were still empty, which was strange. Of course, no one really expected Batman to be there, but Superman was the one who had called the meeting, so his absence felt off, and Mallory could feel her colleagues shifting in their seats, not knowing if they should talk about it or just wait. They didn't have long to decide, however, as a moment later Clark came in through the hall that led to the lab.
"Oh, good, everyone's here," he said, more to himself than to the others. He walked over to the table and took his seat. "We have quite a few things to discuss," Superman started.
"Then let's get down to business," an all too familiar voice said from the doorway. The Leaguers turned simultaneously to see Batman standing there, stoic as ever. He strode over to the table and sat down as calmly as ever. Flash leaned forward. "Uh, Bats, I'm so sorry about-" he started, but Batman cut him off with a glare. "The first thing we need to discuss is the drop in hero activity," he started, making it clear that the subject was completely off the table. The others looked at each other, and then they all seemed to square their shoulders and become all business.
"I think we can take care of that. There doesn't seem to be much of a crime response to it," John Stuart said.
Batman nodded, and he pulled up a holographic screen in the middle of the table. It had several assignments across the country and beyond. So many that Mallory wondered briefly if they even had enough members to cover them all. "I've looked into all of these cases thoroughly, and I think they all merit League intervention," Batman said.
Diana nodded. "Yes, I have looked into some of them as well. I was going to bring the wildfires and the smuggling problem up myself."
"What are all of the other ones?" Hawkman asked.
Batman scrolled through them, pulling out the ones that he deemed most important. "As Wonder Woman pointed out, there is a rise in arms smuggling recently. I was able to pinpoint it to one gang that has been expanding its ranks in the last three months. I want a team to go down there and investigate and cooperate with the local and national authorities in a sting operation."
"I believe that Rocket and I might be able to help with that," Icon said. "My firm has been watching this case closely, and the authorities are close to moving in. All they need is a name and an exact location."
Batman nodded and swiped the case off the table, sending it to Icon and Rocket's personal screens. Mallory glanced over at her friend as she scanned the case file.
"The next case I think should be addressed is the wildfires in Australia. They have been going on for almost a week now, it's past time that we send some help," Superman said. Mallory sighed, knowing what was coming. Sure enough, the Man of Steel said, "For this, I'm sure that Inferno and Flash can take care of it."
Mallory nodded. "Sure. It'll be nice to have some help this time."
"Actually, there is another case that the Flash will be needed for," Batman said.
Zatanna glanced up. "I can go with her. I may not be much help with putting the fires out, but they're going to need help with the evacuations and damage control."
Batman glanced through the remainder of the cases, then nodded. "That's fine. If it is too much to handle, you can call in for some backup." The girls nodded.
"Why don't you get going now? With a fire this size, there's no time to waste," Clark suggested. Mallory looked to Batman for an OK, and he nodded.
"I'll come give you a hand if I have time," Superman promised as Mallory and Zatanna made their way to the zeta tube. They could hear Batman continuing to issue orders as the zeta tube whirred to life and the light sucked them back towards Earth.
"That wasn't bad," Mallory mentioned as the girls flew/levitated to the site of the fires after zetaing to the general area. Zatanna murmured a non committing "hmm."
"What's wrong?" Mallory asked.
The magician shrugged, a distracted look on her face. "Batman. It's only been three weeks, and he's already back to business."
"You're assuming that he left in the first place," Mallory muttered.
"Inferno!" Zatanna said sharply, and Mallory put her hands up.
"Z, honest, I'm not putting him down, but you saw all those case studies he had today. It would take days to do all the research he had on just one of them, and there were at least twenty."
"So, you don't think he grieved at all?" Zatanna asked.
Mallory pursed her lips, wanting to word her next sentence carefully. "No, that's not what I mean," she said. She thought about how stoic Batman had remained through all of the hard times they'd seen. "I just think his work is how he copes with things. Remember when Red left, and Aquagirl died? And when Nightwing left Gotham? Every time something bad happened, the team would get more missions. I remember Nightwing told me once about how hard it is for him to sleep. Well, it must be so much worse for Batman. We haven't seen a fraction of the dark, twisted stuff he has. And he's got to be feeling all of the anger and pain that we're feeling a hundred times worse. Robin was his son, and he's the one who brought him into this life."
Zatanna was nodding slowly. By now, they were close enough to the fire to start seeing the evacuation efforts and the firemen spraying water, their efforts no better than putting out a bonfire with a thimble. "Go, I'll see what the authorities need on the ground," Zatanna said.
Mallory nodded and flew towards the front lines. "Hey, need a hand?" she asked.
One of the teams looked up, and their captain nodded grimly. "Appreciate the assistance, mate!" he yelled over the roar of the flames.
Mallory smiled and nodded, and she disappeared into the inferno. It was too much for her to control all at once, but she could put the flames out little by little. She gathered as much of the fire as she could around her and flew straight up. The effect looked like a second sun in the sky. She dispersed the flames in the air, allowing them to die out on their own, and descended back into the blaze.
She worked for three days before she had the fire down enough to allow herself more than quick food and water breaks. She came out and sank to the ground, accepting the water and food that one of the volunteers gave her and resting her head on the side of one of the fire engines that was parked further away from the flames, long since abandoned for lack of people to man them all. Zatanna wasn't far away, taking a break from helping protect the cars going through the fire to evacuate.
"This is going to take forever," Mallory said when the magician sat down next to her.
"You made a good dent in it," Zatanna said encouragingly.
Mallory shrugged and looked at her work. The fire was back a good twenty acres. The scorched ground between them and the fire was still smoldering, but the firemen were getting it soaked well. "How's the evacuation going?" she asked.
Zatanna shrugged, looking over. "I think we got most of the people out. The authorities are still working on it. They told me to take a break when the last shifts changed."
Mallory nodded and took another swig from her water bottle. She was wondering why none of the other League members had come to help yet, but she was too tired to voice the observation.
"Well, looks like someone's runnin into the ground," someone said above them. The girls looked up to see John Constantine's smug face staring back at them, his hands in his coat pockets.
"John! How did you know I was here?" Zatanna asked.
He shrugged. "Oh, just a little secret of mine. I'll let you in on it if you stop fighting a losing battle and come to Africa with me."
"Africa?"
"Yes, there's a certain witch doctor there I need to pay a visit to, and I thought you'd want to come along for the ride."
"John, I can't just leave, I have a job to do," Zatanna said firmly.
"Oh, come on. Leave the fire girl here, how much more help can you really be with this?" John argued.
Mallory narrowed her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. "She already gave you an answer. Now, if you'll excuse me, the fire girl has a losing battle to get back to."
John tilted his head at Zatanna as Mallory walked off. "Sorry, John, but I can't go anywhere until this fire is out," Zatanna told him firmly. "If you want me to leave sooner, you could always give us a hand."
She had just turned to follow Mallory towards the fire when John grunted in frustration and said, "fine." The girls turned to see him hold up a hand.
"What are you doing?" Mallory asked.
"Helping. Of course, if you'd rather spent the next month trying to put this out on your own, then be my guest," he said.
Mallory looked back at the fire, and for a split second she saw something, a reflection in the sky, the movement of a cloud. To anyone else, it wouldn't have even been worth noting, but to her and Zatanna, it was a significant detail that they were very familiar with. "Camouflage," Mallory murmured, not taking her eyes off the slight movement.
Whatever it was landed on top of the fire, smothering at least half of the flames. It stayed a moment, then moved to land on top of the rest of the flames, smothering the worst of it. Mallory flew over to the isolated spots where smaller fires persisted, snuffing out their life before they could regain their strength. The firemen moved in, hurrying to wet down the earth to keep the fire from springing back up.
"Thanks a lot. Couldn't have done it without you," the captain told Mallory. She nodded distractedly.
"Do you need anything else?" Zatanna asked from behind her, levitating on a holographic platform.
"I think we can handle it from here. Thanks again, you have no idea how much you've saved today."
The girls nodded, and they went back to the campsite where John was waiting for them.
"Well, now that that's settled, can we go, Z?"
Zatanna shrugged and looked at Mallory. "Want to?" she asked.
"Wait, who said anything about the fire girl coming along?" Constantine asked.
Zatanna crossed her arms and smiled. "I did. Didn't you recognize my voice?"
Mallory bit back a smile at John's frustrated face, and finally he raked a hand through his hair and sighed dramatically. "Fine, but if she's coming, she's going to have to lend a hand, and the same rules apply: I call the shots, and you don't question what I do." Mallory nodded, and he started walking towards the scorched earth. "So, what is that thing?" she asked.
"You can see it?" John asked, a little surprised.
"A little. We've had plenty of practice with Martian camouflage," Zatanna told him.
"Well, this isn't Martian camouflage, luv. It's-"
"Magic," Zatanna finished for him. "But wait, you didn't tell me how you knew I was here. Did you use a locator spell or something?"
John smiled a little. "No, I watched the news," he said as the door opened, and he stood to the side, ushering them in. They walked in slowly, looking around as they entered. It looked like a normal house, a little dim, but pretty much what Mallory expected of John Constantine's place. The door shut behind them and John led the way down a hall.
"Make yourselves at home, if you can," he said, opening a door into what seemed to be a library.
The girls walked around, looking at the relics and books on the shelves. Zatanna tried to pick something up to look at it closer, and her hand went right through it.
"Don't worry about that, luv. The house keeps everything just out of focus, so that I'm the only one who can access it. It helps with the thieves. Well, that and the house's security program. So look around all you want, just don't go wandering off and get yourselves lost." John went into the next room, and the girls followed slowly, taking everything in. In the next room, a large, open room with seating and a small bookshelf in the corner, there was a relic that looked identical to one of the ones Mallory had been looking at in the last room. She glanced through the doorway and her eyes widened with surprise and confusion. The room was no longer the library that they'd been looking around in, now it was a largely empty room with just some tables set up around the walls and a circle rug in the center.
"Uh, John?" Mallory said, not even sure how to phrase the question of what had happened.
John looked at her bordely. "Oh, that. The house also moves around a bit. No one can enter the same room twice."
"The house does all this?" Mallory asked.
"Oh, right," John said, and he spread his arms wide, like he was going to take a bow and decided not to. "Allow me to introduce the House of Mystery. It's sentient, supposedly the spirit of Cain resides in it, or some such rubbish. It keeps out intruders and makes sure that none of my guests nick any of the relics that come into my possession."
"The House of Mystery?" Zatanna repeated in amazement.
"Well, I see you've heard of it, at least," John said, falling into one of the chairs.
"Of course I have. The House of Mystery and the House of Secrets, told to host the spirits of Cain and Able, the first murderer and the first victim. There isn't a magic user in the world who hasn't heard of them. But tell me, how did it come into your possession?"
At this, John allowed a small smile. "I won it in a poker game. Beat out Father Time and Doctor Occult with a royal flush. That was a good day."
Zatanna rolled her eyes and shook her head at Mallory's questioning look. "Ok, well, who's this guy we're going to see?" Mallory asked.
"Oh, just a witch doctor named Voodoo that I have some business with. He used a boy as a container for a demonic spirit, took me days to find out what it was and how to get it out. I'm going to put him out of commission, and I thought some backup might be advisable."
"How powerful is he?" Zatanna asked.
"He's not, but he has some–unique friends."
"Great. How long is it going to take us to get there?" Mallory asked.
"Oh, we're already here, luv, I was just giving you two a breather."