[08th November 2010]

[Watchtower, Low Earth Orbit]

"I'm afraid we may have much to discuss, and time has been unfortunately limited for us to discuss it as a full meeting till now" the Batman began as stoically as ever Oliver noted though he himself couldn't help but give a tired chuckle with forced humor at the whole thing. It'd been a series of long highly stressful days after all and reminding themselves of that fact was, while necessary, somewhat disheartening as well.

"Yeah, who knew babysitting Gods while they partied could be so time-consuming and tiring?"

A swift hidden kick under the table followed from Dinah it seemed as she gave the briefest of glances in annoyance at him from where she sat beside him. Still he had to make some sort of effort to clear away the rather dreary feeling of this place right now, and what he himself felt inside as well. Wonder Woman across from them gave an almost bewildered faint smile at him, while Flash gave an amused chuckle of his own even if he sounded the faintest hint unhappiness beneath it all to Oliver's ear.

"Oh and don't forget The Devil as well, the actual real-life one...who is evidently retired, and now runs a wine bar in the more upscale part of Los Angeles!"

'Yes...and that's not even the most absurd part of all of the past few days' Oliver admitted to himself still glad he was an atheist. Just because these supernatural beings had proved themselves to exist in some manner didn't mean that one Oliver Queen would have to believe in their mystical voodoo. The past few days done little to improve his view that such religious blather was anything more than just a mask; super-powered beings that had managed to convince people they were more than they actually were, and then tricked or demanded worship from them afterwards...

"A Piano-bar"

Oliver blinked and beat Flash to the response to Batman's 'I'm correcting you' tone "Sorry, what?"

"Lucifer Morningstar currently runs a Piano bar with attached nightclub called the Lux, Police presence outside of the establishment remains heavy, and there were a number of incidents outside of the building till just before opening hours today when they stopped"

Oh, that didn't sound good... "Stopped?"

Superman frowned looking deeply unhappy. Unsurprising really him being a fairly devout Christian as best Oliver could tell over the years and had been on 'Watch the Devil for Threats' detail since the great giant divine kegger that had followed his 'save all the children in the world' actions. Something that had thrown the world into deep, deep, confusion...and anger in some cases as the depressing evil in the souls of humanity came to fore once again in his view. There'd been dozens of attempts to kill so-called Devilspawn since. The Upheaval...or what those people would have called their children mere days before, and what's a few of those saved had been killed hours afterward in yet another confirmation that religion was the opiate of the people in the most terrible of ways.

"After someone threw a stone through a window...all the protestors vanished after he appeared outside and reprimanded them for damaging other peoples place of business. Then they reappeared in a field in Kansas, while their clothing and anything on them turned up outside a charity centre not too far away from the in a giant dumpster. All while Giovanni and I were told, very politely, that no one had been harmed and to stay off his lawn...if we knew what was good for us"

'Ah...and therein lays the problem' Oliver knew saying nothing as the table began to debate that situation and how to respond to it. For the first time many of his more powerful colleagues had come face to face against a being far more powerful than themselves, than the whole Justice League really, and were now rather flummoxed on how to handle that.

Overnight the order of the world had been overturned and now that the shock was wearing off, people were starting to ask questions. Ones that the United Nations was turning to Justice League to give answers for, and causing national governments to stare enviously at this new organisation that the British and Irish governments had setup. Which he really had to bring up as his colleagues got a little caught up in the minutiae of one of the problems...

"Aren't we all getting a little side-tracked on specific problems rather than the larger picture?" he asked as he noted the Bat-glare managing to quieten down some of the others so they could get back on track a little "...such as the super-secret organisation of magic users that just became public, that had one of its members on the team with our side-kicks, and...oh...summoned a small army of mystically powerful creatures, a couple of former, and not so former, super-villains while its youth team rather swiftly got ours to act as its minions. Something that's blown their secrecy, and that of the Sanctuary as well, in the process!"

'And perhaps lost me, us, young Artemis as well perhaps considering her unwillingness to speak to me or Batman since the sixth...' he admitted to himself but didn't say '...some mentor you are Ollie. Every one you train just wants to get away from you once they get to know you'

"Yes, I believe Green Arrow is correct, as we've admitted there is little we can currently do for each of those cases, so better to focus on handling the fallout of this SHIELD organisation..." Wonder Woman agreed nodding at him and then at the black-cowled man "...indeed the fact Kent...I mean Doctor Fate has chosen to attend with them today, rather than take up our invitation, says much of the issue at hand"

"Yes, he said he would discuss matters with us at a later stage, but that Nabu would be focused on aiding his current allies for the foreseeable future. That is good to hear in many ways, considering those involved with this organisation, but could be problematic as it may shake public trust in international groups, such as ourselves, in favour of national groups such this SHIELD may be. I'm sure many governments will be seeking out magical advisors, and soldiers what's worse, in the days to come"

Zatara stated looking utterly spent, as Batman brought up something on the screen, probably one of the Bat's plans or reports on a situation Ollie expected. From what he could understand all of those of a magical persuasion involved, or merely nearby as Diana and Giovanni had been, had suffered a rather unfortunate period of exhilaration. Which was then followed by complete and utter exhaustion thanks to amount of magical power in the air as it had been explained to Ollie. He blinked as Batman tapped something, speaking as the word SHIELD appeared in the corner of the report on screen...

"This here is what was provided by John Fortune to Robin during the height of the crisis, a rather detailed document called Omega Protocol Contingency: Wildfire Scenario. While it does not entirely detail what the triggers are for its implementation we can surmise what they are based upon the details within this copy, and from it being apparently implemented on both the Adult and Child sides of the divide..." the screen shifted into several screens with names and pictures on one, a map of Britain and Ireland on another, and then some magic symbols and other mumbo-jumbo on the third.

"...albeit in a more fragmentary manner of course upon the children's side of things. I would speculate, based upon his actions that Mr. Fortune, upon realising that the plan could not be carried out as laid out within the document...decided to improvise however he could. From it, and other recent events, we can gather the initial membership of this group to some degree"

A series of photographs appeared on the middle screen; young Fortune, his teacher John Constantine and a girl who was apparently Constantine's niece. Then others such as the giant plant-earth-man-thing that had stomped down Poison Ivy, the chubby looking Irishman they'd seen in a few other reports named Finn, the a few other men that Zatara began to list off by and name in an unhappy voice as known friends and associates of the Constantine fellow.

One of which was one of those creatures calling himself a 'God' and the other The Devil...who was evidently on speed-dial for this organisation. After this list, and another of believed military and intelligence officers involved, of believed possibly 'active' members, came to the rather enormous list of those they'd managed to gather together in less than two hours along with sending out their armies to secure the ritual sites. In truth Oliver was a bit torn seeing this; on one hand it showed a shocking level of distrust and lack of faith in the Justice League to protect people.

On the other hand...the Government was supposed to look after the little guy, and damned if was about time that somebody actually did that in not-completely-evil and actually rather competent manner. Call him an old-fashioned leftie but part of Oliver Queen was almost glad to see someone had an actual plan when all the kids vanished - and then managed to make it work. Really that's all that should matter part of his mind argued. Sadly that didn't help with all the problems that this new revelation had caused such as child mages, magic everywhere, and the fallout for the Team. Or the so-called Gods being summoned to Earth as Aquaman motioned unhappily with his hand as the debate rolled on...

"Antagonising a group that just saved the world's children won't do anyone any good, especially when they've shown a willingness to summon on this scale...and make it work. My wife, and most of the senior mages of Conservatory of Sorcery, badly wants to open negotiations with them immediately..." the King of Atlantis grimaced "...the apprentice managed to summon a manifestation of an Outsider God with a smattering of the oldest students from the Conservatory, a few surface world apprentices, and a host of untrained mages. His teacher and superiors managed to organise a ritual of the likes nobody has seen in before Atlantis sank beneath the waves. Word of what the students saw..."

He sighed deeply in frustration as Ollie saw Wonder Woman gave Aquaman a concerned look "There is concern amongst your people?"

The bitter chuckle did not elevate Ollie's mood even before the reply "There is barely hidden panic amongst the city-states, especially once the children arrived home and spoke to their parents. They are heroes to everyone, but our Wards did not stop whatever this Klarion creature enacted, stealing away our children...and we could do nothing to get them back. One of the foremost magical nations left upon the world apart from you own Diana...and then surface-worlders, whose magic I hate to say Giovanni...whose arcane powers my own people looked down upon...just..."

Another series of hand motions "Poof! Enact another magical ritual that completely ignores our most powerful magical protections...while also summoning the Gods themselves down unto the Earth to aid them in their endeavors, while my peoples..." he sighed unhappily "...while ours...did nothing and left us to our fate. Even Mera is angry and afraid at what has happened. Especially since all those involved in the Great Spell state that Circe was aiding in the creature Klarion in stealing away my people's children..."

'Well this is going to be a long fun night' Ollie thought unhappily as Diana confirmed that such was the case as Circe being dead meant the so-called Goddess Hecate had returned to life...somehow. Magic mumbo-jumbo at work there again he knew. Or the fact the fact another of the jackass so-called Deities that Aquaman and Wonder Woman worshipped seemed likely to have issue with a child that their high pumba-whatever had helped in bringing into the world. Especially now it was in whatever the sorta-Gods used for the gossiping network anyway...oh and did he mention that the SHIELD crowd had promised the girl and several others protection for helping out?

He filled up another coffee as the conversation went on. It was going to be a very long night once again...

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