[12th January 2011]

[GCPD {Temporary} Field Headquarters, Wayne Industries Building, Gotham, New Jersey, United States of America]

"How bad is it really?" James 'Jim' Gordon queried as the battered and dirty form of Detectives Bullock and Montoya came into view. Barely looking up from the desk here in the 'command centre' with all its paper and hastily assembled secure computers he motioned at them both to sit down, where they come anyway, as the bustle of dozens of officers and volunteers continued around them. Even a few snores as off in the corner three of his beat cops dozed away in a quick nap before they were thrown back out unto patrol once again.

"Bad Commish..." Harvey came back with, giving a tired grunt as he sat back into one of the leather chairs that they'd borrowed from one of the Wayne Industries conference rooms upstairs "...or least it's good and bad, eh Montoya?"

"He's right Boss, the Cauldron's all orderly and peaceful...for the Cauldron anyway, but 12th Precinct either ran, tried to join in the looting in not a few cases, or the handful that're left are effectively workin' for those nutjobs in the so-called Neighbourhood Watch. Tiegel's in charge, loosely, and that's only because Tommy Monaghan and his band of merry hitmen and other scum are letting her"

Jim Gordon sighed deeply "Damn, and what's worse I have to consider that a good thing...they've agreed to cooperate at least? And what was getting to and back like?"

"Yeah, mouthy bastard that Monaghan is...and Tiegel and her crew were lettin' yap away, but we got in the dish and computer and they should be hooking up..." Bullck grunted in reply clearly unhappy "...but, got to admit we safer there than working our way there and back, places is mess and they took potshots at us even with some National Guard with us. It's near three days Commish and its gettin' worse, gangs getting organised...an' the loonies from Arkham are getting worse since Scarecrow managed hit the alien with his fear gas"

Jim winced at that. Superman had nearly gone berserk after inhaling the stuff and only quick thinking by Batman and Hawkwoman had calmed enough to allow the antidote to be administered. Between other ongoing crises, just as the black hole of madness that was 'No Man's Land' over in Bludhaven and the re-emergence of a number of super-villains with the military overstretched it appeared to his weary eyes the Justice League was worn to the bone right now.

Now maybe half his city or more was under the sway of either the crazies like Scarecrow, Hatter, and Two-Face, or just plain being run by the crime families. That, or for better or worse, in the hands of the likes of Monaghan's crew or Cobblepot's little organisation; perhaps even worse he was having to cooperate with them as 'deputies' or 'auxiliaries' to just pretend the GCPD and Army were still in charge of the other half of Gotham. Even keeping the power on...with these blasted rolling fogs and other bizarre surges of weather...had proven a nightmare with logistics.

"Also, she's got Ivy with'em..." Detective Montoya continued as he looked back up at them from the report on Black Mask's gang's activities...control really...over the area around City Hall and Old Gotham. The tired detective, resting against the pillar rather than sitting down gave a hands up motion "...she's harmless looks to be, workin' hauling rubble under guard with a few others. Seems she went there for protection much as anything...least now we know she wasn't faking the no powers thing"

'Well, that's a positive I guess' he thought resting back for the briefest of moments, feeling the exhaustion of three days of only the briefest spells of sleep. That and breaking his arm; though thankfully with that it wasn't the one he wrote with "Right...positives. Now, was further word on that area of the city?"

"Plenty Commish, not much of it good, even down to Monaghan does now seem to have some damned meta-human abilities. Healed Montoya's leg after bullet nicked her on the way"

Gordon glanced at her and she nodded "Yeah, seems he's legit from what reports were saying, an' he says he's glad to be cooperating with us. Wiseass bastard, but his lot did give warnings...written, typed wouldya believe?, reports from Tiegel's 'auxiliary police officers' about problems people coming into the 12th Precinct are telling them about. Most troubling is that their saying there's something in the sewers, and the old subway tunnels, and that those that go in don't come back out"

"An it ain't Croc Boss..." Bullock clarified as cups of coffee were delivered over to the table along with a selection of sandwiches made from whatever was available "...as he's supposed be hauntin' Robinson Park and the tunnels"

"I know, were trying to keep the city supplied over the Brown Bridge and the airport till someone takes down the lizard, or can fix up the damage to the Trigate Bridge" he replied but not mentioning there were other concerns, magical ones, being put forward about the area around the now wrecked Arkham Asylum. Belle Reve was the new destination for any of the inmates till something else could be sorted, and so far evacuating the area around the 'contaminated zone' had been deemed the best of bad options. Mr. Wayne had been a great help as the government was barely sending in enough supplies, and apparently delay international relief efforts, but he too was distracted by his mansion being destroyed and some staff members and guests trapped inside till yesterday evening. He rubbed at tired eyes.

"Right, eat, drink your coffee, and get a quick rest both of you. I'll need you in a few hours to go down and pay Penguin a visit with Billy Petit and SWAT for escort. I need the grubby little conman to keep distributing supplies and open up a route to the Cauldron, and in the meantime I'll try and get someone from the Army to scout out the old subway tunnels near the Novack Tunnel and RR Tubes..."

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[12th January 2011]

[S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, underneath Custume Barracks, Athlone, Republic of Ireland]

Everyone at the table, save Doctor Fate of course who'd I'd discussed it with already, was staring at me in silence after a few seconds of reading though my powerpoint presentation's first page summary up on the screen before them. Not the most in-depth plan as yet, barebones really, but action was required and I'd been forced to stay in bloody bed all of yesterday, and this morning, but I'd be damned if I'd wasted the free hours when my mind caught up from the problems at hand.

Such as the reason John Constantine was very much not in facility and it appeared full security review was being started for everything related to him; down to any wards he'd placed. Though with those, thank the Boss, I'd always made sure not to trust with them anyway; because trusting Constantine could easily mean death and I was a paranoid being who liked being alive. Just as right now had proved, because the lunatic had vanished off with a Demon Lord for twenty-four hours, we had no idea what he'd done or said during that time period, and what's worse he was...still John Constantine, and that usually meant bad things on the best of days.

Commandant O'Reilly was the first to speak of course, joys of being the boss man here, as he took a depth breath and pinched the bridge of his nose "Oookay then...when you had mentioned you had discussed a response to this...situation...with Doctor Fate, one...em, was not expecting this to be the..."

His hand moved through the air as he seemed to search for words "...the...well, I do believe you yourself would classify this as a Constantine solution would you not?"

"No, I'd classify this as a reasonable response, one of risk perhaps, but proportional to the damage that the demon and his allies have inflicted upon us. That's I've ran it by Doctor Fate here for capacity for the teleportation and dimension shift, and for an opinion on feasibility and risk. It requires further study, immediately, with Jason Blood and several others of course, to ensure accurate target identification but in practicality the timeframe for risk fairly short and involves limited personal. Magically it's costly, but once the summoning is completed most of the work will be third party, rather eager third party in fact, and then we drop our own ordnance and scarper"

"By ordnance you mean two tactical nuclear weapons I assume?"

People around the table sound so horrified when they say it like that, or just agreeing with the good Commandant as he spoke and tapped at the relevant part of the pages. Honestly this was in DCverse demons continued to get away with shite that the Devils and Demons of the Abyss learned to avoid doing...because there would be retaliation from the other side for it. Here, for some reason, Heaven was sitting on its ass and mankind never seemed to have capacity to do so beyond the likes of Constantine; who we could not trust right now because of this madness. So someone else had to remind our foes there would be consequences with fucking with agents of the Shrouded Lord. I nodded "Yes, with an enchantment of course. I know the British, and American's too I expect, are demanding a response after such a major security breach and this would do it. I'm sure they'll be fully behind this, once it's detailed out into a true operation plan"

"Mate...hate ta say it...but yer sounding mighty insane here with this..." Brendan Finn stated nervously glancing at the golden helmeted woman sitting beside me "...Nabu, buddy, mate, yah gotta back me up here on this?"

"While one must admit the strategy proposed is rather ambitious, and perhaps somewhat vengeful in nature, with the information available to us it would be strategy our foes could not easily foresee. Indeed it will confirm if the pact agreed between the demon and Mr. Constantine is in place; either the creature will find its defences weakened, or it was never an agreement truly. Time will merely allow them to gather further strength, probe for weaknesses, and to strike with greater strength. Striking back now and weakening our foe would show weakness on their part, and the blood in the water will attract the sharks of the depths. There is a risk, but it must be considered that these were serious efforts to drag certain members of this organisation to Hell, and thereby merely an escalation. One would also estimate this proposal to receive strong support from the Americans and British as our current situation threatens to undo all our efforts to date"

I nodded in thanks towards Doctor Fate, Nabu, while he/she had been initially dubious I'd spent several hours last night hashing it out in more detail with them "Yes, basically John's deal could have screwed us badly, and we have to assume the worst...so we have to respond as if this was the worst case scenario. I've also communed with my...patron...and gotten a similar vision"

"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth is hardly ideal young man, it makes the whole world blind and toothless"

I sighed sadly "I'm sorry Father, but demons, and they struck first and several times at us. Their word is dirt, and we never promised not to strike back, they just agreed not to directly fight Constantine, his blood, or his allies. Given time they'll wiggle out of it anyway, strike now while the iron is hot I say"

Now there was an element of vengeance in the idea, but I was reasonably sure the Brits would support this because they were just as stressed about the situation, and Waller because she and her people were only now starting to grasp the powers opposing us. They'd support it because they didn't understand the danger enough...but that was fine; it'd be a few days to hammer this out if I could get it agreed. I was going to make this work, even if thought of me as a mad teenager, and with Fate's support it was going to the next level to be looked at it seemed. From the Cabinet it'd go to the 'unified' and 'official' SHIELD meeting tomorrow and we'd have a tactical plan within the next three to four days if all went well. Then, then...we'd go a Viking, a Viking we would go...

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