Nero sighed as the van came to a halt, the half devil turning to face his partner in crime. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. Who in the hell taught you how to drive?" Nero asks through gritted teeth. Nico smiles, baring her own pearly whites at him.
"Got something to say about my driving, little bro?" Nero resists the urge to smack his face on the dash, and shakes his head. "Not your brother. Thank whichever god saved me from that fate." Nico snorts as he opens the door. "Whatever, I'll wait here in the car. I could use a cigarette to calm my nerves." Nero points at her as he's about to slam the door.
"Keep a fucking window open!" He then quickly closes the door, drowning out her laughter. Nero takes a deep breath as he turns and heads for the building. The door squeaked loudly as he opened it, and immediately he's hit with the smell of blood and mold.
Granted, the blood smells old - a few days at least - but he's not taking any chances. His fingers grip Blue Rose as he stalks into the abandoned library, his nose not picking up on any people or worse, demons.
Still, he knows that his senses aren't perfect and can be tricked, so Nero doesn't lower his guard. His eyes roam the library as he searches the building. Most of the shelves are empty, dust and torn pages scattering around the place. Occasionally he sees a book in somewhat good shape though.
Some of them are even kind of interesting. He wonders if he and Kyrie should make a small library inside the orphanage. Certainly wouldn't hurt to have the kids be able to learn more outside of their lessons. Kyrie is an awesome teacher, but even then she can't take care of everything.
He shakes his head once he realizes his own thoughts have caught up with him. Nero practically let his guard down and scoped the place out on auto-pilot. He sighs as he starts to relax. The first two floors are clear, only the basement is -
Movement. The smallest noise hits his ears, and Nero narrows his eyes as he turns his head. For a moment, he wonders if maybe he imagined it. Then another noise is heard. Again, barely audible. Nero takes a deep breath, the same blood - from downstairs now, he realizes - and mold from before hits his senses, but another smell hits him too.
The tiniest scent of lavender.
There's someone here. Someone who is quiet and also knows how to hide. Nero doesn't have any clue if it's an enemy or not, but then, as he breathes the scent again... He recognizes it. It was one of the scents that were then when the Red Hood vanished.
It was a Bat. Huh. Guess that explains the whole quiet thing. Nero only mildly relaxes. The last thing he needs is an interrogation after all. He wonders if maybe ignoring them is the best idea. After all, maybe they're just watching him? He's not exactly a fan of that though if he's being honest.
He clicks his tongue several times in thought, before sighing - as another small noise is heard near him.
"Hey, like you're really good at hiding, but jigs up. Come on out, I know you're there."
Nero doesn't hear anything, not even a sound. He's resolved to sniff them out, but suddenly a thud is heard behind him. He slowly turns his head, and standing there is...
"Which one are you again? Sorry, I'm bad with names." The Bat before him tilts their head carefully at him. "Black Bat. Hi." Hmm, late teens or early twenties female by the sound of her voice. He doesn't get a hostile feeling from her, so he waves lazily.
"Hi. You uh, hang out here often?" He says questioningly. Black Bat shakes her head.
"Followed you."
Nero figures. He rubs his face, and then sighs. "Look, kinda in the middle of something. If you have questions, ask me later - you know where to find me."
Black Bat shakes her head again. "No I... I wanted to say thanks. For saving my brother." The sentence comes out a little slower than the average person, Nero thinks. Injury? Mental thing? Something else? Nero has no clue, and it's not in his job description.
"Brother?" He asks. Black Bat nods. "Red Hood. You saved him." Oh yeah, so the Bats ARE family. It was a big rumor apparently. Guess he knows for sure though now. Nero waves a hand, as he turns his head.
"Ah yeah that. It was nothing, honest." Really, he's surprised she isn't taking him in for murder.
"Red Hood said he killed Mask, and then the Amazo was about to kill him." Black Bat speaks, once again voice deliberate and slow. Well... Guess the Hood has his back. He'll have to thank him the next time he sees him.
"Still, you don't have to thank me. I don't do this for praise." And he doesn't. He wants to make sure his kids are safe. And if he has to kill a few rotten bastards and dumbass robots, he's going to.
Black Bat nods again, and then points at him. "Are you investigating the missing people?"
Nero shrugs. "Dunno if you'd call it investigating. I just wanna make sure this place is safe. Alley kids used to come here and hide out or get warm." Black Bat simply turns, and starts walking.
"Hood investigated this place a while back. Said the basement was weird." Nero follows the woman as she heads for presumably the basement.
"Weird how? And when was this?" Black Bat doesn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Four days before the incident with Amazo. He said 'I ain't going back in that fucking basement even if you pay me, shit is weird.'" He almost chuckles as her slow, delicate tone changes to one resembling Red Hood. Then he realizes what she said.
Huh. Maybe Hood can sense magic or demons? Normal people absolutely can; hell the feeling of being watched, of your hair standing up on end? That is classic signs of humans sensing things not of this world. Regular people, if they do occasionally sense things, aren't going to like the feeling.
Black Bat opens the door to the basement, and immediately Nero doesn't like it. The smell of dried blood hits his nose harder than before, and he can sense magic in the air.
Demonic magic.
He grabs Black Bat's arm, and notices as her body tenses. "I really don't think you should go down there." He says, and Black Bat slowly pulls her arm away.
"Why?" Ok. So he's thought of a few different cover stories he can give the Bats if they ever came knocking. But see, eventually he decided the best cover story was the truth.
And extremely, extremely abridged version of it anyway.
"I'm a Demonologist. And let me tell ya, when you've been around the block a few times, it's easy to sense demonic magic." He says. Technically speaking, a Demonologist IS someone who studies demons, and Nero DOES study demons. Usually, up close and very often times, extremely personal.
Black Bat simply stares at him for a moment, her posture tense. She does ease up slightly though.
"Holy Water. I have some in my belt." Wow. Ok, the Bats ARE prepared. Still, it'll take a bit more than whatever she could possibly hold in her belt to take down powerful Hellspawn.
He pulls Blue Rose out from his coat, and walks in front of her. "I'm taking point then." He says, because he'd really rather not have Batman on his ass if something happens to another one of his kids while hanging around Nero.
The half devil slowly walks down the basement stairs, Black Bat right behind him. Even though she's right by him, he almost can't hear her. It's impressive that she can be so quiet. There's no way the average human can hear her; he'd bet his life savings on it.
The basement is huge, is Nero's first thought as he and Black Bat step foot into the damp cellar. There's a few large bookcases that look partially damaged, and some are even wet.
"Looks like someone threw a major pool party in this place." Nero says idly. Black Bat hums.
"There was a heavy rainstorm a few weeks ago. Maybe the water is from there?" Doesn't exactly explain how the top floors are clear, but hey, Nero ain't an expert on the weather. The half-devil feels for the demonic magic, and as one would guess, both it and the smell of blood are coming from the same place.
He walks further into the basement, water sloshing on the ground occasionally as he steps in it. "Ugh, I'll need to dry clean these when I get back." Black Bat still barely makes any noise in the water, which Nero REALLY has no clue how she does so.
But he's got other things to think about. Namely, as he walks over towards it, why a shitty portal to fucking Hell itself is drawn on the ground, in the center of the basement.
"Portal?" Black Bat says questioningly, and Nero sighs.
"Yep. Definitely a portal straight to Hell." Black Bat shakes her head.
"Red Hood would have mentioned this." That is true... Nero wouldn't expect the guy - freaked out or not - to not miss this blatantly obvious portal in the ground. He kneels down, inspecting it closer.
"The runes are right. Also drawn in human blood. The nut job - or multiple nut jobs - must not have done the ritual right."
Black Bat stares at the bloody symbols on the ground, slightly eroded from the water.
"What ritual?" Now there's the million dollar question.
"Depends. There's definitely a few they could have done. A summoning ritual is most likely, but if they summoned anything, I'd have found it." And Nero hasn't killed a demon in weeks. In fact, he's only killed two demons since he arrived, and both were weak Hellspawn.
"If it was a temporary summon, these runes aren't right for that. Whatever they pulled up from Hell wouldn't have been restrained." And again, Nero would have found it. He shakes his head as he stands up, and starts scraping the runes away with his feet.
"Is that safe?" Black Bat asks. Nero chuckles.
"Most of the time yeah. And even then, it's better to get rid of nasty portals to evil dimensions." Even if the ritual failed.
Nero claps his hands.
"Well, one portal destroyed and less of a problem for me later. Let's get outta this place." Nero says, and then points towards the basement stairs. As Black Bat starts to head for the stairs though...
Nero can still sense demonic magic.
No... No, he's sensing demons.
The water underneath Black Bat's feet starts to swirl. Before Nero can utter a word though, Black Bat vaults forward, avoiding the Sin that materializes below her. As she gets to her feet, Nero quickly shoots the Hellspawn in the face with Blue Rose. The Sin dies instantly, falling back into the water.
Black Bat grabs at her belt, and produces a small vial of Holy Water.
"More?" She asks. Nero curses, as he feels three more of them in the room. The magic sigils were hiding them.
"Three. Keep your guard up and empty that entire bottle on one. It'll kill it." He can handle all three, but again he'd rather her not get hurt with him nearby.
Black Bat barely nods, and Nero narrows his eyes. They know they're outmatched, so any damage they can cause is a win for them. Are they all going to try to kill her? It's a possibility.
Nero slides across the floor as he barely dodges a scythe from behind. As he moves, his left leg goes up and he kicks the Hellspawn in half. It evaporates before it touches the ground.
There's another swirl next to Black Bat, who quickly rushes towards him. For a split second he wonders why, but then he senses the demon behind him. He grabs Blue Rose, and shoots the demon that leaps from the water towards Black Bat, and she responds by throwing the vial of Holy Water behind him.
He can hear as the vial breaks, coating the demon in the blessed water. He barely gives either demon a thought as they both die, and finally all traces of demons - and demonic magic - are gone.
Black Bat holds her guard up, until Nero pockets Blue Rose.
"Well that was a pain. Guess they escaped through the sigil." Black Bat tilted her head.
"But you said the ritual failed." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"Yeah see... You ever heard of Hellspawn? They're different from your normal demons." Black Bat shakes her head.
"Ok, so like you have demons that can only possess people and usually don't have a solid form right? Now the stronger ones can get to Earth through portals, but there's another type of demon called Hellspawn." Nero explains.
"These demons? So long as there's a crack, even a small one like a failed ritual or something, they can wander right in here. Stronger Hellspawn need bigger cracks though." Nero chuckles.
"At least you can kill Hellspawn way easier than a normal demon. No exercising or magic necessary either. A giant gun kills them just as easily." Black Bat seems to ponder his words.
"How many types of Hellspawn are there?" She asks. Nero groans.
"Too many to count. Those were Sins. Generally, even when they get to earth they need some sort of conduit. Sand, glass, water. Things like that." Black Bat hums curiously, and then points towards the stairs.
"Let's go. I need to get back to the Batcave." Nero snorts.
"There's really a Batcave?" He asks. Black Bat merely nods as the two walk up the stairs. Nero does wonder though... Just who is trying to summon demons in Gotham?
...
Jason sighed in relief as the painkillers finally kicked in. He may hate shots and most drugs, but pain killers were absolutely his best friend. He laid his head back on the couch as Dick flipped through the channels.
"Pawn Stars?" Dick asked. Jason laughed.
"No. Next."
"Game of Thrones?"
"Which season?"
"Six."
"Pass."
"Mad Max?"
Jason perked up. "No shit? Which one?"
"Thunderdome." Dick says, and Jason cheers.
"Fuck yeah! Let's watch it." As Dick turns the movie on though, the door to the living room opens.
It's Tim. Jason points at him, laughing softly.
"You are in trouble Replacement." He says, and Dick does look at Tim sternly.
"Buddy, you know that we're all - "
"Supposed to keep someone in contact, I know. Sorry, but this was important." Tim is tired, and obviously just fresh out of his Red Robin uniform. He walks over to the couch and sits down next to Jason's feet.
"I'd ask why you're here, but that's fine, I can tell you both what I know. Where's Cass?"
"Out. Spill it Timmers." Jason says, and Tim sighs as he rubs his face aggressively.
"Ok, ok so look, I took a small trip to Italy and I..." Tim gets a small grin on his face.
"I know everything about Nero Consolli."