Mallory spread her feet, keeping her center of gravity low as she eyed the bulging woman across the narrow street. The sidewalk and street were cracked between them, evidence of the fighting that had already happened, but she was determined to cut this as short as possible. Rampage started to charge, leaping over the crumbling concrete and using the tipped over Volkswagen as a springboard.
Mallory clenched her hands together and swung, slamming her combined fists into the woman's chest as gravity pulled her down. She'd used too much strength, though, and her opponent went flying back into the car, bending the frame around her body. She growled, tearing the vehicle in half, and Mallory tried not to gulp, keeping her power ready and silently cursing Conner for choosing the one day Rampage decided to go berserk to take off. She couldn't blame him too much, though. The day she took off with Alex, the Terrors hit the tech show, and he had to call in Jr and Blue to take care of things. The longer it went without a Superman sighting, the bolder the bad guys got. The remaining Supers were handling every threat that came up, though, proving to the city and themselves that they didn't need their mentor to keep their city safe.
Rampage tried another charge, but her movements were blinded by her rage, giving Mallory the opportunity to come up with a plan. She flipped over the attack, grabbing an arm and shoving her down, pinning her before the bad guy could turn around. The woman struggled beneath her, trying to jerk out of the hold, but Inferno's eyes glowed brighter as she tapped into more and more of her strength. An SCU officer ran up to her with an inhibitor collar ready, and she moved her head out of the way, giving the man enough room to get it on. As soon as she heard the slight whirr signaling that the collar was coming on, her opponent's struggling became weaker, and she slowly relaxed her grip, getting to her feet and dragging Rampage up with her.
"Thanks for the assist," the officer said, taking the prisoner from her.
She nodded. "Anytime." She scanned the line of officers surrounding the area until she found Sawyer and gave her a mock salute, then flamed up so suddenly the young officer beside her jumped, and she took off, shooting straight up until she was fifty stories above ground. She winced at the spiderweb of cracks in the concrete, the busted water main flooding the street. She needed to work on damage control. Of course, that was a little hard to do when she had to keep her very vulnerable body away from the 'roided out punches.
Her comm clicked on, interrupting her thoughts, and she pressed the device in her ear. "Inferno here."
"Hey, girl. You on duty?"
It was Zatanna's voice, and she picked up on the purpose behind the words. "Yeah, I could use a breather, though. What do you need?"
"Fate called me to help with some demon siblings in Metropolis. You want in?"
"Sure…if you can promise I won't get turned into a bug or something."
The magician laughed. "Well, you know I can't promise that. Meet me at the Tower of Fate, we need to make a stop there first."
"Ok, be there in five."
They signed off, and Mallory headed out of the city, knowing where the mystic tower was from previous trips. Zatanna was waiting for her in the open field when she landed, a key in one hand and her other extended as she took short steps. She paused a few steps in and inserted the key into the invisible lock, and the tower appeared in front of them, the door swinging open for them. The pyrokinetic followed her friend in, jumping when the door slammed shut behind them and disappeared.
"So, what are we doing here?" she asked, glancing up at the portrait of Kent's wife over the fireplace. She'd never met the previous Dr. Fate, but both Wally and Kaldur spoke highly of him. Zatanna had never really talked about her time in the helmet, but they all knew that the man had tried to stop Nabu from taking her for good.
"Well, I can't make a portal, and I don't have a house that can do it for me, so I'm going to need to borrow one," the magician explained, leading the way through the rooms.
"Right, right. And, why do you need to make a portal? I thought you said Fate was fighting in Metropolis."
They entered a room filled with staircases going in every direction. The tower room. Zatanna smiled a little, looking at the redhead out of the corner of her eye. "Not exactly," she replied cryptically, going to the center of the landing they were on. She crossed her legs, levitating into the air, and started chanting.
Mallory looked around, curious to know if any of the hundreds of staircases actually led anywhere, but after a minute the twisted room started making her dizzy and she focused back on her friend, crossing her arms impatiently. "Is something supposed to be happening?" she asked.
The magician stopped her chanting suddenly, and a cross portal opened up below them. The pyrokinetic couldn't help the surprised squeak that came out of her mouth when the floor fell out from under her feet, or the grunt as she landed in a heap on the edge of a table, the wood snapping beneath her weight and sending her the rest of the way to the polished floor. Zatanna floated down gracefully, tilting her head when she looked down at Inferno, still lying in a heap. "Thanks for the warning," Mallory hissed sarcastically.
Her friend ignored her, but the twitch of her lips betrayed the smile she was fighting. The redhead pushed herself to a crouch, brushing the splinters off her costume and looking around. They were in some kind of a bar, tables and chairs spread throughout the room, a shelf full of alcohol sitting behind a polished wood counter. But that wasn't what had the hairs on the back of her neck rising. It was the reddish haze filling the room, the distinct scent of fire and ash, the peculiar itch of the air pressing down on them, like it was trying to rip through the layers separating their souls from the world.
"Z, where are we?" Mallory asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Another dimension," her friend replied happily, offering her friend a hand up.
"Please, please, please tell me you didn't drag me down to Hell," the pyrokinetic begged, grabbing the magician's offered hand and pulling herself to her feet.
Zatanna shook her head. "Of course not, it's just a parallel dimension. Fate tracked the twins here, dealing in both dimensions and using their place as a gateway from Hell."
Well, at least that explained why it felt so similar. "Twins?" she asked, checking behind the counter to make sure no one was hiding behind it.
"Lady Blaze and Setanus. Cross between the wizard Shazam and a demon. They don't usually cause trouble, but they've been a little too helpful in allowing passage out of Hell."
Her sentence was punctuated with a crash and a hiss from the back room. They exchanged a glance, their bodies and minds getting ready for a fight, and Mallory led the way through the swinging door. She hadn't even gotten both feet through the doorway when a ball of fire was thrown at her face. She reached up to block her face, her fingers lacing with the flames clumsily to steer it away from her and her friend and she managed to send it a few inches to the left. It roared against the wall, then let out a hissing sound as it traveled up the bricks and fizzled out on the ceiling.
The girls assessed the room, prepared for more flying threats. Dr. Fate was in the middle of the room, a cross shield up, and there were two people in attack positions, each holding fire that they seemed to be getting from the open portal to Hell on the opposite wall that was spitting the stuff out. The siblings had long, thick black hair and purplish skin that seemed to glow red in the light of the inferno coming through the portal. The coal-black horns on their heads gleamed with the fiery reflections, yet it wasn't any of those things that sent a chill up Mallory's spine. It was the smiles on their faces, the smug smirks that confirmed what she could already see: they were winning.
One look at Zatanna and she knew her friend saw it, too. Fate was clutching his chest with one hand, holding the shield up with the other. He wasn't at his best. "Portal," the magician said, and Mallory nodded, shooting fire out of her feet and flying through the barrage of flames being thrown at the Lord of Order.
The demon twins stilled for half a second at the motion, but when she took up sentry at the opening of the portal, her body blocking the way, her fingers now securely laced with the fire and keeping it from coming into the room, they growled and started to lunge. Mallory braced, determined not to be dragged through the gate, but just before they would have collided with her, something blocked them. The opponents looked at each other, confused, before the twins started clawing at the invisible shield protecting the mortal, and Mallory's eyes trailed behind them, nodding a thanks to Zatanna, her heart still racing in her chest.
The magician returned the nod, already moving to another spell. Mallory couldn't hear the backwards words through the roar of the fire at her back and the demons' unearthly screams at her front, but whatever she was saying, it worked. Feral shrieks clawed their way out of the twins' throats as the wood floor beneath them started to pool with water, the invisible shield disappearing.
Fate seemed to have recovered some, and he looked at Mallory, motioning for her to move. She did one better, though. Instead of just letting the fire into the room, she pulled it in, the inferno flooding in like a wave breaking on the sand. The man shot out a cross just as the flames surrounded the bad guys, the water at their feet rising and freezing the flame over, encasing the siblings in a crystal prison.
Mallory inched closer, staying ready in case they broke out, but her magical companions didn't seem to be giving it the same consideration. She tilted her head, looking at Zatanna. "New spell?"
She nodded. "One of John's, with my own spin on it," she explained. "Holy water."
Mallory nodded, letting out a breath. She didn't know anything about trapping demons, but she trusted Constantine's expertise on the subject, so she relaxed, turning her attention instead to Dr. Fate, who was forcing himself to stand up straight, though he was clearly hurt.
Zatanna took half a step towards him, but then he glared at her, striding to the prisoners. "I will see that they are taken care of," he told them, ending the conversation before it began.
"That's it? No 'thanks for coming' or 'couldn't have done it without you'?" Mallory muttered dryly. The Lord of Order glared at her out of the corner of his eye, opening a cross portal for them and one for himself and the prisoners. "No, wait, I'm sorry, I'll go with you," she said quickly, sidestepping away from her friend, closer to the second cross. Zatanna tilted her head in question, but she just shrugged. "I don't have anything else to do, and I've never seen the Tower prison before."
"There is no need for you to," Fate told her.
She shrugged again, not letting it deter her. "Well, there wasn't a reason for me to help with this, either, but I did." He stared at her, not stopping her from crossing to his portal, but also not happy about it. She pretended not to notice the scowl in his eyes as she turned to Zatanna. "You want to come?"
The magician shook her head, her eyes going to her father's parasite before finding Mallory's face again. "No, I have a show in an hour, and I've already seen the stasis field."
Fate didn't let the conversation continue. As soon as she said no, he had the cross moving forward, closing as soon as the last word came out of her mouth. Mallory huffed in annoyance, cocking her head at him. "Not in a chatty mood today, huh?"
He ignored her, sweeping their portal over them. In the blink of an eye, they were out of the hazy red dimension and inside the Tower of Fate, in a room that had a ceiling of stars. Mallory watched, entranced, as the stars started coming closer to them, until she could see that they weren't stars at all, rather they were stasis pods, many of them already filled with creatures and objects of all kinds. She didn't want to know what they were capable of, that they had ended up here over the malinea.
Fate started to chant, some spell to place the demons in separate pods, but halfway through he grunted, clutching his chest and going down on his knees. A pang of alarm went through her chest and she was at his side in a second, looping one of his arms over her shoulder and snaking her otther arm around his waist to hold him up. He was breathing heavily, so she waited until the ragged breaths evened out before saying, "What's going on with you? I've never seen you so…bad off."
He stiffened his spine, all but pushing her away and finished the spell. His focus stayed on the pods as they traveled back out into their space, once again resembling stars in an endless night sky, but Mallory never took her eyes off the helmet, waiting for an answer to her question. She was just starting to think that her self-proclaimed power of getting the truth from people didn't work on Lords of Order when he said, "the body that houses me has gone past its prime. It has trouble withstanding the physical strain of my power."
A flash of anger rose in her chest at hearing the parasite refer to Zatara's body as an 'it', like his sacrifice wasn't worth anything to Nabu, but she bit the inside of her cheek, stopping the disrespectful words from pouring out of her mouth. She had to keep him talking, had to seem like she was trying to help him, rather than the man inside the helmet. Once she'd smoothed her forehead and taken a calming breath, and tilted her head thoughtfully. "That doesn't seem very effective," she pointed out. "I'm sure if Zatara were given a break from the power, he would be able to recharge a bit, instead of constantly having the strain of your power."
Fate snapped his attention back to her, clearly angry at the suggestion. "The world still needs Dr. Fate. Today has only proved that once again."
She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from reminding him that she and Zatanna had done most of the work with the demon twins. "Sure," she said, forcing the word out despite the bitter taste it left on her tongue, "but maybe you could trade out between bodies. If you need someone with magic, I'm sure Zatanna would be glad to temporarily stand in, and–"
"No!"
The word came out in a rush, more forceful than Fate ever spoke, and it made Mallory's lips twitch up just a little. It was good to know that Zatara was still in there somewhere. "Ok…" she drawled slowly, searching her mind for another solution. "Then…" Her suggestion to Zatanna came back to her, not for the first time since she voiced it the last visiting day. The magician had been so against it then, but surely there was a way to arrange it so that it wouldn't be inhumane. "If I can find better candidates, ones that are in their prime, have magic, and aren't Zatara's daughter, would you agree to switching hosts?"
He stared at her for a long time, long enough for her to wonder if he slept standing up like Red Tornado and was no longer paying attention to her. But, she kept her gaze on him, her face never wavering, until he narrowed his eyes, giving her the indication that he was thinking, or maybe talking it over with Zatara. "It would bear consideration," he answered finally.
She grinned, unable to contain the little buck of hope kicking up in her heart. "Great! I'm ready to go now."
He opened a portal for her and she walked through it without looking back. She came out beside the Tower, but Metropolis wasn't where she wanted to be at all. She took off to find the nearest zeta tube. She was on her way to Louisiana, to make a deal with the devil.
Belle Rev penitentiary had upped their security since the last time she'd been there. As soon as she flew over the wall and landed in the empty loading yard, a small army surrounded her, wall guns aimed in her direction. She swallowed hard, eying her surroundings as she put her hands on her head and went down on her knees, keeping her fire close to the surface in case she had to make a shield fast. Maybe she hadn't thought this out very well.
"My name is Inferno," she said, though she felt stupid introducing herself when they all knew who she was. "I need a word with the warden."
Some of the guards exchanged looks, trying to decide if it was ok to let her up. As it turned out, though, they didn't need to worry about making that decision, because the warden came into the yard, his hands clasped behind his back as he appraised the situation. "Inferno," he said, motioning for the guards to lower their weapons. "This is a surprise."
She eyed the guns, waiting for all of them to cease being aimed at her before getting to her feet and returning her arms to her sides. "I'm sure it is. I was hoping to have a word with you, in private."
"Is this League business?"
She tilted her head, considering the question, then nodded. "You could call it that."
The man nodded, sending the army away, back to whatever posts they were supposed to be manning. "We can take this in my office. After you."
She didn't like the thought of going into the prison. It gave her the imagery of entering the belly of the beast, especially after her time being wanted. She had to forcefully remind herself that the warrants weren't in effect anymore, but still…it wasn't very comforting to know that Superman couldn't break out of this building, and she hadn't told anyone where she was going. She shook the thoughts away, walking ahead of the warden into the building, then following him through the maze of hallways until the reached his office. He went right to his seat behind the desk, but she stayed standing, her eyes darting around the space before settling on the man.
"So, what can I do for you?" he prompted when she let the silence stretch on a few seconds too long.
"Where's Waller?"
The question startled any confidence off his face, his eyebrows coming together in confusion, a nervous tic twitching at his eyebrow. "Waller? I don't understand, what business–"
"I'm afraid that's above your clearance," she interrupted, enjoying his shocked expression just a little too much. "Just give me her location."
"But I can't–I mean, even if I knew, I couldn't—well, surely you can understand that–"
She gathered from his blubbering that he didn't know where she was, and that wasn't so unbelievable. She huffed in frustration. She really hadn't thought this out. "She uses prisoners from here. Are you able to contact her in some way?" she asked, her eyes scanning the desk top briefly before moving back to study his face. There was that tic again. He did have a way to get in touch with her, she knew it. "Tell her to come here."
"I really must insist that you tell me what this is about," he said, gaining some of his confidence back now that he knew he held some chips.
She rolled her eyes. "Call Waller and tell her that Inferno will be waiting for her in the courtyard. Tell her that if she's not interested in what I have to say, someone else will be." She didn't give the man any more chance to argue with her, just turned and walked back out of the office, retracing her steps to the loading yard. As soon as she was back out in the relatively fresh air, she took in a deep breath, shaking off the claustrophobic feel of the building. She could never be in prison. She didn't know how Cameron had gotten through his delinquent years.
She was waiting for half an hour before Waller finally showed, coming from the opposite side of the yard as the door to the warden's office. The hero pushed off the wall she'd been leaning on, crossing her arms as she waited for the former warden to get to her.
"I do not like to be summoned," she started off, her scowl seeming very natural to her face. "However, I will say that your zeta tube technology has proven invaluable to the government."
Mallory ignored the comments, deciding in a second how she wanted to play this. "How's your Suicide Squad working out these days?" she asked, her tone friendly, her face anything but.
Waller's glare deepened, her mouth pressing into a tight line. "Task force X is none of your concern, nor is it the Justice League's. I only came to remind you of our mutual agreement."
"Yeah, I remember. We don't tell if you don't tell. That's not why I'm here," Inferno said dismissively. "Actually, I'm here to offer you a better solution for some of your trickier prisoners." The woman didn't ask what she was suggesting, but she didn't cut her off, either, so Mallory pressed on. "Dr. Fate, how much do you know about him?"
"Enough," Waller replied curtly, and Mallory took that to mean everything.
"Ok, well, his current host is getting too old to wear the helmet, and it isn't right to ask another hero to give up their life to allow Fate to continue to operate. You have a problem, too, though. You have magic users breaking out of their cells every time they're caught, there's no way to contain them long term. That's where I think we can help each other out."
"I'm listening."
"You already have bad guys operating in the field on the Suicide Squad in exchange for time off their sentences." Waller's face hardened at Mallory's refusal to call the black ops team by its formal title, but she didn't interrupt. "Why can't you offer the same deal to magic users with the helmet? Guys like Wotan and the Wizard, who can't practically be contained by prison walls. They each wear the helmet for however long you make your ops stay on the Suicide Squad, then it gets switched out. They wouldn't be in control of their bodies at any point while they wear the helmet, so there wouldn't be a way to escape, and they'd be doing something to help make up for their terrorism and destruction."
Amanda crossed her arms, turning the suggestion over in her mind while she studied the hero proposing it. "It is worth a conversation with my superiors," she admitted after a long pause. She tilted her head, sneering a little. "When you first found out about the task force, you were decidedly against it. Interesting how you're suddenly ok with the concept, when it's not your little friend on the short end of the stick."
Mallory bristled, all pretense of indifference leaving her face, her hands clenching into fists to stop the stream of fire that was begging to be let out. "You're talking about sticking bombs in people's brains, about using the fear for their lives to manipulate them into fighting wars that aren't theirs. Wearing the helmet isn't suicide, it allows them dignity, a chance at redemption, fighting for the planet instead of your needs." Her tone dropped to a low rumble, barely keeping the growl in her throat at bay. "And Icicle Jr was never the right person to be put on your squad. He wasn't a hardened criminal, he was caught up in his father's life. He's a hero now, no thanks to you and your stick."
She could tell that the government agent wanted to argue her point, but in the end she didn't. She regarded the hero again, her face completely blank. "Your opinions are flawed, but I do not expect you to understand that, nor to be able to fathom the true larger picture at play in this world. In any case, I will take your suggestion into consideration, but if you ever try to summon me again, or come to this prison without the proper clearance, you will find yourself in a cell before you think to fight back. Do I make myself clear?"
Mallory's eyes narrowed behind her mask, flames leaping out of them and through her visors, but a grim smile twisted on her lips. "Try it, and you'll be in one right along side me," she warned, and she flamed up, purposefully making the flames go larger than normal to make Waller take a step back before she took off, flying out of the prison and back to the zeta tube she'd come in. She hated that woman, but she hoped that she could finally find a use for her. And that Zatanna wouldn't be too mad at her for making the suggestion. She shook her head, forcing the thought away. She didn't care if she never forgave her, she wasn't going to let her friend watch Fate work her father to death.