Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, all rights belong to their respective conglomerate overlords.
The Demigod Hellblazer
Book 1: Origins
Chapter 1: The Charge of the Trenchcoat Brigade
Underground Room near Yancy Academy
Manhattan,
New York City,
New York,
United States,
Earth
April 7th, 2003
A group of four figures dressed in trench coats, all huddle around the broken-down wooden table. The cracks in the top of it show the age and decades of wear and tear one woman of the group places her hands on the table, and as she does this a glowing occurs in the middle of it, as a plain-looking glass sphere begins to fill with smoke, almost sensing his power, as the woman mutters in Latin under his breath.
As the muttering continues, the smoke in the ball begins to deepen as color is added. The smoke turns from a pale white to a deep blue color, and it instead begins to harden. As it does it reveals the figure of a preteen boy, around 12 in age, clad in khakis and a dark blue polo bearing the logo of Yancy Academy, the private school for troubled kids.
The woman speaks, her voice raspy showing her age. "I still don't want anything to do with this, with any of this." To emphasize her point she crosses her arms over her chest and gestures with a disapproving look adorning her face towards the ball. The ball now shows the boy skating away from the school on his skateboard, with a ratty and torn backpack thrown over his shoulder.
One of the men turned towards the old woman, his trenchcoat was a royal blue, a stark contrast to the tan or white colored coats of the other three figures. He steps more towards the table, the dimly flickering lights hanging overhead providing some more light to him, allowing the silver pieces he wears around his neck to catch the light, and flicker and shimmer. "Johanna." He speaks, his voice low yet somehow ethereal as well. "I thought I had made myself perfectly clear." He leans in more, allowing the pure whites of his eyes visible behind his mask to illuminate the table, the eyes looking more silver than normal as they reflect his necklace. "We have no choice."
The old woman's scoff reverberated off the walls. The newly named Johanna looked the man in blue in the face. "And why the bloody hell not?"
She paused to rummage around in her pockets. A few moments pass before she finds what she is looking for. She sighs in relief as she pulls out a tattered white cigarette box, adorned with a purple logo. Grabbing the second to last one from the pack her hands fumble in her other pocket before pulling out an old silver light. Taking a few seconds to catch the cigarette finally started to glow from the embers being lit. Taking a long drag from her cigarette she relaxed as she blew the smoke from her cigarette right in the face of the blue-clad man.
"And don't start off with your bloody debates over free will again," Johanna says as she steps more into the small amount of light provided by the rundown flickering light. "'Cos if that's the case, we'll be here all week."
Sending the impending argument, one of the other men stepped closer to the table as well. A tan trench coat made it appear as if all four of the figures wore them on purpose. He raised his hands in a placating motion, as he tilted back his fedora to better look at the rest of the room. "I think what our friend here is saying."
Johanna cuts off the third man with a glare as she taps the cigarette blowing the ash towards him. "He's not my friend. Not these days at least." She emphasizes her point by blowing a cloud of smoke at the man with the fedora.
The fedora-wearing man turns towards Johanna, waving away the smoke that Johanna just blew in his face. "If I may be permitted to finish, Mrs. Constantine." He pauses for a second giving a pointed look at Johanna, who responds by just giving him the middle finger. "Thank you, now what our friend is trying to say is this. The boy." He gestures back towards the ball residing in the middle of the table, which shows the boy looking around on his skateboard, as he skates past the overhead trees. "The boy shows a great affinity for good or evil, for magic or science. And it's our job to channel that force of his towards good, and hopefully magic as well."
The fourth figure, this one a man dressed in a white trench coat scoffs. His eyes are hidden behind the red lenses of his sunglasses. "I still say we should just kill the boy, end it here and now. As righteous souls, it's our responsibility to terminate and end the matter now, before it can fall into the wrong hands." He raised his hands to use air quotes around the word righteous, highlighting his dislike for the entire situation.
The blue-clad man glares at the man with the red glasses. His white eyes shone through the black mask covering his face. "There will be no killing, our role in this is to educate the child and offer him a choice."
The man with red glasses glares back at the man in blue, he slams his fist upon the table making the table shake due to its age and the ferocity with which he hit it. "Does one offer a rabid dog a choice? How about a bear stuck in a bear trap? What I'm offering is mercy to him."
The fedora-wearing man chimes in on the conversation. "That child isn't a dog E. He's a human child, a perfectly normal human child." The man clarifies his point, highlighting his defense of the child.
"Normal?" Johanna asks, the bickering between the group growing more and more as time passes. "Why can't we just leave well enough alone, if the child's magic then so be it, he'll figure that out himself, I don't see why we need to get involved."
The blue man turns towards Johanna, annoyance being shown on his face at the conflict she and E have been providing. "Constantine, if he is to choose the path of magic, he must do so responsibly. He must know enough about the labyrinth that is magic, to be able to navigate it." The man then gestures towards the fedora-clad man. "Besides, Occult has informed me we're not the only ones looking for the boy."
The man now identified as Occult nodded his head in agreement with the last unknown man. "The Cold Flame knows the boy exists, my sources are telling me that thankfully they haven't acted yet as they're still debating what course of action to take."
E scoffs with disdain, speaking to Occult he's barely able to hide his distrust of the man. "And how is it that you know this Occult? Do you commune with the forces of darkness?"
Occult returns the distrust with a look of boredom. "You're too paranoid E, you see traitors in every shadow. I have my sources, let's leave it at that." He emphasizes the end of his statement, highlighting his interest in ending the disagreement.
Johanna steps on the now dead cigarette, smashing it into the stone floor, grabbing the last cigarette from the beat-up box, she quickly lights it and inhales quickly, relishing in the taste. "Ironic isn't it?" She asks with a grin adorning her old and wrinkled face. "The only thing that we know for sure, is that we don't know anything for sure."
The blue man shoots her a scathing look, the silver adorning his necklace clattering as he steps closer to her. "That is a particularly foolish thing to say, Johanna Constantine. Light and Dark, Life and Death. These things are eternally certain."
The old woman holds her hands up in a placating manner, realizing the man's power over her. "All right, all right, I'm not gonna argue with you anymore. What is it that you're proposing we do?"
"We will enlighten the child." The blue man's voice radiates with power, highlighting the end of discussion amongst the gathered parties. "Show him what magic truly is, and under his power what it truly can become." The man paces around the table, his arms folded behind him, looking each of the other three in the eyes as he walks. "He has the potential to become the most powerful human mage of the current age." The man gestures to the crystal ball, now showing the preteen boy whooping and hollering as he launches his skateboard off a set of stairs, landing it without even wobbling. Watching that the man gains a small smirk as he sees it, then he gestures towards himself and the other three people in the room. "And it's up to us to make sure that he correctly chooses his future path. That is our mission, it's also our burden. Now are we all in agreement? Doctor Occult?" He asks the fedora-clad man.
The man nods towards the blue figure. "I agree, I'll show him the far lands."
The blue man then turns towards E, whose face still shows his anger at the situation behind his red glasses. "And Mr. E do you agree?"
The red-glass-clad man still looked angry as he looked around the room. "If you're too soft to dispose of him like you should, then I guess it's smart of you to educate him. I'll show him the end." Then as an afterthought, he quickly adds on. "You know, if he gets that far. "
The blue man turns towards the last occupant of the room, the old woman. "And what say you, Constantine? Do you agree?"
The old woman drags this out, relishing the few seconds of control she gets of the situation by taking one last long drag of her last cigarette. "Yeah yeah, I agree. I'll show him the current players on the field, and give him an idea of the starting point."
The blue man nods to himself, happy with the agreement of the room. "Then we agree, let's go."
e leads the way out of the room, quickly followed by both Doctor Occult and Mr. E, Johanna stays behind as she begins to rub the rest of the cigarette on the table, snuffing it out. "Well then." She says to herself as she watches them leave. "Just what the world's been waiting for, the charge of the Trenchcoat Brigade."
The blue man's voice booms one last time through the room. "I heard that Constantine."
The woman quickly moves to catch up with the rest, she mutters under her breath as she leaves the room. "Bloody wanker." She insults the man in blue as she shuts the door behind her, the door leading to the old room shimmering for a second before dissipating out of sight.
It's me back on my bullshit bringing you all another new story. This is just a teaser for what's to come, as I'm going away on vacation for the next 2 weeks and will resume updating once I'm back.
As always thank you to Silver for enabling me and all my shitty ideas. I hope you all enjoyed the start of what I hope will be something good.
If you want to contact me, I'm available through the EL Discord.
discord. gg/ elibrary (Just remove the spaces)