"John Constantine."
The Watcher looked down as in the dead of night, the mystical sorcerer of the dark arts was making his way down a crooked alley and made his way into a bar.
Then a few seconds later, a giant fireball throws a man out of the bar. He is thrown through concrete and pipes, followed by a demonic form being thrown out of the man's body and then thrown into the air.
"Mystical master of the dark arts. He sticks his fingers in the shadows and drives the demons away."
John then exits the hole that was made by the demonic force he throws out of his human form and takes a swig of his whisky. As he was making his way down the alley, he was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of people who were carrying rifles to kill him.
"And that easily causes a man to make more than a few enemies."
John however didn't seem scared or spooked by the appearance of everyone and immediately went into action as he lit his palms up with flames and prepared to defend himself.
"That's what led us to today. Where he seems to make enemies with the wrong people."
The Watcher then looked down and knew that this was going to be a whole lot worse before they got better. Cisco walked into the room with a groan, his eyes covered with sunglasses and groaning as he walked into the labs. Johnny was right beside him and it turned out that he ended up sleeping over at Cisco's by mistake.
Ben chuckled when he saw the two of them enter the building. "Man, you two look like hell."
"I feel like hell." Cisco groaned as they walked into the main room. "Okay, what was so important that I needed to come in on my sick day?"
Then when he entered the main room, he saw Susan, and Bette, and just about everyone was there except for the kids who weren't around since they were sent to school. Janet wasn't called in as she was busy covering for all of them with Peter thinking this was going to be a whole day thing.
Then he saw John Constantine and was instantly confused again. "Who is that?"
"Gang, this is John Constantine," Peter said as he then showed them his business card. "Said he's here with a problem."
"What kind of problem would he need us for?" Cisco asked and noticed Peter wearing his Spider-Man outfit. "And what are you wearing your suit for?"
"He put it on me." Peter gestured to Constantine. "With magic."
"Magic?" Caitlin was not buying that. "Seriously? You are saying this guy is a wizard?"
"Oh, doubtful love," Constantine called out to Caitlin. "I am an accomplished warlock, an expert of the occult, and a master of exorcism."
"So, he's a nerdy wizard?" Johnny asked, taking a sip from his coffee.
Constantine decided to show off a little as he then chuckled and saw Johnny's cup. "Exarsere flammas."
Johnny then shrieked when his cup burst into flames, causing him to drop it and spill it everywhere. "What the hell?"
"That is just a little something I picked up on my travels," Constantine tells him.
"Yeah, he did that to me too, just changing me out of my clothes into Spider-Man. And he said he already knew who I was." Peter confessed to them.
"Well, I used a tracking spell to try and locate the only people I could think of to help me. And considering everything that you and your boys dealt with a few years back against the Inhumans and Reed Richards, you seemed like the perfect candidates to help." Constantine explained his reasoning for tracking them down.
"What is it that you need help with?" Susan wonders, choosing to believe him.
"You see, us warlocks are a tight communion and there aren't that many of us," Constantine explained as he put his hands in his coat pockets. "So, when something starts to happen to the communion, all of us catch wind of it pretty quickly."
"So, what happened?" Peter asked.
"Getting to that part, mate," Constantine promises. "We have been hearing rumors of something going down. Some mystical user out there hunting down the rest of us. At first, it was basically 'May the best man win'. But then something happened."
2 DAYS AGO:
John Constantine was deeply engrossed in an exorcism at a mental institution. The subject of his attention was a young girl who was believed to be mentally disturbed, but in truth, she was possessed by a demonic entity. Constantine was determined to free her from the clutches of the demon and had been performing the exorcism for several hours, drawing on all his arcane knowledge and abilities.
As he neared the end of the ritual, he poured all his energy into the final incantation. With a burst of mystical energy, the demon was expelled from the girl's body, and she was finally free of its malevolent influence. As Constantine emerged from the institution, he relied on his magical prowess to evade the attention of the guards who had spotted him.
However, just as he was about to step outside, he was nearly struck by a sudden surge of energy. Acting quickly, he leaped out of harm's way and turned to face a group of strange-looking robots that had surrounded him. These robots had peculiar faces that resembled iron masks placed on top of their android bodies. They had their weapons trained on Constantine, and he knew he had to act fast to avoid their deadly fire.
At first, Constantine tried to use an invisibility spell to escape, but he quickly realized that this wouldn't work. Other sorcerers had already tried this and had been shot and sent flying into cars. He knew he had to come up with a more creative solution.
"So, you want to play, do ya?" Constantine taunted, trying to buy himself some time. He knew that he wouldn't be able to use his normal tricks against these androids since most of them required human senses to distract them and escape.
But luckily, there was one spell that only required him. Constantine muttered a teleportation spell under his breath while the robots were advancing on him. As they approached, he used a blazing inferno to cover his tracks and vanished, teleporting away to safety.
CURRENTLY:
"Putting two and two wasn't too difficult," Constantine tells the team. "Then used that tracker spell to find this one making his way down the street with some blonde last night."
Susan immediately jumped as she looked over towards Peter when she heard that. "What blonde?"
"Uh..." Peter realized he never explained what happened completely last night. "Right. I never told you what happened. Last night, I was out with the guys when this girl approached and wanted to talk."
"Back to the point at hand." Constantine interrupted their moment. "Figured that you guys being a big scientist team, you might know why I am under attack by murderous robots."
"Robots?" Peter questioned as he then remembered something. "Cisco, could this have to do with that HYDRA base we raided with Jessica?"
"The one down in Latveria taken over by S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Cisco asked.
"Call Sharon, see if anything came of those androids I saw in that basement. And call Jessica, maybe she knows something or heard something about where they came from," Peter asked of him. "That might have been where they came from or even where HYDRA got them from." Then he noticed the sour note in Susan's eyes and knew he needed to explain last night. "I promise, I was in and out, and I was on my best behavior. I was in and out, I dropped her off at home and left. That's when I ran into this guy."
"He's right." Cisco agreed. "He only talked, and admitted he was seeing someone."
"I can vouch for that," Ben confirmed.
Susan chuckled and saw how worried Peter looked. "Hey, I am just messing. I know you." She then gave him a kiss to calm his nerves. Also wrapped her arms around him. "You're way too slow to make the first move."
"I mean, it did take you two a full year to get together." Bette agreed with Susan.
"So, who was she?" Susan asked.
"Ah, her name's Amora," Peter tells Susan. "She said she moved to Central City just recently and doesn't have many friends." Peter recapped as he looked to Susan, Caitlin, and Bette. "And I even left her my number to see if she wanted to hang out with you girls sometime. She's pretty... interesting." He quickly noticed the look in Susan's eyes. "Look, just meet her, and you'll see what I mean."
Susan rolled her eyes and chuckled. "You're such a softie." She then pecked his lips once again. "We'll look into meeting this enchanting woman later, I'll go and call Sharon."
Peter nodded when he got a phone call. He took out his phone and saw it was the school. "It's the school."
"Why would the school be calling you?" Susan asked in worry. "Oh, god, do you think someone kidnapped the kids?"
"No, come on, even criminals live by a code," Peter assured her. "They don't go after kids. Electro once surrendered so he wouldn't harm a kid that jumped into the fight."
"Reed kidnapped them." Susan reminded him.
"That's different, Reed was a psychopath. Electro and the others are criminals." Peter replied and pecked her lips before turning to take the call. "Principle Hardesty. What can I do for you?" Listening to the contents of the call, Peter went from happy to shocked. "Wait, what?"
Peter told the team he was going to need to step out so he could go to the school. Susan wanted to go with him, but Peter assured her he had it handled, and she needed to get in touch with Sharon. Peter made it to the school and made his way to Principal Jennifer Hardesty's office. When he entered, he found Valeria sitting in the chair across from her desk. Luckily Susan listed Peter as one of the emergency contacts, so when she was busy, Peter could listen in as a substitute father figure.
"Mr. Parker. Thank you for coming." Hardesty tells Peter as she shakes his hand. "I'm sorry to call you away, this early as well."
"No, it's fine. It's...slow at the office today." Peter instantly lied. It's his go-to factor. Besides he wasn't going to get into this whole rant about how there's a sorcerer in his place of work and where he sleeps. "So, what exactly happened? You said Valeria got into a fight? Like...she was bullied?"
"Well, no, actually, Val here started it." Hardesty was sorry to say.
Peter looked over to Valeria in shock when he heard that. "Val?" The young girl looked up to Peter at the sound of her name. "You started a fight?"
Valeria shrugged. "I wasn't trying to."
"How could you-" Peter decided not to very into that right now. "Hardesty, I am sorry about this. Val has never done anything like this before, and I'm just as shocked."
"I can see that, Mr. Parker as we're also aware this is her first offense on school property," Hardesty replied. "We're going to let her off with a warning, due to the...circumstances of the incident."
"Circumstances? What circumstances are those?" Peter wasn't sure he was following.
"They said I don't have a real dad," Valeria confessed why she got into a fight. Peter looked over and was surprised to hear the children at this school were talking like that. Yet again, all they'd have to do is overhear their parents and have to notice Peter when he'd come around during one of the many parent-teacher conferences. "They said you aren't my dad."
Peter sighed and he knew that today was going to be a long day. "Well, I can remember this from when I was in school, she let off with a warning and I guess suspended for the day?"
"That's not the normal procedure, but I do have the girl's parents hounding me so I had to do something or deal with a lawsuit," Hardesty tells him.
"Alright, come on, Val," Peter said as he stood up and sighed. "We need to discuss this with your mother."
"Okay," Val said as she grabbed her bag and left.
"I can't believe it." Peter scoffed as they walked out of the school. "You? fighting? I mean, I could believe your brother fighting, but not you, Val."
"I had to do something." Valeria defended, not knowing that's not right. "She wouldn't shut up."
"Because they knew it would push you." Peter passed on some wisdom from his youth. "Val, people will do anything to get a rise out of others and get them in trouble. That's why they said I'm not your dad."
"But you are my dad!" Valeria stated as she clung to his knee, which was where she reached.
Peter remembered when she was so little and when she was learning to crawl and stand on her own she would cling to his leg like it was nothing. Peter couldn't help but smile and kneel down to her height. "Hey, look...I know I'm your dad, and you know that. But they don't want to understand what we say or believe. Your father was a scary man, and he might have birthed you, but I raised you." He then took her head in his hands so he could move her hair out of her eyes. "You're young, sweet, beautiful, caring, and intelligent. You're smarter than them, so show it to them by not getting into a fight."
Val nodded and pulled Peter into a hug now she could reach his shoulders. "I'm happy you're my dad."
Peter chuckled as he pulled Val closer. "And I couldn't have asked for a more amazing daughter." He then sighed as he stood up. "Alright, come on, let's get- oof!"
"I'm so sorry!" A voice called, causing Peter to look and see it was Amora from last night, now wearing sunglasses and wearing a green hat. Her dress was replaced with a green sundress which stopped above her knees and a long-sleeved dark green jacket. "I'm such a klutz this...oh, Peter!"
peter was surprised how they ended up running into each other, but then he realized that the apparent he dropped her off at actually wasn't far from their location. "Amora, hi."
"Oh, it's great running into you," Amora said as she hugged him. "I was gonna call and apologize for my behavior last night, I might have had too much to drink."
Peter chuckled and patted her on the back. "It's okay, I had a fun time."
"Uh, dad?" Valeria called, getting the adults to look at the kid. "Who is this?"
"Oh, yeah sorry, Val, this is Amora, a friend of Daddy's." Peter introduced them. "Amora, this is Valeria. She's Susan's daughter." He figured it would be less confusing to explain their relationship from the start. "What brings you out? Figured you'd be resting your hangover."
"Out on a coffee run," Amora said as she gestured towards a coffee shop around the corner. "Wanna...join me for a moment?" She then looked down at Valeria. "You could bring her along. I'll spring for some breakfast for the kid."
valeria seemed to be excited to get something not fast and rushed from either home or school for breakfast. "Can we? Can we?" She asked Peter.
"Oh, I don't know," Peter said as he gestured to the car and Valeria. "I gotta get her home. I have a...project that requires my supervision. It's been a hell of a morning."
"Oh come on," Amora said as she reached over and placed a hand on Peter's shoulder. "One cup of coffee? You're really gonna make me drink all by myself in this strange city?"
Peter is a little hesitant but suddenly he gets that warm comfortable feeling he felt last night when he was around Amora. He wasn't sure if his mind was getting fuzzy, or if he was just tired from being up all night. "Oh, why not? I could use a pick me up."
Back at the Foundation, Susan was standing in front of a hologram projection of Sharon who was in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. She was just going over the information that they received from the HYDRA base the team raided last year.
"We've been pouring the information on the facility, and we did recover some old blueprints, but nothing resembling actual robotic parts," Sharon reported in. "I'm not entirely sure if that helps or not."
"That could mean either there weren't any robots, or they weren't there when you guys arrived." Susan sighed. "Anything else you can get?"
"Doesn't seem like much," Sharon commented. "But it does seem like they were trying to give these robots...abilities. Or the capability of copying powers."
"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Susan whispered. "Alright, well, we'll contact you with whatever information we get."
"Alright, tell Peter I said hi," Sharon said as they shut down.
Susan sighed as she made her way over to the main room. "Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't going to be any help with these robots. You guys got anything?"
"Well, we've been looking into this list of names that Constantine gave us," Cisco admitted the names running through a facial recognition scanner. "Merlin, and a few others."
"Strange thing is there actually might be a connection," Caitlin admitted, even though she's still skeptical about magic being real. "It does seem like all of these people have been reported as gone missing or even disappearing. Nowhere to go. None of their relatives or friends have heard of them. Not saying that they're really magicians or warlocks or whatever, but we do have a missing people case. Multiple."
"I don't know why you are so close-minded about the idea of magic, love," Constantine tells her.
"Let's just say because I did my research," Caitlin stated and even pulled up a photo of John Constantine in an institution. "One older sister, both parents deceased, and according to your report, you actually summoned a demon that dragged a child to Hell. I can believe you opened an inner dimensional portal, especially after our whole black hole incident. But to Hell? I don't."
Then they started to get some alerts on their computers. Bette was quick to make her way over to take a look at them. "We have reports on...robots tearing up downtown."
"Okay, that's just a coincidence, right?" Ben asked.
"There is no such thing as coincidence," Susan muttered in concern. "Suit up, I'll call Peter and tell him to meet us there."
Back with Peter, he was currently relaxing in Jitters with Amora and Valeria eating a blueberry muffin she was given. Peter had to admit that considering everything he went through and the new concerns on his shoulders, a second alone to just have some coffee was a nice change. Especially after everything with the black hole and then having Constatine dropped on him.
"You're right. This is exactly what I needed." Peter told Amora with relief. "It's been one thing after another, having a second to just relax is what I needed."
"Well, it seems like you could use it," Amora stated as she took a drink, removing her sweater and sunglasses. She then looked over to Valeria who was focusing on her food, not listening to the adults. "So, you look after your girlfriend's kids often?"
"I mean, they are more like my kids in every sense except for DNA," Peter explained to her. "They look up to me, and I cherish them as if they were mine."
Amora nodded and saw that was sweet of him. "That is kind of you. I always wanted kids of my own, but... let's just say the right guy never came around."
"Really?" Peter was surprised to hear that. "You never dated?"
"No. I almost had a relationship with a guy who was a bit too... mischievous, and was not someone to settle down with." Amora admitted as she looked into Peter's eyes and he just found them enchanting. He felt her leg reaching across and caressing his own leg, making him wonder what she was doing. "I really want to settle down with someone who's more...caring. Sweet. Smart."
"I don't get it. You're fun and very beautiful." Peter complimented her, not sure why he hadn't mentioned her leg touching his. "Who wouldn't want to be your boyfriend? Or girlfriend?"
Amora chuckled. "No, trust me, I am not one for the girl angle, I am looking for a good man." Then she looked over to Valeria. "You seem to share a bond."
"I guess I just have a knack with kids." Peter shrugged, remembering all of the other kids he had adopted and taken in over time. "And end up helping them a lot."
"Guess you just do have that natural charm," Amora said, leaning over to touch his hand. "I bet a lot of people are drawn to you."
Peter wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt so relaxed around her that he didn't mind much. Valeria however noticed that something was indeed going on, but when she looked over towards Amora there was a quick hint of a green glow, but not enough for her to take notice. Then all of a sudden, she felt like she needed to go to the bathroom and got up to leave.
"I need the bathroom," Valeria said as she walked off to head that way.
Amora smiled and was glad to be alone with Peter. "So, is your girlfriend going to be busy?"
"Susan is...working on a project," Peter confirmed.
Amora rose and moved to stand beside Peter, casting spells to prevent onlookers' stares. She gently stroked his arm. Although Peter sensed something amiss, her allure was so compelling that it didn't matter to him.
"You're a handsome guy, Peter," Amora said as she reached up to hold his shoulders. "You have a kind heart." She reached over and grabbed his hand. She led Peter's hand over to herself and had him touch her now bare thigh with her dress riling up. "You care for everyone." She then leaned over and her breath was touching his lips. "You deserve someone to care for you."
Then Amora squeezes Peter's thigh and he squeezes her thigh and says so only she hears that she is very soft and warm. Amora reached over so she was now sitting on Peter's lap.
"Hold onto me. Embrace this feeling we share." She didn't say it as a suggestion, more like a command but with a hint of genuine love and care.
Peter grabs onto her waist and starts to rub her waist, then her curvy hips, and then her soft butt which he grabs which causes Amora to slightly moan and smile. "Your body... it's soft, warm, and amazing." Peter kept complimenting, his eyes slowly glowing green.
"And you are someone who deserves someone just as amazing as you," Amora says with a loving smile while starting to slowly massage Peter's arms she gets all the way up to his neck where she wraps her arms around him like a serpent and kisses him on the cheek which makes Peter feel like he is on cloud 9.
Then Amora leans in and pucker her lips and Peter also starts to do the same, he doesn't understand why he wants to kiss her but for some reason, it feels right, and he wants to. His mind was clouded. Something was keeping him from seeing how this wasn't right since he was with Susan. He loved Susan, but something about Amora was just...enchanting and familiar. Peter wasn't sure if it was her curvy soft body, her golden hair, her amazing scent, or all of it altogether
"You deserve-"
Amora was interrupted and Peter started to wake up when his alert went off. It was somehow luring him back to reality. Then Amora sees he's snapping back to reality she and breaks off her enchantment with a disappointing sigh. Amora jumped off and moved over to the seat beside her. Peter took to his phone, almost like he awoke from a daydream, and looked to see an alert.
"Oh, no. I gotta get going." Peter said as he got up and saw Valeria coming back. "Look, I'll give you a call. Susan seemed interested in meeting you."
"Great." Amora smiled but beneath that smile showed dislike and hate, not really wanting to get to know Susan, but she stopped Peter from leaving as she touched his shoulder, sending a shiver down Peter. "It sucks that you have to go we were having so much fun."
Peter didn't even remember the whole scenario and didn't see her do anything wrong with him so he decided to want to hang out with Amora more since he did seem to have an enjoyable time "Well, we can make this a regular thing. How about we hang out regularly and stuff? How about tomorrow or the day after?"
Amora smiled and knew it was perfect for her. "That would be great. I'll call you."
She then reached over and kissed Peter on the lips. When Amora kissed him, he felt very happy and deep down didn't want her to stop." 'She smells so nice, and her lips are so soft. How is she still single?' he thought to himself.
Peter then realized what was happening and snapped himself off from the kiss. " "Uhh yeah. Well, see you soon, Amora."
Amora smiled as she crossed her legs, allowing her dress to rile up on her. "See you soon Peter."
Peter then noticed as he was leaving, Amora blew him a kiss as he rushed to get Valeria and leave. Valeria was making her way back when Peter moved them toward the door in a hurry. When Peter made it outside, he then made his way to the Future Foundation and left Valeria before racing to get changed. He knew his friends were already going to be engaged in distress and needed to hurry.
Amora only continued to stare over at the door while looking over her shoulder, the Watcher was the only one who saw everything and remembered everything.
"Apologies but how did I forget to talk about the beautiful Amora last time?" The Watcher explained. "Maybe even I was entranced by her presence and beauty? Amora the Enchantress. The goddess of magic and deemed as the most beautiful women in all the nine realms in all universes. With her magic and incredible beauty she is a force to be reckoned with and could have the heart of any man or women in the universe. In almost every universe Amora longs for the heart of, Thor the God of Thunder, but in this universe she longs for the heart of Peter Parker. Although it may seem that this love from your and many others views may seem like it comes from an evil place, there is a much deeper place this love comes from which will show how this Amora is much different from any other version in the multiverse. But that is a story for another day."
Downtown descended into chaos when an unusual robot, akin to the one Constantine had mentioned, started causing a disturbance. It wasn't causing destruction per se, but its apparent search for something alarmed the onlookers. Yuri, alongside Eddie Thawne, was the first officer to arrive at the scene. Exiting their vehicle, they moved toward the commotion and were met by several unfamiliar robots.
"I miss the old days." Yuri sighed as she approached the robots.
"Uh, what exactly is the drill for a situation like this?" Eddie asks.
"You know surprisingly this is my first time approaching robots," Yuri replied sarcastically. She sighed and approached the robot. "Well, if I know my sci-fi, these robots are here with a purpose. Let's see if they'll tell us."
"Great. I'll wait behind you because I know how these situations are known to go." Eddie commented as he stayed behind Yuri.
"Excuse me!" Yuri called out to the robots, getting them to face her. She didn't notice they were running facial recognition on her, looking for someone. "Hi. I'm Detective Watanabe. May I ask what you are doing in my city?"
The robot only kept staring at her and made sure she wasn't a match in its facial recognition. When it claimed she wasn't who they were looking for, it raised Its palm, revealing a blaster of sorts in its hand, and fired on her. Luckily for Yuri, at the last second, Susan created a forcefield and dragged it back towards the cop car and saved the detectives. Then the entire team all came out of the shadows just in time, Ben, Johnny, and Susan all ready to save their city.
"Hang back, detectives," Susan said as they looked back to the robots who all scanned their faces. "We've got this."
"Yeah, we can handle a few tin cans," Ben said with a chuckle, running over towards one. "It's clobb-
The robot turned its attention towards Ben and fired the weapon that seemed to have been a sonic cannon that sent Ben flying and even crashing into a wall.
Susan gasped at the shocking revelation, whilst Johnny only ended up laughing. "Oh, that was too funny. You should have seen-"
"Johnny!" Susan cried as she shielded her brother from another sonic blast. But the blast was so strong that it caused Susan to fall to her knees and grab her ears in pain. "Oh, it hurts!"
The robot then approached the two of them and was about to use the sonic cannon again when webbing latched onto its back. Peter had arrived yanked the robot backward and threw it into the air. From the air, Peter immediately went to work and used his mechanical arms to lay down a strike attack that ripped the armored bot to pieces.
"Sorry, I'm late," Peter said as he helped Susan and Johnny to their feet. "I was down the block when I got the alert."
"Oh, man! It's a good thing you arrived when you did!" Johnny cried out.
"Joh- dude, you're speaking very loud," Peter told him.
"Oh, am I!?" Johnny cried sounding sarcastically. "I guess that's what happens when you get hit by...whatever the hell that was!"
"Yeah, what was that? These readings show that they were hit with a high frequency." Caitlin commented.
"Sonic pulse cannon," Peter said as he walked over and picked up the arm with the canon. "But...that shouldn't be possible. This is something only the government has access to. Even Jennifer kept it from going to market."
"So, we looking into a hijacking?" Cisco asks.
Peter looked over to the robot's head and wondered something. "Or something much, much worse."
Peter removed the robot's face to examine the underlying components and found numerous computer chips and standard parts. However, he noticed what appeared to be a camera actively recording everything. It seemed that the systems were just beginning to fail, and the robot was starting to power down.
"Dooooooooommmmmmmmmmm..."
"That...was creepy," Bette replied.
"Yeah, that was definitely creepy," Peter confirmed as he then reached in and pulled out its CPU. "Let's see what secrets you hold."
Peter was now looking into what he found in the robot's head at the Future Foundation. He also brought the whole thing along in pieces for Bette and Cisco to play around with figuring out where the pieces came from. They definitely were from the HYDRA base they raided, but something was different. Susan was currently talking to Valeria as she caught wind of how she was suspended from school for the rest of the day.
"I don't get it," Peter said as she looked over the CPU. "This coding, it's far beyond anything I've seen. It's like it...adapting. This robot was designed to watch its targets and learn how they fight."
"So, what does that mean?" Ben asks.
"Short answer, I have a feeling this was just a Phase 1 robot." Peter recapped.
"So, we're looking at more of these things making an appearance?" Bette asked with a sigh. "There goes the neighborhood."
"But it looks like I at least broke through a few firewalls to see what they were here for," Peter said and showed it in a hologram form.
The blue pixels began to transform and turn into the face and body of John Constantine, confirming he indeed was being hunted.
"Oh, look at that," Constantine commented. "I was telling the truth."
"Where were you?" Cisco wonders.
"I went out for a little stroll, mate," Constantine replied.
"Okay, maybe he's being hunted but that doesn't mean magic is real." Caitlin seemed still skeptical about the idea. "I mean, he could just be a Metahuman or even Inhuman."
"Well, maybe a bit of seeing how I work can fix that skepticism of yours, love," Constantine said as he then rubbed his hands together.
"Don't call me love." Caitlin was getting sick of the nickname.
"I have helped myself to your facilities. Getting what I need to catch our mystical user."
"Wait, what?" Johnny asks. "What exactly did you take?"
"The usual ingredients needed to conduct a spell like this," Constantine stated as he took out a small vial. "Eye of a bat. The blood of a weeping widow. Locks of a virgin are one of the main ones."
That seemed to confuse everyone as they wondered whose locks he could have taken. But Constantine already started to get to work. His spell transforms into a glowing orange version of Earth, which then begins to zoom in and make its way to Central City.
"What are you looking for?" Peter asks.
"Well, if we're looking for someone hunting sorcerers, then we might be looking for any powerful sorcerers in the area," Constantine replied and got to work. He then zoomed in what looked to be a normal museum in Central City. "There you are."
"Should we really be listening to him?" Caitlin asks.
Peter shrugged. "It's worth a shot, Cait. And if there's someone with adapting robots, that's going to be a big problem."
"You mean...the Doombots?" Cisco proclaimed, getting them to look at him confused. "Come on, the robot literally said "doom" as it was shutting down. What if that's their commander?"
"Doom?" Johnny chuckled. "I doubt someone would name their kid Doom."
"You never know," Peter stated. "Come on, let's check this out."
In the museum, someone was wandering around with a hood up to hide their face as they snuck around. She stayed hidden as a security guard was strolling through the room and keeping an eye out for anyone.
When he left the room, the young girl was sneaking around when her head started to glow red. She groaned and clutched her head, trying to stop whatever was happening. She winced and grabbed her head, watching as the red glow simmered down and vanished.
When it did so, the hooded figure kept making its way around the room. Finally, it reached a case that was holding a mystical artifact. But when they looked at it, they groaned and smacked the glass in anger.
"Hey, there," Peyer called, causing the hooded figure to spin around to see the Fantastic Four. John Constantine wanted to see if they could deal with it, not wanting to advertise himself if this was indeed who was after him. "I'm Spider-Man. These are my friends. Who are you?"
The hooded figure didn't waste any time and turned to start running away. Peter saw she seemed to be running for the shadows, but that's when Johnny started to light up the room with his flames. When the hooded figure saw that they couldn't escape through the flames, they turned back to them. Susan tried to encase the person in a force field, but to their shock, they phased through the field and black energy seemed to form in their hands, and they heard a female voice chanting.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" She called out.
Then what looked like a gigantic black shadowy bird came looming over them. Johnny shrieked and tried to attack the shadow, but all it did was end up grabbing him and slamming Johnny into the ground. Susan created a forcefield to try and stop it, but her powers didn't enemies seem to slow it down as the shadow ended up only passing through her forcefield and circling her.
"Uh, guys? This isn't working!" Susan called out.
"Yeah, you know what?" Johnny cried as he shot fire at the shadow, managing to get out of its grasp. "I don't care what Caitlin says, magic is real! I buy it now!"
Ben groaned as he tried to punch the darkness, only to have his hand eaten by the shadow. He was unharmed, but it was managing to hold him back.
Peter managed to shoot several webs to try and defend himself from the shadows when he finally got an opening. "Torch, give me some light!"
Johnny did just that and caused himself to create a bright light that managed to defend against the shadows. Peter then shot so many webs and yanked the hooded figure's arms down before yanking the hood off, revealing her face to Peter.
She is a very slender young girl with Caucasian skin; violet eyes; and somewhat thick eyebrows. She has straight, angled, violet hair and a prominent widow's peak. She also has a red gemstone outlined in black located in the center of her forehead.
Peter and her locked eyes for a quick moment, Peter was shocked when he saw that the person they were fighting was a young girl. "You're...you're just a kid."
"Yeah, what's it to you?" She asked as her eyes began to glow red. "You just going to kidnap me like all the others?"
"What?" Peter was confused by what she was talking about. "You thin- wait, no, we're not here to ahe, you. We thought you were here to harm us."
"Why would I do that?" She asks, preparing to strike.
"Look, how about we calm down?" Peter saw she was still attacking his friends. "You call off your...shadows?"
She looked over to the creatures and with a wave of her hand, and some dark light coming from her palm, the shadows released his friends and returned to the girl. Peter was relieved to see all of them seemed to be unharmed.
"So, who are you, kid?" Peter asked her.
"My name is Raven." She introduced herself. "If you're not the ones who were trying to kidnap me, then who are you?"
"What, have you been living under a rock the last few years?" Johnny scoffed.
"Something like that," Raven muttered.
Suddenly, a fireball soared through the air and struck Raven, knocking her to the ground. As she skidded across the surface, she tasted blood on her lips. Peter swiftly caught her, his mind racing to understand the chaos, and turned to see who had hurled the fireball. It was John Constantine.
"John!" Peter called in anger. "What are you doing?"
"Containing the threat!" John cried, starting to chant something none of them could understand.
"It was a lie?" Raven asked as she looked up in anger towards Peter. "I thought you weren't going to hurt me!"
"No, no, no, it's okay. Just trust us." Peter tried to contain the situation.
"I don't trust you!" Raven cried as her eyes glowed red yet again. "I don't know you!" Her arms started to glow black as she summoned darkness to surround her. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
And then, a veil of darkness descended, plunging them all into its depths. There was a brief silence before Johnny released a scream of terror that pierced the air.
"Johnny, calm down!" Susan groaned.
"I will not calm down! You know I'm afraid of the dark!" Johnny cried back.
"Relax, Johnny, just light up." Peter tried to soothe him.
"I am!" Johnny replied.
"Whoa, Torch is already light, and yet everything is still pitch black?" Ben was surprised to say. "Wow, that's some serious darkness."
"Yep, and I know only one kind of demon capable of casting such a powerful spell." Conststine called in.
"Oh, no! You don't even get to speak!" Susan silenced him quickly. "This is your fault!"
"My fault?" Constantine sounded offended.
"Well, you did come out of nowhere at the worst possible time." Ben agreed with her. "Web-Head seemed to be de-escalating the situation, and you came and blew it up."
"I came here to help you stop that bloody Devil," Constantine replied.
She's not a devil, she's a kid." Peter replied in defense of Raven. "A scared kid who seems to be being hunted by the same robots that we're hunting you!"
"Uh, out of curiosity, how long do you think it'll take for either this spell to wear off or even the cops to arrive?" Susan wonders.
Then finally, the lights returned, as dim as they were, and Johnny was finally visible in the museum with light finally returning. He was curled up in a corner while trying to calm himself while the rest were relieved to be able to see. Peter walked over and saw there were a few bits of blood on the ground, revealing they at least had a lead to start searching for this girl with.
Returning to the Foundation, Peter and the team were staring at Constantine while Caitlin was running the blood sample that they found from the young girl to find out who she was.
"What were you thinking?" Peter asked Constantine.
"You were getting your arses handed to you before I showed up, how about a little appreciation?" Constantine asked them.
"You attacked an innocent girl." Peter retorted. "She was defending herself, she thought we were going to hurt her. Before we could defend ourselves, you showed up and attacked."
"That was no girl," Constantine stated in disagreement. "No, those powers, the Diamond...that was not an innocent girl."
"What, this?" Cisco brought up Spider-Man's camera footage to show the Diamond Peter saw when he got close to the girl. "We're running it through every museum database and any known relics to see what it is."
"That's the Bloodstone of the demon Trigon," Constantine informed them. "It is one only known to its descendants."
"So, she's the daughter of a demon?" Caitlin wasn't following. "Yeah, I doubt it."
"Yeah, I might have to disagree with you, Caity," Bette said as she saw the results. "Uh, I got the sample back from that blood that Peter brought in, and we don't have a real match, but we found a match for a close match." She then pulled up a photo of a woman who looked older than the team themselves. "This is Angela Roth."
"That's her," Peter stated as he saw the similarities. "Well, not exactly. But that's...that's her. It looks almost exactly like her, just...older."
"Doesn't look like a demon to me," Johnny stated. "She actually looks kinda hot."
"Ugh, Johnny." Susan scoffed at her brother.
"She's too old to be the sorcerer you met," Cisco replied.
"So, we think the sorcerer we met is her daughter?" Susan took a guess.
"Says here she indeed had a daughter," Bette confirmed for them. "One child, but...she died during the time of her birth. Mother died, too."
Peter looked over to the photo of Angela and wondered what happened. Nobody else was there at the museum, at least from what they saw. This is more than likely a cover story for wherever Angela went. This had to be her daughter.
"Okay, well, we know why those robots came after her, so it's more than likely to assume they're going to be willing to try and go after her again," Peter told them.
"It would be helpful if we could find where she is." Cisco sighed as he got to work. "Sometimes I wished I had an ESP power or something."
"Well, whatever we need to do, we need to find her," Peter stated. "Those robots are going to be after her again." He then looked over to Constantine. "Demon child or not, I don't think she's behind all of this."
Susan then approached and saw Peter was thinking something. "What is it?"
"I don't know." Peter sighed. "This girl is here, and from what we heard, she's definitely here on her own."
"And if this is her daughter and not Angela herself, what do you think happened?" Susan wonders.
"From how she reacted, she seems to be used to being on her own." Peter knew how it felt to be alone in the world. "Meaning that she wants to be alone. She's used to it."
"Well, if you were on your own, had nowhere to go, and nobody to turn to, where would you go?" Susan wonders.
Peter looked over at the picture of Angela and got a possible idea.
Raven was currently hiding at a graveyard in the city. She wasn't sure how long she had, but she wanted to spend it where she could feel some love. She looked and saw the gravestone for her mother. She knew her mother wasn't buried here, but it was as close as she could feel her again.
Peter made his way over in normal attire. He didn't want to come off as threatening a second time, considering he just wanted to talk. He approached Raven and she seemed to have sensed who he was, maybe something to do with her abilities or maybe she just figured he didn't hide himself as well as he thought.
"Hey, kid." Peter greeted her.
"How'd you find me?" Raven wonders.
"You bled a little when our sorcerer friend attacked you," Peter explained. "Found your mother, and..."
"Your friends waiting for me somewhere?" Raven asked, looking around.
"No, I'm alone," Peter promises. "We just want to help."
"Is that what you call what happened earlier?" Raven asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, I know we didn't make the best first impression, but...look, we are trying to figure out who's after you."
"Why do you care?" Raven questions.
"Because I've been where you are," Peter promised, looking over to her mother's grave. "I've been alone. Nowhere to go and nowhere to go to. Nobody to turn to. We just want to help."
"How?" Raven asks. "I've gone everywhere. Everywhere I go, those...things keep chasing me. No matter how hard I fight, how far I run, they are always there."
"Maybe it's time to stop running," Peter said as he held a hand for her to take. "And start asking for help."
Raven wasn't sure if she could trust him, but felt no ill intent from him. He felt genuine and did indeed want to help. She then reached over and grabbed his hand.
Later on, Raven and Peter are in the elevator together and heading towards the Future Foundation's top floors. When they exited the elevator, they saw a lot of the team staring at them as they entered the room.
"Guys, this is...what's your name, kid?" Peter just reloaded he never asked her name.
"Well...I've been called Raven." Raven introduced herself to them. "I guess that could be considered my name."
"Raven? Hmm." Cisco muttered.
"Hi." Raven gave them a friendly wave.
"For a daughter of the devil, she doesn't look...devilish," Bette commented.
"Oh, so you...you know about that?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, our sorcerer told us," Peter explained.
Constantine then made his way into the room and froze when he saw Raven. "Oh, should I...?"
"No!" Almost everyone yelled.
Constantine shrugged and then walked off. "Whatever. When this goes wrong, call me."
Peter sighed and saw Constantine left them. "Hungry?"
"I guess," Raven muttered.
Peter walked Raven towards the kitchen when he stopped to ask Susan something. "Where's the kids?"
"Your aunt picked them up for the weekend," Susan explained. "Said they had plans to meet up with the Allen's."
"Oh, right." Peter nodded.
Peter brought Raven to the kitchen so he could get her some food. He had HERBIE make a quick meal for her in the shape of pancakes and eggs with some water. Raven looked down at the food and up towards Peter as if she was asking permission to eat.
"It's not poisoned," Peter promised.
Raven nodded and saw that as permission as she took a bite of the eggs. She seemed to feel relieved to finally eat something. Peter wanted her to feel safe and was happy to see she was beginning to relax.
"So, I was kinda wondering if you could...fill in some details about your life," Peter asked of her.
"Like what?" Raven wonders, taking a bite of the pancakes.
"Well, for starters, where have you been?" Peter wonders. "You... were reported to have been born as a stillborn. Dead at birth."
Raven froze when she heard that. "Yeah...well, you might not believe it."
"Kid, I'm a guy who got bit by a spider, and now wear tights to fight men with guns." Peter quipped.
"Well...I guess I should start from the beginning." Raven decided as she took a deep breath. "For starters, my mother wound up in a cult at a young age. Well, young at least. When she joined this cult, they performed this bride of satan ritual. My mom happened to be the lucky chosen one, and the ceremony turned out to be the real thing."
"Hey," Susan called as she strolled into the kitchen. "What's going on in here?"
"Raven here is explaining to me her origins," Peter admitted.
"Ooh, just in time," Susan muttered.
"And let's just say that at the end of the ritual, my mom decided to hook up with the man in the flames," Raven explained as she took another bite. "My father was Trigon. A demon from another realm
"Your mom and a demon?" Peter wanted to clarify. "Like...a literal demon?"
"More or less." Raven shrugged. "But let's say when she saw the two lines, she ran from the cult. And when I was born, they would have found us, if it weren't for the monks."
"Monks?" Susan was surprised to hear that.
"Well, that's how they presented themselves," Raven explained the best she could. "They were really the people of Azarath. A realm of beauty, peace, and tranquility. I didn't really fit in there. After my mother and I were taken to Azarath they trained me how to control my powers
"What happened then?" Peter wonders.
Raven flashed back to remembering how she accidentally unleashed Trigon onto Azarath itself. How she was responsible for her mom's death, and all of the people of Azarath as well as Azarath itself.
"I killed them all. I lost control of my powers and accidentally allowed Trigon into Azarath. He then killed everyone in Azarath and destroyed" Raven tried to explain the ending. "But before he could use me, I managed to trap him inside a Crystal." She then tapped the one on her head. "This Crystal. I then fled and came to earth. My mother's home, hoping I could find a home." She then started to become concerned and stood up. "I-I shouldn't be here. I'm only putting you at risk."
"Hey, no." Peter quickly stopped her from trying to vanish. "Look at me." He got her to look him in the eyes. "You can't keep running. You need friends. If you want to defeat this guy sending these robots, then we're your best hope. Let us help."
Raven looked over and was shocked to see they were willing to help. "You...really wanna help? Why?"
Peter shrugged with a chuckle. "I have a thing about picking up strays."
Raven chuckled and pulled Peter in for a hug. She's never felt so loved and protected so far. Peter returned the hug and caressed her back to try and soothe her.
"So, Raven is that your actual name?" Susan wonders.
"Well...that's the name they have given me." Raven shrugged.
"Well, how about we give you a real name?" Peter asks. "I mean Raven isn't exactly what we would call a real name."
"That's a good question?" Susan says while thinking
"How about Rachel?" offered Peter
"Rachel." Raven tried it out. "I like it.
"Uh, pardon the intrusion, sir," HERBIE called into the labs. "But I feel you should be alerted to some projectiles heading for the Foundation."
"There are what?" Peter asked as he and Raven looked out the window.
"What is it?" Rachel asked.
But then before they could react, something came from the ground, attacking them. Rachel was thrown across the room and knocked unconscious. Peter rolled and managed to catch himself. He looked over and saw Susan protected herself with a forcefield.
Then they heard shaking from the other side of the tower. "What the hell?"
Johnny was walking around and sneaked his way over to Cisco's workshop. He knew he kept a few snacks there. He snuck a candy bar when he heard the ground shake. When he was wondering what was going on, he watched as a robot came crashing through the wall, causing Johnny to shriek as Ben was sent flying into the wall.
One of the Doombots came walking out of the hole in the wall and aimed a blaster at Johnny. "Human Torch, weapon; ice cannon."
"What?!" Johnny cried as he backed up and prepared to torch it. "Flame-"
Before he could, his chest was hit with ice and he was sent flying into the wall. The Doombot then aimed over to where Ben was, but the Thing already managed to pick up some office equipment and sent it flying toward the Doombot, shattering it on impact.
"What the hell is going on?" Ben wonders as he crushes the ice off of Johnny.
Johnny was shivering when he was trying to Torch up. But before he could, he was smacked by yet another one of the robots. They aimed a sonic cannon at them, preparing to fire. Then the robots began to float and they watched as Constantine revealed himself.
Constantine then used his magic to shatter the Doombots, sending their pieces flying everywhere. "Your cat was eating the fridge." He informed them as Goose came into the room, and ate a part of the Doombot. "You have a strange cat."
"You wanna join the team?" Johnny offered Constantine.
Back with Susan and Peter, she used her forcefields to protect Peter as he was shooting webs at the Doombots. But that didn't end well when one of them targets Susan from afar.
"Invisible Woman. Weapon, sonic cannon." A Doombot said and then fired the sonic cannon at Susan.
Susan shrieked as she grabbed her ears in pain. Peter then webbed the marble table over and threw it into the Doombot. Then he saw a few of them surround Rachel and tried to pick her up.
"Rachel!" Peter ran over, shooting webs and yanking the robots into each other by spinning as he made his way over. With one web yank, he made them drop Rachel and caught her himself and sighed in relief. "I've got ya. I've got you."
When the two of them then saw all of the robots were destroyed, they were relieved. But then they were hit back by a blast of electricity, sending them flying backward. They were thrown into the room and Peter ended up dropping Rachel because of it.
What they saw was a robot completely different from the Doombots they had been fighting against so far. This one was designed to resemble a tall, muscular human, with minor differences such as a lack of facial features. It also looked like it was made entirely of white components that put it together, and two cameras for eyes.
"What the hell is this?" Susan asked. Not realizing that the robot scanned their genetic structure.
"I have no idea," Peter stated.
Then all of a sudden, the robot sent out a shockwave of energy that sent them flying across the room. Peter shielded Susan from the electricity and was zapped, causing him to cry and slam into the ground.
"Peter!" Susan cried and tried to stop the robot, but it sent a wave of fire towards her, causing her to shield herself with a forcefield.
When she tried to fight back, the robot worked fast and zipped across the room to backhand Susan into the wall, knocking her out. With the room cleared out, the robot made its way over to the unconscious Rachel and picked her up. Peter was waking up just to watch as the robot made his way to the broken window. Rockets on its feet activated and it began to take off.
"No. no, no!" Peter cried as he crawled to his feet and ran towards the broken window. But he was too late as he only could stand back and watch as Rachel was taken away. "Rachel!"
Ben, Cisco, Caitlin, Bette, and everyone else who was in the building ran over to see the chaos. They ran over to see the mess and Susan was just waking up.
Peter crushed the metal support for the broken window in anger walked over to the marble island and started to punch it. His strength was beginning to cause dents in the island quickly. Susan made her way over to try and soothe him.
"Peter? Peter! Peter!" Susan tried to stop him. She finally stopped him from punching and got him to look at her. "I get it that you're angry. But you need to stop."
He didn't just attack her, he attacked us. He came into our home." Peter proclaimed in anger. "He came here, and he got into the building like it was nothing."
"Peter, you need to stop blaming yourself. We're going to get her back." Susan promised.
Peter tried to calm himself and nodded. Then he looked over to one of the Doombots and saw their head was glitching. He marched his way over and picked it up, seeing someone was recording.
"You listen here and you listen good, whoever you are," Peter whispered into the remains of the Doombot. "That girl you've taken? I promised to protect her. And you took her from my home."
Sitting on his throne, Doom was watching the footage as Peter was threatening it. "I don't know who you think you are. And I don't care how powerful you are. If you even harm a hair on that girl's head, I will hunt you across the ends of the earth. You know what? Forget that. I AM coming for you. And I'm going to rescue Rachel and every other person who you have taken. And when I'm through with you, you'll wish you had let a demon finish you off."
The camera then went dead, as Peter crushed the robot's head, leaving Doom to ponder what Peter had said. But he showed no sign of fear or sympathy for what he had done. "Then let it begin..."
The Watcher saw the entire scene and was sorry to see all of this chaos. "You have no idea what's coming for you, Victor. But yet again, neither does Peter Parker." He then sighed as he took a glimpse into the past. "Doom knows more about Peter than Peter knows. He's been holding this grudge against him for a long time. One thing about the universe is that there are always going to be parallels. And when it comes to heroes, their relationships with their rivals are always the heart of their worlds. In one universe, Barry Allen and Hunter Zoloman were the main changes that altered the universe. Now...Peter Parker and Victor Von Doom are the faces that will change the course of this universe."
