The Inquisitor

Chapter 21

Sorcerous Nonsense part 2

Disclaimer: As always I do not own any of the characters in Warhammer 40k or Young Justice, I only own that which I have created.

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-Unknown Location-

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So far this "stage two" of breaking Vanessa was all rather underwhelming to Circe. All Sebastian Ballesteros and his research team did was give the little brat a sedative and then restrained her to a gurney before slapping some sort of mechanical helmet over her head. The helmet was rather strange as it had a completely black visor that obscured the entirety of the girl's face, and was connected to several wires which ran from the helmet and to a series of terminals where the members of the science team were typing furiously into various keyboards. What they were typing Circe had no idea nor did she really care.

Instead she turned her attention directly to Sebastian Ballesteros who was looking over the shoulders of the scientists and had a small smile on his face. "I don't see any real reason to be smiling doctor, your so called 'stage two' part of your program isn't all that impressive."

When Ballesteros heard Circe he looked up at her with a confused expression on his face. Then realization came over him "Ah, of course come over here Lady Circe I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you see." When Sebastian spoke he had nothing but utter confidence in his voice. Deciding to humor him, the ancient sorceress walked over to the terminals and looked at one of the screens.

Circe cocked an eyebrow at what she was seeing. On all of the screens was a first person view of someone, presumably Vanessa being butchered alive by Wonder Woman. Each time she was killed it was more gruesome than the last. Currently was being strangled by the Lasso of Truth while being eviscerated by her sword.

She turned to Ballesteros and asked "Should I assume that she's seeing this in her dreams?" to which the scientist nodded "That's one way of putting it. What we're doing is putting the girl here into a series of Virtual Reality simulations. The first of which are of her being butchered by her surrogate big sister. Now obviously we can't put her into a VR simulation alone as, like in a dream you can't get hurt.

So we found a workaround, the helmet you see over her head has a series of electrodes that stimulate certain portions of the brain. Every time she sees Wonder Woman the portion of the brain that is stimulated is the pain centers of the brain, every time she gets hit by Wonder Woman the pain increases, not only that but we also have her worst memories with Wonder Woman amplified and played over and over again in her subconscious every time she gets injured or killed."

Circe looked back over at Vanessa who was squirming weakly in her seat and smiled darkly. If one got close enough they could hear her whimper "Please, please stop, you were my, big sister." It was all quite pathetic really but at the same time very satisfying. And it would be even more satisfying after she met Wonder Woman. Oh she could almost picture the despair on that amazon bitch's face when she saw her former foster sister cutting her to ribbons.

She then turned back to Sebastian who had yet another cocky smile on his face "We'll subject her to this for the next few days and then we'll subject her to a new series simulations." With the way he said that Circe became interested "What do you mean?" she asked.

"The next simulation is far more in depth and will also teach Vanessa how to use the implants we plan to give her. Miss Vanessa will be given a mission, something mundane like robbing a bank or killing prisoners of war. During these missions she'll have the same cybernetic implants we plan on outfitting her with.

While on these missions a 'voice' will be giving her a series of missions. Some of them are relatively straightforward like rob a bank or kill a bunch of people, then we'll go with those who are better armed, like police officers or soldiers and eventually she'll be pitted up against Wonder Woman herself. Whenever she obeys what the voice says, we start stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain and when she refuses as I have very little doubt that she will during the early phases of her training, the pain in her mind will be amplified tenfold.

When she starts becoming more subservient to our suggestions during this time, I plan on having the voice address her by a new name one that will signify the death of Vanessa Kapatelis and the birth of something new. A name that she will eventually eagerly embrace as her own, even if she will have no real choice in the matter."

Circe cocked a brow "Oh and what name might that be?" she asked. The reply she got were two simple words, "Silver Swan."

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-Tower of Fate-

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Any method of travel that used foul sorcery as a medium was generally something that would only invite the foul taint of Chaos into oneself. However this time, the travel was not even remotely to that of going through the Warp unprotected. For one it didn't have scores of Daemons trying to steal the souls of him or the others who were dragged along because of Wally's stupidity. Another was that it was a lot shorter, in fact if he had to say anything it would probably be that the trip lasted less than a second, a far cry from the time the Inquisitor had spent in the Warp to reach this strange version of Holy Terra.

The Inquisitor took note that they were no longer atop that snowy mountain range, instead they seemed to be in different section of the Tower of Fate, one that looked like something out of a madman's painting. There were hundreds if not thousands of different blocks, each one connected by a staircase that went in all directions, in fact it was almost impossible to tell where up and down were. To put it simply the entire structure gave off the impression of an optical illusion that was come up with by someone with severe mental illness. It was the kind of place where if someone were to try and make sense of whatever it was they were looking at, not only would they fail but they would also probably get a headache if they thought about it too much.

And considering the look on the mutant's face it appeared as though he already was getting a headache from thinking too hard. He looked as though he was about to say something about their situation when Troia spoke with a snarl "Don't say a word, Wally I am in no mood for your rationalizations of things that simply cannot be rationalized!"

Fortunately the idiot seemed to take the hint and decided to remain quiet, at least for the time being. "Guys we have more important things to deal with right now!" Artemis called out, pointing her collapsible crossbow at two figures who were standing over a beaten and bruised Kent Nelson.

One was a dark skinned woman that looked of Indian descent, she was completely bald but embedded into her forehead was a strange emerald green gem. Her eyes were a bizarre pink that clearly wasn't natural and she wore garments that revealed much of her skin and didn't look at all like they could be used for any sort of combat. In fact if they were damaged in the slightest (which looked like quite an easy accomplishment) she would probably end up having to fight her enemies naked.

The other individual was far stranger looking in appearance and positively radiated sorcery. He appeared young but at the same time didn't if that made any real sense. His body looked like that of a teenager but at the same time it had a sense of near agelessness to it. He was extremely pale, almost to the point of albinism and his relatively short black hair was put into a strange mop top styled fashion but some of the hair was pointed upwards at two points on the sides of his head, making them look like horns. Aside from his sclera his eyes were pitch black, unnaturally so. He also wore a black business suit which seemed at odds with how young he appeared.

What really caught Dante's attention however was the cat that was lounging on the floor next to the captor. It looked exactly the same as the cat he had spotted when they had first arrived here. That thing must have been a familiar of some sort and was probably keeping an eye out in case anyone entered the tower and when the Team entered, its masters must have followed behind them.

Dante raised his rifle and aimed down the sights at the one holding the cat, his instincts screaming at him that this one was the greater threat. Unfortunately at the same time that the Inquisitor and the others had appeared the two captors of Kent Nelson had immediately taken notice of their presence. Immediately the small paler one of the two began to grind his teeth before screaming "Kill them! Kill them! Kill them Jinx! I won't have anyone take the Helmet of Fate from me it is mine, mine, mine!"

The Inquisitor offered no attempt at banter, nor did he even acknowledge that childish outburst that thing had made. Instead he aimed directly at the face of the shorter enemy and pulled the trigger. In less than a second, dozens of rounds were sent downrange and impacted the body of the diminutive sorcerer. Unfortunately given that the bullets were all plastic, it wouldn't kill the target outright, at least not at this distance, however one round managed to strike the bastard directly in the face, more specifically in the right eye, destroying it completely.

"You little bastard!" the sorcerer yelled in hatred as the bruises and even the empty eye socket almost instantly regenerated. "Kill them NOW!" it demanded again even as the captive Kent Nelson made a break for his seeming rescuers. He floated towards them even as Jinx and the other sorcerer began sending bolts of energy at the four. .

Before the energy bolts could even get halfway to them however, as Nelson continued to float over to the group he held out an open palm and a golden shield appeared before everyone, keeping the bolts from hitting the group. The instant that he landed onto the platform that the four had been standing on he grasped the cane and almost instantly his bindings unraveled. To make matters even more bizarre, a portion of the platform that they were standing on raised itself upwards and turned into an old fashioned elevator.

"Into the elevator move!" Nelson ordered. Nothing else needed to be said as the barrier that the sorcerer had set up was beginning to quite literally crack under the sustained bombardment and within seconds it was gone. Everyone dove into the elevator which began to close its doors not even seconds after the group had entered.

As the doors continued to close, the shorter sorcerer screamed "No! I want that helmet! I want it! I WANT IT! I WANT IT!" it screamed while red and black tendrils of unholy energy shot forth from his palms and directly at the elevator. Thankfully though by the time it managed to hit it only struck the doors of the elevator, and as a result didn't injure any of the occupants inside.

Inside the elevator, Dante ejected the spent magazine in his weapon and loaded a fresh one. He looked over at Kent Nelson who was looking at them with curiosity "I'm Kent Nelson by the way," he said.

Dante gave the old man a stoic look behind his helmet "The Inquisitor," he said simply and stoically while holstering his rifle with its strap and drawing his grenade launcher and began loading it with high explosive rounds. Kent gave the Inquisitor a strange look but his attention was soon taken by the other three in the room. Artemis seemed to decide that it would be best to at least try to break the ice with the sorcerer "Don't take it personally he's like that with everyone he meets. In fact he's usually a lot less cordial with people."

The Inquisitor gave Artemis a flat look behind his helmet but otherwise did not dignify that with a response. The archer then gestured to herself "I'm Artemis," she said before gesturing at the speedster "The Scully of the group here is Wally," the response she got was an annoyed look "And this is Troia."

When Kent's gaze fell upon Troia his expression became curious "Troia, you wouldn't happen to be related to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons would you?" he asked.

Troia's look, once relatively neutral was now utterly shocked "You know my mother?" she asked to which Kent gave a small smile "I knew it, you're the spitting image of Hippolyta, and yes I do know her, she is an old friend of mine but I'll have to tell you about it later. Right now we have more important matters to deal with. The woman you saw out there was Jinx she's a sorceress from India who has an obsession with increasing her own power by whatever means necessary."

Kent seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing "The other is Klarion, the Witch Boy. He's a Lord of Chaos." That immediately caught the Inquisitor's attention. If the forces of Chaos were in this, then this was far worse than he thought.

"A lord of Chaos?" asked Dante "Are you absolutely sure?!" he demanded to the surprise of the rest of the occupants. The last time that Wally and Troia had seen the Inquisitor like this, was when M'gann had entered his mind by accident. His whole demeanor radiated, hate, anger and an almost eagerness to kill.

Kent looked rather surprised by the reaction that the Inquisitor showed "Yes, I'm positive. He's the sworn enemy of Doctor Fate, a Lord of Order." Now that was something that made Dante want to scoff at. This "Doctor Fate" was clearly a fraud. The only true "Lord of Order" in existence was the Almighty God Emperor of Man. All others who made such claims were mongrels, and pretenders to the name who sought only to deceive and enslave mankind.

Kent Nelson meanwhile was continuing his explanation "Nabu, er the one you call Doctor Fate and Klarion have been going at it for several millennia."

Dante tightened the grip he had on his grenade launcher even as he continued to load the weapon "I take it you're familiar with the forces of Chaos?" he asked to which the Inquisitor scoffed and finished loading more high explosive rounds into his grenade launcher. "I have fought against the forces of the Ruinous Powers for the last seven years of my life. So yes, I am intimately familiar with them and their corrupted servants."

Kent Nelson looked somewhat concerned. He could tell that the individual in front of him was young and to have been fighting the forces of Chaos for seven years, he must have only been a child when he started fighting against them.

Wally however just looked on in disbelief "Okay even if I was willing to believe the whole 'lord of order and lord of chaos' shtick. Which I don't by the way. Just what is this guy after?"

"He wants to get his grubby little paws on the Helmet of Fate, the very thing that keeps Nabu anchored to our plane of existence. I don't know if he intends to destroy or use it as a weapon to unleash hell on Earth but either way he has to be stopped."

Dante looked directly at Kent Nelson "A being of Chaos would require something to keep him anchored into this world and this Klarion doesn't appear to be possessing the body of a mortal. That would suggest that he would be using another method to keep himself tethered to the material plane. I don't suppose you would have any idea as to what that might be."

The other members of the Team seemed surprised that the Inquisitor knew so much about this kind of thing, in fact so did Kent but to their credit they seemed to realize that now wasn't the time to ask him how he knew all this.

In response to the Inquisitor's question, Kent shook his head "Unfortunately no but I'm betting that the Helmet of Fate knows, we'll find him soon after we reach the top of the Tower which we should arrive at in just a few moments."

Sure enough within a few seconds there was a small "ding" signaling that the elevator had at last reached its destination. The doors opened and The Inquisitor stepped out, his grenade launcher in hand. He scanned the truly massive room that the group had found themselves in that was at least twice the length of a professional basketball court. The room had a cathedral like design and there were dozens of display cases, each containing some kind of artefact that ranged from various swords, staves and bows to talismans and strange esoteric books. At the far end of the room was an altar of sorts, and placed upon a pedestal of sorts was a

Dante looked in every possible direction that an enemy could possibly come from but found that there was nothing in the area. "Clear," the Inquisitor declared before the rest of the group walked out of the elevator. When they were out, Wally gave a sharp whistle "Nice collection,"

Kent shook his head "It's not a collection not really. What you see before you are some of the most dangerous mystical artifacts in the history of mankind. These relics were deemed too dangerous by the Lords of Order for any mortal to get their hands on them. So for now they stay here where they won't fall into the wrong hands. They would have been destroyed long ago if not for fear of what would be unleashed if they were."

Dante looked at the glass containers each artifact had been placed into and then back at the sorcerer "I assume that there is more than simple glass keeping these artifacts secure." Kent nodded "Yes there are a number of protective wards and spells keeping them secure, even Klarion wouldn't be able to break into them without months of effort."

Well at least that meant that they wouldn't have to worry about potential Chaos Artifacts getting into the hands of a Chaos Lord. At least if Nelson's words were to be believed. Just to be safe he would try to make sure that no one suffered any prolonged exposure to the artifacts.

The group was about to move forwards to the helmet when another portal opened. The Inquisitor was about to draw his grenade launcher on the portal when it deposited the three remaining members of the Team into a heap. Nelson looked over at the others with a small smile "Friends of yours?" he asked while Dante shouldered the grenade launcher for the time being.

Oh there were so many words that the Inquisitor could use to describe these idiots but friends was not one of them. Megan, Superboy, and Aqualad all groaned but soon managed to pick themselves up off the floor. Once they finally managed to get up off the ground they looked like they had dozens questions they wanted to ask. Unfortunately they would never get the chance to ask anything as several blasts of eldritch energy impacted the walls behind them.

Immediately everyone turned to look at the newcomers and saw Klarion the Witch Boy and Jinx. Dante turned to the old man and shouted "Get that helmet, we'll cover you! GO!" Ordinarily he would have hesitated to allow such a dangerous artifact be touched let alone used but he didn't have anything that would kill such Klarion in a stand up fight. Besides if the two were to fight one another then it was possible that they could both destroy each other outright.

Dante then drew his rifle and aimed it squarely at Klarion while Nelson made a run for the helmet on the far end of the room. "That helmet is mine you decrepit old fool!" he yelled making the Inquisitor wonder if the daemon was even capable of communicating in ways other than screaming.

Klarion then stomped his foot onto the ground and several creatures rose from it. They looked like they were made out of a black mass and had vague humanoid shapes. The only distinguishable characteristic that each one shared was that on the head where the eyes were located were a pair of red circles.

These entities were something that the Inquisitor was utterly unfamiliar with. Most daemons would have summoned other warp entities they were tied to, like bloodletters, daemonettes, plague bearers or even one of the blue or pink horrors. He would have to tread carefully as who knew what these things were capable of. Klarion pointed at the Team "Kill them all my minions!"

The Shadow creatures charged at the Team while Jinx began to run for cover all the while reigning down bolts of energy from nearby.

The Inquisitor ignored the shadow creatures squeezed the trigger on both the rifle and the shotgun attachment, his training allowing him to somewhat compensate for the recoil his weapon produced. Of course several rounds did miss Klarion, but overall the majority of the rubber bullets and birdshot pellets struck home. Eventually though Dante ran out of ammo in his rifle and shotgun attachment and he began to reload even as he saw the damage he had wrought onto the daemon's frame.

The daemon's clothes were shredded in the chest area its face was covered in bruises, cuts and the left side of its face was all but gone. The ear had been completely blown off, the left portion of the jaw and cheek was just gone and the eye had turned to a red jelly. The right side of the face had fared somewhat better as it was only covered in a few bruises and several holes from the birdshot pellets and it was there that Dante saw the look of raw fury on Klarion's face, even as the left portion of it began to regenerate itself.

"Alright that's it you skull faced bastard I'm going to rend you to pieces!" it yelled as it launched a lash of red and black colored energy towards the Inquisitor who immediately jumped behind one of the display cases. Unfortunately the lash did manage to hit his AK12 when he dove for cover, and it almost completely bisected the weapon. However the modular shotgun accessory was still in one piece.

Dante tore off the modular shotgun from the broken weapon it was attached to and figured it could be used as a makeshift pistol given that unlike most modular shotguns this one still had its pistol grip. He holstered the weapon into his for the time being and decided to bring out the weapons he knew would have at least some effect on the damn thing. The psi-maul. The psi-maul had been designed as method to deal with psykers, not daemons. Whenever it was used on daemons it would be relatively useful on the lesser ones but only inconvenience the more powerful daemons at best. Still though it was better than nothing.

Dante looked around and saw that Klarion must have summoned more of the creatures because there were far more of them now than there were earlier. Fortunately the Team seemed to be holding their own relatively well although the large amount of hostiles would eventually overwhelm them if they continued to grow in number. Kent Nelson however was still having a difficult time getting to the helmet as Jinx was now pinned down behind one of the display cases, while Jinx continued to suppress him with bolts of mystic energy.

The Inquisitor was about to aim his grenade launcher directly at the witch when he heard a loud hissing noise coming from nearby. He turned and saw one of the shadow daemons only a few meters away and Dante cursed himself for not being more aware. The creature was far too close for the grenade launcher and he didn't have time to holster it and grab his chainsword or new makeshift pistol. Instead he activated the psi-maul and swung it at the target's neck area.

The moment it impacted there was a loud pained shrieking noise that came from the shadow entity and much to Dante's surprise there was less resistance than he expected. He originally expected for the shadow thing to only appear like it was made out of shadows and would instead have a fully physical form but instead he found that it was partially incorporeal.

The daemon continued to scream as it melted into the ground and completely dissipated into a pile of ashes. It seemed as though these entities weren't nearly as powerful as the daemons Dante had encountered in the past. However further observations would have to wait as he needed to deal with that witch. The Inquisitor took aim with his grenade launcher and aimed it several meters away from the witch. He knew that while it would be so easy to just kill her, the other sidekicks were there and so he would simply have to break her spine after incapacitating her.

Dante gave a small prayer for the Emperor's forgiveness for not outright taking the life of the witch and pulled the trigger on the grenade launcher sending a high-explosive grenade downrange. As expected the grenade detonated far enough away that the shockwave from the blast wouldn't kill her but it would knock her off her feet. Jinx was sent head first into one of the display cases, knocking her out.

The Inquisitor was able to see the sorcerer making a run for the helmet again, only he must have gotten injured sometime in the fighting because the man was limping along. It would have been so easy to fire another grenade directly at him and he would have died from the shockwave alone. The Inquisitor could claim that it was simply a case of friendly fire, a freak accident.

However it was unlikely that would be believed as there was always a possibility that one of the sidekicks would deliberately see him aim at the sorcerer and even if they didn't, Dante knew that it was unlikely that they could stand up against what was clearly a greater daemon without greater firepower. Once again the Inquisitor cursed that he didn't have so much as a single squad of Grey Knights with him. Besides that particular sorcerer was not the immediate threat, the greater daemon known as Klarion was.

Dante bust up from cover and aimed his grenade launcher directly at Klarion who was standing at the same spot the daemon had been standing just a few seconds earlier. Only now instead of being simply angered, it had an expression of pure rage that would make a Khornate berserker proud. Klarion reached outwards with an outstretched hand and a tendril of pure dark magical energy whipped out from the ground behind the Inquisitor and in less than a second it wrapped itself around the Inquisitor's neck and hoisted him off the ground.

The attack was so quick that Dante's lost his grip on his grenade launcher and his hands reflexively went to the tendril wrapped around his throat in a desperate attempt to remove it. Unfortunately despite his attempts the tendril only tightened further around his throat preventing any oxygen from reaching Dante's lungs. It was then that the Inquisitor managed to get a good look at the daemon who looked absolutely furious.

"That was very, very irritating." Unlike earlier when it was screaming like a petulant brat that had been denied what it wanted by its parents, this time it was far calmer and a little more unnerving. For a moment the daemon just looked at him, as though deciding what to do before an idea seemed to form in its mind "Let's see how scary you look without that helmet on, you annoying gnat!" it declared.

Another eldritch tendril appeared from the floor and began to work its way up towards the Inquisitor's face. The acolyte to Inquisitor Monroe continued to struggle as best he could and looked over at the rest of the Team and saw that some kind of barrier had been raised. One could see through it but it was obvious that there was some kind of barrier put up and several members of the Team were pounding on the barrier with whatever they had on them.

"Oh I wouldn't bother waiting for your friends they couldn't get through here, not for their lack of trying though." Klarion smirked and then another eldritch tendril appeared from the ground underneath him and it began to wrap around his helmet, "I want to see your eyes turn empty as I kill you," it declared with a smile.

Within moments the tendril wrapped itself around the Inquisitor's helmet and pulled it off before tossing it to the ground. It was then that everyone in the Team finally managed to get a good look at the Inquisitor's face. Whatever they had imagined before hadn't prepared them for what they were about to see. The Inquisitor's face was completely covered in scars, some were clearly made by a blade and were several years old and yet were still prominent on his face but there was a small portion of his jawline that had a relatively small burn scar. However his eyes were the most disturbing part, they were a pale blue but they radiated nothing but hate and a desire for delivering death to the Witch Boy.

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Klarion looked at the boy and was disappointed that his assumption that he would see nothing but fear and despair at his impending death after taking off that helmet was disappointing. While it wouldn't be as satisfying to kill him as it would if he was full of fear and despair, it was good enough. As the tendrils continued to tighten around the Inquisitor's throat, Klarion felt his familiar Teekl scamper up to him and start meowing and prodding at him with her paws while gesturing at something outside of the barrier he had erected.

Klarion spared his familiar a quick glance and said "Stop it Teekl can't you see that I'm-" he wasn't able to finish his sentence as he felt the buildup of enormous power nearby. The Witch Boy gave an overdramatic and irritated groan as he turned to look at the golden clad figure of Doctor Fate.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," he grumbled irritably, before he gave the golden clad Lord of Order (or as he called him: the Lord of Monotone Monologues) an annoyed look "Well, then hello Nabuu, it's been what? Almost seventy years since we saw each other last?" the Witch Boy asked.

"Sixty-five years, four months, nine days, five hours, six minutes, thirty-three seconds. Far too long for the likes of Doctor Fate, Now release the boy or I will wipe you from existence here and now," the Lord of Order commanded in an echoing baritone voice that Klarion had not so fond memories of.

Klarion narrowed his gaze at his most hated rival and was about to say something when he heard the sound of a gun being cocked. He turned to look back at the Inquisitor who still had that look of hate filled defiance on his face but only this time he was holding what was left of that gun that had been attached to that other gun he had cut in half with his powers. The Inquisitor weakly raised his weapon arm directly at Klarion.

The Lord of Chaos just gave an amused snort and spread out his hands as if daring the Inquisitor to shoot him. Instead of firing at Klarion Inquisitor instead adjusted his aim from the lord of Chaos' head to that of his leg, more specifically the leg where Teekl was hiding behind and pulled the trigger.

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When Dante had pulled the trigger on the modular shotgun he had salvaged from his rifle he had all but been acting on a hunch. Back home, whenever the Forces of Chaos could not properly hide something important form the holy forces of the Imperium, they commonly kept such items close at hand. Perhaps this was one of those times.

If this didn't work then the Inquisitor was as good as dead but then again if he did nothing he was dead anyways. At least this way he was able to give one last act of defiance to the great enemy. As he began to pull out the weapon his lungs were crying out for even the smallest amount of air. Darkness was already creeping on the edges of his vision. He had very few precious seconds before he passed out or died, whichever came first.

Still the Inquisitor ignored the urge to try to desperately claw at the tendril wrapped around his throat and instead aimed his makeshift weapon directly at the daemon's left leg where the cat was. When he pulled the trigger Dante wasn't as prepared for the recoil as he would have been if this was a more ideal scenario. However despite the recoil problem several of the pellets still managed to find their mark in the familiar's forward left leg, completely blowing it off. Due to the proximity that the daemon had with the familiar it's leg was also badly damaged, in fact one could see chunks of meat and bone hanging off as black blood was spattered all over the ground behind it.

Immediately Klarion's form flickered slightly and the tendrils that were holding the Inquisitor up disappeared while the barrier remained up. Of course it wouldn't be up for much longer given that Klarion's concentration on had started to fade and the Team plus the "Lord of Order" were pounding away at it.

Dante fell to the ground, and immediately began taking in large gulps of air, all but heaving as he did so. However he could not allow himself to become complacent just because he had been given a momentary break in the fighting. The daemon was distracted with its anchor to this world, and now was the best chance he had to end it.

The Inquisitor dragged himself over to his grenade launcher. Given the power that this, Klarion possessed it was unlikely that a single high explosive round would do much damage but if it could hit the familiar with enough force then it would probably destroy it. He picked up the grenade launcher and aimed it directly at Klarion who was attempt to comfort its familiar. The daemon looked directly at the Inquisitor with a look of rage in its eyes "How could you harm an innocent kitten?!" it demanded.

'This Warp spawned horror dares to berate me on harming something innocent? Truly irony at its finest.' It was almost humorous in an ironic sort of way, but Dante kept his face stoic and pulled the trigger on the weapon. The instant that the grenade left the barrel, several things happened at once. The barrier that kept the Inquisitor and Klarion separated from the rest of the Tower of Fate shattered in much the same way that glass shatters as a bolt of golden lightning emanating from the palm of Doctor Fate pierced through the barrier.

Time seemed to slow down as both the bolt of lightning and the grenade got closer and closer to their target. In the infinitesimal second before either attack struck Klarion, the daemon clutched its familiar as tightly as it could and then there was a brief flash of red light. The light was so brief that it couldn't be seen by the human eye and even if it could, one would just assume it was from the high explosive grenade that was fired. Once the light was gone though, there was no trace of the Lord of Chaos in the split instant before the explosion from the lightning and the grenade.

When dust finally settled from the explosion, the only thing that was left from where Klarion once was standing, was a small pile of ash. The Inquisitor glared furiously at the ashes while the other members of the Team made their way over to him, and all began to barrage him with questions about his wellbeing.

"Inquisitor are you okay?"

"You looked like you were about to keel over man! What happened?!"

"Are you in pain?"

"You alright?"

These questions were followed by similar ones in near rapid fire succession. Dante looked annoyed by the attention and held up his hand in a "stop" gesture while he gave the group a dry expression and said "Pain and suffering are old companions of mine. I'll live."

Dante looked at each member of the Team's reactions to his face. The filthy xeno looked at him with a look of feigned pity that reminded him of that day she entered his mind, and just like then it made him want to slice off her head. The abhuman looked 'concerned' about his answer, Troia seemed, conflicted on what she was seeing, Artemis seemed to be pitying him, and the xeno clone appeared somewhat disturbed. The mutant however, well at least his reaction was actually somewhat humorous. Wally couldn't seem to keep his mouth from becoming agape and if it were open any wider, he would probably have to make sure that a bug didn't fly in.

"Dude, what the hell happened to your-" Wally started to blurt out before Artemis elbowed him in the gut to keep him quiet. He then looked over at Artemis with a somewhat guilty expression on his face. The Inquisitor ignored Wally however and instead moved over to where his helm had been thrown when he was almost killed by the daemon. Dante immediately retrieved the helm and placed it back on his head.

As he did, the Inquisitor noticed that the abhuman was looking at him strangely "Look, Inquisitor, if you ever want to-" he started but wasn't even able to finish as Dante simply waved him off "No, and let that be my final answer on the matter."

The abhuman seemed disappointed but the Inquisitor couldn't care less about the abhuman's feelings. Instead Dante needed to get confirmation on Klarion's banishment back to the Warp. He kept his hand on his looked directly at the so-called 'Lord of Order' and asked "Should I assume that Klarion wasn't sent back to whatever pit spawned it?"

Doctor Fate shook its head "No, the very millisecond before either of our attacks struck the Chaos filth, he managed to teleport out." The Inquisitor had suspected such an answer but it was still more of a problem and he couldn't allow such filth to run free all over Holy Terra. It needed to be cleansed. He just needed a lead, anything to find out where that monstrosity was hiding.

By chance or fate, there was a small groan coming from nearby. Dante turned to look at the source of the noise and saw that witch, Jinx, trying to get up. It appeared as though there was some hope for a lead after all, he would just need to put her to the question first.

The Inquisitor then started to make his way towards the witch. As he did the mutant asked in a rather nervous tone "Uh, Inquisitor, what exactly are you doing?" He was tempted to ignore Kid Flash and simply continue on but the Inquisitor decided to humor the mutant this time "Getting information from the enemy."

Everyone seemed to be somewhat nervous about that but Dante ignored them. Instead he calmly strode up to the witch who was barely able to get up. When she spotted him and the others her eyes widened in fear, especially when she noticed Doctor Fate.

"S-Stay back!" Jinx begged and she looked like she was about to try to run or open some sort of portal to escape but it was clear that she was far too weak to really do anything about it. Dante ignored her and continued to approach until he was just a couple of feet away from the witch. He looked directly at her with a look of utter hatred and contempt, not that she could see it through his helmet however "Where. Is. Klarion?" he demanded in a tone that would not accept any sort of negative response.

Jinx looked up at the Inquisitor with a look of utter terror "I-I, s-swear I don't know," she said hoping that the Inquisitor would simply take her at her word. Of course, as the old Imperial saying went "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment," the witch was not only very disappointed when the Inquisitor didn't buy her answer but she would soon be in agony.

Dante calmly and deliberately pulled up the woman's arm and said "I don't believe you. Tell me where it is, or I break the arm." That definitely got a reaction out of the rest of the sidekicks "Inquisitor you don't have to-" Aqualad started but the Inquisitor wouldn't let him finish "There is a Chaos daemon running loose! If we don't banish it back to the pit where it was spawned then that abomination will only cause more destruction!"

The sidekicks looked somewhat taken aback by the fury in the Inquisitor's voice and looked like they were about to try reasoning with him again when he looked back at Jinx and said "Now tell me the truth this time, this is your last chance!"

Jinx looked at the Inquisitor "I told you I don't know!" she exclaimed. Behind his helmet, Dante narrowed his eyes "Wrong, answer." He was about to bend the arm in a way that it wasn't meant to be bent when the golden clad abomination spoke "Wait, she speaks the truth,"

For a moment the Inquisitor decided to humor the 'Lord of Order' "Oh, and why do you believe that?" he asked. There wasn't so much as a pause as the golden clad sorcerer answered "My powers enable me to detect any trace of deception and she speaks the truth."

At first the Inquisitor didn't believe the creature but then he thought about it. This 'Doctor Fate' has apparently been at war with that Klarion daemon for millennia, it probably wanted to kill that daemon almost as much as he did. Still though that didn't mean that the witch was going to go without punishment for her blasphemy. Given that he didn't have a flamer to properly cleanse her and there were witnesses who would testify against him to the League, he would have to go with his less 'lethal' means of making sure she didn't escape, again.

For the most fleeting of moments, the sidekicks dared to hope that the Inquisitor wouldn't do anything too cruel to the witch. However those hopes were dashed when he grabbed the sides of her head with his hands and twisted it to the side with a sickening crack.

.

-New York, Zatara's Private Study-

.

Over the course of his career as a hero, Giovanni Zatara had found quite a few pieces of magical lore that were best contained away from anyone who was not ready for that kind of knowledge. He had come up with the idea for this after he noticed that his daughter had shown quite the aptitude for magic. The magician noticed that there were a lot of tomes on certain pieces of mystic lore he possessed that would be dangerous if his child who at this point was starting to levitate items on her own, got ahold of them before she was ready.

So when the Justice League acquired Zeta-Tube technology, allowing the heroes of the League the ability to go almost anywhere instantaneously, Zatara came up with a simple yet ingenious idea. He used his funds to purchase a relatively decent sized apartment in New York. This apartment was then fitted with numerous mystical wards to prevent anyone from attempting to get in, be it a regular burglar or someone looking to pilfer through whatever arcane texts he had stored there. Eventually this place became something of a home away from home for Zatara whenever he needed to study some of the more, potent magical tomes he had in his possession.

In fact for the last few hours, Zatara had been pouring over various books on arcane legends and lore, trying to find anything related to the Warp. Thus far he had found absolutely nothing. There was no mention of the Warp or anything even resembling it anywhere in any of the texts he had read. When he had sensed that tear open when the Inquisitor had first made his arrival in this world he felt not only power but also emotion, raw, powerful emotion.

Zatara had to know more about this realm. If it ever, -for lack of better term- spat something else out then they needed to know what could emerge from it. It was for this reason that the magician decided to investigate the matter further. The League needed to know more about this realm as soon as possible.

It would be dangerous of course, that was something that went without saying. Which was why Zatara had placed even more wards and containment measures around the area that he would try to open a tiny tear into the warp. The wards and other measures were all placed around a circle that was normally used for summoning.

As Zatara prepared to open the tear he thought back to the 'meeting' he had with the Inquisitor and knew that the boy despised the Warp and anything that had to do with it. He claimed that the Warp was home to monsters that corrupted and destroyed everything that they came across. The boy had claimed a lot of other things too, he claimed that aliens and magic users were inherently evil in nature. And yet people like Martian Manhunter, Superman, Doctor Fate, and Wonder Woman were perhaps the most steadfast and courageous individuals Zatara had ever met in his life.

Therefore it was very likely that this 'Warp' wasn't nearly as evil as the Inquisitor described it. Perhaps it was dangerous, given the power that he sensed from it but that was all he sensed in it. Power. Nothing malicious just raw power and power alone hardly meant that something was evil.

Zatara stood within the circle of wards and began to focus all of his mystic strength into a small and focused instrument that would allow him to peer into the Warp. It would be like when someone used a telescope to get a better view of the stars and planets. Only this time Zatara would be using magic to look into a different reality entirely. It would be difficult, perhaps even dangerous but he needed to know more about this realm.

The magician began to focus all of his mystical strength into a scalpel of sorts. A scalpel that would cut through the barriers between worlds and allow him to peer into that which lay beyond. "Won, wohs em eht, praw!" he declared.

The very instant that Zatara had uttered those words, wind seemingly coming from nowhere, whipped around the room, as though someone had summoned a tempest in the room. Zatara braced himself as the winds continued to blow various books and magical artifacts off the shelves and onto the floor around him. As the books and other pieces of arcane lore fell off the shelves and desks around him, a small tear of sorts began to open in front of him. As it opened it seemed as though the light that was emanated from the lamps and candles in the room seemed to almost, retreat from it.

The tear widened slightly to the point where it was roughly one foot in length and a few inches wide, into an oval shape. This was the window into this other world, into the Warp. Zatara looked into the window he had created he could see in this strange realm were endless violet clouds and strange golden lightning strikes. However as Zatara looked he thought he could see the outlines of something but it was clear that it was just the shifting of clouds and nothing nefarious.

So far his investigation into the Warp appeared as though it was little more than a place of primordial energy, nothing more, and nothing less. His curiosity relatively sated, Zatara said "Esolc eht raet!"

As quickly as the tear had appeared so too did it begin to seal itself shut but as it did a thought occurred to him seemingly out of nowhere 'I should investigate the Warp further, after all, first impressions of things are sometimes wrong.'

Yes, yes that made sense. Zatara would have to continue to study this realm for the time being. After all, one shouldn't simply reach a conclusion based on only a single observation of something. Perhaps he would open another tear again sometime 'Soon.' Sometime soon yes, just for some more research. With that, Zatara began to try and pick up all of the various books and artifacts that had fallen when the tear had been opened. After that he had much to do if he was to try to open another tear into the Warp again.

.

-New York, Back Alleys-

.

The pale man in the hoodie had recently gotten a call to his burner phone from his favorite thief just a few hours ago. Apparently she had managed to do what he had paid a small fortune for her to do and was on the way there with the Kryptonite from STAR labs. The thief had even managed to replace the glowing green rock with a well-crafted replica of it. Granted it wasn't going to fool anyone who observed it closely enough, let alone put it under a high powered microscope but it would keep the cops and the heroes off her trail long enough for her to get back to New York.

Now though she had finally managed to acquire the Kryptonite he needed for his art. After all if one was to create a brilliant piece of artwork, one needed the proper paints and brushes. To put it simply, that little piece of kryptonite he would soon have was perhaps one of the most important paint one he needed for this gorgeous artwork that he would soon create. The pale man continued to stand there, his anxiety at the prospect of finally getting the last paint he needed to complete this work, this beautiful work he had planned on creating ever since arriving on this world.

Back home it had always been so difficult to get the right brushes and paints to create his art and while the artist in the pale man appreciated the challenge, the difficulty of creating his art pieces had simply become unbearable. But here on Earth, such things came easy and while it wasn't much of a challenge, it was still something of a relief that he wouldn't have to go through such incredible difficulty to get a single piece done.

The pale man was broken out of his musings when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. Even before he turned around he sensed the thought patterns of the thief he had enlisted to acquire the last bit of paint he needed to create his magnum opus, his masterwork. When he finally did turn around he saw Catwoman carrying a metal case roughly the same size as a football.

"You brought what I paid you to get I see," said the pale man as he picked up a briefcase he had placed nearby "Show me the item in question and I will show you what you are owed," he explained.

Catwoman gave a confident smirk and opened the case, showing the glowing green crystal inside. The pale man gave a quick examination of the extraterrestrial mineral and nodded. He then opened up his own briefcase and inside were countless dollar bills. Upon seeing her money, Catwoman's smirk turned into a fully-fledged grin.

The two exchanged what they were carrying and for several moments the pal man admired the prize he had waited so long for. When he finally looked up to see Catwoman starting to leave, he gave a rather unpleasant smile and said "Just one moment more Catwoman."

The thief stopped right in her tracks, apparently sensing the possibility of another payday and turned around. When she fully turned around the pale man saw the smile on her face at the possibility of another job that promised enormous funds in return. "Well then, what do you need me to steal this time?" she asked with that same sultry voice she almost always spoke in.

"Oh, I think you're confused," he said his grin widening as his left hand started to raise upwards until it was pointing directly at her "I don't want you to steal anything. I want you to be part of my artwork."

A look of utter confusion came over Catwoman's face for a moment before the pale man's finger shifted into long green tendrils with spikes at the end. Before Catwoman could even react, the tendrils shot forward at breakneck speeds. One of the tendrils wrapped around her throat, preventing her from crying out while the others went straight through her different parts of her chest and abdomen.

Selina Kyle managed to open her mouth in an attempt to cry out, although the only thing that came out was little more than a half strangled squawk that no one could hope to hear. For several seconds Catwoman simply squirmed weakly in place as the pale man walked up to her, even as blood began to dribble down the edges of her mouth.

The man looked at her in much the same way someone might admire something aesthetically pleasing, and said "In spite of what those on my homeworld say, I am an artist. People are my brushes and suffering is my paint Miss Kyle, and given that your suffering is unfortunately short-lived you will not provide much of an art piece compared to my magnum opus that will be done very soon. Therefore I shall simply have to relegate you to one of the lesser works in my scrapbook. A sad end for someone who had provided me with the paints I required but it can't be helped I suppose."

The man's face twisted into an expression of anger and irritation "How stupid do you think I am Miss Kyle, I knew from the moment I asked you to retrieve the Kryptonite that you would betray me to certain...acquaintances in the Justice League and warn them about the theft as well as what you likely suspected I would be doing with it. And while you were close in your assumptions you were still, as you humans say, 'off-base.'"

However just before the man could finish her off Catwoman managed to reach into her utility belt and pulled out a small vial, that was perhaps one of the more, unstable pieces of equipment in her arsenal. Without even hesitating Catwoman slammed the vial against the tendril that was holding her throat, shattering it instantly. The acid contained in the vial began to eat away at the tendril, causing the pale man to scream as his unprotected flesh began to sizzle and burn.

The tendrils that had impaled Catwoman were withdrawn immediately as the pale man began to tend to his wounds, causing the thief to fall to the ground. The skintight suit she wore had protected her from the corrosive chemicals she had just splashed on her attacker.

While any soldier or hero caught in this predicament would probably try to press the advantage, Catwoman was neither of those things. She was a thief and she knew better than to pick off more than she could chew and this was something that she simply couldn't win against in her condition. Catwoman started to run as quickly as she could in the opposite direction of the pale man who was starting to apply some kind of strange powder onto his tendrils which were starting to turn back into normal fingers.

As Catwoman made her way out of the alley, blood loss began to take its toll as she began to feel dizzy and as she got out of alley and onto the streets she found herself collapsing in the middle of the road. She watched as a pair of headlights got closer to her and attempted to get back up but found that her arms and legs had all but turned into jelly.

The headlights stopped several meters away and she distinctly heard a pair of car doors opening and someone saying "Hey are you okay?" If she could she would have rolled her eyes. Yes she had just been impaled by a psychopath with tentacles for fingers and was currently suffering from severe blood loss of course she wasn't okay.

Catwoman felt herself being picked up and carried to the car, her vision becoming more and more blurred and just before she passed out she heard someone, -maybe the one carrying her- say "Don't worry we'll get you to a hospital just hold on!"

And then she heard nothing more as the bliss of unconsciousness took her, her last thoughts being of a certain twelve year old girl that had inadvertently become the little sister she never had.

To be continued.

A/N: I rewrote the last bit with Catwoman because a certain reviewer contacted me and convinced me that her death was too cheap and that I could do more with her. As a result I figured out that I could indeed do more with her. So despite her current condition, she is still alive and will have a part to play in the coming chapters.

So yeah those of you who know Warhammer doubtlessly know where I'm going to go with Zatara so I'm going to give a bit of insight into how Zatara isn't going to be able to detect the corruption that will be eating away at him. First and foremost, Chaos has been able to corrupt people who were considered able to fight it off, case and point with Magnus the Red who thought he could control the Warp only for it to play him like a fiddle and help kick off the heresy. Then there was Fulgrim who was completely corrupted and eventually possessed by the Daemon in the Laer Blade without him even realizing it until the very end.

Now one could argue that because Zatara uses magic he could sense whatever is attempting to corrupt him but I ask this: How? He wouldn't know the hallmarks of Chaos influence let alone how to sense it within himself. If you can't tell that something is there, then how can you protect yourself against it? It's like trying to tell if Carbon Monoxide (an odorless, colorless gas) is in the room with you without any kind of special equipment.

In regards to Klarion I debated long and hard as to whether or not Dante would be able to kill him off (or banish him from our plane of existence) as I didn't want Dante to seem incompetent at his job. I then remembered though that Dante is still a trainee and he doesn't have any equipment that could outright banish an extremely powerful entity like Klarion (who is probably comparable to a Greater Daemon in terms of power) from the material world. If Dante had access to something like a Daemonhammer then yeah, he probably could if he could get close enough but he didn't have access to those kinds of weapons.

ALSO FOR THOSE WHO JUST GOT HERE, JINX IS NOT DEAD DANTE JUST DID TO HER WHAT HE DOES TO EVERY PSYCHOTIC CRIMINAL, HE BROKE HER SPINE SO SHE CAN'T MOVE BELOW THE NECK! (I wrote it like that so that way everyone could see it.)

I hope you all enjoyed and please leave a review with your opinion and any suggestions for future chapters.