"I'm scared." Cass' eyes said as Tanya looked over her nearly naked form.
A burst of magic on one of the hundreds of intersections of red lines on the assassin's skin released the smell of a long-term magical effect evaporating, a harsh ozone-like scent of ruined electronics and blackened flesh. "I know." Tanya's nod replied, "But if this is going to work, I need to remove your enhancements." After a moment, Tanya pressed her finger to another one of the intersections and the smoky smell surged once more. The crimson tattoos bubbled as the blood runes seeped out of the girl's skin. "That should be the last one." She said out loud, knowing that Cass could understand the gist even without focusing on her translation magic. "Wash yourself. Scrub thoroughly." Tanya's pointed and wagging finger informed the girl, "Then we can do the replacement."
Really, the blood magic wasn't any more effective than what Tanya usually puts into the Batsuits, one advantage to hoarding all of the magical lore she could find was that she could cherry pick the best stuff, and while the League's blood magic tattoos were competitive with the enchantments Tanya used to bolster her family's equipment, that just meant that Cass would need to get used to skin-tight armor if she wanted to reclaim her magically augmented strength and speed. She'd be better off if she didn't, but Tanya held no illusions on this: the odds of Cass not wanting to ply her only useful skills for the benefit of the family were slim.
Naturally, there wasn't any ritual in her database that could directly solve her problem. No, that'd be too easy. However, that didn't mean there wasn't a way to adapt what she had to what she needed.
For example, there was a Japanese ritual that allowed one to adopt someone into your family. Multiple rituals, actually, depending on the exact context of the adoption. There were similar spells for expelling a family member, as well. The problem is, these were Akhashic spells, not blood magic, so it doesn't help. Such spells were great when dealing with, say, Order Magic, or dealing with Gods, divine inheritances, spirit pacts among family lines, things of that nature, but blood magic? No.
However… She did have a rather extensive library on the subject of blood magic, and had been using it for years to help protect Bruce, albeit using her demonic ichor more often than her actual blood. So adapting the Akhashic rituals to a blood magic paradigm… theoretically, it should be possible. You would have to simultaneously sever the bond and replace it with another, but this would hardly be the first time she's glued two rituals together. If it worked, maybe she could use it too to fully protect herself from the League's blood mages.
Whether or not the kitbashed ritual she came up with would actually work? Well, the good news was that her personal pool of power should be able to bridge fairly large gaps, given her inherited affinity for blood magic. Shazam also couldn't see any obvious flaws with her methodology, so odds were pretty good that it won't kill anyone.
The problem with her kitbashed solution was that if she understood things correctly, she could only replace one of Cass' parents per usage of the ritual, and it would likely alter her appearance. Well, it would also probably be incredibly painful, but that's normal for blood magic, and Cass was not bothered by that when the subject was brought up.
Ideally, they'd use an adoptive parent that had a similar phenotype to the parent replaced, which meant that the first donor was going to be her own male form, replacing Lady Shiva's genetics. Magic still paid lip service to basic entropy, and tended to take the path of least resistance, so she shouldn't change too much in appearance. The influence of Cass' soul should also reduce the changes, but this was the magical science equivalent of shooting from the hip anyway, so who knows which factors will win out in the end.
Even this plan had another issue: they needed Lady Shiva on hand to perform the ritual. Fortunately, both parents have already committed to an assault today, her divinations have forseen it. The defenses were alert, and traps awaited them. The Court of Owls' disapproval of the maneuver meant they had to keep things stealthy, which limited their ability to overwhelm the manor's defenses with numbers, so Tanya was pretty confident that everything was going according to plan.
"Mwahahahahaha!" Tanya laughed. "All is proceeding according to my design…"
"She's gone full supervillain." Jason grumbled. He was in his Robin uniform.
"She's just having fun." Ace corrected. She had recently acquired a suit of Amazonian armor, similar to Diana's but with substantially more material.
"This really isn't time for games." Raven pointed out dryly. She had been called for backup, and was wearing her usual cloak and leotard.
"Are we the baddies?" Batgirl, in full uniform, joked.
"Well, we have a teenage girl trapped and about to be strapped to a pentagram basically naked while her parents rush to take her back home." Zatanna observed. It wasn't accurate, the removal of her full body blood magic tattoos required nudity but this next part didn't. "I think we might be the baddies." She was also in her vigilante uniform.
"Remember your parts in the plan." Tanya informed them, bringing things back on topic. Her phone beeped, and she called a number."Alfred?"
"The perimeter alarms have been tripped, Miss." Alfred's replied, "They have begun to infiltrate."
"Places, people!" Tanya shouted. "Rhine. Berechnung. Mahou. Clad in armor midnight black, the dark knight rises, plans on track!"
Batman flexed his muscles before vanishing into the shadows. Showtime.
-----------------------
There was never any chance that the League wasn't going to immediately find out where Cass was stored. Threading Cass' essence into the formation in the panic room was fast, but he couldn't have made a new room in less than half a day. On top of that, the increase in effective weight that the panic room's blood magic defenses operated on made tracking spells easier, although to a lesser extent than it increased the difficulty of summoning spells.
Tenko didn't think this was a problem, because Talia already knew about the connection between Bruce and Batman, and they already knew about the anti-summoning defenses. Speed was of the essence, to get Cass to safety before Talia was able to communicate with December to get the brainwashed girl back.
So it was no surprise that the perimeter defenses detected David Cain and Lady Shiva, along with Talia and seven of their masked subordinates, entering the grounds through the weakest part of the defenses. They were following a blood compass, identical to the first few tracking spells Tenko had made for Bruce, as it was from copies of their tomes that he had learned the spell. In addition, two of their subordinates were mages themselves, as they were able to point out and interfere with the basic magical traps she had lined the property with. She couldn't make them too dangerous, as there are wild animals that could be caught up in them, and it was relatively popular for children to be dared to infiltrate the grounds. Also it was illegal to booby-trap your residence, but when you're as rich as the Waynes the line between reasonable security and illegal booby traps was rather thin and muddled.
This was easily detected, because Tenko had nine blood compasses tracking those figures… or rather, tracking Cass' parents and unborn half-sibling. Same thing. Three were in the Batcave, three at the Belfry, and three at the Degurechaff penthouse. Each set was watched by a camera, and a program translated the triangulation into an exact map position, which is what was available for view to anyone with Batcomputer access and the inclination to see it. It was too much effort to maintain constant tracking of anyone with this method, but if he had enough notice, it was good to keep an eye on someone's position for a day or two, and the program was able to maintain nine independent trackers without needing to do more than place the compasses in the designated spots in the cabinets that contained the cameras.
Unfortunately, the League decided to use a route that was rather inconvenient to them: Their proximity and compass' downward tilt means they know that the panic room is underground, and thus attached to the Batcave. So they went for Harold's shack on the grounds instead of attempting to breach the manor's defenses.
Harold Allnut, the mute hunchback that served as Batman's primary mechanic, used to be under house arrest for his crimes (a boatload of accessory charges, mostly) while working under the Penguin. Bruce had arranged it with his parole board for him to be hired as a live-in mechanic for Bruce's fleet of luxury cars, and Harold did actually do that, the terms of his house arrest was amended so that as long as he never left Wayne Manor's grounds, he was not in violation of his sentence. Granted, it was basically slavery, but that was legal in America as part of punishment for a crime, and Harold was enough of a homebody that he had absolutely no objections to the arrangement. A few years ago, he was let out on parole, which he celebrated by taking a vacation on a cruise ship. Afterwards, he just came back to work and continued the exact same life he had when he was under house arrest. As this was an anticipated contingency, Harold had already been moved out of the way to the manor's garage, where he was busying himself by catching up on the maintenance backlog.
The reason, of course, that his shack was getting attacked was that it contained a passage to the Batcave. Tenko's scry watched the League as they quickly located the entrance; Harold was not a particularly diligent cleaner, so scuffs on the floor alone revealed the hatch. Tenko made a note to compensate somehow for this flaw. Maybe a cleaning robot? Waynetech makes one, giving him free rein to modify it to his tastes should make it plenty capable.
Nevertheless, they had enough prep time to remove the important things from the workshop space, and locked everything down in a way that made the place just look like a relatively ordinary basement workshop, with a few thousand dollars worth of parts to steal but nothing they'd actually care about. Just enough left vulnerable to make it not immediately obvious that they were prepared.
It took them about thirty seconds to locate and triple that to open the hidden door to the rest of the Batcave. Not surprising, as assassins generally prided themselves on subtlety, to the detriment of haste. Or they're operating under the impression that they are still hidden. One of those.
The cave system underneath Wayne Manor was fiendishly complicated, difficult to navigate without knowledge of the terrain, and Bruce's modifications only made it more difficult. Tenko had further layered a confounding spell onto the tunnels, amplifying any feelings of confusion and doubt. This was prepared years ago, but a few drops of demonic ichor and an exertion of will activated the defense spell and gave it enough power to get someone going around in a circle for days.
Talia, Lady Shiva, and David Cain ran straight into said magical defenses, executing an organized search of the tunnels to find the proper route, which allowed Batgirl and Robin to ambush three of the masked assassins, quiet as a whisper and with no alarm to the rest of them.
When Lady Shiva found herself opening a door right back into Harold's decoy workshop, they deduced the nature of the defenses and rallied everyone back before using what appeared to be meditative techniques to shut out the spell's influence, as well as a mystically empowered shout that, apparently, allowed her to find the exact path to the Batcave's main chamber. Some kind of echolocation spell, perhaps?
Nevertheless, they abandoned subtlety, so Tenko obliged them, activating a loud alarm in said main chamber seconds before they arrived into it, which activated some visible security measures, blast doors closing and most of the workstations locking themselves down in their own ways.
"Damn." David said as he saw the blast door cut off access to no less than five other chambers.
Lady Shiva brought out their compass. "That way." She said authoritatively, pointing at one of the blast doors. It was the correct direction to reach the room with the blood severing ritual, where Cass was… braiding the Tanya proxy doll's hair. She was also practically chanting her readiness to fight the instant the door opens, but being keyed up in this situation is understandable.
As they walked over the metal bridge, Robin and Batgirl emerged from underneath and ambushed two of the remaining assassins. Raven and Ace incanted their respective mantras and pulled the other two into portals, with the ambushed assassins also being thrown into them.
Zatanna was at the other side of those portals, and shouted with as much authority as she could muster: "Llaf peels!" Despite the unfortunate anadrome, it was effective: all four assassins joined their slumbering fellows, who were already secured from before.
Simultaneously with the subordinates being removed, Batman introduced David Cain to both of his boots. Unfortunately, the man was a cut above the masked assassins, rolling with the force and using the very same bridge that Robin and Batgirl used to conceal their positions to slip away from Batman's further assault.
Lady Shiva didn't miss a beat, thrusting her sword to force a dodge, and Talia threw some knives, the magically sharpened blades projecting an aggressively neutral odor to Tenko's magical senses. Not wanting to risk whatever they had, Batman ducked and rolled away from pursuing David, exactly as his opponents intended.
Bruce's notes on Lady Shiva noted that her combat proficiency was possibly 'the best in the world', as she has never lost a battle to someone without some substantial advantage over her in ways other than skill. The file warned against engaging in direct combat with her. That warning… was absolutely warranted. He was losing? That was new. Granted, he was getting double-teamed by Talia and Lady Shiva, but even while pushing his magic to discreetly empower the Batsuit's enhancements, he was still dancing to their tune.
David Cain had recovered, but Robin and Batgirl once more teamed up and fought him. It was actually kind of surprising; Richard had years of training with Barbie, but Jason didn't have nearly as much practice fighting in tandem with the older girl and yet they were working together quite smoothly.
Still, they were not his only allies. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Some pre-prepared chains flew and attempted to ensnare Talia, but she was able to slip out and used a climbing piton she slipped out of a pocket to pin the chain to the ground before disengaging.
"Cadmus, Oineros, Chara!" Another chain attempted to ensnare Lady Shiva, turning into a metal snake and lashing out, but the martial artist decapitated the snake and smoothly fileted the reptile, the spell breaking and the chain falling to the ground in disconnected links, half of them cleanly cut through.
Damn Bruce and his taste in dangerous women… "This fight climbs in length, I grow in strength." Tenko incanted, his muscles surging in power as he piled on even more magic. With a flex of his arms, he slammed his hands together in a powerful clap, creating an explosion of sound that stunned everyone in the room and probably killed a few of the bats in the nearby chambers. Except him, of course. With only a split second to act, Talia was slammed into one of the metal pillars that supported the platforms everything else rested on, knocking the woman out.
Irritated bats stormed into the room, screeching in a cacophony that probably didn't accomplish anything, but it distracted the enemy slightly more than the allied forces, so a second, coordinated, attempt at animating capture materials successfully contained Lady Shiva.
David, on the other hand, seemed to be winning his own bout. A sword was sticking out of Barbie's spine, a nasty wound that would probably do permanent damage if untreated, and Robin had lost his cool in the meantime, roaring as he assaulted the calmer man.
Just looking at the man and the injury he inflicted brought the anger he had been stoking for the last few days up to the forefront, and magic exploded off of Tenko's body as he surged forth and tackled the man to the ground, punching him repeatedly as he beat the man to death with his own two hands, as promised.
Before he could finish the job, however… a muscular hand garbed in identical armor grabbed his fist and stopped him, which quickly transitioned into an over-the-shoulder throw, right into a waiting rope.
The aura of demonic rage vanished, guttering out as the divine Lasso of Truth returned Tanya to her true form. "Diana!" Tanya whined, struggling futilely as the amazon held her up by the rope. Yeah, she didn't have the magical chutzpah to escape this, and she'd just get tied up more thoroughly if she tried actual escapology techniques. "Not in front of the assassins!"
"No killing." Batman said, his voice dripping with disappointment that he had to say it.
"My love!" Talia said woozily, getting up from the beating she had taken seconds before. She was probably concussed. "...and the interloper."
"Try 'wife'." Diana said, annoyed. "Bruce, you didn't mention this on the way back."
"You're early." Raven commented, "I thought you two weren't coming back until the morning."
"We skipped the scenic return trip." Diana explained, "Robin there called and told us the situation."
"Clearly not!" Tanya retorted, "Why are you stopping me if you know what this bastard did?"
"No. Killing." Batman reiterated, poking Tanya on the nose to punctuate it. "Find another way."
Tanya growled, taking a deep breath to calm down. "I did, actually. Come on, Batgirl took a bad hit, we should handle that first." Diana smiled at the change, and carried her to the fallen heroine.
"Maybe I should stabilize the asshole." Ace suggested, before using her own magic to stop David from bleeding out from the beatdown he had just received.
-----------------------
With no less than five magic users of varying skill levels at hand and plenty of resources, the assassins were contained and everyone was healed up without too much trouble. Some suffering, yes, but not trouble. Fortunately, Barbie was able to just take a shower and go home in fresh clothes, as the excitement was over and the Batgirl suit will be cleaned and sent to the Belfry by the evening. Zatanna went with her.
The actual ritual, on the other hand… less convenient. "Let me go!" Lady Shiva shouted, struggling from the thorough restraints. Fortunately, the modified ritual was designed for an unwilling, restrained subject. While theoretically it could be disrupted if the subject was also disbelieving in magic, this wouldn't be a problem here. Double-thinking well enough to fool magic was incredibly difficult and required years of meditation training. The only one Tenko knew who could pull it off was Bruce, and probably the Tibetan monks he learned the trick from. Even then, it was more of a magical technique one could use to disrupt certain kinds of magic rather than a mundane skill.
The Batcave had two different 'ritual rooms', as in relatively large chambers within the cave complex intended to be modified as needed to perform magic at as large of a scale that is feasible without leaving the cave entirely. There used to be more, but the others were eventually converted into some other long-term purpose on a more permanent basis, such as Shazam's cell. Naturally, this ritual was set up in such a room.
It was a very ugly ritual, in Tenko's opinion. The seams in which the component rituals were jammed together stood out to him, and the combination of shimewada ropes with blood magic runes replacing the kanji on the shide… completely unharmonious. "No." He said firmly. "This is the only way Cass can remain safe from the League's blood magic." Even killing them both wasn't foolproof.
"Hold still, madame." Alfred said as he prepared to draw her blood. While there was ritual value in bloodletting by slicing open particular veins and arteries, safely drawing blood and just letting it drip out of the tube into the appropriate receptacle usually worked fine. "We'd prefer to do this the safe way but if you don't stand still we have plenty of sterilized blades to use instead."
"You will regret this." Lady Shiva swore. "Stealing-"
"Shut up." Tenko spat. "Child soldiers and human weapons alike are banned by any civilized society, and for good reason. You lost any claim you had to Cass' future the second you agreed with David's insanity."
"My daughter will be the greatest warrior in history." Lady Shiva retorted, "All else is secondary to that."
"I never understood that." Tenko said idly, wielding his calligraphy brush to paint the ofuda with Lady Shiva's blood before placing them at the appropriate points in the room. "How much importance some people place on personal combat strength. Known history doesn't even stretch back far enough to where that was useful for anything but either subordinating yourself to whoever has the actual power in this world, or spending all your time parasitizing society because you have no useful skills." He huffed in amusement. "Well, in Cass' case it's simple enough, you were lazy and wanted a weapon that you could point at a target and know that it was dead, and you could go straight to benefiting from that execution of violence. After all, children aren't people, right?"
"That is the nature of parenthood." Lady Shiva said with conviction. "You shape the child into what is useful, and they in turn serve you in thanks for your tutelage, until they learn the final lesson."
"Talk about out of order…" Tenko murmured as he continued his work. "It is the duty of the parent to train a productive member of society, someone that can survive and build on the works of those who came before, as is the inevitable march of progress." The information age has its problems, but philosophical quibbling aside on what constitutes a worthy goal to strive for, societally, Tenko was still willing to defend it as far better than what came before. "Any idiot can create something that requires your personal attention to function." Even Being X can do that much. Assuming his complaints about his workload wasn't just him being a malingerer, which Tenko wouldn't put past the bastard. "The true test of any creator is to make something that can continue without you. Being a parent is no different."
"That is the final lesson they must learn." Lady Shiva said enigmatically.
Tenko chuckled as a crazy thought occurred to him. "What, is the final lesson that they'll only be free if they kill you, becoming the master?" It'd just be like the League of Assassins to earnestly endorse a philosophy from Star Wars.
There was an extended silence.
"...Was that actually the final lesson?" Tenko asked, confused. "Was Cass supposed to eventually break free and murder you?"
Lady Shiva flushed. "...Our battle would have been legendary." She said, looking away.
"...Battle maniacs." Tenko said, throwing up his hands and affixing the final ofuda. Taking out his best ritual knife, he cut his palm and started the ritual. Palm cuts represent pacts and agreements, the best option for this kind of spell.
This was going to take a while, but once completed, Cass will officially no longer be Lady Shiva's child, from a blood magic point of view. Instead, she'll be the daughter of Batman. Or rather, who everyone thinks is Batman.
Now he just needs to figure out who would make the best replacement for David's spot on the family tree, now that murdering was off the table.