18 walked into the room and looked around at the people present inside.
They were a strange-looking group, although she was getting used to that being the standard around here.
One was a person who looked and acted like a kid, but she could feel something ancient behind his eyes; he was carrying a cat on his arms and his smile was creepy.
Then there was a man wearing a white shirt that exposed his chest and black pants, his hair was fixed into a ponytail.
The last one was a older looking gentleman, wearing a green cape; he had a saber on his hip and his beard and hair were a little grey. He spoke as soon as he noticed her.
"Ahh, the last member of the team has arrived."
The little man with the cat looked at her, annoyed.
"It was about time, really. I hate waiting, next time arrive an hour before me so I don't have to wait."
That earned him a ki blast to the face.
But a red energy shield blocked the attack, his smile grew as his eyes went red.
18 took a fighting pose and was about to rush when the older man put his hand in front of the small demon.
"My apologies, but we are already late, so we should start the plan as soon as posible, we can come back to this once we finish."
"Ohh, that's no fun, but ok I'll kill her later."
18 was amused by his confidence; she would enjoy ripping his head off later, but for now, she was curious as to what their mission would be, so she would let it go.
"What is this about?, Savage said you would explain when I arrived."
The older man nodded.
"Yes, but first introductions are in order, my name is Ra's Al Goul, grand master of the league of assassins, this here is Abra Kadabra and the one you almost fight it's klarion."
She looked unimpressed, especially by the man called Abra Kadabra; he was definitely a weakling.
Still, Ra's Al Ghoul continued speaking.
"Tell me, 18, how much do you know about magic?"
She knew what he was doing, fishing for more information than his question let on, but still she didn't hide anything, as it would be unnecessary.
"I encountered it a few times in my own world. We fought a witch who could bring back death warriors from the afterlife to fight for her. She was also able to see small parts of the future; there were also mystical objects capable of granting wishes and people capable of creating clothing from nothing."
She paused and thought for a second.
"Magic in my world was utilitarian; it wasn't a direct form of attack, but it was used for its usefulness outside of a fight. I have seen that it is not the case here."
She remembered the man who attacked with spells and chanted in a strange tongue.
Abra Kadabra raised his hands theatrically.
"Exactly, magic in this dimension is far superior to anything you have seen."
She ignored him and continued talking.
"You are a demon, right?"
Looking at Klarion, she had heard about them, but never met one, so if he was, it would be interesting to kill him.
"I am a chaos lord, don't even compare me with those weak minions of hell."
Ra's cleared his throat, making the others pay attention to him.
"It's good that you have at least some knowledge about it, this time we are looking for a very powerful magical artifact."
Klarion scuffed.
"Arguably."
Ra's just continued without acknowledging the comment.
"This artifact is right now in the hands of a powerful magician; his lair is known as the Tower of Fate. Our objective is to infiltrate the place and take it for ourselves."
Klarion laughed maniacally.
"And destroy it."
Ra's voice grew a little cold.
"In due time."
18 was paying attention to the interaction; it was obvious that they both had different goals, but they were making an effort to work together, so far, Vandal Savage's description of the Light seemed accurate.
Now she was weighing her options; she could refuse to go with them and leave, or she could go and see what the magic of this world could do.
She talked to Ra's.
"I will go with them, it sounds fun."
A week later, she was regretting that comment.
Sitting on the seats inside an abandoned theater, she was about to fall asleep, as Abra Kadabra tortured Ken Nelson, trying to get the information they needed.
Klarion was applauding and laughing, but for her, this was a pointless waste of time; if she didn't receive a disguise to go out without calling attention to herself, she would have lost her temper and killed everyone long ago, especially Klarion.
"Ah, I really enjoy a good torture session."
"Enjoy it while you can, my friends. Will definitely come save me."
Honestly, she was hoping they did; if nothing interesting happened soon, she might have to destroy a city just to relieve her boredom.
The old man kept screaming as the fake magician shocked him with his wand and klarion laugh at him.
18 frowned at the display. Contrary to popular belief, the androids didn't enjoy torturing their prey; it just wasn't fun. Destroying their cars, blowing up a building and blasting them with ki was entertaining.
But the screaming and the mess of torture was just too dirty, people peed and poo themselves, screams, tears and fluids are disgusting, besides, they never cared about getting information, part of the fun was hunting down the humans by themselves.
It was another reason they hated the worshipers and the ones who gave information about others to try to survive; it ruined the game of finding the survivors themselves.
Just when 18 was thinking of going out again. Klarion stopped laughing and stared into his cat's eyes.
"Would you look at that, they did come, maybe we should go see if they brought a spare key."
They were observing the team search around what looked like an empty field. Aqualad, Artemis, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, superboy and Robin were there looking around.
Kid Flash spoke to the group.
"Nothing, this isn't simple camouflage."
Artemis responded, looking around.
"What do you think?, Adapto micro electronics combined with fate shifting?"
"Absolutely."
Then he noticed Miss Martian and changed his answer.
"There's obviously mystic power at work here."
18 stared and said.
"Pathetic."
Even Klarion had to agree.
"Really, if you are going to lie, don't be that obvious about it."
The villains cringe at Wally's poor attempts to flirt.
"By the way, Abra Kadabra, aren't you using adapto micro mechanics and fate shifting?"
The guy sounded embarrassed when he answered.
"Yes."
Did he think 18 didn't know he wasn't using magic? She wasn't an expert at sensing energy, but she could distinguish at a glance who was using ki or other kinds of energy and who was just a regular human.
Maybe that was the reason Robin and Artemis survived the encounter with her, as she didn't see them as dangerous and ignored them until the end.
Robin spoke next.
"I checked the city records, and there is no information about any building ever being here, not even aerial images show anything."
Then Aqualad said something and inserted a key into the air, making a tower appear and open its door.
They entered behind the teens, the old man talked with a sly smile.
"The tower may not appreciate intruders."
Abra Kadabra pointed his wand at him.
"Silence."
A collar was put on the old man's neck.
They kept walking and were greeted by a holographic depiction of Kent.
"Welcome, Kent, how unlike you to bring guests to the tower, especially one with such a potent mystic power and one who comes from outside this dimension."
18 wasn't surprised that this illusion knew her origins; at this point, that was common knowledge, although she suspected that wasn't the reason it knew about it.
The collar on Kent's neck spoke with his voice.
"My friends come to help me."
They were allowed passage and they saw a void of floating stairs, stretched as far as the eyes could see.
After walking around for a few minutes, Klarion decided to be annoying again.
"Are we there yet?, Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
She really wanted to kill this guy, but now they were inside a magic place and getting out would be easier with his help, so she held herself back.
Abra Kadabra's patience was at its limit; he may not say it out loud, but he was just as annoyed with Klarion as she was.
"Tell us where the helmet is."
Kent smiled and replied.
"Can't, I'm having too much fun."
He was zapped by electricity again.
"Still having fun?"
Klarion laughed and said.
"Do it again, or throw him into..."
"Can you shut up already?"
18 was at the limit of her patience.
"This is obviously not working; we should try something else."
Klarion was annoyed with her interruption; the only reason these two hadn't tried to kill each other was because of the promise to fight when the work was done.
But Abra Kadabra was still worried; they aren't the type to follow logic or plans. If they pushed each other too far, a clash was inevitable.
Klarion spoke sarcastically.
"What should we do to them? oh, wait a minute, you know nothing of magic, so shut up."
Now, 18 was furious.
"I know enough to recognize a clueless animal fumbling around in an endless goose chase; this old man is just buying time. If you had a brain, maybe you would have noticed too."
"Are you calling me an idiot?"
"Wow, I honestly thought you wouldn't notice, because so far you have been falling for this old man's games for days, you brainless morrow."
"That's it."
Both 18 and Klarion were about to try to kill each other and Abra Kadabra was going pale. He was tasked with mediating between the two, the logic been he was an admirer of magic and a technology expert, so he could calm them by talking on their level.
That could have worked if this were a wise wizard and a scientist, but this was a brat throwing a tantrum, who was also an extradimensional entity of chaos arguing with a rebellious teenager, who was also a psychopathic killer cyborg capable of destroying the world.
What was he supposed to do here? If he said the wrong thing, these two would annihilate him before fighting each other anyway.
Just when the tension was at its peak, a light shined and Artemis and Kid Flash appeared holding a cane.
They stopped and watched as the old man flew, grabbing the cane and opening a door to escape.
Wally noticed the Android, and his eyes went wide with fear.
"18."
The blonde jumped and rushed towards them as the door closed, she punched it and left an imprint of her fist on it.
Inside the elevator, Kent wiped a drop of sweat as he looked at the two young heroes.
"We may be in trouble."
Wally spoke with panic, remembering getting one-shotted by the android and waking up two days later, not to mention knowing she could go toe to toe against Superman.
"Maybe, dude, that was 18. If she is here, we need the league."
Artemis was getting her communicator to request help, even with the Justice League busy trying to contain all the unrest going on in the world, 18 was still the number one priority currently for the heroes.
Only by defeating her and locking her up would they get the trust of the people back.
Yet Kent spoke to her as she was trying to send a message unsuccessfully.
"Don't bother, those signals can't get out of the tower, nobody will receive your message and Klarion is blocking our exit, so we are alone."
That was a nightmare scenario for these two; they now knew for sure they had no chance against 18, so being trapped in the same place with her was like being kept under a guillotine without knowing when the blade would drop.
Kent spoke calmly to them.
"We are facing an extremely powerful user of the mystical arts as well."
Kid Flash responded with annoyance.
"Abra Kadabra, cmon the Flash already proved he is using future technology to appear magical, he is just a fraud."
"He is indeed a charlatan, but Klarion the witch boy is a genuine lord of chaos."
Artemis was trying to stay calm, as the situation seemed hopeless.
"So we have not one but two nightmare scenarios."
Kent still smiled.
"That, my dear, may be our chance to get out alive; if it were just one, our chances would actually be worse."
They looked confused at him.
"I've been observing those two for days; they seem to have some kind of deal, but can't stand each other. They just need a push and they would forget their alliance."
Artemis understood the idea, but execution would be dangerous; if they did it wrong, they risked having both focus on them and that was a death sentence.
"So we do something to make them fight each other, and while they do, we get the helmet."
As they were talking, they exited the elevator and the rest of the team fell in front of them from a portal above.
"Friends of yours?"
"Guys, we have serious trouble. 18 is here."
Just as he finished talking, a lightning bolt exploded next to them.
Abra Kadabra was rushing towards them and behind him.
"You are an insufferable piece of junk. If you continue getting on my nerves, I'll scrap you."
"Well, I want to see you try your poor imitation of a meatbag."
Kid Flash looked at Kent and asked.
"Are you sure we need to do something? I think we just need to wait."
Abra Kadabra screamed.
"Can we focus?"
They both looked at him and said at the same time.
""You stay out of this, or I'll kill you.""
He was sincerely afraid of talking, but he did so anyway.
"Do you want it to be known that we fail because you were bickering?"
They looked at each other and understood that, although they hated the other, it would be embarrassing if they came back without the helmet.
18 decided to extend the olive branch first.
"Let's just finish this chore."
Klarion crossed his arms and his cat climbed onto his shoulder.
"Whatever."
Both turned towards the team.
As Wally spoke again.
"Well, that is just great."
chapter image.