Julius's POV
Constantine had a few choice things to say about the clone, but that was greatly overshadowed by the government response.
They labeled the clone an official member of Task Force X and spun the whole exchange as a foiled terrorist plot perpetrated by yours truly, followed by a daring rescue by the positively murderous clones. Every news station repeated the story—even the smaller stations.
I didn't put together that Artisan was using more than just Binding Vows until I saw the people I literally saved crying on the news like I'd done them some great wrong.
"Telepaths," I said to the small group that had gathered in Mazikeen's living room.
The formerly sleepy sorcerers were on their feet again, but sluggish, likely suffering from the same soul wound I used to have. Still, they looked to be holding up well enough.
"That scheming bitch," Constantine cursed. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about with the knockoff Superman, the teleporters, and the factory-made Special Grades. No offense."
He said that to Nathan, who looked more confused than offended.
"It's not exactly a surprise," I said evenly, "given the last batch of clones I tore through in New York. It just means rescuing and reinstating the president won't put a stop to all of this. Breaking the Binding Vows won't solve our problems either. If I were Artisan, I'd be phasing out the vows quickly and replacing them with reprogramming. Fewer points of failure."
"You would've made an excellent demon," Mazikeen grinned at me.
The attention made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"Sybil," Gina said suddenly.
"Who?" George asked.
"Sybil. A new metahuman recruit. She's the head of the metahuman division, as far as I can tell, and also a very powerful telepath and telekinetic. Artisan spent weeks tweaking her meta-gene."
"So, we've got a target, potentially," I said.
"Maybe," George said. "But that's not our biggest problem right now. The fact that they found you seconds is. You risked exposing us to play hero."
"Well, it was better that we found out here and now than getting ambushed out in the open," I countered, though I knew it was weak. "I'm more interested in how it found me so quickly in L.A., but no one ever came sniffing around when we were in Maine. Does Artisan have a few clones stationed in every major city, or...was it just dumb luck, or a mistake?"
"It's a mistake. Probably," Constantine said, dabbing the end of his cigarette into a ceramic ashtray. "I may have been holding a few things back."
I rolled my eyes.
"Shocker."
"The Light hit Artisan hard. So hard she lost a chunk of her soul in the fight."
That got everybody sitting up a little straighter in our brown leather chairs.
It fit in perfectly with the try-hard, gothic décor Mazikeen was really into. The only thing out of place in the ostentatious house was the flat-screen television hanging over the fireplace. When I'd previously commented on it, Maze had said something about not wanting to miss her shows.
"So, she's weak?" George sounded positively bloodthirsty.
"Not so much that she couldn't still kick our collective asses if she needed to," Constantine said. "Last I heard, she was doped up on Kryptonian DNA, and some of yours too." He nodded at me. "Even without most of her Cursed Energy and techniques, it's still going to be a hard, hard fight."
"But not an impossible one," I said. "We don't have to win, remember. We just have to trap her."
Then we could go back to mauling each other.
"And cut down a lot of people like me..." Nathan said quietly.
Nobody denied it.
"You said she made a mistake?" Gina asked, redirecting the conversation. "What did you mean?"
"I said probably," Constantine corrected. "I'm no detective, but it seems to me that if Artisan wanted you dead, you'd be dead. The woman brought entire criminal syndicates to heel. She wouldn't be careless enough to send one doped-up superhuman when she could easily spare two clear-thinking ones. And don't get me started on its strange behavior. The lack of control is...concerning, as is the fact that you walked away from that exchange without a scratch."
"Maybe I'm just that good?" I said.
"Maybe," Constantine said. "But it's more likely that you were being tested for vulnerabilities. Or—"
"Or what?" George pressed.
"The dog got off its leash somehow," I concluded, my mind twisting slightly at the possibility. "Artisan has lost control of her people."
"I know. Terrifying, isn't it?" Constantine asked as he sipped on some bourbon he'd produced from somewhere without my noticing.
"Come on."
Constantine rose to his feet.
"It's time to meet the League."
"Not until I say goodbye to Raven," I said, surprising Maze and the other sorcerers. "I meant what I said earlier. I didn't go through all that trouble to save her only to hand her over to another abuser."
Maze chuckled.
"She's upstairs."
Batman's POV
"And Kilowog is on my ass about collateral damage," Hal Jordan said. "Those kids make me look like a model officer."
The news coverage of Zandia was playing over and over again on the small flat-screen TV in the noodle shop John Constantine had insisted we use to meet the sorcerers.
They'd had an eventful few hours.
Although he had forewarned us about the mission they'd been tasked with, it was hard to stomach all that violence.
"We seriously can't be considering partnering with them after this," Flash said over the comms.
"We can't fight a battle on two fronts," Green Arrow said. "It's in both of our interests to work together."
Hal scoffed.
"You're just saying that because you want Artisan dead almost as much as they do. They took out an entire town, for goodness' sake."
"Zandia was hardly a town," I countered. "It was full of zealots, murderers, ritualists, and barely anyone under the age of eighteen."
I forwarded a few census reports and local data I'd gathered to the Leaguers present for this operation.
"They have a suspiciously low birth rate for a town of over a thousand."
"You're defending them now?" Hal scoffed.
"I'm merely stating the facts."
"The fact is that they murdered over a thousand people, Batman," Wonder Woman said.
Her bright eyes were intense and judgmental, and she sat across from me with her arms folded, the only other member of the League allowed to meet the sorcerers. Given how our last deal with Julius had gone, Diana believed less was more.
"I'm well aware," I said. "Whatever their methods, they were able to divert and neutralize a threat we didn't realize existed until it was almost too late. The truth remains that we need them if we're going to win this war. And there's no reason the strategy has to change. They're all sorcerers. They can be restrained by Binding Vows."
"You sure about that, Batman?" Hal Jordan asked just before my wrist communicator went off.
Something was happening in Los Angeles.
The Watch Tower computer only had snapshots from phones in the area and aerial satellite images.
But it wasn't looking good. The aggregates painted a clear picture.
A large kid in some skin-tight suit seemed to be chasing another through the city.
Both their faces were hidden, but I didn't need visual confirmation to know it was Julius and some new threat.
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