LOOTING DC #30. Arcane
The glow around Lian softened. Still far from calm. Still far from safe. But less volatile now.
Jake stayed still, watching Zatanna like she was a tuning fork for the universe. Her presence didn't just settle the magic - it settled the air itself. Softer edges. Fewer fractures.
Lian liked her. That much was obvious.
Then Jake looked at the other one.
Trench coat. Cigarette. Energy like a tax audit wrapped in brimstone.
"You..." he muttered, nodding toward Zatanna. "She likes."
His eyes flicked to Constantine.
"You... she prefers not."
Constantine scoffed, dry and unimpressed. "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock."
Zatanna didn't miss a beat. "Don't take it personally, John."
She gave him a slow, surgical once-over.
"…It's probably just everything about you."
Constantine grumbled and flicked his cigarette into the swirling glyphs on the floor - which hissed like they'd just been insulted.
Before anyone else could speak, Wonder Woman stepped in.
She gestured toward them both. "John Constantine. Zatanna Zatara. Members of the Justice League Dark - the League's arcane division. When brute strength and tech fail, they step in."
Kid Flash blinked. "Arcane? I thought this was a biotech op."
His gaze slid toward Roy - sharp, incredulous.
Roy didn't answer. Didn't look up. But his silence was loud.
'You wouldn't have come if I told you the truth.'
Jake stepped in before the tension snapped. "That explains the runes."
He nodded toward the walls, the floor - the small, glowing markings etched around Lian's cradle.
Zatanna followed his gaze. "Chaos wards. Anchor glyphs."
"They the reason she still looks like a month-old baby at two years old?" Artemis asked quietly, eyes never leaving her niece.
"No," Constantine said flatly. "That would be her own magic. Chaos energy does that - especially in kids bred out of Witch-World."
"But it's not just Chaos, is it?" Jake asked.
Constantine paused - then gave a grunt. Almost impressed.
"Not all talk, huh? Lad's got some magic sense if he can spot the weave under the Chaos."
"I've got a good sense about things," Jake said, nonchalant.
"Not sure you should be bragging," Damian cut in from the Lasso's grip, "before paying your debt to me."
Zatanna turned to Damian, studying him now - deeply. Eyes narrowed, measuring.
"You are…" she started, then looked to Superman. He nodded.
Constantine caught on first. "Well... either this ends with a sunset stroll, or we're staring down the next extinction event."
"You don't say," Jake said, half-listening - but clearly picking up more than anyone was saying aloud. "That brat's actually useful."
"Who are you calling brat, you useless prat!" Damian snapped.
"Glad I didn't have to clarify," Jake said smugly.
"You're the one who broke into the BatCave," Superman said, finally turning his attention toward Jake. "I can tell by the lead lining in your mask. Only Bat-Tech is that paranoid."
Jake tilted his head. "Can you blame him? You just tried to x-ray my skull."
Superman gave a one-shoulder shrug - then his expression dropped into something far less casual. Stone cold. No theatrics.
"You seem to know what's happening here. So I'll ask plainly - who are you? And what's your interest in this?"
"Been wondering the same myself," Constantine added, flicking ash off his coat. "You've got a stink on you, mate. Not hellfire… but close."
Jake looked around. All eyes were on him now - League, Team, even Artemis.
She didn't say a word, but her gaze said enough: I want to know, too.
Would "Your friendly neighborhood spiderman" cut it? Probably not with Jake's general rapport during his time in DC.
Why change it?
"Spider. Trouble," Jake said, deflective and flat. "If you need more, ask Batman. He's still running diagnostics."
Superman didn't blink - but his jaw tightened, just slightly. The kind of shift most people wouldn't notice.
Jake's answer had landed in that frustrating sweet spot - too vague to challenge, too pointed to ignore.
"Not a denial," Superman said quietly. "Just enough truth to stall the question."
He didn't sound angry. Just... measuring.
Constantine grinned, clearly enjoying the tension.
"Now that's how you dodge a god's question," Constantine muttered. "Knew I bloody liked something about you."
"Leave it to the boys to assert dominance before averting a crisis," Wonder Woman cut in, dry as stone. "One of these days..." she muttered under her breath.
"Speaking of crisis," Zatanna said, snapping her fingers. A glow erupted around her, then faded. "There are no traces of any other survivors on this island."
"What remains of it..." she added, voice soft.
Tensed silence.
Wonder Woman swallowed hard.
"No one could've predicted this," Superman said solemnly.
"What about Ivo?" Kid Flash asked. "I saw him."
Constantine raised his hand. A hexagonal ring of light spun to life, revealing a birds-eye projection of the island.
The island was wreckage - scorched jungle, shattered labs, and craters where ground used to be. Twisted metal jutted from collapsed structures, coastline fractured like broken teeth. No movement. No smoke. Just silence and ruin.
"No one's walking out of that," Constantine said, flicking his fingers to dismiss the portal. "Not unless they're myth or madness."
"That's not all, is it?" Miss Martian finally spoke, eyes narrowing as she turned to Wonder Woman. "Something tells me your cavalry's stalling - and we should be worried."
"What's wrong?" Superboy asked, brow furrowing.
"We're at the heart of a collapsing island," Kaldur said calmly. "And yet... no one's moved to evacuate."
"Can't you just teleport us out the same way you came in?" Kid Flash asked, shooting a look at Constantine and Zatanna.
Constantine gave him a flat stare. Zatanna didn't meet his eyes.
"Right?" Miss Martian pressed.
The corners of Constantine's mouth twitched - not a smile, not quite. His eyes flicked to Damian, still bound by the lasso.
"It's not that simple, mate."
"Uh-oh," Jake said, eyes moving from Constantine, to Damian, to Zatanna, to Lian. He didn't like what his Spider-sense was telling him. Much less the magic in his threads - the Web of Life.
Artemis froze. Her gaze shot to Lian - specifically, the faint black tattoo glowing just under her skin.
Her face drained.
Her voice cracked - low, shaken.
"The Black Dragon is why."
🕸️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕸️
The girl walked behind him.
Her steps made no sound.
Not because she was trying to be quiet - she simply was. She moved like breath between moments. Alert. Balanced. Every motion stripped of excess.
Ra's al Ghul walked as if the world answered to him. She walked as if it didn't matter.
They passed through the stone hall without a word. The weapons mounted along the walls did not impress her. She'd memorized them all. The runes carved into the pillars spoke languages she did not need to know - not when body language was clearer than speech.
The only light came from candles. That made her more comfortable.
Ra's finally stopped.
A pedestal stood before him. On it, a scroll bound in metal and shadow. It pulsed - not visibly, but rhythmically. Like it remembered being read in a different century.
She didn't react. But she saw everything.
Ra's touched the scroll like a father might touch a child's forehead before passing judgment.
"Gotham," he said.
She blinked, once.
"An idea pretending to be a city. Rot layered over ritual. It was never meant to survive - and yet it does. Every time. Flood it, burn it, bury it... and it always finds a way back to pain."
He turned his head slightly, just enough to acknowledge her presence. Not an invitation. A test.
She did not flinch.
He lifted the scroll and extended it toward her. "This is its origin. Its bone structure. The Blueprint."
She stepped forward. One movement. Clean.
She took the scroll without hesitation.
It was heavier than it should've been.
Ra's watched her hands as they closed around it. "Not a map. Not quite a spell. But close. A truth - foundational and stubborn. With it, Gotham bends to will, not luck. Infrastructure, ley lines, old blood. All answer to the one who holds it."
She did not look down. The scroll was already accounted for. The weight of it was less important than the purpose.
"You'll retrieve the original," he said. "Only one exists. And it's where it has always been."
He paused.
"So is my grandson."
Her eyes flicked toward him. Not curiosity. Acknowledgment.
"There will be others in the way," Ra's said. "Masks. Magic. Machines. They will try to persuade or test you."
She didn't blink.
"You were not raised for persuasion. You were forged for inevitability."
He stepped closer. His voice was lower now - colder.
"You do not waver. You do not speak. Let the world scream - but you decide when it goes silent."
At that, she finally looked him in the eyes.
Approval flickered across his face.
"Bring him back," he said. "Or bury what keeps him."
"But don't return," he added. "Without the Blueprint."
She turned.
No farewell. No salute.
Just stillness. Then motion.
A shadow moving toward a city that had never known silence.
We're at Chapter 35 now.
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