The Spy who Hexed me Chapter 1, a batman beyond fanfic

Here be rampant copyright infringement. I own only Rithy, Cully, and Trade of Ghosts in this chapter. All other people, gadgets and supernatural entities belong to D.C., Vertigo, and Warner Brothers. Soundtrack: This world faireth as a fantasye.

Even in his younger and more sociable days, Bruce Wayne had despised having house guests. They messed up his routine, helped themselves to his kitchen (or at least, the few that Alfred liked did) and were generally a pain to look after. The worst guests were the ones that invited themselves. He glumly ate his dinner and glanced at the latest uninvited house pest.

Maxine Gibson had taken advantage of his absence due to a business trip last month to move in. By the time he'd come back, she was firmly ensconced. Her strategy of bribing Ace had paid off. He'd tried threats, he'd tried calling her parents, and at this point, he was seriously considering changing the locks. Or shipping her to Bialya.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Max asked.

"I was wondering why you aren't at your own house."

"Key word there is house. Not 'home.' Besides, you have lots of space; you didn't even notice I'd moved in for a week."

"A mistake I won't make again. I like my space and I like my privacy."

"And you still have plenty of both," Max said. "Um, Wayne..what's happening to the table?"

The tabletop glowed. Letters formed above the gleaming wood.

I am coming to Gotham. We must talk- Blood. 3-20

Wayne groaned. "Him coming here is the last thing I or Terry need."

"Friend of yours?" Max choked out.

"Not exactly. We've worked together, on occasion."

"Couldn't he have just sent an email?"

"He's never gotten the hang of electronics," Wayne said.

Jason Blood hadn't been to Gotham in years. He hadn't been in the States for a decade or two. Gotham certainly had changed, he thought, eying the ring of Jokerz around him. Time was, even the lowest of the low wouldn't take that name in vain.

"Listen, slaghead, just give us all your cash," the leader snarled.

"No."

"..What?"

"Did you know, once, Dick Turpin tried to rob me? I was not afraid of him, and I'm even less scared of you pathetic little shadows. You are as nothing to the man you'd attempt to honor. You merely cause chaos as an act of misguided youthful rebellion. He caused chaos for chaos's sake."

The nearest gang member tried to edge away, warned by some instinct that the attempted robbery had gone very, very wrong. The leader charged, but Blood raised a hand and stopped him in his tracks with a spell.

"Scum," he said congenially. "If you weren't going to die before the year was out, I'd take what little remained of your wits. Now, BEGONE, before I get mad."

The gang scurried for their motorcycles, driven by the compulsion in his words. A trivial spell, really. He should've simply turned them all into frogs or driven them insane, but he needed all his power for the coming fight.

"Guess you didn't need my help after all," a gravelly voice commented. Batman turned visible and landed.

"Another shadow?" Blood inquired. "No, I see. Taking up a legacy; yours by honor and blood."

"Are you always this aggravating or did I catch you at a bad time?" Terry asked, studying Blood.

At a guess, he'd say Blood was in his forties, or maybe a really well-preserved fifty. His hair was still red, though streaked with white, his face only had a few lines, and he stood straight and tall. Despite his confrontation with the Jokerz, he looked serene and unruffled. Keen green eyes pierced the night. He certainly didn't look old enough to have worked with Bruce as an equal.

"Boss, are you sure I found the right guy?"

"Yes, that is Jason Blood."

"He doesn't look any older than fifty."

"And he's looked like that for a very long time."

Terry gulped.

"Ah..need a lift?" he asked, covering up his nervousness.

"The night is fine. I will walk."

"There's more of them out there, you know."

Blood smiled. It was a very nasty smile, and Terry took a step back.

"Then I shall teach them the errors of their ways."

Blood arrived at the mansion before Terry did. Wayne suspected he'd cheated and called on Etrigan. As he knew from experience, taking the high route tended to cut way down on commuting time. And unlike Terry, Blood didn't care about ordinary crime.

"It's been a long time, Blood," he said. Not nearly long enough.

"A fine welcome. Your manners haven't improved much. This is..Maxine Gibson. Interesting. A little butterfly who flaps her wings and causes hurricanes of change. You are much like Abby, but luckily for you, not magically talented."

"You sound like a fortune cookie," Max snapped. "Can't you talk in a straight line?"

"I would, but at risk of offending our host. Can someone fetch me some hot water? It was a long flight, and I wish to have some tea. I brought my own leaves."

"Fine. I guess I have something better to do than watch you and Wayne and Ace all bristle at one another."

She left. Blood laughed.

"Your daughter will be just as lively as her, Wayne. I don't know whether I envy you or pity you."

"I don't have a daughter," Wayne replied.

"Not yet. She's not of your blood, but every bit as fierce. She will be seventeen in a month; you will live until her twentieth year."

"Has anyone ever told you that the precognition is bloody unnerving?"

"Many times."

Blood slowly sipped his tea, watching the four around him.

"So, why did you come here?" Terry asked.

"I will need your help. There is an incident that will happen, fueled by magic and technology. I narrowed the list of culprits to the children of five families. The Burgesses, the Crowleys, the Walkers, the Chatterjis and the Constantines. I cannot even approach the children to evaluate them; London shields them well."

"Can't you just go through this London person?" Terry asked.

"What are they teaching you children? I was talking about the city. This incident will began and end in London; I know the where, and the means, but the how and why still elude me."

"Wait, the city 'loves' them?" Max asked. "You're acting like it's a person."

"London was ancient when I was young- of course it has an awareness of itself. And I've been told that you have a friend who's a golem. A killer, made by men. I cannot sense it, but I can sense the ripples it's left in its wake. How can you say it is sentient and London is not?"

"Hold up," Max said. "Zee's not a killer. He's a person. And as far as I can tell, he's got a better personality than you do."

"Seconded," Terry said. "So if everything's going to go down in London, why are you in Gotham?"

"London is their power source. I risked being caught up in their work there. This incident will be global, and Gotham has no practitioners of magic."

"Glad to hear it," Wayne said. "So where have you been the last few decades?"

Blood shrugged. "Nearly everywhere. My last stop before London was Geneva; a group of vampire hunters had to be taken into hand. And before that there was the trouble with ifrits in Kuwait. Incidentally, I ran into the Black Orchid in the Congo; she says hello."

"She's still around?" Wayne asked.

"Mm. Or one of her many sisters. I'm not sure which and it seemed rude to ask."

"Nice friends you have," Terry told Wayne through the comm. It looked like he could go off duty soon;

Gotham's finest could handle the rest.

"He's not my friend. I prefer not to deal with magicians if I can help it, and Blood's even stranger than they normally come. To start with, he's older than I am."

"How much older?" Terry asked.

"Not sure. He's learned to mask himself well, and drops off the grid for decades at a time. Ra's Al'Ghul had a few records of him; the earliest one I found seemed to indicate that Ra's' ran into him in 1750. The English branch of the League thinks he's older than that."

Two weeks later:

Across the world, men, women and children began suddenly taking off, leaving jobs, families, lovers behind. They didn't act right away; there were loose ends to tie up, plans to make, gadgets to construct. Hawk-Eye Corp.'s computers noted the phenomenon first, two hours after the first report, and went into debug mode. They failed. Virgil Hawkins, at his home, was alerted and began scrolling through the code himself, using his own methods. Five hours later, he was forced to come to the same conclusion as his machines; there was nothing wrong with the code, but an outside force was interfering in his program. Two brown-outs later, he finally gave up on finding the source and went to sulk by the local power plant.

New York City:

Culver Davies banged on the bedroom door. Rithy invariably slept late whenever she was given the chance. It was a source of great amusement to the Aruns and the Davies clan that the two childhood friends were such opposites. Ri was a night owl, Cully an early bird. Culver was tall and light-complexioned, she was short and dark. She would fight, he was a pacifist. And yet, they were best friends.

"Come on, Ri. First day of spring break..don't tell me you stayed up all night playing that game.."

Trade of Ghosts had come out a week ago. It was an espionage game, allowing the players to either make up their own character and their own missions, or to play as several historical and fictional characters. Cully wasn't a gamer himself, but Ri was. He checked the computer.

"Mission parameters: evade White House security..assassinate Richard Nixon and prevent the bombing of Cambodia?" he read off the screen. He minimized the game and spotted a reservation for a train that went to Washington. He remembered a news story about that kook in Gotham, the one that hypnotized kids. Had Spellbinder picked up sticks and decided to operate in New York? Or was he going global and using the net to do his dirty work?

He sighed. He'd leave a problem like Spellbinder-if it was him- to the suits. Rithy had bailed him out so many times, now was his chance to return the favor.

Gotham:

Bang-bang, bang..

"Geez, I'm coming, I'm coming," Terry muttered, racing to the door. His mother had taken Matt to the mall, letting Terry sleep. He opened the door.

"Max?"

"Hey, I need to make a call. You got your shoes serviced recently, right?"

Terry blinked. "My what.."

She snagged his loafer, pressed the sole and held it to her ear. She shook it, annoyed.

"Ugh, another defective phone. They really went overboard with the budget cuts. How do they expect us to stop K.H.A.O.S like this?"

"Max, what are you talking about?

"So you're not from Control? Maybe I will take that SPECTRE agent up on her offer. Well, see you around."

Terry blinked after her. So much for sleeping in. Spellbinder had to be behind this somehow.

Max made one stop before meeting up with Pussy Galore and the rest.

She drove back to Wayne's and let herself into the Bat Cave. She eyeballed the Batgirl suit, and shook her head. She was too tall for it. She kept forgetting that Gordon was tiny. She went to a glass case and smiled wickedly.

Night vision goggles, a utility belt, and pure black, no emblem to be seen. It was a secret agent's dream. She disabled the alarms and chucked the suit into her backpack. She'd return it when the mission was done. A dim part of her suggested that stealing Selina Kyle's old suit would bring horrible consequences, but she batted it down. Nothing mattered but the mission.

Blood set aside the antique mirror. It had begun. This promised to be the most entertainment he'd had in years. A powerful, untrained magician could cause oodles of chaos, and this child had done just that. It was likely they had been stupid enough to get caught in their own spell. Another knot for the magicians of the League to straighten out. A spell like this would cast ripples for years to come, and he was curious about the results. He'd offer his assistance to Batman, only because he wanted to meet this person. If they had power enough to cast a spell that went viral in a matter of hours, perhaps they could untangle him from Etrigan. Or destroy him, if he broke loose from Blood's body.

Blood/Etrigan appear in Golden Dawn, Swamp Thing and the Sandman. All you really need to know about him is that he's an immortal, made a deal with a demon, and at some point the demon got trapped inside him. Other members of the League and the 'English Branch' will show up in future chapters. Please review.