Arkham Mistery

IX. Pulling from all sides

Miraculously, I am here with another part. I thought I was gonna take way longer, but its done and it the longest one till now.

In this one we introduce a new character's pov and a bit of what this chaos maybe looks like from the outside.

Anyway, as always, english is not my first language so spellchecks are welcome, this is just a hobby so I wont push myself to write, and as you can see with my recent updates, I will continue this even if a year passes.

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I was having a shitty few months. Scratch that, a shitty few years.

The last three years there had been nothing but unrest. The ghosts were awake, looking for something, and doing their damnedest to not be seen doing it. Looking for something isn't the problem, but they had been destroying multiple government funded facilities and leaving absolutely nothing behind, like the whole thing got sucked up into the ether, and that's suspicious.

That being said, the demons were also acting weird. All the powerhouses had been making moves left and right, bold moves. All of my contractors had been trying to pull me here or there, using everything in my arsenal as an advantage in an uncharacteristically invisible war within the occult. A war that I had no fucking want to partake in.

Either way, my demonic missions had led to some weird encounters, some flaming punk and a wannabe mother nature. Fortunately, both understood my problem and apart from restraining me, had been mostly leaving me alone whenever I was ordered to attack them or do something against them, which happens a lot now that I think about it. I was pretty sure they were the center of this infinite number of problems in the past years.

Currently I was in the house of mysteries trying to resist my contractor's orders to go steal something that contains a highly dangerous individual of the infinite realms from a highly distracted father time that resides in said infinite realm. Did I mention that the place is basically afterlife shoved in an apocalyptic dimension, and that it's incredibly difficult to get out of? In? Easy peasy. Out? Maybe not on your timeline or plane of existence.

Either way I could feel my hands involuntarily moving to use the runes I learnt made a portal to that shitty hellhole. I even managed to transport myself straight to the ghost of time's lair, which doesn't happen unless he's waiting for you. Fucking demons and ghosts and their fucking fucked up war and their fucking need to use my soul contracts to push and pull me everywhere like a damn puppet.

The father of time was looking intently at a mirror looking thing with its screen focused on a blinking machine.

-Your contractors have no power here Broken Soul, you have no need to fulfill their sadistic wishes. -He turned in a way that he could keep an eye on me and the mirror. When I didn't make a move to continue my involuntary, end of world bringing mission, he turned back to focus completely on the mirror -Come, this machine is capable of calming the monsters in the world where you live. There's something important missing in the realms' hearts and I can feel we'll find a clue of its whereabouts very soon.

That was it. The answer to the ghost's feral behavior, probably the reason Amity Park erased itself from the maps, the why to the demons mad race to something. I was just missing one piece of the puzzle and I would be able to finally rest for the first time in years.

There was a sense of foreboding emanating from the mirror. Like we were seconds away from discovering the secrets of the universe.

The machine beeped. There was a wave of power that washed past the infinite realms, even I, that wasn't dead, could feel its rejuvenating energy, but it wasn't enough. The wave repaired the foundations of the realms, but there was still a lot to be restored, like there was something blocking the rest of the healing.

The last thing I saw before being kicked back to my house was the ghost's relieved face and some coordinates that I could immediately recognize. Of course this shit had something to do with Gotham. God I want a smoke, but I just finished my last packet an hour ago and there's no way Bruce, who is obviously involved somehow, won't lecture me about smoking while on the job.

The demon's influence started to take over me again now that I was not in the infinite realms, but this time it felt more subdued, manageable. Like a very strong suggestion rather than a ride or die order.

Okay, no smoke, phone call. First, deep breath, don't snap at the man bat. Second, find a drink to replace the smoke. Third, discard the cellphone that will probably not be answered and use the communicator.

Phone Batman. Wait. Ringing. Deep breath. Second ring. Exhale. Bingo.

-Constantine

-What the fuck did you do!? -Total fail at not snapping. -The occult has been going crazy the last few years and all of the sudden it stopped. Your city has something to do with that, which obviously means YOU have something to do with that. What the fuck did you do?

My hands were trembling, the strong suggestion becoming more impatient, harder to ignore, but still nowhere near where it was before.

Zatanna appeared in front of me, clearly distressed and, upon noticing the communicator to my ear, doing her best to sign the object of her alarm. Based on what I could pick up, it probably had to do with the wave of power. Great.

-If this has been going on for three years, why do you think I have something to do with it now?- His infuriatingly calm voice questioned.

-There was an explosion of death magic that originated in Gotham and somehow calmed significantly any and all the supernatural beings that were going crazy seconds before- Zatanna's eyes widened surprised at the amount of information I already had about the powerful explosion. The bat stayed silent on the other end of the phone, which I took as a sign. -Ring a bell?

The tugging of my soul started to hurt. The demon that was trying to steal from father time was now joined by another that was pushing him to grab a knife and head to Gotham, and yet another one that wanted as much information out of the bat as possible before moving forward. My whole body was twitching trying to focus on the present and conjure and grab and stay. Zatanna made a couple of magic ropes so I could stay in place easier.

The small help let me focus on Batman's explanation.

-The explosion started here, at the manor. It originated from an unknown minor, previously thought to be a meta, that was staying in Arkham Asylum and was last seen near Amity Park nearly three years ago.

Of course, probably saw a kid in Arkham, picked him up and brought him home like a kitten. Maybe the kid has black hair and blue eyes.

-We were taking off some of his restraints, then the explosion happened and we woke up to everything covered in an indestructible ice with a green tint and a call from a girl saying we had to give someone back or we would have a war on our doorstep.

Then the kid is probably the missing piece of the infinite realms, which means the caller must be the flaming punk. Now we have to end that war before it starts, get rid of the one that's ongoing and whoever had the kid is most definitely aware of the power surge so we'll have to look out for that. Hello stress.

-Im on my way.

I turned to Zatanna whose face screamed ready for anything and I couldn't help my chest warming at the thought that she was ready to go without knowing anything but her trust on me.

-Looks like one of my contractors will get part of his wish.