Despite being taken advantage of to induct her in the absence of Bruce, the chaos outside was not something that the Court of Owls could ignore. The Talons were recalled, put into retreat, as The Voice of the Court took credit for their appearance by virtue of telling everyone that the League was arriving before the first actual reports of that activity came in.
Several of the members slipped away over the next few hours, each quietly informing someone else that they had matters they needed to attend to, probably sleep, even if none of them said such. At least one of them said they still needed to get some Christmas presents for their children early in the morning, and given that it was only two days away? Shame on them. She's had all of her gifts locked up a week ago, and most of them for substantially longer than that. She even populated the Watchtower's Christmas tree with a bunch of gifts labeled 'from Santa' for everyone (blatantly cheating with divination magic to select and other magic to wrap the hundreds of gifts, drawn from a "Christmas party" budget item), concealed under a spell that stored the presents in the tree's shadow, using magic to set the tree up so as to conceal the present deposit. The party was usually held on the 27th or 28th. She left the Batcave, Belfry, and Wayne Manor's Christmas trees to Bruce.
Someone, Tanya suspected Wally, always left a second set of presents under the tree on the night in question, though… It might be J'onn? Whoever it was, they had access and managed to do so without getting caught. Bruce was absolutely in on it, due to his total lack of concern about the security breach, he just said it was Santa. Was he wiping the footage? Tanya consciously decided to leave the matter alone, it would be rude to lift the veil of holiday cheer.
Actually, it was getting pretty close to midnight, almost Christmas Eve… Tanya yawned as the Court looked at a series of screens, each on a news program. They had many whisper-conversations about each fight they witnessed. "I'm tired…" She whined performatively. "I'm gonna go find a bed, Daddy said we'd make snowmen in the morning, not going to miss that." She'd already planted a few bugs to record all of the various conversations for later review. They couldn't really be used directly, but any intel provided could be used to gather more official evidence that the GCPD can actually use.
"Is she serious?" One of the members asked as she walked off. "Who the fuck thinks that this is going to be done with by the morning? She's not going to be home by then."
"She is twelve…" Another said, uncertainly.
"I'm pretty sure twelve year olds are smarter than that." The first one asserted.
Jacob's fake 'Voice of the Court' voice cut through them. "That girl has never taken a single non-school thing seriously in her life. She just thinks she's funny." She was hilarious!
Just for that, she's going to post a video today of her dancing on Wayne Manor's front lawn to Frosty the Snowman with Bruce, with a squad of snow golems backing them up. She was going to do it at some point this week, but why not now?
Still, after a moment she was wandering the halls, having magically changed clothes to pajamas (that she glamored into having an barn owl feather pattern), carrying a stuffed horned owl that she summoned from her menagerie of toy golems back home (the wards here were cobwebs as far as she was concerned). She still wore the mask, of course.
After a few minutes of enjoying the double-takes everyone made at her appearance, especially when Hooty-chan turned its head to stare into their eyes, Tanya found a room that appeared to be some kind of bedroom, although from the design Tanya assumed that it was meant for a lot more than just one person. She put up a barrier spell around the massive bed, took out a mannequin dressed like her for body double purposes, swapped outfits with the mannequin, then invested a tiny fraction of her soul to make it look like her.
With the mannequin now sprawled on the bed, snoring in a very unladylike fashion, her alibi was now ironclad. So she turned into her demon form and warped back to Batman.
For some reason, the presence of a large fraction of the Justice League taking care of business hasn't quelled her bad feeling about today. She better stay up in case Bruce decided to do something stupid.
-----------------------
"Your promises implied, broken, you lied." Rhine complained when they emerged from Batman's shadow, in the middle of breaking the Joker's teeth.
"The Riddler set up a hostage-killing barrier if anyone else attempted rescue." Batman explained.
"So while you're out, the villains you'll rout." Rhine finished explaining, wishing they had the meriscorde to vent some of their annoyance on the clown.
It didn't take long for Rhine to assemble a large cage out of available materials for Batman to shove the Joker inside, restrained in a straightjacket and bound by metal wires. Rhine then transformed the cage into a Jack-in-the-Box, wrapping it like a Christmas present and sending it to the GCPD.
"In a festive mood, are you?" Bruce joked right after the colorful package was propelled through the portal.
"We're making snowmen in the morn, else my promise will be torn." Rhine informed him.
"Today?" Bruce asked, frowning. "I'll do my best, Princess." He firmed his posture back up, pointing his grapple to a broken window. "Report." Batman commanded.
"The Court believes the heir asleep, the parliament watches, their forces creep." Rhine report.
Batman spent a moment decrypting the statement, launching himself through the window and diving into the waiting Batmobile, braking with his cape at the last moment. "So we'll not likely do much damage." He concluded, accurately. "They'll just have to be dismantled more delicately.
Suddenly, the skies lit up with the activation of the Planetary Shield Generator. What the hell? "Uh… Batman?" Robin said through the Batmobile's radio, at a bit of a loss. "There's portals opening up above Gotham."
The Batmobile entered a main thoroughfare, and one of the portals were now visible, hovering above the part of Gotham on the other side of the bridge they were facing. "I see one." Batman acknowledged.
Ripples in the sky indicated that the shield was getting struck by orbital assets within a few miles. "Watchtower, report." Batman demanded, pressing a button on the dashboard.
Mr. Terrific was the man who responded, one of the League's premier tech experts. "Everyone who can has already gone, but there's some alien ships that came out of these wormholes. Not Zeta tubes, though, no one recognizes them. I've already relayed a request to Oa through Green Lantern to identify them and maybe call for backup from Jordon, the shield's not going to hold against these ships for long. Eight hours is my best estimate, taking into account the pace they're warping in additional assets. That can change real fast if they have a flagship coming in, though."
"What's the spread of the wormholes beneath the shield?" Batman asked.
"It's all concentrated over Gotham, even the troops that aren't directly above it are flying towards that city. There's something there they want." Mr. Terrific explained.
"Tell me about the troops." Batman commanded.
"They're some kind of half-demon alien, according to the Atlaneteans." Mr. Terrific reported, sounding annoyed. Like most of the more technologically inclined Leagers, they didn't like it when their scanners couldn't properly detect magical fields. "Sharp wings, muscles, breathes fire. You'll need to give me time to get you anything detailed."
"Gotham's one of the most magical places on Earth." Batman theorized, "Also the most demonic of its peers. It would make the perfect beachhead for a demonic invasion."
"If their hellfire isn't pure, they'll need refuel, of that I'm sure." Tanya pointed out. Now, whether their logistics actually need Gotham is another matter entirely.
"I see what you're laying down. If the demon aliens can gas up in Gotham, that's as good a reason as any." Mr. Terrific said, "Still, all assets are converging on Gotham. We'll keep a reserve force just in case, but you leave that to me."
"The Zeta tube's bringing us more people as fast as it can." Robin reported, "Shazam's offered to open a portal from the cave to points around Gotham, should I take him out of his cell so he can do it?"
"Yes." Batman said, "Shazam can be trusted in this."
"The wizard's mistakes are naught with these stakes." Rhine added.
"I got bad news." Mr. Terrific cut in again, "Apparently, the half-alien demons are contagious. They're turning humans they kill into half-demons that join their side." A video file was sent, and Rhine made it play. A set of men, two of which had the jackets worn by the bank robbers from a few days ago but not the masks, had struggling hostages, and a trio of half-demon aliens came down, killing both the hostages and the willing fanatics, with spear and wingblade and claw. No matter how they died, the bodies were gripped by alien hands, and they erupted in fire, turning into imitations of the half-demon aliens, albeit the difference between converted humans and… what was probably also converted aliens was clear.
"The Dark Faith has called this invasion, but there's still a big blank in this equation." Rhine said dourly.
"Engaging." Batman said idly, launching himself out of the Batmobile and giving one of the half-demons a flying kick to the head before grappling the beast, controlling the wings and causing the alien to crash into the ground head-first. The alien half-demon's head was durable enough to still be intact, but it was unconcious.
"This hanyou's might is as an infection, draw upon it, add to my collection." Rhine incanted, collecting the demonic magic infesting the alien into a glowing orb on their palm. As they expected, the alien was dead. There was even a lethal wound that wasn't there before. "The invaders are undead, no cure, kill instead." Rhine said, pointing to the injury.
Batman immediately understood the implications. "Weapons free." He said to them, which was excellent news.
More of the demons arrived to attack Batman, a few of which were former humans. With a wave of a wing and a flex of will, three of them immediately lost their heads, and in seconds, the other six were dispatched with just as much ease. "Their power is my right, collect it all, pack it tight!" As before, the demonic essence, already dissipating from the lethal injury, collected in Rhine's palm with the other demon's magic.
Ten down, hundreds to go. Maybe thousands.
-----------------------
[Clark Kent aka Superman aka Kal-El of Krypton]
Bruce doesn't like letting outside forces to fight crime in Gotham. He even has some good reasons, too. The crime problem the city had got worse in many ways when The Batman broke the power bases of organized crime. Tanya calls it selective pressure: the only criminals that persist after Batman appeared are able to survive in the presence of the Batman. It's a bit circular, but that's how evolution works.
Yes, there's always the constant inflow of the desperate doing stupid things in an attempt to avoid starvation or freezing to death in the winter, and Bruce does his best to minimize those with his social programs and growing his company to be able to sustain ever greater employment numbers, ripple effects on the local economy… all that stuff Tanya likes talking about, but the presence of the Batman invites competition. Some of them would have happened anyway, to be sure, but even regular crime bosses started to adopt masks and themes, and it's hard to argue against that being because of Batman.
So while native Gothamite vigilantes are acceptable to Bruce, even if they are metahumans, he had a rule that the Justice League was only to intervene with his okay, and preferably his invitation. Escalating the level of force used would, in Bruce's mind, make it so that he would lose what little control he had over the situation.
As such, it was a pleasant surprise that Bruce finally acknowledged that things had gone out of his ability to contain and thus he called in the League. Because he waited too long before calling in said backup, he called in what he called 'a show of force', a warning to Gotham's criminal element that if they escalated first, Batman would call in the cavalry.
When the meeting over this was called, because there would of course be a meeting, Clark planned on pushing for a resolution that any time a government called a state of emergency, that constituted an invitation for the League to intervene, even if the local heroes are territorial. Did that sound official enough? He thought so.
The intervention was going well at first, Clark got to land in front of career criminals and see their steady realization that he had arrived, and they were not prepared. It was a bit mean, but it was rather fun. Besides, it gives them a chance to surrender. A few of the criminals even took Clark up on the offer, immediately setting down their weapons and kneeling upon his arrival.
They even got to use one of Tanya's sillier ideas: a prison barge run by his Kryptonian androids, for temporarily holding anyone they needed to hold, from refugees to prisoners of war (there wasn't much difference). They are capable of deorbiting themselves and landing safely anywhere in a hemisphere within four hours (they had two, orbiting the planet directly opposite of each other), and each could, because Kara actually executed the project and was just extra like that, hold fifty thousand humans indefinitely, or double that with some compromises.
Clark didn't really like the idea that he technically controlled the world's largest prison twice over, but he did, and it was a mile off of Gotham in the water, with androids that thankfully no longer look like him ferrying captured prisoners to their temporary accommodations until the justice system is ready to take them back.
Then the demon aliens attacked.
At first, Clark objected to characterizing them as demon aliens, it seemed racist to him, but then it was clarified that they were literally corpses animated by demon magic, who infected anyone they killed, so they were, in fact, demon zombie aliens. Because why not have an alien invasion and a zombie apocalypse at the same time? This is just that kind of day!
…Wait, is this just Gotham being Gotham? Is this what Bruce was afraid of when he said he didn't want the League to intervene in Gotham? Because things would immediately escalate?
The annoying thing was that the demon zombies kept stitching themselves back together and getting back up, too. Not fast, but the only exception was when Rhine flew by and stole the demon magic from the broken bodies before they could, accumulating it in a little ball she had in her left hand like it was yarn.
Fortunately, they had no less than eight speedsters evacuating the city: Wally was the fastest of the lot, and half of them were underage, but Jesse, Carlos, Luis, and the new one, Barry, were good kids, and Clark wasn't going to tell them to go away at a time like this.
Clark would join them, but he's more valuable fighting the alien demon zombies. Their magic wing-blades stung, but he had learned the difference over the last few years between a magical attack that he could treat as a dangerous weapon and a magical attack that could hurt him no matter how much sunlight he's absorbed.
This was actually surprisingly easy… seeing the Justice League fully mobilize for once really put things into perspective, how much teamwork helped, even if a lot of those helpers weren't anywhere near as powerful as him. It all added up, he could focus on the hardest jobs while the big but easy jobs were handled by the other heroes.
It was too late to hope for no casualties, dozens have already died from the large-scale crime spree preceding the invasion, and the invasion added dozens more before the order to evacuate the city was given. But this looks like it'll be lighter than the other invasions despite being a stronger force, and that, above all else, gave Clark hope for the future.
Then a single additional portal opened up, at ground level, and a single being stepped out of it. Alarm bells rang in Clark's mind, as the… man? looked around at the warzone like he was admiring it, the way a farmer might admire his growing field.
Still, Mama Kent raised a polite young man, so Clark set himself down gently in front of this clear leader of the invasion. Now, what was he supposed to say in this situation? Clark thought back to the days spent with Bruce, Tanya, Diana, John, J'onn, Shayera, and Arthur making Standard Operating Procedures to teach the new people in situations that could be anticipated, such as 'opening a dialogue with a potentially hostile alien'.
Oh yeah. "You are now on Earth." Clark declared. "Do you have a visa?"
The alien with a face like a weathered moon smiled. "I see you are civilized." He complimented, "But I am Darkseid, and this planet is now part of the Apokolips Dominion. Submit… or die."
"I'll take the third option." Clark quipped as he punched Darkseid in the face. He barely moved. Darkseid punched back.
Ow. Clark doesn't recall ever getting hit that hard before. Good thing those buildings he crashed through were evacuated.
-----------------------
Rhine took another sip of the demon essence. It was compatible, but it also retained the active hostility that the invaders had for them and their planet. This translated to the magic being quite spicy to their demonic palate, so they had to sip at it a little at a time. It'd probably go down easier if they mixed it with something sweeter, like the souls of the innocent.
Much easier was using the essence to fuel a spell, which included the spell they were using to rip the essence away from the demon shock troops to give them their final rest.
Suddenly, Gotham trembled. Not literally, but the smell of terror, like rich coffee, filled Rhine's metaphorical sinuses as something entered Gotham's demense.
Given that it was shortly followed by Superman getting launched through one… two… three… four buildings, Rhine figured that the two events were connected. Warping back to Batman, "The invaders have sent an elite! Our strongest forces, we need to defeat!"
Despite the rushed rhyme, Batman got the message: "All stellar-grade combat forces, converge on Robinson Park. Be cautious." 'Stellar-grade' was the top of the scale, strong enough that they could either fight a small military starship on an even level, or be able to engage with those who could without being out of their depth.
"Stellar Knight armor deploying, Sir." Alfred's voice came in on a private channel. "I've taken the liberty of sending along the Young Miss' weapons as well." On cue, as the Batmobile rapidly decelerated to a stop next to the Park where Superman had already returned and was slugging it out, the Stellar Knight Armor's drop pod crashed into the ground, opening up with Batman's presence as he stepped inside. Once he stepped out, the interior contained additional weapons: Rhine's Nth metal anti-material rifle, the Soul-Severing Meriscorde, and their Nth metal shovel. They equipped all three.
The Stellar Knight armor had undergone some upgrades, of course. The core technology was still the incorporation of enough Nth metal to equip a dozen Thanagarian shock troopers as both offense and defense, but now it incorporated a few kryptonian technologies, most notably the power core. It was further coated in enchanted paint that created a magical obfuscation field, giving him the appearance of a living constellation as he fought… for the first few moves of an engagement before it inevitably gets destroyed by incoming damage or just the nth metal evaporating the stuff as it works. The visual noise thus provided should give Batman's ninjutsu tactics an edge while it lasts.
Properly equipped, the two joined the battle. "Irritating gnats!" The alien warlord exclaimed, barely raising his voice from his position faceplanted in the ground, doing a pushup to throw Batman off of him.
"With this deepened power well, enchant my shot with an explosive spell!" Rhine shouted, shoving as much power into their rifle as could fit before firing it off at the warlord. The instant he finished rising, the spell detonated right in his face, toppling the warlord over onto his back. Captain Marvel and Superman both dropped down on him, feet first, to do additional damage.
"Enough of this." The alien said, firing off a volley of red beams of light from his eyes that made jagged turns to home in on everyone engaged with him. Superman and Captain Marvel took a direct hit, Batman maneuvered to avoid the first strike and grabbed a nearby minion of the alien to take the blow in his stead, Wonder Woman took it on the shield she had brought to battle, Rhine sucked it into the ball of demon magic, while the rest of them got moved by a red blur, all of the beam converging before the blur snatched them all up… somehow.
"Good work, Flash!" Shouted Hawkgirl, grinning wildly.
"Thanks!" Flash said, "...But what did I do? I've been double-checking the whole of Gotham for more civilians."
"Oh, was that Kid Flash? Jesse Quick? Whoever that was, you've saved our bacon." Green Lantern said. "But the real Christmas miracle will be all of us making it to tomorrow morning at home instead of the med bay."
"Ho ho ho!" Came a new voice in the comms. What in the world? "Perhaps that can be arranged, Little Johnny!"
Indeed, someone who decided to dress up as Santa Claus was now in their battlefield. "Santa!?" Superman exclaimed. What.
"Santa?" Exclaimed… dozens of people, really. What.
"Claus." Spat the alien. What the hell?
"Now now, Darkseid." Santa admonished. What is happening? Why does he smell of fried chicken and strawberry cake? What kind of magic smelled like that? "While of course I appreciate you saving me the trouble of delivering your Christmas coal at your home, I'm afraid that Santa doesn't take bribes. So I'll have to return your generous gift of Omega Beams." He opened up his bag, and the forty or so lasers that had vanished burst back out, and hit Darkseid right in the face. Who is this?
He roared in pain, and Superman compounded the damage with an uppercut that cleared out the snow for fifty feet in every direction, the strongest punch that Rhine had ever seen Superman unleash. Supergirl, skin practically glowing with what Rhine assumed with several shotglasses of liquid sunlight, intercepted the alien's flight with a powerful kick, which Green Lantern intercepted with a baseball bat construct, followed by Captain Marvel launching him downward… right into Superman's waiting punch.
As everyone capable of keeping up the demented volleyball game focused on that, the demon aliens started to converge on their master, allowing the literal army of superheroes to disable them and Rhine to steal their magic. Technically there were a few also banishing them to hell, but the portals were still open, and nothing was going to get done until those were addressed.
Fortunately, Constantine had been working on that, as he had spent the last few months trying to keep Korea's hellgate from spilling out the endless armies of the damned. Black Canary, Huntress, and his new girlfriend by the name of Celine had been singing Christmas songs on the refugee/prison barge, gathering power from the adoration of the desperate people who cling to any available comfort in a storm.
"Brace yourself, cheeky devil." Came Constantine's voice on a private channel, straight to Rhine's comm bead. "You got ten seconds." In the background, the song 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' was heard.
Rhine was still kind of lost, but they did know what to do in this situation. "Native am I to Gotham's land, chain me down, I take a stand!" Rhine incanted, wrapping themselves up in the demonic power and diving for the ground.
The wave of anti-demon magic washed over the demonic barrier, eroding it completely and it attempted to shove Rhine towards the portals… but the push was too weak after eating through the protective spell.
The demon aliens were, as they were only half-demon instead of full, weathered the wave of purification reasonably well: the ones that were too damaged to fight were purified, but the ones that were still fighting fit managed to stay on this side of the portals.
The portals, on the other hand, were what the magic was deliberately targeting, so they took the full force of the magic, breaking whatever demonic power was keeping them open and shutting them all closed.
"Ho ho ho!" Santa laughed, "I'm afraid all you parademons make the naughty list this year." Is that what they're called?
Within minutes, Santa had gathered all of the remaining parademon stragglers, the League cleaned them up, and Darkseid retreated, opening another portal back to where he came from and falling through it. Santa threw what was very clearly a single lump of coal into the portal before it closed.
"You really helped out, Santa. But aren't you really busy?" Was Superman's first words as everyone settled, realizing that the fighting was now over.
"Christmas is sacred, Clark." Santa said, "Although I did have to use up quite a lot of Christmas Spirit to battle Darkseid, so I'm not sure if I can deliver all the presents in time. It's already sundown on my first stop of the night." The time difference between Gotham and the earliest timezone on earth was… 19 hours. So it would be seven in the evening on the 24th in Kiritimati, appropriately known as 'Christmas Island' for reasons that Rhine never learned.
The Flash gasped. "Christmas is in trouble?" Superman frowned at the idea.
"I'm afraid so." Santa said mournfully, albeit with a twinkle in his eye. Wait a minute… "So it is with the utmost seriousness that I ask of you two, as the fastest men in the world: Will you help me save Christmas?"
Superman's troubled expression morphed into the purest joy that Rhine had ever seen him have. The man saluted. "You can count on me, Santa."
Santa smiled mischievously. "Well then, we have no time to lose! To the North Pole!"
"Something's not right, is time really that tight?" Rhine questioned.
Santa laughed. "Don't worry about it." He said, "Just be a good little girl and have some ice cream before bed." He conjured a snowball that appeared to be made of chocolate ice cream. He tossed it at the ball of demon magic and it mixed with it, turning the angry red energy into a gentle shadowy black. "Enjoy!" He said before jumping upward, landing on a sleigh pulled by reindeer that suddenly appeared. "On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen. On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen!" He flew off, and Superman flew after him. The Flash followed suit.
Rhine stared at the shadowy darkness ball. With a slow inhale, they ate the magical power, which settled easily in their metaphorical stomach, adding to their strength.
As the Justice League celebrated victory, Batman's armor opened up, showing his masked face. "Is something wrong?" He asked.
"...Santa is real? Not just an ideal?" Rhine asked, questioning everything. In hindsight, the idea shouldn't be as ridiculous as it felt, after all, gods were real, even some of the really obscure ones, so why not Santa? One of the mightiest idols of commercialization, used for decades as a symbol for the push of generosity, where it is defined as buying non-essentials for one's loved ones, creating such a large shift in retail habits that the holiday rush becomes a make or break moment for stores: if they cannot capitalize, they fail.
…Wait, does this mean they've been on the Nice List all eleven previous Christmases? Even the one spent with the cult? Well, okay, that one wasn't really surprising… They were really on their best behavior with those lunatics. So much to consider…
"Who told you Santa isn't real?" Batman asked, scowling. "Was it Jacob? That sounds like him."
Distantly, Supergirl's head snapped towards Rhine. She immediately whispered in Hawkgirl's ear that 'Rhine didn't believe in Santa Claus', which was promptly passed on and multiplied. Soon, everyone will know.
Rhine remained silent, as a loss for words. At least, ones that rhymed. How did it come to this?