Reaching a practiced hand, John withdrew from his coat's inside pocket a half-empty pack of cigarettes. Between two comfortable finger he parted a thin, nicotine baton from its brothers, placing it between his lips and leaving it there.

"Got a lighter mate?" He asked the Martian.

J'onn apologised, he did not possess such an item- momentarily confused as to why Constantine would think he had one. The Martian recognised it as internal bias against the idea of smoking, and being mistaken for a smoker. He chastised himself for giving way to petty prejudice; he of all people, who could understand uniquely the thoughts and experiences of others- for shame!

"Ya want a fag?" Constantine offered the packet with a raised, fair eyebrow.

J'onn paused.

"Excuse me?" He offered, as politely as possible.

"I said, do you want a fag?" His eyes widened as he clocked. The smoke caught itself in Constantine's throat: he hacked in to his closed fist before waving off the Martian. "A fag mate. A cigarette." He snorted. "Lost in translation I suppose."

"Ah."

J'onn felt rather foolish for the misinterpretation, especially considering Constantine's -ehem- reputation. (AND BY THAT I MEAN DOING KING SHARK. HOW TF DID THAT EVEN WORK??? BIOLOGICALLY IT JUST...DOESNT FIT... anyways, keep reading...)

Back against the brick wall, Constantine exhaled a grey cloud. A moment later he stubbed out the cigarette- too reminded of Tezcatlipoca's dark fog to stomach it. With a similar sentiment, J'onn sighed.

"We've really put ourselves in it this time." The magician snorted, grinding the ashy tip in to the dusky red brick.

Absently observing him, J'onn said, "I certainly hope not."

"In any case," Constantine pushed off of the wall, starting at a brisk walk from the police station, in a less damaged part of the city, to where the rest of the Justice League had been (or were supposed to be) waiting for them, "we'd better start planning. Hit em early. Before they've got a chance to unleash any more gods."

They walked for a moment in what teetered between comfortable and unfamiliar silence. John and J'onn (mildly confusing if read aloud) were acquaintances at best- their only words previously having been quick shouts in the field of combat. Now, Constantine could have materialised a portal to save the time, but he had a gut feeling that J'onn J'onzz was an important person to have on your side (useful in the least): it wouldn't hurt to be friendly to the guy. Not terribly looking either, though Constantine thought he'd better leave it- this one seemed to be all Wonder Woman's. He wasn't interested in battling an Amazon for her boyfriend's chastity.

"Fucking hell," the magician huffed, laughing, "two cults eh? SomeoneMs got it out for humanity."

The Martian looked at him from the corner of his eye, smiling a little J'onn J'onzz smile, "You can say that again."

***

Damian could speak Spanish.

Raven didn't know why that came to her as a surprise. Fuck it, even she could speak a little Spanish (a few weeks with a Puerto Rican blood-witch coven last summer had many unexpected benefits). But Damian speaking Spanish...holy Hades that was something else.

The demoness chewed absently on her lip as Damian ordered on behalf of them all. Damn...if only he was...

Raven paused. She stopped herself from hitting her head against the shop wall.

He was already her boyfriend. Hers. Her boyfriend.

Nightwing nudged her, noticing the beam that had spread itself across her face, reaching her eyes so that they shone almost cornflour blue (very Kent-ish), "What's going on?" He probed.

There was no benefit in hiding her thoughts.

"He's my boyfriend." She looked fondly over at Robin. "Him. Over there. Ordering our food." The shop seemed to quieten, listening in on the conversation: young love was always an attention-catcher.

Damian turned around, the caramel of his skin highlighting a subtle ombré of amber and violet under the light of the nearby window; he asked Billy whether he wanted a medium or large milkshake.

Bemused and amused, Dick laughed, "Yeah, I know...we all know...".
She glanced up, noticing half of the heroes crowding the local takeaway not-so-subtly looking at her.

"What about it?"

In oddly high spirits (perhaps fatigue made her giddy) Raven pulled her hood back and leaned in to Dick's shoulder, "Oh nothing. I just forgot for a moment. Then I remembered, and it made thing strangely way way better." She shrugged, sighing with a smile, "I'm just happy. For some weird reason." The witch made eye-contact with her boyfriend, waving at him.

Standing all of three metres away, Damian rolled his eyes, waving back. His lips allowed a small smile. She really was beautiful, wasn't she?

Slouching on a stool next to Conner, Billy groaned, "Ugh I hate couples."

"You're single then?" Superboy asked, echoing Billy's forlornness in his voice.

"Uh well, I.."

A metre away, Clark raised his eyebrows, whispering to himself, "Well I'll be damned!"

Realising how that had appeared, Conner jerked up, waving his hands frantically, "No no! I didn't mean- not like that! Just like, you're in the same boat as me, you know. Not...like...did you want to...or anything..." he chuckled, ducking his head. "D'you know what, I'm going to shut up."

Procuring a bottle of something colourless and strong, the Red Hood flicked the cap of, taking a great chug before the owner had the opportunity to protest.

"Fucking gods, and singleness and shit." He swiped his nose with the back of his hand. "What a day."

Nose scrunched and hands forming the classic Arab/Mediterranean gesture with at the fingertips pinched together, Damian regarded Jason with contempt. "Walek ya hmar, we've been here for less than two hours- how are you saying 'what a day?' After doing nothing. " shaking the Arab hands in Jason's direction. "And what do you mean 'gods, singleness, and shit'- what shit?"

Speaking over Nightwing and Superman's pleas for 'no bad language', Captain Marvel answered, "I think he means generally dealing with little annoying things."

Jason sniffed, "Oh no, I actually stepped in dog shit. Had to clean it off."

Yuck.

***

Much to the smugness of one Diana of Themyscira, the invisible jet could fit all of the heroes (burritos having been finished) with room to spare. It was there, in flight, that J'onn and John divulged all that they had learned.

Leaning against the wall of the plane, Constantine concluded, "So yeah, this was a different cult to the one that got good old Anubis stuck in the little demon's head," he nodded to Damian, " and they've got some sort of vendetta against that one."

Arms folded in habit, J'onn added, "A disagreement in practices of some sort. It is unclear whether or not these are two factions derived from the same group. Tezcatlipoca's host hadn't known much about either cult- only part of a testing stage, not properly involved in cult business-"

Hands dug in to his pockets, Constantine shrugged, "Look, we know that they'll probably be planning something else soon. I've dealt with cults before." He tapped his shoe on the floor, eyes flicking to grasp the first twinkle of the stars of dusk- a time of great magical potential, a time of balance. "Find all their bases. Infiltrate. Find the leader. Take them out. Shut them down. And Bob's your uncle!"

Barry looked around him cluelessly, "No he's not..."

Constantine slapped a hand across his forehead, "It's a saying mate...Jesus..." Clearing his throat, he continued, "Get to em before they do any more harm. Because if this other cult could pull of a stunt like that in the trial stage, I don't want to see the final result."

A.N:

Hey my darlings, how goes it?

Now I would be lying if I said this wasn't a bit of a filler chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same. Sooooo what do you guys think???? Two cults eh? What on Earth is going on here?

Stay tuned 😎

Thank you my darlings, I love you alllll!

-Bats