The next lead in finding Mr Leiwandowsky's son led the two part-demons all the way to Vegas, delving in to the lavish casinos where the recklessly wealthy threw their riches and responsibilities to the wind and trusted in Lady Luck. As Raven's heels touched the concrete and she inhaled, crisp, sinful air flooded her lungs and Pride reared her head, energised. The demoness loved and loathed Las Vegas. So much sin for a Sin to devour. No wonder uncle Lucifer bought it all.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Clouds of shadows melded together, shifting and drifting until they formed the figure of a tall, lean man. With a snap the shadows disappeared, in its place stood a man in a black leather suit with gold accents. Brushing the gold-paisley patterned collar of his jacket, Lucifer's carmine eyes slammed in to the demoness'.

"What brings you back to town Raven my dear?", he noted the boy besides her, particularly the jade orbs of his irises. "And with an Al-Ghul too..you're not Talia, so I'm wagering Damian?"

The ex-assassin dug his hand in to the pocket of his slacks as the other unbuttoned the top button of his dress-shirt, "That is correct." Even outside, at the casino's entrance, the number of bodies was almost overwhelmingly sweltering- in spite of the season.

"Not that I don't like to see my favourite not-niece, but is there any particular reason for your excursion here?", Lucifer's jagged face seemed to transform entirely as he grinned and his light hair felt less unnaturally white and more softly platinum. "I hope not to gamble away all your wealth?", he chuckled and nudged Damian, "And between the two of you, that's quite a hefty sum, eh?"

Assuring Lucifer that their inheritances were safe, Damian and Raven were bade farewell by the demon with a hearty, "Well, if you're going to kill anyone, do it discreetly. And try not to stain the carpet too much- or at least, none of the carpets in any place I'm fond of. Ta ta!"

As Lucifer faded to smoke, Damian raised his eyebrow at his girlfriend, "I didn't know we'd be running in to Lucifer of all creature's, but at this point I've seen too much to bother questioning it."

Fair play to him.

The two of them slid through the doorway of Lucky Swans, past social elites decked to the max in jewels and precious metals and fitted in to materials worth as much as their accessories. Raven smirked as her shoes stopped click-clacking and met the carpeted floor. It was deep red. Spilling a little blood wouldn't do too much damage; their mission wasn't to kill, maim or remotely injure, it was a retrieval task.

The first think to notice when entering the Lucky Swans casino was the people reclining in its chairs and leaning over its tables and gliding elegantly over its floors. Jade flickered around, searching the lavish building, taking on everything from the chandeliers suspended metres above like glowing, upheaved wedding cakes, to the chartreuse pendant around a woman's neck. A woman with light-blue skin tainted frosty white. She turned around and for the briefest of moments, her eyes met Damian's. They were drowning in pure, frozen red. That, paired with her height of at least seven-and-a-half-feet, led his to one solid conclusion. Frost Giant. Origin: Jötunheirmr.

Linking arms with the Jotun was a man at least half a foot shorter, draped in robes reminiscent of ancient Oriental fashions in a regal red and gold colour scheme. His long black hair was tied in a loose ponytail and his face was soft with the smooth angles of a feline. Yellow eyes shine in the chandeliers' glow. Possibly a shifter.

But they were not in search of shifters or Frost Giants or witches or half-trolls, no, they sought a half-gargoyle-half-Mage. By the name of Dorian. And as a demon and shifter nodded their respects to the two, Damian spotted their prize. In the far corner, sliding chips forward. He drew his head closer to his girlfriend's and murmured, "Got him."

Not wishing to cause disruption around the man's potentially powerful friends, Damian and Raven bade their time until (half an hour later) he was leaving the establishment, an arm around a woman with bright green hair flowing to her waist and a translucent shift for a dress. When he turned a corner towards a parked yellow Lamborghini (someone was living lavish apparently) the two sprung in to action. Safely hidden in the vast numbers of people riding waves of adrenaline, Raven felt no hesitation in summoning a little magic, snaking tendrils of purple around the woman at Dorian's side. She closed her fist and the woman froze, coated in a purple glow.

Alarmed, the half-gargoyle (who had inherited the impenetrable stone skin of his father) spun, slate eyes jerking around and hands balled. A few hundred years as a member of the Dark community instills such instincts and reflexes in a creature.

Damian's professional, steely voice sounded before chainlike bonds of pure magical energy secured Dorian Draczka in an iron grip, "We mean you no harm, so long as you don't do anything stupid."

Raven released her hold on the woman and soothed, "We won't hurt you, he's the only one we're after.", and she -apparently a sea-dweller- fled. This woman obviously cared not for his safety, besides the fact that her kind were largely pacifists and their flee instinct largely overwhelmed their fight.

"Who are you?", he growled, head whipping around to try face them as faceless individuals carried on stumbling past, drunk in the Vegas atmosphere. "Who sent you?"

The demoness (with a dress of black lace reaching mid-thigh clinging to her like a second skin) stepped around and faced the half-gargoyle, "Relax Mr Draczka, we aren't here to harm you. We were sent to retrieve you."

He spat, "By whom?"

"Your father.", Damian put simply.

Fast forwards the trip through a portal (courtesy of Raven) the three of them stood in the impressive office of Me Leiwandowsky, brimming with quaint antiquities acquired over the span of his lifetime. In the grandiose chair behind his writing desk, the Polish gargoyle started, jolting up with his eyes wide.

At last he said, "A pre-warning would have been most appreciated.", Mr Leiwandowsky managed to regain his composure almost entirely and nodded to the two part-demons, "My sincere thanks regardless."

The purple chains dissipated and Raven and Damian nodded their farewell respects and left in another swirling vortex.

***

Damian shed his blazer, dress shirt, slacks and Oxfords for his uniform, managing to do so (astoundingly) in less than a minute. Raven stepped out of his bathroom, freshly showered with wet hair and pyjamas hanging on to her damp figure. She raised an eyebrow at him, "Patrol?"

He nodded.

"I take it we'll be getting along with the art project tomorrow then?"

He nodded again, tying the laces of his boots.

Raven sat on the end of his bed besides him, towel-drying her hair.

"It's just my luck that I'm patrolling with both Dick and father tonight. I might just throw myself off the roof to spare myself the pain of Grayson's questions.", he snorted and Raven chuckled at his helplessness. "At this rate I shall be wishing to have never met you, miss demoness."

He sat up, having tied his laces, and pulled wet locks of her hair behind her ear. Pressing a sweet kiss to his girlfriend's lips, Damian complained, "Tt. You've turned me soft and I don't like it, love."

Raven laughed, "I don't think all the affection in the world could turn you soft. You're just opening your heart a little is all."

A harsh rapping on the door caused Damian to stifle a groan. He had to bite his lip to stop a storm of swearing as the person on the other side spoke.

"Whatever unholy things you and your girlfriend are doing in there, little shit, stop it because Twinkletoes told me to tell you that B is gonna leave without you if you don't hurry the fuck up. I don't care how hot she is. Your little D can wait.", Jason called, fleeing as soon as he had finished for fear of being killed a second time by a katana rather than a crowbar.

***

Until all threats had been identified, the League couldn't hand the supposed villain over to the police. If a person was placed in a cell with metal bars but had the ability to manipulate metal, that would make for poor captivity indeed. And so, as Vic stood opposite the semi-nude woman clothed in only a live monster of a snake. The serpent shifted to better accommodate her (she sat upon its thick body, which was curled up on the ground of her cell) and gave way for more of her the bright red flesh of her abdomen to display itself.

Vic gulped and cleared his throat, bearing in mind that she hadn't spoken a word when the League had fought her and perhaps couldn't even speak English, "Listen, we have some questions that need ans-"

She stood up, reaching almost the same height as him, still two metres away. The alien's feet closed the distance easily between them until she stood a few centimetres from the Cyborg. Her lip moved like molten gold, the same colour as her hair, as she hissed in possibly the most sensual voice to ever be processed by Cyborg.

"Sssso demanding. 'Lissssten here' 'anssswer the questionsss'. A big man with big wordss.", a pink, serpentine tongue wet her lips as she weighed up the being before her, lips twisting in to a smirk. "I believe you are uncomfortable sssir."

Vic folded his arms, "Could you just answer the questions and save the games for after?"

Slender fingers tapped lightly on his metal chest and Cyborg couldn't help but automatically lean a little back, to which she laughed, "Ooh cccertainly uncomfortable. And you asssked thissss time too.", she smiled a gold, coy smile, and her pure white eyes holding mischief. "Very well. Now or after, it mattersss not, sssso long asss we get to play."

In his mind blared the words ESCAPE EVACUTE LEAVE RUN JUSTGETTHEFUCKTOSAFETY.

Cyborg gripped the hand sliding up his chest and stopped it from progressing. Not letting panic reach his voice, Vic said, "I'm not interested, sorry. I don't want this to take any longer than it has to."

She raised an eyebrow, "Oh fine! Asssk away then!"

A third voice came out of the shadows, followed by graceless steps and a blaring white light. "Huh, thought I was gonna have to recuse you there.", Shazam, of course.

The lightning-wielder sat on the floor, leaning against the wall opposite the serpentine woman's transparent cell (where she was in the process of borderline-assaulting Victor). He waved the half-machine off, "Please, don't let me stop you, I'm just here for the show since I don't got anything better to do."

Knowing that boy, Vic was going to face the brunt of mockery from Barry and Hal for the next week. Half-man, half-machine, all flustered. Then the jokes about his sex-life would roll in- rather the lack thereof- and that would be a fantastic time. Vic couldn't wait.

***

"No Jonathan! I- it isn't what it seems! Don't-".

But the half-kryptonian was too far gone to heed anything that Donna said. His mind only brimmed with anger and humiliation. Jon's temper rarely, if ever, raised but now, in this moment, it flared like magnesium on an open flame. The other students in the corridor (though they were private school toffs) gathered around and shoved past each other to get a dose of the action as the thirteen-year old barrelled in to a boy at least four inches taller and twice as wide, slamming him in to the lockers lining the corridor. The boy crumbled to the floor, revealing the damage to the locker- it's door was now completely concave and looked like it had been through the wars.

For afar, Damian and Raven observed the scene. Both sat on top of a relatively tall cupboard in the hallway, a bag of popcorn between them as they watched Jonathan loose control for ten seconds, come to his senses, then run off to probably cry somewhere. Feeling the bittersweet emotions of sadness that the entertainment was over and concern for his friend, Damian jumped down from the cupboard before a teacher decided to do their job and shout at them. Raven joined him, bringing the sweet and salty popcorn along.

"I'll go after Jon, you go after Donna?", Raven suggested, knowing Damian wasn't the best in making a person less angry. 

Tasks set, the two took off, hoping to solve this little situation before they had dance practise with the younger two back at the Manor later on. That would've been a difficult situation to manoeuvre. Wagering that fourth French wouldn't matter considering he already spoke French fluently, Damian felt no pressure from the clock or bell in dealing with the Amazon.

He found her ten minutes later, sitting on the roof of the sports hall, hugging her knees and staring in to nothingness. Damian took a seat besides her and she made no sign of noticing him. As a general rule, Damian was a very frank person, no bullshit and no faffing about.

"Donna, let's outline a few things so as not to waste time and oxygen.", the girl moved her hair out of her face and looked at him. "You have developed some form of emotional attachment and attraction to Jonathan. The feelings are recuperated, yet the both of you are too unsure of yourselves to take any action.", she didn't even bother protesting. "But something happened today that caused him to kick off. If I'm going to help you, you have to tell me what happened."

Donna lay her head on her knees and would rival Titus in a puppy-dog-eyes contest. "It's just...Sam is one of my friends and he was inviting me to his party and he got the wrong impression and I don't know what happened but I think he tried to kiss me and I didn't realise what was going on and then Jonathan saw and...oh", her voice cracked and suddenly her English seemed to slip away with her thin composure. Tears wet her eyelashes and clung to them like dew in the early morning. Her native tongue, Ancient Greek, flooded out of her mouth in an emotional outburst worse than anything she'd felt before, "It is a catastrophe! Everything has gone wrong since I left home! I am trying to fit in and be like one of the humans, but it didn't work. Diana tells me to be comfortable as I am, but it is so hard when I do not know who I truly am! Maybe I am cursed, I could have upset the gods and earned their wrath. That explains a lot."

And with that, the young girl's dam burst and she buried her head in her knees, her tears trickling down her thighs and seeping in to her skirt. Unused to the process of comforting a crying, emotionally unbalanced thirteen-year old Amazon, Damian tried patting her on the back. He reckoned that saying 'there, there' was a little over the top, so he left it at that.

Feeling the wintry breeze through his school shirt, Damian withdrew his hand and thought of a place to begin. Well adversed in the Amazon's mother tongue, he said, "Donna, I understand how hard it is trying to adjust to a life outside that which you were raised in. To put it straight, I was raised in an assassin's guild to be the world's most lethal assassin, only to have that life ripped away and be put under rules of never killing again. I would say forcing an assassin not to kill anyone is a hard feat, don't you agree?", she looked up at him, wide eyes still releasing rivulets of salt-water. "And yet, five-and-a-half years later, here I am. Adapting is hard, but after a while, matters put themselves in order.", she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Damian reverted to English and (secretly proud of himself for acing the 'emotional support' role) concluded, "As for the situation with yourself and Jonathan, the best solution is to just explain yourself. If he doesn't see reason- and knowing his level of intellect I wager he mightn't- it would be my pleasure to beat it in to him.", Donna chuckled, the first sign of happiness she's shown all afternoon.

Standing up, she brushed down her skirt and followed Damian off the sports hall roof, glad that there were no teachers on duty to catch them.

There was something powerful in Donna's core, something that could overcome any trouble in her way. The spirit of a warrior. Trying to fit in and befriend petty, superficial classmates -trying to abandon the warrior within- would only cause her troubles. She was only ashamed it had taken so long to figure that out.

The lunchtime bell rang, but Damian (nonchalantly strolling besides her) didn't seem to give a damn. Hands in his trouser pockets and schoolbag slung over his shoulder, Donna couldn't help but share in his confidence. Taking a lengthy route around the science block, Damian finally spoke when he spotted two figures approaching.

Raven and Jonathan.

And he looked more bashful than ever, his head ducked and his ears bright pink. They stood face to face, the four of them, as the second bell sounded for the start of lessons.

Raven folded her arms, "Whenever you feel like actually speaking....aaany day now."

A.N:

Jonna is cute. Don't even @ me.

thank you

-Bats:3