HL: Interlude: Wu Ping's Revenge

Bruce Wayne had done the best he could have in the circumstances. Obviously, he couldn't just let Jackie Yuen stay in Gotham, not after the article Vicki Vale wrote practically advertised him as a new nemesis for half the Superpowered Criminals who had been feuding with Superman before his untimely death to see. Gotham simply wasn't capable of dealing with such threats, and if Jackie were to fall in battle, well, Bruce was enough of a realist to say that he and his proteges just were not prepared to handle someone on the caliber of Neutron, much less that Doomsday thing which had finally slain Clark.

Of course, Barbara had not taken it well. She and Jackie had broken up a couple of months before Jackie had left for New York City, but they had still remained close. Of course, she'd immediately gone and taken out her frustrations on Vicki Vale. Bruce might even need to buy the Gotham Gazette in order to deal with the fallout of the night of revenge that Barbara had wreaked on the hapless journalist. From what he'd managed to piece together, she had actually hacked into the Gotham Gazette's servers somehow and completely wrecked Vicki Vale's current batch of work. All the woman's article drafts had been replaced with the line 'I will not draw attention to Gotham City' repeated over and over again, while all of the photographs she was storing on the expensive hardware had been replaced with images of Clark's Villains.

Bruce had chided her for doing that, of course, but he couldn't deny the effectiveness of Barbara's revenge. If only she hadn't then gone and spent whatever remaining anger she had left at the situation on juvenile pranks on Bruce himself, he would have been tempted to let the matter drop. Unfortunately, she had played a number of such pranks. Bruce had banned her from Patrolling with him or Time, as well as banned her from the Cave for one week per prank. She'd found out he was serious only after pranking him twice more. Unfortunately, the situation was currently such that Bruce had to admit he might have been just a touch too hasty in handing down punishments. He could use an extra pair of hands at the moment, after all.

It had started as planned. Such disasters often do. Jason Blood had arrived to lend his occult expertise to the attempt to exorcise the Ghost of the ancient Dark Sorcerer Wu Ping from the Vase he had recently purchased, where it was bound. Zatanna had recommended him as the only other Sorcerer of note in Gotham at the moment, since she was currently in Las Vegas. With her vouching for him, Bruce had no qualms about letting Jason Blood in the Cave. That was a good thing, since it would allow Bruce to more easily control the situation if it went awry using the Cave's Security Systems. When Jason Blood had arrived, however, he had still been taken through the Waterfall Entrance used by the Batmobile instead of through the Manor, just in case. Even with Zatanna's vouch, Bruce wasn't about to let Jason Blood link Batman and Bruce Wayne just yet. They hadn't properly met before all this, after all.

Unfortunately, when Jackie had said Wu Ping had been powerful, and that even he wasn't certain if he could fully exorcise the Ghost, he had perhaps undersold the situation. Jason Blood was a Demonologist by specialty, which meant he worked abjuration largely through circles of binding. That also meant that in order to fully exorcise Wu Ping's ghost, he first had to transfer it from the Vase to the inside of a ritual circle. He had prepared everything, using iron shavings and Tibetan Rock Salt to mark the boundary of the ritual circle, and Jason Blood began the spell to transfer Wu Ping's Ghost. Jason Blood had incanted a spell in Latin that solidified the circle from a line of salt and iron shavings sprinkled on the cave floor in a ritual circle into a solid barrier. Then the real work began.

Unfortunately, it was only once the Ghost had been removed from the Vase that everything had gone wrong. Somehow, Jason Blood had lost control of his spell, and the form of a ghostly Ancient Chinese Man in flowing white funeral robes appeared, only instead of appearing inside the Ritual Circle, he appeared outside of it. Almost immediately, the translucent appearance began to solidify as Wu Ping gathered energy to himself and began to constitute a body of ectoplasmic flesh to rectify the incorporality that he had suffered. That was when Jason Blood, instead of trying to cast another spell, went off script.

"Gone, gone the form of man, rise the Demon Etrigan!" Chanted Jason Blood.

As he did so, his voice dropped several octaves and he began to change, turning from a lanky, suited, older man into a hulking, yellow-skinned demon. Bruce had heard of Etrigan the Demon from Zatanna, but he hadn't realized that he had a human alter ego, much less that said human alter ego had been living in Gotham for years. Regardless, Etrigan, finally released into the world after living in Jason Blood's Subconscious for an extended period of time, rushed forward to try and manhandle Wu Ping into the Circle for Banishment. What had followed was an exercise in showing exactly why Jackie had been so worried about this Ancient Sorcerer.

With an incantation in a language that sounded closer to Vietnamese than to Mandarin, Wu Ping's Ghost summoned energy to the palms of his hands and clapped both palms against Etrigan's Fin-like Ears, even as Etrigan seized the still fragile ectoplasmic body that Wu Ping had created for himself in a bear hug. The attack, seemingly part undead-strength double-ear slap and part abjuration spell, not only disoriented Etrigan but literally forced the Demon to recede back into Jason Blood. A kick to the side of Jason Blood's knee followed, causing the Occultist to topple to the floor of the cave, rolling away from a stomp wreathed in ghostly, black flames from a second spell.

Of course, Bruce hadn't hesitated, flinging explosive pellets at Wu Ping's Ghost the second Jason Blood was out of the way. The pellets exploded on impact with a glowing, sickly green shield that Wu Ping's Ghost erected with a third spell, but when the smoke cleared, not only had Wu Ping not been injured at all, not only had the shield not been broken, but Wu Ping had snatched a centipede off the cave wall and begun whispering another spell as he cupped the insect in both hands. Almost immediately, the Centipede began to grow in size, swelling monstrously as it did so.

"What's it doing?" Demanded Bruce.

"It's Gu Sorcery! He's used the Venom the Centipede possesses as a medium for his magic! He's mutated it into a hulking minion he can control via the ensorcelled venom!" Informed Jason Blood.

Then the Centipede had stopped growing as it reached the size of a small elephant, sizzling liquid dripping from its mandibles. Then it let out a horrific screech and charged Bruce. As Bruce raced forward to meet its charge, he dove underneath the Centipede's biting pincers, sparking up his Electro-Gauntlets and hammering a pair of electrified punches into the softer parts of the Centipede's Undersection. The Centipede screeched and lashed out with its hind section, slamming it into Bruce Sideways. Bruce went flying back, pulling his grapple gun and firing it up to latch onto a stalagtite before swinging around to use the momentum in a swinging kick that smashed into the Centipede from the side. Bruce dropped a few explosive pellets behind him to try and finish the thing as he swung away on his grapple line, the explosions blackening the stone of the cave floor and cracking the Chitin on the Centipede's Back.

Unfortunately, that didn't finish the thing, and it spat a sizzling Glob of venom at Bruce, hissing into Bruce's grapple line and burning through the high-tensile fiber cable as if it were acid. Bruce went tumbling to the floor in a massive crash, smashing into and through a display case with one of Ra's Al-Ghul's swords in it. The glass shattered, and the mystically-honed blade sliced into Bruce's armored side, parting kevlar and carving through ceramic plates to cut a line across his side even as Bruce tried to tuck himself into a roll to avoid falling on his arm and potentially breaking it. He managed that, but only at the cost of the cut to his side. Of course, Bruce didn't have time to celebrate, because Wu Ping's Ghost was firing bolts of crackling black lightning at him.

He forced himself to dodge behind the giant penny from the Penny Plunderer case, only for the crackling arc of black lightning to diffuse itself through the copper disc, scorching the patina and causing smaller bolts of regular electricity to surge through the copper in multiple directions, one of which sizzled into Bruce's shoulder, burning through the armor of his left shoulder and searing the flesh and muscle beneath, numbing the nerves of his left shoulder briefly. Bruce shoved the pain into a steel box of willpower in the back of his mind and forced his left arm back into working order using something that Jackie had called the Gate Arts, but which Bruce had learned during a trip to Nepal while he had been training to become Batman.

Once his arm was responding to his will, Bruce rushed out from behind his cover and tossed a quartet of exploding batarangs at both Wu Ping and the Centipede, two from each hand. Unfortunately, Wu Ping merely put up another shield spell to block his batarangs, while the Centipede only took one of the Batarangs thanks to his less-than-fully-working left arm ruining his aim. The Batarang sank into one of its eyes before exploding its brain, killing it. Wu Ping remained unaffected by the explosions. As the smoke cleared, Wu Ping had grabbed a Spider from one of the cave walls and whispered another spell. This time, the Spider grew to the size of a small horse before charging at Bruce, only to be attacked by Jason Blood, who had grabbed Ra's fallen sword from where it had landed after Bruce had crashed through its trophy case.

Jason Blood carved into the Spider's legs at the joint with a move that Bruce had seen once before in an Old Fencing Manual. First, his Sorcerer turned out to be a Demon, and now he was apparently an expert swordsman. Bruce would have to ask Jason Blood about his background when this was all over. Instead, as Jason Blood parried a thrust of one of the Spider's barb-tipped legs, riposting with another textbook cut that cleaved a second leg off, Bruce simply nodded at the Man.

"Can you change back into Etrigan?" He questioned.

"No, something about that last spell has forced the Demon to recede almost totally! I can barely tell he's still there!" Answered Jason Blood.

"Can you keep that Spider Busy? I have something that might buy us a little breathing room." Queried Bruce, thinking of the Robotic T-Rex Trophy he kept in the cave as both Trophy and security measure.

"Of course, the real question is, who will distract Wu Ping?" Asked Jason Blood.

"Leave it to me!" Came Tim's Voice from the stairway.

Bruce's heart pounded in his chest as he watched Tim, still dressed in his Robin Uniform after patrolling with his small team, charge the Ghostly Sorcerer. For a split second, Bruce thought he was staring down the barrel of another Jason Todd scenario, and his heart froze in his Chest. Wu Ping smirked and brought up a hand crackling with arcs of black electricity as he chanted at Tim. Then the spell was fired. Fortunately, Tim wasn't as hot-headed as Jason had been, and he had seemingly prepared for combat with a Sorcerer. Time leaped off the last few stairs, soaring just over the arcing bolt of lightning, which exploded against the wall behind Tim, coring a hole through the stone a foot deep. As Tim landed, Wu Ping began to chant again, before Tim reached down to his utility belt and tossed a small satchet of something at the Undead Sorcerer.

Immediately, Wu Ping's spell fizzled as the Undead Sorcerer reeled from Tim's attack. Tim smirked as he charged forward, slamming his shoulder into Wu Ping's torso and bowling him over. As Wu Ping fell to the floor, arcs of blue-white light coruscating across his body. Jason Blood let out a victorious shout behind Bruce. Bruce turned to see Jason Blood bury Ra's sword in the Spider's head, killing it, though the Occultist had taken a cut from one of the hooked barbs to the shoulder in the process. As he turned to look at Tim again, Bruce saw Tim and Wu Ping engaged in a grapple, with Tim trying to place a Spell Tag on the Undead Sorcerer's Forehead and Wu Ping trying to avoid it.

"An Abjuration Tag. They're endemic to Eastern Schools of Magic. This one must be powerful if Wu Ping is trying to avoid being hit by it. Especially given the way he'd been handling us with ease until now." Mused Jason Blood.

"He must have gotten it from the Yuens, along with whatever powder he used to short-circuit Wu Ping's Magic." Offered Bruce.

Unfortunately, even without Sorcery, Wu Ping was still possessed of the strength of the Undead and the experience of someone who had studied martial arts for decades. Tim quickly found himself on the losing end of the Grapple and hauled up bodily before being slammed into the floor by his leg. Tim went slack from that, and Bruce's heart fell into his stomach. He let out an inarticulate cry of anger before he charged Wu Ping. Bruce threw punches at the Undead Sorcerer that Wu Ping parried and dodged, launching a kick into Bruce's leg that dislocated his right knee cap and bruised the knee socket, sending Bruce toppling to the floor of the cave.

Jason Blood, however, was only a few steps behind Bruce, swinging Ra's sword with the skill of an expert swordsman. Wu Ping was forced to dodge and weave around the flashing, mystically enhanced blade. Unfortunately, for all his skill, Jason Blood was still an older man. Without Etrigan, wounded as he was, his stamina would fail him eventually. Without the Ability to transform into Etrigan, Jason Blood was unable to hold out for long against the Deathless Endurance of Wu Ping. After a few exchanges, Jason Blood slipped up, too slow to recover his guard by a fraction of a second, and Wu Ping pounced on that opening, hammering a short, sharp elbow strike into Jason Blood's ribs and cracking one of them with the blow.

Jason Blood fell to the ground, Ra's sword falling from his grip as he clutched at his side. Wu Ping smirked at that, thinking himself victorious. However, Jason Blood's attack had given Bruce time to crawl over to the fallen Abjuration Spell Tag and grab it. Hopping up onto his one good leg, Bruce surged forward in a last gasp attempt to finish the fight successfully. As it happened, Wu Ping's arrogance was his ultimate downfall, as he only turned around in time to take the spell tag to the face instead of the back of the head. Wu Ping stiffened as if paralyzed as the Spell Tag took effect, shouting in that odd language that was more Vietnamese than Mandarin as he did so, before collapsing to the floor stiff as a board. Bruce collapsed to the floor next to him.

That was when Jason Blood clawed his way back to his feet and began to drag Wu Ping's ectoplasmic body toward his ritual circle, slowly and carefully. The pace was both because of his wounds and because he didn't want to risk the spell tag being removed. Eventually, however, he got Wu Ping into the Ritual Circle to begin the full Exorcism Ritual. That gave Bruce the time to check on Tim. Fortunately, Tim was still breathing, though he likely had a concussion, a cracked right shoulder blade, and a bruised tailbone from being slammed against the floor of the Cave with undead strength. All three of them were wounded from the fight, and as Bruce removed a capsule of smelling salts from his utility belt, breaking the tab under Tim's nose to wake his partner up, he reflected that he would need to call Dick back to Gotham to cover for him while he and Tim recovered.

Thankfully, the Exorcism Ritual was completed not long after Tim woke up. Wu Ping's Spectral Flesh dissolved with an ethereal scream of impotent rage, and the animating soul disappeared in a crack of displaced air and white light. As Wu Ping was exorcised, Bruce turned to Tim, frowning as he did so.

"Where did you get that Spell Tag?" He demanded.

"Spoiler got it for me. I mentioned to her that we were dealing with a Ghost that Black Tiger wasn't sure if he could fully deal with, and she went to the Yuens to get help. It turns out, the Yuens practice Abjuration and Necromancy with several Archmage Level Necromancers and Abjurers in the family. She gave it to me before patrol this evening." Answered Tim, Mindful of Code Names with Jason Blood present.

"And now, as my consulting fee has already cleared my accounts, if one of you would be so kind as to help me back to my car, I'll be on my way as well." Cut in Jason Blood.

"Right. Robin, you're the only one of us who can walk at a decent pace. Take Jason Blood back to his car. It's at the captured vehicle drop-off point." Intoned Bruce.

"On it. Come on, Mister Blood." Affirmed Tim.

Then the two of them were off, limping down the Batmobile tunnels toward the Waterfall Entrance. As they made it down the tunnel, Bruce let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. That fight hadn't nearly gone the way that he'd hoped. They had come out on top still, but it had been a close run thing. As he dragged himself over to the Batcomputer and slumped into his chair, he hit the button to call Alfred to help him fix his dislocated knee and to patch him up. When Tim came back, Alfred would take a look at him too, though there was only one way that Bruce could think of to ensure future situations didn't turn out the same way when powerful sorcerers were involved.

He would have to at least study up on the mechanics of how magic worked. Bruce grumbled at the distastefulness of it all. He had never liked Magic. It seemed fickle and often contradictory compared to engineering or science to him. However, he had no real choice at this point. It was unfortunate, but he couldn't keep relying on help from the Yuens, even with Tim's budding relationship with Stephanie to act as a connection. After all, he had literally just banished Jackie from Gotham. Somehow, Bruce doubted that the goodwill between Tim and Stephanie would extend much further thanks to that.

"Call Zatanna." Intoned Bruce.

As the Batcomputer began to dial Zatanna's number, Bruce's grimace got a bit less deep. He always had a soft spot for Zatanna, even after they had broken up all those years ago. He figured that if he was going to learn about Magic from anyone, it would be best to start with Zatanna Zatara. After all, just because he found Magic annoying didn't mean he shouldn't learn about it from a close friend.

In fact, as Zatanna picked up the phone, Bruce reflected that might be the only way to make the lessons tolerable. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. As Jackie said, Wu Ping is not a Sorcerer to fuck with. Even in his weakened state after so much time spent bound into a vase, he still managed to abjure Etrigan with enough force that Jason Blood couldn't transform into him again and kick Bruce, Jason Blood, and Tim's asses up and down the cave until he committed a fatal flaw with his arrogance, pausing to gloat over his seemingly vanquished foes and giving Bruce a chance to use the fallen spell tag on him. Now Bruce and Tim have to take a week or so to recover, which means Dick and Babs are going to be stepping up as Gotham's Main protectors until that's done. Bruce is also going to be getting a crash course in Magic Theory from Zatanna so he can plan better when Sorcerers are in play.

At any rate, the next chapter will have us back with Jackie for his talk with Power Girl. Then we'll have a chapter with Jackie trying to talk to Wesley Dodds and Courtney Whitmore at the Dodds Mansion. I'll also have a few images out before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .