Hospitals at night felt so very creepy. Metropolis Health Center was no different. As their odd group snuck down the hallways, which still had some nurses and doctors, Clara felt an unsettling chill in her heart. She put it down to the task at hand and not her devastating fear of horror movies.

They ran down another corridor till they finally came to a stop in front of the room they were looking for.

John opened the door and entered, the rest of them following right behind. As Clara stepped in last, she quickly turned around and closed the door. John nodded in thanks.

"This him?" He voiced out grimly, staring down at the patient tied to the bed. The man looked broken and without hope, and his eyes were open and vacantly staring at the ceiling.

"Father of the year," John continued. "I'll need the gear now."

Bruce pulled out an intricately designed coin from under his cape, handing it over to him. "How does this work?"

"It's basically a magical shortcut," John explained, tossing the coin in the year. "It lets me access different planes of existence without doing twenty odd hours of incantations. In this case, I'll poke around this poor sod's memories to see how his madness began and more importantly, what caused it."

Ah magic, Clara thought. It was a fickle thing. Even when you think you had things easy, magic would throw a challenge right back at you, making things complicated. Rituals like the ones John was doing were just some of those things.

John walked to the man laying on the bed and put the coin on his forehead. It seemed to glow with a golden light just for a moment. But then the light turned purple and the coin disappeared, giving them a glance at the man's mind and the memories that lay within. Then out of nowhere, the door swung open and a nurse peered into her room.

"What are you doing here?!" The surprised nurse spoke, looking straight at John and not at the two members of the Justice League. "I'm calling security."

She turned on her reel, ready to run off, but Boston quickly hovered to her body and possessed her, taking over her soul. "I'll make sure the looky-loos stay out of our hair."

"Z, Lumière," John said, hands on his hips as he spoke. "Give me a psychic shout if this body comes under attack. Wouldn't do to be trapped inside, now."

"Wouldn't do to go in alone," Zatanna spoke firmly. "And since I'm right here..."

"Too dangerous," John shrugged her off. "You're out of practice, love. And Clara's terrible with memory spells."

Clara frowned and crossed her arms. "I'm offended, but I guess you're right. Still, you need to take someone with you. It can be very dangerous to go alone."

"Exactly," Zatanna nodded in agreement and spoke in a very firm voice. If Clara were John, then she would definitely listen to Z. "Look, you wanted me along. I'm here. I'm not waiting in the wings. Let's do this."

John looked at her. Zatanna stared right back, her look unwavering. It looked like there were a million thoughts running behind his eyes, but after a moment passed, he let out a resigned sigh and held onto Zatanna's hand. Both of them stepped closer to the man, and pressing their joint hands over his forehead, disappeared into his memories with a bright golden flash.

Bruce grunted - no, it would be better to say he grumbled, probably annoyed at being left out. Clara shook her head with a smile. This whole situation was definitely making him feel out of place because of his lack of knowledge about the mystical and mysterious world of magic. Even Clara herself felt a little bit lost with how things were, so she could imagine how it must be for Bruce.

"This must be all weird for you, huh Batsy?" Clara asked, breaking the awkward silence. She rubbed her nose, her fingers rubbing against the edge of her mask. "All this magic stuff that's going on, when you don't really believe in it."

"I believe in you, don't I?" Bruce said, slightly tilting his head.

"Wait, what's that supposed to-"

Clara cut herself off when she felt it. The rumblings of a summoning ritual, of a creature in the hallways of the hospital. The noise reached them too, the people in the hospital screaming and running away. Bruce heard it too and his face turned even more grim.

They both stepped out of the room, almost bumping into nurses and doctors and other workers who were running from whatever creature that was attacking them. The creature, which looked like monstrous brown sludge slammed itself against the closed glass doors, the pressure making them crack.

And soon enough, the glass shattered into pieces, letting the creature right into the hallway where Clara, Bruce and Boston were.

Without even wasting a second, both Bruce and Clara attacked; Clara with her a spell of fire and good old Batsy with his trusty exploding batarangs. The attacks collided and smashed together in a fiery explosion that held the creature in place.

The creature struggled and screeched, its voice extremely grating and loud. In its struggle, it hit the overhead sprinklers and somehow turned them on. Water rained down, extinguishing the fire that had spread across the creature's body. Clara clasped her hands together, ready to use some of her best spells to take down this monster. But Bruce turned out to be so much quicker. He grabbed a defibrillator cart and turned it up to the maximum voltage. Electricity crackled from the defibrillator pads and he pushed it on to the creature.

The creature's screech was even louder than before. It gave angry vibes, much angrier than before.

Clara took a step back, as did Bruce, just as Boston (in the body of some hospital worker) came out of the room, carrying out the body of the man within whose mind John and Zatanna were currently present. They turned to run just as the monstrous sludge let out an even louder screech, breaking free off the electricity coursing through its body.

Clara nearly screamed in pain as she and Boston were suddenly taken down, forced to the ground by the overwhelming volume of the creature's body. It yanked the man's body away from Boston, dragging it back to the hospital room they had just pulled him out of. Coughing, she got up, watching as Bruce kicked the door, trying to force it open.

Just then, there was a loud exploding noise. Clara felt a burst of familiar magic, magic that belonged to Zatanna and sighed in relief. A few moments later, the door swung open and Zatanna and John stepped towards the entrance.

Boston popped up from behind them. "Oh! Shit's really hit the fan."

"You had to go there, Boston," John had covered his nose, his face contorted in disgust. With one last look at the sludge monster, he practically dashed out of the room. "Let's get the hell out of here."

They all left, leaving behind remains of a very messy fight. 

Sorry for the short chapter; I wrote this very quickly since I wanted to get out an update for this. I really want to get 70% of this story done by mid January, which is why I've been prewriting for this. I've got some really cool scenes planned out which will come into play really soon. Hopefully, you all like them as much as I do.

Till then, I hope you enjoyed this short little chapter! Let me know your thoughts in the comments <3 <3