Zatanna #1

Zatanna Zatara apparated into her living room apartment, yanked off her hat, and flung it onto a nearby chair. She stood there with a rage building up inside of her. She closed her eyes, fighting the fire that boiled in her blood. Then she screamed in frustration, her arms stretching out in front of her as a burst of magic, burgundy in color, exploded from her hands, shattering her two mirrors and a table lamp next to her.

She staggered back and fell onto the couch, shaking; why, she couldn’t be sure. Nothing was the same anymore. Ever since she had been held for a year, her entire life had turned upside down. She had found out that her captor was actually her half-sister Tamara, a sorceress that she shared the same father with. Her “sister” had imprisoned her, siphoning her energy to make herself more powerful. With the help of her familiar, Basil, she had turned the tables and gotten away, and used the same trick – siphoning Tamara’s powers into herself, to help defeat her half-sister. The problem was that the unnatural and very dark magic had not left her. It had clung to her like static cling.

“thgiN sehtolc,” she muttered and her costume was instantly turned into a large night-shirt that carried the symbol of Superman on it. Zatanna turned on her television and fell back into the softness of her couch as the black and white image of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope came onto the screen. They were singing and dancing as they trekked across the desert.

“Where are you, Father?” she asked herself in frustration as she lay down on the couch, exhausted. Tears began to creep down her face. During the last crisis, she had run into Tamara again, while she and Batgirl were trying to stop the Bizzaro soldiers at Cadmus. Her sister had shown her an image of her father, still alive, being held prisoner somewhere.

Yet every time Zee searched for her, there was no trace… none whatsoever. It was as if she was just blinking out of existence. But she wasn’t going to give up; she couldn’t. Her father was in danger, in trouble, and if it took her till the end of time, she would find him. She just needed to rest first.

As her lids began to droop, she listened to the wisecracking Hope as Crosby played straight man to his buddy. Life had to have been so much simpler back then, she thought, before she drifted off…

As she fell asleep, a pair of eyes appeared in her apartment. They blinked as they watched her falling deeper and deeper into a restful slumber. That peacefulness, the person on the other end decided, was about to change…

When the smoke cleared Zatanna found herself staring up at the gray sky. She hadn’t realized how much she disliked that color until now. When she attempted to get up, she realized, with an over-exaggerated expression of surprise, that she was bound from neck to ankles by rope that had been wrapped tightly around her. She looked around frantically to find that not only was she trussed up, but she was lying across a set of railroad tracks in the middle of a city… a city with a large billboard that read Welcome to Keystone City

She shouted out in shock and wasn’t surprised, so much as irritated, to see the words come up next to her. However, the phrase, “Oh no!” once again read “!on hO” from her point of view. The piano music was still playing in the background and still keeping time with her movements and mood. She decided at that moment that when she freed herself, the first thing she was going to do was find that piano player and slam his fingers in the keyboard.

Then the music changed its tone, and became dark and sinister sounding. She looked around frantically and suddenly found herself staring up at the well-dressed figure of Abra Kadabra. He was looking down at her, a huge handlebar mustache covering his face. He was obviously laughing and the caption confirmed that with a simple “Ha, ha, ha.”

What was he doing here? Was he even really here at all? And since her mind was racing (the music racing right along with her), where exactly was it that she really was in the first place.

She looked up at Kadabra and, although she could not hear the words, she knew she had asked him why he was doing this. When the caption scrolled it out, she decided that, after the piano player, whoever was doing the writing was next on her list to get booted.

Kadabra laughed again and actually twirled the end of his mustache with his hand. He spoke to her and she looked quickly at the captioning that read, “.nac I esuaceB” Then it disappeared quickly. Zee became frustrated; she hadn’t had time to read it. In fact, the idea of having to read all of these words backwards was getting ridiculous and bothersome.

The evil villain turned, as if he had heard a sound, his hand cupping around his ear in exaggeration. Zatanna caught a glimpse of a caption that she believed had read A train whistle approaching, but it disappeared before she could finish deciphering it. Talking backwards was one thing, but come on! who in their right mind wanted to read backwards!

She looked down the track and saw the front of the train engine coming towards her. She looked up to see Abra Kadabra rubbing his hands together in glee as he swirled his cape and began to do some kind of bizarre happy dance. She rolled her eyes as she continued to work herself out of the ropes. Escaping from these sorts of situations was one of the first things her father had taught her, in case she wasn’t able to use her hands for any kind of spells.

Kadabra stopped, his eyes widening in what appeared to be shock as he turned behind him. Zee looked down quickly and saw the caption “Curses, it’s the cops!” She was actually pleased with herself. She got through the whole thing before it disappeared.

Then, as the music turned from heavy melodrama to some sort of tune that would best be described as something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, three very old-fashioned police cars came screeching to a halt in front of them.

Officers, all dressed in very old-fashioned clothes, with billy clubs drawn, were stumbling out of the cars, several of them fell face first onto the ground while the others tripped over them while trying to get to Kadabra, who had jumped up into the air in surprise and terror, and began to run around the cars.

The Keystone Cops chased after him, all in one single file line, and all running the same circle around the police cars. They held on to their sticks with one hand and held onto their hats with the other.

Zee looked back at the train that was barreling down towards her; the tempo of the music increasing. She had almost escaped, but realized also that she had run out of time. She could actually see the train engineer’s exaggerated face as he looked at her in horror, unable to stop in time.

She took a deep breath and rolled her body down the track and lifted the bottom part of her body, flipping herself off the track just as the train whizzed past her. Quick thinking on her part as she had realized once, sitting with her parents, why the villain always tied them up, but rarely actually tied them to the tracks.

Zatanna finally released herself from her bonds as the last of the train shot by. She caught a glimpse of Kadabra running away; waving his fist in the air, with several of the cops falling all over each other to go after him.

She couldn’t help but grin as she began to walk away. Then her mind went back to the matter at hand, and she wondered just how far reaching this spell of hers had gone…

Zatanna was getting more and more frustrated as she walked along the deserted road. Not only had she not seen any cars, but she wasn’t sure where exactly it was that she should go at this point. The only two things she did know for certain were that she wanted to get as far away from Keystone City as possible, and that if that damn piano didn’t stop playing soon, she was going to go stark raving crazy.

Note to self, she thought. When I get out of this, find Yanni and turn him into a toad! It was petty, sure, but it was going to make her feel a lot better.

She was getting hungry. No, more than hungry; she was practically starving. She wished that she had brought money along when she had cast the spell, but then again, would her money be good where she was.

The piano music began to play a melancholy song as she continued her walk down the deserted road. There had to be a way out of this, but, if she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t eliminate the spell she had set in motion. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became.

That’s when she began to feel it: the other magic. The part of her that she had taken from her sister and for some reason had held onto. It was building inside of her again, as her anger and frustration grew. It was a magic, she was realizing, that reached across endless points in space and time, and it dawned on her that perhaps she didn’t need to use words after all. She never had to before when using the darker magic.

She closed her eyes and focused, letting it build inside of her as she let the anger grow, and then, as she had done before, she released it all at once, with a mental image of being home again.

When she opened her eyes, she found the world around her was still in black, white, and shades of gray. The end result was not what she had expected at all. In fact, when she had released the power inside of her, it seemed to have petered out as it was released, like a firework that barely sparks and then plummets to the ground.

She let out a cry of frustration as she grabbed her hat and threw it to the ground. The silent scream came across in front of her in words, and she kicked at it, shattering it. Then she fell down next to her hat, lying upside down in the grass, and heaved a silent sigh. Was she going to be stuck here forever, she wondered?

“You’re looking awfully sad, my lady,” Basil said as he popped out from her hat and sat down next to her, staring up at his master.

“Oh, Basil, I have no idea what’s going on anymore. I think I cast a spell in my sleep and now I’m stuck in this stupid silent movie, and without my voice I don’t think… think… Did you just speak to me?” She looked up in shock. “Hold on! Did I just talk?”

“I would have to answer yes to both of those questions,” Basil replied absently as he scratched behind his ear.

“How?! Why?!”

“Why are you asking me?” the white rabbit replied. “I’m not the magician; I’m just the faithful familiar, here at your beck and call.”

Zee’s mind started racing with excitement. She jumped up and began to pace back and forth. “Everything is still in black and white, so I’m obviously still stuck in this movie motif, but perhaps we’ve moved on. We’ve finally hit the talkies! That’s a start, anyway.”

She began to twirl around in happiness. She felt the sudden urge to break out into a dance, but stopped short of actually following through. She looked down at Basil who was staring back at her, his nose twitching in what she thought was some kind of mocking humor.

“This spell is starting to get to me. Alright, let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place.”

She grabbed her hat, set it upon her head tightly and picked up her faithful companion. She once again closed her eyes and, moving the fingers in her free hand, muttered the words backwards that she would need to release herself.

She grinned as she opened her eyes, fully expecting to find herself lying on the couch again. Her smiled dropped as she realized everything was still the same. Life was still black and white.

“Anytime now,” Basil said, looking up at her.

“Oh dear,” Zee muttered.

Zatanna looked around at the black, white, and gray that her life had become, from a spell that she no longer had control over. She fought down the rising anger that seemed to spawn so quickly inside of her these days, and took a deep breath.

Could she even cast any spells, she wondered. “eriF raeppa ni ym dnah,” she commanded out loud as she opened her hand, palm up. A simple spell, one of the first that her father had taught her. Her father…

The fire fluttered in her hand and then without warning shot up high, blue and red flame nearly engulfing her face. She felt the heat against her face and heard the sizzle of her eyebrows singeing as the flame grew further out of control.

She let out a scream, tossing the fire away from her, narrowly missing Basil who jumped out of the way at the last second.

“Not sure what I ever did to you, but it’s no reason to go all Glenn Close on me,” the rabbit mumbled, giving here as much of a look of anger as a lagomorph could muster.

“Basil, I’m so sorry,” she said as she was stamping out the fire that had landed on the ground. “I was in control of it for a second, then it suddenly just took off on its own.”

“It’s okay, I suppose,” Basil replied. “In the end, you seemed to have received the worst of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve burned off your own eyebrows.”

“WHAT?! Oh no, I must look horrible. sworbeyE worg kcab,” she commanded.

She felt the magic again, and again she felt it go out of her control as the eyebrows continued to grow about three inches thick. They were so thick, in fact, that she could actually see the bottom of them by rolling her eyes up.

“Yes, that’s much better,” Basil said. “Give yourself a cigar and glasses and we can spend a day at the races.”

Zatanna sat down, fighting back a combination of rage and tears. “Why is this happening? What is going on?”

“Don’t look downhearted,” said Basil, looking at Zee sitting at the side of the road. “At least I can tell you what I know now.”

“Guess it can’t hurt to follow the white rabbit,” Zee mused.

“I hope that’s an Alice in Wonderland reference rather than a Matrix one,” said Basil, his ears twitching. “This world’s not ready for that... yet.”

“The what?” Zatanna asked in confusion.

“The Matrix. Oh, never mind, I tend to have a lot more time on my paws than you do. Anyway, we need a lift for where we’re going.”

“And that would be?”

“Las Vegas. If we’re going to find your father, there’s an old acquaintance of his that could help us.”

He said nothing else as he hopped to the edge of the road and stuck out his carrot, waiting patiently.

While Basil used his carrot to try and thumb a lift, Zee just smiled. “Haven’t you seen It Happened One Night?”

“No, and you haven’t seen the Matrix.”

As Zee stood by the side of the road, she flashed her fishnetted leg and a car screeched to a halt by her.

“Couldn’t you have just used magic?” asked the rabbit.

“Not a good idea at this point. Not until I know a little bit more about why I’m losing control of it. Now let’s go before this driver changes his mind.”

At first she didn’t realize that there was an actual pattern to what he was doing, but then she watched more closely as the music swelled and his feet kept hitting the same spots in the floor, over and over, faster and faster. She was just about to question him when a large rectangular section of the dance floor began to glow a bright blue.

Plas took three graceful twirls to the right, removing himself from the glowing spot as the floor began to lower itself, a set of stairs magically appearing that led downward into some kind of basement level.

“Not bad, huh?” he asked with a grin. “Your old man taught me how to open it, right before things went bad.” Eel smiled as he brought his arm outward toward the trap door, indicating for her to lead the way down the magical steps. “I knew John for many, many years. Even before you were born.”

Hesitantly, she walked past him and began her descent. “How did you know him? Wait a minute, how old are you?”

“Much older than I look, actually; which makes me wiser and more experienced - just don’t tell anyone, I don’t want my reputation spoiled. Your father and I used to be members of… well… a team. We were a quiet team, didn’t get much recognition. It didn’t last long, but your father trusted me with a few things before he set off again, and I’ve been waiting for you to show up, so I could finally show you. Hold on a minute.” He stretched his neck up and looked at the swing band that had just finished playing. He snapped his fingers as his face stretched and morphed into a perfect imitation of Humphrey Bogart. “Hey, Sam, play that last one again!”

“You got it, boss.”

Then the two of them disappeared into the darkness of what seemed to be some kind of cellar. A tunnel went forward.

Zee muttered some words and a light appeared in her hands, illuminating the way.

Plas looked at Zatanna, her face lit up by the light. “Okay, sweetheart, here’s the lowdown. Your old man wanted me to make sure that, if anything happened to him, I would keep a few things of his safe. They’re things that he had found during his travels. Items that could be dangerous in the hands of the wrong mystical punks, you see. So I’ve been keeping them down here, and I think one of these trinkets can help you find John.”

Zatanna continued to walk down the corridor, the ball of energy giving off less and less energy. It was still frustrating to her. Her normal powers seemed to be weakening as her new found powers were growing in strength.

She felt her hat lift up a bit on her head and heard Basil muse, “Everything’s still black and white; we’re in some kind of brick tunnel that is rather dark and creepy looking. Yep, I think I’m going to stay in here for a while longer. Looks like we’ve gone from musicals to Mummy movies.” And with that, he disappeared again.

They came to a door at the end of the corridor and Eel walked up to it. It had five locks on the outside of it

“How do we get in?” Zatanna asked.

“Through some rather simple locks, actually.” He then knocked on the door in the classic shave and a haircut, two bits and then shouted, “Hey Moe!” The first lock opened.

Plas continued. “Why I oughta…” The second lock opened. “HEEYYY Abbott!” he shouted and the third lock gave way. “I’m sorry, Ollie,” he said as he scratched the top of his head, which seemed to open the forth lock. Then he stood there, staring at the final lock.

“Well don’t stop now,” Zee said anxiously.

“Actually, I need your help with the last one.”

“Okay, what do I need to do?”

“It’s kind of long…”

“Let’s just do it!” she exclaimed, frustration coming through in her voice.

Plas shrugged. “Who’s on first?”

Zatanna’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re kidding?”

“Who’s on first?” Eel insisted.

With a heavy sigh, she began the final ritual, the final routine.

Five minutes later they uttered the last words together, “THIRD BASE!” and the final lock clicked open.

They entered the room to find nothing more than a small table with a few items on it; none of which Zatanna recognized.

“This one,” he said, as he handed her an item that was shaped much like a flashlight, “he told me that he took this from a Sorceress with great power. He said when I felt the time was right, that you should have it.”

Zatanna looked over the magical piece. What was she supposed to do with this?

Epilogue

Her name is Tamara and she is the half sister of Zatanna Zatara. She infiltrated her sister’s world by joining the organization called The Royal Flush Gang, as the Ten of Spades. Her goal was to get close to the sister she had never known, to acquire her sister’s power, a power so unlike her own.

As Tamara sat in her high back chair she felt the rush of foreign magic cover her world. The magic of the two sisters had finally joined in one world, a world that was slowing transforming into the movie motif spell that had started the entire journey.

She watched as the colors in her world became brighter and more vivid, her outfit shifted and changed, resembling that of a dark queen from a Walt Disney movie of so long ago. They would call it a classic on her sister’s world, a love story about a sleeping princess.

A cheerful little bluebird came flying into her window and landed on her shoulder. She smiled at it sweetly and held out her hand. It came to her instantly, chirping away with its own style of song.

Then, her hand closed around it as she cast a spell; the bluebird went up in a burst of flames, and then was gone.

“Welcome to my home, dear sister,” Tamara whispered to herself. “I guarantee you this movie does not end happily ever after… ”