A Blast To The Past
A Fanfic By Kid Zatanna
This fanfic uses charicters owned by DC Comics and other companys and therefore is ONLY for entertainment, not sale. The persons and events depicted here are fictional, not real. (Darn it)
I had been thinking about this story for some years after reading a World's Finest story where Zatanna had an adventure that reminded me of a certain detective. Checking some other storys in the DC comics along with other sources, I was able to make a connection between the two and said "Why not?" I think it makes scence.
I'm not sure where this would go in the COMICS section, but since I intend to incorporate elements from the JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (As well as the old Superfriends) cartoons later, I suppose it'll fit here in CARTOONS. If you guess the identity of Zee's new friend before the "big finnish", please pretend it's a surprise.
UPDATE: I had to change the date from Oct. 15th to Oct 23 because the detective who will appier in the next chapter was woking on a case on the 13th and several days after that.
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Being a superhero (Or superheroine) has a lot of perks, but it also carries a lot of resonsibility. It's not just the duty to the community and your peers, you must also keep yourself and your powers/talents/equipment in top form and keep up with the latest developments, techniques and news. Plus, you have the same obligations as "normal people", that is, paying bills and keeping your homelife in order. Only a few supers could do this and others have all but abandoned the duel identity lifestyle, turning their "hobby" into a carreer. Only a few are lucky enough to have powers that they could apply to a PAYING job.
For instance, there was John Zatara, a stage magician who had discovered that he could wield REAL magic and fought crime, spies and magical beings. Later in his life, he was forced to leave his home world and settle in another dimention that was simular to his own. So alike were the two worlds, they had to be designated "Earth One" and "Earth Two" for convienient refrence. It was on the former Earth that he met and married Sindella, a wonderful Magi who gave birth to a girl they named "Zatanna".
Zatanna was a delight to her parents, but because of their past, they had to keep the truth from her. John and Sindella lived as "normal" people and Zatanna was brought up to think that magic was nothing more than the tricks her parents performed for the amusement of others.
But sometimes things happened.
Sometimes things happened that made the girl suspect that there was more to that thing we call "reality".
John and Sindella had tried to protect their daughter from the evils that had forced John to leave the world of his birth, but they could not hide forever and Sindella was forced to leave her loveing family. Later, John himself had to hide from his daughter for fear of BOTH their lives! But he had left clues to her heritage that alowed Zatanna to learn the truth that had been hidden from her for so long. And she used that new-found knowlege to rescue her father, makeing friends with some of the greatest heros and heroines on Earth along the way and eventualy, she joined their ranks to battle with her friends against those who would steal property, lives and even, SOULS.
Few people connected the charming magician who performed on stage with the magic-wielding heroine who battled alongside such luminaries as Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. Those who did, flocked to her shows and left in wonder, unable to decide if she had presented slight-of-hand or REAL magic for their entertainment!
Zatanna!
Mistress Of magic!
Princess Of Prestadigatation!
The weekly JLA meeting had not taken long and Zee had begged off joining the usual after-meeting social period so that she could return to her home and experiment with a device she had aquired late last year.
"Seldnac thgil."
Blue-green eyes roamed around the 11x11 foot room. On the floor was a pentagram made of white and indigo blue tiles. On the cyprus paneled walls were shelves holding books, notes and a few items, some of these items were magic, some had other purposes. This was her "Safe Room", a place that had been re-inforced by materials and magic to withstand and contain any "accidents" that might occur. It was here that Zatanna practiced certain spells or examined and tested newly-aquired magic items.
Tonight she would try something new on a full-leingth floor mirror. The mirror had been willed to her by a witch named "Connie Corning" who had disappiered while flying her airplane through the Bermuda Triangle and except for the mahogany frame, lead crystal glass and sterling silver back, the mirror seemed rather ordinary. However, Connie had discribed to Zee a curious feature of the artifact: the user not only had the ability to view far away places, but could teleport to those places as well! Since the witch's disappierance, Zatanna had spent several sessions with her aquisistion, discovering it's secrets.
Zatanna knelt in the center of the pentagram, adjusted her white cape, raised her arms and softly muttered the spell that activated the mirror. The reflection in the glass twisted and melted into random patterns of shapes and colors. The sorceress watched for a moment then nodded, satisfied that the mirror had been activated properly. Zee then raised her hands again, two fingers and a thumb extended from each.
"Elcaro rorrim wohs em eht tsap," The image started to take on a diffrent pattern and Zatanna pressed her fingers and thumbs together. "Rorrim sucof. Wohs em senecs fo eht Taerg Noisserped!"
Her hands fell into her lap as the mirror became a window on the past. Oddly enough, the scenes in the mirror looked like something you would see in a low-budget movie or TV show; they looked like stock footage shown with a ripple-filter super-imposed over it. The young heroine had to smile with amusement, because this was in fact, EXACTLY the way things looked through a scrying device!
She watched as the soundless views changed randomly and frowned. As with an earlier experiment, her spell had been too vague, the mirror was selecting images from diffrent places and times, sometimes showing events that had occured late in the Thirties before showing those that happened in earlier years. Zee raised her hands again and moved them as she spoke, altering the scenes in the mirror, but still they would change after a few seconds. She would have to stableise the images so that she could view them at her liesure and bring forth only those SHE chose to see. Takeing in a long breath, Zatanna touched the "red bug" in her hair "for luck" (Although it had no REAL power) before letting her breath out slowly as she spoke another command.
"Ezielbats egami. Dloh no enecs,"
The picture lingered on a view of a hallway in some large building where people were going about their business. Satisfied that it would not shift, Zatanna watched for a moment. Zee liked to see how people in the past lived their lives more than she did the "big and important" events because this gave her a better feel of what life was like before she was born. She had once read a reprint of a Sears Robuck mail-order catalog in which a modern columnist wrote in the introduction about how diffrent we would view Elisibethan England or Imperial Rome if there had been a mail-order catalog from those times for us to view the common, everyday objects and clotheing they used and wore. Zee could not have agreed more and that was just part of why she was working so intently now.
Now to see if she could control the images.
"Weiv egnahc, wohs em... Annaidni no... Rebotco 32, 3391."
Again the scene faded out and faded back in. Once again, the views were changeing randomly as before to show the soceress the day in question. Zee commanded the mirror to zoom in and focus on a calender, the days had been helpfully marked off by someone and confirmed that she had the proper day and year. Zee spoke again and was shown ten second views of the town where the calender was located, each scene shown occurring a half hour after the last, starting before sunrise.
Zatanna continued to watch the olden times unfold before her, enjoying the sight of the strange clothes, cars and landscape. Connie had not mentioned ever haveing sound with the sights, but perhaps Zatanna could fix that. But for now, she was content to watch. In fact, she was watching TOO closely...
The magician was slammed to one side, feeling as if she had been hit by an electric shock! She struggled to her hands and knees with a groan and heard a man's voice.
"Damn! I thought that blast would render you unconcious! Ah well, 'try, try again' and all that. RESTIUM VORLA!"
Zee managed to roll out of the magic bolt's path just in time. The bolt crackled across the pentagram, revieling that it had taken much of the first blast and saved her from the attack. Getting into a half-crouch, Zatanna confronted her attacker.
"Felix Faust!" she snarled. "How DARE you break into my home and attack me!"
"Simply because you have something I want," he stated, nodding towards the oracle mirror. "And unfortunatly, you would try to stop me. Now let's not---"
"Yticirtcele ekirts Tsuaf!"
The bolt lept from the woman's hand, arching toward her foe. But Felix raised his amulet as she began to speak and the blast was deflected, hitting the mirror. Unnoticed by either of the combatants, the image in the glass cleared and came into sharp focus as if it were a window. Or a doorway...
"All that power and still just a stage magician," Faust said mockingly. "Anticipating a confrontation with you, I ordered my amulet to pretect me from your spells. Now why don't you be a good little girl and let me take the mirror? i promass that I will not harm you or your property in any way if you do."
Maybe it was the threat or the "stage magician" crack (Not that there was anything WRONG with her carreer) or being called a "little girl", but Zee was getting mad. Fighting back the impulse to lash out with every spell she knew, Zatanna considered her options. His magic amulet protected him from her magic, so that was out. She could attack him physicly, she DID learn some fighting skills from her adventures, but really didn't have any practical training or experience with hand-to-hand combat. She fenced now and then and there were a few swords in the house, but the room they were in had been designed to prevent magic from entering or leaveing. Nothing could get in or out except through ordinary means, the mirror was the only magical way in or out. Suddenly the solution came to her.
"OK, you crook," she smiled. "If you think you've won, then take it. IF you can!"
"Just watch," he responded, turning the amulet towards the mirror.
"S'tsuaf seohs og pu!"
The supervillian's shoes responded to Zee's command and elevated three feet into the air, bringing the surprised man's FEET with them! As he tried to bring his magic device to bear, the mistress Of Magic spoke again.
"Skoob, sraj, ekirts mih!"
Objects flew from their places on the shelves, slamming into the evil magician. He instinctivly threw up his arms to shield his face and felt a booted foot kick the amulet from his hand. The attack stopped and he lowered his arms to see Zatanna standing over him, smileing as she twirled the magic amulet on it's chain.
"There is one important part of stage magic, sir: MISDIRECTION. You're lucky that I'm the forgiveing type, because I'm not going to hurt you or turn you over to the police. I'm Just going to send you home, allright? But of course, I'll have to keep this little object, you understand, don't you?"
"Of course, in your place, I would do the same," Faust said, shifting his position. "And may I say that you are being most GENEROUS!"
On saying the last wor, the man kicked up into Zee's diaphram, driveing the air from her lungs. The Amulet flew from her fingers, hitting the cieling and landing several feet away. Felix jumped up and grabbed her arm, swinging her around in a full circle. Gasping for air, Zatanna had to run to keep her footing and was flung across the room and INTO THE MIRROR!
The glass shimmered as the magician fell through and returned to a normal-looking reflection when she had fully passed through. At first, Felix was elated by his enamy's defeat, but then he realised that this would work against him.
He knew the propertys of the mirror and knew that it worked both ways; once through the glass, the traveler could use a crystal pendant to return through the mirror. worse, Zatanna had her own means to travel and teleport. Once she regained her breath, she would return anytime, any place she wished. Even now she might be plotting an ambush! Faust decided that he had to get out of this place and make other plans.
Trotting through the halls, Faust entered the liveing room of the old-fashioned house. Here he invoked the spell he had intended to use when he obtained the Oracle Mirror, but this time, it took him back home empty-handed.
Felix was not a coward, but this time he had been too cautious. Had he known where Zatanna had ended up and what awaited her there, he would not only taken Connie's mirror, but he would have looted her home of all it's valuables at his lesure. Fortunatly for Zatanna (and those who would have had to face Felix Faust) it was too late for him to change his mind.
CONTINUED.