I week later…

It had happened a few days ago. Zatanna had plucked out a businessman from the audience who apparently resented being shrunk in front of his work colleagues. Now she was out of a job and temporarily working as a fortune teller on the street. Men. Occasionally she entertained a fantasy of using an ultra-powerful spell to obliterate the offending gender but then belatedly she had realised that women weren't all that great either.

To amuse herself, Zatanna made the cards shuffle themselves randomly. A passer-by stopped and swiftly sat down on the three-legged chair in front of her. He was handsome, scowling slightly and dressed in the finest of all suits. He was…

"Bruce" she said, pleased.

"Zatanna" replied Batman. He cast a look at the rickety table and hand-painted sign that was non sequitor in the Wayne –funded Justice League "What is this anyway?"

Without waiting for a reply, he pressed on "I've received from multiple sources that something suspicious is happening in Luthor's Labs. I want you to open a portal into one of them so I can take a closer look at what game he's playing"

Zatanna felt a momentary spasm of annoyance. He only ever saw her anymore when he wanted something magical done. It was becoming increasingly impossible to envisage that they had been friends: people who enjoyed each other's company. Once, she had even had a crush on him. But anyway. Duty was duty- right?

"Come with me" she said. Beckoning, she led him silently down a string of alleyways until she found a place where she could safely use magic.

Swirling with spectrums of sparks, Zatanna flicked her wand "Namtab rof latrop a" she intoned and suddenly they were in the most creepy place she and ever seen.

"Impressive as ever" said Batman with a miniscule hint of admiration in his deep voice. The room was clean; all the surfaces reflecting and distorting the duo horribly in the dim light. Test tubes containing macabre creations were lined up on the tables. A plane went past and Zatanna found herself shivering.

"You're cold?" said Bruce "Here, take my cloak"

He wrapped it around her shoulders seemingly without any notion of the connotations of what he had just done. Resuming his examination, he made some typical Batman gestures; a swab sample here, a gruff 'hmm' there.

Truthfully, Zatanna didn't know where to look. She had never been suited to this detective stuff, so she self-consciously tried to scan the room without seeing one of her reflections. Maybe the reason she hated them was because of an accident when experimenting with magic one day- a long time ago. Attempting to make an illusion of herself had been taxing work, so she was so proud when she had managed to conjure up a copy. At least, she thought it had been; the mischievous blue eyes and quirky grin had been mirror-perfect. Yet a closer look revealed wrinkles, warts, drips of drool, a stooped spine and white streaks in the recalcitrant curly black hair. This is what I'll be when magic isn't enough she had thought, panicked. Oh god.

"Oh god" Batman said. Zatanna crossed the room to look over his shoulder; he rarely commented on his findings. He was tapping a few keys on one of the portable. Quickly, he jammed the 'Power Off' key, just as a well-built, vaguely familiar figure slid into sight.

Batman flung a missile at the 'Door Shut' button in front of where the figure was walking. It missed, kindling a moderate explosion underneath. The figure walked even faster near the room. Zatanna flicked her wand and the door shut.

"Who was t-"

"Run"

So they did, down the infinitely long laboratory. A loud crash sounded behind them: evidently the door had been forced open. Clutching her wand to her chest, Zatanna scooted round the stools that seemed to be strategically placed to hinder her progress.

"Finally" muttered Batman; he seized her round the waist and launched them out solitary window. It was an exhilarating feeling, even if their lives and relationships with the law were on the wrong side of good. Zatanna could fly, but usually found it too ostentatious to do so. Right now she didn't care, it was amazing spinning through the night sky…

"Bruce. Zatanna"

Wonder Woman was on a parapet, within swinging distance. Batman shot another rope onto the wall next to her, causing them to swing upwards á la George of the Jungle. He jumped neatly onto the ledge, landing on his feet (show off, Zatanna remarked internally) whilst she stumbled, only just landing on the ledge.

"Diana" replied Bruce.

"What brings you here?" she asked, smiling. It waned instantaneously as she spotted Batman's cloak encircling Zatanna's shoulders.

"We were just investigating. Bruce, errrm, Batman needed some magical help" Zatanna explained, her kinder side wishing to reassure Wonder Woman about her (non-existent) romantic relationship with Bruce. She tugged off the cape, handing it back to Batman. The chill struck her immediately; it was cold enough to knock someone off the periphery of the building.

"Standard investigating. Nothing serious" Batman filled. Without a further word, he nodded at them both and disappeared, congealing into shadows as only he could do.

Wonder Woman gave Zatanna a tiny smile. "I'd better be off. There's some wildfire" Without further ado, she flew up into the cloud-strewn night sky.

"Super" Zatanna said aloud "Now how am I meant to get down?"

Later, she returned to her makeshift stall to find every piece of it had been stolen ('who would want all that crap?' she wondered briefly). Yet she had started to slot the puzzle pieces of her idiosyncratic expedition into place; the dark figure, the test tubes, resulting in a jigsaw so horrifying, it was impossible to feel worried about a splintered second-hand table.

Authors Note: I hope you like the story- I'll be updating it nearly every night. A lot of romantic and humorous scenes are buzzing round my mind so I still have plenty of steam. For every review I get, I'll add an extra piece of it to the main story. Justice League forever!