The latest target was a more public place than the magic store. It was bigger too, so one man searching the place was out. A team was needed.

Brother Amadeus wasn't fond of situations like this. The area he had to search was too big for one man to cover in one night. He could do it, but the longer he was exposed, the higher the chance he would be spotted and have to take countermeasures. Countermeasures usually left unwanted evidence behind and that was something he simply did not do. Ultimately, it meant he lacked control of the situation. For someone that considered himself good at his job, he was forced to rethink things.

Of all the places he had to go, the San Francisco Zoo was a logistics nightmare. Not only were there people, there were animals and zoo keepers and security waiting around every damn corner. That increased the level of difficulty. That wasn't to say he couldn't do the job, but everything was harder.

So he had to spread out his team, opting for pairs to reduce suspicion. Gone were the robes and regular clothes adorn him and his men, so instead of suspicious men on a job, they were merely zoo customers perusing the unique animals. To him, it was common sense to do so. For whatever reason, these Bat Worshipers seemed to want to flaunt their robes, wearing them proudly in public. It was like they wanted to be caught.

It explained why he had been summoned here to begin with.

The sun was setting now, so it was just a matter of time before the zoo announced it was closing time and for everyone to leave. He was counting on that. It hadn't taken him long to find the place he was after: the reptile exhibit. Currently he was standing in front of a cage with some tired looking monkeys when—

"ATTENTION ALL ZOO ATTENDEES. THE ZOO WILL BE CLOSING SOON. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST EXIT. THANK YOU."

Finally. Glancing around, Amadeus saw the people around here were beginning to start heading to the exits. He went the other way, instead circling around the monkey cage and heading towards the reptile exhibit. He wasn't going in just yet, but there was a blind spot on the side of the building that put him out of sight of most of the people here—and just as importantly, the security cameras. There was a wooden fence that extended out from the building, blocking off further access. Sticking out of the fence at one point was a lock hanging from a metal hinge, indicating there was a door.

Amadeus looked around him to make sure he wasn't being watched before he jumped up, his hands grabbing onto the top of the fence. He could feel the rough top of the planks digging into his palms. One foot pressing against the wooden planks and then the other, he climbed over the fence, dropping down onto the other side. Now he was fully out of sight.

Walking, he followed the brick wall next to him and turned the corner where it ended, arriving at the back of the exhibit. There was a door a short distance away and he positioned himself right next to it. He'd wait a little longer before entering.

That was when two men appeared around the other corner. Both paused at the sight of him, but then walked right up to the man, stopping on the opposite side of the door. "Greetings, Brother," they murmured.

"Just the two of you?" Amadeus questioned.

"The others are coming," one of them informed him. "I did see a few of our brothers get swept up by the crowd."

Amadeus would have been upset had he not expected something like this. It was why he brought so many men with him in the first place. There was always the chance not everyone was going to reach this point, so bringing a larger number increased the chances more would arrive as planned. Conversely, that also increased the chance of more not making it. As long as they had a couple more men though, they would be fine. If they had all of them, it would've been a bonus. It always paid to be prepared.

Fortunately, two more of their brothers showed, which was acceptable. The sun was nearly set, allowing the area to darken. Lights from the towering light poles mitigated it though, providing some lighting.

Suddenly, the door to the reptile exhibit opened. Two zoo employees came out, seemingly oblivious to the men waiting nearby. One walked straight ahead, not even looking around. The second, however, came a stop as he spied one of Amadeus' men out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" the man demanded, causing the first one to stop and turn. "You're not—"

Suddenly, Amadeus was behind the second man, shoving a rag soaked in chloroform onto his face as he reached around his head. Immediately, the man began to thrash, trying to fight back, but the chloroform was overpowering, the zoo employee slowly going limp before he slumped to the ground. Looking to the first employee, Amadeus saw his other men had done the same, restraining him and shoving another chloroform rag in their face.

Even better, one last man had gotten the door, keeping it wide open. Seeing as there wasn't any more reason to wait for the others to arrive, Amadeus made the executive decision to proceed with their plan with the men present. "Bring them in," he commanded, allowing the rest of his crew to drag the unconscious employees back into the building.

Almost immediately they were in a room with plexiglass cases. Many were empty, but there were a few that were occupied with snakes and lizards in them. As his men placed the subdued employees on the floor just out of the way of the doorway, one went to the door and closed it, locking it, and then placing himself right next to the door. He was effectively their lookout.

"Everyone spread out," Amadeus ordered, making sure to keep his voice low. There could very well be other employees here and he didn't want to alert them to their presence if he had to. This exhibit required that the cages be well maintained, so that the animals didn't get out unexpectedly. That required staff to be present to ensure no unexpected escapes occurred. An encounter with the wrong reptile could result in an ugly death. Cautiously, his remaining men moved out as well as he, searching for one reptile specifically.

Counters were all along the walls, along with island counters right in the middle of the room. There were specific areas marked as work stations, whether that be for the cages, or animal care. Towards one side of the room were metal tables, no doubt where they did more intensive care.

Amadeus largely ignored that area. A couple of his men had scouted out the reptile exhibit and told him the target had not been on display, so there was no point in going to the cages. It had to be here among the plexiglass containers.

What they were specifically looking for was a snake, a rare one at that. That allowed him to pass by cases with lizards. There was one snake, but that was a coral snake, its red, yellow, and black bands. The rattle of a rattlesnake could be heard.

Where is it? Where is it? Amadeus repeated in his head. It wasn't until he reached the end of a counter that he finally found it.

The scales were of a muddy red, almost brown color. It was quite plump in comparison to the thinner coral snake. This was the Red Sand Boa, the very snake he was looking for. Now, while the initial description didn't seem all that special, this Boa was indeed unique. Unlike the other snakes, this one had a head on either end of its body, making it a two-headed snake.

"I've got it," Amadeus announced. Now all he needed to do was secure the cage—

"You know, that doesn't belong to you."

His head jerked up. Whipping around, he found a woman leaning up against a wall, arms crossed across her chest. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders as she stared intently at him. She was not dressed in the zoo uniform, so she couldn't have been an employee. Was she a visitor that had followed them in here? She was dressed like one, but Amadeus found that possibility suspect as well. Why would she follow them in instead of alerting a zoo employee? That was the more reasonable choice when compared to a confrontation.

"Mind telling me what you want with a snake?" she asked him directly, her gaze never once wavering. "Also, why? Isn't there anything you can use that doesn't require a creepy-crawly?"

Amadeus narrowed his eyes. The way she talked, it was as if she knew what they were up to, which could not be possible. Malikyte had assured him no one was aware of their activities. Regardless, she was going to regret speaking up. Clearly Malikyte was unaware of what others outside his faction knew, and those with knowledge of them needed to be silenced. Without staying a word, he stormed over to her, pulling out his chloroform rag. This would be short and simple.

In response, the dark-haired woman pushed off from the wall and moved to stand in the walkway made by the wall and the island counters. This didn't alter Amadeus' intent as he reached out with his empty hand—

Suddenly, the woman shot her own hand up, grabbing him by the wrist of his extended arm. With a jerk, she twisted his wrist, causing pain to shoot up his arm and Amadeus to hiss as his body turned to relieve the pain.

Quickly, he shoved the rag towards the woman's face. What happened next, he wasn't quite sure. One moment he was on his feet, the next his entire world was flipping end over end until he landed hard on his back. Eyes blinking, he couldn't figure out why he was now looking up at the ceiling.

What the hell just happened?

Thank you, Ms. Hogie.

Zatanna stared down at the man lying on the floor. He looked quite bewildered as he lay there. Clearly he had some questions. The top one probably was what had just happened.

After the visit to the cemetery, Madame Xanadu had received a call from some guy she knew. Apparently he had been some magic store owner and he had told the fortune teller he had a break-in. Zatanna wasn't sure why he needed to call Nimue about that until her mentor told her it was standard practice. Not too many people robbed stores that housed magical items, so the magic community always informed others of such attempts. That way everyone could keep an eye open for any mystical artifacts running around on the streets, or black markets. It was never a good idea to have such things running around where people without knowledge of their power could be affected.

Disturbingly, Zatanna wasn't told what people could be affected with.

Nimue had then promptly used her crystal ball to try and figure out who the culprits were and had a vision of a pending robbery at a zoo. Zatanna was the first to admit she had no idea why that was relevant, only that the perpetrator of the magic store heist would be there. So she had been sent out to stop, if not apprehend him.

Why she had to be the one to do that, she didn't know. She was more inclined to call the cops, but Nimue had been adamant they not involve them.

Looking down at her attacker, he laid on the floor with blinking eyes. Clearly he was confused by how he had ended up on his back. While he had seen her grab his wrist—and promptly twist it—he missed how she used her shoulder to leverage him off the floor and flip him through the air to land on his back. That he was still awake meant this wasn't over just yet, but she was confident she could handle him.

"What the hell?" another voice called out, causing Zatanna to whip her head around. A couple of guys in normal clothes were staring at her—of course there were more men here. It couldn't have just been the one thief.

It would have been too easy otherwise.

Moving away from the fallen man, she placed herself a few feet away so that she could look to the new guys without the first guy trying something fast. "Now I know what you're thinking," she said glibly. "What's a girl like me doing in a place like this? And the answer to that...might surprise you."

"Take her down!" the fallen man snarled.

Apparently that one was their leader, or he had no showmanship in him. Either way, it caused the two new guys to start at her. Now, Zatanna was confident that she could take the two of them with her self-defense moves. However, she had a couple new ones and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to use them.

Gathering up her mystical energies, she felt her stomach warm up, her body loosening as the power flowed into her arms and into her hands. Staring the charging men down, she held both of her hands up, then lowered them slightly where they aimed at stomping feet. "Llaf ot eht roolf," she commanded, unleashing her power.

Suddenly, both men tripped, their feet slipping right out from underneath them. Comical looks appeared on their faces as they fell, landing hard on their stomachs.

Ha! That worked! There was a brief moment Zatanna felt drained, the magic she used leaving her upon her spell, but that went away as she recovered. Now what could she do next?

There was a grunt and Zatanna found herself looking towards the leader. He was back on his feet, glaring right at her. He still clutched at a rag, one he had tried to shove into her face moments ago. No doubt that had something on it to knock her out, just like those two zoo employees lying by the door. Instinctively, she waved a hand, a finger pointing out momentarily as she summoned up some more magic. "Llaf kcab ot eht roolf."

The man's legs suddenly shot up in front of him and his eyes widened as he fell back to the floor, again on his back. However, the other two men were pushing themselves back up, so she couldn't keep her attention on the solo guy.

Calling upon more power, she forced it towards the couple. "Og ot peels." For a moment, the two men froze, then their eyes rolled back into their heads. They slumped back to the floor unconscious.

Suddenly, there was a loud shattering sound. Jerking her head, Zatanna found another couple men, one of which had broken the glass to one of the...well, glass cages on the counters. Reaching into it, he then pulled out a rather colorful snake, one he sent flying through the air as he threw it at her.

This time, the dark-haired woman widened her eyes before she ducked the flying reptile, sliding towards the two unconscious men as she turned to follow the snake, seeing it bounce off the corner of a counter and then land on the floor. Though it plopped there, it didn't take it more than a second or two to raise its head up a few inches into the air, staring at her with a forked tongue wiggling at her.

Okay, Zatanna wasn't sure what snake that was, or more importantly if it was venomous. She wasn't really willing to find out the hard way, so she kept her distance. As long as—

There was another shattering sound. Oh great, those goons were breaking another case. Like hell was she was going to let them keep throwing snakes at her. Eventually, one would hit her, or worse, bite her. That wasn't going to happen on her watch. Thrusting a hand up towards the two men, her face went hard as her eyes flared with anger. "Ylf yawa!"

Suddenly, the two men were launched off of the floor, flying through the air until they crashed into a wall. Each man cried out before they fell down, hitting the counter and bouncing off of it and onto the floor. One man disappeared behind a table, which caused her to move so that she could see him. Once she had a good look, she could see he was holding a large brown snake, one that was trying to slither out of his grasp and was beginning to succeed.

Suddenly, something hit her against the side of her head. "What the!" she yelped out as she jerked her head to that side. Whatever had hit her was light and it dropped, spilling over her shoulder. Instinctively, she reached out to grab it, finding it to be the white cloth…

Immediately, she looked to the first guy she had encountered and found him back on his feet. At least he was when she first saw him. He had one hand planted on a table and was using that to vault himself up into the air as he jumped. One one foot, he lashed out with it, landing a kick to her shoulder that caused her to cry out, sending her stumbling backwards and then falling to the ground.

Owwwww, Zatanna groaned internally. That was going to leave a mark, but not where you would expect it. She had managed to land right on her butt, more specifically her tailbone and that was throbbing right now. That was going to take awhile to heal.

Of course, she was in a rather compromising situation now. Her attacker no doubt would be wanting to press his advantage. As she looked to him, Zatanna was surprised to find the guy not only not attacking her, but he was running away, heading right for the door to this place.

Well, that was...strange. People didn't run away from her, usually it was the other way. Now there was this one time a guy had, but that had been…

Zatanna quickly turned her head around, seeing no one behind her. That was disappointing, but for an entirely different reason. Well, she couldn't let this guy get away so easily. Climbing back onto her feet, she went after the guy, though making sure to give the colorful, loose snake a wide berth as she did so. Even she had to respect nature in its deadly ways.

As she reached the door, however, a feeling began to grow in her. It was what she liked to call her woman's intuition and it had never failed her before. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. Because of this, she began to slow her pace, coming to a stop as she moved into the doorway, then took a step back.

As it turned out, that was her best move ever. There was a loud BANG! and a hole appeared in the open door. Gyah! Guns! Bullets! Her only weakness!

Spinning to one side, Zatanna pressed her back against the wall next to the door. Of course these guys would be armed. Why rob a place without packing some heat? They couldn't be considerate and be unarmed just for her. That would be too nice of them.

Unfortunately, she couldn't just sit here and let the gunman have another shot at her. He would get tired of waiting for her to poke her head back out and blow it up like a grapefruit. She needed to act sooner rather than later.

Looking around her, her eyes immediately went to the little snake that had been thrown at her. It stood out because of its colors, but mainly because it was slithering towards her. She couldn't help the "Eek!" that popped out of her mouth, along with jerking away as far as she could go. That didn't stop the little creature as it seemed to be exploring its bigger world.

That's when a rather uncomfortable thought struck her. If she was trying to keep away from the snake, the same would go for these guys, right? If she got her hands on one of the snakes, she could throw it herself and scare the gunman off. Of course, that meant she would have to pick one of them up.

God she hated that idea.

Unfortunately, she couldn't think of any other idea. Eyeing the slithering snake, she couldn't help but gulp. Please don't get bit, she chanted in her head. Don't get bit. Don't get bit.

Creeping around the snake, she kept her eyes firmly locked on it. For a moment, she stumbled and Zantanna felt incredibly tired. Where the hell had that come from? One moment she was fine, the next she wanted to take a long, hard nap. Naturally it had to come at a very inopportune time, when she would have preferred having all of her faculties alert.

However, she vaguely recalled this feeling. She had felt it numerous times in the last week or so. It was the same way she felt when she had been training in magic. Casting spells drained her like nothing she had felt before. She was building her endurance, but she still felt winded, as if she couldn't catch her breath. She felt the same way now.

Perfect, she was just at her limit for spell enchantments. Ugh.

Zatanna would have preferred to take a moment to shake off the daze from the magical fatigue she felt, but she heard the sound of approaching footstep, crunching dirt and gravel against cement. The gunman was starting to make his move, naturally. She was officially out of time.

Eyeballing the snake again, it had fortunately begun turning away from her, so she was out of its direct line of sight. Taking a cautious step and then another, she crept to the snake, slowly lowering herself. With a trembling hand, she reached out towards it.

For an instant, her eyes flickered away from the snake and towards the door. She could see a shadow through the doorway and it was growing bigger. Panic set in and she looked right back at the snake. Without further thought, she lunged, her hand grabbing the snake around its neck...err, long body? Did snakes even have necks? Whatever, the important part was that she had her grip just below the snake's head so that it couldn't easily bite her.

Step one: complete. Jerking her head back up, Zatanna saw the shadow had just about covered the opened door, the barrel of the gun beginning to menacingly poke around the door frame. Without any more thinking, Zatanna whipped the snake towards the door, throwing it through the air.

Then she promptly took cover around one of the tables. There was a shout, followed just as quickly by a gunshot. A second and third one followed soon after. Damn, she hadn't taken the gun into account. Of course the gunman would blow the snake away damn near immediately.

It was time to make a quick escape. A wave of dizziness reared its head naturally and Zatanna felt lightheaded. Gah! This was so not the time for that! Mustering up her magical energies, even as her body began to sway back and forth, she then spoke, "Ekat em yawa morf ereh."

In an instant, the room she was in changed before her eyes. Gone were the tables and counters and cages and snakes and in their place was what was best described as a safari. Blinking her eyes owlishly, the dark-haired woman looked to her left and then her right, finally spotting a large sign with different animals painted onto it. There was a giraffe and a rhino and an elephant and...and…

Zatanna stumbled, somehow bumping right into a bench. One hand grabbing tightly onto the back of it, she used it to spin herself around and collapse onto the seating, letting out a large sigh.

Her lightheadedness had gotten worse. God, make it stop. The place wasn't spinning, but she felt that the moment she lifted her feet from the ground, it would do just that. Eyes fluttering open and closed repeatedly, Zatanna waited and rested until the feeling began to subside.

That...that had been the first time she had used magic in a combat situation. It had gone well, she supposed, what with her taking out quite a few of those weird robbers. Yet, she hadn't counted on the magical fatigue to kick in and right at a really bad moment. Of course with her luck, that was the only time it could have happened.

Clearly she needed to get stronger. Tonight already marked the longest she could go using magic without tiring, though taking into consideration the high stakes involved, that could have been the adrenaline helping out and then sputtering out in time for the magical fatigue to settle in.

Questions had been raised though. These were apparently the same guys that had dug up a grave from a cemetery and then hit up a magic supply store. So why did they go to a zoo, specifically where the snakes were being held? She wasn't knowledgeable enough to get the meaning for it.

Perhaps Nimue would know? What was she thinking, of course she knew. Resting her eyes for a moment, when Zatanna opened them she saw she was in the habitat for the bigger animals. She wasn't sure why she teleported here, but at least it was a safe place for her to depart back to the fortune teller parlor. The safari exhibits were on the other side of the zoo, so those robbers wouldn't be anywhere near her for now. If she was them, she would be trying to get out of the zoo as well. A close encounter with being caught? Why hang around?

She just needed a few more seconds. She'd hit the metaphorical snooze button for a little while longer to get over this fatigue. Just five more minutes was all she needed.

She would think that six more times before leaving.