"Finally caught you!" Clark exclaimed as he caught up to Zatanna before first period.
"Clark, hey," Zatanna said, turning around smiling at the incredibly cute farm boy. Clark give Zatanna a thousand watt smile, and Zatanna nearly swooned again. Yeah, John was nice and all that but Clark...Clark was completely out of this world. "How are you?" Zatanna asked, dropping her voice a few octaves. Her entire posture changed to a flirtier, slightly more suggestive pose, which she knew was unnecessary because while under her spell, Clark wouldn't fall for any other girl anyway. And with Lois in Metropolis University as of a week ago, Zatanna's chances at nabbing Clark for herself were that much better.
"I'm good, thanks. A little sleepy, maybe. But good. Football practice has me kinda beat," Clark said as he started walking to first period, alongside Zatanna.
"Really? And here I thought a big, strong farm boy like yourself wouldn't get so tired after a few grueling hours out on the field," Zatanna said coyly as she played with a lock of hair from her slick ponytail. "Maybe a nice, luxurious massage would help?"
Clark smiled. "Maybe. But hey, seriously, I wanted to set a date with you...for, you know, our date. I was thinking maybe tomorrow night? There's this great Italian place I know of that I think you might enjoy."
"I love Italian!" Zatanna exclaimed. "That would be perfect. Pick me up at about seven-ish?"
"Seven-thirty?"
"Works well enough for me."
Lois Lane wanted out of Metropolis University. Ironic, really, given how hard she had tried to get into the school in the first place. She didn't mind the place as much as she minded the workload. In just a week, she had racked up four papers she had to write – five pages each – two big tests, and she was already behind on some classes. Not surprising, given that she had started school two weeks late, but honestly, did they have to give out homework starting from the first day of school?
Lois cursed as she slammed a pile of books, her own text books along with some research materials from the university library, onto a table in the far corner of the library. All she wanted at that moment was a cigarette. Or Clark Kent. No, scratch that. Just a cigarette. And Clark Kent.
'Calm down, Lane,' Lois told herself mentally. 'That boy is Chloe's big love.'
In the back of her mind, she started to form the thought that even though he was Chloe's big love, he wasn't Chloe's boyfriend, which made him ripe and well for the picking. Ashamed that she would even consider taking away the guy Chloe had such a mad on for, Lois shook her head free of her thoughts and instead picked up an issue of the National Inquirer, this one with a front page story about a mysterious blonde boy who controls the waters off the coast of Florida. Lois took one look at the somewhat blurry photograph of the boy, who seemed to be only a year or so younger than herself, decided that he was semi-cute, and then set the paper back down. She had more important things to worry about than boys who could control the water, such as girls who could make their cars grow.
Lois stood up from her seat and stretched, her mind still stuck all the way back in Smallville. She couldn't help it. Lois knew what she had seen, and the thought of Zatanna being in that town with Chloe, Clark, and the others worried her to no end. Maybe it hadn't been too prudent of her to move to Metropolis University so soon.
Speaking of prudent, maybe it was time that she get up and do some research on magic on her own, figure out who or what exactly Zatanna was so that she could expose the girl to Clark, Chloe, and the others.
Chloe was right, Lois realized with dismay as she pushed herself away from her corner table and headed to the section on witchcraft. Once you started investigative reporting, it got downright addictive.
Lois browsed through the books on the shelves, horrified at the amount of books there were on the subject. There was no way in hell that she was going to be able to go through every one of them. She looked at the titles carefully and chose a few that seemed more than likely to have the information that she sought. She picked up "Gadsby's Compendium", "The Codex of St. Aure", and "Magic, Magick, and Majiks: A History of the M-Word." The books, all three of them huge and seemingly unused for god knows how many years, were large, heavy, and dusty. Lois rolled her eyes at the cliché as she quietly walked back to her seat, narrowly avoiding a trio of five-year-olds hiding from their mother.
About an hour or so later, Lois felt like screaming her head off. Neither the compendium nor the codex were much help to her, though she supposed that it shouldn't have been so surprising. After all, the people who wrote those books were men with PhD's. They were about as likely to believe in real magic as Lois was likely to believe that a man could literally defy gravity and fly wherever he may please.
She hesitantly opened the third book, and her sensual brown eyes widened as she flipped through it, finding a chapter labeled "Homo Magi – Magical Humans?" Lois read the chapter in amazement, not quite believing her eyes.
"Human beings evolved into distinct lines back in the early days of man. The majority of humans become Homo sapiens, while a smaller line of humans became a race we call the homo magi. These people, the homo magi, look just like any other homo sapien, the only difference being that these beings are imbued with sensitivity to magick. The homo magi were the ones responsible for building Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria. They were also the first dominant society in recorded history, tens of thousands of years ago.
Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria were powerful island city-states much like the fabled Themyscira, and were the trio of the power centers belonging to the homo magi. When the city-states fell from power and sank beneath the sea, the remaining homo magi settled into pocket cities such as Bete Noire, and other such cities, including a major one just on the outskirts of Turkey. They called themselves the Hidden Ones, and stayed away from the affairs of homo sapiens for an untold number of centuries."
The chapter went on to state the characteristics of homo magi, and it began to slowly dawn on Lois that she was really on to something here.
Zatanna wasn't just a mere witch. She was more than that.
She simply wasn't human.
Writer's Note: Just a few quick answers to some of your comments. :-D. I realize that Martha Kent has taken over the Talon this season, but I needed a way for Lana and Zatanna to meet, and so I set the story in a very slightly different alternate universe where Lana still manages the Talon. And, as for the invisible car, well...Zee's a very reckless driver. :-D.
Thanks a lot for your comments and reviews guys, I appreciate it a whole lot. Please keep them coming!