Egypt

"So this is Egypt," Bart Allen said in awe.

"This would be Egypt." Zatanna replied, nodding.

"Never expected to be here in the middle of the school year," Clark added as the trio gazed up at a set of not-so-tiny pyramids.

"So, what now?" Bart asked, already getting restless.

"Mlac nwod," Zatanna whispered quietly. Bart instantly seemed far more relaxed and at ease than Clark had ever seen him in the few days that had spent together earlier that year. "I honestly don't know. The pit-stop we made to Xanadu's before coming to get you revealed practically nothing. Not that she was helpful the first two times anyway. She said something about finding a temple that was attributed to both Khepri and Horus. Our answer would be there."

"Xanadu. What kind of zany name is that?"

"At least he's not named after an insane Simpson," Zatanna replied instantly. She shot Bart a friendly, if slightly flirty, smile to ensure him that she wasn't seriously insulting him. Bart nodded his appreciation and turned back to the pyramids.

After Clark had asked Zatanna to cast a do a quick locater spell, they found that she had no problem at all finding Bart, who had been in Central City when she found him. The two friends had headed off to retrieve Bart, but before they did so they stopped at Xanadu's for a quick chat to see if they could glean any more information from her. All she told them was that they were looking for a certain artifact that belonged to the Egyptian god Khepri. She had also discreetly started flirting with Clark, an action that Zatanna quickly put to rest with a harsh glare.

Departing from there, the duo had sped off to Central City where they found Bart about to steal a priceless artifact from a local museum. While Clark thought it was wrong, Zatanna thought it was a typical thief thing, but the two of them had stopped him long enough to explain what they needed the speedster for. Bart agreed, liking the thought of hanging out with Clark some more, loving the fact that a goddess in fishnets needed his help, and figuring that he might get something priceless from a pyramid somewhere.

And so, the three of them had literally sped off to Egypt in an awkward position that lasted all of a few minutes.

"Where exactly are we gonna find this temple?" Bart asked after a moment of silence.

"I honestly have no clue, Bart," Zatanna replied. "Xan didn't have a picture or anything available. Me, I can't do any locater spells without something, or someone, who has a fair idea of what exactly it is that I'm looking for. But, you know, I was hoping…I've got two extremely handsome men here who can both run really, really fast. If you guys were to, say, run really fast all around Egypt and report back to me here, maybe we'll find our toy surprise." Zatanna smiled coyly and Clark and then very flirtatiously at Bart. Both of them melted under her gaze.

"Sure. I can do that," Clark agreed. "More than happy to do so."

"I'll be back in a flash," Bart also replied. The two young men sped off in opposite directions, leaving Zatanna alone for a few moments to ponder over what to do next. Supposing that neither Clark nor Bart could find the temple they were looking for, Zatanna would need to find a group of witches powerful enough to help her find the temple – or possibly unearth it – something that she knew she couldn't do on her own.

Bart came back first, a wide smile across his handsome features. "I think I found what you're looking for, Z'anna. But it's still in excavation mode. No one's there, though, except for this really creepy hawk-falcon thing that gave me the evil eye."

Zatanna squealed with joy and literally jumped into Bart's arms, hugging him tightly. Bart smiled in pleasure and went to make with the snuggly when Zatanna broke apart. "I hope Clark gets back here soon so we can go and find our artifact thing. I need to bring Lana back as soon as possible."

"Don't worry. He'll be here, like, now," Bart said, pointing out a speeding blue blur. In less than a microsecond, Clark stood in front of both Zatanna and Bart, a little upset.

"I found nothing."

"Bart did. Let's go."

Seconds later, the young powerful trio stood in front of the ruins of what seemed to be a sunken temple.

"What happened to this place?" Zatanna asked, surveying the work of the archaeologists who had been working on the site.

"Sunk down in an earthquake? Who knows...but it's here now, and so are we, so I say our timing is pretty tight." Bart replied, nervously looking around for the insane bird he'd seen earlier.

"Now what do we do?" Clark asked.

"I guess we descend down into the ruins and start looking around. Let's just hope that no archaeologist decides to visit the site while we're playing Indiana Jones." Zatanna said, heading over to a ladder that lay just a few feet away. It looked flimsy, so Zatanna cast a quick strength spell over it before she clambered on down into the ruin. Bart and Clark followed suit, Bart going down first and Clark going down right after.

"Jeez, this is going to be hard to navigate," Zatanna said as she stepped away from the ladder. She surveyed the area around her as she stood with her hands on her hips. Most of the area was just pure rock, though there were some uncovered obelisks and other uncovered recently discovered structures all around her. Most prominent were the two statues – one of Khepri and one of Horus, that were on far ends to the ruin. Near the statue of Khepri was what seemed to be an entrance into a lower area somewhere, though Zatanna was sure that it hadn't been in the original plans for the temple. She'd bet her magical heritage on the thing they were looking for being in there. "Guys," she said, "cave."

Clark turned to look at the cave and then back at Zatanna. "I don't think it looks too safe, Zatanna. It might collapse at any time."

"I can do a protection spell to keep the cave from caving in. I think I can anyway. In any case, you're indestructible and Bart's faster than, well, I wanna say light but I'm not so sure. In any case, we've all got powers of some sort so we should be of the good. You guys coming?" Zatanna asked over her shoulder as she started walking to the caves. Clark immediately followed, as did Bart, albeit a little reluctantly.

"Looks like its waterless water park fun," Bart said as they approached the cave. There were no steps into the entrance, but rather what looked to be a slide to descend into the entrance. A slide strewn with rocks, pebbles, and other nasties. "There's got to be another way in."

"Clark, can you do an x-ray thing? See if you can come up with anything?"

"I'm on it," Clark said, taking a few steps back.

While he concentrated on trying to find another way into the lower parts of the excavation site, Bart turned to Zatanna and asked her, "So, you and Clark…you guys are a thing, huh?"

Zatanna blinked blankly for a moment or two before she could fully comprehend what it was that Bart had asked her exactly. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"I was seeing what your status was with Clark so I could see if I could hit on you or not."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Umm...Clark and I…well, after the whole flaying Lana deal, we're -"

"Hey guys, I found something here!" Clark yelled out from across the excavation site. Zatanna and Bart headed over to where Clark stood, which was an unremarkable area really. Lots of boulders and things, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"Found what, exactly, Clark?" Zatanna asked.

"There's an entrance," he said, pointing to what Zatanna realized was a broken obelisk. "Steps and everything. Whatever you were looking at earlier, it couldn't have been the right place."

"Great. So let's move it to the side and get cracking. None of us can be gone too long without any questions being asked."

"Actually, I got no one waiting for me," Bart volunteered.

"Yeah, me either. Guess that means its only actually Clark and Lana. Clark…you wanna move the obelisk?"

Clark stepped forward to get to the obelisk but suddenly halted when he heard a screeching coming from seemingly out of nowhere.

The three whipped around and saw a large falcon come flying at them.

"Bart, was that the bird thing you were talking about?"

"Yep."

Zatanna swore. "Ezeefr!" Zatanna screamed, concentrating on the falcon. The falcon stopped for just a moment but then came back at them full speed ahead. "Clark, move the obelisk now, Bart, grab on to me, I might need some speed to get into the cave. Peels!"

While Clark and Bart followed Zatanna's instructions, the sorceress herself tried whipping up every spell in her arsenal to stop the falcon. Nothing worked. In the back of her mind, while Zatanna shot out spell after spell, she realized why.

The falcon. He wasn't just a falcon. He was connected to the god Horus somehow. Which meant he was protecting whatever it was that Zatanna wanted.

"Bart, Clark, inside! Now!" Zatanna screamed. Bart pulled Zatanna into the cave behind Clark, and as soon as the three young adventurers were inside, Zatanna yelled out, "Ksilebo evom kcab!"

The obelisk slid back into place as Zatanna, Bart, and Clark landed at the foot of the stairwell.

"What the hell was that?!" Bart exclaimed.

"Some emissary of Horus, I guess," Zatanna said as she pulled out three of the hair sticks that had been holding her hair in their half bun. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders as she handed a stick to Bart and Clark. "Riah skcits ot til sehcrot!"

"Horus?" Bart asked as his face lit up from the light of the torches.

"He was an Egyptian god, Bart. Probably one of the most powerful," Clark replied.

"Whatever this thing is, it's incredibly powerful."

"You got that right," Bart said as he noticed the ground around them.

Zatanna and Clark followed his gaze, suddenly wishing that they hadn't.

Strewn all across the ground were skeletons.

And some very fresh dead bodies.