A flash of light.
The scent of something – many things – burning.
A screechy – yet somewhat musical - wail assaulted her ears.
The image of a sorceress laughing melding together with the evil stepmother from Snow White.
Dark, fiery red eyes.
A large magickal blast, followed by an anguished voice screaming out the word "No!"
Swords clashing and magickal sparks flying.
A woman in Chinese garb twirling in the air.
A familiar face accompanied by a thick British accent.
Barriers between worlds breaking down.
Flashes of light, fissures in the cracked ground letting out steam, a woman surrounded by a swarm of locusts, a cacophony of cackling and crackling, the image of a demon baring it's teeth right in her face, it's fetid mouth hanging open, getting closer and closer, until her head is almost completely in –
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Zatanna screamed, shooting up in her seat.
Lana swerved the car and hit the breaks, shocked and just a little scared. "What happened?" she asked as a car behind them just narrowly missed hitting them.
"Keep driving," Bart told Lana, his brow creased with worry. He then turned to the back seat, where Zatanna had been resting for the past hour. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Zatanna replied, popping open a can of Black Cherry Zesti. She took a gulp of the semi-cold soda and sighed. "Just a really bad dream. Like, Halle Berry's last wannabe superhero flick bad."
"Ouch…" Bart ventured. "That's…wow…that's really ugly."
Lana stifled a giggle. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree there. I'm sorry, though. Wanna talk about it?"
Zatanna shook her head. "Not really. Or, you know, at all. Just…too freaky for words." The raven-haired teenager slid back in her seat, taking another gulp of the soda. She crinkled her nose at its warmth and whispered, "Dloc." The soda instantly became perfectly cold. She took another sip and relaxed.
Zatanna didn't like the portents of the dream one bit. First of all, she didn't even like the fact that she'd had the dream. It was too cliché for one thing. And secondly, it was too apocalyptical. Zatanna didn't deal well with apocalypses. She'd already been through one before, and granted though she'd only been a side character in that one, she didn't wanna go through another one. Especially not in one of the lead roles.
The dream had been too much to take in. Way too many things going on at one time there. Zatanna prayed, though, that Hell wasn't rearing its ugly head at them. She wasn't sure if she'd be powerful enough to stop the über-badness from hitting them hard. For all Zatanna knew, this could be her worst fears realized.
Is this why Jim Rook had asked Zatanna to turn back? Did he know that something bad was happening soon? If he knew, who else did? Madame Xanadu had to. Fat load of help that would be, but still.
Who else?
In that instant, Zatanna desperately prayed for her father's guidance. He would have been good at averting possible apocalypses and things.
"Hey," Bart interrupted his girlfriend's thought process, "Do me a favor. Could you pass me a thing of Chocos?" he asked. "I'm sorta hungry."
Zatanna nodded and tossed him the pack of cookies.
Bart grinned his thanks at Zatanna as he ripped open the packet, devouring two within moments.
"Hey guys, good news," Lana said, as she plucked a Choco cookie out of Bart's lap. She pointed to a sign on their right hand side and said, "Salem, only seven miles away."
"I thought this trip would never end!" Bart exclaimed. "Finally!"
"Great," Zatanna replied, sitting back in her seat, her eyes growing wide with worry. She had this horrible feeling in her stomach that something would be horribly wrong at their point of destination.
She desperately prayed she was wrong.
Jason Teague quietly unpacked his belongings in his new apartment, close to the university where he attended his classes. He bit off a slice of cold ham and bacon pizza and took a gulp of his Soder cola, relishing in the fact that it wasn't as sweet as its rival soft drink was. He set the can down on an opened box next to the slice of pizza and made to open a box that contained some family albums and other various knick-knacks. Jason cut the box open with a box cutter and – not at all enjoying the silence in the apartment – walked over to his boom box and flipped it on, letting Green Day's latest hit into his new digs.
Jason walked back to the box that he had just opened and started taking things out of it. He pulled out a couple of family photo albums, setting them aside, followed by his high school and junior high school yearbooks. He carried these over to a nook in the wall next to the fireplace that would serve as a bookshelf and set them up there.
As he walked back to the box, his mind idled over whether or not he had done the right thing by leaving Lana. He stopped himself before his thoughts went further and reached into the box again, but was halted by a knock at the door.
No one knew where he had moved to, Jason realized, as he walked over to the door. Only the pizza place. So…who could this be?
"Who is it?" Jason asked, wishing for a moment that the door had an eyehole.
"Me," came a familiar female voice.
Jason's calm mood was instantly disrupted as he threw open the door and said, "Mother," rather rudely.
Genevieve Teague shot her son what would have been an award winning smile if she had been a soap opera star instead of a sparkling socialite. "Jason," she greeted. She stood there a moment, the scent of her ridiculously expensive Italian perfume invading Jason's apartment. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"
"You know, this is where I would say yes, accompanied by a sarcastic comment to show that I was actually saying no, but I'm not in the mood for that, so let me be simple with you. No, not really. Not at all, in fact. God, how do you even know I moved over here? No one knows yet!" Jason exclaimed. "No, never mind. I don't want to know. I'd have to invite you inside to get my answers. Have a nice day," Jason made to close the door.
"Really, Jason, where are all of the social graces I taught you when you were younger?" Genevieve asked, sending her arm between the door and the frame.
Jason halted the closing of the door and narrowed at the woman he disdainfully called 'mother'. "So, you're inviting yourself in, then?"
"Well, since you seem disinclined to do so…" Genevieve replied, opening the door and brushing in past Jason. Jason slammed the door shut and turned to Genevieve.
"What is it that you want?"
"Just to see my son," Genevieve replied, feigning hurt feelings. "What else would I possibly want?"
"I don't know Mom, there's just so much." Jason said; his voice still clearly upset. "The more, as you would say, prudent question is: What wouldn't you want?"
"Oh, come now Jason, when have I ever been anything but a good mother to you?"
Jason stood silently, giving his fur-clad mother a dark stare. He could go two ways here. He could either go off on how she'd done things that were more in her best interests than his, or he could just stay calm and change the subject.
Jason opted for the latter. "Would you like something to drink?" he offered, going back to the box he'd been unpacking.
"No, thank you, Jason. I'm fine," Genevieve said, watching as Jason pulled out a couple of picture frames. "I am sorry about your falling out with Lana, though."
"We didn't have a falling out, Mom. We're just taking a break."
"A break," Genevieve stated, her eyebrows raised. "I see."
"Not another word on this topic, Mom," Jason said as he went to the nook to set up the picture frames. Genevieve followed Jason, watching as he set down a silver frame with a picture of herself, Jason as a baby, and another little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes who was about eight or nine years old. Genevieve had always loved that picture, while Jason had always felt that there was something a little off about it. He could never place his finger on what, exactly.
"Your older brother," Genevieve said, wistfully, as she picked the frame up and held it. Her left hand caressed the older boy's face lovingly for a moment before she set it back down. "God bless him," she whispered quietly. "May he rest in peace." She turned to Jason then and said, "He would have been great things, your brother. It's a pity you never knew him. He would have been a good influence on you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Never mind," Genevieve said, waving her hand. "Tell me, is there anything you need for your new home?"
"Nothing at all. I'm well off on my own."
"Without your parents' riches?"
'I don't want to go into this."
Genevieve nodded. "You have my number if you need me. I'll let myself out," she said, heading towards the door. She opened the door and, before leaving, stated, "And Jason? I do hope you can work things out with Lana. She's very much a…miracle."
"So, this is witch town," Zatanna said as Lana took the exit that they had been given by Mapquest.
"I wouldn't call it that anymore," Bart added. "That was a couple of hundred years ago."
"So was slavery," Lana pointed out, "but sometimes people never change. Some humans still practice racism against African-Americans. I'm sure that others do the same against witches."
"I prefer sorceress," Zatanna pointed out. "Or magick-user. They're much more PC."
"You know what I mean," Lana said. "Okay, so we take a right turn here and…what exactly are we looking for again?"
"I think that would be the place," Bart said, pointing out to a tall, slender tower quite a ways ahead of them. While most of the morning sky in Salem was bright and sunny, the area immediately around the tower was dark, and somewhat stormy.
"Why would you say that?" Zatanna asked snidely. "Because it's so very Addams Family?"
"Wouldn't you?" Bart asked.
"I would. And it is. I can feel magick emanating from the place. Deeps." Zatanna said, speeding up the car quite a bit. The magickal shove that Zatanna gave the car landed them their sooner than they would have gotten there, had they just kept on driving at regular human pace, which is what they had adopted once Lana had taken reigns of the steering wheel.
As they drove up a long winding road to the tower, the sky above them darkened, and lightning could be seen, as well as thunder heard.
"This doesn't look good," Lana said, worried.
"Not at all. Check that out," Bart added, pointing towards the courtyard of the tower. There, in front of the tall, ivory and stone tower, was a scene that the trio had probably only seen in movies or video games up until then.
Fissures in the ground were cracking open as lightning randomly struck around them. Thunder boomed in the air as a lone figure arose from off the ground. The distinctly male figure was dressed in some sort of suit of blue and gold and wore a golden helmet that shone brightly in the darkened sky.
Out of the fissures crawled demons that none of them had ever seen before.
"Great time to pop by for a visit," Lana said softly.
"Who is that?" Bart asked.
"I guess the person we came to see. Kent Nelson. I just didn't know that he was Dr. Fate."
"Dr. Who?" Bart asked, confused.
"No, no, Dr. Fate," Zatanna replied, her brow furrowed. "I just didn't know he was Kent Nelson." She paused for a moment, lost in though, and then said, "Well, we've got two options, guys. We can turn around and pretend we never came…or we can help someone who's obviously in trouble." She looked between Lana and Bart, both of whom seemed to have their resolve set. "I guess we're helping?" They both nodded.
Zatanna took in a deep breath. She would regret this. She knew she would. But what other choice did they have? Not only might Dr. Fate be able to help Lana, but he might also be able to help Zatanna find her father.
"Let's go then."
Writer's Note: Hey guys! So, yeah, that was a reference to the bottled city of Kandor. I couldn't help myself there. -D. And yeah, so, I'm surprised I didn't see some sort of vile backlash at the whole Clark/Alicia thing last chapter, though I'm glad I didn't. -D. Alicia plays a fairly big role in the chain of events to follow…Oh, and the Gotham City reference? I took bits and pieces from various continuities and pretty much went for the story that the Reaper from Batman Year Two may have actually been a Batman-esque vigilante who had his own Rogues Gallery. Yeah, I know, a horrible way to mess with continuity, and I really hope you guys can forgive me for it. Please-D.
Anyway, keep your comments and criticisms coming, yeah? Even if you have something horrible to say...go ahead and say it. I'm interested. -D Hope to hear from you all soon!