"Oh...is it an egg?" Jo Alcott whispered in awe. She stared down with reverence on the crystalline sphere pulsing with violent tinted magical energies, cradled against her chest.
Zatanna smiled mischievously as she addressed her mystified fan. "Yes. This egg is a special egg given to me by one of my closest friends. You can already see its magical. For this egg to hatch it needs someone with a pure-heart to give it lots of love and attention. With my career and being a hero, I don't have the time to watch over the egg. If the egg doesn't have the love it needs," Zatanna lowered her voice dramatically, "a monster will hatch and devour the world."
Jo pulled the egg closer towards her own heart, much to Zatanna's delight.
"I've been searching the whole world for someone to hatch this egg. Tonight I meet you."
Jo's eyes widened.
"Your mother told me how responsible you've been helping her take care of your sister, Beth, during her procedures. I knew that you were the type of person who could hatch this egg."
Jo drew herself up to look Zatanna square in the eye and spoke with a determined voice, "I won't let you down, Zatanna."
"I know you won't," Zatanna answered Jo with the solemness required after such a promise. The air itself shimmered even without Zatanna having sealed Jo's oath, wasn't that the way the kid was taking this, with magic.
With the seriousness out of the way, Zatanna gave another mischievous smile and said, "now go show your sister your new charge."
Jo rushed over to her sister's wheelchair with an eagerness the girl hadn't had in months. Mrs. Alcott had told Zatanna at the beginning of the show how worried she'd been for her daughter. Both girls quietly cooed over the egg as Jo delicately placed the egg over her sister's heart, since her sister wasn't able to do it for herself. Zatanna had a feeling if her story about the egg had been true, she had given it to just the right child.
"That kid's got to much responsibility." Zatanna nodded in agreement to Mikey's assessment of Jo Alcott.
"Did the Alcotts' sign the consent form?" Usually Zatanna would have waited for the parental consent before giving children magical items, harmless or not, this time had been a special case.
"You are lucky they did. Because you'd be the one dealing with all the tears if that kid didn't get to keep that "magical" egg, boss." Mikey handed Zatanna the consent form with more derision than she'd spoken with.
"I'm insulted with your insinuation that I'd lie about the egg being magical." Zatanna gave Mikey a playful smirk far too pleased with the outcome to worry with fallout that wasn't going to happen. If Beth's heart wasn't pure, then the egg would hatch into an ugly little beast that wouldn't last long. That outcome would be Beth's parent's problem.
"Why the risk? Usual you have the Make A Wish kid's siblings your second assistant for the show." Mikey questioned.
"You decided to help another pair of siblings. How sweet." Mikey must have disproved more than Zatanna had thought for her to bring out the sarcasm. "Next time fill out the paperwork."
"Can do." Zatanna shouldn't have said that as chipper as she had because Mikey didn't look convinced at all or maybe it was because she knew Zatanna too well. On to a safer topic. "How much longer till the next showtime?"
Mikey opened her mouth to be interrupted by Zatanna's Justice League communicator going off. Wasn't that a surprise. This morning hadn't started with any world ending news. After a few times of her show being unnecessary delayed. Zatanna had been clear her show time shouldn't be interrupted for anything less than the end of the world. Magical consulting wasn't the same as scientific consulting. Clues with magic could quite possibly last a life time. There was rarely a need for a rush.
"This is Zatanna." Mikey stepped away pointing to her wrist watch as she moved. Thirty minutes. Zatanna nodded. It wasn't a lot of time to close the show down but it also wasn't the worse time to stop a show.
"Nightwing has been reverted into a child." Batman growled over the communicator. Speaking about problems Zatanna hadn't wanted to get in the middle of...
"Reverted into a child or is a child. Usually you're more exact in your details when you have a problem of my persuasion," Zatanna kept her voice light and calm.
The distinction between the two problems wasn't entirely accurate from the vocabulary sense. Then when you have non-native English speakers working on your terminology there going to be a few flaws. In this case reverted to a child meant de-aging or is a child meant time-travel. Zatanna hadn't yet run into a situation were a de-aging needed to be urgently reversed; however, there were times when time-travel could be tricky to deal with. Neither was what a superhero would consider urgent emergencies.
Bruce certainly wouldn't if it had been anyone other than his own kids.
Too say Bruce was sensitive about his kids before the Cult of Blood was an understatement. After the Cult of Blood saying Bruce was sensitive about his kids was the same as saying dark magic needed a few drops of blood.
If she even implied Bruce should wait until the end of her next show their friendship would be over.
"I haven't been able to do more than confirm he is Nightwing. I'm in route to the Cave. Robin has taken his preliminary statement. When you arrive at the Cave he will inform you of the situation. I'll be there shortly."
"See you there." Zatanna wasn't shocked when he cut off his transmission before she could reply.
Mikey walked back over with her clipboard ready for the inevitable.
"Give me five minutes," Zatanna began before Mikey could ask if they were canceling the show. "If I'm lucky I'll bring back a big name for the finale."
Mikey pointed at her watch in reply. "I'll give you twenty-five."
"You're not going to wish me luck." Zatanna adjusted her top hat. Dick as Robin, again. This had the possibility of being pretty fun for everyone. The kid had natural talent as a performer. If they didn't wrap up the situation this evening, Zatanna was going to bring him along to help with a show. She'd need to figure out something for Jason later. Zatanna didn't care for getting that far ahead of herself.
"No. Your last big finale had us run out of Vegas."
"Aw, I thought you'd love that since you hated Gotham so much." Mickey was exaggerating ever so slightly about being run out of Vegas. Zatanna's finale wasn't actually the reason they'd gotten run out of Vegas.
"I love eating. You've got twenty-four now."
Zatanna dramatically rolled her eyes. "Have it your way. Don't blame me when the crowd disappears because you wanted a boring finale."
With a wink to an unimpressed Micky Zatanna invoked a few words for transportation of the magical persuasion. "Ot eht evac-tab."
By virtue of being one of the few magicians Bruce considered trustworthy, and more importantly competent Zatanna had the opportunity to install the majority of the Batcave's wards against mystical assaults. He had tried to pay her for the service knowing the value without understanding the payment method: access into his inner sanctum was payment enough. Magic didn't care if he was planning on allowing her access because she was an ally and would have to renew the wards on a regular basis. To make things easier, Zatanna had asked for dinner as payment. That had been the beginning of a lovely payment plan.
The Batcave's wards opened to greet her as if she'd been their owner's oldest friend. In a way Zatanna supposed she was. In his pursuit for vengeance he'd left most of the people he'd known behind. If Zatanna wasn't involved in the superhero life, she wouldn't have been around to have stayed his friend.
Zatanna materialized in the center of the Batcave in a perfectly practiced theatrical bow surrounded by a burst of glittering lights. Before she could speak or even straighten, a heavy weight landed on her back from above. "You remembered." The weight went along with a voice Zatanna hadn't heard since Dick had hit puberty.
"Of course. I'd never forget my best assistance's preferences." When teleporting into the Cave, Zatanna usually went with smoke to mark her arrival. The wards preferred the ambiance not be disturbed. When the kids were going to be there, she liked to liven things up a bit.
Dick crawled around her like the little monkey he'd been to give her a hug from the front without actually having to let go of her. Zatanna had forgotten what a sweet thing he'd been. Looks like she wasn't going to have to ask if the regression was more than psychical. Dick Grayson had out grown the monkey impression by twelve. The last she'd seen of him he'd become more reserved, more like Bruce.
The reach of the regression was more than psychical or mental. Since Dick Grayson had joined the new Teen Titans, his aura was tainted with the darker energies of his demonic witch friend, Raven. Here in her arms she couldn't detect any hint of the interdeminsional demon on him. She felt a rush of relief at the prospect. If magic was involved, then maybe that part of him wouldn't be coming back.
"Did you know Superman has an older cousin?", Dick stage whispered into her ear with a familiar excitement Zatanna hadn't realized she'd missed. Supergirl being here would explain how Dick had landed on top of her. "We've worked together a few times." Zatanna spoke as she looked up to greet Kara.
Kara waved in return.
"Jumping out of people's arms without warning is rude," Kara scolded Dick when she'd landed gently in front of Zatanna. Rude was probably a better deterrent than dangerous for Dick. "How did you even know she was there?"
Dick jumped off Zatanna. Wasn't she grateful. This whole experience was reminding her of her age.
"Magic has a ripple," Dick explained to Kara using his hands to illustrate the magic's ripple before a spell's intended effect could be enacted on the environment. As a magic user, Zatanna's ability to sense magic itself prevented her from detecting the current ripple. To her knowledge Bruce and his Robins were the few people who could notice the ripple. Maybe a part of Bruce's eastern training. Zatanna didn't have as much experience with the martial arts from that part of the world.
"What if it hadn't been Zatanna? How were you going to deal with landing on Morganna le Fay?" Jason reprimanded Dick with more intensity than the Zatanna would have expected of him. Even though his edges were sharper than Dick Grayson's, Zatanna had never seen Jason being anything more than gentle with children.
"With the wards I have set up, the Phantom Stranger would have been Dick's landing mat before le Fay. He would have been amused." Zatanna interjected with a smile for Dick who had deflated. "Bruce said you were going to give me the rundown of the situation."
Jason nodded seriously when he reported. Zatanna detected a hint of excitement in his voice, not from dissimilar to Dick's. "Dick arrived in the Batcave at approximately eight o'clock," the kid actually blushed when he didn't know the exact time. Off to the side she could hear Dick asking Kara who the Phantom Stranger was. How young was Dick now?
"He arrived though the main entrance-"
"Okay," Zatanna interrupted, "I'm not Batman. Just give me your opinion of the situation. I'll ask questions if I need more information." Even if she didn't have a show, Bruce's reporting style had always been a waste of time for her. Magic didn't sweat the details.
"We're," Jason hesitated stealing a quick glance at Kara," undecided on if he's reverted or himself out of time."
"He arrived in his Robin uniform. Jason thinks…" Kara paused giving Jason an encouraging smile.
"Given the baby-bird," Dick giggled at the nickname, "was near the Wingcycle, we hypothesize whatever occurred to him affected present day Dick. Since he was wearing his Robin uniform, I initially considered time travel. Kara was unable to detect any temporal energies on the baby-bird or at the site where we believe the event occurred."
"Is detecting time-travel part of the Kryptonian superpower set?" Zatanna asked for clarification.
"Not that Kal or I knew of. After the League's third encounter with time-traveling assassins Kal created a device to detect temporal energies. The devise is still in the testing phase. So far all the tests Kal's run with Booster Gold have worked," Kara explained. An experimental device was probably as accurate as they were going to need for this.
"One more question before you continue," Zatanna began before Jason could return to his less Batman style rundown of events. "Where do you believe the event occurred?" She was fairly certain where however she wanted to keep the facts straight.
"A mile out on the main route from the Batcave. The baby-bird didn't find signs of a collusion at the site and Kara verified when she was checking for the temporal energies." Jason added Zatanna's next question to his explain without having been asked. "We were working under the impression they were switched before Kara's temporal checks came back negative. We checked the data base at that point. There were five cases of reversions where the victims' clothing was reverted with the victim."
"All caused by magic," Zatanna finished. "That's why Bruce called me in."
She'd worked on all five of those cases.
Youth spells weren't the preferred method of attack by any magical user. Nor were long term ones. The price required for a youth spell was too high for most magicians to pay for themselves, alone to use against their enemies.
Because of this most magical users preferred to use temporary youth salves to keep themselves young. Three of the Justice League reversion cases were the equivalent of the hero falling into a witch's beauty cream.
In those three cases, there was little Zatanna needed to do. Modern youth salves required a spell to seal the effects after the user had bathed in the mix. If a person inadvertently ended up falling into a vat of the salve, the age regression was temporary. Even if the salve had been sealed, breaking the spell was fairly simple. Youth and beauty weren't meant to last even with magical influences.
One of the cases had been a curse. Even if Zatanna hadn't been called in, would have eventually killed the target. Like with the salve, breaking the unnatural curse was simple.
The last had been the hero being hit by a burst of wild magic. Like the salve a temporary problem that hadn't needed more than a sitter for a few days as the solution.
"We were planning on calling you after your last show. Bruce checked and got the report that Nightwing was at the Cave.", Jason said with a huff of frustration. Zatanna remembered the feeling of frustration when your parent took over your case. Her father had done plenty of that when she'd been Jason's age.
"You know how he worries about both of you." Jason didn't look impressed by Zatanna's words though Dick nodded vigorously in agreement.
Zatanna checked her watch with a frown. Where was Bruce? She hadn't wanted to do her part of this until he had gotten here. "Okay, I'm going to have to cut this a little short. Thanks for the briefing. If you would send me the full version I'd appreciate it. Now lets see if Dick was changed by magic or not."
"What about Bruce?" Dick asked with hesitation looking to Jason for reinforcement. "He said he wanted to be here for this part." There was a shared hesitation there.
"He's about ten minutes out," Kara informed them with a glance towards the entrance of the Batcave. Ten minutes Zatanna didn't have. Sorry Bruce.
"Good for us he's going to be a bit late. You know how he gets in the way," Zatanna said with a wink to Dick. Dick beamed back at her. "This is our case. We don't need Bruce here," Dick said tugging on Jason's arm.
"Zatanna knows what she's doing," Kara spoke while giving Jason a soft nudge. "You've already done most of the preliminary work on this one. Why not this part too."
"Okay," Jason approved with a little bit of hesitation in his voice. Loyal kid. After her show, Zatanna and Bruce were going to have a long talk about Jason's situation. She hadn't wanted to be involved. The kid just didn't deserve being grounded for three months.
"Thank you for the permission." Zatanna locked eyes with Jason as she spoke. As expected Jason blushed and looked away. The kid needed to work on his embarrassment issues.
"Now," Zatanna rubbed her hands together. "Dick you need to move away from everyone and everything. When I cast the spell on you, I need you to stand still. If you don't, the spell isn't going to work." Zatanna remembered Dick having problems standing still the previous times she'd been called in to examine him.
"No problem," Dick chirped as he pounced away from Jason and Kara towards Zatanna. He was mostly following instructions. Zatanna was at the center with the most free space.
"Right there," Zatanna instructed him to stop. Past Dick, Jason was pulling a bemused Kara further into the Cave away from the casting range. How cute; this type of magic wouldn't harm Kara even if she were the target. Zatanna gave Kara a wink. Kara didn't respond to the wink. Then her cousin was stoic when romance was involved.
Dick had seen Zatanna's wink. He'd turned to look at the older teens with a slight frown of confusion on his face. Zatanna guessed Catwoman hadn't shown up yet in Dick's timeline.
"You ready," Zatanna spoke drawing Dick back to attention. "I'm going to do my best to make this quick for you."
Dick gave her a brief hesitant nod. Then after taking a backward glance at the teens gave her a more definitive one.
"Stay still." With her last reminder to Dick out of the way, Zatanna gathered the mystical energy inside of her and spoke the spell. "Flesruoy laever ot em."
At Zatanna's command the magical energies buried within Dick erupted out. Brilliantly colored words and runes spilled out settling around Dick in a luminous cloud.
Zatanna could see the working of three distinctive spells along with the hints and scraps of several more tangled up in each other forming a rat's nest of overarching enchantments on Dick.
There were parts of the spells' structures Zatanna recognized from incantations she'd learned and dealt with over the years. The unique pattern of the words and the runes were a mystery to her. Her closest guess would be the words were an ancient form of Germanic. The century they originated from was a guess. As for the runes, Zatanna hadn't seen anything like them before.
The spell work itself was amateurish and sloppy. A completely ordinary non-magical user doing a first time attempt at thirty concurrent spells would have a better grasp of magic than the caster of this spell.
The characters used for the spells were a mix of the Germanic language and the alien runes. Ingredients where used in parts were there should have been incantations. There was no sense at all to be made of the types of magic invoked from the different parts of the spells.
Even with the mess, Zatanna could draw some pretty clear conclusions about the nature of the enchantment.
"No need to worry," Zatanna announced releasing the enchantment from her magic. The one person who was worried wasn't present. Explaining what Zatanna had learned about the enchantment to Bruce was going to be interesting to say the least.
"I'll decide that," Batman's growl came from her left. Ten minutes had already passed. Zatanna wasn't going to have time to hash this out with Bruce.
"Can I move now," Dick pleaded with her. Zatanna was impressed with his patience. Dick would have seen Bruce before she'd finished her spell and the kid hadn't moved or even spoken.
Zatanna gave him a nod. "Good job holding still." Dick returned her praise with a blinding smile before flinging himself around Bruce's neck.
"You didn't change the Cave at all," Dick chided Bruce as he shifted to keep Dick from strangling him.
Time to start her prognoses before she started laughing at Bruce's response to Dick's antics.
"He's going to live. Whoever cast the enchantment didn't seal the effects. Two or three days and he'll be right back to his grown up self."
During her explanation, Bruce placed Dick on the floor beside him. Leaving a hand on Dick's shoulder for support or too keep him from running off. Zatanna assumed a little bit of both.
"It's like we thought," Dick exclaimed back to the teens. Kara gave Dick a thumbs up and a smile that was around Dick's wattage. Jason's response had significantly less enthusiasm then he was pretty focused on Bruce.
"What does the spell do?" Bruce demanded. Here was the tricky part. Explaining magic to Bruce in a non-emergency was challenge enough. Since he considered this an emergency, he was going to want more facts and for this enchantment there weren't many.
"A return to youth," Zatanna began her prognosis. "The enchantment of Dick is the messiest I've ever seen, Bruce. Three spells form the foundational power of the enchantment along with a few half-cast extras to tie everything up in a Gordian knot.
"The return spell is the most defined of the spells. What the spell intends on returning to I'm assuming is youth. I wasn't able to decipher if the spell is a traditional youth spell or a temporal youth spell. The caster used ingredients and incantations for both types of spells in the enchantment. The elements settled around the spell.
"The final foundation spell was a spell of balance. Usually if there is a balance spell tied to a youth spell, its' role is to keep the user from being ill affected. As you can see, the spell didn't make it to completion.
Whoever weaved this enchantment had no idea what they were doing and had access to knowledge I shouldn't have. We're lucky the spell wasn't sealed or I would be spending months trying to unravel the mess in hopes of finding a counter-spell."
"Does that mean I am a child and not regressed," Dick chimed in.
Zatanna sighed, "With an enchantment as messy as this one: who knows? Certainly not the original caster. I'm not sure they even know the language they were casting in."
Dick pouted. He had reason. Since Zatanna didn't have definitive proof he wasn't a time-traveler, Dick was going to get treated as if he were one. That was going to put a lot of limitations on him.
"Do you know how the enchantment was placed?" Bruce took off the cowl. Zatanna frowned at how worried he looked. She had her suspensions with how he'd been acting. Staying in to take care of little Dick and spending sometime with Jason was going to be good for him. For all of them. If he'd let her, Zatanna could help around Gotham for baby-bird Dick's stay.
Zatanna shook her head. "After my show I'll check out the incident site. Given the nature of the spell I'm not expecting to find much there. We'll have to wait for Dick's to comeback for an explanation." Or Zatanna hoped Dick would know what happened to him. This had been a harmless little spell. Whoever the caster was, they had access to knowledge that could lead to more spells being cast. Zatanna was going to deal with them before they became more of a problem.
"I hate to leave all of you on such a low note. I've got a show in less than two minutes. Unless you want to take the backstage tour," Zatanna gave Bruce a flirtatious smile, "I'll see you later this evening."
"We'll be here," Bruce nodded to her. That's what Zatanna had expected given the circumstances. Never hurts to ask.
"You're not going," Bruce's face blanked in shock at Dick's outburst. "Zatanna came all this way out to see you. You're not going to see her show."
"You did promise, you'd come see the show. I've been in Gotham for half a year. You still haven't shown up." Zatanna teased.
"Dick, we still don't know the extent this enchantment has on you." Bruce knelt down in front of Dick gripping his shoulders lightly, "I should be here with you."
Dick pulled back from Bruce. "Jason's here. If there's a problem we'll call you." Zatanna wasn't sure who looked more stunned by Dick's declaration, Jason or Bruce. "I can't show him all of my Robin tricks if you're here."
Bruce took a long moment considering Dick before speaking. "If you listen to Jason."
Dick nodded with enough enthusiasm for his head to fall right off. "I'll be good. Kara's reviewing the videos of the robbery. I can help with that."
Bruce looked to Jason who wasn't quite recovered. "No timestamp," Kara replied for Jason.
With a nod to both Jason and Dick, Bruce stood back up. "I'll go for the show." Bruce extended his arm to Zatanna with a flourish.
"Don't wait up, kids."
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Zatanna's voice carried over the crowd with an unnatural volume. Getting to the showing ten minutes late meant she'd had to improvise with the audio. Not that it mattered. The crowd had loved her and Bruce's appearance in the center of the stage with the only warning being a burst of light. Zatanna usually saved her actual magic for the finale. Sometimes things couldn't be avoided. "
"We're going to close this evening with a little trick you're all familiar with. Gnirb tuo eht muludnep."
A pillar of inky black smoke appeared in the center of the stage. As it streamed into the crowd, a Gothic pendulum was revealed swinging ominously over the center of the stage. The late night crowd erupted. Zatanna feel could their excitement in the marrow of her bones.
"I'm sure your all familiar with this little trick." In Vegas she'd have worried this was a little to traditional for a Zatanna finale. Gotham City liked their traditionalism. The trick in Gotham was making sure you weren't using tricks they'd seen someone actually dismembered by; less because the audience would be horrified and more they were unimpressed.
"I'm sure you're familiar with my guest from the opening act." Zatanna turned turned dramatically towards the curtain where Bruce was, her hand extended. "Welcome my lovely assistant for the finale."
Bruce had to be enjoying himself. His reaction to her springing an act was met with a slight frown rather than a scowl. A little magic could cheer anyone up.
"Bruce Wayne." The crowd busted into cheers and shouts. Bruce strolled across the stage as natural as if he'd practiced. Knowing Bruce he probably had.
"I'd better be getting the full tour," he whispered to her after bowing for the crowd. "Oh, you'll be staying for the tour then," Zatanna purred in reply.
"Citizens of Gotham as you have have suspected I will be cutting your most eligible bachelor in two. Sorry ladies there still won't be enough of him to go around. I'm a magician not a miracle worker." Zatanna paused for the crowd's response. "What I will be doing is showing you what lies inside. Does Bruce Wayne have a heart of gold or does something darker lurk behind the façade."
Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry," Zatanna whispered back. "Your secret isn't going to be revealed."
Zatanna had been working on this illusion since she'd started performing in Gotham. On the final swing of the pendulum the good parts of living in Gotham were going to spill out of Bruce's guts and into the crowd. Maybe it was too on the nose. She'd wanted to do a special act for Bruce.
"Let's have Bruce Wayne spill his guts about Gotham's secrets."
A body dropped onto the stage.
Other than- Zatanna wasn't sure if she actually heard "Joker's in Arkham get a new act"- the audience went still for the moment. Likely they were trying to see if a raving madman was about to appear giving then an entirely new show or if the dead body was going in interfere with the running of the current show.
Zatanna didn't recognize the corpse on her stage. He'd fallen from the high-roller's box so Mikey would have told her his name. Given he was one of the high-rollers, Bruce would be able to identify him. There wasn't a question if the man had been murdered. Five throwing knives to the chest made a certain point. Whoever killed him did so with a vengeance.
Bruce was staring intensity up at the box. If there had been one of Gotham's trademarked costumed madmen, there should have been a soliloquy before the body fell. Zatanna followed Bruce's gaze to find a steampunk-ninja staring down at Bruce. With the goggles, on Zatanna couldn't tell his intent. He wasn't moving towards any of his weapons and wasn't he covered in them.
"How do you want to play this?" Zatanna asked. This was Bruce's town after all.
"Get us out of here," The growl was back. Odd usually Bruce liked to play up being a helpless baboon in-front of his adoring audiences. Zatanna didn't need to look to know there were smartphones recording and streaming them this very moment. That give her an idea.
"I'll do you one better. Tuo enoyreve."
With the audience gone from the theater, the void of silence left in their wake was shocking. To Zatanna. Neither Bruce nor the steam-punk ninja seemed to be aware of much other than their staring contest.
"This has to be my most memorable finale, yet." Getting the crowd mystically transported to the police precinct had to at least be a unique way for them to get interrogated as murder witnesses by the police. They probably wouldn't have to wait around as much as they usually did.
"Get me into costume," Bruce barked rather than growled. "What?" Zatanna turned toward him in confusion because while the audience was gone and they could edit the security footage easily, the steam-punk ninja was right there.
"Now."
"It's your secret identity," Zatanna remarked flippantly. "Nruter ot namtab."
The suit Zatanna fabricated for Bruce to wear for the show dissolved leaving in it's place the Bat-suit Bruce had been wearing before, cowl down and all. Their steam-punk ninja friend didn't respond until Bruce pulled the cowl over his head. At that moment a pair of throwing knives went flying towards him.
"Xob eht ot." Zatanna reacted with a teleportation spell before the knives were halfway to Bruce. Not that Bruce needed saving. Jumping into the box would give Bruce the opportunity for a free attack after that the fight would be more evenly matched. Well as evenly matched as a two on one fight was. Zatanna always enjoyed those types of odds.
As she felt herself materializing something hard and blunt struck Zatanna in the throat. She dropped. Having her teleporting predicted twice in one day, what were the chances. At least her attacker hadn't slit her throat to shut her up. That had happened more and more often in recent years.
Zatanna pulled herself up against the wall of the box painfully trying to draw in enough air to form a healing spell. Bruce and the steampunk ninja were matching each other blow for blow. That was good. Zatanna didn't actually enjoy using blood to cast healing spells.
As the fight continued Zatanna was starting to see why Bruce hadn't cared about revealing his identity to the steampunk ninja. They'd fought before. Zatanna could see how they were anticipating each other's moves and attempting to expose the other's weakness. There was something familiar about how the steampunk-ninja moved. If Zatanna hadn't been gasping for breath, she would have figured out where she'd seen the style before.
The fight began to shift. Bruce was pulling back, saying something to the steampunk ninja. Zatanna couldn't hear over the sound of her own gasping breaths. The ninja moved in for a strike. Whatever Bruce had said this time shocked the steampunk ninja. He froze and Bruce counter attacked tagging him in the head. There wasn't much power to the blow. Probably all it did was knock the steampunk ninja's mask off.
A chill ran down Zatanna's spine. The steampunk ninja was someone Bruce knew, someone they both knew. Dick Grayson. A few years older than the Dick Grayson of the current year. His skin was a chalky white with dark veins running along the sides of his face. His eyes a metallic yellow.
Before Bruce could speak again , in classic Bat fashion, Dick threw down a smoke bomb.
Zatanna didn't doubt he would be gone before the smoke faded. Her mind was more occupied by the obvious. Dick hadn't been enchanted by a misformed youth enchantment. There were a few alternative uses for spells of balance. Zatanna had a feeling they'd just encountered one.