Shadowcrest August 28th 2010 7:00 PM EDT
It was going to be a bad night. I knew this for a fact, because I was about to try to break into my girlfriends house for the second time. I'd lost contact with her again after our dungeon delve a few nights ago, and I had the unfortunate sinking suspicion that it was because she got caught. It had seemed weird to me that Zatara was watching her for days then just buzzed off, and I'd been right. That sneaky old bastard must have let her go and followed her to find out what she was doing.
He clearly hadn't found the clock tower, between Jim and Madame Xanadu we had that place on lock, but he knew she ran off and she was obviously in trouble. The best indicator of that was the fact that my charm no longer worked on the wards. Papa Zatara had clearly figured out I'd been visiting and was trying to lock me out and Zee in. I was, of course, not going to let him do that. The question was, was he home? This time of night he should be helping run the dungeon, but he might have stayed back for Zee. Then again he was also needed for town portal I was betting.
Not that it mattered too much, I was getting in if he was here or not, the only difference was how sneaky I had to be and what happened after. First thing first I turned on aura sight so I could study the defenses. As before they were laughably out of my league, but that didn't matter like it used to. I had methods of entrance other than the normal. He could ward against human entry, but I doubted he was warded against everything. I was going to find a gap. I studied the wards carefully.
I had been busy as hell over the last month or so, but I hadn't let myself completely fall off the thieving wagon, I'd been studying every book Jim gave me, honing my skills as best I could. Jim had accepted that we would be doing our own jobs for a while, as well as accepting that there was going to be a lull for the labyrinth but we were far from finished out apprenticeship after just a month. Even at my speed of learning and improvement I absolutely was nowhere near a competent thief.
Luckily I didn't need to be, I didn't have to crack the security system, just find a way in, I had a few hundred points in the bank and if Daddy Dearest wanted to make a bif deal out of this I would tear my way out of his fucking house by force, and bring Zee with me. Hopefully that wouldn't be necessary, but honestly I was pretty furious and I'd be lying if I said part of me didn't want to put a shadowy fist the size of a bus through his stupid wall. I scanned the wards carefully, and I had to admit I knew exactly why Jim was the only thief to pull off burgling this place.
The wards on Shadowcrest were...well almost gibberish to me. I recognized a few dozen random ward sequences and runes, but they mixed with dozens I had no clue about and a few I was pretty sure were just fake symbols with trap spells on them just to make it harder. The complexity involved wasn't even close what I'd seen in Madame Xanadus place, but it was well beyond anything I could deal with under normal circumstances. That wasn't ideal honestly, but the few sequences I did know were a good place to start, so I got to work.
First I isolated the sections of the wards that corresponded to those runes. No wardsmith worth his weight in shit just puts together blanket sections of ward schema tied together in squares like a quilt, and Zatara hadn't either. I was looking at a tights woven tapestry of magic, threads wound around each other in dazzling patterns, creating multidimensional constructs of energy. For a normal person that would be the end of it, but I could see those threads and whats more I could use them to get in if I found a gap.
I started checking the parameters on the ward symbols I could find, gauging their exact power and flow, the rise and the fall of the buzzing energy showing me glimpses of the spells at work. Human deflection, perception filtering, energy barriers, spiritual traps, demonic sanctions, I saw it all. If it could moan, roar, howl, or rattle chains at you Zatara had something for it. I was honestly starting to give up hope that I could manage this at all when I noticed a glimmer of hope. The spiritual defenses on one of the threads had life energy woven into it, a complex working to scare off ghosts that I suspected from it brightness might be a recent addition.
I smirked to myself as I noted Jim's effect on the wards here, but rather than be upset about it I was thrilled. See, the wards had life magic woven into them now, not a ton of it granted, but more than enough to be notable, and the opposite of life was death. I drew my gun, silencer and all and took careful aim in my aura sight. This would be a tough shot, mostly because I wasn't shooting at a physical object, just a spot in the air. Despite that I was sure this would work, my marksmanship from my ninja training would help for sure.
I took careful aim, and with a silenced pop no louder than a snapped branch a bullet tore right through the intertwined knot of life aspected magic strands I'd identified as my best target. I'd like to say after that the whole ward fell apart into dust, but it didn't. The life strands wilted and died and there was a bit of sagging in the fabric, but they didn't fall. Which was fine, because I didn't want them to. I wasn't going to collapse the whole ward, I just needed a small gap. I started pulling threads. Not much, or far, just a few small spells that I was able to recognize and tug on to get a reaction.
It took an hour, small fine tugs here or there pulling this way and that, before I finally got a gap big enough metaphysically to slip a shadow through. And slip a shadow through I did. I melted into my shadow form, and following my aura sense (which worked MUCH differently when I was two dimensional and was incredibly disorienting) I flowed through the gap I'd created. It was a strange feeling, my shadow form was usually an on flat ground sort of power, but this required me to use a bit more versatility, something I couldn't have done without shadow dancing.
The external wards were sturdier than the ones inside, but not by much, however the internal stuff was geared towards detection more than defense, and my shadow form was a ninja skill to start with. Going undetected was what I did best. It was child's play to follow the path back to Zee's room and slip under her door. I flowed as a shadow up to the side of her bed where I could see her crying. "Zee?" She jumped, and sat up quickly, looking around frantically, clearly trying to see where I was.
Her bright blue eyes were red from crying and her face, which was in it's elven state of flawlessness and not glamoured, was dirty from smudged mascara. "Morgan? Baby is that you? How did you get in here? You have to go, if daddy finds you here he's going to be so mad." Her voice was hoarse and she sounded genuinely worried, but I honestly gave no fucks about Zatara or his feelings. She wasn't hurt or anything, Zatara really did love his daughter and he would never hit her, but locking her up like this was just as bad in my opinion.
I did not, of course, go. "I'm fine, he can't detect me, I came through a gap in the wards and once I got inside I stayed in my shadow form. It's not really recognizable as magic from what I can tell so it bypasses most forms of detection. I came to get you out of here, are you ok? I knew something was wrong when I couldn't get a hold of you." I was babbling a bit but I was so relieved she was happy to see me. If her dad hadn't locked her up that would mean she hadn't wanted to talk to me anymore, and I was kind of ashamed of myself for how relieved I was given how unhappy she was to be here.
She shook her head. "I can't leave, I'm locked in here. I'm such an idiot. I thought daddy didn't know anything and that I convinced him in those few days before our last raid, but he was just trying to trip me up. He wanted to learn more about who I was with and he knew I wouldn't tell, so he followed me to our dungeon run. Or at least he tried to. The tower is warded so he was just waiting when I got home. He dragged me in here and told me he wouldn't allow me to consort with criminals and then locked me in here until I "got my head on straight"."
Her voice was so acidic when she said that I almost burst out laughing. My girl had authority issues. Usually those didn't apply to her dad, but he'd clearly pushed too far on this one. Instead I just gave her some good news. "Nah, you aren't stuck. I can bring someone out with me." Well, I was pretty sure. I'd used my shadow form to pick things up before, and I was A LOT more powerful now, so it seemed like it would work. If I couldn't it just wouldn't work though so it should be fine, she wouldn't get stuck halfway or something.
Zee looked...torn. "I...I don't know Morgan. I know locking me up was wrong, but if he comes in here and I'm not home he'll freak. He might be in the house, I haven't seen him for a few hours but he comes in to bring me food and it's almost dinner." She chewed her lip a bit worriedly for a minute before her eyes hardened. "You know what, no. I'm sick of this. I'm not some princess he can lock in a tower. This isn't an ok thing to do to someone you love. Wait here." She climbed out of bed and walked to her closet, closing the door. She came out about ten minutes later dressed in new clothes and carrying a bag.
She shot the approximate location I was in a big grin. "Ok, I'm ready. Now can you carry me and my stuff at the same time?" I had to chuckle at that. I could, if I could carry her at all. Extra weight should just be a factor of power and I had plenty to pump into this. Once we got out of the wards I would be able to teleport us back to the clock tower, that should be the safest place to hide out. Zee nodded when I explained everything and headed over to get close enough for me to bring her into my shadow. I reached out with shadow manipulation and touched her own shadow, pulling her through it the same way I used shadow form.
It was sort of a halfway point in the process I'd used to teleport those fallen in the dungeon, and before I knew it she was in my shadow with me bag and all. I carefully retraced my steps, while also going as fast as possible. I had the sneaking suspicion we'd be noticed sooner rather than later and I wanted to be out of here when it happened. Luckily my skills were up to the task, and we got out through the gap I'd made. Once we were clear I shadow ported us back to the clock tower, and we finally shifted back to normal. I saw Zee staring at me intently before she leapt on me and kissed me, and I had to admit, I could see why people played hero, it felt pretty damn great.
The Clock Tower August 29th 2010 8:00 AM EDT
I skipped school the next day. Zee stayed in my room with me, but we just slept and cuddled, I wasn't enough of a bastard to try something when she was in an emotional state like that. We woke up around the same time, though I suspected she woke up first and woke me with her movements. Still it was...nice. Being in bed like this, not for any sexual reason just the closeness. Judging by aura sense she felt the same, and she snuggled up against me contentedly. I smiled down at her "You know we're going to have to get up eventually right?"
She groaned and pouted, hiding her face in my chest. "No, that's stupid. I ran away from home to get away from oppressive men. I'll lay in bed all day and cuddle my boyfriend if I want to. You can't make me get up, you're not my supervisor." That surprised a laugh out of me, if only because it seemed my girlfriend was snarkier in the morning. It was a nice thing to know. I chuckled and started to wiggle away from her. She could stay in bed but I had to get up, hopefully the french toast I was about to cook would appease her.
She kept one eye closed and glared through her tangled rats nest of hair clearly not really upset but a bit put out at losing her warm pillow. The sight was so cute I couldn't resist leaning down to kiss her, but with my reflexes it was easy to dance back out of the way before her grasping arms pulled me back into bed. "Go back to sleep baby, I'm going to make breakfast anyway. We're having french toa-" My words were cut off by a tremor, and a deep shuddering wracked the tower, shaking off a small puff of dust.
Zee and I stared at each other with wide eyes and then we both took off for the main living room behind the clock face. Kit came bolting out after us, with Artemis and Reggie at school my cousin was the only member of the team aside from the two of us around. We came streaking into the room to see Jim and Madame Xanadu standing in front of the clock face weaving spells to try to repair the cracks in the wards. As we charged in Jim's hat turned toward us and my mentor let out a despondent groan.
I looked around frantically. "What the hell is going on? This place is supposed to be impossible to find, how are we under attack? Is it the Court? Is it Annabel? I thought it was going to take her a year or more to get the power to ascend." I was panicking hard, this was a mess, why had I brought Zee here. If something happened to her because I'd taken her out of her house I'd never forgive myself. Not to mention it had only been a single night. How was my luck so terrible that the night after I brought her here for safety.
Jim growled so loudly I could hear it from across the room. "Oh yes, we have wonderful protections in place. Why, it would take a world class magic user literal hours to breach our concealments. Not to mention they would need some kind of deeply personal anchor to use to break through. Something with intrinsic ties to their being, you know, like an item with strong emotional connotations, some kind of totem they identify with on a spiritual level, or I don't know, their living breathing actual daughter sleeping inside!" Oh. Oh shit. I hadn't even considered that. Using a focus with a strong connection to bypass the scrying wards.
Madame Xanadu sighed. "It isn't the boy's fault James. He hasn't had time to attend his training properly and neither have we. We let her enter for brief periods before and we should have warned him against her tarrying too long, but she was always in such a hurry it never occurred to us and it's far too late for recriminations. Zatara has come, and he is not alone." She turned to face us. "We can't keep whoever he has with him out indefinitely, go get your party clothes on children, we're about to have company."
Nodding at the directions I bolted out of the room leaving a horrified Zatanna behind before I slipped back in and grabbed her hand. I dragged her to my room and started stuffing myself into my costume, talking to her as I worked. "Don't worry too much Zee, with Madame Xanadu and the boss here we'll be fine no matter who came with, and I'd be shocked if Blood doesn't wander in sooner or later, he usually shows up around this time. We're going to be fine. They aren't taking you anywhere you don't want to go."
As I finished getting my mask on over my face a deep crack echoed through the tower, and a furious boomed voice rumbled "ZATANNA!" We both winced at the sound and sprinted back out to the clock face to see part of it having broken free and fell into the tower, followed soon after by three figures. First up was of course Zatara, floating slowly on a seething cloud of furious blue sparks as he lowered himself to the ground with magic, his eyes scanning the room for Zee even as we came barreling into the open space.
Next up was, unsurprisingly, Kent Nelson, looking old and tired but resolute and none too pleased. His power was golden and shining, a brilliant force of light that held him aloft as he drifted in after his friend. The last man was...new. I hadn't seen him before. He wore a green domino mask and had slicked back hair and a cape sat around his neck with a peaked collar. Despite not knowing him however I did recognize the ring on his finger. It looked a bit different than the ones I'd seen in the news, but it was definitely a green lantern.
His eyes locked on his daughter with a snarl, then flicked to me, and then to Jim. "Craddock! You undead snake! How dare you break into my home and abduct my little girl. I come into her room to find her gone, and a hole in my wards that reeks of death magic of the highest quality, right after I ground her for associating with your criminal spawn? Do you think me an idiot?" I swear the man was almost literally spitting fire, his eyes burning holes into all of us as he glared around the room.
Before he could say more though, a hand landed on his shoulder. Kent had come up behind his friend. "Giovanni. Stop." The furious magician paused and Kent gestured to Zee and I. "This looks like no kidnapping I have seen. I admit the presence of death magic of such a high level implied she may have been in danger, but this clearly is not that. No one here is a pressing threat to anyone else. You need to calm down, and we can all talk this through rationally." He turned to Zee and I. "I'm sorry if we scared you kids, Giovanni has been beside himself all night, would you mind telling us what's going on?"
I glared through my mask at the older magician and then pointed right at him. "He's going on. I went and got Zee last night after not hearing from her. He was keeping her locked in her room behind the wards, bringing her food so she wouldn't starve like some kind of prisoner. She didn't want to be there so I took her with me and we left." I suspected Zatara hadn't mentioned the conditions he'd been holding his daughter under. He probably thought it wasn't anyone's business. More fool him.
Kent turned to look at him in shock, and the defensive magician spat back, his glare never leaving me. "I was not keeping her prisoner! I grounded her because she was sneaking out to consort with-" He gestured at me sharply "Him. I wasn't going to let my sixteen year old daughter get caught up with a criminal! I was going to let her off restriction once she calmed down and listened to reason. I tried to talk her into breaking things off and she screamed at me, and I couldn't get her to listen to reason."
His eyes turned to Zee. "Please angioletto. Stop this madness and come home. I thought something terrible had happened to you. That this...criminal, had his mentor abduct you. These are bad people, you'll get hurt if you stay here. Already they have consorted with those despicable owls to steal from our home and harmed one of our worlds most noble mages. You must see that they are not safe to be around." His voice was pleading as he stared at her. "I just want whats best for you."
I turned to look at Zee, expecting her to be teary eyed at hurting her beloved daddy, but instead her beautiful face was painted with rage. "What's BEST for me?" I winced. I'd heard that tone before, Zatara done goofed. She stepped forward, eyes blazing with fury. "Was it BEST for me to waste away alone in that house while you ran off to fight villains, risking the life of the only parent I had left?" Giovanni flinched. Hard. But Zee didn't stop. "Was it BEST for me to be kept away from everyone my own age, to be isolated and alone?"
She was stalking toward him like she was going to attack, and judging by his face he probably would have preferred it. "You don't want whats BEST for me! You want what's CONVENIENT for you! Go sit in your room like a good doll Zatanna, daddy is busy tonight! Don't talk to boys Zatanna, they might take advantage of a stupid little girl like you! You can't leave the house Zatanna, I don't approve of your friends so I'm going to lock you up like a convict until you agree with me!"
Giovanni was almost cowering under her anger, and his face was a mask of absolute shock and hurt, but Zee had been keeping this in for quite a while. She'd had some revelations about how her father treated her since we started talking, and though they had crept in slowly, clearly Giovanni had dropped on that final straw and that camel had snapped right in two, because she wasn't holding anything back. Her face was flushed and she was literally panting with fury as she stared him down.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening them to glare at him again, but this time speaking in a...well not a level tone but in a quieter register. "I am sick and tired of being a prop that you pull out of a box to remind you of mom. I am sick of feeling like getting your attention is some kind of gift, when other girls have dads who actually want to spend time with them. But most of all I am SICK and tired of being made to feel guilty for wanting to have an actual father because wanting time with you takes you away from saving people like you actually want to be doing."
Giovanni looked...broken. His eyes shone with tears as he stared at his daughter in horror and sorrow. "I...I can't believe you would talk to me like this." His eyes looked desperate, like he was grasping at straws. "You wouldn't. This isn't you. Not my Zatanna." His eyes flicked to me and his pain and confusion turned to rage. "You did this! You put these thoughts in her head! Turned her against me!" He turned back to his daughter, all doubt and hesitation gone from his face. "This boy is filling your head with lies angioletto but I won't let it continue. You may hate me for it, but I am your father, and I absolutely will not allow some criminal to twist my daughters mind. You ARE coming home with me. Whether you like it or not!" I winced. That...did not sound like the start of a promising discussion.
The Clock Tower August 29th 2010 8:30 AM EDT
That statement did not go over well. With pretty much anyone. Sadly Giovanni decided to try to back it uip and thrust out a hand, snarling "gnirb reh ot em" a massive magican hand lashed out at Zee, trying to grab her, I readied myself to pour some points into my shadow construct but before I even got a chance Jim just...appeared in front of us. He rapped his cane on the ground just like always did when he was serious, and the chime of a graveyard bell tolled through the clock tower.
Unlike the other times he'd done it though this seemed...bigger. More powerful, more momentous. The bells weren't just from any old tower, they belonged in THIS tower. This was Jim's place, and even Zatara wasn't ready to deal with what the meant. The shadows in font of Jim lengthened as the glow of his eerie light intensified and they lashed up to tear the hand construct apart with almost casual ease. Jim's voice was cold and casual. "You come into my home, break down my wards, and cast a spell like that at MY apprentice?"
The ice in his voice started to literally chill the air, and I realized that Jim was fucking ANGRY. He didn't care that Giovanni was worried or upset, didn't care that the magician just wanted his daughter back. He had come into Jim's place, had disrespected me and Jim both, and was strutting around like he was in charge of the place, ignoring Gentleman Ghost in his own house. The ice crawling across the walls and floor made it clear that this was a big mistake, and not one Jim was going to let him forget making.
Kent's eyes widened and he stepped forward, blocking Giovanni with his body. "James, there's no need for this. Giovanni was simply upset, he meant no offense. You and yours are in no danger from him, all he wants is his daughter returned safely to him. We would be happy to held with the repair of your wards and compensate both you and your apprentice for any inconvenience once that goal is met." Giovanni's sneer made that seem less than accurate but I had to give Kent credit for trying. He didn't want this to devolve into a fight.
To my surprise it wasn't Jim who answered, but Madame Xanadu. "The girl stays." We all turned to look at her, the three men who had broken in seeming almost shocked to see her. I wondered if she'd had some sort of concealment spell up, because she was kind of hard to miss. Maybe she'd been waiting to see how things played out. "She doesn't want to go with you. You must see that. She's angry and hurt, and if you force her back it will destroy any chance of reconciliation you might have. She's only got a few years until she can leave on her own, if you bring her back like this she'll wait them out and you'll never see her again. I've seen it more than once."
Giovanni looked torn, but also furious. "Madame, I have the utmost respect for your capabilities, but please don't tell me how to raise my child. I decide what is best for Zatanna, not a thieving ghost and certainly not some teenage boy. My daughter is confused and upset, but once she's home we can talk this out. I won't be letting her stay here another night however. I'd rather she hate me than to be alone with this...criminal for another evening. She doesn't know what boys like him will do to get what they want from her. Perhaps that's my fault for keeping her isolated, but it remains true all the same."
Now it was my turn to be pissed. "You pompous condescending asshole, fuck you!" Everyone turned to stare at the sheer rage in my voice. "How dare you! How dare you ignore her and keep her locked up like a show dog and then question my feelings for her? She's been coming out with us for months now, and you only noticed when those shitbag justice tots decided to narc on us. What kind of father are you? Leaving her alone to go risk your life every night? At least I show her I care through my actions instead of just treating her like a china doll"
I was fucking heaving like a bellows, panting so hard with rage I felt like my head would burst. "I actually TRUST her, you just think of her as some stupid little girl you need to manage. Do you even care if she comes home? Or are you just worried people will think you can't control your daughter and might lose face?" I legitimately didn't see a way out of this without a head on fight between the two of. I wasn't sure I could take the old man, but I was going to fucking try. Hearing him talk about Zee like the only thing I could possibly love about her was her body was fucking infuriating.
Giovanni screamed in rage and bellowed a spell, another magical construct flying towards me. Jim stepped forward, clearly furious, but the green lantern with the stupid cape lashed out with what, to my aura sight, looked like pure fucking life fire and my mentor was pushed onto the defensive. Madame Xanadu raised a hand to help but Kent, still looking regretful but firm in his convictions to help his friend flicked a hand and a golden ankh manifested behind him, a sure sign he was using order magic against the Madame.
It wouldn't be nearly enough to stop her, but it didn't need to be, it just needed to hold her for a minute while Giovanni dealt with me. But before the construct landed a WAVE of magic arced up from the ground as Zee's guardian spell manifested in front of me. The three dragons heads however, looked vastly different. Instead of red scales they were blue with spiraling lines of purple, and the flames they spat crackled with heavenly punishment lightning. Zee's voice boomed through the room "That is enough!" The lightning-fire tore the spell Giovanni had sent at me apart.
She stepped past me where I'd pulled her with my shadow port when all this started and smiled at me. "I appreciate this baby, but I need to talk to him myself." I scowled but finally nodded, stepping back and putting a hand on Jim's arm to pull him back with me. She turned to glare at her father. "I am not confused. I am not being manipulated. What I am is disgusted. I knew you didn't worry much about what I thought, that you figured you knew best, that's what fathers do. But seeing how little regard you have for me or my decisions, it makes me sick."
Giovanni looked like he wanted to attack me again or something, anything to stop her from talking, but he didn't, he just looked at her with pain and frustration. Her voice wasn't scornful or biting anymore, it was...disappointed. "I am not coming home. I don't feel safe there. You're too controlling and you ignore the things I want and it's not ok. I love you daddy. And despite the way you act I believe you love me too. But ever since mom died everything you do is tainted by fear and guilt."
Her eyes started to tear up. "You're consumed by it. Every decision you make is out of terror that something might happen and you're so obsessed with protecting me from everything you're suffocating me. I don't hate you, I could never hate you. But you've become so driven by your fear that something might hurt me that you haven't realized you're doing it yourself. You treat me like I'm small and useless and incompetent, like I can't be trusted with my own life or thoughts. I'm not one of your magical treasures to be locked in a box and protected."
Giovanni looked crushed, his eyes overflowing with tears, and finally, all the anger drained away. All the denial that had been propping him up the hope that he hadn't really alienated his only child, drained away with it. "I never knew you felt like this. I didn't...I failed Sindella. I wasn't there for her, for you, if I had been, I might have noticed the cancer sooner, I might have been able to take her to someone who could help. But when she died...if I'd left my work behind, left all those people to suffer it would have been for nothing. My wife would be dead, and it would just be pointless."
He covered his face with his hand as his tears picked up. "I couldn't let it be just another random meaningless death in a random meaningless world. I had to keep fighting, had to make my failure worth it. But I didn't evee mean to make you feel small or weak or stupid. I know you're a brilliant young women, I know you're strong and fierce." He looked at her helplessly. "So what do you want angioletto? Papa is listening. I can't let you stay here, it isn't safe. I was wrong before, you can make your own decisions, but this place isn't fit for you. But we can discuss other options. If...coming home is that horrible to you."
Kent cleared his throat. "What if she came back to the tower with me? I can have a zeta tube installed so she can come back to visit you, and you know you can trust me with her. She's stayed with me when you were on missions before, this will be no different. You can take your time talking things out, maybe talk to Black Canary, I know she helps with counseling. Zatanna can continue to associate with her friends under my supervision, so you can be reassured about their...intentions."
That was actually a great idea. Worst case I could just teleport over to Salem myself to see her if he didn't keep up his end, but Kent seemed like a solid old man. He had the benefit of perspective that Giovanni didn't and he wanted to leave everyone an out. Zee looked thrilled and ran over past her blue lightning dragons and threw her arms around him. "That sounds perfect Uncle Kent!" She turned to Giovanni. "How does that sound to you daddy? You trust Uncle Kent to take care of me so staying there should be fine, and I don't mind a chaperone when I spend time with Rand if it makes you feel better."
Her aura told me that last part was actually a huge lie, but I wasn't going to bring it up, I wasn't stupid. Giovanni sighed and nodded. "I...I think that may be for the best. Kent is able to be there for you more than I in any case. As long as you agree for us to meet with each other, potentially with Black Canary as well, and try to..." He swallowed hard. "Try to get past these feelings you've been having, I can accept that." He swung his glare to me. "However, if I find out you've pressured her in any way, I'll come for you, and no ghost will stand in my way."
That seemed to calm most everyone down, except maybe Jim who was a bit pissed off but decided to let it go. The three men agreed to help repair the wards once Kent got Zee settled, and she promised to call me once she got moved in. With that everyone left, and I retreated alone to my room. This whole thing had shown me something integral. The wards were fine, but magic just wasn't as overwhelmingly absolute as my power. If we were going to be safe I needed something more. Something that could protect us all. I opened my phone and scrolled down through my emails, bringing up a search. Let's see what I could find for "Secret Lair".
The Clock Tower September 3rd 2010 8:00 PM EDT
Kent had fulfilled his promise to a T, getting a Zeta Tube installed post haste. There was a linked tube in Gotham already apparently (though he forbid Zee from telling us where) and she was able to come over pretty much daily. Kent came with her, but since he helped actually make the repairs on the wards him knowing where the tower was located was kind of moot at this point. On the upside he seemed like a solid guy still, and he and Madame Xanadu knew each other from way back, not to mention he was a widower and physically pretty old so Jim didn't get all territorial around him like he did with Blood.
Zee and i were cuddled on my bed, though Kent asked that we leave the door open, and Zee promised to oblige because she kind of idolized the old man. What I hadn't gotten when this arrangement was put in place was that Zee was such a daddy's girl growing up that she'd kind of developed a habit for relying on her dad. With him temporarily out of the picture and Kent going out of his way to help and take care of her she'd pretty much become a grandaddy's girl. She gushed over how nice Kent was and how much time he spent with her and I couldn't be happier for her.
Despite the request though Kent gave us our privacy, and since I could actively sense being watched with my ninja skillset if I was paying attention I knew he was actually leaving us alone. So, after Zee filled me in on how she and Kent had family dinners every night or how he'd taken her to the fair, or a million other absolutely adorable thing she was clearly gleeful about, I decided to let her in on my big plan. I'd told Artemis already but Zee was visiting for the first time and I'd wanted to surprise her with it in person.
She was curled up into my side, her hair still the same chamomile and lavender cascade as she cuddled against me. Since Kent knew about her bloodline she usually didn't bother with glamour, but I was getting used to it. I smiled down at her. "So I had an idea. We'd need to schedule our dates at either my house or I'd have to come here to meet you though. But I think it would be worth the cost, and it would solve a whole bunch of our problems. You know I had been saving up to get my devil transformation?"
She nodded with a chuckle. "Yes, I know my boyfriend is planning to turn himself into the literal spawn of satan. I was skeptical, but knowing you can just hide your wings and that there's no outward signs of what you would be kind of won me over. Are you saying you're not planning to go for your evolution next? With you income it should be a piece of cake to get to three thousand as long as you don't burn all your points on random nonsense or bitch slapping another chaos lord." I had to laugh at how proud she sounded of that last one.
I leaned down to kiss her softly. "I think I'll wait on my evolution for a bit, or at least there's something else I want first." I reached over to the bedside table to grab my phone and flipped through my emails before handing her the device. "This. It's perfect, secluded, well defended, difficult of not impossible to find. I literally couldn't have designed a more perfect home base." Probably because it had been part of a listing for a supervillain lair real estate scam. The place was probably the most valuable thing I could buy right now, but that made it expensive as hell.
Zee obviously noticed the price. "Five thousand points? That's...steep. You'd need to level hard to get that in any reasonable amount of time. Honestly as nice as this place is it's odd that it's so cheap. I mean it's literally an island castle in Gotham Harbor that isn't on any map. Plus it looks like it has some sort of crazy cloaking machine keeping anyone from noticing it. How is something like this only five grand?" The lair I'd shown her was gorgeous and pretty tricked out, so it made sense for her to be confused.
I however was getting a better feel on how my power worked. "Mostly I think for two reasons. My power bases the cost on a few factors from what I can see, but the biggest is long term impact. A castle is impressive, but it's also stationary and it doesn't even need to be retconned into the city because it's our of the way and cloaked. Secondly external resources that can be used to offset the cost. In this case real estate is mostly an issue of time and money. This thing costs ten million from my bank account on top of the points, which lowers the cost a ton."
She bit her lip in thought. "That's...interesting. The impact mechanic seems like it would have something to do with the cost of reality alteration, but based on the way the price shifts I don't think that's it. I think it's less about the changes to reality than it the changes to perception. Something about the human consciousness maybe?" She gave a cute little grunt of frustration. "I have no idea, gods this is frustrating. Your power makes proper experimentation all but impossible not to mention I...Morgan why is your hand on my butt?"
I blinked innocently as I palmed handful of soft silky cheek. "Well you were getting distracted. I thought as a good boyfriend I should help you stay on task and get your mind back on the limited time we have together instead of off chasing research methodology." I gave a firm squeeze and she gave a breathy little exhalation. "We haven't really had a chance to have any alone time lately. Not that any time with you isn't amazing, but it occurs to me looking back that I've been a bit remiss in my boyfriend duties. You've made me cum a dozen times and I've only ever gotten you off once."
She bit her lip and squirmed against me a bit. "Morgan the door is open and my Uncle Kent is here. We could get caught so easy. I promise we can have fun soon, but we can't get our clothes back on before someone shows up, especially since your ninja anti sneak senses tend to blank out when I'm blowing you." Her voice was almost whiny as she complained about the teasing, but her aura was hungry and needy, and I noticed she didn't say no, just no removing our clothes. I slid my hand up to toy with the band of her pants and her breath hitched.
Very slowly, still looking her in the eyes and waiting for her to object, I slide my hand into her pants, then into her lacy thong and over the well trimmed patch of hair over her absolutely soaking pussy. I circled my finger around her clit, turning our bodies so that bountiful ass of hers was pressed back against me and I could put a blanket over her bottom half to hide where my hand was if anyone looked in. "Of course." I whispered in her pointed ear. "If you wanted me to stop, I would quit immediately. You know anything we do is up to you. Should I stop?" I pushed the tip of one finger slowly into her just an inch so, and teasingly worked it in and out.
Zee made a mewling sound and shook her head. She felt...amazing. Seriously she was so wet and hot and so very soft. I gave a shuddering breath as I slid a second finger in and traced them along the top of her pussy, looking for a spot I'd read about in a stupidly cheap sex mastery book I'd snagged with my power. I found her g-spot easily enough, and whispered to her again. "Is that good baby?" She gave a weak moan and nodded her head so fast I thought it might fly off. "Tell me how you feel. Use your words love."
She gave a whimpering gasp. "I-fuck. I feel so good, baby. You're touching me. You're finally touching me. I've done this to myself thinking of you so many times. God baby you're so good. How do I feel? How does it feel being inside me? I know it's not everything you want but I promise we'll get there. Just tell me I feel good for you like this?" She had a fistful of blanket and she was rolling her hips. Her thick, wobbly ass was big enough to swallow even my enhanced meat between those soft cheeks and I had to moan.
I bit down on her pointed ear gently and her fluttering pussy fucking rippled on my fingers, her hips grinding harder as she moaned. She grabbed the pilled next to her and bit down hard to keep from moaning. I pulled away from the ear bite she clearly loved and started talking. My voice was so airy it was more like a heavy breath. 'Your pussy is magic Zee." She giggled out a moan into the pillow and I sped up my stroking. "That wasn't a joke baby, it's like petting the softest velvet in the world." I flicked her clit with my thumb as I rubbed her g-spot. "This was fucking made for me."
Another giggle, this one desperate and decadent, and she released her teeth from the pillow. "It was, you made it. God how hot is that? You remade my p-pussy just for you." It was adorable that my extremely catholic girlfriend had trouble saying the word pussy when I was knuckle deep in hers, and I pressed down on her clit in just the right way to get a moan she strangled. "Fuck. You know how to use it too baby, you know just what I need. Gods why didn't we do this sooner. I was so wrong before, it's yours. What's under my pants is all for you all the time."
Her voice was getting higher and lighter and I sped up a bit, giving her ear another bite and using my off hand to muffle the scream she let out. She bit down on the web of my thumb unthinkingly to muffle her squeal. I moaned a bit myself. I wanted so bad to push her yoga pants down and slide my cock between those thick jiggly cheeks of ass flesh, but I knew she didn't really want to go past this. I wanted her to feel safe and happy with me, and making her cum was a wonderful step for us, but anything more, even a VERY tempting buttjob, would be too much.
That didn't mean I wasn't getting close. You haven't experienced dry humping until your sex elf girlfriend has ridden your dick through your pants with her jello booty. I wanted her to cum when I did. Honestly I was so frantic my hand didn't even hurt much, it was just helping me last against the two cheeks of heaven trying to swallow my cock through her yoga pants. I sped up my fingers, going as fast as I could manage, which considering my dexterity was pretty damn fast. My reaction time let me adjust to what her aura was telling me she felt when I touched different ways and I knew she was close.
I ground my thumb into her clit during one last spike of her aura when I knew she would be just over the edge and yanked my hand from her mouth, grabbing a handful of hair and forcing her mouth to mine. I swallowed her scream as I came in pants against her hypnotic ass and reveled in the feel of the softest, wettest, hottest, tightest sensation my fingers had ever experienced as she flooded her yoga pants and my bed, her electric blue eyes blazing as she stared hazily into mine, her body shuddering like a seizure as she finally finished and went limp in my arms. I looked under the blanket. We were going to need magic to clean this up. Worth it.
The Clock Tower September 4th 2010 8:00 PM EDT
We'd done it. We'd found the anvil of fury. In point of fact we'd found the greater anvil of fury, Zee had been right on the money. Being the first to hit the level had given us a huge advantage in that it created a much more powerful version of an item that other people could also get. Combined with Artemis having access to a master class in forging diablo style magic items we were sitting pretty. I was also sitting at nine hundred plus points, and I was saving all of the ones I didn't need for combat to get that lair.
Up to level fifteen at this point and rocking ninety points per day, I would have cleared a thousand except I kept having to burn points in battle. The dungeon had become much larger and more dangerous at ten, easily five times the size of nine, and though they were tearing through it even with the increased monster power, it was burning a ton of points compensating for the difference. Our stash of coins had skyrocketed, much to Reggie's delight, and my translocator friend was almost the first one to push for a dive every day.
Despite that he was also one of the most balanced of us. Reggie had a very live in the now mindset and he tended to just focus on what he was doing and leave the future for the future. While the rest of us were constantly thinking of delving when we were at school, Reggie seemed totally at ease. It had allowed him to keep his relationship with Bette pretty healthy. They spent every day together, and he called her every night before and after we got out of the dungeon, it was really sweet to see them both so happy.
Now though, we were all back the the clock tower with the anvil. Kent had brought Zee over and Jim and Madame Xanadu were here, and I thanked the gods I'd picked Artemis for the magic smithing skill because her long history with Teague seemed to just magically hand wave any and all questions about how she was able to create magic weapons. Granted she hadn't actually started yet, we'd just brought back the anvil about an hour ago and she'd had to get everything set up where she needed it.
She'd arranged and actual forge and everything to use and fuel it quite a while ago, with a grudging investment of gold coins from out groups treasurer, and the only thing she was missing was a hammer. She'd refused our offers to buy one for her though. She'd been slipping over to Teague's when she could to ask him about smithing, comparing her knowledge to his (he didn't ask about her new skills, weirdly she said he just seemed to assume people spontaneously becoming master craftsmen was normal) and learning to refine her abilities as best she could before the anvil showed up.
The biggest thing he'd had to tell her was simply that every proper smith should make their own tools. Tongs and a crucible were fine, but you needed to understand your hammer like a part of your own body, it was an absolute necessity to have perfect control and to design it to fit you flawlessly. At the higher levels of crafting even a tenth of an inch too far to the side or a few degrees shy on the angle of an impact could seriously lessen the magical structure of a piece of gear, rendering it subpar even if almost every other aspect of it was perfect.
Artemis had spent the last hour locked up in her forge making her hammer before she finally opened the door and let us all inside to watch her first attempt to craft gear. The room we'd set up for her was pretty nice. I didn't understand half of what was actually done, but Zee had helped a ton with magic for ventilation and heat management, and Jim and Madame Xanadu had chipped in a bit with some help from Kent to set up a powerful mana forge that could be used by pretty much anyone with any skills. They'd all been around crafters before and Teague had apparently given Artemis some advice too.
She also had a few trinkets Madame Xanadu had given her as a gift with the promise of some free gear to study in return, a necklace that kept the wearer cool, a ring that kept the wearers skin from being burned without limiting touch sensitivity past a certain level, which meant she would be able to handle much more delicate procedures. Artemis was over the moon, and I hadn't seen her this happy since we'd given Paula her potion a week ago, though admittedly her joy at that far surpassed any sort of crafting. Seeing her mother stand and walk had Artemis basically in tears.
I had expected the toughest part of this to be materials, but Artemis had informed that couldn't be further from the truth. In point of fact diablo style gear was incredibly easy to make in terms of material consumption. All you needed was the skill to make the actual item, magical power to use as a medium (which could be gained with intelligence boosting gear if you didn't have it already) and some kind of focus to combine them together under the aegis of the dungeon's authority. With the anvil here we didn't need the last one so we could literally merge any magical substance into an item.
Unfortunately while Artemis had master level knowledge and skill she didn't have master level experience. Unlike my ninja skills the forging manual had just been a lesson plan, with no memories included in it. Or maybe Artemis had only gotten part of the effect. Regardless she insisted that there would be serious waste and inefficiency in the process that would mean her items would mostly start out pretty weak. For today she was starting with something fairly simple, just using a normal potion to create an effect. She didn't need to use dungeon loot for the magic component but we had a hundred of the things floating around so it worked as well as anything.
Because she was an unbelievable showoff Artemis drew out an ingot with a flourish. "So, for our first piece of gear we'll be making a dagger. Simple, elegant, and it wont take me forty hours to put the finishing touches on it. First up we have our good old fashioned Gotham iron, courtesy of the iron works downtown." She gestured grandly at me. "If my not especially lovely assistant would be so kind as to test the material to see if it's in good condition?" I glared at her for the comment but rolled my eyes and walked over the the ingot, looking her in the eye as I raised it up and bit down on the metal.
Then I handed it to her, smirking the grimace as she wiped her hand off on her shirt. I informed her in saccharine voice. "Seems like metal to me. But if you want me to try another taste test feel free to pass it back." For an uber badass war elf princess Artemis was way too squeamish, and she refused to let me near the ingot. When I saw she wasn't going to give it back I just shrugged. "Well, guess you don't need me to do any more. I'll just get out of your hair." I saw annoyance in aura sight and grinned at foiling her plan to use me as grunt work as I walked back over to put my arm around Zee.
With the metal "approved" Artemis walked over to the forged and tapped a symbol on the side and a glowing blue flame roared to life inside the housing. Without waiting for any of us to react she then shoved her hand into the flames, still holding the ingot. The thing started glowing blue and Artemis pulled it out with a smug smirk. "Man this ring is awesome. I worked on some stuff at Teague's in those big bulky smithing gloves and this is so much better. Especially with my high dexterity making my fingers so nimble."
She put the glowing blue metal onto the black anvil of fury and part of the magical heat drained into the anvil, imbuing the whole thing with a much weaker blue glow, then pulsed brighter and was sucked back up into the metal. This happened several times, until the metal was glowing at least five times as bright as it had been before, and then Artemis started to hammer. Her hammer smashed down on the glowing metal, flattening it out and then literally folding it with her fingers, like she was handling dough with a rolling pin.
Despite that she looked like she was using real techniques mixed with her supernaturally dexterous fingers to produce something...not pretty really but very functional looking. It took her about a half hour to get it into even remotely reasonable shape. Finally once the blade looked halfway decent she looked up at the rest of us. Her earlier levity was gone, but since she'd explained most of it already she clearly decided to let us in on how the rest of it worked, at least in broad strokes. "Now as you saw the anvil can attune the mana inside the object to the dungeons style of crafting. If I didn't have it I would have had to use personal mana to imbue it, or use a dungeon catalyst for the last step."
She carried the blazing blade over to a basin and poured in a potion of full health she had sitting off to the side, still talking. "The potion is a dungeon catalyst, you need either dungeon mana, a dungeon material, or a dungeon catalyst to make the process work, and the anvil subs out for the mana. It also does other things, but they're kind of nebulous to me so let's just say it upgrades the end result. Since this uses dungeon mana AND a dungeon catalyst the anvil will have an even more pronounced effect, since it's quality boost mainly applies to the dungeon born portion of the magic."
She dipped the blade into the healing potion as she spoke and as the health's red liquid mixed with the blue mana the metal turned purple. With a wink to use Artemis channeled heavenly punishment lightning into the dagger and the lightning merged with the light of the mana, amplifying it and boiling off the health potion into some fairly unpleasant smelling steam. Once the steam cleared she walked over to a nearby bench and began the process of putting a hilt on the dagger and wrapping it, the actions being childs play to an elf with super dexterity.
Finally she turned and presented it to us. The gleaming metal was black, with lightning like traceries along the length and a black leather wrapped hilt with an amethyst set into it. She grinned at us proudly. "I cheated a bit, since I got my lightning from the dungeon I was able to use it to purge some of the impurities from the metal making it basically dungeon iron. Since that means all three factors were dungeon related it got the full benefits of the anvil it gave the whole thing a huge boost.
She brandished crackling blade. "The dagger of heavenly purification has increased damage against demons, lightning damage, and a health boost for the wielder. All three of these factors grow continuously as it kills, though once it stops shedding blood the power drains away, and there is a cap. Still, not bad for my first real magic item." She grinned widely around at everyone in the room. "Now the question is, who else has some other catalysts I can try, ones that aren't from the dungeon?" I didn't think I'd ever seen Zee look that excited around other people before. This was so going to cut into my cuddle time. Damn it Artemis.
Ok folks, we're at the timeskip. A quick word about this chapter. I consider the way Zee is treated in canon borderline if not actively emotionally abusive. She's isolated and ignored and I didn't want it to go on in the story, and this was my way of adressing and fixing that. I tried my best to portray both sides as reasonable and having valid points of view and not to just bash anyone, but I know this came across polarizing to some of my readers. Regardless I hope I found a solution both sides could live with and that you enjoyed the chapter. From here we're moving away from the character interaction stuff a bit towards a more action-packed part of the arc which i think everyone is going to love. Meanwhile in the advance chapters Morgan gets his transformation and the injustice league attack kicks off, and we get to see some real combat outside the dungeon. pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent, hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.