Zatanna folded her arms and began her tale of woe.
" Nikola Tesla was born in Lika, Austo-Hungary in 1857 and was born a natural genius. His mother shared his love for inventions and encouraged the youth to indulge in his dreams. He moved to the U.S. after completing his schooling to work with his admired comrade Edison at Edison works .

It was rumoured that he wad paid well, $18 per week but soon left to pursue his theory if an arc lighting system."
I nod wondering where this is going but remain silent as she takes a deep breath and continues.

"Nikola prevailed in the winter of 1887 and his paper was published by the American Institute of American Engineers in 1888. This triumph spurred him to continue his research to greater heights such as transformers, pyromagnetic generators, thermo-magnetic motors , uni polar dynamics and the conversion of direct currents."

I felt myself nodding off to sleep. She raised her tone "It was at the World's Fair in Chicago of August 26,1893 that Tesla met the Jinnh. Nikola was there delivering a speech on mechanical and electrical oscillators to the Electrical Congress. The Joker's mentor, the Jinnh was enthralled on how Tesla had managed to control the mechanical motion by the natural vibration of the electro-magnetic system. No one before had tapped into mechanical vibrations in all directions. He waited for the lecture to end and introduced himself . The two quickly became close and the Jinnh would often visit the lonely Tesla buried in experiments never even stopping to eat.

It was on on such day that Nikola worked on his Wardencliff Tower Project. The entire Manhattan area suddenly lost all its power . Police and law enforcers confronted him at his lab telling him to cease all action or they would haul him in. The Jinnh offered him finances as well as a safe haven to work uninterrupted. The only stipulation was that he could watch his experiments in motion. With the public now bashing his windows, police hounding him, and no funding, Tesla gladly took his offer. He then became more reclusive admitting his very life was in danger to the Jinnh. He entrusted in his only companion his original notes of experiments. Later after Tesla's apartment was ransacked and the Jinnh found him dead. He arranged a small funeral in which a few of his scholarly acquaintances attended and then Tesla and his cutting edge on the world slowly vanished. The only one to retain any knowledge of his work or access to any duplicate notes was one man. Tesla was not mourned as he should have been and the tabloids leaked there he had built a death ray and FBI were concerned about this experiment able to stop the automobiles and throw a beam as far as thirty six feet. It boasted that it shriveled plants and could electrocute small rodents in its vicinity. Tesla did attempt to create a machine that would help global networking combining telephone, telegraph, teletype , fax and voice and music to the transmitter . Society thought he was creating a war machine and that he could project the energy or a nuclear warhead and any specific area could be vaporized at the speed of light. Today people argue that he created antigravatic UFO's, quantum vacuums, a zero point generator, the Tesla Transporter and so on. The Jinnh secretly paid a few bad men to investigate his dearly departed friend's missing items in the apartment and discovered that a device was safeguarded by a John O Trump. Does that last name ring a bell?"

I nodded then start to fidget wondering about my daughter and what this possibly would have to do with her or I when she apparently read my mind.

"In short Tesla knew how to harness pure energy. He also knew how to control it and to manipulate it at will. His transformers even today cannot be replicated. If they could they could suck Gotham dry and that could be zapped back at will causing massive destruction."

I blinked in horror imagining Gotham void of light, the people scurrying blind in the alleys like tiny filthy rats searching for filth to eat. Zatanna placed her gloved hand on my forehead and I saw hospitals closed while patients moaned in front of abandoned buildings in wheelchairs, I saw airplanes grounded in terminals, I saw grocery stores ransacked as people fought over scraps of food, I saw banks being robbed as people shot the other for a bag on paper money they could not use. I saw a massive transformer with red and orange waves or energy pulsing from a central orb and a man 's silhouette standing before it with hair standing on ends and arms outstretched to the heavens. I could not make out his face. I suddenly hear his laughter as my body starts to shake. I screamed in terror as she took her hand away.

"I understand now" I say with a deep furrowed brow.