WARNING: Spoilers for the Attack on Titan manga and Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic are in this chapter. Like... right at the beginning.
As Wounds Heal
Chapter 3:
Knights of the Cosmos
...January 13th, a few days later...
Zatanna waited patiently at the radiotherapy clinic for Dick to be done with his treatment. Since meeting him for the first time there half a year ago, her life had sped up and had been filled with love and excitement. Over those past few months, she had also learned why so many people referred to Dr. Thompson by her first name. Leslie was family. She had helped Alfred raise Bruce and was a surrogate grandmother for both Dick and Helena.
The doors swung open and Dick came out, pulling his beanie onto his head. He approached Zatanna, leaned down and kissed her forehead. She liked it when he kissed her so sweetly. It filled her heart with love.
"Hey, Zee, guess what," he teased.
"Aladdin is a Magi?"
"Already knew that,"
"The Titans were once humans?"
"Totally called that,"
"What is it, Dick?" Zatanna asked, having run out of anime references from the top of her head.
Dick put his fingers to his lips for secrecy and he pushed her out of the clinic and back to the car. He remained silent as Alfred drove them back to the condo the Wayne family was staying at. He just kept this pursed smile on his face the whole time, obviously desperate to reveal the secret.
Alfred stopped outside of the underground parking zone to scan the entry card before driving them in. Dick took Zatanna into his arms and carried her until Alfred could get her fold-away wheelchair out of the trunk. Even then, he insisted on pushing her rather than letting her propel herself. It seemed his resistance against revealing his secret was wavering.
Finally, they entered the Waynes' condo and Dick took her to the entertainment center. There, he sat Zatanna down on the sofa and used his body to hide his actions as he loaded something on a pair of laptops. He sat down on the other end of the sofa with one of the laptops and passed the other to her. They slid earphone-microphone headsets on and Zatanna curiously watched the loading screen. Wasn't this just Knights of the Realm?
Suddenly, a logo of red meteors falling behind black letters shot onto a background of stars. The letters said: Knights of the Cosmos. Zatanna's jaw dropped. This was the new game from the KtR developers but it wasn't supposed to be out until next month!
"How the H-E-double-hockey-sticks do you have Knights of the Cosmos already?!" she exclaimed.
"You forget the perks of being rich. I made some calls and got two advanced copies shipped here but it took a week to get here. Since KtC hasn't been released to the public yet, the only other players we'll encounter will be others who own advanced copies. So, rich kids, beta testers, professional gamers, game reviewers and contest winners," Dick explained "You wanna play?"
"Hex yeah! Let's get to it!" Zatanna exclaimed.
They logged into their Knights+ accounts to register their games with the developers before simultaneously clicking START.
After 6 hours straight of gaming, Dick and Zatanna had made great strides in Knights of the Cosmos. Dick's new avatar was named "Robin-X" with boosted stealth and agility stats. He'd signed up for the Intergalactic Mercenary career and had level-grinded to get to Level 22 already. Zatanna decided to name her new avatar "Eclipse Mage" with boosted combat and sorcery stats. She had signed up for the Star Sorceress career and the level-grinding got her to Level 18. They still needed to unlock some skills they wanted like Bio-Hacking and Void Magic but their eyes could only stare at a screen for so long.
Since they had registered their games with the developers, other players could go to their profiles and see what other games the user had played and under what name. That meant anyone could find out Robin-X and Nightwing had been created by the same user. The same went for Magic Mistress and Eclipse Mage.
"You wanna go hunting for skill gear after this?" Dick asked as he passed his girlfriend a mug of whipped cream-topped hot chocolate.
"Sure. I was looking stuff up online and there's this Cellular Staff that I wanna get," Zatanna said "It apparently speeds up progress in the Void Magic skill by 50% when you use it to cast a spell. What do you want?"
"I was thinking of getting the Dark Matter Escrima Sticks. They increase the force of the attack by 70% and you advance in Dark Matter Manipulation 25% faster," he said "But you have to be Level 35 to gain access to the teleporter you need to take to get to the meteor they're on,"
"We better get back to leveling then, huh?" Zatanna said, finishing off her drink.
"Yup,"
After finishing their hot chocolate and eating some reheated leftovers, they went back to their game and leveled up like there was no tomorrow.
After a solid 10 HOURS of gaming, it was 9 o'clock and Zatanna's curfew. Dick pushed her along the hallway to her door before turning her around to face her. They smiled at each other before he leaned down to kiss her. Zatanna held his wrists as he cupped her face in his hands. Dick pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.
"You are the best girlfriend in the world, Zee, and I love you," he said, smiling sweetly at her.
"Aww, you're sweet. I love you too," she responded.
Zatanna smiled at him before taking out her key and opening the front door. Dick held the door wide open for her before the door was shut on another day together. The two of them had gotten together on July 4th and now that it was January 13th, they'd been dating for 5 and 1/2 months (give or take a week). Dick smiled as he headed back for the elevator and pressed the button to go down to the lobby.
So... anyone having trouble figuring out what to get people for Christmas or Hanaka or whatever you celebrate? I've got my parents, my four brothers, my sister, my first brother's wife, my third brother's wife, my nephew and my two nieces to shop for. At least I don't have to shop for my extended family. I lost track of my aunts, uncles and cousins many moons ago.