Three days later, Mallory and Jen were getting ready to go to a movie with Brandon, Alex, and some of the others. Jen was at the mirror applying makeup, but she was more focused on trying to get a reaction out of Mallory.
"Brandon said Alex was asking about you," she said, looking at Mallory through the mirror. Mallory grabbed a jacket and pulled it on over her t-shirt, glancing at the mirror to check the outfit. "Good for him," she replied, pulling her black hair into a messy bun.
Jen groaned. "You know, sometimes you're the most infuriating person in the world," she muttered.
Mallory chuckled. "You know you love me," she said teasingly. Jen rolled her eyes, refusing to answer. "Besides," Mallory continued, "you've never met Batman."
At that, Jen allowed herself a small smile. "Whatever. You ready? We have to meet Anna and Olivia downstairs."
Mallory gave her reflection one last check before grabbing her wallet. "Yeah, let's go," she said.
They left their room and met the other girls in the lobby of the dormitory, then they started into the night. The boys were going to meet them at the train station, so on the way there the girls made small talk about their classes and fun things they'd found to do in the city. Most of what Olivia and Anna said was tourist traps, but Mallory and Jen didn't say anything, and Jen even went as far as to suggest they go together. They hadn't been in the city long. They would learn soon.
When they got to the train station, Brandon, Alex, and Seth were already there. Jen and Brandon immediately paired up at the front of the group, and Alex met Mallory where she was standing at the back.
"Hey, how you been?" he asked.
"Good, I've been keeping pretty busy. How about you?" she asked.
Alex smiled. "Great. I applied for an internship at a clinic a few blocks from campus. I'm still waiting to hear from the board."
"That's great. I hope you get it," Mallory said, feeling like she should explain why she'd never agreed to a second date. They'd hung out in groups many times after their date, and they saw each other regularly because of their shared psychology class, but somehow the topic had never come up naturally, and she didn't want to force it into the conversation and make their friendship awkward as a result.
"Do you have a partner for the psychology project yet?" Alex asked.
Mallory tilted her head. "What project?" she asked.
"You know, training the mouse to do something. It's worth fifty percent of our grade. How could you forget something like that?" he asked teasingly.
Mallory chuckled and shook her head. "I guess I've just had a lot on my mind lately," she replied.
"Well, I'm going to take that as you don't have a partner, then. Do you want to work with me?"
The train pulled up to the station then, giving Mallory a much needed delay in the conversation to try to come up with a plausible excuse. In all fairness, he would be a good partner, he knew what he was doing and he cared about his grades enough to pick up any slack she might have, but she didn't want to put that on him, and she didn't know how he would interpret it if she did agree to work with him.
When the train took off with the group gathered in the last car, Alex turned back to her, one arm raised as he held onto the bar running along the support poles. "Well?" he asked.
Mallory sighed and forced a smile on her face. "Yeah, sure. When do we start?"
Alex smiled. "The mice are gonna get distributed in two weeks, but we have to come up with what we want to train it to do and a rough draft of how we're going to get there."
"Wow, that sounds like a lot," Mallory said hesitantly. College was starting to take up more time than she'd thought it would, and it was cutting back the time she was available to the League.
"It shouldn't be too bad. We could probably knock it out in a couple hours," Alex reasoned.
Mallory nodded and ran her schedule over in her head, trying to come up with some days that she didn't have anything going on. Her options were limited. "I don't think I have anything going on next Wednesday night, if you want to get together and get it out the way," she offered.
Alex tilted his head, thinking, then he nodded. "That works. You want to meet at the library, and then we can go get some food when we're done."
Mallory covered a wince. "Uh, sure, if we get hungry. You really think it's going to take that long?" she asked.
Alex shrugged. "I don't know. We'll see when we get started."
The train jerked to a stop, jostling Mallory into him at the unexpected stop. "Sorry," she muttered, her face flushing in embarrassment.
"No worries," he replied, his smile easing her nerves away as she raised her eyes to meet his.
"Come on, guys. This is our stop," Olivia said, breaking their brief eye contact.
Mallory smiled and followed the group off the train and down the street to the movie theater. They bought their tickets and went to find their seats. Mallory ended up sitting near the end between Jen and Alex. She leaned back in her chair, alternating between talking to Jen and Alex, and thinking that it was nice to have one full night with some civilian friends that didn't end up with her sneaking off to catch a robber or go on a mission.
Halfway through the movie, Mallory's phone buzzed in her pocket. She ignored it the first time, but when the texts started coming incessantly, and someone tried to call her, she finally pulled it out and looked to see who it was. The texts were from Zatanna and Raquel, telling her to pick up, they had work, and the call was from Zatanna. She sighed, irritation being the main emotion that rose to the surface. She leaned over to Jen, angling her mouth close to her friend's ear so she would be the only one to hear. "I have to go. It's work."
Jen gave her a concerned look, but she nodded once, and Mallory returned it. Great, now she just had to get around Alex, and she'd be home free. She stood up and moved to go around his legs, wishing that theaters were just a little roomier. He looked up and her and tilted his head.
"Everything ok?" he mouthed.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, I've just got to go see a friend," she said quietly.
His forehead creased a little, and she could tell that he wanted to ask her something else, but he decided against it and Mallory continued on her way to the door. As soon as she was back on the street, her feet carrying her back towards campus automatically, she returned Zatanna's call.
"Where have you been? We've been trying to get you for twenty minutes," the magician ranted.
"I know, sorry, I was at the movies with some friends, I left my comm in the dorm," she explained. "What's the mission?"
"Can't tell you over the phone. You'll have to get here soon, though. Batman's the one deploying us, and he's not happy about the delay."
Mallory rolled her eyes as she boarded the train. "Oh, heaven forbid he get put out by me having a life," she muttered, then, louder, she added, "why didn't he just call someone else if he couldn't get me on the line? Are we stretched that thin?"
"Don't blame him. I'm the one that wanted you. Now hurry up and get here, we're on the clock."
Mallory tilted her head, her interest rising by the second. So this wasn't a normal mission, then, if Zatanna was the one calling the shots. "I'm almost to campus, I have to stop at my room and get my suit. I'll be there in five."
There was a small pause on Zatanna's end, then the magician said, "fine. See you then."
Mallory ended the call just as the train slid into the station, and she all but ran back to her dorm, donning her suit in record time, and dove out the window, flying for the nearest zeta tube.
When Mallory appeared in the main room of the Watchtower, Zatanna, Rocket, and Batman were standing around a holographic screen. They had turned to the zeta tube when her arrival was announced, and now she faced Batman's narrowed eyes, Rocket's crossed arms, and Zatanna's tilted head as she joined her friends in front of Batman.
"I know, I know, sorry," she said, heading off any lecture they might throw at her.
"Never mind that now. There isn't much time," Batman said, his gaze immediately moving from her to the screen.
Mallory's eyebrows rose slightly under her mask. 'Huh,' she thought, 'I thought Batman could always make time to lecture us.' She caught Rocket's eye and raised one eyebrow in question, but her friend just shrugged before turning back to the screen. "Ok, so what's going on?" Mallory asked.
Zatanna pressed something on the screen, and a red jewel that looked vaguely familiar popped up, descriptions coming up in the margins. "This is Materioptikon, more commonly known as the dreamstone," Zatanna started.
The name clicked the memory into place, and Mallory narrowed her eyes slightly, thinking back to the night she'd spent with Zatanna and Artemis in New Orleans having their fortunes told. "You have that, Z. I was with you when you bought it," she said.
Zatanna shook her head. "It's gone. I noticed the disappearance this morning, when I went to the house to check on everything."
Inferno and Rocket exchanged a glance, immediately understanding the level of power they were dealing with. No one was supposed to be able to get in that house, not even the League. Zatanna was supposed to be the only one. "Ok, what do we do?" Rocket asked, and Zatanna's words when she'd first bought the gem flashed in Mallory's mind, reminding her how dangerous the thing was.
"We have to get it back before whoever took it has a chance to use it. With any luck, they won't know how to activate it," she said, but no one in the room held much hope of that. If they knew how to break Zatanna's spell on the house, and they only took that one magical artifact out of the hundreds available, then they likely knew exactly what they were doing.
"Ok, how do we do that?" Mallory asked.
"I already have. My dad placed a locator spell on everything in the house, and I put the same one on the gem when I bought it. The only problem is where it is," she said.
"Z, just say what you're going to say already," Rocket said impatiently.
Zatanna nodded. "I traced the gem to a small pocket dimension, only known to magic users. It's mostly used to store volatile artifacts and prisoners temporarily. Legend says it even managed to hold Klarion for a whole day before he inevitably broke out."
"All right, so let's go," Inferno said eagerly.
"It's not that simple. The only way in is with certain kinds of portals, and I don't have one at the house. That's where Batman comes in," she said.
"Don't tell me. He always keeps one in his belt for just such an emergency," Inferno smirked. Batman narrowed his eyes at her slightly, unamused, which only made her smile widen.
"Not exactly, but he knows where we can get one," Zatanna said, hurrying to cut off her friend. She clicked something on the screen, and another gem came up. "It's called the Blood Stone. It has the power to take us where we need to go, and it happens to be in the possession of an alley of his in Gotham."
Inferno and Rocket looked at him, interested. "He's helped me before with magic users that have come into the city. If you tell him that I sent you, you shouldn't have any trouble getting his help," he said.
"All right, well, who is this wizard we need to find?" Rocket asked.
Batman pressed a button, and a picture popped up on the screen. He turned to the girls and said, "His name is Jason Blood."
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