A few years ago
"Good morning"
"Martinez"
"Smith"
Officer Smith greets his fellow officer Martinez. The policemen were next to the bending and coffee machines, and the donuts.
"Is that the last donut with red, white and blue sprinkles?"
Martinez takes a big bite from the donut that he was holding as he keeps eye contact with his donut rival.
"What did I tell you that it'd happen if you eat the last donut with red, white and blue sprinkles?"
Menacingly, Smith looks at Martinez. Everyone at the precinct knew that Smith couldn't start his day without his coffee and his donut…for some reason, he could only eat donuts with red, white and blue sprinkles and that was what earn him the nickname of Lord Dona.
"A little foggy on it but something around the lines of raining down hell fire…"
Martinez takes another bite of the donut, finishing the cake before licking his fingers.
"That's right"
Both officers step closer to the other.
"And here I am without an umbrella…"
"And I hear the storm roaring"
Everyday, it was the same. If Martinez managed to get earlier than Smith, he would make sure to eat every donut with red, white and blue sprinkles to annoy his patrol partner. It was Dick's first day as a detective and in a new precinct. Still, after a couple of hours in his shift, he was introduced to the team and the other officers put up to speed with the squad dynamics along some officers quirks.
Apparently, he was specially requested by Commissioner Ellen Yin. She was doing her best to build the best, not corrupt, team that Blüdhaven has ever seen. And as stupid that some of the members could behave, there were no more honest man and woman that those in the squad.
"Martinez! Smith! It's always the same with you two! What is Richie going to think about his fellow officers if he sees you acting like kids on his first day?!"
Detective Chloe Decker scolds her friends and colleagues.
"Nah. It's okay…this reminds me of another friends of mine and this makes this place feel more like a family of some sorts"
Everyone was impressed by Dick's laidback attitude. Some of them weren't sure what was he doing there, he was the youngest detective in the whole force by a large margin, he was personally recommended by James Gordon; some thought that he must be a boy genius, others were betting that it was nepotism and that he had friends in high places.
"Who's that beauty right there?"
The force stop paying attention to Dick, Martinez, Smith and Decker.
"Hello, Ma'am. C-c-can I help you with something?"
Detective Dan offers his help to the raven haired woman while man was a puddle of nerves.
"Actually, yeah. I'm looking for Detective Dick Grayson…"
Zatanna's eyes starts examining the bullpen locking for her boyfriend, she ignored all the gazes since she was used to them by that point in her life, it doesn't take her long to spot him.
"Zee! What are you doing here?"
Zee pecks his lips before giving him a quick hug.
"Why? Don't you want me here? Does your girlfriend visiting you on your first day embarrassed you?"
She teases him as she archers her eyebrow.
"Of course not. I love having you here but I'm surprised"
"Well…you forgot the lunch I made for you this morning and I thought that I could bring it to you during my lunch break since I was in the neighborhood…"
"Zee…you were rehearsing in New York…"
"I can leave if you don't want me here"
"Of course I want you here"
"Good. When it's your break?"
"Right about now"
"Good. Then let's-"
"Actually, it's not your break just yet. Where are the cases that I assigned you?"
Yin emerges from her office after hearing the commotion.
"Everything is sort out. I already sent the evidence to the lab and I'm just waiting on the results, I track down three suspects that runs drug labs and I was just waiting for you to be out of your meeting to get the orders for our next move"
Dick handles all the paperwork and YIn smiles at his flawlessly work.
"Good job then…and who you might be?"
Elle gives back the folders to Grayson and looks to the gorgeous woman next to her.
"She's my girlfriend"
"I'm Zatanna Zatara. A pleasure to meet you"
The whole precinct falls in deep silence. Everyone was so focus on her presence and beauty that nobody realized that it was the most famous stage magician.
"You are Zatanna? As in the stage magician? As in the best performer?"
Ellen couldn't believe that she was face to face with Zatanna Zatara. She and her wife, Maggie, loved her shows.
"I don't know if I'm the best but thank you"
"Of course you are the best, Zee…well second best, I can still outperform you babe"
"In your dreams honey"
Satisfied with Dick's works so far. Yin smiles and decides to let the boy be.
"Alright. Then take your break…don't make your girlfriend wait but after that I want you in my office to handle these cases"
"Roger that"
"It was a pleasure"
"The pleasure was all mine Commissioner Yin"
Yin smiles at magician.
"Alright people. Get back to work, it's not everyone's lunch break"
Dick took Zee's hand and lead her to the rooftop.
"What are we doing here? Don't you have a lunch room in here or what?"
She smirks at him.
"We do have one but I wanted some fresh and privacy with my girl…"
"You have a way with words, Mr. Detective"
With her magic, Zatanna makes their lunch appear. Dick sit on the ledge of the building and Zatanna made her way next to him.
"What are we having for lunch?"
"My family's special because it's a special day"
Zatanna opens their special lunch box to reveal her mother's family recipe. Dick knew how much it meant to her and how special that food was, not only because she did it with her own hands withou magic but because only the Zatara family has eat that marvelous dish.
"Really? Why?"
"Don't be silly. It's your first day as a detective, I couldn't be any more proud of you"
"And yet you forgot your lunch…"
She nudges him.
"More like you made me forget it"
Dick thanks her for the food and the couple starts to dig in.
"Hey! It's our ritual. We did it on my opening day, your first day in the force, when we move to our apartment, when you became Nightwing…."
"When you managed to do those crazy spells back to back and your tricks with the cards…"
"Yeah. We have to celebrate all of our milestones together…"
"I mean…we have sex everyday and as many times as possible and love every single one of those…"
"That's true"
They keep digging and enjoying their meal but Dick's eyes darted to Zee's hand and saw the Atlatean ring that he gave her all those years ago and when they linked their souls with a magic bond…still he was starting to think that it looked quite lonely and that she could use another ring.
"What? Didn't you like your food?"
Zatanna asked preoccupied.
"No. It's amazing, the best food. The only dish that can surpass Alfred's food"
Zatanna rest her head on his shoulder.
"Then…? What is it?"
"Nothing. Just enjoying this moment with you"
Present
"Sorry for being late Artemis"
Zatanna pants as she gets to her rendezvous point with Artemis.
"Don't worry. I just got here…"
Zatanna looks surprised at the archer.
"Phew. What a relived then…"
"Yeah. I knew that you and Dick will get freaky before this and I know that you always get carried away"
Zatanna blushed for a moment.
"Hey! It could be because Mary…o-or Johnny…"
"Was it tho?"
Artemis arches her eyebrow.
"Okay. No. I was having some fun with my husband. Sue me for it!"
"Relax girl! I know how you two are…"
"Who's taking care of Irey?"
"My mom, Wally, Will and Liam. Who's taking care of the twins?"
"Dick, Donna, my dad and Trace"
"Trace? Really?"
"Yeah. She loves the twins and gets along really well with them and after I last saw you the past week, I have been training her a lot at my place these past few days and she offered to stay with Dick and the twins"
"That's cool and what about Mary? Has Billy…?"
"No. We don't know where she is but Billy knows that she's okay thanks to their Shazam power thing connection and he still wants to let her cool off"
Zatanna looks down. She feels guilty about Mary and wished that she could have handle things better.
"Hey! It's not your fault. No matter what, she would react that way, she was drunk with power. Once she's ready…she's going to get the help she needs from you, from Billy, Freddy, Canary and all her friends"
"Thanks. Are we zeta tubing to Las Vegas?"
"Yeah. Unless you want to drive all the way there or take a plane"
"No thank you. The last time Dick and I took a plane, the engine caught fire because of some bird and I had to wake up from my nap to put it down besides…if I don't get back soon there's going to be a lot of crying in my home"
"Yeah and I'm sure that the twins are going to get upset too"
The girls laugh.
"Let's do this"
"Holy Moly, Zatanna! Now I get why you and bird brains used to travel a lot during your tours instead of zeta tubing back to your apartment…"
Artemis was mesmerized and in love with the room that the Ceaser Palace's staff gifted to Zatanna to settle in.
"It's nice but nothing like home…this place has nothing on my old place"
"Except the indoors sauna, the super shower, the balcony…I can't believe that this place gives you this stuff for free"
"That's because my shows were always selling out and I came back to perform here…the staff has always being amazing with me, Dick and Pocus besides they have history with my dad"
The women sits on the couch after taking some water from the mini fridge.
"What and how do we know about their leader coming back?"
Zatanna gets back to the mission. Artemis pulls out files and evidence from her bag and puts them on the table.
"It was my last mission with the Team before I took my leave of absence because of my pregnancy…there were a group of women with the finger pinched"
"The loyalty Oath? Again? Why didn't I know about this?"
"You were busy with your pregnancy…you were about 7-8 months in. In any case, we got help from Mera. Kaldur asked her for some intel about that and I wen to Nimue as well and then Trace"
"How many persons did you guys involve so I wouldn't know this?"
"A couple but all came negative. They might try to do the spell but it didn't work. They might've say one word bad or did it in the wrong order but we caught most of them and they sing like a canary"
"And?"
"They all were posing as some bimbos to get info from the mob bosses or any rich idiot and then rob their most important collections. Just like I did when I went undercover with them for one mission"
"What about the girls in witness protection from the first mission? The ones that were brainwashed?"
"I went to check on them and I learn…that Beth throw herself from the ferry a couple weeks before…"
"What?! Why?"
"Oracle hacked on her phone and find out that she was talking with her friend about having this urge to throw herself…everything was going okay with her life and she do that out of nowhere"
"An-"
"Why didn't we knew about that?"
The magician nods.
"Someone was posing as her in the check ups…everything was alright but when we confronted this new girl…we realized that she was under someone else's thrall"
"Then what about Lauren?"
Despite being a mission. Zatanna and Artemis grew fond to the girls, Artemis was the most affected of the two since she interacted more with them in the undercover.
"Between last week when I saw you and today…we assigned personal check ups with member of the League, Team and Outsiders and this last Tuesday…Canary and Green Arrow found her. She-she put tons of electronics in her pool and…"
Zatanna couldn't believe the archer's words. She make sure that all the girls were free from the dark magic pact.
"How's that possible? I undid that oath myself and I don't sense any of that kind of magic in you"
"That's because someone re did the spell. Our guess is that someone reached out to them…one by one and make them do that to themselves. So either that crazy bitch is back or we have a copycat"
"But she blew herself although she did knew her magic…after all this years, she might've hide herself and getting her powers little by little and with Merlin and Chaos' mayhem, she took the opportunity to regain her power and stay under the radar"
The magician was in deep thought. The mission might be harder that she initially thought.
"We are going to need disguises and go back to where we confronted her a couple years ago. I need to feel her essence again but we cannot reveal ourselves and make her realize that we are going after her. We need the element of surprise"
"When you said we need a disguise…I wasn't expecting this"
Artemis was confused. They were only wearing hoodies, caps and jeans.
"What were you expecting?"
"I don't know…a glamour charm?"
"That would've give away my mystic essence besides nothing like blend in. We both know someone that disguise himself by just putting some glasses…"
Zatanna smirks at her friend.
"Alright. Alright. You are right"
They were walking through different parts of the hotel, making some recon before going to business. Artemis couldn't help but smile at what the stores were selling.
"You look pretty good on those t-shirt designs…"
Zatanna blushes looking at her own merchandise. There were a couple of shirts with her face on it, toys, magic kits, posters, among other stuff.
"I am an ICON but I didn't design those…the marketing team did it"
"How much do you get from royalties and all these stuff?"
"I'm not Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor rich if you are asking that"
"But you are rich indeed rich, huh?"
"Let's go a get some lunch"
"Okay but you are paying and I don't want cheap stuff"
Smiling, Zatanna drags her friend through the casino.
Today is Zee's birthday and although is not a B-day themed chapter, it is a Z centered one. This is the first part of this mini arc/adventure. As some of you might guessed this is going to follow the Black Canary/Zatanna: Bloodspell story with some changes like Artemis taking Dinah's role among other details. In any case, I hope you are having a great day. Stay Chalant