To WeAreTheWorld, I've left Cinder's end goal intentionally ambiguous because, in a world without Salem and the Grimm as seen in RWBY, she most-certainly would not be the same person. And as it stands right now, Emerald & Mercury may get on like oil & water, but if they teamed up, even with the Protosuit, they'd still give Virgil a hard time. He's sneaky by-necessity, but in a straight-up fight with no Stealth or Ambush, he's still pretty mediocre against those with formal training or other enhanciles.
To The Viking Stranger, ah yes, the old "underwater level" troupe.
Honestly, I think the reason Underwater Levels get so much hate is because, as people who can only move about on an X and Y-axis and have to go out of our way with the Z-axis, that sort of "traversal" fundamentally makes humans uncomfortable. It's why in IP like Ender's Game and Attack on Titan, you have to un-learn what you know about ground-based maneuvers to move about through deep space or the air respectively.
And yeah, Virgil just doesn't have any luck with nature hikes, does he~?
To UndeadLord22, I feel like the reason people are fine with my OC having a Harem, is because I "Slow Burn" it instead of the "Fast Burn" you see in M-Rated stories. You know the ones I'm talking about~
As for the reference, nope; if I were making a Sharknado reference, it would unambiguously be a Sharknado reference~ As a matter of fact, the sub-plot with him getting eaten, and John Constantine owing Morty the Troll money, are an unashamedly American Dragon: Jake Long reference; specifically, Season 2, Episode 12 "Feeding Frenzy". If you watch the after-credit Stinger for that episode, you'll see what I mean~
And considering how-long ago that was, boy I feel old. I mean, I'm not old-old, but that I can be "nostalgic" about 90s TV...
To Superpierce, yeah, it's been a while since he used the Protosuit for something, and I'm happy to get back to basics, even with how-much this story has taken a life of its own.
I'm especially proud of how I introduced him to Zatanna and M'gann, because it gives him a good reason to interact with the next generation of Heroes that isn't "just because" where what happens at Cadmus is the reason for it.
To GreedEman, yeah, since the world of Earth-16H isn't "mid-apocalyptic" like Remnant, Emerald and Mercury would be radically different, but not so radically different they're completely unrecognizable. Having them bounce dialogue off one another is also a ton of fun.
To Cousin687… I guess walking across the English Channel could be called a "water sport"? I mean, it'd basically be like hiking in low-light conditions with full-body restraints on while also fending off aggressive wildlife. Though it certainly isn't pure "Sport Diving".
To Chainharte, yeah, that one felt too good to not put in, but I didn't wanna "ruin the ending" by doing such a roundabout, hence it was a "Deleted Scene"; that or a "Stinger".
As for Emerald, I'll let that simmer for a while, see how the fanbase reacts before doing anything decisive with that pairing, but really, Virgil just has a very nurturing nature where the opposite gender is concerned, and that's part of why his love-life turned out the way it did. Of course, unlike all the other "Harem Protag-kuns" we get out of anime, Virgil isn't meant to be a "placeholder" for the lonely reader's wish fulfilment fantasies, hence why he seems so vibrant even with such an eccentric supporting cast.
That, and he's actually gotten laid as my off-shots on AO3 attest.
Of course, it also helps that Emerald was always one of my favorite characters from the series. I'm a sucker for a girl with red eyes.
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
London, England
March 11, 17:28 WET
One would think that smuggling a modestly-sized treasure chest from Dover into the heart of England would be difficult. However, if there was one thing people the world over ignored, it was a courier with a package that they themselves weren't receiving.
At least in polite society, and it wasn't left unattended on a doorstep.
All Virgil really had to do was slip the chest into an appropriately-sized cardboard box, tape it up, slip into his Diamond Dogs Delivery uniform, and presto changeo; instant disguise magic, now with less magic.
One iconic photograph later at the Abbey Road zebra crossing (or rather, lots of re-takes of the same image so there was more of a chance to get "the perfect photo"), and the four/five of them went to grab some authentic English cuisine before making their way back to the states.
Sure, they had the sort of income where they could've gone to a fancy restaurant, and Cinder's learned youngsters had the clout in Europe that they could've gotten a table pretty much anywhere, but if there was one place where you could get "authentic" English cuisine, it was at a local sports pub, where the three teens (plus chaperone and "emotional support animal") could be themselves and have a good time amongst lots of other people being themselves and having a good time.
Thus, they all found themselves nibbling on Steak & Kidney Pie, Sunday Roast, Bangers & Mash, Toad in the Hole, Fisherman's Pie, as well as some iconic Fish & Chips.
"Hey Em, what's that you got there?" Virgil asked at the end of their meal.
"Knickerbocker Glory," Emerald hummed appreciatively as she picked through layered cream, ice cream, and fruit from a tall glass with a long-handled spoon. "Mmmmmmmm!"
"I'll have what she's having~"
"Shut up, Merc…" the greenette grumbled. "Vee, you want a bite?" she asked sweetly, holding some out with a hand underneath.
"You sure?" Virgil asked, the emerald-haired girl nodding. "Alright, thank you very much then."
His lips coming down around the neck of the spoon, Emerald felt her face flush just a smidge as the red-eyed teen pulled away, carefully rolling the flavors over his tongue.
"You know, there's easier ways to swap spit~"
"Shut up, Merc!" Emerald hissed as her partner smirked at her.
"I'm just saying~ Guy's a bit of a pushover~"
"I will kill you in your sleep!"
"Don't threaten me with a good time~"
"RRRRRRRGH!"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
But of course, like all good things, their working vacation came to an end, and the traveling band of learned youngsters returned stateside.
Thanks to their private jet and pilot besides, it was hardly a trifle to smuggle Virgil's cursed spoils out of the country.
What was a trifle, was stopping Mercury from doing something incredibly stupid at 35,000 feet.
What stopped it from being a Trifle, was Morris doing an epic flex in the form of a half-crocodile half-cat creature baring its whiskers and fangs at him.
"Hey, not cool, Morris!"
"You know what else isn't cool? You opening a Hellgate at cruising altitude!"
"I'm starting to see why Ms. Fall and Mrs. Mayer asked me to look after you two…"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
Shadowcrest
March 12, 16:17 EST
Otherwise known as "The Curious Abode of Giovanni Zatara", Shadowcrest was the ancestral home of the Zatara family, descended from Nicholas Flamel as well as Leonardo da Vinci if the lore was to be believed.
The whole of the mansion was mystical with wards and cloaking spells keeping the location invisible to protect it from the unwanted; not all that unlike the House of Secrets, actually. Though its location had the propensity to change in times of strife and societal upheaval, when Sindella wanted to settle down, allow Zatana to live even a modicum of a normal life despite being a Homo Magi so that she could become "well-adjusted", the vagabond mansion set down roots in upstate New York, well away from the Red Zone and its surrounding infected territories.
Standing in the garage in front of their private Zeta-Tube, the whole of the room additionally warded in case an intruder were able to crack the encryption on the normally one-way transporter, was Zatanna Zatara, still clad in her schoolgirl uniform, whereas Giovanni was clad in more casual wear from rehearsing his next new trick. School had ended only a little while ago, and the normal excitement that came with a looming weekend was further exacerbated by the fact that Zatanna's best friends were soon to arrive.
"Thank you so much for letting them come over, daddy!" Zatanna squealed delightedly as she hugged him tight.
"Well… How could I say no to that face~" the part-time illusionist smiled, happy she had such good friends to trust the other part of her life too.
"V-01: Wildcard."
"V-03: Miss Martian."
"V-04: Morris."
"I don't remember adding that designation…" Giovanni hummed at the third designate, the iris of the Zeta-Tube opening and admitting three guests instead of two. "Virgil… Do I need to be worried about you taking certain liberties with the League's transit system?" he asked with crossed arms.
"How was I supposed to know he was so good with computers?!" Virgil asked, cheeks reddened in embarrassment as he adjusted his load in his arms.
"Wait, you mean this isn't normal?" M'gann blinked as Morris trilled around the room.
"Not on this planet."
"Huh…"
"So… Remind me again how you came across that cursed treasure chest," Giovanni asked as Virgil unboxed the aforementioned ensorcelled receptacle they'd conversed about the other night.
"A magical beast swallowed me in one bite."
"Oh, so just 'another Tuesday' then?" Zatanna hummed with a nod before pausing mid-gesture. "Wait… WHAT?!"
"Oh yeah, that thing is totes cursed," M'gann hummed.
"How can you tell?" Virgil asked curiously.
"The room's wards are going kinda nuts," she said pointing at the runic script scribbled across the walls, ceiling, and floor which glowed a baleful red. "That is what those are, right?"
"They are," Giovanni hummed as he eyed Morris trilling angrily at the cursed chest. "Well, I've already prepared a spot of sanctified ground in one of the workshops. You can basically set it and forget it-"
"Like in Showtime Rotisserie infomercials?" M'gann blinked.
"I mean, I guess…" Giovanni hummed. "No-one's opened that thing, have they?"
"I mean, no-one I knew turned inside-out or anything, so I assume not."
"Not all curses do that," the Leaguer deadpanned.
"But at least one of them does."
"More than one, but that's beside the point."
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
"Sooooo… What now?" Virgil asked as he stared at his loot, now sitting within a golden cipher surrounded by Catholic iconography, a putrid black mist wafting out of the chest's pitch-colored boards.
"Wanna join the Shapeshifter Club?" Zatanna asked hopefully, M'gann nodding excitedly behind her.
"You can shapeshift?" Virgil blinked.
"I mean… only into the one thing, but…" Zatanna said meekly as she poked her fingers together. "Since M'gann is somewhat magic… opaque…" she said trying to sound unoffensive, "I figured this was something we could all have in common!"
"So what is the one thing you can turn into?"
"Follow us to the garden and you'll find out~"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
The garden behind Shadowcrest could easily be mistaken for a legit Botanical Garden with how opulent the greenery and landscaping was; at least if there weren't enchanted pruning shears going about and, you know, pruning, or an enchanted push mower grooming the grass with no-one behind it. Also, even though it was still March, the garden felt much warmer, like it were being climate controlled.
"I'll just assume the whole place is magic and, move on with my life," Virgil hummed to himself. "So, what's this about shapeshifting?"
"Have you ever played the role of a Druid in Dungeons & Dragons?" Giovanni inquired.
"No, but I'm sure it's less racially-offensive than a Harry Potter comparison."
"Well, you aren't wrong," the man admitted, since Virgil was pretty much on-the-money. "Starting at the second level, Druids can magically assume the shape of a beast they've seen before. Obviously, Homo Magi can do such as well, though wholesale animal shapeshifting requires a certain measure of specialization, and if you get it wrong, there can be permanent side-effects."
"And you let your daughter use that kind of magic?"
"Only in the sense that she was able to turn into her own 'Spirit Animal'."
"What is your Spirit Animal then?" he asked looking over his shoulder, only to find the space that Zatanna occupied conspicuously empty.
Glancing downward as something in his peripherals caught his eye, he saw that between Zatanna's footprints in the grass was an adorable white rabbit with black tuxedo-like markings on its fur, M'gann squealing at how-adorable the little mammal was.
" . . . Is that actually Zatanna, or did she just swap places with one of your show rabbits?" he asked after a moment.
The over/under of either was basically 50/50.
"That's really her," Giovanni replied as the rabbit slowly took on a humanoid shape, Zatanna's schoolgirl uniform magically weaving itself into place on her body like a 'transformation sequence'.
"Cute, huh~?" she beamed up at him as she smoothed her hair.
"What can you transform into then?" Virgil asked turning back toward the League member.
"Scottish Terrier," Giovanni admitted, smoothing his mustache before he suddenly morphed into a dignified looking Scottish Terrier with charcoal-colored fur, scratching behind an ear with his hindleg before changing back. "Ah! Think I pulled something…!" he yelped rubbing his thigh.
" . . . So how do I find my 'Spirit Animal'?"
"Do you by any chance know about 'The Red'?"
"That thing that's like the Morphing Grid and/or The Force, but for animal life, right?"
"Oh, my cousins love those franchises!" M'gann beamed from the side.
"In as such, you'll be tapping into that to find what part of The Red you're most-connected to on a spiritual level," the League member replied. "It's a little freehand, but there is some structure to it."
"Any side-effects I need to worry about?"
"Only the amount of time you'll be… ahem… indisposed for the duration of the ritual."
"Why, how long did she, erm, 'trip balls' for?" he asked pointing a thumb at Zatanna.
"Lost a whole weekend…" the pretty Italian/American grumbled.
"Well, your maturity and sense of 'self' should help you with that," Giovanni admitted as he took out his wand. "Of course, if you're on a time crunch, I can easily bring you out of your trance and we can try again later," he said as he turned toward a gazebo where platters of tea and cakes were waiting for them. "But before we do any of that, would you like a spot of tea after a long week?"
"Is the tea laced with drugs to clear my mind?"
"Wha- No, of course not! The tea is just 'tea'!" Giovanni gasped. "Not everything in Shadowcrest is magical. If anything, your house is more-magical than mine!"
"You have a house?!" M'gann gasped with an amazed expression.
"So do you, remember?"
"Technically that's a League asset, I don't actually own it," M'gann pouted. "Still, you have your own house and you aren't even eighteen yet? Spankin'!"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
After having a spot of tea and cake in the garden, M'gann able to keep her borderline orgasmic expressions under control as J'onn had been getting her acclimated to the various foodstuffs that America had to offer that she never had on Mars, the lot of them relocated to one of the Trophy Rooms in Shadowcrest, leaving Morris behind to snooze in the garden.
The Trophy Room in of itself looked exactly what it sounded like, featuring numerous animal heads mounted on the walls, or just entire taxidermized corpses; deer, bear, buffalo, lion, and even an elephant amongst many. What made Shadowcrest's trophy room unique were the addition of magical creatures as well; at a glance, Virgil spotted the head of a Bicorn, the three heads of a Chimera on a single plaque, a Minotaur, what he assumed was a Griffin if not a Hippogrif, a Jackalope, a big-ass spider, and shockingly enough a taxidermized Sea Serpent hanging from the ceiling!
"PETA would have an absolute fit if they ever saw this…" Virgil said taking stock of all the preserved animal heads and full-on carcases scattered about.
"I mean, I personally aren't proud of the mundane animals on display," Giovanni said looking sadly at the preserved lion head on the wall, right next to the African elephant, "but the magical animals on display were legitimately dangerous and had to be hunted down."
"How the hell is a Jackalope dangerous?" Virgil asked. "I'm of course being sarcastic, I can see the horns."
"So what exactly is the ritual Virgil will be using?" M'gann asked as she eyed the preserved animal heads, mundane and magical both, with a mix of revulsion and awe.
Virgil didn't know the first thing about the martian biosphere, but he just assumed Earth's was far more diverse and thus infinitely fascinating to the girl.
"We'll be inducing a deep hypnogogic trance," Giovanni said taking a jar of lime-colored powder from a locked cabinet. "The heads of all these animals may be a bit tasteless, but this room has a stronger connection to The Red than anywhere else in Shadowcrest. If we did this out in the garden, in the worst case we'd have the Avatar of The Green breathing down our necks…"
"So what exactly is in that?" Virgil said crossing his legs in the middle of the room, equidistant from all the trophies.
"Oh, the usual," Giovanni hummed. "Some herbs, some powdered animal bone from across the animal kingdom, some… lysergic acid diethylamide…" he whispered covertly.
"YOU WANT ME TO TAKE MAGICAL LSD?!"
"You mean that stuff the CIA invented?" M'gann blinked.
"To be fair, mind-altering substances have been used in magic rituals since time immemorial," Zatanna hummed like it weren't a big deal.
M'gann, whose education into Earth culture was likely dominated by 80s television sitcoms where mind-altering substances were universally framed as "bad", could only stare at the cute magical girl with an incredulous look on her face.
"What?" Zatanna blinked nonplussed as though she hadn't said anything unordinary.
"Heh. Always the ones you least expect, isn't it?" Virgil chuckled. "Fine, fine. I'll take your magical LSD, just don't go sending me into rehab. I've already huffed magical marijuana and shrooms as it is…" he muttered darkly to himself.
"What was that?"
"Nothing~!"
"Anyhow, it might be better if you laid down," Giovanni hummed as he took a throw pillow from the nearby sofa and tossed it to Virgil, the teen fluffing it a little before laying on his back and getting the comfortable.
"Now then, there might be some small measure of discomfort," Giovanni hummed as he poured some of the powder into his palm before blowing it into Virgil's face the moment he breathed in.
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Insanity is a gradual process."
And why was this important, you may ask?
Because this is exactly what Virgil felt was happening to him as he tripped out on magical LSD, falling deeper down the rabbit hole; at least if said hole was made out of flesh, blood, and various other forms of animal viscera.
And honestly, if this is the "high" that other people chased, he'd stay well the fuck away from the recreational drug scene.
Doubly-so since he also lost half a day to one of Venom Snake's "Phantom Cigars"…
As he continued to tumble down the kaleidoscopic realm of animal anatomy, a feeling of "smallness" like when he'd looked down at the Earth from space washed over him. The blanket of faraway stars almost smothered him at the time, and the feeling here wasn't so much "different" as it was "personable".
It was one thing to be humbled by the mere thought of alien worlds he'd probably never see, but falling into The Red, was the entirety of the world he was born from. Though the psychedelic imagery might've been considered horrifying to some, to one who'd had their eyes open like he'd had, to the fantastical sides of both the mundane and magical worlds, there was something almost appallingly… fascinating, about the whole ordeal.
Now if only he could figure out what the hell the Chesterfield sofa was supposed to represent…!
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
"So um… How long will Virgil be tapped into 'The Red'?" M'gann asked, rolling the proper noun experimentally off her tongue since there wasn't any such 'life-web' equivalent on Ma'aleca'andra.
Or if there was, only the Y'ellonn would know of it.
"However long he requires," Giovanni answered. "Zatanna almost lost an entire weekend when she took her 'spirit journey'."
"Not to mention I was dead tired afterwards…"
"Still though, it'll be so much fun having friends that can shapeshift too!" M'gann beamed with a megawatt smile.
"I mean, obviously we won't be shapeshifters like you, but we'll all have a little bit in common on that front," Zatanna smiled in turn.
*Lub-Dub*
"Oh? Seems like we've got a reaction," Giovanni hummed as he felt Virgil's pulse release a heady wave of magic. "Girls, let's get back, give him some space. We don't know what his totem is yet," he said waving the two back as Virgil shakily got up from his laid position, only to fall onto his knees and break out into a fit of convulsions.
His crimson eyes snapping open into gold with slit pupils, a nicitating membrane briefly slid into place as blackened-green reptilian skin began to spread over his body. His casual attire vanishing as the magic took its hold on him, his body became squat and lengthened, his dorsal side covered in osteoderms, a long rudder-like tail stretching down from his backside, and his face extending into a long snout with small white teeth protruding from the upper lip. His fore and hindlimbs were small and by themselves unimpressive, but he was undeniably a-
"Crikey!" M'gann gasped like one of her cousin's favorite Earth idols.
"Alligator, actually," Zatanna corrected. "Alligators have U-shaped snouts, while crocodiles' snouts are V-shaped; also a crocodile's lower teeth are visible, but alligators' lower teeth are hidden."
"Huh. Didn't think his spirit animal would be a reptile… Honestly, I thought it'd be some form of canid," Giovanni hummed, thinking that the brunette would become something associated with 'protection' after what he did for his daughter in Las Vegas.
"Hey um… Do Earth alligators all get that big?" Zatanna asked as Virgil's animal form continued to grow larger and larger, his tail brushing against the room's anterior wall.
While the adult male American alligator measured to around 15 feet on the higher end of the scale and clocking in at 1,100 pounds, Virgil's size continued to magically balloon until he was more than double that in length, and weighing more than two American cars put together if the creaking of the magically augmented floorboards had anything to say about it.
"HOLY SHIT! IS THAT A DINOSAUR?!" Zatanna gasped as she and the others backed out of the room.
"No, that's a Deinosuchus, prehistoric ancestor to the modern Alligator…!" Giovanni hummed as a tail swipe knocked over a fully taxidermized bear.
Which he didn't mind all that much because sometimes the thing smelled.
"So his spirit animal is a dinosaur, then?" M'gann blinked, seemingly nonplussed since her home world's perennial predators were far more terrifying.
"I mean… Most Magi can only turn into modern animals, but alligators are basically just 'modernized' dinosaurs…" Giovanni gulped.
"He's still in there… right…?" Zatanna asked nervously as Virgil's massive jaws creaked open, a rumbling hiss sounding as golden eyes peered at them.
"Taerter!" Giovanni suddenly shouted as he grabbed the two by the waist, his body magically retreating from the room as massive jaws snaped closed on the space they once occupied.
"W-What the heck?!"
"He must've lost himself sliding that deeply into The Red…!" the Justice League member hypothesized as Virgil in his terrible form waddled out of the room and into the hall.
"If his mind has been lost, I can probably reach out to him!" M'gann said as she floated upward and away before her eyes shone emerald. Her hands extended towards him, as the Martian projected her mind into his- "EYAH!"
"What happened?!" Zatanna gasped as the Martian fell as though struck.
"I-I don't know! It's like… It's like something rejected me!"
"It may be because you're from another planet," Giovanni hypothesized as he conjured ropes from his wand and bound the Cretaceous reptile, only to pile on with chains when the ropes began to break. "The Red connects all animal life on Earth, but it may not umbrage outside tampering…"
"So what do we do?" M'gann asked worriedly as the 'terrible crocodile' rounded the corner, his massive tail swatting furniture with every waggle.
"QUICK! TO THE SCOOBY-DOO HALLWAY!"
"Wait, those are real~?!" M'gann squealed excitedly as Zatanna led them around the corner, the martian's eyes shimmering as she beheld a long hallway lined with doors that perfectly mirrored one another on each side. "My cousins are going to be so jealous~!"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
While it was quite the experience for M'gann to enter one doorway and then exit a non-perpendicular door on the opposite side of the hall non-sequentially, she felt like it would've been more entertaining to spectate than it was to participate. If anything, it was actually a little disorienting traveling though so-many magical doors in quick succession, because one moment Virgil in his "Wild Shape" would be on her left, and then on her right, or she'd wind up exiting the door across from the one he was exiting. And then there were the times where moving further into Shadowcrest seemingly made the hallway smaller and vice-versa…
"Urp…! I think I'm going to be sick…!" she said turning greener than usual ten minutes into what would've been called a 'chase scene' in a visual medium.
"Just a spot of magical transportation sickness, it'll pass," Giovannni said coming out of the door on her left even though he'd been right behind her on the opposite side of the hall moments before, the door at the anterior of the hallway exploding as Virgil's 'Wild Shape' exploded through the timbers.
"How does he even fit through these things?!" Zatanna cried from the giant reptile's back, riding bareback in a wholly conservative cowgirl outfit she didn't remember putting on, magically or otherwise.
"Shadowcrest's sense of humor?" Giovanni blinked as he levitated his daughter off the transformed teen's back and they continued running for their lives.
"Well, that was a bust. What now?" Zatanna asked, thankful she'd been taking PE so seriously.
"QUICK! TO THE BATHROOM!"
"I'm from Mars and even I know it's weird for a middle-aged man to invite teenage girls to the bathroom…"
"Just try to keep up!"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
When Virgil had gone on his "spirit quest" (i.e. tripping balls off magical LSD), he hadn't expected to transform into the animal equivalent of the bow & arrow; a killing machine so-perfect it had remained unchanged for millions of years.
80-million, by the by; give or take a few mill'…
Of course, just like every other time he did recreational drugs (or maybe "professional drugs" because he was on-the-job at the time), he completely lost himself as well as nearly all of his lucidity. Thus, why he remained largely unaware of what was going on in Shadowcrest until he suddenly "came down" in a bathtub the size of a small lake; that or a very large pond.
"Huh. I wonder if this is what Jack felt like after climbing that beanstalk…" Virgil hummed as a skyscraper-sized Zatanna loomed over him before retreating from the lip of the tub, coming back, and tossing in a rope.
What made it weird, or maybe "normal" since at Shadowcrest magic was the definition of normal, was that the rope narrowed in size as it descended, giving Virgil the impression that maybe the bathtub's interior had been tesseracted.
For what reason, he didn't know, but he doubted they'd have tossed him into a magically-tesseracted bathtub without a very good reason.
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
"A dinosaur… An honest-to-goodness dinosaur…"
"I mean, you were almost as long as a four-story building is tall…" Zatanna answered.
"No, I got that much, but…" he said looking over his shoulder at all the damage he caused throughout the course of his rampage. "So Magi using [Wild Shape] to turn into dinosaurs is rare?"
"Very," Giovanni hummed. "There are those that choose to specialize, or just think they're some form of 'Earth Dragon'. And arguably, dinosaurs aren't 'gone', they've just adapted into newer forms. That you turned into an alligator's ancestor was rather… shocking… but you'll certainly be able to scare the bad guys, easily enough."
"Right… So how do I control this magic without losing my marbles again?"
"The loss of lucidity was purely a temporary affliction after connecting to The Red for the first time," Giovanni said reassuringly. "Of course, part of it may've been your transformation into a reptile rather than a mammal. Though, the fact that you regressed to the primal descendant of the modern alligator was certainly a shock. Of course, the casual observer will probably think you just ballooned your [Wild Shape] up with more magic, like a posturing response."
"Well, no need to dissuade them of the notion," Virgil hummed aloud.
"But this is so great! Now we're all part of the 'Shapeshifter Club'!" M'gann beamed excitedly.
"At least yours are actually scary," Zatanna pouted. "What am I supposed to do, make the bad guys coo to death?"
"Honestly, I thought it was a little on-the-nose, myself," Virgil said picking at his teeth. "Does anyone else have the munchies, or is it just me?"
"It's just you, but I'll cobble something together. Your, erm, pirate's booty should be finished purging by then," Giovanni hummed.
"Right, right, I almost forgot that's what I was here for…"
"But you know, it's such a lovely evening, so why not eat out in the garden?" Giovanni offered as he waggled his wand and spoke some magic words, making the table and its place-settings reassemble themselves out on the back deck, where thanks to more magical tomfoolery there was pretty much zero light pollution.
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
Over dinner, which had actually slipped everyone's minds because of the sheer lunacy of being A) chased around a magical mansion by a dinosaur or B) being the dinosaur, Giovanni gave a small lecture on [Wild Shape] magic. Finding your "Spirit Animal" and turning into that was a first step toward true animal shapeshifting; the other kind was just using a Glamour to make yourself look like an animal, which while easier, didn't actually do a whole lot for you and was easier to "see through".
The history of [Wild Shape] magic in the real world was actually quite fascinating, because apparently, the ability to grow a fur coat and hunt your own food was a pretty big deal in the Dark Ages for the peasantry; which was basically more than 95% of the standing population at any given time. Then there were all the unsubstantiated stories of animal-headed deities just being ancient Homo Magi fucking around with the locals, which got confusing because some of those animal-headed deities were actually legit and not just fantasy. Honestly, the line between myth and fact became very blurry after a while, even in the magical world. There were of course, a countless variety of "Were-" transformations, either through magical items anyone could years, magical spells quote/unquote "anyone" could learn, or magical afflictions that anyone could catch, but Werewolves were obviously the most-popular, and when M'gann learned they came in different flavors...
"My… brain… is… melting," M'gann groaned as she facepalmed on the table.
"Yeah, magic can get a little nuts," Virgil admitted.
While not admitting that he possibly had a Lovecraftian entity on speed dial.
"Hey, speaking of which… How did you get your own house?!"
"The house found me," Virgil said scratching his cheek, leaving it at 'that' since Giovanni probably wouldn't appreciate the government 'dissecting' magic the way A.R.G.U.S. did. "So am I just always going to turn into a dinosaur or what?"
"Now that you've had your first 'episode', it should all be much easier from here on out," Giovanni answered. "As long as you don't draw on The Red's energy while you're mentally compromised, like from fatigue, concussion, or intoxication, you shouldn't lose yourself like you did before."
"And what if I'm distracted by something else?"
"Then you'll straddle the line somewhere between man and beast," the League member answered. "Of course, some Magi do that intentionally, though not usually with lupine shapes because that can sometimes be in bad taste."
"So a half-man, half-dinosaur… Interesting," Virgil hummed wondering how-badly someone would shit their pants if they suddenly saw a normally-quadrupedal dinosaur suddenly get up on two legs.
"I can also go halfway sometimes, though daddy forbade me from doing as such outside the house," Zatanna hummed causing Giovanni to choke on his food.
"Why? What's wrong with a half-girl, half-rabbit?" M'gann asked innocently, causing Giovanni to cough louder as he cleared his airway.
"It's an Earth thing," Virgil hummed as he tried very hard not to imagine his 'Polyamorous Primary' & 'Polyamorous Secondary' as rabbit girls.
Because yes, those terms got bandied about in the Poly-"Pampering" Accords.
"Th-That better not be my daughter you're thinking of," Giovanni said after finally clearing his airway.
"Below my strike zone, remember?" Virgil deadpanned. "Alright, I'm pretty full up, so how 'bout I try again?" he asked stepping out into the garden.
"Go, Vee, go!" M'gann cheered eagerly as Virgil stepped well away from anything he could knock over, bouncing on his feet and limbering up his hands, rolling his neck twice before suddenly dropping down on all fours.
With a cry of- "Dliw Epahs!" -, his crimson eyes turned completely gold and slit-pupiled, his body rapidly transmogrifying into his more reptilian form; albeit of the more modernized variety. A deep hiss leaving his alligatorian maw, his transformation was far swifter than Giovanni would've imagined, the teenager waddling in a couple showy circles around the garden before suddenly shifting back, shaking his limbs out as a shiver went up his back.
"That was… highly impressive…" Giovanni blinked. "It took Zatanna entire minutes to change when she started out."
"Well, you can blame mid-90s literature for the very concise image I had in my head," Virgil replied as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Oh? What series?" Zatanna inquired.
"Animorphs," Virgil replied. "All the other kids were doing book reports on Harry Potter at the time, so I just grabbed whatever looked interesting. And let me tell you, that was some dark shit for something written in the 90s."
"How dark we talking?" M'gann asked with a tilt of her head, hungrily curious for anything Earth-borne.
It wasn't that Mars didn't have anything equivalent to popular culture, it certainly did, but the thing with being a species that lived for centuries and centuries if not a full millennium, was a certain lack of "urgency". An urgency that spurred Humans to create great things within singular human lifetimes. It was actually why there had been a Renaissance of sorts among the normally-isolationist people, and it all started when her uncle sent a collection of Loony Tunes media back to Mars after getting back in contact following that whole teleporter incident; Bugs Bunny had been especially popular because his disguising ability was almost like Martian Shapeshifting.
"Darker than a kids' book had any right to be," Virgil replied noncommittally. "And honestly, that might be why I turned out so-radicalized…"
It'd certainly explain... well... a lot of things.
"I think one of my cousins was a fan of the series, but it's a big family, so I'm not aware of everything my family enjoyed from Earth."
"Hey, speaking of which…" Zatanna hummed like something was weighing on her mind. "How does Earth media get all the way to Mars? . . . Do you bootleg?"
"Huh? Oh no! No! Merchants buy the stuff!" M'gann said raising up her hands.
"With what money?" Virgil inquired quizically.
He didn't even know what they used for currency on Mars, but he doubted it counted as legal tender off-world.
"Oh, we just take some gold from the asteroid belt, smelt it into bars, and convert that into Earth money through normal intermediaries."
She said as such with a completely straight face, leaving Zatanna open-mouthed while Virgil's opened and closed in a pursuit of words before he was finally able to say-
"You'd probably be a real treat on the talk show circuit."
"You really think so?" M'gann asked with a tilt of her head.
"Hey, daddy's been on a few talk shows," Zatanna nodded. "Say, do you think you could-"
"Let them come to you, don't try and sell yourself out; you'll just come across as desperate," Giovanni replied. "People might have short attention spans, but they have long memories."
"That or short attention spans and short memories," Virgil chuffed.
*Ting~aling~aling~aling~*
"Ah, the curses must be expunged," Giovanni hummed as a tingling of an old-timey bell sounded from inside the house, the man wiping the crumbs from his stache as he rose to his feet. "Come along. Let's see what that giant shark, erm, coughed up. Besides you."
"Who said the giant shark coughed me up?" Virgil returned. "And no, I didn't come out the other end."
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
The four of them finding themselves back in the reading room where the curse-purifying Cipher had been set into the floor, the treasure chest that Virgil brought to the party was no longer spewing evil magic, though its appearance in of itself was still slightly terrifying. Although, scrape off the barnacles, get rid of the fish-stank and maybe you could put it at the foot of your bed.
"And you're sure that's safe to open?" Virgil asked warily.
"What do your senses tell you?" Giovanni inquired.
Virgil for his part stared at the repository he'd (quite literally) pulled from the belly of the beast before adjusting his Ring-Wand on his finger and waving it at the thing like he were performing a Jedi Mind Trick.
" . . . Well, it doesn't give me The Willies anymore," Virgil hummed after a minute.
"Usually a good sign," Zatanna nodded, though Virgil still looked nonplussed about touching the thing. "Don't worry, babe, I'll protect you~" she grinned mischievously at him.
"Stop giving your dad an aneurysm," Virgil sighed as he took out his Thunderbird Core Wand and tapped the silver skull before finally reaching forward and throwing the lid open; albeit from the side so he weren't directly in front of the thing. Usually when someone rigs a booby trap into a treasure chest, it's aimed straight-ahead because "usually", that's where the poor schmuck will be standing.
"A tad paranoid, but old friends of mine have gone out from doing… not that," Giovanni admitted as he and the others slowly crowded around the opened chest, jaws dropping and eyes going wide at what they found waiting for them.
The chest was fit to bursting with Spanish doubloons and a spattering of fine jewels, glittering as though they'd been freshly polished, while magical odds and ends stuck up from the depths of the Scrooge McDuckian marvel. There was a roll of parchment, some jewelry, a flask of rum that was intoxicating to look at, a compass, and a candle.
"Holy shit, we're rich!"
"Zatanna! Language!" her father chastised. "But also yes, this is quite the windfall. Remember who your friends are~" he chuckled good-naturedly.
"Here. Invest in some new tricks or get your staff something nice," Virgil said grabbing a two-handed fists-full of doubloons and dumped them into the man's pocket without a moment's hesitation, the League member goggling incredulously at him.
"You're just… giving them away?" he asked with saucer-sized eyes.
"Not all of it, obviously, but I'm not going to spend all of it either," Virgil hummed. "Or at least not by myself," he said grabbing another two fistfuls of Spanish gold with his powerful fingers before holding out his hands to Zatanna and M'gann, the two obediently cupping their palms as riches tinkled into neat piles. "Here you go. That should get you into any college in the country."
"That's… quite generous of you," M'gann said finding her words while Zatanna stared slack-jawed at the heavy weight in her hands. "This is a lot, right?"
"Um… YEAH…!" Zatanna sputtered as her fingers frantically clutched at her windfall.
"It's not going to vanish if it falls to the floor," Virgil said as he rifled through the gathered treasure before he cast the word- "Etativel." -on the roll of parchment, revealing-
"A treasure map!" M'gann goggled excitedly, eyes shimmering with child-like delight. "Hah, my cousin would be so jealous!"
"Assuming that thing's legit…" Zatanna hummed, though an excited glint shone in her eyes as well.
"I feel like I should be the responsible one and say not to let the allure of wealth get ahead of you…" Giovanni hummed, though it was obvious that a somewhat nostalgic part of him was also interested.
Then again, what young lad didn't dream of digging for pirate treasure?
"I mean, sure, we could hop in the Bioship and get it right now…" he said trying to make sense of the hand-drawn map. "But this is probably better saved for summer vacation. After all… It's not like this treasure is going anywhere~"
"That is true," Giovanni nodded, eyeing the rest of the odds-and-ends in the chest. Some of it was magical, some of it was mundane, but for the prior, you'd have to make a dedicated effort to find out what items did what.
After all, you can only use an "Exploding Head Talisman" the one time…
"Oh? This looks promising~" Virgil hummed as he eyed the handle of a weapon protruding from the tub of gold. The handle was black as night, accented with a black star sapphire gemstone on the pommel, the blade buried deep.
Maneuvering his hand around the matching cupped guard and pulling the weapon free, careful not to bump into anybody, eyes all around went wide once more as he withdrew a beautiful silver cutlass. The silvery blade was decorated with small crescent moon-and-star markings like maker's marks, the sheen of the single-edged blade rolling like ocean waves. The blade practically sang as Virgil experimentally waggled the weapon through the air, a sense of child-like awe intermingled with professional interest swelling up within him.
"Okay, even I can tell that thing's magical," M'gann said as something excited glimmered in her eye. "May I? Please?" she asked with glistening eyes.
"Alright… Just don't point it at anybody," Virgil said as he carefully held the weapon out to her pommel-first.
"Look at me! I'm a swashbuckler!" M'gann whooped excitedly as she slashed at the air before thrusting outward. "AVAST!"
*Vweeee-THOOM!*
"ACK!" the Martian yelped as the silver cutlas fired a silver energy blast that knocked her off her feet and onto her ass, which just so happened to fling her into Virgil's lap which knocked him off his feet and onto his ass. "Um…" she blinked awkwardly as she saw a hole in the wall the size of a shotgun blast. "Oops?"
"Um, okay, I think playtime is over," Virgil said as Zatanna helped M'gann to her feet; but only after the Martian put the silver cutlass down. " . . . Hey, what's with you?"
"That sword… I recognize it from an old story!" Giovanni said as he ran into the heart of Shadowcrest.
" . . . What got into him?"
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
As it turned out, the silver cutlass belonged to a 17th century pirate by the name of Bradley Brown, otherwise known as "Black-Eyed Brad", a pirate/privateer whose distinctive Port-Wine Stain made him look like he had a black eye, and toward the end of his life wielded an incredibly distinctive silver cutlass which became his hallmark. Reason Giovanni knew which of the many books in Shadowcrest to look for to verify this information, was because this was one story of many he and his brother had been read to bed as children.
The man was so excited from all the nostalgia bait, the three teens didn't have the heart to stop the man from going on a tangent.
As the story went, Black-Eyed Brad came to be in possession of an Atlantean cultural treasure after raiding a merchant ship. An Atlantean mage presented himself to Brad, wishing to retrieve the treasure for his people, as it was worth more back home than whatever Brad could've gotten for it on "ye olde resale market", as Giovanni amusingly framed it. Black-Eyed Brad, recognizing a good deal when he saw one, agreed to return the cultural treasure in exchange for a magical weapon of equivalent magical value, but not in cultural value. To that end, the Atlantean mage commissioned a magical silver cutlass for the pirate captain; a sword that could shear mundane blades like cloth, shoot energy blasts more-powerful than a blunderbuss, and allow him to move the ship to his own will. With such a weapon, Black-Eyed Brad could've become a legendary pirate like Blackbeard or Captain Kidd, but a monstrously-powerful storm sank his ship to the bottom of the sea, and Black-Eyed Brad, attempting to flee with his personal treasure, was devoured by sharks.
The historical account, or "anecdote" to the Mundane, came from a boy who worked as a swabby on the Black-Eyed Pirates' ship and was given a pardon due to his young age and ceding certain information on other pirate bands.
Historians both magical and mundane had debated for centuries whether the freak storm that cost Black-Eyed Brad his life was a result of sheer coincidence, or a reprisal by the un-named Atlantean mage for being extorted in such a way. However, most-everyone could agree that Black-Eyed Brad's treasure had never been found, meaning the treasure map Virgil had unwittingly recovered, was exceedingly valuable.
Unless someone happened upon Brad's treasure and never told anyone; in which case the map was just a collector's item.
"And… why exactly were you in a position to liberate Black-Eyed Brad's treasure from the stomach of a giant shark?" Giovanni repeated.
"Cross my heart, I was out for a walk, and things got really, really, reallyreallyREALLY out of hand…" Virgil sighed as he flopped himself across the table of the (other) reading room they were all occupying, Black-Eyed Brad's signature weapon, now in its scabbard after that had been dug out of the treasure chest, laid upon the old wood, surrounded by everyone.
" . . . I think it might go well with your costume," Zatanna admitted. "Assuming you can control the whole… you know… blasting thing."
"Don't you think such a thing belongs in a museum?" Giovanni asked, playing devil's advocate.
"Why? So someone with more than two braincells can steal it, use it to steal other stuff, and possibly hurt a lot of people along the way?" Virgil scoffed. "Honestly, you people wonder why museums get their shit stolen so much and complete randos get magical power-ups…"
"I mean… I suppose you aren't wrong…" the man admitted, since that usually was how things tended to go. Every time. Without fail. "Although, I would like the chance to appraise Black-Eyed Brads treasure myself to ensure there isn't any residual malignancy upon it. Maybe draft up a manual for that silver cutlass of his."
"I mean, as long as Zatanna doesn't catch you having a mid-life crisis or anything," Virgil said as he eyed the weapon.
He hardly knew spit about magical weapons, but he knew weapons with a lower-cased W, and he could tell a fine weapon when he saw one thanks to all his hands-on training with Snake, the Freelancers, and even the simulator. Though maybe not so much the last one…
And it wasn't like he himself was immune to nostalgia. After all, what young lad didn't dream of digging for pirate treasure?
"And I really can't convince you to give at least the gold to a museum?" Giovanni asked, having at-the-least emptied his pockets so he wouldn't sound like a complete hypocrite. And while he could technically pull rank and guilt-trip Zatanna into emptying her pockets as well, he had no such power over M'gann who probably wouldn't care for Earth relics unless they had to do with capital-m Magic, or 80s television.
Or Oreos if she had the same... compunctions as her uncle.
"I got eaten. By a giant shark. Consider this renumeration for my mental suffering," Virgil deadpanned as he protectively hugged the doubled-up pillowcases filled with gold coins to his chest.
"Don't you already have a job, though? And a well-paying one at that?"
"Hey, money is money, and I don't see you quitting your day job to galivant with the Justice League of America," Virgil expertly countered. "Besides, the bigger the nest egg I have, the more 'charity work' I can do when I'm not looking after these two."
"We can defend ourselves you know," Zatanna said with crossed arms, but only after discretely withdrawing her pile of gold coins to her personage.
"Yeah, but the entire point of having super-powered friends is you can take some of the load off."
"Which reminds me for whatever reason. We need to take a group photo!" M'gann beamed excitedly.
"What for?"
"To commemorate the formation of the Shapeshifter Club!" M'gann smiled. "Now that we aren't running for our lives or rolling in pirate booty, I just remembered."
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt, though I wish there was a little more daylight."
*MAGICAL MENAGERIE*
Happy Harbor
March 12, 13:53 EST
"Megan, you're still awake?" the man known as John Jones inquired as he came back into his niece's place of residence from the garage.
The cover story was that while he did work elsewhere, he trusted Megan enough to watch over the house of a family friend who was out traveling overseas long-term. In exchange for upkeep, Megan was being allowed to stay in the lovely two-story home rent-free, and was even being given certain liberties as long as she absolutely did not have "crazy house parties" in it like you'd find in all the old sitcoms; or God forbid on televised Spring Break events.
To those not-in-the-know, someone in their mid-teens being trusted to watch an entire house on the beach was a huge ask; potentially irresponsible of her uncle. However, for those that knew she had been born during Earth's 1962 and that she treated her domicile with the utmost respect, it wasn't completely unheard of for her to be given this sort of responsibility.
Not to mention, that the adolescents of Mars were simply more-mature than those of their sister world by far. Though Earth's pop culture had begun to slowly disseminate among the current generation as well as the next, it hadn't completely supplanted the old ways, and if Earth ever did attempt to make a surface colony on Mars, the Ma'aleca'andrans would make overtures beyond the light sabotage of their invasive surface drones.
Of course, whether the sabotage of aforementioned drones was at the behest of the royal family, or just a few surface-walkers doing so for a lark, J'onn himself was unaware.
"Too excited to sleep," Megan smiled, hugging a framed picture to her chest before holding it out for her uncle to see.
Within the black picture frame was the image of one of Ridley Scott's xenomorphs riding a school bus-sized alligator bareback. Tucked under the thing's oil-colored arm was a cute monochromatic bunny rabbit, held like an American football, while the other hand was pointed excitedly forward. The setting was in an opulent garden under a sea of stars, and if anyone not-in-the-know were to see it, they'd think it an eccentric art piece and blather on for an hour or so what all the "symbolism" actually meant.
With terms like "SFX" and "CGI" in the common mind, it was easier to believe the picture was fake despite its quality, than for it to be legitimate.
"So you had a good evening, then."
"The best!" Megan smiled. "And look, I'm all good for college!" she beamed holding open a small bag with a draw string, revealing glittering gold coins.
" . . . I'll attempt to find a vendor for the maximum returns, then," the Manhunter replied with a completely straight face. "Who is… that supposed to be?" he asked pointing to the thing she was riding bareback on.
*AN*
This chapter ballooned only a little bit out of control, but I had a shit-ton of fun writing this~ Introducing M'gann and Zatanna to one another early was one of my more inspired overtures, and it opens so much possibility for her to already be versed in the magical world. That and for her to be less "fresh off the boat" by the time of Episode 2
The Animorphs reference was an extremely recent addition to the in-world lore, and that shit is dark. My knowledge is only second-hand at the moment, but I remember seeing it in the school library growing up; albeit, that was before I discovered that reading could be fun. But I digress. Story behind this inclusion was, I was at work thinking about re-listening to the Dresden Files series (by Jim Butcher) after listening to The Olympian Affair following An Aeronaut's Windlass (also by Jim Butcher), my mind drifted to Animorphs, I listened to some video essays on YouTube and… Viola.
Also, I snuck one of my favorite lines from With this Ring (Young Justice SI) by Mr Zoat on SpaceBattles, because it's one of my favorite Young Justice stories, and is probably better than mine in some regards.
Just giving credit where credit's due.
Anywho, hope to see you in the Reviews section, and I'll see you all next time on Chronicle of Zhu: Book 2 – Reconstruction.
*P.S.*
Gonna try and send Discord Invite codes out to readers to engage a bit more with the fanbase, so... Let's see how it goes.
Some of my best stuff came from sound boarding, after all.
h-t-t-p-s (colon-dash-dash) discord . gg / x8BQpx8E