#Zatana

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Finally Getting Help (pt 3)

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What Tim and Bruce found was completely ridiculous. It really wasn’t hard to find the Doctors Fenton’s website but it was ridiculous! It was outdated and gaudy with animations of cartoony ghosts everywhere. If it hadn’t been for how clear Danny was about his parents' names Tim would have skipped right over it. But when he got past the terrible website design and started reading it his stomach just dropped lower and lower.

The writing was clean and scientific though it couldn’t disguise the malicious delight they took in tearing the creatures they called ‘ghosts’ apart. Whatever these ghosts really were Danny had been internalizing this attitude about Himself for years! They also bragged about their weapons and their government contract. So whether that was true or not Danny hadn’t been lying or delusional, it was his parents. And regardless of what these ghosts actually were it was obvious they were supernatural so RR sent a link to the website to Zatana.

(link)

RR: What do you think?

Tana: Lol is this a joke?

RR: I wish, I know it looks like one but no, this is deadly serious.

Tana: Hang on

Red Robin put down his phone to give Zatana the time to read over the site and looked more into Maddy and Jack Fenton while she did. He found their graduation certificates, and pictures of them in college with what must have been a much younger Vlad. So they were actually doctors of some sort, they had their doctorate, though that didn’t exactly make it any less likely they had gone fully off the rails now.

His phone dinged and he picked it up to see one short message from Zatana.

Tana: I’m coming to the cave.

Tim sighed and put his phone back down, spinning his chair to face B who was hunched over the computer typing furiously. “Zatana is on her way, I asked for her opinion of the Fenton’s research and she must think it’s big.” He said as he dug out a domino mask.

“Hm,” B sounded and went to get his cowl. “Report?”

“The Doctors Fenton are doctors, they got their doctorates though I don’t know in what yet. They’ve been friends with Vlad since university and they certainly at least think they’re studying ghosts. Their website has articles on behaviours and biology, and how to hunt and hurt ghosts. They brag about a government contract.” Tim summarized. “You?”

“The Ghost Investigation Ward does exist and they are a government agency but they only seem to be active in the town of Amity Park and they’re so inept! It wasn’t hard to hack them, they’re trying to sound mysterious and a little dangerous talking about protecting humanity from invasions from other worlds but I don’t think they’re actually that competent,” Batman said with a scowl.

“The only reason we didn’t know about this was because we weren’t looking! And it’s possible Danny is right and they were jamming calls from Amity to the JL, but I have a terrible feeling what actually happened if that the call came through and someone heard them talking about ghosts and rogue government agencies, assumed it was a prank and blocked them,” Bruce said massaging his temples.

“Ah,” Tim said, his heart dropping at how plausible that sounded. Could they have saved Danny before, if they had taken that call seriously.

“And Vlad is the mayor of his town, there are articles about Danny fighting him in public. It seems like everyone knew their relationship was antagonistic at best and No One defended him. The GIW also listed him in their special thanks for helping fund them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been using them as a tool to threaten and control Danny.” Batman said with cold fury. Tim took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

“We weren’t able to protect him, but we will avenge him. And we’ll keep him safe Now,” Tim reminded his father. Privately thinking that as soon as he could he was going to tell Jason about this so they could Really make sure Vlad never came near Danny again. An arrest just wasn’t strong enough for a man like that. He wasn’t going to tell Bruce that though, obviously.

The sound of the Zeta tube interrupted their moment as Zatana arrived, looking slightly more ruffled then she usually did. She must have really rushed here, which was a bit worrying.

“Zatana,” Batman greeted.

“Hello Batman, before we talk I need to check your wards.” She said already walking past them.

“Hm,” Batman sounded, making RR smile a little, how Batman made that sound mean so many different things always sort of amazed him.

“I need to check the ones on your home too. And I’d like to meet the boy you have under your care,” She said briskly.

“How did you know about the boy?” Batman asked gruffly.

“Lucky guess,” she said briskly, her hands glowed as she walked around the cave, making seemingly random gestures as if touching or pulling on invisible threads. None of the bats really understood magic so they left her to it. When she was done they let her up into the manner, she knew their identities already after all and she checked all the wards on the home very thoroughly, occasionally casting spells to reinforce them. They collected Dick and Damian trailing after them curiously as they went as well.

“Alright, can I meet the boy now?” She asked, turning towards Bruce who crossed his arms and puffed out his chest a bit.

“Not till you explain to us what’s going on,” He growled and Zatana looked over the curious stubborn faces surrounding her and sighed.

“Fine,” she allowed, resigned. She rubbed her temples as she looked around for a chair and sunk down into it. “So what the Fentons seem to be referring to as Ghosts are actually denizens of the Infinite Realms, the space in between every world and afterlife. Some of the beings there were once people who died but many aren’t. They’re also known to be very powerful and quite violent though thankfully not particularly interested in the living. The fact that the Government is apparently messing with something like this is very bad news.

“Constantine and I have been keeping half an eye on the situation in Amity Park but they had their own pair of Heroes, Phantom and Red Huntress, who seemed to have the situation well under control so we weren’t all that worried about it. We weren’t tracking the more human elements of the GIW and the Fentons,” She bit her lip and thought for a moment.

“When Tim sent me that website and I was made aware of those, that changed things. What’s worse is the photo the Fentons’ have of their family. Their son… we knew Phantom looked young but ghosts often stay at a younger age than they really are, with how powerful he was we assumed he was Old. But he looks exactly like the Fenton’s son. Did they not notice he was dead or…” She looked around at their faces, apparently getting her answer from their expressions.

“There have been rumours for a long time about a very rare and powerful sort of living dead, humans soaked in the pure energy of the infinite realms resulting in a still living ancient. It’s so rare that people usually think it’s a fairy tale but with the work Phantom’s parents do it makes a sick sort of sense. And what it means is that that boy you have stashed away is basically a baby God and we all have to be very careful.”

There was a heavy silence as they all processed what she was saying. “Are you… sure?” Tim asked, uncertainly.

“I won’t be till I meet him, but I’m as sure as I can be without that at the moment,” she said firmly.

Tim sighed and pulled out his phone. “Cas is with him, I’ll text her to see if she’s up to meeting you. If he’s that powerful we don’t want to push him right?” He asked as he typed out a text to Cas.

“Yes. Like I said he’s been acting as a hero in Amity, he seems like a good kid but I have no doubt in my mind if he’s pushed too far we could have a truly apocalyptic situation on our hands,” She said which made Tim swallow thickly.

His phone dinged and he checked it. “Danny is willing to meet you but he’s really tired so go easy on him and don’t stay long,” Tim relayed her message.

“Alright that’s fine, thank you. Show me the way please,” She requested.

Bruce took over, leaving the way. “We don’t want to overwhelm him, I think only I and Zatana should go in, with Cas still there since he seems to feel safe with her,” Bruce informed his children.

“Alright, just tell us everything soon!” Dick demanded and Bruce’s lips twitched up in just the suggestion of a smile as he nodded to them.

He took off his cowl, he wasn’t in his full uniform anyway and he didn’t want to scare Danny. Besides if he had been a hero even if he clocked Bruce he would understand.

“Hello Danny, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Zatana,” She introduced herself s she followed Bruce in. She would have offered her hand to shake but Danny was half hiding behind Cas sitting on the bed.

“It’s nice to meet you too. What’s with the outfit?” He asked curiously which made her laugh.

“I’m a hero, one of the less known ones. I’m part of Justice League Dark which is their supernatural division along with Constantine and Deadman and a few others. He’s a ghost, but I assure you the government hasn’t been giving him any trouble, probably because they knew they wouldn’t get away with it.”

“So I’m just lucky then,” Danny said with a bitter curl to his lips.

“As a hero, I want to ask, are you Phantom?” She asked rather bluntly.

Bruce shivered as the temperature in the room suddenly dropped a few degrees and Danny’s eyes started to swirl with green as he glared at Zatana who managed to barely react. Batman noticed how her back tensed a bit but it was barely there. “You know?” Danny demanded. “You knew about what was going on in Amity and you didn’t help?!”

“I’m very sorry Danny,” She said genuinely. “We knew something was going on, but we didn’t look closely enough. We thought that you were an older ghost just of someone who died young because of your strength, and it looked like things were under control. Normally our involvement wouldn’t have been appreciated, intruding on someone’s haunt, so we didn’t look any closer. I am so sorry we overlooked you but we’re going to make up for it now I promise.

“I’ve checked and reinforced the wards on the house so nothing should be able to come in uninvited, and I’m going to contact the rest of the JLD. We’re going to go to Amity, we’ll figure this out and deal with it I promise.”

The temperature in the room slowly went back up, Danny was still upset, but he didn’t seem like he was about to snap anymore. While Zatana had been talking Cas had started gently rubbing Danny’s back and that seemed to be helping too. After a moment Danny looked up again and nodded, accepting the help.

“The veil must be very thin there, to let so many ghosts through?” Zatana probed gently.

“It is, but more than that two years ago my parents succeeded in building a portal to what they call the Ghost Zone. This kinda green world of floating islands.

“A portal,” Zatana said flatly, blinking rapidly. “To the Infinite Realms?”

“Ah is that what it’s really called? Ya probably? That’s how everyone’s been getting through. How I got my powers too, the ghosts call me a halfa, but I’m not the only one. Vlad’s one too.”

Batman heard Zatana mutter “Two?” softly, baffled and alarmed but she nodded. Bruce filed that information away too, it seemed Vlad was even more of a threat then he’d first appeared to be.

“Alright, I’ll get as many of the JLD together as I can and we’ll head to Amity. We’ll shut down the portal and deal with this.” She said determinedly.

From the look on Danny’s face he didn’t really believe her, but he nodded again and leaned against Cas. “Good luck I suppose,” he muttered and sighed, rubbing his face.

“Just… tell me if you get in over your heads okay, I’m used to dealing with all this stuff.” God he sounded so tired, the poor kid.

“I will, but don’t worry about us, just take care of yourself okay? This is a good place to be, I promise you won’t have to be alone anymore.” Zatana assured him. She probably had more questions, but it was very obvious that Danny was getting tired.

“Bruce is good dad,” Cas chimed in, speaking up for the first time. It embarrassed Bruce a little but he smiled at them and nodded a little.

“Thank you,” Danny said, his shoulder slumped and his back curled. “Can I go to bed now?”

“Of course Chum,” Bruce agreed, starting to shoo Zatana out of the bedroom with Cas on their heels. When they closed the door behind them Bruce heard the lock click quietly closed behind them. He really hoped that Danny would feel safe enough to sleep well.

@zlinen  @sebas-nights   @littlefeather345  @isnt-that-grape     @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit  @shadowkatt99  @fantasticstoryteller @blackshuckatdusk @blacksea21090  @sithlordchimchnga @fanfictionforme2 @imalittlefangirl25 @bushbees @yotsubaayase @thomasdimensor @ultimatebluff

[p0ssym1lker]

Danny takes a deep breath and then rips a portal into existence before flying through and closing it

Immediately the people in the room get into defensive position and Danny flinches, curling into himself

"I have a message to wonder woman from pandora and-"

"Oh god, welcome your Highness, put your weapons down we don't want to insult him, it's an honor"

Constantine and zatana stood up and tried to make themselves look more presentable

Danny relaxed and smiled at them, slightly embarrassed

"Oh, uh, none of that I'm here as a messenger, there will be a tournament soon, a friendly one, and pandora was wondering if wonder Woman would like to join"

He then flew over to here and gave her a paper, everyone lazer focused on it

"Here is all the information, if you would like to join, rip it and it will automatically summon you, if you don't then it will Dissapear after a certain time... Well, that's it it bye"

He then disappeared leaving behind a group of confused and awed individuals

"Oh my god that was the king of infinity realms" shazam said awed, with Constantine and zatana nodding

All three ignoring the questions from others and wonder Woman kindly ignoring Batman's demand for the paper

Pandora asked her to come, nothing will stay in between that

[windybluebelles]

Trans Billy Batson getting his first period while on the streets and not knowing who to call.

Fic WIP:

He can’t call Mary,

No way- Nu Uh- Not a single chance

Firstly, Mary might not have even gotten hers yet and even if she has how could she help him? They’re both just kids, she can’t rush out at the ass crack of dawn to bring him some-IDK! Pads or something! She might as-well be wearing a massive sigh that tells her parents -“BILLY IS A GIRL”- and then the Bromfields will hate him and he’ll never see his sister again and their basically the only family he has and-

Yeah not telling Mary.

Wonder Woman says their family, could he ask her? Oh how would that go-

“Hey, yeah Yknow your Co worker? Yeah, the full grown man- hmmm well he’s actually a teenage girl whos bleeding out in an abandoned apartment. Yeahhhh help?”

No, that’s how he loses his job. Diana doesn’t want to be friends with a homeless kid. Much less one who lied about basically everything about himself.

Freddie is a boy

Mr Morris is a man and his boss

He doesn’t know Dinah that well

Anyone on Young Justice will have to tell their guardian

Zatanna-

Well, Zatanna could work.

They’ve talked quite a bit and Billy would say they’re quite close.

AND,

She should already know his age, surely she’d be able to recognise how new his magic is, how inexperienced he is at using it. Right?

Yeahhhh, she’s also able to be contacted by his league communicator so he won’t have to dig out his shitty old phone.

He scrolls down till he finds her number,

He dials,

“Hey Z-“ His high pitched voice echo’s down the line, too late to go back now

What could go wrong?

[cupiditly]

    ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ𖦹ׂ 𝚉𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚒𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜

♪. like or reblog if you save

[dio-niisio]

(English is not my first language so please ignore any mistakes I make 🥺)

I want a comic where everything magical just loves Billy Batson! He's their champion too you know! His job is to advocate and protect anything magical! Sure he helps humans, but he also helps us! The little guys!

I want the magical community looking at this 12 yo and immediately going "oh no! I love him so much already!!" And "he's just a kid, he needs help too!!" and actually give him a fun time! I want the fae to take him as one of their own! I want the magical creatures of Fawsett city to love their champion!

And I want it to infuriate the Justice League! They get so upset when they have been trying diplomacy to some weird magical thing and it only works when Captain Marvel shows up! Zatana and Constantine can't stand him sometimes, they will be trying to get some fae to comply and help them only to get denied all the time cuz that's none of the faes business, but the moment Captain Marvel is in the picture " Oh! Why didn't you tell me it was for our champion?? Of course I will help!".

It gets annoying.

[shamlesspandanerd]

[skystrikerpilot]

Zatanna fanart inspired by the new "Bring down the house", comic series

[fanfic-obsessed]

A mating of the soul

Here is another one that requires some careful build up beforehand. It has been on my mind for a while and I think it has finally percolated enough to release into the wild to find its forever home. 

As always, ignore any part of canon that contradicts this, for I certainly am.

So this one is going to take some necessary world building facts, then some world building cultural implications, and finally some actual build up to get to the scenes in my head.  Buckle in folks, the ride is about to begin. 

World building Facts

Soulmates: Soulmates exist, with all the regular mythology and usage as in our world (the universe is saying that we should be together).  However the reality is much different.  Soulmates are two or more people who make a vow during a highly specific ritual that carries over through every lifetime after (This relationship can be platonic, familial, romantic, even adversarial).  This ritual has been lost since before any writing was invented, no one can even be sure that this ritual originated on earth. Part of the reason for that is as part of the ritual itself, the participants sacrifice their knowledge of how to do the ritual. 

Getting down to the specifics, in the initial ritual all the participants (2 or more people) make a vow of some kind. This vow is unique to the pair or group, and in making this vow there is a mystical bond created between the participants, making them soulmates in that life and every life after.  In every life after the soulmates will find each other, and know each other (though specific memories of those previous lives will be of the feelings rather than the events), and they have a choice. They may make the vow, unchanged since it was first made, again reaffirming the bond for that lifetime. They may choose to stay connected but not reaffirm the vow for that lifetime (for instance if they met each other late in that life and one or all the partners have other commitments for the lifetime that mean they cannot keep the vow). They may also choose to dissolve the bonding entirely, painlessly. 

Should the soulmates reaffirm the vow, and one of the soulmates breaks that vow in that lifetime, a phenomenon called bondrot occurs. Bondrot is excruciating pain for the soulmates that did not break their vow, the magic of the ritual trying to encourage the complete shattering of the bond. Should all soulmates in a bond break the vow, not only is the bond forever broken but the former soulmates will live with an unspecified pain of something missing, in every life thereafter.

Magic: A quick note about magic in this universe. Magic functions a bit like chemistry or medication, in that different magic can mix and have strange reactions to each other. Any magic user above rank amateur (like any doctor worth their license) will not cast magic on a person where they do not know all the magic affecting them. 

For the purposes of this, the Lazarus Pit counts as magic. So does the Soulmate Ritual, no matter how many lifetimes ago the ritual was cast. 

World Building Cultural implications  

Now this next bit are not actual facts. However there is a culture that has grown up around these reincarnated soulmates. Even though most do not actually have solid memories of their past lives, they do start to recognize each other through the centuries.  Enough that in the past 200 years or so, there has been a small town of soulmates that has sprung up with enough magic that it is not tied to any one place but is accessible from all over the world. One pair of soulmates in this town have figured out how to bring forward more of the knowledge they have gained about Soulmates over their many lifetimes, and are the foremost experts in Soul based magic. 

Not every soulmate grouping lives in this town, but most come in contact with it in their lifetimes and certain cultural norms have developed. 

The Vow: Every group of soulmates guard their vow and it’s wording with everything they are. The only people who know the wording of the Vow are the people that swear it. Though no one actually knows, most soulmate groups believe that the initial ritual was created by some form of slaves, fearing that they would be separated from their loved ones.  Thus they keep the working a secret so that no one will be able to induce Bondrot or force the bonds to break. 

Current Lives: There is a tendency throughout all the soulmates to be somewhat disconnected from the people in their current lives. No one can really tell if the disconnect comes from the soulmates (not forming connections in the current life because they have connections already) or the non soulmate (that they can sense something strange so never form that connection) or some combination of both.  Because of this disconnect soulmates tend not to talk about being soulmates with anyone in their current lives.

Death: Soulmates do not see death as an ending, and in some cases is the answer to a problem (particularly if that problem is related to Bondrot). Most of the time, once one member of a soulmate group dies, the others die within about 6 months. Generally enough time to put their affairs in order. 

Now, almost three pages in, it is time to build the specifics.

One, Jason and Tim are soulmates. It is and was a romantic relationship.  They reaffirmed their vow (The vow they made was swearing to never willinging kiss another-further reinforcing the idea that the initial ritual was designed by slaves) two months before Jason died in Ethiopia, but had not told anyone in the batfam that they knew each other. 

Tim started to get his affairs in order, but realized that Bruce was losing his shit over Jason’s death. Thus decides that, before he can join Jason he needs to get Bruce back into better mental ground, still never letting on who Jason was to him. By the time Bruce is stable, Red Hood has been revealed as Jason. But here’s the twist. 

Jason comes back, digs himself out of his grave, and is thrown in the Lazarus Pit by Talia. Talia wants him to forge him into a weapon against Bruce, to an extent. She wants to break down Bruce’s psyche so that she and Ra’s can mold Bruce into the heir to the Demon’s head.  If her plan had gone as it was supposed to, Jason would have been wielded to kill Tim and Dick then killed by Bruce (in the midst of a grief fueled psychotic break) only to be revealed as Jason Todd as he died. Talia would then swoop in to the Broken Bruce with the lure of a remaining son (Damian). Bruce would follow after her for the sake of the only child he had left and she would mold him into the person she wanted him to be. 

This is not what happened. And where Magic enters. 

In the first place, there is no way that Jason does not recognize Tim, Robin costume or not. And Jason has no problem with his soulmate being Robin. Second, death does not mean the same thing to Jason as it would to most, and he’s aware of that.  He’s a little irritated at the Joker for murdering him, but despite the fact that he has no clear memories of his past life he is pretty sure that the Joker is not the only person to murder him (also to a certain extent does not feel traumatized/surprised that the Joker- an unrepentant murderer- murdered him). He is more betrayed and pissed at Sheila but she ends up dead. Jason is also very aware that Bruce has tons of trauma regarding death, so does not come out of the Pit thinking that Bruce should have killed (thus triggering the destruction of the core of Bruce’s being) the Joker.  He also outright, and vocally, disbelieves Talia when she tries to say that Dick deliberately missed his funeral.. 

In short Talia is not able to weaponize Jason after the Lazarus pit. So she finds a magic user. Later opinions will say she found an idiot of an amateur magic user, who she has cast a memory spell on Jason. It is a spell to suppress his happy memories from before his death, and to increase his anger toward Bruce, Tim, and Dick to a very specific level (so he does not go kill Bruce outright).

The Soulmate ritual is soul magic. It is ancient and, save for Bondrot and the bond breaking, is unbreakable.  However it does not need to be broken to be affected. If a person’s memory of making The Vow, and the memories of the person they made the vow to is suppressed, then how will Jason even know there is something to break or that he has. 

The Lazarus pit is magic of the body and mind. It heals and hurts and causes madness that is supposed to fade after a time. It saturates and causes instability, but is supposed to drain from the flesh.

The final spell cast is one of the mind and the emotions.  It is cast to be permanent, but not in the same way that Soul magic is permanent (it lasts unto death or being broken not it lasts unto eternity).  It is meant to exist on the surface and shape a person, but not meant to penetrate deeper. 

As far as Talia is concerned, the memory spell worked as intended, Jason no longer remembered most of his good memories from before his death and wanted to kill ‘The Replacement’. She noted that Jason’s pit madness did not seem to be fading like it should be, but cared very little about it. After all, it would not hurt her plans.  

She released him on Gotham to become The Red Hood. 

When Jason attacked Tim at Titan’s Tower, Tim realized quickly that something was wrong. He managed to knock Jason out and call ‘Doc’, a member of the soulmate group that was the foremost authority in soulmates and soul magic.  Doc was able to examine Jason, read the magic laid on him and their interactions. The magic had combined into a horrific Gordian knot, making it impossible to undo any of the magic without breaking any of the rest (and with that shattering both Jason and Tims souls and sending them into an eternity of agony).  They also could not tell Jason what was going on, for fear that the knowledge would put pressure on the memory spell (which was poorly applied besides), thus back to shattering it and  their souls. Though Tim and Doc discuss death as a reset, they cannot be sure that the magic will not follow them into the next life and make things worse.

Tim makes the decision to not tell the rest of the Batfam either, correctly deducing that they would never be able to leave it alone. He maintains the status quo, never letting on the pain he was feeling as Jason, not remembering their vow, breaks it often. He tell no one about his deeper relationship to Jason. 

Now we have built enough to arrive at the scenes in my head, set a few years after Bruce returns from the Timestream. The Bats (Batman, Red Hood, Nightwing, Red Robin, Black Bat, Batgirl, Robin), two lanterns, along with Zatanna and Constantine are captured by some weird new villain who has a device, decidedly running on science and not magic, that is supposed to transform suffering/ bad memories into  power for the villian. The villain had already drained one of the Lanterns, who was from off world, into a near catatonic state. 

The villain, who doesn’t get a name, they are not important enough, takes Jason to put in the machine, also plugs himself in and turns it on…

Only to begin to scream, which is not what happened the first time. The magic acting on Jason reacted badly to the villains machine.  For the villain. 

The distraction is enough for the group of heroes to break out and capture the villain. Tim goes right to unstrap Jason. 

Jason wakes up and calls Tim by a name the Bats had never heard (a nickname that had stuck around through each lifetime) and as Tim goes still, Jason apologizes over and over for what he was doing, saying that he can feel himself being dragged under again.  After a small amount of time Jason goes silent and when he speaks again it is clear he does not remember anything after being strapped into the machine. 

Later, during the debriefing in the Cave with the Bats and the two magic users (the lanterns had left to get the injured lantern medical care), Damian brings up Jasons strange words after the machine was turned off. Damian goes to say what Jason had called Tim, but Tim interrupts, saying that if Damian attempts to speak that term, Tim would rip his tongue out and feed it to him. Completely serious and threatening in a way that is unusual.  

There is a bit of back and forth while Tim tries to not have to answer any questions, Jason is very confused and irritated, and the rest of the table is only mildly less confused. Finally Tim does convince them that saying the wrong thing would have disastrous consequences (Dick: What’s the worst that could happen? Tim: You shatter the minds and souls of multiple people and send them into eternal agony), but they convince him that it is better to give them, including Jason, as much information as possible. Tim insists on calling Doc to explain things.  He also turns to Bruce and goes “Doc knows me as a civilian, we can either invite him to the Cave, and disclose our identities to him, or we can invite him to the Manor and Constantine and Zatanna can stop pretending they don’t know who we are.”

Batman decides to receive this Doc in one of the manor’s sitting rooms. 

Doc arrives, Tim gives him a brief overview of what went on. Doc then surprises everyone by asking Tim if he had any additional pain (since Tim is bearing all of the pain from their Bondrot, he would know better if the machine had done anything to make the bond unstable).  When Tim says no, Doc nods to himself and murmurs that they then have time to do things right. He looks at Jason and asks if he was ok with the rest, barring Tim, knowing what was going on. Dick tries to interject but Doc says that without Jason and Tim’s ok, none of them were learning squat. 

Jason does decide that he is okay with the bats and the magic users knowing whatever was going on. Doc nods and goes “Alright, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to do a quick spell to give an overview of what is going on. Mostly to establish my bonafides with the magic users, so that when I explain the sheer fuckery going on we don’t waste time with what I should or should not know. Then I will tell you what the parts that I safely can.” Jason starts to look even more irate “What I do or do not tell you has nothing to do with your abilities. But I will not risk a 80% of unending agony for your ego. After I explain I will do a slightly deeper check, then you will choose someone, not Tim, to make decisions on your behalf, I cast a spell to ensure that they will make choices with your long term interest at heart, then you and Tim will go somewhere out of earshot so that I can give a more complete explanation.Then see if we can plan on where to go from here.”

Jason let Doc do the overview spell (specifically created to not interfere with other magic), the results of which appear in triplicate on letter sized paper on a nearby table. The Doc goes “The long and short of it is, at some point after your cam out f the Lazarus Pits some moron of an amateur magic user cast a spell on you which interacted weirdly with both the Pit and another piece of beneficial magic that, if broken, is going to result in that eternal agony. Because of the interaction between the magic we can’t remove one without breaking the others. Too much information about the spell effects will cause your mind to break the spell and lead to the aforementioned eternal agony.”

With that Doc moved on to a verbal check with Tim. Things like likelihood of nightmares for Tim tonight (Tim: 100% Jay saw me completely for 1 minute 19 seconds before fading); Tim’s current pain level (Tim: 9.3 out of 10; Doc: That’s lower than I thought. Tim: 1 minute 19 second) and other questions that no one had the context for but the answers were still concerning.  

After that Jason picks Alfred to speak on his behalf, Doc behinds Alfred to make decisions for Jason’s long term welfare no matter Alfred’s feelings on the matter (on the off chance that Death is brought up as an option again). After Jason and Tim are out of earshot, Doc hands Constantine and Zatanna the most recent result of the spell, also summoning the previous results as well to give a more complete picture. 

The first thing Constantine said was agreeing that the memory spell was cast by a moron.  Then he gets a little pale when he sees the Soulmate magic that is affecting Jason. 

Doc explains Soulmates, that Jason and Tim are Soulmates in this sense, and what exactly the combination of magic on Jason is doing. He also mentions in this explanation that killing Tim and Jason had been discussed but put aside and that Jason had broken their vow (one of the contextless questions asked) three times in the last week. 

All of the bats, including Damian, are a little distressed to realize that the only reason that Death was not still be considered as an answer was that they did not know if the convoluted magic would follow Jason into the next life. Also Bruce and Dick were having a bit of a crisis in the realization that Bruce’s breakdown had prevented Tim’s death before they ever met him. 

Though Black Bat is not particularly well versed in magic, she is the one (while peering curiously over Zatanna’s shoulder) that points out there is a difference between the most recent results and the ones from previous overview spells cast. Doc looks and realizes that the machine had shifted something in the spell, in that telling Jason the vow he made would no longer shatter the spells. From the readings it was clear if Jason and Tim made their vow again, it would reestablish their bond, free of the other magic.  

There is still a risk. There was about a 20% chance it would not work and the act of Tim (because Tim is the only person who remembers the Vow) telling the vow to Jason would shatter them both. 

Doc (who had previously, extensively, discussed Tim’s wishes on the subject with him)and Alfred (bound by magic as well) decide that 20% is worth the risk, to Batman’s vocal displeasure.  The call JAson and Tim back in. Because of the way that the machine shifted the magic, they cannot tell Jason what he is vowing or why. All they can say is that Tim is going to tell you a vow that you will have to make, and that should fix things. 

Tim gets no explanation either, but goes along with it. He does insist that they find a room big enough that they can be in sight, but far enough away that no one can overhear their vow. 

They say their vows again (‘I swear not to willingly kiss anyone but you’) and it works, reestablishing their bond. It does not fully break the other spells, though that will come naturally with time.  But the bond being reestablished is enough for Jason to gain some of the knowledge he has again about soulmates and realize exactly how much pain he has been causing Tim.

Jason and tim, now holding hands, say goodbye to Doc (after another brief check to make sure things are as astable as can be) and go to leave to head to Tim’s Nest. The batfam expresses vocal displeasure with that. Jason goes ‘both of us are due about three panic attacks…each. We need to feel completely safe to do that, and the manor has not been safe for us for a long time’.

I have no idea where it goes from there, but anyone who wants to pick it up and run with it is welcome.

[gem3mine]

did a redraw

[8trackaxolotl]

The one, the only, Zee Zatara!

[thewindowofthesummerhouse]

Mico Suayan

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Finally getting help (prt 4)

Masterpost

The bats worked through the night, coordinating and researching everything that needed to be done. Distortion showed up on the camera which they assumed was Vlad trying to get in but he didn’t manage it. After he finished trying from multiple angels including somehow from directly above (well Zatana did say invisibility, intangibility, and flight were the minimal powers they should expect from creatures of the infinite realms.) He turned human again and spent a long time banging on their front door.

He tried to call the cops but commissioner Gordon called Bruce directly to get the full story then told Vlad it could be dealt with in the morning. Zatana was also coordinating people heading to Amity, a full on raid of the GIW, and the Fentons.

Batman and Superman were collecting all the information that the raid team was sending out and workshopping public statements they could sent out to the public and the government about the unacceptable things they had found and the steps the JL was taking to fix it. The government was not going to be happy they knew, with the JL ‘over-stepping’ into their business and actually getting the word out about the atrocities a branch of their government and their pet scientists had been planning. The JL needed to get out ahead of it before the narrative could be twisted against them.

It was first thing in the morning when they did a live broadcast from the watchtower with Batman, Superman, and Zatana telling the world about the parallel world existing harmlessly along side their own, and the way the government tried to exploit it. The atrocities committed under the name of the Anti-Ecto acts with the ignorance of the public as a cover.

It was at the same time that Constantine, Dick, and Cas were raiding the Fenton’s home. Of course they were armed, but so were the bats, and they were used to fighting people who were armed. It wasn’t a particularly hard fight.

A redhead was sitting wide eyed at the kitchen table. “Can’t we just have one normal day!” She suddenly snapped but she was glaring at her parents, standing up and slamming her hands on the table.  “First you send Danny away with Vlad even though you KNOW they hate each other and it’s a school day and now this! What did you do to bring the heroes down on us!?”

“I don’t know Jazzybear!” Jack half whined as he was forced into power supressing cuffs to neutralize his minor super strength and sat down in the living room.

“I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding, don’t worry sweetie,” Maddie added, both of them were dressed in jump suits which did not help their supervillain vibes.

“it’s not a mistake mate, you’ve been messing with shit you really shouldn’t. And that portal in your basement is a fucking beacon welcoming a war. You’ve gone unchecked for too god damn long, we’re taking over things now.” Constantine told them before stalking down into the basement with Tim on his heels, Batman would be joining them as soon as they were done their press conference.

Cas stayed to watch the parents and Dick approached Jazz gently. “Hey can I talk to you in private please? It’s about your brother,” He said gently and she stiffened immediately. Looking at him in a way that made him feel like she could see straight into his soul and froze him to the spot. After a moment though she just sighed and nodded, beckoning to him to follow her upstairs, to a room that was probably Danny’s not her own. She sat on his bed and grabbed a bear that had been sitting on the edge, waving for him to sit at the desk.

“So, what do you know?” She asked with a sigh.

“Well, last night Vlad took Danny to a Wayne Gala, one of Bruce’s daughter Cas is really good with body language and clocked that something was wrong so she and one of the other kids got him away from Vlad and out of the party. I guess he really needed some adult support because he broke down and told them a lot, about the Phantom thing, the ghosts and… something you’re not going to like. But first I want you to know he’s safe, Bruce Wayne is a licensed foster parent and he’s taking good care of Danny, you can come live with them too if you want.

“We’re going to deal with the ghosts and the GIW and everything else now, I can’t promise by the end of this you won’t need somewhere else to go. I have a feeling if Batman and the Martian family have anything to say about this your parents will end up in prison for their unethical experiments.”

“As long as Danny is okay,” Jazz said firmly. “I was only staying to take care of him anyway, just get me emancipated and a scholarship for Gotham U so I can study while still being close to him I’ll be fine. I’m almost 18 as it is.”

Dick nodded, she was a smart and driven girl, she knew what she wanted, he could respect that. “Now, the thing you won’t like…” he trailed off and took a deep breath. “Danny is pregnant.”

“What!?“ Jazz blanched, gaping at him for a long minute. “That can’t be right! I mean I knew he was trans but he’s usually only interested in girls, how would he even-“ She cut off her eyes widening. “It was Vlad wasn’t it?” She gritted out with an expression the promised excruciating violence.

“Yes,” Dick said shifting awkwardly in his chair.

“Right.” Jazz said and got up, coldly calm. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right back.” She grabbed a baseball bat from next to Danny’s bed that seemed to be glowing slightly then marched to the other side of the room, opened a cabinet and pulled out two odd looking guns. Before Dick could say much of anything she had vaulted out of the window and taking off down the street.

“Oh dear,” Dick muttered faintly before heading back downstairs. “Hey Cas can we turn on the news, some sort of local station?” He asked. Cas nodded and searched around for the remote, turning it on to find the channel was already on local news.

Vlad was already on there, talking about how it was awful Bruce Wayne had Kidnapped a local child Danial Fenton, and he could not be allowed to get away with this just because he was rich! But that didn’t last long, they watched for a few minutes before a blur of red hair and blue rushed past the camera.

“YOU TOUCHED MY BROTHER YOU CREEP!” Jazz said as she came out swinging and she must have quite the arm because her first swing sent him nearly flying off the stage. He scrambled to get up as she lunged at him again.

“Now Jasmine you’ve clearly been misinformed, I didn’t do anything-“ His muffled voice was cut off as she swung the bat again and he yelped as she hit him in the stomach.

“YOU GOT HIM PREGNANT! YOU DID THIS! YOU SHOULD BEHIND BARS NOT BEHIND A PODIUM YOU FROOTLOOP!” She shrieked as she swung again and this time he managed to dodge. The cameras following them as Jazz chased him down the street, the sound of his supplications and her shrieking fading out as they became more and more distant.

It took a frantic moment for the camera angle to switch to something else, maybe a drone, which was able to follow them down the street.

“You Don’t UNDERSTAND! I didn’t want to hurt him! I just wanted a perfect son! If he had just agreed to be my son none of this would have happened! When I knew it failed I told him to let them die!” Vlad yelled at her, though that did NOT seem to comfort Jazz at all. She had devolved into shrieking book titles like curses as she chased him with the bat and shot at him with the guns though her aim didn’t seem very good.

Well they had him admitting to it on camera now. As he watched a new actor joined the fray, a girl in a red jumpsuit holding a blaster.

“You did what to Danny!?” She demanded as she pointed the blaster at Vlad.

“Oh cheespuffs!” Vlad breathed, his eyes widening as Jazz trailed off letting who must be Red Huntress take over the chase as Vlad shouted about how he had made her! He had given her her weapons she couldn’t use them against him! Which did not seem to be stopping her.

The camera fuzzed out for just a second and then Valery was chasing a ghost with red eyes and a white outfit. Cas was laughing silently at the show and both of the Fenton parents seemed to be in shock. A few minutes later Jazz walked back in through the front door looking tired.

“Turn that off please,” she sighed as she put the bat down.

“Of course,” Cas agreed and picked up the remote again, turning off the tv. 

“Vlad didn’t actually do that, did he Jazzy?” Jack asked softly, he sounded so hurt, as if he had any fucking right!

Jazz looked at him blankly. “How many times have we tried to warn you about him? How many times has Danny told you he didn’t feel safe with Vlad? But as usual you couldn’t see past your own desires. I’m going to go see if the trenchcoat guy needs any help getting into your files,” She sighed before vanishing downstairs. 

Dick glanced at Cas, and then followed them, she would have no trouble watching the Fentons and staying quiet whereas Dick felt like he was about to explode. Batman joined them before long and between the three of them they shut the bulkheads on the portal and locked them, secured dangerous chemicals and devices, and downloaded everything they could. There were plenty of prototypes and blueprints, and stuff that could generously be called research.

It was obvious these people were geniuses but it was even more obvious that at some point they had become careless and obsessive. Half of the writing on the blueprints wasn’t legible, dangerous chemicals were not in proper containment, and the weapons were not locked up. Looking at all of this it wasn’t surprising that two of the people they had been involving in their research suffered exposure, it was a surprise more hadn’t. It was easy to tell when Bruce came down he was horrified, it was in the way he froze when he saw the lab, as if his brain was struggling to process just how irresponsible the Fenton parents had been.

“You must be Jazz, it’s nice to meet you. Danny speaks highly of you,” He finally rebooted to say when she waved at him. 

“I love my little brother, I always did the best I could to keep him safe from… all this,” Jazz said gesturing at the lab with a sigh. “I wish it had done any good.”

“You did plenty of good,” Dick put in. “Trust me, to a kid having someone care about them can make all the difference. 

“All those nights I patched him up after he came back from fighting ghosts. He healed fast but still. I can’t believe… he’s already been through so much and we knew Vlad was up to something! Ellie said she was our cousin but she looked just like him, I should have kept a closer eye on-” She cut off and shook her head. “He’s a good kid, of course if he couldn’t give the babies up, even if it would be better for them if he did. I hope he knows I’d support him either way, I hope he didn’t not tell me because he thought I’d be upset at Him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t,” Dick assured her gently. “Being a big sibling is hard, I know. But trust me you’re doing a great job, better than I did with my brothers,” he said, patting her shoulder. “You can ask him yourself later though. We have a lot to get done today to make sure he’s safe.”

She nodded stubbornly and doubled down on her work, directing them occasionally to where she knew they’d find more weapons or logs. She knew her way around the lab to a disturbing extent. 

Bruce and Dick both got a notification from Agent A saying that after a substantial sleep in Danny had woken up and was having breakfast. He seemed worried about the family but he was taking it alright, especially since he knew they were busy people. It did motivate Dick to clear things up as soon as they could so that they could get back to Danny though. The last thing he needed was More stress!

They had plenty of evidence of the Fenton parents breaking the law to call the police and have them taken away which gave them all the time they needed to strip the house. They got everything they could and decided to leave Constantine at the house to watch the portal until they could figure out how to shut it down completely without causing any damage. It seemed unstable so they didn’t want to risk it just now, especially without Danny’s input because according to Jazz Danny had made genuine connections in the Infinite Realms. 

They wrapped up this stage of the investigation before dinner after being up for about 36 hours. Of course they weren’t Done, there was still plenty to do investigating the government, how they’d gotten away with this and if they had any other nasty tricks up their sleeve. They’d have to manage any backlash from this unilateral move, and they’d have to figure out what to tell the public about Danny since Bruce would be fostering him. But all that could be done after having a family dinner with their new brother and a nap. 

part 5

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[radiance1]

Random thought I had with Constantine and Pariah Dark I guess?

So basically, Constantine kind of gets fucked over somehow and then his soul is given up to the Ghost King, much to his obvious chargin.

So, he tries to figure out ways to get out of it but nothing he does seems to be working, and then when he finally meets the ancient eldritch abomination who laid claim over his soul it doesn't go the way he expected.

Instead of idk, torturing him or using him as a power source or whatever, instead he has to babysit a kid????

Pariah Dark: John Constantine. As my soul bound servant until the day you die and after death itself, you have been given the responsibility to take care of the high prince of the ghost realm and my combat adopted son Phantom.

Pariah Dark doesn't even give him a chance to respond: Fright Knight, to me!

A massive medieval ghost knight then appears from out of nowhere, filling Constantine with an unnatural fear and dread for whatever reason.

Then they just leave to go and off an entire planet cause while Danny was in space, they attacked him for like no reason realm (It could be any reason you want to be honest).

And like the overprotective son of a bitch Pariah Dark is he's gonna kill off about probably a good 50-80% of their race.

Would have been a complete purge if Danny didn't like that idea.

So now Constantine is forced to take care of this random ghost teen motherfucker and becomes an unwilling uncle.

Zatanna:

Constantine:

Zatanna: So who-

Constantine: Don't. Even.

[missingnightwingsmullet]

showing some love DC style 💞

happy valentine’s day!!!!

[theendlessnessofbeingme]

Zatanna: I am like obsessed with your accent. Say aluminum

Constantine: Al-you-minnium

Zatanna: (giggles) I love that

[paullovescomics]

Random beautiful comic from the DC app. This is Zatanna #1 from 1993. It's part of a 4-issue limited series, but Infinite only has the first one. Fan websites indicate that all four issues were published back in the day. Anyhow, look at this art! It's by Estaban Maroto. Most of his work in American comics seems to have been in the 1970s and 80s, with a few in the 90s and later. A quick search told me he's Spanish, so maybe he also did work in European comics. (Sometimes comics artists go into more mainstream illustration work, advertising, storyboarding, fine art, etc. where they usually make a better living, but disappear from nerd sight.) He drew some Vampirella for Warren, an yeah, it's easy to imagine how his style could work there. Zatanna looks like a friggin supermodel all the time here. The story involves magical dimensions leaking into the real world, and Z figuring out what is causing it. Along the way, she volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity building site (it's given a different name here), among other more ordinary activities. I like when superheroes are grounded in the real world, then the crazy stuff happens. These little monsters filling the panels are great. They look like a mix of 19th century fairy tale illustrations and those weird little guys from the marginalia of medieval manuscripts. This is definitely worth a read. I hope they upload the rest of the series.