2017.01.15 - Seeking The Demon Source
The waterfront is never truly quiescent. While the luxury yachts and sail boats of the city's well to do are tied up at night, the port still does a brisk commercial business of loading and unloading freight.
Lingering in the shadows between two warehouses, Batman watches the stevedores at work.
"Oh hey." Zach's voice rings out from nearby. There was a little puff of purplish smoke, with a sort of opalescent glitter sparkling around it. It all faded in seconds, to leave the young magician there, dressed not as formally as before, but certainly in a fancy manner.
"So anyway, the demon from the other night," he continues, as if they'd started a conversation earlier and put a bookmark in it at that exact place. He takes a few steps towards Batman. At the very least, Zach will be hard to see, too, in the long shadows of night. "I don't think it will be bothering us again anytime soon."
Batman's attention doesn't waver from the busy docks. "That's good to hear," he answers Zachary. "But I'm concerned another one might take its place." The Dark Knight points to the brightly lit waterfront. "It made its first attacks there. But how did it get there? As far as I know, demons can't just enter this world. They have to be summoned. So who summoned it and how did it get loose?"
Zach waves a hand casually, in the end placing it on his hip and shifting his weight to that side. "There's like a *billion* possibilities," he answers plainly, looking out over the docks himself. It's like watching ants, really. Slightly larger, less pleasant ants. "I mean, somebody could have summoned it to try and destroy the city, but...not the best plan. If they know enough to summon a demon from that plane? They probably could have chosen a better plane and a more coherent demon. My money's on an accidental, or even incidental, sort of thing. There are so many ways extraplanar demons can enter this plane of reality."
"That was one hell of an accident," Batman says in a grim tone. He draws a deep breath then lets it out on a sigh. "Magic is not my area of expertise," he grudgingly admits. "What else can you tell me about it?"
"*Hell* of an accident?" Zach chuckles, amused, whether or not it was intended as humor. "Well anyway, they tend to be. Manipulating the fundamental forces of the omniverse is kind of a calculated risk, at best. It's not like throwing one of your...batarangs, isn't it? It's not like that." He motions with his free hand. "With those, you apply force you've practiced and you can generally rely on it coming back, or hitting targets, or whatever. With magic, sometimes...unpredictable things happen. Learning how to use magic is, at least in part, also learning how to improvise when things don't go the way you expected."
The magician shifts to take another couple of steps, casually working his way closer to Batman, still watching carefully in case he's noticed down below. But he doesn't expect he will be, not right now and the way they're both dressed. Who pays attention to people on rooftops anyway? "It's from a particularly nasty plane. It was probably after some magical items. Every city has them, just as every city has magical people. Fortunately, unlike Metropolis, Gotham's a more...down-to-earth place. So it would have to look longer. That's the upside. Downside is that it would've probably torn the city apart trying to find what it wanted."
Batman nods at Zachary's words. "So it's possible someone was trying for one feat of magic and wound up summoning that demon instead?" he asks. "Gotham is an old city. There's a lot of history here. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some magic items stashed away here and there."
Zach nods a couple of times, glancing over to look Batman up and down briefly. That's always a kind of imposing sight, no matter what; if Zach were the type of person to be surprised at most things, it would probably unsettle him. It's hard to get him unsettled. Then again, robot killer clowns did take him by surprise.
He shivers. That's such a bizarre realization. That you *can* still be shocked and appalled by things.
"It's not only possible," the younger Zatara replies, "it's likely what happened. I don't see much reason why any mage worth anything would go to that kind of creature as a first option, or not just banish it right away. Of course...there's the other possibility, that whoever or whatever summoned it did it wrong and couldn't figure out how to banish it. When in doubt, I tend to suspect incompetence."
Batman does tend to strike an imposing figure. He fairly looms over Zachary, being at least six inches taller than the World's Greatest Teen Magician. The cowl seems to add an extra few inches to that height with those pointy ears.
"So how do we go about finding whoever summoned that demon?" Batman asks.
"I've been doing some stuff. Scrying can help. It's not my particular...milieu, though. I mean, I can *do* it, I can probably find it, but if you want to be totally sure? Ask an expert." Zach replaces that hand on his hip again, apparently an idle pose, an idling gesture. "If you know the Titans, look up Omen. Of all the people I know, Omen can probably help you more than anyone else in the world, except maybe Doctor Fate. And I'm pretty sure he's not in this dimension right now. Something to do with Dormammu." Zatara rolls his eyes so hard they practically make a sound. "*Again*."
"Omen? I'll ask Robin to get in touch with her," Batman says. "Do you think it will happen again?"
At that question, Zach takes a deep breath...and then sighs it out, as if long-suffering. He takes a few seconds to answer, but when he does, it's with a light and rather grand flourish. "It's inevitable. Even if it's not the same plane or the same type of demon, there's a kind of inevitability to people utterly fouling it up when they try to do something grandiose beyond their ability. And that's not even considering the ones that actually set out to do it and get it *right*."
Another sigh escapes Batman. "So we could be hunting another demon any time now," he concludes in a sour tone. "Whoever is doing this, I want them stopped." He waves toward the industrious dock workers. "Nineteen dead just from that one demon. I don't want to see more innocent people dying because some fool is trying to bite off more than they can chew." Frustration laces his words. Above all, Batman is a protector. Gotham City and all her denizens are his to guard. And something managed to slip past him and those deaths weigh heavily upon him.
"One's stopped, at least two more pop up, sooner or later. Those of us who make the shadows our work and our lives do all that we can, but it's not enough. Never enough, really." A soft frown creeps over Zach's features, making him look...older than his years. Especially in those eyes. "We do what we can to stop, say, the apocalypse from happening, again and again. But anyway, this is getting morbid, and I hate morbid conversations almost as much as I hate banal ones." Another gesture, and he's taking a step back towards where he arrived. "I'll be in touch. Let me know what Omen has to say."
Batman nods. "Let me know if you learn anything new. The more information, the better."
"I will. Of course." Zach pauses and turns, holding up a finger. "And you'll let me know too, yes? I forget...do you have my cell? Or are you going to do the 'I'm Batman, I have everybody's cell' thing?" He even lowers his voice and makes it rougher, to imitate the Dark Knight. Though he's not really mocking with it, and it's a fairly good imitation. Just a different voice. An obviously younger one. "Then again, you've got a line to Zatanna, so you could always contact me through her. But she'll ask if you've been eating right and getting enough sleep."
The shadow of a smile ghosts across Batman's lips. Clearly something that Zachary said is amusing to the Dark Knight. "Should I call your agent? Or would you care to give me your direct number?" Is that an admission that Batman doesn't actually have Zachary's cell number? Or merely a clever deflection?
That's what Zach wonders, and it makes him grin a little too. Cautiously, but certainly there's a more palpable, appreciable grin on his face. And he's usually so...unimpressed about everything.
The young magician slides a hand into his pocket and then after a tap or two, holds it out towards Batman with the number across the screen. "Personal number. My agent would just try to negotiate for a larger font on the promo poster."
Batman glances at the proffered cellphone, memorizing the number on the screen. "I'll be in touch if I find out anything," he says, pointedly not giving Zachary any number in return. He's quite secretive, after all!
Zach raises a single eyebrow, then turns the phone off and stows it back in his pocket. "...right. And uh...be sure to eat a balanced meal. Get an extra hour of sleep? Blah blah blah Batman blah blah." With a smirk, he waves a hand and then turns back, after a few steps simply disappearing into the shadows -- no smoke, no sparkles -- maybe he's trying to be subtle and satisfying to Gotham's best-known protector.
Apparently satisfied by whatever he sees or doesn't see going on at the docks, Batman fades back into the deeper shadows. He's off across the rooftops, heading into the heart of Gotham City to strike fear into the the city's criminals!