SPELLCASTER [ZATANNA]

[I.] Just Tricks

"Hey, Bruce," she said, smiling apologetically.

"You know, this reminds me a lot of something," he said, shaking his head.

"Just like old times," she said, smiling. 

"I knew it was you, you know," he said. "Only Zataras come knocking in the middle of the night." 

"And only Waynes are crazy enough to answer," she said. "Good to see you, you old bat."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Come on. We have a lot to talk about," he said, nodding towards one of the rooms. She followed him.

"This place hasn't changed a bit," she murmured.

"We've all changed. Alfred," Bruce said, glancing at his butler. "Damian is currently lurking at the top of the stairs. Make sure he goes back to bed."

"Father," a small indignant voice said, and she looked up to see a small boy stepping up out of the shadows, a large dog at his side. "Father, who is this? What's going on?"

"Go to bed, Damian. It's been a long night."

"Father, I demand answers!"

"Go back to bed, Damian, now," Bruce said sharply. The boy clicked his teeth, and stormed off. Zatanna looked at him curiously, tilting her head.

"'Father?'" she repeated, quietly. "I didn't know you had a kid."

"More than one," he said grimly, looking away. 

"What?"

"You've been gone a long time, and a lot's happened," he said, running a hand through his hair, sighing. "Welcome back, Zatanna."

~ ~ ~

Four Months Later

Living in Gotham sucked. This town had to have more concentrated crime and crazy than anywhere else on Earth. And for superheroes, that meant long, long, long, painful hours and running on very little sleep. 

Zatanna Zatara was a simple girl, and all she really wanted right now was to be in bed, asleep. It was barely nine in the morning, she had to at work in five hours, and she hadn't slept in almost two days. And it had a hard two days, even by Gotham's standards. She had been on patrol with Dinah, which lead to having to team up with Bruce, Damian, and Ragman, before being called to her day job at the theatre several hours early, had proceeded to do a show in front of a full house (to a standing ovation, she might add), stopped a few muggings, and then she had chased down one of Bruce's crazies who had decided to take a little vacation from Arkham. Not to mention that about a three weeks ago, she had felt a surge of magic in the city that hadn't left, leaving her drained, restless, and curious. Bursts of... power like that only came with powerful people, and that meant something was off, and that was not good. 

Yes, she wanted to be in bed right now. 

She really did not want to be running through the streets on no sleep. 

But... It was Gotham, and she was a superhero, and she had to do this.

It had been a bank robbery. Two bank robberies. At the exact same time. Batman and Robin were responding to the other. Hostages were taken, and the baddies were on route to her location now. In fact, she could see them. They weren't exactly inconspicuous. It was a line of large black SUVs, being followed by a long trail of wailing police cars.

She took a deep breath as she stepped into the middle of the road.

I know what I'm doing, she thought, as it drew closer with every second. The nerves never quite faded from this job. God, I hope I know what I'm doing.