' wait! but how am i gonna contact . . . ' zee watches the woman web away, and groans. vanelephant it is.

surely it can't be that hard to stop a charging elephant, right? right?

art by cliff chiang

' 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘻 𝘰𝘨 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘩 .ᐟ ' the magician said, and disappeared in the kind of puff of smoke you only get on tv and in theater shows. she's always been one for the dramatics.

' anyway. whenever you need me, for 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 at all, you just hold this card and call for me, okay? i'll hear your call and come as soon as i can. oh yeah, and thank this "iron guy" for me. now, for my next trick --

art by javier rodríguez (pretend it's a 9 LOL)

a playing card with the nine of hearts on it. then she took a blue pen from the hat and signed the card with her name: 𝒵𝒶𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶.

' the nine of hearts is special. it's the wish fulfillment card. don't lose it, steve, ' she jokes. ' you know how much one of these goes for on ebay?

' 𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘯? 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 the name they came up with? ' zatanna scoffed. ' well, i guess if it does the job . . .

' i'm going to take another look through my archives, see if i can find anything else that might help us. ' she rummaged through her top hat, and from it produced a small token:

to tell you the truth, bruce, i wasn't expecting you to come. this feels wrong. dangerous. i don't want you getting hurt. but still . . . '

she leans over, across him, and brushes a hair from his far shoulder. she inspects him with a smile. ' i guess the company's not so bad. '

i think something's been trying to get to one of the artefacts, i just don't know *who*, or maybe even *what*. whoever they are, they've got some pretty dark and powerful magic behind them, ' zee says. turning to bruce: ' i had to get in and check myself, before more people get hurt on *my* watch.

at first i thought it was cult stuff, kids playing with things they didn't know enough about. but then it started happening elsewhere. in fact, all across the world. and you know what all these murders have got in common? they happened near these museums.

-- take a couple pictures, the whole publicity thing. this time they're doing it here in gotham. meanwhile, i've been tracing some unexplained deaths. bodies found with their faces all mixed up - a nose where a mouth should be, an eye where an ear goes, the head on upside down . . .

' *gala*, ' zee corrects him. ' it's a charity auction. items from a museum trust. they've got museums in gotham, gateway city, london, paris . . . you get the idea. ' she gestures idly with her hands. ' every couple years they sell off a few times from their collections,

you haven't even tried it yet.

ʸᵉˢ ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ . . .

||: HOPEFULLY something that takes less time/thought to reply to lol

of course!

but magic needs *patience*, y'know. and *focus*. *a lot*. especially when you're starting out.

i guess all this seems above your paygrade. but you came pretty highly advised, and i'm a stranger to this city. i'm hoping the two of us might be able to *at least* get into the hydra mindset, and go wherever the hell they're going *first*. "

for hydra to know the sceptre's still here, chances are they probably have someone who knows a thing or two about magic helping them out, or-- or *some* kind of local expert at least. all that stuff about the sewers wasn't easy to come by. look, uh, captain, was it?

some . . . secret passage staring me *right in the face*, they loved that kind of thing back then. "

she sighs, taking off her top hat and running a weary hand through her hair. a long night. she shrugs it off, bigger fish to fry right now. " and that's not all.

when they were installing the first sewers around here. seems like the local magicians had the smarts to take its current whereabouts to the grave. *but* " - zatanna says, a finger in the air, as if lecturing - " *i'd bet* the answer's somewhere in these maps.

she looks over them with the irritation of someone with not enough time; puzzles laughing in the dark at her incompetence. " the last trace of the scepter i can find *anywhere* in our records at shadowcrest, they uncovered it about 150 years back,

" you're right, we can't, " zatanna murmurs, face creased in thought. she gestures for a stack of old maps to come forward to her, & they float duly toward their conductor, paper crinkling slightly a.

sunday morning.

that's the thing about magic -- it's actually a lot easier than people think. i mean, sure, most people can't do the *big stuff* . . . but magic's a pretty big word. we use it all the time. it can describe walking on water or just flipping a coin and landing heads seven times in a row.

as if that truth needed sugarcoating. certainly not for her.

" what makes you think i'm not just *really into* my drink? " she said, the corners of her mouth curling into a smirk.

why not check the bar cart?

wiping her mouth on her arm, big sigh. the lights are getting blurry and turning into stars, but that's alright, she can handle it.

" . . . mmm. " another swallow. " i mean, yeah, sure is. why, you want some? "

hey, wait, i have a better idea. magickal girls . . . together?

art by joëlle jones

SATURDAY NIGHT!!!

THAT'S MY THING.

art by jamal campbell

blue woman this, yellow woman that, but what about the *real enemy here*, the lady white?