Just A Day In The City of Tomorrow

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Just a quiet afternoon in Metropolis, until it's not. There's a mild explosion, as three men in ski masks go flying through the front window of a convenience store on main street.

~Five minutes earlier~

"Gimme all the money in the register! Nobody moves until we're out of here!"

Zach pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. All he wanted to do was go pick up a can of soup, maybe a diet soda as well. And he gets this. He wasn't even in his work clothes, he was in jeans and a hoodie. Why was he attracting this kind of trouble?

The thugs started going around, demanding wallets, while the alpha-thug continued ranting and waving his gun at the cashier, who was fumbling with the keys in their fear. They got to Zach, he shook his head again, and handed them a business card.

"Wuzzis?" The thug snatched it away and read it. "Zackery Zatara - World's Greatest Teenage Magician." He threw it down, and put a gun to Zach's head. "Tryin' to be smart, asshole?"

"I'm not smart, I'm brilliant. Sisylarap." Zach cast a spell on the man and he fell over, unable to move his muscles. There was a scream, and other thugs started encircling him, firing shots. "Stellub eb llits!" The bullets all froze in mid-air, saving both Zachary and the bystanders, having fallen to the floor when the shots were fired, from them.

"Now put your guns down and wait for the police to arrive before I need t-- THE HELL?!" Zach wheeled as he felt a shadow falling over him. The lead thug had run around and had toppled a shelving section over on him.

"This is why I'm in charge, maggots! Y'gotta fight with cunning!"

Zach snarled as his wand appeared in his hand and he blasted the toppling array with an ice blast, freezing it and it's contents in place. "CUNNING?" He fixed the thugs with a venomous glare, energy crackling around him. "I'm one of the most powerful transmutationists in the world, and your idea of cunning is to push a shelf over on me?! Hctirdle sniahc!"

Green chains of energy spewed out of the end of his wand, grabbing the thugs still moving and bundling them together in mid-air. "If I weren't so irritated, I'd be insulted! Thgil eht esuf!" He taps his wand to the end of the chain, and it crackles, burning away and releasing a mild explosion that sends the thugs flying through the window.

After the smoke clears, the place undamaged besides the initial disarray it was thrown into when the thugs pulled their guns, Zach brushes himself, grabs the items he wanted, and heads for the register. "I really don't feel like waiting, so just keep the change." He slaps down a twenty on the counter and marches for the exit.

Comments

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Pretzel stand. Near miss. Explosion. -wait a second, Superman thinks, as he cannot see through the smoke and light the big old boom left over. And that's a bad thing. Frowning, the man of steel rockets downwards...

...and is surprised to see that there's no fire to put out. "Hello?" Superman calls out, concerned, "Is everyone alright?"

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach stops in his tracks. "Ezeerb." A gentle breeze whips away the remaining smoke, revealing superman to Zach.

"Oh. Hello, Superman. Everything's fine now." He's not so bold as to try to tell him to get out of his way, but he gives him an expectant look.

Please don't have been sent by Zanna... She better not have been keeping tabs on me.

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Superman instinctively steps back, because ninety percent of the magicians he meets want to kill him. "Hi." Superman waves, smiling a little wider than usual to cover his embarrassment, even as he marvels at the floating bullets. "Nice work." Indeed, everyone seems to be okay.

Wait a second.

Eyes narrowing, Superman's hands snap forward-and grab one of the floating bullets! Quickly, Superman pops the bullet in his mouth, closes his eyes and then, there's a muffled BOOM! Smoke comes out of Superman's mouth, and he rubs his jaw, perhaps afraid of having loosened a filling.

"Metropolis crime." Superman grins, smoke rising out from between his teeth. "Almost nothing's just a bullet anymore."

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach's expression momentarily drains of both annoyance and color. He risked his life in his acts often enough but going over a falls in a barrel was hardly the same as having your head blown up.

One of those bullets had come rather close after all.

He gestured, and his top hat appeared in his hand. He swept the remaining bullets into it. "Shouldn't cause too much damage in the middle of the desert." he muttered.

Finally, the first assessment sinks in. "Err... Thank you." He clears his throat and draws himself up. "It was nothing. Just trying to get an errand done."

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Superman winks at Zachary, as if he was a goofy uncle who insists on playing slightly hokey magic tricks at all the family parties. He then squats down to help lift the fallen shelf, careful to balance the awkward bit without breaking it.

"Helping people isn't nothing." Superman says after a moment, waving at the pair of Science Police who are leading the bewildered trio of robbers into one of the squad cars. "-oh, but you were getting groceries, I'm sorry! Thanks for getting rid of the bullets, Zachary. I'll finish cleaning up."

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach waved down one of the officers. "Don't forget this one." He poked the still paralyzed one with his foot as he watched Superman adjust the shelving.

"You know me?"

Something doesn't feel right here. No comparison to Zanna, no quips about 'fellow crimefighter'. It takes him by surprise somewhat, and it shows on his face.

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Superman stops, mid clean up. He hands a stack of boxes to a skinny stockboy(Who stumbles backwards from the weight.) and gives Zatara a brief look.

"...one of the down sides of living in the City of Tomorrow is that privacy's relative." Superman admits, clapping his hands off. He is briefly tempted to take this outside, but he doesn't have anything to hide-and some camera's going to catch it anyway. "I don't cotton to the whole swooping intimidation thing, so I'll tell you what I did. I recognized the surname on a billboard, the ten minutes I could be on one of those darn computer things before it started giving me guff bought me your wikipedia entry, your underwikipedia entry, and tickets to your show."

A pause. "Not bad, by the way. I liked the trick where you took your own head off and did that speech from Hamlet." Superman chuckles, shaking his head. "Anyway, I phoned your aunt to make sure that, yes, a powerful magician moved into Metropolis, and that was it. Figured you weren't about to try and saw me in half or stage a demonic takeover of the music industry, so it wasn't any of my business."

"Wait, /Zatanna/ is his aunt?" Darnell the stockboy notes, wiping his head off and looking a little shocked. "Damn that girl is some kinda /ultra/fin-"

"Hey." Superman holds a finger up. "Come on, man. It's the guy's aunt. Would you want someone being all, uh..." Oh God, the Man of Steel actually blushes. "...appreciative of your aunt?"

"Man, Superman, if my aunt wore half a tux like /that/..." Still, Darnell looks a little bashful.

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach is about to shoot a venomous glare at the stock-boy, but figures that won't help matters just now.

He turns to Superman, speaking loudly enough for the correction to be heard by the stock-boy as well. "Zatanna Zatara is my cousin, actually, not my aunt."

Okay, the half a tux comment pushes his good nature, and he gives the boy a scowl, muttering under his breath. "Bad form..."

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Superman's eyes widen, and he shakes his head. "Gosh, I'm sorry. -would a Mostess Fruit Pie convince you not to tell Power Girl that I messed that up? After all the nonsense with how she may or may not be related to me..." It might sound condescending, if there wasn't something so...sincere about Superman.

"Aw, man, I was just playing." Darnell shakes his head, grinning ruefully and offering Zach his hand. "Sorry, man, getting held up makes me all jittery."

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach examines Superman, not sure if he's serious. "I.. don't think you need to worry about me talking to her. We're not exactly 'friends'." He puts up the air quotes.

He hesitates, then shakes the other boy's hand. "Think nothing of it. Glad to have helped."

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

"That's never stopped gossip before." Superman winks at Zach, again, and clasps his shoulder like they were related or something. "Anyway, good job. Next time, might not want to use the window, though-you don't want to overshoot the explosion and end up with the pair of them in the middle of the street, you know? Still happens to me sometimes."

Superman's eyes narrow, as he sees something beyond the scale of human senses. "But I'll leave you to your shopping. Glad everyone's okay!" And, the Man of Steel positions himself to vault into the air!

[greatest-zatara.livejournal.com]

Zach hesitates for a moment, then speaks up. "Superman." He purses his lips, trying to choose his words carefully.

"If you've got some time... not now if you're busy, but at some point, could I talk to you about some things?"

[metromarvel.livejournal.com]

Superman blinks, mid-vault into the air. It looks a little silly.

"Sure, Zachary." Superman says, warmly enough, though he is obviously toning his usual "folksy charm" down out of respect for Zach's already-infamous pride. "I'd be glad too. Just, well, look up in the sky, when you're ready."