Paying a call on Fate

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

Did someone just knock on the door? Her meltdown had ceased...just stopped, and she looked around quizically.

Did the phone ring? She got up from the table and wandered through the house. No. No messages and the front porch was empty. But she could have sworn something caught her attention and she was feeling an urge to go out. Someplace in specific but she didn't know where. That was enough for her.

She hurried upstairs to change her clothes, hesitating for a moment as something prompted her to dust off the costume. Odd...definately odd but she listened. Then it was a quick note to tell John she'd gone out to follow her nose, follow if he could...all assuming he came back before she did...and left the note taped to his carton of silk cuts in the fridge.

Double checking that she had her JLA comm and her cell phone tucked safely away she made her way back into the library and the wall she'd been using more often as a doorway. She squares herself in front of the wall then takes a deep breath.

"esaelp, meht ot latrop a nepO .em sllac enoemoS."

The portal flashes to life and she steps through...to the base of Dr. Fate's tower? What the...

She knocks...if there's a door to knock on.

Comments

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

Where once was Fate's tower stands an empty field.

And an old friend, smoking a pipe and and examining the scene quizzically.

"Ms. Zatarra," says Dr. Occult, in his usual chipper, polite manenr. "Good to see you. I imagine you experienced the same thing I did?"

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She just stood there blinking for a few moments. What the hell happened here?

She does a bit of a double take on Dr. Occult then moves to stand by him, back to gaping at the emptiness.

"You too. And yeah...dad's house went ape shit." She turns a very confused look at him. "What the hel..." too much to do with that realm lately so she edits herself. "What happened?"

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

Dr. Richard Occult, Zee's sometimes partner in the loosely formed alliance of wizards called The Sentinels of Magic, is always the picture of poise -- in a lot of ways, he seems like he walked out of an old movie serial, with a square jaw and old-fashioned good looks. No wonder Constantine can't stand him.

"Well," he says, taking a puff off of his pipe. At a guess, it would seem the Earth's connection to the force of magic was severed for a moment. Almost an entire minute, to be precise."

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She gives him a bit of a wry look. Now that he's right in front of her, she realizes she's kind of missed him...her...yeah. She's missed a lot of people. Time she stopped being in her stinking shell.

"I suppose I should have asked why. Do you have any idea. That sort of thing. Oh...and why did I suddenly have the urge to port here." *smile* "Since I'm asking."

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm," he says, taking a moment to smoke as he thinks. "Fate's usually who we all turn to when things go very bad. And this is indeed very bad. Maybe it's as simple as that."

It's never as simple as that, and he knows it.

He takes a few steps around the circumfrence of where the tower sometimes is, and looks up at where it would be.

"Sixty odd years ago, Green Lantern, Amazing Man, Johnny Quick and myself battled the Injustice Society on this very spot. When we made our way into the tower, we met a strange young woman who spoke with a very brusk English accent and believed the year to be 2006. Truth to tell, I've been waiting for something like this to happen since January."

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She follows him, listening, her brows lowering. Mention of an English accent brings her attention firmly around. Gemma, maybe? Nah...can't be. But speaking of...

"Any idea who she was...is...er..."

Back to frowning.

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

He flashes her a wry, movie-star smile.

"She was the niece of a man I didn't know at the time: John Constantine. Which would make her, if I'm not mistaken, Gemma Marsters, ward to our current Dr. Fate."

He turns more serious now, and glances up at where the tower should be.

"We were forced to leave her at that time, in order to fre Kent Nelson and others from the grip of Wotan. When Nelson was freed, all returned to normal with his tower, and I was never able to find a trace of the young woman again. I assumed all had returned to normal after the tower was displaced in time. But the connection to magic has been re-established for more than five minutes, and the tower has not returned. Curious."

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

"....oh shit....Gemma...." John's not gonna be pissed at her for losing control of a summoning. He's gonna go ape when he finds out his niece is missing.

She steps closer to him with a firm look, more determined than anything else.

"We have to fix this." In case he hadn't realized, this pretty much confirms that she's still more than connected to John.

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

He's late. He had to stop off and throw the rabbit with the swearing habits that made him look cute a fluffy in a coop somewhere and tell him he'd better hope John came back or he could starve to death a few times before someone noticed him.

The answer just about made the paint peel.

"Bloody hell! Where's th'tower?"

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

"John Constantine," says Occult in a civil-yet-friendly tone. "It is good to see you. It seems the disturbance you indubitably felt has displaced Fate's tower in time, and it is calling allies to guide it back."

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

"Bloody well better...Gemma's in there." He mutters a curse under his breath.

"Displaced in time an magic blinked off like a lightswitch, what nutters got his knickers in a bunch this time?"

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She's there and turns at the sound of his voice. Goody. This ought to be fun. His niece was in that tower. "Hi, John."

She glances towards Dr. Occult with more than a few questions on her mind but holds off until John's had his fit.

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

He slips an arm around her waist without thinking, he's glad to see her here to help get Gemma back.

"What the fuck is goin' on? An where the hell is Fate? It's his bloody tower he should be here helpin."

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She can't help but smile though she's a bit surprised. Apparently his worry for Gemma has overridden any sort of protectiveness he might feel about her being here. Good.

"He was probably in the tower, John." Said matter of factly and kind of quiet though she does look to Occult for confirmation with a questioning shrug.

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

"Actually, he had just left the tower when I was there in 1943, so I imagine he's actually between worlds, whereas young Gemma was in the relative safety of the tower."

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

"That's just wonderful, skittle an beer." He lights a cigarrette and thinks.

"So there's a bigger problem than th'tower goin' on here."

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

"Wotan," he says, knowing the name's enough. "There are other sorcerors at play in the world, but they are for others to handle. When last I saw Wotan, before Mr. Zard here imprisoned him, Wotan was working to seize control of magic itself. Indeed, in at least one alternate future, he succeeded, laying waste to his enemies and seizing control of the world in less than a week."

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

The string of curses he lets out is a lot more interesting after spending the day with bunny Midnight.

"Guess someone ought t'make sure he can't play with his toys then."

[jla-goldenage.livejournal.com]

Richard Occult takes the strength given him and channels it through his his amulet, reaching his mind across time to the place where last he saw the tower. A brief memory flits through his head -- he and Constantine, along with the Stranger, reaching into the future in search of Tim Hunter. This is difficult, but easier than that.

The wind whips around them and the air begins to shimmer.

And slowly, slowly ... Fate's tower materializes before them.

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

The ends of her hair are caught by the wind and caused to dance around her head. Her hat, on the other hand, stays firmly on her head. It doesn't like to be blown away very often. Tends to get into trouble that way.

As soon as the tower wavers into view she calls to it, letting her essence act as a spiritual lighthouse. She calls to it letting it know the need for it here and now.

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

The tower shimmers as it becomes more solid, lightning sparking off its walls as it manifests.

And its master, too, appears: Bent down on one knee, arms raised and crossed above hsi head, an ankh of light shielding him from the buffeting energy forces.

"Where am ... Gemma ... where's ..."

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

And if they can get through this mess without having to deal with Mister E it will make John's day, the psycopath was good with time but unstable as hell.

When the tower comes into view he calls to Gemma, blood calls to blood, Constantine from one generation to another pulling at each other.


"Inside Mate."

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

"John?"

He rises shakily to his feet, and wills the door to appear.

"Quickly," he says, rushing (more staggering) to the door.

[zatanna-z.livejournal.com]

She winced away from the strikes of energies but does not release her hold on the others. The irony of the imagery does not surprise her. Lightning striking the Tower of Fate. Sometimes she wishes the universe didn't have quite such a dramatic sense of humor.

That quick and everyone's moving, or in Fate's case, stumbling. She moves to help him.

"Not just John."

[laughing-mage.livejournal.com]

"Lost of us here Mate." He helps Hector from the other side.

He's concerned about Gemma but Occult saw her inside safe, he's pretty sure she still is.