The Jester, The Clown and The Acrobat

Chapter 10 - Captive Magic

Media is basically just how Magpie should look.

Well @JustStories23 did guess my age. Sorry about it being a week late, I've just had a really busy couple of weeks. Between school, homework, sport and missing a whole day I just haven't had the time. I've used the tidbits of time I can find to create this though, so I hope you enjoy

There was one thing that remained at the forefront of peoples' minds when thinking about the Batman. You did not want to make him angry.

Anyone who had done so spent the next few hours looking over their shoulders to make sure that they weren't being followed by the dark knight.

The reason: the infamous batglare.

The specific glare the team found themselves under the ministrations of.

"What exactly do you mean by he took her?" the slow, yet threatening voice ground out.

As his protégé, Magpie had the most experience with an emotional Batman (Granted, it was few and far between, but it happened), so it was no surprise when he was nowhere to be found.

Aqualad stepped forward, "I mean that he was able to incapacitate all of us, and by the time we came to, he was gone, with Zatanna."

Batman sighed, "It's my own fault for sending you after him. I actually thought that maybe you lot could succeed where I always fail." His expression once again became fierce, "But I made a promise to her father that I would keep her safe, so you'll all be helping me find her, understood?"

At their nods he dismissed them, before turning towards the zeta tubes. Just before he reached them, he stopped and spoke out, "Magpie, stay with the team for a while, I have someone to talk to." He then programmed a location for the zeta tubes and teleported away.

Linebreak

William Slater lived in one of the adequate parts of town, which was saying a lot for a place like Gotham.

It was on this night that he couldn't sleep, so he instead decided to have a glass of warm milk on his fire escape, in remembrance of what his mother used to do for him when he couldn't sleep when he was younger.

So, imagine his surprise when a deep, stoic voice cut through the quiet night air.

"William Slater?"

Startled, his head immediately shot to the side, where he found Gotham's resident caped vigilante.

Smart enough to be cautious, he responded with a question of, "Why do you want to know?"

"Rumour has it that you were the one who alerted the asylum that Trapeze was trying to break out his parents."

Nodding slowly, he replied, "That's right."

"What I want to know, is how you knew that. There's nothing to suggest that you're one of their goons, and there were no cameras that could have given him away, he's too good for that."

Straightening himself, he gave an honest answer, "It was the date sir."

"The date?" Batman appeared to raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, it's something I've noticed over the years, sir. Ever since Trapeze has shown up, there's been one day a year when the circus trio never does anything. No heists, no nothing. Even if one of them is in Arkham, they seem to escape on the day or the day before. That was the day. It also helped that the theme song for Mission Impossible came on."

All was quiet for what felt like an eternity for Slater, but in reality, was only 20 seconds, until Batman finally spoke again, "You're right. Pretty smart to figure that out." After a moment's more contemplation, he requested, "I'm gonna need you to do something for me..."

Linebreak

As Zatanna came to, she noticed that the room she was in looked nothing like her room at the cave that she stayed in.

And, like all great clichés, it was at that moment she remembered what had happened previously, before she had taken a lungful of chloroform.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, before stopping. Almost in disbelief, she raised her hands to her mouth, where she found no magic-negating gag.

"Tropelet ot evac," she said, reaching for the familiar tug of her magic. The teenage sorceress was disappointed when nothing happened, though was only left confused when she felt something blocking her magic from taking hold.

"Not gonna happen sunshine. Those cuffs are designed (by moi of course) to limit the amount of magic you can do. Just enough that you can take care of yourself in here." She spun around in shock as she noticed Trapeze sitting in the corner for the first time.

"Where am I?" she demanded.

He put a hand to his chest, as if physically hurt by the comment, "I'm hurt that you don't realise honey. This is my house!" 

"Your... house?" Zatanna hesitated to ask, hoping she had misheard him. 

"Well, if you want to get technical, then it's an abandoned warehouse redecorated to look like a house but still."

"Do your... family... live here?" Her eyes were full of fright as she popped the question.

"Yeah, but they won't hurt you."

Zatanna scoffed at the thought, remembering all too well the stories Magpie had told the team of the Joker. Her face grew solemn at the thought of her friends, so that she missed Trapeze glowering at her.

"Why am I here then?"

"You're cute, I was bored and wanted to get to know you."

In return, he received a blank stare of disbelief at his reasoning.

"You're kidding."

The look she received answered that for her.

That's a wrap. I would have written more between Trapeze and Zatanna, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it and it's taken me this long to write this much, so I figured that I'd put this out and put aside another chapter for bonding between the two. Remember, this is still a chalant fic.

Question time. Answer this one correctly and I'll get the next chapter out by the 25th of November. If I don't, badger me until I do.

What is the Flash's highest recorded speed (in any version of him)?

MICKLDAPICKL OUT!