Young Justice: Metropolis

October 1st, 2010

Compared to the splendor of Hogwarts or the slightly alien undersea beauty of the Conservatory of Sorcery, Cathedral High did not look like much. It was one big, blocky building on a street filled with such buildings, in a city packed with such buildings. There was no life to it, no soul. This entire city was like that, with the exception of a handful of more distinctive buildings. It was the worst sort of muggleness and just looking at it sent shivers down my spine.

A few steps led up from the street to a set of arched double doors painted a bright red, a sole splash of color on an otherwise uniform gray and beige building. If not for the large plaque bearing the school’s name and emblem––some sort of white cross with a big circle around it––over the doors I would have walked right past it without registering that this was my destination.

I leaned against the brick wall not far from the doors, my muggle repelling charm ensuring that none of the security guards, passersby, nor anyone else hassled me while I waited. A glance at my wristwatch––a painfully muggle contraption compared to what I had received on my seventeenth birthday, though the saleswoman assured me it was the height of respectable fashion––told me that there were still several minutes left before Zatanna would be let out of class. I had expected it to take longer to find this place and, not wanting to be late, had left home somewhat earlier than I needed to. Now I was regretting that decision.

I took a deep breath and shifted position slightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two bus drivers shouting at one another, their arms flailing wildly as they gesticulated. One of them, a portly, middle-aged man in an ill-fitting polo shirt was so red in the face it was a wonder he was still standing. What was left of his hair was matted with sweat and glued to his forehead, and droplets flew in all directions as he waved his cap around furiously.

A lot of people were staring at the two men, and everyone was giving them a wide berth. They were being rather loud, so much so that I’d erected a dome of silence around myself, in addition to the bubble-head charm that was making the smoggy, stinking air breathable and the charms that ensured I stayed cool and comfortable despite the bright sunlight and unpleasant heat.

I folded my arms over my chest and closed my eyes. Three more minutes until the bell, then a handful more to get from her classroom on the fourth floor to the front door. I could feel Zatanna. Or rather, I could feel the link between me and the tracking charm I’d cast on one of the stud earrings she was wearing. She was barely a hundred feet away from me, and there was something very reassuring to know she was so close at hand. Sure Raven was keeping an eye on her, ready to come to the rescue if something happened or evacuate Zatanna back to our home at a moment’s notice, but it was nice to know that I too could be at her side in moments should there be an emergency that required my direct intervention.

I idly toyed with my wand, twirling it between my fingers as I practiced sheathing the delicate wood with my aura. It was easy, almost effortless. Unlike the crude metal weapons Glynda had me practice with, my wand accepted my aura easily, like it was an extension of my own body. The wood sang silently in my hand, leaving my fingers feeling warm and slightly tingly wherever I touched it.

I was very happy to have learned the technique. Not only did it mitigate one of the biggest risks to a wizard––having their wand damaged or destroyed––but I’d also discovered that, with a bit of focus, I could strengthen my spells with a touch of aura, increasing their potency by a not insignificant amount.

There was also something deeply satisfying about physically stabbing someone or something with my wand. It was brutish, but I had no doubts that the trick would come in handy at some point in the future. I was still a long way from Glynda’s ability to shatter boulders with a flick of her crop, but I doubted that many would expect that my blunt-looking wand could sheer through wooden planks like a hot knife through butter.

I sighed, opened my eyes, and checked my watch again. Still a minute till school let out. Realistically, there was not much I could have accomplished back home in the mere handful of minutes I was wasting here, but it still left me feeling restless. Even behind the cover of my muggle-repelling charm, I wanted to avoid doing anything too eye-catching, so I settled for practicing my wand movements. It had been a while since I’d done any of the manual dexterity drills I’d spent years doing religiously as a child.

I stretched my arms, then began to hum a familiar tune as I launched into the first sequence. Flick, roll, swish, jab. Flick, roll, swirl, jab. Flick, roll, twirl, jab. Flick, upward flick, wave, jab, wave, jab, roll. It took conscious control to keep my wand from spraying sparks, my magic craving to emerge into the world, but that too was good practice. Wands were natural magical conductors––or at least well-made and properly paired ones were––and magic flowed easily from a wizard’s hand into the wood, but sometimes it was important to be able to cut off that flow at a moment’s notice.

I ran through a few more basic patterns, each gesture and movement flowing smoothly together with the ease of thousands of hours of practice, then moved onto something a little more complicated. The sharp slash of a protego flowed into the flick and flourish of flipendo, which itself became the neat circle of episkey and then the circle-and-slash of the unlocking charm.

Another minute passed. I finished the drill and started over, this time augmenting my speed with just a hint of aura. Despite the added difficulty, each movement was perfect, my wand cutting through the air with a soft whistle.

Finally the doors opened and students began to pour out. Dozens of girls in matching white shirts, sweaters, and pleated skirts rushed out onto the street. A few staff members made a cursory effort to direct the flow, but it was a futile endeavor. Some of the girls headed towards the yellow buses waiting for them, while others hurried off down the street, their voices little more than a jumble of noise as they loudly tried to speak over each other.

I pursed my lips in annoyance, then sheathed my wand and let my muggle repelling charm drop. I was taking up too much of the sidewalk with it active and causing something of a traffic jam as girls and adults all tried to pass by me at the same time.

Instantly, the free space around me all but vanished. I got a number of curious looks from the students, but no one paid me too much attention. I was dressed in muggle clothing––a forest green button down shirt with the top two buttons left undone, black pants, and white shoes––and the river of students clearly had much more interesting things to be thinking about than a random stranger standing against the wall.

I turned as I felt Zatanna approaching. She was instantly recognizable as she strode through the doors, her black hair pulled up into a ponytail and the weak muggle repelling charm on her bracelet creating a small bubble of empty space around her. By now, the stream of students had slowed down significantly, and Zatanna had little difficulty finding me when I raised a hand up towards her.

Her eyes lit up and she hurried towards me, the remaining crowd parting around her. I straightened and stepped away from the wall, catching Zatanna as she threw herself into my arms. “Hydrys! I thought we were going to meet up at the Conservatory. Did something happen?”

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I pecked her on the lips, my magic ensuring that her current conduct wouldn’t cause her any trouble with the school. “No, nothing like that. I just thought I’d come meet you today. I’ve only ever been to Metropolis once before, you know, and I wanted to see where my lovely fiancée went to school. It's, ah, very…” I struggled for a moment to choose the right word, then gave up. I wrinkled my nose. “Muggle.”

Zatanna turned to peer up at the building. “It's nothing special. Nothing like the Conservatory.” She groaned softly. “Ugh, eight more months.”

I patted her consolingly on the arm. Eight months in this place sounded like a nightmare, one that Zatanna had already been living for multiple years. “You’ll get through it. You managed three years already, one more and you’re done for good.”

“Yeah, but before I didn’t know how much better it could be. It's so much worse now. Everything is so boring compared to what I could be learning.” She visibly brightened. “Speaking of which, let’s go! Are you apparating us or…”

“I was planning to take the zeta tube with you. I’m not sure where the one here in Metropolis is and that seems like a good thing to know.”

Zatanna tilted her head to the side. “On one hand, it would probably be faster to apparate. On the other hand, this way we don’t need to apparate.”

I laughed. “Well, as soon as you figure out your own teleportation spell, you won’t need me or Raven to carry you around.”

Zatanna blushed and rubbed her neck. Then she leaned in towards me, her warm breath tickling my ear. “But I like it when you carry me around,” she whispered softly.

I raised an eyebrow and looked around the crowded sidewalk before turning back to Zatanna. “I’ll make a note of that for tonight, then,” I told her firmly.

Zatanna licked her lips. “Okay.

“Good girl. Now, which way is the zeta tube station? I’d like to spend as little time in this city as I can manage.”

Zatanna pointed in the direction from which I’d come. “About uh, fifteen minutes that way?”

“Perfect. Lead on.”

We didn’t quite make it to the station. Metropolis was a loud city, the streets filled with the sound of honking cars, loud music, and the buzz of voices. Still, it was instantly apparent when something changed. Shouts turned to screams, voices went from angry to panicked, and behind it all, a new sound joined the cacophony. The grinding crunch of stone on stone.

I stopped in my tracks, tilting my head to the side. “Do you hear that?”

Zatanna, who had stopped a step ahead of me, nodded slowly and bit her lower lip. “Yeah…”

She swiftly dug her phone out of her backpack, but by the time she had it in her hand, the source of the disturbance was already clear. A giant, tentacle-like vine was rapidly growing out of the road some hundred feet in front of us, squirming and wriggling as it smashed aside cars and shattered the surrounding asphalt. A moment later, another vine tore free of the earth around it, then another, and another, and another until the dense cluster began to take up the entire intersection.

Several cars slammed directly into the vines, metal crumpling against the unnaturally durable growth. Others tried to swerve around the vines but were rapidly overtaken and crushed under the weight of massive tendrils. The vines were not content to simply block traffic, however. Two massive tendrils slammed into a nearby building and began to rapidly wind around it like colossal constrictors. Other vines swept across the street, knocking traffic lights out of the air and sending hapless muggles flying.

I stared at the vines for a long moment. What in the name of Morgana’s pristine buttocks was that? And why was it here, in the center of one of America’s biggest cities, and not in the depths of some forgotten jungle?

There was a piercing scream of pain and a young woman, barely older than Zatanna and I, flew through the air, her arms flailing wildly. There was a paper cup of coffee clutched in her hand, its content rapidly soaking her white blouse, and her black hair whipped around her like a storm cloud. The vine that had swatted her into the air proceeded to crush the car she’d just scrambled out of and began looking for a new target.

Memories of testing broom prototypes burst into my mind. My wand snapped up into the air. “Arresto Momentum,” I barked, and the woman’s body slowed until she was drifting through the air like a feather. Instead of crashing against the building behind her, she bumped lightly against it and began to slowly float down towards the ground.

That could have been Zatanna.

“Raven!” I barked, but the Huntress was already on top of things. A crimson portal appeared beside me, well within the range of the muggle repelling charm I’d recast the moment we’d gotten away from Zatanna’s school. I roughly shoved Zatanna towards the portal. “My robe,” I demanded sharply.

Zatanna’s eyes widened. “No, I can help!”

I fixed her with a hard stare. “You could. But you won’t. Not with our child on the line.”

Zatanna made to protest, but I ignored her. Raven caught her shoulder and tugged her through the portal, then passed me a bundle consisting of a black robe, domino mask, and the enchanted bangles I’d been wearing at dinner a few nights ago.

I swiftly donned the robe, mask, and pulled the bangles up to sit snugly around my upper arms. Ever since I’d first arrived in this world, I’d long been considering what I would do if the need to do magic publicly ever arose. Most of the well-regarded wizards of this plane were ‘superheroes’, men and women who used their mastery of magic to protect the hapless muggles from threats far beyond their understanding. Those who did not were often seen as villains, reviled by the public and hunted by powerful heroes.

I certainly knew which group I would prefer to belong to. My actions in Poseidonis had been a good start in terms of building a reputation, but the underwater kingdom was too isolated for my actions to have become public knowledge. I certainly had no intention of seeking out trouble, but if trouble decided to seek me out and a good opportunity presented itself? It would be foolish not to start building myself up as a hero in the eyes of both the muggles and my peers. Especially now, with Giovanni no doubt dripping poison into the ears of his fellow League member.s

“Hydrys!” Zatanna called out, and I turned to look at her as I affixed the mask to my face. “Stay safe,” she begged.

“I will.” I turned to address Raven. “Pull me out if things get too dangerous. Send Glynda as soon as she’s ready.”

“Understood.”

“Good.” I turned back to Zatanna. “I’m sorry. I wish you could stay at my side, but I…I can’t risk you. Not now. Not like this.” Not when the only lives at risk were a bunch of muggles. Her life was worth more than this entire ugly city. I certainly wasn’t going to tell her as much––she simply wasn’t ready to hear it––but it was the truth.

Zatanna squeezed her eyes shut and nodded jerkily. “I get it. I don’t like it. But I get it.”

And then the portal closed behind me and I let the muggle repelling ward around me drop once more. There was no point in any of this if I wasn’t seen doing it. The street around me was much emptier than it had been moments ago, but there were still plenty of stragglers to see me appear among them.

I shook my arms, making sure I still had a full range of motion, and my robe flared around me. It was a simple thing, black on the outside and Slytherin green on the inside. On the back, it bore a simplified version of my family heraldry. Three black birds and a gauntleted fist on a shield. I’d decided to not include our motto or the various decorations around the crest. Such small details would be hard to make out from a distance and would only confuse the muggles.

I focused my magic and floated up into the air, wind blowing around me and making my robe billow dramatically. I still wasn’t all that good with the flight magic that Ozpin had taught me, but it looked suitably impressive and for some reason, being able to fly unaided seemed to be a staple ability amongst the heroes and villains of this world.

I shook my head and focused my attention on the flailing vines. How was I going to do this?