153So, I decided that instead of having a bunch of small Justice League stories, I'd just go with a single one. And although I have, and probably will follow some of the episodes to a certain degree, I'll mostly take this my own way.
Speaking of the justice league, as you might know, I do not own it in anyway, Dc Comics does.
Girls and Magic
By: Patattack
Following the eventful night at work when he had met with Wonder Woman, Hector Anderson was home in the little apartment where he lived with his younger sister. Although it wasn't the best place possible, or the biggest, or most expensive, it still did a good enough job of housing them. Currently, Hector was lying on the long couch, since there was only one bed, which he insisted she sleep on, despite her protests that she could take the couch. Despite the late morning, Hector was still sleeping peacefully, up until the moment when someone barged in, exclaiming "I'm hooooome!" 'Someone' turned out to be a young, pretty teenage girl, under 5 feet tall, with dark brown hair, green eyes, wearing a gray jacket and with a backpack slung over her shoulder.
As she stepped inside the small apartment, she happened to notice an envelope lying on the floor and bent down to pick it up. The name on the envelope indicated that it was for 'Hector Anderson', but oddly enough, it had no return address. The girl simply shrugged her shoulders at this and turned her attention elsewhere. "Hey, big bro, rise and shine!" she called out to Hector, closing the door behind her. His response was simply to groan, turn over and continue trying to sleep. However, the girl did not intend to allow him to ignore her, as she dropped her backpack, made her way to the couch and started shaking him. "Come on, sleeping giant, wake up already!"
"Alright, alright," Hector said in protest, pushing her aside with one hand. "What time is it anyway, midget?" he asked, after stretching his limbs for a second and pulling himself off the couch.
"It's almost noon, and I'm not a midget," she shot back in a huff. "I'm just a late bloomer, that's all."
"Suuuure, call it what you want, little sister," Hector replied with a grin on his face, reaching out and ruffling up her hair, to her protest. "I suppose I should whip up something for you, unless you've eaten already?"
"If the master chef would be so kind, then yes, it would be much appreciated, thank you."
"Alright, one supremely awesome lunch coming right up." With that said, Hector made his way over to the small kitchen area and started looking through the fridge. "Care for hamburgers, Cass?" he asked, turning his head towards his sister.
"Works for me, bro," Cassandra called out from her room, currently in the process of emptying her backpack and putting away its contents.
"Hamburgers it is." Hector then pulled out a package of hamburger meat from the fridge, along with a few other things, and got to work. "So, how was the sleepover last night?" he asked as he was putting the patties together.
"Aside from the fact that that airhead Jessica kept yammering on about some love drama for half the night that I was hardly even listening to, it was pretty fun. By the way, there's a letter for you I picked up just when I walked in."
"Can you open it up for me? After you set the table, that is."
"Okey dokey." A moment later, Cassandra was finished cleaning up and setting the table, and cut open the envelope, which contained a short note, two tickets, and 40$ in cash. Of these things, Cassandra seemed far more interested in the two tickets, as given by her reaction when she examined them closely. "No way!" she cried out in excitement.
"What is it?"
"Someone just sent us a pair of tickets to go see Zatanna in two weeks! And they both include a backstage pass to meet her in person after the show! This is freaking awesome!"
"What?" Hector exclaimed, surprised by this. "Who sent them?"
"Dunno, there's no return address, just this note. 'A gift for helping a friend of mine when she was in need.'"
"Does it say anything else?"
"'P.S. Use the money to take a cab instead of having to walk.' And there's also something at the bottom that looks like a bat, if I'm not mistaken."
"Let me see that." Hector said, flipping the patties and grabbing the note, looking it over for a few seconds. "I think I understand it now."
"Well…?"
"As weird as this may sound, and it will sound pretty weird, I actually met Wonder Woman when I was at work last night."
"No way," Cassandra said, surprise painted across her face.
Hector then began retelling what had happened the night before, with the pig on the loose, how he'd drawn his conclusions about its true nature, and the part when it had turned back into Wonder Woman. "After I told her what happened, she asked me why I'd need the extra hours and I told her I wanted to get a couple of tickets to see Zatanna's show, since your birthday's coming up soon. So I'm guessing that she'd have told Batman about it, and he sent this to say thanks."
"That is so cool!" Cassandra exclaimed, jumping at her brother and hugging him fiercely. "And you're the most awesome brother anyone could ever ask for."
Sunday evening, two weeks later, Hector and Cassandra were stepping out of a taxi that dropped them off right at the theatre where the show was meant to happen, as evidenced by the large poster sitting above the entrance. "You have the tickets and all, right?" Cassandra asked her brother.
"Don't worry, they're right here," he replied, pulling them out of his pocket as they stepped in through the door. Following the throng of people there to see the show, they came to an attendant who checked their tickets, and directed them to their seats, which turned out to be centered in the very first row, giving them a great view of the stage. Ignoring the looks certain people were giving them, possibly due to their 'not so classy' clothes, the two siblings simply sat there waiting, until the lights finally dimmed down and everyone went quiet.
"Finally, bout time it started," Cassandra muttered.
A puff of smoke suddenly appeared on stage, lingering a few seconds before it dissipated, by which time Zatanna herself had appeared under the spotlight. Later, while thinking back on the moment, Hector could honestly say that he found himself rather attracted to the alluring female magician. Fishnet stockings highlighted her long, slender legs, a white top and black tail coat brought out her hourglass figure, a black top hat sat atop a head of sleek, shoulder length black hair and a bright smile adorned her pretty face.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready to see some magic?" she asked, pulling a pair of roses from her sleeve and tossing them to the crowd, who cheered loudly in response. "I can promise you, I've got a couple of-" Zatanna interrupted herself by taking out a pad of paper from her coat pocket, followed by a few pens, pencils, a handful of erasers, two staplers and a mass of random items logically too big to fit. "Guess I should've emptied out my pockets before coming on stage," she joked. "Now for my next little trick, I'll need a deck of cards. But I just remembered I don't have one. I'll need a volunteer to help me out." A bunch of people raised their hands, trying to get her attention. "How about you?" she pointed to Cassandra, motioning for her to get come onto the stage, which she was happy to oblige. "And what's your name, young lady?"
"Cassandra Anderson."
"It's a pleasure meeting you, Cassandra," the female magician said, shaking her hand. And when she pulled it back, she was holding a two of hearts. "Well, well, what do we have here?" She then extracted a five of spades from Cassandra's hair, a three of clubs from behind her ear, and continued on in this manner until she'd assembled a full deck of cards. "Thank goodness you came prepared. Now I'd like you to pick a card at random and show it to everyone else, but don't tell me what it is, and put it back in once you're done." Cassandra picked out the ten of hearts, held it out for the crowd to see, and placed it back in the deck. Zatanna then shuffled the cards, which flew in the air above her as if they had a mind of their own, making all sorts of elaborate patterns, until she finished and they all landed perfectly in her hands. "Now let's see if I can guess what card you picked. Is it this one?" she asked, holding out the two of clubs.
"No."
"Is it… the king of spades?"
"Nope."
"How about the jack of diamonds?"
"Nuh uh."
"Not even the eight of clubs?"
"Sorry."
Zatanna twirled her wand above the deck as she muttered a few words. But when she pulled out the next card, it turned out to be blank, along with the rest of the package. "Oops, must have said the wrong spell. Oh well, I guess these things…" she said as she pulled a blue handkerchief from her sleeve, and pulled, and pulled until she had one that was five feet long. "Hold on a second…" The female magician took off her top hat, stuffed the handkerchief into it and waved her wand. Cassandra then reached inside when prompted and ended up with a chocolate bar in her hand. "There you go."
"Thank you," Cassandra said as the crowd applauded
"You're welcome, and thank you for volunteering."
For the entire duration of the show, Hector and Cassandra, not to mention the rest of the audience, sat spellbound in their seats as Zatanna made a table disappear, conjured a pair of doves out of thin air, turned a rope into a snake and back, and so on and so forth. Finally, after more than an hour of tricks and illusions, she came to her last act. "Thank you. You've all been a great audience. But what kind of show would this be without the most classic trick of all?" Zatanna then took off her top hat, showing the audience that it was empty, and plunged her arm in up to her elbow. After rummaging around for a moment, she pulled out a furry white rabbit, which was holding a card in its mouth. "Now what do you have here, bugs?" she asked as she put her top hat on again. Taking the card in one hand, and subsequently making the rabbit disappear with a flourish of her wand, she held out the card for everyone to see, revealing that it was a ten of hearts. "So that's where it was," she exclaimed. "No wonder I couldn't find the right card."
The entire audience stood up and applauded her generously, cheering for her performance, to which she gave a graceful bow, before the curtains closed in front of her.
"Well, that was pretty awesome," Hector said as they were walking out of the room.
"Are you talking about the show or Zatanna specifically?" Cassandra asked with a grin on her face.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Come on, I'm not blind. I saw the way you were checking her out when she popped up on the stage."
"I wasn't checking her out," Hector muttered under his breath. His sister merely gave him a look that clearly told him she didn't believe his statement at all. "… too much…" Cassandra raised a doubtful eyebrow at this, her expression otherwise unchanged. "… Was I?"
"Ever since mom passed away, you haven't gone out on a date even once. I know you're busy with work and looking after me and all, but you've got to think about yourself once in a while. And seeing how you're 25 and still single, I'd say it's pretty normal for you to at least look at women. And anyway, as I'm sure you remember, we've got passes to see her in person, and I am not letting them go to waste. Also, you're coming to see her with me, and that's that."
"Alright, alright," Hector said, smiling a little as he gave in to his sister's demands. He approached one of the theatre people and spoke with him for a moment, showing him their tickets when he asked. The man then turned around and brought them backstage to meet Zatanna.
"You had better talk to her, or else I'll tell her exactly how much you were staring," Cassandra whispered to her brother.
"Well hello there, Cassandra," Zatanna greeted. "Did you enjoy the show?"
"Yeah, I loved it!" she replied enthusiastically. "I've seen a few magicians before, but you were by far the best and most spectacular."
"Why thank you. And who's your friend here?"
Cassandra elbowed her brother in the side, prompting him to introduce himself. "Oh, um, I'm Hector Anderson, Cassandra's big brother and sole guardian. I really liked your show by the way, and it's very nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet a polite guy like you for a change. Must be a challenge taking care of a teenager by yourself."
"Well, I won't deny that she can often be a handful." Hector gave his sister a mild glare at this. "But I wouldn't give her up for anything in the world."
"That's very sweet of you," Zatanna said with a smile.
"Umm, thanks," he replied, turning his head a little, trying to hide a light blush creeping onto his face.
"You know…" Cassandra spoke up. "Apart from being a star athlete, highly skilled martial artist, brilliant intellectual, pretty cool brother and a great guy in general, he's also a really awesome cook." She then lowered her voice and leaned in to whisper in Zatanna's ear. "Not to mention that he's also entirely single."
"Well, umm, that's nice to know," the female magician noted, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Whatever she just said, it's entirely her fault," Hector quickly specified, having noticed Zatanna's awkwardness.
"It's okay, I'm just a little surprised at how straight-forward she is."
"Hey, I just had a great idea. If you're free sometime this week, you should totally come over to our apartment for dinner."
"Are you sure about this?" Zatanna asked. "Doesn't your brother have a say in things?"
"Normally, yes," Hector answered. "But, she just turned 16 today and she's well aware that I can't bring myself to refuse her anything on her birthday. Besides, it wouldn't be any problem accommodating you."
"And like I said, he's a really awesome cook. Probably good enough to outdo any of those fancy restaurant chefs. So will you come? Pleeeeeeease?" Cassandra gave Zatanna her sweetest smile and puppy dog eyes, against which the female magician couldn't help but give in.
"Sure, I don't see why not."
"Sweet!" Cassandra exclaimed. "I know you won't regret it!"
"We should exchange phone numbers so we can get in touch to figure out a good time and date." Zatanna nodded at this, and the two of them wrote down their respective phone numbers and passed gave them to the other.
"I'll be looking forward to seeing you again soon. And happy birthday, Cassandra."
"Thank you," Cassandra piped up, before they all turned around to go their own ways. Hector and his sister walked out of the theater, hailed a cab and sat back as they were driven home. "Well… Aren't you going to thank your precious little sister for getting you hooked up with a hot young woman like her?"
"It's only dinner, not an extravagant hot date."
"Tut, tut, tut, minor details. Remember, you've got to think about yourself once in a while."
Hector gave his sister a warm smile and ruffled her hair. "Thank you."
"Just looking out for you like you've been looking out for me all these years."
So, I hope you thought it was worth the time it took to read, and if you would be so kind, please review. Constructive criticism is appreciated, brainless flames most certainly are not.