The New Generation: Earth-53

When Rose made her way to the front door, it was already opened and Zoe had placed herself outside and was performing some stretches. She was wearing a gym shorts and some running pants. As Rose arrived she looked over and smiled before listening to her suggestion. "Gotham huh? Alright, why not? I doubt we can get a speeding ticket for running too fast in the city after all," she teased before pulling out her phone and typing a quick message.

"Just a message to Edward in case he wonders where we are," Zoe said as she put her phone in a zipper pocket. Didn't want it to fall out while they were running after all. "Let's go!"

---

Well, that hadn't gone according to plan. While this was mainly a father/daughter conversation, that didn't stop the other two men from hearing everything that was said. Towards the end they started to look at each other, starting to realize where this was going. While one of the men was still unable to move, one of them was still free. He quickly moved his hand before Zatanna finished her spell and ignited a flame in the candle in his jacket.

Course, that didn't exactly stop the sheer amount of pain that was filling their bodies. The frozen man was screaming his head off as he almost felt like he wanted to claw his eyes out. All he could do was scream in agony without the power of the candle to help him.

The newest man wasn't out yet though. "You dumb bitch, Neron will destroy everyone you love for this insult!" he shouted before pointing his hand towards Zatanna. "Aput RAN!" he shouted before a pure blast of energy fired directly from his hand and straight at Zatanna.

Whether the attack hit Zatanna or not she would probably see what happened next. Flames seemed to engulf the spirit of her father, and he was gone faster than he had appeared. After that the dreaded voice filled her mind. "You have chosen poorly. Your father shall now suffer worse at my hand."

"Tcetorp em!" Zatanna shouted, forming a magical barrier around herself. The other magician's attack erupted harmlessly against the shield. Though she knew it was coming, seeing her father burn away at the hands of Neron drove home a spike through her heart that she hadn't been prepared for. A numb, dead lump formed in her throat, as she tightened her hands into fists. "That was... a mistake. Using my father to try and... to get me to..." Her eyebrows suddenly crossed, a scowl slashing across her face. In that moment, she raised a hand forward, no longer screwing around. "Doolb ot erif."

The man's screams were terrifying on their own. A cut hurt, getting hit by a car hurt. To have your insides light on fire though, that was true and excruciating pain. The man nearly fell to his knees, but somehow he managed to stay upright. He was tougher than any of the others that they had faced. Neron had clearly prepared this one more than the others, something like that should have killed him instantly. He was intent on surviving though.

His pain did allow for one thing however, Stan and Neal suddenly found themselves free. Neal turned and aimed his arm towards the man. "Aput RAN!" he shouted as he cast the same magical spell that the man had just tried to cast on Zatanna. The energy smashed right in to the man and sent him in to the wall.

"Dayzun root," Stan spoke as he focused his eyes upon the man. Several of the man's bones suddenly broke as he kept screaming in pain. Eventually, he fell to the ground and didn't make a single sound. Instead, he merely turned in to a large pile of black ash as his body seemed to burn away from within. "I am serving the WRONG God," Stan muttered as he watched the way in which the man faded away.

Neal slowly looked over at Zatanna and he held a sad expression on his face. "We were frozen but we could see and hear everything. You......you could have saved your father, but you picked me instead. Why?"

"Because..." Zatanna said, bowing her head. "Saving one good life is not worth destroying another." She said nothing else, though, remaining utterly silent as she walked past the pile of ash and sat down on the couch. For a long while she simply stared at the ground, arms resting on her thighs, until finally she brought herself to speak again. "I... I vowed to protect you, Neal. Just as my father vowed to protect me. As long as I'm alive, I swear to you... I will never break that promise."

Neal just kept watching Zatanna as she moved away from him. The weight of what she had done was obvious. Neron had offered her a one time deal to save her own father from basically being in Hell, and yet she hadn't done it. She had chosen to keep Neal safe instead. He could hardly believe it, he didn't even know what he would have done in that same situation. As Zatanna made her last statement, she would feel Neal taking her hand and holding it in his own. When she looked up at him, she'd see the tears that were coming down his face.

"I won't ever let you down Zatanna. I promise you that."

When Zatanna felt the touch of Neal's fingers come around her own, she tightened her grip, holding his hand firmly. After a brief moment's hesitation, she looked at him and eventually stood up from the couch as well, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his shoulder. He wasn't the only one who needed to be rid of a few tears. Well... much more than a few. "And I won't... I won't let you down, either."

"You've never let me down before," Neal said as he held Zatanna as they embraced one another. This was hard on both of them, but the act of what she did wasn't a small thing. She could have had her family back, the one thing that she had basically never had. She chose to protect Neal though, that wasn't something that Neal was going to forget any time soon.

Stan stood off to the side, scratching his head awkwardly. He had seen what had happened as well, but it didn't really mean as much to him as it did to these two. So he just stood there and waited. They still had two more men that they needed to stop after all, but he wasn't going to get any more on Zatanna's bad side. He had a feeling that she didn't like him as it was.

Zatanna held him for a long while, taking in deep breaths. She just... needed the comfort. Needed that someone to hold right now, so she could cry away the pain. Finally, after several long minutes, she took in one more deep breath and pulled back slightly, pausing only briefly to gently kiss Neal's cheek. "Thank you, Neal... now, let's get going. We... we're still not done, yet."

Neal gained a tiny hint of red on his cheeks as Zatanna kissed his cheek. He couldn't even try to hide the wide smile that now showed up on his face. Zatanna was really pretty after all, and her lips felt nice against his skin. "Yeah you're right," Neal said as he started to focus again. "We got three out of the five though, that's gotta be good."

"Indeed," Stan said as he pushed himself off of the nearest wall. "With luck the last two might be together and we can deal with them promptly," he said as he looked over at Zatanna. He wasn't really sure what to say about what just happened, so he said nothing. "Shall we get going?"

"Yeah, right... let's get going," Zatanna said, taking one last deep breath and clearing her throat. She stepped back from Neal, smoothing out the front of her magician's coat and trying not to look at him. He wasn't even trying to hide how much her little kiss on the cheek had excited him, what with that big goofy grin on his face. And to be honest... she didn't mind. Closing her eyes, Zatanna raised her hands again, speaking another spell to transport them to the next candle bearer. Hopefully, they could get through this without anymore mishaps.

As Zatanna cast the spell, both Neal and Stan stood at the ready to fight whatever might come at them next. They would teleport from their current location and end up in a strange dark room. It appeared to be under stone.

"Where on Earth are we now?" Stan asked as he looked around the area.

"Based on the smell, I'd say some kind of a sewer. It stinks something awful in here," Neal remarked as he looked around the area. It was also cold as well, and a few rats seemed to be running around the area.

"WOAH! I'd definitely say that we're in the right place," Stan said as something caught his eye. In the corner of this room was a small monument of a man, decorated out with fangs and horns. "It's a shrine of Neron, I've seen this before," Stan remarked as he looked down at the books that seemed to rest against the shrine. He glanced them over before placing them back down. "Books on stories of Neron and how to properly worship him, sounds like we have a real zealot down here," Stan remarked before tossing one of the books to Neal who promptly caught it.

"Is there only one down here?" Neal asked as he looked at the book curiously. Zatanna would only be able to sense one life force besides their own down in these caverns.

"Ugh... that is... oh my god," Zatanna uttered, holding a hand over her nose. It absolutely stank down here... a sewer indeed. "Dserf sa seisiad." Suddenly, the smell of the sewer would change into a scent of fresh flowers. "Much better..."

Turning towards the shrine, she narrowed her eyes slightly, studying it. She couldn't help but give Stan a sidelong glance when he mentioned he'd seen one before. Of course he had... "There's only one other person down here that I can sense," she said, when asked about it. "Somewhere close by, too, though I can't pinpoint it. Look for the candle, maybe he doesn't have it on him."

As the smell was cast both Stan and Neal noticed immediately how much of an improvement there was to the actual smell of the sewers. Magic really was the best power that you could hope for. It came in handy for almost any situation.

"I doubt that he will just leave the candle lying around," Stan said as he looked towards Zatanna. "If this man is truly a fanatic than he wouldn't take a gift like that lightly. He'd have it on him so that he could use it the moment that his master wished for it."

"Great, so now it's just a matter of finding him is it?" Neal asked as he looked over towards Stan.

"No, it's just a matter of you surviving," a dark voice suddenly said. Across the room a man suddenly walked through the wall. He had long blonde hair and his eyes appeared to be pitch black as he stared at the three individuals in front of him. "Neron demands both your deaths" he said before suddenly holding his hand up and revealing the candle that he was holding. It was already lit. Without any further motion he suddenly lifted his hand, causing Neal to be lifted in to the air before being thrown across the room in to the nearest stone wall.

"Enots ot swollip" Zatanna shouted, turning the stone wall that Neal was about to hit into a wall of fluffy pillows. Without missing a beat, she looked back at the man with the candle and extended a hand. "Emalf hsiugnitxe!" She had no idea if that would actually work or not, but if she could extinguish the candle, then most of this guy's power would disappear, if not send his soul directly to Neron.. she didn't now exactly how they worked, but she didn't care. She only cared about stopping him.

Neal landed softly against the pillows, ending up perfectly fine. Had he continued at the speed that he had been shot at he probably would have had several broken bones from the impact. He quickly got to his feet before running back to try and support Zatanna.

As Zatanna cast her spell in an attempt to put out the candle she would find that it was protected by some form of magical barrier. The flame stayed lit, clearly an extra sign of protection that Neron had given the candle before allowing his servants to get a hold of them. "Good try," the man said with a smile.

"Kash put" a voice suddenly said. Zatanna was hit from behind and smashed in to the ground by an unknown force. Upon feeling the energy though, she would realize who it was. "Sorry Zatanna, but Neron is very disappointed in you," Stan suddenly said as he suddenly flashed and appeared next to the zealot. Without saying anything else he reached in to his jacket and produced the fifth candle, having somehow used magic to block even Zatanna from sensing where it had been. He was quick to light it before Zatanna could recover.

"Well, I guess that was too much to hope for," Zatanna muttered, as the candle remained lit. Alright, so she'd just have to try something diff- "Oof!" Or not. Zatanna grunted, slowly pushing herself back to her hands and knees, after being driven to the ground by an unknown force from behind. Of course, once she realized what was going on, she things all started to make sense. She frowned, lowering her gaze as Stan lite the candle. "Should have seen it... should have goddamn seen it. No one's that stupid." She paused only briefly, looking to see if Neal was alright, then attacked with everything she had. "Snes ym seimene ot rehtona noisnemid!"

"This....is not good," Neal muttered as he saw that Stan had suddenly switched sides. Or rather, he revealed that real side that he had been working with the entire time. So the whole time he had been the fifth candle holder, meaning that the last two candle holders were right in front of him. Of course that was assuming that Stan had even been honest in the slightest from the beginning.

"Melkar al not!" both men shouted as Zatanna attempted to end the battle with one finishing move. While the exact effects weren't known, it was clear that the two men were not going to be going in to the other dimensions like Zatanna had planned. "Kel fot!" Stan shouted before aiming his hand at Zatanna.

"Kelvis ran!" Neal shouted. Stan suddenly had his leg slide forward, forcing the man in to a splits position, throwing his aim off. The area of the wall closest to Zatanna exploded in to a mess of rocks and pebbles. The attack had nearly hit her directly.

"Kanash tor val!" the zealot shouted as two streams of fire suddenly erupted from his hand and aimed to collide directly in to Neal and Zatanna.

"Well, that was... innovative," Zatanna said, watching Stan drop into the splits as he fired his spell. But hey, at least it worked. "Keep it up Neal, don't let them get an edge." She jumped back up to her feet, clapping her palms together as the wave of flames began to race towards them. "Ladit evaw!" Instantly, a massive wall of water materialized around her and flooded forward towards the fire and the two men beyond.

"Little bastard," Stan said as he pushed himself upwards. There was a slight stinging sensation from the forced splits, but hey at least it wasn't a broken arm. They were going to have to turn up the heat on these two. "Focus the boy," Stan said in a cold tone as he didn't even look at the zealot that stood next to him. As the water came towards them Stand aimed his hand forward, causing the water to part both ways around them. The fire was still put out, but no damage came to them.

The zealot quickly aimed his hand forward. "Kadush oh mal," he uttered before firing off several lightning bolts at his hands. They were all aimed directly at Neal too, and they looked powerful.

"Shield a nor!" Neal shouted. A magical barrier formed around him and seemed to be holding the lightning at bay, but it looked like his shield could crack at any moment under the pressure of Neron's more powerful magic.

As this happened, Stan quickly redirected the water that Zatanna had summoned and sent it right back at her. It seemed like he was casting spells now without saying anything.

"No, no, no!" Zatanna shouted, watching as the attacks went straight at Neal. The boy was good, but he was still young and inexperienced. Neron's magic would likely destroy his shield before long. Holding a hand out towards him, she cast, "Nehtgnerts sih dleihs!", with the intent to amplify the strength of Neal's barrier. In the time it took her to cast that, however, the water that Stan redirect crashed into her, spinning her body along the waves and eventually crashing into the nearby stone wall.

Zatanna's magic was able to amplify the strength of the shield, making it easily withstand the attacks that the Zealot launched at him. Course once Zatanna was hit by the water and crashed in to the nearby wall he stopped his attack. Zatanna was the bigger threat after all, she needed to be killed as soon as possible. He turned his attack to aim it at her.

"Get away from her!" Neal shouted as he cast his hand forward. Without casting a spell at all the zealot was suddenly shot backwards, crashing in to the wall and smacking his head against it. He wasn't out of the fight, but blood started to fall from his injured head.

"Little bastard," Stan muttered before motioning to the Zealot who was suddenly forced to his feet. "Make something of yourself, you are a servant of Neron. These two should be nothing to you," he criticized.

"Zatanna, are you alright?" Neal asked as he appeared next to her side and tried to help her stand up. Neal wasn't positive, but it didn't feel like they were winning this fight. "I have an idea.....but I'll need you to distract them for it to work."

"I'm... I'm okay..." Zatanna uttered, easing herself into a sitting position against the wall. Her head trickled with a steady stream of blood, and the blow had dazed her, but she'd live... at least for the moment. She blinked a few times, bringing up a hand to wipe some of the blood out of her hair, then looked back at Neal. "I... yeah, I can distract... right. Whatever you're planning, go for it, kid. I trust you." She just hoped that Neal's plan was a good one... "Rhgirb sthgil! Suddenly, a rapid series of rapidly blinking lights would appear in in Stan's vision.

"OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT!?" Stan shouted as the lights suddenly plagued his vision and he was forced to one knee. The lights were bright enough to the point where even when he closed his eyes he couldn't get away from them.

"Akal nor moe!" Neal shouted as he stood up and held out an open hand. From inside Stan's jacket came an object and it landed right in to Neal's hand. It was the candle that Stan had taken from the o the other Neron worshiper. It wasn't intended for Neal, but it could still give him the extra power that came with it. "Zatanna, I need you to light it. Hurry!"

"Neal..." Zatanna uttered, as the candle flew into his hands. Now that she knew what his plan was.... she didn't know whether it was stupid or brilliant She quickly ran through her head what she knew about the candles... not that she had a long time to do so. The person who was given the candle... when someone else had the candle... what would it... "Okay, but let me light it." If something bad happened to the person who lit the candle, she wanted that someone to be her. "Tghil eht eldnac."

Neal held the candle steadily as he heard Zatanna chant the magical words. The candle slowly lit up, revealing the black flame that accompanied Neron's candles. Neal stood up and took a step back, as if worried that having Zatanna near it would somehow hurt her. the smoke from the flame rose up and reached Neal's nostrils. He took a breath for a single moment before blinking once. The iris of his eyes were suddenly a blood red color.

"A desh no," Stan said as he suddenly cleared the eyes from the bright lights. He wiped his eyes for a moment before looking over and seeing what Neal had done. "Oh shit no!" he shouted before casting another magical blast of energy towards Neal and Zatanna.

Neal held up his hand effortlessly, not even saying a word as the magic came towards him. It seemed to impact with his hand before stopping right in its tracks. Neal quickly stood up and faced the zealot and Stan. "Akesh or nol!" Neal shouted as he focused on the zealot. Suddenly the zealot's knee caved right in and he crumbled to the ground in pain.

"Velnos!" Stan shouted as he cast a spell that shot lightning right at Neal. He cast another shield that blocked Stan's spell, but once again it started to break through. "Get him Zatanna!" Neal shouted. His voice sounded much more different than usual, deeper.