2012-10-25 Always Willing To Help

After contacting Zatanna and asking to meet with her, Colossus flew in from New York so it took a little time before he arrives at the Hall. Eventually he does and walks onto the Observation Deck. It&apos;s quiet and unmonitored.

The fact that it is so quiet and unmonitored is probably why more than a few conversations have been held on this deck in the last few weeks.

But that&apos;s not why Zatanna arrives. There&apos;s no flash of light. No puff of smoke. Noting like her stage performances. At least not right now. Instead, in an entirely non-magical way, Zatanna enters the Observation Room via the stairs.

And yet as she arrives, she smiles slightly for a moment before nodding at her team mate in greeting, "Colossus."

"Zatanna." Colossus says, turning to smile at her. "Thank you for coming. I thought I&apos;d give you the chance to ask all the questions there was no time to ask before. I&apos;ll answer them as best I can. And then ask for more help."

There isn&apos;t even a pause at that, even if the Mistress of Magics smile vanishes and she looks almost dead serious.

"You know all you have to do is ask." is said out loud as Zatanna moves over to take a seat. "But please, fire away."

"No questions?" Colossus asks. "Unlike before, there&apos;s time to talk. And in this case, the more you know the better. So let&apos;s do this... Tell me as much as you already know and then I&apos;ll fill in the blanks."

It&apos;s something when people keep coming to you for magical advice, but Zatanna is use to it. Or should be by now. Besides, there&apos;s only one thing that this really could be about...

"If you want me to ask questions, I can. Odds are it&apos;d be better if you told me what you know, especially about the more recent events, and I could ask questions about that. But for now..."

"For now, I might as well just say everything I know for certain. We&apos;re dealing with old magic. Older than humans. It was used in a way that almost gave the caster the &apos;keys to limbo&apos; so to speak. They used serial killings to prep for their last major spell to prepare a rather large magical circle. A ritual was attempted. It obviously didn&apos;t succeed. But I have not seen or heard anything directly as to what happened there. Especially with other large, and potentially just as dangerous magical problems happening at the same time, and of course the... &apos;Political&apos; situation that most of The League appears to be caught up in."

"Did I miss anything you&apos;d care to fill me in on?"

"No, it did succeed." Colossus corrects then turns and goes over to sit down, gesturing Zatanna to do the same. "Whoever it is beat us, pure and simple. Fortunately, as it turns out, he didn&apos;t get everything he wanted. And now I&apos;ll fill you in on the history."

And at that Zatanna quirks an eyebrow, even as she looks more than a bit worried, but she just silently waits and listens.

"This is about Magik. Who she is and what she is." Colossus says. "When she was a child, she was kidnapped and taken to Limbo by Belasco, the then ruler. He made her his apprentice, tried to make her just as evil as he was, and used her soul to forge magical Bloodstones. Five stones - keys - are needed to unlock the dimension where the Elder Gods are being kept captive. Should they escape, they will turn Earth into hell. Fortunately, Magik managed to defeat Belasco and became Queen of Limbo. She is what keeps the Elder Gods locked away." Pausing, he gives Zatanna a moment to assimilate all that then continues. "Somehow, he set things up so that Stonewall would absorb Magik&apos;s power and everything that goes with it: her magic, the Bloodstones, her Soulsword which is what makes her Queen. The ritual was so he could take them from Stonewall and he did so. Partially. Though he was completely prepared for all of us - he obviously has great power and does his research - he could not plan for one thing: Magik was, at the time her power was taken, using part of it to cure someone of some kind of magical infestation. Though the ritual&apos;s wards kept her away, when it activated, her magic - and the Bloodstones - went to the one she had been curing. He - Cannonball - had a small portion of her power already and now has it all. But the one we fought still got away with the Soulsword and now controls Limbo. And that is where things stand now. We need to get the sword back to Magik. And just as importantly, we need to get her magic back to her from Cannonball and the Bloodstones as well which are tied to the magic."

How much of that Zatanna might have known is not betrayed. But there are at least certain things in regards to Magik that Zee did already know, if she didn&apos;t say them out loud like Piotr did.

All though the stuff about the infestation. The soul inside another person. And who is ruling limbo...

That just gets a faint, "I see." as The Mistress of Magic thinks it over and &apos;digests&apos; all of that together like that."

"You&apos;d need to talk to Magik in depth, of course." Colossus notes. "I just came from talking with her and others. Which is when we discovered that her magic and the Bloodstones are in the possession of Cannonball. While it&apos;s all affecting him poorly, more worrisome is that he can&apos;t use the magic. He doesn&apos;t have the knowledge. On the plus side, whoever it is doesn&apos;t have it either nor the Bloodstones. But he is now the King of Limbo and can command a literal army of demons."

"Given how old the magic they used is, there are relatively few options as to who it is. At least if they have any strong connection to this plane, this reality, and this planet." is said in a calm, thoughtful voice. "I&apos;ll admit that I have suspicions, but I&apos;d need to do certain things, most notably talk to Magik, before I&apos;d even dare to speak a name out loud."

Then there&apos;s a pause.

"An army of demons can be dealt with while some of our allies might not be ideal for fighting them, we still might want to ask for their help. And there are of course certain... Experts we can try to recruit to help you with this."

"Help Magik." Colossus corrects. "I am very much out of my depth. And perhaps army isn&apos;t the right word. A world full of demons. Who can appear through portals all over the world if the ruler wants them to. I&apos;ll do whatever is needed but I&apos;ve already told you as much as I know."

There is a nod at that, "Colossus... When it comes to Limbo, Magik is the expert. I can help. I will help. And I know others we can ask for help. And it doesn&apos;t matter if we&apos;re dealing with a world, or an army." is said as Zatanna stands back up, and moves to look out and &apos;enjoy&apos; the view.

"We have little choice. We will win. As is, based on what you said, all we have to do is one thing, and the threat is neutralized. Cannonball on the other hand might be the tricky part."

"He beat us." Colossus reminds her. "Me, Superman, Cannonball and someone who&apos;s a telekinetic and telepath and not a weak one either. And he did it easily. I don&apos;t know what we can do against him next time though we&apos;ll need to figure that out of course. And Magik having her power back will help a lot. Assuming it&apos;s possible. She didn&apos;t seem so sure when I asked her."

"Well, I&apos;d say taking a bath in Holy water might help before hand. But that doesn&apos;t work with everything we&apos;d call a demon." Zatanna says with a faint smile.

"As for what to do. I&apos;m hitting the books. Between this, and the /unrelated/ incidents in Gotham, I&apos;m getting a lot of time in the library. As is, talking to your sister will be the biggest help with that, since she can more easily point me in the right direction if she knows it or not. And if that&apos;s still not good enough, there is another expert or two I can consult."

"I&apos;ll leave it to you then." Colossus agrees. "You and she can arrange a time to talk. She&apos;s the expert here, I&apos;m just the muscle. If you need me for that, let me know."

There&apos;s a nod at that, before Zatanna says, "I&apos;m sorry if I&apos;m not as helpful as you&apos;d like right now."

"But I will say this. I&apos;m not sure how helpful it is against these paticular demons, but some do have a weakness to metal and weapons made of metal. thus you might already have an advantage in this."