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[center][u][b]Homecoming IV[/b][/u][/center]
[sub]London, The United Kingdom
9:35 AM[/sub]
[sub][sub][hr][/sub][/sub]

[INDENT][INDENT][color=lightgray]“Why England?” Zatanna questioned incredulously as followed Voodoo. 

The only memories Zatanna could associate with England was of childhood when she was ten or eleven years old. A cluster of the Zatara clan had taken a boat up and around Gibraltar before the War, as it turned out the squadristi held no love towards strange academics and occultists living out in the countryside, and she and her father made a trip to visit them. The memories clung to her, it was one of the longest times she had ever spent together with her Father - a whole two uninterrupted weeks during the summer. Of course, he was as distant as always his face always down in some book or tome, and when he did speak it was always to impart some sort of lesson on the young Zatanna, but there were sparks of humanity too. Persistent little quirks that had ingrained themselves into her mind even to this day, these little dumb and inconsequent moments - he would always smile at the scent of a freshly poured cup of tea. But now he was dead and here she was again this time chasing after his ghost.

“We have a train to catch” Voodoo explained in a blaise tone pointed a single finger towards the ground.

“Are we getting on the tube?” Zatanna inquired “While you are dressed like that?” .

Zatanna gestured towards Voodoo's entire pants but no shirt beyond two leather strips getup. Though now that she mentioned it Zatanna became painfully aware that she too was dressed rather... bizarrely for 9 AM in London. To their credit the passerbyers seemed to bare the two of them little notice. There was of course a few raised brows here and there, a couple of muffled scuffs, and perhaps a slight increase in catcalls thrown in Zatanna’s direction that she had to hold her tongue not to respond to, but nothing beyond ordinary. The people perhaps too polite, too timed, too tired, or too uncaring to really but into the manners of two strangers on the street.  

“Something like that” Voodoo replied as he turned a corner with the comfortable gait of someone that had made this walk several times before.

The act of turning the corner seemed to have transported the two through time. Pave asphalt gave away to cobblestone worn by the time and age to the point of smoothing over. On the corner ahead of them there was a pub that looked more at home with the works of Shakespeare than it did in modernity, the smell of cooking grease filling the surrounding air with its distinctive scent. Zatanna followed Voodoo as he walked down the block towards a big red circle that maybe once proclaimed the words Underground but now only told the world Udrgron. Zatanna carefully made her way down a set of crumbling steps trying to stay optimist even as though steps ended at what appeared to be a solid wall of brick.

She curiously watched as Voodoo approached the brick wall.  He seemed to analyze the brick intensely for a moment running his finger across the surface and bringing it up to his mouth for a lick. Voodoo’s face contorted and scrunched at the taste as he muttered something underneath his breath in displeasure. Taking his staff in two hands the older man took a few steps backwards and with the careful precision of a man defusing a bomb he began to tap individual bricks. At first there seemed to be no sequence or pattern to the taps but after the first five or so flames began to appear tracing a path from each touched break. The trail of flames grew longer and longer as Zatanna watched a complex series of geometric patterns slowly began to form. Voodoo hesitated at the last brick, the staff shaking in his hands as he took a deep breath.

“What happens if you got it wrong?” Zatanna asked not realizing that she herself was holding her breath in. 

“The ward will be triggered and a fireball will incinerate us before we have time to blink.”  Voodoo remarked his monotone voice providing no insight on how he would feel about becoming a burnt pile of flesh.

“Fun,” Zatanna replied her voice raising in pitch as she took a step backwards though she doubted that any measure of distance would really help her “gotta cross the Rubicon at some point right?” 

And with those truly [i]inspiring[/i] words Voodoo pressed his staff against the brick. The pair watched muscles tensed with anticipation as the flaming line met with the last brick. For a moment there was nothing and in the next the arcane sigil drawn across the wall began to burn brighter and brighter. The heat was like sticking your head in a running oven and Zatanna reflexively tried to take another step back but found that her legs could not move. And then the heat died away almost as quickly leaving nothing but black scorch marks across the wall. Zatanna raised a brow as she heard a deep rumbling as very slowly and with surprising fluidity the brick wall began to slide into an indention hidden in the right handside of the entranceway revealing a long dark passageway that continued to descend downwards light by flickering candles mounted on the walls. 

“[b]Don’t[/b] stare down there whatever you do” Voodoo warned throwing a sideways glance at Zatanna before he moved deeper into the passageway.

“That’s not foreboding  at all” Zatanna mused to herself with a shrug before she followed after the sound of Voodoo's staff tapping against the ground.

The path sloped downward stainless white tile walls illuminated by the flicker of candlelight. The descent seemed longer than any other she had experienced in a subway more akin to a descending mine then a place for trains. She remembered reading about the trains in Moscow built so far underground that they could survive even the shock and awe of atomic hellfire. [i]Was this something like that?[/i] She wondered  as they walked. Eventually though the slope began to level off and come to a halt. Peering through the darkness ahead Zatanna was able to make out a large wooden door with an ornate golden handle flanked on either side by two large metal braziers whose flames soared upward to about a head taller than Zatanna herself. 

There standing in front of this display was two large figures easily twice Zatanna’s height. At first Zatanna though that they were wearing some kind of armor but as she grew closer her eyes widened. The figures were not wearing metal, they were made of metal. Bronze armor  plating bolted in sequence over what could only be described as a sea of clockwork that Zatanna could see whirring and clicking through gaps in the armor. Atop this rather intricate display of automation was large stalagmite of crystal giving off a pale blue luminescence that tapered off to a fine point.

“What are they?” Zatanna whispered a slight hint of panic on her voice, adrenaline beginning to kick in as she readied herself.

“Calm child,” Voodoo replied in a half-whisper slowing his gait so that the pair could walk side by side. “They are the guardians of this place, they will not harm you.” 

As they drew near to the guardians the large crystals that made up their heads began to emit a different going from that pale blue to a much brighter orange. Voodoo held out an arm to keep Zatanna back beyond a long line marked in black tile interwoven with gold  like a stark border across the barren floor, the line stretched across the entire width of the tunnel save for the center where it bulged outward into a circular before thinning out ward again. 

“H A L T” Two voices rang out in perfect unison with one another.

The gargantuan frames of the guardians turned to regard the two of them.

“J E R I C H O  D R U M M, Y O U  A R E  K N O W N  H E R E” The two guardians started but then despite having eyes Zatanna could feel them begin to stare at her “Y O U R  C O M P A N I O N     I S   N O T   K N O W N” 

“My name is -” Zatanna started but was cut off as the crystals turned red.

“S I L E N C E !” The guardians roared the volume so loud it made Zatanna reflexively flinch in pain. “T H E  U N K N O W N  O N E  W I L L  S T E P  I N T O  T H E  C I R C L E”

Zatanna looked towards Voodoo for confirmation who nodded his head and ushered her forward. With his reassurance, Zatanna hesitantly took a step into the center circle that broke up the line. The red glow of the crystals changed back to a pale blue as two beams of mystical energy emanated from the crystals directed towards Zatanna. She raised a hand upward in attempt to somehow block the beams  but they managed to make contact anyway. Soon Zatanna began to glow with the same energy that the strange guardians were embedded with the aura pulsating with her own heartbeat. And Zatanna could feel the alien presence in her head as something began to analyze her, dissembling her with only a glance, and she could feel the pair began to root through her memories pulling up things long forgotten and was not for others to know. 

“[b]POTS[/b] “ She yelled at the top of her lungs almost on instinct alone as there was this brilliant display of magical energy coming into contact with other magical energy. The wave scattering the particles of the beams being aimed at Zatanna. She stumbled backward like she had just been punched square in the kidney buckled over in pain, the shockwave expanding outward with enough force to knock both the guardians back a few inches, their crystals flickering a whole rainbow of colors. Looking up from her pain she turned towards Voodoo was standing in a defensive position he staff raised looking at the two guardians uncertainty in his eyes. 

“R E -R E-R E C O N F I G U R A T I O N   C O M P L E T E”  The guardians declared as their crystals stopped flickering and settled back on their amber-orange glow. “A N A L Y S I S  O F  T H E  U N K N O W N  O N E  IS  C O M P L E T E” 

They projected an image in the air of Zatanna that looked identical to her form standing in the circle, next to the image a long list of biographic and biometric data. Huge amounts Zatanna herself only being able to make out bits and pieces of words as they flashed by: Homo magi, Giovanni, Caution, et cetera. As the information continued to be displayed slowly the orange glow of the crystals began to fade back down. Zatanna and Voodoo before visibly
 relaxing as the colors morphed.

“ Z A T A N N A   Z A T A R A   Y O U   A R E   K N O W N  T O  U S” The guardians declared as their voices began to fade away, the large door behind them slowly opening on its own. Zatanna and her companion looked at one another for a moment in silence, letting the tension of almost getting killed wash over them before the two of them both bursted out in nervous laughter. Giddly and quickly they made their way past the two now sleeping guardians and through the door.

Emerging through the doorway they were blinded with immense light.

“I must be dreaming” Zatanna muttered  as through squinted eyes, she saw the most brilliant train platform that she had ever seen. Marble statuary and fountains surrounded the area and chandeliers made of crystal and flame hung from the ceiling. Everything was carved of persistent and spotless white marble even the pots for the strange mushroom like plants scattered about in planters.  And the most fascinating thing of all was the people. Some were most certainly human though dressed in gaudy aristocratic gowns and garbs that Zatanna only saw on television. Others though were stranger than anything she had ever seen in her life: strange scaled green goblinoid creatures with huge heads, other squat square creatures who had the feet of elephants and no heads but rather faces built into what seemed to be their torso, and beautiful winged creatures that dressed in clothes weaved of flowers and whose skin shined bright as any sun to name a few.  Yet despite pinching herself she did not awaken from any dream, it had to be real.

Taking in Voodoo’s advice, she tried to avert her gaze from the bizarre menagerie around herself instead focusing on the following dreadlocks on the back of her companions head. 

“Drumm” Zatanna asked trying her best to not stutter from shock “What train are we taking?”

He turned to face her a wide smile on his face “The only one that matters child, the train to Faerie.”

[CENTER][H3][SUB][sub]THE MAGICAL MISADVENTURES OF ZATANNA ZATARA WILL CONTINUE IN 
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0Rz-uP4Mk]JAILBREAK IN FAIRYLAND[/url][/sub][/sub][/h3][/CENTER][/color][/INDENT][/INDENT]