just_a_stranger:

An Elementary School in Gotham City.

Principal Aparo was not a happy man.  He usually was, in as much as any elementary school principal could be, but he had bad news for his teachers his afternoon.  The children were at lunch, with and he had quickly called a staff meeting before it finished. 

"There's a problem," he said.  "The magician we hired for the afternoon assembly is sick.  He had to cancel.  I'm afraid we'll have to postpone the assembly."

"Oh," Mrs. Infantino, the elderly first grade teacher, said.  "The children will be so disappointed."

Victoria frowned.  There was that sudden, sinking feeling.  Slowly... she cleared her throat.

"I... may know someone who can fill in," she said. 

"Who?" Mr. Wein, one of the kindergarten teachers, asked.

"Someone famous," Victoria said, "and a very talented magician.  And I am certain he will agree.  He owes me a favor.  But you must ask no further questions.  I assure you this will be appropriate."

She added a little bit of her mystical persuasion to her words, just in case.

When the meeting broke up, she made a hasty phone call.

dc_eldritch:

Slaughter Swamp has seen it's far share of dark deeds even before the place got it's name. A place of dark untapped power that has resulted in the creation of the being known as Solomon Grundy. Such power would would eventually attract someone who wished to use it. But such power does not always wish to be used and can and will try to defend itself.

In a pulse of dark power all of the dead in Slaughter Swamp arose as zombies to defend it. It also sent out a call to bring it's prodigal son home to help.

greatest_zatara:

It's late into the evening on the east coast when flashes of light appear to the members of Shadowpact. A distorted projection of Zachary Zatara's face appears, apparently in a state of mild panic.

"...i-- --ou ca-- ear me, I nee- -elp right away! --ake m-- -hand!" The vision shifts from his face to his left hand, outstretched. Even through the greenish glow of the projection's appearance, blotches of wet unnatural color can be seen marring his skin.

just_a_stranger:

Rutland, Vermont

Though Victoria was capable of long distance travel on her own, and of bringing other people with her when required, she had, instead, opted for Zachary's spells in taking them there.  A bit more obvious, perhaps, but also a good test of their enemy's reactions.

Frankly, Victoria was occasionally of the opinion that Rutland out to be razed to the ground and then mystically erased from memory.  Too many times over the years she'd been doing this, the trail had led back to this sleepy little town.  It had exactly two things going for it: a super-hero themed Halloween parade, and mystical phenomena.

"Be on your guard," she told the others.  "I am sensing... something."

just_a_stranger:

The Oblivion Bar was a place where mystical types from all corners of time and space could gather freely, without the need to antagonize each other and compete in their usual frays of Order vs. Chaos, or good vs. evil.

Even Victoria Craft herself was known to occasionally go there and enjoy a small, fruity drink with an umbrella in it.  Especially on the days immediately following the children's return from a vacation.

But angels rubbed shoulders with demons who rubbed shoulders with cowboy ghosts who rubbed shoulders with talking chimps who rubbed shoulders with Fifth Dimensional Imps.

But what Victoria Craft noticed tonight, as she led Salome and Mina to a back table, was the notable absence of anyone whose powers specifically derived from either Order or Chaos.

She sat herself down and spread a map of the United States on the table. 

"There has to be some root cause of all this..."

just_a_stranger:

Victoria Craft was annoyed.  And she was annoyed because she was perplexed.  Confusion was not, by her nature, something she experienced often.  Joy, frustration, annoyance and exasperation (usually when dealing with Zachary), serenity, happiness, pride, these things came easily enough and were part of her life.

But there was very little that outright confused Victoria Craft, and she found the current situation of the world rather annoying.  The forces of magic were... at large in the world in a way which seemed to make no sense.  In the past two weeks, she had made contact with more than a dozen magical users of her acquaintanceship, and of those, four of them had been... not in their right heads.  One a minor practitioner of Order magics who read palms in Greenwich Village, a chaos magic using brother and sister who'd found themselves at odds, and an Order user who kept a magical library whom she'd had to prevent from destroying his own books.  She'd been able to help them fight off the influence, briefly, but had been forced to subdue them for the time.

And even Terrance Thirteen had been calling, sayings that instances of psychotic breaks seemed to have been up, with people blaming rubbish magic.

Neither of her... charges, so to speak, were necessarily fitting of the pattern, but magic always seemed to attract magic wherever it was.  She would feel safer with Mina and Salome where she could keep an eye on them.

The first leg of her journey first brought her to Mina's doorstep, where she knocked.

dc_holiday:

Drink to me, only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine ;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst, that from the soul doth rise,
Doth ask a drink divine :
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not wither'd be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me :
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee. Ben Johnson

greatest_zatara:

"So how have the practice tips I gave you been working out?" Zach asks his new assistant and pupil, scooping some toppings onto his cup of frozen yogurt. He'd decided to surprise her with treating her to Sixteen Handles.

dc_independent:

Alexia broke into the Gotham Museum. Though broke in does do what she did justice. She blow the front door down and the door frame out with a blast of magic fire. There was one thing that Alexia did not do and that was subtly.

She had found a record of a scroll with some powerful fire spell on it hidden in a Chinese painting that was currently in the possession of the Gotham Museum. She ran to where the exhibit was when she cased the place earlier that day.

As she started the incantation to get the scroll the defenses active something that she hadn’t expected. After a quick battle with some statues that she blew up as fast as she could she finished the incantation and grabbed the scroll and proceeded to run out of there.

As she got to the front doors that were still on fire she saw a police barricade waiting for her.

“Put your hands up your under arrest,” the cops yell out to her.

“Hell no,” Alexia yelled back at them. She really did not deal with authority well. As her temper and annoyance started getting the better of her, her hair and hand started to alight with flames.

With a quick spell she sent blast of fire towards all the police cars at the scene. The police really didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into and the really didn’t have much of a chance against Alexia but with this much magic being flung around someone was bound to notice.

partdemon:

With all that had happened Mike was glad to get a break from everything. Black Lanterns defeated. Morgan le Fey dead. It had been hell but they had done a lot of good and that’s what really mattered and he could finally get a good night’s sleep again.

He had debated pissing on Morgan le Fey’s grave but somehow he got the feeling that was a bad idea.

He also had the new power to utilize Hellfire to work with. His dad hadn’t been to surprised when he had told him about it though it did seem to worry him a bit.

But now he got a chance to take a break. He was doing a bit of drinking in Oblivion Bar which was a good time and had mentioned it to the other members of Shadowpact if they wanted to come. He even mentioned the doorway there in his mom’s magic shop in Gotham if they couldn’t get themselves of their own power as he couldn’t.

He figured if they had a crowd he might even spring for a back room for the team to hang in.

handofnabu:

Mark had been in the mood to drink. So he had. He was an adult and could do things like that. Except this beer had done something. He wasn't sure how much he had. Just that it seemed like a very good idea to go to the New York public library. Then it seemed like a good idea to organize everything by magic. Every book was put back in place. He hadn't meant to upset everyone by having it fly magically though as if the books were birds.

He also shouldn't have noticed how many books were missing. He should not have called up the spirits of past librarians and sent them to go fetch the missing books.

But he had. People were very upset and he found himself alone in a dark part of the library as the alcoholic haze began to lift.

And Mark felt very embarrassed and had a feeling he was going to get scolded by someone.

dc_holiday:

In the middle of St. Louis there is an odd sight: Dozens, if not hundreds of what appear to be people in bunny suits that are dressed as Abraham Lincoln, complete with stove top hat and beard. They walk around, some of them stoic and polite, others joyous and pushy. They all carry baskets of some size, all of which have odd looking eggs.

At almost an exact moment, the oddly dressed bunnies begin to hurl the eggs. Sometimes at walls, sometimes at people. And after a few seconds...

*BOOM!*

The streets begin to clear as the exploding eggs begin flying everywhere.

dc_misc:

The city of Star City looked deserted. The citizens had either fled or had been turned into black lanterns. At the heart of the city was the entity known as Nekron. Nekron used the city as his base as his black lanterns ravaged the Earth.

The black lanterns increased their numbers each day and the power levels of the black lantern battery increased with each person that died.

Soon Nekron would have enough power to obliterate all life on this planet.

black_lantern:

Morgan le Fey was back one of those black rings had found enough of her remains after the Demon had killed her to bring her back. It sought to control her but a simple black trinket couldn’t control Morgan le Fey of the Elder Folk with the amount of magic she controlled. Still it was annoying and nagging and she didn’t mind taking a few hearts along the way so long as she could complete her goal.

Even with all her great power and the power of the ring now at her disposal she had been foiled enough not to underestimate those damnable heroes. She needed a distraction to draw their focus away from her and what she was up to.

Flying over the city of London she began to weave her spell speaking in tongues even older than the first settlement man had ever made there in London back before it was ever known as such. Soon a gateway appears on the ground below her glowing with dark magics. Pouring forth from the gate her army of darkness like she used on Camelot all those many years ago. Though this time they reeked with decay and death and bore the symbol of the Black Lanterns upon them though were not Black Lanterns themselves.

“Lay this city to waste,” She commands her army as she flies off to take care of her other business. That should prove to be more than enough of a distraction for anyone who might sense what she was up too.

allednis_arataz:

"Will you all please be quiet so that I can read, please?" Sindella said, grabbing a hold of her head, massaging her temples.

Ever since Superman's death, they had gotten louder. The dead. Over the years, Sindella had grown used to "hearing voices" in her head. She was normally pretty good at tuning them out when she wanted to, too. But lately...she was having a harder time with it.

"My wife...I never got to tell my wife how much she really meant to me. Do you think she knows that I love her?"

"We never found my son's teddy bear...he won't be able to sleep without it. Oh he must be so scared..."

"Please. Please stop!" Sindella's hands covered her ears, though she knew it wouldn't help much. "I can't think!"

There was still the roar of voices.

And then..suddenly it stopped.

Though something didn't feel quite right about it.

Sindella reached out for the one voice that she always knew that she could rely on.

"Grandpa John? Are you there? Can we talk?"

Nothing.

"Anyone? Hello?"

Something was wrong. She could feel it.

faustling:

Percy often found himself using the permission he was given to explore Shadowcrest's library whenever he needed to mull over some things.  The magical world had recently experienced the death of Morgan Le Fey.  It was shocking, to say the least.  And before that, the Titans of Myth had risen.  A cult of Cthulu had even become active once again.  His nerves were so easy to get acting up, but reading through magical texts always calmed him down.  So to ease his mind, he started reading through the books in the library at Shadowcrest.

dc_holiday:

There's a piece of paper and a pen attached to a bulletin board. Across the top is written:

New Year's Resolutions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
+

Anonymous entries accepted.

greengenes:

Mickey had roped off the living room in the JSA Brownstone for the afternoon. She had spent the entire morning getting the food ready and setting up. She had sent out invites to the JLA, Titans (both East and West Coast), Shadowpact, Outsiders, Birds of Prey, and of course, the JSA girls. She had also invited Cindy in case she wanted to come, and Angie, as she was basically a JSA brat herself. Mikey had built her a projection bot, and security bot that would alert her if any of the boys thought to try and see what the girls were up to.

Mickey finished setting up the projector. She had pictures of all the guys from the various teams that she had managed to get to her hands on. She made sure that there would be enough food and drinks for everyone, and waited for people to start arriving.

spookygal:

Lily had spent the next few days in a flurry of activity. The store seemed to always be busy and she had been hard at work making sure that everyone was happy. She kept having impressions of something terrible. Every time she let her mental shields down to take a peak around the town she felt herself almost knocked on her rump. That kept her nervous and on edge.

She just knew something was not right. Then one afternoon things did not seem quite as scary.She felt lighter. The strange pressure that had been making her feel almost ill had quieted down. So at lunch time she went to enjoy a favorite spot of hers near the bust depot where the wharf could easily be seen. She was munching away happily on an egg sandwich when she saw him.

The only homeless man she could think of in town. It was said he was insane. She watched him barely being able to see him due to how bright it was and how poor her eyesight is. She thought she could smell him from here. Someone had given him gin. He was singing loudly and off key.

Then he sat next to her and Lily was very tempted to break out a Febreeze spray bottle on him.

"You see it," he said after a moment. She can't help but snort.

"See what? The bus? It only comes once a day," she says feeling suddenly very annoyed. She was not amused when he laughed at her.

"Not that, Miss King. You see what has come back. I thought it had left us," he growled. Then grabbed her hand Lily tried to pull her hand back as he leaned in to hiss something in her ear. "Take another look. Then lock your doors. We are all in grave danger."

The shock of his demand had her drop her shields. Then she saw.... something. All she knew was that she had started screaming and fell as an image burned itself in her mind. She could not say what it was. Just that her nose had started to bleed a great deal and that she found the homeless man staring at her as she gathered her senses.

"You.... You're mad," she told him. Then left quickly.

( More stuff here )

faustling:

They had all met during the ordeal with the Titans of Myth--some before then--and decided collectively that they should talk.  Percy didn't understand the intentions of the others, but he was there as requested.

dc_titansofmyth:

Selene, once the goddess of the moon before Artemis, walked toward the office building of a small subsidiary of LexCorp. She raised her hands and beams of light shot from her hands and shattered some of the windows. People inside screamed and started to panic as shard of glass went everywhere.

first_son:

The Titans of myth being freed from Hades goes beyond just the YJLA. The adults are also working on it, but haven't had a lot of luck, especially with so many of their number in semi-retirement. As such, Jon moved beyond his original plan to hold a meeting of his team, and called to invite representatives of the other teams as well, calling all active roster YJLA, and inviting the other teams to send 1-3 people so things didn't get too crowded. Then they can inform their people what's going on.


"So, folks, we have a big problem. The monsters and beings that have been appearing around the world were freed from the dimension Hades. We don't know how or by who. The Olympian gods have not been forthcoming, even to the Amazons, and even very powerful mystics have been unable to pierce the mystery... though past experience has taught us that's often the case with affairs of the gods. They limit their direct interference in mortal affairs, in exchange, mortals have a very hard time dealing directly with them. Sadly, even though the original Grecian Titans don't have any such compact, to learn what happened, we'd need to get past Hades' protections. The Greek gods may be incapacitated, or may be somehow bound by the compact of the gods. Its very possible that once the original Titans reached Earth, their captors couldn't directly interfere."

He sighs. "Direct confrontation isn't the likely answer. Single gods have fought groups including my father, Wonder Woman and a handful of other senior leaguers. Many of the Titans have the power of an entire team. The Titans are more powerful still - the only reason the Greek Gods defeated them was due to greater unity and better tactics. Don't mistake me - they can be beaten, but we're going to need a good plan, and possibly more allies and greater resources. At this point, I'm open to ideas."

dc_monsters:

The great and might Chimera was flying around the city of Metropolis. It spouted fire from its lion head as it flew closer to the ground to attack the masses.

If no one interfered soon the Chimera would live up to its gruesome legacy.

too_sexy:

Sally Roth's dads rode with her on the train to Gotham. It was one of their more awkwardly quiet family trips ever, though she supposed it was better than going to school like this.
Her stepdad tried to talk to her reassuringly as she hunched herself over in her Granny Flores's overcoat. It wasn't particularly cold, but it was the best defense she could think of against the turned heads.

Eventually, they reached Gotham. Her dads helped her find the home of the lady Mr. Blood had mentioned, and then headed off to deal with some of her father's business stuff, get some food, and have a long talk of their own. Her stepdad initially wanted to stay with her at Miss Craft's, but her father didn't think it was a good idea. "It's not like you'll understand any of it," he'd said, and then silenced the oncoming angry retort with whispers he thought Sally couldn't hear, about making it a 'girl thing' to make it easier on her.

So Salome Roth was standing in Victoria Craft's doorway.

dc_misc:

There was a low rumbling deep within the Earth near Taenarum, Greece. The rumbling grew louder and louder until it seemed like there was an earthquake. Local residents ran for doorframes. The Earth erupted and dirt, rocks and plants were sprayed into the air. A gaping maw formed in the Earth and the pit seemed bottomless.

The pit was not empty.

Beings and creatures that had not seen the light of day in over two thousands years climbed from the pit and stepped out onto the Earth.

faustling:

"Christian," Percy whispered under his breath.  He'd been following the trail of his grandfather's captor for quite some time, and it had been difficult.  There were only whispers of rumors to be found in Gotham, but still Percy looked.  Felix Faust was no hero, but he was family.  And above all else, Christian mocked the name Faust.  That hit home, and it made Percy seriously displeased.

He walked down the sidewalk in standard dress clothes, with his hands hidden in his pockets.