“I’m not certain how illegal it is. Not a law expert or anything like that.”
“You do have a fair number of protections even if you suspect something might be illegal but it actually isn’t,” Jimmy opens his computer and pulls up his ‘whistleblower laws’ folder, a very useful resource for a journalist to have. “And if it’s something that’s actively endangering people, you’re especially protected under a few different laws.”
Wes looks over the documents that Jimmy has open. “Huh. It looks like I am legally covered. Neato.”
Jimmy waits for Wes to start explaining, an event that doesn’t occur.
“Wes, bud, are you going to explain things?”
“Alright, uh, that contract? That’s just the paper one, the official ‘legal’ one. But there’s actually another. So… how much do you know about magic contracts?”
Jimmy thinks things over for a few moments, putting the pieces together. In truth, this garbage disposal thing was the last straw in a long line of weird things Jimmy has noticed about Wes’s hometown. Stuff like tensing up when people say ‘I wish’ or long rants about how cemeteries are incredibly stupid.
“Wes,” Jimmy says, trying desperately to connect the dots in his mind “did you grow up in actual hell or something? Even Gotham isn’t that crazy!”
“I’m telling you, Clark, it annoys my reporter senses. I can feel a story there. Just today, he told me he’s under a magical contract that prevents him from telling people about his hometown.”
Clark Kent looks deep in thought. “Jimmy, do you think this is something dangerous? Something that’s harming civilians?”
Jimmy thinks for a few moments. “It’s hard to tell. You know how it is. It could be a supervillain thing. It could be something innocent that’s been taken over by bad actors. It could be nothing nefarious, but it looks bad from the outside.”
Clark nods. “So we need more information.”
“Yeah, but unless you have an expert in magical law handy, we’re kind of stuck.”
“I might know someone who can help.”
“Since when are you able to contact Zatanna Zatara on short notice?” Jimmy questions Clark. “It would have made the entertainment beat so easy, Clark! We could’ve been interviewing her this whole time!”
Zatanna steps in. “Kent only received my contact information recently. But if you want, you can do my next interview next time I’m in metropolis for a show.” She winks at him, handing over a buisness card.
Zatanna is a master of misdirection. It applies to conversation more often than one might think, especially since she works with secret identities so often.
Jimmy knocks on the door. Technically, it’s his apartment too, but he’s in reporter-mode right now. Wes knows he’s coming over for an interview and bringing a consultant and one of his friends from work, so it doesn’t take long for him to answer the door.
Wes looks at them for a few seconds in a bit of shock. “Dude,” he says to Jimmy “since when is Superman a reporter?”
Clark smiles and gives a bit of an awkward laugh. “Yeah, I’ve heard we look alike before.”
“This is Clark Kent,” Jimmy says, “he’s my friend from work.”
“Like the Justice League?”
Clark lets out another awkward laugh, and glances at Zatanna for help. He’s never been good at socializing.
Zatanna is staring at Wes. She inspects him like a puzzle she can’t seem to figure out.
Jimmy ushers everyone inside before closing the door. They move to the sitting area, a couch and a few chairs tucked to one half of the apartment. Since the pair don’t normally have guests, one of the chairs is taken over by a stack of board games, some junk mail, a winter jacket, and other miscellaneous things. This means they’re short a chair. Jimmy sits on the floor.
“All jokes aside-“ Clark tries to start.
“It’s not a joke. Look, I get the whole secret identity thing is important to you for some reason. But there’s no reason to keep up the whole charade when everyone here already knows.”
Jimmy just blinks because has Wes gone insane? There’s no way that Clark Kent could actually be Superman.
“And if I’m being honest,” Wes continues “you could probably disguise yourself better. Your voices sound really similar, and you don’t have a mask or change hair color or anything.”
Jimmy supposes they look similar.
“I don’t believe I introduced myself.” Zatanna smiles politely. “Zatanna Zatara. You could say I know a thing or two about magic.”
“Wes Weston. At least you don’t have a secret identity.”
“I’m going to do a few diagnostic spells to make sure there’s no lingering curses or anything on you.” Wes nods, and Zatanna starts casting.
Jimmy watches as Wes’s body shifts. His skin becomes paler. His eyes brighter, almost glowing. His teeth sharpen into fangs, his fingers into claws. Jim feels his heart pounding and his breath quicken. Something about his friend feels cold and dark and endless. Jimmy hates it, he wants to run and hide but he can’t move, and he doesn’t think he can outrun whatever that thing is.
Zatanna pulls back, reverting Wes to his initial form. Jimmy feels his body begin to calm down. How could his friend possibly hide that kind of thing? Whatever it was, it was terrifying.
Jimmy looks up at Wes, and sees concern and fear spread across his friends face.
And Jimmy knows that Wes never meant to scare him. Wes is still his friend, even if he’s secretly a demon or something.
“I’ve felt magic like this before” says Zatanna. “What do you know about Ra’s Al Ghul?”
