Blackest Night: Austin

[greatest_zatara]

It seemed like almost any other day in the city. Cloudier than the forecast called for, a storm front rolling in from seemingly all sides. The animals, for the most part, seemed to go silent into hiding. Cats, dogs, and other animals more tied to humans, however, seemed on full alert. Growls, screeches, barks, yowls, and howls blanketed the city

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[shes_intense]

"Holy- Zach!?" Brenda leaps up from where she was curled in a chair and puts her hands on his shoulders. His clothes are a mess and when someone who deals with 'weird' daily looks that horrified Brenda just worries that much more...

"Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay?"

[misschocolover]

M'gann came bursting through from the other room only a second later, eyes wide. The resonating COLD that came from Zach's entrance into the living room had been impossible to miss.

"Zach! Where did you come from?"

[greatest_zatara]

Zach struggles to catch his breath. "Salt... I need salt." He pushes Brenda away and stumbles to the kitchen, grabbing large shakers and heading to the doors and windows. "Reinforce the thresholds, keep them out... that can't be them. It's evil spirits using them..." He rambles as he seems to be trying to fortify the headquarters.

[flunkingspanish]

"Dude, we are not going to defeat the zombie apocalypse with condiments."

Paco's hair is sticking up like he's been running his hands through it (he has) and he's carrying the tire iron from the Scarabmobile stuck through his belt. "Everything's in lock-down mode and I'm trying to get a hold of everybody. Do you have any idea what the hell is happening here?"

[gear_parts]

A moment later, the teleporter buzzes and Gear and Static appear, looking startled.

"Guys, we've got a problem!" Gear announces. "Up in Dakota City... zombies! With, like, Green Lantern rings, only black!"

[shes_intense]

"Dakota and everywhere else guys! You're not the only ones who got pawed by zombies today, sorry."

Brenda pushes past them, having dug a bag of driveway salt out of the garage. She snaps one corner off of it with her pocket knife and starts reinforcing what Zach and Eddie have already laid down in lines on the floor.

[corps_of_death]

The temperature in the room drops several degrees in an instant. The lights flicker threateningly. The space in the air where Zach burst through crackles with energy, as is the very fabric of space is about to burst open. There is a dull shrieking ROAR from it that makes the windows shake.

The dim echo of words follows, slithering through the room like a whisper.

"Wollof Yrahcaz...."

Zach's portal crackles back into being and a skeletal hand reaches through to grip the edge of the swirling blackness.

[greatest_zatara]

"....no..." Zach whispers, terrified, before he grabs both Megan and Brenda, shakes a few handfuls of the bag's contents directly onto them, then puts a circle around them. "STAY."

He pulls his wand from his jacket and starts murmuring under his breath, apparently readying something big.

"It's not him... just tell yourself it's not really him.." He says, between incantations.

[micakel_tillall]

At that moment, Mica'kel's voice rippled through M'gann's mind. He sounds concerned.

M'gann, I think something's going on. I felt something from J'onn, but I can't reach him at all

He hadn't flown all the way back to Rhode Island from his visit, so he was only a minute or two from the tower. If he had reached the mountain, he might hear an ominous buzzing around his father's grave ...

[misschocolover]

M'gann's head snapped up and she spoke aloud on reflex first.

"Oh no Mica'kel..."

"Who?" Brenda gives her a confused look but M'gann ignores it, picking up off the ground and rushing to the window.

"Zach I'm coming right back! I'm sorry, I have to go get a friend!"

Mica'kel, I'm coming to meet you! Head for the South Base, be CAREFUL, something is raising the dead out there!

[micakel_tillall]

Raising the dead? Like zombies?

He asked, feeling somewhat excited at the possibility of beating up the shambling hordes he had seen in movies. He got the gravity of the situation, but this was still kinda awesome. As he banked and flew back for the base as fast as he could, he noted the fear nipping at M'gann's mind

Is something wrong over there? You seem nervous.

[misschocolover]

Just like zombies. They're really dangerous, Mica'kel, I mean it. I fought one of them this afternoon and he threw me around like a doll.

She's within sight of him in moments, putting on a burst of speed and looping around to fall into flight beside him, scouring the air for any more trouble.

We have to get back. My friends are there and Zach's uncle is back from the grave. I can't let them get hurt.

[corps_of_death]

The portal cracks a little wider open, it's swirling dark mouth pulling all heat from the room. A second skeletal hand reaches out from the darkness, and finally the star emerges.

John Zatara as a zombie still embodies a certain charisma.

"Don't get up, I'll see myself in." He puts one long leg out of the portal, then the other.

"Tlas ot sekans."

The trails of salt on the floor, scattered everywhere, shift and rear to life. Paco's bag of salt is now, in fact, a bag of snakes....

[greatest_zatara]

Zach springs into action, this perversion of his uncle twisting his stomach.

"Lleps lasrever!" The snakes turn back to salt. "Nori sekips, nip eht daednu!" Giant metal pillars appear, driving into John Zatara.

(RAGE)

[trigon_jr]

Eddie puts himself between Paco and Brenda and the ensuing battle, ready to jump in in case Zach got overwhelmed. For now though, he thought it was a bad idea to get mixed in a battle between two magicians.

[misschocolover]

M'gann reaches the window, pulling it open but then immediately recoiling as fire explodes from the room...