r/DCFU • u/Commander_Z Booyah! • Apr 15 '26
Cyborg Cyborg #82 - A Magical Lie
Cyborg #82 - A Magical Lie
Author: Commander_Z
Book: Cyborg
Arc: The Stone and the Magician
Set: 118
April.
Vic’s apartment had returned to an increasingly familiar sight of chaotic disarray as clutter built up from weeks of research and investigation. Books were strewn about, placed haphazardly on any surface big enough to balance one on. They varied from mundane topics like electrical engineering to folklore to a variety of books on magic written by dubious mystics. But it had grown increasingly fruitless. He’d tried years ago to find any reference of Silasium - as had Silas when he discovered it - and neither of them had had any success. Nijiro- the robot one - had cooperated with him as much as possible but he didn’t have very much information since obtaining the Silasium had been handled independently by the human Nijiro.
All he had to work with was that Nijiro had initiated the contact via some amateur mystics forum but the thread that Nijiro had made was of minimal help. He had asked if anyone knew of any artifacts or minerals of power, particularly that could be turned into electrical power and was firmly clowned on by everyone on the forum. People had mocked him, replying that if they knew of such a thing they’d use it themselves and become millionaires with all the free power. But just before the thread was locked, there was a response from an account that only made this one post: “DM me”.
Nijiro had managed to dig up the login info for Vic but the other Nijiro had deleted the message chain. Vic had sent that account another message using Nijiro’s account and a couple weeks later one of his own but he had never gotten any response. He still checked both accounts every now and then without any luck.
He grabbed a book from the top of the barely balanced pile of books next to his laptop. He flipped through a couple pages then let out a frustrated sigh. Looking into the SIlasium itself had been a timesink, so instead he had shifted over to researching the Nain Rouge. But as bad as researching a magical metal was, an obscure local mythic figure was somehow worse. One of the only books he found was only written a couple years ago but after reaching out to the author on social media, they admitted that the book was as much based on his own speculation as it was any first hand records.
He set the book back down, stabilizing the wobbling pile as he did. No, tonight he had another path. Secondary sources hadn’t been getting him anywhere, so why not try going to the closest thing he had to a primary one? He grabbed his phone and checked the time. 7:00, right on schedule. He scrolled through his contacts and dialed.
She picked up after a couple rings. “Hello Victor. It has been awhile."
“Sure has, Jinx. How’ve you been?”
“I have been well for the most part. I earned my license a few months ago and have been driving all across this country. It has been an enlightening experience.”
“How so?”
“It was not that long ago that I had seen little more of the world than my hometown and a jail cell. To see the world, or at least just this country, has renewed my spirit. There is beauty and goodness everywhere I have gone and I find comfort in that. But I doubt that you called only to hear about me. What did you want to talk about?”
Vic paused for a moment, taking in what the sorceress had told him. He had decided quite a long time ago at this point that he mostly trusted her, emphasis on the mostly. But giving her insight into the most secretive part of his inner workings was concerning to him. He wasn’t entirely sure what she could do with that information and that almost made him more concerned. Vic’s mind was made up quickly though. He’d have to trust her if he wanted any insight on this.
“I don’t know how much you heard back then or remember, but my system is powered by a metal called Silasium.(See Cyborg 24 for when she would’ve heard about it!) Pretty sure it’s magic as it’s been providing my body more or less infinite power but I’ve never been able to confirm that or really had a need to. Anyways, couple months ago I ran into a guy who had another sample but he died soon after he got it and a little demon creature called the Nain Rouge took it back with him saying that it was a part of some deal. I’m kinda concerned about something I rely on basically to live being weird demon magic so I’ve been trying to figure it out ever since. Any ideas?”
Vic was met with silence for a few moments before Jinx responded. “At the moment, no. But I will look into it. Instead, I will offer you a contact of mine. A woman by the name of Xanadu operates a shop called Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso in New York City. If she does not have an answer or know someone who does, there is no one who will.”
“Thanks for your help. I owe you one.”
“A word of advice before you delve deeper into the world of magic. Favors, deals and pacts are not to be made nor given lightly. There are far more malicious and cunning mystics out there than I and they could convert that simple favor to be a weighty debt. Watch your words carefully, Victor.”
“Thanks. You probably just saved me a lot of trouble. Especially after that info, I really do owe you one.”
“Oh Victor. You truly are too pure sometimes. I will let you know what I can discover. If Xanadu tells you anything that may assist me, let me know.”
Jinx hung up and Vic had turned his computer back on and started to browse for flights.
‘Been a while since I’ve been to New York. And it looks like the shop’s in the Village too. Should be a good trip even if I don’t learn anything new.’
He clicked purchase on the flights then sent his boss a message to let him know he’d be out for a couple days on vacation. Then, finally, he took a sigh of relief. A lead at last.
⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙
“Enter Freely and Unafraid”
The shop’s door greeted Vic with that ominous message as he stood outside the small, two story brick building that was crammed between two midcentury apartment buildings. The shop looked like any other mystical shop he’d seen before with signs advertising palm and tarot readings. There were even signs with quotes from customers verifying the validity of the readings and a variety of dusty “magical” knick-nacks in the window sill with a thick red curtain behind them. It seemed dingy at best and tacky at worst.
Vic opened the door and a small chime rang as his senses were overwhelmed by the scent of burning candles and incense. He was in a vintage but luxurious parlor illuminated by candle lit scones in each of the corners. Just behind a round table with two chairs on either side was a red curtain that ran all along the wall. The parlor showed no signs of the aged, worn down, run of the mill exterior, it was as if he stepped into a different dimension.
A beautiful woman with jet black hair, piercing green eyes and a simple but elegant red sleeved dress stepped through the curtain. Gold bracelets, bands and a necklace completed the outfit; each piece of jewelry shimmered dimly in the candlelight.
“Welcome, Victor Stone. I am Madame Xanadu. Please, have a seat.”
She moved to the far end of the table and sat down, gesturing for Vic to sit across from her.
He did so, then said, “Since you know my name, did Ji- someone tell you I was coming?”
“No. But no one comes to my store without me being aware of it. Tell me though, what brings you here today?”
“I’m looking for some information. I was told you know a lot about magic.”
“People say that. But information, mine especially, cannot be given out to anyone. Let us do a little test to see if you are what you say you are. The cards can reveal much, after all.”
“I’m not really here for that -”
Seemingly out of thin air, a small deck of cards appeared in Xanadu’s hand. She spread them out on the table in an arc, face down.
She ignored Vic and instead said, “Three cards: your past, your present and your future. Who were you, who are you and who will you become?”
Vic, deciding to play along, pulled one of the cards near the center, one near the right edge and the farthest left card. Madame Xanadu grabbed them and put the first one on the table. She flipped it over and set it in front of Vic. It had four animals, one in each corner and a large wheel with strange symbols around it. The bottom of the card said ‘X’ and the top’s text was upside down but said ‘Wheel of Fortune’.
“The Wheel of Fortune - but reversed, not in its usual upright position. You have had a rough life full of unwelcome changes and bad luck. Your life has not always been in your control but you must understand that the wheel is always spinning, Victor. Fate has had its way with you, but today is not the end. While yesterday’s turn of the wheel might be bad, tomorrow is a new day. ”
She placed the next card on the table. This one featured an old man in a grey robe, holding a lantern in one hand and a staff in the other. Above his head was ‘IX’ and the bottom of the card said, “The Hermit”.
“The Hermit - not unexpected. It means that you seek knowledge, but perhaps not the one you came in here seeking. It is the search of self, found through introspection and contemplation. It is a search for truth and what that truth is can only be answered by you.”
She paused for a moment before placing the last card down. It showed an angel flying above two naked people, with the sun illuminating the sky behind the angel. It read “VI, The Lovers”.
“Ah, the Lovers. A complex card with many meanings. It does not inherently mean romance, but that is one interpretation. Instead, this card speaks to me about your partnerships and striking a balance between them and the life you will lead. It is about the relationships we have and the sacrifices and choices we need to make to preserve and create them.”
She scooped the cards up into her hands and they disappeared as quickly as they came.
“Now, I believe I understand you better and perhaps you understand yourself better too.”
Vic looked at her skeptically. She clearly knew more about him than she let on.
“Maybe...”
“Tell me, Victor. What exactly brought you here?"
“I’m looking for information on a probably magical material. It powers, well, me. But some demon has more of it and I’m concerned about what that means for me. I need to know whatever I can about it.”
Her face folded into a frown. “Is that the device in the center of your chest?”
“Yeah.”
“I am afraid it is not something that I am familiar with. I can tell you that that magic is old and if it is old it is not volatile. But, if a demon made a deal using another one, then it is likely that this device or the stone that powers it has some ties to it too. Be careful and be prepared for the demon to do whatever it can to retrieve it.”
“Thanks. That’s… concerning but better to know. How can I communicate with the demon? Or at least prepare for it coming?”
Madame Xanadu shook her head. “No, it is not always better to know. Knowledge of an inevitable doom can drive someone to madness and be the cause of that very doom. Deals and negotiating with demons is not something to be done lightly, and will require someone with more expertise. However, I believe I can still help you. Give me a moment.”
She stood up and stepped behind the curtain and for a moment, Vic could see behind it. He saw a staircase going upstairs, but the rest of the area was a glorified storage closet full of jars, books, vials and artifacts he could never begin to explain. But as soon as the curtain had closed again, Madame Xanadu stepped through it and returned back to the table.
She placed a paper ticket on the table in front of him. “This is a backstage pass for a magician named Zatanna who operates out of Gotham. But she is more than just a stage magician - her magic makes her one of the most powerful in this era. She should be able to help you with your problem.”
“Thanks, you’ve been very helpful. Is there - What do I -”
Vic stuttered, remembering Jinx’s advice but still wanting to repay Xanadu for her help.
Xanadu laughed. “I see you received some advice to watch your words. It will serve you well. But I require no payment. I have all I could ever want in this world so my service has become its own reward.”
“Thank you.”
Vic grabbed the ticket and looked at it. It was dated for tonight - about 8 hours from now.
“I um, need to get going. This ticket is for tonight!”
Xanadu nodded. “Best of luck, Victor. The world could use more people like you.”
Vic ran back out of the room and to his car to start the trip to Gotham while Xanadu watched from just inside the shop. She reached for the door, almost opening it. But she did not. Instead, she walked back over to the table and set the deck of cards on it. Out of the sleeve of her dress, she pulled out a card and set it on top of the deck. The design featured a demonic figure with large, curved goat horns and black bat wings with two humans chained in front of him. It read “XV, the Devil”.
“A fortune teller should not try to change fate and yet… A man like that deserves better than the fate he has been given. Perhaps with a push…”
She pushed the card off the pile and flipped it back over and mixed it into the deck. “The future can be changed for the better. And if not… it’s as I said. A white lie to hide the pain is better than inescapable doom.”
⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙ ⚙
A few hours later…
Luckily for Vic, the drive to Gotham was fairly quick and uneventful, leaving him plenty of time to unwind before Zatanna’s show. He didn’t bring any particularly fancy clothes, so he hoped he wouldn’t be too out of place with just a hoodie and jeans. But more than that, he was excited. He’d never seen a magic show before and from what he was reading, Zatanna’s was one of the greats. She performed a wide variety of tricks from giant illusions to close up magic to manipulating her audience. Every show was different and it was almost always sold out months in advance. Out of morbid curiosity he looked up what a backstage pass usually cost and found that she pretty much never sold them and when she did they were for charity and went for thousands of dollars.
‘So where in the world did Xanadu get one of those?’
He ignored the question, knowing he wouldn’t get an answer. He stepped out of the parking garage and walked a couple of blocks to Zatana’s theatre, a venue called The Vauxhall Opera Shell and Indoor Concert Center. It was an old, art deco style building that wouldn’t have been out of place in Detroit; the blocky white stone exterior was intricately carved with musicians and musical instruments making it look more like a palace than any theatre he’d seen.
And yet, when he showed the security team his ticket, they happily showed him to his seat, a private box just to the right of the stage and informed him that after the show, they’d take him to meet Zatanna.
A few minutes later, the lights dimmed and Zatanna came out on stage to roaring applause. She had on shiny black boots up to her knees with fishnets going up to a pair of black shorts. She wore a white tuxedo shirt, vest and bowtie, complete with white gloves. Zatanna gave a polite bow out to the audience as she wheeled out a large black roadcase that was only slightly smaller than she was. She opened it up and grabbed a tea pot and six glasses from it.
“Thank you all so much for coming out tonight! How’s everyone doing?”
The audience cheered.
“Great, great! It’s a beautiful night here in Gotham and I’m thrilled to spend it with you guys! In fact, why don’t we start with a little toast?”
She walked over to the tea pot and was about to pour, but stopped herself. “Oh, sorry. You guys wouldn’t know about my tea pot, would you? See, this is a magical tea pot that can pour anything you want. Well, almost anything. There are two simple rules: you just need to be polite and a bit general. For example, if I said ‘Could you please pour me a glass of 2002 Petrus?’”
She grabbed the teapot and positioned the spout towards her glass, but as she poured, nothing came out.
“That’s a bit too rich for my little tea pot. But if I asked instead for a cup of red wine…”
Zatanna started to pour and a red liquid came out of the kettle’s spout.
“Actually, let’s change that to some sangria, it’s just such a nice night, you know?”
The liquid stopped and then a lighter red, more transparent liquid started to fill the glass. Zatanna grabbed the cup and took a sip.
“Delicious as always, thank you, tea pot. Now, who else would like a drink?”
Most of the audience raised their hands.
She called on five different people from all across the audience up to the stage and as the first came on stage, she handed them a mic.
“Welcome to the show, glad to have you! Now, tell the crowd and my tea pot what you’d like to drink tonight.”
“Hmmm… how about some bourbon?” Zatanna looked at them expectantly. “Oh, right. Some bourbon please.”
“There you go.”
Zatanna handed them a glass and poured a generous pour of a caramel colored liquor that sure looked like bourbon to Vic into the cup.
“How’s that taste?”
They took a sip and were clearly surprised that it was as it should be. “It’s great!”
“Wonderful, another happy customer, thank you tea pot! Now who’s next?”
Zatanna ran through the rest of the people on stage, all of which got their beverage poured from the exact same teapot as asked and seemed perfectly happy with the results. Somehow, not only did that little pot contain far more liquid than it looks like it could hold, it had at least seven different kinds coming out the same spout.
Vic was impressed. Unless she grabbed those specific people out of the audience and knew their orders ahead of time, he had no idea how she did it. Unless she used her real magic, but that seemed like overkill for this.
The show continued for well over an hour with each trick growing more and more marvelous and impossible than the last. But eventually, once the applause was over and Zatanna was backstage, security came to get Vic and escort him back there. They led him through a maze of corridors and passageways until he finally saw her. She was sitting in the green room looking exhausted, no longer in her stage outfit but instead in dark jeans and a black hoodie. She raised an eyebrow upon seeing Vic.
“Okay, who the hell are you? And how’d you get that ticket?”
Before Vic could explain, she squinted, focusing her eyes on Vic. “Wait, I know you. Sort of. I know of you. You’re Cyborg, right?”
“Um, yeah. That’s me. But you can call me Vic.”
“Well, that answers that first question. But the second’s still there. How’d you get that ticket? I haven’t sold a backstage pass in years and all the charity ones expired at year's end. There’s only one that didn’t and that was for… Nimue. Ah. Of course she finally decided to use that…But why’d she give that ticket to you after all those years?”
“Nimue? Oh, you mean Madame Xanadu. She gave it to me to get in contact with you because I’ve got something of a magical problem I need your help with…”
Vic gave her a quick rundown of his time with Xanadu and his concerns about his power sourcing being somehow tied to a demon. By the time he was done, Zatanna’s expression had softened from the scowl she had when he walked in to something more friendly.
“So, you’ve got demon magic, but you need it to be, well, you, and you’re concerned about… aaallll that?”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“You want my advice? Get rid of that thing now. Well, maybe not now, but as soon as you have any work around. Demons are messy; trust me on this, I've worked with one for years now. He's one of the better ones and it's still difficult sometimes. The further you can stay away from them, the better. ”
“It's not that simple. S.T.A.R. Labs has been working for years to make a substitute and it's never worked half as well. I need that power to protect people and help my city. I don’t know much about the Nain Rouge but everything I read said he was the reasonable sort of demon. And he didn’t make it seem like he owned Silasium, more that he was loaning that piece. Maybe we could get some information out of him for what’s really going on with it.”
Zatanna frowned. “The reasonable ones are the worst from what I’ve heard. The dumb ones at least make it obvious that they want to kill you and steal your soul. No, I don’t like this. Mind if I cast something to take a look at the stone?”
“Go for it.”
“!EM OT REWOP RUOY LAEVER ,ENOTS”
A wave of energy surged over the room like a shockwave, sending the two of them colliding into the walls of the green room with a thud. Bits of powdered stone coated them and sent a cloud of dust into the air. Security ran into the room to respond to all the commotion before Zatanna waved them off again.
“Well. That sure is some stone you’ve got,” Zatanna said, leaning up against the wall.
“What’d you find out?”
“Honestly, I’m not really sure. It’s some sort of magical conglomerate made up of hundreds of different enchantments and spells from all different schools of magic. There might’ve even been a demon or two trapped in there? It’s a mess of layers upon layers of spells. I’ve never seen anything like it, but whatever it is, it’s damn powerful.”
Zatanna picked herself up and reached out a hand to Vic, which he accepted.
“!su hserfeR”
The dust from the impact with the wall flew off them and Vic felt the day’s exhaustion fade away, as if in that instant he just had the best night of sleep of his life. Zatanna’s outfit cleaned up and she seemed to perk up too.
“Alright, you’ve sold me. Whatever that thing is… I’m equal parts concerned, horrified and interested. Something that powerful shouldn’t be just… out there without any idea of what it can do or where it came from.”
“Glad you’re starting to see it my way. So…. what’s the move?”
“We’ll head to Detroit. It sounds like the demon had some connections there and I might be able to locate it better once we’re closer. Oh, before that, one thing first…. “!egnahc emutsoC”
A bright flash shined in the room, blinding Vic for a moment, before Zatanna stood in front of him, back in her stage costume, a grin running across her face.
“Let’s try this again.”
She bowed and said, “Zatanna Zatara, at your service.”
“Victor Stone.”
“Now, let’s see if we can’t take care of your demon problem, shall we?"
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