* * * * *
Almost one year ago, exactly, the New York City newspaper known as the DAILY BUGLE had sponsored an urban renewal campaign that was to have begun with the demolition of an ex-vaudeville venue called the Castle Theater. There had been only one problem: everytime the demolition crew tried to start in on their job, something strange happened to their equipment.
Like crowbars turning into fragile candy canes...as if by magic!
Rumors immediately started circulating that it was the work of the ghost of the Great Blackwell. A vaudeville-era stage magician who had never failed to attract sell-out audiences to the Castle Theater.
Ordinarily, such a seemingly supernatural occurrence would have attracted the investigative attention of the Scooby Gang. And, indeed, they had been in the New York City area, at that time, visiting Daphne Blake's Aunt Olivia. But, no sooner had they proven that her aunt had not been possessed by a mythological cat-demon, than they had found themselves being chased throughout Manhattan by a pair of Chinatown artifact smugglers disguised as hopping ghosts (skull-faced undead), straight out of Chinese folklore!
So it was Spider-man who wound up investigating the mystery. Ultimately exposing "Blackwell's Ghost" as Zatanna the Magician. And, with the latter subsequently explaining how she had masqueraded as her father's boyhood idol in order to save the Castle Theater from the quite literal wrecking ball.
All it took to accomplish that laudable goal, after that, was a letter-to-the-editor of a rival newspaper (signed by Spidey), caustically _praising_ the theater's intended destruction. J. Jonah Jameson automatically did an emotional about-face, and put the power of THE DAILY BUGLE behind a campaign to get the Castle Theater renovated, reopened, and registered as a National Historical Landmark!
"Quick, Zee!" the webslinger now exclaimed: "Get me out of here, so I can go after the Goblin."
"No need to worry, Spidey. I was between shows, in Vegas, when I saw on TV what was happening back here. So, I did some magical teleporting. And, voila! I rematerialized on Shadowcrest's front lawn, just in time to see the Goblin flying out over the library's balcony railing. He and his so-called 'glider' are now a pair of turtledoves, down in the basement aviary."
"Even better!" replied the wall-crawler: "Then, you can let me out of here, and I can go home for some much needed sleep."
Zatanna's only reply was a cryptic smile, followed by an incantation:
"relbmuT, knirhs. stnetnoC dna lla!"
Whereupon, Spidey suddenly found himself gazing up at the beauteous stage-mage from a height of six inches!!
"Zee!" he exclaimed: "What...? Why...?"
Zatanna merely gave him another cryptic smile, as she momentarily knelt down (on her right knee) to lift the tumbler up in her left hand. She then carried it into her kitchen, where she set it atop a small breakfast table. This was followed by her doffing her top hat a second time...in order to flatten it!
"taH, emoceb etalp."
This immediately resulted in the hat's transformation into a white chinaware dish. Followed by Zatanna placing the tumbler, horizontally, on to its gleaming surface.
tbc
Giantess World
