A/N: Inktober Prompt #4: Spell.

So. This is the one I got stuck on...and this is what ended up coming out. I'm not sure about this one but...Enjoy :)

Question: Are any actual Batfam villains magicians?

The Gargoyle Incident

"You're late," Red Robin greeted in Red Hood's ear as he jumped off his bike, Red Arrow screeching to a halt behind him.

"Well, hello to you too," he grumbled, surveying the scene. "You kinda caught me at a bad time."

"Yep, getting your beauty sleep, seriously important stuff," Red Arrow snickered, hopping off his bike and grabbing his bow.

"Shut up, Arrow," Red Hood snapped a little distractedly as he tracked a giant flying mound of stone.

"What is he doing here," a deep voice rasped, and Red Hood snorted. Everyone knew the rule—no metas (or Roy Harper) in Gotham.

(He kinda wondered how effective the rule had ever been—he was willing to bet that Dick and Tim had snuck in their half-fish, goddess-clone, alien-clone and actual-meta (and Roy Harper) besties in to hang out many, many times over the years.)

"He tagged along," Red Hood offered.

"Just drop it, B," Oracle ordered. Red Hood could hear keys tapping. "Another member to the team never hurts. I've got you connected to the main line, Red Arrow."

"Hey Red, thanks for coming!" another voice yelled, and Red Hood just knew his older brother was currently freefalling off a building somewhere.

"Hey 'Wing," Red Arrow greeted.

"Jesus, y'all really weren't kidding," Jason finally muttered, watching as a stone gargoyle flapped its wings, soaring past the alleyway.

"Nope," Red Robin confirmed almost cheerfully.

"Tt." Looked like Robin was finally making his presence known. "Are all of you completely incapable of taking this situation seriously?"

"Is pretty funny," Black Bat pointed out, and Batgirl chimed in.

"You got that right, sister!"

Arrow glanced at him sideways. "Just another day in Gotham?"

Hood shrugged. "Not really, no."

"We don't usually see a lot of magic around here," Nightwing explained. "Oracle, you manage to reach anyone yet?"

"Just got in touch with Zatanna. ETA about twenty minutes."

"Game plan?" Hood questioned.

"Red Robin, Black Bat and Batgirl are hunting down the magician. Batman, Nightwing and Robin—and now you two, Hood and Arrow—you're stopping the gargoyles from smashing Wayne Tower. Hopefully Zatanna will be able to help us if we can't get the magician to reverse the spell."

"Who'd Wayne piss off this time?" Red Hood grinned, unholstering his guns and jumping out into the street.

"Focus, Hood," Batman grunted. Jason just laughed.

"Robin! What the HELL was that?!"

"Language, Arrow!" Oracle sing-songed over the communicators, and Red Hood snorted.

"Yeah, Red, watch how you're talkin'," he threw in. "That's my brother you're cursin' at."

"Yeah? Well your brother about dumped a five ton stone monster on my head!"

Hood blinked. Hunh. Number four was really not a team player.

No way was he gonna deal with the kid, though.

"He's adopted?" he offered, and Robin was immediately screeching in his ear.

"I am not adopted, you imbecile! You are!"

"Well sh-oot, you're right." Nightwing snorted, and Hood could hear muffled laughter he was pretty sure was Red Robin, but could also be Black Bat (most likely both). At that moment another gargoyle zeroed in on him, swooping down with shocking precision for such a bulky stone...creature?

"Frank?"

"Did you just say Frank?" Red Arrow asked, incredulous.

"Are you talking to a gargoyle?" Nightwing sounded amused. Jason ignored him, kinda regretting the outburst.

"Shut up," he muttered, securing a line and jumping off the rooftop, away from the gargoyle. His gargoyle. Frank. He was kind of glad the only person he'd ever told about a gargoyle being his childhood best friend was Artemis. And she wasn't here.

"Is that your favorite gargoyle." Or not. Crap. He'd forgot about the big guy.

"Favorite gargoyle," Red Arrow choked out.

"Tt. You would have a "favorite" of these tasteless things."

"Could all of ya just shut up," Jason snapped, but then Frank was diving at him. Again. Unfortunately, dodging and trying to get the thing to take a swan dive into the pavement felt more important than a good comeback.

"That indicates-" and damn it all, Frank or no Frank, Red Hood was gonna cut off the smug demon brat but someone else beat him to it.

"Hate to break the fascinating conversation, people, but think we can get back on track?" Oracle was definitely amused.

"Red Robin to the A-team. Magician just went poof."

"Details?" No one blinked at the "poof". Knowing the world they lived in it was possibly literal.

"Spell of some kind. He just disappeared."

"Poof," Black Bat agreed.

"No trace on the magician?"

"We've got nothing."

"Zatanna's giving an ETA of five minutes."

"We hold the gargoyles until she gets here," Batman ordered. "Red Robin, Black Bat, Batgirl, head back to Wayne Tower."

"On our way," piped up Batgirl.

"Already there," Red Robin announced smugly. Jason spared a glance for the bright red speck that had just tipped a resting gargoyle off a rooftop.

"Five o'clock, Red," called Nightwing.

"Which one?" Red Robin asked.

"Hood!" Nightwing yelled, panicky, and Red Hood ducked, sharp stone teeth grazing his shoulder. A dark shape flipped down from God knows where, springing off the gargoyle's wing and sending it off balance so it careened away from Red Hood.

"Why the heck are y'all Red?" Jason huffed, straightening. "There are other damn colors beyond red, people. Just look at 'Wingster here. Blue. Not red. Not black. Oh, you ever heard of green? Green is nice."

"Green costumes are stupid," Roy declared. There was a grunt of agreement, followed by laughter from Nightwing.

"Did you just agree with Red Arrow?"

A very different grunt. Red Hood shook his head. It was just a sad fact of his life that he could differentiate a grumpy guy's grunts. "Focus." But the comm line was choked with laughter anyways.

Red Hood figured that the whole distraction thing was pretty much a success. The gargoyles had, at some moment he couldn't exactly pinpoint, shown some semblance of intelligence (them or the magician, he wasn't sure) and started diving after the vigilantes that had been hopping around them rather than the tower.

Likewise, the vigilantes had decided the hell with property damage and remorselessly knocked gargoyles off buildings, into the street, and chipped at them with batarangs and arrows and whatnot else.

But, he reflected, getting bashed and scraped and scratched by big rocks was really starting to feel like a drain. And it hadn't even been half an hour yet.

He had to admit to himself that he was glad when Zatanna finally showed up—making a flashy entrance as usual. Sparks and whatnot. He was too busy dodging Frank again.

Why, Frank?

"You're on the line, Zatanna," said Oracle.

"Looks like a simple animation spell," the magician noted. Frank finally took that nosedive towards the sidewalk, and Jason turned to see Zatanna standing on a balcony just a few feet away from the corner of the building he was standing on, muttering under her breath and waving her hands. "I've got this."

"Keep the gargoyles away from Zatanna," said Nightwing.

"We ain't stupid, 'Wing!" Jason yelled as a dark shape zoomed in on Zatanna, who was intensely concentrated on some kind of light forming between her hands. "Damn it." He took aim with a batarang—aim for the wing—but was thrown off when the gargoyle zoomed past her.

You have got to be kidding me, Frank.

"Damn it!"

The gargoyle hit him at the same moment that Zatanna realized someone nearby was in trouble, letting out a startled "Raeppasid!"

He had no idea to describe it. One moment he was a couple thousand feet above the ground, the Gotham night sky dark gray-blue above him, stone gargoyles flying everywhere and too many noisy voices chattering in his ear. And then he blinked and was weightless for a millisecond and when he opened his eyes again it was not-quite-dark but the lights were too-bright magenta and violet and there were still too many voices in his ear but there was a loud rumbling around him too.

And then he and Frank crashed into freezing cold water.

Acting on instinct, he immediately pushed off the gargoyle and struck out for the surface. As soon as his head popped out from the water he took in a deep, greedy breath of cold air.

Enormous waterfalls on either side of him, the violet light slowly transforming into deep blue. A large ship ahead of him. He recognized it. Oh-

"Hood!" he tuned back in to the voices in his ear and manages to gasp out,

"Do all the things you disappear end up in Niagara Falls?!"

Bruce offered to send a jet.

"Heck, no, I'm taking a vacation," Jason said. "I deserve one after tonight, damn it."

He leaned against the stone wall overlooking the falls. No sign of any big stone gargoyles (or God-knows-what-else Zatanna may have "disappeared" into there), and apparently Zatanna had finally gotten the spell to work.

Goodbye, Frank.

Idly, he wondered if they would be frozen in their original positions (so yeah, so what if he spent a lot of time as a kid studying the gargoyles around Gotham? They were fascinatingly ugly and stakeouts were damn boring.) or in whatever position they'd last been in while flying around like...like giant winged monsters.

There goes a chunk of Gotham's architectural heritage.

The case was far from closed—there was still a magician to track down, answers to find on who the heck and how the heck and why the heck and maybe even still what the heck, but Jason was gonna sit back and do none of it.

Magic. Gah.

A/N:

Inthenighttimeguest—if you're reading this lol—thanks for reading and commenting on all my stuff so far! I promise I WILL finish writing for all 31 prompts—even if it takes a while :P It's mostly gonna be one shots, though, until I'm comfortable with writing a multi-chapter. I just need to know how the basic plot plays out before I start so that I know I'll finish it.