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Heroes on the Halfscreen (pods6827 and MMRS)

"Patience," Zatanna said, actually stretching out one of the pouches wide enough to stick her head into. "I could have just found a hiding place in my world, but your Granduncle was insistent that I keep them on my person. Ah, found another one."

Zatanna pulled out a simple, blue wrist band and threw it Steven. "The fulcrum of Gilardi," Zatanna announced. "Allows the wear to defeat anyone in the world arm wrestling." Zatanna shrugged. "Hey, they can't all be Hermione Granger's Time Turner."

As Zatanna continued searching, she asked, "I can understand Xena, but why a robot?"
 
Steven grabbed the wristband out of the air, looking at it as Zatanna described what it did. "I suppose it could be useful if I ever decide to enter the world arm-wrestling championships," he said with a grin as he placed it around his wrist. "Well the robot was a genius, and I was hoping he could use some of that intelligence to help me figure out the answer to that riddle. He did give me some insight, but as you can tell I still haven't figured out the answer." Steven gestured to Zatanna's reduced stature as he spoke.
 
Steven returned Zatanna's look, wondering if his granduncle had never told her about it, "I mean the one where the answer is a password, or incantation, or whatever that lets a person remove the cover from this TV set," he gestured to the device in question, still frozen on a scene from Smallville. He recited the puzzle from memory before looking back at the magician. "He never told you about that?"
 
"Nope. Figured he just had a thing for tiny women. Really tiny women," Zatanna added. "Or that dealing with a six inch bad guy with a proportional power down was easier than dealing with the full scale thing. Well, the number four comes up a lot. What do you think you have so far?"
 
"Well, he might have also had a thing for tiny women," Steven allowed, laughing lightly as he spoke, "But regardless, what I have so far isn't much. You're right that four comes up a lot, in the number of heralds, cardinal directions, and seasons. Given that, I think it's possible that the answer might have something to do with the four horsemen but when I tried saying that nothing happened." He idly tapped his fingers on his desk, thinking. "I don't know, perhaps I need to identify who the other three heralds are? What do you think?" he asked Zatanna.
 
"And figure out what the fourth element is," Zatanna added. "You have the four heralds, the four cardinal directions, the four seasons, so it makes sense that there is a fourth category in there, don't you think?"

Zatanna continued rummaging in the money belt, then laughed as she pulled out a pack of cards. She laid them on the bed, tapped them, then jumped back. The cards almost immediately came to full size. "The perfect traveler's card deck. No matter how you deal them out, you're always guaranteed to win any game of solitaire you play. Unfortunately, they're only good for solitaire. Or perhaps it's fortunate they're only good for solitaire. Winning all the games with a group of gamblers could be hazardous for your health."
 
Steven blinked, having not considered that possibility. "You're right, it would make sense for there to be a forth category," he said, thinking about what such a group it might be. "Let's see, what comes in groups of four...The elements maybe? Fire, water, earth, and air I mean. Or maybe suits of cards, or the states of matter..."

Shaking his head, Steven looked closely at the magic cards. "Funnily enough, I'm actually pretty good at winning at solitaire on my own," he commented, picking up the deck and tossing it from one hand to the other. "Might be good if I need to win a bet though."
 
"Or at the very least, they should be good for meeting people," Zatanna quipped. "Start playing solitaire and somebody is bound to come up and tell you to play the Queen of Clubs on the King of Diamonds. Or is that the Nine of Clubs on the Ten of Diamonds. Sorry, I'm worse at cards than I am at riddles. But riddles are like magic spells. There's a pattern there, so you should be able to find all the elements in there," Zatanna observed as she began rooting around again in her belt.
 
"I know right? It seems like I could be playing solitaire alone in an empty house and someone would show up to tell me where to put a card." He paused in thinking about the riddle as he watched Zatanna dig in her belt. "I feel like I'm getting close to the answer, hopefully I'll figure it out before I'm as old as David was."
 
"i'm trying to think of something to help you, but I got nothing," Zatanna said as she pulled out a silver necklace with an ancient silver coin as its pendant. "This will let you get backstage to any live entertainment. If this had worked in my world, I would have kept it myself," the five and a half inch magician admitted as she tossed it toward Steven. It became full sized as it went away from her. "The catch is, I think is that it only works as long as you don't do anything to draw unnecessary attention to you. You know, you automatically look like belong somewhere until you do something that makes it look like you don't belong there."

Zatanna paused before adding, "The only thing I can think to add is that, if you take something out of another world, the television channel won't change until you put it back." She paused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "We could put the riddle to the world's greatest detective, but that could open up the proverbial can of worms. Seriously, my mind is going into a death spiral just thinking about all those cans of worms it could open."
 
"Interesting," Steven commented as he grabbed the necklace out of the air and examined it closely. In the light of the room it shined briefly before the young man placed it around his neck. "It seems the rule for removing objects is the same for removing people then," he said.

"Do you mean Batman? Or perhaps Sherlock Holmes? I know he's had a few different shows and movies over the years..." Steven paused as a thought occurred to him. "I wonder, if I bring a person like Sherlock out of one of his shows, then after putting him back bring a different version of him out, will they be the same person? Something I can test out I'm sure..."
 
"That is if the universes where their stories take place actually exist," Zatanna noted, digging around in her money belt. "I got two items left, that got left for me to watch. I know they're here somewhere."

Zatanna paused, looking thoughtful. "I've never actually met Sherlock Holmes myself, though I read the stories. I have met Batman, and trust me, you do not want even a six inch Batman let loose in your world. He is a force of good, but he has his own agenda, never forget that."

"But are there worlds where Sherlock Holmes exists, or even multiple worlds?" Zatanna mused. "As I understand how this whole things works, there are creative people who can look into other worlds and draw stories from them. But then there are people who just create stories on their own. I want to say I read somewhere that Sherlock Holmes is sort of a semi-autobiography of Conan Doyle. I don't know. But that would mean that Conan Doyle didn't have that certain creative something to look into other worlds. So there aren't any worlds where Sherlock Holmes exists. I don't know. But I do know the writers didn't create the worlds. They just looked into the world and wrote or drew what they saw."

"Well, enough philosophizing," Zatanna said with a laugh, reaching into the belt. "I think I got one of the last two objects left to you."
 
"Indeed, while it might be something interesting to look into in the future I should probably focus on things that are important in the here and now." Steven peered curiously down at Zatanna, wondering what the last two items would be. "I'm not really surprised that you've met Batman, what with him being a major part of the whole DC universe." He paused for a moment, thinking, "Though did he ever appear in your show? It's been a while since I've seen Smallville so I'm not sure..."
 
"Again, you have to remember," Zatanna said with a grimace, shoulder deep in a bag as she tried to reach something, "You're only seeing part of my reality. It's kind of like if aliens were trying to figure out Earth by watching "Keeping Up With The Kardashians. And got it." Zatanna triumphantly pulled out an emerald ring and tossed it toward Steven. The ring bounced on the bed and grew big enough to fit on Steven's ring finger.

"And another thing to remember is your writers did not create my world. My world existed before 'Smallville' came into creation, and would remain if, for some reason, no episode of 'Smallville' ever showed up on any channel in your world again," Zatanna explained. "So if your writers decided that I shouldn't exist on your show, it wouldn't change me living my life day in and day out. And if they decided that, for some bizarre reason, I dressed up like a circus clown all the time, it would have no affect on my attire. There's a writer, or writers, in your world whose subconscious can look into mine," Zatanna explained, "But it doesn't mean he, she, or they are compelled to reflect my world accurately, and they definitely are relegated to observer status only. Whatever you see on a show in your world doesn't have an impact on mine. At least not directly."

"And that's a mood ring," Zatanna explained, pointing to the emerald ring. "It lets you know the mood of anyone you're interacting with, no matter what they're saying or how they're acting. Doesn't let you affect their mood. Just lets you know what their mood is."
 
"Alright, that's good to know," Steven said, glad that Zatanna was working to correct his mistakes and explain how the different universes really worked. "All of this is still so new to me, it's good that I have someone who can help me out like you can." He nodded to Zatanna before picking up the green ring, examining it for a moment before placing it on one of his fingers. He then looked back at Zatanna, wondering what she was feeling right now.
 
"And that doesn't work on magical folk and creatures," Zatanna said with a smile. "And since you pulled me out of my universe into yours, it sort of reinforces my magical status," she added. "But probably everyone else you pull over you'll be able to read easily. Except robots. And here it is."

Zatanna pulled out a large lunch pail, the kind that you saw any factory worker from a fifties movie carrying. "You can basically pull out any nonfancy food you want out of this, from a bag of potato chips to a twelve foot sub to a six pack of lite beer. Just don't ask for lobster thermidor. Would probably make the poor thing collapse on itself."

"And for the record," Zatanna added, "I am pretty happy to meet you. Just, you know, not because your granduncle passed." With that, she tossed the lunch pail at Steven, watching it grow as it sailed away from her and towards him.
 
Steven grinned sheepishly as Zatanna explained why the ring's power wouldn't work on her. "Well, you can't blame a guy for trying right?" he asked before looking at the next magic item. "I'm not exactly a fan of lobster anyway, so that won't be a problem for me."

Steven smiled as he caught the lunch pail, glad to hear Zatanna's kind words. "That's good of you to say," the young man set the magic item down next to the other ones before looking back up at the very short magician. "I'm glad to have met you too Zatanna."
 
"Well, I wouldn't have appreciated it if you hadn't tried," the tiny sorceress said with a wink. "So what's your plan now? I mean, as far as figuring the riddle is concerned?"
 
"I honestly don't know," Steven said, shaking his head slightly as he thought about the riddle that had given his great-uncle so much trouble. "I suppose I'll keep searching for anyone who can help me figure it out." An idea occurred to him, "Maybe the Riddler? I mean this is basically his bread and butter right?"

"Other than that though I think I'll keep testing which shows I can access. Maybe I'll try a movie next if a good one's on."
 
"The Riddler. He's a Batman villain who always leaves riddles where the answer is a hint as to what he's going to do next." He paused for a moment, thinking, "He also doesn't have any powers, and isn't typically one of the more malicious villains, so I'd be able to handle him in a pinch."
 
"If he exists," Zatanna said with a shrug. "I've never come across him, or heard of him, so he doesn't exist in my world. Which doesn't mean he doesn't exist. But it doesn't mean he does exist, either. Just remember, just because someone can see into another universe through their subconscious mind, doesn't mean they don't take liberties when showing their vision to the rest of the world," Zatanna said emphatically.
 
"Hmm, something to look into then," Steven said, nodding along with what Zatanna was saying. "If he does exist then he might be able to get a bit closer to the answer though. I feel like I've got all the clues present, we just need to put them together."
 
"Wish I could be part of that we," Zatanna said with a shrug. "Maybe if you listed everything you know just one more time, something might pop. So, four sets of four. What are four elements? Or your four elements, I guess I should say," she added.
 
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