"Hmmmm... HHHHHMMMMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmm."

Klarion scratches his chin.

"The problem is, things just don't work like that here, bub. Heroes fight villains, that's how it goes. Nobody wants a fight where they can't cheer for one of the sides, and it's a slippery slope up. If I start punching out the baddest of guys, soon I'm a misunderstood antihero, and then there's a reboot, and sooner or later I'm a tame little Lawful lapdog because Jim Lee can't get it through his head that Chaos and Evil are different things. Heck! I'm surprised Big Blue here is even thinking about permitting a deal — usually he'd get his outside-underpants all up in a bunch about the idea unless I had him over a barrel."

Superman only sighs internally. He can't regret revealing himself to the world, but the cows never gave him problems like this. He really needs to make time to visit Ma and Pa this weekend.

"I'm not going to let you escape justice," he replies. "But she did depower your familiar, and I'm not enough of an expert in magic to know exactly what effect that has, so I'm at least willing to talk things through before dropping you off in Belle Reve to await trial."

Klarion squints hard at him.

"Yeah, that's way too reasonable and level-headed. This is a rip off. Hey! Hey you with the star and oak leaves!" Klarion calls.

But of course the narration doesn't acknowledge him.

"Yeah, I know you can hear me! Listen — you don't seem like the 'straightforward punching' sort of guy, right? So here's the thing: I'll take her deal if you promise me that I'm going to be plot-relevant again, and that you're not going to turn me into some parody of myself."

But even if the author were amenable to making that kind of deal in principle, they would certainly have no way to communicate that agreement to Klarion, since they are up here on the meta level and he is down there in Superman's grasp.

"Oh, don't be like that. You wouldn't be teasing the possibility of this working if you didn't like the idea," Klarion insists. "I know that you're thinking what I'm thinking, but I'm betting that you're not thinking what she's thinking, so I think she won't think what you think I'm going to think. Look, just ... make a tumbleweed tumble past or something and I'll take that as agreement."

...

At that moment, a tumbleweed — displaced from the D.C. tumbleweed museum, which is definitely a real place, by the fight, since tumbleweeds aren't native to the D.C. area — blows past, the wind scooping it to fly between Klarion and [REDACTED].

"That's good enough for me."

He looks back down at his fellow magic user.

"Alright — you make a good-faith effort to restore my bond to my cat, and I make a good-faith effort to bring equal amounts of Chaos to villains and to heroes. Aaaaaand—" he holds up a hand to shush Superman. "—I let Big Blue take me to jail all cooperative-like. After all, you won't have seen the last of me."

"Knew I was in a fanfic," she mutters.

"You have a deal, Klarion.  And mystery author who's not also me."

...She's probably obliged to at least try a powers thing, or at least, if she's operating in good faith, she really should.  But there are limits to what she can do right now.  So, she will drop the peak human coordination, split the magic sight and the magic disruption up, drop the magic disruption, and request a power that can establish magical bonds.  Then merge that with her magic sight.

And then...

Well.  She will make a good-faith effort to believe.  It's kind of patchy, kind of thready - but she actually does believe, on net, that this is probably better than things would be otherwise, and that therefore, Teekl should "Be made whole."

And may whatever gods there are have mercy upon her if she screwed this up, because the Silver City probably won't.  Gods, the amount of peripheral awareness of terrifying shit she has, really should concern her more.

Teekl is glad to have her human back, but she's also a cat.

And Teekl is so done with being confined in this metal thing. She slaps Blue Woman in the face, just to drive that point home, and then squirms out with her restored powers and jumps her human and digs her claws into his shirt to hang on.

Superman sighs again. Externally, this time.

"Ma'am, please wait here. I'll want to talk to you about ... whatever that was."

And then he vanishes in a blue blur to drop Klarion off in a cell, because he doesn't particularly trust the villain to remain in a cooperative frame of mind for particularly long.

...Yeah, she deserved that.  

"Mhm.  It's gonna be a bit of a doozy, to be honest.  You might want Batman and-or the Martian Manhunter.  The former to wring me out for everything I'm worth, the latter because that's my best option at proof that doesn't involve spilling secrets.  ...Or the Lasso of Truth, but I don't know whether I'd be believable even then."

Luckily, superhearing means being able to catch up on the sound waves as he comes zooming back in.

"Batman is not currently available," he replies. "But contrary to popular belief I don't let him do all the investigating. I'm Kal El; what's your name?"

Well, of course he wouldn't, that's his day job, isn't it?  But this is threat analysis.

"No comment."

"...Wow that reflex might actually be useful for once in my life instead of very annoying.  Er.  That doesn't answer your question, does it now.

"Let me just..."

Shit, who even?

"For the moment, call me Sylvia.  I'm fairly sure that giving you the name on the ID in our pocket would cause Ms. 'No Comment' to blow as many as several gaskets, and considering she's probably right that this is up on the Internet somewhere, because isekai scenarios aren't supposed to happen in real life and Klarion was literally talking at a coauthor, I'm going to follow her lead.

"I suppose you could probably hold it hostage against a lot of other people's identities if you believe we're going to be evil, but I hope that...

"...We were not expecting any of this and have in fact only had superpowers since, like..."

She checks her phone.  ...No signal, predictably.  And it's not even right.

"...I have no idea what checking the time when I have no idea when I left was supposed to accomplish.

"But anyway.  Uh.  Where was I.

"...We probably shouldn't be having this conversation on a random rooftop in any case.  If you would be so kind?"

Yeah, he's not going to get into any of that. The thing he was aiming for was having something to call her other than "ma'am", since that was likely to get old fast. And he's not reading her drivers license in her pocket because some wizards can cast explosive runes.

"With your permission, Sylvia," he agrees, scooping her up in a princess carry. Luckily they have meeting rooms in the Hall of Justice for just this purpose.

As they fly, he subvocalizes into the League communicator, the skin-tone microphone of which is pressed against his neck by his suit.

"Diana — I have a woman, goes by Sylvia, with unknown magic powers and an unclear association with Klarion, here. Do you think you could meet me in the Hall to help me interview her?"

A momentary pause, and then:

"Of course, Superman. I'll meet you there."

The Hall of Justice is the sort of crime against architecture that could only be approved in a universe where the Architect of the Capitol was arrested decades ago for mystical malfeasance. But it is certainly eye-catching.

Superman comes to a stop next to one of the more discreet entrances, and badges them inside.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee---

No.  Squee later.  Business now.

They're greeted in the corridor by a woman with jet black hair, a stunning figure, and a kind smile.

"Hello Sylvia — I'm Wonder Woman, but you can call me Diana if you prefer."

"It is an honor to meet you, ma'am.  Though, ah, names are a thing that gets complicated quite rapidly around here; suffice to say that when we told your colleague that it was Sylvia for the moment we meant that much more literally than one would usually expect - for it is not, primarily, Sylvia with whom you are speaking now, and we regrettably lack anything with which to signal...  Anything about this.  Mm.  We shall have to do some Tinkering.  But that, at a later time.  Right now, I assume that we are going to be making use of the Lasso of Truth?  ...However does that handle delusions arising naturally from the psyche; I...  Am quite certain that we will end up saying things that sound like -"

"...Well.  I'm not going to speak that word when - The Witch Boy, has proven that entities of sufficient power may already be listening."

... yup, that sounds like a confusing magician alright.

"I won't use the Lasso on you unless you consent or you pose a present danger to others," she starts with, because it's true. "As for how the Lasso handles delusions — it is braided from thread spun from the wool of the sheep of the concept of truth. So it doesn't allow people to say things that aren't true, even if they believe them. That's part of why I don't use the Lasso on people without need; the truth is a beautiful and wonderful thing, but having all of one's delusions suppressed at once can be distressing or damaging, when one has built up towers of thought around them. On the other hand, the Lasso doesn't grant knowledge beyond what a person already knows, so if you don't know the true answer, you'll simply be unable to speak on the matter at all."

Her voice has just the faintest trace of an accent; she's lived in New York for decades, at this point.