skywiseskychan: The biggest reason Willow didn't suggest checking the Dursleys for manipulation – besides that such a thing does not have to be magical – is that she quite frankly couldn't care less about them. Seriously, even their immediate and unnatural deaths wouldn't earn any interest or curiosity. She doesn't ever have to go back to them now, and that's good enough for her.
Guest #1: Beast Boy and Lupin will most certainly deny that they are gay, and they definitely are not romantically attracted to other men. Pour a bunch of alcohol down their throats again, however, and who knows what will happen?
The Mad Mad Reviewer: I'd love to try writing Dumbledore as something other than a manipulative asshole, but that would require making major changes prior to book 1. I could maybe swing it in Team Hellhound or Belkan Wizard, if I ever get around to writing those stories.
Let's take a look in this random patch of tall grass… A wild Plot appeared!
Disclaimer: Were even two-bit enemies like Adonis and Mumbo able to escape police custody multiple times? If so, I own neither the Harry Potter nor Teen Titans franchises; they belong to J.K. Rowling and DC Entertainment, respectively, as well as Warner Bros.
Chapter 8
Rapid Escalation
"So…" Willow said, unsure how to begin. Looking down at the tablet in her hands again, she continued, "This guy – what's his name?"
"Mumbo. Or the Amazing Mumbo, if you ask him," Robin supplied helpfully.
"Yes. Er, is he… naturally blue?"
Raven shook her head in mild disbelief. "All the things wrong with him, and you focus on his skin color."
"It doesn't make any sense!" she defended, her cheeks burning from her blush. At least her partner's tone had been tinged with good humor rather than biting sarcasm, though that raised its own issues. "I mean, it could just be a glamour, but why would he want to look like that? And he uses a wand, so he has to be a Pureblood, and that means he'd probably hate being thought of as anything less."
The Titans' leader shrugged his shoulders slightly, eyes never leaving the road. "Not necessarily. His wand looks more like an old-fashioned magician's wand than what you use, and I'm pretty sure that's a prop, anyway. The last several times we fought him, he was always more concerned about his hat. Even if it is real, just because he has a wand doesn't mean he got it legally."
"Right. And he's holding a bank hostage rather than try to rob it… why?"
"I presume the video holds the answer to that," Raven answered, tapping the screen.
The previously still image came to life as Mumbo turned to glare at the camera. "Teen Titans," he spat, "I have tolerated you keeping me from taking my money. I said nothing when you interrupted my shows. I even humored you when you sent me to prison. But this? This I will not stand for!
"You brought to my town those two pretenders! Bastion, Transmogrify. Your new recruits are a stain on the reputation of magicians everywhere, and they will not be allowed to drag our name through the mud any longer. They don't even look like real magicians! They're just a pair of… of… Renaissance fair rejects!"
"Like you have any room to talk," Raven muttered under her breath.
Smothering her giggles, Willow refocused her attention on the video. "To prove that I am serious, know that for every five minutes that those two do not face me, I will take another of these lovely volunteers"—the camera panned over the gathered civilians—"to serve as attractions in my future shows. Forever. The gloves are off now, Titans."
Robin whipped the wheel around, and Raven grabbed onto her arm as they skidded down the road some twenty feet before he slammed his foot back down to the floor. A frisson of fear shot down the witch's spine when she realized the speedometer had not dropped below triple-digits a single time during their entire trip. Gulping, she asked, "How long has it been since…?"
"Four minutes and counting." The man's voice was cold, and it did not noticeably warm when he jabbed his thumb at a button on the steering wheel. "Cy, tell me you've got good news."
"Beast Boy and Bastion just finished bringing in the trawler, so you've got an angry T. rex stomping your way," Cyborg's voice spoke from the intercom. Everyone relaxed minutely, and in the passenger's seat, Tonks sighed; they had been busy keeping the capsized ship from sinking when the police sent the message of what Mumbo was doing to Robin, and so they had been forced to split up. As Lupin and Beast Boy were still tied together and the latter's ability to turn into a whale was invaluable for that operation, those two had stayed behind. Robin meanwhile had led the Auror and Starfire in a charge to the T-Car, and Raven had hastily shuttled Cyborg back to the Tower's computers before she and Willow teleported directly into the moving vehicle. "As for the bank, Mumbo and all the hostages are on the right side of the building. The commissioner and mayor have authorized Plan C."
"Plan C?" she asked worriedly. Even without knowing what it was, that did not sound good.
Robin nodded. "Plan A is code for our standard operating procedure. Plan B is authorization to commit otherwise illegal acts that harm no one, such as Cy's hacking into the bank's security system. Plan C, though… It's basically permission to ignore collateral damage. We do everything we need to so long as we get the hostages out alive, even that means we bring down the entire building."
"We should have used Raven's mass-Apparation-thing to get there," fretted Tonks, her conjured and charmed robe darkening to a midnight blue. Why the older witch wanted to wear a giant mood ring, Willow still did not understand. "We could have gotten there immediately."
"But at what cost?" The youngest of the group glanced over at Raven's muttered comment. Sensing her concern, the part-human looked up and met her eyes. "There's too much fear and anger already built up there. I could teleport us, but… Well, let's just say that the people trapped in the bank are going to have a bad enough day as it is without my powers adding to their trauma. Trust me, if we could safely teleport wherever we were needed, Cyborg and Robin wouldn't have a specially upgraded car and bike."
"Ten seconds till the deadline!" Robin called out as they swerved around the last corner, giving them their first view of the building. It also showed them the battalion of giant animated gloves inexplicably standing on their fingertips in front of the door. "He does not want us getting in in time. Good thing we can make our own entrance. Raven!"
The woman stuck out her hand, shadows already radiating from her skin. "On it. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A shudder shook the stone walls of the bank, and then the window on the left flashed black. Glass and granite exploded outward, the individual pieces reconnecting to form—
"Dear Merlin, you're not!" Willow squeaked.
"Hold on to something!" The vigilante leader slammed his palm on the button built into the gear shift, and they all jerked as the scenery seen through the windows immediately rocketed past them. The car bounced up when it hit some of the debris dropped onto the ground and landed on the ramp Raven had constructed. They accelerated around the sharp curve and into the building, wheels squealing as they slid on the slick floor and brakes doing little to slow them down.
A long series of jolts, and Willow was sure her suddenly locked seat belt had broken a rib or ten.
Robin kicked his door open and jumped out, staff already extending. "Mumbo!"
"Wha?!" The blue criminal looked between the car and the hole in the side of the building. "You… You can't do that!"
"You should not have threatened the people of the city this way," Starfire declared, flying through the newly enlarged window. Willow finally fought her way out of the car and almost yelped as she saw what had stopped them: chunks of five or six gloves were scattered around, and yet another lay smoldering under the glowing afterburner. "And Friend Raven, please do not make a habit of doing that. It was quite distressing to watch."
"I… But…" Mumbo shook his head as though it would clear his head. "That doesn't matter. I have a professional obligation to stand against bad showmanship, like the kind your new members displayed. Let's see what they can do. As for the rest of you…" He waved his wand, and a string of pops sounded around them; with each explosion, a new giant glove appeared. "I'll just go ahead and give you something to keep you from twiddling your thumbs."
Twelve grown monsters creeping out of the shadows, light glinting off silver masks.
"One good thing about home: at least the Death Eaters don't make lousy puns before a fight," Tonks muttered. Willow nodded, ignoring the previous flash of memory as best she could, and pulled up the scarf she had attached to the hood of her brown robe to cover her mouth and nose. She had to play like she was Lupin – or Bastion, as the case may be – and so she needed something to muffle her voice and hide her more delicate facial features. The difference in height and build was mostly made up by the padding she had added. "Robin, the rest of you can take care of the minions?"
"We've got these. Go!"
Now comes the hard part, Willow thought as she flung a Stunning Spell at the odd-looking wizard. How to stop him while Raven is busy fighting the gloves and we can't be more than ten feet away from each other?
Before she could get too caught up in the potential logistics, Tonks made the decision for her. The Auror rushed at their opponent, her wand slicing through the air as she created a pride of lions from nothing. Willow was sure the other witch was as nonplussed as she was when a jab of the black and white stick – because upon getting a better look at it, she would never deign to call it a wand – changed the angry carnivores to adorable kittens, but Tonks gave no sign of it as she unleashed a barrage of spells at the blue man.
So that's why she was practicing non-verbal magic while I tried to learn to cast spells wandlessly; without needing to call out the incantations, she can just string them together one after another.
Tonks waved her wand again, but whatever spell she was attempting was cut off by the sudden appearance of a geyser. The blast of water slowed to a dribble when the magician removed his other hand from the flower stuck in his lapel, and the villain crowed, "That should cool you off."
A deep red light shining on a convulsing, screaming blond boy. Four other teens lay on the ground, vicious grins gleaming above them.
Tonks! Carefully taking aim, she whispered the words for the Banishing Charm. The lavender spell zipped through the air and hit its target.
"My hat!" Mumbo screeched, covering his bald pate with one hand while he jumped after the tumbling headgear. She tried to point her wand at it to summon it away from him, but he managed to slap his hand on it before she could get a bead on the artifact. Turning toward Willow, he growled, "You!"
"Uh-oh."
"Of all the cowardly, dishonest— Yipes!" He had to jump away when a storm of large, jagged shards of ice shot through the space he had been occupying. "Both of you!"
Tonks stepped forward menacingly, the water splashed on the ground floating into the air and freezing into more icy daggers. "You took almost thirty people hostage and threatened them with grievous bodily harm. You don't get to whine about how we cut you down after that."
"Uh, we can work this out, can't we?" the criminal whimpered as he took in the sight of the enraged witch in her crimson robe. "You know the whole 'make them part of the act' thing was just an empty threat, right? I was never gonna hurt them. This doesn't have to get ugly."
"Actually, I think it does."
"Interesting setup you got here." All the fighters turned as one to stare at the owner of the unknown voice. A tanned man with ink-black hair hidden under a cowboy hat and wearing a thin blue jacket over his casual clothes pulled himself up and over the lip of the hole Raven had made. Immediately after him came a young black woman and a hulking male whose size and unattractive facial features immediately made Willow think of a troll. "Normally parking lots are outside the building."
"Robin…" Raven said, and Willow was confused and concerned to hear a note of worry in her spouse's voice.
The leader of the Titans, on the other hand, missed the emotional undertone. "This really isn't a place for civilians to be wandering right now."
"Robin."
"Ah, but we just wanted to make a withdrawal," the woman sighed with a forlorn look, winding a finger through her bleached tresses. "We're out of money, you know."
Robin glanced around in disbelief. "And you thought a hostage situation was a good time to get more?"
"Robin!"
"What?!" he demanded, turning to look back at the airborne heroine.
Mumbo, apparently having regained some of his confidence, stomped toward the newcomers. "In case you missed it, we're in the middle of something right now. Go away, and you can come back when we're done and I've taught these copycats a few things about—"
"Oh, shut up," the man in the hat snapped as he reached into his coat and pulled out— Did people really sell revolvers that big?
The report from the gun boomed loudly in the enclosed space, and Willow whipped her head around in time to watch Mumbo's enormous nose collapse and fall into the crater that now dominated most of his face. Behind him, hostages shrieked and cried as blood and brain matter splattered all over them. The room was still for a moment that lasted an eternity, and then the gloves strewn about vanished while the magician's body fell to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut.
A brunette collapsing to the ground, remnants of purple flame still dancing menacingly around the slit in her shirt.
"Never mind," Raven muttered, her voice a little thin.
The cowboy sighed. "Now that that's over with, we'll be taking the money. All of it. Get out of the way, kiddies."
"Or what?" Robin demanded, his face a rictus of fury. "You'll kill us, too?"
A demented grin suddenly appeared on the man's as he raised the gun again. "You know what? I like your plan better."
Willow felt her body be jerked away from the three new villains, and the other heroes likewise scattered. It didn't do much good; another bang filled the room, closely followed by her scream as her femur shattered and her leg flopped around uselessly. A dome of darkness deflected a third bullet, and she gasped pitifully when she felt arms wrap around her. "Willow!"
"I'm… okay," she hissed through clenched teeth. Her hand shook when she waved her wand over the wound, and she had a moment to hope her magic truly did rely only a little on the motions. "B-Brackium emendo."
A pale blue glow washed over her ruined limb, and a series of soft cracks filled the air. Blinking away the pain, she looked down at her – thankfully healed and not boneless – leg in relief. A couple of castings of the Skin-Knitting Charm shortly had the holes in her flesh closed again. She raised her eyes to take in what had happened while her attention was elsewhere, and then she gaped.
Despite their experience, the other three heroes were not doing so well.
Flashes of bright green light drew her gaze first toward Starfire, as well as the alien's growing impatience with her opponent. The hulking brute who had followed the other two had changed, now looking less like a man, or even a troll, and instead bearing more than a passing resemblance to a statue. Stone ground against stone when he moved, and though he was much slower than he had been earlier, none of Starfire's attacks, be they energy or physical, were having any effect. With a yell, she unleashed blinding beams of light from her eyes, and Willow was sure that the man noticeably darkened in color before the blast hit. The resulting smoke wafted away to reveal him to be undamaged.
Turning her head away from that scene, she watched with mounting worry as Tonks tried harder and harder to ward off the villainess. The American was flitting around, her body no longer bound by gravity and at times seeming to almost melt into the air. Every spell the Auror sent merely spiraled through her: stunners, Disarming Charms, conjured ropes, even one sickly purple hex that splashed against the wall and started smoking. The dark-skinned woman finally got too close for comfort, and Tonks Apparated to another spot in the building. The chase then began anew.
As if that weren't enough, it was astonishingly Robin who was probably having the most difficulty. His staff flashed in sharp arcs, but no matter how he twisted and twirled, the gun-wielding man was always, always just that little bit faster. After five years of Seeking, Willow knew a thing or two about reflexes, and despite how he had shot her and was trying to kill her and the people she was beginning to see as friends, she could not help but acknowledge his skill.
Robin's next swing slashed through the air, but this time the killer stepped toward the vigilante. She could barely see the man's lips move, whatever was said causing the team's leader to pale and jerk away the tiniest amount. It was enough, though, and the man gave her and Raven a nasty smile.
Then blood burst out in a spray from the middle of the Boy Wonder's back.
A man, his face slack in surprise, falling backward into a shimmering curtain.
"Robin!" the grey-skinned heroine yelled.
The hat-wearer allowed Robin's body to fall to the ground and spread his arms wide. "Whoops."
Raven did not hesitate for a moment. A loud snarl accompanied a large chunk being encased in shadows and ripped out of the floor, and then the lump of tile and concrete darted forward. The murderer, however, did not bother to dodge; instead he leapt into the air, his legs held in front of him, and he seemed to catch the attack with his feet before he was swept out of sight.
Noticing the end of the confrontation from her position near the ceiling, Starfire stared for just a moment; when she came back down, she screamed out all her pain and rage as her body glowed with power. The half-troll she was fighting, apparently no more curious about just how much damage this attack would do than anyone else in his position would be, crossed his arms in front of him, and his skin changed to the darkest grey it had been so far in this fight and so smooth that the curves of his biceps and shoulders gleamed in the light. The collision, if it could be called that, resulted in a shockwave that flung Starfire back in the air to crash to the ground and caused the villain to sink into the demolished floor beneath his feet. The only sign of damage on him was a spiderweb of fine cracks on his hands and forearms.
Neither of these were Willow's concern, however, and shaking off the paralyzing terror that had wrapped around her, she immediately raced to Robin's side. She had felt so useless today, more useless than she had ever been – what had she managed to accomplish? Knocking off Mumbo's hat and getting shot – but this… This was something she could do, some way she could help. Her wand danced above the boy. "Visum Asclepii," and a map of glowing lines and circles of light appeared on his body. Looking over the results of the Diagnostic Charm, she let out a relieved sigh.
He was still alive. It was a near thing, and he was slipping away, but better than death. This she could fix.
Her brows furrowed as she tried to remember what the nurse had said all those months ago, and in a distant part of her mind she made a mental note to thank the woman for starting and focusing her lessons on the field of trauma healing. "Cor ligatur." The circle representing the young man's heart, which looked like it had had a large bite taken out of it, closed up and began glowing a brighter red. A pair of Episkeys closed the entrance and exit wounds, and her eyes flicked over the diagram one last time. The blue ball floating over his throat was darker than she was comfortable with, and a second look at his modeled lungs and another incantation – Expungo rima – had his right lung again filled with air and working normally.
She glanced up at Raven, the other woman's face creased in worry. "He'll feel like shite for a few days, but he'll make it through fine."
"Oh, thank Azar."
The rubble at the other end of the bank lobby shifted, and the man who had nearly killed Robin pushed himself out of a small hollow and cracked his neck. "That wasn't very nice," he remarked idly, slapping his hat against one leg to knock off the dust. Then he winked at Raven. "I do believe I owe you for that one, darlin'."
"Not now," came a rumble, and Willow shifted her gaze to the ugly man walking toward his partner. Red blood trickled and dripped from his torn-up hands. "He'll want to hear about this."
"Aww, but Bulwark," pleaded the villainess. Her reappearance caused the British girl to look around wildly for her compatriot, and she felt the icy grip on her heart relax when she spotted Tonks laying on the ground, injured but alive. "We got 'em on the ropes, and we never get to cut loose like this anymore."
"The boss said not to make too much of a splash too early, remember? We'll get another chance at them. Backdoor!" The air behind the evil trio shuddered, and then pieces slid away in a manner not dissimilar to the gateway between the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley. The woman and the newly-named Bulwark stepped through the gap into the sea of frothing colors beyond, but the man with the hat tarried a moment to give Raven another weighty look before following them.
Beast Boy and Lupin arrived right as the portal finally snapped closed.
Robin waved Starfire away, a practiced smile on his face – and how sad was that, that he had had to learn how to smile just the right way so his teammates wouldn't know just how much trouble they were potentially facing? "Go on ahead and grab some food. I'll be there in a bit."
The Tamaranean shot him another concerned glance before slowly drifting away; following their return from the bank, Willow had volunteered to cook dinner that night, and no one wanted to pass that up after the previous time she fed them. Cyborg had even vowed to be her eternal servant if she would take Beast Boy's spot on the food roster and permanently scratch tofu off the menu. Unfortunately, there was something he had to do before he could join them.
And I'm just procrastinating, he thought unhappily. The communicator in his hand – a black, boxy thing nothing like the yellow discs the Titans used – continued flashing its demand for authorization. Typing in the eighteen-character passcode, he took a deep breath and selected one of the two contacts displayed.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
He sighed slowly in mingled annoyance and relief. It seemed he would be able to avoid speaking with—
"Dick. This is a surprise."
Or not. Glancing down at the cowled figure looking back at him, he answered, "Yes, it is, Bruce. I need to… well, pick your brains for a bit. We… might have a bigger situation than we can handle out here."
"How do you mean?"
The wording and tone of that response caught Robin off-guard; after the less-than-amicable manner in which they ended their partnership and the four years since their last 'chat', he was expecting there to be an immediate rebuke, especially with the admission that the Titans were in over their heads. "We were handling a hostage situation when three people just… sauntered in. The spokesman for the group shot and killed the villain we were facing before they turned on us."
And that was the strangest part of the whole thing. Though there were a number of villains all over the country, ranging in seriousness from simple punks with too much time on their hands to hardened criminal masterminds, most of them avoided getting too lethal in their methods, at least toward civilians. Heroes and cops were fair game, but while bystanders could be put in danger by either the initial crime or the subsequent battle, that was almost always incidental rather than planned.
Cold-blooded murder like the hat-wearing villain had shown today, even against other criminals, was rare.
"They escaped, I presume," Batman supposed, though again Robin was struck by how… calmly his former mentor was accepting this discussion. Some event after he left must have seriously mellowed the man out. "But that does not explain why you need information."
"No, it doesn't, but what that guy said just before he shot me in the chest does." The Caped Crusader's eyes widened minutely, and he hesitantly added, "I'm fine; it's a long story, but we have a few temporary members at the moment, one of who has some healing abilities. Anyway, he told me that if he had known just how much fun I was, they would have gotten to Gotham faster."
Bruce grew even stiller than normal upon hearing that comment, apparently following the same line of thought he had. "How did they escape? And what were their powers?"
"This guy just dodged everything I swung at him, and the others were a man who could apparently turn to stone and a woman who could fly and – I presume, at least, based on the description – was also intangible. As for how they got away, a portal. Uneven blocky edges, a swirl of color inside." After a moment, he pleaded, "Bruce, please tell me we're not dealing with the Brigands."
"I think it's safe to assume you are," the man replied slowly, a gloved hand covering his face for a brief moment. "How much do you know about them?"
"Not a whole lot, just what Barbara told me when it was all over." And he had had to practically drag the story out of the heroine, too, which in light of how she normally treated him had only reinforced how bad a situation it truly was. "They're a bunch of roving serial killers that first appeared in Gotham a couple of weeks after I took off, or at least that was the first time anyone survived to tell the tale. Killed a dozen people before you chased them off. And I think there was something about you asking Wonder Woman and the Flash for help, despite how you always say that Gotham is your city?"
"Some threats are bigger than one person," Bruce admitted reluctantly, "as Barbara reminded me several times over those two weeks. Before they ran, I was debating whether to bring Clark in, as well."
Robin blinked. Batman had actually considered asking Superman to 'interfere'?
"The three you faced are called Sharpshooter, Bulwark, and Wraith; they are the most violent of the group and, from what we know of the group's methods, commonly act as a scouting party of sorts. Backdoor is the presumed name of the teleporter. Other members are an invisible saboteur and a limited shapeshifter with both superhuman strength and intelligence. We think they may have a healer, too, though that is less certain. Their leader is a man called 'the Negotiator'."
"How unoriginal," the Titan remarked, his sarcasm the only defense he had against this unpleasant news. Seven, possibly eight villains who were each potentially as bad as the Joker and had required multiple members of the Justice League to force them to retreat? "What's his power?"
"Unknown." Of course it was. "However, based on video evidence and my own and Clark's encounters with him, our current suspicion is that he has at least some telepathic ability."
Yeah, this conversation just kept getting better and better.
"So, to sum up, we're hosed." Robin shook his head. "Can we expect you or Wonder Woman or someone to come over and help us out with this?"
"I'm afraid that isn't possible." Bruce at least looked like he was honestly regretful at unveiling that news, and the hero continued, "Luthor decided to construct yet another world-ending weapon that he's sure will be able to defeat Clark this time. Unfortunately, he also decided that he needs a few dozen of them for redundancy's sake."
"And you can't spare anyone for a few days? What about Superman; you mentioned that he also dealt with them, and his absence would at least stymie Luthor's plans."
"Yes, they spent a couple of days in Metropolis early last year. He and all other members capable of interstellar travel are off-world, though. The inhabitants of the planet K'Naa contacted us after Darkseid attacked, and they've been gone for about a week and are only just now arriving there. Those of us still planet-side are having to split our time among our own areas, theirs, and looking for Luthor's doomsday device."
Batman shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Robin, but for now, you're on your own."
You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that I really don't like Mumbo. I do, however, enjoy a certain band of roving murderhobos. Anyone who knows the Brigands' inspiration gets an internet cookie.
Some of you probably noticed it already, but I am trying something different in this story. Despite my utter distaste for it, I will do my best to uphold the cliché of "only bad guys kill people". We'll see how that goes.
And might I say, I wish medicine were as easy in real life as I'm making it here. You're welcome, Willow.
Silently Watches out.
