Hello boys and girls and welcome to chapter seventeen of The New Teen Titans. Well another day another thousand pieces of homework so once again I'm sorry for the long wait. Yes well anyway on to reviews, I really can't thank all of you enough but only one person left a question to be answered. Mr D 91, I have no idea just how many story arc are going to be involved in this but I can tell you it will probably be many chapters before this comes to an end. Oh and as for your ideas send them to me at my email, I'd like to see them. Well since that's the only thing I need to respond to I'll get on to this special one-shot story which takes a bit of a break from any action but reveals quite a bit about a certain magic Titan. Which I just realized describes the majority of the team but that doesn't matter because here's chapter seventeen of The New Teen Titans.
Chapter 17: Abra Kadabra…
Titan Tower is a weird place to live to say the least. If nothing is going on or the day is going slow then that can only mean one of two things; something had already happened, or something was about to happen. It was a bit early for something to have already happened so that could mean only one thing, something was about to happen. But currently the Titans were doing what they always do in these slow moments between activities. Resting and just enjoying the day. For example Beast Lad was taking a stroll down one of the corridors for no reason but just to walk around the Tower and maybe check-up on a few things. But it was this small harmless activity that would set off the main events of the day.
Beast Lad turned a corner as he strolled with his hands in his pockets to find Android on her hands and knees under a control panel where she had taken off a metal plate to reveal some wires. She didn't see him there though as she had a pair of blue goggles with very dark lenses one and one of her hands was currently replaced by what appeared to be a welder judging by the blue flame. Beast Lad watched innocently for a few moments before Android stopped welding, making her hand pop back out from her wrist as she admired her handy work before standing and typing a few keys on the control panel's keyboard. She was about to bend back down and refasten the metal plate when she finally spotted Beast Lad leaning against the wall a little ways down the hall. "Beast Lad!" Android said as her face instantly lit up and the goggles retracted back into her face, revealing stains on every part of her face accept for where the goggles had been. It gave her a comedic look but she didn't seem to care as she approached Beast Lad.
"Hey An-d," Beast Lad said using her nickname as he stopped leaning against the wall when Android got near, "what are you up too?"
"Oh I'm just going around and upgrading the security systems," Android said as she caught her reflection in a window and blushed slightly as she tried to wipe the soot off her face with her hands as she continued to speak, "you know, intergrading it with my systems and all that computer junk."
"I see," Beast Lad said as he watched her with slight amusement as she feverishly tried to rub off the soot from both her cheeks. He finally gently rubbed the finial bit off her check with his thumb, and she would have fainted right there if the question he then asked didn't snap her right out of any light-headed thoughts. That question was, "do you know where Alakazam is?"
"Why do you want to know where she is?" Android snapped back in such a way that Beast Lad quickly withdrew his hand in fear that she would bite it off. Android instantly calmed down as she smiled innocently at Beast Lad who was raising an eyebrow at her. The truth was since that little incident after the Overload mission the two 'best friends' hadn't been on speaking terms with each other. Since the Tower was so big they barely even saw each other as well except for on missions and when they were both trying to get Beast Lad's attention. But before now Beast Lad hadn't been showing any interest in one of them over the other so the question was legitimate and Android asked it again, this time much more calmly, "I'm sorry. I don't know where Alakazam is. Why do you want to know?"
"Rave wants to test the effect of her magic on the new holographic training simulator," Beast Lad said as he relaxed when he realized Android wasn't going to attack him.
"Oh,' Android sighed with relief when she learned why Alakazam was needed, "well I haven't seen her all day but she's probably in her room."
"Thanks, I'll go there then," Beast Lad said as he waved goodbye and began to walk down the hall in the direction of Alakazam.
Android turned and watched him leave for a few seconds before she started to follow after him in a slow jog to catch. "Hey! Wait up," Android yelled as she came up beside Beast Lad and started to walk uncomfortably close to his side.
"Don't you have to do the security thing?" Beast Lad asked as he looked back to see that she hadn't even put the metal plate back on to conceal the wires.
"Oh no, that can wait," Android said as she smiled at him. The fact was that she really did need to work on those security systems but their was no way she was going to pass up time with Beast Lad. Especially if she could flaunt that she was spending time with Beast Lad in front of Alakazam. Eventfully they both came to the sliding door that was Alakazam's as could be told by the star that used to hang on her dressing room door.
"Hey Alakazam," Beast Lad said as he knocked lightly on female magician's door. There was no answer.
"Allow me," Android said pleasantly as Beast Lad stepped away from the door to allow her to knock. She stayed calm for a few seconds before she stared banging on the door so much that the star began to bounce up and down as she shouted, "Hey Ally open up!"
Perhaps she was banging a bit too much as the door fell down into the room. Inside Alakazam was nowhere to be seen but the room was in clear sight now. The truth was that no matter how open Alakazam was no one had really been in her room. Both slowly walked in to double check whether or not Alakazam was really there. On the wall were different posters of different magician's like Houdini and David Blain, hung like other teenage girls would hang up posters of wannabe punk bands. Also there was a painting of a magicians hat with a wand tapping the side and a rabbit coming out. To one corner was her bed and near it on the wall was a table with a mirror that had lights going all around it just like the one in Alakazam's old dressing room. A few photos of the Titans and other people were stuck in-between the frame and the glass. Also beside that was a huge antique dresser. The entire room was purple with the shag carpet being very faded black.
"Alakazam?" Beast Lad said in a whisper as he walked around the room, "sorry about the door."
Meanwhile Android was looked around and opened the closet to reveal about ten sets of the same outfit and closed the door before turning around to face Beast Lad. "Hey look at this," Android said as Beast Lad turned to faced her as she opened the closet again, this time to reveal it was empty.
"See what?" Beast Lad said as Android looked in the closet dumbfounded before closing the door and slowly walking away. She turned to see that Beast Lad was resting his hand on the desk part of Alakazam's mirror right next to where Alakazam's hat was.
"Hey is that Alakazam's hat?" Android asked in surprise as she approached the dressing table to where Alakazam's hat was. She picked it up and examined it carefully as she said, "she never goes anywhere without this."
"She doesn't go anywhere 'blue' without it," Beast Lad corrected as he too examined the hat in Android's hands, only he seemed a bit more cautious of the magic item, "maybe we should tell Rave about this."
"She still has her wand to keep her safe and blue," Android said as she looked inside the hat which looked just like any normal empty hat.
"Um maybe you should put that hat down now," Beast Lad said as his caution growing the closer Android's face moved towards the hat to get a better view of it.
"Oh what's the worst that could happen?" Android said as she put the hat on her head and smiled slightly. Beast Lad paused as she smiled and there was a second of calm before suddenly the hat came to life. It moved down past Androids eyes and began to make a sucking noise as a constantly changing light came out of the edges of the hat as it sucked Android in.
"Android!" Beast Las shouted as Android tried to pry the hat off her head but it only moved lower down her body as Beast Lad heard her muffled screams through the hat. Beast Lad grabbed her leg when she lifted off the ground but just then both of them were sucked right into the hat which it gently floated to the ground when they were gone.
Meanwhile just outside of town Alakazam was stepping out of the prison with a orange t-shirt, a pair of jeans, some dark shades and lacking her signature blue skin and white hair. She put her hand on her hips and looked out at the sunny day saying, "well now that that's done," before sighed happily and walking a little ways from the prison. Once she was out of sight she reached into her back pocket and took out her wand. She grasped it in her hand and pointed it at herself as she smiled and said, "mumbo jumbo."
Wind began to rush around her and dust from the ground picked up into a thick cloud around her feet. It then began to slowly move up her body and as it did she changed into her costume. Her jeans turning into dress pants, her t-shit turning into a shirt and jacket as the dust moved past them. Her skin turned back to blue and her hair went white but when the cloud disappeared her hat was not on her head. "Hey," Alakazam said as she put her hand on her head to make sure that her hat really wasn't there. Her eyes then went wide as she realized just what had happened as she quickly made her card shoot from her pocket and under her feet and sped off towards the Tower.
"This can't be good," Android said as she stood in a completely black room with just a spotlight on her and another spotlight next to her where Beast Lad stood. She couldn't even remember falling let alone landing and now here she was.
"See?" Beast Lad said as he took a step forward and the light followed him, "I told you not to touch the hat but you did and now this is just like what happened to our dads when they went in my mom's room."
"Well not exactly," Android said as she tried to use her arm light but it couldn't penetrate the darkness around the spotlight, "our dad's went into your mom's mind and this is just a pocket dimension created through a build up of Alakazam's extra magical powers and used as an easy way to reserve fast magic in times of need?"
"How do you even know that," Beast Lad asked as he tried to just put his head out of the spotlight but when it connected with the blackness it was like hitting a brick wall.
"Rave made me look up on everyone's backgrounds and power levels just in case," Android said as she decided to give up on trying to find a way out of the spotlight, "funny, I still have no idea who Alakazam's parents are."
"Is it really hard to guess?" Beast Lad asked as he put his hand on the blackness. When he felt how solid it was he let loose an angry moan before yelling, "will someone please turn on the lights!"
Right as he finished shouting this a series of colourful lights turned on, outlining a few buildings and a ferries wheel. A few seconds after that there was a sound like a generator kicking in and lights turned on everywhere as carnival music began to play from some invisible speaker. Many blue skin and white haired people walked by to the different rides, games and food stands as if nothing weird had happened.
"Alright I thought this place was suppose to be a town with way too many theatres," Android said as she looked around at all the blue people who just went about their business.
"That was when Mumbo wore it," Beast Lad said as he began to walk around the amusement park, Android following behind him, "different person different hat?"
"Makes sense for the whole pocket dimension thing," Android said as she looked around as they passed different things. "Hey look at that," she said grabbing the back of Beast Lad's shirt to stop him as she pointed at a building off to one side. The building had a giant wizards head right above the door with it's mouth open to be the door and arms coming out to cover the wall on ether side. On the roof was a sign that read in big bold letters, 'The Museum of Mumbo!'
"What is that?" Beast Lad asked as he turned to see the odd building better.
"Lets find out," Android said as she grabbed Beast Lad's hand and ran inside the building.
Inside it was just one big room with different rows of glass cases working as dividers along the sides and down the middle of the floor. In these boxes were different objects that looked like they had magical purposes and little cards that said replica. Both teens went around and looked at the objects in eerie silence. "Um Android?" Beast Lad said as he looked around the room as Android looked in on a large staff.
"Yeah Beast Lad?" Android asked in response as she lazily admired the magic items, magic not really her thing.
"You can let go of my hand now," Beast Lad said causing both of the teens to blush as Beast Lad tightened his hand in Android grasp.
"Sorry," Android said quickly as she took away her hand and spun around, putting her hand on her face to hide the blush that was forming there. That's when she saw what appeared to be a replica of Mumbo Jumbo made out of cheep metal and bent over 90degress at the waste with his arms hung down. "Hey what's that?" Android asked as she forgot her blush and walked towards the Mumbo replica.
"I don't know?" Beast Lad said as he came to stand on Androids left in front of the bent over robot and the small TV screen built into the wall beside it.
There was an odd moment of silence as Beast Lad's question went on answered before the doll suddenly came to life. It spring up, one of its arms flapping up and hitting Beast Lad in the noise as it went. All the while it drawled out, "Welcome to The Museum of Mumbo!" and moved its arms back and forth as Beast Lad recovered from his injure. "If you'd like to hear more about the world of Mumbo merely say so," the false Mumbo finished before instantly going limp again and falling back into its former position.
"Um sur-," Android got out before the fellow robot once again popped up this time sending Beast Lad to the ground with one of its flailing arms.
"The Mumbo Jumbo line is a long an ancient line of magical men and women stretching back to the families pioneer, the great Japanese warlock Majikku," as the robot said this he moved his arms towards the TV screen. Causing both Android and Beast Lad to pause in the middle of helping Beast Lad up to look at the screen. On it was a blue skinned Japanese man with a long white bread and long flowing purple robes. He held his head up high and his eyes looked like they were rolled into the back of his head as one of his arms was outstretched with a long wooden staff held out, magic sparks coming from it. All around him the ground was rising and cracking, streams of magic coming from the cracks and breaks in the ground.
"Whoa," Beat Lad said as he stood back up to get a better look at the warlock. Of course that was when the robot moved its arm quickly to its right to slap Beast Lad across the face before continuing.
"Sadly he was killed by his own son, Katsuro," the false Mumbo said as it bowed its robot head as if in mourning. It quickly picked back up into its happy tone though as soon as it raised its head to continue, "from that moment on the Mumbo children have always switched from being heroes, villains or neutral in the fight between good and evil. But a few things have changed over the years. The staff that Majikku once held was able to change reality it self but ever since its owners death it has gotten less and less powerful. It can now only play tricks that act as if it is shifting reality but merely fool even those most well trained in magical arts. Powerful yes, but not enough to remain a staple in the battles for good or evil alike."
"Well that explains some stuff I guess," Android said as she watched the different picture of different men and women with the magic staff in there hands flash by on the TV. They were going so fast you couldn't even tell when they crossed over from Japan to America and began to raise families there, though that point did come and go. Meanwhile Beast Lad rubbed his cheek where the gloved metal hand had struck him.
"It wasn't until the ninety-eighth Mumbo Jumbo, George Perez, decided to shorten the staff into a magic wand in the early 1980's and held the extra magic in his hat. He later went on to be a successful stage magician in Los Vegas before moving to Jump City to retire," As this was said a picture of a magician standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people. "His son tried to follow in his footsteps but failed," the picture on the screen changed to a picture of Mumbo Jumbo himself standing on stage and trying to block rotten tomatoes being thrown at him from hitting his face. "He became a bank robber and a disgrace, always being beaten by The Teen Titans."
"So what does any of this have to do with Alakazam?" Beast Lad asked as he looked at the screen showing a montage of Mumbo Jumbo being put in jail by the Titans.
"Which leads us to the most resent holder of the wand and daughter of the villainous Mumbo Jumbo, Alakazam." A picture of Alakazam then appeared on the screen as the Mumbo robot continued. "Though she refuses to use the name Mumbo Jumbo because of her father she has proven one of the families greatest champions and with her the Mumbo Jumbo magic will live on for another generation."
The puppet when limp again but not before slapping the top of Beast Lad's head with one of its falling arms. He rubbed his head fiercely as both of the teens looked at the limp robot for a second to make sure it wasn't going to snap back to life to add a footnote to its story. After a minute when Beast Lad's head didn't hurt he said just what Android was thinking, "well that explains a lot."
"I guess it does," Android said as she turned slightly in thought as she tried to ponder the facts unknown about Mumbo even to her father and the original Titans. That was when she noticed a door with a large heart on it and printed on this heart were the words, 'Hall of Love: under construction', "hey, what's that?" Android asked as her oddly short robot attention span gave way to curiosity.
She opened the door and entered the room by the time Beast Lad realized she was gone and yelled, "hey! Wait up!" before running after her. Behind the door was a long hall that looked never ending in both directions. The walls were painted red and there seemed to be a pink haze in the room. Running along the side of the wall opposite the door were bronze statues of different men and women with plaques on the pedestals they stood on to explain who they were. Above that was a strip of metal with a name on it that Beast Lad assumed was the name of the person in love with who ever the statue depicted. Best Lad looked down the hall to see Android looking up at one of the statues up the right side of the hall. "Hey what- whoa," Beast Lad said as he had to stop midway when he saw just who the statue was.
It was a large statue of Mystic in a heroic position, the plate above his head reading Alakazam. "I never knew Ally liked him," Android said absentmindedly as she looked up at the statue, still in shock of her discovery.
"Yeah well," Beast Lad said as he suddenly seemed to be more depressed as he leaned down to read the plaque under Mystic's statue. It was only then did he smile again as he was reading the words written in stone. "I don't think it's what we think," Beast Lad said as he came back up to a confused looking Android and smirked as he pointed down at the plaque.
Android leaned down and read the plaque aloud, "Mystic: the saviour of young Alakazam when her father went to jail he convinced officials to put her into the custody of the theatre her father once worked in. Ever since that moment when they were only five they have been fast friends and Alakazam loves him…like a brother?" Android finished as she herself was the one who questioned the last sentence, her face twisting in confusion.
"See? I mean why would Alakazam like Mystic anyway?" Beast Lad said sounding a bit too relieved for Android's liking. "Now I'm going outside to wait for Alakazam to show up and get us out of here," Beast Lad said as he lazily spun around on his heal and began to walk towards the door.
Android was about to follow but stopped when she noticed a large sheet draped over another statue right beside the one of Mystic. Android's curiosity came instantly and without even thinking about it she grabbed the hem of the sheet and whipped it off the statue. What she saw made her eyes go wide as right beside Mystic statue was one that was twice the size and depicted no other then Beast Lad. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this-" Android said as she turned around and expected to see a equally shocked Beast Lad but instead was Alakazam, looking quite mad with her hat tipped and her foot tapping the ground lightly.
"How's it going Annie," Alakazam asked as her eyes sent daggers at her friend.
"I take it that Beast Lad never got a chance to see this?" Android said as she pointed over her shoulder at the large statue behind her.
"Nope, sent him back right before he could," Alakazam said as she pointed to her hat and took a few steps towards Android.
"So not confused anymore?" Android said as she bite her lip and turned to look up at the statue along with Alakazam, "you really like him?"
"This isn't really the Hall of 'Like'," Alakazam said, blushing slightly as she danced around the powerful four letter word.
"We'll I do too," Android said as she danced around the subject right alongside Alakazam.
"So I guess nether of us are backing down then," Alakazam said as Android solemnly shook her head no. "Then lets make this a bit more official," Alakazam said as she turned and stuck out her hand for Android to shack.
Android was confused for a few seconds but then smiled as she grabbed Alakazam's hand and shook it as she said, "may the best girl win." As they shook hands Alakazam teleported them back to her room where Beast Lad stood, still a bit confused about how he had suddenly reappeared back in Alakazam's room a few moments ago. This was going to get very bad before it got any good. And Beast Lad had no idea but he was about to become the rope in a tug-of-war match that may just rip him in two.