19 August 2019
Mount Justice, Happy Harbour

"…It's been almost an entire month and he's still not back yet!" Rachel worried as she floated alongside Red Tornado, expressing her worries to the crimson android. It had been some time since their last stint in the field and the young witch was getting antsy with nothing to occupy her mind except her mentor's absence. "And—and I already asked Baphomet and even she has no idea!"

"Could this simply be another one of his walkabouts?" Red Tornado asked as the pair traversed the tunnels of the Cave. It was late, but the mountain was still lively with the sound of teenage sidekick chatter and the ding of the computer whenever a spar finished.

"He's never been gone this long before!" Rachel replied, clearly distressed. "Not without, at least, getting in contact first! What if something happened to him? What if he's hurt? Or what if—?"

"—I am sure Kent is fine" Red Tornado tried to assuage her fears. "He was a member of the Justice Society and the vessel for the Helmet of Fate, he can handle himself"

"I know that, but what if—?"

WHOOSH!

"—D'you have a mission for us?!" Wally exclaimed as he excitedly rushed over to greet the pair.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility" Red Tornado replied stoically as he turned to the speedster, with the young witch still floating at his shoulder as she wrung her hands in nervousness.

"Yeah, well, the Batman's with the Robin doing the Dynamic Duo thing in Gotham. But you're headed somewhere, right? Hot date? Or a mission?" Wally replied as the rest of the Team perked up at the idea of a possible mission. Rachel just hoped that she'd finally get some help or some answers about where her mentor had gotten to. His usual trips never took this long and if they did, he would at least alert her first; neither of which had happened which was why she was so worried.

"If we can be of help" Kaldur added softly, sparing a glance towards Rachel who silently pleaded with the android for assistance.

"…This is Kent Nelson" Red Tornado sighed, before he pulled up a few screens that displayed the current vessel of Fate and his stats. "A friend and mentor. He is 106 years old—"

"Guy doesn't look a day over 90 years old!" Wally whispered cheekily to Artemis, muffling his words behind his hand. The blonde just rolled her eyes and turned to focus on the screen.

"—And he has been missing for 23 days. Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society; the precursor to your mentors' Justice League"

"Of course! Nelson was Earth's Sorcerer Supreme!" Kaldur exclaimed as Kent was replaced with the shiny golden image of Doctor Fate. "He was Doctor Fate!"

"Pah! More like Doctor Fake!" Wally scoffed derisively, once again sharing his opinions with the only other cynic in the room. "Guy knows a little advanced science and 'Dumbledore's' it up to scare the bad guys & impress the babes!"

"Rachel?" Kaldur turned to the young witch. "Isn't he your mentor? And you haven't heard from your mentor in almost a month?"

"Mr Kent likes to travel and he has been searching for a new vessel this past year, but he's never been gone this long before!" Rachel worried her lower lip, "Not without saying anything first…I'm worried something's happened to him"

"Kent may simply be on one of his walkabouts" Red Tornado soothed, "But he is the caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of the Doctor's mystic might. It is unwise to leave such power unguarded"

"He is like the great sorcerer priests and priestesses of Mars!" M'gann breathed in awe. "I would be honoured to help find him—"

"—Me too!" Wally's hand immediately shot up into the air, so fast that Artemis had to quickly dodge out of the way, least she be whacked by the wayward limb. "So honoured! I can barely stand it! Magic rocks!"

"Really?" Rachel asked in relief as her eyes bloomed with hope. Hopeful as she was, the young witch easily overlooked the speedster's sudden eagerness and willingness to accept magic even though his past record showed him to be a skeptic."You would?"

"O-of course!" It almost pained Wally to see how the young witch so easily accepted his words at face value. Almost. It was just a little harmless flirting and it's not like the old guy was really in trouble, right? Right?

"We will help in any way we can" Kaldur agreed, side-eyeing the speedster with a disapproving glare that was gone before Rachel could even blink.

"Very well" Red Tornado nodded, "Rachel, d'you still have the Tower's key?"

"Yessir" Rachel nodded, pulling out the golden key in question for the android to see.

"Then I will leave it in your hands"


19 August 2010
The Tower of Fate, Salem

"Hey Rachel?" M'gann hummed, sounding almost nervous as she piloted the bioship over the suburbs of Salem.

"Mm?" Rachel hummed, turning from where she had been watching the dark skies outside.

"If Kent Nelson—that is to say, Doctor Fate—is your mentor, then why is he searching for a new vessel? Surely that legacy would fall to you, right?"

"Ah, not really" Rachel winced as she fiddled with the golden key.

"What d'you mean?"

"Y'mean aside from the fact that I am a creature of Chaos and the Helmet is a creature of Order? I promised Mr Kent that I would never put the Helmet on"

"How can a helmet be a creature?" Artemis scoffed in disbelief.

"It has sentience and its therefore, alive" Rachel shrugged as if it were obvious. "Obviously"

"Oh, of course, my mistake" The blonde rolled her eyes, before she turned her gaze to the moon-eyed speedster who looked like he was about to burst. "So, Wally, when did you first realise your honest affinity for sorcery?"

"Well, I mean, not to brag or anything" Wally smirked as he eyed of the red-headed martian at the helm. "Before I became Kid Flash, I seriously considered becoming a wizard myself"

"Ugh!"

"We've reached the co-ordinates" M'gann reported, oblivious of the unanimous eye rolls that spread across the ship at the speedster's flirtations. "But—"

"—Nothing's there!" Conner ended.

"What're you talking about? It's right there" Rachel puzzled, brows furrowed in confusion. To her, the Tower of Fate was clearly situated on the open plains, the brick fortress standing tall amongst the lush green.

"Rachel, there's nothing there" Conner reiterated.

"…Oh yeah! The glamour!" It took the witch a moment to remember why she could see it, but her teammates could not. "I always forget that other people can't see through it"

"Glamour?" M'gann puzzled as she brought the bioship down to land on the outskirts of the property.

"Yeah, it's to keep the locals from wandering into the Tower and setting off all of the security measures"

"What kind…of security measures?" Kaldur pursued, suddenly cautious of what they might find.

"Uh…" Rachel blinked, looking for all the world like your average child who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. How was she supposed to explain the numerous layers of spells & runes etched into the very stone of the Tower? Jumping from her seat, the witch elected to bypass the question by racing for the door instead. "Well, we're here, so let's go—!"

"Um" Wally blinked, a little caught off-guard by her sudden enthusiasm and not so subtle redirection.

"So, what d'you think?" Artemis mused as they all clambered from their seats to follow after their youngest member. "Adaptive micro-optical electronics combined with phase-shifting?"

"Absolutely—!" Wally grinned, before quickly changing his tune as soon as he drew up alongside both M'gann and Rachel. "—Not! Clearly mystic powers are at work here!"

"Ready?" Rachel asked, itching to get inside and search for her mentor. Now that she had helped and several extra pairs of eyes, the task would be much easier than before.

"For what?" Conner wondered as he hung back, arms crossed over his chest.

Rachel simply smiled as she shoved the key into the lock of the front door, the one that only she (and other's keyed into the Tower's warding system) could see. With a simple twist of her wrist, the door clicked open, breaking the seal on the wards if only for a moment and allowed the Team to catch a glimpse of the Tower's magnificence. To them, it must've appeared out of the blue like, well, magic (especially if their shocked expressions were anything to go by). But as Rachel led the way inside, she suddenly found herself rather nervous; she'd never brought anyone over to the Tower before, and now she had brought not one, but five people! Although the Tower had only been her home for roughly seven months, she was still a little nervous about showing it off.

"Did your legs fall off?" Rachel hummed amusedly from the doorway, "Let's go"

"Right, coming!" M'gann nodded as she hurried to follow after Rachel; hot on her heels, the Team soon followed. Inside, they found themselves stood in a rather spacious elevator.

42-42-568, Rachel sang in her head as she took up the helm at the buttons and immediately began to input the passcode as she pocketed the key. It wouldn't do to lose that in here. Input this number to know your Fate! Ding. Open. Ding. Close. Ding. Open. Ding. Close. Ding. Up & down the elevator shifted, jumping from floor to floor as Rachel pressed button after button, inputting the passcode without so much as a twitch to the oddity of the situation.

"…Uh, is something wrong?" Wally quirked a brow as he grabbed a hold of the railing behind him in an effort to stop the constant jerking motion of the elevator. "Did you forget which floor it is?"

"Nah, I'm just putting in the passcode to bypass the alarm" Rachel hummed nonchalantly. "Does your house not have a security alarm? Weird"

"Hmpf!" The speedster pouted cutely.

DING!

"Oh~!" Artemis gasped, jumping back in shock as they paused on the fifth floor for a moment. In front of them stood a long dark hallway, one that was only illuminated by a single ghoulish figure in white who ran pell-mell for the elevator and for them. "What the hell is that?!"

"No clue" Rachel shrugged as she pressed the button for the doors to close. The doors slammed shut in the creatures face, but the sound of nails scratching down a chalkboard let them know that it was still there and trying to get it.

"How can you not know what that thing is?!"

"It's the Tower of Fate, not the Tower of Unicorns & Rainbows"

"Was that…thing, trying to get in here?" M'gann asked as she stepped closer to Conner, just as shaken by the sudden appearance of the creature as the blonde.

"Mmhm" Rachel hummed, "But that always happens whenever I stop on the fifth floor, so try not to let it in"

DING!

"Oh, weird…Never seen it this dark before" Rachel hummed when they stopped on the next floor. Peering out into the equally dark hallway, she found herself searching the corners of the sixth level with crimson eyes in an attempt to see what was wrong.

"Maybe—maybe the power went out?" M'gann offered.

"Mmm, maybe" Rachel agreed. At least that was until her crimson eyes met that of the great hulking beast in the back of the room; the same beast who now came running to hug their master stuck in the little metal box. (Un)fortunately for them, Rachel had pressed the button to close the doors just in time; which meant that the behemoth ended up eating a face full of metal instead of the hug it was going for. "Whoops! I guess Betty got out again…"

"Betty…?" Artemis asked, almost sounding like she didn't want to know.

"As in Beatrice" Rachel turned, looking a little sheepish (and worried) for the creature beyond the door. "My pet behemoth"

"That—that thing was your pet?!"

"One of them"

"You have more?!"


Eventually, the Team emerged out into a dimly lit foyer, one that was encrusted by both wood and stone. Whilst the others milled about, their gazes searching the new room for some sort of new & mystical threat that might charge straight for them, Rachel stood calmly in the center of the room. "Uh…" Conner murmured, "Where'd the door go?"

"Rae?" Wally turned to the young witch.

"Hm?" She hummed, glancing at him over her shoulder.

"Door?"

"Don't worry, it'll come back"

"It'll come back', she says. Great"

"Greetings, Rachel!" Chirped the Tower's holographic security system. Taking the form of Fate's current vessel, Kent Nelson, the Tower used his visage to talk to the children gathered in the foyer.

"Hello" Rachel replied.

"It seems that you have brought guests with you. What is their purpose here? What is their intent? Please state your claims"

"We—" Rachel went to reply, only to find herself cut off by Wally's incessant flirting. Something that would be far more detrimental to their cause than intended.

"—We are true believers!" Wally, after sparing a glance at the martian beside him, walked forward with open arms, hoping to both impress the girl and beguile the hologram. "Here to find Doctor Fate!"

"I see" The hologram drew itself up to its fullest height, sparing the redhead his most unimpressed glare (one which had Rachel shuddering beneath the look) before he flicker out of sight.

"Now what?" Wally turned to the others in puzzlement.

"I 'unno…?" Conner shrugged, just as confused (but also slightly annoyed by the speedsters' needless flirtations).

And then the floor fell out from beneath them.