What greeted them was a pit of blazing fire. Scorching hot and steaming to the touch, it was all the Team could do to stop their descent before they became boiled alive. Conner, the first one to fall victim to the pit, quickly threw his arms out and tried to dig his nails into the cavern walls in the hopes to stop himself before he reached the bottom. Mercifully, he only succeeded in (painfully) burning off his shoes as kryptonian feet were dunked beneath the waves of lava. Next was Wally & M'gann, who thanks to the martian's quick thinking, was only able to slow their descent instead of stop it. Although M'gann fought to keep the two airborne, martian physiology was not built for such environments and it was a battle that she was quickly losing.

Artemis, ever the prepared girl, had been able to grab a hold of Kaldur as the two fell and with the use of a grappling hook, yanked the pair of themselves over towards a cavern wall. It was good thinking, but just as M'gann was suffering from the heat, so too, was Kaldur. It appeared that atlantean physiology wasn't that suited to heat as well. The last to fall was Rachel who quickly summoned Hugin and hung loosely in his talons as he hovered above the pool of fire. Though the witch was used to the intense heat (having lived for some time in Gehenna's fiery pits), the bird was not and he fought hard to stay in the air without retreating to cooler confines.

"Are you guys okay?" Rachel peered over the edge of a small outcropping that her familiar had been able to find, fingers digging into the edge of her rocky perch. Sweat beaded on her brow as she received a face full of the hot updraft and Hugin retreated into the safety of her shadow.

"Those…were my favourite boots…!" Conner growled as he glared down at the lava pit only centimetres below him. "This Nelson guy better be worth it!"

"I'm having trouble…maintaining altitude…" M'gann panted as she and the speedster continued to drop."I'm so…hot…!"

"You most certainly are!" Wally grinned in agreement, unable to stop himself from flirting even in the face of death. The speedster's cheeks had flushed red as he clung tightly to the rapidly falling martian; he suddenly found himself regretting to play along with this belief in the fantastically supernatural, if only because it was now trying to kill them.

"WALLY!" Artemis scathingly scolded him.

"Hey! Inches above sizzling death, I'm entitled to speak my mind!" Wally retorted.

"My physiology…and M'gann's are susceptible to extreme heat" Kaldur explained as he wiped away the sweat from his eyes to the best of his abilities. He was, afterall, still clinging to the rock face and Artemis in an effort to avoid falling to his death. "We must climb out quickly!"

"We can't!" Rachel called down, "This is The Pit; the more you try to escape, the deeper it gets and the higher pool rises!"

"Then what are we supposed to do then?!" Wally snarked, "Cause I don't feel like being barbecued!"

"You have to answer the question with the truth" Rachel sassed in reply, unable to keep the tone at bay even as worry bit at her. From this far up, she wasn't sure if she could reach or even sustain some sort of construct to reach the two. "Which, y'know, I would've done if some zhaq [idiot] hadn't thought he could bypass the security system with a dumb answer!"

"Hey!" Wally retorted angrily, "That is so not on me!"

"YES IT IS!" Artemis interjected from the side, adding in her two cents.

"Right! That's…enough!" Kaldur commanded (which would've sounded more authoritative had his words not been punctuated by the tired pants that laboured his breath. "Remember, we still need to get out of here!"

"Hello, Megan!" M'gann smacked her head in realisation as a thought occurred to her.

"Huh?" Wally quirked a brow in question.

"We never truly answered…the question!" M'gann replied to the questioning look before she turned to call up to the Tower. "Red Tornado sent us…to see if Mr Nelson…and the Helmet…were safe!"

And just like that, the threat was gone. Having truthfully answered the Tower's security question, a shield burst from either side of The Pit and covered the boiling pool, sealing it away. One-by-one, the members of the Team dropped to the bottom, regrouping down on the strangely cool surface to regain their bearings. "This platform…?" Kaldur questioned as he bent to press webbed fingers against the platform beneath their feet. Now that the pit of lava was gone, the atlantean was looking much less green around the gills. "It should be red hot, but it is cool to the touch. How strange…"

"Rachel, your house sucks!" Conner grouched as he picked off the scraps of leather which had glued themselves to the grooves of his feet when the shoes had melted away. "Who even has a lava pit in their house?"

"It's really not the worst thing in here…" Rachel replied ominously as she crouched down next to Kaldur and began to feel around for the trap door that she knew was hidden there (Fate called them the Forbidden Doors, which were kind of like the ones she used to build in her mindscape, only more clean).

"Don't worry, Megalicious, I gotcha!" Across the way, Wally flirted with the girl as he helped the lightheaded martian to her feet.

"ENOUGH!" Artemis cried, having finally given up on holding her tongue and pushed the speedster away from the martian & up against the rocky walls. "Your little 'impress M'gann at all costs' game nearly got us all barbecued!"

"When did this become my fault?!" Wally retorted, affronted at the (truthful) accusation.

"When you lied to that—whatever it was—and called yourself a 'true believer'!"

What…? Rachel paused in her ministrations, hurt flashing across her face. Was Wally REALLY that selfish? He said he'd come to help, but had he really only come to—to flirt with M'gann? Was this all just a joke to him?

"Wally…!" M'gann interjected, sounding very disappointed in him. "You don't believe?"

"…Fine! Fine! I lied about believing in magic!" Wally exclaimed after he spared each of them an inquisitive glance (wincing a little when he caught Rachel's gaze), hoping to have some sort of back up but found none. "But magic is the real lie! A major load!"

"Wally" Kaldur tried to explain, "I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis. The mystic arts created the skin icons that I use to power my water bearers"

"Dude! Have you ever heard of bio-electricity?" Wally replied in the most condescending tone Rachel had ever heard (and that included her brother).

"Then can you explain away my six years of magical training at the Temples of Azar?" Rachel sneered, "Or the seven months under the tutelage of Doctor Fate—Earth's Sorcerer Supreme—and the three months at Salem's Arcane Institute?" (Rachel had attended the magical institute's summer school in an effort to transfer into a class amongst peers her age as well as learn some more of the lighter spells; which she found fell in line with some of Azarath's teachings).

"Hey, in primitive cultures, fire was once considered magical too! Today it's all just a bunch of tricks!"

"Y'know, you're pretty close-minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers!" Artemis hissed, hands on hips.

"That's science!" Wally retorted, full of arrogant ire. "I recreated Flash's laboratory experiment and here I am! Everything can be explained by science!"

"Y'know Wally, if you were gonna be a zhaq this whole time" Rachel resolutely dug her fingers under the latch of the trap door and pulled it open. "Then you should've just stayed home"

"Wait—! The backdraft from the lava will roast us alive!" The speedster suddenly panicked, a hand reaching out to stop the witch but it was too late. But that didn't happen. Instead, a flurry of snow blasted in through the trap door.

"It's snow~!" M'gann chirped, hand coming out to catch a few snowflakes on her fingertips.

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" Artemis grinned a cat-like grin, cocking her head back towards the speedster who stood sullenly on the sidelines.


Falling sideways in to the next room, Rachel stomped off in the direction of the next Forbidden Door, mostly so that she didn't have to deal with Wally's incessant comments, but also so that no one would see how hurt she was by his comments. Pulling her hood up to hide inside the safe confines of the shadows, the young witch wasted no time in scrambling her way up the snowy crest before her.

"…Well?" Artemis quirked an expectant brow, smirk firmly pressed upon her lips as she cocked her hip.

"Ever heard of String Theory?" Wally retorted, thinking as fast on his feet as ever. "We're in a pocket dimension"

"Ugh! Geek!" The blonde rolled her eyes in exasperation before she spun on her heel and made to follow after the young witch who had paused atop the small hill to wait for them. It didn't take long for the rest of the Team to follow as they traipsed through the snowy tundra towards the Forbidden Door (with only a few complaints splattered here and there; most coming from Wally who had tried to run ahead several times only to find himself irreversibly turned around).

"I don't understand Wally…!" M'gann sighed as she watched the speedster and the archer bicker further up ahead. "It's almost like he needs to believe that the impossible can't happen"

"Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend" Kaldur explained, "Acknowledging the existence of magic would mean he would have to relinquish the last vestige of that control"

"Oh"

"—Well, the door's gone" Wally smartly reported as he returned to the others with a rather irate Artemis on his heel. "So, how're we even s'posed to get out of here now?"

"The Forbidden Door" Rachel replied in kind, pointing towards the doorway which had appeared on the horizon line. "It's the only way out"

"Wha—? How'd that get there?! It wasn't there before!" He gaped.

"Magic"

"Oh ha-ha, hilarious!"


Unfortunately, the next room wasn't much better than the snowy tundra; if you could even call it a room. Stone walls surrounded them on all sides as a single blocky staircase wrapped itself around the edges of the room, spreading itself outwards in both directions. "Now where are we?!" Wally sighed exasperatedly as he peered over the edges of the floating staircase and down towards the dark void that laid below.

"How am I s'posed to know?" Rachel shrugged in reply as she climbed through the door last; before which the item in question sealed itself shut and disappeared and stopped them from turning back.

"You live here!" Artemis replied, just as done with these twisting turning rooms as the speedster. "How can you not know?"

"The Tower of Fate is infinite and forever changing" Rachel replied sagely as she began to make her way down the staircase (if she was correct in her thinking, then this was one of the turrets on the northern side; at least if those scratch marks on the walls and the scent of manure in the air were anything to go by). "Of course I haven't explored every inch of it yet. I'm not even sure if you could"

"Do you even know where we're going?" Wally added, unable to hide the condescension that had been swimming in his tone for some time now.

"Yeah, this is the northern belfry, so the door's at the bottom" Rachel replied shortly, "…I think"

"You think?" Conner huffed as he eyed the dark shaft next to him. "Well, that's reassuring"

"Do you wanna lead? No? Then shut up and—"

THUMP!

"Jesus!" Artemis swore, one hand clutched to her heart whilst the other went straight to her collapsable bow. Not that her reaction wasn't warranted or alone as something fell/leapt from somewhere above them and landed on the steps in front.

"—Hey!" Wally joked, pointing to the animated butt cheeks before muscular arms tensed on the steps as fingers gripped the edge of the stone with white knuckles and a rather pronounced bite mark stood out on one of the cheeks, just below its glowing yellow eyes. "Who let the butts out?"

"Good shitting Christ—" Artemis blinked dumbly at the sight before her.

"Language" Kaldur scolded her half-heartedly.

"—We're all the way through the Looking Glass now"

"Rachel" M'gann swallowed as she felt her skin crawl. "What is that?"

"That" Rachel replied, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. "Is a werebutt. Don't let it bite you"

"What happens if you do get bitten?"

"What do you think?"

"Are you—are you saying that thing was a person?!"

"Wait—!" Wally interjected as his eyes lit up in recognition "Aren't those the things from the Bureau of Normalcy? Y'know, from that scientist's failed experiments?"

"Which scientist?" M'gann puzzled, more than willing to focus on anything else than the disturbing sight in front of her.

"Uh…Cal—something. I dunno, he's in a wheelchair, I'm pretty sure and everyone think he's nuts"

"Do you mean Niles Caulder?" Conner replied (the name and the accompanying achievements had been one of the few who had been repeated during his Cadmus programming).

"Wait, Niles Caulder?" Artemis' brows pinched in confusion, "As in—?"

"—As in the wheelchair-bound butthead who experiments on people to achieve immortality?" Rachel ended, "Yep, that's the one"

"AWOOOOO!" The werebutt suddenly threw back its head and howled, its cheeks parting and anus clenching to form the most disturbing of faces. As the pitch of the howl heightened, others returned the call and all around them, beady yellow eyes appeared in the dark.

"…I'm guessing that's not a good sound" Conner murmured as he eyed up the glowing orbs now trained on the Team.

"…Qarf [shit]" Rachel deadpanned as she blinked dumbly at the howling anus before her.

"…Language" Again Kaldur tried again to curb their vulgar words, but in this situation Rachel thought that she was in the right to use that particular vernacular. Barely two seconds later and the pack of werebutts pounced.

"JUMP!" Rachel cried as she gripped tight to the two wrists on either side of her and took a running leap towards the dark void as werebutts rained down around them.

"Whoa—wait!" Wally panicked, eyes blowing wide as he realised what the young witch was about to do. "RACH—AHHHHHH!"

Not wanting to chance it, the others soon followed with werebutts and Wally's girlish screams following them all the way down. Baring his water bearers, Kaldur swatted away whatever he could reach and Conner simply punched those who came too near. M'gann (using her telekinesis) shoved a horde back against the stairs so hard in her fright that she caused a section of the staircase to collapse and Rachel (with eyes blazing red and magic sharp as a tack) who sliced and diced whichever butts came too near; taking particularly (gross) pleasure in the way some of them seemed to fart as they were split in two. Which left Artemis and Wally to dodge to the best of their abilities in midair because there was only so much the speedster and the archer could do whilst they free fell several feet through the dark.


Mercifully, their struggle didn't last for too long because before you could say "Let's kick some ass!" the next Forbidden Door appeared beneath them and so did the rather spear-heavy statue of the Joan of Arc cosplayer in the gorgon-laden garden. "POST ROU LLAF!" Rachel roared, hands splayed out as she used the logomancy taught to her during summer school, in an attempt to prevent herself and the Team from being skewered.

"Is everyone okay?" M'gann asked as she helped to lower everyone to the ground, stumbling only a little as they did so.

"…Too close" Wally breathed, eyes blown wide as he stared down at the stone spear tip that brushed up against the bridge of his nose. "That was way too close!"

"Thank you for your assistance, Rachel" Kaldur nodded his thanks as he was righted onto his feet.

"Uh, yep" Rachel nodded softly as she clambered to her feet, "It's okay"

Glancing upwards, she watched with her heart racing as the last Forbidden Door sealed itself shut and in turn, locked the werebutts in the northern belfry. At least it explained why Beatrice was wondering around the sixth floor instead being curled up in her usual place of inhabitance. Breathing shakily, the witch turned her gaze from the heavens towards the flower leaden fields that surrounded them for as far as the eye could see. Stone statues of every shape and size dotted the landscape and the scent of manure danced in the air as the bees hummed pleasantly in her ear. Absently kicking off a particularly handsy snapdragon, Rachel was at least glad that she knew where the exit—the real exit—was from here.

"Okay" Wally huffed as he brushed off the pollen clinging to his pants, "Where are we now?"

"The garden" Rachel replied.

"Are—are those things real?" Artemis poked at one of the closest statues, only to watch in horror as the nose crumbled to dust beneath her fingers.

"Maybe, I dunno" Rachel shrugged, stuffing her hands into her pockets "Mr Kent says that the gorgons made them like that; so maybe?"

"G-gorgons?!" Wally choked on his spit, "As in Medusa?!"

"I 'unno" She shrugged again, "Ancient Earthen histories aren't really my forte"

"Well, aren't you just a fountain of knowledge?

"If you don't like it, then why don't you just go home?" Rachel spat out, still hurt from his previous comments as she turned away, arms crossed irritably and fought to blink back the tears in her eyes. This was serious! Mr Kent was still missing and Wally had gal to go around making a joke out of everything!

"Rae—"

"—What's that?" M'gann interjected, pointing to Kent's cane that floated in a golden glow not too far from them.

"Ooh! Maybe it's Nelson's magic wand~!" Wally sassed with a roll of his eyes.

"His cane!" Rachel cried as she flew forward, hand outstretched. No sooner had she grabbed a hold of the hilt, did two more hands latch on.

"I got it" Artemis said.

"No, I got it" Wally retorted as the golden glow expanded to cover all three of the sidekicks. "Ugh! What is this? I can't let go!"

"Me neither!"

And then a flash of gold ripped through the garden, swallowing up witch, archer, speedster, cane and all.