Leaving Wally to linger, hidden behind the bannister, the two girls emerged from their hiding spot with a mirrored war cry on their lips. Both girls bounded around the stairs as they readied themselves to do their best to take down the sprig of a wizard (for he must have of been to put them through all of this) who kept them trapped there, in that mysterious place. But what they found instead, (mercifully) stopped them in their tracks. Artemis' foot froze inches above Conner's crown thanks to the black magic encasing it, the kryptonian punch headed for M'gann's head was paused thanks to a water whip and the munted bench that M'gann had picked up, hung precariously over Rachel & Kaldur's heads.

"…Conner? Kaldur? Rachel?" M'gann blinked dumbfoundedly at the sight of her friends free from their bonds and relatively unharmed (Rachel bore the shadow of tape which had been previously slapped over face & Kaldur still wore sweat on his brow from the fiery restraints), "Oh! How glad we are to see you!"

"Ugh!" Artemis grunted as Rachel gently lowered her to the ground and all attacks retreated. "This place is making me crazy!"

"Tell me about it!" Conner grumbled as he angrily crossed his arms with a huff, "Mad Mod's piano nearly crushed me!"

"Where did our captor send you, Kaldur?" M'gann turned to the rather multicoloured atlantean.

"The art room" Kaldur replied, picking at some of the paint which had become glued to his skin in patches of neon colour.

"And what of you, Rachel?"

"Gym" Rachel huffed, lifting her arms up far enough to reveal the rather obnoxious sports uniform she had been placed in, as it peeked out from underneath her hoodie.

"Where's Wally?" Conner asked, glancing about when he noticed how strangely quiet it had become.

"Aauaueeneneh…" As if on cue, Wally mumbled nonsensically as he stumbled into view like a stoned zombie.

"Uh…"

"It was Mad Mod's hypno-screens" Artemis explained to the rather perplexed looks that the others wore at the sight of the usually jovial speedster. "We can't snap him out of it. We've tried everything!"

"Did you try this?" Rachel smirked as she leant in close, placed both of her palms up against her lips and blew, making a rather humourous farting noise.

"…No? Why would we try that?!" Artemis quirked a disbelieving brow at the young witch.

"Because it's funny…?" Rachel replied as if it were obvious. As if on cue (and despite the archer's clear disbelief), the speedster snapped out of his trance.

"Hahaha~! Nice one!" Wally giggled childishly at the noise, seemingly unawares of what had happened to him. "Uh…how did I get here? Why am I covered in drool? And can someone do something about this thing?"

KA-THUNK!

"Mmphf!" Conner made quick work of the ball and chain, much to the glee of the speedster who seemed to buzz in place now that the last of his restraints were gone.

"Wonderful!" M'gann clapped her hands in relief, "Now we only need to find an exit!"

"Or just keep punching our way, 'til we make one?" Conner suggested, sounding rather enthralled with the idea.

"Easy—!" Artemis warned, "The last thing I smashed tried to smash me back. I'm sure that this whole place is booby-trapped"

"Then how are we s'posed to get out, O Genius One?" Wally sassed as he wiped the drool off of his front, to the best of his abilities.

"We're not" Rachel replied, "Don't you get it? Mad Mod's just gonna keeping messing with us until—"

"—Until we mess with him!" Wally interjected, slapping his palm with his fist.

"But how are we s'posed to do that?" M'gann despaired. "We can't even catch him!"

"I can catch him!" Wally retorted, affronted by the notion at a speedster not being fast enough.

"Okay, Drools-a-lot!" Artemis sneered.

"Nngh!" He ever-so-maturely stuck his tongue out in response.

"Rachel, do you know anything about this Mad Mod?" Kaldur asked as they more or less ignored the interaction between the antagonising two. "Is this some kind of sorcery that you've come across before?"

"Uh…yeah, actually" Rachel nodded a little sheepishly as she awkwardly rocked back & forth on her heels, hands stuffed into her pockets.

"…You know what he is and you didn't say anything sooner?!" Wally exclaimed as he spun away from the archer to face the young witch.

"Well, A), I'm not the one who woke him up" Rachel sassed, hands on her hips. "And B), You were out of it 'til, like, two seconds ago! So what good would it have done?"

"What good—?! Rae—!"

"—What do you mean, 'Wake him up?" Kaldur interjected before things could get out of hand.

"Mad Mod's a golem" Rachel stated as if it were obvious.

"A golem?" M'gann puzzled.

"Mmyeah, they're earthen dolls that're enchanted with magic. Each one has to be activated with a spell, though; an incantation to wake him up. " Rachel explained, "It was probably inscribed on the doll somewhere; like on the cane or something"

"Why…why would Kent have a golem?" Wally asked, suddenly looking rather guilty.

"Wally" Artemis hissed, noticing the sheepish expression. "What. Did. You. Do?!"

"Nothing!" The speedster squeaked, trying his best to avoid the narrowed-eyed stare that seemed to be trying to divine some sort of answer that he did not want to give.

"Yeah…" Rachel drawled, eyeing up the strange interaction before going on, "Anyway, he was a gag gift from John Constantine. I forget what for, but golems are known for their illusions and their trickery"

"Illusions & trickery?" Conner mused aloud, "That would explain what's been happening to us!"

"And that cane of his does control everything in here…" Artemis agreed.

"Like a magic wand!" M'gann chirped as recognition struck.

"Or my water bearers" Kaldur nodded in agreement.

"Or my familiar" Rachel added her two cents.

"So, if we take the cane…?" Conner asked, trailing off.

"…We take control…" Artemis continued.

"…And take him down!" Wally ended heartily as he paced about the room, "Oh, I'll find him! That demented doofus is never hypnotising me again!"

SHINK!

"Gwaaaaah…!" Wally instantly ate his words as another hypno-screen (disguised as a portrait) burst from the wall and slammed itself into the speedster's face; giving him no choice but to watch the swirling rings that had entrapped him before.

"Oh yeah!" Artemis scoffed as the speedster tripped over his own feet and fell into M'gann's arms, "Never again!"

"Artemis!" Kaldur scolded, "That is not helping"

"Whatever" Artemis huffed as she crossed her arms at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Oh, C'ME ON!" Mad Mod sighed petulantly as he ascended through the floor as the door behind him swung open and he silently invited them to chase him again, "Won't you lot ever learn? You're in my world, my duckies! You can't win!"

"Team! Go!" Kaldur ordered as they took off after the malicious golem, all except for one.

"But how do I—?" M'gann called out to their retreating backs.

"—Make him laugh!" Rachel called over her shoulder as they disappeared through the doors, leaving the martian and the speedster to fend for themselves.

"Laugh? Um…ooh! I know! How many okrans does it take to hogey a morflark? Finbar!" M'gann turned the speedster around so that she could tell him one of her father's most favourite jokes. But it just didn't seem to land; whether due to cultural differences or what have you, but Wally was still stuck in his trance nonetheless. "Um…boogers?"

"Haha~! Boogers~!" Wally giggled childishly as he snapped back to reality once more. It took him a moment to realise what had happened and wipe the trail of drool leaking out of his mouth. "Awe man!"

"C'me on! We need to catch up with the others!" M'gann cried as she took his wrist in her hand and hurriedly led the way through the door.

Through art galleries & skirting around spouting water fountains they ran; passed pop art portraits, cubist landscapes and weaponised busts, all depicting an image of Mad Mod. Diving through neverending polkadots, poking heads into connected portals and even gathering together adorned in some old popstars' costumes which made them look like a band from the 60s. Mad Mod fled on a moped up twisting staircases only to reach the top of the flight of stairs where a lone door stood. With a simple wave of his cane, every single flight of stairs flattened into a slide that took their non-fliers all the way down to the bottom. Like some Alice in Wonderland nightmare, they fruitlessly chased the villain (& each other) through a hallway of chronanaptyxis doors until he eventually revealed another exit hidden behind the far wall where a singular bust of the British villain sat. Flipping the head back, they found a small red switch which—when turned—swivelled the final wall around to find yet another hallway and a single archway that led the way outside.

"No way!" Rachel breathed in disbelief at the sight of the outside painted so purely before them.

"Is that what I think it is?" Wally asked, almost hesitant at seeing an easy exit after all that they had been through.

"There's only one way to find out" Conner replied as he strode towards the exit, more than happy to be out of this mind-bending place.

"It looks like the real deal" M'gann noted as they neared, the big bulbous coconut trees on the other side growing larger as they neared. But looks can be deceiving, as they soon found out. "Ah!"

"No!" Wally despaired as they all collapsed through the Looney Tunes exit which had been painted onto the sheet of canvas.

"Ugh! We're right back where we started!" Artemis growled as everyone clambered to their feet.

"Of course you are, my duckies!" Mad Mod taunted as he reappeared before them, once again coming up through the floor like a stage magician. His cane tapped the floor twice before a section of the floor beneath his feet floated up into the air and out of their reach. "Class is over"

"Thank God!" Wally breathed in relief as his shoulders slumped over.

"Don't thank 'im just yet!" Mad Mod grinned lecherously, "You lot haven't learnt a single thing! That's a failing grade for each blooming one of ya! And there's only one thing for it! YOU'LL HAVE TO REPEAT THE ENTIRE LESSON!"

With that, every single (cracked) door that surrounded them suddenly swung shut with an audible click and the walls broke down like they were made of cardboard, to reveal great big screens of pulsating rings. There was no escaping these giant hypno-screens, nor the incoming busts that threatened to take their heads off; not when a mind-numbing blanket threatened to settle over their brains. Artemis tried her best not to look at the hypno-screens as they did their best to both fend off their incoming opponents and protect the speedster who had once again fallen prey to the screens. For someone who liked to boast about his superior scientific brain, magic sure did seem to fuck with him a lot.

"Time for the next lesson, my duckies!" Mad Mod decreed from above, his hands—and cane—raised up towards the heavens. "Everyone, back to your seats! I've got a special lesson planned for all of you naughty students!"

"Team! Go!" Kaldur ordered, pointing up towards the villain in question. There was no need to, of course, but it was nice to have a mark to go off of. "Get that cane!"

"Um…" Artemis blinked dumbly as a shield of black suddenly sprung up around herself and the speedster slung over her shoulders; one courtesy of a certain young witch who happened to notice the incoming projectiles just in time. "Thanks Rae…"

"Oi! No roughhousing!" Mad Mod chastised them as the Team easily broke through the busts, with Conner taking the lead and taking much vindictive enjoyment in doing so. Whatever had happened to him with the piano, seemed to have really ticked the kryptonian off. "Or do I have to separate you lot?"

With a single press of the bejewelled cane, the tiles beneath their feet suddenly arose in towering pillars that threatened to knock their fliers from the sky and bulldoze any who were brave enough to venture closer to the British villain. Artemis hissed a hiss in pity when she watched Rachel become like a bug on a windscreen, flattened against a pillar which had arisen without her warning. Across the way, Kaldur ducked & dove around lasers that burnt anything that they touched and left rather prominent scorch marks behind.

M'gann tried to density shift through those same pillars but it was like watching someone try to wade through quicksand and the archer was reminded of an instance where the martian had mentioned she had been trying to work on her density shifting, but it wasn't going as well as she had hoped. Apparently, it still needed some work. The bulldozer that was Conner, seemed unperturbed by both the lasers and the pillars as he simply bounded ever closer, smashing busts as he went.

KA-BOOM!

"…Ack!" Rachel cried as she peeled herself off of the pillar she had been splattered against, only to find herself blown backwards by an aftershock of two magic spells colliding with each other.

"You good there, Rae?" Artemis blinked down at the wheezing witch at her feet.

"Uh huh" Rachel nodded as she tried to regain the breath that she had lost upon landing.

"Then, can you help me with this?" Artemis shook the floppy Wally slung over her shoulders. "I don't do 'funny"

"Okay, but you asked for it!" Rachel grinned wickedly as she jumped to her feet, suddenly making the archer wary as to what the witch was about to do. Hovering next to the blonde's head, Rachel stuck her finger into her mouth and in one quick motion, jabbed it straight into her ear.

"Eurgh!" Artemis shuddered in disgust.

"Hehe~!" Again Wally sprang to life, only to realise what had happened with a quick glance about. "Aw! Not again!"

"G'off me!" Artemis grumbled as she dropped the speedster to the floor and shook off the witch at her side.

"You asked for it!" Rachel grinned wickedly before flying out of the archer's range and moved to help with the Team's fighting effort.

It wasn't going as well as they'd hoped. For such a spry old man, he sure was an allusive one and that magic cane of his definitely didn't help things. One-by-one the Team fell to Mad Mod's endless busts and wooden hands dragged them back to their chairs from whence this whole fiasco had really begun. Between this blink and the next, Artemis found herself all on her lonesome as the others—her superpowered teammates—were all entrapped by the golem's snares. It was at a time like this that she really wished they had Robin there to help them. Even the Boy Wonder may have been a few years younger than them (save for Rachel), there was no denying that he had the most experience on the Team. Clambering up onto the floating platform where Mad Mod languished, Artemis squared off against the grinning Brit, who reminded her of the grinning cat for which her sister was so named.

"Oh, give it a rest, lovey!" Mad Mod sighed as he lay parallel to the ground, head lain tauntingly upon the cane. "You've already lost!

"It's only over when I say it's over!" Artemis retorted as she dove for the cane, now that she had clear access to the supposed magic wand. Diving across the platform with her hand outstretched, the archer only realised something else was up when her fingers—and then herself—fell right through the bejewelled cane in question. "Huh? The cane isn't real! So, that means…Mad Mod is just as fake as everything else in this place! Time for a reality check!"

Making use of her compact grappling hook once more, Artemis dashed across the platform and aimed for a small slip in the wall across from them; likely the result of one of their earlier attacks going wide. Either way, just as it had been when she had escaped the classroom, the gap was large enough for her but not for the projectiles right on her tail. Sparing her teammates one final apologetic thought, the blonde dove through the wall and into the spiderweb-infested alcove that lay beyond.


22 August 2010
The Tower of Fate, Salem

Stumbling to her feet, Artemis brushed off the spiderwebs which now clung to every inch of her form and made her way through the familiar velvet-encrusted foyer, that she recognised to be the Tower of Fate. And there, sat atop of the gathered packed boxes, sat a single earthen golem who had started all of this hullabaloo. It was an odd thing, carved from red clay and depicted a decrypted old man hunched over a bejewelled cane; same as the old man—Mad Mod—whom they had just been fighting, if a little squatter.

Flipping the thing over in her hands, it took a moment or two for Artemis to locate the inscriptions in question that Rachel had spoken about. In fact, there were two inscriptions; one which was illuminated by a soft glow and what Artemis could only assume was the one that a sheepish Wally had read out: HEZBEREK ET MORINA, GOST-WENTHEN VERBIS NEX, IND ORBIUM, BIS PENDRULE, PARAN SIC CORTIS REX. And on the flip side, there stood another; one which Artemis could only hope would unwind the spell that had fallen over them.

"Norek egna rakuta" Artemis sounded out the strange words (it was no language that she knew of, but it did the job then who was she to complain?), squinting in the low lighting to read the cramped words. No sooner had the last word (however horribly said) fell from her lips, the world around her began to flicker. Once, twice, thrice and then, just like magic, it was gone.


"Oh yeah! I'd never thought I'd be so happy to leave the Tower!" Rachel exclaimed in relief (but with a tinge of wistfulness) as the Team gathered out on the front steps some time later, the Bioship now finally packed up with the last of her boxes.

"This is definitely the real deal!" Artemis agreed, happy to be out of that mind-bending place. She had no clue as to how someone could stand to be in there for more than a few moments, let alone even live there.

"School always seems smaller after you graduate, doesn't it?" Kaldur mused humorously as he tucked the now bound golem, under his arm; just another souvenir to add to the ever-growing collection. If, y'know, Wally was actually smart enough not to activate it again. Maybe they should put a warning label on it? Or in a case of some kind?

"Just don't expect me to go to any reunions" Conner replied as he greeted them in the doorway of ship, wondering what was taking so long.

"Oh!" M'gann despaired as the others met them in the sickbay where Wally sat, still locked in a trance. "I cannot wake Wally! I have tried tickling, all manner of bodily noises and even the word 'underpants!' I fear this time, his brain is gone forever!"

"…Wally had a brain?" Artemis joked, raising a skeptical brow at the loopy boy on the table.

"Haha~! Good one!" Wally popped up from the table, a bright grin on his face as the sarcastic joke reached his ears. Just like last time, it took him a moment to register what had been said and when he did, that grin quickly fell into a bitter scowl. "Wait a minute—! Dude! That's not funny! I totally have a brain!"

"You just don't use it much!" Rachel couldn't help but grin, peering around Artemis' shoulder and using her as a semi-meat shield when she saw that the speedster was all right.

"Hey!" He petulantly pouted before brightening, "Ooh! Souvenir!"