Pulling out my energy pistols, I shot at the razor-sharp cards flying at me. Each one that got hit lost their magic and fluttered to the ground as ordinary cards. A snake-like rope of colorful handkerchiefs slithered towards me, and I jumped out of the way.

"I'm not falling for that trick again." I said, shooting at Mumbo Jumbo alongside Raven's magic, Robin's mini explosives, and Starfire's starbolts.

Mumbo Jumbo twirled around the room, dodging all our attacks. He waved his magic wand, and the handkerchief snake wrapped around Cyborg's feet and tossed him around the room like a ragdoll. He barreled into Robin, and the two of them smashed into a pillar, causing it to break off and fall to the ground. He sent another deck of cards to Starfire as she flew towards him, and they pushed her to the ground. The handkerchief snake wrapped around Beast Boy's crocodile snout, preventing him from opening his mouth.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Raven cried. Her astral magic wrapped around the broken pillar, and she threw it at Mumbo Jumbo. He vanished for a brief second, allowing the pillar to pass through him.

"Well, if you wanted so badly to be a part of the act, why didn't you just say so?" Mumbo Jumbo said. "I have the perfect role for you to play!"

Mumbo Jumbo flicked his wand, transforming the pillar into a flock of doves. They flew around Raven at rapid speeds, trapping her in a vortex. Mumbo Jumbo took off his hat and pointed the hole at the foot of the vortex, sucking it and Raven inside.

"Raven!" I cried. I lunged and snagged her outstretched hand. One by one, my friends and I held fast to each other to try and combine our weight and resist the pulling force, with me gripping Raven's hand and Starfire's arms around my waist. I came in contact with the magic hat, and I felt my body being forced through the hole. With all of us forced into the hat, we began to fall down a seemingly endless pit. The pulling forces came from all directions, and I felt Raven's hand slip through my fingers. Raven was dragged further down the pit and out of sight while my friends and I lurched harshly to the right. An opening appeared, and we fell through.

The five of us landed in a giant dog pile in the center of a street. On my left was the biggest building, which was a theater that displayed, "THE AMAZING MUMBO JUMBO" on the marquee sign in big, red letters. The other buildings flashed his name on the front, too. In fact, the letters were one of the few things that weren't blue like him. The outside walls were littered with posters of Mumbo Jumbo. We untangled ourselves and started walking down the road.

"Are we even getting somewhere? This is the third time we've past this theater." Cyborg said after walking a few minutes. We stopped in front of the giant theater again. Jazzy, 1920s' piano music poured from the open windows.

"It's leading us back here because we have to go in there. Raven's somewhere inside." I said.

"What makes you think that?" Beast Boy said.

I raised an eyebrow and pointed at a giant, flashing sign that suddenly materialized above the marquee, reading, "TONIGHT ONLY: THE AMAZING MUMBO AND HIS NEW ASSISTANT, RAVEN".

"Titans, go!" Robin threw open the theater doors and we ran inside. The outside lights only reached a few feet inside, and we quickly plunged into darkness. I listened to the pounding footsteps of my friends, careful to keep running straight and avoid smacking into the wall. We came to a stop.

A large spotlight turned on, showering us in harsh, yellow light. We somehow found ourselves on top of a wooden table draped with an olive-green cloth.

"Raven?" Robin cried, cupping his hands over his mouth.

"I'm here!" Raven replied. I looked up and saw a birdcage swaying above us. Raven, as a white bunny, poked her head through the bars. Her large, floppy ears drooped around her face.

"Um... Why are you a bunny?" Beast Boy said.

"Just get me out of here."

"Worry not, my small and tiny friend." Starfire said. The tip of her finger flickered with a tiny starbolt, and she pointed it at the lock and blew it off. Raven opened the cage door.

"Ah, ah, ah! Sorry, kiddos, but you'll have to wait until the show to see my lovely assistant's amazing act!" A pair of Mumbo's hands floated into the spotlight and grabbed Raven by the ears. His magic hat materialized, and his hands dropped Raven inside. "Now, I don't want there to be any hard feelings for interrupting my rehearsal. Please, allow me to be the bigger man."

The hands disappeared. Booming footsteps followed immediately after, shaking the table and the spotlight above us. Mumbo Jumbo, fifty-feet tall from my point of view, stood at the table and loomed over us.

"Titans, get that hat!"

Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl, and he and Starfire took off into the air. Robin used his grappling hook to snag onto Mumbo's hat, leaving me and Cyborg on the table. Mumbo lifted his hand.

"Look out!" I called to Cyborg. Mumbo's hand slapped the table, right on top of Cyborg, shaking the surface like an earthquake and throwing me off my feet. I tumbled so far, I flew over the side of the table. I reached out my hands and grabbed the tablecloth. The area outside of the spotlight was so dark, I couldn't see how far the ground was. I reached up as high as I could and managed to reach the edge of the table. Exerting all my strength, my arms trembled like jelly as I hoisted my body back onto the table. I panted and climbed to my feet, massaging my aching biceps. I felt muscles that had started to form a long time ago.

"Step right up, lady and gent!" Mumbo Jumbo cried. I looked up and saw a large red and white wheel. Walking around to the front, I saw Beast Boy restrained to it. Mumbo set three upside-down cups on the table and shuffled them around. I caught glimpses of Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire as Mumbo shuffled at blinding speeds. He stopped and placed his hand on the left cup. "It's time for a little game. Guess which Titan is under here, and I'll let you have them back."

"Uh... Uh..." Beast Boy said, his face pouring in nervous sweat.

"How about I just guess all three of them?" I said, starting from the left and moving to the right. "Robin as a monkey, Starfire as a tiger, and Cyborg as a bear wearing a tutu."

"What color is the tutu?" Mumbo said.

"Pink."

Mumbo Jumbo lifted each cup, revealing the correct answers for all of them.

"You saw right through my trick. Ever considering taking up a career in magic?" Mumbo said.

"No, thanks. Taking down bad guys is more satisfying." I pulled out a pistol and aimed it at him.

"Not so fast, my little dove! Presto Chango!"

The ground erupted into a puff of smoke, clouding my vision. My pistol dropped out of my hand, but I couldn't grab it. In fact, I felt myself shrink even closer to the table. When the smoke cleared, I noticed Mumbo was even taller. In fact, my friends were much taller than me. Beast Boy stood at my side as a green table lamp.

"What did you-?" I looked down and saw a white, feathery body. I gasped as I expanded my arms, which were now wings, out. True to Mumbo's word, I was now a little dove. I felt a heavy weight on my ankle, and I saw an iron cuff wrapped around my stick leg. I followed the chain connected to it and saw a small, solid ball of iron.

"Sorry, little birdie, but until you get that thing off your wings, you won't be doing any flying today." Mumbo Jumbo said. "Now then, Titananimals, to backstage with you! It's showtime!"

One by one, my friends and I disappeared in a puff of smoke.


"Yo, Lamp Boy, turn on the light." Cyborg said. Beast Boy obeyed, casting a glow around us. We looked at each other in our new animal forms.

"How is Mumbo able to change us into animals?" Starfire said while Cyborg tried to pull of his tutu. Every time he did, a new one appeared on him.

"His magic must be more powerful in this hat. We'd better find Raven and get out of here, quick." Robin said, pounding a fist against his palm. His feet mirrored him, and he balanced on his tail.

"Oh, come on!" Cyborg cried. A giant mountain of pink tutus laid beside us, and Cyborg gnawed at the new one around his waist. "This is a low blow, Mumbo!"

"Be thankful you do not have the fleas." Starfire said, scratching her ear with her back foot.

"At least you're all taller than a foot." I said. I fluttered up and perched myself on Beast Boy's lampshade, which was about the highest I could fly with the ball and chain around my ankle. Beast Boy shapeshifted into a candlestick telephone under my talons, and he rang, violently shaking me. Cyborg picked him up, and I hopped back down to the ground beside Robin and Starfire.

"Uh... Hello?" Cyborg said, holding the receiver up to his ear.

"What do you have to complain about? I'm a lamp!" Beast Boy cried. "You guys actually have legs! I'd rather be an animal right now! Do you even have a clue as to how hot a lightbulb gets-?"

Cyborg hung up and smirked. "At least we know how to shut him up." he said, to which Beast Boy responded by transforming into an air horn and honking in his ear. The sound blasted Cyborg off his feet. He plowed through his giant stack of tutus and into a door. Tutus rained around us. "Where did this come from?"

Starfire picked up Lamp Beast Boy. Robin picked up the metal ball, which couldn't have been more than a pound (but it was probably more than half my weight), and draped the chain over his neck, allowing me to perch on his shoulder. We opened the door and stepped through, walking back out onto the brightly lit street. Beast Boy transformed into a telephone booth and began to ring. We looked between each other, wondering which one would answer it. Cyborg backed away, having already faced Beast Boy's inanimate wrath. Starfire and Robin played a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, with Starfire being the victor. Robin entered the phone booth and plucked the phone off, holding it up to our ears.

"So, why does Mumbo Dumbo need Raven so badly?" Beast Boy said.

"He's got a huge act planned for tonight, but he can't do it without his props, so..." I said, peeking out the window as sirens approached us. An old-style police car skidded to a stop in front of us. The back doors opened, and a stream of animated, white gloves filed out. Beast Boy screamed, shattering my ear drum.

Robin exited the phone booth and threw a disc at the gloves, but it transformed into a banana and plopped onto the ground. As one of the hands reared back to throw a punch, I grabbed Robin's cape with my talons and flapped my wings. With the combined force of me tugging at his cape and the metal ball crushing his windpipe, Robin stumbled to the side. The hand soared past us and crashed into many of his buddies. They fell over like bowling pins. Starfire attempted to throw a starbolt, but it shot out of her mouth as a glowing green hairball. Cyborg summoned his cannon ray, but when he fired, a flag popped out that read, "BANG".

"I do not like being a cat in this hat!" Starfire cried as a herd of hands chased her around. One hand tackled Cyborg and started thumb wrestling with him. A pair of hands tossed Beast Boy around. While Robin ran away from a giant fist, I pecked at the cuff around my ankle.

I groaned in frustration, rustling my feathers. My beak ached. "If I could just get this stupid thing off, I could actually be helpful." I said. Robin grabbed the chain and attempted to yank it off. I squawked as I was swept off his shoulder and dangled upside-down in the air. "A little warning next time would be nice!"

A giant hand stood in our path and grabbed Robin by the tail while another grabbed the chain. They twirled us in the air to gain momentum before hurling us into the back of the police truck. They slammed the doors close. I hoisted myself up with my wings.

"Fear not, my feathered friend. Allow me to assist you." Starfire said, offering her paw to me. I hopped onto it. She lifted her paws up to her face. A single claw extracted from her paw, and she began to saw at the chain.

"This is great. First we're getting pushed around by a blue-faced magic man, and now we just got manhandled by his freaky limb minions! What next?!" Cyborg said.

"What next, you say?" A spotlight appeared in front of us, showing Mumbo Jumbo as a fortune teller booth. "I see a future for you in showbiz; a bright, but very short future! Mumbo Jumbo!"

Mumbo Jumbo disappeared in a puff of smoke, followed by the rest of us.


A giant glove batted me into a birdcage and closed the door. It picked me up and carried me alongside my friends to the backstage of the theater. Raven was seated on a stool, also in a cage.

"You know what they say: if you can't beat Mumbo, join Mumbo!" Mumbo Jumbo said. "C'mon, what do you say, Titans? Together, we'll put on the show to end all shows!"

Robin wriggled inside the glove holding him hostage. "You're crazy if you think we'll be a part of it!"

"Naive little monkey, you have no choice. In fact, you're all starring in the grand finale. Why, just the thought of it makes me so happy that I just want to... want to... sing!"

"Oh, please, don't." I said. A piano nearby plinked the starting chord. Mumbo started to sing, and I cringed and looked down at the ball and chain. Starfire's claw reached a little more than halfway through before we were interrupted. A good enough tug could snap it off.

As the music and Mumbo's singing continued, the gloves grabbed us and forced us into our performance clothing. They strapped a black flapper headband on my head and a ribbon around my neck. I used my wing to rip off the headband and my talons to untie the ribbon. A swarm of gloves surrounded us and forced us into cages while a few sung as backups for Mumbo.

The song ended, and we were placed underneath the stage. We each sat in individual cages.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Mumbos of all ages!" cried Mumbo Jumbo into a microphone on stage. "We've got a magnificent show in store for you tonight!"

"Any ideas on how we're going to get out of here?" Cyborg said.

"Perhaps if we work together, we may discover a way to defeat him." Starfire said, scratching at her ear.

"It's one master magician against a monkey, a bear, a cat, a rabbit, a bird, and a lamp. How can we expect to beat him?" Raven said.

"It doesn't matter what we may be, we're still the Titans." Robin said.

A fanfare of trumpets sounded above us.

"It's starting..." Cyborg winced. A trapdoor opened, and a hook reached inside and grabbed Cyborg's cage. "Y'all better think of something, and fast!"

Cyborg disappeared upstage and the door closed.

"We could sneak up behind the Mumbo and surprise him." Starfire said.

Beast Boy transformed into a type writer and typed furiously. Robin ripped off the paper.

"Mumbo's got eyes in the back of his hat." he read.

"Then perhaps... we could sneak up beneath him?" Starfire said.

The door opened, swapping out Cyborg for Robin. Cyborg lay scrunched in his cage, panting wildly.

"What happened to you?" Raven said.

"He made me do a jig." Cyborg wheezed. "Please tell me you've thought of a plan."

The ceiling rumbled violently. Robin's cage plopped back down, and the hook took Starfire.

"I got an idea!" Beast Boy said as a phonograph.

"No." Cyborg said.

"What? You didn't even hear it!"

"We don't need to hear it to know it's ridiculous."

Starfire came back down, hugging herself and shivering. Beast Boy was lifted up. He transformed into an SOS flag before he disappeared.

"Someone say something. I don't want to know what act Mumbo has for me." I said, staring up at the closed hatch. It opened once again, and the hook claimed me this time. It pulled me up to the stage, and I squinted from the bright light.

A series of hoops were set before me. The weight around my ankle disappeared, and I was pushed out of the cage and off the table. I stretched my wings out and flew back up. I soared through the hoops high and low. The last one was right next to stage left. I flapped harder.

After I passed through the final hoop, the weight reappeared. It yanked me out of the air, and I careened back into my cage, where I was placed back under the stage.

"Can someone please get this stupid thing off of me?" I said, waving my cuffed talons in the air.

Raven, the last act, was gone now. A few minutes later, she came back. The hatch closed, muffling the roaring applause of the crowd above.

"Places, people! The grand finale is on next! We're up in five minutes!" the puppet stage manager cried.

"Unless we think of something within the next five minutes, we're all going poof!" Cyborg said.

Beast Boy transformed into a candlestick telephone again and rang. Robin answered.

"You know, maybe all of this crazy magic stuff is all just a big trick that Mumbo Jumbo's been putting on." he said.

"It all seems very real to me..." Starfire said, wrapping her tail around her.

"Starfire's right. Whatever happens in here, trick or not, it's real to us." Raven said. An idea hatched in her eyes, and she grinned. "I have a plan. Robin, can you reach those paint cans?"

Robin glanced at the paint cans nearby and smiled. "Sure."

"Beast Boy, can you turn into a paintbrush?" Beast Boy obeyed. "Now, I need you to coat everyone in that paint. Mumbo wants the best trick of the night, and we're going to give it to him."

Robin used his tail to drag a can of paint over. Beast Boy wriggled through the bars and painted the front side of our bodies with the invisible paint. The wet paint dried quickly, leaving my feathers stiff and crusty.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The moment you've all waited for is here!" Mumbo cried from above.

"Close your eyes and be as still as you can." Raven said. The ground beneath us lifted, and we were brought up on stage.

"Presenting, for the first and last time, the Teen Titans!" Mumbo cried from the other side of the red curtain. The curtain lifted.

The audience gasped, proof that they couldn't see us. They hissed and booed. Mumbo turned around and cried out.

"What?! How is this possible? They were right here just a second ago!" he cried. He cracked open Raven's cage.

"Alakazam!" Raven cried, shoving her bunny foot into Mumbo's face. The stage rumbled, and a strong gust of wind picked up around us. My body grew taller and a little colder as the feathers fell off me and I was human again. My hands flew to my hips, and I sighed in relief from the touch of my pistols.

"But... but... how did you maneuver around my magic?!" Mumbo cried. Two police officers grabbed his arms and pulled him to his feet.

Raven picked up Mumbo's hat and smirked. "We came up with a better trick. Looks like you have some more practicing to do."

The police officers dragged Mumbo out and into their police truck.

"I never thought I would need to say this, but I'm really glad I'm not a lamp anymore." Beast Boy said.

"All that jigging made me hungry. Who's up for pizza?!" Cyborg cried. Beast Boy shot his hand up.

As my friends started toward the door, when I took a step forward, something tugged at my ankle. I looked down and saw the ball and chain still tied to my ankle.

"Why is that weight still attached to you?" Starfire said, noticing the chain as well.

"I don't know. Mumbo put it on me to keep me from flying." I said.

"Do you require assistance in removing it?"

I took out a pistol. "You already did enough. I can take care of the rest." I aimed at the cuff and fired. The laser cut through and the metal snapped off. I stepped away and shook out my ankle, relieved to be free.