Hey Guys, LLS here. Sorry about the long wait, but I did say I update slowly, and I mean SLOWLY. I was hoping to get this out before the end of June, but two weeks at Grandma's with no wifi and then another two weeks of choir camp have kept me from my keyboard. Oh well, at least this chapter won't leave you on as much of a cliffhanger.

The song used in this chapter is Charles Perry's version of "Everybody wants to be a Cat."

Love you guys, and so without further adieu...

Chapter 7: Everybody wants to be a Cat

Tower of Fate

August 19, 20:32 EDT

Recap:

"Uh, where'd the door go?" Asked Superboy. As soon as he finished his sentence, what Treble assumed was a hologram appeared before them. The man in the hologram was identical to the Kent Nelson she'd seen back at the cave during the briefing.

"Greetings," it- he- said. "You have entered with a key, but The Tower doesn't recognize you. Please state your purpose and intent."

Wally looked at M'gann before dramatically stepping forward. "We are true believers, here to find Dr. Fate!" At the conclusion of his drama, the hologram rolled his eyes and disappeared.

Then the floor dropped out from under the team.

'So there's my life right now. I honestly was hoping I wouldn't die on my first outing with the team. Everyone else immediately jumped into action, whilst I plummeted to my death.'

Oh, wait. I have to tell the actual story? Damn. Alright.

Then the floor dropped out from under the team. Below was a large pool of lava, as if the team had been transported to the inside of a volcano. Everyone immediately jumped into action, M'gann grabbed Kid Flash and hovering near a wall while Artemis shot a rope at a junction of two rocks, swinging to Aqualad's rescue. Superboy and Treble were left to save themselves. Superboy dug his nails into the rock walls, while Treble grabbed her knife and dug it into the wall, hoping to make a hand hold. It held fast, and while Superboy melted the bottom off his shoes, Aika would only have to re-adjust her blade.

"Those... were my favorite boots," Superboy grumbled. "This Nelson guy better be worth it."

Treble thought she heard something from inside The Tower. It sounded almost like the voices from earlier, but her heart was beating too fast in her ears for her to be sure. M'gann was slowly dropping.

"Having trouble maintaining altitude. Ugh, I'm so hot-"

"You certainly are-"

"WALLY!" Artemis screeched. "Hey!" He countered. "Inches above sizzling death, I'm entitled to speak my mind!"

Treble watched silently, and Kaldur took notice. His next comment was aimed at her. "My physiology, and M'gann's, are susceptible to extreme heat. We must climb out quickly."

"We must climb out period," Treble noted. It seemed as though M'gann realized what went wrong.

"Hello Megan!" She shouted. "We never truly answered the question," she looked up toward the ceiling. "Red Tornado sent us to see if Mr. Nelson and The Helmet were safe." At that, the lava pit was covered with a bronze platform. Everyone sighed and gratefully fell onto it. Treble took the vial out of her pocket and downed the liquid formula Batman had given her. The heat had taken out her voice, and she had a feeling she would need it.

"This platform," said Aqualad as he ran the tips of his fingers across the metal. "It should be red hot, but it is cool to the touch." He seemed to be recovering just fine, however M'gann was still panting off to the side.

"Don't worry Megalicious," Wally said as he tried to put an arm around her. "I got you-"

"Enough!" Cried Artemis, who pushed him off the martian. "Your little 'impress Megan at all times' game nearly got us all barbequed."

"When did this become MY fault?" Kid asked incredulously.

"When you lied to that… whatever it was… and called yourself a true believer," said the blonde.

M'gann looked shocked, though no one else really did. "Wally, you don't believe?" Wally paused a moment, before giving up the charade.

"Fine!" he yelled. "Fine! I lied about believing in magic. But Magic is the real lie. A major load!" Treble was staring at Wally like he'd grown a second head while silently gesturing to Aqualad and the hole that was still above their heads.

Aqualad was still observing the bronze floor. "Wally, I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis," he then looked directly at the red head. "The mystic arts created the skin icons that power my water-bearers."

"Dude," KF started. "You ever hear of bioelectricity? Hey, in primitive cultures fire was once considered magical too. Today it's all just a bunch of tricks."

"Wally," Treble said. "My dad was in Arkham. Able to be studied for ten years. And we still don't know why him hitting a G flat 4 makes people listen to him. It's a pretty average note for a countertenor. Zatara even looked at him, and said that it was most likely something mystic."

"Hypnotism has been proven to only work on extroverts," he said. Even though he was wrong, Treble let it go. Artemis was speaking anyway.

"You're pretty close-minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers,' she said.

"That's science," Wally said, trying to defend himself. "I recreated Flash's lab experiment and here I am! Everything can be explained through science." While he said this, Aqualad had managed to find a hatch on the bronze floor. Treble stepped back as it was pretty obvious what his next move was going to be.

"Let us test that theory," Kaldur said, moving to pull the hatch open.

"Wait!" Wally shouted. "The back-draft from the lava will roast us alive!" As he spoke, Kaldur opened the hatch and a flurry of snow blew out of the new landscape and toward the team.

M'gann put her hand through in the draft to make sure it actually was what everyone thought it to be. "It's snow!"

Artemis looked slyly at Wally. "Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" she asked as the team jumped through the hatch and into the flurries.

Wally was last though, and everyone was waiting for his explanation. "Well?"

He looked around for a second as if hoping for an answer to appear out of thin air. "Ever hear of string theory? We're in a pocket dimension." Artemis groaned, which caused Treble to snort. The blonde turned toward the newcomer sharply, and Treble put her hands up in surrender.

M'gann noticed what looked like a cane floating a few yards away. "What's that?" At this KF scoffed. "Ooh maybe it's Nelson's magic wand," at this, he ran toward the cane and grabbed it at the same time as Artemis. "I got it!" they said simultaneously, then screamed. "I can't let go!" at that, the cane, along with the two heroes launched into the air.

The team looked on in shock.

"I don't suppose there's any way of going after them?" asked Superboy.

"I do not think so," Aqualad stated. "Let's get moving."

Treble scoffed, "moving where? In case you haven't noticed, we are essentially in an arctic desert."

Superboy snorted, "what? Are you cold?" A sharp wind blew, and she shivered. Treble pinched two fingers together and held them up toward her cheek. "A little."

"I don't understand Wally," M'gann changed the topic. They started walking. "It's almost as if he needs to believe the impossible can't happen."

"Wally uses his knowledge of science to control what he cannot comprehend," explained Aqualad. "Acknowledging the existence of magic would be to relinquish the last vestige of that control."

An open door appeared to their left. Through it, a golden hallway filled with staircases could be seen. The picture reminded Treble of an MC Escher painting, except this was real life. She could hear more voices from inside the hall. One of them was definitely Kid Flash, but she couldn't place the others. Though, once again they sounded like the ones from earlier.

They walked through the door and suddenly the world flipped on its side. Treble fell on top of both Superboy and Aqualad while M'Gann gracefully floated down after them. "Sorry guys," Treble said as she started to stand. Apparently, one of the voices she'd been hearing was that of the no-longer-missing Kent Nelson. Nelson looked at Kid Flash and smugly asked, "Friends of yours?"

As soon as the sentence had been spoken, a stream of electricity forced the two to dive sidways. Treble followed the stream to see two people. The first, a tall, dark man in his 30s wearing a poet's shirt and tight, black pants and a gold belt engraved with a large letter 'A,' was holding a wand from which the electric current had spawned. The second was a shorter man, appearing to be around 18 or 19 wearing a black suit with extended cuffs at his wrists. His hair was gelled into what looked like devil horns and he had an orange cat in his arms. His face looked like he perpetually knew something you didn't. He also used too much nail polish.

"Friends of yours?" Kid Flash retorted. Another blast was aimed at Treble and the rest of the team, who had grouped together off to the side. Once again, the blast forced them apart and into a fighting stance. Treble's mind went blank.

Her first fight. Scratch that, her first real fight. The man shooting at her would truly kill her if offered the opportunity. And from how her undertrained body was working, she was giving him lots of opportunities. She was forced back into reality when the loud tolling of a large bell shocked her ears and caused her to fall. She looked up and saw Kid Flash, Nelson, and the boy in the suit walk into the bell. She was too distracted. Treble looked up just in time to dive out of the way of another flash of electricity. She ran toward Aqualad.

*We need to come up with a plan of attack. A frontal assault will do us no good,* Aqualad spoke via M'gann's mind link.

*I'm running out of arrows and ideas over here,* thought Artemis from the stairs on the left. *anyone have any bright ideas?*

Treble's eyes lit up. She might actually be of use!

*I could sing,* she thought meekly. *But it would only work if everyone else has earplugs. It would put the guy out of commission long enough for someone to handcuff him, or tie him up.*

*Perfect,* linked Aqualad, *Treble, you sing, keep Abra distracted. Artemis, you and Superboy keep watch her back. M'gann and I will tie him.*

'Abra, huh? Oh, I get it. Abra Kadabra. Wait, that's who we're fighting?' Treble thought to herself. *Alright,* she linked. *Everyone put in the plugs, if they're not in when I start singing there will be some real problems.*

Treble waited a few moments for everyone to abide, then began to hum. A couple of bars later, she began to sing.

"Everybody wants to be a cat

Because a cat's the only cat

Who knows where it's at

Everybody's pickin' up on that feline beat

'Cause everything else is obsolete." At this point, Abra had gone slack, listening to the song, but he was fighting hard to gain back control. Treble stood up and walked toward him, singing louder.

"Now a square with a horn

Makes you wish you weren't born

Every time he plays

But with a square in the act

You can set music back

To the caveman days

I've heard some corny birds who tried to sing

But still a cat's the only cat

Who knows how to swing

Who wants to dig a long-haired gig

Or stuff like that?

When everybody wants to be a cat," at this point, however, Abra seemed to be overpowering the spell. Aqualad was attempting to get his wand out of his hand and was not succeeding. While it seemed that Abra was, indeed, immobilized by the spell, he was not completely under Treble's command. Once again, she attempted to remedy this by singing louder, as the song required anyway.

"A square with that horn

Makes you wish you weren't born

Every time he plays

With a square in the act

You can set music back

To the caveman days

Everybody wants to be a cat

Because a cat's the only cat

Who knows where it's at

When playin' jazz she's always welcome back to mat

'Cause everybody digs a swingin' cat," Abra was successfully beating Treble's spell, and walking toward her as if as massive force was trying to keep him back. Aqualad and M'gann still tried to attain the wand from his hand, but his grip was too strong, and he had just enough will power to release small bursts of electricity that kept them from hanging on too long. Artemis would shoot toward him, but she was down to her last five arrows, none of which were trick shots. If she hit anything important, Abra would die. The team was trying to avoid deaths at this point, even if Abra wasn't. Treble sang louder, knowing that her fighting skills were not up to par with the rest of the team. If her song stopped and Abra was released, she stood no chance.

"I want you to know

I want you to know

Beware of the square

When he offers to share

His milk to sip

If he hasn't been tried

I suggest you provide your own catnip

Everybody wants to be a cat

Because a cat's the only cat

Who knows where it's at

Everybody's pickin' up on that feline beat

'Cause everybody wants to be a cat

Be a cat, be a cat-" Treble didn't get to finish the song, or even go into the last verse. Abra broke free and rushed toward her, leaving only enough time for her to dive out of the way like a matador avoiding a bull. Abra came back to his senses and started to trap the team under what looked like nets formed from electricity. First to go down was Superboy, then Aqualad.

*Wally, we're in trouble,* M'gann linked to Kid Flash, wherever he and Nelson had gone. *Tell Kent we need Doctor Fate!* As she said this, both Artemis and Treble were trapped in their own personal nets of lightning, quickly followed by the martian. It may have been as little as thirty seconds or as long as fifteen minutes before a large, glowing Ankh appeared behind Abra Kadabra, stripping him of his clothing (save his briefs, thank god) and wand, and releasing the rest of the team from their lightning prisons.

Superboy immediately walked up to Abra and punched him square in the nose, while the others stood up groggily and brushed themselves off. Treble just sat on the ground, cross-legged, trying to understand what went wrong. Why her song didn't hold. Trying to understand just how badly she could have screwed up the entire mission. Her voice was also gone in her desperate attempt to keep Abra contained. And she had no more of the minty lozenge that Batman had given her. The rest was at the cave, stored in a giant bottle that used to contain mouthwash. She would have to ask for more of the small vials because obviously, one was not currently enough. That, or she would have to hope that the solidified pill was almost out of prototype stage.

Wally walked out of the bell (how he did, Treble still had no idea) holding a gold helmet that she assumed to be the Helmet of Fate.

"Where is Kent?" asked Kaldur. "He's dead," announced Wally, forlorn. Everyone looked down, silently paying their respects. "Klarion shot him just as we entered the roof. We should go tell Tornado."

"We'll call the league here, let them deal with cleanup. I think we deserve our rest," Kaldur announced, as everyone agreed. They handcuffed Abra and left him naked in the middle of the stairs where he would be somewhat easily found, and left to the bioship.

Mount Justice

August 20, 3:48 EDT

Aria slowly walked down the hallway that led to the main room from the kitchen. It was 3:00 in the morning, so she stole an apple from the fridge for dinner and planned to zeta home. Considering she lived in gotham, her suit would be in a duffel bag but her glock, which she had ironically forgotten about when Abra was charging her, would be hidden in the waistband of her jeans. But her mind was not focused on her forgotten gun, it was focused on what she could do to strengthen her song. Obviously, her dad wasn't an option, and voice lessons could prove fatal to the teacher. It might be time to look at other options, maybe an online course. It wasn't the best option, but at least it WAS an option.

"Aria!" a voice called out behind her. M'gann put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been listening in on the ride home, but your thoughts were so loud and I couldn't find anything else to focus on and-" she kept rambling on a hurried apology that Aria didn't even know was needed.

"Wait, you were listening to my thoughts on the way home?" she asked the martian softly. M'gann nodded sheepishly. "I really didn't mean anything by it, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, you're cool," Aria said as she tried to start walking again.

"No, wait," M'gann said, and Aria turned around again. "I wasn't done. I wanted to say… I know you think you screwed up with Abra, but trust me, everybody makes mistakes and your's wasn't all that catastrophic. My first mission I almost got myself and the boys pulled up into a funnel cloud. You did as much as you could and more than what had been asked of you. You couldn't have done anything more perfectly out there. The team is kind of a silent bunch, but we're all proud of you."

Aria chuckled, "Thanks M'gann. That actually makes me feel a lot less stupid. But I gotta get home now. See you later?"

"See you later," she said, then walked off toward a room Aria had just passed. Wally ran out of siad room after M'gann screaming something about tickets to a magic show. Unsurprisingly, M'gann just kept walking.