This episode, like the Mad Mod one in season one, was tricky to write, with all the magic tricks, illusions and all.
We arrive at Jump City Bank just as Mumbo reaches into and pulls a coin out of the teller's ear. "I just love a captive audience," the villain states, almost dreamily.
"They may be captive now, but you're the one who's getting locked up!" comes Robin's immediate response, resulting in Mumbo turning around to face us.
"You forget, I'm an escape artist," he replies, before throwing several ping pong balls that scatter throughout the room. I pull the pillar to my right up and break it up into several pieces that deflect the ping pong balls.
"Whoa!" Cyborg calls, and I look over to see his feet tied by a string of colourful handkerchiefs that pull him across the room. He collides with the second pillar, blocking our vision, and flicks cards towards Starfire which push her over with a squeal. Beast Boy stalks towards Mumbo as a crocodile but another string of handkerchiefs binds his jaw together.
I pull the largest remnant of the pillar under my feet and take to the air, flying at high speed towards the magician. Mumbo pulls out his handkerchiefs, but I bring up a rope of water and pull it towards me, aiming to lasso the villain.
Unfortunately, the tied handkerchiefs seem to obey Mumbo's command, and I find this out the hard way as my head collides with the wall on the other side of the bank. I stand up slowly and pull myself mere centimetres into the air so that I don't topple over from dizziness.
Raven floats up behind Mumbo, only alerting him to her presence when she speaks. "That all you've got?"
In response, Mumbo flicks a red ball towards the cloaked girl, who places it under her influence and shoots it right back.
"Alakazam!" Mumbo shouts, as he waves his wand above Raven. Three hoops form after a burst of lightning and they tighten their grip around her.
"Cute trick," Raven spits from her binds. "Ready to see some real magic?" Raven's eyes turn white and black energy crackles around her, hoops breaking into pieces as she speaks her incantation. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
The pillar hiding the other four Titans is lifted in a spell of black light and swoops through Mumbo, but he vanishes before impact before reappearing once he is safe.
"Trying to steal the limelight, eh? Then I guess I'll just have to make you part of the act!" Mumbo holds out his wand. "Mumbo-jumbo!"
The pillar that Raven had under her control suddenly turns into a dule of doves that circle around her at such a speed that they create a tornado. Raven lets out a squeal and reaches her hand out to the closest person--me.
"Raven!" I call. I waste no time in grabbing her hand, but my feet are soon lifted from the ground.
"Ember!" I feel two gloved hands grip my ankle tightly as the Boy Wonder joins our chain. I don't dare look back at him, instead focusing on staying interlocked with the half-demon.
"Robin!" Starfire says, presumably grabbing his ankles as Robin did to me.
"Starfire!" Cyborg shouts, and I feel a increase in the resistance as Starfire and Cyborg, the two strongest members on our team, rein us in.
"DUDES!!" I feel us completely stop in space for a second, before the trumpet of an elephant rings throughout the room and one by one, we're sucked into the hat.
I look around at the black and white tunnel we drop through, before pulling my free hand towards Raven's. My eyes widen as my grip falters for a split second, mirroring Raven's reaction, and she lets out a petrified shriek as she falls away from us.
~~~
"Boy, I knew Mumbo had a big head, but I never realised he had such a big hat," Beast Boy says as we walk through a street resembling an amusement park.
"I'm not sure it's that big." Cyborg argues, stopping and looking to the building on his left. "This is the third time we've passed that theatre."
"We've got to find Raven," Robin says. "She could be anywhere."
"Oh, if only there were a sign," Starfire says. Suddenly, a large billboard lights up, reading Tonight Only-The Amazing Mumbo and His New Assistant Raven, Raven's name highlighted in giant, red block letters.
"Ask and you shall receive," I mutter.
"That'll do," Cyborg says shortly.
"Titans! Go!" Robin calls, and we all run blindly into the theatre, following our leader.
We stop under a spotlight, and begin to look around. "Raven?" Robin calls, and I don't expect an answer until we get one.
"Robin!"
Starfire and I both look around frantically, until the alien princess calls, "The Mumbo has made you invisible?"
"Up here!"
We all look up to see a white rabbit in Raven's cloak, trapped in a cage. "Uh... why does that rabbit sound like Raven?" Beast Boy questions.
"Because I am Raven," the rabbit seethes.
Starfire flies up, hearts drawn in her eyes. "Oh, you look so cute!" She declares happily, stopping when Raven growls at her. Even as a bunny, Raven manages to scare the daylights out of the redhead. "Uh..."
"I don't think that's what she wants to hear," I say.
"We'll get you out of there," Robin says, refocusing on the task. Starfire shoots a small starbolt at the lock on her cage and Raven opens the door in an effort to get out.
"Sorry!" Mumbo says. "No sneak previews!" A hand comes out, towards Raven, and she runs back into the cage as she tries to avoid it. The white, gloved hand picks her up by the ears and drags her towards the hat. "You'll have to wait for tonight's show like everyone else!"
Starfire grits her teeth and charges towards Raven to save her, but a chained weight appears attached to her feet, and she falls through the floor.
"Give us our friend back!" Robin demands.
"Now you see her..." The hand puts Raven in the hat, before pulling out a wand and tapping it twice. When the hat is tipped over, nothing, not even Raven, falls out. "... now you don't! Ta-da! Nothing in my hat."
Cyborg narrows his eyes, mind processing this information. "Let me get this straight. We're inside Mumbo's hat, and Raven's inside Mumbo's hat, inside Mumbo's hat?!?"
"Pretty much," I snort.
"Dude! You're making my brain hurt!" Beast Boy exclaims, as he begins to pace around us.
"Just to prove there are no hard feelings for crashing my rehearsal..." Mumbo begins. "I'll show you I am the bigger man."
The gloves, the hat and the wand all disappear, and the earth begins to quake. "Of course," I mutter. Sure enough, Mumbo walks up to us, more than ten times our size.
"The bigger they are... the harder they fall!" Robin says. "Titans! Get that hat!"
Starfire, Beast Boy and I all take to the skies, leaving Robin and Cyborg to their own devices. I look back to see Robin grapple onto Mumbo and out of the way, but a hand squashes Cyborg as I grimace.
Starfire and I drive-by punch Mumbo, providing a distraction for Robin to hack at the hat. Several doves fly out and push him over the edge as he cuts through, and Starfire is forced to fly down and save him.
Beast Boy turns into pterodactyl form, and I shoot pellets of fire at Mumbo as he tries to pull the hat off. My normal sized pellets have no effect on the magician, so I encase myself in a ball of fire and fly directly towards Mumbo.
"OW!" he yelps as I make contact. I grin and bite my lip as I go for another kick before wrapping my body around Mumbo's neck. I hear a sizzle before Mumbo's hand comes closer and he quickly flicks me off, sending me back towards the others.
"You may be living large, but this'll cut you down to size!" Cyborg and Starfire shoot their sonic cannon and starbolts respectively at Mumbo. He stumbles back as he tries to avoid them, but ends up falling over. "Even tiny, you pack a punch," Cyborg tells Starfire, who giggles.
"Pesky powers!" Mumbo says, pulling out his wand, causing me to groan. "I know just the trick to take care of you!" He waves his wand and suddenly I find myself trapped in a white room.
"Hey! What did you do with them?" Beast Boy's muffled voice says. The walls around me lift up and I quickly realise it's a cup that I'm trapped in, and as it keeps lifting up, I try to run away.
"Tell you what I'm gonna do," Mumbo says, as he continues to mix the cups. "Guess which Titan is under here, and I'll give you your little friend back."
"Um, Cyborg... no, Starfire... no, Ember... no, Robin!"
"You're only half right," Mumbo tells the shapeshifter. "Presto change-o!"
"What the--?!" I hear Robin say in shock.
"Hocus-pocus!" Starfire's gasp fills my ears. "Alakazam!"
"This is not happening!" I hear Cyborg say from beside me, and I prepare myself for what's to come.
"Abracadabra!" The walls around me lift and I look at my hands to find wings there instead. Looking down the line, I see Robin as a monkey, Starfire as a tiger, and Cyborg as a bear in a tutu.
"Oh, yeah?" Beast Boy teases. "Well, whatcha gonna do to me? I already turn into animals!"
Mumbo steps closer, before clicking his fingers three times. He turns Beast Boy into a mouse, a duck, and a dog, and each time Beast Boy changes back into his human form. "Good point," Mumbo says, considering this. "Mumbo-jumbo!"
Light flares around Beast Boy and I look up to see a green lamp in his place. "Well, Titanimals... let's see you try to stop me now," Mumbo says. "On with the show!" The villain cackles before disappearing in a poof of smoke, and I share a sad look with the bear next to me before we disappear the same way, too.
~~~
I stumble around in the darkness, my wings out in front of me. "Ow!" I hear opposite me, and I jump at the sound.
"Sorry, Star," Robin says. "I think I stepped on your foot."
"I believe it was my... tail," the tiger says gloomily.
"Yo, Lamp Boy! Turn on the light!" Beast Boy does as asked and a light fills the room. Cyborg looks down at his new self. "Aw, man, I can take losing a fight, but this is just mean!" he says, pouting. He continuously tries to take off the tutu, but another one always replaces it.
"Thank goodness it's not me in that tutu," I say.
"How was Mumbo able to change us into animals?" Starfire asks.
"Mumbo's magic must be more powerful in here," the monkey notes. "Who knows what other tricks he's got up his sleeve? We've got to find Raven and get out of here."
"Wait 'til I get my claws on Mumbo!" Cyborg cuts himself off, eyes widening. "Did I just say 'claws'?"
"Be thankful that you do not have the fleas," Starfire tells him, scratching her ear.
I look over at the green telephone, then around at the still lit room. I move to scratch my head in confusion, but end up covering my eyes.
"Uh... hello?" Cyborg calls, speaking into the phone.
"Hello?" Beast Boy's voice fills the room, and Cyborg automatically moves the speaker further from his ear."What have you got to complain about? I'm a lamp! What's wrong with being an animal, anyway? At least you guys have legs. I can't even move! And do you have any idea how hot a light bulb ge--?"
Cyborg puts the speaker back, cutting the green Titan off. "Well, at least we finally found a way to shut him up," he says, but fails to notice Beast Boy turning into a horn until he hears it, sending him pummelling into the three of us.
We look back to see Cyborg staring at the door he bumped into. "That wasn't there before," I state.
"Where did that come from?" Cyborg questions.
"Where does it lead?" Starfire adds.
"Probably into another of Mumbo's tricks, but it's better than stumbling around in the dark," Robin says as he opens the door.
"At this point, it can't get much worse," I say as the same outside portion of Mumbo's hat is revealed to us.
"We are back where we started!" the tiger exclaims.
"And I'm still wearing a tutu!" the bear growls.
Beast Boy hops out as a telephone booth. Cyborg holds his hands out and steps back, and I fly into the air, shaking my head. Robin and Starfire glance at each other and play rock-paper-scissors, which Robin loses. The monkey reluctantly steps in and places the speaker to his ear as I drop to the ground.
"So what does the Great Bluedini want with Raven, anyway?"
"He must think she was trying to show him up earlier. Maybe he wants to try to extract her magic," I say, flying onto Cyborg's shoulder. The bear glares at me, but I smile. "There are endless possibilities."
"No idea," Robin answers. "But right now, we've got bigger things to worry about." He looks out to the sound of sirens and three large gloves making their way towards us.
"Killer gloves!" Beast Boy shouts.
"I'm gonna have to put you on hold," Robin tells the telephone booth, and doesn't bother to hang up the speaker as he steps out. He flings a banana, the best thing he can find, at the attackers, but it falls flat on the ground no more than halfway between the monkey and them and the gloves punch him back with ease.
The gloves surround Starfire, and she attempts to fly, before shooting a starbolt. She struggles with something and a green hairball comes out of her mouth. "I cannot fly! And my starbolts are... furry!" she exclaims.
"At least Mumbo left me with my sonic cannon!" Cyborg says as he steps in. He readies it to fire, but nothing happens except for a sky blue flag with the word BANG! written on it popping out. " 'BANG!'? Oh, dang."
One of the gloves pushes Cyborg back and I jump off the bear's cybernetic shoulder, before flying to another glove and hitting it with my wing. "This is just sad," I mumble, looking down in disbelief as the glove picks me off it and throws me across the street.
I look up, and more gloves have arrived. "How are we to stop them?" Starfire asks from beside me.
"We fight hand to hand," Robin replies, curling his fist in front of his face.
"I tried fighting wing to wing," I state, holding up the wing I used to hit one of the gloves. Feathers fall off it as I swing it about softly. "Didn't work." Despite this, when the others attack, I ready myself to fight too.
"I DO NOT LIKE BEING A CAT IN THIS HAT!" I hear Starfire shout.
One of the gloves traps me in a fist and throws me into a white van. "Guys, I could use a hand here!" I see Beast Boy being thrown around by some of the gloves, and one by one, the others are thrown into the van with me.
"We're trapped in a hat, being manhandled by gloves!" Cyborg says. "What next?"
"What next, you say?" When I blink, I'm transported to the same spotlighted room as before.
"Oh, please, no," I mumble. "Not another trap."
"I see a future for you in showbiz," the fortune teller says from the end of the room, "a bright but very short future. Mumbo-jumbo!"
First, Starfire disappears in a poof of smoke, then Cyborg, and then I find myself encased in the same blue smoke.
~~~
I squirm in the glove as Mumbo Jumbo walks up to us, peering through one eye. "You know what they say: if you can't beat Mumbo... join Mumbo!"
A Mumbo lookalike walks past, stopping when he sees the magician. "Two minutes to showtime, Mr. Amazing!" he calls. "You're great. I love you." This inflates Mumbo's ego so much that his head practically bursts off.
"We're not going to be a part of your show!" Robin declares.
"Oh, I think you will," Mumbo tells the monkey. "What I have planned for you makes me so happy, I feel like singing!"
"Maestro?" a man with the same coloured skin as Mumbo says from a purple piano. He plays a simple scale across the entire instrument, and Mumbo taps his foot out of time to it.
"Five, six, seven, eight!" I watch as Mumbo begins to sing, not paying attention until he surrounds us with a deck of cards. "I've taken all your powers, so lucky you! You will be in my show tonight."
"You think you can defeat me? Oh, how very droll!" Mumbo pulls Robin up and dresses him in a suit while he sings, before placing us all in the same, yellow chair. "Well, Titans, one thing you should know... I am the one with magic powers 'round here. I am the one who runs the show!"
"Not for long," I mutter, interrupting Mumbo's song. He pulls me into his hat as he continues to sing. "I am the master of ceremonies. So let me set you straight. With just a wave of my magic wand, I'm master of your fate!" He pulls me out of the hat and thrusts me towards the other Titans. I land on the monkey and fly to the top of the pile.
"With just some hocus-pocus and sleight of hand, you are all under my command." I bring myself back to focus at the one part of the song that doesn't talk about Mumbo's self obsession. "Put them in their cages! Keep them all apart!"
The gloves do as asked, and before I can blink my dove eyes, I'm trapped in a round, metal cage. Mumbo leaves, but his crew continue the song.
"Places, everybody! The show's about to start!" the lookalike calls.
"He is the master of ceremonies, so let him set you straight," the gloves sing. "With just a wave of his magic wand, He's master of your fate!"
The cards build themselves into a set of stairs and a tower. "Master of your fate! Master of your fate! Master of your fate!"
"Now for the greatest grand finale and the reason why you're here..." Mumbo half sings, half says as he declines the stairs. "Tonight, I will make the Titans... disappear! Forever."
~~~
"We have two stop the show before the finale," Robin tells us, gripping onto the bars in his cage, "or else it's curtains for us."
"Perhaps if we work together, we can find a way to defeat him," Starfire says, as she continues to scratch her ear.
"Mumbo's taken out powers. He's turned us into furry creatures and a lamp," Raven points out. "How can we defeat him when he's holding all the cards?"
"Powers or no powers, we're still the Titans. What we've gotta do is--" Robin cuts himself off and we all look up as clapping ensues and a trapdoor opens.
"The show is starting!" Cyborg says.
"Now put your hands together... for Borgie, the Magnificent Dancing CyBear!" Mumbo calls, and a claw comes down for Cyborg's cage.
"And I'm the opening act!"
"Good luck, Borgie," I say halfheartedly.
"We could sneak up behind the Mumbo and--?" Starfire stops at the sound of typing, and Robin pulls a string of paper from Beast Boy, who's a stock ticker.
" 'Mumbo's got eyes in the back of his hat'," he reads. "Beast Boy's right." Beast Boy types his thanks as Robin is lifted into the air and Cyborg is lowered back down.
"Robin!" Starfire calls. Cyborg starts panting and Beast Boy types his question. " 'What happened'?" Starfire reads.
"He made me do a jig," Cyborg whines.
"As in, Irish? You poor soul," I state, glancing at the cybernetic bear sadly.
"That madman must be stopped!" Starfire exclaims, before, "Please, what is a jig?"
Dust spills from the floorboards and Robin is lowered amidst jeers from the crowd. The claw picks up Starfire next. "Any ideas?" Robin spits once he reaches the ground.
"Still working on it," Cyborg fires back.
After a while, Beast Boy changes into a victrola. "I got it!" he exclaims.
"It can't involve driving a tank or unleashing magician-eating sharp," Cyborg states calmly, and I try my hardest to suppress a giggle.
"... I don't got it."
Starfire is soon placed back onto the ground and Beast Boy is lifted up, but not before he can change into a flag that reads HELP! in large block letters.
"Four acts down, two to go," Robin states. "We don't have much time before the finale."
"Raven, you are the Mumbo's assistant," Starfire begins. "Surely, you must know some of his secrets."
"He never told me anything," Raven says, and Beast Boy is lowered down. The claw latches onto my cage, and I salute the others with my wing as I am lifted up.
The first thing that comes to mind when I glance around is just how blinding the lights are. It takes my tiny eyes more than a few seconds to adjust, and that gives Mumbo more of an advantage as he lifts me out of the cage and places me in his hat.
"Hocus-pocus!"
A trapdoor of sorts inside the hat blocks me from the exit and I clam my eyes shut so that I don't have to keep readjusting to the different light intensities.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing in my hat!"
Mumbo tips the hat and I collide with one of the sides. The hat finally stops moving, and I roll my neck as the trapdoor pulls back, exposing me to the audience. The magician throws his hat into the air and I have to try hard not to fall face first on the ground.
The villain swoops me up once more after I am shown for a sufficient amount of time. This routine keeps going until the audience begins to jeer at Mumbo's repetition, in which he finally places me on his shoulder and bows graciously. I give him one last whack along the neck where I burnt him and he winces as he places me back into the cage and lowers me.
The others look at me and I shake my head, partially from dizziness and fatigue, and partially because I had nothing to say and nothing to talk about.
"People, hurry! The finales up next and we're on in five!" the lookalike with the notepad shouts as everyone runs about and Raven is lowered.
"You heard the man," says Cyborg. "Five minutes 'til poof!"
"There's got to be something we're not seeing," Robin states.
The phone rings and Robin picks it up, enabling Beast Boy to speak. "Maybe all of this is more of Mumbo's mumbo-jumbo. Just a big trick."
"It all seems awfully real to me," Starfire says.
"Starfire's right," Robin says. "Whatever happens in here is real, even if it is a trick."
"And even if it isn't, we still need to act on the basis that it is," I add.
I glance around the room, stopping at Raven. She stares mindlessly in between Starfire and myself and a smirk grows on her face. "But that doesn't mean we can't perform an even bigger trick! Robin! Can your tail reach those cans of paint?"
He looks around to what she's referring to, before saying, "Sure."
"Beast Boy! Can you be a paintbrush?"
~~~
We wait patiently, polishing up each other's paint as Mumbo introduces the finale to the audience. Soon enough, the trap doors are lifted, and the crowd begins to jeer when they spot our seemingly empty cages.
"I-I don't understand," Mumbo says, peering into Raven's cage. "They were just here a second ago!"
He makes the mistake of opening Raven's cage. "Alakazam!" she roars, kicking him in the face.
My world swirls around me, and I feel my limbs changing and expanding. I blink a few times and look around at the bank--where we really started.
"All right! I'm back," Cyborg says, fixing his expression on Mumbo, "with a vengeance!"
Robin fishes a birdarang out of his belt, smiles at the fact that it's not a fruit, and throws it at Mumbo's feet, effectively tripping him. "Yes! You have no bananas!" Beast Boy cheers.
Two guards surround Mumbo and he reaches for his hat before looking inside. Raven walks up to him and pulls the hat free and into her own hands.
"We're gonna make sure you don't have any encore performances," she tells the villain.
"But... but... my magic!" Mumbo calls out as he is restrained. "How did you escape?"
"I had a better trick up my sleeve," comes Raven's response, not giving anything away.
"I gotta know." Mumbo pulls free and looks between the guards. "Come on, kid, just between us. Tell me what you did."
Raven pulls on the hat and winks at Mumbo as she does a small twirl. "A magician never reveals her secrets."
I did forget to upload this yesterday, so thought I'd give it a quick polish today before I posted. Sorry!