Chapter 4 - Just A Mirage

Chapter Four:
Just A Mirage
As it happened, the Titans weren’t very far away at all; in fact, they were right below Mumbo, hidden behind stalls or inside jars.
“Raven – now,” hissed Robin, who was concealed with a large pot.
Raven crawled out from behind several carpet rolls, which were stacked against a wall, and flew up to the Persian rug suspended in the air. Mumbo had his back to her, but somehow seemed to be aware of her presence.
“Aah, Miss Raven!” He twisted his head round without moving his body in a rather horrific fashion, a mischievous expression upon his face. “Nice of you to drop by. As you can see, your little vanishing trick did not work for long. My powers in this world are far stronger than your pathetic hocus-pocus!”
You’re one to talk, thought Raven.
Mumbo suddenly vanished, leaving Raven bewildered for a few seconds before she heard a voice whisper directly into her ear, “Peek-a-boo.” The young enchantress swung round to see Mumbo was right behind her, stood upon his carpet.
“You do not scare me.” Raven raised her hands, ready to cast another spell.
Even so, her confidence did not faze Mumbo. “Being a genie has many benefits. Shazam! I can be here…” He made himself appear behind her. “There…” He materialised beside one of the circular dome rooves. “EVERYWHERE!” A dozen Mumbos unexpectedly surrounded Raven on all sides, in various dramatic, threatening poses. Raven looked a little disconcerted, but kept her cool.
“Quick! While he’s distracted,” signalled Robin to Starfire and Beast Boy, who flew out of their hiding places in a direction Mumbo wasn’t looking.
“Nothing can stand against the power of the AMAZING MUMBO JUMBO!” ranted the now un-duplicated magician, “I’m in control of this entire world. Shazam!” He conjured a little dome on top of his outstretched palm, inside of which appeared holograms of the deserts and cities found inside the dimension he’d created. “I can command the elements according to my will and pleasure.” He fluttered his other hand over the facsimile, making the city disintegrate into dust, blown away by the wind. “You are my puppets to do with as I please. That includes you, Starfire and Beast Boy!”
Does that dude have eyes in the back of his head or what? thought Beast Boy, in the form of an eagle. He wouldn’t put it past him, knowing Mumbo!
Starfire shot at him with her green fire, but it had no effect on the smug magician, who merely waved his hand (“Shazam!”) and sent the discharges flying back in her direction. They hit the alien super-girl head on, knocking her SMACK! into the side of a building. Funnily enough, none of the market-goers seemed to notice, but mind you, they hadn’t paid much attention to the fight that was going on above their head full stop. They were merely background characters of Mumbo’s creation, only programmed to do what he wanted.
Beast Boy swooped down at his enemy, turning into a cobra, fangs bared and ready to sink into the flesh of Mumbo’s arm. However, the genie just cried “Shazam!” again, conjuring a basket and a bansuri. He started charming Beast Boy with a rendition of the “Snake Dance” song. The young shapeshifter landed in the container and was immediately thrown into a hypnotic trance, his eyes turning black and white psychedelic patterns.
Cyborg had been hiding behind the display of carpets and knew he had to act fast. “Come on, baby! We gotta do this thing,” he said to Raven’s Persian rug. The rug flew out of its hiding place and Cyborg hopped onto it, flying towards his friends. “Take that, Jafar!” He fired at Mumbo with his built-in artillary, but the magician called out “Shazam!” once more and a brick wall appeared in front of him. It was no ordinary wall either – Cyborg was unable to penetrate it, no matter how much energy he put into his sonic cannon.
Mumbo laughed menacingly. “You cannot defeat me!” He paused all of a sudden. “Wait…how are you trying to defeat me?” Why were they attacking him…for no reason? It didn’t make sense. Unless they had figured out the only way they could get home…
His head swivelled to see where he’d left his lamp. To his horror, it had vanished – right under his nose! “My lamp!” he yelped.
“Thanks for the present, Mumbo!” said a voice above him. He looked upward and saw Robin – hang on a minute – floating in the air, clutching his precious lamp.
“What?!” spat Mumbo, “But how…?”
“It looks like Raven’s ‘pathetic’ spells got the better of you after all. I didn’t think you’d expect me to be able to fly or turn invisible…” He demonstrated this ability, only the lamp not disappearing with the rest of him. “You’ve been beaten at your own game.” He re-materialised with a sly smile upon his face.
Raven was now hovering behind a rather unsettled Mumbo, her arms crossed in a stereotypical genie pose, Cyborg and the carpet beside her, an intimidating expression upon his face. Starfire had picked herself up from her dent in the wall and was now heading to Robin’s side.
“I wonder what will happen if I rub this lamp…” said Robin, doing just that.
“DON’T DO THAT!” hollered Mumbo, shaking his hands.
The lamp had started glowing and already beams were leaking from underneath the lid. Robin’s masked eyes narrowed, smirking in satisfaction. “Open sesame!”
That was when everything became engulfed in light.
…
Back in the main room of Titans Tower, there was a massive flash of light, spouting from the oil lamp in the middle of the floor, and the five teenagers suddenly landed awkwardly on the carpet, wearing their usual clothes (with the exception of one shapeshifter, who was still a hypnotised snake). Beast Boy’s moped was parked not far away from the lamp and the half-eaten pizza had now cooled, having been left open on the breakfast bar during the Titans’ adventure. What is more, a rather disorientated Mumbo, still dressed in his genie disguise, turban and all, had also been thrown out of the magical world.
Cyborg whispered something in snake Beast Boy’s ear (or at least where one would be) which made him laugh and snap out of his trance, turning back into his regular form.
Robin was still holding the lamp and it didn’t take long before he noticed something very odd. “Hey…wait!” he exclaimed, catching the attention of the other Titans, “There are two lamps?” Sure enough, the lamp he cradled in his arms was not the same one that Beast Boy had found earlier, but the mystery didn’t last long, as the lamp Robin was clutching soon turned into a black wand with white tips and the other lamp became a black top hat with a grey band – Mumbo’s signature items.
“The hat of magic!” cried Starfire, picking it up before Mumbo realigned himself.
Now everything made sense! She knew from his previous schemes that it was not a mere stage prop – much like his wand, it was an object of immense power. She was aware that it could create a pocket dimension of Mumbo’s design, or apparently multiple ones, as they had been privileged to discover today.
“Is there anything in here?” she wondered aloud, turning the hat upside-down and shaking it.
“DON’T DO THAT!” shrieked Mumbo, abruptly coming to his senses.
Out of the hat tumbled a pile of playing cards, several bouquets, a few pennies, a remarkably long chain of scarves, a straitjacket, a pair of doves, a cloud of glitter and an adorable white rabbit, who started nuzzling Starfire’s feet, not to mention heaps and heaps of dollars stolen from the Bank of Perez, which fluttered into every corner of the room. Mumbo looked very sheepish.
Robin jerked up his right knee and smacked the wand upon it, breaking it in two. Mumbo’s hat and paraphernalia vanished in an instant (much to Starfire’s disappointment in the case of the bunny she had started cuddling), the would-be genie now stripped of his exotic disguise. He had now reverted to his human appearance of a balding, grey-haired man wearing black trousers, a short-sleeved white shirt and a pair of braces, hanging his head in shame.
Robin pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his utility belt. “Your evil dream was just a mirage, Mumbo. You’re going right back to Jump City penitentiary and don’t think you can ‘Shazam!’ your way out of this one.” He clamped the handcuffs onto the elderly man’s wrists.
“I suppose my plan was a risk, but it was still awfully fun pretending to be a genie,” said Mumbo reminiscently, “I wanted my plan to be just like a real Arabian Nights adventure – that’s why I didn’t annul your powers. It’s more fun when the heroes in a story have magic they can use to combat their foes.” He looked nostalgic. “I’ve been fond of the Arabian Nights stories ever since I was a little boy.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to read them where you’re going,” said Robin, picking up his com badge with one hand, gripping Mumbo’s shirt with the other. “Calling 911 – this is Robin of the Teen Titans! We’ve managed to apprehend Mumbo Jumbo and need you to get to Titans Tower on the double. Over and out.”
It was then Beast Boy noticed something was missing from the lounge. “Dude? Where’s my moped?”
“It vanished with the rest of Mumbo’s tricks, buddy,” explained Cyborg.
“Oh, yeah…” Beast Boy’s ears drooped a little.
…
The police came soon afterward and escorted Mumbo into a prison van, to continue his sentence for the string of crimes he’d already committed, before he would face trial for his latest offense. Robin returned back into the main room after handing their foe over to the authorities, knowing he had an apology to make.
“Do you think that’s the last we’ll see of Mumbo?” asked Cyborg.
“Ha! No chance!” replied Robin.
“How does he keep getting new magic wands, anyway? Does he have a secret supply or somethin’?”
“Maybe if we keep breaking them, he’ll eventually run out.” Robin gave a wry smile, before remembering why he was there. “Guys? Can I now apologise for earlier? I was a jerk.”
Starfire immediately flew over and smothered him in a loving embrace. “Oh, you are definitely forgiven, friend Robin! You are certainly not the zarbnarf after all.”
“Amen to that, Star!” said Cyborg, giving Robin a fist-bump (which was very difficult to return when he was being cuddled by an alien with super-strength!)
“You’re totally forgiven, dude!” said Beast Boy, “It was so neat how you snuck up on Mumbo when he didn’t know that Raven had given you superpowers. You really kicked his butt!” He turned to Raven. “You made one super-cool genie, Rae! Who’d have guessed you could outwit Mumbo with his own magic words?”
“I would prefer it if you didn’t remind me of that,” responded Raven, hiding her face underneath the hood of her cloak.
“I’m sorry I shouted at you earlier,” said Robin, escaping from Starfire’s tight hug to place a hand upon Beast Boy’s shoulder, “I’m the team’s leader – I should have known better.”
“That’s OK, man! I really messed up too today.”
“No sweat, BB!” said Cyborg, “You did your part to help stop Mumbo.”
“Not only that,” added Robin, “But if it wasn’t for your wish, I wouldn’t have this wicked suntan!” He pulled off his right glove, revealing a perfectly browned arm, which he flexed proudly.
“Man, I sure wish I could tan like that!” said Beast Boy jealously.
“Your skin’s green,” said Raven.
“So what?”
“Ya know what, I actually kind of miss my fez,” said Cyborg, fingering his bald head, “I never knew Mumbo had such a great sense of style, creatin’ those outfits for us. You looked like a real swashbuckler, Robbie.”
“Come to think of it, I am starting to miss my sword…” Robin slipped his glove back on.
“Raven, you looked truly enchanting in a costume of the genie!” Starfire complimented her friend.
“Er…thank you,” replied Raven, unsure what to make of her comment.
In his heart, Beast Boy utterly agreed with Starfire. Raven had looked stunning in that outfit – breath-taking, even. Mind you, Beast Boy thought she looked beautiful in anything. Raven herself was breath-taking.
He thought about how she had forgiven him for his folly when they were walking in the desert. She didn’t have to, but she’d tried not to judge him for his mistakes. She’d gone out of her way to see from his point of view. Maybe his wish had come true after all – he really had earnt respect from Raven! You just never know, one day he could show to her that he really could be a hero…
In the meantime, however, he was going to have to do something about the alarming gurgles coming from his stomach.
“Hey guys!” he said, “Do you think we could go out for pizza? I got Mumbo to magic me one but I think it’s vanished from my tummy!”
“Great idea, Beast Boy!” said Robin.
“I have the rumbles of the stomach too!” Starfire’s belly demonstrated loudly. “We were without food in Mumbo’s world for a long time. It is no wonder we are famished. Let us go to the place of pizza!”
“You can count me in!” said Cyborg.
With that, the Titans headed out of the room, laughing and chatting, no longer stressed by the day’s events.
THE END

Note:
Here are two rather unimportant but interesting things that happened while I was writing this story:
I listened to a lot of cheesy disco music on Spotify whilst writing it, all thanks to a brilliant idea I had to look for some Arabian Nights-themed music. I found a song called “Open Sesame” by Kool And The Gang and an album called “Arabian Nights” by the Ritchie Family which got me in the mood for some disco!
One of my inspirations for writing this story, along with Disney’s Aladdin (Mumbo reminds me somewhat of the genie – they’re both blue-skinned, complete hams and have crazy magical powers!), was a segment regularly featured on the classic Hanna-Barbera programme “The Banana Splits Show” called “The Arabian Nights”. I have to admit, it’s a pretty good series with decent characters, storylines and humour. (Google it if you’re interested!) Something surprising I noticed while planning this story was that I could draw parallels between the characters of Teen Titans and the Arabian Nights. Robin is like the heroic Prince Turhan, who has no magic powers but is a skilled swordsman, just like how Robin has no superpowers and instead is an expert fighter. Starfire is similar to Princess Nida as both of them look dainty and feminine, but they are also pretty tough when they need to be and valuable members of their teams. Beast Boy has the same power as Bez the Beast – they can both turn into animals! Bez even wears a green outfit. Cyborg and Rasime are both the muscles of their teams and as for Raven, there is a sorcerer in the Arabian Nights named Fariek. (I suppose Zazuum the donkey could also be compared to Silkie, but Silkie didn’t appear in this story – there wasn’t really anything for him to do!)

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