When I woke up, I was in this weird little closet in what sounded like some sort of office building, or something... maybe a half-operational factory? I poked my head out of the closet and saw a long, empty hallway - a kind of sci-fi hall, rounded, with webbed supports that provided excellent cover for anything smaller than a sports car. The main part of the hallway was huge, and as I stood goggling at it, two large robots came speeding down the walkway, off on some mysterious errand. A tug at my pants startled me, but it was only the roomba-type bot - whose closet I had apparently been occupying - and all he wanted was to vacuum my shoes and pant legs. That finished, he returned to his closet and left me standing in the hallway, mystified.

I took a moment to think about things, occupying my hands by cleaning my glasses on my T-shirt, a familiar, comforting gesture. Those robots had seemed familiar, but I couldn't place them... perhaps it wasn't so much that I had seen those particular models before, but others designed by their maker? I couldn't remember such a time. They did seem like mecha from some distantly remembered children's anime that I'd only seen in posters from otaku's bedrooms, but was that enough of a similarity? I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen them before - recently - and that I didn't want to meet their creator - not without preparation and allies. I put my glasses back on and started walking.

I chose my direction in this manner - it seemed to me that the bots had been accelerating as they passed, so I assumed they must have been coming from a location much closer than their destination.

The roombots I assumed I could "trust". Their simple programming had not given me reason to fear, but I wasn't going to stick around one of them long enough to find out for certain. The "carrier" type bot's greatest threat was their speed - they would crush me flat if I was careless. But also, they appeared "smarter" - I would be willing to bet they would raise some kind of alarm if they saw me.

So I walked carefully down the hall, and every time I heard the slightest noise I would dart behind cover - there was no shortage of that, at least. The bots appeared, slower and slower each time - I was getting close.

But - ahead of me, the hallway branched. From the right came the large robots, spaced so closely I could barely slip from one support to the next. The left was an empty hallway, turning after only three supports, and I could hear that specific kind of echo that signified a large metal wall - and as my courage failed me, I chose to take that path instead.

As I had anticipated, the corridor ended in a double door made of steel, with a keypad and the prompt, 'Enter PIN'.

Personal identification numbers are usually four digits. I tried '1234'. The door opened. Somehow, it didn't surprise me at all.

I was looking at a cell chamber - kind of old-fashioned, really, with the iron bars and steel beds - much too old-fashioned to mesh with the mechas and webbed supports of the previous area. All along the wall on my right were five cells separated by the same iron bars keeping the occupants from occupying the main room. The wall to my left was lined with five chairs facing the doors of the cells, each with a key hanging on the wall above them. At the end of the long and narrowish room was a door, which beckoned me, until I saw a familiar face in one of the cells.

Big black eyes, shaggy black hair and bare feet - the 20-something Japanese man was leaning on the bars, chewing on his thumbnail. My appearance surprised him, and he looked at me without a word.

Once I recognized him, I knew I couldn't leave him kept in a cage. Trying to control my expression, I turned away, looking at the keys. One key on each string, one string hanging on the wall above each chair, and one chair for each door. Seemed simple enough. The keys were out of reach though, I would have to stand on the chair to get them - but each chair had a ribbon of wire trailing from the left foot, through a maze I could see through the plexiglass under my feet, and at the other end of the maze, emerged, protected by steel pipes, and climbed to the top of each cell door.

"What do the wires do?" I asked. The black-eyed guy shook his head.

"We have no way of knowing." His accent had some British tones, but something else in it as well. Mysterious and more than a little alluring. I bit my lip and kept my gaze fixed on the floor maze.

Another guy sat crouched by the side of a prone figure, but I was too preoccupied to pay them much attention. The young man stood up and came to the side of the detective. I perceived him to be a prep - rich kid in a fancy school uniform. Some rich college or another.

"We're not sure whether it destroys the door, unlocks the door, or sets off an alarm." Mr. Money said. "The riddle he gave us is, 'Good posture isn't always good for you.'"

I sighed. "I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate riddles." I looked at the maze of wiring again - with another sigh. "Have you guys figured this out yet?"

They shook their heads. Black-eyes chewed his thumbnail. "I've only gotten about halfway through."

"I wonder if I could -" The college kid put his hand on the cell door, his body suddenly prepared to spring into some kind of powerful strike, but, biting his cheek with a sulky look, he relaxed back into his seemingly privileged-boy persona. "Solid steel... I'd only hurt myself."

In that motion I recognized him. "You- you're Richard Grayson, aren't you. That kid Mr. Bruce Wayne took under his... wing?"

His eyes narrowed briefly. "You must have seen me in the papers..."

I nodded. "Of course, who hasn't. May I call you Ricky?" At his nod, I continued. "You can call me Windy. And who's - ah!" I recognized the prone figure at last. "That's my friend - is she hurt?" I stepped toward the cell in my dismay, only a step.

Ricky looked back at her. "She's taken quite a bump on the head. She'll probably wake up soon, though."

I nodded, suddenly recalling my purpose. With three friends inside the cell, now I would open the door or die trying. "Good, good..." I stared at the maze, tracing the path of the wire from the door. Being freely able to move about the room gave me an advantage the boys didn't have, and soon I had solved it. Catching the heel of my shoe with my other foot, I left the shoe in front of the chair that I had decided belonged to the door of my friends' cell. Then I began to solve the puzzle again.

"You solved it." Said the black-eyed boy. He was no longer chewing his thumbnail, but still watching me intently.

"Maybe," I said, not looking up. "With something of this complexity, I require multiple solutions to reach a commonality..." I looked up at him with a start, putting my toe on my spot to keep from losing it. "What are you called, by the way?"

He shrugged. "Call me whatever you want."

I frowned at him. "Then... how about I name you after a legendary hero who tragically died after saving the lives of people who didn't know he was doing it. Perfect. Severus it is."

"Severus?" Now it was his turn to frown. The name confused him - I saw a slight spark in his eye. "I don't like that name. It just sounds evil."

I turned back to the maze. "Okay. How about Leo... or Loki... or... London? I like Loki, but I don't think it suits you. What do you think?"

There was silence for a moment, and I could feel his sharp eyes considering me. I would have bet my life savings that he had started to chew his thumbnail again. "London's fine."

"Alright. London you have been christened... by me. Congrats." Miraculously, I reached the chair with my shoe again. I left my other shoe beside it, and in sock feet I padded over to the chair next to the one I wanted, and examined it.

There were pressure pads under the feet of the chair, which were loosely bolted to the floor - any pressure on the chair would trigger them. But, it didn't look like the chair itself was booby-trapped. So, I spun and plopped myself on the chair.

The boys' eyebrows jumped. A device over the door of the cell two to their right triggered, and released a cascade of acid which dissolved the lock of the cell. Then the solution hardened again, creating a solid block of metal where the lock had been a moment before.

"So." I said. "Now we know what the chairs are for." I crossed my arms and tilted my head back against the wall, crossing my socked ankles and slouching far down into the uncomfortable chair.

I stared blankly at the key hanging well over the chair that my shoes were guarding. How in the world would I retrieve it?