Justice Games: Round 2
"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" Adrienne shouted loudly in Crystal's ear. Crystal instinctively swung her arm at her, but Adrienne dodged it easily. "C'mon, you slept in, we're gonna be late!" Crystal sat up and rubbed her eyes. She slept in? That hadn't happened since⦠"Get up! Get dressed! Let's go!" Adrienne pulled Crystal's arm until she stood. "Fine," Crystal said, "I'm up, I'm up. What are we late for?" "You kidding?!" Adrienne exclaimed, "You are late for the second round of the Justice Games!" "We're still doing that?" "Sure, why not?" Crystal turned her pyjamas into her costume and followed Adrienne to the training deck.
"Okay, everybody," Jacob said loudly, "Since we don't have everybody from the first round, things are going to go a bit differently. Instead of the winners teaming up with the losers, we're going to do a rescue mission." Jacob gestured to an opening in the wall that Jasmine was standing beside. "Last night, Techie synthesized the bioship training deck into a maze filled with traps and a few little surprises. The goal is to get to the center of the maze, free your designated person and get back here. And this is still no powers. Swift Arrow, find and rescue Impulse, Superboy, Hornet, Zahara, Star, Crystal, Lagoon Boy, and Wonderboy, Techie." Mark raised his hand and said, "But Techie is standing by the-." Techie had disappeared in the maze. "Oh, nevermind." "We begin in five minutes," Jacob said. He put a hand on Crystal's shoulder and whispered, "Good luck." She blushed and smiled shyly. "Aw, man," Adrienne said, "Why did I have to get Impulse? It's not that I don't like him or anything, it's just he keeps calling me 'Aunt Audrey' and it just feels awkward." Crystal raised an eyebrow at her, "You think you've got awkward? I've got to work with my mom's ex; and she dumped him." Adrienne laughed, "Okay, you got me there!" "Alright," Jacob declared, "Since Crystal won the first round first, she gets to go in first." Crystal walked up to the entrance. She couldn't see anything except for inky blackness. A wave of fear washed over here. It looked just like her dream. She closed her eyes and shook the thought out of her head. It's not my nightmare, she thought. "Ready?" Jacob said. She gave him a thumb's up. "Go!" Crystal closed her eyes and stepped forward into the darkness.
Crystal opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a dungeon-like passageway with lit blue torches bathing the walls in cold light. There were no turns or branching passages, just a straight path. She walked forward, careful to check for traps along the way. After walking for what she assumed had been a really long time, Crystal heard someone running behind her. She snuffed out a couple of the torches and pressed herself against the wall. She waited until they were right beside her and then she stuck her leg out. "Aah!" Mark's voice echoed off the walls as he fell. "Mark?" Crystal said. "Should've known it was you, Crys. Well, you or Audrey." "Haha," Crystal said, "I was actually hoping you were my dad. I thought he might understand this." "I know," Mark said, "It's a straight line! There are no ways out!" "It actually reminds me of something," Crystal said, staring at the walls. "This is the worst labyrinth maze ever," Mark said. He started running down the passage again. "Labyrinth," Crystal muttered under her breath, "labyrinth, Labyrinth, Labyrinth! That's it!" Crystal put her hands on the walls and continued walking. When she was ten she had watched a movie about a girl who had to go through a wicked prince's Labyrinth in order to save her little brother. The first part of it was just a straight path that looked like solid wall for miles. But if you ran your hand along the wall, you could find the opening to the real maze. Bingo! she thought. Her left hand felt air. She walked through the opening and into a large hall. The floor looked like a checkerboard. At the end, there was an open door. The whole room screamed trap. Crystal gingerly placed her foot on one of the black tiles. Her foot went straight through it. Okay, she thought, Only walk on the white tiles. She placed a foot on one of the white tiles. It fell out of under her foot, making her flail to keep her balance. She looked closer at the tiles. Some of them were slightly off-white, including the one that fell. She stepped on the nearest white tile, and it held her weight. She jumped from tile to tile, trying to make sure she only landed on white tiles. She was almost to the end when, off-white tile. She fell through the floor, managing to grab onto a white tile with one hand. She held on for as long as she could. She felt her hand start to slip. She tried desperately to grab the tile with her other hand and pull herself up, but couldn't. Her hand slipped further, until she fell. Then, a hand appeared and grabbed her wrist and pulled her up to safety. Standing in front of her was Superboy. "Dad," Crystal said, "You're not supposed to help me." He raised an eyebrow, "Would you like for me to push you off?" "No," Crystal said quickly, "No, it's fine." "I thought so," he said, continuing on the white tiles. Crystal followed her father across the last few tiles and into the next room.
Standing in large glass tubes were Star, Impulse, Hornet, Techie and Lagoon Boy. In front of the tubes were levers that opened them. Crystal rushed to the lever beside Lagoon Boy and pulled it towards her. Hornet was already out and about to head out the next door with Superboy when Robin's voice boomed, "Congratulations to Superboy and Crystal, who are currently tying for first, followed closely by Swift Arrow. Now, prepare for the twist, the person you rescue, is allowed to use their powers!" Crystal was a little upset, everyone would have a useful teammate to help them win, except for her. Oh, well, she thought, that just means I need to move faster. As soon as Lagoon Boy was free she said, "Let's move!' and ran for the door. He followed her just as Swift Arrow entered the room.
Once again, they were in a long dark hallway with a white door at the end. "Jeeze," Crystal muttered, "It's like he took my nightmare and made it reality." Crystal stepped forward cautiously, watching the floor and wall for motion. Oddly, nothing happened. That's anticlimactic, Crystal thought. They made it about half-way down the hall when they noticed Superboy and Hornet had stopped. They were fighting something. "Come on!" Lagoon Boy shouted, "We can go around them and win!" "I guess," Crystal said, "Let's at least see what they're up against." As they stepped around the fight, they saw who attacked them, Cheshire. "Wait," Crystal said to Lagoon Boy, "This isn't right." "Come on!" he said, "Techie made a Cheshire-bot last night. Wave hello and let's go." "No," she said, "This is too complex for only one night, even for Techie." "Look," Lagoon Boy said ticked, "The real Cheshire is in Belle Reve with her mom, you put her there! Let's go!" "Fine," she said. They ran the rest of the way down the hall and out the door. "And in first place, Crystal and Lagoon Boy!" Robin yelled as they entered the room. "What's keeping Superboy and Hornet?" he whispered to Crystal. "The Cheshire-bot in the hall, what else?" "Cheshire-bot?" he said confused, "We don't have a Cheshire-bot. That would have been cool, though." "What?" she said alarmed, "Does that mean the Cheshire they're fighting is the real Cheshire?!" Crystal ran back into the hallway, calling her dad mentally, Dad! The Cheshire you're fighting is the real deal! I thought it was a robot or something, he thought back. Nope, she thought, It's strange, I can't sense her, but it's got to be her. So either she is a robot, or there's also another telepath on board. Crystal saw Superboy's mind shift straight to Psimon. You think it's him? She thought, I'll feel around for him-. No, Superboy thought, wait, ok? Your telepathy hasn't been trained much and he was almost too much for your mother on our first encounter. Just wait. Ok, she thought. She had reached Superboy and Hornet and joined in the fight. Robin was right behind her. Cheshire realized she was outnumbered, so she threw several small silver orbs that released anesthesia.
When they woke, Cheshire was nowhere to be found. Crystal was worried; not only was Cheshire aboard, who has a personal vendetta against her and her best friend, Adrienne, but also Psimon, her mother's rival since the beginning of her career, who would almost definitely like nothing more than to get his head inside of her only daughter's.
