On the tenth floor of the McLockdown building, the first room was being played. The group playing was in awe of the sight that greeted them.

Dim neon lights flashed primary colours. The lights decorated the small makeshift wooden stalls of carnival games. There were only two short rows of them, consisting of five stalls on each side of the room. There was a cemented pathway in the middle, leading them to the next door.

"Carnival theme. Awesome," Jackie said while fiddling around with the toy guns at the water gun game.

"Abandoned carnival theme," Randy added, picking at a fake spider web on one of the stalls.

"I can't believe there are themes for these things," Casey swiped a thin layer of dust off the counter of a stall," But I gotta give it to them, this is pretty realistic."

"It's not a carnival without snacks. Where are the honkin' snack stalls?!"Howard shouted, trying to scout the place for junk food.

"Is food all he ever thinks about?" Casey asked Randy.

"Half of the time," He chuckled.

Casey let out a short laugh and looked around at the place. It was eerie with the empty stalls, fallen banners, scattered wooden boards from parts of the game stalls and the layers of dust on the counters.

"You think there are killer clowns for us to beat down or something?"

"That…" Randy started out sceptically. Then he smiled, punching the air in front of him, "Would be so bruce!"

Jackie giggled," This isn't a video game. Plus, the McLockdown doesn't have any physical requirements just mental requirements." She winked playfully, hoping they'd understand her joke.

"Oh! Nice one!" Randy winked and gunned Jackie.

"Don't encourage her!" Casey whacked Randy's shoulder.

"Ow! What? It was funny!"

"It wasn't even that smart," She put a hand on her hip.

"Not smart but she still got someone to laugh," Randy grinned at her.

"That is not something she should be proud of."

"I'm proud of it anyway!" Jackie shouted from the end of the row. Casey responded with a roll of her eyes. The teens gathered at the door after looking around the place.

Howard was practically seething," I can't believe there are no snacks here. I am disappointed, Cunningham. Disappointed."

"We'll get snacks later, after we finish all one hundred rooms," Randy put an arm across Howard's shoulder, leaning down to his shorter friend,"Just think, our faces on the Wall of Fame. Everyone will know us and our pro-ness. We'll be legends! It'll be worth the wait."

Randy looked up at nothing and swiped his hand across the air, as if trying to make an image of their faces on the Wall of Fame. Howard looked up as well, his eyes gleaming with delight,"And the Mystery Prize."

"Mmhmm,"Randy hummed.

"Soo, victory nachos?" Howard said, contently.

"Victory nachos, buddy," He nodded.

They turned back to the girls who were figuring out how to unlock the door. Casey stood next to Jackie with folded arms," So, how does the door open oh, great mystery solver?"

"It's connected to the test of strength I think..." Jackie rubbed her chin, deep in thought," The top label, says 'Open door'."

"Test of strength?" Casey studied the tall machine next to the door,"Want me to take a whack at it?"

"Wait, but I wonder why they'd put this here..."

Jackie just stared at the machine as if a clue would pop out in her face. It was mostly metal with some wooden parts for it to have a vintage feel. There were five different labels on the meter, most of them meant to embarrass the participants of the game if they didn't achieve the highest label. At the top of the meter was a silver bell. Casey glanced at Jackie who was thinking way too hard about this.

"I can always pick the lock you know," She flashed a joking smile over to her friend who just frowned at her.

"Step aside, ladies. Let me handle this," Randy said suavely, taking a step forward.

"Whoa, Cunningham. I know you and you can't handle this," Howard took hold of the wooden mallet attached to the machine before Randy could reach for it. Both boys, not wanting to back down started pulling the mallet between themselves.

"I so can!"

"Can't!"

"Can!"

"Can't!"

"Ca-!"

"Can one of you hit the honkin' target already?!" Casey snapped, gesturing to the high striker machine.

Randy squinted his eyes and yanked the mallet away from Howard. The ginger scowled, when he was pushed aside. Randy brought it back and smacked the target with all his strength gaining a loud ding from the machine.

The puck flew up and stopped halfway making the label named 'Too bad' light up. Everyone looked at the door and then at Randy who was frozen in shock and slight humiliation.

"Um..."Randy looked back at the others with a nervous grin. He narrowed his eyes at Howard who was giving him an annoyingly smug grin.

"Well, that was...embarrassing," Jackie mumbled.

"All yours," Casey smirked at him.

"Welp, I think it's time for me to take it from here," Howard held out his hand, expecting Randy to admit defeat and give him the mallet.

Randy held the wooden mallet tightly, getting defensive," No! I got this, I got this! That was just a warm up!"

"Please, take your time," Casey said sarcastically.

Jackie giggled lightly and observed the test of strength game carefully, musing to herself,"There were no physical requirements in the game..."

She looked at the top label again and noticed a symbol somewhat resembling a duck next to the words. Her eyes lit up in realization.

"Casey, I think I have a lead..."Jackie grabbed her arm.

"Are you talking detective to me now-whoa!"Casey was pulled away by Jackie,"Where are we going?"

"Just follow me!"

When they stopped at a stall, Casey quirked an eyebrow. There was a tall container filled with water, rubber ducks floating on the surface and surrounding it was a round wooden counter.

"The duck pond?"

"Yeah, on the top label there was a symbol of a duck and there aren't any physical requirements in this game. So, there must be a clue in here," Jackie grabbed a long hook that was lying on the counter.

"I used to play this when I was little. We use these hook pole things to hook a duck and there were numbers on the bottom to see which prize we got," Jackie stretched the hook out across the counter, to get a rubber duck from the container.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Hooking the ducks duh."

Casey facepalmed,"This isn't an actual game! Just get in there and grab all the ducks!" She jumped over the counter and grabbed the rubber ducks, flinging them onto the wooden counter.

"Oh," Jackie glanced at the hook and threw it aside to join Casey who was fishing the ducks out of the water,"Check their bottoms-"

"That sounds wrong." They two girls chorused, looking at each other with expressions of disgust. It lasted for only a second then they resumed the task at hand.


In the surveillance room of the McLockdown building, an evil genius and a benevolent businessman were observing the monitors which showed footage of every room in the building.

Viceroy chuckled,"Everything's going according to my-"

"MY plan!" McFist interrupted him rudely,"By the way, what's my plan again?"

Viceroy rolled his eyes and shortened the whole McLockdown scheme to explain to his boss,"I created-"

"I created!" He barked and gave a semi-polite smile," Go on."

The evil genius sighed inwardly, wondering why he was still working here before continuing,"The McLockdown to trap the Ninja. We make some trouble with the Escort bots and lure the Ninja in here then trap him in a labyrinth of lasers and destructive robots!"

"Uh...what's a labyrinth?"

"It's a maze," Viceroy deadpanned.

"I LOVE IT!" McFist shouted to no one and pointed at Viceroy," Start the plan!"

Viceroy brought out a remote control and pressed a red button,"Now, we wait for the Ninja to show up. Then, it's trapping time."

The button had activated the Escort bots on all the levels as well as the extra bots at the ground floor. Their previously green eyes, now glowed a dangerous red. Chaos ensued on the ground floor as the bots went on a destruction spree.


"I think I found something!"

"Finally!" Casey sighed in relief, tossing the rubber ducks behind her.

"There's a symbol of a hammer and the number five below it,"Jackie showed her the bottom of a rubber duck she found,"I think we're supposed to hit the target five times."

"Wow, so you are a master mystery solver," Casey gave her a lopsided smile.

"Told ya,"She nudged Casey with her elbow, wiggling her eyebrows.

"But, this McFist guy is really awesome,"Casey gestured to the duck pond,"Like even buying fifty rubber ducks to put in here. I can't even afford twenty of them."

"Mr McFist is like the definition of awesome. You should see all the other stuff he comes up with! The McFlume, McFistPad, McSatchlè and my favourite! Whoopee World!" Jackie punched the air, humming the Whoopee World theme song.

"From how you talk about him, he can be classified as over the levels of awesome," Casey chuckled, starting to walk back to the second door.

"He is beyond the levels of awesome,"Jackie stretched out her hands dramatically, following behind her.

Casey and Jackie arrived back at the test of strength machine, only to find the two boys still quarrelling over the mallet. Casey looked at Jackie. Jackie looked at Casey. They both let out a sigh and rolled their eyes.

"I'll take care of these dorks,"Casey shook her head in annoyance and walked up to them. Clapping her hands twice in front of both boys' faces, she gestured them to the side gently. A mocking smirk on her face,"If you guys are done, move aside."

"I don't have to move aside. You move aside,"Howard muttered angrily as he was ushered away from the machine.

Casey cracked her knuckles and her neck. Grabbing a hold of the mallet, she adjusted her hands and remembered the clue she found with Jackie earlier. Casey whispered silently,"Hit the target five times."

"Just hit it already," Howard drawled.

She clucked her tongue and struck the target quickly for four times. Then, she pulled back for the last hit which made the door click open.

"Mmhmm,"She dropped the mallet and smirked back at the slack jawed boys.

"Yes! The next room!" Jackie bounced on her heels and hi-fived Casey.

"How'd you..."Randy trailed off.

"While you guys were busy having a lover's quarrel, Jackie and me found clues on how to open the door," Casey said, placing a hand on her hip.

"Wait, so that was just some kinda trick. Not your strength that opened the door," Howard clarified.

"Yeah."

"Oh, good," Howard wiped fake sweat of his forehead.

"I know right," Randy sighed in relief.

"Hold it. Do you guys think...you're stronger than me?"

"Well..." Randy started, knowing he'd anger her more if he said yes.

Howard though, not caring at all simply answered with, "Totally."

"Oh, it is so on," Casey growled, pointing at the both of them,"You two and me. Arm-wrestling."

"We only have 90 minutes, you know," Jackie interjected.

"After this," Casey added.

"Sure, but you're probably gonna lose," Howard flexed his arm,"Yeap, all muscle right here."

"That's anything but muscle, Weinerman."

"If we're finished with this,"Jackie started, jabbing her thumb towards the door,"Shall we-"

A sudden explosion interrupted them.


Author's note: Hey! So, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and yes, cliff hanger. Thanks for the reviews, favs and follows, it really means a lot to me:) You guys are awesome! Please give me feedback if there's anything I can improve on. Thank you :)

TheFanGirl11: Haha, I managed to add a joke, sorta pun thingy with Jackie XD Thanks!

Durachin: Thanks a lot! I wanted to add some realistic parts in my story because the message I want to put in my story is that even ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they're work hard and believe in their abilities (Sounds a little cliché though XD). It's supposed to be relatable…sort of? Hope I'm making sense here. Also, there's not gonna be a lot Casey and Randy interaction in the start because I want a gradual relationship build between them. Plus, I want to develop her relationship with Jackie as well! Hehe :) And when I have time, I'll check out your story! I've read the summary though, sounds interesting;)

cheshirekadi: Thank you! And I hope you aren't disappointed! I didn't exactly mean for that chapter to be a cliffhanger Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks! :)

FangedMe: Thanks! :) And not to be rude, but her name's actually Casey not Carter. Sorry, just wanted to point it out! Though, fun fact: Casey's name was initially supposed to be Carter XD