Hurr Hurr. I had a little fun with this one.
Just read and you'll see what I mean.
I own nothing you recognize as canon.
Ten: Child's Play
It didn't take long for Hazel to realize her webby prison was made of cheese. Easily breakable cheese. She hopped up and brushed away the mechanical spiders.
"Leo," she called. "Check the rope tying you to the chain. It might be cheese."
Two seconds later, Leo screamed and landed on the ground with a thud. He groaned, "It was cheese."
"Are you okay?"
"Nothing's broken." Leo cracked his neck. "I think Creativity piled up enough sugar to make sure of that."
Hazel tried not to giggle. Leo looked like a ghost now that he was covered in sugar. His multi-colored eyes sparkled murderously as he tried to brush the white off.
Leo growled, "I guess I'm not getting my phone now. I was hoping to record Super Jason before he went away."
"Super Jason?" called a childish voice with a southern accent. "I got footage of him ages ago!"
Leo's eyes lit up. "Great! I can have that, right?"
"Maayyybe~! We'll see how you fare against my labyrinth!"
Walls shot up, separating Leo and Hazel. Hazel yelped in surprise when they began to spark with electricity.
"Sorry, Hazel," Creativity said over a speaker. "Your little Mist-magicky stuff won't work here! I control the labyrinth remotely. And since I'm Leo's Creativity, I am the only one in the Bunker that can sense the tech within the walls!"
Leo grumbled on the other side of the wall, "This isn't fun, kid! Just fuse with me and let Hazel go!"
"Not a chance! You've got an audience, guys! And you, Leo, know how I like to be with an audience—I aim to please!"
A poof happened on Leo's side. Hazel smelled cinnamon before she saw the brown cloud lift up above the walls. Leo was coughing, but the sound was getting further and further away. He was moving.
"Get into gear, Hazel," Creativity warned. "Or my labyrinth might make you."
The walls began to shift and grind in her direction. Hazel realized she might be crushed if she stayed put, so she rushed forward and dove into the first opening on her left. Gooey slime poured out from the walls, and Hazel almost slipped. She slid to another opening, panting.
"This is worse than when we were in the House of Hades," Hazel complained.
"Where do you think I got the idea?"
Hazel was slammed into a shifting wall. The electricity made her hair frizz up. Suddenly, the floor vanished, and she was sliding down an endless tunnel. Within a minute, she popped out…
…above the labyrinth!
She landed with an oof on a pile of pillows in between a few walls. "How did…?"
"Like that? That's a Hephaestus trade secret!"
"Where did you find the time to make this?" Leo called from the other side of the maze.
"You guys took so long trying to find me. I got bored."
Hazel inwardly groaned. A bored Leo meant creations. Automaton creations.
"ROAR!"
She hated it when she was right.
A dog-sized metal drakon appeared behind Hazel and roared at her. She ran the other way, hoping this wasn't how she was going to die; in an ever-shifting maze designed by a lunatic personification of a child's imagination.
The drakon spat acid at her—no, wait, that was just hot sauce. Creativity had the decency to at least make the machines spit non-threatening material.
Which means, Hazel realized. He doesn't want us to die. He won't allow it!
Hazel stopped in her tracks and faced the metal drakon. The drakon roared and kept up its charge.
Two feet away, it halted and short-circuited. The automaton landed with a crash at her feet.
"No fair!" screamed Creativity. "You're supposed to run from it!"
Hazel smiled. She knew the weakness. Even a Leo as nasty as Creativity wouldn't have the audacity to hurt another person—especially a friend like Hazel. Hazel was happy to know that on multiple levels.
She rammed the wall on purpose. A jolt of electricity ran through her, but not enough to hurt. She kept ramming the wall with her shoulder, noticing beneath the shocks that it wasn't as strong as it seemed.
"H-Hey! Stop that! You're not allowed to do that!"
Hazel kept ramming the wall, hoping she had enough strength. She needed to reunite with Leo. They needed to do this together.
One more slam and the wall fell down. The rest of the wall stayed in tact, since they were interlocked pieces, but the wall she busted down fell easily.
Leo skidded past. "Hazel?"
He was covered in purple slime and daisies. Why daises, Hazel hadn't a clue. "He won't hurt us," she said. "He's just playing."
Leo grimaced. "It's a stupid game."
"Is NOT!"
Hazel heard the maze begin to shift again. Automatons roared beyond the walls. He's throwing a tantrum, now, she thought. We need to make him madder.
Hazel took Leo's hand and led him through the maze. It felt just like last time, only this time the surprises and traps wouldn't kill them. Puffs of flour, waves of popcorn, floors of chocolate…it was designed to merely entertain a child. Every time a drakon or enemy automaton charged them, Hazel stopped until it was forced to shut down.
Meanwhile, Creativity got angrier and angrier. They were ruining his fun! They were ruining his plans!
One of the kids tapped him on the shoulder. "Um, Creativity?" he asked shyly. "Maybe you should stop? You might hurt them."
Creativity waved him off. "I've got this, blue boy! Just need to do this…and this…"
The youngest child, a blonde boy also in yellow, whimpered, "I don't want our fwiends to get hurt."
The yellow-themed Leo was lost in his tantrum. He had to do this! He needed to make these kids smile! It was his job to make them smile!
But Leo and Hazel weren't cooperating at all! Hazel was the worse offender, simply because she wouldn't allow a good chase.
Creativity stomped his feet and pulled his hair, his face turning red. "It's not fair," he screamed. "No fair! No fair! No fair! NO FAIR!"
Hazel grinned. The kid was hitting his peak. Soon he would…
The maze sped up. More automatons charged them. A whirlwind of sauces, flowers, food, and plush items erupted from the walls. Twice Leo fell trying to keep up. Hazel held her ground, gritting her teeth.
C'mon, she growled in her head. He's throwing everything he's got at us. C'mon. Hurry up and…
Suddenly, everything stopped. The walls stopped moving. The bots halted their chase. The whirlwind froze. The only sounds penetrating the silence were the ragged breathing of Leo and Hazel…
…and the soft, tired sobs of Creativity over the speaker system.
"You're no fun," he complained, his voice tired. "You were supposed to play along! You were supposed to make them smile!"
The walls collapsed. The Bunker returned to normal. Hazel and Leo were standing near the entrance, somehow back where they had started.
About thirty feet away was a little control center with glass walls. Inside were three figures. One was Creativity, who was wiping his eyes and sniffling. He looked like he was stifling a yawn. A younger Frank dressed in blue was patting his back. He looked like he had been crying recently. Hazel was surprised to see this Frank so young. He wasn't a teenager yet, but maybe a tween. A toddler in yellow was on Creativity's other side. This was the youngest of the three, and he was also crying. His yellow eyes were rimmed with red, and his lower lip trembled.
Hazel realized that those two kids were Frank and Jason—they were the Sadness aspects!
Hazel remembered that Jason had been left to Lupa at the age of two, and Sadness seemed to be right around that age. It made the most sense, since that was the saddest time for Jason.
Frank's didn't make too much sense, though, considering his saddest time was when he was about fifteen. Hazel decided Frank's Sadness was probably not as mature as the rest of him, and tried not to make more sense of it than that.
"It's not fair," Creativity whined. "I wanted to make them smile…"
Oh, I see. Hazel sighed. He wanted to cheer the Sadness kids up.
She approached slowly and hugged the little Leo. He sobbed into her shoulder as she hoisted him up into her arms, patting his back. "You could've just said so," Hazel said softly. "We would have done some funny things for you if you had told us."
He sniffled. "Surprises are better," he grumbled.
Jason's Sadness pulled on Hazel's pants leg. "It's okay," he said, his voice high and squeaky. "We know you meant well."
Blue Sadness ruffled Creativity's hair. "We're supposed to be sad, Leo. It's our nature. We know you tried, and we thank you for that."
Creativity peeked over his shoulder. Both Sadness aspects were giving him a tiny smile in gratitude.
"It was the most fun I had all day," Yellow Sadness squeaked.
Creativity smiled. "Thanks," he mumbled.
Leo walked up and held out his hand. Creativity took it and disappeared in five seconds. Leo now had a yellow stripe on his shirt, his hands twitched with nervous energy, and his tool belt was now present on his hips—right where it should be.
Hazel looked at Leo and smiled. "That tool belt clashes terribly with your outfit."
Leo grinned, his creative spark back where it belonged. "That's why I'd make a terrible son of Aphrodite!"
Hazel picked up Sadness Jason. Frank's followed Leo as they made their way out of the messy bunker.
"I don't think your siblings will approve of the mess," she said to Leo.
Leo shrugged. "They'll get over it."
Hazel looked at the son of Hephaestus. "You feeling okay?"
Leo nodded. "Creativity's crashed after throwing that tantrum. I'm good for now." He winked at her. "You'd make a great mom. That was how my mom handled me when I threw a fit."
Hazel smiled. "I knew he'd crash eventually. It was just a matter of time."
Then, she looked at Frank's Sadness. "How are you doing?"
He sniffled. "I'm okay. I'm willing to join Frank again. I'm tired."
"Me too," Yellow, Jason Sadness mumbled into Hazel's shoulder. "Cweativity weally tired me out."
Hazel chuckled softly. "Leo has that effect on people."
When they returned to the front entrance of the Bunker, the group was face-to-face with Piper, five-toned Jason (much to Leo's disappointment), and five-toned Frank.
All three had varying degrees of disgust and horror on their face when Hazel and Leo stepped into the light. Hazel realized they must look like they took a bath in a tub of slime, chocolate, flowers, stuffing, and flour. And they definitely smelled terrible, though Hazel hadn't noticed it before now.
"We just went through a horrible ordeal, guys!" Leo held his arms out wide and made a kissy-face at Piper. "Give your best friend a hug for his troubles, Pipes?"
Piper wrinkled her nose and backed off. "I will when you get a shower and a change of clothes. You look like a child's imagination threw up on you, and you smell like a garbage dump."
Leo grinned from ear to ear. "I know. Isn't it wonderful?"
A/N: I have no words to describe what fun writing that was.
I bet none of you thought Creativity would be a child, huh? Points for me for using my own childlike imagination. :'D