Part 2:

Kid Flash was finally still. Argent waited for him to speak, but the usually talkative speedster was silent. Asking if he was "okay" felt cheap, when she knew he wasn't. Instead, she settled on gently rubbing his back.

"I'm here," she whispered.

"...I know." Kid Flash nodded into her shoulder, his voice soft. "It's a dream. I know this is a dream, but it still hurts."

"It would be worse if it didn't hurt," Argent said. "But...how do you know this is a dream?"

He sat up, pulling away. He wasn't crying anymore, but his gaze still looked unfocused. "I'm a lucid dreamer."

Ah. Guess even that had its downfalls.

Argent glanced around her with fresh eyes. Outside of the fact that she had no idea where they were or how they got there, nothing in of itself looked out of the ordinary. The ground was the ground, brown and uninteresting, and a plain blue sky loomed above them. But now that Kid Flash mentioned it, there was a tangible...difference to the air. Or perhaps it was her perspective. Things looked slightly distorted, like she was peering through a fisheye lens.

"Wow. So this is what lucid dreaming is like. I'll admit, I always thought the first lucid dream I'd have would involve Batman." Her voice sounded dull even to her ears, but she squeezed her eyes shut anyways, before opening them. "Nope. Well, that's disappointing."

Kid Flash tried for a laugh, but it came out more like an exhale. "Figured you wouldn't be a Superman girl."

"Eh, he's too much of a goody-two-shoes."

He smiled, but it was fleeting. Finally, he tried getting to his feet. She could tell he was still shakier than he let on, but then again, if she stopped to think about everything that had happened since she "woke up" in this weird dream, she would've been crashing too. "Thanks…" he said, then hesitated. "Princess."

"For?"

"Being you."

"I try," she said, and couldn't help but smile. She got up, brushing off her skirt, as Kid Flash peered around them with his hand shielding his eyes.

"Where to, Boss?" Argent asked.

"I have a funny feeling…"

She looked to where Kid Flash was pointing. Not far in the distance, in a spot she could've sworn was just empty space before, stood a stone castle.

Argent clucked her tongue. "Well… this day is officially strange."

"Bit late on the draw, Princess," said Kid Flash. He squatted down, his back facing her. "Get on."

Argent couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

She restrained her grin. She had always wondered what it was like to go as fast as the speedster, but as she got on his back...this was still awkward. The speedster was stronger than he looked, but he still looked pretty twig-y in some lights, and while she didn't consider herself heavier than Jinx, she was still anxious about settling her weight on him.

But she did. "This is weird, isn't it?" she said, tucking her knees against his sides.

"It'd fit the rest of this dream world," he replied. "Hold on tight."

She leaned closer into his back. "I feel like a koala."

Kid Flash gave a small chuckle, and then they were zipping through the air.

They were at the castle in mere moments, facing a set of formidable doors. Argent moved to hop off, but Kid Flash's hands kept her pinned.

"Wha—" she started, but Kid Flash hushed her.

Without a word, he zipped around the castle. The speed forced Argent to snap her eyes shut against the wind, but in a second, they'd already stopped. Argent opened her eyes to find themselves facing the castle doors again.

"No other entrances," Kid Flash explained in a quiet voice.

"We could just...not go in," Argent said.

"We could...but I have a feeling that's not how this game works. There's nothing else around here, and whoever's controlling this dream, they clearly want us to go in."

"That's why I feel like we should be running…"

"Preachin' to the choir. But this might be the only way we progress."

Argent sighed. "Do we...knock?"

"We are Lawful Good," Kid Flash said. He leaned down so Argent could hop off. Her vision swam for a second, but it wasn't as bad as she'd feared. "Just stay back for a minute." Taking a deep breath, he raced to the door, and gave it a quick rap. The wooden door looked like it'd weigh a ton, but it slowly swung open at his touch. Argent didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

Kid Flash cautiously peered inside; from what Argent could see, a line of sconces lit what looked like an empty grand hall. The speedster gestured for Argent, and together they stepped inside.

The doors slammed behind them, and immediately, something felt wrong.

What a bloody sur…

...pri...

Argent felt like her head had been stuffed with wet, heavy cotton, and she struggled to keep her eyes open. She watched Kid Flash put a hand to his head in slow motion, before turning to her, his eyes widening. Suddenly, the air shifted as she was scooped up into his arms. The world spun as he raced over to the large wooden doors—

Thud.

The ground rose to meet her. It wasn't until she felt the cold stone under her cheek and knees did she realize she'd fallen from his arms. "Kid…?" she muttered weakly, just catching a glimpse of the speedster sprawled on the ground beside her, before her eyelids finally came down.

T*T*T*T*T

Great, another dark tunnel.

Jinx squinted, but no matter how much she strained her vision, her cat eyes couldn't see any better in this darkness than the last. Probably the dream's magic messing with her. "I can't make out anything," she huffed.

"Just stay close," Hot Spot said, his body aglow with a warm light. The light glimmered off the sheets of ice and silvery stone that made up the tunnels. "What're we even looking for in here?"

"An exit, a team member, an opportunity to hex in the face whoever's doing this to us. Take your pick." Jinx wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. "Is it just me or is it getting colder in here?"

"Just you," he said, but he glowed brighter.

A howling wind gusted down the tunnel, and Hot Spot flinched when the frigid air batted against him. His light faltered, and Jinx shuddered, drawing closer to him. "Okay, now it's getting colder," he admitted.

Each time he tried to flare up, the wind grew stronger, until he could only manage a dull glow. "S-s-stop it," chattered Jinx, shivering. She was almost stepping on Hot Spot's heels from clinging to the back of him, but the cold air still managed to bite her. "Y-you're j-just making it wu-wu-worse!"

"I don't see you doing anything!" he growled, frustrated.

Jinx wanted to retort, but she clamped her mouth shut. Too cold. Fight later.

They continued for a long while. In the distance, although in which direction she couldn't say, she could hear noises… like the cave was alive. The wind howled in the tunnels, and the stone walls creaked like tired bones. And then there were the whispers…

Almost like words—if she strained her hearing enough, she could swear she could make them out. But concentrating so intensely made her feel like she was going mad. And Hot Spot wasn't doing any better. Jinx had stealthily stayed as close to him as possible without actually touching, sucking up what heat she could, but she knew he was stressed, too. His muscles were bunched up like a taut bow, and not being able to stay at full power must be driving him nuts. But she could hear his breathing, rhythmic and slow.

Someone's been practicing their calming exercises.

With her night vision gone, Jinx had been scanning the tunnels almost obsessively. At one point, Jinx tapped Hot Spot's shoulder. He turned, his gaze following her pointed finger, and spotted a pair of red eyes glowing at them from the darkness.

Jinx could sense the quick surge of heat from the pyrokinetic, but just as quick, another frigid wind blasted them, and he was limited to a glow. He started to make an exasperated sound—"Shh!"

He paused, nodded, and then dimmed his light. They slowly crept back, never looking away from the glowing eyes. Eventually, the eyes were out of sight, disappearing in the darkness. But Jinx still wasn't at ease.

"You okay?" Hot Spot whispered.

She nodded. Her teeth were chattering too much to manage anything else. Hot Spot made a frustrated sound, and in one swift movement, pulled her out from behind him and into his side.

"H-hey!" she protested, but Hot Spot just rolled his eyes.

"Shut up."

She frowned…but she could already feel the heat sinking into her, just enough to warm her up but not enough to burn. She focused on the feeling until her teeth stopped clattering, and by then, the sounds of the cave no longer bothered her. ...Fine. This was for survival purposes only.

Eventually, the wind stopped blowing, and Hot Spot pulled away. He brightened, and for a moment, they waited...but no wind came.

"Look!" Jinx pointed to the ground. A smooth, curving line the width of her waist streaked the floor, like a print.

"Looks like a snake's," Hot Spot said. "I'm not liking the size of it."

"Stay bright," ordered Jinx.

"What am I, a firefly?" he muttered, but Jinx was already leading the way.

"C'mon, let's hurry up."

"I'm not stopping you."

They continued on for what felt like too long, but finally the tunnel began to widen. They heard a trickling sound first, and then saw the brightness. The tunnel opened up into a cavern. An underground lake glimmered at the edge of it, and light reflected off from the crystal formations lining the walls. Finally, she could see.

She'd never tease people's fear of the dark again. Well...never's a long time...

"We should rest while we can," Hot Spot said.

Jinx had to agree. While her body should be well-rested if this was a dream, mentally, she felt exhausted. This whole ordeal was disorienting, like she was on some ship where she could do nothing but go along with its random thrashing and turning.

She bet that Hot Spot needed a break as much as she did. ...But they shared a glance. They had been keeping an eye on the snake track, but the line had petered off at the mouth of the cavern. Without a word, Jinx knelt down and brought her hands to the floor. A wave of hexes scattered out, zapping the area. Nothing. Jinx nodded to Hot Spot.

The pyrokinetic flew to the center of the cavern. While Jinx was standing a good distance back in the tunnel, he brought out his hands, and Jinx covered her eyes right before a bright burst of orange hit her eyelids. When she opened them, the land looked scorched and the water boiled for an instant, but nothing else moved.

"Coast's clear," Hot Spot declared, settling down to the ground.

"Glad I'm not the only paranoid one here," Jinx said, stepping inside. Hot Spot stretched while Jinx washed her face with the cold lake water (although she didn't drink it; she wasn't that trusting yet).

"I'm not finding any exits," Hot Spot said, as he paced around the edges of the cavern. Jinx frowned. All of the cavern walls were sealed up, but there must be a light source from somewhere. Jinx looked up at the ceiling. Stalactites dangled from above, but in the center, a smooth and clear crystal surface glimmered.

"The ceiling might be thinner than everything else," she said. "Maybe if we break it we can get out."

"Worth a shot." Hot Spot flew up to the top, his balled fist a sphere of flames.

"Ready?" she called.

"Ready!

She shot a hex at the ceiling, and seconds later Hot Spot smashed his fist into it. Shards of crystals rained down and the stalactites trembled. But the ceiling didn't budge. They tried this again...and again...but they didn't leave a single scratch.

Jinx cursed as Hot Spot flew back down, shaking out his wrist. He made a frustrated sound. "I don't get it. What's the point of all this? If someone wanted to kill us in our sleep or something, they could do it at any second. But they haven't."

"That's assuming this world isn't hell and we're already dead."

Hot Spot glared at her. "Optimistic, aren't you?"

"If you wanted optimism, you should've stuck with Kid or Argent."

Hot Spot huffed, then glanced around their surroundings again. "If this is hell, then all the religions have a lot of explaining to do."

"That's already true."

"Fair point," he conceded. "Assuming we aren't dead yet, that means whoever put us in here is after something."

"No, really? Because so many people who mess with us aren't after something."

"Hear me out," he said impatiently. "Technically, they don't need to keep railroading us if they're just buying time. They could've trapped us in some big empty wasteland or torture us endlessly if they wanted us out of their hair. It'd be a lot simpler than generating these areas for us like some...some video game."

"This is why I don't play those," Jinx grumbled. But she sighed, considering. "Look, I'm not an expert, but people cast dream spells for any number of reasons. Pranks, espionage, interrogation, messed up snail-crunching fetishes, whatever. We need to think about what these dreams are telling us."

"We haven't given any information or interacted with anyone seriously, so I'm guessing it's not for interrogation purposes. Although…"

Jinx caught him looking at her. Her eyes narrowed. "I know what you're thinking. That I'm not real, and I'm just some figment of your imagination designed to torture you. I know that's what you're thinking because I'm thinking that about you, too. We've already been over this."

"Right. Innocent until proven guilty," he sighed.

"For now," Jinx said. "Until then, keep your secrets to yourself, just in case someone is watching."

"Agreed. As for the dream..." he continued. "They keep giving us new stimuli, so they must be looking for a reaction."

"Exactly," said Jinx "Everything they've been doing is meant to make us afraid. But why?"

But before they could continue, the cavern was filled with hisses.

T*T*T*T*T

"Kid." The sound was muffled, like it was coming from miles underwater.

"Kid." Now it seemed clearer. Closer. Like it was rising from under the water...or maybe he was rising to meet it? He thought he recognized it. It sounded so familiar...soothing…

"KID!" Sharp, jolting—something's wrong—

"JINX!" he yelled, bolting up, his mind breaking the water's surface. He swerved around—the sound was—scratchy. A radio next to him.

"Kid, are you there? Wake up!" It wasn't Jinx's voice; it was Argent's.

Argent!

He swiped the radio up. "I'm here. Are you okay?"

"Oh, honest to G, you're alright! Yeah, I'm fine, I just woke up in this...room. Looks like an office. Where're—"

But the last words were cut off. Taking in his surroundings, Kid Flash said into the radio, "Say over, Princess. Over."

"Where're you? Over."

"In some...basement?" Wherever he was, the room was dark, and the floor and walls were tiled in stone. Something wet touched his foot, and he turned around. Three pipes—blue, red, and yellow—lined the walls, with corresponding valves beside them. They were trickling water, but as soon as Kid Flash noticed them, the trickles turned to gushing streams.

"Welp, that sucks."

"Kid, what's happening?"

"Seems like we've hit a puzzle room," he said, glancing around. No boxes or other furniture he could use to block the pipes. And no windows or doors, either. He pressed his hand to the wall and focused on his molecules vibrating, but no matter how fast he went, the stone was impenetrable. He couldn't phase through.

He bit the inside of his cheek, letting his arm drop. "I'm stuck in here with three colored pipes pouring out water and no exit, over."

"WHAT?!"

"You forgot to say over, Princess," Kid Flash said, shifting the radio between his shoulder and his ear. "It's fine, I love puzzles, over."

"No, not over! It might be a trap! Just-just wait for me! There might be something around here!"

But Kid Flash had already pulled the yellow valve—the water gushed out even fiercer than before. "Not that one," he muttered, pushing it back into its original position. Three pipes, three valves, a set number of options. One of them had to be right. He tried the red one next; it moved, but the water didn't seem to change one way or another. He tried the blue one last, but it wouldn't budge at all.

The sounds of his work must've carried over through the radio. "Can you stop with the pushing, please?!" came Argent's voice. "Just let me look for a solution!"

Kid Flash let out a frustrated breath. The water was to his thighs now, and it was not comfortable. "There has to be something on your side. What do you see, over?"

"Just a bunch of books, they don't—wait, found one! Um…which was the first valve that worked?"

"None of them worked," Kid Flash said. "None of them stopped the water—which is rising, by the way. Over."

"No, no, which one just did—?"

"Say over, over."

"WHICH ONE DID ANYTHING, OVER?"

"The yellow one," he said, pushing on it. The water increased, coming to his waist now. He could hear Argent muttering to herself on the other side, and he held back the impatience that wanted to rip whatever she was looking at out of her hands and solve this himself.

"Um, so, the valves are colored, right? If the yellow one is the first to work, then the end color we want is green.

"Then we need blue." Kid Flash pulled the blue valve, but it still didn't budge. Light flashed on; at the top of the valves were lit letters: UNDER. He gulped a mouthful of air; holding it, he dove under the water. He couldn't see anything beneath the valves or the pipes, and nothing around the walls. He came back up, his hair soaked to his forehead. The water was to his chest.

It must be something on her side. "Under. Does anything say 'under,' over?"

"N-no! I don't know what you mean, I'm not finding anything in the books—"

"There must be something there! FIND IT!"

Argent was quiet. Kid Flash felt a pang of remorse, but— "Found it! There's buttons under the desk. Pressing the green one."

The water increased, now up to his neck.

"PRESS THE YELLOW ONE!"

"Pressed!"

Kid Flash held his breath, then ducked below, pushing on the blue valve. It finally moved, grinding as it turned. He came up for air. The water was still rising, but it seemed slower now. "Push the blue button, over!"

"Got it! Is there a green valve?!"

"No!" He raised his chin, straining to keep his head above water. His ears were filled with the sound of rushing water.

"Okay, pushing the green button!"

The cacophony stopped. Then...the sound of it whooshing away. The water level slowly decreased. Kid Flash sucked in a deep breath as the pressure on his chest lessened. Once the water was to his knees, he shook like a dog, drying his hair and uniform. That was...interesting. But at least he didn't have to push a big, red button. "Nice work, Princess! Knew you had it in you!"

But he heard a gasping sound on the other end. "Princess? Argent, are you okay?"

"I—you—you almost drowned," wobbled Argent's voice. "I almost killed you." The steady focus she had mustered near the end unraveled as the adrenaline came crashing down.

"You didn't." Kid Flash held the radio close to his mouth. "You saved me. You did a good job, Princess. I knew you would."

The uneven breathing seemed to slow at that. "Really?"

"Really really. I would've gotten myself killed if it weren't for you."

"Not wrong," she chuckled in a watery tone.

"I'm sorry I snapped, by the way. Being out of control is...not really my thing."

He could hear her scoff even through the radio. "No kidding, Sherlock."

He grinned. The last of the water had drained away. From where, though, he couldn't see. No grates or drains had suddenly appeared; it looked like the water had just sunk through the floor.

CREEAK!

He turned around, and found a door that hadn't been there just a second ago on the opposite wall. "Hey, Princess, did a door just magically poof in your room?"

"No...but one did unlock."

"Guess puzzle number two is up."

"Honest to G," she groaned.

Kid Flash managed a small chuckle. "Don't worry, I'll walk you through it."

T*T*T*T*T

HSSSS!

Jinx immediately leapt back—something gray flashed from the corner of her eyes.

"Your left!" screamed Hot Spot.

Jinx twisted to the side, right before a cobra whipped towards her. Pink sparks flew from her fingertips, and the snake jerked back, rearing its fangs in anger. The reptile was as wide as her waist and double her height, with a hood that made it look even more menacing. She leapt back when the cobra zipped towards her. "I thought we incinerated this place! Where'd these cobras come from?" Jinx shouted, blasting a hex at the ground. Sand billowed up, blinding the snake, but another leapt at her left.

"Technically, they're common kraits!" Hot Spot shouted from somewhere in the cavern, sounding like he was in his own wrangle. "Don't let them bite you; they're paralysis inducing!" The sound of engulfing flames, and a desperate hiss. "I hate them."

"It's a cobra!" She dodged, right before the cobra whipped at her, banging its head against the stone wall. Before it could recover, Jinx shot a hex at a stalactite dangling from the ceiling; it crashed on the reptile's head.

She finished off the still-blinded snake with a hex, then glanced to Hot Spot's corner of the battle. Burnt snakes littered the floor—she couldn't tell if they had hoods or not, but she'd bet they were cobras—but a large snake as thick as three Hot Spots had wrapped itself around the pyrokinetic. He tried to heat up, but the python squeezed tighter, and his flames sputtered. Its forked tongue flicked at his neck, and he wheezed for breath.

Jinx raced around to the back of the snake; its slitted eyes turned to glare at her, and it reared its fangs angrily, but before it could attack, she grabbed onto one of the coils and sent shockwaves into it. The snake sputtered, before loosening. Hot Spot sucked in a lungful of air; Jinx quickly stepped back as he burst into flames. The snake hissed and writhed before finally dropping to the floor, a blackened crisp.

"And this is?" Jinx asked, toeing it.

"Reticulated python," he gasped. "Really...hate...those, too."

"And yet you know all of these snakes' names."

"I was a strange kid, okay?"

"Really? You were born with pink hair and cat eyes, too?"

"...Touché."

CREEEAK! The Titans turned when the walls split open, its sides slowly creaking to reveal another dark tunnel.

They groaned. "Can't we get five minutes?" shouted Hot Spot.

"Apparently not," exhaled Jinx. "Clearly whoever put us in here doesn't want us to figure this place out."

The Titans shared a glance.

"Not it," blurted Jinx, holding her finger to her nose. Hot Spot glared, but led the way.

T*T*T*T*T

When Kid Flash said he'd walk Argent through the next puzzle, Argent didn't think it would happen literally. But of course, it did.

Argent stepped out into what looked like a hallway. The walls were plain and undecorated, a stark metallic color. The ceiling was at least twelve feet high, but completely sealed with no places she could fly out of. When she turned the corner, the hallway forked into two different paths. Argent glanced down each of them, but no features gave any indication to choose one way over the other.

"Princess, you there, over?"

Argent fumbled for the radio, bringing it to her mouth. "Here. Where are you?"

"In some type of library. I can't phase through the walls, and there's no other exits I can see. Just a desk with some papers…hold on…" Muffled noises came through the other end, then a moment of silence, before Kid Flash spoke again. "You're in a maze, aren't you?"

"Let me guess: you found some clues?"

"Gold star."

Argent sighed. Just like how it was for her in the last room.

"I think someone's been enjoying their puzzles too much, over."

"No kidding. Any way you can get me out of here?"

"On it. There's a map here… What can you see right now?"

"I'm, er, in what looks like a metallic hallway. There's a fork in the road in front of me."

"Going diagonally or sidewise, over?"

"Wha—? Sidewise. There's a diagonal fork in the road?"

"According to this map. Also, say over."

Argent rolled her eyes. "Over. Can't I just keep hugging the left-hand wall and I'll get out eventually? ...Over."

"In a normal maze, sure, but unless you want to get stung by a few hundred wasps, I wouldn't recommend it."

Argent shuddered. Wasps were not her thing.

"Okay, so I narrowed your location down to two spots, and plotted out routes for each that should get you out of danger. But…"

"There had to be a but, didn't there?"

"But, if you're in one spot and you go right, you're in danger. If you're in the other spot and you go left, you're in danger. ...And I don't know which spot you're in."

"So it's a fifty-fifty."

"Pretty much."

Argent hummed to herself. She put a hand to the wall—felt like cold steel, too, but maybe… "Would it be dumb to try and break down the wall?"

"You could try, but I doubt it'd work. This place seems built to keep us in."

Argent shrugged. "Worth a shot." She formed her red energy into a mallet and hammered the wall. She felt the vibrations all the way to her shoulder when it collided, but the wall didn't budge; the energy just bounced off. She sighed, dissipating the energy. Not even a scratch. "You know, if you were here, you could zip through this in a second."

"I know." The speedster sounded genuinely frustrated at that. "But I think that's the point. Whoever stuck us here knew how to subvert our strengths."

"But how'd they even know that?"

"They could've been watching us for awhile."

"In our own home?" Just the thought made the hair on Argent's neck rise, and she glanced hastily behind her. Nothing there, but now she couldn't shake that eerie feeling of being watched. She expected danger outside of the Tower when they were fighting crime, but the Tower was their home. It was supposed to be a safe place.

"Let's worry about getting out of here first," Kid Flash said.

"Right," Argent said, shaking her head to dispel the thoughts. As far as she knew, they might've been watched outside the Tower, too. …Though, that didn't make her feel any better. "Any suggestion on where to go?"

"I mean, I'd say left just because that's video gamer's logic, but it's fifty-fifty either way."

"Assuming that map's even accurate," muttered Argent. "Heading right."

"Going down the path less trod, I see."

Argent snorted. "Something like that." If the person messing with them was running on video gamer's logic, then she bet the person would take what they expected and mess it up somehow. Just like this whole bloody place.

The hallway went on for a long time. In the span of what felt like ten minutes, Kid Flash asked for updates about every other minute, his voice getting a little more antsier and impatient each time. He really didn't like being on the waiting end of things.

Between his nagging and the unnerving silence of the maze, Argent felt the tension start to get to her.

"Do you...do you mind just...talking?" she asked eventually, glancing behind her.

"Sure," Kid Flash said, sounding slightly surprised. But not a second later, his voice was bright and clear when he said, "Any requests?"

"No. Just ramble."

And so he did. he talked and talked and talked. Only half of the words registered—something about food trucks he'd been to and obscure science facts she'd forget as soon as he said them—but listening to them did help steady her breathing.

Finally, she turned down a corner, and the hallway straightened out. She could see another path from the right intersecting it in the middle. Promising.

But what was not promising was the pile of boulders blocking her way. "Freakin' figures," she muttered. She tried to pry the top boulder away with her powers, but even that wouldn't budge. She didn't dare try the lower ones, or else she might get buried alive.

"Roger, we have a problem," Argent said into the radio. "The path going straight is blocked." A moment of silence. She raised the radio to her mouth again. "Did you hear me? The path is blocked, over?"

"Yeah, thinking." Argent could practically hear the gears in Kid Flash's head grinding. That didn't make her feel any better.

"What's to the right, anyways?"

"I'm not sure," Kid Flash said, sounding exasperated. "The map only says 'LIAR.' Hey, can you form a shield around yourself as you fly?"

"Um...I can try." She'd used her powers in-flight before, but being precise enough to conjure a shield not only around a moving object but around herself would be tricky. But, thankfully, Jinx had her practicing shields over the last few days.

"Good." Kid Flash sounded relieved. "If anything comes at you, use the shield's energy to ward them off, but stay inside it. That should provide enough offensive and defensive mobility to get you past whatever's lying ahead. Just be fast, okay?"

"I'll be the fastest girl alive," Argent joked, levitating herself into the air as she pooled her red energy into a capsule around her with her free hand.

Kid Flash snorted. "Do it, and I'll get you your own costume."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Banana yellow isn't quite my shade."

"It's Flash yellow, thank you very much."

Completely encapsulated, Argent peeked around the corner. "Don't see anything yet. The corridor just turns."

"There's a couple of turns, but if you keep following the path, you should be good. Stay on the line with me, okay?"

"Are you more worried about me or what Jinx'd do to you if you told her she had to fill out the paperwork for a replacement teammate?"

"Both," he laughed. "You both are terrifying."

Argent smiled. "I gotcha, mate. Don't worry."

In her shield-bubble, Argent swallowed as she started flying slowly down the path, looking around carefully. Kid Flash had told her to be quick about it, but she thought that was his bias speaking. Her instincts screamed at her to take it slow, to be watchful, and not charge headfirst into any traps. But it still seemed forever when she reached the corner of the long corridor. Looked clear. "So far, so—"

Grrrrrr.

A groaning sound from behind her; Argent turned around.

"What? What is it?"

Crouched in the corner was the sorceress herself. "Jinx!"Argent started flying towards her, but at the sound of her name, Jinx's head snapped up—Argent froze. Jinx's eyes glowed red, and her mouth twisted into an animalistic snarl.

"It's Jinx?! Is she okay?!"

Jinx rose, and Argent could instantly tell that something was...off about her. Her arms and legs were too long, gangly—like someone had stretched her limbs into uneven lengths. And she was charging right at her!

Argent bolted down the corridor. "It's not her!" she screamed into the radio; she could hear the feral growls, already coming closer.

"What—are you sure?!"

Argent made a sharp turn, and heard the smack of the Jinx hitting the wall. Glancing back, she saw the not-Jinx peel herself off like paper. "Pretty sure!"

Kid Flash swore—only later Argent would recall it being the first time she'd heard the hero curse—but quickly spouted out: "At the next turn, head right. Keep flying!"

"Head right, head right, head right—"

Snarls coming closer—no! Just fly—right!

Argent almost screamed when she suddenly saw below her a pit of metal spikes. She flew across them, but behind her—

A too-human scream, cut off abruptly—metal slicing into meat—

Argent closed her eyes.

"Are you—are you okay?"

She nodded, rubbing away the tears that had managed to escape. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"The body—is it- is it...normal?"

She opened her eyes and, still in her shield, peered carefully over the edge—and wanted to gag. The deformities had shed themselves, so all that was left was Jinx, her body pierced by spikes. Blood trickled down her open mouth, and bloodshot eyes stared into nothing.

Argent swallowed. When she opened her mouth again, her tongue felt dry. "No. It's not Jinx."

A pause; she could hear Kid Flash taking in deep breaths. "Okay. Okay…" He swallowed. "At the next left is the exit."

Even without looking back, Argent could still picture Jinx's blank, bleeding face. She made the turn, and in front of her, was a gate and a lever. Staying in her bubble—in case another trap appeared—she pulled the lever.

The gate creaked open.

"A door just opened on my side," Kid Flash said. "Out of nowhere, of course." His voice still sounded shaky, but Argent gave him the dignity of ignoring it.

"Hopefully this is it," she said. "Ready?"

"No," he answered. "But I'll see you on the other side."

T*T*T*T*T