As the elevator opened up, the group got a good look at what had changed. The lobby, for one, now had black question marks serving as a pattern on the walls and ceiling. As well as this, the Riddlerbot at the counter looked a little different. Its green eyes were now red, and it looked a lot less presentable. It simply stared straight ahead, not heeding the elevator any mind. Its head was shaking a little, a low humming noise emitting from it.

After a few seconds, Pam shoved her way out of the elevator. "Come on, let's just get this all over with," she sighed. "The sooner we complete this weirdo's trials, the sooner we get to go home." She gestured for them to step out, and then complied. As they walked across the lobby, the Riddlerbot began to stare at them, its red eyes practically staring holes through them. Without a word, it raised a metal finger and pointed to a silver door. Above it was the sign 'GAME ROOM'.

Once they were at the door, Doris placed her hand on the handle. Her hand was shaking and her teeth were gritted. "Are you scared?" Barbi asked, her voice low.

Doris turned around, glaring at Barbi. "No! It's just... cold! Why would I be scared of a door?!"

Carol sighed as she walked up to the door. "Doris, at this point, your ego being bruised is the least of our worries." She placed her hand on the handle as well. "The most of them is probably behind this door."

Harleen took a few steps back. "This isn't good," she whimpered. "I bet there's a gun on the other side."

Leslie groaned. "Why would there just be a gun that instantly shoots us?" She questioned. "I doubt that something like that is considered a trial."

"Well, how do we know he's just lying?"

"Why lie about that instead of just killing us and-"

At this point, Selina had gotten sick of just standing outside of the door and letting her mind come up with stuff that honestly made her shiver. So, she just shoved her way to the front. "Let's. Just. Open it."

Harleen and Leslie fell silent and nodded. Selina sighed, looking at the door. Pushing back the sinking feeling she felt in her stomach, she turned the knob, and slowly opened the door.

What they saw... for want of a better term, intrigued them. Selina, at least, expected the trial to be at least sort of related to games. However, there wasn't a single game left in the room. Instead, there was a large cage-like passageway suspended in the air by chains. Above it were a load of pipes. Steam was emitting from the cracks in the pipes and they were shaking, like if they were nudged the wrong way, they'd burst. Several of the pipes were connecting to the passageway, steam methodically spraying out of their openings. Beneath the passageway, there was some kind of control panel with numbers on it. Namely, one to four.

"What is this?" Harleen asked aloud. She walked up to the control panel. "Is this, like, some kinda math thing?"

"Not at all, you blonde dimwit!" came Riddler's voice. The group looked to the ceiling, seeing a large speaker connected to it. "This is a little trial I like to call The Steamway."

Doris folded her arms. "'The Steamway'? What the heck's that supposed to mean?"

They heard Riddler chuckle over the speaker. "I find it so amusing to see mere fools like yourself be unable to understand my brilliance, Muscles."

Doris growled as she clenched her fists. "That doesn't answer my question," she hissed.

"Then I will answer you," Riddler said. They heard him clear his throat before continuing. "One of you will have to crawl into this narrow passageway, another one of you will examine the pipes on the other side, we're they're easier to make out, and suggest what would be optimal, within 30 seconds, and the rest of you will have to manage the control panel. Hitting one of the four buttons will rearrange the pipes before they let out a blast of steam. There are five sections in total. Completing them will result in you succeeding the trial. If the pipes are rearranged the wrong way, the crawler will get sprayed with some steam. Nothing too painful. But, if they get sprayed three times... the crawler's blasted with so much piping-hot steam that they die!"

The group just stared up at the speaker, before looking back at the cage. They looked at the pipes, which continued to spray out steam almost rhythmically. At this point, they were all rather shaken. Death by steam wasn't a pleasant way to die.

"OK," Leslie asked. "Who's going up for it?"

Everyone else opened their mouths to say something, only for Riddler's voice to ring out again. "You don't get to choose, kids. I do. Let's see..." The sound of Riddler clicking his tongue and whistling could be heard. Eventually, he spoke up again. "The short one with the pink clothes. She's annoying."

Carol's eyes widened. Ordinarily, she wouldn't be happy about being called short and annoying, but those insults were small potatoes when compared to the chance of her dying. "What?!" She yelped. "That-that's not fair!"

"How?" Riddler sneered. "I make the rules. This place is my kingdom. Besides, the steam should at least open up your pores. Now get started." This was followed by a large burst of static, then silence, leaving the group alone.

Carol looked towards Selina, shaking slightly. She slowly looked back at the pipes, starting to breathe heavily. It honestly made Selina a little unnerved. Carol, no matter their situation with the Super Hero Girls, was never actually scared. Mostly, she was either smug or angry. Hell, she doubted that she ever even saw her scared. Not that she could blame her now.

After a few seconds, Carol sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Let's just get this over with." She walked over to a white platform right beneath the cage, her expression having gone from terrified to angry. "When we finish this protocol, I'm going to rip Riddler's teeth out." With that, the white platform elevated itself upward, stopping once it had connected to the passageway. With great reluctance, she crouched down and crawled into the passageway, soon stopping.

Doris squinted. "Why'd she stop?"

Leslie walked up to the control panel. "I think she got to the first section." She cracked her knuckles. "Don't worry, Ferris. We'll make sure that you get out unscathed."

Barbi narrowed her eyes. "Do you even know how the panel works?" She marched up to her. "How do you know which numbers to press?"

Leslie didn't respond. Instead, she pointed above, causing Barbi to look to where she was pointing. That's when she noticed something on some of the pipes. They had numbers printed onto them. 1-4 too, just like the control panel.

Barbi directed her gaze back to Leslie. "So, we just press those buttons and hope for the best?"

Leslie shrugged. "Pretty much."

Pam walked up to the panel, staring at the pipes. "I'll check the pipes. No one press anything yet," she said. With that, she started to examine the pipes. She walked over to the other side of the cage and began to stare at the pipes. The sound of a soft ticking filled the air.

After 30 seconds, a beeping sound filled the air. With that, Pam walked back to the panel. "At the moment, pipes 2 and 3 are pointing at Carol."

Harleen smirked. "Cool. We just gotta press 2 and 3 and we-"

"It's not that simple," Pam interrupted. "Several of the pipes are connected to each other. For example, pressing 3 here will also cause 4 to aim itself at Carol."

Harleen's smirk faded. "Oh. That makes things a little more complicated."

Pam nodded. "Yeah. Fortunately, from what I've observed, the buttons we need to press are 1 and 3."

"Are you sure?" Carol's voice rang out. They looked up to see her. She was shaking a little. "If you're wrong, I get blasted with steam!"

"I'm sure I'm right," Pam responded. She turned to the rest. "We all in agreement?"

A tense moment of silence passed as they all just stared at the pipes. Eventually, Selina shrugged.

"Checks out to me," she said. The corners of Pam's mouth briefly twitched upward.

"Cool."

With that, Harleen pressed 1 and 3, before hitting the button reading 'GO'. With that, the pipes started to shift positions, the horrible creaking noises filling up the room. The group looked at each other. They were praying that Pam was right. One blast of the steam, and they only had two more chances to mess up. Soon, they stopped, shaking more violently than ever before.

And, just their luck, none of them were aimed at Carol.

Once the steam burst out of the pipes, Carol opened her eyes. She exhaled, with Selina just now noticing that she was holding her breath, allowing a smile to cross her face. "Thank. God. Good job, girls." She then crawled ahead, soon stopping. "Another stop."

"Don't worry, Carol!" Harleen proclaimed. "We got your back!"

She quickly skipped over to the other side, the timer activating. Pam just turned to Selina, looking a little nervous.

"Are we sure Harleen should be checking?" She asked.

Selina sighed. "Look, I know Harleen's a little... eccentric..."

"That's putting it mildly," she heard Barbi mutter.

Selina rolled her eyes. "But she's smarter than she looks. Besides, it's our friend up there. If there's one thing I know about Harleen, she's not one to just let her friends die. Whether it be us, or the commissioner's daughter, we can count on her."

As soon as the beeping started again, Harleen bounded back over to the panel. "OK, from what I've deduced, we gotta hit 4, 2, and 1. The steam shouldn't hit her then."

Selina stood over the panel, her hand hovering over the buttons. She didn't say it out loud, but truthfully, she was a little nervous herself. Despite what she had told Pam, she couldn't help but doubt Harleen a little. What if she was wrong? If she was...

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts out of her mind. Worrying about it wouldn't get her anywhere. She just had to trust Harleen.

She quickly pressed the right buttons, before slamming her hand on the GO button. Once again, the pipes started to shift and shake. After a few seconds, they all stopped, their openings pointing away from the cage once again. They all breathed a sigh of relief as the steam went off. Carol smirked, crawling ahead again.

"This is too easy," she whispered to herself. If this was Riddler's best foot forward, she couldn't wait to see how easy his next few traps would be.

Soon enough, Carol stopped in the cage again. "OK, who's doing it this?"

Almost instantly, Selina knew who it was going to be. Her.

And why not? She didn't want to brag (okay, maybe she did), but she was the smartest of her group. Not just in school, having the highest grade point average out of all of them, but she was also very good at thinking on the fly. Such skills would make her perfect for this. Hell, she was surprised why she didn't step up before now.

However, when she was about to open her mouth, she felt herself get shoved to the side, causing her to fall to the ground. "I'll do it!" The culprit exclaimed, a wide grin on her face. It was Doris.

Even from the ground, Selina could see Carol's eyes burst open. "What?!" Her voice was shrill. "You can't!"

Doris glared up at her. "Why not?"

Barbi rolled her eyes. "I can think of a few reasons..."

This only made Doris angrier. Her eyebrows arched down and she growled at Barbi, causing her to shrink back. "I'm doing it!" Doris snapped. Harleen opened her mouth to say something, when...

"Ooo, this is interesting!"

That voice. That damned voice had returned. Selina cursed under her breath as she rose up. "Shut the hell up, Riddler," she hissed.

"Make me, kid." They heard him laugh, before clearing his throat. "I wasn't going to interfere, but I'm in need of some entertainment. Well, more entertainment. So... your musclebound friend will be checking the pipes, followed by blue hair and the girl with the fur coat. Attempt to deviate, and I call in my Riddlerbots. Which, by the by, have machine guns built into them. Fun fact there." The sound of a soft buzz could be heard.

Doris smirked. "Cool." With that, she walked over to the other side, starting to examine the pipes. Leslie turned to Selina.

"OK, now I'm nervous," she whispered. "Doris isn't smart. Carol's fucked!"

Selina sighed, standing up. "Leslie, calm down. I'm sure she can do this."

She didn't want to admit it, because it seemed like she was all that was keeping the team from falling into anarchy, but she was pretty apprehensive about this. Not that she didn't like Doris. She was strong and funny, which were important for both school and villain life. But smarts were not her strong suit. She only hoped she did better here.

Soon, the ringing filled the air again, with Doris walking over to the panel, smiling. "We gotta press 2, 1, 3, 4."

Pam looked up at her. "Are you sure?"

"Sure!" Then, Doris's face fell a little. She looked a little... hurt. "What, don't you trust me?"

Harleen smiled. "Not at all, Zeulie!" She didn't sound all that convincing. "I'm sure you're right." Under her breath, she added, "I hope."

This caused Doris's smile to return. "Then let's go." She walked over to the control panel, pressing in the combination. Once she had done that, she slammed her fist onto the GO button. The pipes started to move once again, stopping after around 10 seconds.

However, this time, the ends of the pipes were pointed straight at Carol.

Before any of them could do so much as gasp, the steam burst out, hitting Carol head-on. She let out a bloodcurdling screech as the steam covered her. It made her friends recoil in horror. Even Barbi looked disturbed.

Once the steam cleared, Carol could be seen again, not looking too good. There were some black burn marks on her arms and legs, her clothes looked blackened, and her mascara had started to run. She choked back a sob of pain, turning to Doris. "Nice job, Doris! Ow..."

Doris lowered her head in shame. She looked genuinely sad, sadder than Selina had ever seen her. "I thought I could really do it..." she whispered.

The sound of Riddler's laugh echoed through the room again. "Oh, now that was funny! What do you think, Pinkie? Better or worse than a spa trip?"

Carol just ran a hand down her face, practically bursting with rage. "Eat a dick!"

Riddler scoffed. "You're not my boss. Now continue, you big baby."

Carol snarled as she started to crawl through the cage, stopping again before long. She looked back at the group. "Who... who's up for the task this time? Tell me it's someone better suited for the job."

This only made the frown on Doris's face deepen. "Nice to know I'm appreciated. Jerks."

Leslie stepped up. "It's me. I'm up." She looked up at Carol, smiling. But it wasn't her usual cocky smile. It looked a little warmer, more friendly. "Don't worry. I can do it." With that, she stepped over to the other side and the clock began ticking.

As Leslie started to examine the pipes, Selina looked back up at Carol. She was trembling slightly and her mouth was curled into a small, frightened frown. "Carol, don't worry. You'll be fine."

Carol just shakily exhaled, still reeling from the pain. "I hope so. I mean, there's so much I still need to do. Go to college, get an actual job, get married to my one true love..."

Pam rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, we know. Just stay calm, like Selina said. It'll cause less stress overall."

Carol shot a pointed glare at Pam. In a second, her expression had gone from 'vulnerable' to 'unamused'.

"Oh jeez, I'm so sorry. It's not like I have a chance of dying or anything."

As soon as she finished, the ringing sound could be heard. Leslie walked to the panel, standing over it. "It's 3, 2, 4, 1, 2." She shook her head. "I swear, this stuff just gets more and more complicated." She quickly punched in the numbers, before activating the panel. The pipes started to rearrange as usual. And as they moved, Leslie's smirk just got bigger and bigger.

However, when they had stopped, her smug face melted into one of abject horror. This caused Selina to fear the worst. Don't jump to conclusions, she thought, as much as she knew she wasn't. Maybe Leslie's just looking at it wrong and-

The sound of steam bursting out rang throughout the air again, following by the pained screams of their friends. The mere sound caused her to cringe. And, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the others recoil as well. Soon, she brought herself to look at Carol, who looked even more dishevelled and burned.

Leslie clasped her hands over her mouth. "Holy hell! C-Carol, I'm so sorry!" For once, it seemed like a honest-to-God apology.

"Oh, now this is interesting!" Dear lord, only one trial in and Selina wanted to rip Riddler's spine out. "One more failure allowed, and you're in the home stretch! This should be exciting."

Harleen spun around to look up at the speaker on the ceiling, a scowl on her face. She grabbed a board and threw it at the speaker. "Go to hell, Eddie!"

"My God, will you all shut up?" This time, Riddler sounded legitimately irritated. "I don't need you complaining about everything all the time. My roommate did enough of that, thank you very much."

Snarling, Carol crawled forward, soon stopping for the fifth time. "Who's up now?" She asked.

Everyone turned their gaze to Barbi, who was just staring up at the cage. The room, with the exception of the pipes, was totally silent. Eventually, Barbi sighed.

"It's me," she whispered. "Riddler mentioned me." She walked over to the other side, the timer activating for the final time.

As soon as Barbi began to look up at the pipes, Harleen turned to Selina, a look of nervousness plastered on her face. "Aw jeez, this can't be good."

"Why?" Doris asked, a hint of confusion in her voice.

Harleen just sighed, running a hand down her face. "Barbi... she... doesn't really care about us. I mean, what reason does she have to try for this? She doesn't care about Carol, so she probably won't even bother with it."

Selina just stared at the cage, where Carol had curled up into a ball, a look of pure rage on her face. She sighed, feeling angry herself. Harleen was probably right. For all she knew, Barbi was just going to just punch in a random code and Carol would die. Just thinking about it made her want to strangle that blonde twit.

Eventually, time ran out and Barbi walked over to the panel. "3, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4. I think that's it." Without another word, she pressed pressed the buttons in the order she had just said, before pressing the GO button.

Selina didn't even bother looking. She just closed her eyes as the pipes started to shift. Soon, they stopped, and Selina felt the sound of steam bursting out of the pipes fill her ears, followed by...

Wait.

Was that... cheering?

When she opened her eye, her jaw fell slack. All the pipes were pointed away from Carol, and she looked positively delighted. She looked over at the rest of her friends, who all looked surprised, but happy.

Carol was alive. They'd won!

"Hell yeah!" Carol yelled as she crawled onto a platform at the end of the cage. She stood up as it lowered. "Screw you, Riddler!"

"What?!" It was the Riddler again, his voice filled with shock. "How did you..." He paused, clearing his throat. "I mean, I expected you to succeed! Y-yeah, totally. Um..." They heard him clicking his tongue. "Please enter the secret elevator at the end of the room and go down. Your next trial awaits... and stuff."

Selina turned to Barbi, who was smirking and leaning against the panel. She walked up to her. "Um, good job," Selina muttered.

Barbi's smirk grew wider. "You're welcome." She turned to her. "You sound a little... surprised."

"Yeah, well..." OK, this was going to be hard to make sound normal. "I kind of expected you to just not bother."

Barbi's eyes narrowed. "Why? She didn't do anything wrong to me. I mean, she's really bloody annoying, but she's not one of my enemies. She's not Riddler. Or Diana." With a shrug, she walked over to the secret elevator. "Anyone coming? I'd like to get out soon."

The rest followed her, chatting and laughing about they had beaten Riddler. As soon as they got in, the elevator began to lower.

And honestly, after this first trap, Selina felt like things were looking up.

AN: I apologize profusely for the large gap in the chapters. This took me a long time to make, especially since it's the longest chapter I've written. Hopefully, I'll get the later ones out quicker.