KRRRT!
Tearing through the screen that separated the two rooms, Artemis was only just able to avoid most of the destruction caused by the missile. Thanks, in part, to the fact that the hole in the wall had been big enough for her, but not for the airborne weapon, which still tossed her a few feet away when it exploded. "Heh…there goes my shot at perfect attendance" Artemis sighed as she clambered to her feet, only half-joking to herself because (even though her mother had pressured her to go to school most days), she preferred to skive off.
"Don't be so sure, my little ducky!" Mad Mod chirped as he appeared at the other end of the spherical hallway she now found herself in. "You may be out of the classroom, but class is still in session!"
"Ugh!" Artemis growled as she dove after the villain, hoping to tackle the lean man to the ground and knock him out. Unfortunately, what he lacked in physicality, he more than made for in annoyingly magical tricks.
"Next lesson: Physics!" Mad Mod grinned lecherously as he suddenly leapt for the ceiling and began to race parallel to the blonde. "What goes up, stays up!"
"Until I shoot it down!" Artemis replied as her hand reached for her bow, only to graze against air when she remembered that she did not have it on her. A frown pulled at her lips once more, but nevertheless, she raced after the cackling Brit, more than eager to take him down a peg or two.
In the end, Mad Mod led the archer on a wild goose chase; racing from the Relativity Room where they had fought Klarion the witch boy & associates only a couple of days prior, to a bland room which was plagued by the seamless squares in black & white. Through mind-bending optical illusions and around Looney Tunes exits, the blonde archer chased after the villain, only to find herself thwarted at every turn. With each failure, her ire only increased even more; until, eventually, she found herself back in the main foyer where everything had all began.
"You may as well chuck in the sponge, lovey!" Mad Mod taunted from atop the stairs, whistling to catch Artemis' attention. "You can't catch the likes of me!"
"We'll see about that!" Artemis growled as she pounced, taking the stairs three at a time as she raced up the stairs. But even as her long legs devoured step after step, she seemed to be moving nowhere, fast. It was almost as if with every step she took, the stairs just grew longer and longer, like some Alice in Wonderland nightmare.
"Now, what did I tell you?" Mad Mod heaved a disappointingly put upon sigh as he twirled his cane between his fingers. "Children today, just won't listen to their betters! Have to learn everything the hard—!"
WHOOSH!
"Do you ever stop talking?" Artemis rolled her eyes in disgust as she palmed a batarang that she nicked from Robin one day, just to see if he would notice. Apparently her pickpocketing-slash-hoarding skills had come in handy today as she found herself inadequately armed.
"—Hey! Oi!" Mad Mod scowled, ducking away from the projectile which bounced off of his cane without much damage, "No throwing things while Teacher is talking!"
"Ugh! This school thing is getting way out of hand!" She grumbled to herself as she pulled out a grappling hook next and shot a line towards the top of the stairs, where the redhead lingered. Bypassing the steps completely (and with an inward curse for not doing so earlier), Artemis chased after Mad Mod again, kicking down the doors he had fled through only to find herself back in the room she had just left behind and the villain mysteriously gone. "What?! You've gotta be kidding me! This is getting ridiculous—!"
"—NOOOOO!" A far-off cry sounded, pulling Artemis' attention in that direction. It was one that sounded rather familiar, that feminine wail and it made panic prick at her heart. In the short time that the archer had known the martian, she found that she wasn't usually one to cry out like that; at least, not out loud.
"M'GANN!" Artemis worried, immediately giving up on her chase of the British villain as she turned tail and made to track down the green girl.
Several unyielding doors and mind-bending rooms later, Artemis eventually found herself in the labyrinth of a library with bookshelves that towered over her in a maze of epic proportions. If she didn't know this place was a wizard's lair, she would have of been worried about the precarious stacks toppling over on top of her. As it was, she simply scrambled ip the nearest ladder and followed the distressed martian's voice towards another one of those hypno-screens which had held her hostage only moments ago.
"—NOOOOO!" M'gann wailed, tossing and turning in her chair in an effort to avoid the ginormous hypnotising book in front of her. "I will not read your book of meanness and swirls!"
"Now, now, lovey" Mad Mod chastised her over the intercom as a pair of wooden hands extended from the back of the chair and latched onto her temples, forcing her to face forward & keep still. "It's for your own good! Nothing teaches discipline like a brain-erasing trance!"
"Nnngh!" M'gann fought her hardest to keep her eyes closed against the mind-numbing book before her, but even that was thwarted when her stubborn lids were pried apart. As if the fiery chains were not bad enough, now she was losing her mind!
"Besides" Mad Mod continued as the ceiling opened up to reveal the world's biggest book stamp, "If you won't stop squirming, I won't stop squashing!"
"Uh…HELP!"
"There's no point in yelling, lovey; there's just you, me and the books in here!"
As the large OVERDUE stamp barrelled ever closer to the captive martian, threatening to squash her flat and splinter her bones like it had done with the rows of desks in front, she suddenly found herself being tackled away. A pair of arms wrapped themselves tight around her waist, a grunt sounded in her ear and strands of sunshine blonde hair tickled at her nose as the two girls eventually rolled to a stop only a few feet away from the carnage.
"Artemis!" M'gann cheered even though the breath had been knocked from her lungs upon impact.
"M'gann! Are you all right?" Artemis worried as she tried her best to free the other girl without burning herself on the cuffs.
"I thought school was more like television? Are all the schools on your planet really this horrible?"
"…You haven't been to school yet?"
"Conner and I are to attend Happy High soon"
"Huh…" Using the same lock pick as before, Artemis hurried around to the back of the chair where its mainframe sat hidden beneath an encasing of wood. Prying it open, it only took a few short moments for the archer to turn off the restraints and with that, both girls were free to fight or flee from the animated books that flew off of the shelves like bats out of hell. "C'me on!"
This time it was M'gann who helped Artemis out, taking her wrist in hand as the two girls ascended the closest bookcase in an effort to outmanoeuvre the books. No sooner had Artemis' feet touched the top of the bookcase, did M'gann let go so that she telekinetically fight back; flinging the books back at each other as Artemis raced along the tops of the shelves and tried to remember where the door had been (if it was, in fact, still there. She was really starting to hate this magical tower). Thankfully, it was still there and as the two girls slammed the door shut after diving through, they silently counted their lucky stars as the books seemed to explode into a fiery mess on the other side of the door.
"…Your s'posed to hit the books, not the other way around!" Artemis grumbled to herself as she pushed herself off of the door and strode down the black & white hallway in an attempt to find a way—any way—out of this hellish place.
"Artemis! I wish to thank you for rescuing me from the—!" M'gann gushed as she followed after, sweat still beaded on her brow. Martians really couldn't handle heat all that well.
"—Don't thank me just yet" Artemis interjected, steamrolling over the martian's words as she led the way to…somewhere. "Mad Mod still has us right where he wants us! And we still have to find the others! I know we could take him, if we could just get our hands on him but every time we get out of one trap, there's another one waiting!"
"…You could say that again" M'gann mumbled with eyes blown wide as something over the archer's shoulder caught her attention.
"What?" Spinning on her heel to see what it was that had caught the martian's attention just so, the archer scowled as she found herself confronted by the sight of several more of those weaponised Mad Mod busts which had tried to bookend her in the bland classroom.
"Run my duckies!" Mad Mod taunted as the busts gave chase, firing all sorts of missiles, lasers and other such weapons at them. "Run all you like! But you'll NEVER get out!"
"AHHHH!"
True to his word, the two girls soon found themselves tumbling out of the twisting hallway and down into another classroom; this one, seemingly representing the science lab as dictated by the numerous equipment which was set up about the room. Which wouldn't have garnered a second look if, y'know, the molecule display wasn't the size of a car or the beakers of bubbling liquid weren't large enough to bathe an amazon in and the large periodic table painted across the ceiling instead of the usual linoleum ceiling tiles.
"It's no good procrastinating, really, because sooner or later you'll BOTH end up just like HIM" Mad Mod lectured as the two girls headed for the front of the room where a mop of ginger locks sat at the front of the classroom.
"Wally!" M'gann gasped in shock, hands slapped over her mouth in shock when she noticed just what had happened.
"So much for that superior scientific brain, you idiot…!" Artemis grumbled to herself, although even she could admit to being worried about the speedster. Just not out loud; not with their rapport.
"Oh yeah! A model student, that one!" Mad Mod praised the speedster who stared relentlessly at the screen, his eyes glued to the twisting spirals as drool drip from his chin in buckets.
"Eurgh!" Artemis scrunched up her nose in disgust at the wet patching already staining his shirt.
"Lovely! Sits there nice & quietly and never even thinks about misbehaving" Mad Mod continued, "Matter of fact, he NEVER thinks at all! Haha~!"
"Wally! Wake up!" M'gann shook his shoulder as Artemis tried to pry him free of his restraints. "Your friends are here! Wally? Kid? Are you in there?"
"He can't hear you" Artemis replied, tearing through the seams of the straitjacket almost vindictively, "Its the screens"
"Then we must do away with them—!" M'gann frowned as she rose to tear the hypno-screens apart.
"—Wait!" Artemis protested, quickly stopping the martian from doing anything that she might regret.
"What is it?"
"Trust me"
BURBLE! BURBLE! BURBLE!
No sooner had those imploring words left the archer's lips did all the beakers and test tubes in the room start to boil over. Much like in the library or the classroom, when it became clear that the "students" were going to try and escape, the items inside started to fight back. Bubbling over the edges of the glass, toxically-coloured acids devoured all that they touched and with how quickly they were eating through the empty desks at the back of the room, Artemis had no doubt that they would eat through their bones just as hungrily.
"Here's your hall pass" Artemis stated, handing the mostly freed speedster to M'gann (The ball and chain were still strapped to his feet, but they would have to make do for now) as she leapt onto the nearest tabletop and frog-hopped back to the doorway, doing her best to stay out of the acid. "Meet you outside"
"Right" M'gann nodded, hefting Wally to the best of her abilities, although the ball and chain did drag dangerously close to the floor. With any luck, the restraint would burn off if they drifted too close and if not, they could always get assistance from one of their stronger teammates when (not if) they reunited with them.
"…Wally?" M'gann tried to awaken the dazed speedster, even going so far as to shake him vigorously by the shoulders though even that yielded next to no reaction. "It's me, M'gann, your friend! Please! SAY SOMETHING! WALLY? WALLY! WAAAAALLY!"
"Uh, M'gann…? I don't think that's working" Artemis wrung her finger in her ear to clear out the ringing from all of her shouting. She was sure that if Wally was conscious right then, he would have of passed out due to the fact that he was so close to his favourite martian.
"But we have to do something or he will remain this way forever!"
"Is that really so bad?" Artemis half-joked.
"Artemis!" M'gann gasped, aghast.
"Can't you just read his mind or something? Fix him that way?" Artemis rolled her eyes, brushing off the other girl's reaction to her gallows' humour.
"They told me I could only do that with the bad guys' minds" M'gann pouted despondently as Wally simply flopped sideways like a lifeless ragdoll and garbled nonsense into the ground.
CREAK!
"…Mad Mod!" Artemis hissed, suddenly alert as the sound of a heavy door creaked open across the way. "C'me on!"
"Wait up!" M'gann whispered as she dragged Wally after them (thankfully Artemis hadn't gone very far) and over to the nearest staircase, where they hid behind the steps. "What's the plan?"
"We'll hide here and take him by surprise" Artemis replied quietly as she peered around the edge of the stairs, once again cursing her lack of weapons and silently promised herself to carry more on her the next something like this happened (because in their line of work, it was bound to happen again).
"Gaauauah…!" Wally gurgled happily, completely unawares or unperturbed by the situation they were in.
"…Is there any way to shut him up?" Artemis grumbled, sparing an irritated glare back at the boy who would not shut up.
"Uh…" M'gann blinked, before quickly slapping a hand to the speedster's mouth. An action she greatly regretted as drool soon began to flow through her fingers and Artemis tried not to gag at the image the two painted.
"Ready?"
"Uh huh"
"Three, two, one…Now!"
