Tobi and Jane dashed into the maze. It was huge but dark, lit, like the elevator, by the glowing, neon stencils of some faraway place. There were stairs, ramps, walls, fortresses, and mirrors in the three-story arena where the battle was to take place.

With a quick whip around of her head that sent her ponytail stinging into her face, Jane did a quick survey of the immediate area, then decided to head, quietly, up the nearest ramp. Tobi followed, and they both drew their guns.

'Come on,' Jane said again, crouching low to creep along an outer wall with glassless windows in it. 'I want to see where they are so I know best how to strike.'

'Jane, you better tell me right now what is going on,' Tobi said quietly but severely.

'Well, at least you have the sense to stay quiet,' her friend murmured, carefully marking the progress of the four shadows through the dark labyrinth. 'Um, okay, just give me a second and I'll explain everything.'

Again, Jane leaned to her side to see out the window. Unfortunately, Mrs Kusakawa looked up and saw her student peering down at her. She took her gun out of its holster, aimed it at the window, and fired.

'Duck!' Jane exclaimed. With a high-pitched, science fiction movie sound, the laser shot through the window and up past the girls someplace.

At the sound of the laser fire, the other teachers changed their direction and started heading for the girls, as did Mrs Kusakawa.

'Crap,' Jane noted, seeing them begin to head for the ramp she and Tobi had gone up. 'We gotta move. They're gonna be on us like white on rice- or whatever that saying is- in about five seconds.'

She stood up and, crouching, started to jog to the right, dodging random bits of wall and pillar to get away. Tobi followed.

After a while, Tobi broke the quiet sound of their gentle footfalls. 'I'm serious, Jae; if you don't tell me what we're doing running around in here I'm gonna scream.'

This threat stopped the other girl dead in her tracks. 'Okay, really? That is the last thing we want right now. Just chill five seconds, let me find us a good place to hide-'

'Now, Jane.'

Glaring, Jane sighed with frustration and sat down, leaning up against the wall they had stopped near. 'Okay, fine. So… you remember what I told you this morning, about that guy I helped out last night?'

'That was this morning? Seems like ages ago…' Dazed, Tobi sunk down next to Jane.

'Tell me about it. Well, anyhow, I kinda…' After thinking about it, Jane decided not to let Tobi in on her school-skipping escapade. '…Accidentally met up with him again. Well, it turns out he's really an alien, and his ship crashed in the woods on North Road-'

'Hold on.' Tobi looked at Jane with sincere doubt. 'Your mysteriously ill bus buddy is an alien? Ha, no, try again.'

'I'm serious, Tobi! Anyway…'

From there, Jane went on to summarize her day to Tobi. When she was done, the girl tacked a few more words onto the end of her story: 'Please, Tobi, you gotta believe me. I'm not making this up. I need your help if we're ever gonna take back our planet- and rescue the Doctor.'

Tobi didn't take long to reply. Glancing out in the direction of the outside arena doors, she remembered the sky beyond, the sky that looked like it should be a picture taken by a NASA satellite and not really the sky. 'At this point, it's kind of hard not to. But I'll stick by you, Jane. I always have, haven't I?'

She looked back and grinned. 'Now, let's go get 'em,' Tobi said, pretending to cock the laser gun. 'After all she's threatened us with in English class… heh. Miss Poacher is goin' down.'

'That's the spirit!' Jane agreed happily. 'Now, let's get going. And remember, try not to-'

She cut herself off abruptly as- even with the level of darkness abundant in the maze- a shadow fell across the friends.

With a gasp, Jane's head snapped up, as did Tobi's. On a balcony above them stood Mr Jones, his laser gun pointing right at the tag patch on Jane's vest.

'Oh shit.'

It all happened in about five seconds. Mr Jones fired his laser, the beam roaring from the gun with the same terrifying screech the girls had been witness to a little while ago. At the same time, Jane frantically scooted forward. Whereas a real laser tag's laser would pass harmlessly into space, being nothing but a beam of light, the two human teenagers found that the Toymaker's games are far more dangerous than their original version: As she slid backwards, the real laser beam fired into her arm. She gave a cry of pain as it burned through her sleeve and into her skin. But Jane couldn't let herself be distracted by that. She knew they had to get out of there.

'Run, dammit!' she yelled at Tobi, scrambling to her feet while holding her arm. As soon as Tobi was up, she was off, and Jane followed.

Eventually they had run far away from their original base, the large fortress itself. Luckily, the girls didn't run into any of the other teachers. Heavily panting and moving slower, Jane pulled over into a crevasse someplace, dropping exhaustedly to her feet. She sighed. 'We need a plan,' the ginger girl gasped, clutching at the laser wound.

'Heh, yeah, first let me see that arm,' Tobi replied.

Hesitantly, Jane removed her hand and held her left arm out. 'Oh, it's not so bad. Really only stings a ta- YOW!'

She cried out in pain as Tobi accidentally brushed the burn. In the white fabric of the sleeve a dime-sized charred hole revealed the tender red skin where several layers had been burned away.

'Sorry,' Tobi said. She furrowed her eyebrows in examination. 'Wow. This looks a lot like a cigarette burn.'

'A cigarette burn?' Jane repeated, regarding Tobi suspiciously. 'How's that?'

Her mate sighed. 'I had a friend in elementary school who'd lived in some pretty bad foster homes.'

'Ah, I see.' Jane nodded. 'Well, it hurts like bloody hell, but I'll live. Now, we really need a strategy or something or we'll get our bums kicked; that or punched full of cigarette burns.'

'You're right,' Tobi agreed. 'I don't know, though. I've never played laser tag.'

Jane's eyes bugged out. 'Seriously?'

'Ah… no.'

'Oh, man, you're missing out!' the taller girl exclaimed quietly. 'I love laser tag! …Except for right now.'

Tobi gave her a disparaging look. 'Right. Well, oh miraculous laser tag expert, what do you suggest we do?'

Jane paused and thought about it. Though she had played laser tag several times before, her actual strategic experience consisted of sneaking around and hiding, revealing herself only if necessary to get a player on the opposite team out, and occasionally screaming. But that was when she'd had at least five other players on her side. And at times not even those strategies had worked. 'Well, first off, I don't really want to split us up. We have no way to communicate, plus I'm scared pantless and feel better with you here.'

'Okay…'

'Now,' Jane went on, having had an idea suddenly dawn upon her, 'I figure we've only been gone away from where we were before by a few minutes, which puts Mr Jones at around the same area. How's about we sneak back there and get him from behind? That's one down and three to go.'

Tobi thought it over. 'Sounds okay to me. Let's head out now.'

They stood up. 'How's your arm doing?' the shorter friend asked.

Jane glanced down at the burn. 'It hurts. But I'll survive.'

Cautiously the girls made their way back in the direction they had come until they heard other, heavier footsteps and Jane saw the top of Mr Jones' tall ginger head pass over a low wall. Motioning Tobi along behind her, she went behind the wall after him and paused to listen. He, too, paused, having also heard footsteps other than his own. He turned around and saw the two girls. Instinctively reaching for his gun, Jones intended to follow the commands his hypnotized self had been programmed to follow. But he wasn't fast enough. Jane already had her gun drawn and, aiming squarely at the tag patch under his ribs on the left, fired.

It hit him dead on, and with a widening of his eyes, Mr Jones stumbled back a few steps, absorbing the power of the shot. But when he came to a stop, the maths teacher simply stood frozen, kind-of drooped over.

'What is…?' Tobi began to wonder.

Jane, however, recognized immediately what was happening. That didn't make it any less disturbing, however, and she turned away.

Just like what had happened to the Doctor, Alex Jones suddenly seemed to lost all muscle in his body and began to fall forward. But before he hit the floor, the sweater vest-wearing algebra teacher looked to have melted away, replaced by a doll with similar features. Then, when the doll landed on the floor, it, too, disappeared.

Tobi stood stock-still, staring after where Mr Jones had just been. Jane still had her eyes closed, head facing the wall. Neither could speak for what felt like a long time.

0-0

All right, awesome people, that's it for now. That's all I've got written up to this point. Updates will be even slower because now I have to actually write stuff instead of just edit it. And even before that I have to sit down and figure out what's next. Probably talk some stuff out with my dear old editor/best friend, Morgon. She helped me make this all less ridiculous (if you can believe that it could possibly get weirder XD), so y'all should be thankful for her. XD

Anyhow. I love laser tag. I once went to an arena that was three stories and lit up all by blacklit pictures on the walls, so that was inspiration for this. In case you didn't catch it, the danger in this game is that they're real lasers. The cigarette burn idea came from a book where the main characters were in a theme park and evil pirates were shooting at them with guns from the laser tag ride, but it turned out the lasers were real. (Yeah, long story. ^^;) So it wasn't my idea. I don't know what a cigarette burn looks like. :P

Ummmm… thanks as always for the reviews! I really appreciate it.

I don't think there's anything else I need to say. Have a good new year, everyone! 8D