Episode Four: A Game of Truth or Dare
Over the next few days, the Twin Terrors introduced the superhero teams to their show, The Troublemakers' Talk Show. The next night they were having it was Valentine's Day. Guests for then were only superheroes- Oliver, Barry, Kara, Cisco, Laurel, Felicity, Wally, J'onn, some of the Legends… and also Music Meister, a very good friend and assistant.
The superheroes were unfamiliar with the rules, of course. It was quite simple-all you did was talk with the host, answer a bunch of questions, and participate in whatever games were set up for the show. But it isn't very easy to play a game of Truth or Dare in front of an entire audience.
Valentine's Day came. "Welcome to… the TROUBLEMAKERS' TALK SHOW!" Nilla bellowed through a megaphone, both sisters popping up from behind the red couch covered in hearts. "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!" Lorris screeched. As the crowd cheered, streamers flew off from the sides of the stage. The superhero teams sat on the couch, unsure of what to do.
"Today, we are talking to a group of superheroes here! Did we explain what happened about the multiverse and how these Earths merged into one, with no doppelgangers, and how any doppelgangers had the same life and merged into one person?" the girls asked. The audience cheered agreement. "Good, good! Well, we're first going to question Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter, questions given by our cousins in the North Sky Gang. First question, from Dasher."
Lorris stopped, read the question through, and made a face. "DASHER, YOU ARE SOO RUDE. He asked this-Supergirl, how many times have you fallen in love?"
A sudden hush fell over everyone. Kara shifted uncomfortably. "Um… can I say about three times? Do they already know this?" she stuttered. Nilla rolled her eyes and snorted. "All of them know about it. I think Cupid wants to do something with that number, though."
"OKAY, moving on! From Prancer to Manhunter, what was the first thing you ever heard about when you came here?" said Lorris. J'onn curtly quipped, "All that I knew when I came was turtles, Area 52, and trees. There wasn't much I was interested in."
"Got it. Supergirl, Cupid wants to know your current status in romantic relationships."
"WHAT. WHY?!"
"He's a love doctor, just like Music Meister over here."
"Fine. I'm single. My boyfriend and I broke up."
"WHOA WHOA WHOA. AGAIN?! Another break-up in two weeks! Never mind. Now, Flash, what was the most awkward moment ever in your life? And that's from Dancer."
"Umm… I think it was when I first accidentally crashed into Supergirl's world. She had no clue at all about any of the superheroes in my world. I was absolutely shocked, no pun intended."
"Hardy har har. Okay, so…" they went on for ten more minutes before starting a game of Truth or Dare.
Alas, there always seems to be an interruption to everything. There was an interruption to this, too. Before they could even settle down and start, a shrill screech shattered the glass windows above. Swarms of dark smoke swirled in, attacking the stage. The Twins went in a frenzy, forming a bubble shield to protect the audience from the intruders.
It wasn't until they got a closer look did they realize what the smoke was. It emitted from a strangely horse-shaped, transparent dark gray thing you could see inside of with a black skeleton of rubber knobs for joints.
"NOOO! A NIGHTMARE INVASION!" Lorris hollered. She pressed a button on her remote control, and a shield formed around the stage. She passed through to combat the "nightmares" she was talking about.
Kara, Barry, and Oliver realized that these nightmares were the exact ones that plagued dreams. Cisco tried searching them up on a computer near the couch and found results for the Nightmare Evolutions.
Meanwhile, five nightmares-four of them the first evolution, and one ghostmare - were nearly killing Lorris. Nilla was still inside the bubble shield, put on a full body bind from her sister. None of the defenses Lorris made were effective, and she knew that. But if she really wanted to rid these creatures, she would have to reveal her hidden secret.
Lorris heaved a great sigh to herself, "FINE. I'LL DO IT." She screamed, loud as a banshee. The cry split the air, and she jumped off the ceiling to the ground… turning into an ocelot.
The ocelot rushed at the five nightmares, dragging her claws through the transparent ghost-like hide. She snapped the neck of one of them, but as nightmares are very durable, the one with her neck cut through still lived.
"Are you kidding me. An ocelot? YOU TWO TURN TO OCELOTS?!" Oliver shouted, "ARE YOU ALIEN OR METAHUMAN?" The answer he got was, "DO YOU THINK WE'RE METAS! AND WE'RE ALSO NOT ALIENS!" from Nilla, still in the full body-bind. "WE'RE THE SPIRITS OF THE TWIN SUNS OF TATOOINE!"
Lorris was still fighting the nightmares to no avail. She still didn't want to reveal her very secret weapon against them, though now she had no choice. The ocelot again heaved a heavy sigh. With a growl, she channeled her thoughts through the bronze velvet harness-collar she was wearing. The fifty amethysts and single black pearl glowed like fire. It formed shapes of solid light emitting from her forehead - much similar to a Lantern ring, but much different. This feat by Lorris could only be accomplished if you were born with the blood of a star spirit.
The light closed the nightmares into a tight cluster, destroying them bit by bit until the dark steeds were completely disintegrated. Oh, and as these nightmares are made of pure darkness, they just floated back into the dark.
Lorris sustained three gashes on her flank. Once she turned back into a human, though, and back into a cat again to check herself over, her wounds had vanished. Not a single bit of evidence was left. Now the hard part was explaining to the superheroes about the star spirits and Xanadu.
Once that was imprinted into their brains (in ten minutes), they went back to Truth Or Dare. ALL the dares and truths were from Cupid. The punishments for forfeiting were from Hyperfang.
"Sooo. Vibe, truth or dare?" Nilla asked. Cisco replied, "Truth." Lorris: "How many times have you tried to eat Flash's popsicle collection?" Barry: "Wait, he WHAT?!" Cisco: "Um… at least fifty times?" Barry: (under his breath) "I am going to kill you."
Nilla: "Supergirl, truth or dare?" Kara: "Truth." Lorris: "Who do you like?" Kara: "I don't know." Lorris: "But you did like someone, and I can smell that you have a crush on someone." Kara: "I might, but I don't know who."
Nilla: "Green Arrow, truth or dare?" Oliver: "Ugh, I'm gonna regret it, but dare." Lorris: "Eat a Carolina Reaper pepper - they're the worst - with five super salty brined pickles dipped in vinegar. There's some behind the couch." Oliver: "I KNEW I would regret this." He reached behind the couch and fished out a jar full of extra-salty pickles soaked in vinegar and five Carolina Reaper peppers in a bag. He cringed and bit down on one of the pickles. "OW, SO SALTY!" Ow. Let's skip that and move on. (Lots of ice cream alert!)
The next was for Mick Rory, who chose dare. "Try to say the whole periodic table of elements by atomic number order." He only got up to calcium. Lorris bit back a snicker and stated, "You know what, let's have Blitzen come in here and let her say the whole thing." She blew on the whistle. In three seconds a doe with a jagged yellow stripe running down each side of her head was in the auditorium. "Hi! I'm Blitzen. It's nice to be back here to rattle off the whole table again, so let's get started!
"Erhem. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorous, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium, scandium, titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, gallium, germanium, arsenic, selenium, bromine, krypton, rubidium, strontium, yttrium, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, technetium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, cadmium, indium, tin, antimony, tellurium, iodine, xenon, cesium, barium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, rhenium, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, mercury, thallium, lead, bismuth, polonium, astatine, radon, francium, radium, actinium, thorium, protactinium, uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium, seaborgium, bohrium, hassium, meitnerium, darmstadtium, roentgenium, copernicium, ununtrium, ununquadium, ununpentium, ununhexium, ununseptium, ununoctium. Done!"
Lorris exhaled a huge sigh of relief. "THANK GOODNESS! That took up only five minutes! Okay, you can go now, Lightning War." Blitzen grinned. "Got it. See y'all later!" She flew out the window.
Nilla: "Kid Flash, truth or dare?" Wally: "Truth." Lorris: "Is is true that Flash likes someone by the name of KD aka SG aka GOS?" Wally: "You code- named the person? Cool. Oh yeah, and true." Twins: "KNEW IT!"
Nilla: "Flash, truth or dare?" Barry: "…Truth." Lorris: "Who do you like?" Barry: "… uh… I forfeit." Lorris: "Oh, okay. Hyperfang's punishment for you is to play seven minutes in heaven with Supergirl. … Don't ask. I did NOT come up with it, I'm serious."
By now the whole group on the stage was laughing their heads off, looking shocked, or hooting. Kara's face was hilarious. Her eyebrows sharply shot up, her jaw dropped, and she looked hilarious. Barry, on the other hand, was extremely embarrassed, although TT could detect a slight trace of happiness washing over him.
Oliver stifled his laughs as he pushed Barry to the wardrobe on the side of the stage, prepared beforehand for the punishment. J'onn shook his head as he nudged Kara along. They shoved the two superheroes into the wardrobe and locked the door. Well, actually, Lorris did the locking with her purple glass key shaped like a bird.
Inside, Kara fidgeted uncomfortably. She used her x-ray vision to make sure that Barry was in front of her, talking nervously. "Um… what… just happened? Seriously, what just happened?"
Barry shrugged. "I have no idea. Hey, have you ever done this before?"
"Kissed someone? Yeah, of course I have. Played this game? Never." Kara exhaled. "The Terrors somehow always make thing awkward. Kind of like Alex sometimes."
"Oh, you too? That happened a lot with Iris when we were younger." Barry chuckled. From outside the door, Lorris silently gestured to Nilla. They both could hear Barry and Kara talking to each other and not doing the dare.
Nilla banged once on the door. "We know you're talking. If you're not doing it we'll keep the door locked the whole night and go on with the next dares now." They moved on to the next few dares.
As Kara had no idea about how to kiss someone in complete darkness, she sighed. "You know, what's it like to do this? I used my X-ray vision on the paper, which said no one except for the twins is allowed to used powers." (Lorris sniffed out every word.)
"You know what, never mind."
"HEY! YOU TWO IN THERE!" Nilla shouted from outside. "I can still hear you talking! DO THE DARE!" She tore a piece of the door down with surprising strength. "If you don't do it I'm letting Lorris kick you off to the Asteroid Belt with a scream, and Hyperfang will be joining in on it to make sure you go straight to 500 galaxies away!"
She slammed the broken piece of birch wood back on, and it instantly fixed itself.
"Let's just hurry up so they stop nagging," Barry sighed. So they did a small thing - just a simple little thing on the cheek. Nothing wrong, nothing bad, it was just platonic.
Or so they thought. The Cupidity Meter didn't think so. And just right after they did it, a huge red blush took over. The Cupidity Meter was ticking very quickly, raising the red liquid to 130 beats per minute, around moderato.
List of other dares and truths: Mick had to confess how much he thought the name Supergirl was stupid. Sara was dared to try to scream a piece of duct tape off her mouth. Felicity was forced to try to eat Cisco's foot (which was like spoiled milk). Wally had to act like a diva girl. And more.
After the show ended, Lorris went absolutely crazy at the DEO. "WHEEE! SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WENT AWESOME! THERE'S A NEW SHIP IN TOWN!"
