Death Trap Fun House Part 2

Jeopardy, the villain that put together this evil scheme, was sat in his recording studio. As a former stunt man he’d always made sure he had the very best equipment. That was especially important for his current project, the one that he was recording another link for while keeping an eye on the screens he’d got set up to show the action going on in his special fun house.

“Welcome back,” he said, “and for those who have only just joined us, you’re late, but that’s okay. You may have missed a whole lot of action featuring some of the greatest heroines on the planet but I can assure you, there is a whole lot more action to come.

“So far Lightning Blaze, Wisp, Pneuma and Golden Pump have escaped up onto the second floor of the Death Trap Fun House, already having faced some classic traps. Trouble is some of the worst traps the house has for them are up here and, just as they’re getting together as a team, they’ve been split up and now are heading down different paths in teams of two. Can they come back together and escape the house with their lives? They don’t seem to be getting along so well, that might be more of a danger than any of the traps set by me. All I can say is good luck girls. I think you’re going to need it.”

He smiled to the camera, letting it linger before he switched it off and returned his attention to the cameras, ready to see how well they overcome the new challenges.

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Lightning Blaze and Wisp made it to the end of the corridor they’d found beyond the door they’d stepped through. As they did automatic lights began to blur into life, letting them see the maze they were entering. It was a collection of squares, each one with four walls. Most were made of perspex but some were mirrors, the ones round the outside were solid stone. It looked a confusing mess, but there was a clear exit they could see. It looked like a simple task of finding their way there. Lightning Blaze pushed the wall in front of her and it swung open easily. It seemed some of the walls would move but others wouldn’t making it even harder to find the correct path. They then heard something land above their heads, looking up they saw a small robot on wheels that could drop a sword through the mesh that covered the top of the maze.

“I think that thing is to keep us moving,” Wisp pointed out.

Lightning Blaze just glared at her and made her way into the maze.

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“This is all your fault,” Golden Pump was complaining, again, “if you hadn’t complained and just gone the way I’d said, we’d all still be together now.”

Pneuma just rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her like she’d done for the better part of the last quarter of an hour. It had felt longer. So far the corridor didn’t seem to be leading anywhere and they’d encountered no actual traps. Pump had almost given up on looking for the traps as a block of stone dropped in front of them. She nearly leapt out of her skin but in fact only leapt as far as Pneuma’s arms. She quickly realised what she’d done and got back to her feet.

“Okay, for the record I wasn’t actually scared.”

“Of course you weren’t,” Pneuma rolled her eyes, something she seemed to do a lot around Golden Pump. “Any chance it has any metal you can actually do anything to actually lift it up.”

Golden Pump stepped forward and held out her hands, hoping that she actually could do something, so far most of the death traps she’d had to face were made from stone and plastic, limiting her ability to fight them. Slowly the pillar began to rise back up. For a moment Pump looked so happy. Then another dropped just beyond the first. The first then dropped again as the second began to slowly rise again.

“I’m guessing they’re doing that on their own,” Pneuma pointed out, sounding disappointed, “so much for nothing stumps the Pump.”

Golden Pump just turned and stuck her tongue out at her.

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Lightning Blaze and Wisp were having to run through the maze. The robot above them was relentless and was not giving them a chance to think about which was the best way togo. They quickly found their way into the middle of the maze with no idea of how to get back to the start or to the other side.

“Draw it one way,” Wisp suggested, “I’ve got an idea.”

They split as Wisp had suggested, Wisp shrinking down as she did so the machine went after Lightning Blaze. As soon as it did Wisp threw a fireball at it. The fireball hit it at the back end and instantly it exploded in a puff of smoke. Wisp grew back to full size, a big grin on her face, wiping her hands like it was over already. That’s when two more of the robots dropped onto the mesh above them. Wisp let out a light shriek as a sword swung down close to her head. The two of them were chased in different directions as the two machines each targeted one of them.

Wisp was herded towards one of the back walls, not that she really noticed. As soon as she pressed into it straps swung round leaving her trapped, her wings pinned behind her back. The wall then slowly rotated and Wisped dropped down a tube on the other side.

All Lightning Blaze could do was watch as she lost another ally in her struggle to get free of this place. She angrily held her hands up and unleashed a bolt of lightning which struck the nearest machine. It exploded like the other had. She then used her sword to slice open the mesh and leapt up onto it with her ninja-like agility. She sliced the other as it approached and unleashed more of her lightning at the horde dropping from above. This set off a chain reaction as they exploded up into the machine unleashing them. Lightning Blaze ran, the explosion expanding behind her until she reached the exit. She dived through it and let the slab that fell behind her contain the rest of the blast.

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“Are you sure this will work?” Pneuma sounded unsure as she looked at her jacket spread across the floor.

“Of course it will,” Pump looked shocked she’d even be questioned about this.

Golden Pump was back down to a bikini style costume, having used the rest of her gold to line the edges of Pneuma’s jacket, holding it taut so they could both ride on it.

“Now shut up and do your thing,” Pump added, knowing this was going to take a lot of concentration from both of them, “and let me concentrate on doing mine.”

Pneuma held up her hands and created a buffer of nearly solid air, strong enough to slow the pillars that were trying to drop on them. In the meantime Golden Pump was using her powers over metal to make Pneuma’s jacket act like a stretcher carrying them both over the corridor towards the relative safety of the next door. It was taking a tremendous amount of focus from both of them to get them across in one piece, it was slow and steady progress as they juddered and swayed as the pillars dropped. Sometimes the drops made Pump jump, shaking the ride making it harder for Pneuma. Other times the pressure Pneuma was fighting led to the pillar dropping closer to them, forcing Pump to adjust accordingly. Finally they made it to the door. They scrambled off their ride, reassembling their costumes as they did so, and almost tumbled through the door at the same time.

The other side of it had a staircase, in fact it had two, one going up one going down. Pneuma was the first to her feet, using her power of the air to carry her up the stairs, shouting back that that seemed the best way to go.

“Best way,” Pump called back, “best for who? Going down is much easier and there are usually doors on the ground floor.”

Pneuma shouted something back, but Pump couldn’t really hear her. She stepped down one step.

“See how much easier it is,” she called back up, she then screamed as the stairs dropped into a ramp. She struggled to regain her footing and get off it, but it was too late, momentum had her and she slid down. Pillars then shut off the way back for both of them.

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Wisp screamed all the way down. The slab she was attached to via straps that pinned her wings behind her was falling down a chute at a fast pace, it would have been a fun ride if not for the fact she had no idea what to expect at the bottom, she just knew it would not be pleasant. She was right. The stone she was attached to moved from the metal chute to plastic rollers, designed to leave the slab undamaged as it moved from vertical motion to horizontal. It did nothing to cushion the ride for Wisp however as she was clattered about, she wondered how she’d explain these bruises, she just hoped she got the chance.

Finally it came to a stop and Wisp opened her eyes. It looked like a sci fi dentist's workshop. She shuddered at the thought of what looked like a laser drill above the slab starting up and getting directed at her mouth. She didn’t have to worry about that however. When it turned on the laser slowly started making its way up the slab, it would have sliced her almost in half before it reached her mouth. Somehow, this was not a comforting thought. She spread her legs to make sure she had the maximum amount of time before it hit her.

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Pneuma reached the top of the stairs and looked back to see where Golden Pump was, it was only then that she realised she was alone. She rolled her eyes and stepped into the room. As expected, it sealed behind her, but it seemed there were no other exits in the white room with metallic walls. She ran a hand over them and felt a low hum. It took her a moment before she realised they were getting cold.

She ran back to the doorway, but it was sealed tight. She could barely even feel any air coming from round it, she’d never be able to get enough pressure under there to lift it. She began moving round the room looking for another exit. She figured there had to be one, these traps had always had one so far, she just had to find it. And she had to do it fast, her costume was designed for many things, warmth was not one of them.

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Lightning Blaze had her sword raised and ready to swing. She was not happy and she had every intention of letting whatever she was about to face know that. That was why she was disappointed that she was in a large empty chamber. The only feature was a checkerboard of numbered squares that stretched from one edge of the room to another. She stopped before stepping out onto it, drawing a shuriken from her pocket that she threw onto the board. As it hit it began to spark, Lightning Blaze estimated that it would take more than 10 amps to make arcs like that, more than enough to cause cardiac arrest.

Lightning Blaze knew she couldn’t leap to safety, even with her agility, she couldn’t fly over the board or even go round the side. She had to think of a way to cross it without getting electrocuted. That was when another screen slid down from the roof. It looked a lot like the one that gave the group their first instructions. She had the urge to throw her sword through it, but held back as she waited for the message it had. It was simple yet enigmatic, it said ‘Pawns less Dwarves.’ She stepped on the square marked one. It lit up, telling her she was safe. She then was given another question.

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Golden Pump hit the bottom of her ramp with a bump. It was at moments like that that she really wished she had something more substantial covering her rear, it was nice that it got her so much attention, but it really did hurt taking hits like that. She got up grumbling, rubbing her bottom to try and get it feeling better again, and walked into the room she was now in; a simple corridor that looked perfectly safe. That should have been a warning to her.

She strode out into the middle of the corridor, still more concerned with what she’d just been through rather than what was about to come. She never even noticed the trapdoor she stood on until it had given way and she fell through. The shock had been enough to stop her from using her powers to save herself, meaning she hit the water that she’d just discovered below. It was cold and she knew it would be ruining her hair, her make up and her shoes. Worse still, the trapdoor she’d fallen through had swung closed once again.

“Could this get any worse,” Pump spat out angrily as she slapped the water.

Her tempting of fate was punished depending how you look at it, by the arrival of a shark.

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Pneuma had walked round the room time after time, now it was more about trying to keep warm rather than searching for an exit, she’d more or less given up on finding one of them. It was so cold in the room now, she was shivering, trying to pull her jacket round her further but so much skin was on display, she couldn’t cover it all. The colder it was getting the more she was sinking into despair at the situation. She dropped to the floor and lay on her back looking decidedly sorry for herself.

“Sorry Yul,” she muttered as she just stared up at the wooden roof, letting the cold take her.

It was staring at that that made her think. Firstly she couldn’t believe what she was doing. This wasn’t her. She did not just give up. Not when there was still fight left in her. Yes she was cold, but that wasn’t about to beat her. The floor was solid stone, she knew that from lying on it. She’d checked the walls time and time again, they held no escape, but she had one more option. She focused the air round her as best she could and used it to propel herself up like a rocket, smashing through the wood.

She let herself drop to the floor on this new storey clutching her fist as she let the much warmer room thaw her out a little before she was ready to move on. She looked at her hand, the knuckles looked cut and a little bloody, but she’d seen worse.

“I bet that’s going to hurt when I get some feeling back,” she muttered to herself.

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Golden Pump was using parts of her costume to hold her just above the water she had been dropped into. The shark in the water kept raising its head above the water trying to reach her. So far it had been a perfect stalemate, trouble was that couldn’t last forever and the moment Pump passed out from the exhaustion she’d inevitably face it would make the remains of her costume melt away and the disc he was stood on drop too.

She was not happy. She was only getting angrier as she grew ever more frustrated by the situation she was in. She looked for any kind of metal she could find to deal with the shark. That was when she noticed the hinge of the trapdoor. She clicked her fingers and the hinge gave way, dropping the trapdoor on the shark and giving her a hole to escape through.

As soon as she was out the costume reformed and she marched out through the next door. She was through playing these games and she was going to make sure everyone knew it.

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Wisp was arching her back, rolling side to side, trying to sit up, anything she could to loosen the straps holding her pinned to the slab as the laser was closing in on her. She knew she didn’t have to get them loose, she just needed to get her wings loose, then she could shrink and escape. It was working too. She could feel her wings getting a little movement. The trouble was the laser was getting closer to her. She gulped a little, looking worried, but kept fighting, feeling just a little give. With less than half an inch to spare she felt her wings flutter and instantly shrank down.

She was free and ready to fly away, the laser still coming closer when the laser stopped. Wip looked perplexed as she saw the laser turret itself fall to the slab beside her. She then turned and looked up to see Lightning Blaze stood there, her sword held still where she had sliced through the laser. Wisp smiled up to her.

“You okay?” Lightning Blaze asked without a smile.

“Yeah, thanks, are you?”

“This place has a lot of traps, we need to get everyone back together.” Lightning Blaze was cold in response.

“I know, but you didn’t answer my question.”

“No,” Lightning Blaze looked away, “I didn’t.”

She started to walk off then grimaced in pain, dropping to one knee. Instantly Wisp was full size again and by her side, helping her up. Lightning Blaze pulled away, trying to stand on her own, she began falling again. This time she accepted Wisp’s help.

“What happened to you?” Wisp demanded, her concern growing by the second.

“Got a question wrong,” Blaze explained, “paid for it, if I’d been normal I’d be dead. As it is…”

“As it is you seem pretty close to it.” Wisp warned as they staggered closer to the door.

“I can handle it,” she insisted, pushing free again, this time standing under her own power.

The new room they were in looked like a small box, if all four of them had been in there there would hardly be enough room to stand. This helped Lightning Blaze, as she was able to lean on the wall to regain and maintain her balance. What didn’t help was when a pipe above them began emitting a thick, green gas.

“Poison,” Lightning Blaze stated as she started to cough, being too weakened to fight it, “get out of here!”

“I can’t leave you,” Wisp stated, trying to help her companion.

“I’ll slow you down,” Lightning Blaze looked somewhat saddened, “I’m already choking. Just tell Amy that I love her.”

“Tell her yourself.”

It was a new voice. Pneuma was back with the group and she was using her power to push the poison back into the pipe, blocking it and stopping anymore coming out using a cloud of solid air. The pressure in the pipe was building because of this. Pneuma held up one hand, fingers spread and slowly counted down by folding fingers away. As the last finger closed into her fist the pipe exploded, blowing a hole in the wall they could walk through. Wisp ran over and hugged her.

“I hope you don’t expect a hug from me,” Lightning Blaze told her.

“No, I know you’re too busy with that bug up your butt,” Pneuma laughed as she said it, “sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, I was chilling upstairs, literally.”

“Well we’re back together now,” Wisp gushed, “can we get out of here now?”

“Well almost,” Lightning Blaze pointed out.

“I don’t suppose you’d be persuaded to leave her, she is a meanie.”

“I really want to agree with you Little Wings,” Pneuma countered, “but we’re the good guys, we don’t leave anyone behind, not even if we want to.”

“I know I was just hoping.”

It was then that the trio heard the growl. Wisp turned to where Lightning Blaze was struggling to stand in the new room they had just entered. She gave the serious heroine a little shrug.

“It was only a joke, there’s no need to growl at me.”

“I didn’t growl,” Lightning Blaze answered.

“I think it was him,” Pneuma stepped in between them and pointed.

They turned to see a tiger pulling on its chain as a panel fell away. All three of them stepped back.

“Is it just me or does that tiger look really hungry?” Pneuma said with a slight gulp.

“I thought all tigers looked hungry,” Wisp pointed out.

“Get behind me,” Lightning Blaze drew her sword.

“Don’t hurt the poor kitty,” Wisp looked aghast at the idea of the sword.

“What do you think it wants to do to us?” Pneuma said, her eyes still locked on the chain as it pulled away from the latch it was held on.

Suddenly the tiger was moving with ferocious speed. It looked like the heroines had no chance to react when the tiger stopped in midair. It just hung there, looking as confused as a  tiger could. The chain round its neck was held taut in the air and stood behind it was Golden Pump.

“Leave them alone,” she demanded.

She got a growl in response, but she didn’t even flinch, knowing the tiger wasn’t going anywhere. She then raised her arm and began to spin it, in response the chain began spinning too.

“Now I reckon that the cowardly bastard that brought us here is probably hiding miles away,” Pump announced looking very annoyed, “but he’s tried to drown me, twice, tried to crush me, to squash me and feed me to his pets. And if I can’t rip his liver out myself I’m going to bring his maniac mansion down, one damn trap at a time.”

She released the chain from her power, throwing the tiger back behind the panel it had come from and sealing it back inside.

“Guess there was enough room in here to swing a cat,” Pneuma shrugged.

“Okay,” Wisp looked shocked, “you might still be a bit of a meanie, but that was kinda epic.”

“It certainly was,” Pump bragged, though she didn't want to give the impression she’d saved them, “I didn’t do it for your benefit. Look losers, I’m going to take this place apart there has to be enough metal in the building to crack the foundations and bring the place down. It might be a good idea if you got out of here before I did that. Or not. I don’t really care.”

“That’s great and all, but do we actually know where the exit is?” Pneuma asked.

“We make one,” Lightning Blaze suggested, running her hand against a wall, “this is an outside wall, I think if we all hit it at the same time we should easily put a hole in it.”

Golden Pump stepped back, thinking she wasn’t going to be able to do much here while the others got into position. Pneuma focused all the air in the room into a wind that could have come from an F5 hurricane. As that battered the wall Wisp and Lightning Blaze stood side by side, the former launching a fireball, the latter unleashing bolts of lightning. After the barrage that left the trio looking rather tired, especially Lightning Blaze, and the smoke cleared they discovered they had failed to make a hole in the wall. They had torn away the top layer covering it, but they had simply revealed an inner layer of titanium. It was dented but not broken.

“My turn,” Golden Pump smiled as she stepped forward.

Before she could do anything else though the floor began to move. It had become a conveyer belt and the far wall had dropped away revealing a furnace. They looked in terror as they were moving rapidly toward it. Before any of the others could react however, Wisp fluttered her wings, rising off the travelator and unleashed an icy blast dowsing the flames instantly. Golden Pump turned without a thanks to the wall, having the titanium fire out as a spear, straight through the belt, stopping it instantly. She then kept forcing it down, stripping the metal from the wall, destabilizing it and cracking the foundation.

“We have to get out of here,” Pneuma shouted, “the whole place is coming down.”

Using her power over the air she glided over to Lightning Blaze, pulled her up into her arms and made her way to one of the now many holes in the wall that Golden Pump was leaving in her wake.

Wisp looked back to Pump as she was making her way out and noticed she hadn’t moved. She wasn’t sure if it was her powers that were consuming her or her anger and rage, but it looked like Pump was about to bury herself. Wisp shrunk down to avoid debris as she made her way back to Pump. Once there she grew full size again and grabbed the raging heroine, pulling her up into the air and out one of the holes.

“Made it,” Wisp grinned as she set Pump down.

“I hope you’re not expecting a thank you,” Pump responded as she watched her handiwork bringing the house in the middle of nowhere down.

“I hope you are,” Wisp responded, “you saved my life.”

“Well then I guess we’re even.”

“You really know how to bring the house down Pumpster,” Pneuma offered her a handshake, “I’ll give you that.”

Pump hesitated, she was thinking about shaking it. She sighed and took it, shaking it once and then pulling it away. She began to walk off.

“Just don’t think this makes us friends,” she shouted back.

“Where are you going?” Wisp called out.

“Section 7 will be looking for me, there has to be some kind of civilisation at the end of this road, even the most basic place will have a phone. I’ll tell them to call off the search.”

“Search,” Pneuma whispered to Wisp, “they’re more likely to need to cancel the party.”

Wisp giggled as the trio set off after their erstwhile companion.

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“So there we have it,” Jeopardy stated to the camera once more, recording his final link for the webcast, “they are four of the best and together they stood up to everything the funhouse could throw at them. They not only took out the puzzles they had to face, they took the funhouse down itself. I’d say that was the most spectacular victory they could have had. The only question is, once it’s rebuilt, will the next quartet of heroines be able to do just as well? The only way to find out is to tune for the next Death Trap Fun House.”

He then gave the camera his cheesiest smile, knowing that the logo would then fade in. He turned off the camera and began plotting once more.