CHAPTER 010: Unexpected reunion...

The people on both sides of the fork finished their respective bathing rituals. At around this time, a huge mass of sound crashed all around them; it was like being thrown into the middle of a construction site.

The ladies, who had long since changed and were halfway through inspecting each locker, got low and froze until the sound abated.

"Any guesses what that was?"

"It kinda reminds me of those big whooshy doors at the Hero Association," Rock said, almost absentmindedly. Despite this, her teammates took the suggestion seriously.

"Let's backtrack then and see if a new passage opened. Since moving walls are a possibility, we'll use formation Charlie."

Paper wrapped around Rock's back before turning her head 180 degrees, like an owl. Rock, meanwhile, hovered just behind Scissors. Her arms made it look like she was about to deliver a sneak hug on the smaller lady in black; but, since her arms were stone, the protection gained was worth looking a bit silly. Finally, Scissors had both hands and even her toes in blade form.

Like a mighty turtle, they lumbered back towards the pool.

"Looks like your hearing was eerily good again," Paper commented as they peered down a stair case which appeared right in the middle of the fork.

"Thanks, I eat a lot of carrots."

"Enough joking around. Paper, take front. I want you to slither down the stair's rails ahead of us. Rock, watch our backs and block anyone trying to sneak attack. Whichever side gets hit first, I'll support."

They thus continued their journey, hearts' tense with anticipation. But, as seconds turned to minutes, they realized something was wrong.

"This is too easy," Scissors commented with furrowed brow.

"Right? I'm kinda bummed out. She usually gives me a good workout with all the traps and robots," Rock added.

"What say you, paper?"

In front of her, slithering down the rail, was a monstrously long flat worm. When she asked that question, a drawing of a mouth and an eye appeared on its back.

"Hrmm... Maybe her next challenge is super difficult, so she wants to make sure we are 100%... Ooh, a door!"

A second eye quickly traveled up the length of the tapeworm from below. When it joined the rest of the face, the tape worm retracted and performed a series of folds in on itself. After the disturbing transformation reached completion, it revealed an excited Paper; her two dimensional arm pointed down the stairs.

Following her lead, they came upon the door. It was massive, metal, and of the sliding variety. Scissors gestured for their silence before approaching. She got on her belly and, using a bladed finger, carefully cut a peep hole in the bottom of it.

She looked through it for a solid minute before standing and sliding open the door with a loud THUD!

"What are you doing here!?!"

"What! I can't come watch my own experiments? I'll have you know this is my condo now! I learned from last time and bought all the neighbors out, MUAHAHAHA!!!!"

"What? No, I mean why are you here now! It's been 2 trials and a shower! Last time we didn't go face to face until after 30!?!?!"

"Oh yeah, the lock-in special... Good times," the Plague doctor mused, a wistful look in her eyes.

"Stay back everyone, I think there's a hallucinatory agent in this room!"

"Oh, why can't you ever be nice? Fine, I'll show you! Just like I showed all those Beckies! Laser Disco, activate!"

The three heroes, still standing in the hallway, were forced into the room by a closing wall. The room resembled an empty gymnasium, except every surface inside it was covered in a mirrored plate. A hole in the ceiling opened up, and from it descended a device very similar to a crystalline projector.

There were several key differences, of course. For one, the crystal on display here was highly inferior in quality; a full 10% of it was clouded with impurities, and the overall shape was far rougher. More importantly, however, was the fact it was mounted on what appeared to be the tip of a death ray.

The Plague Doctor was physically present in the room as well, just opposite the heroes. She sat atop a raised and shielded platform, putting her in a much better position than them. To her right was a small laptop with no keyboard.

She waved her hand at it, and the disco ball spun while music blared. A death ray beam fired, getting refracted in several directions by the crystal. This got further complicated by the fact said beams also bounced off every surface in the room.

Paper twisted this way and that in the air, still managing to dodge even after the active beams reached 70.

Rock purposefully ran into the nearest beam.

"AAH! That smarts! It's a non lethal stun beam, guys! You can take 30 hits before passing out, probably!"

Scissors turned her entire arms into blades, using them like shields to reflect the beams. Despite the heavy impact, this worked until the active beams hit 50; she started getting hit from 2 to 3 sides at a time with that density.

"Rock! Break that thing on the ray tip!"

Rock slammed her fist into the floor, shattering the mirrored panel below her. She grabbed a shard and chunked it, her aim only slightly off due to a beam hitting her shoulder mid throw. It sliced through the air, leaving a scratch along 2% of the crystal's surface.

Lest one think that a small amount, any beam hitting the scratch would lose a massive amount of intensity, similar to those beams which hit the cloudy bits. These baby beams were like tickles to the heroes, so scissors immediately jumped in to help. She dragged her blade arms on the ground, leaving two giant gashes in her wake.

Time slowed down with all the adrenaline in the air. The heroes gave it their everything in one final push to break the device before the beams overwhelmed them, while their nemesis vacillated between mania and devastation.

BZZRP!!!!

Before the door behind the heroes even finished opening, a blur had entered the room. It zoomed this way and that like a gnat, effortlessly avoiding every beam in its path. That path ran towards the wall, at which point the blur ran right up it and to the ceiling.

When the blur got close enough, a tail looking object shot out from it.

CRACK!

A sound like thunder clapping roared through the room. The blur slammed into the ground between the heroes and their nemesis, finally becoming visible to the naked eye.

It was Logan, dressed in nothing but a towel, with the crystal wrapped under one arm. He slowly stood up, smiled, and then yelled at the heroes in front of him.

"Do you guys have boulders for brains!?! Do you know how expensive this is? VERY! And who's the jerk that designed this place? Sending a robot to steal my clothes, not even giving me a replacement set! Wait till I see this joker, I'll give him a piece of my mind!"

CLACK!

The sound of a mask hitting the floor quietly creeped through the room. Yet, for obvious reasons, it was a sound just as impactful as the thunderous roar.

"Carrello?"

Logan turned, and his mouth went slack jawed. He was so shocked he didn't even realize he'd dropped his towel.

"Hampton?"

Her hair was frazzled, and her eyes had bags under them. They were super apparent on account of her spectacles, and she didn't wear make up. Despite all this, the lady who looked like an overworked grad student exuded a fragile charm which made her beauty radiant; something even more apparent when compared to the now winded and boggle eyed heroes.

"It's been a long time," she said while opening the doors to her raised platform.

"Indeed it has. Gracious roommates, please scram a second for us, will you?"

They had no choice in the matter, as he had already forced them into the hallway by the time he finished asking.

"I take it the experiments were a success..."

"Yeah, turns out I understand machines better than people... Oh, let me print you some clothes! Computer!"

Logan, just now remembering his towel fell, dressed himself faster than the machine could print his new outfit.

"I think you might have a hidden talent for luck manipulation. Why else would these embarrassing situations keep happening to us?"

"Does that make you the lucky pervert, or me?"

They both laughed, and then fell silent.

"You look healthy, Abiona."

"And you look pale, Logan... What happened to you? Where'd you go?"

"The military finished poking and probing me, so they dumped me into the private sector."

"I missed you when you left..."

"I'm sure you didn't stay long there."

"Hehe, you're right. I left right after sticking it to those skanks."

"I'm glad; you weren't meant to be in a cage..."

"Does that mean you were?"

she merely thought the last question, not having the courage to ask it aloud.