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PART 16
They walked slowly away, until Kalador found an arch. They stepped
through, and found themselves in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Tom was
chasing Jerry around the corner. They were Jerry-sized, of course. The
arch they had come through was Jerry's mouse hole.
"This Toymaker is one sick puppy," Joel observed.
"I've seen worse," the Doctor replied absently. "We've got to find
another mouse hole to get out of here."
Joel looked at Ace. "He's seen *worse*?"
She grimaced. "Ask me about Fenric sometime," she said, "And this
Gone fruitcake he's hitched with sounds no flyweight either."
"He is a formidable opponent," agreed Maxx.
"Let us go!" Urged Kalador, and at that moment Tom and Jerry came
round the corner again.
Mike slid down the left hand chute, faster and faster. Two of the
marbles, the black and red ones, followed him. It finally emptied out
into a small room. He leaped out of the chute's path. The black
marble's momentum carried it on, but the red one turned and attemped to
crush him against the wall. He leaped away just in time, and it smashed
itself so hard into the wall that it was jammed. Shaken, Mike took the
right hand exit, and came to a room filled with acid slime pools...that
moved.
Gone brooded from the high observation point. They were doing far
too well; none of them had died yet. The Orcs had yet to reach them,
and at the rate they were going, they would cross paths with the other
human, Mike, soon enough. What else could he do to make things
difficult? He continued to brood.
Kalador sliced Tom's foot, which held him up. Then they ran for
the mouse hole Jerry was making for. They shot through. Jerry stared
at them as they passed, but made no other sign. A few feet further, and
they stepped back into the labyrinth.
Mike danced between the moving acid pools, and came to the exit of
the Marble Madness game...but there was a green marble blocking the way.
The Doctor had chosen their direction, left, with a divining rod
from his pockets. Without warning, Orcs came surging round the corner...
PART 17
In a flurry of movement, Ace, Maxx, and Kalador lunged to the attack. Ace wielded her
bat, Maxx thrust with his claws, and Kalador swung his great sword.
It was a flurry of action to swift for even the Doctor to follow,
and when it was over, all but one Orc was dead, the rest fled.
"Well, that's overrrr," trilled the Doctor. "Onward and upward--"
"Doctor," said Joel, not sounding at all silly. The Doctor turned,
and saw why; Kalador was sitting against the wall of the Labyrinth,
bleeding profusely from several wounds.
He opened his eyes and looked at them. "Do not grieve," he
managed. "I have always known I would die in battle. But never in so
strange a place as thi--" he was interrupted by a bout of bloody
coughing. When it was over, his eyes were closed. The Doctor felt for
a pulse, knowing that it was already too late.
"Can't you do anything for him?" asked Joel.
The Doctor couldn't answer, so Ace did it for him. "Not with the
stuff we've got 'ere," she said sadly.
The Doctor's shoulders slumped as another death was laid on his
consicence. Then he straighened up. "We can't even bury him. But we
can defeat those who killed him. Come on, let's go."
The Toymaker smiled. "There, you see? The first has fallen."
"But they are danerously near to contacting the other human," Gone
pointed out.
"Then let's move him around a little," grinned the Toymaker, eyes
glittering. He gestured with his hand.
Mike experienced a flash, and then landed in the middle of an
American football field. From both ends, players were charging him with
helmets down.
The Doctor's troupe came to a strange room, that seemed empty.
"There is no challenge here," said Maxx scornfully.
"Possibly not," said the Doctor warily. "Move cautiously, all the
same."
They inched along the floor of the room, which was made of rickety
wood. The Maxx's weight was too much, and the floor cracked open
beneath him, revealing a gaping hole. He began to fall...
PART 18
Joel and Ace each grabbed an arm, and the Doctor hooked his umbrella under Maxx's
buck teeth, hauling him up.
"Just a weak floor, is that it?" Asked Joel.
For an answer, the Doctor pointed downwards. Joel looked, and saw
that beneath the floor was a great gap, and far, far below there were
steel spikes pointed upwards. Joel gulped.
"How we gonna get purple boy across?" Asked Ace, but before the
Doctor could answer, Maxx was hopping gingerly from foot to foot, across
the wood. The others treaded cautiously behind him.
Gone and Toymaker looked down from their high place.
"They're still close together, and will probably meet soon," Gone
remarked.
"We should wait for them at the Center, then," Toymaker replied.
They headed toward the very heart of the Labyrinth, where the survivors,
if any, would eventually end up.
Torgo got up, finally awake from the being knocked over by the
Orcs. Rubbing his head, he stumbled down the passage.
Mike ran pell-mell for the sideline as the players charged him. He
had timed his run so that most of the football players crashed into
eachother at mid-field, but a few checked their run and pursued him.
More fit than he was, they were sure to overtake him. He was heading
for a player exit from the field, but his way was blocked by three Orcs.
The Doctor's party reached the other side of the wooden room, and
re-entered the Labyrinth. The Doctor was fiddling with his divining rod
again.
"What good's that, Professor?" Ace asked.
"I'm using it to find the most direct route to the core of this
maze," he said. "That's where the enemy will be waiting for us."
"Plot convenience--" Joel began, but Ace grabbed his nose and
squeezed hard.
The Doctor led them forward, through another archway. At first,
they thought they were still in the Labyrinth; for it was still
mazelike, the only difference being the glowing blue walls. Then Ace
and Joel gasped together as they realized it was a Pac Man video game
maze...
PART 19
"He's trapped us in Pacland," Joel whispered disbeleivingly.
"Let's try some other way," Ace urged, but when they turned back,
the arch had vanished, as the Doctor had suspected.
"No matter," said the Doctor brightly, "A simple mathematical
forrrrrmula will avail us to get through--" he was interrupted by a
ghost coming round the corner. "Maybe not!" he cried, as they leaped
aside to avoid it...all of them, that is, except Maxx. He stabbed
forward, right between the ghost's eyes. It's sheet fluttered to the
ground, and it's disembodied eyes fled away.
"I think we should let the Maxxinator go first," Joel suggested
eagerly. The Doctor nodded.
Mike leaped sideways, and the football players crashed into the
Orcs. He ran around, and was halfway through the exit, when he found
his way blocked by another Orc. It pointed it's spear at him and
grinned.
Torgo reached the Center of the Labyrinth. Gone and the Toymaker
were already there.
"Activate the monitors," Gone commanded, and Torgo obeyed, showing
where the players were.
"Not long now," said the Toymaker.
Mike grabbed the spear and yanked it away from the astonished Orc,
and thwaked it between the legs with it. The Orc made a squeaking
sound, a strange look on it's face, then collapsed. Mike sprinted on.
Maxx led the Doctor's troupe on and on, through the pac man maze.
So far they had only faced one additional ghost. The Doctor was
beginning to think they'd get through this part without further
incident, when they came face to face with Pac-Man.
Mike exited the football stadium, crossed a pathway of the
Labyrinth, and entered the Pac-Man maze from the other side...
To be continued…
