Aspect Elemental: By Amanda Flowers

   "Not as nice as Aquaria's are," Cies said, examining the blade.

   "Too true," the other concurred.

   "Shame about that."

   "Who is this Aquaria?!" The turtle was starting to lose his temper.

   "Well," Pi finally addressed his guest, "if you don't know, why did you come here?"

   "I was brought here against my will!"

Cies looked at the strange creature's weapon once more, and sighed. "Oh, maybe he doesn't know, Pi!"

The turtle muttered something under his breath, and realization dawned on him as he looked up at the great fish.

Cies gazed him down, and talked to him as she would a child; she hoped this odd animal would understand her. "If you're here, you are a guest. Of Aquaria."

   "Sometimes," Pi piped in, "she can be a gracious host. At other times..."

He trailed off, and indicated the silver chain.

The turtle--Leonardo, as he had called himself--sheathed his sword. "I would like to meet this...Aquaria."

Pi shook his head. "No...she meets you."

   "It's absolutely of her choosing," Cies added. "And, she often prefers a guest that brings a gift."

Leonardo looked away. He had nothing to offer... "What is this place?" he ventured to ask. "Am I still on Earth?"

Pi, swimming up next to Cies, gave his sister a confused look. "What is he talking about?"

   "That's another element entirely!" Cies told the turtle.

Leonardo sighed, "Well, what dimension is this?"

   "I can't make heads or tails of him now," Pi decided. He swam away, but was held back by the chain, and forced to an abrupt halt.

Leo blinked. "Why are you chained together, anyhow?"

Pi looked back at him with startled eyes, and got immediately on the defensive. "Well, it wasn't really our fault..."

   "Aquaria can be strict at times, you know," added the other, backing away.

   "And we only wanted a look!"

   "At what?" Leo asked.

   "Haven't you been listening?" Pi remarked. "The swords!"

   "What swords?"

   "Why, hers!" Cies replied. "I thought everyone knew about them! Honestly, I just don't understand her choice of guests," she added, confidentially, to Pi.

   "A mystery, indeed!" the fish answered.

   "They're like yours, turtle," Cies remarked, "but much nicer."

   "Sharper," Pi added.

Leonardo looked again at the heavy chain. "If you can help me out of here, I'll free you."

Pi wiggled his end of the chain. "From this?"

   "Yes."

Cies did a little leap. "We would be grateful!" she cried in excitement.

To finally be free...!

   "See?" Pi said. "I told you he was a bright one!"

   "No," Cies replied disdainfully. "I told you."

   "Well, don't just stand there!" Pi told Leonardo enthusiastically. He offered him the end of his tail.

Leonardo almost reconsidered. Was he sure he could trust them to help?

Shaking himself off, he drew back his arm. Several solid hacks, and the chain was broken.

   "Thank you!" the female fish cried, and her brother agreed.

   "Now, can you help me out?" Leo asked.

   "The rooms beyond are dry," Pi explained.

   "But, we can make an exit..." Cies looked over at the other fish, and the two of them split up to opposite sides of the room. Each exited through a separate door, and the pair was gone.

Perplexed, Leonardo stood alone in some kind of underwater living quarters.

The furniture seemed to be designed just for giant fish: there were even twin "seabeds" in the far corner. The doors the fish had left by were automatic, and vanished into the wall after they were used--he couldn't even exit by them. It was about to seem like the paired fishes' promise had been worthless when the room began to drain.

Soon, Leo was breathing in air again--though he would have been hard-pressed to notice a difference--and the room's furniture was dripping off the excess water. A panel in the wall in front of him opened into a new hall.

   "Uh...thanks!" Leonardo called, and walked into the hall. He was glad that conversation was over.

   "Uh...I come in peace?" Donatello attempted. Foot Soldiers had never been very good at listening to reason. And the more hundreds of them there were, the less likely they were to pay attention...

There was always Option Number Two.

Donatello ran.

Back to the main room--he noticed sparks now coming from the smashed console as alarms blared in his ears. A portal would have been really handy by now...if he hadn't destroyed the means! He knocked a Soldier aside, but they just kept coming! All of them left from the factory hall; driving his way through the lines Don bolted down the final hall, the one on his right. No sooner did he enter this room than panels opened on the nearest wall--yet more of the plum-clad drones sprung to attack him. He fended them off, taking down one here, one there, but accomplishing nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw salvation near the wall of this room. A standard exit module. He ran to the vehicle and dove in, slamming on the button that closed the heavy door. Don sighed in relief as the hydraulic lock fastened. His foes pounded uselessly on the outside of the module.

Now, to learn to drive it, and leave this crazy place...but he didn't even have to! The module started up all by itself. "Auto-pilot," Donatello noted, checking the controls in front of him. He was only a bit frustrated to see they were locked, barring his usage. The module rolled into an exit tube, and outside, not into water, but--as the viewscreen in front of him clearly showed--into rock! "I wonder who programmed it?"

Donatello checked out every control, and saw that the module was beginning to surface in an empty cavern. "I guess I'll find out soon enough."

Right, left, right, left, back, forth, up, down...well, not maybe up and down, but what difference did that make when you were hopelessly lost?

Raphael had to look down at his hands to remind himself another color existed besides red. He reached a tunnel that turned sharply to his right...then right again, effectively doubling back on itself. He almost turned around, dismissing it as another very red herring, when he saw a glimmer of something...something sitting on top of the maze's wall.

Finally, a change. Raph ran over, and confronted a large door, glowing the same as the walls. He instantly determined it wasn't safe to touch...and, by the looks of it, locked. The "something" he had noticed before was a rather menacing-looking stone gargoyle, whose eyes glowed a slight red to match the maze. Raphael briefly considered just kicking down the door, but was irritated by the guardian sculpture. "Quit staring at me, you freak!" he taunted, tossing a sai at it. The weapon bounced lamely off and clattered back to the floor.

   "Who are you?"

   "Ah!" Raph jumped away. That voice had come from the statue! "Spit!"

The gargoyle laughed, its hissing voice echoing along the near wall.

Raphael glared defiantly back.

   "I sssuppossse you want behind thisss door," the winged creature hissed.

   "Yeah, so what if I do?"

The gargoyle seemed almost surprised by Raphael's audacity, and paused. "I ssse that perhapsss..." It stopped. "No. I don't think you are."

   "I'm what?" Raph asked, wondering if he had the creature on the defensive. "What are you talking about?"

   "It'ss...nothing." The red eyes flared. "I can let you in. For a priccce."

Raph chuckled. "You take plastic?"

The beast returned this laughter, if mockingly. "More than that, turtle."

   "Like what?"

   "You sssee, I am not what I appear to be..."

   "Oh, so you're what? The tooth fairy?"

This time the gargoyle ignored the rebuttal. "I wass unfairly imprisssoned here. From here, I can control the mazsse, but...I cannot esscape."

Raphael smiled a bit. Stuck inside a statue? How dumb could you get? He grimaced teasingly at the gargoyle.

Somewhat irritated, the being in the statue continued. "If you free me, I will help you. There isss only one way to destroy thisss ssstatue. Sssomwhere in this mazsse, in a room with three fountainsss, there iss a hammer. I have unlocked every door in the mazsse, ssave thisss one."

   "And how do I know it's not a trick?" Raph snapped.

   "You will have to trussst me, turtle."

Raphael growled. "The name's Raphael. That's Sir Raphael to you, Concrete Head," he added pointedly.

   "You will earn my ressspect," the gargoyle slurred, "when you releassse me."

Donatello would have known how to work this thing...

Leonardo felt helpless.

He was staring down at a wide electrical panel, stretched out in front of him and covered with switches and gauges. It appeared to be, at least to Leo, some kind of underwater climate control. It was sensible, considering the vicinity; Leonardo was standing in some kind of giant aquarium, a glass dome observatory that held back water on all sides. Occasionally, a friendly-looking fish--not of the same type as the pair he had encountered before, but smaller and seemingly less gregarious--swam by. The floor below him was a metal grate where stray drops of water could drain back into the surrounding sea. A short hallway with similar transparent walls had led to this rounded room, an apparent dead end. "I don't think this is a way out at all," Leonardo decided. This had only been one of five doors, after all.

Before he left, he felt he ought to at least examine these controls. Most of them were gauging water temperature; none seemed to unlock doors. One read "Wall Release", but was marked with heavy "Caution" symbols, and Leo didn't trust it. The only other interesting dial read "Whirlpool Control". It had various settings of intensity: "Off", "Low, "Medium", "High", and--Leo frowned--"Poseidon Adventure". It was currently set to "High". He carefully turned the dial, to "Medium". No result. He set it on "Low"--still nothing happened--and, finally, turned it "Off". He shook his head and walked away, to attempt another door.

Back at the entrance. How long had he been walking? It had taken eternity to reach the door with the gargoyle, and only minutes to return to the maze entrance.

Raphael sighed. This was not a problem; he wanted to be here. He had started his journey with the left passage, so now...

Right.

The cavern around him was huge, and dark. Donatello couldn't even find the ceiling...but, up ahead, a light, and...a figure?

Donatello crawled out of the surfaced module. Whoever it was was seemingly oblivious to Don; even the earth-shaking sound of the module emerging hadn't aroused him. Donatello drew his bo. As he prowled cautiously nearer he saw who it was--a Dimension X Rock Soldier! Behind him, marked with blazing torches, was an irregular cavern stopped up by a hinged rock. The Soldier paced back and forth in front of it, and a sing-song, cockney chanting filled the echoing cavern: "Hut, two, t'ree, fou', no one's ge'in' in this doh'...!"

Donatello crawled a bit closer, hoping to break for the door when the guard's back was turned on it. "Five, six, se'en, eight, or my name ain't... Ho, there!" The brutish figure turned around, and the barrel of his gun was directly at Donatello's nose. "Who migh' you be?" the Soldier asked, squinting.

Don took a nervous step backwards. "Uh...my name is Donatello." He let his weapon arm sag; maybe he could find a peaceful way through. This Soldier was, unlike most he'd encountered, giving him a chance. "Do you happen to know where I am?"

   "Donatello..." the Soldier mused, letting the name roll through his odd accent. "Well, you're at the entrance to the gen'ral's place, you are."

   "The general?"

The Soldier raised his gun slightly. "You one of our boys?"

Donatello blinked. "No... I don't think so."

The Rock Soldier looked Donatello up and down, squinting. "I suppose you ar'n't. You'd be one of the Wa'er types, I figure." He made a broad gesture with the rifle. "Well, be gone wi' ya, then. We don't need your kind around 'ere, messin' the place up."

   "Water type?" Donatello was puzzled. "I thought this was supposed to be the Trial by Earth."

The guard stood a minute in thought. "Well, if ya' belong 'ere, you'll be wantin' ta' see the gen'ral."

   "I suppose I do."

The Soldier shook his head. "Can't say I'd let ya' in though. My job, 'e says, is ta' gua'd this do'... I'd have ta' have special permission or the like, see?"

It took Donatello a moment to translate that into something he could understand. "Well, can't you go and get permission?"

This had apparently never occurred to the Soldier, and he nodded. "Can't see the 'arm in that, ac'ually." He raised his rifle as he backed in through the door. "Now you wai' 'ere, nice- like..." He left, and Don proceeded to follow his instructions.

Raphael was gaining distance, now. One turn, another turn, and...a dead end.

Undaunted, he doubled back on the path, this time following it to its end, and turning when it bore to his left. In front of him stood a giant door, the knob warm to the touch, but safe. According to the gargoyle's promise, it was unlocked. And, beyond...?

More labyrinth.

Michaelangelo reached out to touch one of the blank, orange walls. It was smooth, but there was something odd about the surface. Almost...suction?

He tried pushing on the wall, and met no result. He punched it. Then, backing up to get a lead on it, he began a flying kick, right at the wall.

His foot jarred, and his body fell in a heap. Not on the floor...on the wall! At least it had been the wall. Now, it was, most definitely, the floor. "Dude...clueless city!" Mike cried. He reached out for what had used to be the floor. Had he imagined all of that? The room was the same from all sides, and there was no real way to tell. "Okay, if that was the floor..." He pointed at the near wall, then looked at the opposite one. A minute ago, it must have been the ceiling!

Mike walked over to it, feeling the same odd suction that had come from the former wall--now floor--he was standing on. He carefully put his foot to the wall, and, with no difficulty, walked straight up.

He shook himself off. No, he was definitely on the floor, even though it had, at one point, been the ceiling.

He turned around, and startled. There was a door in the wall now, a wood and brass exit, standing as simply as if it had always been there. Eyes wide with shock, he opened it and walked into a tall, fancy hallway.

His eyes eased a little at the soft color of the walls: rather than pure orange, they were wooden as the door, and decorated in the same entwined metalwork. The designs came to a point at the arched ceiling, some twenty feet up. Michaelangelo looked around, up, and everywhere but forward, as he started down the cathedral hall.

Leonardo was back to being in over his head. When he had entered the home of Pi and Cies the door behind him had fastened, tight, and the strange breathable water had reentered the room. Now he stood, breathing in warm water, trying to choose another door from those in the underwater hall.

He tried the door on his far right, the one next to the museum room he had already visited. He found it locked.

He walked away and tried the others; they, too, were locked tight.

Pursing his mouth, he returned to the first room, the one with the strangely encased objects. The buttons underneath the glass bubbles had restored their glow; perhaps he was meant to take another object? Naturally he took the key first, the dull one he had left behind.

The key in hand, he noticed something. The white buttons were still lit.