"So now it's destroying the maze?" yelled Pidge as she ran, her and Hunk were making random turns to get away, but the Medusotaur just kept smashing through walls in order to come after them and thanks to Hunk it now had the power to turn them to stone so they couldn't even turn to face it and fight. "What was the point of the maze?"

"I don't know," said Bored, popping up near Pidge and floating beside her as she ran. "I didn't make it, remember?"

"But you said you were testing us! Is getting through the maze the test?"

"If it were then she's winning," said Bored, nodding back to the Medusotaur that had just busted through another wall.

"What about beating the Medusotaur, would that be a pass?"

"Would it?" asked Bored, looking at Hunk. Hunk felt put on the spot.

"I really wish everyone would stop looking at me for ideas!" yelled Hunk, side-sliding and taking a tight corner.

"If I were you," continued Bored. "I'd figure out a way to pass soon. The furry in the basement is getting close to going poof."

"Lance!" gasped Pidge at the same time that Hunk gasped, "Keith!"

"Interesting," said Bored, "Maybe they're both furries..." Then she popped out of existence like she hadn't just delivered the news that one of their friends was about to experience soul-death.

And to make matters worse, they'd just hit a dead end.

"Back track!" yelled Pidge, but the sound of the Medusotaur approaching made them freeze. "We can't keep running like this. You need to think of an advantage for us."

"How?" asked Hunk, he would first need someone to explain how he had done all of this so far before he knew how to fix it.

"However, you already did all of this to start."

"The ideas weren't mine," confessed Hunk. "You kept coming up with them, I'm just imagining them."

"I didn't come up with mazes and bouncy castles and taco trucks."

"But you came up with the idea of a test and a soft landing and a location..."

Pidge smacked her forehead. "So really this whole time we've been playing improv with audience participation."

"Yeah, now give me some good prompts so we can beat this thing and get to our furry friend before it's too late!"

The Medusotaur roaded, it was literally around the corner from them now.

"Alright," said Pidge, setting her face. "First we need a way to block our vision so we won't turn to stone.

With that theirs paladin helmets dropped onto their heads. The visor slide into place. It was dark for a second, but then the helmet projected a highly pixilated image of what was in front of Hunk. And just in time for a pixilated Medusotaur to come barreling around the corner.

"We can't fight her here. We need the higher ground!" yelled Pidge, as she ducked a Medusotaur attack. The thing swung its giant bull arm out and when it didn't connect with Pidge, it smashed into the wall, crumbling part of it but knocking some stone blocks lose. Instead of going crashing to the ground, they floated up, and made a makeshift staircase, one block per step.

"Nice, Hunk!" cheered Pidge and they both scrambled up the blocks until they were thirty feet up in the air. They turned to see the Medusotaur trying to climb up, but falling back off as its bull feet weren't agile enough to balance on such a tiny step. "That won't hold it off for long. What we need next is a clear objective. Some way to pass the test."

"But I thought defeating that thing was how," said Hunk, peering down.

"Knowing your imagination, if we killed that thing it would just come back seconds later as a Zombie Medusotaur. No. We need a clearly defined win, something un-mistakeable. And something we can accomplish in a hurry."

It seemed to be happening as Hunk thought of it. Stone blocks rose from the damaged maze and formed themselves in a course, lining up single file with gaps to jump over and different levels. And in those gaps some had water underneath and others just a drop to who knows where. Blue sky stretched above them with white puffy clouds, uniform in nature. In the distance, at the end of the course he saw a castle and, in front of it, a flag pole.

"Capture the flag is the objective," said Hunk.

"Hunk," gasped Pidge and Hunk worried his imagination had screwed up again. "This is so cool!" Pidge cheered. "This is exactly why we're best friends. I love your brain!"

"I'm so glad you like it."

"Like it? I'm so pumped! And with the helmets making it all look 8 bit pixelated... man, you've outdone yourself."

Hunk beamed.

The Medusotaur roared and it sounded closer than it should. They turned and saw the creature was now carefully using the stone blocks as a staircase to reach them. At least it was moving slow while it found its footing.

"Let's move!" Pidge and Hunk started running along the narrow stone path. They leapt over the first gap. Hunk saw something shiny on the next level up and leapt up there. "What are you doing?"

"Collecting coins," replied Hunk, leaping up and catching the coins. They disappeared with a 'ching!' and Hunk saw a coin counter appear in the corner of his visor screen.

"But why would you need to... Never mind," said Pidge, accepting it was Hunk's world and she was just running for her life in it.

The Medusotaur roared, which was a combination of the actual mouth of the half-man half-bull and all the remaining snakes screaming at once. Hunk looked back to see it wasn't walking cautiously anymore, but ramping up to a run.

"I'm sorry!" yelled Hunk. "It's found its footing!"

"Then we need weapons!" yelled Pidge.

The prompt created an image in Hunk's mind that popped into reality. Ahead of him Hunk saw a box with a big question mark on it. "Okay!" Hunk jumped, knocking his head into the bottom of the box. Out popped a large yellow mushroom with red spots.

"Oh, I need that one!" said Pidge, turning on a dime and doubling back to meet the mushroom as it fell from down to her level. The mushroom absorbed into Pidge and she blew up in size, nearly doubling her height.

Hunk jumped down beside her. "Hey, we're the same height now!"

"Yep! Let's get more power ups!" said Pidge, taking off at a run as the Medusotaur was barreling behind them.

They leapt over a water gap and kept running along the stone blocks. There was another gap coming up. Hunk jumped, but he'd miscalculated and then he was falling...

"Hunk!" he heard Pidge scream.

There was no ground to hit. Hunk fell into all black, but then as he was falling it started to lighten and he was falling through blue until he saw stone blocks below him and he dropped down right beside Pidge again.

"Ow!" cried Hunk upon impact.

"What?!" gasped Pidge. "What happened? I thought you'd poofed!"

"I had enough coins for an extra life."

Pidge hugged Hunk, her larger size meaning she wasn't hugging his mid-drift for once. Their moment was cut short by the shaking caused by the Medusotaur stepping onto the same stretch of block they were standing on.

"I'm out of coins so we better run!" yelled Hunk, pulling Pidge along. They jumped over the gap together and this time he'd judged the distance right and they landed on the other side.

"Whoop whoop!" called Bored. Hunk looked up to see her sitting on a cloud, cheering them on.

"I see power ups!" said Pidge, leading the way, stepping on more blocks to launch herself at another question mark block, smacking it with her hand. Hunk went low, ducking down to another level and karate chopping a question block.

"What'd you get?" asked Pidge, jumping down in front of him. She was engulfed in flames.

"Let's see," said Hunk, stretching out his now blue hands as he ran. He turned around and blew ice out of his hands back at the Medusotaur - which was at the time trying to leap on him from behind.

The Medusotaur screamed, being forced back by the blast. Pidge spun and shot fireballs out of her fists at the beast ,which knocked it back further, making it wince in pain.

"These powers aren't enough to kill it," warned Pidge, picking up her pace.

"We don't need to kill it, we need to out run it." The castle with the flagpole wasn't much further. If they really booted it maybe they'd make it. But even as he thought this, he felt the vibrations as the Medusotaur gained on them.

"I have an idea," said Pidge and Hunk waited for her to give him a prompt so his imagination could bring it to fruition. "Follow me!" And with that Pidge jumped into a giant vertical pipe.

Hunk leapt in after and found himself dropping into a large stone room. He could hear the Medusotaur travelling down the pipe to meet them. "Is your plan to get cornered?" asked Hunk.

"We need to face it before our power-ups time out," explained Pidge. "This pocket world might corner us, but we might be able to corner it first."

The Medusotaur dropped down out of the pipe and shook the whole chamber.

"Oh! It looks like the boss level!" said Bored, hanging out of the bottom of the pipe like a bat.

"Care to join us?" asked Hunk.

"No thanks," called Bored. "I can't risk going poof. You have fun though!"

"Let's go!" shouted Pidge, shooting her fireballs at the Medusotaur. The snakes on its head caught fire. The noise of two-dozen snakes screaming as they roast was earsplitting.

Hunk took his hands off his ears so he could take a shot at the Medusotaur that was stumbling towards them, now on fire.

"Shoot at the wall behind us!" ordered Pidge.

Hunk didn't know why, but he spun anyway and fired his ice powers at the wall, blasting the thing with a sheet of ice. He could hear Pidge behind him, launching fire balls at the Medusotaur and as his ice grew thicker, he could see the two of them in the reflection it created. But then his ice sputtered out. He looked down at his hands to see the blue fade back to normal.

"Power-ups timed out!" called Bored. "And there's no question blocks down here!"

Hunk turned to Pidge, whose flames flickered out in front of him. "Pidge, what do we do?" The Medusotaur was now the one engulfed in flames and was getting ready to charge towards them.

"We wait three seconds longer," said Pidge, grabbing hold of Hunk to keep him still. "Three..." The Medusotaur started charging... "Two..." It was getting close enough to feel the heat off of it... "One!" Pidge yanked Hunk and they both lunged to the side.

Hunk turned, expecting to see the Medusotaur turning to come at them, but instead he saw the beast standing still, looking at the sheet of ice, at its own reflection. The Medusotaur turned to stone, the curse spreading from its head to its toes.

"We got it!" cheered Hunk.

"Hold on," said Pidge, "Give me a boost."

Hunk cupped his hands. Pidge stepped up and he launched her up into the air. She twisted through a summersault and came down hard on the Medusotaur's head before bounding back off. A crack appeared in the stone where Pidge had hit it. The crack spread to the ground and soon the entire beast was crumbling to dust.

"No Zombusotaur," said Pidge.

"Good thinking," cheered Hunk, giving her a high five as he watched her shrink from his height back to normal height.

"Good thinking on the pocket world," gushed Pidge.

"Um, Pidge, I didn't imagine that one. It must've been you."

"Wait... really?" asked Pidge, her eyes lighting up.

"Okay, yeah you thought of one thing and I created an entire world, but yeah, be proud." Hunk strolled over to the pipe and leapt up, letting the thing transport him back to the surface.

Hunk and Pidge jogged the rest of the way to the castle where Hunk gave Pidge another boost so she could leap up and knock the flag down the pole, signaling the end of test – objective met!

Hunk heard clapping and looked to see Bored in the doorway of the castle. "You pass, Team Punk! I'll take you to the astral plane now." She gestured to the entrance of the castle.

"Wait. That's the prize?" asked Pidge, outraged. "You're going to play tour guide to the place we were already heading?"

"No," said Bored. "I'm going to award one of you the prize when we get there.... At least I hope I get to..."

"What?" growled Pidge.

"What about Keith and Lance?" asked Hunk, concerned. "Didn't you say one of them might go poof?"

"Oh right, the dummies in the basement," said Bored. "Let me check on them again..."