Vange and Quinn are having a staring contest. Winning, says Tucker, might not always be so great. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls this story "The Tale of the Laser Maze."
...
Twin sisters Kara and Ashley Fox constantly compete in all endeavours, but particularly at Tae-Kwon-Do. As a conclusive kick is dwelt, the Instructor takes both girls’ hands, raises Ashley’s, and declares her the winner. The Instructor urges the bickering sisters to learn hop-cho - to cooperate and help each other. In the corridor, Kara Ashley bicker meet Drake. He excitedly lauds their fighting spirit, and gives them a business card - his company is looking for testers for a new adventure game.
At 153 Terminal Street, Kara and Ashley enter a smooth, grey and blue foyer, lit with neon pink lamps. Drake leads them into a darkened hallway, set with cylindrical pillars. Through a hexagon-shaped archway, he leads them to the Laser Maze, a dark, twisting hallway, set with dry ice and decorated with wall-painted fiends. Drake equips the twins with a laser-pointing visor and plastic chest plate. With a roar of canned applause, they prepare for battle...
In an off-chamber, before a monitor screen, Drake, on an electric notepad, takes note of their eye coordination, agility and accuracy. Kara zaps Ashley, who is enveloped by a digital blur - and vanishes into thin air. With more applause from the speakers, Drake enters, and gives Kara a bizarrely long questionnaire.
Outside the maze, Kara is approached from behind by her sister - who seems strangely subdued. In Round Two, Kara once again corners and zaps Ashley - whose head falls off. From the robot double's neck protrude smoking wires. On the floor, Robot Ashley’s disorientated twitches and speaks in an electronic modulation of Ashley’s voice. Kara screams. From the turns of the maze ahead appear four more Ashley duplicates. Kara bolts. At a corner, a duplicate surprises and zaps her. Kara is eclipsed by a succession of digital blurs, and vanishes.
She wakes to find herself lying on the inner-lit transparent base of a rectangular plastic device. Nearby, a similar bench holds Ashley. Around them is an unknowable expanse of grey, featureless, well-lit floor and walls. Barely able to move, Kara shivers in panic.
Beneath Ashley, the bench’s midsection ejects a draw, on which lies a robot copy of Ashley. The double stands, and walks to a detached hexagon-shaped archway, by which waits Drake. Robot Ashley steps in, and vanishes. A Robot Ashley materialises - soot-smeared and dishevelled. In a deep, echoing voice, it reproves Drake's inferior Betatron Units.
In a bid for freedom, Kara and Ashley offer to go compete in the Maze themselves. Drake hastily presses buttons. Kara and Ashley are released from their paralysis. While Drake fusses over his electronic notepad, the twins quietly confer. In dual motion, the twins launch a mild kick, and push Drake into the Transporter. He fades from view.
Back in the Laser Maze, they approach the exit - but find their path blocked by Drake, this time in a Laser Visor. After a brief contest of evasion, they zap Drake three times. His robot body falls to the floor. Relieved to be safe, the twins share a Taekwondo bow.
…
Tucker closes; Megan and Quinn resume their staring contest. While he and Andy respectively guide the two towards the path, Megan douses the fire.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: While Drake aims to fatally harvest two young earthlings for interstellar spectatorship, he’s flamboyantly jovial about it.
- Alien Abduction: The Laser Maze is an extraterrestrial installation. On getting zapped three times, contestants are teleported to a bright sterile chamber, where they lie, virtually paralysed, on duplication devices.
- Competition Freak: Kara and Ashley, in all things.
- Genki Guy: Drake is flamboyantly jovial.
- Inscrutable Aliens: Jake’s employers, never seen or named, communicate with Drake remotely.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The Laser Maze duplicates contestants, to fight for interstellar spectatorship.
- Light Is Not Good: The brilliant white chamber in which the duplicates are produced has a sinister sterility.
- Robot Me: Produced for competition in the Laser Maze.
- Sibling Rivalry: Ashley and Kara.
