Kaleb ran up to the second landing and was brought up short by what he saw. It was another large floor that had housed office workers and cubicles. But all Kaleb could see of the room were two large walls reaching up to the ceiling. Between the walls there was an opening just wide enough for Kaleb to fit through. He could make out a sharp ninety-degree turn just inside as he got closer.

The walls were about a foot away from the ceiling. He could probably wiggle his way through if he could get up the wall. But, the walls looked like they were made of a smooth metal. So instead he squeezed his way to the opening and turned the corner. He was in a hallway with the same metal walls bracketing either side with multiple turns and doorways. He sighed to himself as he realized that he was in a maze.

Probably a booby-trapped maze too. Kaleb thought to himself as he stared up the smooth walls. He could see several more omnidirectional cameras placed on the ceiling. As he moved down the hall, he heard the sounds of rumbling before several walls shifted revealing new openings and closing others.

“OH COME ON!” Kaleb shouted as he watched the moving walls settle into their new positions.

Kaleb hadn’t been expecting an answer, so he jumped when Obadiah’s voice echoed through the hall. “I feel I should remind you: you are being timed.”

Kaleb grumbled to himself before picking a door on his left and jogging through it into another hallway. Taking the first left again he found he could only turn right into a new corridor. But as he moved around the corner he saw that it was a dead end. Kaleb heard the rumbling again as he turned around and rushed back out. The hallway he was in now looked completely different.

“This is an interesting maze.” Obadiah’s voice said. “It tracks your movement and after a hundred steps it automatically shifts the walls and spins rooms. It is quiet ingenious.”

“You know saying that when you are the one that designed it kinda makes you seem like a braggart?” Kaleb said as he looked around at the new doorways and openings.

Obadiah scoffed. “Please, it's human nature to talk about our accomplishments. We want people to see us in the best light possible. Who wanders around showing people their mistakes and flaws?”

“You obviously don’t remember the internet.” Kaleb grunted as he kicked off the wall as hard as he could.

His metal fingertips barely latched onto the top of the wall. He huffed loudly as he swung his other hand around grabbing and trying to lift himself. As he did, he heard a new sound, a whirring electrical hum coming from the ceiling just a foot away. Kaleb looked up just as a section of the ceiling spun around revealing a conical piece of metal that sparked with electricity.

“You didn’t think you were the first one to try that, did you?” Obadiah asked.

Kaleb let go as electricity arced down toward his hands. He crashed to the floor as the whirring died down and the ceiling rotated back concealing the trap. Kaleb drew his Cybar pistol and fired a shot toward the ceiling, but the material the ceiling was made of seemed to absorb the blast and dissipate it. Kaleb sighed as he paced and thought about the problem.

Traps in the ceiling, shifting walls, and my guns are useless. Kaleb thought. What else do I have? Kaleb opened his inventory and took stock. Guns, armor, laser cutter, and… Kaleb slapped himself hard in the head. How they hell could I forget about you. Kaleb thought as he deployed Shocky from his arm. The shield had stayed ‘docked’ in his arm since he built it. He had even used it in the fight against Demon Rick. He felt almost apologetic to the small buckler for forgetting about it.

Kaleb prepared another jump as an idea formed in his mind. Kicking off the side of the wall again. Kaleb grabbed the wall with his non-metal arm this time. As the whirring sound started up again, he scrambled to get Shocky into position under the conical device. Kaleb waited until the electric whirring was at its highest pitch before he triggered Shocky’s blast attack. The ball of electrical energy slammed into the device and the whirring immediately died as it shorted out.

Kaleb pulled himself further up as he saw other similar conical devices rotate out from their housings and short out as well. As he pulled himself into a comfortable position on the wall, he saw that he had shorted out about 20 of the devices in the nearby area. He carefully rotated his body so he was staring up at the ceiling as he heard Obadiah chuckle.

“Hahaha, That was impressive, but how many times can you do it?”

Kaleb shook his head as he reared back his metal fist. “I think once was enough.”

*Clunk*

Kaleb’s metal punch slammed into the seam where the ceiling rotated. Unfortunately, his punch had little effect on the metal ceiling. Obadiah’s laughing intensified and Kaleb thought he even heard the old man snort.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What did you expect that to do? If your gun didn’t work why would your fist?”

“Ahem, I was testing to see if the ceiling was hollow behind these panels.” Kaleb lied awkwardly.

Obadiah snorted again. “Sure, sure. Well now, you know it is. I had to house the generators somewhere, and it has been my experience that people rarely look up.”

Kaleb grinned. “So the generators for the walls ARE up here.”

“Yes, there wasn’t enough space between the fifth and sixth floor. So instead I designed a drop ceiling and raised the walls.” Obadiah explained as Kaleb reached into his pocket.

Kaleb pulled out his laser cutter and found the seam in the ceiling with his hand. Lining up the laser cutter with the seam Kaleb powered it on and moved it around the seam. A few sparks fell here and there but until he got to the midway he didn’t cut through much. He guessed that the mechanism that spun the section of ceiling were on the sides.

It took a few minutes but eventually the section of ceiling dropped. Kaleb caught it before the conical device jammed down into his chest. He studied the little cone device for a while before he detached it and put it in his pocket. He let the ceiling tile fall to the floor as he shuffled around to crawl into the ceiling.

“Sure, go ahead take my precious equipment. That’s Zytle metal, you know. It’s not cheap.” Obadiah complained.

Kaleb shook his head as he squeezed his body into the ceiling. “Oh stuff it, gramps. The government paid for it, didn’t they? Besides, I’m a poor scientist, got to use what I can.”

Kaleb looked around for a bit before he noticed the four black boxes at the four corners of the room. He dropped his head back down out of the ceiling to get his bearings; Then moved toward a generator near the exit. As he went he collected the Zytle metal devices. He could probably find a use for them somewhere in the the other floors.

As he finally crawled to the fairly large black box, he heard the sound of something spinning. Whatever the black material was, it withstood his laser cutter without a scratch. Luckily the screws where standard metal. It only took him a few moments to remove the screws and bolts holding the side panel in place. Opening it up Kaleb smiled wide and almost laughed out loud.

“You are using magnetic generators?!”

Obadiah seemed offended. “What’s wrong with that. That’s clean energy, and it cuts down on cost.”

Kaleb felt his smile get wider. “There’s nothing wrong with it. I am just surprised and a little happy, honestly. I was afraid you had a proprietary energy source in here. But this? This I can use.”

Obadiah coughed. “Ahem, oh, well ok then. And my personal energy source is far too powerful to use here.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure your capacitors are huge.” Kaleb rolled his eyes as he cut the power to the generator and waited for the rotor to stop spinning.

“Was that a dick joke?”

Kaleb laughed. “Hahaha, it is now.”

Kaleb collected the electromagnets and several lengths of copper wire. Unfortunately, the permanent magnets in the rotor itself were going anywhere but he could make do. Kaleb cut through a nearby section of ceiling, collecting another cone, and let it fall to the floor with a loud crash. Sticking his head down first he slithered his way onto the narrow edge of the maze wall. The door to the stairs was a few feet ahead of him.

He didn’t want to take any chances though, so he carefully slid himself closer to the door. No sense in getting this far only to have the walls shift on him. As he got in front of the exit, he heard Obadiah applaud.

“Fantastic, Professor. Record time, although some would say you cheated.”

Kaleb slowly dropped to the floor as he replied. “All I had to do was get through the maze. Nobody specified how. How many government agents passed this damn test, anyway?”

“A few. There was a gentleman who figured out the order the walls moved in and calculated how many steps it would take to get out.”

Kaleb blanched. “How long was he down here?”

Obadiah chuckled. “Hehehe, a shorter time than you would think. Remarkable man, Domek Ozub, I think his name was.”

Kaleb just nodded as he headed up the stairs. His pockets were heavy with the number of magnets and devices he was carrying. As he climbed the stairs he heard Obadiah spoke up behind him, voice echoing throughout the room.

“This next one will not be so easy, Professor. It will require a decent amount of flexibility.”

“You realize you sound like a Super-villain, don’t you?” Kaleb asked.

Obadiah’s laugh echoed behind him as his question went unanswered.