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Young genius Lucius Dalworthy climbed from his Subterranean Tunneller, straightened his top hat, and strode into the underground chamber. ‘Surrender!’ he cried. ‘There is no escape for you now!’

Standing amid the steam and dust, Cressida Mandeville – his equally young and equally brilliant arch-enemy – raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s odd. I was just about to say the same thing to you.’

Lucius kept a straight face, letting his eyes sweep across the chambers for anything that may come in handy in the likely case of a fight. Cressida was standing in a remarkably relaxed posture, with her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Her mismatched eyes gleamed maliciously in the dark, one a brilliant blue and the other a deep crimson.

‘Buying time eh?’ he said rather curtly. ‘It’s not going to do much this time. You will be put in prison. Face it.’

Cressida chuckled.

‘You really think so? ’Cause this time, not only do I escape but I get rid of you.’

While Lucius quizzically looked at her, Cressida looked past him and nodded.

Suddenly, Lucius felt powerful arms grab him from behind and pull him in to an overwhelming headlock. His top hat fell off onto the floor. Lucius recognised instantly the dark uniforms of his bodyguards.

‘Hey!’ he yelped helplessly into their bulky arms as they pulled his hands behind him.

The backstabbing bodyguards straightened Lucius up again to face Cressida and put something to his throat.

A knife.

Lucius stiffened and refrained from swallowing, sliding his hand into his back pocket.

Smirking, Cressida strolled closer towards Lucius and crossed her arms.

‘Lucius, Lucius – you seem to forget that I’ve got a fair amount money up my sleeve. It was quite easy to bribe these two to corroborate with me.’

Lucius glanced to his side towards the bodyguards expecting a reaction.

They showed no emotion whatsoever.

Lucius’s face slowly became red. In the calmest voice he could muster, he questioned Cressida. ‘So what do you intend to do with me now?’

‘Get rid of you,’ she replied bluntly.

She tapped her foot on a tile, which fell away to reveal a huge hole. Lucius didn’t need to crane his neck to see that the hole was deep.

‘Push him in!’

At that second, Lucius’s top hat leapt off the ground directly at the knife held to his throat. It enveloped the bodyguard’s hand and jerked it behind his back. Simultaneously, Lucius pulled out a needle from his pocket and pricked each of the bodyguards in the neck.

They both slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Lucius pulled a gun from one of the men’s belt.

‘Surrender!’ he cried once again. Déjà vu. He pointed the gun at Cressida.

‘Impressive,’ she drawled. The smile was still stuck on her face.

She outstretched her arm, which made a whirring noise and folded in on itself.

‘’What?’

An image of the real Cressida materialized from the arm.

‘Pity I couldn’t finish you off. It would’ve been a bonus for today.’

Lucius stared, dumbfounded, as Cressida threw down a small, dark ball. On impact, it filled the room with a blinding fog.

Cressida laughed. ‘Until we meet again, Lucius!’

As the darkness cleared, Lucius found that Cressida was gone. In her place, there was an open trapdoor in the ground.

‘You’re not getting away that easily,’ Lucius thought, as he climbed down.

By Yoshi Mori, Year 8 (Male)