Grain-Filled Doom

It was all concrete. From the ceiling to the floor to every corner—pure concrete. As a voice sounded through the small room, Felid realized that he should probably listen to it.

"The room will slowly fill with rice—" the voice said.

Rice? What? Why?

They always got the weirdest ones on the weekends. The more serious villains didn't come out to play because Blue would be with them. Speaking of…

She looked so scared, eyes wide and constantly scanning the room. Felid reached over, putting a gloved hand on her shoulder.

"It'll be fine. We'll get out of this," he said. Then, he turned to Exie. "Which one is this again?"

"I think it's Rice Cooker," she said.

Well, that explained the rice. What was he going to do once they'd choked to death on it? Cook them into a meal?

Felid ran his hands along the walls. "Well, everything's pretty solid here. Rock hard. You think maybe this guy has a rice f—"

"Do not finish that sentence in front of Blue," Exie said.

"What was he gonna say?" Blue asked.

Felid laughed nervously. "Nothing important. Was just gonna ask if rice was his favorite food."

"That's one way to put it," Exie said, rolling her eyes.

It was kind of difficult to be funny when there was nothing to work with but the rice that was rapidly filling the space. It was almost ankle high now. Felid transformed in the hopes that his cat form would be able to find an exit.

"Don't drown," Exie said.

Felid laughed, walking across the rice that would've been up to this form's chest had it been heavier. "I can swim."

He climbed through the rice, and when that didn't yield any results, dived into it. His eyes were closed, but he used his paws to feel along the floor. It worked until he ran into a wall. He surfaced, nose throbbing from the hit, then flinched. That wasn't a wall—it was a leg.

"Rice to meet you," he said.

From the other side of the room, Blue laughed.

Exie facepalmed. "You weren't even trying on that one."

Instead of replying, Felid climbed up her clothes and settled himself on her shoulders. She squawked in surprise, then steadied herself. A hand reached up to pet him. He licked it.

"There's gotta be a way out," Felid said. "Last time I checked, Rice Cooker wasn't taking any tips from Toaster Ghoster."

He still couldn't say that name without laughing.

"It's Toast Ghost," Exie said. "And yeah, I figured. We just need to find it."

They split off again, feeling the walls for an exit. To think that today was supposed to be a relaxing, sweet day of helping old ladies across the street, destroying hostile architecture, and finding lost pets… and then Rice Cooker or whatever his name was had to ruin it. Seriously, who lethally endangers a child?

Aside from him and Exie, of course. What they were doing was completely different. The only reason Blue was in any danger was idiots that didn't care about hurting a child to get back at the local superheroes while they were unprepared. She just wanted to help, and her parents sucked enough to never notice that she was gone all day on weekends.

"I think I found it!" Blue said.

Felid reached the corner first, transforming back into his human form. He grinned as he felt the grooves in the concrete.

"Yep," he said. "That's an entire exit."

"What else would it be? Half an exit?" Exie said. Blue chuckled.

"That's perfectly possible," Felid said.

Exie felt along the grooves. "Well, how are we going to open this?"

Felid grinned and Exie's face fell as he started talking. "We could use me as a battering ram—"

"You've lost enough brain cells to last a lifetime," she said. "No."

"If only I knew enough neurology to make a pun," he replied, sighing in mock forlornness.

Exie pushed at the entrance, sighing when it didn't give way. "Well, if your grades were higher than Cs, maybe you'd be able to make your pun."

"I'll have you know that I get As," Felid said.

Exie scoffed. "So you only lose the majority of your brain's function around me?"

Felid grabbed a handful of rice and threw it at her.

"Stop!" Blue said.

The two exchanged a glance.

"Blue's right," Exie said. "We need to focus."

"Before we meet a grain-filled doom," Felid added. Exie rolled her eyes.

Felid stepped back to let the two girls work, sitting on the rice. It must've been coming from somewhere… they wouldn't be able to leave through it, though, or they'd be just as likely to choke on the rice as if they stayed. Felid stood up. Maybe…

He tripped, hand landing on something sharp. As he cried out, he grabbed the object on impulse.

"Felid?" Blue said.

He held the item out. It was shiny and pale golden, with a larger piece on the top and a rougher, thinner end.

"A key?" Exie said, mouth hanging open. She dove into the rice.

Felid sprinted over as quickly as he could, tripping multiple times on the way. When Exie resurfaced, he handed the key to her. Then, something clicked and the rice began sliding. In a mess of rice and limbs, the three tumbled into a field.

It was as he and the others shook the rice from their costumes and prepared to find the Rice Cooker's new temporary lair that Felid realized the whole thing was more like an escape room than a legitimate plot. The feline hero really shouldn't have believed that Rice Cooker would intentionally hurt a child. Even villains wouldn't sink to that sort of low.