Hey guys, it's Agent Pumpkin here, but you probably already knew that.

So, thank you to everybody who reviewed, favourited and followed this fic since the first chapter, I really can't wait to get this show on the road. A pointer, I may post up another story in the midst of writing this one (introducing my character Robyn, and Pumpkin, her dog – also, on the topic of that, I have an Ask/RPing Tumblr for her, so if you ever want to RP with me, send me a message on there – here's the link: robyn – the – hybrid . tumblr . c o m- take out the spaces. I would be delighted to answer any questions you have for her, or RP with ANYBODY, whether in the DS fandom or not! NOTE: If the link does not work, it's on my Author Profile!) as I've been working on it for a while and would hate to not be able to post it up here; it'd only be seven/eight chapters long, so even if I left this story a little to update that one, you could guarantee it wouldn't overtake it for long. But still, that one is still in the works, and is only a maybe as of now. For now, enjoy the next chapter to We're All Pretenders, and I hope you enjoy it. Please review, and tell me of your opinions.

Warning: The contents of this chapter are pretty far-fetched, as it stands at the this current place in the story.

Thanks for reading, and a good day to you all.

~Jess~

X x

If superstitions were to be relied upon, the both of them were cursed with bad luck as the tiny creature slunk past, sitting in front of Wilson's feet, seeming to block them from going through the door. Its size made that impossible though, there was no way an animal so small could hold them back effectively. So why wasn't Wilson feeling the desire to move? Was it the fact that Science had just been blown over with the fact that an animal was currently conversing with them, or was it purely because he was too shocked out of his wits, despite coming face to face with abnormalities before, to simply walk past the cat? Whatever it was, it was strong enough to keep the grown man, albeit thin and lanky, securely locked in place.

"Wh-What...?" he whispered to nobody in particular, not understanding. It shouldn't have shocked him this much, Maxwell's island was crawling with creatures that broke the basic evolutionary rules, not to mention they hosted appearances never seen by general mankind, ever. He shifted on his feet slowly, trying to make sense of the situation as the little cat's ears flicked back and forth a few times, as if adjusting to hearing voices. Was this little kitten all alone too? What was it even doing there? This was no place for a creature so typical... and what was a regular animal doing there? He had only just realised, save for the speaking thing that seemed to be going on here, that this cat looked like a cat back from the real world – his regular world. It was just... odd...

The small animal flicked its gaze between Wilson and Whimsy, apparently searching them, before sighing. The number of centuries it had gone without seeing another living soul was just sad. It'd almost forgotten what to expect from regular people when all it had come face to face with was monsters, demons, devils and ghouls.

"How did you get here?" it questioned, tilting its head to look up at the scientist before it. His unruly hair-do only added to his height, making him seem even more intimidating. From beside him, the little cat could make a fuzzy dog-like thing sat behind the female's legs, huge tongue loitering around casually.

"The better question is... how are you talking?" Wilson murmured, perplexed as he began to circle the raven-haired feline, inspecting it from every angle. It was just a normal, every-day cat... how was this possible?! Meanwhile, Whimsy watched the scientist, holding back a giggle. His inquisitive nature made her smile a lot, especially if he was openly curious about something; he was also very expressive and so she was in for entertainment whenever his face began to respond to whatever it was he was seeing or witnessing. Wilson made the best facial expressions!

The kitten licked its paw and made a 'tsk' of impatience, tail curling around its feet. It let out a long-drawn sigh.

"I've been speaking since I came here. It's nothing new nor special."

Wilson reared back, obviously disagreeing. Wasn't special? This was a scientific anomaly! His brow furrowed as he tried to understand. How could this cat not have any collection of breaking regular animal rules? Animals didn't, and never had, spoken.

"What are you...?" he breathed, eventually stopping his encirclement. Once again, the cat sighed, twitching its nose at something.

"Don't you mean 'who'? I'm regular," it purred, before heightening itself as much as possible. "My name's Casper. I've been here for centuries upon centuries... I was starting to think humans had died out, I haven't seen one in so long..." So this cat was a male then, judging by its name. Well, that cleared at least something up; one of the questions in Wilson's mind ceased to exist as he put Casper's gender to the side, glad to have at least one thing figured out. The next thing... what was even happening again? He was talking to a cat, no less.

Sensing he needed to ask some kind of follow up question, Wilson thought on his feet. But before the query:

"I'm Wilson, and this is my... good friend, Whimsy. A pleasure." he sighed, not sure how to accept the fact that he had just exchanged his name with an animal. "...How have you been alive so long...?"

"I already knew who you were." Casper seemed to giggle a little. "Silly, I'm magic. What did you expect?" he chuckled again, as if hosting magical powers was completely normal. Unbeknownst to them, it was; however, when Wilson did not laugh along with him, and looked more curious than anything, the cat's expression slowly began to change into one of disbelief. "You mean you're not magic...?" at this, both Wilson and Whimsy shook their heads. "What?! Then how are you here?! This place has never before been discovered, surely you can't have just uncovered it! There must be something else!" he argued blatantly, not content with their answer. How was it even possible they had accidentally stumbled upon somewhere that hadn't been touched for centuries?!

"I suppose we're just lucky...," Wilson mused, still not completely understanding the situation. He just couldn't get his head around it. Yes, he had described trees as "piney" before, and made puns about bees out of meek fun, but he had never once considered something so dastardly daft as a cat being able to talk and use magic. However, sitting there questioning it wasn't going to solve anything; he was merely wasting time. Swallowing his scientific values for the meantime, he nodded, once more getting in to grips with the conversation at hand. "We were just washed up here. We had an escape plan, see – it required travelling through the ocean. We swam a lot."

Whimsy frowned a little. She did not remember swimming all that much... perhaps her mind was just blocking out the journey there because it was a tough experience that her brain didn't agree with recalling. She shrugged it off, looking into the shadows.

"I see...," Casper mumbled, his tail flicking from side to side dubiously. "Well, you're fortunate."

Wilson raised one of his brows curiously, whilst the female of the group perked up, obvious interest coating her face.

"How so?"

"Well, one, nobody's ever survived going in that ocean before. And secondly, this is probably your best shot at getting out."

The words struck the gentleman hard. He swallowed. Out? As in, to the real world? Free at last? For months now, he had trodden upon this sorry excuse for an island, with monsters on his tail and beasts hiding in the most unexpected of places. He had suffered through terrain that nobody should have had to deal with and done things he would have never seen himself doing, such as murdering defenceless animals and hunting down huge, terrifying creatures.

Immediately, he grabbed the cat between his gloved fingers, desperation carved into his face. If he could just get this thing to speak, he could be free – back home... back to his science and his ever-failing experiments. He didn't mind that they failed, failure was just the beginning, and in no way something to frown at. It ensured you were on the road to discovering something new, even if it took a while to reach that discovery.

"H-How?!" he yelled, still not quite able to take in the fact. Casper wriggled in his grasp, soft black fur curling at Wilson's fingertips as he struggled to get free. In many ways, both Wilson and Whimsy were like this poor kitten, trapped between Maxwell's grasp with a potential way out of this whole messy ordeal, yet it was difficult to find and get free of the misery and hardship in the first place. Whimsy touched an arm to his shoulder in which he turned his head to.

"I think you're hurting him...," she whispered, and no sooner had Wilson acknowledged what she had said, did he let him go, the remote animal falling to the floor, landing smoothly on its feet, agile tail poised straight up as he gasped for breath slightly. Once his breathing returned to normal, he sat down and began to sort through his ruffled fur, licking his paw to busy himself.

"Well," he began in between grooming. "There are certain things you can use to build a device in which 'bends' dimensions. There's no other way to describe it... of course the dimensions don't bend... they just cross with the magic of this device. It allows you to 'jump' between worlds." he explained. Wilson raised a brow skeptically. It seemed that even a being whom had been there for years upon years didn't understand the mechanics of Maxwell's world...

"And how do we get those items?" he asked eagerly. Despite the inner vibe he was getting – one of disbelief and skepticism – he decided to press on, feeling closer to escape than he had ever felt. He could practically taste the freedom he was so very close as this brand new information entered his brain, being processed thoroughly. Whimsy was equally as interested, having been pushed back to the shadows... but something told her to keep quiet and allow Wilson to understand everything; that way, he could just explain it to her. He had a way of making her understand things.

"There are seven items you need, as well as the knowledge to make a basic 'body' for a functional machine. But judging by your occupation, you have plenty of experience in building. Even if they don't turn out so good in the end." Casper took a moment to snicker whilst Wilson gasped briefly.

"How did you kn-"

"Magic." the cat grinned. "Anyway, you can get these seven pieces by venturing through these seven doors," as the creature paused, Wilson looked confused. But there was onlyone door... what was that supposed to mean? There were more doors on the other side of this one door? He shook his head a little, trying to rid his mind of the fuzziness. "These seven doors each hold a piece in them, somewhere. Where, nobody knows – not even I, and I have gotten to the end."

"But, if you've gotten to the end, why didn't you escape?" Whimsy piped up before Wilson could get another word in edgeways. The kitten looked at her, tail flicking from side to side patiently.

"Even my magic wasn't enough to give me opposable thumbs to build the machine." he chuckled, joking feebly. "Really, back at the time, my magic was not very strong – I couldn't use it to assemble the pieces together. Now, I could, but I was... I was weaker back then. It wasn't enough. I knew how to teleport between each of the worlds once I had found the piece, and that was it," he confessed meekly, mewling slightly towards the end of his sentence. He may have possessed magical talent... but he was still only a tiny animal.

Whimsy nodded slowly, apparently satisfied with his answer after a little bit of thought.

"How tragic...," Wilson muttered. Casper nodded slightly.

"It is... but it's better this way. Besides, I like it here," he took a breath, pausing, the silence in the cave almost deafening once the speech had ceased. "But anyway, if you manage to collect those seven pieces, you can make what I call "The Dimension Device". That's your ticket out. But..."

Wilson and Whimsy exchanged a glance. But what? Was there really a but to be had? They could finally escape Maxwell's clutches if they could just figure out how to tackle these worlds. Out of the corner of her eye, Whimsy spotted another door; now looking for them, they were quite easy to spot, and she briefly pondered how she and her gentleman scientist had missed them in the first place. They were all the same as this door... wooden, and quite low down head-height-wise.

"But...?" they both chimed simultaneously. Casper peered up at them, dark blue eyes glistening slightly, reflecting the light of Wilson's torch in a fantastical fashion. He held his peace a moment longer before sighing a long drawn-out sigh.

"But, it's dangerous there... these worlds are all very different. It's difficult to anticipate just what you are dealing with. In fact, impossible. The worlds don't change, but there are monsters I'm certain you haven't faced before, no matter how tough you've had it elsewhere. Plus, the objects are in the most intricate of places... and with no source of help, and no clear definition of what you're looking for, it can be incredibly hard..." he mumbled, ears drooping slightly. He knew he had to get these two through... they looked terrible, and incredibly low on stock; without him and these worlds, they would surely die soon. Plus, he knew that if he had have been in their shoes, he would have wanted this opportunity more than anything... he'd have traded anything for it. He wouldn't accept dying for no purpose, and he knew that these two people would not either, just based on their eagerness to learn more alone.

Sneaking a glance at them, Wilson looked desperate and the girl beside him looked frightened. He couldn't tell whether it was fear that he wouldn't tell them more, or the fact that she knew what he knew: without this, they were roaming around, simply waiting for death to appear at some time. It was inevitable without anything else to live for other than to stay alive in the first place. Then again, if you had no reason to live, you had no reason to die either.

Suddenly, an idea sprang to mind as his ears shot up at the mini-brainstorm, his midnight eyes flickering with intelligence. If he could just... yes, that could work...

"Well, since humans have never encountered this place before...," he murmured, ears sifting from side to side slightly. "Perhaps I could help you. By putting... some kind of person in each world." he paused again, the plan developing as he spoke. He knew by now that he had the two's undivided attention and felt the pressure of having to think so quickly. "Yes... perhaps, I could use my magic to insert a somewhat 'iconic' survivor into each of the worlds, and feed them the knowledge they need to help you through it. Since I've been through it before, I know where the things are. I would just tell you but... the places aren't distinct, and the whole world – each of them – is so very topsy-turvy, it wouldn't make a difference."

By now, both the scientist and the sculptor looked very excited. It had never felt so real. Escape. It was almost a forgotten word by now. Allowing it to enter their mind with the possibility of it happening, and not just a fantasy, felt amazing, a chilling empowerment flowing through their veins.

"You'd do that...?" Whimsy whispered, her voice striken with wonder and enthusiasm. Could she see her family again if she was to get out...?

Casper nodded his head, making a soft noise of thought.

"It should be allowed, seen as though no human has ever come this far before..." Getting up, his paws shuffled as he moved to stand in front of the door they had previously unlocked with her key. He lifted a paw, and pressed the pad of it to the door, easing it open; the only thing visible was a white light, bright and blinding. No telling as to what was on the other side. Honestly, Wilson had seen it all now; he could even believe in a six legged unicorn being some kind of God, he was so overwhelmed with fantasy and wonderment.

"You should start with this one. This world's the easiest, from what I remember," the cat smiled. "It doesn't matter what order you collect the pieces in, since you assemble it at the end and not as you go. Watch out for beasts and evils though – there's a lot of them." he warned as he took a step away from the door, gesturing for them to go on through it with his head. As the two stood up, Casper gave a confident smile. Fitting for a cat. He suddenly felt a hand on his head, petting his warm fur; he purred habitually.

As Wilson touched the handle of the door, he suddenly thought of something.

"What about when we find it? How do we progress to the next world?"

The animal froze, the gears in his little mind turning quickly. He couldn't mess this up now...

"...I can make a mental link with the objects using my magic. Once you make contact with them, you'll make contact with me; I can provide a gateway for you once I get the message it's been collected. Don't worry, you don't have to do anything extra. Just touch it, and I'll feel something due to our link."

Wilson's eye twitched slightly at the sheer magnitude of this creature's magical capabilities. Before coming to the island, he claimed magic to simply be science that people just didn't understand yet... but now he knew it was in a different entity completely. Science and magic were nothing alike in terms of capabilities; magic was endless, apparently. Of course, magical capacity and capability varied from magical being to magical being, but nothing was out of reach as a whole. Science, there were limits. Limits and rules, and certain procedures that needed to be followed in order for it to work in your favour.

He shook his head slightly and then gave Casper a sincere smile.

"Thank you so much. For everything."

Meanwhile, Casper shook his head with a grin as the two then progressed through the door, the white light engulfing them whole, their shadows slowly disappearing as they pressed forwards. Inwardly, they should have known they should have doubted more forcefully; the last time they had been offered somewhere, they had wound up in Maxwell's hell-hole. Anyone would think that they would learn.

"It's nothing," the creature smiled as they could no longer be seen, using his magic to place the people there as promised. After a moment of silence, he relaxed; his part was done now, there was nothing else he could do until they progressed to the end. He moved towards the door and closed it, the wood creaking with age despite it's fine exterior. Casper knew how old these doors really were as far as his experience went... but they had been there even before he had arrived. That had been a dark time... a time in which he thought he would never be able to get back on his feet again. He felt as if he was going to die. He empathised with the desperate sorely because he knew what it felt like to long for life. He suppressed a shiver, brushing the fluffy fur of his chest down. It wouldn't be long now...

When Wilson and Whimsy eventually gained a sense of where they were, they took in their surroundings, though their eyes remained closed, as if they were glued together. The soft grass tickled their face, and by the feel of it, it was short and trimmed well, though there was nothing to trim it with in the first place. Also, from where Whimsy was, she swore she could feel something that felt like ash underneath her palm, all bitty and fine. Wherever they were, it was very...

Hot.

X x

Done! So, yes, there was a lot of dialogue in the chapter, I tried to fix how much was in there, but the fact is, it all had to be in there. So, now you know about Casper, it should be a little easier to understand what went on by the end of the last chapter; however, it's fine to have questions now, or think you've found plot-holes. I guarantee that as the story progresses, they'll be patched up, I have this planned.

Anyhow, I hope you liked this chapter, give or take a little explanation. Sorry if it seemed too full or anything, but it all needed to be there. The next chapter in when the real original adventure begins. I do take into account that finding the items is a little like Adventure Mode with the Things to find, but at the same time, acknowledge that there are different – and original, you'll see – worlds, and the purpose is different, plus, it's much tougher, there are different monsters (this'll be shown throughout the story), different placements and magic too. And of course, characters from the game!

So yeah, I hope you liked it!

Please review and tell me what you think!

~Jess~