"Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall..."

4 days after Heart detonation

The Desert of the Knaaren

"Urgh!" Rayman grunted as he skidded across the stone ground. He jumped back up, ignoring the pain in his head. Dark Rayman quickly advanced again. Rayman blocked, but his enemy quickly found an opening, kicking Rayman in the stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Rayman looked over at Frank and Ly. Both of them also having a difficult time with their own counterparts. Frank was moving all over the far side of the room, shooting with surprising accuracy, but all the shots were having no effect on Dark Frank. Ly, meanwhile, was leaping around, with Dark Ly mirroring her every move. Rayman's eyes blurred slightly, so it appeared as if an orange and blue streak were jumping up and bouncing off each other. Rayman felt a fist slam into his head, followed by mildly painful thump of his body as it hit the ground again. Rayman looked up feebly, and saw both Ly and Frank get simultaneously overwhelmed.

"Unfortunately, Rayman," Dark Rayman was struggling to hold in his laughter, "there's no waking up from this nightmare!" As Dark Rayman burst out laughing, his fist turned to black and began to grow, until black covered all of Rayman's vision. Except for one little spot.

There was an intense light amidst the darkness, one that, despite its miniscule size, almost hurt Rayman's eyes. Then, the light began to grow larger. Its growth became more rapid, until it had eventually filled the entirety of Rayman's vision. Rayman was suddenly able to make out the shapes of the room, Dark Rayman, Dark Ly, and Dark Frank. Harder to see at first, Rayman also saw Frank and Ly. All of the Dark versions of the three had their hands over their ears.

"That sound!" Dark Rayman cried out, shutting his eyes. "That light! It's—it's burning me!"

The time has come, a calm voice echoed around the room, for the three lights to be awakened. Rayman thought that he could make out Lums of some sort in front of Ly, Frank, and himself.

"White Lums?" he asked himself in surprise. Suddenly, all three of the White Lums flew inside Rayman, Ly and Frank. The light and sound returned to normal simultaneously. Dark Rayman shuddered.

"Such awful light!" he growled. "I shall think more about it later. Right now, I have a hero to kill." Rayman could feel his strength suddenly returning. He allowed himself a quick glance at Ly to see if she'd gotten up. Ly was already up, much to the surprise of her opponent, and Frank was standing up as well.

"What?" Dark Rayman staggered back. "How is this possible? I'd beaten you! I'd almost broken you! Where have you found the strength to fight back?"

"Unfortunately," Rayman almost smiled. "This is one fight you're not going to win." Rayman charged, slamming his fist into Dark Rayman's cheek. Dark Rayman spiraled into the air, then bounced across the ground, finally skidding to a halt. Dark Rayman struggled to stand up. The place where Rayman had hit him had become a dark, burning red that glowed like fire. Black drops fell from the wound into the ground.

"Aggh!" Dark Rayman cried out. "My face is burning! What...what did you do to me?" Rayman looked at his hands.

"I don't know," he prepared to sprint, "but there's a whole lot more of that coming!" As Rayman ran forward he could see Ly literally going through Dark Ly. Ly's kicks were sweeping through various parts of Dark Ly's limbs, of the evil clone was rapidly deteriorating. With each kick, spurts of black liquid (presumably blood) splattered across the ground. Meanwhile, Frank was moving at blinding speed, firing off shots at near-impossible rate. Dark Frank was practically dissolving. Turning his attention back to Dark Rayman, Rayman began to pummel his foe with a flurry of punches. The black liquid flew everywhere sinking deep into the ground. Rayman heard what sounded like a cork popping, and then watched as both Dark Ly and Dark Frank were absorbed back into Dark Rayman. Swollen, burning, and dripping black blood, Dark Rayman panted in front of him.

"I don't know..." he growled. "...What kind of power you suddenly possess...But, a pair of light hands won't get you out of here alive...!" Dark Rayman seemed to chuckle, and then vanished in a cloud of shadow.

"What do you suppose he—" Ly began, but was interrupted by a deafening quake.

"What in the world?" Frank was looking ahead. "The sun! The sun's imploding!" Rayman watched as the black blood spilled by Dark Rayman and his companions was absorbed into the sun, which looked dangerously close to detonating.

"We have to go!" Rayman sprinted down the nearest hallway. Frank and Ly immediately followed.

"Where exactly are we going?" Ly yelled over a sudden, deafening roar.

"As far away from here as possible!" Rayman called back. "If that thing goes off with us anywhere in these caves, then we're—uh-oh." The chamber behind them had suddenly erupted in fire. Rayman desperately quickened his pace, but the fire was faster.

"We're toast if we don't find another way out of here!" he called back to Ly and Frank. Frank looked around, and his eyes seemed to flash.

"There!" he pointed. "A mirror!"

"What's a mirror doing—" Rayman stopped and remembered what Frank had told him. "Begoniax?"

"Exactly!" Frank replied. "We're going in now!" Frank turned suddenly and jumped into the mirror. Rayman expecting it, followed. Ly, who had never traveled via mirror before, hesitated for a moment, saw the fire, and leaped in as well.

"My liege," Dark Rayman panted as he entered Mr. Dark's chambers.

"Have you disposed of our foes, Dark Rayman?" Mr. Dark asked, even though he'd already predicted the answer.

"No..." Dark Rayman replied. "A light appeared, and suddenly they were all—"

"A light?" Mr. Dark asked He was then silent for a long moment.

"...That was...unexpected," he muttered. "No matter. So, you failed to stop them?"

"Yes, milord," Dark Rayman hung his head in disgrace. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Next time, I'll—"

"You're right," Mr. Dark interrupted. "It won't happen again...Dark Rayman, do you know how you to say 'Your fired!' in the most convincing way possible?"

"No, milord," Dark Rayman lifted his head slightly. Mr. Dark suddenly threw his hand out behind him. Dark Rayman gave a deafening shriek and exploded in a mass of black blood and shadow.

"No you do."

The Longest Shortcut

Frank landed solidly, rolling forward to a kneeling position. Rayman, having jumped in mostly right-side up (unlike Frank, who went in sideays), landed calmly on his feet. Ly kind of fell in.

"Yeah," Frank appeared to be thinking back. "I remember my first mirror travelling—I fell too, but believe, mine was way harder. Those were happier times. Yeah, André ruled the world, and he seemed immortal...but the world hadn't ended either. And I still had all of the Hoodlum Resistance..." Frank looked down for a moment.

"Um, Frank?" Rayman asked.

"Oh right," Frank turned around and promptly broke the mirror with the butt of his blunderbuss.

"What did you do that for?" Ly asked. "What if that's our only way out?"

"There are two reasons why I did that," Frank replied. "One is the fact that going back to the Desert of the Knaaren wouldn't solve anything—and yes, there are plenty of other ways out. The other reason is that it only takes a little bit of force to go into a mirror, and believe me; an exploding sun would have a little force. I'd rather not fill our only escape route with the same fire we're running from." Rayman started walking forward, and Frank and Ly followed.

"Hey..." Rayman thought back to when he first encountered André. "Isn't this The Longest Shortcut?"

"Yep," Frank replied. "All the mirrors in the world are connected via The Longest Shortcut, which is a spatial distortion in itself, because it links all of the lands together and makes traveling between them take a lot less time then it should. The Teensie's essentially built a world in between the worlds that shouldn't (and technically doesn't) exist. This makes it extremely useful to us, because it's virtually a sanctuary from any attackers."

"Why?" Ly asked. "You just said that the sun would've gotten through."

"The Longest Shortcut has a built-in, two part security system. The first part makes it hidden to the outside world; only those who already know of it know how to get into it, and very few people divulge this information. The second part, however, is that the mirrors will not admit malevolent beings. Anyone with a dark heart cannot enter a place as full of light as this."

"So we're safe here?" Ly asked.

"No," Rayman said. "Frank, I think that security system was shut off for a little..." Rayman was looking down a hole. Frank came up and gasped. The entire place was crawling with Hoodlums.

"Regular Hoodlums?" Frank cried out in surprise.

"But they all got turned into Dark Hoodlums," Ly argued. "That's impossible!"

"Wait," Rayman thought. "Only the ones that were touched by either Mr. Dark or another Dark Hoodlum were changed. These guys must've been down here since before the Apocalypse."

"But how did they..." Frank thought for a moment, and remembered something.

"The breakdown," he whispered.

"Hoodlums have gotten into The Longest Shortcut!" Begoniax had said.

"The Hoodlums got in here directly before the Heart was destroyed," Frank remembered. "They sabotaged The Longest Shortcut and split me up from the rest of the Hoodlum Resistance. That was ultimately the cause of our downfall."

"They must've gotten in through there," Ly pointed to a hole in the ceiling. "I can see something up in there..."

"A time-stream?" Rayman looked up in surprise. Ly and Frank looked at him. "The things that I used to travel between worlds. It plays...strange music. Anyway, they must've jumped into different portals around the world and jumped out of the time stream over the same area. That's how they got in."

"So Mr. Dark never found any of these Hoodlums," Frank concluded. "Meaning that they have no idea what's going on in the outside world—in other words, they're hostile. Approaching them will lead a fight, like the fights...back in the old days."

"Remember back when it was that light and simple?" Rayman asked to no one in particular. "A big bad guy rose up with his army, and then someone had to take him down. Yeah, the last fight was hardly ever fair, but considering what's happened now?"—he laughed mirthlessly—"I'd take on Razorbeard, André, and Reflux all at once if I could prevent this." Ly nodded silently. Frank just stared ahead.

"The Hoodlums are blocking our only path available now," Ly said suddenly. "I think we're going to have to fight our way through."

"I've been craving a fight where the enemy actually dies normally," Frank grinned.

"What've we got to lose?" Rayman asked. He then pointed to an open-mouthed Frank. "Don't answer that." Frank closed his mouth. Rayman, Ly, and Frank gave a battle cry as they leaped over a bit of rubble they'd been hiding behind and charged toward the Hoodlum base.

"Worst. Idea. Ever," Frank stated firmly as the trio was dragged through the camp in handcuffs.

"These are the most well-trained Hoodlums I've ever seen," Rayman retaliated. "You should know from experience that they're normally nowhere near this good! Besides, you were the first to support it!"

"Will you two just shut up?" Ly shouted. Rayman and Frank looked at her, surprised, then decided to obey.

"Impressive," Frank said after a while. "The architecture, although distinctly Hoodlum in how it looks, is still impressive in scale. Especially given the time they had. Who builds a city in four days?" Rayman had to agree. Animal fur (no clue where they got this from) tents lined the walls of the shining hallway, while wooden gears constantly turned upon giant wood-and-iron walls. Lifts took Hoodlums high into the air to different levels of the multi-floored structure.

"Is that a plum plantation?" Ly jerked her head in the direction of an open tent. Inside, numerous plum trees were visible, bearing both black and red plums.

"Where could they have gotten the resources for all this?" Rayman wondered aloud. The two Hoodmonger Officers carrying them shoved them onto a lift, which immediately shot up at a surprising speed.

"You can see the entire city from this height," Frank commented, surveying the large Hoodlum base—if one could call it that. From this height, the group could see that passed the iron walls, the "base" was actually a city, complete with its own economy. Shops were visible in random points throughout the streets, selling, food, plum juice, and other trinkets that had no particular use. A Hoodlum blacksmith (a Heckler without the toilet-seat gun), busily pounded away at new weaponry.

"It just occurred to me," Ly said. "That this lift is only held up by rope."

"Huh?" Frank and Rayman asked in unison.

"Look," Ly pointed to the two ropes that allowed the lift to move up and down. "Isn't there normally like a tower or beam that Hoodlum lifts have to connect to so that they don't fall?"

"Come to think of it," Rayman realized. "We were pushed onto this, meaning that it is taking as somewhere. But I don't see a single thing that goes this high. And if there was a building just at the top, we'd see its tower next to us."

"Guys," Frank looked up. "I think we've just solved that problem." The lift slowed down as a door (more of a hatch in the floor) in the small building above them opened up. The lift slowly went inside. As the trio stepped off, the lift went back down and the door in the floor closed.

The group looked around. They were in giant tent with a wooden floor, chairs, a table, and a bed. Windows let light into the room, but only enough to make it to where they could just barely see the entire room.

"Welcome," an old voice greeted. "Please have a seat. Anywhere."

"Who are you?" Rayman asked. "What do you want?"

"I said sit."

Before Rayman knew it, he was sitting on the floor.

"How'd he do that?" Frank asked. Ly shrugged. Slowly, a Hoodoo faded into existence.

"Hello," the Hoodoo bowed slightly. "My name is...um...hold on a moment...oh, blast it! Just call me...oh, I don't know, Ben."

"Ben?" Ly echoed. Rayman just dismissed it.

"I hear that you three tried to attack for no particular reason," Ben accused.

Before Rayman could deny it, Frank said, "Sounds about right."

"Why?"

"We figured that you didn't know about the situation involving the outside world," Ly said before Frank could say something else. "We thought that you would still be following André's orders and try to kill us."

"Oh, yes," Ben looked away. "The situation outside. A shame about what happened to Lord André, but these things happen. I am the new leader of the Hoodlums, and I do detest what Mr. Dark has done to the world."

"So then you'll help us defeat him?" Rayman asked hopefully.

"Are you nuts?" Ben laughed. "As good as my Hoodlums are, they'd all be dead in three minutes!"

"A big help you are," Frank muttered. "Can you at least get us out of here?"

"If you go there would be trouble," Ben argued.

"But if we stay it would doubled," Ly countered.

"Ben, you've got to let us know," Rayman pressed.

"Do we stay or can we go?" Frank finished.

"Alright fine," Ben sighed. "You young people..." He made a portal and pointed to it.

"It's a random mirror," he told the three. "I have no idea where you'll end up. Just know that." He then pulled out a waiver. "Sign this saying that I'm not liable for any injury that may occur in using this portal." The three looked at Ben.

"Oh, fine just get going!" Ben shoved them through the portal one by one.

And one by one, Rayman, Ly, and Frank all fell into a mass of robo-pirates on the Buccaneer.

Chapter 7 is finally done! You have no idea how long I've been working on this. It's taken forever, but I'm finished with it! The last few chapters should be pretty easy to write, as I have most of this all planned out in my head, so you can expect them soon! CHZL