Let's see what's been happening to Hatenko, Softon and their new 'friend' Aidan so far...

"ARGGGGGGGGGGGGH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

"...What's wrong, Softon?"

Practically tearing at his hair (which was impossible because his poop-head thing was in the way), Softon exclaimed, "WE'VE WALKING FOR HOURS, LISTENING TO NOTHING BUT THIS GUY," he pointed at Aidan, "SPEAK IN A CRAPPY BRITISH ACCENT THAT SOUNDS WAY TOO THICK TO ACTUALLY BE BRITISH! FACE IT, HATENKO, HE'S OBVIOUSLY THE ENEMY WE HAVE TO BEAT IF WE WANT TO ESCAPE!"

Hatenko gasped. "NO! THAT...THAT CANNOT BE TRUE!"

Sighing, Aidan closed his eyes and quietly admitted, "He's right, Hatenko. I was sent here by King Richter to brutually murder both of you..."

"WHAT?! AIDAN, WHY? I THOUGHT...I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" Hatenko sobbed, fighting back his tears.

Aidan's face suddenly twitched violently as he grinned, and the lamp he was holding burnt out, submerging the three of them into complete darkness.

Cackling insanely, Aidan's voice now had a more German accent to it as he hissed, "Just follow the path straight ahead...to reach the room where you shall lose your lives! Keh heh heh..."

Cursing under his breath, Softon grumbled, "Dammit...I can't believe I actually LET myself fall into this obvious trap!"

Hatenko, however, didn't say anything. The fact that Aidan had broken the #1 rule of friendship (YOU DON'T TRICK PEOPLE INTO BEING YOUR FRIENDS SO YOU CAN KILL THEM!) hurt him deeply. However, he quickly got over it as he cracked his knuckles, spat on the floor and snarled, "LET'S KILL THAT BASTARD GOOD."

After walking down the pitch-black hallway a bit longer, Hatenko and Softon finally reached light...and they were now inside an empty Japanese high-school classroom. Standing behind the teacher's desk was Aidan himself, and he was busy scribbling something on the board. When he had finished, the kanji 'バカサバイバー' had been written up.

Stuffing the piece of chalk down his throat, Aidan said, "So...you two have decided to come."

"WE'RE GONNA BEAT YOU SENSELESS FOR LYING TO US, YOU...YOU MEANIE!" Hatenko snapped furiously.

'...Ugh...this is as bad as the Don PatchXBeauty fanart I saw once...' Softon thought.

Aidan smirked, and smashed his fist straight through one of the desks, causing it to get caught on his arm. Without a word, Aidan then stuck his other arm and both his legs into the desks, now creating a crappy armor of sorts on his body. He even stuck his head into a desk!

"MY SUPER FIST OF THE SCHOOL DESKS SHALL TOTALLY MURDER YOU!" Aidan shouted.

An awkward silence soon filled the room.

"...Are you serious?"

"NO!!"

Spinning around wildly, Aidan fired off the desks from his body like bullets, but Hatenko and Softon were both able to dodge the flying school chairs. When one of them came a bit close for comfort, Softon did a powerful roundhouse kick, destroying the desk and leaving it as a pile of splinters and metal.

Aidan cursed under his breath and stomped his foot, causing a powerful shockwave to pass through the ground. Sticking his fingers into his shirt, he twisted both of his nipples, causing a strange green gas to be released out of his nostrils.

"JEEZUS CHWUST! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Hatenko cried in disgust.

Gas still pouring out of him, Aidan exclaimed, "I AM FILLING THIS ROOM WITH A TOXIC GAS THAT WILL KILL BOTH OF YOU IN MINUTES! I AM IMMUNE TO IT AS THIS IS A SPECIAL KIND OF CHEMICAL THAT I CAN PRODUCE WITHIN MY OWN BODY!"

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" Softon smashed his foot into Aidan's stomach, and sent him flying into the wall, thus dispelling the dangerous fumes.

"You are the oddest enemy we've had yet," Softon said, "I don't even understand what you're trying to do!"

Blood trickling down his chin, Aidan stuttered, "Isn't...isn't it obvious? I'm...I'm trying to...kill you guys..."

With his finger up his nose, Hatenko replied, "Dude...you are the WORST villain we've ever fought. Ever."

Lifting himself up, Aidan pulled out an odd-looking pistol and several glowing orbs from his pockets. Sliding one of the orbs into the loading slot, Aidan aimed the gun and fired at the wall right between Hatenko and Softon. The moment the orb hit the wall, it let loose a huge explosion outwards, eradicating almost half of the entire building.

Smirking, Aidan said, "Yesss...this'll kill both of you quite nicely..."

'THIS GUY'S AN ABSOLUTE FRUIT-LOOP!'

Aidan inserted three more orbs into the gun and took aim. Quickly, Softon and Hatenko began running on opposite sides of the room towards him, making it much harder for Aidan to choose a target without possibly getting himself caught in the blast as well.

"SUPER FIST OF BABYLON: SWEATING COCONUT TREES IN PERU!"

"SUPER FIST OF THE KEY: KEY-LOCK SPINNER!"

Softon punched Aidan several times in the face and snapped his gun-wielding arm, and then Hatenko thrust his key right into Aiden's chest and turned it, locking the evil pseudo-British man's heart and turning him to stone.

Aidan's mouth was open in a wordless scream as his body fizzled into a dark gray color, and he collapsed onto the ground.

"PUNCH...FISTS!"

Giving each other a high-five (and a low-five), Hatenko and Softon did a funky little dance together to celebrate their victory.

However, their joy soon turned to horror as Aidan's back burst open, and a tall, lanky gremlin creature climbed out, its green scaly body covered in thick slimy juices. It had a skinny body with huge clawed hands and feet, with big spiky ears, wide eyes, and a mouth full of jagged, sharp teeth. It yawned and stretched a bit before noticing Softon and Hatenko staring at him with 'O.O' looks on their faces.

"...Wassup?" The gremlin asked, picking at its teeth.

Softon was at a loss. "Y...Y...Y...YOU CAME OUT OF HIS BODY?!"

The gremlin nodded and replied, "Yup. The name's Lotto. Nice to meet the two of ya."

Hatenko covered his mouth and held his stomach, trying his best not to throw up.

Getting into a fighting pose, Softon grunted, "I guess we gotta fight YOU now, huh?"

"I...GUESS...SO!" Lotto quickly dashed forward and smashed its fist into Softon's gut an incredible speed; the poop-headed guy didn't even see it coming.

"GUUH..." Blood burst out of Softon's mouth.

Hatenko cursed and pulled out his key again. "SUPER FIST OF THE KEY: X-LL7 KEY CANNON!"

However, before the Key Cannon could even finish forming, Lotto completely tore off Hatenko's right arm. Blood flew everywhere, and Hatenko's eyes grew wide.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH?!"

Chuckling, Lotto took a bite out of the arm and sneered, "Ah...tastes like chicken...I like it..."

Clutching at his bloody stump of what was once his arm, Hatenko turned to Softon and shouted, "SOFTON...WE NEED TO FUSE...NOW! HURRY! I CAN REGROW MY BODY PARTS WHEN WE SEPARATE AGAIN AFTERWARDS!"

'Is...is he really serious?' Softon wondered as he ran over to Hatenko.

Pressing their palms together, the two warriors focused all of their energy into fusion, and then were engulfed in a bright display of light, which, like always, formed into a new being...

...and that being was a Gothic Lolita with crimson-red drill hair and a large kitchen knife in her hand.

"My name...is Gothica..." said the little girl in a very depressed voice.

Normally, a villain would be freaked out by something so odd; Lotto, however, saw this as his chance to finally fulfill his hidden perverted desires.

"COME HERE, YOU LITTLE PEDO-BAIT, YOU!" Lotto cackled as he charged at the little goth girl, who then thrust her kitchen knife right into Lotto's forehead without hesitation.

"...Huh?"

"THIS IS MY 'SUPER FIST OF THE EMO: GONNA KILL YOU, GOOD SIR' TECHNIQUE."

With the knife still lodged into Lotto's head, Gothica roared veraciously as she swung him over her head and sent the evil gremlin flying into the ceiling. The knife had also been removed from his forehead by then. Lotto let out a pained grunt as he fell back onto the floor with a THUD.

Licking off the blood on her knife, Gothica murmured, "Mmm...tastes like shit...I like it..."

'This has gotta be the worst chapter yet...it's so violent...' Lotto thought as he picked himself up. When he looked over at Gothica, he saw that she was now cutting herself deeply with the kitchen knife, causing a huge puddle of blood to form under her feet.

"W...WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Shut up," Gothica snarled, her skin turning pale from so much blood loss, "I'm busy cutting myself because I'm emo..."

"YOU...IDIOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!"

Lotto growled and ran at Gothica once again, his long sharp claws itching to scratch some eyes out. However, the blood pouring out of Gothica's arm suddenly took on a life of its own, and it took on the form of a spear as it slashed deeply across Lotto's chest, defeating him once and for all.

Throwing the knife away, Gothica murmured, "That was my 'Super Fist of The Emo: Bloody Spear Killer' technique..."

'WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SAY THE NAME OF YOUR ATTACKS AFTER YOU DO THEM?!'

Closing her eyes, Gothica then separated back into Hatenko and Softon; suprisingly, Hatenko's right arm was now replaced with a mechanical one for some reason. Softon just stared at it for about a minute before giving a thumbs-up.

"Alright. Let's go." Softon said, and he and Hatenko made sure to step over Lotto's bleeding unconscious body as they headed towards a door that had suddenly formed on the wall. As they drew closer to it, the door opened to reveal itself to be an elevator...full to the brim with talking chicken nuggets.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

The largest of the chicken nuggets, who was wearing a hat and a badge that said 'TOUR GUIDE', pulled out a microphone and said, "Alright, everyone! Follow me and stay close! You don't want to get lost in this part of our amazing tour through the evil tower of King Richter! Let's go!"

Once all of the odd talking foodstuffs had piled out, Softon glanced back inside the elevator again and saw Bo-bobo, Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler, Bu-bubu, Be-bebe, Byakkyo, Pokomi, Gaoh, Jati, Hiragi, B.B. and Gasser waiting for them. Luckily, there was still enough room for both Softon and Hatenko to get on without the entire elevator collapsing due to all the weight.

"BOSS! WE'RE TOGETHER AGAIN!" Hatenko cried happily, and he attempted to pull his beloved Don into a hug, but he was kicked away.

However, there was something that Softon noticed that worried him a little...

"Where's those two kids from Explode Saga? Crosk and Ima?"

Bu-bubu's brow furrowed and she looked away, obviously upset.

"Let's go...Richter is waiting." Bo-bobo said, his tone full of a hidden saddness.

With a heart full of dread, Softon entered the elevator and watched as the doors closed. Now, the final battle was about to begin...

...but first, we'll need to go back in time and learn of the fates of Crosk and Ima...