Mitch was a man on a mission as he marched into the Hinobi store and headed for the portal to HQ. Bergy tried to give him a friendly hello, but the words died on his lips when he saw the steel-eyed glare in Mitch's eyes. He stepped aside and let Mitch pass, watching as the Brit all but kicked the door to the locker room open. When he landed in HQ, he began to wander the halls calling for Miko and Five. The labyrinth of corridors led him from one corner to another, but as he entered the break room, the voice of his younger self stopped him in his tracks. When he directed his attention to the giant TV screen, he saw the final part of his playthrough of Near Scream's "Clock Is Ticking" sidequest playing to an empty room. The sight was more than a little unnerving, but Mitch had long since been pushed beyond the point of being creeped out by something like this. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and mumbled, "Subtle. Real subtle."

Mitch paused the video and readied his plixel guns, exclaiming, "I don't know how the hell you got in here, but there's no way out! Show yourself and let's finish this RIGHT NOW!" He strafed against the wall next to the door and held his guns at the ready, waiting in anticipation for the Neurosurgeon to enter. Although he was doing everything in his power to keep calm, Mitch could still feel his heart pounding and hands shaking as he steeled himself for what awaited. He was an exposed wire ready to snap, and when he heard the familiar sound of the door sliding open, he jumped out from his hiding spot and fired off two shots with zero regard to who stood there. Miko and Five screamed in surprise and dove out of the way a split second before Mitch pulled the triggers, and by the time he realized who he'd fired at, the duo was back on their feet and giving him the coldest death glares they could.

"Y... you're lucky," Mitch stammered as he holstered his weapons. "If you were the Neurosurgeon, I wouldn't have missed."

"Well, that's encouraging," Miko snarked as she and Five entered the break room. "The only reason you missed is because of our cat-like reflexes."

"And full credit to you for having said reflexes," Mitch replied in a grim tone. "You probably needed those and more to save your sister, didn't you?"

"Nah," Five said with a satisfied grin. "Just a fistful of ponytail and some brute force. The S.O.B. didn't even know what hit him."

"God, it felt so good to pay him back for all the crap we've gone through," Miko declared as she pounded her fist into her palm. "If he hadn't swept our legs, we would've had him dead to rights!"

"At least you two got a chance to bring him down," Mitch sighed as he sat on the couch. "He was already gone by the time I got back to the house. I scanned every room from top to bottom - nothing. No trace of glitch activity anywhere."

"I guess that's an improvement from the last time we were there," Five mused. Mitch let out an affirmative grunt as he ran a diagnostic scan on his gauntlet, which once again showed no glitch activity save for the ones he had already captured. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and scanned it just to be safe, and when that showed no glitch activity, he shook his head and let out a grim chuckle.

"Mind games. He likes to play mind games, and odds are he's doing that right now." Miko and Five readied their gauntlets as she declared, "Then let's play along and beat him for good!"

"Hey, I'm down for that," Five added with a determined smile. "And this time, he doesn't stand a chance! Not against all of us!"

"Your enthusiasm is admirable, Five," Mitch replied in a dry tone. "There's just one major problem."

"What's that?"

"The extra energy boost he got from the backup generator. You and Miko remember what happened to the last glitch that got in there, right?" The duo cringed and replied with a knowing nod, one that Mitch returned in kind as he added, "Considering what the Neurosurgeon's capable of - not to mention what he's already done - him getting a power boost is like throwing gas on a fire. We need to find a way to draw him out and - AAH! DAMMIT!"

The skin beneath his gauntlet began to burn, and Mitch wasted no time removing it to relieve the pain. He tossed the device onto the couch as he examined his right forearm - the skin was red and irritated, but aside from that there was no further injury. Miko reached out her hand and asked, "You okay, dude?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the Brit replied as he waved her off. "My gauntlet started... burning me for some reason! It felt like it was..." Mitch's eyes went wide as he turned towards the couch, watching in horror as a subtle green glow emanated from his gauntlet. Miko and Five were frozen to the spot, mouths wide open and heartbeats racing as they realized what was happening. The trio hesitated for what seemed like hours before the silence was broken by a three-word command from Five:

"GRAB THE GAUNTLET!"

Mitch, Miko and Five dove towards the couch, with their hands landing on the gauntlet one after the other. When they made contact, a sharp electrical shock coursed through their bodies and knocked them unconscious. As the trio tumbled to the floor, the electricity shot out of Mitch's gauntlet and formed itself into the visage of the power-boosted Neurosurgeon. After looking around for a few seconds, he glanced down at the floor with a sadistic, triumphant grin.

"They say you never forget your first," he declared as he placed his backpack on the couch. "And this will be something people never, ever forget."

"-itch? Mitch? What the heck are you doing out here? Come on, wake up! Wake up!"

The familiar tone of Nix's voice, accompanied with Bergy's repeated jostling of his prone form, shook Mitch out of unconsciousness and back into the land of the living with a groan. When he got his bearings, he raised his head from the asphalt and stared at the facade of the Hinobi store before turning around to see Bergy, Nix, Phil, Zahra, and Haneesh standing behind him. Nix had his laptop open on the hood of a nearby van and was tapping away at the keys while Zahra asked, "Any luck?"

"None," he sighed. "Whoever did this made sure to set up a massive firewall. It's gonna take a while to break through it."

"Damn. At least you were able to give the customers an excuse."

"As far as anyone knows, we closed early due to an electric issue. Works every time." As Mitch rose to his feet, he made a beeline for the store, but he was stopped dead in his tracks by the security system. He peeled himself off of the barrier and followed its circumference around the entire perimeter of the store, gaping in shock as he found no way to enter. Panic began to take hold as he heard Phil say, "Don't bother, Mitch. We all tried, and we all failed. None of us can get back in either."

"I don't know how this happened," Bergy observed. "We got an all-hands-on-deck glitch alert, so we headed to the location. Turned out it was a false alarm, so we came back."

"And when we did, we couldn't get in," Haneesh added. "Maybe the glitch barrier is on the fritz, but after seeing what Nix found, I don't think that's the case."

"Of course it's not the case," Mitch yelled. "He created a diversion to get you out of the store, then he screwed with the settings on the glitch barrier to keep you out of the store! He must've dropped me out here just after... oh God..." All the blood drained from his face as he realized what was going on, while Bergy asked, "Is 'he' the Neurosurgeon?"

Mitch opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, his cellphone began to play "You're Only Second Rate" as the screen announced that Miko was calling via Facetime. He was quick to tap the green answer button, but as soon as the line connected, a cold dread gripped him. Instead of Miko or Five, he was staring at the smiling, green-eyed face of the Neurosurgeon, who broke the silence with a loud, boisterous yell.

"HELLOOOOOOOO, HINOBIIIIIIII! And welcome to the first installment of what I'm calling the Scorched Earth Tour!" Mitch headed to Nix's laptop, connected his phone to the OS, and transferred the call to the larger screen while still keeping the conversation open. "You'll find out why I chose that name soon enough, but before that happens, allow me to extend my deepest thanks to your golden boy for bringing me into your headquarters. Couldn't have done it without you, Mitch!" The Brit turned around to see five sets of eyes staring at him, and he paled in anticipation of the verbal beating to come.

"Wait," Zahra exclaimed in disbelief. "You brought him here?"

"Not intentionally! I didn't even know that he was-"

"Just like how you didn't know about that glitch from BUDS," Haneesh countered with a shake of his head. "Same basic principle, right?"

"No! I mean... well, technically yes, but..." Mitch trailed off as his coworkers' stares grew more unimpressed, but he rebounded with a defense of, "Look, I had no bloody idea he was even there, okay?"

"Again, just like BUDS," Nix said. Mitch grabbed the sides of his head and let out a frustrated scream, exclaiming, "THIS IS DIFFERENT! The bastard attacked my family, do you understand?! I scanned every room in that house, and I didn't find anything! I even checked my cell phone, and it was clean! He must have... jumped into my gauntlet at some point and-"

"DING DING DING! We have a winner!" The Neurosurgeon's snide comment turned Mitch's demeanor from defensive to furious, and he turned back to the laptop and demanded, "How the hell did you do that?!"

"A bonus side effect of my power boost," the glitch boasted as tendrils of lightning danced around his face. "Before, I could only travel through power lines. Now..." He brought his free hand up to the camera and clenched it into a fist, smiling as it burst into flames. "Now, I can jump into any electronic device I please. That's gonna make my tour a whole hell of a lot easier, let me tell you! So once again: thank you, Mitch. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." When he stopped speaking, a muffled grunt was heard from offscreen, and the glitch gave a quick side-eye towards the source of the noise while Haneesh asked, "What was that?"

"I'll answer that question in a second. In the meantime, allow me to assuage some of your fears." The background behind the glitch began to move and shift as he walked around the interior of HQ. "That little floaty robot is perfectly fine," he said as he moved the camera to focus on BITT. His deactivated form lay on the floor near the glitch extractors, with the Neurosurgeon kneeling down to provide a close-up view. "Had to shut him down, but he's fine. Nothing to worry about." He started moving once again, heading towards the opposite side of the room. "As you can see, your headquarters remain pristine," he said as he turned the camera away from him and provided a quick look at the familiar confines of HQ. "For now. I'm willing to bet each store has something like this, so-" Another muffled grunt was heard from offscreen, souring the glitch's mood as he turned his attention towards the source of the noise.

"All right, all right! I'm coming! Jeez, some people are so impatient!" Worried glances were exchanged amongst the denizens of the parking lot as the Neurosurgeon headed to the space beneath the glitch extractor, making sure to keep his face in focus the entire time. "You may be wondering why I left you outside, aren't you, Mitch? Well, there's three main reasons. One: I wanted you to see the looks on everyone's faces when they found out you were the one that put me here. Two: I wanted to see the look on your face when you realize that the twelfth of Never... has indeed arrived!" The glitch sat down, turned the phone from vertical to portrait, and began to move it away from his face. As he did, his upper body came into focus... as did the upper bodies of Miko and Five, who each sat bound and gagged on either side of him. A chorus of shocked gasps, cries of "Oh my God" and repeated mumblings of the word "no" were heard in the parking lot as the Neurosurgeon took it all in with a sadistic smile.

"And that's not all - I haven't shown you their new wardrobe! Take a look and tell me what you think!" The glitch moved the camera towards Five's midsection, revealing the same vest that had been strapped to Zahra and Haneesh - eight rods total, all of them wired to a digital timer in the middle of the vest. However, there was one major difference: the telltale red-orange of road flares had been replaced by a menacing glint of silver. The glitch moved the camera over to Miko and showcased her vest, revealing the exact same build as the one strapped to Five. He held the camera there just long enough for the image to register before he moved it back to his face and said, "Last but not least, reason number three. Leaving you on the outside looking in was a temporary move, Williams. After I hang up this phone, I'm gonna grant you, and only you, access to the store. And when you come down here, I'm gonna beat you. And when I beat you, I'll make you watch your favorite noobs die. And with the cameras on your gauntlets being what they are, your buddies are gonna have a front row seat to your failure. Then it's just a matter of overloading the system and wiping this store off the map. Scorched. Earth."

He moved the phone back to portrait mode and slung both of his arms around Miko and Five, with the camera framing their faces in a demented triptych. The sadistic, triumphant smile on the Neurosurgeon's face was offset by the panic and fear in Miko and Five's eyes as he said, "So come on down, Mitch. You know where to find us... so don't keep us waiting. Fare thee well."

The camera went black, and the line went dead.