It was midnight, and Liam couldn't sleep. Questions shot through Liam's head like bullets, each one leaving a bigger hole than the last.

"Maybe the spiral was the reason the mixels are here. Maybe the mixels are the reason the spiral shot the comets everywhere."

Liam thought, but Liam tried to come up with an answer, but only questions came up, he gave up when the thoughts started getting repetitive, and the weird guilt from earlier came up again.

"Ugh, I'm going nowhere. I need to go on a walk clear my mind." Liam thought; Liam got up and walked out his bedroom door.

Liam was about to go downstairs, but a crack of moonlight shooting from the guest room's door distracted him. Liam was about to close it until he noticed Vulk looking out the window and at the stars with a melancholy look on his face.

"Wait, what is Vulk doing up so late?" Liam wondered as he walked up behind the mixel.

Liam put his hand on Vulks shoulder, making the mixel jump in surprise.

Vulk shot around and saw that it was just Liam. "Liam, what are you doing up so late? Are humans nocturnal?" Vulk asked, confused by the human.

Liam laughed. "No, humans aren't nocturnal. I was about to go downstairs to get my coat, and I saw you looking out the window. So why are you staying up late?" Vulk sighed. "The rain is over, which means we have to leave. If there's anything we can do for you, can you tell us? It was nice to let us stay." Vulk said.

Liam put his hand up to his chin." Well, I don't want you guys to be tired, so I'll let you guys stay until the sun rises." Liam said. Vulk's eye lit up with joy, and he hugged Liam. "Thank you so much!" Vulk said.

After the hug, Vulk went back to gazing out the window while Liam took off the stairs. "Where are you going, Human?" Asked Zorch, who's been pretending to sleep to solve his insomnia.

"I'm just going on a walk to help ease my mind," Liam replied as Zorch and Vulk followed him. Liam put his shoes and a jacket on.

"Can we come with you? We don't know anything about this place, and we're wondering if you could give us a tour of your world?" Vulk said.

"Well, fine, but what about Flain? Won't he be worried about you two disappearing? It looks like he's pretty attached to you guys." Liam said.

"Okay, then we can make this a short walk. Flain won't even know that we left the room!" Zorch laughed. Vulk looked a bit uncomfortable. "But what if he does wake up?" Vulk said. Zorch laughed. "I'll just leave him a note!" Zorch said.

While Vulk and Zorch talked about what they might see in the new world, Liam began to look through the closet for some clothes he had back when he was a toddler.

"Hey, Liam, what are you doing? We need to go before the moon rises again!" Zorch teased. "I know I'm just getting you guys' disguises, and we can't let anyone know that you're mixels." A boot fell on Liam's head. "Why would we need to hide? I thought humans were a friendly species." Vulk said.

Liam froze up. "They don't know that they're fictional characters in this dimension." Liam thought, but luckily he had a good excuse.

"Because in this place, there are no such things as mixels, and judging by my reaction, other humans that see you might freak out," Liam said. Zorch gave Liam a quick glare before shrugging to Vulk, who was extremely confused by Liam's statement.

Luckily Liam got the mixels to put on the clothes. Vulk did it right away to explore with Liam, while zorch was a bit of a struggle since he was embarrassed by the cute duck pattern on his coat. Liam just put on a purple trenchcoat and some purple boots.

Before Liam and the two mixels exited the house, Vulk grabbed the cubit and brought it with them." Never know when you need it." Vulk said as he followed Liam and Zorch out the door.

"Hey, Zorch, do you think that Flain will be okay? I don't want him to get more stressed after everything that happened today." Vulk said as they walked down the empty sidewalk.

"Bah, don't worry, I left him a note, remember? I'm sure that when he wakes up, he'll go right back to sleep. Plus, he's been nervous all day, and he needs his sleep." Zorch said confidently.

Meanwhile, Jess was in a tree stargazing. Her parents were awoken by arguing again, so she snuck into the nearby forest to blow off steam by stargazing and guess constellations.

Jess noticed some commotion coming from Liam's house, and she quickly rushed over there. Jess was confused when she saw two small figures step outside and start talking about some guy named Flain.

Jess decided to investigate more, and she climbed into a tree to watch the odd duo, and soon Liam joined the two strangers.

A few minutes later, Vulk felt like something was watching them from above.

"Guys, I think something is stalking us. Hey Liam, Earth doesn't have any big predators, does it?" Vulk asked as he heard a twig snap. Liam shook his head.

"No, not in this area. The most dangerous thing in these streets is drunk old men getting kicked out of the bar after it closes." Liam said. "Come on, Vulk! What are you, a chicken? If you're so scared, why did you even come along?" Zorch teased but was cut off as something fell on him.

Liam gasped as he saw that it was Jess that fell on Zorch. "Jess, are you okay?! Do you need any bandages? Why are you out so late?" Liam asked, scared by the sudden appearance of his best friend.

Jess got up and rubbed her head. "Yeah, I'm okay, don't worry." Jess said as Zorch got up and grumbled." I'm fine, thanks for asking." "Were you watching us from the trees? Why?" Liam questioned, looking up at the broken branch.

"Eh, I was relaxing and saw you guys, so I tried to give you guys a little bit of a scare. Still, who are the random kids with you?" Jess lied, looking at Zorch and Vulk, who were staring back at her.

Jess wasn't sure about them. They sounded too old to be kids.

"Oh, they're just my cousins," Liam said, making up a lie on the spot. "Okay then. Hey, the name's Jess; nice to meet ya. So how did you guys come over so quickly? I thought all the flights were canceled at the airport because of the spiral." Jess said, holding out her hand to the two infernites.

"I'm Zorch, and that's vulk. We were able to land before the spiral or whatever." Zorch said quickly, shaking Jess's hand, but Jess leaned in for a closer look in the hoods to see what the "kids" looked like before Liam pulled her back.

"Hey, Jess, how about we stop at speed-shop for some nachos? I heard that Evie might be working the night shift!" Liam said with a nervous smile while Jess gave him a suspicious look. Liam would usually make the nachos himself, so it was strange that he was offering fast food.

"What's a speed-shop?" Zorch asked while observing Jess. "Wait, you don't know what a speed-shop is?" Jess said, confused. "Oh, they're not from around here! they're from….. Hawaii." Liam said, making up some more lies to cover for the mixels.

Jess gave Liam and the infernites a suspicious look. "Okay, then I guess we can show your 'cousins' around," Jess said, walking towards a small corner store with a glowing green sign saying speed-shop while the teen boy and infernites followed.

Zorch and Vulk were getting uncomfortable with the way that Jess was staring at them.

Once the group entered the shop, they were greeted by an elderly man wearing a cashier's outfit. "Ah, hello, Liam. I see you have two new friends?" The man said with a smile. "Yeah," Liam said as the two infernites looked around in awe.

"It's so big," Zorch mumbled. Zorch quickly wandered off as Vulk started asking Liam questions about the human world.

After a few minutes, Liam was showing Vulk around and answering his questions while Zorch sneaked off. "What's beer?" Vulk asked. "It's a thing that adults use to drown out their sadness for a short period," Liam answered.

"Anyways, how about you guys pick out some snacks while I get my nachos," Liam said. The mixel nodded and separated himself from the humans.

Zorch popped his head out from the corner, and he signaled to Vulk to come over. "What is Zorch?" Vulk asked. Zorch pulled Vulk away from the humans and into a closet. "Zorch, are you okay?" Vulk asked. "Yeah, I'm fine, but we need to go back, get Flain, and split from these guys." Vulk gasped.

"Why? A few minutes ago, you were getting along fine with Liam! Did something happen?" "Yeah, that something was called realization. Remember when you were asking Liam questions about all the snacks and stuff?" Vulk nodded "yeah." "While you were talking with him, I was looking through some old magazines in a weird file cabinet that I found in this closet."

Zorch turned around and revealed a file cabinet overflowing with magazines." While I was digging through these old things, I found something that may have confirmed Flain's fear." Zorch said as he started digging through the magazines. "That humans eat mixels! But they seemed so friendly!" Vulk said.

Zorch shook his head. "No, but I did find a reason not to trust them. Look at this Vulk." Zorch held up a magazine from twenty fourteen, and Vulk gasped at what was on the front cover. "Is that?"

Zorched nodded with a sigh." Yep, it's us. Somehow these humans know everything about us, and they're selling kids, toys of us! This magazine talks about us like we're fictional characters! We can't trust these humans, Vulk!" Zorch shouted.

"I was about to say the same about you guys." Said a voice behind Zorch. The two mixels turned around in fear, and right behind them was Jess leaning against the doorway, eyeing them suspiciously with a bag of snacks in her hand.

"So I heard you shouting about fictional characters or whatever?" Jess asked. "Oh yeah, we're just fans of this cool franchise called mixels! Do you happen to know anything about that franchise?" Zorch asked. Jess shook her head.

"Not really. I heard that it was discontinued in twenty sixteen because Lego got bored. The only reason I even heard about it was that Liam and I watched a couple of episodes between shows on cartoon network, and Liam owned a few of the toys." Jess said.

"so Liam knows about mixels," Zorch said. "Yeah, but I don't think he remembers it. The show was kinda boring, and the toys broke easily." Jess replied.

Zorch took hold of Vulk's arm." Zorch, what are you doing? I'm sure that Liam can explain everything." Vulk was cut off by Zorch snatching Jess's bag of snacks and using his jet boosters to rush out of the store, with Vulk holding onto Zorch for dear life.

"Zorch, what are you doing?!" Vulk yelled. "I'm getting away from that traitor! You heard the chick; Liam knew about us! This whole time he could've told us the truth about people knowing us, and he could've explained it, but no! Instead, he lied to us about his knowledge, and he lied about us to the chick! Who knows what else he could've lied about!" Zorch yelled.

Vulk tried to stop Zorch by grabbing onto a street lamp. "Zorch, you're being unreasonable! I'm sure that Liam either forgot about us before meeting us." Vulk said. "Oh really, if he 'forgot,' then why did he pause while trying to find a reason for us to put on these stupid disguises! Why did he not care when Jess fell on me? Why was he so scared of us when he discovered us?!" Zorch had stopped running by now.

"I don't know, but I do know that Liam can help us and answer our questions if we just give him a chance. Now let's go back and give Jess her snacks back, and then we can meet up with Liam." Vulk was cut off by Zorch laughing. "Yeah, no. Dude, why are you so trusting of these guys? They're just liars that try to hide important info."

Vulk was ready to snap because of Zorch ignoring every point he made. "Because they have proof that they're trustworthy! When I talked to Liam about how we can thank him, I realized that he's no different from us!"

"How in the world did you realize that?!" Zorch replied. "Because At the speed-shop when I looked at Liam, I didn't see a strange untrustworthy creature; I saw a troubled kid that's just trying. To help us! When Jess mentioned that Liam knew about us, we didn't have proof that he remembered. We only had an old magazine that might be fake and a slight mention from one of Liam's friends that we don't even know if she was joking or not!"

"But-"

"And the fact that he freaked out about us at first was perfectly natural! I know you would do the same if he were in our house! If you don't want to trust Liam, fine, but I'm going back there to apologize!" Vulk said as the heat on his fingers rose.

As Zorch was about to say something, Vulk turned around with a huff, and he began to walk back to the speed shop while Zorch just stood there with his jaw on the floor.

Zorch quickly closed his mouth and yelled at Vulk. "Fine if you want to side with the traitor! I don't need you; I don't need Flain; I don't need anybody!" Zorch stomped off into the forest.

Zorch heard a rustle above him, and he looked up with a snap. Zorch saw nothing in the trees, but he kept hearing rustling. Zorch decided that it would be best to get away from that area, and he quickly ran deeper into the lush forest leaves brushing against him, and his feet rapidly became encased in mud, but that didn't stop Zorch from running.

Zorch finally reached a clearing where he saw a group of young humans playing something similar to mixelball. "What the?" Zorch was about to say something but a ball fell onto him.

"Hey, little dude! Can you throw the ball back? I and my compadres need to finish our game of basketball!" Said one of the humans. Zorch looked at the ball, and he hesitantly kicked it back to the teens, and the humans restarted their game.

Zorch decided that a nearby bench would make a good resting place, and so he placed his stolen bag of snacks below it, and he lied down, ready to go into slumberland until a black shadow blocked his view of the moon.

"Hey, who's blocking out the lights?" Zorch looked behind him, and he let out a terrified gasp because right there was a pile of nixels with a burlap sack perfect for kidnapping mixels. Zorch quickly ran off in fear, and the nixels followed him chanting.

Liam saw Zorch run out of the store holding Vulk, and he was about to run after him, but Jess stopped him. "Dude, what is wrong with your cousin! I stole my snacks when I answered his weird question about mixels." Liam's eyes grew as wide as an owl's.

"What did you tell them?" Jess gave Liam a weird look, but she answered anyway. "I just told them that mixels were an old tv show that we watched when we were, what, nine?" Jess answered. Liam gasped, and He shook Jess back and forth. "Did you realize what you did?! Oh god, I have to find them!" Liam ran out of the speed shop leaving behind his nachos.

Meanwhile, at the house, Flain got up and gasped when he saw that his brothers were missing from their beds." Guys, where are you?" Flain called out, but nothing replied. "Guys, is this a prank? Zorch, this isn't funny." Still nothing.

At this point, Flain was about to shout again, but he knew it wouldn't help. "Zorch would've stopped the prank by now unless. Oh no, no no no" Flain, filled with fear and a bit of anger, ran to Liam's room but saw that it was also empty. "Liam, where are you?" Flain's fire was burning brightly, and he was smoking, but Flain ignored it to rescue his only family.

Flain quietly walked downstairs and tiptoed past the couch with a sleeping Mrs botch on it. Flain searched the house for his brothers and their possible kidnapper, but he found nothing, but then he got an idea.

"Maybe Liam ran outside so that there wouldn't be any tracks," Flain said. Flain ran outside to try and rescue his brothers from their human kidnapper. Flains ran for miles but found nothing but empty shops and alley cats.

Flain was on the edge of a panic attack as he ran through the streets. Lava filled his eyes as he frantically looked for his brothers, his family, the only people he had left.

"Liam! Where are you, you brother eating bastard!" Flain screamed. Flain heard rustling, and he saw Liam stand up from the bushes with a worried expression on his face, and a twig was in his hair. "YOU!" Flain screamed, and he tackled the human.

Liam didn't know what was happening. One moment he was desperately looking for Vulk and Zorch, and now Flain had tackled him with his fire in full heat.

Fear ran through Liam's nervous system. "What did you do to them!" Flain screamed, grabbing Liam's shirt and pulling him closer. "Do to who?!" "My brothers! You ate them, didn't you?!" "What, no, I didn't eat anyone!" Liam got up and tried to get away from the furious mixel.

"No, I know what you did to them! How do I know you're not lying to me as you lied to them about not eating them!" "Because I'm not lying! Zorch and Vulk ran off after finding out that you guys are fictional!" Liam covered his mouth, and there was nothing but science.

"What." "I I'm sorry I didn't want you to have another crisis on your hands, so I tried to keep it a secret, it was a stupid decision, I'm sor-" "WHAT?! This whole time in mixia, no, my whole life, is fake!? All the times I hung out with seismo, all the times I wished my brothers a happy birthday, has been fictional?! Fake?! Wait, how do I know that you're not lying again?"

Liam slowly pulled something out of his pocket, and he passed it over to Flain, and it was the magazine.

Flain looked through it, reading every word like an ancient text; when he was done, his fire was out, and he gave the magazine back to Liam, and he walked over to a bench, got in a fetal position, and laid down.

Liam felt horrible, first. He wacks this guy's brothers with a broom, and now he just caused a severe existential crisis. Now Flain is crying alone on a bench, and it's all because of Liam.

Liam wanted to fix this, so he went over and sat next to Flain. Liam patted him on the back, making sure not to flinch when he accidentally burned his fingertips on Flain's scalp.

"Hey Flain, I'm really sorry about this; I should've told you guys sooner, but I didn't, and now we both have to deal with the consequences, which aren't very good." Flain sighed." Yeah, but my opinion doesn't matter; I'm just pixels on a screen apparently; I'm made to be a lousy leader."

Liam gave Flain another pat on the back. "But you're not. I saw you, and you are more than what they showed on screen; if you were truly fictional, you wouldn't be here, and if you are, then I'm fictional too. Heck, we might all be fictional characters in a bad fanfiction, but we're still us, and we can still make our own decisions." Flain raised his head at Liam's little speech.

"So let's try to stop moping and start looking for our friends."

Flain gave Liam a small smile. "Thanks, dude." Then a screaming was heard. Flain and Liam looked behind them and saw Vulk running towards them.

"Vulk?! Is that you, bro?" "Vulk?! What happened" Flain was happy his brother was okay, but then he saw what was chasing Vulk.

Flains eyes went wide, and he screamed. "NIXEL SWARM!"