Chapter 4

Upon arrival to the old man's base of operations, I was mesmerized by the looks of the place. The Psitanium deposits glowed bright purple and pink on the sides and ceiling of the cave, the big computer central looked to be very intricate, and old man Cruller looked at us with a smile on his old face when we approached him.

"Well, it's about time you two crazy kids showed up," he said, me smirking at that.

"I thought I recognized you in my dream! I didn't believe it at first, but now that I see you in your element, I know who you are. You're Ford Cruller, the best Psychonaut in the world and the founder!" Raz smirked.

"Well, ya shouldn't believe everything ya read up on, kiddo," he said, me smirking at that.

"Still, it's an honor to meet you, master Cruller. Do you think we could get some extra training in terms of promotions? We already know how to use Pyrokinesis without the badge, same with invisibility, but not certain other abilities," I said, him smirking at that.

"Then I think I could go ahead and give you two some other abilities. For reaching rank 10 so early, I'll give you two things, for two minds. One, zoolingualism, allowing you to communicate with wildlife. And two, a discount on my last Cobweb Duster. Half off, so fork over 400 arrowheads," he said, me smirking and nodding big time as I handed him the stuff and he handed both of us the items, me smirking at how the zoolingual badge went to the left of the diamond pattern on our patches on the back... and then, we found ourselves in the caravan room in our minds.

"Are we in our mind?" I asked, him smirking.

"I thought ya'd wanna practice yer badge powers in a place more familiar to ya. Think up a normal animal an' we'll begin the test," he said, me thinking about that and deciding on a cat. Specifically a ragdoll cat. "Aw, that's a cute one. Why a cat?"

"To remind me of my old cat. Her name was Annie. I had her for 8 years," I smirked widely. And as for Raz, he decided on a poodle that we'd known for just as long, that being the show poodle at the circus that we called Pinyata. We then looked into their minds, focusing on trying to talk to them, and we smirked at what we heard.

"Why is there a dumb dog here, mistress? You know I hate dogs," the cat said, me smiling at it. It was Annie in every way, all in my memories.

"Is that another dog? I ain't never seen a dog that looked like her! Ooh, mama, she looks cute," Pinyata said, me giggling at that.

"What is it saying?" Annie asked.

"He's saying that he thinks you look cute... as in, hubba hubba talk," I said, Annie frowning at that and simply walking towards me.

"Please tell me that I can go attack him if he does anything to me?" she asked.

"Just don't do anything to permanently damage him. Memories are a fragile thing, after all," I said, her nodding at that as she then went to and I proceeded to pet her, resulting in some purring.

"I miss you so much, mistress..." she said, me smirking at that.

"I miss you too, Annie," I smirked at her as both she and Pinyata then left shortly after, back into their respective areas in our memory banks.

"Aw, that was sweet. But now, we should see how you fare with a hostile animal," he said as he produced a giant psychic bear against us. "Now, the bear hasn't sniffed you out yet, so use your mind powers to get in his head and control him! You'll soon learn that the animals of Whispering Rock can be very helpful in protecting you from anything that might want to do you harm in the future," Ford said, me then doing so with Raz and us smirking at how we'd managed to mind-control the bear in an instant as a couple Censors showed up. And soon after, the bear went to them and attacked them viciously.

"Great job, kids! And keep in mind that humans are animals, too. Their minds are tougher than most others, but with enough work, you could control even a human mind with zoolingualism," he said, me smirking at that.

"Maybe I could get that name shortened to Zooling? Would that be better to say than that mouthful?" I asked.

"Up to you, not me," Cruller said as he then had us return to normalcy and he then spoke. "Now for me to tell you something else, young'uns. I happen to have overheard yer conversation with Raz's sisters and I can say this. Your sisters also have some people that Rose is familiar with in them, just not able to come out yet," he said, me being surprised at that.

"What?! Who?" I asked in surprise.

"Your mom is the one inside of Frazie... and your little sister, Susan is in Mirtala. But they're currently trapped inside of their frontal lobes. If you wanna talk to them, you'll need to go into their minds using this when you find 'em," he said as he handed me and Raz a psycho portal. AKA, the magical door that let you go into peoples' heads.

"Uh, thanks... so, could you teach us how to make Psi Challenge Markers? We want another rank up," I smirked.

"You already do, so I don't need to show ya. Oh, and before I forget, I want you to have these before ya go to Sasha's lab. You'll need to learn Telekinesis at some point, so might as well before headin' out," he said, me then obtaining the learner's permit for psi blasts and at least 30 different Psi Cores!

"Uh... Psi Cores? Are these free?" I asked.

"May as well be free. None of the campers care about 'em at least... well, aside from one, but she uh-" Ford was about to finish up before I heard another voice show up.

"Hey! Old man Cruller! I'm here for some ranks up," said none other than Lili Zanotto as she appeared from above! I then looked at Raz and he smiled.

"Go ahead," he said, me nodding as I then walked up the steps to speak to her, Lili looking at me with a smile.

"Oh, hi. You're that brain girl. Rose, right?" she asked, me nodding.

"Yes... can I speak to my cousin now?" I asked, her being confused... before a voice came from telepathy.

"Oh, you have no idea how relieved I am to see and hear your voice again, Rose! I thought I was alone here!" Zeke said, Lili gasping at that and holding her head.

"EEP! There's a boy in my brain?! Ick! Get out of there!" Lili said in disgust.

"Sorry Lili, but that'd be impossible. Much like Rose, he's so deeply intertwined with yer noggin, that getting him out would just kill both of ya," Ford said, me sighing at that.

"And believe me, I don't like this either. Being stuck in a 10-year-old girl's brain since birth is not my ideal situation, especially since I can't do much about this... how are you able to do so much, Rose?" Zeke asked.

"Because I was already a psychic before arriving to this world. Remember, my future visions? It's how I knew you'd win the lottery in the future," I said, him responding at that with annoyance.

"Didn't really help out when I wake up in a baby's brain," he frowned as we Raz then joined up after we reached rank 20.

"Well... is there any way that you could get him into your brain or something?" she asked, me thinking about that with Raz.

"Hmm... maybe? If you could go into Lili's mind to get Zeke out, you could possibly get him into your mind, but you'd need to get all of the merit badges to do so with no ill effects," Cruller said, me frowning at that.

"That stinks... but hey, we could always try it out when you inevitably get all of them, right? I mean, I saw that you passed the coach's basic braining first try! Only Lili has ever done that before," Zeke said, that making her frown.

"So... what else have you seen me do?" Lili asked.

"Too much. And that's all I'm going to say," he said, Lili blushing heavily at that.

"Oof, that sounds like a bad time for both of you..." Raz said.

"Shut up. I don't like this at all," Lili said... and then I saw her mind. "Oh, but he's so cute! And his other half is very pretty, too! If only I could kiss them!" she thought, me being surprised at that.

"Wait... kiss both of us?" I asked, her then gasping.

"Oh my gosh! I-I didn't know you could... I-I..." she said, me smirking as I then held her hand and she was surprised at how she didn't get zapped. "Wait... why am I not getting zapped right now?" she asked.

"Because it doesn't affect family. And you have my cousin in you. That technically means that you're family," I said, her gulping as I looked in her brain again.

"My heart's racing so fast... am I actually in love with both of them? H-How could it work with her, though? I'm still way too young and she'd never want to do that with me!" she said with embarrassment.

"You do realize that I'm 32, right?" I said, her frowning at me.

"Stop looking in my mind!" she complained.

"If you could do it too, I'm sure you would," Raz said.

"I do it 24/7! But your mind? That's a whole new can of worms! If the teachers can't get in, what hope do I have?" she asked, me smirking and shaking my head. "Wait... you said you were 32?... Why do you look like my age, though?" she asked, me smirking at that.

"Because of two reasons. The first is that I had a rare form of cancer at a young age, which heavily stunted my growth. I stopped growing at age 12, and I was already very short. And the other reason? My future visions told me that when I looked at myself in the mirror. Because I was a psychic, I could see my own future. And it said that, even if I didn't get cancer, I would've stopped growing when I reached the same height as the coach, roughly 4 feet." I said, her frowning at me.

"So that means what now? You know, about me still being in love with you?" she frowned.

"Well, in the sake of legal activity, I'd say that, since me and Raz are in the same body, it'd be fine, so long as you follow the rules of that kind of stuff. So I'll just stick to kisses and hugs until you become old enough," I said, her frowning at me. "But I can wait for you to make the first move. I'm the patient type," I said, her then finally giving a small smile.

"Fine... you should go get that training with Agent Nein. I saw you going there before I came in here," she said, me nodding at that.

"Okay, see ya," I smirked.

"See ya,," Raz smiled.

"Wouldn't wanna be ya," Lili said back with some sass. We then got to the transit and went to Nein's lab and Raz spoke to me on the way.

"So you like her too?" Raz asked.

"Not until she said that. I didn't expect she would be in love with both of us... y'know, since she's 10 and I'm 32? But like I said, in my current state of affairs, nothing would ever be able to happen from us being a couple besides the touching and kissing and stuff. And I'd never do anything more than that to someone so young. Because that'd be illegal," I said, him nodding.

"At least you know that much," Raz smirked as we then went back to Nein's lab and we happened to test out the telekinesis on one of his book stacks, opening it and seeing that, inside of one of them, there was a picture of him and Milla holding hands on a boat.

"Get out of my personal belongings, please?" Sasha asked, me smirking at that.

"Sorry, curiosity killed the cat, as they say. Anyways, we got the learner's permit as well as some promotions. Could you show us how to psi blast things now?" I asked, him nodding.

"Now you will see what an organized mind looks like," he said as he used a psycho portal on his head, and we soon entered his mind. And upon arrival, we saw that the interior of his brain was the same as in the game. A giant cube in the middle of an empty space.

"Welcome to my mind," he said, me looking around and sensing a ton of pent-up emotion underneath the cube we were on.

"Uh, Agent Nein? I sense some kind of overwhelming emotion underneath our feet... are you holding some secrets in here that you're cutting off?" I asked, him frowning at that.

"I'll only tell you if you let me in on some of your secrets," he said, me frowning at that.

"Ugh, you are seriously playing hard ball. Fine, I'll tell you. I've seen this outcome in a dream I had last night. Where you would test us and, because of you holding in all of your emotions and repressed memories for so long, it'd result in us needing to save you from a mutated, gigantic censor... and unfortunately, I can feel it bubbling under our feet," I said, him frowning at me.

"And I see that you also have another secret... that you know a lot more about this world than you're letting on," he said, me smacking my face at that.

"I should've expected you to look in my brain while I'm in yours... ugh... let's just say that I could foresee a lot of the events in this world but am hoping to change some things up to make it easier. Like warning you that holding in all those pent-up memories and frustrations will only hurt you in the future. So simply teach us how to psi blast and let us handle those frustrations ourselves," I said, him frowning at that.

"And you expect me to teach you how to do so with the promise of... a..." he was about to say before we felt the ground rumbling underneath us. He then looked to the middle of the room, and I could sense it. The big daddy was coming up from within. "O-Okay... watch and learn," he said as he then focused. "Focus your aggression and then blast!" he said as he shot at the ground, opening a hole. And thus, some censors emerged along with the big guy's hand.

"Okay, like this?!" I asked as I shot at the smaller censors, blasting them to kingdom come... and then, the big guy came out of the ground, which Raz shot at with his psi blasts as the room changed to be the first part, that being the bedroom area. And the big guy sat on the bed and proceeded to attack us with Censors as he then slammed Sasha with his ink puncher, which stuck him to it like glue.

"Kids, it's time to earn your merit badge! Get rid of the censor spawning points or the big one will keep regenerating!" he shouted as we then went around and proceeded to grab as many figments, baggage, and cobwebs as we could before then going to the censor leaks and closing them up. And when we did so, the bedroom area closed up and the big censor moved to the next room and smashed into the ground, creating the mobile room. We then went there and proceeded to collect more of the items while also using the big Censor's bulbous head and body to get to the other figments at the higher points!

We got everything in this part before then blasting the censor stations and the psi blast censors before the place crumbled away, then making the way to the next room, which I called the luggage room. We did the same thing for this one, but we did note the big guy was getting mad at this point, trying to chase us directly and slap us with the puncher in the process! We avoided these while getting everything, including the repressed memories in the vault of when he lost his mother shortly after birth, meaning his dad was very depressed when raising him.

We continued this room and the final room before the big guy roared and proceeded to finally chase us for real and attack with his rolling boulder attack and the stamp attack. We then shot Psi Blasts at him while concentrating on the big guy, not stopping until he was down and out and he exploded into a bunch of mental arrowheads, health, and ammo refills. And when that happened, Raz then looked at Sasha as he got off the ground and dusted himself off.

"So, are we going to be given some kind of speech or something?" Raz asked.

"No, here is your merit badge. We shall never speak of this again. And in exchange, I shall keep your secrets as well," Sasha said, me nodding at that.

"Thanks, we'll hold you to that, Agent Sasha," I said as we got our merit badge and proceeded out of Sasha's mind and back to the lab.

"Okay, now we're ready to take on that creepy shadow monster. Take us back to the Brain Tumbler!" I smiled.

"Okay, hold still. Hopefully there won't be any interference this time," he said as he activated it and we then reemerged into the school/circus area. We then went into the high school once more, where we saw the big, shadowy cheerleader monster again, me psi-blasting it... and what happened after?

"OWWW! What the fuck was that for?!" asked a voice that I instantly recognized. The shadow then deformed into all three of the bitches from my high school that tried to do the kill prank!

"We thought you were monsters?" Raz asked.

"We aren't talking to you, circus brat! We're talking to the loli bait!" the main one said, me frowning at that.

"Uh... what does loli bait mean?" Sasha asked.

"You're not old enough to know. And neither am I," I frowned as I then got to the trio and sensed them. Repressed memories is all they were, so that meant they weren't their own selves.

"Listen, we're doing a test, something you three don't care about. So I suggest you go back to my memory banks so you don't get hurt," I said, them simply standing still, folding their arms, and snubbing their noses at me.

"Geeze, what's up with them? You saved them from jail and the chair, right?" Raz asked in annoyance.

"You don't know the half of it. They bullied me from 12 years old to graduation from high school. I used my psychic powers to see their pranks in advance so they wouldn't go too far, and even if I did see a prank in progress, I told them I wouldn't take it and they'd pay. They never listened, and that resulted in their ultimate backfire prank, which ended with the trio getting tarred and feathered instead of me while I prevented the fire from starting. I managed to squeak by with suspension while the trio got expelled. We should just ignore them," I frowned, us then going past them and going towards the right, gathering some baggage, figments, and a memory from my world, which was in the form of the very same prank I mentioned earlier. But when we got further, towards Raz's section, we saw that the place started to look more like the original level in the game, specifically the area at the end with the giant dark tree and the horrifying plant life. And in place of the rabbit creature, there was a flying manatee creature.

"Raz? Rose? What's going on now? There's some kind of interference going on," Sasha said as I then looked up into the tower and gasped. Dogen was in the tower and looked to be scared for his life as the creepy dentist appeared.

"No, I don't want to," Dogen said with fear as he tried to break from some restraints placed on his arms and legs.

"Oh, but you'll get a lollipop afterwards. And your brain could be used for great things in the future. Very very great things! AHAHAHAHA!" the doctor snickered as we ran up the tower after gathering everything in the level, but we also were prevented from going further for one reason.

"DAMMIT! We can't reach the top right now! Sasha, we need to learn how to use levitation, or else Dogen will be in serious trouble!" I said, him then sending us out of the brain tumbler and him looking at me in surprise.

"What did you say about Dogen being in trouble?" the agent asked.

"We saw him at the top of a creepy tree-like tower, captured by some crazy doctor with a shower cap, ugly coat, and claw-like hand. He said he was going to use Dogen's brain for very great things before laughing like a madman. We couldn't get any further because the final jump is way too high for us to reach. We need to get there fast, but how do we do that?" I asked, him frowning.

"I'm sure you know. Milla Vodello could certainly help. She's one of the foremost experts in levitation out there."

"The mental minx herself, huh? Hopefully I can find my sister in her brain. I really want to see her again!" I smirked widely.

"You'd better get a move on. And take this with you. She teaches her class on the outer docks, so you'll need an oarsman license to get there," he said, me nodding at that as we got the license and we left the lab through the roof.

"Is this part of the adventure?" Raz asked, me nodding.

"Yes, unfortunately. And we need to finish up before nightfall before the coach goes to sleep. Otherwise, we'll have to handle two crazies at the same time," I said, him nodding at me as we then went to the lake. We had to find Milla at all costs, before all the brains got taken. Less issues with that, the better.