A short while later

That poor fucking TV.

Having been kept in a room for untold ages, the one and only TV aboard The Maw had remained trapped within the dusty, musky room for years, with it having only been activated once by Six during her 'adventure' through The Maw. It was still on, even now, playing that odd Veronica song as several Nomes gathered in front of it, bobbing their triangle heads to the tune as they listened in.

Rather abruptly, however, the on screen image of Veronica abruptly turned to static, much to the dismay of the Nomes, though they were quick to rush out of the room when they saw a pair of hands pressing themselves against the TV glass. Rushing into cracks and hiding in random objects, the few Nomes watched with bated breath as the hands began to emerge from inside the TV and into the physical world… and before long…

"Ouch!"

"Tsk!"

"Ah!"

"What the?!"

"Get off me!"

Five people, two adults and three children to be specific, were spat out of the thing, with the children all piled up on top of the adults. A thin, hatted man was at the bottom of the pile and seemed to be pissed off at that fact as he forced himself upwards, inadvertently causing the soldier and the children to drop off him all the while. Thankfully enough, the soldier didn't land on top of the children, as that would've probably been an instant death sentence as they were so thin.

"That went rather smoothly," commented Mono as he sat himself upright. Six scoffed a little as she surveyed the room, a small sub-room within The Maw's library, she remembered, before she stood up and helped her hat loving friend up to his feet as well. Seven was hoisted up onto his by Mono, with him thanking him thereafter, while Graham flipped himself upright with little issue.

"It's probably as smooth as it gets when five people wish to teleport via a TV all at once," assured the Thin Man as he sighed and cracked his neck. "But I'm afraid that this is where we part ways. For now, anyway."

"Is that so? Well, in any case, I wish you well on whatever it is that you wish to do, Thin Man," said Graham as he squeezed the man in question's shoulder reassuringly. The Thin Man winced a little at the pressure being applied to his limb, though he didn't voice that out as he tipped his hat and exited the room, with him dramatically kicking the door down all the while. As he left, Graham knelt down and allowed Six, Seven and Mono to climb onto him for safety reasons, with Seven claiming a spot on his right shoulder while Six and Mono sat on his right palm. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's save the others!" replied Seven, sounding just a little too enthusiastic as he found that playing the role of a hero was rather exhilarating, all things considered. Graham found his enthusiasm to be commendable as he laughed while Six rolled her eyes and pointed towards the door that the Thin Man had kicked open prior.

"Just head out of the library. There's a drop near the end. Jump down," instructed Six, with her only pausing when Seven and Mono gave her bewildered looks. Graham didn't seem to notice, however, as he did as Six asked. "What? He does have to jump."

"You… could have worded that a little better," pointed out Mono, prompting Six to roll her eyes as she punched him gently in the chest.

"And you could afford to toughen up a little," countered Six, with Mono chuckling awkwardly in response as he acknowledged that, now that the time loop was broken, he couldn't do it as he was no longer trapped in the Signal Tower. Even so, he did comment on how she had a point, if only to appease the girl in the raincoat, as he scratched the back of his neck, prompting Six to puff her cheeks up victoriously while Seven laughed a little at their antics.

And as for Graham, he found himself smiling warmly as he watched them speak.

'Ah… the wonders of youth…'

Meanwhile

Well this was fucking great now innit?

Not only was The Janitor out of commission after his arms were severed, but now, several Guests had been sent to the nth dimension thanks to some intruder! The Lady vaguely knew that The Janitor could regrow his arms because the plot required him to do so, but its new arms wouldn't account for all those missing tubs of flesh!

For fucks sake, she was getting hungry, and there weren't enough Guests on board to suck the souls out of! A healthy young woman like her needed at least several hundred tainted souls to keep herself spry, after all, and she was now missing almost half of what she needed!

"I should've invested in some bodyguards for crying out loud…" groaned The Lady as she slammed her head into the table she was sitting behind. Her porcelain mask bounced a little atop it as she did so, though she ignored it for now as she sulked in silence.

"Yes, some bodyguards would have been nice. Especially now, wouldn't you agree, Lady of the Maw?" came a rather raspy voice from behind The Lady, and in an instant, she jolted upright so fast that her knees obliterated the table she was sitting behind, scooped her mask up, placed it over her face and held her hand out towards the intruder. In an instant, several wispy black tendrils emerged from her fingertips and were ready to strangle the one who dared intrude on her, though her magic was almost effortlessly countered by a strong wall of static that deflected it. "Or should I call you Six? Or does traitor sound better to you?"

Though she was noticeably shocked by him speaking her name, The Lady managed to compose herself long enough to take in the finer details of the intruder, and before long, a gear clicked in her head as she realized who she was talking to.

"Mono…?" muttered The Lady as the Thin Man chuckled.

"Once upon a time, yes. But that name's taken now. Thin Man suits me more these days, so just call me that for now," insisted the Thin Man as he offered The Lady a mocking smile. "But regardless, how have you been, Six? Enjoying life? You seem to be doing rather well for yourself, aside from the broken mirrors and all the lost cash of course. I reckon you're leading a good life and all that. After you, y'know, dropped me."

"You're still holding that against me, huh?" muttered The Lady as she slouched forward a little, to which the Thin Man laughed as he shrugged.

"What can I say? When I get my mind on something, I will always see it through," said the Thin Man, with his smile slowly turning into a scowl as he continued. "And now, I just want to see you die."

"... how is this even possible, Mo… Thin Man? You shouldn't be here… you… you died, did you not?" asked The Lady, sounding incredulous as she spoke. At that, the older Mono raised a brow as he slowly but surely realized that this older Six had not been made aware of the time loop she was once trapped in, not yet at least, and though he hated her guts, especially when this Six in particular was the one that had dropped him in the first place, he reckoned that he may as well explain all this to her for her sake.

He wanted her dead, yes, but he wasn't mean enough to let her die without knowing the truth.

"... alright fine. Firstly, fuck you," began the Thin Man, causing The Lady to hold her hand to her chest in an insulted manner all the while. "Secondly, you got some tea or something? I wanna kill you right here right now, but I may as well tell you what the fuck is going on before you die. Call it a sign of whatever remains of our friendship."

"Eh alright let's go do that then. Would you prefer tea or soda?" asked The Lady nonchalantly as she shrugged, seeming rather empathetic to the whole situation as she narrowed her eyes behind her mask. "Or perhaps a cup of fuck you? I hear it's very popular among people like yourself."

"Fuck you, Six. Just get me some soda. I'm feeling nostalgic today," grumbled the Thin Man as he flipped The Lady off. The Lady mirrored his gesture before she rushed off to get some soda that she inexplicably had hidden somewhere in her private quarters, and before long, she returned with two sodas and handed one to her former friend. He opened it without any real fanfare and took a sip from it, and though the taste was a bit… less than ideal, he still found himself enjoying it. "Hey, that's pretty good."

"I recall you liked blueberries, so I kept some as reserve," said The Lady as she removed her mask and opened her soda can. The Thin Man noticed that she was still shielding her face from view with her mask as she drank, though he didn't care enough to ask why as he nodded.

"Thought you'd see me again, huh? Or were you just keeping it there as a reminder?" asked the Thin Man, to which The Lady rolled her eyes.

"The latter. But enough dilly dally. Just tell me about what the fuck is going on. After that, we can just fight it out, the loser dies, victor goes home, and be done with this, alright? I have a tight schedule to run!" ordered The Lady, and in spite of himself, the Thin Man couldn't help but chuckle a little at how, paradoxically enough, nice this situation felt.

"Fine. It starts with a harsh knock on the Signal Tower's door-"

Meanwhile yet again

Fifteen didn't really have much in the way of memories, or at least… he didn't have any good ones.

He still recalled an instance where he had helped a girl in a raincoat with her hunger pains, however. That was rather swell. There was also that one time when Twelve was chased by a rat. For as mean spirited as it was to admit, Fifteen and several of the other children had a laugh out of that, though they weren't laughing after Twelve ran into the electrified poles and got himself killed.

Every memory of his, however, seemed to involve that strange man with a fancy hat and long arms. The guy would always keep watch of the kids… metaphorically, of course, as everyone knew he was blind, though in spite of his lack of eyes, he did quite a good job at keeping the kids from escaping, what with his long, spindly arms and all that. Recently, however, the long arm dude has been missing for quite some time, and it got some of the kids worried.

Not for the guy's safety, mind you. They were just worried that he might've been replaced with someone even worse than he was. It was a terrible thought, to say the least, so much so that a majority of the children present couldn't even bring themselves to go to bed as they tossed and turned with uncertainty.

Fifteen, on the other hand, didn't exactly care enough to remain in bed. By staying absolutely quiet, he had managed to lounge himself in the cafeteria, where he had remained for an extended period of time. He didn't have any reason to be here, no reasonable ones at least. No, he was just here to sit down and clear his mind. That was all…

Though hard to believe, the bedrooms could get rather rowdy from time to time, so much so that it was impossible to sleep. Mr. Long Arms would often silence the children, of course, though the poor guy would usually have to take multiple trips to the bedrooms if he wished to silence all of them.

Children truly were devils!

As one of the oldest kids present, however, Fifteen found no real fun in playing tag or whatever when it was time to sleep. Hell, he was more or less obliged to look after the younger kids in this damn prison, and a part of the process was to play with them to keep them occupied! He had done so many things several different times in the past with both acquaintances and friends, friends that have long since passed on, with the aforementioned Twelve being the most recent one to move on, and now, he just wanted some peace and quiet, away from the younger gents trapped alongside him.

Slowly but surely, Fifteen found his head drooping down towards the table he sat behind as he felt his eyelids become heavy. Yeah, perhaps it was time to sleep now, he reckoned, as he allowed his eyes to shut themselves not long after. He could dwell on all this tomorrow. For now… sleep was needed-

"HAM KICK!"

… or not, as suddenly, the wall on the far end of the cafeteria suddenly exploded inwards, sending debris flying everywhere as Fifteen nearly jumped up and slammed his head against the ceiling.

Gasping at that, the young man turned around and widened his eyes when he saw a massive hole in the wall, with smoke covering it quite a bit. The smoke, however, was quick to dissipate as a figure stepped in, seeming rather heroic as he held onto three smaller figures in his arms all the while.

"So, this is the cafeteria?" asked the one that had busted in thoughtfully as he looked around the place with a raised brow. As he did so, Fifteen found it prudent to hide under the table to avoid the ire of this adult, though as he did so, he risked peeking out at the scarred man with narrowed eyes as he shuddered, with him having seen him as a threat by now. Call him rash for jumping to conclusions, but honestly, this guy was quite literally radiating power from within his body as he walked into the room.

"Yeah. It is. Man, it's weird seeing it so empty. Usually we have at least some rowdy people in here," commented a young voice… one that was familiar to Fifteen. He remained under the table as he watched the scarred adult walk past him, however, though when he was close enough, Fifteen widened his eyes immensely when he saw… three kids being held hostage by the man!

And two of the three looked familiar!

'That's… Seven! And… the raincoat girl? She got captured too! This is bad!' thought Fifteen as he looked around hastily. Years of being the oldest and the one responsible for keeping the other children safe had made Fifteen a little more overprotective than he'd like to admit, and when he saw that the scarred man had Seven, the raincoat girl and some other kid in his grasp, he immediately panicked as his protective instincts kicked in.

Within seconds, Fifteen felt his gaze shift towards a nearby rock that was ejected from the kicked down wall. It was jagged and looked capable of killing someone if it was lodged deep enough inside a vital point. Shakily, Fifteen crawled out from under the table and reached for the rock, wincing a little at how heavy it was, before he snuck up on the scarred man with malicious intent. Once he was close enough, the child bit his lower lip before he lunged forward and attempted to stab his back.

Mere seconds before the strike connected, however, the man suddenly turned on his heel and shot his fist out at Fifteen's head. Said fist stopped less than an inch away from his nose, and not even a second later, Fifteen felt the air pressure of the punch send him flying onto his back as he released the jagged rock from his grip. Landing with a mild thud, Fifteen gasped as he began shuffling back a little as the adult approached him, seeming a little apologetic all the while. Of course, in his panicked state, Fifteen was unable to notice as he began spouting out random words.

"I-If you're gonna kill me, do it quick! B-But just let the other three go, please!" pleaded Fifteen as he squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of the pain that was to come. But instead… nothing happened to him as he simply remained untouched by the scarred man. No, instead, Fifteen heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. Soft footsteps, mind you, footsteps that belonged to a child, not an adult…

"Fifteen…! You're… still alive!" proclaimed Seven, and before Fifteen knew it, he had opened his eyes and made eye contact with the boy in blue. The younger boy seemed to be ecstatic to see Fifteen after so long, though as for the older child, he seemed hopelessly confused as he stared past Seven and glanced over at the scarred adult in confusion.

"S-Seven… wait, what's going o-on…?" muttered a hopefully confused Fifteen as Seven helped him up to his feet, and thereafter, the younger child began to fill the older one in on everything that happened.

For his sake, Seven left out the details in regards to the time loop. Best to not overcomplicate things by adding in stuff that Fifteen didn't need to know about, he reckoned. He also left out the info in regards to the Signal Tower, as Fifteen didn't even know what it was in the first place. Everything else, however, was told to Fifteen, who listened attentively and asked minimal questions.

"Alright, so… that guy, Graham Aker. He's… good?"

"Mmhm."

"Mr. Long Arms… is gone?"

"Six dealt with him, so yeah. He's gone for now at least."

"And Graham wants to help us escape…?"

"Yep! We're here to save everyone from The Maw!"

Pausing briefly to let what his younger friend said sink in, Fifteen found himself grimacing a little as he found his head hurting a little from this information overload. So, what? There was a world outside of The Maw? He has never even thought about that until now, considering how The Maw had always been his home for as long as he could remember.

The prospect of leaving this prison was appealing to Fifteen, if he were honest, though even so… he had to think rationally. Would the others want to leave? He knew of quite a few children who enjoyed being here, after all. And as a matter of fact… was the outside world dangerous? Seven didn't speak too much of it, though based on what little he has, Fifteen had quite a bit of reason to believe that the outside world was a lot more dangerous than the inside of The Maw.

"I… I'm not sure if it's worth it, Seven," commented Fifteen uncertainly as he stared at his friend with a frown. Upon hearing that, Seven, alongside Graham and Mono, seemed to be taken aback as they stared at him in shock. Six, however, remained mostly passive as she urged Mono to focus on their game of patty cake as they sat on Graham's lap.

"Why not? We'll be escaping, Fifteen! We can finally go outside and see what it's like beyond The Maw! I've seen a glimpse of it not too long ago! The wind, the sun… the ocean! Who knows what more lies beyond!" reasoned Seven as he jumped up and down in place. And admittedly, Fifteen found himself a little tempted by Seven's comments, though he steeled himself once more as he sighed.

"Will it be safe… Seven?" muttered Fifteen uncertainly as he clasped his hands together, to which the aforementioned boy flinched. He didn't know how to respond to that…

Luckily enough, however…

"The line separating freedom and safety is incredibly thin, Shonen. By all accounts, remaining here would be your safest option, albeit with significantly shorter lifespans," commented Graham Aker rather abruptly, with him offering Fifteen a small smile as he patted Mono's head. The boy stared up at him and smiled, with him finding some truth in his words, before he went back to playing patty cake with Six. "If you wish to truly live, however. To grow in strength, to become better than yourself, to blaze a trail into the future that none can ignore… you must leave your comfort zone and go beyond, without hesitation."

"So… you're telling me that… I haven't been living properly at all…?" asked Fifteen, eliciting a scorned scoff from Six.

"Living behind bars for your whole life isn't considered living. It's purgatory is what it fucking is," scoffed Six, to which everyone gasped… for all the wrong reasons.

"S-Six! Language!" scolded Mono direly as he waved a finger in front of his friend's face, and likewise, Graham was pinching the girl's cheek for being so rude. She was quick to escape his grip and bit his finger with her surprisingly sharp teeth, however, though the soldier didn't seem to be pained by this whatsoever as he raised his hand, and by proxy the raincoat girl who was latched onto it, up before speaking.

"Hrg… while her language is strong, yes, Six is correct," agreed Graham, prompting Six to smile as she gnawed into his glove. "Though the outside world is harsh, you will find it to be more… exhilarating to be out there than in here. The world is a cruel place, but with enough Willpower, Determination, Bravery and Guts, you can and will overcome it."

"You're making it sound better than it probably is… but screw it. I'm in," quipped Fifteen with a smile as he stared up at Graham. Seven fistpumped victoriously as he pulled Fifteen towards the soldier, and as he did so, he lowered a hand down for the diminutive child to jump on. The kid was, somewhat justifiably, uncertain at first, though some goading from his friend got rid of most of it, and he found himself gasping as both he and Seven were lifted up into the air. "Whoa… you're tall, Mr Graham!"

"Hah! I believe myself to be average, but I shall take your praise regardless! And please, call me Graham Aker! Formalities hold no meaning here!" said Graham as Six finally stopped chewing on his hand thanks to Mono's intervention and was now sitting on his shoulder alongside her hat loving friend. "But regardless, do you know where the other children are being held, Shonen?"

"Erm… just follow the path there and head upwards. You'll find them before long," responded Fifteen as he pointed towards the far end of the cafeteria, to which Graham nodded.

"Alright, Shonens Fifteen, Seven and Shoujo Six, you two know the layout of this place even more so than any one of us! Lead on!"

"Yes sir!"

And as Seven smiled up at Graham enthusiastically, Fifteen leaned in close to him and whispered.

"Seven… what does Shonen and Shoujo mean…?"

"I don't know!"

No, I haven't forgotten about this story.

Gonna be taking a short break from writing after this. Been writing nonstop ever since the previous story update and experienced burnout. Will be back in March… maybe. Probably earlier because I don't know what the phrase stop writing is.

FYI, this is the last pre-written chapter, so updates for this story in particular will slow down from the already slow state.