Sleep was the last thing on Five's mind as he lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Saying that he was rattled would have been a total understatement; "scared out of his mind" was a far more accurate description of his state of mind at the moment. Every time he closed his eyes, the first thing he saw was an image of the Neurosurgeon plastered across his field of vision, and that would jolt him awake. When he was finally able to get at least some semblance of sleep, he was once again awakened by the sound of a police siren a few streets over. He glanced at his alarm clock in the hopes that he'd gotten at least a decent amount of shut-eye, but the digital numbers indicated he'd only been asleep for a half hour. Frustration began to set in as he threw his covers off with an irritated grunt, put on his slippers, and glanced out the window at his grandparents' food truck. The Neurosurgeon's threat echoed in his head as Five picked up his cell phone and sent a text message to Miko: Can't sleep. You awake?

Thirty seconds passed by before he received an answer: yeah still freaked out about 2day

That makes two of us, he texted in reply. Wanna talk?

Miko answered with: sure just lemme go somewhere private as Five opened his window and climbed out onto the fire escape. Within seconds, his phone rang and he put it on speaker as Miko's voice filled his ears. "You there, Five?"

"I'm here. You doing okay?"

"No," Miko replied with a sigh. "Not in the least. I told my mom and dad about it and they told the police, but... if I told them it was a character from a video game, I'd be laughed out of my own house. Sure, Lexi would believe me, but my parents and brothers are a different story."

"Yeah," Five replied with a frown. "I told my grandparents when I got home, and they did the same thing. I mean, this glitch could pop up anywhere, anyplace, anytime. We... we're not safe."

"Grr... I hate this feeling, Five," Miko growled. "If Mitch had given us a heads up, we wouldn't be here."

"Believe me, I'm just as mad as you are about that. He says our lives might be in danger, and then he puts our lives in danger! I can't believe the gall of that guy... if anything, this is all his fault!"

"You're not wrong. Like I said, I can deal with Mitch and his crappy attitude, but to just leave us dangling in the wind like he did..."

"Looking out for no one but himself. I wish I could say that was uncharacteristic of him," Five sighed. "But as much as we may complain about him and what he did, he's still a part of this. I just hope he's staying safe."

"That makes two of us." On the other end of the line, Miko smiled and added, "Hey, we have off tomorrow, so let's get together and dig into Near Scream. We've gotta try and figure out how to stop this glitch."

"You know it, partner. See you tomorrow, and stay safe."

"'Night, Five."

"'Night, Miko."

"Hello, everyone; MitchFTW here with part 10 of my Near Scream playthrough! Now, as you may know, there's been a lot of talk about this game the last few months, mainly due to the antagonist of a certain sidequest that I'll be tackling today. I wanted to go into this as blind as humanly possible, so I've been avoiding all the social media posts and news stories as much as I can in order to bring you an unspoiled experience. So what do you say we go through this together? Save file selected, loins girded, and... boosh!"

Young Mitch's determined grin was frozen in place as present-day Mitch paused the Tweeker video, letting out a grim sigh as he did so. The can of Boost energy drink next to him had long since been depleted, which led to the opening of a new one as Mitch retrieved it from the small cooler in the back of the Hinobi van. The projection on the inside wall lay in wait while he grabbed a small notebook and pen before unpausing the video. When he did, young Mitch activated the opening cutscene for the "Clock Is Ticking" sidequest, with his avatar reading the note left on their car windshield. The wording was almost exactly the same as the one present Mitch had found on Miko and Five's van, and he made note of it on the first page.

"All right, looks like we've received a warning from the villain," young Mitch observed. "But you know as well as I do that we're not gonna let this deter us from bringing them down, so let's do it!" His avatar got behind the wheel of their car and drove it towards the outskirts of town as present Mitch watched in earnest and jotted down notes. It didn't take long before his younger self arrived at the abandoned house, entering through the front door and exploring the spartan confines of the building. "I'm not gonna lie, people; my heart is pounding right now," young Mitch said. "You ever have that feeling where you know something's gonna happen, and you're just waiting for it to happen? That's me right now. Something's coming... I just don't know when."

"Oh, you're about to find out," present Mitch said as he put the freshly opened energy drink to his lips. Young Mitch had entered the bathroom and found nothing amiss, but just as his avatar entered the hallway, the screen went red and a quicktime event ensued. "OH NERDS! Okay, come on, come on," young Mitch exclaimed as he hammered the X button. His character fought back as hard as they could, but their attacker responded by ramming their head into the wall and knocking them unconscious. "Oh crap... this isn't good," young Mitch observed with a concerned frown. "This isn't good at all."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," present Mitch snarked. A few seconds later, the game footage faded back in as young Mitch could do nothing but move his avatar's head around with the joystick. The sense of helplessness was increased tenfold as he responded to the sight of his gun on the chair in front of him with, "Okay, this just got worse. What's going on here?" It didn't take long for that question to be answered, as the Neurosurgeon entered the room, picked up the gun and sat down in the chair. The villain let out a smug chuckle as he said, "Looks like someone doesn't know how to follow directions. What, was this note not enough to dissuade you?" Present Mitch paused the video and rewound it by fifteen seconds, listening once again to the Neurosurgeon's introduction. The difference between what he said in the game and what he had said to him earlier couldn't have been greater. "He didn't know I was coming in the video game... but he knew in real life," Mitch observed. "How in the hell did he pull that off? If he came from the unpatched version..."

A chill ran down Mitch's spine as he considered that option, but a quick glance at his gauntlet jogged his memory. He pulled up the footage of the Mexican standoff and paused the playback when the Neurosurgeon was in frame. The screen identified the glitch by means of a slight green aura, and when Mitch tapped it with his finger, a stat list appeared.

WARNING: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS GLITCH
The Neurosurgeon
Psychological and explosives expert
Secondary antagonist, Near Scream version 1
500,000 XP

The experience points available would have had Mitch drooling on any other day, but the words "version 1" stuck out like a sore thumb. He returned to the Tweeker video and pulled up the description, which read: "Part 10 of my playthrough of the freshly patched Near Scream version 1.1! Time to meet the Neurosurgeon!"

All the blood drained from Mitch's face as he looked back at his gauntlet and realized the truth. "Oh my God... this is pre-patch, and that means... he's utilizing the AIQ chip. He's adjusting to his environment. He's adapting."

"I certainly am."

Mitch screamed in fright as he leapt to his feet, bashing his head into the roof of the van in the process. The pain didn't even register as he readied his gauntlet and leapt out of the rear doors, exclaiming, "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF!" The further away he got from his van, the more nervous he became as his steady hand began to tremble and his jaw began to quiver. "DAMMIT, I'M NOT PLAYING AROUND! LET'S END THIS! RIGHT HERE... RIGHT NOW!"

"I thought you'd never ask," the voice announced from behind him. Mitch whirled around and aimed his gauntlet at the van, firing two shots that dented the side panel and missed his target entirely. The Neurosurgeon laughed and replied, "You need to work on your aim, Mitch. Skills like that will get you nowhere." He held out his hand and motioned to the houses around them and added, "Besides, I think you should keep the noise down. You're gonna wake up the whole neighborhood at this rate." He shot Mitch a wicked grin as he walked past him towards the electric pole, but before he electrified and jumped into it, he slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Silly me, I almost forgot! I left you a little surprise, but you'd better hurry up and find it. By my clock, you've got about... oh... a minute and a half left. Fare thee well, Mitch!"

He jumped into the power line as a desperate, panicked Mitch ran back to the van and climbed in the driver's seat. He tore the front of the van apart as he searched for the none-too-subtly hinted at pipe bomb, checking the foot wells, under the seats, and the glove compartment, ripping the entire mechanism out of its holster in his panic. With that option exhausted, Mitch retreated to the rear of the van and scanned the space with his gauntlet, but it returned a message of "NO DANGER DETECTED." Mitch gritted his teeth and began to tear through the rear of the van, scanning every nook and cranny of the small space with the same message being returned every time. He jumped out of the still-open rear doors and dropped to his knees, scanning the underside of the van... and this time, the scanner returned a message of "EXPLOSIVE DETECTED." A small pipe bomb was highlighted in orange on the gauntlet, but that wasn't what alarmed Mitch. What alarmed him was the fact that it had been placed right next to the van's fuel tank.

"EXPLOSION IMMINENT. EVACUATE AT ONCE."

That was all Mitch needed to hear as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him away from the van. Seven steps later, a loud explosion tore through the neighborhood as the Hinobi van went up in a massive fireball, with the ensuing shockwave sending Mitch to the ground. When he rolled over and got a good look at the remains of the van, his jaw dropped in shock as he rose to his feet and activated the reset ray on his gauntlet with a stunned expression plastered on his face. Light began to spill through the homes on the block as Mitch activated the ray and attempted to repair the van, but the flaming wreck remained just that, much to his surprise. Confusion began to set in as Mitch tried again, but his second attempt was halted by an announcement from his gauntlet that turned his confusion to grim horror.

"UNABLE TO RESET. OBJECT DAMAGED VIA REAL WORLD MEANS."

Mitch let out a harsh, disbelieving gasp as he put his hand to his head and stared at the flaming wreckage with frightened eyes. A pair of residents approached with fire extinguishers and began to douse the flames as Mitch stood in shock, and it wasn't long before his legs gave out from under him and he landed on his butt. It was at that moment that a third resident approached and tapped Mitch on the shoulder, asking, "What happened? Are you okay?"

The only words Mitch could find in response were, "No... I'm not."