Mitch landed on the ground in a battered, bloody heap, mere feet away from Miko and Five. A series of cuts on his forehead stained his white hair red. His left eye was almost swollen shut, while the rest of his face was riddled with welts and bruises. When he ran his tongue across his teeth, he could feel that a few were much looser than usual as he spat a loogie of blood onto the floor. His breathing was hitched and labored as he attempted to fight past his broken ribs, but the pain only let him get so much air. The rest of his body was dotted with cuts and bruises, while all the shots he had managed to get on the Neurosurgeon had done almost no damage. The glitch was still the same supercharged, electrified monstrosity he had become, and he took great pleasure as he grabbed Mitch's hair and forced him to look at Miko and Five.

"Take a good, long look at this. You lost," the glitch declared. "How does it feel, Mitch? How does it feel to know that all your efforts were for nothing? That everything you threw at me amounted to jack and shit, respectively? Doesn't it eat you alive?" Mitch opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, the glitch dropped him on the ground with an unceremonious plop as he noticed Miko's attempt to free Five. He frowned as he grabbed his backpack and pulled out the roll of duct tape before pushing Five away and grabbing Miko's wrists. He ignored her muffled protests as he encased her hands in turn after turn of the grey adhesive before doing the same to Five. The teen let out a pained yelp as the pressure on his fingers increased while the Neurosurgeon taunted them with a smug, "Not on my watch."

When he was done, he tossed the roll on the ground and returned to Mitch's side, once again picking his head up off the ground by his hair. "We've got seven minutes," he said with a smile. "What do you say... we sit here and watch?" He sat down beside him, his left hand clenching the teen's hair as Mitch's eyes met those of Miko and Five. His jaw quivered as he tried to find the words, but all he could manage to stammer was a meek, "I... I'm... I'm s..."

Tears fell from Miko and Five's eyes as they gave him an understanding nod, a nod that said, "We know." All Mitch could do now was sit there and wait for the inevitable... but then he noticed the rabbit. At that moment, the mood in the room shifted as Mitch let out a series of low chuckles that slowly built to a laugh, a laugh that grew louder and louder as the Neurosurgeon looked to his right and saw the green hare sitting on the floor. He raised his eyebrow and asked, "What the hell's so funny?"

Mitch just kept laughing as the glitch repeated his question. "I said, what the hell's so funny?!"

"That! Right there! That's... that's your doom!" Another round of laughter filled the room as the glitch let go of Mitch's hair and walked towards the animal, pointing at it with a crack of, "And where's my doom? Behind the rabbit?"

"It is the rabbit!"

"You're joking," the glitch responded as he crossed his arms. "You're out of your mind. Looks like all that punishment has you seeing things."

"No... he's right." The deep, authoritative voice cut through the room and erased the Neurosurgeon's smugness from his face, replacing it with dumbstruck confusion. He glanced down at the rabbit to find the hare looking straight up at him... and then the animal made its move. It leapt into the air and struck the glitch on the jaw with a reverse bicycle kick, the force of which sent him flying through the air before he crashed into a post clear across the room. Miko and Five watched in awe while Mitch watched with psychotic glee as the rabbit performed a superhero landing on his haunches, which were now the size of regular human legs. His arms had grown into actual, human-like appendages, fists and all. His body had a thin, muscular build not unlike that of the Neurosurgeon, and when he raised his rabbit head, his ears were pinned back and murder was in his eyes as he gritted his teeth. Miko and Five couldn't believe their eyes as they stared at the giant rabbit, with Five letting out a muffled, "What the hell?"

"Miko... Five..." Mitch rose to his feet and exclaimed, "Meet the Green Death! One of the most powerful fighters in Battle Beasts 3!"

"Nice to meet you all," the hare exclaimed. "But right now, I've got some business to take care of!" He ran towards the Neurosurgeon and began to rain punches and kicks down upon him as Mitch focused on the bombs strapped to Miko and Five. The build was just the same as the fakes that had been worn by Zahra and Haneesh, but there was one major detail the glitch had corrected: instead of the wires being color coded like they were in the game, all of these were a dull gray color. Mitch pounded his fist into the floor and exclaimed, "Dammit! Of course he'd fix that problem!"

Color coded wires... just like in the... Five began to let out a series of muffled exclamations as he gestured towards Mitch, resulting in a reply of, "What are you doing?" Five's gesturing and muffled mumbling grew more and more desperate as he tried to talk through his gag, but Mitch made that unnecessary thanks to a downward yank on the tape. Five flexed his jaw to remove the rest of the adhesive as Mitch asked, "All right, now what were you trying to say?"

"Y-your phone! The photos I sent you!" Mitch's eyes widened in realization as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and cycled through his messages. It wasn't long before he found a closeup photo of the fake vest and the original colors, but before he could start the defusing process, a loud thunderclap shook the room as the Green Death was knocked back by an electric strike. The Neurosurgeon wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth as he electrified and leapt through the air towards Mitch, but the hare recovered and tackled him to the ground mere feet in front of the trio of techs. He picked up the glitch and threw him into the wall before once again proceeding to beat him senseless, which gave Mitch an opening to focus his attention on the bomb. He compared and contrasted the pair of devices before steeling himself for the disarmament process, grabbing onto the first pair of wires with both hands. Miko and Five shut their eyes as Mitch gulped back his nerves, knowing full well that this time it was for real.

"Red, black, blue and green," Mitch repeated. "Red, black, blue and green. Red, black, blue and green..." That mantra led to a quick yank on the first pair of wires, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when no explosion took place. The second pair yielded the same result, as did the third, and so did the fourth. The timer on Five's chest halted its march as the Brit moved to Miko, repeating the process with surgical precision as he observed, "You can take the glitch out of the game... but you can't take the game out of the glitch!"

The timer on Miko's chest stopped at 3:22 as another thunderclap echoed through the room. The trio turned their attention to the fight, and the combatants' faces told the whole story. The Neurosurgeon's cockiness had degenerated into panicked desperation as he tried to find an offense against his opponent, but the Green Death blocked him at every turn with parries and dodges. The electricity that danced around him grew dimmer and dimmer as he fired off another electric strike that the fighting hare blocked with his arms across his chest in an X. The force of the impact drove him back, but only for a moment as he crouched down on his haunches and launched himself straight into the Neurosurgeon's chest, shoulder first. The glitch flew backwards into a nearby workstation, bouncing off the counter with a pained scream before he landed on the floor in a daze. The Green Death grinned in satisfaction and used the break in the action to his advantage, bounding towards the Neurosurgeon's backpack and kicking it towards the trio. As it slid across the floor, he exclaimed, "I think you could use this!"

The second the backpack was within reach, Mitch grabbed it and began rifling through its compartments. The first thing he found was the box cutter, and he used it to cut the tape binding Miko and Five. He made sure to cut as gently as possible when it came to their wrists, then he peeled the tape off of their hands with his own, not even thinking about using the blade in that regard. Once they were free, Miko pulled the gag from her mouth and let out a loud yell of relief. Five gave her a warm smile and a quip of "My thoughts exactly" before the pair removed their vests and let them fall to the floor. "You okay, Miko?"

"Fine. I'm... I'm f-fine..." Miko threw her arms around Five and buried her face in his shoulder, a gesture that he returned with zero hesitation. As they rocked back and forth, Miko could feel a third presence on the outside looking in, and when she raised her head, she was looking straight at Mitch. She turned Five around to face him as each of them wore a grateful smile, one that the Brit returned with a knowing nod as Miko said, "Thank you, Mitch."

"We'll never be able to repay you for this," Five added.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but don't thank me yet," Mitch replied as he continued to rummage through the backpack. "We've still got a glitch to take care of... and I don't know about you, but I think you'll need these." He pulled out his right hand, brandishing a pair of gauntlets that were swiped from his grip in a flash. As the duo slid the devices onto their wrists, Miko turned to Five and asked, "What's the plan?" He turned towards the location of the fight and saw the Green Death standing guard over the Neurosurgeon, who shook the cobwebs from his head as he began to stand up. The rabbit clenched his fists and prepared for combat once again, but the glitch got the better of him with a well-timed electric strike that hit his chest and sent him flying through the air towards a nearby pillar, with the ensuing impact knocking him out. With a crack of his neck and a crack of his knuckles, the Neurosurgeon turned to face his hostages, only to see a pair of vests laying on the ground next to his opened backpack. His eyes narrowed in irritation as he stalked towards the glitch extractor with both of his fists at the ready. "That's no problem," he declared. "I've got plenty more where that came from! I think I might even have Mitch join in the fun; what do you say to that?! You're not leaving-"

The gloating fell silent when he noticed another detail: the spot where BITT laid was conspicuously lacking in deactivated robots. The glitch gritted his teeth and fired off a round of electricity in frustration - it struck a light fixture in the ceiling, resulting in an explosion and rain of glass as the glitch stuffed the vests in his backpack and slipped his arms through the straps. He headed back towards the break room, but when he noticed a mirror on a nearby wall, he stopped to get a closer look at himself. A chill ran up the glitch's spine when he discovered that the ice blue irises of his eyes were almost fully visible, with only the slightest hint of green appearing. When he clenched his fists, the flames were less like a raging inferno and more like a smoldering campfire. Even the electricity dancing around his body had withered into almost nothing. "I'm turning back to normal," he said to himself. "Gotta finish this and find another generator..."

The glitch's thoughts trailed off as he opened the door to the break room. The instant he stepped inside, a massive pink hammer swung in from his right and met his face with tremendous force, rocketing the glitch into the wall behind him. He landed in a heap as Miko stepped around the corner and fired a series of blasts from her gauntlet, letting out a furious scream as she did so. However, the fact that she was literally shaking with anger as she fired caused most of her shots to miss, and that was just the break the glitch needed as he rose from the floor and pinned Miko to the wall in front of him, making sure to keep her right arm immobilized. He concentrated the remainder of his electric boost into his right fist, reared back, and prepared to throw a superpowered punch. Miko shut her eyes in anticipation of the impact as the Neurosurgeon let out a kiai, but before his fist passed his head, a metallic claw shot out and grabbed his wrist, halting his progress.

"I'm sorry, sir, but injuring Hinobi employees is strictly forbidden!" BITT shot out another metallic claw that grabbed onto the glitch's other wrist before retracting them and yanking him down to the floor, at which point he deactivated his hover jets and crashed onto the glitch's head. His move rung the Neurosurgeon's bell as the weight kept him pinned down, and with his backpack exposed, Miko let out a yell of "NOW!" That was Five's cue as he burst out of the nearby bathroom with lit pipe bomb in hand, and he shoved it into the main compartment of the backpack through a hole in the top.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" The Neurosurgeon drove his fist into the floor and let loose an electric explosion of power that sent Miko, Five and BITT flying into the nearby walls. BITT was unscathed, but Miko and Five were left reeling as the glitch rose to his feet. He wiped the blood from his mouth and nose before reaching into his pants and pulling out his gun, exclaiming, "This is how it ends, you little bastards! WITH A BANG!" He cocked the hammer and prepared to fire, but just as he put his finger on the trigger, a full-body forcefield froze him in place and stopped him cold. The only thing he could move at that moment was his eyes, and when he moved them to his left, he saw none other than Mitch Williams standing in the doorway of the break room and wielding his reactivated gauntlet. His face was a mask of barely contained rage as he grabbed the glitch by the scruff of his shirt and spat, "No... this is!"

Mitch delivered a full-force headbutt to the Neurosurgeon before he threw him into the break room with enough momentum to carry him a quarter of the way in. As he laid on the floor, the glitch could smell something burning, and he could do nothing but watch as Miko and Five stood on either side of Mitch and held out their gauntlets. A trio of protective shields covered the glitch one after the other as the forcefield deactivated, which gave him the opportunity to reach into his backpack, root around... and pull out the lit pipe bomb. The burning fuse vanished into the cap as the Neurosurgeon locked eyes with the trio of techs standing in the doorway. With triumphant smiles on their faces and a palpable sense of malice in their voices, they screamed three words before they shut the door:

"FARE THEE WELL!"

The Neurosurgeon had just enough time to scream before the bomb detonated, setting off a chain reaction that resulted in a pair of louder, more powerful explosions that broke through the first two shields with ease. By the grace of God, the third shield held up as the door opened and Mitch, Miko and Five entered the room. Black soot was scattered across the perimeter near the source of the explosions, and the area beneath the dome was thick with smoke. When Five deactivated the barrier, the core green glitch energy jumped out and headed for a nearby outlet, but it was stopped in its tracks by Miko and Mitch holding out their open palms. As they brought up the rear, Five stood in front of the glitch and did the same with a full-toothed grimace. The glitch let out a mechanized scream as the combined suction tore it into three, and it vanished into the trio's gauntlets with a flash of light. A super of 500,000 XP floated in the air for six seconds before a familiar, beautiful sound echoed through the room, a sound that they had been longing to hear in regards to the Neurosurgeon:

"GLITCH CONTAINED."

Heavy, exhausted breathing filled the room as the trio collapsed to the floor. Miko and Five gave each other a thumbs up while Mitch bowed his head and shut his eyes, letting out a deep sigh. Nobody said anything for a good long while until Five said, "Hey, Mitch." When he raised his head, Five added, "I... guess our day came after all."

Mitch let out a bitter laugh as he rose to his feet and exited the break room, leaving Miko and Five in the lurch. The door shut behind him as he headed for the bathroom, and once he was in, he took his visor and gauntlet off and tossed them on the counter. As he stared at his bruised face in the mirror, his mind began to replay everything that had happened over the last few days: the farmhouse. The van. The fake bombs. The panic. Miko's sister. His siblings. The last half hour. He had managed to avoid the emotional impact of most of it, but at that moment, everything caught up with him. And with no other option left, Mitch did the one thing he swore he'd never do in front of anybody:

He burst into tears.