On Today's Episode: Nick and Ironmouse continue their journey through Mousey's Cradle, finding themselves in the office of a time-traveler and even the domain of a familiar pack of wolf spirits. As they keep traveling to save their V-Tuber friends from a possibly grim fate, can they uncover any more clues to the true identity of the shadowy figure that caused all of this madness?

UPDATE 6/29: I'm probably going to redo Veibae and Zentreya's "stages" soon, to catch up with their new lore. Also, sorry for the erratic updates on this, Totally Spies: The New Adventures has been taking up a lot of my computer time as well...

Episode 3: A Smol Blossom For the Ages

When Nick and Ironmouse could finally see again, they were a bit perplexed. After all, they appeared to be standing inside of the office of Hololive EN Myth's time-traveling detective Amelia Watson, but...

"...did we shrink or something?" Ironmouse wondered as she looked around at their surroundings. "Because this is quite the large office."

"I'm starting to think that shadowy little tart has a cruel sense of humor if she pulled a 'Honey I Shrunk The Kids' on us," Nick sighed. "Whatever the case, we should probably start moving through this place and see if we can find Ame before she finds us."

With that in mind, Nick and Ironmouse moved towards the office, finding that they had to climb up the cabinets of the desk in order to get a good look at the pathways that they had to traverse.

Even though it seemed like there was quite the gap between each furnishing in the office, there were, for some reason, floating books in between each one that served as way to cross to the next furnishing.

"Okay, this is getting very strange already," Ironmouse stated as she used her claws to wrench open another cabinet drawer and give them some space to stand as they continued their climb. "I mean, I've seen some strange things in my life, but I think this is a serious contender for the cake."

"Yeah, and I've got a feeling that it's only going to get weirder as we keep moving through this world," Nick quipped.

When Nick and Ironmouse reached the top of the first desk, they saw something rushing towards them rather swiftly.

At first glance, it looked like Amelia's dog, Bubba, only if it had much sharper teeth and was coming at them with lunch on its mind.

As the Bubba leaped forward with the intent of biting into Ironmouse, Nick placed himself in front of her, summoned his keyblade, and swung hard, knocking the Bubba off the edge of the desk. Upon hitting the ground, the Bubba dissolved into dark mist that quickly evaporated.

"I don't think that's the last of the demon Bubbas," Nick stated. "I can see more of them on the other side of the room. So tread carefully when we get to the other desk."

While waiting for the floating books to come their way, Nick continued to fend off any demonic Bubbas that would try to ambush them until a book came close enough for them to hop on and let it ferry them to the other desk.

"Well, nuts," Nick quipped. "There doesn't seem to be any way to move on."

"Let's think like Ame and look for something that could help us," Ironmouse replied as they searched this desk for anything that would show them the way forward.

It only took a few seconds for Nick to notice a strange object lying in the dirt of a plant on the desk. Upon further inspection, it looked like an ordinary pocket watch, until Nick looked closer and realized that it was very similar to the one Amelia had on her person.

"Hmmm... I wonder," Nick stated as he opened the watch and pressed the button. The watch suddenly began to glow before hitting the nearby plant with a beam of light that caused it to grow wildly and quickly, its leaves eventually serving as platforms that led upwards towards the office's 'control deck'.

"Eureka," Nick proclaimed. "I bet we have to find these watches and use them to send things back or forward in time so we can use them to get across."

"Way to rock that detective thinking, Nick!" Ironmouse laughed as they jumped up the large leaves to make their way to the control deck at the back of the office, passing by the large monitors as they did so.

Once they reached the control deck, however, it was in shambles, as if something (possibly the demon Bubbas) had gotten there first and wrecked it.

Not to be discouraged, Nick and Ironmouse started searching around for a floating pocket watch, eventually finding it hiding underneath the broken glass of a monitor. Ironmouse did the honor of pressing the switch this time, causing the watch to blast the broken control deck with a beam of light that completely fixed the control deck.

This also caused a number of books on the bookshelf above them to pop out and create a convenient stairway for them to climb up to a higher level of the office.

More demon Bubbas charged at them when they reached the top of the bookshelf, but Ironmouse locked them in their place with a gravity spell so Nick could swing his keyblade and knock them all off the bookshelf in different directions.

However, the seemingly only path ahead was, again, pretty wrecked, this one being a small shelf that led over to a faraway desk with a corkboard above it, and no flying books to ferry them over to it.

But knowing that a shelf was broken meant that another time-altering pocket watch was somewhere around here.

"Hey, it's over there!" Ironmouse exclaimed, pointing to just ahead, where an open watch was floating back and forth across the empty air.

"Guess we gotta toss something at it from here," Nick quipped. "Let's hope my throwing arm is up to par."

Nick walked up to the edge of the bookshelf, took a step back, and tossed his keyblade towards the floating watch. The keyblade spun through the air and hit its mark, causing the watch to shine a light on the broken shelf and repair it.

"Nice to know I've got Strike Raid down pat," Nick laughed as they crossed over the shelf and onto the desk.

When they were only halfway across the desk, however, the corkboard rather suddenly lost all the nails holding it to the wall and started falling towards them.

"Oh, what the hell?!" Nick shouted.

Ironmouse skidded to a stop and aimed her hands for the falling corkboard, her bells glowing brightly as she cast her spell. Tendrils of wind burst from her hands, much like what she'd done while battling Zentreya, and blew the corkboard back upwards.

Knowing it wouldn't stay upright for long, Nick and Ironmouse beat it across the desk before the corkboard fell again, jumping across another trio of floating books and reaching Amelia's main desk, where they found what appeared to be a timeline portal to another area.

"Well, all in who's jumping in, I suppose," Ironmouse quipped as she and Nick jumped into the portal, falling through a downward tunnel of dark-blue light until they landed in the Smol Timeline Lobby, a hotel-like area of sorts that Amelia and the rest of HoloMyth had used for their one year anniversary in VR Chat, among other holiday celebrations.

The only major difference now was that the hallways that led to each of the different "Smol Timelines" were closed off except for Amelia's, and that could only mean that she was waiting inside that lobby.

Taking slow, but cautious steps, Nick and Ironmouse walked down the hallway into Amelia's Smol Timeline, a wide expanse of desert sand with nothing but a few large antique clocks buried in the sand, a bench, and a bus stop sign.

Nick readied his keyblade for battle, and Ironmouse extended her claws.

"HIC"

Suddenly, in time with that random hiccup sound, one of the smaller clocks fell over into the sand as a flash of light happened behind it.

More of those flashes began to flare up all around the arena, all coinciding with one of the clocks buried in the sand starting up again.

"Hey, Ame, how about you stop warping and take us on like a real gamer?!" Nick taunted.

And finally, a larger flash of light occurred in front of Nick and Ironmouse, from which Amelia Watson herself stepped out of it, clutching her time-traveling pocket watch in her right hand and her eyes glowing an evil shade of red.

"I think it was a bad idea to provoke her, Nick," Ironmouse stated.

"Probably," Nick quipped.

~ Amelia Watson : The Time-Traveling Detective ~

Amelia made the first move, raising her pocket watch to create a clock circle underneath Ironmouse.

Quickly realizing what was about to happen, Nick dashed over and pushed Ironmouse out of the circle, only for it to activate with him inside it instead and freeze him in time.

Of course, Amelia wasted no time in moving in to attack Nick while he was frozen, summoning a batch of clock-hand blades that all hit him at the same time, though the damage didn't register until Amelia snapped her fingers to undo the time freeze, which sent Nick crashing to the ground.

Ironmouse rolled back to her feet and raised her hands, this time to cast an ice spell. A small flurry of snowflakes surrounded Amelia, freezing her inside an ice block so Ironmouse could run to help Nick back to his feet.

"You okay?" Ironmouse asked.

"Mostly," Nick quipped.

Once Amelia broke out of the ice block, she warped away to stand on top of one of the larger clocks. She pressed a button on her watch, and a large time portal opened in front of the bench, and a horde of Smol Ames charged out of the portal in a straight line, forcing Nick and Ironmouse to leap to the side to avoid getting trampled.

Amelia then jumped off of the clock and started floating around the area, opening time portals as she went. A different Smol Ame came rocketing out of each one, keeping Nick and Ironmouse on their toes.

That is, until Nick was able to send one Smol Ame flying back into Amelia with a swing of his keyblade (amusingly, it made a "gremlin Ame" noise upon contact), causing Amelia to land on the ground and allowing Nick to slip in close and land a couple hits before Amelia started floating in the air again.

Two time portals opened, one above Ironmouse and below her. This made Ironmouse gasp in shock and use her wind spell to dash away quickly as a barrage of Smol Ames fell from the above portal and through the below portal.

When those portals closed, Amelia opened more time portals as she floated around, only for clock-hand blades to come flying out of those instead.

Nick dive-rolled under one of the clock blades and fired a lightning spell from his keyblade, only for Amelia to warp away and dodge it, but this left her open to Ironmouse jumping her from behind and slashing at her multiple times with her claws.

Eventually, Amelia was able to break out of Ironmouse's assault and jump back onto the large clock. Another portal opened, and another horde of Smol Ames rushed out of it.

One of the Smol Ames jumped at Nick, making gremlin noises all the while, but Nick swung his keyblade and sent it flying into Amelia, knocking her off of the clock where Nick was able to hit her with a lightning spell. Ironmouse started pelting fireballs at Amelia, hoping to do enough damage.

After a bit of this, Amelia surrounded herself with a barrier to defend against the magic spells being flung her way. She jumped back to summon another horde of Smol Ames, though this time, there was a random Buffson (or as Nick liked to call that particular model, "Swol Ame") mixed in.

"Hmmmm..." Nick hummed as the Buffson detached from the horde and jumped towards him, slamming her fists into the ground and causing a shockwave that Nick jumped over.

Nick took advantage of that moment to hit Buffson a few times before finishing with a home-run swing that sent her flying into Amelia's barrier, cracking it in places.

"There's the ticket!" Ironmouse exclaimed, launching fireballs into the cracked barrier until it shattered, giving Nick the perfect window to knock another random Smol Ame right into Amelia and stun her.

This caused Amelia to drop to the ground, her body frozen in an awkward pose as a dark glow surrounded her. After batting another random Smol Ame away, Nick aimed his keyblade for Amelia and fired a beam of light from its teeth, which blasted through Amelia's body and expelled the dark spirit controlling her. Though it tried to float away into one of Amelia's still-open time portals, Ironmouse stopped it with a gravity spell so she could jump in and cleave it in half.

Amelia stumbled a bit before shaking her head, her eyes back to their normal hue. "Ugh... what happened? Did I go too far back?" Amelia wondered.

"Time travel is a cornucopia of disturbing concepts, I know," Nick quipped as a teleporter circle opened by the bench. "Come on, let's get back to the Cradle and we'll tell you what's been going on."

As Amelia followed Nick and Ironmouse into the teleporter that would take them back to Mousey's Cradle, another figure landed once they'd vanished, looking around for someone.

"Huh, I must have just missed her," Ouro Kronii stated as she opened a time portal of her own to continue searching.


Once Nick and Ironmouse returned to Mousey's Cradle with Amelia alongside them, Gura was almost immediately rushing over to hug Amelia, much to the detective's surprise.

"Hey, you're here, too, Gura?" Amelia asked. "Just what the heck's been going on?"

"Basically, some phantom wingnut zapped us here along with what I can only assume is the rest of both HoloMyth and VShojo," Ironmouse explained. "Nick and I have been searching through all the different areas here so we can find them before any more trouble happens."

"Does anyone have an idea who that could have been?" Gura wondered.

"You think it might have been Bubi?" Veibae asked, referring to Ironmouse's "partner in crime" who had once been the king of hell while Ironmouse was out exploring the human world.

"Last time I checked, he was still in his imp form, since he needed to recharge his own power," Ironmouse replied.

"I wouldn't rule anything out, honestly, given how devious that guy can be," Nick quipped. "Given how much he seems to think he's the king of hell even when Mousey is right here..."

While everyone was discussing a possible culprit, another strange structure appeared in the distance, this one resembling what appeared to be a landscape from classical Japanese mythology, two landmasses connected by a bridge that resembled the one that one of Ironmouse's friends ran across in her stream loading screen.

"Ooh, very Okami-esque," Nick quipped, only to realize what that meant. Only one person in VShojo liked that game that much. "...that's gotta be Silver, right?"

"Looks that way," Ironmouse responded. "Come on, Nick, let's head in there, because I do not want to leave Silver trapped there any longer than necessary."

Nick and Ironmouse jogged over to the bridge structure, swiftly being sucked into it via a vortex of cyan light.


When they could see again, Ironmouse now definitely recognized this place as ancient Nippon as it had been portrayed in Silvervale's favorite video game, Okami.

"As much as I'd like to take in this beautiful scenery, we've got a friend to find, right?" Nick proclaimed, summoning his keyblade to his hand.

"That we do," Ironmouse replied. "Let's start looking."

However, they hadn't made it even a few feet before being surrounded from all sides by what appeared to be wolf spirits.

"Oh, that's not pleasant," Nick quipped.

One of the wolf spirits lunged for Nick, and he swung his keyblade to strike it down, only for his weapon to phase right through the wolf spirit as it pounced on him.

"That's even less pleasant!" Nick shouted.

"Claws off, wolf boy!" Ironmouse exclaimed as she raised her hands, her bells glowing as she unleashed a spell all around her in the form of a bright pink shockwave that passed through all of the nearby wolf spirits and turned their transparent bodies solid.

Nick took that as his cue to swing his keyblade to knock the wolf spirit atop him off and into a nearby cliff face, where it dissolved on contact.

Ironmouse lunged forward as two more wolf spirits charged towards her, slashing them apart with her claws and blowing two more away with a wind spell.

This thankfully seemed to be enough to convince the rest of the wolf spirits to retreat for the moment, allowing Nick and Ironmouse to catch their breath.

"That was pretty impressive what you just did, Mousey," Nick admitted. "We'd probably have been wolf chow otherwise."

"I just figured we had to turn them solid in order to actually fight them," Ironmouse quipped. "And I'm willing to bet that if we follow those wolf spirits, we'll find Silver."

So, Nick and Ironmouse began exploring the area, occasionally climbing up nearby cliffs to get a better view of the area they needed to traverse.

Eventually, Ironmouse noticed a strange, very out-of-place structure in the distance that seemed to resemble a spacecraft shaped like an old Japanese sailing ship.

"Yeah, that's not clashing at all," Nick teased.

"If I know my Okami thanks to Silver, then that's gotta be the Ark of Yamato, where all of the game's demons came from," Ironmouse explained. "And I'm pretty damn sure that Silver's waiting for us there."

With that in mind, Nick and Ironmouse hopped back to ground level and started jogging towards the Ark in the distance.

"Hey, Nick?" Ironmouse asked.

"What's up, Mousey?" Nick wondered.

Before Ironmouse could get her question out, something fell from the sky and crashed into the ground in front of them before rising up to its feet to approach them. The beast in question was a nine-tailed kitsune with golden-colored fur, each of its long tails ending with a brush-like tip dipped in red ink, and hoods with masks just below the brushes with the central tail wearing a necklace of red beads.

"What in the heck?!" Ironmouse shouted.

"Oh, great, it's Ninetails," Nick quipped. "And I don't think it's just gonna let us through here."

Ninetails simply nodded in response before charging forward to attack with a slash from two of its nine tails, which were thankfully dodged. Ninetails attempted another double tail stab, but Nick was able to block it by raising his keyblade to parry the blow before striking back with an overhead chop, causing the beast to reel long enough for Ironmouse to rush in and start slashing at its flank with her claws.

Nick wisely backed away as Ninetails began to spray a toxic-looking liquid from two of its back tails, instead opting to hang back and fire Thunder spells one after another into Ninetails' body until the spray ceased. Ironmouse cast a water spell to clear away the poison on the ground so they could continue attacking Ninetails safely.

As the battle raged on, both Nick and Ironmouse were thankful that this Ninetails seemingly didn't have access to its own Celestial Brush techniques like it did in the game.

After hitting Ninetails in the head with a home-run swing from his keyblade, Nick jumped over a tail swipe and landed on Ninetails' back so he could run up and attack the central tail in hopes of ending this battle quickly.

Nick wasted no time in swinging his keyblade at the central tail a few times, but he was distracted when two more tails unleashed a spray of poison.

Though it missed Nick entirely, his heart almost stopped when he realized that Ninetails wasn't aiming for him. He looked down, and sure enough, Ironmouse was currently slashing at Ninetails' face with her claws, unaware of the cloud of poison falling her way.

"MOUSEY, LOOK OUT!" Nick shouted as he spun around and aimed his keyblade towards the poison cloud to fire a Water spell. The large bubble of water thankfully hit its mark just in time and blasted the poison spray apart.

Ironmouse smiled before hitting Ninetails in the face with an uppercut slash, knocking it on its back and exposing its central tail to a direct attack.

Nick took the honors of ending the fight by leaping forward and cutting off the central tail with a mighty horizontal slash. Ninetails writhed in agony for a few seconds before going limp and exploding into ink blobs that hit the ground and dissolved not long after.

"Well, that was interesting," Ironmouse laughed. "I'm just glad it didn't start using the brush moves..."

"Come on, let's keep going before anything else from the game decides to drop down on us," Nick quipped. "I'd really rather not deal with Yami or Orochi... ugh..."

But as they continued their trek to the Ark, occasionally stopping to repel more wolf spirits along the way, Nick remembered that Ironmouse had wanted to say something to him before they'd been ambushed by Ninetails.

"Hey, Mousey?" Nick asked. "You wanted to talk about something before we got so rudely interrupted?"

"Actually..." Ironmouse started. "I remember talking to you about some things in VR Chat before we got yanked here. But there's one question I really wanted to ask you. You were very excited when you got to meet me there, right?"

"Well, you are my absolute favorite V-Tuber," Nick answered. "I didn't get a chance to tell you that, to be fair."

Naturally, Ironmouse was surprised to hear that. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it, Mousey," Nick stated. "For many different reasons, actually. For one, you're incredibly hilarious. I can't count how many times you've sent me into a laughing fit of my own with your shenanigans. Also, you're just so genuine, and I really admire that about someone, especially when they're technically behind a virtual avatar. But, and here's the real kicker, my favorite thing about you, and the major reason you're my favorite V-Tuber... is because I admire how strong you really are."

Ironmouse could only stare at Nick as he explained what he meant by that.

"I know you always clap back at people who think you're weak, considering your condition, and I don't blame them for worrying, honestly," Nick explained. "But you've proven time and time again that you're strong. I mean, look at the shitty hand that life dealt you. You chose to throw away those crappy cards and go through life with your own deck, as cheesy as that may sound. You've powered through, and despite the hardships, despite the troubles, despite everything, you're still here, still trucking on no matter what life puts in your way or what Connor decides to throw at you. That, Mousey, is why you're my favorite."

By the end of Nick's speech, Ironmouse had to wipe a few tears from her eyes.

"Thanks for being such a sweetheart," Ironmouse giggled.

"It's no problem at all, Mousey," Nick replied, attempting to take a step forward but stopping himself, unsure if he should.

But Ironmouse seemed to understand what Nick was trying to ask, and opened her arms so Nick could step closer and give her a hug, like he'd always wanted to.

"Now, let's go get Silver back, because I'm pretty sure she's gonna want to hug me, too," Ironmouse laughed.

"Oh, definitely," Nick chuckled as they continued on their trek, eventually reaching the Ark of Yamato and opening the door they came across so they could enter.

They found themselves walking down a long tunnel, knowing that Silvervale would most likely be waiting for them inside.

Eventually, they reached the inner sanctum with a central platform and five paths that each led to one of the boss rematches from the game, though here, only one path was open while the others were sealed off, much like in the Smol Timeline Lobby. The symbol above the door at the end of the open path, instead of showing the symbol of the boss in question, now showed a symbol of a wolf, most likely one of Silvervale's wolf spirits.

Steadying themselves for whatever awaited them inside, Nick and Ironmouse crossed the bridge to the door and opened it up, taking a few steps inside and watching as the door sealed itself shut behind them.

The room in question was mostly washed out by darkness until a cavalcade of wolf spirits appeared on the outer edges of the platform. Instead of attacking Nick or Ironmouse right away, however, all of the wolf spirits ran towards the center of the platform, converging together in a cocoon of silver light.

After a few seconds of this, the cocoon shattered in a flash of light to reveal a wolf girl with long, sky blue hair that transitioned to bubblegum pink at her neck, being accented by four sakura blossoms in front of her right ear, wolf ears full of petals, an extremely thick and fluffy wolf tail, long manicured nails, and wearing a gothic black cheerleader's skirt, fingerless fishnet gloves, a crop top, garter belts, sakura flower choker, and platform high-heel leather boots with pink paw prints on the soles, mixed with a pair of mismatched stockings which were also pastel pink and blue.

She stood up, her blue eyes quickly changing to a crimson red, as she laid eyes upon her opponents.

Nick and Ironmouse said nothing, readying their respective weapons and preparing for a fight.

("Moment of Truth" by Silvervale plays)

~Silvervale : Wolf Spirit From Another World~

Silvervale didn't waste any time in going on the offensive, specifically by raising her hand and firing a blast of razor-sharp sakura petals from her hands. Nick spun his keyblade like a windmill to deflect the ones aimed at him, while Ironmouse countered with a wind spell to blow the rest away from her.

That was when Silvervale decided to get up close and personal, her long fingernails extending in length as she charged forward.

"Oh, now you're just copying me!" Ironmouse exclaimed as she brandished her own claws to clash with Silvervale. While this was happening, Nick was circling the arena, searching for a perfect vantage point to start attacking.

Nick eventually saw his opportunity when Silvervale jumped to avoid a low sweep from Ironmouse, firing off a Thunder spell to knock Silvervale out of the air and stun her long enough for Ironmouse to land a few hits.

It wasn't too long before Silvervale recovered from the Thunder spell, and she jumped backwards while pointing towards her opponents, summoning a barrage of charging wolf spirits to run them over. Both Nick and Ironmouse leaped to the side to avoid the attack.

When Nick moved to attack Silvervale, thinking she was vulnerable, she responded by surrounding herself with an orbiting barrier of sakura petals before Nick could get close.

"Of course she'd pull that move," Nick quipped as he shot a Fire spell into the barrier, blasting a hole in it, though not large enough to reliably attack.

Ironmouse raised her hands, her bells glowing brightly, as she cast Inferno, the powerful Fire spell she'd used in Zentreya's world. An eruption of fire exploded underneath Silvervale, throwing her back and incinerating the rest of the barrier, allowing Nick to slip in and hit her a few times before she could re-establish the barrier.

Silvervale skidded backwards, clutching her now-glowing fists as she called a bunch of wolf spirits to her side, the spirits merging with her until they transformed her into a gigantic wolf resembling her original spirit form.

"RUN!" Ironmouse shouted, knowing that their weapons most likely wouldn't do any good against this much larger form.

The giant wolf spirit charged around the arena at ludicrous speeds, forcing Nick and Ironmouse to dash around to avoid her until Silvervale stopped and reverted to her original self, the wolf spirits flying outwards from her body in the process.

"Okay, let's not let her do that again," Nick quipped.

Silvervale re-established her sakura petal barrier, though this time she also raised her right hand and caused an explosion of sakura petals to fly outwards from her hand and spread out across the arena, throwing Nick and Ironmouse backwards, as there had been no way to block the attack with how widespread it had been.

"You okay, Mousey?" Nick asked.

"Mostly," Ironmouse quipped, getting back to her feet and throwing a series of fireballs to burn away Silvervale's barrier.

Not discouraged yet, Silvervale snapped her fingers, and a circle of thorny roses surrounded Nick before converging on him, exploding, and tossing him into the air.

Ironmouse moved forward and raised her hands towards Nick, her bells glowing brightly, and Nick was surrounded by a soft green light that healed the wounds he'd just taken from the thorn circle.

Silvervale ran underneath Nick so she could continue attacking, but was surprised to see a newly-healed Nick drop down to the ground while performing three rapid moonsaults with his keyblade, and this seemed to do enough damage to freeze Silvervale in place, her body now surrounded by darkness.

Nick jumped backwards and aimed his keyblade towards Silvervale, unleashing a beam of light that blasted through her body and expelled the darkness controlling her. Said darkness formed into a cloud and tried to escape, but Ironmouse finished it off with a dashing claw swipe.

Now free from the darkness, Silvervale stumbled a bit before opening her eyes, now back to their normal blue hue, before looking around.

"Wait, what exactly am I doing in the Ark of Yamato?" Silvervale asked. "Don't tell me I have to fight all of these bosses again..."

"Don't worry, Silver, there's no bosses here," Ironmouse giggled.

"Yeah, I wouldn't wish three fights with Orochi on anybody," Nick quipped.

"MOUSEY!" Silvervale exclaimed as she lunged forward to tackle-hug Ironmouse, sending both of them crashing to the ground. "Oh, my god, you're actually walking!"

"No clue how, but like I said to Nick, it's probably because of whatever this world is," Ironmouse laughed as she hugged Silvervale back.

"Did we get sucked into a video game or something?" Silvervale asked.

"Kinda yes and kinda no," Nick quipped as a teleporter circle opened up at the center of the arena. "We should probably get you back to the Cradle. We can properly explain things there."

As the three of them stepped into the teleporter circle and were beamed out of this area, they just missed the slitted eyes staring from the darkness.


"Wow, this place is pretty neat," Silvervale giggled as she took in the sights of Mousey's Cradle, which was once again slowly filling in with more Ironmouse-related background elements with each area they cleared. "Holy crap, Zen and Vei are here, too? Even Melody?!"

"Yeah, we still have no idea why our 'kidnapper' took us specifically, but hopefully it won't be too much longer until we can strangle a motive out of this dipshit," Ironmouse quipped.

"Until then, all we can really do is keep an eye out for our fellow V-Tubers while we explore this place," Nick responded. "Once everyone's together, I'm sure that's when we can 'storm the castle'."

"Who do you think it could be?" Silvervale wondered. "You said Bubi was stuck in his imp form right now, right?"

"That's what I thought, too, but he's pretty devious," Ironmouse answered. "Though it doesn't seem likely, I'm not ruling anything out."

While everyone conversed about the possible culprit again, they had no idea that they were being watched from afar by that particular culprit.

"Oh, just you wait, Ironmouse. This game has only just begun."

To be continued...


On the next episode...

Ironmouse: Okay, this place is... oddly enough, it's both spooky and calming at the same time. Is that weird to you, Nick?

Nick: After everything we've already seen on this adventure, and everything I'm sure we're going to see, nothing really registers as weird, does it?

Ironmouse: ...point.

Nick: And this place is just... straight up Besaid Island. That doesn't seem even remotely subtle.

Ironmouse: Tell me about it.

Nick: Well, let's just dive headfirst into the weird and crazy, next time on The V-Tuber Fables: Mousey's Strange Journey, "A Takodachi's Foolish Heart"!

Silvervale: Wait, Mousey, are you still playing that Smol Ame game?

Ironmouse: It's not my fault I suck at Moona's level!