(Opening Theme: Hamatora the Animation Opening 1)

-Sometime Ago; Pandora (Rhy's & Shadow P.O.V)-

The moonshot cannon fired from the Helios station, and hit the ground hard killing a bandit in the process. The container opened to reveal Rhys, Vaughn, Shadow and Mion driving in Vasquez's new black car. They were driving through the wasteland to where they would receive the Vault Key. Shadow and Mion sat in the back seat surveying the horizon, just taking in the desert air through the open window.

"I never thought I would return to this hell hole of a planet." Shadow said.

"You and me both Shades." Mion said, "But despite all the bad times we had, we also had some good times too. Like, remember that one time we had competed in that Death Race?"

Shadow chuckled at that memory, "Oh yeah. Have to admit that was pretty fun."

"Don't get too comfortable you two." Rhys said as he made a turn, "Remember we're here to make the deal to get that Vault Key."

"You shouldn't worry about that too much." Shadow told him, "Trust me when I say, when you lived almost your whole life on Pandora, you have so little memory of the good times."

"Sad but true." Mion said to Rhys, "You don't even want to know half of the things that we went through as kids."

They soon approached a town to which it had read, "Prosperity Junction" where a corpse of a Bandit had hung just under the sign. This had made Rhys and Vaughn shudder just at the thought of them being tied around a noose.

"Do you usually see stuff like that around Pandora?" Vaughn had asked.

"Yeah." Shadow had replied, "Mostly the ones we saw here were a bit more gruesome than that." Rhys had said, "Yeah, I could just imagine that."

"RHYS THE ROAD!" Mion had suddenly shouted.

They saw what appeared to be a skag in the middle of the road. They all panicked and it caused Vaughn to shout, "AHHH CRAP!"

The car hit the skag and it literally went flying over the car and landed on the ground blood came squirting out. Vaughn hit the breaks and the car came to a screeching to a halt. "Holy hell!" Rhys had exclaimed, "What the hell was that?!"

Vaughn was in a state of panic as well, "What did-what did we even hit? I hope that wasn't like a really ugly person!"

Shadow leaned his head out the window to see what they hit, "It's alright you two, calm down." He reassured, "You just hit a skag."

"Ugh, shhhhhcrap." Vaughn said, "I think we- I think we killed it."

Mion had then took a look, "I think you're right, I don't see that skag moving. Not even so much as a twitch."

Vaughn had said, "Son-of-a-bitch, that makes us murderers. Great, we're murders now."

"Well… At least it didn't suffer." Rhys had said.

"Yeah, I guess." Rhys's best friend said, "Sucks though."

"Yeah, sucks." Rhys said to him. Rhys started the car again and they drove into town. It was a very small town, where there were not that many people around and a single clock tower stood within the middle of the whole town. This time they drove slowly through it. "So…" Vaughn said, "Just to be sure, what do we do if someone asks where we got the money?"

Rhys had asked him, "What do you mean?"

Vaughn had clarified, "What I mean is what do we do we tell people? We should have a story."

"We'll just say we stole it from Hyperion." Mion had suggested.

"No, that's a bad idea." Shadow told her, "I mean technically we did steal it, but do you know how many people are still pissed at Hyperion and especially half the things Jack did when he was in charge?"

Mion laughed nervously, "Oh right, kind of forgot about that."

Vaughn couldn't help but ask, "So what exactly do we tell people than?"

Rhys had then suggest, "We could say it's for charity." Shadow and Mion couldn't help but laugh at that, "Good luck getting people to believe that." He said to Rhys.

"No, no, no come on just hear me out." He said, "We just say it's some sort of "Open Vault for Pandorans", kind of deal. People love stuff when it's attached to a charity. They hardly ever question their intentions."

"And like we said, good luck getting them to believe you." The young teenage girl said with a smirk. Vaughn couldn't help but look out the window, which he felt like regretting. He saw two men beating up another man who was defenseless and trying to defend himself from the kicks and punches.

"Sooo…" Vaughn said as he gulped, "That looks… not good."

He saw the two men turn to Vaughn; He quickly looked away, "It's Pandora." Rhys said to Vaughn, "What did you expect?"

"And one of the rules when living here, never make eye contact with anyone that is not friendly." Shadow said.

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say." Vaughn said to him, "And I know not to make eye contact with anyone unfriendly. But I-I guess I'm just now more acutely aware that I have 10 million dollars chained to me is all. In a neighborhood I might add of blackplanet nutjobs, no offense to you two."

"None taken." Shadow and Mion both said in unison.

Vaughn heaved out a sigh, "I don't know, I'm just getting that vibe, ya know?"

"Just keep your eyes open for the place, okay?" Rhys said, "I don't wanna be here any longer than we have to."

"Yeah." Vaughn said sinking into his seat.

"And watch the money." He added.

Which made Vaughn say sarcastically, "Oh, really?" Mion gave Vaughn a pat on the head and said to him, "You shouldn't worry too much about it Vaughn, if things do go south Yvette can just send down a Loader Bot or two."

"And she did supply me and Mion with our old weapons for when we did live here." Shadow had said. They showed them the weapons that they had; Shadow having a arondigit* sword which had an elemental ability added to it that rested on his back, and Mion had a gun holder that was holding an AK-47, and a large survival knife.

(*Reference to Sir Lancelot's Sword from Sonic and the Black Knight Game)

"True, that is true." Vaughn had said.

"And additionally she did give me this." Rhys said before holding his weapon, "It's a stun baton. I don't know how it works but it's definitely neat."

"Yeah a stick." Vaughn said trying to stay positive, "Neato."

"Look on the bright side." Shadow said to him, "Once we get that Vault Key back, we'll be the ones running the goof house."

"For sure!" Vaughn agreed, "We'll be the future kings, of that place! They'll send a crew to use the key and than we're home free! We'll just be kicking back on the moon beach!"

Mion thought of what it would look like in her mind, "I've always wanted to see the moon beach."

"Yeah, yeah." Rhys said, "We'll pop champagne and everything once we get the key back."

Vaughn said to him, feeling a bit positive again, "C'mon it's in the bag."

Shadow looked out of the window again, "Speaking of which, are we almost at the place yet?"

"Well the tracker is beeping." Vaughn replied, "But I don't see it anywhere."

Rhys leaned forward and got a better look as he drove, "It's the "World of Curiosities" right?"

"Yup that's the one." Mion said, "Do you see any-OW MY HEAD!" The car came to a sudden stop which caused Mion to stumble and hit her head right on the back of Rhys's chair. They saw a man crossing the the road and to what appeared to be a food stand. Mion slowly sat up and shouted, "Mind giving me a bit of a warning before you do that?!"

"Sorry, my bad." Rhys said, "Oh, and to answer your question from before, no I don't see it."

Mion stuck her tongue out at Rhys, but gave an innocent look when he turned to look at her.

"We could ask one of them." Vaughn said referring to the two men, one in front of the food stand and the other behind it, "I mean, they seem… normalish. Normalish anyway."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea." Shadow said to him. Rhys however disagreed, "Actually that's an excellent idea." Which left Mion and Shadow's jaw drop. "I thought so myself." Vaughn said. They both left the car leaving Shadow and Mion the only ones in there. Eventually they let out a sigh and Shadow had said, "Come on Mion. We better make sure that they don't get themselves killed."

"My thoughts exactly." Mion said. And thus they both got out of the car and followed behind Rhys and Vaughn.

They approached the man at the food stand who was selling food made of skags. "Excuse me sir." Rhys said getting the man's attention and crossing his arms, "Do you know where the "World of Curiosities" is?" The man didn't answer, and just went back to cooking the food.

"It should be around here." Vaughn had said.

"You four lost?" The man had finally said, "What are you here for?"

Shadow had answered, "We're just here for a business deal. Signing papers, and than we'll be out here, you know that kind of business."

The man turned his eyes to the suitcase, "Do you mean those papers kid?"

"Yup." He had replied before mumbling to himself, "In a matter of speaking."

Rhys had removed both of his arms from his chest, and the man noticed the logo on his vest. "Your from Hyperion?"

"Uh-oh." Mion had said when she saw the man pull out a butchers knife that was stained in blood, "I was hoping he wouldn't notice."

The man stepped away from the food stand, "You egg-suckers ruined this town, you know that? Atlas were bastards but at least they had the good sense to fail. When Jack came around he turned everything to smoke."

Rhys had then tried to convince the guy, "Listen, all we want are directions, after that we'll be gone."

"Gone, huh?" He said. He then turned to Vaughn, "Hey, little man." He said throwing his butcher's knife on the food stand, "What's in the case?"

Vaughn started to back from him, "Hey, kitty cat." The man said, "Show us what's in the case."

Rhys stepped right in front of Vaughn and the man stopped in place. The man was about to hit Rhys in the face, that was until he felt a gun to his head and what appeared to be a blade right at his neck.

"Back off you little grease monkey." Shadow had said with a stern look.

"If you don't want to see your brains all over the floor than back away." Mion had added.

The man said nothing and just walked away, as Shadow and Mion drew back their weapons. Rhys had then said, "Look, just tell us where we can find the World of Curiosities before my two friends… get… all…bent… huuuohhh…"

Rhys started to lose his words when several bandits appeared from out of nowhere surrounding them.

"Son-of-a-taint." Shadow couldn't help but say.

"Is there… Like a… Convention or something…" Vaughn said nervously.

"At this point I wished it was a convention right now." Mion said, arming her gun again.

"Great." Rhys said as they started to back up, "Bandits…"

The man who owned the little food stand, had but on a helmet of some kind, and armed himself with his butchers knife again. "You know what we got here?" He said to the Bandits, "We got a couple of Hyperion warmongers, gentlemen."

Mion had then said to Rhys, "I think now would be a good time to get the bot."

"Yeah." Vaughn said, "Bot. Yvette. Prime it."

Rhys nodded his head and quickly called Yvette; Luckily she was quick to pick up the phone.

"Already?" Yvette said, "Really? "

"This is really urgent Yvette." Rhys said, "We need a Loader Bot here, and we need it now."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Nevermind that! Just send it in now!"

"Alright, okay. Just do me a favor and don't go bananas. Things like this aren't cheap you know."

The minute Rhys got the what he needed for the loader bot he had launched it from the station.

The man and the Bandits continued to approach them as they started to back up, "And do you know what we do to warmongers like you people? Time to clock in."

One of the Bandits had shouted, "YEEEEEHAAWWW!"

The man had said, "Here's how it's going to go. You're either going to hand over that or you're handing over your heads. Your choice."

Vaughn had said, "Look guys, let's just talk about this."

"They're not in the mood to talk Vaughn!" Shadow had said to him. The Bandits had started to approach them, with their guns armed and ready, when all of a sudden everyone had jumped by the sudden package which had landed on top of one of the Bandits, making a loud squishy noise when it had landed on him. Everyone was even the Bandits had their jaws dropped by what had just happened.

"Ooh." Rhys said breaking the silence, "Got quiet all of a sudden."

The package unraveled itself revealing to be, what Rhys ordered, a Loader Bot. All it said was "Hi." Everyone continued to stay silent and they couldn't help but turn each other, that is until one of the Bandits shouted, "KILL'EM ALL!" All of them took cover as the Bandits started to fire at them.

Rhys took cover behind a crate while Vaughn took cover behind the car; Mion took cover behind a nearby a barrel. Shadow however charged at the Bandits killing some with a slash of his sword. More Bandits started to charge at him with knives and such; Shadow started to dodge the attacks the Bandits charged at him. Mion would pop up from behind the barrel from time to time and fire at the Bandits killing most of them.

Most of fire was on them and the Loader Bot.

"Why isn't it doing anything?!" Vaughn had shouted over to Rhys.

"Angry eyes detected." They heard the Loader Bot say, "Awaiting instructions."

"It only does what I tell it to!" Rhys had said to Vaughn.

Vaughn saw both Shadow and Mion trying to hold their own against the Bandits; they were both receiving cuts and grazes from bullets and knives. Mion and to move from her cover spot, and started to use her knife against them.

"Well, tell it to do something!" Vaughn had shouted over to Rhys, "Or they'll end up dead!"

"Alright, I got it!" Rhys had shouted to Vaughn before he shouted to Loader Bot, "LOADER BOT! ATTACK THE BANDITS!"

"Acknowledged." The Loader Bot had said, "Engaging target."

The Loader Bot armed itself with a machine gun and started to fire at the Bandits that were firing at the Loader Bot itself. All of them ended up dead with every single shot. A Bandit had then jumped on the Bots arm and tried to fire at it head on, but it managed to throw the Bandit off and fired at it killing him.

Shadow and Mion had finished killing the Bandits that had surrounded them; their clothing just stained with mostly the Bandits blood. "Huh?" Mion said fixing up her hair a little, "What do you know, we still got it."

"Yeah." Shadow said catching his breath, "Who knew." Shadow's eyes widened when saw a huge Bandit took the the food stand and lifted it over his head, "GET DOWN!" He shouted pushing Mion to the side causing her to scream with surprise; Shadow had quickly jumped towards the opposite side as the food stand was thrown towards them.

The Bandit than towered over Shadow with what appeared to be a buzz ax in his hand. He swung it towards him and Shadow blocked it with his sword; the buzz ax was getting closer to his face. "SHADOW!" Mion had shouted, getting Rhys's attention.

"That's not good." He said before shouting, "LOADER BOT HELP HIM!" Loader Bot armed itself with missiles from it's shoulders after it killed the Bandits that were on top of him. It fired towards the giant Bandit getting him off of Shadow. Loader Bot fired again and this time he got stuck in a nearby porta-potty. The Loader Bot armed himself with a machine gun and fired a million times until he was dead. Shadow got up and turned to Rhys, "Thanks for that!"

"No problem!" Rhys had said.

The man from before ran towards the car that Vaughn had took cover behind. He grabbed the case from him. "I'll be taking this!" He said as he got in. There was just one problem though; Vaughn was still handcuffed to the case.

Vaughn shouted as the car started to drive, "AHHH! RHYS! GUYS! OH SHI-HELP! I'M ATTACHED TO A MOVING VEHICLE! STOP HIM!"

They all saw this and shouted in unison, "VAUGHN!"

"HOLD ON VAUGHN I'M COMING!" Mion shouted. She jumped on one crate to the next and then with one leap she jumped on to the car. Only for her to lose her balance and fall right on the ceiling. She held on for dear life while also dodging blades that cut through the metal ceiling. "AH GUYS SITUATION! HELP!" Mion had soon started to shout.

"GOD-DAMN IT MION!" Shadow shouted to her.

Rhys had then said, "Alright new plan… LOADER BOT! GO GET THE CAR!"

The Loader Bot had acknowledged the information, "Stop. Thieves." The Loader Bot had said. Rhys quickly ran following behind the Loader Bot, and Shadow not to far away. A bus had then pulled into the road. Guns pointed from cracks in of the windows of the bus had started to fire. Rhys dodged as he ran, soon he ran behind Loader Bot. However that was short lived when Loader Bot jumped over the bus.

Rhys let out a surprised scream and found himself dancing over the raining bullets. Once again that was short lived when he felt Shadow grab his arm and pull him into the alleyway nearby. "You alright Rhys?" Shadow had asked him.

"Yeah, thanks." Rhys said to him, "Can we cut them off here?"

"We can!" Shadow told him, "Follow me!"

They both ran through the alleyway and quickly turned the corner, only to be stopped by-

"DIE NOW!" A Bandit shouted.

"RHYS LOOK OUT!" Shadow had shouted quickly pushing him to the side he quickly blocked the attack with his sword, but was quickly disarmed. With just one slash Shadow had cried out in pain when a wound managed to get him on the shoulder.

"SHADOW!" Rhys yelled.

"GAH! SON OF A TAINT!" Shadow had shouted as he fell on his knees.

The Bandit lifted his weapon and prepared to attack him and shouted, "I'M GONNA COOK YOU!" Rhys acted fast and pulled Shadow to the side before the buzz axe could hit him.

"You alright?!" Rhys yelled to him.

"I guess I'm a bit out of practice." Shadow said with a small smile, before yelling, "BUZZ AXE!" They both quickly moved to the both sides as the Bandit swung the buzz axe getting the weapon stuck into the wall. Rhys proceeded to punch the Bandit right in the face, but soon came to regret it when his hand hurt. The Bandit had proceed to punch him in the stomach where he saw that the baton that Yvette had provided for him had fallen out.

He quickly had a grab for it and struggled to turn it on. "RHYS!" Shadow had shouted. The Bandit was about to attack, just when Rhys found the button. He turned it on and the minute he did, the Bandit went flying into a building causing Shadow to quickly move.

Shadow had a shocked look on his face at the strength the baton had possessed; He was at a loss for words by what he saw as was Rhys.

Rhys had then said, "Huh, interesting."

Another Bandit came running. Shadow picked up his sword and they prepared to run, only to be stopped by another Bandit, that swung his axe. Shadow blocked it with his sword and turned on one of the elemental his sword had provided which was electricity. The Bandit continued to swing at Shadow, and despite his injury, he managed to stun the Bandit with a single cut on his leg, which shocked him.

"RHYS! NOW!"

Rhys nodded and swung the baton towards the Bandit, which caused him to fly towards the wall which killed him. "Huh… Alright." He said. They continued to run down the alleyway, only to be stopped by another Bandit. As well as another huge Bandit came towards them.

Rhys acted fast; He hit the corpse of the Bandit they killed not too long ago making the larger Bandit trip and fall on his face. Shadow charged at the Bandit and hit him with the sword stunning him since it was still on the element of electricity, making him ram into the wall and with one last swing and just flipped the Bandit.

The larger Bandit got up and walked towards them slowly. Rhys attempted to hit him with the stun baton but no matter how many time he'd hit the Bandit he just wouldn't go down. The Bandit grabbed a hold of Rhys's neck and slammed him against the wall.

Shadow had attempt to hit the Bandit with his sword after he turned off the element of electricity, however the Bandit caught hold of the blade and throw Shadow against the wall making him cry out in pain on impact.

Rhys had then saw the weak point of the Bandit. He shoved the baton right into his face and electricity just went through the Bandits body. The Bandit dropped Rhys and stumbled before falling over; Luckily Rhys moved quick before the body could land on him. He ran over to Shadow and helped him off the ground, "Yup, I'm still a bit rusty." Shadow said as he stood up.

"Come on!" Rhys said and they both made their up a nearby staircase. They both got high enough to see that the Loader Bot had caught the car but they didn't see Mion or Vaughn at the car.

Shadow had called out, "MION! VAUGHN! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The man from before with the Butcher's knife, had approached them.

RUDIGER

KILL'EM AND GRILL EM

"What did you do with Vaughn and Mion?" Rhys had said to him.

"How the hell should I know?" Rudiger had said, "Your bot frickin' bot threw all three of us out! Now the both of you kindly stand still and die." He ran towards them, about to swing his butchers knife, but Rhys swung his baton and the butchers knife flew right into a Bandit's head killing him.

Rudiger backed up slowly with his arms up. All Rhys did was tap him with the stun baton and he went flying right bill board which fell over. Behind the billboard it was revealed what they were looking for. The World of Curiosities.

"Huh…" Shadow said, "Now that's convenient."

"That's all we wanted to know." Rhys said, "We could've avoided all of this."

"Ow." They heard the Loader Bot say.

They want towards the balcony and saw Loader Bot in a pinch.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay." Rhys said, "Loader Bot. Put the car down."

"Sure thing." Loader Bot had said.

He threw the car towards the car killing many. "Bandits imminent." The Loader Bot said. Rhys and Shadow jumped from the building and landed on the ground. They found Mion and Vaughn hiding behind a light post. They both sighed with relief when they saw that they were both safe. They quickly went behind Loader Bot as the Bandit continued to fire.

"Why the hell isn't the Loader Bot firing!?" Mion had shouted.

They heard the Loader Bot say, "Weapons subsystem requires your attention."

"Rhys! Do something!" Vaughn had shouted.

"Okay, let's improvise!" Rhys said and quickly the schematics of the Loader Bot. "What are you doing?" Shadow had asked Rhys over the gunshots. "Giving the bot an upgrade." He replied.

He quickly went to the weapons and made the necessary upgrades to the Loader Bot.

Once he was done and the Loader Bot had said, "Circumstances… Analyzed. Engaging… Disproportionate response mode." The Loader Bot got out the machine gun and started to fire on the many Bandits. The Bot equipped itself with missiles and started to spin and fire on the many Bandits that had surrounded them.

Rhys couldn't help but shout, "THIS THING IS AMAZING!" They all stayed low as the Loader Bot continued to fire. Soon enough all the Bandits were dead and everything was quiet and some fell from the sky.

Loader Bot couldn't help but say, "Fatality."

However this was short lived when they saw more Bandits coming there way.

"OH COME ON!" Rhys couldn't help shout.

"I THINK I SPEAK FOR ALL WHEN I SAY, LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Shadow had yelled. The Bandits started to fire as they ran towards the entrance of the World of Curiosities. They tried to open the gate but it didn't budge. "SON OF A BITCH!" Mion shouted, "AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS!"

"How are we supposed to get inside now?!" Vaughn had said.

Before Rhys could come up with an idea, Loader Bot had lifted Vaughn and Rhys up over the gate. "That could work." Rhys had said.

The Loader Bot had then lifted Shadow and Mion up and over the gate. After the Loader Bot did that he gave a thumbs up to them. "Thanks alot Loader Bot." Rhys had said. Just than a Bandit jumped right onto the Loader Bot.

"Wait, what?" The Loader Bot said, "This is totally uncool."

The Loader Bot did it's best to shake off the Bandits but it was to no avail. The Bandits shot on the Bot's legs causing it to fall.

"Help. Please." Loader Bot had pleaded. The Bandit grabbed it's arm and ripped it clean off.

"LOADER BOT! NO!" Mion had shouted.

"Rhys tell it to run!" Vaughn had said.

Rhys nodded and said, "Loader Bot, get out of there!"

They heard Loader Bot say, "Parting is such sweet sorrow." Thus Loader Bot flew away, with a single arm and leg; The Loader Bot shook the Bandits off killing them and flew off into the distance. The four of them caught their breath after what had just happened. "I will name my first born Loader Bot." They heard Rhys said, earning him a look. Rhys noticed this and quickly said, "Well you know, probably not."

"I… I can't believe we're alive." Vaughn said, "I mean, I-I never wanna see somebody's brains come out of their nose, not ever again. That… that was the single scariest experience in my life!"

"Welcome to our world Vaughn…" Shadow said before groaning in pain.

Mion noticed the injury and said, "Shades your hurt."

Shadow had said, "Yeah, a Bandit managed to get the drop on me. Damn it hurts…"

"You'll be okay though right?" Rhys had asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine, besides…" Shadow said before pointing to his eye, "I suffered from worse remember?"

Mion ripped up a part of her jacket and used it as a makeshift bandage for the wound on his shoulder. Mion had finished patching his wound and she helped him stand up. "It's not much but it's gonna have to do for now." Mion said. "Thanks." He said to her.

"It's what friends are for, right?" She said to him with a smile.

"Alright now that's out of the way." Rhys had started to say, "Let's find this August guy, buy the Vault Key and…"

His words trailed off again when they finally got a look at the World of Curiosities. There was all kinds of beast of Pandora as far as the eye can see. They couldn't help but stare in awe at the many creatures that were before them.

"...And get the hell out of here." Rhys had finished.

None of them wanted to walk through but they had no choice, if they ever hope to find the exit to whatever they were looking at. They walked down the museum until they reached a man with a megaphone sticking out of his stomach, which made them all shudder.

"Okay…" Vaughn said feeling sick to his stomach, "That's just messed up."

"Who the hell is this?" Mion couldn't help but ask.

Shadow proceeded to use his ECHOeye to scan the man on the chair. "His name is Professor Penumbra." He replied to Mion to answer her question.

"Never heard of him." Rhys said, "But why the hell does he have a Megaphone sticking out of his stomach?"

"No idea." Vaughn told him, "And I don't really want to have to think about it. I mean stuffed animals is one thing, but this is taking a turn I really don't want it too."

They jumped when a sudden voice turned on the megaphone.

"Right this way to the world famous Hall of Pandoran Luminaries. Come and face to face with icons of the planet's turbulent history… and hear how each met their grisly fate."

They turned to where the sign had pointed, just down the hall; all of them equally realizing it was the only way out. They jumped again when the megaphone turned on again.

"Please watch your step and marvel at some of the unexpected ends of life's grand design."

Mion let out a groan, "Do we have to go through there?"

Rhys had replied, "There's no where else to go. Let's just go through it."

"Alright than." Shadow said, "Let's get this over with." They went down the hallway and through the human gallery. They passed several people including a man who looked very odd looking whose name was the same as Shadow's nickname, Shade or at least that was what the voice had told them.

It was until they noticed a man in particular. "Hey guys look." Shadow said pointing to the man, "Isn't that Professor Nakayama?"

Rhys and Vaughn got a better look at the man. "Oh hey you're right. It is him!" Vaughn said.

"Oh yeah, I remember this guy." Rhys said, "He was an asshole."

The person started to explain who Nakayama was.

"Formally a scientific researcher who worked for Hyperion, Professor Nakayama was obsessed with cloning Handsome Jack, who carried a certain fondness for. Killed by stairs."

Mion couldn't help but laugh at that, which earned her a look from each of them. "Mion!" Shadow had said getting her to stop laughing. "I'm sorry!" Mion said trying to stop laughing, "But a guy like him, dying by stairs that's just-!" She continued to laugh falling to her knees; letting eyes squeeze out tears from her laughter. All Shadow could do was shake his head and attempted to get her to stop laughing.

Vaughn turned to Rhys who seemed unamused by this. "No witty rejoinder?" Vaughn had asked, "You must be more traumatized than I am."

Rhys had than noticed something, "Looks like he still has his Hyperion ID chip." By this time Mion had finally stopped laughing and stood up. "Does he really?" She asked.

"Looks like it." Shadow had said, after he saw where the ID chip was.

"In that case, let's keep it!" Vaughn had suggested, "Hyperion pays out a nice bonus for recovering those things."

"Good point." Shadow had said, and took the chip from Nakayama, making a gun that laid on his shoulder and fell over. "Ooops." He said as he placed the chip in his jacket pocket. They soon approached the door that was at the end of the hallway. They tried to open the door only to realize that it was-

"Oh come on!" Shadow said, "It's locked!"

"Locked!? What do you mean locked!?" Mion said.

"That's what I said." He said, "The doors locked."

"Oh come on, are you serious?" Vaughn said before checking it himself by knocking.

Rhys had said, "This feels like we came in the back, so maybe there's a front door somewhere?"

"Yeah but…" Vaughn had said, "I don't know if we can get out there with the murders all over the place." Shadow turned back to the many bodies that were in the gallery. "Call me crazy, but maybe one of them have the key to this door."

"You could be right." Rhys said to him, "Maybe we just missed it."

Mion had then said, "So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying if we look hard enough we'll just miraculously find a key on one of them?"

"Yup." Both Rhys and Shadow said in unison. She dropped her arms to her sides, "Okay, let's try it." She said.

"Yeah, I guess it could work." Vaughn said, "I mean to just randomly find a key, I mean that would be amazing."

"Okay, let's get to searching." Rhys had said. Thus they went to looking for the key. They went down passed the people within the gallery of people. They passed by Nakayama and Shade, but there was just one problem.

"Umm…" Mion said, "Wasn't there a person in here just a minute ago?"

Rhys and Shadow both looked where Shade was. "What the hell?" Rhys said, "Where did he-"

All of a sudden someone just jumped out from behind a pillar causing all them to scream.

"HI!" was all he shouted.

SHADE

NOT IN THE LEAST BIT INSANE

He jumped right in front of them. "How are you all?" He asked them. They caught breaths after they suffered from their trauma. "NOT GREAT!" Vaughn said to him. Shade had said to them, "We'll ain't you four the handsomest and prettiest devils I've seen in ages!" Rhys, Vaughn and Shadow jumped when Mion had slapped him right across the face. "YOU IDIOT!" Mion shouted, "DON'T GO SCARING PEOPLE LIKE THAT!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Shade said as he rubbed his cheek, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you guys. It just… It just happened, you know, things happen, they happen!"

"DIDN'T MEAN TO SCARE US MY ASS!" Mion continued to shout, "YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE DIDN'T YOU!?" Shadow immediately went to calm her down when she was about to slap him again. "Mion you need to calm down now." He said to her, "Taking out on this defenseless man isn't going to solve anything."

Vaughn couldn't help but ask Shade as he stammered, "What-what is this, is this part of the- like some kind of ride or something?" Vaughn was of course talking about what they just walked through, he continued, "Since the moment we walked in, it's been one freaky puppet show, so I-"

"Thanks!" Shade suddenly said cutting him off, surprising the four. He introduced himself to them, "I'm Shade and this… Is my World of Curiosities! Let me tell you right off the very bat, I am deeply sorry that you strapping young threshers like yourselves here have to witness it in such sad disrepair. Time can take a toll you know. And on one more things than one! But unfortunately we're closed for renovations, but that doesn't mean you guys can leave, I mean we can do other things. I mean you're already here so we could… Hang out."

Rhys let out a sigh, "Listen here Shade." He started to say, "We're here to make a deal, alright? We're buying something… Valuable. You know anything about that?"

They saw Shade smile, "I know a lot of things about a lot of things, and this thing in particular." He said, "You guys are Hyperion right? Here for August?"

"That's right." Shadow had told him.

Shade had said, "Well if you guys gonna buy something strange and illegal, this is certainly the place to do it!"

He went to the door and opened it. They turned to Rhys and all he did was shrug his shoulders. They all stayed silent and went through the door to follow Shade.

(Ending Theme: Bleach Ending 6 My Pace)