Lucas' Magicant Chapter 7: Trapped, an earthbound fanfic

So, this chapter is 6.7k words long (before AN), yet it somehow feels short to me. Maybe it's because there's a lot of info packed in here, and I tried to make the Nowhere Islands storyline coherent for anyone who doesn't remember Mother 3's plot by heart. Uh... I realized just now that there were already some spoilers for Mother 3, although I'm guessing it's all stuff you've seen on the Lucas Miiverse in Sm4sh anyway (RIP Miiverse btw D:).

Also, I was touching up on plot structures and saw that a lot of different structures focus on a "point of no return" where the hero's kinda trapped in their adventure. So I decided kinda last minute to add one in for Ninten to increase the tension. We all know that Ana's the real hero, though... at least in her mind. :P

As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. :) Have a great day.

Review Response: PKTofuMaster: Yeah, I always start these projects and then they take way longer than I expect. -_- I'm liking how this one is going so far, overall. I decided to steal the whole "video game world" thing from some sci-fi books I was reading, and I'm finding that psionics and virtual reality are both things I really like talking about and they go pretty well together. I'm still garbage at editing, though, so I don't know if I'll be able to do anything with this sort of setting in real books I write. I do feel like I could turn this into a non-fanfic novel pretty easily, though. But I'm really glad that you like the fic so far! :) I learned from Ceres that mysteries need to have much more content than just setting up a mystery and then eventually revealing it... characters need to have their own ideas about how everything plays out, and minor revelations need to come at each step of the way and inform new theories. There's a lot I still need to work on, but I think that's one area where I'm getting better (especially since Ceres was so shotgun.. there was so much content I had to resolve that I didn't get to go into any one mystery as much as I wanted to). And I'm glad you like the characters, too. :) Ninten and Ana are based off of my personal life and the characters in the V-game are coming to me as the story develops... it's weird to have some characters that were planned beforehand and others that just kinda spring into existence (normally I write just the latter).

And I took up a huge block of text. -_- But thanks for reviewing! I hope you have a little more free time soon. :)

Instead of sunflowers, Ninten found himself surrounded by slabs of rocks that emitted a dull purple light.

He frowned, looking around his new environment. Jagged walls and a ceiling implied that he was inside of a cave, but gaps in the array of glowing rocks led down to an abyss deeper than Ninten can see. Sounds of ambiance echoed throughout the cave, ranging from water dripping onto the ground to unearthly bellows coming from deeper within the cave.

Was it possible that Ninten was still inside the Nowhere Islands V-game?

No. In front of Ninten, bathed from below in a purple light, was the dragon-and-islands sprite that would take him into the Nowhere Islands game. He studied the sprite for a second to make sure it was the same before deciding to exit Lucas' psyspace and chat with Ana about his findings in the real world. Likely, she would want to hear about his encounters with the Masked Man and Isaac, since both of them had been aware that he came from outside a V-game.

Ninten closed his eyes and willed his consciousness outside of Lucas' psyspace.

When he opened his eyes, he was still standing inside the glowing cave.

Ninten frowned and tried again. No response. After trying and failing to exit once more, Ninten forced himself to take a deep breath. He could think about this rationally. There was no way he could actually be trapped inside someone else's psyspace. Sure, Lucas' disappearance was strange, but people did go missing. The idea that Ninten could be stuck inside Lucas' Magicant was absurd. This was real life, not some low-budget movie.

Ninten paced back and forth, closing his eyes to check the time. 7:37, which he thought was over an hour since he last entered the Nowhere Islands V-game. Before long, Ana would shake his body awake. Yes, that would be how Ninten exited Lucas' Magicant.

But seriously. Where was he? He still had access to features like the time, so he had to be somewhere in Lucas' Magicant. He was probably inside one of the files floating around the sunflower fields, which didn't narrow Ninten's options by much. If all of Lucas' files looked as detailed as this one, Ninten wondered if Lucas had time to do anything else at all with his life.

"Ah, there you are."

Ninten spun around to see Ana looking at him with a worried frown. The glowing light from the stones beneath Ana's feet lit up her neck and chin while leaving the rest of her face slightly obscured in darkness. After a moment, she released a sigh that did little to relieve her tense posture.

"I assume you can't get out?" Ana said.

"I haven't found a way yet," Ninten said. "But I can't actually be trapped in here, can I?"

"I'm… not sure. The whole situation feels a little surreal."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Ninten said.

"No, not in this way." Ana gestured towards the glowing stones around her. "The file that you've been transported to was just created in the last hour."

Ninten blinked.

"Come on, Ninten," Ana said. "Of course I didn't create it and stick you in here."

Ninten hadn't meant to suggest that she had. But if Ana hadn't trapped him in Lucas' Magicant…

"Do you know who did?" Ninten said.

"No. I mean, nobody else really could unless they were already in Lucas' Magicant to begin with. But I promise it wasn't me."

"Ann." Ninten smiled. "I do trust you."

"I…" Ana closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "I know."

Ana's frown turned into a grimace, and when she opened her eyes her posture looked even stiffer than before.

"I'm sorry," Ana said. "I was just worried about you. I still am, really. This shouldn't be happening to us."

"It shouldn't," Ninten agreed.

"But it is happening to us."

"It is."

Ana exhaled sharply. "Fuck."

Ninten could only nod along.

"I'm amazed that you're not the one flipping shit right now," Ana said.

"I feel safe when I'm with you," Ninten said. "Besides, I think I need a few minutes to process everything that happened. Some… interesting things happened to me during my last visit to the Nowhere Islands."

Ninten recounted what happened for Ana, starting with his conversation with the oddly aware Masked Man and transitioning his story to the events with Claus, Isaac, and the Mecha-Drago.

And as he talked, the reality of his current situation did start to set in. Ninten was trapped inside of here, and he might not find his way out anytime soon. If his consciousness stayed inside of these caves while his body lay immobile on the ground in Ness' dorm, it might start to take a toll on his physical health after a while. Even now, Ninten could feel hunger creeping up on him and remembered a news article talking about how some teenager had died from playing V-games for so long that he hadn't eat, drank, or slept for days. If Ana couldn't get help, Ninten might be forced into that situation.

For the first time in Ninten's life, he really could be in danger. And instead of feeling the apprehension that he expected, Ninten was just about ready to accept the potential threat. He had enough time that he didn't need to panic for now. Because if he couldn't escape, then, well… what was he really going to accomplish by freaking out now?

And of course, there was an uneasy feeling in the back of Ninten's mind, a voice screaming for him to run and hide. Ninten did his best to quiet that voice.

"Is it hitting you now?" Ana said. "You're trapped into a fucking psyspace and you can't leave."

Ninten nodded numbly.

"But you still aren't losing your shit."

"When I do start panicking, I'll probably just freeze," Ninten said. "Wouldn't help me if a car was about to run me over, but here it would probably be more productive than running around screaming my head off."

Ana's eyes narrowed. "Is that what you're trying to say I'm doing?"

"No, of course not." Ninten felt his cheeks redden. "I just… really don't think I should panic."

"You're probably right." Ana sighed, looking around. "This place could really use a couch for me to just collapse in."

"Yeah, I doubt the rocks would be that comfortable." Ninten grimaced. "Hopefully I don't have to sleep here for the night."

"I should get help," Ana said. "I've been trying to find a way to hack into the code of this file ever since it showed up. I only just managed to get access to open the file."

"And getting access to the code is a lot harder?"

Ana sighed. "Yes. Yes it is. I don't even know who made this prison, but a psyspace file shouldn't be able to keep anyone trapped inside."

"Have you ever heard of anyone being locked into someone else's psyspace before?" Ninten said.

"Eh…" Ana wrinkled her nose. "Not really. I mean, there was something kind of similar…"

"What happened?"

"The CIA tried interrogating captives by sending them to torture psyspaces. But it ended up being redundant, since they had to make the torture in the real world even worse so that the captives would stay in the psyspace."

"Oh." Ninten couldn't think of anything else to say.

"A little dark, I know, but that's where my mind's been recently." Ana sighed. "I really should get some help, since I'm not sure if I'll be able to mess with the code and get you out of here myself."

"All of the university facilities are closed, right?" Ninten said.

"Well, I bet the gym is still open."

Ninten shot Ana a flat stare. "But any sort of tech service would be closed at 7:50 or whatever time it is."

"Yeah, probably."

"So who are you going to call for help?"

Ana shrugged. "The cops? We're both White, so I think that they would at least try to help us."

"Ann…"

"Okay, I know that you're like a Twinkie." Ana grinned. "White on the outside and Yellow on the inside. But they won't know about your Asian parents."

"That wasn't what I meant." Ninten frowned. "But honestly, what do you think the police are going to do? Yeah, this may be an emergency. I might be trapped here. But this isn't the sort of place they can save me from. You probably know more than they do about psyspace coding."

"Hacking is different than coding." Ana sniffed.

"Whatever. I don't think the police are going to help us. I'm sure I can at least make it through the night, and you can probably go find an expert to help us tomorrow. Besides, you couldn't even get in the dorm room if you left now, right?"

"I won't be able to get back in the dorm room if I leave tomorrow, either," Ana said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you could call the tech center and have them come to us."

"Oh." Ana laughed. "I guess I could do that. But are you really okay being trapped here for the night?"

"Yeah, I'll make it."

Ana nodded, and her expression grew focused. She tilted her head slightly downward, and her face lit up from the purple light below. "I'll keep working on the code and trying to bust you out of here. I can stay here and keep you company, if you like."

"Thanks for the offer, but I have a world I need to keep exploring." Ninten gestured towards the dragon-and-islands sprite. "I might find some more secrets about Lucas' disappearance."

"I'm not usually the voice of caution between the two of us," Ana said, furrowing her brow, "But that game scares me. You went in once, and you woke up in a panic. You go in twice, and you don't wake up at all. What happens when you go in your third time?"

"I don't know," Ninten said. "But I want to see Lucas and Claus again, even if they won't remember what happened last time."

"You… do know that they're lines of code in a game, right? I do like that you protected them in the V-game. It shows that you're a sweet person. But you shouldn't endanger yourself for them." Ana's eyes narrowed. "Please tell me I'm being obvious, Ninten."

"You know who else called Claus a sequence of code?" Ninten said. "Isaac. And Claus was heartbroken. Betrayed."

"Well, I wouldn't say it right to his face, but it's true. I'm starting to think we should find other ways to look for Lucas and forget that the V-game ever existed."

"Well, I don't really have that luxury," Ninten said. "So I'll make do with what I have. Besides, I do think that Isaac was another player operating from a different psyspace, and I wouldn't want to actually take his advice and quit."

"That's part of what scares me," Ana said. "The Mecha-Drago might kill you in the game, but if real-life Isaac finds out who you are then he might hunt you down outside the psyspace. We were joking about stalkers earlier, but they do exist and I want you to stay away from someone potentially dangerous like Isaac."

"There are plenty of people who look like me," Ninten said.

"And are there plenty of people with your name?" Ana said, "Who are your age and live in an area where they could access Lucas' psyspace? It's not hard to find people, Ninten. Don't get on the bad side of whoever made this game."

"I… just want to go in one more time," Ninten said. "To find more secrets, at least. I promise I'll quit and come back here if things look scary."

"That's what you said last time, and here we are." Ana sighed. "But I guess I can't really stop you. Just… do be careful, all right?"

One look into Ana's worried eyes was enough to make Ninten nod sincerely. He would stay safe in the V-game, for Ana's sake if not his own.

"And thank you for working to break me out of here," Ninten said. "I'm sorry if it seems like I don't appreciate your efforts by putting myself in more danger. I'm just so comfortable to have you watching my back that I think I can be useful in the Nowhere Islands V-game while you're busting me out."

Ana smirked. "Don't thank me until you wake up in Ness' dorm room."

"I appreciate the attempt either way," Ninten said. "And I do believe in your abilities. You've managed to save my physics grade so far, which is enough to make me think that you're capable of just about anything."

Ana laughed. "Thanks. I'll try not to let you down."

Ninten walked over and put a hand on the head of the dragon-and-islands sprite.

"And I'll try to come back with some real information this time," Ninten said.

THE YEAR IS 20XX. WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS THE LAST REMNANT OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION.

THE PEOPLE YOU WILL MEET DO NOT KNOW WHY THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS DESTROYED, OR EVEN HOW. THEY NEVER KNEW THAT A REAL "WORLD" EVEN EXISTED.

THE NOWHERE ISLANDS ARE THE ONLY OASIS IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INFINITE DESERT.

AND THEY ARE ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED.

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS REAL. IT IS THE FUTURE.

AND IT IS THE PAST.

YOU WILL SEE THE SAME TRAGEDIES REPEAT THEMSELVES AGAIN AND AGAIN.

YOU WILL COME ACROSS PEOPLE WHO ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT THE CYCLE OF SUFFERING.

YOU ARE THEIR ONLY HOPE.

SAVE ONE PERSON, AND BREAK THE CYCLE.

THAT IS YOUR QUEST.

…

WELCOME TO THE NOWHERE ISLANDS.

Same forest. Same smoke. Same-

Ninten wasn't going to face Hinawa a third time. Heart pounding in his chest, eyes looking on the position between the trees where he knew where she would come out, Ninten used 4th-D slip.

He disappeared before he caught a glimpse of her or the twins.

Ninten found himself standing inside of a glass box in outer space. When he looked outside the walls, he saw thousands of stars flickering in the distance. Some of the stars flashed brilliant reds and greens, clustered into bunches and swirled into galaxies. He looked back at the four walls of the glass box and saw that each one had a glass door with a doorknob ready to open, along with a glass trapdoor on the floor.

"You know, this is what the view looks like from space."

Ninten let out a yelp, turning around and coming face to face with the Masked Man. The younger boy cracked a slight smirk as he leaned on the glass wall next to Ninten.

"Lucas told me that he could hardly see any stars in your city," the Masked Man said, "So I wondered if you had ever seen anything like this."

Ninten frowned, looking out at the sparkling stars in the sky. He had never known that there could be so many. The darkness was nearly infinite, all encompassing… and yet in every corner of the darkness lay a twinkling cluster of stars. The universe felt more alive than Ninten would have previously thought possible.

"In Los Angeles, there was a day when the power went out for the whole city," the Masked Man said. "911 got a whole lot of calls that night."

"Because people were sneaking around stealing stuff in the darkness?"

"Because they saw this." The Masked Man gestured to the universe of glowing lights outside the glass box. "People thought the world was ending because it was the first time in their life they had ever seen so many stars. Can you believe it?"

"I might be one of those people," Ninten said.

The Masked Man snorted. "I don't think you would call 911 just because you saw a few stars. But… have you really never seen anything like this before?"

Ninten shook his head. "Have you?"

"Well, not this, but I saw a sky full of stars almost every night. It was so safe where I grew up. I knew the stars in the sky better than I knew my parents." The Masked Man frowned. "But of course, that safety was an illusion. That's why I'm here."

So the Masked Man didn't want to be there, then. Neither did Isaac, and neither did Ninten.

"You said that you're not a player," Ninten said. "You're more like a moderator. But were you a player, once?"

The Masked Man smiled. "No. I didn't get trapped in here by playing the game like you did. The game itself isn't a trap designed to suck in sneaky little people like you. Although, that would be pretty cool if it were. I need to pass that on."

Pass that onto whom? Did the Masked Man have a superior that he reported to?

"But I'm letting you interrogate me again," The Masked Man said. "It's supposed to go the other way around."

"Yeah, that's how I felt with Lucas during my last playthrough."

"Not sure that's going to change anytime soon." The Masked Man looked up as a comet passed over the glass box. "I do feel like I owe you a couple of explanations, though."

"Hit me with it, then."

"First." The Masked Man held up a finger. "I'm sorry that you're trapped in the Cave of the Dark Dragon. It's not my doing."

"So that's the cave with the glowey purple stones?"

"That's… not how we usually describe them, but yes." The Masked Man held up another finger. "Second, I was the one who brought you here to this glass box, and I'm the one monitoring your powers, giving you your abilities, and all that."

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me. They haven't done you much good so far, have they?" The Masked Man frowned. "Besides, we're not supposed to be friends. I'm not doing this for you."

"Well, I can't really afford to be choosy with my company right now," Ninten said.

"We are not friends. End of discussion." The Masked Man took a deep breath and held up three fingers. "Third. Those doors lead to different time periods on the Nowhere Islands. You can choose to explore the ones you want. Really, you can choose any time period you want, but I put in the ones I thought were important. Let me know if you want to travel to a specific time."

"Am I supposed to give you the year, or what?"

"You can if you want. It will likely be easier to use other events as a reference."

"Oh, so like a year after the fire or whatever?"

"Right. Although I can tell you now that it's not all that interesting." The Masked Man put four fingers up, leaving only his thumb lowered. "Fourth. You might meet more people like Isaac who are, to some degree, real. They won't track you down in real life, but they will try to hinder your progress in game. Treat them accordingly."

"Look, man," Ninten said. "This is a lot of explaining. I really just want to get back to exploring the Nowhere Islands."

The Masked Man paused for a second before nodding. "In that case, you'll probably want to hear my last tip." He held up a full five fingers. "I decided that since you were so attached to Lucas and Claus, the game will remember the actions you took during your last playthrough. If you wish to reset everyone's memories of you, jump in the trapdoor."

"So Isaac was wrong. Claus will remember me."

"About that." The Masked Man's mouth tightened. "I wouldn't count on it. But other people will."

Ninten raised an eyebrow.

"You'll figure it out for yourself," the Masked Man said. "But for now, I'll color-code the doors and let you pick one."

The four glass doors on the four walls turned red, blue, green, and purple.

"You know, being in Lucas' Magicant with his whole surreal aesthetic makes me want to make a stained-glass pattern and put it on those doors," Ninten said.

"Unfortunately, you're stuck with me as your baby-sitter, and I don't have his artistic talent," the Masked Man said. "Besides, the doors are easier to describe this way. It's easy for me to say that I recommend the green door first."

"Do you recommend the green door first?" Ninten said.

"I do. It takes place soon after the fire, and I think it expands a lot on what's going on in the Nowhere Islands."

"Where do the other doors lead?"

"Further into the future." The Masked Man shrugged. "But comes after the green, and then red, with purple taking place furthest along in the timeline of the Nowhere Islands."

"Wow. So they're not even ordered by wavelength."

The Masked Man frowned. "You're making even less sense than usual."

Ninten sniffed. "Ana would have understood what I meant." He flashed a cheesy grin at the Masked Man. "But I think I'm going to go into the blue door. See what's in store more than a few days after the fire."

"Suit yourself," The Masked Man said, and gestured towards the blue door.

Ninten walked over to the blue door and put his hand on the blue doorknob.

"Ninten."

"Hmm?" He turned his head towards the Masked Man.

"I… really do hope that Ana gets you out of Lucas' Magicant. It's interesting having you around, but I would never want to have you trapped here with us. I'd bust you out myself if I could."

"Thanks." Ninten felt a surge of energy, and he tightened his grip on the doorknob. "Are you sure we aren't friends?"

"I… am still pretty sure we are not. But I do wish the best for you, Ninten. If circumstances were different, I think that we might have been friends after all."

Ninten smiled, turned the doorknob, and thrust the blue door open. Rays of light coming from the open door engulfed him, surrounding him with more light until his vision went pure white.

Ninten heard the humming of electricity and adopted a defensive stance. A moment later, his surroundings came into view. He stood inside a circular room with wires scattered across the floor and a massive generator in the room.

A moment later, jolts of electricity appeared between the floor and the ceiling, and Ninten's vision flashed red with pain. As the spots in his vision cleared, Ninten looked to the center of the room to see a robot emerging from the generator, carrying a pair of charged electromagnets in its hands.

Strange. The walls of this room looked like they were made of steel, which meant that Ninten should be standing inside of a Faraday Cage, but he didn't have time to worry about why electrical attacks from outside were working on him. Ninten used Lifeup on himself and ran towards the robot that was partially emerged from the cylindrical generator in the center of the room.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ninten saw Lucas nearly collapsed on the floor, his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a pink-haired girl to keep from slumping over. The robot fired a bolt of electricity from the electromagnet in its right hand, shocking both Lucas and the pink-haired girl. Lucas let out a scream and fell to the floor, his muscles spasming for seconds afterwards.

Take care of the robot now, help the kids later. Ninten searched around for a weapon to use and saw part a sharpened piece of scrap metal lying on the floor. It had probably gotten knocked loose during the fight, and it was wide enough to be bulky for Ninten to carry around, but he couldn't see anything else that would give him a chance against an electricity-slinging robot.

Ninten rushed over and picked up the piece of scrap metal, holding the sharpened edges out towards the robot. Ninten used his Offense Up ability on himself and dashed towards the robot, careful not to cut himself on the scrap metal.

By the robot turned its head to face Ninten, it was too late.

With his increased strength, Ninten leaped up and rammed the sharp metal into the robot's neck, slicing its head off with a single thrust. The robot's head tumbled to the ground, and the magnets in its hands fell to the floor. The whirring of the generator stopped, leaving the room with only the sound of the robot's head rolling on the metal floor.

Ninten walked over to Lucas and the pink-haired girl. Lucas had managed to stand up and took a step forward on shaky legs. He looked up when Ninten approached, his eyes still wide with fear.

"Claus said you were dead," Lucas told him, his voice surprisingly even. "And here you are again, popping out of nowhere."

"I'm glad that you two know each other," the girl said, "But we need to keep moving."

"Is someone chasing you?" Ninten asked.

Lucas flashed a curious glance. "You still don't know anything about what's going on, do you?"

"Let's move," the girl said, placing a hand around Lucas' waist and walking him forward.

"Wait." Ninten walked over and placed a hand on Lucas' shoulder.

"Thanks," Lucas said with a wry smile, "But I think I can only cling onto one person at once."

"Lifeup," Ninten said.

Moments later, Lucas' legs stopped shaking. He looked over at Ninten and shook his head in wonder.

"You," Lucas said, "Are always full of surprises."

"Come on." The girl ran towards a steel door at the end of the circular room. "I'm starting to think that you might want to see Fassad again after all."

Fassad? Ninten frowned and stored the name away in his memory.

"Coming, Kuma." Lucas ran towards the door and gestured for Ninten to follow.

The girl Lucas called Kuma opened the door to reveal an outside area, and Ninten followed her and Lucas out. As he stepped outside into the blue skies, a gust of wind battered against his face. He looked over the edge of the metal railing outside the door and gasped. He was up high enough that buildings below looked like mere dots on the landscape.

"What, are you scared of heights?" Kuma gestured to a ladder up onto a domed roof of the skyscraper. "We need to keep moving."

Ninten looked up at the yellow roof as Ninten and Kuma climbed the ladder up. A massive steel gun jutted out of the top of the dome, pointing at a village in the distance. That must have been what the generator was powering. But other than fancy machinery, Ninten couldn't pick out anything special about the dome. Certainly, there was no way to escape from here.

Ninten shrugged and climbed the ladder up to the domed roof with Lucas and Kuma. His heart raced as he stood on uneven ground; a single slip could send him tumbling all the way down to the forest below.

"All right," Ninten said. "We're here. Now what's your plan?"

Lucas and Kuma exchanged a glance.

"We… didn't really think that far in advance," Lucas said. "We were mostly trying to run away."

"And there's nothing here for us to escape in." Kuma shook her head. "Thanks for saving us from the robot in the generator room, but I don't know if it's going to matter."

"Wait," Ninten said. "You were trying to escape by running up the tower?"

"We didn't have many options," Lucas said, the breeze ruffling his hair. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into this, though. Where did you come from?"

"I, uh…"

"Because it really did seem like you just appeared in the room with the generator," Lucas said. "And you don't look like you have any idea what's going on."

"I really don't."

"Well." Lucas looked down at the door to the generator room below. "This here is my friend Kumatora. We met soon after you and Claus went missing."

The words hit Ninten like a punch to the gut. "You mean Claus didn't make it back?"

"Oh, he did. And then he tried to avenge your death. You can probably guess how that went."

"No." Ninten reeled back and nearly slipped. "Why would he…?"

"And I almost went with him," Lucas said. "If he hadn't told me to stay behind, I would probably be dead too."

Ninten gritted his teeth. Maybe he should have chosen to go through the green door after all. If he had appeared further back in time, maybe he could have solved all of this.

"Well, you got three extra years under your belt," Kumatora said, keeping her eye trained on the open door to the generator room. "That's something, at least."

"No. I am not letting you die here," Ninten said. "You're still way too young."

"I don't really think you're going to have a choice," Lucas said, still gazing warily at the entrance to the generator room.

A man wearing a brown hat stepped out of the generator room entrance into the area outside, followed by a pair of pigmasks. The man looked up at Lucas and flashed a cruel smile.

"Fassad," Lucas whispered to Ninten. "He'll try to toy with us. If he talks about trying to take us captive, we should probably jump instead."

Ninten looked into Lucas' unwavering eyes. There was no hesitation there, and no humor. Lucas fully meant every word that he said.

"PK Freeze," Kumatora said, shooting a bolt of ice towards Fassad.

"Now, now." Fassad chuckled and climbed up onto the roof along with Ninten and the others. "There's no need to be uncivil."

"What did you do with Duster and Boney?" Kumatora said, gripping her hands into fists.

"They're perfectly safe," Fassad said with a shrug, "Well, for now."

"Is that a threat?" Lucas said, his icy eyes matching his cool tone.

"There's not much use in threatening you," Fassad said. "I don't have anything I want you to do. Except maybe roll over and die. That would be quite entertaining to watch."

"I'm going to strangle you." Kumatora took a step forward.

The pigmasks raised their guns, but Fassad motioned for them to stand down. They nodded and walked back into the generator room, disappearing from sight.

"You, unfortunately, are capable of no such thing," Fassad said, now alone. "And, equally unfortunately, you actually made quite a mess for me."

"That was kind of our goal," Lucas said.

"Well, it makes me not want to show any mercy." Fassad frowned. "Not that I was probably going to anyway."

"That's why we're tearing through your army," Kumatora said. "We have nothing to lose."

"Ah, you misunderstand me," Fassad said. "You cannot truly hinder the pigmask army. You destroyed the generator and disabled the Thunder Tower, but we can always build another one. And really, its job has been done at this point."

"What was its job, exactly?" Ninten asked.

"Ah, Ninten." Fassad smiled. "So nice of you to join us. I've heard so many things about you. Isaac had a few… choice words in mind about you."

"I can imagine."

"How do you two know each other?" Lucas said.

"Ninten doesn't know me," Fassad said, pulling a banana out of his pocket and unpeeling it. "But I've been watching him. It only makes sense that the three of you would team up together. You all have bleeding hearts and a habit of picking the losing side."

Fassad took a bite out of his banana and grinned.

"Can we not just fight our way through this?" Ninten said, looking at Lucas and then Kumatora.

Kumatora shook her head. "Too many of them. But we might have to make a last-ditch attempt."

"You'll regret backing us into a corner, Fassad," Lucas said. "We might go down, but we're going to take as much of this tower as we can with us."

Fassad cocked his head. "No, I don't think you will. Because I'm going to take this tower with us. Thank you for stalling me long enough to get my plan ready."

A steel airship flew up from below, the same sort that had landed in the Drago Plateau during Ninten's last playthrough. The airship hovered above the roof, and a hatch opened from below. A rope ladder fell down out of the airship, and Fassad walked over to the ladder.

Time to teach him a lesson for being so casual about his evil plans.

Ninten barreled forward towards Fassad, who turned his head around and flashed a knowing smile. Moments later, the Masked Man hopped out from the airship, landing on the roof with an emotionless expression. The Masked Man picked up a device from his belt and activated a plasma sword, which left burn holes in the roof as he charged towards Ninten.

Ninten halted a moment before the Masked Man rammed the plasma sword through his chest. Ninten let out a cry of pain and bashed his shoulder into the Masked Man's chest, sending the smaller boy stumbling backwards. Fassad laughed as Ninten used Lifeup to heal himself.

"I thought that you would enjoy another reunion," Fassad said, climbing up the rope ladder into the airship. "At least, a short one before I destroy this tower."

A chill ran down Ninten's spine. He couldn't have heard Fassad correctly.

"That's right." Fassad laughed. "I don't care about the generator, I don't care about the tower, and I don't care about your friends trapped inside of here right now. The best part of technology is not how quickly we can build things, but how quickly we can dispose of them when we no longer need them and build something else."

The Masked Man eyed Ninten, his expression remaining neutral. It hit Ninten only then that the person standing in front of him probably wasn't the same as the person who gave him 4th-D slip and introduced him to the glass box in the cosmos. After all, the Isaac Ninten had encountered last playthrough was different from the Isaac that Claus knew. Did every person in this game have another version who was aware of players and could communicate outside of the game? Fassad's knowledge of Ninten indicated that he likely understood that the world was an illusion, and the Masked Man's silence meant that his consciousness was probably contained within the game.

The airship flew up into the sky, and Fassad hung onto the rope ladder as the airship dragged him further and further away from the Thunder Tower. He smiled at Ninten and chuckled to himself.

"Isaac was an idiot," Fassad said. "He focused so much about what he wanted. His desire to make you know true pain allowed you to stall and wait for an opening, and you did more permanent damage to him than you could know."

"And you're different?" Ninten said.

"Of course." Fassad's eyes widened, as if offended. "I'm not going to take any risks. Kill everyone."

The Masked Man leapt forward, his plasma sword becoming a blur as his blade cut through the air. Ninten leapt away from the Masked Man, landing on uneven footing and nearly stumbling off the Thunder Tower.

"PK Freeze."

Kumatora's words cut through the sound of the wind and the quiet hum of the Masked Man's plasma sword. A blast of ice sprayed over the Masked Man, but the mystery boy managed not to stumble as he walked towards Ninten and the others.

Ninten exchanged a glance with Lucas and Kumatora, and they all nodded. No matter who this kid was, he couldn't hope to fight them three on one.

Lucas rushed forward first, brandishing a thick stick in both hands. He ducked out of the way of a slash as Kumatora and Ninten circled around the Masked Man, surrounding him on all sides.

The Masked Man twisted and slashed with blinding speed. He darted out of the way as Kumatora lunged at him with her fists and Lucas tried to batter him with his stick. Ninten didn't have a weapon, but he would occasionally lunge in for a kick and healed the party when he had space.

Three against one wasn't fair. It shouldn't have been fair. Nobody could keep track of three targets at once.

So how was Claus managing to hold off Ninten, Lucas, and Kumatora all at once with his plasma sword while hardly taking any hits himself?

Maybe it was because Lucas and Kumatora were tired, while Ninten had little combat experience himself. Kuma started off by dancing around the Masked Man and throwing in punches, but now each step she took seemed slow and heavy. Lucas' posture tired even more quickly, his arms and legs shaking under the physical exertion.

Maybe it was because the Masked Man struck with fluid motions and never seemed to tire himself. He would ward off Lucas with a slash and then swing his plasma sword around to strike Kumatora in the shoulder, all before Ninten had a chance to reach to the Masked Man's exposed position.

Either way, the Masked Man was winning, and Ninten felt his psychic energy drain to a trickle.

"We have to run," Ninten said. "I don't care how many pigmasks there are, we need to-"

Lucas looked up at the sky and gasped. Ninten followed Lucas' gaze, and it didn't take him long to spot the even larger airship that was now floating above the Thunder Tower. A massive cannon on the steel airship was pointed at the roof of the Thunder Tower.

The Masked Man deactivated his plasma sword and ran towards the airship. He jumped higher than Ninten could believe and caught onto the bottom rung of the airship.

The cannon on the airship started to glow.

Ninten exchanged a glance with Kumatora and Ninten. Fassad said that he was going to destroy the tower. And the fact that the Masked Man would leave with Ninten's group on the brink of defeat meant that…

"They're going to bring the whole damn tower down with that cannon," Kuma said.

"Quick up," Ninten muttered, and darted forward.

The cannon followed Ninten as he ran towards the massive airship.

"Get inside the generator room," Ninten said, looking back at Lucas and Kumatora.

"But-" Lucas' eyes widened.

"You'll be safer there. Trust me."

Ninten didn't look back to see if Lucas and Kumatora followed his instructions. He walked forward to the edge of the Thunder Tower, looking up to see the cannon still pointed straight at him. The Masked Man dangled from below the airship, his expression emotionless as he regarded Ninten.

The airship floated up slightly higher, out of any possible reach from Ninten.

Well, this was it, then.

The airship's cannon emitted a blinding white light.

Ninten closed his eyes.

Pain washed over him the next moment, filling his mind and drowning out all other sensations.

And then…

Emptiness.

Ninten's consciousness floated in space, same as the last two times he had died in the game. And just as before, massive white letters started to appear in front of him.

YOUR GAMBIT PAID OFF, NINTEN.

AS THE THUNDER TOWER COLLAPSED, LUCAS AND KUMATORA WERE ABLE TO USE THE WALLS TO BRACE THEMSELVES AND SURVIVE THE IMPACT OF LANDING WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF DEFENSIVE PSI.

THEIR FRIENDS DUSTER AND BONEY, HOWEVER, WERE NOT SO LUCKY.

STILL, YOU MANAGED TO SAVE TWO PEOPLE THIS TIME, MORE THAN YOUR PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS.

BUT THEY WERE NOT THE ONES YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE.

SAVING LUCAS AND KUMATORA IS LIKE PRESERVING TWO STARS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. THEY ALONE COULD NOT STOP THE DARKNESS FROM SPREADING.

THE PIGMASKS WOULD GO ON TO CONTROL EVERY CORNER OF THE KNOWN WORLD. AND WITH THEM WOULD COME DESTRUCTION, FAMINE, AND GENOCIDE.

WE NEED YOU TO STOP THEM.

WE NEED YOU TO END THE CYCLE OF SUFFERING.

PLEASE… COME BACK WHEN YOU WISH TO EXPLORE MORE OF THE NOWHERE ISLANDS.

I'LL BE WAITING.