The world around Penny began to spin as events were flung at her so fast, she barely had time to comprehend them. The invisible portal was bad enough. And this place didn't help relax her at all. It gave off a weird, unsafe vibe, in spite of how secure it looked. It was that security that made her nervous. Getting out of here was going to be an issue.

Seeing all the controlled zoners gave her the creeps. The way they moved so zombie-like...It kinda reminded her of an incident Rudy once told her about. Skrawl had built a giant brain to hypnotize everyone in ChalkZone. And she was quite efficient and could make them think anything she wanted them to.

But this, what Cosmo did, it was so much worse. These zoners didn't look the least bit self aware. They were moving about automonously, like they were just machines carrying out orders delivered via an electrical current. She doubted they could even speak, so even if there was a bit of self awareness left in them, there was nothing they could do about it. They were trapped inside their own bodies, moving around, being used like they were nothing but tools.

Snap's condition...she wasn't sure if it was better or worse, excluding the injuries of course. He seemed, no, he proved he was self aware. He wasn't droned out and he could still speak to them. But perhaps, that made his situation so much scarier. He couldn't stop himself. Every time he tried to swing a punch at them or kick at them, he'd apologize, and he'd yell at himself in an attempt to regain control of his own body.

Penny shuddered at the thought of being a prisoner of oneself. Not being able to stop an attack against a loved one, family, friends. And being fully aware of everything, seeing it all, feeling the impact of the attack hitting. It was no wonder that Snap looked absolutely terrified and crushed the whole time as she and Rudy did their best to dodge his..no...Cosmo's attacks. It was Cosmo controlling Snap, and he was enjoying every second of it.

Cosmo was holding some kind of device in his hands. Penny got a good glimpse of it. She was disgusted when she found out what it was. Some kind of hi-tech controller. Like from a video game...as if this is all it was. A video game...

Penny was literally flung from her thoughts when she felt Snap's gloved hands grab onto her and throw her against the wall.

"I'm sorry Penny!"

That's what she heard as her back slammed against the wall in a thud. She hadn't been thrown hard enough to do much damage, but her back was pretty sore after that. She quickly got up to her feet and gave it a rub. That was going to bruise, definitely.

She heard rapid footsteps in her direction. She looked over, her eyes widening, as Snap rushed in her direction. His eyes were wide and she could of sworn she saw tears. The sight of that made her heart break. Snap rarely ever cried. It would take a lot of emotional or physical abuse, or both, to make him do that.

"Look out!" Snap cried as he pulled his fist back for another attack.

Penny jumped out of the way. She heard the loud thud of Snap's fist making contact with the hard floor. She heard him groan in pain for a few seconds after that. She realized, with dread, that Cosmo forced him to punch with his injured hand. And Snap could not do anything to ease the pain. He was a puppet being bent to Cosmo's whim.

Rudy lunged at Snap. Penny watched as he wrapped his arms around his friend and held him tightly, but gently. Rudy was attempting to avoid putting too much pressure on Snap's back while at the same time keeping leverage.

Snap obviously knew what Rudy was trying to do. For a moment, he had somewhat of a relieved expression. Though behind that, there was still fear. Even he knew that Rudy won't be able to hold on for very long.

"Rudy, try to hang on...p-please..." Snap begged. He tried to fight against his arms trying to jerk free. He tried to hold his feet still, but they were still kicking as if they had a mind of their own. "I-I...I don't want this..."

"Don't worry..." Rudy whispered as he continued to hold down Snap. "I won't let go of you." He flinched as he said that. He closed his eyes and pressed his head against Snap. "I am not going to lose you again..." His voice was soft when he said that, barely audible.

Penny knew Rudy was going to need some help. She rushed over to the two. She went in front of Rudy. She knelt down and proceeded to put her arms around Rudy, pressing Snap between them. She held on, but like Rudy, took care not to hurt Snap any further.

It was hard to imagine, but only a few days ago, they had been in ChalkZone attending Snap's birthday. They had danced and had a lot of fun there. But now they were fighting against some insane man bent on what she guessed was the conquering of ChalkZone and turning all its citizens into slaves. And now she and Rudy were trying to keep Snap from being controlled.

What a stark contrast...

Mr. Cosmo peered over the edge, pressing his face against the shield. Penny could see that, no matter how calm he looked, she could see the glint of dementia in his eyes. "You two really are something, aren't you? Even as your friend is trying to hurt you, still you will not throw a punch. I see the loyalty you have with this...creature...is stronger than I would have thought. How interesting..."

Penny didn't bother to throw a retort at the man. He clearly would not listen to reason. Anything she would say to him, he'd just throw back or he'd give a counter remark. He was in his own little world, where the only thing that mattered was his opinions. It didn't matter what she and Rudy said to him. This man would not be convinced.

She had a feeling this was the black chalk's work. She wasn't about to defend him and say that he was being mind controlled and how the real Mr. Cosmo wasn't like this. But she was certain the black chalk made his personality much worse. And since it was permanent...yeah she understood immediately that nothing would change Mr. Cosmo. However he was like before, that Cosmo was gone and this one, this black chalk tainted version, was here to stay.

And how she despised the black chalk Cosmo. She wasn't a typically violent person, but she would make an acception for Mr. Cosmo. And she had a strong feeling Rudy would be with her on this. But despite every urge to punch the man for what he did, there was only one option they had.

Escape.

But how were they going to do that? They were stuck in this room. And she had a feeling the only way this man would let them out was if Rudy agreed to his terms...

"How noble of you to keep your friend from living out his worst nightmare..." Mr. Cosmo sneered. He put his finger against a large button on the controller. "But I'm afraid this little song and dance is over..."

As he pressed it, another spark and another scream from Snap. He tried to fight against it, but his muscles weren't his to command. His arms jerked outward so fast it forced Rudy and Penny to let go. His body then twisted like a rag doll towards Rudy and he jumped for the artist boy. A fist was held out in front of him.

"Rudy!" Snap shouted.

"Get out of the way!" Penny yelled to Rudy. She was too far to block the attack.

Rudy looked up and saw a flash of blue before the fist, the uninjured one this time, connected to his jaw. Rudy felt his head snap back. There was no crack, which Penny was thankful for. But that didn't do much to ease the pang she felt as Rudy tumbled into the ground, landing on his back.

Then Snap was forced to jump onto Rudy's chest. The look on Snap's face was indescribable. So much emotion showed very clearly on the masked zoner's face. If he had pupils, they would be dilated into tiny dots right about now. Snap raised a fist in another attempt to punch Rudy.

"I-I'm sorry...Rudy..." Snap whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek as his arm jerked back further.

Penny sprung into action. She rushed over to where Rudy lay on the ground. She jumped into the air. Snap looked at her in surprise as she wrapped her arms around him and pushed him into the ground. He let out a cry of pain as his injuries slammed against the ground. But despite being in pain, he gave a grateful smile to Penny.

This was short-lived, though. Mr. Cosmo clearly didn't care who Snap attacked. Penny cried out in pain when Snap's fists hit her on the forehead, causing a slight crack in one of her glass lenses. She rolled across the floor, her hand against her face. She struggled to her feet and looked up at Mr. Cosmo hatefully.

"It is quite amazing that you refuse to swing a punch to save yourselves. Yet, Snap here, under my control, will do anything to you, no matter how horrifying. If I command it, he will do it. And he has no say in the matter. He has no rights." Mr. Cosmo said calmly. He smirked as the two teens glared at him. Even Snap managed to shoot him a glare despite his body being rigid from being controlled. "But I should have seen this coming... You are obviously friends with him, and friends don't fight friends. I thought that I'd make you break quicker if I allowed Snap self awareness during this, Rudy Tabootie..."

"You monster..." Rudy said in a low growl.

Mr. Cosmo scratched his chin thoughtfully. He had a twinkle in his eyes. Penny shuddered. That didn't look good. He must have something on his mind, and knowing what he did, it had to be something horrible.

And she was soon proven right.

"So if fighting against a helpless Snap who can't stop himself from hurting his creator and friend won't work on you two..." The man straightened himself up and held up the remote like he was presenting it in front of an audience. "...perhaps I should try wiping his mind and replacing it with something more hostile, like my own Draow..." A grin spread across his face.

The teenager's faces paled at the same time. They watched, in horror, as Cosmo started putting pressure on the button. "No!"

sss

Ms. Saffron had stopped trying to unlock the door. She wasn't giving up totally. But she needed another plan. By the time she would be able to open the door, something terrible may have already happened. She had no idea what was going on, but she imagined Mr. Cosmo was well on his way with his plan. She had to figure out some way to slow him down, but doing that while locked up was not going to be easy.

It didn't help knowing that he did have one more plan after this. The final attempt at swaying Rudy, and should it fail...she gulped, not wanting to think about it. She actually didn't know what would happen if the next part would fail, nor did she actually know completely what it entailed. But the way Cosmo said it would be a 'final attempt' told her something horrible would happen if that plan to sway Rudy to his side failed.

She would have a better idea of knowing how long she had if she could access the security cameras. Mr. Cosmo had a lot of them in this building. They were nothing like the usual security cameras. They did not rotate and were placed flat on the walls. They blended in quite well so one wouldn't notice unless they got a good look.

Saffron could try hacking the cameras. Doing so would help her understand the situation and be able to act accordingly. And if she could manage to hack the cameras, maybe she can also hack other things in the system as well.

But would this even be a successful plan? She wasn't much of a hacker herself. She didn't know enough to do basic hacking. Perhaps that plan would fail...

...until she remembered something Mr. Cosmo had done for her. As they were preparing this place for this...this so-called expedition he promised her, he had given her phone a link up capability for the system of this place. The whole purpose of it was so that, in the case of an emergency, she would have a limited amount of time, say a few minutes, to give orders to different parts of the building's systems.

Mr. Cosmo had said that it is only to be used sparingly, and so far she never used it. He had believed there would be a time where they would not be able to access a part of this facility in time, so remote activation and control became a key part in this wretched place. Mr. Cosmo had trusted her enough to give her this capability. And though her trust in him had waned, she hoped that his trust remained in tact and he hadn't cut off her connection to the system network.

She got out her cellphone. Though it had no service, that was only in relation to calling out. Her phone could still work in this building, hooking up to the network. She went through her apps until she found the one she needed. She opened it up and was greeted with a pale green screen with login information.

It took her a few moments to remember what her information was. She hadn't logged in since Mr. Cosmo assigned her this info and had her log in as a test. She typed in the criteria, her username, password, and some additional info Cosmo had put in for extra security. Although she was afraid that she slipped something up or wouldn't remember, she still typed in what she believed were the answers.

Then she sat on the bed and waited. The swirling loading screen appeared before her, the same one that had greeted her the first time she did this. Around and around the loading swirl thing went. She licked her lips in anticipation. She crossed her fingers.

"Come on...come on..." She said through clenched teeth. "Connect. Please connect..."

The screen beeped and flickered once. It went dark. Saffron wondered if she had done something wrong. Her phone looked almost as if it had died. Before her spirits could fall too low, the screen light up again and she was greeted with a welcome screen and then it immediately went into an options section.

Ms. Saffron felt a wave of relief and happiness hit her. She couldn't focus too much on it, though. She had something important to do. She focused her attention on the phone, using her finger to flip through the different settings and options that were available to her.

She finally found a bit about security cameras. There were a lot, but to keep things minimal, they were placed in different groups, depending on the location of said cameras. She wasn't entirely sure where Mr. Cosmo would be, but she had a pretty good idea. She decided to try that area first. She pressed the button for the particular group and saw options to look at the different cameras.

Trying to pick one camera to look at was hard. She couldn't just look at all of them. Her cellphone, though a decent size, would not be able to handle all those images. They would be so small, she wouldn't be able to tell what they are. It was a gample and she had a feeling she would be far too late if she wasted time and tried again should she fail. She stared at the cameras, her heart pounding. What if she slipped up? What if she picked the wrong camera? What if...

No she couldn't worry about that. Not now. She had to make a decision, and it had to be swift. She pressed the middle camera without thinking. The screen loaded up.

She felt herself smile broadly for a brief second as she realized it was the right camera. She could see the room where Rudy and Penny were. But any happiness she felt faded when she saw Snap standing there, trembling and staring up at Mr. Cosmo. Snap looked worse than she last saw him. He was more banged up and it looked like his back wound started to reopen. She looked up at where Mr. Cosmo was.

Her eyes widened in horror when she saw what he was about to do. He couldn't honestly be considering doing that...could he? Was he really so heartless that he would...delete Snap's personality, for a lack of a better term? She wished she could keep this screen open, but to take action, she had to leave it.

Not knowing if she was going to make it or not, she went through the other options in this app. She found one regarding the machinery of the place. There was just one in particular she wanted. The same one that the white bear had been dragged off to. Once she found its information, she knew exactly what she was going to do.

She just hoped that she would do it in time...

sss

Mr. Cosmo felt triumphant as he sneered down at Rudy and Penny. With a single push of the button, he was going to completely destroy all that Snap was, and without doing permanent damage to his body. He would have his mind altered to suit what he needed.

He really didn't want it to come to this. As much as he looked gleeful, he was genuinely disappointed that he had to resort to such an act to make Rudy listen to him. He honestly liked the teenager. He felt he had true potential. There was so much he was capable of doing and being. But his attachment to the chalk people was going to hold him back.

The only thing that would disappoint him even more was if he had to resort to the final plan regarding Snap. It would be the true last effort. He had a way of preparing for the future, for outcomes that may not be possible. Granted, this didn't mean things wouldn't take him by surprise. But being able to find workarounds and having multiple plans to achieve the same goal was always a good thing.

It wasn't like he truly cared about Snap in the end. If he ended up doing irreversable damage to him, so what? He understood zoners were alive. He hid this well from the children, and from Ms. Saffron. His experiences in ChalkZone years ago and recently did make him realize this as a fact. The memories that had been returning to him ever since he saw that photograph Ms. Saffron had, they had been truly helpful. Things he had long forgotten about ChalkZone came to light for him.

So yes, he knew just how alive the zoners were. But to him, that didn't mean much. There was a difference between being alive and being worthy. And to him, the zoners weren't worthy of anything, no rights, except the right to serve their creators. ChalkZone could be used for so many useful purposes, yet it laid dormant. He was not going to allow this for much longer. He was going to unlock this chalk world's true potential.

And he was going to prove how little he cared about the well being of things that he saw were best used, not befriended. He loved the look in the teenager's eyes, even more the look that Snap was giving him. They were pleading with him to stop, begging him not to do it. It did nothing to sway him. Unless Rudy agreed to join him, nothing would stop him from pressing the button.

As he watched Snap recoil in fear and Rudy and Penny glare hatefully at him, he started to press the button.

"Beanie Boys! Beanie Boys! We're the boys that Skrawl employs!"

This took him by complete surprise. Even the trio down below were just as shocked as he was. Crashing in through the door were three Beanie Boys. Much to Cosmo's confusion, they were still wearing their bracelets. And they were still working. But why had they come in here? He hadn't given them any order.

The three Beanie Boys closed in around him. They didn't try to grab him. They were doing whatever they could to get his attention. They continued singing their nonsensical song as they tugged at his business suit, his hair, and his sleeves, whater they could to keep him distracted.

Mr. Cosmo swatted at them. "Get away from me!" He flinched when he said this. He was losing part of his calm demeanor. He had to remain as tranquil as possible. If he lost control...

A second later, he got another shock. Skrawl himself came in from the opening the Beanie Boys left. Just like them, he was still being controlled. Mr. Cosmo knew something fishy was going on. His first thought was that someone hacked the system. He would think of the possibilities later, however. Right now, he had to take care of this problem.

Skrawl rammed against him before he had time to react. Mr. Cosmo's eyes widened slightly as the remote was knocked clean out of his hands. It slammed against the forcefield. There was a crackling sound and he knew that the remote had been damaged beyond use.

Mr. Cosmo glared at Skrawl. He kicked the jellybean-like thing in the stomach. He ignored his cries, as well as Rudy's shouts of pain as he fell to his knees. Mr. Cosmo looked over at the other zoners he could see from here. None of the others were exhibiting this behavior. That was good. He could take care of these anomolies no problem. He just had to round them up and...

He fell into the ground as the Beanie Boys pressed against him. He struggled against their grasp. Letting out an uncharacteristic shout of frustration, he kicked one of the Beanie Boys as hard as he could. He ignored the sickening crunch as the chalk creature fell to the ground, limp. As if in retaliation, Skrawl lunged at him and pressed him against the shield.

The sudden impact was enough to daze Mr. Cosmo. He heard the sound of Skrawl's bracelet cracking and breaking off. The jellybean was freed. Mr. Cosmo slowly got up, his world dizzy and blurred. He heard something crank downward. He heard footsteps running away. He swore he heard Skrawl and Rudy bickering as they ran.

Mr. Cosmo slumped down and leaned against the shield. His eyes laid on the still fallen form of the Beanie Boy he had kicked. He needed to rest. When he felt better, he was going to get behind what had happened, and he would make sure Rudy and Snap never leave this building. Penny, she was a whole different story...

sss

Ms. Saffron stared at her phone as it did its work. She hoped that she was on time. The commands she sent were convoluted at best. But there wasn't much else she could do. The only way to keep Snap from being controlled was to destroy the machine, which she had no way of doing. But sending a cavalry...that may just do the trick, or so she hoped.

She would resume her picking of the lock soon. She needed to look through the system again. She needed to see if there was anything she could find out that would be helpful. Something that may help turn the tides in everything. Her plan, if it worked, would only be temporary. There had to be a more permanent solution, and if there was, she bet she could find it in the system's own database.

She remembered she had been given his account information, not just her own, because he trusted her enough with his information. He had given it to her before she got her own account, though she had never once used it. He had given her an account of her own as his trust in her increased. She doubted he would change his password if he still trusted her that much. And right now, he was so focused with Rudy that there was the chance that his mind slipped and he didn't take precautions with his account.

She would have to do this quickly. She signed out of her account and logged into his. The same screen popped up, only there was an additional option. A section of documentations. Looking at the first one, she realized that Mr. Cosmo often typed up his plans so he could have an idea of what he's do and how he'd counter situations that may make it hard or impossible to fulfill his plan the way he wanted it.

As she skimmed through the documentations, one in particular caught her eye. The title of the document was 'Beware Of Him'. It couldn't be Rudy. Mr. Cosmo was not afraid of the boy. The title made her think it was someone that Cosmo had dealt with in the past. But who...?

She opened it up and read it. Her eyes skimmed left and right. She let out a gasp, nearly dropping her phone. She quickly shut it off and she fell to her knees. The impact of what she had just learned hit her like a sack of potatoes. It...it could be...could it...?

"I...I-I just...I can't believe it..." She breathed. She got up to return to picking the lock of the door. It was imperative she inform Rudy as soon as possible. This information...could turn the odds in their favor.