A bigger incentive? What did Cosmo mean by that? He wondered if he meant Snap. Rudy remembered how terrible Snap looked, how much pain he was in, when he was being controlled by Cosmo. How much worse could he do to Snap?

He was devastated that he lost Snap again. He was right in there in front of him, and then gone. He had no idea where he went. If Cosmo intended on doing something worse to Snap as the 'bigger incentive'... It took all of Rudy's strength not to cry. Poor Snap... He wish he knew where he ended up. He wanted to be there for him. Even just being in the same room as him would help, he was sure.

But right now, he was trapped with Skrawl, not exactly the most sympathetic person he met. And he was waiting for Mr. Cosmo to return. There was nothing else to look forward to, if waiting for Cosmo could be considered something worth waiting for...

Rudy tried his best not to let what Cosmo said about him get to him. The man was twisted and nasty. He obviously would say anything to make him doubt himself. Rudy knew the man was nothing more than a lying bastard who is seeking out to make profit on innocent zoners, all for the sake of recognition and 'betterment of human civilization', or some other crap like that. Mr. Cosmo's words deserved no consideration.

And Snap...he would be sure that Cosmo never hurt him again. Rudy had no idea how he got the nail in Snap's head. He was certain it was extremely painful. The very idea of someone deliberately hurting his best friend made his blood boil. But he could allow it to consume him... He couldn't allow himself to cloud his own judgment. He needed to be able to think things through. He'd get out of here..somehow.

He sat on the other corner of the room. He could see Skrawl sitting in front of him. Rudy hadn't bothered talking to him. He found that, as long as he is silent, Skrawl remained relatively quiet as well. He wanted a break from his complaining and whining. His anger towards Skrawl had diminished slowly, but not completely.

He looked over at the water bars. He watched as the electricity danced over them, sparkling constantly. He had no way he could get through the bars. If the electricity weren't there, he could get through. Mr. Cosmo thinks these through apparently. And even if the electricity wasn't there, he was certain the crazed man would have another trap laying in wait for him.

The way Mr. Cosmo talked about using zoners as slave labor...it was absolutely revolting. If it wasn't clear to Rudy how little Cosmo thought of zoners before, that one sentence sure did the trick. And if Mr. Cosmo's scheme comes into fruition, he found himself wondering what would happen to ChalkZone...

Likely invaded, he would think. He imagined Cosmo would set some troops in ChalkZone to capture any new zoner that appears. They would then be dragged into the real world and forced into labor or whatever else Cosmo has planned for them. ChalkZone would largely be uninhabited except by men Cosmo hires to capture new zoners. He wouldn't doubt that Cosmo would go further and order the destruction of much of ChalkZone to force zoners to rely on him and his company for food and water.

This was all speculation, but Rudy had no doubt that is what Mr. Cosmo had planned. Mr. Cosmo would make sure there would be no loophole in his plan. He would ensure that, no matter what, the zoners would not be able to return to ChalkZone. And given what Mr. Cosmo said about zoners' long lifespan, if not infinite lifespan, there would be no breaks, no retirement for the zoners to look for. And with some labor jobs being extremely dangerous, many zoners could lose their lives.

But that wouldn't stop Mr. Cosmo. Oh no. The bastard thinks they are expendable, so new zoners could be drawn to 'replace' them, as if they were just worn out batteries to be thrown away and replaced with the new.

Even the possible future regarding Vinnie that Biclops showed them wasn't nearly as bad. Yes, the man wanted to turn ChalkZone into an amusement park, but he saw more value in the zoners than Mr. Cosmo. While Cosmo doesn't care about killing zoners, Vinnie never expressed interest in outright killing any zoner. He had not tried to directly hurt anyone. Even when he was sizing up ChalkZone, he hadn't heard any zoner complain about the man attacking them.

Terry was even less aggressive. She wanted to profit off of ChalkZone as well, but unlike Vinnie, she didn't seem interested in making the zoners do any work entertaining guests to do it. Although she was a reporter, she definitely wasn't as bad as Cosmo. Compared to him, she was downright friendly. Even when she kidnapped Snap, she didn't really inflict any real harm on him. And from what Snap told of his adventures in the studio, she never seemed to treat him like crap. He was sure Terry thought little of zoners, but she was at least more reserved about it, maybe because she knew being more cooperative would be helpful.

He wouldn't want either of these two to succeed in exposing ChalkZone. He sometimes would have nightmares where this happened. Thankfully, when he would wake up, it would all have been a dream. Scary one, but a dream nonetheless. He didn't trust them, but right now he would rather deal with them. They were easier to deal with. And they never crossed the moral lines by blackmailing him through means of threatening to hurt Snap.

Rudy began to wonder how Terry and Vinnie would feel about Cosmo. He imagined they would probably be willing to team up with him, but only for a short time. The moment Cosmo began to cause damage to ChalkZone, Vinnie would be on his ass, probably barking like a dog, and getting him to stop. If there was one thing Vinnie had, that was determination. He wanted ChalkZone to be remolded the way he wanted, and he wanted the zoners alive to participate in the theme park. He couldn't imagine him getting along very well with Cosmo, who cared nothing about making anything fun out of ChalkZone.

And Terry...he would imagine that she would get flustered with Cosmo. Terry wasn't as eccentric as Cosmo and usually knew when to call it quits, at least for a time. She was generally calm, at least compared to Cosmo, and even when she got angry, it was normal anger, not creepy anger that he saw the creepy man display. Terry would likely stop working with him really quick. He couldn't imagine her being willing to work close to a maniac. Vinnie was harmless enough and, though a bit eccentric himself, was able to keep himself more or less docile when doing business with someone.

He wouldn't really see them for a while. Before all this happened, he and Penny learned they had went to another town for a business trip and wouldn't be back for a month or so. The two hadn't tried to get to ChalkZone recently. He wasn't going to count them out. They may just be trying to formulate a new plan. Each plan was relatively predictable, though still clever.

He realized he missed facing off against them. Well in this situation, he would miss facing off against any of the other opponents in the past. No one has been as bad as Cosmo. He didn't think any of the other bad guys he faced could reach Cosmo's level of despicability.

His thoughts going back to Mr. Cosmo in particular, he began to think about what he said to him. About becoming like him and all. He had denied that outright. He didn't want the man to get to his head. If he let him in an inch, he'd walk all over him. The man would say whatever he could to dismantle his beliefs and replace them with his. It seemed like he always knew just what to say, and when.

He had to admit one thing. Mr. Cosmo kinda had a point. Since no one in the real world knew of ChalkZone save for very few, no one would really know of his heroics. But did that really matter in the end? The people in ChalkZone knew all the things he did for them and they were grateful. That was good enough for him.

If Cosmo could only see value in respect and friendship, he might understand where he is coming from. If Cosmo allowed himself to care more about just mere recognition, fame, and fortune, he might be a little more willing to work with him, even strike a deal with him. It would certainly make it much easier to negotiate with him, as he probably wouldn't be so insane as to think kidnapping and hurting Snap would make him more willing to let him train him.

Then he started to, again, think about Cosmo's claim of him becoming like him. Could he be right? Rudy had noticed he was getting a little more aggressive lately. He hadn't been like this before. And yet, with a few actions from Mr. Cosmo, he was getting angrier and more hateful towards the man. He was getting more aggressive as he spoke to him.

Rudy didn't want to believe that the man was right. He tried to push the thoughts in the back of his head. But they kept reappearing in his mind. Cosmo's words started to hit him like a dagger. Could Mr. Cosmo truly been speaking the truth that time? Could Rudy really become as dark as Mr. Cosmo?

No..no he wouldn't. He couldn't let himself believe that.

But then, why did he still feel this way?

Rudy began to replay his adventures in his head. The memories swarmed his brain, and in his mind, he rewatched the things he could remember doing. And he began to notice somethings that he never noticed before. And it made him shudder to think about.

There was the time when a dragon came into ChalkZone and started wreaking havoc. Rudy had used glue to hold the dragon down. Sure, he did not hurt the dragon, but what chilled Rudy was that he didn't really have a plan beyond that. Was he really willing to just let the dragon be stuck on the street for the rest of its life? Rudy couldn't imagine he would do that, but then...how else could he interpret this incident? The only reason he ever went to the dragon's creator for help was because the glue idea didn't work. The glue idea...he could imagine would be something Mr. Cosmo would do...

Then there was the time when he had created a puppet named Howdy in ChalkZone and took him in the real world for a talent show. The result was Howdy ended up being erased by way of tongue of a dog. True, he had meant no harm in bringing Howdy, but he should have been more careful. The real world was dangerous for zoners to be in for long. What if Howdy had been erased into ChalkZone beforehand? The dog's licking would have killed him. And Snap...what if he had asked Snap to be in the talent show instead, and Reggie's dog chased him instead? Would Snap have...?

Rudy took in a shuddering breath. There were a few more incidents he could think of, but he didn't want them in his mind right now. The dragon and Howdy incidents were bad enough. They weren't done out of true malice. But both would be something Cosmo would do. He would torment a zoner by freezing them in one place for a long time. He would drag a zoner out into the dangerous real world and let them be killed.

And if Mr. Cosmo found out about some of Rudy's adventures, he could, and would, use any incident he sees fit and use it against him. He would twist the events around, forcing Rudy to see things in a different light, just like how he did with Howdy and the dragon.

A chilling thought entered Rudy's mind. What if Mr. Cosmo really had been a hero in ChalkZone once? Or at least a really nice guy? What if he had been like him, willing to help out zoners if need be, but then the black chalk came and corrupted his vision of it? If Cosmo had prior knowledge of what it was like to help others, if he had done so himself and remembered, it was no wonder he could so easily turn it all on its head.

What would happen if he had to use the black chalk? Rudy hated to think about it, but he knew that, eventually, he would have to use the cursed black chalk. It was the only way to severe ties with Mr. Cosmo.

But...would he become like Mr. Cosmo...?

"What's the matter with you, chalk boy?" Skrawl asked, breaking Rudy out of his thoughts.

"What?" Rudy asked. Had Skrawl really been paying that much attention to him that he'd notice something was wrong? That didn't sound like Skrawl at all.

"You were spacing out like you saw a ghost or something." Skrawl said, his eyes narrowed. "I was begining to wonder if you had fallen asleep with your eyes open. That would have been creepy..." He gave a shudder. "I get enough creepiness from the Beanie Boys."

"The Beanie Boys, huh? Well you know, Skrawl, you could always look for other minions." Rudy said, shrugging his shoulders. He was kinda happy to talk with Skrawl. It helped get his mind somewhat off of Cosmo. "I'm sure you could find some zoner in ChalkZone insane enough to work with you."

"Oh no..." Skrawl growled. "I am not going to have another Craniac incident! My plans with him always failed because he was a complete idiot!"

Rudy gave a small smile. "Or maybe you are too arrogant to see your own mistakes."

Skrawl spluttered, "Arrogant? Mistakes?"

"You are sometimes too short-sighted, Skrawl. I gotta hand it to you, some of your plans were good and well thought out. But it seems like you don't always think things all the way through. Like with Craniac. If you had done some research ahead of time, you would know that many of Craniacs robots didn't work that well." Rudy explained. "This shouldn't come as a surprise because I made Craniac 4 to replace Craniac 3, not to be a complete dictionary of all things villainy. The Craniacs were out for knowledge and study, not conquering ChalkZone." Rudy paused for breath. He pointed at Skrawl. "And that, Skrawl, was where you made your miscalculation with joining forces with Craniac."

Skrawl opened his mouth to speak, but soon shut it. Rudy could tell that he wanted to come up with a comeback, but was unable to. As the jellybean turned his body away, it was clear Skrawl was flustered beyond coming up with a comprehensive reply. Skrawl wasn't the one to admit when he was wrong, so Rudy didn't really expect anything more from him.

Rudy turned his head towards the bars again. He wondered when Mr. Cosmo would return. There was no clock here. No sense of time. No way to know how much time had passed. Not knowing the passive of time was aggravating him. Each second felt like a minute. And each minute felt like an hour. He wondered if this was part of some intentional torment.

"You're thinking about this Cosmo guy, aren't you, Master Tabootie?"

Rudy snapped his head in Skrawl's direction. His eyes were wide in shock. "How did you know?" He hadn't said a word. How did Skrawl guess that is what he was thinking?

"I didn't, actually." Skrawl grinned as he boasted. "Thanks for telling me."

Rudy snarled, "Skrawl..."

"Oh come on. We're stuck together for now, so might as well have some enlightening conversation with you." Skrawl said sarcastically. "Who knows? Maybe you will be able to sway me into changing. Maybe I will forgo all my villainous attempts at taking over what is rightfully mine and..."

"Can it, Skrawl." Rudy said bitterly.

"Oh no, Tabootie...I can't can it. You see, I got nothing else." Skrawl said in a low voice. He got up from the ground and began to walk towards Rudy. "Because of you, because of how you made me look, the only way I can get anyone's respect is by becoming ChalkZone's ruler."

Rudy narrowed his eyes. "Respect? Oh, so you are like Mr. Cosmo in that respect, aren't you? You want to use ChalkZone for your own benefit. You don't care who you hurt, so long as you get what you want."

"That might be..." Skrawl droned slowly. By now he was up in Rudy's face. His breath hit against the boy, causing him to turn away. "But I at least have enough dignity to know when I go too far. Why do you think I haven't tried sending you to the Waitin' Sea anymore?"

Rudy blinked. He hadn't really thought about that. But it really had been a long time since Skrawl tried dropping him there. He has assumed he had just given up on it. Was there really another reason?

"I had finally gotten around to thinking to myself...was it really worth it to send you there? Why should I waste all my talents on the same plan? And if my anger was at you, then why should I waste time trying to hurt other zoners in an attempt to get revenge on you?" Skrawl said, gesturing with his skrawny clawed arm. His gaze shifted upwards for a second, before he turned them back down to Rudy. "Don't mistake me as getting soft, artist boy. I do fully intend in taking over ChalkZone and destroying you. But now yo u know this about me. I do have my limits."

What Skrawl said, Rudy wasn't sure exactly how to take it. A part of him wasn't too surprised. Mr. Cosmo already proved himself to be a vile person, while Skrawl hadn't done anything quite as bad. But another part of him wasn't sure if he could trust Skrawl's words. For all he knew, Skrawl could be taking notes and be planning on using them later on. He had already been willing to brainwash citizens. That did backfire in the end, but still...

Skrawl decided to speak again. "I have to admit. I was surprised what you seemed to falter a little when Mr. Cosmo speaks to you." He turned his head "You don't really believe what he says, do you?"

"No!" Rudy said quickly. Skrawl stared at him. Rudy cleared his throat. "Sorry. I mean..no I don't believe him."

Skrawl tilted his head. "Do you believe that? Or are you saying it just so you can fool yourself into believing it?"

Rudy didn't know what Skrawl was getting at. He couldn't think of a reply.

"Honestly...I hope you don't believe him." Skrawl said. He folded up his arms. "I would be disappointed if my greatest arch enemy was really that easily manipulated. You have been a thorn in my side for so long. And as much as it pains me to say this, you...are quite resilient and resourceful. You always seem to find a way out of almost any situation handed to you. If you gave up...well, I would begin to question if you really were the real Master Tabootie."

Rudy couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was Skrawl really...defending him? In a weird way sure, but Skrawl's words were more encouraging than they were insulting. He was not used this from Skrawl. Since when had he become a therapist? When had he gotten so psychological? Was this the result of him working with the Beanie Boys, somehow?

With now mentally distorted the Beanie Boys could be at times, Skrawl may have learned a lot about psychology working with them. He had to have understood their thought processes well enough to have them be his willing servants for so long. The Beanie Boys, as he heard said somewhere, were outcasted from much of ChalkZone. And with Skrawl being an outcast himself, or so he says, that may have been the reason Skrawl went to the Beanie Boys in the first place.

He realized that Skrawl was right. Any amount of doubt he would have now, it wouldn't be like him. He wasn't some tool to be manipulated. He wasn't someone to be made a fool of. He had accomplished so much, he had beaten so many odds... He just had to continue believing in himself, in his abilities. He had to trust that, in time, he would find a way out of this.

Rudy felt some of his spirits return after Skrawl's little speech. He wasn't sure if this is what the jellybean had intended, but he was grateful for it nonetheless.

"Thanks, Skrawl." Rudy said without thinking.

Skrawl growled and turned away. "Oh be quiet, Rudy Tabootie..."

Something came to Rudy's mind. "There's something I want to ask first." Skrawl growled again but didn't try to stop him, probably knowing he wouldn't be able to stop Rudy from asking anyway. "Do you...still really blame me?"

Skrawl raised an eyebrow. "There's a lot I blame you for, artist boy. Pick one."

"For your looks." Rudy said. "Do you honestly still think it was my fault that you are..like that?"

Skrawl's mouth curled into a small snarl. "Well of course I do. Don't think I haven't forgotten about that. Oh you gave me more reasons to hate you, but that...my looks...you sabotaging it...that was the kicker, the icing on the cake."

Rudy couldn't believe it. After all this time, he was still holding onto that grudge. Granted, it didn't surprise him. But he just didn't understand how he could still be angry about that. From the sound of what Skrawl said, it was like, out of everything, Skrawl hated him for what he believed he did to his looks the most.

It seemd really childish to him. And what made it worse is that he had tried to help Skrawl. He did make him look good, really good actually. He could have been well liked among ChalkZone. But he turned his back on it all.

He couldn't understand how Skrawl could still insist that everything about his appearance and bad first start in ChalkZone had been his fault. Rudy had nothing to do with it. It wasn't his fault that people shoved him out of the way and did an unwanted collaboration. Rudy could very well change Skrawl's appearance. If Skrawl had just come up to him for that, things would have been different.

It was becoming hard for Rudy to hold back his anger. He spoke in a somewhat low voice, "It isn't fair you are pitting this whole rap on me, Skrawl."

"And my whole life isn't fair, chalk boy." Skrawl spat back. "Do you have any idea what things were like for me when I first got here? Do you know how much I was picked on, shoved around, pushed around? Do you have an inkling of what I was put through before I finally put my foot down?"

"But it wasn't just me!" Rudy cried. "There were other artists! Why haven't you tried going after them? Why do you direct it all at me?"

"You were the one to start drawing." Skrawl said, narrowing his eyes. "In the event that a drawing has more than one artist working on it, the one who starts making the creation is the one who is dubbed the creator. And since you were the one who first started to draw me..." Skrawl pointed at him. "That means you are my creator, not the other kids, no matter how much more they added compared to you."

Rudy clenched his teeth. "I did try to fix it for you... I made you look good, just like you wanted. But you turned back on your deal. You threw away your one chance at..."

"Oh be quiet!" Skrawl snapped at him. "You broke your promise too, you know!"

Rudy's expression softened slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"You said you would make me look good. You said you wouldn't use the chalk against me." Skrawl said in a low, growling voice. Before Rudy could protest, Skrawl continued, raising his voice. "But you lied to me! You lied! You tore down everything you did for me, made me ugly again! And you did it without hesitation, like you wanted to do it all along! Your use of the magic chalk flung me away and I crashed on a remote island! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get off of there? Do you?!"

Rudy stared at Skrawl in shock. He was stunned, unable to think of a response. He wanted to defend himself. He wanted to explain the reasons for his actions. He wanted to tell Skrawl it was his fault. But, for some reason, no words came out of his mouth.

"And you wonder why I continue to hate you..." Skrawl grumbled before looking away. Silence fell upon the room.