"No..." Rudy whispered.

Penny agreed, her eyes widened in horror. "Oh my gosh..."

Even Skrawl was horrified by what they saw.

When Rudy arrived at the Chalk Mine, he didn't know what he was expecting. A lot of things could have happened with those evil zoners running about with real world water. But when he came, he never expected to see something like this waiting for him.

There, laying on the ground just outside the Chalk Mine entrance, was Biclops. He was out cold, laying on his back. A clear look of agony was etched on his face. For a brief second, it almost looked like he was just napping, but a reddening pool told them otherwise. There were several cuts on Biclops's body, most likley from the intruders.

But what had horrified the group wasn't the cuts. It was something else. Half of the giant's left leg was missing. Erased by real world water. Signs of where the water hit could be seen on the ground. The droplets sunk into the ground, creating many small, but immensely deep, holes in the ground.

In an instant, Rudy understood exactly why Biclops had passed out. The pain from losing his leg must have been tremendous. The sight of Biclops so helpless and defeated made Rudy feel very guilty. He wished he had been there to help fight off the zoners. He was glad that, at least, Biclops was still very much alive.

Rudy watched as Penny walked up to Biclops's unconscious form and placed a hand on his huge arm, looking at him with concern and empathy. Rudy swallowed hard. He had a hard time believing that any zoner could be so insane as to bring real world water, and actually use it on another zoner. The idea was also quite suicidal. It could easily backfire on them. Why would the zoners risk using such a lethal method to do all this? Or did they have little concern for themselves?

He wouldn't doubt it. If they were followers of Mr. Cosmo, then it would make sense they'd think little of themselves. Cosmo may have made them think that way. And exactly how, he wasn't sure. And right now, he didn't care. It didn't matter how they became like that. What did matter was that they were in the Chalk Mine now, causing who knows how much havoc in it. If he didn't hurry, all the magic chalk would be gone.

Skrawl walked towards Biclops's fallen form. He looks him up and down. He shakes his head in what Rudy guessed was disbelief. He turned his attention to Rudy. "We should hurry into the Chalk Mine. I've snuck in here enough times to get a general idea of the layout of this place. If we hurry, we can find these...followers and stop them before too much damage is done."

Another clear sign Skrawl had changed. Skrawl had, a few times, tried to destroy the Chalk Mine. He almost succeeded once with a robotic version of Rudy. Even distracting the robot didn't work. What saved them in the end was Penny finding the control and using it to operate the robot and sending it after Craniac 4 and Skrawl.

But now, he was actively trying to help save the Chalk Mine. Again, Rudy wondered what had gotten into him. He had never been this helpful before. And while it still seemed like it took all of Skrawl's mental energy to do so, the fact was he was still doing this mostly on his own accord. He could have easily left and gone back home. Instead, he went with them to offer assistance. Rudy hoped that this trend would continue.

But he couldn't go into the Chalk Mine. Not yet. He had to take care of Biclops first. He couldn't just leave him there, passed out from the pain. He took out his small piece of magic chalk and started to walk up to the giant. He was stopped by Skrawl, who stepped in his path.

"Skrawl, what are you doing?" Rudy asked, narrowing his eyes. "Get out of the way. I have to help Biclops."

"We don't have time for that, chalk boy!" Skrawl warned him. "We don't know how much of the magic chlak has been destroyed."

"But Biclops..." Rudy looked over at the giant.

"There'll be plenty more zoners like him if you don't do something soon!" Skrawl snarled at the boy.

Rudy growled, gritting his teeth. He understood where Skrawl was coming from. He was right. Every second he spent out here was more time that the evil zoners had to destroy more chalk, or do whatever else they were doing. But he couldn't completely agree with Skrawl. He had to stay and help Biclops. It wouldn't even take that long.

Ignoring Skrawl, Rudy brushed passed him and rushed over to Biclops. Penny saw him and moved out of the way to give him room to do what he wanted to do. Readying his magic chalk, he began to draw a distinct shape all around Biclops's severed leg. Within seconds, the leg regenerated, as good as new.

As soon as the leg reformed, Rudy felt incredibly relieved. The appearance of the new leg should relieve Biclops of most of the pain. He'd still have pain from the cuts, but those cuts were nothing compared to losing a leg. He imagined Biclops would wake up soon. He would have waited for him had he not known about the urgency of the situation.

Penny smiled at this, looking relieved. "Way to go, Rudy!"

Skrawl folded his arms and growled softly. "Yeah, good job. Now can we get going?"

Rudy would have called out Skrawl for not being sensitive, until he realized Skrawl wasn't used to such a thing. Even the act of saving him, he had a hard time to comprehend. That was why he was uncomfortable with acting nice towards him. He literally has some trouble understanding things like companionship and compassion. Or if he did, he never showed it.

Rudy knew there wasn't much time left to lose. But his heart made it difficult for him to leave Biclops still. He wanted to make sure he was okay. It was in his nature. He was a kind hearted person and he liked to help out people in need. The sight of Biclops injured made him want to stay and ensure his safety. His mind and heart were in a battle against each other. His mind telling him that he needs to leave to save the Chalk Mine, and his mind telling him he needed to help Biclops out.

"Rudy, Skrawl is right." Penny said, cutting Rudy out of his thoughts. She walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You helped out Biclops enough. He will feel much better with his leg repaired. But we cannot stay here much longer. We need to get into the Chalk Mine."

Rudy stared at her. He turned back to Biclops. He still really wanted to help him. But Penny was right. Making his leg all better would help out Biclops a lot. And there were other pressing matters on hand.

"...okay, let's get going." He said.

Skrawl rolled his eyes. "Yes, of course you'll listen to the genius girl." He said in a somewhat bitterly sarcastic voice.

"Not now Skrawl." Rudy warned Skrawl. This was not a good time for Skrawl's antagonistic behavior to start returning.

Luckily, it faded again. Skrawl hadn't replied to him after that. Instead, he just glared at him as if waiting for him to say something else.

Rudy motioned for them to follow him into the Chalk Mine. Slowly, cautiously, they entered the cavernous chalky cave. At first, it didn't seem like anything was terribly wrong. Nothing looked that different. Everything looked the same. If it weren't for Biclops being injured and Rapsheeba's warning, Rudy would have thought everything was just fine.

But not far walking into the mine, they realized something was very wrong. The first sign of trouble were the various deep holes in the ground, likely from the real world water splashing all over the place. There were very clear paths of these tiny abyss holes. They formed an almost perfect line down several tunnels.

In addition to that, there were a few piles on the ground of what looked like white mush. Rudy realized, in horror, that it was magic chalk, melted from the contact of real world water. Some damage had already been dealt. Rudy couldn't tell just how much magic chalk was destroyed. But he had to make sure that the same fate doesn't befall all of the magic chalk.

sss

It felt weird being back in ChalkZone again. Wilter hadn't been here in a long time. Well there was the short trip to the Chalk Mine to speak to Biclops, but he had to locate the right area to draw a portal for that. He hadn't actually walked around ChalkZone at all. He simply went to speak to the giant about Rudy's potential.

This was the first time that he, well and truly, was going through ChalkZone. Some areas, he recognized from his childhood. But a lot had changed. He wasn't surprised. Mr. Cosmo caused massive damage to the place when they were kids. Much of ChalkZone had been destroyed. So many places he was once familiar with was renovated, or completely replaced, or even gone entirely. This was certainly not the exact same ChalkZone he knew as a kid.

Rapsheeba had been quiet during most of the trip. She only spoke when she was giving them directions to the nearest hospital. Most of the time, she was holding Snap and speaking softly to him, even though he couldn't hear her. It was plain to Mr. Wilter that, even though he never met Rapsheeba before, that she was a close friend of Snap's.

Her worrisome expression made him hope they would reach the hospital soon. It shouldn't be too far now. Rapsheeba didn't indicate that it would take too long to reach it. Wilter looked at the horizon, studying the buildings below. He tried to find one that looked like a hospital. With how colorful ChalkZone is compared to the real world, it was a little tricky finding the hospital. But he knew it couldn't be too hard; zoners need medical attention too so the building should at least pop out a little.

Wilter couldn't help but wonder how he would be recieved when they finally landed. How many of these zoners would recognize him as the one who saved them years ago? How many would be happy to see him? How many would be enraged he came back? How many even knew him? There was also the possibility that, seeing Snap's horrid condition, they would not bother questioning why he was there and just focus on getting Snap into the emergency room.

Deciding to try to comfort Rapsheeba, he put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. He winced as he saw how red her eyes have gotten. "I'm...sure he'll make it..." That was all he could manage to say to her.

She wiped her tears with her free hand, the other supporting Snap's body. "I hope so..." She sniffled once before choking out, "What did...Mr. Cosmo do to him..?"

Mr. Wilter flinched visibly at that question. He hadn't witnessed everything that happened, but he did know at least some stuff Mr. Cosmo had done. And he wasn't sure if now was a good time to tell her. Rapsheeba was distraught enough as it was. He would feel horrible if he detailed to her just how Snap wound up in this critical condition.

But...she was Snap's friend... Did she not deserve to know...?

"I..."

He didn't finish. He heard Tsere let out a squawk. He turned and looked out in front of them. They had arrived at the hospital. He could see zoners scrambling to get away as the pterosaur came down for a landing.

Mr. Wilter turned to Rapsheeba. "I will tell you what I know later. Come on, let's get Snap into that hospital."

sss

Mr. Cosmo stared at the blood stains that covered his hand, part of his suit, and the knife. He hadn't bothered to clean it up. He had other things he needed to take care of first. Getting rid of Saffron had just been one of them.

A part of him felt some regret in killing her, as she had been pretty loyal to him all these years. It was a shame that Snap managed to sway her. He should have seen this all coming from the start. Maybe if he had kept them separated, he could have avoided having to needlessly kill her. He could have made sure that she remained as loyal as Draow still was, or close to it.

He did admire her to an extent. Despite what he may have indicated, he did not regard her as weak. Her actions against him may have caused kinks in his plans, but it did cause him to respect her a little more than he had before. Never before had she put her foot down and taken action like this. That was certainly admirable of her. If only she were to have used that against the enemy and not him...

Cosmo had not completely wanted to kill Saffron. He only did so because he felt that was the only way to ensure his plan was not tampered with any longer. She had outlived her usefulness by betraying him completely. She had to go, no matter how beneficial she could have been later on. And in the end, it had been her loss. If she hadn't become so blinded, she wouldn't have had to die.

He pushed thoughts of Ms. Saffron aside. That was in the past. Now, he had to keep focus on the tasks still ahead of him. He had a feeling that Rudy and the others made it back to ChalkZone. He had suspected shortly ago that they would do that. Rudy showed determination, an unwillingness to back down. While he admired that, he also knew that it meant that, despite his best efforts, he may get back to ChalkZone earlier than he had planned.

He came to the room where the chalkboard was. He could see Draow was standing there, stairing at the portalless chalkboard with a peeved look. He could see a bit of a dust smudge on his nose, and he guessed Draow slammed his muzzle against the chalkboard.

Draow swiveled his ears and looked at Mr. Cosmo. He took a step towards him, uttering low, confused growls.

"Do not worry, Draow." Mr. Cosmo said. "I already have it taken care of..."

Draow looked confused. He turned his teal eyes back to the portal. As if reading his mind, Mr. Cosmo explained what his plan was from here.

"I already sent some...creations...to...greet Rudy and his friends at the Chalk Mine..." Mr. Cosmo said, a grin spreading across his mouth. "I am just...going to let them have some fun before we head in..."

He wouldn't go back into ChalkZone. Not just yet. He wanted to wait, to give the three he sent to ChalkZone some time to...play with Rudy and his friends. He wasn't expecting them to defeat them, though that would have been nice.

No, he had something much simpler, but no less sinister, in store for them...

sss

Trying to locate where the intruders had went to was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Rudy couldn't tell which path was the best one to take. And even just navigating it was treacherous. Some tunnels had been so heavily melted with water that the mere act of walking on the surface could cause it to crack and they'd fall into the endless abyss.

And even if it wasn't broken up like that, any of the small abyss holes could be dangerous. Who know how steady the chalk around it was? Who knew if the holes won't grow bigger as they passed by? What was also troubling was if some moisture still remained in the chalky ground. If Skrawl stepped on it...

Rudy flinched at the thought. Dealing with real world water in ChalkZone was dangerous, not to mention tricky. His connection to Skrawl made this encounter just as deadly as it was to Skrawl. If the jellybean where hit by the water, Rudy would get hurt along with him. If either of them dies, the other one will too, leaving Penny alone against the intruders.

This...was going to be one tricky battle...

Penny was walking close to Rudy, her eyes wide in horror at the sight of all the damage these intruders have caused. Skrawl was lagging behind. He looked surprised, as if he never imagined the Chalk Mine would become this damaged.

None of them spoke for a while as they ventured through the mine, trying to locate the intruders. It was almost too quiet. They couldn't hear any footsteps, voices, not even the sound of running water. It was almost like the intruders knew they were coming and were waiting for them.

Suddenly, Rudy's eyes snapped wide as he heard the faintest drop mixed in with a crack. All at once, it came to him just what the intruders had been going for this whole time. And he, Penny, and Skrawl had fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Penny tapped Rudy's shoulder. "Rudy...do you hear that...?"

The cracking got louder. The trio looked behind them. Their eyes widened in horror as they saw the ground of the tunnel they had chosen give way, falling into a white abyss below. Never had the color white looked so horrifying to them.

They wasted no time. They broke into a run. Their feet carried them as fast as they could go. Huffing and puffing, they refused to stop, not even to look behind them. The crack in the ground was getting dangerously close. Penny almost lost her balance, prompting Rudy to grab her hand and pull her back.

The crack started to speed up a little. Rudy didn't know how long they'd be able to run. They wouldn't be able to outrun this crack forever. They had to get onto more secure land and fast. But he could not see any side paths they could take, and he didn't have much time to look either. And as each second passed, all three of them were in danger of falling forever. The prospect of dehydrating to death was not a pretty thing for any of them to think of.

"Rudy! Over there!" Skrawl shouted.

The crack got too close and they all started to tumble. Skrawl managed to jump away from the edge. He seized Rudy and Penny with one hand and, in a display of strength, threw them to the side. He jumped after them.

The group tumbled across the rocky ground. When they came to a stop, they realized they were in a dark area. They couldn't tell exactly where they were. Without any source of light, Rudy couldn't make out the details, and he couldn't tell if this was a room or just a corner of the cave.

When he looked over at where the light source was, that answered one of his questions. This was a room all right. But not any he recognized. He didn't even know this was here. He was surprised Skrawl was even able to see it. The entrance was designed in such a way that anyone looking down the tunnel wouldn't think anything was there. Even the door looked like it was made out of stone rather than would, likely part of the disguise.

The fact that this place was so well hidden filled Rudy with a sense of dread. If Biclops went through all this trouble to keep this place hidden, then they must be in a not so friendly part of the cave. A horrific thought crossed his mind. Had they gone to...where he thought they went...?

There was only one way to find out.

Rudy got out his chalk and walked a little forward. He started to draw a light. He made it large enough that, when turned on, it would light up most, or even all, of this room. When he finished, he took pressed the button to activate it, and he took a step back as light filled the room.

Skrawl took a step back. Penny put her hands to her mouth, stifling a cry of surprise. Rudy stared, disbelieving, at the room's contents. He had been correct. This was...not a good place to be.

All around him, the walls were charcoal in color, looking like they had been burned by fire. Dark stagmites and stalactites decorated the interior. It was so dark that even the light Rudy drew didn't fully illuminate everything. The darkness was still present, casting a foreboding feeling in the minds of everyone there.

And off in the corner, in a couple small bunches, was the black chalk. Unlike other chalk, the black chalk didn't grow from the ceiling. It only grew from the ground. And the bunches that it grew in splayed out, looking almost like spikes on a pufferfish. It didn't sparkle as much as white or red chalk, either. Instead, it had an eerie black glow around it, creating a sort of foreboding mist.

Just staring at the black chalk was enough to send chills down Rudy's spine. He knew black chalk was bad, but he had no idea it would get this kind of reaction from him just by looking at it. Skrawl and Penny's reactions weren't much better. Skrawl was disturbed by the black chalk's ominous appearance. And Penny had pressed herself against Rudy, horrified by the black chalk.

And what made things worse is that Rudy could very well have to use the black chalk. The idea of touching one of these things...it sent chills down his spine. How long would he have before the corruption would start?

He began to have second thoughts. Maybe he should talk to Biclops more about it. Maybe there was another way to severe the connection. Yeah, that's what he would do. He would find the intruders, apprehend them, then go talk to Biclops. Maybe they could work something out and...

A voice broke Rudy from his thoughts.

"We were wondering when you would get here..."

The trio turned their heads to the source of that voice. Coming from a corner of the room were three chalk creatures. It took them seconds to realize that these were the same ones that attacked Biclops, the very intruders they were looking for. They each possessed large water guns, obviously from the real world, each filled with a large tank of water.

"I was wondering if our little trap to lead you into this room would work." The same one who initially spoke before told them. "This is one of the two rooms Lord Cosmo told us not to damage..."

"Who are you?" Rudy demanded, getting out his magic chalk just in case he had to defend himself.

"I suppose we can tell you our names. Lord Cosmo did not say we could not." The first one said. This chalk being appeared to be a cassowary of some kind, although he had hands on his wings, which he was using to hold his water gun. "I am Zeal."

The second one, a female zoner that looked like a cross between an armadillo and a golden tank, complete with golden armor, said, "I am Shimmer." Her water gun was mounted on her, and she was clearly operating it via command through her robotic parts.

"And I would be Flame." A red salamander zoner with yellow spots said, wielding his water gun delicately with his whiplike tail.

Zeal took a step towards Rudy, an evil smile plastered on his wickedly sharp beak. "Lord Cosmo wants us to...entertain you three for a time. He didn't care how we did it, so long as we kept you alive until he came."

Flame smirked, "After that, good luck. Pray that he doesn't decide to..."

"Why are you all working for Cosmo? He's a monster!" Penny cried. "Do you have any idea what he is capable of doing to ChalkZone?"

Rudy nodded in agreement. "I can't believe any zoner would agree to work for that guy! Why would you work with someone who is trying to enslave your kind?!"

"...that isn't our concern." Shimmer said, her robotic eye glowing a slight red. "Besides, Lord Cosmo will take care of us. So long as we remain loyal to him..."

"But...you can't do this...!" Rudy cried.

Skrawl snarled at the trio, "Do any of you imbeciles have even the slightest amount of dignity?!"

"Mr. Cosmo isn't to be trusted!" Penny shouted in desperation. "He is just using you to achieve his goals! Once you complete this mission, who is to say he wouldn't just wash you away in cold blood?"

The trio continued to smile at them. Twisted smiles that reminded Rudy so much of Mr. Cosmo. Wait...were these...were these more of Cosmo's creations?

He didn't have time before the trio decided to attack.

"Get them!" Zeal shouted.