Humming faintly under his breath, Sour Samukai finished loading the last scraps of Zane's kart into a candy wheelbarrow. He was about to wheel it away when a shadow loomed over him.

"Hey there, Cough Drop. Mind explaining something to me?" A faux-friendly voice requested.

Sour Samukai whirled to see Cole looming above him.

"If Zane was never meant to exist, then why is his picture on the side of the game console?" Cole asked, planting his hands on his hips.

"Uhhhh..." Samukai said slowly. Then quickly, he turned back and tried to make a run for it.

Cole grabbed him and held him at eye level, demanding, "What's going on in this candy-coated Heart of Darkness?"

"Nothing?" Sour Samukai tried.

Cole shook his head. "We both know that's not true. Talk."

"No," Samukai said stubbornly.

"I'll lick you," Cole threatened.

Samukai's jaw dropped. "You wouldn't dare."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

He stuck out his tongue and gave a quick lick along the candy's side.

Sour Samukai cringed and squirmed. "Ewww, that's like sandpaper."

"Hmm, wonder how many licks it'll take to get to your center," Cole teased.

"I'll take it to my grave!" Samukai stuttered.

"Fair enough," Cole said casually and tossed Sour Samukai into his mouth.

The candy squealed and Cole puckered his lips. "Ooh-hoo-hoo. They call you 'Sour' for a reason."

After a few seconds, Cole pulled Samukai out of his mouth and asked casually, "Had enough yet?"

"Okay, I'll talk," Sour Samukai conceded. "I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll talk. The glitch WAS a racer, until King Candy went into the code room and tore all the connections off of it, so he could try to delete its code-"

"Try to delete Zane's code? So that's why he's a glitch!" Cole interrupted.

"Uh-huh," Sour Samukai agreed. "Can you put me down now?"

"But why is he doing this? And why Zane?" Cole asked.

Samukai shrugged. "I don't know."

"Suit yourself," Cole said. He opened his mouth threateningly.

Sour Samukai threw his arms up pleadingly. "No no no, I swear I don't know! He literally locked up our memories."

"You mean in the code room?" Cole asked.

"Uh huh," Samukai agreed. "So I cannot remember. Nobody can. But I do know this. He'll do anything to keep the glitch from racing, because if it crosses the finish line, the game will reset and it won't be a glitch anymore."

Cole nearly dropped the candy in his excitement at the news. "Where's Zane now?!"

"In the Fungeon. With Fix-it Jay Junior," Samukai explained.

"The Fungeon," Cole muttered determinedly, then paused. "Wait, Jay?"

"And that's all I know. I swear. Now please don't put me back in your filthy mouth again," Samukai pleaded.

Cole licked him again, then smushed him into a tree, quipping, "Stick around."

"Yes, okay," Samukai said obediently. "I will, I will, thank you."

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Sugar Rush, Nya and Kai were walking through a field of licorice. The candy stalks rustled as the two patrolled the area.

Nya turned from side to side, patrolling the area. Her scanner went off. In unison, she and Kai pulled out their weapons and headed in the direction of the beeps.

"Come on, I know you're out there," Nya muttered.

For no visible reason, the signal dropped out. She tapped her sensor screen, groaning, "It's on the fritz again."

"Mine too," Kai complained, smacking his sensor in frustration. "Ugh. This place is like a saccharine-saturated nightmare."

Suddenly, both sensors went off loudly.

Looking around on high alert, Nya saw nothing. She frowned. "But- where..."

That was when the ground underneath her feet gave way. Kai grabbed for her arm, but he was too late.

Nya fell, head over heels, into a giant cavern. One flailing arm caught hold of a tangle of licorice roots and her fall halted instantly. Looking around, she gasped.

The cavern was a giant nest, full of CySnake eggs in multiple stages of hatching and different candy-coated CySnakes traveling in and out of long tunnels.

Nya whistled lowly.

"What? What is it?" Kai asked frantically, crouching next to the hole and peering in.

"Doomsday and Armageddon just had a baby," Nya yelled up to him, "and it is ugly."