"Uh... hello?" Kaita asked, looking around. The room before him was completely dark, without even a hint of light. There was something under his chin and around his legs; he felt around to discover a helmet and kneepads. "Hello? Where am I?"

"I've got no clue, Kaita-kun," Turboman said, activating his PET's flashlight function. It didn't help much, cutting through the blackness to reveal more blackness. "This sure doesn't look like any prize room..."

"That's right!" Kaita recalled, "Mary-chan! We came in together, but I don't see her anywhere!" Cautiously, he took a few steps forward. "Mary-chan?"

"I'm guessing you want out?" echoed a voice as a light snapped on behind him. Kaita turned around to see not Narcy, but a pink rock carved to resemble a giant head. Next to it was a barred gate. Though the statue looked nothing like Narcy, it was definitely their voice that said, "Well, then, let's get started! Beyond this gate is the Hidden Temple. Somewhere in the Temple lies the exit. All you need to do is find the parts of the Pink Monkey, and the doors are open! But fail, and it'll all come crashing down..."

"Where's Mary-chan?" Kaita asked, looking around the dark room for her.

"Oh, you'll meet up... as long as you get through." It was clear that Kaita had no choice; he got ready to run. As the barred gate lowered, Narcy crowed, "The clock's set for three minutes! On your mark... get set... go!" Synthesized music started playing as Kaita ran up the steps and into the temple.

Jewelman, toning the nasal quality of his voice down to provide a somewhat authentic announcer voice, piped up next. "And the first room is the Crypt! He's got to pull down the hands of the right skeleton to open the door!" It wasn't that hard, since there were only two of them. They weren't particularly scary, either; they looked like the mummy decorations they were. Kaita pulled down first one hand, then the other. Clutched in the second skeleton's hand was a piece of shiny pink plastic with two feet on it. "And there's the first piece! Will he find the other two before time runs out? I don't know, folks..."

"You bet I will!" Kaita shot back, running for the next room.

"It's the Valencia Hand! Push the fingers up to hold the globe!" It took a little effort to shove the oversized fingers into place, but Kaita did it. "I bet you're wondering how much time you've got, huh? Well, we'll add in the heads-up display in post production. As for you... you just have to guess. Too bad!" While Jewelman was running his mouth, Kaita was heading into the next room. "The Laser Light Room! He's gonna have to find the white laser behind the boxes!" Kaita was really hoping for another piece of the monkey statue, which was a bit annoying to have to carry around. But box after box came down, and he found neither white light nor pink plastic. "Ooooh, he's spending a lot of time in there!" It had to be one of the higher boxes. Kaita climbed up the ladder to get at them. "But wait! He's got it! The doors are open!"

Kaita knew better than to climb up - it was clear that he'd started at one end of the temple, and the exit would presumably be on the other. "None of these challenges are that hard!" he taunted, dropping off the ladder and running into the next room. He nearly toppled into the ball pit below. "Whoa!"

"The Pit! Can he grab the rope and swing across? Well, if he thinks this is so easy, why don't I change it up a little?" The formerly stationary rope began flying around. No sooner had Kaita reached for it than it was somewhere else. One grab after another found it swinging away to the other side. Kaita reached for it, but his fingers barely scraped the rough rope.

"Just a little more..." Gripping the Pink Monkey piece tightly, Kaita reached further than he'd dared before, grasping the rope as his feet fell away from the platform. He first tossed the statue onto the other ledge, then hauled himself up to step off on it. Jewelman didn't even need to explain; Kaita just hit both buttons next to the doors. One popped open, and he ran through.

The first thing he saw was the torso of the Pink Monkey. But as he ran for it, a skeleton dropped out in front of him. Kaita yelped and scrambled backwards. "Oh, don't hesitate now! Time's running out in the King's Storeroom! Break the jars to reveal the key, then find the correct hole!" Kaita was already smashing pottery. As he went for the jar closest to the Pink Monkey torso, he picked up the statue on the way and snapped it onto the legs. It seemed to be holding fast, giving him one less thing to worry about. "And there's the second part! But will he find the third? He's got less than a minute left!" When he got to the jar, he found it had a red pole in it. "Now to find the hole! It's under that mess he made with the jars..." Kaita brushed it all aside, finding the hole on the far end of the room. As he put the key in, the door in the center opened. "He's on to Medusa's Lair!" Sitting next to the Medusa bust was a pink monkey head, which Kaita completed the statue with. "And the statue's complete, but he's not out of the woods yet! He's got to find the snakes to get through to the Gateway!" Kaita looked down to see that the ground was sandy. He scraped the pink sand aside to reveal a plastic snake, which he stuck into its place on Medusa's head. After doing the same for the next snake he found, the door opened.

In the center of the Gateway was a plinth, which Kaita put the statue on as soon as he saw it. "Okay," he said, surprised to find himself a little short of breath. "I did it!"

"Five—" The door rattled open. "Four—" Kaita bolted through the doorway to find himself confronted with more stairs. "Three—" He ran up them, hoping Mary would be on the other side. "Two—" He opened the door—sturdier than anything in the temple—to find himself on the rooftop of a building. "One—!" A rumbling sound effect came from the speakers next to him. "Congratulations! Well, you've made it. Now, why don't you rest here while we see to dear Mary, hm?"

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"Now, dear," said the woman dressed in shimmering scales and a fish hat, "time's up."

Mary looked at the fish woman in surprise. "Can't I have a little more time? To prepare myself?"

"I'm afraid not," the fish woman said. "It's over. Time to face the music, honey."

Mary took a deep breath, summoning her confidence. Then, she gathered herself and walked into the next room, where Narcy and a man wearing a volcano on his head were waiting for her. "Well?" Narcy asked. "Let's see it."

"All right..." Mary placed the painting on the easel. The three adults crowded around it, murmuring to each other while Mary waited to the side. After some time, they went back to the table and sat.

"I don't know," the volcano man said. "It's okay, considering the limited time you had. But it's so trite."

"It wouldn't sell," Narcy scoffed. "It's not very original to draw wildflowers."

"It's peaceful, dear," the fish woman said, "but nobody likes peaceful these days. It needs to be more... challenging. Make it say something important."

Mary tilted her head to the side as she considered the critiques. "But that isn't the point of art."

"Of course it's not." The volcano man realized what he'd just said. "Wait, what?"

Mary explained, "Art isn't just about being challenging or selling copies. It's about expressing yourself, however you may be feeling. If your heart isn't in it, you'll never truly be making art."

"Wow," the fish woman said, hushed. "That's deep."

The volcano man was examining the painting again. "I get it now," he said. Narcy looked from one to the other, realizing that the tables had been turned. "You're a very content little girl, aren't you?"

Mary smiled. "I think so."

With that, the fish woman gave her verdict. "Though it required a little explanation, and who has time for those, I'll still give her a pass."

"I'll give her a pass, too," the volcano man seconded.

"Majority rules," Narcy said, disappointed. "You survive until the next round. Now hurry and get in the next room!"

"Thank you," Mary told the panelists. Then, she walked over to see what else Narcy had in store for her.

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"We're ba-aaaack!"

As he hadn't managed to find a safe way off the roof, Kaita figured he might as well go along with whatever the next task was. "So, what now? Double Dare?"

"Try Survivor! See that rope over there?" asked Narcy via the speakers.

Kaita had noticed the rope, but the roof was three stories off the ground—and as if that wasn't a sign of sure death, the traffic speeding across one of Densan's busiest streets was. "No way."

"Yes way. Or do you want to stay on this roof until you fall over from dehydration? My dear boy, that just wouldn't be a fitting end for you!" Narcy huffed, "You've just been getting in the way and getting in the way. It's driving me absolutely insane! So I'm going to get even, and I'll be damned if it isn't perfect for TV! So no boring deaths!"

Kaita considered his chances. On the one hand, the stairway down was blocked by the ruins of the Hidden Temple, and sitting around would get him nowhere. On the other, it was a long way down, but as long as his grip stayed firm—as long as he didn't linger up there—he could make it. "Fine," he said, crossing to the rope. "No boring deaths."

"Survivors ready—hey, I haven't said 'go' yet! Of all the nerve—!" Kaita paid no attention to Narcy's tirade, instead concentrating on making sure his hands made it to the rope one after another. He supposed he should've paid more attention to the crowed, "Take this!" that preceded a loud creaking sound. He looked up to see a huge pink donut falling right in front of him, and froze so that it whistled past.

The screeches of brakes echoed up along the walls of the buildings to reach Kaita as he continued on, trying to quicken his pace without compromising safety. But that only made the next sudden stop, which allowed a big clown head to sail past, that much harder. "And to think, you're only halfway there!" laughed Narcy as Kaita slowed, then had to go faster than ever as grapefruit slices began to fly right toward him. They were normal-sized, but it was their oversized cousin that was the real danger. It clipped the rope as it fell past and Kaita reached for the next handhold, leaving him dangling by one arm as the other flailed for the bouncing rope. All the shaking gave him a great view of how high he was; the cars stopped in front of the fallen projectiles seemed to be the size of toys, like Kaita could just pluck one out of the road with his swinging arm. It would've been a cooler view if he couldn't also see his feet dangling below him. He looked up to see that it wasn't far now. With the rope a little stiller, he could swing his arm up to grab it and continue on with new determination.

"No, no, no! You're not out of this yet!" Before Kaita could scramble onto the next rooftop, he looked up to see a giant barrel upend itself over him. All he could do was cling for dear life as a torrent of pink lemonade washed over him. Currently drenched and possibly sticky later, Kaita struggled onto the rooftop. He could hear annoyance creeping into Narcy's voice as they said, "Well, you're lucky I didn't really think that would do it!" Kaita had a feeling Narcy was lying; he knew that if the lemonade had been a little more forceful, he would've been toast—or jelly, considering the fall. "After the break—your reunion with darling Mary!"

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Mary looked around at the new room, still nowhere near figuring out what everything in it was for. It had a large screen and a smaller one at one end and a large prize wheel on the other. She couldn't get a better look because she was stuck behind the wheel—a row of tall spikes had popped out to keep her in place. From the way the floor was put together, it looked like she was on one end of a conveyor belt that went around the wheel.

Suddenly, the voice of the volcano man echoed out, "Please welcome your hosts—Narcy Hide and Jewelman!" Narcy strutted on stage, while the screen powered up to show numerous green tiles and Jewelman appearing in a shimmer of pixels.

"Now, today's contestant is competing for the top-dollar prize of progression to the next room. You'll be guessing a five-word book title today—"

"Oh!" Mary exclaimed as some of the tiles behind Jewelman turned white. "That's a lot to guess..."

Jewelman looked back at the mystery phrase—only two lines long—and then at Mary. "You've never seen this show before, have you?" Mary shook her head with a little smile. "Well, it's pretty easy. Narcy-sama tells you what to do the whole time, anyway."

"But," Narcy cut in, "it's also very difficult. People who know all about it have lost everything in the end! Just like you will!" They tossed their head and snapped their fingers. A trapdoor slid open on the other side. Though Mary couldn't see it over the wheel, the screen over Narcy's head showed it for her; a vat of something pink being churned. "Now, every time you guess a letter right, you'll get closer to moving on. But every guess wrong, and you inch toward being smothered under this nice, pink gum!"

"I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the original show," Ring cut in.

"It ups the stakes," Narcy explained. "Now, give it a spin!"

"Okay..." Feeling a little lost, Mary tugged on one of the spokes sticking out of the wheel. While it turned, Ring scrutinized it.

"Hey, weren't they just playing for money before?" she asked. "I kind of remember this, but it's been a while..."

"Only kind of? You're a Custom Navi, you should remember right away," Jewelman said.

"And you're just the letter-flipping lady, so shut up!" Ring shot back.

Meanwhile, the wheel had stopped on Confetti. Mary shut her eyes as pressurized air and pink scraps of paper flew in her face. "Don't just sit there! Pick a letter!" commanded Narcy.

"Okay," Mary said. "Um... gosh, there're so many..."

"Oooh! I remember this now!" Mary lifted up her PET arm to see as Ring advised, "Pick a vowel!"

Narcy leaned over and glared at Mary. "Aren't you not allowed to consult with your Navi in the middle of a show?"

"I don't think there's anything in the rules against it, Narcy-sama," said Jewelman, shrugging.

"Okay... I'll try 'A'," Mary said.

"Two 'A's!" Jewelman strutted over, laid a hand on the first letter in the top row's last word, leaned over to touch the bottom row's last word, and breezed by to the other end. "You can keep guessing until you guess wrong."

"I bet it's 'and'," Ring said. Mary had to agree—there were only two letters following the 'A'.

"'N'," she said next. "So if I never guess wrong, I can just win the whole thing like this?"

"If you never guess wrong, which I find highly unlikely. Two 'N's!" The second word in the top row had an N in it, leaving five letters; meanwhile, the 'A' changed to 'AN'.

"And now for 'D'," Mary said next. Ring cheered as Jewelman uncovered the last part of 'AND'. "'Something-n-something and something," she read, thinking.

"Keep going with vowels," Ring said. "But not too many vowels! With some of 'em, there's lots of vowels, but shorter ones don't have every vowel."

"Right," she said. "'I'!" There was only one 'I', and when she asked for "'U'!" she got similar results. "'E'." She and Ring exchanged grins as four 'E's were uncovered. On the other end of the wheel, Narcy was biting a fingernail nervously. "Might as well... 'O'!"

"No!" Mary yelped as her spot lurched to the side. Narcy exclaimed, "Finally! Spin again!"

"Okay," Ring said, chin in mittened hand. "Now it gets tricky." The wheel stopped on Bananas, and Mary covered her head with her arms as a shower of bananas fell on her. "'E In-E and E Au-E... Maybe there's a 'The' in there somewhere."

"It's worth a shot," Mary said, picking up the freshest-looking banana and peeling it. Then, she looked over at Narcy suspiciously. "Hey... You didn't... you know, put anything in these, did you?"

"No," Narcy said. "I didn't think you were going to eat them!"

"Well, I've been here all day," Mary explained. "I could do with a little snack. 'T'!" she said before taking a bite. Sure enough, the first 'E's got 'T's at the beginning of their words, leaving one blank space to be filled by Mary's next call of, "'H'!" After that, Mary had no idea what to guess next. She looked down at Ring for advice.

"I think it's up to you, Mary-chan," Ring said. "Don't know what could be under those last few..."

"Okay... 'B'?"

"Wrong!" crowed Narcy with glee. Mary looked over at the now-visible vat of pink gum with worry—three more wrong guesses, and she'd be falling in.

Quietly, she reminded herself, "It doesn't matter which letter doesn't do it. It could be completely obvious..." She finished off her banana, then spun the wheel and received Ducks for her effort. "How cute!" she said as they paraded around on top of the wheel, around her feet, and everywhere else they'd fit, obviously wondering how they'd gotten there and how to get out. "Uh... 'C'."

"One 'C'," Narcy said, pulling out a handkerchief and slowly biting down hard on it. Mary saw why as soon as Jewelman had put the letter on the board.

"'-Ince'... 'Prince'... 'The Prince and the Pauper'!" The spikes keeping Mary in her spot lowered, and she stepped out from behind the wheel, careful not to hurt any ducks in the process. "Once I got the hang of it, that was kind of fun!" she said.

"Oh, sure," Narcy said, coming towards her. "But you have no idea what's coming up in the climax!"

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"Good evening, Mr. Brat," Jewelman greeted in a deep voice with a funny accent. Coupled with his slightly nasal speech, Kaita had to laugh. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"You," Kaita said, still laughing. "I was expecting something a little more threatening."

"And that's what you'll get," Jewelman said. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue your dear friend and escape alive."

"Okay, J," Kaita said. "But I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"Protocol, Mr. Brat, blessed protocol."

"Right." Kaita looked around at the briefing room they were in. "So, don't I get anything, or...?"

"Of course," Jewelman said. "You get a water gun, some paper, and a pen, which is secretly just a pen."

"Oh. Thanks." Kaita found the objects in the center drawer of the desk in front of him and stuck them in his backpack. "Say, why am I the hero, anyway? You want me to lose, right? Why not make Narcy the hero and me Kidfeld or something?"

"Fourth wall!" hissed Jewelman, leaning in closer. That had no effect on Kaita, since he was an image on a two-dimensional screen. "Narcy's the director-slash-producer! They don't act!"

"Okay," Kaita said. "But I'm not acting, either."

"Oh, for heaven's— Just get out there already!" Jewelman flicked his hands toward the door. "Shoo! Shoo!"

"For Queen and country!" Kaita proclaimed, throwing open the door and running outside. "Whoa!" It was like laser tag on steroids—he was at the side of a dark room filled with the trees, the mud, and even the sounds of some damp jungle. Kaita took out the water gun—at least it was a brand he recognized and not some dinky dollar store one—and shook it. It was half full. Humming a spy-movie theme, he began his trek through the forest. "Hey, wait," he said after passing a few stands of trees. "Maybe I shouldn't mix series." Even after having said that, it felt like the right thing to do. With a shrug, he kept humming and going.

A splash alerted him to the fact that he'd found water, and keeping his foot in it told him it was moving. He knelt to fill his Super Soaker up all the way. "Now I'm ready. Bring it on, Pinkfeld!" He struck a super spy pose, pointing his gun at an imaginary camera, then went toward where the current was coming from. As he'd thought, things got wetter and wetter as he kept running. "Say, Turboman, do you think we get a car?"

"I don't see why not," the Navi replied. "I mean, every spy movie has a cool car. The only question is, where is it hiding?"

"Yeah." Kaita slowed his pace a little, noting all the clumps of trees. "There are plenty of places you could stash a car in here. I mean, look at all this stuff!" Said 'stuff' was a tangle of thick branches, which had closed off the path Kaita had been taking. Being a fairly small boy, he just maneuvered through the brush instead of finding a different way.

As he fell out of the branches to hit the ground—thankfully just sand here and not mud—Kaita heard Mary call, "Kaita-kun!"

He scrambled to his feet. "Mary-chan!" Then, Kaita looked at what she was sitting over. "Alligators!"

Mary called, "Actually, they're crocodiles... the snout's pointier..." No matter what they were, there was a pit full of them below Mary's seat. Luckily, there was also a rope ladder extending from below the platform she was on to where Kaita was. And there, on the other side of the pit, was a small Kinglish car.

"The Bratmobile!" Kaita realized, his face lighting up.

"All right!" Turboman cheered with even more enthusiasm, obviously awaiting the high-speed chase that was sure to come.

"What are you boys doing down there?!" Ring shouted. "We've got a damsel in distress up here! Hurry up!"

"Actually, I'm okay," Mary said. "This is pretty stable, as long as I stay still..."

Kaita stashed the Super Soaker in his backpack. "I just hope it stays that way!" he said, climbing up the ladder. He could see why Mary had decided to wait for him - it was pretty wobbly, though at least the crocodiles seemed to be asleep. "Okay, I'm right below you," he said. "It looks like there're a couple of pegs you can climb down..." He spotted something else near the bottom, something black and shiny. "Wait a minute, better idea!"

"What?" asked Mary, standing on the top peg and holding on tight to the platform at her waist.

"Hang on," he said, plugging Turboman in. "I think we can just ride over, as soon as I cut this..." As he pulled out the pocketknife his dad had given him and started cutting through the rope, Kaita realized that this was supposed to be the part where he used some kind of fancy gadget, not his own tools. "Oh, well," he said to himself. After the rope fell away, he threw his arms around the central pole. "Ready, Mary-chan?" he called.

"As ready as I'll be," she replied.

"Okay, Turboman, go for it!" With that, they were moving across the pit, weaving around sleeping crocodiles and bumping into grumpy ones. On the other side, Kaita hopped off, then helped Mary down from the top. From there, they headed for the car.

"I've always wanted to drive one of these!" Turboman said before Kaita opened the door and plugged him in.

"Really?" Mary asked as they got in. "Cars like this are dime-a-dozen in Kingland..."

"Not exactly. Look behind you," Kaita said. He turned to see what Mary did—the engine and a series of pipes sitting where the back seat would've been. "This is a stunt car! Since all the weight's in the middle, it's easier to handle, and it's got a roll cage so we're safe if we have to do something crazy."

"So there's nothing in the hood..."

"...and nothing in the trunk, yeah. There's other stuff that goes into 'em, too, but those're the biggest differences."

"Enough talking about it," Turboman cheered, "let's get this thing cruisin'!" It was right in the nick of time—they heard a low rumble coming from somewhere to the side. Turboman zipped away, mowing down branches like they were nothing. The next things in his path were flamethrowers. "Yike!" The Operators screamed as Turboman swerved away, giving them a great view of the flames coming at them. The rumbling was getting louder.

"Mary?" Kaita asked, looking over at her. "What's wrong?" She was looking out the back window, eyes wide. Kaita took a peek for himself to see a giant wave of pink slime rolling toward them, swallowing anything in its path. "Step on it, Turboman!"

"I'm stepping!" They shot forward, Kaita and Mary clinging to their seats as Turboman weaved expertly around obstacles. Just ahead were the doors; Mary needed no prompting to plug Ring in, then retrieve her as they swung open. The car swerved into the road, dodging obstacles and the less fortunate cars that had crashed into them. At the end of the road, the pink slime pouring out of the building and onto the road behind them, Turboman came to a halt.

"I think we've made it," Kaita said, getting out to get a better look. Mary did so, too, sighing in relief at their adventure's end.

Unfortunately, though they'd escaped the most dangerous part of the slime wave, it was still coming. Before either of them could open the doors again, they were sprayed with pink slime. After that, there was silence.

"This is... kind of disgusting," Mary said, trying to wipe some of the goop of her face.

"Yeah," Kaita agreed. "Hey, why don't we head to my house and get this cleaned up some?"

"Really? I've never been to your house before..."

"Better late than never, right?" With a giggle, Mary nodded. "Let's ride, Turboman!"