Upon arrival to Milla's mind, we saw that it looked very fancy and bouncy and that we could hear music all around us. The disco music from the level in question.
"Welcome to the party, darlings," Milla smiled at us from the television.
"Miss Milla? Why are you on the tv?" Mirtala asked.
"Oh, darling, it's where I was always meant to be! But enough about that, it's time to join in on the party, so here's a learner's permit for each of you. You're going to need to prove you can float with ease like the flying trapeze in order to reach the best part of the party, where I'll be at! Once you reach me, you'll get your badge for real, mwah!" she smirked widely with a big kiss, me then going forward with the others and touching a figment... and afterwards, all the figments immediately came to us, which Milla was surprised at for sure, especially since some of them were from the hidden room.
"U-Um... Lucas, dear? How did you do that?" Milla asked.
"It's my figmagnet. I just touch one of them or a tag for emotional baggage and all of them magically come to me, ehe," I smiled.
"You won't tell anyone about what you saw from a few of the figments, right?..." she asked, me sighing at her.
"Milla, you're not the only one who's faced loss like that," I frowned as I showed her via my memories about how I'd lost all of my family in a fire similar to the one that engulfed her orphanage... and that I tried to rescue them as best I could, but they were too badly burnt by the time I reached them and couldn't even move anymore.
"Darling... I see what you mean... but I also see you couldn't hear them... I could," Milla sighed as I saw that the place started to rumble a bit at her thoughts.
"Milla, listen to me, from one powerful psychic to another," I said, her then sniffing on the other side of a camera as we reached the first big verticle climbing section. "The children that you cared for. Would they be happy if they learned you were still grieving them, even in private? Would they want you to still be upset and consider that night a nightmare that needs pushed back? Don't you think they'd want you to remember all the good times rather than the bad?" I asked, Milla sighing in response before I then saw a couple of the doors in the big area then opened up and I saw that a bunch of NPCs of different children appeared from them and that no nightmares were happening.
"Your words are poetry, Luke... I know I can't ever see them again, but you're right. They'd want to join the party in my memories, not be isolated in bad thoughts," Milla sniffed as I saw she then was joined by a group of mental children at her tv station, me smirking at how they were dancing just as well.
"See? Happy endings for all," Connie smiled happily as we then jumped through the many rooms before we then got to what I called the Pinball launcher, where Elka was the first one to use it, then it was Bobby, and then the last of the group happened to be Crystal, her shouting in glee from being sent forward, knowing that I had to talk to her and Clem to get their depression under control at some point.
"Ready to play some pinball, Queepie?" I smiled at my new younger brother.
"Never played before, what do we do?" he asked with a smile.
"We're the ball, and we're going to need to do this," I smirked as I got on my levitation ball (it was invisible, same with Connie's and Frazie's) and I then flew through the place and then hovered onto the bouncy pad, which I definitely had fun with. "WHOOHOO! YEAHAH! WOO!' I shouted in glee at the air rushing against my face, followed by me landing on the lilypad platform and seeing the others then join me one at a time, but not before Frazie got the mental cobwebs below us. We still had a good amount left to grab, of course. Once we got to the top of this room, we then punched our way through a barrier that led deeper into the mind, us then reaching another big room, with a jungle gym-like wall that we had to climb up, but not before we went to the memory vault number 2 (we got the other automatically when the doors opened).
And when we saw the vault, I was shocked by something that I never expected. Milla happened to be... JUST LIKE ME AND CONNIE! And guess what? She was related to me specifically! And who was it?
"M-M-Momma?" I asked, that making Milla sound confused.
"Did... did you just call me Momma?" Milla asked me.
"Milla... you're Momma Mandy? Mandy Zelinsky?" I asked, that immediately resulting in her astral projection appearing right in front of me as we got to the upper platform with the dangerous floor.
"Is it... is it true? You're... you're MY Luke?" Milla asked, me then smiling at how she then changed her look to one I knew much better.
"Mom... I thought you just vanished one day! We thought you were kidnapped..." I gawked, mom then giving me a big hug, me sniffing at the hug and for my siblings to be confused.
"Wait... Milla is your mom? Like, before you were reborn?... So you have 2 moms now?" Frazie gawked.
"I guess I do... but I could always be a second mom to you as well, darling Aquatos. But still, rules are rules, can't give you the levitation badge until the end," Milla smiled, me chuckling at that as we then went through the rest of the first area after mom went back to the best area of the party and, when we got to the race track, it happened to be something different. It wasn't the same race track as in the game. It was actually a take on Race of Ages from Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed, just with barriers on the way and having the same aesthetic as the original racetrack.
"Okay, darlings, now I want to see how fast you are! If any of you can make it to the end of the race within 4 minutes, then you can join the rush to the end of the party! And, if you get there in first place, a personal boon for the winner," momma Milla said, me smirking at that.
"Oh YEAH! I'm gonna smoke you losers into burnt toast! And as for you, circus jerks, you're going to be my peanuts to crack!" he smirked.
"Really? Because you look more like the cotton candy," Queepie smirked, Frazie then whistling at that.
"Oooooh! Sick burn, little guy, haha!" Clem chuckled. But just from looking at his thoughts, I could see he was disappointed he couldn't say those kinds of things back home... where he was basically the resident punching bag.
"Clem?" I asked, him looking at me in surprise. "When camp the test is finished, I want to tell you and Crystal some things. Some things to help you out," I said in thought, him then gasping at that.
"U-Um... sure, we can do that, Luke, ehehe," Clem said with concern, me smiling at him.
"Don't worry, it won't be anything bad. It's better to get things off of your chest than have them bottling up inside. It's healthy," I smiled.
"Okay, darlings! Ready? Get set? Go, baby, go!" Milla smiled, us then going down the track and rushing through the place, me and Frazie being in first for nearly the entire time before we then reached the part where we ended up going through the flying part of the level, where we had to choose one of four paths to use our hovering part of the levitation in order to get through a whole slew of hazards before we had to reach the very end. And once we did, we gawked at how the one in first place was actually Connie, which Milla smiled at.
"Ooh, great first place finish, Connie, dear! As for your personal boon, you get upgraded by 10 ranks," she said, me smirking at that.
"You lucky duck, Connie," I smiled at her as I came in fifth place, at a time of 3:49. And as for the rest, the only one who didn't happen to reach the end in the timeframe was Chops, who looked a bit upset, but he perked up when he heard that he could try the race time again if he wanted, which he was all for.
"Okay, I'll try it again," he smiled as the rest of us then got to the fan room. All of us got the rest of the baggage and mental cobwebs before floating our way to the main party area, where Momma Milla was there and she then smiled at all of us.
"Well done, darlings! You managed to reach the party grounds! You have shown your penchant for parties and going with the flow. You all get a Levitation badge," she smirked as we then got the ability unlocked for real, mom then giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek in response.
"And for you, my Luke, dear, I hope you can forgive me for not recognizing you sooner... I had given up hope before I even became a Psychonaut agent," Milla smiled at me.
"Mom, it's okay. I'm just happy we can finally reunite," I smiled back as we then exited her mind and saw that Chops was the only one left, me seeing that the sun was about to set in the distance, meaning we had to get to the Brain Tumbler and quick.
"Thanks for teaching us how to levitate, miss Milla... but uh, Luke? What did you mean by you wanted to talk to me and Clem?" Crystal asked, me smiling at how, though her appearance did look bad, from looking at her mind, it was because a nasty bully that pretended to be her friend tricked her into plastic surgery... and screwed her face up on purpose. And as such, she was subject to tons of bullying back home AND at camp.
"Crystal," I said, her looking at me with a smile. "You don't need to hide your true thoughts from me or Clem. I don't judge by outward appearance. I only care about what's on the inside. And I can see tons of potential within both of you, but it can't come out until you can tell us what's going on in your heads," I said with a smile. Crystal then tried to keep her smile up, same with Clem, but both of them ended up rushing to me and tackling me to the ground with a crying embrace.
"It's so hard, Luke! It's so hard!" Clem cried to me before Crystal sobbed.
"You're the only one who doesn't hate my looks... I hate that I look so ugly! Why does God hate me so much?" Crystal cried, me smiling as I simply hugged them tighter and gave them some head pets with telekinesis.
"There, there, guys. You're allowed to cry. We're all friends here," I smiled, them then staying like this for a few minutes without stopping, so I had to simply ask Queepie to carry me and the duo with us to Agent Nein's lab via the WRUST metro, the duo continuing to cry until we finally got to Sasha, who looked at them and then at me.
"Is there something going on?" he asked.
"They're allowed to cry, better than bottling the sadness forever... guys, you don't need to be scared anymore... and you're getting a bit heavy now," I smirked, them then sniffling and stopping the hug, which I smiled at them. "New assignment for you two, Clem and Crystal. Assist Agent Nein and the others in our group as I go into my own mind with the Brain Tumbler. We need to find out who is stealing the brains and where they're stationed at," I said.
"I apologize, Luke, but if the interference happens again, I don't know how dangerous it could get," Nein said.
"Well, Kitty and Franke have had their brains stolen, just like in the vision I had. And unless we have a faster way of trying to find out the cause, then please tell us," I said, Sasha then frowning and nodding.
"Very well, I'll have Clem and Crystal assist in seeing deeper in the experiment along with Connie. We need to learn who is the cause of the distortion and how to stop them," Sasha Nein said as I then went to the Brian Tumbler and, after going into my mental world, I then saw that the tower of thorns, fanfictions, and meat... had since been turned into a tower of thorns, fanfictions, and fish eggs. After climbing up the expanse to the top with levitation, I then got to the window and saw that the one in the seat wasn't Kitty, but it was actually, get this, Nils!
"Hey! You better let me out of here! I have a date with Elka tonight! She said first base!" Nils shouted, me then gawking at that as I saw Loboto snicker.
"Oh, sorry, but that big tooth has got to go, so just breathe it in," Loboto said as he then had his mechanical arm spread a bunch of super sneezing powder at Nils.
"NOOOhhaaaa... Ahhhh... AAAAAHCHOOOOOO!' Nils sneezed so loud that his brain came flying out of his mouth, him then looking to be zombified after.
"How do you feel, little man?" Loboto asked.
"Teeveeeee... boobiiieeesss..." he groaned. At least he still had a semblance of himself without his brain, I thought.
"Oh, don't worry, here, watch this while I get rid of this thing. And now, for the next subject," Loboto smirked as he then opened a door... and I gasped as the one in question happened to not be any of the kids in the class... no, it was the original character before Razputin!
"D'art!" I gawked as I slammed through the window and was about to jump down the chute before Nils looked at me.
"Save... Elka... Veeteee..." he groaned, me smiling at him.
"I'll save her, you, and anyone I can, Nils. I promise," I said as I then jumped down the chute and found myself in the room with the blueprints. And it was then that I gawked at something else. The blueprints for the think tanks? That part was actually just a distraction! The real prize in all of this? It was a test of how to extract a brain for the big bad guy, Masked Caviar, to get his mind switched with, get this, Truman Zanotto! And I was then sent into a boss fight against a shadowy version of Masked Caviar, who was in a giant mechanized Truman bot!
"What's going on?! The vision is getting very cloudy," I heard Clem say from outside.
"Truman's in danger! Beat that robot, Luke Psiwalker!" Coach shouted, me nodding as I then adjusted my sunglasses and proceeded to fly to the top of the robot and blast the back of it at least thrice with Psi Blasts before it fell over and the weak spot in the brain compartment appeared, which I then smashed with a foot slam from up high, which made the robot short-circuit and explode as we then saw the sight.
"I'll never tell where he is! AHAHAHAHA!" I heard Loboto exclaim as I then saw one single sight from the mind of the brain used in the Truman bot. That Gristol Malik was the one called Masked Caviar... and that... he WASN'T Nick! He was someone completely different! But before I could get a read, I was booted out of the mind and, after that happened, Sasha spoke.
"That was a lot of information that we got, but it seems it overloaded the Brain Tumbler... we can't go into that experiment anymore, or it'd break the machine completely... so what did we find out?" Sasha asked, as I shared all the information I had received from the experiment, and what I saw from the looking at the minds of Loboto and Masked Caviar, who had switched Truman Zanotto's brain with a man named Nick Johnsmith for some bizarre reason.
"Truman is in danger? The head of the Psychonauts was KIDNAPPED?! AND NICK?!" Oleander gawked.
"And from what I saw from looking at both Loboto's mind as well as another kid I saw in there called d'Artagnan, the location of this doctor and his plans is Thorny Towers Asylum," I said, Oleander gawking as well as Connie.
"You mean that abandoned mental hospital out in the very middle of Lake Oblongata? I heard that the place fell into disrepair about 13 years ago because of the Psitanium around this place making the inmates go so insane that they died. Why would Loboto be going there?" Connie asked.
"I remember a bit more... Loboto was an inmate there, the most sane one of the bunch. He's been contacted by Masked Caviar in a bid to find a dangerous Psychic in order to bring back a kingdom called Grulovia... but it's still a bit fuzzy," Oleander groaned.
"This is definitely insane! And you said that Nils was in trouble this time?" Sasha asked, me nodding.
"We need to formulate a plan of attack. First order of business, find the lake monster that kidnaps the kids to go to the asylum. It is real, and it's because of Loboto and me mutating a Lungfish, against my will, I might add," Oleander groaned. "We need to get into that Lungfish and stop the mind control so it stops kidnapping kids. Until further notice, all of the children of camp that have their brains intact will travel as a singular unit and head out to find the Lungfish," Oleander said as he then focused and I heard his voice in everyone's heads.
"Attention all students of Whispering Rock! You have an important assignment! There is a dangerous threat to our camp and it exists out on Lake Oblongata! Everyone with a brain is to meet at the main lodge and, from then on, move as a singular unit. We'll have Luke Psiwalker explain more when we get everyone together. That is all," Oleander said, us then heading out after, but not before Sasha gave us something.
"Here, in case something bad were to happen, take this Psi Portal so you can go into peoples' minds. You may need to do so in order to get further into the asylum itself as well as quell the Lungfish," he said.
"Thanks, Sasha," Mirtala smiled as we then worked together to go through the now dark campgrounds and go to the main lodge, where we then went inside to see how many students still had their brains. Unfortunately, of the lot, the ones to have their brians were Dogen, Elka, Quentin, Phoebe, Lili, and Vernon.
"What in the world is going on, Luke? I'm getting scared... and where's Nils?" Elka asked, me then speaking to them as I then used the bacon on my ear, which made the sane Cruller appear from it.
"Yes, what is it?" he asked me.
"I need to know, Agent Cruller. Where are the kids that have had their brains stolen?" I asked him, which scared the others in our group.
"Eh? They're currently in my underground sanctuary. I'm keeping them safe from harm until we can find out where their brains are at," Cruller said before then looking at the other kids, some of whom looked creeped out by Cruller's head coming out of my ear. "Now listen up kids, this is an urgent matter. We have a Psychonaut level threat, but this is going to need to be covered by our cadets. If us Psychonaut adults were to go to the island, we'll be automatically captured and used for tools of war. It's time for the youth to rise up and prove they can be agents of the mind! Do you all have what it takes?" he asked.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Elka said, followed by everyone else in our group. We then got out and proceeded to the lake as I explained the details, including the bit where the enemy was a man named Masked Caviar and that he placed Nick Johnsmith's brain into Truman's and was holding the body hostage at the top of Thorny Towers, where Loboto was at and planned to steal the brain of another kid, his named being d'Artagnan. And that the enemy in question was named Gristol Malik and that he was expecting Psychonauts agents to attack the towers, not children. So our job as a unit was to find the Lungfish. And when we got rid of its mind control implant, we had to find a means of transport to reach the asylum out on the middle of the lake and find a way to Loboto's lab while finding out the locations of the stolen brains.
"Whoa... that's quite a lot we have to do... b-but my dad... where's his brain at, then?" Lili asked, her being the first to ask a question.
"I didn't catch that, but I'm sure his brain is being kept somewhere in that asylum. We just need to find out where it is," I said, us then going to the beach and, when we did, we gawked at how, when we got there, we heard a sneeze from the shrubs.
"ACHOO! Augh, dammit," the voice said, him being a soft male voice and me seeing that there was a large sleeping hat poking out of the foliage.
"Hey, are you d'Artagnan?" I asked, trying to pronounce it as best I could, which responded in the kid then appearing, me seeing he was able to turn invisible except for his hat.
"That's not even close to how you pronounce it. It's pronounced Dart-uh-gahn," he said, me nodding at that.
"Okay, gotcha... so, Dart... can we ask who you are?" I asked, him then pointing his finger to poke my face and him then smiling at me.
"Don't you recognize your own sister?" he asked... me then gawking at that.
"Sister? I... I only had one sister," I gawked as I looked inside of Dart's mind... and when I did, it confirmed what I saw. His thoughts claimed that he was just like me, mom, Sydney, Lili's mom, and Connie!
"Tia? How? I thought you died in the hospital from a botched surgery... how did you get reborn in this world? Let alone reborn in a boy's body?" I asked her.
"Trust me, I think it's even weirder than you... I could feel your mind appear the moment you were born, but I had no idea where you could be at... but I decided that I'd hide out at the camp here once a year starting at age 7 until you showed up. And now that I turn 12, you show up," Tia smiled from Dart's head before she then hugged me.
"Uh... this is very weird... almost as weird as you being able to talk from birth," Frazie admitted. And then Dartia smirked at what was on the ground.
"Oh! So that's where it went! I've been looking for this for awhile," she smirked as she picked up a pendant that was on the ground... and when she did, we then gawked at how a gigantic Lungfish then appeared out of nowhere and sucked up Dartia into his lure!
"ACK! HELP ME! I can't go to that island! Save m-" she was about to shout out the whole sentence before the Lungfish swallowed her whole!
"EEK! What do we do, whatdowedo?!" Elka asked in fear as Queepie then proceeded to use his telekinesis to slam the Lungfish down, holding it down on the ground with all his strength, him then being assisted by Dogen, Elka, Frazie, Clem, Crystal, and Vernon!
"Okay, here's how we do it, guys. I'm going to go into this big palooka's mind and take out the mind control along with one other volunteer. Everyone else, prevent the Lungfish from going in the water! None of us in the Aquato family can swim, so do not let it go into the water!" I said, them then nodding as I then placed the Psi Portal on the front of the Lungfish's bulbous forehead. And afterwards, I then saw that the one to join me in the mind was actually Mirtala! And when we went inside, we then ended up growing in size to the point we were gigantic, which our steps felt really sluggish and for the citizens of Lungfish people to screech at our appearance.
"EEK! Save yourselves! It's Pretzra and Shadezilla!" one of the lungfish shouted as me and Mirtala looked at the little Lungfish and she said it for me.
"Is this because of the mind control?" she asked, me nodding at her.
"We need to see if there are any parts of the brain that aren't mind controlled and see if this mind is being watched by anyone," I spoke.
