A few days earlier…
Arrant, while wandering the streets of Costa Brava, notices a cool car parked outside of a building. Arrant pauses his stroll to admire the vehicle from a distance, since it's not too common to see one in such good condition around these parts. Having his interest piqued, Arrant approaches the building, and Vespot gives him a glance.
"I wouldn't go in there right now if I were you. A couple of thugs with badges showed up and are doing god-knows-what in there." Vespot warns, and Arrant stops.
"Thugs with badges, huh? Reminds me of some people I used to know." Arrant says. "Is that their car?"
"Oh yeah, sure is. One of 'em looks fresh off the starship, the other's some kinda super soldier with a serious case of baby face." Vespot explains. "Not sure why they took interest in this place. Far as I know, nobody's been here for months."
Suddenly, a holographic projection drops down near Vespot and Arrant, running away down the street. Akulbek and Mr. Grey are hot on its tail, and pay no mind to Vespot and Arrant as they rush back to the car and begin pursuing the hologram. Vespot's watch starts beeping, and he gives it a glance.
"Whoops, gotta go. Got a meeting to catch, it'll take me a while to get there on foot." Vespot starts whistling as he puts his hands in his pockets and walks away, leaving Arrant alone in front of the building. Arrant walks inside, looking around.
"What's so important about this place anyways?" Arrant wonders aloud, looking over the graffiti-covered walls. Arrant brings out Modern Crusader, and prints up a blueprint of the building, hoping to gain some more insight. When he looks at the blueprint, he notices something odd with the elevator, as well as a faint outline that seems to be a second building overlaid on top of the first. Arrant walks over to the elevator doors, which are busted in, and peers through a gap. The elevator isn't on this floor, and the call button doesn't work, so Arrant heads downstairs. Sure enough, the elevator is resting at the bottom level, and Arrant is able to pry the doors open enough to go inside. Once he's in the elevator, Arrant realizes that this is a dumb idea, since obviously this place doesn't have any power anymore. Just as he's about to give up and leave, Arrant notices a note taped next to the elevator buttons, and reads it. On the note is a diagram, which shows someone pressing the ground floor button and then sliding it to the side. Arrant tries this for himself, and is surprised when the elevator, despite being powered down, starts moving, not upwards, but some other direction. When the doors open, Arrant can immediately tell that he isn't in the same building he started in.
In front of Arrant is a room resembling the lobby of the building, but instead of being covered in graffiti, the walls have wound-like cracks, which are oozing a viscous red fluid. The fountain is active, spraying a mist of blood into the air. Arrant spots another note at his feet, and picks it up. The message was clearly written in a panic, and a bloody handprint is visible at the bottom. The scrawled text reads 'DO NOT TALK TO TYRONE'. Arrant looks at the floor nearby, and sees a trail of blood leading to the stairs. Looking between the blood and the note, a smile starts to crack on Arrant's face. Who's gonna stop him in a place like this? He follows the trail up the stairs, which are much taller in this version of the building than the regular one, and which don't seem to access any other floors along the way. Once he reaches the top of the stairs, Arrant is standing in front of the aptly labeled Tyrone Room. Arrant allows himself into the room, where Tyrone himself is sitting.
"May I speak to Tyrone?" Arrant asks as he walks inside, though his eyes widen in shock as he beholds the massive, intimidating figure in the room. Tyrone looks at Arrant, meeting his gaze and staring right through him. After a few seconds of tension, Tyrone raises his finger, pointing to a plain metal folding chair in the corner of the room. Arrant walks over and sits down opposite Tyrone, his heart pounding with terror but also with the thrill of doing something that somebody clearly did not want him to do.
"Allow me to tell you a story. A long time ago, there were three friends." Tyrone begins, staring off as he speaks as though reciting an old folk story from memory. "One believed he would one day be the king. One believed he would be loved by everyone. And the last believed he would find true power. The friends held these great ambitions, and were looked down on for it, for hoping to achieve the impossible. People told them that pursuing such grand dreams was a foolish endeavor, one that would ruin them. And for a long time, it seemed that they were right. Despite their best efforts, the friends failed to rise above those around them. That was, until one day, one of the friends encountered a mysterious hermit. He told the hermit of his plight, and the hermit revealed a secret that only he knew. He spoke of another world, a single plane that spans all of existence. And then he showed it to him. The friend was in awe. This vast secret world, unknown to the masses, could very well be just what the friends needed to fulfill their destinies. But there was a problem. The world was overrun by monsters, foul beasts that were born from the shadows, and these monsters…oh, they hated outsiders, more than anything. By even setting foot in their domain, the friend had waged war against them. He retreated, wounded and battered, but he wouldn't go down so easily. He called upon the help of the other two friends, the only people he knew would come to his aid. And so they did. The three friends, who had sacrificed everything to pursue their dreams, fought back against the monsters of the secret world. And after a grueling battle, they saw the light of a glorious victory. All three of the friends stood tall, and around them, as far as the eye could see, lay the bodies of their enemies. The forces of evil preventing them from holding the keys to their kingdom had been slain, and the secret world was theirs. Now, with the ability to traverse all of existence at their fingertips, there was no longer anything to hold them back from achieving their goals. The one seeking to be king began a conquest like no other, the one seeking love had his influence heard echoing throughout all of time and space, and the one seeking power…he made a promise to keep the secret world a secret, as it should be."
As Arrant listens to Tyrone's story, his smile falters. Were the denizens of the secret world really so universally evil that they needed to be wiped out entirely? Was there some greater reason why they were so opposed to outsiders coming in? Something about this story is off-putting, and yet Tyrone tells it with such pride and nostalgia in his eyes. After Tyrone finishes talking, he folds his hands in his lap, looking at Arrant.
"Thank you, Tyrone." Arrant says as he stands up, before heading back downstairs and leaving the way he came.