Before I even have a chance to take in my new surroundings, I feel a searingly painful electric current run through my entire body. For a few seconds, there is only agony. Then, it stops, and I simply fall flat on my face.

I hear footsteps close by, then some unseen thing flips me onto my back. Hovering over me now is what appears to be some person with a black mask and helmet, and billowing green cape that they hold in front of them like a vampire.

“Ted…” I sputter out, “We came here to fight the local judge… who are all of these… weirdos who keep stopping us?”

I don’t get a reply. Come to think of it, I don’t even know where Ted is in relation to me.

The masked figure just looks over me, staring at me, as though examining me closely. They’re still holding a massive gun, which I assume is what just electrocuted me a few seconds ago. In the background, I see something glowing…

After about a minute of this, the masked figure speaks in a deep, slightly robotic voice.

“Tell me the names of everyone in your party.”

“And why I should I?” I retort.

“Because, you don’t want to die a painful death,” they say simply. Mask Person lifts up a boot and sets it on my shoulder.

“Well, joke’s on you. I’ve wanted to die for the past three years. Bring it.”

It’s hard to tell, but I think I might have annoyed them.

“Tell me; what is your mother’s maiden name?”

“Really? You want to access my bank account or something?”

For that, they lift their foot from me, and I get another round of electrocution. They hold this one out noticeably longer than the first time.

“You see? I’m not someone who you can sass,” they say. “Answer my questions. Where did you acquire the pink gem in your breastplate?”

“Fuck off.”

They make to fire it again, but then a gunshot sounds, and Mask Person stumbles backwards. I glance to my right and see that it’s Ted. He must have snuck off after we were teleported here and evaded detection.

I take this opportunity to get to my feet and draw my sword. Mask Person must’ve had a bulletproof vest on or something, because they’re not dead, though being shot definitely threw them off. Now that I’m on my feet, I also am finally able to see where we are, and… We’re back at the entrance outside the Palace!

“Okay, now it’s my turn to ask the questions,” I say. “You’re in cahoots with Moloch. That whole stupid ‘challenge’ was just some weird trick in order to separate the party.”

“That’s not a question, child,” Mask Person says. “But… more or less.”

“Well, then… You’re going to take me and my trusty animal sidekick in a fair fight now. En guarde.”

I make to swing at them, but Mask Person releases some sort of electric pulse. It’s not the same attack as before; it doesn’t hurt, but it does immobilize both me and Ted in our tracks, making us stand in place like idiots.

“Actually… I have places to be right now. You are your little friends better not ever come back here. The Metaverse is our turf, and we don’t like other people messing around here. Goodbye.”

And with that, they reach to the barrel of the electric shock gun, and put their hands on a small green gem that is embedded into the weapon. Then, they teleport away.

As soon as they’re gone, Ted and I’s paralysis is released. Even though I know it’s not going to help, I finish the sword swing, striking the ground with a loud clatter that almost jams my arm.

“God damn it!” I growl. “What a load of fucking bullshit this is!”

I take a deep breath, release it, and then turn to Ted. “I fucked up, man. I knew that the dude was full of shit, and I still did the challenge!”

“Do you remember what we discussed earlier?” Ted says, slightly sternly. “Maybe you haven’t moved on from your old self as well as you think.”

I glare at him for a few seconds, and am seriously considering talking back. However, we have more important things to do right now. “Come on. Let’s get back into the Palace and find out what happened to the other two.”

(But as we run back to the front door, I can’t help but to think about it.)

(He’s right, isn’t he? The only reason I fell for that stupid trap is because I wanted a chance to prove I was better than everyone else… God, I’m such a dumbass.)

----------------------------------------

And so, I start running the opposite direction, with Anja running beside me and panting. Before we even reach the football field, however, some type of weird sludge rains down in front of us and forms a puddle in the end zone.

“Uh… Fuck! To the left!” Anja calls out. She sprints leftward, yanking my arm along with her in the process. We got a ways around the puddle before it happens again and blocks the leftward path we were about to run through.

“Okay… I take it back now!” She says, doing a 180 and pulling me the other way. While we’re turning around, I try to catch a brief glimpse of what we’re actually running from… there’s something emerging from that tunnel…

“Watch your step!” Anja shouts. I look in front of me and see that the sludge is spreading, so we hop over it and sprint off of the field and behind the bleachers.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

We get to behind where the concessions usually would be. Anja falls down onto the ground, trying to catch her breath and twitching nervously. Now that I’m outside of the stadium, it strikes me how eerie this place is. Behind the bleachers, there is nothing- just a generic green field as far as the eye can see. It feels a lot like we used an out-of-bounds cheat code in a video game and got somewhere that we’re not supposed to see.

“Wow. Okay.” Anja finally says, after about ten seconds. “What the fuck.”

She rolls over onto her back. “Hey… do you remember yesterday, after we got out of that first chamber? What Ashley said?”

“She says a lot of things. I try to ignore her, honestly,” I reply.

“Well… she said that while we were in the chamber, I went crazy, and started talking about ‘the evil’ or something like that. Well… do you think maybe I was onto something?”

I try to see what’s going on through the gaps in the bleachers. I don’t see the… whatever it is, but I can still hear rumbling coming from the other side.

“Why did we run away?” I ask her. “We came here to fight. ”

“Yeah, well, the two of us aren’t going to be able to kill that by ourselves.”

“What even was that?” I press her. “I never saw it.”

“It was… the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know if words can do it justice…”

“And where did Ashley and Ted go?”

Then, a familiar voice sounds from right behind me; “Oh, they’ll be long gone by now.”

I jump to side instinctively, and whirl around to find Malach or whatever whatever his name was smiling at us.

“It’s that jackass! Let me at ‘im!” Anja shouts, quickly getting to her feet, and firing her semi at him without a moment’s hesitation.

However, this dude uses his teleportation thing to just go right behind her. “Really? Violence? We were getting along just fine earlier.”

I see him start reaching his hand forward towards her. I enter a blind fury and, without thinking about it, I run over and deck him in the face, knocking him backwards.

“Nice one, Nova!” Anja says, grinning at me. Then, she turns around and points her gun right at him. I also draw my hammer to the ready.

The dude wasn’t even really hurt by me punching him, he’s just sitting on the ground, smiling still, without a scratch on his face. “Alright, I see that my natural charm is no longer enough for you two. Sad.”

“You better explain what in the fucking blazes is doing on here!” Anja commands of him. “What was that thing you released on us?”

“I already told you. It’s the final boss you guys are looking for.”

“You mean that thing was Pavia himself? Bullshit.”

“Well… he’s been given a little bit of a boost by a certain friend of mine. As for your friends, since they have proven themselves useful, they will be offered a chance to help my cause, or return to their life in peace.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Anja rants. “I’ve known Ashley for about a month now… it feels like about a half a year… and if there’s one thing I know about her, it’s that she doesn’t trust anyone. Absolutely nobody is above the highest scrutiny in her eyes. So she’d never be so gullible as to join… whatever you are. And if there’s one other thing I know about her, it’s that she never gives up. She will also see something through once she starts it. So she ain’t running away either.”

“Duly noted. Anyways, have fun painfully dying. And may your last thoughts be that this is the fate that should befall all in society who fail, and are unable to contribute anything meaningful.”

“Fuck that!” Anja retorts. “Just because someone fails once, doesn’t mean that they can’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps and try again! And assholes like… that guy… and the big corporations and shit… who try to take away people’s chances in life, to protect their own skin… they… they piss me off! I... will stand up to them.”

“Nice speech. You do that, then.”

Malach whistles very loudly, so loudly that I have to cover my ears again. Then, he teleports away, cheekily giving us a finger wave as his body fades out.

Almost immediately, we hear the rumbling sound get closer, and then loud clanging sounds coming from the stands in front of us.

“Uh… okay, I’m not feeling so brave now,” Anja admits.

Then, from above the railing, I see a large, red head poke- with a horrible frowning face- and I see spindly legs claw over towards us…

“Okay, time to move! Go go go!” Anja shouts, pushing me from behind.

“Let’s get to the Monsters Inc. door!” I shout, as I break into a run. “Then maybe we can… think about this.”

“Right behind you!”

----------------------------------------

After a surprisingly long trek, we make it back to the Palace, through the first chamber, and then through the hall back into the courtroom. When we get there, however, Anja and Nova are already there, just sitting on the floor near the front. Anja is panting like she just ran a mile.

“I told you,” Anja said to nobody in particular after I crossed the room.

“You didn’t tell me ,” Nova protested. “You told that… guy.”

“What are you doing back here?” I ask them.

“Well, Ashley… It turns out that the boss was in that football stadium place the whole time,” Anja explains.

“Oh, I see. It does make sense to regroup as a party before fighting it,” I say.

“You didn’t take the offer to join their side, did you?” Nova asks me.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I reply. “I wasn’t offered jack shit. Some weirdo in a mask electrocuted me twice, asked a few weird questions- none of which I answered- and then ran away.”

“Huh. Odd.” Anja commented. “It seems like whatever weird group is trying to interfere with us here, they aren’t all on the same page.”

And then, without warning, the entire room starts shaking, like there’s an earthquake. Anja bolts upright, terror in her eyes. Nova starts getting to his feet and says, “Oh no… did that thing follow us here?”

“Who? You mean Pavia?” I question them.

“Uh… well, sort of, but he’s been turned into this horrifying, red… thing,” Anja explains. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”

“Yeah, he’s like a Cthulhu monster,” Nova says. “Someone did something weird to him.”

I look around the room for a sign of where he would be entering, but I don’t see any cracks in the wall or anything. However, over time, the rumbling slowly seemed to become more and more distant, moving towards where I entered the room and then past the door. Then, after a while, it stops.

“Phew… that’s a relief,” Anja comments.

“Don’t you hang up your hat just yet,” Ted interjects, causing the three of us to turn to him. “He is not gone… he is waiting for us.”

“Where? You mean outside the Palace?” Nova asks.

“No… I think he will strike when we re-enter the first chamber.”

“When? Who said anything about when?” Anja asks.

“It’s not like there’s another way out,” I reason.

“Yeah, that stadium place was in the middle of nowhere,” Nova commented. For some reason, this observation stirs something in my memory… but I don’t have time to think about it.

“Alright, then,” I say. “Does everyone feel relatively refreshed?”

I get shaky nods all around. So, we begin moving back into the front chamber.

----------------------------------------

Sure enough, as soon as we step foot into the front chamber, the rumbling sound begins. I feel someone cling onto me from behind.

“Ashley… I don’t wanna do this…” Anja says.

“Don’t be a coward,” I tell her. “We’re finishing this now.”

Then, I see it.

Through the window on the ceiling, the scenery changes. The day turns to night. The clouds turn to blood red. An unnaturally large moon hangs in the sky. And then, two spindly spider legs smash through the ceiling, making glass rain down on us. Even inside the chamber, things change- the gold seems to lose its glimmer. Blood pours out of the mouths of all of the creepy statues. (Which, if you ask me, is kind of extra, but oh well.) But only when the monster enters the room do I really understand why Anja is acting so afraid.

It had an uneven head with a horrible, frowning face, which is sticks into the room first. If that wasn’t enough, its eyes glow bright white, with fury. It then drops down, landing on the floor in front of us on a pair of spindly back legs just like the front one. Other than its head and legs, its body seems to be mechanical. Its thorax is a what looks like a huge, round generator, which is as large as my living room and arcing electricity at random. It also has two short robot arms, and two huge cannons mounted near its neck.

Okay, I admit it. I’m a little scared now. But I try not to show it. I simply draw my sword, and prepare for the fight of my life.