"Okay." Ted put his hand on Harold's shoulder. "That does sound pretty bad. Are you alright?"

Harold seemed to flinch at Ted's touch but didn't push him away. He adjusted the glasses on his face and straightened up as he ran his hand down over his combover. "It's better this way. A head shouldn't live up in the clouds. Dreams are only for troublemakers with no prospects in life."

"Uh...I don't know if I'd go that far," Ted said with a weak smile. It was like talking to a wall. A wall that rejected most of what you said, then only seemed to soak in the least charitable version of your words.

"In any case." Sid interjected. "We should head back to make preparations."

Harold and Ted nodded. But as Sid reached out to grab them, they both nearly leaped back to stay out of his reach.

"Hey, uh..." Ted gulped. "Why don't we take a slow walk back? It'll give us a chance to...to think!"

"I must agree with Ted here," Harold said with an obviously fake smile. "Slow and steady as they say, right?"

Sid pulled his hand back. "I disagree, but it seems I am outvoted here. So, I shall concede to your decision."

Bkk Bkk Bkk!

Before they could leave, blindingly bright spotlights popped up all around them. Immediately, Ted's vision faded and he held up his arm to try and block some of the light. Sid did something similar, while Harold just flung his hands up over his eyes as if someone had just stabbed them.

"Ahh!" Harold howled. "Whoever's doing this you're going to be in big trouble mister! These kinds of pranks won't be tolerated!"

"Prank? Huhuhuhu." A strange man's voice laughed at their predicament. He had a strange music to his voice. Like an expert operatic singer, with powerful vocal cords that could drown out a jet engine, yet with that power compressed down to dulcet tones in a normal speaking voice.

The lights suddenly all shifted. They focused in on the top branches of a tree where a lone figure stood. In a dark gray cloak with a giant collar, with menacing eyes all over the fabric. It was a giant. With the cloak obscuring their body, Their face was hidden behind a giant golden mask that resembled the sun itself, twisted into a demonic visage.

"This is no prank," The giant boasted as he stepped forward and came crashing down from the tree.

BOOM!

As he landed, it almost sounded like a giant explosion went off as smoke flew out from his feet. Slowly, he stood up to his full height. He must have been at least twenty feet tall. He twisted his body to the left, and then to the right, and then in a circle as he chanted,

"I am the shadow that watches over the land,

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The sworn protector of all that is good.

Salvation or destruction come by my hand!

Defy me and despair with all that you can...

For I am...

Death incarnate!"

As he finished, plumes of red smoke burst up around him. The smoke glowed as skulls were illuminated within it as they twisted up in haunting plumes around him.

"Curious," Sid murmured as he tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Well uh..." Ted gulped as he was still trying to recover his vision from the earlier blinding, "I guess I should say, welcome?"

"Welcome?" The man scoffed. "That's what you have to say to me? After all that? Welcome? WELCOME!?!"

Ted stepped back. He felt bad. He must have insulted him somehow without thinking. "Sorry," he said. "There's just a lot on our plate right now, and with all the lights in this dark forest, I don't think I could really see what you did that well."

The giant slumped over immediately. Almost as if Ted had just sucker punched him right in the gut. "Ugh," He groaned. "Couldn't...couldn't, see?"

"You should think more before you act," Harold scolded.

"I believe this stranger is both more, and less than they appear." Sid whispered to Ted.

"Huh?" Ted responded.

But Sid didn't clarify. Instead, he stepped forward. In a flash, he was behind the giant, and had grabbed onto his cloak.

"Wait, stop!" The giant protested. His voice seemed to have changed almost instantly. It was much more like a teenager who just hit puberty than the domineering vocal expert it had been before.

Then, Sid pulled on the robe and unveiled the truth. Even the mask fell with the ominous cloak suddenly gone.

"Wait, are those...stilts?" Ted asked.

Indeed, they were. The man in front of them was a slightly tall man in massive stilts with a wire frame on his shoulders that had been built to hold up the cloak and the mask. He had a portable microphone on, and the stilts had massive speakers on the bottom of them.

He smiled weakly before he seemed to lose his balance and fell forward onto the ground as his equipment all became jumbled and broken.

Ted instinctually walked forward and moved some of the thick frame off of him before he reached out a hand to help him up. The newcomer looked apprehensive a moment, but then grabbed Ted's hand.

"Thank you," he said as Ted helped him to his feet.

"This is quite the setup." Sid remarked as he picked up a metal tube that was still spewing a few red wisps. Inside was a light with skull cutouts over it.

He regained his composure and stepped back from Ted as he spread his legs to the side, put a hand on his hip, and another up into the air with his finger pointing towards the sky. "Hah! Of course. Nothing is more important than a good entrance."

"Too bad you blinded us then." Harold reminded him.

Immediately, the man fell down to his hands and knees as he grit his teeth together. "Ugh...so...cruel..."

Ted finally got a good look at him. He was wearing a fairly simple outfit. Steam pressed black pants with a black jacket that had a big, white S on the back of it. His hair was interesting to say the least. It seemed to defy gravity in every direction, while looking softer than silk and ending in points. He thought to have hair that high someone would need a bucketful of thick gel, but it looked almost like this was how his hair was naturally.

"It's just the truth." Harold scoffed. "No need to be such a sissy."

The stranger bit his lower lip and raised his fist as he slammed his eyes shut. "I...I don't have to sit here and listen to this!"

He stood up with purpose and turned towards Harold. He pointed an accusatory finger at him as he called out. "I was going to let you off easy. But after these insults, I can't just let you get away unscathed!"

He bent his right arm so a strange watch on his wrist was right next to his face. He jerked up his left hand so two fingers were resting over the watch as he said, "Now, hand over your monsters and no one gets hurt!"

"Monsters, what are you talking about?" Harold asked. Then he looked over at Ted and whispered, "Hey, please tell me I wasn't as confused as this loony."

"That's it," The man snarled. "No more Mr. Nice guy. It's time I taught you a lesson."

He clicked a button on the side of his watch, and it began to whistle and tweet as a small cartridge popped out of the side. He grabbed onto it and spun around before he threw the cartridge in front of him. "Go, Incizor!"

The cartridge bounced on the ground, but nothing happened. Then, he clicked the glowing screen of his watch, and light started to pour out of the cartridge, until it exploded in light, and a creature appeared where it had been.

It was a strange rat like thing the size of a large dog. It was almost round and had so many teeth of various shapes and sizes that it looked like it would have trouble closing its mouth let alone trying to eat anything.

"Huhuhu." he laughed mockingly. "You may as well give up now." He struck a seemingly impossible pose as he twisted his body around and leaned back with his hands pointing towards Harold.

Once he was in position he smirked and added, "I'm Justin of Team Shadow, and this is my famous and unstoppable Incizor!"

"Incizor!" The monster roared in a squeaky voice.

Harold took off his glasses and breathed on the lenses. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped them clean. Carefully he put them back on his head and blinked several times.

"What in the Sam hill is that thing!" Harold cried out.