Matt watched his friends’ health bars plummet and wished he had his taunt. Despite his own health being low, he ached to do something—anything. He felt helpless, watching the scene play out as if in slow motion, all tinted a dangerous red.

The jagged gash on Matt’s neck continued to ooze. It burned with a horrifying itch as the blood welled through his fingers. He clutched the wound and prayed for his heal to work faster. The blue sparks wove slow patterns across his skin. He needed a minute to heal. They all needed that.

Kurtis screamed. Matt wasn’t sure he’d ever heard a noise like that from the cat-man before. He had to do something.

Think, Matt, he told himself. Come on!

Matt lurched for the door. He yanked it and yelled, “In here!”

He wasn’t sure what they’d find on the other side, but it wasn’t this green-haired lab coat monster, Frank Stein. Matt darted through the opening, abandoning his dropped sword where it had landed moments before. He didn’t dare move his hand off his neck. He held the door open a crack with his shoulder.

Come on… Come on…

Fallyn grasped the edge of the white door with a bloody hand. She pulled it more open and dashed through, leaving a smear of red evidence. Kurtis, Val, and Wiggles followed a moment later.

Matt stepped back and breathed out, realizing then that he’d been holding his breath. He felt lightheaded, a little dizzy. They were okay, they just had to keep going.

Fallyn and Kurtis grabbed the interior door handle and pulled, bracing against the crazed enemy outside.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the sickly sweet voice sounded from the hallway.

Kurtis leaned his head into the door and his colander clinked. “He slashed my tail,” the cat-man said weakly. The door shook. “Someone, switch with me,” he said more loudly, “so I can heal you.”

Val glowed purple then wordlessly fed her hands under Kurtis’ oven mitts. Moments after he released, the door jerked open an inch.

“I’m trying!” Val exclaimed.

Shit.

Matt set down his remaining sword and snapped three times for his Basic Heal. There had to be a better way to make that work, but Matt hadn’t found it. The red slowly faded from his vision. He renewed Rapid Regeneration and then snapped again.

The blood-smeared door was opening little by little. Matt scanned the room for something that might help. The space was large and sterile. Stainless steel slab tables lined up across the room, like a giant morgue from a crime TV show. There were cages of various sizes at the back right and a table with test tubes and beakers in the far left corner.

“He’s getting in!” warned Val.

She and Fallyn glowed with green light. Their health bars were around 70%. They had gotten their minute. Frank Stein burst in.

The green-haired monster flung beer mugs in a conal attack ahead of him. They flogged Fallyn and Valkyrie in the face before they were able to move out of the way.

Matt picked up his sword and rushed at the enemy. He Blood Slashed—or tried to—but it wouldn’t work with a sword missing. The metal swiped across Frank’s arm to little effect.

Matt had felt the attack starting, the charge building, but it fell away. The power had dissipated. It wouldn’t go. Matt shook the sword as if it were a Magic 8 Ball, hoping for a different answer on the next attempt. He tried again and the attack still refused him.

Shit!

Frank’s hair and lab coat dripped with white flames, Val pelted him with arrows, and Fallyn built a charge in her staff, brown hair streaming back. The enemy grinned, showing off sharp teeth, then slashed diagonally across the group, opening a fresh bleeding wound across Matt’s face.

Matt panicked. What do I do? He pressed at his cheek and watched the health line in his heads-up display tick down.

Fire and lightning connected with Frank, streaming damage into him from Fallyn’s staff.

“Agh!” the enemy yelled angrily. His health was at 60%.

Matt went for the door. His sword and reprieve were in the hallway. He barreled through then scooped up his weapon. Val burst through behind him. Kurtis followed, then Fallyn and Wiggles.

Matt leaned into the door, holding it closed with everything he had, giving the heals time to work. Fallyn joined him, shoving into the door with her shoulder and both palms.

“This will work,” she said knowingly.

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Frank Stein thudded against the other side of the door. It shook and jerked, threateningly.

Matt felt like he might fall forward. Then he did. Fallyn caught herself against the opposite wall. Matt stumbled a few steps, then wheeled. He pushed up his glasses and readied his swords. Matt activated Shadow Flurry and then Blood Slashed, black and red filling the air around him.

Frank slashed a glowing red X in return and then turned to face the casters. The enemy looked like a porcupine, countless arrow shafts protruding at every angle, the most recent ones throbbing purple. He sliced across Matt’s friends.

Matt Blood Slashed the enemy from behind. Then Fallyn’s conduit connected, a brilliant beam of fire and lightning, twisting together from her staff. Wiggles stood on his hind legs, frantically clawing at the lab-coated man’s side.

“Door!” Matt called, seeing their health bars getting low.

He darted through and held it open, painting more blood on the white surface. Then he yanked it shut and braced for Frank’s pull. Val stacked her hands above his.

“We got this,” she said, blood smeared on her cheek and down the front of her blue flight suit.

The door rumbled. Matt’s fingers ached as they strained to hold it closed. Then the handle slipped through his fingers.

“We can’t…” Val warned.

Frank Stein lunged through the opening, slashing a glowing X across Matt and Val with his saw and curved instrument. Matt Blood Slashed his own X to hang in the air beside it. Frank’s health was at less than a quarter. They could do this.

Matt and Val glowed green with heals from Kurtis. Matt added his own Rapid Regeneration and adjusted the grip on his swords.

“Body slam!” Val commanded and Wiggles leaped into the air.

Frank turned in an arc, spewing heavy beer mugs like giant bullets from a machine gun.

Matt Blood Slashed again as the enemy’s lab coat combusted. Then Fallyn unloaded her staff on Frank. Their health was getting low, but Frank’s was lower, almost at 10%. The enemy slashed another bleed attack. Matt watched their bars tick down as they bled. He reached for the door.

“Stay here!” Kurtis called, fur matted with blood.

“Are you sure?!” Matt croaked.

“Do it!” Kurtis yelled.

Matt pivoted and Blood Slashed Frank’s back, parallel strikes glowing red in the air. The lab coat was covered in arrows. Wiggles stood at his side, scratching. Then Fallyn’s staff erupted with fire and lightning. Matt Blood Slashed a red X. Frank stiffened, then toppled like a board.

Matt closed his eyes and breathed out, while an XP number floated away. He wiped the blood from his face with the fur of his arm guard.

Val watched him, red streaked across her own face. “Think that made it worse.”

“Figures,” Matt grumbled. He renewed Rapid Regeneration to continue healing and bent to loot. “Let’s see what we get for that.”

The black loot window showed 17 CCs, one ‘Commemorative Beer Stein,’ and one ‘Tower Key.’ They zoomed down to Matt’s inventory, shrinking. The key’s text had been purple. Matt opened his inventory to investigate. ‘Activate Floor 1 tower door for you and any partied travelers,’ read the text beside the key.

“Hey, did you guys get this key too?” Matt asked.

They didn’t.

The blood started to whisp off Matt’s skin and gear as bacon smell filled the room. Wiggles was investigating the cages beyond the steel slab tables. He was carrying the bone again; he’d set it down at some point during the fight. The metal enclosures ranged from two feet tall, to the height of Matt’s shoulder. What was that little guy doing?

Matt strode left to search the table with the vials and beakers. It seemed like a logical location to find the potion for his quest. Disappointingly, the glassware was all empty except for the faintest green residue inside one flask. The setup reminded him of high school chemistry class—measuring and titrating atop a similar rubbery black.

“Whatcha found Wiggles?” Val called. “Are you making friends?”

Matt’s potion wasn’t in the room, so he joined Val and the beaver. He hadn’t noticed during the fight, but some of the cages were occupied. Pitiful creatures huddled at the backs of their enclosures, barely moving.

“Hee?” said Wiggles.

In one of the smaller cages, there was a white bunny with red eyes; its nose twitched at the onlookers. A chimpanzee missing an arm stared sadly back from a larger one. Then, horrifyingly, a drooling man crouched in the next cage over, wearing tattered shorts and a wife beater.

What the fuck? Matt thought. He collected himself and gently voiced, “Hey, it’s okay. We’re here to help you.”

The man’s eyes stared back wildly as if looking right through him.

“My name is Matt. We’re not here to hurt you.”

The man emitted a low growl. Streaks of green fluoresced down his arms, legs, face.

“I don’t think he likes that,” Val said slowly, stepping back.

Matt backed up from the cage as well.

“Found a key over here,” Kurtis called.

“I don’t think we should let that one out,” Fallyn said, “unless we want to fight him.”

“Here,” Val beckoned. Kurtis ran the key to her and she used it on the bunny’s cage, then the chimp’s. Click… Click. “Be free!” she declared.

The animals continued to press their bodies into the backs of their cages.

“I tried,” Val said sadly, watching the open cage doors.

“Charming indeed,” reflected Fallyn, nodding to the label on the man’s cage.

“So, you must be Floppy and Louie,” Val said. “Come on out, Floppy, it’s okay.”

The animals stared bleakly and wouldn’t move.

Wiggles dropped his bone at the entrance to the cage with the bunny. “Hee?” He nudged it forward with his nose.

“Maybe…” Val produced the ex-calipur. She admired it thoughtfully, then slowly extended it towards the rabbit. She gently tapped the creature. Nothing happened. “Hm.”

Val moved closer to Charming’s cage and tried to slide the teardrop-shaped instrument closer to him. She leaned out and got it between his cage and the next empty one. He jolted forward, shaking the metal with a yell.

“Maybe not!” Val declared, jumping back.

With a gentle smile and a nod towards the door, Fallyn suggested, “Shall we?”

“Yeah,” Matt agreed.

He led the way back to the hallway and then the stairwell. They proceeded up to the next floor, footfalls lightly echoing against the cement. Matt paused on the landing, taking a deep breath before reaching for the door. He met eyes with Fallyn and she gave him a nod.

“Only way to go,” said Kurtis, raising his oven-mitted hands and shrugging.

Matt pulled open the door. The white hallway was filled with faceless green goos like the ones patrolling outside of the tower. But these ones were Level ??? and one was sliding towards him, an amorphous mound the size of a Smartcar. It barely squeezed through the width of the hall. Matt’s heads-up display flashed.

“Fuck,” Matt whispered.

“Close the door, close the door, close the door!” Val repeated quickly, pushing at the gray slab.

Matt held his hands to the closed door unsure whether it would be like the basement door or the one in the last hallway. The door pressed out towards him in answer.

“What are you doing Matt?” Fallyn called. She was already descending. “Run!”